A Desparking controversy heats up

MTG Madness Duskmourn Play Booster giveaway

Congratulations to Nickie Burke for winning our previous giveaway of the Bloomburrow Squirrelled Away Commander Precon! Have you earned your extra entries for the Duskmourn: House of Horrors Play Booster giveaway? Time is running out.

1. Head to the giveaway page.

2. Finish your registration if you haven’t already. You might need to pop in your email again.

3. Click on “Refer Friends For Extra Entries” (you’ll see a little heart icon next to it).

4. A drop-down will appear with a link that’s unique to you—go ahead and copy it.

5. Share that link with your friends and in the MTG communities you’re part of.

A Planeswalker overhaul?

Discussions are brewing in the MTG community over the Desparking of Planeswalkers and its effects on lore/gameplay. Game designer Mark Rosewater asked for opinions on the subject through his Blogatog on Oct. 13, with a majority of responses criticizing how WotC handled Planeswalkers since War of the Spark. Here are a few of the main takeaways from Magic players per the comments on Tumblr and Reddit. 

• Stories and the overall lore of MTG have suffered since Planeswalkers were the main characters. The heroes of old are on equal footing with everyone else since the Desparking but are still expected to be heroes, which makes for awkward storytelling and plot holes. 

• Turning Planeswalkers into Legendary creatures didn't improve the Commander format but hurt formats like Standard. 

• The passive abilities of Planeswalkers showcased in War of the Spark were positive, and many feel that WotC should build upon them if Planeswalkers ever get their Spark back. 

I happen to agree with all three points, but I'm surprised by the number of players who feel there's design space potential with a Planeswalker that functions more like an Enchantment. WotC took a bunch of heat after War of the Spark, specifically for the low-end powered Uncommon Planeswalkers. Many of them had passive abilities, which over time has become something players want to see more of. 

Horrors take center stage for the 2024 World Championship

The MTG World Championship is less than two weeks away, running from Oct. 25 to 27 at MagicCon in Las Vegas with a $1 million total prize pool. The final tournament of the 2023-2024 season will feature Duskmourn: House of Horrors through Limited Draft and the Standard Constructed format. 

Despite Green being one of the least powerful Draft colors from Duskmourn, pairing it with Red or Black has led to some impressive builds. My favorite color pair is still Azorius, which has performed well alongside other color pairs like Orzhov and Dimir. 

Sheltered by Ghosts is easily the strongest Uncommon in the Duskmourn set, followed by Nowhere to Run. Bombs that have emerged include cards like Overlord of the Mistmoors, Unholy Annex//Ritual Chamber (Room), Screaming Nemesis, Ghostly Dancers, and Enduring Curiosity. 

Japan hosted a large Standard Cup tournament from Oct. 11 to 12, featuring 246 players. Winning the event was Tetsu Kawaguchi with an Azorius Tempo build playing cards like Abhorrent Oculus and Haughty Dijinn. Finishing second was Chiaki Kobayashi with Golgari Midrange. Much of the Golgari deck is the same as past iterations with new cards like Unstoppable Slasher in the main deck and a copy of Ghost Vacuum in the sideboard. 

Also finishing in the top four is my favorite deck, Azorius Enchantments. Yoshinori Hida piloted the build to an 8-2-1 record, which is quite impressive. Bant tokens are alive and well in the Standard meta, finishing in the top eight through Hideyuki Ichikawa. And Keisuke Sato was able to earn a top-eight finish with Dimir Midrange.

And that’s a wrap for this week. We apologize for the timing delay as Hurricanes Helene and Milton prevented the MTG Madness installment from going out last Friday. This coming week we’ll focus more on the World Championship as Duskmourn: House of Horrors set takes center stage at Worlds.

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