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Weakstone
– Antiquities uncommon. The stone in Weakstone is clearly that green thing right there. It’s easy to see. But it’s hard to focus on, because the weird dog thing wearing the collar is so adorable! It also appears on the alternate art of Circle of Protection: Art, as you can see here.
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View from Above
– Conflux uncommon. Did you know that the Vedalken in the foreground of View from Above is flying? Well, it is! It’s looking down at the land of Grixis from above the clouds. And it’s presumably wondering how to get back home to Esper.
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Presence of the Master
– Legends uncommon. The guy who look suspiciously like Albert Einstein isn’t the only reference to the real world on Presence of the Master. The ring of planets has a red planet at number four and a ringed planet at number six, making them probably Mars and Saturn. But what’s with the tenth planet?
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Wake of Vultures
– Visions common. Wake of Vultures got promoted from “Creature–Vulture” to “Creature–Bird” in the Great Creature Type Update. This change also meant that Soraya the Falconer gives it a bonus. “Soraya the Vulturer” doesn’t have the same ring to it.
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World-Bottling Kit
– Unhinged rare. This Unhinged card is a reference to Apocalypse Chime, City in a Bottle, and Golgothian Sylex. Mark Rosewater tried very hard to get it into Mirrodin, but eventually gave up and saved it for an Un-set.
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Dread
– Lorwyn rare. Do you wonder exactly what you’re looking like when you see Dread (or one of the other Elemental Incarnations from Lorwyn)? Here’s a quote from the art description: “Notes: Incarnation cycle. Get weird with this! Players shouldn’t be able to look at this and say, ‘oh, it’s a snail.’ It should be much stranger than that.” That’s as specific as we can get!
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Shriek of Dread
– Planeshift common. The creature giving the titular shriek in Shriek of Dread is Crosis, the Purger, who is easily recognizable by means of comparing the two cards. Or by reading the flavor text.
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Dread Charge
– Portal rare. Fittingly, the Portal card Dread Charge nearly gives Fear. Why doesn’t go all the way and allow artifact creatures to block? Simple: Portal didn’t have any artifacts, so it would have been confusing to print it on a product designed for new players!
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Dread Return
– Time Spiral uncommon. If you look carefully at the art for Dread Return, you might recognize a creature that would benefit from being sacrificed and returned to the battlefield: Mindslicer!
