Hello everybody and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re talking about the incredible new images and spoilers from Scars of Mirrodin. Ready to hear about Mox Opal and the return of poison? Let’s go!
Infecting Scars of Mirrodin
So this past week we’ve gotten a few incredible spoilers from Scars of Mirrodin. The first is the spoiling of the Infect mechanic. Check it out.
Yes, finally, we have poison! Many were convinced, including myself, that Shadowmoor was going to mark the return of poison, but that obviously didn’t happen. Wither showed up in Shadowmoor, and now that mechanic gets an upgrade into Infect. What does this mean for the game?
Well, a whole lot. First let’s talk about poison.
Poison was a mechanic introduced in Legends with Pit Scorpion and Serpent Generator. In The Dark expansion there was Marsh Viper, another overcosted dude that never impacted anything. They continued with Leeches in Homelands, another horrible card in a horrible set that did things flavor-wise you’d never see today. When’s the last time white had a non-multicolor card deal damage to players? Cold Snap? Perhaps Icatian Javelineers, who were reprinted in Time Spiral as a way of showing how ‘crazy’ things used to be? Time Spiral also reprinted Swamp Mosquito, from Alliances, another underpowered poison creature that never saw play or excited anyone.
After Visions and the printing of Suq’Qata Assassin and Crypt Cobra from Mirage, no new poison cards were printed until the aforementioned Time Spiral cards. In Future Sight we saw a new keyword show up: Poisonous. It was most prominently seen on Virulent Sliver, seeing as Slivers was a formidable deck in block using Wild Pair. The Poisonous mechanic indicated how many poison counters were given when a creature hit a player, and this ability to ‘scale’ poison counters is the reason the Sliver Kids won Pro Tour San Diego 2007 and got their namesake. Their victory there used the ‘crazy’ strategy of getting lots of Virulent Slivers and since the Poisonous keyword stacked due to their, um, ‘Sliverness’, they went home with a boatload of money.
But here’s the thing about Poisonous: Mark Rosewater, shortly after the debut of Infect, twittered how this keyword is NOT going to be used in Scars of Mirrodin. My guess? Well, Infect is simply the better Wither mechanic. It scales naturally, and by that I mean via pumps and effects, instead of stacking on top of one another like Poisonous. It’s a lot easier to wrap your mind around “this deals damage in the form of poison counters” versus “I give this Cunning Sparkmage Poisonous 2 and Poisonous 3, so you get 5 counters when I ping you with it.”
I for one am really excited about this development, because now we have a brand new axis on which to play: The ability to suddenly attack a life total or a Planeswalker or their poison total is awesome.
Just imagine a card that got +1/+1 for each Poison counter your or your opponent have. Imagine cards that gave you poison counters as a drawback. And just how big are these Infect creatures going to be? There were plenty of large creatures with Wither in Shadowmoor block, but this is different. Suddenly you’re a few Giant Growths away from putting someone incredibly close to dead with Infect. And just imagine a combination of direct damage Infect spells and creatures. I’m really curious as to how far they pushed this mechanic–are you going to see Infect creatures across from you at the tournament tables? I sure hope so.
Again, I’ve just scratched the design space with poison counters. There is so much flavor with someone who is ‘poisoned’ versus not poisoned. On Mirrodin there are two factions, and I’m just gonna throw out the wild guess that Phyrexia are the evil masterminds behind poison. But who’s fighting the good fight? Well, that leads us to our artwork spoilers from earlier this week.
Let’s take a look at the good guys, and their leader: Elspeth Tirel. Oh man, look at that art. Is that not the most badass picture of her ever? Defiant, awesome, none of this innocent schoolgirl-looking crap from her Knight-Errant image. Also, is she now Green/White? Certainly looks like it. Man does that sword rock. Elspeth is here to kick ass and chew bubblegum…and there ain’t no bubblegum in Magic folks.
And we’re not done with our new Planeswalkers yet. Have you seen Venser, the Sojourner? Oh hell yeah! Venser, Shaper Savant was an incredible force in Standard in his day, and single-handidly won Pro Tour: Valencia. Now this is the Planeswalker version, and I just can’t imagine how much sicker Venser could be compared to Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Jace has quickly become recognized as one of the best cards ever printed, and here comes the mono-blue looking Venser. Fingers crossed he’s a good one.
But we’re not done! The biggest reveal has yet to come. You ready for this? Let’s do it.
Oh. Hells. Yes. You know the name of this piece of artwork? Mox Opal. Yes, Mox freakin’ Opal. You see, just as other words, like “Ancestral” have a special place in Magic, so does Mox. Mox is associated with power. There has never been a Mox that hasn’t seen significant tournament play. Mox Diamond, while it took some time, is now a huge force in Legacy. Chrome Mox obviously saw a TON of play in both Extended and Standard, and now Mox Opal? Remember that Opal is not just white. Opal can be, according to our friends at Wikipedia, any color of the rainbow, as well as black. This means this Mox will most likely tap for any color of mana. But can they make it cost 0? Could they design a drawback that doesn’t snap the game in half? I’m guessing yes, of course they can, as I’m pretty sure the whole idea in this ‘return to Mirrodin’ motif is to not screw up like they did in the past.
Moving on, some more interesting artwork includes Wurmcoil Engine. Oh man, that is sick. I hope it creates equally sick monsters. That sweet Green glow reminds me of Vengevine, and it’s rare they make bad cards with art that sweet.
How’s about a Darksteel Axe? Yes, Darksteel is still here, so expect plenty of Indestructable things. And you know what kills indestructable creatures? Infect does! This is one way you could distinguish the two factions on Mirrodin: One is Infected, and the other is Indestructable. They naturally cancel each other out. We’ll see if this has any creedence.
Check out this artwork for the funniest dragon name ever: Hoard-Smelter Dragon! You got a hoard that needs a-smeltin’? I got your dragon right here. Also, um, nice flaming pits. Get some deo for your BO, brah.
Lastly I’ll show you Glimmerpost, probably the easiest to guess card ever. You simply take Cloudpost, which is a Locus that taps for a mana for each Locus in play, then you combine it with Glimmervoid, that tapped for any color of mana but required you to control an artifact or sacrifice. What do you get? This card:
Glimmerpost
Rare
Land – Locus
T: Add 1 mana of any color for each Locus you control.
When you control no artifacts, sacrifice Glimmerpost.
Despite being incredibly easy to guess, my questions are: What is Karn or those Golems doing there, and are there other Locuses in the set? Cloudpost was recently an FNM foil for whatever reason, so perhaps it’ll be reprinted? Either way, using Cloudposts, Vesuva and this new Glimmerpost should provide a really fun casual deck for pumping out absurdly expensive stuff early.
What do I know about Scars so far? Enough that I’m ready for more and really digging what’s there. It’s time to dive back into the metal world fast and furious, with Elspeth and Venser looking like real all-stars, and a new Mox. A new mox! Seriously, if this thing isn’t Mythic and worth infinite dollars, I’ll be really surprised. I for one welcome our new 0-costed overlords.
So that’s another show folks. This week I’ll be live and in person at the StarCityGames Open Series in Denver, so feel free to come and say hello. Next week we’ll have some footage from Denver and see who took the crown as US National Champ this year. Until next time Magic players, this is Evan Erwin. Tapping the cards…so you don’t have to!
Evan “misterorange” Erwin
Community Manager, StarCityGames.com