This Week in Magic - Friday, February 13th

Posted on February 13, 2026

TMNT Previews Begin Tuesday

What's up Turtle fans?! Tune in to the #MTGxTMNT Debut on February 17 at 10am PT for some totally tubular card reveals.
? twitch.tv/magic
?? youtube.com/@mtg

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— Magic: The Gathering (@magic.wizards.com) February 12, 2026 at 1:03 PM

As quickly as it came, Lorwyn Eclipsed's time in the sun (or the moonlight, one might say) is coming to a close fast. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles preview season kicks off Tuesday with the debut show taking place on Twitch and YouTube at 1:00 PM EST or 10:00 AM PST.

Many players wonder how this preview season will look given the kerfuffle with the Lorwyn Eclipsed prerelease kits last month. This led to every rare and mythic rare from the set being revealed early, but only their base versions. This leaves numerous Booster Fun variant treatments, as well as many commons, uncommons, and bonus sheet cards left to reveal.

It's going to be an interesting run of previews ahead, so make sure you prep your pizza and get your "Cowabunga!" on this Tuesday!

B&R Announcement Impacts Arena and Commander

This week saw a lengthy line-up of banned and restricted announcements, with a variety of formats on MTG Arena as well as Commander being impacted.

Players had Commander on their radar since WeeklyMTG mentioned it would be involved this time around. The update was quite lengthy despite very little actual change. Biorhythm was unbanned and put on the Game Changers list along with Farewell. At the same time, everyone's favorite otter Lutri, the Spellchaser was mostly unbanned, but banned as a Companion. The rest of the announcements focused on other potential bans, unbans, and rule change discussions.

Changes also came to Alchemy, Historic, and Timeless as numerous cards were rebalanced, banned, and unbanned. There even was one card restricted in the case of Necropotence in Timeless!

The details are quite lengthy, so I encourage you to go check out my write-up on the whole announcement here on CoolStuffInc. Otherwise, you can check out these official links for further information:

Banned and Restricted Announcement - February 9, 2026

Commander Banned and Restricted Announcement - February 9, 2026

Commander Brackets Beta Update - February 9, 2026

(Good Morning Magic) What's Banned and Unbanned?? Is Hybrid Changing? A Commander Update! | Magic: The Gathering MTG

MTG Arena Announcements - February 9, 2026 (featuring card rebalances)

Spotlight Series Toronto Wraps

? Congratulations to Valerie Jade, winner of Spotlight: Eclipsed! ?

After going 6-2 on Day 1, she went 3-0 in every single draft pod on Day 2, in both the Swiss and Top 8!

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— Play Magic (@playmagic.com) February 8, 2026 at 10:20 PM

Spotlight Series Toronto (aka Spotlight: Eclipsed) took place this past weekend! Roughly 1800 players descended upon the cold Canadian city for a weekend packed with Lorwyn Eclipsed Limited.

Following two days of grueling gameplay, we had a winner at last! Valerie Jade, a member of Team Sanctum of All not only won the event - she crushed it! It's not easy to get one draft 3-0 in an event of this caliber, but she managed to do it three times in one day!

Additionally, while the event didn't receive much social media coverage, we also got four more participants who qualified for the Limited Championship next year! These four names could be found via the tournament page on Melee.gg. Each one won their top 32 draft pod and will make their way to the all-Limited Pro Tour-level event in 2027.

Congratulations to all the winners from across the weekend!

Tolarian Community College Raises Over $600,000 For Charity

Together, we raised over $600,000 for @translifeline.org this year. From the bottom of my heart, I'm so grateful. We have come together to say to our trans friends and family that they are loved and that they are not alone.

Trans rights are human rights.

When we gather together, we can make Magic.

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— Tolarian Community College (@tolariancommunitycollege.com) February 7, 2026 at 12:56 PM

Every year, the team at Tolarian Community College partners with Trans Lifeline to raise money for a good cause. They do this by giving away some cool prizes and the community puts up prizes of their own to add to the pool. For every $4 donated, donors get that many more chances at snagging something cool!

This year, the fundraiser finished with over $628,000 raised for the charity! While prize opportunities are now closed, you can still contribute donations via TCC's donor link if you'd like.

Thank you to everyone who donated and especially to Tolarian Community College and their team for continuing to put on such an amazing fundraiser year after year!

Decklist of the Week

Izzet Elementals | ECL Standard | Capriccioso, 2nd Place MTGO Standard Challenge

Creatures (27)
3 Sunderflock
4 Ashling, Rekindled // Ashling, Rimebound
4 Deceit
4 Flamebraider
4 Roaming Throne
4 Vibrance
4 Wistfulness

Instants (4)
4 Bounce Off

Sorceries (4)
4 Winternight Stories

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

While Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed took place two weeks ago now, the Standard format continues to evolve from that event. The high level of play at an event such as the Pro Tour brought with it numerous new archetypes besides the winning Dimir Doomsday list!

One of the more interesting breakout archetypes was Izzet Elementals. Don't confuse this with Izzet Spellementals - a very different list using Hearth Elemental to spit out cheap Sunderflocks. This list instead leans heavily into the various Evoke Elementals from Lorwyn Eclipsed, generating tons of incremental advantage from their abilities. With the help of Roaming Throne, you can even double up on these triggers to bury your opponents in value.

It's a pricey deck if you're looking to play it in paper, but well worth it if you're looking to win a RCQ to earn your own shot at the big stage!

Paige Smith

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