WHAT

Wizards of the Coast LLC, the leader in entertaining the lifestyle gamer, will be showcasing its latest releases at this year’s PAX 2010. From Dungeons & Dragons to Magic: The Gathering, there is something new for everyone.

Wizards will be celebrating the exciting digital offerings based on Magic: The Gathering, including the popular XBLA and PC game, Duels of the Planeswalkers with demos for attendees. Wizards is also hosting Magic: The Gathering tournaments all weekend in the gaming hall and invites fans to participate in a scavenger hunt to earn admission to the exclusive Magic party, “Assault on Mirrodin”, taking place on Saturday night after the show floor closes.

Dungeons & Dragons fans and players are invited to experience the new D&D Fantasy Roleplaying Game Starter Set previewing the nostalgic game product before its broad release. Throughout the show, fans can also attend various seminars, play D&D in the gaming hall and check out the festivities at the D&D Bus where designers will be on hand, along with live entertainment, giveaways and much more.

WHEN

September 3-5, 2010
Friday, September 3 – 10:00am – 7:00pm
Saturday, September 4 – 10:00am – 6:00pm
Sunday, September 5 – 10:00am – 6:00pm

WHERE

Washingon State Convention & Trade Center
800 Convention Place
Seattle, WA 98101-2350
Booth#1114

AND

D&D Bus
Corner of 9th Ave and Pine St
Available Fri, Sat & Sun from 10:00am – 5:00pm

****ADDITIONAL WIZARDS OF THE COAST EVENT HIGHLIGHTS ****

Magic: The Gathering

Wizards is giving fans a sneak peek at the Magic: The Gathering products releasing later this year.
· Video game fans can stop by the booth for demos of the popular Xbox LIVE® Arcade and PC game, Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers which is also coming soon to PlayStation® 3.
· On Saturday night, Wizards of the Coast will be hosting an exclusive Magic event: the “Assault on Mirrodin” Party.
o Party features: Prize giveaways. Previews & Demos. Scars of Mirrodin spoilers. Free food and drinks. Shuttle available.
o Saturday September 4, 6:00-9:00pm at Showbox at the Market.
· Players can also participate in multiple Magic: The Gathering tournaments taking place during the show.

Dungeons & Dragons

D&D players can enjoy three days of exclusive gaming opportunities in the Tabletop Freeplay area as well as the chance to participate in a “life-size” D&D demo in the Wizards of the Coast booth. D&D fans will also have the opportunity to experience the D&D Fantasy Roleplaying Game Starter Set, a new product modeled after one of the most popular products of D&D’s past, which is available broadly on September 7.

Additionally, fans will have the opportunity to get tickets to view the Acquisitions Incorporated: Prisoners of Slaughterfast D&D game featuring Penny Arcade’s Gabe and Tycho, Wil Wheaton and other celebrities. The game will be run by “DM to the Stars” Chris Perkins and will be available for viewing to press and select attendees in the Pegasus Theatre at the Sheraton. Tickets will be distributed at the D&D Bus leading up to the event; press can contact us to reserve a ticket in advance.

Wizards of the Coast Publishing

Signings with long-time favorite Wizards of the Coast authors, as well as some newer faces, will be happening throughout PAX at the Wizards booth and at the D&D Bus!

About Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE:HAS), is the leader in entertaining the lifestyle gamer. The company holds an exclusive patent on trading card games (TCGs) and their method of play and produces the premier trading card game, Magic: The Gathering®, among many other trading card games and family card and board games. Wizards is also a leading publisher of roleplaying games, such as Dungeons & Dragons®, and publisher of fantasy series fiction with numerous New York Times best-sellers. For more information, visit the Wizards of the Coast Web site at www.wizards.com.

Guild Achievements:

Guild achievements are of two basic types – raid achievements and general achievements. Some of the current achievements will become guild achievements. A few example achievements were shown at BlizzCon, including:

We are Legendary: Complete 10 Legendary items.

United Nations: Become Exalted with all Northrend factions.

Working as a Team: Become a Grand Master in all professions.

Insider Trading: Trade 100,000 craftable items among guild members.

Raid achievements are more or less identical to the players’ raid achievements, the only difference in the scale – you need at least 75% of the raid to be from the same guild in order for the guild to earn a specific raid achievement.

Guild Experience & Leveling

Your guild is now able to level up with you! Similarly to players’ leveling, your guild gains levels – starting at 1, going to maximum of 20 – based on experience it earns through its members. Most of the semi-significant actions performed by players within a guild will award guild experience – earning achievements, maxing out a profession, winning an arena match or a rated battleground, and a few more. To balance small and big guilds, only the top 20 “contributors” in each guild will attribute their experiences to the guild level every day.

Guild Perks

Originally introduced as guild talents, these were originally announced during BlizzCon 2009 but have been scrapped in favour of an easier to understand “perks” system where you will gain a new perk every guild level.

Here is a list of all the “perks” currently available, along with their guild levels required:

Level 1: Fast Track: Experience gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 5%.

Level 2: Mount Up: Increases speed while mounted by 5%. Not active in Battlegrounds or Arenas.

Level 3: Mr. Popularity: Reputation gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 5%.

Level 4: Cash Flow: Each time you loot money from an enemy, an extra 5% money is generated and deposited directly into your guild bank.

Level 5: Fast Track: Experience gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 10%.

Level 6: Reinforce: Items take 5% less durability loss when you die.

Level 7: Hasty Hearth: Reduces the cooldown on your Hearthstone by 15 minutes.

Level 8: Reinforce: Items take 10% less durability loss when you die.

Level 9: Chug-A-Lug: The duration of buffs from all guild cauldrons and feasts is increased by 50%.

Level 10: Mobile Banking: Summons your guild bank.

Level 11: Mr. Popularity: Reputation gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 10%.

Level 12: Honorable Mention: Increases Honor points gained by 5%.

Level 13: Working Overtime: Increases the chance to gain a skill increase on tradeskills by 10%.

Level 14: The Quick and the Dead: Increases health and mana gained when resurrected by a guild member by 50% and increases movement speed while dead by 100%. Does not function in combat or while in a Battleground or Arena.

Level 15: Cash Flow: Each time you loot money from an enemy, an extra 10% money is generated and deposited directly into your guild bank.

Level 16: Guild Mail: In-game mail sent between guild members now arrives instantly.

Level 17: Everyone’s A Hero: Increases Heroism points gained by 5%.

Level 18: Honorable Mention: Increases Honor points gained by 10%.

Level 19: Happy Hour: Increases the number of flasks gained from using a flask cauldron by 100%.

Level 20: Have Group, Will Travel: Summons all raid or party members to the caster’s current location.

Level 21: Chug-A-Lug: The duration of buffs from all guild cauldrons and feasts is increased by 100%.

Level 22: Bountiful Bags: Increases the quantity of materials gained from Mining, Skinning, Herbalism, and Disenchanting by 15%.

Level 23: Bartering: Reduces the price of items from all vendors by 5%.

Level 24: Everyone’s A Hero: Increases Heroism points gained by 10%.

Level 25: Mass Resurrection: Brings all dead party and raid members back to life with 35 health and 35 mana. Cannot be cast when in combat.

Improved Guild Interface

Guild Experience: Displays how much experience your guild has accumulated.
Guild Landing Page
Guild News: Recent activity feed for your guild.
Containing useful information like recent bosses killed and players who hit max level.
Items can be stickied like the Guild Message of the Day or an awesome boss kill.
Events Calendar: A separate section listing upcoming guild events from the calendar.
New Roster tab: A better way to browse the members in your guild, and see an overview of all sorts of information about them: achievements, status, professions, PvP, and more. Now filterable!

What I want to show you is a side by side comparison of a new set from Cata vs existing fairly decent gear.

Head Slot
Redsteel Helm
Faceplate of Thunderous Rampage

Leg Slot
Redsteel Legguards
Titan-Forged Plate Legguards of Triumph

Foot Slot
Redsteel Boots
Plated Greaves of Providence

Chest Slot
Redsteel Breastplate
Titanium Razorplate

Just take a look at those greens! I mean thoese guys are not going to take forever to get the mats for and make and they are almost over twice as good as level 80 Purple items! I’m diggin it and am certainly looking forward to gathering up some ore and getting back to Blacksmithing!

A set everyone can sink their teeth into.

Walk amongst the elite – The ultimate strategic duelists. The few who can control deadly creatures and wield terrifying sorceries. Battle on countless worlds beyond this one in a quest for supremacy, and know what it means to say, “Here I Rule.”

From what I understand this core set, 249 cards, is supposed to be 50% reprints and 50% new stuff.

Okay, with the technical info out of the way, let’s check out some of the sneak preview cards sent my way:

And let’s take a look at one more, a Mythic Rare from M11…

Now wait a second, hold the phone! Isn’t this just like TimeTwister from Alpha/Beta days?? Yep! Okay, so it’s 1 Colorless and 1 Blue mana more than TimeTwister but damn! In today’s play field that’s nothing! And you can play with 4 of these bad boys!

Keep checking back for more spoilers! (remember in September/October of this year we have the new block coming out (Scars of Mirrodin)

What Is Archenemy?

Archenemy gives you everything you need to play a new casual variant of the same name. In an Archenemy game, one player—the archenemy—takes on the role of a merciless tyrant bent on total domination. The other players form a team dedicated to stopping the archenemy at any cost, taking a shared turn Two-Headed Giant–style.

But teaming up on the archenemy isn’t unfair—it’s a desperate survival tactic. The archenemy comes to the fight armed not only with a normal 60-card deck, but also with a deck of 20 oversized scheme cards. These represent the clever plots and monstrous machinations of the archenemy, and they give his or her deck the power boost it needs to—maybe—take out two, three, four, or even more opponents.

We’ll take a look at a scheme card in a moment, but first let’s talk about how to set up the game.

Arranging the Pieces

To play Archenemy, each player needs a deck made of normal-sized Magic cards. By default these will be normal Constructed decks consisting of at least 60 cards (such as, for example, the 60-card decks featured in the four Archenemy game packs), but in theory you could also try this with 100-card EDH decks, 40-card Sealed Decks, or any other Magic decks. The player playing as the archenemy also needs a scheme deck made of at least 20 oversized scheme cards (also included in each game pack—note that some schemes appear in more than one game pack).

If each player has an Archenemy game pack, players can take turns using their scheme decks as the archenemy. If you want to customize the scheme deck, there are only two rules to follow: the deck must have at least 20 scheme cards and it can’t include more than two of any single card.

At the start of the game, each player shuffles his or her traditional deck. The archenemy also shuffles his or her scheme deck. The archenemy keeps the scheme deck face down and can’t look at it or rearrange the cards in it, just like his or her library.

Set Your Schemes in Motion

The archenemy’s turn plays out just like a turn in any Magic game, with one major difference. As the first main phase of the archenemy’s turn begins, that player sets a scheme in motion—yes, that is now an actual game action!—by turning the top card of the scheme deck face up. It might look something like this:

Most scheme cards, including this one, have abilities that trigger “When you set this scheme in motion.” As with other triggered abilities, archenemy and his or her opponents have the chance to respond to these abilities by casting spells or activating abilities.

Some schemes say ongoing on their type line, like this one:

An ongoing scheme remains face up until an effect causes it to be abandoned (put on the bottom of the scheme deck). Most ongoing schemes have a condition that causes them to be abandoned, although it will likely take some work on your opponents’ part. Note that ongoing schemes aren’t on the battlefield; they’re not permanents, and they can’t be destroyed.

Schemes that aren’t ongoing are simply put on the bottom of the scheme deck once all their abilities resolve or are countered (for having no legal targets, for example).

Some schemes may ask you to pay some amount of mana to reap their full benefits:

If a scheme’s triggered ability has one or more targets, as this one does, you’ll choose them when you put the triggered ability on the stack, as with any other triggered ability. You won’t choose how much mana to pay for , however, until the ability resolves. So your opponents will know what’s going to take damage, but they won’t know how much.

A few “hot seat” schemes let you put one of your opponents in a very awkward position by asking, “Self or others?”

Will your opponent take one for the team, choosing the option that puts less total hurt on the archenemy’s opponents? Or will he or she decide to let teammates take the heat, leaving his or her own position unchanged? A team player will look at this choice objectively, consult with his or her teammates, and choose the option that’s best for the team as a whole … but not everybody’s a team player!

If the opponent you choose doesn’t have any teammates left, he or she can choose “others” and suffer no ill effects at all. On the other hand, that player is facing you and your scheme deck all alone—not an enviable position!

Revealing a scheme as your first main phase begins is mandatory. Gravely intoning its name and flavor text and then cackling madly is optional.

Win, Lose, or Draw

The rest of the rules are pretty straightforward. The archenemy starts at 40 life, and each other player starts at 20 life. Each player draws an opening hand of seven cards, and players may then take mulligans as normal. In multiplayer games, the first time a player takes a mulligan, he or she draws a new hand of seven cards rather than six cards, then subsequent hands decrease by one card as normal.

The archenemy goes first and draws a card during his or her first draw step. (We told you they were malevolent!)

The archenemy’s opponents share a turn, in the same way that teammates do in Two-Headed Giant. You each untap your permanents during your team’s untap step, you each draw a card as your team’s draw step begins, and so on. Each teammate can play a land during the team’s main phase. Each teammate chooses which of his or her creatures will attack the archenemy or a planeswalker the archenemy controls, and then those creatures all attack at the same time. You can’t attack your teammates.

The team of players opposing the archenemy needs to work together to have any hope of defeating the archenemy’s quest for domination. But you can’t share cards or other resources. You can’t give your teammates mana to cast spells, for example.

If you or a member of your alliance is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice and leave the game, the rest of the team continues the fight. However, the usual rules for what happens when a player leaves a multiplayer game apply: All permanents and other cards that player owned leave the game, any spells or abilities controlled by that player cease to exist, and any effects that caused the player to gain control of permanents he or she doesn’t own end.

The archenemy wins the game by defeating each member of the opposing team. The opposing team wins by defeating the archenemy. Every player on that team wins the game, even players that left the game before its conclusion.

Remember, players lose the game when their life total is reduced to 0 or less, when they have to draw a card from an empty library, when they have ten or more poison counters, or when an effect says that player loses the game or an opponent wins the game. If the archenemy would lose the game at the same time as the last remaining member of the opposing team, the game is a draw.

In addition to the default “One vs. Many” Archenemy format, there’s a Free-for-All variant. The twist? Everybody gets a scheme deck! Maybe you’re all archenemies who have finished off those pesky heroes and are now fighting over the wreckage of a ruined world. Perhaps a few heroes have tapped into some source of terrible power and risen to fight you on equal terms. Regardless, this variant has the potential for some super-powered, crushingly brutal back-and-forths. And in this format, asking “Self or other?” isn’t putting someone on the hot seat—it’s doing them a favor!

Vengevine from Rise of the Eldrazi

Jace, the mind Sculptor from WorldWake

OLD Alpha, Beta, The Dark, and More Lot!

RARE lot, over 175 RARES!

FOIL Lot, over 45 Foil Cards!

Mythic Rare lot!

Remember Bid High and Have Fun!

Back in 1991 a friend of mine and I were playing a game on the computer (possibly Bard’s Tale or Ultima 5) and our conversation wandered from “If a gate were to open in front of you that went to an alternate dimension or another world, could you leave everything you know behind and step through” to “is time travel possible?”. We probably pondered that possibility for a couple of hours before we came up with a plan.

What took place that afternoon was a letter. I wrote it to myself at about 6 PM. Shortly after it was written my friend and I went out to dinner with my mom. When we got back home we discovered something that blew my mind.

This is the letter:

“On the night of March 22 1991, will put a pencil, red in the top of my computer desk. I will go back in time and do this. I shall check the drawer at approximately 10:02 P.M. on that Friday night. I swear to do this if I ever Time-Travel.”

I’ve kept that letter with me ever since, folded and in my wallet.

When we arrived home from dinner we looked at about 10 PM in that computer desk drawer and yes, there was a red pencil in there. I will be honest in saying I do not ever recall having placed that pencil in there prior to my writing that letter (which was done in ink).

Later that night my friend and I agreed that we would unravel the mystery to time travel. I was to go to school to learn physics and quantum mechanics while he was to learn to become a pilot. The theory was that it had to be a fast moving machine (like the DeLorian in Back to the Future) and we figured a plane would be about as fast as we would need.

Sadly I never learned anything beyond Freshman Physics and he never became a pilot.

However, after last night there has been a renewal of hope and new insight to how to Travel through Time.

Imagine this scenario, you are being chased by someone and all you know is that you must get away. You are chased down into a field and come to a wall made of brick. There is no foothold with which to climb over and the person chasing you is closing in fast. To get away is simple. Teleport through the wall to the other side.

Teleport through the wall? How the hell am I supposed to do that? This is how:

Travel back in time to when the wall was not there then simply move past where the wall will be, then travel back to your “present”. You will have then successfully teleported beyond the wall. However, the trick then is How do you Time Travel.

Sadly I have yet to unlock that mystery. However, with this new key and insight that I found myself face to face with last night I discovered something.

Where I had previously theorized that it would require a machine or tool to Time Travel, I discovered that it does not! Perhaps it is simply an opening in the mind that will allow for this stepping into the past or future and back again. The events that took place last night (actually it was at about 1 in the morning) opened my mind to an entirely new theory.

What were the events you ask? Woof, you’d probably not believe me if I told you..

Now, as I stated this is pure speculation. What I did was take that wire-frame map and overlayed it on top of our current in-game map. This is what I came up with:

Why I state that this is pure speculation, well obviously, Cataclysm is not out yet. For another, it’s been leaked that 1000 Needles has been flooded and in my rendition of the map, well, it’s not. The sunken city of Vashj’ir is also not on the map (but as best I can estimate it would be where the large swirl is in the middle of the map). The starting area of Gilneas (Worgen) and the Isle of Kezan (Goblins) also are not reflected on the map.

One such change is a zone that is entirelly under water – The Sunken City of Vashj’ir.

What I really wish to see, however, is Guild Achievements. I suppose if they do these it will primarily focus around Raids and perhaps even PvP Battlegrounds. But I don’t see any reason we could not have a group effort in exploring an area or group related quests. I like guilds, I’ve got a good family created in the Shadow Lords, and I think having Guild Achievements would overall add to a little more fun in the game.

Stay tuned for the next post: Map of Cataclysm!

Seriously, these are great buys!  In my last Fat Pack Pull from WorldWake, I feel I got an above average pull.  On this Eldrazi Fat Pack pull, I feel it too was an above average pull, but only slightly. 

Okay, in the Fat Pack you get the traditional stuff; a D20 (they call it a spindown life counter), 40 card pack of land, 8 boosters, chapter insert of a book, Players Guide (my favorite because it shows full color spoilers of the cards), the wrap around art-sleeve, and the holding box itself.

What’d you get?

 I got:

24 Uncommons:
1 Blue
4 Red
4 Green
4 Black
4 Artifact
4 White
3 Eldrazi

2 Foils:

5 Rares:

3 Mythic Rares:

Yeah, with getting 3 Mythic Rares, I’d say this was an above average pull.  Not as spectacular as my WorldWake Fat Pack Pull, but still….  Now to figure out how to incorporate some of these Eldrazi cards into some existing decks…