With 2025 just about wrapped, I've been thinking about the last handful of sets we've gotten to play. While I mainly spend my time drafting, I did play a ton of Standard this year as it was the bulk of the RCQ tournaments I played. 2025 also marks the first year we had a split between Universes Beyond and in-universe sets, with 2026 marking the first year we'll have more Universes Beyond sets than regular sets. Overall, Magic had some pretty powerful cards come out in 2025 as well as some killer (and not so killer) Limited formats. As someone who plays Magic on the daily, here are my favorite cards from 2025.

Stock Up is probably my favorite Constructed card that was printed this year. I think for a while, Control decks had a rough time in Standard due to the fact that so many Midrange creature decks could out two-for-one you. You would end up using a Get Lost on a Kaito, Bane of Nightmares, only to give your opponent fuel in map tokens, but at that point they probably got enough value out of their Kaito to make your Get Lost inconsequential.

While there were other draw spells in Standard at the time, Stock Up was probably one of the leading factors in putting Control decks back on the map, giving Control a mini-Dig Through Time at sorcery-speed. Stock Up also got great synergy with the next card on my list...

Shiko, my darling. What a card you are. When the set Dragons of Tarkir came out in 2015, I was but a young babe, unbeknownst to the beauty of Standard Control decks. I got my butt handed to me so many times at local PPTQs by Esper Dragons, as my Siege Rhinos couldn't bear the might of Dragonlord Ojutai and Silumgar, the Drifting Death.

Shiko, Paragon of the Way was my rediscovering the way of Control decks in a Tarkir Standard, as this card almost clinched my first Pro Tour Invite at RC Minneapolis. I honestly love the Snapcaster Mage baked-in design of this card, and it's cool to see Control get a threat that nets you value off cards like Lightning Helix and Stock Up, in a similar vein to Dragonlord Ojutai.

FINAL FANTASY as a whole is my favorite set of the year, and definitely my favorite Limited one. Esper Origins is one of the weirdest cards I've seen that I've tried very hard to make work. I really enjoyed playing this card on Arena in decks that included cards like Awaken the Honored Dead, Fangkeeper's Familiar, and Rakshasa's Bargain, as ways to fuel the graveyard and get value off of it. I know this card works well with Yuna, Hope of Spira, but I honestly want to keep exploring the Sultai-graveyard space with it. This is a card that I'm not sure was quite strong enough for Standard, but I overall just enjoyed the design of having a Sorcery with Flashback that flips into a saga creature. The saga creatures in general from FINAL FANTASY were huge flavor wins, as they're directly inspired by their video game counterparts. Esper Origins is my favorite of the bunch, but Summon: Shiva and Summon: Fenrir are close runner-ups.

Depressurize isn't anything flashy - I just enjoy the design of this card. Depressurize is a cool way to explore new space with Black's removal, aside from just reprinting some sort of Ultimate Price or Reave Soul effect. Depressurize can act both as a hard removal spell and combat trick, giving it flexibility that is newer to this sort of effect. In a way, this feels like a modal spell, and while most of the time this is killing off a two or three-drop, it has other implications as well.

Aang's Iceberg is my underdog card of 2025. Granted, I haven't played with this card a ton, as Avatar: The Last Airbender only recently released, but I've had a lot of fun brewing with this card. Aang's Iceberg is the perfect way to combo with the overlords from Duskmourn, especially in White-Control decks that feature Overlord of the Mistmoors. I won a close match at the last RCQ I won by using Aang's Iceberg to lock up an Impended Overlord, had my moth tokens Waterbend to sacrifice it, then have an active Overlord with two new moths to attack my opponent for 10 more damage the following turn.

As threats become more advanced and power creep increases, I appreciate removal spells that get some additional flexibility. Aang's Iceberg is really cool and flavorful card that not only acts as an instant-speed Oblivion Ring, but has other really powerful applications in the right decks as well.

Overall, 2025 had some pretty crazy Magic sets. While Aetherdrift and Marvel's Spider-Man were misses for me in terms of Limited and flavor, I really enjoyed the intricate and flavorful designs of FINAL FANTASY and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Tarkir: Dragonstorm and Edge of Eternities also had some really powerful designs, and while they weren't my favorite Limited environments, they definitely added some great cards to Standard (honorable mention, Consult the Star Charts).

I hope that 2026 brings even cooler and out of the box designs. It'll be nice to return to Middle-Earth in The Hobbit, but I'm really looking forward to what plot twists and turns we'll see in Reality Shift. All I know is I have a case of FINAL FANTASY in my closet that I still have yet to draft, let's see how much I can get done over the holiday break.

As always, thanks for reading.

-Roman Fusco

P.S. - I forgot one other card I especially enjoyed...

I love this card's design.

It captures the essence of

Sokka's character.