Magic 2010 Partial Spoiler

A little is known about the upcoming Magic: The Gathering Core Set, Magic 2010. Here are few cards published in the Wizard's official article.

Plus, there is word on the new lands in Magic 2010, here's what Aaron Forsythe wrote: "There has been some speculation as to which set of existing dual lands will be in the next core set, and the answer may surprise: none of them. We wanted to make a cycle of powerful dual lands that risk-averse newer players would like, which meant coming up with something that didn't involve losing life. Sorry, painlands, fetchlands, and Ravnica duals. Trust me, the new ones are awesome!"

Magic 2010

Finally, some news on the next Core Set that comes out this summer. How many of you expected 11th Edition? Wrong. The new Core Set will be called Magic 2010, as this article on the WotC site is saying. Wonder how they came up with that idea?

One realization we came to as we examined our core sets was that our naming convention itself was probably more than a little scary to newer players. "Tenth Edition? I'm already nine editions behind? Do I need to start with the first edition?" Showing our age on the front of the box is not a great tactic for enticing people to try out a "new" game. To solve this problem, we took a page from car makers and the aforementioned Madden NFL video game franchise and are naming core sets after years—specifically the year after the product is released. That means this July's release will be called the Magic: The Gathering 2010 Core Set, or Magic 2010 for short. Heck, you can go even shorter than that if you like, calling it by what appears in the expansion symbol: "M10."

So, we'll have a new Core Set every summer. Also, there will be 50% reprints (Lorwyn Plainswalkers will be back as Mythic rares) and 50% new cards. It's sounds interesting. We'll see how would it turn out.

And, you wonder how this will rotate in and out?

To accommodate this much more rapid core set turnover, we are changing our format rotation policy beginning in the summer of 2010 with the release of the Magic 2011 core set. Magic 2011 will not knock Magic 2010 out of Standard; instead there will be only one rotation date per year, when the large Fall set is released. When the set codenamed "Lights" is released late in 2010, it will knock the Shards of Alara block and Magic 2010 out of Standard at the same time. Core sets will rotate as if they were part of the block preceding them. For approximately three months per year starting in 2010, there will be two core sets legal at a time, which is also a first.

Note that when Magic 2010 is released this summer, Tenth Edition will rotate out as per our normal existing policy.

16 damage Naya combo

Probably the best Naya combo that can be arranged in early game, even in the fourth turn.

Turn 1: Forest + Wild Nacatl
Turn 2: Mountain + Mogg Fanatic
Turn 3: Plains + Woolly Thoctar
Turn 4: Forest + Attack with Woolly Thoctar + Giant Growth + Soul's fire.

Building a Naya budget deck, Part I

I decided to give Naya a try and build a deck based on the shard. I won't be spending much money on it because I have other cards to trade. I had most of the cards, bought few commons and here we are.

I've just started, so I'll need to find few more fatty creatures for an unpleasant beating of the opponent. I think there are enough mana fixers, removals but the deck lacks the giant beasts. Of course, filter lands could fit too, but they're not what I call "budget deck" cards.

Here we go.

NAYA BUDGET DECKLIST

CREATURES:
3 x Mogg Fanatic
2 x Druid of the Anima
2 x Steward of Valeron
4 x Wild Nacatl
4 x Woolly Thoctar

SPELLS:
4 x Incinerate
4 x Soul's Fire
4 x Oblivion Ring
4 x Giant Growth
2 x Fertile Ground
1 x Titanic Ultimatum

PLAINSWALKERS:
3 x Ajani Vengeant

LANDS:
2 x Jungle Shrine
2 x Naya Panorama
7 x Forest
7 x Mountain
5 x Plains

That would be it. I'll make some changes as soon as possible, like kicking out the Fertile Ground and Naya Panorama for something better, like huge beasts or Naya Charm, because I have (more than) enough mana sources. And another thing, I must take back my bad words for Shards of Alara. It's a great set, far from worse. I really enjoy playing this kind of deck.

Cool Naya/Bant Combo

How to deal 5 damage on the second turn? Well, mostly it depends on your luck, but let's give it a try?

Turn 1: Plains + Akrasan Squire
Turn 2: Forest

You attack with the first Akrasan Squire and boost it with Resounding Roar. That's 3, plus 2 from the exalted.

Hopefully, you'll get the right cards and the opponent will take the damage.

Conflux aftershock

Well, Conflux is officially out. I played on the pre-release event and I still don't know what I'm gonna do about the release, because I'm a little bit low on cash. I never played worse deck on limited. For the first time, I played Bant, with a awful deck, but that was the maximum I could pull off the cards I got.

For the first time after a long period, I lost all the matches, finishing with a "bye", leaving the event with the release. The only valueble card I got was the Noble Hierarch which I'm gonna trade for Banefire or Voracious Dragon.

Bant is really cool, but it's definetly something I wouldn't play. The exalted abillity is very, very cool but it's just not for me. I like red and burn.

I got few cool Naya cards that can be used for fun Naya budget deck, I'll try to compile a deck list soon and if it turn out to be competitive I might be playing Naya (if it's too hard to find the two damn cards I need).

Rise of Esper?

I have a Esper deck, built on the intro pack Esper Artifice. This Shard is my favorite, interesting to play, but it seems that is far from competitive. It's a bit slow, with creatures which are easy to be killed and it requires a lot of counter strategy that can screw up the tournament play even more.

But, now three cards are changing my plans for investing in this kind of deck. So, I might be buying some new cards after all. Check them out below:

A life gain defender with 6 toughness plus flying? Oh my, this can be awesome.

Just imagine what could you possibly destroy with this on. And if you have enough mana, you can take two big beasts at once.My favorite. You can return anything you want, and put Sharuum The Hegemon into play, and there you are, return another artifact from your graveyard to play. Awesomeness.