Cards & Boards

Wizards of the Coast has just started their daily previews on the next upcoming Magic: the Gathering expansion set, Dragon’s Maze.

Well, it’s good to know that the game’s still trucking along fine. (Yeah, I’m still out of touch, TCG-wise.)

The third and concluding set in the Return to Ravnica block, is set to wrap things up for the ten guilds, bringing along brand-new mythics and cool cardboard. More overpowered cards, and yes, more shifting of the metagame. Will Jund be even stronger, with all the new stuff that’s been shown so far? How many boxes does it take to own four of everything, including the mythics? Will you be attending the prerelease party and the release event?

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So by now you would have seen the bulk of the Magic 2013 previews. Wizards of the Coast just started officially previewing the first official spoilers, but if you look hard enough, most, if not all the cards, are already available for viewing, somewhere in the interwebs.

What does everyone think? I no longer play and collect, but IMHO I do see why some fans are disappointed. The card pool looks mixed at best, despite several new incarnations of planeswalkers, and the return of the almighty Nicol Bolas, in his planeswalker iteration.

The dual lands prove to be disappointing, but on the flipside, it matches what Wizards set out to do, which is to maintain the ease of entry for the new guys. The experienced can probably skip this set, and not be hurt very much by it – or so I think.

At the very least, people will be wondering about the next block, Return to Ravnica. Will it rock? Well, I’ll continue to keep my distance from Magic, and concentrate on the World of Warcraft TCG. Much better art methinks!

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It’s been a long time coming for Magic: the Gathering fans, but another new core set beckons!

This time, it’s M13, and this has been confirmed for some months now. Except, that it’s now spoiler season for a brand-new core set.

Officially, the Wizards of the Coast website MagictheGathering.com has already kicked things off by lining up M13 spoilers alongside its previews for the latest edition electronic game, Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013.

Well, the set’s still a month away from release but there’s already a whole bunch of spoilers all over the inter-webs: check out GatheringMagic.com for a comprehensive dose of it.

M13 releases globally on July 13, with pre-release events hitting us the weekend before.

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Wizards of the Coast has certainly been not averse to revisiting older expansions, in churning out the new stuff. Yeap, here’s looking at you, Scars of Mirrodin.

Looks like mixing up the new and the old, will once again be the theme for the upcoming Return of Ravnica block, which has just been announced last week by Wizards.

The original Ravnica block gave us some pretty fun and memorable times, with plenty of thematic storytelling involved. The different guilds, powerful critters and spells, and of course, the now-super-pricey shocklands – ah, that block was one of the best in recent years, in my books.

How will Wizards reimagine this classic? How can they top the shocklands? Will some of the original set’s heavy-hitters make a reappearance? Find out in September then!

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Magic: the Gathering fans would no doubt be ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the new stuff that’s being spoiler-ed online.

Yeap, a new set means we are go on spoilers, and what better way than to kick things off with this?

For more spoilers, do check out the GatheringMagic.com as well as the official Magic webpage of course. Don’t forget the official Magic: the Gathering Facebook page too – some exclusive content will be shared across there first.

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TCG (trading card game) fans always get plenty of cool swag when playing in pre-release events, but I bet you haven’t seen anything as cool as a “Helvault.”

The upcoming Magic expansion, Avacyn Restored, will feature exclusive Helvault kits, which are essentially mock-ups of the Helvault so central to the final story arc of the Innistrad block.

The bad news? Not all stores worldwide will have Helvault kits. Will Malaysia have it? We’ll have to wait a little longer then!

Meantime, check out the cool teaser for Avacyn Restored, in the very article which talks about the Helvault events, here.

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One of the better things to have come out in Magic: the Gathering in recent years, has to be the Commander format, or what used to be called Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH in short).

Wizards of the Coast has been promoting the format heavily, and has made some fine products to support it, either by designing new cards, or reprinting some classic staples that see play in better Commander decks everywhere.

Looks like you can count the special 15-card all-foil miniset “From the Vault: Realms” as yet another product that will make everyone’s Commander experience a little better. Especially for the newer players who might not have bought some of those difficult to buy cards that are no longer available.

The set will be released on August 31, 2012. The speculation’s already starting, on the possible 15 cards: check out this GatheringMagic.com article for the latest ones!

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Long-time Magic: the Gathering fans will remember the days when buying certain novels and comics actually gave them the chance to redeem and score some real valuable and rare exclusive tie-in cards.

Remember Mana Crypt? Well, those days in Magic, Wizards of the Coast was quite open in coming up with cards so rare, they became instant collector’s items.

Nowadays, Wizards is a lot stricter in such promo cards, which is pretty much good news for many fans and collectors’ (and their wallets too no doubt).

Apparently the current policy is, no promo or tie-in card can be a new card, and should only be an existing card with alternate artwork. But this does not stop some of these alternate artwork cards from becoming prized loot on their own.

So, you wanna get those new alternate art cards from IDW’s new Magic: the Gathering comic books, soon! Don’t say I didn’t warn ya – different cards for selected issues.

Awesome deal right? Score some before they’re gone!

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Magic: the Gathering fans are definitely abuzz over the latest expansion set now, Dark Ascension.

In fact, I daresay that this weekend will be an even more anticipated one, for the new cards, compared to last weekend’s prerelease events. This is simply because the packs are now available for sale in better game stores everywhere.

This weekend will also see Dark Ascension release events, which means more fun and casual tournaments for everyone!

IMHO, the week after the prerelease of a “smaller” expansion is optimal as gamers and fans finally get the chance to buy the new set in “full.” I say this because pre-release events bundle in the preceding “larger” expansion.

Yup, this means that if you bought any of the Dark Ascension pre-release “packs”, you would have ended up with Innistrad packs as well, which may likely be a poorer choice for you, especially if you’ve already busted your budget for that older set!

So, will you be playing this weekend?

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Magic: the Gathering fans will be pleased as heck to learn that Dark Ascension, is weeks away from being released here. More vampires, zombies, spirits and demons, plus some, will be available in this follow-up to Innistrad.

The online spoilers are all over the place, most notably at MagicTheGathering.com and MTGSalvation.com.

Plenty of highlights in this set no doubt: I’m betting that everyone’s waiting for Sorin Markov’s return in a different card, for this set. Will it be the money card this time around? Highly likely I say!

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