Scars of Mirrodin Spoilers Part 1 [White]

Now i know i said the spoilers for this wouldn't be till a few weeks from now but you'll forgive me for not posting these bitches up ASAP, though by the time you see these you'll be preparing for the prerelease parties on September 25th and 26th the weekend after my birthday go me, so let's get started on this set in subsquential order first off with white's batch of cards for this new fall set, so let's go.

#1) Abuna Acolyte - Decent creature with decent abilites for 2 CMC and a 1/1 body with lots of tapping abilites i can see this being a easy ideal pick for draft but nothing else.

#2) Arrest - A weird card to be reprinted in all honesty i was expecting something more from wizards on this one however it would seem i was wrong, oh well. Though it is nice to see another reprint, however a enchantment that was from way back when is not gonna do it for me.

#3) Auriok Edgewright - For a 2 drop 2/2 it's not that bad really as a uncommon with metalcraft that is potentially a double striker, seriously this card is well balanced for a 2/2 indeed, another neat card from the R&D department.

#4) Auriok Sunchaser - 2 drop metalcraft is awesome espically if it's a 1/1 that gets a pump and flying when metalcraft is active, nice card.

#5) Dispense Justice - Decent removal is decent for this set, metalcraft makes it just as neat as well, personally i think this will do just fine to replace other removal.

#6) Elspeth Tirel +2 to gain 1 life for each creature on your side of the battlefield, -2 to put three 1/1 white soldier tokens and of course -5 destroy all permanents other then lands and tokens, which is a wrath of god like effect, elspeth this time remained mono white, meaning all those people whom thought she was G/W wrong she's mono white this time around with her full name too for a 5 CMC walker she ain't half bad, combined with the new ability proliferate she is a beast and can ultimate on the turn she comes out, not bad, wizards.

#7) Fulgent Distraction - Another instant that taps, nice, but detaching all those equipment from attacking creatures just make it nicer personally i expect this to be a white draft staple for this set.

#8) Ghalma's Warden - Another metalcraft, that pumps itself even as a 2/4 original body for 3 CMC, nice but again there are some better metalcraft cards out there.

#9) Glimmerpoint Stag - A 3/3 elk for 4 and it has vigilance and exiles a permanent when it enters the field, can you say combination with venser anyone, i think this is a solid uncommon in a set like this

#10) Glint Hawk - Well a rather solid common for white it would seem, doesn't really replace Kor Skyfisher as a friend had said, but that's just his thoughts, me bouncing a 0 cost artifact like Memnite and play that and the nite again for basically nothing meaning you got a creature ahead of your opponent but in scars limited it's gonna be difficult to do that.

#11) Indomitable Archangel - Seriously is this it, the last mythic of scars of mirrodin, god damn it's a doozy for a 4 CMC and a 4/4 it's a damned good one, with flying as per expected and metalcraft giving shroud to other artifacts you control, another card that most will want to go for, i expect this to be a bomb come prerelease.

#12) Kemba, Kha Regent - For a 3 CMC monster this isn't half bad personally and all, but it relies on equipment to give it's ability some edge, but it is a token producer regardless, for a rare this isn't half bad, not good either personally as this is so easy to subvert it is not even funny personally.

#13) Kemba's Skyguard - Alright this bitch was revealed in the duel deck elspeth vs tezzert in which i reviewed here ---> Duel Deck Review it's a 1 white, white cost for a 2/2 flyer with the ability when it comes into play you gain 2 life, not bad, not bad at all, this gives a edge for 3 drops at the uncommon level it's gonna be a nice change of pace for a 2/2 flyer however we've seen too many 2/2 flyers these days and more and more are popping up, albeit it this is different since it gives life when it pops up, provided it's not countered by U/W control of course, good card regardless.

#14) Leonin Arbiter - Alright then so for a 2 CMC creature with 2/2 you can't search libraries, fetch lands are useless, with this at least, glad i don't run search decks otherwise i'd hate this card personally, but it forces a person to pay mana to search as well for anything, not bad, but still considerably terrible in terms of a rare.

#15) Loxdon Wayfarer - Another white creature with no static abilites as a 1/5 body for 3 CMC and a common it's decent too, i think it might provide a nice little wall for stallers.

#16) Myrsmith - Another smith of the cycle we are gonna be seeing, this one is a nice token generator provided you got the mana for it, not half bad personally, at the uncommon level too it's decent for what it is i find.

#17) Razor Hippogriff - A card that returns stuff and gives life when it does, nice touch as a 3/3 body with flying it's a damn good one i feel, white has all the good ones for this set it seems.

#18) Revoke Existence - Blantant name for what it does, removal is all it does at instant speed for 2 CMC, ok i'm not impressed.

#19) Salvage Scout - Another artifact return card like the griff above, well this seems like this is gonna go well for this set.

#20) Seize the Intiative - Blantant Pump spell is blantant personally this doesn't impress me at all, next!

#21) Soul Parry - Another spell that only prevents damage, white has a knack for this stuff doesn't it, anyhoo good overall solid casting cost and all i think it's a sleeper.

#22) Sunblast Angel - This is turning out to be a interesting set thus far, with cards like this that when it comes into play, all tapped creatures are destroyed, for a 6 mana 4/5 with flying this seems like a decent rare already and i like it personally, i want to pick up four of these since it's wrath of god effects are just sweet.

#23) Sunspear Shikari - A creature that has first strike and lifelink when equipped can you say overpowered much seriously this is way too good for this set.

#24) Tempered Steel - Another white enchantment in which reminds me of honor of the pure, but for artifacts times 2, this is a 3 CMC enchantment with the ability Artifact creatures you control get +2/+2 which is not half bad for drafting, at the rare level you won't see too many of these being drafted, but mono white artifacts are a possibility thanks to this card, personally i expect to see something bigger, badder and better in this set in general other then a enchantment which pumps artifacts but that's not a bad thing by any means.

#25) True Conviction - This is a game changing rare right here folks, for 6 CMC this seems like the kind of thing you want to bomb late game, as it's double striking and lifelink properties are active as long as this is on the field, this i feel is gonna be a new keycard for a future deck in the pro level scene.

#26) Vigil for the Lost - Another enchantment that gives off life, but you get to choose how much life to gain, seriously this is nice, but it only works when creatures die oh well.

#27) Whitesun Passage - Final white card of the set, i think it's a decent for 5 life and all at instant speed it's a nice interrupt on the combat step, nice way to end the white cycle for this set.

And that's all she wrote for white, next on the list is blue

Scars of Mirrodin Discussion Part 2

So this is the second of two parts of the discussion a bit after the first one, let's get started with a few confirmed things for this set, It is a heavy artifact based set, meaning a good 1/3 of the cards in this set are more then likely going to be artifacts in general, we've already seen quite a few of them and some of the abilites for this set so let's go over what we know about this shall we?


First thing first is the abilites, Metalcraft, Imprint [A returning mechanic from the original mirrodin], Infect and of course Proliferate, these being the four keywords of this set, let's explain some of these various mechanics for those whom are confused starting with Metalcraft. Metalcraft is a unique ability which is relient on three or more artifacts being on your side of the field before the ability of the creature or card with this triggers, one example is Mox Opal, this has metalcraft and is a legendary artifact with when three or more artifacts are on the field not including this, the ability in which to add 1 mana of any color to your mana pool is triggered and your allowed to use it, even though it's a 0 casting cost card. metalcraft is a balance type of effect in which makes overpowered cards more balanced and fair to play, some of them though will never see play or anything, so don't get me wrong it's not all that bad, but metalcraft could have been more well planned and such, reminds me of landfall from zendikar a year ago.


Imprint is another based ability in which makes a return to standard after almost 7 years of being off the block, a card with this ability when it comes into play puts a certain number of cards into the RFG zone aka the removed from game zone and when the card dies with this ability, they are returned into the order in which they removed. at least that's how i think they will work this time, if i am wrong please do correct me if you don't mind. However it is nice to see this ability brought back into it's prime state from the old mirrodin days, good choice wizards in bringing at least one ability back.


Yeah yeah i know time for infect, be patient ya bastards infect is two things combined into one according to what i've seen thus far, Poison and Wither which were from previous sets, this being the better combination, a creature with infect does the following, when it deals damage to a creature, it puts -1/-1 counters on the creature according to it's power, so if it is a 4/4 creature it gets -4/-4 and so on, bloody ingenious, then the controlled of the infected creature gets 4 poison counters since it goes by the power of the creature with infect or so i would believe, the bright side is, you only need 10 poison counters to lose a game, with this set it's seeming to be more possible to do that much quicker these days then anything as in time spiral all you basically had was slivers and nothing more to do poison counters, which sucked but oh well.


Proliferate is another fun new ability i think wizards saved for us in this set, since it's a counter based ability which provides another counter, so let's provide a example as always, say you got a walker say, Garruk Wildspeaker and you got a card with proliferate in play, say a creature with it such as Thrummingbird from the upcoming set, scars of mirrodin, it attacks you get to add another counter to garruk making him that much faster to go ultimate and all other counters get added on, including poison and -1/-1 counters in general, it's a whole field effect and not just one based if you so choose, i like it personally and all which is unlikely for me since this was the second of the four abilites announced with infect being the first and so forth. It's not without it's conditions though, permanents with this are still vulnerable to removal and the like so be warned, this is a fun yet dangerous ability if left unchecked.


Finally i want to go over some rumours that were spread on Salvation and the like concerning one elspeth tirel, it was speculated a long time ago that it was a hybrid colour card, meaning dual colour, wrong it's still a mono white walker and such,  but Venser is a dual colour walker for sure, he was speculated at a mono coloured cost, which was weird, however the prices for these walkers on other sites such as starcitygames and the like are insane, with both of them being over 40 dollars a pop, please guys don't constantly do this for all these new sets, it gets annoying for players like myself to even have a shot at any sort of pro tournament level play since the copies are all gone by the time most low level players get there.


Anyhoo enough ranting and all this is vergil signing off for another article, also next time it's on for the spoilers so stay tuned, ok folks, have a nice day.

Duel Deck Review Elspeth Vs Tezzert

Ok so everyone remembers the elspeth vs tezzert duel decks to come out in early september well it's time to give my whole thoughts and ideas on this particular duel deck including the fact it's only gonna be priced at a mere 20 dollars for the US and about 25 for canada, which is awesome so let's begin with the deck itself

Tezzeret

Darksteel Citadel
Seat of the Synod
Mishra's Factory (new art)
Stalking Stones
Island (x20)

Thoughtcast
Argivian Restoration 
Thirst for Knowledge (x2)
Moonglove Extract
Echoing Truth
Trip Noose
Energy Chamber
Contagion Clasp (SoM Preview Card)
Elixir of Immortality
AEther Spellbomb
Everflowing Chalice (x2)

Pentavus
Qumulox
Triskelion
Razormane Masticore
Clockwork Hydra
Faerie Mechanist
Synod Centurion
Juggernaut
Frogmite
Clockwork Condor
Trinket Mage
Master of Etherium
Esperzoa
Serrated Biskelion
Assembly-Worker
Steel Overseer
Silver Myr
Runed Servitor (x2)
Steel Wall
Arcbound Worker

Tezzeret the Seeker

Elspeth
Daru Encampment
Kabira Crossroads
Rustic Clachan
Plains (x22)

Blinding Beam

Abolish
Swell of Courage
Saltblast

Crusade (New Art)
Razor Barrier
Raise the Alarm (x2)
Mighty Leap
Journey to Nowhere
Swords to Plowshares (x2 New Art)
Sunlance

Angel of Salvation
Conclave Equenaut
Catapult Master
Stormfront Riders
Conclave Phalanx
Seasoned Marshal
Celestial Crusader
Kemba's Skyguard (SoM Preview)
Kor Hookmaster
Burrenton Bombardier
Kor Aeronaut
Temple Acolyte
Kor Skyfisher (x2)
Glory Seeker
Mosquito Guard
Loyal Sentry
Infantry Veteran
Goldmeadow Harrier
Elite Vanguard (x2)

Elspeth, Knight Errant

Right off the bat you'll notice the deck theme, artificiers vs soldiers which seems common and a unusual battle, however in this case there are a couple of cards you'll notice off the bat which have the words (SOM preview) this being kemba's skyguard and of course contagion clasp, one for each deck and i'll provide links to the pictures here ----> Link to Photos in which the artwork and abilites of both particular cards are revealed, that being said let's go onto the basics, as you can Elspeth's deck is full of ass kicking soldiers in which are very good for the most part, that being Kor Skyfisher, Infantry Veteran and of course the big walker herself Elspeth, Knight Errant.

Now you may also be wondering what is a artificer easy a artificer is described as the following [A magical technologist whom doesn't use spells but ancient infusions of power, capturing essences of magic and containing them within the special device the wielder carries around, using it to do battle] each one of course is different and has a wide array of special abilites and casting costs in the tezzert deck including Master of Etherium, Trinket Mage and many others including Tezzert the Seeker himself with brand new artwork in which is nice, both of the decks have a well rounded feel and are able to cast spells pretty easily, considering each walker is valued at a different price, the feel of the value alone is worth the money you pay for the duel deck, in which you get 5 rares and a 2 mythic rares including in this deck, the mythics being the walkers which are both priced at about 10 and 20 dollars respectably these days.

You get a nice decent chunk of land with each one too including some very brand new art on Mishra's Factory in which it has been revamped and redone to suit the new style of artifacts represented, as well as some of the soldiers themselves, each having their own art from the sets there were in, being core sets or the block set in general. Overall if your looking for your money's worth this is one of the duel decks to pick up as we will see both Tezzert and Elspeth in the next block set, Scars of Mirrodin as well as being both completely legal again for the entire 2 years this block will be in play, i'd recommend this duel deck if your a fan of these special offers WotC tends to put out once or twice a year depending of course if they got the materials to do so.


Now onto the little negative bit about this duel deck, there are not very many 2 of's in this and that is one of the precon decks real troubles, since most decks these days end up having 3 or 4's of one specific card in them i can't see the reason why wizards wouldn't take the time to properly print a deck with at least some good 2's and 3's of but it's wizards call not mine, also it would raise the price from 20 to about 30 if they did that since the MSRP has been screwing people over on FTV:Relics or as i like to call it, 15 cards that are overpriced, anyhoo enough ranting and this is vergil signing off.

Scars of Mirrodin Discussion and Speculation

Well it's that time again, spoilers alert, Warning the follow article contains sets of spoilers for the newest MTG set scars of mirrodin, speculation abound this set seems to want to have 4 planeswalkers, a bunch of kick ass artifacts and that as well as some strange additions to magic's ever growing roster, so let's go.


Landwise there are only basic lands for this set it would seem, as special lands such as dual lands or sacrifical lands are not to be included, so those who were expecting a big land selection you ain't getting any, sorry to say, the five basic lands though are included for each set that is released which is always a staple of any set wizards tends to put out, 4 for each with sure to be magnifiicent art pieces of each of the various cards, sorry to say people but this is really not a surprise as well since mirrodin was not known for producing special mana sources aside from the creatures themselves.


Planeswalkers are a whole different story, it would appear we're gonna have 4 maybe possibly 5 included in this set, including a old friend Elspeth Tirel, who may end up getting a whole new look thanks to this picture right here

Now as you can see this means we may have multicolored planeswalkers like before, of course speculation is this is just the first of many as we can also probably expect Tezzert the seeker and Karn if you don't know who Karn is, take a look at this little article.  Article this explains Karn's existence to a extent and such, deadly as he is who knows, but it's nice to see a old face of mirrodin returning, including the ever deadly phyrexians, massive beasts who ravage worlds for kicks, sounds like my kind of guys anyhoo getting off track here we also have the returning Venser who seems like he's got a few last tricks up his sleeve, perhaps he may end up being the next jace 2.0 who knows, but one can only speculate.

As we always figured this set is gonna be chock full of artifacts as well, including equipments and creatures with modular, one can only hope, speculation aside i think scars is gonna offer another oppourtunity to revisit one of the first sets i ever played in my existence as a magic fan and player, hopefully it turns out to be good upon spoilers being put out and as always i will post a article for each and everything that comes out spoiler wise don't you worry folks.

Till next article this is vergil signing off.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Friday Night Magic Results For August 20th 2010

Alrighty then it's been a while since i've done one of these FNM wrap ups for the usual week i tend to go to these things, so let's get started with the basics, it's been about 2 months since i've been there and such, so i was bound to get a bit rusty since of course i had not played in so long, so let's go.

The draft deck itself was a Red/White based burn aggresion strategy, with some small creatures and of course big bombs with burn and such, with some red creatures being very powerful for a cheap cost, i felt it was good but the matchups were a terrible choice since i faced nothing but control and a mirror match the entire night.

Lands

1 Rootbound Crag

8 Plains

6 Mountains

Creatures

3 Squadron Hawk

2 Goldenglow Moth

1 Berserkers of Blood Ridge

1 Roc Egg

1 Assault Griffin

1 Chandra's Spitfire

1 Arc Runner

1 War Priest of Thune

1 Ajani's Pridemate

Spells

2 Lava Axe

2 Celestial Purge

1 Inspired Charge

1 Chandra's Outrage

1 Ajani's Mantra

1 Pyretic Ritual

1 Holy Strength

1 Dragon's Claw

1 Lightning Bolt

1 Safe Passage

1 Volcanic Strength

Let's now go over the rounds that were played on this particular night in question so let's go over each of the rounds one by one in order too

Round 1 Vs Green/Blue Control/Aggro

Game 1 this was fun, i managed to get all three hawks on, with inspired charge, swinging for the win in the air with no major threats, not bad, not bad 1-0 round 1 so far, Game 2 was a more close one, got none of the hawks, got some beaters in, but not enough damage to win the round entirely meaning my opponent made me scoop due to this fact i was on 4 life facing down 8 power worth and only 1 blocker, not good 1-1 at this point. Game 3 was the best thus far, both of us pushed our decks to the limit, he getting his combos off, me dealing damage and destroying him, bringing it down to the final minute of the last round before i said Good game and scooped leaving my opponent with a victory

0-1 at this point, round 2 was a bye so i got a win automatically, not complaining here onto round 3.

Round 3 Vs Red/White Aggro

Game 1 total blowout, got screwed via land and ended up scooping rather quickly once he got 2 serra angels down, literally only 4 creatures the entire game, not good, 0-1 at this point, if you followed my twitter i ranted on this match due to the fact the opponent declared i was stacking the deck, aka cheating when i was shuffling normally and refused to let him cut, the match ended shortly after because i refused to let him cut, so 1-2 was the record up to now, not a good start to FNM again

I decided to drop round 4 because frankly i wasn't gonna win nothing, as well as it was getting late so overall a eventful night, i only rare drafted one rare overall and it was a mana fixer for emergencies, i felt i could have done a bit better in the draft, there is always next time right, anyhoo this is vergil signing off for this one

MTG Set Review #4 M11 Core Set

Coming into this one i ended up thinking to myself, i've already done all three block format sets for the year and soon to be the next one, provided it comes out on time of course at the beginning of october as planned this is perhaps the last set review for a while, so let's get down to the basics of this core set with the newest mechanics and cycles revealed for 2011 so let's go.


The Titan Cycle - This is perhaps one of the most brutal cycles to come out in a core set, you have one for each colour as well as the various mechanics for the colour it represents for example we have Frost Titan which represents blue and control elements, Grave Titan which has control over zombie generation and generating infinte amounts of creatures, Inferno Titan which makes burn spells happen and pumps itself up to massive levels to make the most damage, Primeval Titan for land generation and massive trample damage and of course Sun Titan to return cards to your hand to play them again and again till it dies, generating a infinte amount of cards if done correctly. This particular cycle is one of the most powerful ever seen, a set of creatures so deadly it's unreal and some of the costs of these beasts are huge in comparison to the other core set cards i am going to be talking about in this article.


The Leyline Cycle - Another enchantment cycle you ask, haven't we seen this before you ask, hmm no not really, the leylines were in a prior set known as Guildpact, and even one of them is a standing reprint bet you can't guess which one that's right the first one i'm talking about Leyline of the Void which is the same as it always was with removing cards put in the graveyard from the game if this is out, best of all, if you got these in your opening hand, you get to play them for free, i mean no cost in mana or nothing, absolutely, 100% free and no charge. Now of course each one has a specific colour and effect, let's start with the void, it prevents graveyards from being in use while it is out, exiling every card in the graveyard from the game, it normally would be a turn 4 play if it was not in your opening hand, if it was turn 1 this would screw a lot of dredge decks again if dredge was still a standard thing but it's not anymore. Let's move onto the next one the red one known as Leyline of Punishment which does prevent lifegain from being used and prevents damage from being countered, think of it's prevention effect much like a Banefire that is paid for 5 for X at all times, except damage is not dealt instead the damage is uncounterable and hits no matter what. Now for a new entire idea green's leyline Leyline of Vitality which pulls a lifegain effect each time a creature enters the battlefield under your control and gives +0/+1 counters to everything. making them all that much tougher, nuff said. For white it's of course Leyline of Sanctity which makes you unable to be targeted by spells or abilites, a permanent shroud effect if you will, awesome this raised white's drafting potential to new standards and finally the last card is Leyline of Anticipation which gives everything flash, which i've talked bout in my previous article which is listed somewhere in here, find it i don't wanna bother linking it.


Planeswalker spells and creatures - This set introduced us to a new sort of card, ones that are closely tied together with the 5 main planeswalkers Ajani Goldmane, Jace Beleren, Chandra Nalaar, Lilliana Vess and Garruk Wildspeaker, each seems to be used for their own colours and have the various abilites of each colour and such, let's take a look at them shall we. Ajani's Mantra and Ajani's Pridemate are the first two in this set, they both work on lifegain, the pridemate gets counters on it for each 1 point of life gained and the mantra gives 1 point of life during the upkeep step which is really cool, combo'ing this two cards together with the planeswalker they are named off can make some seriously bad ass creature in the pridemate, drafting them seems to be no trouble at all either, since they are both common and uncommon. The next two is Chandra's Outrage and Chandra's Spitfire it works much the same as the card from ROE known as Kiln Fiend except the outrage is the spell that triggers the spitfire's ability to give it a +3/+0 boost since the outrage does 2 points of noncombat damage to a opponent this way, perfect in combination again, wizards really knew what they were doing with each of these particular cards. The next two cards are a pair of creatures since they are of the green variety Garruk's Companion and Garruk's Packleader are both creatures that work off each other, one has trample and the other gives you card draws when a creature with power 3 or greater comes into play, not bad for a pair of creatures huh. Blue ends up getting a pair of spells in the form of a enchantment and instant speed spell known as Jace's Erasure and of course Jace's Inguenity which both focus on milling and card drawing since it's a blue essential aspect, the inguenity reminds me of another card called Brainstorm but without the nasty side effect of discarding 2 cards in response. The last two from this new cycle is a enchantment in the form of Lilana's Caress which causes a lifeloss effect when a card is discarded and Lilana's Specter which makes opponents discard causing the enchantment to trigger which is all well and good to be quite honest.


That's pretty much it in terms of new cycles and cards worth talking about, tommorow i'll more then likely end up discussing the main stuff to come for the next bit, including thoughts and speculations on the latest block started Scars of Mirrodin, till next time this is vergil signing off.