The Year in Magic the Gathering - 2011 Review

Hello everyone and welcome to the year of magic in review, this year has been quite a entertaining one with new products arising, tons of new tournaments as well as new faces to the game and heck even returning legends make a appearance back to magic every once in a while, so with that let's get started on the year in review in magic month by month.

January - With the beginning of a new season there is always tension when it comes to various things in magic, this new season began with a bang taking Extended for a ride in Atlanta, Georgia with the only set of Scars Block, Scars of Mirrodin legal at the time of the event, though it's not to say that Star City Games had it's share of excitement too with their 2011 invitational series underway a few weeks beforehand, Jason Ford took Atlanta by storm and won the whole event with a impressive record to beat Ben Stark 2-1 to take the finals with ease. We also learned a bit about Mirrodin Besieged during the spoiler season for the month with the respective factions of Mirran and Phyrexian having a different promo card for the first time in prerelease history, depending on whom you sided with the Mirrans got a sweet foil edition of Hero of Bladehold while Phyrexian players got a foil Glissa, the Traitor for taking root in the deep oil of the phyrexian menace, spoiler season was fun to say the least for this, we learned of the fact the set was split down the middle 50/50 for both sides with each side having different rares and such like Mirran Crusader and Phyrexian Crusader as well as the fact for the first time ever we had Faction Packs for the event of the prerelease for Mirrodin Besieged which was pretty cool to be honest, but back then there was still the menace of such cards like Lightning Bolt and such that delivered a lot of sweet decks in the game of magic..

February - During the month of february, we learned a lot of new things, for example we learned of the first introduction of Event Decks which were powerful preconstructed decks which could be used at a local FNM event since both decks were standard legal mind you, we also learned a old face from the Shards of Alara block came back in the form of Tezzert, Agent of Bolas which became the staple for Blue/Black short afterwards, as well as having tournaments out the wazoo, with Paris being first at the first ever Magic Weekend Paris, thanks to a rather uncouth year in the player of the year race, we had the first ever player of the year playoff bewteen the United States's Brad Nelson and France's Guillame Matingon for the title of player of the year as well as the typical stage of pro tour paris to go along with it, but thanks to a little cunning from brad nelson we had our 2010 player of the year wrapped up along with the usual winner of the event which was Ben Stark, along with a whole slew of other events during the month the first real competitive month of magic came to a head, ending the month of february in a neat fashion.

March - It was during this time magic had come to a turning point, we had just learned the third set of scars's block was going to be called Action with 2 cards officially spoiled for the set, however it was a slow month for magic as a tournament game, with only one grand prix to speak of during the month of March, which took place in Barcelona and was won by Martin Schenin late in the month of march, magic had also taken a turning point with the recent rise of a certain deck called Caw-Blade which was winning tournaments left right and center, Magic R&D however had announced a quarterly change during the month of march which affected the format of Two Headed Giant and how poison counters worked, it changed from being 10 counters to 15. We were also in the midst of Mirrodin Besieged War league's across the world which would determine the fate of the third and final set which saw the phyrexians winning at every turn to take the lead and would they dominate the world of mirrodin or fail in their quest.

April - This was one of the worst months in recent history for the game, since the leak incident happened during the last 2 weeks of the month, as well as the fact we learned that the 3rd set was going to be called New Phyrexia, worst of all the leaks were caused by a world champion and his friends causing them to get banned from the game for a while, we won't be seeing them for a while yet since the bannings for 2 of the culprits do not end for a year and the remaining two are banned for 3 years, you should not have done that, that's for sure. With the entire set of New Phyrexia basically spoiled it meant for the first time in spoiler history we knew the set inside and out 3 weeks in advance. March/April however brought us a new product in magic for it's Duel Deck series in the form of Knights vs Dragons which had a few good cards for it but not that many, i did however like the new alternate art Knight of the Reliquary that's for sure. Along with new products came new tournaments with Dallas/Fort Worth Texas seeing a standard tournament where it was perfectly legal to play Caw-Blade and Kobe, Japan seeing a extended round of events this time around, as well as Grand Prix London which leaked into the first day of May and that saw us a Scars of Mirrodin/Mirrodin Besieged Booster draft for the last event of the month of April.

May - With the month of may we saw the release of New Phyrexia which hit store shelves on the 13th of May, as well as the fact we had a few things rise and fall in terms of popularity, Infect was becoming more of a dominant threat in magic with the fact the scars block had been completed and the fact we had ourselves another Scars of Mirrodin/Mirrodin Besieged Sealed/Booster draft in Prague, then we moved from Prague to Providence, Rhode Island for the 1st of 2 Legacy events of the season, this really gave us a idea of what to expect from scars block to be popular this season and it showed why Dismember was really high valued even in Legacy of all places, however may didn't have much else in terms of interest for magic, for we moved into the first of 3 months of summer for magic in June.

June - Where to start, with Magic Weekend Nagoya arriving in the first 2 weeks of the month we were treated to a awesome Scars Block Constructed event and Scars draft which pretty much showed why Tempered Steel was still a beast of a deck which dominated scars block constructed the entire weekend, but that wasn't the only big thing happening in June, with June there was a new multiplayer product, or rather a endorsement of a already existing format called Elder Dragon Highlander or EDH, but now there was 5 pre constructed decks for the format with 51 new cards for the thing as well, i know i picked one or two of these up for kicks since EDH is now my favorite of all formats to talk about i dunno about you folks.

July - July gave us another usual core set shenigans again this time with the new arrival of 3 new walkers and 2 old returning friends, Sorin Markov and Gideon Jura whom were replacing Ajani and Lillana respectively for this particular edition, as always though the new walkers are pretty impressive since we got a few new cards for the set in terms of cards named after the walkers including the true fashion of each and every one of the colors, Game Day for this particular core set was decent since we have 2 event decks at this point in time for each set coming out, with the arrival of the core set however also brought another 2 event decks to the table, Illusions and Vampires which were both perfectly legal at the time they showed up, which isn't a surprise to me at all.

August - August is what i like to call spoilers month in magic, it usually brings a new from the vault, this time from the vault: legends arrived on store shelves in late august, we got a sneak peek at innistrad at PAX thanks to the magic conference there as per usual, along with Gen Con we got our fair share of magic during the month of august, but this also gave rise to the spoiler season for Innistrad believe it or not since we learned a few of the cards in the set at this point in time.

September - Not only do i love september as a whole, but i also love the fact it's always a spoiler season month, espically since the fall prerelease falls right around my birthday every year, sweet present to myself if you ask me. Innistrad arrived on store shelves and so did Ajani vs Nicol Bolas which was the latest duel deck in the series of awesome, but it did turn out it kinda tanked honestly, though Innistrad was a new thing with all those sweet horror tropes hitting the scene with vampires, werewolves, spirits and even humans being present in the set, along with sweet new mythic rares.

October - Usually when a fall set becomes legal for events i tend to cringe, but Innistrad was a decent set to draft honestly with cool stuff like Geist of Saint Traft and Olivia Voldaren in the set as a whole it turned out to be a nice change of pace since we all got mythics based around specific colors or tribes of creatures all except for werewolves whom got the shaft but got Garruk, the Veil Cursed/Garruk Relentless the first ever dual faced walker in magic's history which was neat. Game day for this was also kinda nice with two new event decks being present for the 4th time this year, a B/U/G style deck and a White Weenie beatdown deck being constructed for the events in question, as well as any shenigans a player can think of.

November - With november it was time for the final wizards held events of the year, a few GP's and Worlds later the japanese came out on top for the final pro tour worlds event in magic's history, congrats to them for winning it all when it counted, we got us some sweet new standard and modern style decks for the event, as well as a few other things, but with november means the holiday season is upon us and magic has a life of it's own with the holiday season.

December - The final month of magic came and went with a scandal or two, the infamous Star City Games Invitational scandal which saw the winner of the event Alex Bertocinni banned from the DCI and his prizes revoked as well with the titles going to Gerry T and Adam Prozak for player of the year and invitational winner, nice work SCG you earned a bit of respect in my eyes for doing this. The Quarterly bannings also happend with Wild Nacatl and Punishing Fire getting the ban hammer from modern as well giving zoo one less option and the Fire/Grove combo is killed off thanks to the bannings, nothing else was banned either which is a surprise honestly. We also got a sneak peek at Dark Ascension and the new Multiplayer product Planechase 2012 which comes out in June, a super fun idea to bring back which is nice to see honestly, i cannot wait to see Planechase next year.

Anyways that's it for the yearly wrap up, if i missed anything important, lemme know in the comments below, other then that Happy New Year and see you all in 2012, this is vergil signing off.

Banned and Restricted List Update: December 20th, 2011

It's that time again, hello everyone and welcome to this special edition of the emporium, yes it's the quarterly bannings and unbannings period in magic, this particular edition we have 2 cards to talk about being banned which are Punishing Fire and Wild Nacatl believe it or not, so let's get down to the bannings as a whole

In all the other formats today nothing got banned believe it or not, Standard hardly needs a ban enforced, Legacy just had one, Vintage well it's up in the air as far as i am aware, Modern is a whole different story wizards is basically just saying ban 1 card from a good deck now, and those two are the two affore mentioned cards stated above. Let's see the reason why Nacatl is banned first off, so as stated in this article ---> B&R List Explanation  nacatl is banned due to the fact it's just a really good creature that blocks and attacks well as well it is a component of Zoo which is pretty dominant so banning this card actually gives Zoo a lot less options in terms of anything, i don't see why this should have been banned honestly but it's Wizard's call on this one.

Punishing Fire however i understand got banned for a specific reason since it was part of a combo with Grove of the Burnwillows but this combination of cards as stated is a "Very slow and reliable win condition" as well as being "Devastating to creature decks that rely on 2 toughness creatures". In all honesty this should have been banned prior to this announcement, here's when this changes kick in for tournament magic.

Announcement Date: December 20th, 2011
Effective Date: January 1st, 2012
Magic Online Effective Date: December 21st, 2011

So for you magic online players this is your last chance to play those cards in modern, before you see the ban hammer for them, for the full statistics go to the following link --> B&R List Announcement

But for now this is vergil saying, adios for 2011 in terms of magic updates, see you at the year end wrap up on December 31st 2011 and remember have fun playing magic it's only a game, this is vergil signing off.

Magic the Gathering News: Vol 13, Avacyn Restored, GP Promos, Magic Comics and More

Hello everyone and welcome to this edition of the emporium, in this edition we will look at the latest Grand Prix Promotion Card, some news on the next installment of the Magic Comic Book series due to hit store shelves soon, as well as the news on Avacyn Restored's big secret and SCG's big Invitational Scandal, so let's get going.

First on the chopping block for this month's news is the recent suspension of Invitational Winner Alex Bertonici whom was caught cheating several times on camera during this year's invite run, now this lead the DCI to suspend him for a full 18 months, but he's not going to be playing magic since his twitter account @amentalmisstep basically stated he's no longer playing period after this year's invitational. However it also means he's basically also been stripped of his prize winnings and the power nine he received for winning the second invitational in a row, grats to you star city for making the proper decision in this closed matter.

For next year's Grand Prix's you will end up receiving a sweet promotion card, much like Malestrom Pulse was for this year, next year's big card of choice is a old zendikar favorite in the form of Goblin Guide which has yet to be made a promotion card in any sense, it suits the current Grand Prix choice however with Mono Red being dominant in standard these days or so i would think, let's take a look at the promotion card.

Wow that is one heck of a good promotion card, if you read Brian David Marshall's the Week that was last week you would have already seen this particular card, not a bad promo card for those who are going to the GP's next year, but onto other news.

Magic's 4th edition of the magic comic book starring the mysterious Dack Fayden is scheduled to launch sometime next year with this edition being shrouded in mystery, let's see the pretense for this edition of the comic.

So he finds the mage whom slaughtered his home village, but will he fail prey to the same spell which is draining hundred's of life forces, we will see, for the full news on this see the link below

Info on Comic ---> Magic Comic #4

Last but most certainly not least is the information on Avacyn Restored we've all been wanting to know is it going to have Double Faced Cards like Dark Ascension and Innistrad, the answer is no thanks to the following tweet on Mark Rosewater's official twitter account.

@maro254: I've gotten a lot of people inquiring, so let me set the record straight #mtgdka will have some cool new DFC's, #MTGAVR will have none

Yes another inciteful piece of information from one Mark Rosewater, we basically know DFC's are a judging nightmare and one of the many reasons why i didn't attend Innistrad Prereleases or Release Event's considering the rules for them were only issued a few days prior to the prerelease and no one is quite clear on what Opaque sleeves are in my area at least, anyways that's it for this edition, i guess you can consider the December Wrap Up for 2011, so until next time this is vergil signing off.

Arcana Announcement: "Roll" is known as Avacyn Restored

Yes hello everyone and welcome to this edition of the emporium, today's edition covers the announcement of the 3rd set of Innistrad block being called "Avacyn Restored" which is quite a large set, so let's take a look at the details for the set first.

Set Size: 244 Cards

Yes you read that correctly it is a large set compared to New Phyrexia last time around with it matching the first sets of the new blocks usually by a single card which isn't that bad, it also beats out Rise of the Eldrazi by 11 cards as a large third set of choice, since rise ended up being 233 cards total so i cannot wait to see how this one influences the next while.

Prerelease Events: April 28th and 29th, 2012

Release Events: May 4th, 5th and 6th, 2012

Release Date: May 4th, 2012

Magic Game Day Dates: May 25th and 26th, 2012

Pro Tour Date: May 11th, 12th and 13th, 2012 at Pro Tour Barcelona

So we know the release date is about the same time as a usual third set, somewhere in the first week of may as well as the fact the game day for this set is being held on the last official weekend of May meaning it will be a pretty busy year starting next year with Dark Ascension in like a month and a half, this coming out in May and Planechase 2012 coming out just a week or two after the game day for the event.

There is a piece of art which goes along with this, let's take a look at it.

Wow, if that's not a cool art i don't know what is, for full details of the set and the designers behind it as well as the set symbol check the following arcana listed below

3rd set announcement ---> Avacyn Restored Arcana

Well that's about it for this edition of the emporium, since i'm out of things to talk about again, this is vergil signing off.

Grand Prix/Pro Tour Update: April to August 2012

Hello everyone and welcome to this special edition of the emporium where today i will discuss the recent announcement for the additions of pro magic from April 2012 to August 2012 where i will go over each event as it was announced by wizards of the coast here ---> Tournament Announcement so let's begin.

So the second of 3 pro tours next year will take place in Barcelona, which hasn't really been there since 2001 in pro tour form anyways, Grand Prix's have been there though plenty of times prior to this announcement with one held there this year in march, so it's nice to see a place like this represented, also a reminder thanks to the new system the winner of Pro Tour Barcelona will automatically get a invitation to worlds in Gen Con next year, so good luck to them for attempting to make it next year.

Grand Prix's are also represented with additions representing various locales next year, for people in canada you'll be pleased to know the first event here is in Vancouver June 23rd and 24th, 2012, more american events have been added though in the forms of Grand Prix's at locations such as Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Columbus and Boston for the american events for those particular months with each event varying in date of course, check the listing for the date necessary for the event, for the rest of the world however we know now that locations such as Manchester, Yokohama and Sao Paulo are going to be for the GP's for the year, again for event details check the link at the top of the article, so for sure i know we will see some interesting play next year, provided there is a lot of outcome thanks to the new rules and how to qualify, but good news if you win a Grand Prix you get a pro tour invite thanks to the article above explaining it, so no more discouragement from you GP players ok. Anyways that's about it for today, i figured i'd bring the information to roost for the updated schedule, till next time this is vergil signing off

December 2011 FNM Card - Savage Lands

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the Emporium, today we look at the latest Friday Night Magic promotion card to be fully revealed and it is none other then Savage Lands, which is the Alara block tri land for Black/Red/Green so without further ado let's see the FNM card of choice for the month of December.

Yes that is the FNM card for the month of December and will be the last for 2011, remember folks if your playing FNM this week this is the going to be the first week with this up for grabs, so keep that in mind whether you Draft, Play standard or do some other ridiculous event like Winston Draft or something of that nature, this card of choice is not legal for standard at all anymore but when it was in Standard it was a powerful card for a land, since it helped Jund to victory so many times when Jund was a dominant force in the game of magic, however that is all for today since i wanted to bring this to your attention, this is vergil signing off.