Coming up in August we will be seeing an interesting offering for the FNM promo card with Crumbling Vestige. Now while it may not be the most impactful card, it is interesting in the way it not only gets around the ‘enters the battlefield’ drawback by providing mana the turn it enters but also acts as a temporary colour fixing. Not to mention it did find it’s way into Michael Majors top 16 W/B Eldrazi deck back in April, and may yet find it’s way into high level play.
Eric J Seltzer
@ejseltzer on Twitter
Email: ejseltzer@hotmail.com
There are two things that Red has been very good at since the dawning of MTG, direct damage and destroying artifacts. Smash to Smithereens does both of those things wrapped up in one pretty little package. While it is somewhat fringy as it does requires your opponent to be playing Artifacts it has been a very strong sideboard card in the past. There are many good options to fill this spot in the side, but if your plan is to blast them down to zero life ASAP then this might just be your choice. I’m doubtful that we will see a reprinting of it in a Standard legal set, so you’re probably looking at this in Modern against Affinity decks.
The art while not very involved has a flavourful tie-in with the current block depicting Zada and contains a pretty apt quote. Darek Zabrocki did a very nice piece here staying pretty true to Rallis’ original imagery of Zada. And who knows, maybe this is just the tip of the iceberg of Modern playable FNM promos coming for the new year. Good luck getting your hands on some !!!
EJSeltzer
@ejseltzer on Twitter
ejseltzer@hotmail.com
Magic has a storied history all the way back to the Alpha release of counter magic coming from Blue mages. Clash of Wills follows in the same vein as the classic Power Sink, much like Broken Ambitions or Condescend have also filled that role previously. More recently we’ve seen Syncopate used as that necessary turn two counter, which scales up later in the game unlike other ‘unless its controller pays’ counters like Mana Leak. It’s almost as if Wizards is trying to push some of the more controlling styles with recent Blue FNM Promo Anticipate just finishing up its reign as the current FNM offering.
The art is truly stunning with that pose of Jace in a skirmish with an Eldrazi by relative newcomer Anna Steinbauer. This scene really is miles beyond the original art of Jace locked in the battle of will against Alhammarret. I can only imagine that the honor of showcasing her talents on a promo card means we can look forward to more of her working in the upcoming Oath of the Gatewatch release. And the piece de resistance is that chilling quote from Jace about the true mental nature of the Eldrazi.
I hope you all get your shot at nabbing one of these babies at an FNM near you in February, and if you happen to be in Montreal be sure to take in one of our FNMs at the Butin des Trois Rois. We hope to see you there, and good luck !!!
EJSeltzer
@ejseltzer on Twitter
ejseltzer@hotmail.com
Set Name – Oath of the Gatewatch
Block – Set 2 of 2 in the Battle for Zendikar block
Number of Cards – 184
Prerelease Events – January 16–17, 2016
Prerelease Format – Sealed (4 OGW/2 BFZ)
Release Date – January 22, 2016
Launch Weekend – January 22–24, 2016
Game Day – February 13–14, 2016
Magic Online Prerelease Events – January 29–February 1, 2016
Magic Online Release Date – February 8, 2016
Magic Online Release Events – February 8–24, 2016
Pro Tour OGW – February 5–7, 2016
Pro Tour OGW Location – Atlanta, GA
Pro Tour OGW Formats
Official Three–Letter Code – OGW
Twitter Hashtag – #MTGOGW
Initial Concept and Game Design –
Ethan Fleischer (lead)
Graeme Hopkins
Ari Levitch
Ken Nagle
Adam Prosak
Mark Rosewater
Final Game Design and Development –
Ian Duke (lead)
Dave Humpherys
Jackie Lee
Adam Prosak
Gavin Verhey
Languages – English, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish
Available in – Booster Packs, Intro Packs*, Fat Pack* (*-Not available in all languages.)
Oath of the Gatewatch Prerelease Pack Contents:
“Two-Headed Giant is Central to the Experience
Oath of the Gatewatch is all about teamwork. It’s designed to support Two-Headed Giant better than most any set in Magic history.”