Sixten looked at the M11 set and something caught his eye. There was something very familiar about the card Ajani’s Mantra.
Category: M11
Friday Afternoon Fun – Things Tom LaPille Has Told Me
At the Seattle M11 Prerelease, I was talking with some of the employees of Wizards of the Coast and I brought up the whole “Sixth color is coming to Magic” thread from MTGSalvation. All of the guys started laughing and saying that sometimes people read too much into things. If you don’t know how it started, one person looked at the art for Time Reversal before the card was spoiled and said “Hey, there are six colored planets (one for each color and purple) on this art and MaRo tweeted that a future set will have players the opportunity to draft something they’ve never been able to. That must mean Purple is coming to Magic!” It’s a very fun thread to read about how some people do read too much into things.
Well, the conversation went from there to how Mana Leak in M11 was spoiled by WotC employee Mr. Tom LaPille at Grand Prix DC. But there was a problem:
Rumors of my presence at Grand Prix Washington: DC are greatly exaggerated.
Oh.
Continue reading “Friday Afternoon Fun – Things Tom LaPille Has Told Me”
Slice of Pie – Akroma Unarmed
Editor’s Note: I’m going to try these shorter pieces a little more frequently. They’re not enough information to fill several thousand words, but enough for food for thought.
Aaron Forsythe tweeted this:
Akroma Without Her Sword – 5WWW – Legendary Creature – Angel – 4/6 – Flying, protection from black and from red
That was later changed to 2WWW when it was pointed out that it would cause 3 to equip. Confused? Look at the card to the right. This is basically Akroma’s sword (look at the handle and compare it to this). It’s pretty easy to see that this sword is what makes Akroma so powerful. If you take off the text that this sword provides, then you get the creature mentioned above. I stuck my nose in:
@mtgaaron Well, it should be her sword that’s Legendary, not her.
My thinking was this: is a 2WWW, flying, Pro Red/Black angel Legendary?
Slice of Pie – The Green Hornet Strikes Again
So Tom LaPille tweeted his preview card and suddenly that’s the talk of twitter and message boards. After a few weeks of intent of playing a card with different modes and how people play EDH (something I will get into on 99EDH), it’s this common card that has people talking.
Yes, it’s a card that all it does is ping something or someone. Why are people going up in arms..
Oh. It’s Green.
Commence the end of the internet.
Green getting non-creature based direct damage is nothing new:
- Bee Sting – 3G, Sorcery, deal 2 damage.
- Borrowing the East Wind – XGG, Sorcery, Deal X to each creature w/horsemanship and player.
- Canopy Surge – 1G (2 kick), Sorcery, Deal 1 to each flying creature and player; if kicked, 4 instead.
- Claws of Wirewood – 3G, Sorcery, Deals 3 to each flying creature and player (cycling 2)
- Crash Landing – 2G, Instant, target flying creature loses flying, then gets dealt damage equal to the number of forests you have.
- Firespout – 2[R/G], Sorcery, …If you payed G, deal 3 damage to each creature with flying.
- Gale Force – 4G, Sorcery, Deal 5 damage to each flying creature.
- Hail Storm – 1GG, Instant, Deals 2 damage to each attacking creature and 1 to you and your creatures.
- Howling Gale – 1G, Instant, Deal 1 damage to each flying creature and player. (Flashback 1G)
- Hurricane – XG, Sorcery, Deal X damage to each flying creature and each player.
- Leaf Arrow – G, Instant, Deal 3 damage to target flying creature.
- Needle Storm – 2G, Sorcery, Deal 4 damage to each flying creature.
- Sandstorm – G, Instant, Deal 1 damage to each attacking creature.
- Squall – 2G, Sorcery, Deal 2 damage to each flying creature.
- Squall Line – XGG, Instant, Deal x damage to each flying creature and player.
- Storm Seeker – 3G, Instant, Deal damage equal to the number of cards in their hand to that player.
- Superior Numbers – GG, Sorcery, Deal X damage to target creature where X is the number of creatures you control greater then the number target opponent controls.
- Tropical Storm – XG, Sorcery, Deal X damage to each flying creature and 1 damage to each Blue creature.
- Typhoon – 2G, Sorcery, Each opponent gets dealt damage for each Island they control.
- Unyaro Bee Sting – 3G, Sorcery, Deal 2 damage.
- Windstorm – XG, Sorcery, Deal X damage to each flying creature.
- Wing Storm – 2G, Sorcery, Deals twice the amount of flying creatures each player controls.
- Winter Blast – XG, Sorcery, Tap X creatures, deal 2 damage to each flying creature.
As you can see there is some evidence of Green just doing damage. However, most of those were sorceries, dealt damage to flying creatures and were non-targeted. This is the first time that dealing 1 damage in Green has ever been so cheap and so usable.
But it doesn’t change anything.
Look at the flavor of all of those cards. Almost all of them deal with nature in some related way. Either it’s the weather doing the damage or it’s small flying creatures like bees and hornets dealing out small doses. While I would’ve preferred a clause on the card that said: “as an additional cost, tap a creature you control” but it’s fine the way it is. This one common isn’t warping anything. Being in the Core Set now means it’s going to be tested for a year.
It’s hugely flavorful and makes sense as it’s done. After all, I know people allergic to Bees.
Verdict: It fits in Green’s color pie. As long as it’s not overdone, should be fine.
M11 Spoilers: A Human, a Merfolk and a Goblin Walk into a Bar…
Yes, these are official M11 spoilers seen for the first time in English on the interweb (and maybe other MTG blog brethren as well). Unlike last time where it was just misunderstood as truth when it was speculation, these are real cards you’re going to see in real booster packs. Awesome, right?
Now I know I don’t want to keep you waiting (as you see, the first one is on the right (That’s right, multiple!)), and I know that most of you will skip this text and get to the card images themselves. Don’t worry, I do that to. If you’re so inclined to actually read the text when you’re done ogling, I’m going to explain how these cards got in M11. Well, not like development, but how this cards were most likely inspired by cards that came before them and how they fit into their colors (Hey, that’s kinda my spiel). You’re not here for draft analysis or how they’ll fit in certain decks (though I’ll talk about that in the abstract).
I’ve got 3 cards to spoil, all of them new. No functional reprints of any kind.
Continue reading “M11 Spoilers: A Human, a Merfolk and a Goblin Walk into a Bar…”
MTG Color Pie 