M10 Prerelease & Release Cards

~

Looks like spoiler season for the new core set release Magic 2010 ('M10') just (unofficially) started.

It appears that we may now ascertain that we have secured info for two of the four new card arts that I just speculated about in the previous article posted just this morning and have one more additional for you.

~

First off - directly from the Facebook art thread . . .

Golden Lotus
Legendary Land, Mythic Rare
Golden Lotus comes into play tapped.
If Golden Lotus would come into play, sacrifice three untapped lands instead. If you do, put Golden Lotus into play. If you don't, put it into its owner's graveyard. Shroud
Tap : Sacrifice Golden Lotus: Add nine mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool.

Thanks to Reinharts from the forums for the mock-up.
So - 9 mana on turn 5 . . . ? - I'm in. I'm thinking that it may now be easy to play the rainbow fatties such as Progenitus. Also - this card has combo written all over it . . . I'm holding onto my Knight of the Reliquary deckset for the time-being as I am envisioning something along the following . . .

Turn 3 - Knight of the Reliquary (or sooner maybe)
Turn 4 - Pass wit 4 Lands untapped
End of their turn, sacrifice a land (forest or plains), play Golden Lotus, sacrifice 3 lands
Turn 5 - Play a huge beater while Knight is now a 8/8 monster.

~

Now on to what is believed (based on the French Lotus Noir magazin) to be the M10 Pre-Release and Release promo cards . . .

Vampire Nocturnus, 1BBB
Creature - Vampire , Mythic Rare
Play with the top card of your library revealed.
As long as the top card of your library is black, Vampire Nocturnus and other Vampire creatures you control get +2/+1 and have flying.
3/3

Nocturnus vampire, 1BBB Créature : vampire (Rare mythique) Jouez avec la carte du dessus de votre bibliothèque révélée. Tant que la carte du dessus de votre bibliothèque est noire, le Nocturnus vampire et les autres créatures Vampire que vous controlez gagnent +2+1 et ont le vol. 3/3

This player is hoping for a LOT of blood-suckers in this set to make this card worth while. I'm day-dreaming about a mono-black vampire deck right now. Essentially a 5/4 liege for only 4 mana is excellent.

AND

Queen of Ants, 3GG
Creature - Insect Rare
1{G}: Put a 1/1 green Insect creature token into the battlefield.
5/5

Reine des fourmis, 3GG Créature : insecte Rare 1{G} : Mettez sur le champ de bataille un jeton de créature 1/1 verte Insecte. 5/5

Did they just say 'battlefield' ??!!?? OK - which other MTG player just shuddered or will now deny they play magic ? Other than than I'm sure sure anyone will argue too strongly against a 5/5 for only 5 mana which also produces chump tokens.