New cards from M11

[denial]

Eh, they bothered to make new art for them so they are probably in there. Now we just need to have a video game promo and some other promo to lower the value to the point where no one cares.

Yes, and then reprint them in M11 as well. Even so, I could still see all the resellers trying to get top dollar for their original shards copies.

[Aggro_zombies]

Is it just me, or is Elspeth vs. Tezzeret more exciting than any of this crap, since it will automatically drive the price on Elspeth back down to a reasonable level? (Or am I just bitter because I don't own any at the moment?)

Elspeth is only high right now because it sees play in various UW/x control decks in Standard. It was worth a lot less prior to that ($25-$30), and the value will probably drop anyway when Alara rotates becuase it doesn't get a lot of play in other formats.

It will stay around $20-$25 or so, but I doubt it will hold its current $40 price tag for long (unless reprinted in M11, which would make me sad).

[DuxDucis]

Fireball Lightning Bolt and Baneslayer Angel back for M11 as well as the "dual" lands. Dragonskull Summit etc

Full article here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazin...tg/daily/ld/93

Several cards not making the cut...

[jrsthethird]

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazin...tg/daily/ld/93

So from this article, we have, in M11:

Fireball
Lightning Bolt
M10 duals
Baneslayer Angel (no need to sell them off yet!)

Open the Vaults will not be back, since the Esper goodness won't be in Standard anymore. But, the fall set is Scars of Mirrodin, which one would assume is an artifact block, so wouldn't there be a lot of good stuff in there to use with OTV? Or is it that the concentration of good artifacts in Scars will make OTV ridiculously powerful?

Mold Adder comes up short in the cycle with Deathmark, Celestial Purge, and Flashfreeze, so we can assume that those 3 will be back while green gets a (third) new component to the cycle. No mention of Ignite Disorder, maybe it will have the same fate?

Also, not being reprinted:

Twincast
Divination (maybe they'll reprint Counsel of the Soratami instead...ha)
Essence Scatter (hello, Remove Soul!)
Shivan Dragon
Planar Cleansing

[Aggro_zombies]

Maybe Bankslayers will go down to a reasonable price and I'll finally be able to afford to pick them up.

EDIT: Open the Vaults would probably end up being OP. We might see another artifact-specific card in the set, though, so it's too early to rule it out. It likely won't be something that effectively reads ": Recover from all sweepers your opponent has played this game. Laugh."

[bakofried]

Vampires have a 3cc lord. Don't know what to think of this.
Captivating Vampire
1BB
R
Other Vampire creatures you control get +1/+1
Tap 5 untapped vampires you control: gain control of target creature. It is now a vampire in addition to it's other types.
2/2

[Aggro_zombies]

Vampires have a 3cc lord. Don't know what to think of this.
Captivating Vampire
1BB
R
Other Vampire creatures you control get +1/+1
Tap 5 untapped vampires you control: gain control of target creature. It is now a vampire in addition to it's other types.
2/2

Now we just need two more playable lords, and some playable non-lords, and we have a deck that wishes it was Merfolk or Goblins, but isn't!

EDIT: In all seriousness, though, the last ability will basically always be irrelevant given how aggressive Vampires are supposed to be. That basically means you've got just a +1/+1 bonus on a standard lord body, which makes it worse than every other lord ever printed (possibly excepting Zombie Master). At least Nocturnus gave flying.

[bakofried]

I would argue that it doesn't necessarily lack for lords, but it does lack card advantage. It's really the same argument, why not just run MBA or some such. I think that if they print some form of CA for Vamps, they might be viable. Otherwise, no.

[Aggro_zombies]

I would argue that it doesn't necessarily lack for lords, but it does lack card advantage. It's really the same argument, why not just run MBA or some such. I think that if they print some form of CA for Vamps, they might be viable. Otherwise, no.

It's not that Vampires don't have card advantage, it's that their card advantage doesn't do anything else. Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood, Ancient Craving, Phyrexian Arena, and the like all simply convert life to cards for some amount of mana.

Goblin Ringleader and Goblin Matron are Fact or Fiction and Demonic Tutor, respectively, except they leave behind warm bodies.

Standstill arguably disrupts opponents by disincentivising them from playing spells. This argument is pretty weak, and the more relevant one is that it's three cards for two mana as opposed to two cards for two mana and two life, the best black has to offer.

Black has the best targeted removal in the format after Swords and Path. Granted, those spells are all really weak compared to those two, but Merfolk and Goblins both get along fine without (much) removal - although in Goblins' case, the removal spells are all Goblins.

Discard is awful after turn three or four, and in some matchups is awful as soon as turn two. Counters are much better, but Goblins runs neither counters nor discard.

Vampires have card advantage, but they don't have good card advantage. They'll basically always be worse than Goblins (superior synergy) and Merfolk (superior disruption).

[bakofried]

Although they may be able to compensate for the lack of synergy and lack of disruption with superior bodies - Nighthawk, Gatekeeper, and Hexmage are all very strong. Give them some tribal incentive, and it may be enough to make them a somewhat viable deck.

[Vacrix]

Vampires have a 3cc lord. Don't know what to think of this.
Captivating Vampire
1BB
R
Other Vampire creatures you control get +1/+1
Tap 5 untapped vampires you control: gain control of target creature. It is now a vampire in addition to it's other types.
2/2

The ability is mediocre. It might be playable if they print a Siege-gang-esque creature that gives you some tokens.

[bakofried]

I'm not looking at the second ability. Honestly, I just see it as a 3cc lord which pumps Vamps. that was really the only necessary incentive. He's decent. Not amazing, but decent.

[majikal]

Essence Scatter (hello, Remove Soul!)

I'm thinking Counterspell, myself.

[(nameless one)]

No Planar Cleansing on M11, I guess we'll see Day of Judgment instead.

[jrsthethird]

I'm thinking Counterspell, myself.

I was being sarcastic, since Remove Soul is functionally equivalent to Essence Scatter. They just printed Deprive, do you really think they're going to make a stronger version of that?

No Planar Cleansing on M11, I guess we'll see Day of Judgment instead.

I suppose, but it wouldn't make sense because DoJ will already be legal for the entire time M11 is legal in Standard.

[(nameless one)]

I suppose, but it wouldn't make sense because DoJ will already be legal for the entire time M11 is legal in Standard.

They might do it for draft purposes.

On the new vampire lord:

I am guessing that we will not see Vampire Nocturnus again?

[Aggro_zombies]

I suppose, but it wouldn't make sense because DoJ will already be legal for the entire time M11 is legal in Standard.

Cancel is currently in Shards, Zendikar, and M10.

Naturalize is in Zendikar and M10.

There are others as well whose names escape me. However, it certainly isn't new for them to reprint something currently in Standard, although it might be new to do it at the rare level.

[sigfig8]

I don't think anyone's commented on Twincast yet. Could it be they are reprinting Fork? If so, would it really matter? I'd suspect Fork's value to drop at that point, much like Twincast did. Unless they print Fork at Mythic, which would be stupid.
A
As for essence scatter's removal - I agree counterspell won't be reprinted. I think having counterspell AND deprive in standard would just be begging for control to dominate. More likely they reprint deprive again or maybe stick with mana leak?

[Vacrix]

There are some new cards in the MTGS spoiler (it went from 34 to 52). Nothing to get excited about though. Just fluff.

[Aggro_zombies]

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=248154

This card was just spoiled. Unremarkable except for the fact that Scry is apparently fine for the core sets, which is completely awesome.