M15 Previews, Part 3! Planeswalkers, Planeswalkers, Planeswalkers!

Welcome back to M15 previews! The previews today are the 6 Planeswalkers in M15.

Yes...6 Planeswalkers.

Let's get started!

(NOTE: All but 1 image are from the M15 Card Image Gallery at the bottom of the product page. The final Planeswalker comes from the Arcana "The Hunter.")


The White Planeswalker you already know. But allow me to re-introduce Ajani Steadfast!

You can read my thoughts on Ajani in a previous blog post.



In Blue, we have the return of a Jace!...only the...uh...*still is counting*...5th Jace. Ha ha! This is the 2nd one where we know the setting: Jace became the Living Guildpact at the end of Return to Ravnica block. So let's introduce...Jace, the Living Guildpact!

Okay, okay...I know, it seems even less interesting than Jace, Architect of Thought. It's not even a milling Jace!

But let's consider the following:

1) Doubling Season test: If Doubling Season is out when Jace, the Living Guildpact enters the battlefield, he'll have 10 Loyalty Counters. So for -8, I get to Timetwister with 1 exception: I'm the only one who draws 7 cards! Combined with Jace's Erasure it's more like "Timetwister except you mill 7 instead of drawing 7."

2) +1 ability: If blue decks ever do some kind of Graveyard strategy (Flashback-based decks, perhaps?), this will be a house. You get to look at the top 2 cards, effectively setting up your next draw and possibly putting something in the graveyard to Flashback (either through the Sorcery or Instant's inherent Flashback or Snapcaster Mage).

3) For -3, you get to return a nonland permanent to someone's hand. At -3...that may be too steep. But it was effectively -1 on Jace, the Mind Sculptor and it only hit a creature so maybe this isn't too terrible...maybe?

4) If you can't Doubling Season, I don't see the value in the -8. It basically self-mills you after you shuffling everything in! And we know Jace was a milling-based Planeswalker, so this is a bit baffling. Perhaps they're seeing how much of the old Power 9 they can push onto a Planeswalker and make it balanced? Who knows.

For Modern or Legacy, I could see this being used for its +1 ability. The -8 would just be the icing on the cake. I don't see this being Standard-viable unless a U/B reanimation deck comes to prominence (or returning a nonland permanent to hand for 4 mana and leaving a 1-Loyalty damage soaker is stronger than I think).



Next up for Black, we start hitting reprints. Garruk is the focus of this Core Set, so we're revisiting the Planeswalker that made him the Veil-Cursed Planeswalker he is now. No, we're not getting Liliana of the Veil. It's been deemed too powerful in the current Standard environment. So we're going way back to...Liliana Vess!

So let's recap a few things...

1) Doubling Season test: Liliana also doubles to 10 with Doubling Season out. Considering Doubling Season and Liliana Vess are at earliest 5th- or 6th-turn drops, you're decently into the game already when she hits. If you've been protecting yourself by destroying creatures or milling them, get ready for your army: Activate her ultimate, get back all those nice creatures to your side, and still have a 2-Loyalty Planeswalker that can get you any card next turn or can start building back up for another run at her ultimate. :)

2) +1 to discard this late may be useful. But once your opponent sees her, they'll know their hand is in "use it or lose it" mode and will just start casting and top-decking as often as possible. On the plus side, you only have to target a player, not necessarily one that has a card in their hand so you can always +1 her. :)

3) -2 to Demonic Tutor is extremely powerful, especially when it leaves her with 3 Loyalty and she could do it again next turn!

4) Her -8 is just going to practically end games no matter how you get there. End of story...unless that story involves a bunch of cheap, low-power creatures. Then good luck winning. :p


Red provides another reprint. Re-introducing...Chandra, Pyromaster!

1) Doubling Season test: So Chandra, Pyromaster comes up and get 8 Loyalty counters, enough to get her Ultimate off the turn she enters. But a random chance to get an instant or sorcery to cast for nothing? Some of the better Red spells I'd cast probably have X in their cost, and being a Red/Green deck she'd go into I'd be mana-ramping to take advantage of that X. Also included would be damage preventers, so I'd really just be getting an 8-Loyalty Planeswalker that can keepa creature from blocking and deals 1 damage to my opponent.

2) +1 can be useful at times. Hit your opponent and their biggest creature to have a better chance of taking out some of their other creatures in combat or forcing them to use combat tricks to keep their smaller creatures alive. But it only hits 1 creature. Just...keep that in mind.

3) +/- 0...really depends. Drawing your card and using the 0 ability could effectively mean you've drawn 2 cards. Not bad for Red, but the condition is you'd need to cast that card to get use out of it. Exiled a Fog? Sorry! Exiled a Magma Spray you otherwise wouldn't have had until next turn? Better. Exiling Sould of Shandalahr (sp?) and getting to cast it a turn earlier than you otherwise could have? Priceless. :)

4) -7 again is just too risky for my taste. It exiles all 10 cards, then you better hope that Instant or Sorcery is worth copying. Most burn spells in Standard are nice enough to copy, as they'll either do 2 damage and exile each OR just deal 3 damage...which tripled will be 9..OR in Fated Conflagration's case could take out 3 creatures while letting you Scry up to 6 if needed. Hmm...maybe I should reconsider this. :p But outside of Standard, again, the better spells sometimes are the ones with X in their cost. Especially with Miracles like Bonfire of the Damned or Entreat the Angels, you hit one of those with this and if it's the only thing you hit you'll be facepalming from here to M16. :P  Now...in an "extra turns" deck, hitting Temporal Mastery or Time Warp could about be leathal in itself. Put another way...in 4 total turns (current + 3 extra), you better be able to win. ;)

Next up (and 2nd to last, only because of the way we go around the color wheel. :p), we've seen Nissa Revane only once since Zendikar (which makes her only a few months older than Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Whoah!) as an Elf-centered Planeswalker. After the Eldrazi were freed, she was badly injured and on the border of dying. Rescued by fellow Zendikar inhabitants, she eventually heals up and takes on some of the smaller Eldrazi threats (well...smaller than, say, Kozilek!)...revealing new powers in the battle.

Presenting...Nissa, Worldwaker!

1) Doubling Season test: At 6 Loyalty when doubled....Gah! I'll have to activate one of her +1 abilities and wait a turn or run her with Ajani Steadfast to get the ultimate in the same turn. Considering her 2nd "+1" is to untap 4 Forests, though, this means if you're using all Forests she effectively only costs 1 mana. I can't complain at that point. I could run some Proliferate artifacts and use the now-freed-up mana to put 1 more counter on her.

2) The first +1 is pretty nice. "Oh, hey guys! I'm a 4-Loyalty Planeswalker that gives my controller a 4/4 body to deal with if you want to attack. Even if his/her field is clear, as long as my controller has an untapped land after I hit the field he/she will have a creature."

3) The second +1 again effectively makes her cost only 1 mana. Combine this with lands like Breeding Pool and you can make sure you have your second color ready to go in case your opponent tries to deal with her.

4) Her -7...wow! So by this time, perhaps you don't need basic lands. Cool, that's fine. But could you always use 4/4 Elementals with trample? I'd say the answer is YES! And read carefully...they don't enter tapped. You have even 6 basic lands left in your deck? Nah...that's 6 4/4 creatures that just happen to be lands! ;)

Casually, she'll be a favorite. Tournament-level, we'll see but I doubt she'll be an obscure Planeswalker. Her "untap 4 Forests" +1 is very reminiscent of Garruk Wildspeaker's "untap 2 lands" +1. He was seeing play widely partially because of that! Now apply that to Nissa. Yeah...as long as you're running Forests, you get to untap 4 of them a turn. While Return to Ravnica block is legal, you really have no reason not to be playing her in a 2- or 3-color deck where your non-basics are "Land - Forest [land type]." Price wise? I'd expect $20 early on, not going below $15 while Ravnica is in Standard, then possibly dipping closer to $10 depending on the themes in Khans of Tarkir in October.



Finally (WHEW! That's a lot of typing! lol!), and speaking of Garruk, we have our 6th Planeswalker. Last Thursday, I previewed a Garruk that we'd be using during the Pre-release as an activity thing. He had 4 abilities and was a Black/Green Planeswalker.

Well...guess what? Our actual in-set Garruk is also Black/Green...and comes with 4 abilities! Presenting, last but certainly not least (by a long shot)...GARRUK, APEX PREDATOR!

So I need to note this...officially (as in, for regular-sized Magic cards) this is only the 2nd...or perhaps 3rd... Planeswalker to have 4 or more abilities. The previous 2? One we know for sure, the ever popular Jace, the Mind Sculptor! The other, it depends on your definition of a singular Planeswalker. I'm looking back at Garruk Relentless/Garruk, the Veil-Cursed. Although two slightly-different Planeswalkers, you can't have one without the other as it's a Flip Card. So counting both sides, his Planeswalker card has 5 abilities. However, only 2-3 are usable at a time.

1) Doubling Season test: Yes, yes please give me that ultimate the 1st turn he hits! I want my Llanowar Elves to be 6/6 creatures attacking! Yes, since he's 7 mana I've probably already cast Primeval Titan so let's make him an 11/11 on attacking! Oh, can I get that up to ultimate twice? Why thanks for not attacking! I'll make my few creatures that late into the game a minimum of 11/11 (1/1 creature with 2 Emblems triggering) and perhaps at most a 16/16 (Primeval Titan). Not...too...shabby. :)

2) His first +1 ability is just plain scary. "Destroy another target Planeswalker." I...I really don't see Planeswalker control decks doing too hot against this Garruk. I know 7 mana's expensive, but considering he starts at 5 and instantly goes up to 6, I think being able to destroy an Ajani, Mentor of Heroes threatening to launch off his ultimate for +100 life is well worth it at that stage. Without mana ramp, though, don't expect this to be of any use until right near when any good Planeswalker can use its ultimate ability (if it hasn't already).

3) His second +1 harkens back to just about every other version of him. This time the token he gives you is a 3/3 Beast with Deathtouch. Fine, let that Trampler come in. It's the last time it'll be doing anything. :) Definitely worth using once Garruk hits. Just blow up a Planeswalker next turn!

4) The -3 ability can be a life saver. You're facing down an Emrakul that's having to wait a turn to attack. No problem! Cast Garruk, -3, destroy Emarkul and gain 15 life. REalistically, though, I'd say you'll be doing good to gain 4-6 life on using this ability. The life gain isn't quite as important, though. You can just decide to get rid of the biggest threat to your board the turn he hits. Again, not...too...shabby.

5) I've already made my thoughts clear on the 4th, "ultimate" ability. Outside of Doubling Season, I can see it being used...exactly once. But at +5/+5 and Trample on even a set of 4/4 creatures, that's still a ton of damage the opponent has to either soak up or say "GG" to.


And there you have them! All 6 Planeswalkers. We have 2 reprints and 4 new ones. If you've got opinions, please feel free to share them here or on the group's Facebook page.

I may get some more updates in before the end of the week, but the spoiler goes fully revealed either Friday or next Monday so there's not a lot of new stuff left. Take care and catch you all later!

M15 Previews Continue! Land Previews, A Little More on New Card Frames, and Garruk Pre-Release Activity.

Welcome back to the 2nd day of CGLHixson.Blogspot.com's revitalization! I can do a bit more here with editing and creating so for the rest of the summer if I need to post images I'll post here I think.


I have quite a few previews today. Most of them are lands (but I think you'll enjoy them. ;)  ), and toward the end I'll detail the Garruk activity that'll be part of the Pre-Release (set for July 12-13, 2014).


First up, with the Shocklands going out of Standard in October of this year, and the "Scrylands" being the only duals (which only help more control-like strategies since they must come onto the battlefield tapped), what would the Core Set give decks to help them in the new Standard?

Well...according to Sam Stoddard, they decided to bring back the Apocalypse painlands!

from Sam Stoddard's article linked above

"Hey, what's the foil sticker thingy near the bottom of those M15 lands? Not all of your previews yesterday had that."

Ahhh...that's an authenticity sticker basically. Any Rares or Mythic Rares printed from this point on will have that foil sticker-looking thing that cuts into the text box a little bit. High-end fakes of popular Rares and Mythic Rares are starting to proliferate through the MTG trading community. Since those are the most likely to get faked, this little sticker will help ensure what you're getting is an authentic WotC-printed Magic card.

It doesn't matter if the card is a foil card or a regular card. Only the Rares and Mythic Rares, foil or not, will have the authenticity sticker. No Commons or Uncommons, foil or not, will have that.


So why did they bring back the Painlands? Although they prefer the "Pay 1 life" clause as opposed to the "deals 1 damage" clause for the current design philosophy, these were already available and didn't create duplicates that'd have to be reprinted as a full set of 10.

"But what happened to them saying 'the Core Set isn't the place for Painlands or any land that requires a life payment'?" I guess they've decided that players have grown up; if they're playing with Shocklands, "noob" and veteran alike, then Painlands are fair game again.

Will some players still prefer "enters the battlefield tapped" as opposed to the Shocklands or Painlands? Yes! That's not bad. But this opens up options to those who don't mind that life payment. (And if you're playing a Lifelink-based deck, do you really care? lol!)


Speaking of Rare lands, I've been in love with a certain Swamp-transforming land since it was first released in Planar Chaos. I was even happy it got a foil reprint in From the Vault: Realms. For a year (starting July 18th and ending October 2015), we'll have a land that helps multi-colored decks that use Black as a key color...as long as your opponent isn't also running Black.

Re-introducing (and now in new frame)...Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth!

From "Magic Espana" Twitter feed

It's been a while, so here's the English text for Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth:

"Each land is a Swamp in addition to its other land types." (text from Magiccards.info, which gets its text from Oracle)

Nice! So all your lands are Swamps, meaning Urborg and any other land you have (even if it's a Hallowed Fountain) can make a single Black mana each.

...Oh, but it makes each land a Swamp. This can benefit your opponent too. If they're running anything with Black in it, you just helped out their manabase. Even their basic Forests, where once they'd be mana screwed if that's all they have, now enables them to cast the cards in their hand. Yikes! Use this wisely.

One big thing to remember with Urborg, especially if you're playing in Modern-format tournaments: The phrase "in addition to its other land types" doesn't remove any abilities of any other land on the battlefield. It's like it tacks on, "Oh, btw, all lands can also tap to add a single Black mana to your mana pool."

How is this different than, say, Blood Moon? Simple. Blood Moon doesn't say "in addition to its other land types." Blood Moon completely overwrites all non-Basic lands and says, "Oh, hey Hallowed Fountain [for example]! You now are a basic Mountain and can only provide a single Red mana. That's it. I burned up your fountain! MWA-HA-HA-HA-H*COUGHCOUGHGAAAAG*"




"Okay, enough chatter about reprints. What's the Garruk activity!?"  Fine, fine. Let's get to it. :)

Well...you know how flavor-wise we are the Planeswalker? Yeah...well, this gives you the chance to finally use Planeswalker abilities as the Planeswalker!

May I introduce, the oversized (so not legal anywhere else) Garruk the Slayer!

From http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/win-ultimate-trophy-2014-06-22

Here's how playing as Garruk works: For each game of the Pre-release, one player plays as Garruk. The other plays his or her deck as normal. The player playing their Pre-release deck always goes first. Garruk starts with 20 Loyalty Counters, and when he hits 0 he loses. He is a Planeswalker, so he's limited to using only 1 Planeswalker ability per turn and must do it at Sorcery speed (when the stack is empty and it's your turn and you have priority). [This makes your first turn mostly obvious: make a 2/2 Wolf!]

Now, does this mean it's Garruk PLUS your deck? I don't believe so. It makes it sound like the player that plays as Garruk only does that...plays as Garruk. No library, no draw phases, just Garruk having 4 abilities, 3 of which he could do on the first turn if needed. We'll need further clarification just to be sure.

Personally...I'd like to be Garruk once, but if I can't use my deck alongside him that's about all I'd like to do it. I don't feel comfortable being that vulnerable with only action per turn (aside from attack and block choices). At least his +4 feels more like life gain, so after you get your first 2/2 Wolf you could start gaining life as long as that Wolf exists. I also like the -10's ability to put Loyalty Counters back on Garruk, so you're not ever losing the full 10 Loyalty: If you use the -10 to kill a 5-toughness creature, you really only effectively lose 5 Loyalty. But watch out for Red! IF they can burn you out after you activate the -10 (remember, the ability goes on the stack; it doesn't automatically resolve.), you still lose. [I'd love to see someone use the -10 on an 11+-toughness creature, though. Adding Loyalty FTW! ha ha.]

So how would I play Garruk? I'd probably make 1-2 Wolves, then give one +1/+0 and Deathtouch a few times. I'd use the -10 only if it was necessary, and I wouldn't use the -25 unless I was absolutely desperate and wasn't up against a Red deck. (If I could get to upwards of 50 Loyalty, though, I wouldn't be afraid to use it. lol! But at that point you're probably not a threat anyway.)

I think it's interesting to note this is the only other 4-ability Planeswalker to be printed in any way. The only other 4-ability Planeswalker? The ever-broken Jace, the Mind Sculptor.


I hope you enjoyed these previews! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment here or on Facebook and I'll get back to it ASAP. Until then, take care! I'll try to post some preview(s) over the weekend.

M15 Previews! Including highlights of differences in card frames.

Hello all, and welcome back to CGLHixson.Blogspot.com! While the info about our group is out of date (2012 was the last post. Come on! Give a little understanding here. :p), the group itself is far from dead. :)


Today, I have M15 previews! Yes, yes, we're already gearing up for a new set not long after Conspiracy came crashing on our doorstop and said, "I Know What You Did Last Summer with Modern Masters! And I want to be part of it!"

...

Am I the only one who thought that? Oh, well.

Onto the previews!

We'll start with a preview of a couple reprints, one of which I'll use to show the differences in the card frames used from 8th Edition up through Conspiracy. RIP, first major card frame change in Magic.

July 28, 2003 - April 26, 2014 (Intro packs of Journey into Nyx started giving away M15 basic lands with the new card frame)


So what card did I use to show the difference in card frame? Well...it's a bit of a shock, really. No...2.5x worse than Shock (if you're on the receiving end), but it takes sacrificing an Artifact to do it.

Re-introducing....Shrapnel Blast! (using the Friday Night Magic/Modern Masters artwork)

Nice card frame, bro.

So you're looking at it without your other Magic cards around and you're going, "...and what's so special about the new card frame?"

Here's a side-by-side (or perhaps top-and-bottom, depending on how this publishes) comparison.

In green, you see we have the name line. Look carefully at the new (left) and old (right) fonts. Wizards of the Coast has decided to use its own proprietary font to give Magic a better fantasy feel, make it feel like you're in the world of Magic rather than reading a card that's based on the world of Magic...I think. :p

The font changes apply to the type line as well (where the card says "Instant", in this case). I didn't see a big enough change in the font to warrant showing it as a change, but especially when you see creature cards that are reprinted I think you'll notice the difference fairly quickly.

In blue, you see how they brought the colored border back into the text box. This makes for more black space at the bottom of the card and I believe actually let them expand the text box just a bit. While it's difficult to see in this picture, you may also notice (once you get your hands on these cards) that the text box still contains its sharp rectangular edges at the bottom. They're a lot more pronounced though because the colored border doesn't extend all the way to the bottom of the card now.

Not used to that? You should be. It's been done on every planeswalker since they were released. ;)

Finally, in purple, you see the miscellaneous information.
     * In the old frame (the Modern Masters Shrapnel Blast here), you see the artist and...that's about it. Good luck trying to read the collector number and copyright information from that.
     * In the new frame, we can more clearly see the artist and collector number (left) and copyright information (right). But wait...what is all that other information?
          --> You see a "U" next to the collector number. That's the card's rarity. "C" is Common, "U" is Uncommon, "R" is Rare, "M" is Mythic, and "P" I believe will be used for promotional cards. No more having to remember what color of set symbol goes with which rarity or figuring out if that foil you have is a promotional card or from the set itself.
          --> Below the collector number, you see "M15 * EN." Cards will now indicate what set they came from with a 3-alphanumeric code. If Conspiracy had used this format, the set would be "CNS," for example. The "EN" is the language abbreviation. This is obviously an English card. But how many times have you looked at a foreign card and not recognized the language or wondered if it was Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese (assuming you don't know the difference already, just that there are two Chinese writing styles)? This should alleviate a lot of that problem.


Okay, great, so how can we guarantee we have an artifact to sacrifice? Glad you asked! Apparently Artifact Lands aren't too difficult for a Core Set. Re-introducing, for the first printing since Duel Decks: Elspeth vs. Tezzeret (back in 2010!)...Darksteel Citadel! (and I'm putting a Duel Deck version next to it for comparison. What? If you're going to have to deal with new card frames, best to catch the differences now, amirite?)

So I think we see here they're trying to reprint as many often-used cards as possible that used to simply state "[Card Name] is indestructible" with the keyword version that just says "Indescructible." But in this case, it also helps the price of the card. Darksteel Citadels, which were only Commons before M15, were pushing closer to $1.50 per copy! Some Rares don't go for that much! Ha ha! But really, it's very useful if you don't mind the mana investment. In case your opponent loves to play "destroy target land" or "destroy all lands", this will at least leave you with the Citadel to re-start on artifacts or cheap colored spells if you can draw into/have a land ready to play.

For Standard...I don't know. It depends on how deep the "artifacts matter" sub-theme of M15 goes and what kinds of artifacts Khans of Tarkir gives us. But it'll help alleviate some of the Citadel needs in other formats, that's for sure. HINT: If you're drafting and you've already picked up a Shrapnel Blast, why you wouldn't take this is beyond me. ;)


Finally, I want to touch on a new Planeswalker that I find extremely fun...and it gets around some of the Doubling Season issues with Planeswalkers (aside from Proliferate, there's very little ability for Doubling Season to double counters on Planeswalkers past their initial entry to the battlefield).

Introducing...Ajani Steadfast!

Now I'll be honest...I do a "Doubling Season check" of every new Planeswalker I see. What's this "check"? If I take the starting loyalty and double it, do I get to use the Planeswalker's ultimate the turn it enters the battlefield? If that's a "yes", then I think about using it in a Doubling Season build.

And Ajani comes through on that check! In fact, it's extremely beneficial for the late game. So with Doubling Season, Ajani Steadfast comes in with 8 loyalty counters. Remove 7 of those and you get an Emblem. What does this do? "If a source would deal damage to you or a planeswalker you control, prevent all but 1 of that damage."

Read again...ALL BUT 1!

"How is that useful with Ajani? He'll be down to 1 Loyalty anyway!" First, a good Doubling Season casual build will use 4 Fogs...at least! But look at the longer game. You put a few Ajani Steadfast in and a few other planeswalkers that add 2 Loyalty at a time. If your opponent can only get in with one creature or damage spell at a time, they can only deal 1 damage at a time. You'll net a +1 Loyaly Counter per turn. Again, this assumes they don't use multiple sources to damage your planeswalkers. But I think we'll agree that having a 15/15 Eldrazi hit you for only 1 per turn is pretty sick!

The middle ability is what'll most likely help your planeswalkers out the most. Take 2 loyalty counters off of Ajani Steadfast and you get to put a +1/+1 counter on each of your creatures and a loyalty counter on each other planeswalker you control. Think about that...Elspeth, Sun's Champion can get her ultimate off in 2 turns rather than 4 or so. The same goes for Kiora giving you Krakens and Domri Rade making all your creatures Double Striking Hexproof beatdown sticks! Add in Doubling Season, though...Ajani would come in with 8 counters, and he'd give 2 additional counters to everyone else. Imagine a Jace, the Mind Sculptor coming in at 6 Loyalty counters, using its +2 ability to Scry yourself or Fateseal someone's top of the deck, then using Ajani's 2nd ability. That puts Jace at 10 Loyaly Counters on his first turn on the battlefield! Next turn, use Ajani's 2nd ability again to get Jace to 12, then use Jace's ultimate to exile your opponent's library and make their hand their library instead. Jace, the Mind Sculptor ultimate in his first couple of turns!? Yeesh! Find other Planeswalkers and experiment. I think at least a few of them could do their ultimate and get another couple of loyalty counters to help their ability to survive with this Doubling Season + Ajani Seteadfast combo. :)

His +1 is okay. It helps a ton that the creature gets Vigilance so it can block in the next turn. Lifelink is amazing on almost any creature, I feel, and First Strike is just what the doctor ordered on those Deathtouchers. Oh, and the extra +1/+1 is also nice. ;)

Overall, I love this Ajani. I'll rebuild a Doubling Season deck using him and Kiora at minimum. I do want to live that Jace, the Mind Sculptor dream, though, and ultimate him the 2nd turn he's on the battlefield. lol. And look closely at his artwork. In the Theros story, Ajani and Elspeth were very close. So when Elspeth died, Ajani took it hard. How hard? He's wearing Elspeth's cloak over his right shoulder. :-_(


That's all the time I have for now. Let me know if you like having preview posts done on here or on Facebook directly more. These take more time, but during the summer if it helps more I'll do a few more through the blog. :)

I'll definitely give details on the Garruk activity at Pre-Release tomorrow.

(NOTE: All M15 images come from dailymtg.com . All non-M15 images come from magiccards.info . )

Return to Ravnica Draft and League Details

Hey all!
  We're closing in on our Return to Ravnica Post-Release Draft and soon after that the Return to Ravnica League. Yay!

  So I wanted to share a few details with you (with more extensive details on League coming later):

RETURN TO RAVNICA DRAFT
WHEN: October 27th. We'll start announcements at 11:00, with drafting immediately after.
WHERE: Time Warp Games, formerly called Packard's Games and Movies, in Northgate Mall in Hixson, TN
RULES: Full Rules for Return to Ravnica Draft


RETURN TO RAVNICA LEAGUE
DURATION: November 10th - January 5th
TOURNAMENT TYPE: Modified version of Sealed Deck. Specific deck building rules TBA.
COST: $46 if paid up-front OR $20 first period + $9 each additional period after if on a period-to-period basis.
BASIC STRUCTURE:
1) The Return to Ravnica League will run for only 2 months (instead of the traditional 3).
2) We will run the League in 2-week increments, or "periods."
3) First period, you'll get 6 Return to Ravnica packs to use in building a 40-card (still unofficially) deck.
 Every period thereafter, you'll get 2 packs of Return to Ravnica as additional help in strengthening your deck.
4) Trading of cards from your League pool into someone else's League pool is allowed. As such, you are constrained to 4 copies of any non-Basic Land card in your deck. Details on legal trades TBA.
5) Every so often, the deck size minimum will go up until we hit 60 cards. Specific details TBA, including if we'll up it to the full 60 or only to 50.
6) Prizes will come from splitting up a Duel Decks: Izzet vs. Golgari deck set and/or Return to Ravnica pack splits and/or any promo cards I have.
7) There is a points system.  Points (for prize distribution and bragging rights) are done on a period and overall basis. Details TBA.


I'll have more details toward the end of the week or beginning next week. I'm just excited to get to play with the new cards! :)

How It Seems Return to Ravnica Pre-Release Will Work

With all the information from last night about Shocklands and new previews, what got glossed over was how the Pre-Release will work for Return to Ravnica.

From the start, we were told of "Guild Packs" that will serve as the 6th pack of a Sealed Deck Pre-Release. It was assumed from the chatter that you would pick one of the 5 Return to Ravnica guilds and, along with your 5 normal packs of Return to Ravncia, you'd get 1 "Guild Pack" of 15 cards: 14 cards exclusively in the  colors of the Guild you chose plus a Pre-Release promo tied to that Guild.

However, last night we not only got the Pre-Release promos for the set spoiled but also the way these packs will actually work.

First, let's see how the Pre-Release will work.

(Details are from http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Events.aspx?x=mtgcom/events/prerelease-facts)

When you go to the Pre-Release, you'll choose 1 of the 5 Return to Ravnica Guilds:

• Azorius (White/Blue)
• Izzet (Blue/Red)
• Rakdos (Red/Black)
• Golgari (Black/Green)
• Selesnya (Green/White)

You will receive a collection of stuff called a "Guild Prerelease Pack". It contains the following:

• 5 normal Return to Ravnica boosters.
• 1 14-card Guild-specific pack
• These 14 cards that fit your Guild's colors (mono-color cards could be included, but they will fit your Guild's colors. Also, I assume nothing with even a loose affiliation with another Guild would be included)
• 1 Prerelease card specific to your Guild.
• 1 Spindown Life Counter (I would assume "20" is the Guild symbol of your chosen Guild)
• 1 Achievment Card (probably similar to the last few Pre-Releases)
• 1 Guild Symbol Sticker
• 1 Letter from your chosen Guild's Guildmaster

That's not too shabby, is it? :) As usual, it's a Sealed Deck tournament, meaning you build your deck from the 6 packs you get plus any Basic Lands you need (usually provided by the tournament venue).

Why don't we look at the Pre-Release cards now? Perhaps what they do is important to what you'll pick for the Pre-Release (and it gives me a good excuse to post a few Spoilers this afternoon. ;)  )

(NOTE: All images from Wizards of the Coast's Return to Ravnica Card Image Gallery and may or may not be the artwork used for the Pre-Release promo versions)

AZORIUS

If you're reading and going "Wait...the reminder text sounds familiar." Well...that's because it's normally been on cards. Look at Arrest (oddly enough, from the block Return to Ravnica will replace in about a month!):

From  http://magiccards.info/som/en/2.html

So this also gives me a good excuse to preview Azorius' new keyword, Detain.

When a creature with Detain gets to use its Detain ability, it allows that player to choose a certain number of opponent's nonland permanents (it'll be specific how many in the text) and keeps that/those permanent(s) from doing 3 things:

• No attacking.
• No blocking.
• No activating their activated abilities (Anything with a colon [:] before the actual effect is an activated ability)

The effect usually lasts for a turn, so it's kind of like getting a Frost Titan effect when the Detain trigger happens.

Detain's trigger isn't the same for every creature. For Archon of the Triumverate, it's on attacking. For Lyev Skyknight, though, (another preview card from the Card Image Gallery), it's when he enters the battlefield.

IZZET

So we have a 4/4 Flying Haste dragon for 5 mana. Not bad as-is. But this lets you cast Sorceries as if they were Instants! Imagine being able to cast Past in Flames on your opponent's turn to set up a win on your very next turn, or casting Reforge the Soul to refill your hand while your opponent can't use what he drew because he didn't think to keep some lands untapped to gain mana from them.

Though I'm sure some pro will be much more sinister than I with their plans. ;)

RAKDOS

Yesterday one of our player's reactions to "Unleash" was one word: "Lame." Why? It was on a 1/1 creature.

AHem...perhaps to explain Unleash. It's a pretty simple mechanic really. You can bring the creature onto the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. As long as it has a +1/+1 counter on it, though, it can't block. Yes, you're basically forcing your Unleash creature to focus on attacking only.

So why would you ever do this? Look at Carnival Hellsteed.

For 6 mana, he's a 5/4 with First Strike and Haste. 5 power with First Strike is very helpful, but what if you're not focused on defense? What if your opponent has an empty field and you can hold off any other creature threat he's got?

Give the Hellsteed a +1/+1 counter and let it attack for 6 each turn, duh! And if your opponent happens to get something out to block, then Hellsteed will just First Strike it to death with 6 power vs. what will most likely be a relatively smaller-toughness creature.

It's important to note, though, that if you do give an Unleash creature a +1/+1 counter FOR ANY REASON, it will not be able to block. This might be where you'd favor casting a Blessings of Nature and giving an Unleash creature a +1/+1 counter. This way, if you have a big creature you didn't want stopped, it won't be a problem now. (Of course, you'll then have to deal with a stronger creature next turn, so be careful about doing that!)

GOLGARI

So perhaps we won't get Doubling Season reprinted, but honestly we've got half the card in Innistrad's Parallel Lives. This gives us, for the most part, the other half of Doubling Season.

If any creatures you control would get any +1/+1 counters, double them up! Hmm...Blessings of Nature looks better and better now, eh? lol!

Well, think of it this way...working with Unleash you get a creature in with 2 +1/+1 counters instead of 1. If you use it against Unleash (as I was talking about just a couple paragraphs above), your Unleash target only gets 1 +1/+1 counter while, in total, your other creatures would get 6 total +1/+1s! (Either 1 creature gets 6, or 1 gets 4 while another gets 2, or each gets 2, etc.)

I imagine with Shocklands being back we'll see Rakdos and Golgari team up in this fashion. Or perhaps it could just be a Golgari beatdown deck using effects that gives +1/+1 counters...including Scavenge! Or because of Shocklands, why limit ourselves? When Gatecrash comes out, we'll have Breeding Pool so we could go with Inivisible Stalker Counters (using Scavenge and the 1- or 2-of Blessings of Nature to make 1 huge Invisible Stalker that's difficult to handle.)

This is a potentially Standard-playable card, but I feel it'll find a lot more favor at the casual table as 4-toughness creatures aren't as easy to handle in and of themselves.

SELESNYA

Okay...so I'll be honest. This feels like a kick to Selesnya. Every other color gets a decent creature while Grove of the Guardian gets a land?

Perhaps it's not as bad as it looks. Remember, Selesnya's new keyword is Populate, which lets you make copies of tokens. It's plausible that this effectively reads as:

Elemental

4GW (remember, you have to tap Grove of the Guardian itself, so that's like using the mana from itself)

As an additional cost to cast this creature, tap two untapped creatures you control.

Vigilance

8/8

So from that perspective, perhaps it's not too bad. And if there are cards that can get lands back, even if it's just 1 or 2, that'll possibly net you two of these guys. Unfortunately, we don't know of any yet so I have to judge off a 1-time activation.

An 8/8 is scary! Add to that it can attack and block with no problems and this can be a menace.

But what I'm also seeing is what's termed "power creep" in creatures. No longer is a 3-mana creature a 2/2 with a decent ability. It's usually a 3/3 with a keyword or 5/4 with nothing else. This increases the chances your 8/8 could be killed on it attacking. Add to it that we have 2 guilds with Red and 2 with Black and there can be some decent damage or toughness-lowering abilities that ends up killing this humongous 8/8 before it actually deals a ton of damage.

If it had Trample as well (that way White would be Vigilance and Green would be Trample, making it a White/Green creature), I'd be more willing to try it. As it stands now, though, I'd like to see more of the set before passing judgment.

As a Legacy and Modern note, though, remember that Green has Life from the Loam and can use Crucible of Worlds so perhaps there it might make a better casual card for playgroups that play those formats but don't use tournament decks.

I hope you enjoyed the run through the Pre-Release promos! Hopefully over the next few days I can get more previews posted for you. Until then, take care and enjoy Return to Ravnica preview season!

Shocklands: Confirmation! And Some History and Rules

Today is a good news day if you've been playing Magic since at least Ravnica: City of Guilds block.

There was speculation based on art and very artful dodging of questions about the matter, but at tonight's PAX Prime MTG Party, there was no question.

They..


Are..


Coming...


BACK!

From  https://twitter.com/mtgcolorpie/status/242083449048006657

Yes, sir! The original Ravnica: City of Guilds block "Shocklands" are back in Standard for 2 years! Woot!

*crickets chirp*

*they keep chirping*

(KAPOW!!!)

*No more chirping*

Okay, okay...so you're fairly new to the game and you're wondering "So...what's the big deal?"


Let me tell you a story...a story of the original "Dual Lands"...

When Magic: The Gathering's first set (now named Alpha) first came out, there was a "cycle" of 10 lands called "Dual Lands."

From  http://magiccards.info/al/en/278.html

These were non-basic lands that had basic land types. In Bayou's case, it's Forest and Swamp. While it *was* part of the effect, it later got errata'd to always have those land types (so the type line would read "Land- Forest Swamp").

These cards are so good for a single reason: they do have the basic land types.

"So they're basic lands!...Right?"

Oh, if it were that simple! You can have unlimited numbers of Basic Lands in your deck. But there are only 5 cards (constantly reprinted) that are Basic Lands. They are named Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest. They also have the type line read "Basic Land - Plains" or "Basic Land - Island", for example. So these original Dual Lands were, later in the game's history and like most other cards since, limited to 4 copies in a deck.

No, having basic land types made them easily searchable! Look at Farseek (recently reprinted in Magic 2013 Core Set):

From  http://magiccards.info/m13/en/170.html

Look at the wording..."a Plains, Island, Swamp or Mountain." It doesn't say a basic Plains, Island, Swamp, or Mountain. So let's look at Bayou.

If you wanted to search for Bayou, you could search for a Swamp, go get Bayou, and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Not too shabby!

So when Ravnica: City of Guilds came out, we got the first preview of the "new Duals", called collectively as "Shocklands".

From A Special Ravnica Preview, August 18 2005

These are closer to "true Duals", a re-creation of the original Alpha/Beta/Unlimited/Revised Bayou-type duals that have 2 basic land types in their typeline. But by this time, the "Reserved List" had been put in to prevent reprinting of old Rares (for the most part). So this was the fix.

Why are they called "Shocklands", though? Unlike the "true Duals", these lands had a clause universal to all 10:
"As [card name] enters the battlefield, you may pay 2 life. If you don't, [card name] enters the battlefield tapped instead."

So basically, you were doing a self-Shock just to get to use the land the same turn you played it.

"Soooo not worth it!", some claim. "2 life to get to use it?"

Yep...but look at cards like Wild Nacatl (HINT: Shocklands seemed to be the reason it was banned in Modern):

From  http://magiccards.info/ddh/en/4.html

Now look at Temple Garden again:

New art in Return to Ravnica. From Return to Ravnica card image gallery.

So you pay 2 life on turn 1, right? Then pay G for Wild Nacatl. Congrats! You now have a 3/3 creature! Temple Garden is a Forest, so that's +1/+1 to Nacatl's 1/1. Then, it's also a Plains, so Wild Nacatl goes from 2/2 to 3/3. Feel powerful that you have a Turn 1 3/3. That's not easy to accomplish, no matter what generation of cards you were looking at. (EDIT: Or what could also usually happen in Modern was Turn 1 Stomping Ground to cast Nacatl [now 2/2 because you have a Forest], then Turn 2 you play a Temple Garden or Sacred Foundry to have a Plains and make him 3/3. Either way, you have a 3/3 creature attacking on Turn 2 of the game while the opponent probably has a 1/1 or 2/2 if they're not playing the same deck.)

So back to the history of these...so you notice how generic the names are? "Stomping Ground", "Temple Garden", "Watery Grave" (for Blue/Black), etc. The intent was indeed to make them re-printable in non-Ravnica-themed sets. (REFERENCE: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/db47)

So what happened? At one time "Painlands" (you tap for 1 colorless mana OR you tap to get 1 of 2 colors of mana for a 1-life payment) were the go-to lands for Core Sets. It was speculated these "Shocklands" would replace them.

Instead, we got 5 lands like Glacial Fortress (with the entire 10-card cycle finally finished out in Innistrad):

From  http://magiccards.info/m13/en/225.html

Why did we not get Shocklands? Well, it seems players were not looking at the "Painlands" and seeing the power of paying life for mana. It wasn't "obvious" why advanced players were willing to give up life to get one of 2 colors of mana off their land. So this was the response (SOURCE: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/45)

So we figured "Okay...goodbye Shocklands! We'll see you in Legacy...NOT!" Well, along came a format called "Modern", which basically said any card in an Expansion from around 2003 onward (Mirrodin block and 8th Edition start the run for Expansions and Core Sets, respectively) was legal (save for a ban list). So what happens when you combine a new format with lands that eerily simulate the "real Duals" that are widely used in Legacy?

PRICE HIKES!

At some point (and I can't remember when, so I apologize), WotC said it was their plan to reprint certain Modern cards where they were more easily available to the masses. Combine this with the fact that the "Shocklands" had generic names and it meant that any Core Set from the onset of Modern forward could have had the "Shocklands". But that one paragraph about players not liking to pay life for lands kept ringing in our heads.

...Until today. With Return to Ravnica being an Expansion set, I feel Wizards of the Coast felt it was safe to reprint the Shocklands here.

1) Players who pick up Return to Ravnica are partially doing so for nostalgia's sake. They remember the Shocklands so it's a familiar thing to them to pick more up, or some perhaps for the first time as they couldn't get their hands on them before.

2) As an Expansion, it's naturally geared toward higher-level playing players than complete "noobies", for lack of a better word.

3) Perhaps they felt with the popularity of the Zendikar fetch lands (which finished out a 5-card cycle from Onslaught with the other 5 color pairs) it was safer to allow players to pay life for their lands as more saw the benefit of doing such just a few years ago.


For whatever reason, I am very glad WotC has reprinted the "Shocklands." I'm sure many veterans from that era are more than happy to dust off their old "new Duals", plop down some Farseeks or Gem of Becomings to help fetch them out, and let the multicolored goodness fly much more easily. And for newer players? The Shocklands here have an advantage the older ones didn't: Magic is played much more frequently, and therefore bought more frequently, than it was in the past. Add to that regular Rares are easier to get thanks to the introduction of Mythic Rare in Shards of Alara in roughly 2007 and we should see a lowering in Shockland prices. This means your dollar could buy more "new Duals" that function very closely to the "old Duals" of days gone by. :)


SO NOW...which ones will be legal when?

RETURN TO RAVNICA (releases October 5, 2012*)
Hallowed Fountain (Azorius)
Steam Vents (Izzet)
Blood Crypt (Rakdos)
Overgrown Tomb (Golgari) (previewed at very top)
Temple Garden (Selesnya)

GATECRASH (releases February 1, 2013)
Godless Shrine (Orzhov)
Watery Grave (Dimir)
Breeding Pool (Simic)
Stomping Ground (Gruul)
Sacred Foundry (Boros)

So yes, there is nearly a 4-month wait until you can use the other 5 lands. But once February 1st of next year comes up, enjoy having both the Shocklands and Magic 2010/Innistrad duals legal at the same time until October 2013. :)

(PS: Yes, cards like Glacial Fortress or Isolated Chapel will look at the land types on the Shocklands to determine if they can enter the battlefield untapped. Source: http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=221919 and scroll down just a bit to the rulings)

Ravnica Spoilers from Duel Decks: Izzet vs. Golgari

Hey hey hey again!

Today I come with actual card previews. Yay!!! lol.

Last year, when we got Duel Decks: Ajani vs. Nicol Bolas, we learned that the order of Duel Deck releases was getting switched. Normally, in the Spring of a year we'd get some oddly-themed Duel Deck (Phyrexia vs. The Coalition, Elves vs. Goblins, etc.) while in the Fall we'd get a Planeswalker-themed Duel Deck (Elspeth vs. Tezzeret, Jace vs. Chandra, etc.). They decided to change it up so that the Fall Duel Deck could serve as a preview of the upcoming block.

And preview is more than the right word!

Duel Decks: Izzet vs. Golgari gives us more Return to Ravnica spoilers than just Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. Each deck contains a few Return to Ravnica previews for your insatiable hunger for the return to the plane of Ravnica!

First off, let's start off with the new guild leader, Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord!

(NOTE: all images come from this article on the Duel Decks: Playing with Izzet vs. Golgari)

Jarad is only the 3rd Zombie Elf to be printed (less than 2 years ago was Glissa, the Traitor and back in Apocalypse was Llanowar Dead) and the 2nd one that could be a Commander.

You'll see a theme among the guilds in Return to Ravnica...in some way, they can work with the mechanics from Ravnica: City of Guilds block. Jarad is no different. He starts off getting +1/+1 for each creature in your graveyard. Hmm...Dredge shenanigans, anyone? And at 4 cost, that's not a bad deal. Depending on when he comes out, if you mill yourself or do a lot of discard effects, he can be quite the bargain at 4 mana.

For 1GB and sacrificing another creature, you can have each opponent lose life equal to that creature's power. Hmm...Drove of Elves, a ton of green permanents...no, that won't swing the game at all... *rolls eyes* lol.

Then comes his "semi-reanimation" effect. You have to sacrifice a Swamp and a Forest to return him to your hand from your graveyard. Life from the Loam would be very interested in this. "I sacrifice a Blood Crypt and Temple Garden to bring Jarad back to my hand. Now I play Life from the Loam, getting back Blood Crypt and Temple Garden." Not as much of a loss then, eh?

In Standard, I don't know how he'll fare. Golgari won't get Dredge back (in fact, none of the Guilds get their original abilities back), so it'll be tougher to get creatures to the graveyard on purpose without a lot of sacrifice outlets. And even then, why get rid of an army for a single big creature with no protection, no evasion or semi-evasion (like Trample), and returns to the hand for sacrificing a Swamp and Forest?

No...Standard won't be this Lich Lord's playground, not without a lot of help from the Golgari guild in general. But on first blush, I just don't see it. In Modern, though, where Dredge can work quite nicely and all 5 Mirrodin-based Swords are legal...I wouldn't doubt it, honestly.


Next up, we have the Guildmage cycle previewed in Golgari. I'll introduce...Korozda Guildmage!

(BTW, Korozda is the new location for the Golgari's guild house)

So we already see some changes over, say, Golgari Guildmage. For one, he's not hybrid; his casting cost is strictly 1 Black and 1 Green. He's also got 2 non-hybrid abilities that are still multi-colored. (I figure WotC didn't want Guildmages going into decks that didn't support the Guild it came from, at least in part). So how good could this Guildmage be?

Quite good, in fact. For 1BG, you can give one of your creatures +1/+1 and Intimidate! Imagine that! If Scars of Mirrodin block were legal for Standard after Return to Ravncia releases, you'd see Poison decks jump 10-fold, I think. However, Return to Ravnica's release will push Scars of Mirrodin (and Magic 2012) out of Standard, so that's no issue anymore. Still, though, in a B/G beatdown where U/R or U/W may live on as competitive Standard deck colors, I'd imagine a Korozda Guildmage can deliver quite a beating on bigger creatures. As well, as long as you have the mana, you can do this as many times as you want: either give a big creature an even bigger boost, or allow another of your creatures to get slightly bigger and perhaps become unblockable. Really not too shabby, even outside of Standard.

As for its second ability, Saprolings are back!!! If one of your creatures is about to die, just pay 4 mana and sacrifice it (you were going to lose it anyway, remember? ;)  ) and get some tokens to replace it. Oh, and while we may or may not get a Doubling Season reprint, we do have its cousin in Innistrad, Parallel Lives. Hmm...possible combo if the right cards come out?

I think you'll love playing Korozda Guildmage. It's got power and who doesn't love tokens, right? :)


NEXT UP!...an example of the Scavange mechanic (replacing Dredge for Golgari) used on a very decent creature. I give you...Dreg Mangler!

Dreg Mangler returns Plants to the forefront of Magic (as they were in Ravnica), this time with a decent creature.

For 1BG, you get a 3/3 with Haste. Not too shabby of a 3rd turn play! But goodness, it died the turn it came out due to some double-blocking! What a waste!

OR...or...you could get some decent-sized creature out and use Scavenge to make it bigger.

Scavenge is a sorcery-speed ability (meaning you can only use it when the stack is empty and on one of your Main Phases only) that allows you to exile the creature card and pay the Scavenge cost (usually 2 colorless more than its casting cost) to put a number of +1/+1 tokens on a creature equal to the Scavenge'd creature's power.

So in this instance, let's say you are using Jarad mixed with the Korozda Guildmage. Jarad's a 2/2, but with the Mangler in the graveyard it's a 3/3. Psh! Scavenge that Mangler and make Jarad instead a 5/5! With enough mana, you can use the Guildmage to give it another +1/+1 and let it attack through for 6!

But that's not all. Champion of Lambholt loves Scavenge! Make your creatures most likely unblockable after a Scavenge or two? Are you crazy!? ... Yes, yes I am. :)

Finally, let's say your opponent has an Undying creature you just can't stand. You can destroy it outright, but it'll just come back. Uh...Scavenge says "target creature", not "target creature you control." Yes, let him have 3 +1/+1 counters...then Murder it! No self-reanimation there, folks.


With all the Golgari previews out of the way, let's move on to Izzet. This is the guild I'm most interested in, as I loved the flavor of Izzet when it came out but wasn't overly enthused by the power of most of its cards.

This time, though, it looks like WotC is out to strengthen the Izzet guild.

There is no preview for the Guild leader here, but it will be Niv-Mizzet. The version of him in this Duel Deck is the original Guildpact one, the version we all know and love...to hate. :p

However, we do get some preview cards from the Izzet side of the deck. The first shows off the new Overload mechanic. Let me show you...Street Spasm!

Okay, so another "X" spell for Red that deals X damge to target creature without flying you don't control. So yeah, a removal spell to boot! But eh...not too exciting.

That is, until you read Overload. If you pay the Overload cost (which, I'll assume, is always exactly double the original casting cost) instead of the original mana cost, you get to change all instances of "target" to "each."

WHOAH! HUUUGE difference!

Let's say you do end up battling an army of Saproling tokens. Yeah, XR to target isn't going to be of much good. Instead, though, pay perhaps 11RR, or 4 total (where X = 1), to deal 1 damage to each Saproling instead. See how powerful Overload can be?

It's Izzet's new ability, which is reminiscent to Replicate. Replicate allowed you to pay a cost (usually just its mana cost) as many times as you wanted as you were casting the spell in order to make copies of that spell. Overload in a way is kind of a Replicate in that you could just see the spell copying itself and hitting every non-flying creature you don't control. (Of course, technically it's not targeting if you Overload. Remember, you replaced "target" with "each").

I honestly don't see Street Spasm being good unless tokens take over. Even then, it's creatures without flying, so White will prefer Midnight Haunting and Lingering Souls. This will make Street Spasm at best a Side Deck card in Standard. In older formats, again unless tokens take a lead or you have a ton of mana, I bet you'll be using it more for its normal cost to take out a single non-flying creature.


(Two more and I'm done, I promise! lol!)

Next up we have a cycle of Charms, one for each guild (the fact that there will be one of each is spoiled in today's Card of the Day on the dailymtg.com website). Izzet got the Charm preview. Welcome...well...Izzet Charm!

It seems the Charms from Alara block were quite popular, enough to bring a Charm cycle back for Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash.

(For the record, a "Charm" is any spell where you can choose 1 option from a list of 3).

So off the bat, Izzet gets a counterspell similar to Mana Leak. Countering noncreature spells I feel will be a must soon, so this is a good reactive spell.

But what if creatures start becoming an issue? The 2nd option allows you to do 2 damage to a creature.

Need to draw? This is where Blue meets Red. You can draw 2 cards (Blue)...but then you have to discard 2 cards (Red). Not bad if you have stuff you need to get rid of, but on an otherwise empty hand...yeah...lol.

Again, there will be a cycle of these, 1 for each Guild, so look for a Selesnya, Rakdos, Azorious, and Golgari version in Return to Ravnica in a bit over a month.


Finally, we have the last Izzet preview card of the bunch. Wanted to pay less for your spells but never liked the mana cost for doing so? How's about a cheap alternative in Goblin Electromancer?

Goodness! 2 mana for a 2/2 already? That's not too shabby on the 2nd turn. But what's this?

"Instant and Sorcery spells you cast cost 1 less to cast"? Are you insane!?

Yes, for the record this lets your normally turn 4 Rewind work on Turn 3 (and consequently basically make 1 mana). Or perhaps that late-game Burn at the Stake that needs to be followed up by an Incinerate for the win? That now costs a total of 1RRRR.

Can you say "way too good"? I knew you could! lol.


Oh...wait...I lied! I have 1 more preview...well, more like 2, but once you see one we see them all really.

With Duel Decks: Izzet vs. Golgari currently available to view on Magic Online, we saw some new artwork for the Izzet and Golgari Signets (2-mana artifacts that, for 1 and tapping them, make one of each color of that Guild). For example...

(Image from http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=443059)

Golgari Signet also got new art.

"So what? They do new art all the time in these Duel Decks. What makes the Signets so special?"

Well...last night I posted a link to some artwork of, among other things, the Guild leaders, the Guildmages, and...well lookie here! This is one of those artworks!

Since WotC wouldn't put out a lot of art that didn't come from actual cards, especially mixed in with artwork that is from cards we know, we can be safe to assume that all 10 original Signets will be in Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash!

It's far from actual proof, though. No one's holding a Return to Ravnica copy of Izzet Signet or Golgari Signet. But all evidence kind of leads to the conclusion that we're getting some of our favorite "mana rocks" back for 2 years of Standard action. :)


*pant pant pant*...And that's all I have...literally! lol! There is a storyline update on the guilds here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/210a  Watch for a ton of typos, though, as I don't think an editor re-read it before being published. :(


SO...impressions? Is Return to Ravnica living up to your expectations so far? Don't like it? Feel free to share below!