Rivals of Ixalan from Ultra PRO

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

The kitten's out of the clutch.  We do love to speculate a bit as to what the next Magic: the Gathering set may hold, not really from a collector's financial point of view, but that of furthering the Magic story and inspiration to brew the night away with imaginary cards that have not yet come to be.  Mark Rosewater has been leaving little nuggets on Blogatog suggesting what players may expect - such as the almost obvious hint to expect a Merfolk Lord in the upcoming Rivals of Ixalan set.  We also have previews which suggest a partial colour cycle of elder dinosaurs, and from the Creative Team at Wizards of the Coast, the chance of some named secondary characters seeing print as legendary creatures.  

We do now have official images from gaming accessory supplier Ultra PRO of the products associated with Rivals of Ixalan.  The art is incredible and our imagination is fired up.  Here is the round-up now - 

Rivals of Ixalan Playmats for Magic - Playmats from Ultra PRO with premium fabric top to prevent damage to cards during game play. Dimensions are approximately 24" x 13-½". Rubber backing lets the playmat lay flat and prevents the mat from shifting during use.  Crazy Hydra-Dinosaur - count ‘em three heads.  Our friend Jay Annelli (Vorthos Jay) keenly pointed out a striking similarity to Ghidorah. Ixalan landscape with happy dinos and of course Captain Beckett Brass leading a Brazen Coalition charge.

Deck Protector sleeves with matte clear front finish, for a smoother, professional shuffle feel. Sized 66mm X 91mm to store and protect standard sized cards.  Looks to be legendary Merfolk creature (hinted to a 'Lord'), Angrath the angry Minotaur dad, and quite likely the fabled vampire Elenda (Saint Elenda, Elenda of Garrano).

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Rivals of Ixalan 12-13

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

From MaRo's Tumblr we now have it that the liklihood of a Merfolk Lord in Rivals of Ixalan is pretty much a done deal.  A word of caution to those Magic: that Gathering players about the so-called 'Lords' - this does not simply mean the final card will give a pump of power / toughness, but may be interpreted to be any creature to provide any benefits to creatures of the same type, or even more loosely, the player.  Rather excited about this as we have a blue / green standard Merfolk decklist we want to rock our FNM events after the release.  

We are also pretty much garuanteed, from the Planeswalker Decks revealed that we are to expect a Vraska variant as well as a debut of Angrath (the angry Minotaur dad) as a Planeswalker card, updating the legendary card in the previous Ixalan set.

Chris Rahn rocking this piece here

Anywhoos, We should do a bit of summary of Rivals of Ixalan, more for us than you the reader, to summarise all the recent Rivals of Ixalan spoilers and previews.  Wizards of the Coast posted the other day Rivals of Ixalan packaging images and promo cards to expect over the next while including some interesting Friday Night Magic tokens.  

Rivals of Ixalan Promotional Cards

Magic Open House: Full-art foil Silvergill Adept
Prerelease: a stamped card that can be any rare or mythic rare from the set.
Draft Weekend Launch promo: Brass's Bounty
Standard Showdown: foil land with art by Rebecca Guay
Magic League: foil Evolving Wilds
Store Championship: full-art foil Ghalta, Primal Hunger
Buy-a-Box: Captain's Hook

FNM promos:
1/1 {U} Merfolk token with Hexproof / {C} Treasure (River Heralds flavored)

City's Blessing marker // 0/1 Red Elemental with "At the beginning of youur upkeep, sacrifice this creature and return target card named Rekindling Phoenix from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste until end of turn"

Starting January 1st when official previews begin for Rivals of Ixalan, we hope to front 'n' center, buried deep in the lore / vorthos and awesome new cards.  For now, here is a tantalizing look at Orazca deep within the jungle interior of Ixalan.

Tokens for MTG

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Minotaur Tribal

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

For a while now (probally since we first heard that Theros would have a minor Minotaur theme) we wanted to do a piece on Minotaurs in Magic: the Gathering.  Well here it is - but first - let's get some flavor for those horned beasts currently in standard constructed.

Theros
Minotaurs are the barbaric, cave-dwelling raiders of Theros, barely sentient and certainly not sapient. Although they are among Theros's races, for all intents and purposes they are monsters, seeking only mayhem and meat, killing each other when they're not killing humanoids of other races. They have no high objective, no culture to speak of, and only the most rudimentary language. Most are found in the high mountains of Phoberos or Akros. Some have been known to frequent swamps, which has turned their hide and hair black with peat. Minotaurs will squat in any cave, cavern, or shaft they deem large enough and safe enough. Their lairs are littered with refuse, dung, and the bones of a wide variety of animals and other races, but especially with the bones from their favorite meat - human.  Only the mightiest and most ferocious of minotaurs can force the herd into compliance. Fights between minotaur alphas can be heard for miles and almost certainly end in a gory death. The victor claims dominance and fealty. 
 

Ravnica
Some minotaurs were affiliated with the Izzet League, though very little is known of them. They possessed an affectation for coating their horns with Mizzium.  The Ordruun minotaurs of Ravnica have vowed allegiance to the Boros Legion and the Wojeks. Orduun minotaurs perform the "Hammer Duty" and have a power band in the legion of 13. They are the peace keepers of the communities, by handling menial tasks, like domestic disturbances, transferring of prisoners, and upholding the Laws of Ravnica. 
 

Illustrations in order of appearence from Boros-Szikszai, Matthew Stewart, and Igor Kieryluk.
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We had a look at our collection earlier today and realise we'd need to get a few more cards from MTG Mint Card to throw together a standard casual Minotaur themed deck.  We do love our Boros Reckoners from Gatecrash but certainly want to expand and explore some of the choices available.  There are four multicolored critters in red / white, one black / red, four in black with the remaining seven all in red.  For tribal support, we can rely on the following 'Lord' cards -

Kragma Warcaller
• Minotaur creatures you control have haste.
• Whenever a Minotaur you control attacks, it gets +2/+0 until end of turn.

Rageblood Shaman
• Other Minotaur creatures you control get +1/+1 and have trample.

You can even drop a Door of Destinies or a Spear of Heliod for Minotaur pumps should you wish.  Beyond this, all we have to say is that standard legal would be way to limiting - essentially you would want just Boros Reckoner, Rageblood Shaman, perhaps Fanatic of Mogis (for red devotion burn) and maybe even Minotaur Aggressor at the top end of it.
To go full on kitchen table casual, you can open up your choices to Anaba Ancestor, Hurloon Wrangler (for the lulz!), Ruinous Minotaur, Anaba Spirit Crafter, Lord of Shatterskull Pass, Tahngarth, Talruum Hero, etc.  We think we'll need a full evening with all hands on deck and a lot of beverages to roll out a stack of sixty with this.  If we do get anywhere, we'll post again.
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What Happend to - ?

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What ever happened to . . . the Hurloon Minotaur ?

Perhaps I should start at the . . erm, . start.

Anywhoos - A very long time ago (around 1999), Wizards of the Coast had a chain of retail gaming stores. In a strange and far away place (Seattle), they had their flagship store on 'the Ave' and enjoyed brisk business. In the dark dungeon of this store, was a place of wonder and magic called 'Ye Olde Gaming Hall'. In fact, you may even recall last April on the Wizards site, a picture showing the stairs down to this place.


Wizards closed all of its stores by the spring of 2004 in "concentrate on game design". Some think that this was directly attributed to the new owners of Wizards of the Coast - the dark and evil corporate entity called Hasbro who were greedy for more gold that the retail stores could provide - not too unlike the Dwarves of Moria, who dug ever deeper for mithril. Whatever - Perhaps a wise move - but why close all of them - players need a Mecca - a physical place where they may visit and revel unabashedly in their geekery.











- Anyway - I digress . . .

This brings us to the our subject - the iconic Hurloon Minotaur above the stairs. What happend to the Hurloon Minotaur ?

Legend has it that when the store closed, contractors responsible to decommision this holiest of MTG retail outlets had pried the minotaur off the wall in chunks and dumped them onto the curb outside, where they awaited an uncertain fate.

All is now revealed and the truth lays hidden in the back garden of Steve's Weird House. Steve is the owner / occupant of Seattle's Strangest Home & Private Museum. How the fabled Hurloon Minotaur (or the other million curiosities for that matter) came into the possession of Steve is shrouded in mystery and intrigue. Check the VR images for the Hurloon Minotaur from the old WOTC store in Seattle.

w0w . . . Just awesomeness !
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MTG Minotaurs !

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In Greek mythology, the Minotaur was a creature that was part man and part bull . . . no bull!

It dwelt at the center of the Labyrinth, which was an elaborate maze-like construction built for King Minos of Crete and designed by the architect Daedalus and his son Icarus who were ordered to build it to hold the Minotaur on account that it was so fugly.

Theseus pwn'd the Minotaur with the sword of Aegeus and led the other Athenians (intended for sacrifice to the beastly beast) back out of the labyrinth.


There about some 25 Magic the Gathering Cards which feature the much maligned Minotaur. The closest this critter every came to tribal was in Homelands. Anaba Spirit Crafter which boosted other Minotaurs +1/+0 and Anaba Ancestor which one could tap to pump up another Minotaur by +1/+1 until end of turn.


I don't really see a deck archetype coming from this much underated beast anytime soon . . . :-(