If there was a main story in this week of Magic, it was the fallout from last weekend’s Strixhaven Championship. The tournament was won by Sam Pardee with Jeskai Turns. Pardee is no stranger to the Sunday spotlight with two Pro Tour Top 8 finishes as well as two Grand Prix victories. This was Pardee’s first victory at this level of competition and now his sights are set on qualifying for the World Championship through the end-of-season Challenger Gauntlet.
The Jeskai Turns deck was the talk of the tournament. Featuring powerful cards from the Strixhaven Mystical Archive – Brainstorm, Mizzix’s Mastery, and Time Warp to name a few – the deck could power out an early Velomachus Lorehold with Indomitable Creativity to set up a situation where the pilot would be able to take all the turns. The end result was a victory in the hands of Sam Pardee and a copious amount of discussion about what needed to be banned in Historic. Much of the discourse centered on Brainstorm but at the end of the day Wizards of the Coast banned Time Warp. In the announcement they cited the strength of Jeskai Turns as a reason for the ban and skirted the issue of Brainstorm’s power in two other decks – Izzet Phoenix and Jeskai Control.
The other big news of the week was an update on Secret Lair and Universes Beyond. Universes Beyond cards that appear in Secret Lair products will get an in-Magic version of their card printed around six months after the release of the Secret Lair drop. These cards will be available on The List – a curated selection of cards that appear in Set Boosters. This solution has left some wondering if there will be enough Magic specific versions of the cards available and accessible upon their release. It appears that we will get an answer to this in the not-too-distant future as the first Secret Lair to utilize this will be Secret Lair: Stranger Things. While no drop date has been announced, we do know that these cards will get The List treatment six months after the collectible version is released.
