As previews of Wizards' new set get rolling, the question inevitably is - is the set any good? Or is it just more cards for proxies and junk piles?

From the previews it looks like Shards of Alara is going to be a homerun. They did a lot of good things with this set. Also we have the coming ManaNation preview card for Shards of Alara, to be released on Sept. 19th, and it's something I'm eager to share with you all!

Firstly, Shards is a gold set. Mark Rosewater freely admits gold is the most popular theme they do and this one makes the third block that is truly devoted to gold cards. The differences are that unlike in Ravnica, City of Guilds, this one focuses on the triples rather than every combination. Instead of ten guilds of two colors we have five planes of three colors. What does this mean for new players?

It provides some rigidity. We're seeing cards which require three specific colors to cast. No longer is it a world of only hybrids and multicolor lands allowing great flexibility in casting. Now younger players will begin to feel some boundaries in limited format deck construction rather than the boggling flexbility which came with Lorwyn and Shadowmoor. The boundaries will chafe some but to the newer player they provide much more clear guidelines.

Secondly Planeswalkers are returning. They were a big reason for excitement over Lorwyn and we're seeing more of them in the coming Shards! Planeswalkers are exciting for new players, they're akin to the excitement that we older players had for Dragons in the history of Magic.

Speaking of Dragons, they've released theme decks called "From the Vault: Dragons" about Dragons and thanks to a tight integration with Shards of Alara it's bleeding over into our excitement for the new set. Dragons are simply fun for the Timmy players, in fact they're fun for everyone albeit not necessarily always competitive. Unless you're talking about the good Dragons like Kokusho, the Evening Star.

Thirdly the game is going to see more spells again. While the creatures are extremely prevalent in Lorwyn and somewhat in Shadowmoor, from the previews it looks like the spell to creature ratio is increasing for Shards of Alara. This one could still be proven wrong but I think I'm correct.

Patrick Chapin, in our ManaNationRadio episode with him, points out the importance of creatures to a bystander as a tangible concept of the game state and thus his theory that this is part of their growing presence in Magic. However I think Wizards, with its fifteen designers from Shards of Alara, have begun to pull back on that push some. The reason being that while it is better for spectators, the chess matches slow down the game and bog it down in the minds of many players.

And fourthly, it's leading into the changes aimed at making the game more accessible to the new players. While experienced players largely dislike their proposed changes it isn't meant for them, it's meant for the kid who's going to start getting into the game after these changes are made. When the extra land makes a difference to them, and when the mythical rare is not something new to them.

Overall the set looks excellent and very rich in flavor, new opportunities, and possibilities! We'll be exploring it in several episodes for the upcoming month or two.

Remember to check back on September 19th for our Shards of Alara preview card!

--Trick