Return to Ravnica Spoilers: September 6th, 2012

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the emporium in where today it's more Return to Ravnica spoilers, we have 5 on the docket for today and 3 are just amazing honestly, so without further ado let's begin.

Did anyone call for a 1 drop with scavenge of 0 well here it is, Slitherhead a 1/1 plant zombie with the scavenge mechanic for 0 mana, plus it costs a hybrid mana cost of Black/Green, so it shows it is perhaps one of the better uncommons in the game,

Well, since we lose Day of Judgment, we get the next best thing, Supreme Verdict, a uncounterable sweeper spell at that, costs a whopping 1, White, White, Blue and is of course sorcery speed but it does the job of wrathing the board rather effectively.

Now this i can get behind, Abrupt Decay is the one spell i've honestly wanting to see printed for a long time, how bout a uncounterable Smother well it is here, but with Green and Black as it's mana cost for this one at the rare level, honestly one of the better pieces of removal i've seen in a while.

Well since we didn't get Honor of the Pure wizards decided to print this, Collective Blessing a whopping 3, Green, Green, White enchantment at the rare rarity that grants creatures you control that +3/+3 boost, honestly this thing is EDH bound since it has some big things ahead.

So this is a effective way to get creatures onto the battlefield, being called Guild Feud which is another one of those 6 drop enchantment bombs, but this one's red, it's a complex card but i'll break it down as best as i can. Basically it allows the opponent to during your upkeep to look at the top three cards of his/her library and put a creature among them on the battlefield, then the rest go to the graveyard, but after you do the same thing, only problem is if two creatures were done this way, then they fight each other, so the fight mechanic returns for this set, not bad.

And that's it for this edition of the emporium, stay tuned next time when i take a look at friday's spoilers which of course will come tommorow, till next time this is vergil signing off.

Return to Ravnica Spoilers: September 5th, 2012

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the emporium where today of course we will talk about the many cards spoiled thus far, so without further ado let's see what was spoiled today.

Well a nice limited bomb to start things off is nice, Azorius Justiciar is a 4 drop 2/2 that has the set ability Detain, it detains 2 target creatures your opponent controls when it enters the battlefield, it's not bad to start things off for today's spoilers.

How about a solid 2/3 common for 3 mana, with the keyword, Unleash which is the Rakdos mechanic for the set, basically this becomes a 3/4 body if you choose for 3 mana, a solid common for the limited format.

Slaughter Games is another rakdos based card this time around, 4 mana for a sorcery that you can name a non land card, then search target opponent's graveyard, hand and library for any number of cards with that name and exile them, then that player shuffles his or her library, plus it cannot be countered which makes it all the more viable for standard.

I've saved the best for last of course, introducing planeswalker #2 for the set Vraska the Unseen, she costs 3, Black, Green, she is a mythic rare of course and let's review her abilites since she starts at a whopping 5 loyalty here.

+1) Until you next turn, whenever a creature deals combat damage to Vraska the Unseen, destroy that creature.
-3) Destroy target nonland permanent aka Vindicate
-7) Put three 1/1 black assassin creature tokens onto the battlefield with "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player loses the game"

Basically she's the best walker of the set, making her one of the more desired walkers in a while, besides Ajani, Caller of the Pride of course who starts at 4 loyalty, but this girl even has win more printed all over her. But enough about today's spoilers, that's all for now, of course until next time this is vergil signing off.

Return to Ravnica Spoilers: September 4th, 2012

Hello everyone and welcome back to another edition of the emporium, in today's edition it's yet more spoilers from Return to Ravnica, which are coming quite nicely if you ask me, there are 4 to take a look at including yet another Mythic Rare, so without further ado let's begin.

Say hello to Worldspine Wurm, a 11 drop that's a 15/15 with trample, plus it has two neat effects, when it dies it gives you 3 5/5 wurm tokens as a bonus and it shuffles itself back into your library to boot, which basically puts itself among the elite class of excellent creatures, the Eldrazi, the Colossi, Serra Avatar, etc.

Welcome to the festival, the Havoc Festival that is, this is another rakdos card which is unique, since it costs 6 mana, is a enchantment that prevents players from gaining life and at the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player loses half of his/her life rounded up, seriously this is some business enchantment right here, can't wait to see if it has some function for later on.

Now, this i can get behind, not literally, but it's nice green/white has some support to deal with graveyards again, say hello to Dryad Militant, a 2/1 that whenever a instant or sorcery goes into a graveyard, it is exiled instead, plus it has the hybrid mana cost at being a uncommon, means it's gonna be some really nice support for those green/white decks.

Last but not least is a preview from Magicspielen.de in the form of the 2/1 which is supposedly called Lotleth-Troll, name is still a little off but here's what we do know about it, it has Trample and costs Black and Green, it also has the ability, discard a creature card from your hand, put a +1/+1 counter on this bad boy, plus it's a rare so who knows what shenigans there may be here.

Well that's it for this edition of the emporium, stay tuned tommorow until next time this is vergil signing off, have a good one.

Return to Ravnica Spoilers: September 3rd, 2012

Hello everyone and welcome back to another edition of the emporium, today it's about the latest spoilers from the mother ship, aka Daily MTG which has presented 3 new cards to us today, so without further ado let's begin.

Holy crap, new Isperia anyone, Isperia, Supreme Judge, she costs 2, White, White, Blue, Blue and holy crap she flies as expected, is a 6/4 with the ability whenever a creature attacks you or a planeswalker you control you get cards. Wow this is saying that this thing may see some play in the future, this is great.

Holy draco genius batman, wow, this guy is the nuts draw, you though Original Niv was bad ass, well this guy trumps the original, 5/5 flier that whenever he deals combat damage to a player, you get cards, plus you pay Blue and Red he deals 1 damage to target creature or player, plus he costs 2, Blue, Blue, Red, Red, this guy is just insane, Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius we love ya.

Well, this isn't Doubling Season, but it's good enough to be Doubling Season honestly, Death's Presence is like a half season, but it's cool none the less, it costs a whopping 6 mana, for a enchantment that's rare of course, but whenever a creature you control dies, put X +1/+1 counters on target creature you control, where X is the power of the killed creature, that's very nice honestly, can't wait to see if they actually reprint the season of awesome, well that's it for today, tommorow there's plenty more spoilers where this came from, so stay tuned, this is vergil signing off.

Return to Ravnica: Mechanics

It's that time again and welcome back to another edition of the emporium where this time we go over the mechanics of Return to Ravnica, there are a few for this set, so let's break it down for the people who don't know what i'm talking about, Each guild in this upcoming set of return to ravnica is going to have a seperate mechanic, each tailoring to their own guild, showing off their unique perspective on things, so without further ado here's the reminder of the mechanics for those who haven't seen it yet.

On the rakdos side of things we have the mechanic called Unleash which grants a +1/+1 to the creature with this but makes them unable to block, as seen here on the card called Grim Roustabout.

The mechanic of Scavenge was one of the first to be spoiled, via Duel Deck: Golgari vs Izzet, but is the Golgari Mechanic, basically what this does is grant +1/+1 counters to a target creature, equal to the scavenged creature's power so if you exile Sluiceway Scorpion here, a target creature would get +2/+2 in counters, not bad, but the only downside is it's at sorcery speed.

The Selesyna mechanic is called Populate, which adds 1 token that already exists onto the battlefield, in case of the spell here, if you choose you can place a 1/1 white bird with the card Eyes in the Skies, then add another 1/1 white bird as the populate mechanic triggers meaning you get more then what you originally paid for here, not bad as well.

We've seen the mechanic called Overload which is a unique way to clear a field, plus this is also the Izzet mechanic for the set, so in hindsight it's excellent if you ask me, because overload replaces all instances of the word target to each so it will affect all the creatures you don't control without flying in the case of Street Spasm here, but there is 1 missing mechanic, the Azorious mechanic.

In the case of the Azorious since they abide by the law, their mechanic suits them and is called "Detain" where when this particular card enters the battlefield with this mechanic, a target permanent cannot attack or block, as well as preventing it's activated abilites from triggering, in the case of the 3/1 flying Lyev Skynight here it is a unique perspective, but we aren't done.

Each guild is going to have something called a "Gate" land card which triggers specific abilites in the set, in the case of Golgari Guildgate here which adds either Black or Green but has a enter the battlefield tapped clause affects the next card i'm gonna talk about.

Like the 4/4 Ogre Jailbreaker which has defender, but when you control a gate like the one above, it can attack as though it didn't have defender, so instead of a simple blocker, you'd have quite a  4/4 for 4 to deal with as long you control one of these gates, but there's one more thing to show off.

For the first time Hybrid color mana costs are making a return into magic's history, much like the previewed bird from the previous day, this particular card is color coded to show off another side of things, Rakdos Shred-Freak is a 2/1 that costs either Black/Red and Black/Red as well as having haste for a common, which is pretty impressive if you ask me.

Well that pretty much concludes this day's shenigans and such, wizards has spoiled a ton over the past 3 or 4 days and i think it's time to get to catching up of course, so until next time this is vergil signing off.

Penny Arcade Previews: Return to Ravnica Edition Part 2

Hello everyone and welcome to part 2 of these return to ravnica previews here at the emporium and believe me there are some decent cards for the set coming down the pipeline, so without further ado let's take a look at some more of the return to ravnica previews for the set.

Shock #2 is honestly brand new fricking art and believe me, wizards you gotta stop egging us on so damn much, Hallowed Fountain is also making a return for the set, as per usual, so expect to see this cracked a few times at your prerelease.

Did anyone ask for a Cursecatcher reprint on a bird, since it costs a hybrid mana cost, yes a hybrid mana cost which we've not seen in a while, White/Blue for a 1/1 bird that has flying and is a uncommon, plus you sacrifice it to counter target instant or sorcery spell unless it's controller pays 1 mana, so seriously stupid if you asked me.

Another great red goblin eh, so casting spells shocks opponents and believe me it's a nice thing honestly, for a 3 drop 2/2 named Guttersnipe, which is a neat name for a creature honestly.

Another rakdos innovation named Carnival Hellsteed which believe me is a nice name for a creature, but with a 6 cmc cost, 5/4 hasty,  first striker with the key word unleash, you won't tell me this sucks since it's a consistent 6/5 when it attacks, big body from the rakdos side of things

Chromatic Lantern is one of those fixer artifacts, but grants lands you control the ability to tap for any type of mana, plus it taps for any type of mana itself a all star artifact if you ask me, plus it costs a mere 3 mana to play.

Nivix Guildmage is the izzet guildmage this time around and he has a slew of good abilites, he can loot for a card for 1, blue, red and for 2, blue and red he can copy instants or sorceries you control, plus he can make new targets for the copy, all this on a 2/2 for blue and red at the uncommon level, crap this is great.

Mizzium Mortars is a decent burn spell, it hits for 4 damage for 2 mana, but with a overload cost of 3, red, red, red it hits everything you don't control, meaning it's a field clearer pretty much, expect to see this since it's at the rare level i think, but for now this is vergil signing off, running out of cards to talk about and such and i've gotta get to updating the spoiler soon.

Penny Arcade Previews: Return to Ravnica Edition Part 1

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the emporium, tonight it's going to be about the spoiled previews for RTR, as well as a few other cards for the upcoming set, return to ravnica, so without further ado let's begin.

SHOCKLANDS Yes!!!, confirmed to be reprinted for this set and believe me this is great news for us all as it's been too long and we will see this and all the other shocks for the sets in this set of course as per usual, so from a fellow magic player this is excellent news.

Here he is, the 1st of 2 walkers that are hinted at in RTR a brand new Jace, this one is called Jace, Architect of Thought and he has a mana cost of 2UU which is the same mana cost as Jace, the Mind Sculptor, so let's take a look at the 3 abilites in which he has.

+1) Until your next turn, whenever a creature your opponent controls attacks, it gets -1/-0 until end of turn
-2) Reveal the top three cards of your library, An opponent seperates those 3 cards into 2 piles,put one pile into your hand and the rest on the bottom of the library in any order.
-8) For each player, Search that player's library for a nonland card and exile it, then that player shuffles his or her library, you may cast those cards without paying their mana costs.

Did i mention he also starts with 4 loyalty, which is quite a different state for a blue walker, but of course there's more to be spoiled.

Did anyone call for a finisher here, Rakdos's Return is a mythic sorcery for X, Black, Red that deals X damage to target opponent and then that player discards X cards, seriously, holy crap this is some serious finisher power here.

A elemental you say, Wayfaring Temple for 1, green and a white and it's a rare and it's got a modifier where it's power/toughness is each equal to the number of creatures you control, but whenever it deals combat damage it gives off the selesyna mechanic of populate, which is a decent thing honestly.

Well that's it for today, tommorow will be part 2 of these previews and believe me, part 2 is as interesting as the first part, so until next time 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.

Arcana Announcement: Duel Decks: Sorin vs Tibalt

Hello everyone and yes your eyes do not deceive you, it's another arcana announcement from wizards of the coast, this time for the 1st of the 2 duel decks next year, Sorin vs Tibalt, here's the scoop on this particular duel deck.

MSRP: 19.99 US
Release Date: March 15th, 2013.
Languages: English and Japanese
Deck Designers: Chris Millar and Kelly Digges

Here's a piece of preview art for this bad boy, let's take a look shall we?

Not bad if i may say so myself, here's the set symbol for this particular duel deck as well

Interesting and for the full back story see the link below of course but until next time this is vergil signing off.

Duel Deck - Sorin vs Tibalt Announcement

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.

Return to Ravnica Spoilers: Duel Deck Izzet vs Golgari

Welcome to yet another edition of the emporium, today we got a few spoilers from the Duel Deck Izzet vs Golgari to show off and believe me they are excellent so without further ado let's take a look at the cards that were spoiled.

So this is what that mysterious card does, say hello to Dreg Mangler, 1, black and a green to play, hasty 3/3 at that as well as being a uncommon, it has the golgari mechanic of scavenge, which on this one costs 3, Black, Green to play at sorcery speed, very unique for this mechanic i must admit.

My new favorite Goblin Electromancer, it makes all instants and sorceries 1 less to cast, plus it's only a 2/2 that costs Blue/Red, at the common level which makes it even better honestly then it already is.

It appears Charms are making their way back into magic with Izzet Charm, a instant speed spell that costs Blue and a Red, uncommon at that and you get to choose 1 of the effects, so it can act as a counter spell for a noncreature spell unless it's controller pays 2, or it deals 2 damage to a creature, or draw 2 cards and then discard 2 cards, a interesting effect here.

Golgari's second card spoiler besides Jarad, Korozda Guildmage, costs Black/Green to play and is a uncommon at that and it has 2 different abilites 1, Black, Green, target creature gets +1/+1 and intimidate until end of turn, 2, Black, Green, sacrifice a non token creature, put X 1/1 green saproling creature tokens onto the battlefield, where X is the sacrificed creature's toughness, plus it's a 2/2 much the same as Jarad.

Finally we learn the Izzet mechanic, Overload on a card called Street Spasm, which is a X cost card at instant speed, so it would do X damage to target creature without flying you don't control, but if you pay the Overload cost, it will replace the word target with Each and hit everything that you don't control without flying, a great sweeper if you ask me.

Well that's it for these spoilers for today, I of course will be writing these spoilers down as usual and discussing them as expected, but until next time this is vergil signing off.