We Are Back

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We are back in the saddle after a 2 week hiatus and as a result, completely missed all the Magic: the Gathering previews during that time - specifically, Commander 2017.  We are happy to say that we, or any other member of our happy little band met the dangerous end of any wolf, bear, or rattlesnake up in the Canadian wilderness during our vacation.

Speaking of Commander, we want to send some link love off to our friend Jon, who we have known for a number of years now.   We catch up with each other every week at OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario.  Jon has been blogging about Commander for quite some time now and has recently given his webpage a face lift.  Pop on over to Command Tower (Canada) here - http://commandtower.ca

Since we have mentioned our local gaming store, OMG! Games, we are very proud to have been a part of the Ten Millionth  sanctioned DCI Event.  You can read all about the event over here on Wizards of the Coast post from Blake Rasmussen.  Very happy to have met Gavin Verhey and the other WotC staffers as well.  Here is a pic of the crew and one of yours truly -

 

Photos by Rob Johnson

 Speaking of which - we've known Rob Johnson for a number of years, and not only is he a great fan of Magic: the Gathering, he is also a wonderful photographer.  Please pop on over to his website linked above.

Righto - that's it for now.  We need to catch up a lot more, but before we leave, be sure (if you had not already) catch the official decklists of Commander 2017, linked over here.  The Commander 2017 hit shelves at your local gaming store this very weekend !  Here is the brief flavour summary of the four decks now.

Draconic Domination    
WUBRG    
Commander - The Ur-Dragon
When time began, the Ur-Dragon began with it. As the primordial ancestor and lifeblood of all dragons, the Ur-Dragon imbues strength into dragons from every corner of the Multiverse so that they may rain endless fire and destruction upon the enemies of dragonkind.


 

Feline Ferocity
WG
Arahbo, Roar of the World
Arahbo, Roar of the World is a majestic leader and father to cats across all planes of the Multiverse. His deafening voice empowers his ferocious feline allies to claw through enemy forces and crush those who dare challenge his ancient might.

Vampiric Bloodlust
WBR
Commander - Edgar Markov
As the sole origin of their bloodline, Edgar Markov commands the Markov vampires of Innistrad. With his tremendous influence, Edgar continually expands his vampire army, overwhelming foes with his ageless legion.

 

Arcane Wizardry
UBR
Commander - Inalla, Archmage Ritualist
Inalla, Archmage Ritualist delves into arcane mysteries in pursuit of forbidden dark magic. Gathering an inner circle of loyal acolytes to her cause, Inalla harnesses their collective power to extract the life force from her enemies.


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C17 Edgar Markov

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

The next Magic: the Gathering set, Commander 2017, based on four tribes, releases at the end of this month - August 25.  Official Wizards of the Coast previews will start next week.  

Today, Alison Luhrs, the narrative designer for WotC sat down with fellow staffer Blake Rasmussen in the first of four podcasts which are replacing written stories are all about the Vampires.   Please pop on over to this link to have a listen.  

Commander 2017 Ultra PRO products available soon

The big news out is that Edgar Markov (the first Vampire of Innistrad, and Sorin’s father) has been confirmed.  A week or so ago, Wizards updated the Commander 2017 product page with some lovely arts and many had suspected the below image to be that of Edgar or that of Runo Stromkirk, progenitor of the Stromkirk vampires of Innistrad.

BACKGROUNDER - 

Edgar Markov is the founder of the Markov bloodline, and the very first vampire of Innistrad. Thousands of years ago he was an aging human alchemist, experimenting with ways to achieve agelessness for himself and his only grandson, Sorin. When famine was sweeping the land, the demon Shilgengar convinced Edgar to start experiments with blood. Markov and his sons trapped the angel Marycz in his laboratory and exsanguinated her, preparing a decoction from her blood and created a ritual which caused his subjects to feed on the blood of other beings.
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Commander 2017 Tribes

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Some interesting news out today regarding the upcoming Commander 2017 products.  

Although this has been purported to have been published in print, although perhaps with an issue conflicting with official preview timing, we should still consider this as unofficial until posted to the Wizards of the Coast Magic: the Gathering website.

According to the information published in the magazine "Card Gamer" on Page 91, published by Hobby Japan which released today (July 31, 2017), the four tribal decks of Magic: the Gathering Commander 2017 based on tribes are as follows -

• 5 Color Dragons

• Selesnya (WG) Cats

• Mardu (WBR) Vampires

• Grixis (UBR) Wizards

Here is the blurb within the magazine which was reported to appear in the magazine (in Japanese obviously).  We do know a little conversational / spoken Japanese, but am unable to read / write in the 3 alphabets, so should there be a reader to assist, please post in the comments below.


Commander (2017 Edition) on August 25, 2017, and features four new tribal-themed, 4 new Commanders, 10 double-faced tokens, 100-card ready-to-play decks including 56 all-new Magic card.
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Commander 2017 Spoilers

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

A lot of our local friends here in Barrie, Ontario will be heading down to Toronto (about an hour's drive south) for the Toronto Grand Prix event.  There may be a fewer attending our local gaming store, OMG! Games, but we suspect the competetion will still be fierce to battle our way into Top 8.  

Anywhoos, we want to yatter a bit about the upcoming Commander 2017.  During any given Friday at the local store, the number of Magic: the Gathering players are roughly split down the middle, with half the gamers playing Commander and the other half playing Standard.  There has been quite a lot of speculation after Wizards of the Coast announced that this year's Commander product is to be Tribal themed.  The discussion hit high frenzy yesterday after WotC had updated their Commander 2017 product page with the following images - 

Speculation - 5-Colour Dragons

Speculation - Mardu (Black / Red) Vampires

Possibly Edgar Markov or Runo Stromkirk?

Speculation - Selesnya (Green / White) Cats

Speculation - Orzhov (Black / White) Clerics or Humans?

Righto - Here is handy information you may need to know.

Commander returns with four new tribal-themed, 100-card decks, featuring 56 all-new Magic cards legal in Eternal formats (Vintage and Legacy). Cards from Commander (2017 Edition) will be featured and distributed in connection with a future offering on Magic Online.

Set Name: Commander (2017 Edition)
Number of Cards: Four 100-card decks, a total of 56 new cards across all decks

Contents: Each deck contains a ready-to-play 100-card Commander deck including never-before-printed Magic cards.

Release Date: August 25, 2017
Official Three-Letter Code: C17
Twitter Hashtag: #MTGC17
Languages Available: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish
MSRP: $34.99 (per deck) *Applies to U.S. Only
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Magic Miscellaneous 7-05

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

There are a number of Magic: the Gathering news-worthy items to cover off for today's post, so we will want to get straight to business on the following :

• Commander 2017 Spoiler
• Dungeons & Dragons - Plane Shift Amonkhet
• 2017 Gift Pack
• Magic Story - 'Favor'
• Hour of Devastation Planeswalker Decklists

Commander 2017 Spoiler
Very unusual spoiler.  Posted to EB Games, a product offering for one of the Commander 2017 products, which we know from Wizards of the Coast is to be a total of four Commander decks with tribal themes.  A number of unfortunate spoilers earlier pretty much confirms a Dragon tribal product.  Today's slip from EB Games indicates a Gree / White 'Cat' tribal decklist.  Names 'Feline Ferocity', the face card is as follows - 

Arahnbo, Roar of the Wild, 3GW
Legendary Creature - Cat Avatar, Mythic Rare
Eminence - At the beginning of combat on your turn, if Arahnbo, Roar of the Wild is in the command zone or on the battlefield, another target Cat you control gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
Whenever another Cat you control attacks, you may pay (1)(G)(W). If you do, it gains trample and gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is its power.
5/5

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Dungeons & Dragons - Plane Shift Amonkhet
James Wyatt leads the way through the Trials of the five gods with a set of rules to bring your Dungeons & Dragons adventures to life in Amonkhet, including new races, new monsters, new backgrounds, and cleric domains for each of the five gods.  The game mechanics in this supplement are usable in your D&D campaign but are not fully tempered by playtests and design iterations. For these reasons, material in this supplement is not legal in D&D Organized Play events.

Contents of this supplement -
• The World of Amonkhet
• Races of Amonkhet
• Trials of the Five Gods
• An Amonkhet Bestiary
• Appendix: Planeswalkers and the Multiverse

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2017 Gift Pack
Releasing October 20, 2017.  Originally released during Return to Ravnica as the Holiday Gift Box, with subsequent annual releases, this product name was simplified to 'Gift Box'.  Wizards of the Coast started with four boosters, moved to five and are now at three with this year's 'Gift Pack'.  Here are some details -

Contents:
• 5 premium basic lands by artist Mark Poole (known as the "Shooting Star Lands")
• 2 premium creature cards (Metalwork Colossus and Kari Zev, Skyship Raider)
• 3 booster packs (Ixalan, Hour of Devastation, Amonkhet)
• Spindown life counter
• Exclusive mini-poster (Featuring art from Hour of Devastation)
Languages Available: English
MSRP: $19.99 *Applies to U.S. Only

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Magic Story - 'Favor'
Do make tracks on over to the Wizards of the Coast site and read Michael Yichao continuation of the Hour of Devastation story, linked right here.  We are not even prepared to talk about this just yet - perhaps tomorrow.

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Hour of Devastation Planeswalker Decklists
Pop on over to the Mothersite linked right here.  Releasing on July 14, 2017, the Hour of Devastation Planeswalker Decks familiarize players who are interested in Magic with basic strategy as well as the setting, characters, and themes of the latest set. Each deck comes with a premium foil Planeswalker card that is likely to appeal to newer and veteran players.  Each of these have a total of five unique cards which are considered to be part of the Hour of Devastation set.

Two Planeswalker Decks to choose from 
• Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver (Blue / Black / Red)
• Nissa, Genesis Mage (Blue / Green)

Contents: 
• 1 Ready-to-play 60-card deck, featuring a foil premium Planeswalker card
• 2 Hour of Devastation booster packs
• 1 Strategy insert

• 1 Magic learn-to-play guide

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Commander 2017 Leak 5-25

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

Late Wednesday evening, redditor Turn1Thoughtseize posted a series of images to Instagram of what appears to be a number of Commander 2017 ('C17') spoilers, which releases August 25, 2017.  From the images, it appears that the individual came into possession of one of the four new tribal-themed, 100-card decks.  Specifically, it looks like a Five Colour '5C' Dragons decklist.


These are UNOFFICIAL spoilers, please visit the Wizards of the Coast webpage.

! S P O I L E R !

Here are the three new Commanders from the 5C Dragons -

O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami, 1WUBRG
Legendary Creature - Dragon Spirit, Mythic Rare
Flying, trample
Whenever O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami deals combat damage to a player, if that player attacked you during his or her last turn, exile target nonland permanen that player controls
6/6

At his behest, the Kami War began to regain That Which Was Taken.

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Ramos, Dragon Engine, 6
Legendary Artifact Creature - Dragon, Mythic Rare
Flying
Whenever you cast a spell, put a +1/+1 counter ofn Ramso, Dragon Engine for each of that spell's colors.
Remove five +1/+1 counters from Ramos: Add WWUUBBRRGG to your mana pool Activated this ability only once each turn.

4/4

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The Ur-Dragon, 4WUBRG
Legendary Creature - Dragon Avatar, Mythic Rare
Eminence - As long as The Ur-Dragon is in the command zone or on the battlefield, other Dragon spells you cast cost 1 less to cast. 
Flying 
Whenever one or more Dragons you control attack, draw that many cards, then you may put a permanent card from your hand onto the battlefield.
10/1

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Wasitora, Nekoru Queen, 2BRG
Legendary Creature - Cat Dragon, Rare
Flying, Trample
Whenever Wasitora, Nekoru Queen deals combat damage to a player, that player sacrifices a creature. If the plaer can't, you create a 3/3 black, red, and green Cat Dragon creature token with flying.
5/4
Once a fierce foe, she would become one of Madara's greatest protectors.

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Taigam, Ojutai Master, 2WU
Legendary Creature - Human Monk, Rare
Instant, sorcery and Dragon spells you control can't be counters by spells or abilities.
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell from your hand, if Taigam, Ojutai Master attacked this turn, that spell gains reboud.  (Exile the spell as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast that card from exile without paying its mana cost.)

3/4

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Other cards in this Commander 2017 leak include - 

Atarka, World Render
Bladewing the Risen
Broodmate Dragon
Crosis, the Purger
Crucible of the Spirit Dragon
Dromoka, the Eternal
Haven of the Spirit Dragon
Intet, the Dreamer
Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
Ojutai, Soul of Winter
Scion of the Ur-Dragon
Silumgar, the Drifting Death
Spellbound Dragon
Steel Hellkite
Tyrant's Familiar

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MTG News 4-18

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

There was some news of note for Magic: the Gathering gamers this morning on the Wizards of the Coast site which, if you had not already seen, should do so now.  Specifically, read Helene Bergeot's post on competitive play linked here (which also reveals the name of the new fall set), and the announcement of this year's Commander 2017, linked over here.

Let's get to the details of each now -

Command Tower, illustrated by Ryan Yee

Commander (2017 Edition)

This year's Commander (formerly Elder Dragon Highlander or 'EDH'), is to be release on 29th September and will feature FOUR and not the typical five pre-constructed Commander decks.  Previously, Commander products were based on the conventional colour where (white, blue, black, red, and green) and the combinations therein, but this year, it is to feature "some of Magic's most popular, and interesting, tribes".  The four new tribal-themed, 100-card decklists are to include 56 new, (never-printed before) cards.  With a suggested retail price of about $35 bucks (U.S.), it is to be released in Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, German and English. 

Fall Set Named

Director of Organised Play Helene Bergeot indicated that more details are forthcoming during the planned big June announcement, but did have the following important MTG news.  In summary, the fall set has been officially revealed as named IXALAN, and will be releasing on September 29, 2017. This set will be legal for the 2017 World Championship's Standard and Limited play. Pro Tour Ixalan is to be held November 3–5, 2017. Grand Prix Providence and Shizuoka will both be Team Sealed GPs as part of this release weekend.

You may recall our previous post about the fall set back in early December (linked HERE), where Trifecta Research had provided a number of short questions designed (what appears) to be a customer profile and purchase preferences / habits.  Also included where a number of mocked-up product images where the survey participant also provided opinion.  Among those images were booster pack images with the names 'Atlazan' and 'Conquest of Power'.  There was quite a bit of speculation around this of course in the weeks following.  It is clear now that Ixalan is the real set name.  Speculate away, but we here at MTG Realm think that this does very much sound like a mesoamerican theme.  Think Olmec culture and Gods such as the feathered serpent diety Quetzalcoatl. 

'NON-MTG image - Temple Sacrifice', by Concept Artist Jonathan Guzi

Moving forward with this name, it may be of interest that IXALAN.COM was a domain name registered 23rd September, 2016.  It is also unlikely that 'Conquest for Power' is to be the name of the second set in this block, but it is interesting that the domain RIVALSOFIXALAN.COM (Rivals of Ixalan) was registered on 17th March 2017.  Food for speculation there.


That is a wrap for today, catch up with you again soon.
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