Avacyn Restored trailer

Avacyn Restored Trailer - Liliana saving Innistrad?

Save this shiny rock... or save the lives of your fellow warriors!

Wizards of the Coast has just released the Avacyn Restored trailer on YouTube.

And now, to the trailer proper:

Impressions

The video is pretty epic, as is the music score. Of course, I agree that lately the word epic has been trivialized, but epic in its original sense, can refer to a people's struggle, and that is what we see in this video, a final struggle of a people against the relentless forces of darkness.

The video features phtoto animations made ​​from Magic cards illustrations, as has become the norm. To see Liliana the necromancer-muse so "alive" is always a treat, but I must confess that her "voice" was not a good choice, as well as the voice of Sorin Markov in the previous video, Dark Ascension, and unlike Garruk's voice for the Innistrad video, which was quite adequate.

To our Liliana, she who exudes youth and lust, was given an "old" and tired voice , but maybe that was deliberate, since, the fans know, Liliana is not the young girl she appears to be, but in fact an old witch in a beautiful and young body, who traded her soul for eternal youth. Moreover, the consequences of this deal are the very reason for this video.

Did notice that the story told in the video emulates the ultimate ability of the card Liliana of The Veil? "Save this shiny rock... or save the lives of your fellow warriors!"

In conclusion, more of Liliana is always good, even when it is not so good. Oh, and I still don't buy the fact that Sorin was able to create an all-powerful angel .... But, what the hell ...


And speaking of relentless: Garruk is also missing in this story ...

Innistrad Trailer - Garruk Relentless vs Liliana of the Veil

Innistrad Trailer - Garruk Relentless vs Liliana of the Veil

Another awesome Magic the Gathering video, this time for Innistrad. As other previous promotional videos, the video is made of animated art found in the very cards of the set. But this is a technique that the developers seem to be improving with each set released. Animations in this trailer seem more natural than those of the Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 video (note that we are not referring to the CG animation, which is another thing).

The Wildspeaker

The biggest asset of this video, however, is in the Garruk voice-over. Garruk is apparently the most popular planeswalker, according to the polls we've done in our humble but ever-growing blog. Garruk's voice is exactly how I always imagined, a deep voice, here combined with a practical discourse, quite suitable for a man who does not waste his time in a roundabout way of words and goes straight to the point.

Wizards channel on YouTube where the video is officially hosted does note not inform the voice actor for Garruk, but some speculate it may be the same actor who voiced Arthas in Warcraft 3 or CT Carson, who voiced Kratos in God of War. If you know who actually is the voice of Garruk, please let us know in the comments. Personally, I think the voice very similar to the Barbarian of Diablo II (David Thomas).

The Hunter and the Veil



For those who are lost in Garruk's narrative, read the webcomic The Hunter and the Veil to keep updated about what is going on between Garruk and Liliana. Ok, with this video we are aware of the reasons for Garruk dropping by Innistrad, but what is Liliana doing there? Certainly not only because of her fondness for zombies (something that Innistrad has in spades)?

Our sexy dark witch is just after her soul, that she sold to some demons (actually four demons) in exchange for power and eternal youth. At least one of these demons, Griselbrand, is in Innistrad. Or at least was, since the demon mysteriously disappeared together with Innistrad protector, the archangel Avacyn. Liliana, with the power of the Veil at her disposal, wants her soul back and is after the fiend, and has the green brute, Garruk in her wake. That is, what we have here is a hunt with powerful predators chasing each other. It is as if the entire top of the food chain decided to hunt each other through the plans.

We eagerly await the unfolding of this hunt in the upcoming Innistrad set, Dark Ascension, together with another promotional video of the same quality we see here- perhaps with Garruk yielding to his dark side?

Innistrad - "Horror Lurks Within".... But exactly how? - Creepy Doll

Innistrad - Creepy Doll

"Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings." Macbeth

Continuing with our series Innistrad - "Horror Lurks Within".... But exactly how?, Now let's look at a specific Innistrad card: Creepy Doll.

Creepy Doll - 5
Artifact Creature - Construct (Rare)
Creepy Doll is indestructible.
Whenever Creepy Doll deals combat damage to a creature, flip a coin. If you win the flip, destroy that creature.
1/1

That's right. It is a fearful, indestructible, killer doll, which will kill you if you're out of luck.

What does this have to do with horror: Certainly the most iconic representative of the "indestructible killer doll" type is Chucky from the movie Child's Play (1988). Chucky is a doll possessed by the soul of the psychopath Charles Lee Ray, who, shortly before his death, uses a voodoo ritual to transfer his soul to a doll. The doll starts a series of murders, and despite being shot, burned, dismembered, crushed, melted, and cut into small pieces, always returns to carry out his killing, and even to initiate a series of five films.

The theme "killer doll" was also well explored in the RPG setting of Ravenloft (which, as I will elaborate later, IMO, was the main inspiration for Innistrad). Here we have the "carrionette," a live puppet, almost an evil and psychopathic Pinocchio, who, like Chucky, will not rest until he gets a human body to inhabit.

Killer dolls are able to arouse the horror just by exploring innocence and playfulness, the last elements you would associate with evil. Notice that the card "Creepy Doll" "plays well" with the playful side effect of flipping a coin to destroy a creature, like a macabre and deadly child's play. Creepy!

In game: You can use Krark's Thumb to make Creepy Doll more playable, improving your chances to use her destroying ability.

Innistrad - "Horror Lurks Within".... But exactly how?

Innistrad - "Horror Lurks  Within".... But exactly how?

The mechanics of upcoming set Innistrad just been revealed on the Wizards of the Coast website. The most intriguing of all are the double-faced cards. That's right, creatures printed on the front and back of the card, without the traditional back with the Magic logo. These cards will be "transformable", ie, if the right conditions are met, they are turned over, becoming the creature printed on the other face. We've talked about this in this post. As we have shown, that mechanic will be used to represent werewolves, who in the world of Innistrad are normal people, respected in their community, but become pretty wild when night falls ...

Here in Medieval Fantasy we aim at original approaches, and we will not limit ourselves to only showcase Innistrad spoilers, showing only the images and the mechanics of the cards, like hundreds of other websites.

No, here our interest about Magic is not only  for the game itself, but also for all the mythology and history printed on the cards. Innistrad tagline is "horror lurks within". From the beginning, Innistrad designers made ​​it clear that they would have "traditional" horror as inspiration, ie, that horror found in books and films such as Nosferatu, Dracula and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Those in which we see the monster hiding in his eerie castle, fleeing a mob of peasants angry at so many atrocious acts, armed with pitchforks and torches. What does this have to do with horror: Okay, but where exactly do we find that "horror" in the Innistrad cards and mechanics ? Come on in, we will show you (the castle doors open with a soul-chilling creak...)

Double-faced cards

Double-faced card : Gatstaf Shepherd/Gatstaf Howler

First, let's take a look at the mechanics of double-faced cards. These came to represent the tradition of the "monster literature," a genre of horror literature which includes the Frankenstein monster, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dracula and many other stories of werewolves and vampires.

Fans of the traditional horror that inspired Innistrad will recognize that shadow ...

The "monster literature" often deals with the evil side of man, represented in the form of a monster, and the greatest example of this dualism is the case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. By day, Dr. Jekyll is a peaceful and respectable doctor and the monstrous Mr Hyde at night. The mechanics of Day and Night and double-faced cards represents this theme with mastery.

How the double-faced cards work: If you use opaque card sleeves, you simply turn the "transformed" face up, returning the other side up when the card leaves the battlefield. What if you don't use sleeves? Wizards came up with an insightful solution, a card called checklist card. The checklist card can represent any one of the creatures listed, simply mark (with a pen, for example) the creature that will be represented in the list and its power / toughness on the field at the bottom right of the card. The first time I heard of double-faced cards, I thought the folks at Wizards were going crazy, but here is proof that they have done it well!

Fight

Another new mechanic is Fight. The creature can choose to literally fight a creature. Each fighting creature will make an amount of damage to the other equal to its power, but the creatures don't tap like they do in normal combat.

Nightfall Predator, "transformed" face of Daybreak Ranger, brings the mechanic Fight

 And then you wonder:

What does this have to do with horror: This mechanical reproduces the  "monster hunters" present in many stories of monsters. For example, vampires and werewolves hunters such as Van Helsing, Alucard from Castlevania series, and Solomon Kane by Robert E. Howard.

In future posts, we will continue our series Innistrad - "Horror Lurks  Within".... But exactly how?, This time analyzing specific Innistrad cards and what they have to do with horror.

Innistrad Spoilers - Day and Night in Innistrad

Day and Night in Innistrad

Innistrad spoilers never cease to amaze us. Whether true or not. In the case of two cards that we show here, is not known how far their content is true, but they are there nonetheless and are quite intriguing.

First of all,  let's be fair and cite our sources. The two images, it seems, first appeared on a Spanish website, MagicMadrid.com, and from then on, in Facebook accounts and other Magic sites.

Now, to the images: the first is  "Mayor of Avabruck."

And his "card" version:

(Day) Mayor of Avabruck - 1G
Creature - Human Advisor Werewolf (Rare)
Unknown text,  3/3
1/1

The second is "Howlpack Alpha", and seems to be a token type.

(Night) Howlpack Alpha
Creature - Werewolf (Rare)
Other Werewolf and Wolf creatures you control get +1/+1.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 2/2 green Wolf creature token onto the battlefield.
At the beginning of each upkeep, if a player cast at least two spells during the previous turn, sacrifice Howlpack Alpha.
3/3

Legitimate or not (and in my opinion, they seem legitimate enough), it is interesting to note the symbols on the top left of the cards. They are symbols of "Day" and "Night". Apparently this is a fundamental mechanic in Innistrad, and is almost obvious that Howlpack Alpha is the "Night" version of Mayor of Avabruck. It is unclear how this mechanism will be implemented, but is sure to be something innovative and exciting, and this is becoming a trend with everything related to Innistrad.

Innistrad Spoilers - Art for the new Garruk in Innistrad

Art for the new Garruk in Innistrad

Spoilers on the block Innistrad are getting better, and further increasing our anxiety for this that is one of the most anticipated and promising blocks since Ravnica.

After Ral Zarek, we now have material on another planeswalker that will be on the block: none other than the acclaimed "Beast Boy" Garruk. In the last GenCon, we were presented with two pieces of art featuring "Innistrad" Garruk.

The first is this:

We see Garruk without his traditional helmet, dressed in black, striking a quite "conanesque" pose.  Note that his signature axe and buckle are still there. But Garruk is changed. No doubt this is the result of the curse that Liliana placed upon the poor bastard, as seen in the webcomic The Hunter and the Veil, Part 3. That's why our friend Garruk, will most probably be a Green / Black planeswalker, and not just because he's dressed in black. In The Hunter and the Veil we witnessed as the curse of Liliana made ​​all summoned creatures by Garruk become sick or even "zombified" and this certainly will be reflected in the new planeswalker Garruk.

The second art was presented in an UltraPro product:

I must say I did not like this one. Garruk looks like a Hells Angels biker in his forties. The kind that spills beer on his beard. He seems stockier here than in the other art, in which he seems more alert, more at ease, despite the curse that weighs upon him. Somehow, the other art is much more fluid than this, and we hope they use the first art for his planeswalker card. We already had enough with the art for Garruk in the core set  2012 (M12), which makes him look like a big and clumsy caveman. Not to mention his man boobs ... Well, at least in the UltraPro art, Garruk had the decency to cover his large and protruding nipples.

Garruk and his man boobs

Nevertheless, the art for new Garruk adds to the whole gothic horror mood that is being built on Innistrad. Especially the art for Garruk reminded me of the movie Van Helsing (2004), with all that black leather and "vampire hunter" looks.  In fact, I think the R & D staff at Wizards of the Coast has this film as one of their main inspirations for Innistrad, and I'll talk about that later.

Innistrad = Van Helsing!!!