Magic PAX

Hello everyone!

While I was not able to make it PAX East this year because of its conflict with Easter weekend, I have been keeping up with the pulse of the announcements, and WOW! This is incredibly exciting! We have 5 new preview cards from Avacyn Restored including a few mechanics that got showcased. In addition we have a spoiler for Magic 2013, and the big fall set got announced! (Although I will save that for the end) So let's dive into some cards!

This card is actually a few days old, but I figured I might as well talk about it anyways. Star City Games has this preordering at $15, which is simply absurd. This card isn't actually all that exciting... Obviously an 8/8 for 8 is something that is kinda cool, but let's compare this to our Titan 6 drops and our Praetors, notably Elesh and Sheolred at 7 mana. Even if all those cards all costed the same, I would still rather have almost any titan or either Praetor over Avacyn. Sure, she has some really cool abilities and I would love to open her in sealed, but she didn't even excite me when I saw her initally... I think the future price of this card is 6 in the short term, slowly rising to 8 or 9 in the long term. This card is very reminiscent of Darksteel Forge, which is a casual favorite, currently retailing at 11.

This card is actually incredibly exciting! Besides the fact that it is a windmill slam first pick in draft (especially if damage still stacked!), I actually think this card would be VERY constructed playable! I feel like we are closing in on a proper density for a Venser control deck because Restoration Angel is like mini-Venser #5-8 which is exactly what that deck needs! I will write a whole seperate post on the deck in probably 2 or 3 weeks once we have all the data to work with, along with all my other ideas, but I think with the addition of Restoration Angel that critical mass may have been hit.

Here is another variation on an undercosted Demon, assuming you are willing to pay a price. The first thing that came to mind when I saw this card was Zombies, because sacrificing a Gravecrawler to this is a great feeling! Another option for this card would be in a WB tokens deck. One thing that is very scary about this card is that you have to be willing to sacrifice 2 creatures when you play it because your opponent could kill it the turn you play it. However in a tokens deck you are always going to have ample bodies. Lingering Souls in particular produces so many tokens that the sacrifice requirement isn't really going to be relevant. However, a 5 or 6 power flier for 4 mana IS very relevant, and may offer the go big option token decks need.

I hate this card. This card thoroughly infuriates me that they would actually print. Hexproof is too good of an ability right now, and there are already too many overpowered hexproof creatures that there's even a whole deck build around it! In case you have never seen it, HexBlade is a deck that plays mana ramp like Birds of Paradise and Avacyn's Pilgrim to ramp into guys like Geist of Saint Traft and Thrun, the Last Troll quickly. These guys are fine on their own, but then they get suited up with a Sword of War and Peace and the game ends so fast you felt like you were never in it! The best way to fight Hexproof, because you can't Doom Blade anything, is to play Liliana and Geth's Verdict. Now we don't even have that option! This means there are very few creatures that can actually do anything now. We could wrath, but that doesn't stop Thrun, and Saving Grasp might be a thing, or we can clone the legends (not invisible stalker). These are our current clone options:

Cryptoplasm
Evil Twin
Mimic Vat
Phantasmal Image
Phyrexian Metamorph
Quicksilver Gargantuan

Which really means our options are just Phantasmal Image, and if you're not playing blue: Phyrexian Metamorph. That is incredibly frustrating. I really don't like how we're being limited in such a mannor. For anyone who said the power level has been sinking in the last few sets, get a reality check!

Alright! Time for a new mechanic! Soulbond is a VERY interesting mechanic to evaluate. On one hand, we have 2 creatures with double strike. However, this is no Mirran Crusader. I can foresee MANY blowout games where you have something like Silverblade Paladin and Champion of the Parish as a 3/3 in play (Paladin is a human) paired together. You attack both of them into my untapped Diregraf Ghoul. I Go For the Throat your champion and trade Guys where previously I was going to take 10. That's not an incredible example, but it is something that will happen very often, which makes a mechanic like this misleading. However, as I mentioned with Sigarda Hexproof is huge right now and soulbinding with a hexproof creature will lead to some VERY dangerous games. This set was designed to be tense, and this mechanic does a great job of that! I think this is a great mechanic though, and I am excited to see what dynamic duos emerge!

And here's my last preview card for the day! The first thing you may notice about this card is that japanese change to the border on the top. Well..... Things are going to get a little weird. I like how this mechanic is called miracle because all too often I do say "I need a miracle off the top!" and now, you actually do get one! The FAQ hasn't come out yet on how exactly to handle Miracle, but I would guess it's handled like Delver - just reveal it off the top if you plan on casting it. It was announced that there will be no black miracles, so unfortunately we won't get the good side of a Doom Blade/GftT hybrid for B. I really hope they do print some sweet miracle cards though because a great player will be able to set these up with a Ponder or something and than cast it for its miracle cost during the opponent's turn with either a Think Twice or a Brainstorm! Imagine how nutty/busted a Cancel would be with a Miracle cost of U! These cards actually remind of Traps for their flexibility of design and all the exciting options we could have! I can imagine some of the rare ones even getting better when you miracle cast them too! Imagine a Day of Judgement that became a Final Judgement when miracled! I am really excited to see where this all goes in the coming weeks!

Hmmm.... Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker in Magic 2013? He was never really played back in his time, but he sure was awesome! If he is reprinted in 2013 it will be the first multi-colored card in a core set ever! Everyone loves multi-colored, so I really hope they let some gold into the core sets finally!

And last but most certainly not least, we have the fall set for 2013 announced!

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AAAWWWWWW YYYEEEAAAHHHHH!!!! How can you NOT like Ravnica? You get to play all 10 color pairs to make any deck your heart desires with amazing designs for each guild! There's so much I could talk about, I don't even know where to start! Returning mechanics? I can see all 10 guild mechanics returning, even Dredge. Dredge is only powerful as an engine for getting cards in the graveyard quickly, so any dredge cards would be dredge 1-3. We see Jace in the image, along with Niv-Mizzet. Both cards are thoroughly beloved and everyone wants to see them come back (though maybe just jace in elementary school this time). Shocklands? How awesome would a reprint of these be? Especially in combination with the Innistrad/2012 dual lands! Assuming Glacial Fortress and co get reprinted in 2013, we can have an incredible time for manabases! 5cc is back baby! I didn't really play back then - I just bought all the starter decks and jammed them against by brother - but I still can look back and see just how awesome everything is! I'm excited and you should be too!

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

Ryan Lackie

Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com

@ThingsILack