Magic: The Gathering – Magic 2013

ime for a question: how many cards in the Magic 2013 are reprints? If you said half, then you are dead on the target.

Magic 2013 is this year’s Core Set and along with it are some pretty wicked reprints from bygone eras. Case in point, the mechanic ‘exalted’.

Exalted means that if you attack with only one creature, that creature gets a power/toughness bonus. That is all.

If you have three Aven Squires on the battlefield and you attack with only one, that single Squire will gain +3 power and +3 toughness, since there are three exalted abilities backing it up, including its own exalted ability.

Now we get into a bit of a ruling issue with Sublime Archangel.

Sublime Archangel gives all your other creatures exalted. What happens if a creature already has exalted, and then Sublime Archangel gives it another exalted ability? The answer is simple – both exalted abilities will happen when a creature attacks alone. Let’s look at the case of Aven Squire again, this time with the Archangel.

If you attack with only one creature in this scenario (the picture shows the Archangel attacking) that one attacker will receive a huge +7/+7 to its power and toughness. Each Aven Squire contributes +2/+2 since the Archangel gives them double exalted, while the Archangel itself has the exalted ability. That makes the Archangel an 11/10 flying beater.

All the other mechanics in Magic 2013 are evergreen mechanics (meaning they are basic mechanics that appear in pretty much every expansion). Evergreen mechanics should be familiar to you readers by now, but if they aren’t, I suggest you explore the game a bit more so that you become familiar with these ever-present abilities.

Now I just want to shut the door on someone.

Door to Nothingness is a reprint from the old Mirrodin, specifically the Fifth Dawn expansion. This is a mighty funny card to have in standard, particularly when it’s so difficult to pull off. But when you do… oh, when you do….

Another card I want to show off is Archaeomancer, by far my favourite blue common in Magic 2013.

With Avacyn Restored’s Ghostly Flicker and another creature with some beneficial ability, Archaeomancer pretty much is a repeatable benefit-engine. Ghostly Flicker one Archaeomancer and a Thragtusk and that’s free 5 life and a 3/3 Beast creature as long as you can pay the mana cost of Ghostly Flicker. If you can’t, just untap next turn and do it again.

There’s also this card called Akroma’s Memorial, but you probably know this reprint. And if you don’t know this card, then I suggest you hang on to your seat when you see it. Hang on real tight.

So, with that, I say goodbye and good luck in all your future Magic-al ventures.