In what has become a fairly alarming habit, I've been drifting off during the day, and dreaming of Magic cards.  In fact, you could even say that visions of MTG cards dance in my head.  As before, after awaking with a start, the process of trying to piece together what small fractions of my fantasy and record them here begins.  You know, for posterity.  Now follow me down the rabbit hole....

... unbelievable, being here at the Supreme Galactic Testing of Magic: the Gathering Sealed Supremacy.   After all, only one representative from each colonized world gets to attend.  What a privilege, let's see what my very first pack of Scars of Mirrodin has to offer me.  Hmm, let's quickly tear through these commons...  Interesting, some of those last few were pretty cool, nice to see such an array of commons that really deserve consideration in not only Limited, but also Constructed as well.  I wonder what the meat of this booster has in store.Talk about a great pull, a green 7/7 with some diversity.  Perhaps pumping up an evasive flyer, or using it as a poor man's Overrun, the Wurm Coil Engine makes for a fantastic Sealed card.  Something to build a deck around, or at least splash some green to get the potential 7/7 on the board.  The interesting dynamic is how this fattie can interact with the Scars retro-mechanic Modular.

Speaking of Modular, a Darksteel mechanic that has returned, like Lazarus Man, from the graveyard of expansion-specific abilities.  While unlikely to replace power house Modular creatures like Arcbound Ravager, there are still many creative ways to use +1/+1 counters.  Speaking of returning themes, Argent Sphinx is also a colored artifact, from the Esper mold.  Noteworthy, as a representative of the previous two attributes.  Not to mention, on it's own, a 4/4 flyer for six mana is not a terrible deal.  Argent Sphinx is playable in Sealed, even with the help of Robert Ulrich.

Equipment, as a card type was first revealed in Mirrodin, and has since become a staple replacement of older, often expensive aura enchantments.  Here is a cleaner, and beefier version of the classic Bonesplitter. Indestructible is a tough ability to design for, as it can too easily become over-powered, but it just wouldn't be Darksteel if you could destroy it.  The idea of equipping my two fatties with this added boost is intriguing.  I wonder if DA will be useful in other ways.

Well look at this, another handy use for my Darksteel Axe, a way to power out a 5/5 dragon on my fourth turn.  That would probably be good enough to win any game it happened to occur. From a design respect, Hoard-Smelter Dragon is from a long lineage of high power, low cost creatures with drawbacks involved in getting them on the battlefield (Most recently in M11 with Phylactery Lich).  Normally creatures that require a special extra cost can be troublesome in Limited events, but with a prevalent artifact theme going on, sticking this nasty shouldn't be too difficult.

Feel the cosmos tremble, for I have pulled a foil Mythic Planeswalker named Elspeth Tirel, an advanced version of the popular Shards of Alara heroine.  Of course the ultimate ability catches the eye first (it's only natural we want to see the true power of our Planeswalkers), but unfortunately it doesn't work well with the cards already revealed.  Not to worry, because the +1 ability makes the evolutionary Elspeth a mighty weapon in any case.  Also, a Dolmen Gate type effect for +2 makes ET's loyalty easy to get out of hand.  Finally, if worse comes to worst, the final ability can act as a Day of Judgment.  But enough loitering on this beauty, time to move on to the next booster...

(Ed. Note - The cards depicted are purely fictional only the art is real.  The purposes of this article are entertainment and to scope recently revealed Scars artwork.  Results when opening your own packs of SoM will vary greatly, especially because you will be pulling actual cards, not Gathering Magic mockups.  If you'd like real spoilers check out our Scars of Mirrodin spoiler page! Best of luck to you.)