SOI Leak 3-08

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

You know what were are going to say already, don't you ?  'As it is Friday, why not go on down to your local gaming store and take in a Friday Night Magic Event'.  Yes - we say this pretty much with every Friday post.  This week however, you may start seeing some very cool Shadows Over Innistrad prerelease event marketing materials (Avacyn Standee) at your local gamery store.  If you are out-of-town visiting or just don't know where your closet LGS may be, use the handy-dandy Wizards Store and Event Locator.  Unfortunately, we won't be able to make it out to our favourite gaming store, OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario because of work stuff - sad panda.

Anywhoos, onto today's post!

Something rather interesting happened on Monday 7th March.  The MTG Realm crew was surfing the interwebs and checking out content on the mothersite when, lo and behold, we saw product images for Shadows Over Innistrad - quite specifically, the Buy-A-Box promo and an image showing the Intro Packs being showed quite plainly on the site.  This of course is weird as WotC would typically make a preview article before posting.  MTG Realm jumped into action and realised that no-one else was talking about this - (what?!) we could not have been the first to see.

Apparently we were - so we posted it to our sister site MTG Realm on Tumblr and a few other places . . .

Photoset March 07, 2016 Magic: the Gathering - Shadows Over Innistrad

BUY-A-BOX - PROMOPurchase a Shadows Over Innistrad booster box in-store and receive an alternate art premium promotional card, limit one per customer, while supplies last.
Foil Alternate art Elusive Tormentor, illustrated by Anna Steinbauer with this very sweet flavour text - “Older vampires are usually more cautious than the newly-sired, calling upon ancient magic for which neonates lack patience.”

INTRO PACKSEverything you need in one ready-made deck. Includes 60 cards, a foil premium rare card, two sealed 15-card booster packs, a strategy insert, and a Magic learn-to-play guide.

All appear to be mono-coloured.White - Drogskol CavalryBlue - Nephalia MoondrakesBlack - Markov DreadKnightRed - Fireblade Angel Green - Soul Swallower

Not very long after, reddit had picked up on our post. . 

Fans love MTG newness and pretty soon everyone was looking including our Bro-Chaco Evan Erwin (@misterorange)

Then something very unusual happened the very next day on the mothersite - On the 'Daily Update' (which rocks by-the-way !!), Blake (and WotC) acknowledged the 'leak'.

In this article, Wizards admitted that some content was promoted and uploaded before its due time and Blake did a great job by not only addressing it head on (it was a WotC internal organisation error anyway), but even providing a challenge for MTG fans - "guessing card abilities from half-covered text is kind of fun for a lot of you".  

We've got Bro-Love for WotC again folks, not because MTG Realm was (sort of) mentioned, but because the company did a great job of bending like a reed in the wind and using the momentum of the fans to help push the brand even further.

Keep being awesome Blake and WotC !
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60K of Lost MTG Cards

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

We hope all our fellow Canadians have had a great Thanksgiving long weekend.  Today's post is all warm 'n' fuzzy and a story with a good ending.  If you've not already heard, a truly amazing story restoring one's faith in humanity . . .

This last week (October 6th to 9th at the Javits Center) was New York Comic Con - a massive gathering of fans of popular culture - whether it is the latest Marvel movie, amazing cosplay or Magic: the Gathering gamers, there is something for everyone. 

Tom Grayson attended the NYCC and had brought along his pride and joy - a binder containing the accumulated collection of rare and valuable MTG cards that Tom had been working on about 1994.  When we say valuable, the estimated worth is around the $60,000 mark.  According to Tom, the binder contained, among a treasure of other cards, Beta Black Lotus, Alpha Mox series (except for sapphire), Alpha Time walk, A playset of each of the original dual lands from various sets.  Tom, in his 50's relayed in this Reddit Post, that he recalls taking the binder out of his case just once to share with some friends at NYCC and had, to his horror, discovered this missing.  It had not shown up at the NYCC lost and found, but a post by a young 17-year old Redditor Lolhentai4ever ('Andrew') had sent a call out on the subreddit 'Magic TCG' that he had found a binder.  Friends had contacted Grayson who got in touch with Andrew and the collection was reunited with its owner.  

According to Grayson, Andrew would not accept a cash reward but Grayson insisted on giving him a small token of appreciation in the form of a Wooded Foothills expedition and a Glorious Anthem promo.  It also appears that WotC staffer, the very awesome Worth Wollpert may also send young Andrew some appreciation as well.


Good Karma everywhere in MTG land.
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Famous 2-Drop

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

There is a rather interesting discussion going down on Reddit's MagicTCG.  Specifically, NinjaFerret4-5 asked 'What's the Best Two Drop of All Time?' which spurred a discussion with over 300 replys in just under 18 hours.

Here was a description and qualifier - 

Famous two drops have long defined Magic; everything from [[Wild Mongrel]] to [[Arcbound Ravager]] to [[Meddling Mage]]. However, a general consensus has formed over the 4 best ones. I am talking about Snapcaster Mage, Stoneforge Mystic, Tarmogoyf, and Dark Confidant, with the red version of the cycle sometimes [[Young Pyromancer]]. However, what does Reddit think is the best of the 4(5)? Does Reddit think Young Pyromancer deserves a spot in the Two Drop Hall of Fame?

EDIT: I meant two drop creatures. Yes, we all know that "creatures suck" but comparing Tarmogoyf to a Time Walk is like comparing a Fiat to a Lamborghini. One costs much less, but you will almost always want the other and the other is considered much more powerful.

When we just started out playing shortly after Lorwyn was released, we had often used the community rating on Gatherer (while it was still working !WotC!), as sort of a rough compass to determine a specific card's comparative playability in the format.  

Yeah - we were young and rather uninformed.  For giggles, we did the very same sort on Gatherer for 2 CMC critters (apparently there is about 1,391 of 'em) sorted to community rating - here is the absolute rubbish we got back - 

There was some really great discussion going on with very little nonsensical silliness which sometimes adds cholesterol to the read.  We suggest you read the post and pipe in.  Here are a few decent inputs -

  

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