MagicCon Chicago Wraps Up

This past weekend was MagicCon Chicago and what an event it was! It would be almost too difficult to try covering it all in one small blurb here. There was the Pro Tour, the Standard Open, the numerous panels, Gavin's Unknown Event, the numerous vendors and creator events players could engage with, and more! That's only scratching the surface, and in fact there were so many people trying to do so many things, there was actually a shortage of play space, causing several players to play on the floor. While this and some other things like long lines and scalped limited stock products left a bad taste in some peoples' mouths, many others loved it, and Wizards will no doubt be taking these issues into consideration going forward.

The next MagicCon will be in Amsterdam, so if you're willing to make a trip to Europe, definitely check it out!

Universes Beyond: Fallout Fully Previewed

Last week I noted how previews for Universes Beyond: Fallout were ongoing and finishing up. Now, the whole set has been revealed! You can check out the full card image gallery on the mothership, look at the different decklists here, or just go to the Universes Beyond: Fallout page right here on CoolStuffInc.com!

New Alchemy Card Drives Speculation on Arena Multiplayer

Sharing is caring! #MTGKarlov pic.twitter.com/JmZayeU2oc

— MTG Arena (@MTG_Arena) February 28, 2024

Murders at Karlov Manor Alchemy preview cards have begun, providing players with new cards for MTG Arena's digital-only formats. One new card named Juggle the Performance caught a number of players' eyes due to the odd wording of the card. There's a line that includes the phrase "the player to their right," which many have taken to be an indication that multiplayer may be coming soon. At this time it's all just speculation and the wording may merely be future proofing in case of an eventual multiplayer release later, but it got the MTG community abuzz all the same.

MTGO Masters Season 1 Begins

Mark your calendars! Here are our first 4 pods for this season of #MTGOMasters.

Round 1 kicks off later today, but first, we want to hear from you - who do you predict will advance to the Winners Pods?#Modern #MTGO pic.twitter.com/cYZL8LmOgs

— Magic Online (@MagicOnline) February 28, 2024

Magic Online is putting together a fresh new gauntlet of high caliber gameplay from some of the best players in the game! This new series is being referred to as MTGO Masters and this first season is going to be highlighting the Modern format. Week one, pod one already played out on Wednesday and will continue for several weeks yet to come. If you want to check out some high level gameplay, look no further than here!

Sheldon's Spellbook Secret Lair Now Available

The Sheldon's Spellbook Secret Lair honoring the life of the late, great Sheldon Menery is now available for preorder on the official MTG Secret Lair website. You can choose to get either the non-foil version for $39.99 or the foil version for $49.99. Half of all sales (note: not profits or proceeds but half the sale price total) are going to the American Cancer Society so if you'd like to get some awesome cards immortalizing one of Magic's all-time greats while giving to a good cause, this is a great way to do so. This Secret Lair is printed to demand, so don't worry about a limited supply running out. Sales end March 24, so while you have a few weeks to order, make sure you get any orders in before then.

ChannelFireball Drops Paywall on Articles

Reid Duke took to Twitter on Wednesday to announce that all ChannelFireball articles would be free to access from then on, including previously released content. This provides an additional bevy of resources for players to pull from, with some of the best competitive minds around. If there's something you've been wanting to check out that's been stuck behind a paywall for a long while now, you might want to go back and check it out again!

Decklist of the Week

What's this? Two decklists in one week?! You'd better believe it! It didn't feel right to separate these two from one week to the next, but both were major breakthroughs in the competitive sphere over the weekend.

Rakdos Vampires | Pioneer | Seth Manfield, 1st Place Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor

• Creatures (14)
• 1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 2 Dusk Legion Zealot
• 3 Preacher of the Schism
• 4 Bloodtithe Harvester
• 4 Vein Ripper

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord

• Instants (5)
• 1 Bitter Triumph
• 4 Fatal Push

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Duress
• 4 Thoughtseize

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 Smuggler's Copter

• Lands (25)
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 2 Blightstep Pathway // Searstep Pathway
• 2 Hive of the Eye Tyrant
• 2 Sulfurous Springs
• 3 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Blackcleave Cliffs
• 4 Blood Crypt
• 4 Mutavault

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Bitter Triumph
• 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 1 Krenko's Buzzcrusher
• 1 Liliana of the Veil
• 1 Rending Volley
• 2 Damping Sphere
• 2 Duress
• 2 Path of Peril
• 4 Leyline of the Void

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Rakdos Vampires - aka Sorin Tell - was the major story of the weekend with Seth Manfield taking it to the top of the chain, utilizing Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord to cheat out Vein Ripper in order to bring the pain on opponents. The deck saw a tremendous win rate of 60.2% over the course of the weekend per data provided by Frank Karsten, the highest of all decks with more than two pilots. A huge congratulations to Seth and to the minds behind this tremendous innovation to the Pioneer format!

Sultai Slogurk | MKM Standard | Rei Zhang, 1st Place MagicCon Chicago $75k Standard Open

• Creatures (14)
• 1 Ertai Resurrected
• 2 Atraxa, Grand Unifier
• 3 Slogurk, the Overslime
• 4 Aftermath Analyst
• 4 Nissa, Resurgent Animist

• Instants (8)
• 2 Cut Down
• 2 Go for the Throat
• 4 Memory Deluge

• Sorceries (6)
• 1 Path of Peril
• 2 Terror Tide
• 3 Splendid Reclamation

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 The Celestus

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Jace, the Perfected Mind

• Lands (36)
• 1 Plains
• 3 Island
• 3 Swamp
• 5 Forest
• 1 Hedge Maze
• 2 Echoing Deeps
• 2 Underground Mortuary
• 3 Otawara, Soaring City
• 4 Brokers Hideout
• 4 Obscura Storefront
• 4 Riveteers Overlook
• 4 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Ertai Resurrected
• 1 Jace, the Perfected Mind
• 1 Terror Tide
• 2 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 2 Cut Down
• 2 Path of Peril
• 3 Dreams of Steel and Oil
• 3 Duress

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On the Standard side of things, a powerful new type of deck showed up to sweep the room with a truly complex deck. You use the Streets of New Capenna lands to trigger Nissa, Resurgent Animist multiple times, then get Aftermath Analyst, fill your graveyard with more lands, and sacrifice the Analyst to get them all back and do even more shenanigans. The real glue, though, is Slogurk, the Overslime. With the right setup you can loop the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty channel lands to keep Slogurk pumped, bounce it to get more channel lands back, then rinse and repeat until you can lock opponents out or infinitely mill with Jace, the Perfected Mind. There's a ton of nuance and depth to this list, so don't expect it to completely take over your average Standard event, but it's almost certainly going to become a new big player in the format going forward!

Paige Smith

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