Tarkir's Change

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

Today's article is short 'n sweet with load of Magic: the Gathering eye candy.  Specifically, a very lovely bunch of 'merged' images created by Andrew Weisel who runs the Tumblr blog 'Sarpadian Empires Vol. VIII', which, if you have not yet dropped by, we encourage you to.

Anywhoos, the theme here really is the Whovian timey-wimey thingy on the Plane of Tarkir which was initiated by Sarkhan resulting in a number of changes which had cascaded through time.  In game play, there is a truck load of cards bearing this out.  Enough of us yattering, here's the kewl before 'n' after from Andrew -

Former Khans: Four rare legendary creatures and one mythic planeswalker that detail the fates of the Khans from Khans of Tarkir in the new timeline. — Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit, Narset Transcendent, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Zurgo Bellstriker, Surrak, the Hunt Caller 

Dragonlords: five mythic legendary allied-colored elder dragons that are the aged-up versions of their Fate Reforged counterpart. — Dragonlord Ojutai, Dragonlord Silumgar, Dragonlord Kolaghan, Dragonlord Atarka, and Dragonlord Dromoka 

Zurgo really got the cr@ppy end of the stick here we think.  We are rather happy to have all the previous set's Fate Reforged dragons but are unable to collect the five new dragonlords from Dragons of Tarkir until the singles pricing becomes a titch more reasonable (if ever)  :(
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Wednesday MTG Miscellany

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

It being Wednesday today, you can pop over to the mothersite and check out some of the impresseive high-resolution digital artwork from recent Magic: the Gathering sets (linky over here).  Today's offering is Yasova Dragonclaw.

Here is a quick round-up of recent loads - 

• Yasova Dragonclaw, (Fate Reforged) 02/25/15, By Winona Nelson
• Ojutai, Soul of Winter, (Fate Reforged) 02/18/15, By Chase Stone
• Mastery of the Unseen, (Fate Reforged) 02/11/15, By Daniel Ljunggren
• Tasigur, the Golden Fang, (Fate Reforged) 02/04/15, By Chris Rahn

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We also suggest you catch up with the lore / storyline in today's Uncharted Realms article, this time by Kim Kreines who had been a WotC Associate Editor but now (last fall) has moved over to the Creative Design Team.  This is Kim's third Uncharted Realms story and we like her writing.

A Tarkir of Dragons
Posted in Uncharted Realms on February 25, 2015 

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Anywhoos, 
We've taken an interest in some of the incredible artwork presented in the Uncharted Realms story.  Some we have seen before in print but we have to wonder whether these lovely pieces below may seen printing as card art in the next set, Dragons of Tarkir -

 illustrated by Jaime Jones - This certainly looks like the legendary black / red dragon 'Kologhan, the Storm's Fury' from Fate Reforged.

  illustrated by Steve Prescott - Showing what appears to be a number of 'Atarka, World Render' brood looking for a quick bite.

illustrated by Franz Vohwinkel - the reference in the story is that this may be vials of Dragonfire shared by Kologhan with the Mardu.

illustrated by Jason Rainville - Apparently with the rise of the dragons, Clan Khans have been supplanted by 'Dragonlords', and the time-shifted Zurgo Helmsmasher has become Zurgo Bellstriker.

illustrated by David Gaillet - Sarkhan seeks Narset only to find that the former Jeskai Clan has expelled her as a heretic.  In this reality, Taigam had not defected to the Sultai but remains with the 'Jeskai' as a master.

Loving the regular installments of Uncharted Realms and very much appreciate that Wizards has provided these sneak-peak illustrations.
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Sarkhan Unbroken

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

Some very delicious news out for all you Magic: the Gathering spoiler nutters out there - quite possibly all ado with the next set - Dragons of Tarkir.  Have a seat and let's go -

Yesterday on the Penny Arcade news posts, we were all treated to this year's pins available to collect at PAX East (Boston, 6th to 8th March 2015).  There has been for a while now at the PAX events, a Magic: the Gathering pin to collect from Wizards of the Coast booth or event.  No big whoop but when the pin image was posted 19 hours ago by PAX 'Gabe', he had also provided a name 'Sarkhan, Unbroken' along with this image . . .

Well doesn't that look a bit familiar . . .
Yep - from the last MTG trailer put out by WotC -

That trailer shows the same 'Ugin the Spiritdragon coloured' trail in Sarkhan's hair as well as that ever-so-cool flaming first.

In today's Magic Arcana post by WotC staffer Blake, he had provided a bunch of details for MTG fans attending PAX East as well as the same pin image - but - no intriguing name.

Some in the MTG fan community speculate that we will see the return of Sarkhan in the next set.  We really don't doubt this - the big question is, as a Planeswalker, a Legendary creature card (his Planeswalker spark consumed in that time travel business), or just perhaps a spell ?

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Post FRF Warriors

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

As promised yesterday over on MTG Realm on Tumblr, we will be dropping a post regarding our thoughts for standard format Black / White Warriors.  

If you've been reading the MTG Realm blog for any length of time (apologies to you), you'll know that we have a thingy for weenie and token strategies.  There is nothing quite as satisfying than emptying your hand of low costing critters (sometimes with a pump spell), and turning cards sideways.  One of the very fist decklists we developed was the rather obvious 'build around' pair of 'Chief of the Edge' and 'Chief of the Scale' (the 'Chieves') from Khans of Tarkir.  Unfortunately, we scrapped this not long after in favour of Abzan Midrange and latter, Mardu Tokens.  You can see our article on this from November right here.

We thought that there would be no further goodies in the next set for our original list - second sets sometimes suck lemons - but we were pleasantly surprised.  Fast forward to Fate Reforged previews when Mardu Strike Leader and Brutal Hordechief were previewed.  Yep - we were estatic and wanted to revisit this 'tribe'.  First, let's have a looky-loo at a list :

Orzhov Warriors - Work in Progress by MTG Realm

30 Creatures
4x Mardu woe-Reaper
4x Bloodsoaked Champion
4x Tormented Hero
4x Mardu Shadowspear
4x Battle Brawler
4x Chief of the Edge
4x Mardu Strike Leader
2x Brutal Hordechief

9 Other Spells
3x Bile Blight
3x Pharika's Cure
2x Valorous Stance
1x Return to the Ranks

Strategy
This particular strategy is all about dropping as many early beaters as possible (there are 16 x 1-cmc creatures) to achieve an early game win.  In game two, carefully considered cards in the sideboard are brought in to provide an element of control while attempting to wrap up the game no later than turn five.

The sixteen cards with one converted mana cost are all 2/1, or theoretically a 2/1 in the case of Mardu Shadowspear.  Mardu Woe-Reaper is good against recursion / Whip decklists, and Bloodsoaked will typically always have 'raid' bring it back to the battlefield.

The 2-cmc cards are a bookset of Chief of the Edge (solid 'tribal' pump) and Battlebrawler, which in most games we've tested so far has typically been a 3/2 first striker.

A deckset of Mardu Strike Leader occupies the three slot.  Dropping 2/1 Warrior tokens  is neveer a bad thing - especially when they are potentially 3/1 with Edge Chief. 

Only two Brutal Hordefhief round out the creature side of the list and is meant to provide a route to push the last bit of damage through with either it's static ability or activated one.

For non-creature spells, we've packed light as to not dilute the strategy.  There are 3 Biles and 3 Cures in this list all very relevant to today's metagame where we see loads of goblin tokens (from Goblin Rabblemaster and Hordeling Outburst) as well as Manifest / Morph creatures.

A pair of Valrous Stance is our parachute if the game goes sideways and  one copy of Return to the Ranks serves as our reserve chute to get all our dudes back in the game.

Some Notes
There are a long list of cards we really, really want in this list like Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Mardu Ascendancy, Abzan Ascendancy, Obelisk of Urd, Athreos, God of Passage, Brimaz, etc. - the list goes on.  We cannot take these on, no matter how much we want to, so that our primary stategy is not diluted and our game one is slowed down.

Sideboard
As we've mentioned, this is still a work in progress.  Some considerations we've be having for sideboard includes, but is not limited to, Utter End, Thoughseize, Merciless Executioner, Hero's Downfall, Boon of Erebos, Drown in Sorrow, Sign in Blood, Read the Bones, etc.  All these will have to be considered against what decklists are posting good results in our neighbourhood.


That's it for now, Happy Brewing everyone !  
We'll update you as to how we did at next Friday Night Magic at our local gaming store OMG! Games, here in Barrie.
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Fate Reforged Reviews

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Streamers of Georgian Bay here in Ontario is giving the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) the business end of winter but nothing quite compared to what Winter Storm Juno is expected to do as it rips up the east coast causing massive havoc from Boston to New York City.  If you are on the east coast, be prepared with some snacky-poos, long-burning candles, and all your Magic: the Gathering decks to hunker down with while you ride out the storm.

Here at MTG Realm, we are getting delivery of all our Fate Reforged pre-orders and plan to spend the remainder of the week brewing up lists with the new set for Friday Night Magic at our local card shop, OMG! Games.  Our pre-orders were of course based upon our evaluation of how each new card may be expected to impact the standard meta-game.  We're certainly not pros at picking the 'winners' in each set and it is always interesting to see what the pros thought.  It may be the case of closing the barn door after the horses have already booked it but we've got the following reviews from the folks we trust most in the game - 

• Evan Erwin with Brad Nelson doing their customary set review on The Magic Show.  This is always entertaining and we always feel better informed after.

• Luis Scott-Vargas (LSV) over on Channel Fireball who does great evaluations of the set's notable cards for play in limited as well as constructed.

Here's some very handy links to each YouTube episode that Evan and Brad have for Fate Reforged - just click on the images below.  Be sure to support this fan-supported show by dropping on over to Patreon.

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Here are the links off to LSV's articles which we suggest you would be very well served to read :

White

Blue

Black

Red

Green

Gold / Colourless & Top Ten

The Top Ten constructed cards according to LSV are:

10. Wild Slash9. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon8. Torrent Elemental7. Alesha, Who Smiles at Death6. Monastery Mentor5. Whisperwood Elemental4. Valorous Stance3. Soulfire Grand Master2. Crux of Fate1. Tasigur, the Golden Fang

Everyone's choice will be different due to their experience, play style and preferences so your top ten could look very much different.  What would your picks be (considering all constructed formats) ?
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Fate Reforged Fat Pack

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

We is excite.  This evening at gaming stores around the world, Magic: the Gathering players will be heading off to Friday Night Magic events to take part in the official launch of Fate Reforged.  We'll be off to FNM at our local card shop, OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario and although we did swing by very, very early this morning (12:01 AM) to pick up a Fat Pack and a couple of boosters, we still do not yet have all the components to assemble our next 60-card weapon to game with - our pre-orders is expected later next week.

Anywhoos, speaking about Fat Packs, as is our custom here on MTG Realm, we've got an unboxing video for you.  For the MRSP of $40, here's what you get -

FAT PACK Contents:
• 9 booster packs
• 1 card box
•  Player's Guide (card encyclopedia)
•  80-card basic land pack
• 1 learn-to-play insert
• 1 Spindown Life Counter
• 2 deck boxes

Aaannnd - here's the vid -

Aaannd here's our pulls -

PACK 1 Foil Dismal Backwater, Dromoka, the Eternal 
PACK 2 Temporal Trespass 
PACK 3 Monastery Siege
PACK 4 Mob Rule 
PACK 5 Foil Supplant Form, Rally the Ancients 
PACK 6 Foil Sultai Runemark, Monastery Mentor (!w00t!) 
PACK 7 Flamerush Rider 
PACK 8 Soulflayer 
PACK 9 Foil Soul Summons, Temporal Trespass

 

As we had some extra change in our pocket at midnight we also picked up two extra Fate Reforged booster packs and DANG! we were rather happy ->

Have a great time tonight at FNM !  The promo for the release is Sandsteppe Mastodon.

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FNM Promo Round-Up

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

Tonight at midnight, we'll be in line at our local gaming store here in Barrie, Ontario - OMG! Games as they'll be open late to mark the official release ('street date') of the latest Magic: the Gathering set - Fate Reforged.  We'll need to pick up a Fat Pack as is our custom here at MTG Realm (look for a video un-boxing later) as well as a few singles to incorporate into our existing standard constructed builds for tomorrow's Friday Night Magic event.  

One of the first decklists we want to try out in this new standard is black / white warriors, perhaps splashing red.  With tomorrow's official launch, players will also be able to pick up the launch promo card - Sandsteppe Mastodon which might not be perfect for standard format, but we have some Commander builds which would love some of this bolster tech.

Anywhoos, speaking of FNM, we have an update on the mothersite for the next few monthly promos -

February
Disdainful Stroke 
Khans of Tarkir regular and FNM Promo Art by Svetlin Velinov

March
Hordeling Outburst
Khans of Tarkir regular and FNM Promo Art Art by Zoltan Boros

April
Suspension Field 
Khans of Tarkir regular and FNM Promo Art by Seb McKinnon

Sorry - Can't find Seb's other illustration.

Here's a brief history of the FNM promo cards for last year.

2015
1/15: Frenzied Goblin
2/15: Disdainful Stroke
3/15: Hordeling Outburst
4/15: Suspension Field

2014
1/14: Warleader's Helix
2/14: Elvish Mystic
3/14: Banisher Priest
4/14: Encroaching Wastes
5/14: Tormented Hero
6/14: Dissolve
7/14: Magma Spray
8/14: Bile Blight
9/14: Banishing Light
10/14 Fanatic of Xenagos
11/14 Brain Maggot

12/14 Stoke the Flames
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Fate Reforged Vorthos

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

If you've been popping over with any regularity here to the MTG Realm blog (there's been more than six million visitors since 2008), then you know that we do have a good appreciation for the storyline ('vorthos') of each new Magic: the Gathering set.  We were very disappointed with no animated trailer from Wizards of the Coast for the new Fate Reforged set and were disheartened to hear that no eBooks / novellas were further planned - but - we are certainly satisfied so far with the offerings from the Uncharted Realms article installments so far with the Khans of Tarikir block.  

SPOILER ALERT 
If you've not read today's excellent post from Doug Beyer on the mothersite yet, please do, as we'll want to be getting in to it now.

Uncharted Realms, Unwritten, by Kelly Digges

Sarkhan Vol has arrived in Tarkir’s past, more than a thousand years before his birth. When he first arrived, he saw the plane’s long-extinct dragons for the first time, watching them emerge from a crackling storm.

Then he saw her: a human woman fighting with a glowing dragon’s claw on her staff and a sabertooth cat at her side. She killed a dragon broodling with powerful magic and drove the others away. She is everything he hoped for when he yearned for Tarkir’s dragons.

Uncharted Realms, The Reforged Chain, by Doug Beyer

Sarkhan Vol followed the whispers of the spirit dragon Ugin back into Tarkir's past, with no idea what to expect. He found a glorious world, full of hungry dragons and vigorous clans.

But all is not well in ancient Tarkir. Yasova, khan of this era's Temur clan, revealed to Sarkhan that she is following the guidance of a dragon as well. Unbeknownst to her, her patron is—or will later become—Sarkhan's most hated enemy: the unfathomably ancient dragon Planeswalker Nicol Bolas.


Now, Sarkhan races against time to find Ugin before Bolas can set Tarkir's history—and Sarkhan's own—on the path to ruin.

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To very roughly summarise the travels of Sarkhan Vol on the plane of Tarkir, we may look no further than these three images -

Tomb of the Spirit Dragon | Art by Sam Burley

Ugin’s Nexus | Art by Sam Burley

Art by Daarken

Crucible of the Spirit Dragon | Art by Jung Park

It appears that Sarkhan may have saved the mortally wounded Ugin by encasing the Sprit Dragon within the mystical hedrons.  What happens next to Sarkhan as he blinks out of this time stream is very much up for debate - Does he just cease to exist ("even had led to his own existence, had become nullified") ?  Does he return to a much-changed future?  Is balanced restored to Tarkir?  We do love the vague endings presented and very much look forward to the next installment.  Perhaps the tyranny of the warring Clans are simply replaced by the tyranny of Dragons.  Or not. Of certain however is that the next block is called 'Dragons of Tarkir' which is a pretty big hint - we just are left to anticipate / contemplate which we are quite comfortable with.

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FRF PreRelease

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Happy Sunday MTG peeps,

Wow.  What a great weekend.  The temperature which was sitting at a frigid -20 ºF steadily rose to just around freezing AND of course, the Fate Reforged PreRelease event.  Our local card shop, OMG! Games here in Barrie, kicked off at the stroke of Friday Midnight and continue with a series of events all weekend long.  At the time of this post, Magic: the Gathering players are collecting for a two-headed giant team sealed event with the new Fate Reforged goodness.

 

We attended the Saturday afternoon event and picked up a Mardu PreRelease pack (WotC done goofed and put a Sultai clan pin in the pack to antagonize us).  There was one table of three of our buddies who each had pulled a copy of Ugin, the Spirit Dragon.  Early in the day, another one of the fellas pulled that alt-art Ugin from the special fate pack.  Apparently, We were not that lucky with our pulls which we'll get to later - first, here's a short vid -

The seeded pack had Flamerush Rider, while the Fate Reforged packs had Whisperwood, Outpost Siege, Sage-Eye Avengers, and Ojutai, Soul of Winter.  The Khans pack scored us a foil Retribution of the Ancients and a Dig Through Time.  The final pool gave us a decent black / green build with warriors on the front end and green fatties on the business end but we did the oh-too-familiar 0-2 drop and went home to caress our lovely new cardboard.

All-in-All, we LOVE that the prerelease has more packs of the new set than previously.  This may have perhaps made for a more 'grindy' game but we that is something we don't mind trading in for new set cards.  
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Cardhoarder FRF Ref Sheet

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

We are off again to Friday Night Magic at OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario and will be bringing along a funky Mardu decklist that drew into first place last week (quick report over here on Tumblr).  There is a Fate Reforged PreRelease event at midnight but we're not sure if we can make it as we got up pretty dang early today, so it might be Saturday or Sunday.

Anywhoos, the great folks over at Cardhoarder had produced a very excellent reference sheet for Fate Reforged.  They might be one of the best Magic: the Gathering Online (MTGO) sellers out there, but they are also, like you, Magic: the Gathering players at heart and know how slow 'n' grindy a PreRelease match can go if a player had not bothered to do a cursory familiarization of some of the new tech.  We suggest to all players to pop on over to the Cardhoarder page here and review online what you'll be seeing on the game tables this weekend.  Here is a round-up of their article here - 

New Mechanics Featured in FRF

Bolster (green / white)
Bolster is a keyword action; accompanying the keyword will be a number which tells you how many +1/+1 counters will be created from the action. When a spell or creature with Bolster resolves, the Bolster action is completed without using the stack. The creature receives the counters when you Bolster, not when you cast the spell/creature. 

To clarify in the instance of the Bolster action on a creature: the Bolster trigger does use the stack, but once priority is passed on the action, the action is then completed without use of the stack (e.g., your opponent can kill a creature you control with the bolster ability on the stack, but cannot respond to the action of choosing the creature you control to bolster). 

To Bolster, you choose the creature you control with the least toughness; in the event of a tie, you may choose one of those creatures. Bolster does not target a creature. 


9 cards feature the bolster action (5 creatures, 2 instants and 2 sorceries):

Dash (black / red)
The aplty named dash ability is an alternate casting cost option for the creature. When a creature is dashed, it gains haste and returns to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step. Dashing a creature is still casting it - it goes on the stack like a normally casted creature, and may be targeted on the stack the same way (e.g., with a counterspell). 

In any event where the creature goes to the graveyard or is exiled from play, the return provision will not trigger. Similarly, if the creature leaves play and comes back into play (e.g., from an Astral Slide effect), the returned instance of the card will not return to hand, but rather will stay on the battlefield. 


8 creatures feature the dash ability:

Manifest (all colours)
A manifested card is put onto the battlefield face down. While manifested (i.e., face down), it functions just like a morph - it is a 2/2 colorless creature without any characteristics whatsoever (no name, no abilities, no types). A manifested card may perform all actions other creatures can perform (attack, block, ability to be targeted as a creature, etc.). 

Any time you have priority, you may turn a manifested creature card face up by revealing its mana cost and paying that mana cost. Similar to morphing a creature, the act of turning the card face up does not use the stack and cannot be responded to (any trigger upon turning it face up would use the stack as normal). A manifested creature card with the morph ability may be turned face up by paying either its morph cost or its casting cost. Non-creature cards that have been manifested may not be turned face up in this manner. 

A manifested creature that is turned face up is not a new creature. State-based effects affecting that creature remain when turned over (any counters on it remain, auras/equipment attached remain, etc.). Enter the battlefield effects do not trigger. 

In the event a card turns a manifested instant/sorcery card from face down face up, you reveal the card and it stays on the battlefield face down. 


18 cards feature the Manifest mechanic (6 creatures, 4 enchantments, 6 sorceries and 2 instants):

Click on over to the Cardhoarder page to see their handy summary of the returning mechanics.
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