This Week in Magic - Friday, June 26th

Posted on June 26, 2026

Marvel Super Heroes Releases Everywhere

Following a few weeks of previews and last week's Prerelease events, Marvel Super Heroes is now available everywhere.

The latest Magic: The Gathering set and its accompanying Eternal Legal releases are now available where you get your Magic products. There are tons of awesome and powerful new cards for you to play with and countless beloved Marvel characters to build your next deck around.

You can find anything you're looking for right here on CoolStuffInc. Everything from the hottest singles to sealed products and supplies are on sale and ready to ship. Pick yours up today and assemble your favorite Avengers ensemble now.

Banned and Restricted Announcement Coming Monday

This Monday, June 29th will see the unveiling of another Banned and Restricted update. This continues the trend this year of featuring a B&R update shortly after the release of every major set.

Last time, after the release of Secrets of Strixhaven, Wizards took bold action against a number of cards in Pioneer, Modern, and Legacy. Following such major changes, many are wondering what action could be in store on Monday.

The most contentious format for many is Standard. Many players have been deeply unsatisfied with the play patterns of the format for some time now and the release of Secrets of Strixhaven did little to mitigate these concerns.

Even Play Design members who participated in discussions with the last announcement acknowledged these concerns. The speed of the format, play/draw advantage, and cards like Stormchaser's Talent were all called out as current pain points.

The last update took place right in the middle of a number of Standard Regional Championship events. Because of the intense testing required for these high-level events, many speculate that Wizards was unwilling to make changes at the time. As we're now around the time when the big annual Standard bans are made, many believe there's a good shot we'll see some bannings come this Monday for Magic's premiere Competitive format.

In addition to many players expecting something out of Standard, several more are looking to hear a verdict on the status of Pauper. This is thanks to the introduction of Hawkeye's Bow to the format and the new infinite damage combo it enables. It's even generated a lot of discussion beyond the typical spheres of the Pauper community with many prominent MTG community leaders and creators discussing it.

It's all because the brand-new Common card creates a two card combo with Seeker of Skybreak. This works by equipping the Bow and then tapping the Seeker targeting itself, which then untaps it, allowing you to tap it again targeting itself, and you have a loop. Every time you tap the Seeker, you deal a point of damage and do so until your opponent is at zero life.

Over the course of the week, the Pauper Format Panel - of which I'm a member - have been monitoring the situation closely. We've been watching event results, Magic Online 5-0 lists, and have also been gathering player feedback from across the internet.

We'll be sharing our findings and verdict on whether the combo remains legal or gets the banhammer.

The announcement is expected to go live around 11AM EST/8AM PST as is typical for when they go up, so be sure to check in then.

Beloved Artist Ron Spears Passes Away

It's with heavy hearts that we mourn the passing of iconic artist, Ron Spears.

With a flair for the fantastic, Spears's illustrations have transported players to planes across the Multiverse for over 20 years?magic.wizards.com/en/news/feat...

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— Magic: The Gathering (@magic.wizards.com) June 24, 2026 at 6:33 PM

On Wednesday, June 24th, it was announced that beloved Magic artist and former art director Ron Spears passed away. Known associate Mark Aronowitz posted to Facebook that Ron had recently discovered he had cancer, causing a brain tumor, which led to his tragic death.

Ron Spears leaves behind a legendary legacy of beloved classics like Akroma, Angel of Wrath, Phage the Untouchable, Dark Confidant, and many more. He had even begun to do a handful of pieces in recent years up to and including some cards for Lorwyn Eclipsed.

In the wake of this sad news, Wizards of the Coast shared their own tribute to Ron on their website. They discuss much of his history with the game and several of his iconic pieces from throughout the years, encouraging players to explore his art for themselves.

For my money, Ron was one of the best to ever do it. May he rest in peace.

Decklist of the Week

Naya Gates Combow | Pauper | seasonofmists, 1st Place MTGO Pauper Challenge

Instants (4)
4 Prismatic Strands

Enchantments (7)
3 Journey to Nowhere
4 Bitter Reunion

Artifacts (4)
4 Hawkeye's Bow

Buy This Deck Export text

As noted above, the new card Hawkeye's Bow has been generating a lot of buzz around the Pauper community.

With many players eager to see if this combo is strong enough, several different decks utilizing the combo have popped up on Magic Online throughout the week. A few extra Pauper Challenges were even added to aid the Pauper Format Panel in our data gathering. From these, the most prevalent of these decks appears to be the Naya Gates deck with the combo added in.

This deck functions by utilizing small Creature cards alongside a Gates Land package fueled by Basilisk Gate. This turns small critters into huge threats fast. Because of this, it provides a potent plan B in the event that you're unable to combo off. Thanks to this, it's put up some solid results over the past few days, including this Challenge victory by player seasonofmists.

Paige Smith

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