For a brand-new event series, the Magic Spotlight Series sure does look familiar.
#SCGDENVER is like a collection of the most terrifying Limited players you’ve ever seen at a GP circa 2017. Everyone has come out of the woodwork for this one.
— Corbin Hosler (@Chosler) April 12, 2025
The new, open-invite event series rolled into Denver last weekend as Tarkir: Dragonstorm rolled out to the world. The third Spotlight Series of the year was Limited, and more than 1,200 players tuned out for an event that served as a reminder of why these events are so popular with many players, and why the number of players coming "out of retirement" last weekend was so high.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start with this: why is the Magic Spotlight Series so cool?
Here's the gist of the Spotlight Series: anyone can enter, the Top 8 earn Pro Tour invitations, and there's a $50,000 prize pool. Here, you're just as likely to run into Luis Scott-Vargas or your buddy from Friday Night Magic. A 6-2 record on Day One allows you to advance to Day Two, where you'll battle it out for a seat among the Top 8 tables.
It's one of the ever-growing number of paths to the Pro Tour for dedicated Magic players. Now more than ever, the Pro Tour hosts an eclectic mix of Regional Championship champions, Pro Tour Top 8 competitors, Hall of Fame members, or winners of digital events like Arena Championship 8. If you take some time to ask players how they qualified, you'll be treated to a tour of the many ways people consume competitive Magic.
Now, the Magic Spotlight Series joins that list. If its structure sounds familiar to you, that's because it evokes the Grand Prix events that many of the game's top players cut their teeth playing in. And it's not just nostalgia that led to more than 7,000 Play Boosters being opened, it's the appeal of the tournament structure itself. The Regional Championship events held every few months across the world are a collection of a region's top talent, but they're gated by qualifying tournaments that omit already-qualified players as well as past Pro Tour ringers who may not be actively grinding.
But the Spotlight Series is open to anyone at any point in their Magic career, and it's also the only place the average Modern or Limited enthusiast might happen to get play against their Magic heroes in a "relatively" low-stress situation. All in all, feedback has been that the Spotlight Series fills a niche that other events haven't, and that was on full display last weekend in Denver as dozens of players who frequented those Grands Prix of yesteryear turned out again, some for the first time in many years.
Like Grand Prix Oklahoma 2019 winner Larry Li, who played in his first major Magic tournament in five years when he saw that he could qualify for the Pro Tour playing Limited. Hall of Famer Shuhei Nakamura came from Japan to play, while fan favorites Reid Duke and LSV let the audience in on their builds and games, providing viewers a firsthand look all day at how the best do it.
It was wonderful to see @ReidDuke at @SCGCON @StarCityGames #SCGDENVER #spotlightdragons ! pic.twitter.com/KwRdf3xldF
— Dana Fischer, The Disciple of Nissa (@DanaFischerMTG) April 14, 2025
On the broadcast crew, Paul Cheon made sure no LSV pun went unchecked, and while Duke and LSV would narrowly miss Day Two, they treated viewers to a show along the way. Limited legend—and I mean that—Mike Hron turned up, with a $100 flight and two drafts under his belt; obviously he was the last remaining undefeated player and will be back at the Pro Tour after his Top 8 appearance. Heck, the tournament even concluded after the venue began shutting down the room; Magic Spotlight: Dragons really did have it all.
"Denver was quite the treat. As a tournament grinder, I was very excited when the Series was announced and loved playing competitive Standard in Atlanta, but Limited certainly hits different," Jody Keith explained after his impressive run to the finals of the tournament. "The series, in general, brings back that classic Grand Prix vibes with competitive open events at the center of a large celebration of Magic. The energy in a room of more than 1,000 people opening up packs is something I didn't know I could miss so much. The sweat to make Day Two to get to a new deck and keep grinding was real."
Especially when the battlefield was Tarkir: Dragonstorm. The multicolor-heavy Limited environment is in its infancy, and that meant that Magic Spotlight: Dragons was a massive-scale testing ground for the best Limited players—and both finalists were among those who broke it.
Think there’s a pretty solid argument that Jody Keith is the most underrated Magic player in the world.
— Cedric A Phillips (@CedricAPhillips) April 14, 2025
Total monster that rarely loses and does it mostly solo and his way.
"I showed up for Day Two at the bottom of the standings in a pod of nine players with the worst breakers, but the optimism of three fresh packs to draft was very energizing," Keith recalled. "The professional nature of a called draft had me sitting up straight with my cap turned backwards focusing on every pick, trying to put together a collage perfect enough to have an undefeated day. "Stay blue, take the counterspells for the Dragons... is that a
It worked. The Louisiana native survived an absolute gauntlet of a Day Two that required him going through Li in Round 13 and Pro Tour Guilds of Ravnica champion Andrew Elenbogen in a Round 14 win-and-in. Once in the Top 8, he stuck to the Dragon-centric strategy that had gotten him there.
Back in 2017 and 2018, Andrew Baeckstrom made the Top 4 of two different Team Limited Grand Prix in a six-month period, including a victory at GP Providence. Like almost all of the old-school Magic players in the Denver area, he couldn't pass up this event. And while Hron—and probably only Hron—can roll into an event with no prep and crush it, Baeckstrom took the upcoming event as an opportunity to get in as many drafts with LSV and crew ahead of time.
"When you're in Denver, there's a certain bar that you're looking to play at; Mass Nass won the last Pro Tour, for instance," Baeckstrom explained after defeating Keith in a hard-fought, grindy finals. "I didn't want to play below that bar; I think I was able to play above it this weekend."
That's an understatement, of course. After dropping the very first round of the tournament—and perhaps fully shaking off the rust—Baeckstrom went on a tear and didn't drop another match on Day 1. And by the time he met Keith in the Five-Color Dragons mirror, it was clear why: these two had figured something out about Tarkir: Dragonstorm that others hadn't. No wonder that noted Draft expert Eduardo Sajgalik—who finished ninth on tiebreakers—said he usually doesn't give away his Limited tech for the first few weeks.
"Kyle 'The Ham' Rose introduced us to this deck on stream last week. It almost seems too obvious: put all the cards with the word Dragon on them into your deck in a set named Dragonstorm, and things are going to work out well," Baeckstrom reflected dryly after winning a game in which he pulled every single land out of his deck with
It was seven years ago almost to the day that Baeckstrom last made the Top 8 of a premier event. Now he's back on the Pro Tour. So... is he back?
"Nah," he said with a laugh. "This was probably a one-off for me, but was a lot of fun to prepare for, and I had a lot of friends in town.
"I thought I was done with all this Pro Tour stuff, but I guess I got one more left in me."
A truly special weekend, I won’t forget. My Dragons were Storming! 🐉 ⛈️ https://t.co/CErkbOMllJ
— Andrew Baeckstrom (@abaeckst) April 14, 2025