Time WalkTime Walk | Illustrated by Chris Rahn

The new year is almost upon us, and with it an inevitable array of fresh news and updated developments. So, we thought we'd take some time to encapsulate a few of the most impactful and important pieces of news coverage from 2025. Hmm... Taking time to encapsulate this news... Let's call it a News Time Capsule!

Anyway, this article will go over some of the news from the past year and celebrate some of the moments that made 2025 so notable for Magic: The Gathering. So join us as we walk the hallowed annals of history for a step or two backwards and remember some of the fondest things about the year!

Beyond the Edge of Eternities: An MTG Movie

The first piece of coverage we wanted to highlight is the film project that our team helped get off the ground. Beyond the Edge of Eternities was an ambitious project that so many people who love the game of Magic: The Gathering worked remarkably hard to bring to life. It was a parody film clocking in at just 15 minutes, but it has the heart of a full-on space opera, if those in said space opera played Magic.

Within the team working on this film were a huge number of big names in the Magic community. The Command Zone's Jimmy Wong and Josh Lee Kwai spearheaded things with their production. The Professor of Tolarian Community College, Kyle Hill, and Brian Kibler of Commander at Home all made appearances alongside The Command Zone's own Rachel Weeks and the voices of Becca Scott and Crim, AKA "TheAsianAvenger."

If you don't know any of these names, hopefully you'll give their content a good look in addition to this video.

The Reveal of Final Fantasy's Commander Deck Lists

When I revealed the contents of the Final Fantasy Commander precons' lists, players really clung to how cool they were. These decks are poised to go down in history as some of the strongest Commander precons for their era, if not in general. As such, the set, which had already sold a ton of product in virtually no time at all (versus what Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth took much longer to achieve), generated even more buzz with this article.

While some players expressed their reservations about the decks in the comments section of this article, it's pretty clear that these decks succeeded where a lot of other Universes Beyond precons faltered. That is to say, the Final Fantasy decks were absolutely stellar. Even the Collector's Edition copies of this product sold exceptionally well.

Not to toot my own horn too much (although I'll probably be doing that a lot in this piece), but I think my hyping of the decks assisted players in making the decision to purchase these precons. And so, I do indeed think these have a place in the News Time Capsule for this past year.

Day of the Hedgehog: Secret Lair x Sonic

When we covered Secret Lair x Sonic the Hedgehog a few months back, I never expected the speed of how quickly people flocked to that coverage. My editor applauded my initiative in writing the article up as soon as I could. But this was second-nature for me at that point. After all... "Gotta go fast!"

I also really like how neat these three drops were, but I especially appreciate the Friends & Foes drop. The release of a ton of mechanically unique cards was a great idea on Wizards of the Coast's part, and to release them all together as a single drop was cool, too, given the quantity of drops available.

While cards like Dr. EggmanDr. Eggman were mechanical busts, potential commanders like Sonic the HedgehogSonic the Hedgehog himself or Knuckles the EchidnaKnuckles the Echidna are total home runs. If you didn't jump on Friends & Foes when it came out, don't say we didn't warn you!

Vehicular Command-Slaughter: Vehicles and Spacecraft as Commanders

When Wizards of the Coast announced that legendary Vehicles would finally be eligible to lead Commander decks, this elated us here at EDHREC. After all, a whole new avenue of content opened up to us, alongside the advent of Spacecraft, another new command zone-eligible artifact type. We just had to share this news with all of you, and it seems the news was well-received by many of you, too!

One commenter even counted out the most impactful legendary Vehicles in the game, thus far, at the time that article came out. It was quite an occasion since Commander doesn't have a ton of big changes to the rules of the format at large. (For the record, I'm not counting the Bracket System in that metric, as that's a change to philosophy, and not a change in how to play the format.)

That said, EDHREC has published a bit of Vehicle content since then. Namely, I wrote a piece on the ten best Vehicles to pilot within the command zone. That article also did quite well, but as it isn't much of a news piece versus a recommendation list, I'm not really discussing it much in here. C'est la vie!

Now then, within this particular News Time Capsule, two topics stand out so much that they need to be given special attention. What could they be? One is pretty obvious (and, spoiler alert: it's the Bracket System), but the second might be a pleasant surprise.

Let's explore those topics now!

Bracket System News

Wizards of the Coast Introduces the Bracket System

Wizards of the Coast took the reins of the Commander format from the old guard, the Commander Rules Committee. This was treated as a very somber occasion. Many Magic players lamented the change, worried about what Wizards would do with the format. Well, the Bracket System was and is their effort to revitalize the social aspect of the format.

Many members of the Magic community were unconvinced of the impact that this system would inevitably have on players. Some remain unconvinced, but many among their ranks have gone from naysaying to praising the system.

Commander Unbans in April, and Their Implications

The second news piece we covered about the Commander bracket system was about the April 2025 banlist update. In April, the Commander Format Panel unbanned five previously-banned cards within the format.

Naturally, this came with a fair bit of public fanfare. These banned cards would now be considered as Game Changers within the format. This meant that the lower two brackets still wouldn't be playing with them. However, for the most part, this suggested a very healthy shift for Commander on the whole. While in April the total number of Game Changers went up to 60, two were removed.

Calibration is clearly strongly on the minds of the CFP during these early days of the bracket system. This is seen as healthy among many enfranchised Commander players!

EDHREC's Event Coverage

PAX East's Final Fantasy Coverage

This was an exasperating article to get done in time, I'll admit, but oh, so fulfilling. Even scrolling down the page was a reminder of how much work and how much care I put into it. I distinctly remember having to resize a ton of card renders straight from Twitch to get them onto the article.

In the end, it paid off nicely. This article did wonders for many of the players who read it. It certainly made me happy. Heck, this article is what made me a Final Fantasy fan at all.

I wrote up a super-weird deck tech for Kefka, Court MageKefka, Court Mage because of this panel at PAX East this past year. That tech was a ton of fun to get done. Since then, I've made decks piloted by a bunch of the commanders showcased in the panel. Did the PAX East panel reveal a little too much? Maybe, but it was fun to see what Wizards of the Coast was cooking up.

New York Comic-Con 2025 Coverage

Last year, I had the privilege of joining fellow EDHREC journalist and Media and Communications Manager Nick Wolf in heading to Manhattan for New York Comic-Con 2024 (that was back when we both worked for Commander's Herald as well). This year, I sadly couldn't make it, but was able to recap some of the events from afar.

The information that we had to work with was pretty sparse, and what we didn't have was quite protected. Wizards is getting a lot better at keeping their secrets, let me just tell you! But it turned out that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be the next Universes Beyond set. This was hard to specifically confirm before the panel we covered, but snippets of information were leaked to the public a day prior. Nevertheless, many players are thrilled about the Turtles, but some are less so.

The Impact of the News Time Capsule

As we chuck the News Time Capsule into the bowels of the Earth until next year comes around, we at EDHREC reflect on what this year meant to us. We made a ton of meaningful connections with major creators, professionals in the industry, and, perhaps most importantly, our readership. Thanks for always giving me a smile by leaving a pleasant or supportive comment on my news pieces.

Our audience rocks, perhaps more than any other Magic website short of DailyMTG, and I feel this with every piece of news I cover. So, wholeheartedly, thank you all so much!

So now, I'd like to open the floor to you, dear readers! What news that we covered deserves a place in our News Time Capsule for this year? What potential news for next year would you predict will find a place in next year's Time Capsule? Sound off in the comments below!