The Magic Minute is the best way to quickly catch up on the day’s Magic: the Gathering news. Only have a few minutes to pay attention to MTG today? We’ve got you covered.
On today’s Minute: The villain of both the Dark and Ice Age has languished in flavor text obscurity—until now. Commander 2017 finally gave Mairsil, the Pretender a card of his own.
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Our logo features art from the very talented Matt Jones. You can find more of his work here: www.studiomattjones.com.
You can read Chas Andres’ preview article, featuring Marisil, the Pretender, here.
ICYMI, Edgar Markov is also getting his own card in Commander 2017.
Transcript!
Today’s theme for Commander 2017 previews is the Wizards tribe and yet another beloved character from Magic’s past has finally been given his own card. That’s right, old timers, Mairsil, the Pretender is now more than just flavor text.
In 1994, Wizards of the Coast released The Dark, Magic’s 4th expansion set. The set took place on Dominaria and featured a wizard named Mairsil imprisoning his master, Lord Ith, and taking control of the Conclave of Mages. But Lord Ith managed to summon a Rag Man and alert another wizard named Jodah, who helped Ith escape and destroy Mairsil.
But Mairsil’s essence survived in a ruby ring for thousands of years, and was eventually found by Lim-Dul in the Ice Age block. Mairsil took over his mind and sought to destroy Jodah, but was defeated yet again. The ring then fell to Jaya Ballard, Jodah’s assistant, and Mairsil tried to take over her mind as well in another attempt to kill Jodah. But in their final battle, Jaya’s spark ignited, allowing her to purge Mairsil from her mind and finally defeating the Pretender for good.