Modern UnBan News

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Last weekend was rather busy with work, but we were still able to take an occasional break to catch up on coverage of Grand Prix Toronto, February 9-11, 2018.  A number of players from our local gaming store OMG Games here in Barrie took the 50 minute drive down to attend, but this was quite an international event.  Visitors to Canada were greeted by typical February weather in Toronto - cold and a lot of snow-covered lands.

If you have not yet, click on over to the coverage summary here at Wizards.  Results indicate that Modern format is in a really good place right now with ten players finishing Day 1 undefeated, with 10 different decks.  Compared to a few short years ago where Day 2 decks essentially were restricted to just a handful, it has improved rather well.  Check out the Top 8 Decklists linked right here.  Of note, we are rather happy to see GP Toronto winner Dan Ward and his Bogles - we are being biased of course as we run a Bogles decklist.

Since the mini-preview of Big-Daddy Jace (Jace the Mind Sculptor) with the packaging preview of the upcoming Masters 25 release (March 16th), many were anticipating the un-banning of Jace in Modern in today's announcement (linked here).  A number of Magic: the Gathering community members had been also calling for Bloodbraid Elf to be unbanned as well.  For a very good (and prophetic) article written ahead of today's announcement, read SafronOlive's article linked right here.


In short, we think these are rather acceptable given the state of Modern and although we do not have plans on playing these in the near future, we do personally know a few players who are likely very happy to see these cards back.

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Path to Exile

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

We'd be happy too were it not for another blast of winter and a solid accumulation of snow (that's frozen water if you've not seen that stuff before).  We still are of good cheer as we will be off to Friday Night Magic later this evening at our local games shop, OMG! Games here in Barrie to get some standard format Magic: the Gathering in.  Although the store is in a plaza nearby Georgian College, one would think that the lion's share of attendees would be coming from the College, but in fact, there has been an increasing number coming in from nearby Canadian Forces Base Borden in Angus, not quite a half-hour away.  

Anywhoos, enough of us whinning about the ever-lasting winter and delayed spring, let's get into some MTG news.  In yesterday's Arcana post by Blake Rasmussen, he provided updates as to upcoming Friday Night Magic promos and DANG! we gotta say we are pretty impressed with July's upcoming FNM promo - 'Path to Exile'.  Typically for the last year or so, most of the FNM promos (perhaps all?) have all been cards currently in standard which we feel is a good thingy, but colour us impressed with this older card, although not legal for standard, it is a "near-universal staple in Modern" and very popular in many other formats.  When we were playing at the time when Conflux was released in February 2009, we were sure to pick up all the Paths we could.  This was for almost the next two years before it rotated out of standard, the 'go to' spot removal.  We recall some players splashed white just for this.

What made this card rather handy is that one could Path to Exile on your own creature to serve as a passable mana-fixer were you in a crunch.  PtE also ignited a good deal of debate as to which was better - Path to Exile OR Swords to Plowshares.  With Path, the downside was giving your opponent an extra land where Swords provided the controller of the exiled creature life gain equal to the exiled creature's power.  We never really did take any sides of this argument as the game state situation dictated which card proved better.  So popular is Path to Exile, WotC printed this in Modern Event Deck, Modern Masters, Duel Decks, Commander, Archenemy, and originally in Conflux (Shards of Alara block).

Anywhoos, we do not want to divagate from today's news on the July's FNM promo - check out the incredibly sweet card art by Raf Sarment !

Path to Exile, W
Instant, Uncommon
Exile target creature. Its controller may search his or her library for a basic land card, put that card onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle his or her library.

For reference, here are all the arts to Path to Exile we've had -
July 2015 FNM Promo, illustrated by Raf Sarment
Gateway / WPN Foil Promo 2008, illustrated by Rebecca Guay
Duel Decks: Venser vs. Koth, illustrated by Erica Yang
Conflux Uncommon, illustrated by Todd Lockwood


Good Luck at FNM tonight gamers !

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Modern Masters 2015

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Happy Sunday MTG peeps,

Today, the semi-finals are starting at the 2014 World Championships and most Magic: the Gathering players are glued to their monitors to see who is victorious in this great tournament. 

A rather exciting and important announcement was made by Wizards of the Coast only about an hour ago on the streaming coverage provided by Twitch TV.  In this, the very next Modern Masters release was announced.  Although perhaps not our fav format, we've been loving tinkering with Modern format and have amassed a small collection of the staples over the past few years from MTG Mint Card. It appears that this year's set, like the previous year's will have a number of cards the designers have included which will lend itself rather well to drafting.  The biggest initial complaint from the community is that although the print run is limited, it would not be as limited as that of the the previous Modern Masters - the issue was the MSRP of $10, a solid increase from from $7.

From the previewed art, it looks like we can expect Etched Champion.  They've also previewd Emrakul (the Aeons Torn).  In fact, it appears that all cards may be reprints with an opportunity to get that hard to find card you may have been looking for.  Anywhoos - let's get to the announcement -
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Draft Like A Master

Modern Masters (2015 Edition) takes players back to some of the most remarkable planes from recent history, including Zendikar, Mirrodin, Ravnica, Lorwyn, Kamigawa, and Alara. Featuring new artwork on a number of cards, every card in Modern Masters can be added to your favorite Modern-format decks. But first, enjoy a fresh Limited experience that combines some of Magic's most iconic cards in new ways.

Every box of Modern Masters (2015 Edition) contains 24 booster packs—each with 15 randomly inserted game cards, including one premium card in every pack—making it perfect for exciting draft play.

Set Name: Modern Masters (2015 Edition)
Number of Cards: 249
Release Date: May 22, 2015
Twitter Hashtag: #MTGMM2015 

Initial Concept and Game Design: Erik Lauer (lead), Ben Hayes, and Ken Nagle
Final Game Design and Development: Tom LaPille (lead), Ben Hayes, Max McCall, and Adam Prosak
Languages: English, Japanese, Chinese Simplified
MSRP: $9.99
 
Modern Masters (2015 Edition) will be releasing on Magic Online May 29. The digital MSRP will be $6.99. It will not be available for redemption.

Additionally, to celebrate the second Modern Masters set, we're running a triple Grand Prix weekend, May 30–31, 2015, in the following cities:

Las Vegas, Nevada
Chiba, Japan
Utrecht, Netherlands
All three Grand Prix will run Modern Masters Limited, with Sealed on Days One and Two and a Top 8 Draft.

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Modern Event Decklist

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

For those of you who enjoy Magic: the Gathering Modern format, some good news from the mothersite today - we were provided the decklist to the latest Modern format product - the Modern Event Deck.  Announced way back on January 9th, 2014, this will be hitting a local gaming store near you in just over two weeks from now on May 30th, 2014. 

On March 7th, Forum user 'A friend', posted this product packaging image while at a unspecified 'event' which essentially let the cat out of the bag revealing that the four cards mentioned on the product packaging that we were looking at a possible black / white tokens decklist.  

On the very same day Aaron Forsythe, Director of R&D at Wizards, had tweeted (@mtgaaron) the following - "Heads up... The picture of the Modern Event Deck floating around is a pre-production mockup and is not completely accurate to what's final."  At this time, a lot of players were clamouring for the inclusion of Bitterblossom which had becomed unbanned in the February 3rd DCI Banned & Restricted List update.  With today's Modern Event Decklist reveal, we now see that the leaked packaging image holds true but no Bitterblossom in the list.  This of course is easily remedied by picking up this card from an online retailer like MTG Mint Card and modifying the decklist with this upgrade.

Anywhoos, let's get into the details -

Deck Design and Deck Development: Ben Hayes
Languages Available: English
Release Date: May 30, 2014
MSRP: $74.99

Introducing a new Event Deck tuned to compete in the
high-powered Modern format!
Filled with rare cards from past Magic™ sets, this preconstructed deck, and sideboard, is designed to give players a launching point for participating in Modern events such as Friday Night Magic and Grand Prix Trials.

Contents:
• 60-card deck
• 15-card sideboard
• Strategy Guide
• Spindown™ life counter
• 80 exclusive premium card sleeves
• 5 double-sided tokens
• Deck box
Available worldwide in English only.

Here it is - the decklist !
24 land -
2 City of Brass
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Caves of Koilos
1 Vault of the Archangel
4 Windbrisk Heights
5 Plains
4 Swamp

30 other spells -
2 Soul Warden
3 Tidehollow Sculler
5 creatures
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
3 Honor of the Pure
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Lingering Souls
3 Path to Exile
4 Raise the Alarm
2 Shrine of Loyal Legions
4 Spectral Procession
3 Zealous Persecution

1 planeswalkers -
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

15 sideboard -
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Duress
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Dismember

The list looks great.  We're happy with the mana base - Caves of Koilos, City of Brass, Isolated Chapel and definitely Vault of the Archangel.  Windbrisk Heights is a card we would not think of including but we're certainly open to this idea.

Anthem effects via Honor of the Pure and Intangible Virtue is great and we would even consider going a step further with the inclusion of Sorin, Lord of Innistrad for the second ability giving us a permanent emblem.  Lingering Souls, Spectral Procession,  Raise the Alarm and Shrine of Loyal Legions all feed the token generating engine. Good choices for disruption / control / spot removal with Tidehollow Sculler, Inquisition of Kozilek, Zelous Persecution and Path to Exile. 

We're not certain about the inclusion of Sword of Feast and Famine here and although we admit it is a powerful card, our play style would want something else (another token generator or anthem).  Kataki, War's Wage is an interesting inclusion in the sideboard and we think this may be a good choice depending upon your local metagame but we would likely replace it with with Oblivion Ring / Banishing Light or perhaps even a board-wiper.

All-in-all, we're impressed. 
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Modern Event Deck Update

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Grand Prix Richmond wrapped up yesterday and took the title of the largest constructed Grand Prix event in Magic: the Gathering history.  Congratulations to GP Richmond winner Brian Liu, who took first place with this Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker / Birthing Pod decklist.

In other news, Duel Decks: Jace vs. Vraska will be hitting shelves at a local gaming store near you this Friday (14th March).  This duel deck product features a decent list and a number of new alternate arts.  Check out MTG Mint Card for singles.  The Duel Decks: Jace vs. Vraska box set contains ten rare cards and two mythic rare cards, the headliners for this product: foil alternate art versions of Jace, Architect of Thought and Vraska the Unseen.

Lastly - 
An update on the 'Modern Event Deck', to be released on the 30th of May.  We had previously posted some breaking news (link to post here), regarding a image of the product packaging which was leaked from an unknown (unofficial source).  We suspect that this image could have been taken at an event hosted by Wizards of the Coast for retailers ahead of their scheduled appearance at the Games Manufacturer's Association (GAMA) Trade Show next week.  Aaron Forsythe, Director of R&D at Wizards, had this tweet 

Heads up... The picture of the Modern Event Deck floating around is a pre-production mockup and is not completely accurate to what's final.

We realize that for such products as the Modern Event Deck to accurately hit their street release date at brick 'n'  mortar retailers, said product would likely need to be at distribution warehouses at least three weeks before and printed probably another three weeks before that.  This may very well mean that the image indeed is a pre-production mock-up provided for WotC approval.  Whatever may eventually change ahead of the print run, it is pretty much chiseled in stone to be a black / white token decklist as the decklist design and development by Ben Hayes would have likely taken place almost a full year ago.

The Craig Wescoe in us here at MTG Realm most definitely approves.

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GP Richmond

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

This weekend will witness one of the largest constructed format Magic: the Gathering events of all time - Grand Prix Richmond.  Players from around the world, and most definitely from the east coast are right now getting ready to game with their Modern Format decklists.  Attendance has been capped at 5,000 players and there is a chance, given that there are over 3,900 already pre-registered, that the 5K mark might get hit.  As we have no cast (and no time off from work), we won't be going but still will be taking in the Friday Night Magic event this evening at OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario, Canada-Land.  All the very best of luck to those attending, and whether you will be playing Splinter Twin, Melira Pod, Affinity, or Zoo, we're certain there will be fun 'n' excitement packed in over the course of this weekend.

For details, check out the following linkies -
• Mothersite page
• GP Richmond site 
• SCG Guide 
• SCG Live Coverage 

Here's a few shots of the crowds already gathering and the Richmond Convention Center Hall ready to receive . . .

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PT BNG Valencia

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

What a weekend it was for Canada.  At the winter Olympics, Canada defeated Sweden to defend gold in hockey, and at the Pro Tour Born of the Gods in Valencia, Spain, two Canadians battled in the final round.  Many sports bars here in Canada received special permission to open (and serve) at 5:00 AM for the final hockey game and even a church in Halifax had the game on and provided shortened services inbetween periods.

Here in Barrie, Ontario we got up early to watch hockey as well as tune into coverage of Pro Tour Born of the Gods.  Shaun McLaren (aka ArsenalMunch on MTGO) defeated fellow Canadian Jacob Wilson in the finals of Pro Tour Born of the Gods Modern format, earning the $40,000 first prize and a spot at the World Championship.  A spot very well deserved with his record of 7 wins and 1 loss with an 'American Control' decklist.  Here's the breakdown of the Top 8 players and the decks they took -

Shaun McLaren - WUR Control
Jacob Wilson - Melira Pod
Patrick Dickmann - Tarmo-Twin
Anssi Alkio - UR Twin
Lee Shi Tian - Blue Moon
Christian Seibold - Affinity
Chris Fennell - Storm
Tim Rivera - WUR Twin

We are very happy to see so many diverse decklists here.  Blake Rasmussen provides this list of Top 5 Cards of Pro Tour Born of the Gods - if you are thinking about getting into Modern format the time is now - just stop at MTG Mint Card to start building your Modern arsenal.

1. Threads of Disloyalty
2. Steam Vents
3. Anger of the Gods
4. Birthing Pod
5. Path to Exile

One decklist we were rooting for in particular as we have the list mostly built is Hexproof / Auras -

20 lands
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
4 Horizon Canopy
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Razorverge Thicket
3 Temple Garden
3 Verdant Catacombs

12 creatures
4 Gladecover Scout
4 Kor Spiritdancer
4 Slippery Bogle

28 other spells
4 Daybreak Coronet
4 Ethereal Armor
4 Hyena Umbra
4 Keen Sense
2 Mana Tithe
4 Rancor
3 Spider Umbra
1 Spirit Mantle
2 Unflinching Courage

Sideboard
1 Damping Matrix
3 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Nature's Claim
3 Path to Exile
1 Silhana Ledgewalker
2 Stony Silence
15 sideboard cards

Ever since Bant Hexproof (Giest of Saint Traft / Innvisible Stocker), we've had a keen interest in fielding a hexproof critter, loading them up with powerful auras and swinging for serious damage.  Modern format is gaining popularity and Wizards of the Coast is supporting this with the release of Modern Masters last June and potentially a new product coming again this summer and we certainly hope to get a hold of a collection of staples which we're lacking right now.
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Modern Event Deck

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

Another interesting Magic: the Gathering announcement today from the mothsite about a new product incoming just before summer gets underway.  It has a lot of the MTG player community abuzz with speculation, conversation and in some corners, some criticisms.  We'll pick all of this up in a moment, but let's get to that official announcment now - another Modern Format product!  More specifically, a Modern pre-constructed -

Your power is here. Your time is now.

Get started with the deep-strategy Modern format in style! Draw on rare, high-powered Magic cards from past sets with this tightly constructed 60-card deck. Also includes -• a 15-card sideboard,
• strategy guide,
• Spindown life counter,
• 80 exclusive card sleeves,
• 5 double-sided tokens, and
• a deck box.

We are excited to introduce a new deck product to support the Modern format. This is meant to be in-line with the Event Decks we have released for specific sets except this is not set-specific and is for Modern rather than for Standard.
Modern Event Deck

Deck Design and Deck Development: Ben Hayes
Languages Available: English
Release Date: May 30, 2014
MSRP: $74.99

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On the surface, this looks to provide an answer to any player wanting to take the plunge into Modern format - deck, sideboard, deckbox and even tokens.  From what we are told, Modern format is becoming more popular than before, and this product will certainly address this.  We will assume (hopefully correctly) that the deck box is big engough to accommodate sleeved cards.

Digging deeper, we have to talk about the suggested retail price.  When one considers the price of the average competitive Modern format deck (anywhere from $300+), this suggested retail price is very decent.  Now the tricky part - should be there one or more highly sought after cards in this mix, expect to pay double or triple the mrsp. 

Lastly, let's speculate on the contents.  At $75, we don't really expect the list to be chok'd full 'o' Bobs, Goyfs and fetchlands (Dark Confident and Tarmogofy) along with other highly desireable cards.  At $75, we are fully expecting a near-budget version of perhaps Melira Pod or the like.  The fact that there are five "double-sided tokens", we want to guess that this may very well be a revisit of a 2009 Pro Tour Kyoto B/W token list featuring Bitterblossom (edit - BB is banned in Modern), Elspeth, Kingh-Errant, Spectral Procession, etc., modified to accommodate newer cards.

Looking very much forward to this.
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Elesh Norn

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Happy Tuesday  MTG Peeps,

For those of you little scamps who, with bated breath, realise that it is only seven more sleeps to Christmas, we had posted some rather lovely Magic: the Gathering rarities on our Tumblr site here and here to help whet your anticipatory appetite.  For today's post, we were going to yatter a bit about some Modern format deck ideas and then kinda got waylaid by one the cards in it - Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, so today's post is half flavour / half MTG brewing - strap in and let's go . . .

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Flavour First - 
The Grand Cenobite Elesh Norn, the Orthodoxy's highest-ranking Praetor, commands and guides this faction of Phyrexia, promising them a glorious future under the principles of the Argent Etchings. Everything the Phyrexians practice under the Machine Orthodoxy is designed to turn Mirrodin into a perfect new Phyrexian homeland, a kind of planewide phyresis.

Led by Elesh Norn, the white-aligned faction believes that Phyrexia must adhere to the teachings of the Father of Machines. They intend to indoctrinate everyone about the truth, even if it means tearing them limb from limb and reattaching the parts into a creation that is worthy of Phyrexia. They are dogmatic, hierarchical, and orthodox in their methods.

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The Modern format brew we were interested in is essentially a 'Tron' deck (aka UrzaTron) which featured Elesh Norn as a potential finisher.  Being able to mana ramp Elesh out early with a bunch of cheap critters or tokens is simply solid and sweet.

A bit more about this sort of deck - a main ingredient are select land cards form Chronicles / Antiquities such as Urza's Tower, Urza's Mine and Urza's Power Plant. They tap for one colorless mana each, but if all three are in play simultaneously, then both Urza's Mine and Urza's Power Plant are able to tap for two colorless mana and Urza's Tower taps for three colorless mana. This combination of cards provides the juice to churn out large amounts of colorless mana and allows the player to cast high-cost spells.  We were also interesting in combining Tron with a theme of affinity.  Affinity is a keyword ability that reduces the mana cost of a spell by the number of permanents of a certain type that player controls. The ability is always written as "Affinity for [something]". The most common instance is "Affinity for artifacts".  The thought here is to be able to cast fatties such as Darksteel Colossus several turns early.  We certainly don't have a finished list yet, just ideas on the drawing board but thanks for a few purchases from MTG Mint Card a while back we do already have the genesis of a potential build.
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MTG Tumblr Thursday

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

We are advancing towards the weekend, which hopefully will provide you will a good measure of Magic: the Gathering gaming.  If you happen to find yourself in Central Ontario (about a 50-min. drive north of Toronto), drop in to OMG! Games in the City's north end across the road from Georgian College.  Kick'n things off with Friday Night Magic, you can head into two great tournaments on Saturday - the 2-Headed Giant Commander game gets under way at 12:30 p.m., and the one-on-one Pauper Commander is set to start at 4:30 p.m.  Sunday, OMG! Games will run their regular Modern League, again a nice start at 1:00 p.m. - so - see you at the game tables!

Anywhoos - as the title of today's post suggests, we are digging into recent posts to MTG Realm on Tumblr.  Let's have a look -
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Photoset

December 05, 2013

 

Magic: the Gathering - The Sin Collector
Never, never, ever sign you Sin Donor Card.
Thanks Monty Python for making my MTG weird …

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Photoset

December 04, 2013

artdozer:

WIP shots of a Liliana Vess bust.
approx. 12 x 16,  the bust should be nearing completion within the next month or so.  Updates will continue as the bust comes closer to completion.

OH HELL YEASSS ! ! Solid Work - Looks great !

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Photoset

December 04, 2013

Magic: the Gathering - Magical Captions
Master of Waves (Theros Rare) has something to say - help him out.
Submit a caption.  What’s your lulz?

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Text

December 03, 2013

Born of the Gods PreRelease

An update / correction to my previous post -
Five different Born of the Gods Prerelease Packs each containing :

2 Born of the Gods booster packs
3 Theros booster packs
1 Seeded booster pack
1 Premium promo card
1 Activity card
1 Spindown life counter
1 Welcome Letter
1 Hero Card

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Photoset

November 30, 2013

Magic: the Gathering - Voidmage
Some Voidmage Husher illustration comparatives with Chippy’s Time Spiral Card and that of Ryan Pancoast’s IDW Comic Book promo.
I’m most certainly leaning toward the original card art here.  Your thoughts?

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Photoset

November 28, 2013

Magic: the Gathering - Born of the Gods Prerelease

Quest 4 on the Hero’s Path takes place at the Born of the Gods Prerelease events, February 1 and 2, 2014. As with Theros, players will choose their heroic path based on a favorite mana color and receive a Seeded Prerelease Pack based on that color.

The Prerelease Packs are as follows;
• WHITE - Destined to Lead
• BLUE - Destined to Outwit
• BLACK - Destined to Dominate
• RED - Destined to Conquer
• GREEN - Destined to Thrive

Each ‘seeded’ Prerelease Pack contains the following;
• 5 Born of the Gods booster packs,
• 1 ‘Seeded booster pack’,
• 1 Premium foil pre-release promo card,
• 1 Activity card,
• 1 Spindown life counter,
• 1 Welcome Letter, and
• 1 Hero Card
EDIT - PreRelease packs will contain TWO (2) Born of the Gods Boosters and THREE (3) Theros Boosters

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