MTG Salvation

Very often we see different IPs come to Magic: The Gathering in the form of Universes Beyond and Secret Lair drops.  Reimagining beloved fandoms as cards in Magic is one of the biggest ways Wizards brings in new players.  Now, we’re seeing Magic The Gathering being included as part of another popular game franchise.  Magic: The Gathering is coming to Destiny 2.

Last week we reported about Magic’s use of generative AI. We reported then that generative AI is something that Wizards currently has no plans to use. In fact, Magic: The Gathering even has a generative AI policy clearly defined on their website. AI tools, on the other hand, have become and remain a part of how Wizards makes the business end more efficient. To that end, Wizards announced on Daily MTG that they are rolling out a pilot program using AI with SpellTable.

Yesterday, I awoke to the news that Secret Lair’s Chaos Vault was dropping the highly anticipated Dandan deck.  Dandan aka Forgetful Fish is a highly interactive fan-created game mode, that graphic designer Nick Floyd pioneered 30 years ago, that uses a shared 80-card deck.  The announcement that it was coming to Secret Lair was birthed in a shroud of controversy as Floyd wasn’t initially contacted about it. Thanks to an outpouring of support from the MTG community, Nick Floyd was able to get credit for his creation, and the Dandan lead from Secret Lair, Carmen Klomparens, even posted to her social media that she could “not stress enough that this wouldn’t be possible” without Floyd.

David Wilson in an interview with Corey Plante from Polygon has revealed new details about his upcoming documentary, The Gathering is the Magic. Initially, he planned to begin filming at SCG Con Louisville in March 2020 but the COVID-19 pandemic caused a delay. When filming began in 2022, he started at SCG Con Dallas by walking the floor with a camera crew. Wilson recalled, "Everyone was sort of like, 'Who are these people with cameras?' They thought we were outsiders."

Now that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been out for nearly a week, Wizards has posted a rules and Oracle update to Daily MTG. The rule changes are minor but do impact players confused by the timing in TMNT’s sneak mechanic. Now that UB sets are Standard-legal, it’s vitally important that the rules of each mechanic are fully understood by players. 

Yesterday, the first bit of lore was revealed for next month’s Secrets of Strixhaven on Daily MTG. Mark Rosewater has said on his personal blog, that Secrets of Strixhaven will have previews soon but the Magic community seems ready for Wizards’ next in-universe set. The new story has fans at the magicTCG subreddit speculating about the future of Magic: The Gathering

In February, Hasbro announced on their quarterly investors call that there are now over 10,000 stores affiliated with the Wizards Play Network. These stores are independent retail locations with a physical location, reliable internet, and a dedicated play space for at least eight players. WPN Premium was a designation that was created to give special recognition to those stores that went above and beyond for their local Magic: The Gathering community. In an announcement posted to the WPN news page, Wizards announced changes coming to the program.

February ended for Magic: The Gathering with a 4 Seasons Tournaments Modern event in Bologna, Italy.  Biagio “Rudokant” Cantone came out on top with his Sultai Living End deck, but now there is an asterisk on that win.  In a post to X, Cantone celebrated his undefeated win, calling his deck “absolutely extreme.” As Niall Walsh from The Gamer reports, Cantone now faces a suspension on the 4 Seasons Tournament circuit for the remainder of 2026 because of cheating.  

We’re just days away now from the next Universes Beyond set, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, being released worldwide.  Donatello finishes our look at all four of the titular turtles coming to MTG. Donatello is the smart one, often seen tinkering with gadgets and other technology. He’s a blue creature in Magic appearing in all four rarities.

It’s no secret that Hollywood used to have a problem with making decent movie adaptations of popular games.  No movie made that case better than 1993’s Super Mario Bros. Since then, we’ve seen a lot of improvements in that space, but what sets the good adaptations apart from the bad ones normally comes down to how familiar the filmmaker is with the source material.  We reported in February that a new Magic: The Gathering movie was in development. Now we can share that the director of this movie has a history with the cards.

With prerelease weekend for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the rear-view mirror, we’re only four days away from the set making its full release. Raphael is often considered the brash or most aggressive turtle on the team. Fittingly, Raphael appears in Magic as a red creature, the MTG color most known for aggression. Raphael can be found in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a Legendary Creature in all four rarities.

The next Universes Beyond set, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, is right around the corner.As we continue our look at every version of the Ninja Turtles coming to Magic, we turn our attention to Michelangelo.  The weird one, the fun one, the party turtle, Michelangelo is often portrayed as the least mature of the four Ninja Turtles.  In Magic, Mikey is a green creature with appearances in all four rarities.  

We’re just over a week away from the worldwide release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  The turtles will have multiple iterations of themselves in the set. In fact, there will be at least one common, uncommon, rare, and mythic rare for each of the four Ninja Turtles.  Today we’ll be highlighting each version of Leonardo in the set. Leonardo is often portrayed as the responsible leader. As a master of Niten Ryu, he carries a pair of katanas and often also has shuriken at his disposal.  In Magic: The Gathering, he’s a white creature highlighting his high level of discipline.

We reported in January that two of Hasbro’s shareholders, Joseph Crocono and Ultan McGlone, filed a lawsuit in Rhode Island alleging that Hasbro breached fiduciary duty by overproducing Magic cards. The suit claimed that the overproduction of cards led to a diminished value for the brand overall. Now, as reported by Rebekah Valentine at IGN, that lawsuit has been dropped without prejudice, meaning that it can be filed again at a later time but for now, it will not proceed.

The release notes for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been published and as a result, we now have more information about all the new and returning mechanics being utilized by the set. The release notes had an exhaustive look at individual card rules.

MTG Arena may be the most visible way to play Magic: The Gathering digitally in 2026 but it’s not the only way. Magic: The Gathering Online has been around since 2002 and is functionally a lot more like playing on paper than Arena and much less like a video game.  Players purchase their cards just like tabletop players do and every set and format are represented with their original rules.  Unlike Arena that creates its own formats and then can errata a card within the app, MTGO is bound to the changes happening for tabletop players. 

This week has been a big week for Magic fans, especially those interested in Magic’s next set, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  As part of this preview week, The Command Zone got an exclusive reveal on the Commander deck being released alongside the main set.  Let’s take a look at some of the highlights in the Turtle Power! precon Commander deck.

As the preview week for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles continues, a new co-op experience, Turtle Team-Up, is finally being fully revealed thanks to an announcement by Wizards at Daily MTG.  Turtle Team-Up is intended to be a way to bring new, perhaps younger players into Magic while giving them the support of having teammates to help with making thoughtful decisions.