There have been several confirmations from TOs who received info about the promo from an official WotC email. If anyone needs me to forward the email to them, I'll happily do it. The promo is happening. It specifically said in the email that it was for people who purchased the game after June 15th, so they may not have mentioned it in the press release in an effort not to dissuade early sales.
I imagine they're doing it to save on shipping. It probably cost them a fortune mailing all those Garruks out individually rather than just mailing 30 at a time to each store and letting the stores distribute them.
And the answer is 30. That's how many each store will receive (if they sign up for the program).
Yeah, the Xbox Garruk had alternate art. I collect playsets of cards with each different piece of artwork for each planeswalker, and as if getting my playset of Xbox Garruks and book-promo Jaces wasn't hard enough, I now have to track down a playset of these if they have new art. (:
They didn't include pictures in the email, but other TOs should be able to verify the legitimacy of this. The decks will probably be crappy mono-coloured 30 card decks filled with random core set crap. That's what they were for the Xbox promotion similar to this. This promotion made it sound like these were new versions of those decks (as in, probably M10 crap rather than 10th edition crap), but I'm sure they're the same basic idea. They may even be the same decks and not new at all.
Like the title of the thread says. TOs were emailed by Wizards this morning, and mentioned in the email was that anyone purchasing Duels of the Planeswalkers on Steam would receive a voucher to claim a foil Nissa Revane promo from their local retail shop (as well as two free decks). I signed my shop up for the promo earlier today, and the sign-up said the kit included 30 foil premium cards and 60 decks. Presumably this is one kit per store, but new foil planeswalkers are pretty sweet.
An email sent out to tournament organizers today mentioned that retail stores will be able to get their hands on foil Nissa Revane promo cards to give out to people who bring them vouchers they receive for purchasing Duels of the Planeswalkers on Steam. I signed my store up for the promotion this morning, and the sign-up wasn't explicit about what card the promotion involved, but it did explicitly say that the kit included 30 copies of a foil premium card. So, anyway, there's a foil promo Nissa Revane coming out. The vouchers are being given away starting June 15th, and the program's sign-up said stores would have the product in stock in time to redeem vouchers. Seems a little sudden, but that's what it said.
We also received these at our store, and we're both premier and frequent WPN participators. No idea what they're for. Usually there's a sheet with at least recommendations on how to distribute these types of things, but it was literally just two packs of loyalty counters and two packs of full-art basic lands.
I guess we'll just give these out as bonus prizes at tournaments.
So, a parting gift from my time spent at the Diamond/Alliance trade show this week. I was speaking with someone from WotC who definitely has inside knowledge about upcoming sets (and I'd be happy to let a mod know who, but he was nice and I don't want to get him in trouble by outing him publicly if he said anything he shouldn't have), and I asked him if he'd confirm any of the information people had deduced from looking at trademark registrations. Of course, he said no, but he also added (with a devious grin, no less) "for the record, though, we ARE aware that people are using trademark registrations to figure out advance information about upcoming sets." To this, I responded, "so the return to Mirrodin that sprung up out of nowhere isn't really happening?" And he gave sort of a bashful "I'm not saying anything" sort of look, and said "the great thing about those records is that they don't give anybody any other information when they look them up."
Think about it: never before have we ever had the names of an entire block registered all at once, and never so early either. I honestly think it's pretty unlikely that Mirrodin Pure, Scars of Mirrodin, and New Phyrexia are anything more than red herrings. Wizards is trying to throw us off the trail. That being said, it's possible that the new trademark registration that popped up in the last day or so is the real name for Lights, since the timing makes more sense, and since it appeared alone, like every other expansion always has.
Just food for thought. Don't take any trademark registrations for granted. Some are likely being registered just to keep the real information secret. And for the record, I'm not confirming that Lights, Camera, Action isn't a return to Mirrodin. I'm just letting people know what I found out, so that it isn't considered confirmed information that it is a return to Mirrodin, either.
OH! I did just remember something else we learned in the seminar. They said they were going to continue this year's Duel Decks convention next year, with thematic Duel Decks in the spring and planeswalker vs. planeswalker Duel Decks in the fall. No confirmation of which planeswalkers, of course (since we're a year away, and Garruk Vs. Liliana isn't even out yet), but we can now count on the follow-up to spring's Phyrexia Vs. the Coalition being another planeswalker Vs. planeswalker set in the fall of 2010.
They were really vague in the seminar. They were going through upcoming products on power point and had a few bullets for each one, one of which for Worldwake was that there would be a new card for one of the most popular planeswalkers. I don't think anything else they mentioned about Worldwake was new or interesting. They just said it continued Zendikar's theme and mechanics. They didn't even mention anything about new mechanics.
They also didn't confirm Rise of the Eldrazi as the real name for Prosper. They talked about Prosper, but just basically said that it would stand on its own, acting toward Zendikar as Shadowmoor did toward Lorwyn, only without Eventide.
Sorry I don't have more information! I think the confirmation that there's any planeswalker in Worldwake is pretty awesome, though. I know a lot of people weren't expecting one.
The way it read and they way they said it would indicate to me that it's a new planeswalker card for a character that has already had a planeswalker card. I could very well be wrong, but I think they spoke misleadingly if I am.
As for Necrotic Sliver, no, it had original art, which is how I recognized it.
I'm at the Alliance/Diamond trade show this week, and I went to a Wizards Play Network seminar earlier today, during which they confirmed that Worldwake will feature a "new card for one of the most popular planeswalkers." I don't have a way to transfer photos from my camera to a computer and I don't have a regular camera so I didn't bother taking pictures of their power point presentation (which explicitly stated the same thing in written text), but that's what they said. We know Jace and Sarkhan have both gone or are going to Zendikar, so it stands to reason it's one of those two (rather than Tez, Ajani, Elspeth, Liliana, or Nicol Bolas, all of whom seem mostly unrelated, Garruk who seems unlikely, or Chandra, Sorin, or Nissa, all of whom just saw print in Zendikar). Based on the popularity claim, I'd wager Jace, but who knows? It certainly could be Sarkhan.
Just thought I'd share. They also showed a few pictures of cards from the upcoming Slivers deck. The only one I could make out for sure was Necrotic Sliver, though.
A few things here. The exact quote from Rosewater's article was:
A card with the reminder text "The land continues to burn..."
The two major things that need to be noticed here are that:
1) The phrase ends in an ellipsis, or in other words, it's not a complete sentence. It's only part of the full sentence. It's incredibly likely that there is a word like "resources" or "mana" directly following the phrase.
2) He only said this reminder text was on a CARD, not on a land necessarily. It seems more likely to me that this reminder text is on a spell or creature that targets a land in some way.
Beyond that, if we're 100% certain the orb shows reminder text then I have no idea what the particulars of this card might be. My inclination is that it's probably related to the Eldrazi card in the set (since I believe there's only one or two of those total, and they might give us a little crossover glimpse into the mechanics of Rise of the Eldrazi). How do we know that reminder text is included in the orb?
And the answer is 30. That's how many each store will receive (if they sign up for the program).
I still hope they do, though.
I guess we'll just give these out as bonus prizes at tournaments.
Think about it: never before have we ever had the names of an entire block registered all at once, and never so early either. I honestly think it's pretty unlikely that Mirrodin Pure, Scars of Mirrodin, and New Phyrexia are anything more than red herrings. Wizards is trying to throw us off the trail. That being said, it's possible that the new trademark registration that popped up in the last day or so is the real name for Lights, since the timing makes more sense, and since it appeared alone, like every other expansion always has.
Just food for thought. Don't take any trademark registrations for granted. Some are likely being registered just to keep the real information secret. And for the record, I'm not confirming that Lights, Camera, Action isn't a return to Mirrodin. I'm just letting people know what I found out, so that it isn't considered confirmed information that it is a return to Mirrodin, either.
They also didn't confirm Rise of the Eldrazi as the real name for Prosper. They talked about Prosper, but just basically said that it would stand on its own, acting toward Zendikar as Shadowmoor did toward Lorwyn, only without Eventide.
Sorry I don't have more information! I think the confirmation that there's any planeswalker in Worldwake is pretty awesome, though. I know a lot of people weren't expecting one.
As for Necrotic Sliver, no, it had original art, which is how I recognized it.
Just thought I'd share. They also showed a few pictures of cards from the upcoming Slivers deck. The only one I could make out for sure was Necrotic Sliver, though.
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Arid Mesa
3x Verdant Catacombs
3x Marsh Flats
1x Scalding Tarn
The two major things that need to be noticed here are that:
1) The phrase ends in an ellipsis, or in other words, it's not a complete sentence. It's only part of the full sentence. It's incredibly likely that there is a word like "resources" or "mana" directly following the phrase.
2) He only said this reminder text was on a CARD, not on a land necessarily. It seems more likely to me that this reminder text is on a spell or creature that targets a land in some way.
Beyond that, if we're 100% certain the orb shows reminder text then I have no idea what the particulars of this card might be. My inclination is that it's probably related to the Eldrazi card in the set (since I believe there's only one or two of those total, and they might give us a little crossover glimpse into the mechanics of Rise of the Eldrazi). How do we know that reminder text is included in the orb?