Gruul Mechanic - Riot

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

With Borbrorbygmobos nowhere to be seen, it is becoming apparent that Domri may now be large and in charge of the loosely affiliated Gruul Clans.  Enough of that for the moment, we are here to talk about the next Magic: the Gathering set,  Ravnica Allegiance, and the new Gruul Clans Mechanic.  Here are all of them to date :

Guildpact : Bloodthirst

Gatecrash : Bloodrush

Ravnica Allegiance : Riot

Our OCD is suggesting that perhaps we should be calling this Bloodriot, but as Wizards of the Coast may want to develop a new nomenclature, who are we to argue.  Riot is a keyword ability, which allows you to choose between +1/+1 counter or haste when a creature enters the battlefield.  The two new Ravnica Allegiance cards previewed as part of the unveiling of this new tech are -

• Gruul Spellbreaker, 1GR, Creature - Ogre Warrior, illustrated by Zoltan Boros

• Frenzied Arynx, 2RG, Creature - Cat Beast, Illustrated by Filip Burburan

Looks like someone has snuck an Arynx off Tarkir through Ravnica customs, and now the killer kitteh is full grown.  As for Grull Spellbreaker - WOW.  The Riot tech is already pretty damn good with the hasty critters, and then you add trample in the mix, you've got a winner.  The conditional hexproof puts this over the top and into our hearts - we want a deck-set.  Here are all the Ravnica Allegiance mechanics so far, and to say we're excited to see what Wizards has for Azorius, would be an understatement.

• Cult of Rakdos - Spectacle

• Orzhov Syndicate - Afterlife

• Simic Combine - Adapt

• Gruul Clans - Riot

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Simic Mechanic - Adapt

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

We now have our third Magic: the Gathering mechanic for the new set, Ravnica Allegiance.  Here they are so far with the very handy Wizards of the Coast video links :

• Cult of Rakdos - Spectacle

• Orzhov Syndicate - Afterlife

• Simic Combine - Adapt

Adapt is a keyword action introduced in Ravnica Allegiance for the Simic Combine.  Adapt is 'adapted' version of Monstrous (Monstrosity), from Theros. It always appears as Adapt N. If a creature has no +1/+1 counters on it, you may pay the adapt cost to put N +1/+1 counters on that creature. In contrast to Monstrous, if a creature somehow loses its +1/+1 counters, it can adapt again and pick up more.

• Zegana, Utopian Speaker, 2GU. Legendary Creature - Merfolk Wizard, illustrated by Slawomir Maniak

• Aeromunculus, 1GU. Crreature - Homunculus Mutant, illustrated by Simon Dominic
"The absense of binocular vision imposes certain challenges for a flying creature, which are overcome via echolocation." - Simic research notes

Personally, we did very much enjoy the previous Simic mechanic 'Evolve' which was introducted in Gatecrash.  In this particular mechanic, a creature 'evolved' by gaining an additional +1/+1 counter whenever a larger creature (with greater power or toughness) entered the battlefield under your control.  Not only did this provide some Simic-accurate flavour to the card, we thought it played quite well in standard as you cast your creatures 'on-curve' thus beefing out your previously cast critters.  Adapt looks interesting but we are not completely sold until we start gaming with this.

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Oath of the Gatewatch Spoiler

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

Last evening, we had spent several hours reviewing forum posts, tweets, and researching several possible Magic: the Gathering spoilers for the upcoming set Oath of the Gatewatch.  

Awesome graphic from TheProxyGuy.

In the last few years, proper spoilers have become almost as rare as a Unicorn as Wizards of the Coast and what 'spoilers' there were have become strategically orchestrated previews.  Gone are the days when and entire 'God Book' is leaked or sealed product inadvertently shipped before it's due time.  What 'spoilers' there may be are almost always fakes created for some nefarious purpose.

MTG Realm has always prefaced any UNCONFIRMED and UNOFFICIAL spoilers with statements of caution to the reader as we will do once again.  Let's see these new, game-changing and exciting new spoilers now -
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Last evening MTG Focus Podcast (@Mtgfocus) posted two images of what appears to be new Oath of the Gatewatch card obtained from an anonymous source and subequently removed.  Shortly afterward, the post to Twitter, another card image was posted to the MTG Salvation forum by Greenseeker (Maringá, Brazil).  Here they are -

Kozilek, the Great Distortion, 8◊◊
Legendary Creature - Eldrazi, Mythic Rare
When you cast Kozilek, the Great Distortion, if you have fewer than seven cards in hand, draw cards equal to the difference. 
Menace 
Discard a card with converted mana cost X: Counter target spell with converted mana cost X.
A void as cryptic as reality itself.
004/184 M, Illus. Aleksi Briclot 12/12

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Wastes
Basic Land
Illus. Raymond Swanland

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Mirrorpool
Land, Mythic Rare
Mirrorpool enters the battlefield tapped. 
T: Add ◊ to your mana pool. 
2◊, T, Sacrifice Mirrorpool: Copy target instant or sorcery spell you control. You may choose new tarets for the copy. 
4◊, T, Sacrifice Mirrorpool: Put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of target creature you control.
174/184 Illus. Cliff Childs
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Wait?  
Wut?  
Could this be the fabled 'Barry's Land' playtested by R&D for Invasion?  
Could this be sixth basic land ('Purple') which was playtested by Wizards R&D for Planar Chaos? Who knows?  

We do know that for ruling reasons, these lands were never printed, despite its popularity with R&D. Development wanted more time to understand the power of this and perhaps Oath of the Gatewatch is this time.

All of the card illustrations appear new and not too unlike the styles of the artists named within the cards.  Card art from Battle for Zendikar provided some illustrations of blighted landscapes caused by the Eldrazi sapping the mana from this plane.  This shows up as an intricate meshwork of white filaments.  With the card art for the 'Wastes' land and to a lesser extent, Mirrorpool, gone are any intact formed Hedrons.  In its place are fractured forms closely resembling that of the spiral, stair-stepped structure of bismuth crystals.  Supporting the authenticity of this are some elements found with the card art of Skitterskin and Kozilek's Sentinel from Battle for Zendikar.


Colourless mana and to a lesser extent hybrid mana (first introduced in the Ravnica: City of Guids set did add a level of enjoyable complexity to the game.  The theme of devoid as it relates to the storyline in Zendikar would welcome something such as this new land type but we do have our reservations that this 'Ghostfire' 'diamond mana' on the impact of all the game formats. If these Unofficial cards are real, we are riding the hype train all the way to January 22 next year when Oath of the Gatewatch is officially release.

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Orzhov Extort

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

Up here in Barrie, Ontario, we got a lot of snow last night - just up to your knee - which means a lot of snow clearing for us.  If we were evil, we would likely extort someone to clear all that white cr@p for us.  Oh - speaking of extort - the new Gatecrash Orzhov (black / white) mechanic is now out in the open with today's 'gift' preview on the mothersite.

If you cannot immediately find today's special Gatecrash spoiler on the page, click on the present appearing on today's article banner to open.  Today's new game card is appropriately a Thrull creature and features the new Orzhov guild mechanic.  Let's have a looky-loo . . .
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Treasury Thrull, 4wb
Creature - Thrull, Rare
Extort (Whenever you cast a spell you may pay {WB}, if you do each opponent loses 1 life and you gain that much life.)
Whenever Treasury Thrull attacks, you may return target artifact, creature, or enchantment card from your graveyard to your hand.
4/4
Illus. Mark Zug
#201/249
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On Ravnica, Thrulls are a signature race of the Orzhov Syndicate, who use them as unthinking servants. Like Dominarian thrulls, the Orzhov thrulls are created from magically animated dead flesh - sometimes even the dead flesh of prominent guild members who left their bodies behind to become spirits.
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This particular Thrull  has the ability to return any artifact, creature or enchantment from your yard into your hand every time it attacks, which is a really decent recursion ability.  Now - for the Orzhove mechanic - with Extort whenever you cast a spell you may pay {W/B}, if you do each opponent loses 1 life and you gain that much life, which is a very flavourful mechanic for Orzhov.  Essentially, you can pay only once for each trigger, and each instance of Extort triggers separately when you cast a spell.  All we can say for the moment is that we are getting our Godless Shrines and Isolated Chapels from MTG Mint Card now as we feel that Orzhov may be delivering big on fun gaming.

Edit - We want to include this comment from our friend 'Marvel Sutantio' in Jakarta (Indonesia) on the new mechanic - 

The new spoiled card for Orzhov is Treasury Thrall. A life drain kicker is pretty nice, especially in the late game. Play a couple of cheap spells and we can siphon the life out the opponent FTW. What interest me is the Extort ability (at least on this card) doesn't specify what kind of spell we have to play. It could have a lot of have other variations, where we pay 2,3 or even X. Or have to play black or white spells, etc.

Either way, I think BWU, BWG & BWR can be quite fearsome. 

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