Magic 2012

Magic 2012

 

Changes

 

Event decks

 

Intro packs

 

Sample decks

 

Magic 2012
[[File:{{#setmainimage:M12 logo.jpg}}|250px]]
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description	“M12”
Design	Mark Globus (lead), Doug Beyer, Aaron Forsythe, Ken Nagle
Development	Tom LaPille (lead), Kelly Digges, Peter Schaefer, Mike Turian, Steve Warner, Dave Humpherys
Art direction	Jeremy Jarvis
Release date	July 15, 2011
Plane	Multiversal
Keywords/​ability words	Bloodthirst, Hexproof
Set size	249 cards (101 commons, 60 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares, 20 basic lands)
Expansion code	M12
Core sets
Magic 2011 Magic 2012 Magic 2013
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Commander Magic 2012 From the Vault: Legends

The Magic: The Gathering 2012 Core Set (a.k.a Magic 2012 or M12) is a Core Set which was released on July 15, 2011. The worldwide Prerelease events took place July 9–10, 2011, and Launch Parties took place July 15–18, 2011.

Set details

Magic 2012 contains 249 cards (101 Common, 60 Uncommon, 53 Rare, 15 Mythic, 20 Basic Lands), including randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. The set saw the return of planeswalkers and the five Titans, had a minor aura theme, introduced hexproof and had several top-down designed creatures. The returning mechanic for this Core Set was bloodthirst.

Magic 2012 also marked the return of Korean to the set of printed languages. Sets from 4th Edition through Urza's Saga had been printed in Korean in the past, before Korean was dropped from the list of printed languages. Magic 2012 brought the list of printed languages to 11: English, Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

Marketing

M12 6-card booster

Magic 2012 was sold in 16-card and 6-card booster packs, five Intro packs, two event decks and a fat pack. The regular boosters featured art from Grand Abolisher (with white background), Sphinx of Uthuun (with blue background), Rune-Scarred Demon (with black background), Chandra, the Firebrand (with red background) and Garruk, Primal Hunter (with green background). The 6-card booster featured Jace, Memory Adept. Magic 2012 was also sold in the new "Booster Battle Pack"s, which contain 2 20-card semi-randomized decks, 2 booster packs, a Magic "learn to play" guide, and a rules insert.

A promotional version of Bloodlord of Vaasgoth was given out to players at the Prerelease event. The promotional card for the launch party was Garruk's Horde. Both cards are new to the set. The Buy-a-Box was Chandra's Phoenix. The Magic 2012 Game Day was held on August 12–14, 2011. At this event the DCI-Promo-Card was Stormblood Berserker and the Top 8 Finish reward was a full-art foil Dungrove Elder.

Regular boosters of Magic 2012 came with a bonus sixteenth card that was either a "tips & tricks card" or a creature token from Magic 2012.' Unlike the traditional tips & tricks cards, they were printed in landscape format and had no numbering. The back side had an advertisement for Commander, magicthegathering.com, Magic 2012 Intro Packs, Magic Online, swagdog.com, Ultra Pro products or www.wizards.com/locator.

Tips & Tricks

The tips & tricks cards are:

1. bloodthirst
2. booster draft
3. casual formats
4. colors of expansion symbols,
5. decks work best when they're about 40% land and 25-40% creatures
6. drawing a card when the library is empty means losing the game,
7. gatherer, hexproof
8. limited format
9. minimum deck size and playing with only 4 of any one card,
10. planeswalkers (2 different card wordings).

Tokens

The Magic 2012 tokens are:

1. 3/3 Beast creature produced by Garruk, Primal Hunter.
2. 3/3 Bird creature with flying produced by Roc Egg.
3. 1/1 Pentavite artifact creature with flying produced by Pentavus.
4. 1/1 Saproling creature produced by Jade Mage and Druidic Satchel.
5. 1/1 Soldier creature produced by Timely Reinforcements and Throne of Empires.
6. 6/6 Wurm creature produced by Garruk, Primal Hunter.
7. 2/2 Zombie creature produced by Cemetery Reaper, Zombie Infestation, and Grave Titan.

Sample decks

Just like Magic 2011, the Magic 2012 Core Set came with ten thirty-card sample decks.

Rule change

The Magic 2012 core set introduced the wording shortcut "dies." The word "dies" on a Magic card simply means "is put into a graveyard from the battlefield." The two phrases are interchangeable. Similarly, the word "died" means "was put into a graveyard from the battlefield."

The term "dies" is used only if a creature is moving from the battlefield to a graveyard and only if the effect doesn't care which player's graveyard the creature is put into. (The complete phrase "is put into a graveyard from the battlefield" is used if the object is likely to have a different card type.)

Many older cards would be updated in the Oracle card reference to use this new term. This was not a functional change.

Mechanics and themes

Magic 2012 also introduced a new keyword in Hexproof, which is similar to Shroud except the controller of the permanent can still target it. This ability used to be colloquially referred to as "Troll Shroud" about Troll Ascetic, one of the first and most popular cards with that mechanic.

The keyword Bloodthirst returned after its initial appearance in Guildpact and a small cameo in Future Sight. Unlike its appearance in Guildpact, Bloodthirst was particularly focused in black on its Vampire tribe.

The set also saw the return of Planeswalkers, though it wasn't restricted to the original Lorwyn 'walkers as Gideon Jura and Sorin Markov had cards in the set. For the first time, three new Planeswalker cards were made for a core set. Like in Magic 2011, these planeswalkers had several cards referencing to them.

Cycles

Magic 2012 has nine cycles:

Cycle name
Planeswalkers	Gideon Jura	Jace, Memory Adept	Sorin Markov	Chandra, the Firebrand	Garruk, Primal Hunter
	There are five mythic rare Planeswalker cards in the set.
Planeswalker Rares	Gideon's Avenger	Jace's Archivist	Sorin's Vengeance	Chandra's Phoenix	Garruk's Horde
	Every Planeswalker gets a Rare card referencing them and working in conjunction with them.
Planeswalker Commons	Gideon's Lawkeeper	Jace's Erasure	Sorin's Thirst	Chandra's Outrage	Garruk's Companion
	Five commons that reference their respective planeswalkers in the name.
Color Hosers	Celestial Purge	Flashfreeze	Deathmark	Combust	Autumn's Veil
	Each of these uncommon cards is specifically designed to be played against its enemy colors. (reprinted from Magic 2011.)
Mythic Titans	Sun Titan	Frost Titan	Grave Titan	Inferno Titan	Primeval Titan
	Each of these mythic rare giants is a 6/6 for MM and has a powerful ability that triggers whenever it enters the battlefield or attacks. (reprinted from Magic 2011.)
Mages	Alabaster Mage	Azure Mage	Onyx Mage	Crimson Mage	Jade Mage
	2/1 Human wizard creatures for M with an activated ability involving one mana of a color. Each creature has a flavor text describing the creed of a clan of wizards, with names synonymous with the respective color.
Lucky charm artifacts	Angel's Feather	Kraken's Eye	Demon's Horn	Dragon's Claw	Wurm's Tooth
	Each of these uncommon artifacts costs and has an ability that allows its controller to gain one life whenever a spell of the appropriate color is played. (Reprinted from Darksteel.)
Cycle name
Allied color check lands	Glacial Fortress	Drowned Catacomb	Dragonskull Summit	Rootbound Crag	Sunpetal Grove
	Each of these rare dual lands come into play tapped unless you control a land of one of the appropriate types. (reprinted from Magic 2011 ).

Three-card cycles

Cycle name
Artifact of Empires	Crown of Empires	Scepter of Empires	Throne of Empires
	Each of these artifacts has an activated ability that produces an even more powerful effect if you control all 3 of these artifacts.

Pairs

Magic 2012 has two mirrored pairs.

Mirrored Pairs		Description
Divine Favor ()	Dark Favor ()	Common Auras with enchant creature that give a mirrored bonus to the enchanted creature's power/toughness and are illustrated by Allen Williams.
Greatsword ()	Kite Shield ()	Uncommon Artifact - Equipment which have the same Equip cost of and give the equipped creature +3/+0 or +0/+3 power/toughness.

Core set changes and reprints

Notable changes

• The added artifact Manalith is strictly better than Sol Grail, from Alliances, but strictly worse than Darksteel Ingot, from Darksteel.
• The Leylines cycle consisting of Leyline of Sanctity, Leyline of Anticipation, Leyline of the Void, Leyline of Punishment and Leyline of Vitality which are rare enchantments that cost plus 2 mana of the appropriate color. Each can start the game in play if it is in a player's opening hand.

As a Core Set, Magic 2012 has a high number of reprints. Like its predecessor, a lot of its reprints already appeared in Magic 2010 and/or Magic 2011, either as new printings or reprints from earlier sets.

Notable cards

• Phantasmal Image is a cheaper Clone variant with the Illusion ability, used in tournaments in tribal decks to put onto the battlefield another copy of a significant creature of the tribe (usually a lord). With the old legend rule it was used to kill a legendary creature difficult to kill, such as Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.
  • Phantasmal Image was often played alongside Lord of the Unreal in Standard Illusion decks.
• Swiftfoot Boots is a heavily played card in the casual Commander format, as it can protect each player's valuable legendary creature and enable them to get value out of attacking immediately.
• Grand Abolisher is a powerful way to protect combos from being disrupted.
• Garruk, Primal Hunter and Jace, Memory Adept were Planeswalkers that would go on to dominate their Standard format, appearing as top-end finishers and value engines in numerous midrange and control decks.
• Sundial of the Infinite is the first reappearance of the "end the turn" mechanic since it was first introduced into the rules in Champions of Kamigawa, and it would not appear again until Day's Undoing in Magic Origins.
• Visions of Beyond is a key source of card advantage for Modern decks focused on milling the opponent.
• Manalith is such a simple card that it would come to be the nickname for any three mana artifact that taps for a mana of any color, even being referenced on Svella, Ice Shaper.
• Stonehorn Dignitary is used to significant effect in Pauper decks that can flicker it numerous times to prevent their opponent from ever having a combat phase.
• Gladecover Scout is one of the cheapest creatures with hexproof, making it a perfect fit for Bogles decks in Modern and Pauper.

Banned and restricted cards

• Circle of Flame is technically banned in Pauper on Magic Online, as it was printed as a common on the client exclusively as a promotional card and would thus be otherwise legal.

Preconstructed decks

Intro packs

The intro packs are:

Intro pack name	Colors Included					Foil rare
Sacred Assault	W				G	Aegis Angel
Mystical Might	W	U				Sphinx of Uthuun
Grab For Power		U	B			Rune-Scarred Demon
Blood And Fire			B	R		Flameblast Dragon
Entangling Webs				R	G	Arachnus Spinner

Event decks

The event decks are:

Event deck name	Colors Included
Illusionary Might		U
Vampire Onslaught			B

External links

• Magic: The Gathering 2012 Core Set product information page — Wizards of the Coast
• Wizards of the Coast (June 22, 2011). "Magic 2012 Core Set Minisite". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Monty Ashley (June 20, 2011). "Magic 2012 Art Gallery". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Brady Dommermuth (July 06, 2011). "Eleventeen M12 Art Tidbits. Also, Plants!". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Doug Beyer (June 29, 2011). "Unsung Heroes of the Core Set". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Doug Beyer (July 13, 2011). "M12 from the Inside, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Doug Beyer (July 27, 2011). "M12 from the Inside, Part 2". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.