It's time for a little Karn action!

Today, WotC announced the two potential sets of packaging for 'Action', the third set in the Scars block.  A quick look at the art raises a few questions.

Announcing Innistrad

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/666

The next large set has been announced by Wizards of the Coast, and it goes by Innistrad.  The set appears to have a bit of a continuation of the horror theme that we've been seeing as of late with Vampires, giant monsters in the Eldrazi and then the return of Phyrexia.

Right on the front is new art for Liliana, meaning it's quite likely that after the most recent mirrodin block is done we're going to get Liliana 2.0, and possibly the corrupted Garruk that was hinted at in the official webcomic a while back.  If the cards are good enough, it looks like black may be the dominating control color in standard after the next rotation.  Keep that in mind when making your trades if you already have whatever you need for what you're playing at the moment.  It's still half a year away, but there's nothing wrong with being prepared even before the spoilers hit.  In short, keep those Swords of Feast and Famine at the ready!

Racialist Bloodchiefs: The Return

I was very surprised by the reactions that people had to the HDC list I posted earlier this week.  The deck was a jank combo that tried to win by getting bloodchief online with a Decimator Web and then mill for lethal damage.  And what happened?  People took it seriously.  I had gotten asked for playtesting results, various choices I had made in the deckbuilding process, what I would do for a sideboard in the tournament meta, etc. etc.  It seems that there's actually a market for a deck along these lines and it quickly became one of my more frequently viewed articles, so I began thinking about how I would actually build it.

HDC 001: UB Bloodchief

The challenge: "I want you to build a deck in which no card has a converted mana cost greater than four.  The deck must run Jace Beleren, not JtMS, and win off of Jace's ultimate ability.  With the exception of Trinket Mage, you may not run creatures which do not have an ability that mills the opponent."

mtgUK Design a Deck 2011

Over at www.manaleak.com/mtguk, another site where my articles are featured, there's a deck design contest going on with the goal of one standard deck costing under 60 pounds (about $100) being sold on their website under the creator's name, the designer receiving a copy of their deck, a shirt, a Deckbuilder's Toolkit, and about $25 in store credit.