Rivals of Ixalan Spoiler 12-14

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

Yesterday at around noon, Wil Blanks (@HairlessThoctar) shot out a tweet indicating that gaming stores had received a flyer from possibly from a gaming distribution company supplying Magic: the Gathering products advertising upcoming Rivals of Ixalan products from Ultra PRO.  This was followed with another post yesterday afternoon from redditor TacticalRangers with an image of the full product offering poster.

There are some Rivals of Ixalan images already previewed, and some which are new, so let's review -

Already previewed is the images of the Minotaur (in all certainty Angrath), as well as the vampire, thought to be the legendary character Elenda of Garrano, also known as Saint Elenda (a good second guess may be that of Queen Miralda).  New Rivals of Ixalan art spoiler is the image of the Merfolk - possibly the Merfolk Lord which MaRo alluded to on his blog earlier.

Matte Deck Protectors
86652 - Angrath Minotaur
86653 - Elenda Vampire
86654 - Merfolk

Pro 100+ Eck Boxes
86658 - Angrath Minotaur
86659 - Elenda Vampire
86660 - Merfolk

The first playmat shows what may very well be Admiral Beckett Brass leading a charge of pirates.  The second most epic of images shows a three-headed dinosaur.  The last image appears to be a lovely landscape on Ixalan.

Playmats
86661 - Admiral Brass and Pirates
86662 - Three-headed Dinosaur
86663 - Ixalan Landscape

Pro Binder
86664 - Sun Empire warrior / dinosaur, Merfolk

Table Mats
86666 - 8 feet Rivals of Ixalan key art

86665 - 6 feet Rivals of Ixalan key art

Here is the full image of the Rivals of Ixalan Ultra PRO advertisement -

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Aether Revolt Ultra PRO Offering

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

Some gamers in the Magic: the Gathering community are understandably salty with the recent Banned & Restricted update earlier this week.  After all, for a standard legal card to get hit by the Ban-Hammer is pretty much unheard of.  To this end, we want to draw your attention to the Exclusive Playmat being provided by StarCityGames.com Columbus Open event on Aether Revolt launch weekend of 21-22 January.  It features the art work of none other than Smuggler's Copter, aka the 'Looter Scooter'.  Unfortunate, and perhaps a bit awkward, but humourous to some none-the-less.

Anywhoos, moving on, we should summarise the very sharp looking Aether Revolt gaming accessories brought to you by Ultra PRO gaming.  Deck Boxes, Deck Protectors (card sleeves), binder and a wallop of play mats featuring aesthetic arts in this upcoming MTG set.

Magic Aether Revolt Playmats
The standard playmats are sized approximately 24" wide x 13.5" tall with the following six designs:
• Baral, Chief of Compliance
• Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
• Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• Sram, Senior Edificer

• Freejam Regent 

Also available are Aether Revolt 6ft and 8ft Playmat / some call this 'Table Play Mat' for Magic: the Gathering (approximately 72" X 30" or 96" X 30") featuring the Aether Revolt key art work.  

There are three Magic Aether Revolt Deck Protector Sleeves and Full-View Deck Boxes available as well.  Sleeves come in 80 to apack and fits perfectly in the Deck Boxes along with your sideboard and tokens.  The three arts to adorn this are:

• Ajani Unyielding, illustration by Kieran Yanner
• Tezzeret the Schemer, illustration by Ryan Alexander Lee

• Herald of Anguish, illustration by Vincent Proce

Magic Aether Revolt PRO-Binder, features Heart of Kiran, illustrated by Jaime Jones and holds 360 sleeved cards.  The black backing of the pages are textured for low friction and easier card insertion and removal, while an elastic strap holds the binder securely shut. 

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Ultra PRO Oath of the Gatewatch

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Ultra PRO product offerings for Oath of the Gatewatch are now finally out.

As you may have guessed, all (four) of the 'Oath' Cycle of card arts are provided on the Ultra PRO deck sleeves and deck box with the Kozilek, the Great Distortion illustration featured on the fifth.

Card portfolio featuring Fall of the Titans & Bonds of Mortality while the two playmats have the OGW key art and 'Call the Gatewatch' art.

http://www.ultrapro.com/division.php?d=g

 
Play mat with premium fabric top to prevent damage to cards during game play. Dimensions are approximately 24" X 13-1/2". Rubber backing lets the play mat lay flat and prevents the mat from shifting during use.
♢  Call the Gatewatch Play Mat - # 86312
♢  Key Art Play Mat - # 86313

9-pocket PRO-Binder with printed cover. Embossed middle black web material gives cards a classic framed look. Side loading pocket design to prevent cards from easily falling out. Elastic strap holds the binder shut when not in use. All materials made from archival-safe, acid-free non-PVC material. Holds 360 Cards in Ultra Pro Deck Protector sleeves. Features Fall of the Titans & Bonds of Mortality.
♢ Full-View PRO-Binder for Magic, 9-Pkt

Vertical, top loading Deck Box with full flap cover. Holds 82 cards in Deck Protectors sleeves. Acid free, durable polypropylene material.
♢ Kozilek, the Great Distortion - # 86307
♢ Oath of Chandra - # 86309
♢ Oath of Gideon - # 86308
♢ Oath of Jace - # 86311
♢ Oath of Nissa - # 86310

Deck Protectors with Ultra PRO's hologram quality seal. Sized 66mm X 91mm to store and protect standard sized cards. All Ultra PRO Deck Protectors are archival-safe and acid-free. 80-count pack.
♢ Kozilek, the Great Distortion - # 86307
♢ Oath of Chandra - # 86302
♢ Oath of Gideon - # 86303
♢ Oath of Jace - # 86306
♢ Oath of Nissa - # 86305

 

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BCW Deck Locker

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

If you're Christian, it's Good Friday and we wish you a wonderful Easter Holidays with family and friends.  There is of course no Friday Night Magic for most of us here in North America as well as other regions so players  here in Barrie are heading off to the local gaming store, OMG! Games Saturday where I think there will be an entire day of drafts.  

Anywhoos, we've got another product review for you today - its the Deck Locker from BCW Supplies.  Before we get into it, here's a short vid from us -

This is a pretty fine deck box which will hold your full 60 standard constructed, the 15 card sideboard as well as a crap-ton of tokens if you need.  We also were able to get in a full 100-card Commander deck no problem but we suggest you don't try that unless you are really in a bind.

The Deck Case also has a rather cool dice tray which should accommodate all your dice / counters.  We got a D20, our lucky flip coin, a full Chessex set (7 dice - d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20 & d00) as well as that big Planeswalker life counter from Commander's Arsenal.

Outside finished layer is textured (so your greasy hands won't drop it so readily) as well as embossed with that kick-arse BCW dragon logo.  Inside is pimped out like Quagmire's pad with microfiber material promising never to rug-burn your precious cardboard.

There are two magnetic closures and the thingy kinda looks like a fridge with a smaller separate closure for the dice tray and the larger main compartment one where you will store your cardboard whoop-arse.

We did a drop and although the mag closure did pop on the strategic angel we dropped it at, it did not puke contents everywhere.  The small door mag closure is tight and will not likely pop where the larger one might if you klutz'd it, so don't game unless you are sober.

Suggestions for BCW Supplies -

If possible during next upgrade, provide a small write-on surface so players can label their deckboxes should they have more than one.  

Another suggestion - MOAR mag closures / stronger magnets on the main compartment door - we want the iron being sucked out of our hemoglobin. 

All in all, a very sweet deck box which we would recommend to your mom.  Depending on how deep in the woods your gamery shoppe is, you could expect to pay anywhere from $15 to $20.
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Alpha Grimoire Deck Box

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Hello again MTG peeps,

MTG Realm has now been live for about 8 years, has about 12,000 regular followers and have hit about 7 million page visits.  These metrics may be impressive but it still pales in comparison to the vast volume of Magic: the Gathering cards found in just about every room in our secret lair.  We've got cards in desk drawers, binders, boxes, shelves and believe it or not, the collection is fairly well organized.  Having said this, we will admit that our MTG shelf is not rather pretty with the large variety of storage options we have (yep - hashtag that first world problem).

Anywhoos, we've recently picked up a very interesting deck storage box - the Alpha Edition Grimoire Deck Box from Wizardry Foundry.  First and foremost, this box looks great on the shelf and has actually given us a bit more space after organization.  This box is constructed with wood, bonded leather, and has a felt liner which makes us feel a lot better about how much safer our cards are now.  You can squeeze about 1000 un-sleeved cards in the box, or put all your existing deck boxes right in there.  It'll take 10 UPR 75-card boxes or 4 of those mag-flip boxes with room to spare.  Best of all, if you have a cube and need to take it over to your friends place, this box is for you.

Before getting the Grimoire, we did our research, as with all our purchases, and the thing which impressed us most, is that Wizardry Foundry had gone out of their way to solicit feedback from the gaming community.  Armed with this feedback, Wizards Foundry will be moving forward with the design and manufacture of the next generation of Grimoire deck box - The Grimoire Pro Tour.  You can also help them by dropping by their Kickstarter page.

Our Review

• Aesthetics - just lovely looking (we can almost hear Angels singing)

• Sturdiness - like a Fort Knox for your cardboard

• Closure - Alpha Edition has a magnetic closure and can pop open during transport but latter editions have addressed this.

• Artwork - liking the artwork on the Alpha but want better selection which the Kickstarter hopes to address.

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KICKSTARTER PROJECT !

Grimoire Pro Tour Magic Deck Box

A smaller, more portable version of the Grimoire Deck Box, aimed to carry 3 decks and accessories. All your tournament needs in a box!

Grimoire Pro Tour:

• 300 cards with no sleeves, or

• 3 Ultrapro 75 card Deck Boxes

• Tournament Deck, EDH Deck, and Draft Sleeves

• Extra compartment for necessary accessories

• 19cm x 21.6cm x 9cm

• 7.5" x 8.5" x 3.5"

Wizardry Foundry and its founder Jonathan Lau answered the gaming community call for improved portablility with yet another re-designed version.  Please drop by the Kickstarter project page for additional information.

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Ultra PRO M15 Product Line Up

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

This is our second post for today - as we had mentioned in our previous post (http://mtg-realm.blogspot.com/2014/06/m15-spoilers-6-25.html), we had a LOT of catching up to day with all the new Magic: the Gathering / Magic 2015 core set news, spoilers 'n' previews coming out.  There are two thingys we have to cover off in this post -

First up - The John Avon Kickstarter project - 

To celebrate 30 years of producing beautiful fantasy art for books, record covers and card games, John Avon, with his agent Guy Coulson, is putting together his collected works book, ‘Journeys to Somewhere Else’.

John Avon (born 1961 in Cardiff, Wales) is a fantasy and science fiction illustrator. His work has been used for book covers, CD covers, games, toys and advertising campaigns. He is best known for his artworks for the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, of which he has produced over 200 paintings.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnavonart/journeys-to-somewhere-else-by-john-avon
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Second, and lastly - All the very cool Ultra PRO products for the Magic 2015 core set.

ULTRA PRO has been designing, manufacturing, and distributing gaming and collectibles accessories since 1952. They are recognized as the premier brand of protection and display products within the trading card game (TCG) and sports trading card industries.  Look for Ultra PRO products at your local gaming store and MTG Mint Card.

ULTRA PRO Magic: The Gathering® – Magic 2015 Deck Protector - SIX versions

ULTRA PRO Magic: The Gathering® – Magic 2015 Full-View Deck boxes - SIX versions

ULTRA PRO Magic: The Gathering® – Magic 2015 Play Mats - THREE versions

ULTRA PRO Magic: The Gathering® – Magic 2015 PRO-Binder - TWO versions

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UPR Deck Box

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

Now that we have our Magic 2014 pre-orders from MTG Mint Card, we will shortly get to some new standard and modern constructed ideas we have but not until we have a few Friday Night Magic events to test these.  For today's post, we wanted to yatter about a new deck storage box we're sure that gamers will be interested in.

We first told you about the new Ultra PRO 3-Compartment Pro-Tower Black Deck Box on our sister site MTG Realm on Tumblr a few weeks ago and thought it so very cool, we went ahead and  grabbed one of these.

The box features :
• 25 Oversized Planechase or Commander cards
• Bottom Tray for 80 sleeved cards or Dice
• Top Tray 100+ sleeved cards
• Mag-Snap closure

Anywhoos - here's a short video tour of this - 


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The Pro-Tower deck box is designed with swinging front door which has room to accommodate up to 25 over-sized sleeved cards like your General's card for Commander / EDH or Planechase cards if you play that format. Inside, the bottom tray is designed hold all your dice, tokens, or 80 sleeved cards laying flat.  

 

You can use the attached ribbon to easily lift the cards out - or like us,  simply secure a petit sachet of potpourri.  The top compartment can hold 100+ sleeved cards.  Top flap closes the entire thing with a magnetic button.  The material appears to be a plasticized fiber and durable.  We'll be using this when we go gaming and will report back as to how this new Ultra PRO box works for us, but for now, we're going to give it two thumbs up.
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Alternate Moxen

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So - it was interesting that only on Monday this week we saw the Arcana post at Wizards on the very beautiful looking alternate art mox that was done by Volkan Baga AND then we hear (not confirmed just yet) rumours that Ultra-Pro is planning to run a contest to promote a limited print run of deck boxes / card sleeves featuring afore-mentioned alternate art.

Here is the skinny from ManaNation :

This promotion is similar to the Magic 15th Anniversary/Power 9 promotion which was very successful worldwide!
NOTE: This will be a LIMITED production run. If you do not order, you might not get any.
Expect Allocations.
At this time we are only allowed to show 4 out of the 6 images.
The Mox Diamond will be the Deck Protector (not shown).

* 4-color printed with Gold hotstamp foil Deckbox featuring specially commissioned art of the Original 5 moxes!

* Includes 80 ct. Exclusive Regular Sized Horizontal Deck Protectors of the Mox Diamond art

* Details of the promotion inside each deckbox with up to 250 chances to win!

* LIMITED EDITION
* WORLDWIDE PROMOTION

* Prizes include the Grand Prize of the Black Lotus White Border card in NM/M condition + UltraPRO products + Limited Edition Numbered Mox Play Mat and other prizes such as the Mox Sapphire White Border (NM/M) card and Mox Jet White Border (NM/M) card, and more!

* Winners will be drawn on or around 2/1/11

No images of the Ultra-Pro products yet, so here are the alternate arts for the Moxes . . .

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Well, we estimate the value of the Black Lotus to be around $600 or more, the Mox Jet around $400, and the Mox Sapphire to be around $500 or so. This makes the contest pretty much kick-butt in our opinion and we will feed ya more details as they become available.

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Righto - so - if you are unaware as to what the mox are and why they are sooo expensive - here's some background . . .

In Magic: The Gathering, the Power Nine are nine rare cards found in the Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited sets, and are widely considered to be the most powerful cards ever printed. In games where they are legal, they play an important role in the competitive tournament atmosphere.[1] However, they are only legal in Vintage in which they are restricted, meaning a deck may not contain more than one copy of the cards. Due to their power, these nine cards are considered "broken" (overwhelmingly powerful).
The Power Nine are:
Ancestral Recall, Black Lotus, Mox Emerald, Mox Jet, Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, Mox Sapphire, Timetwister, and Time Walk .

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UltraPro Mana Products

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Some interesting news in the realm of Magic the Gathering supplies from our favourite supplier, UltraPro.

For a few short years, the Ion Deck Box from Max Protection has been the shizzle and has been a ubiquitous item at games clubs and tournaments everywhere. We even have a full set of all five colours and very much enjoy them.

It now appears that UltraPro has realised that many players may identify more with a colour they are playing rather than art from a single card (no matter how very awesome the card may be). To this end, UltraPro will be releasing their own version of the Ion Deck Box and where the UltraPro product may not match the quality of materials and construction of the MaxProtection product, they will make this up in the pricing of the product . . . it really is about having options we're certain you will agree.

Anywhoos - These products are expecting to be released within the next two weeks so let's have a look at 'em.


The new UltraPro Deck Mana Boxes come in all five colours. They have also thoughtfully included a divider to keep your sideboard from contaminating your main deck. I also appreciate the text box on the bottom of the deck box which will give the flvour overview of the particular colour. The deckboxes are anticipated to retail anywhere from $5 to $10 depending upon the logistical distribution arrangement in your area and how far removed from civilisation you are.

The new UltraPro Deck Mana Sleeves come in all five colours as well. The art is standard and looks very sharp. Just be aware that your opponents at Friday Night Magic may know what colour you may be playing and may even sneak sideboard cards into their mix even before you sit down to game. Alternatively, we know MTG Realm readers are a sneaky and surreptitious lot and may decide to sleeve up your red burn deck in those innocent looking Plains sleeves. A pack of 80 sleeves are anticipated to retail for around $10 more or less, again depending where you call home.

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We also have noted that a few other recent UltraPro products have been released and we need to update on these as well.

First off, that Zendikar Island card (collector's number 235) with the sweet art from Vincent Proce now finds itself on a sleeve.

And lastly, that Zendikar Plains card (collector's number 231) with the awesome cool hedrons, again from Vincent Proce is adorning a portfolio.

Please send us a comment if you can update us on the approximate cost of these products - ensure you let us know the general region (example continental United States, United Kingdom, etc.).