This Year in Magic - 2024

Posted on December 27, 2024

This week has been unusually bone dry when it comes to Magic-related news. While it's not uncommon to see things be a bit lighter during the holidays when Wizards of the Coast is on their winter break, it's rare to see so little news come out at all. As such, I'm taking this opportunity to look back on some of the biggest news stories of the year and recap what made 2024 stand out among other years in the game's long history.

Sheldon's Spellbook

Last year, Sheldon Mennery passed away following a long battle with cancer. One of the greatest Magic judges of all time and the godfather of the game's most popular format of Commander left a big hole in the community with his passing. To celebrate Sheldon and his accomplishments with the game, as well as benefit the American Cancer Society, Wizards of the Coast released the Sheldon's Spellbook Secret Lair. Praise of the product was unanimous, with many seeing it as a fitting tribute, good value, and contributing to a good cause. In fact, it was revealed later in the year that the Secret Lair - and by extension the community - raised $2,140,640 for the ACS in Sheldon's memory. A fitting send-off to one of the game's all-time greats.

The Kai Budde Player of the Year Award

During Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3, Wizards of the Coast made a major announcement: Kai Budde was to be honored for his achievements to the game's competitive side. This would be done by renaming the "Player of the Year" award into the "Kai Budde Player of the Year Award." It was revealed at the same time that the German Juggernaut was battling cancer and this was seen as a way to honor one of Magic's all-time greats while he is still with us. This announcement was met both with strong praise and well-wishes for Kai in his recovery process. This year's recipient of this award was none other than the second-ever two time world champion Javier Dominguez, who may be following in the legendary Kai's footsteps soon enough.

The Spotlight Series

Prior to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, major Magic events were held basically every week known as Grand Prixs. These massive tournaments would feature the highest level of play open that didn't require an invite to attend, were major gatherings for players, and even invitations to the Pro Tour. With the return to paper play over the last few years, MagicCon events replaced these with less frequent showcases that made for really big events that sold out constantly.

Many players noted, though, that this approach was lacking on the competitive side of things. To answer these complaints, Wizards revealed this August that the Spotlight Series events would begin in 2025! If you're familiar with the Grand Prix events of old, they're largely the same thing. Large open tournaments, special promo entry prizes, major cash prizes on the line, and even Pro Tour invites to the Top 8! The first of these will be held in just one week from now with Spotlight Series Atlanta featuring a special Terror of the Peaks promo!

The Formation of the Commander Format Panel

On September 23, the Commander Rules Committee - as well as Wizards of the Coast relaying the information on their website - dropped a bombshell on the Commander playerbase. Effective immediately, they were banning Dockside Extortionist, Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt, and Nadu, Winged Wisdom from the format. While Nadu came as little surprise given its recent impact on Modern and Legacy, the other three cards came as somewhat of a shock to many players. While Dockside Extortionist had at least been mentioned in previous announcements as being watched, the other two weren't even close to many players' radars.

As a result, this led to tremendous amounts of toxicity, hatred, and even death threats aimed at members of the Rules Committee. While this abhorrent reaction from certain spaces of the community was inexcusable, it did have an impact. Shortly following this ban announcement, the Commander Rules Committee - along with the accompanying Commander Advisory Group - were dissolved, revealing that Wizards of the Coast was taking over the format. In their place, a Commander Format Panel similar to Pauper's own Pauper Format Panel was announced with things like the concept of a bracketing system for determining power levels for decks going forward.

Whatever your thoughts on the bans, the CFP, and more, this was without a doubt one of - if not the - biggest news stories of the year by a wide margin. If you have things to say on the matter to members of this new panel, please be kind and courteous in the process.

The Foundations Era

In August, Wizards of the Coast surprised everyone with the announcement of Foundations, a new core set that would stick around for a long period of time. Not only would this provide players with an accessible pool of cards to work with when it came to Standard, but it also provides a fresh take on the core set concept as well. The set would go on to be well received by the player base at large, with many calling it the greatest core set ever and a perfect distillation of the greater Magic experience.

But what also took up the discussion was what Foundations was starting: the Foundations era of Magic. This included several major shifts, such as changes to exactly when Standard rotation would happen (while still sticking to the same general timeframe) as well as the return of Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (better known as MSRP). Most controversially, however, was the revelation that all Universes Beyond releases with full sets will now go through Standard. Additionally, there will be six Standard sets a year now instead of the usual four. Both aspects of this have seen very mixed receptions, but are being met with cautious trepidation for the time being.

Monumental Bans and Unbans

This year has been absolutely stacked with monumental bannings and unbannings. While most players will likely be quick to note how almost universally acclaimed the latest round of bans and unbans have been to Modern, it's hard to overstate just how major almost ever banned and restricted update was in 2024. Coming off the heels of a big round of bans in Modern and Pioneer at the end of 2023, Wizards banned Violent Outburst in Modern to both bring down Crashing Footfalls and Living End decks a bit. Soon after, the May 13th announcement saw the banning of all stickers and attractions, owing largely to the impact of ____ Goblin (aka "Name Sticker" Goblin) in Legacy and Pauper. All That Glitters, also being banned simultaneously in Pauper, meant big changes for that format too.

The rest of the year could be described as cleaning up the messes of Modern Horizons sets. The first major announcement following the release of Modern Horizons 3 - aside from the pre-banning of Cranial Ram in Pauper - was less about what was banned and more what wasn't. Nadu, Winged Wisdom was destroying Modern and the combo of Grief and Psychic Frog in Legacy had players clamoring for bans there, but nothing changed in any format. Finally on August 26, Nadu and Grief would exit Modern, Grief would leave Legacy, and even Pioneer lost two critical decks with the banning of Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord and Amalia Benevides Aguirre.

This leads us to the changes from last week. You can read more about them here, but suffice it to say, early reception has been tremendously positive and is likely going to continue benefiting the Modern format for some time.

Decklist of the Week

Rakdos Delirium | Modern | _and_one_, 4th Place MTGO Modern Challenge

Sorceries (6)
2 Foked Bolt
4 Faithless Looting

Artifacts (3)
3 Mishra's Bauble

Buy This Deck Export text

It may be a fun recap of the year instead of the usual brand of news, but what This Week in Magic article wouldn't be complete with a decklist in the mix? The impact of last week's B&R announcement continues, this time showcasing an all new style of list from the Modern meta. Don't be fooled by the four Arclight Phoenix in this deck: it is a Delirium-based list first and foremost. Some lists ignore the Phoenixes completely and instead opt for more of a Hollow One approach, showing an application of these classic decks within a new style of deck altogether and proving the continued evolution of the format in the process.

Paige Smith

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