Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,
As speculated and predicted (see our Tumblr post), Return to Ravnica spoilers 'n' previews today has delivered a Golgari Gorgon Planeswalker. One thing we did not expect was the width and breadth of Gorgon related humour. Forum user 'luminum can' delivered the lulz with 'She's really a gneiss girl once you get to know her, just don't take her for granite', which may require some knowledge of geology / petrology.
You may want to keep a weather-eye on the Return to Ravnica preorder prices at MTG Mint Card and make some strategic purchases. Anywhoos - let's have at the new cards which Magic the Gathering players will want to start gaming with as soon as possible . . .
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Vraska the Unseen, 3bg
Planeswalker - Vraska, Mythic Rare
+1: Until your next turn, whenever a creature deals combat damage to Vraska the Unseen, destroy that creature.
-3: Destroy target nonland permanent.
-7: Put three 1/1 black Assassin tokens onto the battlefield with "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player loses the game."
5
This confirms yet another token type - we have 1/1 white Birds, 2/2 white Knighs, 5/5 green Wurms, 8/8 green / white Elementals and now 1/1 black Assassin. We did not expect to seen any assassins at all until the next set, Gatecrash (specifically a House Dimir kinda thingy). We love alternate win conditions and having the (very slim) possibility to kill off not one but three opponents is impressive. We also love the first ability as it is a sort of pseudo protection and will make opponents think twice about the value of the trade off - Vraska will kill off all critters if they land a hit - that is unless your opponent just cast a Rootborn Defenses. If you are playing Radkos, stock up on some Dreadbore in the sideboard.
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Slaughter Games, 2br
Sorcery, Rare
Slaughter Games can't be countered by spells or abilities.
Name a nonland card. Search target opponent's graveyard, hand, and library for any number of cards with that name and exile them. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
This card was previewed by Canadian website Manadeprived. Some players are understandably sad knowing that spells such as Memoricide and Surgical Extraction will soon be rotating out of standard - well here is a decent replacement. We rather like this card as it cannot be countered which means it will stick and your opponent may have to go to plan 'B', if they have one.
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Azorius Justiciar, 2ww
Creature - Human Wizard, Uncommon
When Azorius Justiciar enters the battlefield, detain up to two target creatures your opponents control. (Until your next turn, those creatures can't attack or block and their activated abilities can't be activated.)
2/2
Prerviewed on Korean Magic site MTG-KR, this Azorius critter will provide some breathing room as it will knock down two of your opponents threats, which is a good thing as we are seeing some really agressive and redonkulous creatures being previewed in the other guild colours.
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Dead Reveler, 2b
Creature - Zombie, Common
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.)
2/3
Yep - best flavour text of the week. Another mono-black Zombie with a very decent power level for a common even without the Unleash tech being used. We are cerrtainly looking very much forward to other commons and uncommons in this set.
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