So OGW spoilers are already starting to roll in, with three really interesting cards revealed today. It looks like we're in for some exciting changes in OGW, so let's discuss!
So far we've got:
- Kozilek! So Kozi IS actually still on Zendikar as many have predicted. While Ulamog represents hunger and consumption, Kozilek represents distortion and void. It'll be interesting to see how this difference plays out mechanically on the cards as well as creatively with Kozi's brood. Kozilek's card definitely represents his "trickster" nature.
- Mirrorpool, an interesting new land that, like Kozilek, requires a whole new type of mana to activate it's main abilities. And that mana is...
- Wastes! A whole new type of land and mana! Will colorless mana no longer be sufficient to summon and cast Eldrazi spells? What are these wastes? They look quite different than the chalky, desolate swaths that Ulamog's brood creates. Might Kozilek's brood have a different effect on the land than Ulamog's?
Some of the foreshadowing we've seen in the Merfolk legends suggests that Cosi often tricked Ula into doing things that ended up working out for Cosi's benefit. Perhaps Ulamog has just been a pawn in Kozilek's scheme all along. Maybe the Eldrazi are more than just hungry hungry hippos and have a plan all along?
Well, there's no official source for these cards, so that's something to think about.
Aside from that, I'd find it kind of funny if after BFZ they seal away Ulamog, get ready to relax, then Kozilek pops up like a really big prairie dog.
Side note; that art makes Kozilek look like a sausage.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A giant dork. Who likes to eat with forks. Never used a spork.
Decks: Casual R Burn R
EDH R Godo Voltron R RUG ETB Overload RUG BW Clerics Pain and Drain BW GW Spirits!!! GW RUG Landfall Silliness RUG
If these are real that's a pretty huge design jump. A whole sixth type of mana? That seems kind of like the fabled sixth color Maro said they didn't want to do. That said if these turn out to be real it will certainly be interesting to see whether all eldrazi require the new mana, and how that will affect deck-building.
From a storyline perspective though, Kozilek? Awesome.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My Decks:
UG Merfolk RG 8-Whack BWG Abzan midrange GRB Living End UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin" RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!" BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
I doubt that Wastes is real. If they were going to change the rules so that lands without a basic land type have mana abilities by default they would have done it months ago.
Other than that if they're fakes they're very good fakes.
Assuming these are real, it means Creative lied during PAX when they said Ul was the only one on Zendi.
Bleh.
Story-wise, none of the merfolk tales make any sense as foreshadowing. They have absolutely no knowledge on how the titans operate or interact. The only real foreshadowing is from all the Kozilek creatures being underground in their artworks.
I do think it was part of a plan. I mean, if the Eldrazi had the ability to just leave already, there was no reason why any of them would stay. Zendikar after all still contained the trap that was already used once to encase them.
A good explanation for the behavior could indeed be that Ulamog was acting as a bait to see if the guys who trapped them originally were still around, and if so, kill them.
Assuming these are real, it means Creative lied during PAX when they said Ul was the only one on Zendi.
GASP!
Creative didn't lie. They said that it is believed that Ulamog is the only one around. Or that Ulamog is the only one who has been seen for months. No one said definitively that Kozilek and Emrakul were gone.
The fact the art for waste matches rocks in Skitterskin and Kozilek's Sentinel (you have to pull up the full images), has me convinced this real. I'm guessing wastes are drained lands that can only give you colorless mana.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Assuming these are real, it means Creative lied during PAX when they said Ul was the only one on Zendi.
GASP!
Creative didn't lie. They said that it is believed that Ulamog is the only one around. Or that Ulamog is the only one who has been seen for months. No one said definitively that Kozilek and Emrakul were gone.
It's a bit blurry though, because they gave out the same statement for both Emrakul and Kozilek, even though their absence has different reasons (unless Emrakul is also on Zendikar and this is a silly twist x3 combo)
Both the cards and story always treated Emrakul's fate and Kozilek's as the same, we got Eldrazi cards associated with Emrakul and we got the same for Kozilek. We got mentions of neither spawn in the stories. If we consider the Kozilek cards foreshadowing, then we also have to do the same for the Emrakul cards. If we start cherry picking it becomes a lottery about who was right in the end with their speculations.
A good twist would have been "Haha, all what you thought is true, is wrong!". Instead we got "Haha, all what you thought is true is wrong. Well, half of it actually. The other part is still true. Sort of, probably, nobody knows."
If you really want to keep the suspense, just say "Nobody knows yet." or "WELL ISN'T THAT QUITE THE MYSTERY INDEED". Instead they very, very strongly implied they left and gave us two types of identical looking hints, one half of which turned out to be correct and the other not.
That's not quite right, though - Emrakul's only reference in BFZ is Vestige of Emrakul, whose name and flavor text do suggest that Emrakul actually is gone. Meanwhile, Kozilek received Herald of Kozilek, Kozilek's Channeler, and Kozilek's Sentinel, and both the names and flavor text of the Herald and Channeler strongly suggest Kozilek is still around and is hidden somewhere.
Why would kozilek's brood have been thinning out if it was still on the plane?? I believe that in one of the uncharted realms they mentioned that kozilek's and Emrakul's respectives broods were thinning....unless Kozilek was holding them back for some reason......but why??
Also in today's uncharted realms, Nissa is revealed to be able to sense things inside of Zendikar. She did have to focus, but an Eldrazi wouldn't be that hard to "feel". Finally, Nissa is revealed to be able to see the leylines of power connecting everything similar to how the superhero Storm can see everything in terms of energy. Can't she combined the previous two abilities and search Zendikar internally for the remaining titans?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Thanks to XenoNinja at Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig.
*Disclaimer* I'm someone who thought Kozilek was still on Zendikar from the time Herald of Kozilek was spoiled so I'm writing this with the assumption that that will turn out to be true. As Arcanus Dominus said above, the hints for Kozi have been much stronger than the reference to Emrakul in BFZ. It would be successful foreshadowing if all of the indications placed in BFZ culminated in the revelation that Kozi is still on Zendikar.
As for why Kozi's brood is thinning, it should be noted we still have no idea how intelligent the eldrazi are, I feel it is very possible he is holding his spawn underground until he is ready.
I don't think Nissa would be able to sense Kozi because I don't think she can sense eldrazi, in today's UR she could sense things in Zendikar and feel connected to them, but Ulamog was noticeably absent from that connection. I think that because eldrazi are not a part of Zendikar in any way she maybe cannot sense them? Also, even if she could sense Kozi and his spawn feeding she would probably just assume they were more Ulamog spawn. For that matter, since it has been stated Kozi and his brood feed for the most part on psychic energy rather than physical matter they may not even cause enough damage to the land for Nissa to feel it.
Last and most important, Kozilek is the titan of distortion, it has been stated that he can warp reality and perception itself. If, for some unfathomable eldrazi reason, he wanted himself and his brood to be hidden for the time being, even from Nissa and Ashaya, I'm sure her could.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My Decks:
UG Merfolk RG 8-Whack BWG Abzan midrange GRB Living End UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin" RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!" BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
I mean, what did people think the as-yet-unexplained flavor text on Kozilek's Channeler meant? Ulamog certainly hasn't been "growing" anything in the dark corners of the world. IMO the hints that Kozilek is on Zendikar and has been working on something in secret aren't even vague enough to be called hints; more like it's been all-but-confirmed ever since BFZ was fully spoiled.
Assuming these are real, it means Creative lied during PAX when they said Ul was the only one on Zendi.
GASP!
Creative didn't lie. They said that it is believed that Ulamog is the only one around. Or that Ulamog is the only one who has been seen for months. No one said definitively that Kozilek and Emrakul were gone.
There's a reason I specified PAX and not the numerous other outlets where they used the "it's generally thought that the others aren't around."
Assuming these are real, it means Creative lied during PAX when they said Ul was the only one on Zendi.
GASP!
Creative didn't lie. They said that it is believed that Ulamog is the only one around. Or that Ulamog is the only one who has been seen for months. No one said definitively that Kozilek and Emrakul were gone.
There's a reason I specified PAX and not the numerous other outlets where they used the "it's generally thought that the others aren't around."
I watched the PAX panels and they said the same thing.
My theory (posted mostly for reference to see if I end up right):
Ulamog will be killed.
Kozilek and his brood rise from their underground lairs.
The Planeswalkers create a gate to another world to allow the Zendikari survivors to retreat.
Zendikar dies.
1-2 block after SoI, we get to the plane with the survivors, which becomes the next adventure/exploration world, probably with fetch lands and dinosaurs!
Honestly, the gimmick was up the minute Kozilek's Channeler's flavor text was revealed. Everything else was them trying to shroud everything in mystery to "surprise" people. The accuracy of their statements don't even really matter because we already know Creative has inconsistencies due to being managed by several people (and known to several more), so I don't expect their "marketing cover-up" to be flawless either (I won't be surprised someone in the company didn't know Kozilek was in Oath, received the "Kozilek and Emrakul were not seen on Zendikar" and just went "Both left the plane" on assumption).
Enough about whether they were ambiguous or not, the point is if Kozilek is really on the plane (since without confirmation the spoilers are still rumors, strictly speaking), what exactly is the Oath then? Kozilek isn't going to politely just leave, so it means war again.
We know Ulamog isn't going stay long inside the Network thanks to Ob, but the point is Ulamog and Kozilek are both active now. Do they even have the resources to drive both "hands away from the pond that is Zendikar"? Ugin recommended sealing, they listened. Clearly it failed, so I'm pretty sure they resort to "drive away Ulamog" for Oath, but now that Kozilek is in the mix, are they powerful enough to drive away both? Sealing both again (Ulamog for the third time) is certainly anti-dramatic to no end, so it leaves driving them off (the Oath still implies Zendikar still survives though...)
They may well kill Ulamog. Ob breaks the network and everyone turns and fights Ulamog. Kiora was noticeably absent from the actual fighting and if Gideon could more or less hold the titan at a standstill for a minute or two I imagine that Nissa, Kiora and Gideon with coordination of their attacks through Jace could bring Ulamog down. That is of course assuming Ob immediately leaves rather than sticking around to screw with them. It would be then that Kozilek emerges. All his potential foes are worn out and it would be ideal for him to strike. After all Ula is often tricked into doing things that are for Cosi's benefit.
That's believable.....until you go back and realize that Kozilek was trapped just as easily as the other two. The kozilek you describe has an enormous amount of foresight and intelligence. How could this being be trapped as easily as the other two?? Couldn't it have just warped reality and nobody could have ever seen them in the first place??
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Thanks to XenoNinja at Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig.
Has there ever been anything in the lore about the Bismuth that Kozilek and his brood leave behind? Is he transmuting the land into something completely different or is he draining the land. Is Zendikar dying as a result or is it being transformed into something else?
How does "oh look there are a bunch of things fighting my buddy, maybe I can take advantage of this" require tremendous foresight? If he is indeed lurking underground I'm not sure I see what you cats are talking about. That is nothing like "holy crap this guy that we were chasing to this plane we've never been to before was actually drawing is into a plane wide trap that he and his pals have been working on for decades." One is meager amounts of foresight. The other is full on precognition. Which isn't actually so farcical if the Eldrazi are 4 dimensional entities.
That's believable.....until you go back and realize that Kozilek was trapped just as easily as the other two. The kozilek you describe has an enormous amount of foresight and intelligence. How could this being be trapped as easily as the other two?? Couldn't it have just warped reality and nobody could have ever seen them in the first place??
Why not just warp everybody's perception and go unnoticed?? Plus, if kozilek has that kind of foresight, how did it get captured in the first place??
Not that this is necessarily what happened, but back when the Eldrazi were first captured, they probably weren't expecting measly 3 dimensional creatures, planeswalkers or not, to be able to hurt them at all.
I mean, it is like if termites decided to trap you in your basement by chewing away the wood in the stairs leading to it. Whether you are a genius or not, you would probably fall for it because the idea wouldn't ever cross your mind.
Nobody actually started to fight Ulamog until recently. That means Kozilek hid before it even knew planeswalkers were going to band together to fight Ulamog. Plus, how did Kozilek know Ulamog would stay? All of them were free to leave, but Kozilek knew to hide because Ulamog would eventually fight the planeswalkers that Kozilek did not know about?? It would be more believable that Kozilek and Emrakul did, in fact, leave the plane and waited for Ulamog to follow. After realizing that Ulamog is set on destroying Zendikar, Kozilek returns to Zendikar (either by his own will or Emrakul's realizing that having them all trapped again is not a good thing) either to speed up the process of destoying Zendikar or to "drag" Ulamog off the plane since they could very well get trapped again only to find Ulamog (which I think is the "little brother" of the three)is trapped again.
It just doesn't sound right that Kozilek would go underground after have been trapped there is stasis for 1,000 years or more.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Thanks to XenoNinja at Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So far we've got:
- Kozilek! So Kozi IS actually still on Zendikar as many have predicted. While Ulamog represents hunger and consumption, Kozilek represents distortion and void. It'll be interesting to see how this difference plays out mechanically on the cards as well as creatively with Kozi's brood. Kozilek's card definitely represents his "trickster" nature.
- Mirrorpool, an interesting new land that, like Kozilek, requires a whole new type of mana to activate it's main abilities. And that mana is...
- Wastes! A whole new type of land and mana! Will colorless mana no longer be sufficient to summon and cast Eldrazi spells? What are these wastes? They look quite different than the chalky, desolate swaths that Ulamog's brood creates. Might Kozilek's brood have a different effect on the land than Ulamog's?
Some of the foreshadowing we've seen in the Merfolk legends suggests that Cosi often tricked Ula into doing things that ended up working out for Cosi's benefit. Perhaps Ulamog has just been a pawn in Kozilek's scheme all along. Maybe the Eldrazi are more than just hungry hungry hippos and have a plan all along?
Aside from that, I'd find it kind of funny if after BFZ they seal away Ulamog, get ready to relax, then Kozilek pops up like a really big prairie dog.
Side note; that art makes Kozilek look like a sausage.
Decks:
Casual
R Burn R
EDH
R Godo Voltron R
RUG ETB Overload RUG
BW Clerics Pain and Drain BW
GW Spirits!!! GW
RUG Landfall Silliness RUG
From a storyline perspective though, Kozilek? Awesome.
RG 8-Whack
BWG Abzan midrange
GRB Living End
UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin"
RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!"
BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
Other than that if they're fakes they're very good fakes.
Bleh.
Story-wise, none of the merfolk tales make any sense as foreshadowing. They have absolutely no knowledge on how the titans operate or interact. The only real foreshadowing is from all the Kozilek creatures being underground in their artworks.
Your mods are terrified of me.
A good explanation for the behavior could indeed be that Ulamog was acting as a bait to see if the guys who trapped them originally were still around, and if so, kill them.
GASP!
Creative didn't lie. They said that it is believed that Ulamog is the only one around. Or that Ulamog is the only one who has been seen for months. No one said definitively that Kozilek and Emrakul were gone.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
It's a bit blurry though, because they gave out the same statement for both Emrakul and Kozilek, even though their absence has different reasons (unless Emrakul is also on Zendikar and this is a silly twist x3 combo)
Both the cards and story always treated Emrakul's fate and Kozilek's as the same, we got Eldrazi cards associated with Emrakul and we got the same for Kozilek. We got mentions of neither spawn in the stories. If we consider the Kozilek cards foreshadowing, then we also have to do the same for the Emrakul cards. If we start cherry picking it becomes a lottery about who was right in the end with their speculations.
A good twist would have been "Haha, all what you thought is true, is wrong!". Instead we got "Haha, all what you thought is true is wrong. Well, half of it actually. The other part is still true. Sort of, probably, nobody knows."
If you really want to keep the suspense, just say "Nobody knows yet." or "WELL ISN'T THAT QUITE THE MYSTERY INDEED". Instead they very, very strongly implied they left and gave us two types of identical looking hints, one half of which turned out to be correct and the other not.
Thanks to XenoNinja at Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig.
As for why Kozi's brood is thinning, it should be noted we still have no idea how intelligent the eldrazi are, I feel it is very possible he is holding his spawn underground until he is ready.
I don't think Nissa would be able to sense Kozi because I don't think she can sense eldrazi, in today's UR she could sense things in Zendikar and feel connected to them, but Ulamog was noticeably absent from that connection. I think that because eldrazi are not a part of Zendikar in any way she maybe cannot sense them? Also, even if she could sense Kozi and his spawn feeding she would probably just assume they were more Ulamog spawn. For that matter, since it has been stated Kozi and his brood feed for the most part on psychic energy rather than physical matter they may not even cause enough damage to the land for Nissa to feel it.
Last and most important, Kozilek is the titan of distortion, it has been stated that he can warp reality and perception itself. If, for some unfathomable eldrazi reason, he wanted himself and his brood to be hidden for the time being, even from Nissa and Ashaya, I'm sure her could.
RG 8-Whack
BWG Abzan midrange
GRB Living End
UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin"
RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!"
BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
There's a reason I specified PAX and not the numerous other outlets where they used the "it's generally thought that the others aren't around."
Your mods are terrified of me.
I watched the PAX panels and they said the same thing.
WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
Enough about whether they were ambiguous or not, the point is if Kozilek is really on the plane (since without confirmation the spoilers are still rumors, strictly speaking), what exactly is the Oath then? Kozilek isn't going to politely just leave, so it means war again.
Thanks to XenoNinja at Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig.
Thanks to XenoNinja at Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig.
Not that this is necessarily what happened, but back when the Eldrazi were first captured, they probably weren't expecting measly 3 dimensional creatures, planeswalkers or not, to be able to hurt them at all.
I mean, it is like if termites decided to trap you in your basement by chewing away the wood in the stairs leading to it. Whether you are a genius or not, you would probably fall for it because the idea wouldn't ever cross your mind.
It just doesn't sound right that Kozilek would go underground after have been trapped there is stasis for 1,000 years or more.
Thanks to XenoNinja at Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig.