Happy Monday MTG peeps,
We hope you had a great weekend filled with Magic the Gathering games and epic plays, perhaps with an FNM event on Friday followed up with the Magic Celebration 2012 on Saturday. The FNM promo this month is Lingering Souls, and we are looking for two of these, so drop us a line here, and we'll talk. How was your Magic Celebration event? At OMG! Games in Barrie where there was an excellent turn-out of almost 50 players, hurricane-like weather knocked the power out at the store for less than 10 minutes, but everyone kept calm and played on. Some rather disturbing news on the forums where we've heard some Local Gaming Stores were charging for this free event - if this was your case, contact Wizards of the Coast, and talk to the folks looking after organised play.
Anywhoos - onto today's Return to Ravnica Spoilers and Previews !
Creature - Demon, Rare
Flying
At the beginning of each combat, any opponent may sacrifice a creature. If a player does, tap Desecration Demon and put a +1/+1 counter on it.
6/6
This was a StarCity Games preview by Evan Erwin on the Magic Show (gawd we miss regulary scheduled Magic Shows). This is a fatty and a menace once it hits the table. It may be OK should you have cheap tokens to sac, but otherwise things could get ugly. Casual players will definitely want this and it may likely see constructed play as a nice finisher. Edit - to fe-addict comment below - appoligies, we should have made that more clear. We were speaking from the point of the opponent facing this - we would be scared as heck seeing this across the table.
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Underworld Connections, 1bb
Enchantment - Aura, Rare
Enchant Land
Enchanted Land has "{T}, Pay 1 life: Draw a card"
This was a Magic Friends (Italian MTG site) preview. We can see some players pairing this up with Arbor Elf to untap that enchanted land to get another card in their hand. Mono-black control players will evaluate this for inclusion in standard decks and in limited, this card may be able to push the game in your favour unless they have an answer (like Abrupt Decay or Ghost Quarter).
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Chaos Imps, 4rr
Creature - Imp, Rare
Flying
Unleash (You may have this creature enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. It can't block as long as it has a +1/+1 counter on it.)
Chaos Imps has trample as long as it has a +1/+1 counter on it.
6/5
This Radkos fatty could get a bit scary as it has evasion and conditional trample. We almost gave up on the Unleash mechanic as being somewhat mediocre but we rather like this one.
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Loxodon Smiter, 1gw
Creature - Elephant Soldier, Rare
Loxodon Smiter can't be countered.
If a spell or ability an opponent controls causes you to discard Loxodon Smiter, put it onto the battlefield instead of putting it into your graveyard.
4/4
A 4/4 for three mana ain't ever a bad thing, even with the mixed mana cost. The other ability may be somewhat irrelevant in the standard environment, so for the moment, until the rest of the Return to Ravnica set is spoiled, this Loxy is just vanilla.
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Nivmagus Elemental, (u/r)
Creature - Elemental, Rare
Exile an instant or sorcery spell you control: Put two +1/+1 counters on Nivmagus Elemental.
1/2
A bit ho-hum. To discard an instant or sorcery, hopefull with flashback may be alright but still a high price to get this built into a proper threat on the game table, but we would rather pick other spells for the Izzet 2-drop spot. Edit - see Anon comment below for a good argument to build with this card.
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Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, ggww
Legendary Creature - Dryad, Mythic Rare
Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, you gain life equal to that creature's toughness.
1{G}{W},{T}: Populate
2/5
Some EDH / Commander players may want to consider this, but we have yet to see how this could rock our world for standard constructed. Cloudshift a Tree of Redemption will move you up 26 life and then go ultimate with Ajani, Caller of the Pride to puke out a truckload of kittehs sounds epic for casual kitchen table shenanigans, but we are no all that impressed with this unless there's another forthcoming RTR card which will make this shine.
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We suggest you check out MTG Mint Card who are now taking pre-orders for Return to Ravnica.
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