That Core Feeling

Hello, Hello, Hello! How art thou? If you like to read Daily MTG (I do every day), then you would have noticed the teasers building up to the next core set, Magic 2011 Core Set. Monday, we saw the new booster packs (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/456), Tuesday, we saw the Intro Decks (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/457), and Today we saw the fat pack (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/458).

Let's start with the booster packs. I like the look of these booster packs A LOT more than the 2010 core set packs (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/207). 2011 seems a lot more clean looking to me, and actually is a bit more enticing. Once again, they have 5 packs, and each one represents a different color. A random thing i want to point out from the 2010 boosters is the arts on the cards were on each rarity, and 2 were mythic rare cards. While it doesn't make a big differnce, I personally like having rarer cards represented on the packs (so when you're opening Worldwake packs with a buddy you can take all the packs with Jace on them to make yourself feel like you could win the lottery). Also, the box in 2011 is much brighter than it's 2010 counterpart, which is always appealing.

Moving on to Intro decks. Before I get to the packaging, I want to point out that these will have full 60 card decks, not 41 card, awkward sized decks, but will still have the booster pack in them as well. The 2011 packaging feels much brighter and nicer than the 2010 decks (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/231), although the 2010 ones were fine in their own time. There are also 2 more subtle things that are different from the 2010 and the 2011 intro decks. The first is how the 2011 decks don't have names. I believe that this is the first time that Wizards has ever released a pre-built deck without actually giving it a name. I expect that in the future, when the decklists are released, that some sort of name will be given as opposed to calling it the white deck or the red deck. A second difference between them is how the 2011 decks tell you on the box what the 2 colors in the deck are. In 2010, the white deck splashed red, but you couldn't tell unless you looked at the decklist, or bought the deck. With these new deck boxes, just look in the upper left corner, or the center bottom, and you can see the primary color over the color it splashes.

Also on the Intro decks, we can see the card that's on the front, which has always been a foil rare. We can see the names, art, and subtype of the cover cards, but we can't see the mana cost or abilities. Starting with the White deck, we have an angel named Angelic Arbiter. Nothing special. Theres in angel in almost every single set. With the blue deck we have a sphinx named Conundrum Sphinx. I have noticed how sphinxes have become more prevalent in Magic recently. There have only been 18 Sphinxes printed, and heres how they break down by set:


Legends: 1
Ravnica: 2
Dissension: 1
Coldsnap: 1
Planar Chaos: 1

Shard of Alara: 3
Conflux: 2
Alara Reborn: 2
Magic 2010: 1
Zendikar: 2
Worldwake: 1
Rise of the Eldrazi: 1

Basically, there are 12 Sphinxes in standard right now of the 18 printed all time (67%), which is odd. Because 2010 and 2011 will be in standard together until Scars of Mirroden is released, there will be at least 13 of 19 in standard (68%). Moving on to the black deck, there is a Vampire featured on the cover. Vampires, as claimed by LSV, is not a deck in the meta-game right now, but they will be around for the next year regardless because its all in one block (like fairies was, and like jund is). Magic 2010 provided Vampire Nocturnus, which is currently the most expensive card in the deck at $20. There will be Vampires in the rare slot in Magic 2011, so Vampiric mages should be getting ready.

Our red deck features a dragon called Ancient Hellkite. I did a quick gatherer search on Hellkite, because I have heard it on other cards before. As it turns out, there have been 8 other dragons with Hellkite in their name. This is the only card that we can see part of its mana cost (4 colorless), so that means it probably has more colored symbols in its cost than the others. My geuss is it will cost 4RRR.

Finally, our last deck is the green one, featuring Overwhelming Stampede. With this card, we can not see a subtype, which signals to me this is an instant or a sorcery. The art also reminds me a lot of Overrun. With that in mind, I think this will be a variation of overrun. Maybe it will be an instant? That would be insane! In the 2010 Core Set, they had Giant Growth and Might of Oakes in the same deck. Might of Oakes was just the rare version of Giant Growth. Also, that deck had overrun, so there were a total of 5 spells that only boosted power and toughness, that was 12% of the deck.

Finally today we had the fat pack get revealed to us. The box followed the circular artistic theme of the previous things we saw, and we already knew the art of the boosters. The thing I want to point out is the novel that comes in the fat pack. Since Shards of Alara, fat packs have included a chapter of the book that is released with each set to build up the flavor. Core sets don't belong to a block and don't have any flavor, so with the Magic 2010 Fat Pack (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/211) Novel, they had a story about Chandra Nalaar. By the end of the novel (i didn't read it, but i heard reports from those who did) Chandra talked about how she was going to the plane of Zendikar. We then know she was persued by Jace and they, along with the help of Sarkhan Vol, released the Eldrazi when Chandra cast ghostfire.

This time, we have Tezzerett on the cover, and the title is "Test of Metal". This is much more obvious than Chandra's story as what is to happen. By the end of the Shards block, Tezzerett was kicked out of Esper. We know he met with Nicol Bolas (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Multiverse/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/feature2/24a# go to the last page of the comic) but then we don't know what will happen next. We know Nicol Bolas had already grabbed Sarkhan Vol and made him into Sarkhan the Mad in Zendikar. Also, we know that we are going back to Mirroden, the plane made of metal, this fall. Also, Mark Rosewater said that they would be releasing a colorless planeswalker this fall (i don't know what article it was, I'm not about to scour through them all, but it was before they announced we are going back to Mirroden, that statement helped people guess). What does this all add up to? I think Tezzerett (who will be reprinted) will be a pawn of Nicol Bolas to wreak havok in Mirroden. Karn, Silver Golem will the the planeswalker that opposes him. Karn was a colorless planeswalker in the old flavor, before planeswalkers existed on cards. He will be the colorless planeswalker in SOM.

It's amazing how much you can pick up from such small hints given out by Wizards. I look forward to more being unveiled as time passes. Until then, happy brewing!