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Magic 2013
M13 title
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 Multiverse
Keywords/​ability words Exalted
Set size 249 cards
(101 commons, 60 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares, 20 basic lands)
Expansion code M13[1]
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.[2]

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.[2] The returning mechanic for this Core Set was Exalted.[3] 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).[4] It was also the first Core Set after Alpha to feature original art on (some of) the basic lands.[5]

Magic 2013 is largely built around Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, which became the first multicolored card to be included in a core set.[6] The set also includes a cycle of Legendary creatures [7] (only the second time a core set included Legendary creatures (the first was Tenth Edition) and a cycle of Planeswalkers.[8] Ajani Goldmane [9] 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.[10] 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.[11] 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.[12]

Magic Story[ | ]

Main article: Magic Story
Title Author Release Date Setting (plane) Featuring
Odric, Master Tactitian Jenna Helland 2012-06-27 Innistrad Odric, Garruk
Xathrid Gorgon Jenna Helland 2012-07-04 Shandalar Xathrid Gorgon
Chronomaton Ryan Miller 2012-07-11 Unknown plane Chronomaton
Krenko, Mob Boss Jenna Helland 2012-07-18 Ravnica Krenko
Threadbare Jenna Helland 2012-07-23 Unknown plane Stuffy Doll
Talrand, Sky Summoner Ken Troop 2012-07-30 Shandalar Talrand
The Stonekiller Jenna Helland 2012-08-08 Alara Lia
The Stonekiller, Part 2 Jenna Helland 2012-08-15 Alara Lia, Nira

Marketing[ | ]

M13 6-card booster

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.[13][14] The regular boosters feature art from Liliana of the Dark Realms, Augur of Bolas, Spiked Baloth, Mindclaw Shaman and Ajani, Caller of the Pride.[15] 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 [16] 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).[17] 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[ | ]

Sample decks[ | ]

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

Cycles[ | ]

Magic 2013 has eight cycles:

Cycle name Ajani
{W}
Jace
{U}
Liliana
{B}
Chandra
{R}
Garruk
{G}
Bolas
{U}{B}{R}
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 {W} {U} {B} {R} {G}
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.[20]
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 {W}{U} {U}{B} {B}{R} {R}{G} {G}{W}
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
({W})
Dark Favor
({B})
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
({W})
Knight of Infamy
({B})
Uncommon Human Knights with with a mana cost of {1}M, power/toughness of 2/1, exalted and protection from the opposite color.[21]

Functional reprints[ | ]

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:[22]

Intro pack name Colors Included Foil rare
{W} {U} {B} {R} {G}
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:[23]

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

Core set changes[ | ]

Main article: Magic 2013/Changes
Notable changes

Gallery[ | ]

References[ | ]

  1. Product info
  2. a b Magic Arcana (January 3, 2012). "Announcing Magic 2013". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  3. Zac Hill (July 27, 2012). "Attack!". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  4. Monty Ashley (June 13, 2012). "Core Set Survivor: Magic 2013 Edition". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  5. Monty Ashley (July 10, 2012). "New Land for Magic 2013". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  6. Mark Rosewater (June 25, 2012). "Core, the Merrier". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  7. Monty Ashley (July 20, 2012). "Tracking Down the Legends". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  8. Monty Ashley (June 21, 2012). "Planeswalker Videos". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  9. Zac Hill (July 06, 2012). "The Cards of Magic 2013, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  10. Zac Hill (June 22, 2012). "Dueling Priorities". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  11. Doug Beyer (June 25, 2012). "Magic 2013: Coming Home to Flavor". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  12. Monty Ashley (August 27, 2012). "Bolas's Minions". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  13. Monty Ashley (June 19, 2012). "Magic 2013 Packaging". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  14. Monty Ashley (June 28, 2012). "More Magic 2013 Packaging". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  15. Monty Ashley (June 18, 2012). "Magic 2013 Boosters". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  16. Mike McArtor (July 02, 2012). "Magic 2013 Prerelease Primer". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  17. Monty Ashley (June 20, 2012). "Magic 2013 Promo Cards". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  18. Monty Ashley (June 26, 2012). "Magic 2013 Tokens". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  19. Monty Ashley (July 02, 2012). "Where's That Goat?". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  20. Monty Ashley (August 07, 2012). "The Rings of Magic 2013". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  21. Mike Flores (July 26, 2012). "Exalted Week 5x5: The Past and Future". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  22. Magic Arcana (July 03, 2012). "Magic 2013 Intro Pack Decklists". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  23. Monty Ashley (July 24, 2012). "Magic 2013 Event Deck Decklists". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.

External links[ | ]

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