I Can Haz Eventide Prerelease Card

Another big day tomorrow! I'm going to Bucharest with Wky to participate in the prerelease event of Eventide. Still looking forward to such events taking place in Iasi, but I guess we've got a long way coming until that. Maybe if we work hard we'll have a prerelease and a release for Shards of Alara.

Overbeing of Myth, the Eventide Prerelease Card as announced on July 7 by WotC.

I don’t know exactly whether I’m going just for this dated foiled rare, or whether it’s because of the competition, but I feel like it’s a must-go. After all, it only happens every 3 months in Bucharest and not at all so far in Iaşi. Anyway the three boosters and the foiled rare above will suffice the efforts.

Now, judging I’ve come a long way since February I should be handling this event much better than the last time. Hey, maybe I even win a few rounds. The big attraction are the new cards, of course. The more I get, the better. I’ve also been hearing about some cool door prizes; maybe we get some of those as well.

Godspeed!

Magic as we know it is about to change

The Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block in itself has changed the world of Magic for the established players. But it seems Magic has yet to have been completely changed.

Shards of Alara, the new expansion set, is going to bring in more than just a new plane we’re going to explore, but and entire train of changes with it. These changes aren’t necessarily bad though: some of them are actually awesome.

Why?

The reason for this is the fact that the TCG industry has started to bloom a while ago, which means Magic is no longer the only competitor as it was back in 1993. The main focus the creators have in mind is Assuming the Aquisition. What this means is that they want two things: to keep current players engaged and to have new players enthusiastic about the game.

All this and more is discussed in Mark Rosewater’s "The Year of Living Changerously" article, a bit more summarized on the announcement "Changes as of Shards of Alara", and even more summarized in my lines to come.

What?

Well, the first change we’ve already noticed is the Fat Pack. Personally, I loved the separators and two boxes that came with Lorwyn and Morningtide, and I really miss them. On the other hand, I love the idea of more boosters in there, even though there’s only one Fat Pack box and no separators. Another thing I’m going to miss soon are the novels coming with every Fat Pack, but there’s something in stock to replace that.

As of the expansion set codenamed “Rock”(Shards of Alara) there’s a new level or rare: Mystic Rare. There are only going to be 15 Mythic Rare cards in the Shards of Alara, and they’re going to be carefully chosen, as Mark explains. This way Magic will have a truly collectible level of Rare that everyone’s going to want.

Booster contents will also change: 1 Rare, 3 Uncommons, 10 Commons and 1 Basic Land and 1 tip card or token. 1 in 8 boosters will also have a Mythic Rare card instead of the Rare card. The reason for the Basic land is also nicely explained by Mark in his article.

The Theme Decks will change too: they’re going to be replaced by Intro Packs. Intro Packs will be smaller decks plus a booster. Marks says: “We wanted to show the new player the potential of what his or her deck could become. To do this, we felt strongly that we needed to get a booster pack into their hands. Only by ripping open a booster of random cards did we feel we could give new players the best taste of what Magic is truly about.” And right he is: I always feel warm and fuzzy inside whenever I’m about to open a new booster pack. Especially when it’s prerelease time!

The Magic publishing is also redesigned: every 6 months, starting this winter, there will be a book about a planeswalker; this autumn we’ll have “The Planeswalker’s Guide to the Shards of Alara”, a flavor book of the entire upcoming set; in the spring the block’s novel will be issued. The release dates for the novels also differ. Instead of being release along with the set, the guide will be release in September. And instead of a novel for every set, the Fat Packs will contain only an excerpt of the most recent Magic publication.

And if all that isn’t enought, the pre/release dates have been changed. The prerelease is now only a weekend before the actual release and the events (are said to) take place in even more place than before.

“Wow!”, huh?

Well, it’s not wow enough until you meet Sarkhan Vol, whom you’ll be getting to know this fall.

Frankly, I can’t wait for September to get my hands on that guide, can’t wait for October for the prerelease and… I just can’t wait for anything anymore. These teasers really tease me, now!

Turning Eventide

Eventide flavor art, © Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
Magic: The Gathering logo and related artwork © Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Something, something, something… Lorwyn-Shadowmoor Block, something, something, something… complete!

I’m playing Magic: The Gathering for quite a while now and I’m glad to have played enough to get to see a complete block. (Well, actually, I’ll have to play a little more, because Eventide only launches near the end of this month.) And there couldn’t have been a better timing for me to start playing Magic: The Gathering. The Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block is the first to be somewhat biased to the Tolkien style of fantasy.

The Color Wheel And I

Personally I’m the most at home with White and Red. By allegiance I’m also friends with Green, which I happen to play quite often. Depending on my tone, I’m either very aggressive, which means I’d play a mono-red deck or a green-red deck, or somewhat calm, which means I’ll play my classic white Kithkin deck. Lately, Shadowmoor has also given me a pretty good taste of the Black/Red combo, so I’ve been playing some cinder elementals with every chance.

I’ve never settled with Black though. I’m just not suited for Black, because it’s not my style of play. I also find it to be one of the most difficult colors to play with, probably because of it’s quite high mana costs. But since black has shared a place is some of my decks (Black/Green Lorwyn elves, Black/Red Shadowmoor elementals), I’ve never been a peace with Blue. My friend Diesel masters Merfolks like he’s one of them, and Dan could fit blue in any white control deck, but not me. I tried a deck of fairies once, but the flashy thing just didn’t do it for me.

What The Dawn Brings

What I am going to try when Eventide kicks in is a Blue/Red deck. The idea of control and firepower altogether makes my head hurt, but I think Eventide is going to make it really easy with special cards just ready for that. Also, I’ve been trying to get my hands on a White/Green Shadowmoor theme deck to get something rolling, and I think I’m going to do it soon.

As funds will permit, I’ll want to experiment it all with Eventide, since the enemy-paired colors sound like a lot of fun.

Time To Bring In The Peanuts

So far we’ve been playing for almost nothing. Of course, most of us were merely learning. (Except for Dan, who’s been playing the game in the past.) But time has come that we play for more. It’s time to scout the land for more planeswalkers and even more trainees. Who knows, maybe soon we’ll even have sanctioned events, right?