Are you a Quiet Speculation member?
If not, now is a perfect time to join up! Our powerful tools, breaking-news analysis, and exclusive Discord channel will make sure you stay up to date and ahead of the curve.
Helene Bergeot took a moment during the lunch break of Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir to make what is seemingly a big announcement: Friday Night Magic is changing. If your favorite format is not supported at FNM, never fear, it almost certainly is now:
This is seemingly a huge change for semi-casual Magic moving forward. All of a sudden, your FNM could include Rotisserie Cube Backdraft, or some other sweet, niche format.
However, in practice, I don't think this is going to make much a difference. In my experience, most local game stores are quite set in their ways. Adding Modern as an eligible format for FNM didn't result in any extra opportunities to play Modern in my community. That may not have been the case in yours, but do you really think that an LGS is going to deviate from Standard, Modern, Draft, or Sealed? These are the formats that make your local store money, not Archenemy or Planechase.
At most, I imagine this might add a Commander option to your FNM. But unless you have an absolutely booming community, a risk-taking LGS owner, or a local fanatic for one of these formats, don't count on showing up to your LGS on Friday night to play a Reject Rare Draft. This adds a lot to what is possible at FNM, but in practice, I don't expect it to much impact what actually happens there.
I’ll be honest and admit I don’t know if this is a recent change or not but this is on the FNM site “Advanced locations are encouraged to pick different formats for their two FNM events each Friday.” The fact that some stores can run 2 events means that in areas where draft isn’t particularly popular advanced stores can now run Standard + one from that list (most likely modern) though I do imagine there are probably some stores who will do legacy + standard.
What good news! I’ve always drafted at FNM, but I very much look forward to sanctionable Legacy and Cube in addition. I doubt Soloman and Rotisserie will become regulars, but they’ll sure be fun every now and then.
Good on you, Wizards.
“Invent your own format” seems rather strong. I believe I will start lobbying hard for this one. Sealed Cube FNM, here I come!
More relevant financially is the announcement regarding the number of promos each store gets each month. Wish this article covered that aspect.
This is quite awesome, but I do not know what some of these formats are. I want to try them all.