What if there is no timestamp order where multiple "being set to a basic land" changing effects within the same layer enter/enchant simultaneously? For example, say in some highly unlikely scenario a show and tell resolves, and both song of the dryads and spreading seas enter enchanting the same land? Is is safe to assume the timestamp is then based on APNAP to determine if the land is an island or a forest? What if the land being enchanted also happens to be non-basic, and a third player brings blood moon onto the battlefield off the S&T?
Although slightly off topic and may not have been the original intent of the wording here, if a permanent that isn't a basic land becomes enchanted by Song of the Dryads, it will simply read as follows. I'll use a popular commander as an example.
Maelstrom Wanderer - 5URG
Legendary Creature - Elemental
Creatures you control have haste.
Cascade, Cascade
7/5
Maelstrom Wanderer - 5URG
Legendary Land - Forest (Tap: Add G to your mana pool. Maelstrom Wanderer is colorless.) <-- Reminder text
As you'll notice, Song of the Dryads does not turn the permanent into a basic land, it just makes it a land with a basic land type. This means, like Sheldon Menery pointed out in a StarCityGames article today, hearing the words "Wasteland your commander" will sound weird, but be perfectly legal since it's not a basic land, just like Dryad Arbor is also not a basic land but can be targeted by Wasteland even though it has the "Forest" basic land type.
Is there a reason why it's called the "Mothershup" instead of "Mothership"? Is there an inside joke I'm missing somewhere? Clearly the topic title has just been copied and pasted from the previous two days since they all have the same error. I was just wondering why.
I agree though, boring previews all around today. Nothing exciting at all. They all can't be winners though.
This may not be contributing to the direct discussion of FTV:20, but would the webmasters if MTGS please replace the M14 spoiler on the home page with FTV:20 since it is the next major Magic release that people would be tuned into? If anything, for convenience purposes at least. I'm sure others here would appreciate the same thing.
When you arrive at a Dragon's Maze prerelease, you select one of the 10 guilds.
Your guild box will have:
4 Dragon's Maze Booster Packs
1 Guild Booster pack belonging to the guild you selected
1 unknown guild booster pack belonging to another guild (secret alliance guild) that shares one of the colors of your selected guild, as long as it's not in the same set. (A guild box cannot have two RTR guilds inside or two GTC guilds inside, must be one of each)
Noone knows which secret allied guild will be included in their guild box, and it's probably better that way so that people who figure out the system won't be cherry picking certain guilds based on how well two certain guilds happen to play together just to increase their chances of winning. The random 25/25/25/25 chance you have of having a certain guild forces everyone to adapt to their sealed pool, as if the randomness inside the guild boosters and the 4 DGM packs themselves weren't enough.
In the Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash prereleases, your guild booster (the one with the clear, transparent packaging) had 16 cards in it. It included 10 commons, 3 uncommons, 1 rare or the guild leader, and your guild-specific foil prerelease card that you were allowed to put in your deck for the tournament. For Dragon's Maze, those exact guild boosters are returning, except they will only have 15 cards, with the guild-specific foil prerelease card being the missing card inside.
As far as the Dragon's Maze prerelease card is concerned, instead of having 5 different ones available for Return to Ravnica and 5 different ones available for Gatecrash, with each foil prerelease card allowed to be used inside one's deck, only one Dragon's Maze prerelease card will be available, and it will be handed out to everyone instead of being included inside the guild box. And it CANNOT be used inside one's deck.
Now, concerning the nonbasic land slot inside Dragon's Maze boosters (that's replacing the traditional basic land slot in boosters for this set): it has been confirmed that shocklands that appeared in Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash will appear at roughly half the rate they appeared in Return to Ravnica or Gatecrash, making them, for all intents and purposes, harder to pull than any Dragon's Maze mythic rare. However, I'm inclined to believe that although this nonbasic land slot will almost always have one of the ten guildgates in any given pack, they have also raised the possibility that the eleventh mythic in Dragon's Maze (supposedly a Legendary Land that allows you to win the game if you control ten gates) can also appear in this nonbasic land slot.
It has also been confirmed that even though up to 21 different cards can appear in this nonbasic land slot (10 guildgates, 10 shocklands, 1 DGM mythic land), the guildgates and the mythic land will have the DGM expansion symbol and the shocklands will retain their RTR or GTC expansion symbols. This difference in choice of expansion symbols of cards that appear in DGM packs raises several intriguing questions, but also produces some rather common sense answers as well, at least to me anyway. As most of us know thanks to the flavor text clues located on the guildgates in Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash, we are not expecting events on Ravnica to have a pretty ending, and many landmarks and structures will probably end up in ruins as a result. With WOTC's decision to have all 10 guildgates appear in Dragon's Maze with the DGM expansion symbol instead of the RTR or GTC they have already been previously printed with, it is almost expected that the 10 guildgates reappearing will show up in DGM packs with new art, more than likely shown in a damaged or destroyed state. If they had the same art, just imagine what a nightmare it would be for collectors trying to sort through cards and coming across two gate cards that look essentially identical with the exception of the expansion symbol and the collector number at the bottom. There wouldn't be enough distinction between the two. Having 10 different pieces of art for the guildgates that appear in DGM would help with that problem and possibly help sell the impending storyline.
On the subject of having shocklands with RTR or GTC expansion symbols appear in DGM packs, WOTC would almost undoubtedly have to ratify their policy of only being allowed to use cards with the expansion symbol belonging to only the single set in question in limited tournaments. However, since DGM is a small set and is not designed to be drafted DGM-DGM-DGM, this may not be as much of an issue. But in the future, if WOTC does decide to add cards from earlier sets within the same block inside of booster packs, it bumps up the possibility of people trying to sneak in outside cards into their sealed pool, but I suppose that's been an age old problem and nothing new.
To clear up any confusion regarding foils, the only way you can get a foil version of a shockland is by opening it up in a Return to Ravnica or Gatecrash booster, as it has been confirmed that no foil shockland can be opened up in Dragon's Maze boosters. You are almost guaranteed exactly one guildgate in every Dragon's Maze booster, with the off chance that the guildgate inside is replaced with a shockland or DGM's mythic land. However, you can get two guildgates in one booster, since a foil version of any DGM card will always replace a common card in the booster. As people have already speculated and figured out, you can have the "god" pack and get three rares in one booster (#1 - rare/mythic in the traditional rare/mythic slot, #2 - DGM mythic land or shockland in the nonbasic land slot, #3 - foil rare or mythic replacing a common slot). Is it possible to get the DGM mythic land in all three slots? I believe it will be possible. Would hate opening that in draft though.:o
1
Although slightly off topic and may not have been the original intent of the wording here, if a permanent that isn't a basic land becomes enchanted by Song of the Dryads, it will simply read as follows. I'll use a popular commander as an example.
Maelstrom Wanderer - 5URG
Legendary Creature - Elemental
Creatures you control have haste.
Cascade, Cascade
7/5
After being enchanted by Song of the Dryads, it reads...
Maelstrom Wanderer - 5URG
Legendary Land - Forest
(Tap: Add G to your mana pool. Maelstrom Wanderer is colorless.) <-- Reminder text
As you'll notice, Song of the Dryads does not turn the permanent into a basic land, it just makes it a land with a basic land type. This means, like Sheldon Menery pointed out in a StarCityGames article today, hearing the words "Wasteland your commander" will sound weird, but be perfectly legal since it's not a basic land, just like Dryad Arbor is also not a basic land but can be targeted by Wasteland even though it has the "Forest" basic land type.
1
I agree though, boring previews all around today. Nothing exciting at all. They all can't be winners though.
3
1
When you arrive at a Dragon's Maze prerelease, you select one of the 10 guilds.
Your guild box will have:
Your guild box will NOT contain:
All that has been confirmed here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1156. It's the second paragraph under the heading All Ten Guilds.
So, that means that the following guild combinations are possible inside your guild box when you select a guild:
Guild Selected (Set) - Secret Allied Guild Possibilities (Other Set)
Azorius WU(RTR) - Orzhov WB, Dimir UB, Boros RW, Simic GU(GTC)
Orzhov WB(GTC) - Azorius WU, Rakdos BR, Golgari BG, Selesnya GW(RTR)
Dimir UB(GTC) - Izzet UR, Rakdos BR, Golgari BG, Azorius WU(RTR)
Izzet UR(RTR) - Gruul RG, Boros RW, Simic GU, Dimir UB(GTC)
Rakdos BR(RTR) - Gruul RG, Boros RW, Orzhov WB, Dimir UB(GTC)
Golgari BG(RTR) - Gruul RG, Simic GU, Orzhov WB, Dimir UB(GTC)
Gruul RG(GTC) - Selesnya GW, Izzet UR, Rakdos BR, Golgari BG(RTR)
Boros RW(GTC) - Selesnya GW, Azorius WU, Izzet UR, Rakdos BR(RTR)
Selesnya GW(RTR) - Simic GU, Orzhov WB, Gruul RG, Boros RW(GTC)
Simic GU(GTC) - Azorius WU, Izzet UR, Golgari BG, Selesnya GW(RTR)
Noone knows which secret allied guild will be included in their guild box, and it's probably better that way so that people who figure out the system won't be cherry picking certain guilds based on how well two certain guilds happen to play together just to increase their chances of winning. The random 25/25/25/25 chance you have of having a certain guild forces everyone to adapt to their sealed pool, as if the randomness inside the guild boosters and the 4 DGM packs themselves weren't enough.
In the Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash prereleases, your guild booster (the one with the clear, transparent packaging) had 16 cards in it. It included 10 commons, 3 uncommons, 1 rare or the guild leader, and your guild-specific foil prerelease card that you were allowed to put in your deck for the tournament. For Dragon's Maze, those exact guild boosters are returning, except they will only have 15 cards, with the guild-specific foil prerelease card being the missing card inside.
As far as the Dragon's Maze prerelease card is concerned, instead of having 5 different ones available for Return to Ravnica and 5 different ones available for Gatecrash, with each foil prerelease card allowed to be used inside one's deck, only one Dragon's Maze prerelease card will be available, and it will be handed out to everyone instead of being included inside the guild box. And it CANNOT be used inside one's deck.
Now, concerning the nonbasic land slot inside Dragon's Maze boosters (that's replacing the traditional basic land slot in boosters for this set): it has been confirmed that shocklands that appeared in Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash will appear at roughly half the rate they appeared in Return to Ravnica or Gatecrash, making them, for all intents and purposes, harder to pull than any Dragon's Maze mythic rare. However, I'm inclined to believe that although this nonbasic land slot will almost always have one of the ten guildgates in any given pack, they have also raised the possibility that the eleventh mythic in Dragon's Maze (supposedly a Legendary Land that allows you to win the game if you control ten gates) can also appear in this nonbasic land slot.
It has also been confirmed that even though up to 21 different cards can appear in this nonbasic land slot (10 guildgates, 10 shocklands, 1 DGM mythic land), the guildgates and the mythic land will have the DGM expansion symbol and the shocklands will retain their RTR or GTC expansion symbols. This difference in choice of expansion symbols of cards that appear in DGM packs raises several intriguing questions, but also produces some rather common sense answers as well, at least to me anyway. As most of us know thanks to the flavor text clues located on the guildgates in Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash, we are not expecting events on Ravnica to have a pretty ending, and many landmarks and structures will probably end up in ruins as a result. With WOTC's decision to have all 10 guildgates appear in Dragon's Maze with the DGM expansion symbol instead of the RTR or GTC they have already been previously printed with, it is almost expected that the 10 guildgates reappearing will show up in DGM packs with new art, more than likely shown in a damaged or destroyed state. If they had the same art, just imagine what a nightmare it would be for collectors trying to sort through cards and coming across two gate cards that look essentially identical with the exception of the expansion symbol and the collector number at the bottom. There wouldn't be enough distinction between the two. Having 10 different pieces of art for the guildgates that appear in DGM would help with that problem and possibly help sell the impending storyline.
On the subject of having shocklands with RTR or GTC expansion symbols appear in DGM packs, WOTC would almost undoubtedly have to ratify their policy of only being allowed to use cards with the expansion symbol belonging to only the single set in question in limited tournaments. However, since DGM is a small set and is not designed to be drafted DGM-DGM-DGM, this may not be as much of an issue. But in the future, if WOTC does decide to add cards from earlier sets within the same block inside of booster packs, it bumps up the possibility of people trying to sneak in outside cards into their sealed pool, but I suppose that's been an age old problem and nothing new.
To clear up any confusion regarding foils, the only way you can get a foil version of a shockland is by opening it up in a Return to Ravnica or Gatecrash booster, as it has been confirmed that no foil shockland can be opened up in Dragon's Maze boosters. You are almost guaranteed exactly one guildgate in every Dragon's Maze booster, with the off chance that the guildgate inside is replaced with a shockland or DGM's mythic land. However, you can get two guildgates in one booster, since a foil version of any DGM card will always replace a common card in the booster. As people have already speculated and figured out, you can have the "god" pack and get three rares in one booster (#1 - rare/mythic in the traditional rare/mythic slot, #2 - DGM mythic land or shockland in the nonbasic land slot, #3 - foil rare or mythic replacing a common slot). Is it possible to get the DGM mythic land in all three slots? I believe it will be possible. Would hate opening that in draft though.:o