Recapping the MagicCon Las Vegas Preview Panel

Posted on June 23, 2025

This past weekend was MagicCon Las Vegas! Amidst the fun, festivities, and pro-level competition was a special event that has become something of a mainstay of MagicCons: the Preview Panel. These preview panels show off tons of cards, sets, and other new upcoming events and products. With Vegas being one of the biggest events of the year, it's no surprise that it also packed tons of news for the upcoming year ahead.

There's a ton to discuss, so let's not waste any time and jump right into it.

Edge of Eternities

The bulk of the panel showcased the next set releasing in July: Edge of Eternities.

Prior to the Preview Panel, we got our first look at the set's premiere planeswalker card: Tezzeret, Cruel Captain. The card was shown off at the Black Lotus party event and images quickly circulated across social media. A three-mana Colorless planeswalker has players in numerous formats buzzing at the possibilities, going as far back as Vintage. This makes for an exciting start to the preview season for this set.

Several new art pieces were also shown off leading into this set's new setting, showcasing just what the Edge looks like. This led into the reveal of an all-new set of Borderless Celestial Art basic lands. These gorgeous cards will be available with Galaxy Foils once again making a return following their appearance in Unfinity.

This led into the panel showing off two new arts for Mutavault, showing two new treatments for the powerful land that will be available as part of a bonus sheet. This bonus sheet is titled Stellar Sights and features several special treatment versions of iconic lands. The special poster treatment (the one on the right above) is a collector booster exclusive, with super rare galaxy treatments available in collector boosters as well.

Perhaps the biggest and coolest reveal was the announcement that the beloved shock lands would be returning to Standard once again! Five are coming with Edge of Eternities with the other five expected to be in a later release. As you can tell above, the ones in this set are Breeding Pool, Godless Shrine, Sacred Foundry, Stomping Ground, and Watery Grave. This will serve as an excellent replacement for the pain lands and allied fast lands that are exiting with rotation.

A handful of other cards were shown off as well, showing creatures and characters that appear in the story. One legendary creature, Tannuk, Memorial Ensign, marks the return of kavu to the world of Magic. This time, though, they are a more sentient race, allowing for more interesting cards and characterizations such as this.

At this point, they also revealed that published Sci-Fi author Seth Dickinson would be writing the story for Edge of Eternities this time around. This should provide an exciting tale that has many readers already chomping at the bit to see his stories, the first of which is already up (check the resources at the bottom of this page).

One other major reveal was the introduction of spacecrafts. As you can tell from the above card, The Seriema, these function by tapping creatures and putting counters on them equal to the tapped creatures' power. Once it reaches a certain threshold, the spacecraft turns into a creature that can attack, block, and gain new abilities.

In addition to the reveal of this sweet new mechanic came another major reveal: a change to the Commander rules! Going forward, players can now use legendary vehicles and legendary spacecrafts in their command zone rather than simply a legendary creature. With only a small number of legendary vehicles - few of which aren't colorless - it's unlikely this rule changes much in the short term, but will no doubt give players a cool new way to engage with the format.

The last main set reveal was Sothera, the Supervoid - something it was stated that various factions were seeking out and fighting over in the story. In addition to the regular version, we got shown off the special Japan Showcase versions, confirming the treatment is returning once again for Edge of Eternities. We were also shown that this card would be the set's headliner card once more (after test versions were revealed previously). It does not appear that this card will be serialized this time around, but will still feature a similar rarity level.

Last but not least, we also got our first look at the face commanders helming the Edge of Eternities Commander decks. There are only two decks this time around and thus only two legends were shown off, but they both seem like cool build-arounds for players to mess with. Szarel, Genesis Shepherd seems like an interesting general Jund commander involving sacrificing stuff while Kilo, Apogee Mind seems to utilize the proliferate mechanic heavily. It'll be interesting to see how these decks play out when the set releases.

Magic: the Gathering - Avatar: The Last Airbender

We only got an extremely brief look that proved to be just a light tease for the upcoming Magic: The Gathering - Avatar: The Last Airbender crossover set. The video they showed off at the event featured a timelapse of art for the special raised foil version of Avatar Aang // Aang, Master of Elements. Best of all, this new card features art by series creator Bryan Konietzko. This one card has sent social media ablaze wondering what the four bending mechanics do.

While no further information was provided, it's expected we'll hear more about the set at MagicCon Atlanta later this year.

Lorwyn Eclipsed

We do have some #MTGLorwyn art though! Sarah discusses how the dark fairy tale and the duality nature of it gives it such fun areas for artists to play in.

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— Magic: The Gathering (@magic.wizards.com) June 20, 2025 at 4:54 PM

Wizards also spent a little time unveiling the names for the first two sets of 2026. The first of these releases is to be Lorwyn Eclipsed, the first return to this classic plane nearly 20 years after we first visited it. Very little was revealed about the set, though we did get reveals for two pieces of art depicting a Lorwyn elf and a Lorwyn landscape done by Magic veteran artist Mark Poole. We'll likely hear more about this set at MagicCon Atlanta as well.

Secrets of Strixhaven

From there, another set coming in 2026: Secrets of Strixhaven!

?

We're still too early for more than an announcement, class is not back in session... yet.

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— Magic: The Gathering (@magic.wizards.com) June 20, 2025 at 4:55 PM

The second set of 2026 was also unveiled. While we previously knew this would be a return to the plane of Arcavios, the name has officially been revealed to be Secrets of Strixhaven. No further information has been revealed yet, though, so we'll have to wait for future reveals in the future.

Untold Stories: Elspeth

Next we go to Roy to discuss the @darkhorse.com partnership. We're calling this collaboration "Untold Stories" starting with a story about Elspeth escaping from the Theros underworld with this four issue run!

Issue #1 releases September 10th, 2025! Go preorder yours now!

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— Magic: The Gathering (@magic.wizards.com) June 20, 2025 at 4:57 PM

While previously announced via IGN, Untold Stories: Elspeth was discussed once more at this panel. In addition to the basic information and covers we already knew about, we were also treated to a handful of pages as well as variant cover arts. Issue one is expected to go on sale September 10, 2025.

New Ways to Play Unveiled

Pick-2 Draft changes normal draft rules in two ways:

1) Picking 2 cards with every draft decision
2) Four player draft pods

It's quick and really really fun!

Here's a video from Ben Bateman about it!

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— Magic: The Gathering (@magic.wizards.com) June 20, 2025 at 5:00 PM

Additionally, a few new means of play were announced. Commander Boxing Leagues - a fixture of larger Magic events using booster boxes to make 60-card Commander decks - are becoming an official thing for stores to run in the near future. Two-Headed Giant Commander was also announced, bringing together two popular casual multiplayer formats in one format. Additionally announced was the Pick-2 Draft format. This format is meant to be a way for smaller pods of 4 to be able to play by making two picks instead of one, thereby making it easier to build a cohesive deck.

Upcoming Event Announcements

Two notable announcements were made regarding events in 2026 at this panel as well.

First was the mention that there would be twelve Spotlight Series events next year - an increase from this year's eight. No further information was provided as to where any of these events may be held.

Second was the reveal of the 2026 MagicCon event lineup. There will be three events and they will be at these locations and dates:

May 1-3, 2026: Las Vegas, NV

July 17-19, 2026: Amsterdam, Netherlands

November 13-15, 2026: Atlanta, GA

Where's Spider-Man?

During virtually every past MagicCon Preview Panel, we've seen each of the closely upcoming sets get some shine on them. This time, however, one set was notably missing: Magic: The Gathering - Marvel's Spider-Man. As far as I could tell when following along with the announcements on social media and later watching the panel VOD, it wasn't even mentioned.

This aspect is pure speculation on my part, however I'd wager that this will make a showing at San Diego Comic-Con in July. Magic frequently does collaborations at these events - including panels - and it's a perfect spot for both Wizards and Marvel alike to show off the set. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled, as we'll no doubt see more info on this in the near future.

Additional Resources

This wraps things up for this major preview panel. We'll likely see more in the near future with the likes of SDCC and MagicCon Atlanta. Until then, here's all of the official resources you can use to look up more details on everything shown off today: