#duel decks: elves vs. inventors

[magicmalcolm]

Everything Is Thopters.

“Industry without artistry is just a fancy way to fill the junkyard.”

[beatsandskies]

Commanding Dual Duel Decks

So two things are happening at the moment: first is that I’m softening my stance on Commander. I picked up the Brothers War decks recently, and have started to grab cards out when I’m going through bulk to put together some of the MTGO Preconstucted deck lists. Notably the Deathdancer Xira and Enchantress Rubinia decks which predated (by two years) the first physical release in 2011. There’s also…

[thecornwall]

Cornwall's Random Card of the Day #586: Voyager Staff

Now without Neelix!

Voyager Staff is an uncommon from Ravnica: City of Guilds, seen here in its Duel Decks: Elves vs Inventors? Elves got two duel decks? Weird. Anyhow, this thing is an overpriced colourless flicker spell. Considering how many cards had ETB effects(including the cycle of "spell auras") this would have plenty of use in RAV/RAV/RAV formats. I like it. What can I say? I am a sucker for flickering.

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Goblin Welder by Victor Adame Minguez

[loreleywrites]

We got our first look at Duel Decks: Elves vs. Inventors today! The face cards for the product are Ezuri, Renegade Leader and Goblin Welder, both with new art, and the latter getting its first foil printing ever! Also got confirmation of new art for Thopter Assembly and Elvish Archdruid. Other notable cards in the product include Solemn Simulacrum, Shivan Reef, Regal Force, and Sylvan Advocate. (Source)

[edh-a-to-z]

Duel Decks: Elves vs Inventors

Now that the decklist came out, I can account for the latest, and last, entry to the Duel Decks series.

To quote the Professor - Many Magic Players ask

Is it worth it to buy Duel Deck: Elves vs Inventors?

The Elf Deck

So, for the elf deck, we have some new art for Ezuri, Elvish Renegade and Elvish Archdruid. We also have two Sylvan Advocate and Regal Force as significant cards.

Ezuri is a solid card and commander for elf decks offering some protection and a win-con. Elfs love to swarm! He’s currently going for around $4.73.

Elvish Archdruid, by Raymond Swanland

Elvish Archdruid is an elvish lord plus massive elf ramp. An important part of any Elf tribal deck, it goes for just over $2. Sylvan Advocate is bulk value, and Regal Force goes for about $1.50. Ezuri, Archdruid, and Force are staples in many Elf decks, and many other EDH builds, and the Advocate has some niche uses in land decks.

There’s also Yeva, Natures Herald, Talara’s Battalion, Gladeheart Cavalry, Dwynen Gilt-Leaf Daen, and a smattering of elves and other green cards. 

It makes a solid core for EDH players who need some Elf bulk to start off their tribal decks.

The Inventor Deck

Goblin Welder is amazing in any artifact deck running red. Artifacts love dying and coming back!

Goblin Welder, by Victor Adame Minguez

So this and Thopter Assembly are getting new art. While the former is pretty cheap (I think it’ll hit $1 from the new art, which is in a beautiful Kaladesh style), the latter runs around $2.71. 

We’re also seeing a reprint of Solemn Simulacrum ($4.40) and Shivan Reef ($1.90). All four of these face cards see some usage in EDH, with the former two restricted to artifact decks, and the latter fitting almost any deck it can work in.

A serious surprise is Darksteel Plate, which is currently going for over $11. There’s also Temple of the Epiphany, Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Myr Battlesphere, Scuttling Doom Engine, and a pile of cheap artifacts and artifact synergy - perfect for anyone looking for a start of a UR artifact deck.

Adding up the money cards (anything going for about $1 is easy to trade and sell), we’re looking at a tentative ~30 dollars

It’s fiscally sound if you’re interested in scrapping the set.

We also get the new artwork for legendary card frames, shown here:

It looks really cool! A lot of the art has been updated - Artifacts now look like the come from Kaladesh (Thopter Assembly).

I’d formally recommend any new EDH players to get these decks - the 1-of and 2-of nature of a lot of bulk cards plus the value of many of the cards makes it a safe buy. For more established players who may already have plenty of the cards, the fresh art and first reprinting of Darksteel Plate are tempting choices. 

The presence of multiple legendaries makes it a nominally interesting choice, and though Pia & Kiran, Yeva, Dwynen aren’t the best, Ezuri is a solid elfball commander, and the rest make decent deck additions.

See you later campers!

[takebacktheyuri]

Looking into upgrading my Lathril deck... I found an Elves vs Inventors duel deck at like Target a couple years ago for some reason and now this Ezuri is $10.

But I don't have an elvish harbinger ;( I've collected tons of elves awhile ago but a few of them have been expensive all along (elvish champion)

[quarkmaster]

Thopter Assembly

New illustration popped up!

Thopter Assembly MTG: Duel Decks: Elves vs. Inventors AD: Dawn Murin ©2018 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Svetlin Velinov

[mk1comics]

Most of these games are shipping this month - but there are a few items that we have to order this moth that won't ship till much later in the year - follow those links for updated info and shipping (or get in touch with Mk1 for any specific watchlist requests).

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Tash Kalar: Arena of Legends  

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Our store inventory is real time live in our webstore - check out our RPG stock here  

COLLECTABLE GAMES DUE SOON

YUGIOH : YUGI AND KAIBA COLLECTOR BOX MAGIC THE GATHERING DUEL DECKS: ELVES VS. INVENTORS and MAGIC THE GATHERING DOMINARIA

-Follow these links for all our POKEMON,   MAGIC THE GATHERING AND YUGIOH stock info.

MINIATURES DUE SOON Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Look for a new army  Idoneth Deepkin  and keep an eye on the GW community page for more sneak peeks..

-All our Miniature games are viewable here  or choose from our D&D, Pathfinder Warmachine/Hordes , WARHAMMER 40K or Age of Sigmar ranges.

Reminder : contact us  to request arrival alerts for any of the new releases listed above. All of MK1’s inventory is live online 24 hours a day 7 days a week http://www.mk1.co.nz/ 

[doctor-roman]

Elves vs Inventors will be the last Duel Deck as we move into Dominaria.

We’re also going to start seeing “Challenger Decks”, which are 75 card decks that are advertised to be “competitive out of the box at your local FNM”.

I have some...concerns...

1) With the removal of Duel Decks, this is now one less avenue that they have to print high value/high demand cards. Especially for eternal formats where reprints for high play cards are already scarce.

2) I get that Challenger Decks are meant to give people a straight out of the box chance at FNM, but...if the Challenger deck is able to hold its own, what’s to stop everyone from just buying the Challenger deck for their strategy of choice and then you see the same 2-3 decks every Friday?

3) Piggybacking off that last point, I can already see a situation where a standard staple is printed in only one Challenger deck, and whoops, there goes any variety because now EVERYONE can play Standard’s new #1 card, so why not?

Maybe I’m just being pessimistic, but I really don’t like the implications for either of these decisions.

[femmchantress]

New Ezuri, Renegade Leader art (from Victor Adame Minguez) for the Elves vs. Inventors duel deck. *0* 

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Ezuri, Renegade Leader by Victor Adame Minguez

[basiclandart]

[mk1comics]

December Games have kicked off!  We hit the ground running with two new D&D books DUNGEONS & DRAGONS WATERDEEP DUNGEON OF THE MAD MAGE  &  DUNGEONS & DRAGONS GUILDMASTERS GUIDE TO RAVNICA. 

Board Game wise we unpacked KERO (a "Mad-Max" themed two player skirmish) and ISLE OF SKYE (a well reviewed tile laying 2 to 5 player contest of the Scottish clans ).  Two new duel decks for Magic the Gathering  are now on shelf  JIANG YANGGU & MU YANLING and ELVES VS INVENTORS 

Back after sometime away is the much asked for PARADE card game and the full edition of the MK1 favorite  SECRET HITLER.  Speaking of party games we have the excellent new "would you rather"  game PICK YOUR POISON .  

And that is really only the arrivals from the last couple of days - we seriously recommend checking our GAMES live inventory to get the full scope of new arrivals.    December is a big month for gaming at Mk1  - we expect new releases and restocks to arrive every day at the shop in this part of the month so that Games link will be your best bet to keep on top of the new stuff   http://www.mk1.co.nz/collections/games?sort_by=created-descending (new arrivals will appear up the top as we receive them).  

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As proof and postscript I neglected to mention the arrival of AXIS & ALLIES & ZOMBIES, BETRAYAL LEGACY and the first restock of KEYFORGE  along with GAMES WORKSHOP’s latest offerings  so best you check that MK1 games inventory to see what else I missed in the December deluge!

[don-charm]

What if the Masterpiece series *IS* legendary creatures, and this is also debuted in the Elves vs Inventors duel deck? They've shown us the art for Ezuri, and I feel it's pretty clear we know what the card will do. But they HAVEN'T shown us his frame for some reason. What if this is a new frame? What if it's the frame of the Masterpiece Legendaries??? What if

Assuming they're going to make a masterpiece series for Dominaria, what cards / flavour would you like to see? And what do you think Wizards'll really print?

I’d like to see a Masterpiece series of legendary creatures from Magic’s past for Dominaria. 

If we take a look at the Masterpiece series that have come before, we’ve got Amonkhet Invocations, Kaladesh Inventions, and Zendikar Expeditions. (Yes, I know that the announcement of Masterpiece Series came after Battle for Zendikar, but for all intents and purposes, the Expedition lands were the first Masterpiece cards.) 

The Expeditions and Inventions were both incredibly popular, while the Invocations fell a bit flat among players. I think there were a few factors at play there. 

Aesthetics - The Expeditions were essentially full-art lands, and the Inventions featured classic artifacts with new art featuring Kaladesh’s sleek Aetherpunk look, both of which looked gorgeous. The Invocations tried to pull of an Egyptian-inspired layout, but it made the cards hard to read and just didn’t look as impressive when compared to the other Masterpiece cards. 

Theme - The Expeditions were all lands. The Inventions were all artifacts. The Invocations were… kind of divine flavored? I mean, I realize that Masterpieces can’t always share the same card type, but if they don’t I think it will be important that they share some kind of mechanical identity that ties them together. 

Versatility - Lands and artifacts are typically colorless, so they can go into pretty much any deck. A specific land or artifact may not be optimized for a particular deck, but they can still go in. If you drafted one of the Kaladesh Inventions, it may not fit the archtype you’re going for, but you could still be excited about drafting it. With the Amonkhet Invocations, not only were they limited in how many decks they could go in, they weren’t anywhere close to color balanced. If you picked up an Invocation during a draft, there was a fair chance you had to pass on something useful just to keep the bling. 

I feel like Aesthetics is the one with the most straightforward fix. After all, Magic knows how to make great looking cards. I think the Invocations were an example of taking a risk and experimenting with something new, and it just didn’t pay off. But I don’t see them making a similar misstep again. 

I think Versatility the most difficult challenge of the three, and the one that doesn’t necessarily need to be “solved” 100%. After all, creating Masterpiece cards using only colorless cards would feel boring pretty quickly, and colored mana costs are a vital part of effective Magic design. So there’s no way to keep making Masterpieces that can go in any deck, but that’s OK. 

You don’t have to make the Masterpiece cards equally exciting for every player who opens them, you just need to raise the average excitement level overall by making them REALLY exciting to the people they’re intended to excite. It’s like @markrosewater has said so many times. He’d rather make a card that 50% of players love and 50% of players hate, than make a card that 100% of players think is just OK. I think with Masterpiece cards, that concept needs to get pushed to the nth degree. 

Theme is kind of between the two issues. Fixing it isn’t quite as straightforward as Aesthetics, and not quite as elusive as Versatility. I don’t think that every Masterpiece Series can be built around a single card type, but it’s clear that flavor alone is not a strong enough theme to hold a Masterpiece Series together. There HAS to be some mechanical component, whether it’s card type, keyword mechanic, spell effect, or something else. 

I feel like a series of Masterpiece Legends cards could play great into all three of those spaces. There are SO many legendary creatures from Magic’s past with art that seems sub-par by current standards, and players would love to see a cohesive and stunning aesthetic to update characters from the past. This is especially true because it’s been so long since we’ve been to Dominaria and seen these characters, so the new art could have a “Where are they now” kind of effect.

In terms of Versatility, Masterpiece Legends would actually be swinging towards the other end of the spectrum, being viable in even fewer potential decks when drafted, but again it’s not about trying to get everyone to like every masterpiece. It’s about ramping up the excitement for the people who are the most excited. And legendary creatures do that very well. 

It also provides a very straightforward mechanical theme that ties the series together. If somebody asks you what the theme of the series is, it should be possible to do that with just one or two words. “Legendary Creatures” definitely does that. 

Will we actually see a Masterpiece Legends series on Dominaria? I don’t know, it could be a long-shot. At this point we don’t even know if there will be a Masterpiece Series on Dominaria at all. But if there is, I can’t think of a better theme to build it around than legendary creatures. 

After all, the tag line for the whole set is, “Gather Legends.” 

OK, that’s my take! Now I want to know what the rest of you think. What cards would you like to see in a Dominaria Masterpiece Series?! 

[mk1comics]

June = Winter = Games!  Reviewing our best sellers for the year so far might help you choose your new JUNE game. 

BOARD GAMES The  ARKHAM HORROR THE CARD GAME is our top performer for mid 2018 (some nice releases for this game arrive this month - see below). The KING OF TOKYO family &  the venerable CATAN games dominate the rest of the top positions.  For MINIATURE games our best seller has been Games Workshop's new SHADESPIRE game.  For Role Playing Games it's all about Dungeons & Dragons (but a new edition of Pathfinder might change that).

And while I'm listing things our top selling MANGA  is MY HERO ACADEMIA, Top of the COMICS for 2018 (so far)  has been the two big DC stories DARK NIGHTS METAL and DOOMSDAY CLOCK .  SAGA and MONSTRESS are our two best selling GRAPHIC NOVELS and our best selling Funko POP is PICKLE RICK!

Are you looking for something new this month?  Most of the games below are shipping this month - follow those links for more info and release dates (or get in touch with Mk1 and request an arrival notification).    

Our first wave of arrivals is on hand now - ready for the cold weekend!

BOARD GAMES & CARD GAMES DUE SOON

Arkham Horror The Card Game The Forgotten Age  In Stock Now https://mark1.vendecommerce.com/games/products/arkham-horror-the-card-game-the-forgotten-age-expansion

Arkham Horror The Card Game Threads of Fate   Arkham Horror The Card Game Labyrinths of Lunacy   Betrayal Legacy

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ROLE PLAYING GAMES DUE SOON Dungeons & Dragons Mordenkainens Tome of Foes - on shelf now!

Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook   Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook Hardcover   Pathfinder Playtest Adventure: Doomsday Dawn  

Pathfinder Playtest Adventure: Flip-Mat Multi Pack 

Our store inventory is real time live in our webstore - check out our RPG stock here  

COLLECTIBLE GAMES DUE SOON Magic the Gathering Battlebond - On Shelf Now https://mark1.vendecommerce.com/games/products/magic-the-gathering-battlebond-booster

Magic the Gathering Core 2019 Magic the Gathering: Duel Deck Elves vs Inventors Magic the Gathering: Jiang Yanggu & Mu Yanling

-Follow these links for all our POKEMON,   MAGIC THE GATHERING AND YUGIOH stock info.

MINIATURES DUE SOON 

Latest White Dwarf Magazine on shelf now https://mark1.vendecommerce.com/games/products/white-dwarf-june-2018

Star Wars X-Wing: Tie Reaper   Star Wars X-Wing: Saws Renegades  

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   -All our Miniature games are viewable here  or choose from our D&D, Pathfinder Warmachine/Hordes , WARHAMMER 40K or Age of Sigmar ranges.

Reminder : contact us  to request arrival alerts for any of the new releases listed below. All of MK1’s inventory is live online 24 hours a day 7 days a week http://www.mk1.co.nz/ 

Links below will take you to the publisher's preview page for each title. Our JUNE Comics/Books preorder form can be found here http://blog.mk1.co.nz/JUNE2018ORDERFORM