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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Kaladesh PreRelease Tips

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

Tonight at midnight many gaming stores will stay open very late (or very early) for Magic: the Gathering players participating in this weekend's Kaladesh prerelease.  If you, like use are not fond of imitating a gaming zombie and stumbling home at four or five in the morning, then you'll likely be going when the sun is up.  Our local store, OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario will be running a total of five events over the course of the weekend.

If you are new to the game and having second thoughts, we suggest you read this thread on Reddit.  In it, reddit user ITOverlord prepared a handy Kaladesh PreRelease guide and as importantly, the comments are filled with variety of good questions and great supportive answers from the pretty awesome MTG community on Reddit.  For a Kaladesh primer with a bit more than the basic foundations, pop on over to Channel Fireball and read Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa's article linked here.

For those who already know the game, WotC staffer Diego Fumagalli has a 'How to Kaladesh - In Graphics' post to the mothersite.  Here, Diego has a number of clever strategic plays which may not be all that obvious to some.  

We do not, by any stretch of one's imagination think ourselves good Magic: the Gathering players, especially in a limited environment such as Kaladesh sealed PreRelease.  We do however know enough to always include any copies of Filigree Familiar in a pool we get.  Anywhoos, we will instead direct our recommendations to Luis Scott-Vargas, whom we trust implicitly to float out the very best choices for limited.  You can see his top picks for Kaladesh limited over here on Channel Fireball - 

    White:
1    Revoke Privileges
2    Propeller Pioneer
3    Glint-Sleeve Artisan
4    Impeccable Timing
5    Skyswirl Harrier   

    Blue:
1    Aether Theorist
2    Malfunction
3    Gearseeker Serpent
4    Nimble Innovator
5    Wind Drake
   

    Black:
1    Tidy Conclusion
2    Die Young
3    Subtle Strike
4    Thriving Rats
5    Maulfist Squad
   

    Red:
1    Welding Sparks
2    Chandra's Pyrohelix
3    Thriving Grubs
4    Spontaneous Artist
5    Salivating Gremlins
   

    Green:
1    Peema Outrider
2    Riparian Tiger
3    Thriving Rhino
4    Hunt the Weak
5    Kujar Seedsculptor
   

    Artifact:
1    Sky Skiff
2    Renegade Freighter
3    Narnam Cobra
4    Dukhara Peacock
5    Inventor's Goggles

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DTK PreRelease

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We hope that all of you were able to make it out to a Dragons of Tarkir PreRelease event over the weekend.  If not (sorry to hear), perhaps you will get a chance to get your paws on these new Magic: the Gathering cards during the official release which takes place this Friday (27th March) during your local gaming store's regular Friday Night Magic Event.  This date also marks when you may officially use these cards in a sactioned event.

Anywhoos, as today's post title suggests, we want to yatter a bit about this weekend's Dragons of Tarkir PreRelease event.  OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario ran a series of events starting at Friday midnight all the way to Sunday with an average about 35 to 40 participants.  We took in the Sunday morning event and went with the Dromoka (Green / White) PreRelease Pack which landed us in 8th spot.  Let's get to a short video first, before we get into it -

Dromoka (Green / White) Seeded PreRelease Pack
Sunscorch Regent, Echoes of the Kin Tree, Inspiring Call, Scale BlessingDromoka's Gift,  Lightwalker, Sandcrafter Mage, Ainok Arillerist, Enduring Victory, Aven Tactician, Harald of Dromoka, Servant of the Scale, Glaring Aegis, Champion of Arashin, Aerial Bowmasters, Shape the Sands.

Rares pulled from the packs :
• Sunscorch Regent (promo) 
• Harbinger of the Hunt  
• Radiant Purge  
• Deathbringer Regent  
• Blessed Reincarnation  
• Warden of the First Tree

Final Build :
1x Warden of the First Tree
1x Servant of the Scale
1x Echoes of the Kin Tree
1x Radiant Purge
1x Lightwalker
1x Pressure Point
2x Pacifism
1x Epic Confrontation
1x Ainok Guide
1x Sandcaster Mage
1x Sandsteppe Outcast
1x Map of the Wastes
1x Inspiring Call
1x Champion of Arashin
1x Battlefront Krushok
1x Dromoka's Gift
1x Pinion Feast
2x Aven Tactician
1x Enduring Victory
1x Sunscorch Regent

Round 1 - DRAW

Mike - Dromoka

Round 2 - DRAW

Alex - Silumgar

Round 3 - WIN (in 2)

Mathieu - Ajoutai

Round 4 - LOSS (in 3)

James - Dromoka

We originally thought that the format would be really slow 'n' grindy with the win going to the first player who happened to land a Dragon.  Not really the case.  With a healthy number of removal options, game play was fun / exciting / engaging and it seemed that each of the Dragon Clans were fairly balanced against each other with no very clear overpowered suit.
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GTC Midnight PreRelease

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Happy Saturday MTG peeps,

Late last night, or rather very early this morning we headed out to the Gatecrash midnight prerelease event being held at our local card shop, OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario.  When we arrived, just shortly after the regular Friday Night Magic event was wrapping up, the store had a good-sized crowd eager to start playing with the newest Magic: the Gathering set.

We went with Orzhov and will be heading back to take in another prerelease event on Sunday - we were just too dang tired to go to any of the ones today - plus we wanted to post this video for you -  

 
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For this PreRelease, just like with the last set, players get to choose a Guild Pack.  In the Guild Pack, you get a 'booster' specific to your chosen Gatecrash guild and five booster packs which you then build your 40-card deck.  Here's what we pulled : 

Orzhov Guild Pack : Treasury Thrull (R), Orzhov Guildgae, Alms Beast (R), Call of Orzhova, Thrull Parasite, Debtor's Pulpit, Assault Griffin, Prophetic Prism, Shadow Alley Denizen, Dutiful Thrull, Purge the Profane, Court Street Denizen, Devour Flesh, Beckon Apparition, Syndicate Enforcer, Zarichi Tiger.

Rares in Packs : Five Alarm Fire, Aurelia the Warleader, Consuming Aberration,  Merciless Eviction, Ooze Flux.

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The field was a fairly even split between the guilds with a slight favour to Orzhov and Simic.  We only stayed for two matches before dropping (from being just exhausted - we get up fairly early every day).  The matches we did have were against Orzhov with the 'Extort' mechanic and Simic with the 'Evolve' mechanic.  Fun times, great games.  Tomorrow we will certainly be staying for the full event and hope to have some thoughts as to how each of the five guilds performed in a sealed event.

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DKA PreRelease

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We hope you were able to get out to a Dark Ascension PreRelease event this past weekend. If not, your second chance is coming with the official release this weekend (February 3rd / 4th) to get your paws and claws into this new Magic the Gathering set. We skipped the midnight prerelease at our local games store, OMG! Games here in Barrie to be all fresh faced ans bushy-tailed for their Saturday morning event. About 35 to 38 players attended the midnight one with several of them coming back the next morning for 10:00 AM to play again with little or no sleep. The Saturday morning event was well attended too but we suspect the latter events in the day were likely packed.

Anywhoos - enough yattering for the moment, here's a vid from the Dark Ascension PreRelease . . .

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First up, let's take a look at our rare pulls from the 3 packs Innistrad & 3 packs of Dark Ascension we had to work with to build our 40 card deck . . .

We love both these sets as there is an extra slot in your 15-card booster pack for a double-faced card. Have 9 rares from six booster packs is never a bad thing. The rares were : Huntmaster of the Fells, Snapcaster Mage, Instigator Gang, Nephalia Drownyard, Flayer of the Hatebound, Creeping Reneassainse (foil), Vault of the Archangel, Elder of Laurels, and Ghoultree.

There appeared to be some decent support for a werewolf build in the commons and uncommons so we tried out a red / green build that event included our Creeping Reneassainse. We were also able to pull that uncommon wolf 'lord', Immerwolf which cemented the build nicely. For our fourth and final game, we scrapped out the entire deck to create a blue white build. Hey we love making decks and even tried a few more after we got home with the card pool. At the end of the day, it was 2 wins, 2 loses, and a lot of fun.

WHAT did you pull ?
WHAT cards really stood out in your limited games ?
WHICH cards will make the grade for standard constructed ?

Use the comment thingy below - we want to hear from you.
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It is not too late to get in your pre-orders yet. Whether you are thinking about building a vampire, werewolf, zombie, spirit, agrro or control, you'll likely need to get some new cards - Give MTG Mint Card a look.

Stay tuned to MTG Realm,
We still have a lot of catching up to do for Dark Ascension - so many posts, so little time kinda thing.
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Booster Battle Packs

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Happy Thursday MTG Peeps,

It's time we here at MTG Realm took a step back and provided some coverage of a Magic the Gathering Product which came out almost two months ago - Booster Battle Packs. According to Wizards of the Coast, these Booster Battle Packs are designed as an introduction to the limited format, and are quick and fun for Magic players of any level. We agree that this is a great introduction to limited play - having to learn on the fly cracking packs can get a bit expensive and using one of the on-line tools just does not capture the entire process (and fun) of limited play.

















We dropped by our local store OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario and yattered with co-owner Richard Bates. Richard indicated that since hitting the shelves at the store on September 9, 2011, this product has been selling well. He indicates that this is popular with newer players wanting to get experience as well as seasoned players just wanting a quick and fun game.

Anywhoos - let's see what's inside . . .

Each pack contains a pair of 'semi-random' decks, each with land appropriate for the deck's two colors. To play Booster Battle Packs, each player selects a deck, opens a booster chooses up to five cards from it, and shuffles them into their deck, then the spell-slinging begins. Since each pack will have four different colors, the two decks won't overlap. And when you add the booster to the equation, Booster Battle Packs create nearly limitless limited play options.


Each Booster Battle Pack contains two cardboard deck boxes with the following goodies inside :

Two 20-card semi-randomized decks
Two 15-card Magic 2012 Core Set booster packs
Magic "learn to play" guide
Rules insert

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Forum member 'mabhatter' was able to compile the following information from a variety of sources (you know - a hundred MTG players texting and tweeting sort of thing) . . .

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All in all, the product may at first glance perhaps appear lacklustre but we think that does it have it's market niche for the MTG community, for which the sales have proved. For an MRSP of only $10.00, its provides good enough value and quite a bit of game fun.
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