Battle for Zendikar Art Spoilers

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

So far this week, we have been touching all our new cards from the Magic Origins PreRelease last weekend and beginning to think upon new and revised decklists for standard format.  One of the first lists we want to try out at this Friday Night Magic event at our local gaming store, OMG! Games here in Barrie is Blue / Red Thopters, but we'll yatter about that list a bit latter on.  Speaking of OMG! Games, they are scheduled to run a Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifier to the first Pro Tour of 2016 this weekend (Saturday 18th July) with a ton of amazing prizes including a 1st prize of $500 cash ($600 credit) and an invite to the Regional Pro Tour Qualifier for the first Pro Tour of 2016.

Anywhoos, we should get on with today's article post which should be of great interest to Magic: the Gathering players around the world - this fall's 'Battle for Zendikar' set.

(Sean) Shoutout to all the #mtg players we met at #SDCC2015! We hope you enjoyed yesterday's panel. A recording will be available soon!

— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) July 13, 2015

Since posted, we have not yet heard back from WotC as to a video from the San Diego Comic Con MTG Panel, so we want to follow through with a series of (live) tweets from the panel showing some really exciting Battle for Zendikar arts 'n' illustrations -

Here's another look at some of the allies we'll see in #MTGBFZ... what's that in Kiora's hand? pic.twitter.com/4vTrqQjUKa

— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) July 12, 2015

Yep! - that looks like Gideon and Kiora (the Crashing Wave) with Thassa's (stolen) bident and a welcome wagon for some Eldrazi.

Tying up loose ends means allowing new and fascinating interactions to happen. #MTGBFZ pic.twitter.com/SLBiDjSnq6

— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) July 12, 2015

Ob Nixilis has a plan. #MTGBFZ #SDCC2015 pic.twitter.com/J1CcpwAWCm

— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) July 12, 2015

The art here for Ob Nixilis totally rocks.

...there's a chance Ob Nixilis is desperate for a way off of Zendikar. pic.twitter.com/GudWijzH5C

— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) July 12, 2015

Ob Nixilis is being rather unkind to a Kor here.

Here's an example of a pivotal event from Battle for Zendikar! Three key words: Gate. Slaughter. Sea. #MTGBFZ pic.twitter.com/YWE7QvLEn7

— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) July 12, 2015

Zendikar's Halimar inland sea is separated from the natural ocean by a massive sea wall ('sea gate') - you can see the Lighthouse in the background here.  Planeswalkers Nissa and Gideon battling Eldrazi brood.

Everyone's favorite hieromancer is back to face the Eldrazi alongside the residents of Zendikar. #MTGBFZ pic.twitter.com/HqPtpVz4TZ

— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) July 12, 2015

Hieromancy - the magic of justice and order.

Cohesion in storytelling means connecting plotlines in ways we haven't before. Look who teams up in #MTGBFZ! pic.twitter.com/n7N0nLJjz4

— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) July 12, 2015

...and Nissa's start on Zendikar sets us up nicely for a return in #MTGBFZ. pic.twitter.com/OSoybTyCLx

— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) July 12, 2015

Epic art here showing Nissa going down town with the token 'Ashaya, the Awoken World'. 

Magic Origins focuses on five central planeswalkers. Each will play a pivotal role in the blocks to come... #MTGBFZ pic.twitter.com/GJN4eOjUGb

— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) July 12, 2015

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SDCC MTG Panel

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We hope all had a great weekend, whether you were at a Magic Origins PreRelease or attending San Diego Comic Con (SDCC), or even both.  As you may have guessed from us gushing over on our MTG Realm Tumblr stream, we took in a midnight Magic Origins PreRelese event over at Koros Games in Orangeville, Ontario and had a blast.  Here's a bit of the PreRelease before we get into some of the big Magic: the Gathering news out of SDCC.

The first PreRelease Pack colours to go were white, red, and black, pretty much in that order.  We saddled up with a green pack and when popped, we could not be more happier - a foil Nissa promo - shown on our lucky BCW Supplies Playmat.  Our most valuable players were Rhox Maulers, especially when paired with with pump spells such as Titanic Growth and Might Leap.  Since we got up really, really early for work Friday morning, we simply ran out of steam by the end of the second match and retired for the evening.
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The Wizards of the Coast Panel at SDCC 2015 was not streamed unfortunately but there were a number of 'live tweet' from the Wizards MTG Twitter account.  There was also a promise that there would be a recording available soon.  First up, the Panel had two previews for the upcoming From the Vault : Angels during the panel at SDCC - say hello to the Akroma sisters !

There was also a good measure of discussion on how WotC now presents storylines with references to the recent installments of the Magic Origins stories provided on the Uncharted Realms column.  There were also some very exciting images previewed for the next set, Battle for Zendikar, to be released early October 2015.  From the Q & A portion of the panel (and MaRo's Blogatog followup), we also learn that we may expect 'Allies' to return to the revisitation to Zendikar.  Pop back to MTG Realm tomorrow as we further discuss Battle for Zendikar. 

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Magic Origins SDCC Promo

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Happy Monday (again) MTG peeps,

This is our second article today - to catch our earlier one covering off all the new Magic Origins previews out today, hop on over to here.   This, our second article is our particular interest to Magic: the Gathering players who may be attending this year's San Diego Comic-Con 2015, running July 9th to the 12th.  SDCC is typically when we have a panel from Wizards of the Coast addressing several upcoming products, foremost of which is the next block - this being Battle for Zendikar.  In past years, WotC has also released an SDCC Exclusive in the form of an alternate 'black on black' set of the core set Planeswalkers.


Here's the 4.1.1. for this year's SDCC exclusive from IO9 -

At San Diego Comic-Con 2015 the Hasbro ToyShop offered a limited edition collection of double-faced planeswalkers cards from Magic Origins (the last core set) for sale. The five cards were presented with unique "black-on-black" illustrated by Wayne Reynolds.  This year’s SDCC Planeswalker set also includes a book exploring the backstories of the five planeswalkers featured in this summer’s Magic Origins expansion: Chandra, Jace, Nissa, Gideon, and Liliana. This is expected to be selling at $120.
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Check it out !

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