DKA Intro Pack Video

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

We have a bit of a treat for you today - courtesy of 360 Public Relations and Wizards of the Coast. The crew here at MTG Realm scored an Dark Ascension Intro Pack and four Dark Ascension Booster Packs. When we think of it, we had no less than four players tell us (2 here in town and 2 others in a city serveral hours away) that they had actually purchased Intro Packs / Event Decks after they saw some of our previous 'dissection' videos so I guess it serves the folks well over at WoTc to send swag every once in a while.

Anywhoos - we received the Red / White 'Swift Justice' Intro Pack BUT what really floats our boat is what we got in the four booster packs - enough yattering for now - here's the vid :

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The Dark Ascension / - Swift Justice has the foil Requiem Angel and everyone's fav one-drop vampire, Stromkirk Noble. The rare we pulled from the booster pack included in this Intro Pack was Jar of Eyeballs which we will immediately send off to Magic Cards with Googly Eyes so she (twitter here) can slick up some kewl card alt for us.

This deck is fast and agressive and can be easily adapted for the novice Magic the Gathering player to evolve as that player's skill evolves. We suggest that perhaps one of your first steps is to consider getting a few copies of something similar to Ray of Revelation (green splash?) to kill off those nasty enchantments running amok in standard at the moment (we're looking at you Intanglible Virtue / Honor of the Pure).

Righto - We LOVED what we got in the four Dark Ascension Booster Packs and only wished we could have pulled this during the PreRelease event where we sucked a 2:2 with our matches. Check 'em out :

Gravecrawler, Geralf's Messenger, Beguiler of Wills (for some odd reason we keep mis-reading the card as 'Bruce Willis' ?wtf?), and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed.

Yep - wish we had pulled these at the prerelease.
Anywhoos - we still have some additional Intro Packs to cover off so stay tuned.
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It is not too late to get in your pre-orders yet. Whether you are thinking about building a vampire, werewolf, zombie, spirit, agrro or control, you'll likely need to get some new cards - Give MTG Mint Card a look.
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DKA PreRelease

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We hope you were able to get out to a Dark Ascension PreRelease event this past weekend. If not, your second chance is coming with the official release this weekend (February 3rd / 4th) to get your paws and claws into this new Magic the Gathering set. We skipped the midnight prerelease at our local games store, OMG! Games here in Barrie to be all fresh faced ans bushy-tailed for their Saturday morning event. About 35 to 38 players attended the midnight one with several of them coming back the next morning for 10:00 AM to play again with little or no sleep. The Saturday morning event was well attended too but we suspect the latter events in the day were likely packed.

Anywhoos - enough yattering for the moment, here's a vid from the Dark Ascension PreRelease . . .

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First up, let's take a look at our rare pulls from the 3 packs Innistrad & 3 packs of Dark Ascension we had to work with to build our 40 card deck . . .

We love both these sets as there is an extra slot in your 15-card booster pack for a double-faced card. Have 9 rares from six booster packs is never a bad thing. The rares were : Huntmaster of the Fells, Snapcaster Mage, Instigator Gang, Nephalia Drownyard, Flayer of the Hatebound, Creeping Reneassainse (foil), Vault of the Archangel, Elder of Laurels, and Ghoultree.

There appeared to be some decent support for a werewolf build in the commons and uncommons so we tried out a red / green build that event included our Creeping Reneassainse. We were also able to pull that uncommon wolf 'lord', Immerwolf which cemented the build nicely. For our fourth and final game, we scrapped out the entire deck to create a blue white build. Hey we love making decks and even tried a few more after we got home with the card pool. At the end of the day, it was 2 wins, 2 loses, and a lot of fun.

WHAT did you pull ?
WHAT cards really stood out in your limited games ?
WHICH cards will make the grade for standard constructed ?

Use the comment thingy below - we want to hear from you.
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It is not too late to get in your pre-orders yet. Whether you are thinking about building a vampire, werewolf, zombie, spirit, agrro or control, you'll likely need to get some new cards - Give MTG Mint Card a look.

Stay tuned to MTG Realm,
We still have a lot of catching up to do for Dark Ascension - so many posts, so little time kinda thing.
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DKA Dark Sacrifice

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps, We will start churning through the Dark Ascension Intro Packs just like we did with the Innistrad ones. We hope to have one or two videos up as will showing product dissection and some game highlights with one or more of the Intro Packs.

Each Dark Ascension Intro Pack contains : a 60-card theme deck, 1 premium foil card, 1 premium card, a Dark Ascension booster pack, and a strategy and a rules insert. Today however, we will go through the Dark Sacrifice Intro Pack decklist - let'g get to it . . .

Black / White
/ - Dark Sacrifice
foil rare - Fiend of the Shadows

22 creatures
1 Champion of the Parish (Innistrad Rare)
1 Disciple of Griselbrand (Innistrad Uncommon)
2 Doomed Traveler (Innistrad Common)
2 Elder Cathar (Innistrad Common)
2 Elgaud Inquisitor (Dark Ascension Common)
3 Falkenrath Torturer (Dark Ascension Common)
1 Fiend of the Shadows (Dark Ascension Rare)
2 Galvanic Juggernaut (Innistrad Uncommon)
1 Mausoleum Guard (Innistrad Uncommon)
1 Selfless Cathar (Innistrad Common)
1 Skirsdag Flayer (Dark Ascension Uncommon)
2 Unruly Mob (Innistrad Common)
2 Village Cannibals (Innistrad Uncommon)
1 Wakedancer (Dark Ascension Uncommon)


14 other spells
2 Altar's Reap (Dark Ascension Common)
1 Avacyn's Collar (Dark Ascension Uncommon)
2 Death's Caress (Dark Ascension Common)
1 Demonmail Hauberk (Innistrad Uncommon)
3 Gather the Townsfolk (Dark Ascension Common)
1 Gravepurge (Dark Ascension Common)
1 Lingering Souls (Dark Ascension Uncommon)
2 Night Terrors (Innistrad Common)
1 Unburial Rites (Innistrad Uncommon)


24 lands
1 Haunted Fengraf (Dark Ascension Common)
12 Plains
11 Swamp
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This is another decent Dark Ascension Intro Pack for gamers who want to get into the new set or are getting into the game. We can imagine several players starting with this as a nucleus and then trading / saving up to upgrade this into a B/W Token build with Vault of the Archangel and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.

DON'T FORGET : This weekend is the Dark Ascension pre-release - We'll be attending this event at our fav game store, OMG! Games in Barrie, Ontario, Canada - Central Ontario's largest MTG retailer.

We are now in the process to going through previous sets still standard legal to get cards to incorporate into new builds such as blue / white spirits, blue / black zombies, etc. We suggest you check out MTG Mint Card now before player demand pushes the price up or depletes stock of that critical card to synergize your new deck.
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DKA Swift Justice

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps, We will start churning through the Dark Ascension Intro Packs just like we did with the Innistrad ones. We hope to have one or two videos up as will showing product dissection and some game highlights with one or more of the Intro Packs.

Each Dark Ascension Intro Pack contains : a 60-card theme deck, 1 premium foil card, 1 premium card, a Dark Ascension booster pack, and a strategy and a rules insert. Today however, we will go through the Swift Justice Intro Pack decklist - let'g get to it . . .

White / Red
/ - Swift Justice
foil - Requiem Angel

Creatures (26)
2 Elite Vanguard (M12 Uncommon)
1 Forge Devil (Dark Ascension Common)
1 Stromkirk Nobile (Innistrad Rare)
2 Niblis of the Urn (Dark Ascension Uncommon)
1 Silverchase Fox (Innistrad Common)
2 Ashmouth Hound (Innistrad Common)
1 Bloodcrazed Neonate (Innistrad Common)
1 Torch Fiend (Innistrad Common)
2 Midnight Guard (Innistrad Common)
2 Niblis of the Mist (Innistrad Common)
1 Fiend Hunter (Innistrad Uncommon)
1 Erdwal Ripper (Dark Ascension Common)
2 Assault Griffin (M12 Common)
2 Lightning Elemental (M12 Common)
1 Night Revelers (Dark Ascension Common)
1 Serra Angel (M12 Uncommon)
1 Requiem Angel (Dark Ascension Rare)
2 Markov Warlord (Dark Ascension Uncommon)


Other Spells (10)
2 Traveler's Amulet (Dark Ascension Common)
1 Skillful Lunge (Dark Ascension Common)
2 Burning Oil (Dark Ascension Uncommon)
1 Nightbird's Clutches (Innistrad Common)
2 Rally the Peasants (Innistrad Uncommon)
2 Wrack with Madness (Dark Ascension Common)


Lands (24)
12 Plains
12 Mountain
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This is another solid Intro Pack to get you into the standard constructed game and from which you could easily improve as your skills grow. We're darn impressed with the inclusion of Stromkirk Noble which some players we've talked to will buy this Intro Pack just for this Vampire alone.

Safe & Happy gaming - stay tuned for more daily posts even though 'spoiler season' is wrapped up.
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DKA Relentless Dead

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps, We will start churning through the Dark Ascension Intro Packs just like we did with the Innistrad ones. We hope to have one or two videos up as will showing product dissection and some game highlights with one or more of the Intro Packs.

Each Dark Ascension Intro Pack contains : a 60-card theme deck, 1 premium foil card, 1 premium card, a Dark Ascension booster pack, and a strategy and a rules insert. Today however, we will go through the Relentless Dead Intro Pack decklist - let'g get to it . . .

Blue / Black
/ Relentless Dead

Foil Rare - Havengul Runebinder

Relentless Dead Intro Pack deck list

Creatures (24)
1 Ghoulraiser (Innistrad Common)
1 Havengul Runebinder (Dark Ascension Rare)
1 Headless Skaab (Innistrad Common)
1 Makeshift Mauler (Innistrad Common)
1 Rotting Fensnake (Innistrad Common)
1 Skaab Goliath (Innistrad Uncommon)
1 Stitched Drake (Innistrad Common)
2 Abattoir Ghoul (Innistrad Unommon)
2 Black Cat (Dark Ascension Common)
2 Diregraf Captain (Dark Ascension Uncommon)
2 Diregraf Ghoul (Innistrad Unommon)
2 Farbog Boneflinger (Dark Ascension Uncommon)
2 Walking Corpse (Innistrad Common)
2 Zombie Goliath (M12 Common)
3 Screeching Skaab (Dark Ascension Common)


Other Spells (12)
1 Cellar Door (Innistrad Uncommon)
1 Corpse Lunge (Innistrad Common)
1 Endless Ranks of the Dead (Innistrad Rare)
1 Moan of the Unhallowed (Innistrad Uncommon)
1 Negate (M12 Common)
1 Zombie Infestation (M12 Uncommon)
2 Dead Wight (Innistrad Common)
2 Forbidden Alchemy (Innistrad Common)
2 Reap the Seagraf (Dark Ascension Common)

Lands (24)
10 Island
10 Swamp
2 Evolving Wilds (Dark Ascension Common)
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We are thinking about brewing up a new Zombie deck featuring several of the new Dark Ascension Cards as well as a few gems from the M12 core set. This is a great place to start. We are also looking forward to the Dark Ascension Event Decks due out in about a month from now - the Innistrad Event Decks rocked and we're sure this one will too.

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Most of the Dark Ascension singles are up on the MTG Mint Card site for pre-order. The remainders should be up in another 24 hours as they are celebrating New Year's right now. 農曆新年 !

We suggest you get in there quick before they sell out of the more popular cards . . .
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W/B Tokens

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

There really is no ignoring the very large elephant (or rather vampire planeswalker) in the room any longer. Your Magic the Gathering at your local store / games club is set to change with the introduction of Magic the Gathering's newest set, Dark Ascension. The most hyped about deck that a lot of players want to drive in White / Black Tokens with Sorin, Lord of Innistrad as the key card, along with the amazing flashback card, Lingering Souls.

Well, let's get down to the nitty-gritty and talk about suitable cards which might just work in a standard constructed deck. First up - mana base -
Plains, Swamps, the Innistrad dual-land, Isolated Chapel, and Vault of the Archangel which can really put a zing into your alpha swing with your horde of tokens by giving them deathtouch and lifelink (which in our opinion is one of our fav combinations - we LOVED Deathbringe Liege deck featuring Basilisk Collar in Eventide!).
Next, cards to consider to help pump up your newly created tokens . . .
Intangible Virtue and to a lesser extent, Honor of the Pure are your choices. Next up - cards for your consideration - please do not limit your choices to these but brew up your own and test your build . . .
These cards are the major components to your token engine. We threw in Suture Priest because no-one expects her ! Next up - let's protect your butt or project your power on the game table - some other spells for your consideration . . .
Again - spice to your own taste here - some of these may be suitable in your side-board. Test, make notes, and have fun!
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We expect that before the end of the day, the entire list of singles will be up on MTG Mint Card for pre-order.

We suggest you get in there quick before they sell out of the more popular cards . . .

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Dark Ascension Spoiler Complete

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

And what a Monday it is. Magic the Gathering's Dark Ascension set (set 2 of 3 in the Innistrad block) is now fully in the open. This set contains 158 cards (64 common, 44 uncommon, 38 rare, and 12 mythic rare) which are now up on the Visual Spoiler on the mothership. We suggest you drop by the MTG Realm Spoiler list which is now up will all the card text and all the Mythic Rare / Rare card images. We'll endeavour to clean up the small errors due to mad-typing latter.

Last evening, there was a party-like atmosphere on the forums as MTG fans around the world waited with bated breath counting down the last few hours and minutes as the Wizards of the Coast website refreshed to reveal all the new cards. We, like many, waited like kids on Christmas eve for Santa to deliver cardboard awesomeness. We imagine many gamers are a bit hung over with the lack of sleep today from reviewing all the new cards till the wee hours of the morning.

Anywhoos - let's have an overview of the new set . . .
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Dark Ascension has six cycles -

Increasing Flashback Spells: Five rare spells with Flashback, which double their effect if they are flashed back — Increasing Devotion, Increasing Confusion, Increasing Ambition, Increasing Vengeance, and Increasing Savagery.
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Mythic Rare Allied Color Creatures: Four mythic rare creatures that are of an allied pair associated with one of four monster tribes associated with Innistrad — Drogskol Reaver, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Havengul Lich, and Huntmaster of the Fells.
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Ally Flashback cards: Each of these common spells has a flashback cost involving its counter-clockwise ally on the color wheel. This cycle mirrors the ally cycle from Innistrad, which had flashback costs in the color's clockwise ally on the color wheel. — Ray of Revelation, Saving Grasp, Reap the Seagraf, Fires of Undeath, and Wild Hunger.
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Enemy Flashback cards: Each of these uncommon spells has a flashback cost involving the enemy color two slots later on the color wheel. They are the reverse of a cycle from Innistrad, as the colors of the flashback cost and the regular casting cost are flipped. — Lingering Souls, Mystic Retrieval, Deadly Allure, Burning Oil, and Tracker's Instincts.
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Tribal Lords: A cycle of uncommon cards that are allied-colored lords tied to one of the monster tribes on Innistrad. They all provide some form of benefit in addition to the standard lord effect. Immerwolf is the only one which is not named Captain. — Drogskol Captain, Diregraf Captain, Stromkirk Captain, and Immerwolf.
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Enemy Utility lands: Like Innistrad, Dark Ascension and Avacyn Restored contain (between them) a cycle of colorless lands that can be tapped for one (colourless) mana and have an additional tap ability requiring two specific colors of mana to activate. In this cycle, the colors are of enemy pairs. — Vault of the Archangel and Grim Backwoods. The cool thing is that MaRo has provided confirmation of the remaining three lands of this 10-land cycle to appear in the next set, Avacyn Restored.
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We expect that before the end of the day, the entire list of singles will be up on MTG Mint Card for pre-order.

We suggest you get in there quick before they sell out of the more popular cards . . .

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DKA Name Number Crunch

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Happy Saturday MTG peeps,

This may very well be our (second) last Dark Ascension spoiler post thus wrapping up the 'season' as we are expecting great things in Monday's Magic Arcana post over on the mothership. Specifically, the very last Magic the Gathering cards are expected to be revealed in the Dark Ascension Visual Spoiler (aka the Card Image Gallery).

After the last of the cards go live, we'll be spending a lot of time evaluating cards and getting our pre-orders in to MTG Mint Card.

Here's one hint - this Tweet from DailyMTG minion Trick, providing a teaser of great things on Monday. The second hint is more obvious - check out this image on the right pre-loaded on the Wizards server for Monday . . .

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As it is expected to wrap up on Monday, we want to spend the remaining time this weekend speculating on some of the empty slots in the Dark Ascension Name & Number crunch worked on by Crimson and other hard working forum members . . .
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Legend :

italics = not final
bold = confirmed
O = multicolor, A = artifact, L = land

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 Gather the Townsfolk (Sorcery), Common
9
10
11 Increasing Devotion (Sorcery), Rare
12 Lingering Souls (Sorcery), Uncommon
13a Loyal Cathar // (Creature - Human Soldier) , Common
13b Unhallowed Cathar (Creature - Zombie Soldier), Common
14
15
16
17 Ray of Revelation (Instant), Common
18 Requiem Angel (Creature - Angel), Rare
19
20 Séance (Enchantment), Rare
21
22
23 Sudden Disappearance (Sorcery), Rare
24 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (Legendary Creature - Human Soldier), Rare
25 Thraben Doomsayer, (Creature - Human), Rare
26
27
28 Beguiler of Wills (Creature - Human Wizard), MYTHIC
29
30
31 Chant of the Skifsang (Enchantment), Common
32
33 Counterwhip (Instant), Rare
34
35
36
37
38
39 Havengul Runebinder (Creature - Wizard), Rare
40 Headless Skaab (Creature - Zombie), Common
41 Increasing Confusion, Sorcery, Rare
42
43
44
45
46
47
48 Secrets of the Dead (Enchantment), Uncommon
49
50a Soul Seizer (Creature - Spirit), Uncommon
50b Ghastly Haunting (Enchantment - Aura), Uncommon
51
52 Thought Scour (Sorcery), Common
53
54
55
56 Chosen of Markov (Creature - Vampire), ?
57 Curse of Thirst (Enchantment - Curse), Uncommon
58 Deadly Allure (Sorcery), Uncommon
59
60 Falkenrath Torturer (Creature - Vampire), Common
61
62 Fiend of the Shadows (Creature - Vampire Wizard), Rare
63 Geralf's Messenger (Creature - Zombie), Rare
64 Gravecrawler (Creature - Zombie), Rare
65
66
67
68
69
70 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed (Legendary Creature - Zombie Cleric), MYTHIC
71a Ravenous Demon (Creature - Demon), Rare
71b Archdemon of Greed (Creature - Demon), Rare
72
73
74 Skirsdag Flayer (Creature - Human Cleric), Uncommon
75
76 Tragic Slip (Instant), Common
77
78
79
80 Zombie Apocalypse (Sorcery), Rare
81a Afflicted Deserter (Creature - Human Werewolf), Uncommon
81b Werewolf Ransacker (Creature - Werewolf), Uncommon
82
83
84
85 Curse of Bloodletting (Enchantment - Curse), Rare
86
87 Faithless Looting (Sorcery), Common
88
89 Flayer of the Hatebound, (Creature - Devil), Rare
90 Fling (Instant), Common
91 Forge Devil (Creature - Devil), Common
92 Heckling Fiends (Creature - Devil), Uncommon
93 Hellrider (Creature - Devil), Rare
94 Hinterland Hermit (Creature - ?) , ?
95
96 Markov Blademaster (Creature - Vampire Warrior), Rare
97
98a Mondronen Shaman (Creature - Human Werewolf Shaman), Rare
98b Tovolar's Magehunter (Creature - Human Werewolf Shaman), Rare
99 Moonveil Dragon (Creature - Dragon), MYTHIC
100 Nearheath Stalker (Creature - Vampire), Common
101 Pyreheart Wolf (Creature - Wolf), Uncommon
102
103
104
105
106
107
108 Briarpack Alpha (Creature - Wolf), Uncommon
109
110
111
112
113
114 Feed the Pack (Enchantment), Rare
115 Ghoultree (Creature - Zombie Treefolk), Rare
116 Gravetiller Wurm (Creature - Wurm), Uncommon
117
118
119 Hunger of the Howlpack (Instant), Common
120 Increasing Savagery (Sorcery), Rare
121
122a Lambholt Elder (Creature - Human Werewolf), Uncommon
122b Silverpelt Werewolf (Creature - Werewolf), Uncommon
123 Lost in the Woods (Enchantment), Rare
124 Predator Ooze (Creature - Ooze), Rare
125a Scorned Villager (Creature - Human Werewolf), Common
125b Moonscarred Werewolf (Creature - Werewolf), Common
126
127 Strangleroot Geist (Creature - Spirit), Uncommon
128
129
130
131
132 Vorapede (Creature - Insect), MYTHIC
133a Wolfbitten Captive (Creature - Human Werewolf), Rare
133b Krallenhorde Killer [/b](Creature - Werewold), Rare
134
135 O
136 O
137 Drogskol Reaver, (Creature - Spirit), MYTHIC
138 Falkenrath Aristocrat (Creature - Vampire), MYTHIC
139 Havengul Lich (Creature - Zombie Wizard), MYTHIC
140a Huntmaster of the Fells (Creature - Human Werewolf), MYTHIC
140b Ravager of the Fells (Creature - Werewolf), MYTHIC
141 Immerwolf (Creature - Wolf), Uncommon
142 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (Planeswalker), MYTHIC
143 Stromkirk Captain (Creature-Vampire Soldier) Uncommon
144 Altar of the Lost, (Artifact), Uncommon
145 A
146a Chalice of Life (Artifact), Uncommon
146b Chalice of Death (Artifact), Uncommon
147 Elbrus, The Binding Blade (Artifact - Equipment), rare
148 Executioner's Hood (Artifact - Equipment), Common
149 Grafdigger's Cage (Artifact), Rare
150 Heavy Mattock (Artifact - Equipment), Common
151 Helvault (Artifact), MYTHIC
152 Jar of Eyeballs (Artifact), Rare
153 Warden of the Wall (Artifact), Uncommon
154 Land cycle
155 Land cycle
156 Land cycle
157 Land cycle
158 Vault of the Archangel (Land), Rare
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