So what's the latest? Online preorders for MTG x Avatar are selling out fast, with Amazon now limited to just a few sealed products left at the time of writing.
It won't be long before the rest disappears, so we're recommending preordering ASAP to lock in your preorder and avoid disappointment, as you won't have to pay a penny until the new Universes Beyond set ships in November.
For the first time since Foundations, a Beginner Box will offer an entry-level product for Avatar fans who want to check out Magic: The Gathering.
It will offer Jumpstart decks that can be mixed and matched to allow players to learn to play as Aang or Zuko. It costs $34.99, and can be preordered at Amazon right now.
IGN's Tom Marks has also previewed the Beginner Box, awarding some high praise to the latest introductory MTG box, saying: "...if you’re an Avatar fan who is curious about what this crossover entails but is intimidated by the three-decade old reputation Magic carries around with it, it’s hard to think of a better place to start than this."
The idea is simple: Players take two packs of cards, put them together, and make an instantly-playable deck. It’ll be available in Booster Boxes or as individual packs.
Play Boosters and Bundles
Play Boosters return, but things are a little up in the air(bender) at the moment because individual packs aren’t available just yet, at least in the US, who can only preorder a box of 30 packs for $209.70 at Amazon for now. Still, we're expecting this to be one of the most popular picks for those preordering MTG x Avatar cards, so snap it up ASAP to avoid missing out.
Once that's sorted, you're guaranteed 30 boosters to open, eaching containing at least 1 shiny Traditional Foil card and 1–4 cards of rarity Rare or higher, alongside the heart-racing possibility of finding special cards featuring beautiful borderless alternate art.
As is the case with Spider-Man (and most Magic sets), there’s a new Bundle coming, too. This $69.99 set includes nine Play Boosters, 15 foil and 15 non-foil lands, 1 spindown life counter, and a Foil promo card.
Each includes a series of cards to be displayed together to make a scene, but also a trio of Play Boosters to help kickstart your collection. Amazon has them for $41.99 each.
Both are currently sold out, stay tuned for more updates.
Where Are The Commander Decks?
Commander’s Bundle Explained
As with Marvel’s Spider-Man, there are no Avatar Commander Decks, but a new product type, the Commander’s Bundle, aims to fill the gap somewhat.
This bundle costs $109.99, contains 9 Play Boosters and one Collector Booster, and also includes classic Commander staples like Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Swiftfoot Boots, and more.
But, it's already sold out at Amazon. We're expecting preorders to go live at Best Buy soon, which will be your best betat securing the Commander Bundle over the coming days.
Collector Boosters
We know Collector Boosters will return. They’ll be available in boxes of 12 packs. Expect them to be the best place to get rare, chase cards, but to cost considerably more than Play Boosters.
They are also highly likely to sell out fast, so snag these up ASAP to avoid disappointment. While the rest of the set has gone live for preorder, we haven't yet had the Collector Boosters go live just yet.
UK Preorders
Curiously, Amazon UK has more products available than any other retailer at the time of writing.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay.
Black Widow star Ray Winstone has spoken of his frustration with Marvel's demands for movie reshoots, despite the film's director apparently being happy with his performance.
Winstone said he became so exasperated with the situation while working on Black Widow that he asked director Cate Shortland for his role to be recast, only for him to be told he had no choice but to do the reshoots, as he remained under contract.
The Scarlett Johansson-starring movie features Winstone as the villainous Dreykov, the man in charge of the cruel Black Widow training program. But despite initial enthusiasm for the part, Winstone has now said he ultimately wanted out of the project after Marvel Studios decided changes were necessary.
"I worked with this amazing director, Cate Shortland, and we worked on what my character was going to be," Winstone said at the Sarajevo Film Festival, as reported by Variety. "He was like a pedophile running around all these girls, and they'd become black widows.
"We used to get applauded on set," he continued, discussing his performance. "It was probably the best thing I've done for a really long time. Then I come home after finishing the job and get a call saying we need to do some reshoots. I say: how many scenes? [Cate] says 'all of them.'"
Winstone did not specify what exactly Marvel had wanted to change, but the studio has become notorious for making alterations to its movies during production and afterwards, with sometimes-lengthy reshoots often required. At the same time, fans have grown increasingly wary of the practice, and pointed to cuts in The Marvels and the heavily-reworked Captain America: Brave New World as evidence the practice can result in an uneven finish.
"I said she should recast [the role], but I was contracted, so I had to do it," Winstone recalled. "I go back, they do my hair all nice, put me in the suit, and I couldn't do it. I'd already done it. I thought, 'I'm not doing it now. I've done it. That's how it's going to be.' That’s rejection, you know? There's nothing worse than doing something, leaving it on the floor, and then being told it's not right."
Marvel boss Kevin Feige recently discussed the studio's practice of continually tweaking its movies throughout production, a habit he has termed "plus-ing".
"I've never been satisfied with a movie we’ve released," Feige told The Hollywood Reporter. "There’s plus-ing happening every day on the Avengers: Doomsday set right now, and it is amazing to watch because what those filmmakers, those actors, both the ones that are playing these characters for the first or second time and the one playing them for the 10th or 12th time, are the best in the world at it, and know these characters so well. So if they have an idea, you want to listen to it and you want to adjust to it and you want to improve it. I wouldn’t want to change that."
Image credit: Mike Marsland/WireImage
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Magic’s Final Fantasy Commander Decks Just Dropped To Another All-Time Low Price at Amazon
The complete Final Fantasy Precons bundle is down to just $184.99 on Amazon, a massive $95 off list price and the best deal we’ve seen yet.
Just last week, it was $200, already a good discount, but this drop takes it to the equivalent of $46.25 per deck.
It's a remarkably good offering, especially with the likes of Final Fantasy 7’s Limit Break deck still stuck at $72.50.
Amazon labels it 34% off MSRP, but given how pricey these decks have been, that’s underselling it. This is a rare bargain, and it probably won’t stick around long.
If it disappears before you can lock it in, TCGPlayer currently has the four-pack going for around $180 to $200 as well.
As a reminder, here’s our ranking of the four decks, one of which features in our handy best MTG decks ranking (focusing on precon decks you can still buy and play right now).
4 - Revival Trance (Final Fantasy 6)
Revival Trance isn’t just themed around Final Fantasy 6, but specifically the back half of the story, with Celes leading the charge to rebuild the party after the world falls apart.
It’s a fitting premise for a “revival” deck, except for one small problem — there aren’t many cards here that actually bring fallen allies back from the graveyard, yours or anyone else’s. Add in the lack of any major reprints, and it feels like a missed opportunity.
3 - Scions and Spellcraft (Final Fantasy 14)
Final Fantasy 14’s Commander deck is somewhat of a rare beast insofar as it’s a spellslinger-style deck in Esper colors (White, Black, Blue).
As a result, its focus is on non-creature spells and dishing out damage with Y’Shtola, one of the two Commanders. It’s just a little slow to get going, needing you to pull out as much mana as possible in early turns to be able to start slinging those big spells.
Propaganda and Snuff Out are decent reprints, but there’s little else of big financial value.
But, if you don’t mind mixing up your Final Fantasy titles, Noctis, Prince of Lucis could be a really neat addition to the Scions and Spellcraft Commander precon.
He can pay life to get artifact spells from the graveyard, while Y’Shtola, Night’s Blessed can help you get some of that life back.
2 - Limit Break (Final Fantasy 7)
Final Fantasy 7’s deck is absolutely fantastic, and actually dovetails nicely with Fallout’s Scrappy Survivors precon from last year (as long as you're happy with yet another bold RPG crossover).
It’s all about getting your creatures to 7 power to trigger additional effects from Cloud or Tifa, while minimizing equip costs to allow you to switch gear and keep opponents guessing.
Reprint value is decent, too. Not only do you get Darksteel Plate, Sword of the Animist, and Fire-Lit Thicket, but Clever Concealment has some amazing new art of Cloud’s disguise.
Thanks to its Final Fantasy synergies, Stoneforge Mystic has been shooting up in both popularity and price.
This two-mana staple slots perfectly into the equipment-heavy Limit Break deck, tutoring out gear with ease, and the market has noticed, it’s jumped from under $20 to around $50 in recent listings.
That’s some serious stonks, and it could end up being a smart long-term pickup.
It’s all about counters, meaning you can buff your creatures, deal damage, and proliferate. It really could get out of hand quickly, and you can even get creative with the Summons in the deck, too.
Reprint-wise, you can get Walking Ballista, Damning Verdict, and Bane of Progress, all with new artwork.
Ever since Final Fantasy’s Universes Beyond set launched, there’s been a spike in pricing for any cards that involve the use of counters, thanks to the focus of the FFX deck helmed by Tidus.
One of the recent beneficiaries is Filigree Vector, from the March of the Machine set. It’s a four-cost White Artifact Creature that essentially arrives with +1/+1 counters and can proliferate, making it an ideal fit for the Blitzball star’s deck.
There's also Magistrate’s Scepter, a 3-cost artifact that can be powered up with charge counters then used to take an entire extra turn.
Given how quickly Tidus can get those counters, this Core Set 2019 card is now up to $5 from just a few cents a few weeks ago, and well worth adding to the best Final Fantasy MTG precon.
There's plenty of other great additions to this deck if you want to get creative, and one we also spoke about recently in our Crashers and Climbers column was Wave Goodbye, which sends a board’s worth of cards back to an owner’s hand if their cards don’t have a counter on them.
Looking forward to Fallout Season 2 on Amazon? Me too! Fallout’s MTG Commander Decks were all pretty great, but now you can nab one with a third off the MSRP.
Science! (don’t forget that exclamation mark) is an energy-based deck that uses Artifacts to generate additional resources that Dr. Madison Li can turn into card draw or reanimation. It’s perhaps not the easiest to use for newbies, but still well worth a look.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay.
gamescom 2025 is fully underway and there have already been a ton of huge reveals that have given a glimpse at the future of video games. We've already had Opening Night Live and a full day of previews and interviews and news, and we've decided to gather all the biggest moments right here to ensure you don't miss a thing.
So, check out everything below and continue to check back throughout gamescom to see what other surprises have been revealed.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 New Trailer Reveals Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies Details, Release Date, and Much More
The story of Black Ops 7 takes place in 2035 and is a follow-up to both Black Ops 2 and Black Ops 6. The campaign supports solo play of up to four-player co-op, with global progression for the first time for the franchise.
How Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's Campaign Weaponizes Fear
We talk to Call of Duty developers Miles Leslie and Natalie Pohorski at gamescom 2025 to find out how Black Ops 7's co-op campaign takes cues from the Batman Arkham games by using fear toxin as the basis of the weirdest COD missions we've seen yet.
Hollow Knight: Silksong Shows Up at Gamescom: Opening Night Live With Almost 30 Seconds of New Gameplay, as a Treat
While we still don't have a release date, Hollow Knight: Silksong showed up in a big way during ONL with a confirmation it will be out in 2025 and with almost 30 seconds of new gameplay. We also won't have to wait long to learn more about this much-anticipated game as there will be a "special announcement" taking place this Thursday, August 22.
"Yes, we've been waiting many, many years for this sequel, but everything at this stage points to it being worth it. Each aspect feels authored and prescribed to a clear vision — a piece of playable art that is as fun to wield as it is to watch (I should know, the gamescom queue was very long)," IGN's Simon Cardy wrote. "It may have been the shortest of demos, but so far, Silksong is very much singing to me, maybe even more than the original."
"The maximalism of Kirby Air Riders is its core charm; it feels brewed from impish, chaotic-neutral alchemy," our previewer, Leanne Butkovic, said. "Even Nintendo is calling this a “vehicle action game,” not a kart racer, which honestly seems apt – a silly genre distinction for a purposefully unserious game. It might not have been the sequel the people were clamoring for, but I’m glad that it exists."
Resident Evil Requiem Hands-On Preview
IGN's Dale Driver had a chance to play a 20-minute demo of Resident Evil Requiem, and one of the biggest things we took away from playing the game is that a new, unstoppable stalker could be the scariest one yet.
Resident Evil: Requiem Trailer Shows Fresh Look at Grace Ashcroft's Backstory, But Where's Leon?
Resident Evil: Requiem showed up in a big way at ONL with a new story and gameplay trailer that dives deep into our protagonist, Grace Ashcroft. However, we are still waiting for Leon S. Kennedy, where is he?!
Resident Evil Requiem Takes Stalkers to the Next Terrifying Level
The latest stalker in the Resident Evil series takes the chase to the next level, hunting Grace Ashcroft throughout the hallways of the small but impactful Resident Evil Requiem demo. IGN's Matt Purslow and Dale Driver got to go hands-on with the game and discuss their initial impressions of the latest Resident Evil game coming out in 2026.
Pragmata Aims to Break the Rules of Third-Person Shooters
Pragmata was playable at gamescom, and we said that, "while it produces a combat experience quite different to anything I’ve played before, I’m left wondering if that same level of ingenuity will be felt in Pragmata’s exploration and level design, too."
Pragmata Rethinks Shooting but Is That a Good Thing?
Capcom's Pragmata has a new system for shooting mechanics, asking you to do a hacking mini-game before each enemy encounter. It's a fresh take, but is it a good thing? After playing the Pragmata demo at gamescom 2025, IGN's Matt Purslow and Dale Driver have some mixed feelings, enjoying the innovation but with slight concerns that the process could wear thin over a full game.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword Skillfully Sharpens a PS2 Classic for a New Generation
Onimusha: Way of the Sword brings back the franchise for the first time since the PS2 days, and we walked away from playing this new game in a very positive way.
"The gamescom demo may have been short – little more than some winding paths and a boss fight in a temple – but it’s more than enough to convince me that Onimusha: Way of the Sword is built on rock-solid swordplay fundamentals," IGN's Matt Purslow said.
Onimusha Could be as Sharp as Sekiro Without the Soulslike Difficulty
Is Onimusha: Way of the Sword a triumphant return for the long-dormant franchise? IGN's Matt Purslow and Dale Driver got to play the demo at gamescom 2025 and share their thoughts about the supernatural samurai fighting demon combat and the inevitable Soulslike comparisons. How does Onimusha compare to the obvious Ghost of Tsushima and Sekiro comparisons? Let's find out.
LEGO Voyagers Might Already Be My Favorite LEGO Game Ever
"Will LEGO Voyagers have some poignant moment waiting for players near the end like fellow dialogue-free physics puzzle platformers Limbo and Inside? That remains to be seen, but even if it doesn’t, it’s clear that Voyagers intends to make its memories along the journey if not the destination. But hopefully it’ll do so in both."
Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight Announced, Featuring Open World Gotham
"Whether he’s the wrathful Dark Knight, the brilliant detective, or the unlikely father of the ‘Batfam,’ Batman has constantly evolved — shaped by the world around him while remaining a timeless symbol," said Jim Lee, President, Publisher, and Chief Creative Officer, DC.
"This game brings together nearly every facet of his legacy, letting you experience the full range of what makes Batman iconic. Built with incredible care, creativity, and deep respect for the mythos,TT Games has crafted a love letter to the world of Batman.”
Microsoft Still Can't Say How Much the ROG Xbox Ally X Will Cost Due to "Macro-Economic" Conditions, Despite Announcing Release Date and Availability Details
Speaking to IGN today at gamescom, Microsoft and Asus said the companies still needed "more time to figure out the macro-economic impact to pricing". The statement comes amid a backdrop of frequently shifting market conditions, fuelled by ever-changing US tariffs.
Xbox Hardware Boss Says 'Who Knows What the Future Entails' Following Report Company Had Sidelined First-Party Handheld Plans
Amidst reports that Microsoft has sidelined first-party handheld plans with Asus' ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X on the way, we chatted with Jason Ronald, Microsoft's vice president of gaming devices & ecosystems, to see what we could find out.
"We're just really excited about the partnership with Asus, we've found an ideal partner to bring their strengths with our strengths, and for us we're really focused on just growing the category overall," Ronald said.
The Blood of Dawnwalker Offers 2 Very Different RPG Playstyles
A team of former creatives behind The Witcher 3 are working on dark fantasy RPG The Blood of Dawnwalker, and our hands-off demo showed how the game is handling the parallel playstyles of human and vampire action.
Ghost of Yotei Trailer Confirms Free Legends Multiplayer DLC Coming in 2026
"Set against the backdrop of the classic Chinese folktale 'Zhong Kui Banishing Evil,' Black Myth: Zhong Kui is a single-player action role-playing game rooted in ancient Chinese fantasy," GameScience said. ---"The game will deliver distinctive experiences and gameplay features that push our limits, while also bringing fresh ideas and necessary changes to address past flaws and regrets."
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is Xbox's First Nintendo Switch 2 Game
Alongside a trailer for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle's The Order of Giants DLC, it was also confirmed that the adventure will be released on Switch 2 in 2026. The Order of the Giants, on the other hand, will be released on September 4 and expands on the game's Rome location and has Indy searching for the helmet of the Nameless Crusader.
Silent Hill f Gamescom Trailer Reveals Suzie Yeung as Hinako
Fallout Season 2 Trailer Reveals First-Look at a Deathclaw, Mr. House, and a Release Date
gamescom is about more than games, as it was the place where the debut trailer of Fallout Season 2 was revealed. The much-anticipated new season arrives on December 17 and will see Walton Goggins' Ghoul and Ella Purnell's Lucy finally getting to Vegas.
Fallout: Season 2 Trailer Ties The Ghoul's Origin Story to Mr. House
Elden Ring on Switch 2 Is a Disaster in Handheld Mode
We played Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition in handheld mode on Switch 2 and came away very disappointed with the game's performance, especially when in the open areas like Limgrave. Frame rate drops were significant when turning the camera whilst exploring outside of the tutorial area, and this, combined with a confusing button layout on Switch 2, made combat confusing and exploration fairly dispiriting. We weren't allowed to record gameplay at the booth, probably due to this fact, but you can hear our thoughts on Elden Ring Switch 2 handheld gameplay in this video. Elden Ring Tarnished Edition releases in 2025, so hopefully there's time for Bandai Namco to work on its performance.
Borderlands 4 Has The Weirdest Weapons You'll Ever See
Harlowe is the latest exciting addition to Borderlands 4's vault hunter line-up. Randy Pitchford, founder and president of Gearbox teases what we can expect from the Gravitar-class hero, plus he reveals more about some of areas to explore and billions (!) of gun combos there are to play around with.
How Ninja Gaiden 4 Continues Ryu's Legacy in New Ways
Ninja Gaiden 4's producer and director Yuji Nakao reveals why they shifted away from the much-loved character of Ryu to new face Yakumo, goes into detail about its combat upgrades, and discusses how Ninja Gaiden 4 will continue the challenge the series is best known for.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Legacy of the Forge DLC Trailer Reveals September Release Date and Henry's New Home
"Returning to Kuttenberg, Henry puts his blacksmithing skills to the test to acquire and repair a legendary burnt-down forge, where his father, Martin, spent his youth as an apprentice,” an official description for the Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Legacy of the Forge DLC says. “Venturing down memory lane, Henry learns of his father’s legacy as a blacksmith, revealing a part of his life that has remained hidden until now. Gaining new blacksmith prestige, Henry becomes a forge master, helping the people of Kuttenberg with sword crafting, armor-smithing, and other quirky requests.”
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 Is Finally a Reality — but Its Developer May Surprise You
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 is real, but is not being developed by Relic Entertainment. Instead, it is in development at King Art Games, the studio behind Iron Harvest. In Dawn of War 4, which looks to return the RTS series to its roots, will have four facitons, "deeply satisfying gameplay," and a "brutal, expanded Sync Kill system."
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 – First Impressions From a Series Veteran
"I certainly wasn't expecting a new Dawn of War any time soon, much less from a studio other than Relic," IGN's Leana Hafer wrote. "But from the bit of it I've played, it seems like King Art Games understands the assignment. As a Dawn of War 2 fan, I miss the emphasis on cover and move-and-fire tactics. But Dawn of War 4 has nevertheless made a big first impression. I can hardly wait to get dug in next year."
Lords of the Fallen 2 Gets Official Reveal Trailer, Still on Track for 2026
CI Games has given Lords of the Fallen 2 its big coming out party, and this 2026 sequel looks to to be shaped by community feedback after an inital rocky reception at launch of the original game. As for the gameplay, expect to explore two parallel worlds, an expanded Umbral realm, and shared campaign progression in online co-op.
21 Years After the Original, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 Finally Has a Release Date
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 - We FINALLY Played It
We also had the chance to play Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, and we came out of our play session "cautiously optimistic." We may not love the combat yet, but its a well-written and well-voiced mystery story that also lets me explore our urban hunting ground with cool movement abilities.
Project Spectrum Is Looking Extremely Weird and More Than a Little Creepy
We had the chance to play eight minutes of Project Spectrum, and our previewer, Travis Northup, said it "left me with as many questions as I got answers, with lots left unexplained about how exactly this weird idea will work, but it also showed signs of a fairly new take on the asymmetrical multiplayer genre that’s become one of my favorite pastimes in recent years."
Where Winds Meet's Open World Could Take You 150 Hours to Fully Explore
Brutal sword fights and mastering devastating combos are at the heart of Where Winds Meet, an open world ARPG in which the action is so relentless there's barely time to soak up the gorgeous visuals. It's also massive, as the development team behind the game reveals in this gameplay walkthrough.
Monkey Island's Ron Gilbert Is Making a New Roguelike RPG Where the Scrolling Screen Is Trying to Kill You (Again)
Monkey Island's Ron Gilbert is working on Death by Scrolling, a rouguelike RPG when players are pursued throught Purgatory by a constantly-scrollins screen and Death herself.
Monster Hunter Wilds and Final Fantasy 14 Collaborations Reveal New Content Coming This Fall
Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes Aims to Deliver an FTL-Like Roguelike
Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hope is basically a turn-based roguelike that's giving us big FTL vibes with a wonderful layer of Battlestar Galactica on top of it. In this game, you are actually a junker who is trying to catch up with the Galactica in hopes to find safe haven and, hopefully one day, find Earth.
Bubsy 3D Is Getting a Sequel, Almost 30 Years Later
Bubsy, that talking orange bobcat mascot from the 90s, is returning for a brand-new adventure called Bubsy 4D, and it will be the first new entry in the franchise since 1996's Bubsy 3D.
Denshattack! Might Be a Killer Blend of Tony Hawk and Jet Set Radio
If you love Tony Hawk and Jet Set Radio, you may want to keep an eye on Denshattack!, which has you riding a train instead of a skateboard or roller blades. In this game, you have to be the fastest train on the track by doing incredible tricks.
Valor Mortis Announced From the Developer of Ghostrunner
Ghostrunner developer One More Level is back with a new game called Valor Mortis, and it is a single-player, first-person soulslike that takes place in an alt-history Eastern Europe during a ficitonalized version of Napoleon's invasion. Valor Mortis will be released in 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
Hangar 13 has released the first two hotfix patches for Mafia: The Old Country. These are small updates that will fix a few bugs. They will not add new content or bring any major overhauls to it. So, let’s take a closer look at them. The first hotfix patch came out on August 13th. That … Continue reading First Mafia: The Old Country Hotfix Patches Released and Detailed→
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