Alara Nostalgia

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

As the Magic: the Gathering community has absorbed the latest set, Journey into Nyx, which completes the Theros block and now waits for the fall expansion of Kahns of Tarkir, we can't but help look back on previous sets.  One such set that really engaged us from both a storyline and cards was Shards of Alara.  

We've had a few of the 'Lorwyn five' planeswalkers but have to say that Elspeth, Knight Errant really delivered and got us playing a variety of decklists including her, mostly Bant (green / white / blue).  Here's a few of the signature cards from this set along with the page they are featured on within the Planeswalker's Guide to Alara.
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A planeswalker and skilled knight, Elspeth wants nothing more than to sheathe her sword for the last time and find a plane to call home. Violence and destruction have a tendency to follow her, and she is constantly driven to take up arms and wield her defensive magic in the service of those who need her protection.
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Naya
Life, passion, community, and the wild—these are what flourish without the influence of black or blue mana. In this lush land, life is celebrated. Instinct triumphs over machination. Here titanic predators are shown respect, while humans, elves, and catfolk called leonin seek to revere and respect nature.

Bant
Without the destructive or selfish impulses of red and black mana, Bant has become a golden utopia. Angels rule the realm with benevolence and grace. Humans and the birdfolk called aven resolve their conflicts with ritualized combat. Duty and honor are the bedrock of this kingdom of light.

We have to say that Matt Stewart's Battlegrace Angel is one of our very favourite Angel illustrations.

Esper
In this world of wind and wave, control is the guiding force. Cut off from the chaos of red and green mana, Esper has become a magocracy. Enigmatic sphinxes counsel powerful wizards and seers. Everything here is observed and controlled. The forces of high magic rule supreme.

Grixis
What becomes of a world without new life? The dark wasteland of Grixis answers the question. Its denizens desperately cling to its remaining lifeforce. Without the communal forces of white and green to bring life and compassion, it's every ghoul, demon, and necromancer for themselves.

Jund
In the absence of white or blue mana, Jund has devolved into a roiling, primordial cesspit. Dragons top the food chain, at home in Jund's countless volcanoes. While dragons stalk the skies, humans, goblins, and the lizardfolk called viashino lie low in Jund's tar-spotted, vine-choked canyons. 

We never we able to pick up Broodmate Dragon and will need to check with MTG Mint Card to see if they have any.

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All-Foil Boosters

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We will take a short break from our run through of the Zendikar Booster Packs (here & here) to have a look at some interesting from Wizards today . . .

Quote:
Stories are told of boosters with all rares, or all foil premium cards. But those stories are strictly rumors. Legends. Tales told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Until now. Take one last trip to Alara and collect all 539 foil premium cards, in this handsome foil booster. Each of these boosters contains fifteen foil, black-bordered cards from Shards of Alara, Conflux, and Alara Reborn. These boosters will be available for a limited time, starting on January 8, 2010. And they're only $11.99!

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Very interesting. This may or may not be the next winning marketing gambit being rolled out by the Wizards of the Coast. Personally, we will probably not be picking any of these up simply because it seems about $2 to $3 overpriced. This may also have an adverse effect on the singles market for foils. There are some players I know do not care for foils at all due to the bending and warping issue due to the printing process which had not quite been fully resolved to their satisfaction.

Just another note - I'm certain only the very rich would be able to afford the $40 drafts with these packs. ;-)


Having said that, we personally know several EDH (Elder Dragon Highlander) players who are most likely going bananas on receiving this news today. If you are not aware, EDH is yet another Magic the Gathering multiplayer variant format which enjoys a healthy measure of popularity. In EDH, decks are comprised of 100 cards, with only one of each card within the deck. Many players enjoy pimping their EDH deck to include premium foils.

Although WoTC had not elaborated within their post, we are assuming that this special all-foil booster pack will contain 15 cards in total withe the usual distribution of rarity : 1 Rare / Mythic, 3 Uncommons, 10 Commons, and 1 Basic Land. Previously, one would be lucky to find that foil card inserted randomly at the back but since the cards in this special booster are all foils, some waggish players prognosticate that there will be a randomly inserted plain non-foil card. :)

As all of these cards may come from either Shards of Alara, Conflux and Alara Reborn, there is a good chance to see that Bloodbraid Elf, Path to Exile, or Elspeth, Knight-Errant foil you had been wanting but never were lucky enough to open.

Speaking of luck, let's change to chances of opening up a foil in a normal pack to better understand why the foil cards were so highly sought after because of their rarity.

> This quote from Ben Bleiweiss . . .
The chances of opening a FOIL Path to Exile is 1 in 720 packs (two Uncommons per box, 40 Uncommons in the set). You would need to statistically open TWENTY booster boxes to get a single foil Path to Exile. To get a PLAYSET of Foil Path to Exile, you'd need to open Two-Thousand, Eight-Hundred and Eighty booster packs, or EIGHTY booster boxes!

Naya Aggro Help

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Hey all,

I hope to be heading into a BLOCK-CONSTRUCTED tournament this weekend and would be greatly appreciative of any constructive assistance you may be able to provide in helping me out in tweaking my Naya build.

The deck as it sits is overweight and needs to loose quite a bit.


In my sideboard (which may very well make it into the main deck) are some Ember Weavers (first strike reach), Naya Charms, Realm Razers and Battlegrace Angels.

Here is a shot of the Mana I can pull in or fix.


And here is the list . . . please help me fix it - - your suggestions please - post a comment.

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46 Creatures
4 x Noble Hierarch (G)
4 x Path to Exile (W)
4 x Wild Nacatl (G)
4 x Druid of the Anima 1(G)
3 x Steward of Valeron (G)(W)
4 x Knotvine Mystic (R)(G)(W)
4 x Woolly Thoctar (R)(G)(W)
4 x Oblivion Ring 2(W)
2 x Elspeth, Knight-Errant 2(W)(W)
3 x Cliffrunner Behemoth 3(G)
2 x Ajani Vengeant 2(R)(W)
4 x Megnlonoth 3(R)(W)(G)
3 x Titanic Ultimatum (R)(R)(G)(G)(G)(W)(W)
1 x Apocalypse Hydra X(R)(G)

22 Lands
4 x Ancient Ziggurat
8 x Forest
5 x Plains
5 x Mountain

My Conflux Booster Box

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So I opened up a Conflux Booster Box the other day and decided to record said dissection for your enjoyment. I do this as I have noticed that anyone at the local gammery club with a booster pack in their hand invariably seems to gather attention to see 'what they got'. Furthermore I must admit that this sort of thing gets my attention as well. I suppose there is a complex mix of emotions at play with a handful of cardboard crack - something akin to those scratch 'n' win lottery tickets.

I would like to thank sponsor DogStar Games who without their generousity, this post would not be possible. Please check them out at www.DogStarGames.com for Magic the Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Miniatures, and tons of other strategy and role-playing games.

Also - At the time of this post, I have 580 cards for trade over at CCG Tradepost, so if you see something I cracked opened, make tracks over there and sign up before I traded it all away.

Anywho - following is a 5 minute video of 36 Conflux packs being cracked opened . . . enjoy !




Here is what we got . . .

6 Foils
Paragon of the Amesha
Aerie Mystics
Traumatic Visions
Scattershot Archer
Shambling Remains
Infectious Horror
Quenchable Fire

38 Rares
Nicol Bolas
Martial Coup (Foil!)
Banefire
Noble Hierarch
Thornling
Bloodhall Ooze
Master Transmuter
2 x Cliffrunner Behemoth (1 Foil!)
Malfegor
Knight of the Reliquary
Maelstrom Archangel
Progentius
Obelisk of Alara
Raka Mar
Charnelhoard Wurm
Magister Sphinx
Giltspire Avenger
Exotic Orchard
Inkwell Laviathan
Worldheart Phoenix
Telemin Performance
Blood Tyrant
Sigil of the Empty Throne
Kederket Parasite
Voracious Dragon
Font of Mythos
Scepter of Fugue
2 x Scepter of Dominance
Scepter of Insight
Soul's Majesty
Mark of Asylum
2 x Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer
Paleoloth
Cylian Sunsinger
Extractor Demon

Prophetic Posts

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You may recall the previous post on Tuesday title 'Nay Fatties' in which I had discussed a future desire to effect a Naya build. The deck in mind would be include the supporters of Knotvine Mystic and Druid of the Anima. These would hopefully bring early arrivals of the likes of Woolly Thoctar and Realm Razer.

I am always keen to see what others are playing to see where the metagame is going and to assist me in evolving and developing my casual game. To this end, I was very interested in seeing the results of recent decks of the week posted today over at Wizards.
More specifically, the recent Shards of Alara Block events on Magic Online gave me pause to think. From the 40 Top Eight decks in the five events held, almost 30 of these decks ( 75 % ! !) had builds with Druid of the Anima, Wooly Thoctar and Realm Razer.
Check it out . . .

Shards of Alara Block on Magic Online

2/2/2009 (Event #176867)
2/3/2009 (Event #176869)
2/3/2009 (Event #176870)
2/5/2009 (Event #184467)
2/5/2009 (Event #184468)

Here is a typical build on the winning decks.

4 x Battlegrace Angel
4 x Druid of the Anima
3 x Realm Razer
4 x Steward of Valeron
3 x Woolly Thoctar

4 x Ajani Vengeant
3 x Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Also included in the sideboards were a fair variation of removal or counter like Oblivion Ring and Naya Charm.

I am not one for 'net-decking' simply because it feels like I've borrowed someone else's deck at FNM. In this case however, I feel that I had arrived independently to a similar build. As I have most these cards already, I expect to be playing it soon at the local gammery store or the kitchen table.

Naya Fatties

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When I first started playing Magic and did not know very much about the game at all, I tended to just love the fatties. The bigger the critter, the better the chance for inclusion within my deck. I did not know very much about removal, acceleration, and tempo. Suffice to say, my casual games were a brutal slaughter.

Since those early days, I really stayed very much away from big stupid aggro but just recently have renewed my interest again. For the first time in a long time, I have actually read the fattie cards. What changed ? It was the new Conflux card Knotvine Mystic.
The first thing I took note of was just what a great card this was - pay 1 colourless to receive one Red, Green, AND White. That kind of sounds like a 3-for-1 sale. The next thing I noticed was the drawback of this 3-drop tri-coloured card . . . I had to be able to get this out on the board by turn 3 to take full advantage of acceleration I would need for the fatties to come latter.

To this end, I took a close look at the Lush Growth enchantment which will allow the enchanted land to produce one of the required Red-Green-White needed. A tri-land . . not bad. Of course, we would need to include Jungle Shrine and Ancient Ziggurat. In addition, Druid of the Anima also provided the necessary tri-colours in the two-drop column.

With the supporting mana now in place, I revisted Shards of Alara and Conflux to short-list the Naya Fatties with preference to tri-coloured Red-Green-White critters. Woolly Thoctar was screaming for inclusion. This 3-drop 5/4 monster was a perfect fit and had a decent chance of hitting the table on Turn 4. Realm Razer provided solid mana lockdown and could deny your opponent any opportunity to mount a defence. Meglonoth, probably the best blocker I have seen for some time would also need to be on Team Fatty.
Still on the theme on big beaters, I looked to the adjacent Shard of Jund. One of better block combinations has to be the 6/6 critter Charnelhoard Wurm and the instant Soul's Fire which would allow you to ding your opponent for 6 pain and then immediately return the instant to your hand to do it all over again. ouchee. The only issue here is being able to provide the 1 black mana for the Wurm in an otherwise Naya-centric deck. This should not prove too difficult however.
To ramp the critters appropriately, I considered the 1-drop Wild Nacatl which promises to grow to a decent 3/3 as well as Qasali Ambusher which could get dropped into play free. Short-listed to support these big-guns would be Godtoucher and Vagrant Plowbeasts for damage control. A set of versatile Naya Charms and perhaps even a Mighty Emergence to make the beaters even more beat-tastic. I will certainly be looking forward to identify any supporting cards in Alara Reborn come April.
I do not think I will be building such a deck but the seeds are already planted. Perhaps there will be a chance that Fatty McFatster will make a debut at the kitchen table or FNM.

Conflux Mechanics

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I think that it's time to do a brief summary of the Shards of Alara Conflux mechanics identified to date. Basically, there is a return of four mechanics and an introduction of a new one. Let's go . . .

Cycling : Pay a cost, discard that card to be able to draw a card (hopefully a more suitable one for the play at hand). There were 13 cards with the cycling mechanic in Shards of Alara and six so far in Conflux ; Gleam of Resistance, Constricting Tendrils, Traumatic Visions, Absorb Vis, Fiery Fall, Sylvan Bounty.

Exalted : Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. There were 12 of these cards in Shards of Alara. To date we have three cards with exalted in Conflux ; Frontline Sage, Noble Hierarch, and Giltspire Avenger.

Unearth : Pay a cost, return the card from your graveyard to play. It gains haste. Remove it from the game at end of turn or if it would leave play. Unearth only as a sorcery. There were 13 cards with the unearth mechanic in Shards of Alara and five to date in Conflux ; Brackwater Elemental, Extractor Demon, Rotting Rats, Hellspark Elemental, and Shambling Remains.

Devour : Followed by a number 'X' - typically 1 to 3. As this comes into play, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This creature comes into play with that many +1/+1 counters on it. Shards of Alara gave us seven such cards and so far we have only two such cards in Conflux ; Voracious Dragon and Hellkite Hatchling.

Domain : effect - equal to the number of basic land types among lands you control. To date we have four such cards with this mechanic listed; Worldly Counsel, Matca Rioters, Might of Alara, and Exploding Borders. If domain had a sibling, it would be 'Rainbow' which I will interrupt this thought process and yatter about right now.

From our prodding with the Conflux Orb of Insight, we now all eight instances of WUBRG (aka MTG Rainbow) which fully accounted for.

Cost: Child of Alara, Maelstrom Angel, and Fusion Elemental. Conflux and Progenitus also counts even though this is either 3 + 'Rainbow', or double 'Rainbow'.
Activations / Other : Dragonsoul Knight, Fleshformer, Paragon of the Amesha, Kaleidostone and Worldheart Phoenix.

Anywho - - back to Domain. This is interesting, intriguing but not really new which I will get onto in a moment. I read with some interest a late December post at the Filipino MTG blog DeathMarked, run by fellow blogger Mark. Mark identified the original 'Domain' way back in Planeshift which was released in February, 2001.

For posterity's sake is a quick run-down of the WoTC marketing blurb that came with the 'Domain' theme deck (remember those?).

Domain

A five-color deck without any one land that can produce multiple colors? A deck that's over half lands and land-fetching effects? Can a deck like that work? It can, and the Domain deck is a blast to play!

Because all the "domain" cards depend on how many basic land types you have in play, this deck focuses on getting at least one of each basic land into play. The best color for solving mana problems is green, so the deck contains more forests than any other basic land. Quirion Trailblazer, Primal Growth, and Harrow are all important for getting basic lands into play. You'll find that playing Harrow can often mean the difference between winning and losing.












Once you have all five basic land types in play, the fun begins. You'll probably take some damage early in the game, but the Domain deck contains some cards to help you recover. Wandering Stream will often gain you eight or ten life, and Exotic Disease can close the gap between your life total and your opponent's. At just 1R, Tribal Flames could deal 5 damage to an annoying creature (or your opponent). The star of the domain show is Allied Strategies. For just 4U, you could draw five cards! Your creatures certainly aren't slouches, either. Once all five basic lands are in order, Wayfaring Giant hits the table at 6/8, and Stratadon is a menacing 5/5 for five mana.












Domain includes a few cards that aren't true domain cards, but they work well in the deck. The "dragon charms" are great utility spells. Between Rith's Charm and Treva's Charm, you can solve almost any problem you'll face. Magnigoth Treefolk is a big, unblockable creature that begs to be enchanted with Strength of Unity. Quirion Dryad can grow to huge proportions over the course of the game.

To improve the deck, you could take out some creatures and add more Tribal Flames and other creature-control spells. If you're fond of playing creatures, take out some of the catch-up spells and replace them with the best creatures in any color.

Conflux Spoiler 20

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Late yesterday, we have word of two very intriguing Shards of Alara Conflux creatures which we will spoil now. For a great write up on these critters, read what Mr. ForestHowl has to say over at the Planeswalker Writes blog .

Progenitus - WWUUBBRRGG
Legendary Creature - Hydra, Mythic Rare
Protection from everything (This creature can't be blocked, targeted, equipped, enchanted, or dealt damage.)
When Progenitus is put into a graveyard from anywhere, shuffle it into its owner's library.
10/10

Right. Protection from EVERYTHING. Did you happen to see the mana-cost ? This is what a Mythic Rare should be.

So Progenitus - this is one of those crazy cool cards which will be pretty much unplayable in all but very few specific decks. You will first need to be able to feed a rainbow of mana to get it out on the board or be able to 'cheat' it into play via the graveyard or with something like Dramatic Entrance, Deathrender, or a Hideaway Land. The Timmy in us will want to build a deck around it and start stomping, the Johnny in us wants to abuse this card sooo badly - - I'll be reading reviews and watching builds of players more advanced than I to see just how far this card can go.

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Apocalypse Hydra, XRG
Creature - Hydra, Rare
Apocalypse Hydra comes into play with X +1/+1 counters on it. If X is 5 or more, it comes into play with X additional +1/+1 counters on it.
1{R}, Remove a +1/+1 counter from Apocalypse Hydra: Apocalypse Hydra deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
0/0


This is the nasty guy that eats Bant Knights and Angels as we have seen from all the WoTC promo material. This may be a nice ping for your game but I'm certain there are more economically effecient ones out there already. I would simply have seven to drop on this and use it as a beat stick.

Confllux Spoiler 19

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Welcome back. We have another spoiler post for you although some of these have been hanging around for a day or two already - but they are still fresh.

There were no additional updates to the WoTC Conflux Visual Spoilers since the original 16 cards went up on Wednesday earlier this week. There is however a very lovely Conflux Wallpaper up over at Magic Arcana today if you care to pimp your desktop with the latest Magic: The Gathering Wallpaper.

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In another week or two, I would very much like to run a few posts showcasing some of the possible new Conflux combinations or synergies. If you have a few suggestions (no extended - just standard only please), fire off an e-Mail to me to CopySix (at) gmail (dot) com and we will get it up.

Some limited examples :
Esperzoa + Sludge Strider
Puppet Conjurer + Sludge Strider
Enchanted Evening + Sigil of the Empty Throne

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Anywho - on to some of the latest Shards of Alara Conflux Spoilers . .

Scornful Æther-Lich
Artifact Creature - Zombie Wizard (?)
WB : Scornful Æther-Lich gains fear and vigilance until end of turn.
2/4

Thornling - 3GG
Creature - Shapeshifter (Mythic Rare)
{G}: Thornling gains haste until end of turn.
{G}: Thornling gains trample until end of turn.
{G}: Thornling is indestructible until end of turn.
{1}: Thornling gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
{1}: Thornling gets -1/+1 until end of turn.
4/4

Fleshformer - 2B
Creature - Human Wizard (Uncommon)
{W}{U}{B}{R}{G}: Fleshformer gets +2/+2 and has fear until end of turn. Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
2/2

Dreadwing - B
Creature - Zombie Bird (Uncommon)
{1}{U}{R}: Dreadwing gets +3/+0 and gains flying until end of turn.
1/1

Suicidal Charge - 3BR
Enchantment (Common)
Sacrifice Suicidal Charge: Creatures your opponents control get -1/-1 until end of turn. Those creatures attack this turn if able.

Brackwater Elemental - 2U
Creature - Elemental (Common)
When Brackwater Elemental attacks or blocks, sacrifice it at end of urn.
Unearth {2}{U}
4/4
Sludge Strider - 1WUB
Artifact Creature - Insect (Uncommon)
Whenever another artifact comes into play under your control or another artifact you control leaves play, you may pay {1}. If you do, target player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
3/3

Darklit Gargoyle - 1W
Artifact Creature - Gargoyle (Common)
Flying
{B}: Darklit Gargoyle gets +2/-1 until end of turn.
1/2

Dark Temper - 2R
Instant (Common)
Dark Temper deals 2 damage to target creature. If you control a black permanent, destroy that creature instead.

Parasitic Strix - 2U
Artifact Creature - Bird (Common)
Flying
When Parasitic Strix comes into play, if you control a black permanent, target player loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.
2/2

Conflux Spoiler 18

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Welcome to another post. We have 3 new Conflux card spoilers and each of these already has a card art associated with it - now this is the next best thing to an official Wizards spoiler.

Stick around after the spoiler and we'll have sneak peak at what FNM prize foils will be making their way to your local gaming store.

The details on this one are still unconfirmed but I like what I'm seeing so far.

Paragon of the Amesha, 2W
Creature - Human Knight - Uncommon
First Strike
WUBRG : Until end of turn, Paragon of the Amesha becomes an Angel, gets +3/+3 and gains flying and Lifelink.
2/2

Ancient Ziggurat
Land Uncommon
{T}: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. This mana can only be used to play creature spells.

Reliquary Tower
Land Uncommon
You have no maximum hand size.
{T}: Add 1 to your mana pool.

Latter on, I will be working on ways to try and abuse this card in the game. Seriously, I have to find way to use Forced Fruition on my own hand.
Now is it me or does the card art have absolutely nothing to do with the card flavour itself ?

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Straight to the first 5 months worth of 2009 FNM prize foils.
I'm not very impressed with the alternate art for Kitchen Finks or the Merrow Reejery card . . . :-(



January :
Magma Jet
(we already know this one . . . duh)

February :
Myr Enforcer

March :
Kitchen Finks

April :
Merrow Reejery

May :
Wren's Run Vanquisher

Thanks for stopping by, see ya next post.

Conflux Spoiler 17

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Welcome to yet another Shards of Alara Conflux spoiler. Today we have five text spoilers and two image spoilers for you. The table is set, so lets sit down and have a look at what's on today's menu . . .

First to the images . .

We already have the text for the first one -
Valiant Guard, W
Creature - Human Soldier Common
0/3

We are confused why this soldier is a 0/3 when the card art shows said soldier holding a sword (?).


As for the second image, we have the name only - 'Sacellum Archers'. We suggest you try this dish with Greatbow Doyen.

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On to the text spoilers now . .

Blood Tyrant, 4UBR
Creature - Vampire, Rare
Flying
At the beginning of your upkeep each player loses 1 life.
Whenever a player loses life in this way, put that many +1/+1 counters on Blood Tyrant.
Whenever a player loses the game, put 5 +1/+1 counters on Blood Tyrant.
5/5

Esper Cormorants, UW2
Artifact - Bird (rarity unconfirmed - but likely a common)
Flying
3/3

Hellkite Hatchling - 2GR
Creature - Dragon, Uncommon
Devour 1
Hellkite Hatchling has flying and trample if it devoured a creature.
2/2

Hellspark Elemental, 1R
Creature - Elemental, Uncommon
Trample, haste
At end of turn, sacrifice Hellspark Elemental.
Unearth 1R
3/1

Stay tuned for more spoilers. Latter this week, we will revisit the Conflux Orb of Insight for a summary and look at FNM prize foils expected for the next few months.

Salvage Slasher - 1B
Artifact Creature - Human Rogue, Common
Salvage Slasher gets +1/+0 for each artifact card in your graveyard.
1/1

Stay tuned for more Conflux spoilers. Latter on this week we will bring you a summary of the Conflux Orb of Insight as well as looking at what FNM prize foils we can expect for the next few months.

Conflux Spoiler 16 & Promos

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This is promising to be quite a post for those salivating for Shards of Alara Conflux spoilers. We have 7 new card images from Mana Rouge as well as card images for the Pre-Release and Release party / tournament.

Let's get to it . . . buckle up and let's go.


Sedraxis Alchemist, 2B
Creature - Zombie Wizard, Common
When Sedraxis Alchemist comes into play, if you control a blue permanent, you may return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand.
2/2
54/145, illustrator - Karl Kopinski

Countersquall, UB
Instant, Uncommon
Counter target noncreature spell. Its controller loses 2 life.
103/145, illustrator - Anthony Francisco


Fiery Fall, 5R
Instant Common
Fiery Fall deals 5 damage to target creature.
Basic landcycling 1{R} (1{R}, Discard this card: Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.)
63/145, illustrator - Daarken

Goblin Razerunners, 2RR
Creature - Goblin Warrior, Rare
1{R}, Sacrifice a land: Put a +1/+1 counter on Goblin Razerunners.
At the end of your turn, you may have Goblin Razerunners deal damage to target player equal to the number of +1/+1 counters on it.
3/4
64/145, illustrator - Raymond Swanland


Exploding Borders, 2RG
Sorcery Common
Search your library for a basic land card and put that card into play tapped. Then shuffle your library.
Domain - Exploding Borders deals X damage to target player, where X is the number of basic land types among lands you control.
106/145, illustrator - Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai


Sigil of the Empty Throne, 3WW
Enchantment, Rare
Whenever you play an enchantment spell, put a 4/4 white Angel creature token with flying into play.
18/145, illustrator - Cyril Van Der Haegen

Fusion Elemental, WUBRG
Creature - Elemental, Uncommon
8/8
107/145, illustrator - Michael Komarck

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And now for the Pre-Release Cards !

> Pre-Release : Saturday, January 31st, 2009 <

Malfegor, 2BBRR
Legendary Creature - Demon Dragon, Mythic Rare
Flying
When Malfegor comes into play, discard your hand. Each opponent sacrifices a creature for each card discarded this way.
6/6

> Release : Saturday, February 7, 2009 <

Obelisk of Alara, 6
Artifact, Rare
1{W}, {T}: You gain 5 life.
1{U}, {T}: Draw a card, then discard a card.
1{B}, {T}: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
1{R}, {T}: Obelisk of Alara deals 3 damage to target player.
1{G}, {T}: Target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn.

Ask for details at your local gaming store or check out the page at WoTC HERE.