This Week in Magic: Friday, January 30th

By Paige Smith

Posted on January 30, 2026

Rest In Peace Kai Budde

7 Grand Prix wins

7 Pro Tour wins

4 Player of the Year titles

1 German National Champion title

1 Invitational victory

1 Team Masters title

1 Team World Championship title

1 Solo World Championship title

Hall of Famer

Kai Budde doesn't lose on Sundays, but he has sadly lost his battle with cancer. Announced publicly when Wizards revealed that they would be changing the Player of the Year title and trophy in his honor, the deadly disease has taken from us one of the greatest to ever do it. Kai's legendary dominance made him widely considered one of the best players of all time by anyone who has signed a match slip. Wizards of the Coast revealed this loss to the Magic playing world this Thursday evening ahead of Pro Tour Richmond this weekend. You can read the announcement here.

Community sentiment poured out all night as players shared their memories of Kai, be it as a spectator, an opponent, a teammate, or a friend. If you are unfamiliar with his escapades, I cannot recommend this video Youtuber Hungry on Plane strongly enough, made in Kai's honor shortly after the Player of the Year name change announcement.

Rest in peace to perhaps the greatest competitive Magic: The Gathering player of all time: the German Juggernaut.

2026 CoolStuffCon Events Announced!

Two CoolStuffCon events for the year have been announced as of this week! The first of these will be CoolStuffCon Dallas from May 15th to May 17th with CoolStuffCon Orlando happening later in the year on October 30th through November 1st. These events will feature Magic: The Gathering Regional Championship Qualifiers, a cEDH $5k event, and a Riftbound $5K. Come get your games on just hang for the vibes and smaller events like the casual cosplay contest!

Be sure to check out this page for all the details! Information has yet to be revealed as well, so keep checking back for more cool reveals!

Early Looks at Product Lines for Two Future Releases

Earlier this week, a surprise reveal came as the Nuremberg Toy Fair took place in Germany. There, fans were greeted with product images and reveals for both the upcoming Secrets of Strixhaven and Marvel Super Heroes sets.

In the case of Secrets of Strixhaven, we got to see our first handful of cards, including the potent Mathemagics and Lorehold, the Historian. The return of Mystical Archive was confirmed as well, showing English and Japanese versions of the mighty Stock Up. Finally, as part of the product reveals, we also got to see a set of promos releasing with the incoming Codex Bundle.

For Marvel Super Heroes, we only got to see the product reveals. Several of these were pretty standard, with the set including play boosters, collector boosters, and Commander decks. What was surprising was all of the additional items, including Jumpstart boosters, a beginner box, and collector Commander decks! A new pair of scene boxes were revealed as well, with one representing the heroes and one representing the villains.

In the case of both sets, further information was later revealed via the backs of product images appearing on the WPN website. While these seem to be taken down now, several of them have appeared on social media, revealing additional cards and tidbits for those upcoming sets.

If you'd like to learn more about the information revealed at the Nuremberg Toy Fair, you can check out this Gamespot article covering the reveals here.

Year of the Horse Promos Revealed

Additionally, the annual APAC "Year of the [animal]" promos were announced, this time celebrating the Year of the Horse! In a departure from previous years, the official link appears to have been geolocked, meaning if you're not in the regions participating then you can't view the link. However, Reddit user mweepinc was able to share the details on the r/magictcg subreddit, including the cards themselves!

Players attending events at participating stores will have a chance to get their hands on special versions of cards like Emiel the Blessed, Caustic Bronco, and Calamity, Galloping Inferno. Additionally, you can get special horse themed Plains and Treasure tokens. You can find all the details on Wizards' website here - provided you're in a relevant area - or check out the Reddit thread here for everywhere else.

Duel Commander Receives Banned and Restricted Update

Duel Commander saw some B&R changes this week! This impacts the version of the format that most places like Scryfall and Magic Online use following the split involving the rules committee. These changes have now banned Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh to remove a zero cost commander due to the shenanigans it allows. Additionally, three cards in Tasigur, the Golden Fang; Trazyn the Infinite, and Necrotic Ooze have been tentatively unbanned as an experimental change.

You can find the full details on the official announcement page here.

Decklist of the Week

Four-Color Rhythm | ECL Standard | Tristan Wylde-LaRue, 1st Place RC Portland

Sorceries (4)
4 Nature's Rhythm

Enchantments (2)
1 Meltstrider's Resolve
1 Seam Rip

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Congratulations to Tristan Wylde-LaRue, the US Regional Champion from #SCGPortland!

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— Play Magic (@playmagic.com) January 26, 2026 at 1:49 AM

The first US Regional Championship of 2026 took place this past weekend in Portland. Roughly 900 players gathered together to participate in a major Standard event ahead of this weekend's Pro Tour. Four-Color Rhythm - a reworking of the existing Simic Ouroboroid decks - took down the event, besting Jeskai Control in the finals. Tristan Wylde-LaRue took this inventive list and played it masterfully, decimating the competition and taking home the trophy. Congratulations Tristan!

Paige Smith

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