The Legendary Lotus

MTG Liliana Vess

2009-07-15T01:38:00.000-07:00

Card Name:

Liliana Vess

Mana Cost:

Converted Mana Cost:

Types:

Planeswalker — Liliana

Card Text:

+1: Target player discards a card.

-2: Search your library for a card, then shuffle your library and put that card on top of it.

-8: Put all creature cards in all graveyards onto the battlefield under your control.

Loyalty:

Expansion:

Magic 2010

Rarity:

Mythic Rare

Other Sets:

Card #:

102

Artist:

Aleksi Briclot

http://thelegendarylotus.com/liliana-vess-2010.html

MTG Jace Beleren

2009-07-15T01:37:00.000-07:00

Card Name:

Jace Beleren

Mana Cost:

Converted Mana Cost:

Types:

Planeswalker — Jace

Card Text:

+2: Each player draws a card.

-1: Target player draws a card.

-10: Target player puts the top twenty cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.

Loyalty:

Expansion:

Magic 2010

Rarity:

Mythic Rare

Other Sets:

Card #:

Artist:

Aleksi Briclot

http://thelegendarylotus.com/jace-beleren-2010.html

MTG Garruk Wildspeaker

2009-07-15T01:36:00.001-07:00

Card Name:

Garruk Wildspeaker

Mana Cost:

Converted Mana Cost:

Types:

Planeswalker — Garruk

Card Text:

+1: Untap two target lands.

-1: Put a 3/3 green Beast creature token onto the battlefield.

-4: Creatures you control get +3/+3 and gain trample until end of turn.

Loyalty:

Expansion:

Magic 2010

Rarity:

Mythic Rare

Other Sets:

Card #:

183

Artist:

Aleksi Briclot

http://thelegendarylotus.com/garruk-wildspeaker-2010.html

MTG Darksteel Colossus

2009-07-15T01:31:00.001-07:00

Card Name:

Darksteel Colossus

Mana Cost:

Converted Mana Cost:

Types:

Artifact Creature — Golem

Card Text:

Trample

Darksteel Colossus is indestructible.

If Darksteel Colossus would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, reveal Darksteel Colossus and shuffle it into its owner's library instead.

P/T:

11 / 11

Expansion:

Magic 2010

Rarity:

Mythic Rare

Other Sets:

Card #:

208

Artist:

Carl Critchlow

http://thelegendarylotus.com/darksteel-colossus.html

MTG Chandra Nalaar

2009-07-15T01:29:00.000-07:00

Card Name:

Chandra Nalaar

Mana Cost:

Converted Mana Cost:

Types:

Planeswalker — Chandra

Card Text:

+1: Chandra Nalaar deals 1 damage to target player.

-X: Chandra Nalaar deals X damage to target creature.

-8: Chandra Nalaar deals 10 damage to target player and each creature he or she controls.

Loyalty:

Expansion:

Magic 2010

Rarity:

Mythic Rare

Other Sets:

Card #:

132

Artist:

Aleksi Briclot

http://thelegendarylotus.com/chandra-nalaar-2010.html

MTG Bogardan Hellkite

2009-07-15T01:27:00.000-07:00

Card Name:

Bogardan Hellkite

Mana Cost:

Converted Mana Cost:

Types:

Creature — Dragon

Card Text:

Flash (You may cast this spell any time you could cast an instant.)

Flying

When Bogardan Hellkite enters the battlefield, it deals 5 damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures and/or players.

P/T:

5 / 5

Expansion:

Magic 2010

Rarity:

Mythic Rare

Other Sets:

Card #:

127

Artist:

Scott M. Fischer

http://thelegendarylotus.com/bogardan-hellkite.html

MTG Baneslayer Angel

2009-07-15T01:25:00.000-07:00

Card Name:

Baneslayer Angel

Mana Cost:

Converted Mana Cost:

Types:

Creature — Angel

Card Text:

Flying, first strike, lifelink, protection from Demons and from Dragons

Flavor Text:

Some angels protect the meek and innocent. Others seek out and smite evil wherever it lurks.

P/T:

5 / 5

Expansion:

Magic 2010

Rarity:

Mythic Rare

Card #:

Artist:

Greg Staples

http://thelegendarylotus.com/baneslayer-angel.html

MTG Ajani Goldmane

2009-07-15T01:24:00.001-07:00

Card Name:

Ajani Goldmane

Mana Cost:

Converted Mana Cost:

Types:

Planeswalker — Ajani

Card Text:

+1: You gain 2 life.

-1: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. Those creatures gain vigilance until end of turn.

-6: Put a white Avatar creature token onto the battlefield. It has "This creature's power and toughness are each equal to your life total."

Loyalty:

Expansion:

Magic 2010

Rarity:

Mythic Rare

Other Sets:

Card #:

Artist:

Aleksi Briclot

http://thelegendarylotus.com/ajani-goldmane-2010.html

MTG 2010 Core Booster Pack

2009-07-15T01:21:00.000-07:00

MTG 2010 Intro Set

2009-07-15T01:19:00.000-07:00

Contains the following intro decks: Death's Minions, Presence of Minds, Nature's Fury, Firebomber, and We Are Legion

http://thelegendarylotus.com/2010-intro-pack2010.html

MTG 2010 Booster Box

2009-07-15T01:17:00.000-07:00

The following information can be found on www.wizards.com (Information is subject to change):

Because of the influx of new designs, many cards that have been in every core set so far are leaving. As of Magic 2010, there will be only eight cards that have appeared in every core set, down from sixteen as of Tenth Edition.

There has been some speculation as to which set of existing dual lands will be in the next core set, and the answer may surprise: none of them.

Of the fifteen mythic rares in the set, nine are reprints and six are brand new.

Note that when Magic 2010 is released this summer, Tenth Edition will rotate out as per normal existing policy.

As for Extended, this new Standard rotation slightly alters the Extended rotation policy. As will be the case in Standard, core sets will rotate out of Extended with the block that precedes them. So this fall, when the "Live" set rotates in, Eighth Edition will rotate out of Extended along with Onslaught block.

http://thelegendarylotus.com/2010-core-set-booster2010.html

MTG 2010 Fat Pack

2009-07-15T01:15:00.001-07:00

Included: * Eight 15-card booster packs * The Magic 2010 Player's Guide, which contains play tips, story background, and a visual encyclopedia of every card in the set * A learn-to-play insert * Excerpts from the novel The Purifying Fire by Laura Resnick * A pack of 40 Magic 2010 basic land * A Magic 2010 Spindown Life Counter, available only in this Fat Pack

http://thelegendarylotus.com/2010-fat-2010.html

MTG Lord of Extinction

2009-04-29T18:38:00.000-07:00

Price: $7.20

Purchase here: http://thelegendarylotus.com/lord-of-extinction.html

Card Name:

Lord of Extinction

Mana Cost:

Converted Mana Cost:

Types:

Creature — Elemental

Card Text:

Lord of Extinction's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in all graveyards.

Flavor Text:

The forlorn cries of the dead combine to make its laugh.

P/T:

* / *

Expansion:

Alara Reborn

Rarity:

Mythic Rare

Card #:

Artist:

Izzy

MTG Karrthus Tyrant of Jund

2009-04-29T18:35:00.002-07:00

Price: $2.70

Buy from: http://thelegendarylotus.com/karrthus-tyrant-of-jund.html

Card Name:

Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund

Mana Cost:

Converted Mana Cost:

Types:

Legendary Creature — Dragon

Card Text:

Flying, haste

When Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund comes into play, gain control of all Dragons, then untap all Dragons.

Other Dragon creatures you control have haste.

P/T:

7 / 7

Expansion:

Alara Reborn

Rarity:

Mythic Rare

Card #:

117

Artist:

Dave Kendall

MTG Jenara Asura of War

2009-04-29T18:35:00.001-07:00

Price: $11.25

Buy from: http://thelegendarylotus.com/jenara-asura-of-war.html

Card Name:

Jenara, Asura of War

Mana Cost:

Converted Mana Cost:

Types:

Legendary Creature — Angel

Card Text:

Flying

: Put a +1/+1 counter on Jenara, Asura of War.

Flavor Text:

Wounded soldiers looked up, grateful for her appearance. But she passed over them, her eyes firmly on their foe.

P/T:

3 / 3

Expansion:

Alara Reborn

Rarity:

Mythic Rare

Card #:

128

Artist:

Chris Rahn

MTG Dragon Broodmother

2009-04-29T18:33:00.000-07:00

Price: $4.50

Where to buy: http://thelegendarylotus.com/dragon-broodmother.html

Card Name:

Dragon Broodmother

Mana Cost:

Converted Mana Cost:

Types:

Creature — Dragon

Card Text:

Flying

At the beginning of each upkeep, put a 1/1 red and green Dragon creature token with flying and devour 2 into play. (As the token comes into play, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. It comes into play with twice that many +1/+1 counters on it.)

P/T:

4 / 4

Expansion:

Alara Reborn

Rarity:

Mythic Rare

Card #:

Artist:

Jaime Jones

MTG Defiler of Souls

2009-04-29T18:26:00.000-07:00

Price: $2.70

Get it here from: http://thelegendarylotus.com/defiler-of-souls.html

Card Name:

Defiler of Souls

Mana Cost:

Converted Mana Cost:

Types:

Creature — Demon

Card Text:

Flying

At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player sacrifices a monocolored creature.

Flavor Text:

"Stray not into sin, lest you face the doorman of an insatiable tomb."

—Prayer of Asha

P/T:

5 / 5

Expansion:

Alara Reborn

Rarity:

Mythic Rare

Card #:

Artist:

Paul Bonner

MTG Alara Reborn Intro Packs

2009-04-20T17:29:00.000-07:00

Magic The Gathering Alara Reborn Intro Packs:
+Alara Reborn Unnatural Schemes
+Alara Reborn Rumbler
+Alara Reborn Legion Aloft
+Alara Reborn Eternal Siege
+Alara Reborn Dead Ahead

Find more information regarding MTG Alara Reborn Products here: http://thelegendarylotus.com/alara-reborn.html

MTG Alara Reborn Fat Pack

2009-04-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

Alara Reborn FatPack Box
Alara Reborn Fat Pack Contents

You can obtain more information on how to purchase from here: http://thelegendarylotus.com/alara-reborn.html

The Face of War

2009-04-16T04:16:00.001-07:00

umors spread across the land like a disease. He is coming. A dark knight from the hellish gates of Grixis. A dead warrior incapable of pity or remorse. A killer without equal. He takes no sides and covets no kingdoms—the act of war is pleasure in itself. With hordes of undead following him like some fallen messiah, he carves a swath of destruction across the new landscape of Alara. Death itself stalks the land. He is coming ... Thraximundar.

Thraximundar's War

Thraximundar plays well in a deck with a reanimation strategy. Use Fact or Fiction, Careful Consideration, Entomb, Buried Alive, Mental Note, or dredge effects like Darkblast for graveyard "card advantage." Add in reanimation spells like Stitch Together, Makeshift Mannequin or Zombify.

Or for fun, use him in a token generation + Threaten effects + sacrifice effects deck. Use cheap creature generators like Ker Keep or Puppet Conjurer and add sac effects like Ashnod's Altar, Bone Splinters, or Helm of Possession. Innocent Blood and Cruel Edict will intensify his slaughter-fest.

In Limited, Thraximundar is a finisher. Once you get him on the board, your opponent will have to focus his efforts against a hasty zombie that will most likely come across as a 7/7 as soon as he hits the board.

Your opponents will face Thraximundar with no warning, no chance to prepare. But the people of Alara knew what was coming—and were powerless to stop it.

The Rift Valley, Formerly of Jund

The Riftclan Tol Breot was lost in an unfamiliar land. They had been camped in a rocky enclave in the Rift Valley when suddenly the world shuddered, twisted, and then blasted them into this fetid hellscape. Half of their clan had simply vanished. In the confusion immediately following the shift, rot-skinned ogres assaulted them and slaughtered several more before the warriors killed them.

Now they were surrounded by grey, fleshy ground where nothing grew. There seemed to be no creatures of any kind save walking bags of bones that shambled past—easily killed, but providing no meat. The clan's chief, Breot, wouldn't let them eat the dead ogres because of the weeping sores covering their carcasses. Very soon, hunger would be their enemy.

Breot sent out a hunting party to look for familiar landmarks, but by the time they returned, half the clan had fallen ill with a horrible pox. Had they still been in Jund, they would have left the sick behind to make it easier for the healthy to survive. But Breot made the unexpected decision to keep all the survivors together and nurse the sick. No one questioned him. This land was too ominous and wretched to leave anyone to die. There wasn't even wood to build a pyre to honor those who had been killed. With a growing sense of unease, the clan stayed close to the camp, watched the sky for dragons, and wondered how they could return to the world they knew.

Greasy black clouds were rolling across the horizon when a black-haired boy stumbled into their encampment. He seemed barely human—the scrawniest grub of a child any of them had ever seen. One of the young mothers took pity on him and offered him some of their remaining tukatongue nuts. His dry lips cracked and bled in his effort to chew the hard shells.

"Where are you from?" Sonara asked the boy, clutching her own baby to her chest and passing him a bowl of rank water.

"Torchlight," he answered. When no one replied, he finished chewing and wiped the blood from his bone-white chin. He gazed intently around the fire circle through eyes that looked much older than they should. "You must flee. Quickly."

"The Riftclan does not flee," Breot informed the strange child, who stared back at the imposing chieftain without fear.

"Then your heart will be torn from your defiled body," the boy replied.

Had they been at home in Jund, Breot would have killed the boy instantly for such an insult. But the pale child seemed almost like an apparition, and his voice was so disconcertingly calm that Breot hesitated, his hand on the hilt of his obsidian blade.

And then they heard it. A rush of desperate, forlorn voices swept like wind through the camp as thunderous footsteps shook the ground. The clan's members staggered to their feet. Hardened and ferocious, the Riftclan were no strangers to death or suffering. They had seen their kin slaughtered by tooth, claw, and sword. But what swept over the ridge was beyond their realm of knowing. This was terror embodied, clad in spikes and standing over seven feet tall. Leading swarms of undead, Thraximundar charged down the hill and cut Breot down before the chieftain could raise his sword or utter a single word. As undead minions engulfed the clan, the boy scurried into the darkness, spreading news of the carnage like a plague upon the land.

Valeron, Bant

He cannot be killed. He cannot be stopped. He is coming. Frightening tales passed through the line of refugees clogging the roads toward the Sun-Dappled Court. Where are the Knight-Captains? What is to become of us? Won't anyone help us? Weary and frightened, the refugees trudged forward because they didn't know what else to do. Late one afternoon, a battle-stained regiment of knights galloped through the stream of refugees. One of them proclaimed the good news of the battle of Tower Stele. A warrior-mage decimated an entire army of the hellish invaders! She will slay Thraximundar. Our borders will be safe once more!

Late in the afternoon, a caravan of Balmgivers from Topa reached the refugees with food and healers. That night, the name Elspeth was spoken around campfires and inside healing tents. She is as powerful as the angels. She will lead Bant in its time of need.

The next day, a black-haired boy appeared. The child moved between families, asking for a bite to eat and sharing harrowing tales of flesh-eating monsters and flesh-twisting necromancers. In hushed tones, he warned of the coming of Thraximundar: You would be better to cut your own throats than become one of his undead minions. Every kill just makes him stronger.

That evening, he shared soup with a blacksmith and his family who had escaped from the ruins of Giltspire.

"Knight Elspeth will be at Sun-Dappled Court," the blacksmith told his wife excitedly. "She's bringing an army of elves and catfolk. They will assault Thraximundar before he ever reaches Valeron."

"Thanks be to the angels," his wife Elleta murmured, followed by a chorus of their children's voices," Thanks be to the angels."

But the little boys narrowed his eyes. "Do not entertain false hopes," he told them quietly. "I was at the battle of Tower Stele, and Elspeth will not save you."

"Elspeth will save us," the blacksmith insisted. "She is the hope of our nations."

"Elspeth is gone," the boy replied, with a slight sneer on his lips. "She saved the Tower Stele, but committed a heinous crime in the process. Death was the only honorable course of action."

"Speak clearly, boy," the blacksmith boomed, looking into deep pools of black that were the boy's eyes. "What are you saying?"

"She threw herself on a pyre and scattered her essence to the winds," the boy replied. "I saw it myself."

The blacksmith turned to his wife, who sank to the ground and covered her face with her hands.

"You should tell everyone," the boy said sagely. "Before the false hope gathers in their hearts as well."

Antoris City, Formerly of Esper

Dragons besieged Antoris City. It was an infuriating situation, but not one that the mechanists and mages couldn't handle—at least so far. Around the clock, they kept a spell-wall around the city, which kept the marauding viashino away from the gleaming buildings and monuments. But the skies were more difficult to guard, and a broodmother and her young whelps had discovered that there was easy prey on pristine boulevards. Esperites were forced to keep to their houses during daylight hours. At night, the scullers from Darkreach District were enlisted to scour blood and rubble from the streets. But most citizens simply pretended that their city hadn't emerged on the side of a volcano and kept to life as usual.

As an arcanist, Lifris was more suited to the library than to guard duty. But all mages were required to man the spell-wall, so he did what was required of him. He paced back and forth along his section, wondering if the mage council had advanced beyond discussion to action. Someone had to figure out how to put Antoris back in Esper where it belonged and out of this dreadful lava pit. Still, the council was better than nothing. The mages had never agreed to work together before. They'd even pooled their etherium resources. It was quite remarkable, really. Despite the dire situation, the people of Antoris cooperated in a way Lifris never expected.

Something moved outside ethereal wall. At first Lifris thought it was a big cockroach—he'd see insects the size of boulders skittering around out there. But this creature didn't skitter, it crawled on its hands and knees. Then he saw pallid skin, black hair, and sad little eyes of a child.

Lifris should have consulted someone before he let the boy in, but he had a soft spot for children, and wouldn't want to watch anything suffer the filthy, bestial world surrounding Antoris.

"Gather all the mages," the boy told him. "Something wicked is coming. Your wall won't be enough to stop it."

Lifris stared at the boy, who looked so pitiful but spoke in such dulcet tones. He made sense, Lifris thought. Suddenly fearful, Lifris sprinted for the mages' tower, forgetting entirely about the spell-wall. When he was gone, the boy tapped the wall with his grubby finger, and a tiny rift opened in the shimmering barrier. By the time anyone noticed the break in the wall, the mages were too embroiled in argument to pay attention to the scullers who tried to warn them.

The boy watched from the hill, until the smoke rising from the city blocked his view of the destruction. With each life taken, he could feel the Maelstrom expand with more energy—just as he wanted. Of course, there would have been easier ways to accomplish such destruction, but it would haven't have been nearly so whimsical. Besides, Thraximundar was such a beautiful creation, so perfectly suited to mindless carnage, that Nicol Bolas didn't mind letting him run wild as he pleased—with just a gentle nudge in the right direction. The dragon let his illusion of the little boy evaporate into the acrid air and resumed his natural shape. The planeswalker Elspeth wasn't really dead, but she would cause him no more trouble in Alara. With Antoris a smoldering ruin behind him and Thraximundar sweeping toward the green jungles of Naya, Bolas spread his wings and soared into the darkening sky.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/stf/34

Two Great Additions

2009-04-16T04:14:00.000-07:00

If this doesn't quicken your Pulse, you're already dead (and so are you).

My first Alara Reborn preview card is a whopper. Check out Maelstrom Pulse:

Now many Magic cards are designed in such a way as to tug at our memories... so that we recall other cards with sometimes similar mana costs or functionalities. We "attack for two" with "Grizzly Bears" and squint our eyes evaluating "Grey Ogres" as we pore through each new set looking for the most appropriate "Bolt" to slot into our deck lists.

Maelstrom Pulse, by its black multicolor, by its three mana, and by its flexibility, similarly calls up fond memories in each of us. Is it a Vindicate? A Putrefy? Something else? Something different? Something better?

The comparisons to Putrefy may be the most obvious. Maelstrom Pulse, after all, is the same mana cost as Putrefy, and has similar functionality. For three mana Putrefy could kill, if not everything, most of the stuff that you would want to kill; that made it a four-of staple from the very first Pro Tour where Putrefy was legal.

I would be surprised if Maelstrom Pulse didn't follow suit. After all, while Putrefy had to deal with actually attacking (rather than merely zone-jumping) Golgari Grave-Trolls (simultaneously keeping them from regenerating!) and either a lethal Cranial Plating or the Somber Hoverguard that had that deadliest of helmets strapped across its bulbous forehead, you can be sure that Maelstrom Pulse will be called upon to handle some additional types of permanents ... very likely including planeswalker.

And before we go on, it is probably important to note that the ability to destroy specifically planeswalkers is going to be an important consideration for at least control decks when they evaluate whether they want to play this card. While creature decks (or decks that can produce creatures, like Bitterblossom in Faeries, or Spectral Procession in Black-White Tokens) can just attack into a planeswalker, Counterspell-laden glaciers and monoliths often find themselves bedeviled by just the token production of Elspeth, Knight-Errant, their palms sweating at the innocuous non–Lightning Helix of Ajani Vengeant as the prospect of Armageddon looms. On balance, while a control deck generally won't break even against a planeswalker defending itself with a Maelstrom Pulse—especially as this card can only move at sorcery speed—many and most control players will be glad to get out from under Elspeth or Ajani (let alone Nicol Bolas) at all, forget about being behind a turn.

So what about being a sorcery instead of an instant? The price is a mite hefty because it takes away a fair amount of defensive tactical flexibility, but the bonus is also considerable. In addition to opening up the card's targeting parameters to Oblivion Ring or the planeswalker sitting next to it, Maelstrom Pulse will do you the solid of wiping up all available Oblivion Rings (if not all the particular planeswalkers, for obvious reasons).

So when is the repeated action on Maelstrom Pulse going to come up? The development team was very careful to ban this sorcery from being able to target lands .... The results would be pretty similar to the Omega-level Ajani Vengeant ability, and no one wants to see that for three mana. Now, in Extended we sometimes see all Goblin tokens from Empty the Warrens go flying thanks to an Echoing Truth; I think that Maelstrom Pulse is most likely to over-perform in rapid fire mode when facing tokens, for two reasons: 1) Present-day Constructed Magic features a great many high-quality cards that produce token creatures, for example Garruk Wildspeaker, Spectral Procession, or Bitterblossom, and 2) by their very nature, these cards are more likely to put multiple copies of the "same" permanent into play.

On balance, I think that many players—the better ones, or the ones you might be playing later during a tournament—will be more likely to play around Maelstrom Pulse. A lesser player might get all excited about topdecking a second Figure of Destiny, but a quick look at the opponent's mana base might convince the wily veteran to err on the side of caution. No reason to risk both when one little giant can win the game all by itself.

Here are some handy rules that will help you play Maelstrom Pulse right (or at least according to the rules):

If the targeted permanent has become an illegal target by the time Maelstrom Pulse resolves, Maelstrom Pulse is countered. Nothing will be destroyed.
If the targeted permanent isn't destroyed (because it regenerates, or because it's indestructible), all other permanents with the same name as it will still be destroyed (unless they regenerate or are indestructible, naturally).
A token's name is the same as the creature types listed by the effect that created it, unless that effect specifically gives that token a name.
A face-down creature has no name, so it doesn't have the same name as anything else.

I was particularly surprised to learn that I couldn't machine gun any and all face-down Brine Elementals, Zombie Cutthroats, and Gathan Raiders all with a single spell.

Just as the comparisons between this spell and Putrefy come pretty automatically, so too do those with Vindicate. The main difference (besides the colors, which in modern Standard can be waved away with flexible lands anyway) is the inability for Maelstrom Pulse to target lands. Vindicate was an automatic four-of right out of the gates, and consistently so all the way to Extended and even Legacy, because of its complete and utter flexibility, up to and including Stone Rain support for a second-turn Spectral Lynx. One of the main reasons control players liked that card was that, while it usually got spent on something like a Kavu Titan, the option of mana-screwing someone who had just missed his third land drop was often too tasty to ignore.

As we've already said, if this card could target lands ... the ensuing splatterworks would be a mess. A really cool mess, make no mistake ... but still nothing any reasonable player would ever want to see at this mana cost. I mean can you imagine the tears flowing down the cheeks of a poor Elves player or Red Deck? Or White Weenie Kithkin? The insult would just be too great.

So who wants a Maelstrom Pulse?

The answer, I think, is tied into the second of Two Great Traditions that I believe contributed to the production of this soon-to-be-staple new spell. I know some of you thought I was talking about Putrefy and Vindicate, but in my mind, those were one together; the second is ... cards named Pulse!

I have always been a huge fan of cards like Pulse of the Fields and Pulse of the Forge. Like Maelstrom Pulse, these cards could generate incremental card advantage by counteracting the opponent's offense or "drawing another burn spell" automatically against the beatdown. These Pulses were powerful, but also gave the opponent the opportunity to play better. Believe it or not, there was a time in Standard where the opponent's opening play might be to mana burn, just to "get going" on turn one, before he had hit his curve, simply to prevent the ruin of a Pulse of the Fields later on in the game.

Maelstrom Pulse echoes this philosophy. It is a good three-mana spell that can make a lot of extra noise, especially when the opponent is not playing around it.

Then there is Shattering Pulse.

This is a card that reminds us, in a way, of Echoing Ruin, whose work with artifacts is exactly as Maelstrom Pulse's with almost any other kind of permanent.

But Shattering Pulse was itself a pure upgrade to an existing, perfectly playable card: Shatter!

Shatter had made Pro Tour Top 8s before Shattering Pulse, and more since, but still R&D gave us a strict upgrade ... if only for a limited time. I'll let you in on a secret about Shattering Pulse back in 1998 or so: you didn't get many opportunities to buy back the card, and you could be punished for waiting around too long. Ditto on Maelstrom Pulse. You have every opportunity to be greedy, but as with anything else in Magic, being too greedy might get you dead.

Maelstrom Pulse isn't the best card that ever was or ever will be ... but that doesn't mean we can't say it is. This would of course tie us in to the long-standing tradition of Impulse!

Impulse was one of several thematically similar cards from Visions, including Man-o'-War, Nekrataal, and Uktabi Orangutan, but not Fireblast. These cards, headlined by Impulse, represented spells that were not "broken" ... but were very good, could go into many different kinds of decks, and contribute—and contribute in different ways—depending on which stack they called home base.

Maelstrom Pulse will be the same way. In The Rock, it will be like every other card in The Rock, a tactical opportunity to generate some kind of advantage, in this case up to and including card advantage. In Five-Color Control it will be a one-card solution to Wilt-Leaf Liege, Ajani Goldmane, and Bitterblossom (or all the Bitterblossom tokens). For the beatdown it may just be a way to get a big man out of the way so that all the little guys can squirrel in to get their 2 points each.

All thanks to the Maelstrom.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/td/34

Magic the Gathering 2010 Core Set (M10)

2009-03-25T02:38:00.000-07:00

Think about games that are popular today. Most either have an incredibly simple top-line concept, like Tetris or hearts, or they deliver a strong flavor that draws upon a lot of your prior understanding of a topic or genre, like Madden NFL, Grand Theft Auto, or Agricola—flavor that helps you quickly process the bevy of rules these games contain. Before you ever played Madden, you knew a decent amount about football, and it all came to life on the screen; no one had to explain to you what a "wide receiver" or a "fake punt" or "encroachment" was.

As we here at Wizards perpetually rethink and examine all that we're doing with an eye toward getting more and more new people into Magic, the game is committing to once again embrace that level of flavor. Most of our potential players know a good deal about traditional fantasy; when they play our game, it should feel as though the fantasy they know is coming to life.

Our core sets are typically the best way to teach and show off the world of Magic: The Gathering to the uninitiated, and to that end I believe they need to be as resonant and flavorful as they can be first and foremost. The core set should play into most people's preconceived notions of fantastic creatures and spells, and those notions should guide them to understand the goals and mechanics of the game.

In the beginning, Magic relied heavily on this kind of flavor. Rock Hydra, Vesuvan Doppelganger, and Fireball are all considered complicated cards from a pure rules standpoint, yet each of those was beloved by players just getting into the game because of how they "felt." Most fantasy fans have had experiences of one sort or another involving a hydra, a shapeshifter, or a fireball, and to see those concepts spring to life in a card game where they were in command—WOW!

As Magic grew older, we shifted, slowly, away from using evocative fantasy as the main driver for how our cards were designed. I understand why we went down that road, but I feel the core sets have suffered a bit in that long, slow transition. As familiar evocative creatures like Ironroot Treefolk and Black Knight were replaced with mechanics-first cards like Kavu Climber and Nantuko Husk bearing names and concepts meaningless to anyone not already involved in the property, the core set lost some of its ability to speak to newer players. Yes, over time the core set became a collection of the simplest elegant executions of each facet of the color pie, but at that point who was supposed to be interested?

Starting this summer, the core set is getting a significant facelift in an attempt to return it to some of its original resonant glory. Tell your friends: Get ready for Magic 2010.

What Year Is It?

One realization we came to as we examined our core sets was that our naming convention itself was probably more than a little scary to newer players. "Tenth Edition? I'm already nine editions behind? Do I need to start with the first edition?" Showing our age on the front of the box is not a great tactic for enticing people to try out a "new" game. To solve this problem, we took a page from car makers and the aforementioned Madden NFL video game franchise and are naming core sets after years—specifically the year after the product is released. That means this July's release will be called the Magic: The Gathering 2010 Core Set, or Magic 2010 for short. Heck, you can go even shorter than that if you like, calling it by what appears in the expansion symbol: "M10."

Is it odd that the product is not named for the year it was released in? A bit, but that's industry standard. It is more important that the product feel newer longer than for it to be accurate for six months and then seem outdated immediately thereafter. Trust me, you'll get used to it.

What's In It?

As I stated above, the number one goal of this product was to have it drip with resonant fantasy. To accomplish that goal, I put together a high-powered design team that included myself, Vice President of R&D Bill Rose, Magic head designer Mark Rosewater, head developer Devin Low, creative director Brady Dommermuth, and new business design manager Brian Tinsman. The six of us scoured all of Magic's past for the perfect cards for this new core set paradigm, and when Magic's past failed to produce all of what we needed, we made brand new cards.

That's right—new content in a core set. Of the 229 cards in the set that aren't basic lands, almost half are cards you haven't seen before. This is a huge, huge departure from how core sets have been handled since before I even started playing the game, but a necessary one. Forcing ourselves to use only reprints of existing cards only served to handicap our ability to make the best introduction to the game.

Here's a small taste of some of the new cards you'll be seeing this summer:

Those three cards are great examples of resonant concepts brought to life using game terms that players new and old alike can understand: Silence prevents others from casting, the Wall of Frost freezes all those that touch it, and the Efreet is a powerful yet uncontrollable agent of chaos! Even somebody with zero knowledge of the game can understand that. Look for even more innovative flavorful designs when the official previews begin closer to the set’s release date.

Of course, there are plenty of preexisting cards that are flavorful, beloved, or both, and we'll be reprinting many of them in Magic 2010 as well:

As with all previous core sets, we'll be "rotating in" recent cards—not all the reprints are from Magic's early days. The most high-profile of these more contemporary reprints are the five Lorwyn planeswalkers, promoted to their rightful place as mythic rares:

There was a lot of internal discussion about whether planeswalkers make sense in a core set; many people were worried about their complexity level. While there is no doubt that they are complex—so complex that we can't begin to explain how they work on the cards themselves—I don't want simplicity to be the driving factor in what we present newer players with. Instead, cards in the core set should drive interest and excitement in the game, and as Magic's premier characters, the faces of the game, planeswalkers will do just that. I'd like to think that if you are new, a planeswalker card looks so impressive that you'll do the work necessary to learn the rules behind them.

Why Should I Care?

Magic: The Gathering 2010 Core Set

Prerelease date: July 11-12, 2009
Release date: July 17, 2009
Set size: 249 cards
(101 C, 60 U, 53 R, 15 M, 20 L)
Product lineup: Five intro packs, 15-card booster pack, 6-card booster pack, fat pack
Official announcement

For this new core set idea to succeed, it needs to be relevant to all members of the Magic community, not just to newer players. Existing players need to be playing it, talking about it, drafting it, recommending it, legitimizing it. The new cards should excite everyone—and they will, as some of them are quite powerful!

Too often in the past, the core set has been completely marginalized by the enfranchised player base. It has been perceived as merely a list of cards legal in Standard and little more, and under those circumstances it tends to drift off shelves and out of the public consciousness, making it harder for new players to find the proper entry point.

But Magic 2010 will change all that. This set is Magic at its most pure, and it should appeal to players of all skill levels. Developer Erik Lauer led a strong team (including Mike Turian, Tom LaPille, and Greg Marques) that made the set awesome in Limited and very relevant to Constructed formats.

We want to show that awesomeness off by letting everyone revel in it. We'll be having a traditional Prerelease and Launch Party on back-to-back weekends—the first time we'll be rolling out a core set in that way. New cards are always exciting. And unlike previous core sets, we want this set to shine on some of Magic's brightest stages—several of the Grand Prix events this summer, including those in Boston, Niigata, and Prague, will feature Magic 2010 Limited play.

We want this set to be as "real" as any of our expert-level expansions so that players of all levels of experience can enjoy fun, flavorful Magic.

How Often Will These Come Out?

Another part of our plan to keep the core set relevant is that it will be refreshed every year, not every other year. Doing a core set every year will preclude us from doing other fourth sets, like Eventide, Coldsnap, and Unhinged and will give us a much more structured and predictable release schedule of three expert-level expansions and one core set each year.

To accommodate this much more rapid core set turnover, we are changing our format rotation policy beginning in the summer of 2010 with the release of the Magic 2011 core set. Magic 2011 will not knock Magic 2010 out of Standard; instead there will be only one rotation date per year, when the large Fall set is released. When the set codenamed "Lights" is released late in 2010, it will knock the Shards of Alara block and Magic 2010 out of Standard at the same time. Core sets will rotate as if they were part of the block preceding them. For approximately three months per year starting in 2010, there will be two core sets legal at a time, which is also a first.

Note that when Magic 2010 is released this summer, Tenth Edition will rotate out as per our normal existing policy.

As for Extended, this new Standard rotation slightly alters the Extended rotation policy outlined by Devin Low in his March 7, 2008 column. As will be the case in Standard, core sets will rotate out of Extended with the block that precedes them. So this fall, when the "Live" set rotates in, Eighth Edition will rotate out of Extended along with Onslaught block.

Until Then ...

That's what we're doing and why we're doing it. I, for one, believe this to be a huge turning point for the game—the first in a series of sets that are as fun and exciting for old-time players as they are for new ones, sets that you can use to teach your little cousin the game and then go battle with at the upcoming Grand Prix. It is, in a word, Magic.

Stay tuned for more Magic 2010 previews later this summer!

Fast Facts on Magic 2010:

Because of the influx of new designs, many cards that have been in every core set so far are leaving. As of Magic 2010, there will be only eight cards that have appeared in every core set, down from sixteen as of Tenth Edition.
There has been some speculation as to which set of existing dual lands will be in the next core set, and the answer may surprise: none of them. We wanted to make a cycle of powerful dual lands that risk-averse newer players would like, which meant coming up with something that didn't involve losing life. Sorry, painlands, fetchlands, and Ravnica duals. Trust me, the new ones are awesome!
Of the fifteen mythic rares in the set, nine are reprints (five of which you can deduce from this article) and six are brand new.

Source: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/27a&dcmp=ilc-mtgrss

Alara Reborn 5 Booster Boxes

2009-03-23T17:42:00.002-07:00

This item represents the greatest total value for those looking to buy booster boxes. While not a full case, this product has a shipping cost of only $19.70 (If no other items are ordered with it)! Shipping in this configuration will result in the lowest cost per box.

This is a PREORDER: Any Alara Reborn item will not ship out until the official release date stated below.

IMPORTANT: We will be limiting the quantity of this item that will be shipped release day. Once this initial quantity runs out, the next batch will ship out at a later date.

145 black-bordered cards (10 Mythic Rare, 35 rare, 40 uncommon, 60 common)

The worldwide release of Alara Reborn will be Thursday April 30th. The release date was moved forward 1 day in observance of international Labor Day (May 1st).

http://thelegendarylotus.com/alara-reborn-5-booster-boxe5.html

Alara Reborn Common Playset

2009-03-23T17:42:00.001-07:00

This is a PREORDER: Any Alara Reborn item will not ship out until the official release date stated below.

IMPORTANT: We will be limiting the quantity of this item that will be shipped release day. Once this initial quantity runs out, the next batch will ship out at a later date.

This item will contain 4 of every common in the set; the total number of cards for this item will be 240 cards.

145 black-bordered cards (10 Mythic Rare, 35 rare, 40 uncommon, 60 common)

The worldwide release of Alara Reborn will be Thursday April 30th. The release date was moved forward 1 day in observance of international Labor Day (May 1st).

http://thelegendarylotus.com/alara-reborn-common-playset.html

Alara Reborn Booster Box

2009-03-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

This is a PREORDER: Any Alara Reborn item will not ship out until the official release date stated below.

Shipping estimates (does not include handling):

1 = $14.10 2 = $14.60 3 = $15.10 4 = $19.70 5 = $19.70 6 = $28.20 Quantities greater than these will repeat in this pattern.

Please keep these shipping costs in mind when choosing the quantity you would like.

IMPORTANT: We will be limiting the quantity of this item that will be shipped release day. Once this initial quantity runs out, the next batch will ship out at a later date.

145 black-bordered cards (10 Mythic Rare, 35 rare, 40 uncommon, 60 common)

The worldwide release of Alara Reborn will be Thursday April 30th. The release date was moved forward 1 day in observance of international Labor Day (May 1st).

This item will count as 750 for shipping purposes.

http://thelegendarylotus.com/alara-reborn-booster-box.html