This Week in Magic: Friday, May 3

Posted on May 3, 2024

Modern Horizons 3 Leaks Acknowledged

Over the past week or so, sources all over the internet have been dumping truckloads of leaks in spaces such as Reddit, Discord, Facebook, and Twitter for the upcoming Modern Horizons 3 set. It was somewhat hard to escape given how many showed up. Given the degree to which these leaks ended up getting out, Wizards took an unusual stance and not only acknowledged the leaks but showed off several of the cards well ahead of schedule!

Typically when cards leak, Wizards often ignores it and tends to lead the preview season with those cards. In only a handful of rare circumstances - such as the New Phyrexia, Ixalan, and Dominaria - have they actually provided early previews in this manner. These cards immediately sent the internet abuzz, as many were revealed that hadn't been previously shown in addition to ones that had in fact leaked already. You can find the full announcement and all the cards revealed right here.

Oh, and one additional note: if you saw a Brainstorm going around in with some leaks, it was confirmed by Wizards of the Coast to be fake on Tuesday as well. The Legacy powerhouse is not coming to Modern.

Pro Tour Outlaws of Thunder Junction Finishes

The second Pro Tour of the year took place this past weekend in Seattle as several top players from all over the world competed in one of Magic's biggest tournaments. Yoshihiko Ikawa took home the trophy, beating out fellow teammate Yuta Takahashi for the win. The pair spearheaded the awesome results of team Moriyama Japan in a stunning finish. Additionally, Sanctum of All - the Regional Championship and Pro Tour testing team for people of marginalized genders - also had an outstanding showing, putting two of its members into the Top 8 and even more having close runs themselves.

The event drew a tremendous reception as well for its stellar coverage, though it wasn't without some degree of controversy. This involved major Pro Tour mainstays such as Autumn Burchett and former world champion Nathan Steuer no longer being qualified for future Pro Tour events. There were lots of discussions as a result for the need for better paths to the Pro Tour, with many calling for the return of Grand Prix events to help fuel this along with a greater interest in Standard as a format.

New Secret Lairs Announced

Coming hot off the heels of the most recent Secret Lair superdrop that ended this Monday, another one has been announced already. Two upcoming Secret Lair drops were revealed over the past few days, with the first being a crossover with popular Japanese vocaloid personality Hatsune Miku. In addition to revealing several crossover themed cards, the announcement article (which you can find here) also showed off a special music video inspired by this collaborative Lair. You can find out all the details for it here.

Hardly a day later, an email went out to everyone on Wizards' Secret Lair mailing list showing off an upcoming "late April Fools" Secret Lair. This Lair utilizes a very mocking text style in addition to using the famously reviled Comic Sans font for the cards. Within a very short span of time, these cards rapidly received an extremely polarizing reception among the community. No further information was provided outside of a corresponding unboxing video short on YouTube, which you can check out here.

Draft at Your LGS in May, Get a Free Draft in MTG Arena

In a week full of big announcements, Wizards revealed a smaller promotion aimed at supporting local game stores. This promotion allows players to receive a free draft token on MTG Arena - good for one Premier Draft or Traditional Draft - for attending three or more draft events at their local game stores during the month of May. There's not much to it beyond that, just go to your local shop and sign up for events using your Wizards account that you use for your MTG Arena account and get rewarded for supporting your LGS! For full details, check out this article.

Pride-Themed Commander Events Coming to WPN Stores

Capping off a week of sweet announcements, a bit of information regarding an upcoming WPN event in celebration of Pride month was discovered this week. This event will allow players to bring Commander decks featuring a pair of mono-colored legends and treat them as though they have the partner keyword. This event will be held from June 28-30 and will provide players with a participation prize of a special rainbow holographic art print. Full details can be found here.

Decklist of the Week

Domain Ramp | OTJ Standard | Yoshihiko Ikawa, 1st Place Pro Tour OTJ

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1 Long Goodbye

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As mentioned above, Yoshihiko Ikawa took down the Pro Tour this past weekend. He accomplished this by masterfully piloting the Five-Color Domain Ramp archetype to victory, skillfully beating out all kinds of tough matchups. This deck wins by ramping up its land count quickly, finding all five colors for domain, and utilizes several controlling effects to lock down opponents. Once they Domain player has control of things, they close out the game off the back of an Atraxa, Grand Unifier or a double kicked Archangel of Wrath. The powerful deck has been a mainstay of Standard over the past few years and put in an outstanding showing this past weekend. Congratulations Yoshihiko on the tremendous finish!

Paige Smith

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