M13 Spoilers 11

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

On tap for today's post - MOAR! Magic 2013 core set (M13) spoilers and previews of course.  A reminder to our readers that we will unplug from civilisation next week in order to appreciate bears, skunks, raccoons, and all manner of flying biting critters in northern Ontario.  We do this to better appreciate modern conveniences like flush toilets and internet connections.  Do not fear, we do have a post or two which will publish automatically in our absence and we will be back in the saddle again next weekend to catch up with you.

Onto today's juice . . . 

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Battle of Wits, 3uu
Enchantment, Rare
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have 200 or more cards in your library, you win the game.

This is an interesting Odyssey / 9th Edition reprint which would make us cry should we pull it in limited.  That said, we think DoctorKenneth from the forums provided a decent assessment of this card's potential in the game -

"Battle of Wits is a card with it's very own archetype- or rather, deck built around it. The deck, as you can imagine, runs about 260 cards. As long as the deck can be shuffled by hand, it is legal (maybe not smart, but legal). It wins by using as many tutor cards as can be packed into it, from the Demonic, Diabolic, or Idylic to find the Battle of Wits. Then it's simply a matter of playing it. The rest of the deck is peppered with counters and control, to protect the enchantment until you win and to keep your foe from killing you before the Battle is in your hand, respectfully.  It's not exactly an easy strategy, but it's a brilliantly oddball one, and that's why I love it. Would never play with it, of course, but I respect the commitment on those who do."  

We suggest that should you ever see at your local games store or in your casual play group, a player's deck taller than it is wide, consider having Nevermore in your sideboard.
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Gilded Lotus, 5
Artifact, Rare
{T}: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool.

Here is an interesting Mirrodin Rare reprint.  This may be good for Commander / EDH but we are apprehensive about any standard constructed application at this time.  The MTG Realm crew suggest that this may be best paired with a Voltaic Key.

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Lastly, 
The early bird special over at MTG Mint Card is almost over.  You can score a 4x Common and Uncommon set of Magic 2013 for $39.99 only.  As there is expected to be 101 Commons and 60 Uncommons, you will get 644 Magic the Gathering cards - Awesome deal.

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Poop and Paintings

My pooptastic week just got worse...not really wanting to get into it here but let's just say times have been better in my neck of the woods.

So...I'm taking this long weekend off blogging and doing lots of this...

I'll also be spending buckets of time painting so that I can bring you more of this...

'Lila' 18x18

'Beth' 9x12

'Adelaide' 9x12

Sage - 18x18
xoxo

seriously, funny stuff....that marc johns makes me giggle.

*images can be found here, marc johns

M13 Spoilers 10

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

We have some good news and some bad news.  Good news is that we have more M13 spoilers and previews for you again today.  Also - we've updated yesterday's post with another Magic 2013 playmat - for some reason we forgot to post the Mindclaw Shaman mat which is rather odd in that your avverage Viashino (Shaman or not) sort of stands out in a crowd.  Righto - the bad news - we have to step away from the interwebs next week and foresake all electronics / internet connections next week as we are wilderness camping way up in northern Ontario.  Our constant companions will be bears and our bane mosquitos / blackflies the size of chihuahuas.  So please continue on without us for a few days gaming, playing cards, dungeons 'n' dragons, whatever and think of us kindly as we endure nature without even a dial-up connection.

Onto today's gravy -

Spelltwine, 5u
Sorcery, Rare
Exile target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard and target instant or sorcery from your opponent's graveyard. Copy those cards. Cast the copies if able without paying their mana cost. Exile Spelltwine.

Yep - we soooo want to get this into an EDH / Commander deck - should be fun.  If we pull this out in a sealed pool we will likely cry.  No standard format applications we can think of yet.
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Mutilate, 2bb
Sorcery, Rare
All creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn for each Swamp you control.

Dang.  Reprinted Torment card.  Old art was epic and the new one is pretty decent as well.   We are immediately thinking of putting this in some Lord of Extinction build with graveyard shennanigans.
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Hellion Crucible   
Land, Rare
{T}: Add 1 to your mana pool.
1{R}, {T}: Put a pressure counter on Hellion Crucible.
1{R}, {T}, Remove two pressure counters from Hellion Crucible and sacrifice it: Put a 4/4 red Hellion creature token with haste onto the battlefield.

This might be a parachute for red-deck-win builds for late game.  If you want to put the burner on hight, get a Volt Charge going and other proliferate tech.
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Also of note - we suggest you check out today's Magic Arcana on the mothersite.  WoTC Monty had laid out some interesting changes to Magic the Gathering packaging.  Monty gave a variety images as well as teasers on the two M13 Event Decks:

Repeat Performance: Your creatures arrive ready to battle, bringing friends and beneficial effects, then they return to your hand with the help of Roaring Primadox. And when you summon them again... more friends and benefits!

Sweet Revenge: Stoke the flames of the past with the "Sweet Revenge" deck. Just a few key creatures will distract your foes from your constant spellcasting escapades, while Burning Vengeance punishes them again with every flashback spell you cast.

Also available again is Magic the Gathering 'Booster Battle Packs' - this product contains two 20-card, semirandom decks, two 15-card Magic 2013 boosters, a learn-to-play guide and a rules insert.  With a MRSP of only $10, this looks like a good deal.

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A Bijou Room - Inspired by Willow and an Ensemble

Morning folks.

Today, I've got a little mood board action for you...brought to you by an outfit that caught my attention and one of my Wink of Pink favourites, Willow...the painting, outfit and room all sort of scream soft tone on tone pretty...of the blushy cream variety.

The inspiration....

...and the room...

Tres bon.

If you'd like some Bijou board action for your own house, email me.

Also, Willow is for sale HERE.

And with that double whammy (PS, for those of you older than 30, remember that game show with the no whammies?  Just writing the word totally made my tangent brain leap off into memories the host screaming
'no whammies, no whammies' - ha) of self-promotion, I'll say toodles for now.

Cyber love,

xo

Canvas Sketchbooks

For gifts this year, the kids made personalized journals for their teachers.

I picked up a few of these canvas sketchbooks from Blicks. I LOVE them and can't wait to get a few more to play around with. The inside pages are not lined, which I love (though nothing beats graph paper for me!). And the canvas cover can be customized with basically any medium you can come up with - markers, crayons, paints, stamps,  etc. 

We thought about using paint, but Chartpak markers seemed like a fun choice.

I taped off the paper edges to protect against stray marks.

The girls and I talked a little about what they were going to draw, we did a little sketching first and then  I let them do their thing. They drew the outlines first with fine point sharpies.

And then colored in with the Chartpak markers. The markers bled a lot outside the sharpie lines, but it was fine. Who wants a perfectly-in-the-lines coloring job anyway?

Evie made one too and it ended up being a very pretty, dreamy abstract. I think Heather is going to keep it.

The notebooks were such a hit with the teachers. The kids drew stories and pictures of what each teacher will be doing during the summer.

Claire's pre-k teacher, Al, is also a film maker (he is seriously the coolest, nicest teacher). He's making this super hip indie film this summer about a man that leaves his wallet and his phone in his office building late one night and gets locked out. He has to walk all the way home to Brooklyn with empty pockets and he has lots of adventures along the way. I can't wait to see it when Al's finished. Claire drew a picture of him filming on the streets of NYC, and she and Evie "just happen to be walking down the sidewalk" and they get filmed too (Claire's words - that kid!)

Gracie also had a really special teacher this year, Miranda, who we will love forever. It's crazy how involved these lovely people are with our kids and then, bam, one day it's over and they're done. That can be hard to digest for kids, teachers and parents alike.

Miranda is summering in Spain and Morocco, so Grace drew a picture of her teacher taking a cab to the airport (Grace is waving goodbye from our building). And on the back side, Miranda is riding a camel in Morocco by the beach.

I made one for myself and used a blender marker to add in some water marks. Looks sort of like tie dye, right? I like it. The back side (with the bright orangey red, below), is my favorite.

Anyway, I feel like the possibilities are endless with these canvas-bound sketchbooks! I'm going to try some patterns next. Maybe like a Les Touches-esque stylized leopard print? Or a faux bois... or malachite... Tortoise shell...

Magic 2013 UltraPro

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Hello again MTG peeps,

In this, our second post to the MTR Realm bloggy, we wanted to share the Ultra•Pro lineup for Magic 2013.  We first started yattering about this early last week on Tumblr but now have all the images revealed.  If you've missed our first post earlier today, you may want to catch up on the new M13 spoilers and previews.


Anywhoos - let's have a looks at what Ultra•Pro has for us to sleeve up / deck up or binder up our new slick core set cards with . . .
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Magic 2013 Ultra•Pro Products

UPR 86000 - MTG 2013 Vertical Deck Protector
UPR 86001 - MTG 2013 Top Load Deck Box
UPR 86002 - MTG 2013 Horizontal Deck Protector
UPR 86003 - MTG 2013 Side Load Deck Box
UPR 86004 - MTG 2013 Playmat 1
UPR 86005 - MTG 2013 Playmat 2
UPR 86006 - MTG 2013 Playmat 3
UPR 86007 - MTG 2013 Playmat 4
UPR 86008 - MTG 2013 2” Album

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Nice - we were hoping for some of the amazing card art (like Sands of Delirium) but this may do.  We almost want to go complere matching on the slick dark products - UPR 86000 - MTG 2013 Vertical Deck Protector / UPR 86001 - MTG 2013 Top Load Deck Box / UPR 86005 - MTG 2013 Playmat 2 / UPR 86008 - MTG 2013 2” Album but don't know whether the gang down at the local games store (OMG! Games) will tease us for being OCD or fear us as it just looks sooo pro.
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EDIT:

Apparently we failed to get to you the image of that other playmat - Here's the Magic 2013 playmat for  Mindclaw Shaman ->

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Mush Brain - 10 Favezies

First, thank you more than I can possibly say for the amazingly sweet comments you left yesterday.

Honestly, I cried through every single one and am beyond touched...truly...they say in times like these you realize who your friends are and it's absolutely so incredible to me that so many people I've never even met can reach out and be so supportive and kind.

Thank you from the absolute pits of my heart- I'll treasure your thoughtful words forever.

As for today's post, my brain is sort of not really functioning past minute to minute 'my dog is sick' coping...so, my posts for the next little while might be a bit scattered...I know you understand and I love you for it.

So, for today...just some pretty things that have caught my attention as of late...random but good on the eyes.

1. This Ruthie Sommers bathroom...

I'm not sure who the hell gets to own that magnificence but it should really be mine instead...I mean really...it's me in bathroom form.

I'm banking this for my 'one day I'll knock it off' file.

2. Gwyneth's new Windsor Smith encrusted pad...

...this place totes screams dream home to me and along with this little #...

...has cemented my #projectexterior change of plans...thinking I'm going to go white- just so smitten with the whole black,white, green thing...mine will have some pink too of course;)

3. Animal Topiaries....

I mean really- how could I NOT have these?

4.  Bedroom Pretty...

These lovelies have all caught my eye for one reason or another...

{everything...carpet, walls, palate- yum}

{art}

{Amber talent}

...makes me want to get my damn master done...so far, I've got art, furniture and pillows...

...but there's ALOT left to do.

5.  Dining Utopia

...doesn't get much prettier than that folks.

7.  Want List

...I mean really...how could you not lust after this Fendi chair goddess?

...absolutely 100% balls to the wall, my all time fave luggage.

...husband are you reading this? Pretty sure this Tiffany ring would make the perfect b-day gift for the best wife in the world this year:)

8. DIY

If you follow Twitter/Facebook, you may have noticed a recent debate on the merits of DIY.

I'm firmly in the 'if you can make it and have it be fabulous, whilst saving buckets of money, than why the hell wouldn't you' camp...of course, if you can't make it and have it be gorgeous, than pay someone who knows what they're doing to do it for you- obvious I would think.

Creating something from loads of nothingness is good...supporting others and not begrudging their talents..also good...I digress.

My love for creative people who can knock out DIYs like this has grown exponentially as of late for reasons such as this..

...I'm SO knocking that bad boy off.

9.  Details

Holy mother of brass holyness...NEED THAT EFFING BANISTER...hard.

Wine pantry...

...where have you been all my life?

The floor...

...the floor.

10.  Sold

Mother Fudger...these were supposed to be mine...

{m.shartel}

{MFAMB}

I'm pulling the 'I have a good excuse' card and not crediting properly or this post will never get up...I'm entertaining this afternoon and it's both kids last day of school so well...I've got shit to get done.

Everything here is on my Pinterest page- go here if you want more deets.

Also, sorry for the pics that are all different sizes- I know that's bad blogger form- just too lazy to re-size them all...this was a cut and paste sort of day.

And with that, I'm off.

Rainbow love.

xo