2007 - 2010 Rumors/Previews/mtg.com articles

[BruiZar]

Since Swords trigger after damage is already dealt, it's inevitably search out a land for the CA part and putting +1/+1 counters on a creature for the "life" part.

I'd take a +1/+1 counter per combat damages.  Spiritmonger is one of my favorite mans of all time, so yeah I'll take his inflating ability over go find a land.

It's worth pointing out that each of the other 'Sword Ofs' had non-related abilities of cards in the colors they had protection from - SoFI would Shock and cantrip, SoLS would Healing Salve and Raise Dead.  So there's no reason for the abilities to be Blue/Green in nature, it's more likely one ability will be very Green and the other very Blue.

To be fair if all it did was find a land and draw a card, that really would be pretty significant card advantage - dig land out of your deck and draw a business spell?  Wheeee.

It's probably, Dig for a Land/Tap or Untap a Permanent.

Body seems to suggest something with creatures (giant growth but with counters), mind suggests something with card advantage.

[Norm4eva]

Since Swords trigger after damage is already dealt, it's inevitably search out a land for the CA part and putting +1/+1 counters on a creature for the "life" part.

I'd take a +1/+1 counter per combat damages.  Spiritmonger is one of my favorite mans of all time, so yeah I'll take his inflating ability over go find a land.

It's worth pointing out that each of the other 'Sword Ofs' had non-related abilities of cards in the colors they had protection from - SoFI would Shock and cantrip, SoLS would Healing Salve and Raise Dead.  So there's no reason for the abilities to be Blue/Green in nature, it's more likely one ability will be very Green and the other very Blue.

To be fair if all it did was find a land and draw a card, that really would be pretty significant card advantage - dig land out of your deck and draw a business spell?  Wheeee.

It's probably, Dig for a Land/Tap or Untap a Permanent.

Body seems to suggest something with creatures (giant growth but with counters), mind suggests something with card advantage.

"Dig for a land and Ice something" is probably the worst version of that card, hopefully it's so bad that no one at WotC would have even dreamed it up during development.  I think it will be difficult for this Sword to compete with SoFI, as that card is basically an aggro-control deck's wet dream of an Equipment card - reusable burn and card draw = fuck yes.  In my view the only reason SoLS gets played at all is because sometimes you just need to be pro-white/black; its other effects are usually less relevant.  So really, since Marmogoyf is such a dick in Legacy, probably the pro-green aspect is enough to play the card.  If a card reads "your mans gets protection from Marmogoyf and Merfolk" then it's probably worth looking at; to hell with the other abilities right?

[AmbivalentDuck]

Snagging a Tabernacle, Wasteland, or Maze of Ith is nothing to sneer at.  The +1/+1 counters would be relatively weak, but quickly dominate the board unanswered.  Vorosh blows, but you still have to answer him before he connects twice.

[Norm4eva]

Vorosh blows

Die :(

I really think being able to just answer the good beaters in Zoo with a Stoneforge Mystic is going to be enough to make this card playable - whatever the abilities are they will just be the thing that pushes the card from "playable" to "decent".  We must still disarm the Qasali Pridemage, but there's a handful of ways to do that, so whatever.

And I guess I was operating on the idea that it would be searching for basic lands - being able to endlessly tutor for *any* lands would actually pretty much rule the day and make the card way better than 'just playable'.

[TopSecret]

"Dig for a land and Ice something" is probably the worst version of that card, hopefully it's so bad that no one at WotC would have even dreamed it up during development.

Could be worse. Could be "Look at the opponent's hand and your lands produce any color until end of turn". No way to be sure until they spoil the card.

[BruiZar]

Snagging a Tabernacle, Wasteland, or Maze of Ith is nothing to sneer at.  The +1/+1 counters would be relatively weak, but quickly dominate the board unanswered.  Vorosh blows, but you still have to answer him before he connects twice.

Knight of the Reliquary comes to mind.

[Norm4eva]

Sword is spoiled, pictures and everything.  +2/+2, pro-green and blue, cast for 3 equip for 2, and on damage to a player it mills for 10 and puts a 2/2 Wolf into play.

Eh.

Like I said, having a deck with Stoneforges, a Sword for every color and maybe a Jitte (i seem to need that card less and less these days) is going to be 'reason enough' to play this card.  While it's not as direct a means of generating CA as the other two Swords, it does mess with CounterTop stacking a little and it's sort of OK to make a Wolf and then throw it a sword to block the Goyf you just swung past.  Probably shouldn't play this card against a billion Goyfs though

Maybe we get lucky and they print the other off-color Swords later in the set, and the Green/Black one will be a house.  Maybe.

[BruiZar]

ah, i yesterday i came to the idea that it would be "put a 1/1 insect (or saproling) token into play" and "brainstorm" (Sylvan Library, Natural Selection, Brainstorm, Ponder, Impulse)

I don't get the milling.. Seems unblue imo. Giving 10 cards for a yawgwill seems dangerous, so i dont see this in vintage.

[AmbivalentDuck]

The only strong upside to the milling is that Tarmogoyf gets enormous.  Maybe there's some utility to running this in a deck brimming with Animate Dead and Extirpate in Legacy?

[honestabe]

WHY IS WoTC PUSHING MILL?????

[TopSecret]

WHY IS WoTC PUSHING MILL?????

Timmys and certain Johnnys like mill. Also, I think Wizards would be kind of happy if mill became a decent strategy to some degree, since otherwise, all the mill cards they've printed and will continue to print will be useless outside of the Johnny/Timmy demographic. Plus it allows for more variety in strategies for Standard...etc.

Of note, the wolf the sword makes can equip the sword when the creature that's currently equipped dies. Is it just me, or does that more than make up for the blue ability being irrelevant a good chunk of the time? If Jace really does end up being ridonk in Standard, then I think this thing is going to be worth some serious money.

Also, I'm pretty sure this thing is as Vintage worthy as Sword of Fire and Ice in the right metagame.

[Norm4eva]

WHY IS WoTC PUSHING MILL?????

Timmys and certain Johnnys like mill. Also, I think Wizards would be kind of happy if mill became a decent strategy to some degree, since otherwise, all the mill cards they've printed and will continue to print will be useless outside of the Johnny/Timmy demographic. Plus it allows for more variety in strategies for Standard...etc.

Of note, the wolf the sword makes can equip the sword when the creature that's currently equipped dies. Is it just me, or does that more than make up for the blue ability being irrelevant a good chunk of the time? If Jace really does end up being ridonk in Standard, then I think this thing is going to be worth some serious money.

Also, I'm pretty sure this thing is as Vintage worthy as Sword of Fire and Ice in the right metagame.

+1 this.  Even though the card constantly creates bears, in the correct deck that will be the ability that matters none.  Think of it like this; we all start with 53 cards in our decks after the first seven are drawn, so on that premise even a 0 power creature with a Sword of Mind/Body kills (if not by combat damage of billions of Wolves) in five turns.  A deck with a handful of relevant guys, some sorcery/instant mill effects and this Sword and the threat is actually sort of reasonable.  Sort of.

Classically milling has been an even worse kill than straight burn because its effect is very limited and doesn't do anything outside of just milling.  Whereas Lightning Helix can kill something on the battlefield, Brain Freeze cannot.  I remember a time when life gain was seen as a shitty mechanic; that's gotten a lot better since around Onslaught.  Mostly because it ended up on a lot of reasonably costed creatures.  Since milling is sort of this huge goofball mechanic that rarely has a good home or application in the game except as a combo finisher, I say why not let them try to push it for a while.  The most obvious way to do that is to make it easy to recur the effect.  AKA putting it on a dude.

For me and my house I just want it because there's not a better pro-green equipment card.  Yet.

[LotusHead]

WHY IS WoTC PUSHING MILL?????

When has WOTC ever NOT pushed mill?

Original Mirroden had the be-all-end-all mill card:

[CorwinB]

WHY IS WoTC PUSHING MILL?????

There was an article on the mothership about milling recently. Basically, milling is what they give to "griefers" players (those players who enjoy not only winning, but making the other player's life miserable in the process). Milling is nice for griefers because it seems they enjoy the psychological effect of seeing an opponent's good cards getting milled. I find this especially interesting when coupled with other comments by WotC people explaining they gave permission the shaft other the last few sets because people didn't like seeing their spells countered.

Pretty disappointed by the sword myself.

[Klep]

I don't get the milling.. Seems unblue imo.

What about milling seems 'unblue' to you?  Milling is a quintessential blue mechanic.

[AmbivalentDuck]

It certainly has been since Odyssey block (and maybe earlier?), but you certainly saw it primarily on artifacts (Millstone, Grindstone, Altar of Dementia) back in the day.  The earliest non-artifact mill card that "mattered" was Chains of Mephistopheles, right?  I can't think of any relevant blue milling before Vision Charm...then there's a long dry spell before Traumatize?

[Troy_Costisick]

Also, I'm pretty sure this thing is as Vintage worthy as Sword of Fire and Ice in the right metagame.

Not as long as Yawgmoth's Will, Dread Return, Crucible of Worlds, and Goblin Welder are played.

[Oath of Happy]

Also, I'm pretty sure this thing is as Vintage worthy as Sword of Fire and Ice in the right metagame.

Not as long as Yawgmoth's Will, Dread Return, Crucible of Worlds, and Goblin Welder are played.

It's actually pretty good vs Yawg Will because if you hit Yawg's off it, they usually have no way to get it back.  Of course, some decks run Regrowth or Twister, but other than that its good

[Delha]

Also, I'm pretty sure this thing is as Vintage worthy as Sword of Fire and Ice in the right metagame.

Not as long as Yawgmoth's Will, Dread Return, Crucible of Worlds, and Goblin Welder are played.

It's actually pretty good vs Yawg Will because if you hit Yawg's off it, they usually have no way to get it back.  Of course, some decks run Regrowth or Twister, but other than that its good

Your odds of hitting Will in the ten is much much lower than the odds of it being either in their hand or deck.

[LotusHead]

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/102

Wizard snubs TMD by not listing them among "other Magic websites" because, they don't care about Vintage, even just prior to GenCon and Vintage World's Championships.

This article is Mark Rosewater's primer on how to get your message across to Wizards.

[DubDub]

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/102

Wizard snubs TMD by not listing them among "other Magic websites" because, they don't care about Vintage, even just prior to GenCon and Vintage World's Championships.

This article is Mark Rosewater's primer on how to get your message across to Wizards.

It was interesting to me that TMD and theSource didn't get shout outs, especially theSource considering there was a Legacy GP just this past weekend.

He did say this:
"The main message of today's column is that there are many ways for your voice to be heard. R&D wants to hear what you have to say, and your comments affect how we make Magic. So pick whatever means you want and talk to us. Please, we want to hear what you have to say. "

I'll be taking him up on that.

[Nefarias]

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/102

Wizard snubs TMD by not listing them among "other Magic websites" because, they don't care about Vintage, even just prior to GenCon and Vintage World's Championships.

This article is Mark Rosewater's primer on how to get your message across to Wizards.

Well, he did mention SCG, of which TMD is a subsidiary. That particular section was about writing articles and getting them published. TMD admittedly is not the best place for that.

[LotusHead]

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/507

(trumpet fanfare announcing...)

Mirroden Besieged!!!

Better than Scars 2 Electrostatic Bolt Boogaloo!

[LotusHead]

From today's article by Mark Rosewater on www.magicthegathering.com

Draw #3

Trivia Question: How many Magic cards have the words "opening hand" in their rules text?

When you have your answer, click here.

The answer is ten, only nine of which, by the way, are Leylines:

What's the tenth card?
Gemstone Caverns

But wait, isn't there another card that has an ability it can use in your opening hand? Why yes, there is—Serum Powder from Darksteel.
Serum Powder

Serum Powder specifically talks about mulliganing (the only card currently in Magic that does) so the template just asks for it to be in your hand as no other time but your opening hand would matter, so it didn't need to be spelled out.

If I asked this trivia question a year from now, what would the answer be?

Fifteen.

[maatn]

On the bottom of the Arcana page on mtg.com a new keyword is spoiled (click several times on the dice at the bottom):

Infect (this creature deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.)

How about that...


http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/519

[LotusHead]

Nice find. Berzerk may possibly have just gotten better!

[Troy_Costisick]

On the bottom of the Arcana page on mtg.com a new keyword is spoiled (click several times on the dice at the bottom):

Infect (this creature deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.)

How about that...


http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/519

Guess wither turned out to be a more popular mechanic than I originally thought.

[Norm4eva]

Wither was pretty much awesome.  I misunderestimated it a few times while playing against it in Standard and it was usually to my extreme detriment.

I like how Infect technically hits opponents 'harder' than it hits their guys.  If Infect lands on truly playable guys it could represent a completely new kind of aggro deck, which is pretty neat.

[Delha]

I wonder if it means one poison counter per hit, or one per point of damage. The former seems more likely, but the latter seems flat out awesome.

If it's per hit, I'd also hope to see this on a piece of equipment that doesn't cost a billionty mana. If it's per point of damage, I can't realistically expect to see it on anything reasonably priced.

[Killane]

I wonder if it means one poison counter per hit, or one per point of damage. The former seems more likely, but the latter seems flat out awesome.

If it's per hit, I'd also hope to see this on a piece of equipment that doesn't cost a billionty mana. If it's per point of damage, I can't realistically expect to see it on anything reasonably priced.

Anything with this and power 1 or 2 may still be reasonably priced (see DoubleStrike, similar in its effect on damage since  both reduce the lethal swing count by 50% and I'm sure there will be playable ways to reduce poison counters). 3 or more and well be getting into scary territory. I wonder if there will be any robots (in the Tinekrable sense)with this mechanic?