• A Brief History of Dominaria's Thallids

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    Ever wonder what a thallid actually is? Curious about where those mushroom things came from? What could they be up to with their spore counters and saprolings? Today SEV8 gives a Vorthos history lesson on Dominaria's funky fungus folk, from Thelon to Slimefoot and everything in between.

  • Announcing: The Underworld Cookbook!

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    As families gather around the table to enjoy bountiful meals today, some may ask themselves "What do they eat on Dominaria?" It just so happens, our Easter Day Surprise answers this very question! We're pleased to announce the coming of "The Underworld Cookbook". Read on for our exclusive Dominaria special announcement spoiler!

  • The True History of Dominaria

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    Much has been written about the history of Dominaria. With recent revelations, however, we know that the history we once thought real was false. The stories we've been told were actually full of lies and deceit. Guest writer BelzenlokFacts examines the newly uncovered truth, and shows us the true history and timeline of Dominaria.

  • Ixalan Story Interview with Alison Luhrs

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    Alison Luhrs is a creative designer for Magic: The Gathering and had a view of the inner workings of Ixalan's story and oversaw its creative texts. Before we leave Ixalan behind for new horizons, SEV8 interviewed Alison to get a behind-the-scenes look at Ixalan's story, it's nuances, and what set it apart from other sets.

  • The Rise of New Phyrexia

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    Last cycle, we discussed how the pathetic fleshlings on the surface of our world believed there to be hope. Today, as we flay you alive, we will discuss the intrusion of beings from outside our glorious paradise.

  • Pack #47: Magic Origins featuring Priest of the Blood Rite

    (Prerelease Seeded Pack opened for July 11 to 17, 2015)

    I can't wait to write about Magic Origins ever since I saw the card list spoiler a week before the prerelease. I already made a list of all the things that I want in the set back then, and since most of them are black, I decided to go for Liliana Vess' seeded pack during the prerelease itself.

    Priest of the Blood Rite, incidentally, is not in my wish list, as I don't have a demon-themed Commander deck nor do I have any constructed decks that exploits (geek pun intended) the Priest's ability to summon demons. It is, however, a very nice card that's hard to ignore, with an ability that's fairly easy to abuse using reanimation (hmmm... maybe I can squeeze this into my Abzan Commander deck afterall...) and a "drawback" that's easy to "cheat".

    Having played Magic since Fallen Empires, I can't help but notice that Magic in the recent years have made it easier for planeswalkers to deal with demons. Back in the old days, demons were powerful beings that had to be fed with either mana (Demonic Hordes) or creatures (Lord of the Pit) or else they'll turn against their controller. There was hardly any way to cheat around such a costly pact with these infernal creatures, so sometimes, an enterprising mage would instead try to sneak in the demon into the ranks of his or her opponent's creatures and let the new controller pay for the demon tax.

    Here, the demon will probably just hate you for letting the Priest who called it from the netherworld remain on the battlefield; kill the priest, and the Demon will serve you unquestioningly for the rest of its existence. That's an awesome flavor hit, if you ask me.
     

  • Pack #44: Shards of Alara, featuring Thoughtcutter Agent

    (Chaos Pack #4 opened for June 28 to July 3, 2015)

    (Continued from here)

    The players around me during my stint at a Chaos Sealed event were pulling out powerhouses like Emrakul and Aether Vials. I, on the other hand, had to content myself with cards like this.

    Still, I just love the flavor on this card. It's a rogue that inflicts a (slightly painful) mark on its targets (causing them to lose 1 point of life) to let them know that "their secrets are secrets no more" (by making them reveal the cards in their hand). I can almost imagine it climbing up to the highest tower in an Arcane Sanctum and shouting at a microphone: "I am now broadcasting to everybody that you are holding nothing but three Islands in your hand in light of an upcoming combo victory. You, yes, you: the one I have branded with a filigree rose at back of your left hand. Suffer for the embarrassment!"

    It's a rather haughty method of information-gathering with nothing of the subtlety that one usually expects in spies, but I guess that's what happens when you add a bit of black in summoning your rogues: sadistic finesse.

    Magic Origins is just around the corner as I write this and I can't help but compare this agent's home plane (Esper) with Chandra's (Kaladesh), since both seem to be so heavy with artifice. I wonder how undercover agents would operate in an industry-heavy world that's patrolled by thousands of thopter spies?

    (To be continued)

  • Pack #19: Dragons of Tarkir, featuring Dragonlord Atarka

    (Opened May 17, 2015)

    Magic's updated Bogardan Hellkite is now more Commander-friendly both due its new legendary status and its inability to damage players directly. "Deals damage to creatures and/or planeswalkers" started with Fated Conflagration and seems to be a growing trend among red spells and effects to make the game more interactive, with the main kill of choice still being creature combat.

    It's probably best not to think about the flavor of this card, though. Magic is a game where the players themselves play the role of planeswalkers, so how can a spell (or in this case, a creature) distinguish the difference between a planeswalker in flesh form and a planeswalker in card form? It's like that age-old question of how can a spell or effect distinguish between a creature card and a creature token, when they're really supposed to be just one and the same.

    I have a few ideas, but yeah, let's talk about that some other time.

  • Pack #13: Dragons of Tarkir, featuring Herald of Dromoka

    (Opened May 11, 2015)

    There are plenty of cards between Khans of Tarkir and Dragons of Tarkir that reference one another because both expansion sets are supposed to depict alternate timelines of the same world. Two of those cards are Herald of Anafenza (from Khans) and Herald of Dromoka (from Dragons), which are sibling cards not just by name, but also by art (as shown by the sounding horn that each herald is blowing).

    I kind of wished, however, that both cards tied with each other mechanically as well. Could Herald of Anafenza have granted some other abilities to other Warriors as well? Could Herald of Dromoka somehow spitted out Warrior tokens, or had some Bolster action to mirror the other herald's Outlast ability? It's tempting to assume that both had either one time during design and just got changed for developmental reasons, but I suppose we'll never know: Tarkir as it existed during the times of the Khans no longer exists.

  • Pack #9: Dragons of Tarkir, featuring Scaleguard Sentinels

    (Opened May 7, 2015)

    I'm probably part of a small minority of people out there who feels that green soldiers are strange.

    This is not the first time that green has had any mono-colored soldiers (apparently, one of them is even legendary), but in a setting where it could easily be substituted with a "warrior" creature type, cards like this outside white stand out like an eyesore. Green creatures are often depicted as being capable of primal, savage, go-with-the-flow combat that is so different from the regimental, militaristic, march-in-a-line sort of routine that's attributed to soldiers.

    What makes this sort of thing even harder to ignore is that it's printed during a time when Standard did not have any support for the "soldier" creature type (well, there's Preeminent Captain - but it's white), in addtion to an unprecedented support for the "warrior" creature type outside red. Because of these, I think green soldiers in Dragons of Tarkir are a miss in both Vorthosian and Melvinistic points of view.