Skip to main content Download External Link Facebook Facebook Twitter Instagram Twitch Youtube Youtube Discord Left Arrow Right Arrow Search Lock Wreath icon-no-eye caret-down Add to Calendar download Arena copyText Info Close
Magic: the Gathering | Esports Magic.gg Logo
Magic: the Gathering | Esports Magic.gg Logo
PLAY ARENA NOW

Magic Spotlight: Marvel Super Heroes in Las Vegas Delivers a Winning Trio

June 29, 2026
Corbin Hosler

Long flights and long hours in the summer heat couldn't keep nearly 1,000 players from traveling across the world—some from as far away as Japan and South America—to the bright lights of Las Vegas and a Spotlight Series event that was historic in several key ways.

First, and perhaps most obvious, it was the premiere weekend of Magic: The Gathering® | Marvel Super Heroes, the landmark new set that served as the centerpiece of Magic Spotlight: Marvel Super Heroes. The weekend brought new cards that none of the 300 teams in the room had a chance to play with yet, though some traveled in early to join Friday's warm-up event.

One such team was returning to competitive Magic: the powerhouse squad of Paul Rietzl, Dave Williams, and Matt Sperling. That roster holds multiple Pro Tour Top 8 appearances and legendary runs of all kinds in one team, all in addition to multiple Team Sealed Top 4 appearances as a trio. They were one of the biggest threats in the room—even if they were a bit rusty.

"It's not about prizes, or even pride. It was just about coming to play Team Limited with my friends. We want the event to fill the hall," explained Pro Tour Hall of Fame member Rietzl. "We were very rusty, but once we started opening our pool and figuring out who would play what, we were very much back in our wheelhouse."

"Back in the groove" is perhaps the best way to describe Magic Spotlight: Marvel Super Heroes. The room was filled with multiple generations of competitive Magic players, from those who grinded the Grand Prix circuit in decades past to teams who are making their first appearance in Team Limited to see what it's all about. And "what it's all about" is the perfect mix of Magic, camaraderie, and confounding game states that take a trio to figure out. The sight of six competitors all huddled around one board state, debating the merits of a particular play—sometimes quietly in the way that Reid Duke and William Jensen used to do, and sometimes at full volume when shared information was not a concern—is something you won't find anywhere else.

Heading into Las Vegas, there hadn't been an open-field team event in seven years. One good weekend could land anyone here in a seat at the Pro Tour, and the teams that qualified from the Spotlight Series would achieve the dream of earning that qualification alongside their friends. The promise brought in players from around the world, with teams coming from as far away as Austria and Japan competing. It was the best excuse old-school Pro Tour players could imagine for a trip. The format convinced Pro Tour veteran Pat Cox to get on an airplane for Magic for the first time this decade.

Take Andrew Marre and Brian Rodriguez, who make it to one Magic event a year and always wear matching shirts (previous years featured Goblin Charbelcher and Chalice of the Void). When they saw that Team Limited was on the schedule for 2026, they circled this weekend and began plotting their next trip.

"We've done MagicCons, Two-Headed Giant events, anything. But we both have kids now, so it's usually just once a year," Marre explained. "We chose our jerseys to match that and follow up on the last time."



The entire event was a gallery of the biggest names in Magic from the previous two decades—everywhere you turned, there was another Grand Prix or Pro Tour Top 8 member kicking off six or more years of dust. There were even some of the most recognizable Grand Prix regulars of yesteryear. The sibling trio of Quinn, Jack, and Lucas Kiefer was competing alongside each other once again.

The Spotlight Series pulled from all over the world. Hall of Famer Shuhei Nakamura joined with fellow Japanese all-stars Riku Kumagai and Rei Hirayama and opened the tournament up on a 7-1 run to close Day One near the top. Joel McAndrew flew an untold number of hours from Australia. And from Austria came a trio whose infectious fun made their Day One run memorable.

Bernhard Lehner, Florian Oberauer, and Mark Loh traveled over 9,000 kilometers from Austria to Las Vegas to compete as a team at Magic Spotlight: Marvel Super Heroes.


A New Set Debuts to the World


Combined with the historic hype, the weekend also featured a brand-new set that will also be the focus of Pro Tour Magic: The Gathering | Marvel Super Heroes, where we'll see a Top 8 draft for the first time in many, many Pro Tours. That meant that Magic Spotlight: Marvel Super Heroes was a massive standalone event for the thousands of players in the convention hall, but it was also some of the best possible preparation for the several hundred players qualified for July's Pro Tour. Throw in the rather important element of this being an incredibly fun experience and you had a trifecta of factors that made this event stand out.

That also made it the perfect showcase for Magic: The Gathering | Marvel Super Heroes. Every Magic set is an experiment in Limited design, and Magic: The Gathering | Marvel Super Heroes is designed to show off all sorts of exciting combinations.

Eduardo Sajgalik, in the days before he ultimately won a seat at next year's Magic Limited Championship, reached out to other teams competing at Magic Spotlight: Marvel Super Heroes to get in some early testing. For many players serious about succeeding at the Pro Tour, the lessons learned from this event were perhaps more important than their result.

But for other squads, team events are a point of pride, and some of these teams came in with extensive team résumés and some all-important Limited credentials to uphold.

Matt Nass, Jacob Wilson, and Sam Pardee were known for their prowess in Team Limited long before they ever started making Pro Tour finals tables, with Nass and Pardee winning titles in the last five years.


Team events minimize variance, and Team Limited in particular is famous for well-practiced trios making repeat appearances in the final rounds. To that end, it was no surprise that when the clock tolled on the final Swiss round, we had a Top 4 for the history books.

The Top 4 Teams of Magic Spotlight: Marvel Super Heroes


Four teams made up four of the groups you'd pick to make the Top 4 of a tournament like this. There were few spots to go around, and once you started breaking down the list of teams, there were more squads with Pro Tour winners than there were spots in the draft rounds. With so many veterans of the team events that took place at Grand Prix events over the last several decades, there was nowhere you could turn without seeing an accomplished trio from the past.

That included Paul Rietzl, Matt Sperling, and Dave Williams, one of those trios with multiple Team Sealed Top 4 appearances to their name. In the final round of Swiss, they were again playing for a shot at the Top 4. But they fell to the one group of relative newcomers: Neil Estrada, Liam Etelson, and Zev Goldhaber-Gordon, all members of Teem Seed Core, who put up a strong showing at the event.


But the other three teams in the Top 4 were absolutely stacked with all-time talent. And once the drafts finally began, that became apparent quickly as the old guard—Stráský, Rubin, and Hayne, along with Dyer, Black, and Martell—looked comfortable under the lights as their teams entered the semifinals, locked in on a collision course for the finals.


And, after one more draft, the finals were set. Sunday featured all-star matchups of Hayne against Black, Rubin against Martell, and Stráský against Dyer. That's a lot of Pro Tour titles at one table, and the games that followed lived up to the hype. Black and Martell lived up to the fearsome reputation they developed during their Pro Tour days, with it all coming down to a third and deciding game between Rubin and Martell.


That game was all Martell, and five turns in it was over. Rubin extended a handshake, and Sam Black, Tom Martell, and Greg Dyer became the champions of Magic Spotlight: Marvel Super Heroes.

The main event was the primary draw to Las Vegas, but it wasn't the only meaningful tournament being played in the desert. There was also the four-slot qualifier for next year's much-anticipated Magic Limited Championship, and the winning roster this weekend added yet another round of recognizable faces to the marquee event next year.

As the Spotlight Series-winning trio celebrated with fun poses with their unique Magic Spotlight trophies and the curtain closed on the weekend, all eyes now turn toward Pro Tour Magic: The Gathering | Marvel Super Heroes next month at MagicCon: Amsterdam and the next Spotlight Series event right after that on July 24–26!

Share Article