Wednesday MTG Miscellany

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

You may recall from this previous post regarding an image of 'Hixus, Prison Warden' which appeared to be part of a distributor's page catalog - well it kinda sucked that the card shown in that white Magic Origins Intro pack was cut off - but - fear not!  Forum member flamepenguin3 was able to catch all the full stats of this legendary creature from what is reported to be a Target advertisement.

Hixus, Prison Warden, 3WW
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier, Rare
Flash
Whenever a creature deals combat damage to you, if Hixus, Prison Warden entered the battlefield this turn, exile that creature until Hixus leaves the battlefield.
4/4

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Next up - 
Our congratulations to Wizards of the Coast for winning an award from Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design for Best Collectible Card Game.  They scored this lovely trophy for their work on Magic: the Gathering Khans of Tarkir.

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Lastly -

We're certain you've already heard / read / discussed this to some length - regarding Magic: the Gathering player Pascal Maynard who had opened a Foil Tarmogoyf in Top 8 GP Vegas the other weekend.  There was some heated discussion (we'll call 'Goyfgate) just about everywhere MTG players chat which we were interested in reading / listening.  It all sort of boils down to Pascal's choice of picking a card (of lesser monetary value) which would be strategic in helping him possibly win the tournament over a card which, although would not help him win games (this is called 'rare - drafting') but would put some serious cash in his pocket.

The value of a Tarmogoyf card is around $175 while a foil version worth approximately $400. But this card is a “stamped” tournament version, signifying that it’s from the Top-8 Draft of one of the biggest tournaments of the year.  This card sold on eBay for about $15,000.

We don't really have an opinion, but in our particular case where we sometimes have to look in our couch cushions for our $6 entry fee to Friday Night Magic, we most definitely would have rare-drafted this baby and then eat rather well for the rest of the year.
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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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