wizards of the coast Archives

Mark Rosewater, head designer for Wizards of the Coast's huge-name trading card game Magic: The Gathering, has hunkered down in his home to self-quarantine out of concern for the spread of COVID-19, also known as Coronavirus As far as we are aware, he doesn't have it, but he is still working from home in order to[...]

Hey there, fans of Magic: The Gathering in all its various shapes and forms! Today, I'd like to talk for a moment about the "Mystery Booster" phenomenon, and how it's generally a boon, but at times can be a bust. Source: Wizards of the Coast So, by now, if you play Magic: The Gathering to such a degree that[...]

These cancellations were made, unsurprisingly, due to concerns over the spread of COVID-19, Coronavirus.

And that we shall! Today we are looking at Rafiq of the Many, a legendary Knight from the Shards of Alara expansion set of 2008. Source: Wizards of the Coast The decklist to be discussed in today's article can be found here. Rafiq of the Many is a commander who lends himself well to "voltron"-style strategies – that[...]

Hello there, fans of Wizards of the Coast's highly-acclaimed trading card game Magic: The Gathering and its Commander format in particular! Today, I have another deck tech for you as a part of what I've been calling "March, March, March!" For this event, I'm dredging up an old deck of mine from the days of yore (but[...]

Wizards of the Coast has done it again – they've released the second of the March Secret Lair box drops for their card game Magic: The Gathering! The release this time is a full playset of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Source: Wizards of the Coast This four-card special edition release is geared mainly for Eternal players, as Wizards has[...]

This deck tech will follow some other military-themed posts today for part of "March, March, March!" which I'm starting as of today, March 4th (or, "March Forth!" – aren't I witty?). Today, we are going over a deck tech for Saskia the Unyielding, with a twist! Source: Wizards of the Coast The deck tech as discussed below can[...]

Welcome! If you are looking for Part Four of this series, you can find that over here. Well, it's taken us some time, but here is the final installment of my Commander hot takes for Wizards of the Coast's hit game, Magic: The Gathering We've been through a lot over the course of the past two days[...]

I just wanted to preamble with that, despite/because you'll see that all again really soon. Really soon. Really soon. Now. Source: Wizards of the Coast #4 Extra Turn cards These cards are the bane of almost every player not running blue decks because save for a few risky and/or niche examples, they're only in blue[...]

Welcome! If you are looking for Part Two of this series, you can find that over here. Sometimes, there's an odd trend in Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast's ever-popular trading card game, where, in all formats, something is troubling Some cards just provide boatloads of value and since value is the name of the game[...]

Bearing this in mind, let us begin! Source: Wizards of the Coast #8 Countermagic Don't you just love when you cast a huge, game-ending spell, only to have it get countered by a player with two Islands available? If you do, I'm sorry to say but you might want to move on to number seven because number eight[...]

The news leaked over the weekend, but this morning, Wizards Of The Coast announced a new Magic: The Gathering addition to Dungeons & Dragons The company will be releasing another sourcebook centered around the world of Magic: The Gathering A followup to Guildmasters' Guide To Ravnica, Mythic Odysseys of Theros is a D&D campaign sourcebook[...]

Wizards of the Coast has made mistakes in the past, with regards to the printing of certain cards in Magic: The Gathering I mean, just look at cards like Gaea's Cradle or the brunt of the cards banned in Standard from the original Mirrodin block! Today and tomorrow, I'd like to go over some of these[...]

Hey there, fans of Magic: The Gathering and Magic: The Gathering: Arena! I come to you first posing a question: Have you purchased the "Year of the Rat" Secret Lair drop but have no reason to use the Pack Rat sleeves that came with it for Arena? If so, I have great news for you, and good news[...]

For International World Women's Day, Wizards of the Coast has decided to release a special Secret Lair drop for their smash-hit trading card game Magic: The Gathering. Source: Wizards of the Coast In this release, those who purchase it will find five different full-art cards, each depicting a female Legendary Creature, perfectly suited for Commander play (or whatever[...]

Today we are going over my fellow Rochester Commander player Paul Toal's competitive list based on his commander, The Gitrog Monster. Source: Wizards of the Coast This deck's full list can be found here Keep in mind that this is a highly competitive build (from a scale of one to ten, with ten being "Competitive Commander" and one[...]

Hold on to your donkeys – Magic: The Gathering's newest silver-bordered expansion, Unsanctioned, has been released! Source: Wizards of the Coast After three previous full-on silver-bordered releases and a fair smattering of other cards in a similar vein, Unsanctioned is an entirely new concept for the silver-bordered world of Magic Instead of a completely new set with nothing[...]

During PAX East 2020, Larian Studios revealed a brand new trailer for Baldur's Gate 3, along with more info on the game before release.

Dungeons & Dragons recently celebrated their 45th anniversary in style as the company offered up a special Sapphire Anniversary Dice Set.

Today, in the middle of a rather humdrum, possibly lacklustre day of news, this author was amazed to find a new product announcement by Wizards of the Coast for their basically-immortal trading card game Magic: The Gathering Within this announcement is an all-new way to go about playing a brand-new Sealed environment: "Jumpstart" is here –[...]

This may be an opinion piece but it's based in some degree of analyses and so if you're not into the money or math trend jargon, I'll be blunt now: Theros: Beyond Death is a bad set for financial-type collectors within this game. Source: Wizards of the Coast To elaborate, specifically the "Collector Boosters" from this set[...]

Congratulations to Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa on winning the 26th Magic: The Gathering World Championships! Source: Wizards of the Coast At  Magic Worlds XXVI, sixteen competitors faced off against each other for prizes totaling one million dollars, and the games played were remarkably grueling During Day One, the once-reigning World Champion, Javier Dominguez was taken out of the[...]

Between Worlds XXVI and various other tournaments occurring concurrently, it's fairly safe to say that competitive Magic has never been stronger on a professional level. With this in mind, Wizards of the Coast has announced the decklists for the newest batch of Challenger Decks, decks geared towards playing competitively in a stronger Standard meta for events such[...]

Hello, loyal readers! Today, February 16th, 2020, marks the final day for the 26th Magic: The Gathering World Championships! Before I go into any coverage of the final, momentous day of this prestigious tournament, I want to go over what has transpired over the last two days thereof. Source: Wizards of the Coast Day One To start, Day One[...]

The minds behind such Netflix documentary series as The Toys That Made Us are developing a new documentary about the genesis, origins, and impact of Wizards of the Coast's ever-popular trading card game Magic: The Gathering. Source: Wizards of the Coast The documentary, entitled "Igniting the Spark", will be produced by The Nacelle Company, the production company behind The Toys[...]

Javier Dominguez, reigning and defending Magic: the Gathering World Champion, took on longtime friend and colleague Andrea Mengucci during the Day One events at the 26th Magic World Championships in Honolulu, Hawaii. Source: Wizards of the coast, via Twitch Javier, having drafted a Golgari (black/green) Draft deck with some very tough decisions regarding inclusions, took on Mengucci's rather exquisitely-sculpted[...]

I hope you're ready for Magic: The Gathering's newest drop release for Secret Lair: "Stargazing"! Source: Wizards of the Coast The "Stargazing" release, available only for the duration of this weekend alone – and I mean only this weekend – contains five different drops The drops have three cards each and are themed after the gods of the Theroan[...]

And, as it stands, this conversation has had a large handful of big-ticket controversies within the design of the game (not to mention discourse regarding other topics outside of design). Source: Wizards of the Coast The hot-button item for Magic: The Gathering's Commander format this past week was the debate over whether or not hybrid-costing cards should[...]

This deck tech will be showcasing one of the most disgustingly powerful commanders recently printed for the format, Muldrotha, the Gravetide. Source: Wizards of the Coast The decklist, as we will be discussing below, can be found at the link here. I decided at an early stage of procuring this deck for the Commander League (the one that[...]

Hello, loyal readers! I cannot believe I nearly overlooked this but Wizards of the Coast has added a new entry to their "State of Arena" series of update articles for Magic: The Gathering's esports interface It's relevant because while it does highlight a few of the promises made in the previous State of Arena article, so far[...]