Magic: the Gathering - Final Fantasy Prerelease This Weekend

Magic: the Gathering - Final Fantasy is here at long last! Prerelease for the highly anticipated bestseller is upon us, and players everywhere will descend upon local game stores for their shot at opening their characters. Check with your local shop for all the details on what events will look like there, and if you're having trouble finding what you're interested in, be sure to check out the CoolStuffInc page for the set as well! Singles, sealed, supplies - it's all available! Grab your Black Mage robe and hat and gear up for one heck of a fun weekend!

A Slew of New Promos and a Special Secret Lair Announced

Despite Magic: the Gathering - Final Fantasy previews wrapping up and the set reaching players' hands shortly, Wizards wasted no time in revealing several new cards! Chief among these were a whole slew of new promos ranging from Regional Championship Qualifier promos to a special Final Fantasy promo being handed out at select events in the coming months.

Perhaps the biggest announcement, though, was an all-new print-to-demand charity Secret Lair coming June 16. Titled Secret Lair: Nuestra Magia, this special lair focuses on and celebrates Latin American heritage and culture with an exciting batch of new cards. 50% of the lair's price will go toward the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, contributing to a great cause in the process! Best of all, there are some truly fantastic cards in the lair that make it well worth your dollars should you choose to buy it.

You can find links to all of these announcements below!

• Announcing Upcoming RCQs, Spotlight Events, Eternal Weekends, and More!
• Secret Lair x National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures: Nuestra Magica
• Play Magic: the Gathering - Final Fantasy and Earn Special Team-Up Promos!

A Big Rules Update With Magic: the Gathering - Final Fantasy

Amidst the typical rules update that accompanies every Magic release came a huge rules update. Thanks to Magic: the Gathering - Final Fantasy's inclusion of Saga Creatures to represent summons, Sagas have gotten some notable changes. In many cases, this isn't anything super special, but it does have one card that this interaction matters very much for: Urza's Saga.

Previously, if a player controlled an Urza's Saga and then either a Blood Moon or Harbinger of the Seas enters, the Urza's Saga would be sent to the graveyard. Now, not only does this not happen, but the Urza's Saga retains any abilities it gained after entering thanks to layer timestamps. This presents a huge buff to Urza's Saga if one of these kinds of effects comes into play after its second ability triggers, as players can continuously make tokens over and over.

The decision has proven somewhat controversial, but many have expressed excitement at trying out this new interaction. It'll be interesting to see how things progress going forward thanks to this one little rules change having wide applications to formats like Modern and Legacy going forward. If you expect to play either of these formats, make sure you're aware of how the interaction works, and don't be afraid to speak to a judge for a better explanation on how it works.

Gatherer Receiving Its First Overhaul In Years

It's been a long time since the official Magic database, Gatherer, got a major overhaul. If you opened the website last week, it still looked more or less the same as it did ten years ago. This week, Wizards announced they're finally giving Gatherer a fresh coat of paint in the near future, providing a massive overhaul in how it looks as well as overall functionality. The update went live during the course of the week and is visible to everyone. Go check it out today and see how it compares to modern favorites like Scryfall!

Decklist of the Week

Gruul Broodscale | Modern | Hunter Ovington, 1st Place Magic Spotlight Indianapolis

• Creatures (19)
• 1 Haywire Mite
• 2 Emrakul, the Promised End
• 4 Basking Broodscale
• 4 Glaring Fleshraker
• 4 Walking Ballista
• 4 Writhing Chrysalis

• Instants (4)
• 4 Kozilek's Command

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Ancient Stirrings
• 4 Malevolent Rumble

• Artifacts (7)
• 1 Soul-Guide Lantern
• 1 Springleaf Drum
• 1 Vexing Bauble
• 4 Blade of the Bloodchief

• Lands (22)
• 2 Forest
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 2 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 2 Cavern of Souls
• 3 Wooded Foothills
• 4 Eldrazi Temple
• 4 Grove of the Burnwillows
• 4 Urza's Saga

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Gemstone Caverns
• 1 Grafdigger's Cage
• 1 Nature's Claim
• 1 Pithing Needle
• 1 Vexing Bauble
• 2 Damping Sphere
• 2 Dismember
• 3 Pyroclasm
• 3 Thief of Existence

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It's been nothing but Standard events and Standard decklists all the way down to cap off these past few weeks of news round-ups. That's been thanks to a steady stream of Regional Championship events from all over the world! While there was one final one this past weekend to round out the season, I instead want to highlight the Spotlight Series event that happened at the same time in Indianapolis!

After a long two-day event showcasing the Modern format, we saw a fairly diverse top 8 come out at the top. Winning the event was a true underdog that I doubt many would've expected to win going into the event: Gruul Broodscale Combo. This works much like the Pauper iteration that was banned back in March. Equip Basking Broodscale with Blade of the Bloodchief, sacrifice a creature, and make infinite mana, infinite token generation, and more. With a Walking Ballista or Glaring Fleshraker, it becomes trivial to win with, making for a fairly unique combo deck. Congratulations Hunter on the epic victory!

Paige Smith

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