<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="All Hallow&#039;s Eve" href="#" target="_blank">All Hallow&#039;s Eve</a> | Illustrated by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Rush_(illustrator)">Christopher Rush</a>
&nbsp;
This Halloween, Magic: The Gathering is getting into the spirit of the season. They're even embracing the concept of costumes! However, these costumes aren't just Halloween costumes. Underneath them, a villain lies in wait!
The Wizards Play Network, the group responsible for Wizards of the Coast's organized play events and distribution, has announced Magic Presents: A Villainous Halloween. This event is a promotional event geared around Commander play with a supplemental twist.
In the Halloween event, each player receives a random Villain card representing a classic Magic villain. These cards remain hidden during the course of the game. In the Commander game, each player has to meet a special condition before revealing their villain. Once they do, each other player has to defeat the villain or risk losing the game!
According to the Wizards Play Network, each player will receive a pack of event materials (while supplies last) for participating. This will allow players to continue running the supplemental event from the comfort of their own homes. This event will run between Friday, October 31st (Halloween) this year and Sunday, November 2nd.
The full details can be found on the <a href="https://wpn.wizards.com/en/event/magic-presents-a-villainous-halloween">Wizards Play Network</a> website, but we've included them below as well!
<blockquote>Scheduling: October 31–November 2; use the Magic Presents: A Villainous Halloween scheduling template 
Scheduling deadline: August 15, 11:59 p.m. PT 
Format: Commander 
Rules Enforcement Level: casual 
Pairing method: player list only 
Promotional material support:
<ul>
<li>Play aids</li>
<li>Villain cards</li>
</ul>
Magic Presents: A Villainous Halloween is a special Commander event scheduled between October 31 to November 2, offering a unique twist on the popular Magic format. Players bring their own Commander decks and, at the start of the game, secretly choose a villain card, each representing a classic villain from Magic’s history with its own alternate win condition.
As the game unfolds, players can work toward their secret objective. Once a player meets the condition on their chosen villain card, they reveal it—and from that point on, each opponent loses the game at the end of their own turn, unless they can stop the villain in time.
As a reward for participating, players can take home a pack of event materials (while supplies last), making it a memorable and replayable experience beyond the event. Each pack supports four players, but the expectation is that each participant will receive their own pack to bring the fun home.</blockquote>
Any store owners looking to run this event should apply for it by August 15th.
And now, let's open the floor to you, dear readers! Will you attend this Halloween Magic event? Are you excited about the supplemental play materials WPN seeks to provide? What Magic villain would you want to be in such an event? Sound off in the comments below!

WPN Announces A Villainous Magic Halloween Event

<h6 style="text-align: right;">Chromatic Lantern | Illustrated by David Alvarez</h6>
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June is Pride Month, and people of many walks of life are celebrating LGBTQIA+ lives and legacies this month. Wizards of the Coast is no exception! All this month, they are showing their many ways to celebrate Pride. On Monday, June 9th, Wizards explained exactly how they're going about it!
<h2>Magic Presents: Pride</h2>
From June 27th-29th, participating Wizards Play Network stores will conduct Magic Presents: Pride, a Magic: The Gathering celebration of Pride Month. Commander is the name of the game here, but with a twist in that every commander-eligible legendary is treated as having the partner mechanic! Feel free to pair any two legendary creatures together (regardless of orientation or gender expression) and make a deck based around their unity and synergies. It will be a great time to get together and play some Commander with friends in an interesting format twist.
Furthermore, participating WPN stores may offer participants a promotional copy of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Chromatic Lantern" href="#" target="_blank">Chromatic Lantern</a> (while supplies last). These promos feature <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Niko Aris" href="#" target="_blank">Niko Aris</a> and are illustrated by David Alvarez. They look like this!
<div id="attachment_156016" style="width: 410px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/apW61E1Lvm.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-156016" class="wp-image-156016" src="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/apW61E1Lvm.png" alt="Image credit: Wizards of the Coast" width="400" height="559" srcset="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/apW61E1Lvm.png 744w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/apW61E1Lvm-215x300.png 215w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/apW61E1Lvm-733x1024.png 733w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /></a>Image credit: Wizards of the Coast</div>
Beyond this, according to the article on <a href="https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/celebrate-pride-at-your-local-game-store-and-beyond">DailyMTG</a>:
<blockquote>The Chromatic Lantern promo card we're releasing with Magic Presents: Pride was a Studio X-wide effort, with members of Worldbuilding, WPN, Marketing, and Design working to create a card worthy of being our first WPN Pride promo.
To celebrate this and put a spotlight on the folks behind it, The Magic Story Podcast will be releasing a behind-the-scenes video with Senior Worldbuilding Game Designer Neale LaPlante Johnson and Wizards Pride ERG President Meredith Pendragon. Stay tuned!</blockquote>
<h2>More Magic Stories On Audiobook For Pride Month</h2>
Speaking of The Magic Story Podcast, Vorthos Magic enthusiasts should rejoice! Wizards of the Coast has announced that they'll be releasing four Magic short stories on audiobook that revolve around LGBTQIA+ characters of the Magic Multiverse:
<blockquote>Hosts Natalie Kreider and Harless Snyder will narrate four brand-new audiobooks for The Magic Story Podcast. Additionally, we'll republish these stories on DailyMTG for your reading and listening pleasure. Check back on these dates to listen to some stellar stories:
<ul>
<li>June 10: "Note for a Stranger" by Alison Lührs</li>
<li>June 12: "Know Which Way the Wind Is Blowing" by Setsu Uzumé</li>
<li>June 16: "His Eyes, All of Them" by Margaret Killjoy</li>
<li>June 17: "Aim Through the Target" by Setsu Uzumé</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<h2>Pride At MagicCon</h2>
The fun doesn't stop there! At MagicCon: Las Vegas, Wizards of the Coast is collaborating with their Pride Employee Resource Group (or the Wizards ERG) and <a href="https://www.birdsofmtg.com/">Birds of Paradise</a>, a collective of Magic players, to introduce <a href="https://mcvegas.mtgfestivals.com/en-us/experience/the-gathering-grounds.html">the Gathering Grounds</a>, "a dedicated space for celebrating and uplifting marginalized [Magic] communities". They'll be hosting the Magic Presents event a week early at MagicCon!
<h2>Pride Dice, Shirts, and Playmats</h2>
Beyond MagicCon and your local game store, the Wizards of the Coast webstore is selling special t-shirts and playmats. Have a look!
(Image credits: Wizards of the Coast)
<a href="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3yOe4gXkZm.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-156017" src="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3yOe4gXkZm.jpg" alt="" width="559" height="559" srcset="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3yOe4gXkZm.jpg 900w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3yOe4gXkZm-300x300.jpg 300w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3yOe4gXkZm-150x150.jpg 150w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3yOe4gXkZm-768x768.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 559px) 100vw, 559px" /></a> <a href="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/On2FIuW7aQ.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-156018" src="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/On2FIuW7aQ.jpg" alt="" width="559" height="559" srcset="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/On2FIuW7aQ.jpg 900w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/On2FIuW7aQ-300x300.jpg 300w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/On2FIuW7aQ-150x150.jpg 150w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/On2FIuW7aQ-768x768.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 559px) 100vw, 559px" /></a> <a href="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Magic_bVSQuEgLfo.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-156022" src="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Magic_bVSQuEgLfo.jpg" alt="" width="559" height="559" srcset="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Magic_bVSQuEgLfo.jpg 1200w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Magic_bVSQuEgLfo-300x300.jpg 300w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Magic_bVSQuEgLfo-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Magic_bVSQuEgLfo-150x150.jpg 150w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Magic_bVSQuEgLfo-768x768.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 559px) 100vw, 559px" /></a> <a href="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DungeonsAndDragons_bVSQuEgLfo.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-156019" src="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DungeonsAndDragons_bVSQuEgLfo.jpg" alt="" width="559" height="559" srcset="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DungeonsAndDragons_bVSQuEgLfo.jpg 1200w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DungeonsAndDragons_bVSQuEgLfo-300x300.jpg 300w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DungeonsAndDragons_bVSQuEgLfo-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DungeonsAndDragons_bVSQuEgLfo-150x150.jpg 150w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DungeonsAndDragons_bVSQuEgLfo-768x768.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 559px) 100vw, 559px" /></a> <a href="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/NikoPlaymat-scaled.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-156020" src="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/NikoPlaymat-scaled.png" alt="" width="987" height="559" srcset="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/NikoPlaymat-scaled.png 2560w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/NikoPlaymat-300x170.png 300w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/NikoPlaymat-1024x580.png 1024w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/NikoPlaymat-768x435.png 768w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/NikoPlaymat-1536x870.png 1536w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/NikoPlaymat-2048x1160.png 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 987px) 100vw, 987px" /></a> <a href="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DungeonsAndDragonsPlaymat-scaled.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-156021" src="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DungeonsAndDragonsPlaymat-scaled.png" alt="" width="987" height="559" srcset="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DungeonsAndDragonsPlaymat-scaled.png 2560w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DungeonsAndDragonsPlaymat-300x170.png 300w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DungeonsAndDragonsPlaymat-1024x580.png 1024w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DungeonsAndDragonsPlaymat-768x435.png 768w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DungeonsAndDragonsPlaymat-1536x870.png 1536w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DungeonsAndDragonsPlaymat-2048x1160.png 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 987px) 100vw, 987px" /></a>
You'll be able to find the t-shirts and playmats at the <a href="https://mtgproshop.com/collections/pride">MTG Pro Shop</a> webstore from June 16th through July 31st! Plus, the dice and dice holder are evergreen products and there are many different avenues both online and off to purchase them. For every set of dice sold, $5 will go towards <a href="https://www.thetrevorproject.org/">The Trevor Project</a>, and for every dice holder, $28 will be donated there as well!
<h2>Wizards of the Coast at Seattle Pride</h2>
Finally, Wizards of the Coast will be parading at Seattle Pride! According to the article:
<blockquote>On Sunday, June 29, the Seattle Pride Parade kicks off at Westlake Park. Wizards of the Coast—as we have done in past years—will be joining the parade alongside thousands of others. We're excited to support Seattle Pride and their invaluable work toward promoting celebration and visibility.
Wizards of the Coast has been closely involved with our local Seattle community. From local gaming groups to larger charitable organizations, we believe in giving back to the place that we call home.</blockquote>
Are you excited about any of these Pride Month events? Sound off below!

Magic: The Gathering Celebrates Pride Month This June

Image credit: Wizards of the Coast
Magic: The Gathering x Final Fantasy is just over a month out from its prerelease. At this time, Wizards of the Coast and Square Enix are rolling out information, but very slowly for many players' tastes. However, the seeming dry spell of information is close to an end. Wizards Play Network, the entity under Wizards that manages tournament play and organizer expectations, has put out details for the prerelease events for the upcoming Universes Beyond set.
<h2>Prerelease Format Details</h2>
As expected, the events are in the Sealed Deck format. This means six packs of Final Fantasy and a prerelease promo, found in the kits. REL is still "casual." Additionally, pairings are still Swiss-style (or, alternatively, Player List only, which suggests players can be freely paired as they wish).
<blockquote>Scheduling: Between June 6–12; use the Prerelease scheduling template 
Format: Sealed Deck 
Rules Enforcement Level: Casual Recommended 
Pairing Method: Swiss or Player List Only</blockquote>
<h2>Final Fantasy Promotional Support</h2>
The <a href="https://wpn.wizards.com/en/event/prerelease-magic-the-gathering-final-fantasy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wizards Play Network</a> article also includes some details for interesting promotional items for the event.
<blockquote>Promo Support:
<ul>
<li>Crystal counter d10 spindown – for players who participate in one Prerelease with their Wizards Account</li>
<li>Velvet dice pouch (Prerelease repeat play incentive item) – for players who register and participate in two or more Prerelease events with their Wizards Account</li>
<li>Photoflyer photo tokens (WPN Premium only) – for players participating in a Prerelease event with their Wizards Account</li>
<li>Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY Play Boosters Prize Support</li>
</ul>
All promos and promotional materials are available while supplies last.</blockquote>
The inclusion of 10-sided dice is very interesting. Notably, Mirrodin Besieged was the last time we had spindown d10s in a given prerelease event. There, they were intended for use as spindown poison markers. Thus, without drawing any extremely specific conclusions, this new "crystal" d10 might imply a mechanical application as well.
Prerelease events run from June 6th-12th, with the official release happening the following day. Amazingly, albeit not as shockingly, Final Fantasy is now <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/final-fantasy-best-selling-mtg-set-before-official-release-date" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the best-selling Magic</a> set to date, and it hasn't even come out yet!
All in all, Final Fantasy is shaping up as a really neat set so far. The cards we've seen are full of flavor both mechanically and lore-wise, and these promotions help immerse players into the worlds that the series holds dear. So now, let's open the floor to you, dear readers. Are you excited? Will you be attending a prerelease event or buying any product from the set? Sound off below!

wpn

WPN Announces A Villainous Magic Halloween Event

Magic: The Gathering Celebrates Pride Month This June

Wizards Play Network Adds Final Fantasy Prerelease Details