Return to Ravnica Arts Speculation

Welcome back once again to the emporium, today it's all about the latest arts of return to ravnica which were spoiled via wizards of the coast in one of today's feature articles so without further ado let's take a look at some of these bad boy arts.

#1 here reminds me of a specific card called Wurmcalling from Time Spiral, but i doubt it will generate a single color wurm, or perhaps it could be my favorite wurm of all time which i won't spoil for you fine folks, but it seems like it could be potentially big for starters.

This feels very similar to another land from the old ravnica days, Selesnya Sanctuary i believe it was, perhaps this could be a reprint of that for this set, since it's highly possible.

Another very interesting piece which perhaps may have some hinting a specific creature type, perhaps Centaurs are indeed returning to magic's history, can't quite put the ID on this card art though.

Remember in the old days when Behemoth Sledge was around, well this could be reprinted after all since it fits the colors, theme and of course is being wielded by a Loxodon with a single eye, perhaps we could see either that or Loxodon Hierach reprinted after all.

This has that elemental vibe on it, so perhaps it could be hinting at some new elemental in magic, not like it needs it since we've got plenty of those to spare, but honestly it would be nice to see fresh new faces.

Anyways that's it for today, i'm just giving my thoughts on the latest spoiled arts while filling the normal quota for you folks, until next time this is vergil signing off.

2013 Grand Prix Schedule - Quarter 1

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the emporium, so the World Magic Cup is over, but it didn't leave us without info for next year's starting events, let's take a look see at the schedule for the first 3 months of 2013 in the Grand Prix season.

City                              Date

Indianapolis                    December 22nd and 23rd - 2012

Denver                           January 5th and 6th, 2013

Atlantic City, New Jersey  January 12th and 13th, 2013

Singapore                         January 12th and 13th, 2013

Bilbao, Spain                    January 19th and 20th, 2013

Sydney                             January 19th and 20th, 2013

London                            February 9th and 10th, 2013

Quebec City,                    February 23rd and 24th, 2013

Charlotte, North Carolina  February 23rd and 24th, 2013

Yokohama, Japan            March 2nd and 3rd, 2013

Verona, Italy                   March 9th and 10th, 2013

Rio De Janiero, Brazil       March 9th and 10th, 2013

San Diego, California        March 16th and 17th, 2013

Utrecht, Netherlands         March 16th and 17th, 2013

Also a keen bit of information for you fine folks, the first Pro Tour of next year is in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and is called Pro Tour Gatecrash, so PT's are coming home to canada for the first time in a long while, which makes me super excited honestly, but that's all for now, till next time this is vergil signing off.

From the Vault: Realms Recap

So hello everyone and welcome to one final edition on the latest From the Vault which is Realms which is all about the lands of magic this time around in nice shiny foil edition, i'm vergil and let's take a quick recap at what's gonna be in this year's FTV.

We already knew of Ancient Tomb, which is one of my new favorite lands of all time, just due to how fast it can become as well as other things of course.

As well as Boseiju, Who Shelters All, which is not a bad land by stand point, but it has it's downsides, since it's a old Cavern of Souls for 2 life for Instants and Sorceries.

Cephalid Coliseum is one i didn't really talk about since it was only revealed yesterday, but honestly it's not as good as the money land in this set, Maze of Ith

And here come the junk lands, Desert is one of the least favorite lands, if they could have printed anything again i kinda wish wizards had went ahead and printed a preview land for this particular slot instead of filling it with this junk.

With any good land based set, there's always a iconic piece, Dryad Arbor is no exception to this with brand new spanking art for FTV

Forbidden Orchard is one of those lands that is kind of iconic in EDH these days, since it grants 1/1 for no cost to your opponent's but it's still a decent land regardless.

I was really excited when i saw this was coming back, since it's one of those old lands that deserved a reprint honestly, but Glacial Chasm hasn't got a lot to it anymore, but still has shown it's one of those classic magic lands that deserve a slot in this kind of thing.

Half of the iconic Grove/Punishing Fire combo in Extended and Modern, this is one of those neat lands that collectors can go goofy over, Grove of the Burnwillows is another good reason to pick this up if you want a shiny copy.

High Market is one of those lands that is commonly played in EDH these days and this is another good reason to pick up this set for the foil version of this and my next card on the list.

The mack daddy of the set, Maze of Ith is the sole reason to get this set, it's worth it's weight in gold for Magic players these days and is perhaps one of the 6 iconic lands in magic's history

Doran players are familiar with this bad boy, Murmuring Bosk is one of those rock lands that is the reason why Doran players love this sort of thing, another decent reason to pick up this set as a whole.

Shivan Gorge is one of the least desirable pieces for this set, they could have done a lot better with this, but at least it's art is different compared to last time.

For those looking for a foil version of this, look no further, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is one of the iconic lands in EDH these days and is reason #2 to pick up this particular FTV, pretty much paying for the set as a whole already.

Vesuva is reason #3 for this set to be picked up, since there's finally a foil version of this made available and all that, plus the fact it can copy any land is like the bee's knees of magic.

And finally the worst choice for the final slot in this set, Windbrisk Heights, which didn't need to be reprinted, but whatever, which means that there is NO preview card for RTR in this particular set this year, which is a change since the last 2 had preview cards for the sets they were featuring, breaking the cycle for the first time in FTV's history.

Anyways, that's all 15 lands in From the Vault: Realms, join me for more spoilers when Return To Ravnica starts in early september, till next spoilers this is vergil signing off

From the Vault Realms: Full Spoiler

So welcome to another edition of the emporium and yes the title is correct, it's the full reveal of From the Vault: Realms spoiler, since Evan Erwin decided to be nice and spoil the entire contents of it as of last night, so without further ado let's take a look at what was spoiled.

Ancient Tomb is first on the list and believe me, this land is kinda required to be reprinted, honestly it's a commander staple these days for easier play styles, i cannot wait till this arrives at the end of this month.

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you, this is Maze of Fricking Ith, best fricking reason to buy this set period if i might say so, honestly for 200 dollars this land is worth every dollar, plus it's easily the best reason to pick up the set

Anyways here is the full list of cards in Alphabetical order for you fine folks.

1. Ancient Tomb
2. Bosijeu, Who Shelters All
3. Cephalid Coliseum
4. Desert
5. Dryad Arbor
6. Forbidden Orchard
7. Glacial Chasm
8. Grove of the Burnwillows
9. High Market
10. Maze of Ith
11. Murmuring Bosk
12. Shivan Gorge
13. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
14. Vesuva
15. Windbrisk Heights

Well that's all she wrote on FTV spoilers as of now, tommorow will most likely be the continuation of the usual Gen Con spoilers of course, until next time this is vergil signing off.

Gen Con Spoilers: Part 1

Hello everyone and welcome to yet another edition of the emporium, it's time to take a look at the latest From the Vault: Realms spoilers as well as the other stuff previewed at Gen Con in Indianapolis, Indiana this week, here's the beginning promo previewed by Mark Rosewater.

Might as well just call this set From the Vault: Realms Commander, since all the lands spoiled thus far are commander lands pretty much, but this is no joke either Boseiju, Who Shelters All is being printed for this set, previewed earlier last night by the man, this bad boy is no joke of a land, since it's a commander favorite.

Land #14 of 15 in this set is another commander favorite Vesuva is also in this set, it's got to be one of the Commander player's favorites, since it does just about anything you want it to do, making it wonderful to play in this format, plus it's a decent 10 dollar land these days.

We also got word of the Launch card for the next set, Return to Ravnica, here it is

Deadbridge Goliath 2GG
Creature - Goliath (Rare)
Scavenge - 4GG (Exile this card from the graveyard, then put +1/+1 counters on another creature equal to the power of the sacrificed creature)
5/5

This also happens to preview the new mechanic Scavenge for the Golgari for the set, since we already know that Populate in this set, nice to know the second mechanic of the set finally. With that however that's the end of this update, so till next time this is vergil signing off

Arcana Announcement: Magic Holiday Gift Box

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the emporium, i'm vergil and let's get started talking about yet another product that wizards intends to release around christmas time this year, so let's see it.

Yeah, another storage box, but this storage box doesn't just come by itself no sir, it comes with 4 Return to Ravnica Boosters and 20 basic lands from return to ravnica which is pretty nice by itself honestly, retailing at 19.99 US of course for this product that holds 2000 cards, yes 2000 cards according to the information provided.

I mean look at that, that's a lot of cards isn't it, 2000 for a storage box like that with cool art, but wait a minute there's apparently a promo card called Dreg Mangler from return to ravnica in this, dunno what it does as of yet, but sounds to me like it's Golgari due to the name. Anyways that's it for this edition, a quickie for you fine folks, till next time this is vergil signing off.

Commander's Arsenal Information and Previews

Hello everyone and once again welcome back to the emporium, it's monday and it's time to see what wizards gave us from friday, in terms of neat previews and such so without further ado let's take a look at friday's arcana.

So friday we learned that the replacement product for the Premium Deck Series is Commander's Arsenal which is a special collector's set containing 18 foil cards plus 10 oversized generals, including this one.

Azusa, Lost but Seeking is one of the 10 foil oversized generals to be featured in this, for you Azusa players this is perhaps something neat indeed, but that's not all that was previewed for this particular collector's piece.

We will also be getting this nifty spindown life counter to boot with this product as well as the following

A foil copy of Sylvan Library for crying out loud, yes a foil copy of Sylvan fricking Library, but that's not all to be featured in this set, there's a piece of preview art for this set as well.

To me this looks like Command Tower but better then the original art honestly, it's a tower with all 5 different types of energy flowing around, signaling perhaps the most over powered piece of commander material yet is arriving for the 3rd time in recent memory, 1 from the precons, 1 judge's promo and perhaps this to be added to this, amazing wizards way to overprint a card here.

Also contained within this is Sleeves for your commander deck, 20 + or - counters, as well as a bunch more stuff wizards isn't showing us as of yet, this goes on sale as of November 2nd, 2012 and has a MSRP price of 74.99 US, wait what that's more the From the Vault, they must be nuts, but like from the vault, this will be a limited print run, much like the PDS series they cancelled for this, until next time however this is vergil signing off.

Return to Ravnica Starting Previews

Well welcome back to the emporium, it's time once again for more magic news then you can shake a stick at, let's start of course with the latest stuff to be revealed for Return to Ravnica, so without further ado let's take a look see.

Jarad was revealed recently in a wizards arcana and oh boy is he good or what, at least as a general in EDH, 2/2 that gets bigger for creatures in your yard, you can sacrifice another creature and have a opponent lose life to the creature's power that was sacrificed and you can even sacrifice a swamp and a forest to return him to your hand, but look at that mana cost, Swamp, Swamp, Forest, Forest yikes that's a downturner for sure.

Apparently Selesyna is getting a brand new mechanic called Populate, which signals token production at it's finest, 2 and a white for a instant speed spell that makes all creatures you control indestrucible, plus it has the mechanic populate, which adds another already existing token as it is onto the battlefield, so if you control a human, you get another human for free as well as the added bonuses of the spell in question.

Well that's it for RTR previews for now, tommorow will be the latest on Commander's Arsenal as well as much, much more, getting back into the swing of things again is going to take a bit, but until next time this is vergil signing off

Magic 2013 Event Deck Decklists

Well with the spoiled M13 event deck decklists, it's time to see exactly what's in these two event decks starting with the Repeat Performance deck

Repeat Performance - Black/Green/White


Creatures


1 Acidic Slime
2 Arbor Elf
3 Attended Knight
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Blade Splicer
3 Borderland Ranger
1 Brutalizer Exarch
2 Elvish Visionary
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Geist-Honored Monk
4 Llanowar Elves
1 Mwonvuil Beast Tracker
4 Roaring Primadox
1 Stingerfling Spider
1 Stonehorn Dignitary
1 Sunblast Angel
1 Thragtusk

Spells


1 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Lead the Stampede

Lands


12 Forest
8 Plains
2 Razorverge Thicket

Sideboard


3 Cloudshift
2 Dismember
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Kemba's Skyguard
3 War Priest of Thune

Sweet Revenge - Blue/Red/Black


Creatures

2 Armored Skaab
1 Firewing Phoenix
4 Fettergeist

Spells


4 Burning Vengeance
4 Desperate Ravings
4 Faithless Looting
3 Forbidden Alchemy
2 Geistflame
3 Pillar of Flame
1 Red Sun's Zenith
1 Rolling Temblor
1 Silent Departure
2 Slagstorm
4 Think Twice

Lands


1 Darkslick Shores
1 Desolate Lighthouse
4 Evolving Wilds
7 Island
9 Mountain
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Swamp

Sideboard


2 Arc Trail
4 Bloodcrazed Neonate
2 Dismember
4 Screeching Skaab
3 Secrets of the Dead

And that's the decklists in full, both of these bad boys go on sale as of this weekend i do believe, with that Magic 2013 is officially done in terms of spoilers, finally, till next time this is vergil signing off.

Arcana Announcement: "Line" is Gatecrash

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the emporium, once again it's a bit of a follow up to the comic con magic panel update posted yesterday as today an official arcana announcement was made for the 2nd set of the ravnica block, we should remember this from friday, it's official "Line" is Gatecrash.

For those who need the full details let's begin.

Number of Cards: 249
Set Prerelease: January 26-27th, 2013
Set Release: Feburary 1st, 2013
Set Release Parties: Feburary 1st - 3rd, 2013
Game Day: Feburary 23-24th, 2013
Pro Tour Gatecrash Dates: Feburary 15th, 16th and 17th, 2013
Three Letter Code: GTC
Design Team: Mark Rosewater [Lead], Mark Gottlieb, Joe Huber, Dave Humpherys, Ethan Fleischer

For the rest of the information, see the link below.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1016

But let's first break down which guilds are going to be shown in this set, with a little handy dandy guide to this set in the form of guild listings.

Set 1 of this block, Return to Ravnica contains these 5 particular guilds


                                                            Izzet

                                                               Rakdos

                                                                 Golgari

                                                                 Azorius 

                                                              Selesyna

Set 2 of this block will contain the following 5.

                                                                  Gruul

                                                                   
                                                                     Boros

                                                                    Orzhov

                                                                    Simic 

                                                                       Dimir        
                                                   
All 5 of the guilds i listed above will be featured in Gatecrash, with the other 5 already being known, Set 3 we know will hold all 10 guilds but be a small set, this set as we also know features the return of a old planeswalker, Gideon whom has sided it seems with the Boros as i showed yesterday, see yesterday's article for the pic. With that though it ends today's article, you can expect to have as much fun with this set as the upcoming return to ravnica honestly and i for one am pleased these guilds are coming back, till next time this is vergil signing off.

Comic Con Magic Panel Update

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the emporium, but today it's all about the Comic Con Panel that was done on friday night in San Diego including some spoilers and such for the upcoming sets, so without further ado let's begin.

We got us some spoilers for the upcoming From the Vault: Realms, let's start with the most expensive to the least.

Wow much, the first big one is Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, which is just awesome honestly it's 20 bucks these days for most copies and with this collector set it's sure to be interesting.

We all remember this card, it's the card that combos off with Punishing Fire which got banned in modern last year, yes Grove of the Burnwillows is being reprinted for this set, with this being expensive card #2.

The rest of these are pretty basic, Forbidden Orchard, Dryad Arbor, Murmuring Bosk and of course Glacial Chasm which confirms our preview art to be that specific card for the set, amazing stuff wizards so far.

Friday we also got a sneak peek at the upcoming set, return to ravnica, yes as well as the 5 guilds in this set they are, Izzet, Golgari, Azorious, Selesyna and Rakdos, but here's the kicker for this set, for the first time ever you will be allowed to play your prerelease card at the prerelease, it's about time wizards, I'm so happy over this fact honestly, we also recently got 2 previews of legends for the set, Niv Mizzet and Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord.

Niv is the same as always, but mythic this time round with the same old, same old, except new art. However Jarad has been partially spoiled gee thanks wizards, wanna see so do i.

He's a whopping 4 mana for him and he's a Zombie Elf, other then that not much is known about him, though we do get new symbols for each of the guilds this time around, kinda nice.

For those curious here is the guild breakdown, Ravnica will have 5 guilds, Gatecrash which is set 2 and also a Large set, will have the remaining 5 guilds, then Sinker which is a Small set will have all 10 guilds included, the format to draft these sets is the following

RTR - Ravnica, Ravnica, Ravnica
Gate - Gate, Gate, Gate
Sinker - Sinker, Gate, Ravnica

Complex, no i didn't think so, oh we also got Gideon confirmed to be in Gatecrash via this picture here.

A certain Boros Archangel is behind him, so we know kinda what guild he supports, so expect to see multicolored walkers again, like our old friend Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker and Ajani Vengeant, but that is it for today, tommorow will continue the usual affair of updates, as well as much, much more till then this is vergil signing off.

Barrin, Master Wizard: Physical Decklist [Obsolete]

So i promised someone to post this list a day ago and well here it is it's full glory, with this build including up to date M13 cards as well, let's start with the basics, Everyone remembers the primer i did on here, well i'd like to present my physical build of the deck as it stands currently, this is including all additions from Monday's big purchase spree.

Commander

Barrin, Master Wizard

Lands

Academy Ruins
Tolaria West
Temple of the False God
Tectonic Edge
Reliquary Tower

Artifacts

Contagion Clasp
Contagion Engine
Swiftfoot Boots
Lightning Greaves [Being Replaced by Erratic Portal]
Crystal Shard
Elixir of Immortality
Lotus Bloom
Tormod's Crypt
Sol Ring
Mind Stone
Caged Sun
Mimic Vat
Howling Mine
Darksteel Ingot

Spells

Time Stretch
Into the Roil
Counterspell
Hinder
Tidings
Negate [Being Replaced by Cryptic Command]
Mana Leak
High Tide
Cackling Counterpart [Being Replaced by Capsize]
Rite of Replication
Preordain [Being Replaced by Talrand, Sky Summoner]
Mystical Tutor
Minds Aglow
Fabricate
Hive Mind
Talrand's Invocation
Think Twice
Blue Sun's Zenith

Creatures

Neurok Invisimancer [Being Replaced by Mindshrieker]
Sharding Sphinx
Pili-Pala
Glided Drake
Trinket Mage
Pilgrim's Eye
Phyrexian Metamorph
Solemn Simulacrum
Inkwell Leviathan
Mnemonic Wall
Minamo Sightbender [Being replaced by Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir]
Grand Architect
Stormtide Leviathan
Lighthouse Chronologist
Clone
Cosi's Trickster
Djinn of Wishes
Master Thief
Thada Adel, Acquisitor
Arcanis the Omnipotent
Treasure Mage
Echo Mage
Jace's Archivist
Archaeomancer

Now i know it's not 100, but it's close to it, i'm missing a few key cards to the deck namely Snapcaster Mage, Capsize and of course Talrand, Sky Summoner so i can make fodder, here are the additions i want to add before the end of the year.

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Talrand, Sky Summoner
Cryptic Command
Mindshrieker
Snapcaster Mage
Capsize
Isochron Scepter
Myr Battlesphere
Myr Turbine
Glided Lotus

If anyone has any questions about the deck performance itself, just ask of course and i will be happy to explain everything also this will probably be the last update for the week, due to the fact i'm busy for the rest of the week, so until M13 hits store shelves, this is vergil signing off.

Magic 2013 Prerelease Primer

With the full set of Magic 2013 spoiled and of course it being prerelease time let's go over the prerelease primer once again for this particular set in question, starting with the basics.

As per the norm for every prerelease it's sealed deck booster draft, meaning you will be given 6 boosters of M13 to draft with, to make your 40 card deck and of course the pool you draft will be yours to keep after the event. For signing up for the event you'll receive the promotion card below.

This promotion card is handed to you upon entry by the local store you go to, where ever that is in the world, entry is normally 25-30 dollars per prerelease these days and depending on the store you go to, specific prizes will be handed out for depending on where you finish as well as door prizes for the event, depending on where you go to play.

As per usual you CANNOT use your promo in your draft deck for the event, even if you do not draft it and it looks mighty tempting to add into for the event, it is a seriously bad idea to do this. Events such as this usually last about 6 to 7 rounds, depending on the amount of time taken per round but you should be finished the event before the store closes hopefully. Again i consistently remind people if a store owner says they are a judge, ask them to show their judge's certificate before they start throwing out rulings, because if they aren't officially judges they cannot give you a ruling unless there is no judge present for the event. Last but certainly not least i encourage all of you fine folks to have fun at the event, remember Magic 2013 comes out 1 week from today officially, so enjoy, this is vergil signing off.