Magic the Gathering News: Vol 6, Judge Promos for PT Nagoya, Some FNM Changes and More

Hello all and welcome back to Volume 6 of the monthly news, i'm vergil and it's time we wrap up may in style, Pro Tour Nagoya's Judges are gonna get a sweet card, FNM changes round the block and much more to discuss so let's get straight into it.

Pro Tour Nagoya is gonna get a bit of flavour for Judges as recently on MTGsalvation there's a promo for PT Nagoya judges in the form of Mana Crypt, wanna see the art, let's take a look at it shall we?

So as you can clearly see the wizards promo cards have been redesigned for some time now FNM wise and well today's no exception to this rule, the new and improved mana crypt which is going to be the Judge's promo for Pro Tour Nagoya or magic weekend Nagoya if you wanna call it that since a GP and a PT happen on the same weekend. This card however going for about 60 dollars at the moment in time is a gentle giant in the world of magic and perhaps may see a limited print run for these promos but i'm sure one or two will float on around EBay or something of that nature we will have to wait and see, onto a more serious piece of news, FNM changes.

Well Friday Night magic is gonna get a lot sexier with two new formats entering FNM's starting in July with Extended and Block Constructed formats hitting FNM's locally starting this summer, so this means as follows, FNM's not only can hold the usual assortment of Standard, Limited and even Two Headed Giant events, but now these two monster formats enter the battlefield as well, dear god help us all, but there are a few downsides to this little bit of news promos from FNM's can no longer be sold via shops but they can be distributed as door prizes at these events making them a nice piece of work, the link to the full news can be found here -> FNM Changes Article meanwhile today being the 30th of May begins Commander Previews starting with a already spoiled card but then again it could be a different piece of art since the one i showed earlier was a promotion card for the event, let's take a look at Edric, Spymaster of Trest which was spoiled via MTGCommander.net.

You are just asking for trouble with this dude out, he's a 2/2 a legendary creature, costs 1, a blue and a green mana is a rare, it has whenever a creature deals combat damage to one of your opponent's it's controller may draw a card, simple right, as i said before this itself replaces Momir Vig, Simic Visionary for sure and is perhaps the best general so far for the new commander cards, though i'm sure we will end up seeing a usual better commander, ahem Skullbriar, the Walking Grave for Green/Black but this is a decent enemy general for the format and is perhaps a worthwhile promo, expect me to show up at the promotion event on June 19th, that's all for today, so till next time magic fans, this is vergil saying Keep your legendary creatures untapped for now see ya next time.

Commander Launch Party Information and Update

So with just under a month to go as of this point, the new commander decks are sure to please the eyes however we received information on the launch parties themselves which take place on June 17th-20th in local game stores all over the place, let's get some of the information outta the way.

Commander Facts and Information this is where you will find all the relevant information about this format, there are 5 promotion cards being given out for this event they are as follows

- Basandra, Battle Seraph [Card was already previewed last article, found here -> Basandra Preview]
- Edric, Spymaster of Trest 
- Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
- Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter
- Nin, the Pain Artist [Card was previewed by wizards of the coast]

These five also go with their enemy deck colors so you will see one of these five depending on which one of the 5 starter decks you are given which are found here in this article Commander Decks and Information which i wrote about a month ago, i do not know which of these promos are for which yet, but when i do i will be sure to note it in this blog, let's move onto some of the more impressive details

During the event, you will be given a achievement card the achievement card will look a little something like this

It also has ten different achievements on it, for various different things like What does this one do? which is basically rewarded for particpating in the event, or Command Tower which is a new type of card to cast your general with specifically, i will list the achievements down below

-  What does this one do?
-  Command Tower
-  Second in Command
-  Get into it
-  Join Forces
-  Kaalia's Trifecta
-  Riku's Mirror Gallery
-  Ghave's Spore Cloud
-  The Gifts of Zedron
-  Hunger of the Mimeoplasm


Note the new keyword "Join Forces" this is a emphasis on teamwork against other players, if you play a spell with this, you can pay whatever the Join Forces cost is and get the secondary effect of the spell, one of the new ways to emphasize the new commander subtype format, which starts basically June 17th and runs all weekend long, check your LGS for more information, though if your in the toronto area, be sure to go to 401 Games at 401 yonge street on college that's where i'll be on the 19th of June playing in this event, if you want to meet me just ask for my real name in the comments below.

That about covers it for this article, stay tuned i'll keep you folks posted on the new commander information which will probably start in June, till next time though this is vergil signing off.

EDH - Basandra, Battle Seraph

So perhaps the biggest hit yesterday was the fact a new EDH general was announced for the upcoming commander decks which start selling on June 17th, 2011, want to see the general itself let's get to the big reveal

Here she is Basandra, Battle Seraph she costs 5 mana 3, a white and a red, is a legendary angel, with flying of course, during the combat step she prevents combat tricks like Giant Growth, etc from being cast and her final ability is Pay 1 red mana, target creature attacks this turn if able, though the power and toughness is unknown let's examine the card as a whole

First is the mana cost, for a EDH general 5 mana is roughly well balanced she fits into any Boros style deck with a bunch of small dudes that make a lot of impact, she has some decent potential in other deck types, prefereably a Razia, Boros Archangel EDH deck as a secondary general, or even a deck that has no real big bomb threat, this i feel is perfect mana cost wise and is a well suited legacy/vintage legal card when it comes into retail as of this June. Secondly, the abilites, flying is a given with all angels, there are no angels i can think of without flying and this is a given so evasion is a must for most of these standard angel cards, Players not being able to cast spells during the combat step is a nice way to control the game as a whole, you've got potential for some serious threat level there and combat steps this thing is nasty i must admit, but i never expected it to have the prevention effect much like Ethersworn Canonist which is from the Shards Block. The final ability of Basandra is a rather simple one, make things attack you, this way you can pull a end of turn removal spell and banish the attacking creature, in a format like EDH this is a rare sight since you are only allowed one of each spell or creature, but in a regular casual format this is a beast of a card that makes anything look sick, i'm hoping that in the future the power and toughness ratio of this angel is revealed from the promos, however that being said that's all for now, i'll have more information on all of this as time goes on, so till next time magic fans, this is vergil signing off.