“Spoiler” doesn’t begin to describe the floodgates that were opened up on Magic the Gathering’s newest expansion this weekend.  On Friday, we were looking at a list of about 70 cards spoiled for Magic 2010.  Today I write to you with a stack of 220.  The bulk of these can be attributed to a glitch in “the gatherer”.  Apparently, (and I’ll spare you the techno babble) mtgsalvation patrons were able to exploit said glitch and deduce each and every card to be reprinted in M10.  So without further ado, here is the list of reprints in Magic 2010 in all it’s spoileriffic glory:

WHITE Ajani Goldmane Armored Ascension Celestial Purge Excommunicate Holy Strength Lifelink Mesa Enchantress Pacifism Razorfoot Griffin Righteousness Serra Angel Soul Warden Stormfront Pegasus Tempest of Light White Knight	GREEN Birds of Paradise Craw Wurm Elvish Piper Elvish Visionary Enormous Baloth Fog Garruk Wildspeaker Giant Growth Giant Spider Howl of the Night Pack Llanowar Elves Might of Oaks Naturalize Overrun Rampant Growth	ARTIFACTS/LAND Angels Feather Coat of Arms Darksteel Colossus Demons Horn Dragons Claw Howling Mine Krakens Eye Ornithopter Pithing Needle Platinum Angel Rod of Ruin Spellbook Whispersilk Cloak Wurms Tooth Terramorphic Expanse
BLUE Air Elemental Cancel Clone Coral Merfolk Fabricate Flashfreeze Horned Turtle Jace Beleren Jump Levitation Merfolk Looter Mind Spring Negate Phantom Warrior Polymorph Ponder Sage Owl Snapping Drake Telepathy Time Warp Traumatize Twincast Unsummon Wind Drake	BLACK Assassinate Black Knight Bog Wraith Consume Spirit Deathmark Diabolic Tutor Drudge Skeletons Duress Gravedigger Haunting Echoes Hypnotic Specter Liliana Vess Looming Shade Megrim Mind Rot Mind Shatter Nightmare Relentless Rats Royal Assassin Tendrils of Corruption Underworld Dreams Unholy Strength Wall of Bone Weakness	RED Ball Lightning Bogardan Hellkite Canyon Minotaur Chandra Nalaar Dragon Whelp Earthquake Fireball Firebreathing Goblin Piker Ignite Disorder Kindled Fury Lava Axe Lightning Bolt Lightning Elemental Manabarbs Panic Attack Prodigal Pyromancer Pyroclasm Raging Goblin Shatter Shivan Dragon Siege-Gang Commander Sparkmage Apprentice Stone Giant Wall of Fire Warp World

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Whew!  A lot to take in at first glance, I know.  Let’s break this down a bit.

Where’s the Sweep?
There are a lot of old friends to welcome back and a lot of even older friends to say goodbye to.  Let me start by reading your mind…  hmm… I’m sensing that you’re upset about Wrath of God no longer gracing the Core Set.  Shocking.  Appalling.  Overwhelming.   What is white going to do about the rush?  What is anyone going to do about the rush?  Not even an Evacuation, Wizards?  With cards like Cryptic Command out of the picture, the token rush seems to be the new game in town.

I can only assume that more sweepage is in the works for the remaining 20 unspoiled cards.  There is also the possibility of Zendikar picking up the slack in the sweep department.  Keep in mind that Zendikar comes out only 3 months later so you can still play Wrath/Evac casually and just pray for a decent broom in Zendikar.

Sucks to be Blue
Last pun, I promise.   While I could write (and have written) entire articles on the watering down of blue, I’ll just touch on a few key points here.   Blue is a slow color.  It is reactive by nature.  Its difficult enough to keep up with newer, shrouded creatures. Cards like Cryptic Command and Evacuate made it at least somewhat feasible to get something going in a mono-blue deck.  Now, with the removal of both, blue has been completely removed from standard play.  It has been reduced to a complimentary color and it seems to be forever condemned to the sideboard.  Counterspell is probably never coming back, I’ve come to accept this as a blue wizard.  But how about Remand or Exhaustion?  The new cards don’t seem to offer much relief either.  I understand there is a fine line for blue.  One step in the wrong direction and everyone and there cat would be playing blue in tournament play.  But surely there is a happy medium where mono-blue could be feasible even in a casual setting.  Blue, you know I’ll always love you.  But it looks like it will be at least another year before we’ll dance again.

Red Deck Wins! / Black is Cool Again
Ball Lightning?  Lightning Bolt? Earthquake?!  Where have you been all my life, Red?  I almost forgot how powerful you were.  Prepare for turn 4 red deck wins.

Duress?  Tendrils of Corruption?  Black Knight?  Black is cool again.  Get ready for 100% swamp decks.  No Reflecting Pool, no Mutavault.  Just the blackest of swamps and death.

And All the Colossal Trimmings
MmmMMmnnn Darksteel.  Can anyone honestly say they’re disappointed to see Darksteel Colossus back as a Mythic?  This is the epitome of Timmy goodness.  Platinum Angel has also received an upgrade.  And on a side note- Terramorphic Expanse is thankfully being reprinted.  One of the better lands in a world without the Lorwyn block duals.

General Thoughts on 2010’s Reprint List
While only 69 of these cards were printed in 10th Edition, wizards has taken the liberty of re-releasing cards such as Spirit Link with new names. Bringing the total up to more like 80-90 cards that can also be found in 10th edition or roughly 1/3 of the new set.

You have to keep in mind that this is a core set and there are going to be a few filler cards.  Giant Spiders and Sage Owls are there for flavor, and to make your Mythic rares seem that much more Mythic.

We’re also looking at a few other promotion/demotions of cards with Righteousness, Platinum Angel and others.

Wizard’s has yet to comment on the leak.  It is almost certainly unintentional (they were rolling with their “In/Out” list each day) the ramifications are obvious.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

While the reprints are all fine and dandy, Core Set reprint lists are alas, not as exciting as new cards.  For the first time in several years, MTG is adding NEW cards to its core.  Designed from the ground up to embody color and fantasy.  Several were spoiled this weekend and since our last spoiler update.  Here are a few notables. *note * many of these cards have been spoiled without art.  We have taken the liberty, as we often do, of mocking these cards up for you.  These are not the final art pieces for the cards in many cases.

Elvish Archdruid – As if Elvish Champion weren’t enough!    Two abilities from two different elf cards rolled into one amazing creature.  The lord to end all lords.  We haven’t seen many Elf Token creation cards in this core set but the potential is there for some nasty rushes while Lorwyn is still legal.  As you’ll notice, wizard’s is taking creatures to a whole ‘nother level in 2010.  Two great abilities on a 2/2 elf for 3.  Turn one, Lanowar Elf, turn two, Lanowar Elf, turn three Elvish Archdruid.  Turn 4 you have three 2/2 creatures and/or 9 mana.  Insanity.  The other lords aren’t half bad either.  Goblins, Merfolk, Zombies all get their due in 2010.

 

Captiain of the Watch – It looks like Wizards finally understands our love for Cloudgoat Ranger.  And while this lady does cost 1 more mana, I believe it’s worth every penny.  I know that some players are reluctant to play anything that costs 6 mana.  But white (and to some extent, blue) is a color designed to draw out the game.  Think of this as a finishing move rather than a strategy.  A 3/3 creature and three 2/2 vigilance creatures for 6.  God forbid you have the new Honor of the Pure out or some other creature pumping global.  Vigilance is an underrated ability.  Pair this along with your favorite white planeswalker (either one will work nicely) and you’ve got yourself a standard tournament deck.  No need to worry about sweeps..  M10 doesn’t fancy them.

Sphinx Ambassador – It is the sad and common story on so many cards.  An interesting (and useful) ability for an unplayable price.  While I’m not one of those who shun any card with a mana cost over five, I do feel that, if you’re going to pay 7 for something, it had better win you the game.  Worse yet with the Ambassador – you can’t even use the ability until he deals combat damage to a player so you’re looking at turn eight or nine before you might get to use the ability.  Any time you’re searching another player’s library you’re doing something right, but when its turn nine you should probably be dropping some bigger bombs than this flying 5/5.

 

Xathrid Demon – Remember the days of sacrificing creatures?  Those were black’s glory days.  Churning out thrull tokens and using their pitiful souls to meet your ends.  Xathrid is quite possibly the best Black creature for 6 mana of all time.  Six for a 7/7 Flying, Trample creature is enough but why not sacrifice a creature or two and do untold amounts of damage?  Unfortunatly, your plans can be foiled by a couple of timely removal spells so you wont want to drop this guy until you have at least 2 other creatures out.  But unlike the Sphinx,  this guy is game ending the turn after he comes out if you can sacrifice a creature.  Full of flavor, totally playable in casual and almost playable in type 2.  Black is definitely cool again.

Baneslayer Angel – Oh, Serra Angel, how powerful you once were.  Flying, First Strike and the creature type specific protection each aren’t noteworthy on their own.  But when all on the same creature for a reasonable cost… you’ve got yourself a new girlfriend.  If nothing else this creature puts the giant gap between creatures of yester year and creatures of today on display.  Its the Arby’s Special- Five mana for a five/five creature with five abilities.  One of which is the ever devastating – lifelink.  Serra Angel is unplayable in constructed whilst this creature roams the realm.  On my short list for “most powerful creatures of all time” for her raw, unfettered numbers.  Are we looking at Yu-Gi-Oh levels of power creep or a creature that can be  Terrored, Unmade or otherwise dealt with easily?  I’ll let you decide.  One thing’s for sure.  Its as good of reason as any to start playing some removal spells.

Other new cards spoiled over the weekend:

Guardian Seraph
Zombie Goliath
Lightwielder Paladin
Goblin Chieftain
Honor of the Pure
Lifelink
Harm’s Way
Griffin Sentinel
Divine Verdict
Angel’s Mercy
Dread Warlock
Runeclaw Bears
Gorgon Flail
Sleep
Divination
Mirror of Fate
Kalonian Behemoth
Cemetery Reaper
Master of the Wild Hunt
Magebane Armor

- – - – - – - – - – -

This weekend was intense.  Almost the entire set was revealed within 48 hours.  There is so much to say and even more to digest.   We hope you enjoy our mock-ups of the various cards.  We feel that they give you a better sense of how the card will actually read and feel.  Expect updates to the spoiler page in real time and articles every couple of days with our analysis of the latest spoilers.  Until then, browse the new set for yourself on our Magic 2010 Spoiler Page.

 

8 Comments so far:

Before we begin, let us slap a warning label on this column.  We won’t be discussing Magic 2010 in any detail.  There won’t be any tournament deck ideas for the monetarily challenged or super-combos you never saw coming.  This is about deck building.  However, this is also about a moment unique to Magic, a moment that every player should have.  No matter the experience level or skill, whether you’re a Jimmy or a Spike.  So in the absence of spoilers, here instead is a banner every casual duelist can rally around.

A few months back, around the time the internet was buzzing with the sound of an ‘all-gold’ Alara expansion we held a draft with the principal members of our play group.  Some precursory explanations on our draft style.  We go casual, even in sealed tournament-style games.  Meaning, in this case, three booster of any set we cared to buy from our local card shop.  As you can imagine, that makes for some real surprises when the packs are opened.  One such surprise came from Reinhart’s side of the table as he unwrapped the group’s first ever Darksteel Colossus.  As soon as I saw it I knew it had to be mine.  Through means nefarious and otherwise I was able to pry the card from Reinhart’s collection and there it was.  Mine.

It was only after that moment that the epiphany came.  I felt  like the Joker explaining how he “chases the car, even though he wouldn’t know what to do with it if he caught it.”  The Colossus was mine, but I had no clue what deck I would put it in.  None.  At last we come to the heart of the issue.  I knew I had to make a deck out of this card.  Had to, even if it wasn’t going to be competitive.  Some way or some how I was making this work.

This is a cornerstone of Magic.  The idea that we can fall in love with more than just the concept of winning.  That each individual card could hold that spark that ignites the next decklist.  For some, it happened way back in the early nineties opening their first Shivan Dragon or Force of Nature.  Still more had the moment finding a card like Warp World and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker in the back-end of a booster.  These cards are more than simply rules text.  As cheesy as it may sound, they are inspiration.  The kind you can only find in a game like MTG.  That inspiration is part of what keeps us playing.

In the end, the deck I created was mono-green with various ways (mana accel, Elvish Piper, even Hypergenesis) of getting my Darksteel buddy onto the battlefield as quickly as possible.  You know what?  The deck is still one of my favorite to play in a casual environment.  The reason being maybe, just maybe I’ll get to see an 11/11 looking up at me from where I placed it on the table.

How about you my fellow casual player?  What are some examples of life-altering cards you just knew you had to play?  I am not talking about Cryptic Command and Mutavault here, cards that are just plain awesome.  I mean cards with charisma.  Maybe not a game winner every time, but something that makes you smile when its in your opening hand.  Or nod with glee after a timely top-deck.  My Colossus is dear to me sure, but I want to hear the stories and about your cards.  After all this is our banner to rally around.

- – - – - – - – - – - -

Keep in mind, Magic 2010 spoiler season is in full-swing.  New cards are announced and posted every day and it will only speed up as the release date approaches.  For all the latest updates, card lists and analysis keep your browser locked in to the Gathering Magic spoilers page.  If the rules changes are still stuck in your craw, feel free to relieve your frustrations on the Gathering Magic Forum, or comment on them here.  Alright self, enough shameless promotion already!

31 Comments so far: