M11 Reprint Previews!

Sorry for the delay! Sunday I was pure out of energy, and today I just kept putting this update off.

But no more!  You'll see one card from each rarity that Wizards of the Coast chose to reprint in M11!

HINTS:

COMMON: "Gain control" used to only be at higher rarities. Not anymore...and I'm fairly recent too!

UNCOMMON: I was actually banned at one point! But apparently The Powers That Be are okay with that in the modern world.

RARE: I was a Mythic. Apparently sprouting heads "isn't Mythic enough."

MYTHIC RARE: We 5 scour the Multiverse for places to play. And play we shall! >:-)


Find out what we've got...AFTER THE JUMP!




(The Common, Uncommon, and one Mythic [of the group of 5] come from the Wizards Visual Spoiler. The Rare comes from the MTGSalvation message boards.)


First up in an M10 reprint. Remember how almost all the "gain control" effects you see are generally at Uncommon? Act of Treason bucks that trend in its first reprint!

I've always loved "gain control" cards, so I'm loving seeing this at a lower, easier-to-get rarity. But for Limited play, I've got to wonder if it's too low on the rarity scale. Uncommon may have been just right, but maybe with so many Commons it effectively makes each Common act like an Uncommon as far as how many times it's bound to show up? I don't know, but I'm happy to see this Standard-legal for another year.

At Uncommon, we have an artifact card with a history. It was banned at one time, but now that it's been re-released in the Duel Decks and hasn't caused a stir I guess Wizards of the Coast feels safe in bringing it back.

I left a clue in the last post if you read it. It has 2 words in its name, not 1. But it has a 1 activation cost, not 2. Which card was that?

Welcome back to Standard (and just in time for Scars of Mirrodin)...Voltaic Key!

There's no arguing, this is a powerful artifact! I mean, if you can take any artifact that produces more than 1 mana and you get to untap it? On an artifact that produces 2 mana, this effectively lets you make 3 with no trouble! Had to attack with that Darksteel Colossus but need a blocker? 1, tap, then Untap!

Scars of Mirrodin is going to be a return to the plane of Mirrodin, best known for its heavy Artifact themes. Could Voltaic Key be one of the few cards ever banned in Standard (oddly enough, caused by the Mirrodin plane)? We'll find out in a few months, but for now it's great to have a powerful piece of Magic's past at a low rarity in a Core Set.


For the Rare, it was printed at a Mythic in M10 but was downgraded. Did you get the growing heads hint? If not, you've probably got 0 heads like a Protean Hydra with no +1/+1 counters on it!

You'll have to forgive the upside down image. I got it from a poster on the MTGSalvation forums who got to take pictures of the M11 Player's Guide from the Fat Pack.

Protean Hydra can be interesting in ground-based combat, but you need the mana to pump it up. And to make it extremely useful, you'd probably want something like Whispersilk Cloak (also returning for M11) to be able to ensure you get it through as a huge creature. It's a great casual card, but I wouldn't expect much from it otherwise.

And finally, can you guess what group of 5 scour the Multverse for worlds to play in?

That's right! Our favorite Lorwyn planeswalkers are back for another Core Set!

Garruk is the only one on the Visual Spoiler right now. But after seeing the Player's Guide, I can confirm all 5 of the originals are back! I don't think I need to say why these are good. Just trust us, if you're new and you start playing with them, you'll want to keep using them more and more as you find uses for their abilities outside their "well duh!" purposes. (Especially have fun with Jace and forcing your opponent to "mill out" by forcing them to draw extra cards...and getting cards yourself in the process is fun, too!)


That's all I have for now, and probably until the Pre-Release. I'll try to do one more new card roundup, but no promises. It's a busy week ahead!

Don't forget about our local M11 "Release" Draft on July 24th! I've got 2 boxes of M11 pre-ordered, and I'm able to sell at $2.50 per pack again! The draft will be $8 to enter. I don't know if I'll have promos this time around, but I'll try to get 1 Sun Titan and 1 Ancient Hellkite as additional prizes. If I get them, I'll probably do a random drawing for who gets each promo, but that's not set in stone yet.


Take care until we see you again!