The Planeswalker's Stronghold

Over all I have to say the commons in Zendikar seem fairly unimpressive, adding very little volume of quality to the pauper player. This will also tend to make limited a bit strange and rather dependant on non-common bombs. First up there are strikingly few creatures with a relevant power in the set at the common level. Assuming the spoilers are correct, I was unable to find even one example in White or blue, and only a total of eleven in the other three colors. Green, the normal color for big stupid creatures, only appears to have five examples at the common level. Green's Mold Shambler could easily be an MVP, with it's reasonable and versatile kicker to destroy a non-creature permanent, and Scyth Tiger will also see play at almost any level. Relevant Toughness on the other hand, appears to be very well represented. By my count there are 16 creatures with relevant toughness, making this possibly the most defensive group of commons in some time. I'm not sure how you win thi

Several of the spoiled cards so far have caught a lot of excitement for players of all varieties of sanctioned tournaments – Standard, Extended, Legacy, even Vintage. But not much has been said yet about the un-sanctioned formats – 5color/250, EDH. Since I don’t play 5color/250, I won’t go into that too terribly much. My focus today is going to be on what cards excite me for EDH. While I’m probably biased towards my own deck (meaning I’m more excited about Green, White and Blue stuff) I’ll try and comment on the Red and Black stuff as well. Bear in mind, that while I’m focusing on EDH, several of these cards may overlap with your ideas for 5color/250, or even your ideas for Standard/Extended/etc etc. Also, while I could try and rank them in terms of excitement, because I’m lazy, I’m going to stick with going straight down the spoiler list – which means we’ll be going in WUBRG order. Day of Judgment - 2WW Sorcery (Rare) Destroy all creatures. "I have seen planes leveled and al

A while back I posted on the SciFi forums, about the title of the Zendikar novel, The Teeth of Akrum . It didn't take long for some one to question why they should be interested in the title of book that wouldn't come out for another year. Well folks, here is why. This week one of those stubs was up dated, to give the entire background story for the Zendikar block. "Lurking in the space between the aether and the physical plane, there is a great evil waiting to emerge. Zendikar is a land of danger and adventure, a world of deadly risks and priceless rewards. It is also a prison to one of the most deadly species known to the Multiverse : the dreaded Eldrazi . When our story opens, part of the mystical containment spell that has kept the Eldrazi captive for millennia has been breached. The brood lineage, the Eldrazi minions, have been released and are poring over the plane, devouring everything in their path, but the swath they cut across the land is nothing next to

(Contributed by John Kozlowski) Let me start off by stating that I hate being so negative. I was really jazzed last week when I sat down and played with Planechase. The art is cool, and the mechanics are very interesting. I was intrigued with the decisions I would be faced with on choosing to spend mana on Chaos Rolls, or attempting to Planeswalk away from dangerous locations. I thought all 82 effects (well most of them) were terrific! I was ready to go. Actual Planechasing So last Monday my playgroup sat down with a stack of 40 of the Plane cards, and shuffled up our 5-Color decks. The game started off as a four player, and slowly increased to six as people arrived for the evening. First turn, first plane we visit was… Cliffside Market! Wow! During the first upkeep, people immediately began exchanging life totals, 20 for 20. It was thrilling, seeing the massive swings of life back and forth! Okay, my sarcasm is dripping, but it was kind of neat, With only four players in the game, eve

August turned out to be a really huge month for our little blog. Not only did Jedi Jed begin what I hope will be a stellar career of contributions here, but we had an amazing month of unique viewers. Just under 1000 unique visitors made their way to the site, and the ads are beginning to generate a revenue stream. We also had a couple of new contributors commit this month, but I won't steal their thunder by announcing those just yet. I'm also hoping a few other people are going to pick up the digital pen. There is a lot of great stories and view points in our little community, and I hope others begin to make themselves heard. The Problem with Planechase This new product has it's official release events this Saturday, and I really encourage everyone to make their way out to one of the events, and give this new game format a try. That having been said, I can't help but notice a few issues with this concept. Most strikingly is the urgency of the product itself, or rather t