[BNG] Hero Cards: Provider, Warmonger. Vanquisher, Explorer, General, Savant, and Tyrant

The mothership has officially revealed all the hero cards for the prerelease, launch weekend, and Game Day of Born of the Gods. The hero card for red's Destined to Conquer will be The Warmonger, which, like The General, gives a power-up to your creatures. Instead of +1/+1, it gives +2/+0 which makes it ideal for the offensive, not to mention giving haste to all creatures. The Provider, on the other hand, is the hero card for green's Destined to Thrive. It does fit the name because although it won't affect all of your creatures, it provides one of your creatures with two +1/+1 counters, making it tougher to kill, and giving you life points equal to its toughness. The Born of the Gods prerelease tournaments will be from February 1-2, 2014.

The Provider (image from WOTC)

The Warmonger (image from WOTC)

The Hero Cards for Born of the Gods have been released. For those who are not yet acquainted with them, they are basically cards which you are allowed to use with a special deck for certain events, or of course, in casual play. Just like in Theros, there will be one Hero card for each color in Magic. Presumably, we would get another five Hero Cards as we face Xenagos in Journey into Nyx. The first one, The Vanquisher, is the one you receive during Game Day, which is why the card has the number 6 in it.

Image from MTGS

The second one, The Explorer, which lets you play an additional land, is for the BNG Release weekend. Moreover, there are nine quests or challenges which will allow you to collect all of the Hero Cards. This means that you have to go to these events if you want to have them. The number in the middle, which is 6 for The Vanquisher and 5 for The Explorer, essentially mean that they are for the 5th and 6th challenges, respectively. The 5 is what you get during the Release weekend. The Launch Weekend is from February 7-9, 2014. The number 6 is for Game Day, which will be from March 1-2, 2014.

The Explorer (image from WOTC)

The last three - The General, The Savant, and The Tyrant - are three of the five hero cards that you can acquire during the Prerelease weekend. The General is the Hero Card you get for playing white, which is Destined to Lead. It is fitting because generals seem to relate with the soldiers, knights, and weenies of White, not to mention that The General can power them up. The Savant is the blue Hero Card for Destined to Outwit, and the ability of it to tap all of the creature's opponents is something out of, say, Hidden Strings, for example. Moreover, the word 'savant' itself means being an intellectual or a scientist, which basically makes it fitting for blue. Finally, The Tyrant at first might seem to be for red because of, well, Dragon Tyrant from Scourge, but a closer look at the ability is essentially more reminiscent of the black Infest and Festering Goblin. The Tyrant will be the Hero Card for black's Destined to Dominate.

The General (image from WOTC)

The Savant (image from WOTC)

The Tyrant (image from WOTC)

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[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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