New Phyrexia Arts and Analysis

So it's that time again analysis and art showings for a new set and well it's time to begin with some interesting arts shown off in one of DailyMTG's articles now let's first show off art no 1.

The name of the creature depicted here is Phyrexian Metamorph, which is one of the upcoming cards in the new set, New Phyrexia, as you can clearly see he's surrounded by dark and dreary settings and has a lot of sharp points on his tentacles meaning he's really nasty, my guess is he is a infecter and has something along the lines of deathtouch based off the art, since he looks like a black creature but again i could be wrong.

Time for another art and this is one i think a lot of people will be surprised at take a look at this bad boy

This is Sheoldred, Whispering One she is apparently supposed to be in this set, surprisingly this means we are gonna have a legend heavy set, since the 5 praetors are confirmed pretty much and well we could see Karn in some form later on, she looks like a green creature to me and well if i am wrong so sue me, but there are 175 cards in this set so we could see her in some form later on, but if wizards wants us to know there are arts for this set, well it could very well happen. Next on the list is a weird art but it has some meaning to Mirran's in the form of a certain artifact creature

Does this remind anyone of anything yet, if not this is depicting Karn himself or a bust of him on some form of Altar, as Mirran's uphold him as their saviour and Phyrexians revere him as their god since the essence of Yawgmoth is in him since the time spiral block incident, this looks like it could be a artifact card probably a rare like Venser's Journal from the Scars of Mirrodin set or something along those lines, next is a strange piece that i'd like to see made into a card personally.

Now depicted in the picture above is a Phyrexian Female stabbing a lowly Mirran with what appears to be s symbol of their rule, probably a spell of some sort, will we see this kind of thing in New Phyrexia who knows but all i can say is this is one of those days were speculation is key since the release of this set is just over a month away at this point, but if it is a spell of some sort, perhaps it might have deathtouch or Infect or even possess some pump ability we will have to wait and see. There is one last piece of art i'd like to talk about here and it's a Mirran flavour card.

Now if this isn't a giant Myr i don't know what is, will we see this art used in the set i think so since usually when wizards gives us arts like this they are used in some form for their newer sets regardless of what they are, but i expect this to be some form of Myr artifact creature personally probably one of their mothers much like Dragon Broodmother is for dragon creatures alike, will we see this spawn tokens like the Broodmother who knows but all i can say is watch out the Mirran's aren't done yet with Phyrexia.

Well that's all for now and such, stay tuned in the next couple of days i am sure there will be more articles to write about and all that stuff, but for now Mirrans and Phyrexians alike stay tuned and keep a eye on the spoilers in the next week or so, this is vergil signing off.

"Action" is New Phyrexia

That's right kiddies it was anticpated that this third and final set of the scars of mirrodin block was going to be New Phyrexia and well it's turned out to be true thanks to the mothership announcement located here Arcana Announcement which was no surprise also revealed a new mythic rare wanna see it, do you wanna see it, hell yes you do.

Wow your probably thinking this is the card that was spoiled alongside this announcement let's take a look at this bad boy it costs 7 mana to summon, it's legendary status allows only one of this type of card to be present at all times, it has vigilance and gives other creatures you control +2/+2 for the rest of the game it is on the field but that is not all, it gives other creatures your opponents control -2/-2 so any weaklings die instantly to it's wrath, now that's all good but it's a 4/7 for 7 mana you get 3 abilites plus a 4/7 beatstick can anyone say wow this thing is broken immediately but look at it this way we got 4 more praetors to look at when they are revealed.

As per usual in about 2 days time i will begin my usual spoilers for here and that, so stay tuned for those i just wanted to give you guys something to look forward to, as usual with every set from now on, also does anyone remember the game day promos i spoiled well both are in this so Suture Priest and of course Pristine Talisman will have numbers and of course the same abilites as they were featured in the game day promos, 3 down 172 to go till next time this is vergil saying remember if you wake up and find a horse's head in your bed run, it's probably phyrexians wanting to kill you see ya next time.

Magic 2012 Speculation and Discussion

As per usual about 3 or 4 months before a new set is released it's time to discuss the potential of Magic 2012 and the recent rumours surrounding it, first off we have the fact that one of the two remaining Alpha cards, Giant Growth and Giant Spider will not be reprinted for this year's core set, in fact if i had to guess i'd say Giant Growth was going to get reprinted since it's a combat trick and everyone loves a combat trick in almost any format but i digress. Second is the rumour that a certain 1 drop red spell will not get reprinted according to MTGsalvation this card is of course Lightning Bolt the infamous 1 drop red spell that does 3 points of damage and now officially has become a 2 dollar card because it is so good in a format like this, due to the nature and severity of the rumour i cannot show it to you since there are quite a few arguements going on in that topic, they do that all the time over there but just check out the rumour mill for more information.

Let's take a look at last year's major red cards that managed to sneak their way out of the format known as Standard shall we, beginning with a top 5 list of what i believe was good in M11 for the color red.

5. Fling - I feel this card was a lot of fun to play, attack with a 6 power dude get 6 damage in, sac the dude to this and with fire servant was on the field it deals 12 damage instead, great combo card that literally makes good things happen.

4. Goblin Chieftain - What is there to say about a goblin lord, that provides both a pump and gives other goblins haste, this was the focus of a deck i feel is under played and under valued, though it's a small precentage it's still a decent card for most respects.

3. Inferno Titan - When the titan cycle arrived i thought to myself oh great here we go again, this one was no different along side it's Black/Blue and Green Cousins it proved to be a standard force as well as the white one, but this made a difference because it deals damage even when it enters the battlefield for 6 mana, as well as when it attacks, monstrous anyone?

2. Pyroclasm - This two drop made white weenie and Fae cry so badly turn 2 bitterblossom no problem, sit on a pyroclasm boom instant fae killer, turn 2 geopede no problem boom instant geopede killer it killed a lot of creatures and gave advantages to all whom used it, i wouldn't be surprised to see this for the next core set.

1. Lightning Bolt - As expected this card saw serious play for the 2 years it was in standard, i expect it to be in a lot of Boros builds along with some Red Deck Wins builds but overall it is a great turn 1 burn spell that literally is a finishing blow to most opponents, most end up scooping when they get hit with 3 or 4 copies of this bad boy spell.

Further speculation may end up revealing that we may see some new cycle of cards who's to say, but we do know 2 things 1) There will probably be 2 new walkers on the block taking Ajani and Lillana's Spot in the color block, 2) This set should be a doozy and provide some sort of fun for us all, till next time this is is vergil signing off.

DCI Announcement and Rules Changes: Effective as of April 1st, 2011

So everyone and their mother has heard the news up to this point there is a new rule change in the books and it is effectively only hitting 2 headed giant players, in regards to poison counters and how many a team can receive since each team effectively starts with 30 life in a game, this means they've upped the poison counters to 15 1 for every 2 points of life making this pretty balanced, the rule changes down below are going to be in quotation marks

Announcement Date: March 18, 2011
Effective Date: April 1, 2011
Magic Online Effective Date: TBD
Scars of Mirrodin Block Constructed, Standard, Extended, Legacy, Vintage
No changes
Two-Headed Giant Rules Change: Poison Counters
Effective April 1, the rules for poison counters in Two-Headed Giant games are changing. Players will no longer get poison counters individually. Rather, teams will get poison counters. In addition, a team loses the game when it has 15, not 10, poison counters. The Comprehensive Rules will be updated to reflect these changes.
Two-Headed Giant Poison Mini-FAQ
Q: Do these changes affect the way in which attackers are declared or combat damage is dealt in Two-Headed Giant?
A: No. Each team's creatures, including those with infect, attack the other team as a group. Combat damage is still dealt to each player individually, although the result of that damage (from a source with infect) is the player's team receiving an appropriate number of poison counters.
Q: If the opposing team has one or more poison counters and I proliferate, how may poison counters can I give them?
A: One. You choose the team as a whole to receive one more poison counter. This is a new exception to the normal proliferate procedure.
Q: If my team has one or more poison counters, will an opposing Septic Rats get its bonus?
A: Yes. Both players on a team are poisoned if that team has one or more poison counters.
Q: Do these changes affect any other formats or variants?
A: No. Two-Headed Giant is the only variant affected by this change.

Now this means if your playing a infect deck during this type of game you have to essentially deal 15 points of infect damage to successful win a game, should be easy right wrong, though if you attack both opponents with poison capable creatures then perhaps it is possible who can say, all i do know is the changes have reflected the way 2HG is played in both competitve and of course casual stand points.

Slivers and Infect being the only two archtypes being affected by this since silvers have Virulent Sliver and Infect has almost everything at it's disposal i am willing to say this news doesn't bode well, however the surprising thing is there was no unbanned or banned cards for this update, which shocked even me, since this was the only noteworthy change, i've decided to make this article as short as possible for a update, this is vergil signing off.

Duel Deck: Knights vs Dragons Decklists and Review

So i figured instead of doing a review on this i would go over the lists themselves and believe me they are somewhat dissapointing to be quite honest, only like 12 decent cards per deck and the rest is utter crap in my humble opinion so without further ado let's look at the lists for these decks.

Knights

Creatures (24)

1 Caravan Escort

2 Lionheart Maverick

2 Knight of Cliffhaven

1 Knight of Meadowgrain

1 Knight of the White Orchid

1 Leonin Skyhunter

1 Silver Knight (new art)

1 White Knight

1 Knotvine Paladin

1 Steward of Valeron

1 Benalish Lancer

1 Zhalfirin Commander

1 Knight Exemplar

1 Knight of the Reliquary (new art)

1 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers

1 Kabira Vindicator

1 Kinsbaile Cavalier

1 Alaborn Cavalier

1 Skyhunter Patrol

1 Plover Knights

1 Juniper Order Ranger

1 Paladin of Prahv

Other Spells (12)

1 Harm's Way

1 Reciprocate

1 Edge of Autumn

1 Mighty Leap

1 Reprisal

1 Test of Faith

1 Heroes' Reunion

1 Sigil Blessing

1 Loxodon Warhammer (new art)

1 Spidersilk Armor

1 Griffin Guide

1 Oblivion Ring

Lands (24)

2 Grasslands

1 Sejiri Steppe

2 Selesnya Sanctuary

1 Treetop Village

12 Plains

6 Forest

Dragons

Creatures (17)

1 Cinder Wall

1 Skirk Prospector

1 Bloodmark Mentor

1 Fire-Belly Changeling

2 Mudbutton Torchrunner

1 Dragonspeaker Shaman

2 Dragon Whelp

1 Henge Guardian

1 Voracious Dragon

1 Bogardan Rager

1 Mordant Dragon

1 Kilnmouth Dragon

1 Shivan Hellkite

1 Thunder Dragon

1 Bogardan Hellkite (new art)

Other Spells (19)

2 Armillary Sphere

1 Dragon's Claw

1 Breath of Darigaaz

2 Dragon Fodder

1 Punishing Fire (new art)

1 Spitting Earth

1 Captive Flame

1 Ghostfire

1 Seething Song (new art)

1 Seismic Strike

1 Claws of Valakut

1 Temporary Insanity

1 Shiv's Embrace

1 Cone of Flame

2 Fiery Fall

1 Jaws of Stone

Lands (24)

24 Mountain

Let's start with knights since it's the most dissapointing i've ever seen, i mean who cares for the new silver knight art. White Knight is good however it doesn't usually mean a deck such as this needs it, though as a uncommon it's pretty basic in my humble opinion. We have Levelers in this duel deck as well 2 Knight of Cliffhaven and a Kabira Vindicator not good i can see getting this for the Exemplar, Reliquary, Lancer and of course Paladin of Prahv since these four cards alone make knights worth it but only those four are the real good stuff oh and Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers as well since he has a seriously good cost and does things that are awesome.

Now let's talk a little bit about the spells of the Knights deck, Warhammer, O-Ring and Harm's way are quite the little package here as these three alone can save your ass when your in a fire, Blessing, Reunion and even Reprisal of all things are worthwhile even as a sweet combat trick but the dissapointment lies in the 0 mana costing Spidersilk Armor, i know it has reach and all but Spidersilk Armor is like the worst choice we all know just give me Nimbus wings instead and those nasty dragons won't stand a ghost of a chance, other then that the standard knights package of spells is present and accounted for, including Reciprocate, Test of Faith and even Griffin Guide, pretty decent spell package even if it is small.

Lands for the knights deck are pretty self explanatory, you've got the standard Grasslands, Sejiri steppe for protection, Selesnya Sanctuary for your dual mana needs, a Treetop village to make a 3/3 ape when you got the mana and basics to boot, overall rounding out the knights deck with some kick butt intution.

Dragons is a lot more dissapointing as i thought wizards precons and duel decks were getting better with Elspeth vs Tezzert and even the next walker filled one Ajani vs Nicol Bolas but i was wrong, creatures for the Dragons deck may include Cinder wall, hold up cinder wall yeah unless you got a soul's fire for that it's a worthless card and besides it blows up when it blocks, Skirk Prospector ok now you're pulling my strings wizards seriously there are few goblins in this deck, but i understand why dragons need a serious power boost and this is one of the reasons why dragons are so powerful, ok continuing on Bloodmark mentor and Fire-Belly Changeling, sure a firebreathing effect and first strike is nice when these two are in play but the firebreathing eats mana like crazy and besides what is better. Mudbutton Torchrunner that's for sure, this little dude is crazy stupidly good you all know what he should do right bout now and all that, your standard dragonian package is present here with Whelps, Voracious, Mordant, Kilnmouth and a Shivan Hellkite and Thunder Dragon along with the affore mentioned Bogardan Hellkite, pretty decent i must admit but i was also expecting a little more oomph for your buck but i will take what i can get these days.

The rest is a pretty standard Dragons pack, mountains for lands, a seething song with new art, Claws of Valakut, etc pretty overall impressive as it's time for the final score of this precon duel deck as i am forced to give this a rather dissapointing 6 out of 10, wizards could have done so much better with this, implenmenting a package of dragons which would have rocked and the fact Knights got the better of the two packages, makes me wonder if this is actually worth picking up, but at 19.99 i am sure it's gonna fly off the shelves as with all other wizards products, so that's it for me, this is vergil signing off

"Action" Update

So earlier this week we've got a look at the packaging for the 3rd and final set for the scars of mirrodin block, it will either be New Phyrexia or Mirrodin Pure, now what this means is the following wizards isn't telling us who wins the war till spoilers leak which should be roughly in april since the set is scheduled for a may release, 2) it means that wizards won't even tell us if those two game day promos will have that art or set symbol which means we could be seeing something a new set that's different for a change in the mirrodin block i cannot say because i do not directly work at wizards of the coast and probably never will but i do play the game and all that.

Onto the information, the packaging of the set is going to look a little something like the picture below.

On one of the boxes is Platinum Angel and the other is Phyrexian Plaguelord featured on the arts of the precon deck boxes as well as the booster box and fat pack, what does this mean we could be looking at a new Platinum Angel, or perhaps we could be seeing a certain plaguelord in the house with a new walker along side him maybe Karn anyone, hell if i know but this seems like it's a decent set thus far and is sure to excite and make all magic fans happy or so i would hope, now for those not paying attention, look closely on the Mirrodin Pure Precons you'll see 4 different precons a Black/Red, a Green/Blue, a White/Red and of course a Black/Blue precon so all five pieces of the color pie are represented with Red, Blue and Black being most dominant, does this prove Mirrodin loses the war, for those with photoshop could you perhaps figure out a way to make the photo from above because i am curious as to what the packaging looks like for booster packs for this set and am eager to see the whole set in detailed packaging, but again we don't know a thing yet as to who wins the war, so for this short article i give you all one little piece of advice, Don't count your chickens before they hatch, this is vergil signing off.

Innistrad Announcement, Information and Analysis

So monday we got the big reveal on "Shake" the newest starter block to be coming out this fall and let's go over some of the many details of the set first.

Cards in the Set: 264 [Yes you heard me a starter set that is more then 249 cards, a rare occurence.]
Design Team: Mark Rosewater (Lead), Richard Garfield, Jenna Helland, Graeme Hopkins, Tom LaPille
Development Team: Erik Lauer (lead),Mark L. Gottlieb, David Humpherys,Tom LaPille, Adam Lee, Kenneth Nagle
Release Date: September 30th, 2011
Prerelease Events: September 24th and 25th, 2011
Launch Parties: September 30th to October 3rd, 2011
Magic Online Release Date: October 17th, 2011
Magic Game Day: October 29th and 30th, 2011
Set 1 of 3 In the Innistrad Block


So now that the big reveal is outta the way, it's time to get down to business, innistrad was codenamed shake for a while and was part of the code name set "Shake" "Rattle" and "Roll" with roll being the 3rd and final set of the block, as expected, when this comes out, M11 will rotate out of standard along with Zendikar, Worldwake and Rise of the Eldrazi and will more then likely go on sale for about 120 dollars a box. This however is the first time a new set like this was revealed before the 3rd set of the current block which in this case is Scars of Mirrodin with either a New Phyrexia or a Pure Mirrodin being the outcome of the war, but that's for another day today it's innistrad's turn to get the treatment.

Below there are a few pictures of some stuff already revealed from the set, let's take a look see shall we?

The first one is the symbol of the set which looks sort of like a 3 headed hydra of some sorts, meaning one of two things this set will have dark and gothic undertones while featuring a overall feel of magic the gathering, since mythical creatures like hydras have been more apparent in recent sets with the 6 cards, Apocalypse Hydra a mythic rare from Conflux, Feral Hydra from Shards of Alara, Khalni Hydra from Rise of the Eldrazi, Phyrexian Hydra from the latest set Mirrodin Besieged, Progenitus from Conflux again and finally Protean Hydra from the latest core set M11, what's the one thing these bad boys have in common they all carry green mana symbols in their costs so could we be looking at a new green hydra soon, time will tell. Or could we see a brand new element to the game we've not seen before, as always we will have to wait and see.

The second picture is of a woman sitting on a throne with a dead corpse behind her and a few other things i am unable to make out behind in the background however i do believe it to be some sort of zombie as far as my eyes can tell, but moving onto the foreground of the second picture, this woman looks a lot like a certain black planeswalker Lillana Vess from the core set of course but since her recent Axing from the set she's left without a place to go or is she, could this very well be the story of how she became a walker and could we see a new Vess walker card at the end of it all like we saw the return of a certain dragon from past sets, here's looking at you Nicol Bolas you crafty dragon walker you.

Anyhoo that's bout all she wrote this time round since of course i have a lot more to examine, future sets to find and all that neat stuff as a magic player, till next time i'll be seeing you round the multiverse see ya.

MTG Set Review #9 Shards of Alara

You know the old attige "Where there is smoke, this is fire" well in this case smoke and fire are a good thing as we return to Alara for the last time cause after this it is time to move on and discuss more sets, this set had 234 cards, 20 of those were lands, the other 214 cards were the start of something nice in the form of Mythic rarity levels including new walkers, new combo cards and hell even some new dragons, new abilites in the form of Exalted, Devour and of course Unearth as well as the triple shards such as Esper, Jund, Bant, Naya and Grixis so let us begin

Each of the shards in this set has a distinct triangle of colors, Bant has White/Green/Blue which has it's own uses, Esper has the White/Blue/Black shard which i am a personal fan of, Jund has the Red/Green/Black shard which there are a lot of dragons there, Naya has the White/Green/Red shard devoted to giant power creatures such as Woolly Thoctar and finally Grixis has devoted itself to the Black/Blue/Red shard with tricks and that to annoy the heck out of anyone in it's way, overall these five shards have various elements all throughout this block and set, but none more so then the lands based off them which i will discuss later in the article but first it's time to look at the mythics for this set once again.

15 mythics were printed for this set and 4 walkers were among the printed few let's see the list for this set's mythics. Ajani Vengenant, Elspeth, Knight Errant, Empyrial Archangel, Godsire, Hellkite Overlord, Kresh the Bloodbraided, Lich's Mirror, Mayael the Anima, Prince of Thralls, Rafiq of the Many, Sarkhan Vol, Sedris, the Traitor King, Sharuum the Hegemon, Sphinx Sovereign and Tezzert the Seeker were all the printed mythics for this set, there were 5 legendary creatures made in these mythics and there was one for each and every shard of the set, however the most impressive thing of this set was the fact mythic rares began here making planeswalkers mythic rares and other cards as well since we had 4 walkers in this first set alone. Out of the many mythics in this set only 6 saw play, the 4 walkers, Tezzert, Sarkhan Vol, Elspeth and Ajani were obvious enough, Mayael the Anima is a very big time general for EDH and she was featured in quite a few up and coming decks but the big guns belonged to Rafiq of the Many and Sedris since those two were prominent and very powerful with abilites no one was expecting, Rafiq making Bant's exalted mechanic more annoying to deal with and Sedris making unearth possible for your entire deck which is nice and all but the trend of expensive walkers began with this set, as Ajani, Elspeth and Tezzert all started out over 20 dollars a piece and did not go down during the time this set was in standard at all.

Time for the rares to get featured in this edition of the review and believe me there were some very powerful rares in this set, we saw a new cycle of rares called the Ultimatium's and of course some kick butt dragons, artificers and even some nasty new combo cards so let's begin with the list, Ad Nauseam, Archdemon of Unx, Battlegrace Angel, Brillant Ultimatium, Broodmate Dragon, Caldera Hellion, Clarion Ultimatium, Convenant of Minds, Cradle of Vitality, Crucible of Fire, Cruel Ultimatium, Cunning Lethemancer, Death Baron, Ethersworn Canonist, Feral Hydra, Flameblast Dragon, Gather Specimens, Goblin Assault, Hell's Thunder, Immortal Coil, Invincible Hymn, Kederekt Leviathan, Keeper of Progenitus, Knight of the White Orchid, Knight Captain of Eos, Manaplasm, Master of Etherium, Memory Erosion, Mindlock Orb, Minion Reflector, Myocoloth, Ooze Garden, Predator Dragon, Punish Ignorance, Quietus Spike, Ranger of Eos, Realm Razer, Sacellum Godspeaker, Salvage Titan, Scourglass, Sedxrais Specter, Sharding Sphinx, Sigil of Distinction, Skill Borrower, Skullmulcher, Spearbreaker Behemoth, Stoic Angel, Tar Fiend, Titanic Ultimatium, Vein Drinker, Vicious Shadows, Violent Ultimatium and Where Ancients Tread were the 53 rares of this set and out of those at least 14 saw play, all the knights, Ranger of Eos, hell even Ad Nauseam saw a combo deck in legacy due to the fact how good it is, Control got some cards like Canonist to do it's bidding, Broodmate Dragon became a staple after this set being seen in every ramp deck to date, so many cards made their mark here and proved there were worth it, we even saw 3 of the 5 ultimatiums being played in various decks at this time, making it one of the format defining sets in the past 5 years, not even time spiral block did this well.

However to be far this set did have a color scheme in the form of shards, with the fact most cards from this set turned out to not be Mono Colored and instead they were sometimes 2 or even 3 color cards, take the uncommon Tower Gargoyle from this set it costs 1, a blue, a black and a white mana to cast it and for a 4/4 flyer from this set it's awesome enough to warrant any deck builder's best creature choice award, well mine anyways, that's all for today, since i prefer to let the sets speak for themselves and all and remember artifacts are always waiting to be found in the wide world we live in, so enjoy it while you can this is vergil signing off.

Magic 2012 Update, Duels of the Planeswalkers announcement info

So as per expected, this time at PAX east wizards of the coast did something no one would expect and that is to throw out new walkers for the core set, that's right new walkers but who are these new walkers, we've seen them before that is clue 1, clue 2 is the fact they were recently featured in last year's 3 set block, go on guess it's Sorin Markov and Gideon Jura who seems to be replacing Lillana and Ajani in their respective color block as shown by the photo here.

Note the new art on Garruk, Chandra and Jace in this particular poster and the fact sorin is very apparent as well as Gideon whom we saw in Rise of the Eldrazi as the prominent mono white walker, will there be new abilites perhaps no one can say at this point in time, however i can say this, it's nice to see some fresh faces in a core set block like those two whom were probably the most popular mono colored walkers in recent years besides Garruk of course but i digress.

Besides just this Duels of the Planeswalkers is getting a new game and a new gametype Archenemy remember that multiplayer game wizards brought out not too long ago well it's being included into this particular game and believe me it's pretty amazing to hear a multiplayer game being included in a video game such as this, it will be arriving on store shelves as of this summer believe it or not, so it's near complete and i'm glad they are returning to this and the fact they've also got expansions for the original duels of the planeswalkers which was pretty successful among magic fans. I hope to see it do as well as it's predecessor in store shelves come this summer along side the Magic 2012 expansion which comes out in the middle of July, anyhoo that's all for today cause well as they say any news is good news as long as it's magic based, see you all next time.

MTG Set Review #8 Conflux

Ah yes the infamous 1st small set of the Shards of Alara Block in the form of Conflux with 145 cards, pretty much the same breakdown as the Alara Reborn set just more lazily made to be honest, conflux focused on the newest walker or should i say returning walker in the form of Nicol Bolas, a few new abilites in the form of Basic Landcycling and Domain, since this set was just over 2 years ago let's now take a look at the obvious mythics for the set

Mythics in this set came in the form of 10 as per usual with a small set, they were Apocalypse Hydra, Child of Alara, Conflux, Ethersworn Adjudicator, Maelstrom Archangel, Malfegor, Mirror-Sigil Sergeant, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, Progenitus and Thornling. Each one of these particular cards were for various colors for example, Conflux and Progenitus were for all five colors, Nicol Bolas was a Red/Black and Blue walker, you can probably guess the rest of the colours based on this one, each one had it's ups and downs and only 3 of these bad boys ever saw some form of constructed play, Mirror-Sigil Sergeant, Progenitus and Nicol Bolas were the three that saw some serious forms of play when this came out on February 6th, 2009. What was different this time then the 3rd set of the block was there was only 3 legends that came out of this, Child of Alara, Progenitus and Malfegor if you don't count Nicol Bolas himself since the legendary rule applies to him as well since he is a walker and all walkers have their own subtype believe it or not. This being said the 10 mythics were really well priced for a small set with Progenitus being the most expensive at about 10-12 dollars which is really rare to see mythics placed at a low price standing but then again look at the current core set walkers that followed this one, you know the 5 lorwyn walkers where it all began but i digress time to move onto the really good stuff, the rares.

You know how i usually start smack talking a set for not having good rares, well i'm getting my butt whooped here with the fact i've got a lot of good rares to speak of for this set in particular, Banefire, Blood Tyrant, Bloodhall Ooze, Charnelhoard Wurm, Cliffrunner Behemoth, Cylian Sunslinger, Exotic Orchard, Extractor Demon, Font of Mythos, Glitspire Avenger, Goblin Razerunners, Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer, Inkwell Leviathan, Kedkert Parasite, Knight of the Reliquary, Magister Sphinx, Mark of Asylum, Martial Coup, Master Transmuter, Meglonoth, Noble Hierach, Nyaxthid, Obelisk of Alara, Paleoloth, Rakka Mar, Scepter of Dominance, Scepter of Insight, Scepter of Fugue, Sigil of the Empty Throne, Soul's Majesty, Sphinx Summoner, Telemin Performance, Voracious Dragon, Wall of Reverence and Worldheart Phoenix were all the rares this set had to offer and let's see a total of 10 of them saw play most i've seen in a small set in years, except Worldwake of course which had 11 but let's see Naya got a boost from this, Bant did as well ramp got a serious jumpstart, Artifacts became viable again, hell we even got to see some nice burn in the form of Banefire which is just broken, though the uncommons and commons of this set did a good job in showing off power and control overall, we were also blessed with uncommons as Path to Exile, Volcanic Fallout for the Fae Menace and of course my personal favorite Hellspark Elemental making this set a successful one.

As i said from the previous statement this set sold really well and when it first came out everyone was excited for this one it had a sweet promo set in the form of Malefgor for the prerelease and Obelisk of Alara for the release of the set seen in the picture below.

Meaning this set had some serious fun times and with casual players this set turned out to be a blast, i loved this set so much i think i'm gonna go build me a deck based around Malfegor, till next article, stay frosty and remember if you see a demon dragon on the street asking for directions, give him a boot to the head and call on a Knight of the Reliquary, see you all next time.

April 2011 Friday Night Magic Promo Card: Artisan of Kozilek

It's official this next FNM card will shock you, as it has a new symbol, new artwork and everything and for those whom read the title of the article you've just spoiled yourself, It's Artisan of Kozilek from the Rise of the Eldrazi set and boy have i got a few pics to show off.

These images recently surfaced on MtgSalvation and are going to be the new design of the next card including the Logo in the corner of the artwork and the fact there is a big hulking shooting star in the text box it kind of sucks to be honest, but however small this is the newest itirration of the FNM promo card design and is a poor choice thank god i stopped doing these a long time ago, however said it is, i am impressed since this will be a decent one but only for EDH, till next time from this short article this is vergil signing off.

MTG Set Review #7 Alara Reborn

Going in  reverse order here as of now the next set on the chopping block for a formal vergil review is the Alara Reborn Set which premiered early in may 2009 which featured 145 cards in it's set all gold bordered no mono colored cards existed during this set, this was the only set to feature gold bordered cards for the entire set, not even the Ravnica Block contained a set with all gold bordered cards for your information i will be first looking at the rarities starting from mythic all the way down as per usual, so let's begin.

Mythics for this set had only had seen some minor play of course there was the obvious legends such as Jenara, Asura of War, Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund, Sen Triplets, Thraximundar and even Uril, the Miststalker which were all the legends in this set, so 5 of the 10 mythic rares for the set were all legendary creatures, surprising but each one had it's own shard, Jenara for Bant, Karrthus for Jund, Sen Triplets for Esper, Thraxi for Grixis and Uril for the famous Naya color shard, now your probably wondering what are the other five cards in the set that were mythics hold your horses i will get to it now. 5 out of the 10 mythics were not legendary but they had a good balance and most of them were fair, all except for 2 which i will get to in a minute, they were Defiler of Souls, Dragon Broodmother, Sphinx of the Steel Wind, Lord of Extinction and Maelstrom Nexus now the Nexus and the broodmother are so broken it's not even funny for this set though for attending the prerelease you got your hands on a foil dragon broodmother, which i do have in my collection for attending the event and competing in the shards of alara's final block of that season, some of the mythics from this set saw some play including the Broodmother for Jund and even the Lord of Extinction saw some minor play but not enough to warrant him to be at a decent price range, but i digress it's time to move onto the rares of the set which were plentiful and some of them had decks named after them.

Now of the rares of the set which were set to be 34 rares only about 8 of those ever saw some form of play but i'll go down the list for you all to look at. There was Aven Mimomancer, Blitz Hellion, Cloven Casting, Dauntless Escort, Deathbringer Thoctar, Engima Sphinx, Fight to the Death, Fliigree Angel, Finest Hour, Glory of Warfare, Identity Crisis, Knight of New Alara, Knotvine Paladin, Lavalanche, Lich, Lord of Unx, Madrush Cyclops, Maelstrom Pulse, Mayael's Aria, Meddling Mage, Mycoid Shepherd, Necromancer's Convenant, Nemesis of Reason, Predatory Advantage, Retaliator Griffin, Sages of the Anima, Soulquake, Sovereigns of Lost Alara, Spellbound Dragon, Spellbreaker Behemoth, Thought Hemorrhage, Time Sieve, Unscythe, Killer of Kings, Vedalken Heretic, Wargate. Now for the cards themselves the only 8 that ever saw some form of play was the Maelstrom Pulse, Meddling Mage, Nemesis of Reason, Lavalanche, Madrush Cyclops, Knight of New Alara, Wargate and of course Mayael's Aria which made EDH a standard ideal and was a win condition there but i digress, the rares were plentiful and the fact the Precons were a little lackluster was a dissapointment the only worthy one to get at the time was the Naya one which had a foil Spellbreaker Behemoth for me at least it was the only noteworthy one.

Uncommons had a lot to say about this set and determined how the metagame was run, Jund became a dominant force after the release of this set which had a lot in terms of uncommons including Bituminous Blast, Bloodbraid Elf and even other decks benefited from this set including a aggro style mill deck that had Mind Funeral to back it up and a rare in the form of Nemesis of Reason, plus esper was a dominant entity as well, with cards such as Time Sieve to give it extra turns, Tezzert the Seeker to turn on your engine and even Master of Etherium from the Shards of Alara set to make most of these popular decks easy to run, 40 uncommons in the set and even a extended combo was born because of this set, Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek would become a serious threat in Extended and become a staple deck for a year and a half after the release of the Alara Reborn set, overall we saw some defintions of new standard come out of this one and even extended and EDH always get their man in the form of new staple cards, Netdecking became popular due to this set and Jund quickly became a dominant force to be reckoned with overall making Alara Reborn a set like no other, Join me next time where i take a look at Conflux the second set of this block and examine it's ups and downs, till next time this is vergil signing off

Magic the Gathering News: Vol 4, Duel Deck Knights vs Dragons, Results of Paris Magic Weekend and More

So it's that time again, it's time for the monthly addition of the magic news this edition we will be taking a look at some of the stuff i've already discussed including new product which is just releasing very soon, Duel Deck Knights vs Dragons, the Deckbuilder's Toolkit 2.0 and the results of Magic Weekend in Paris so let's go.

As everyone knows by now duel deck knights vs dragons is scheduled for a april 1st launch with 2 decks, one featuring Knight of the Reliquary and the other duel deck featuring Bogardan Hellkite as the mythic rares, each deck will be 60 cards, feature about 5 rares per deck and will go for about 19.99 roughly in the united states, here it will probably end up being about 24.99 roughly due to store owner's liking to make money off the danged thing, the deck lists have yet to be revealed but as you may recall i talked about this most recently in the last discussion article linked here ----> Knights vs Dragons Talk so you can catch up and see what all the hype is about,

Next on the list is the deckbuilder's toolkit 2.0 following up on the success of the last toolkit released about this time last year, it will again feature 285 cards, 100 lands, 125 random cards and 4 booster packs and will go for about 20 dollars as i said in the article here ----> Toolkit Article this toolkit is a great way for those to get started once again in magic and i feel it important to discuss the aspects of buying this, it gives you ideas for decks, as well as tips and tricks from the pros themselves, since wizards asks for their input for these things, it gives all the necessites to get started, basic lands, random cards and booster packs, it also gives you a neat carrying case for up to 4 decks, as well as being spaced out enough to fit in your backpack or bag of your choice, it's cheap and even suits those magic players whom have not been able to keep up with standard. It also has 4 random boosters from current standard sets and even features stunning artwork on the back of the box this is usually a hot seller look at the first one for crying out loud.

Magic weekend paris was a doozy of a weekend featuring both a Pro Tour and a Grand Prix at the same time, this being the first time in history this has happened and the fact the player of the year race was decided at this event, Brad Nelson took home the title of player of the year from Guillaume Matignon whom played brillantly but brad took it in 5 games to win the 2010 player of the year, this being old news though let's recap the last month of grand prix's and all that, we've seen new standard decks in the form of Tezzert Control, some ramp decks like Valakut and even some aggressive decks like quest decks which are somewhat cheap to build, overall this is pretty solid and features a lot of new ideas for the coming months which also fuel PTQ's and even FNM's to boot, should be a good one.

Well that's all for this month's edition if you have a idea for me for next month's news let me know down below in the comments and till next time readers, keep your magic hand strong, because you never know there might be a oppourtunity for you to be at the next Pro Tour just around the corner see you all next time.

Casual Deck Examination: #4 Myr.DEC

It's that time again it's time for another casual deck examination this edition will feature the latest stuff coming off the Scars of Mirrodin Block including some very powerful Myr type cards, so let's begin with the decklist as usual shall we?


Lands = 21
6 Plains
4 Forest
3 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Swamp
2 Mountain
2 Island



Creatures = 26
3 Myr Battlesphere
3 Iron Myr
4 Silver Myr
3 Copper Myr
3 Gold Myr
4 Myr Galvanizer
3 Myrsmith
3 Leaden Myr

Spells = 11
2 Titanic Ultimatum
2 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Diabolic Tutor
1 Revoke Existence
1 Path to Exile
1 Doom Blade
1 Volcanic Fallout
1 Demolish

Sideboard = 15
2 Path to Exile
2 Journey to Nowhere
3 Argentum Armor
2 Indomitable Archangel
3 Myr Propagator
4 Master's Call

Now the rares are something since there are quite a few of them to talk about, first being the Myr Battlesphere it's literally the biggest dude in the deck and it makes more dudes when it drops, this being the only rare maindeck creature at 7 mana, the other rares for the deck are Cruel and Titanic Ultimatium which both are very useful for a clinch in this deck, it's a decent engine with a lot of potential in it. Sideboard wise most of the other rares are here, Argentum Armor, Archangel and even Myr Propagator make the sideboard possible and a lot more fun, since metalcraft is the most prominent in this deck i can also run 2 copies of the Archangel to ensure the sideboard has a lot of options and is protecting the main deck from getting annhilated.

Uncommons for the deck may or may not include a 2 of Path to Exile, which i intend to replace with Swords to Plowshares, Master's Call which makes more Myr dudes, a full set of Tutors, a shotgun Volcanic Fallout for a board sweeper and even a Myr Galvanizer for that extra bit of bad assery in the late game, the maindeck Path is also going to be replaced with a swords to plowshares as well. However the main meat of the deck is the Myrsmith, dumping a bunch of 1/1's in play isn't bad enough but when 2 Galvanizers are on the field it's bad times in little haiti for you since you're now facing a bunch of 3/3 dudes with some serious butt whoop.

The rest of the deck is the commons, all 5 mana myr are present for the deck making most of the creature base, the rest of the shotgun engine including Doom Blade, Revoke Existence and even a Demolish just to ensure that keycard is removed from the game that is annoying you, overall it's a beast of a deck and in the right hands it can do a infinte combo mana wise and make sure you play all 4 Ulti's in a single turn if you have them in hand, otherwise it's a decent engine with a lot to say for itself early on, offense and defense wise this is perhaps the 2nd best offensive deck i've got if you do things right, if not then it's the worst, it's all down to the timing of the deck and how bad it is, so i would have to say if you have the cash go out and build this since it's about 60-75 dollars to put together if you are lucky enough to wanna get into this format, so till next time this is vergil signing off and saying remember, mana myr, big battlespheres and even some overpowered angels can make the difference, see ya next time.