Innistrad Spoilers: Preview Week Day 3

Hello everyone and welcome to Day 3 of the 1st week of innistrad previews, today we have a bit of a doozy for you in terms of power level, our first walker of the set is revealed at last, 2 more cards as well were revealed including a double sided card that may prove to be a nuisance in standard, let's get down to business.

What in the hell is this you may be wondering, well this is your new Lillana of the set, +1 each player discards a card, -2 Target player sacrifices a creature -6 Seperate all permanents target player controls into two piles. That player sacrifices all permanents in the pile of his/her choice. Her abilities are decent but kinda lackluster for Lillana 2.0, of course she's gotta be a mythic rare, costs believe it or not the same converted mana cost as Jace Beleren and has a starting loyalty of 3, yes 3, same starting loyalty as Jace 1.0 as well, sounds like wizards just did a copy and paste job on Lillana from Jace, are those two in cahoots who knows, enough about walkers right now let's take a look at a new dual sided card shall we.

Kruin Outlaw/Terror of Kruin Pass are the names of these two cards, the outlaw costs 1 and 2 red mana, is a rare, with first strike, 2/2 at the beginning of each upkeep if no spells were cast last turn, transform this into Terror of Kruin Pass, the nightime form is a tad different 3/3 with double strike and basically gives the ability to be unblocked by a single creature for werewolves, is also a rare and at the beginning of each upkeep if a player cast two or more spells this turn, transform Terror of Kruin Pass into it's daytime form, interesting but it's nice to see wizards cares about the wolf tribe now, with that being said here's the final card of the day.

Fiend Hunter is basically Leonin Relic-Warder 2.0 except it's human is a 1/3 and basically exiles a creature when it enters the battlefield, when it leaves the battlefield, return the exiled card to the battlefield under it's owner's control, costs 1 and 2 white mana and is a uncommon, this is kinda unexpected to print another one of these types of cards personally, however i am not surprised since the success of the Relic Warder has given wizards a recent reason to print this kind of crap, anyhoo that's all she wrote for today, stay tuned for tommorow for Day 4 of the Innistrad week 1 previews, for now this is vergil signing off

Magic the Gathering News: Vol 9: FTV: Legends/Innistrad/Duel Deck Venser vs Koth

Hello everyone and welcome back to the 9th monthly wrap up just in time for september, this edition i will talk about From the Vault: Legends, Innistrad and the Duel Deck: Venser vs Koth announcement which was made earlier in the month, so let's go.

From the Vault is a yearly edition where selected cards go through a foiling process unique to this set, each year they have a different them, last year was From the Vault: Relics which showed off the now obsolete Sword of Body and Mind since it was a all artifact based set, now this one is 15 legendary creatures all famous in magic, 14 old, 1 new which was our preview for Innistrad, which we know to be Mikaeus, the Lunarch and since each and every card was being printed in this fashion some of the legends in this set were for the first time black bordered and in living color, for the full list on from the vault go here --> From the Vault: Legends with that outta the way let's talk about Innistrad

Innistrad as we all know is a gothic themed horror set with 264 cards in it, we've already gotten around 60 of those said cards, with 15 of those basic lands, why 15 well there is a reason behind this, the number of basics are going to be cut from 20 to 15 due to the fact they need to print what is known as Checklist cards for this set, since for the first time in magic history, we have dual sided cards, much to the chagrin of other players which i am not fond of, but let's see how it rolls out to be shall we, 20 of the cards in innistrad are going to be double sided cards, with one of them being a planeswalker according to the checklist card in which i spoiled here ---> Innistrad Mechanics Article which details the names and mana costs of the 20 cards in this set, besides people are saying Garruk's nighttime form is a Black/Green dude, wrong nighttime cards won't have a mana cost, they have a transformation clause, which causes them to transform into their nighttime/daytime forms with little difficulty due to it being a horror set. Finally i'd like to touch on the one thing that has been bothering me in this set, the rarity issue, according to wizards of the coast some booster packs due to them having a dual sided card in each may end up screwing the rarity and we might get like 3 rares a pack 2 regular, 1 foil, kinda like time spiral all over again, seriously i'm not impressed about this little thing, but when i buy a box come the end of september you know i will be talking about this in glorious detail, last but most certainly not least is the Venser vs Koth announcement for the duel deck series.

As you may remember earlier in the month we got the arcana announcement for the Venser vs Koth duel deck which is going to hit store shelves in March of next year, see the arcana here ---> Venser vs Koth Arcana and we also know there is going to be new art on both the Venser and Koth in the deck, retailing for about 20 bucks as per usual which is not much of a surprise personally, i may end up picking one or two of these dual decks up after all since of course they will go on sale around tax time, means big money for me, hooray, anyways we don't know much else on this and i won't speculate on the duel deck so that means that's it for another edition of the Magic Monthly News via the Emporium, stay tuned next month where i will most likely talk about Innistrad some more, till next time this is vergil signing off

Innistrad Spoilers: Preview Week Day 2

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Innistrad spoilers, this is for the day 2 spoilers, which basically covers anything i've not talked about as of yet, let's start with the Star City Games preview we've got for you in the form of a card called Mentor of the Meek

Seriously is this guy going to get broken, he allows for card draw, is a 2/2, weenies worship this kinda thing i think it's the kind of thing most decks are going to adore in this set, he's a rare by the way and costs a mere 2 and a white mana, really this is nuts, this guy is just plain nuts in this set, we are going to be seeing a lot of weenies in Innistrad and i think this guy found a home, well done wizards you printed a modern worthy card, onto the first mythic to get spoiled this week, he's black and a demon.

Reaper from the Abyss is his name and wow, Morbid couldn't come on a better beatstick 6/6 for 3 and 3 black, mythic rare, flies, his morbid ability is so retarded, he blows up any non demons if a creature died and in this set, creatures die left and right, so expect this to trigger constantly he's a Doom Blade/Go for the Throat/Terror for all non demons, now confirm my reprint of Terror wizards, with that being said here's the final Mommaship preview today in the form of a flashback card.

Silent Depature is a card with Flashback, costs 1 blue to play, is basically a Unsummon and has a flashback cost of 4 and a blue mana, is a common and wow it's kinda lackluster personally, oh well i guess this means we've got a lot less to talk about, oh wait one more thing our new duals for this set, pictures down below

I've already previews Woodland Cemetery but we got all the remaining dual lands for this set, i think, this is the first time in 2 years we've had enemy dual lands, well something with enemy colors since the last duals to be reprinted were fetch lands from zendikar, however this set has provided some real enemy duals, not much to talk about really, except the artwork on these bad boys looks wicked cool, well that's all the time for today, tommorow i will end up doing the monthly review and Day 3, when i have the time of course, till next time this is vergil signing off

Innistrad Spoilers: Preview Week Day 1

Hello everyone and welcome to today's first article of the day, which is all about the preview week's spoilers for Day 1 which was yesterday if you count the days of course, today i will be covering all the preview cards for the set given out via Visual Spoiler which can be found here ---> Innistrad Visual Spoiler As well as the articles today, so let's get cracking with our first daytime card called Civilized Scholar

It's a 0/1 with a discard/draw a card effect that also has a effect whether it transforms or not, but the condition is if a creature card was discarded this way, you change it into the next card i am going to talk about which is it's nighttime form, it costs 2 and a blue mana to summon and is a uncommon, which leads me to my next preview of the day Homicidal Brute

This guy is a 5/1 that has to attack each turn, otherwise at the beginning of your end step if it didn't attack, you tap it and transform it back into the Scholar which i already previewed, it is a off color card which is the first of it's kind to be so, so expect to see this weird one a lot at drafts, leading into the 2nd Day/Night cards of the day, check out Village Ironsmith and Ironfang

So for the daytime card it's a 1 and a red mana casting cost, with first strike, a 1/1 and at the beginning of each upkeep if no spells were cast last turn, transform the ironsmith into it's nighttime form, it's nighttime form however is a bit different, 3/1 first strike with the clause if two or more spells were played last turn by one player, transform Ironfang back into it's daytime form, interesting but kinda lackluster personally though it is a common, it is a tad lackluster, with that being said here's the rest of the previews from yesterday in one batch

The only one worth talking about is the 3/3 psuedo lord dude that flies and gives other spirits +1/+0 as long as this is on the battlefield, it costs 5 mana to summon and it's a uncommon as well, well that's all the time for this article, stay tuned for the 2nd one later today where i'll talk about today's previews.

Innistrad PAX Spoilers: Part 2

Hello everyone and welcome back to the final emporium update of the day, today we are going to be taking a look in the 3rd article of the day at the remaining PAX spoilers so let's first begin with a reprint confirmed at PAX since we kinda need to catch up.

First up for the PAX Spoilers is one of my favorite lands from Dissension Ghost Quarter, yes this beauty is getting a reprint finally after what 5 years of waiting, it's about time we see a reprint for today's modern day, new art and all as well to boot, still the same rarity as always a Uncommon, really neat to see this getting a reprint and staying around for another 2 years, thank god wizards, onto a more unique rare with a white card known as Dearly Departed

So it flies, is a 5/5 and gives other humans a enter the battlefield effect of a +1/+1 counter when this is in the graveyard, costs a hefty 6 mana to summon but i think it's well worth it, so it gives off like a permanent lord effect when it dies, so all humans become 1 point of power/toughness stronger then before, plus the effect doesn't go away till the creature with the counter dies, pretty dang good wizards, anyways, remember that art i spoiled a little while ago, well we got the card for it take a look see at the card form of Creepy Doll, of course inspired by the Jonathon Coulton song

So we have a 1/1 construct that is indestrucible, whenever it deals combat damage to a creature, flip a coin, if you win, destroy that creature, really for 5 mana a 1/1 that is a rare, dissapointing wizards, though it's Stuffy Doll 2.0 at least, really terrible, onto the next card which is a vampire.

This is known as Vampire Interloper costs 1 and a black mana to summon, is a 2/1 that flies and can't block, it's at the common level too so expect to see this a lot in draft and the prerelease, but a 2 drop that's a 2/1 and flies is pretty good as a common, personally, with that said let's take a look at a spell that is used for Wolves.

Moonmist is a instant speed spell that changes all humans into werewolves and gives them the ability to cause damage but you cannot take damage during the turn this is cast unless it's by another wolf, 1 and a green mana for a common as well, works nicely with the tribal wolf theme of the set, pretty decent honestly.

Abbey Griffin is another in the long line of psuedo creatures that cost a decent chunk of mana, have basic combat skills and suck, 2/2 for a 4 drop creature that has flying and vigilance, that's it, at the common level too, really wizards was this all you can think of for the first card of the set, goddamn

Last but certainly not least is the card called Stitcher's Apprentice, It's a 1/1 that costs 2 mana and has a mana ability to put 2/2 tokens onto the battlefield, as long as you sacrifice another creature, it's a common so expect it to be present a lot, it's ability is very nice for a card in general and should see a lot of limited play, i hope, anyways that's about it for article no 3 for today, stay tuned tommorow is preview cards for innistrad for Day 1 and 2, this is vergil signing off.

Innistrad Promo Cards

Hello all and welcome to the 2nd edition of the emporium for today, today's 2nd article talks about the promo cards in Innistrad which is this year's new fall set, we've already seen the prerelease cards yes i said cards not card, now let's take a look at what release card that wizards has decided on this year.

Yes it's a earlier card in which i spoiled yesterday, Ludevic's Test Subject/Ludevic's Abomination in promo card form these two are going to be for the release parties which always take place after a set has launched officially and in this case innistrad launches on September 30th, 2011 which the following weekend will have release events all over the world, so you get this cool dual card just for particpating, remember as always with a release you cannot use the promo card in your deck, i try to stress that each time i post a new release card for you folks to view, this was announced via today's magic the gathering mothership arcana, now onto the game day promos for this year, let's take a look see at what wizards wants to give us for our game day this time.

Diregraf Ghoul is the Particpation card this time around, which is not that bad personally, the next card i'm about to show is the card you get for making the top 8 of the game day

Yes Elite Inquisitor is your game day top 8 promo for this set, which isn't much of a surprise to be honest i was expecting this to be something better, now onto the Buy-A-Box promotion card now as well which is supposed to be good

Yes it's Devil's Play which is that sorcery spell with Flashback, you will get this for purchasing a box of Innistrad on the September 30th, 2011 release date, note stores only have to give 1 out to you, so don't be sad if you don't get a full playset of this sorcery, most stores will only have about 20 per store, so not very many going around personally, honestly that's it for today, we all know the prerelease card and know that we have our promo cards for the set, let's get down to spoilers, since it is Innistrad Preview Week no 1 at the mommaship, this is vergil signing off.

Innistrad: Mechanics and How they Work

Welcome to another edition of the emporium where today i get to talk about the mechanics of Innistrad as featured in Sunday's article of justice showing us all the cool mechanics being featured in this year's fall set, let's break it down for those who don't know, Flashback is a returning mechanic, Morbid works in conjuction with another piece of new terminology, Curses are apparent in this set, double sided cards make their first mark on magic and of course a new piece of terminology as well is present so let's begin. For the full information on the rules see the article listed here ---> Innistrad Mechanics

So for returning players of the game, they will be happy to know Flashback is a returning mechanic for this set, however there's a bit of a change this returning mechanic will only be seen on Sorceries and Instants, not creatures in this case, let's look at an example of the returning mechanic before we continue.

Devil's Play is one such card with this mechanic it's a red sorcery with a CMC of 1 red mana since X is a varying number at times, it deals X damage to target creature or player and is a rare in this set, with a flashback cost of X and 3 red mana, however once you use the flashback cost it has to be exiled from the game permanently, so spells with flashback are not considered broken and reusable, but 4 copies of any flashback card basically grant 8 uses instead of the original 4, since the card can be used twice before it is exiled from the game, if you have some way to return it to your hand go ahead and use it, so it grants even more uses of the card with flashback, it's a neat little tip for those who don't know what flashback does. Now let's take a look at a piece of new information with a mechanic called Morbid

Morbid depends on when a creature died this turn while this is coming into play, the rules for this clearly state "Morbid checks to see whether a creature has died this turn, if so then the card with Morbid triggers" then the effect of Morbid will trigger, in the case of Hollowhenge Scavenger if the morbid condition is met then you will gain 5 life, while having a 4/5 on the battlefield to fight for you, this isn't half bad personally, moving onto another piece of new terminology there is the new terminology called Curses which enchant players now

One such curse is known as Curse of the Bloody Tome and is a blue enchantment aura curse which is still considered a enchantment but enchants itself to target player instead of creature, all curses will have varying effects over the course of the game, but this one in particular does something blue is good at, which is Milling a player to death, because it states "At the beginning of enchanted player's upkeep, that player puts the top two cards of his or her library into his/her graveyard" it's a mere common too, so it's a cheap and effective means to mill, but all auras can still be dealt with by enchantment removal cards like Shatter or Naturalize try to remember that when playing this card, another new mechanic of the set is known as Double Side Cards which are two cards wrapped into one, there are going to be 20 instances of this new card form, including 1 planeswalker for the set, let's take a look at the list of names on the set which are all going to be dual sided cards in this case

Each color will have a varying amount of cards in which do this with White/Black receiving only 2 apiece, the other colors all get a bit more, including green which gets it's own planeswalker that changes form this year, can't wait till that is revealed, let's take a look at the next piece of terminology which is "Fight"

Nightfall Predator is one such instance of this, it is also one of the nighttime cards in which the Day/Night mechanic work with, it specifically states for it's ability "Tap 1 red mana, tap this creature: Nightfall Predator fights target creature." Fights in this case means it deals damage to target creature equal to it's power, then the other creature deals damage equal to it's power to Nightfall Predator in response to the damage dealt to it, if the damage is sufficent enough to kill the predator then it dies alongside the the less then 4 toughness creature in this case, fights is a nice new piece of terminology which is a neat combat trick outside of the combat step, espically as a response to a end of turn declaration of course, this is just one such instance of this new term, expect to see a few more of these types of cards in set.

Other then that i thank you for reading and remember Innistrad previews begin today, i will be updating the blog again for a second time today, due to this happening, also we have just under 4 weeks to go before the Innistrad prerelease, so keep those rules handy, this is vergil signing off

Innistrad PAX Spoilers: Loads of Interesting Cards

Well hello there fine folks and welcome back to another edition of the emporium, where today i get to talk about all the cool innistrad cards which were previewed at the Penny Arcade Expo including a card in which i spoke of earlier this week Mayor of Avabruck Let's get started shall we with the mayor

So we finally know what he does, he gives other humans +1/+1 so he's a lord like his nighttime counterpart Howlpack Alpha is a 1/1 rare that costs 1 and a green mana to play, when the condition is met, you change Mayor of Avabruck into his nighttime form which in this case is the howlpack, not bad really since a Day/Night mechanic was speculated and now it's confirmed, in this case let's look at two cards which also work in unison Ludevic's Test Subject and Ludevic's Abomination

The subject is a defender that is a 0/3 costs 1 and a blue mana  is a rare, you can pay 1 and a blue mana to put a hatchling counter on the defender and when it has 5 sacrifice them and put Ludiveck's Abomination into play which is a 13/13 with trample, say what a 13/13 with trample that is also a rare this and the defender are both the same card much like the Alpha/Mayor so it's safe to assume each color is gonna have at least 2/3 day night mechanic cards, speaking of Day and Night how's about checking out Screeching Bat/Stalking Vampire

So the bat's a 3 drop 2 and a black is a 2/2 is a uncommon and flies, at the beginning of your upkeep it's a may clause to pay 2 and 2 black mana to transform the bat into the vampire which is a 5/5 that doesn't fly, but again the may clause kicks in for the vampire saying you may pay 2 and 2 black mana to change this back into a 2/2 bat from a 5/5 why would ever you need to change this back i swear the 5/5 is better for a beater, unless it was being targeted by a spell or something to shrink it, who knows, onto the next cool Day/Night card known as Daybreak Ranger/Nightfall Predator which introduces another new mechanic into this set, the picture can be found here  ---> Article with Picture

Let me just talk about them then, the ranger costs 2 and a green mana, has a tap ability where it taps to deal 2 damage to target creature with flying is a 2/2, has a transform condition clause where if no spells were cast last turn transform it at the beginning of the next upkeep, it's nighttime half has a new mechanic called fight which i will explain tommorow is a 4/4, when the condition of if a player cast two or more spells last turn, transform it back into Daybreak Ranger, let's just preview a whole bunch of cards at the same time, shall we.

All of the card pictures listed here will be talked about in my spoilers for the set, but the one that interests me the most is the new dual land, which there are Enemy Duals finally again it's been a while see Eventide/Morningtide/Shadowmoor/Lorwyn for more enemy duals, the one listed here is Black/Green has a ETB clause where if you control a swamp or a forest this enters play untapped, otherwise it enters tapped, pretty cool huh, well that's all the time i have today for innistrad, tommorow i will talk bout the usual mechanics for a new set, what they do, how they interact etc as well as give you a sweet peek at the names of the cards with the Day/Night mechanic in this set, so till next time fine folks, this is vergil signing off

Innistrad Prerelease Card: Howlpack Alpha

Hello everyone and welcome back to another emporium update, today's edition is kinda short but sweet since the translation for that one card i was talking about yesterday was completed and here's the french version of said card below

It's card number in this set is no 193a and is half of a card which i spoiled yesterday, the other being the Mayor of Avabruck, it's a rare and is a 3/3 that says Other Werewolf and wolf creatures get +1/+1, At the beginning of your upkeep put a 2/2 wolf token onto the battlefield, At the beginning of each upkeep if a player cast 2 or more spells the previous turn sacrifice Howlpack Alpha, now this kinda confirms our wolf lord for the set as well as the token generator Mark Rosewater spoke of earlier in the week, it's secondary ability is kinda lackluster but cool, besides this has no casting cost and when the condition is met on the Mayor it changes into this creature, interesting so all in all a Day/Night is legit for this set, interesting, well that's it for today, remember next monday previews begin for Innistrad due to PAX which is the Penny Arcade Expo which happens every year, so till next time you fine folks, see you all later

Innistrad Overview: Mechanics, Religion Behind the Plane

Hello everyone and welcome back to another emporium update, today i'm gonna take a look at the potential new mechanic Day/Night where certain conditions change the form of certain cards as well as the backstory behind the plane of Innistrad, so let's go.

So speculation is running rampant that Innistrad is going to have itself a mechanic that works off a Day/Night theme which fits perfectly into the gothic horror theme of the set, how that theme sets itself though is a different story, speculation is also running rampant around a single card in Innistrad which looks a little something like this below.

As you can see this is speculated to be the prerelease card, as well as the first card/cards with the theme of Day/Night, one is a 3/3 which is the wolf one, one is a 1/1 which is the human one, speculation is also rampant that the 3/3 is a token generator, we will have to wait and see till further information is developed since the official version of the card is kinda in french and being translated as we speak, though this mechanic is cool and all, i wanna see if there are any more cards based around it before making assumptions on this set, meanwhile the Mommaship ended up giving us a bit of the backstory behind the fables and that of this plane as well as some new arts for us to drop our jaws at, let's see a few of em.

So let's start from the top and work our way down to what we know, all of these are going to be featured in some form of Innistrad's set design as arts on various cards what the cards are i dunno but the first picture of the demon holding the scythe looks pretty damn good to be honest and that looks like a pure black card as well. the backstory of the plane is based around the beliefs of the humans who worship this deity known as Avacyn whom is a angel according to the storyline of this place, protecting the villages and people with her charms and such, but overtime the charms and all the necessary wards of protection wore off and well vampires/werewolves and that run amuck during the hours of the night, according to the legend of this place.

All in all innistrad is looking to be a tried and true dark world with lots of horror themed monsters, i expect this to be a good set when it emerges on September 30th, 2011 and the prerelease as usual is a week prior which is the 24th of september, hooray, well that's all the time i have today for the update on Innistrad stay tuned tommorow hopefully when we get a few more details on our prerelease card for the set, this is vergil signing off.