We have not one but three exclusive preview cards to share with you from Magic: Origins! Renown is the word of the day, and as you’ll see it’s a pretty straightforward and cool combat-based mechanic.

Let’s look at the first of the three, as it gives us a good feel for what Renown is:

Topan Freeblade is a pretty straightforward common. It’s a 2/2 with Vigilance for 1W, but it has renown 1. The 1 part corresponds to the number of +1/+1 counters you get if the creature deals combat damage to a player. Some cards care about if and when your creatures become renowned. This one just gets you the +1/+1 counter to make a nice attacker/blocker.

We have two uncommons as well, and we’ll start with Valeron Wardens. First thing to note is that this one has renown 2, so it will get two +1/+1 counters if it manages to deal combat damage to a player. But these Wardens can also serve as a card drawing engine if you have enough renowned creatures. And don’t forget it counts itself!

Last on the list is another uncommon, but this one is gold. Cidadel Castellan is like the big sister of the Topan Freeblade. It’s a three-drop, adding green to the casting cost, but also has vigilance and renown. This one has renown 2 though, which should make a big difference if you can actually get through. A 4/5 vigilance that early in the game is a force to be reckoned with!

I’m curious to see how much better combat tricks get with these renown creatures. Removal will stay good as always of course.

Luis and I will talk about these cards on episode 290 of LR as well, we’ll see you there!

– Marshall

One of the many highlights of Grand Prix Las Vegas was a gift I received from a rather dedicated LR listener. Stephen K took the time to get every monkey/ape/primate card ever printed and assemble them in one binder!

I love my monkey book, it’s high on the list of greatest gifts ever for sure. Here are just a few pictures of the book. Thanks Stephen!

At first I thought this oversized Kird Ape just made a good cover. I didn’t realize that Stephen put *every* printing of all the monkeys in this thing. This oversize card is a printing too!

They were presented in chronological order. Here are Magic’s first monkeys!

You can see the foil and non-foil versions were also included for each primate.

Yep, even Un-sets were considered!

I don’t know exactly why, but this little foil 9th edition, pre-Reach Tree Monkey is my favorite one in the binder 🙂

– Marshall

Here we have them, the exclusive Limited Resources Modern Masters 2015 preview cards discussed on episode 283 of LR!

First the Bouncelands are back!

That’s right, all 10 are back in Modern Masters 2015. They are uncommon now, so they won’t pop up as much as before, but as anyone who has drafted original Ravnica block knows, these are powerful cards. They were high picks back then, and stand to be high picks here as well.

Next up is an old favorite from Rise of the Eldrazi, Dread Drone:

Dread Drone is a solid card on its own, but it’s the prospect of what else we may see that has me really excited here. Rise is one of the best draft formats ever, and any cards we get from it have my attention.

Last is a card that didn’t look great at first glance, but ended up being excellent, Mortarpod:

Colorless cards this powerful are often worth first-picking just because you get to stay open without giving up too much in power level. Time will tell if this is the case for Mortarpod in Modern Masters 2015, but I am confident either way that it will see play.

Thanks for checking out the preview cards!

Marshall

I noticed some people making Top 8 lists of their favorite cards of all time. Sometimes I find this kind of meme a little annoying, but this one seems fun so I’m going for it.

Behold.

#8 Ajani Vengeant

Ajani Vengeant is my favorite planeswalker. It’s also the first planeswalker I opened in a booster pack—and it was a foil! I love how flexible the card is, taking out pesky aggressive creatures or locking down problematic permanents.

#7 Acidic Slime

Ye Olde Slimeball. Acidic Slime is one of those special cards that never quite feels broken but always matters. I love that it can take out key artifacts or enchantments, but also kills lands when there aren’t better targets around. And then it blocks.

#6 Lightning Bolt

I have a playset of Beta Lightning Bolts. I won’t ever sell them. I’m a Spike, and I appreciate good old efficiency in my Magic cards. Lightning Bolt is one of the most efficient cards ever printed. But it’s also iconic because it’s so easy to understand and because it basically defines red as a color.

#5 Chronomaton

Chronomaton is so unassuming. I remember not being super impressed by it when I first saw it. It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with this little robot, as it made such an impact on M13 draft. M13 is one of my favorite draft formats ever, and this was my favorite card from that format.

#4 Vent Sentinel

Early in my draft career, I was a little shy about brewing decks. I would draft primarily solid decks that I felt had the best percent chance of winning. Vent Sentinel changed that for me. After drafting Rise of the Eldrazi a LOT, I started to push some boundaries and the first I tried was this deck based around all defenders and Vent Sentinel. I had a lot of success drafting that strategy and was proud to have discovered it on my own. Thanks Vent Sentinel!

#3 Grave Titan

The Gravy Train. I played this card in Standard a lot while it was legal in everything from ramp decks using Genesis Wave to Blue/Black control decks. Grave Titan embodies raw power. The impact it has on the board is so profound once resolved. It’s good against most strategies as it clogs up the ground against creature decks and closes out all other games in a real hurry. Now I get to draft him in Cube most often, but I’m just happy to keep in touch with this old friend.

#2 Enclave Cryptologist

I love a looter, and Enclave Cryptologist is my favorite one. I love how low cost it is to get on the battlefield and get to looting. After the dust settles, if your opponent hasn’t dedicated a removal spell to it, it just takes over the game. My favorite part about the card is that second when you put the 3rd level counter on the stack and then wait to see if your opponent has the removal spell for it or not. Such a good sweat.

#1 Man-o’-War

Not.

Close.

Man-o’-War is so easily my favorite card of all time, I think I populated the rest of this list just to put it at #1. This card embodies basically everything I love about Magic and how I like to play it. I love both versions of the artwork for this card as well, though I prefer the Una Fricker version posted above.

I also love that Man-o’-War isn’t completely broken. It would be easy to put some busted card like Ancestral Recall or Jace, the Mindsculptor here but that’s just not my style.

Man-o’-War for life, yo.