MTG Changes

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

Going forward through this article, I may very well sound like an 'old guy', which is rather true - I will be 50 in just a few short months.  This is mentioned only to provide a brief context of my experience with the evolution of technology and change itself.  I was born very far North (Arctic Circle north) at a time when cutting technology was chainsaws and the latest improvements in snowmobiles promised smoother / safer rides.  When serving in the Armed Forces, I was one of the first to use an electric typewriter in my Battalion.  Through my academic endeavours, I had witnessed the first computers (think floppys and diskettes) and did actually own a 'bag-phone' which plugged into the cigarette (now 'accessory') socket.  

This is all mentioned to provide a sort of way-marker in my reading of the ever-evolving Magic: the Gathering site that Wizards of the Coast has been maintaining and improving over the years.  Today's article to MTG Realm is posted as a new iteration of the Daily MTG has now gone up.  Here is a progression what the MTG webpage looked liked from when we first started reading it.

Early 2000 / 2002

Pure nostalgia.  I had spent a lot of time reading Magic Arcana, as well as some authors, whose content may very well be considered 'racey' by today's standards.

Circa 2004

My 56k dial-up modem is now considered ancient technology.  Look at all the graphics - enough to make one's self dizzy.  Brian David-Marshall and Adrian Sullivan dispense strategy and wisdom for players.

In 2007, Wizards of the Coast had addressed the rapidly growing fan community's desire to further engage on a more social level.  Randy Buehler was the tip of this spear, but unfortunately, bad timing had these fans busy on Facebook and Myspace resulting in Gleemax closing a year later.   
(Yes - I will admit that I had a Myspace page filled with MTG stuff)

Circa 2009

By far, my favourite designs of the Daily MTG webpage.  The newly improved gatherer is amazing, content is very well organised but By Odin!, should you need to search for something, you are going to have a bad time.  Gatherer has a slick-look page which propels me in to a new level of deckbuilding.

Gleemax 2.0 ?  Wizards of the Coast concludes that Facebook and Myspace is a mess for the MTG fans to build a community with at this time.  Wizards Community goes live circa 2010 which supplements the main webpage with this creation and I enthusiastically sign up.  It closes down five years later which kinda left me sad.

Circa 2014

Oh dear, this was not to our liking at all.

Let's just fast-forward a few months.

Circa 2015

This has become much more improved, and one is now able to use a functional search to float out that article you wanted to re-read.  Navigation is decent and Magic Arcana continues to be a 'must read' column.  Daily MTG 'Update' is soon to become a daily routine for me in 2016.

November 29, 2017

Here comes the part where my 'old fogey' preface is now referenced.  I am experiencing a mild dislike, but as Leo Buscaglia said - "Change is the end result of all true learning", which prompts me to realise that change is sometimes a good thing, so I look past my old-guy pre-determinations.  I very much appreciate the community generated content section and know that I will come to like the re-design in rather short order - just not the 'daily mtg' font.  Let's drop the probiotics please Wizards and ask Beleren to step back into the room.

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Alara Vedalken

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The regular feature article writers over at Wizards took today off.



With the exception of Editor-in-Chief, Scott Johns, who had a brief announcement regarding the overhaul of the website.

To appease the hungry audience, we were treated to a sneak peek of the sited including a new Shards of Alara image to be hosted in the 'Multiverse' flavour section.
A note about these 'filigreed' blue creatures. These creatures share appear very much like the Vedalken in Ravinca block. Vedalken are a tall, thin, hairless blue-skinned race.

Vedalken Entrancer
(Ravnica: City of Guilds)

Azorius Guildmage
(Dissension)

Some nay-sayers may tell you that Vedalken have four arms and indeed in Mirrodin, the vedalken there mutated to sprout two extra arms and gills but in Ravinca, they were rather like in appearence to the tall blue creatures we have been seeing in the Alara realm of Esper.


Looks like it may very well be a brave new world over at Wizards tomorrow if all goes right . . . we will just have to wait and see.

Until next time, Happy & Safe Gaming.

New MTG.com

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Scott Johns, Editor in Chief of the website, provided us with a sneak peak at the new look and new features coming with the website redesign in an article today titled The New MagicTheGathering.com.

The organisation of materials are to fall into catorigories such as
The Multiverse : contains a new flavour-based section,
Trading Card Game : provides product information and other materials formerly hosted as 'minisites'),
Daily MTG : contains the familiar Ask Wizards, Card of the Day, Magic Arcana, all of the current columns, and event coverage content. Will also include a new Booster Draft Simulator (which will provide card pools updated weekly), AND
Digital Games : ( ), and Publishing (currently the information contained within the 'Books' section).
In addition, a new public beta-version of the card database, Gatherer, is set to go live shortly. The new application is promised to provide a streamlined simple search, the option for advanced search with a whole menu of options (including Boolean operators), the chance to rate and comment on every Magic card ever made, the ability to view any search as a visual spoiler, and more.
The screen shots of the new & improved website also provided us with a few more spoilers of Shards of Alara art as well as flavour . . .

"Alara was whole once. But that was millennia ago. Where once there was a plane, now there are five: the Shards. The plane of Alara was a world rich with mana, a world in balance . . . until the Sundering. In a cataclysm of unimaginable proportions, alara was rent asunder in five separate worlds, each a refraction of the others."

First of all, this is awesome art.
Secondly, what the heck is that monster breathing thunderbolts ?

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We were also provided with a glimpse of two other Alara denizens -

Wings, sword, and all white and gold

. . . I will hazard a guess that this may be an angel .

Another image from the screen shots show this soldier of Knight of Jund . . . very nice.

This banner, however, was a bit more difficult to make out . . . It shows how the (old) minisites will incorporate into the new site design. This image shows the expected categories of flavour exploration, puzzle activities, visual spoilers as well as product information. The visual spoiler image provides 3 Alara cards with traditionally coloured subjects in white, red and blue. The product information thumb also possibly shows booster box packaging and a new intro-pack packaging.

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Lastly, a quick look at an image provided at the recent GenCon gaming convention in Indiana.

You will certainly recall the Esper wallpaper posted last week at MTG.
Did you get a close look at winged-creature lurking in the mists behind the Esper denizens ?

I am thinking that this is the same beast that was shown at GenCon. Wings, tail, hooves ?


It appears that Esper has a flier as well as wizards.

Until next time, Happy & Safe Gaming everyone !