Magic 2013

Magic 2013

 

Changes

 

Deck Builder's Toolkit

 

Event decks

 

Intro packs

 

Sample decks

 

Magic 2013
[[File:{{#setmainimage:M13_title.jpg}}|250px]]
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description	“M13”
Design	Doug Beyer (lead), Aaron Forsythe, Graeme Hopkins, Ryan Miller, Mark Purvis
Development	Zac Hill (lead), Ethan Fleischer, Mark L. Gottlieb, Tom LaPille, Max McCall, Ryan Miller
Art direction	Jeremy Jarvis
Release date	July 13, 2012
Plane	Multiversal
Keywords/​ability words	Exalted
Set size	249 cards (101 commons, 60 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares, 20 basic lands)
Expansion code	M13
Core sets
Magic 2012 Magic 2013 Magic 2014
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Planechase 2012 Magic 2013 From the Vault: Realms

The Magic: The Gathering 2013 Core Set, commonly referred to as Magic 2013 or M13, is a core set released July 13, 2012.

Set details

Magic 2013 contains 249 cards (101 Common, 60 Uncommon, 53 Rare, 15 Mythic, 20 Basic Lands), including randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. The returning mechanic for this Core Set was Exalted. Magic 2013 was the first Core Set to contain zero cards that had appeared in every core set from Alpha on (excluding the basic lands). It was also the first Core Set after Alpha to feature original art on (some of) the basic lands.

Magic 2013 is largely built around Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, which became the first multicolored card to be included in a core set. The set also includes a cycle of Legendary creatures (only the second time a core set included Legendary creatures (the first was Tenth Edition) and a cycle of Planeswalkers. Ajani Goldmane and Liliana Vess received new cards. Magic 2013 is tightly incorporated into the digital Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 which contains a theme deck for each Planeswalker and Legendary creature, and featured those characters as opponents and Nicol Bolas as the final boss. Due to the close prospective release dates, "Duels 2013" was pushed as the introductory set, while Magic 2013 itself was to be the Magic "showcase", having many high-end, high-impact spells.

Flavor

“

Face a Greater Challenge

”

The set's flavor is an amalgamation of several different planes in the universe. Krenko and Yeva hail from Ravnica, Odric from Innistrad, Nefarox from the Grixis portion of a reunited Alara, while Talrand, Xathrid Gorgon, War Priest of Thune and the equipment cycle of Rings refer to the plane of Shandalar.

Bolas, like the other planeswalkers, is supplemented with several cards capturing his flavor, including Gem of Becoming and his minions Augur of Bolas, Disciple of Bolas and Mindclaw Shaman.

Magic Story

Title	Author	Release Date	Setting (plane)	Featuring
Odric, Master Tactitian	Jenna Helland	2012-06-27	Innistrad	Odric, Grete, Garruk
Xathrid Gorgon	Jenna Helland	2012-07-04	Shandalar	Sentos, Xathrid Gorgon
Chronomaton	Ryan Miller	2012-07-11	Innistrad	Bazzle, Chronomaton
Krenko, Mob Boss	Jenna Helland	2012-07-18	Ravnica	Krenko, Taz, Feather
Threadbare	Jenna Helland	2012-07-23	Dominaria	Stuffy
Talrand, Sky Summoner	Ken Troop	2012-07-30	Shandalar	Kalyntri, Talrand
The Stonekiller	Jenna Helland	2012-08-08	Alara	Lia, Nira
The Stonekiller, Part 2	Jenna Helland	2012-08-15	Alara	Lia, Nira, Nefarox

Marketing

Magic 2013 6-card booster

Magic 2013 was is sold in 16-card and 6-card booster packs, five Intro packs, two event decks, Booster Battle Pack"s, a fat pack and a Deck Builder's Toolkit. The packaging of the set is centered around Bolas' iconic feature, his warped horns. The regular boosters feature art from Liliana of the Dark Realms, Augur of Bolas, Spiked Baloth, Mindclaw Shaman and Ajani, Caller of the Pride. The 6-card booster features Diabolic Revelation. With each copy of Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 a six-card Magic 2013 sampler could be obtained.

Prerelease Events took place July 7–8, 2012 and Launch Parties took place July 13–15, 2012 (conflicting with an earlier report of "no more Launch Parties"). Game Day took place on August 4–5, 2012. The Prerelease card was Xathrid Gorgon, the Launch promo was Staff of Nin and the Game Day card was a full-art Mwonvuli Beast Tracker (the Top 8 received a full-art foil Magmaquake). A new promo card was introduced for Core set league participants: received an alternate art Goblin creature token. The Buy-a-Box card was Cathedral of War.

Regular boosters of Magic 2013 come with a bonus sixteenth card that is either a creature token or an emblem with an advertisement on the reverse side. "tips & tricks cards" were discontinued.

Tokens/Emblem

• 2/2 Cat produced by Ajani, Caller of the Pride.
• 0/1 Goat produced by Trading Post.
• 1/1 Soldier produced by Attended Knight, Captain of the Watch and Captain's Call.
• 2/2 Drake with flying produced by Talrand, Sky Summoner and Talrand's Invocation.
• 2/2 Zombie produced by Vile Rebirth.
• 1/1 Goblin produced by Krenko, Mob Boss and Krenko's Command.
• 4/4 Hellion produced by Hellion Crucible.
• 3/3 Beast produced by Garruk, Primal Hunter and Thragtusk.
• 1/1 Saproling produced by Fungal Sprouting.
• 6/6 Wurm produced by Garruk, Primal Hunter.
• Emblem for Liliana of the Dark Realms

Sample decks

The Magic 2013 Core Set came with five thirty-card sample decks.

Cycles

Magic 2013 has eight cycles:

Cycle name	Ajani	Jace	Liliana	Chandra	Garruk	Bolas
Planeswalkers	Ajani, Caller of the Pride	Jace, Memory Adept	Liliana of the Dark Realms	Chandra, the Firebrand	Garruk, Primal Hunter	Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
	There are six mythic rare Planeswalker cards in the set.
Planeswalkers cards	Ajani's Sunstriker	Jace's Phantasm	Liliana's Shade	Chandra's Fury	Garruk's Packleader	Disciple of Bolas Augur of Bolas
	Each Planeswalker has one card named after them. Nicol Bolas received two such cards.
Planeswalkers hallmarks	Healer of the Pride	Mind Sculpt	Veilborn Ghoul	Flames of the Firebrand	Primal Huntbeast	Mindclaw Shaman Gem of Becoming
	Each Planeswalker has one card related to its personality and actions. Nicol Bolas also received two such cards.

Cycle name
Legendary creatures	Odric, Master Tactician	Talrand, Sky Summoner	Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis	Krenko, Mob Boss	Yeva, Nature's Herald
	Five Legendary creatures.
Cards related to the legendary creatures	Crusader of Odric	Talrand's Invocation	Servant of Nefarox	Krenko's Command	Yeva's Forcemage
	Five cards related to Legendary creatures.
Magic rings of Shandalar	Ring of Thune	Ring of Evos Isle	Ring of Xathrid	Ring of Valkas	Ring of Kalonia
	Uncommon Equipment that work best for a given color.
Sedge creatures	Prized Elephant	Arctic Aven	Harbor Bandit	Crimson Muckwader	Flinthoof Boar
	These five uncommon creatures, calling back to Sedge Troll (Crimson Muckwader is a Sedge Troll with slightly different costs and 1 less toughness), get +1/+1 if you control a basic land of the appropriate allied color and can gain an ability for payment in that allied color.
Cycle name
Allied color check lands	Glacial Fortress	Drowned Catacomb	Dragonskull Summit	Rootbound Crag	Sunpetal Grove
	Each of these rare dual lands comes into play tapped unless you control land with one of the appropriate types.(Reprinted from Magic 2010.)

Pairs

Magic 2013 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.
Knight of Glory ()	Knight of Infamy ()	Uncommon Human Knights with with a mana cost of M, power/toughness of 2/1, exalted and protection from the opposite color.

Functional reprints

• Battleflight Eagle, functional reprint of Welkin Guide from Shards of Alara, save for creature type
• Faerie Invaders, functional reprint of Spire Monitor from New Phyrexia, save for creature type
• Flames of the Firebrand, functional reprint of Arc Lightning from Urza's Saga
• Guardian Lions, functional reprint of Border Patrol from Judgment, save for creature type
• Krenko's Command, functional reprint of Dragon Fodder from Shards of Alara
• Warclamp Mastiff, functional reprint of Tundra Wolves from Legends and Serra Zealot from Urza's Saga, save for creature type

Notable cards

• Thragtusk and Thundermaw Hellkite are two powerful creatures that saw some tournament play printed for the first time in Magic 2013.
• Master of the Pearl Trident is a fixed version of Lord of Atlantis that affects only its controllers Merfolk, and would go on to see play in Modern Merfolk decks.
• Omniscience is one of the most powerful Enchantments in the game in a vacuum and a combo enabler, sometimes combined cards such as Enter the Infinite from Gatecrash.
• Murder is a simple yet strong removal spell that would go on to be reprinted in numerous Standard sets as the perfect generic black removal spell for Limited.
• Talrand, Sky Summoner and Krenko, Mob Boss would see some play in competitive formats but are best known for being among the most popular Commanders in their color identity.
• Archaeomancer sees heavy play in Pauper, as it can be combined effectively with blink effects such as Ephemerate and the recently printed Ghostly Flicker to generate more card advantage that is usually available with commons.
• Wild Guess introduced a new design space for red cards that would go on to become a core part of the color's identity with future cards such as Tormenting Voice, and Rummaging Goblin would introduce the colloquial name for the ability
• Augur of Bolas is an unexpectedly powerful creature for spell-based aggro and control decks, seeing play in Standard and Pauper.

Banned and restricted cards

• Worldfire was banned in the casual Commander format in 2012 for various reasons, such as ease of combo with floating mana and the commander that can always be cast (ignoring the removal of hands) as well as problems with resetting the game entirely leading to unsatisfying endings. It would later be unbanned in 2021 when it was decided that the level of setup required to win with the card was sufficient to unban it, especially as other similar cards also existed.

Preconstructed decks

Intro packs

The intro packs now came with two boosters. They are:

Intro pack name	Colors Included					Foil rare
Path to Victory	W	U				Odric, Master Tactician
Depths of Power		U		R		Talrand, Sky Summoner
Sole Domination	W		B			Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis
Mob Rule				R	G	Krenko, Mob Boss
Wild Rush			B		G	Yeva, Nature's Herald

Event decks

The event decks are:

Event deck name	Colors Included
Repeat Performance	W				G
Sweet Revenge		U	B	R

Core set changes

Notable changes

• Magic 2013 is the first core set to have a spell that specifically destroys an equipment - Turn to Slag.
• Cycle of Titans: Sun Titan, Frost Titan, Grave Titan, Inferno Titan and Primeval Titan.
• This is the first core set without a cycle of "Lucky charms" artifacts (or the original cycle): Angel's Feather, Demon's Horn, Dragon's Claw, Kraken's Eye and Wurm's Tooth.
• Due to the impending return of a multicolor block, the hoser cycle of Celestial Purge, Flashfreeze, Deathmark, Combust and Autumn's Veil is absent as to not make such an impact on allied-multicolor decks.
• Notably, this set does not include Giant Spider, before this was the only card that had been in every core set (excluding basic lands). The card did reappear in Magic 2014 and Core Set 2019.

Gallery

• 

  Magic 2013 Fat Pack

• 

  Magic 2013 Event Decks

External links

• Magic: The Gathering 2013 Core Set product information page — Wizards of the Coast