"Seeing Red , Being Red"

"Seeing Red , Being Red"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

Things have been getting very interesting again in the Magic front. With other Card games on the rise such as WarCraft among others a lot of keen observers have seen the agression in which Magic has been doing to win back old players , get inactive players in the mix as well as entice new comers to taste the Magic so to speak. It came out with M10 with the reprinting of timeless classics such as Lightning Bolt and Ball lightning. Red mages were frothing to get their hands on these pieces and L bolt turned out to be the rare common ( much like raging goblin was in earlier core sets) . It had been hard to get in packs as well as in the local market , paying through the nose was the only way to get your hand at them. Fortunately I have been saving multiple sets of Lbolt for a long time and can again knock someones noggin with direct burn. 3 damage. Take that!

Another expansion out there that has everybody talking is the From The Vault: Exiles where previously banned cards will be reprinted in Foil and become tournament legal again. The set includes classics like Kird Ape , Balance , Lotus Petal and the most broken artifact in Mirrodin , Skull Clamp , the set consists of 15 cards in collectible foil format. I remember Skull Clamp decks back in my day , all of the tribes had them you had elf clamp , Goblin Clamp , Zombie Clamp , the amount of card advantage it generated was insane , imagine attaching it for one colorless mana to one token you got for free anyway , when it hits the graveyard you draw 2 cards! repeat and rinse as they used to say , you can get get all your key cards in a jiffy , even Red who normally doesnt have a good drawing engine gets in the fun with Goblin Clamp. That artifact was banned because it caused a stagnant pool of decks that didnt want to branch out and create new interactions. When the uproar of its banning passed you got to see Tooth and Nail decks dominating arenas and other various cool decks.

I also forgot to mention Goblin Lackeys return , imagine dropping this with haste on turn one and dropping a fattie like Goblin Goon or Siege Gang Commander! Excuse me as I wipe my frothing mouth. I had the unlucky pleasure of meeting one of these decks and enjoyed its power as I got my butt kicked. Im sure all of the other colors have been pumped as well. What with the Silences and Path to exiles floating around but I will always be a Red mage and for these few cards that magic has sent out I will be awaiting Zendikar ( the newest expansion). Have you seen the John Avon Lands there yet? If you havent then all the more reason to check it out. It is a great time to be playing magic. Its a great time to be a Red Mage.

Bloggers Note: This is actually an old blog that I wasnt able to post....