[BNG] The Five Gods: Ephara, Karametra, Phenax, Mogis, and Xenagos + their ULTRA PRO Playmats

Image from WOTC

It seems that the spoilers are shifting into gear, as the gods of the second set in the Theros block have been supposedly revealed. The UW god would be Ephara, the UB would be Phenax. Moreover, Karametra will of course be the GW god, while Mogis, God of Slaughter, is the BR god. And of course, Xenagos has finally become a RG god. All five of them become creatures when their devotion to their respective colors becomes higher than seven. They also have indestructibility and have one static or triggered ability. Keep in mind that they do not have any activated abilities.

Thankfully, MTGR has given us the opportunity to look at the beauty of BNG Gods. From Blue/White Ephara, to the Blue/Black Phenax, these Ultra Pro playmats are seriously some of the best ones I've seen ever since I've played back in 2003 Phenax actually reminds me of a card in Future Sight, and the band Empire of the Sun, humorously. Anyway, would you be getting one of these? Personally, it'd be nice to have all of them, actually.

Ephara (Image from MTG Realm)

Phenax (image from MTG Realm)

Aside from Phenax, I am also digging the artwork for the Green/White god Karametra. Their shiny, space-esque look are really appealing. It makes me think of the Theros Gods battling the Eldrazi of Zendikar, or at least what is left of Zendikar. And of course, we have the Black/Red god in the form of Mogis, God of Slaughter, with his incredibly looking weapon and armor. Finally, Xenagos becomes a Red/Green god and will ultimately be the antagonist for Journey into Nyx. Exciting stuff!

Karametra (image from MTG Realm)

Mogis, God of Slaughter (image from MTG Realm)

Xenagos (image from MTG Realm)

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[BNG] Prerelease Promo Cards + FATED FLAMES as the Buy-A-Box Promo Card

Someone just found a Born of the Gods prerelease poster that had the five prerelease promo cards in it. Despite being in Spanish, the translation shouldn't be a problem for long. We are all excited to see them so that we can make a wise choice with the color to pick during the tournament. For now, I like Wild Devastating Nessian the most simply because of its brute force and because it can potentially see a little bit of serious play. If the opponent doesn't make it a 12/12, he/she will risk having the hydra attack and perhaps kill a precious creature of his own. Firestir Dragon is also good for limited as it is a big flyer that can kill creatures while making sure that it damages the player.

Aside from them, Mediator of the Ideal seems okay, though of course it has to attack or be tapped in order to use the ability. Perhaps a combo of some sort can be used to tap the Sphinx and enable the ability without having attack with it. Silent Sentinel would be decent if there's a really good enchantment card in the graveyard. And finally, I think Devourer of Hope is the weakest in the bunch simply because of the high mana cost for a 6/4 flyer, and an ability that would be like a 2-for-1. Though of course the cards in use and the players who use them can change my mind.

Good news! Or at least, almost goods news until WOTC confirms it. The Buy-A-Box promo card for Born of the Gods is Fated Conflagration. It could also just be called Nefarious Burn since the card shown is not in English, but it's 100% sure now that it's really called Fated Conflagration. For now, what do you think? The card is basically a red instant card that costs 1 colorless mana and three red mana. In addition, it deals 4 damage to target creature or planeswalker. Finally, if it is your turn, you get to Scry 2.

Image from MTGS

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[BNG] Mogis, God of Slaughter and Other Artworks + Modern Event Deck Details

At first, there were rumors regarding the actual name of Mogis. Will he be the God of Slaughter? of Wrath? of Flames? Of Minotaurs (yeaaaah)? Well, it's pretty confirmed now that he is the God of Slaughter. Mogis, God of Slaughter will be making his appearance in Born of the Gods. I can tell you, this is some pretty sick artwork from Peter Mohrbacher. All hail, the introduction of minotaurs as creatures to (hopefully) be reckoned with in the near future. Finally, look! More BNG artworks! It seems that Kiora is playing with Thassa, and that we would be getting some enchantment creatures through the Nyxborn. Gods versus mortals, exciting.

Art by Willian Murai

Art by Chris Rahn

Image from WOTC

Image from WOTC

Fans of Modern Masters, rejoice. It seems that WOTC is intent on keeping the Modern format as widely popular as EDH and Standard. Coming from the success of Modern Masters, which have sold out like hotcakes, despite them being sold at prices higher than the MSRP, the Modern Event Deck will be released on May 30, 2014. Its tagline is "Your power is here. Your time is now.", reassuring that the deck would include rare and powerful cards, along with a sideboard consisting of fifteen cards. In addition, the Modern Event Deck would include eighty exclusive card sleeves and a deckbox so that you can start using it immediately. A strategy guide is provided to properly know the play style of the deck, along with five double-sided tokens and a Spiindown life counter for playing. The Deck Design and Deck Development was developed by Ben Hayes, and the product will only be available in English with a suggested retail price of $74.99.

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M15 Announced: Product and Pro Tour Details, New Garruk Art Unveiled, and Clash Packs Introduced

"Hunt Bigger Game" is the official tag line of M15. What could this mean? Will they exceed the 15/15 Emrakul, Aeons Torn of the Zendikar block? Will baloths, dragons, mammoths, and giants make a beating in M15? Will activated and triggered abilities have pump-esque effects? We'll have to see. It is very fitting though, since Garruk is the face of M15. Though the Garruk being shown does not seem to be the Garruk Wildspeaker of Lorwyn nor the Garruk Relentless of Innistrad. It seems the veil's curse hasn't been lifted off him.

Moreover, here are the details regarding the prerelease, the launch dates, and product information, including the new "Clash Packs" according to the mothership:

Set Name	Magic 2015—Core Set
Number of Cards	269
Prerelease Events	July 12-13, 2014
Release Date	July 18, 2014
Launch Weekend	July 18-20, 2014
Game Day	August 9-10, 2014
Magic Online Prerelease Events	July 25-27, 2014
Magic Online Release Date	July 28, 2014
Pro Tour Magic 2015	August 1-3, 2014
Pro Tour Magic 2015Location	Portland, Oregon, USA
Pro Tour Magic 2015Formats	Swiss: Standard Magic 2015 Draft Top 8: Standard

Official Three-Letter Code: M15
Twitter Hashtag: #MTGM15Initial Concept and Game Design:Aaron Forsythe (lead)
Max McCall
Shawn Main
Mike Gills
Jenna Helland
Final Game Design and Development:Billy Moreno (lead)
Shawn Main
Adam Lee
Tom LaPille
Sam Stoddard
Languages:English, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish
Available in:Booster Packs, Intro Packs*, Clash Pack*, Fat Pack*
(* - Not available in all languages)
We will be announcing more about the new Clash Pack soon!
(Magic Online only available in English.)

What are those Clash Packs going to be like? Rumors have already started floating around. They are seen as going to be similar to the old Tournament Packs (which I saw first in Onslaught yay) or perhaps some kind of Event Deck or Duel Deck. Others speculate them as smaller fat packs or booster packs designed for the sealed format. Then again, they could actually just be the Booster-Battle-Packs. We'll have to wait for now.

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M15: "Wall of Fire" and "Waste Not" Confirmed; NEW Card Frame announced

The mothership has recently announced the upcoming products this year, and one of the things that cannot be missed is regarding M15. Not only is the core set back (obviously), it will sport a new card frame. This is big, the I will now witness three card frame changes since I've played back in Onslaught. Moreover, remember the the "You Make the Card" gig that WOTC had? Well, the readers have picked the options, and they have finally made it into a card. Waste Not will appear in M15, having the new card frame.

As you can see from the card, there are five new changes that will be introduced to M15. Four of them will stick from M15 to every set onwards, while while one feature will especially be for M15. These changes are just the start of something supposedly big, since the design team are going to implement the changes little by little. Here are the features as stated by Aaron Forsythe:

1) The fontSince its inception, Magic has used off-the-shelf fonts on its cards. As a brand, we feel that we'll be better served by having our own unique proprietary font—something with a little edge and character that is still very readable.In general, we liked the heaviness and shape of the "Matrix Bold" font we'd been using previously, so there are a lot of similarities between the old font and the new, named "Beleren," which should alleviate any jarring feeling when you mix the two together in decks. 

2) The holofoil stampYou'll notice a little silver oval in the bottom center of Waste Not. That's a new unique holofoil stamp that we're applying to all rares and mythic rares going forward. This stamp makes those cards feel more special, as well as guarantees authenticity.Commons, uncommons, and basic lands will not feature this stamp. 

3) The collector infoIn the lower left of the card is a series of letters and numbers that indicate the card's collector number (122/269), rarity (R), set (M15), and language (EN). The little dot between the set and the language will be a star on premium cards, so just about everything you'd ever need to know about a card's edition is in one easy-to-read place.Making the bottom of each card black to accommodate this information was not an easy decision, and may be the most disconcerting part of this frame update, but it was done with the best of intentions. This information is machine-readable by recognition software at our production plants. It will help eliminate the rare packaging error, like cards sneaking into the wrong expansion's boosters. 

4) Decreased border sizeIn order to fit all this cool new stuff on the cards, we've reduced the width of the black border by almost a millimeter all the way around. This reclaimed real estate allows us to have slightly bigger art and text boxes as well. 

5) The designer creditYou'll notice that we gave you all credit for making this card in the place normally occupied by flavor text—"Designed by the Magic community." This is the first time we've ever given credit for a specific card design on the card itself, and it's you! You should be very proud! While every card going forward won't feature a designer credit (kinda sad, really), there are a handful of others inMagic 2015, specifically, that will. (You'll have to wait on those details! It's cool, I promise!)Those are the main components of the card frame update. Here's another M15 card for comparison. This one isn't rare, so it has no stamp; is a creature, so it has a P/T box; and isn't black, so you can see the frame design more clearly. All in all, it is an impressive modernization of the card frame, one I'll be excited to get my hands on this summer with M15.

Moreover, the guys have also unveiled Wall of Fire for comparison regarding the changes. Aaron has stated that this is an exciting development as it gives a modern look to the cards.

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Born of the Gods Art featuring Iroas, Xenagos, centaurs, and minotaurs + Non-appearance of Ajani

These have been released for quite awhile now, but it does not mean that the interest has died down. Born of the Gods is right around the corner as 2014 brings in BNG and JIN. From the confimation that Ajani will not be making an appearance in BNG as planeswalker to possible reprints such as Ferocious charge and even a black version of Day of Judgement, Born of the Gods is shaping up to be an exciting second set of the gods. The following images include two of Xengos. The first one seems to be his birth as a god, and the next one seems to be his full-on god mode version. What's more exciting of course are those minotaurs. Personally, minotaurs have existed for such a long time in Magic, and have yet to find a home ni Block Constructed, Standard, or any other format other than perhaps casual play.

The horn/trumpet image, I'm definitely not familiar with it. I definitely do not have any idea if it's a reprint or not, but perhaps it could be a legendary or at least a very cool artifact. We don't know yet. The next two images are comprised of Iroas and some soldiers or pantheons or something. Iroas is, of course, the R/W god. It is still pretty unsure whether Karametra is the G/W god, but some are saying that she will be the only that would make sense to fit the title. Yes, it is indeed pretty weird to see a red/white centaur god since most centaurs can be found in green, with splashes in white for some. The last time I've seen centaurs was during Ravnica: City of Guilds, and that one was a 3/1 common with a three-mana casting cost of two colorless and a G/W hybrid mana. If my recollection is correct, it was Centaur Safeguard. Sure enough, Google has confirmed it Finally, it seems that the soldier-esque image is about to bring copies of himself, or maybe tokens of the same creature type.

Mark Rosewater has confirmed through his Tumblr that the planeswalker Ajani will not be in Born of the Gods. It seems pretty clear by now that he will be in Journey into Nyx, perhaps as a GW or W planeswalker. Speculation of Ajani being in BNG or JIN started because of the image released by WOTC regarding the upcoming two sets in the Theros block.

In addition, Mark Rosewater has stated that Kiora will be the only planeswalker in Born of the Gods. This seems pretty understandable since BNG is a small set and having two planeswalkers with a possibility of both having green colors might make it seem unbalanced. What colors will Ajani be in? We'v seen Ajani Goldmane and Ajani Vengeant, sporting white and W/R respectively, so will we finally see a G/W Ajani?

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