M12 Update Part 9: New Cards = Good times to be had

Hello all and welcome back to the next edition of the emporium update, with me as per usual, today we saw 4 new cards in total, with the titan cycle being confirmed to return, let's get started on the new cards first with Primordial Hydra a new green mythic rare creature

Seriously it's that bonkers, combined with a Doubling Season effect as soon as this thing reaches 10 +1/+1 counters on it boom it has trample, costs X mana and 2 green mana, is a mythic rare so i guess we know what fills the slot this year in terms of mythics for green, the new garruk, this and primeval titan, the effect triggers at the beginning of your upkeep and is a nasty effect to boot, expect this to see maybe limited or some ramp play in standard due to it's casting cost, next a star city games preview in the form of a red sorcery known as Scrambleverse

Yikes a unplayable 8 mana sorcery in any stand point besides of course EDH, so it has for each nonland permanent, choose a player at random, then each player gains control of each permanent for which he/she was chosen. Untap those permanents, this is a rare for a 8 mana sorcery, seriously are they trying to make the core set suck on purpose these days, i don't much like this card personally and expect to see this as a jank rare soon enough, enough bout that let's take a look at a new black creature in the form of Vengeful Pharaoh

5 drop for a deathtouch/reanimator dude that blows up things in the graveyard as a 5/4, sweet so let's see whenever combat damage is dealt to you or a walker, if it is in the graveyard, destroy target attacking creature, put this card back on top of your library, yeah with Innistrad coming up this is going to be a nasty, nasty card for sure in a reanimation deck, but enough about this let's take a look at the final new preview of the day in the form of a shapeshifter known as Skinshifter

Are you freaking kidding me 2 mana for a shapeshifter that can become anything it wants, and starts as a 1/1, can become a 4/4 rhino with trample, a 2/2 bird with flying or a 0/8 plant are you freaking kidding me, aggresive/defensive dudes are nasty stupidly fun in any format, this is no exception to the rule, goddamn if i was to pick up four of these on release day i'd know exactly what to do with em, put em in a mono green build that rocks face that's for sure, i've never been more excited for a green card in my life then this guy personally i'd love to see him in a decent price range on release day so i can easily get my hands on this dude, well that's it for now, check it out next time as i'm sure M12 is going to get a lot more interesting, since mythic slots are filling up fast in this set, so this is vergil signing off.

Magic 2012 Update Part 8: Big Reprints and New Walkers Vol 2

Hello all and welcome back to another Magic 2012 Core set update at the emporium, since it's friday this is a perfect way to end the week since my last attempt at this update was cut short due to technical problems with photo uploads, onto the stuff for this particular update. New walkers and old reprints are the name of the game here, let's start with today's addition to a core set in the form of a new walker called Jace, Memory Adept 

Let's take a look at his abilites first off +1, draw a card, target player mills a card from his or her library, a draw and mill effect at the same time, you're kidding me right well this is now all Jace has now let's take a look at the second 0 - Target player puts the top ten cards of his or her library into his/her graveyard are you freaking kidding me, Glimpse the Unthinkable on a walker tell me this isn't so, is that not the best thing ever, though i don't play Mill anymore i'd certainly like to get my hands on this beast of a walker, his final ability is -7 Any number of target players draw 20 cards, it's like saying here draw a 3rd of your deck bro, it's all good, did i mention it's a 5 cmc walker that has 4 loyalty, i'm sure someone out there will find a way to break this one, more then likely, but enough about walkers, have you seen the reprints of M12 yet, let's start with my least favorite titan Primeval Titan

Yes that same monster of a beatstick is back in standard for another year, a 6/6 monster that helps valakut win so much faster is back and bad as per usual, this will fill green's 1st mythic slot, hopefully along with a new garruk as i anticipated for sure, but i digress a 6/6 trampler with the ability to fetch lands when it enters the battlefield or attacks is just plain sick, this pretty much confirms the titan cycle is back and bold in the format once again, since we've already seen Inferno Titan the monster whom powers the bolt side of the Valakut builds, let's take a look see at one of my favorite new additions in a reprint ever in the form of a burn spell Incinerate

Oh yes this is back in standard yes, a 3 damage spell for 2, negates regeneration and the whole nine yards, the last time we saw this burn spell was back when with Tenth Edition and this is a great reprint in my eyes, since red did kinda get the shaft last year it's showing red's dominance once again in a standard enviroment, expect the price of Incinerate to go to at least 2 dollars, well that's it for this update ladies and gentlemen, be sure to stay tuned next time for the usual M12 update now that commander has been out for a full week i'll be taking a look at the deck i got called Heavenly Inferno in a article on the weekend, till next time though magic fans we're tapping out for now, but we will have a untap step soon, this is vergil signing off

Arcana Announcement: Premium Deck Series: Graveborn

Yes hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome back to another day at the emporium with me as your commander in chief, today's big thing after the waves of expectancy from yesterday's huge banning announcement is the fact wizards is putting out a new Premium Deck Series to go alongside such things as their successful Fire and Lightning and the Slivers released a while back this time they are adding a graveyard themed deck with the deck series of Graveborn which is a 5 color based graveyard theme deck made entirely in foil, let's see the few things that go alongside this deck shall we?

Now if that's not some creepy artwork based around a recursion theme in the form of a graveyard based deck then i don't know what is, but what i do know is this, this seems to fit with the next block which we know the name of the first set to be Innistrad which is a take on a gothic theme or so we are told, but the thing is this is the first deck to be based around a block theme as none of the previous runs had a block theme behind it, making me wonder if anything is going on here, for the full announcement for this look here -----> Premium Deck Announcement

Here's the basics of the deck we know for sure so far, the MSRP is set at 34.99 US and will arrive in stores on November 18th, 2011 which is about a month and a half after Innistrad hits store shelves, not bad it will also have it's own spindown life counter, a foil deck box and have the usual strategy and learn to play inserts in it as well, meaning this series may end up continuing with wizards Premium deck series wise, well that's it for today, stay tuned for tommorow we may end up seeing a big piece of news in the form of M12 i got this good feeling.

Ban List Update: June 20th, 2011

And the menace of Caw-Blade is dead ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another edition of the Emporium with me as your host, today we got perhaps the biggest news of the month, Jace the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic got banned in standard, yes Banned so this means as of July 1st, 2011 these cards are no longer legal in any standard event, which means hooray the king is dead and buried at last, for those looking for the Ban announcement i will post it at the end of the article but here's a little excerpt from said announcement.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor is banned.

Stoneforge Mystic is banned.

Exception: The deck list for the "War of Attrition" Event Deck will be legal in Standard if kept completely intact. That deck, which went on sale on June 10, contains two copies of Stoneforge Mystic.

Bannings effective as of July 1st on Paper, June 29th on MTGO

That means the War of Attrition Deck with the two copies of Stoneforge mystic is allowed however it must remain the entire list, it cannot be altered in any way, if it is the two copies of Mystic must be removed from the deck itself, due to this announcement though JTMS has started to drop in price he tanked from a clear 80 to a now present 60 as reported here by starcitygames Jace the Mind Sculptor price which means the following in the next month he'll tank again to 40 due to his retardness in this format, let's face it folks i don't like Caw-Blade ever since Brian Kibler introduced it last year at worlds, it just didn't please me at all, let's face it we had 1 sword at the time this deck was created, a bunch of crap equipment and with Mirrodin Besieged we got us the efficent Sword of Feast and Famine which pretty much rocks the decklist as it's prime target before New Phyrexia came out.

After New Phyrexia though we got 2 more targets for the Mystic in the form of Sword of War and Peace and Batterskull in which Batterskull became prime target no 1 in the deck for Mystic to cheat into play, maybe alongside Argentum Armor from SOM but that's a different story, now that the Caw-Blade menace is dead we can perhaps move into a more intense and more fun deck building standard again, because let's face it no one wanted to drop 400 dollars for a set of Jace, the Mind Sculptor ever who played a FNM or some stuff like that, for the completion explanation as to why these cards were banned check here which is the Banned List Explanation ---> Explanation 


Perhaps though this means the format can be once again a fun standard format, with perhaps stuff like Valakut decks, Vampires, Mono Black control, all that neat stuff may rise when the banned list takes effect as of the end of this month basically, i for 1 am happy this was to take place today, we knew something had to get banned just i was expecting it to be these 2 stupid ass worldwake cards which have no right to exist, dammit you let the cards slip through development wizards nice and let standard break for the 2nd time this decade with the first being Affinity which had to get broken up due to it's power level.

Anyhoo that's about it for this one, the tank is half empty now due to the banning and means standard will no longer have to fear the menace of Caw-Blade or Dark-Blade ever again in it's last 3 months before the rotation, sleep well magic players, sleep well knowing it is gone forever, here's the announcement as i promised too ---> B&R List Announcement which details the entire thing, till next time magic fans, stay frosty and remember metagames can be fun again without a stagnant deck to ruin it, this is vergil signing off.

Magic 2012 Update Part 7: Walkers, Name changes and More

So in the past 2 or 3 days since i've posted a article there has been massive speculation abroad on the fact there may be new walkers coming to a core set near you, however if you've been following this thread found here -> Planeswalker Thread then you would know already what i am talking about, however let me fill you in on the stuff if you've missed it as of this point. Speculation is new walkers are coming with a 3rd Jace, 3rd Chandra and a 2nd Garruk according to some text on a japanese version of the Magic 2012 commercial which was broadcast not too long ago as of this writing maybe a good 48 hours or so, who knows anymore, aside from this speculation according to this picture means we are gonna have a brand new set of walkers for the core set, thus includes a reprint of Gideon Jura and Sorin Markov whom have been confirmed as of this point in time, the picture and speculation can be found in the thread i posted earlier.

Onto more exciting news do you remember that Black Japanese card i spoiled a little while ago it got a name change in the form of Monomania maybe someone who knows japanese screwed up who is to say, i cannot certainly tell, all i know is the person who did the translation for the card is a little off and it's ok since this is spoiler season after all. Another piece of news dropped in the form of a good few reprints as of late, if you remember Cultivate and Teetering Peaks from past sets, well this may be the year both are printed in the core set together, according to this source right here --> Reprint Source

If you picked up the commander decks yesterday and got a full set good for you since they sold out at my LGS as of 12 pm eastern standard time, meaning the next shipment you're gonna have to wait for which is about 3 months, or you could go to your local Wal-Mart and major shopping retailer named Target in the United States or a local game store of your choice for canadians, expect a full on review of the deck i got in the coming days, perhaps even sooner provided i can find the time to write it up, till next time folks, this is vergil signing off.

Friday Night Magic Promotion Card: July 2011

Yes it's that time again we got our newest promo card of the year and it follows a certain announcement with a rare wizard that is appearing in M12, let's take a look the original of this card though before we begin.

Yes it is Jace's Ingenuity which was a planeswalker spell from Magic 2011, it was perhaps the most underused of the 3 walker cards in the last core set and such has seen little play aside from drafts, now for those curious let's take a look at it's promo card for the next month's Friday Night Magic events.

Alternate art or not it is cool, because for 1) thing they got rid of the nasty FNM watermark in the text box making it that much of a better promotion card, 2) it's artwork is just beautiful and i think it represents the spell perfectly, 3) This is the 2011 promotion card for Magic's Friday Night magics around the world starting in July of this year, so what that means is the following. These promotion cards are given out as prizes for winning a friday night magic, either to the 1st or 2nd place person depending if the 1st place person didn't sweep the night with a 4-0 victory over his/her opponents, the other 2 at my local game store are given out as random door prizes to particpants at the end of the night, along with whatever cards they got from the event, i do not know how it works at other game stores so please do tell me in the comments below, note this is the first promotion card that cannot be sold if a game store has extra copies of this card so don't go looking for it in a local game store because of the new wizards policies on promotion cards for Friday Night Magic. Instead any other copies leftover are given out as door prizes during the event, that's what should happen i hope all the game stores observe this policy i sincerely hope so, well that's all for now, till next time magic fans, this is vergil signing off.

Magic 2012 Update Part 6: Rarities are so much fun, As are reserved effects

Hello all and welcome back to perhaps the most exciting Magic 2012 update in a long while, i've got a special treat for most of you legacy players, ever wonder what Windfall was like on a body, now we get to experience this with a new blue rare sorta translated at the moment as Jace's Archivist the name may be changed in the future but let's take a look at the card itself.

Oh and if you wondering what it does let me tell you, you pay 1 blue mana, tap it and it does the following "Each player discards his/her hand, then draws cards equal to the greatest number of cards a player discarded this way." did i mention it's a 2/2 rare that does this almost at will, just untapping and retapping his effect means a nasty Blue/Black control build is on it's way out the door soon enough with this guy for me at least, this card was even featured at the last pro tour stop which was Pro Tour Nagoya, it ended up giving out this and the other card called Obstinacy which is a pretty rough translation, for the other one at least but this as i said is also a rough translation, but it's a Vedalken Wizard as far as i can tell as well, so wizards printed a limited effect on a body, are you asking for your set to be broken huh wizards, i guess so.

Let's take a look back at another 2 cards cause i've not previewed them yet, the photo is courtesy of Jay Boosh on twitter, take a look at Swiftfoot Boots and Manalith.

Now that's some sick beats right there, Hexproof and haste on the boots with a casting cost of 2 and a equip cost of 1, as a uncommon busted right there, the other artifact is a mana generator that taps to add one mana of any color to your mana pool, it slots perfectly into any build unlike Birds of Paradise, which is green generating the same amount of mana, but with a higher casting cost to do so which is 3 mana to summon this, decent but the rarity is left to be questioned as of this point since the boots cover up the rarity for this particular card, well that's all she wrote for this update in question, stay tuned next time as i take a look at more M12 stuff coming down the general pipeline, see you all next time.

Commander Ban List Update: Effective June 17th, 2011

So yeah earlier today on the Commander forums it was announced a specific dragon was getting unbanned, let's take a look at the announcement made by the admins there at the forum.

EFFECTIVE 17 Jun 2011 (Early, to coincide with Launch Parties)
BANNED
No Changes
UNBANNED
Worldgorger Dragon
We don't unban cards lightly, but it's time for Worldgorger Dragon to get out of the penalty box. It is no longer a particularly strong example of unwelcome, format-warping, combo-play style, but simply another infinite-combo piece. Those applications are narrow enough that it should not cause problems for social players, and the type of player who wants to play this kind of infinite combo isn't going to play a more fun deck because Worldgorger Dragon is available. Thus, since it's a goal to keep the list as short as possible and focused on more fun-oriented games, we believe it can come off the list.
We'd also like to take the chance to thank the folks on the various forums for their continued input and commentary to and support for the Rules Committee. The broader community has many voices, and we do our best to hear them all.

Seriously are they kidding in this one, Worldgorger Dragon is unbanned in Commander what the hell man seriously, this is getting insane, wait this change occurs as the commander decks come out, for those who don't know what Worldgorger does check this out.

Yeah so it's a 7/7 beast of a dragon that combos well with Animate Dead to produce a seriously nasty combo which can produce a near infinte amount of mana a turn to cast a Comet Storm for 40 per player, kicked 5 times as long as you got stuff like Mox Diamond, Mox Emerald and hell even Mox Ruby which happen to be pieces of power 9 what is power 9 i'll explain later, check out this article to see how the combo works and interactions required for said combination of cards Worldgorger Combo well that pretty much sums up this update, dear god help us all when this combos off now, thanks boys at EDH forums, you just screwed us all again, this is vergil signing off.

Magic 2012 Update Part 5: Lords and lots of fun to be had

Hello everyone and welcome back to another M12 update, this update has a few things to speak off, a new lord, some returning friends and hell even some basis for a core set, finally we get the good stuff, so let's take a look first at the newest lord on the block Lord of the Unseen

Are you kidding me, this guy makes illusions untargetable, is a 2/2 and gives them +1/+1 at the rare level, note the D12 symbol but since Magic 2012 and duels 2012 are tied together this was confirmed to be so, not bad for a Human wizard personally that costs a mere 2 blue mana to summon, this and the recently spoiled stuff of Phantasmal Dragon and that bear seems like Illusions may be a new tribe, we will have to wait and see, anyhoo onto some reprints, remember the core set is always gonna be about 50% reprints roughly here are a few of the said reprints of this set the first one being Day of Judgment. I do not need to show a picture of this since we've seen this twice before once in Zendikar and once in M11 which turned out to be the new sweeper spell for white, replacing a old favorite Wrath of God which saw it's last print in M10. The other old favorite returning happens to be another lord in the form of Elvish Archdruid yes elves have their lord again for this set and it's not really a surprise to be quite honest it's more expected since i think core sets give wizards a chance to reprint old favorites, who knows with elves and that we are seeing a tribal theme with this particular set, Vampires for black, Red has Goblins, Blue with illusions, White has griffins and green of course has elves, not bad for a core set.

Lastly there was a card that surfaced recently from Pro Tour Nagoya which is a black rare called Obstinacy which may or may not be it's true name but still here's the photo of the card in question

Yes it's in japanese and i have the translation for you all, it's a sorcery that costs 5 mana to use and states choose target player, that player chooses one card in his/her hand and discards the rest, you're kidding me right this kind of spell hasn't been printed since Shadowmoor with Tyrannize and now wizards are gonna start printing these type of spells again, dear god help us all, well that's it for today's M12 update, stay tuned tommorow for more M12 news and such, remember in 4 days commander drops onto store shelves are you ready for it, this is vergil signing off.

Commander Final Update: Final Overview and Thoughts

With all 51 new commander cards officially out and about as of this point it's time to give the final thoughts of this new variant with the top 5 list and the worst list, let's start with the worst first, hey i rhymed.

Worst of the Set


#5) The Vow Cycle - With this set being a brand new format endorsed by wizards, even though it's a fan created format, there are bound to be some sucky cards, the cycle of cards or the Vow cards in this set are perhaps the 5th worst of the entire set, not the worst but could be better, it's basically a pacfisim and a pump spell that allows the creature to block, nothing more.

#4) Soul Snare - You know this was a pretty wasted opportunity for a good version of either Swords to Plowshares or even a new variant of Oblivion Ring but wizards wasted yet another opportunity to print a decent card for white in this set in the form of a enchantment that doesn't provide a pump effect, really poor choice in this one wizards

#3) Spell Crumple - A lame version of Cancel that doesn't actually counter a thing just sends it to the library instead even though you get this on the bottom of your library there's not really much chance of using this again unless it was used outside of Commander, bad counterspell is bad.

#2) Scavenging Ooze - I've seen a better ooze in the form of Miltoic Slime or even Acidic Slime for mono green and this one is just lame, it's ability requires to work off the graveyard and exiles things, it may be good in a single deck but not all green decks want this dude in it.

#1) Acorn Catapult - Really a catapult in commander, when there are much better ones out there Catapult Master and even Dwarven Catapult is a much better choice then this thing, it's a lame token generator, not on my commander decks next.

The Best of the Best


It was really hard coming up with the top 5 best cards of commander from the 51 new ones, they are all equally as good of a card in my eyes and should all be on this list but again the top 5 gotta picked, here's the top 5 of the list.

#5) Command Tower - A mini Reflecting Pool is awesome and it's a staple of every commander deck regardless, just too much fun to be honest and with the inclusion of a few other commander staples this is sure to be in every EDH deck from this point forward due to it's awesomeness.

#4) Sewer Nemesis - I was kind of keen to see this one and it's a decent powerhouse in it's color slot, 4 mana for a house of pain that gets bigger and bigger with every card a chosen opponent plays and sends to the graveyard, a real pain in the butt to deal with and could easily spike to 20/20 when it's summoned, due to the amount of cards in a EDH deck best black card of the format.

#3) Avatar of Slaughter - Seriously a 8/8 that gives double strike busted with conjuction from a general, seriously worth every minute this dude is on the field, he may cost 8 mana but it's a decent price for him, think Kaalia of the Vast, this dude plus a mass pump spell, that's game right there seriously fun for a Avatar.

#2) Kaalia of the Vast - A general that costs only 4 mana, please, a general that brings out Demons, Dragons and Angels when it attacks oh hell yes, a general that has flying, evasion is a must have, did i mention she brings the dudes in tapped and attacking oh hell yes, 2nd best card of the new format i expect a deck around this lady in the near future make it so, oh wait there is already one it's called Heavenly Inferno

#1) Animar, Soul of Elements - This guy makes Horde of Notions look like utter crap now, a 3 drop tri color general that gets bigger and bigger and bigger, reduces casting cost and starts as a 1/1, plus it has pro black and white dude best general ever, i'm building a deck around him soon yes!

Well that concludes the commander updates for good, since EDH is not my forte and such i won't talk about it unless it comes out again in the near future, doubt it though, 15 new generals to play with and a whole slew of cards made just for this format, did i mention the decks drop in 4 days as of this posting, so if you haven't preordered one do it now, they are selling like hotcakes, this is vergil signing off.

Magic 2012 Update Part 4: How the hell did i miss this

So a lot happened over the past few days, a massive info dump of cards, which i won't bother talking bout here, they will be in usual spoilers, but i will show off as many of the pictures as i can behold the awesomeness of M12 commons and uncommons.

Yes that's a lot of cards, but i won't bother talking much about them instead i'll point out one card this update and discuss it Shock which is going to be replacing Lightning Bolt, Shock costs 1 red mana, deals 2 damage to target creature or player at instant speed, is a common, the rest of these we have seen or some crap like that, short update is short because i need to get more of the M12 spoilers written up for here, till next time this is vergil signing off.

Commander Update Part 7: If only dreams weren't made a reality

Who comes up with this stuff oh yeah me hello all and welcome back to another edition of the commander update, i'm vergil and let's get down to business as per usual with today's update consisting of 4 cards shall we?

Kaalia of the Vast is the first one i get to speak of today a 2/2 that's a mythic, has flying and whenever she attacks you get to put a Angel, Demon or Dragon creature card onto the battlefield tapped and attacking that opponent, do i smell shenigans with this card or what, Akroma, Angel of Wrath or even perhaps a Malefgor since Malefgor is considered both a demon and a dragon, so either can apply with this one, she's a  4 cmc general too and can be found in the Heavenly Inferno deck me thinks this is gonna be a general of choice, onto a creature only known as Dread Cacodemon

Wow this thing is a beast, a 8/8 that wraths all creatures on your opponent's side if cast from your hand, taps your dudes, costs 10 mana and is a demon wait this combos well with Kaalia geez wizards way to give me new ideas here i thought this type of stuff wasn't happening anymore, well i guess it's time to break Heavenly Inferno quite nicely, but enough bout this one crazy enchantments are the name of the game in the form of Martyr's Bond

Ok now this thing is nuts, 6 mana for a rare enchantment that basically states when a nonland permanent dies, your opponent has to sacrifice a permanent that shares a card type with it, what this sounds fun and complicated at the same time, so if i was to lose a Malefgor and this was on the field i would force my opponent to sacrifice both a demon and a dragon cool i like it a lot, this sounds like a perfectly enchantment for Commander and is perhaps one of my top 10 new cards of this wizards endorsed format, onto the final card of the day in the form of Syphon Flesh and yes i know i missed one or 2 cards so far, but nothing to worry bout i will tend to them next update.

So the more players with this cast the better, so for 4 mana each other player sacrifices a creature, you get a 2/2 black zombie creature token onto the battlefield for each creature sacrificed this way, say what dude this card is a perfect multiplayer card period, i mean 6 players and basically says gimme 5 free 2/2's and i swing at you next turn for 10, seriously this is turning out to be so much fun, well that's all she wrote for this update my wrist is getting tired and that because i've been doing spoilers all day, this is vergil signing off.

Commander Update Part 6: Now the good stuff cometh

Yes it's time for another commander update, bringing 6 cards to the table this time wait what 6 more, yes a new general, some new creatures, spells the works, let's get down to business with Damia, Sage of Stone

I don't bloody believe it this is a boss of a general, Deathtouch, skipping your draw step but it reloads your hand to 7 if you have less then 7, never worrying bout card draw again when she is on the field, did i mention she has deathtouch, oh yeah i did also a 4/4 is balanced but the mana cost is iffy that's the only thing i don't like, Gin-Jitxias, Core Augur costs 10 mana to summon but is mono blue, this is a green/blue/black variant with a mixture of the three basic color abilites, since we've seen deathtouch in Green and Black before and drawing cards is mostly a blue ability IE: Mind Spring, Divination, Ponder, the works but this case it's a decent ability and all and is sure to be a focus deck for EDH since most of the time this gives access to ramp, in both black and green, card draw and all that stuff, anyhoo onto some creatures, let's take a look see at Avatar of Slaughter.

Heavenly Inferno gets this beast of a card and wow, a 8/8 for 8 mana and it gives double strike and forces you to attack each turn, dude this thing is nuts EDH sure loves bombs and this is no exception to that rule i mean we have here a perfect balance of CMC, Power and Toughness with a ability that is mostly red, sometimes in white IE: Mirran Crusader, which is pretty recent for sets anyways but this is good i mean really good for a creature, sure sweeper spells are a dime a dozen in this format but you never know anymore with this kind of stuff, enough about this guy though let's take a look at a Hydra in the form of  Hydra Omnivore.

Oh crap looks like a Progenitus EDH deck is mostly possible now, this thing is a beast 8/8 for 6 mana, whenever it deals combat damage, it deals that much damage to all other opponents are you kidding me, grafting this and a Progenitus onto Mimeoplasm is good game right there, this guy is a beast of a card, your looking at 2 turns with this, it basically means game over, wow just wow wizards printed something like this for Commander really really this is good green has a reason to be feared again it seems, spells time onto a Vow known as Vow of Flight yay, note the sarcasm.

They seriously weren't kidding when they made this cycle of cards were they, 2 and a blue nets a aura that locks down a creature, gives it flying and a +2/+2 pump really, i'm not super excited about this particular card or the cycle of cards in any way shape or form, but i guess we are gonna end up seeing some crap in the commander decks one per color in each yay, moving onto another creature in the form of a elemental named Magmatic Force.

Well you can tell which deck this is going in, Mirror Mastery or perhaps Heavenly Inferno or both who knows with wizards these days but onto the card a 7/7 for 8 mana ok, i'm convinced it's a decent card but wait there is more, At the beginning of your upkeep Magmatic Force deals 3 damage to target creature or player, say what!. Free lightning bolts for everyone this is my new favorite red card it combines a personal favorite onto a body of a creature that is not Inferno Titan, which is sweet personally, i am a fan of cards that do a 2 for 1 effect and this is no joke seriously good for a card of this caliber, nice thinking wizards, last card of the day is a Enchantment, not a aura a physical field affecting enchantment named Stranglehold.

I knew it, wizards of the coast printed something like this to stop Lighthouse Chronologist and stuff like Emraukl, the Aeons Torn as well as Time Warp you sly dogs you, you sly dogs. This is a 4 CMC enchantment which prevents searching effects like Demonic Tutor, Mystical Tutor, hell even Diabolic Tutor which are like dominant in this format, for perhaps the only reason to prevent them from running amuck in a singleton format like this but still it's a lot of fun to see a card like this, it even prevents extra turns too, wow much this is a powerhouse of a enchantment and is perhaps the best enchantment of the set, excluding the auras. Well that's all for today's EDH update stay tuned for tommorow's will may have something nice in store perhaps the 3rd general of Mirror Mastery who knows, this is vergil signing off

Magic 2012 Promotion Cards

Yes the title is correct the promotion cards for Magic 2012 have been spoiled, for both prerelease and release parties which are held this year in July, let's take a look at the obvious prerelease promotion card known as Bloodlord of Vaasgoth

Ever notice with this set so far there's been a theme of vampires for black, this makes it a sure thing vampires these days are so fun to play, it's not even funny, this dude has Bloodthirst 3, flying is a 3/3 and a mythic rare, costs 5 mana to summon one more then Vampire Nocturnus which was in the core set 2 years ago and it gives all vampire creature spells bloodthirst 3 when they are cast, making them that much sweeter to play this is given out at the prerelease on July 9th and 10th and is perhaps one of the better black promos of the set, who knows could there be a 3rd mythic for black this year, we will find out, onto the release promo which known as Garruk's Horde

I love free creature spells with this guy, he's a creature heavy butt whooper and is a 7/7 with trample, yes!, you play with the top card of your library revealed, not bad, only downside is he costs a whopping 7 mana to summon for a rare does this make him unplayable, not really ramp can solve that problem, oh wait i take back what i said you still gotta pay the spell's cost huh confusing as all hell personally but i am sure we will get some clarfication on this one when the rulings are needed, if that ever happens but i think it will since this set is 249 cards and all so there are lots of reprints on the chopping block for this set, but nice innovation wizards seriously nice innovation into a release and prerelease promo, that's all for me for this one stay tuned later on today as i cover the usual commander update

Commander Update Part 5: If Generals are cool, what are staples these days

Hello one and all and welcome back to another edition of the commander update, the countdown continues with just under 2 weeks left before this product drops onto store shelves, let's take a look see at this update's big news, staples, new spells and of course a new general is up and revealed to be pretty damn decent let's start with the staple of the new decks

Now this isn't your usual mana source of dudes, this stick of tower is completely off the wall, it's a mini reflecting pool for commander decks, so i guess in all actually reflecting pool in EDH is no longer needed, you get a land that's common it taps to add any one mana of any color in your commander's color identity, for example if you control Basandra, Battle Seraph as your EDH general, you can tap to add either White or Red mana to your pool, if you control Progenitus then you can add any color of your choice it's not limited to just one color, this is the card that will be featured in all 5 commander decks and is going to end up being a EDH staple, which to me is good, onto the general of this update which is known as Ruhan of the Fomori

Dude this guy is sick and good, 7/7 for a 4 drop general that costs 1, a blue, a white and a red mana to cast, is a mythic and at the beginning of combat on your turn, you choose a opponent at random, Ruhan attacks that player this combat if able, wait what he's that forceful on combat, i'm starting to like Commander now with this dude, dunno what deck he is gonna be in due to his color pie, but i am sure the deck he is in will rock your socks off, spells time, onto the spells of this update which is known as Vow of Duty

So a cycle of Vow cards it seems effects the game on various colors, this one giving a +2/+2 boost and vigilance as well as preventing the creature with this on from attacking you or a walker you control, a uncommon and it's a aura so it can die to anything, well enchantment removal wise and such, but that's about it, this is pretty decent but may end up not being a cycle that is good i dunno i am sort of reserved on this particular card in question, well there's always the last card i can talk about which is known as Mana-Charged Dragon which also features the Join Forces mechanic.

So a 6 drop dragon with Flying, Trample and Join forces where when it attacks or blocks each player may pay any amount of mana with you starting first, it gets +X/+0 where X is the amount of mana paid this way, it starts out as a 5/5 and a rare not a legendary or a mythic just a regular rare, decent and all this is perhaps the better of the two red cards to this point in time, since it has a Firebreathing Join Forces mechanic which ends up being what most dragons have like Shivan Dragon or perhaps Moltensteel Dragon and this seems like another one of these kind of dragons, not bad not bad, there is one more but it's in french and i can't read french for the life of me, so it's gonna have to wait so till next time this is vergil signing off

Casual Deck Examination #6 Elf-On 2001

Right time to get moving on this one and welcome back to another casual deck examination today a more recent build comes to mind, yes elves those nasty little buggers that do some serious harm, let's take a look see at the deck itself shall we

Creatures = 26
2 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
3 Llanowar Elves
4 Arbor Elf
2 Joraga Treespeaker
4 Nissa's Chosen
4 Copperhorn Scout
3 Joraga Warcaller
4 Lys Alana Huntmaster

Lands = 18
2 Rootbound Crag
1 Oran-Rief the Vastwood
2 Turntimber Grove
13 Forest

Spells = 17
3 Nissa Revane
2 Ascesticism
4 Withstand Death
1 Eldrazi Monument
4 Rampant Growth
2 Quest for Renewal

Yes i am aware this deck is pretty expensive and that most of this is rare/mythic rare it has to be, this is a budget elf deck that can go for standard if it so desired i can drop the Growth's to slot in some more elves or some crap like that, the basis of the deck is simple, beat the living hell out of your opponent, this is perhaps the most expensive build i've done in a while with a total cost of about 100 dollars to put this stuff together, the lack of lands in the deck is due to the amount of ramp it possess and the fact it's utterly broken once Eldrazi Monument/Nissa Revane/Nissa's Chosen is on the field, since those two are the perfect sacrifice outlet for the job, during testing as well this deck shows great promise with perhaps a turn 7 kill if you get a decent hand and a good opener, dropping Ezuri is critical for the deck and this is why i intend to get Genesis Wave to sap all my mana into and get anything i so desire outta it. Lys Alana Huntmaster is only there to provide extra dudes off the elves i play and give them a more fighting chance on the field, plus it's a decent sacrifice outlet to the Monument personally.

2 Crags and an Oran Rief, the Vastwood are pretty much standard though i intend to get more soon enough, creature wise, standard ramp pack of Llanowar, Arbor and of course Joraga Treespeaker which i need more of and i'll probably end up dropping Quest to get more, this deck though is one of more lengthy time to build for someone like me but to someone who has all the cards available they can build it in a instant here is what you should not use for the deck if you don't like casual

- Turntimber Grove [Too slow for a mana source and is really ineffective]
- Quest for Renewal [Worst of the quests to get in zendikar block, though Quest for the Gemblades is better]
- Withstand Death [Combat tricks are nice, but they prove useless with Monument out]

So with that i will do it much like this

-2 Quest for Renewal
-2 Turntimber Grove
-4 Withstand Death

+2 Joraga Treespeaker
+1 Eldrazi Monument
+1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
+4 Vines of Vastwood

That's pretty much it for this edition of the casual deck examination, stay tuned for more later when i look to the future for Commander updates all week long

Commander Update Part 4: Who the hell ordered the side order of Slime?

Hello one and all and welcome back to another update of Magic the Gathering: Commander we got 6 new cards today to speak of and 3 new generals, 2 spells and of course 1 new creature so let's get down to business and take a look see at these new generals first, introducing, The Mimeoplasm, Wanna see his card of course you do.

Yeah kind of lackluster, for a grand total of 5 mana you get a Mythic Rare that exiles creatures from graveyards, any graveyard, it enters the battlefield as a copy of one of those cards with a number of additional +1/+1 counters on it equal to the power of the other card, so if you end up exiling like an Inkwell Leviathan, you are gonna get +7/+7 on this dude and whatever the first exiled creature is, it is decent but since this is wizards's spoiling this directly it's dissapointing, a Mythic Rare that forces you to exile stuff to make this dude big, potentially fly and all that neat stuff, really really lackluster in my book, well there is a second general i wanna take a look at, his name is Tariel, the Reckoner of Souls

So 7 mana nets you a flying, vigilance 4/7 mythic rare and it has tap this dude to choose a creature at random from your opponent's graveyard,. put that card onto the battlefield under your control, aka also known as stealing crap this dude is actually a good legendary but not a good general his mana cost is 7 ok so you gotta use 4, a black mana, a white mana and a red mana to summon him and if he dies you gotta add 2 mana to that everytime you wanna bring him back onto the field from exile, not a decent general, could be worse onto the last of the new generals Animar, Soul of Elements 

So let's see here for one Red/green and Blue mana you get a 1/1 that has protection from white and black, a Mythic rare, it has whenever you cast a creature spell put a +1/+1 counter on Animar, Soul of Elements, it also has creatures spells you cast cost 1 mana less for each +1/+1 counter on Animar, say what this is the best of the three what's his color pie again oh yeah he's in Mirror Mastery which is the one i'm gonna get, he's good i think he'll be my general personally anyhoo that's all the generals onto the main meat and potatoes of the article, the spells first in the form of a green spell known as Collective Voyage

Not bad for a Join forces spell for a mere 1 mana, basically this fetches lands for everyone, whatever amount of mana is paid that is the amount of basics fetched and put onto the battlefield tapped, decent for a rare and a 1 green casting cost spell but Join Forces is starting to look like it's a mechanic i want nothing to do with, first a spell that puts dudes onto the battlefield, now a land type spell, what next a burn spell or a removal spell god damn onto the second of the new spells Vow of Wildness

You will note straight off the bat it's a aura, it's a uncommon and it has Enchanted Creature gets +3/+3, has trample and can't attack you or a planeswalker you control, basically it's a lockdown aura like Pacisifism, Arrest and all that neat stuff, for 3 mana 2 and a green you get this thing to basically say one of your opponent's dudes is hereby locked down and stopped for good, not bad and all but outside of Devour for Power which i think is the deck this is gonna be featured in, this sucks enough said, onto the last card of the day, a Leviathan in the form of Trench Gorger

Oh crap that art is wicked cool, it's a rare costs a whopping 8 mana to summon, has trample is a 6/6 yes a decent sized leviathan for a change, has the ability whenever it enters the battlefield, you may search your library for any number of lands, exile them, shuffle the library and if you do, the power and toughness of Trench Gorger each become equal to the number of cards exiled this way, so wait it overrides the power and toughness originally that is how i read it damn this sucks, well that's all she wrote for this time, till next time this is vergil signing off.

Magic 2012 Update Part 3: Why must old mechanics be overused

So friday ended up being a double whammy one huge commander update which i discussed here Commander Update and now this which shows off quite a few things in the new core set, or should i say new cards courtesy of Mr Brian David Marshall, the original article being found here for viewing pleasure M12 Update Article which showed off some of the new cards to be featured in magic 2012 some of them we already know of like Gideon's Avenger which perhaps is the most insane white card of the set so far, but more to the point, this is a lot of Bloodthirst cards for one set, wanna see of course you do, let's get started.

Now this first picture shows the reprint of Sengir Vampire which perhaps is the black counterpart to Serra Angel, 2 new vampires called Bloodrage Vampire and Vampire Outcasts which are some of the new cards in magic 2012, let's take a look at Bloodrage Vampire first it costs 3 mana to summon, 1 black and 2 colorless, is a common and has Bloodthirst 1, where if a opponent was dealt combat damage this turn, this creature enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it, it starts as a 3/1 as well, not too bad i must say, next is Vampire Outcasts which are a 4 CMC creature, a uncommon, have Bloodthirst 2, lifelink and comes into play as a 2/2, Bloodthirst being a mechanic from the old Ravnica days with Richard Garfield the man whom created the game we all play today is seeing a mechanic he made come back in a big way, this is all well and good, but there is a lot more to show off for this case, let's look at Blue's addition for this update in the form of Phantasmal Bear.

Oh s*** it's a bear, yes really a blue bear in a core set, not often we see bears outside the natural green flavour color of sets, but this is a different story, this bear costs 1 blue mana is a common, comes out as a 2/2 and it has the ability "When Phantasmal Bear becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it" kinda lame if you ask me, but i'm not here to judge just show off the awesome new cards for the set, so show me some more of the awesome bloodthirst cards of the set vergil, well you got it, check out Duskhunter Bat and his pal, Tormented Soul

Oh my god, this is perhaps the better of the newest cards so far, evasion on the bat as i expected in the form of Flying, it has Bloodthirst 1, costs 2 mana to summon and can potentially be equipped with nasty stuff to do some damage for the set, his pal on the other hand is a decent unblockable dude that can't block, is a 1/1 and costs 1 black mana, did i mention both these dudes were busted as commons, hell no i didn't but these dudes probably will have some mention in said spoilers i do for almost every set these days, time to take White Power to a whole new ballgame in the form of Gideon's Lawkeeper.

Check out them sick beats, a 1 white mana drop dude that taps dudes, that is sick beats right there folks this pretty much blows anything out of the water and focuses more on the draft persepective of the game nowadays, this dude is a limited powerhouse waiting to go off, as a 1/1 for 1, a common at that it basically says, pay 1 white mana, tap me, going into lockdown mode right now folks don't stop me now, bloody hell, oh yeah his partner in crime Gideon's Avenger works wonders with this card as well, since it's a large dude when things tap on your opponent's side of the field, but i already talked about avenger, well that's about all she wrote for this set update, stay tuned cause i think tommorow new Commander updates drop and dear god if they are broken i will shoot myself, till next time this is vergil signing off.

Commander Update Part 3: Why must Mechanics be so stupid

Yes recently aka yesterday we got ourselves a huge thing going on with the new mechanic of Commander which is Join Forces we got ourselves a card featuring said mechanic via MTGcommander.net and a new creature via DailyMTG.com let's take a look at the mechanic card called Alliance of Arms

Right away you notice the obvious stuff of the mechanic being featured here or attempted to at least, Join forces is supposed to be a mechanic which resets the game after a nasty effect like Wrath of God or a Damnation in that matter, for 1 White mana you net yourself a sorcery which does the following "Each player may pay any amount of mana, starting with you. Each player puts X 1/1 White Soldier tokens onto the battlefield where X is the amount paid this way" personally this is a decent way to get all your dudes back after a nasty wrath effect as i previously mentioned and is a decent card but they could have done a little better with this, though i cannot complain, let's take a look at the DailyMTG preview of Sewer Nemesis.

So as a 4 CMC creature and a rare when it enters the battlefield you get to choose a player, it's power and toughness are equal to the number of cards in the chosen player's graveyard, whenever the chosen player casts a spell, that player puts the top card of his or her library in the graveyard, not bad and it starts out with whatever amount of cards are in the person's graveyard, EDH wise this is decent but again lackluster sure you want to have a new deck type in EDH in the form of mill, but it's not viable no matter how much you try, sure you got stuff like Keening Stone, Archive trap and hell even Nemesis of Reason to help the job but in a singleton format this sucks. I would so pass on this card if i were you, it's not really that good when you think about and whenever the chosen player dies this becomes useless, so considering that you'd rather run in a Black/Blue mill/graveyard build nothing more, well that's about it for this one so till next time this is vergil signing off.

Commander Update Part 2: How the hell did this get in my EDH deck

Hello all you fine peoples of the internet and welcome back to the commander update, part 2 of this series of articles in basically a multi spoilerage of awesomeness, two cards on the agenda for today and one of them is featured in every deck, betcha can't guess which one hmm, let's take a look see.

First on the agenda today is the MTGcommander.net preview of Lightning Greaves which is super awesome and super fun to play, dude crap just got real in my EDH deck with this bad boy, shroud and haste are the name of the game when it comes to this and believe you me, this is a necessity for any EDH deck since it's a artifact and is basically fitting for any general build including a elf build, with a equip cost of 0 mana and a CMC of 2 mana to bring out, this is a bad boy card with some nasty trickery up it's sleeve, expect to see this in a lot of the precon decks i would think because of it's sheer awesomeness.

Onto the next one, wait this was spoiled by who the mothership site aka DailyMTG.com, are you kidding me, if you don't know what i am talking bout, today's arcana basically states a lot of awesome is going down and this next card i am featuring is in all 5 of the decks featured for this little revamp, let's take a look at the new art this card has received first.

It has begun, it's Sol Ring an EDH powerhouse of a accelerant and a limited list staple since all other decks can only use 1 of this card, this is a perfect fit into this format, since it's a singleton format, seriously new art, play a land, drop this, cast a greaves and pass basically just saying gimme the win, this is featured in all five commander decks, Devour for Power, Mirror Mastery, Counterpunch, Heavenly Inferno and Political Puppets though the current price of the card is still 20 bucks expect this to return to it's measly 10 dollar range thanks to this announcement making it that much easier for anyone to pick this one up, thanks wizards.

Anyhoo that's bout it for today, since these two announcements need to sink in to me at least and i will hopefully be able to get my hands on at least 2 of the decks in question, till next time this is vergil signing off.