Wow legitimately cannot believe they’re ending Alchemy, I thought they’d double down forever on that regardless of how much the playerbase hated it. It’s refreshing that they’re beginning to listen. It was probably one of the reasons I stopped playing Arena sadly.

Side benefit: Scryfall will no longer continue to get cluttered by all the nonsense Alchemy versions and “rebalances”!

Standard is clearly king on Arena, I didn’t expect to see it at 50% of the constructed queues. Pioneer and Timeless are basically nonexistent :-/ I have to imagine once Pioneer gets the full card pool play may go up a bit?

I think that’s a fantastic idea and often think that would “save” Legacy to a certain extent. That format in particular needs a community running the ban list/tournament scene that is completely divorced from Wizards.

Yeah and sorry in no way did I mean to say Commander is “lesser than” or anything like that if I came across that way. I just meant that it’s completely different from the 1v1 competitive stuff/experience that LGSs I grew up with were all about. It’s definitely fun, I just think it’s rise in popularity came at the cost of competitive 1v1 magic and I kind of lament that.

He makes a ton of great points here on how to revitalize and dying competitive scene, and this is something I’ve been feeling for a while but haven’t really been able to articulate why.

Just commenting on a few of the things he raises, I think one of the bigger issues is beyond “bring back the GPs,” which I 100% agree should happen. It more just doesn’t feel like there’s a visible ladder/path competitively like there was before. I remember as a kid it was clear, FNM -> PTQ -> PT -> Worlds (!), and I had a DCI rating that moved up and down and felt like it mattered. Maybe it’s a marketing issue b/c I know there are local RCQs and other regional championship things but it just doesn’t feel clear to me at all.

The elephant in the room is obviously Commander as well, and Mengucci addresses this one. WotC is Commander-first now and it’s not even close, and I know this has been one of the main reasons local events just don’t happen anymore like they used to. This plus Arena eating into any remaining competitive player time probably nuked local competitive scenes for good, and I think that has gone a long way in making everything “feel” worse now.

I guess the other elephant in the room is the price of everything. I cannot pay $500 for a Standard deck, full stop. When I was a kid it was way, way more approachable, and we also had Block Constructed which I loved and was even more approachable. Not just price too but the shear volume of sets now just makes it feel overwhelming. It’s like 20 sets now for Standard, before it was just a known 7 sets (3 from a block each year and core set).

That’s kind of how it’s felt for me I guess, I’m not sure what if anything would correct it now or what is driving it the most but I know for a fact that I just feel way different about playing competitive magic now, even though I watch it every day and play for fun still.

So glad they brought this back, all of these guys deserved it.

Ken Yukuhiro, Jean-Emmanuel Depraz, and Javier Dominguez will be inducted into the Magic Pro Tour Hall of Fame during MagicCon: Atlanta later this year. The ceremony will be held in person and streamed on twitch.tv/magic and the Play MTG YouTube channel on Sunday, November 15, 2026.

Sad that my dark horse/favorite Shahar only got 1 vote 😞

This is awesome, so glad they’re bringing this back. Curious what motivated it now after all these years but it’s a good thing nevertheless.

Sadly though I think the requirements exclude Shahar Shenhar who has long been one of the best players left out. Back to back worlds winner! He doesn’t 2026 requirements which look like they’re intended to backfill players who should’ve made it had the HoF existed in the last 7 years, and he clearly won’t meet the 2028 requirements designed for newer players.

I love Maze of Ith. One other trick that I learned when I started playing Lands is that there’s still an opportunity to untap your own creature after damage has been dealt as it’s still technically “attacking”:

You can activate Maze of Ith’s ability targeting an attacking creature you control during the combat damage step or the end of combat step, even though it will already have dealt combat damage. This will untap the creature. The damage it dealt will be unaffected.

I used this to untap my own Marit Lage token so it can block in my opponent’s turn.

Nooo! I had no idea he was even sick 😞 He’s been one of my all time favorites. This is so sad.

True legend and a huge loss. He perfectly captured the late 90s era fantasy feel for me, particularly with his saga block cards. I’ve probably tapped one of his Thran Dynamos 5,000 times!

Awesome thanks for this. Yeah it’s sad how so many of these should just be basic employment protections.

I have no special insight but I guarantee the “crunch” pressure from WOTC has to be exploitative. They undoubtedly leverage the fact that you get to work for an awesome game to take advantage of employee pay and work pressure and it’s way past time that ends, especially given how every new set is “the best selling ever.”

This is great news!

I know generally that the pay is awful there so hopefully this makes an impact on that. Does anyone else know what their other main issues are?

This is awesome! I’ve always loved his art and Magic has never been the same since it stopped using these types of varied styles for the most part.

Absolutely love that 2 player Dandan playmat.

Maybe Wizard’s assumes he’s always equipped with his shield 😂

One of my all time favorite cards and artworks! This is one of the cards that got me into the game back in the late 90s, love this and DiTerlizzi!

Loving this one:

Ward – Get five poison counters

They’ve really leaned into Ward in their card design and I think it’s pretty good to be honest. I realize we’re not going back to Shroud and this is their “fixed” version but at least the designs are interesting.

That’s so cool! Do you know Mark Winters as well?

Love this art and absolutely love Tempest-block era slivers

I don’t understand the reasoning on Lotus Field, and the complete lack of discussion about Stormchaser’s Talent. The later was one I really wanted to see hit, regardless of UR’s position in the meta. It just creates really unfun play patterns that I’m super tired of seeing.

Lotus Field getting removed because of worries about Amulet Titan after the Phlage ban seems kind of premature too.

That would be my main consideration because I KNOW my friends would secretly run Thermokarst!

The mountain makes me think of Batman/Gotham too.

Island is amazing, he nailed that one in particular. Would be so cool if these were actual cards.

Yeah very good question, my gut says that the UR decks just don’t want her sadly. She doesn’t seem to help the prowess or lessons game plan but maybe out of the sideboard.

If the Jeskai control decks lean into red more with that new artifact I could definitely see her in that deck. That may even get me to play standard again!