Catching Up

Well Hello There! It has been a minute hasn't it? Sorry about the prolonged hiatus from updating... So many exciting things have taken place since we last met! New Phyrexia was revealed and released, the Commander products were released, M12 slid in on its heels, and now Innistrad previews have begun! So much to cover, so little time. Let's get to it!

 

First, let me just say that New Phyrexia was pretty awesome. So awesome, in fact, that it took us less than one week to collect a playset of every card that it had to offer. The cycles in this set were pretty cool - the Preators, the Splicers, the Chancellors, and the Exarchs. Some of my favorites from the set are as follows:

 

    

 

    

 

    

 

    

 

    

 

    

 

    

 
  

If there was one thing that disappointed me about New Phyrexia it would be this: Wizards made multiple references to Tezzeret and Nicol Bolas in Scars and Besieged and made it clear that they were both very interested in the outcome of the war on Mirrodin, but never explained why. Bolas was not referenced once in New Phyrexia and it looks like this ended up being a dead storyline. Oh well, I suppose. I'm happy, in a way, that this is my biggest complaint.

Next up are the Commander products. I must admit I was always a fan of singleton decks because there is so much more left to chance and I feel this increases the excitement. However, leaving things up to the luck-of-the-draw is not for everyone... Regardless of your tastes, there are some pretty sick new creatures in the Commander products that you should check out if you haven't already. Let's look:

    

    

    

    

    

    

 

To me these cards are not only very fun and shiny, but also full of flavor and resonant with the essence of what Magic is.

        

 

We recently saw the release of the new 2012 Core Set. I must say, as much as I loved them in M11, I was surprised to see the Titans return. Also, I felt that the core set rare lands were a bit exhausted, seeing their third core set in a row. However, there were still plenty of new (and old) gems to show off.

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

           

M12 brought with it three new alternate versions of cherished Planeswalkers, two Planeswalkers new to the Core Set, the new mechanic Hexproof, the old mechanic Bloodthirst, and the new terminology "dies". All in all, nice job Wizards. Keep up the good work.

  

AND NOW TO THE GOOD STUFF. While we were off in Wonderland, Wizards announced the upcoming large fall set: Innistrad. And then they announced the design team, lead by Mark Rosewater and happening to include Richard Garfield, the game's creator. How excited are we? Tremendously! We haven't seen Mr. Garfield on a design team in years... not since Ravnica. This is very exciting stuff, ladies and gentlemen. We know this has to be big.

Today we leave you with some preview art from the new set. (Don't worry - next time we'll get to all the great Innistrad goodies, seeing as currently we are just at the tip of the iceberg of previews.) As always, happy collecting and speculating.

- Brasif

Spoil Me Rotten

Hello and Happy (Belated) Valentine's Day! Welcome back to the Feast of Magic blog! In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I want to dedicate today's post to a few spoilers, because, as I see it, they are little gifts filled with happiness and excitement and love!

With Mirrodin Besieged well under way, Wizards decided to give us a sneak peak into the final set of the block, codename "Action", which will ultimately reveal who is to win the war on Mirrodin. Magic Arcana tells us the decision is already made, but promises no spoilers until the last moment... Instead, for the upcoming Magic Game Day in March, they will be awarding winners with preview cards from either Mirrodin Pure or New Phyrexia, based on which faction was played by said winners. Mirran faction players will recieve a copy of "Pristine Talisman" from Mirrodin Pure, while Phyrexian faction players will recieve "Suture Priest" from New Phyrexia. Have a look:

 As I said in my last post, I'm routing for the Phyrexians... New Phyrexia allows for so much more new material, where I feel Mirrodin Pure would just be a rehashed version of the original Mirrodin. As great as my love for Mirrodin is, my love for new and exciting things is much greater. To view the full article from Magic Arcana, click here.

Also, possible new art for the reprint of Platinum Angel recently surfaced.

 Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if she made an appearance...

And in the spirit of previews, there are a few new spoilers from the Commander (EDH) format, coming in June. Have a look:

 

And finally a little bit of spoiler art from the upcoming Duel Decks release - Knights vs. Dragons.

 

As always, Happy Collecting! Until next time...

- Brasif

On the Horizon

Hello, and welcome back to the Feast of Magic blog!

First and foremost, Happy New Year! I must apologize for the absence of new posts through the month of December, but I assure you it was not due to lack of material to write about. All I can say is that you'll see plenty of updates from me over the course of 2011, I promise.

To kick off the new year I think it is appropriate to talk about something new, and with Mirrodin Besieged right on the horizon (and previews already begun) there is no better time to dive right in!

If you don't already know, the current block causes me a great deal of excitement and instills in me a great sense of adventure. Mirrodin was the very first plane I visited as a Magic: The Gathering collector. That being said, you may believe I am routing for "Mirrodin Pure" to be the final set of the block, but I must say that those Phyrexians are some pretty nifty creatures and "New Phyrexia" doesn't sound like such a bad thing to me... But I don't mean to get off topic - Mirrodin Besieged is what today's post is about. It is about the war that has been festering on Mirrodin for some time now and, with Besieged, has finally arrived.

 

In Scars, we watched the Phyrexians dominate black and green, and begin to extend their grasp into blue, but now, in Besieged, the Phyrexians have a firm grasp on the aforementioned colors and have branched out to white as well. One of my favorite new cards in the set is Priests of Norn. 

Originally, I saw the preview art for this card and thought, like many others, that some kind of Phyrexian/Eldrazi abomination was coming our way, but in the back of my mind I think I knew better. Instead, what we got was a pretty sweet looking common white Phyrexian with vigilance and infect. Not bad. I couldn't wait to see some mythics.

And speaking of mythics, one of the most talked about cards that has been previewed thus far is Glissa, the Traitor. We all knew that the original Hero of Mirrodin had to be addressed at some point in the block (much like Karn and Memnarch), but many were unsure how this would be done. From a single line of flavor text to a grand new planeswalker, much was speculated, but now we have our answer:

There is just no hating this card. Deep down, somewhere inside, you know how cool it is that she has been resurrected. First strike, deathtouch, and artifact regeneration are no joke. I was however surprised to find that she was Infect-less. I suppose they had to give the Phyrexian faction a chance to win with more than just poison counters, no matter how much MaRo loves them.

This set has so many cool attributes - cards, abilities, artwork, etc. Although I would love to tell you what I find great about each and every card, I'm sure that's not what you want to hear (and it's probably not too healthy for me either). So let me just show you some of my favorites from previews thus far.

To view the full visual spoiler for Mirrodin Besieged, click here.

Next time I'll be talking about some of my favorite cards of all time, cards I just can't get my hands on, cards I don't want to get my hands on, and, of course, more on Mirrodin Besieged. Until then, Happy Collecting!

- Brasif

Skittles and Friends

Hello! Welcome back to the Feast of Magic blog!

Today I want to talk about some of the cards that I love from Scars of Mirrodin... And I don't mean I love them because of how powerful they are in gameplay or because of how much they are worth. I mean that they inspire me with the flavor of Mirrodin and make me actually want to be a part of such an exciting world.

As I followed the MTG site through the SoM previews there were, of course, a few things that stuck with me... things that I decided I absolutely must get my hands on once it did release...

The first preview card that Mark Rosewater posted not only made me excited for the new set, but also became my number one endeavor. When the set finally did release I told myself that I would not stop buying boosters - not even for a day - until I owned a copy of Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon.

First of all, how cool is this card? A mythic Legendary Creature - Dragon Skeleton (the first ever, I might add). It not only has flying and haste, but you get to regenerate after you use the new infect mechanic! Four abilities! Awesome!

And so I set out on my quest... booster after booster. (I don't believe in buying the cards I really want from a set outright from a store until that set is no longer the most recent... I feel it takes the fun out of it, plus everything is more expensive when it's new. Besides, my local hobby shop was constantly out of it and needed people to trade it in... It was actually the second card to sell out, after Hand of the Praetors. They even got tired of having to write - and spell - "Skithiryx" up on the board so often that they, like many other hobby shops, deemed him "Skittles".) It took me nearly a full month of buying boosters and booster boxes constantly before I got my hands on a copy! Finally, I did and was so relieved that I didn't have to keep getting copy after copy of Tempered Steel or Semblance Anvil. I'm proud to say that I have a few copies of Skittles sitting around today.

Even before previews began, there was a little piece of SoM art floating around that looked something like this:

This is what I feel prepared everyone for what was to come, so it was fitting that Sunblast Angel was my very first rare from the set. Oh yes, when the set released Thursday night at midnight, I was standing in a nauseatingly long line at the local hobby shop to attain my first few Scars of Mirrodin boosters. I can't actually believe that I stood in line for close to an hour for 4 booster packs when everyone around me was popping for boxes, but I felt that it would be good not to rush it since we have to wait until February for Mirrodin Besieged to release. So I bought 4 boosters. Sunblast was rare number one, followed by the first of many many Anvils, followed by Mindslaver, and Leonin Arbiter. How funny is it that Mindslaver was my very first MTG card EVER and then I get the new copy in my first round of Scars boosters? Oh well, I thought so...

 

 A few other cards that I feel must be mentioned in my Scars favorites are as follows:

 And for no particular reason at all, a guilty pleasure of mine:

I'm sure there will be much more Scars of Mirrodin discussion in the future, so don't be discouraged if some of your own favorites didn't end up here. We have plenty of time to talk before Mirrodin Besieged creeps up upon us. In the mean time, comment and let me know what some of your favorites are... And as always, be sure to check back soon - there's so much more to come!

Happy Collecting!

- Brasif