So far, it seems that the promotional arts for these sets have been planeswalkers. Liliana, Sorin - yet we don't know if that's his PW art. Now we got this angel, which as much as it goes against it being a PW, I want it to be. Makes sense to me.
So basically Werewolves only real shot to being competitive is DKA then? That kinda blows I really hate how they did that with Allies back in Rise and gave some stupid "Defender" mechanic. Then again it was a set mostly that could be drafted itself which seems to be the case with this one if they are doing another big card selection. I'm sorta glad DFC sided cards are being removed. I never liked the mechanic.
They cited the lack of allies in Rise as one of their mistakes in how that block was handled, so hopefully they learn from it this time around.
I hope not...I really hope Wizards learned their lesson with Rise of the Eldrazi about orphaned large sets...that said, they already said it'd be all AVR draft, so that seems unlikely.
Also, I LIKE. And I'm not surprised at all. Avacyn is this block's Checkov's Gun. And I figured Magic was due for a block "happy ending" for a change.
I'm...cautiously optimistic. In Zendikar, if someone said that Emeria was gonna be in the the third block, people would have been singing the same praises they are now. Well...she was.
There's a whole other block before we can make sound decisions of "Avacyn, YAY!" from my point of view.
Can't believe some of the ridiculous speculation I've read on Avacyn's returning, so this is what I have, my humble analysis and predictions. The tag tittle of AVR is "ignite the dawn" - it really says it all, we finally have a happy ending after three blocks, but of course, with a twist. The logo of AVR also suggests a combination of white and black mana. Okay's let's begin with an image. The only one and the finest image of Avacyn in Innistrad we have comes from the illustration on one of the black cards:
Assuming the preview image of Avacyn Restored is Avacyn herself, you can clearly see that she dresses differently than her version above, suggesting she must have undergone a sort of transformation we do not know yet. Looking back in the history of Magic character development, character's wears always change according to what their happenings make them to be.
The other thing I notice and can quite sure of is that she gains the characteristics of what an Innistrad vampire has, you know, pale skin with black iris and bright pupils(usually golden yellow), remind you of Sorin Markov perhaps?
Now take a look at another card from INN, Bonds of Faith
It says at the bottom - "What cannot be destoryed will be bound." - Oath of Avacyn
I remember reading Liliana Vess' web comics on the offical MTG site, there was this line saying demons cannot be completely destoryed, one out the other will be reborn in another form in the Multiverse, something like that. So may be, Avacyn decided to take a step further to end Innistrad's human suffering by bounding with the plane's demon lord, who happens to be one of the four demon lords Liliana had to slay in order to free her soul. During the confrontation, when Liliana casted her deathly spell on the demon lord it kills the archangel at the same time, that was when Sorin be the hero by using his vampire blood to save the dying Avacyn, knowing without the power of the archangel Innistrad would lose its balance of white and black mana sources.
The reason I can be certain the Angel the art depicts is no doubt Avacyn is that the angel is wielding the staff identical to Avacyn's. But I also agree with the pervious posts regarding the art not giving enough details of such an important character in INN block, so I also make an another assumption that the piece of art we see today wont be the Avacyn card art, it might have been done by Michael Komarck, but MTG swapped the art in a last min for not giving too much away. But then, anything from Michael Komarck never disappoints me so, if Avacyn's card art is done by Komarck I would be dying to get hold a copy, and I'm really looking forward to see what exactly happened to Avacyn.
You know, just every single time WotC has ever broken a block up into smaller chunks. No Allies or Landfall in RoE, no Clash or Evoke in Shadowmoor/Eventide...you know, just a pattern of facts throughout history.
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Play (verb): Cast/Play
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CIP: Enters the Battlefield
Buy up everything remotely playable in Dark Ascension. We are gonna have another worldwake/rise of eldrazi scenario where the middle sets playables will be inflated in price.
As for continuity of mechanics... I think it's safe to say that flip cards are sticking around throughout the block. Also, I'm hedging my bets on Avacyn being a PW. Oh, and I'm hoping theres a new Gideon
Buy up everything remotely playable in Dark Ascension. We are gonna have another worldwake/rise of eldrazi scenario where the middle sets playables will be inflated in price.
Buy ALL the boosterboxes!
I'm not sure, though. You don't think they learned from their worldwake mistake?
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Story line for the set.
[random human 1]: Yay, we restored Avacyn. Peace will reign!
[random human 2]: Yes. The battle is finally over. Lets spread the news.
[Avacyn]: You have all been naughty! Time for punishment!
[random human 1]: But we restored you.
[Avacyn]: Silence mortal! *ZAP* This realm is once again mine to control!
Yes, I myself am imagining a scenario such as that.
Avacyn fanboys are already WAY cooler than Akroma fanboys.
First, why do you say that?
Second, I am certain that Avacyn shall be very powerful, but Akroma shall always be my favorite angel in Magic: the Gathering (in fact, she is my favorite creature card and my favorite card overall in the entire game, so I doubt that any other character shall replace her as my favorite at any time in the near future).
Buy up everything remotely playable in Dark Ascension. We are gonna have another worldwake/rise of eldrazi scenario where the middle sets playables will be inflated in price.
Yes because 1 powerful mythic and 1 broken rare tutor warped the market that much. WWK would not have been as bad a set for prices if any card other than Jace and the manlands were playable.
The set-size is still odd. We haven't had a 244 card set ever. Ether this is a continuation of only 3 basic land arts per set (saves on art costs for WOTC) or this set is going to be 2XX with XX flip cards, meaning the set is actually smaller on commons/uncommons.
DA should give us the insight into how Werewolves and Vampires are doing. I don't see AVR being void of Werewolves if DA shows them doing A OK just fine. I'm expecting flip cards, even moreso that they don't want to repeat what allies and ROE did, complete set disconnect.
If AVR is even close to as good as 3xINN or 3xROE to draft, then its been a great year for the limited player.
You know, just every single time WotC has ever broken a block up into smaller chunks. No Allies or Landfall in RoE, no Clash or Evoke in Shadowmoor/Eventide...you know, just a pattern of facts throughout history.
WATWATWATWAT?
You realize this is completely different, right?
First, Shadowmoor/Eventide are A DIFFERENT BLOCK. DERP.
As in, they don't have the same mechanics for a reason. You didn't say "HAY LOOK ONSLAUGHT DOESNT HAVE THE SAME ABILITIES AS WEATHERLIGHT EVEN THO THEYRE BOTH ON DOMINARIA LOLOL" because it's stupid to say that.
yeah, they're on the same plane, but they're still diferent blocks.
Don't believe me? Check the mothership, Shadowmoor/Eventide are their own block.
As for Zen block, WotC stated that because they had never done a land based set before they didn't know if it would work well - ROE was their insurance incase landfall flopped.
Neither of those applies here. DFCs are new, but they aren't the focus of the set. If anything, we might not see morbid and that other new ability in the set.
There will be DFCs in this set.
Also, I really am hoping this means Inn's story will be wrapped up and we get a happy ending, that would be so cool.
Buy up everything remotely playable in Dark Ascension. We are gonna have another worldwake/rise of eldrazi scenario where the middle sets playables will be inflated in price.
I didn´t play during zendikar block... wtf does this mean? How do you know that dark ascension will have better cards? I don´t get it.
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I didn´t play during zendikar block... wtf does this mean? How do you know that dark ascension will have better cards? I don´t get it.
He's referring to how Zendikar Block also had two Large expansions. The middle, small expansion, Worldwake, is now incredibly expensive due to the format-warping cards in it like Jace, The Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic. They're facetiously implying that Dark Ascension will have the same result.
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Ignite the dawn??? really? on a side note, for everyone here that thinks this is going to end well for the humans, the last time someone ignited the dawn in my neighborhood......well lets just say it wasnt pretty
I'm a little confused as to why people are concerned that they'll make the same 'mistake' in Zenidkar block where ROE didn't have Landfall/Allies. That was the whole point of ROE. Same story, same plane, different mechanics. That was the goal. They succeeded. Whether you liked it or not is another story, but I enjoyed that part of it. Granted, I play limited so I think I can comfortably speak for many when I say that a format where games don't really start until turn 4 was quite a relief from a format where missing your 2 drop meant you were way behind.
I would like to think they wouldn't do the same exact approach to a 'broken' block. I would expect new mechanics and DFCs to be there. No graveyard as a resource cards, no flashback. There must be a reason for not wanting the sets drafted together, and it really must be that they wouldn't fit the format.
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You know, just every single time WotC has ever broken a block up into smaller chunks. No Allies or Landfall in RoE, no Clash or Evoke in Shadowmoor/Eventide...you know, just a pattern of facts throughout history.
That, and the fact that they are drafting straight up AVR/AVR/AVR by what the Introducing page says, meaning they will likely not do a continued mechanic, unless they make it internally sufficient as well. Meaning if they do Werewolves in AVR tribal, for example, they would almost have to be an entirely different beast altogether, or else they're pretty much screwing over the Drafting crowd, expecting them to use a mechanic at 1/3 power.
I'm a little confused as to why people are concerned that they'll make the same 'mistake' in Zenidkar block where ROE didn't have Landfall/Allies. That was the whole point of ROE. Same story, same plane, different mechanics. That was the goal. They succeeded. Whether you liked it or not is another story, but I enjoyed that part of it. Granted, I play limited so I think I can comfortably speak for many when I say that a format where games don't really start until turn 4 was quite a relief from a format where missing your 2 drop meant you were way behind.
Flavorfully, yes, but as was mentioned, WWK got almost zero time to settle in the draft scene before it got replaced. Furthermore, Both ZEN and WWK, as well as RoE (PARTICULARLY RoE) ended up with two different rounds of half assed supported mechanics, Allies in ZEN, and Level Up in ROE. I just found it irksome, personally.
They cited the lack of allies in Rise as one of their mistakes in how that block was handled, so hopefully they learn from it this time around.
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I hope not...I really hope Wizards learned their lesson with Rise of the Eldrazi about orphaned large sets...that said, they already said it'd be all AVR draft, so that seems unlikely.
No Gusta.
I'm...cautiously optimistic. In Zendikar, if someone said that Emeria was gonna be in the the third block, people would have been singing the same praises they are now. Well...she was.
There's a whole other block before we can make sound decisions of "Avacyn, YAY!" from my point of view.
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Assuming the preview image of Avacyn Restored is Avacyn herself, you can clearly see that she dresses differently than her version above, suggesting she must have undergone a sort of transformation we do not know yet. Looking back in the history of Magic character development, character's wears always change according to what their happenings make them to be.
The other thing I notice and can quite sure of is that she gains the characteristics of what an Innistrad vampire has, you know, pale skin with black iris and bright pupils(usually golden yellow), remind you of Sorin Markov perhaps?
Now take a look at another card from INN, Bonds of Faith
It says at the bottom - "What cannot be destoryed will be bound." - Oath of Avacyn
I remember reading Liliana Vess' web comics on the offical MTG site, there was this line saying demons cannot be completely destoryed, one out the other will be reborn in another form in the Multiverse, something like that. So may be, Avacyn decided to take a step further to end Innistrad's human suffering by bounding with the plane's demon lord, who happens to be one of the four demon lords Liliana had to slay in order to free her soul. During the confrontation, when Liliana casted her deathly spell on the demon lord it kills the archangel at the same time, that was when Sorin be the hero by using his vampire blood to save the dying Avacyn, knowing without the power of the archangel Innistrad would lose its balance of white and black mana sources.
The reason I can be certain the Angel the art depicts is no doubt Avacyn is that the angel is wielding the staff identical to Avacyn's. But I also agree with the pervious posts regarding the art not giving enough details of such an important character in INN block, so I also make an another assumption that the piece of art we see today wont be the Avacyn card art, it might have been done by Michael Komarck, but MTG swapped the art in a last min for not giving too much away. But then, anything from Michael Komarck never disappoints me so, if Avacyn's card art is done by Komarck I would be dying to get hold a copy, and I'm really looking forward to see what exactly happened to Avacyn.
You know, just every single time WotC has ever broken a block up into smaller chunks. No Allies or Landfall in RoE, no Clash or Evoke in Shadowmoor/Eventide...you know, just a pattern of facts throughout history.
Play (verb): Cast/Play
RFG: Exile
CIP: Enters the Battlefield
Fetchland: Arid Mesa
Shockland: Watery Grave
M10 Dual: Glacial Fortress
Buy ALL the boosterboxes!
I'm not sure, though. You don't think they learned from their worldwake mistake?
Seriously people...wow...
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Yes, I myself am imagining a scenario such as that.
First, why do you say that?
Second, I am certain that Avacyn shall be very powerful, but Akroma shall always be my favorite angel in Magic: the Gathering (in fact, she is my favorite creature card and my favorite card overall in the entire game, so I doubt that any other character shall replace her as my favorite at any time in the near future).
How are you so certain of that?
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did i miss something?
Yes because 1 powerful mythic and 1 broken rare tutor warped the market that much. WWK would not have been as bad a set for prices if any card other than Jace and the manlands were playable.
The set-size is still odd. We haven't had a 244 card set ever. Ether this is a continuation of only 3 basic land arts per set (saves on art costs for WOTC) or this set is going to be 2XX with XX flip cards, meaning the set is actually smaller on commons/uncommons.
DA should give us the insight into how Werewolves and Vampires are doing. I don't see AVR being void of Werewolves if DA shows them doing A OK just fine. I'm expecting flip cards, even moreso that they don't want to repeat what allies and ROE did, complete set disconnect.
If AVR is even close to as good as 3xINN or 3xROE to draft, then its been a great year for the limited player.
My wife was on MTV with this video.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUutIZg2EpU
WATWATWATWAT?
You realize this is completely different, right?
First, Shadowmoor/Eventide are A DIFFERENT BLOCK. DERP.
As in, they don't have the same mechanics for a reason. You didn't say "HAY LOOK ONSLAUGHT DOESNT HAVE THE SAME ABILITIES AS WEATHERLIGHT EVEN THO THEYRE BOTH ON DOMINARIA LOLOL" because it's stupid to say that.
yeah, they're on the same plane, but they're still diferent blocks.
Don't believe me? Check the mothership, Shadowmoor/Eventide are their own block.
As for Zen block, WotC stated that because they had never done a land based set before they didn't know if it would work well - ROE was their insurance incase landfall flopped.
Neither of those applies here. DFCs are new, but they aren't the focus of the set. If anything, we might not see morbid and that other new ability in the set.
There will be DFCs in this set.
Also, I really am hoping this means Inn's story will be wrapped up and we get a happy ending, that would be so cool.
Trolling warning issued. -viper
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I didn´t play during zendikar block... wtf does this mean? How do you know that dark ascension will have better cards? I don´t get it.
A huge thanks to Argetlam and the guys at Hakai studios for this awesome banner
Got it. It´s because of the number of cards in the set. Yeah, they did look like a incredibly few amount of cards compared to this set...
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Avacyn rhymes with "have a sin."
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He's referring to how Zendikar Block also had two Large expansions. The middle, small expansion, Worldwake, is now incredibly expensive due to the format-warping cards in it like Jace, The Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic. They're facetiously implying that Dark Ascension will have the same result.
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Avacyn did nothing wrong!
Purify Innistrad!
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I would like to think they wouldn't do the same exact approach to a 'broken' block. I would expect new mechanics and DFCs to be there. No graveyard as a resource cards, no flashback. There must be a reason for not wanting the sets drafted together, and it really must be that they wouldn't fit the format.
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That, and the fact that they are drafting straight up AVR/AVR/AVR by what the Introducing page says, meaning they will likely not do a continued mechanic, unless they make it internally sufficient as well. Meaning if they do Werewolves in AVR tribal, for example, they would almost have to be an entirely different beast altogether, or else they're pretty much screwing over the Drafting crowd, expecting them to use a mechanic at 1/3 power.
Flavorfully, yes, but as was mentioned, WWK got almost zero time to settle in the draft scene before it got replaced. Furthermore, Both ZEN and WWK, as well as RoE (PARTICULARLY RoE) ended up with two different rounds of half assed supported mechanics, Allies in ZEN, and Level Up in ROE. I just found it irksome, personally.
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