==ISLANDHOME #27==
September 3rd 2008
==IN THIS ISSUE...==
Shards of Alara Spoiler Season
Banned & Restricted List Changes - Extended, Legacy, Vintage, and EDH all have new B&R changes!
Cube Drafting
Madonia Minute
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Grim @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard Constructed at FNC @ 1 PM
Sunday: Chaos Draft at Brothers Grim @ 2 PM
It's less than a month until the Shards of Alara prerelease, and that means it's spoiler season! The Orb of Insight is up and running, and official and un-official spoilers are beginning to trickle in from magazines and *ahem* "other" sources. There are going to be a lot of multicolor cards in the set, almost as much as Shadowmoor and Eventide had, although they're the old "gold" cards, not hybrids. Shards seems to focus on tri-color cards based around the different "shards" from the storyline. How will this affect drafting and deck construction in general? Well we'll have to see what kind of mana-fixing is available in the set before anyone can make a final judgement.
Some interesting discoveries so far include:
- Colored artifacts, centered around the blue shard.
- A new red Bitterblossom for goblins. It costs 2R, and the tokens have haste, but all goblins have to attack each turn if able.
- Four planeswalkers. Two of them are spoiled so far.
- No Future Sight reprints, and no Thirst for Knowledge either, despite it being an FNM card.
- There are 13 hits for Cycling in the Orb, and five hits for cycle, such as "When you cycle...", so Cycling is most likely a returning mechanic.
- Two possible mechanic names: "Devour" and "Unearth". Unearth probably has something to do with returning something from your graveyard to play/your hand, based on the name and other hits in the Orb.
- A cycle of cards that cost XXYYYZZ, centered around a shard, such as WWUUUBB. 10:1 odds on these being completely unplayable.
You can check out the spoiler on MTGSalvation, which is updated as new information comes in. Wizards's official spoiler is here, on the Shards of Alara mini-site.
The banned and restricted list for multiple types of formats has recently been updated, with some surprising changes.
Extended: Sensei's Divining Top is banned. This is a big change, though it won't really be felt until Extended season next year. It will have an impact on PT: Berlin next month however. We won't know until Friday the exact reasons why Top got the boot, but the obvious answer is that the card adds 15-20 minutes onto every match... especially with heavily played shuffle effects like fetchlands in the format.
Legacy: Time Vault is banned. The card will be getting errata to be closer to its original wording soon, which would make it very broken.
Vintage:
- Time Vault is restricted.
- Dream Halls is unrestricted.
- Chrome Mox is unrestricted.
- Mox Diamond is unrestricted.
- Personal Tutor is unrestricted.
- Time Spiral is unrestricted.
Elder Dragon Highlander:
- Karakas is banned. All card-specific EDH rules are removed, so Karakas would be an easy, uncounterable answer to any general. My Grand Arbiter deck is going to miss Karakas + Venser though. :(
- Riftsweeper is banned. With no more card-specific errata, Riftsweeper would effectively remove a general from being playable as soon as turn 2.
- Protean Hulk is banned. There are too many instant-kill combos involving the card, so it's gone.
- Grindstone is banned, for tutoring/Painter's Servant combos.
- Lion's Eye Diamond is banned.
- Test of Endurance is unbanned, the reasoning being that it's hard to stay over 50 life for long, especially in multiplayer, which EDH is meant for.
- Rune-Tail, Kitsune Attendant isn't banned or restricted, but it now works as originally printed.
==IN THIS ISSUE...==
Shards of Alara Spoiler Season
Banned & Restricted List Changes - Extended, Legacy, Vintage, and EDH all have new B&R changes!
Cube Drafting
Madonia Minute
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Grim @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard Constructed at FNC @ 1 PM
Sunday: Chaos Draft at Brothers Grim @ 2 PM
==SHARDS OF ALARA SPOILER SEASON==
Author: Brian Paskoff
Author: Brian Paskoff
It's less than a month until the Shards of Alara prerelease, and that means it's spoiler season! The Orb of Insight is up and running, and official and un-official spoilers are beginning to trickle in from magazines and *ahem* "other" sources. There are going to be a lot of multicolor cards in the set, almost as much as Shadowmoor and Eventide had, although they're the old "gold" cards, not hybrids. Shards seems to focus on tri-color cards based around the different "shards" from the storyline. How will this affect drafting and deck construction in general? Well we'll have to see what kind of mana-fixing is available in the set before anyone can make a final judgement.
Some interesting discoveries so far include:
- Colored artifacts, centered around the blue shard.
- A new red Bitterblossom for goblins. It costs 2R, and the tokens have haste, but all goblins have to attack each turn if able.
- Four planeswalkers. Two of them are spoiled so far.
- No Future Sight reprints, and no Thirst for Knowledge either, despite it being an FNM card.
- There are 13 hits for Cycling in the Orb, and five hits for cycle, such as "When you cycle...", so Cycling is most likely a returning mechanic.
- Two possible mechanic names: "Devour" and "Unearth". Unearth probably has something to do with returning something from your graveyard to play/your hand, based on the name and other hits in the Orb.
- A cycle of cards that cost XXYYYZZ, centered around a shard, such as WWUUUBB. 10:1 odds on these being completely unplayable.
You can check out the spoiler on MTGSalvation, which is updated as new information comes in. Wizards's official spoiler is here, on the Shards of Alara mini-site.
==BANNED & RESTRICTED LIST CHANGES==
Author: Brian Paskoff
Author: Brian Paskoff
The banned and restricted list for multiple types of formats has recently been updated, with some surprising changes.
Extended: Sensei's Divining Top is banned. This is a big change, though it won't really be felt until Extended season next year. It will have an impact on PT: Berlin next month however. We won't know until Friday the exact reasons why Top got the boot, but the obvious answer is that the card adds 15-20 minutes onto every match... especially with heavily played shuffle effects like fetchlands in the format.
Legacy: Time Vault is banned. The card will be getting errata to be closer to its original wording soon, which would make it very broken.
Vintage:
- Time Vault is restricted.
- Dream Halls is unrestricted.
- Chrome Mox is unrestricted.
- Mox Diamond is unrestricted.
- Personal Tutor is unrestricted.
- Time Spiral is unrestricted.
Elder Dragon Highlander:
- Karakas is banned. All card-specific EDH rules are removed, so Karakas would be an easy, uncounterable answer to any general. My Grand Arbiter deck is going to miss Karakas + Venser though. :(
- Riftsweeper is banned. With no more card-specific errata, Riftsweeper would effectively remove a general from being playable as soon as turn 2.
- Protean Hulk is banned. There are too many instant-kill combos involving the card, so it's gone.
- Grindstone is banned, for tutoring/Painter's Servant combos.
- Lion's Eye Diamond is banned.
- Test of Endurance is unbanned, the reasoning being that it's hard to stay over 50 life for long, especially in multiplayer, which EDH is meant for.
- Rune-Tail, Kitsune Attendant isn't banned or restricted, but it now works as originally printed.
==CUBE DRAFTING==
Author: Brian Paskoff
Author: Brian Paskoff
Not too many players have been exposed to this format, which is relatively new to Long Island. Tired of drafting SSE? In a cube draft, your first pick choices could be between Darksteel Colossus, Swords to Plowshares, Force of Will, and Black Lotus! A "cube" contains roughly 400 of the best cards in Magic's history, and at the start of a cube draft, all of these cards are shuffled thoroughly and then distributed in 15 card packs between all the drafters. Since every card is a bomb, this leads to some incredibly interesting and/or broken decks, and you have to think carefully about what archetype (zoo, white weenie, burn, control, etc.) your deck is heading towards when you pick each card. Darksteel Colossus is a great card, but if you're in some kind of RW aggro archetype, Flametongue Kavu might be a better choice. A cube doesn't have to contain only the best cards in Magic; for example, there's a debate whether cubes should contain Power (Lotus, Moxen, etc.), and it's possible to build a "theme" cube... for example, maybe one with the worst cards in Magic history. Sorrow's Path first pick anyone? Anyway, many players with access to a large collection are working on cubes, so it shouldn't be long before someone brings one down for drafting!
==RULES CORNER==
Author: Brian Paskoff
Author: Brian Paskoff
First off, a correction from last week - if you draw too many cards at the start of a game, a judge will select cards at random from your hand until you're holding the correct number, and then take one more and shuffle those cards into your deck. I forgot the "one more" part.
Q. I have a Prismatic Omen in play, along with a Vivid Grove and a Forest. If my opponent plays Magus of the Moon, is my Vivid Grove still all basic land types?
A. No. Prismatic Omen and Magus of the Moon both change the types of objects, so both of their continuous effects apply in layer 4. And since both of them apply in the same layer, we use timestamps to determine what your lands look like. Magus of the Moon has the newer timestamp, so all your nonbasic lands are Mountains, overriding Prismatic Omen's effect. Your Forest still has all basic land types, because it's still a basic land and therefore unaffected by Magus of the Moon.
Q. So if my opponent had Magus of the Moon out and I played Prismatic Omen, they'd be all types?
A. Yes, in this case, Prismatic Omen's type changing effect is newer.
Q. My Sower of Temptation is stealing my opponent's Mistbind Clique. My opponent plays a Sower, retaking control of his Mistbind Clique. If I kill his Sower, do I get his Mistbind Clique back?
A. Sower of Temptation's control changing effect applies in layer 2, and since there are two control effects affecting the same object, they apply in timestamp order. His Sower effect is newer, so he controls his Clique, but because your control effect is still applying to the Clique, once his control effect ends, yours takes over again and you'll get the Clique back.
A. No. Prismatic Omen and Magus of the Moon both change the types of objects, so both of their continuous effects apply in layer 4. And since both of them apply in the same layer, we use timestamps to determine what your lands look like. Magus of the Moon has the newer timestamp, so all your nonbasic lands are Mountains, overriding Prismatic Omen's effect. Your Forest still has all basic land types, because it's still a basic land and therefore unaffected by Magus of the Moon.
Q. So if my opponent had Magus of the Moon out and I played Prismatic Omen, they'd be all types?
A. Yes, in this case, Prismatic Omen's type changing effect is newer.
Q. My Sower of Temptation is stealing my opponent's Mistbind Clique. My opponent plays a Sower, retaking control of his Mistbind Clique. If I kill his Sower, do I get his Mistbind Clique back?
A. Sower of Temptation's control changing effect applies in layer 2, and since there are two control effects affecting the same object, they apply in timestamp order. His Sower effect is newer, so he controls his Clique, but because your control effect is still applying to the Clique, once his control effect ends, yours takes over again and you'll get the Clique back.
==THE ISLANDHOME BLOG==
One of the things I wanted to do was have an archive of past issues online so I could refer people back to them as well as let new readers peruse old issues to see what all the fuss is about. So I've archived all the old issues on the blogosphere at islandhomemtg.blogspot.com. Go and relive all the past moments of glory!
If you've noticed, in the past few weeks I've been having a few more guest articles in Islandhome. With tournaments all weekend and work all week, sometimes it's hard to find time to sit down and write an entire newsletter, which is why I love it when I get article submissions! Not only does it give more introspective on the Long Island Magic community from those who are a part of it, it saves me work. ;) It's especially useful to get articles from players who are a part of the metagame, as judges are notoriously bad players.
If you've got an article you'd like to submit, send it to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com. Try to keep it a reasonable length - there's no word limit, but look at previous Islandhome articles for guidance - and avoid bad language and personal insults. Also try to maintain good grammar and spelling; doesn't have to be perfect, but you should see how long it takes me to spellcheck the Madonia Minute every week!
I can't promise every submission will make it into the next week's Islandhome, but I'll try to get as many in as I can, especially ones that are relevant to a previous/upcoming event.
==GUEST ARTICLES==
If you've noticed, in the past few weeks I've been having a few more guest articles in Islandhome. With tournaments all weekend and work all week, sometimes it's hard to find time to sit down and write an entire newsletter, which is why I love it when I get article submissions! Not only does it give more introspective on the Long Island Magic community from those who are a part of it, it saves me work. ;) It's especially useful to get articles from players who are a part of the metagame, as judges are notoriously bad players.
If you've got an article you'd like to submit, send it to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com. Try to keep it a reasonable length - there's no word limit, but look at previous Islandhome articles for guidance - and avoid bad language and personal insults. Also try to maintain good grammar and spelling; doesn't have to be perfect, but you should see how long it takes me to spellcheck the Madonia Minute every week!
I can't promise every submission will make it into the next week's Islandhome, but I'll try to get as many in as I can, especially ones that are relevant to a previous/upcoming event.
==UPCOMING EVENTS==
October 4th - December 28th: PTQ Season for PT Kyoto
The next PTQ season kicks off October 4th, and the format is Shards of Alara sealed deck!
September: FNM comes to Brothers Grim!
Yes, after a long wait and bugging Wizards every month, Grim is finally getting FNM sanctioning! FNM promos are here!
The next PTQ season kicks off October 4th, and the format is Shards of Alara sealed deck!
September: FNM comes to Brothers Grim!
Yes, after a long wait and bugging Wizards every month, Grim is finally getting FNM sanctioning! FNM promos are here!
==STORE LOCATIONS & CONTACT INFO==
Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 698-2805
Website: www.brgim.com
Friendly Neighborhood Comics
3 Grant Avenue, Suite 2
Islip, NY 11751
Phone: 470-7984
Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 698-2805
Website: www.brgim.com
Friendly Neighborhood Comics
3 Grant Avenue, Suite 2
Islip, NY 11751
Phone: 470-7984
==FIN==
See everyone this weekend!
Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!
Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!
-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY
L1 NY
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