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1.29.2013

Dragon's Maze Prerelease

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

Sorry - not a very long post today but we had to share something rather interesting WotC Monty shared on the Mothersite yesterday.  Check this out . . . 
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All Ten Guilds

When you walk in to a Dragon's Maze Prerelease, you'll get to select your favorite guild from among all of the ten guilds of Ravnica! That guild pack will have a secret allied guild, which will share one color with your chosen guild, and also always be from the opposite set as your chosen guild.

So let’s look at an example: You’re a Dimir player, so that’s the guild you pick. That guild pack might have Return to Ravnica's Azorius as its secret ally (although it could also be Izzet, Rakdos, or Golgari). That guild pack would have four Dragon's Maze booster packs, one Gatecrash Dimir guild Prerelease pack, and one Return to Ravnica Azorius guild Prerelease pack. The two guild packs will be the same as they were in their original Prerelease, but will not have that set's Prerelease promo for those guilds. The guild Prerelease packs will not contain a Spindown life counter, sticker, or guild welcome letter.

One Prerelease Card
Everyone who plays in a Dragon's Maze Prerelease will get the same alternate-art promo foil card, while supplies last. This card will not be playable in your Prerelease deck.
The Maze
There's also a maze! Players (that's you) will work collectively to advance their chosen guild through the Implicit Maze each round. There are prizes for each guild that gets all the way through the maze, and special prizes for the first guild that does it. And when the maze is completed, all participating players will receive a premium (foil) basic land promo card!
No Basic Land in Dragon's Maze Booster Packs

Wait... that sounds kind of negative. Let's rephrase it.
Dragon's Maze Booster Packs All Contain Nonbasic Lands

That's better! The fifteenth card in all Dragon's Maze packs isn't basic land; it's nonbasic land. All ten guildgates will be showing up (with the Dragon's Maze expansion symbol), as will all ten shocklands from Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash (with their Return to Ravnica or Gatecrash symbols). You are about half as likely to open a shockland in Dragon's Maze as in Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash and, since this is for all ten shocklands rather than five, that means you are about a quarter as likely to open a specific one. There's also a mythic rare land from Dragon's Maze that will show up there sometimes!

Sooo . . . . we're getting two different guild packs and four Gatecrash packs.  This sort of set-up seems like fun times to ensue at the PreRelease - who knows - maybe sealed deck construction might even be a little less challenging than that with Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash.  The non-basic land line that Monty delivered has us intrigued.

Oddly enoughthe rumour mill churned out an interesting theory which states that this may be a mythic rare land which essentially provides an alternate win condition should you control all ten Guildgates - weird, interesting and cool all in one we think.

Anywhoos - we'll be expecting our preorder from MTG Mint Card fairly soon and will most definitely locking ourselves in the basement to modify existing builds and leverage new strategies.  See y'awl at the game tables! 
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've read that Dragon's Maze will feature a story line revolving around "teaming of the guilds" in order to restore the order of the guildpact. If the guilds are united in sets of 3 using the shared colors, there would be 10 new guild alliances requiring 3 color combinations.

The actual text of the statement involving the mythic rare land reads "each booster contains either a Guild Gate, a Shock land, or a mythic rare land from Dragon's Maze". It doesn't say there is a single mythic rare land, just that you will only get one in the land slot of the boosters.

Rather than a single mythic rare land, if the teaming of the guilds theory is true, it would reason that the new mythic rare lands would instead be 10 new 3 color shock lands.

New guild pairings based on shared colors:
rakdos/golgari/gruul - BRG.
rakdos/orhzov/boros - BRW.
rakdos/dimir/izzet - BRU.
golgari/orzhov/selesnya - BGW.
golgari/dimir/simic - BGU.
orzhov/dimir/azorious - BWU.
gruul/boros/selesnya - RGW.
gruul/izzet/simic - RGU.
boros/izzet/azorious - RWU.
selsnya/simic/azorious - GWU.

Anonymous said...

" You are about half as likely to open a shockland in Dragon's Maze as in Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash and, since this is for all ten shocklands rather than five, that means you are about a quarter as likely to open a specific one." Why would we be excited about something that is now half or a quarter as likely to find a shock land?Shouldn't that be twice as likely and 4 times as likely to open a shock land?