Family Drama FML :(

Sorry for the lack of updates! With some big family issues coming up, I haven't had the time, energy, or focus for updating the blog.

Not to fear, though, as Friday brings the following...

1) AT LEAST 7 Rise of the Eldrazi spoilers. (Including a brand-new, never-before-seen Planeswalker character! And no, I'm not talking about a "retooled" Planeswalker a la Ajani Vengeant or Chandra Ablaze)
2) The Magic School #4: Losing Targets Before Resolution, M10 Rules Changes that Didn't Get Publicized Enough
3) Deck Feature: Blood Celebrant's Shadow of Deathly Rites of Consumption (or BCSDRC for short. :P )
4) CUBE RULES!!!

 So be sure to check the first chances you get Saturday and Sunday for at least 4 new blog posts.

We hope to see you soon!

5 Rise of the Eldrazi Previews: New Eldrazis, New Theme, New Mechanic

We're roughly one month away from the release of Rise of the Eldrazi and the official spoilers are starting to come in huge waves!

While I won't get to every preview, I'll get enough going to whet your appetite for the set (like any good seller should do. ;)   ).

In this Preview:
1) Eldrazi at Lower Rarity...yes, lower than you think.
2) New Theme...design space explored in...not attacking!?
3) New Mechanic...hint, it shares a name with a Yu-Gi-Oh! card and usually goes with stuff like Horus the Black Flame Dragon.


All previews...after the jump!

Schedule Update PLUS "Last Samurai" Reminder

It's been a couple weeks since the last schedule update so here's where we are with our schedule for the last weekend of March all the way through half of May.


MARCH
27th: "THE LAST SAMURAI" TOURNAMENT; $2 Entry Fee, prizes will be pack splits from Worldwake

APRIL
 3rd: Free Day*. Should bring my Cube one more time for final construction and shuffling. Cube Draft Preview Weekend 3!
10th: CUBE DRAFT! $2 Entry Fee (even though it's a draft, you're not buying packs. Cards come from my collection). I'll firm up the details as we get closer to the 10th.
17th: Free Day*
24th: LEGACY (VINTAGE?) PROXY TOURNAMENT; Follow the Legacy (Vintage?) banned/restricted list when building your decks, but you'll be allowed to use up to 9 proxies.

MAY
1st: Rise of the Eldrazi Draft. I'm looking at having only 2 boxes of ROE available, but if I get overwhelmed with demand I can buy another box. Just come back the week after I E-mail you I've got your order if that happens. SUBJECT TO CHANGE DEPENDING ON FUTURE SCHEDULING
8th: Back-up Date: Rise of the Eldrazi Draft

*NOTE: "Free Day" is just a way of saying "Free Play/Trade." It sounds better, anyway.

Reminder that we have "The Last Samurai" tournament coming up this weekend! This is effectively a Champions of Kamigawa Block "sealed deck" with the "packs" provided to us as one pile of each color. We'll build our decks based on what we get in these piles.

Tournament is mostly single-elimination. After the first round, losing players are put into a "loser's bracket" to figure who'll get the highest end of the bottom part of the finishing order while the winners continue for the top spot. The tournament is single-elimination after that. Rounds are 30 minutes long. Prizes will come from Worldwake packs. Entry fee is $2.

A few of us weren't really playing that much around Kamigawa Block, so this is a nice blast to the past for us. Whether you were around at the time or this is new to you, be sure to join us and play with a now-classic set. :)

6 Rise of the Eldrazi Spoilers: New Mechanics, New UNCOMMON Eldrazi Creature!

The Magic blogs got to reveal their pooled spoilers (same spoilers released at the same time to all in a list of blogs) for Rise of the Eldrazi yesterday. Six new cards, 2 new mechanics, and a new Eldrazi spell to whet your appetite...at Uncommon!

(All images except for Valakut Fireboar come from MTGSalvation.com; the Fireboar comes from mulldrifting.blogspot.com)


See the awesomeness...after the jump.

Get Your Dual Lands Now While They're Cheap

I have a prediction that I didn't want to post here because, well, what do I know?

With the recent firming up of the Reserved List, also notice that every original Dual Land is on that list.


Yes. The number of "cheap" (Revised set) Dual Lands is now extremely limited instead of open for expansion.

Duals were running $20-$40 last year.

Now? Try $30 minimum, with Underground Sea being the most expensive at nearly $90!


Guys, if you have the money to get Dual Lands for around $30 each, you won't be sorry. You may not be sorry at $50 each, and if they go above $100 I'm gonna regret not telling you to get Underground Seas for that much.

So basically...if you have the money, invest NOW in original Dual Lands. They're too good to NOT be worth triple digits for the better ones (read: Blue producers) now that the Reserved List is set in stone.

No More Reprint List Printings...and Subsequent Previews!

We got shocked by the announcement of Phyrexian Negator being in Duel Decks: Phyrexia vs. The Coalition (on sale Friday, btw. Though around here, most likely means next Friday). I mean, here was a Reserved List card being printed in foil Mythic Rare in a for-sale product!

Wizards of the Coast has been doing foil reprints of Reserved List cards before this. What do you think a portion of the Judge Promo Foils were? Survival of the Fittest, Phyrexian Dreadnaught, Phyrexian Negator (ironically enough, but it was a while back) for just a few examples.

Then came another Reserved List bombshell...the original Masticore in From the Vault: Relics!

"Damn! What happened to the Reserved List!?" people said.

"WAH! My cards will be worthless. Wizards doesn't keep their word!" other people said.


Guess who Wizards of the Coast listened to?


Find out the answer to this and previews of the final Reserved List printings...after the jump!

Scars of Mirrodin...Coming October 1st

The rumors have been flying. "A return to the plane of Mirrodin!" "The next set has to be a Mirrodin-based block. WotC trademarked something about Mirrodin and Phyrexia last year!"

The rumors are true.

The set codenamed "Lights" (of the codenamed Lights/Camera/Action Block) is actually...


Scars of Mirrodin


Nothing is known about Scars of Mirrodin except for the name and release date, October 1st.

I'm hoping we get Affinity back, but in a much less broken way (I liked the Affinity for [basic land type] artifact creatures from Darksteel, so something along those lines but for colored cards? Or Modular on better creatures?)

I can just see Energy Chamber being even harder to get if it's not reprinted in Scars of Mirrodin.

Interesting note: This is the 2nd of the last 3 blocks/years to use the "[noun] of [plane]" naming convention for the big set of the block. The other? Shards of Alara.

ROTATION NOTE: Standard will change when Scars of Mirrodin releases. Not only will Shards of Alara Block rotate out (taking away Shards of Alara, Conflux, and Alara Reborn), so will Magic 2010. (Remember, Core Sets are tied to the last block that released for rotation purposes, essentially making the Core Set an unofficial 4th set of each Block). After October 1st, Standard will comprise of Zendikar, Worldwake, Rise of the Eldrazi, Magic 2011 (tied to Zendikar Block), and Scars of Mirrodin.

Two Boxes of Rise of the Eldrazi On Pre-Order for Us!

I've got two pieces of good news for everyone today.

1) I've got 2 boxes of Rise of the Eldrazi pre-ordered for us. I used the demand I've had for Worldwake as a basis for this pre-order, thus the low number of boxes. If I have more demand, though, I'll be more than happy to get more.

2) I'm able to lower my prices again! The average cost after shipping came to ~$2.53 per pack. I don't mind losing $.03 per pack, so I'm lowering my pack prices back to $2.50!!!  This assumes I get my boxes, but cardhaus.com is BBB approved so I'll get either my boxes or a refund.



I'm tentatively scheduling our set release draft for May 1st, but that will depend on scheduling of the Release Party Wizards of the Coast (WotC) does and any special events that may go on that day that keep most of us away.

So come around when we do our release draft and enjoy $2.50 packs, nearly half off normal post-tax retail price!

The Magic School #3: Warp World Weirdness and Other (Legal) Shenanigans

Welcome to the 3rd week of The Magic School! Today we're diving into "Enters the battlefield"-type rules. Warp World with Allies causes a few problems, while Hallow apparently has the ability to affect permanents in an odd way.


More...after the jump!  (What did you expect?)

Tournament Schedule: Changes for This Week

Hey everyone! I hope you're all having a wonderful week.

We've got a schedule change that will affect our tournaments for the next few weeks.

  Tiff got an offer to go on a free trip to Gatlinburg this weekend and, well, who can't turn away a free trip? :)

  The problem is, because Tiff's supplying the cards for the "Last Samurai" tournament, we won't have them available to do the tournament. :(

  So the "Last Samurai" tournament is postponed two weeks to the 27th. That will move our Cube Draft back to April 10th. And we need an idea for April 24th, the next available tournament day without a format. Damon suggested a Legacy (Vintage?) format tournament with 9 allowable proxies. Depending on Damon's schedule, I think we'll do this. However, I don't mind having a backup option just in case.

    On another scheduling note, I'm looking at May 1st being the Rise of the Eldrazi Draft. The set releases April 23rd, and without a guarantee I can get my boxes right on the 24th the next available Saturday closest to the release is May 1st. I don't know if that interferes with anyone else's plans for that day? If it does, we'll delay that until May 8th (which may be better so we can stay on schedule)


So here's the tentative schedule as it stands right now:

MARCH
13th: Free Day*. I'll bring what I have of The Cube to get shuffled up (I've got way too many cards to easily shuffle by myself). Consider this Cube Draft Preview Weekend 1, so if you want to see the vast majority of what we'll use in the Cube this will be one weekend to do it.
20th: Free Day*. I'll bring my Cube again and we'll continue shuffling up. So...Cube Draft Preview Weekend 2!
27th: "THE LAST SAMURAI" TOURNAMENT; $2 Entry Fee, prizes will be pack splits from Worldwake

APRIL
 3rd: Free Day*. Should bring my Cube one more time for final construction and shuffling. Cube Draft Preview Weekend 3!
10th: CUBE DRAFT! $2 Entry Fee (even though it's a draft, you're not buying packs. Cards come from my collection). I'll firm up the details as we get closer to the 10th.
17th: Free Day*
24th: LEGACY (VINTAGE?) PROXY TOURNAMENT; Follow the Legacy (Vintage?) banned/restricted list when building your decks, but you'll be allowed to use up to 9 proxies.

MAY
1st: Rise of the Eldrazi Draft. I'm looking at having only 2 boxes of ROE available, but if I get overwhelmed with demand I can buy another box. Just come back the week after I E-mail you I've got your order if that happens. SUBJECT TO CHANGE DEPENDING ON FUTURE SCHEDULING
8th: Back-up Date: Rise of the Eldrazi Draft

*NOTE: "Free Day" is just a way of saying "Free Play/Trade." It sounds better, anyway.


That's as far as I have the schedule right now, nearly 2 months out.  Let me know if you know a tournament day you're interested in conflicts with your schedule or if you're not able to change things around and we'll see about further rescheduling.

Master of Commander: Where Overpowered Is The Norm

We had our "Master of Commander" event last weekend and...well...let's say the turnout left something to be desired (and is the reason we're looking for more people. The more the merrier, as Wayne always says!)

We had myself, Wayne Eanes, and Tiff Higgins for a 3-way multiplayer best-of-3 match using deck and gameplay rules based on the Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH) format.

We had a very interesting set of Commanders for this tournament:

'
Promoted 3 to the Rank of Commander

Starting at the top: Wayne utilized Wort, Boggart Auntie (Rakdos Gobos), Tiffanie promoted her Numot, the Devestator (R/W/U American Air Force), and I used blonde beret Merieke Ri Berit (Esper Steal/Control).

Read (and see) more...after the jump!

The Magic School #2: "My Lightning Bolt Killed Your Creature!" "No...Not Exactly..."

This question is courtesy of the Cranial Insertion column on MTGSalvation.com.

Let's say you have a card like Sacred Ground with an ability that depends on whether a spell or ability someone controls causes an effect to go off. Your opponent has an activated manland, let's say Treetop Village. Your decide to cast Lightning Bolt, targeting the Treetop Village for 3 damage and the kill.

NOW...we all know how we'd normally remind someone of this fact later in the game. "Remember? My Lightning Bolt killed your Treetop Village."

So that leads you to believe "Oh! In that case, Lightning Bolt killed my land so Sacred Ground should put it back. Ooh yeah!"

By the game's rules, what really happened? What put Treetop Village in the graveyard?

Catch the answer...after the jump! (Just hit the "read more" link below)

Next Tournament: Kamigawa Color-Based "Sealed Deck"

Ever wanted to play just with the Kamigawa-block cards in a sealed-type environment? Don't have the boosters to do a proper sealed deck?

Let us provide!...Sort of.

One of our regulars is a Kamigawa-block collector and has enough of the cards to put together her own form of "sealed deck."

Tiff Higgins, our resident Kamigawa/Japan culture fanatic (and we mean that in the best way. ;)  ), has volunteered her collection for this idea.

She'll put her Kamigawa-block cards into color piles (one for each color). As we start the tournament, we'll randomly be assigned one pile. We'll then build a 40-card minimum deck (or maybe 60, depending on how big the piles are and her preference) and play a double elimination tournament.

If you've never played with Kamigawa Block much or it was your favorite block or you want something new to try, whatever the reason, don't miss March 13th as that's our day to run the tournament.

Entry fee is a cheap $2. We'll split as many packs of Worldwake as we can with the entry fee.

Come join us March 13th for a Samurai Rat Equipment Legend experience you won't forget!

(PS: Anyone have a better name than this?)

Impressions from Grand Prix - Madrid: Part 1

Reading the coverage from the latest Legacy-format Grand Prix in Madrid this weekend, I found a few things quite surprising. So over the course of this week I'll show off those points of interest.

So for Part 1, I bring you a casual idea that's started to see some major tournament play lately:

 

 (Images courtesy of magiccards.info)

Those who are familiar with me running this deck knows how it runs: Cast Dream Halls, pitch a card of any color to Conflux (preferably something you don't mind losing like a late-game Brainstorm), search for 3 useful cards (each of a different declared color), one Conflux, and one card to pitch for the new Conflux (or another useful spell if you have another useless colored card already in your hand). Then rinse and repeat until you use up your 4 Conflux cards. Then start pitching cards to cast high-cost stuff and win the game within the next turn or two.

I used the idea to get big, flying, hasty creatures (and buy another attack phase thanks to Beacon of Tomorrows) and just attack all-out for the win.

But what happens when you give this combo to a tournament player? Find out...after the jump!

Very First Rise of the Eldrazi Preview!

Visitors to today's Magic Arcana on the WotC Magic homepage were treated to a surprise Rise of the Eldrazi preview!

 

Picture comes from www.mtgsalvation.com

For anyone who can't read the text (the picture can be a bit small at times):

Kozilek, Butcher of Truths

10

Legendary Creature - Eldrazi

When you cast Kozilek, Butcher of Truths, draw four cards.

Annihilator 4 (Whenever this creature attacks, defending player sacrifices four permanents.)

When Kozilek is put into a graveyard from anywhere, its owner shuffles his or her graveyard into his or her library.
Mythic Rare


So we've got a few new things going on with Kozilek (and presumable, the other Eldrazi):

1) Colorless...but not an Artifact Creature: Apparently the Eldrazi don't fit into any mana color. They're some sort of supernatural beings, I guess, with no need to side with a color of mana. They're not artificial, though, so they're not Artifacts either. They're just...colossal old beings.

2) New Keyword: Annihilator: I'm guessing this is an Eldraz-exclusive mechanic. Annihilator X apparently means "Whenever this creature attacks, defending player sacrifices X permanents." On a 10-mana creature, that's not bad. If you pay the whole 10 (or a bit less) and you attack, don't you deserve some sort of bonus for accomplishing that? Besides, it's Legendary, so you can't have more than 1 of him in play at one time (unlike another certain colorless fattie)

3) Darksteel Colossus meets Feldon's Cane: In a new take on the "When [this] goes to the graveyard from anywhere" ability, we get the "shuffle it" part replaced with "shuffle your graveyard". Hmm...a new anti-mill card at Mythic maybe? I'd consider running one in the Sideboard if I were too concerned with Mill (and it wouldn't make a half-bad attacker, either. ;)  )

4) Extended Art Frame: You know how the Planeswalkers' artworks seem to encompass the whole card except for a bit of a color border around the card? Welcome to the creature version! And who knows? Maybe Mythics from here on can look like this? It certainly makes the creature look big and foreboding...just like a Mythic creature should!


I like this card. It pretty well defines what Mythic meant to be: Big, splashy, and huge effects that can't be printed at any other rarity due to power concerns. Will it see any tournament play? If it were an artifact, I'd say wait for the next set (which is rumored to be a return to Mirrodin). Without the artifact part, maybe Eye of Ugin mixed with good old fashioned green mana ramp will make him a house for some aggro strategy. But I wouldn't make this the next Jace, the Mind Sculptor or Baneslayer Angel in terms of price. I say it'll see Abyssal Persecutor-type levels: $20-$25 early, dropping to $15 a month after release and maybe settling around $10 if a tournament deck hasn't used him before then. (Although I have to admit, the potential to keep re-using your library late in the game is pretty tempting...)