Kamigawa

[Prometheus]

Well I finally saw an article with some real information about the upcoming Kamigawa block:

http://www.mtgnews.com/F/Topic/1091786138979_Comprehensive_Kamigawa_Block_Informa.html

So far it's looking good to me. Aside from the more average plains, the basic land art looks really good, and I think the flavor of the whole thing is very neat. It looks like despite the japanese flavor-theme they're not going to go heavily into Samurai and Ninjas, which is probably a good thing. (although I'd prefer new creature types like Samurai over the Mirrodin-introduced Archer.)

As for actual information about the mechanics of the block, there isn't much yet, of course. 'Something special' for the kami creatures doesn't explain much. I was interested to hear about the potential for a higher rate of Legends, something we haven't seen since Invasion.

I could personally do without the rabbitfolk, and if elves can take a vacation, I wish goblins would as well, but that's just me...

[Prometheus]

The Prerelease is September 18th and 19th.

[Fellfrosch]

The previews have started, and so have the unofficial leaks. Check out this crazy wacko loony toon card on mtgnews: http://cards.mtgnews.com/Cards/CK/Akki_Lavarunner.html

Oddly, EUOL and I had designed card concepts very similar to this for a CCG we were working on years ago.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

so question... does it lose haste when it flips then? Or is that irrelevant because flipping doesn't induce summoning sickness?

[Prometheus]

I'm still not 100% sold on the Akki Lavarunner being a real card. I have a hard time believing that Wizards would format the card quite like that. The mechanics seem good though.

My best guess on how the card would work is that the Akki Lavarunner would 'lose' haste, as it would be a different creature after the flip. As you indicated, though, it wouldn't really be relevant. It's not entering play. Best guess...

They've started the official card previews now, and although everything they've put out is white, they look pretty cool. (not that white is bad, but 3 white cards out of 3 previews is just weird)

I remember coming back from one of the Mirrodin block prereleases and actually saying that a legends block would be a cool theme to go with. Quite the coincidence.

[Fellfrosch]

I'm willing to bet that it's a real card, and that there will be several like it (at least one per color), and that they will, in fact, be formatted that way. Care to make it interesting?

I imagine that they're touting white because they think they can finally make it a good color again. We'll see.

Yes, I remember you saying that a Legends block would be cool, and I remember saying that you were high. Guess I'll ahve to eat my words.

[Prometheus]

Hehe, no it's ok. Stuff like today's preview card makes me think it's the folks at Wizards who are high:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mf5

Fortunately, I doubt they'll have to ban this Time card too. Pretty sweet.

Update: In the interests of not double-posting I'll just modify this one for now. I just took a look at the mtgnews.com spoiler for Kamigawa, though, and this block is looking to be indescribably cool, and that's with only 30-some cards out so far.

Some currently listed cards to pay attention to:

* Blessed Breath - The Splice onto Arcane ability is a winner. Blessed Breath is itself is less important.
* Reciprocate - The signals we're getting from Wizards suggests that there will be a cycle of indestructible cards. The set has a built-in method for dealing with them. Not the best one I've ever seen, but it will be important to the set's viability.
* Hinder - They aren't reprinting Counterspell again. Get over it. That said, Hinder has a lot of advantages over its forebear, although the higher cost will keep it in the permanently weaker category.
* Cranial Extraction - It took me a bit to figure out why this was in Kamigawa and cheaper than I expected. The answer is in the new Legends rule. With Cranial Extraction you can clear the way for your Legend of choice to come into play and stay there uncontested.
* Struggle for Sanity - I pooh poohed this one initially. As the rest of the block unfolds, however, this could become extremely useful to cut down on their supply of Splice onto Arcane Spells and to combat the massive card drawing blue is sporting so far.
* Sakura-Tribe Elder - A card that has enough points in its favor to virtually dominate both Rampant Growth and Diligent Farmhand at what they do best? Yeah, I'll be scrubbing commons boxes for these.

There will be plenty more I'm sure, and the cards I didn't mention include many that will be devastating in play. The new environment continues to shape itself up, however, and I don't think I've ever seen a block with potential like this.

[Prometheus]

I was bumping around on the website for the Kamigawa Prereleases today, and I noticed that the price of the flights has been raised by $5 from $25 to $30. I also noted, however, that this is not the case for pre-registration by Pay-Pal. If you're planning to go, hopefully you'll see this and can save a couple bucks. Who else is planning to go, anyway?

I was trying to hold off double posting just to gush about the new set, but the spoiler at mtgnews is showing an awesome set coming out of the woodworks. There's a ton of powerful cards and interesting mechanics (as well as a lot of Legends, which is always good) but there's just as much flavor. This will be a good, good block, folks.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I think 8 days between posts is acceptable.

[Fellfrosch]

Surprisingly, I've been very underwhelmed with what I've seen in the previews--with the exception of the "flip" creatures (which have been officially confirmed) none of the new mechanics really catch my interest. Admittedly, all of the preview cards so far have been the crazy wow cards for the set, showing off all of the rules they've decided to break, which doesn't give you a good idea of what the set is really going to be like.

I loved Mirrodin, though, and of course I love Magic in general, so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and I am planning on going to the Prerelease. Where and how does one preregister?

[Prometheus]

My reluctance to double post has less to do with the number of days since the last post and more to do with the number of times that I've posted 2-3 times in the CCG thread with no response.

But anyway...the site that you can preregister at seems to be down right now, so the exact link will have to wait. It should be at www.theblackrose.com though, the site for the local tournament organizers. The payment method specified is PayPal.

You're right about not really having seen the core of the set, I'll admit. I still think what we've seen is pretty cool, but that is skewed by the fact that a large portion of what we've seen has been rares. The mechanics other than the flip cards that are interesting to me are Splice onto Arcane and the Arcane spell subtype in general, along with the other things that are coming with it. I really like the idea that there is a separate set of spells for the kami, and I've been well pleased by the interactions those spells have had across all the different colors.

[Fellfrosch]

Splice onto Arcane looks like it could be cool, but all of the cards I've seen (admittedly unofficial) have a splice cost identical to their normal casting cost. Maybe I'm just dumb, but I fail to see the point of combining spell effects instead of just letting them resolve separately. Unless protection from colors is really big in Kamigawa (and counterspells are really weak).

[Prometheus]

I didn't see it at first either. If you look at the Splice wording, though, you only reveal the splice spell. It isn't expended. You're only tacking its effect onto the other Arcane spell. In some ways, it's a funky form of buyback, but one that I like quite a bit.

[Fellfrosch]

Aha, you're right. That's suddenly adds a whole new twist to things, doesn't it?

[Prometheus]

Well, we got our look at the set. The mtgnews site is up to 250 of 306 cards, I've got the bulk of my Prerelease Tactics article ready to go, and I'm still liking the look of the set quite a bit. I'm trying to remind myself not to pick my deck's colors before I see my Prerelease card supply, but black is looking very good right now.

Blue's commons, unfortunately, are still only about half revealed, so I can't really tell how that color will be yet.