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Feb 4, 2010 -- 5:27AM, Posco_Padfoot wrote:

I enjoy the art of the magic cards in general, it's at a very high technical level, but I find that overwhellmingly the art style is too realistic, hyper realistic.  It's often suped up Comic book imagery, delinated in every aspect.  One of my favorite artists from the past is Drew Tucker, his water colour art was more suggestive.  It allowed me to interpret the image rather than having it clearly defined it every way.  I also loved picking up a card and having the art have personality.  I think that generally one artist is basically the same as the next amongst your roster.  Some stand out...but mostly we're in different shades of comic realism.

There are those really refreshing moments when you meet someone who speaks the words right out of your mouth. This is one of them.

I have to say that I like the style of the new 'walker art- it's daring, colorful, and emotive. Chandra and Garruk look absolutely incredible, and I might have found a new desktop wallpaper! 

However, the actual execution of the work is marred by some real flaws for the other 'walkers; they all seem to have stubby limbs, while Tezz and Liliana have squashed torsoes. The artist seems to have a problem with depth and foreshortening. Oh, and Sarkhan has a mouth to rial Steven Tyler's  

Feb 4, 2010 -- 5:27AM, Posco_Padfoot wrote:

- because who doesn't love Planeswalkers -

I don't. I hate every single Planeswalker card, for that matter.

I also hated this art. I suppose it's because I don't understand anything about art and those images are really, really nice for people who do (no sarcasm here, I'm serious) so I'm not going to complain. Since I'm totally stupid in what concerns art style I'm not in the position of complaining.

Feb 4, 2010 -- 5:27AM, Posco_Padfoot wrote:

I'd like to thank-you from the bottom of my fine-art lovin' heart for those images WOTC!

It's so great to see the characters we've come to love - because who doesn't love Planeswalkers - interpretted in a new way.  I love 'flat' style art, I find it gets to the emotional content of things much better than fully rendered, in your face, style art work.  I like to see the evidence of the craft in the final piece.

There's no room for my own vision, or the evidence of the artist in many of the modern Magic Cards.  Here is a guy wielding an axe!  Here is a flying dragon wheeling in the sky!  All of the card imagery ends in an exclamation point(s)...which is fine but when everything is a 10.....10 start to become the new 1 if you know what I mean.  There's nothing wrong with intense action shots, but they don't have to be spelled out in every detail.

I enjoy the art of the magic cards in general, it's at a very high technical level, but I find that overwhellmingly the art style is too realistic, hyper realistic.  It's often suped up Comic book imagery, delinated in every aspect.  One of my favorite artists from the past is Drew Tucker, his water colour art was more suggestive.  It allowed me to interpret the image rather than having it clearly defined it every way.  I also loved picking up a card and having the art have personality.  I think that generally one artist is basically the same as the next amongst your roster.  Some stand out...but mostly we're in different shades of comic realism. 

My favorite modern artist is Rebecca Guay.  Her images are sensitive, quiet and beautiful in a sea of 10's.  Again, my penchant for flat illustrative work is showing here but it's such a breath of fresh air!  Other favorites are:  Scott M Fischer (Pariah!), Nils Hamm, Jaimie Jones (What Atmosphere!),

I particularily like Jace and Garruk from these images with honorable mention to Lilianna.  I think they are the most successful at marrying realism (mostly because they have good proportions) and style. 

I LOVE these IMAGES....there are those of us out there who do!

Anyways...I don't get to talk about Magic art much but thanks for the opportunity!

The neo-walkers have been forced upon magic; just about all of them but jace fail to elicit anything like the emotional pull of the old, convoluted, all-too-human demigods that were the true planeswalkers, most obviously Urza, Teferi, etc. The neo walkers are all, "oh no, they killed my dad," "oh no, those esperites lied to me." Urza had the whole thran cycle and the ****ing brothers' war. You want some ****ing strife for your planeswalker to originate from? The war between urza and his brother turned the latter into an abomination and raped the ****ing planet in the process. In contrast, the neo-walkers are simple, obvious and contrived. That's why this art fails. For such an interpretive depiction to succeed, the subjects would have to be evocative on a symbolic level. And I'm talking more than "oh look at garruk, he has muscles and animal pelts, green mana!!" Where is the character? Where is the storytelling? Where is the mythos?

rebecca guay sucks, by the way. 

Thumbs up: These stood out a mile from all the other artwork on the site. I get so sick of the same old generic fantasy herosim. Most Magic artwork is excellent in itself, but flipping through the cards, they all start to blur into each other. I agree with Posco_Padfoot and scumbling in their assertion that when everything is amped completely up, at all times, it just gets boring. The impressionist bent here was a very nice change of pace. I miss the days when Magic artwork had more room for a variety of styles and tones.

Thumbs down: The proportions and poses were all wrong. Jace's face, especially, looked about three sizes too big for his head. It may seem weird to complain about a lack of realism given what I just said, but subtletly is important in graphics. If you're changing something, it's often more impactful to leave everything else about the image normal, heightening the contrast between the expected and the unexpected.

Thumbs sideways: Some characters suit the chaotic, sketchy style more than others. Personality-wise, Chandra, Ajani, Sarkhan and Tezzeret are all angry and impulsive and the artwork really conveyed that well. But for Elspeth, Jace and Liliana, who are all rather more measured, it seemed out of place imo.

That said, I have to applaud this as an attempt to give the artwork more personality.

Feb 4, 2010 -- 7:22AM, metalevolence wrote:

rebecca guay sucks, by the way. 

No, no. She doesn't. I don't like her style and I'm not a fan of her pictures but she doesn't suck and you know that. If she did suck, she wouldn't be known and respected as an artist and wouldn't have illustrated 145 Magic cards until today. It's OK that you don't like her style (I don't either) but you can't say she sucks because this is diminishing her work. Shame on you.

Feb 4, 2010 -- 7:29AM, Vektor480 wrote:

No, no. She doesn't. I don't like her style and I'm not a fan of her pictures but she doesn't suck and you know that. If she did suck, she wouldn't be known and respected as an artist and wouldn't have illustrated 145 Magic cards until today. It's OK that you don't like her style (I don't either) but you can't say she sucks because this is diminishing her work. Shame on you.

This. You don't get to be a Magic artist if you're technically unsound as an artist. I don't like Wayne Reynolds' art, or Carl Critchlow's, but they're still good artists.

However, metalevolence, I do agree with you on the subject of the new walkers lacking in humanity. I enjoyed the artwork today on a visual level, and felt it suited some of the characters as I said, but it didn't really have much emotional impact for me either which is down to the characters themselves, rather than the artist.

as a dude with an art history degree, and also a dude who likes to see a range of styles (and more abstract art) on magic cards, sorry but not thrilled with this. styles like this tend to result in facial expressions and body language that are at odds with the character, scene, or other parts of the image, and can result in absurdity because the face and stance are treated almost as still life rather than as human faces, as if the artist is ignoring the emotional reactions people have to these things (resulting in the constipated look on tezz, for instance). it can de-emotionalize the character for me. i understand the perfectly valid reasons to do this in art, but it seems to be at odds with what we would want from pictures of planeswalkers in a commercial product. i think the style is ill suited to the ultimate purpose of the art (which is to make you super psyched about planeswalkers). now, if this artist were doing cards with pictures of objects, places, or events (pretty much anything but humanlike characters) i would probably be a big fan.

someone mentioned the sandman, i believe, and relevantly one of the final story arcs was almost ruined for me because the artist for that arc (marc hempel) elected to make an artistic statement rather than illustrate the panels with human faces and bodies reacting in any normal way to the story they were in. so you'd have someone saying "hey i'm going to get some milk" and the face would look like he was being tortured to death, and then another panel would have someone saying "i can't believe you murdered my son!" and the face would be looking kind of bored and like it was made out of papier mache. it was especially upsetting because prior to this artist taking the helm, the series had been above and beyond fantastic in the art category, beautifully referencing all kinds of styles and cultures with the art. these don't remind me of mckean as much as hempel, and although they aren't quite that bad, it's a similar experience. i don't feel like these are real people, and i feel like the emotional reaction i'm having to them is skewed and wrong. unless the artist's intention was to make me feel that planeswalkers are kind of silly and/or robots (and tezz isn't the one who feels like a robot).

additionally it looks like garruk is experiencing some...excitement. this is either on purpose (which was uh...kind of a bad call) or the artist is really really stupid or unobservant (bad qualities for an artist). i'm leaning toward the former option, and i have to say, weird call. really weird call.

but all that said, this is really the perfect place to put this art. it's not on a card in a set, and it's in a product that is catering to the more hardcore fan. alternate art is best for these products with a niche audience.

I have to agree completely with Metalevolence in regards to the new planeswalkers. It's nice to see someone else mirroring my sentiments exactly. The awesome thing about the old planeswalkers were that they were demi-gods, they had unbelievable power, and not a single one of them truely knew how to use it, because they were all very human. They all thought they were doing the right thing, they all tried their best to help others out, but 99% of the time they just ended up screwing things up even worse than before. But you liked them (dare I say, loved them?) despite this, because their intentions were so noble!

As for the art, it mostly just makes me laugh. I'm glad they don't put this type of artwork on the cards, because it's just funny, particularly the horrible proportions and the silly expressions that most of them have. I'm pretty sure we caught most of them in the middle of taking a dump.

That said, I'm not against having different art styles utilized on the Magic cards. I do actually agree that the art of Magic cards has become far too uniform and comicy. I did very much like the variety of the older sets, particularly with some of the more abstract representations for spells that wouldn't necessarily have a real world correlation. Illustrating every counter-spell type of card with a guy glowing wildly has gotten kinda dull. Just don't put silly art on the cards, like these pictures are. These are mostly definitely best saved for arty things like the comics.

Luckily I keep CoP: Art on me...

Feb 3, 2010 -- 11:21PM, strammermax wrote:

so who illustrated these planeswalkers?

David Hollenbach. I've updated the Arcana to include that.

A quick question about the Worlds playmats.  Was one given out in 2005 and Wizards just doesn't have one to document or was it just not produced that year?

If you look at David Hollenbach's other work, the weird fragmented body proportions seem to be a stylistic choice.  His planeswalker arts are... interesting.

I don't know what the point of putting fantasy Magic characters through a style so tied to the real world (cut-up newspaper ransom note) is, though.  It's a bit like commissioning Wall Street Journal style stipple portraits of planeswalkers or running them through a filter of those old Soviet propaganda posters.  You get an interesting result, but in the end the style itself takes you in a completely alien direction from the Magic universe.

Feb 4, 2010 -- 1:41PM, PhoenixLAU wrote:

If you look at David Hollenbach's other work, the weird fragmented body proportions seem to be a stylistic choice. 

the other option, that he is just untalented and accidentally did a terrible job, didn't really strike me as a legitimate possibility. i think most people assumed this was just his style.

I don't know what the point of putting fantasy Magic characters through a style so tied to the real world (cut-up newspaper ransom note) is, though.  It's a bit like commissioning Wall Street Journal style stipple portraits of planeswalkers or running them through a filter of those old Soviet propaganda posters.  You get an interesting result, but in the end the style itself takes you in a completely alien direction from the Magic universe.

it's not quite so obvious as you're suggesting here, but it does take you a little bit out of the fantasy flavor. i agree with you that it seems like an odd choice for this product. i don't understand the purpose of artifying characters who are supposed to be viewed in a certain way and are part of commercial entertainment. planeswalkers are supposed to be badass, end of story. that is the aim of pretty much all the advertising of them that i've seen. i think for most people, these pictures do not succeed at making the viewer feel that way. some of them look confused, some of them look like they have some kind of genetic deformity, some of them look like they are doing awkward unmentionable things. this is a valid way to represent the human form to deliberately ellicit an unusual emotional response from the viewer, but i just don't see the purpose of doing that with planeswalkers in a magic: the gathering comic book. it's just a bizarre choice and it seems to go counter to the ultimate purpose of the book.

but i admit that my personal reaction to them might not be shared by many people. although, based on what i'm seeing on the boards, "wow they look awesome" was not the dominant reaction of the people posting here. and i could be wrong, but "wow they look awesome" is what i have been feeling like wotc wants us to feel about these characters.

Yuk!  I thought I was looking at amateur fan art.  They commissioned this?  Pros usually get their body proportions and balance right, but amatuers often don't have that kind of skill.  I think a well-executed mosaic drawing would be interesting, but this isn't it.

Feb 4, 2010 -- 1:41PM, PhoenixLAU wrote:

If you look at David Hollenbach's other work, the weird fragmented body proportions seem to be a stylistic choice.  His planeswalker arts are... interesting.

Thanks for the link.  Although I was not impressed with his other work either, the ones he chose to show on his homepage had more balanced poses and better facial expressions.  Most people think he did this on purpose, but maybe he's just not very good or lazy?  I think even the eyes on Elspeth (where he did no mosaics) are misaligned. 

Feb 4, 2010 -- 9:42AM, sircarp wrote:

Luckily I keep CoP: Art on me...

This made me lol.

I like Scott Fisher's use of mosaics on cards like Time Stop.

there is a fairly long history of professional and well thought of artists making the kinds of decisions he's made on facial expressions and depiction of the body. it's possible he's just bad at his job, but i don't think it's likely.

The new walkers are much better than the old imbawalkers. Ajani is the best planeswalker EVER.

not only is this deck not Plants! but i don't think it's plants either. at best, it's pl.

if the entire point of the deck is to get avenger out and use knight of the reliquary to pump the plants, why not put an entire playset of the avenger in the deck? and what purpose does the singleton loam lion serve? what a weird list.

Feb 5, 2010 -- 8:57AM, quitequieter wrote:

not only is this deck not Plants! but i don't think it's plants either. at best, it's pl.

if the entire point of the deck is to get avenger out and use knight of the reliquary to pump the plants, why not put an entire playset of the avenger in the deck? and what purpose does the singleton loam lion serve? what a weird list.

Agreed the deck is meant for pants and overrun strategy, loose the lion add another heirarch. Maybe add garruk to give the aggro strategy more power? I also don't like the single behemoth sledge and its tutor, the deck is meant to attack with an army that can't share one hammer between all of them. And whats the perimiter captain? The wall of reverence can already gain life on its own just by standing there, the single captain in a deck with only 4 defenders makes little sense. However i enjoy creatures with a big defense that can gain more life, so maybe add another captain? Or! And unfortunately it does not cost only one mana but if I were to make a sideboard for this I would put in 3 Kor Firewalkers to start with, maybe a Baneslayer Angel for extra protection? A few copies of Celestial purge and I'm not sure what else.

some of the choices are probably a result of this being a "show off worldwake" deck, but even under those conditions it's strange.

i don't know how adding another hierarch will increase the pantsiness of the deck. i think she's wearing a skirt.

Feb 4, 2010 -- 10:24PM, Newbunkle wrote:

The new walkers are much better than the old imbawalkers. Ajani is the best planeswalker EVER.

you best be trollin

Newbunkle is not trolling he just likes cats.  If you hang around you will see a lot of it.

LOL, if that's the case, Lord Windgrace was one of the Nine Titans and was a feline humanoid too.
Just for the sake of it, I think that new limited Planeswalkers are way, way worse than the godlike ones. They just look like mages that can teloprt between realities, not the powerfull beings they should be.

newbunkle is always trolling. he's a troll, so that's just what he does.

doesn't mean what he says isn't worth reading, or never true, but just sayin'.

just another bunch of rare cards,with a strategy so lame...
they should,i dont know,return to basics.
when a player see something like this,well,its a little sad.
ignoring the basic lands,and terramorfic expanse,this deck only have 4 commons.
¿and why does is called plants?
it dont even have khalni gardens!

We need a Plants vs Zombies duel decks, with Khalni gardens and Wall of Flowers.

The Card of the Day forum link is still pointing to January.

The Game Japan stuff from today:  best Magic Arcana ever.

"It's Presidents Day in the U.S., and we're celebrating with a red-white-and-blue special: Star Spangled Slaughter."

Um... one week early. President's day is next Monday

fail

I must say that I was at the very least surprised with today's Arcana. I liked it but was also... astonished.

Feb 8, 2010 -- 5:41AM, lathspel wrote:

The Game Japan stuff from today:  best Magic Arcana ever.

Agreed. I WANT a translation. Pretty please? I'm just waiting for the announcement of a regular Magic manga @ shonen jump, followed by a wildly successful Anime ^^

A man can dream, can't he?

Feb 8, 2010 -- 5:41AM, lathspel wrote:

The Card of the Day forum link is still pointing to January.

The Game Japan stuff from today:  best Magic Arcana ever.

Agreed.
Also, this hasn't erupted into a flame war yet ? Awesome < img src="http://fast1.onesite.com/community.wizards.com/smileys/grin.gif"> .

Feb 8, 2010 -- 4:10PM, RPJesus wrote:

Also, this hasn't erupted into a flame war yet ? Awesome < img src="http://fast1.onesite.com/community.wizards.com/smileys/grin.gif"> .

LOL! Go to the Januray thread.

another bunch of red rare cards?,¡what a surprise!,maybe wednesday they will post another red deck,or one with a planeswalker.
not seriously,i dont really have any problem with red,only how spikes actually cant stop playing it.
but planeswalkers are not really necesary at all.

There's also a Sorin Markov in the last comic strip!

About the Bloodhusk Ritualist - is it just me, or is it possible that the "goblet" is actually the severed top half of someone's head, and that the thoughts are coming directly out of that?  It looks like it kinda has hair, and a "husk" is the shell of something that was alive, usually.  Maybe it's just a bloody coconut.

I am shocked at the outrageous lies that are being told behind my back...

Are Cliff Threader and Marsh Threader the same kor?  The first appears to be female, and the second male (note the absence and presence of a "beard").

Oh sweet, I always wanted to know what my giant Iona card was made of. Foamcore sounds pretty awesome.

thats pauper format sounds awesome,i would like they do IRL tournaments of it.

Feb 10, 2010 -- 12:10AM, Layton wrote:

thats pauper format sounds awesome,i would like they do IRL tournaments of it.

I've been saying for a while that if WotC wants to increase acquisition they should have some non-Magic: Online pauper events. Maybe as a side event public event at a PTQ? At it's essence, Pauper is like any other format: the best cards are played and with each successive set release, some decks get better, some decks get worse.

In pauper, there are decks of many stripe: aggro, control, and combo. There are many sub-formats of pauper outside of MTGO: standard, extended, legacy, even singleton.

The best thing about Pauper is the cost barrier is pretty much eliminated. Yes, there are chase commons (Armadillo Cloak, Lotus Petal, Diabolic Edict, Rite of Flame, Muscle Sliver, to name a few), but the low cost of the format overall -- ie: no $200 manabase -- and the ability to still be competitive are enormous selling points. I've built pauper decks that cost less than the sleeves+box for the deck, and they're just fun as all get out.

I know I'm late to the conversation, but I only fount this thread a few days ago and wanted to catch up before I contributed.

I generally loved the art in arcana 379. I really liked the style - a mixture of 'otherworldliness' (as if to show how the planeswalkers don't quite exist in a normal reality), delicacy of brushstrokes and crudeness of joins, despite the subtlety of the cutting relative to his other work.

Ajani is a favourite of mine - the expression and the dropping fragments adding to the feeling of ferocity.

The limited pallete for each planeswalker seems well chosen and helps keep each distinct.

I was initially thrown by jace. I see now that his right foot is pointing at you but when not paying attention, the shadow kinda looks like a foot, making the leg look hideously elongated.

I also felt like Chandra's expression seemed as much plaintive as it might be a battlecry. But in any case, I wanted to bookmark the page as sson as I saw these pics, knowing I'd want to gaze upon them again.

I think that demanding our attention and examination is a fine quality.

Feb 10, 2010 -- 6:01AM, bill_jones wrote:

I've been saying for a while that if WotC wants to increase acquisition they should have some non-Magic: Online pauper events.
...
but the low cost of the format overall -- ie: no $200 manabase -- and the ability to still be competitive are enormous selling points. I've built pauper decks that cost less than the sleeves+box for the deck, and they're just fun as all get out.

they're selling points to the players, but not to wotc. this is probably WHY they don't support it as an official competitive format. acquiring new players who go on to buy 10 bucks worth of singles and have all they need to play is not that great of a business achievement. sure, now you have more magic PLAYERS. but do you have more magic CUSTOMERS? not really.

unless they're cracking packs to get that chase rare, buying crazy expensive singles for their standard/extended deck from the shop (which encourages the shop owner to crack a few cases to meet demand), or playing a ton of limited, they're not going to do much for the company. it is possible that players can get into it with pauper, then try some limited, then fill in their collection and try standard. but most players who were attracted to the low price tag are likely to stick with it, i think. it's the same reason they continue to make dual lands rare when there's excellent arguments to make them uncommon.

Feb 10, 2010 -- 6:01AM, bill_jones wrote:

Feb 10, 2010 -- 12:10AM, Layton wrote:

thats pauper format sounds awesome,i would like they do IRL tournaments of it.

I've been saying for a while that if WotC wants to increase acquisition they should have some non-Magic: Online pauper events. Maybe as a side event public event at a PTQ? At it's essence, Pauper is like any other format: the best cards are played and with each successive set release, some decks get better, some decks get worse.

In pauper, there are decks of many stripe: aggro, control, and combo. There are many sub-formats of pauper outside of MTGO: standard, extended, legacy, even singleton.

The best thing about Pauper is the cost barrier is pretty much eliminated. Yes, there are chase commons (Armadillo Cloak, Lotus Petal, Diabolic Edict, Rite of Flame, Muscle Sliver, to name a few), but the low cost of the format overall -- ie: no $200 manabase -- and the ability to still be competitive are enormous selling points. I've built pauper decks that cost less than the sleeves+box for the deck, and they're just fun as all get out.

Sinkhole and Chain Lightning =p

But yeah I love Peasant and Pauper, exactly because for €10 you can have a wholly different deck (and indeed that the prize isn't so horribly skewed towards the mana base). There are a lot of non-sanctioned Peasant (and sometimes Pauper) tournaments over here.

I think it would work really well for wizards if they pushed one of these formats for gateway/FNM

The only problem is Storm, which is kind of the Affinity Boogyman of Pauper.

Very glad to see that green is finally getting viable =)

Feb 10, 2010 -- 10:45AM, quitequieter wrote:

they're selling points to the players, but not to wotc. this is probably WHY they don't support it as an official competitive format. acquiring new players who go on to buy 10 bucks worth of singles and have all they need to play is not that great of a business achievement. sure, now you have more magic PLAYERS. but do you have more magic CUSTOMERS? not really.

Most Magic customers start as Magic players.

Card of the Day, Wednesday, 10 February.

"Worldwake uncommon. ... Ricochet Trap is unusual in that it's a red card showing a blue mage casting a spell. But the spell is looping around the hedrons and coming back to hit the mage instead of it's intended target!"

The second "it's" should be "its" (the possessive of "it" and not the contraction of "it is") instead.

I'm sorry. I had to say it. Seeing that error just bugs me.

well,about the lands,all my decks work really well,and i use only basic lands,rarely i use things like the "refuges" from zendikar,and to be honest i love to use srepading seas,seas claim or just a stone rain on a 120$ land XD.

but yes,its a bad idea for the company to make pauper irl tournaments.
but still a cool idea,i gonna try it with my friends.

"Extended White Weenie"...sounds like a late night informercial

unless they're cracking packs to get that chase rare, buying crazy expensive singles for their standard/extended deck from the shop (which encourages the shop owner to crack a few cases to meet demand), or playing a ton of limited, they're not going to do much for the company. it is possible that players can get into it with pauper, then try some limited, then fill in their collection and try standard. but most players who were attracted to the low price tag are likely to stick with it, i think.

Duel Decks = complete game in a box

It's a product that does nothing to directly support cracking packs, buying singles, or playing a ton of limited. Yet they still make 'em. And people still buy 'em.

More Magic players is good for Magic. Things that are good for Magic are good for WotC.

Feb 11, 2010 -- 12:25AM, Prodigal_Planeswalker wrote:

unless they're cracking packs to get that chase rare, buying crazy expensive singles for their standard/extended deck from the shop (which encourages the shop owner to crack a few cases to meet demand), or playing a ton of limited, they're not going to do much for the company. it is possible that players can get into it with pauper, then try some limited, then fill in their collection and try standard. but most players who were attracted to the low price tag are likely to stick with it, i think.

Duel Decks = complete game in a box

It's a product that does nothing to directly support cracking packs, buying singles, or playing a ton of limited. Yet they still make 'em. And people still buy 'em.

More Magic players is good for Magic. Things that are good for Magic are good for WotC.

i have only been playing mtg since last July 09. I have found the duel decks invaluable. Going back & buying  the singles themselves are normally too costly.

yeah but duel decks cost money. i am just not so sure they want to make a much more inexpensive alternative to standard available officially. i think it would encourage people to spend less on magic in general.

also for the record i love duel decks and wotc has been amazingly willing to put hard to find money rares in them, for which i thank them wholeheartedly.

@today's arcana: there's something seriously wrong with the perspective in strength of the tajiru. that giant elf guy with the hedron and the stupid facial expression appears to be standing in the gap between the two parts of the bridge, but where is that lion thing coming from? is it just flying around or is there some bizarre ledge jutting out of the bridge behind the elf guy where we can't see it? the whole thing is cluttered and busy confusing.

Get it? It's got protection from lands, so it never lands!

This seems backward to me. I would think that it has protection because it never lands, not the other way around.

Or is it that it has protection from land, and so it can't land?

(also, they spelled "touch" wrong. I don't really care, but there seem to be a lot of typos in the Card of Day lately)

why are there two fetchlands in the goblin deck? reasons for fetches i can think of are: you want to thin out your deck, you have landfall dudes, you have more than one color in your deck.

there are no landfall dudes and it's a monocolor deck, and if you wanted to thin the deck, wouldn't you play more fetches? are there some plains and some white cards in the sideboard?

Feb 12, 2010 -- 9:05AM, quitequieter wrote:

why are there two fetchlands in the goblin deck? reasons for fetches i can think of are: you want to thin out your deck, you have landfall dudes, you have more than one color in your deck.

there are no landfall dudes and it's a monocolor deck, and if you wanted to thin the deck, wouldn't you play more fetches? are there some plains and some white cards in the sideboard?

Good question.  Maybe the player only owns two Arid Mesas?

I liked Valentine's Day deck. Just for the record, it was really nice.

Think of all the minotaurs you can kill with razor boomarang! For only 15 mana, you can kill their hurloon minotaur! What a bargain!

Feb 15, 2010 -- 3:23PM, bob_the_wonder_Beeble wrote:

Think of all the minotaurs you can kill with razor boomarang! For only 15 mana, you can kill their hurloon minotaur! What a bargain!

don't forget the "tap three untapped creatures that you've controlled since the beginning of your upkeep." that's also part of the price. IN ADDITION to the 15 mana. but it's uncolored mana, so you could pay it with ANYTHING!

See? Who needs to play Darksteel Colossus when you can kill a Hurloon Minotaur using only 4 more mana than it would cost? And tapping 3 creatures without summoning sickness?

If the boomerang is a threat for minotaurs, I'd say they are pretty safe.

Is this weeks card of the day theme Worldwake Cards that do nothing?

I'm guessing Rumbling Aftershocks , Bull Rush , and Mire's Toll for the rest of this week.

The sideboard of the Battle of Wits deck only has 12 cards in its sideboard.

Feb 16, 2010 -- 3:33AM, EvilCheesecake wrote:

The sideboard of the Battle of Wits deck only has 12 cards in its sideboard.

when did they start letting you have sideboards for your sideboards? can you take out stuff from your sideboard sideboard and put it in your sideboard between matches?

Feb 16, 2010 -- 3:33AM, EvilCheesecake wrote:

The sideboard of the Battle of Wits deck only has 12 cards in its sideboard.

The main deck includes 3 Tormod's Crypt that should be in the sideboard.

strategy.channelfireball.com/featured-ar...

(ChannelFireball does not make it easy to search their site for articles.  Lame.)

So, I'm looking for predictions.  Given the way Eye of Ugin is worded, is the next set based on a colorless theme or is it based on Eldrazi as a subtype?  Also, if Eldrazi is a subtype, is it an instant/sorcery subtype or a creature type or both?  If its a creature subtype, will this be a tribal set in addition?  Somethings to speculate on.

Eldrazi will be creatures. I belive instants/sorceries/creatures can't share types - hence the invention of tribal.

wow, talk about totally pointless decks of the day... 3 year old 2hg draft decks, that a) have no use now and b) were completely explored to the point of a constructed block deck the first time they came around

yeah, because daily decks always showcases rogue standard decks. good call shard fenix. what were they thinking, showing this old deck no one can take to or draft at a tournament? that's not what daily decks is for!

edit: psychatog?! i'm outraged, i can't take this to a standard tournament!

Negator finally 100% offically no fakesies confirmed. Yay!

I am actually impressed with the Pyrexian vs Coalition Deck.  The phyrexian one especially seems to have a couple of good cards in it.  Shiny Urza's rage with an... angry urza

Feb 21, 2010 -- 9:08PM, JohnnyComeLately wrote:

Negator finally 100% offically no fakesies confirmed. Yay!

That actually happened a week ago.

Decklists are pretty cool, but a few complaints here and there. Really surprized how Coaltion deck turned out, no Urza lands, no Coalition Victory or Legacy Weapon. And foil Urza's Rage... dunno, I wouldn't have expected that, or wanted it. Is it even going to be Mythic Rare? Still, after seeing the lands I understand why, and the legendary dragons are cool though unexpected.

Nothing but praise for Phyrexian deck. Very tight, very effective, so sad Phyrexian Dreadnought didn't make it. Phyrexian Processor with new art is completely worth it, plus sweet Negator. Can't wait for followup article near release.

Man The Coalition deck looks good. I just recently got back into Magic and I have really wanted to get Rith, The awakener. Unfortunately i have not seen it in any stores. I will be picking this up specifically for the three dragons that come with it.

lol Voltaic Key

Feb 21, 2010 -- 9:57PM, zammm wrote:

Feb 21, 2010 -- 9:08PM, JohnnyComeLately wrote:

Negator finally 100% offically no fakesies confirmed. Yay!

That actually happened a week ago.

I don't read absolutely everything on this site, and, in fact, I'm not even sure where to find that, but it certainly is informative. It shows they know exactly what they're doing, and are aware of the Sliver Queen comparison.

Feb 22, 2010 -- 12:23AM, quadibloc wrote:

I don't read absolutely everything on this site, and, in fact, I'm not even sure where to find that, but it certainly is informative. It shows they know exactly what they're doing, and are aware of the Sliver Queen comparison.

The more likely story is that well after Slivers went to manufacturing, when they finally let us know what was in it and it was received by the community with a resounding thud,  someone at Wizards eventually realized "we shoulda put the Queen in the damn thing!"

In typical Wizards fashion, it takes an abyssal failure for someone in the offices to realize what the boards had been saying for quite awhile (sometimes years, as in this case).  See also: "artifacts look too much like white cards", "Just ban Necro, dammit", "Those artifact lands are the real problem", etc.

Maybe in a year or two, we'll see the bendy-foils problem actually addressed.

Ha. PvTC really is just one deck of "Everything with Phyrexia in the name" and one deck of "Invasion and Planeshift: Greatest Hits". 

Mind you, "Invasion and Planeshift: Greatests Hits" isn't a bad idea. I loved Invasion block back in the day. I've kinda already got all those cards, though, so I don't think I'll be buying it. Still, it's fun to see the decklists, for nostalgia value

(And yeah, I didn't buy the Slivers deck, but I'd have been much more likely to if it had had a Queen in.)

Feb 22, 2010 -- 2:00AM, alextfish wrote:

(And yeah, I didn't buy the Slivers deck, but I'd have been much more likely to if it had had a Queen in.) 

Something is definitely amiss when people are buying a Slivers! deck for the freakin' M10 Dual Land and little else.

I like the new duel decks. They seem flavorfull and well built. But why Voltaic Key ? Doesnit fit any flavor for Phyrexia that I'm not getting?

Feb 22, 2010 -- 12:05PM, Vektor480 wrote:

But why Voltaic Key ? Doesnit fit any flavor for Phyrexia that I'm not getting?

It has synergy with several other cards in the deck, that's all.

This the least exited I have been over a duel deck. Most of the cards in the decks are not only kinda bad. ( Obviously there are a few gems) On top ofhtta none of them are terribly exiting. Theres not even any cards that make buying it worth it.

this looks fantastically amazing. i will absolutely be buying one.

is there an official announcement regarding the reserve list? i think it's really sad they messed up the sliver deck so bad. i bought one when the price got slashed in the local shop, but he was definitely having trouble moving them even with the price cut.

darn, no new art for Coalition Relic. (And Yavimaya Elder is sad about not being able to stack damage )

Feb 22, 2010 -- 5:27PM, superschatzman wrote:

This the least exited I have been over a duel deck. Most of the cards in the decks are not only kinda bad. ( Obviously there are a few gems) On top ofhtta none of them are terribly exiting. Theres not even any cards that make buying it worth it.

Negator, Dark Ritual, Greaves, Living Death, and Plaguelord at the least, plus big dumb dragons are always fun at least, efficiency aside (Although they are damn good at what they do).
Although I'm mildly sad that they're mostly using the gouge-friendly singleton format, but I may still invest in at least one of these.

Feb 22, 2010 -- 12:05PM, Vektor480 wrote:

I like the new duel decks. They seem flavorfull and well built. But why Voltaic Key ? Doesnit fit any flavor for Phyrexia that I'm not getting?

...
Artifacts?

stoneforge mystic wins the prize for my least favorite art in worldwake. it looks like a screen shot from one of those old pc games i used to play back in the 90s, and its main colors are green and black, which just seems so odd on the white frame.

Only now I understood what the art of Stoneforger Mystic. It always looked like a ring of rock or something like that for me. Now I see that it's the heat coming out that feels like more stone in the backgroud. I don't like it, but thanks for the explanation. At least now I know what it is.

Anyone else feel about either of the new decks like you felt when you saw Lord of the Pit in Divine vs Demonic? One deck is absolutely killer while the other is meh.

I'm going to keep the Phyrexian deck relatively intact, but I'm breaking up the Coalition deck for a legit 5 color and include the dragons in Naya, Jund, and Bant decks. I think I'll add my 2 Crypt of Agadeem in the Phyrexian deck. Everflowing Chalice could also rock with the Voltaic Key.

I'm waiting for Duel Decks: Clone vs Clone.

Or Duel Decks: Relentless Rats vs Relentless Rats.

Or Duel Decks: Pirates vs Ninjas (The real one)

And From the Vault: Dinosaurs

i'd buy relentless rats vs relentless rats.

Is the flavor text for Goblin Roughrider missing the word "the"?

"Astride the bucking creature, Gribble hurtled down the mountainside while his Grotag brethren cheered. It was at that moment that the legend of the Skrill Tamer was born."

Is it just me or the link at the end of today's deck description is a bit off?

I mean, unless the event coverage was a judge exam of sorts.

Is it just me or is the magic arcana archive buggy?

Btw, Explore for the Wallpaper of week ASAP.

¿i cant enter in the contest?!,¿just because im from another country?!

Feb 24, 2010 -- 10:43PM, Layton wrote:

¿i cant enter in the contest?!,¿just because im from another country?!

Yeah, those of us outside the world - sorry, I mean, the USA - can basically never enter any competitions or promos by American companies, including Wizards. It's just the way these things usually go. Aren't you used to certain USAians treating the rest of the world as second-class citizens by now?

At least mtgcom has cut down on the amount of baseball metaphors compared to a few years ago 

(It's not like I'd have entered this one anyway, since it's a free trip to somewhere I have no interest in going.)

I like the art for Stoneforge Mystic now I've seen it explained, though.

I'm not a legal US resident!!!

Need less restriction, let non-US residents in

Feb 25, 2010 -- 2:27AM, alextfish wrote:

Yeah, those of us outside the world - sorry, I mean, the USA - can basically never enter any competitions or promos by American companies, including Wizards. It's just the way these things usually go. Aren't you used to certain USAians treating the rest of the world as second-class citizens by now?

Can Americans enter contests held by companies in your country?

PARTICIPANT AGREEMENT so how do i send this in?

Feb 24, 2010 -- 8:39AM, orcishartillery wrote:

Is the flavor text for Goblin Roughrider missing the word "the"?

"Astride the bucking creature, Gribble hurtled down the mountainside while his Grotag brethren cheered. It was at that moment that the legend of the Skrill Tamer was born."

"It was at that moment that legend (that legend specifically, as opposed to some other legend)..."

Definitely an awkward phrasing with the doubled thats, though.

Feb 25, 2010 -- 9:53AM, Shatta69 wrote:

Need less restriction, let non-US residents in

It's a legality thing IIRC.

Feb 25, 2010 -- 1:40PM, fenthing wrote:

PARTICIPANT AGREEMENT so how do i send this in?

This.

Feb 25, 2010 -- 12:46PM, orcishartillery wrote:

Feb 25, 2010 -- 2:27AM, alextfish wrote:

Yeah, those of us outside the world - sorry, I mean, the USA - can basically never enter any competitions or promos by American companies, including Wizards. It's just the way these things usually go. Aren't you used to certain USAians treating the rest of the world as second-class citizens by now?

Can Americans enter contests held by companies in your country?

Hmm... you know, I guess that's a fair point. I certainly imagine there are companies in the UK who do business internationally but for legal reasons can't offer certain prizes to international customers. That bit's fair enough.

Let me retract and rephrase my objection. All I'd like Wizards to do differently is to mention up-front that this promotion is for USA customers only, rather than have it buried in the T&Cs. If it's buried in the T&Cs, it gives the impression that the article/website author has forgotten anyone outside the USA exists and it's left to the lawyers to point that out. If it's mentioned, even briefly, in the actual text, then it's completely different. Something as simple as "By the way, for legal reasons this contest is only open to residents of the USA." That kind of acknowledgement that we exist would go a long way.

But yes, I think I should apologise for the tone of my original comment: there are a lot of USAians who really don't remember that anyone exists outside their country, so it pushed my buttons. But Wizards don't deserve to be tarred with the same brush as them: Wizards are a lot better than that.

Let me third the Participation Agreement question.  Do you want it scanned in?

Feb 26, 2010 -- 2:18AM, alextfish wrote:

All I'd like Wizards to do differently is to mention up-front that this promotion is for USA customers only, rather than have it buried in the T&Cs.

But everybody does it that way, not just Wizards. Actually, I'll agree with you this far: instead of being in terms and conditions you have to click on a link to get to, it should have been in small print at the bottom of the main page for the promotion. But things like that are normally in small print and shoved out of the way - and people are used to the fact that contests are good only in the originating country.

At least Canadians are used to that fact from experience; perhaps there are other parts of the world in which, for whatever reason, this isn't encountered as often.