Faction Action Part 2

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

We are still short one mailing from Hong Kong containing pre-orders but we won't fret as we feel we could still squeak off a decent deck for the upcoming Mirrdoin Besieged Game Day. One or two extras cards purchased from the local game store as well as some trading during Friday Night Magic and we should be in fine form for this weekend's tournament.

Anywhoos - let's get to business . . .

We strongly suggest that you review our post about Game Day (HERE) from last month. Essentially, participants must play with a faction aligned deck on Mirrodin Besieged game day. A faction aligned deck must include at least ten cards featuring the Mirran or Phyrexian watermark and NO cards containing the opposing watermark - that is if you want to score some extra promo card prizes, otherwise just ignore this. For example a deck containing ten Phyrexian watermarked cards from Scars of Mirrodin and Mirrodin Besieged and a variety of other standard legal cards would be a Phyrexian aligned deck as long as it contains no cards with the Mirran watermark.



Here is a suggested serving for a Phyrexian aligned deck (look to yesterday's post to see a Mirran deck) -

37 spells
2 x Contagion Engine
2 x Skittles, the Blight Dragon
3 x Black Sun's Zenith
4 x Hand of the Praetors
3 x Phyrexian Crusader
3 x Plague Rats
4 x Sign in Blood
4 x Plague Stinger
3 x Necropede
3 x Plague Myr
3 x Disentomb
3 x Duress


We do not yet have a sideboard for this but do have some cards we're looking at - namely Phyrexian Revoker and the ilk. The build is OK and has tested not too badly, the problem is, it's just boring as all heck - not to say that infect or poison is boring, just this build. We are thinking of jazzing things up with some blue control perhaps. Almost all Phyrexian builds stampede towards one goal - poison - it's kinda like having a waffle with no butter or syrup on it. This line of thinking makes us ponder whether Phryexians even like waffles.

Anywhoos - let's get to the cards here . . .

Contagion Engine is the only proliferate in the main board right now - don't worry, there's some Contagion Clasp in the sideboard. Next up is Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon - This is an infect fatty which, if it sticks to the table, should make the other players nervous. His best buddy is Mr. Crowhead-thingy on Hand of the Praetors. The deck needs to cast a lot of infect spells and will of course take advantage of this with Pretzl Hand.


Phyrexian Crusader is one of my new fav cards in the set at the moment, right behind Mirran Crusader and we are contemplating a black 'n' white Knight build. Anyshoos - One critter we've come to appreciate is Plague rats which hands out delicious poison counters to all players in the game - yeah - including yourself but in our experience, we were always able to follow up with some proliferate on this line.

An infect creature with evasion is vital and we have it with Plague Stinger. We've also come to appreciate being able to ping with Necropede. One of the latest editions to the build is Plague Myr which was added to provide utility as a mana-dork and a blocker.

Wrapping up we have Duress to mess with our opponent, some Disentomb to recycle our critters form the graveyard to play them again (we think this card superior to Corpse Cur), and Sign in Blood which will provide some much needed card advantage - more cards in hand equals better options at any stage in the game.


So -
We want to know if you are going to Mirrodin Besieged Game Day and if so, what will you be bringing along to game with. Drop us a comment in the form thingy at the bottom of today's post. Don't have a standard format Deck ? - Don't worry - there are Mirrodin Besieged Event decks available for purchase at your store.
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Faction Action Part 1

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

Some good news we would like to share with you - it now appears that we may be going to Mirrodin Besieged Game Day! We were a bit apprehensive that if we did not get our cards in on time before Game Day, we would not have all we needed for a faction aligned deck. One of our pre-orders, stamped on February 4th in Goldenrod Florida finally arrived yesterday (March 1st). We still have an outstanding pre-order shipped on the same date from Hong Kong we are still waiting for but with purchases from the local game store and some trading we think we may have scrapped together a deck for Game Day this weekend.

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Anywhoos - let's get to business . . .

We strongly suggest that you review our post about Game Day (HERE) from last month. Essentially, participants must play with a faction aligned deck on Mirrodin Besieged game day. A faction aligned deck must include at least ten cards featuring the Mirran or Phyrexian watermark and NO cards containing the opposing watermark. For example a deck containing ten Phyrexian watermarked cards from Scars of Mirrodin and Mirrodin Besieged and a variety of other standard legal cards would be a Phyrexian aligned deck as long as it contains no cards with the Mirran watermark.

Here is a suggested serving for a Mirran aligned deck (look for tomorrow's post to see a Phyrexian deck) -


37 cards
4 x Memnite
4 x Ornithopter
4 x Signal Pest
4 x Steppe Lynx
4 x Glint Hawk
4 x Quest for the Holy Relic
4 x Kor Skyfisher
3 x Squadron Hawk
4 x Accorder Paladin
2 x Argentum Armor

Sideboard
4 x Stoneforge Mystic
1 x Sword of Body and Mind
1 x Sword of Feast and Famine
3 x Journey to Nowhere
3 x Kor Firewalker
3 x Revoke Existence
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This build has 18 cards with the Mirran watermark and no cards with the Phyrexian watermark so this deck is good to go for game day. Not surprisingly, the first 12 cards in the deck kind of gives away the punchline - yep - Argentum Armor. Loads of cheap critters and bounce cards to trigger Quest for the Holy Armor which will let the player search for the very devastating Argentum Armor card. Many of the critters has evasion (flying in this case) to help land damage and bring the game quickly to an end in your favour.


As we expect quite a number of players to bring along a Phyrexian faction-aligned deck, we have Stoneforge Mystic in the sideboard along with a pair of swords. After some more playtesting, we may fiddle further with the sideboard and get some Mirran Crusaders (double strike protection from black and green ain't bad).

So -
We want to know if you are going to Mirrodin Besieged Game Day and if so, what will you be bringing along to game with. Drop us a comment in the form thingy at the bottom of today's post. Don't have a standard format Deck ? - Don't worry - there are Mirrodin Besieged Event decks available for purchase at your store.
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Mirrodin Besieged Posters

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Hello Again MTG peeps,

It's Tuesday evening and we have an update post for you with some very cool Mirrodin Besieged spoilers.

You may recall our previous post about two weeks ago regarding the Battlefield Kit being sent by Wizards to Retailers enrolled in the Wizards Play Network (WPN) program. Essentially, the kit includes materials for a War League. Revolving around the Scars of Mirrodin block storyline, the War League will enable players to choose a side and battle amongst their friends as supporters of either they Mirrans or the Phyrexians.

Most stores will likely provide these treasures to players as part of tournament prizes, so get thee to a game store.

Here's what's in the kit . . .










The BATTLEFIELD kit will contain:

1 banner
2 Window Clings (1 Phyrexian and 1 Mirran)
10 Posters
20 Poison dice linked with the Poision mechanic of Scars of Mirrodin
2 Standees (1 Phyrexian and 1 Mirran)
10 Reversible card boxes
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Yep -
We now have an image of the very awesome poison counter and thanks to Trick over at ManaNation, we have images of the the Ten posters. We've seen some of the art before in the previous Scars of Mirrodin set, some other arts in the Mirran / Phyrexia videos, and others are brand spanking new which means start your speculations . . .







































































Righto - There is also two different reversible card boxes being sent out as well . .

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Finally - a quick word that MTG Mint Card now has a Mirrodin Besieged Early Bird Discount ending at the end of the year 2010 - get your orders in quickly !

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Fac Pac

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Happy Tuesday folks,

Intereresting bit of MTG news from Monty today on Magic Arcana. This piece of Magic the Gathering news was somewhat expected - regarding playing either Mirran or Phyrexian factions during the Mirrodin Besieged Prerelease Event scheduled for January 29-30, 2011.

What was not expected was that participants would be provided three regular Scars of Mirrodin booster packs and their choice of three Mirran boosters or three Phyrexian boosters. Monty indicated that there will be two different prerelease promo cards provided for the prerelease corresponding to either Mirran or Phyrexian.















Very cool indeed. Some punters are already bantering about whether or not to open these special once-only booster packs or to keep 'em sealed and sell them to collectors latter. Choosing the latter of course would result in a net loss of fun in participating in said pre-release and we here at MTG Realm are about fun.
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Also of note - in case you are pimping your EDH deck or cube with the awesome that is foil, check out MTG Mint Card which just restocked a bunch of Scars of Mirrodin foils.

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Speaking of Monty, we would be remiss in our MTG blog duties if we do not make mention of Monty's post yesterday (we were enjoying Thanksgiving up here in Canada-Land). Anywhoos - looks like we have another Duel Decks announcement - have a look at Knights vs. Dragons . . .

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?

Deck Design and Development: Chris Millar and Zac Hill
Languages Available: English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish
Release Date: April 1, 2011
MSRP: $19.99

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Scars of Mirrodin Factions

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With all the rumours about watermarks (confirmed with the SoM spoiler card Sword of Body and Mind) and the like with the upcoming Scars of Mirrodin release, it stands to reason that there could very well be something to it. Well look no further, this announcement from Wizards to Tournament Organisers pretty much confirms Phyrexia and Mirrodin factions as we had posted about in one of the forums last month.

Here is the announcement of interest . . .

In Wizards of the Coast's continuing global efforts to build strong Magic player communities in hobby stores and offer great gaming experiences, we are pleased to announce the following changes to Magic Game Day:
* Scars of Mirrodin Game Day (October 30-31) features special rules allowing players to align their Standard decks with one of the factions featured in the set. Players that align their decks are eligible to win exclusive preview cards from the February 2011 Magic set, Mirrodin Besieged! This change is part of a marketing campaign that will kick off in September, themed around the factions presented in the Scars of Mirrodin block. For more information on Game Day, check out www.magicthegathering.com.
* To make Magic Game Day accessible to even more players, Game Day will become a Core-level benefit in the Wizards Play Network (WPN). This change will take effect with Scars of Mirrodin Game Day, which begins scheduling on August 12th, 2010. WPN Core-level locations will be able to schedule one Game Day and Advanced-level locations can schedule two. For details on the WPN and its levels, see www.wizards.com/wpn.

WPN Advanced-level locations will also get access to the following new benefits:
* An Advanced Support Kit starting with Scars of Mirrodin. These kits are identical to a Gateway Support Kit, but with ten additional exclusive prize cards.
* The most active Advanced locations will have the opportunity to run WPN Premium Tournaments. This ongoing benefit recognizes the biggest and best-run tournament circuits that our Advanced locations run, giving them enhanced K-values and calling them out on our online Event Locator!

How is the Scars of Mirrodin Game Day going to work?
Magic Game Days will take advantage of the new settings and mechanics in the latest set. For Scars of Mirrodin Game Day, players can build a Standard deck that affiliates with one of the two factions in Scars of Mirrodin. (While having an affiliated deck is not required for Game Day, it will add a unique and significant element of excitement to the tournament.) The top 2 finishers affiliated with each faction receive a preview card from the February 2011 Magic set, Mirrodin Besieged! This is in addition to any top 8 prize cards they might win for their overall event finish.

What does it mean to "affiliate" your Standard deck?
All cards in Scars of Mirrodin are affiliated with one of the two factions in the set. An affiliated deck must have at least ten main-deck cards from the chosen faction, and none in the main deck or sideboard from the opposing faction. The deck must still be Standard legal.
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News from MTG Mint Card as to the Top 10 Selling Cards August, 2010 !
Three weeks after the M11 releases, the titans are out of the top ten selling list. Half of the top ten cards are from M11 and the remainder are from Rise of the Eldrazi and Zendikar. From the numbers, it appears that Rise of the Eldrazi is as popular as Magic 2011. Here's the low down -

1. Ajani Goldmane
2. Leyline of Sanctity
3. Coralhelm Commander
4. Destructive Force
5. Guul Draz Assassin
6. Jace Beleren
7. Nissa Revane
8. Eldrazi Temple
9. Awakening Zone
10. Liliana's Caress

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Next up - Playtesting a mono-white life-gain deck which is in need of your input.
Then we start building a deck, we chuck a mess of cards together that we've deemed to work and then play the ever-luv'n cr@p outta it to start thinning out cards which do not work. Have a look at the following list and tell us how to improve - just remember that we do not have piles of cash around the house to buy WalletSlayer Angels.

Big A$$ 64 card life deck

42 Spells
2 x Elixir of Immortality
3 x Goldenglow Moth
1 x Brave the Elements
1 x Emerge Unscathed
3 x Serra Ascendant
2 x Soul Warden
2 x Soul's Attendant
3 x Honor of the Pure
3 x Wall of Omens
3 x Ajani's Pridemate
2 x Scepter of Dominance
3 x Survival Cache
3 x Wall of Reverence
2 x Cradle of Vitality
2 x Ajani Goldmane
2 x Sun Titan
2 x Celestial Mantle
3 x Felidar Sovereign

22 Lands
20 x Plains
2 x Serjiri Steppe


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