This Week in Magic: Friday, February 6th

Posted on February 6, 2026

Banned And Restricted Announcement Monday

A new banned and restricted announcement is right around the corner this Monday, February 9th! While it's unclear as to what may or may not be banned at this time, with minimal buzz on the matter, it was confirmed during this week's WeeklyMTG stream that Commander will be covered. This little tidbit has set the community alight with debate as to what may change, if anything, given discussions on hybrid mana, Rhystic Study, and Thassa's Oracle in the last check-in.

The update is expected to go live around 8:00 AM PST / 11:00 AM EST, as is usually the case.

New Secret Lair Superdrop Announcement and Chaos Vault Madness

Gather your party, because it looks like it's going to be a good day for critical hits! The Roll for Initiative Superdrop comes to Secret Lair on February 9th, learn more below.
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— Secret Lair (@mtgsecretlair.com) February 3, 2026 at 1:34 PM

The bulk of the WeeklyMTG stream this week was spent revealing a new Secret Lair drop and engaging in a Q&A session. About half of the time was allotted to the reveal while the rest was spent answering questions about the Secret Lair product line, fulfillment, and more.

The new Superdrop that lands this Monday will be the Roll For Initiative Superdrop. This will be another Dungeons & Dragons crossover release bringing lots of beloved characters and settings from D&D to the world of Magic: The Gathering. Two lairs lean into fan favorite characters Shadowheart and Gale, while others focus on popular commanders Sefris of the Hidden Ways, Prosper, Tome-Bound; and Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm. The last two involve a lair to the beloved villain Strahd and with a set of basic lands which immediately wowed just about everyone.

You can find the full information on the drop here (or in the Bluesky post above) and be sure to get in on the action this Monday!

Prints Charming just dropped in Secret Lair's Chaos Vault, with a twist! This time, you're going to see a lot of the same drop at a lot of different prices. This is very much on purpose; we promise!

More details here: magic.wizards.com/en/news/anno...

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— Secret Lair (@mtgsecretlair.com) February 2, 2026 at 12:00 PM

The remainder of the time focused on a number of questions from the community. This in no small part came in the wake of the surprise Chaos Vault release titled Prints Charming. The unexpected release included four cards and was posted with various price points. Many players became wary of this for a number of reasons, causing Wizards to acknowledge during the stream that this was probably not great from an optics perspective. As of now, all the Prints Charming listings are no longer available.

The remainder of the conversation proved to be contentious as well. Topics included why print-to-demand (or rather "timeboxed" releases, as they were put) won't come back, that previous lairs will never be reprinted, and queue time issues. You can find a solid breakdown of these discussion points in this Reddit thread, or you can go check out the stream VOD on YouTube and see how things played out for yourself.

Next RCQ Season Announced

As the current Standard Regional Championship Qualifier season continues to press on, the next season has formally been announced! From April 4th through August 2nd, the RCQ format will be Modern! Some players had hoped to see Pioneer return following a lack of support elsewhere, Wizards has instead opted to go with the premiere non-rotating format this time around. The participation promo for these RCQs will be Ancient Stirrings with gorgeous art by SimzArt. Top 8 finishers will get a trippy Sowing Mycospawn featuring art by Nathan Jurevicius.

Tolarian Community College Annual Fundraiser Has Begun!

I'm giving away TEN Collector Booster Boxes of Lorwyn Eclipsed!

I'm giving TEN PEOPLE each one box of Collector Boosters from Lorwyn as a thank you for donating to Trans Lifeline!

Just donate in multiples of $4.00 to @translifeline.org until Feb 7 at 10am PST!

Donate--> give.translifeline.org/tcc

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— Tolarian Community College (@tolariancommunitycollege.com) February 4, 2026 at 12:00 PM

If you haven't seen it around social media at all, the team at Tolarian Community College has kicked off their annual fundraiser for Trans Lifeline. Every $4 gets you in for your chance at winning a cool prize, be it a Lorwyn Eclipsed collector booster box or a Sheldon's Spellbook Secret Lair from the TCC team.

Many other members of the community have chipped in with additional prizes as well! CoolStuffInc has joined in with four play booster boxes (two Lorwyn Eclipsed and two Avatar: The Last Airbender) among others. I've even tossed a few items in myself, including a play booster box of Marvel's Spider-Man, a Magic 30th anniversary deck box, and a MagicCon Chicago 2024 playmat!

Help donate to contribute to a great cause and have a shot at winning something cool in the process! You can do so by checking out this link! And remember: $4 increments are the way to go!

Decklist of the Week

?Congratulations to Christoffer Larsen, winner of Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed!?

Larsen piloted Dimir Excruciator, and created some of the most memorable moments of the Top 8. It took the field by storm, and took down the tournament!

Congratulations again, Christoffer!

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— Play Magic (@playmagic.com) February 1, 2026 at 5:44 PM

Dimir Excruciator | ECL Standard | Christoffer Larsen, 1st Place Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed

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In case you missed it this weekend, Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed took place in what proved to be an all-timer event. Many expected a fairly stale metagame with little changing in Standard overall following the newest expansion's release. Thankfully, that couldn't have been further from the truth. Several new innovate decks appeared, including Izzet Elementals, Temur Harmonizer, and fresh takes on the existing Nature's Rhythm-based lists.

Christoffer Larsen took the event down with this Dimir Excruciator list. This isn't the first time the archetype has done well, as Javier Dominguez used it to take down Worlds 30 in 2024. Thanks to the innovations of Deceit and Superior Spider-Man, it's back with a vengeance, and had a big moment here. The final match against Toni Portolan on Temur Harmonizer proved to be one of the best and sweatiest in a long time with a crazy game four. Larsen came out on top in the end, though, capping off one of the best high level competitive events in recent memory.

Congratulations Christoffer on the incredible victory!

Paige Smith

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