The Devil and the Littlest Frost Titan.

So it's spoiler season and Avacyn Restored is a pretty phenomenal set, even at 25% spoiled every card seems over the top and impressive across the board, kudos to wotc for this one. This is something that will be compared to other impressive third sets like Urza's Destiny or Apocalypse. I'm very excited about this one especially with Grand Prix Los Angeles around the corner. I thought I would take some time to talk about the planeswalkers and how they really are breaking new ground.

I'm the kinda person that would follow the color wheel, or the set number, or any number of things that would make me examine Tamiyo first, but I believe that the stigma Tibalt portrays would actual cause you to read only half of this week's blog as he is so obscure that most of came to a conclusion.

So

RR
Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded

Planeswalker - Tibalt
+1: Draw a card, then discard a card at random.
-4: Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded deals damage equal to the number of cards in target player's hand to that player.
-6: Gain control of all creatures until end of turn. Untap them. They gain haste until end of turn.
Illus. Peter Mohrbacher #161/244 2

Because he fits the proper curve for rdw doesn't necessarily mean that's where he belongs. At turn 2, on the draw, the only way to successfully attack him and drop him requires a champion of the parish and 2 triggers, something that a lot of decks wouldn't want to see right away. As a planeswalker that can't defend himself this worst case scenario makes him a fog that would allow a control or midrange deck the extra turn against the agro match ups. This is red's wall of omens when it's a bad play. Now, when it goes unchecked it starts fueling decks like frites or u/r delver which seems to be assembling. His ultimate is something that may not be used often but not many walkers can without the proper set up, at RR it is very likely that our first devil walker will for lack of a better word threaten his opposition to draw the attention his way. As more miracles are spoiled remember to check back on Tibalt, I wouldn't cram them all into a deck but there may be a place for reforge the souls, possibly Temporal Mastery.

So from there we look at a card that a lot of people are on the fence about.

Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

Planeswalker - Tamiyo

+1: Tap target permanent. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.
-2: Draw a card for each tapped creature target player controls.
-8: You get an emblem with "You have no maximum hand size" and "Whenever a card is put into your graveyard from anywhere, you may return it to your hand."
Illus. Eric Deschamps #79/244 4

This is a frost titan that cost 5 that is a hella lot harder to kill. The 5 drop puts it at a disadvantage in certain situations, much like JTMS was back during its release, you wouldn't want to put it in danger with the potential of a small army of jund creatures and I can say the same now with Tamiyo. Tamiyo isn't Jace. I would say when Jace was fair, I'm sure that's a hard statement to take in, Tamiyo comes damn close, her only folly is the extra 1 mana, but if any of you remember Gideon had the same kinda critiques against him. When you look at both of these walkers it's best to ignore the ultimates as they aren't very impressive in comparison to others, but the first 2 abilities are simply amazing in the right decks.

These are both fair, well designed walkers, which still means that you have to 2 for 1 them, last time I checked that was called card advantage.

More spoilers

It's normally not like me to really be so main stream and tackle spoilers as they come in like this, yes I've addressed full and complete sets once they have been fully spoiled, all the more reason for me to do it.

Angel of Jubilation

Is very very real. I would go as far as to say Mikaeus, the Lunarch has been replaced in a lot of decks. I would go further to say that bulking up on Mikaeus is a very bad idea, not that it really has been a good one.

Avacyn, Angel of Hope

Been there done that, limited bomb, flavor, casual, crack them, trade them, profit.

Banishing Stroke

New Phyrexia has done a great job keeping good uncommons like this down. It will see plenty of play in block this summer, but wont really be able to shine in standard until rotation. Without seeing more cards that will interact with the miracle mechanic it's hard to see it's potential but if the cards do present itself this could be the next dismember, the next inquisition. That's based on the fact that anything is possible, at this point it's not very probable.

Cloudshift

It's cute, possibly a decent board card, could see play in modern alongside another card I'm about to mention in a WUR twin deck.

Restoration Angel

This card is getting a lot of attention, as it should. The big interaction is this and snapcaster, and as I advised on twitter last week, holding snap caster is a safe call as even if this is hype this is hype that already drives an already playable card. Other cards that interact with this: titans, metamorph and his cousins, variants of acidic slime, and any of the come into play silver bullets in pod decks. And as I mentioned in cloud shift, restoration angel + kiki jiki brings another splintertwin esk engine and could re surge the decks dominance in modern as the loss of ponder and preordain makes it inconsistent and slow piecing together combo pieces. Don't be shocked that this isn't at least an experimental deck that you might see piloted by well known deck builders in the near future.

Silverblade Paladin

The buy a box promo, underwhelming in that aspect, but it's par for what it does, without its soul bound battle buddy, which can easily be disrupted in the same kinda decks that would run his cousin mirrian crusader. Definitely a limited bomb.

Latch Seeker

Big invisible stalker, no hexproof. More blue agro type creatures, which is something that has become a trend, still no resurrection of fish or skies type decks but I can top that up to phyrexian mana, titans, swords, which neither had to really deal with in a standard environment.

Temporal Mastery

Where the angel was the flavor of the week last week, this is this weeks. And I've talked negatively about this card, because it really isn't as absurd to the point where personal tutor should sell out out $50, and by gp atlanta we will see this. This isn't like time warp where you can combo with it because without it's miracle cost its just to much. There will be many cases where top decking this only means you draw yet another card, and that's not bad, when I see it I think this is how time walk was when there weren't the various knobs and levers that exist in most combo decks.

Wingcrafter

Soulbound thing, limited these seem amazing, but there are far to many removal spells now a days that turn these cards into vanilla creatures.

Demonic Taskmaster

I like how "good" demon cards are half decent cards, it's decent, not very stable in constructed play. All these board position cards do is give people a reason to complain about dismember.

Demonlord of Ashmouth

I imagine during testing this didn't have the exile clause and play testers were just letting it sac itself to itself. Along side other creatures with undying its amazing otherwise it acts like the champion cards from Lorewyn.

Griselbrand

Another flavor card, limited bomb, edh powerhouse, I could see this as maybe a target for mimeoplasim. This could be a go to card in frites after rotation, maybe this set will open an opportunity for frites to be competitive in block.

Killing Wave

I like it, it's going to kill a lot of dudes in certain match ups and a couple points of damage, it's not necessarily death cloud, mutilate, or damnation, but I wouldn't over look this when your slinging swamps.

Thunderous Wrath

Cards that will be in RDW 500 Trebeck. The goblin grenade you have to top deck without the sac draw back, this will see play.

Craterhoof Behemoth

Generic Green Timmy mythic, is huge and silly, with all these big monsters I wonder if more ways to cheat them into play will present them self, I hope that's not the case, a tooth and nail type meta is about as boring as the control mirror.

Druids' Repository

It will be interesting if a green weenie deck that utilizes this presents itself, but right now it's no where to be seen. Limited card. Edric comes to mind for edh.

Howlgeist

It cost 6 for a quasi unblockable 4/2 with undying, it's a big mess, I'd draft it if I absolutely had to.

Joint Assault

Giant Growth with a bonus if I play shakey cards, house of cards type strategy that most Johnnys may attempt because they have to build something miserable that wins 1% of the time?

Sigarda, Host of Herons

Makes me laugh, it's like every casuals dream, but I wouldn't call it a casual card, it's just a hexproof dude with edict proof. Day of judgement is still a card.

Moonsilver Spear

Spear of saint traft, it's a bit pricey in comparison to other amazing equipment cards but if delver needed something for the mirror in block this is it.

Cards number #233/244, #234/244, and #235/244 will cause people to cry for the ban hammer.

Avacyn Commander Deck

Hello everybody it's Monday again so here I am to beat everyone to the punch..."beat everyone to the *insert magic jargon here*", patient pending...I'm working on it. I thought I'd have to gripe about WotC's botch earlier today when they used some cheap programing method to host the first official spoiler for Avacyn Restored, it took them several hours but it was finally corrected.

Check it out.

While this fits your typical cookie cutter reanimator target, it's still underwhelming when she weighs in to Iona, progenesis, emrakul, even in standard this may make a decent companion to elesh, but it's not going to replace her.

And then I thought wow, this would be a pretty awesome commander.

So without further a due, the first Avacyn, Angel of Hope commander deck:

Commander

Avacyn, Angel of Hope

Creatures

Sun Titan
Solemn Simulacrum
Benalish Commander
Fiend Hunter
Captain of the Watch
Kor Cartographer
Cloudgoat Ranger
Emeria Angel
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Hero of Bladehold
Knight-Captain of Eos
Patrol Signaler
Riftmarked Knight
Daru Warchief
Knight Exemplar
Adarkar Valkyrie
Admonition Angel
Akroma, Angel of Wrath
Serra Ascendant
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Myr Battlesphere
Twilight Drover
Crovax, Ascendant Hero
Mirror Entity
Celestial Crusader

Instants

Raise the Alarm
White Sun's Zenith
Beacon of Immortality
Oblation

Enchantments

Leyline of the Meek
Oblivion Ring
Luminarch Ascension
Mobilization
Glorious Anthem
Honor of the Pure
Marshal's Anthem
Celestial Mantle
Faith's Fetters
Endless Horizons
Land Tax
Crusade

Sorcery spells

Conqueror's Pledge
Decree of Justice
Flicker
Hour of Reckoning
Martial Coup
Nomads' Assembly
Spectral Procession
Storm Herd
Rout

Lands

Arid Mesa
Flooded Strand
Windswept Heath
Marsh Flats
Emeria, The Sky Ruin
Flagstones of Trokair
Kjeldoran Outpost
Kor Haven
Maze of Ith
Mystifying Maze
Mistveil Plains
Sejiri Steppe
Windbrisk Heights
27 Plains

Artifacts

Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Fellwar Stone
Coalition Relic
Extraplanar Lens
Gauntlet of Power
Sol Ring
Sensei's Divining Top
Thran Dynamo

Planeswalker

Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Of course this is just a rough draft, but this is what I would start out with before doing anything fancy like fit in a stoneforge package or change up the creature/wrath ratio, a lot of that has more to do with your own meta. The beauty of Alacyn is you don't have to play swiftfoot boots or lightning greaves, although I would recommend looking for a place for them once people wise up and start running oblation and chaos warp, but I couldn't begin to tell you the number of times I've had opponents that had to read oblation. Play dudes, ramp up, drop angel, and laugh as the battles of attrition fall into your favor. Enjoy.

The DCI says that twitter is part of the tournament floor.

Not every suspension makes headlines, typically the publicity is reserved for flagship players. And if it wasn't for Sperling and Lee's tripping over their words on twitter I'd probably never of known about it. Today is my birthday and I was going to postpone this week's blog until tomorrow but this really struck a chord and I feel that the community shouldn't agree with WotC's decision. Gerald Freas, took photos of players at gp indy and were being sent to his twitter with captions that cruelly described players being photographed. There has been a bit of confusion as to how this was handled and I do plan to talk to some of the level 2 judges I know about it. According to sources there was no warning, the judges, the TO, no one at the venue approached him and asked him to stop what he was doing. A lot of people have chimed in saying that they saw him do it, and expected the ban to carry out, none of them claiming to interact with him or talk to a judge about it. 18 months is the same sentence that is given to people that are deliberately cheating. I wish this was all there was to this story but it gets even uglier, Aaron Forscythe favorites tweets that insult Freas, this alone looks like a complete train wreck on WotC's part.

This is what happens when bad meets evil, and Gerald isn't the only person to be held accountable, just as it would for bribes and other penalties, all surrounding parties that witnessed the events and did nothing should also be held accountable if this is the future of events.

The average magic player at a large event has poor hygiene and is an eye sore to look at, so instead of removing something that creates a health issue it's easier to remove the people that point this out?

This is to create an example, that we as players are not allowed to use social media during events because these parts of the internet are considered part of the tournament floor. I imagine WotC supports SOPA.

Kiss your token deck goodbye.

I certainly don't have the best track record when it comes to B&R. But when I see IV being put onto the chopping block as a candidate for banning in block I had to double.... triple take. Between that and JVL advocating to young new players on his "building on a budget" article that ponder was modern legal figured I had a slew of topics...that I would rather just not address. It's not that they aren't important, it's just they've all been addressed and beaten into the ground already. It's funny I wanted to make posts on Monday to avoid this sort of thing. Twitter has been painfully slow, no one was mugged or had their car broken into this weekend, and it snowed here in California. I imagine this is what it's like to be in bizarro world, I know it's all fucked up but what more should I expect from bizarro world.

It should be obvious that if you have BWG tokens in block you should spend time this evening unsleeving and prepping to sell off the walkers so you can rebuild something else, the image means it's getting banned. I want to argue that it's just in modern because everything gets banned there, but I've come to learn that B&R isn't really about rational thought and over looking design that WOTC spends years on. What it's really about is whining on twitter after shifting large quantities of stock out and wanting to do the same with the remainder of your inventory, currently SCG has 9 sorins and 9 garruks in stock. Coincidence that their writers have been advocating the deck as a problem, only in the second hand business you want your top sellers to flop, lets you sell a wider range as the hive mind catches back up. It's dirty pool, it wont stop, but it needs to be made more apparent.

Circle of Protection: Theft

Theft has gotten way way waaaaaaaay out a hand over these past couple of weeks and twitter seems to be getting a lot of people talking in circles. This is never going to go away, magic cards cost way to much money, most standard decks are the equivalent to a car payment and legacy...actual cars. Imagine a room full of 20-30 year old males, over 90% of them are overweight and out of shape, they all carry books and boxes of card board estimating anywhere from 800-1500 dollars on average, when there is security they man the front door, the halls outside, and they armed with a walkie talkie and can't physically do anything. But it gets better, you don't have to walk down to the pawn shop or swindle people out of the back of your car, there are people in the building that pay cash for this cardboard without having to check id and no documentation. This is candy land for any thief.

I just want to make it clear that things have been taken into consideration, long before any of this the head judge does take time during announcements to address taking care of your belongings, something along the lines of "watch your shit, don't let your buddies watch your shit, they aren't going to treat it like it's their shit", I'm not sure if I'm actually quoting or paraphrasing but you get the idea. But what more do you want than that, it's not the judges job to act as security, they aren't your mother.

So what do we, the players do. There is the obvious, maintaining your belongings under you, putting your chair leg through your back pack strap. There's also the easiest, carry nothing other than your deck strategy, which works if you don't like trading or making money from the vendors.

What to consider:
1. Your bag itself, do all the zippers work? Are there any holes or tearing? This isn't your school books, these are your magic cards, it's money, if your bag isn't in great condition, buy another one.
2. Weight, are your belongings so heavy that you can't comfortably carry them around for 8-10 hours, your probably one of those people that trust your friends casually playing between rounds to watch your stuff, consider some, possibly all of it gone. That extra couple of decks for casual play maybe your clothes and hygiene products, leave it in the room, lighten the load.
3. Size, if it cant fit into a bathroom stall with you, you should of bought vendor space, you need to be able to properly watch your bag under your own power.
4. Deck boxes, the perfect thing to pocket, if you have several of these things your asking for it, keep it simple, what you need, everything else needs to be under lock and key and attached to you or not on the floor.
5. While trading, watch your books, if your belongs make you to stationary your going to have problems moving while your partners buddy shows up and it slowly moves further and further from you.
6. Restrooms, use the ones closest to the floor or the ones on the floor, many events are held at convention centers and I know the line can get long sometimes, but if your not capable of fending off several people maybe it's best you stay with the herd.

Simple stuff no one really takes into consideration, you may not be watching your stuff every second, they are.

Asphyxiating Blast

Over the weekend this received a lot of attention. And based on the rationality of this doesn't matched the already confirmed names of Avacyn Restored's pre-release and buy a box card, even though the release and game day cards easily fall under "promo", was quickly discarded as fake. But what if it's not. What if WotC understands that it has to properly address what's wrong with legacy. FoW isn't on the RL I do understand that, which is why the discussion of it being reprinted is very common as it obviously feels mythic, which is why the uncommon fetches a $50+ price tag. But FoW can't be reprinted, because it's just to good, dramatically unbalancing blue for the next 2 years is the only way to properly justify a reprint in a non promotional print. So ideally we would need a "fixed" version, an almost neutered version to help usher in the next generation of legacy players, if WotC does in fact want to preserve the format. Id go as far as to say that this would ultimately allow WotC to ban FoW, maintaining a necessary evil that must exist as there are way to many combo decks that would easily be a repeat of combo winter times one thousand.

The argument "WotC learned it's mistake from misstep" argument is heavily flawed. Now the source really didn't state how they came into contact with this information it could very well be a poor translation. Now what if it read like this:

Asphyxiating Blast
1UU
instant

You may pay 2 life and exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay Asphyxiating Blast's mana cost. Counter target spell with converted mana cost 3 or less.

Now from a standard players view point this is a 2 for 1 for the first couple of turns of play and as the game progresses it becomes a narrow cancel. It's good, feels mythic, yet isn't overpowered. But it would still be quickly banned in modern, that list isn't long enough yet and is dictated by twitter.

GPSD: Swept under the table.

So were all done talking about worlds right, right? No seriously I can't put this off much longer.

If you ever gone to any large event for limited, whether it be like a ptq or a gp, you have to fill out a listing for your pool. And not just your pool but someone else's pool, the process is much faster, and it's supposed to prevent cheating...SUPPOSED TO. The process for those of you who don't know goes as followed, seating goes up and 1000+ unshowered fat guys dry hump stickly looking men as the try to quickly tape paper to poorly supported banners of awful cards no one plays. The cows find their seats and are given the product, in this case 6 packs. The cattle is supervised by the head judge to ensure everything is recorded and accounted for, all the while the largest of cows, like Cedric Philips get to yammer on some muffled nonsense unscathed like the tournament floor is his local movie theater, because hey he's Cedric Philips he's fucking special right? After that's settled the mouth breathers exchange lists and start shouting at fanboy judges to get their "not opponents" in trouble for things that they are suppose to correct themselves, like their inability to keep everything in alphabetical order, marking 6-7 slots incorrectly, and the brain damage, well some things obviously can't be corrected. Sip up that coffee porky because counting is obviously hard and you need to know how to start at 20 and go backwards 3 or 4 times until you go home and do whatever it is you do when I don't have to look at you. Anyways...after it's checked for the SECOND time, players begin playing oh please let this be my deck as they are instructed to exchange pools multiple times like Catholics shaking hands on sunday mass, I'd rather touch the homeless people there over a mass majority of you *coughajcough*. Once you have your pool you yourself then check and report anything that might of been missed by bessy and his inbred cousin sitting across from him and deck construction begins.

Now that we got that outta the way, I have a question for the class. What happens when something is discovered incorrectly later on in the day? Well according to the poor girl sitting next to me round 3 it meant a game loss. What if it was something more severe though, like having a 7th pack in your pool. And lets say it went unnoticed until after round 7, and this individual was x-1, and not once considered "hey I seem to have a lot of rares". Let me tell you what happened...absolutely nothing, nothing was done. Sure the pool was "corrected", an equivalent to the contents of one booster was removed and then given back to the player to rebuild. 6 players that day lost their chance at day 2 because of this, zero punishment, 0, none, nada, it was deemed that he just didn't know. He got away with it because he was just to dumb to count, the DCI has apparently adopted no child left behind during a Grand Prix.

I'm sure the Judge's position can be argued but it still doesn't change the fact that 6 people who took time, money, and energy to compete were all cheated because all 4 people that directly handled this pool couldn't count. And what's to prevent someone for deliberately adding extra cards during registration, to cause these sort of problems, because it looks to me like I could get away with something like that if I really wanted to.

Sometimes I wonder where my tax money really goes.

M12 10/15 mythics confirmed

I assume that every magic writer is already working on a similar piece. Being that NPH reviews aren't as "new" as they are trying to be sold off as, and having to explain why competitive magic players scoop is only going to agitate the general populous of honorable self righteous casuals. Who generally believe it's better to not play Jace than win.

Back in March we got to take a look at the promo cards that were going to be bundled with the upcoming duels of the planeswalker game.

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/678

With no other information, and rotation being so far away, it could easily of been argued that the Titans weren't going to be reprinted...

Anyways, GameSpot released this trailer today.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/puzzle/magic-the-gathering---duels-of-the-planeswalkers-2012/video/6314180

If coming from Gideon's perspective wasn't enough, re watch 1:50 again. You'll notice the 5 planeswalkers rumored to be in M12, which is, and most importantly, also advertised along side the game. This would in fact confirm that the titans are most likely in m12. Why give promos that new players, duels of the planewalkers target audience, can't use once they decide to make the jump into the TCG?

Of course this still doesn't actually verify that we will see the ROE, or Sorin's ZEN version. Jace TMS, has already been confirmed, by Foresythe, that it is not in M12.

Without official confirmation we do get into speculation, and I'm sure that the community will have a huge spectrum of it as this week progresses. Many have argued that Gideon's design is to complex to be part of the core set. While this may be true, WotC could be breaking new grounds, trying to free the core set from being so basic. M10 and M11 had selling points that made them far more successful than their predecessors, but if 10 of the 15 mythics are reprints than whats going to be the new hype?



Here's hoping otherwise.

Another survival post.

Is it safe yet? The only person still wishing happy new years is my boss, and I imagine he will follow his awful habit to continue to do so all the way through the end of March. It's 2011, and we got past the first of "one's days" that have excited many of today's binary aroused generation. I was wrong about survival, suffering zero loss as I only have one to my name, still groan as more articles have been written trying to innovate a format that is no more than a regurgitated carbon copy of post ban mystic tutor era. There are a plethora of topics to cover, and I loathe the clipping many torture the community with as their editors demand a criteria of minimum word count. I'm not entirely sure if it's grammatically correct to quote yourself in any fashion but I still find this to hold merit.

"The philosophy that banned sotf is one that can be used against any legacy card. Can't wait for dual lands to be banned."

I don't necessarily believe that come March everyone's underground seas are going to be worthless but lets look closer into this.

Strait from the mothership:
"In recent months, Survival of the Fittest decks have been outperforming other decks in Legacy. This has caused the competitive format to become significantly less diverse. This has reached a point where the DCI concluded that it is appropriate to ban a card.

Survival is a card that gives the decks a lot of resilience to potential answer cards. Some combination decks fail when they draw cards intended as answers to opponents' decks instead of cards that are part of their winning combination. However, with Survival of the Fittest on the battlefield, a drawn Qasali Pridemage can be replaced with any other creature in the deck for one mana."

This isn't that far fetched:
In recent years, Underground sea decks have been outperforming other decks in Legacy. This has caused the competitive format to become significantly less diverse. This has reached a point where the DCI concluded that it is appropriate to ban a card.

Underground Sea is a card that gives the decks a lot of resilience to potential answer cards. Some combination decks fail when they draw cards intended as answers to opponents' decks instead of cards that are part of their winning combination. However, with Underground Sea on the battlefield, a drawn fetchland can cost you the game vs stifle, and on the same note, lacking multiple hand fodder will put you in a poor position versus thoughtseize.

A few dozen legacy staples can fit this premise.

From mystical to now survival, the card I would next foresee to be targeted by the ever whining community would be enlighten tutor, assuming that countertop gains some head weigh in the coming months. Although twitter suggests a resurgence of reanimator, an underground sea deck...just saying.

And speaking of whining, which is the real basis behind this heavily customer dictated r&d, the kind of attention this had gained was but a mere fraction of what planeswalker control, Jund, or faeries had ever received. Standard is the format that new players are first introduced to before the pursue the eternal formats, and a majority of what the casual crowd supports due to their lack of spending, so going over legacy with a fine tooth comb trying to fine tune it and completely ignoring standard is...for lack of a better word...ass backwards.

Banned and Restricted early announcements

I need this to go on the record so I can safely say "I told you so".

The banned and restricted announcement for December approaches. And while I do believe this is the time to speculate and examine constructed I believe the community has been overly biased. I like to apologize for your financial problems, inability to trade, or to be able to grow from 2007.

Jace will not be banned. WotC publicly denies any association with secondary market prices. We currently have no legitimate agro deck in this rock paper scissor world of standard, this is a power creep issue from transitioning into the new standard (something I would like to address in a later entry).

Survival will not be banned. Legacy was tossed on it's head less than 6 months ago, and while I do appreciate kicking something when it's down, the likely hood of it happening again is next to impossible. Cards in legacy receive banning when they end games in absurd ways, 1G + G and G to activate with a good draw? There are staples that cost 0.

Vengevine will not be banned. If a card were to actually receive banning from the deck it would be rootwalla, as the deck would still function without bringing forth an uncanny herd of vengevine, but that won't be banned either. The deck is balanced in terms of a format that has been dominated by blue cards since it's incarnation.

There are plenty of cards that should be on the chopping block long before any of these, sensei's diving top, lion's eye diamond, force of will, etc. None of these are going to be banned, not yet at least.

Nothing is going to be banned. The next week will be full of people complaining about how no one is really listening to them, and how WotC is an evil corporate empire, and WAAH WAAH WAAH!

Magic Player Rewards Program Discontinued, a blessing in disguise for dummies.

Obligatory "if you haven't heard yet" blah blah blah This

Quick grab some tissues and put on your angry face.

I'm sure there's a lot of people moaning, sobbing, delicious tears. While I do enjoy the collective misery that this has and will ensue I have a few constructive thoughts as to why this is a good thing even for those who are still mourning their WotC welfare.

Chaos theorist type people, this has almost no relation to the recent WPN changes, I'm sorry your upset and it's easy to point at big ole Hasbro, but that doesn't make any sense. Yes cards are involved, and yes people are angry, but I could use the same argument for...well anything, the governme...WOTC isn't out to get you. You have to remember they are a business, they want your money.

I get it, most of you are probably still in the denial phase and just easing into anger. You might not care because your free cards, that your not actually entitled to, causes you to break into a fit, I can't reason with you. Can't say I didn't try.

What PRP was suppose to do.

WotC has had a history of promotions that rewarded players for participating in tournaments and in some cases teach the game itself. These ended with much fret. And like arena and the guru program, PRP had a goal. A goal with a projection that obviously was met.

Magic is in a very heavily place right now. The increase in tournament attendance through years of "magic is dying" speaks for itself. Programs are put into motion to create this state.

But why remove them?

It hurt LGS's, which in turn hurts WotC. Do you remember Day of Judgment pricing at $6.00? That promo is pretty awesome, wanna buy some m11? No? Why's that? Pack EV has became to low. What's that? Google it, learn something. TL;DR with more desirable promos in circulation there becomes less of a need to buy packs. Again, WotC is a business, they want your money. I think the old expression "why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free" applies here.

It can also be argued that tournaments have grown to big, many LGS's struggle to maintain the capacity to support their player base. Magic is hitting puberty late, but it's happening whether you like it or not. The community is growing at an alarming rate that it can seem awkward at times. It's grown to fast, so fast that a simple hobby store can't support this kind of growth, not yet at least. Think of this as the next step in maturity, comic stores became games store, and now game stores feel as if they are cribs. The game is no longer in diapers, it's tall and lanky, covered in acne, horribly misunderstood, and has no desire to be coddled. We should take a page out of a parenting guide and realize that this is natural and remain supportive.

They grow up so fast.

MTGO's future(s)?

I may have been playing Magic since the mid ninety's but the online experience is fairly new to me. I finally gave into the two things keeping me from MTGO: buying digital merchandise, or what most refer to as imaginary cards, and buying everything twice. The second of the two, seemly easier to address in theory, becomes even more difficult as more and more invest into their second collections, compensation comes to mind. With the lack of any development for the foretold browser only v4, I can't imagine WotC refunding a cent.

We may eventually see a future set that addresses the issue, where paper packs come with a digital code for a MTGO equivalent, and a digital pack will also order yourself a paper pack that would be delivered in a matter of business days, this change due to postal delivery services, easily changes the price of a pack, something that would cause more complaining than the release of mythics. Of course this option in itself brings about it's own problems from hacking. Nothing like finding out that the pack you just bought was already used by some PC performing script of trial and error. Another possibility would inquire the use of data scanning devices, additional hardware that would need to be purchased in order for additional digital devices not needed to be purchase. A way for this to be marketed toward the causal crowd would need to be addressed, as the current incarnation is plug and play, one of the many features that shouldn't be removed regardless of any improvement.

As it's been stated WotC continues to look for ways to bring the MTGO closer and closer to paper in hopes that one day they are one in the same. Even though there is a two week gap between the release of a paper set and it's online version, at 4 sets a year...that's 8 weeks, 1/6th of the year where the two are no where in sync. The answer that the ORCs are told to give normally has something to do with the lines of code necessary for programmers to add. I like many others have to call bullshit. Most sets are finished, tested, and tweaked months in advance prior to actual release. Spoilers of future sets became public well over a month prior to the pre-release, this finalized product could easily be given to the programming team.

So is WotC willingly preventing it's online product the opportunity that they themselves project to reach in order to save the sanctity of a pre-release? Or does this go to show that Hasbro being a gaming company of 87 years isn't willing to invest additional money in what would be experimental innovation in the industry they literally monopolized? Most likely. But the squeakiest wheel gets the oil, as time goes on, less will believe the copy/paste tripe that is feed, the sale of digital product will be affected, and Hasbro will take action as they have with the eye sores of MTGO versions prior.

Jace's price is everyone's fault.

One of the most common trend with mythics and their prices is finger pointing. The "it costs money, I don't have any so I'm angry, its so and so's fault" gets old. And instead of having to listen to another random spout unrelated garbage whenever someone mentions anything having to do with standards poster child I figured it was time to make another reference blog.

His designer Mike Turian, his design philosphy on him here http://www.youtube.com/user/mrorangeguy#p/u/43/dNGVCZXU1Jo. If it was up to him, tectonic edge would of actually been a wastleland reprint. Grieving your opponent is awesome. Hes the kind of guy that most nostaglic has beens and never beens like, completely fair, turn 1 birds of paradise, turn 2 stone rain, turn 3 port, balanced. It's his fault.

Mythics, limited printings as opposed to rares, the supply was smaller. It's at fault.

Evan Erwin, Star City Game's hype man, host of the Magic Show. Weekly reporting the in's and out's of the game. What's to come, and what is and what will be amazing. Evan announced Jace's pre-order price at $22.49, and stated how you should pick up your set before his price went up. Many "I told you so's" followed, and many who missed out were enraged. It wasn't mrorange's context it was the reoccurring flame war his statements instigated that drew even more attention to Jace. It's his fault.

Everyone that did in fact pre-order Jace, with 0 supply and back orders of demand there was no reason for price to not go up. It's their fault.

The naysayers, people who responded to the hype with legitimate arguments that without any top 8 results cards can't have any real value. Gas to the fire. It's their fault.

Conley Woods, generally upsetting easily up-settable people with his own brand of deck building, finished top 8 in Grand Prix Oakland running not 1 but 3 Jace's. It's his fault.

The hoarder, someone who keeps anything he opens just in case he decides to play it. They are the kind of people who haven't gotten rid of their Elspeths, Hell's Thunders, and Sovereigns of Lost Alaras yet just in case they decide to build a new deck in the next 3 weeks. He might of opened one during the pre-release or in the one box he purchased, he doesn't know what to do with it but he knows its worth money, time to save it just in case. It's his fault.

Rise of Eldrazi, for being a stand alone set. The amount of Zendikar/Worldwake drafts coming to a near halt. Less Worldwake being opened resulting in less new supply circulating. It's at fault.

People who buy singles, because despite what some may believe Jace is in fact being purchased. Demand effects price. It's their fault.

People who buy packs, in doing so you support the product, even if they aren't worldwake packs, you are buying merchandise that have a potential to contain mythics. It's their fault and go back and re-read mythics.

Anyone that plays any in their decks, in doing so you are advertising, regardless of how it came into your possession. It's their fault.

You, for whining, your rash, ignorant, foul mouthed response regarding anything that had to do with Jace, the Mind Sculptor. You came into contact with someone prior to your listing and in doing so generated more advertisement on what upsets you. Or you encountered another like yourself, you clash and began a large flame war which attracts someone prior to your listing. Also for still not getting it, or being in the denial phase about it. It is your fault.

Musings on my previous post.

Sorry Don but I stole your title. I never expected this amount of feedback. KBR, mtgsalvation's admins, Ben Bleiweiss, Mana-nation giving mention to Don's blog which directed folks to mine. You would think that someone targeted themselves with esper charm, "missed" an angel of despair trigger, made some kind of joke about a prop bet, or used tms's pre-order price to justify Kozilek's and Time Reversal's. A lot of people got really riled up for the wrong reasons, but I'll tackle some of these beasts another day...coughfollowmyblogcough.

Heath called me yesterday afternoon, we discussed possible solutions to prevent this sort of confusion from occurring with future customers. And while their system can't properly set a limit on singles without effecting their entire inventory (i.e boosters) they are looking into a software solution that can give them this sort of option in the future.

I appreciate everyone's constructive feedback and support.

Cape Fear Games Fails

I spent quite some time trying to coming up with some catchy title so it doesn't sound as harsh from the get go. Unfortunately there is no nice way to put this.

I was at work watch Ochoa's deck tech, and notice the inclusion of renegade doppelganger, a card that normally would be quickly discarded as a bulk rare. With Conley's soul sisters deck drawing as much attention as it was it would only be a matter of time before this started showing up on everyone's radars. So I went to store.tcgplayer.com to check prices. Cape Fear Games had 20 listed at .40 each, there were plenty of other vendors with it listed much lower, and still are listed as such. The quantity was large enough so that the price wasn't that much of a premium.

The Following is an exchange of emails between their customer support and myself:

Hi Brian,
>
> We are unable to complete your order. We would like to be
> able to hold cards for local players. You have been refunded
> via paypal.
> -Andrew

Unacceptable, it was listed, and I paid for them.

Brian,
We have our policy clearly listed here:
http://www.capefeargames.com/faq__policies

"Cape Fear Games reserves the right to cancel or limit an order for any reason

We are here to serve the players first and foremost and while we do not mind dealers and speculators ordering from us we may limit the number of a specific card your able to buy from us. "

We are a business after all and while we hate canceling orders we are not here to support speculators reselling cards at our expense. If you feel there is a way to word that in a clearer way please let me know and I'll be happy to update our policy.
Thanks,
Heath

This makes your original email to me fraudulent, you claimed that you were holding them for local players, yet you stereotyped me based on the quantity of my order, copy/paste your policy, and then re-stock them back onto tcgplayer for double at what I ordered them for. Maybe you should have your system set a limit on quantity ordered.

Brian,
I apologize if I was wrong in my assumption but it is frustrating trying to keep cards in stock and then have other sites/ebayers buy them out instead of just buying 4x of each. If you would ever like to try us again we will be happy to send you 4x of any card(s) you wish to order but if this experience has left you unhappy I also understand. We do our best to respond to all e-mails personally and in a quick manner.
Thanks,
Heath

So they couldn't sell them to me because they wanted to save them for local players, and tried defending it with a prejudice against what I was buying their product for. Speculators are the people that apparently do their jobs the way they wish they could, and "policy's'" are put into place to make sure that they don't have to watch prices. And then they made an offer to sell me a portion of what I ordered, like they are my magic bartender telling me that I had enough. I didn't respond to the last email, there wasn't much more to say. Until they felt the need to send me yet another email.

Hi Brian,

We appreciate your concern and will take it into account for future policies. I assure you our original email wasn't fraudulent. Since our inventory on TCGPlayer is the same as our website and in-store inventory, then it is still being available for local players. As Heath said, we don't support speculators. If you need more than 8 of a card, you are more than welcome to email us ahead of time or at the time of your order with an explanation. That will encourage us not to cancel it.

What do you need 20x Renegade Doppleganger's for, so recently after the Dredgevine deck did well? Are you speculating on the card, trying to take advantage of the speed with which we update prices? Do you really think we are stereotyping based on the quantity and context? If we are, do you think there is any basis for this? Your only other order was for 33 Armament Master's, it's not helping you make a case that you are not a speculator.

We would like people to be able to order however many of a card that they would like, which is why we don't have a limit on quantity, however ordering just one card is a little suspect.
If you would like to paypal onlinesales@capefeargames.com $5.51, I will be happy to send you 8x at your original price.

We always welcome your feedback, and hope you order form us in the future.

Best,

Andrew
Store Manage

I responded with a very simple question: what made this order different than the previous?

Absolutely no purpose to further try to contact me, they had to feel like a big man for trying to stop someone who was trying to cheat them by buying things from their online store. There were plenty of other things I would of like to say with what I wanted them for, creative paper machete projects, cages that needed to be lined, my preference in wiping material. I shouldn't have to defend what I'm buying magic cards for.

In the end it didn't matter, they had product listed at a price and I paid for it, but since I'm a speculator I'm a 2nd class customer, and the high demand from the speculating boogie man meant I knew something and they should raise the price on them. As of this blog they have 14 of them currently listed at 0.95 even though you can purchase them from magicinferno at 0.35, and 12 other vendors that have them listed much lower than Cape Fear.

PC World doesn't want The Magic Community's Business

PC World recently released an article about the world's geekiest tournaments and had this to say about Magic: The Gathering.

The article can be found here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/203712/the_worlds_geekiest_tournaments.html (apparently I can't make that into a click-able link)

"Magic: The Gathering is sort of like Dungeons & Dragons in card form. You use the powers provided by different cards to damage your enemy in various ways--for instance, you can attack your opponent using dragon armies or fireball spells. The Magic World Championship is held once a year in various cities around the world. It provides a nifty bonding experience for people who spend the majority of their disposable income on pieces of paper with pictures of dwarf princesses printed on them, and who enjoy sitting for countless hours in what appears to be the world's largest middle-school lunchroom"

The original photo contained an image of a yu-gi-oh card image on top of what looked like a photo of a PTQ mid round. After much verbal abuse from their twitter, site, and forums they finally changed the photo and much of the snarky commentary. The new article now reads.

"Magic: The Gathering is sort of like Dungeons & Dragons in card form. You use the powers provided by different cards to damage your enemy in various ways--for instance, you can attack your opponent using dragon armies or fireball spells. The Magic World Championship is held once a year in various cities around the world. It provides a bonding experience for people who spend the majority of their disposable income on pieces of paper with pictures of princesses printed on them, and also provides a chance to win cash prizes."

Apparently we still spend a majority of our income on cardboard princesses.

For those interested I set up a Facebook group that shares a name with today's title.


Goggling Dwarf images was scary.

Most Overrated cards in M11

Instead of writing about the same regurgitated spoiler article like some kinda movie remake of an 80's franchise. I thought it would be fun to examine the fecal matter, more so the part that most of you have been eating.

Squadron Hawk: Welkin hawk 2.0 is a welcome upgrade to the nostalgic and the flavor is appreciated. Thing is though Welkin hawk wasn't very good during its day, and it never had to worry about forked bolt. Wall of omens and martial coup accomplish the same task several times as efficient. Wall drawing a more efficient spell, especially in the early game. And martial coup, which acts as the board sweeper that hawk would be stalling for plus I get more dudes for less mana. Maybe the next incarnation will have flash or missile launchers or something that would make a sorcery speed 3 card filter for 4 1/1 fliers at 4wwww desirable.

Time Reversal: Time spiral was good because the 6 lands you committed tapping for mana untapped giving you a fresh hand to combat your opponents fresh hand. As for time twister I will quote wikipedia as it sums up why it is so incrediablely powerful.
"Whereas the other Power 9 cards are simple in concept Timetwister is more complex. It forces all players to shuffle their hand, graveyard, and library together and draw seven new cards. The effect is symmetrical, meaning that it affects all players alike. Thus it is not at first apparent why Timetwister is a powerful card. Its power lies mostly in situations where the player casting it has fewer cards in his or her hand than the opponent. Then the player casting Timetwister can essentially catch up on cards in hand towards his opponent. Decks can be built to create these opportunities more often, especially the use of cards like the Moxes makes these situations come up more often."
There is a large gap between 3 and 5 mana, and an even larger one without moxes. I am very excited about how this card is pre-ordering at 30+ as there will be many that will learn the hard way.

Demon of Death's Gate: Because we needed another card to make baneslayer look good. Vacuum test monoblack and on the play vs mythic:
Turn 1
Swamp cast a dude, you pass and your opponent plays a land and casts a mana dork.
Turn 2
Swamp cast 2 dudes, sacrifice all 3 and pay 6 life your now at 14, you pass and your opponent plays a land and casts yet another mana dork.
Turn 3
Swamp and swing for 9, your opponent is at 11, you pass and your opponent plays a land and casts Baneslayer and passes turn.
Turn 4
Attacking is no longer a choice as the angel can now block you gaining 5 life to your 4 trample damage, you pass and your opponent swings bringing you down to 9 and them at 16.
Turn 5
With Baneslayer tapped you now have an open shot you swing for 9, they are now at 5, you pass and they untap and they race you go down to 4 they are now at 10.
Turn 6
They go to 1, you pass, you die.
Everyone plays Baneslayer, whether your Mythic, NLB, UW control, Super Friends, naya or Time Sieve.

Mitotic Slime: Siege-gang commander -3.0, Kozilek's predator beta? Without an additional effect or a cheaper cost mitotic slime fits into the "to little to late" category. For the same cost I can play a more versatile set of creatures that may die to a board sweeper but having 2 2/2's after a DoJ is a narrow perk.

Obstinate Baloth: The rest the world realizes that yes it does in fact counter blightning. Jund is very much an adaptable deck and versions without blightning have proved themselves viable. This card will in fact make Jund better as most will bluff blightnings fearing their opponents into siding out better cards for the 4 drop. Not only that but Jund can trade with it much easier now, being that vengevine was blightnings replacement in most non-blightning builds.

Fuana Shaman: Survival of the fittess would never of made the impact that it has if it had a 2/2 for a body. The kinda of deck that could abuse this is much to fragile, and the deck that doesn't acts as a grizzly bear with cycling, and in most cases will have to cycle twice to get vengevine in the yard.

Dark Tutelage: This is not a Dark Confidant, even tho it does in fact deal damage as such, with it's slightly less color dependent cost its an awful phyrexian arena at best. Bob's 2/1 body was his strength allowing you to run him into your opponent repeatedly until they realized it was better to stop taking 2 to the dome and giving you tempo.

Viscera Seer: Poor little guy is never going to get his chance to shine. What looks like an attempt to make standard dredge work will be overshadowed by one the greatest hosers ever: leyline of the void.

Combustion

1R
Instant

Combustion cannot be countered by a spell or an ability. Combustion deals 5 damage to target white or blue creature. The damage can't be prevented.

I'm not going to lie, I don't know the red equivalent to deathmark/celestial purge/flashfreeze/the awful green one. It's probably bad, but not enough to try to
make an acceptable equivalent for m10. It kills baneslayer, but so did any 2 common burn spells/plated geopedes. Maybe if all the playable white and blue creatures didn't have protection from red or shroud this could be a playable card. Unfortunately no one plays instant prevention, and no waste counters to protect wall of omens.

Maybe next time they will give red an edict like spell, or stop making a splash-able hoser that shuts down a deck in the first 2 turns.

Bursting the format bubble.

Extended has changed, sets are rotating, fire and brimstone, lions and tigers and bears, cats and dogs? Pros are being "innovative" by copy/pasting last years standard. And most randoms still are holding onto the overextended rumor.

Inserting stereotypical "if you haven't seen it yet check this out".
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/95b
But more so this:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/twtw/95

Overextended is a truthiness rumor, and shame on Firefox for not updating their spell check. There really was another format being discussed while the rest of us were having nostalgic extended memories and in some cases narrowed legacy thoughts. The "real" format the FFL were testing was nicknamed double standard, which is quite literally what it sounds like, standard, encompassing the past 2 years of magic, times 2. A sort of transition format to transition standard players into extended, sound familiar?

Whether or not you agree with the extended isn't as popular as legacy argument, the numbers speak for themselves. So instead of making another format, forcing players into a position to try and build a third (technically fourth) competitive deck, it was decided to try and re-enforce the one that was struggling.

If this isn't enough to sway you from hording your collection and all that depleting value Linus then wait as long as you like. Maybe the great pumpkin overextended is real.