Conflux Spoiler Season Kicks Off Early September 30, 2008
Posted by Norm in Conflux, Spoilers.Tags: Card list, Conflux, Shards of Alara, Spoiler
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It’s not too early to start thinking about Conflux. Scoot on over to MTG Realm for an unofficial complete card name list. He found an accidental posting of the set list on a japanese site.
The Clonflux prerelease is scheduled early February so you might as well get back to managing your Fantasy Football teams before thinking about shuffling up any of the second Shards set.
Shards of Alara Prerelease Video September 29, 2008
Posted by Norm in Shards of Alara.Tags: prerelease, Shards of Alara, Video
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I shot some video while attending the prerelease this weekend. While I said that I was going to attend two events I was only able to make one. From a casual perspective Shards of Alara is a lot more fun than I expected. From a competitive perspective I’m not sure how this will integrate into the current realm. I wonder if Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block constructed decks are still faster. We’ll see, but for now enjoy the video.
Shards of Alara – Full Visual Spoiler September 29, 2008
Posted by Norm in Casual, Shards of Alara.Tags: Full Visual Spoiler, Magic: The Gathering, Shards of Alara
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I’m just posting this as a reminder and a connivence for you. Here are links to the full visual spoiler and sortable spoiler on magicthegathering.com.
Shards of Alara Official Videos September 29, 2008
Posted by Norm in Casual, Shards of Alara.Tags: Artifacts, Devour, Exalted, Magic: The Gathering, Shards of Alara, Unearth, Videos
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Here is a collection of the Shards of Alara videos from Wizards. These are so watered down I almost feel silly reposting them for you. However they do offer good clarification on rules for the new mechanics. Especially for Devour as I was wondering about when you sacrifice your creatures if your opponent plays a counter spell.
In case you missed them here they are. There is one video for each Shard and each video focuses on one on the new abilities in this release (except Esper they get the new card type artifact)
Bant – Exalted
Personally I think Exalted will be the most powerful of the new mechanics. While attacking with one creature can also be a weakness with a little evasion it is going to really be a headache for a lot of people.
Esper – Artifacts
The one thing that I think we all thought when artifacts were announced was affinity. But this feels very different from the creatures from Mirrodin block. There are a lot of cards that give artifact love in Shards but it is more in the tribal sense from Lorwyn.
Grixis – Unearth
I predict that Unearth will be one of those abilities that people will recognize over time. Basically Unearth gives you a chance to recast all your creatures from your graveyard. Especially dangerous will be creatures with Unearth and Flying.
Jund – Devour
Devour is fun but I don’t know how powerful a deck full of Devour creatures will do against something with Exalted. Perhaps something with Devour and Unearth could be fun but you might run out of mana and threats too soon. We’ll see.
Naya – 5 power matters
At first I didn’t like the 5 power matters theme. These creatures cost more and slow your game down. However after playing with a few creatures in this theme at the prerelease it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Also there are a lot of cool little tricks (as you see in the video) that can be done with a bunch of 5 power guys.
On the whole I think that each of these mechanics will be great in casual play. I had a lot of fun playing my prerelease deck in a casual setting against other casual decks.
Scourglass September 25, 2008
Posted by Norm in Shards of Alara, Spoilers.Tags: Magic: The Gathering, Scourglass, Shards of Alara, Spoilers, Wrath of God
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We get our first official look at the new “Wrath of God” today. Scourglass is a little more specific in how it destroys leaving you the chance to clean the board except for your game winners.
In the preview article Mike Flores suggests that Scourglass will single-handedly put a stop the Faeries. While it has the potential to seriously turnaround a fae matchup I think that it has the same potential against any deck. I think that with a new wrath effect in white we’ll just have to make sure we are packing some sort of counter spell.
Scourglass is still two white mana to play so we needn’t fear it too much because we will only see it in white decks. With Shards of Alara’s crazy three mana requirements we may see situations where finding two white sources to be difficult.
One thought I do have with Scourglass is that it does have a nice little home in Scarecrow decks. I’ll have to dust off that one when I get a few copes of this card.
I do have a question, are shapeshifting creatures also Artifacts? If so Scourglass could have a bit more relevance. Does anyone have any thoughts about the use of this card in Extended?
Shards of Alara Watermarks Speculation September 24, 2008
Posted by Norm in Casual, Shards of Alara.Tags: Flavor Speculation, Magic: The Gathering, Shards of Alara
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At the end of Doug Beyer’s article today he talks about why Wizards didn’t print watermarks on some the cards representing each shard in Alara. I agree that it would have been difficult for each watermerk to make sense in the same relevant way the Ravnica guilds did. I still think they could have made it work if they wanted to or didn’t have a reason to hold off. At the very end of the article he mentions that he can’t talk specifically about why they didn’t print watermarks. He hints that there maybe something comeing down the road that is a better use of watermarks.
OK I’ll take the bait. My guess is that conflux will have some sort of order that will work at reparing the Shards of Alara. And at the end of the block we will see a whole world where all of Alara is as it was before or some sort of new plane in that sense.
Planeswalker Promos September 24, 2008
Posted by Norm in Casual.Tags: Magic: The Gathering, Planeswalkers
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Can anyone tell me about these packs? They have been sitting in a shop near my office for a few weeks and I don’t know anything about them. Do they have Planeswalkers in them? Are they worth buying? I think the price is around $6.
Huge Shards of Alara Spoiler September 23, 2008
Posted by Norm in Shards of Alara, Spoilers.Tags: Magic: The Gathering, MTG Realm, MTG Salvation, Sedris, Shards of Alara, Spoilers, the Traitor King
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I just got a tip from Copy Six over at MTG Realm that there is a huge Shards of Alara spoiler floating around. According to his post this came from one of the regular fourm writers at MTG Salvation.
So basically there is every card except for a few (missing what I estimate to be some rares and mythic rares). Looks like this guy got his hands on a booster box of Shards in advance of the prerelease.
This spoiler is so huge that I’m not even trying to hide my blatant copy of MTG Realm’s post headline. I’ll just give the link love. I’ve been looking at it for the past few minutes and I’m getting really pumped seeing all the new cards.
I’m sure we’ll all have more to say about it so use the comments of this post to start a conversation and I’ll be back with some of my thoughts.
In the mean time check out this guy:
Into the Vault: Dragons September 23, 2008
Posted by Norm in Casual.Tags: Dragons, From the Vault: Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, Video
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So I know that there were many of you who were trying to get your hands on a copy of this limited edition. I’m sorry if you couldn’t because dragons are basically awesome. To honor the holes in everyone’s collection I made this video while opening the box. Unfortunately most of these cards were made prior to me starting to play magic so I’m not familiar with most of them nor have I played with most of them.
If you are not familiar with this special release check out the announcement on Magic’s site. Wikipedia also has a complete list of all of the dragons and links to the Gatherer.
I have to give a special thanks to my colleagues who pre-ordered the Dragons for my birthday in August. They don’t even know how awesome they are for finding a place with one available. When I went to pick it up at a local shop they had it hidded away and weren’t allowed to tell people they had one. I was really worried that they were going to try and overcharge me for it. Or that they may have sold it to someone else.
Anyway I’m excited to add this special edition to my collection.
One note about the video. I used my flip cam to record this video and it has a fixed depth of field so when the camera is too close to the card it looks blurry. Sorry about that.
I also made a quick graphic for Casual Magic. What do you think about it? Should I incorporate it into the site?
Shards of Alara Spoiler Art September 22, 2008
Posted by Norm in Shards of Alara, Spoilers.Tags: Magic: The Gathering, Shards of Alara, Spoiler Art
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We are getting close to having the complete visual spoiler in our hands as well as our first packs of Shards of Alara. While we are still waiting we saw a lot more art spoiled on magicthegathering.com today.
