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[Mongrel]

Wait, we're only getting 5 of the 10? What?

In the first set. Guess that answers the question about how R2R will be structured.

[Zaratustra]

two big sets with five guilds and one with god knows what?

[jsnlxndrlv]

As for the quality of DOTP2013, we've come a long way from the stuttery and annoying first game. The deck selection seems pretty flaccid at first, since there are 9 monocolor decks and B/W exalted, but all of the decks are pretty fun to play this time around. (My favorite deck is still the U/G eldrazi ramp from the 2012 main game.) Planechase is pretty fun, but I much preferred last year's Archenemy mode. There are also "encounters" which are simple challenges with stacked nonlegal decks, like "using any deck you've customized, beat this guy who summons one after another X-powered hydra whose counters double every turn."

Easily worth $10, imo. Same is true for 2012, but not the original.

[Mongrel]

two big sets with five guilds and one with god knows what?

Sounds about right I guess?

ALL BIG SETS ALL THE TIME. GO BIG OR GO HOME.

[Büge]

Wasn't that something that WizCo bitched about circa M10?

[jsnlxndrlv]

Yeah, individual sets got smaller as a result, but now we've had blocks with 2 large sets three times in the last five years. Maybe the "real" reason sets shrank is to allow them more freedom to experiment in this way?

[Mongrel]

Sets shrank because players were becoming more and more vocal about purchase fatigue. It worked in Wizards' favour because I think the designers were happy to have smaller sets as those are much more manageable, with less chaff and filler having to be cranked out. However the decreased product size led directly to the introduction of Mythics to keep set sizes up.

I think a flirtation with too many large sets carries the danger of reawakening the old purchase fatigue beast. Now we have 4 sets a year, Mythics, and multiple boutique sets. The only thing left that balances that is smaller set sizes and they've repeatedly flirted with ending that.

I actually suspect it's extremely careful marketing. In reality they were pushing four sets a year even before size reduction (through gimmicks like Coldsnap and Un-sets), five if you actually counted Core sets. In the same vein they have three de facto large sets per year but pretend it's only two, through "one time" gimmicks like Avacyn Restored and Rise of the Eldrazi.

All that said, current set sizes are still a big improvement. 249 cards is way better than the sets that came close to 400 before. and 150 is certainly better than the 188+ the small sets used to hover around.

[jsnlxndrlv]

As the DOTP2013 expansion analysis indicated, guilds are confirmed back in the first two (large) sets of Return block, followed by a third (small) set containing cards for all ten guilds.


Return to Ravnica: Azorius, Izzet, Rakdos, Golgari, Selesnya.
Gatecrash: Orzhov, Dimir, Gruul, Boros, Simic.
"Sinker": Everybody!

None of the original guild keywords are returning; each guild gets a new keyword which is supposed to play well with the old keyword. Some of the guildmasters are either the same or previously existed in the story, notably Borborygmos of the Gruul, Niv-Mizzet, Isperia of the Azor, Rakdos, the Ghost Council, and Jarad a Golgari elf who was Savra's brother and wound up opposing her in the Ravnica block novels, in which he died, manifested as a spirit, and possessed his own dead body, spontaneously animating as a lich. New guildleaders include a three-in-one dryad for the Selesnya, a merfolk for the Simic (merfolk appearing on Ravnica is apparently a story-relevant development), a new Boros angel, and some guy for the Dimir (some people are suggesting that this guy was previously a dark confidant).

Two planeswalkers in the first set, one of whom is Jace; two planeswalkers in the second set, one of whom is Gideon (who is blatantly Boros-aligned red-white at the moment).

At the prerelease, you declare your allegiance to one of the five guilds. This gets you a special "guild box" with an appropriate spindown life counter, a guild-specific promo card that you can actually use in the tournament, a guild sticker, a letter from your guildmaster, 5 packs of Return to Ravnica plus one guild-aligned pack that contains only cards of your guild's colors, and an achievement card with guild-specific achievements.

They have all-but-confirmed the existence of the shocklands.

Commander is becoming a yearly product to replace the premium deck series. However, they couldn't start this in time for this ear, so the product this year is a special reprints-only set with new art and frames.

Also a land was spoiled for the FTV:Realms that adds 1 mana of any color but puts a 1/1 colorless spirit into play under an opponent's control.

[Büge]

None of the original guild keywords are returning; each guild gets a new keyword which is supposed to play well with the old keyword. Some of the guildmasters are either the same or previously existed in the story, notably Borborygmos of the Gruul, Niv-Mizzet, Isperia of the Azor, Rakdos, the Ghost Council, and Jarad a Golgari elf who was Savra's brother and wound up opposing her in the Ravnica block novels, in which he died, manifested as a spirit, and possessed his own dead body, spontaneously animating as a lich. New guildleaders include a three-in-one dryad for the Selesnya, a merfolk for the Simic (merfolk appearing on Ravnica is apparently a story-relevant development), a new Boros angel, and some guy for the Dimir (some people are suggesting that this guy was previously a dark confidant).

Two planeswalkers in the first set, one of whom is Jace; two planeswalkers in the second set, one of whom is Gideon (who is blatantly Boros-aligned red-white at the moment).

At the prerelease, you declare your allegiance to one of the five guilds. This gets you a special "guild box" with an appropriate spindown life counter, a guild-specific promo card that you can actually use in the tournament, a guild sticker, a letter from your guildmaster, 5 packs of Return to Ravnica plus one guild-aligned pack that contains only cards of your guild's colors, and an achievement card with guild-specific achievements.

They have all-but-confirmed the existence of the shocklands.

Commander is becoming a yearly product to replace the premium deck series. However, they couldn't start this in time for this ear, so the product this year is a special reprints-only set with new art and frames.

Also a land was spoiled for the FTV:Realms that adds 1 mana of any color but puts a 1/1 colorless spirit into play under an opponent's control.

Forbidden Orchard.

The guild-allegiance thing sounds awesome. Where's you learn all this, Newbie?

[jsnlxndrlv]

That was all from feverishly checking the MTGSalvation forums while at the bar earlier tonight, but I just came across a much more concise summary.

[Nickasummers]

Holy shit. I didn't know i could be more excited for RtR but apparently I was wrong!

[Mongrel]

Yeah, I've been babbling about this stuff with the MTG crowd all night.

Have some art:

MTG Facebook art page for R2R 

Also some FTV: Realms spoilers. Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth is in as is Murmuring Bosk (both with old art). The preview image is confirmed as Glacial Chasm with new art. Other new arts are:

[Mongrel]

Really nice talk from Aaron Forsythe summarizing MTG from about Mirrodin to M13

Magic TV: Extra - Aaron Forsythe "Between Ravnicas" (Magic Cruise 2012)

The audio's crap and the slides play into the talk at spots, so you can't really play it in the background while you do other things. It's pretty long but if you're care much about MTG, it's quite worthwhile. The candidness is really refreshing, especially if you're used to MaRo's coy bullshitting as the main source of behind-the-scenes info. For instance, he plainly states that 4-sets-per-year was driven by revenue and came largely at Hasbro's behest.

[Zaratustra]

jesus christ that's some loud laughing.
Also, could he have picked a worse example than Team Fortress 2 for "game that will eventually be replaced by a sequel"?

[Mongrel]

On the magic boards, I jokingly replied "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY'RE REPLACING TF2?!".

[Büge]

So if I attack with Mindstab Thrull and sacrifice it to its ability, can I respond to the trigger by dropping in an Okiba-Gang Shinobi?

[Mongrel]

So, this:

So this has popped up:

My first impression was to call it fake, since indestructible reminder text always mentions "lethal damage" and not simply "damage." (Darksteel Sentinel, Break of Day, etc. Even the Planechase version of Darksteel Forge that was printed with only "damage" had its oracle wording changed to "lethal damage.") But then someone pointed out to me Aegis Angel and Indestructibility which just say "damage". Which is weird, because Knight Exemplar, printed in between the two, again mentions "lethal damage" so I don't think "it's because they're from Core Sets" is a valid excuse. (And because even if so, RTR is not a Core Set.) So either those two cards were test runs to see if anyone would give a damn by the change in wording and it's being put into permanent effect in RTR, or this thing is fake.

But if indeed fake, it's gotta be the most well executed one so far. There's even a photo of the guy holding it in front of a mirror.

My take:

You know what's funny? I actually think this is real.

See, we've seen pro fakes before, hell, some of us have been a party to some of the best fakes of all time. Let me tell you, the best guys do their research. They're not going to miss something stupid like the copyright line that people keep carping about. This isn't a marquee card like a dual or a planeswalker - anybody smart enough to pick a low risk "Typical" card like that is probably smart enough to actually double-check their damn template. I suspect that we'll see that the copyright line has genuinely changed.

The card itself passes the smell test (it "feels" like a real card WotC would make, and Populate "feels" like a real ability).

Also, the art pretty clearly has a Ravnica and MTG flavour and is by a major recurring artist who does not typically upload a lot of new art to his webpage. I'd love to hear how the explanation for how someone got Selesnya-flavoured Mark Zug art just for a fake common. To me this is the single biggest proof.

The M13 pack story is pretty questionable, but there have been errors like that in the past and for all we know that was an intentional plant by WotC. Also, that could just be a (lame) cover for someone who stole a card or cards from an FFL session or something.

Also:

So I sent Matt Tabak an email:

Dear Matt Tabak,
 Pretty much every card with reminder text for indestructibility mentions "lethal damage," with the exception of Aegis Angel and Indestructibility which simply say "damage." Just wondering if there was any particular reason for this, because I don't think "it's because they're from Core Sets" is the reason since Knight Exemplar also mentions "lethal damage."
 Thank you for your time.

His response:

Sometime in the recent past, although I can't remember exactly when, we decided to remove the term "lethal damage" from the reminder text of indestructible. I think the M10 card Indestructibility did this as a unique one-of because it was weird, affecting creatures and noncreatures. It became policy on or just prior to M13.

Have fun!

Matt

[Büge]

this is an actual thing

[McDohl]

Of all the cards to hang your hat on, Stormtide Leviathan?  Really?

[Zaratustra]

This propagates the myth that women play magic