Orzhov and Rakdos Mechanics

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

Ravnica Allegiance Mechanics - Part I is now up on the Wizards of the Coast mothersite.  It appears that the remaining three mechanics for Simic, Gruul, and Azorius are to be previewed on seperate days (Wednesday / Thursday / Friday)

Afterlife (Orzhov Syndicate - White / Black)

A keyword ability found on creatures. When the creature dies it creates a number of 1/1 black and white Spirit creature token with flying.  New cards with this mechanic include a human soldier creature Tithe Take, and the human cleric Imperious Oligarch. 

Spectacle (Cult of Rakdos - Black / Red)

A keyword ability that gives spells an alternative cost. You can cast a spell for its spectacle cost if an opponent lost life during the turn.  New cards with this mechanic include human shaman Rix Maadi Reveler and Rafter Demon.

In other news, MTG fans were treated to all the Ravnica Allegiance Promos as well as the packaging.  From these revelations, we now know the following characters are likely to see print in this set :

• Lavinia
• Kaya
• Domri
• Dovin

The Rakdos and Simic booster pack arts are yet unconfirmed at this time.  Do pop on over to the WotC Ravnica Allegiance card image gallery linked here as new  cards are now being posted / previewed.

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MTG Masters 25

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

Today, Blake Rasmussen had posted a bit of a teaser on the Wizards of the Coast Magic: the Gathering site.  Specifically product packaging as well as two cards to expect for the upcoming Modern Masters product, which releases on March 16, 2018.

This year's offering is a bit special as Magic: the Gathering celebrates its 25th anniversary.  Here is a blurb now -

Masters 25 is a booster-based compilation set that will be released on March 16, 2018.  It is designed to be drafted and celebrates twenty-five years of Magic: The Gathering.  Players will get to draft like a master as they are taken back through time to experience some of the most popular planes, mechanics, and spells in Magic's history.

Masters 25 will feature the return of Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Azusa, Lost but Seeking, including a very mysterious metal spikey character.  We suspect that this may be Platinum Emperion, but we may have to wait until the official previews, which are to start on Monday 26th February. 

What certainly caught our attention is that Blake had indicated that most of the cards in Masters 25 will have the watermark with the symbol of the set they are from.  Very cool and yes, the nostalgia is prepared to overload here.


In related news, NOW is the time to buy copies of Unstable's 'Watermarket', which when this land is tapped will produce two colourless mana to cast spells with watermarks.

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2017 Gift Pack Review

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

MTG Realm has been picking up the Holiday Gift Boxes since they had been released, and still use all the storage boxes (which can accommodate up to 2,000 cards each) for our Magic: the Gathering collection.  We even had picked up the Holiday Gift Box when Wizards of the Coast had some issues with the strength of the packaging.  We are a somewhat thrifty bunch and had found the contents to be rather decent value.  Here is the list of what we had purchased over the years - 

• Return to Ravnica, November 2012
• Theros, November 2013
• Khans of Tarkir, November 2014
• Battle for Zendikar, November 2015
• Shadows over Innistrad, May 2016
• Kaladesh, November 2016

We DID NOT purchase this year's product offering, the 2017 Gift Pack, which appears to replace the Holiday Gift Box.  Instead, we had won the Gift Pack in a random draw at our local gaming store, OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario.  Let's get to what one can expect to get for an MRSP of $20 USD ($25 here in Canada) - 

• 5 premium basic lands by artist Mark Poole (known as the "Shooting Star Lands")

• 2 premium creature cards (Metalwork Colossus and Kari Zev, Skyship Raider

• 3 booster packs (Ixalan, Hour of Devastation, Amonkhet)

• Spindown life counter (Planeswalker symbol)

• Exclusive mini-poster (Featuring art from Hour of Devastation)

Most recently with the Kaladesh Holdiay Gift Box which had an MSRP of $25 provided the following :
• one Card storage box 
• 5 Kaladesh booster packs
• 20-card Kaladesh basic land pack
• 1 premium, foil promo card (Chief of the Foundry)
• 6 illustrated plastic dividers
• one sticker sheet for customizing dividers

Although the previous product was five clams more expensive, we felt this was great value.  In comparision, we feel that we are just breaking even with no added incentive to pull out our wallet for this year's Gift Pack.  A small modification such as alternate art for the foil Metalwork Colossus and Kari Zev, Skyship Raider - paired with her foil Ragavan monkey token, would have swayed our opinion.

This product appears to have been designed specifically to be placed on a shelf in a big box store such as Walmart or Target alongside Yu-Gi-Oh product.  There may exist a small chance that this Gift Pack may actually be mistaken for a Yu-Gi-Oh product by a parent, relative or friend resulting in a measure of disappointment during Christmas.  This is not to say that there are not Magic: the Gathering players out there who are indeed pleased with this - we have personally spoken with several who have or who intend to purchase this.

Our final concern addresses the over-packaging, and carbon footprint of this product.  We realist that there is a new president south of our border and that the protection of the environment is clearly not a priority.  The fact that the Environmental Protection Agency has been seriously de-funded indicates that environmental protection is not even a consideration.  A company such as Wizards of the Coast, using the resources of its parent company Hasbro is encouraged to stand out with environmental consideration being incorporated into the life cycle of their product and packaging, which they have to an extent, but certainly not with this product.

Should Wizards of the Coast realise some commercial success with this product, we would be delighted as we want to enjoy playing Magic: the Gathering for years to come.  

Lastly, we want to remind folks that Nighthawk Counters has a Kickstarter project.  These premium hand-finished life counters and gaming accessories are quite functional and aesthetically pleasing.  MTG Realm had provided several of these counters a prizes at a recent Friday Night Magic event at our local gaming store, OMG! Games and were very well received by the players.  Please consider supporting this over here - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/914346194/nighthawk-counters

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Dark Ascension Spoiler 3

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

Following our two previous posts this week (here and here), we have rather unimaginatively decided to title this post Dark Ascension Spoiler 3. Moving on from the the otherwise dull name to the contents of today's post - Dark Ascension Product Images !

The following image was obtained from a Japanese website retailing Magic the Gathering product, and although they provide unsubstantial details on each of the products, one is still able to glean some information from the small low-quality imagery - like this image of Dark Ascension booster packs.

Anywhoos - Let's have a look . . .

The 'big' picture . . .

Going deeper and enlarging the Dark Ascension Intro Packs . . .

It appears that we can expect the following colours for Intro Packs:
/ (Angel ?),
/ (Werewolf ?),
/ (Human Sorcerer ?),
/ (Vampire ?), and
/ (mad Human scientist ?)
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Next up - zooming in to the Dark Ascension Event Decks - unfortunatley, very difficult to see what's going on . . .

And lastly, the Fat Pack spread . . .
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Ensure you plan on attending a Pre-Release or Release Event. We plan to be heading over to the best game store in Ontario - OMG! Games, here in Barrie (map thingy below).

Dark Ascension, the second set in the Innistrad block promises to deliver classic / gothic horror to Magic the Gathering fans. Official previews begin on Wizards on Monday 9th January with pre-release events on January 27/28 and release on February 3rd.

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Divine vs Demonic Packaging

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We have now been provided packaging images of Duel Decks: Divine vs Demonic on Magic Arcana today. To add to the spoiler today, Wizards asks us to "stop by again on Friday for a special Divine vs. Demonic surprise!" . . . very interesting.

You may recall my predictions from December 10th, 2008 (although it was fairly easy) . . .

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I will take a stab at two possible inclusions in the Duel Decks from the banner provided with the announcement :

Akroma, Angel of Wrath - and - Lord of the Pit ? ? What is your guess ?

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Well that was a fairly easy prognostication and not much work went into the speculation. Here is the confirmatory product image . .

The foils one will get . .

Akroma, Angel of Wrath, 5WWW
Legendary Creature — Angel, Rare
Flying, first strike, vigilance, trample, haste, protection from black and from red
6 / 6

Lord of the Pit, 4BBB
Creature - Demon, Rare
Flying, trample
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a creature other than Lord of the Pit. If you can't, Lord of the Pit deals 7 damage to you.
7 / 7

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Someone on the boards mentioned this which made me LoL !

To summarise a discussion between Richard Garfield and Skaff Elias back when they were doing playtesting for the first set.

Richard Garfield had just explained how he had won a game with Lord of the Pit.

"So, the only way for you to win with this thing is to play it and hope your opponent is stupid enough to steal it?"

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Mark your calendar for April 10th, 2009 and get thee hence to a Gamery store.

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In other sad news, uber-spoiler Master Zesty had been nailed by Wizards of the Coast and subsequently banned from sanctioned play for a period of two years. This was the result of running afoul with Copyright laws.

I would venture to say that Mr. Zesty was directly responsible in hyping the last two set releases to such a pitch that I made the largest individual MTG purchase ever. All (WoTC excepted) will miss his puzzles and cryptic clues in the next spoiler season.

Shards of Alara Packaging

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Some very cool Shards of Alara Packaging was leaked yesterday on a German site which gave us some more art spoilers & details as to what we may expect with the new set.
From close-up looks at the two 'Intro Packs' (formerly theme decks), we can make out the feature creatures -

This Intro Pack is named 'Naya Behemoths' and features 'Spearbreaker Behemoth' - 3GG.

The second Intro Pack is named 'Primodial Jund' and features 'Flameblast Dragon' 4RR which, from other sources previously studied will be a Rare.

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Also in other spoiler news, head flavour dude at WoTC, Doug Beyer, in his regular weekly article, Taste the Magic, provided a quick peak at a Shards of Alara Elf.

In the article, titled, 'The Art of Elves', revealed a yet-unknown elf from the red-GREEN-white Alara Realm of NAYA . . .
By the looks of her, most likely a Druid.

Until next time, Happy & Safe gaming.