This Week in Magic: Friday, October 31st

Posted on October 31, 2025

Avatar: The Last Airbender Previews Kick Off

Preview season kicked off this week in earnest for the upcoming Magic release of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The debut show and stream took place this Tuesday, showing off dozens of sweet new cards. There's still another week to go but we've seen plenty of awesome cards thus far! You can check out my other article today taking a look at some of the coolest cards shown off this week or check out the Avatar: the Last Airbender page here on CoolStuffInc to see everything revealed thus far!

Arena Powered Cube Lands on MTG Arena

Cube, more specifically the powered "Vintage Cube" of Magic Online, has become one of the most beloved and popular pillars of digital Magic. Now, it's no longer limited to MTGO. Powered Cube has come to MTG Arena for the first time as of this week, with players getting an opportunity to do all manner of crazy plays on the more Standard-centric client.

Some players and content creators levied criticisms about the entry compared to the prizing, namely how it stacks up against Magic Online. Several asked for the entry to be lowered or the prizing to be improved somewhat, though as of now no changes have been made.

Regardless, make sure you log into Arena today and sling some of the game's strongest cards ever put to print!

Mark Rosewater Celebrates 30 Years With Magic R&D

Congratulations Mark Rosewater! Today is Mark's 30th anniversary stewarding & shaping Magic. Truly a remarkable legacy.

From leading set designs to tirelessly answering fan questions to your weekly articles to signing cards at any event you attend, thank you!

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— Magic: The Gathering (@magic.wizards.com) October 30, 2025 at 1:01 PM

Yesterday, October 30th, marked Magic head designer Mark Rosewater's 30th anniversary of working in Wizards R&D (aka Studio X). MaRo's long been one of the primary faces of design for the game, discussing game design via his Making Magic articles and Drive to Work podcast, as well as leading design for numerous sets. Mark revealed on social media that he was gifted a fun shirt by R&D to commemorate the occasion, listing out all the various sets he led design on.

Congratulations Mark on the huge achievement and here's to many more years of making Magic awesome!

Decklist of the Week

Rakdos Aggro | SPM Standard | Alexandre Macisaac, 1st Place Spotlight Series: Spider-Man

Enchantments (4)
4 Leyline of Resonance

Lands (19)
18 Mountain
1 Blazemire Verge

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Congratulations to Alexandre MacIsaac, your Magic Spotlight: Spider-Man Champion! ?

#SCGBALTIMORE #SpotlightSpiderMan

Make plans to join us at an SCG CON near you! ?
scgcon.starcitygames.com

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— Star City Games (@starcitygames.bsky.social) October 26, 2025 at 8:06 PM

With a B&R announcement coming on November 10th and a previous announcement suggesting that Vivi Ornitier wasn't long for this world, many players expected Spotlight Series: Spider-Man to be the swansong for the Izzet Cauldron deck. It didn't disappoint either, putting up one of the best showings of the weekend with five lists entering the top five. Still, being the best performing deck of the weekend can't stop other decks from showing it up.

Alexandre Macisaac was one of the three players who made the top 8 without playing an Izzet Cauldron deck. Instead, he took his trusty Rakdos Aggro deck right to the very top, dominating with his four copies of Leyline of Resonance. The deck was the talk of Magic social media throughout the weekend as well, boasting an uncastable copy of Poison Dart Frog in the sideboard, which acted as Alexandre's mascot in a way.

Congratulations Alexandre on the huge victory!

Paige Smith

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