A Marvel Universes Beyond Crossover Has Been Announced

Ever since Magic: The Gathering began utilizing the Universes Beyond brand to bring external IPs into the game, there were two white whales for most people: Star Wars and Marvel. They were treated as lofty yet likely unattainable goals due to potential licensing issues with Disney who was already doing other card games with both properties, as well as their own card game in Lorcana being developed by Ravensburger. The existence of these led people to feel like it would be too challenging to work with Disney and the respective properties to make something come together. This week, however, all of us were proven wrong.

Wizards of the Coast announced on Monday an upcoming partnership for Universes Beyond. This took the online world of Magic: The Gathering by storm and had everybody in a frenzy. Which characters would show up? What storylines would be represented? Perhaps most importantly, where do we go from here? For many the revelation of Marvel coming to Magic: The Gathering makes things feel like the sky's the limit and that the white whales seem that much more likely now.

Initial press releases noted that the Marvel releases will be coming in 2025 - the same year as other major Universes Beyond release Final Fantasy - and will feature multiple tentpole releases. In other words, we'll have multiple sets of Marvel to look forward to in the coming years. You can check out Wizards' announcement on their web page, along with an accompanying trailer to go alongside it.

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Previews Begin!

Amidst a regular slew of announcements and previews, we once more find ourselves in the midst of previews for an upcoming Standard set. This time around the cards being revealed are from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. This Mesoamerican-inspired world is seeing a glorious return full of vivid colors and images based on Latin American culture. We've already seen multiple major new cards, several top-notch reprints, and even an all-new combo to boot! Special Guests are finally here and we even get a new set of artifact box toppers, including such popular (and pricey) cards as Chalice of the Void and Chromatic Orrery. I give a more in depth breakdown of the previews so far here: https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/paigesmith-10272023-the-lost-caverns-of-ixalan-previews-roar-onto-the-scene!

In addition to preview season being in full force, Wizards released the full story for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan last Friday. You can check it out in the following links:

• Episode 1
• Episode 2
• Episode 3
• Episode 4
• Episode 5
• Episode 6
• Pawns (Huatli and Saheeli side story)

EDHREC Acquires Cardsphere

At the end of August, popular indie card trading service Cardsphere announced they would be closing their doors by the year's end. The main reason for this primarily involved having too little in terms of manpower to keep up with the constant deluge of new cards being released by Wizards of the Coast. With hundreds - if not thousands - of new cards and variants coming with every set, as well as constant new Secret Lairs and promos, their small team of people running the program simply couldn't handle it all.

Following this announcement, Cardsphere came back early this month to announce that they would not be closing after all. They managed to set up a deal with an outside buyer to keep them afloat and running and were in the final steps of making it happen. This week, they announced that they had been officially acquired by EDHREC! For more information, check out their announcement/press release regarding the acquisition here.

Beicodegeia's Seven Challenge Wins

In a rare show of prowess and skill when it comes to competitive Magic: The Gathering, Magic Online grinder Beicodegeia posted their seventh Pauper Challenge victory in the last five weeks! This puts them as winning seven out of the last ten Challenge events - a feat few, if any, players can say they've achieved on the client regardless of format. There are two Challenges held per format every weekend (one on Saturday and another on Sunday) so as to serve multiple time zones adequately. Magic Online is known for some of the most skilled and experienced players the game has to offer, making for a much higher average power level and thereby making this achievement even more notable. Congratulations Beicodegeia!

Decklist of the Week

Dimir Faeries | Pauper | Beicodegeia, 1st Place MTGO Pauper Challenge

• Creatures (18)
• 2 Gurmag Angler
• 2 Thorn of the Black Rose
• 3 Faerie Seer
• 3 Ninja of the Deep Hours
• 4 Augur of Bolas
• 4 Spellstutter Sprite

• Instants (18)
• 1 Agony Warp
• 1 Devour Flesh
• 1 Echoing Decay
• 1 Spell Pierce
• 1 Suffocating Fumes
• 2 Cast Down
• 3 Brainstorm
• 4 Counterspell
• 4 Snuff Out

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Preordain
• 4 Lorien Revealed

• Lands (18)
• 2 Swamp
• 10 Island
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Obscura Storefront
• 4 Contaminated Storefront

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Arms of Hadar
• 1 Dispel
• 1 Murmuring Mystic
• 1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
• 1 Suffocating Fumes
• 1 Thorn of the Black Rose
• 1 Unexpected Fangs
• 2 Chainer's Edict
• 3 Blue Elemental Blast
• 3 Hydroblast

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To celebrate Beicodegeia's incredible recent run in the Magic Online Challenge events, I've decided to highlight their most recent winning list for the Decklist of the Week. This one is Dimir Faeries, a tempo-control style deck that uses lots of removal and countermagic alongside highly synergistic cards such as Spellstutter Sprite and Ninja of the Deep Hours to further the deck's gameplan. You can use Faerie Seer and Augur of Bolas to set up your plays, Spellstutter Sprite to counter spells, and then Ninjutsu into play Ninja of the Deep Hours to bring any of these value creatures back to your hand for even more value. The deck's potency increased further earlier this year thanks to the printing of Lorien Revealed in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth.

Paige Smith

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