As of now, every rare in M10 has been spoiled! No need for fluff, let's jump right on into Blue!

Clone
Creature - Shapeshifter
You may have Clone enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield.
#45/249	0/0

Nothing too exciting to report here. Clone was in 10th Edition and although it's a fantastic card in Elder Dragon Highlander it really sees no tournament play. Bulk Rare, but if the next card turns out to be good, Clone could see some use.

Djinn of Wishes
Creature - Djinn
Flying Djinn of Wishes enters the battlefield with three wish counters on it. 2, Remove a wish counter from Djinn of Wishes: Reveal the top card of your library. You may play that card without paying its mana cost. If you don't, exile it.
	4/4

Now THAT's a Blue Rare! Strictly better than Air Elemental, Djinn of Wishes is a reasonably-costed big blue flier with one heck of a card advantage engine built in. Granting you three wishes, the Djinn allows you to cheat on spell timing by removing a counter. The only drawback is that you've no control over the card you get, unless a spell like Ponder has set up the top of your deck. There is a world of potential in this card, and the pre-sales are only showing them as marginally better than a bulk rare. This is a pick for a sleeper card, especially if it's being sold as a dollar rare.

Hive Mind
Enchantment
Whenever a player casts an instant or sorcery spell, each other player copies that spell. Each of those players may choose new targets for his or her copy.

This card bends the mind. The truth of the matter is that most blue players are not going to want their opponents to copy their spells. Evoke creatures like Mulldrifter can get around this "drawback", but it seems like this fascinating spell will be relegated to 100-card decks and multiplayer games. You can bet I'll be playing one in an EDH deck, but luckily it won't cost but a dollar at most.

Jace Beleren
Planeswalker - Jace
+2: Each player draws a card. -1: Target player draws a card. -10: Target player puts the top twenty cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.

Jace is already a 2nd Tier rare, and he will continue to be one of the staples of card draw in Standard. There is no reason for him to drop below his current price.

Merfolk Sovereign
Creature - Merfolk
Other Merfolk creatures you control get +1/+1. : Target Merfolk creature is unblockable this turn.

The new Merfolk lord could be a powerful addition to a tribe that already has some great cards, but his "unblockable" ability just doesn't seem terribly relevant. Compared to the Goblin lord, which will be covered later in the week, it is clear that Merfolk will likely remain a second-class tribe to Faeries. Will have some casual appeal, so it should be a Tier 4 rare in the dollar/2 dollar range.

Mind Spring
Sorcery
Draw X cards.

Another reprint. Doesn't do much right now, probably won't do much in M10. Obviously you'll love having one in your sealed pool on release day, but as far as speculation is concerned, the card is another low-dollar rare.

Polymorph
Sorcery
Destroy target creature. It can't be regenerated. Its controller reveals cards from the top of his or her library until he or she reveals a creature card. The player puts that card onto the battlefield and shuffles all other cards revealed this way into his or her library.

Ahh! Opposable digits! This Mirage reprint certainly has combo appeal with its Oath of Druids impression, but the best target in Standard will be Darksteel Colossus. Unfortunately, indestructibility isn't the be-all and end-all of protection in Standard that it used to be, so this will probably end up as yet another bulk rare in Magic's best color.

Sphinx Ambassador
Creature - Sphinx
Flying Whenever Sphinx Ambassador deals combat damage to a player, search that player's library for a card, then that player names a card. If you searched for a creature card that isn't the named card, you may put it onto the battlefield under your control. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
	5/5

As much fun as the Ambassador Waltz will be to dance, it seems like there are far better ways to get a Bribery effect in Standard. They even reprinted Persuasion as "Mind Control!" A big evasive beater is quite nice to have, but as a Mythic rare it leaves much to be desired. It has zero resilience to removal. Blue decks simply have better things to do with 7 mana, like Cruel Ultimatum. Low-end Mythic.

Time Warp
Sorcery
Target player takes an extra turn after this one.

Reprinted from Tempest, Time Warp is a card that always seems enticing but rarely sees proper use. The card will have intrinsic value because of its Mythic rarity and the two magic words of "Extra Turn", but it will be challenging to slot this into a tournament deck in Standard. Regardless, it should see a value above 5 dollars but below 10.

Traumatize
Sorcery
Target player puts the top half of his or her library, rounded down, into his or her graveyard.

A casual card that always holds its value despite never being played in tournament decks, Traumatize was already in 10th edition. It should keep its value at around 5 bucks.

Twincast
Instant
Copy target instant or sorcery spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.

A reprint that's seen some Standard play in Sanity Grinding, Twincast is a fantastic utility spe
ll. It's currently a Tier 3 rare, and will likely stay that way.

That does it for Blue! To be honest, it looks like Blue got the serious short end of the stick in the rare department. Rumors of the color's death, however, are greatly exaggerated and Cryptic Command remains in the format until October, when Zendikar will bring many more new Blue cards. Unless Zendikar's theme is "uncounterable 1-drop creatures with shroud" and "red card draw spells that cost too little", the myriad of forum complaints about Blue's demise are over-reactions. Don't sell those Cryptics yet! Join us tomorrow when we tackle Black, and one of the more interesting reprints thus far. Your graveyard may not be the safest place to store treasures anymore...

As of this morning, every rare and mythic in M10 has been spoiled. There are only about 24 cards between commons and uncommons that haven't been spoiled. The list of White cards from the last article was complete already, but now the rest of the colors have complete rare lists. Keep tuning in throughout the week for the continuation of the Valuation series!

As of writing, MTG Salvation has 208 of the 249 cards revealed. Of those 249, all but a handful of the rares have been spoiled. Now that we have enough information to start making decks around the new cards, it's time to evaluate which cards will be chase rares and which will be junk.

Staring with White:

Ajani Goldmane
Planeswalker - Ajani
+1: You gain 2 life. -1: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. Those creatures gain vigilance until end of turn. -6: Put a white Avatar creature token onto the battlefield with "This creature's power and toughness are each equal to your life total."

Ajani is a key card in Black-White tokens and the only card of significance they lose is Glorious Anthem. Anthem is only somewhat replaced by Honor of the Pure, but Ajani is still an absolute beating in aggro decks, black, white or otherwise. As he is still available in Lorwyn, he should see little change when released in M10.

Baneslayer Angel
Creature - Angel
Flying, first strike, lifelink, protection from Demons and from Dragons
Some angels protect the meek and innocent. Others seek out and smite evil wherever it lurks.
Illus. Greg Staples #4/249	5/5

It's a 5/5 for 5. It's an Angel. It has flying, first strike and lifelink. It has quasi-relevant protection, but ignoring that, it's a freaking 5/5 for 5 with 3 amazing abilities. It's Exalted Angel good. It may not find a home in Standard due to the fact that it dies to a LOT of things, but all of the aforementioned factors will put this Mythic into double digit prices. Jenara, Asura of War is a useless card and she still fetches 10 bucks. Use these as trade bait, but they may find their way into decks.

Captain of the Watch
Creature - Human Soldier
Vigilance Other Soldier creatures you control get +1/+1 and have vigilance. When Captain of the Watch enters the battlefield, put three 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Illus. Greg Staples #6/249	3/3

9 power of soldiers for 6 mana is absolutely great, but preliminary testing has shown that it's a fantastic card with sub-par supporting cast. You can 'live the dream' by hitting this on t4 with Preeminent Captain, but overall Kithkin and Black-White have more staying power, range and consistancy than the Soldier decks do right now. Regardless, many people will be trying to play White Weenie Soldiers for PTQs and such, not to mention at FNM. Thse will be at least $5, since pre-sales are already between 15 and 20 a set. Also great trade bait, but keep an eye open for any cards that might push a solider deck past Kithkin in terms of power. (I know that last post was rather sensationalist, and that calling this card over-rated directly contradicts the prior statements made. The fact is, while my intial excitement for the card was real, testing proved it to simply be...not as good as I thought.)

Guardian Seraph
Creature - Angel
Flying If a source an opponent controls would deal damage to you, prevent 1 of that damage.
Illus. Paul Bonner	3/4

Deceptively good - the 4 toughness survives Bolt and most of the mass removal left in the format, his shielding ability makes it harder for decks like Red-Black, RDW, and Black-White to get range on you quickly. It looks un-sexy, but the ability may be much more relevant than players initially realize. Prediciton - they start out cheap, but someone finds a use for them and they become relevant. Get 'em at crap rare rates if you can. Presales are varying wildly but it would be surprising to see this start out as a 'hot' item.

Honor of the Pure
Enchantment
White creatures you control get +1/+1.
Together the soldiers were like a golden blade, cutting down their enemies and scarring the darkness.
Illus. Greg Staples

This card will apparently be given as a promo to players who purchase full boxes. It's a strictly better version of Crusade, and will be an amazing boost to Kithkin decks. Black-White will lose some power since their Bitterblossom no longer vomits out 2/2 or 3/3 tokens with an Anthem on the board, but Honor of the Pure is still quite powerful. How much the full box promo tempers the price of this is unknown, but Crusade and Glorious Anthem never really reached double digits. The White deck is probably going to be over-rated, so this is one to be trading away on pre-release day.

Indestructibility
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant permanent Enchanted permanent is indestructible.

Great to see Indesctructilbe as a keyword that has its own card. Now it can join the other ass-tastic cards like Regeneration, Lance, Web, and everything else that gives a keyworded ability and nothing else! Bulk rare, but likely a great card in your sealed pool. Would it have been too much to make this an uncommon?

Lightwielder Paladin
Creature - Human Knight
First strike (This creature deals combat damage before creatures without first strike.) Whenever Lightwielder Paladin deals combat damage to a player, you may exile target black or red permanent that player controls.
Illus. D. Alexander Gregory	4/4

4/4 First Strike for 5 seems good, but when you realize that 3WW gets you a 5/5 flying first strike life linked Angel, getting a Celestial Purge when he's not blocked looks weak. Seems like a pretty mediocre rare.

Mesa Enchantress
Creature - Human Druid
Whenever you cast an enchantment spell, you may draw a card.
	0/2

Auras suck, Enchantress is only good when there are more than 4 in a deck, and the card wasn't really all to great when it was in standard last time. It's awful without a dedicated deck and there's no real support for dedicated Enchantress. Bulk rare.

Open the Vaults
Sorcery
Return all artifact and enchantment cards from all graveyards to the battlefield under their owners' control.
#21/249

Replenish that brings back artifacts. Things that come to mind: Tideholoow Sculler, Courier's Capsule, Executioner's Capsule, Scourglass, Glaze Fiend, Armillary Sphere, Time Sieve...these are only a few of the options. The card may not be good now, and it may NEVER be good, but since most people will not value it highly, it's not a bad idea to grab a playset and shove it in the back of your binder. Someone will eventually break it and you'll be glad you had your set.

Planar Cleansing
Sorcery
Destroy all nonland permanents.
A new beginning requires a clean slate.
Illus. Michael Komarck #24/249

Akroma's Vengeance would be strictly better if Planeswalkers had been around in Onslaught Block. Vengeance never saw prices beyond 10 bucks, so this shouldn't either. Decks that want Wrath will use Hallowed Burial. Other decks can use Austere Command. There won't be a huge demand for the card, but it might not be bad to have. If they're cheap, grab 'em. If you can get value from them on release day, go for it.

Silence
Instant
Your opponents can't cast spells this turn. (Spells cast before this resolves are unaffected.)
"All the wizardry in the world has to pass through one small and easily sealed door." -Ajani Goldmane
Illus. Wayne Reynolds #31/249

Most have already seen this card. It's similar to Abeyance. It stops creatures but allows activated abilities. The main issue is that it's strictly tempo, and doesn't replace itself as Abeyance did. Regardless, the hype is high enough that it will probably end up in the 10-12 range no matter its real use. This is a Banefire kind of card - useful in the utmost, but may struggle to find a deck where it is considered a staple. The uses are abundant, but there may simply be better things to do with one's time and mana.

Top Mythics in White: Ajani and Baneslayer Angel
Top Rares in White: Silence and Honor of the Pure
Sleepers in White: Open the Vault and Guardian Seraph
Over-Rated in White: Captain of the Watch, Silence
(Yes, silence is an over-rated top rare. While it will be worth 10+ dollars, it really oughtn't be.)

Those are the White Rares and Mythics. Remember, these are all per MTG Salvation's spoiler. Quiet Speculation will not be held responsible for inaccurate, false, fabricated or otherwise useless information provided by the spoilers.

A few readers have asked me about putting images in my (and their) forum signatures to help spread the word about the site. I'm more than happy to oblige, and would be extremely grateful if you'd throw one of these banners into your signature on MTG Salvation, Star City Games, or any other Magic forum you may happen to read. I know recently a member of the Ars Technica forums linked over here, calling it a "must-read". I'm flattered by such praise, and between more first-time readers discovering the site and existing readers continuing to stop in, I will continue to be motivated to produce content and add new features.

There are some really exciting things in the works that I can't talk about until they're final, but just know that every suggestion I get in the comments and on Twitter is heard. If you'd like to give back a little bit by helping spread the word, just insert these images into your signature on Magic forums! The larger one is for most forums like MTG Salvation. The smaller one is specifically formatted for StarCityGames forums.

Special thanks to Joe Pasco for designing the original large banner!

Just kidding. But it feels that way. There are so many ridiculous cards being printed for WW that Kithkin just packed it in and said "Long Live the King". Before we get to l'Capitaine des Veilleurs, features on the right, let's discuss the fact that they just made a complete and total upgrade to Crusade:

Honor of the Pure
Enchantment (R)
White creatures you control get +1/+1.
Together the soldiers were like a golden blade, cutting down their enemies and scarring the darkness.
Illus. Greg Staples

Apparently these are going to be given away as promos to people who buy boxes. That'll initially limit the price significantly, but if they end up being very important to White Weenie then the card could easily gain value. Regardless, pick up a playset or two when they're cheap and everyone's giving them away. White Weenie has some really insane cards including a STRICTLY BETTER Savannah Lions. That's right, its a 2/1 for , but he's a SOLDIER. Goes really well with the handful of really playable soldier tribal cards.

Let's see, we've got Crusade, Savannah Lions, a 2/3 for 2 that makes your guys bigger, a 3/2 for 3 that makes your guys bigger..Looks like White Weenie is going to show Kithkin how we do it.

Oh. Then there's this monster:

Captain of the Watch
Creature - Human Soldier
Vigilance Other Soldier creatures you control gets +1/+1 and have vigilance. When Captain of the Watch enters the battlefield, put 3 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Illus. Greg Staples #6/249	3/3

Sacre bleu! 9 power of vigilant tribal destruction! Despite being a mana more than Cloudgoat Ranger, and lacking the ability to fly when requested, this card is a brick house.

Lets examine situations in which this card will win you the game:

1) When you play it on turn 6, already having curved out with your Crusade (Honor of the Pure), a "Savannah Lions", an Armorsmith and a Swordsmith.

2) When you play it on turn 6, already having curved out with your Crusade (Honor of the Pure), a "Savannah Lions", and an Armorsmith.

3) When you play it on turn 6, already having curved out with your Crusade (Honor of the Pure), a "Savannah Lions".

4) When you play it on turn 6, already having curved out with your Crusade (Honor of the Pure).

5) When you play it on turn 6.

6) When you play it on turn 4 off a Windbrisk Heights.

7) When you play it in your deck.

Seems good, kids.

What a doozy. Oh MAN are we getting some sweet reprints. Ignoring for a moment the ridiculous NEW cards in the set, some of the reprints are just unreal. Polymorph is also getting reprinted, which just makes every Timmy want to Polymorph into Darksteel Colossus.

Both cards are selling for double digits already, and prices should remain high. Both cards are clearly chase rares and regardless of whether or not they see tournament play, they will remain pricy.

Appologies to the artist who did this alter - I can't find the source of it for the life of me! I know I saved it off MTG Salvation since it's so rockin'. If you're the artist or know the artist, leave a comment so I can credit you appropriately!

Although it has not been officially confirmed, rumors on MTG Salvation have suggested that Wrath of God will for the first time NOT be appearing in a core set. In its stead will be a 6 mana sorcery reminiscent of Akroma's Vengeance. For 3WWW and the words Planar Cleansing, you can blow to hell everything on the battlefield that's not a land.

The financial impact of this should be clear. Wrath is going to take a massive hit in price. There's absolutely no frame of reference for this - Wrath of God has never been out of Standard before. There's a chance that the card will retain value, but the odds are it will regress in price.

It's a sad day when QS has to report the financial decline of Wrath of God, a Magic staple, but R&D; have long shown their dedication to the game and make far more good decisions than bad. Since the news is NOT official, don't go off and firesale your copies. Just be prepared for the fact that come Nationals 2009, Wrath of God will be a card for Extended decks.

ChamCo is back up to 9 dollars from 7.50. This is directly correlated to the rise in BG Elves' popularity recently. Remember who told you to buy them while they were cheap? The card's price is completely dictated by the popularity of BG Elves right now, so keep an eye on the deck's success and volume to understand the direction of Chameleon Colossus. Here's a sample decklist for BG Elves, from the Top 8 of the SCG Atlanta 5k:

1 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Chameleon Colossus
3 Civic Wayfinder
2 Cloudthresher
4 Imperious Perfect
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Putrid Leech
4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
2 Terror
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Thoughtseize
1 Nameless Inversion

3 Forest
3 Swamp
4 Gilt-leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Mutavault
4 Treetop Village
2 Twilight Mire

Sideboard:
2 Pithing Needle
1 Cloudthresher
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Puppeteer Clique
1 Shriekmaw
2 Guttural Response
2 Deathmark
2 Primal Command

When you ask pros the inevitable, unavoidable question "How do I get better at Magic?", the response you will often get is "Play MTGO". While each player has his reasons, playing MTGO allows access to many tools that are not possible on Paper Magic. The most important by far is the ability to play Magic at any time, anywhere. MTGO can be played while waiting for a flight in an airport, at 4am after you've been out drinking all night, on your lunch break, or anywhere else you can imagine. No need to call friends and organize a get-together. Just click a few buttons and you're playing Magic. You've also got perfect rules enforcement, a true random shuffler, and a passable UI that ties it all together. It takes rather few resources to run, and will run on older notebook PCs. Combine this with a cellular broadband access card or tether your notebook to your Smart Phone, and you'll be playing Magic on public transportation in no time!

The neat thing about MTGO is that most cards online are cheaper than their paper counterparts. This alone will assuredly appeal to the tastes of the value-conscious, as will the chance to "go infinite" by winning drafts (going 2-0 in an 8-4 queue is usually good enough...), but the real bang for the buck lies in a format whose name says it all: Pauper Magic.

It's an official format on MTGO, complete with queues and tournaments. The catch is that you can only play with commons! That's right, your entire deck might well be worth under 5 dollars. Personally, I've tried a few strategies - Sui Black, Teachings Control, Monoblue "Fish" style Aggro Control, and most recently, the Scourge of Standard - UB Faeries. While there are sites that have listings of decks, it seems more fun to attempt innovation before net decking. There's a LOT of design space that's unexplored, and the format rewards the deck builder for finding unique and profitable card interactions. Card draw and card advantage are at a premium, while good removal and countermagic seems to be abundant.

The real draw to Pauper is the ridiculously low cost of entry. Sites like http://www.mtgotraders.com will sell individual cards or "bot credit" and accept credit cards and PayPal. Anyone who speculates on MTG on Ebay will have a few bucks in PayPal, so go give this a try: Go buy 5 bucks in Bot Credit. Bot Credit is like having a positive account balance with each of their automated trading accounts, so whenever you're looking for a card you simply initiate a trade with one of their accounts and select the cards you want. It will inform you of the card's price and your credit will be debited the appropriate amount. Low-demand commons will cost about 2 cents. Some of the more useful commons from Invasion however, will cost upwards of a dollar. The majority of commons you'll use in a deck will be between 2 cents and 15 cents.

Here's a list for a Faeries build in Pauper. Clearly, lacking Bitterblossom, Cryptic Command, Mutavault, Conclave and Mistbind Clique makes it a whole new deck but it has facets of its big Standard daddy that make it feel just as dangerous.

2 Mulldrifter
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Broken Ambitions
4 Pestermite
3 Thieving Sprite
3 Agony Warp
1 Grim Harvest
1 Terror
4 Cloud Sprite
3 Sentinels of Glen Elendra
3 Latchkey Faerie
4 Peppersmoke

4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Mistvein Borderpost
8 Swamp
8 Island

The deck's power level owes much to the lack of real card advantage in Pauper. The deck was designed to be aggressive enough to kill a non-reactive opponent fairly quickly, but most games it relegates itself to an aggro-control role. Fliers are scarce in the metagame, so most of your games will be attrition-based races. Of the cards in the deck, the following are capable of creating net card advantage:
Peppersmoke, Latchkey Faerie, Sentinels of Glen Elendra, Grim Harvest, Agony Warp, Thieving Sprite, Spellstutter Sprite, Mulldrifter. Pestermite usually won't 2-for-1 anyone but creates a lot of tempo whenever it gets played. You can also use it as a trick to untap a tapped Sentinels (the only real blocker type creature in the deck). The deck might benefit from Soul Manipulation but right now it's running well without it. The card feels like a miniature Cryptic Command when it counters a spell and returns a Mulldrifter, but sometimes the mana requirements are more than the deck can handle.

Overall, the deck is absurdly cheap. Most of the important cards are 15 cents, with many being cheaper. For your money, this is absolutely the most efficient way to play! Give it a try and suggest your own Pauper decks in the comments section.

Announcement Date: June 19, 2009
Effective Date: July 1, 2009

Vintage
Thirst for Knowledge is restricted

Crop Rotation is no longer restricted
Enlightened Tutor is no longer restricted
Entomb is no longer restricted
Grim Monolith is no longer restricted

To be blunt, I am not a Vintage player in the least, so perhaps one of my Vintage-minded readers could elaborate on what this does to Vintage deck design space? First glance says that Grim Monolith is the big deal here. No changes to Standard, Extended or Legacy to report.

It's more likely than you think! According to a Russian MtG site, there is a card in M10 with the art seen to your left. They are calling the card Lightning Bolt, but there is no further confirmation as of right now. If this is indeed the case, it would seem Ball Lightning gets yet another boost. Bolt was THE iconic red burn spell back in "the day", and Shock and Incinerate have never really had the same appeal. In Standard, many things die to both Shock and Bolt so I don't see it being a big deal removal-wise. As far as straight burn goes, having Bloodbraid Elf, Ball Lightning, Bolt, Boggart Ram-Gang and maybe Flame Javelin (if you're feeling lucky) in the same deck will mean for some heinously aggressive Red Decks. I personally can't wait!

First and foremost, I'd like to extend a big fat "thank you" to Ross, the brilliant mind behind Black Lotus Project. Without him, the amazing ticker you see at the top of the page would be nothing more than a dream. The work he does over at BLP is really fantastic, and an absolute must-see for anyone who enjoys Magic finances. We hope to bring you even more good stuff in the future, so keep an eye on the front page and feel free to make suggestions in the comments section!

Secondly, you may have noticed that your bookmarks pointing to http://quietspec.blogspot.com now redirect to https://www.quietspeculation.com. I decided that since the site has been growing steadily since I first launched it, it was time to take the next step and get it on its own domain. Your old bookmarks will continue to work just fine, but if you're enjoying the site and giving the link to fellow Magic players please use the new quietspeculation.com link. It's much easier to remember, so feel free to tell everyone you know!

I've got a few articles in the works, including some more about M10, the 2nd part of A Trader's Guide, and a look at the most recent Grand Prix in Sao Paulo. While there wasn't much ground broken in the top 8, there are some interesting topics to discuss so keep tuning in!

Alright, has the smoke cleared yet? Has the dust settled? Magic is dying. WotC is killing the game. I'll go play Yu-Gi-Oh. Whine Whine Whine. Shut up. M10 Rules are here. They're not going away if you close your eyes and strain really hard. They won't disappear if you pound your fists and beat your chest.

HEAR THAT, MAGIC PLAYERS? YOUR PRECIOUS COMBAT DAMAGE IS NOT USING THE STACK ANYMORE AND THERE'S NOT A GOD DAMNED THING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. Now come back to earth and play some cards.

Why aren't you testing with the new rules yet? I heard some of the best players I know say they want to savor their time with the old rules, but that's just so asinine. Think about this: M10 rules become legal on the 11th of July. The first day we're playing with M10 cards is July 17th, a week before Nationals. If your first game without stacked combat damage is July 11th, I guarantee you'll lose at least one game due to your misunderstanding or inexperience in combat.

For those qualified for Nationals, this is absolutely imperative. Nationals this year will be decided by who knows their new combat and who doesn't. For those finding themselves unqualified in Kansas City, it's doubly important. Those grinders are cut-throat, and you need every advantage you can get. If you've been testing with new combat for over a month, compared to everyone else's week, you're GOING to win games.

So. Quit whining. The new rules are here to stay. If you call yourself a serious Magic player, you'll play every game from here on out under the new rules and you'll like it.

If not, try this on for size: "I Choose You, Pikachu!" Maybe that'll suit you better.