Core Set 2019 Previews and Promos

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Completely unexpected (at least for us), but there were a slew of Magic: the Gathering previews out this morning from Wizards of the Coast.  Please do click on over to the MTG website and read the article, 'CORE SET 2019 PACKAGING, PROMOS, AND MORE', posted by Blake Rasmussen.  In the post, he goes over a variety of official previews including :

• Welcome Decks
• Standard Showdown promo lands
• Friday Night Magic promos

For this post, we are just touching upon the promotional cards associated with the upcoming Core Set.

Buy-A-Box promo : Nexus of Fate
Open House (June 30–July 1) : Guttersnipe
Draft Weekend (July 14–15) : Desecrated Tomb
Magic League (July 16) : Reliquary Tower
Store Championships on June 18–24 : Demon of Catastrophes
Store Championships Playmat by Ultra PRO: Bolas (?)

The big preview today is a NEW Planeswalker being introduced to Magic 2019 Core Set via The Mary Sue linked right here.  Here is the green Planeswalker Vivien Reid -

According to The Mary Sue, Vivien was born on Skalla, and is part of a tribe of rangers and druids known as the Smaragdi, who protect the wilds of that plane from the growing destructive civilization.  Vivien has a special bond with the animals of the forest, which manifests in her Arkbow. 

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Dominaria Promos

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Happy Wednesday (again) peeps,

This is our second post for today, and likely not our last.  We do expect Wizards of the Coast to post the first of several Official Magic Story installments, penned by Martha Wells in under an hour from the time of this post.

For now we have to post about the upcoming Dominaria set - specifically the promo cards associated with it.  We have yet another spoiler and it is getting kind of tiresome.  As everyone is now talking about it, we might as well get to it.  It appears that a Spanish gaming store may have posted eight Dominaria promo cards.  Please note that these are unofficial and some things may be lost in translation to English - 

• Shanna, Sisay's Legacy, FNM Promo, illus. Magali Villeneuve
"I'm the heir of many treasures, but none as prized as the knowledge of how my ancestor lived."

• Firesong and Sunspeaker, Buy-a-Box Promo, Illus. Zoltan Boros
Hurloon's summits are never silent.

• Champion of Steel Leaf (?), Store Championship Promo, illus. Simon Dominic

• Llanowar Elves, Open House Promo, illus. Vitor Adame Minguez

• Opt, FNM Promo, illus. Tyler Jacobson
The crystal pulsated with the power of Teferi's planeswalker spark. Was what Jhoira had given them a blessing or a curse?

• Zhalfirin Void, League Promo, illus. John Avon
"The wind whispers 'Come back home', but I can't."  - Teferi

• Fade into Oblivion, PNM Promo, Illus. Bastien L. Deharme
"Your life is over, your name lost and your deeds forgotten. It is as if Mazeura had never existed." - Chainer's Torment

• Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp, Draft Weekend Promo, illus. Tyler Jacobson

"I do as I wish, insignificant mortal. However, do tell me of your wishes; I find them exceedingly entertaining."

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Rivals of Ixalan Promos

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

It is not immediately clear where these Rivals of Ixalan spoilers originate from, but whether it was Reddit / Imgur or Instagram, we do now have a fairly complete list of the promotional cards.  Here is that summary now.

Edit - Now updated with the official Wizards of the Coast article posted at this link.

Magic Open House: January 6–7, 2018
PROMO - Silvergill Adept

Prerelease: January 13–14, 2018
PROMO - random within each pre-release pack

Buy-A-Box Promo - Captain's Hook

Draft Weekend: January 20–21, 2018
PROMO- Brass's Bounty

Store Championship: April 7–8, 2018
PROMO - Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Friday Night Magic (FNM Promo token) February, 2018 - City's Blessing
Flavour text here 'Once you have ascended to the highest temple of Orazca, the power of the Immortal sun is yours to wield forever.'

Magic League participation promo
Evolving Wilds

Here are the new cards from today's spoiler -

Captain's Hook, (??)
Artifact - Equipment, Rare
Equipped creature gets +2/+0, has menace, and is a Pirate in addition to its other creature types.
Whenever Captain's Hook becomes unattached from a permanent, destroy that permanent.
Equip 1

Brass's Bounty, 6R
Sorcery, Rare
For each land you control, create a colorless Treasure artifact token with "Tap, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool."
"Why squabble for trinkets when we could be living large of all this gold?" —Admiral Beckett Brass

Evolving Wilds
Land, Common

T, Sacrifice Evolving Wilds: Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.

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Rivals of Ixalan Spoiler 10-30

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Tomorrow is Halloween and we have thoroughly been enjoying the Magic: the Gathering themed offerings from Wizards of the Coast and the fan community whether it is in the form of carved pumpkins, modified card art or fan created arts.  We had posted / reposted some of these on our MTG Realm Tumblr page for you to enjoy.

Righto - on to today's post.
We have TWO Rivals of Ixalan spoilers / previews out today which we must look at.

The first card was previewed on the Wizards of the Coast MTG site which was a promo card associated wtih the Store Championship events taking place on the weekend of December 30th / 31st.  We had picked up chatter of an 'Elder Dinosaur' on the forums before we actually read the article on the Championship 'goodies' - this of course lead us to immediately think of Old Fogey from Unhinged.

When we did finally get to see Blake Rasmussen's post, this is what was previewed.

Ghalta, Primal Hunger, 10GG
Legendary Creature - Elder Dinosaur, Rare
Ghalta, Primal Hunger costs X less to cast, where X is the total power of creatures you control.
Trample
12/12

Besides the general awesoness of the card, one item of interest was the card set number of 130/196.  We may be misreading this, but think that this is an indication that we can expect a 'more than average' number of multi-colour cards.  There had been some rather good arguments being made on the fan forums which had speculated that within the Ixalan / Rivals of Ixalan storyline, the tribes may work together to attain their common goal of acquiring the Immortal Sun relic.  Suffice to say, we do not expect to se Elvish Piper get a reprint for Rivals of Ixalan.  :)

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Next up - 

Another Rivals of Ixalan Spoiler rrom the Professor on Toalrian Community College linked here.  This card was part of a preview for the Magic Open House event to be scheduled for January 6th and 7th, 2018.  We've been a fan of Merfolk Tribal since we first began playing in Lorwyn block and although we are unable to build a competitive decklist with Ixalan, this card certainly goes a long way in providing hope of getting Mefolk off the kitchen table and into a Friday Night Magic event at our local gaming store.  Here it is -

Rivals of Ixalan regular illustrated by Magali Villeneuve
Magic Open House full alternate art promo illustrated by Slawomir Maniak

Silvergill Adept, 1U
Creature - Merfolk Wizard, Uncommon
As an addtional cost to cast Silvergill Adept, reveal a Merfolk card from your hand or pay 3.
When Silvergill Adept enters the battlefield, draw a card.
2/1
“If you keep to the shallows, you’ll never learn the secrets of the depths.”

Of course one would never want to pay the additional three mana, so a mit full of fish is certainly the most appropriate method to play with this card.
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SDCC 2017 MTG Promos

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

This past weekend was the much anticipated 'Hour of Devastation' PreRelease event.  We had attended one of the local events at OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario, which ran back-to-back events all weekend long.  The Saturday 3:00 PM event had over 50 Magic: the Gathering players in to game with the new cards.  

The news-worthy item we had wanted to yatter about today is the SDCC MTG promos this year.

Wizards of the Coast will once again be at San Diego Comic-Con 2017 taking place during July 20-23.  As anticipated, there will also be limited edition SDCC exclusive ‘Planeswalker Pack’ as with previous SDCC events.  Wizards has been attending the Comic-Con since 2013, and has always had some rather sought-after swag and exclusive purchase opportunities for Magic: the Gathering fans, available for sale at the WotC Booth, and in most cases on-line at the Hasbro store website.  

Here is the package for 2017

The six Planeswalker cards with exclusive ‘Amonkhet style’ artwork by illustrator, Vincent Proce will also be packaged along with a very lovely looking 40” x 36” screen print of Nicol Bolas illustrated by Brandon Holt.  

Here are the Planeswalkers - 
• Gideon of the Trials
• Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
• Liliana, Death’s Majesty
• Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• Nissa, Steward of Elements
• Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh

Click to embiggen

The Magic: The Gathering 2017 Planeswalker Pack for $180.00, and are expected to sell out again.  Previous 'PW Packs' typically sold at SDCC for about $100 but may re-sell for quite a bit more.  This may be a slight correction up but one should also consider the very lovely screen print that is also part of this package.

It is also expected that there will be a few panels hosted by Wizards of the Coast, including a Blogatog Live session with Head Designer MaRo (Mark Rosewalker), which will also include a question and answer portion.
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Amonkhet Info Dump

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

This is our second post for today.  Our earlier post which may be linked over here provided news of 4 Amonkhet spoilers.  We need a second post to talk about today's post on the WotC website titled 'So Much Amonkhet News', by staffer Blake Rasmussen.  We suggest you put your beverage down and read that now before going on, before you do pop on over, here is the very lovley Ultra PRO playmat for Amonkhet Game Day -

Are ya back ? Good.
Let's go over the new Amonkhet mechanics revealed today:
• Exert
• Embalm 

As we have no info previewed on Exert, other than what was provided in the article, we will turn our attention to what was relayed for 'Embalm' -

Embalm is an activated ability you can activate if the creature card with embalm is in your graveyard. Notably you're not casting the card from the graveyard, so things that counter spells won't work against the embalm ability. The original creature spell can be countered, of course, but that just puts the card in the graveyard.

To activate an embalm ability, simply pay the embalm cost and exile the card. You do this any time you could cast a sorcery, meaning during your main phase when nothing else is happening. When the ability resolves, you create a token copy of the card, but as you'd expect, going through the process of mummification causes some changes. It's got that whole undead thing going on, so it's a Zombie in addition to whatever creature types it used to have

This goes a bit to explain the interesting Amonkhet 'Punch Card', (with a 'brick' counter!) and the token format card.  Embalm looks to be juicy and delicious and we can't wait until official Amaonkhet previews beginning next week to find out what 'Exert' may be.  Here is a round-up of all the cards previewed whether is is from the Amonkhet set, welcome decks or the Planeswalker decks.

Graceful Cat
Impeccable Timing
Mighty Leap
Ancient Crab
Angler Drake
Cursed Minotaur
Dune Beetle
Gravedigger
Tattered Mummy
Fling
Glorybringer
Hyena Pack
Giant Spider
Sixth Sense
Spidery Grasp
Amonkhet Punch Card *
Trueheart Duelist *
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DotP 2014 Promos

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

As it is Friday, giver yourself a break and clear your calendar this evening for Friday Night Magic.  We'll be heading out to OMG! Games here in Barrie to get a last chance at winning this month's FNM promo, Judges' Familiar.

Anywhoos - we are still trying to catch up with Modern Masters and Magic 2014 spoilers and previews but want to first yatter about some of the very lovely looking promo cards you can score with Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014 first.  Here's the 4.1.1. for you - -
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The Magic 2014 - Duels of the Planeswalkers Promo Booster Pack program may be available at your local store where you could pick up promotional packs and cards.

In-game messages will direct players to redeem promo codes and receive a special booster pack based on their gaming platform. The Wizards Store and Event Locator will direct players to the participating WPN locations in their area.  There will be five Different 6-card Promo Packs provided to WPN stores : XBLA promo packs, PSN promo packs, Steam promo packs, iPad promo packs, and Android promo packs.  Each promo pack will have one of the following alternate art Magic 2014 promo card - as shown on the left (the regular card is on the right) -

• Steam, iPad, Android tablet – Scavenging Ooze,

• Xbox – Bonescythe Sliver, and

• PSN – Ogre Battledriver  (regular card on right is mock up)

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M14 Game Day Promos

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We have some Magic: the Gathering news today regarding promos we can expect at the Magic 2014 core set Game Day scheduled 10th / 11th August, 2013.  Magic Game Day gives you a chance to go big at your local game store and takes place approximately 4 weeks after a new MTG set is launched.  This also affords enough time to collect and build with the newest cards and fit them into a standard constructed strategy.  Here at MTG Realm our pre-orders from MTG Mint Card usually take only two or three days to get to us which means ample time to playtest as well.  To find a shop near you, click on over to the handy Wizards Locator page.

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Anywhoos - let's see what Wizards of the Coast has to offer for promos.  All participants receive an exclusive Hive Stirrings full-art promo card (while supplies last). The Top 8 players each receive an exclusive Goblin Diplomats full-art foil promo card. The cards are awarded to the Top 8 players even if the tournament cuts only to the Top 4.

Hive Stirrings, 2w
Sorcery, Common
Put two 1/1 colorless Sliver creature tokens onto the battlefield.

Goblin Diplomats, 1r
Creature - Goblin, Rare
{T}: Each creature attacks this turn if able.
2/1

In addition, the first-place winner of Magic 2014 Core Set Game Day will receive an exclusive playmat. 

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DGM Render Silent

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

As it is Friday, make certain you give yourself a treat for the end of the week and head on out to your local gaming store and sling some cards in a Friday Night Magic event.  We'll be off to FNM at our local card shop, OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario, play some standard constructed and hopefully score this month's FNM promo card, Call of the Conclave.

Speaking of FNM . . . Dragon's Maze Spoilers AHOY !
 We've been following this developing story since early this morning but now have been provided with sufficient evidence to indicate that the following alleged Dragon's Maze spoiler is indeed worthy to post (there have been a LOT of fakes again this season - thanks 4Chan!).  The first image appears to have been taken by Michael J. Fox using a potato-camera.  Anywhoos - the story goes that at a FNM event in Australia (city / store unknown at this time - Adelaide, South Australia?), the event wrapped up and the organiser began to break out the promo cards and this lovely card was found.  Since then, the original image poster ('JackAtlas' / 'the_warmaster') had been able to obtain and post a more clear image.  Let's have a looky-loo . . .

Warning - not confirmed - rely only on official Dragon's Maze previews from the mothersite.
Render Silent, wuu

Instant, Rare
 
Counter target spell. Its controller cant cast spells this turn.
 
ills. Kev Walker
*96/156 Buy-a-Box promo
Water Mark - Azorius

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THIS - does not look too badly at all.  Let's dissect.

This counterspell does have a slightly more restrictive mana cost than Dissipate or Cancel which may turn off some players.  The benefits here however is that during latter turns in the game when the required mana is available for to your opponent, chances are that you can likely expect two or more spells during that player's turn (or even your turn).  Although your opponent can cast and have have spells resolve in response to Render Silent, their options are now rather limited.  Speaking of limited, there are only a number of limited counterspells in standard constructed at the moment which may have some players warming up to this card.

Render Silent is the Booster box promo card (or Buy-a-box promo) for Dragon's Maze.  Purchasing a booster box at participating local stores, and you may be able to get one of these. They are foil cards with alternate art, and are often highly prized by collectors.

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In other news, we still are following another card - 'Varolz, the Scar-Striped' for which a card image was posted.  We are still not satisfied that this is not another fake and won't post about it.

Have a great weekend and happy gaming.
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Gatecrash Promos

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

Today on the mothersite, WotC Monty brought the juice and shared all the Gatecrash promo cards.  All the alternate card arts look very excellent and we are definitely looking forward to getting our paws on most of them.  As these are rather collectible, we think quite a few players out there will want to pimp their commander / EDH or even Modern deck.  To follow this line, drop over to MTG Mint Card to level-up on foils.

Righto - onto the promos available with the new Gatecrash set . .
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Gatecrash PreRelease Guild Pack Promos (these are likely to be the respective Intro Pack foil rare cards as well) . . .

Boros (/): Foundry Champion
Dimir (/): Consuming Aberration
Gruul (/): Rubblehulk
Orzhov (/): Treasury Thrull
Simic (/): Fathom Mage


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Gatecrash Buy-A-Box promo
Magic: the Gathering fans purchasing a booster box at their local gaming stores can score this Nightveil Specter promo (while supplies last)

~Gatecrash Launch promo
When Gatecrash hits store shelves for sale on Friday, 1st February, MTG players attending the Friday Night Magic Event will receive this monstrous Skarrg Goliath promo.

~League Promo
Once your local gaming store starts up Gatecrash League play, among the tournament game prizes available will be this hybrid red / white 1/1 Soldier creature token.

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Game Day Promo
Several weeks after the launch of Gatecrash (on 23 / 24 February), participants at the Gatecrash Game Day will receive this Zameck Guildmage promo.











Those to make Top 8 during the Gatecrash Game Day event can expect to receive this Firemane Avenger promo.
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MTG Path of Vengeance

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

On the weekend, we dropped over to Big B Comics here in Barrie, Ontario to pick up some missing issues in both of our Magic: the Gathering comic book series.  A very helpful staff member dug around in the back room and was able to complete our collection of the initial MTG Comic series, as well as the next one, Spell Thief.  Here is a quick run down of the special promo cards of each comic in the series so far . . .

 

Magic: the Gathering Comics IDW Promo Cards :
• Treasure Hunt
• Faithless Looting
• Feast of Blood
• Electrolyze

Magic: the Gathering Comics IDW Spell Thief Promo Cards :
• Arrest
• Consume Spirit
• Standstill
• Breath of Malfegor

We are now consider picking up a few of the non-promo / regular cards from MTG Mint Card to work out a few casual fun builds we are contemplating right now.  Anywhoos - onto today's post!  The next Magic: the Gathering comic series to be issued by Wizards of the Coast and IDW Publishing is called 'Path of Vengeance'.  This story line again features the badboy Planeswalker Thief, Dack Fayden in all sorts of mischief in the City of Ravnica.  We expect a few promo cards here is see print in either Gatecrash or Dragon's Maze in the current Return to Ravnica block.  We've provided the anticipated release date of each comic but please don't hold your breath - their record of street release dates are pretty bad (perhaps this has something to do with possible spoilers and official previews?).
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Magic: The Gathering - Path of Vengeance #1 (of 4)
Matt Forbeck (w) • Martín Cóccolo (a) • Dan Scott (c)
Dack Fayden returns to Ravnica! Dack knows that the malevolent Sifa Grent has something sinister planned for the city of Ravnica, but he must uncover her plot while being pursued by Rakdos cultists and Boros soldiers. Not only that, but someone from Dack’s past may just put an end to the Planeswalker thief!
Scheduled release - November, 2012
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Magic: The Gathering - Path of Vengeance #2 (of 4)
Matt Forbeck (w) • Martín Cóccolo (a) • Dan Scott (c)
The Cult of Rakdos has put a price on Dack Fayden's head - and Maytov, the best thief in Ravnica, has come to collect. Now, Dack must fight for his life against an opponent more cunning than anyone he's ever faced. Will Maytov succeed where even Sifa Grent has failed-and kill the Planeswalker Thief?
Scheduled release - January 30, 2013
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Magic: The Gathering ― Path of Vengeance #3 (of 4)
Matt Forbeck (w) • Martin Coccolo (a) • Chris Rahn (c)
Dack Fayden has finally uncovered Sifa Grent’s plan for Ravnica… and it could bring unbelievable devastation to the city-plane! Now, Dack must make his way through Ravnica, with Rakdos cultists and city guards hot on his trail, in the hope that he can stop Sifa before it’s too late!
Scheduled release - February, 2013
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Magic: The Gathering - Path of Vengeance #4 (of 4)
Matt Forbeck (w) • Martin Coccolo (a) • Alex Horley (c)
THE FINAL SHOWDOWN! Dack Fayden confronts Sifa Grent in a battle that may be too much for the Planeswalker thief. With the fate of Ravnica hanging in the balance, Dack must rally all his strength to put an end to the villainous Sifa once and for all!
Scheduled release - March, 2013
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