Coming out of Hyde-ing

Hello everybody! Today is monday, not even 1am yet, and official spoilers have begun on the Wizards home page. Unfortunately today's posts on the Mothership weren't particularly exciting as it was a recap of PAX and then Mark Rosewater taking a pre-emtive strike on all the haters who are going to try to bash on Double Sided cards. I stated yesterday that I personally enjoy double sided cards as they absolutely attack what was thought possible for a Magic card to do, but I know a lot of people are vehemently against them. I was reading some MTGSalvation forums and talking with Mark and there was just a myriad of problems associated with them.

One I covered yesterday was about contstructed and playing the games out in limited and how the new token will help (which Rosewater said would be in 3/4s of the Innistrad packs replacing the basic land). One thing I oversaw in the moment was when you actually sit down to draft. Imagine you open my current favorite transform card - Ludevic's Test Subject - and windmill slam it first pick, now everyone at the table knows your in blue. The guy your passing to immediatly shifts out of blue and the guy passing to you can hate on blue all day with a glean in his eye. The real only answer to that is that you simply have to hide it with the best of your ability. Here's what I think I will do from here on out: If I first pick a double face card, I will hide it behind the basic land or token in the pack before pulling it out of the pack and quickly lay it on the table. Any other double sided cards I pull will be tucked under all the other cards.

Quick aside
{
The promo cards for Prerelease, Release, Buy-a-Box, and game day all got announced together in one tight knit bundle. You can see the announcement here. I must say, overall I am not excited over the promos, and I feel theyre pushing double face cards too much by not even giving out a mythic rare at the pre-release! The only card I enjoyed seeing was my baby Ludevic's Test Subject:

}
End Aside

So Mark Rosewater's preview today showcased a VERY flavorful card that will forever be known as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde instead of whatever civilized name it really has:

I like how they didn't even TRY to hide that they just printed Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde beyond changing their names. The card arts look exactly like how they do!

One last note on double faced cards: Mark Rosewater said in his article that due to the printing requirements of double faced cards, there will be 1 double faced card in every pack, and their rarities will be normal based on frequency of the cards getting printed. Also, a foil double faced card will have both sides foil, which is just gravy! As Rosewater said, the dream pack is opening a mythic foil double face card, a foil normal mythic, and a mythic in its normal spot!

I am excited for these, but I almost feel like it's completely stealing the show. Did you know that there's ghosts in Innistrad? As it looks right now, there will be no new subtype "ghost" but they are instead going to utilize the subtheme spirit. Oh yeah, and there's zombies and vampires too! Let's keep moving before double faced cards get stale:

There are 5 major tribes in Innistrad each representing 2 ally-color pairs:
Humans - GW
Ghosts - UW
Zombies - UB
Vampires - BR
Werewolves - GR

As the flavor goes, as far as I undertsand, there is a charecter (mentioned in the art interview I believe, but I don't feel like looking it up now) who kept the horrific creatures of the night apart form the humans. However, that charecter has vanished and now the horrors are closing in on the humans. Strap yourself in, it's time for a bloodbath! As we have learned with previous tribal themes and blocks (note: this set isn't supposed to be strictly tribal based, it's supposed to be horror trope based), every tribe requires a champion. The Vampire champion has been released, and she is just awesome!

Olivia Voldaren
Legendary Creature - Vampire
2BR
Flying
1R: Olivia Voldaren deals 1 damage to another target creature. That creature becomes a Vampire in addition to it's other types. Put a +1/+1 counter on Olivia Voldaren
3BB: Gain control of target Vampire for as long as you control Olivia Voldaren
3/3

This card feels like a cleaner version of Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet in the way Vampires convert mortals to become like them. A major difference between the 2 cards (besides costs) is that with Olivia Voldaren you can use the creatures abilies after they have joined your side. So instead of just getting a 6/6 Vampire when you take an Inferno Titan, you get a Vampire Inferno Titan with all the milk and cookies and killing and firebreathing attached. This card is so exciting and flavorful I simply can't wait to see what they do with all the other cards in this cycle!

But wait, there's more! There's a rare cycle I have been dying to see get printed for 2 years, and a very nice reprint that will probably see some play. Let's start with this hotness:

Yeah, that's right! M12 dual lands now come in enemy colors! This is really exciting from a deck-building perspective in that now you will always have a very solid mana base! Here's a potential mana base for the future:

4x Terramorphic Expanse
3x Dragonskull Summit
3x Rootbound Crag
4x Woodland Cemetary
3x Mountain
3x Swamp
4x Forest

The only reason Scars Dual lands are played is because they come into play untapped turns 1-3. With the M12 duals and that mana base, you lands come into play untapped turns 2-500. I am absolutely willing to give up my first turn of having a dual land to never fall behind on tempo for the rest of the game!

However, there is still one last card to be unveiled today, and that is the reprinting of Ghost Quarter! I bet half the reason it got selected was it's reference to ghosts, but regardless this card is pretty sweet. It's our new Wastelands varient a la Tectonic Edge, but works very differently. With Tectonic Edge, you could lock your opponent out from casting spells for a period of time, but with Ghost Quarter, you are attacking their mana base and specifically action lands. If the lands in Innistrad block are as prevelant as they were in SoM block (read: not at all) then Ghost Quarter will never see play. Just like mana bases in Legacy are designed with Wastelands in mind, so too will decks in standard play with Ghost Quarter in mind - lots of basics. With Zendikar block leaving, real estate is becoming far simpler than ever before, and you know, it's nice for a change.

That's all for today. Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com