M15 Excitement and Prerelease

Hello, Universe!!! So the new set is fully spoiled! If you are interested , then feel free to click here and see the official spoiler. You'll have to scroll down a bit to get to the cards, but all of M15 in all of it's glory is there. I'm not going to talk every card, but I just wanted to go over a few of the really cool things they've done in this set that they've either never done before, or are highlights that you should keep your eyes on.

First, there are fifteen cards that were designed by people that are not employees of Wizards of the Coast. Fourteen of them are designed by game designers for other games, and one was designed by the community through an online voting system called "You Make the Card." These other game designers are responsible for games such as Plants vs. Zombies, Minecraft, Borderlands, and a few others. I think these cards are largely designed to be eye-catching and interesting, and not necessarily any good, but I've got my eye on a couple of them.

I will never play with this card,
but if you make me discard cards and get
stuff for it, I will do my best to burn your face off.

This card, however I will play with.
I'm not sure if it's any good yet, or if it will
even work, but I really want to find out!

Secondly, the card frame has changed. Not an extremely drastic change, but if you look at the cards above you'll see the new design does two major things. It makes the art box larger by decreasing the border sizes, and it puts all of the collector and set information on a black background at the bottom so it is computer readable. Also, all of the rares now have a foil stamp on them (see the funny little ovals up there?) as a measure to stop counterfeiting cards, which is becoming a problem now that Magic more popular than it has ever been.

Honestly, I'm indifferent to the changes, except that I do appreciate more space for art on the card. The black space on the bottom has been getting a negative response online, but unless my feelings change after I hold the cards, I don't have a problem with it. The holo-stamp is weird, but if counterfeiting is enough of a concern that they're taking this step, then I am okay with whatever steps are necessary for WOTC to continue making the game. I'll take it.

Finally, the last major change is how they are handling the release. Specifically, the pre-release tournaments. The pre-release for the core sets are always less popular than the sets that come out during the rest of the year because the core sets are seen as a beginner set and are full or reprinted cards that many veteran players already have. WOTC is trying very, very hard to change this mentality, and the level of the cards included in M15 are a great indication of that. But they aren't stopping there. The M15 pre-release has an added level to it now that is a huge attempt to draw more players to the tournaments than before. Meet Garruk The Slayer.

This card is an oversized printed card that you get to fight against between rounds at the pre-release. You get one just for showing up and participating, and you can fight it with your deck, or control him as your friends try to take him out. While this may not appeal to everyone, these limited release cards do become collectors items, and what is cooler than having a giant Planeswalker card to show off to your buddy that didn't make it? 

Regardless of whether you're interested in the giant Planeswalker card that you can't put into a deck, M15 is full of crazy stuff, and I will definitely be at my prerelease opening packs and hoping for crazy cards and cool stories to tell you guys after. Feel free to share your stories with me if you make to a pre-release too, whether you comment here, on Facebook, Twitter, or send me an email at pandemoniumtg@gmail.com.