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

Welcome

First and foremost - HELLO! You've stumbled upon the Feast of Magic blog - a spot for collectors and appreciators of Magic: The Gathering cards. This blog is dedicated to the collectibility and pure aesthetic value of MTG in it's purest form: the cards. A great deal of Magic blogging is devoted to gameplay and who has the "best" deck in standard at the current moment. This blog is different...

 

Before I continue, I feel I should introduce myself. My name is Brasif. I'm an avid collector of MTG cards, and occasional player... (and I do mean VERY occasional). I wanted to start a blog for a few different reasons, the first of which is for me. It may be selfish, but with so many things going on in the Magic world, sometimes it's hard to keep track of how I feel about all of it. It'll be nice to look back in 3 weeks, 6 months, or two years and remember how I felt about what when. My second reason for starting this is my simple hope that at least one person will actually read it, enjoy what I have written, and comment and share with me what they think and enjoy in return. This may be just a whim, but I hope not... Thirdly, I wanted to start a blog about Magic because I feel more appreciation is due to the "collectible" part of this collectible, trading card game. Too much focus is given to the mechanics of the game and top decks and such; I have never felt there was enough for the collectors... Surely I understand that MTG is firstly a game, but for me (and many others) it is so much more. It is the sheer thrill of opening that first booster pack after a new sets' release, or finally finding that elusive ancient rare that you've been looking for for years. I don't collect so that I can play or compete (I actually have a rule that I can't put anything into a deck until I have 4 duplicates to keep for my collection) - that's just not for me. Maybe it's not for you either. Maybe this is more your speed; your style. If it is, you may want to keep reading...

This blog is for all of the Vorthoses out there. For all the people who, as Mark Rosewater puts it, "started collecting cards because [they] liked the art, then read some Magic novels, then saw [their] favorite characters appear on some cards and decided to learn to play." According to Mark, "Vorthos understands that Magic can be fun even when you're not playing the game." This is the feeling that I want to instill throughout this blog. I want to take a whole article just to talk about a particular card's art or about the feeling it evokes from people. I want to talk about old favorites that are no longer legal, but are too good to forget about. I want to remember what was worth searching for and what I yearned to have so badly...

Magic is something that should never stop inspiring people. It should create an emotion in them that they feel compelled to come back for again and again. I remember my first pack. It was 2003 - the original Mirrodin set had just come out and I had no idea what Magic was. I was in a store in our local mall and walked past a silver, metallic booster pack of a game I had heard my friends talk about, but my mother wouldn't let me "get addicted to"... My dad must have seen the look in my eyes because he said, "You can get one if you want to." I pretended for a minute to not be interested, but I ended up walking out of the store with it in my bag. I got home and went straight to my room to open it and the first card I remember seeing was Malachite Golem; the rare was a Mindslaver. I read every card probably four hundred times, and only understood about half of the words that were printed, but that didn't matter. It was the feeling that came over me every time I took them out from under my bed and held them in my hands. It was the excitement to maybe, one day, have the chance to buy more. Needless to say, it was many weeks until I bought another pack, but eventually I did and I've never turned back since.

To close this introductory post, I want to tell you that if you love Magic: The Gathering, never let it stop inspiring you. Keep collecting, playing, and having fun. And if you've liked this blog so far, check back often because there's so much more to come!

Happy Collecting!

-Brasif

P.S. To view Mark Rosewater's full post about Vorthos and who he is, click here.