We are still a few weeks from saying hello to 2021 and the Magic news keeps rolling in. The past week saw some changes to Arena, a new champion, and a fond farewell to two amazing competitors.
The week started off with a victory for Scotland. Brad Barclay won the Zendikar Rising Championship, besting Autumn Burchett in the Grand Finals. Barclay went undefeated in Historic with Azorius Control, a deck that outside of his finish did not perform all that well on the weekend. Aside from Burchett on Goblins the remainder of the Top 8 was on either Sultai or 4-Color (Sultai plus White) Midrange.
The Rivals League is seeing a shakeup. Two players – Emma Handy and Jess Estephan – are being removed from the roster and will not be replaced. Results from their matches will be voided. The players are leaving for personal reasons. Estephan is emigrating to the United States and as such is not eligible to work for a to be determined period. Handy is taking their talents to Renton to work with the Play Design team at Wizards of the Coast. We wish both Emma and Jess all the best in their future endeavors.
The December Arena State of the Game came with an interesting update. Prompted by Scute Swarm, the program will now limit the number of tokens available to each player at 250. If an effect would create another token above the 250 limit, it simply will not be created.
Lastly, we got more information on Secret Lairs on the latest Weekly MTG. Art Director Tom Jenkot announced that the following artists would be getting drops in the Artist Series: Sam Burley, Nils Hamm, and Chris Rahn. These are separate from the drop coming from artist Fiona Staples (from the graphic series Saga) and in addition to previously announced drops in the Artist Series.
