Dominaria Playmats

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

As it is Friday, make certain you kick off your weekend right and get thee to a local gamery shoppe.  Friday Night Magic is kicking off locally here in Barrie, Ontario at OMG! Games, and we are looking very much forward to the return of FNM promo cards coinciding with the release of Magic: the Gathering's newest set, Dominaria.

Speaking of Dominaria, a very naughty gaming store in Denmark posted on their sales page, the Ultra PRO product line-up for Dominaria.  As always, these great deck protectors, deck boxes and playmats have amazing artwork.  Some of the images posted, have already been officially previewed by Wizards of the Coast, while others are proper spoilers.  The posted images are not high quality definition (likely scanned from a brochure / flyer), and we can't wait to see the high res ones.  

Jodah, Archmage Eternal

Karn, Scion of Urza

 

Demonlord Belzenlok

 

Squee, the Immortal

 

Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain

 

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

FLYING CAT !

Also of note, the Game Day Champion playmat prize was revealed over the the Wizards MTG website, and it is gorgeous !

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Rivals of Ixalan from Ultra PRO

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

The kitten's out of the clutch.  We do love to speculate a bit as to what the next Magic: the Gathering set may hold, not really from a collector's financial point of view, but that of furthering the Magic story and inspiration to brew the night away with imaginary cards that have not yet come to be.  Mark Rosewater has been leaving little nuggets on Blogatog suggesting what players may expect - such as the almost obvious hint to expect a Merfolk Lord in the upcoming Rivals of Ixalan set.  We also have previews which suggest a partial colour cycle of elder dinosaurs, and from the Creative Team at Wizards of the Coast, the chance of some named secondary characters seeing print as legendary creatures.  

We do now have official images from gaming accessory supplier Ultra PRO of the products associated with Rivals of Ixalan.  The art is incredible and our imagination is fired up.  Here is the round-up now - 

Rivals of Ixalan Playmats for Magic - Playmats from Ultra PRO with premium fabric top to prevent damage to cards during game play. Dimensions are approximately 24" x 13-½". Rubber backing lets the playmat lay flat and prevents the mat from shifting during use.  Crazy Hydra-Dinosaur - count ‘em three heads.  Our friend Jay Annelli (Vorthos Jay) keenly pointed out a striking similarity to Ghidorah. Ixalan landscape with happy dinos and of course Captain Beckett Brass leading a Brazen Coalition charge.

Deck Protector sleeves with matte clear front finish, for a smoother, professional shuffle feel. Sized 66mm X 91mm to store and protect standard sized cards.  Looks to be legendary Merfolk creature (hinted to a 'Lord'), Angrath the angry Minotaur dad, and quite likely the fabled vampire Elenda (Saint Elenda, Elenda of Garrano).

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Rivals of Ixalan Spoiler 12-14

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

Yesterday at around noon, Wil Blanks (@HairlessThoctar) shot out a tweet indicating that gaming stores had received a flyer from possibly from a gaming distribution company supplying Magic: the Gathering products advertising upcoming Rivals of Ixalan products from Ultra PRO.  This was followed with another post yesterday afternoon from redditor TacticalRangers with an image of the full product offering poster.

There are some Rivals of Ixalan images already previewed, and some which are new, so let's review -

Already previewed is the images of the Minotaur (in all certainty Angrath), as well as the vampire, thought to be the legendary character Elenda of Garrano, also known as Saint Elenda (a good second guess may be that of Queen Miralda).  New Rivals of Ixalan art spoiler is the image of the Merfolk - possibly the Merfolk Lord which MaRo alluded to on his blog earlier.

Matte Deck Protectors
86652 - Angrath Minotaur
86653 - Elenda Vampire
86654 - Merfolk

Pro 100+ Eck Boxes
86658 - Angrath Minotaur
86659 - Elenda Vampire
86660 - Merfolk

The first playmat shows what may very well be Admiral Beckett Brass leading a charge of pirates.  The second most epic of images shows a three-headed dinosaur.  The last image appears to be a lovely landscape on Ixalan.

Playmats
86661 - Admiral Brass and Pirates
86662 - Three-headed Dinosaur
86663 - Ixalan Landscape

Pro Binder
86664 - Sun Empire warrior / dinosaur, Merfolk

Table Mats
86666 - 8 feet Rivals of Ixalan key art

86665 - 6 feet Rivals of Ixalan key art

Here is the full image of the Rivals of Ixalan Ultra PRO advertisement -

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Aether Revolt Ultra PRO Offering

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

Some gamers in the Magic: the Gathering community are understandably salty with the recent Banned & Restricted update earlier this week.  After all, for a standard legal card to get hit by the Ban-Hammer is pretty much unheard of.  To this end, we want to draw your attention to the Exclusive Playmat being provided by StarCityGames.com Columbus Open event on Aether Revolt launch weekend of 21-22 January.  It features the art work of none other than Smuggler's Copter, aka the 'Looter Scooter'.  Unfortunate, and perhaps a bit awkward, but humourous to some none-the-less.

Anywhoos, moving on, we should summarise the very sharp looking Aether Revolt gaming accessories brought to you by Ultra PRO gaming.  Deck Boxes, Deck Protectors (card sleeves), binder and a wallop of play mats featuring aesthetic arts in this upcoming MTG set.

Magic Aether Revolt Playmats
The standard playmats are sized approximately 24" wide x 13.5" tall with the following six designs:
• Baral, Chief of Compliance
• Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
• Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• Sram, Senior Edificer

• Freejam Regent 

Also available are Aether Revolt 6ft and 8ft Playmat / some call this 'Table Play Mat' for Magic: the Gathering (approximately 72" X 30" or 96" X 30") featuring the Aether Revolt key art work.  

There are three Magic Aether Revolt Deck Protector Sleeves and Full-View Deck Boxes available as well.  Sleeves come in 80 to apack and fits perfectly in the Deck Boxes along with your sideboard and tokens.  The three arts to adorn this are:

• Ajani Unyielding, illustration by Kieran Yanner
• Tezzeret the Schemer, illustration by Ryan Alexander Lee

• Herald of Anguish, illustration by Vincent Proce

Magic Aether Revolt PRO-Binder, features Heart of Kiran, illustrated by Jaime Jones and holds 360 sleeved cards.  The black backing of the pages are textured for low friction and easier card insertion and removal, while an elastic strap holds the binder securely shut. 

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Asgard Gear Deck Box Review

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Today, we want to provide our unbiased review for the hand-made Loki Deck Box from Asgard Gear.  We've been rocking with this box for about a week now and have traveled with it from our lair thrice to develop an opinion. 

MATERIALS

• Exterior Casing  - material is natural wood - specifically Walnut.  We've exposed the box to our regular use and have certainly Rustled the Jimmies.  The shell is solid, durable and has not scuffed or taken on any visible signs of wear.

• Joints -  Not that that kind.  Given the thickness of wood, through dovetail joints are not very practical, so Asgard Gear went with box joints.  All joints have wood adhesive and we're impressed with the work with the tricky work required for clamping.

• Finish - Tung Oil.  Walnut is a beautiful wood but unless it gets appropriate finishing, it could look just kinda meh.  Tung oil makes the lovely grain here just pop.  Benjamin Moore has been producing Tung Oil (from the Chinese Vernicia fordii tree seed_ since about the 1930's.  In our opinion, this environmentally considerate oil delivers the very best finish availble.

• Embellishments - All exterior wood parts are laser cut giving a very clean look. The crisp Asgard Gear logo, and Beta model marking are aesthetically pleasing.

• Interior Casing - Acrylic plastic. Perfect choice of material to protect cards, sleeved or not, from acquiring any undesirable wear.  Sleeved cards fit perfectly and slide out easily like snot on hot glass.

• Closure - Separate flush-fitting top sliding closure secured with two neodymium magnets.  These rare earth magnets provide a strong fastening.  we could not get the lid dislodged with a highly scientific drop test from the height of a gaming table.  We have preference to mag closures over exterior clasps which are more prone to damage.

USE

• The Asgard Gear Loki holds our sleeved 100-card Commander decklist perfectly.  At the moment, it is holding our Emmara Tandris list and the literal crap-ton of tokens this list generates - beasts, snakes, saprolings and elves are all house comfortable inside and perhaps there is a comparative to Doctor Who's TARDIS somewhere here.

SUMMARY

This is a great deck box and we love the look of it.  The price for the Deck Box is about what we would expect to pay for a high quality card storage box.  We do not have any complaints at all but would suggest that Asgard Gear should consider looking into offering  gamers the opportunity personalise the deck box with their name, deck name or perhaps even a simple graphic.

GIVEAWAY !!

This weekend at the Magic: the Gathering - Aether Revolt PreRelease at OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario, there are a number of very cool random prizes up for grabs including the Asgard Gear Loki Deck Box.  There will be draws every event for free entries to regular weekly events at the store, as well as a chance to win an Aether Revolt Planeswalker Deck (2 available), and the Deck Box.  

OMG! Games will be running events all weekend long -
• Saturday - 12:00 am (Friday Midnight), 10:00 am, 3:00 pm, and 7:30 pm

• Sunday - 11:00 am, and 4:00 pm (Two-Headed Giant)

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Aether Revolt Spoiler

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

As you may see from my tweet below, it is Snowpolcalypse just now here in Barrie, Ontario.  

If we are getting to our local gaming store OMG! Games tomorrow for Friday Night Magic, there is going to have to be some serious snow removal in order to just get out our front door.  Anywhoos, enough of our frozen precipitate problems, let's get on to today's news - Another Aether Revolt card just got previewed - and - it looks like Ajani finally took the plunge and gave an Oath.

Oath of Ajani, GW
Legendary Enchantment, Rare
When Oath of Ajani enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
Planeswalker spells you cast cost 1 less to cast.

"Until all have found their place, I will keep watch."

This card looks solid, and is likely our favourite Planeswalker Oath to day.
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Righto - in other news, we want to talk about how some of our older sleeves and the issues we were having with double faced cards being almost visible through the sleeve back.
 Problem solved ! We took a test drive with Ultra PRO's new Eclipse deck protectors and are thoroughly impressed.

The Eclipse PRO - Matte Deck Protector sleeves

• Completely hides card backs with an added layer of opaque black material.

• Great for all the Double-Faced cards

• Eclipse sleeves uses matte clear material to show the card face while minimizing glare.

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MTG Tumblr Thursday

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

It was probably the first Innistrad block (Innistrad, Dark Ascension, and Avacyn Restored) when we last played a truly mono-white decklist and not splashed any other colour.  The Standard constructed game looks great to have another run at a mono-white build with humans.  We are still contemplating scrapping together a list and have been spinning our wheels as to what to take to Friday Night Magic - mono-white humans or splashing blue (for Reflector Mage / Gerry Thompson style) or green for Tireless Tracker.  A wonderfully useful article out today by Steve Horton over at Gathering Magic, may just help solve our decklist dilemma.

Anywhoos, as our topic in today's MTG Realm post is 'Tumblr Thursday', we should get around to it now.  Here is a summary of what's been going on at our sister site, MTG Realm on Tumblr -
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Photoset April 21, 2016 

Magic: the Gathering - Of Crows and Ravens
There are just under 40 Bird creature cards in MTG which are specifically Crows (by far the most) or Ravens.  I personally loved being able to attach equipment to these evasive fliers.  Here is some appreciation for these feathered friends -

• Unamed Art (aka Raven Man) by Chris Rahn
• Crow of Dark Tidings, Art by Tianhua X
• Carrion Crow, Art by Aaron Miller
• Unamed Art by Adame Minguez

The Raven Man is a mysterious figure, who claimed to be a supporter of the father of Liliana Vess. He is able to transform in a flock of ravens.

When Liliana’s brother Josu was poisoned by her father’s enemies, the Raven Man offered his assistance, though he warned that her family would not want her to use his cure. LIliana returned to the castle and despite the warnings of Lady Ana, she used the cure. Truly, it cured Josu of his affliction, but only at the cost of driving him insane and poisoning him anew.

The Raven Man also seemingly orchestrated Liliana’s discovery of the Chain Veil on Shandalar. Because he appeared on several planes, Liliana suspects he is a planeswalker.


When Jace Beleren, under the influence of the Cryptoliths on Innistrad, tried to mentally assault Liliana in her mansion, the Raven Man protected her and tried to convince her to kill him.
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Photo April 21, 2016

Magic: the Gathering - LAND SLIDEMischievous mutt Bannon (@bannon_the_mut) wants to help but is hindered by the absence of opposable digits.
Magic: the Gathering - LAND SLIDE

Mischievous mutt Bannon (@bannon_the_mut) wants to help but is hindered by the absence of opposable digits.
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Photoset April 20, 2016 

Magic: the Gathering - Shadows Over Innistrad Ultra PRO
Sweet looking playmat, deck box and deck protectors from Ultra PRO with Merciless Resolve art from Chase Stone.
Cushioned playmat is 23 7/8" x 13 ½" with awesome grippy back and silky / sensuous smooth face.
Deck Box fits your kick-butt deck of 80 sleeved cards (cards, sideboard, tokens), has a self-lock flip-back lid and a write-on stripe on top to put your street-name handle on.
Deck Protector Sleeves and standard 66-mm x 91-mm with super-crisp artwork and crystal-clear card front.

STORY TIME -
Full storyline over here - 

Upon his return from Zendikar, Sorin found Markov Manor in ruins, twisted into impossible shapes, its inhabitants embedded in the masonry. Nahiri had left this declaration in stone as a warning of her vengeance. Realising his past had come back to haunt him, he hoped to gather the aid of the other vampires to confront the threat to Innistrad. A diificult task, because he was shunned by his own kind. His search brought him to the remote estate of the powerful Olivia Voldaren, to entreat her aid in calling the bloodline.

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Photoset April 18, 2016 225 notes

Magic: The Gathering - Custom Wooden 720 Cube Box
Magic: The Gathering custom designed and fabricated wooden 720 cube box by MTGPayne. Laser engraved guild logos, gold leaf interior, custom mana dividers and sections to hold cards, tokens and dice.


DANG BEAUTIFUL !
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Ultra PRO Oath of the Gatewatch

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Ultra PRO product offerings for Oath of the Gatewatch are now finally out.

As you may have guessed, all (four) of the 'Oath' Cycle of card arts are provided on the Ultra PRO deck sleeves and deck box with the Kozilek, the Great Distortion illustration featured on the fifth.

Card portfolio featuring Fall of the Titans & Bonds of Mortality while the two playmats have the OGW key art and 'Call the Gatewatch' art.

http://www.ultrapro.com/division.php?d=g

 
Play mat with premium fabric top to prevent damage to cards during game play. Dimensions are approximately 24" X 13-1/2". Rubber backing lets the play mat lay flat and prevents the mat from shifting during use.
♢  Call the Gatewatch Play Mat - # 86312
♢  Key Art Play Mat - # 86313

9-pocket PRO-Binder with printed cover. Embossed middle black web material gives cards a classic framed look. Side loading pocket design to prevent cards from easily falling out. Elastic strap holds the binder shut when not in use. All materials made from archival-safe, acid-free non-PVC material. Holds 360 Cards in Ultra Pro Deck Protector sleeves. Features Fall of the Titans & Bonds of Mortality.
♢ Full-View PRO-Binder for Magic, 9-Pkt

Vertical, top loading Deck Box with full flap cover. Holds 82 cards in Deck Protectors sleeves. Acid free, durable polypropylene material.
♢ Kozilek, the Great Distortion - # 86307
♢ Oath of Chandra - # 86309
♢ Oath of Gideon - # 86308
♢ Oath of Jace - # 86311
♢ Oath of Nissa - # 86310

Deck Protectors with Ultra PRO's hologram quality seal. Sized 66mm X 91mm to store and protect standard sized cards. All Ultra PRO Deck Protectors are archival-safe and acid-free. 80-count pack.
♢ Kozilek, the Great Distortion - # 86307
♢ Oath of Chandra - # 86302
♢ Oath of Gideon - # 86303
♢ Oath of Jace - # 86306
♢ Oath of Nissa - # 86305

 

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