That would be cool to have Azor return. Would explain the symbol in the binding looking like Azorius. So many hints at close to another return to Ravnica.
Honestly, if Rivals of Ixalan ends up being the return of arguably the most important Ravnica parun (in addition to the other Ravnica story elements already in play), you'd think at this point that Ravnica was more important than Dominaria.
I have to agree on this point. If the Sphinx box art is indeed art for a Rivals of Ixalan planeswalker, and that is Azor, then the 'Fall 2018 Set' after the 'Magic 2019' Core Set would practically need to be set in Ravnica. They would just have too many plot threads left dangling (Teysa, Mazirek, Ral Zarek....) and lose interest/attention of newer players coming in.
Or, it's possible that with the return of core sets, they'll use them similar to an anthology where we do quick hops to different planes we already know. That method would justify reprints in a flavorful manner, keep narrative velocity going, and could expand upon some fan loved characters.
Well, we know that there are Azorius Sphyinxs but none of them have beards. His head looks like the head of a Dwarf. Could we get a Red, White, and Blue Dwarf Sphyinx?
Second, most of the Ravnican species are not originally native to the plane, and Azor himself wasn't native either. As such, we can't judge what he looked like based on what the Ravnican Sphinxes look like now.
I know that the species from mirrodin were not native, but I hadnt heard this of ravnica before. Can you elaborate/source this?
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Well, we know that there are Azorius Sphyinxs but none of them have beards. His head looks like the head of a Dwarf. Could we get a Red, White, and Blue Dwarf Sphyinx?
Second, most of the Ravnican species are not originally native to the plane, and Azor himself wasn't native either. As such, we can't judge what he looked like based on what the Ravnican Sphinxes look like now.
I know that the species from mirrodin were not native, but I hadnt heard this of ravnica before. Can you elaborate/source this?
I guess it's more accurate to say "They're probably not originally native to the plane."
The plane's diversity is a strange phenomenon, and I don't recall where I read it, but it's at least rumoured that planeswalker battles using non-walker minions of various races on Ravnica led to the astounding diversity we see now. I've been trying to find where I first saw that, but no dice.
Damn if Ghalta, Primal Hunger doesn't account for some things. Look at what I've attached, Dragonskull Summit might be a fossilized elder dinosaur. If you squint, it might also account for the vampire pommel and mural.
I know that the species from mirrodin were not native, but I hadnt heard this of ravnica before. Can you elaborate/source this?
It came out during Feather's trial in Dissension.
Quote from Dissension, Chapter 8 »
“We—the angels—have long known, as have you, my lord, that Ravnica is sealed off from certain … eventualities,” Feather said, “other places and worlds and states of being. Long ago, when even the angels were young, there were those who came to this world from these other places—these worlds like this one but not like this one—with their own angels and demons, their own people and gods. Most of the newcomers did not even
realize they had not always been here. A few of the visitors, powerful beings indeed, left again, for those other worlds. Sometimes they would return, with tales of these places.”
“We know this, do we?” Nodov said.
“Objection. Badgering the—”
“Continue, Legionary,” the Grand Arbiter said. “I suppose this is inevitable.”
“What is inevitable?” the loxodon asked.
“This was long before the Guildpact,” Feather said. “After a while, we noticed the
visitors had stopped coming as frequently, and the visits stopped completely. Only
a few remembered that there had been such visitors at all. The first Azor knew and passed it down to his successors, did he not, your honor?”
“The accused will not pose further inquiries,” Augustin IV said. “But for the sake
of speeding things along … yes, he did.”
Ohhhh this defiantly adds more weight to the Azor theory. Defiantly needs to be X-mas already.
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Ohhhh this defiantly adds more weight to the Azor theory. Defiantly needs to be X-mas already.
If we're going with the Azor theory, how is he still alive? Are Sphinxes that long-lived, or did the Immortal Sun or whatever preserve him?
If he's a walker then he should be alive, if he's not well who knows, ever since Nahiri defeated Sorin i stopped caring about logic in MTG lore
Nahiri was preserved by Helvault mojo. I recalled that the Amonkhet Sphinxes have been alive since Bolas first arrived on the plane 60 years ago (as the Mending was sapping his godhood), so if Azor was an Oldwalker and Sphinxes have similar lifespans across the multiverse, it'd make sense that he'd still be around.
Ohhhh this defiantly adds more weight to the Azor theory. Defiantly needs to be X-mas already.
If we're going with the Azor theory, how is he still alive? Are Sphinxes that long-lived, or did the Immortal Sun or whatever preserve him?
If he's a walker then he should be alive, if he's not well who knows, ever since Nahiri defeated Sorin i stopped caring about logic in MTG lore
Nahiri was preserved by Helvault mojo. I recalled that the Amonkhet Sphinxes have been alive since Bolas first arrived on the plane 60 years ago (as the Mending was sapping his godhood), so if Azor was an Oldwalker and Sphinxes have similar lifespans across the multiverse, it'd make sense that he'd still be around.
Azor should be 10,000+ years old. I don't think sphinxes are immortal, but the sun is known for granting immortality.
Ohhhh this defiantly adds more weight to the Azor theory. Defiantly needs to be X-mas already.
If we're going with the Azor theory, how is he still alive? Are Sphinxes that long-lived, or did the Immortal Sun or whatever preserve him?
If he's a walker then he should be alive, if he's not well who knows, ever since Nahiri defeated Sorin i stopped caring about logic in MTG lore
Nahiri was preserved by Helvault mojo. I recalled that the Amonkhet Sphinxes have been alive since Bolas first arrived on the plane 60 years ago (as the Mending was sapping his godhood), so if Azor was an Oldwalker and Sphinxes have similar lifespans across the multiverse, it'd make sense that he'd still be around.
Azor should be 10,000+ years old. I don't think sphinxes are immortal, but the sun is known for granting immortality.
I know that he's 10,000+ years old, but my thought process is that if the Sphinx is Azor, if Azor was an Oldwalker, and if Sphinxes are long-lived (not as extreme as Elder Dragons, but still capable of living for decades longer than humans), after the Mending hit, Azor would start aging again, but he'd still be fit as a fiddle in the present because (like Nahiri) he hasn't gotten old enough for his species yet. The Mending was only 60 (?) years ago, after all.
The Immortal Sun keeping him alive is another possibility, yes.
I'm on board with this being Azor. While he was portrayed by a human, that doesn't really mean anything. His species could have been lost in the translation (Azor hasn't been on Ravnica for centuries, and the few beings ancient enough to remember him probably don't care about the accuracy of a random play) or it just could have been ignored by those putting on the play (I assume that sphinx actors are hard to come by, so they would have to make do). The original line that made a lot of people assume that he was a planeswalker, and although the wording left the possibility that he was just transplanted onto Ravnica from another plane, it would make a lot more sense and be a lot more interesting if they were hinting at him being a planeswalker from the very start. And the fact that they made him surprisingly relevant in RTR despite him being a fairly minor footnote in the original Ravnica novels and RTR disregarded a lot of other details from the original block probably should have told us that he was going to appear.
This raises some questions though. Why hasn't Azor gone back to Ravnica? That one is easy to answer. Azor was the one who prevented planeswalkers from entering Ravnica, so after making the Guildpact and planeswalking away for whatever reason, he knew he couldn't get back in. Even though we all know that planeswalkers can get into Ravnica now, Azor had no way of knowing that. Except now with Jace and Vraska there, he's going to find out. What's Azor's motivation for presumably placing the spell on Ixalan? Is he kind of like Ugin, trying to do things for the greater good of the multiverse? If so, how will they differentiate the roles of Azor and Ugin in the story? Or is Azor more like Sorin, keeping his home plane safe at any cost (even if it means locking himself out of it, and then locking other planeswalkers into other planes)? Either way, the most logical explanation is that whatever the Immortal Sun is, it can potentially be a major threat to planes other than Ixalan. That's probably why Bolas wants it.
This whole thing is going to incite even more speculation for Ravnica 3. It's kind of weird that Ixalan's story is shaping up to be more about Ravnica than Ixalan, but it is what it is. If Ravnica 3 is going to be the first two sets after the next core set, it's going to be interesting to see what planeswalkers make it in. Jace, Vraska, and Azor are all probably going to be involved, but they will all have had cards very recently at that point. While they could do a set on a different plane as the fall set right after the core set and then do two Ravnica sets for winter and spring, it still wouldn't be very long after Ixalan. It's not like they're unwilling to give a planeswalker two new cards without much time in between (see our 30 Nissa cards, for example), but having three of the five planeswalkers in Ravnica 3 being the same as three of the five planeswalkers from Ixalan (which was just one year before it) would be kind of weird. Because of this, I suspect that at least one of those three will end up going somewhere other than Ravnica at the end of the block, so that Ravnica 3 isn't too similar to Ixalan in its planeswalker cast.
Lastly, with today's reveals in mind, I'm going to try some final predictions of the story of Rivals of Ixalan before it begins:
Offscreen, Kumena has already discovered Orazca, which is what caused it to rise out of the ground. It also awakened the elder dinosaur(s) (only the green one is confirmed, but it could be a mini-cycle with red and white ones as well).
Jace will have all of his memories come back. All of them. Even Vryn. We'll probably need an entire story dedicated to Jace remembering everything and involuntarily reenacting his memories with illusions, and it will probably be from the POV of Vraska, who experiences the whole thing with him.
Jace will still keep his post-amnesia personality and probably forgive Vraska. There was lot of his emphasis on his worldview that the past doesn't matter and only who you are currently is important. They even restated it in the 10 unanswered questions article. They're not trying to be subtle. Besides, they've put way too much time and effort into developing the relationship between Jace and Vraska, and having Vraska basically live through the entirety of Jace's memory seems like a way to continue that, not to put an end to it.
Vraska will see what Bolas did on Amonkhet (and what he indirectly caused on other planes) and no longer want anything to do with him. She'll still look for Orazca and the Immortal Sun with Jace, but only to escape the plane, not to give it to Bolas. She'll also not end up using the device to call an agent of Bolas after seeing Jace's memories. She might even end up taking an oath as a result.
Angrath and Huatli will continue making their way to Orazca. Angrath will fill Huatli in on what being a planeswalker actually is, and maybe Huatli will reveal what she knows about Ixalan's Binding and the Last Guardian (if she knows anything). We'll also probably get some more backstory for Angrath. Hopefully this story or part of a story will be told from Angrath's POV, since he's been underused in the story so far.
Kumena will need to be defeated at some point. Tishana will probably be the one to do it, since it seems that she's going to get to Orazca first. No room for legendary creatures in the finale, only planeswalkers (Tishana being a probable exception).
Mavren Fein is still unaccounted for, so he will likely show up at some point with vampire followers. He will likely have Adrian Adanto, Eldenda, and/or Arguel for backup, although they will need to explain how he teamed up with them before he arrives at or around Orazca. In the end, he'll be defeated by Huatli + Angrath, Jace + Vraska (and crew), or maybe both working together. Or maybe the vampires just get trampled by the elder dinosaurs that woke up. Who knows? The important thing is, they get defeated.
Jace, Vraska, Huatli, Angrath, and Tishana will all eventually end up in Orazca at the same time, where they will meet Azor. Vraska will probably have a less-than-friendly reaction at first, given her experience with the Azorius, but he's probably to powerful to be petrified by her. Azor will explain how and, more importantly, why he set up all the things he did: the Guildpact, the Implicit Maze, and Ixalan's Binding. The planeswalkers will need to get out somehow, so assuming that Azor isn't trapped on Ixalan along with them (which is very unlikely) and that he's the one who made the barrier (which is very likely), he'll lift the enchantment keeping them out (maybe only temporarily).
With the binding gone, Angrath will go back to his home plane. Huatli might go to Kaladesh (or she might stay on her home plane, Narset-style). I doubt that all three other planeswalkers (Jace, Vraska, and Azor) will go to Ravnica. Since Jace being the Guildpact seems to be a major inconvenience not only to Jace and everyone on Ravnica but also to the writers, I have a feeling that Azor, after being told about the state of affairs on Ravnica, will take away Jace's Guildpact privileges and probably assume those responsibilities himself.
Freed from his Guildpact responsibilities, Jace will go to meet up with the rest of the Gatewatch, most likely on Dominaria. Since Ixalan and Dominaria might be happening concurrently, he may not appear until the very end of Dominaria's story, if he appears at all. Vraska will probably tag along with him if she took an oath (or if she's going to in the near future). Otherwise, she'll go back to Ravnica and be a major player in the next block there.
Azor will tell Tishana to protect Orazca, just like he told her ancestors, if that's even still necessary by that point. After that he'll probably go to Ravnica immediately to fix all the problems Jace caused. It would be hilarious (and kind of practical from a narrative standpoint) for Ravnica 3 to also be happening more or less concurrently with Ixalan, so Azor is absent for the entire first set (allowing us to see Ravnica in complete chaos with the guilds going to war) only to have him return in the second set and fix everything.
This doesn't take into account the significance of the elder dinosaurs or the Immortal Sun, but I think that the broad strokes of the story will go something like that. We can be pretty certain, at the very least, that the planeswalkers will get off the plane, Azor will end up going back to Ravnica, and Jace will probably end up getting freed from his terrible desk job for maximum superhero potential. There's an argument to be made for Jace and Vraska going back to being enemies, but I think it's far more likely that they remain on good terms, and very possible that she joins the Gatewatch, replacing Liliana as both the token anti-hero and the love interest for Jace.
There's also a chance that Ixalan has one or more native sphinxes in Orazca and this artwork is just from a random blue creature and not a planeswalker. That mean that we've had a lot of excitement and speculation about nothing. I think it's very likely that it is Azor, but if it's just some random sphinx that would be an insane curveball for them to throw at us.
There's also a chance that Ixalan has one or more native sphinxes in Orazca and this artwork is just from a random blue creature and not a planeswalker. That mean that we've had a lot of excitement and speculation about nothing. I think it's very likely that it is Azor, but if it's just some random sphinx that would be an insane curveball for them to throw at us.
Yeah, that would just be terrible.
On the other hand, I find it interesting that they didn't even mention anything about the Sphinx on the deck-box.
"Here's the deck-box with a Sphinx plastered all over it, even though the entirety of the first set had no Sphinxes in it. Hey, how about dat Elder Dino? Neat stuff, huh?"
Honestly i hope that sphinx is in fact Azor, idk much about the guy, but i would rather it being him then Ugin.]
Buuuuut, there's also a chance that sphinxes are a part of Ixalan, but all of them reterated to Orazca, who know maybe sphinxes are the last line of defense.
Honestly i hope that sphinx is in fact Azor, idk much about the guy, but i would rather it being him then Ugin.]
Buuuuut, there's also a chance that sphinxes are a part of Ixalan, but all of them retrated to Orazca, who know maybe sphinxes are the last line of defense.
To be fair, no-one knows much about the guy. He founded the Azorius guild, he authored the original Guildpact, and he wasn't native to Ravnica.
Beyond that, the details about Azor are ambiguous or unknown.
Honestly i hope that sphinx is in fact Azor, idk much about the guy, but i would rather it being him then Ugin.]
Buuuuut, there's also a chance that sphinxes are a part of Ixalan, but all of them retrated to Orazca, who know maybe sphinxes are the last line of defense.
To be fair, no-one knows much about the guy. He founded the Azorius guild, he authored the original Guildpact, and he wasn't native to Ravnica.
Beyond that, the details about Azor are ambiguous or unknown.
I don't want to disturb everyones favorite theory, but you all seem to have forgotten that there is another explanation for the sphinx (aside from it being native, which would be a bit difficult to explain), namely that he is actually Bolas' minion that Vraska was ordered to call to Ixalan after she found the Immortal Sun. I'm still betting on Ugin to be involved, but that's nearly equally uncertain. I haven't read The Secretist, but wasn't Azor talking to Jace in some form of recording at the end? Or am I wrong? Did he have a form there? I still doubt that that's the way the story will go.
Aside from the pretty much obvious Emrakul reveal (which everyone seems to have forgotten was dismissed pretty hard at the start of SOI, nowadays it seems to me as if everyone knew of it from the start looking at the comments. Weird.) the creative team has gotten better at subverting certain expectations (Amonkhet NOT being created by Bolas certainly shifted the mood for that story significantly). Azor is at the same time a strange choice (we know next to nothing about him and he would inhabit the same character space as Ugin more or less, which would lead me to question why they didn't use Ugin in the first place) and, for a lack of a better word, too simple. Two Ravnica-related characters on the same world? Must mean that another Ravnica-related character is behind it all so that we can neatly lead to Ravnica 3 AND potentially solve the whole "Jace as the guildpact issue". I'm normally someone trying to defend the writing since it has gotten considerably better and is often critisized unfairly, but that would be just extremely lazy writing and would feel unearned, taking away potentially good conflict (why build up Jace being absent from Ravnica and things going awry there for multiple years if you just ignore that in the end?). I actually hope that they don't go this route.
EDIT: An actual (if small) twist would be that while the sphinx is a planeswalker and the guardian of the Immortal Sun, it's actually a minion of Ugin, not Bolas. Why should only the latter employ other planeswalkers to do his bidding? And Ugin has set a precedent with ordering Nahiri and Sorin around. Just a thought, I obviously have no evidence for this.
I'm pretty sure it's Azor. In addition to what others have already said, there's an azorius-crest triangle shape on his beard and another one beneath it, on his chest. Also, metal plate with blue, round stones is a prominent motif of Azorius guild wear. Of course, all that imagery could be deliberately misleading/a red herring, but honestly I see no good reason for it. Vraska with her hate for the Azorius, "new Jace" as the embodiment of the guildpact 2.0 and the author of the old guildpact ... these three characters alone are a good baseline for (one of) the conflict(s) of Ravnica 3, a point in the overarching storyline Wizards seems to be setting up pretty thoroughly.
I'm pretty sure it's Azor. In addition to what others have already said, there's an azorius-crest triangle shape on his beard and another one beneath it, on his chest. Also, metal plate with blue, round stones is a prominent motif of Azorius guild wear. Of course, all that imagery could be deliberately misleading/a red herring, but honestly I see no good reason for it. Vraska with her hate for the Azorius, "new Jace" as the embodiment of the guildpact 2.0 and the author of the old guildpact ... these three characters alone are a good baseline for (one of) the conflict(s) of Ravnica 3, a point in the overarching storyline Wizards seems to be setting up pretty thoroughly.
You realize that if this all ends up true, Ixalan basically just becomes a backdrop for Ravnica's story.
Not that I mind that, but I just find it a bit funny.
I'm pretty sure it's Azor. In addition to what others have already said, there's an azorius-crest triangle shape on his beard and another one beneath it, on his chest. Also, metal plate with blue, round stones is a prominent motif of Azorius guild wear. Of course, all that imagery could be deliberately misleading/a red herring, but honestly I see no good reason for it. Vraska with her hate for the Azorius, "new Jace" as the embodiment of the guildpact 2.0 and the author of the old guildpact ... these three characters alone are a good baseline for (one of) the conflict(s) of Ravnica 3, a point in the overarching storyline Wizards seems to be setting up pretty thoroughly.
Even if that really is Azor, i highy doubt he will have anything to do with Rav3, he's been away for 10,000 years, i don't think a small conflict between a wannabe Guildleader and the Guildpact will be enough for him to return, also the reason why i believe he and possibly other sphinxes are native to the plane is his armor, he's not wearing a comon Ixalan robe (like vraska) or anything similiar to what the other character we've see so far are wearing, from the box image we can see that his armor follows the same design as Orazca itself( or whichever place he is )
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I'm pretty sure it's Azor. In addition to what others have already said, there's an azorius-crest triangle shape on his beard and another one beneath it, on his chest. Also, metal plate with blue, round stones is a prominent motif of Azorius guild wear. Of course, all that imagery could be deliberately misleading/a red herring, but honestly I see no good reason for it. Vraska with her hate for the Azorius, "new Jace" as the embodiment of the guildpact 2.0 and the author of the old guildpact ... these three characters alone are a good baseline for (one of) the conflict(s) of Ravnica 3, a point in the overarching storyline Wizards seems to be setting up pretty thoroughly.
Even if that really is Azor, i highy doubt he will have anything to do with Rav3, he's been away for 10,000 years, i don't think a small conflict between a wannabe Guildleader and the Guildpact will be enough for him to return, also the reason why i believe he and possibly other sphinxes are native to the plane is his armor, he's not wearing a comon Ixalan robe (like vraska) or anything similiar to what the other character we've see so far are wearing, from the box image we can see that his armor follows the same design as Orazca itself( or whichever place he is )
Except that Azor would have a keen interest in the events involving the plane he invested a lot of his efforts into maintaining the peace. Hearing that the Guildpact he created was shattered and replaced by a failed written Guildpact and then a failing Living Guildpact would at least give him pause. This is independent of whether or not this Sphinx is him.
For the second point, I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying that the evidence that Ixalan has native Sphinxes is that his garb is different? Because that would support his being non-native as well. The point about it fitting Orazca doesn't exactly help if we're to believe he had a hand in the city's design or that he's been living there for some time, native or not. Also, the blue gems reminded me of Isperia's armor and the armor of other Azorius enforcers.
Aside from the pretty much obvious Emrakul reveal (which everyone seems to have forgotten was dismissed pretty hard at the start of SOI, nowadays it seems to me as if everyone knew of it from the start looking at the comments. Weird.)
This is the second time that someone has made this accusation and it is BS, the reason that everyone started to dismiss Emrakul being "the oh so totally not obvious monster Nahiri was summoning." was because it was the single most obvious thing on the face of the planet and WOTC forgot that to write a mystery you not do the single most obvious thing on the planet.
If we're going with the Azor theory, how is he still alive? Are Sphinxes that long-lived, or did the Immortal Sun or whatever preserve him?
If he's a walker then he should be alive, if he's not well who knows, ever since Nahiri defeated Sorin i stopped caring about logic in MTG lore
Nahiri was preserved by Helvault mojo. I recalled that the Amonkhet Sphinxes have been alive since Bolas first arrived on the plane 60 years ago (as the Mending was sapping his godhood), so if Azor was an Oldwalker and Sphinxes have similar lifespans across the multiverse, it'd make sense that he'd still be around.
Azor should be 10,000+ years old. I don't think sphinxes are immortal, but the sun is known for granting immortality.
I know that he's 10,000+ years old, but my thought process is that if the Sphinx is Azor, if Azor was an Oldwalker, and if Sphinxes are long-lived (not as extreme as Elder Dragons, but still capable of living for decades longer than humans), after the Mending hit, Azor would start aging again, but he'd still be fit as a fiddle in the present because (like Nahiri) he hasn't gotten old enough for his species yet. The Mending was only 60 (?) years ago, after all.
The Immortal Sun keeping him alive is another possibility, yes.
They were very clear that a walkers age began 'catching up' with them after the mending, which was why Liliana was desperately searching for life prolonging effects and Bolas was concerned at all. Nahiri was stated to be an anomaly due to the helvualt. So either Sphinxes are ageless, the immortal sun has kept them alive the last 60-80 years, it can't be Azor due to timeline(this last one is most likely because Azor should have lived and died on Ravnica (unable to leave) after he founded the guildpact(you know that whole planar seal), or the worst option ignore the inherent problems their story has presented and charge full steam ahead like no one noticed the inconsistencies.
I actually think that Tishana will lose to Kumena and die. She's already lost once to him and she's old. Maybe it will be MAD or someone else will take Kumena down after he's been worn out by his fight with Tishana. Kopala will probably will probably take over her position from there.
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I have to agree on this point. If the Sphinx box art is indeed art for a Rivals of Ixalan planeswalker, and that is Azor, then the 'Fall 2018 Set' after the 'Magic 2019' Core Set would practically need to be set in Ravnica. They would just have too many plot threads left dangling (Teysa, Mazirek, Ral Zarek....) and lose interest/attention of newer players coming in.
Or, it's possible that with the return of core sets, they'll use them similar to an anthology where we do quick hops to different planes we already know. That method would justify reprints in a flavorful manner, keep narrative velocity going, and could expand upon some fan loved characters.
I know that the species from mirrodin were not native, but I hadnt heard this of ravnica before. Can you elaborate/source this?
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I guess it's more accurate to say "They're probably not originally native to the plane."
The plane's diversity is a strange phenomenon, and I don't recall where I read it, but it's at least rumoured that planeswalker battles using non-walker minions of various races on Ravnica led to the astounding diversity we see now. I've been trying to find where I first saw that, but no dice.
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"
It came out during Feather's trial in Dissension.
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[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
So I'm guessing these dinos won't be any friendlier than the Eldrazi Titans or Nephilim?
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If we're going with the Azor theory, how is he still alive? Are Sphinxes that long-lived, or did the Immortal Sun or whatever preserve him?
If he's a walker then he should be alive, if he's not well who knows, ever since Nahiri defeated Sorin i stopped caring about logic in MTG lore
Art student, EDH lover and a strong believer that Delver has the best design in all of MTG.
Nahiri was preserved by Helvault mojo. I recalled that the Amonkhet Sphinxes have been alive since Bolas first arrived on the plane 60 years ago (as the Mending was sapping his godhood), so if Azor was an Oldwalker and Sphinxes have similar lifespans across the multiverse, it'd make sense that he'd still be around.
I know that he's 10,000+ years old, but my thought process is that if the Sphinx is Azor, if Azor was an Oldwalker, and if Sphinxes are long-lived (not as extreme as Elder Dragons, but still capable of living for decades longer than humans), after the Mending hit, Azor would start aging again, but he'd still be fit as a fiddle in the present because (like Nahiri) he hasn't gotten old enough for his species yet. The Mending was only 60 (?) years ago, after all.
The Immortal Sun keeping him alive is another possibility, yes.
This raises some questions though. Why hasn't Azor gone back to Ravnica? That one is easy to answer. Azor was the one who prevented planeswalkers from entering Ravnica, so after making the Guildpact and planeswalking away for whatever reason, he knew he couldn't get back in. Even though we all know that planeswalkers can get into Ravnica now, Azor had no way of knowing that. Except now with Jace and Vraska there, he's going to find out. What's Azor's motivation for presumably placing the spell on Ixalan? Is he kind of like Ugin, trying to do things for the greater good of the multiverse? If so, how will they differentiate the roles of Azor and Ugin in the story? Or is Azor more like Sorin, keeping his home plane safe at any cost (even if it means locking himself out of it, and then locking other planeswalkers into other planes)? Either way, the most logical explanation is that whatever the Immortal Sun is, it can potentially be a major threat to planes other than Ixalan. That's probably why Bolas wants it.
This whole thing is going to incite even more speculation for Ravnica 3. It's kind of weird that Ixalan's story is shaping up to be more about Ravnica than Ixalan, but it is what it is. If Ravnica 3 is going to be the first two sets after the next core set, it's going to be interesting to see what planeswalkers make it in. Jace, Vraska, and Azor are all probably going to be involved, but they will all have had cards very recently at that point. While they could do a set on a different plane as the fall set right after the core set and then do two Ravnica sets for winter and spring, it still wouldn't be very long after Ixalan. It's not like they're unwilling to give a planeswalker two new cards without much time in between (see our 30 Nissa cards, for example), but having three of the five planeswalkers in Ravnica 3 being the same as three of the five planeswalkers from Ixalan (which was just one year before it) would be kind of weird. Because of this, I suspect that at least one of those three will end up going somewhere other than Ravnica at the end of the block, so that Ravnica 3 isn't too similar to Ixalan in its planeswalker cast.
Lastly, with today's reveals in mind, I'm going to try some final predictions of the story of Rivals of Ixalan before it begins:
This doesn't take into account the significance of the elder dinosaurs or the Immortal Sun, but I think that the broad strokes of the story will go something like that. We can be pretty certain, at the very least, that the planeswalkers will get off the plane, Azor will end up going back to Ravnica, and Jace will probably end up getting freed from his terrible desk job for maximum superhero potential. There's an argument to be made for Jace and Vraska going back to being enemies, but I think it's far more likely that they remain on good terms, and very possible that she joins the Gatewatch, replacing Liliana as both the token anti-hero and the love interest for Jace.
There's also a chance that Ixalan has one or more native sphinxes in Orazca and this artwork is just from a random blue creature and not a planeswalker. That mean that we've had a lot of excitement and speculation about nothing. I think it's very likely that it is Azor, but if it's just some random sphinx that would be an insane curveball for them to throw at us.
Yeah, that would just be terrible.
On the other hand, I find it interesting that they didn't even mention anything about the Sphinx on the deck-box.
"Here's the deck-box with a Sphinx plastered all over it, even though the entirety of the first set had no Sphinxes in it. Hey, how about dat Elder Dino? Neat stuff, huh?"
Buuuuut, there's also a chance that sphinxes are a part of Ixalan, but all of them reterated to Orazca, who know maybe sphinxes are the last line of defense.
Art student, EDH lover and a strong believer that Delver has the best design in all of MTG.
To be fair, no-one knows much about the guy. He founded the Azorius guild, he authored the original Guildpact, and he wasn't native to Ravnica.
Beyond that, the details about Azor are ambiguous or unknown.
I don't want to disturb everyones favorite theory, but you all seem to have forgotten that there is another explanation for the sphinx (aside from it being native, which would be a bit difficult to explain), namely that he is actually Bolas' minion that Vraska was ordered to call to Ixalan after she found the Immortal Sun. I'm still betting on Ugin to be involved, but that's nearly equally uncertain. I haven't read The Secretist, but wasn't Azor talking to Jace in some form of recording at the end? Or am I wrong? Did he have a form there? I still doubt that that's the way the story will go.
Aside from the pretty much obvious Emrakul reveal (which everyone seems to have forgotten was dismissed pretty hard at the start of SOI, nowadays it seems to me as if everyone knew of it from the start looking at the comments. Weird.) the creative team has gotten better at subverting certain expectations (Amonkhet NOT being created by Bolas certainly shifted the mood for that story significantly). Azor is at the same time a strange choice (we know next to nothing about him and he would inhabit the same character space as Ugin more or less, which would lead me to question why they didn't use Ugin in the first place) and, for a lack of a better word, too simple. Two Ravnica-related characters on the same world? Must mean that another Ravnica-related character is behind it all so that we can neatly lead to Ravnica 3 AND potentially solve the whole "Jace as the guildpact issue". I'm normally someone trying to defend the writing since it has gotten considerably better and is often critisized unfairly, but that would be just extremely lazy writing and would feel unearned, taking away potentially good conflict (why build up Jace being absent from Ravnica and things going awry there for multiple years if you just ignore that in the end?). I actually hope that they don't go this route.
EDIT: An actual (if small) twist would be that while the sphinx is a planeswalker and the guardian of the Immortal Sun, it's actually a minion of Ugin, not Bolas. Why should only the latter employ other planeswalkers to do his bidding? And Ugin has set a precedent with ordering Nahiri and Sorin around. Just a thought, I obviously have no evidence for this.
You realize that if this all ends up true, Ixalan basically just becomes a backdrop for Ravnica's story.
Not that I mind that, but I just find it a bit funny.
Even if that really is Azor, i highy doubt he will have anything to do with Rav3, he's been away for 10,000 years, i don't think a small conflict between a wannabe Guildleader and the Guildpact will be enough for him to return, also the reason why i believe he and possibly other sphinxes are native to the plane is his armor, he's not wearing a comon Ixalan robe (like vraska) or anything similiar to what the other character we've see so far are wearing, from the box image we can see that his armor follows the same design as Orazca itself( or whichever place he is )
Art student, EDH lover and a strong believer that Delver has the best design in all of MTG.
Except that Azor would have a keen interest in the events involving the plane he invested a lot of his efforts into maintaining the peace. Hearing that the Guildpact he created was shattered and replaced by a failed written Guildpact and then a failing Living Guildpact would at least give him pause. This is independent of whether or not this Sphinx is him.
For the second point, I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying that the evidence that Ixalan has native Sphinxes is that his garb is different? Because that would support his being non-native as well. The point about it fitting Orazca doesn't exactly help if we're to believe he had a hand in the city's design or that he's been living there for some time, native or not. Also, the blue gems reminded me of Isperia's armor and the armor of other Azorius enforcers.
This is the second time that someone has made this accusation and it is BS, the reason that everyone started to dismiss Emrakul being "the oh so totally not obvious monster Nahiri was summoning." was because it was the single most obvious thing on the face of the planet and WOTC forgot that to write a mystery you not do the single most obvious thing on the planet.
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