They wanted to strengthen they flavour of the game, and adding in words like “cast”, “battlefield” and “exile” might not do it, at least not for me. Changing around words does not hide the fact that this is a card game, not real life.

They also wanted to streamline the game: well, if by “streamlining” they mean “dumbing down”, then they’re certainly doing well in that department. I suppose I shouldn’t complain: when was the last time mana burn really mattered? Does it really matter if you play a spell during your Declare Blockers step instead of in response to damage? (Well, yes, that does, but not so much that you can’t manipulate it…) Will the order in which you deal damage to blockers really change under the new system?

Join me, fellow players, and let us hearken in a new, brighter decade of MTG. One where even the most novice of player’s can easily join the fun. And don’t worry, for us seasoned players, the game won’t change so dramatically that all of our favourite card’s funtionality changes. Here’s to not doing this for another decade.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to join the protestor’s at WotC head office…

While I can’t tell you much about this set, because I haven’t developed very much of it, I can tell you that it is revolutionary in the same way that Alara Reborn is: Hydaron is 100% hybrid! Well, except for Lands. It only contains allied colours, though, and focuses on – you guessed it – colour! Featuring 5 Planeswalkers with awesome abilities, A great storyline, and 5 new awesome themes! Watch this space for mor information, and for previews when they start rolling in.

“You may play the removed card without paying its mana cost if you attacked with three or more creatures this turn.” Windbrisk Heights is MASSIVE in Standard these days; usually it means GG when activated. But what about the other Hideaway lands? They aren’t so easily activated; Windbrisk Heights can be activated with a simple Spectral Procession.

After your opponent attacks with the Spirit tokens, you don’t know what to do: do you take the three, do you block some of them, or do you block them all? Almost every option has dire consequences, as you can lose either creatures or life to any number of spells; Overrun, Glorious Anthem and Zealous Persecution are just a few examples. The other lands are a lot more difficult to activate, and can therefore only be used in certain decks.

Shelldock Isle is near-impossible to activate without either a draw deck or a milling deck. If you are playing this land in Standard, build a milling deck around it; Sanity Grinding, Jace Beleron and Isleback Spawn are all key milling cards, and are all legal in Standard. Combined with a bit of Black for creature removal and access to cards like Mind Funeral and Nemesis of Reason, and you’ve got a very workable deck. Just watch out for White Weenies; that is a very bad match-up for a deck like this, but not an unwinnable one.

Howltooth Hollow hearkens back to the days of Dissension, when the Red-Black Rakdos Guild showcased the Hellbent ability, which activated if you had know cards in hand. Of course, while this may have been the key to your deck, other players would consider it to be a drawback, especially in the early game. The Rakdos Guild capitalises on this by emptying both your opponents and your hand simultaneously; therefore, the Hollow will be able to be activated in the early game when used in a deck like this. Flip a Hollowborn Bargherst with it, and your opponent will be easily tempted to clear his cards of the table right there and then. Perhaps this will be your next Extended deck? Just watch out for a mirror match-up.

Spinerock Knoll is perhaps the easiest to activate after the Heights; it works in Burn and Zoo decks, that can rack up the damage quite easily. In a mono-red deck, however, it can be quite hard, as red’s large array of 1-toughness creatures aren’t expected to last very long! It works well in Block format, as part of a combo: rack up the 8 lands, play Soulbright Flamekin, Ceaseless Searblades and Flamekin Brawler, then next turn, activate SF three times. You could reveal any number of cards: Incandescent Soulstoke comes to the front of my mind. The best bit? You can dish out another dose of Trample-y goodness to your opponent next turn, and even activate another Knoll if necessary.

Last, but certainly not least, the third-hardest to activate: Mosswort Bridge. This won’t be one that will get activated early on in the game; include this in a mono-green deck for a late-game one-turn kill with something like Overrun. The thing that puzzles me is that the Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block doesn’t really have a place for this card: there aren’t any decks, or cards, that come out of those sets that focus on building up an army of massive creatures. Only in Shard’s of Alara block’s Naya decks will this card really be useful. But do you really want to win that easily? No, because it’s boring, and we don’t play to be bored, now do we children? Ahem. The only way you’re going to activate the bridge in a Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block deck is by building up an army of green Elf tokens, and we all know that Elves, even when they are more complex, are still very, very simple, don’t we?

So yes, the point. Windbrisk Heights is definitely the best Hideaway land (ok, the best land period) in Standard right now, but the others are (mostly) very workable. It is not hard to activate a Knoll or a Bridge in Standard, and the Hollow really shines in Extended. Shelldock Isle is made for a specific deck type, one which was not explored very much in its block, but cards from the Alara block make a deck built around it very worthwhile. I’ll leave you with something to ponder: since Windbrisk Heights is so easy to activate, and its at the top of Standard at the moment, does that mean that the Magic game is been dumbed down as of late, to accommodate for the younger generation? Hey, it happened to PC gaming.

“When Meddling Mage comes into play, name a card. The named card cannot be played.” These two sentences make Meddling Mage one of the most awesome control cards ever. Sadly, White-Blue Control is hardly seen in Standard these days, and if it wasn’t for this card, it would probably be seen a hell of a lot less.

Just imagine your White-Blue Control deck against a Black-Red-Green Beatdown deck. In game 1, your opponent Terminates your best creatures, and you’re left with next to nothing to attack with. Then he goes in with Hellkite Overlord for the win. Game 2; after bringing in your four sideboarded Meddling Mages, you drop one on turn two, naming Terminate. After that, provided your opponent doesn’t have any more creature removal ready, it’s simple: control the field, and before he gets to eight mana, drop another Mage, this time naming the Overlord. GG. Game three should be much the same.

Unfortunately, Meddling Mage doesn’t bring many controlling buddies with it in Alara Reborn. All you’ve got is Unbender Tine, Offering to Asha and Ethersworn Shieldmage, which is only really good in an artefact-heavy deck. Of the rest, you have evasion creatures and mana-fixing. Apart from that, Control is only really explored on the form of Elementals in the Lorwyn block, and Esper and Bant-themed decks had a handful of control cards. Therefore, Meddling Mage will really shine in Extended, where players have access to the best of Control since Onslaught.

See, in Extended, if you’re playing White-Blue Control, you’d want to sideboard a full round of the Mages, unless you’ve got something better, which you most certainly won’t. After game 1, you’ll know what exactly is the biggest threat your opponent has, and unless your opponent is playing Burn, which is the worst match-up a Control deck can have, you can make yourself near-invulnerable to that card, or cards, by simply bringing in the Mages. While you’re countering your opponent’s spells, and bouncing whatever gets through, the 2/2 Mages can be dishing out some pain to your opponent’s life total. Even with one Mage out, victory is a mere ten turns away.

I played in the Regionals in Sydney, and while most people were playing tokens or burn, one person did play White-Blue Elemental Control. I don’t know how high he got, or if he was playing any Meddling Mage’s, but it was refreshing to see nevertheless. He definitely didn’t need them in the match I saw him playing. One thing is for sure, though: people want Meddling Mage. It is recognised as an awesome rare almost immediately; every time I was asked if I wanted to trade at the Alara Reborn Prerelease, the words “Meddling Mage” seemed to be said at some point, and were always preceded by “do you have any…”

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and prepare a certain Standard deck for the next constructed tournament. I know it seems early, but for the Regionals I used a Green-Blue giant creatures deck, and failed epically. Back to the drawing board…