This Week in Magic: Friday, December 5th

Posted on December 5, 2025

World Championship 31 Is Happening Now

Starting Friday at 11 AM Pacific, #MTGWorlds will feature the best in the world in both Standard and #MTGxATLA booster draft!

Learn all about the format and what we can expect to see at the tables on magic.gg: magic.gg/news/magic-t...

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— Play Magic (@playmagic.com) December 2, 2025 at 6:56 PM

As mentioned previously in last week's news update, World Championship 31 is going to be taking place in Bellevue, WA. That's right near Wizards of the Coast HQ and is going to be an exciting weekend full of outstanding gameplay. Following the November 10th bannings of Vivi Ornitier, Profit's Eidetic Memory, and Screaming Nemesis, as well as the release of Avatar: the Last Airbender, the format is still evolving. As such, it's going to be a blast seeing the best of the best grind it out with an awesome Limited format and then show us what this new Standard has to offer.

Why should you be watching #MTGWorlds starting this Friday?

If seeing the best of the best of this year fight for top honors wasn't enough, take a closer look at the stories and players to watch from @pastrytime.bsky.social: www.youtube.com/watch?v=20_a...

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— Play Magic (@playmagic.com) December 3, 2025 at 12:35 PM

Wizards even plugged up and coming competitive historian Hungry on Plane to do a video covering several of the top players to watch in the field. His content is excellent with a real focus on showing why play at the highest levels is so sweet. It's great seeing Wizards sponsor content like this that highlights competitive gameplay and I for one would love to see more of it. Be sure to check it out because this is one you shouldn't miss!

You can check out all the info in the official viewer's guide here. The action kicked off earlier today and will continue all throughout the weekend so be sure to tune in!

Marvel Super Heroes Previews Coming Tuesday

Announced at the end of the WeeklyMTG Stream this week, we'll be getting our first taste of Marvel Super Heroes cards on Tuesday. Several players felt perplexed by this news, with three sets coming before we even get to that release. It's not dissimilar to how we got our first look at Final Fantasy earlier this year before Tarkir: Dragonstorm's. It'll be interesting to see what characters and cards make a showing and how it stacks up against the widely lambasted Spider-Man from this year.

Be sure to check out the WeeklyMTG stream on the official Magic Twitch page on Tuesday at 10AM PST/1PM EST and be among the first to see these new cards!

A Deluge of Magic Story Incoming

If you're tired of hearing your favorite fan-run podcast about Magic lore talk about Lorwyn, now you can listen to your favorite creator-run podcast about Magic lore talk to the people who made Lorwyn: Eclipsed!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OpH...

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— The Vorthos Cast (@thevorthoscast.bsky.social) December 3, 2025 at 12:03 PM

With previews starting up in roughly a month's time, the Lorwyn Eclipsed story is about to kick off next week! We've been getting a number of tidbits about this set's lore and the current state of the plane - including a piece from WotC's Magic Story Podcast. Be sure to keep watch and find out all of the information! It's bound to be an exciting one as players couldn't be more thrilled to see what this classic plane has in store in this new story by Seanan McGuire.

Speaking of Seanan McGuire, her additional upcoming Magic lore piece - Strixhaven: Omens of Chaos is getting some extra love as well. Book snippets and early info have popped up around the internet. Perhaps more significantly, though, the book itself has its very own website now! You can check it out here and keep tabs on the story or else preorder the book and support physical Magic story!

Decklist of the Week

Izzet Looting | TLA Standard | Varo, 2nd Place MTGO Standard Challenge

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With Worlds right around the corner, all eyes are on what's happening in Standard as players try to figure out what to expect. While Badgermole Cub has been the talk of the town thanks to Simic Aggro and Bant Airbending Combo decks, the real competitive hype seems to be residing in the latest aggressive Izzet deck. If this list looks a touch familiar, you'll probably recognize it as a remnant of what the Izzet Cauldron decks were doing before, showing just how needed multiple bans were as opposed to just a single one. Will Izzet ride strong again and take home the trophy or will it instead be something new and cool?

Paige Smith

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/themaverickgirl.bsky.social

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