MagicCon Chicago Begins

MagicCon Chicago has started with the festivities in full force! Previews, the Pro Tour, content creator shenanigans, and more are abound in the Windy City! For those attending the event, have a safe fun time. If you're not able to come to the event, make sure you check out the Pro Tour coverage happening over on the official Magic Twitch page all weekend!

Universes Beyond: Fallout Previews Have Started

This week has been an absolute deluge of previews for the upcoming Universes Beyond: Fallout set. Since Tuesday, one of the four new decks has been previewed in full, culminating in the final previews coming up during the dedicated preview panel taking place at MagicCon Chicago. I'll be doing a small write-up talking about these previews in depth early next week, but if you want to check out what's out there now, you can check out the official card image gallery for the set. The set releases March 8th, so check out your local game store to get some, or order them right here on CoolStuffInc.com now!

Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40000 Hits Magic Online

Vintage Cube Live! Warhammer 40,000 Commander Live!

40,000 Reasons to Play pic.twitter.com/ECc7QP3ypK

— Magic Online (@MagicOnline) February 21, 2024

In continuing major Universes Beyond news, Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40000 has finally come to Magic Online! The decks have been notably missing from the client since the set's release in late 2022, which has been major in particular for Legacy on the client. Cards like Triumph of Saint Katherine have been high performing cards in the format's paper events and the lack of format parity has been a major sticking point for Legacy players for the last couple years as a result. Unfortunately, the cards won't be available in treasure chests or all access passes in the future, so if you want the cards, the time to buy them is now. Once they're gone, you'll have a much, much harder time getting your hands on cards you need.

Wizards Ending Support for Multiple Languages in Magic

Wizards of the Coast put out an announcement yesterday noting upcoming changes to languages printed with Magic releases going forward. These include dropping support for Portuguese and Chinese (Simplified) in Paper throughout 2024. Additionally, Russian will no longer be supported on MTG Arena following the release of Modern Horizons 3. Many players in affected regions have already been vocally frustrated at these changes, hoping for a reversal in policy here.

For a full rundown of details, check out the official announcement page here.

Tolarian Community College Raises Over $418,000 for Trans Lifeline

We did it. Together, we raised over $418,000 for@TransLifeline! From myself and our artificer extraordinaire @goberthicks, THANK YOU.

The Magic: The Gathering community came together once again to show our love for our Trans family.

Trans Rights are Human Rights.????? pic.twitter.com/8cn386Prfi

— Tolarian Community College (@TolarianCollege) February 17, 2024

Last week I noted how well the annual fundraiser for Trans Lifeline run by Tolarian Community College was doing. Last Friday, it finished, having raised over $418,000 for the charity. That's a tremendous amount of support from the community to help a good cause, providing emergency care as needed to transgender people in North America. Since then, the number on the fundraiser's donation page (which you can still donate to if you wish) has surpassed $428,000! Well done to the team and to everyone who contributed to the event!

Magic Online Announces Charity Event to Help Battle Diabetes

If you were unconvinced before check out these sweet sweet sweet dono rewards. https://t.co/UR6HUsuVBw pic.twitter.com/Zyl6Rq8nf0

— Magic Online (@MagicOnline) February 23, 2024

Speaking of awesome charity fundraisers, Magic Online is teaming up with JDRF Game2Give to run a charity event in support of battling Type 1 Diabetes. The donation page is currently live, with some cool incentives on the line if you happen to donate at certain intervals - including special promo avatars, Vintage Cube entries, and even an All-Access Pass! You can check out the donation page here and the tweet above for more info!

Decklist of the Week

Izzet Phoenix | Pioneer | Matthew Hoey, 1st Place NRG Series $10,000 Showdown - Chicago

• Creatures (12)
• 4 Arclight Phoenix
• 4 Ledger Shredder
• 4 Picklock Prankster

• Instants (20)
• 1 Galvanic Iteration
• 1 Torch the Tower
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 2 Prismari Command
• 3 Fiery Impulse
• 3 Lightning Axe
• 4 Consider
• 4 Opt

• Sorceries (9)
• 1 Temporal Trespass
• 4 Sleight of Hand
• 4 Treasure Cruise

• Lands (19)
• 3 Island
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Stormcarved Coast
• 2 Hall of Storm Giants
• 4 Riverglide Pathway // Lavaglide Pathway
• 4 Spirebluff Canal
• 4 Steam Vents

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Brazen Borrower
• 1 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki
• 1 Negate
• 1 Unlicensed Hearse
• 2 Aether Gust
• 2 Brotherhood's End
• 2 Mystical Dispute
• 2 Young Pyromancer
• 3 Crackling Drake

Buy This Deck Export text

As a bit of a prelude to the Pro Tour happening this weekend at MagicCon Chicago, the NRG Series held an event in Chicago last weekend highlighting the Pioneer format. Given that the Pro Tour coming up is also Pioneer, this should give some people an idea of what to possibly expect, and what a showing! The top 8 ended up featuring five - yes, five! - Izzet Phoenix lists, including the winner in Matthew Hoey. Will the deck continue its dominant streak going into the weekend? Check out the Pro Tour coverage and find out!

Paige Smith

Twitter: @TheMaverickGal

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