In this episode, Mike thought we should take a closer look at the Shards. Of Alara. Since this is a block just oozing with flavor, everyone seems to be talking more about the flavor and philosophy and whatnot of this one than they have in previous sets. Not ones to stand idly by while the bandwagon trundles along without us, we hopped on. And what a buffet it is! We looked at the flavor of the shards in various ways, including but not limited to:

- The colors that comprise each shard

- The colors that are missing from each shard

- The mechanical identity of each shard

- Citing examples from flavor text

- General setting and feel of each shard

In other news, there's also news in this episode. Wizards recently revealed the name and whatnot for the final set in the Alara block. You can find it, if you are so inclined, here:

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1702

Wizards also FINALLY gave us some information about the next iteration of Duel Decks. Jace vs. Chandra is coming Nov. 7, and it looks to be seriously awesome. Two 60-card decks, each with 4 rares, which includes the foil alternate art versions of Jace Beleren and Chandra Nalaar. Six cards get new artwork featuring the planeswalkers in action. Control vs. Burn, baby! I can't wait. Check out the announcement showing some of the art the product information pages in the links below.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1700

http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/productarticle.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/jacevschandra/productinfo

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-53-savoring-shards-exploring-the-flavor-of-alara-t253.html
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