This Week in Magic: December 22, 2023

Posted on December 22, 2023

Last week I noted that we would likely be skipping the weekly news recap due to the holidays. This is mainly due to things slowing down around this time as well as Wizards going on a two week break. As it happens, we ended up getting quite a bit of news so I decided to put something together after all. I hope you all enjoy it, and have some great holidays ahead this season! We'll see if next week continues to bring a steady flow of news in a traditionally slow period.

APAC Year of the Dragon Promos Announced

As has become an annual tradition, Wizards announced a series of new promo cards for the APAC region in celebration of the Lunar New Year! These cards will be themed after the Year of the Dragon, and feature a lot of outstanding artwork. While these will not be distributed widely outside of the APAC region, players will no doubt be able to find copies one way or another as the year goes by. This follows the past few years which have celebrated the Years of the Rabbit, the Tiger, and the Ox.

Wizards Issues Statements Regarding AI Art

Following last week's layoffs, job listings popped up for Wizards of the Coast including art related jobs. This brought with it speculation that this may be Wizards utilizing AI art due to mention of touching up pieces of art, prompting them to release a couple of statements on Twitter via the official Magic: the Gathering page as well as the official Dungeons & Dragons page, a statement was also provided on Wizards' website as well. Many artists and even Rob Sather - a former D&D art director recently caught in the layoffs - noted that this wasn't an issue, as artwork is frequently touched up. MTG artist Jason Rainville showed, as an example, how his painting of Aragorn was extended for better use on packaging.

MTGO Traders Announces Shut Down

This past week, long time Magic Online bot trade service MTGOTraders.com announced on Twitter that they would begin ending their services. The announcement notes that players will no longer be able to purchase cards directly from their site, though as of earlier this week you could still purchase a handful of items such as bot credits and event tickets. They note that they will continue operating so as to move through the remainder of their current stock. A big reason for this move, as noted by owner Heath, was the switch in focus to sister company Cape Fear Games.

Many players came out to show their love and memories of the service. I myself used them to help get back into a variety of formats such as Pauper, Legacy, Modern, and Standard in 2016. They'll be a much missed aspect of the Magic Online ecosystem. I, and many others, wish the team the best of luck in their future endeavors.

Magic Online Begins Releasing Full Deck Lists

One thing that has garnered a lot of love from competitive Magic players over the past year or so is Daybreak Games taking over Magic Online. They've brought about numerous changes with positive player reception all while being extremely transparent to boot. This week, Daybreak and Magic Online began putting out a much wider variety of decklists to peruse compared to the past. Where one might normally see 32 lists for a Challenge or 16 for a Qualifier, instead you now see every single list!

This information is something players across a variety of formats have been requesting for years so as to provide a broader and more accurate look at them. Currently the implementation has been causing some issues, but Daybreak is openly communicating as the situation gets fully sorted out. If you'd like to go through the decklists yourself, you can check them out here.

Promos Announced for Drafting Murders at Karlov Manor

In addition to announcing the next year's APAC region promos, Wizards also revealed a handful of promos that you can get for drafting Murders at Karlov Manor early next year. This incentive is meant as a means of helping local game stores while simultaneously spotlighting the new play boosters associated with the set. These promos include a retro frame Arcane Signet as well as versions of Chaos Warp and Commander's Sphere featuring the goblin associated with the Companion app. It's unclear how you can get one over the other at this time or if distribution will be randomized at the store level. You can find out all the details yourself by checking out this article over on the mothership.

Decklist of the Week

Azorius Control | Pioneer | Daniel Weiser, 1st Place Dreamhack Atlanta Regional Championship

Companion (1)
1 Yorion, Sky Nomad

Sorceries (3)
3 Supreme Verdict

Buy This Deck Export text

The latest Regional Championship event happened in Atlanta at Dreamhack this past weekend. The weekend caused a stir among the competitive scene regarding difficulties involving card availability and access to them via vendors, prompting a wide array of discussions to be had. This, however, would not be enough to prevent a champion from being crowned. Daniel Weiser took down the event piloting Azorius Control against a field made up largely of Amalia Combo, Izzet Phoenix, and Rakdos Midrange. The deck had one of the highest win rates of the weekend representing 55.16%. Amalia Combo was a comparable 55.10% while Enigmatic Fires had a mighty weekend showcasing a 59.46% win rate. Congratulations to Daniel and all the players who are now qualified for the Pro Tour!

Paige Smith

Twitter: @TheMaverickGal

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