Zendikar Mini-Site UP!

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w0w (!) . . . we have quite a post for you today. The following wondrous things are promised to be paraded before your hungry eyes before post's end. The Zendikar Mini-Site is now up and live on Wizards. This site provides information on flavour, the orb of insight, activities such as puzzles, a visual spoiler and product information.

There is a lot to cover, so buckle up and let's go . . .

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First off - Some Arts -

Armament Master,
From the Kor Army Zendikar Intro Pack

Turntimber Ranger, 3
From the Adventurers Zendikar Intro Pack

Now some other arts which we do not have any details on yet . . .










A big saucer of glowing milk ?

Very kewl terrain

The Map is the key.

Beetle girl loves insects.

New Zendikar wallpaper this week

Zendikar Orb of Insight (link HERE)

For those that have never had the chance to use it, you type in a word (or number) and the Orb tells you how many times that word appears on Zendikar cards. It doesn't count flavor text but you can enter numbers and mana abbreviations to try and figure out mana and activation costs.

In theory, if you entered every single word in the English language, plus the words and mana costs in Magic, you could put together every single word in the set. Except we know that there are some Magic-specific words that appear in Zendikar for the first time, so you'll probably want to enter in every possible string of letters, just to be safe.

Some Results to date . . .

Card Types: Instant - 39, Sorcery - 25, Enchantment - 29, Creature - 241, Artifact - 24, Land - 106, Planeswalker - 3, Basic - 43, Legendary - 4, Equipment - 11, Aura - 9, Plains - 21, Island - 20, Swamp - 19, Mountain - 19, Forest - 19

Creature Types / Sub-types: Angel - 6, Ally - 41, Archer - 4, Avatar - 1, Basilisk - 3, Beast - 11, Berserker - 4, Bird - 4, Cat - 4, Cleric - 6, Construct - 1, Demon - 2, Dragon - 1, Drake - 2, Druid - 2, Elemental - 13, Elf - 9, Fungus - 1, Human - 8, Giant - 5, Goblin - 17, Hound - 1, Illusion - 2, Insect - 3, Kor - 28, Kraken - 2, Merfolk - 12, Minotaur - 4, Octopus - 1, Rogue - 3, Scout - 8, Soldier - 9, Snake - 3, Soldier - 9, Sphinx - 5, Spirit - 2, Vampire - 20, Wizard - 6, Wolf - 1, Wurm - 1, Zombie - 4

Evergreen Mechanics: Deathtouch - 2, Defender - 2, Double - 5, Enchant - 8, Equip - 3, First - 7, Flying - 21, Forestwalk - 1, Haste - 6, Intimidate - 4, Landwalk - 1, Lifelink - 2, Mountainwalk - 1, Protection - 4, Reach - 1, Regenerate - 2, Shroud - 1, Strike - 6, Swampwalk - 1, Trample - 3, Unblockable - 1

Some speculations / other notes :
Keywords and Mechanics
- 'Expedition' (12 hits) ?
- 'Kicker' has 24 hits; 25 references to kicked ("Whenever a spell is kicked?")
- Trap 34, but 14 for "rather", so likely several traps that are NOT instants?
- Possible new mechanics for equipment and about the library? (11 equipment with 3 equip; 51 library)

Set Contents
- Chandra Ablaze's other two abilities do NOT deal damage. Only her +1 does.
- Land - 106 hits for the word is a considerable number, even counting Landfall and likely 40 uses for basic lands (full art and normal versions)
- Some 9 to 11 "quest" enchantment cards

Possible Reprints : Harrow, Ravenous Baloth, Mind Sludge

Zendikar Slow Cooker 2

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Hey y'all, like the name on the post suggests (slow cooker), we have a bunch of Zendikar slow spoilers in various stages of undress . . . let's get to 'em . . .

First off, we now have the full Sorin Markov Planeswalker card, and it was not quite what we expected here at MTG Realm.

Sorin Markov, 3
Planeswalker - Sorin, Mythic Rare
+2 Sorin Markov deals 2 damage to target creature or player and you gain 2 life.
-3 Target Opponent's life total becomes 10.
-7 You control target player's next turn.

We really thought that the second ability would have held something quite different but we are still quite OK with it.


Next up, his excellency Evan Erwin over at the Magic Show released part two of Warren Instigator and so far, this card seems incredible.

Warren Instigator,
Creature - Goblin Beserker, Mythic Rare
Doubble Strike, ??
?/?

There is still a LOT of space left on the text portion to fill with kick-butt abilities. We personally are hoping for this dude to have haste. We're also hoping for some serious Landfall mechanic love here - hasty tokens please !


Next up is part two of Vampire Nighthawk from the very mobile Trick over at ManaNation. (Memo to Trick - vlogging and driving is an inherently dangerous activity - please be careful) :-)

Vampire Nighthawk, 1
Creature - Vampire Shaman, Uncommon
Flying
Deathtouch
?/?

A flying dude with flying AND deathtouch (for 3)?! - Yes please - I don't really care if this guy is a 1/1 - this card not only equates to potential hits to your opponent's face but also provides removal.


Enfin, un ange légendaire mythique à partir de Magic Ville . . . check it out !

Iona, Shield of Emeria 6
Legendary Creature - Angel, Mythic Rare
Flying
?
?/

Voici ce que je n'espère . . .6/6 vol, vigilance, à chaque fois qu'un terrain arrive en jeu sous votre contrôle les créatures blanches que vous contrôlez gagnent +1/+1 et la protection contre le noir jusqu'à la fin du tour - perhaps too much to ask for maybe (?)

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Also - some interesting pieces of information from Star City goon Jeff Phillips who had kidnapped and interogated WoTC staffer Mark Purvis recently at GenCon Indy 2009.

* “In Zendikar, the land is dangerous and unpredictable.”
* “The people of Zendikar are all well-equipped."
* “Zendikar is the home world of the Kor. All previous appearances by them, they were abducted against their will.”
* The large, floating polyhedron-shaped objects are “hedrons, which are the remnants of an ancient civilization. Their purpose is unknown to the current inhabitants of Zendikar.”
* “Vampires are also native to Zendikar. They have a feel very reminiscent of Native Americans, with war paints and a very tribal feel.”
Sorin is not native to Zendikar.
* “Elves and Goblins are native to Zendikar, but they have an altered behavior. It’s a fresh twist.”
* “Rocktraps: they appear to be rocks, but are actually creatures.”
* “Lands are definitely atypical.”
* “Gravity is a bit off”
* "flying is a major sub theme"

Stay tuned for more MTG spoiler goodness . . .

Zendikar Release Promos

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Big news from Digga on the forums . .

This art appears on the pre-release / launch party poster with Rampaging Baloths. Unfortunately, we have only partial text on the one card.


The safe / unobscured card we already know from a previous post . . .

Rampaging Baloths, 4
Creature - Beast, Mythic Rare
Trample
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may put a 4/4 green Beast creature token (onto the battlefield)
6/6

And the new card . . .

Valakut, the Molten Pinacle
Land, Rare
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle enters the battlefield tapped.
Whenever a Mountain enters the battlefield under your control, as long as you control 5 other Mountains, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
: Add to your mana pool.

EDIT : This post was updated only 15 minutes with full card information - the following was speculation previously posted (so disregard eh.)

We can deliberate some assumptions for Valakut :

* Valakut is not a common. As it is safe to assume that Valakut is the Release / Launch promo card, it will be either a rare or a mythic rare.

* We may also assume the following card text given the partial wording . . . "Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle enters the battlefield tapped."

* There is a conditional line starting with "W", and we think it safe to say that the word here is 'When'.

* The 'When' is not likely to be associated with a 'kicker' cost as this would be another line above the conditional.

* T: Add R (or RR?) to your mana pool. Valakut obviously produces red mana '' given the standard mountain card frame.


Some Valakut Speculation . . .

'When Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle enters the battlefield, acrifice it unless you return a land you control to its owner's hand.'

'When Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a Plains card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. If you do, shuffle your library.'

'When Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle becomes tapped, it deals 1 damage to target creature or opponent'.

> Pipe in and provide a speculation in the comment thingy below !

Zendikar Critters

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Please do not take this blog post seriously . . . we're just having some fun with Zendikar spoilers frivolities.

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Dinosaurs in Zendikar - have a look at 'Beast Hunt' Zendikar card from the Planechase spoiler . . .


MaRo twitter article on Zendikar . . .

"Here's my hint. There is a space in Magic design that we've explored on individual cards but have never explored thematically as a block theme. We started with that theme and then crafted a world that made it make sense. Once we had the world, we then made a bunch of other mechanics that made sense in that world. The design and creative did a lot of back and forth work to integrate the mechanical themes into the world. I do feel the world we've create is a resonant one, but not one with pirates or dinosaurs. Or robots. Or ninjas. Or monkeys. Let me wrap this answer up by saying that I'm quite excited with how Zendikar turned out, and once I'm allowed to freely talk about it, I anticipate I'll start getting letters to ask me to stop talking about it."

Better pick up some dino tokens !

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OK - something a bit more serious now.
Check out the article today at WoTC, where MaRo yatters about the upcoming Magic the Gathering expansion sets.

Mark Rosewater :
"What I'm getting to is that the Zendikar block is going to be our second block where we fiddle with the block convention. (Lorwyn / Shadowmoor block being our first.) It is not going to be the large / small / small template that Shards of Alara and many previous blocks were. Instead, here is how it's going to work:

* Zendikar is a normal sized large set with the same number of cards as Shards of Alara (229 cards plus 20 full art lands)

* Worldwake is a normal-sized small set with the same number of cards as Conflux (145 cards). It is an extension of Zendikar's mechanics—with a few new twists, of course.

* "Prosper", the third set in the block, is a large set (229 cards plus 20 lands) taking place on the plane of Zendikar. A major event happens (the reason I'm not giving the name of the set yet is that it gives a big clue about what this event is) that forces the plane to fundamentally shift and leads to a new large set with brand new mechanics. Yes, "Prosper" while part of the Zendikar block creatively, will be distinctly unique mechanically and is designed to be drafted on its own. Brian Tinsman was the lead designer for "Prosper," and the set lives up to Brian's rep as a designer who loves breaking conventions. As I cannot get into details yet, it is hard for me to explain why we are doing this, but I promise that as we get closer to the release of "Prosper" I will talk about the method behind our madness."

Did you catch that part about 'designed to be drafted on its own' ?

Lot's of crazy speculation on these upcoming sets. We know there will be a land theme of sorts and then there was that cryptic '[blank] without [blank' statement by MaRo awhile ago which could be almost anything.

. . . more speculation onto this latter . . .