Downtown Minneapolis has Mead Hall, as mentioned above. There is also Universe Games on Lake and Lyndale in uptown (just south of downtown). A little ways out of downtown is the Monster Den where a lot of more hard core folks go to play. In St. Louis Park (between Mpls and Maple Grove) is Dreamers Games and they have magic events regularly. I like to draft at Dreamers. And, just north of maple grove in Anoka is Village Games which is a pretty small local shop but they have regular events.
It's not about MtG, it's about WOTC's other hot property: D&D. There's a Dragonlance character named Theros Ironfield and even a Dragonlance novel with his name. If anything it means that Dragonlance will be part of the upcoming D&D 5th edition.
If they did put it in RTR, they would have had to decide that before the Commander sets were released last year, if I am not mistaken. Either way, it would have been long since decided upon before the price of the Ooze went out of control. It may get reprinted, but it wouldn't be as a result of it's recent price.
The third act twist is the reestablishing of the guildpact with planeswalkers as its enforcers to protect both it and the plane in case of an emergency the guilds can't handle on their own.
The new guildpact will be weaker than the one and allow interplanar travel. Ravnica then becomes the defacto neutral ground for planeswalkers where even rivals can meet and trade without coming to blows.
Except there already is a new guildpact in place. It is non-magical and was put in place at the end of the original block. It is more of just an agreement now without any magic behind it. That is my understanding of the current situation, so I don't see the need for another new pact.
The writer can't seem to resist having Dack keep up a parallel narration to the actual real-world events. I wouldn't complain if it was in small doses, but he does it every. Frackin'. Panel. I mean, come on. It's like watching a ping-pong match.
This really bugs me as well. I haven't done a lot of comic reading in my day so I thought maybe this was more normal, but it does get super annoying to follow what's going on in his head at the same time you are reading actual dialogue.
Overall, I have read them all and I plan to keep doing so, but I feel like not enough happens each issue. It never ends very far from where it began. Additionally, it's hard to get invested in a story when the release schedule is so chaotic. I tried for a while to keep tabs on when new issues came out, but now I just check the comixology site on Wednesdays.
I'm not sure if you want a summary of the whole story or just one book, but the basic storyline so far is:
Planeswalker Dack Fayden is from Drakeston. He can absorb the powers of artifacts and see what others have done while using them. Once upon a time, Planeswalker Sifa Grent killed everyone in his hometown. He has been on her trail ever since finding the artifact she used to destroy everyone (by controlling the vampires.) He caught up to her in Innistrad, but she got away. Now he's off on another plane chasing her again.
Great story. Really happy to have this column every week. I've been wanting something like this for a very long time.
Really great to have Garruk show up at the end too. His story was left a little unfinished and this at least lets us know that he does make his way to Avacyn. Really great writing, I love all of Jenna's work.
I believe it is out next wednesday. These are the most recent release dates I found. It seems like once they get to the Spell Thief story line, the timing gets back on a regular schedule.
How exactly do a bunch of native Innstrad native Vampires know about an artifact from Ravnica?
They know of it from Sifa, who is a planeswalker. I believe she used it to control them at some point, but then hid it away on Ravnica for safe keeping. Or something like that.
http://universegames.com
http://www.dreamersgames.com (dreamers and monster den)
http://www.villagegames.net
If I was planning out my weekend I'd go to Dreamers, but I've never been to Mead Hall and I think it sounds like a cool shop too.
I believe this story has her in a detention sphere, if I am reading it correctly, somewhere around the time Arulia takes power.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ur/204
The actual page doesn't seem to work, but here's a cached version.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5N2iL-cLrRcJ:markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/30564084684/does-wizards-know-if-there-are-packs-still-out-there+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
http://www.idwpublishing.com/news/article/2365/
http://www.comixology.com/Magic-The-Gathering-The-Spell-Thief/comics-series/7921
Except there already is a new guildpact in place. It is non-magical and was put in place at the end of the original block. It is more of just an agreement now without any magic behind it. That is my understanding of the current situation, so I don't see the need for another new pact.
This really bugs me as well. I haven't done a lot of comic reading in my day so I thought maybe this was more normal, but it does get super annoying to follow what's going on in his head at the same time you are reading actual dialogue.
Overall, I have read them all and I plan to keep doing so, but I feel like not enough happens each issue. It never ends very far from where it began. Additionally, it's hard to get invested in a story when the release schedule is so chaotic. I tried for a while to keep tabs on when new issues came out, but now I just check the comixology site on Wednesdays.
I'm not sure if you want a summary of the whole story or just one book, but the basic storyline so far is:
http://www.comiclist.com/index.php/lists/idw-publishing-extended-forecast-for-05-16-2012#more17271
5/16 MTG #4
5/30 MTG Spell Thief #1
6/27 MTG Spell Thief #2
7/25 MTG Spell Thief #3
Edit: Source
They know of it from Sifa, who is a planeswalker. I believe she used it to control them at some point, but then hid it away on Ravnica for safe keeping. Or something like that.
Pretty much.
I'm willing to bet he's referencing what will be Niv Mizzet 2.0.