All That Glitters
by Sean Olene, Lotus Vault Staff 06/25/10

In times of previews, the mythics and rares are the things that tantalize our taste buds, whet our mouths, and cause us to penny away our savings to buy a fresh box of the next Magic expansion. We crack into the fresh cellophane, throwing the rules inserts to the side (being mindful for foils, of course), and look for our gold logo and the riches it will bestow upon us. Sometimes, it’s a Baneslayer Angel. And more often, it's a Selective Memory. These are the risks we take when we crack packs.

Soon enough, the stigma of opening the most recent set fades, and we stop buying packs, opting to purchase the few singles we need for our decks. Packs we win as prizes at our local FNM tournaments either sit in our backpacks and boxes, waiting to be money drafted, or are sold to those who have yet to grow weary of opening their seventh Sphinx-Bone Wand. Traditionally, this has been the drawback to purchasing core sets, almost nearly comprised of reprints. M10 gave us pack-buyers something new and exciting, a core set with new rares and quite a few of them to boot. It was an exciting day for core sets, indeed.

And now M11 approaches.

M11 will not contain as many new rares as its predecessor, as stated by someone at Wizards (I would include a reference, but it's not really to the point. You'll just have to trust me). Already discovered by the Magic community are the “M10 Duals”, the Lorwyn planeswalkers, Birds of Paradise, and Baneslayer Angel. That's 12 rares and mythics so far out of a potential 73, with what I am sure is many more reprinted rares to follow. While opening a Baneslayer Angel is obviously a good thing, many of the other rares in M11 will have worked their way into your collections already. So what then can we take away from the new core set if a large amount of the rares will be reprints? Well let's take a look. . .

Completely new and unexplored mechanics of creatures that can only attack after you opponent has taken damage! Now the first thought that may have entered your mind is, “Umm... don't I deal damage when I attack?” Well. . . Yes. Bloodcrazed Goblin is most likely M11's replacement for Jackal Familiar. The difference between the way the two operate, while subtle, is relatively important. Historically, creatures like Jackal Familiar don't do anything except set you up for bad blocking situations. At the very least, the new goblin can block, even if you aren't dealing damage. With the heavy amount of burn spells in the core sets, and the red “pingers” like Cunning Sparkmage and Prodigal Pyromancer coming up with a steady supply of damage for this little guy shouldn't be difficult. Not necessarily exciting, but an interesting change to a traditional red common.

This card may look familiar as well. The question is which card does it remind you of? Is it a Thieving Magpie without flying? Or is it an Ophidian that gets to deal its damage? Well for the sake of remaining positive, this crafty merfolk will be the new and improved Ophidian. Scroll Thief doesn't have any tricky wording and no evasion. Arcane Teachings + Scroll Thief = A really big pinger, sorry. It still has to bring the beatdown like all of its predecessors.

The advantage that Scroll Thief has over its snake and bird bretheren is that it is not a snake or a bird. . .? Exactly. Scroll Thief is a merfolk! Tribal fishmen unite! The evasion that our parchment pickpocket lacks can be lent to him easily by the Merfolk Sovereign – and he gets a power boost! While it's not very efficient to use two cards to deal 2 damage and draw 2 cards, Coralhelm Commander is yet another pump for the Scroll Thief and all of your other merfolk. All in all, this is a significant improvement upon previous versions.

Our third and final preview for M11 is another familiar uncommon. An Aven Cloudchaser without flying. A beefy Monk Realist. Either way you look at it, this is a good sideboard card, especially since white did not have access to an ETB (Enters the Battlefield trigger; I'm trying to be trendy) in M10. With the new planeswalker-named enchantments in M11, auras in Worldwake, and the plethora of quests in the Zendikar block, War Priest of Thune will have ample targets in standard, should he be needed. In the Extended format, with the new rotation, this creature could provide a decent replacement for Indrik Stomphowler in a pinch, versus using Wispmare.

While it may not be exciting to see commons and uncommons for previews, it certainly shows us the way that the game is being improved with each core set. Not every card can be a gem, but it might sparkle a little in your deck in ways you hadn't expected. At the very least, it gives you something new to add to your Magic mind and card boxes. And the packs won't be quite as dull.

Check back soon, we will have Magic 2011 listed on the site for pre-order on or around pre-release tournament time, which is July 10th!