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This Week in Magic: Friday, October 18

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A Big Week For Organized Play Announcements

This week saw a whole host of announcements for upcoming Magic events over the next year! From events right around the corner to ones happening in May 2025, there's no shortage of stuff to cover on the news front!

First and foremost was an article laying out what to expect of the upcoming World Championship that's being held at MagicCon Las Vegas next weekend. This lays out details of the event itself, the casters, and some of the notable players attending the event. You can check it out here for all the details and make sure to tune into the official Magic stream next weekend to see all the action.

Then, this Tuesday, Wizards held their usual WeeklyMTG stream with Blake Rasmussen. This time, there was a focus on competitive play, talking about the upcoming Worlds event with Kai Budde Player of the Year award frontrunner Simon Nielsen. However, we quickly learned that this stream would be covering much more than just Worlds. In fact, we got a solid amount of the rundown for what the next year of competitive play looks like.

First, we learned about the three MagicCon events being held in 2025. These are the locations and dates that were provided:

  • Chicago, IL - February 21-23
  • Las Vegas, NV - June 20-22
  • Atlanta, GA - September 26-28

Shortly after that, the crew covered what the upcoming RCQ and Regional Championship schedule would look like over the next year. Along with promos of Mayhem Devil and Force of Despair for the next season, the dates and formats were revealed for the next four seasons. These include the following (with Limited being alternatives for RCQs):

  • Standard: November 16, 2024 - March 22, 2025
  • Modern: Quarter 2, 2025
  • Standard: Quarter 3, 2025
  • Standard: Quarter 4, 2025

StarCityGames, who runs the United States Regional Championships, also revealed information about the two RCs for the upcoming Standard season. Both will take place in May 2025, with the first happening in Minneapolis, MN from May 2-4 and the second being in Hartford, CT from 16-18.

Many players noted the excitement of a long term stay with Standard. The Standard format has felt pretty great for the last couple of years to numerous players, with the only hindrance being the cost to get into it in paper play. A big detractor for many has been a lack of Standard events to play, and this goes a long way to remedying that issue. Some players lamented a distinct lack of Pioneer events for the year, however it's likely that we'll see it again in the near future.

Last but not least came the announcement of more specifics regarding the upcoming Spotlight Series at SCG Con Atlanta. TO StarCityGames posted information pertaining to what players can expect of the event as well as opened up registration. With no badge entry required and a reasonable entry fee of $75 (compared to many other large events of this nature), attendance is expected to be high.

Here's a full list of links pertaining to the announcements above:

Stephen A Smith Makes A Pick One Pack One

Popular sports analyst and commentator Stephen A Smith has become a little bit of a meme on the internet over the years. This is due to posts like the infamous "Take a look y'all" tweet and an analysis genuinely comparing the Pokemon Mewtwo with professional basketball player LeBron James. This week, though, he made waves in the MTG community specifically by responding to a tweet by LoadingReadyRun member Ben Wheeler that asked if he would pick one, pack one a Black Lotus or a Sol Ring in a Vintage Cube draft. Smith answered it earnestly and his analysis on the matter proved to be a sensational bit of fun along the way. You can check out the clip in the tweet displayed above.

Universes Beyond: Fallout Comes to Magic Online

After many months of waiting, Daybreak Games finally released Universes Beyond: Fallout on Magic Online this week. Players can purchase any of the four preconstructed decks in the game's client now, or else purchase premium boosters - MTGO's collector booster variant - to get specialized treatments. You can find all the details on the release here.

Decklist of the Week


For some time now, Gruul Prowess (and other Prowess variants, be they Mono-Red or Rakdos) have been somewhat of a menace in Standard. No doubt if you've played on the MTG Arena ladder for sometime, you've likely been inundated with matchup after matchup of this kind of deck. With Duskmourn: House of Horror, the deck got quite a massive upgrade in Leyline of Resonance, which can enable kills as early as turn two with the right hand.

While certainly a beatable deck by all accounts, players have become concerned about the power level and play patterns of the deck. This prompted MTG Arena to note in their weekly announcements article this week that they're considering banning Leyline of Resonance in best-of-one play. If you're looking at picking it up, be aware that this may be on the chopping block, however with the many upcoming Standard events in the near future, you may still find this to be a fairly reasonable deck to pick up and play, bans or none.

Paige Smith

Twitter: @TheMaverickGal

Twitch: twitch.tv/themaverickgirl

YouTube: TheMaverickGal

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