Question time - Token privacy

Here is a topic I don't see many ever mention.  You set down at a table to play, got your deck, life counter and a few token cards for things your deck can generate.  One of the other players reaches over and looks at one of your token cards without asking. 

I really don't like that.

For me I see that almost like looking at your opponents deck without permission.  It gives them an advantage through having some idea of what your deck can produce.  In one case I had a guy reach over and grab my tokens and flip through them "Oh you're running Bolas" he says after coming across my card since I had the placeholder from the 2019 Core Set in my deck.

What are your opinions on this? What do you think should happen when another player does this if anything?

Guilds of Ravnica - Vraska

So the Golgari Swarm steps up with Vraska in todays spoilers.

Another of our planeswalker decks is revealed with Vraska stepping up to the plate once again.  We get her, her summoning and a creature.

First off she is going to be heading straight to a creature swarm deck no questions asked.  Her last ability there is off the charts, I mean every time I run a deck with tons of creatures a bunch of them get sent to the graveyard as the other players hammer them down.  This allows their fury to return as a giant boost.  Not to mention anything increasing the counter count will make this explode.

Not only that but the summons as well.  Kill a creature, gain some life AND pull Vraska into your hand.  How the hell is that for a rude awakening.  Her creature is nice as well, life gain if she dies so nothing to toss into the dustbin of forgotten Magic history.

Guilds of Ravnica - Ral comes up again.

Todays spoiler gives us another Ral Planeswalker and two more cards for him.

First up we now know that he will be one of the precons as he has two Planeswalker cards and a summoning card.  So that is good to know.  Can't wait to see the rest of the Izzet goodness to wrap him in.

I'm not so hyped about this version of him though.  I mean his abilities are still pretty sweet but the other version is just more in line with what I like do to.  But a nice seven card draw and most likely a board wipe of creatures for your opponents is interesting.  Dispersal is a nice summoning and gets a creature off your back while the Statiscaster has potential to blow up big if you get a big handsize (and who doesn't with most blue/red decks?). 

Often forgotten - Kill Switch

Let's take a look at a handy little card that is often looked over.  Kill Switch.

With as artifact heavy as Commander has become (especially around here) this little sucker has found it's way into a couple of my decks.  So much hate is reaped from playing this little gem that you can pick up for a little over a dollar on Ebay.

Especially a hammer against those colorless full artifact decks. Shut em down and roll your boys over them while their creatures are all tapped. 

Now while you can't choose to keep this bugger tapped during your untap phase it is relatively cheap to use.  But this does allow you to untap all your artifacts and then you can use up your manarocks before locking them all back down again.

In the end this is one of those nice little cards to have handy in a deck.  Just in case you need it. 

Guilds of Ravnica - Buy a box promo

Sadly we can't afford to buy a box of any set when it comes out so this is a card that won't be in our decks unless it's picked up second hand. 

A nice little powerhouse I must say.  An indestructible 16/16 for potentially only 3 green mana.  I mean honestly what green deck worth its sleeves doesn't have 7+ creatures on the field before others can blink an eye. 

Wait a second.  Reread Convoke again.  You can pay off the colored mana also by tapping your creatures.  So by tapping ten creatures, at least three with green in their identity, you get this guy on the board for free. 

Quite the little nasty. 

Yeah I'm jealous of the people who can buy boxes just based off the promos from the last two expansions and now this.

Guilds of Ravnica - Land ho!

So lets just take a real fast look at the five reprint dual lands being previewed.

 

With these five we can only assume that the rest of the shock lands will be coming along as well.  For those that don't know.

Now while not a good as the dual lands of old these are a bit better than some of the more common ones we see in play.  One of the draw backs of the non-original duals has been that they come into play tapped.  Now we have seen a few conditions that enable to come into play untapped come around; if you have an X or Y land in play, if you only have X or fewer lands in play, etc.  This one is a little bit different.

This time we get a nice little cost to bring them into play untapped.  Although that cost is two life it can make all the difference when you need that mana right now. Especially in a Commander set up where you have life to burn.  But it also gives you the option not to pay and bring it into play tapped so if you're down the road with plenty of mana or on turn one with a handful of nothing you can play for a single mana then you save that two life.

Also most importantly is that they have basic land types listed on them.  So you can grab them out of your library using fetch cards that target a basic land.  Something extremely handy in the multi colored decks.

Options, I love me some options.

Guilds of Ravnica - Izzet on my mind

Looking at the previews for the upcoming Guilds of Ravnica set and I'm happy to see my favorites represented there.  The Izzet got a nice little patch of three cards that will most likely be added to a deck or two of mine when the come out.

Ral is one of those Planeswalkers I love.  The ones that give you an emblem.  Emblems have a soft spot in my heart because they create effects that can't be gotten rid of.  Plus this particular effect has Izzet written all over it.  At the rate I pop off sorceries and instants in my blue/red decks this could be a real hammer for other players to feel.  Especially their planeswalkers.

The dual lands are nice especially when it's a shock land.  This time giving you the option of paying life to get them into play untapped.  It's a nice option to have and I'm sure at some point that it will be perfect timing.  Not to mention it's easy to fetch since it has basic land types.

Firemind's Research is another card that just fits well for me because of the sorcery/instant created effect.  This basically lets me do two things that would usually require another card.  But instead I get to just keep playing my decks as normal and building up power to use for either card draw or a good rush of damage.

Can't wait to see what comes next.