New Planeswalker

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

The other week, Wizards of the Coast had posted a rather interesting survey.  WotC does a rather good job in soliciting fan feedback and to that has a number of such surveys.  This particular survey was interesting in that participants were shown an image and brief story of what was purported to be an unknown Planeswalker.

The exciting part of this is that this has happened before - the previous case was the packaging survey back in December of 2016 in which we were shown yet to be released artwork for Amonkhet, Hour of Devastation, as well as 'Atlazan' and 'Conquest of Power', which, as it happens turned out to be Ixalan, and Rivals of Ixalan. 

As previews had rolled out, one survey item did indeed turn out to be a real card in the upcoming set 'Dominaria'.

TEFERI

The most powerful time mage in the multiverse, Teferi is aging incredibly slowly. Having lived several lifetimes, and father to a daughter who is now older than him, Teferi was forced to save his entire homeland from an invasion by phasing it out of time. Unable to restore it, he is haunted by this act to the present day but deals with his pain through humor. Able to slow down time and manipulate its passage, he is formidable addition to any group.

Here is the very cool mysterious 'Elf' Planeswalker which there has been already quite a lot of conjecture.

VIVIEN

Vivien hails from a tribe of forest dwellers whose homeland was already threatened by encroaching civilization. When her plane itself was destroyed, Vivien managed to escape with the Arkbow, a piece of advanced magical technology capable of "storing" the essence of any creatures Vivien encounters. After seeing the impact of civilization on her home, Vivien now travels the planes, seeking out the essences of new creatures on her mission to ultimately restore balance to the Multiverse.

There is little doubt to us that we will see Vivien as a card very soon, but likely not a Llanowar Planeswalker in Dominaria.  Here are the other Planeswalkers, all of them known to us to some degree which was part of the survey -

ASHIOK

Ashiok's origins - and gender - are unknown. It is even possible there are multiple, identical Ashioks. The one consistent fact is that Ashiok can use powerful nightmare magic to invade people's minds and bring their darkest fears to life. What Ashiok's goals or plans are, anyone can guess, but those who become a part of them quickly learn kindness is never an aspect. 

TAMIYO

A member of the elusive and mysterious moonfolk exclusively found on her home plane, Tamiyo is a scholar and explorer. With a voracious appetite to discover and understand the unknown, Tamiyo travels and documents everything she sees and fines. A master of "story magic," once Tamiyo has recorded an event in her journals, she is capable of rewriting them such that they change the past itself, and, thus the present.

DARETTI

After losing his legs in an experiment of his own making, the goblin Daretti's magical abilities manifested as both a genius engineer and remarkable manipulator of people. Capable of inventing machines more sophisticated than anything otherwise known, he uses his abilities in an ongoing attempt to wrest control of his own plane from humans and install himself, and his kind, in their place.

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Ixalan PW Decks

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

Here in Canada, we are heading into the Labour Day long weekend, one holiday we share with our American cousins to the south.  It is this time of year we not only begin to prepare to a return to the academic school year, but also as Magic: the Gathering players, look for all the very awesome previews ahead of the 'Fall' set, in this case, Ixalan.

Today on the mothersite, linked right here, Blake previewed Ixalan Promos, Planeswalker Decks, packaging, and upcoming Friday Night Magic promos.  Due to the unfortunate and premature post to the Wizards Play Network back a last week (details linked here), the MTG Fan community did see all the upcoming promos.  What we did not yet see are this set's Planeswalker Decks.  First, a quick blurb about this product - 

Planeswalker Decks acquaint players who are interested in Magic with basic strategy, the game's settings, and characters, and include a premium foil Planeswalker card.  The decks play into mechanical themes of the block or standalone set, most often making use of a new keyword mechanic. 

Each Planeswalker deck features five cards that won't be found in the corresponding booster pack of that expansion, however, they are considered as a part of that expansion, means that those card will be playable in any format, including Standard, as long as that set is legal in that format - 

 • One foil copy of a mythic rare planeswalker, designed to be fun and flavourful but not pushed for tournament play. Expensive to cast and splashy.

• Two copies of a spell that has an effect and also tutors for the specific planeswalker. 

• A card flavoured to the Planeswalker with a basic staple effect.

• An appropriate common dual land.

Here are the details - 

HAUTLI - DINOSAUR KNIGHT

Hautli, Dinosaure Knight is the 6-cost Red and White (Boros) coloured Planeswalker.  Starting Loyalty is 4 with three abilities and it is all about the Dinos with her.  Stone Quarry helps us support this two coloured deck.  One rare creature and one uncommon instant provides bonus or helps support our PW Hautli.  A rather vanilla two-drop 2/2 with vigilance rounds out the special stand-alone cards.

JACE - INGENIOUS MIND-MAGE

Jace, Ingenious Mind-Mage is our six-cost (double dip on blue) Walker with a starting loyalty of five.  In true Jace fashion we have card draw, along with an ability to untap all our critters and an ultimate to gain control of three target critters.  Woodland Stream indicated a Simic (Blue and Green) coloured base.  A rare soccer to bounce two and tutor Jace and an Uncommon1/3 Merfolk for one and a blue gets a +1/+0 boost and unblockable when the named Jace is on the battlefield and a common Aura shows us a sad-Jace reminiscent of sac-Keanu.

For about $15 (USD) MSRP, here is what to expect in your Planeswalker Deck : 

• Ready-to-play 60-card deck, featuring a foil premium Planeswalker card
• 2 Ixalan booster packs
• 1 Strategy insert

• 1 Magic learn-to-play guide

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SDCC 2016 MTG Promos

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) 2016 is being held this year from 21 to 24 July.  This four day event held at the San Diego Convention Center is pretty much the largest pop culture convention of its kind in the world.  In years past, Wizards of the Coast would host a well-attended Magic panel which featured previews of the annual Commander series and the upcoming fall (October) Magic: the Gathering set.  Although it does not appear at the moment that WotC will be holding their regular MTG panel, they will be at the Hasbro Booth (#3213) and there are indeed some other things planned (see this post on the mothersite).

What will definitely be back for Comic-Con are Magic: the Gathering SDCC promo cards.  As in previous years, a limited edition collection of Planeswalker cards are offered for sale.  The limited supply means that these promo cards become collector’s items immediately and although the retail price is expected to be around $120, one can expect these promo sets to be worth significantly more than that when the weekend is over. 

Sticking with the whole Liliana / Zombie horde theme forming part of the Eldritch Moon prerelease, WotC staffer Blake Rasmussen revealed a witty take on the Gatewatch crew all depicted as Zombies - well, except for Liliana who has stayed true to her necromancer roots.

All SDCC Promo cards are illustrated by Eric Deschamps

Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

Battle for Zendikar, illustrated by Eric Deschamps

Jace, Unraveler of Secrets

Shadows over Innistrad, illustrated by Tyler Jacobson

Liliana, the Last Hope

Eldritch Moon, illustrated by Anna Steinbauer

Chandra, Flamecaller

Oath of the Gatewatch, illustrated by Jason Rainville

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar

Oath of the Gatewatch, illustrated by Raymond Swanland

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Arena of the Planeswalkers

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Happy Wednesday (again) MTG peeps,

This is our second post for today - if you've missed our first post about the upcoming Matthew Leasure Memorial Tournament, please click on back here.

Anywhoos - the big news . . .

You may recall our posts back in October last year on the exciting news of a Magic: the Gathering strategy board game (article posted over here).  Well, it appears that IGN has just released a few additional details, the finalised box art as well as the official name - 'Magic the Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers'. 

The very first thingy you may realise by looking at the box is the confirmation off all five Planeswalkers.  We already knew of Chandra, Jace, and Nissa but we now know that GIDEON will be joining Liliana and the rest of the crew.

If this particular list of 'Walkers seem oddly familiar, you would be correct - these are the very same ones to appear in the very last Core Set, 'Magic Origins', just announced a few days ago.   The game is expected to see a limited release in June at select retailers and widely available in August for approximately $30.  

In the box will be: 
• six modular board pieces, 
• four plastic terrain pieces, 
• three plastic glyphs, 
• two temple ruins, 
• five painted Planeswalker mini figures, 
• 30 squad mini figures, 
• one 20-sided die, 
• eight combat dice, 
• 30 damage counters, 
• 60 spell cards, 
• 10 Squad stat cards, and 
• five Planeswalker cards.

Most definitely looking forward !

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M14 Planeswalkers

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

The next Magic: the Gathering core set, Magic  2014 (M14) is due to be released on July 19th with prerelease events taking place the weekend before.  Next week, official previews begin on the mothersite and will last only one week, which really is no big whoop as we've been treated to quite a few M14 spoilers and previews over the last two months which was kicked off with Duels of the Planeswalkers previews in March at PAX East.  Speaking of DotP, MTV Geek posted an article yesterday previewing both the normal and promo cards for M14's Green PW, Garruk.  The Garruk unique black-on-black promo will be showing up at the San Deigo Comic-Con next month.

Anywhoos - we now have four of the five Planeswalkers expected in M14 with only the fiery red pyromancer Chandra skipping roll-call.  Ajani, Jace and Liliana are getting the tap for reprints (from M13) while Chandra and Garruk get new cards.  We're gonna check our play groups's collection right now and order any missing cards from MTG Mint Card.  Here's the 4.1.1 -
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Ajani, Caller of the Pride, 1ww
Planeswalker - Ajani, Mythic Rare

+1: Put a +1/+1 counter on up to one target creature.

-3: Target creature gains flying and double strike until end of turn.
 
-8: Put X 2/2 white Cat creature tokens onto the battlefield, where X is your life total.

Loyalty: 4
~Jace, Memory Adept, 3uu
Planeswalker - Jace, Mythic Rare
 
+1: Draw a card. Target player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
 
0: Target player puts the top ten cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
 
-7: Any number of target players each draw twenty cards.
 
Loyalty: 4
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Liliana of the Dark Realms, 2bb
Planeswalker - Liliana, Mythic Rare
 
+1: Search your library for a Swamp card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
 
-3: Target creature gets +X/+X or -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the number of Swamps you control.
 
-6: You get an emblem with "Swamps you control have ‘Tap: Add {B}{B}{B}{B} to your mana pool.'"
 
Loyalty: 3
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Chandra, Pyromaster
Planeswalker - Chandra, Mythic Rare

Burn Baby Burn

Disco Inferno

Face Melt, blah, blah, Burn!  
?

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Garruk, Caller of Beasts, 4GG
Planeswalker - Garruk, Mythic Rare
 
+1 Reveal the top five cards of your library. Put all creature cards revealed this way into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
 
-3 You may put a green creature card from your hand onto the battlefield
 
-7 You get an emblem with "Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may search your library for a creature card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library."
 
Loyalty: 4 

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