Category: preview

  • Announcing From the Vault: Obvobvobv

    Play Magic the Way it’s Meant to Be Played

    Sling the most updated spells in the multiverse with this collection of sixteen of the most Oracle-accurate cards in Magic’s history. We’ve updated the rules for these recognizable, black-bordered, tournament-playable cards. You and your opponents will know exactly what these cards do when you see them.

    Contents and Details

    • 16 Premium foil cards, including 0 with new art.
    • An exclusive Spindown™ life counter.
    • A collector’s guide, redeemable online at magiccards.info or scryfall.com.
    • Each card has been printed using a foil process unique to the From the Vault series. They have not been treated for warping.
    • From the Vault: Obvobvobv will be available world-wide in English only, and will have a nonexistent print run.
    • All cards are black bordered and tournament legal. This means that these cards are legal for use in any tournaments where the original printings are still legal. This should not be construed as advice, legal or otherwise, to actually play these cards in tournaments, or to play the game at all.

    Please use the hashtag #MTGV18 for discussing this product on Twitter!

    Credits

    Product Concept and Development: A couple of nameless interns that have already been fired
    Release Date: April 1, 2018
    Magic Online Release Date: April 20, 2018
    MSRP: $34.99 *Applies to U.S. Only

  • Exclusive Spoiler: Dominaria Masterpiece Series

    We at Good Gamery have received an exclusive sneak peek at what Magic fans can cross their fingers and hope to open once Dominaria releases in 2018. We’re excited to see how this new set will go back to Magic’s roots. Click below to reveal all fifteen Masterpieces from the set. Enjoy!


  • GoodGamery Exclusive BFZ Prevew: Brutal Expulsion

    Hoo boy, we here at Good Gamery LLC are h*ck of excited to have an Extremely Exclusive, Real Preview that was given to us, and no one else, these statements have all been true!

    Without further a-doo, let’s see wh-

    brutalexpulsion

    Haha, okay, real funny. If we could just close the tab for MTGSalvation’s Kustom Kard Kreation and get serious here?

    *receives whisper from offstage*

    Oh well that’s not good.

    Okay. Okay. Deep breaths. Let’s try to be charitable for a second.

    Eldrazi are ALIEN INVADERS! Their spooky alien tech makes no sense to us hoo-mans. Therefore, the designs of their cards are purposefully nonsensical.

    It is a callback to one of the most beloved sets of all time, Apocalypse. You see, much as Yawgmoth is not Gerrard’s Hannah, neither is a gigantic tentacle monster.

    Each choice on the card represents a different theme of Battle for Zendikar: the Eldrazi care when things are exiled, and no one cares about good design.

    Good Gamery LLC apologizes for that last remark. We really appreciate this preview card that was so kindly given to us (totally was, by the way).

    Brutal Expulsion, the name, is a reference to the new R&D intern Jeff’s metal band. The design of Brutal Expulsion is a reference to his complete inability to create a Magic card.

    Okay that one was really mean. We again apologize, and acknowledge that our last apology wasn’t completely sincere. While we, as a website that has definitely been given this exclusive preview card, given to us by Wizards of the Coast, the real one, don’t want to say anything nasty about it, it is possible that hypothetical equally nasty things might be passively said about this card (not by us).

    So! Thankfully, we also have exclusive access to the archives of The Great Designer Search 2. Did you know that Brutal Expulsion was originally a submission to that contest? That fact was only a little bit just made up on the spot!

    Let’s take a look at the original response:

    “Well, this one has some issues, to put it mildly. First of all, why is ‘Devoid’ on this card? Mechanics, when present on a card (especially a rare) must have a reason to exist. I understand that colorlessness is a theme of your set, but if that’s the case, then the colorless-centric design needs to be present on this card as well. To continue: “choose one or both” is certainly a templating that should be used more, and it’s good that you identified its potential. However, there’s nothing you’re really doing with it here. What connection does bouncing a creature, or returning a spell, have with two damage to a creature or planeswalker? Why does your card allow the same thing to be targeted twice, but actively discourages the player from doing this? The halves of your card have nothing to do with one another. It doesn’t feel rare, it doesn’t feel big, and it certainly doesn’t feel colorless. If you’re designing a four-mana multicolored card with a new mechanic, it had better do all those things effectively. Yours does none.

    And no one liked playing against Jilt in the first place.”

    Wow! Sure is good that someone else said that, and not us!

  • Exclusive Magic Origins Preview: Vorthos Rejoice!

    Hello and welcome to Magic Origins preview week here at Good Gamery! We’ve got a doozy of a preview card for you here today! If you’re the least bit Vorthos, today’s preview card is right up your alley!

    In recent sets, the creative folks at Wizards have decided to be more proactive in including pivotal story moments in playable cards. Relevant story scenes encompased in card form that all players can enjoy, such as the defeat of Xenagos at the hand of Elspeth in Deicide or the nexus of two different possible futures in Crux of Fate.

    If you’ve been the least bit attentive to the few Magic Origins spoilers that have been trickling in the past few weeks, you ought to know Magic Origins will continue this new trend in Magic story telling. Our preview card today depicts one such important moment. If you’ve read last week’s Uncharted Realms on the Wizards website telling the origin story of our beloved necromancer planeswalker Liliana Vess, you might already be familiar with this scene. If you haven’t, I highly recommend you go and read it but in short, Liliana made a deal with four demons to gain power and stay young forever. One such demon is Kothoped.

    cardart_6uealrQZVL

    Now, our preview card today isn’t Kothoped himself, but he is featured in the art. That’s because our preview card depicts the moment he infuses Liliana with his demonic power, etching her skin with enchanted runes that give her knowledge and power. Without any further stalling, I present to you our preview card:

    Demonic_Tutor

    Amazing, isn’t it?! Pity it’s just a Johnny-fodder uncommon, but you gotta give it credit for the flavor. Wow!

    In addition, we sat down with a Wizards employee and were able to ask him a few question about our awesome preview card. The interview went as follows:

    Won’t Demonic Tutor be kinda broken in Modern?
    It is our understanding that yes, it will be. Which is why we’re preemptively banning it in Modern, to maintain the integrity of the format. The official Banned and Restricted Announcement will be posted on July 13 and more information will be available at that time but basically Demonic Tutor will be banned in Modern as soon as Magic Origins is released.

    Okay, but won’t Demonic Tutor be kinda good in Standard as well?
    While not as powerful as it would have been in Modern, it is still a concern. We strive to strike a delicate balance in Standard as it is our most played format by a wide margin. Which is why, to ensure the health of the format, we’re preemptively banning the card in Standard as well. Once again, the official Banned and Restricted Announcement will be posted on July 13 and more information will be available at that time but yes, Demonic Tutor will also be banned in Standard as soon as Magic Origins is released.

    The card is still uncommon though, won’t that warp Limited in a bad way?
    After careful playtesting, we realized that yes, Demonic Tutor does warp limited in a bad way. Which is why, to keep the format fresh, we’re also preemptively banning the card in all limited formats, including prerelease events. The official Prerelease Primer will be posted July 8 and more information will be available at that time but suffice to say, Demonic Tutor will be banned in Limited as soon as you are able to get your hands on it.

    What the hell, is the card being banned everywhere?! Why did you put it in the set in the first place?
    Not everywhere, no. Demonic Tutor will not be banned in Magic Origins block constructed, for instance. There aren’t really any good cards in the set to search for, so there’s that. There’s also what, Tiny Leaders I guess. It’s already banned there? Good for them. Look, honestly? We were too busy drafting Modern Masters 2015 so we kinda just let Creative do whatever they wanted with the set. I say we got off relatively scot-free, considering the original idea for the set was to tell the origin story of Magic’s antagonists instead. Can you imagine Yawgmoth’s Bargain and Will in Standard again? Man, did we dodge a bullet there!

  • Magic Origins Preview: Playtest Cards Unearthed

    Hey! It’s the gang from Good Gamery. We didn’t get a week of preview cards to run this time around, so we used our time off to take a road trip from the Good Gamery offices to Wizards of the Coast headquarters and see if we could persuade Mark Rosewater to give us some Magic Origins cards to show off.

    Unfortunately, we ran out of gas right behind the building, so we had to dig through the dumpster instead. At first, we thought there wasn’t anything worthwhile – our search revealed a pile of carwash punch cards, a bag of razor blades, and a box simply labeled “Fuel”. We started a fire and threw the junk in so we didn’t have to put it all back. Underneath everything else, we found a binder. Lo and behold! Playtest cards! The holy grail! We didn’t actually find the holy grail, it’s a metaphor.

    Here’s what we found:

    GGPHOTO_001

    Wow! That’s an effect that’s probably playable in Limited! It’s the powerful “Incite” effect stapled to a very solid 3/2 body for a measly 4 mana. Just imagine this scenario: You have a really big creature, like maybe a 6/6 or even bigger. You’re ready to start crushing your opponent’s face, you push the creature forward and start to tap it, but then you read your card again. It’s got defender! Your opponent rolls her eyes, as if to say, “Didn’t you read that when you put it in your deck?”, and then your opponent says the same thing using words. It feels a bit more condescending when your opponent says it with words.

    So you sit back and figure, maybe she’ll attack into it or something. But your opponent is smarter than you expected, and just builds a board presence while you grind your teeth. Several turns later, as you’re running out of teeth, you draw a Goblin Provocateur! One by one, you target your opponent’s creatures, and they’re forced to attack into your big defender. Gradually, you clear your opponent’s side of the board, and prepare to start attacking with your goblin. Then, your opponent plays a big creature with flying and haste and you’re dead, but it’s the thought that counts.

    That’s just half of the effect, though! Let’s say you have a Possessed Barbarian. Of course, that card’s absolutely useless unless your opponent has red creatures. And the odds of that are slim. Enter Goblin Provocateur! First off, it’s a red creature, so that’s one target already. But it can make any creature red, and that lets you kill any creature!

    I mentioned Incite above, and you’ll be glad to hear that it’s back:

    GGPHOTO_002

    The effect is the perfect marriage of mechanics and flavor – forcing an opposing creature to attack is an interesting tactical decision that can completely shift the flow of a game, and turning the creature red tells a story about how angry the creature becomes!

    Of course, the “red attacks each turn if able” theme isn’t restricted to just your opponent’s creatures – if you’re building a deck, you can put in some cards from older sets to join in on the fun. If you just want to force your opponent’s creatures to attack, you can put Alluring Siren or Rage Mage into your deck. If you want to turn your opponent’s creatures red, Crimson Wisps is perfect for the role. But what if you want your creatures to be red and attack each turn if able?

    We all remember when Liliana planeswalked to Innistrad for the first time. What did she see there? Vampires! Magic’s vampires are red – the color of blood – and they attack each turn if able, just like the vampires of legend. Bloodcrazed Neonate is a great card to add to your deck, just as one example. It’s not in Magic Origins, but it fits the theme perfectly – it’s a neonate, which means it’s new!

    And just in case you get a Goblin Provocateur but your opponent doesn’t have any creatures, check this card out. It’s a great example of how a simple mechanic can be turned into a cohesive archetype:

    GGPHOTO_003

    I hope you enjoyed this look inside the Good Gamery dumpster. Until next time, may your trash be treasure!

  • Modern Masters 2015 Preview: What’s This?

    If you’ve playing Magic for any time longer than a month, you’re certainly familiar with the concept of the spoiler season. A couple of great weeks where cards from the newest set come dripping in and the excitement in the air is palpable.

    But if you’ve been through at least one such spoiler season, I’m sure you’ve experienced the foreign spoiler fenomenon where you go look at the newest spoiler and it’s in a foreign language so now you have to go look up the text spoiler or wait for a native speaker to post a translation.

    It’s a bit of a hassle, but nothing major. It’s a big world out there and there’s lots of other markets to cater to. The problem is when that happens to the site doing the spoiler preview itself. Here is GoodGamery’s latest Modern Masters 2015 preview card:


    Fear not, for I have a handy dictionary nearby.

    I know I had it somewhere around here…

    Ah, this is embarrassing, I think my dictionary’s been used as fuel for the Magmaw.

    I’m sure someone can figure this one out.

  • Modern Masters 2015 Preview: A Brand New Card!

    We’re proud to reveal what we’re pretty sure is actually a new card.

    That’s right, a brand new card for Modern Masters 2015!


    We found this preview card in our inbox, and we don’t know where it came from. What? It’s a reprint? Look, our memories aren’t that great. It’s not bad, though! It kills a guy! That’s incredible! Here’s a few other things we figured out about this card:

    – It’s Modern legal!

    – This kills a guy. That’s a good thing, usually.

    – If it doesn’t kill a guy, it’s still not bad.

    – You need at least one Swamp, unless you’re killing a Phantasmal Bear with it.

    – Combo with Spread the Sickness.

    – It’s an Aura, which ties right into the set’s WB Aura subtheme!

    – It’s got “Quag” in its name, which ties right into this set’s “Quag” subtheme.

    – It even kills indestructible creatures! You can’t indestructible a minus.

    – It’s fuel for Magmaw.

    – It’s a bomb in Limited.

    – Not a literal bomb, just a really good card.

    – Foil copies will cost 1 less mana, which is sure to drive the price to insane levels.

    – It’s never a dead card, because only creatures can die.

    – Combo with Swamp.

    – Sorcery speed.

    – It goes right into your Enchantress deck in Legacy!

    – Played in the winning deck of GP Prague (2013).

    – The exact sickness the creature gets depends on your other lands. For instance, if you control a Blood Crypt, the creature dies of internal bleeding.

    – Similarly, if you control three or more Mouth of Ronom, the creature develops halitosis.

    – If you play this card, it takes up a slot in your deck.

    – It will always kill your Nightmare, so it’s good for young children who are still afraid of the dark.

    – But it can’t kill an Angry Mob, except on your turn.

    – Combo with Godless Shrine.

    – Watch out for Spreading Seas, because it makes this card worse.

    – If it doesn’t have any targets, that means you’re winning!

    With all of these great things about Quag Sickness, who could possibly say anything bad about about this amazing card?

  • Modern Masters 2015 Preview: A Damn Good Preview

    All I can say is that my preview card today is a good card. One might even say, a DAMN good card. One that’s had players clamoring for a reprint for a long time now. It’s so DAMN iconic that it’s even got a full-art foil promo version!

    I can’t believe I was actually chosen to preview this card. I’m so DAMN excited! Have you guessed the card yet? Click the link to find out…


    “DAMN!”

    That’s what you’re thinking right now, isn’t it? I know, I KNOW!

    For a measly six mana, give your opponent the choice of losing some life or sacrificing a few permanents. That’s right, it’s DAMNED if you do, DAMNED if you do, because there’s no “don’t” here. Seriously, if your opponent doesn’t choose a number, check their pulse because they might be dead.

    Here’s a deck featuring the DAMN awesome power of this card:

    The deck could use some sort of board control card at the four mana slot, but I can’t think of any card like that right now, so we’ll have to make do with what we have.

    Of course, your reaction to all this is going to be something like, ‘What the heck? This card doesn’t have an alt-art foil version yet! It’s so DAMN exciting, I want one now!’ Well, you’re about to get your wish. We’re super excited to show off the beautiful alternate-art foil promo Choice of Damnations that some lucky players will be getting from their local game stores with their boxes of Modern Masters 2015. Here it is:


  • Modern Masters 2015 Previews: Command and Conquer

    Hello and welcome to Modern Masters 2015 Preview week here at Good Gamery! We’ve got a spicy card for you today with a fine pedigree of play across multiple formats. If there’s one thing that Magic players love, it’s flexibility, and that’s what makes this card (and the other cards in its cycle) so powerful. Modal spells have utility in wide varieties of situations, and every card in the cycle has seen extensive play. But this card, as the cheapest card in the cycle, is arguably the most powerful. After seeing a pale imitation of this card recently printed in Dragons of Tarkir, we’re excited to see the original come back. Without further ado, we present:


    Beautiful, isn’t it? With the new Magic 2015 frame and the bulleted-list modal spell templating introduced in Khans of Tarkir, Krenko’s Command is looking sharper than ever and ready to dominate at tables near you. Now, this is of course a reprint, but we thought we’d still go over each mode and talk about it in the context of the Modern format, as well as in Modern Masters 2015 Limited play.

    Choose two:

    goblin1

    • Put a 1/1 Goblin creature token onto the battlefield.

    This first mode, put a 1/1 Goblin creature token onto the battlefield, is the one that’s likely to get used the most. A 1/1 token by itself isn’t super relevant for Modern constructed, but of course that’s not all this card does. And there are plenty of Constructed-playable ways to take advantage of having lots of small creatures. In Limited, this mode plays right into the plan of the Red/White tokens deck, with Intangible Virtue, Trumpet Blast, and Swell of Courage to turn a horde of small creatures into a lethal attack.

    goblin2

    • Put a 1/1 Goblin creature token onto the battlefield.

    The second mode, put a 1/1 Goblin creature token onto the battlefield, is a bit more narrow than the first mode, but it really shines on the right board. Even in a format as powerful as Modern, an unopposed creature can win you the game. Pair this with red removal spells like Lightning Bolt, Flame Slash and Shivan Meteor to clear a path and twenty turns later this token will lock up your victory for you. This mode of Krenko’s Command happens to play exceptionally well in Modern Masters 2015 Limited in the Red/Black “attacking with creatures” archetype, based around the interaction between creatures turning sideways and your opponent’s life total.

    goblin3

    • Put a 1/1 Goblin creature token onto the battlefield.

    The third mode, put a 1/1 Goblin creature token onto the battlefield, may not seem like much, but it’s potentially the most powerful of them all. Here’s a dirty little secret for you – Path to Exile gets played extensively in Modern. When your opponent casts one on your creature, it’s great – you get a land! But you have to have creatures, or you won’t be able to ramp off of your opponent’s removal spell. This mode of Krenko’s Command gives you a creature for your opponent to Path. It’s basically Rampant Growth! And in Limited, that lets Krenko’s Command slot right into the Red/Blue Landfall archetype. There’s nothing better than the look on an opponent’s face when she realizes your Geyser Glider is going to gain flying because she cast Path to Exile on your Goblin token.

    goblin4

    • Put a 1/1 Goblin creature token onto the battlefield.

    The fourth mode, put a 1/1 Goblin creature token onto the battlefield, is likely the weakest, especially in Constructed, where blocking happens much less frequently. Still, the token can block and trade with X/1s, and there are X/1s that get played in Modern, like Vendilion Clique, Pestermite, and Auriok Champion. At worst, you can chump block a Siege Rhino or a Primeval Titan. In Limited, it’s a bit better because making a 1/1 token to block is exactly what the Red/Green “blocking with creatures” archetype wants to do. Still not great, but this is a Command we’re talking about, and this mode will save your bacon when you need it.

    And that’s just the basics of what you can do with Krenko’s Command. We here at Good Gamery are thrilled that we’ll get to play with this classic card again, and we’re looking forward to seeing what an entirely new generation of players will do with such a flexible, powerful card. Until tomorrow, may your Magmaw be fueled by many Goblin tokens!

  • Modern Masters 2015 Preview: Everything is Fuel

    I have come all the way from Zendikar to share news of a Modern Masters 2015 preview that will be sure to excite Magic fans. My preview card is none other than the indomitable…


    Magmaw! The keystone of the universe itself! Countless sages have pondered the purpose of existence, and the answer is almost comically trivial: All shall be fuel for the Magmaw.

    Allow me to impart a cursory list of entities particularly well suited for consumption:

    Hellkite Tyrant – No longer need you submit to the absurd demand for twenty artifacts from this overbearing leech! For only one colorless mana, you can “reward” his avarice by feeding him to the Magmaw.

    Utvara Hellkite – A superb generator of vast quantities of fuel for the Magmaw. The Magmaw must feed!

    Mogg Fanatic – For a single mana, this creature can, too, feed the Magmaw and be channeled into a deadly, flaming jet of magma to assail passersby.

    Meddling Mage – How inferior, these abilities! For surely, the utility of such passive manipulation pales in comparison to that of the precise destruction of the Magmaw.

    But you need not stop at these – everything is fuel for the Magmaw!

    Goblin Legionnaire? Goblins know nothing of the might and prowess of the Magmaw! This creature is naught but fuel!

    Not fuel
    Not fuel

    Fuel
    Fuel

    Goblin Bombardment? Mere fuel for the Magmaw!

    Mindslaver? Fuel for the Magmaw!

    Memnarch? Fuel for the Magmaw!

    The Mirari itself? Fuel for the Magmaw!

    Everything is fuel for the Magmaw!

    Mutavault? Nope!

    I have prepared a Modern-legal deck for you that lets you fuel Magmaw with a wide variety of tools of destruction. Use Metallic Mastery and Mark of Mutiny to feed the beast with your opponent’s pathetic toys. The Magmaw hungers!

    My tidings thus imparted, I bid thee farewell, gentle reader. For the Magmaw hungers, and I am but fuel.