Magic Holiday Promotion Card - Yule Ooze

Hello all and welcome to this special edition of the emporium today's edition sees the return of the Holiday Magic Card tradition, with the latest holiday card being revealed known as Yule Ooze, wanna see the card itself let's see it here.

It's the ooze that keeps on receiving if i may say so, now your probably wondering how you get this well there's Ebay, but prices for these holiday promos are a little steep at around 50 bucks these days, there's being a member of wizards's of the coast's staff which is perhaps the easiest way to get this and of course there's being a business partner to wizards of the coast as well, i am neither so i won't be getting my hands on this promo anytime soon and Ebay forget it, as per tradition this card basically represents one of the things of the holiday season,  this edition we see a ooze eating up a christmas feast which was supposed to be only Jello, kinda funny if you ask me, with each year since 2006 we've seen different holiday cards let's go back a bit and start with the history of these holiday cards.

2006 came around and it was basically the first year of this big holiday card theme, the first of which was a fruitcake themed card named Fruitcake Elemental

This particular card was created in the one of the traditions of the holidays which was fruitcakes which are not that great honestly, this one kinda depicted a fruitcake going rogue and merging with a elemental to turn into the giant hulking mass seen before you, 2007 was a really funny take on a Kamigawa card called Gifts Given which took the alternate persona of Gifts Ungiven

When this card was thought up i kinda laughed a little and found it quite nice, since Gifts Ungiven was one of my favorite Kamigawa block cards, besides the obvious Umezawa's Jitte and Sensei's Divining Top it was nice to see this put into the holiday theme and given a new persona basically when it comes to alternate holiday cards, 2008 however saw a card no one expected in the form of Evil Presents which was literally depicting presents coming to life and attacking, such is the way with black cards.

Not a decent choice of card, but funny all the same, 2009 gave us a funny little take on a family tradition, with the usual season's greetings, instead we got Season's Beatings this was probably the most humored card of the current holiday tradition, depiciting a goblin standing outside a home with a bag in hand, wondering if he was allowed in, a very nice and funny take on a old tradition.

This was itself perhaps the best current holiday card, 2010 however took a whole new turn, with a new decade came another tradition in the form of Snow Mercy

This was a snow globe that gave us no mercy espically with the wording "Shake Gently, Contents may cause choking, hypothermia, and/or planar invasion" which kinda seemed dumb at first but it was all that worth it, but that's pretty much the most recent holiday cards printed so far, what awaits in the next holiday card who knows, but with a friendly greeting the emporium wishes you a safe and happy holidays in advance, this is vergil signing off, have a good one.

Magic the Gathering News: Vol 12, French Suspension [Again]. Worlds Overview, Player of the Year Race and much more

Hello everyone and welcome to the 12th edition of the monthly wrap up of magic news this month's news covers a few big things, Premium Deck Series Graveborn is finally out and available for the general public, another french suspension, worlds information and top 8, as well as the player of the year race effectively ending at worlds 2011, some big changes to how organized play is now done and so much more, so let's go.

Premium Deck Series: Graveborn has arrived on store shelves this month and it's quite a package as i've spoiled in this article ---> Graveborn List and is available for around 40-50 dollars roughly depending on the local game store you go to, expect this to go quick however as it's a highly demanded product, onto some more important news though.

Another french player has been given a ban and his name is Lucas Florent, he got a lifetime ban for the following comment "I made a joke on the french forum, i said i was going to rape helene bergeot at worlds, after the announcent, i personally know helene and i sait right after it that i was gonna have a talk with her about the meaning of the announcments, and know i receive this." so this makes him the 3rd major french player banned this year for something that wizards didn't like, the first 2 were for the incident with the whole godbook of new phyrexia which was spoiled almost a month early, his lifetime ban basically negates him from ever attending any more Wizards Play Network events ever even little store events like prereleases, have a nice life Lucas, it's gonna be a boring one since your banned and all.


Worlds 2011 happened earlier this month and was in the nest egg of san francisco which was basically the last time we will see a worlds event in any place other then indiapolis since that is where worlds is being held next year effectively, we had a heap of a worlds this year with both the team and individual events happening but there could only be one really whom dominated this year, congratulations to Junya Iyanaga for winning the 2011 world championships, Team Japan for winning the team competition and of course Rookie of the Year going to Matthias Hunt


Organized Play in magic is perhaps the single biggest thing for magic today, with hundreds if not thousands of players going to gun at the next big Grand Prix or perhaps even attempting the pro tour, but as of this month wizards has done a few things i'm not particularly proud of, the first of the new changes was the ending of 16 long years of history by killing off the pro tour event that made worlds what it is but as of this month it's all dead guy ale basically and this means starting next year we can expect to see a Invitational Like event for worlds where the top 16 will battle it out at Gen-Con to become the best of the best, but the question is how do you get there to be fighting for the title of being the best magic player, let's take a look at the 5 ways you'll get to do so.


1) Win a Pro Tour - yes to basically get into this major event you gotta show off and be the best you can be, one of those spots is already taken thanks to Samuel Estrattie whom won the first Modern PT earlier this year, 2 more of those spots however have yet to be decided as of this point.


2) Be the World Champion - It wouldn't be fair to the defending champ if he/she didn't get to defend the title they worked for would it, no it would so be unfair to them and believe me wizards took considerations into this change for organized play.


3) Qualify via Your Geo Region - Your geo region is your continent basically, taking the planeswalker point system into account and determining via that who has the best PWP for the continent, this hurts smaller countries but doesn't really affect bigger countries, but magic countries like the United States will have very few particpants as of now in this big time event.


4) Win the Magic Online Title - Yes this spot is always decided somehow near the end of the year and whomever wins the event at Worlds usually ends up getting a shot to go to the next one, this year's defending MTGO champ will have his chance to fight for the world title next year, good on you wizards.

5) Professional Planeswalker Point Total - All that grinding you fine folks did earlier before this event basically is taken into account, the remaining slots which is who knows who many will be decided via the highest totals among all active players today, so this still gives those whom didn't win a Pro Tour a shot or didn't get in via Geo-Region a shot in the dark basically.

This change also affects how the National Championships are done, it basically means that nationals as we know it are no longer going to be feeding into worlds and those whom win their national title will get a substantial amount of Planeswalker Points plus the cash for winning the event as per usual, but the chance to go to worlds ended as of this year's big event, sorry all you folks whom were looking to go to nationals to win a shot to go to worlds this next year. During the process of this change it also means the end of the current Pro Players club system which pro players use to pay for their expenses and stuff at the events they attend, though it ends as of this current year, it means that all the events they were eligible for will still be able to be attended but 2013 is a whole new ball game with no idea what comes next in terms of this major change.

With the Player of the year this year it came down to worlds and how it all ended for the season, but i am pleased to say congratulations to the 2011 player of the year Owen Turtenwald of channel fireball for winning the title for the last year, good work dude.

In other news most recently a new promotion card has surfaced in the form of a card called Faithless Looting which is a new promotion card that is being featured in the 2nd edition of the Magic the Gathering comic starring a new face named Dack Fayden, here's the image for the card promo.

It's confirmed to be in the new set Dark Ascension which hits store shelves as of Feburary next year, this does beat a lot of the current red cards of choice, but since the promo versions are always rares it will have a different which we know this to be a common from the set thanks to this arcana Faithless Looting and it will have new art besides this of course, expect it to be a interesting set then with Flashback on a Careful Study 

Last but most certainly not least it's time to take a look at something i feel is important for all you Friday Night Magic Players, the last FNM card of the year, which is going to be Savage Lands yes the alara block tri land that was the Red/Black/Green tri land of choice and i will be sure to post the necessary information picture in the next edition of the emporium which will follow this, so stay tuned, but for now this is all i have for the month of November, thank you for reading and i will see you at the Year End wrap up for Magic for the year of 2011 in December, this is vergil signing off.

Arcana Announcement: Planechase 2012

Hello everyone and welcome to this special edition of the emporium, today's edition covers the announcement of the newest multiplayer format which will hit store shelves in June of 2012, that is Planechase 2012 effectively. For the purpose of the article i will be talking a little about the previous edition of this multiplayer game and featuring all the new information we have on it, so let's get started.

Planechase is a multiplayer game where 1 deck of oversized cards is placed in the center, then the first player in the game flips over the top oversized card, which grants specific effects in game, along with various field bonuses towards all or one player depending on the card flipped over, each turn a player may roll a Planar Die which has two symbols, a chaos symbol which represents the card's chaos effect and a planeswalker symbol which sends you from one planar card to the next. When the game was introduced in the middle of 2009, i was just a young punk back then who didn't know what multiplayer was essentially, however with this new Planechase coming out, it's sure to be different.

In this edition of Planechase we are going to have 32 new planes to venture onto, 8 different Phenomenon effects and 21 new magic cards introduced with this format, like this guy for example

Maelstrom Wanderer is a legendary creature introduced with this format, wait what's that i see do i see haste for all creatures you control, but that's not all, a 7/5 double cascade dude, wait what not a single cascade as introduced on let's say a Bloodbraid Elf or Bituminous Blast but two cascades for the price of one, he's also listed a mythic rare with a casting cost of 5, a blue, a red and a green mana so essentially he's a enemy color legend introduced solely for this format, impressive wouldn't you agree. Now moving on from creatures we have ourselves the first new planar card to show off as well by the name of Time Distortion

This particular card is the first Phenomenon introduced to us via the latest arcana announcement, it basically makes the game go in reverse order any time this is flipped, so if you were playing clockwise, you'd go counter clockwise and so forth. This is a weird card but good nonetheless, now let's move onto the details of this particular multiplayer format and when it hits store shelves.

Release Date: June 1st, 2012

MSRP: 19.99 US

Initial Concept and Game Design: Mark Globus (lead), Kelly Digges, Dave Guskin, and Ryan Miller

Final Game Design and Deck Development: Mark L. Gottlieb (lead), Ryan Miller, Lee Sharpe, and Ken Troop, with contributions from Matt Tabak

That's about it for this edition of the emporium for more information see the link below for the arcana announcement, till next time this is vergil signing off.

Planechase 2012 Announcement

Worlds 2011: Thoughts and Overview

Hello all and welcome back to another edition of the emporium, after i've given the game in card form, let's talk about something that's more recent like i don't know Worlds 2011 for Magic, oh yeah that's this weekend so this will be probably the only time i get to talk about it, this weekend we're gonna see a lot happen, Hall of Fame Inductions will happen obviously, Legacy/Modern and Standard for the team events will also happen, as well as Draft, Standard and of course the Top 8 where it's always standard at worlds. Also after worlds we will be seeing some Dark Ascension maybe early december, middle of december, or perhaps they will do it like last year where they previewed two cards at Worlds, i'm looking at you Mirran Crusader and Phyrexian Crusader. But enough talk about last year's cards let's see the results of the event after the grand finale of the top 8/team finals competition, starting with the team competition.

The team competition as it is this year was down to the wire with Japan and Norway leading the way into the top 8 live webcast, but only one could come on top, however it's not to say it wasn't a boring team competition to be honest, we had Modern, Standard and Legacy matches taking place at the same time, with the respective team members of each running specific decks, in the standard portion it was Ryuchiro Ishida's White/Green Wolf Run Ramp deck vs Kristoffer Johnson's White Green Tokens build while in the Modern table side it was Sveinung Bjørnerud's Big Zoo deck vs the Pester Twin deck of Makihito Mihara. Legacy saw itself a barn burner of a deck spree with Fujimoto Tomoya's Show and Tell deck vs the awesome raw power of Andreas Nordahl's No Cat Zoo deck, however there could be only one with the team of Japan taking the title in a convincing 2-0 sweep, making it so simple it wasn't even funny.

In the regular edition of the top 8, we saw all 4 members of Channel Fireball take on their respective opponents, all the members being Luis Scott Vargas, Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa, Conley Woods and of course Josh Utter Leyton all running the exact same deck this weekend which was believe it or not Tempered Steel, the exact same build for all the respective players, but a bit of good news for you canadian fans, we got a canadian in the top 8 of this year's worlds by the name of David Caplan whom was running Mono Red this weekend against one PVDDR for short, we saw their match was a barn burner and would have given anyone a run for the edge of their seats. But in the end again the one whom was crowned world champion was of course Junya Iyanaga whom showed wolf run ramp can indeed get the job done at the big show, we look forward to seeing you at worlds next year.

Anyways the Player of the Year race was a little different this time around, with of course having a few challengers this time around, but we know it was going to be an american as Player of the Year this year, but a big congrats go out Owen Turtenwald for winning the title but that is all she wrote for this year's event in short, this was a excellent event overall and proved that worlds went out in a blaze of glory, however this was the last time we get to see something like this with the new worlds format taking over next year at Gen Con in Indy but until next time this is vergil signing off, for full detailed coverage of the event go to the link below.

Worlds 2011 Coverage

Grand Prix: San Diego Overview

Well the last Grand Prix of the season has been finished, we now await worlds 2011 in the heart of california this year, in the region of San Francisco but before we get into the top 8, let's take a look back at the history of San Diego's past magic events.

The most recent event in San Diego prior to this was Pro Tour: San Diego held in the year 2010 and won by Simon Gortzen by ending the run of one Luis Scott Vargas whom was going on a undefeated streak with a impressive 16-0 record before taking the title and beating Kyle Boggemes for the title capping off his best event ever in my humble opinion. We venture back even further to 2007 when Time Spiral block was still around and it was the last official pro tour Two-Headed Giant event where the infamous Sliver Kids Jacob van Lunen and Chris Lachmann drafted slivers all weekend long to take the title from the hands of Kentaro Yamamoto and Yuuta Takahashi to take the event in all it's glory and claim their infamous spots on the pro tour and eventually become writers for the mothership. In 2004 there was another Pro Tour here at San Diego with Mirrodin Block this time around and this time it was a norwegian by the name Nicolai Herzog whom dominated the field in limited that year, taking his next victory with a bunch of artifacts.

2002 again San Diego gave birth to another Pro Tour with Winston Draft, for those whom don't remember Winston Draft don't bother it's non existent anymore. But we saw a Frenchman in the form of Farid Meraghni take the title that event and dominate the field. The last time we saw a Grand Prix in San Diego believe it or not was 1999, yes that's a long time ago but let's move onto the current age of magic.


This past weekend was a Innistrad Sealed/Booster Draft with Sealed on Day 1, Booster Draft Day 2 and for the Top 8, but a serious congrats to Shahar Shenhar for winning Grand Prix San Diego beating out Aaron Cheng in the quarters, Ricky Sidher in the semis and then to take the finals against Richard Bland with a undefeated 9-0 in day 2, let's look at the winner's decklist first.


Shahar Shenhar's GP Winning List



Lands
9 Plains
8 Swamp


Creatures
1 Abattoir Ghoul
1 Chapel Geist
2 Doomed Traveler
2 Falkenrath Noble
1 Screeching Bat
1 Selfless Cathar
1 Silverchase Fox
1 Slayer of the Wicked
1 Spectral Rider
1 Thraben Sentry
1 Vampire Interloper
1 Village Bell-Ringer
1 Village Cannibals

Spells
1 Altar's Reap
1 Bonds of Faith
1 Corpse Lunge
1 Moment of Heroism
1 Rebuke
1 Unburial Rites
2 Victim of Night

Sideboard
2 Abbey Griffin
1 Altar's Reap
1 Bramblecrush
1 Cellar Door
1 Curse of Oblivion
1 Full Moon's Rise
1 Ghoulcaller's Chant
1 Hollowhenge Scavenger
1 Nightbird's Clutches
1 Spare from Evil
1 Spidery Grasp
1 Travel Preparations
1 Unruly Mob
1 Urgent Exorcism
1 Village Cannibals
1 Wooden Stake
2 Woodland Sleuth

Anyways a big congratulations goes out to him for taking a 3,500 US prize for the weekend and 10 pro points to his name, but i am afraid that is all the time we have today, i hope you enjoyed this overview of the event and look forward to talking about worlds next week when we learn whom the champion is going to be, the player of the year and whom the last team is going to be winning the event but if you want more coverage of GP: San Diego go to the link below But for now this is vergil signing off.

Grand Prix: San Diego Full Coverage

Premium Deck Series: Graveborn List

The list is courtesy of Graveborn Spanish list and is translated for you folks today, this was just revealed so enjoy.


21 Swamp
1 Polluted Mire
1 Ebon Stronghold
1 Crystal Vein
1 Avatar of Woe
1 Crosis, the Purger
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Terastodon
1 Verdant Force
1 Blazing Archon
2 Putrid Imp
2 Hidden Horror
1 Faceless Butcher
1 Twisted Abomination
1 Reanimate
1 Entomb
1 Zombie Infestation
1 Cabal Therapy
2 Last Rites
2 Sickening Dreams
3 Exhume
3 Duress
3 Animate Dead
2 Buried Alive
2 Diabolic Servitude
2 Dread Return


That's it for today since i'm busy all day, so a short but sweet article is in order, this is vergil signing off

Premium Deck Series: Graveborn Update #2 - Alternate Art Galore

Hello everyone and welcome back to another edition of the emporium, today's edition will cover all the latest graveborn spoilers to be revealed thus far, we have 2 things to talk about with this which is the 2 alternate art cards previewed for us thanks to wizards of the coast, we already know one of the three which is going to be Cabal Therapy which i showed off the art for in the latest graveborn update, let's get to it though.

As most of us remember the alternate art cards are usually pretty cool in the art department and the first candidate for preview today is a bit better then it's original art, i am of course talking about Crosis, the Purger whose original art was pretty decent let's see it first before we preview the alternate art of this particular card.

That was the original art and card from Invasion, now let 's see the new and improved alternate art form of Crosis, the Purger

Shows how much it pays for alternate art eh, he finally gets a gold bordered frame to show he's a multicolor card and has new and improved art to go along with that gold bordered frame, nice job wizards really nice job, it's time to talk about the second card of choice for this update, in the form of Animate Dead, now this past monday wizards did a little arcana on this card, which can be found be here ---> Animate Dead Arcana detailing the history of the card in question as well as any versions of that card which date back as far as Limited Edition Alpha the set, nowadays we got ourselves a brand new spanking alternate art Animate Dead but first let's see the original

This is the Limited Edition Alpha version of the card, which was card no 1 in the set back when colors meant squat for order, now let's take a look at the brand spanking new alternate art form of Animate Dead

Not only does this have alternate art which depicts a Sun Titan being revived but it has updated wording to go along with it's brand new shiny black bordered frame, alternate art and is now finally a Aura not a enchant creature card, thank you wizards for this nice and very welcome change to this old style card, it was very refereshing to learn this was getting the alternate art treatment.

So now we have information on all three alternate art cards which i also mentioned last graveborn update, you will be able to get your hands on these when you purchase the Premium Deck Series: Graveborn deck at your local game store of choice, but for now this is all i've got left for the rest of the day, until next time this is vergil signing off.

Premium Deck Series: Graveborn Update

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the emporium, hosted by me vergil as always, let's get down to business this edition and take a minute to discuss Graveborn, the latest of the premium deck series which is scheduled to arrive soon on store shelves on November 18th, 2011 and has a MSRP of 34.99 US dollars.

The first major update for this series deck is the fact we know what the front of the box is going to contain, i'll attach the picture below for you fine folks to observe.

It will contain Avatar of Woe, Buried Alive, Animate Dead [New Art], Crosis, the Purger [New Art] and of course Entomb which entomb has dropped 15 dollars since the announcement of it's inclusion into the deck, remember this will be all foil, so expect shenigans to ensue of course, the obvious 20 sided dice is included in with this and has a skull where the 20 is normally, pretty cool inclusion for that if i might add, anyways onto the next bit of news in regards to this premium deck.

Anyone care to tell me what art this is from, well it's from a old card which is getting new art for this set, anyone take a guess, no well it's Cabal Therapy's new art and it's getting included in this 60 card premium deck, if anyone remembers cabal therapy here's the original card form with original wording of course.

Yeah the judgment card with the flashback is back in this set and i feel it's a perfect inclusion in this set as a revamped card that is for sure, but wait there's one more bit of news in regards to this premium deck, it apparently will also contain a mythic rare from the Shards of Alara block, which one is unknown as of this point but people are speculating it's Sphinx of the Steel Wind or even Empyrial Archangel but we will have to wait and see of course as per usual, in the meantime that's all for now i am afraid, the next article i write about this premium deck will be about the deck list itself and believe me i know it will be good since we've got the standard reanimator package included on the front of the box in the form of Buried Alive, Entomb and Animate Dead but for now this is vergil signing off.

Announcement: Worlds 2012 Change and New Format for Event

Hello all and welcome to this special edition of the emporium, today is a grim day for all us hopefuls whom wanted to go to worlds, because today they killed any hopes of those dreams in my eyes at least, would you like to know more about this, of course you would that is the direct point of this article, let us get down to business.


So earlier today in a special article written by the folks at wizards, they announced a few changes to the 2012 World Championships as well as how it would work, let's take a look at that article in question which will be linked here ---> World Championship Changes


For the first time since the creation of the Pro Tour, Magic: The Gathering will have a single tournament to determine the best player in the world: the 2012 World Championship.


This sounds all well and good, however wait till you see the rest of the article.

To accomplish this goal, the World Championship is changing from a Pro Tour-sized event to an exclusive sixteen-person tournament. These sixteen titans of Magic will battle for a $100,000 prize purse at Gen Con 2012 in Indianapolis (August 16-19). The field will be made up of the following players:

• 2011 World Champion
• 2011 Magic Online Champion (determined at the 2011 Magic Online Championship held at Magic Weekend San Francisco)
• Winners of the previous three Pro Tours (Philadelphia, Dark Ascension in Honolulu, and the second Pro Tour in 2012). Pro Tour Philadelphia champion Samuele Estratti is the first invitee to the 2012 World Championship.
• The top-ranked player from each geo-region (Asia Pacific, Europe, Japan, Latin America, and North America) in the Planeswalker Points 2012 Professional Total who are not yet invited based on the above criteria.
• The top-ranked players in the worldwide Planeswalker Points 2012 Professional Total who are not yet invited based on the above criteria sufficient to bring the total number of invited players to the 2012 World Championship to sixteen.

EXCUSE ME, your basically saying Nationals don't mean crap anymore, not for worlds then what is the point of nationals anymore, this basically says we are privatizing magic and making it exclusive for the big boys only folks like Patrick Chapin and of course channel fireball's Luis Scott Vargas whom both provide in depth coverage of decks/events and much much more, so your making it exclusive for 16 players, 3 of those slots go to pro tour winners, top ranked players in the planeswalker point system get invites, top ranked players from each geo region, ok, so i'd have to be the best in north america, ain't gonna happen, the defending champion gets a invite, as well as the magic online champ ok really, is this necessary wizards, but wait there's more.

In 2012, a player's Professional Points total consists of the Planeswalker Points earned at Pro Tours, Grand Prix, and the 2011 World Championships for a twelve-month period (see Premier Event Invite Policy for specific dates), so this will select the players who have done the best against the highest level of competition for an entire year.
"Think of the best Pro Tour Top 8 ever and then double it," said Aaron Forsythe, Senior Director ofMagic R&D. "The live coverage will be awesome as we showcase these players as the masters of the game. The 2010 Player of the Year playoff showed how Magic fans around the world got behind seeing the best play against the best."
With live video match coverage each round, in-depth player interviews and deck techs, analysis from experts in R&D and the world of Magic, and more opportunities for fans to follow and support their favorite players through social media, the 2012 World Championship promises to be unlike any other Magic tournament ever.
"Under the current system, you can make an argument for several different players being the best in the world," said Scott Larabee, Magic Organized Play Program Manager. "Is it the Player of the Year, who had the most top finishes but may not have won a major tournament? The World Champion, because that's what the title suggests? A Pro Tour winner, because Pro Tours probably have the toughest field of players? We wanted a clear answer, and the new World Championship provides that."

So basically we're being told that the only real way to qualify is by going to every GP, every pro tour and worlds 2011, um why didn't you tell us three weeks before now, dammit wizards you douchebags.

I cannot begin to express my disgust towards this, but wait there is even more.

National Championships will no longer be feeding a larger global event. With the World Championship moving to its new model, as well as a growing need for individual regions to tailor their organized play offerings, it was necessary to separate Nationals from a larger organized play path. This change helps individual regions develop the right tournaments and events—from Wizards Play Network events up to National Championships—to meet the needs of their region's player base.
"As the Magic brand grows across the world, Wizards has faced challenges in attempting to apply a one-size-fits-all approach to certain programs, and Nationals was one of those," said Helene Bergeot, Director of Organized Play Programs and Operations. "It is up to the regional offices to decide on the size and scope of their countries' National Championships, and we've seen that in many of those countries, the pride of being your country's champion is a primary motivation for players."
National Championships will be run at a Planeswalker Points multiplier of 8x, the same as Grand Prix. Along with the expanded Grand Prix schedule, Nationals provide a good opportunity for many players around the world to experience a large-scale Magic tournament and earn high amounts of Planeswalker Points in a single event.
Expect to see the complete National Championship schedule by April 2012.

So basically nationals gets the big boot from being the feeding point to worlds, now it's just a glorified GP, no thanks again wizards you've killed my pro interest in the game thanks.

The rest of the article goes on to talk about how the pro tour points are affected and stuff like that, basically it says, No thank you you are not welcome at worlds unless your the best truly, plain and simple, way to kill the player base wizards i cannot begin to describe my disgust towards this decision, effectively magic is dying because of decisions like this, which basically drive the casual gamers/grinders away and make it for the truly hardcore, then what is the point of nationals nothing anymore, nationals as i said is now a glorified GP, pathetic, well that's all for this edition of the emporium today, sorry folks but this has to end sorry, i am just pissed at this decision this is vergil signing off.