Hey all, it’s Friday once again, and that means it’s time to take a look at the Cool Stuff We Bought This Week! Like many of us here at ABU, I spent the week sick and fighting a nasty cold, but that still didn’t stop me from grabbing some sick pics for all of you! (See what I did there? Sick pics? I’m sorry.)
First off, we have a sweet set of Mox Diamonds. I don’t think I’ve reviewed this particular Mox in this article series, but us getting in this nice playset gives us a chance to do so. Probably straight out of a Legacy Lands deck, or an Aggro Loam list for those with a more refined taste. This zero mana artifact is perfect for getting you any color of mana really early in the game, at the low cost of pitching a land to the graveyard. These decks often run Life from the Loam, allowing you to recur the pitched lands anyway. When paired with utility lands like Wasteland, or the Thespian’s Stage/Dark Depths combo, this combination of cards can shut an opponent out of the game quickly.
I love me some Lightning Bolts! I know I talk about Bolt a lot in this series, but it’s hard not to Gush about the best card in Magic. My favorite will always be the original art from Christopher Rush, but this textless Player Rewards rendition from Veronique Meignaud is stunning. Famous for her fantastic Zendikar Lands (see Mountain 244 and Island 236 for my favorites), we see the high color contrast and high level of detail typical of her work shine through.
Here’s a sweet Alpha Counterspell, signed by Mark Poole himself. I posted this earlier in the week on my Instagram, and someone pointed out that the signature featured here is an earlier version of Mark Poole’s. I went to take a look at some of our other signed cards and was pleasantly surprised to see an evolution in the way he signed cards. Click here for the difference.
Looking like they’re straight out of a foiled Modern Hardened Scales deck, here’s a nice set of Masterpiece Hangarback Walkers. Having one of these enter the battlefield with a few counters is just pure gas when you have an Arcbound Ravager lined up with it. Crispy as heck, too!
Woah – a wild guest paragraph appeared! Joe here – on one of the days that O’Berry was out sick I got called into the buylist office to snap a picture of something that he might want to include for this week. I was a little stunned when one of the buylist crew just handed me a set of all nine Power 9! I think only a couple of these got bumped down to SP in the end. They were SO crispy ya’ll, it was kind of intense holding them! I had to pick my jaw up off the floor before I could snap the picture. Don’t worry – the buylist crew made sure I didn’t get any drool on them! I’m pretty certain this was the most MTG value I’ve ever held in my hands at once… it was nuts!
Finally, the coolest piece of the week, these Japanese Foil Grim Lavamancers from Torment. Both coming in at Near Mint, these gotta be the nicest pair of Jims anyone’s laid eyes on. While I personally prefer the Core Set version more, nothing beats old border foils, especially ones as clean as this!
That’s all I’ve got for this week. I’m gearing up for Ravnica Allegiance pre-release weekend, and I hope to see some of you there at our retail space to come play. Join me next Friday to get another sweet dosage of cool Magical Cards. As always, you can follow me on Twitter @chroberry or Instagram @chroberrymtg if you want to see extra goodies and spoilers for next week’s article. Peace!