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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Unstable Variants

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

The newest (kookiest?) 'un' set, 'Unstable' is ready to be unleashed this very weekend.  The full set has already been previewed, and gamers are looking forward to draft this whacky and  farcical set.

Most collectors wanting specific cards from Unstable have already pre-ordered those cards and the well-heeled player may have already likely ordered deck protectors / card boxes and playmats from Ultra PRO (like the table matt above).

This is all very well - BUT - in a jocular jab, Wizards of the Coast did not reveal one rather important thing.  They did 'hint' at it though - blah, bleh, expect 216-ish cards.  We should have paid more attention.  As retailers started breaking down boxes and cracking packs for single sales, it began to emerge that there was something fishy, which may be explained in one word . . . 'VARIANTS'.  A number of cards in Unstable are printed with multiple variants.  These variants can differ on rules text, flavour text, art and watermark.

MTG Realm has had a quick look around the interwebs and have found the following known variants so far.  Images from Kush Singhal (@brute_steamer) -

• Amateur Auteur - 4 Versions (art and flavor text) Innistrad, Ravnica, Theros, and Zenkikar

• Beast in Show (art and flavor text)

• Everythingamajig - 5 Versions (rules text)

• Extremely Slow Zombie - 4 Versions (art and flavor text) Same zombo, 4 different seasons

• Garbage Elemental - 6 Versions (rules, Power/toughness)

• Ineffable Blessing - 6 Versions (rules text and flavor text)

• Killbot (name and flavour text) Curious, Delighted, Despondent, and Enraged Killbot.

• Knight of the Kitchen Sink - 6 Versions (rules text and flavor text)

• Novellamental - 4 Versions (flavor text)

• Secret Base - 5 Versions (art and watermark) one for each of the five factions

• Sly Spy (rules text, art and flavor text)

• Target Minotaur - 4 Versions (art)

• Very Cryptic Command - 6 Versions (art and rules text)

In some sad news, iconic artist Wayne England had been commissioned to create a version of Very Cryptic Command but had unfortunately passed away before completing it.  Ultra PRO is offering this uncompleted work on a line of deck protectors, deck boxes and playmats and donating the net proceeds from the sage to the family's chosen charity, the British Heart Foundation.

In summary, a very happy and welcome surprise for gamers cracking packs in this weekend's draft events around the world.  There may be additions / corrections to the above list over the next few days, so stay tuned.

Collectors and online retailers however may not be as happy however given that preorders have already been preordered and whatnot.  Here is what StarCityGames had pushed out earlier today to communicate with their customers.
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Modern Masters FULL Preview

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

Happy indeed as it is Friday and the end of the work / school week for most and later this evening, unwind with a few FNM matches of Magic: the Gathering at our local gaming store, OMG! Games.  Sounds good - more so, if the horrific winter storm clears up in time.  Here is a pic of what it is like outside right now (early afternoon) here in Barrie, Ontario, where a trailer of Georgian Bay is eliminating any kind of visibility.  In this rather murky image, there is a City and beautiful waterfront.  

Anywhoos, if we can't convince the sled dogs to go out tonight, we'll stay in and look over all the cards in the soon-to-be-relased Modern Masters 2017 set.  Today's article on MTG Realm summarises what one can expect with the new set.  For the full card image gallery, pop on over to the Wizards of the Coast site (being hosted on a server in Seattle, where is is abundantly more cheerful outside).

Big news - Damnation receives its first reprint in a set.  Also of note, is that both Snapcaster Mage and Cavern of Souls become the first cards originally printed as a rare in a standard set printed after mythic rares were introduced, to be reprinted as a mythic rare.  This set looks pretty much awesome and we're looking forward to draft and collect.  There is a total of 249 cards (101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares) to be assembled in a variety of awesome shapes 'n' forms for limited.

From today's article from WotC staffer Sam, it appears that the Modern Masters 2017 features the following limited archetypes:

White-Blue - Blink

Blue-Black - Instant Control

Black-Red - Unearth/Sacrifice

Red-Green - Token Go-Wide

Green-White - Populate

White-Blue-Black - Control (with Creatures)

Blue-Black-Red - Graveyard

Black-Red-Green - Sacrifice

Red-Gree-White - Token Aggro

Green-White-Blue - Splicers

Many Modern format gamers are quite interested in Changes in Rarity, as this does drive (to a limited point) the prices of card singles.  Here is the quick 'n' dirty summary of rarity changes -

Common to Uncommon : Compulsive Research, Molten Rain, Vithian Stinger, Terminate, Azorius Signet, Dimir Signet, Rakdos Signet, Gruul Signet, Selesnya Signet, Orzhov Signet, Izzet Signet, Golgari Signet, Boros Signet, Simic Signet

Uncommon to Common : Magma Jet, Burning-Tree Emissary, Gnawing Zombie, Augur of Bolas

Rare to Common : Mortician Beetle

Rare to Uncommon : Goblin Assault, Inquisition of Kozilek, Sedraxis Specter

Rare to Mythic : Snapcaster Mage

Mythic to Rare : Falkenrath Aristocrat, Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
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Here at MTG Realm, we are definitely interested in new illustrations provided by Wizards of the Coast.  The last Modern Masters set had about 5 new card arts if we recall correctly.  You should be quite pleased to learn that we have identified about 14 new card arts I have taken note of so far :

Abyssal Specter - Daarken
Agent of Masks - Allen Williams
Cavern of Souls - Richard Wright
Compulsive Research - Sara Winters
Goblin Guide - Filip Burburan
Might of old Krosa - Lars Grant-West
Molten Rain - Sung Choi
Past in Flames - Anna Steinbauer
Ranger of Eos - Ryan Pancoast
Serum Visions - Izzy
Snapcaster Mage - Ryan Alexander Lee
Stony Silence - Mark Poole
Terminate - Lucas Graciano

Urbis Protector - Magali Villeneuve

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Eternal Masters Supply & Demand

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

What likely catch captivated the attention of most Magic: the Gathering players over the weekend was the release of the special ('one-off') summer set of Eternal Masters.  Like Modern Masters, released in 2013 and in 2015, these sets have a higher expected average value of the cards contained in each booster and a more limited print run resulting in a higher (MSRP) sticker price.  

Where Modern Masters may have had a limited print run, Eternal Masters has a "very" limited print run.  There are quite a number of reports from a gamers to local gaming store owners indicating that there will not be any second print run or re-stock.  Some claim that retailers claiming no anticipated product restock work to the retailers benefit providing them license to charge more. The Eternal Booster box contains 24 packs (a perfect number to draft with) and here in our region (Central Ontario, Canada), the booster box costs about $360 and booster packs go for about $16.  

If you are drafting, then the cost could be likened to what you may spend on a trip to the movies (food 'n' all) or a drinks out at a pub.  We think you would be on the right path if you spent this money as being funds allocated for entertainment.

On YouTube, there are a number of unboxing vidoes of fans cracking packs hoping to lucky enough to pull one or more of the high value cards for re-sale to the secondary market.  Pulling a Mana Crypt, Force of Will, Karakas or a foil Jace, the Mind Sculptor at a worth around a $100 does go a long wat for you to 'recover' the value of your investment but there is real danger here.  The big question for those wanting to receive value is simply - 'Is it worth it to buy into Eternal Masters?'.

Consider this - out of the 69 Mythic Rares and Rares in the set, only about 19 of these cards (>$10) are valuable enough to equate to the value of a booster pack.  For each one of those videos showing a really amazing box, there are likely a dozen other individuals less than satisfied with their return.   We think you would be most happy having the mindset of gaming with the set rather than attempting to turn an economic profit.

Singles Prices - Expect great variance and volatility -

Mana Crypt (M) $98.31
Force of Will (M) $91.76
Karakas (M) $85.01
Jace, the Mind Sculptor (M) $69.00
Wasteland (R) $48.85
Sneak Attack (M) $27.00
Natural Order (M) $26.65
Vampiric Tutor (M) $25.86
Sensei's Divining Top (R) $22.00
Sylvan Library (R) $19.99
Dack Fayden (M) $19.99
Maze of Ith (R) $18.25
Entomb (R) $17.70
Sinkhole (R) $15.74
Gamble (R) $15.00
Chrome Mox (M) $14.95
Maelstrom Wanderer (M) $12.34
Enlightened Tutor (R) $11.79
Vindicate (R) $10.15
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