==ISLANDHOME #45==
January 7th 2009
==IN THIS ISSUE...==
Conflux Spoilers
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard Constructed at FNC ($5 entry) @ 1 PM
Sunday: Chaos Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 2 PM
==NEWS BITES==
Author: Brian J. Paskoff
==CONFLUX SPOILERS==
Author: Brian J. Paskoff
==EURO LANDS PROMOTION==
Author: Brian Paskoff
After a short break, Islandhome is once again accepting guest articles from our readers!
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.
==IN THIS ISSUE...==
Conflux Spoilers
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard Constructed at FNC ($5 entry) @ 1 PM
Sunday: Chaos Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 2 PM
==NEWS BITES==
Author: Brian J. Paskoff
PTQs for Pro Tour Honolulu have already begun, with a couple of PTQs last weekend starting the season off with a bang. While there are no decklists available yet, next week I'll have a write-up on the format and a discussion on the winning decks so you can prepare for the PTQs in our area. Speaking of which, I'm still planning on sanctioning an Extended tournament at the end of this month at FNC, so start preparing! Odds are there'll also be a Standard tournament running at the same time, so you can pick which format you'd like to play that day.
We've had a lot of fun cube drafting on Saturday nights, so if you want to join in, let me know! I'll be bringing my cube again this week for some hot action after the tournament.
We've had a lot of fun cube drafting on Saturday nights, so if you want to join in, let me know! I'll be bringing my cube again this week for some hot action after the tournament.
==CONFLUX SPOILERS==
Author: Brian J. Paskoff
The prereleases for Conflux are less than a month away, and spoiler season is in full swing, with multiple updates to the list of rumored cards every day on MTGSalvation's forums. As of the time of this writing, there are forty-three cards in the official unofficial spoiler. As usual, players are eagerly awaiting the new set, especially after waiting so long in between the release of Shards of Alara and Conflux. With Faeries dominating a metagame that hasn't changed much at all in months, even after the usually-metagame-warping Worlds, everyone's hopeful that some big changes will come with this small set.
The Orb of Insight is up and running, and if you've never used an Orb of Insight before, typing in any word will show you how many times it appears on cards in the set. I'll let you poke through the Orb yourself, but the biggest find so far is something with a mana cost of WWUUBBRRGG - yes, that's two mana of every color.
White is apparently getting a Memory Lapse for 2W. Although it's one mana too much to compete with the classic "counterspell", it still might see play in some non-blue decks that want to delay their opponents' answers.
White's also getting a new one-mana removal spell in the vein of Swords to Plowshares: Path to Exile. Instead of giving your opponent life in exchange for removing their creature from the game, Path to Exile lets them search their library for a basic land card and put it into play tapped. While this doesn't seem nearly as good as Swords, or even Condemn in some situations, it may just replace Unmake in certain decks. Personally I'm not too thrilled about accelerating my opponent into a Wrath or Cryptic Command if I'm an aggro player facing a control deck.
The question on everyone's mind when preparing for Conflux was what answers the set would give them against Faeries. Speculation was rampant on some kind of Engineered Plague variant, but it was obvious that nearly any black or blue "answer" to Faeries would end up in the tiny hands of the Fae to be used against other decks. But now it seems we know the silver bullet - or one of them, anyway, as "countered" shows up more than once in the Orb - a red instant called Volcanic Fallout. For 1RR, you get an uncounterable instant-speed Pyroclasm that also hits players. Now sure it doesn't permanently deal with some of the bigger threats in Faeries such as Bitterblossom or Mistbind Clique (if it's already in play), but wiping the field of Faerie Rogue tokens, Spellstutter Sprites, Sowers, Scions, and even swinging Mutavaults doesn't make it easy for Faeries. And since it adds two damage to the life loss they've already taken from Bitterblossom and Thoughtseize, you're that much closer to victory. Might Faeries start splashing white for Burrenton Forge-Tender out of the sideboard? Anything's possible, and Arcane Sanctums make it somewhat painless.
Faeries does get another tool though, sure to make their sideboards. It's a miniature Undermine, a Negate-variant for UB that counters a non-creature spell and makes that spell's controller lose two life. It's a no-brainer for Faeries to replace Negate in their sideboards with this spell, and even Toast might switch this in.
Domain is making a comeback in Conflux. While Shards was focused strictly on three-color themes, now that the Shards are coming together, mana fixing is more rampant, and you'll be seeing all five colors together much more often. Domain's even keyworded on cards like Might of Alara, a functional reprint of Gaea's Might. For one green mana, a target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each basic land type among lands you control. The ability to give a creature +5/+5 for one mana at instant speed is quite strong, and it wouldn't shock me to see five-color aggro decks pop up trying to take advantage of this card in Standard and Extended.
Anyone who's seen the spoiled list of card names for the set has theorized what the card named "Conflux" would do, and for a while, it was speculated that the card would be a sixth basic land type, one that tapped for one colorless mana and did nothing else but add +1 to your domain spells. In truth, it's nowhere near that weird - Conflux is a 3WUBRG sorcery that lets you search your library for a card of each color and put them into your hand. It's sure to be used in five-color EDH decks... and not many other places.
For a long time, it was believed that Conflux would contain "enemy" tri-lands, ones that mirrored Shards's tri-lands but tapped for things like WUR and GWB. Now that we know three of the five lands in the set, this isn't a possiblity anymore, but that doesn't mean the lands aren't good: There's a reverse Reflecting Pool that taps for a color of mana your opponent's lands can produce, a Shimmering Grotto-like land that taps for colorless or taps to make a land you control any basic land type until end of turn, and a land that comes into play tapped, and taps for any color... but you need to pay 1 when it comes into play.
Conflux's prerelease is on January 31st, and while I'm not sure where it'll be yet, I'll be head judging Gray Matter's prerelease. Stay tuned to all the spoilers so you know what to expect on opening day!
The Orb of Insight is up and running, and if you've never used an Orb of Insight before, typing in any word will show you how many times it appears on cards in the set. I'll let you poke through the Orb yourself, but the biggest find so far is something with a mana cost of WWUUBBRRGG - yes, that's two mana of every color.
White is apparently getting a Memory Lapse for 2W. Although it's one mana too much to compete with the classic "counterspell", it still might see play in some non-blue decks that want to delay their opponents' answers.
White's also getting a new one-mana removal spell in the vein of Swords to Plowshares: Path to Exile. Instead of giving your opponent life in exchange for removing their creature from the game, Path to Exile lets them search their library for a basic land card and put it into play tapped. While this doesn't seem nearly as good as Swords, or even Condemn in some situations, it may just replace Unmake in certain decks. Personally I'm not too thrilled about accelerating my opponent into a Wrath or Cryptic Command if I'm an aggro player facing a control deck.
The question on everyone's mind when preparing for Conflux was what answers the set would give them against Faeries. Speculation was rampant on some kind of Engineered Plague variant, but it was obvious that nearly any black or blue "answer" to Faeries would end up in the tiny hands of the Fae to be used against other decks. But now it seems we know the silver bullet - or one of them, anyway, as "countered" shows up more than once in the Orb - a red instant called Volcanic Fallout. For 1RR, you get an uncounterable instant-speed Pyroclasm that also hits players. Now sure it doesn't permanently deal with some of the bigger threats in Faeries such as Bitterblossom or Mistbind Clique (if it's already in play), but wiping the field of Faerie Rogue tokens, Spellstutter Sprites, Sowers, Scions, and even swinging Mutavaults doesn't make it easy for Faeries. And since it adds two damage to the life loss they've already taken from Bitterblossom and Thoughtseize, you're that much closer to victory. Might Faeries start splashing white for Burrenton Forge-Tender out of the sideboard? Anything's possible, and Arcane Sanctums make it somewhat painless.
Faeries does get another tool though, sure to make their sideboards. It's a miniature Undermine, a Negate-variant for UB that counters a non-creature spell and makes that spell's controller lose two life. It's a no-brainer for Faeries to replace Negate in their sideboards with this spell, and even Toast might switch this in.
Domain is making a comeback in Conflux. While Shards was focused strictly on three-color themes, now that the Shards are coming together, mana fixing is more rampant, and you'll be seeing all five colors together much more often. Domain's even keyworded on cards like Might of Alara, a functional reprint of Gaea's Might. For one green mana, a target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each basic land type among lands you control. The ability to give a creature +5/+5 for one mana at instant speed is quite strong, and it wouldn't shock me to see five-color aggro decks pop up trying to take advantage of this card in Standard and Extended.
Anyone who's seen the spoiled list of card names for the set has theorized what the card named "Conflux" would do, and for a while, it was speculated that the card would be a sixth basic land type, one that tapped for one colorless mana and did nothing else but add +1 to your domain spells. In truth, it's nowhere near that weird - Conflux is a 3WUBRG sorcery that lets you search your library for a card of each color and put them into your hand. It's sure to be used in five-color EDH decks... and not many other places.
For a long time, it was believed that Conflux would contain "enemy" tri-lands, ones that mirrored Shards's tri-lands but tapped for things like WUR and GWB. Now that we know three of the five lands in the set, this isn't a possiblity anymore, but that doesn't mean the lands aren't good: There's a reverse Reflecting Pool that taps for a color of mana your opponent's lands can produce, a Shimmering Grotto-like land that taps for colorless or taps to make a land you control any basic land type until end of turn, and a land that comes into play tapped, and taps for any color... but you need to pay 1 when it comes into play.
Conflux's prerelease is on January 31st, and while I'm not sure where it'll be yet, I'll be head judging Gray Matter's prerelease. Stay tuned to all the spoilers so you know what to expect on opening day!
==EURO LANDS PROMOTION==
Author: Brian Paskoff
So the other day when I received my latest FNM promos for Brothers Grim in the mail, I got a little extra surprise with it. Though to be fair it was only a surprise because I forgot I had signed up for it. See, Wizards is doing this promotion exclusively for FNM-hosting locations where they send out packs Euro Lands to those stores. But unlike the other promotional cards Wizards sends out, you don't get these for playing - instead, you get them for buying a full box of any Magic set!
The Euro Lands are special lands with artwork representing different locations throughout Europe. They came in three different versions depending on their wrappers, but the ones I got are the blue pack, seen here. They feature scenes of the forests of Schwarzwald, Germany, the Danish Islands of Scandinavia, the mountains of Vesuvio, Italy, the Scottish Highlands, and the swamps of Ardennes Fagnes, Belgium. This is the first time that these lands are available to players in the US, and they're quite rare. Five come in a pack, one of each land.
Supplies are limited though, so if you were planning to buy a box of Shards for someone as a holiday gift, do it as soon as possible! this promotion will be running at Brothers Grim only for as long as we have packs to give out.
The Euro Lands are special lands with artwork representing different locations throughout Europe. They came in three different versions depending on their wrappers, but the ones I got are the blue pack, seen here. They feature scenes of the forests of Schwarzwald, Germany, the Danish Islands of Scandinavia, the mountains of Vesuvio, Italy, the Scottish Highlands, and the swamps of Ardennes Fagnes, Belgium. This is the first time that these lands are available to players in the US, and they're quite rare. Five come in a pack, one of each land.
Supplies are limited though, so if you were planning to buy a box of Shards for someone as a holiday gift, do it as soon as possible! this promotion will be running at Brothers Grim only for as long as we have packs to give out.
==GUEST ARTICLES==
Author: Brian Paskoff
Author: Brian Paskoff
After a short break, Islandhome is once again accepting guest articles from our readers!
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.
==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!
==UPCOMING EVENTS==
January 3rd - April 19th: PTQ Season for PT Honolulu
The next PTQ season kicks off January 3rd, and the format is Extended!
PTQs in our area this season:
February 21st - Edison, NJ
March 14th - Philadelphia, PA
No details for New York PTQs are available yet.
February 21st - Edison, NJ
March 14th - Philadelphia, PA
No details for New York PTQs are available yet.
==STORE LOCATIONS & CONTACT INFO==
Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 631-698-2805
Website: www.brgim.com
Friendly Neighborhood Comics
19 Udall Rd.
West Islip, NY 11795
Phone: 631-470-7984
Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 631-698-2805
Website: www.brgim.com
Friendly Neighborhood Comics
19 Udall Rd.
West Islip, NY 11795
Phone: 631-470-7984
==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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