More M12 Previews: White's Answer to Blue, New "Ancestral Recall", New Chandra!

Hello all, and we're back with a few more Magic Core Set 2012 previews! Today we have a White "bear" that keeps Blue off your back, a new Blue Instant that could act like an Ancestral Recall, and a new Chandra that might see some play in Standard. Ready to get going?

We have the first preview card, Grand Abolisher!

Image from StarCityGames.com

Wow...if you ever feared removal on your turn, you don't have to any more. White Weenie could easily use this to fend of some Lightning Bolts, Volt Charges, and Vapor Snags that would prevent you from winning. But this also means you can't be counterspelled on your turn! WHOAH! That could be a HUGE deal! And for only WW? I think I'd take it, especially if I'm running some kind of combo deck that can't afford to be countered or disrupted in any way on your turn. I have a feeling he'll be a casual favorite if Blue or Red are heavy colors at your casual tables, otherwise I could see it in tournament decks while Red is popular and possibly when/if Blue steps in its place one Zendikar block rotates out.

Next up we have Wizards of the Coast's newest take on Ancestral Recall. Remember back in Time Spiral we got Ancestral Vision, a Suspend-enabled version and a direct descendent of Ancestral Recall. In Magic 2012, with milling being a popular theme, we get a situationally similar card in Visions of Beyond.

Image courtesy DailyMTG.com Visual Spoiler

The speculation is heating up that Innistrad, the next block to come out, will be a Graveyard-themed block thanks to some leaked cards found in the code of Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012. With the previously spoiled Jace, Memory Adept allowing you to mill 10 cards for just 5 mana on the first hit, it's hard to NOT get a graveyard to have 20 or more cards in it. And if Innistrad block is a graveyard-themed block, I'd say this will act more like Ancestral Recall than a 1-mana draw-a-card Instant.

Of course, early game you could use it as a deck thinner, in essence making your deck 56 cards instead of 60. But I think milling a player would be a bit better. ;)


Finally, we have another new Planeswalker version. We've had as many as 2 different versions of any Planeswalker character up until Magic 2012 which sees Jace's 3rd version. Now, we have another 3rd-version Planeswalker. Let me introduce you to Chandra, the Firebrand!

Image courtesy of DailyMTG.com Visual Spoiler

Yes, you read the mana cost correctly. 3R is the mana cost. This marks the first Planeswalker to not use at least 2 colored mana symbols in its mana cost. This should allow some decks to splash Red to run her. Hmm...I kinda like that idea. Let me think how I can abuse her...

Her +1 is an improvement on the original Chandra. Instead of just hitting a player, you can use it to hit a creature. Not bad. 4 mana and we already have her +1 ability being better than Chandra Nalaar's.

Her -2 ability is very intriguing. She sets up a Twincast on your next instant or sorcery. Now surely, at -2 you can't do that for long, right? He he he...WRONG!! Remember we have some nice Proliferate spells that work nicely with that -2. Volt Charge is an instant that deals 3 damage and Proliferates, so copying it lets you get back both counters you used to copy Volt Charge. How about refilling your hand? Tezzeret's Gambit literally goes into any deck, and when copied you're spending 3 mana and 2 life to draw 4 and make Chandra's -2 mean nothing. NOW...combine it with other Planeswalkers. Use her -2, Volt Charge a Titan to kill it, and Proliferate 2 counters onto the new Jace. Now he's within a turn of "going ultimate", drawing everyone 20 cards and potentially killing them at that.

Chandra's "ultimate" is a nice bonus if you stick with building her up. At -6 (so most likely 4 turns after you cast her), you get to do 6 damage to EACH of UP TO SIX target creatures and/or players. SIX!!!!! And it's not "split evenly", it's TO EACH OF. Whoah! I like the original Chandra's ultimate better, but for Multiplayer, this will rock just like Jace 3.0's ultimate could if it hits at the right time. And in single player, it might just clear the board for an alpha strike for the win.


What do you think about these previews? Anything that's too strong? Not strong enough? Overly hyped? Not hyped enough? Feel free to give me your thoughts! :)

New M12 Jace Spoiled on G4TV. Mill Runs Rampant.

Welcome back, everyone!

Today we'll be looking at the newest Mythic Rare to be previewed from Magic 2012. We knew last week that Jace, Chandra, and Garruk would probably be getting new versions (thanks to some Japanese semi-spoilers of different artwork and different Japanese names compared to their Lorwyn brethren).

What we didn't now was what any of them would do...until now.

We saw with Belltower Sphinx yesterday that Milling would make its presence known in Magic 2012. But we didn't know how much until now.

Let me introduce you to Jace, Memory Adept!!!!

Courtesy MTGSalvation.com

The image may not be clear enough on what exactly this new version of Jace does, so I'll type it all out.

Jace, Memory Adept
3UU
Planeswalker - Jace
+1: Draw a card. Target player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
+0: Target player puts the top ten cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
-7: Any number of target players each draw twenty cards.
4 Starting Loyalty
Mythic Rare

O.O  Can you say "OMG"? This Jace is a miller's dream! For the same cost as Traumatize you get repeated milling of 10 cards a turn!

"But he can't protect himself! (see Garruk's "make a 3/3 creature" or Jace, the Mind Sculptor's "bounce a creature" abilities for examples)"

Well, no. This Jace definitely needs to be used in combination with some protectors. (Hmm...you know, Gideon Jura was wondering if he'd ever protect a Jace again. ;)  ).

So let's break down how useful his abilities are:

"+1": Finally, a Jace that draws you a card without going "-1" and builds itself up! AND it mills the top card of a player's library. How can you argue with that? Is it super powerful? Well, if players were doing "-1" on Jace Beleren to draw cards without giving their opponent anything, I think they'll happily "+1" to get the same thing and deny their opponent.

"+0": Mill 10? Seriously? Beleren had "-10" to mill twenty! And now we're getting "mill 10" for free? Can you say "Heck yeah"? This alone will make it a casual player's dream, and for tournaments if he can be protected and proliferated enough to keep living I can imagine Jace, Memory Adept being the centerpiece of a competitive Mill deck and winning games.

"-7:" Seriously?! DRAW 20? Okay, so for a mill player they basically got Jace Beleren's ultimate at 3 fewer loyalty needed and an extra loyalty already tacked on (Memory Adept starts at 4 vs. Beleren starting at 3). That and they no longer would need to worry about dumping a big Eldrazi titan and losing all that work. But what gets me is the multiplayer application. "Any number of target players"? So at worst I could help all my teammates and myself by drawing 20 cards each, and if we're smart enough to be running Reliquary Tower we'll never have to worry about discarding? While we get all the answers we probably could ever need? I'll happily pay 7 loyalty to do that. Now where did I put my Doubling Seasons so I could do this first turn out? :) :)


Where do I see Jace? If players can protect him enough and/or Proliferate him up enough, I think Mental Adept could be seen in competitive Magic. If Innistrad is a Graveyard-based block like some are expecting, you can mill yourself for advantage so he'll still see competitive play. Casually, EDH/Commander, and the like I can definitely see him getting play value. If I could pick these up for $10-$15 each, I'd do it. He'll be very popular, and we've seen that the casual market can make prices higher than cards may deserve (take Doubling Season, for example. $18 on the low end for NM copies? But it's not in competitive decks.)

What do you think? Too powerful? Not powerful enough? Are you approaching those conclusions from a competitive or casual standpoint (or both)? Let us know what you think!

M12 Previews 2! Blue Goes Hexproof, Favorite 1-Cost Red Creature Returns

Good morning, Magic nuts! Today I'll be looking at some surprises that came from the posting of the M12 Card Gallery spoiling some already-known cards and, apparently, some Duels of the Planeswalkers new cards meant for dual use in Duels of the Planeswalkers and M12.

(NOTE: All scans/pics come from the DailyMTG website's Card Gallery for M12)

First off, how would you like for a Blue creature to be untargetable instead of "When this is targeted, destroy it"? We have our answer now in a brand-new card, Aven Fleetwing!!

I don't know about you, but I'm kinda happy to finally have a Blue creature in M12 that doesn't die just because it's targeted. ha ha! Instead, this little birdy does quite the opposite: your opponents can't target him! I can see this being a casual favorite and possibly even a Commander near-staple if Hexproof has enough love, but in competitive Magic it may be a toss-up. Hexproof flying is good, but 4 mana for a 2/2? It may be too slow, and there may be better stuff to do at 3 mana (Jace, maybe? ;)  )


Next up is a surprising reprint at Uncommon. I don't know if anyone ever thought about it coming back since it was released in Ravnica, but I guess blue Mill is the flavor of the decade for WotC. Re-introducing Belltower Sphinx!!

I was so unfamiliar with this card, I thought it was new when I first looked at it. For 5 mana you get a 2/5 flier that mills whenever an opponent's source deals damage to it (similar to how Phyrexian Obliterator does for permanents in general). I'd guess mill decks wouldn't mind this for a blocker so when your opponent DOES alpha strike you he can mill a good chunk of cards on the block. Hopefully by then you'll be able to survive and mill out the rest of their deck with no problem. Again, casual ground maybe but I don't see much more than that except as a Limited format good flier.


And finally in the Rare slot we have a true surprise. He's a 1-casting-cost Red creature and iconic in a number of Legacy decks. He's making his Standard return in about little over a month. Please welcome back with open arms GRIM LAVAMANCER!!!

Yes, folks, we have Grim Lavamancer making his Core Set debut and his re-introduction into Standard and Extended since the days Torment was legal. And with Lightning Bolt, Goblin Grenade, and other cheap burn being in Standard for even the smallest of time with him, I feel confident Grim Lavamancer will be a force to be reckoned with as a finisher in Mono-Red.

M12 Previews! New Lightning Greaves. New Old Planeswalkers? More!

Hello and welcome again for spoiler season! It's a quick turnaround this time, going quickly from Commander to Magic 2012. Thankfully, Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 has helped us a little bit in what we know about the set. So with a video game and some sample decks to help us out, let's get rolling!

When Duels of the Planeswalkers came out for XBox 360 a couple years ago, WotC put out small 30-card "sample decks" for new players to run and get to feel out the game quickly. They've done the same for the relase of Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012. Each deck has cards mostly from M12. A majority of cards are reprints, but a few took people by surprise. Like, oh, I don't know, Goblin Grenade!?!?!?

Image from MTGSalvation.com

You'll have to look on the very bottom row to the left, but it's there. We lost Lightning Bolt, but we gained Goblin Grenade. I'd say in the fast burn department, that's a decent tradeoff. And with some pretty decent Goblins still in Standard, it may not be a bad time to trade out those Lightning Bolts for Goblin Grenades to get a few extra points through.


Hmm...still not amazed? Alright...how about a Lightning Greaves remake? I'm pleased to announce SWIFTFOOT BOOTS!

Image from MTGSalvation.com

Yes, folks, we have a Lightning Greaves upgrade. It's still 2 mana to cast, it still gives haste, but it has 2 important distinctions. For one, it has an actual equip cost now of 1. That may be bad...or it may be good. Look at the next difference. Notice the new keyword Hexproof? That's right! No longer do you need to leave your creature exposed to targeted removal when you're trying to do something to your otherwise Lightning Graved creature! Just leave the boots on and target away with your own stuff while being protected from your opponent.

I have a feeling that as long as this is in Standard it'll be the equivalent of Lightning Greaves is in casual: VERY fast, VERY efficient, and VERY worth the mana.


And finally, we have confirmation that both Sorin Markov and Gideon Jura are being reprinted. (Gideon's confirmation came from a WotC preview session during Pro Tour - Nagoya this past weekend.) So we assumed the other original Planeswalker characters would also be getting reprinted: Jace Beleren, Chandra Nalaar, and Garruk Wildspeaker.

HOWEVER, a video in Japan apparently talking about Gideon's story has revealed something interesting about the 3 Lorwyn 'walker characters still around: Their names in Japanese writing don't match up to their Lorwyn equivalents. (For example, Garruk has no symbols above his name in the Lorwyn version, but for M12 it seems it does).

So potentially, we could have new Planeswalker cards for the 3 "surviving" Planeswalkers from Lorwyn! Woo-hoo!


That's all for today. Tune in next week when I start doing preview posts for 1 card in each rarity per post. Until then, take care, and we hope to see you at the SOM block draft tomorrow!

Dragonic M12 Previews! A Returning Keyword plus a Shards of Alara Reprint

(Scans of cards come from Aaron Forsythe's twitter feed @mtgaaron)


Even though spoiler season for M12 doesn't start for nearly another month (officially, anyway), that hasn't stopped Wizards of the Coast from previewing a few M12 cards in the last few days.

Today, we get to look at a couple new reveals. But first, a couple hints.

1) This new mythic rare Dragon brings back a keyword first seen in Ravnica: City of Guilds block and re-appeared in Time Spiral.

2) This reprint rare Dragon was first seen in Shards of Alara block and has the advantage of being the type of dragon you've always thought about in the fantasy world.



Give up?

For our first new card, what keywords could possibly have been in Ravnica block but also in Time Spiral? We have Convoke, Dredge, Transmute, Bloodthirst, and Graft. Of these, which might be the most Core Set-friendly mechanic?


You guessed it. Bloodthirst is probably the easiest on a new player. "I did damage to you? Okay, then I add [insert number here] +1/+1 counters on this."


The new mythic Dragon brings Bloodthirst back into the foray, supposedly replacing Scry as the "Comeback Keyword of the Year" for the Core Set.


Introducing...FURYBORN HELLKITE!

We initially have 7 mana for a 6/6 flier. Normally not that good, right? But if you're on 5 mana and can, I don't know, Lightning Bolt your opponent some damage and have New Phyrexia's Geosurge in hand, it's no longer 6/6 Flying for 7...all of a sudden it's more like 12/12 for 7!


Could it see casual play? Definitely! Could it see tournament play? Standard only, but I could see maybe 1 in a mono-red deck that needs a finisher that's hard to deal with. A lack of Haste hurts, but then that might make it too good for 7 mana?




The other Dragon is a Shards of Alara original. It's a red dragon, it flies, and it firebreathes...literally!


Reintroducing to anyone who wasn't around in Shards of Alara...Flameblast Dragon!!

He's not a bad dragon for casual. 5 power flying in the air isn't anything to sneeze at! But what can be bad is the big, long ability. If you let it attack, your opponent can just dump mana into it and get damage through to you regardless of any blocking! And if they don't block? Well, considering it took 6 mana to cast it, you can expect 5 from the ability and 5 from the attack for a total of 10 damage!


But could it hold up in a tournament? Flameblast Dragon never made waves when it was Standard legal and still doesn't in Extended, so he'll be relegated to the casual tables.


But in casual, if you can't deal with it, good luck surviving!




That's all the previews for now. As more come around, I'll update ASAP. Thanks for reading!