Update 01/06/2017: The Aether Revolt full spoiler posted by Wizards of the Coast has confirmed the legitimacy of the four leaked Magic: The Gathering cards. There is currently no word from Wizards of the Coast on whether the persons responsible for the leaks have been identified.
The original story follows below.
Last week, four cards from the newest Magic: The Gathering set, Aether Revolt, were leaked ahead of Wizards of the Coast's release schedule. Yesterday Wizards of the Coast confirmed that those leaks were indeed legitimate. Unfortunately, it seems that another round of leaks has taken place, this time of the cards designated as "Story Spotlights".
Please note: the below cards and discussion of the leaks are, if legitimate, massive spoilers for the Aether Revolt story. Even though TechRaptor is by default treating any non-Wizards of the Coast sources as rumor before preview season begins, we still want to make it clear to our readers that this could impact their enjoyment of the set storyline if the cards turn out to be legitimate.
The allegedly leaked Story Spotlight cards first appeared on this Japanese Magic: The Gathering website, rapidly spreading throughout the Magic: The Gathering community before English language versions of the cards were discovered. It appears that the leaked cards were obtained by taking advantage of a security exploit on the Wizards of the Coast website, allowing the leaker to get their hands on the URLs for not only these cards but unreleased Aether Revolt artwork as well. Wizards of the Coast has since moved the leaked cards and artwork to new URLs, rendering any links to them to display 404 errors.
The four cards that were leaked in this way are the "Story Spotlights", important story moments on cards marked with the Planeswalker watermark and URL for the Magic Story website.
- Pia's Revolution: Enchantment, casting cost of two generic and one red mana. Whenever a nontoken artifact is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, return that card to your hand unless target opponent has Pia's Revolution deal 3 damage to him or her.
- Story Spotlight 2.
- Disallow: Instant, casting cost of one generic and two blue mana. Counter target spell, activated ability, or triggered ability. (Mana abilities can't be targeted).
- Story Spotlight 3, and a strictly better Voidslime.
- Battle at the Bridge: Sorcery, casting cost of X generic and one black mana. Improvise (Your artifacts can help cast this spell. Each artifact you tap after you're done activating mana abilities pays for one generic mana). Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn. You gain X life.
- Story Spotlight 4; aside from some differences in wording it is essentially Convoke for artifacts.
- Dark Intimations: Sorcery, casting cost of two generic, one blue, one black, and one red mana. Each opponent sacrifices a creature of planeswalker, then discards a card. You return a creature or planeswalker card from your graveyard to your hand, then draw a card. When you cast a Bolas planeswalker spell, exile Dark Intimations from your graveyard. That planeswalker enters the battlefield with an additional loyalty counter on it.
- Story Spotlight 5.
Stay tuned to TechRaptor for more information on Aether Revolt and all things Magic: The Gathering.
Quick Take
I wouldn't be surprised if someone ended up being banned for this. It's one thing to leak promotional cards for Wizards of the Coast events, and another thing entirely to leak important story cards.The timing, in fact, reminds me of what happened last year, when certain cards were leaked from Oath of the Gatewatch and ended up getting almost an entire region of judges banned.
What are your thoughts on these leaks? Do you think that there is anything Wizards of the Coast can do to prevent further leaks in the future? Let us know in the comment section below.