San Juan M11 Spoilers

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The second Pro Tour of the 2010 season is under way, with 396 players from around the world battling it out over three days for game fame and glory, not to mention a $40,000 first prize in beautiful San Juan.

If you are not a Pro Tour contender, why would you care about the gaming going on there ?

Because Wizards of the Coast is debuting the latest product, Archenemy multiplayer game which happens to have several new cards expected in the Magic 2011 core-set. Yep - M11 new card previews have just begun and the spoiler season is now underway. Let's have a look what had been shown down south . . .

Chandra's Outrage 2

Instant, Common
Chandra's Outrage deals 4 damage to target creature and 2 damage to that creature's controller




Plummet 1

Instant, Common
Destroy creature with flying




Reassembling Skeleton, 1

Creature - Skeleton Warrior, Uncommon
1 : Return Reassembling Skeleton from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.




Sorcerer's Strongbox 4

Artifact, Uncommon
2 : Flip a coin. If you win the flip, sacrifice Sorcerer's Strongbox and draw three cards.


Wow - nice cards so far. We were rather surprised at the whole coin flipping thing coming back but are happy with it.

We're sure more cards and / or Magic 2011 spoilers / tidbits may be coming from San Juan before the end of the weekend.

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Elspeth Vs. Tezzeret

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Good Day peeps,

We know it was yesterday's news, but you're gonna have to eat it or there will be no pudding. Anywhoos - New Duel Decks are on their way to a gaming store near you!


Posted in yesterday's Magic Arcana, Wizards has the next DD - Duel Decks: Elspeth Vs. Tezzeret. This is set to be released on September 3rd, 2010 for a suggested retail price of $19.99.















If this new product keeps true to form to previous Duel Decks, then MTG players should be experiencing the next best day to Christmas. Imagine - opening up / touching / holding / smelling an alternate art foil Elspeth, Knight-Errant. Oh yeah - and Tezzeret the Seeker can hang too.

A real quick view of today's market for these most excellent Planeswalkers - (you will have to realise that this will change almost immediately after posting of course) - Average of 10 well-known on-line retailers - $45.40 for Elspeth and around $9.50 for Tezzeret. Based on the MRSP, this product promises to be a really excellent buy. The only draw-back - is that there is a very good chance that both of these cards will rotate out of standard very soon so that kinda sucks - but hey - if you play casual kitchen-table games like us, who cares.

Here's the description from MagicTheGathering.com:

Elspeth Tirel is adrift amongst the planes, seeking only a place of solace. Despite her prowess in battles, she has no desire for confrontation, but is again pressed into combat to uphold her sworn duty of service and protection.

Tezzeret is an artificer equal parts ambition and etherium, the arcane alloy that imbues his body. His true allegiance is only to himself, and he's unafraid to use allies as well as enemies as pawns in his quest for power.

These two powerful, diametrically-opposed Planeswalkers will collide. You'll determine who will prevail.

Deck Design and Development: Chris Millar, Erik Lauer, and Zac Hill
Release Date: September 3rd, 2010
MSRP: $19.99

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M11 Playmats

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We've got playmats coming out the woodwork folks. Today's post is just an image dump of some the Magic 2011 playmats you might be seeing at your local gaming store.

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First up - that Merfolk chick with a thing for Yu-Gi-Oh hair. Hoping the card, when we do get to finally see it is another Merfolk Lord.

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First thing we thought - yep - looks like that Green Tree of Gondor (LoTR) - and then, we were like - that was a white tree. Anywhoos - this art looks great and am definitely looking forward to playing this (we often play cards basely solely on the art only - yeah, we know we are tarded). Reminds us of Elsepth - here's hoping she's in M11.

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Its Liliana Vess - with a date. She kinda sucks the life out of any date. Looks like we now have our black Planeswalker for M11. If this is not Liliana, we will eat our socks.

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And the BIG question is - - Is this Jace Beleren (aka Jace ver 1.0) or is it Jace the Mind Sculptor (Jace 2.0)? One is good and the other is awesome. Looks like we have a PW in the blue slot now.

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Righty - who the cuss is this ? Art looks great and the critter looks like an elf gone bad (remember some of those black elves back in the Lorwyn block?) Anywhoo - give us your guesses plz!

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A Mr. Grim here about the reaping ? Dude has purple eyes and some serious weight loss going on - Damn You Jenny Craig !! We're at a loss here - we were kinda hoping for a Skeletal Vampire or a Deathbringer Liege (loved that card), but the art doesn't match. Again - chime in here.

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And it looks like our red Magic 2011 Planeswalker is Chandra Nalaar or perhaps Chandra Ablaze (but most likely not the latter).

That's all for now folks, good gaming.

Magic 2011 IntroPacks

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As we had yattered about in yesterday's post about the Magic 2011 sales solicitation document, there are some very nice things coming to your game. The biggest difference between M10 and M11 will undoubtedly be in the Intro Packs. Starting with the Magic 2011 Core Set, Intro Packs will contain 60-card decks instead of 41-card decks. They will still contain a 15-card booster and rules inserts, all for $12.99 MSRP.

Yep - and that foil rare up front. Remember when those Rise of the Eldrazi Intro Packs hit the shelves in your local gaming store ? Yeah - and then you couldn't find a Blue-White Leveler's Glory since every goon who got up earlier bought them out just to get that foil Student of Warfare. Well, check out the foils on the upcoming Magic 2011 IntroPacks and start speculating win or fail. After that, you may want to get a pre-order in to Jeff Albertson. Anywhoos - let's have a look -


Blades of Victory (/)

Foil Rare : Angelic Arbiter

Command an army of knights and soldiers and slice through the opposition using this deck of righteous power. With angels at your side and Angelic Arbiter at the forefront of the battle, can victory be far behind?

Did you just see what I saw - yep - a black 'n' white intro pack with Angel(s). Very interesting and we might just get this. Also - We're loving the new packaging arts.



Power of Prophecy (/)

Foil Rare : Conundrum Sphinx

Seize control of your opponents’ forces, manipulate the flow of battle, and leave your opposition confused and disoriented. Gain knowledge of the future and use Conundrum Sphinx to hasten your foretold dominance.

We've got a bad feeling (again) about this intro-pack. We hope this won't suck as much as the Rise of the Eldrazi 'Leveller's Scorn' did - remember just how awesome Sphinx of Magosi was ? yeah - neither do we.



Reign of Vampirism (b/g)

Foil Rare : Captivating Vampire

Unleash a horde of the undead! As your army of vampires descends upon your opponent, your Captivating Vampire will boost your odds of victory.

If you have been under a rock for the last year or so, here's the news-flash - Vampires are the new go-to critter for Wizards when they need to fill a black critter slot. Honestly makes a lot more sense than using a Zombie (although they is the kewl). Black is the colour of power, ambition, greed, death, corruption, selfishness, and amorality - some of these things are well packaged in a skeleton or Zombie (sorry George Romero).


Breath of Fire (/)

Foil Rare : Ancient Hellkite

Play with fire and burn your opponent with this deck packed with direct damage. Heat things up to a fever pitch with Ancient Hellkite, a big flier with one thing in mind: ending the game.

We always feel weird when we invite red and blue to the same party - it's like we would eventually have to call the 5-0 to break them up when things go south of cheese. Anywhoos - YEAH - for bing honk'n dragons! This pre-con looks interesting.



Stampede of Beasts (/)

Foil Rare : Overwhelming Stampede

Summon monstrous beasts, wurms, and hydras, and use them to stomp your opponent’s forces like insects. Then cast Overwhelming Stampede to give your forces a lethal boost of power.

Red and Green - we smell win here and here's hoping. Does that Rhino look the same like Stamping Rhino from M10 ? Anyways, looks like a Overrun-type of pump 'n' trample spell.

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That's all folks, get back to work.

Magic 2011 Sales Solicitation

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We have for your consideration today the Magic 2011 Sales Solicitation released to retailers on 18th May. These documents are of use to the community as well as retailers who use this for reference (product code, upc code, size, weight and manufacturer's suggested retail price are vital information) - but anywhoos - the reason the MTG gaming community would be interested in this sort of thing is for it's little tid-bits of information to whet one's imagination as to what to expect in new card goodness . . . some bullets -

• The Magic 2011 Core Set follows the same blueprint laid by the Magic 2010 Core Set, one of the best-selling Magic core sets of all time.

• Like the Magic 2010 Core Set, approximately half of the Magic 2011 Core Set will be brand new cards. The rest of the set will be returning favorites from throughout Magic’s 17-year history

• The biggest difference between M10 and M11 will be in the Intro Packs. Starting with the Magic 2011 Core Set, Intro Packs will contain 60-card decks instead of 41-card decks. They will still contain a 15-card booster and rules inserts, all for $12.99 MSRP.

• Intro Packs are an ideal introduction to both Magic: The Gathering and the new core set. These new 60-card Intro Pack decks are now constructed tournament legal.

• The Magic 2011 Core Set will have a Prerelease, a Launch Party, and a Game Day. It will also be used in high-level organized play events in 2010.

• Standard now rotates only once each year, with the release of the October large set. Magic 2011 will enter Standard on its release without knocking anything out, then Magic 2010 and Shards of Alara® block will leave Standard with the release of Scars of Mirrodin™

Organized Play
• Magic 2011 Prerelease Tournaments: July 10 – 11, 2010
• Magic 2011 Launch Parties: July 16 - 18, 2010
• Magic 2011 Game Day: August 14, 2010


M11 Solicitation

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M2011 Ultra-Pro products

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If you have been watching the forums, you may have picked up on some of the images of the new Magic 2011 Ultra-Pro products to make your game mo' awesome. Since every Magic Player (yeah . . . myself included), I know loves to speculate on creatures and themes of each new set, lets have a look and the images leaked.

M11 card sleeves - A skeleton dude fishing with one of those lures you get at the 'as seen on TV' stores.


M11 card sleeves - Merfolk gal with a Yu-Gi-Oh haircut.



M11 top loading deck boxes with tabs - very smart.


M11 side-loading deck boxes


M11 portfolio - for your trades or showing off.


Another M11 portfolio (some one as above but now showing the back)

Stay tuned tomorrow as we really start speculating about the Magic 2011 intro-pack images.

Jace - Liliana Decklists

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We're just catching up with some items left on the back-burner as it were - more specifically, two decklists from the Duels of the Planeswalkers digital game, Wizards will now make these 60-card decks available in 'paper' format. As a nice bonus, these will come with a 15-card Magic 2010 booster pack, to allow you to customize your deck further.

NOTE : these decks DO NOT include the Planeswalkers featured on the package art.

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Thoughts of the Wind –
The Jace Beleren Deck

Manipulate the fabric of the Multiverse with Jace’s blue deck. Watch the fumbling attempts of your opponents as you counter their spells and turn their creatures against them.

Lands
25 Island

Commons
2 Negate
3 Essence Scatter
2 Cancel
4 Cloud Sprite
3 Snapping Drake
2 Unsummon
2 Boomerang
2 Wall of Spears

Uncommons
2 Thieving Magpie
2 Air Elemental
2 Deluge
1 Mind Control
2 Kraken's Eye
1 Phantom Warrior

Rares
1 Mahamoti Djinn (FOIL)
1 Evacuation
1 Mind Spring
1 Denizen of the Deep
1 Counterbore


Eyes of Shadow –
The Liliana Vess Deck

Rain down despair with Liliana’s black deck. Master the forces of malevolence and death, and punish opponents with a suite of discard effects.

Lands
25 Swamp

Commons
3 Drudge Skeletons
2 Dusk Imp
4 Mind Rot
3 Ravenous Rats
2 Severed Legion
4 Terror
2 Unholy Strength

Uncommons
2 Abyssal Specter
2 Consume Spirit
1 Crowd of Cinders2 Demon’s Horn
2 Megrim
1 The Rack

Rares
1 Ascendant Evincar (FOIL)
1 Mind Shatter
1 Mortivore
1 Sengir Vampire
1 Underworld Dreams

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