Masters 25 Previews 3-27

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

Welcome to Day Two of official Masters 25 previews and to be quite frank, Wizards of the Coast delivered another round of rather exciting cards.  We're certain that each Magic: the Gathering player has a particular favourite that they would be ecstatic to pull from a pack, and our personal fav would be Rishadan Port so far in today's batch.  

There are a number of notes we would want to cover later such as changes in rarity, new card artwork, and perhaps changes in rarity, but we will hold off for now until the full set is previewed.  For now, please do official card image gallery (updated daily) right over at this link.  For this post, we will summarise the cards previewed so far today - let's get to this now.

Akroma's Vengeance
Armageddon
Ball Lightning
Bident of Thassa
Doomsday
Eladamri's Call
Ensnaring Bridge
Fierce Empath
Flash

Giant Growth
Kor Firewalker
Living Death
Living Wish
Magus of the Wheel
Protean Hulk
Rishadan Port
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
Savannah Lions
Undead Gladiator
Vendilion Clique
Vindicate

Zombify

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MTG Masters 25

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

Today, Blake Rasmussen had posted a bit of a teaser on the Wizards of the Coast Magic: the Gathering site.  Specifically product packaging as well as two cards to expect for the upcoming Modern Masters product, which releases on March 16, 2018.

This year's offering is a bit special as Magic: the Gathering celebrates its 25th anniversary.  Here is a blurb now -

Masters 25 is a booster-based compilation set that will be released on March 16, 2018.  It is designed to be drafted and celebrates twenty-five years of Magic: The Gathering.  Players will get to draft like a master as they are taken back through time to experience some of the most popular planes, mechanics, and spells in Magic's history.

Masters 25 will feature the return of Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Azusa, Lost but Seeking, including a very mysterious metal spikey character.  We suspect that this may be Platinum Emperion, but we may have to wait until the official previews, which are to start on Monday 26th February. 

What certainly caught our attention is that Blake had indicated that most of the cards in Masters 25 will have the watermark with the symbol of the set they are from.  Very cool and yes, the nostalgia is prepared to overload here.


In related news, NOW is the time to buy copies of Unstable's 'Watermarket', which when this land is tapped will produce two colourless mana to cast spells with watermarks.

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MTG Monday Miscellany

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We have again here at MTG Realm another batch of Magic: the Gathering news and updates, so strap in and let's go.

First up - Results from Columbus

Congratulations to Tom Ross to winning the StarCityGames.com Modern Open tournament in Columbus this past weekend witha G/W Tron list.  Jack Kiefer took first place in standard at the venue with a W/U Flash build. 

You can see the full lists for Standard and Modern over at SCG.  Of interest for Modern was a Mono-White Martyr of Sands list played by Lance Shultz who had placed 26th.  On the standard side, the metagame looks to be predominantly W/U Flash, and B/G Delirium lists.  There were however two decklists of note which posted decent results - B/U Zombies played by Steve Rubin who had placed 4th and a G/R Energy list played by Andrew Eales who had placed 7th.  

Second - Eternal Masters Reprint

There is to be a "modest" reprint of Eternal Masters.  Eternal Masters is a booster-based compilation set containing cards legal in, and intended for, the Legacy, Commander, and Vintage formats.  Originally released on released on June 10, 2016, expect to see to see these in store likely within another month or so.

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Third - Standard Showdown

Announced on the mothersite linked here, Wizards of the Coast have announced an interesting prize support scheme to improve / boost in-store standard format play.  The announcement indicates 10 'Standard Showdown' prize packs for each store holding a standard format tournament on Saturdays between November 26 through December 17 (for a total of 40 prized boosters).  

Each Standard Showdown prize booster will contain three cards each. These boosters will contain:

• A premium card from a currently legal Standard set, including Zendikar Expeditions and Kaladesh Inventions, not including double-faced cards.

• Two non-premium cards that are either a rare or a mythic rare from a set currently legal in Standard* (Battle for Zendikar through Kaladesh).

Cards from Oath of the Gatewatch and double-faced cards are not included within the prize booster pack.  The announcement also indicates that Zendikar Expeditions and Kaladesh Inventions appear in roughly 1 in 33 boosters.  Not to shabby we think.
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Also announced on the Mothersite - Planechase Anthology

This was originally announced in the massive 'Announcement Day' posted back in May which did not include much in the way of details.  Today's announcement however did provide all the nitty-gritty including product image.

Essentially, Planechase Anthology is a product in the Planechase series that gathers the previous Planechase products together in one package to be released by on November 25, 2016.

Planechase Anthology will contain the following:
• Four Planechase 2012 theme decks
• A set of 86 oversized Planar cards:
• A set of 40 plane cards from Planechase (2009)
• A set of 32 plane and 8 phenomenon cards from Planechase 2012
• Six 6 promotional plane cards: Celestine Reef, Horizon Boughs, Mirrored Depths, Stairs to Infinity, Tazeem, and Tember City
• Four slide deck boxes
• An Oversize slide deck box
• A set of 35 double-faced tokens
• A special edition planar die
• Four Spindown life counters

• A strategy insert
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MTG Weekend Wrap-Up

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Although it may be cold and raining here in Central Ontario, we are still basking in the light of this past weekend's Kaladesh PreRelease event at OMG! Games, here in Barrie.  Our pool was mediocre, and we lost more games than we won, but we certainly had a helluva good time playing with the very soon to be released Magic: the Gathering set.  For those interested, we played a Red / Blue build with the following rares pulled -

 Many Servo Tokens died to bring you this PreRelease -

Looking ahead to when Kaladesh is released come this weekend, we've not been head-over-heels to build a Commander deck with one of the seven new legendary creatures, just yet but do have a handful of new Kaladesh cards which will be replacing existing slots in some lists we have.  (Example - we'll want to swap out Ranger's Guile with the new Blossoming Defense in our secret Simic build).

As for Modern, we do have a much-loved Soul-Sisters decklist which may benefit with the addition of Authority of the Consuls.  Not only would this card benefit cards such as Serra Ascendant and Ajani's Pridemate, but may also be a contender for the spot taken by Blind Obedience in the sideboard. 

As for the new standard this Friday, we have no clue (no - not that artifact clue thingy) of what to build.  We do have that derpy mon-white humans thingy featuring Thalia's Lieutenant that did not take too much of a hit with the rotation, but after that, we are undecided.

What we do know for certain is that (most of) the Gearhulks are damn fine for standard and that a lot of players we've been talking to have been liking Smuggler's Copter and Fleetwheel Courier, but the other vehicles are not approaching the same popularity.  It's a brave new world  come this weekend and it will be an adventure as players invent new and fantastical strategies on the game tables.

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Modern Event Deck Update

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Grand Prix Richmond wrapped up yesterday and took the title of the largest constructed Grand Prix event in Magic: the Gathering history.  Congratulations to GP Richmond winner Brian Liu, who took first place with this Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker / Birthing Pod decklist.

In other news, Duel Decks: Jace vs. Vraska will be hitting shelves at a local gaming store near you this Friday (14th March).  This duel deck product features a decent list and a number of new alternate arts.  Check out MTG Mint Card for singles.  The Duel Decks: Jace vs. Vraska box set contains ten rare cards and two mythic rare cards, the headliners for this product: foil alternate art versions of Jace, Architect of Thought and Vraska the Unseen.

Lastly - 
An update on the 'Modern Event Deck', to be released on the 30th of May.  We had previously posted some breaking news (link to post here), regarding a image of the product packaging which was leaked from an unknown (unofficial source).  We suspect that this image could have been taken at an event hosted by Wizards of the Coast for retailers ahead of their scheduled appearance at the Games Manufacturer's Association (GAMA) Trade Show next week.  Aaron Forsythe, Director of R&D at Wizards, had this tweet 

Heads up... The picture of the Modern Event Deck floating around is a pre-production mockup and is not completely accurate to what's final.

We realize that for such products as the Modern Event Deck to accurately hit their street release date at brick 'n'  mortar retailers, said product would likely need to be at distribution warehouses at least three weeks before and printed probably another three weeks before that.  This may very well mean that the image indeed is a pre-production mock-up provided for WotC approval.  Whatever may eventually change ahead of the print run, it is pretty much chiseled in stone to be a black / white token decklist as the decklist design and development by Ben Hayes would have likely taken place almost a full year ago.

The Craig Wescoe in us here at MTG Realm most definitely approves.

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Modern Event Deck Spoiler

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Hello again MTG peeps,

We already did out daily post but came across this late-breaking news - an early spoiler for the Magic: the Gathering Modern Event Deck.  As it is not from the mothersite, we warn you to be cautious as to its authenticity.  Forum user 'A friend', posted this product packaging image while at a unspecified 'event'.

From the back of the packaging, our earlier speculation as to Black-White Tokens appears to be correct.  Here's the text - there may be some errors -  

Your power is here. Your time is now.

Get started with the deep-strategy Modern format in style! Draw on rare, high-powered Magic cards from past sets with this tightly constructed 60-card deck. Also includes a 15-card sideboard, strategy guide, Spindown life counter, 80 exclusive card sleeves, 5 double-sided tokens, and a deck box.
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March of the Multitudes

Leaders like Hero of Bladehold and Elspeth, Knight-Errant generate an army of token creatures, while spells like Intangible Virtue and Honor of the Pure prepare them for victory.  White removal cards along with black disruption keep your opponent off balance until you can strike the killing blow.

We are most definitely excited.  We're crossing our fingers for the inclusion of Bitter Blossom in the decklist !
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GP Richmond 2014

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

The big Magic: the Gathering news perhaps all of this month is the (Modern Format) Grand Prix Richmond tournament taking place this weekend (March 7-9) at the Greater Richmond Event Center.  As there is no Saturday registration for this tournament, players have been pre-registering and as of yesterday there is an estimated 2,800 players signed up making this perhaps the largest constructed MTG event to go in the books.  Last year's Modern tourney in Detroit witnessed over 1,400 players and the 2010 GP Madrid event (Legacy format) had over 2,200.  The Judge conference taking place ahead of the tournament also might be breaking a record with over 340 Judges anticipated to attend.
 

The GP Richmond prize pool is anticipated to be $54,000 with cash prizes being payed out all the way down to 150th place.  Drop by this website for all the latest information and registration.  Even if you do not make it into a prize bracket, you still are walking away with a good deal of swag.  Basic registration will slide your way the following goodies - 

• Exclusive Eternal Witness playmat
• Set of five commemorative tokens
• One month StarCityGames.com Premium voucher
• Grand Prix promotional foil Batterskull
• StarCityGames.com deck box

Apparently there was concern from the gaming community that the tournament organizer would run out of the playmats.  To this end, SCG indicates they have already ordered more.

As for what the field will hold in terms of decklists, we're happy to say it is expected to be varied, an indication of just how healthy the format is.  Expect to see these popular builds over the weekend -

Splinter Twin / Affinity / Melira Pod / UWR Control / Zoo / Scapeshift / UR Storm /Jund / Ad Nauseam / Merfolk / Bogles / RG Tron 

We do have a Bogles list only half done and need a handful of critical cards from MTG Mint Card to complete it.  For a summary for all Pro Tour Born of the Gods Modern decklists from Valencia which made 18 or more points in ten rounds, drop by this page on the mothersite.  

Good luck to all who are going!  
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Modern BW Tokens

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

If you've been reading us here at MTG Realm, you will certainly know that know that since we first blogging about Magic: the Gathering back in 2008, we sort of have this thingy for token decklists.  Furthermore, you may surmise that pro-player Craig Wescoe is certainly held in high regard around here as we feel we share similar overall game strategies and deckbuilding styles. 

To say that we were crestfallen after Honor of the Pure, and latter on, Lingering souls rotated out of standard would be a gross understatement.  We will not feel too sadened however as there is always Modern format for us to get another kick at the can as it were.  Anywhoos, as today's post title suggests, we are having a looking at Modern Black / White tokens and more specifically, the deck that Craig Wescoe took to game with at the recent Born of the Gods Pro tour Valencia Spain last weekend.  Here is the list now - 

MAIN DECKCreatures [4]
4 Squadron Hawk

Spells [31]
4 Doom Blade
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Honor of the Pure2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
4 Path to Exile
4 Spectral Procession
3 Sword of War and Peace
4 Thoughtseize

Lands [25]
4 Arid Mesa
3 Fetid Heath
4 Godless Shrine
3 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Tectonic Edge
1 Vault of the Archangel

SIDEBOARD
3 Disenchant
2 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
1 Tectonic Edge
The first thing you may note is why no Bitterblossom?  Bitterblossom was very recently unbanned in this format and there is little doubt that this is a powerful token generator.  What we were most interested in after the un-banning is finding a home for
Bitterblossom in a 'Soul Sister' strategy where the continual one life point loss each turn for Bitterblossom would be negated by the one life point gain from either Soul Warden or Soul's Attendant.  We would also strongly consider using the token critter +1/+1 pump offered by Intangible Virtue over Honor of the Pure which of course only pumps white creatures (since we're greedy, we'd most likely use both).  All-in-all, this was certainly a difficult meta-game decision Craig had to take.

There is no doubt that Craig's list using Squadron Hawks, and a package of removal and discard was very robust. Some eight cards of instant spot removal is excellent to disrupt combos such as Deceiver Exarch / Splinter Twin and the like while six discard spells helps remove troublesome spells.  Squadron Hawks and Lingering Souls can pick up Sword of War and Peace and cause serious damage by flying over Kitchen Finks or Wall of Omens.  There is also 3 copies of Tectonic Edge in the main board to blow up the potentially very powerful Gavony Township.

In short, we love this build and hope to put our own touches on to it after we acquire a few odd singles from MTG Mint Card.

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Modern Masters Update

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

A quick update today for you.  We have another card Magic: the Gathering players should be happy with which was previewed today by WotC Bob Maher on the mothersite.

Modern Masters is a booster-based specialty set containing cards which are legal in the Modern format. It will be released on June 7, 2013.  Modern Masters is a 229 card set consisting of reprints of cards originally printed between Eighth Edition and Alara Reborn. Every card would be legal in Modern format and of course the other formats in which the sets are legal from which the cards originate. The idea behind the design was to fulfill the player demand of reprinting certain cards to make them more easily available to current or prospective Modern players, without re-introducing those cards into Standard.  We still have a lot of cards to go before the full reveal and already want to get a singles (or decksets) from MTG Mint Card.
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Anywhoos - let's get on with today's new card - Dark Confident will be joining the 3 other known (or strongly suspected) cards - Tarmogoyf, City of Brass and Aether Spellbomb.

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In other related news, WotC 'Trick also had a post to the mothersite's Magic Arcana showing a very lovely Modern Masters UltraPRO box (and sleeves!) in which to horde all your awesome new cards.  The City of Brass art from Jung Park is spectacular.

 

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Modern Masters

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

The big question on most every Magic: the Gathering player's mind at the moment is 'New Tarmo or Old Tarmo'?  The 'old Tarmogoyf' was a Future Sight rare with art from Justin Murray and featuring that unique card template indicative of Future Sight.  The 'new Tarmogoyf' is a Modern Masters special edition mythic rare in a traditional card template and illustrated by Ryan Barger.

Some of you may be saying 'Wait, wut'?  Do not worry - let's get up to steam.  Aaron Forsythe just joined the Pro Tour Webcast on the weekend to announce "Modern Masters" a product targeted at Modern players.  Aaron also announced that there would be held a There will be a Modern Masters Limited Grand Prix next year.  

This would be a short production run of a booster pack set featuring cards from 8th Edition to Alara Reborn.  All told, there will be a total of 229 card with 15 mythics, 53 rares, 60 Uncommons, and 101 Commons.  Booster packs will be similar to 'normal' booster packs - 1 rare, 3 uncommons and 11 commons and a land BUT instead of a land, there would be a premium foil card.
We here at MTG Realm have not yet taken a dip into Modern (or legacy for that matter) but are now giving it some serious thought.  We do have a truck load of cards, mostly from Lorwyn block on and think that with some select purchases from MTG Mint Card, we could easily get into a Modern deck list.  Some cards items of note - some cards to receive a reprint may shift rarity for various reasons - you may note that the mythic rarity was not introduced until Alara block.  Here is the 4.1.1. -

• Release date 7th June, 2013
• 229 Reprint Cards for the Modern Format, many with new art
• Cards are reprints from Eighth Edition through Alara Reborn
• New never before printed tokens
• 15-card booster packs, one premium per pack
• Designed to be drafted
• 24 packs per box
• $7 MSRP
• English only, global distribution
• Conservative print run

So far we have a solid confirmation of Tarmogoyf but there was another art provided on the mothersite - could this be City of Brass ?

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