MagicCon 2025 Review: Epic Games, Awful Setup - Error Code Show

0:00 mine to Magic Con in Atlanta. I had never been to a Magic Con. I've been to a bunch of different cons in the con circuit. Over the last 10, 11 years, I've been to a lot of conventions. But it had been a while since I took a vacation, so I went out to Magic Con. So we're going to talk real quick about Magic Con, what some of the cool magic -y stuff we learned there, and some other stuff about that. Let's talk about Magic Con. So first off, bottom line up front, like my buddy asked me, because he'd been to many Magic Cons before, he goes, where does this rate as a con? I said, it's a good, it's a solid seven out of 10. It's a seven out of 10. And I think he was initially, because he loves Magic Con very much, he was very disappointed. He was like, but why? And I was like, okay, first off, let's start with the easy one, the venue. So Magic on Atlanta is held at the World Congress Center, which is right next to Mercedes -Benz Stadium. It's like a whole big complex. The venue is terrible. It's a bad venue for this type of con. It is. It is just once you even get to the front doors of the con and Jay, you'll appreciate this because you go to a lot of like ECC and stuff like that. Imagine if you got to the front door of ECC, but to actually get anywhere in the conu to walk another 10 minutes. Yeah. To get to the show floor. Yeah. Yeah, at all. The

1:38 whole convention center is really long. And it's laid out really weird to get to it. And it's like a series of like, walk here, go down, walk here, go down, walk here, go down. It's really funky. And I just I didn't like the venue. I don't. I talked to some of these at all. Is it all just one floor? No, it's four floors that kind of like shift down as you go. Oh, so kind of like Emerald City. But where Emerald City is stacked, it's like one floor. One floor. Oh, it's it's really weird. And I don't as weird. It's not built for fandom type conventions. Which brings me to the show floor. Not. Not surprisingly to me, this is where it gets dinged a little bit. The show floor is lackluster. OK. It's a magic on so the primary vendors there are all magic related I was hoping to see more like Accessories and the people that sell other stuff the dragon shield booth was really bad. Some of the other booze were really bad. I I didn't I Didn't like the show floor was just pretty lackluster My suggestion to wizards is do what ECC did add a tattoo section because I think that would be dope Okay, because people would love to get like little magic tattoos while they're there The show floor is mostly just buy sell cards buy sell singles buy sell singles and it's just it's not very fun You can like again ecc You can kind

3:09 of get a sense of the show floor in one day But you can get a sense of the show. You can do a full turn on the show floor at magic on in about two hours That's it it doesn't take long Wow, okay, it's not it's not very good So that's that's the two areas where they really get dinged in my mind is that Here's the good stuff Okay, and we're gonna talk about some of the other the other magical and stuff One of the things that had confused the crap out of my play group and a lot of people is Magic had built this whole bracket system for commander to make it make more sense to everybody to do power levels and we for a long time We're like this there's missing piece here to do and it wasn't working They have this whole big commander area set up there and the matchmaking they did you could be by yourself You could be with a small group looking for other players the match me I every time I walked into the command zone the Wizards of the Coast staff who was matching people up by power level I Never waited more than five minutes for a game not once right and They did it in a way where I now understand the power levels better, right? I'm like, oh That's what we were missing, right?

4:32 It's structured so well and again for a con to get you match made into Atlanta or sorry into Into games and I did not have one unpleasant experience. Everybody there was super chill It was a fun, fun time playing Magic with people who really just wanted to have fun. And the bracket system that they set up, the way they've got it, the way they've set it out at Magic Con, A, makes it make more sense, but B, really does make sure that you're within people that are playing at the same power level you are with your decks. So you're not going to sit down. I didn't sit down at a table the whole weekend and just get completely curb stomped. Right?

5:17 which we've all had happen. I did do a couple of sealed events at the con for the Spider -Man release. Yay. The Spider -Man uterus is beyond came out. It's not good. It's not. Oh, no. It's. It's OK. It's not terrible. But it's not good. They should have done with spider -man what they did with the sass has created made it a mini set but because you're trying to make all the universes beyond standard legal they didn't and It's it's pretty weak It's not good It's not terrible but it's not great and I think because it's the primary set that magic on was You know built around because it's the most recent release I think that hurt it hurt the con a little bit.

6:11 I think it was like a really hype set, like something really, really cool. I think it would have been better. Right. But the fact that Spider -Man is just not it's not great, guys, like. It's not great. And actually somebody in the chat saying magic nurses stay in their lanes. I've seen this for years. And in fact, this person in the chat. Oh boy, you're about to find out something funny, Dog Dad. You're about to find out something funny, because also at Magic Con this year, we got the 2026 slate. And I'm gonna start with the last one. In honor of Dog Dad, in November of 2026, well, let's start with this.

6:54 Usually they alternate, like standard set, universe is beyond. Standard set, universe is beyond. this is the first year where they're going universes beyond universes beyond with spider -man released now and avatar the last airbender releases next next year we're in a similar situation we have four universes beyond sets coming to magic full sets right but we're going to start with the last one of the year and that's star trek And we were talking about this at the pre -show Jay and you kind of got that same look that you've got on your face right now So I want you to start I've been talking for a minute now What is your like? I Love that look. That's great. What is your thoughts on Star Trek as a magic the gathering universes be on set? I just like don't like it overall in general like dog dad like I think you're right like stay in your lane like it I don't want. I find it like just kind of weird when so I have. A cracking duck right I don't want to be freaking fighting the enterprise like what that's stupid that doesn't make sense to me I'm. But then also, I was trying to think of like, so I'm assuming you would have the ship or a like series of ships. Well, and with the last standard release, the last in universe was Edge of Eternity, which was a very sci fi e but

8:27 in magic lore. Right. Yeah. And they added ships specifically like stations. And they also made it so that legendary vehicles can be commanders now. So now I think you're going to get about nine enterprises in that set. And all of them will be legendary vehicles and all of the enterprises can be your commander. Yeah, I. This is like, honestly. The stuff that has really turned me off of magic, so I used to used to stay like late at work and we would play magic at work with like a group of friends. And it just gets kind of insane with them constantly like releasing new cards, new decks, new whatever. And some of them are really cool. I will say I'm like I have bought secret lair sets before love them.

9:22 Very beautiful card sometimes I am but I just get tired of this like endless like having to learn new mechanics and Stuff like Star Trek just doesn't make sense to me. Like, it's just a complete cash grab. Yeah. Well, and so that brings you to August's release, The Hobbit. Now, when they did the Lord of the Rings release, it was very, very popular. It was a very popular universe, as Beyoncé said. And a lot of people were really OK with it because as far as magic lore and magic kind of like theming, Lord of the Rings kind of fits. So the Hobbit kind of fits. But in June. We're getting another Marvel set, Marvel Super Heroes. That's June. So, let's go through the whole thing. January is Lorwin Eclipse, so they're going back to the Lorwin plane. They've started to do some releases, like some light stuff about what this is going to be. That looks like it's going to be a really good in -universe set. Then we have an unannounced Universe is Beyond, which is strange to me because we know what ones are coming out in June, August, and November. Why aren't you telling us what's coming out in March? Right? So there's a lot of people who are wondering what's going to come of that. April, we have Secrets of Strixhaven.

10:41 Everybody likes Strixhaven as a plane. The previous Strixhaven set was very, very popular. I think that's going to be a really good popular set. And then we have another in -universe set. This is not a universe beyond called Reality Fracture, which they have said basically nothing about. That's all it's called is Reality Fracture. But that is an in -universe set. So, yeah, I take it you're on the bandwagon of people who are like, we've we've overdone it with the outside of magic magic. Yeah, I like. Pokemon had and I am like really just one fifty one guy, but Pokemon like. They would have some weird cards every now and then. Right. But it was still always in the Pokemon universe. You never saw a freaking the fortification. Yeah. Like they just kept it Pokemon. And I think, you know, that's what makes it great. You know, I think that's maybe one of the things I like has kept Pokemon alive for, you know, forever. because they just don't sell out in that way. I'm sure they've sold out in many ways, but they haven't sold out in that way. Like you you. You make your fans happy.

12:07 You're just you don't bombard them with stuff that just doesn't make sense. Yeah. There's definitely arguments you made about bringing new fans into the hobby by using these universes beyond sets because there's their fandoms like Doctor Who, you know, that they've done and Assassin's Creed and Final Fantasy obviously was a massive hit for Magic this year. So. But yeah, so anyway. That's Magikonikon, all the things we know about the world of Magic. I'm really going to be curious when they release their their Q3 10k, which should be here shortly, what we see as far as as Wizards numbers go for this year. The rumors on how much they made on Final Fantasy is kind of ridiculous, but we're going to find out. Anyway, let us know what you think down in the comments below.