#ninth edition

[mtg-art-daily]

Urza's Tower

Artist: Brian Snõddy

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Battle of Wits

The wizard who reads a thousand books is powerful. The wizard who memorizes a thousand books is insane.

Artist: Edward P. Beard, Jr. TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[art-of-mtg]

Karplusan Forest (Ninth Edition) - John Avon

More cards with art by John Avon on Scryfall

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Serra Angel by Greg Staples

[lordsofmedrengard]

Yikes.

Also, did they forget about Cawl reinventing and improving everything he rests his eyes on?

[allthemfingpoems]

Bilingual/Bilingüe

My father liked them separate, one there,

one here (allá y aquí), as of aware

that words might cut in two his daughter’s heart

(el corazón) and lock the alien part

to what he was- his memory, his name

(su nombre)- with a key he could not claim.

“English outside this door, Spanish inside,”

he said, “y basta.” But who can divide

the world, the word (mundo y palabra) from

and child? I knew how to be dumb

and stubborn (testaruda); late, in bed,

I hoarded secret syllables I read

until my tongue (mi lengua) learned to run

where his stumbled. And still the heart was one.

I like to think he knew that, even when,

proud (orgulloso) of his daughter’s pen,

he stood outside mis versos, half in fear

of words he loved but wanted not to hear.

-Rhina P. Espaillat

from Three Genres: The Writing of Literary Prose, Poems, and Plays (page 209)

[commandtower]

Commander Card Spotlight: Slate of Ancestry

Time for a new Card Spotlight featurette! I haven’t done one of these since I got back to posting more regularly, so let’s fix that with a look at a nice artifact that helps draw cards in creature-based decks.

Slate of Ancestry is a powerful card that has a long history of inclusion in decks that produce creatures at a fast rate. It shows up regularly in Elf and Goblin tribal lists as well as token-based decks and other builds that “go wide” in building their army by putting a high number of creatures on the battlefield. Originally printed back in Onslaught, it’s since seen reprints in Ninth Edition as well as Elves vs. Goblins, the first deck in the Duel Decks series.

While its activation includes discarding your original hand, many decks with a lean mana curve often need to refill after a particularly profitable main phase, and even if you’re out of cards, you’re still able to perform the act of “discarding your whole hand” without cards actually there. The Slate is not without its risks, of course -- most glaringly, an opponent can respond to the activation and remove some or all of your creatures from the board. Still, this is a powerful draw option for the decks that can utilize it properly and it might be worth a look if your deck’s strategy is focused on building up your troops.

[mtg-art-daily]

Threaten

Goblins' motivational techniques are crude, but effective.

Artist: Pete Venters