Gatecrash Spoiler 4

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We hope all of you had a had a great weekend.  As for ourselves, we took a life-gain build to a Modern format tournament at OMG! Games this weekend and got absolutely crushed.  Some pics from the tournament here, here and here.  Although our life total was often up over 50 and cards such as Serra Ascendant or Divinity of Pride were on line or Ajani's Pridemate was a massive 14/14, we just could not quite get to the finish line.  We definitely need to drop in to MTG Mint Card to pick up some cards for some sideboard changes against all the infect decks that seem rather popular.

Anywhoos - onto today's big Magic: the Gathering news!  Official Gatecrash previews have now started over on the mothersite and dang!, things are looking rather exciting.  Whether your favourite Gatecrash Guild is Orzhov, Gruul, Boros, Simic or Dimir, there is some cool new cards for your consideration.  The Gatecrash minisite containing the 4.1.1. on the set is now also live and frankly, we're like a kid on Christmas and don't know how we're going to last a full month before the prerelease and prerelease promos.

Some cards of note from today - for the rest, look to our Gatecrash Spoiler List . . .

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Deathpact Angel, 3wbb
Creature - Angel, Mythic Rare
Flying
When Deathpact Angel dies, put a 1/1 white and black Cleric creature token onto the battlefield. It has "3{W}{B}{B}, {T}, Sacrifice this creature: Return a card named Deathpact Angel from your graveyard to the battlefield."
5/5
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Illusionist's Bracers, 2
Artifact - Equipment, Rare
Whenever an ability of equipped creature is activated, if it isn't a mana ability, copy that ability. You may choose new targets for the copy.
Equip 3

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To wrap up, here's the Return to Ravnica Gatecrash Trailer from Wizards . . .

 
Tensions build on the city-world of Ravnica, where each guild plies its own agenda to outsmart and outmaneuver the others. Uncover the remaining five guilds with the Gatecrash set so that your guild can be the first to unravel Ravnica's deep-rooted secrets.

Fight for Your Guild at a Prerelease Event near you on January 26-27, 2013!
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Innistrad MiniSite

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

In this, our second post today, we wanted to let you know that the Innistrad Mini-Site is now live on the mothership. This is the go-to place to get all the latest (official WoTC) scoop on the newest Magic the Gathering gothic-horror themesd set, Innistrad. As with previous mini-sites, there will be regular updates to the various sections which should wrap up just in time for the prerelease events.


Let's have a look to see what we can expect over the next few weeks . . .

The World of Innistrad :

Flavour-based articles (linky here) will colour the plane of Innistrad with Wednesday updates on August 31st, September 7th, September 14th, and September 31st, 2011.


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Innistrad Wallpapers :

A selection of three epic (link here) wallpapers to pimp your desktop or electronic device with pixelicious images from Innistrad. Expect new wallpapers to be released each Wednesday on August 31st, September 7th, and September 14th, 2011.


~ Product Information :

Get the 4.1.1. on this latest set with all the vital details posted here. Links to Innistrad mechanics, double-faced card rules, and tournament events are posted here.


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Innistrad Visual Spoiler :

The popular card image gallery for Innistrad is posted here with continual updates to the gallery with each preview card from the Daily MTG articles.

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And now a word about jumping on this upcoming set - we're suggesting getting in your pre-orders ahead of the official release on September 30th next month. Check out the excellent prices at MTG Mint Card here.

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Diminishing Returns

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Yesterday was certainly a day of days up in our neck of the woods - not only did we ride through a 5.0 earthquake (nearly spilt our herbal tea), but a tornado tore through just north of us and threatened to knock power out. No power means no Internet which means we would have had to watch the telly by candlelight.

Anywhoos - just doing some catch up - the name and number crunch folks have nearly 70% of the cards slotted about 50% of the cards with a solid confirmation. Over at the official Wizards M11 visual spoiler, there are almost 90 cards up so things are progressing rather nicely. MTG Mint Card happens to have a nice visual spoiler here as well.

One new card we did want to yatter about is Diminish . .

Diminish,
Instant, Common
Target creature becomes 1/1 until end of turn.

We like this - this is essentially a slick blue removal which is most welcome in the current game. The trick here is that, just like boxing, if you don't follow up with your left jab with a haymaker, you could be well and seriously pooched.

The very fist card we thought about was Snakeform, which by the way we loved.

Snakeform, 2(/)
Instant, common
Target creature loses all abilities and becomes a 1/1 green Snake until end of turn.
Draw a card

The big difference here is that although Snakeform did cost an additional two mana, you did get to draw a card and most importantly, that nasty critter you were targeting had lost all static / activated abilities.

We do not really care about the card draw due to all the Scry we may be looking at with M11 but the loss of the ability to knock that creature down to a base 1/1 could nip ya in the buttocks. Having said that, blue mages will welcome this card along with other removal and removal-like spells like unsummon. We can see this also being used to couple with Prized Unicorn and Irresistible Prey for some great gaming.

'Nuff said . . .
Time for a awesome image party from the banners that went up yesterday at the mini-site - Please speculate away in the comments below . .

Critter on the left is Garruk's Companion, the one on the right is most likely Cloud Crusader (a 2/3 flying first strike).

Both of these images have not yet had a solid name confirmation yet but obviously a human (or elf?) knight and a merfolk with Yu-Gi-OH hair.

The one on the right is of course Ancient Hellkite but the one on the right has not had a name confirmed yet.

We have no clue what that construct on the left is. The Nightwing Shade on the right is Nightwing Shade (we love redundancy in our sentences) d

Stay tuned for more inane ramblings latter.

M11 MiniSite

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The rest of the day could get FedEx'd to hell in a handbasket but we would still be happy - Why? - Because Wizards just put up their Magic 2011 Mini-Site up today and all is right and awesome (♫!) in our world.



If you are just getting into this most excellent of games, Magic the Gathering, each set typically nets its own mini-site where WoTC minions labour tirelessly to update you with the latest 'n' greatest product info (including pre-relase / launch parties) visual spoilers, and other goodies such as wallpapers to pimp your desktop.

Anywhoos - lets have a looky ►


Product information

Prerelease Date, Release Date, Launch Party, Magic Online Release, Game Day, Design 'n Development Team, and of course what product formats are available (Magic 2011 Booster Packs, Intro Pack, Fat Pack, etc.

Wallpapers

Looks like we do not have to jump through a puzzle game in order to score a desktop wallpaper this release. First Wallpaper (Mystifying Maze) in now available for download. Expect the remaining two to be released June 30th and July 7th.

Visual Spoiler

Yep - you got it - the page loaded most often and checked most frequently by the Magic gaming community. This is updated almost daily. The visual spoiler page is organised by the colours of Magic of course - White , Blue , Black , Red , Green , Artifacts and Lands . If you want to get the very latest, you can always check out our spoiler list HERE.

And finally -

Magic Rules

This is where one may find links to the Basic Rulebook, Comprehensive rules, the Gatherer card database, Magic Set FAQ's, constructed formats and banned / restricted lists, Planeswalker Rules, and a bunch of other rule thingys available in the language of your choice (except Friesian - they don't play Magic).

Make sure you drop by again soon as we will be updating to capture the latest M11 spoiler goodness.

Rise Eldrazi Spoiler 3-24

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A very Happy Wednesday to all,

The Easter Bunny came early and dropped a mass of Hedron-shaped Easter Eggs on the Wizards site today. What we are chattering about is the posting of the new Rise of the Eldrazi Product Section!

The mini-site is chocked full of the 4.1.1 you have been anxious to see. There will be articles about the storyline, puzzles / wallpapers, continually updated Visual Spoilers and the product information page. Our fav page is also up and live to accept your inquires - yep the Orb of Insight.

Today MTG Realm will be updating our Rise of the Eldrazi Spoiler List as well as doing a round-up of the new mechanics in this set - but first let's have a look at the new cards slide our way today . . .

Look for full text on our Spoiler List and discussions in a latter article - Click to ENLARGE any image.

Rise of the Eldrazi Mechanics

Level up
Creatures with the new level up keyword can become larger or acquire new abilities for a small investment of mana. The number of level counters on a creature tells you its current level, and its current level tells you its power, toughness, and extra abilities.

Rebound
Instead of going to your graveyard, a rebound spell cast from your hand is exiled. You can then cast it again without paying its mana cost at the beginning of your next upkeep. (If the spell is countered, or you're playing it from somewhere other than your hand, it'll go to your graveyard like any other spell.) When one spell may not get the job done, get double your mana's worth with rebound!

Totem armor
Once a creature is enchanted by an Aura with totem armor, it gets a free pass the next time it would be destroyed. If a creature is enchanted with multiple Auras with totem armor, only one of those Auras is destroyed, and you get to pick which one. Your party needn't fear with the spirits of Zendikar protecting it.

Annihilator
Annihilator X : Whenever this creature attacks, defending player sacrifices X permanents.

Make sure you check back soon as we start to accumulate results from the Rise of the Eldrazi Orb of Insight from the efforts of a thousand MTG Fans entering queries from a thousand computers.

FYI - clear your calendar for the Rise of the Eldrazi Prerelease which is set for April 17-18.

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And lastly, we took a peak at the new Phyrexia vs. the Coalition duel deck product which came out last weekend and colour us impressed . . .

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Alara Reborn MiniSite

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The Alara Reborn MiniSite is now up over at Wizards of the Coast. Sections within the Minisite will be updated over the next two weeks until the set pre-release date on April 25th / 26th.


Hope you are hungry because here is what is on the Menu . . .

Awesome block / expansion set flavour in the Explore Alara Reborn Section
Including the popular Alara Reborn Orb of Insight.
Flavour found in the first installment "Alara in Chaos"
Expect updates April 15th and 22nd.



Puzzle - wallpaper
Solve the puzzle and you win a . . . desktop wallpaper.
Today's solved puzzle prize is the very interesting Knotvine Palladin by artist Matt Stewart

Visual Spoilers ( ! )
Yep - that is probably why you are here on my blog in the first place.

Product Information
Here is the place to strategize your future product purchases as well as getting a handle on any FAQ's, new mechanics, etc.

Conflux MiniSite

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Yeah ! ! Conflux Mini-site is finally up at Wizards. Which means my spoiler job is just about to come to an end and I start posting biased uniformed opinions and witless banter about this set's new cards and its possible / potential interaction.


Make sure you check out the Mini-Site from occasionally to get updates to the Flavour section, and any new Puzzles (which you can download to use as nifty/kewl desktop wallpaper). The set's production information page is expected to be static but still worth checking out to drool over what you are going to get in your Fat-Pack.




And of course, the reason for the season . . . Conflux Visual Spoilers ! I would suggest that you make time to check this out on a daily basis to get the latest card goodness. Below we have random cards I grabbed from the visual spoilers section. Dragonsoul Knight, Martial Coup and a host of others are waiting for your sage review now over at WoTC.











WoTC also has details posted for Pre-Release Torunaments. My local gaming store will be running an event on both Saturday 31st January AND Sunday 1st February. Here in Ontario, we have a regional event held in Toronto (about 1 to 1.5 hours away) which is expected to be well attended. The event is being hosted by Marvin over at SkyFox games and will be held at Best Western Primrose Hotel on Saturday 31st.

>> I just remembered about last year being at the Primrose Hotel for a Chess Tournament. A bunch of us were hanging around in the lobby after when the Hotel Manager came out of his office and asked us to leave. We told him that we were part of the Chess Tournament but he said that he hated "Chess-Nuts boasting in an open foyer".

(sorry) . . . see ya latter.