We Are Back

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We are back in the saddle after a 2 week hiatus and as a result, completely missed all the Magic: the Gathering previews during that time - specifically, Commander 2017.  We are happy to say that we, or any other member of our happy little band met the dangerous end of any wolf, bear, or rattlesnake up in the Canadian wilderness during our vacation.

Speaking of Commander, we want to send some link love off to our friend Jon, who we have known for a number of years now.   We catch up with each other every week at OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario.  Jon has been blogging about Commander for quite some time now and has recently given his webpage a face lift.  Pop on over to Command Tower (Canada) here - http://commandtower.ca

Since we have mentioned our local gaming store, OMG! Games, we are very proud to have been a part of the Ten Millionth  sanctioned DCI Event.  You can read all about the event over here on Wizards of the Coast post from Blake Rasmussen.  Very happy to have met Gavin Verhey and the other WotC staffers as well.  Here is a pic of the crew and one of yours truly -

 

Photos by Rob Johnson

 Speaking of which - we've known Rob Johnson for a number of years, and not only is he a great fan of Magic: the Gathering, he is also a wonderful photographer.  Please pop on over to his website linked above.

Righto - that's it for now.  We need to catch up a lot more, but before we leave, be sure (if you had not already) catch the official decklists of Commander 2017, linked over here.  The Commander 2017 hit shelves at your local gaming store this very weekend !  Here is the brief flavour summary of the four decks now.

Draconic Domination    
WUBRG    
Commander - The Ur-Dragon
When time began, the Ur-Dragon began with it. As the primordial ancestor and lifeblood of all dragons, the Ur-Dragon imbues strength into dragons from every corner of the Multiverse so that they may rain endless fire and destruction upon the enemies of dragonkind.


 

Feline Ferocity
WG
Arahbo, Roar of the World
Arahbo, Roar of the World is a majestic leader and father to cats across all planes of the Multiverse. His deafening voice empowers his ferocious feline allies to claw through enemy forces and crush those who dare challenge his ancient might.

Vampiric Bloodlust
WBR
Commander - Edgar Markov
As the sole origin of their bloodline, Edgar Markov commands the Markov vampires of Innistrad. With his tremendous influence, Edgar continually expands his vampire army, overwhelming foes with his ageless legion.

 

Arcane Wizardry
UBR
Commander - Inalla, Archmage Ritualist
Inalla, Archmage Ritualist delves into arcane mysteries in pursuit of forbidden dark magic. Gathering an inner circle of loyal acolytes to her cause, Inalla harnesses their collective power to extract the life force from her enemies.


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MTG Updates for 4-21

Happy Friday MTG peeps,

Magic: the Gathering players should be a rather happy bunch today as We are finally headed into the Amonkhet PreRelease Weekend.  Should you find yourself in Barrie, Ontario - just a little North of Toronto, then drop by OMG Games and Collectibles (near Georgian College in the City's North end).  Starting tonight at midnight (after Friday Night Magic), they will be running Amonkhet Prerelease events all weekend long.

We hope you have great fun.  If you are new to PreRelease events which are sealed or limited format games, just have a look around online as there are some great resources out there.  As sealed events use more commons and uncommons in their decklists, a good place to start is identifying which of these rarity cards work best.  Zen Takahashi has a good article today over at MTG Mint Card (linked here) to help.  Important as well is the use of instant-speed tricks in your games - to this end, see Sameer Merchant's lists over on MTG Goldfish (linked here).  All we know here at MTG Realm is the tried 'n' true acronym of "BREAD" when constructing our 40-card list :

B - Bombs 
R - Removal 
E - Evasion 
A - Advantage (card) or Abilities 
D - Dudes

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Here at MTG Realm, our favourite format of choice is Standard Constructed.  We are happiest sequestered within our lair and brewing up decklists, most of which would not likely graduate beyond our kitchen table to the game store.  For the last few years, we've been fans of "KenjiWayfinder".  These were batches of standard constructed lists created by Kenji Tsumura and friends of Japan's premier Magic: the Gathering gaming store 'Hareruya'.  Great ideas using the new set's card offerings were created into new lists or supplemented existing strategies.

This year with the upcoming Amonkhet release KenjiWayfinder has been rebranded as HareruyaWayfinder, which is perhaps more appropriate.  In this new set, the following master deck-builders provided input - Mr. Anchan (Yuta Takahashi), Hara (Kenta), Igawa (Yoshihiko), Matsura (Atsushi Ito), and Jeremy Dezani who had recently arrived in Japan to participate.  Here is the HareruyaWayfinder "Ammonket" edition !

 CLICK TO IM-BIGGEN DEM IMAGES

Deck 1 "Infinity Zero" by Atsushi Ito and "God of Modern" Yukio M

Deck 2 "Orzhov Zombies" by Kenji Tsumura

Deck 3 "Azorius Cycling Control" by Yuuta Takahashi

Deck 4 "As Foretold"  (Modern) by Jeremy Dezani 

Deck 5 "Embalam with Nahiri's Wrath" by Yoshihiko Ikawa

Deck 6 "Canadian Threshold" by Yuuta Takahashi

Deck 7 "Red Deck Wins" by Jeremy Dezani

Deck 8 "Bant Approach of the Second Sun" by Kenta Harane

Deck 9 "Abzan Midrange" by Riku Kumagai

Deck 10 "New Perspectives Combo" by Riku Kumagai

Deck 11 "Orzhov Tokens" by Kenta Harane

Deck 12 "Boros Humans" by Yoshihiko Ikawa

Deck 13 "Izzet Dynavolt Tower" by Kenji Tsumura

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Coldsnap'd

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

Whatever that uninformed individual Scott Pruitt (American EPA Administrator) says about Climate Change, this winter here in Canada has been a wild one, and atmospheric carbon dioxide is the hard science behind it.  Should you find yourself in Central Ontario, Canada this evening, stop by OMG! Games in Barrie and warm yourself up to some Commander of Standard Friday Night Magic.

With long-standing weather records being continually made, we've been in shorts and a tee one day followed by a cold snap the next.  As this is a Magic: the Gathering fan blog, we should probaly get down to business with some content.  Speaking of cold snap, tooday's post is all about the set 'Coldsnap', which was released waaay back on July 21, 2006.  Yes - the summer, and not during the winter.  We don't know what sort of backwards frackin' pageantry from Wizards of the Coast this date was about, perhaps to give some minor relief with those without an air-conditioner on a hot summer's day back in 2006.

First a bit of backstory / vorthos about this set, which we've borrowed from former Wizards staffer John Tynes, who also by-the-way has a very excellent write-up about the genesis of Wizards of the Coast. Should you wish a great summary of this or other sets, we suggest you would be well served to pop on over to Kissama Yatsu's website, linked over here.  Keeping the Cold was a great short story by Jeff Grubb, which one could find in the Fat Pack (Bundle) of this set.

Wizards of the Coast

Fat Pack Player's Guide 

The beginning of the Ice Age started with detonation of the Golgothian Sylex which had the ended the Brothers' War, shattered the multiverse and threw Dominaria in for a rather long chill. 

Snow-Covered Island, illustrated by Franz Vohwinkel

Several hundred years after the end of the Brothers' War, a severe ice age has descended over the land, reducing mighty civilizations to scattered tribes and changing the very face of the landscape. The slow creep of glaciers, the mighty gales of blizzards, and the numbing cold of lengthy winters have all combined to make Dominia a tough place to live.

Thrumming Stone, illustrated by Rob Alexander

Things are especially tough in Kjeldor. Founded several hundred years ago by the great hero Kjeld, this kingdom began with a handful of tribes clustered around a group of hot springs. Thanks to the heat of the springs and the resourcefulness of its people, Kjeldor has grown even in the thick of the ice and snow. Spring and summer bring only short relief before fall becomes winter and the snows come again. Even in mighty Kjeldor, you must be strong, clever, and resourceful to survive.

As if the ice age weren't bad enough, recent events have brought more gloom to the inhabitants of the kingdom. A mighty necromancer, Lim-Dûl, has risen beyond the mountains. With the aid of the demon lords Leshrac and Tevash Szat, Lim-Dûl has created an army of undead followers who are destroying village after village. The knightly orders of Kjeldor have fought hard, but against undead foes even their vaunted prowess may not be sufficient.

Grim Harvest, illustrated bu Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai

Onyx Talisman Kjeldor isn't alone in this fight, however. To the north, the scattered barbarian tribes of Balduvia have aid to lend. To the south, the elves and druids of Fyndhorn forest can bring the will of the goddess Freyalise to bear against the necromantic hordes. To the west, machinists and archaeologists excavate the ruined city of Soldev, uncovering mysterious and dangerous relics of the long-ago Brothers' War. And somewhere, a secret school of illusionists holds strange powers of its own.

Ronom Hulk, illustrated by Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai

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Moving off from the vorthos side, one of the best ways to explore this new set is look at the cars of the set with the Coldsnap Theme Decks.

Kjeldoran Cunning (White / Blue)
The noble Kjeldoran Soldiers have teamed up with the crafty Zuran Wizards to build an army that can outfight and outthink any foes. With the “Kjeldoran Cunning” deck, you’re the general of that army. You’ll need all your wits about you to win the fight.

Snowscape (Blue / Black)
Grab your mittens and a shovel, because it’s hip-deep in snow in here! With the “Snowscape” deck, you’ll harness the powerful magic of the ice to freeze out your opponents. The deck is filled with snow permanents and cards that get more powerful with snow permanents around. Get a few of them working together, and the cold won’t be the only reason your opponent will be shivering.

Beyond The Grave (Black / Red)
To a necromancer, death is the most delicious part of life—and when playing the “Beyond the Grave” deck, you’re the necromancer. Don’t hesitate to send your minions to their doom, because each death increases your dark powers. The more corpses you produce, the more zombie fodder you’ll have, and the more spells you’ll return from your graveyard to your hand.

Aurochs Stampede (Red / Green)
The Ice Age card Aurochs is a creature with trample that, when it attacks, gets a bonus for each other attacking Aurochs. At the time, there was only one question: What other Aurochs? The “Aurochs Stampede” deck finally answers that question, as three new Aurochs show up to really get the herd rumbling.
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Aether Revolt PreRelease Result

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Happy Sunday MTG peeps, 

As we post, the Aether Revolt battle is still raging on at local gaming store, OMG Games, here in Barrie, Ontario.  They are running what is essentially back-to-back Magic: the Gathering PreRelease events since Friday midnight and will eventually close out the weekend with a Two-Headed Giant Aether Revolt event later this evening.

We reserved a seat on Saturday morning and bumped in a number of friends, including 'Andy' who not only brought his two kids but several others from his neighbourhood.  

First up - here's what you get with a PreRelease Pack in which to build your sealed 40-card deck -

•  4 Aether Revolt booster packs  
•  2 Kaladesh booster packs 
•  Random Foil promo card  
•  D20 life counter  
•  Renegade sticker  
•  Insert with deck-building advice

Here was our pulls -

ONE PreRelease Promo card
Midnight Entourage

TWO Kaladesh Packs
Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter
Deadlock Trap

FOUR Aether Revolt Packs
Inspiring Statuary
Aethertide Whale
Spire of Industry
Dark Intimations 

The card pool was shockingly shallow in white, blue, and black.  Cards in Red and Green provided a good selection along with the Artifact cards to put us firmly in this direction to build with.  The end result was a Red / Green list with some themes for Energy and +1/+1 Counters.  

Our most favourite card played in the event had to be Untethered Express, which laid down a beating a won games by itself if it was not answered soon enough.  We also need to acknowledge a singleton of a fog-effect card - Commencement of Festivities, which was used to great effect at least three times over our matches.  Specifically, an opponent would commit all to combat, gets nullified by CoF and would be completely exposed on our next turn.  

Final result was 2 wins and 2 losses to put us out of reach of any prizes, but the real prize was all the friends we met and a great time had.

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Friday MTG Miscellany

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

Here in Canada-Land we are entering the Thanksgiving long weekend.  While we are gorging ourselves at family meals, please give some thought of sending aid to those affected by Hurricane Matthew.  Our thoughts are also with MTG players in South Florida - may you and your collection be safe.  Before the full brunt of the weekend is upon us, we will be attending the Friday Night Magic event at our local gaming store, OMG! Games in Barrie, Ontario.  Before we head out the door to game, we will make certain that our sideboards contain the correct amount of artifact hate, given the popularity of R/W Vehicles and their new Scooter-Looter Lord.

Anywhoos, before we catch up with today's round-up of weird 'n' interesting things we post to our MTG Realm blog on Tumblr, we need your help in identifying this rather odd Magic: the Gathering card back.  Misprint or other oddity?

Righto - let's go -

Photoset October 07, 2016 48 notes

Magic: the Gathering - Kaladesh SNAILS !

Andrew over at Sarpadian Empires Vol. VIII (@_SEV8) has a very valid question here.  
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Photoset October 06, 2016 545 notes

Magic: the Gathering - Polyptych
Polyptych is the technical name for a multi-panel picture, while diptych is the technical name for such a picture consisting of just two parts.  Great example here from Kamigawa block, where the lands form a single panoramic image is a kick-arse polyptych.
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Photoset October 06, 2016 171 notes

Magic: the Gathering - MTG IRL

Congratulations !!  A new baby MTG sub-reddit was born just recently - called Real-Life MTG, where (as you may have cleverly deduced) fans post ‘in real life’ images reminiscent or highly suggestive of an MTG Card Art as shown above showing good comparision between DiTerlizzi’s Mecadian Masques illustration and that of (I think) an American politician or presidential hopeful - I’ve heard they are have elections soon.
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Photoset October 04, 2016 172 notes

Magic: the Gathering - FNM Promo Card
Call the Bloodline promotion card -
• December, 2016 Friday Night Magic Promo, Art by Magali Villeneuve
• Shadows over Innistrad, Art by Lake Hurwitz

At Sorin’s appeal, Olivia Voldaren summoned the full might of her bloodline to gather at Lurenbraum Fortress.


Several miles from the end of Ziel Pass, within the mountains of Stensia, lies the huge Estate of Voldaren. This is the traditional homeland of the Voldaren vampire bloodline and is home to a number of minor castles and mansions. The main fortress protecting the estate is the Lurenbraum Fortress.  In Eldritch Moon, Sorin Markov gathered the remnants of his house and together with the vampires of the Voldaren bloodline marched into battle against the cultists and Eldrazi that the Planeswalker Nahiri had unleashed upon Innistrad.
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Eldritch Moon PreRelease

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Happy Sunday MTG peeps,

On Friday, we took in a Friday Night Magic Event over at our local gaming store, OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario.  Our mon-white Humans decklist did well to take 3rd spot and we were quite prepared to wait an hour to participate in the midnight prerelease of Eldritch Moon but needed our beauty sleep as we got up at a terribly early hour that morning.  So we came back on Saturday.

Grab some pop-korn - Here is a short 5-minute video of the Prerelease -

Here was our pulls -
•  PreRelease Promo - Distended Mindbender  
•  DOI PK 1 Fortified Village 
•  SOI PK 2 Invocation of Saint Traft 
•  EMN PK 1 Ulvenwald Observer 
•  EMN PK 2 Tree of Perdition 
•  EMN PK 3 Collective Brutality 
•  EMN PK 4 Bedlam Reveller (Foil) / Mausoleum Wanderer 
  

First round was a 'bye', which was OK but we would rather be playing with the new cardboard.  The next rounds were all lost tragically.  There was some nice flashy stuff in black, but just not quite enough support in that coulour, so in the end we went blue / white which had some flyers and control.

What was doing great at your local prerelease ?

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Eternal Masters Tokens

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We kicked off the weekend on Friday evening with some games at our favourite gaming store, OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario where we went with our take on Blue / White Humans decklist.  It was a bit too grindy, so we are now working on fine tuning the mana-base as well as the sideboard.  We can say that when this thing did fire, it was pretty damn impressive.  Moving on to Saturday and Sunday, we had a series of Commander games at the MTG Realm Lair with R-Tech taking the lead (she was rather happy about this) and R-Stomp going back to the drawing board with his mono-black list.

Anywhoos, we want to highlight the Token Cards for Eternal Masters for today's post.  There are a total of 16 tokens to be had in this set with 5 having never seen print before (indicated with bold and '*' symbol below).  As we do indulge in collecting tokens, we are definitely excited to get our paws on tokens such as the Spirit token generated by Honden of Life's Web and certainly the Serf token generated by Sengir Autocrat.  Here's the full list for you now as posted to the WotC mothersite - 

Colourless 1/1 Spirit
for Honden of Life’s Web *




White 1/1 Soldier
for Raise the Alarm

White 1/1 Spirit with Flying 
for Field of Souls

Blue 5/5 Wall with Defender
for Tidal Wave *

Black 0/1 Serf 
for Sengir Autocrat *

Black 2/2 Zombie 
for Wakedancer

Red 3/1 Beast named Carnivore 
for Tooth and Claw *

Red 2/2 Dragon with Flying and "{R}: This creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn" 
for Dragon Egg

Red 1/1 Elemental 
for Young Pyromancer

Red 1/1 Goblin 
for Beetleback Chief, Mogg War Marshal and Siege-Gang Commander


Green 3/3 Elephant 
for Elephant Guide

Green 1/1 Elf Warrior 
for Imperious Perfect and Lys Alana Huntmaster

Green 9/9 Wurm 
for Roar of the Wurm

Blue / REd 5/5 Elemental with Flying 
for Call the Skybreaker

Red / White 1/1 Goblin Soldier 
for Goblin Trenches *


Emblem for Dack Fayden
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OGW Fat Pack

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

Today is Oath of the Gatewatch Release ! !  This is the date that Magic: the Gathering players around the world have been waiting for - to finally get their paws on new singles and sealed product.  Make certain you pop on over to your local game story tonight for the official release party during the regular Friday Night Magic event.  We'll be planning to attend OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario to attend and get a lovely Endbringe release promo while there.

 

As is our custom here at MTG Realm, we brave the cold, bitter night to trek to our local gaming store, OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario, Canada-Land to pick up the new set's Fat Pack at the midnight release.  Here's the vid ! -

Here is what you may scoop out of your Oath of the Gatewatch Fat Pack :
♢ Player's Guide with complete visual encyclopedia for Oath of the Gatewatch
♢ 9 Oath of the Gatewatch 15-card booster packs
♢ 80 full-art basic land cards (including 14 full-art Wastes)
♢ Special edition Spindown Life Counter
♢ 2 deck boxes

In the States, you may expect to pay about $50 for the Fat Pack - this is above the MSRP due to a large pack of highly sought-after full art lands, including Wastes.  Here in Canada, where we always pay a bit more comparative to the States, has been modified up due to the abysmal performance of the Canadian dollar.

Anywhoos, here is our OGW Fat Pack pulls -
• Matter Reshaper
• Oath of Gideon
• Deepfathom Skulker
• Overwhelming Denial
• Bearer of Silence
• Fall of the Titans
• Gladehart Cavalry
• Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
• Captain's Claws 

 

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Our OGW PreRelease

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We hope all of you had an opportunity over the weekend to attend an Oath of the Gatewatch PreRelease Event.  Our local gaming store, OMG! Games in Barrie, Ontario hosted a number of events beginning at midnight, stretching all the way through Saturday and into Sunday afternoon.  

We were able to get to the Saturday morning event to play and heard of all the glorious pack pulls, namely those Zendikar Expedition lands, from the midnight event.  As for our sitting, a number of other Magic: the Gathering players scored well, including one at our table who found a sweet foil / dated Nissa, Voice of Zendikar promo in his PreReelase pack.

Before we go any further, here is a quick video we took from our event -

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We were not as lucky as some with our pulls, but here is what we cracked -

• Corrupted Crossroads (PreRelease Promo)
• Oath of Nissa
• Oath of Chandra
• Sea Gate Wreckage
• Stone Haven outfitter
• Defiant Bloodlord
• Nissa's Renewal

The card pool we opened provided the best support in green and blue and very little in the way of removal or evasion.  We tried our hand at green and black during the first match but decided to change horses for the second match with green and blue.  Sea Gate Wreckage did land a few games and helped with card draw and Oath of Nissa did much of the same.  


Some additional practice at sealed perhaps would have made some difference but believe that our list just did not quite deliver threats just quite early enough.  One card that delivered the most punch to our face was Kor Scythemster, a 2W 3/1 first strike which showed up a in two of the three games we had on our opponent's side of the game table.  Our final score was two matches lost and one match draw.  After this, we retired to enjoy the new cards and plan for standard format this coming Friday with the Oath of the Gatewatch release.

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