This Week in Magic: Friday, September 5th

Posted on September 5, 2025

Marvel's Spider-Man Previews Come to an End

Last Friday, preview season for the next Magic: The Gathering expansion - Marvel's Spider-Man kicked off in earnest. In a rather unusual move for a Standard release, however, the entire set is fully previewed as of today! Thanks to boasting a smaller number of cards than usual and many being previewed early via Welcome Decks and a First Look, the set had a simple one-week preview season this time around.

In addition to tons of awesome new cards, Wizards also showed off a handful of early looks at the Through the Omenpaths digital version of these cards as well. These have fairly distinct templating, particularly on the in-universe version of The Soul Stone. This one lacks the "Infinity Stone" terminology as well as the infinity symbol in the text box. The full set of previews for Through the Omenpaths is expected to go live on Monday.

Typically, I would have a recap of the preview week today, however given the extremely short preview window, that will be going live early next week instead. Still looking to see what awesome new cards are coming out soon? Check out the Marvel's Spider-Man page right here on CoolStuffInc.com to check out every card in the set and pick up whatever awesome goodies you're looking for. Be sure to check with your local game store for details regarding prerelease, as that kicks off the weekend of September 19th!

Eternal Weekend Gets Special Paintings Provided By Dan Frazier

Last year, Eternal Weekend ended one of the most meaningful traditions in Magic events: awarding original artwork to the winners.

Dan Frazier, hearing the news, stepped up to give back to the community and has drawn two original paintings to be given to the Legacy and Vintage winners at EW!

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— Phil Nguyen (@mtgbanding.com) September 2, 2025 at 4:36 PM

Last year saw the continued return of beloved Legacy and Vintage event Eternal Weekend but with one major difference: no special paintings of classic Eternal cards! This was met with plenty of pushback from the community, but the events came and went without the addition of any paintings. This year, longtime Magic artist Dan Frazier found out about this and decided to step up to the plate to provide two new pieces of art for the United States iteration of the event. Legacy players can play for a special, unique Mox Diamond painting while Vintage players can duke it out for a new take on Mox Sapphire.

We heard you wanted more artists at the EW. How about 16 of them!

Dan Frazier
Doug Shuler
Tom Wanerstrand
Daniel Gelon
Heather Hudson
Dave Palumbo
Margaret O'Keen
Phil Foglio
Kaja Foglio
Chuck Lukacs
Steve Belledin
Winona Nelson
Bryon Wackwitz
Brian Snoddy
Martina Pilcerova
Liz Danforth
— Card Titan (@cardtitan.bsky.social) September 4, 2025 at 1:47 PM

This special US Eternal Weekend event is happening from October 9th to October 12th! The event organizer, Card Titan, also recently revealed their lineup of artists at the event, including Frazier himself. Be sure to check out the event in Pittsburgh, PA if you'd like to check out some sweet, sweet Legacy and Vintage Magic.

Decklist of the Week

Mono-Red Aggro | EOE Standard | Brennan Roy, 1st Place Magic Spotlight: Planetary Rotation

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This past weekend saw the latest Magic Spotlight Series event happen in Orlando, FL boasting over 600 players duking it out in a post-rotation Standard event. In an event expected to be taken down by the mighty Izzet Cauldron deck, Mono-Red Aggro proved to be a potent way to beat back the deck taking Brennan Roy all the way to victory in 1st place!

However, this doesn't quite tell the whole story. The Top 8 included a whopping 6 out of 8 decks being Vivi, 10 in the Top 16, and 21 of the Top 32. Heck, if you go a bit further down to the Top 40, then you're looking at 27 of the top 40 lists! Izzet Cauldron did indeed dominate the event, despite losing in the finals. The deck had a 30% meta share for day one but ballooned into a tremendous 54% meta share on day two. Worse still, Frank Karsten put out his usual Metagame Mentor article for the event which stated that Izzet Cauldron boasted an unbelievable 63.1% winrate, despite every non-Izzet Cauldron player gunning to beat it in the event.

The sheer dominance of this deck is unparalleled and is putting up some of the craziest numbers of any deck I've ever seen before. Mono-Red's numbers admittedly weren't too far behind, sitting at a 62.0% win rate. It is worth noting that winrate is likely being propped up by Mono-Red having a strong matchup against Izzet Cauldron. However, that number is sure to convert to a strong win rate if it doesn't receive inevitable bans alongside the Cauldron deck. No other deck has even close to a 50% or better win rate, making for an intensely warped metagame that has people wondering when Wizards will take action.

Regardless of the circumstances surrounding the event, a major congratulations is in order for Brennan Roy. Great job on this monumental achievement!

Paige Smith

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