So PAX has come and gone and new spoilers for Scars of Mirrodin have been, um spoiled (I was notified that WotC doesn’t call them spoilers, but previews). But besides the awesome party and the new cards, I was fortunate enough to talk to several WotC employees. If you had been following my Twitter feed like I suggested (@mtgcolorpie), you would’ve read what some of the higher ups thought about the new set.
Luckily, for those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter will see a majority of those quotes here as well. This is not going to be a review of PAX nor the party (both really good times), but what I thought about certain things and who I talked to and what they said.
Please note: I am not a journalist. I’m not like Bill Stark and my life isn’t based reporting news so I don’t want to get quotes wrong. While I don’t want to misquote people, so I’m going to do it form the twitter quotes earlier. The short interviews I conducted throughout the day and the night will be told in brief here. If any of the parties feels I misunderstood or twisted their words please feel free to contact me and I’ll correct it.
I also want to thank my many readers and followers on twitter, without them, I don’t think that I would’ve been able to get some of the responses out of these great people. I want to thank them too for being so nice to allow me to talk to them. Of course, every time I’ve interacted with them they’ve been nothing but nice and helpful, and not just me but to everyone they’ve talked to when I watch. It may be just me, but I seriously doubt it’s an act.
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.
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:
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.
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.
Editor’s Note: New column where the point is short and sweet, just like a piece of pie. Except this piece is a little bigger then I thought it was going to be. Title reference for you younger readers.
Today Tom LaPille announced some of the card choices to M11. The biggest news was the official confirmation of M10 hottie Baneslayer Angel making the return to the Core Set this year. There was some speculation of her returning or not and making her a one-hit wonder. After all, her $50 price tag is pretty expensive (and something I touched on earlier) and taking her out of Standard so there would be that (possible) drop in price because she won’t be in high demand. Then there are those that say Baneslayer getting reprinted will cause her price tag should go down since there will be more of her. Those who already have a playset of Baneslayers and happen to open more might be more compelled to trade/sell them off getting more of her into the market.
That, luckily, isn’t the point of this article. Looking at the card choices so far, it’s easy to see what direction the Core Set is taking: Flavor.
MTG Color Pie 