This Week in Magic: Friday, December 19th

Posted on December 19, 2025

Mark Rosewater's Lorwyn Eclipsed Teaser Goes Live

Here's my teaser for #MTGLorwyn (Lorwyn Eclipsed):

www.tumblr.com/markrosewate...

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â€” maro254.bsky.social (@maro254.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 8:27 AM

In what continues to be a fun tradition with the release of every set, Mark Rosewater unveiled his Lorwyn Eclipsed teaser on his Tumblr blog. Several fun things showed up in there, such as kindred reprints, a Noggle Rogue, and the standout 3/3 Elk token. These are always a blast for players to pick apart and see if they can figure out what's coming. Check out the rest of it in the post above!

Additionally, be sure to check out the story for Lorwyn Eclipsed as well! There were some particularly interesting revelations as well as the introduction to a group of Strixhaven students who we will see in Secrets of Strixhaven. A few preview cards were shown off through the stories along with plenty of great artwork, providing more incentive to go and read up on some lore!

Wizards Reveals New Judge Manager

Meet the new Judge Program Manager for Magic: The Gathering, Samma Harr! @sammamagic.bsky.social

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â€” Play Magic (@playmagic.com) December 15, 2025 at 3:00 PM

Some months ago, a job listing at Wizards of the Coast caught the eye of many in the scene. The job listing was for a Judge Program Manager - something that took several players aback as Wizards sunsetted the program years ago. The job has now been filled and Wizards has officially revealed the new Judge Program Manager to be Samantha Harr! Perhaps better known as Samma, she has been a long-time member of the judge community and is, to many, a great fit for the role. It's going to be exciting to see where the Judge Program goes in 2026 and beyond! Welcome to the party Samma!

Dandan Creator Helping With Dandan Secret Lair

Big news! I'm working with Wizards of the Coast to share that the Secret Lair Dandân Deck drops in March 2026! Keep an eye on secretlair.wizards.com when March rolls around. Don't forget!

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â€” Nick Floyd (@magicstorytime.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 1:29 PM

Back in September at MagicCon Atlanta, Wizards announced a special Dandan (aka Forgetful Fish) Secret Lair product coming in the near future. To the surprise of many, Dandan creator Nick Floyd didn't seem to be involved with the project. However, Nick took to social media this week to announce that he is indeed working alongside Wizards for the product and that it would be coming in March 2026. No further details have been revealed at this time, so keep your eyes peeled for more news in the future.

Decklist of the Week

Azorius Control | TLA Standard | claudioh, 3rd Place MTGO Standard Challenge

Sorceries (2)
2 Day of Judgment

Enchantments (6)
2 Aang's Iceberg
4 Seam Rip

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

As Standard continues to evolve, there are plenty of new decks popping up. Naturally, Izzet Lessons has quickly become a dominant force following its performance at World Championship 31, but there is still plenty of room for innovation. Control decks like the one above are just one of many such decks popping up. Packed with interaction, they have plenty of ways to fight back against the Izzet menace and are performing halfway decently. The format is still quite in flux, and it's going to be plenty of fun to see how things continue to evolve - especially going into the new year with Lorwyn Eclipsed just around the corner.

Paige Smith

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