I’m always both sad and relieved when preview and spoiler season ends. Sad, because it’s fun watching the trickle of cards throughout the day and getting the big story and set staple reveals. Relieved, because it’s painful to watch people misappropriate the Bolt Test, evaluate cards without either testing or any metagame context, and make one […]

Last Friday morning, Allosaurus Rider went from a $.50 bulk-binder warmer to the next $20 buyout. The Coldsnap and Duel Deck throwback has since stabilized in the $5-$7 range with most major retailers, but dino hype hasn’t had this much bite since Jurassic World trailers started appearing in late 2014. You can thank Gavin Verhey for the buyout; his Eldritch […]

I got an email the other day asking if I’d finished any more Emrakul tests. I’ll take that one publicly: no, because I haven’t tested Emrakul specifically, but yes, because I’ve been getting in on the RG Tron MTGO action since last weekend. I’m really hating Jeskai’s Crumbles and Snapcasters, but otherwise the deck has […]

Sorry, Team #MaritLage and Eldrazi haters. Innistrad’s got a new “guardian,” and Lady Sprankle’s going to have a tougher job pulling off the prerelease cosplay this time. Eldritch Moon previews get their formal kickoff next Monday, but Emrakul had to make her promised appearance early just in case the suspense was still killing you. Of all […]

As a competitive player and avid brewer, I always look forward to spoiler season. I check the spoiler page at midnight and then again at 5 AM even though there’s almost certainly nothing new. Some moments of elation justify this diligence; I remember my head exploding when Hooting Mandrills was spoiled. So it hurts to say that Battle for Zendikar’s […]

It’s spoiler season once again and the Battle for Zendikar previews are trickling in. While there are many interesting cards for Limited and Standard that are coming out of the woodwork, what about for Modern? Thanks to the Eldrazi theme, Battle for Zendikar has a lot of high cost spells and creatures. As I’ll talk about later, […]

Spoiler and preview seasons always have ups and downs. There are the ups of amazing cards and the downs of Limited fodder. There are also the ups of instant recognition of a format staple (hello, Atarka’s Command), and the downs of embarrassing card evaluation failures (“Treasure Cruise = overcosted jank gg wizards”). Magic Origins, the […]