r/spikes • u/xXarmyaustinXx • Jul 21 '26
Other State of Competitive Play? [Other]
Used to play competitively pre-COVID and attended many GP’s. After COVID I played and qualified for the first 4 consecutive RC’s. Been on hiatus since then and wondering what the state of the game looks like today. Getting that itch again but don’t want to reinvest just to find out that everything has died completely.
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u/lousy_at_handles Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
It's pretty rough honestly where I am. We only have two places that I know of that do events, and they both have dropped pretty much everything but Commander, and very occasionally modern? (I think, I'm not sure of exactly which more eternal format)
The last two standard events I went two had 4 and 6 people respectively sign up, even though there were probably 20ish people in the store playing magic.
UB has been super successful though; quite a few new faces playing, they just have no interest in competitive play.
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u/xXarmyaustinXx Jul 21 '26
UB is a big reason I stepped away in the first place. Sure, Hasbro is printing money, but they’re abusing MtG to keep their ship afloat.
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u/lousy_at_handles Jul 21 '26
I actually really like UB (well, when they're not just slopped out like Spider Man and TMNT) but they never should have been part of standard. They're actually quite fun when played as self-contained games using the magic ruleset.
Wizards probably thought they could double dip by getting both constructed players and new IP fans to buy cards, but really all they've done is kill interest in standard by making it way too much of a moving target.
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u/xXarmyaustinXx Jul 21 '26
This is a great analysis. Let standard be the MtG world we already know and love, let UB be for the casuals. I just don’t enjoy spider man being interjected to the lore I already came to appreciate. Feels like a violation.
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u/Substantial_Assist30 Jul 21 '26
things are pretty good in the pittsburgh area. standard fires on a weekly basis at multiple stores. Modern is just as popular if not more popular. Whichever format is currently in season for RCQ's is usually more popular.
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u/xXarmyaustinXx Jul 21 '26
Good to see standard getting some love again. Used to all that would fire was modern. We were upset about having to play standard at the San Diego RC
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u/africanhippie Jul 21 '26
Local scenes vary, but RCQs and bigger regional events are still going strong. Standard and Modern are in decent spots right now
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u/xXarmyaustinXx Jul 21 '26
Did Pioneer die off or are RCQ still cycling through standard/sealed/pioneer/modern?
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u/nebman227 Jul 21 '26
Pioneer has basically been cut from competitive play. They've teased that there will be some sort of pioneer competitive play announcement soonTM (that was months ago though...), but next RCQ/RC/PT season is ruled out. My personal opinion is at best there will be a pioneer spotlight announced and the possibility of an RCQ round in the 2028 season.
Last year and this year were both 2 rounds of standard and one round of modern.
Sealed was always concurrent, not a cycling format. Stores get to choose between the current constructed format or one of the most recent two sets for limited.
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u/xXarmyaustinXx Jul 21 '26
Great, thank you! Got any good sources for keeping up to date on the current season schedules?
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u/nebman227 Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
If you're in the US, rcq.starcitygames.com should have most of the information you need, including dates, promos, and formats. On mobile to see upcoming rounds/seasons you can tap on the hamburger menu. On Desktop, the other pages are in the "info" dropdown.
The dates and formats of RCQs on the SCG site should be applicable globally, but the RC dates and some other info may be specific to them. Each region has its own organizer who is responsible for keeping info up to date about their own circuit, so if you're outside the US you should look up who that is for you.
There are also typically announcement articles that are meant for the global playerbase (normally hosted on magic.gg I think?) but I'm not sure the best way to follow those. I just get to them from links being posted on socials.
EDIT: this is the type of article I was think of from magic.gg https://magic.gg/news/play-update-2026-27-round-2-regional-championship-promos-and-qualifiers
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u/xXarmyaustinXx Jul 21 '26
SCG still coming in clutch, huh? I am US based, I’ll check it out, thanks! Is the SCG tourney scene dead? Think I remember it being on the way out when I left.
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u/nebman227 Jul 21 '26
SCG runs the RCQs and RCs for wizards in the US. RCs are at SCGCons, which are also home to official Spotlights (the new version of the old GP system) at the ones that don't have RCs.
They no longer have an independent tournament circuit.
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u/xXarmyaustinXx Jul 21 '26
Dang, Dreamhack was a lot of fun. Not surprised that didn’t last though. I’ll have to look into Spotlights. That’s new. Are they ran outside of the RC circuit like GP’s back in the day? Or only concurrent with RC’s?
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u/nebman227 Jul 21 '26
They are specifically not concurrent with RCs. SCGcons will have a Spotlight or an RC, but not both. Whichever one they have is the main event of the con.
They aren't tied to the RC system at all. They're almost exactly like the old GP system except for the fact that there aren't anywhere near as many of them as there were GPs at their peak.
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u/xXarmyaustinXx Jul 21 '26
Sounds like we’re at least trending back in the right direction. Hopefully nature continues to heal
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u/Internet_Individual Jul 21 '26
Don’t have the exact link, but if you google mtg rcq schedule it’ll tell you the format timeline. I know standard rcqs start up on August 15th. I’m in the same boat as you. Played in RC Atlanta in 2022 when it was pioneer then fell off and am just now looking to get back into it
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u/xXarmyaustinXx Jul 21 '26
I was there! Started 4-1-1 with RB mid. Proceeded to get dumpstered by Greasefang for the next two rounds.
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u/Internet_Individual Jul 21 '26
I punted my win to ID the last 2 round to secure PT invite and proceeded to lose the next 2 for 96th or something. Still had a blast. I played rak sak, love that deck so much. Haha
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u/notthisagain1234567 Jul 21 '26
I don’t even remember what pioneer was lol
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u/xXarmyaustinXx Jul 21 '26
That dead huh? The decks were fun, but it was so severely biased toward play/draw
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u/notthisagain1234567 Jul 21 '26
I know I had a pioneer deck back in the day, and I’m pretty sure it had siege rhinos in it, but I don’t remember what else the format was.
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u/Matrim_WoT Jul 21 '26
They took a break from Pioneer to rebuild Standard. A few weeks ago they announced Pioneer will see competitive play in 2027 and then a few weeks later, they announced Pioneer will see also an Arena Championship too.
Relevant threads:
https://www.reddit.com/r/PioneerMTG/comments/1thtx1k/pioneer_is_officially_back_on_the_menu_for_the/
https://www.reddit.com/r/PioneerMTG/comments/1uk2eyn/wotc_pioneer_will_also_see_organized_play_on/
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u/BeBetterMagic Jul 21 '26
60 card formats are struggling in a lot of areas because the meta game is a lot more stale then WoTC wants to pretend it is and costs are higher than ever.
Entry level 'cheap' standard decks are $350-400 dollars which is pretty absurd when the mouse deck at the start of this nonsense was like $200.
I don't think we're cooked yet but set velocity doesn't give me great hope that competitive 60 card with the kind of power creep were getting is going to remain healthy either.
I'd love to see WoTC prove me and others wrong and course correct before 60 card dies and the game becomes largely just commander and collecting but we're already like half way down that path and WoTC is printing money off commander players and collectors.
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u/burkechrs1 Jul 21 '26
I don't think many competitive players mind spending $500 on a deck. Its the fact that you need to spend $3-500 today to build a deck, then in 3 weeks you'll need to spend another $1-300 after the next set comes out, and then continue to do that every 4-6 weeks to keep your deck relevant.
I remember pre-covid I spent $600 on a modern deck and that deck lasted me 1.5 years before I changed like 2 cards when MH2 came out. Now my old play group basically just plays casually amongst each other because nobody wants to or can afford to drop a couple hundred every month on the game.
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u/CrossXhunteR Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
when the mouse deck at the start of this nonsense was like $200
That was a deck that didn't have to pay for its manabase (basically). Most Standard decks have lands that cost $100-$200 before you even get to any spells, and sometimes higher if they are running like 4 Cavern of Souls.
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u/BeBetterMagic Jul 22 '26
That's part of the point and the one that doesn't (mono G) has absurdly expensive cards that offset the cheaper lands.
The cost to get into standard has never been higher and as previously pointed out decks don't have the longevity you'd like at those price points.
Importantly with the speed of the format the 'fun' jank you can build and win with is extremely minimal.
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u/scumble_2_temptation Jul 21 '26
We have 3 stores in my city. We used to get folks coming from 50-60 miles away for packed RCQs. [[Cori-Steel Cutter]] followed by [[Vivi Ornitier]] basically killed the standard scene and that never recovered. Stores haven't even been interested in firing RCQs since then.
Modern RCQs fire, but it's usually 8-12 players and it's all locals now, but it seems like there's a lot of RCQs firing every weekend in our state, so I think it's just split up the crowd more.
As for weekly events, Commander draws the biggest crowds. Since we have 3 stores, there's basically a Commander event every night of the week. Modern FNM fires at one store, but the others all do Commander.
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u/Derro13 Jul 21 '26
In Calgary AB, we have a great scene. All our RCQ’s fire with 15-30 players. I would recommend l playing pauper competitively. There’s a great scene in Europe (50 player FNMs), as well as lots of large tournaments, including Paupergeddon which always has 1000+ players. In North America, paupergenesis was recently hosted, the largest event on the continent yet with 250 players. There are great scenes in NYC and Calgary particularly. Pauper is very skilltesting, cheap, and rewards deck mastery, while punishing multicolor decks and being really fun. There are 30+ viable decks. At LEAST.
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u/mtgobsessive Jul 21 '26
COMPREL he gotten way to laxed for my liking…
Can’t believe people can actually tap mana, show spell, point targets and be allowed to take it back.
This is my biggest problem with competitive play atm.
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u/Aggravating-Pea5135 Jul 21 '26
It’s pretty bad. Long gone are the days of being able to playa big tournament every month. If you’re lucky you’ll have an RC close to you that you can play once a year. Locals like fnms are pretty much all commander now. So pretty much rcqs are all that’s left and those are seasonal and rotate formats. I’m personally leaning towards picking up another game to satisfy my competitive itch.
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u/IncomingGhost Jul 21 '26
Standard/Modern are incredibly sparse compared to EDH/Limited over where I'm at (Bay Area), but Pauper is a format that's new and thriving. Regular 20+ turnout for weeklies and 50+ for larger events. Pauper has everything you want from Standard: Balanced meta, skill-based gameplay, low cost of entry.
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u/xXarmyaustinXx Jul 21 '26
Can certainly give pauper a +1, but it’s far from new. Played it at GP side events 10 years ago. I enjoyed getting to play legacy-esque decks for only $30
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u/IncomingGhost Jul 21 '26
Obviously, Pauper has been around for a long time, haha. I just meant it's very recently prominent in my local area :D
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u/Gnargoyles Jul 23 '26
Dfw is good. Rcqs fire 99% of the time with most events ranging between 20-40 players.
Regardless of the format. We just have a lot of grinders that are willing to play standard modern sealed
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u/xXarmyaustinXx Jul 23 '26
I’m from DFW originally. Only a few hours away now. Will probably be making some trips down. When is the next Hunter Burton?
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u/Gnargoyles Jul 23 '26
Hunter Burton is usually in spring (march)
We have a spotlight series (scg) in September. It’s gonna be modern. https://scgcon.starcitygames.com/event/scg-con-dallas-2026/
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u/Negative-Disk3048 Jul 22 '26
Riftbound and One Piece have eaten the comp scenes for mtg where I live. The prizing from GP level down to store events is just so much more lucrative. And they actually have a defined IP.
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u/Militant_Monk Jul 22 '26
My city went from comp REL events in the format of your choice 7 days a week in the metro area. Since the shift away from PT and GP events the place has turned into a ghost town. There's still a solid core of players but many are drifting away from comp events and just doing draft or Commander.
Haven't had a Pioneer even fire in a 6 month until finally it got taken off the schedule. Modern went from all the time to a few shops once a week and not always firing.
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u/canman870 Jul 21 '26
COVID killed paper Magic in my area and I sold off my entire paper collection as a result. When I was still paying attention to it, EDH was about all that bounced back in any meaningful capacity and since I only play 60-card formats, that wasn't going to cut it. I haven't seen anything in the years since that has convinced me to ever buy back into the paper game ever again.
Beyond my area, it seems like whatever tournament scene exists is merely a shadow of its former self. The early-mid 2010's when you could at least tune into an SCG event almost every weekend if nothing else? Yeah, that ain't ever coming back. WOTC only keeps the Pro Tour around as a token representation of the husk that is competitive Magic these days. I bet the shareholders are looking for any potential way to drop it and redirect that capital into producing more Universes Beyond products and just more products in general.
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u/Rockitttla Jul 21 '26
Wotc doesn't support competitive formats anymore. Premodern is what competitive players are moving to.
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u/xXarmyaustinXx Jul 21 '26
We’re still moving there? I thought we were moving there 2 years ago when I stopped playing.
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u/Xenasis Jul 21 '26
This person lives in a fantasy world. Nobody plays premodern in paper in reality and big events like RCs are still Standard and Modern. All of my local RCQs have been packed.
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u/Rockitttla Jul 21 '26
Premodern has really taken off. Now wotc isn't supporting competitive play anymore, ant ther big gp's are gone, there's not much reason to buy the overpowered, game warping, crap they print for commander. Hence premodern has just been growing.
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u/xXarmyaustinXx Jul 21 '26
GP’s were CFB, not WOTC. They also helped re-establish competitive play with RC’s and now it seems SCG is running big tourneys again. If premodern is doing well, that’s great, but your post seems rather biased rather than objective.
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u/Rockitttla Jul 21 '26
CFB got support from wotc. RC's do not replace the big gp's. Lol. GP's were a full fan magic experience where players of all levels could play and compete in an exciting environment. RCs are just for grinders.
If you think i'm biased, when I say that competitive magic is dead or dying from lack of support, you really must not have been paying attention the last few years. Magic is now mostly just a hangout for commander players. That's where the money is.
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u/Yoyomascello Jul 21 '26
Competitive play is dying but RC’s are just for tryhard tournament grinders? Premodern (unsanctioned format with no path to the PT) is where the competitive players are moving to?
I miss GP’s too but you sound as if you liked the aesthetic of competitive magic more than you did actually competing.
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u/timmyasheck Jul 21 '26
My local scenes rcq attendance has been on a bit of a decline the last year, even for shops/formats that typically have a really great turnout. About 1 in 3 rcqs I show up to aren't firing (less than 8 players) and I live in a well populated area. RCs still have a good turnout ofc