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.

Magic the Gathering News Vol 20: Summer Wrap Up

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the monthly, but this time it's the summer wrap up, it's going to be a long edition since i'm doing both July's and August's big events, so without further ado let's begin.

Well with July we got ourselves only 3 events to speak of before the beginning of the World Magic Cup held in Indianapolis, Indiana this year, with 2 of those events being Magic 2013 sealed booster draft, one being Legacy and the other being Modern, below i will list who won each event and all that.

Magic 2013 Sealed Winners - Reinaldo Da Silva Jr and Bo Li
Legacy - Timo Schunemann
Modern - Jacob Maynard

Congrats all four winners of that month but now it's time to talk about the biggest event of the summer, the World Magic Cup, 3 days of intense action with 71 teams, 5 different formats for the event Magic 2013 Sealed Booster, Magic 2013 Team Sealed, Standard, Modern and of course Innistrad Block Constructed being played over the course of the 3 days, let's take a look at Day 1's overall best 3 teams to start.

Day 1 had a intense spree of action including that of Croatia, the United States and of course the Slovak Republic taking the top 3 spots after 7 rounds of intense competition and Day 2's events pretty much sailed the same way with Croatia leading the charge into the top 8 of the event, claiming that ever prestigious No 1 seed for the final 8 teams, but it would be Chinese Taipei taking the cup on the final day, when it mattered against a very impressive and contreversial Puerto Rico in the finals of the event, but congrats to Chinese Taipei for the win, for the full event coverage see below.

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/wmc12/welcome

In august we had a mere 1 event which took place in Boston-Worchester which was won by Brian Demars whom is a legacy player and the event of course was legacy as always, but we are not done yet, no sir, remember the upcoming product Duel Deck: Izzet vs Golgari well it's going to be arriving on store shelves next week and believe me here are the notable cards from each deck.

Izzet: Isochron Scepter, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind [Foil], Prophetic Bolt, Invoke the Firemind, Djinn Illuminatus, Galvanoth

Golgari: Eternal Witness, Life from the Loam, Golgari Grave-Troll, Stinkweed Imp, Elves of Deep Shadow, Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, Putrid Leech

As you can see both decks simply are excellent and for MSRP your getting roughly around 80 dollars worth of cards overall, for the full lists see below.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/210

And that brings a wrap up on this summer season, with Summer over and all that we now move onto the awesome fall set, Return to Ravnica which will be arriving on store shelves in October, plus we still have the entire preview season to go through, so until next time this is vergil signing off.

Return to Ravnica Arts #2

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the emporium, today it's all about the new return to ravnica spoiled arts on the mother ship site, there are 4 in total from today so without further ado let's take a look see at the 4 brand new arts.

Art #1 is very interesting and it is possible this could be a instant or sorcery, that being my best guess on it, but love the theme of this particular piece.

Piece #2 is a unique one as it potentially provides a sort of bonding theme, perhaps this is one of the creatures of the Azorius Guild.

This feels familar, perhaps it signals a reprint of Elves of Deep Shadow, since it is coming out in Duel Deck format in like a week, a very shadowy elf with it seems dark intentions, this could be the signal it's coming.

And last but certainly not least, art #4 is something out of the ordinary since it depicts something being contained with a magic bubble and a mage watching over it, perhaps some Azorious signet or something of that nature, who knows, all i know for certain is next there is something really cool to show, 5 letters recently revealed by wizards.

As you can see here, each one has a unique flavor and is consistent in it's theme, the rakdos with the dark and bloody theme, the Selesnya with their nature theme, Izzet with the mechanical theme, Golgari and their collective swarm theme and of course the Azorious whom are patient and show the most order, each one of these may in fact be the mysterious guild message that will be received at the prerelease for the Return to Ravnica prerelease, all i know is it sounds mighty fun to read these, but i of course will leave that to you to read, until next time this is vergil signing off.

Quarterly Bannings Period: My Predictions

Hello everyone and welcome to this super long edition of the emporium, over the course of this article i will be explaining my take on the Quarterly banning period, what i believe will be banned and what i know will be banned for each and every format, so without further ado let's begin.

Now with every March, June, September and December there are the quarterly bannings and unbanning periods in magic, where specific cards can get banned or unbanned depending if the format is healthy enough, let's start with the most popular format that people play, Standard.

Before you go all meta haywire on me about this here are the two cards i believe should be banned tonight in standard.

The first candidate tonight should be Delver of Secrets, i believe wizards of the coast made a mistake with this particular card in question, a 1 drop that can literally turn into a 3/2 flyer is nothing to scoff at and considering we've seen it in the top 8 of almost every event to date, it's due to get the banhammer simply because of how broken it is right now, even without the New Phyrexia and M12 Spell base to back it up, players are going to just run the M13 stuff, it's warped the format so badly it's either you player Delver or don't win, it's that simple.

Now a lot of people will debate with me on this second choice, Snapcaster Mage, Zac Hill called it a mistake card printed as it is, if you know wizards even said they messed up with this guy, it's a big oopsies on their part i'm afraid to say. So you get a 2/1 with flash, ok, i'll just reuse my counter spell aka Dissipate and flash him in, flashing back that spell in response to your titan, it's literally that stupid, it makes 16 counter spells 20, 20, 24, etc, etc. In my humble opinion Snappy here was the most broken card printed in recent memory and has been seen fighting alongside the first choice Delver.

A lot of people however namely the Cardboard Witch in her most recent article as seen Here have been in a heated debate over Snappy and the potential incoming ban, because as she had inherently stated below

No, I don't think banning these cards is a good idea because as a general rule I am against the banning of anycards in Standard.  While I'm fairly certain people will get over a ban on Ponder or Delver of Secrets I am particularly opposed to banning Snapcaster Mage a mere 9 months after it's release

So in a sense she clearly stated she is opposed to the simple fact that even if Snapcaster Mage is banned in the current meta, she doesn't like the fact that Snappy is a huge potential candidate for the quarterly banning period this time around simply due to how it's performed in the past 9 months since it's been out to date. Now i wanna go off topic here and talk about another card that slipped heavy under Wizards's radar, Bloodbraid Elf  you know the 3/2 4 drop that cascades into pretty much anything it wanted to back in the day, during the entire time it had existed in standard due to Jund, as The Cardboard Witch had clearly stated

Anyone who's ever played against Bloodbraid Elf can tell you the card is overpowered, idiot proof and ultimately absolutely no fun to play against; it's the very definition of a "negative play experience"

Now anyone who's ever played against this card can agree with this particular statement, the elf was a completely Negative play experience simply due to how it turned out to be, but did wizards ban it while it was in standard, unfortunately no, they didn't to my memory anyways, but last june they went and banned perhaps the unnecessary pair Stoneforge Mystic/Jace the Mind Sculptor when they were due to rotate in 3 and a half months, so what makes me think that wizards won't do this again, let's look a little farther back at Lorwyn Block when Ponder was banned, with Ponder back, wizards may do it again for 3 more months and cause players to get all pissy because if they do end up banning Ponder once more, it will somewhat resemble the last June bannings of Stoneforge/JTMS once again.


Overall in the standard format honestly, i'm expecting either one of three bannings, Ponder is banned, don't know why it's only got 3 months left in it's standard existence, Snappy is banned, because wizards openly admitted to making a mistake with this card, Delver is banned, just because of consistency and the fact he's basically too good for his mana cost. Let's move onto one of my favorite formats, Elder Dragon Highlander


Over the past month and a half since the release of Avacyn Restored i've been seeing more and more of this guy, Griselbrand.

To be honest with you it's making me sick to my stomach to see him almost every time i'm on Cockatrice, here are the reasons i believe this guy should be auto banned from the format, as a general and a card.


1) Yawgmoth's Bargain - This is already banned in 2 different formats, Legacy and Commander, this guy is basically that on a body with flying and lifelink, sure his mana cost may be different then Bargain, but none the less, being able to draw 7 as a response to any form of removal is stupid, i mean there are more decent mono black generals out there and this guy doesn't even deserve to be in this format as i care.


2) Easy to Ramp Into - Black has too many easy to access cards in this format, Cabal Coffers/Urbog, Tomb of Yawgmoth make it so you can churn this guy out as early as turn 6, draw 7, reloading your hand and equipping either Greaves or Boots to grant him haste, as well as Hexproof/Shroud, How about Nirkana Revenant on the field, all swamps essentially generate 2 mana off her, making it almost too easy to generate the necessary amount of mana to cast this guy, even if your not playing him as a general.


3) Tutors Galore - With Black having access to perhaps the best tutors in the game, Vampiric, Diabolic, Demonic and of course Increasing Ambition to name a few, there are too many easy ways to get this guy into your hand, which in all honestly makes me worried for the health of the format.


So i implore you please ban him tonight, i am quite tired of seeing him even as a card and he's the most broken thing to come out of Avacyn Restored, but i'm not done.


If your gonna ban one legendary, there's another that needs to be rebanned, of course i'm talking about Rune -Tail, Kitsune Ascendant

Isn't there a reason Erayo is banned as a general, if that is banned then i believe this should be rebanned as a whole allow to me to state the reasons why.


1) It was already banned prior - Yes 4 years ago this was on the banned list at the time Kokusho was put there in the format, it was already a broken record as a whole, it's just how much do i need to remind you people that when this was not banned white was very much too overpowered as a whole.


2) It auto flips when it enters - This and perhaps other enchantments can be used to basically make a invincible shield to protect yourself during the entire game, creating a stall deck essentially which drags the game out too long, making it a not very fun experience for your opponents if your playing this as a general.


So please, committee please re ban this card, for the love of all things, it deserves to stay on the banned list, even as a banned general.


Unbanning wise i believe it's time Kokusho, the Evening Star was allowed back in the format, even as a card, not a general, you can restrict him as a general for all i care, but we want him back, he's what's known as a Silly Six-Drop in the format for a reason, besides if all the other Kamigawa dragons are legal, why shouldn't this one be, hmm.


Modern wise i believe there shouldn't be any bannings, same goes for legacy, unless you wanna ban Delver in both those formats too, that'd be nice, anyways that's my take on the bannings for this quarter, if you of course have thoughts, post em in the comments below, this is vergil signing off.

Avacyn Restored Spoilers: Day 5, Week 2

Well it's the last time we will be doing Avacyn Restored previews for here, since hopefully on monday the full spoiler will be revealed as per expected, but let's see for the final time for Avacyn Restored what is going to be happening and what cool new cards we get to see before the big reveal.

So without further ado i present to you, Mythic #15 of Avacyn Restored, Primal Surge, the 10 CMC mythic that was talked about for almost 2 weeks, it's simple, Exile the top card of the library, if it's a permanent you get to put it onto the battlefield, if you do repeat the process, essentially this is a way to get good creatures and permanents for 10 cmc, yes that mana cost is no lie 8, Green, Green for the mana cost for this particular mythic, the most expensive mythic mana cost wise since New Phyrexia last year when they went and printed my home boy Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur but enough about this, let's see what else we got for this day.

Now this is how you make a common playable for crying out loud, a 2 damage spell for 1 mana, it's a shock but if it kills something, it is exiled instead, an excellent way to show off red's new power level for the set, considering it didn't get the shaft this time around.

Believe it or not that's it's the rest of the previews of today were already shown off via other spoiler sites, so this means as follows, AVR previews are pretty much finished now, we knew about Cavern of Souls, we knew about Wolfir Avenger and of course we knew about Ulvenwald Tracker so when everything is spoiled come monday, my spoilers begin, until then this is vergil signing off.

Avacyn Restored Spoilers: Week 1 Missed Previews

Hello folks and welcome to the week 1 overall wrap up where this week's missed promos and other stuff will be here as always, so without further ado let's begin.

A recent addition to the spoiled cards, it's Miracle slapped onto a Wheel of Fortune for 5 mana, which is excellent in this writer's opinion, i am pleased to see a functional reprint of this particular old school card for the new school era, for you old school era folks, Wheel of Fortune had each player discard his or her hand and draw 7 cards, same thing as here, but with miracle as i said, a very nice functional reprint.

Our second intro pack rare this one translates to as follows "Haste, Whenever Zealous Conscripts enters the battlefield, untap target permanent and gain control of it till end of turn, it gains haste until end of turn" 3/3 of course and a rare as expected, it's nice to see this was quickly translated.

Last but certainly not least is our third intro pack rare, Herald of War which as we've come to expect of it was Flying, the standard vanilla key word for all angels pretty much, but this i didn't expect, whenever it attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on it, Angel spells and Human spells you cast cost 1 mana less to cast for each +1/+1 counter on Herald of War and it's a 3/3 that's service honestly for a intro pack rare and is immediately going to be added to my Mono White EDH, as soon as it comes out of course, anyways that's all for this missed edition, stay tuned tommorow for more previews and such.

Avacyn Restored Spoilers: Day 5, Week 1

Hello everyone and welcome to the end of the first week of Avacyn Restored Spoilers here at the emporium, in today's edition of course any missed cards will be covered first then onto today's previews, starting with our newest miracle card, shown via Reddit, aka the front page of the internet.

Whoa, did i just get curb stomped with this one, sheesh a 6 drop spell, but with Miracle it's one green mana, until end of turn target creature gets +6/+6 and gains trample and all creatures able to block this turn do so, ok there is the downside of the card right here, but the rest i like, let's see what it enables, Dungrove Elder, Thrun, Primeval Titan, Glistener Elf, Phyrexian Crusader, Black and green got itself a brand new 1 drop pump spell toy to work with here, this is so cool.

This is the Channel Fireball preview Bonfire of the Damned and wow is is good, basically a one sided sweeper effect, only works on opponents and it's mythic rare, with XX in it's mana cost, but Miracle cost is X and 1 Red, not bad wizards.

If this is the reason they banned Intangible Virtue in block, i love it, a 5 CC enchantment that basically acts as a enabler for all creatures when they enter the battlefield, giving them each a +1/+1 counter for each creature, token decks go nuts over this.

Ok so let's break down what soulbound we got, Double Strike, Check, Flying, Check, Deathtouch, Check, now Firebreathing check, a 1 red mana 1/1 that gives firebreathing is very cool for a uncommon, and it's aptly named, Stonewright oh yeah.

What in the hell is this, is this a walker that costs 2 mana, yes, introducing Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded who costs 2 red mana, starts with 2 loyalty has 3 abilites +1) Draw a card then discard a card at random -4) Tibalt the Fiend-Blooded deals damage equal to the number of cards in target player's hand to that player, -6) Gain control of all creatures until end of turn, Untap them and they gain haste until end of turn, interesting wizards would print this honestly, i don't know what to say about this guy, does he suck, does he rock who knows.

Yes our first land of the set, Desolate Lighthouse is it's name and it draws and discards cards like it was nothing for a mere 1, Blue, Red mana and you tap it, it's a rare land, you add 1 to your mana pool, a nice way to show off what we can expect in the land cycle this time around.

Anyways that's it for now, tommorow i will be of course if there are any previews to be shown on the weekend i will post them in the spoilers i always make, as well as cards i may have missed, but for me that wraps up week 1 of Avacyn Restored spoilers here at the emporium, see you next week for week 2.

Avacyn Restored Spoilers: Day 4, Week 1 - First of 2 Walkers Inside

Hello everyone and welcome to yet another edition of the emporium, today we've got a few cards to take a look at including our first planeswalker of the set, so without further ado let's go.

As per usual if i miss a preview it will be first on the list, the first of our intro pack rares, a 5/5 deathtouch dude named Harvester of Souls that basically cantrips when a creature a dies, note it says when a creature dies not a creature under your control, so it triggers with your opponent's creatures.

Another legendary angel, honestly i'm already tired of these, but Bruna, Light of Alabaster is a decent one i must admit, a 5/5 flying, vigilance mythic rare, that makes 7 revealed as of this point, basically she works similar to Zur the Enchanter except there is no Converted mana cost limit on the auras you can put onto the battlefield, it's a complex wording but we will figure it out eventually.

Another flicker effect, but for blue this time, Ghostly Flicker sounds all well and good and believe me it's a excellent way to save from a artifact crusher spell like Akroma's Vengeance in EDH, but other then that this is a limited card for sure.

Emancipation Angel is technically a very good uncommon angel, it allows you to use Enter the battlefield effects on cards all over again, is a solid 3/3 flier and costs a mere 1, White, White, this preview was brought to us of course by Gathering Magic.

Well we have another Blue Walker, yes, this one is Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and believe or not she is a soratami, Mythic rare #8 on the set, 3 abilites +1) Tap target permanent, It doesn't untap during it's controller's next untap step, -2 Draw a card for each tapped creature target player controls, -8 You get an emblem with "You have no maximum hand size" and "Whenever a card is put into your graveyard from anywhere, you may return it to your hand." Well i've got 3 words for you, Elder Dragon Highlander since she doesn't sound very good, oh yeah, she has 4 starting loyalty, not bad, not bad for limited as well, this is going to be a decent walker to get, i cannot wait till we learn of walker #2.

Anyways that's all for now, until next time this is vergil signing off.

Grand Prix Schedule: Quarter 4

Well here at the emporium, we like to keep you folks well informed of course of changes throughout magic, on a consistent basis when they happen and it just so happens that the final part of the 2012 grand prix season was revealed by what formats are going to be played, however first there is a new promo being given out for all these particular events, behold the promotion card.

Yes, it is Lotus Cobra the 2/1 landfall mythic from Zendikar block, it has brand new art done by Terese Nielsen and the fact that this little baby is given out as entry into the following GP's.

San Jose, Costa Rica
Moscow
San Jose, California
Philadephia
Lyon, France
Auckland, New Zealand
Chicago
Charleston
Bochum, Germany
Taipei, Taiwan
San Antonio
Lisbon, Portugal
Toronto, Canada
Nagoya, Japan

Now the four formats that will be played at this events are the following, Team Sealed, Standard, Modern and of course Sealed, what Team Sealed seriously?

Yes Team Sealed is being played at San Jose, California this year

Here are the list of formats across the board.


San Jose, Costa Rica - Sealed [Magic 2012]
Moscow - Sealed [Magic 2012]
San Jose, California - Team Sealed [Hook]
Philadephia - Sealed [Hook]
Lyon, France - Modern
Auckland, New Zealand - Standard
Chicago - Modern
Charleston - Standard
Bochum, Germany - Standard
Taipei, Taiwan - Sealed [Hook]
San Antonio - Standard
Lisbon, Portugal - Sealed [Hook]
Toronto, Canada - Modern
Nagoya, Japan - Standard

So toronto this year is Modern eh, not a bad list of formats to finish off the year, the return of a team style event, as well as the fact 3 sealed events are from Hook this year, we still don't even know what the hell hook is honestly, all we know though it is sure to be a good opening set for a new fall block, until next time though this is vergil signing off.

Avacyn Restored - Intro Packs, Event Decks and Booster Packaging

Well it's that time again and we have the stuff for the next set's event decks, Intro packs and the booster packaging, so without further ado let's take a look see.

Since the image is so small, here's the names of the rares on the intro packs, Green/White has Herald of War which costs 3, white, white, Blue/Black has Lone Revenant which also costs 3, Blue, Blue. Red/Black has Harvester of Souls which costs 4, black, black, a very interesting creature considering. Red/White has Zealous Conscripts which costs 4 and a red and the Green/Blue pack has Wolfir Silverheart which costs 3, green, green. Now these particular rares are interesting as they give the intro packs some different idea, a user on salvation found out the names of these intro packs, i will list them below.

Green/White - Angelic Might

Blue/Black - Solitary Fiends

Red/Black - Slaughterhouse

Red/White - Fiery Dawn

Blue/Green - Bound by Strength

Our next image is the Event decks believe it or not, which were also revealed per the name of this article's title.

These particular event decks are Blue/White and Mono Black this time around and they are called Death's Encroach for the Mono Black deck and Humanity's Vengeance for the Blue/White deck which both have some very interesting art on the both of them, i expect to see both of these particular arts when it comes time for Avacyn Restored spoilers.

Finally, booster packaging was also spoiled in the form of Fat Packs and Singular Packaging, so here they are below.

Now we've seen 2 of the arts on the booster packaging, which are Avacyn and Griselbrand but the other 3 are brand new and we have yet to learn of them completely as of this point, while the fat pack itself looks mighty sick and interesting to say the least, this set is shaping up to be quite good for once, hopefully there are some interesting new cards to go along with it.

Anyways in the meantime this is vergil signing off.

Friday Night Magic Token Cards

With march winding down there's the old addage, in like a lion, out like a lamb and in this case with this month it's been a rather slow month in the terms of magic news for the emporium, so today let's take a look at some interesting token cards that are going to be given out at Friday Night Magic's around the world on April 6th, 2012, which also is a full moon that night as well.

These two particular tokens are going to be given out on April 6th's Friday Night Magic events, to all particpants of the event, but here's the sweet factor, they are the same card, but different sides, so for the first time in magic history there is a Double Sided Token card printed which is interesting to say the least, if you want to see the arcana containing more information, please see the link below.

Token Arcana ---> Double Sided Token Arcana

However that will about do it for this edition, because the count down continues for Avacyn Restored previews, yes, previews begin April 9th, that's 11 days till we find out what lies in Avacyn Restored's first official spoilers of course, but until next time, this is vergil signing off.

Magic the Gathering News Vol 15: PT Dark Ascension, Changes to Prerelease, Release Parties and much much more.

Hello everyone and welcome back to yet another monthly edition of the magic news, let's recap what happened in the month of february with some of the big changes to Magic as we may know it.

So as all may end up remembering, Launch Parties are going to change starting with Avacyn Restored in the fact that the term "Launch Party" is going to be phased out and that stores will be given more chances to run more prereleases and such depending on what store you go to to play magic on a weekly basis, it also means the promotional cards for said Launch Party are allowed to be distributed early on the release date of the new set, which is kind of nice i suppose in all honesty, plus since the upcoming set Avacyn Restored is a large set, it will be drafted on it's own for prereleases and booster drafts everywhere meaning no Innistrad for you, sorry, informational link will of course be below as always.

Article with Changes --> Changes to Launch Parties

Pro Tour Dark Ascension also happened earlier this month, with Wolf Run Ramp taking the entire event both PVDDR and Brian Kibler had a epic clash of 5 games to end the event with a mirror match wolf run ramp deck, that was a blast but the big shocker is the Jon Finkel vs Brian Kibler matchup where there was some serious classic moments there, congrats to Brian for his win and the next Pro tour as we know is Barcelona.

Grand Prix's a plenty this month, Kobe, Madrid were both booster draft/sealed deck while Lincoln saw Modern action, Baltimore saw a lot of standard decks once again but congrats go out to Bronson Magnan for winning Grand Prix Lincoln with his CAL deck, Grand Prix Kobe saw Masahiro Hiraga take the title in the booster draft, Grand Prix Baltimore saw standard and the winner of that event after a successful top 8 run was Matthew Costa while in Grand Prix Madrid, Ivo Grossholtz took the crown in a Sealed Deck/Booster Draft field which was over 1000 players, congrats to all four of you for winning your respective events and see you at Pro Tour Barcelona.

For those wondering if Tarmogoyf was going to be in Avacyn Restored, well kiss those dreams good bye as Mark Rosewater stated the following "While he makes sense mechanically, in makes no sense in a top down persepective in a horror block, so no we've never even considered reprinting it in Innistrad Block" the source will be below as always.

Source ---> Tarmogoyf Rumor Crushed

As we all know, this friday is the first night of Friday Night Magic in march, meaning a brand new promotion card, what could it be i wonder, well it's Tectonic Edge, the picture will of course be below

Yes friends you too can own your very own foil editions of the cheap version of Wasteland by winning your first FNM if it is your first of course, most stores like to have Standard though for their FNM's so keep that in mind before heading to your first new FNM for the month.

Well with that, that is the second month of the year done, we move towards a new month with a new product coming out Duel Decks: Venser vs Koth, so until next time you fine folks out there in magic land, this is vergil signing off.

Magic the Gathering News Vol 14: Dark Ascension Spoilers, Intro Packs, GP updates and much much more

Hello everyone and welcome to this first edition of the news for 2012, in this edition we will be covering the following items Dark Ascension Spoilers, DKA intro packs, GP's for the month of January, as well as the most interesting piece of news to come out of magic, which was the App for Android and Iphone's which is scheduled to be released sometime soon, so let's get to it.

Well another spoiler season come and gone, Dark Ascension's season officially ended on the 23rd of the month, but left that residual taste in our mouths which isn't good, about 60% of the rares i feel are completely unplayable outside of limited/EDH and casual play, which sucks because usually rares usually end up defining a set, but here's the breakdown of the rarity for those curious souls 12 Mythic Rares, 38 rares, 44 uncommons and 64 commons which make up the 158 cards in the set, out of the set though here's just a general top 5 for those interested.

5. Gravecrawler
4. Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3. Vorapede
2. Huntmaster of the Fells
1. Grafdigger's Cage

Yes my list is a little whacked with the two mythic DFC's of the set taking the top 2 slots, but DFC's have proven to be good, look at Mayor of Avabruck for crying out loud, anyways when the set is released this friday, please be sure to make sure to pick up at least 2 boxes to get the majority of the good stuff in this set, since a lot of the uncommons/commons are better then most of the rares here.

During the same week of spoilers we also got the intro packs for the set, the names of the intro packs are as follows Swift Justice, Relentless Dead, Dark Sacrifice, Monstrous Surprise and of course Grave Power and these will go on sale the same day Dark Ascension is released to the public on Feburary 3rd, 2012, they will range from about 8 dollars to 14 dollars a intro pack depending on the contents of the rares and how your local game store prices them, for the intro pack lists please see the following link

Intro Pack lists -->  Intro Pack Lists

So a new app for the IPhone, IPad and Android phone users is scheduled to come out sometime within the next while as of this writing, did i mention it's free it's called the Magic the Gathering Toolbox and it lets you build decks, gives you a article reader, card search, Life tracker and it even has a event calendar and store locator for you, interesting i know right, updates though for later sets after the release of this will cost a bit of money, how much is still unknown as of this point, but it is a great resource for any magic player to have on the go, for the full arcana link to the description of this app please see the link below

Application Arcana --> Magic the Gathering Application

As per usual of me it's time to take a look at the Grand Prix's which happened this month, starting with the first one Grand Prix Austin which saw long time bad boy Raphael Levy take the crown of being austin's champ for 2012, earning his spot in a upcoming pro tour, as well as the more recent stuff with Grand Prix Orlando which saw a epic finale bewteen Patrick "The Innovator" Chapin and Conley "Deck Doctor" Woods duking it out with new innovations in terms of decks but it was Conley Woods whom dominated the event and claim his trophy showing why he had a undefeated run at worlds, he's a changed man folks.

Anyways that's all the time we have for this edition of the monthly, stay tuned next month when we finally learn of the Event decks for Dark Ascension, look back at Pro Tour Honoluhu and of course so so much more, until next time though this is vergil signing off.

Dark Ascension Arts #2

Hello everyone and welcome back to another edition of the emporium, in this edition the recent arts that wizards have spoiled are the main topic once again, but there is a difference, there are 11 different arts instead of 10 from the previous edition of this mini series, so with that in mind let's begin

So with this first art in question it's time to see what Dark Ascension offers, ok let's start this one so as per one can tell this is obviously a human fending off several cursed werewolves with plenty of silver at that, a silver sword, shield and the other necessary tools to do the job, it seems like he is a defender type card by doing this or something along those lines but one cannot be certain of this.

This seems oddly familar of course, Ludevic's Test Subject anyone because of the lab feel this picture offers, so i believe it's the continuation of that particular card or something but a spell form, probably blue for sure at this rate, we will see when the card arrives.

Now what does this particular art remind me of, oh yes Glissa's Scorn but it doesn't have that artifact killing feel, just a death feel to it, making it hard to determine if it's red or black, but putting it mildly i would have to say it is a black based art, since the whole dark and dreary vibe is present.

I really don't know what to classify this as, Blue or perhaps a Red spell, it has something to do with skeletons or something, one can never be too sure these days, i only know that whatever the card is for this art it's sure to be good honestly.

Werewolves, it had to be werewolves seriously i am sick of these things already, but this seems like a creature or a enchantment to me, not a spell since the wolf jumping signifys that there is something going on there, plus the full moon is out for starters, so if it's the after effects of Full Moon's Rise i'll be shocked.

Vampire with a bloody Trepanation Blade usually means bad times for everyone, this one is probably somehow related to Clan Markov in a way, i don't know to be honest since our favorite vampire walker is coming back in this set.

Human cards are going to be scarce in this set i would imagine, this shows why, since the people are scared out of their mind, with demons and that on the rise i'm calling this as a white creature card, no more, no less.

"Batten down the Hatches, secure the Gate" a epic scene of a specific favorite movie of mine, but done in card form, it's so similar to Hold the Line for sure, i'm going to be shocked if i am wrong.

Curses, why did it have to be curses honestly, i'm not a big fan of these cards, this art though is cool and i would for sure like to see a curse removal other then Witchbane Orb but another curse come on wizards.

Legendary Werewolf alert, this guy screams legendary creature to me, no doubt about it, much like how we had a Zombie legend, spirit legend, vampire legend, this guy has yet to give people a reason to fear the dark.

Anyways that's it for this edition of the emporium, on monday begins DKA previews, yay, anyways that is it and this is vergil signing off.