Journey into Nyx

~
Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We trust you had a great weekend, hopefully filled with some Magic: the Gathering.  Our weekend was rather productive, at least in terms of MTG.  We took that standard Slivers (featuring Bow of Nylea and Thorncaster Sliver) build to OMG! Games for Friday Night Magic to give it a spin and promptly lost every match - but - dang, that was pretty fun to play actually.  We'll likely just keep it at the kitchen table, or perhaps grab a few MTG singles from MTG Mint Card to make it a bit more competitive at FNM - we don't know yet.  Also of note, we think there are a few more players trying out that funky Maze's End Turbo-Fog build - although it seems a bit non-interactive, we have a thingy for alternate win condition games and might just have to give this a try.

Anywhoos - on to today's MTG news.  Over on the mothersite today, we now have the official announcement for the third and last set in the Theros block.  Although we've had the name for some time, we just did not have some of the nitty-gritty until today.  Again, Wizards did not provide an art teaser along with the announcement - rather  sad about that, so we've just added a few images from the very lovely 'Hero's Path' website below to fill in.  Righto - Here's the full run-down now -  
~

Set Name     : Theros
Block : Set 1 of 3 in the Theros block
Large September Expansion
Number of Cards : 249
Prerelease Events : September 21-22, 2013
Release Date : September 27, 2013
Launch Weekend : September 27-29, 2013
Pro Tour Theros Dates : October 11-13, 2013
Game Day : October 19-20, 2013

 

Set Name     : Born of the Gods
Block : Set 2 of 3 in the Theros block
Number of Cards : 165
Small February Expansion
Prerelease Events : February 1-2, 2014
Release Date : February 7, 2014
Launch Weekend : February 7-9, 2014
Game Day : March 1-2, 2014
   
 

Set Name     : Journey into Nyx
Block : Set 3 of 3 in the Theros block
Number of Cards : 165
Small May Expansion
Prerelease Events : April 26-27, 2014
Release Date : May 2, 2014
Launch Weekend : May 2-4, 2014
Game Day : May 24-25, 2014

~

Duel Decks: Jace vs. Vraska

~
Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Hope everyone had a great time at Theros Game Day over the weekend if you went.  We went to OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario and washed out (1-2 drop) with our G/W Aggro build which took us to fourth place just the previous Friday Night Magic event.  Afterwards, we developed a few modifications to make our strategy a bit more robust to the huge variety in our metagame but will need to grab a few more singles from MTG Mint Card.  We also finally met MrScottyMac, The Eh Team member, LegitMTG writer and  all-round good guy.

We also have a short video buzz through the Theros Game Day event as well . .
 
~
Next up - congratulations to Brian Braun-Duin who won the standard format Grand Prix tournament In Louisville this weekend with his Black Devotion build.  Shuhei Nakamura won the sealed format Hong Kong with a solid Green White draft.  Check out the coverage on the mothersite.

~
Anywhoos - onto today's article !
Over on the mothersite, we have an announcement from WotC with regards to the March 2014 Duel Decks . . .

Duel Decks: Jace vs. Vraska, Art by Igor Kieryluk

~
Duel Decks: Jace vs. Vraska
Deck Design and Deck Development: Chris Millar and Sam Stoddard
Twitter Hashtag: #MTGJVV
Languages Available: English, Japanese
Release Date: March 14, 2014
MSRP: $19.99

Wow - yet another Jace.  It seems like Wizards of the Coast really, really, really likes this Planeswalker.  As soon as we read the announcement, all we could think was the look on Woody's face . . .

We rather like Vraska but were kinda hoping for another Planeswalker (almost any other) on the other side of that box.  We also have to talk about the art used here.  Don't misunderstand us, we really love Igor Kieryluk - think about Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite / Sangromancer / Enclave Cyrptologist - these beautiful arts are simply epic.  What Wizards commissioned here was honestly rather terribad.  Art appreciation is a personal thing and we are certain many players will love this new art (below) and will want to game with these new cards as soon as the product hits local gaming stores.

~

Dragon's Maze

~
Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Today, over on the mothtersite, WotC minion T. Jarret let loose the name of the third set in the Return to Ravnica block - Dragon's Maze.  Magic: the Gathering Players are as confuzzled as us.  There is a chance of seeing a Dragon and perhaps a maze, and yeah - that's all we got too.  Some think Nicol Bolas has a stake in this but all we will venture for now is that there are possibilities of seeing Gideon in Gatecrash  and Ral Zarek in Dragon's Maze (as shown by the slick art below by Eric Deschamps.

~
Anywhoos -  let's republish the corporate 4.1.1. so you can go through the boiler plate info.

Dragon's Maze
Ten Guilds, One Destination!

Block Set 3 of 3 in the Return to Ravnica block
Number of Cards    156
Guilds    All ten
Prerelease Events    April 27-28, 2013
Release Date    May 3, 2013
Game Day    May 26-27, 2013
Pro Tour Dragon's Maze    May 17-19, 2013
Magic Online Release Date    May 13, 2013
Official Three-Letter Code    DGM
Twitter Hashtag    #MTGDGM

Design Team : Alexis Janson (lead), Mark Rosewater, Erik Lauer, Aaron Forsythe, Shawn Main, Dan Emmons

Development Team : Zac Hill (lead), Erik Lauer, Mark Globus, Mark Gottlieb, Masami Ibamoto, Sam Stoddard

Languages - English, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish

Available in Booster Packs, Intro Packs*, Event Decks*, Fat Pack*

  ~