Dragons & Knights

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

Interesting spoiler / preview from WoTC Monty today over at Magic Arcana. It appears that we now have our very first confirmed card appearing in the Duel Decks: Knights vs. Dragons (near page bottom) . . . perhaps not much of a stretch of the imaganation as this was the go-to Knight for some time - say 'hello again' to Knight of the Reliquary.
Released in Conflux back in February, 2009 - it became a popular card (it went for around $8 locally) but not for long - it soon fell out of favour as the new set feeling wore off and we were able to pick up a deck set for around $1.60 each. Then, the whole 'land matters' theme hit standard with Zendikar and the Knight was making Top 8 deck lists everywhere - this was when it hit about $15 locally during spring of last year (April / May, 2010). After it rotated out of standard, it returned to it's orignal price and still commands about $8.

We are uncertain whether there will be the man-lands and fetchlands on the Knight's side of this duel deck to necessitate having a KotR but that of course is up in the air still.
We can very well imagine which Dragons and Knights may be in the new Duel Deck but we have a good feeling that the product will be awesome - - that is except for the art preview . . .

Sorry but the new alternate art by Wayne Reynolds for KotR just is not making the cut for us - we guess that Michael Komarck's original was just so spot-on, we cannot accept an alt-art for this card. We're also not altogether sold on the other alt art for Bogardan Hellkite.

And here are the vital stats . . .

Deck Design and Development: Chris Millar and Zac Hill
Languages Available: English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish
Duel Decks: Knights vs. Dragons will be available in English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish on April 1, 2011 with an MSRP of $19.99.

Valor and Steel Clash with Rage and Fire! The greatest knights have gathered together to once and for all end the reign of terror that has plagued their lands for centuries. Holy paladins, noble cavaliers, and swift skyhunters all answer the call to hunt dragons to the death and restore order to the realm. For dragonkind, the answer is simple - incinerate the invaders! Enraged goblin minions pour from the mountain crags to repel the intruders, but that’s only to give the majestic hellkites time to take to the skies and unleash a firestorm that no knight could hope to survive. A world hangs in the balance. Will you enter the battle under the banner of purity and order, or will you plunge the land into chaos and dragonfire?

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And finally -
A reminder about the list from MTG Mint Card showing the Mirrodin Besieged Top 10 selling cards as of Feb 2011 . . .

1. Psychosis Crawler
2. Black Sun's Zenith
3. Thopter Assembly
4. Contested War Zone
5. Phyrexian Vatmother
6. Bonehoard
7. Creeping Corrosion
8. White Sun's Zenith
9. Mitotic Manipulation
10. Inkmoth Nexus

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