Ravnica Allegiance Spoilers Jan. 2

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

A Happy New Year to you as well.  Official Ravnica Allegiance previews are now under full steam today.  Here is a handy link to the Wizards of the Coast Card Image Gallery which will be updated each day.  For the first day of previews, here is what we have rounded up for you today - 

Shocklands
Five rare dual lands in guild colors, originally printed in the Ravnica: City of Guilds block. Each has the respective basic land types, and enters the battlefield tapped unless its controller pays 2 life.

Guildgates
Five common dual lands in guild colors, originally printed in the Return to Ravnica block. Each has the Gate subtype and enters the battlefield tapped. Each is printed twice in the set, with two different sets of art and flavor text. The first shows the guild's "main gate" and has flavor referring to its leader, whereas the second shows a "back door" and has flavor referencing to its lieutenant.

Lockets
Five common mana stones for {3}. each of which tap for either color mana of its corresponding guild, and can be sacrificed by tapping and paying four hybrid mana of the same colors to draw two cards.

• Dovin, Grand Arbiter, illustrated by Kieran Yanner

Many had suspected with the preview of Assassin's Trophy (Guilds of Ravnica) that there would be a shake-up.  Specifically suggesting that Vraska petrifies Isperia (Supreme Judge), with the possible insertion of a character loyal to Bolas.  Given the particular moral flexibility of Dovin from the previous story on Kaladesh, Dovin was practically a shoe-in.  Essentially we need a bunch of evasive creatures for Dovin to do any heavy lifting for us.  Not certain that this will make a big splash in standard, but should it, it will most likely be with tokens.  Do very much like the life-gain and thopter tokens including the potential jetting to Dovin's ultimate.

• Sphinx of Foresight, illustrated by Titus Lunter
A 4/4 flyer for 4 mana in blue is a good deal, so everything else that follows is pretty much honey.  The 'Leyline' effect is good, and if there is a standard tempo decklist for standard, this card will demand some consideration for inclusion.

• Hydroid Krasis, illustrated by Jason Felix
So Simic - 'All the Creature Types!'.  We very much appreciate the 'when you cast' trigger to be able to still get the life gain and draw those cards, even should this be countered.  We do not think there is anything (yet) in standard which may kill this while on the stack.  This very much feels like a Mythic Card.

• Deputy of Detention, illustrated by G-host Lee
The Wizard creature type may be relevant here, and best served spicy with perhaps Naban, Dean of Iteration to have that the enters the battlefield effect fire twice.  Also, this is a serious threat against token-based strategy decklists.  It is nice to have a Detention Sphere on legs, but one bolt could end the fun rapidly.

• "Biomancer's Pet" (translation?), illustrated by Izzy
Creature — Mutant, Rare
Activated abilities of creatures you control cost up to {2} less to activate. This effect can’t reduce the amount of mana an ability costs to activate to less than one mana.
Tap : Until end of turn, the next time target creature adapts, it adapts as if it had no +1/+1 counters on it.
2/2


Did you like the Rise of the Eldrazi Card 'Training Grounds' ?  Within that set, not so much, but this new card is set to be pretty damn good when paired with the new 'Adapt' mechanic looks solid.  Although this cannot reduce the activated abilities less than 1, there may be a good chance that this will see popular play in standard.  There may be seveeral Merfolk (G/U - like Shapers of Nature) cards in Ixalan Block, or perhaps hooked in with a third colour - example - white with Dominaria's Shalai, Voice of Plenty.

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Dominaria Cycles

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

Wizards of the Coast has done an absolutely solid job of delivering Dominaria card previews given that this upcoming Magic: the Gathering set’s Release Notes were let loose prematurely.  Another experience that we are completely loving is the series of stories that Wizards had commissioned author Martha Wells to produce.  Please do check out the very latest post here -

Return to Dominaria Story, Episode 5
Gideon, Liliana, and Jhoira muster their forces for the showdown with Belzenlok, but first must solve a mystery at Tolaria West.

Before we get on to today’s post (‘cycles’), we need to matter about the very awesome wall scrolls we’ve been seeing.  The first one we saw was the 25th Anniversary Magic: the Gathering wall scroll, which showed all the expansion symbols - big time nostalgia.  It looks though that this may only be available through Japanese retailers.  The other wall scrolls, which are avdailable here in North America from Ultra PRO are the Dominaria Saga Wall Scrolls - History of Benalia, Rite of Belzenlok and Antiquities War.  Very awesome and full of nostalgia as well for many players.

Anywhoos, we really want to talk about cycles.  Why? Uncertain. Perhaps it provides us with a sense of purpose and completion when looking at a set, perhaps we did way too many connect the dot puzzles as a kid.  Here are a few cycles in the upcoming Dominaria set.

Mono-Colour Devotion : This is a full colour cycle of rare creature spells with three of the same colour - Benalish Marshal, Tempest Djinn, Dread Shade, Goblin Chainwhirler and Steel Leaf Champion

Legendary Sorceries : self-explanatory - Urza's Ruinous Blast, Karn's Temporal Sundering, Yawgmoth's Vile Offering, Jaya's Immolating Inferno and Kamahl's Druidic Vow.

Allied Colour Legendary Dudes : Cycle of allied colour legendary uncommon creatures - Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage, Rona, Disciple of Gix, Garna, the Bloodflame, Hallar, the Firefletcher, and Shanna, Sisay's Legacy

Enemy Colour Legendary Dudes : Cycle of enemy colour legendary uncommon creatures - Arvad the Cursed, Adeliz, the Cinder Wind, Slimefoot, the Stowaway, Tiana, Ship's Caretaker and Tatyova, Benthic Druid.

Memorials - cycle of uncommon utility taplands which may be sacrificed for an effect - Memorial to Glory, Memorial to Genius, Memorial to Folly, Memorial to War and Memorial to Unity

Enemy check lands - cycle of rare (Innistrad) taplands tapping for one of two colours. These enter the battlefield tapped unless you control one of those two types already.
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Rivals of Ixalan FULL REVEAL

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Magic: the Gathering players this weekend will likely be spending a good volume of time pouring over the full reveal of all Rivals of Ixalan cards which was posted by Wizards of the Coast's card image gallery linked right here.  With all the cards now out it will indeed take a bit to soak in and evaluate.  

What is clear at the moment is that we have support designed for 10 two-coloured draft archetypes.  This of course is the most obvious paths, but the beauty of Magic: the Gathering is individual innovation.  Should you be exploring something with a more tribal theme, then you should want to include the appropriate 'forerunner' as mentioned in the below section in the cycles.  For now, here are the 'suggested servings' of critical cards all at Uncommon rarity to build upon - 

• Blue / White ASCEND - Resplendent Griffin
• Blue / Black ASCEND - Deadeye Brawler 
• Black / Red PIRATES - Fleet Neckbreaker
• Red / Green AGGRO - Raging Regisaur
• Green / White RAMP - Atzocan Seer

• White / Black VAMPIRES - Legion Lieutenant
• Black / Green (? Recursion / Elementals) - Jungle Creeper
• Green  Blue MERFOLK - Merfolk Mistbinder 
• Blue / Red PIRATES (Raid) - Storm Fleet Sprinter
• Red / Whte AGGRO - Relentless Raptor

Here were three late Rivals of Ixalan previews from yesterday, before the full reveal - 

Hadana's Climb // Winged Temple of Orazca - one of my favourite enchantments - low casting cost, and relatively easy to transform into a relevant and useful land with utility to shoot over an evasive and pumped up threat.  Little doubt that this will be at the very least a two of in my Merfolk tribal build in the new standard.

Wayward Swordtooth - A 5/5 dino for 3 mana - what's the catch here ?  It allows an extra land drop each turn which is damn fine - what's the drawback.  It can't attack / block unless you have the City's Blessing, which should not be that difficult.

Twilight Prophet - 2/4 Vampire for 2BB.  Has flying and ascend, which when you have the City's Blessing

allows for a card draw with a damn solid drain 'n' gain - classic Orzhov goodness here.  A decent four-drop, with the only restriction here the doulbe-black casting cost, unless you are going in for a build with mostly swamps.

OF NOTE - 
The Rivals of Ixalan Release Notes have been loaded as well (pop over to this linky), so do read about the new Ascend mechanic, the returning ones and of course, the card specific notes.  All we will touch upon, now that we do have all the cards posted, are the card cycles you can expect.  Not noted is the cycle mentioned above in the draft archetype section.  Note that given we have a unique arrangement of the four tribes, the tradition colour distribuion would not have the full 'wrap-around' (we're certain there is a better phrase to convey this).  Anywhoos, here they are - 

Elder Dinosaurs: 
Five rare legendary Elder Dinosaurs and one mythic -
• Zetalpa, Primal Dawn 
• Nezahal, Primal Tide 
• Tetzimoc, Primal Death 
• Etali, Primal Storm 
• Ghalta, Primal Hunger 
• Zacama, Primal Calamity

Legendary transforming enemy color enchantments: 
Five rare legendary enchantments in enemy color pairs that transform into legendary lands whenever a condition is met. Each of these lands tap for one mana of any color and have other powerful abilities -
• Profane Procession // Tomb of the Dusk Rose (W/B), 
• Journey to Eternity // Atzal, Cave of Eternity (B/G), 
• Hadana's Climb // Winged Temple of Orazca (G/U), 
• Storm the Vault // Vault of Catlacan (U/R), and 
• Path of Mettle // Metzali, Tower of Triumph (R/W).

Forerunners: 
Four uncommon creatures, one for each major tribe. Each has an enters the battlefield ability that tutors a creature of the respective type to the top of your library, and a triggered ability whenever a creature of that type enters the battlefield under your control -
• Forerunner of the Legion (W vampires)
• Forerunner of the Coalition (B pirates)
• Forerunner of the Empire (R dinosaurs)
• Forerunner of the Heralds (G merfolk)
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Commander 2013 Notes

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

In just over a week, we will be heading over to OMG! Games here in Barrie and picking up one or perhaps two Commander 2013 decks.  We'll also be dropping over to MTG Mint Card to grab a few singles from Commander 2013 to get into our other tall EDH stacks as we had recently found out we were short of a few common staples (like Command Tower - duh!) :(

 







Anywhoos -  Commander 2013 Edition is the next product in the Commander series to be released by Wizards of the Coast on November 1st, 2013.  The Commander 2013 product consists of five tri-color 'shard' decks reflecting the colors of the old Shards of Alara set, each with 100 cards that are ready-to-play right out of the box.  Each box has the option of choosing one of the three legendary tri-colored creatures each deck includes as the commander. The five new Commander decks each contain two brand new three-color legendary creatures and 13 other never-before-printed cards.  There are also 51 unique new cards spread across the five decks with some cards appearing in one or more of the decks.

Righto - On Tuesday the mothership posted a very handy 'Release Notes' page for Commander 2013 and we suggest you give it a read - the linky is here.  Here at MTG Realm, we have a soft spot for card cycles and here are just two different cycles you'll see in Commander 2013 -
 
Introduced in the Innistrad set, Curses are a kind of Aura that enchant a player and have a negative effect. This release includes a cycle of Curses that cause something to happen when the enchanted player is attacked.  A Curse spell targets the player it will enchant like any other Aura spell, and a Curse stays on the battlefield like any other Aura. Each Commander 2013 deck has access to three of the five curses. — Curse of the Forsake, Curse of Inertia, Curse of Shallow Graves, Curse of Chaos, and Curse of Predation.

Tempting Offer is an ability word that appears in italics on a cycle of sorceries. These cards have a beneficial effect, then give opponents the option to also enjoy that effect if they allow you to repeat it. (An ability word has no rules meaning.) Your opponents decide in turn order whether or not they accept the offer, starting with the opponent on your left. Each opponent will know the decisions of previous opponents in turn order when making his or her decision. Each Commander 2013 deck has a card with the new ability word tempting offer. — Tempt with Glory, Tempt with Reflections, Tempt with Discovery, Tempt with Vengeance, and Tempt with Immortality.

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Gatecrash Prep

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

This is our second post today - check out our earlier one here.
 As anticipated, at midnight last night, the full list of all the new Magic: the Gathering cards in Gatecrash was posted to the mothersite.  Untold thousands of gamers who did not stay up for this woke up this morning and promptly devoured all the new cardboard awesomeness and began evaluating each fresh card for the PreRelease events this weekend or the official launch the next.  To prepare for this weekend, check out the Gatecrash Prerelease Primer posted to the mothersite by WotC staffer Mike Mcartor, and contact your local gaming store (Wizards store locator here) to confirm details and whether you may need to pre-register.  Our local card shop, OMG! Games here in Barrie Ontario are taking reservations for Guild Packs and we still have not decided just which Guild to play yet.

There are a lot of cards to read over and evaluate.  If you are sitting in the same undecided boat not knowing which guild to play, read on as we provide a run-down of some select Gatecrash cycles which may provide some motivation to choose one guild over the other in your sealed pool this weekend.
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Denizens : Each of these common creatures has a triggered ability, which triggers whenever a creature of color enters the battlefield under your control.
• Court Street Denizen    
• Sage's Row Denizen    
• Shadow Alley Denizen    
• Foundry Street Denizen    
• Ivy Lane Denizen

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Land auras : Each of these common auras enchants a land and grant that land an activated ability with a Tap.gif in its cost or an triggered ability, which triggers when that land is tapped.
• Debtor's Pulpit    
• Skygames    
• Contaminated Ground    
• Tin Street Market    
• Verdant Haven

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Off-color-activation cards : Each of these permanent cards have an activated ability costing mana of other color of the guild to which they are aligned.    
• Dutiful Thrull
• Frilled Oculus
• Horror of the Dim
• Towering Thunderfist
• Disciple of the Old Ways    
   
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Stay tuned all this week as we tear through our thoughts on all the new Gatecrash cards.  Keep an eye on MTG Mint Card who will upload the price the remaining Gatecrash cards for preorder shortly.
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Return to Ravnica Cycles

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

As it is Friday, why not take in a Friday Night Magic event at your local gaming store (LGS).  We'll be trying out a few ideas at OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario latter tonight.  If you're not near an LGS, get some friends over.  Should you not have any friends, just catch-up with some of our previous posts.

Anywhoos - as indicated with today's post title, we wanted to cover off some cycles in the newest Magic: the Gathering set - Return to Ravnica.  What is a cycle you ask ? - We're glad you asked - a cycle is a number of cards that has one or more relationships with one another card.  These may share a particular set converted mana cost (CMC), or perhaps a name but most likely it will share a common theme.  The cycles in Return to Ravnica are all about the Guilds - Azorius, Izzet, Rakdos, Golgari and Selesnya.  Each of the cycles (thre are quite a few) consist of five cards each corresponding to each guild.  Let's have a look at some select cycles now . . .
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Keyrunes : Each of these uncommon artifacts can tap to produce one mana of either color of the guild to which they are aligned and can be activated to become a creature until end of turn.  These include Azorius Keyrune, Golgari Keyrune, Izzet Keyrune, Rakdos Keyrune, and  Selesnya Keyrune.

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Guild charms : Each of these uncommon instant spells costs two colored mana, one for each guild color, and allow their controller to choose one of three thematically relevant effects.  These include Azorius Charm, Golgari Charm, Izzet Charm, Rakdos Charm, and Selesnya Charm.

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Gold guildmages or gold-mages : Each of these uncommon 2/2 creatures costs two colored mana, one of each of its guild's colors. Each gold-mage has two activated abilities that cost both colors of its guild and are thematically related to both of the colors of the guild.  These include New Prahv Guildmage, Korozda Guildmage, Nivix Guildmage, Rix Maadi Guildmage, and Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage.

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Uncommon 1-CMC hybrid creatures : Each of these uncommon creatures have a converted mana cost of 1.  These include Judge's Familiar, Slitherhead, Blistercoil Weird, Rakdos Cackler, and Dryad Militant.

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Off-color activation cards : Each of these permanent cards have an activated ability costing mana of other color of the guild to which they are aligned.  These include Tower Drake, Stonefare Crocodile, Pursuit of Flight, Deviant Glee, and Selesnya Sentry.

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Guildgates : Each of these common nonbasic lands enter the battlefield tapped and produce one of either of the guild's colors.     These include Azorius Guildgate, Golgari Guildgate, Izzet Guildgate, Rakdos Guildgate, and Selesnya Guildgate.

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M12 Cycles

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

We are freshly returned from a gruelling trek through a vast analogue desert to the sweet embrace of WiFi signals and high-speed internet connections. To this end, we will pick up once again where we left off - a review of the freshly released Magic 2012 core set. Today we will take a look at the Mage and the Empire cycles of this latest Magic the Gathering batch of cards. Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief.

Mage Cycle

These are 2/1 human wizard creatures for 2 mana with an activated ability involving one mana of a color. Each of these creatures have a flavor text describing a creed of a clan of wizards, with names synonymous to the respective color.


"We hold sacred the powers of light and life. Truth and honor are our greatest weapons." —Alabaster creed.

"We draw our power from the infinite ocean of the mind, where all manner of things can be conceived." —Azure creed.

"We wield death and darkness, powers that make lesser mages tremble in fear." —Onyx creed.

"We wield the fires of rage. War is our blood and destruction our birthright."—Crimson creed.

"We are one with the wild things. Life blooms from our fingertips and nature responds to our summons." —Jade creed.

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On the whole, these cards are limited fodder - that is to say not that bad of a pick in draft or sealed but as ineffective as a flatus in a windstorm. As for limited, we will certainly want to pick the Jade or Onyx Mage over the other ones - being able to generate a 1/1 Saproling chump blocker or provide deathtouch is usually good tech in limited. Pipe in the comment form below and provide your opinon - what is your fav mage and why.

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The M12 core set has three artifacts with "of Empires" in their names. Each of these artifacts may be tapped for an upgraded effect if you control all three of them.


The chances of you being able to one of these in sealed is kinda slim but pulling all three - pretty much when pigs fly or as one of our friends say, when Justin Beiber hits puberty. Attempting to assemble Crown of Empires, Scepter of Empires, and Throne of Empires is a sixty-card constructed build is essentially a 3-card combo which won't win games and is very easily taken apart by your opponent. For this reason as well as not have a card (excepting Diabolic Tutor) to tutor up a missing piece nails the lid on this. Having said that, since we here at MTG Realm are casual Magic Players will still attempt a build as we can detect a whole truck load of potential fun.

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Lastly,

We wanted to yatter about those M12 Planeswalker 'signature spells' (cards that would tie to the planeswalker characters in flavor and mechanics). The first one we want to yatter about is the Gideon set. The cards are Gideon Jure (the Planeswalker of course), Gideon's Avenger (the rare spell) and Gideon's Lawkeeper (the common spell).


These really are not that bad and we feel may be underrated by the FNM crowd. Avenger promises to go hulk-steroid just as Ajani's Pridemate did in that last core set. Throw in Lawkeeper, Tumble Magnet, Repel the Darkkness, and you are starting to look at the nucleus of a decent deck. Please pass along your thoughts as to a standard-constructed build using Gideon and his two buddies.

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Blade Cycle

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Hello again - I am freshly returned to civilisation from the barren tundras of northern Ontario and am more than excited to be able to get internet access again . . . (I think I was having web withdrawals).

Today, I'll yatter about a random Alara Reborn cycle. A simple cycle (or horizontal cycle), usually just called a cycle, often consisting of five cards within a set, one in each color (or shard as in the Shards of Alara block). I wanted to post some summaries of cycles within the Alara Reborn and there happens to several nice ones to choose from ; Allied-colored equipments, Blades, Borderposts, Dual-Landcyclers, Hybrid-cyclers, Sojourners, etc. Today I will hit up the 'Blade Cycle'.

Our contestants for the blade cycle are Bant Sureblade, Esper Stormblade, Grixis Grimblade, Jund Hackblade, and Naya Hushblade. Each of these are common 2/1 creatures have a converted mana cost of two with one hybrid mana and one other mana colour. The colour represents which shard they represent as shown below . . .

Bant : {G/U}W
Esper : {W/B}U
Grixis : {U/R}B
Jund : {B/G}R
Naya : {R/W}G

Each creature in this blade cylce has the text "As long as you control another multicolored permanent, (creature name) gets +1/+1 and has [ability word]".

Bant : First Strike
Esper : Flying
Grixis : Deathtouch
Jund : Haste
Naya : Shroud

The best two in this cycle appear to be Jund Hackblade and Naya Hushblade, since the haste and shroud abilities tend to give the most grief to your opponent, especially when dropped at turn 2 or 3. The player should not get too attached to these critters due to the ease of removal given a toughness of just 2 but should rather think of these as being able to potentially disrupt the early game or getting in early hits . . . these are expendible.

The Alara Reborn borderposts will work quite nicely with the new Alara blade cycle. These multi-colour artifacts could be dropped as early as turn one to provide you with the cowbell required for your particular blade - example -

Turn One - Play land, Firewild Borderpost
Turn Two - Play land, Jund Hackblade

Jund Hackblade is now the fully enhanced 3/2 hasty little monster that you want him to be.

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Something altogether different now . . .

I will be checking out the relative worth of Alara Reborn Singles Prices. Below are the approximate price of cards which have not seen too much change in the last week or so.

1) Maelstrom Pulse ($18)
2) Jenara, Asura of War ($12)
3) Meddling Mage ($12)
4) Lord of Extinction ($10)
5) Sen Triplets ($10)
6) Dauntless Escort ($7)
7) Thought Hemorrhage ($7)
8) Uril, the Miststalker ($6)
9) Spellbreaker Behemoth ($4)
10) Sphinx of the Steel Wind ($4)