This Week in Magic: Saturday, March 1st

Posted on March 1, 2025

MagicCon Chicago Wraps Up

MagicCon Chicago is officially in the books! The event was the largest MagicCon yet, beating out both last year's Chicago and Las Vegas outings, as revealed by Blake Rasmussen during the event. Tons of outstanding events, panels, and community gatherings took place throughout the weekend. Some of these included preview panels, the traditional cosplay contest, and the Pro Tour - won by one Matt Nass. The event notably brought some fresh ideas to the table, such as a Forgetful Fish aka Dandan tournament, a MTG themed tattoo booth, and a new take on the special Secret Lair events featuring all new and unique Planechase cards.

The next event will be held in Las Vegas at the end of June this year. Applications for creator and press passes are live now, so be sure to sign up if this applies to you!

2025 Pride Celebration Events Announced

The 2025 Pride Celebration event was surprisingly announced earlier this week. The event will follow last year's event, allowing players to pair up any and all legendary creatures as though they had partner. This event will take place between June 27 and June 29 and will feature a special Chromatic Lantern promo card for those who attend. This event was revealed rather early for the year, as it doesn't take place for quite a bit of time yet, with some players speculating it was an act of goodwill toward the community following the removal of support to the VML earlier in the year. You can find all the details in the official announcement page here.

Duskmourn Draft Arena Direct Coming Soon

The MTG Arena Direct events return again next weekend, this time featuring Duskmourn: House of Horror. Unlike past events that focused on sealed deck, this event will be utilizing draft instead. Make it to six wins and you'll find yourself winning two play booster boxes of Duskmourn: House of Horror. Check out this week's MTG Arena announcements article for more details.

LoadingReadyRun's Friday Nights Returns

Monday morning crowd!
In case you missed all the hooting and hollering, the new season of FRIDAY NIGHTS is here!
youtu.be/sWJB8q6TOgw

[image or embed]
— LoadingReadyRun (@loadingreadyrun.com) February 24, 2025 at 12:08 PM

Friday Nights is back! The classic series from LoadingReadyRun makes a comeback after multiple years of hiatus with an outstanding season premiere return. The series was kickstarted following Wizards of the Coast dropping their sponsorship for it a few years prior. Check out the video in the linked post above or check out their full playlist with every Friday Nights episode from throughout the years here. It's worth it for the laughs.

Decklist of the Week

Domain Overlords | DFT Standard | Matt Nass, 1st Place Pro Tour Aetherdrift

Instants (6)
2 Get Lost
4 Ride's End

Sorceries (5)
1 Sunfall
2 Analyze the Pollen
2 Get Lost

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Typically, I don't like covering the same archetype two weeks in a row, but when that same archetype just so happens to win a Pro Tour, there's a certain obligation to highlight it. Matt Nass crushed the competition on the back of Standard's Domain Overlords deck, a list that fell to the wayside for a bit but has returned with a vengeance thanks to the rise of Esper Pixie decks. This led to a multi-hour finals involving a Domain mirror against James Dimitrov that saw Matt checking his final attack count multiple times before collapsing on the ground as the match concluded. Congratulations Matt on the incredible run!

Paige Smith

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