The next Magic: The Gathering set, Crimson Vow, is launching on MTG Arena on November 11 in the U.S. (Nov 12 in ANZ), with the physical edition available in game stores globally on November 19 (with prerelease on Nov 12). It takes players back to the gothic horror-infused setting of Innistrad. Where the last set, Midnight Hunt - which also took place on this plane - was themed around Werewolves, and introduced a cool day/night system, Crimson Vow has Vampires as its central focus, including a number of cards inspired by the one and only Dracula.

Of course, that's all well and good, but classic horror is more than just Werewolves and Vampires, and today we have a new card to reveal that will help elevate one of the other monstrous creature types that was present in Midnight Hunt and is now being expanded upon for Crimson Vow - Zombies. That card is Necroduality:

Anyone who has dabbled with the many variations of Dimir (blue/black) Zombies decks (such as this one) over the last couple of months would know that Zombies already have the potential to really snowball, and this enchantment represents a great way to double down on that, or to help swing the board back later in a game.

"Necroduality is one of my favorite types of cards in Magic," Product Architect Mike Turian told me. "A card that you pick up and once you read it, the card makes you go back and reevaluate a whole class of cards to find the perfect ones to best take advantage of. In this case, with Necroduality creating a copy of each nontoken Zombie that enters the battlefield under your control, this changes the impact of every Zombie creature, reanimation spell, and cards that alter creature types in Magic. That is a lot of awesome cards to combo Necroduality with! Crimson Vow has a nice number of Zombie creatures that immediately get better. When you consider that many of the Zombies have Exploit and other powerful sacrifice effects, Necroduality will provide good fodder of creatures and powerful combos! I don’t want to spoil all of the fun our players are going to have but I bet they will be starting their own zombie apocalypse in no time!"

I also asked Mike about how the team approached the task of following on from Midnight Hunt while also standing apart. "Midnight Hunt was such a great set and our players loved coming back to Innistrad," he said. "We knew that the fan favorite plane of Innistrad was going to be a hit once again so with Crimson Vow, we were looking to bring in pieces of Midnight Hunt while also innovating and making Crimson Vow its own set. The switch of focus from Werewolves towards Vampires is one way that we were able to both continue what was awesome about Midnight Hunt while giving Crimson Vow space.

"Another way we set the sets apart is by introducing some new gameplay mechanics that weren’t available in Midnight Hunt. For instance, Cleave opens up brand new space in how you think about casting a spell. The introduction of Blood tokens for Vampires to feast upon let us have Vampires do something completely new and different as well!" You can read all about those new mechanics here. And you can see the cards that have been revealed so far here.

Crimson Vow is shaping up to be a fun return visit to Innistrad, so be sure to see what this Vampire-filled collection of cards have to offer on the official website.

Cam Shea has worked at IGN since the before times, has played more Breath of the Wild than just about any other game and writes about CCGs regularly. He's not really on Twitter.

The next Magic: The Gathering set, Crimson Vow, is launching on MTG Arena on November 11 in the U.S. (Nov 12 in ANZ), with the physical edition available in game stores globally on November 19 (with prerelease on Nov 12). It takes players back to the gothic horror-infused setting of Innistrad. Where the last set, Midnight Hunt - which also took place on this plane - was themed around Werewolves, and introduced a cool day/night system, Crimson Vow has Vampires as its central focus, including a number of cards inspired by the one and only Dracula.

Of course, that's all well and good, but classic horror is more than just Werewolves and Vampires, and today we have a new card to reveal that will help elevate one of the other monstrous creature types that was present in Midnight Hunt and is now being expanded upon for Crimson Vow - Zombies. That card is Necroduality:

Anyone who has dabbled with the many variations of Dimir (blue/black) Zombies decks (such as this one) over the last couple of months would know that Zombies already have the potential to really snowball, and this enchantment represents a great way to double down on that, or to help swing the board back later in a game.

"Necroduality is one of my favorite types of cards in Magic," Product Architect Mike Turian told me. "A card that you pick up and once you read it, the card makes you go back and reevaluate a whole class of cards to find the perfect ones to best take advantage of. In this case, with Necroduality creating a copy of each nontoken Zombie that enters the battlefield under your control, this changes the impact of every Zombie creature, reanimation spell, and cards that alter creature types in Magic. That is a lot of awesome cards to combo Necroduality with! Crimson Vow has a nice number of Zombie creatures that immediately get better. When you consider that many of the Zombies have Exploit and other powerful sacrifice effects, Necroduality will provide good fodder of creatures and powerful combos! I don’t want to spoil all of the fun our players are going to have but I bet they will be starting their own zombie apocalypse in no time!"

I also asked Mike about how the team approached the task of following on from Midnight Hunt while also standing apart. "Midnight Hunt was such a great set and our players loved coming back to Innistrad," he said. "We knew that the fan favorite plane of Innistrad was going to be a hit once again so with Crimson Vow, we were looking to bring in pieces of Midnight Hunt while also innovating and making Crimson Vow its own set. The switch of focus from Werewolves towards Vampires is one way that we were able to both continue what was awesome about Midnight Hunt while giving Crimson Vow space.

"Another way we set the sets apart is by introducing some new gameplay mechanics that weren’t available in Midnight Hunt. For instance, Cleave opens up brand new space in how you think about casting a spell. The introduction of Blood tokens for Vampires to feast upon let us have Vampires do something completely new and different as well!" You can read all about those new mechanics here. And you can see the cards that have been revealed so far here.

Crimson Vow is shaping up to be a fun return visit to Innistrad, so be sure to see what this Vampire-filled collection of cards have to offer on the official website.

Cam Shea has worked at IGN since the before times, has played more Breath of the Wild than just about any other game and writes about CCGs regularly. He's not really on Twitter.

A new study has discovered that future astronauts who find themselves on Mars may be able to use its natural resources to help make rocket fuel that could assist in getting them back to Earth.

As reported by Space.com, scientists have detailed their findings on the matter in the journal Nature Communications and have shared certain proposals that could save billions of dollars in the mission to get our astronauts home.

As it stands, NASA plans on using rocket engines that are fueled by both methane and liquid oxygen to depart Mars. The problem? Neither of these exist naturally on Mars, meaning that "30 or so tons" of methane and liquid oxygen would be needed to be transported from Earth to Mars for the return trip. NASA estimates this part of the process could cost upwards of $8 billion.

NASA has explored the idea of reducing this cost by using chemical reactions to produce liquid oxygen from carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere, but methane would still be needed to be transported from Earth to Mars.

These aforementioned scientists have proposed an alternative solution that would not only let astronauts produce methane and liquid oxygen from Martian resources, but the process would also provide extra oxygen for them to use.

Instead of transporting tons of methane and liquid oxygen, astronauts would bring with them two microbes on their trip to Mars. The first - cyanobacteria - would "use sunlight to create sugars via photosynthesis after given carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere and water taken from Martian ice." The second - a genetically modified E. coli bacteria - would "ferment those sugars into a rocket propellant called 2,3-butanediol, which is currently used on Earth to help make rubber."

2,3-butanediol is weaker rocket fuel than methane, but Mars' gravity is only one-third of Earth's, which would make this solution a good option for take-off.

"You need a lot less energy for lift-off on Mars, which gave us the flexibility to consider different chemicals that aren't designed for rocket launch on Earth," study senior author Pamela Peralta-Yahya said in a statement. "We started to consider ways to take advantage of the planet's lower gravity and lack of oxygen to create solutions that aren't relevant for Earth launches."

Enzymes would also be needed to be brought from Earth that could digest the cyanobacteria and free up their sugars and industrial seperation techniques would need to be utilized to "extract the 2,3-butanediol from the E. coli fermnetation broth."

A proposed rocket fuel plant on Mars that would span roughly "four football fields" would be built, and it would "use 32% less power than the strategy that involved shipping methane from Earth and generate 44 tons of excess oxygen to support human crews. However, it would weigh three times more."

The scientists note that further optimizations could increase microbial productivity to use 59% less power and weigh 13% less, all while "still generating 20 tons of excess oxygen."

"Given the distinct advantages that the biological process provides, such as excess oxygen generation for colony formation, we should start thinking about how to engineer microbes for their safe use on Mars," Peralta-Yahya said.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

A new study has discovered that future astronauts who find themselves on Mars may be able to use its natural resources to help make rocket fuel that could assist in getting them back to Earth.

As reported by Space.com, scientists have detailed their findings on the matter in the journal Nature Communications and have shared certain proposals that could save billions of dollars in the mission to get our astronauts home.

As it stands, NASA plans on using rocket engines that are fueled by both methane and liquid oxygen to depart Mars. The problem? Neither of these exist naturally on Mars, meaning that "30 or so tons" of methane and liquid oxygen would be needed to be transported from Earth to Mars for the return trip. NASA estimates this part of the process could cost upwards of $8 billion.

NASA has explored the idea of reducing this cost by using chemical reactions to produce liquid oxygen from carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere, but methane would still be needed to be transported from Earth to Mars.

These aforementioned scientists have proposed an alternative solution that would not only let astronauts produce methane and liquid oxygen from Martian resources, but the process would also provide extra oxygen for them to use.

Instead of transporting tons of methane and liquid oxygen, astronauts would bring with them two microbes on their trip to Mars. The first - cyanobacteria - would "use sunlight to create sugars via photosynthesis after given carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere and water taken from Martian ice." The second - a genetically modified E. coli bacteria - would "ferment those sugars into a rocket propellant called 2,3-butanediol, which is currently used on Earth to help make rubber."

2,3-butanediol is weaker rocket fuel than methane, but Mars' gravity is only one-third of Earth's, which would make this solution a good option for take-off.

"You need a lot less energy for lift-off on Mars, which gave us the flexibility to consider different chemicals that aren't designed for rocket launch on Earth," study senior author Pamela Peralta-Yahya said in a statement. "We started to consider ways to take advantage of the planet's lower gravity and lack of oxygen to create solutions that aren't relevant for Earth launches."

Enzymes would also be needed to be brought from Earth that could digest the cyanobacteria and free up their sugars and industrial seperation techniques would need to be utilized to "extract the 2,3-butanediol from the E. coli fermnetation broth."

A proposed rocket fuel plant on Mars that would span roughly "four football fields" would be built, and it would "use 32% less power than the strategy that involved shipping methane from Earth and generate 44 tons of excess oxygen to support human crews. However, it would weigh three times more."

The scientists note that further optimizations could increase microbial productivity to use 59% less power and weigh 13% less, all while "still generating 20 tons of excess oxygen."

"Given the distinct advantages that the biological process provides, such as excess oxygen generation for colony formation, we should start thinking about how to engineer microbes for their safe use on Mars," Peralta-Yahya said.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

N64's Goldeneye 007, one of the most iconic multiplayer games to ever be released, has been unbanned in Germany, sparking speculation that this could be a sign it may be on its way to Nintendo Switch Online or another platform.

Goldeneye 007 has been part of the German Federal Review Board for Media Harmful to Minors list for some time, but Schnittberichte.com has reported that it was recently removed, meaning it is now legal to advertise and sell in stores in Germany.

This development is made even more interesting because there is usually an automatic review of any media on the list after 25 years, but Goldeneye 007 was released only 24 years ago in 1997. This could mean someone was lobbying for its removal from the list early.

Schnittberichte.com also notes that Stadlbauer Marketing - a toymaker who also licenses Mario Kart for its Carrera slot car line - has the German rights to Goldeneye 007. This could be a big hint that someone wants to re-release it in some form, be that on Nintendo Switch Online, on Xbox as original developer Rare is owned by Microsoft, or for licensed toys.

While this may be a promising sign, bringing Goldeneye 007 to modern platforms requires much more to actually happen. One of the biggest reasons is Nintendo or another company would have to do its part in negotiating the rights for the James Bond license and possibly the actors' faces that appear in it in digital form like Pierce Brosnan.

Hopefully, when/if Goldeneye 007 is added to Nintendo Switch Online, it will be in a bit better shape than it is in now. Players who have already upgraded to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack to play N64 and SEGA games have reported issues of input lag, sound delays, frame rate issues, and incorrect controller layouts.

For more on Goldenye 007, check out a fan's remake of Goldeneye in Far Cry 5, how a Goldeneye 007 remaster was canceled by Nintendo with only a few bugs to fix, and how Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to make Goldeneye more family-friendly.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

N64's Goldeneye 007, one of the most iconic multiplayer games to ever be released, has been unbanned in Germany, sparking speculation that this could be a sign it may be on its way to Nintendo Switch Online or another platform.

Goldeneye 007 has been part of the German Federal Review Board for Media Harmful to Minors list for some time, but Schnittberichte.com has reported that it was recently removed, meaning it is now legal to advertise and sell in stores in Germany.

This development is made even more interesting because there is usually an automatic review of any media on the list after 25 years, but Goldeneye 007 was released only 24 years ago in 1997. This could mean someone was lobbying for its removal from the list early.

Schnittberichte.com also notes that Stadlbauer Marketing - a toymaker who also licenses Mario Kart for its Carrera slot car line - has the German rights to Goldeneye 007. This could be a big hint that someone wants to re-release it in some form, be that on Nintendo Switch Online, on Xbox as original developer Rare is owned by Microsoft, or for licensed toys.

While this may be a promising sign, bringing Goldeneye 007 to modern platforms requires much more to actually happen. One of the biggest reasons is Nintendo or another company would have to do its part in negotiating the rights for the James Bond license and possibly the actors' faces that appear in it in digital form like Pierce Brosnan.

Hopefully, when/if Goldeneye 007 is added to Nintendo Switch Online, it will be in a bit better shape than it is in now. Players who have already upgraded to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack to play N64 and SEGA games have reported issues of input lag, sound delays, frame rate issues, and incorrect controller layouts.

For more on Goldenye 007, check out a fan's remake of Goldeneye in Far Cry 5, how a Goldeneye 007 remaster was canceled by Nintendo with only a few bugs to fix, and how Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to make Goldeneye more family-friendly.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Nintendo is shuttering its offices in Redwood City, California and Toronto, Ontario — a move that will reportedly affect more than 100 employees. The decision coincides with the reported resignation of Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Nick Chavez, who will be leaving Nintendo to join Kentucky Fried Chicken.

First reported by Kotaku, Nintendo of America confirmed that the offices would be closing in a statement to IGN.

"Nintendo of America headquarters are in Redmond, WA, and Vancouver, BC. We are moving more of our employees and operations into those headquarters and will be closing small satellite offices in Toronto, ON, and Redwood City, CA, over time," the statement says.

It continues, "Devon Pritchard, Executive Vice President, Business Affairs and Publisher Relations for Nintendo of America (NOA), will assume interim leadership of Sales, Marketing and Communications following the departure of Nick Chavez. Ms. Pritchard will oversee strategy and execution of sales, marketing and communications across the U.S. and Canada."

According to Kotaku, staff were reportedly "upset" by the decision to close the Redwood City office.

Until their closure, the Redwood City and Toronto locations were satellite offices that primarily housed Nintendo's sales and marketing teams. IGN was in the Redwood City office last month to see the Switch OLED and play Metroid Dread, and the location was almost totally empty.

Like many other companies, Nintendo has had to scramble to adapt to new work from home protocols and other issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It appears that this is an attempt to consolidate its physical offices as the pandemic wears on.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN.

Nintendo is shuttering its offices in Redwood City, California and Toronto, Ontario — a move that will reportedly affect more than 100 employees. The decision coincides with the reported resignation of Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Nick Chavez, who will be leaving Nintendo to join Kentucky Fried Chicken.

First reported by Kotaku, Nintendo of America confirmed that the offices would be closing in a statement to IGN.

"Nintendo of America headquarters are in Redmond, WA, and Vancouver, BC. We are moving more of our employees and operations into those headquarters and will be closing small satellite offices in Toronto, ON, and Redwood City, CA, over time," the statement says.

It continues, "Devon Pritchard, Executive Vice President, Business Affairs and Publisher Relations for Nintendo of America (NOA), will assume interim leadership of Sales, Marketing and Communications following the departure of Nick Chavez. Ms. Pritchard will oversee strategy and execution of sales, marketing and communications across the U.S. and Canada."

According to Kotaku, staff were reportedly "upset" by the decision to close the Redwood City office.

Until their closure, the Redwood City and Toronto locations were satellite offices that primarily housed Nintendo's sales and marketing teams. IGN was in the Redwood City office last month to see the Switch OLED and play Metroid Dread, and the location was almost totally empty.

Like many other companies, Nintendo has had to scramble to adapt to new work from home protocols and other issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It appears that this is an attempt to consolidate its physical offices as the pandemic wears on.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN.

ReedPOP has announced that it will be shutting down PAX South for the time being.

"While each of our other events has flourished, some of them drawing hundreds of thousands of attendees from around the world, PAX South hasn't expanded and to some extent has remained the same show that it was when we opened it in 2015," wrote the PAX team in a statement.

They continued, saying, "Faced with that reality, and compounded by the impact of COVID-19, we have made the difficulty decision to bring PAX South to an end for the foreseeable future."

We have made the difficult decision to bring PAX South to an end for the foreseeable future. See the full statement below: pic.twitter.com/hW8J6wBzxb

— PAX (@pax) October 29, 2021

Understandably, fans who were looking forward to PAX South's return in 2022 will be disappointed. However, the wording in the statement suggests that it could return sometime down the line if more favorable conditions happen.

The first ever PAX event started in 2004 in Bellevue, Washington and has expanded to five different cities since its inception. PAX South started in 2015 in San Antonio in an attempt to draw fans from Texas and surrounding states, but ultimately failed to take off.

In related news, PAX West returned this year as an in-person event. It was canceled last year and replaced by a nine-day digital-only event as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, the event's return was criticized for not applying enough safety measures, but eventually pivoted to requiring proof of vaccination cards or negative COVID tests upon entry.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey

ReedPOP has announced that it will be shutting down PAX South for the time being.

"While each of our other events has flourished, some of them drawing hundreds of thousands of attendees from around the world, PAX South hasn't expanded and to some extent has remained the same show that it was when we opened it in 2015," wrote the PAX team in a statement.

They continued, saying, "Faced with that reality, and compounded by the impact of COVID-19, we have made the difficulty decision to bring PAX South to an end for the foreseeable future."

We have made the difficult decision to bring PAX South to an end for the foreseeable future. See the full statement below: pic.twitter.com/hW8J6wBzxb

— PAX (@pax) October 29, 2021

Understandably, fans who were looking forward to PAX South's return in 2022 will be disappointed. However, the wording in the statement suggests that it could return sometime down the line if more favorable conditions happen.

The first ever PAX event started in 2004 in Bellevue, Washington and has expanded to five different cities since its inception. PAX South started in 2015 in San Antonio in an attempt to draw fans from Texas and surrounding states, but ultimately failed to take off.

In related news, PAX West returned this year as an in-person event. It was canceled last year and replaced by a nine-day digital-only event as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, the event's return was criticized for not applying enough safety measures, but eventually pivoted to requiring proof of vaccination cards or negative COVID tests upon entry.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey