Wizards Announces The Spotlight Series

The biggest announcement of the week was undoubtedly the reveal of the Magic Spotlight Series. In simple terms: this is more or less the return of the Grand Prix circuit under a different name. In 2025, eight Spotlight Series events will be taking place around the world. Each of these events will boast an overall card pool of $50,000 and Pro Tour invites to the top 8 finishers. If that sounds familiar, that's because it's essentially the old pre-pandemic Grand Prix structure that lacked a few things like pro points and byes. The expectation is that it will help fill in gaps between larger events like MagicCons that surround Pro Tours and the World Championship.

Five of these Spotlight Series events will be in the United States, two in Europe, and one in Japan. The first will be held in the United States in Atlanta January 3-5, 2025 and will feature Foundations Standard, while the second will be held in the Netherlands in Utrecht on March 15-16, 2025 featuring Modern. The Atlanta event was noted as having promos of Terror of the Peaks featuring art by Richard Kane Ferguson while the Utrecht one will have copies of Kaldra Compleat with art by Montze. All eight events will feature coverage as well and include unique prizes for each event's top finisher, with Atlanta featuring a case of each Standard release in 2025.

For all the details on the main announcement itself, check out the official Wizards article here. Additionally, preliminary details for SCGCon Atlanta - where the Spotlight Series will be held in January - are also up and can be found here.

Mystery Booster 2 Festival in a Box Goes Live

The much hyped Mystery Booster 2 Festival in a Box product for MagicCon Las Vegas went live on the Secret Lair website as of this past Monday! Many players who wanted to get in on the product were met with the now infamous long lines and wait times that the Secret Lair website provides. However, unlike your typical Secret Lair release, this product seems to have plenty in stock, with items still being in stock as of Thursday night.

The huge bundle comes with a full box of Mystery Booster 2, three collector boosters, a special pack of convention exclusive promos, and a special Secret Lair release. All of that can be had for $250, making it a great deal for those willing to shell out the cash for it. If you want to get in on it yourself, make sure to check out the full product listing page right here.

Mark Rosewater Releases 2024 State of Design Article

As has become an annual mainstay of the Magic content diet, head designer Mark Rosewater released his State of Design article for 2024. Mark has famously been putting out these articles every year since 2005 - a nearly 20 year stretch of free insights into the thought process that goes into MTG design. On the whole, the year seemed to hit a lot of great notes, though they noted that a few power outliers may have been a bit much in a few sets and they may have missed the mark on multiple fronts regarding flavor. You can check out the full article containing all his insights - as well as an archive of his State of Design articles from past years - right here.

Decklist of the Week

Boros Midrange | BLB Standard | Yushi Uzuki, 1st Place MTG Japan Open 2024

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Archangel Elspeth

• Instants (11)
• 3 Get Lost
• 4 Lightning Helix
• 4 Torch the Tower

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Sunfall

• Enchantments (9)
• 2 Temporary Lockdown
• 3 Virtue of Loyalty
• 4 Caretaker's Talent

• Artifacts (8)
• 4 Carrot Cake
• 4 Urabrask's Forge

• Lands (26)
• 1 Mountain
• 4 Plains
• 1 Mirrex
• 1 Restless Bivouac
• 2 Demolition Field
• 2 Elegant Parlor
• 3 Battlefield Forge
• 4 Fountainport
• 4 Inspiring Vantage
• 4 Sunken Citadel

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Bonehoard Dracosaur
• 1 Brotherhood's End
• 1 Temporary Lockdown
• 2 Abrade
• 2 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 2 Destroy Evil
• 2 Loran of the Third Path
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 2 Serra Paragon

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As the new post-rotation Standard season starts to settle down a bit, we're now hitting the point where we're moving past some of the pre-existing lists and seeing all new ones popping up instead. Few examples of this are as good as the new Boros Midrange (also referred to as Boros Control) archetype has been proving quite popular over the past week or so. This deck generates slow incremental advantage utilizing tokens while whittling away at your opponent's resources in ways not previously seen. The deck dominated the Japanese Open last weekend and has been all over the meta since. Oh yeah, and it also caused a spike in the price of Urabrask's Forge, and when Standard of all things is driving the market, you know that's a good sign of where the format is at.

Paige Smith

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