MTG Salvation

Just in time for Star Wars’ 49th anniversary on May 25, Disney released The Mandalorian and Grogu.  The film which stars Pedro Pascal as The Mandalorian, Din Djarin is the first movie to hit theaters for Star Wars since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker.  With an audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes of 88%, it begs the question, “what can Star Wars fans hope to top this in just one year for the 50th anniversary of Star Wars?” The answer just might be Universes Beyond.

On September 23, 2024, four cards were banned in Commander that would ultimately change the entire direction of the format.  Those four cards — Dockside Extortionist, Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt, and Nadu, Winged Wisdom were popular format staples for Commander players. Their bans overnight changed how players could construct decks and the backlash was loud.  In response to the heavy criticism, including death threats, a week later on September 30, the Commander Rules Committee, disbanded and handed control of the format over to Wizards of the Coast. In turn, WotC formed the Commander Format Panel(CFP), with designer Gavin Verhey at the helm of the format for the company. 

At every MagicCon, there is an area of the convention center that is dedicated to the artists that bring Magic cards to life.  I don’t have a ton of money but I always try to go and support the artists by finding some tokens that I need and buying them for my decks.  The artist’s tables very often have long lines and can even get so out of hand that staff members cap the line to keep the area clear for people walking by. This year at MagicCon Vegas, I went through my normal ritual of purchasing some tokens that I was in need of. This year it was 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens that I bought from Jeff Laubenstein for use in my Super Friends Commander deck.  Then I made a stop by the booth for Lena Richards.

In 1998, Mark Rosewater, the Head Designer for Magic: The Gathering, created Mood Swings. The idea is simple: Make a trading card game that doesn’t require a ton of collecting or deck building to get into.  Unfortunately for Rosewater, making a good game and getting it to print proved to be far more difficult than simply pitching it.  28 years later, Rosewater’s creation has gone through a lot of iterations but is finally being released via Magic’s Secret Lair brand.  

Yesterday, I awoke to the news that Secret Lair’s Chaos Vault was dropping the highly anticipated Dandan deck.  Dandan aka Forgetful Fish is a highly interactive fan-created game mode, that graphic designer Nick Floyd pioneered 30 years ago, that uses a shared 80-card deck.  The announcement that it was coming to Secret Lair was birthed in a shroud of controversy as Floyd wasn’t initially contacted about it. Thanks to an outpouring of support from the MTG community, Nick Floyd was able to get credit for his creation, and the Dandan lead from Secret Lair, Carmen Klomparens, even posted to her social media that she could “not stress enough that this wouldn’t be possible” without Floyd.

Typically when I play magic, I play Izzet or Simic.  Izzet carries the ruthless aggression of red with the calculated control of blue.  Simic likewise relies on a splash of control while green takes your battlefield and makes it huge.  Jund, the color combination of black, red, and green is not something I would normally play because of the lack of instant control that blue would normally offer.  Still, I was so impressed with Auntie Ool, Cursewretch that I had to give the Blight Curse deck a fair shot. The day it released, I was forking over my hard earned money just for a shot at piloting this unique deck full of despair and decay.

Shock lands are a popular and versatile dual land option in Magic: The Gathering. Starting with Edge of Eternities, shock lands are making their way back into standard. With Edge of Eternities, we saw 5 of the 10 shock lands come back into play.  The last time we saw all 10 shock lands in standard was when they were released in the Ravnica sets from 2018 and 2019.  With Lorwyn Eclipsed, we’ll see the other 5 shock lands not in Edge of Eternities come back into Standard. 

The first Magic set of 2026 is just over a week away and the contents have been revealed.  According to the debut video posted on Wizards’ YouTube channel last week, the art in Lorwyn Eclipsed is supposed to have a hand-drawn feel to it.  I wanted to take a few minutes to look at some of the amazing artists that have brought Lorwyn-Shadowmoor to life and their incredible art.

Yesterday we ranked every set that was released in 2025.  This spectacular year in Magic: The Gathering saw us visit classic planes like Innistrad and Tarkir.  We went to nearby New York City and all the way to the edge of the cosmos. Today we look at the best cards to come out of Magic: The Gathering in 2025.