MTG Salvation has a great article about avoiding being cheated on tournaments.

I now it’s handy for me ’cause I tend to trust what my opponents are doing, and can only catch them cheating if they are doing something very flagrant!

There are some situations there that I haven’t really thought of, like people deliberately messing your deck so you can get game losses and such.

Cheaters suck, in everything that involves prizes and rewards you get cheaters sooner or later, but for me playing the game for the fun factor, cheating is like someone telling themselves they’re stupid, it means that they can’t win you following the set rules.

That’s why I don’t understand why some people like the game so much but get annoyed by all the rules enforcement. Rules are there to make sure everyone is in equal standing, so every match can be the fairest possible. Sure, sometimes you’ll lose because of the luck factor involved even though your skill is superior to your opponent’s, but that’s Magic, and every game is different (or so it used to be advertised on 4th Edition decks).

First of all let me point you to MTG Salvation, the site has had design change and for much better I must add.

And now to talk about the news on the next set ‘Lorwyn‘. Spoilers coming ahead, so if you want to be kept in the dark about Lorwyn don’t read any further.

From what is know, Lorwyn block will only have two sets as opposed to three sets as usual, followed by another 2 sets that are from another block (but as Mark Rosewater said on MTG.com these two blocks will have lots of synergy).

For sanctioned limited events only Lorwyn and Morningtide (the second set on the Lorwyn block) will be used. For Constructed purposes these 2 blocks act like a mega-block, so when Shadowfall comes out (that’s the main set of the block following Lorwyn), Time Spiral block won’t rotate from Standard.

Here’s the logo for Lorwyn:

 And the Lorwyn expansion symbol:

Other info:

Number of Cards: 301
Release Date: October 12, 2007
Prerelease Tournaments September 29-30, 2007
Previews start on magicthegathering.com September 10, 2007

Lorwyn supposedly is a more traditional fantasy setting for Magic, we’ll see races like Kithkin, Merfolk, Boggarts, Elves and Elementals.

From the preconstructed decks everything seems to point that this will be in some way a “Tribal” block.

There is also an announcement that there will be a new card type introduced that will become a standard part of magic. The one that are know that can show up are “Tribal” (shown in the card Bound in Silence, technically this card is a card from the future so it hasn’t been introduced) or “Planeswalker” (hinted at the reminder text on Tarmogoyf).

A poster recently has tipped the scale to Planeswalker:

The “They’re coming” sentence really foreshadows the new type and has this little detail:

Note the card frame is different from the usual black and the image extends to the name line like some Un-cards. Liliana Vess is an anagram of “a villainess”.

And here’s a card that’s confirmed as a Release Promo:

Evoke seems a nice keyword, you can pay the evoke cost and benefit from the creature’s triggered ability, functioning roughly like a sorcery. If there are a bunch of these creatures that have some useful abilities maybe a combo deck with pandemonium is not far off.

Well, and that’s what we’ve got until now.

Most of this info was taken from the MTG Salvation forums for your convenience. Hope you like it.

This one is for all the portuguese people or people who are in Portugal in August 31st.

This is the date for Zombie Walk Lisboa 2007 and it’s just what it reads, hundreds of people (can we make thousands?) shambling on the streets zombie style. So get your zombie style cranked up and meet at Praça do Comércio in Lisbon at 3 p.m. on August 31st October 31st (guess they changed it to Halloween).

Me and Sara will try to show up (or is it shamble up?).