It’s been awhile but I’m back. Work and a little bit of travel has messed up the regular Cards & Boards programming, but we’re back with a bang!

Before I start, I’d like to wish my Muslim readers Selamat Hari Raya. To my other fans, hope the holidays will be swell, and restful!

Back to Cards & Boards: loads to catch up on games-wise, so I’ll spread out the cool and exciting announcements over the next couple of days.

First-up, Magic: the Gathering players must be buzzing over the online previews over at both MagictheGathering.com and Mananation.com. The spoilers are being dished out at a rapid-fire rate, and it can only mean both joy for us Magic-philes (and more pain for our finances).

With a return to the plane of Mirrodin, this sequel to the smash hit Mirrodin promises more metallic cardboard goodness. Let’s hope that the painful bits of Mirrodin don’t recur – hey, some may remember how broken “Arcbound Ravager” and “Skullclamp” were.

(Look them up at Wizards card encyclopedia, The Gatherer, if you have no idea what I’m on about.)

The new Elspeth looks like a mighty fine replacement for her older incarnation that’s set to exit the Standard metagame when the Alara block rotates out. Koth is another awesome planeswalker that looks like a four-of (not to mention, very pricey) for all Red decks.

One of the first cards that was previewed was Memoricide – yes it’s a reprint of sorts (can you guess which Kamigawa card was this?) but Black players would like four copies if they feel like going the Control route.

The prerelease foil card for Scars looks killer as well. Wurmcoil Engine is another example of why direct damage just won’t do – exile it or you’ll be in for more pain.

I could go on and on but now I just want my grubby hands on Scars of Mirrodin. Lots of it, if I may add.

I’m predicting that Scars would top even Magic 2011 by a yard. Maybe a mile. We’ll see.

Over the next couple of days, I’ll talk more about the latest mano et mano Magic product, a hotly-anticipated horror-themed boardgame (Halloween’s like, next month) and some other might fine gaming snippets.

Too much to update, so little time!