MTG Gift Pack and Game Night

~
Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Some Magic: the Gathering news today posted on the mothersite by Daily MTG content guru, WotC staffer Blake.  The announcement touches upon special 'one - off' products, specifically two separate products both releasing on the same day, 16 November, 2018.  Here are the vital stats before we get into the opinion piece -

Magic Game Night
This is an out-of-the-box introductory multiplayer Magic experience in a way similar to Planeswalker Decks. But for multiplayer.  five preconstructed decks, one of each color, plus all the accessories you'll need to play the decks: spindown life counters, life counter platforms, +1/+1 counters, and five reference cards.  Releasing November 16, Magic Game Night will be available in local game and mass market stores around the world. The MSRP is $39.99 (applies only to the United States and Canada).

Gift Pack
The Gift Pack releases November 16 and will be available in local game stores and mass market stores everywhere. It will have an MSRP of $19.99 (applies to the United States and Canada only).  

The Gift Pack will  contain :
• four Core Set 2019 boosters, 
• five premium lands, 
• a Spindown die, and, for the first time, 
• five creature cards exclusive to the Gift Pack 

~

Magic Game Night appears to us a decent offering to friends getting together, and perhaps not wanting to play Cards Against Humanity, Exploding Kittens, Settlers of Catan, etc., how about a Magic: the Gathering, designed for folks who may not have played before.  The brilliant idea here is that everything one may need is in the same box and just sits with the rest of the games for when friends come on over for Game Night.

We have a feeling that there will be two very separate groups of Magic: the Gathering fans receiving this year's 2018 Gift Pack.  The first group are the casuals who will be drawn to the shiny Pokémon-like boxed sets.  In addition to that, Christmas / Holiday gift shoppers in that aisle at Walmart / Target will find this an attractive purchase for their nephews / nieces / kids.  The second group of MTG fans are those which have been playing and collecting for quite a while.  We suspect the majority of this group to issue an agonizing wail and complain that Wizards of the Coast just need to drop a bit more swag into the previous iterations of this Holiday Gift Pack where a big draw was an attractive storage box.  We need more such storage boxes, so do not ask our opinion as we would be biased in our response.

Anywhoos, great arts as per usual in the Gift Pack - do check 'em out -

Angelic Guardian, illustrated by Sara Winters
Angler Turtle, illustrated by Alex Konstad
Vengeant Vampire, illustrated by Mitchell Malloy
Immortal Phoenix, illustrated by Daarken
Rampaging Brontodon, illustrated by Lars Grant-West

Plains, illustrated by John Avon
Island, illustrated by Andreas Rocha
Swamp, illustrated by Mike Bierek
Mountain, illustrated by Andreas Rocha
Forest, illustrated by Volkan Baga

~

MTG SDCC Exclusive Promos

~
Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

Magic: the Gathering fans were treated to a preview of this year's SDCC promos via IGN (linked here).  Since 2013, Wizards of the Coast have been providing limited quantity promo cards typically only available at the Convention, however some small numbers had been offered through the parent company Hasbro site.  an Diego Comic-Con or SDCC is a multigenre entertainment and comic convention held annually in San Diego (USA).  This year, it is running from Thursday 19th until Sunday 22nd July.

Comic-Con 2018 again featured the five most recent planeswalker cards from the five first members of the Gatewatch, each in front of a stained-glass window depicting a planeswalker from the pre-mending era.   According to Alison Luhrs at WotC, these pieces aren't set in any one particular time and place. They're intended as a contrast between the past and the present, and how one affects the view of the other. The art director for this series was Mark Winters, and the artist Terese Nielsen.  This boxed set of 5 Planeswalkers with exclusive artwork will be available for purchase for $99 USD.

• Gideon of the Trials (SDCC) — Gideon is paired with Serra. He strives to live his life according to the ideals of justice as she did. He will always be a fighter, though, and his face shows his doubts; did Serra do enough to directly face evil?

• Jace, Cunning Castaway (SDCC) — Jace doesn't know much about Urza, but he know that he saved the world by manipulating thousands and sacrificing millions. To Jace, Urza is a cautionary tale. His back is facing Urza in this piece; an active rejection of all that Urza stood for.

• Liliana, Untouched by Death (SDCC) — Liliana stands in front of Nicol Bolas. She is a ruthless heroine, and though his influence looms large, her hands are alight with her own power. Liliana desires the control his overlapping figure refuses to secede.

• Chandra, Torch of Defiance (SDCC) — Chandra stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the stained glass image of her mentor, Jaya Ballard. Theirs is easily the friendliest relationship, as they know each other personally. There's nothing but loving companionship in Chandra's stance in this piece.

• Nissa, Vital Force (SDCC) — Nissa is next to Freyalise. Freyalise was ruthless in her defense of elvenkind and the natural world. Nissa used to feel the same way, but has come to realize interconnections are more valuable than ferocity, and that nurturing connections will preserve harmony.

 

~

Dominaria Promos

~
Happy Wednesday (again) peeps,

This is our second post for today, and likely not our last.  We do expect Wizards of the Coast to post the first of several Official Magic Story installments, penned by Martha Wells in under an hour from the time of this post.

For now we have to post about the upcoming Dominaria set - specifically the promo cards associated with it.  We have yet another spoiler and it is getting kind of tiresome.  As everyone is now talking about it, we might as well get to it.  It appears that a Spanish gaming store may have posted eight Dominaria promo cards.  Please note that these are unofficial and some things may be lost in translation to English - 

• Shanna, Sisay's Legacy, FNM Promo, illus. Magali Villeneuve
"I'm the heir of many treasures, but none as prized as the knowledge of how my ancestor lived."

• Firesong and Sunspeaker, Buy-a-Box Promo, Illus. Zoltan Boros
Hurloon's summits are never silent.

• Champion of Steel Leaf (?), Store Championship Promo, illus. Simon Dominic

• Llanowar Elves, Open House Promo, illus. Vitor Adame Minguez

• Opt, FNM Promo, illus. Tyler Jacobson
The crystal pulsated with the power of Teferi's planeswalker spark. Was what Jhoira had given them a blessing or a curse?

• Zhalfirin Void, League Promo, illus. John Avon
"The wind whispers 'Come back home', but I can't."  - Teferi

• Fade into Oblivion, PNM Promo, Illus. Bastien L. Deharme
"Your life is over, your name lost and your deeds forgotten. It is as if Mazeura had never existed." - Chainer's Torment

• Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp, Draft Weekend Promo, illus. Tyler Jacobson

"I do as I wish, insignificant mortal. However, do tell me of your wishes; I find them exceedingly entertaining."

~

FNM Non-Token Promos

~
Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Some big news out today, at least for those like us love our Friday Night Magic routine to kick the weekend off.

FNM promos (aka - Friday Night Magic promotional cards) are foil promotional cards provided by Wizards of the Coast as additional prizes at Friday Night Magic events.  FNM promos have been around since 2000, with a very much appreciated change in 2008, when the foil FNM promos started featured alternated art.

In October 2017, Wizards of the Coast started replaced the regular FNM promo cards with foil doulbe-sided tokens.  Although these were appreciated, we think, from discussions, that a large number of players really preferred cards over tokens.  Today on the mother-site (linked right here), staffer Blake Rasmussen announced that there is to be a return to non-token Friday Night Magic promo cards timed with the release of Dominaria on April 27, 2018.

We are certainly looking very much forward to this change and do hope that Wizards still provides those foil double-sided tokens, perhaps as part of a product offering or special participation program at local gaming stores (League, Showdown, etc.).  

Before the change in October last year, the FNM promos printed generally were sought-after cards and perhaps the best selections in some time.  We do hope Wizards continues that trend and in addition to the very good standard cards, provides a few non-standard cards per year as well to entice Modern and Commander players.
~

Rivals of Ixalan 12-13

~
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

~

Rivals of Ixalan Promos

~
Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

It is not immediately clear where these Rivals of Ixalan spoilers originate from, but whether it was Reddit / Imgur or Instagram, we do now have a fairly complete list of the promotional cards.  Here is that summary now.

Edit - Now updated with the official Wizards of the Coast article posted at this link.

Magic Open House: January 6–7, 2018
PROMO - Silvergill Adept

Prerelease: January 13–14, 2018
PROMO - random within each pre-release pack

Buy-A-Box Promo - Captain's Hook

Draft Weekend: January 20–21, 2018
PROMO- Brass's Bounty

Store Championship: April 7–8, 2018
PROMO - Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Friday Night Magic (FNM Promo token) February, 2018 - City's Blessing
Flavour text here 'Once you have ascended to the highest temple of Orazca, the power of the Immortal sun is yours to wield forever.'

Magic League participation promo
Evolving Wilds

Here are the new cards from today's spoiler -

Captain's Hook, (??)
Artifact - Equipment, Rare
Equipped creature gets +2/+0, has menace, and is a Pirate in addition to its other creature types.
Whenever Captain's Hook becomes unattached from a permanent, destroy that permanent.
Equip 1

Brass's Bounty, 6R
Sorcery, Rare
For each land you control, create a colorless Treasure artifact token with "Tap, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool."
"Why squabble for trinkets when we could be living large of all this gold?" —Admiral Beckett Brass

Evolving Wilds
Land, Common

T, Sacrifice Evolving Wilds: Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.

~

Ixalan Spoilers 8-22

~
Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

The next Magic: the Gathering set, Ixalan releases in just over a month on September 29, 2017.  This set cautions you to "Brave the Unknown" as you explore dense jungles and encounter powerful mages, pirates and of course DINOSAURS.  The official link to the Wizards of the Coast product page is at this link here.

Speaking of information posted by Wizards of the Coast, something rather odd was posed to the Wizards Play Network page (WPN) allowing participating gaming stores to preview the upcoming support kits available to them.  Such articles posted typically break down what each store to expect in terms of support kit contents such as the number of DCI membership cards, standees, posters, and of course promotional cards.  It appears that just such a post which was to be posted on September 1st, was promoted late yesterday / early today.  The link appears dead now, but not before the page was viewed (thousands of times?).

Here is the summary - 

Magic Open House: Ixalan: September 16–17, 2017
PROMO - Walk the Plank


Walk the Plank, BB
Sorcery, Uncommon
Destroy target non-Merfolk creature.

Draft Weekend: Ixalan: September 30–October 1, 2017
PROMO - Bishop of Rebirth

Bishop of Rebirth, 3WW
Creature - Vampire Cleric, Rare
Vigilance
Whenever Bishop of Rebirth attacks, you may return target creature card with converted mana cost 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.
3/4

Magic League: Ixalan: October 2–October 29, 2017
PROMO - Unclaimed Territory

Unclaimed Sanctuary
Land, Uncommon
As Unclaimed Sanctuary enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
T: Add {1} to your mana pool.
T: Add on mana of any colour to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast a creature spell of the chosen type.

Ixalan Buy-a-Box: September 29, 2017–January 18, 2018
PROMO - Burning Sun's Avatar

Burning Sun's Avatar, 3RRR
Creature - Dinosaur Avatar, Rare
When Burning Sun's Avatar enters the battlefield, it deals 3 damage to target opponent and 3 damage to up to one target creature.
6/6

Friday Night Magic: Ixalan : October 6, 2017–January 12, 2018
PROMOS - Tokens - Dinosaur // Treasure, Pirate // Treasure, Vampire // Treasure

Standard Showdown: Ixalan : October 7–December 24, 2017


Ixalan Store Championship: December 30–31, 2017

~

Hour of Devastation Promos

~

EDIT - MORE MTG HOU ADDED BELOW

Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

We have for you today, several Hour of Devastation spoilers, specifically Magic: the Gathering promo cards for the upcoming set.  These had been released into the wild internets yesterday by Three Kingdoms Games, located not very far from us in Markham, Ontario.  We are certain that the kit they received very early from Wizards from Wizards of the Coast will be the subject of a telephone call / email they will receive today from Wizards.

Anywhoos, since (almost) everyone is now talking about them, we shall too.  Posted to the Three Kingdoms Games are the following Hour of Devastation promo cards one could expect during the upcoming events.

Draft Weekend Promo

Ramunap Excavator, 2G
Creature - Naga Cleric, Rare
You may play land cards from your Graveyard.
2/3
"This world was once so much more that the confines of Naktamun."
129/199, illustrated by Joe Slucher

Buy-A-Box Promo

Wildfire Eternal, 3R
Creature - Zombie Jackal Cleric, Rare
Afflict 4 (Whenever this creature becomes blocked, defending player loses 4 life).
Whenever Wildfire Eternal attacks and isn't blocked, you may cast an instant or sorcery from your hand without paying its mana cost.
1/4
109/199, illustrated by Yongjae Choi

Game Day Promos

Abrade, 1R
Instant, Uncommon
Choose one -
• Abrade deals 3 damage to target creature.
• Destroy target artifact.
083/199, illustrated by Florian de Gesincourt

Adorned Pouncer,1W
Creature - Cat, Rare
Double strike
Eternalize 3WW (no reminder text)
1/1

002/199, illustrated by Kev Walker


Some brief notes -

• Ramunap Excavator - yeah! Reanimator decklists may be enjoying a proper resurgence again.  Perhaps there is room for a Black / Green Zombie build.

• Wildfire Eternal - That is a pretty full type line there.  Afflict looks to be a new mechanic and the Zombie / Jackal / Cleric provides a compelling reason to always block this thing when it goes into the red zone.

• Abrade - love this uncommon - great mana cost with two decent options.  This may be the new go-to spell against creature-heavy lists.

• Adorned Pouncer - Kitteh Tribal !  No idea that Eternalize may be fut for five mana, we are expecting something spicey.

EDIT - ADDITIONAL CONTENT

Planeswalker Deck Revealed on the mothersite

Previewed over on the Wizards of the Coast site

Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver, 5UBR
Planeswalker - Bolas, Mythic Rare
+3 Each opponent loses 3 life unless that player sacrifices a nonland permanent or discards a card
-3 Destroy target creature. Draw a card.
-11 Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver deals 7 damage to each opponent. You draw 7 cards.


Starting Loyalty Unknown, illustrated by Svetlin Velinov
~

Wednesday MTG Miscellany

~
Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

We hope to cover a few odds 'n' ends with today's post, so buckle in and lean in when we negotiate the road curves.

First up -
Today on the Magic: the Gathering Mothersite, the ubiquitous Blake Rasmussen delivered upcoming Friday Night Magic promo cards to take gaming fans to June 2017. 

Friday Night Magic (or FNM) is a format of Magic: The Gathering tournaments, held on Friday nights in gaming stores and associations all across the world. These are designed to be a beginner-friendly introduction to organized play.  The promotional cards, provided by Wizards of the Coast as prize support for the FNM Events are foil and feature an alternate art.

2017 Friday Night Promo Cards
1/2017: Noose Constrictor
2/2017: Fortune's Favor
3/2017: Incendiary Flow
4/2017: Servo Exhibtion
5/2017: Unlicensed Disintegration
6/2017: Aether Hub 

We are rather happy with the choice of Aether Hub - here's a card that will likely see proper standard constructed play and not be relegated to a dusty trade binder.

Next up - 
If you have not already done so, please do take in today's Magic Story installment ‘Puppets’, penned by James Wyatt (we're always very pleased to read his offerings).  This continues the Kaladesh story of Aether Revolt and features Liliana, who has a bone of contention to pick with the Planeswalker Tezzeret.  In this article we hear the first mention of the Plane of Amonkhet (the next MTG Block).  

We also now learn the names of all four demons whom Liliana had become indebted to.  To this end, here is the really short backstory for those readers interested -
Liliana Vess made a pact with four of the Multiverse’s most powerful demons with the assistance of the tyrannical Elder Dragon Nicol Golas. The words of this demon pact remain written on her skin. Liliana efforts now focus on th goal to obtain her freedom by defeating the four who bound her :
• Kothophed (origin uknown)
• Griselbrand, Plane of Innistrad
• Razaketh (origin uknown)  

• Belzenlok (origin uknown)

~

MTG Standard Showdown

~
Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We hope that all our American cousins south of the border had a wonderfully happy Thanksgiving long weekend.  Many in North America braved the crowds for Black Friday sales (more of a thing in the U.S., but seeing a rise here in Canada), and there looked to be some good deals for Magic: the Gathering fans as well, as we carry on in to 'Cyber Monday'. 

The MTG Realm group did not really foray far from our secret lair over the weekend, but we did drop by OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario to take part in the first of four special Magic: the Gathering 'Standard Showdown' series.  This gaming event, takes place each Saturday for four weeks at participating gaming stores which are supplied with special three-card booster packs to assist local stores in promoting standard format organised play and attendance at the store's Friday Night Magic event.

We are attempting to try four different standard decklists out at each of these.  On the weekend, we brought along a Red Green Energy decklist, not too unlike the 'Deck of the Day' list posted by Eric Froehlich to Channel Fireball linked right over here.

With two wins and two losses (each loss going to game three), this decklist seems like a decent budget choice for standard.  There are some ridiculous plays involving Turn 3 kills, and during one game, that Electrostatic Pummeler swung in as a 76/76 turn five for the win.  The lost matches involved some misplays by us and we definitely need to know better when to mulligan and when to keep an opening hand.  

Our local gaming store gave out the Standard Showdown promo packs to the top winning decks (first and second place we think), with the rest given out randomly.  Here was our pull - 

Sort of disappointing, but we won't complain.  With about a one in thirty-three chance of pulling an 'invention', this really is just a card lottery.

We think the Standard Showdown promotion is needed - we've heard about a slow decline in Friday Night Magic attendance and although this may not solve the issue, it certainly is a good component to a suite of measures Wizards of the Coast should employ to address the issue.

Locally, our store had approximately the same number of players out to participate in the first Standard Showdown event as they typically see during a Friday Night Magic.  There were however a few new faces, or at the very least, some players who had not been playing FNM for a while.  

Whether they had come out as this was a 'free' event, or perhaps their personal schedule conflicted with their former Friday evening games, we could not tell.  The other reason may simply be for the chance of getting one of those Standard Showdown packs which paid out.  

What we do know for certain, is that if FNM attendance is in decline, more study is required.  Find out why some stores are packed on a Friday, and for those which are not, no number of FNM promo cards will likely get players back through the doors.  Here in Ontario, it is the Grey Cup finals for the Canadian Football League and you may have heard that they were giving away tickets to the game with a combo-pizza deal (for $29.99 !).  If fans will stay away even with the offer of (essentially) free pizza, something is broken.

~

SDCC 2016 MTG Promos

~
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

~