RTR Early Spoiler

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

A very interesting / odd development with regards to Return to Ravnica spoilers over the last 24 hours.  Return to Ravnica is Magic the Gathering's large fall set due out 5th October, 2012 and we should not see any spoilers this far out with the exception of official previews from Wizards of the Coast.  Let's have a look at this one with a critical eye and a slight bias as to it's originality.  Remember kids, only trust officially released content from the mothersite.
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MTG game fan 'Bruce' had a bit of a surprise when he had opened up a sealed booster box of Magic 2013 core set over the weekend.  Bruce's wife ('Barb') had purchased said box at a local gaming store near Davenport, Iowa.  When Bruce was opening the 3rd booster pack from the top left, in what appeared to be a typical sealed M13 booster pack, he got a surprise.  Instead of having a land in this pack, in it's place was a card not from the set but a common-rarity card from the yet to be released Return to Ravnica set.

Let's have a looky-loo . . .

Rootborn Defenses, 2W
Instant, Common
Populate. Creatures you control are indestructible this turn. (To populate, put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of a creature token you control. Damage and effects that say "destroy" don't destroy indestructible creatures.)

Artist: Mark Zug
Number: 19/274
Watermark: Selesnya

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Upon closer inspection, the text templating seemed a bit off but this could be dismissed as there are similar oddly worded cards.  The other point which caused many players to call FAKE was the missing / non-conforming copyright date on the card bottom.  Contemporary templating of this information is typically formatted as:

™ & © 1993-2012 Wizards of the Coast LLC #/X
where # was the collectors number and X is the number of cards in that given set.

Rootborn Defenses had this instead:
™ & © Wizards of the Coast 19/274

Those who believe in the authenticity of this card explain this as a misprint.  Wizards contractor should be printing this now and this could be simply a mistake which should have found its way into a shredder / recycling bin instead of into a pack of M13.

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If real, we rather like this card.  This new 'populate' mechanic works rather well with the old Ravnica mechanic 'Convoke' (Each creature you tap while casting this spell reduces its cost by 1 or by one mana of that creature's color.).

Your call . . . Fact or Fiction ?

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Finally,
Here is a run-down of the Top Ten Selling Magic 2013 M13 Singles In July 2012, as provided by our friends over at MTG Mint Card.

1. Yeva, Nature’s Herald
She’s commands, she’s got flash and she gives all your creatures flash too! She’s even a 4/4! There are plenty of ways to get creative and build around this legendary elf.

2. Master of the Pearl Trident
Being a merfolk lord makes him amazing, and blue has plenty of ways to change land types.

3. Disciple of Bolas
While 4 mana for a 2/1 is a horrible deal, the ability is certainly interesting. This is a great one-of in Commander and can be very dangerous as it refills your hand and life total.

4. Vampire Nocturnus
Play with the top card of your library revealed. As long as the top card of your library is black, Vampire Nocturnus and other Vampire creatures you control get +2/+1 and have flying.

5. Mutilate
All creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn for each Swamp you control.

6. Staff of Nin
At the beginning of your upkeep, draw a card. {T}: Staff of Nin deals 1 damage to target creature or player.

7. Drowned Catacomb
Drowned Catacomb enters the battlefield tapped unless you control an Island or Swamp. {T}: Add {U} or {B} to your mana pool.

8. Odric, Master Tactician
Odric is a great opportunity as a commander. His absurdly worded ability that blows banding out of the water allows him to essentially be unblockable, ensuring you will be dealing commander damage.

9. Thragtusk
The fact that Thragtusk triggers whenever leaving the battlefield – not just dying, makes me love him. The life gain is just gravy! This is just an amazing creature card all around.

10. Captain of the Watch
Vigilance. Other Soldier creatures you control get +1/+1 and have vigilance. When Captain of the Watch enters the battlefield, put three 1/1 white soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield.
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