With the loss of Yu-Gi-Oh! and World of Warcraft we knew they were going to be struggling, but had hopes that their upcoming ‘Marvel Superstars’ but that game certainly seems to be in purgatory. We will see if the newly merged Disney/Marvel takes the game back internally and makes it happen or if it is going to fail.

Update 11:23pm EST: ICv2 contacted Upper Deck concerning the layoffs to which Upper Deck issued the following statement.

Sunday March 7th, 2010

• MTGOAcademy — Best of Classified I — A humorous look at some funny posts on the MTGO Classifieds.
• MagicDeckVortex — Historical Deck Database — Not strictly an article, it’s an update. But if you are seeking deckbuilding inspiration, this list is a good place to start.
• Antonio Castellani — 7th Place at San Juan PTQ — A look at an interesting rogue Extended deck. I may not recommend the deck but it is an interesting idea.
• Turtle Power — BigHeadJoe discusses a deck around MaRo’s Convertible Turtle (Calcite Snapper)

Monday, March 8th, 2010

• XMTG — Unifying Theory #4
• Wizards — Party in the S.E.A. — Dave Guskin shares tales from his experience on Magic Cruise 2
• SCG — Nicol Bolas in Extended: Introducing Ultimecia — Gavin Verhey ultimated Nicol Bolas seven times as his last PTQ. Check out the deck that did it.

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

• ManaNation — Layer 1/layer 2 with a kick! — Ben McDole returns with discussion on his Layer 1/layer 2 deck
• ManaNation — More than one way to play — Dale discusses the Emperor Multiplayer format for Magic
• Wizards — Islandwalk or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Forgive the Counterspell — Adam Stryborski (@the_stybs) discusses how he overcame his revulsion of Blue in Magic.
• ChannelFireball — Crushing with Koros — Gerry T shares his Koros deck that came to light at the Midwest Master’s Series

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

• ManaNation — Multiplayer — Dan Eckstein explores the archetypes of multiplayer personalities and roles players take-on at the table.
• ManaNation — The Price of Standard: Part 3 — Russell Tassicker looks at the price for three top tier Standard decks
• T:apped — D:oomed
• SCG — The Extra Mile — Alex West discusses taking care of yourself for peak performance at events
• Powerless: a Mana on a Mission — Jonathan Medina explains his plan and mission to acquire Power. An entertaining read from a master trader.

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

• ManaNation — Jund vs Mythic, Jund Perspective — Lauren Lee sat down and playtested with Zvi Mowshowitz on the Mythic vs Jund matchup
• ManaNation — The Allure of Shiny Things — Kelly reid explores the draw of some Foil cards, what causes them to be such a valued commodity
• XMTG — 10 Places Not to Play Magic
• Wizards — Awakenings, Part 1 — The latest web comic follows Jace as he ventures into the mountains. While I was extrenely underwhelmed by the art, the story is interesting.
• SCG — Now and Then — Peter Jahn discusses how things used to be and where Magic has traveled from.
• ChannelFireball — Triggering Valakut for Fun and Profit — Fffreak aka Brad Nelson looks over Valakut and shares a few lists
• TCGPlayer — Koros and Grim Control — Josh Silvestri discusses the Koros deck and looks at Grim Control.

Friday, March 12th, 2010

• ManaNation — Planeswalker’s Spark — A fictionalized look at the Planeswalker’s spark.
• SCG — Pro tour San Diego Report Card Part One — Rich Hagon’s numbers analysis was interesting, while no real strategy for in game can be drawn from it I still enjoyed the read.
• TCGPlayer — A Tale of Two Halves — Conley Woods gives us some insight into a few decks, from ‘The Bant Wagon’ to ‘Denial Ramp’

Random

Magic History summarized — From a forum post on the Gathering Magic forums, it’s an excellent overview of the history within the game of Magic.

Whether this will have any effect on Magic the Gathering booster prices is yet to be seen, we’ve contacted Wizards seeking comment.

No! Stay here! I have need of you.

Slightly frightened by his powerful command, you turn back to the old man’s desk and sit on the obscured symbol etched into the rug. Hoping the old man just wants your help with another book, you silently wait for him to finish.

After what seems like hours, you chance a quick glance at the old man. His brow is creased with concentration, and his eyes move intently across the pages faster than a horse frightened by a mountain cat. You decide it may be a while, and begin to watch the candle flames dance atop their pedestals of wax.

Have you come for another story? I caution you against curiosity. I know the Multiverse is a tempting place filled with many kinds of adventures and adventurers, but don’t be getting ideas in that small head of yours. Without a spark, or one with it to aid you, you will never see anything beyond your own world.

You remain silent out of fear that the old man will take words as confirmation that you would believe his fatuous stories.

Ahh….The spark! How wondrous and rare it is. Did you know that among millions of beings, only one is born with a planeswalker’s spark? Even more miraculous, among millions of those born with a spark, only one will have it ignite sending them down a path of unlimited possibilities.

The old man’s eyes light up as he begins talking excitedly.

Any sentient being can have the spark, and not even know it. A minotaur, an elf, a dragon, even the boy who cleans the lanterns in the hall could have a planeswalker spark ignite and send him to new worlds. No one knows where the spark comes from. Some say it is bestowed upon those chosen as Gaea’s children. Others say that the spark is a small piece of the Blind Eternities through which everything is connected. Even others refuse to believe that there is an explanation, stating that it is chaotic and cannot be explained in such a way that sentient beings would understand.

Though very few people meet a person with a planeswalker’s spark in their lifetime, even less see the ascension of a planeswalker. The event is one you could never forget, watching a mere mortal come face to face with their greatest enemy, and survive to become something even more powerful, something beyond a mere wizard or mage could ever hope to reach. Unlike the most powerful sorcerers, planeswalkers are able to travel across worlds with a thought, conjure immense energy from nothing and unleash it in a fiery blast, and even summon creatures from other worlds to fight for their cause.

Though his eyes still hold a bright flame within, the old man’s voice grows slower and quieter.

Ahh, but times have changed. There was a time when planeswalkers were gods among the people. They didn’t require sleep nor food nor air to live. In fact, some even survived without bodies for many years. Over time, the Multiverse became unable to support these deities. During a period known as the Mending many planeswalkers sacrificed their sparks and lives to restore balance to the Multiverse.

In doing so, they altered the very nature of a planeswalker’s spark. They are no longer god-like beings, but require all the things you and I do in our daily lives. They are still beyond anything a mere wizard could achieve, but they are no longer immortals playing with the fabric of time and space.

Issar Roon’s body bends over the desk, causing him to look more like an old man than his usual fiery self.

Of course, there are those who believe the change is not permanent. Some planeswalkers seek their former glory among the planes, searching for some ancient power or artifact that can restore their immortality. Personally, I think they search in vain. The Multiverse now belongs to the younger planeswalkers, the ones who have only recently ascended to a position of possibility. They are the ones who will shape our future, and lead us down a path of their choosing. I just pray they take us to brighter days…

The old man stops his story and stares at nothing. His face is expressionless, but his eyes seem to focus on something in a distant dream. You wonder what use the old man had for you, and if you can fulfill it at another time when he is more aware of his surroundings. Slowly, you get up to leave. When the old man fails to react, you make your way out of the study, only pausing long enough to close the door behind you.

Along with the application there are six videos that explain the basic elements of the game. The first video is ‘A Planeswalker’s Primer for Magic, Part 1: Welcome to the Multiverse’ (link)

It is our understanding that Matt Place will again be overseeing this expansion (he has overseen the original game its first expansion.) We are waiting for Wizards to confirm this belief.

Credits for the Expansion:

• Matt Place (lead)
• Jay Schneider
• Brady Dommermuth
• Michael Mikaelian
• Zac Hill
• Matt Tabak

Card: Anything from 7th Edition
Motivation: These were the only core set printed in both foil and with the old card frames. In addition, although 7E was white-bordered, the foils were black-bordered. Some 7E cards had new art which can’t be found on any other set. 7E was also opened VERY infrequently.
Pricing: The 7E Birds of Paradise commands a $60 price tag, the Pain Lands are around $10-$15 because of EDH, Arcane Laboratory is in the double digits, City of Brass is $25, Counterspell and Duress are both above $10, as are just about every other playable rare in the set. Most importantly, the lowly Goblin Matron can fetch a $50 bill all day long. You can blame Legacy players pimping out their decks. Infernal Contract, the black card-draw spell, is $25 for the same reasons. Unsurprisingly, Wrath of God is also $50, but you could have guessed that.

Card: Goblin Welder
Motivation: Our dear friends Legacy and Vintage. Welder is a staple in Vintage, where he can recur all manner of horrible monsters.
Pricing: $80, compared to a regular $6. Legacy was the first set to feature foiling, and is sufficiently old enough to make the foils very rare. Most people know about the card and won’t put it into foil bulk boxes, but you may get lucky.

Card: Brainstorm, Mercadian Masques
Motivation: The card is a staple in Eternal, as many on this list will be. Masques was the only set to feature foiling and Brainstorm. Eternal players shy away from the FNM promo because the Masques version looks nicer and is harder to find, this making it “more pimp”.
Pricing: $30 for the Masques, $10 for the FNM promo.

Card: Counterbalance
Motivation: Coldsnap was not opened much, and considered a failure of a set. Oddly enough, two Coldsnap cards are at the center of two dominant decks in two formats. Failure, my ass. Most sets will only leave a legacy of 2–3 cards in tournament Magic, and Coldsnap has done so.
Pricing: $30

Card: Dark Ritual, Mercadian Masques
Motivation: See Brainstorm
Pricing: $30

Card: Lightning Bolt, Judge Promo
Motivation: These Bolts look just like black-bordered Revised/4th Edition Bolts, but with the old-style foiling process. They’re rare, they’re gorgeous, and they’re “vintage” — not in the sense that they’re used in the format, but they’re Standard playable with throw-back art.
Pricing: $30

Card: Memory Jar
Motivation: Insane in Vintage, especially with cards like Welder and Metalworker, Jar can enable some truly ridiculous combos. Like the aforementioned cards, Urza’s Legacy was not opened nearly as much, or as recently, as many other sets.
Pricing: $40. A non-foil only costs $5

Card: Metalworker
Motivation: See Memory Jar.
Pricing: $35

Card: Misdirection
Motivation: This is like another Force of Will in Legacy and Vintage decks. Often able to outright counter a targeted spell, and sometimes able to hijack an Ancestral Recall, the pitch spell is very, very powerful. It was only printed in Masques, thus foil copies remain rare.
Pricing: $60, $15 for a regular version.

Card: Radiant, Archangel
Motivation: .….….? Seriously, why is this expensive? The only reason I can see is for EDH and Casual appeal. Players love angels. Players love Legends. Players love foils. So players must love Legendary Angel Foils. Being from Urza’s Legacy, again, is worth a lot when it comes to foils.
Pricing: $50, and don’t you ask me why.

Card: Reya Dawnbringer, Invasion
Motivation: See above.
Pricing: $50, and at least she’s insane in EDH.

Card: Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Motivation: EDH, EDH, EDH. The guy makes a sick general. Since EDH players usually keep their cards for a long time like Eternal players, they tend to want to foil out their decks, and the General is no exception.
Pricing: $50

Card: Sensei’s Divining Top
Motivation: Just like its cohort Counterbalance, Top is essential to Legacy Counter-Top decks. It would only stand to reason that Top foils appeal to Legacy players.
Pricing: $30 for CHK, $15 for FTVE, $7 for regular

Card: Swords to Plowshares, Old-Style FNM Promo
Motivation: It’s freakin’ StP! You kids these days and your Path to Exile. In my day, we could remove creatures from the game and no one got a free land. Now, you have to give a guy an extra land in order to whack one of his goons.
Pricing: $35, for the old-bordered, old style foil Promo. Looks just like a Revised Plow but foil.

Card: Unmask
Motivation: Similar to Misdirection but less essential to the format, Unmask is a crucial “free” spell in Eternal formats.
Pricing: $35

Card: Wasteland, old-style Player Rewards Promo
Motivation: The card is already a format staple in Legacy, and this is the only way to get one in foil. What, you thought it’d be cheap?
Pricing: Actually, it’s not that bad at $40. Wouldn’t shock me to see this one go up.

There are certainly other expensive foils in Magic, but these are some of the really remarkable ones. It’s clear that the real driving force behind Foil prices are the Eternal formats, including EDH. Many players don’t like to foil out Standard decks since the cards rotate so quickly and decks fall in and out of favor almost weekly. In Legacy, however, decks can stay viable for years, and many of the same staple cards are shared between decks.

If you’re digging through a box of foils, pull out anything that catches your eye. It may not be rocket fuel like the cards on this list, but if they’re inexpensive, it’s often worth a gamble. I personally don’t recommend trading in foils, but there are many, like Jon Medina of MTG Metagame, who are just brilliant at it. If you have the knowledge and time to learn what trades well, and you have a regular outlet for these foils, then by all means, jump right in. They’re not good for newer traders, as the chance to get ripped off or stuck sitting on an expensive card for a while both exist.

With any hope, we’ll have some Rise of the Eldrazi spoilers to discuss soon. I’m not holding my breath but it would be nice to see some more by the end of the month ;)

For testing purposes, we decided to go with Simon Gortzen’s Jund build, which won Pro-Tour San Diego. As witnessed at recent tournaments like the Midwest Masters Series and the ChannelFireball 5K, many players have begun to conform to Gortzen’s build of Jund: more manlands, more lands in general, less removal spells in the maindeck, and Putrid Leech with a couple of mana accelerants.

Jund by Simon Gortzen

4 Savage Lands 4 Verdant Catacombs 4 Raging Ravine 2 Lavaclaw Reaches 2 Dragonskull Summit 1 Rootbound Crag 4 Forest 3 Mountain 3 Swamp 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Rampant Growth 3 Maelstrom Pulse 4 Blightning 2 Garruk Wildspeaker 4 Putrid Leech 4 Sprouting Thrinax 4 Bloodbraid Elf 3 Siege-Gang Commander 3 Broodmate Dragon Sideboard 4 Deathmark 4 Great Sable Stag 1 Maelstrom Pulse 3 Master of the Wild Hunt 1 Pithing Needle 2 Terminate

And the contender, Mythic. I’ve been testing with this deck myself recently, and I find it very fun to play. Although you do have to drop about $600 to fashion it from head-to-toe. This may prevent some players from picking it up. However, the principles behind the deck justify having so many expensive rares.

Mythic by Zvi Mowshowitz

4 Celestial Colonnade 3 Stirring Wildwood 6 Forest 2 Island 1 Plains 4 Misty Rainforest 4 Verdant Catacombs 2 Sunpetal Grove 1 Sejiri Steppe 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Noble Hierarch 4 Rhox War Monk 4 Knight of the Reliquary 3 Rafiq of the Many 4 Baneslayer Angel 1 Thornling 2 Rampaging Baloths 3 Finest Hour Sideboard 2 Admonition Angel 3 Bant Charm 1 Day of Judgment 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 4 Mind Control 3 Negate

Session 1: Ten Pre-Board Games

Gortzen certainly did a number of interesting things with his Jund build, some of which I still find hard to swallow. One of the issues I had was the complete absence of [cardTerminate[/card]s and Bituminous Blasts, while not using the full complement of Maelstrom Pulses (to make up for the resulting lack of removal). Despite the lack of answers to Baneslayer Angel, game one is certainly not unwinnable. The strategy is simply different pre– and post-board.

Game one is a Tempo game. Jund cannot act as the Control player as it simply does not have the resources to deal with all the Problems that Mythic poses. So you can’t just go shooting down creatures willy-nilly. However, if Jund tries to be all-in aggressive, that doesn’t work either, since the Mythic player is clearly in the Beatdown position. The damage it can deal quickly escalates from 3 or 4 to chunks of 8+ at a time.

You basically just end up chump blocking and getting in damage where you can until you can play some Siege-Gang Commanders or Broodmate Dragons and hope that that’s enough. It helps if you also cast a Maelstrom Pulse or two. Because of the lack of relevant spells, Cascading is a really desperate out. The chances of hitting what you need (probably Pulse) are really small.

It’s also important to always pay attention to what’s going on with the lands on the other side of the table. The manlands are always there to enter combat when summoned. Usually there’s at least one or two since the deck runs 7 total. On top of that, if they don’t have Forests or Plains, you know the Knight won’t be able to get activated – you can also try forcing the Knight to switch out the last Forest/Plains for a Sejiri Steppe, if you think that’s profitable.

We also tried the reverse, where Zvi piloted Jund, and I played Mythic. (Another ten games.) To ensure that a difference in play skill wasn’t affecting the results too much. I don’t remember the exact records, but the Jund deck pre-board probably can win around 3 games out of 10 against Mythic. So a pretty subpar record. Going first may have made a difference, but I don’t have the data to prove that.

When do you Bolt the turn-one Mana Dork?

In general, during the pre-board games, I always Bolted the Manadork on Turn one. This ensured that his second turn wouldn’t involve dropping a Rhox War Monk or a Knight of the Reliquary, either of which I probably couldn’t answer. (At least, not without spending my entire turn, and the manadork would likely just throw something else down that would give me more problems.) More problematic is the issue that, if I don’t use Bolt then, there may simply be no other good opportunity to use it.

The post-board games, I did things a bit differently. I preferred leaving the manadork out for a turn, to see what happened. This meant a one-drop led into a three-drop usually. Both of which I could then deal with using a combination of Bolt and Deathmark or something similar. If I had killed the manadork on turn one, this might have led to the opponent simply dishing out another manadork or a Lotus Cobra, which would pose the tougher question: should I kill this or not? By not killing the turn one dork, I could create the situation where I was using removal spells on the more legitimate threats and not wasting it all on manadorks. The game was no longer about slowing the opponent down, just about removing all their problematic creatures until they were left with nothing. (It’s possible that if the Mythic deck has a choice between playing another manadork on turn two and a three-drop, it should just play the second manadork as long as Pulse can’t take out both of them.)

Session 2: Ten Post-Board Games with Mind Controls

Zvi’s current sideboard plan, which he wrote extensively about in his StarCityGames Premium article, against Jund involves boarding in 3–4 Mind Control and removing some number of Finest Hour, Rafiq, or Rhox War Monk. The deck doesn’t have a lot of space for adjustment, so it’s often correct to just shave the numbers a little without removing all copies of a card.

Mostly the deck remained the same except for the added 4 Mind Controls.

However, the Jund deck changes entirely. Using Gortzen’s sideboard…

The number of answers to large creatures suddenly goes from 3 to 10, not including creature-based removal like Siege-Gang or Master.

Is the removal of Rampant Growth correct? Personally, I don’t think it’s one of those cards you never board out anyway. You probably board them out fairly often. In this particular matchup, I’m in no particular hurry to find my lands – I still have 27 of them to draw, and they’ll come eventually. I don’t have to play Bloodbraid Elf on turn 3, and I don’t need to ensure Siege-Gang drops on turn 5. Time is on my side now. And whiffing on a Cascade is very dangerous.

I left a couple Cascade “Whiffs” in the deck – namely the two Sprouting Thrinax. But Thrinax isn’t that terrible in the matchup since it provides a bunch of chump blockers.

Post-board, the games were more in my favor (it’s possible I could’ve mulliganed more aggressively into removal-heavy hands to make it more favorable). Anyway, ten hard removal spells is generally enough to control the board to a comfortable point. To be conservative with removal, I usually never touched Rhox War Monk. Although this netted him lots of life and time of his own. There was one time I had Broodmate Dragon out and didn’t leave one back to block, letting him continue to swing in with War Monks. This was a mistake since I was no longer dealing any real damage with my Dragons.

Master of the Wild Hunt also was a card that, when it got going, basically won the game by itself, if he didn’t have the Mind Control. If he did have Mind Control, I would need to find a Pulse to get it back or a way to kill it. Either way, the card itself proved to be a lot of trouble for the Mythic deck since generally it didn’t have an answer.

Session 3: Ten Post-Board Games with Alternative Sideboard

The alternative sideboard plan included using less Mind Controls and instead using threats that were inherently hard to deal with for Jund, like Thornling and Sphinx of Jwar Isle.

This made games a little more challenging, since Sphinx and Thornling were probably just game over if they landed. I simply had to try a little harder to keep the mana difficult and apply pressure. Or use Blightnings. This plan definitely seemed to even the matches up more.

For these games, I tried using Malakir over Master of the Wild Hunt because people tend to have one or the other, not both. Sphinx is interesting in that it gets around both Malakir and Master. Arguably Thornling can as well. I was happier with Masters, but Malakirs weren’t shabby.

Conclusion

Zvi came to the conclusion that the deck could probably just give up a couple slots in the mainboard to improve the Jund games (by maindecking Thornling or Sphinx). And if there were a tournament tomorrow, he’d probably still bring the Mythic deck since its matchup against Jund is winnable. Especially if people trended to Simon Gortzen’s build, which they are clearly doing.

As for myself, I still have to say Jund seems favored – even though game ones are terrible. As long as my opponents aren’t all Zvi Mowshowitz, I think winning against “average” Mythic players is probably a lot easier. (Besides that, I would not go into a tournament copying Gortzen’s build anyway.) After all that, 40 games in total, I am more familiar with the matchup and can just try to outplay my opponent and his or her sideboard plans.

That being said, the Mythic deck is a lot of fun to play and since I have it built, I might as well give it a whirl. The matchup against Jund is not nearly as bad as people are making it out to be, as long as you play well and know what’s important. I don’t even think the matchup against Boss Naya is all that bad either. Since the sideboard can easily answer the Cunning Sparkmage combo. And after that, all of Mythic’s creatures outclass the Naya deck.

I had a lot of fun testing the matchup. We concluded many things, but some questions are left in the air. Perhaps I can answer them in a future writeup. And hopefully I can test more using the Mythic deck myself, to see what its stance is in today’s metagame.

The above pic is of the box and it uses one of the first pictures we were given for Rise of the Eldrazi.

They show us the contents of the fat pack with everything laid out in view.

With the fat pack they no longer contain a full novel, now its just a sample chapter from the novel.

All images below are high quality (actually most are sized down from Wizards) but they should be big enough for your needs.

Gideon

If you don’t recognize Gideon, don’t feel too bad. He’s from the novels, introduced in Chandra’s story line. He will most likely be White, or White+X so we’ll see. Check out the flog attached to his armor, that’s pretty bad ass.

Vol, is he still Sarkhan?

We’ve seen this art before, but here is the full art piece that will be used to make the Planeswalker card. It looks amazing, I love the framing and position. Will he still be Sarkhan Vol? Or will he be ‘Vol, Slave of Bolas’ as has been rumored before? We’ll have to wait and see!