Magic the Gathering

[Ciraxis]

Hello fellow Magic players. I got news for you once again.

Sadly it was confirmed that we will not get the bounce lands back (making Arbor Elf a saaad panda). But worry not, for all signs on heaven and earth point that we will get shocklands back!

But enough with the speculation. Time for some facts. And the fact is that the new Duel Deck was announced. And who will clash this time?

Yep. These two. So what do you think fellow Planeswalkers? Will you buy it if given chance?

[Kirby Krackle]

I'd buy that for approx. 20 dollars!

[weesh]

Sadly it was confirmed that we will not get the bounce lands back (making Arbor Elf a saaad panda). But worry not, for all signs on heaven and earth point that we will get shocklands back!

Why are you sad that the great 50 cent lands are not coming back, but the awesome $10+ lands are coming back?

Prediction: there will be fewer cycles this time around, because they regretted the amount of room they took up last time around, and the density of guilds is higher (5 in a big set rather than 4 in a big set). That may mean two or fewer lands per guild, which is reasonable.

Neither walker has any special significance to me. What is the feud between them? What's in the decks? I will reserve judgement at this time.

[Ciraxis]

What is the feud between them? What's in the decks? I will reserve judgement at this time.

Well...wizards writed this.

On the world of Innistrad, humans have always been pawns. For the mighty vampire families, humans are the source of blood and the foundation of their power. For the werewolf packs, humans are prey. For the ghouls and ghosts of the plane, humans are reminders of lives gone by, the despised living to be hunted and terrified. And for demons and devils, humans are targets for their hatred and torment.

Sorin was among the first generation of vampires created on Innistrad. He saw how his kind spread over the plane, feeding on and ultimately diminishing the populace. He argued for restraint, but the other vampire families resented his intrusion. Unknown to his kin, however, Sorin was a Planeswalker. He traveled the Multiverse searching for a solution to the grave situation on his home plane. Ultimately, he created the archangel Avacyn, a protector that would watch over the humans of Innistrad and serve as the symbol of hope. Thousands of years later, Innistrad is still afflicted with monstrous creatures, but thanks to Sorin’s intervention, the Avacynian Church continues to lend its protection to the world’s humans.

The fiendish mage Tibalt was born human, but immediately showed a predilection for inflicting pain. When a dark invocation caused his essence to be merged with infernal devils of Innistrad, his Planeswalker spark was ignited. He was free to traverse the Multiverse looking for new unfortunates to torment, but the innocent people of his native Innistrad were always his favorite victims.

Sorin, with his long-sighted, vampiric perspective, knows that humanity may lose its tenuous grip on survival if Innistrad’s monstrous forces hunt too recklessly. The young pain-mage Tibalt, on the other hand, respects no authority but his own vicious whims. As they clash, neither will tolerate anything but the utter defeat of his foe. Who will prevail is up to you.

But this is not as importants as the spoilered cards from RtR. And one was longly awaited...if bit dissapointing.

What can I say? Well THIS Jace will definitly will NOT get banned. He's kinda weak.

[weesh]

wow, a Planeswalker specifically designed for multiplayer? Interesting.

[Ciraxis]

Aaaaand also I need to tell you were not right about lands weesh. We will get three sets. Legendary lands, shocklands and Gates.

[MisterChippy]

Finally an expansion that I'll get excited about. I haven't really played MTG since Alara, but Ravnica was my favorite set ever. I'm kinda disappointed that Orzhov isn't back in the first set, but what are ya gonna do?

The conclave is still a bunch of hypocritical morons, golgari has gone back to the bad old days, and izzit is up to something again! I don't know about all of you, but I wanna see a working R/B deck, if only so Chandra and Jace can finally work together.

[weesh]

Aaaaand also I need to tell you were not right about lands weesh. We will get three sets. Legendary lands, shocklands and Gates.

I'm not seeing any legendary lands. I see gates, shocklands, and...something else. Will the other cycle all have sacrifice effects?

it would not have surprised me to see fewer land cycles, but three isn't strange.

Also, the gates are underwhelming. How many cards do you have to print that care about gates to make me care about lands that are awful in a vacuum? I think it is a lot.

Most important to me is the confirmation of the return of hybrid, which is one of my favorite mechanics. I'll probably need at least two playsets of Judge's familiar.

Reactions to the new mechanics

Golgari's Scavenge: looks good. I'm hoping for some small and efficient versions to compliment the Goliath.

Azorius' Detain: too soon to tell, but the potential is there.

Rakdos' Unleash: seems pretty tame. Are we going to see cards with "unleash unleash"? Or "if you unleash this creature, it has trample"?

Izzet's Overload: fantastic, but I haven't seen any particular cards that interest me yet.

Selesnya's Populate: underwhelming. I either want to play with big powerful creatures, or huge slews of tokens. I am not convinced that playing with big tokens is going to be fun (although, making token copies of verdant force is plenty of fun).

[MisterChippy]

Rakdos' Unleash: seems pretty tame. Are we going to see cards with "unleash unleash"? Or "if you unleash this creature, it has trample"?

Rakdos creatures will probably get plenty of abilities if they have +1/+1 counters.

[weesh]

Rakdos creatures will probably get plenty of abilities if they have +1/+1 counters.

Maybe not. Mark Rosewater just posted this to his blog:

Unleash with one counter proved plenty potent enough that we didn’t feel we need to make unleash with greater numbers. Also the variance between the two choices needed to stay close which wouldn’t be true with larger numbers of +1/+1 counters.

[MisterChippy]

Hmm...

Seems kinda like this new Rakdos ability won't reward stupidly aggressive playing like Hellbent did. Pity.

[weesh]

Hmm...

Seems kinda like this new Rakdos ability won't reward stupidly aggressive playing like Hellbent did. Pity.

The ability to have a well rounded creature, OR an more powerful one with a drawback at your choice is pretty cool. Just because it is tame doesn't mean it is weak.

Edit:

Also from the Maro blog:

the Rakdos mechanics is one of the ones that scares development the most. Don’t judge power by first impression. (Something about a book and its cover applies here.)

Edit2:

Jace got a good voice actor.

[Ciraxis]

Hmm...

Seems kinda like this new Rakdos ability won't reward stupidly aggressive playing like Hellbent did. Pity.

I don't know...playstyles seems similiar to me.

Hellbent - play all in. Sacrifice card adventage for better creatures and effects.

Unleash - play all in. Sacrifice blocking for better offense.

And Rakdos removal is the best of seen so far. And it also gets things like this.

Right now I can say that Azorius and Rakdos are strongest to me. Detain is the strongest ability so far, I can imagine setting a lock with this. Good thing that Venser will not play with this thing. Rakdos while not so great in therms of their key mechanic got pretty strong cards.

Also fresh portion of news....with two Guildleaders.

Niv does not seem so strong as he used to be. Is he getting old or something? Isperia on the other hand is certainly better.

Also why Death's Presence don't have Golgari watermark is beyond me. And there is also reprint of Heroes Reunion but for some reason I couln't post it. it's from Selesyna of course.

Also Niv's card name...well....Wile E. Coyote, Supergenius anyone?

[weesh]

Hellbent - play all in. Sacrifice card adventage for better creatures and effects.

Hellbent didn't have to be about sacrificing card advantage. It was more about sacrificing surprise potential.

Niv does not seem so strong as he used to be. Is he getting old or something? Isperia on the other hand is certainly better.

Really? What am I missing? The old Niv is annoying because you had this big flying body that you had to make a choice: more damage or more cards? This one says "why choose when you can have both?"

True, he has less combo potential, but he makes up for it by being far stronger alone. Heck, if you have the mana, you can use him the first turn!

Also why Death's Presence don't have Golgari watermark is beyond me.

It doesn't meet any of the three requirements for a watermark:

Again, from the blog:

You get a watermark for one of three reasons:

1) You’re a gold card.

2) You’re a card that is maximized by having two colors. For example, you’re a card of one color with an activated ability of a second.

3) You have a guild keyword.

The biggest deal that has not been mentioned thus far is the return of Dark Confidant : )

[Ciraxis]

Really? What am I missing? The old Niv is annoying because you had this big flying body that you had to make a choice: more damage or more cards? This one says "why choose when you can have both?"

True, he has less combo potential, but he makes up for it by being far stronger alone. Heck, if you have the mana, you can use him the first turn!

That's the point. You don't need to attack with old Niv so the fact the new one does not require tapping is not so impressive - it requires mana investment, how often you can allow yourself that? With old Niv you just start to throw Brainstorms, Mind Springs and other draw stuff like crazy, and let's say it - it's more economical for you resouces. He also have the infinite (well, finite for you will draw all you deck eventually) combo with Curiosity, Ophidian Eye and Mind over Matter. Truly old Niv too allows you to have both.

When I said that Isperia is better I had her old version in mind.

[Ciraxis]

The biggest deal that has not been mentioned thus far is the return of Dark Confidant : )

It would be either sign of madness or genius from Wizards. Also it seems that the new Planeswalker will be that gorgon from trailer (Wizards labeled that walker as 'she' and said she was on the trailer posted by weesh).

Jace got a good voice actor.

I agree. Still I like Gideon, Sorin and Bolas better. Also I am curious how Ajani would sound like.

[weesh]

That's the point. You don't need to attack with old Niv so the fact the new one does not require tapping is not so impressive - it requires mana investment, how often you can allow yourself that? With old Niv you just start to throw Brainstorms, Mind Springs and other draw stuff like crazy, and let's say it - it's more economical for you resouces. He also have the infinite (well, finite for you will draw all you deck eventually) combo with Curiosity, Ophidian Eye and Mind over Matter. Truly old Niv too allows you to have both.

I am not impressed by degenerate and painfully obvious combos. The answer to "how often can you allow yourself that" is: "pretty d*** often". When you have a Kumano out, your entire hand becomes pointless, because the most powerful thing you can do is sink all your mana into his ability until it is finally killed.

For another point of comparison, a few days ago, Wantanabe won the players championship at the head of the 16 best players in the world. In game three of the finals (Modern Format), he got out Olivia, and may not have cast any other spells for the rest of that game. He eventually won with the Olivia somewhere north of 9/9, not long after casting her. Olivia was probably his only out. Otherwise he would have gotten swarmed.

By the way, are you having trouble calling Niv "dracogenius"? I keep saying "draconequis" in my head.

It would be either sign of madness or genius from Wizards.

It is genius. Modern is becoming a popular format and many players are annoyed that "Bob" is a staple that costs about $40 each. It is likely that Standard can handle him for two years.

[Ciraxis]

I am not impressed by degenerate and painfully obvious combos. The answer to "how often can you allow yourself that" is: "pretty d*** often". When you have a Kumano out, your entire hand becomes pointless, because the most powerful thing you can do is sink all your mana into his ability until it is finally killed.

For another point of comparison, a few days ago, Wantanabe won the players championship at the head of the 16 best players in the world. In game three of the finals (Modern Format), he got out Olivia, and may not have cast any other spells for the rest of that game. He eventually won with the Olivia somewhere north of 9/9, not long after casting her. Olivia was probably his only out. Otherwise he would have gotten swarmed.

Ok weesh, chill. I yield, you convinced me. Let's just say that both Niv's are great but in bit diffrent ways. Still....I really, really wan't to see both on my side of the table, ahhh the synergy.

Back to speculations. This art.

Could it be Silhana Ledgewalker? As the answer for Invisible Stalker?

[TotalEcplise]

I think I need a playset of mizzium mortars, and at least 2-3 hypersonic dragons.

Cards like Auger spree, dreadbore, carnival hellstead and Rakdo's return make me want to play the guild.

The Golgari is looking pretty nasty too corpse jack menace, and grisly scavenge I feel is just too good to be common, I mean it was made for a deck that works out of its graveyard...Its like shorecracher mimic.

[Kirby Krackle]

[/media]

Jace got a good voice actor.

*drool*

[weesh]

Still....I really, really wan't to see both on my side of the table, ahhh the synergy.

Yeah, that would be scary.

New mythic worm.

WHY IS IT NOT A HYDRA?!

[Ciraxis]

Hmm...seems similiar to Wurmcoil Engine. But Wurmcoil wasn't so expensive and it saved our hide at the same time. The size is epic and it laugh at the removal but how will you cast it? We can't even reanimate it. I don't see this in tournament decks. At last for now, with the info we have. Still fun toy for EDH and casual decks.

WHY IS IT NOT A HYDRA?!

Maybe...cose it have only one head? But I am sure we will get successor of Ulasht, the Hate Seed in the block eventually.

On German Magic site was shown this...

Lotleth Troll (Rare) -

Creature - Zombie Troll

Trample

Discard a creature card from your hand: Put a +1/+1 counter on Lotleth Troll.

: Regenerate Lotleth Troll.

2/1

Nice. Also two other cards.

First the Owl, now the Dryad. She kicks Snapcaster straight into *****.

[weesh]

My first thought about the Havoc Festival was: "this could have been hybrid, and I am sad that it is not".

I didn't notice that the other card was anti-snapcaster until reading your post.

Hmm...seems similiar to Wurmcoil Engine. But Wurmcoil wasn't so expensive and it saved our hide at the same time. The size is epic and it laugh at the removal but how will you cast it? We can't even reanimate it. I don't see this in tournament decks. At last for now, with the info we have. Still fun toy for EDH and casual decks.

If I get my hands on a copy, it is going into my Call of the Wild deck. If it gets to the top of my deck before I am ready, I can push it back with mirri's guile, or I can cast it with priest of titania. I agree it won't see tournament play unless something pretty strange happens. It's been a long time since we've seen instant-speed resurrection, which is necessary to get past the shuffle trigger.

Except that now we have hypersonic dragon! Just make a UBRG deck! Well, the current best resurrection spell has white in the flashback, you may as well make it a five color deck. Scrach that, it is probably easier to get to 11.

[TotalEcplise]

Hmm...seems similiar to Wurmcoil Engine. But Wurmcoil wasn't so expensive and it saved our hide at the same time. The size is epic and it laugh at the removal but how will you cast it? We can't even reanimate it. I don't see this in tournament decks. At last for now, with the info we have. Still fun toy for EDH and casual decks.

Maybe...cose it have only one head? But I am sure we will get successor of Ulasht, the Hate Seed in the block eventually.

On German Magic site was shown this...

Lotleth Troll (Rare) -

Creature - Zombie Troll

Trample

Discard a creature card from your hand: Put a +1/+1 counter on Lotleth Troll.

: Regenerate Lotleth Troll.

2/1

Nice. Also two other cards.

First the Owl, now the Dryad. She kicks Snapcaster straight into *****.

Selesnya loves kicking me in the nuts.

They already have the angel that shuts down half of golgari, not they have a dryad to keep my sorcery out out the grave yard...that can only hurt dredge...

[Ciraxis]

Once again new cards...and say hello too Vraska!

Her abilities...are unique. But she have all that planeswalker needs. She protects herself, does a removal and her ultimate...well finishes the game (almost) as it supposed to do. Golgari will welcome her for she is better then Garruk Relentless (but I see no reason to not play both).