R2R Appreciation

~
Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

Tonight, at midnight, we'll be heading out to our local gaming store, OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario, Canada to be one within a crowd of players to buy the very-soon-to-be-released Return to Ravnica set.  

It is perhaps somewhat akin to those crazy midnight Harry Potter book releases when Jo Rowling was still finishing up that series - the crowds, the anxious anticipation, muggles dressed up like witches and warlocks - erm, I mean Planeswalkers.  Anywhoos, we will freely admit that one of our n3rdy passions is to do just this - make our midnight purchases, lay them all out on the kitchen table, and then wake up to Christmas the next morning (yeah - we take the next day off).

Righto - Please expect a Return to Ravnica Fat Pack unbox video with an accompanying article as to how darn excited we are for the new standard season.  For this article, we wanted to share some personal appreciation we have for the Magic: the Gathering folks over at the Wizards of the Coast (as well as their PR consulting firm 360PR).

The three of us at MTG Realm have banged out almost 1,200 articles since going on-line in January, 2008 and is now approaching our 5-millionth visitor (which we should do something about - like a contest perhaps).  We've been hyping and pumping sets since Lorwyn came out and can honestly say we are very excited about this next set and block (including that sour-puss Matty, at the local store who, for the first time in living memory gave the set a 'thumbs up' - so you know it's gonna be good).  Our passion is of course for the game and we take particular pride in personally meeting players who had finally taken the step to take their game from the kitchen table to Friday Night Magic event.  We also feel very grateful when WoTC sends slick swag our way - typically Intro Packs for each set which we provide the MTG Realm readers our derpy reviews.  We did not think anything could quite top that amazing Scars of Mirrodin lunchbox we got two years ago, but here it is . . .

A very cool 8 by 10 Tablet of the Guilds signature card art illustrated by Nic Klein and autographed by the entire Return to Ravnica Design and Development Team !
Design Team: Ken Nagle (lead), Zac Hill, Alexis Janson, Mark Rosewater, Ken Troop
Development Team: Erik Lauer (lead), Zac Hill, Dave Humpherys, Tom LaPille, Adam Lee, Billy Moreno, Shawn Main

Anywhoos - We could just hugglez the entire team!  Well, except for Ken maybe, whom we have on good authority is an extraterrestrial.

Thanks Wizards!
- the MTG Realm crew.
~