Gatecrash Spoilers: December 31st, 2012

Hello everyone and welcome to the first official full gate crash spoiler day, wizards of the coast gave us a lot of previews, so we are just gonna get right down to it of course.

Let's start with the big bomb of the day, Deathpact Angel, which costs 3, White, Black, Black and when she dies you get a 1/1 white and black cleric that basically allows you to sacrifice it and return Deathpact Angel from the battlefield for Angel's converted mana cost, the angel itself is a 5/5 flying beatstick for 6 which is pretty balanced, did i mention she's mythic?

Why hello equipment form of Rings of Brighthearth, seriously this is great to see to be quite honest, it's called Illusionst Bracers and it costs 2 to play, 3 to equip and it's rare, but whenever a ability of a equipped creature is activate, if it is not a mana ability, copy it and you get to choose new targets for the copy, not bad wizards, not bad.

Tin Street Market is basically similar form to how they printed a bunch of auras that enchant lands, but this one basically does another one of those precious Merfolk Looter effects, it's nice but for 5 mana, i'm not paying for a looter effect outside of limited here.

Of course we got another mechanic preview set of cards, starting with Zhur-Taa Swine, a 5 drop 5/4 that has blood rush, for 1, red and green discard it and target attacking creature gets +5/+4 until end of turn, not bad to be honest, a fair and decent blood rush common for the set.

Gateway Shade is similar to what we saw the last set, except this time specific cards gain bonuses from tapping gates, instead of having gates present on the battlefield, it should be noted only 1 of these abilites can be used at one given time.

Speaking of gate cards, the guild gates are essentially back as well, for the 5 guilds of this set, the preview being Orzhov Guildgate this time for this cycle.

Basilica Guards is a 1/4 defender with the orzhov mechanic of Extort for a mere 3 mana at the common rarity, so expect to see this once or twice per draft passed around, it's a decent body with a decent cost.

Gridlock is something that looks super funny to play, but it has the target word in it meaning if it has Hexproof they won't be effected. but it's still pretty decent.

Drakewing Krasis is a 3/1 flying trample body for 3 that feels very Simic Sky Swallower esque this time around, but it's nice to have a 3/1 body to be decently costed.

And we got the usual fair for mechanic and card types returning, Hybrid cards are confirmed for this set, along with the remaining of the mechanic based cards, overall a great start to the spoiler season for official previews if you ask me, until tommorow this is vergil signing off.

Gatecrash Spoiler: Whispering Madness

Well since it's the last official day of the holiday spoilers, wizards has seen fit to grant us the final mechanic, the Dimir mechanic this time around and wow it is a very impressive one, let's take a look see at this one.

Holy crap, a 4 mana Windfall at sorcery speed, it costs 2, Blue, Black and basically is Windfall on a new spell, but it has the mechanic known as Cipher, where it says "Then you may exile this spell card, encoded on a creature you control. Whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player, it's controller may cast a copy of the encoded card without paying it's mana cost." Say what, repeatable Windfall's wizards, this is ridiculous, I'm expecting this to be broken somehow, in terms of mechanics, if i had it my way, I'd go Dimir cause that's how i roll.

Anyways, that's it for previews from the holiday week, starting next week is of course official WotC previews, so until then this is vergil signing off.

Gatecrash Spoiler: Treasury Thrull

Hello everyone and welcome back, yesterday we got a preview for another of  the guild based mechanics for the upcoming set gatecrash, in the form of the card which is below, so without further ado let's take a look see.

Oh my goodness, Thrulls are back and they are bad, but this new mechanic is called Extort which is as follows "Whenever you cast a spell, you may pay either a white or a black, If you do each opponent loses 1 life and you gain that much life." and it's slapped onto a 4, White, Black 4/4 named Treasury Thrull which has the ability, Whenever it attacks, you may return target artifact, creature or enchantment card from your graveyard to your hand. Note it doesn't have a CMC restriction like Sun Titan, or a Artifact restriction like Sharuum the Hegemon, it just says return target whatever, not bad balance wise honestly, White/Black decks will love this in EDH and this is a limited powerhouse.

Anyways that's it for today's previews, based upon what we know, we are expecting the Simic Mechanic tommorow, whatever that may be, till then this is vergil signing off.

Gatecrash Spoiler: Firemane Angel and Rubblehulk

Well, the holidays over, it's time to get back down to business of course, with more previews from the upcoming set of Gatecrash, with the new boros mechanic featured on this new card called Firemane Angel

Holy crap, a 3/3 4 drop that has Lightning Helix printed on it, but the new key word for the Boros clan this time around is Battalion which feels very similar to the card Odric, Master Tactician which means they were hinting at this it seems in M13 with him, not bad wizards.

Yesterday also we missed the mechanic of Bloodrush, but since it was christmas, we didn't get around to talking about it, so here it is without further ado.

Printed on a rare known as Rubblehulk, which costs 4, Red, Green and it's power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control, a common theme with the gruul of course, but blood rush is similar to Channel which is another ability printed back in the day, since it's discard the card with this ability, pay a certain cost and something else gets a boost where it changes from different cards, not a bad way to preview the mechanics for the upcoming set, anyways that's it for today, till next time this is vergil signing off.

Gatecrash Spoiler: Fathom Mage

Hello everyone and welcome back to another edition of the emporium, it's christmas eve as I write this and well the mother ship has a serious preview for us in terms of a mechanic as well as a multicolor card, featuring the very mechanic we talked about yesterday, Evolve, let's take a look at it.

Introducing today's preview, Fathom Mage, which is a 1/1 that costs 2, Blue, Green and has the keyword Evolve printed on it, I explained evolve in a bit of detail yesterday, but for those who missed it, please ensure to check the last edition of the emporium, the one that makes this thing unique is the fact whenever you put a +1/+1 counter on this mage, you get to draw a card, it's a Human Wizard and it is rare.

Overall wizards is keeping the balance of the Evolve mechanic quite nicely, we've got one that transfers +1/+1 counters and one that lets us draw cards now, not bad if i do say so myself, anyways that's it for today, enjoy your christmas folks and see you next time.

Gatecrash Spoiler: Simic Fluxmage

Well, with the holiday season nearly upon us, if you've not done your christmas shopping well now is the time, since the holidays have arrived, but we have a treat here for you folks at the emporium, apparently a similar incident occured much the same way as the M13 pack containing Rootborn Defenses slipped by wizards of the coast, this time it occured with a RTR pack containing a card called Simic Fluxmage, let's see this beauty.

Oh wow, that's pretty solid for a uncommon, it's 2 and a blue for a 1/2 with the keyword ability Evolve, which works like follows "Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if that creature has greater power or toughness then this creature, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature" and it's second ability allows it to move +1/+1 counters from itself onto another target creature, similar to the mechanic Graft from the original ravnica.

To be perfectly honest, this is a example of things to come it seems, we've got 1 keyword officially spoiled for the upcoming set it seems and wizards has had the recent track record of letting the cat out of the bag so it would seem, with spoiler season coming up, you can bet that this is going to be one of those interesting cards, aside from those 5 mythics which were spoiled via craiglist which appear to be true it seems, since the fine folks at MTGSalvation have recently proven this fact.

Overall, I'm impressed with this one, wizards seems to understand that new mechanics are great and with this being one of the mechanics submitted during the great designer search, it's fitting it makes it's appearance in magic, I like it and hope to see more Evolve cards in the near future, till next time this is vergil signing off.

Elder Dragon Highlander Primer: Talrand, Sky Summoner

"The seas are vast, but the skies are even more so. Why be content with one kingdom when I can rule them both?"

Hello and welcome to this primer of Talrand, Sky Summoner, the M13 legendary whom has captured my attention as of late, over the course of the article i'll be talking about how this particular general works as well as a look at a few different archetypes in which he can be built, without further ado let's begin.

Before we begin, let's take a look at his trademark ability, which is the following "Whenever you cast a instant or sorcery spell, put a 2/2 blue Drake creature token with flying onto the battlefield" this ability makes Talrand a unique general to play as, since spells while he is out reward you with 2/2 blue drakes that fly.

He starts with a base power of 2 and a base toughness of 2, costs 2, Blue, Blue and is classified as a Merfolk Wizard, which has been seen before in magic's history, he's suited to fit into almost any style of deck regardless of general, since most blue generals are wizard's, except for a select few.

Reasons to run Talrand

#1) You love casting spells, being a blue mage since you have access to some of the best spells in the game of EDH.

#2) Your a blue mage at heart, controlling stuff is your forte and you love being able to make a small army out of virtually zero investment.

#3) You want to play a unique general, with a unique ability which rewards casting spells on a moment's notice.

Reasons NOT to run Talrand

#1) You aren't a blue mage at heart and prefer to beat your opponent senseless.

#2) You dislike the color blue period in magic, since it is easily hated out.

#3) Card drawing on a whim, what's that?

Unlike other blue generals such as Azami, Lady of the Scrolls and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, this one is unique as he can basically revolve around a single ideal, spell slinging, which is what magic is all about. He can be suited to either a casual style of play or a competitive style of play, since he sees play in both and myself personally i've taken a liking to playing Talrand as of late, since he's one of my two EDH generals currently. Let's take a look at a few of the many strategies which you can base Talrand around, regardless if it is competitive or not.

Strategies

#1) Casual - In most instances of Talrand, the budget can be set to 300 dollars, depending on the player, with Talrand himself being the most expensive piece of the deck, most casual players have set limits to builds, but the majority agrees that 35% or even 40% of the deck should be the spell base alone. Most players find it is easy to control the game state even with the cheapest of spells such as Arcane Denial, Counterspell and even a classic blue spell, Cancel.

#2) Competitive - Though this is a choice many players have, the budget for the competitive race would have to be set at a very high price point, dropping $1000 dollars minimum for stuff such as Force of Will, Pact of Negation, even the new guy, Snapcaster Mage is required for this build, overall if you want to go this route, be prepared to defend yourself, with this type of deck it's often recommended that at least 45% of the deck be spells.

#3) Midrange - This is a completely possible option for Talrand, though i've not tested it as of late, mid game spells like Future Sight help a lot when it comes to playing spells, since the top card is essentially another card in your hand, stuff like Sensei's Divining Top help sight be more effective in the late since you can sculpt the top 3 to any form you like, giving it a sort of Midrange feel.

Let's take a look at some of those Talrand lists which feel completely casual, but not too casual, we are going to be looking at a deck which i think explains the whole Casual meets Competitive feel here, with a list provided by MTGSalvation's own ISBPathfinder.

ISBPathfinder's Mono Blue Talrand Aggro

General
Talrand, Sky Summoner

Creatures
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
Snapcaster Mage
Vedalken Aethermage
Trinket Mage
Magus of the Future

Artifacts
Sol Ring
Wayfarer's Bauble
Mind Stone
Isochron Scepter
Torpor Orb
Vedalken Shackles

Enchantments
Coastal Piracy
Future Sight
Opposition
Spellweaver Volute
Cast Through Time

Instants
Pact of Negation
Brainstorm
Mind Games
Mystical Tutor
Opt
Pongify
Visions of Beyond
Arcane Denial
Counterspell
Cyclonic Rift
Daze
Impulse
Mana Drain
Peer Through Depths
Telling Time
Think Twice
Twincast
Blue Sun's Zenith
Hinder
Keep Watch
Long-Term Plans
Spell Crumple
Thirst for Knowledge
Cryptic Command
Fact or Fiction
Force of Will
Misdirection
Sunder

Sorceries
Mystic Speculation
Ponder
Preordain
Serum Visions
Merchant Scroll
Fabricate
Capture of Jingzhou
Temporal Manipulation
Time Warp
Mind's Desire
Recurring Insight
Walk the Aeons
Temporal Mastery

Planeswalkers
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

Lands
Academy Ruins
High Market
29 Island
Mystifiying Maze
Reliquary Tower
Strip Mine
Tectonic Edge
Tolaria West

As you can see this deck runs a total of 41 spells, which is plenty in a Talrand, Sky Summoner deck, part of what makes him so strong is the deck is solely revolved around playing him, but your opponents don't suspect him at all till it is too late, when you start taking extra turns, as well as countering most of their good offense in 1 vs 1 situations, but it also works somewhat the same in Multiplayer based situations, where you have a bunch of drakes, take a bunch of extra turns with things like Temporal Mastery, Time Warp and the like and literally blast them all with a bunch of flying 2/2's in the air, but the problem is how do you keep the skies clear enough for those drakes to slip past, well let's break this into 3 categories.

1) Offensive Spells
2) Defensive Spells
3) Midrange Spells

With Offensive spells you can keep the skies clear long enough so pesky flyers such as Karmic Guide, Reveillark and the like don't block the path and kill the drakes you make playing the spells, spells such as Into the Roil or the new bad boy on the block, Cyclonic Rift work like a charm here since they are instant speed bounce spells and send them back to the hand, along with rewarding you with another drake or 2 at your leisure.

Defensive spells are a bit different, they are basically counter spells, which stop all threats from ever hitting the board, so stuff like Avenger of Zendikar and Kokusho, the Evening Star don't interrupt the game plan overall, allowing you to not worry about those types of spells, an example of a defensive spell is stuff like Arcane Denial, Counterspell and even the most powerful counter in all of legacy, Force of Will are prime examples of the defensive variety of spells.

Midrange spells are a bit different then what your used to, these spells essentially let you do additional things, make copies of extra things, do a bit of shenigans with your general and of course make the game more interesting in the later turns, an example of mid range type spells are Time Warp, Temporal Mastery and of course my favorite blue spell of choice, Rite of Replication, which I highly advise blue EDH players to obtain somehow.

Now that we have a idea of what different types of spells we have at our disposal, let's start working on building a Talrand list of our own, starting with the lands. The optimal amount of lands in a mono blue deck should be around the 35-37 range, with additional lands obtained for measures, obviously such EDH staples as Temple of the False God and Reliquary Tower are welcome here, along with land destruction like Strip Mine, Tectonic Edge and even the old favorite, Wasteland. However that is not all we can use for the deck, we can use on color lands such as Riptide Laboratory to protect our general and lands that recycle specific artifacts like Academy Ruins to ensure if we lose a artifact or two, we can use it again on our next draw. In terms of basic lands however, often enough since the deck is going to be churning out spells at a rapid pace once Talrand arrives on the battlefield, often 29-30 islands is more then sufficent for his build, since we need maybe 3-4 blue sources per turn, it should be noted that Strip Mine is illegal for competitive, so i'd suggest Wasteland instead.

So, naturally after the land front has been established, it should look a little something like this.

Lands
Temple of the False God
Reliquary Tower
Riptide Laboratory
Tectonic Edge
Strip Mine
Academy Ruins
31 Island

In reality, this if often enough the best possible land base with the current ban list enforced by the rules committee with the single color we are using, Blue, now you can have the creature base as low as 6 for this deck i find, with Snapcaster Mage, Trinket Mage being the 2 required cards of choice, snappy just to flashback counter spells on a whim in combination with Riptide Laboratory,  if your playing casual that is, if your not playing casual and it's a competitive deck, then Snapcaster is the only one creature really required, since he makes all our spells doubled essentially, So in most casual cases, i'd suggest the maximum number of creatures is 8/10 for casual and 4-5 for competitive, depending on situations. With that let's take a look at the creatures i often recommend.

Creatures
Snapcaster Mage
Palinchron
Phantasmal Image
Phyrexian Metamorph
Trinket Mage
Treasure Mage

These 6 are the ones i most often recommended of course, considering we are merely playing the best color in magic. Now that the creature base is out of the way, let's get onto the meat and potatoes of a Talrand deck, the spells, the recommended minimum for a Talrand build is 40, yes, 40 spells in a deck is possible with this particular general. Some of these I've already mentioned including specific staple spells such as Force of Will, Pact of Negation and the like, here's the most suggested spells for a Talrand deck.

Spells
Force of Will
Pact of Negation
Capsize
Hinder
Counterspell
Cylonic Rift
Brainstorm
Arcane Denial
Spell Crumple
Daze
Think Twice
Cryptic Command
Gitaxian Probe
Ponder
Preordain

This particular list of spells is perhaps the best package you can use for talrand's base and you can slot in any other blue spell you want afterwards, but the recommend list is a sort of requirement for Talrand. Normally the base package is all you would want, since this base package costs roughly around 120 dollars with the big two being Force of Will and Pact, but with that out of the way, there are few artifacts that you can use for Talrand, but the two i most often commonly recommend for him are both Lightning Greaves and Isochron Scepter, since most of the spells in the deck are 1-2 CMC and are instant speed, except for a select few. Now let's take a look at another Talrand List and let's see how it's done in a casual perspective.

DonRoyale's Talrand, Sky Summoner

General
Talrand, Sky Summoner

Creatures
Guile
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
Stormtide Leviathan
Tidespout Tyrant

Sorceries
Deep Analysis
Fabricate
Inundate
Ponder
Portent
Preordain
Serum Visions
Wash Out
Sleight of Hand

Instants
Annul
Arcane Denial
Brainstorm
Cancel
Capsize
Cyclonic Rift
Dissipate
Essence Scatter
Faerie Trickery
Familiar's Ruse
Forbid
Frantic Search
Grip of Amnesia
Hinder
Long-Term Plans
Memory Lapse
Muddle the Mixture
Negate
Oona's Grace
Pongify
Psychic Barrier
Remove Soul
Rewind
Spell Crumple
Spin into Myth
Steel Sabotage
Stoic Rebuttal
Thirst for Knowledge
Whispers of the Muse

Artifacts
Caged Sun
Elixir of Immortality
Expedition Map
Gauntlet of Power
Neurok Stealthsuit
Nevinyrral's Disk
Proteus Staff
Sphinx-Bone Wand
Swiftfoot Boots
Venser's Journal

Planeswalkers
Karn Liberated
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

Enchantments
Coastal Piracy
Mind Unbound
Mystic Remora
Propaganda
Rhystic Study

Lands
Lonely Sandbar
Maze of Ith
Mystifying Maze
Reliquary Tower
Remote Isle
Tectonic Edge
Temple of the False God
Terrain Generator
31 Island

As you can clearly see, the deck runs a whole assortment of good things, enchantments, lands and of course the best thing of all, a good load of spells, which shows talrand is a decent deck in both multiplayer and 1 vs 1. The overall thing to remember here is the load of 1-2 drop spells in this deck, which indcates the cost effective nature that you want to build talrand around.

Now there isn't very many changes we can make aside from the basic rules changes of 1 vs 1 format or French Ban list, in the most common terms, but the main thing to remember here, most of the blue walkers are good for this build, regardless of anything else, so obvious things like Jace, the Mind Sculptor is viable for the format, even in multi player which it still gets off 1-2 activations before it's targeted down and sent packing.

Helpful Hints to Building Talrand, Sky Summoner

#1) Spells are key - You want to pack the deck full of spells that are cheap, effective and can be used within a few turns of you casting Talrand.

#2) Save all your best spells after you cast talrand, you can use tutors to fetch the necessary spells and draw into them, but don't abuse the spells too often.

In essence, Talrand is a unique general which is not that versatile compared to other generals, since it's mono blue and doesn't have access to a lot of the other colors in magic, so if you are looking for a general to start out with and you've got a decent budget, then give this bad boy a shot, till next time this is vergil signing off.

Grand Prix 2013 Full Schedule

Hello everyone it's been a while here at the emporium, due to the holidays coming up, i've been a busy little beaver, but it seems organized play is going to be getting a few changes along with the full 2013 grand prix schedule being released of course, so let's check out the 1st promo for the 1st 6 months you attend a GP event anywhere.

Oh my goodness, he's back, it's official Primeval Titan is back as a promotion card, all players whom attend a GP in the first 6 months of the schedule will get this bad boy, personally i expect this to be hard to find since as all GP promos are difficult to find, so make sure to attend the GP's ladies and gentlemen.

There's some slight changes to Organized play as well, with the World Magic Cup being held next year in Amsterdam on August 2-4th, 2013, with the event being 3 rounds of Magic 2014 team sealed and 4 rounds of standard to start on day 1. Not bad format choices if you ask me.

For top 8 PTQ players, they will recieve the following playmat which is to be given out to all 8 players whom manage to qualify for the 8 slots.

Not bad, if you ask me, but let's get onto the reason why we came here, the GP schedule for 2013 which i'm just going to redirect since i don't wish to write it out, but there are a few important events in particular.

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/225b

Grand Prix Calgary July 27th-28th, 2013 - Standard
Pro Tour "Friends" in Dublin, Ireland October 11th-13th, 2013 - Modern, Booster Draft
Grand Prix Toronto November 30th, December 1st - "Friends" Limited

And with that this article comes to a close, thanks for reading these slight changes, but until next time this is vergil signing off.

Magic the Gathering News Volume 23: Modern FNM's, December FNM Promo and Much, Much More

Hello everyone and welcome back to another edition of the monthly news here at the emporium, covering all things related witb magic the gathering that were not talked about this month in seperate articles, this month we have a bit of a shocker, a new FNM promo card was revealed and of course, a little look back at what to expect for the upcoming set known as Gatecrash, so without further ado let's begin.

Early on in the month it seemed like wizards was letting the cat out of the bag for a specific format to be supported now at local Friday Night Magic events, but with this photo which will be posted below, the shocker is something bigger then expected.

Oh yes, starting in January of 2013, Modern will be fully supported by Friday Night Magic events everywhere around the world, meaning no more of these 1-2 modern events a week, we could see a influx of 3-4 modern events a week per store, making it just as popular as standard these days, impressive as always wizards with this announcement.

As always, with a new month, comes a brand new FNM promo card, this month's promo card may come as a bit of a shocker to you folks.

Oh look isn't that Gitaxian Probe, yes it is with brand new FNM art, but wait a minute what's a NPH card doing getting the final FNM promo of the month, well it's more so for modern then it is for anything else since probe does see play in storm combo decks there, overall, a very decent card to make the final promo card of the year.

As per usual, every month brings us new Grand Prix's as well as other unique events, this month we had the following GP's on the schedule.

#1) Grand Prix Chicago
#2) Grand Prix Bochum
#3) Grand Prix Charleston
#4) Grand Prix San Antonio
#5) Grand Prix Taipei
#6) Grand Prix Lyon
#7) Grand Prix Auckland

A whopping 7 GP's on the schedule for this month and 4 of them were standard events, 2 were modern and 1 was Sealed/Booster Draft, guess which ones, well Modern was in Chicago the windy city of choice, which in turn was dominated by Jacob Wilson and his Jund deck, taking the whole event by storm, while the other modern event was dominated by Jeremy Dezani and his version of Jund, boy the menace of Jund is ever dominant these days eh folks. Standard saw the rise of a brand new build called "Hoof, there it is" featuring the ever large and in charge Craterhoof Behemoth from Avacyn Restored, piloted by none other then Martin Juza in Bochum, taking home the top prize there. Charleston saw more of the same type of standard as we were used to, seeing home Jon Bolding and his Rakdos list to victory, which was a total fluke since there was a lot of misplays during the finals.

While Auckland had a totally different flavor to it, Walker MacMurdo and his 4 Color Reanimator list took him to victory there, off the back of a few Angel of Serenity's and a Griselbrand or 2 during the course of the finals throwing him into the loop for the next upcoming Pro Tour, PT Gatecrash in Montreal coming next year. In terms of sealed, we had one of the best sealed performances of all time take center stage in Taipei over the course of the last weekend of the month, showing why Return to Ravnica is perhaps a favorite draft format amongst many of the players present, only one could stand out and that person was Makahito Mihara and his Rakdos hordes, amazing work, San Antonio was won meanwhile by none other then Tyler Lytle whom showed that zombies was the deck of choice, going 9-0 on Day 1 to a solid win over such players as Conley Woods, Reid Duke and Patrick "The Innovator" Chapin

In other news, apparently a new IDW comic called "Path of Vengeance" is scheduled to come out onto the market in the near future, here's the cover for those curious souls.

Not bad, honestly, but don't expect this for a while since IDW doesn't keep their schedules on track at all, in the last piece of news for this month, Magic the Gathering Online is getting a cube update, in the form of the Power 9, yes, now cube drafters on there can draft the P9 now, great news, for full information see the link below.

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/223b

And that's it for this month, next month as per end of the year, provided we don't get any astrological disasters in the near future, is the yearly wrap up, until then this is vergil signing off.

Craigslist Gatecrash Spoilers

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the emporium, where as today it seems that someone on MTGSalvation has found some mythics from Gatecrash or so they say, well let's see the potential mythics, I'd rather have someone confirm they are real, so let's see em.

EDIT: All have been confirmed as real, enjoy.

First up is the Boros legendary, Aurelia, the Warleader, whom seems legit, 3/4 flying, vigilance, haste, whenever she attacks for the first time in a turn, untap all creatures you control and take a 2nd combat phase essentially, the art shown consists of the preview art we were given, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is legitimate.

Another of the guild leaders were apparently spoiled as well, Borborygmos Enraged, whom is a 7/6 trampler, that's pretty consistent with his guild, whenever he deals combat damage you get to reveal the top 3 cards of your library and put all the lands revealed this way into your hand, the rest into the graveyard, great way not to get land screwed, also discarding a land while he's out he deals 3 damage to either a creature or a player.

We also have a planeswalker to talk about as well, Domri Rade, whom starts with 3 loyalty, he has 3 abilites +1) look at the top card of your library, if it is a creature card, put it into your hand after revealing it, -2) Target creature you control fights another target creature, -7) You get a emblem with "Creatures you control have double strike, trample, hexproof and haste", honestly that ultimate is stupidly broken and makes me think this batch of mythics isn't legit.

What is it with these big spells, here we have a card apparently called Enter the Infinite, it costs a whopping 8,Blue,Blue,Blue,Blue, wow 12 mana for this sorcery speed mythic apparently, it lets you draw cards equal to the number of cards in your library, then put a card from your hand on top of your library, so you don't deck yourself of course, you have no max hand size until your next turn, one format is gonna abuse the living hell out of this, EDH.

So for the final shown card, we have of course a red mythic, a dragon, as per expected, this one is called Hellkite Tyrant, he is a 6/5 flying, trample whenever he deals combat damage to a player, gain control of all artifacts that player controls, At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control 20 or more artifacts, you win the game, now this is one win condition for sure, all of these photos were apparently taken on craigslist and should not be taken seriously until further proof is revealed or wizards comes out of the bag and says these are legitimate mythics for the set, since this is all mythics spoiled, meaning 5 out of a possible 15-16 mythics are already known.

Overall i'm happy there are some potential spoilers, but the source of the spoilers is being called into question here, since craigslist has a knack for selling fakes, this post will updated when further proof is presented, until then this is vergil signing off.

Arcana Announcement: Sinker is Dragon's Maze

Hello everyone and welcome back to another edition of the emporium, in fact this is the first edition of the month of november, so without further ado let's take a look see at what was announced by Wizards of the Coast earlier last night.

Ok, so it seems we've got a new set on our hands, sinker apparently is called Dragon's Maze and for those curious here's the preview piece we were given for the set.

Hmm, so this pretty much signals this mysterious Ral Zarek character as being in this set as a planeswalker perhaps, well all i know for one thing is all ten guilds are present in this set, plus here's the set statistics.

Set Size: 156
Release Date: May 3rd, 2013
Prerelease Events: April 27th and 28th, 2013

Yeah, i'm so looking forward to this set, for the full announcement please see the link which i will of course be posting here ----> http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1101 That's all for today of course, it's nice to know what the small set is for this block is going to be as well, this is vergil signing off.

Magic the Gathering News Vol 22: Pro Tour Return to Ravnica, November Friday Night Magic Promo and Much, Much More.

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the monthly edition of the news here at the emporium, this month's edition will cover a whole lot of good stuff, the latest reveal for Friday Night Magic's promos and we will of course discuss Pro Tour, Return to Ravnica as well and how it went down, since that was also this month, talk about some Grand Prix dates and of course all the GP's you can handle, so without further ado let's begin.

So that's what next month's FNM card of choice is, Pillar of Flame which is not a half bad choice for a promo card, yes this will be the November Friday Night Magic promotion card and as per usual only a few of these will be given out by each store, each week, nice choice on the promo card wizards considering the popularity of this card.

More of next year's Grand Prix schedule has been announced and wow there's a whole slew of North American dates on this list, for those wanting to see it, please following the link which i will be posting at the end of the article, including one format i never thought we'd see, Modern Masters Booster Draft, which was announced bewteen rounds 13 and 14 of Pro tour Return to Ravnica will be taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada on the 22nd and 23rd of June 2013, this sounds like it's already heating up to a epic proportion since this is a one time event, I cannot wait to talk about the aftermath of this event in June, I'm so excited.

It seems that Eggs as a deck in modern proved it was the underdog deck of choice, going almost a perfect record at Pro Tour: Return to Ravnica in the hands of the Chech Republic's own Stanislav Cifka whom piloted the deck beautifully, being the complete and unknown underdog in the field to a near undefeated streak in the swiss rounds, 15-1, losing only once to a Infect player by the name of Kelvin Chew whom was piloting this Blue/Black/Green infect deck of choice to combat the under dog deck, but overall it was a exciting pro tour with the Eggs deck, which took the crown. Before the event however we saw the four inductees get their customary rings and such, putting them into the hall of fame class for 2012, let's review whom they were

#1) Patrick "The Innovator" Chapin
#2) Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa
#3) Kenji Tsumura 
#4) Masashi Oiso

A very well deserved congratulations is in order for being voted in this year guys, you all make the game so much fun to play in all respects, now we look forward to 2013's class to see who gets the big vote in at the last pro tour next year.

Grand Prix time, as per usual for each monthly, we only had 2 events this month besides the obvious Pro Tour date which happened bewteen those, Grand Prix San Jose, of which a certain celebrity starcraft commentator was there, yes Sean "Day9" Plott whom attended his first ever event in the team sealed return to ravnica booster draft, go see Round 5 for his feature match which i will also post below at the end of the article. But in San Jose there could be only 1 team, that team was Matt Spearling, Paul Rietzl and David Willams whom made their way into the finals of the San Jose event, beating out Lucas Siow, Maksym Gryn and Jamie Naylor to win the event.

Grand Prix Philadephia was a totally different story, with it being a singles event where as this time it was Sealed/Booster drafting, of course drafting Return to Ravnica in the process, but there could only be one winner for the event and that was Shuhei Nakamura and his great run at the event, beating both Luis Scott-Vargas and Martin Juza before shredding through the finals to win his 5th GP this weekend, congrats man.

With the upcoming set of Gatecrash, apparently the name of the latest buy-a-box promo card was spoiled earlier this month, it's a card called "Nightveil Specter" which sounds black to be quite honest, it's defintely a rare in this set, though we will have to wait and see if it is Dimir or Orzhov guild based, since it seems like one of the two, I will of course keep you posted on this. Well that brings a end to this month's edition of the news, with lots of covered topics, stay tuned next month, were we talk about more magic the gathering related news, until then this is vergil signing off.

Day9 Coverage Video --- Round 5 Coverage
2013 Grand Prix Schedule --- GP Updated Schedule

Commander's Arsenal Spoilers Part 3: The Douche Blast

Hello everyone and welcome to this edition of the emporium where as today it's the final reveal of what's in the upcoming Magic the Gathering product, Commander's Arsenal which is set to arrive next friday on store shelves, so without further ado let's see what is in this set and i will reveal a full list of the product after revealing the final main spoiler.

Yes, Scroll Rack is being printed in this set, seriously this may be a commander's arsenal choice, but it's not what i'd call essential to all decks, well hopefully the next card i show off is worth it.

You must be joking, Vela the Night-Clad in this set, why don't you just call this Planechase 2013 for crying out loud, this set has turned out to be a total joke.

Well at least wizards got one card right alongside Rhystic Study, Decree of Pain, it's the only way to ride into the sunset in commander, a decent choice in my eyes, but this does not remedy the lack of good cards in the set.

Not impressed at all honestly, Karn, Silver Golem, just ignore the reserved list here wizards and completely get rid of it, it's a joke list, that's all it is plain and simple.

*Facepalm* Not these 2, seriously Zur the Enchanter and Godo, Bandit Warlord, rounding out the 10 oversized generals of this set, please here wizards listen for a second, please stop printing over sized generals they are a waste.

So after 3 days of spoilers, we have our 18 cards in this set, they are as follows

#1) Kaalia of the Vast
#2) The Mimeoplasm
#3) Edric, Spymaster of Trest
#4) Diochan, Artful Beauty
#5) Maelstrom Wanderer
#6) Vela the Night-Clad
#7) Loyal Retainers
#8) Decree of Pain
#9) Sylvan Library
#10) Command Tower
#11) Dragonlair Spider
#12) Duplicant
#13) Chaos Warp
#14) Mirari's Wake
#15) Scroll Rack
#16) Desertion
#17) Mind's Eye
#18) Rhystic Study

And that's it for Commander's arsenal, a waste of a product wizards i'm sorry, limiting it to 4 a advanced store and 2 for core stores kind of kills this product, at least 10 should have been printed, making it easier to obtain, but the heads of wizards probably wanted another cash grab, oh well wasted oppourtunity for Commander support here, this is vergil signing off.

Commander's Arsenal Spoilers: Part 2, MTGCommander.net Spoilers

Hello everyone and as usual, MTGCommander.net has some decent spoilers for us in regards to the up and coming Commander's Arsenal, without further ado let's see what they got in store for us this day.

Oh boy, no way, a new alternate art Rhystic Study to start things off, this is probably the best thing in the set, besides the foil command tower i looked at yesterday.

Ok, another Portal, Three Kingdoms rare it seems Diaochan, Artful Beauty is getting a reprint for this set as well it seems, just like Loyal Retainers, meaning red at least gets 1 card in this set, this looks like it though.

Not again, is this guy getting printed again, well it looks like it Maelstrom Wanderer is seeing yet another printing cycle, not like there isn't enough out there honestly, this guy was already a commander beast, now once more then anything he's just retarded to reprint.

At least he's not alone, Kaalia of the Vast is getting a reprint this set, not like there wasn't enough copies of her to go around, honestly i'm not surprised at this, me thinks wizards decided just to throw a bunch of legendary creatures and a bunch of portal stuff in here to support this set.

3 more over sized generals popped up recently they are, Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund, Glissa the Traitor and Brion Stoutarm, bringing the oversized general count to 7 so far which isn't bad i guess, but tommorow looks like the final day of Commander's Arsenal spoilers, so until tommorow this is vergil signing off.

Commander's Arsenal Spoilers: Part 1

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the emporium, where as today wizards is finally revealing what is in the Commander's Arsenal specialty pack, which goes on sale November 2nd, 2012, so without further ado let's see what is in it.

Wow, New art Duplicant, we all know what it does right for 6 mana, which is quite something it's a exile machine of doom and such, first of the revealed for this set which isn't bad.

Seriously, didn't we just get this in the Planechase 2012 precons this year, they are reprinting it again for this set, ok well in that case Dragonlair Spider, it's nice to see you again i guess in all perspective.

This was bloody obvious honestly, Command Tower being printed for the 3rd goddamn time in 2 years, 1 as a commander precon deck choice, once as a Judge's Promo and now as a part of the commander's arsenal, wizards i know you want the secondary market to have a lot of these, but does this really need to be printed again?

Well i guess this deserves to get a reprint after all it hasn't been seen since Portal Three Kingdoms and Masters Edition 3, welcome back Loyal Retainers, welcome back indeed.

Yes this too is getting a undeserved reprint for the set, which doesn't please me at all, Chaos Warp is back in this set and let's face it, i'm personally tired of seeing this card but it's nice to have even more floating around i suppose.

So apparently, Mayael the Anima, Grimgrin, Corpse Born and Silver Queen are being reprinted as Oversized foil generals for the set, which isn't big news i guess, but it's nice to see popular generals being printed in this manner, but that is all for now, stay tuned tommorow since MTGCommander's going to have a few previews for this set, until then this is vergil signing off.