Dominaria: mechanics

Dominaria mechanics:

• Sagas - is a new enchantment type. As saga enters the battlefield and as your first main phase begins add lore counter and do corresponding effect. Sacriface it when you collect three counters. Adding a lore counter doesn't use the stack. If you find a way to remove a lore counter from a Saga, that doesn't cause any of its abilities to trigger. It triggers only when you put a counter. In this case, you will get the same effect for a second time when you will put a lore counter in your next first main phase. On the other hand, if you put simultaneously two counters, you get two effects.
• Legendary Sorcery - you may cast this spell only if you control a legendary creature or planeswalker. There are no other restrictions on legendary sorceries, so you can cast more than one with the same name in a turn.
• Hexproof from ... - for instance hexproof from black means that this creature can't be the target of any black spells or black abilites an opponent controls.
• Kicker - allows a player to pay an extra cost for a bonus effect. Kicker costs can be paid a maximum of one time
• Historic - sagas, artifacts and legendaries are historic. For instance, when you cast a historic spell you get a bonus effect. 

Legendary cards will have a new frame. Take a look at Urza's Ruinous Blast.

New online format: Brawl

Wizards introduced a new online format - Brawl. Brawl is very similar to Commander, with the following exceptions:

• Players start at 30 life, not 40
• Decks consist of 60 cards, not 100
• Planeswalkers can be commanders
• Only Standard-legal cards can be used; consequently, Brawl uses the Standard banned and restricted list rather than Commander's
• Commander damage rules (from commander) do not apply.

Happy Easter / Holiday!

I love Easter. It’s a time for eating all the chocolate you can find with complete impunity! 

Happy Easter to everyone!

Heroes of Dominaria board game

In Magic: The Gathering: Heroes of Dominaria Board Game, players take on the role of a powerful Hero as they travel to the lands of Dominaria. As the player explores the ancient lands, they will need to build sites to increase your bond with a location, discover lost powerful artefacts, create leylines to draw even more mana from distant lands and confront the sinister Cabal in order to gain the resources needed to save the multiverse before rival Heroes do.

The game will be Euro-themed in terms of its mechanics and play with between two and four players. The real heart of the game lies in the strategic decisions you make, removed from luck based mechanics, that will help you summon heroes to your side, draw on powerful magical artefacts and more.

The game content:

• Game board 
• 4 Character boards (containing 80% of the rules) 
• Quest cards 
• Leylines 
• Manaliths 
• Heroes 
• Artifacts 
• Cabal Spell cards 
• Multiple playing pieces to keep score 
• Pawns

Heroes Of Dominara will be presented in both Standard and Premium with the Premium box coming with four pre-painted miniatures representing iconic Magic The Gathering heroes. The game will be released later this year.

Dominaria release notes leaks

A massive leak about of incoming set took place. It had already spread through the MTG community like wildfire, so Wizards couldn't have done anything but confirm the leak.

Though no actual card images will be released until the official spoiler season begins, the Release Notes contain text from over 100 new and returning cards, including Icy Manipulator, Verdant Force, Siege-Gang Commander, Goblin Warchief, Llanowar Elves and cycle of enemy-color dual lands

What also went public?

• Every Dominaria booster pack will contain at least one legendary creature. They will be accommodated by a special slot in each pack, similar to the way double-faced cards appeared in every pack of Shadows Over Innistrad. 
• Dominaria debuts legendary sorcery cards These powerful spells can be unleashed only with the assistance of a legendary creature or planeswalker on your side of the battlefield. Remember, all planeswalker received errata to be legendary with the release of Ixalan.
• The Dominaria set introduces a new subtype of enchantment: Sagas. When they enter the battlefield and each turn thereafter, players add Lore counters to their Sagas, then activate abilities based on the number of counters on the Saga.
• Returning Keyword: Kicker
• Rules Change: damage can't be redirected to Planeswalkers. Previously, you could redirect noncombat damage that a source you control would deal to an opponent, having that source instead deal that damage to one of their planeswalkers. With the release of the Dominaria set, this rule is being removed from the game. 

The Dominaria set becomes legal for sanctioned Constructed play on its official release date: Friday, April 27, 2018.

Beta and Unlimited drafts

The 25th Birthday of Magic is a fact and Wizards are pampering us this time with Beta and Unlimited Rochester Drafts at several major events this summer.

Grand Prix Las Vegas: June 14–17
Grand Prix Singapore: June 22–24
Grand Prix Barcelona: June 29–July 1
Grand Prix São Paulo: July 6–8
Grand Prix Chiba: July 20–22
Gen Con (Indianapolis, Indiana): August 2–5

Grand Prix Vegas and Gen Con will feature Beta Rochester drafts, the other events will feature Unlimited Rochester drafts.

Rochester Draft is a bit old school. Player opens one booster at a time instead of every player opening his or her own pack. The fifteen cards are laid out on the table and players are given about twenty seconds to review their choices. After that, players take turns picking one card at a time to build their decks. The greatest difference between Booster draft and Rochester formats is the amount of information available to the player. Everyone sees everyone's picks

Wizards will be providing cake at these events. No word yet about any digital cake for us online players.

Challenger decks

Wizards revealed a new product intended to help new players get into Standard. We are speaking of 2018 Challenger decks. (click here to check decklists). A reasonable or even bargain price of $30 should convince players to pick it up and play at a Friday Night Magic level. Just two cards from Hazoret Aggro deck Chandra, Torch of Defiance and Hazoret the Fervent are priced together around $50 and we are still getting 58 more playable cards. While the Event Decks of the past have had a long history of not being good enough to fight off top-tier competitive Standard lists, these lists look like they are only a few cards away from being on par with the best decks. This time around, the decks are close replicas of Tier One archetypes and include a lot more rares and Mythics. For instance, Vehicle Rush deck has 26 rares and 5 Mythics maindeck. It is nothing like the entry-level “tournament” decks Wizards has released in the past, which used to have few Mtythics and rares and rest was filled out with garbage. Those decks were unplayable. This time is totally different.

On the flip side, almost every card in each of these decks is from Kaladesh or Amonkhet block, both of which rotate in the fall. A solid product for few months only, but we should get a new Challenger decks then.

These decks are being released on April 6th