I thought it was chaps at first, but now I think it is a leather onesie that snaps at the crotch. Most babies wear them under their pants, but PW roll with their own style.
Irrelevant Side note: I find it very funny that someone called BeaArthur_Cosplay and someone named deadpool848 are posting in the same thread. LOL!
Kiora Atua might fit in this theme, with the mythological beasts (read: Krakens) about the plane.
With Ral Zarek just new to the party, this guy will not get a card for a while.
Ral Zarek was always planned for Return to Ravnica, because they always planned to Return to Ravnica. We almost got him 6 months early, and it was just because of a few details here and there with the Block Structure that he was in the last set rather than the first or second. So we've known Ral Zarek was going to be a card pretty much as soon as Return to Ravnica was announced, and WOTC has known he was going to be a card for almost as long as Dack Fayden has existed.
That said.
The Lorwyn 5 are...they're not yet so-old-they're-tired out, because we have a whole new Core Set version of them, and this is only the second time they've been Gathered in the Core Set in their new versions.
Goldmane Cycle: two Mythic Prints: M10 and M11.
Caller of the Pride Cycle: two Mythic Prints as a Cycle: M13 and M14.
I believe WOTC will likely want to replace the Ajani-Garruk Walkers, though, to keep the Core Set fresh, in either M15 or M16. (M15 could see an interesting selection of Walkers we don't see together, like how M12 had Gideon, Sorin, and introduced the new versions of Jace, Chandra, and Garruk)
Jace Beleren is the only character they've almost squeezed the life out of.
Either he gets ANOTHER book or comic book appearance, cementing him as THE "Hero" against Nicol Bolas THE "Villain"- not just a Planar story, but a Multiversal story, something we really haven't had since the Infinite Consortium...
Or Jace needs to retire.
Kiora Atua differs from Ral Zarek in that she seems so generically fit to "Magic" but it's difficult to tell whether she's more "Therosy" or "Lorwyny" that she could end up anywhere. She could have a Sorin or Ral Zarek type Planar Background, or she could be given a Mono-Blue card in the Core Set, and a Blue-Green card in a following set. A lot of things could be done with her character because she's so undefined. But she probably can't be Mono-Green.
So, if M15 features an Almost Totally New cycle of 5 Mono Colored Planeswalkers, I think that Kiora Atua and Dack Fayden are competing against Tamiyo the Moon Sage for the "Blue Spot". I believe Dack Fayden has the best chance of filling the shoes left in Beleren's wake, since he can Flavorfully be given all the Mechanics in Blue that Jace can't.
My thoughts for M15's Planeswalkers:
WHITE
Gideon (Gatecrash). He's weak in some ways, but he's fun. More importantly, I don't think he's strongly loved enough to get a 3.0 and I don't think 1.0 is the power level WOTC wants to see in Walkers. This one is very unique, even if that niche-ness is of questionable use.
BLUE
Tamiyo the Moon Sage. She's more likely to get it than Dack Fayden, and Kiora Atua I'm convinced is the one who will have to wait forever to get a card. Of course, if Jace remains too popular with WOTC, Jace 4.0 or hell, 5.0 is just as likely.
BLACK
Sorin 3.0! He's the Coolest Planeswalker they've got, because Jace and Garruk each used to be this, and then got a few too many cards to feel 'special'.
Sorin is going to sneak up on people with a lot more prints than they remember, because 1.0 is played heavily in Commander (needs another reprint) and 2.0 is a Badass.
Unless..
Liliana of the Veil? It would be pretty odd for WOTC to reprint a card representing a specific moment in Liliana's story in the Core Set, but they are actually committed to reducing the cost of Modern and Legacy, not RELIGIOUSLY, but just enough that Liliana 2.0, since she is safe for Standard, could be a very high profile reprint actually anywhere.
Remember that they almost printed Jace, the Mind Sculptor in M12, and they might feel like reprinting Liliana is an apology for not reprinting Jace, since she is not actually dangerous to formats.
RED
New Chandra from M14 I hope will be Exciting and Good and should get at least one reprint, as Caller of the Pride and Dark Realms have gotten.
Or Koth of the Hammer.
GREEN
This one I've got nothing, because WOTC has got nothing.
There's Garruk (a lot of him)
There's Nissa (please God no)
There's...I mean a mono-Green Sarkhan isn't impossible? But it's probably undesirable.
There's...
nobody else.
I would say, though, that almost every Planeswalker except for terrible terrible cards like Nissa Revane should expect 2 Reprints ''just Because you're a Planeswalker" (unless you are played in Modern and Legacy *and* are worth about $50..or $200),
and that a Planeswalker card that seems "staple enough for Core" can expect 3 Reprints or more, adding up Duel Decks and Block prints.
Between the normal process of making Planeswalkers for Blocks and the Planeswalkers that have room for 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 versions, I would say that Wizards has a very strong cast of characters that they can cycle through, without overloading 'Modern' Vorhoses with too many characters to keep the stories straight about.
Blue is the strongest color (duh)
followed by White
followed by Black
Red and Green I think each could use New Blood, but I suppose Tibalt or Koth could get 2.0's at completely different power levels. Any Planeswalker that's appeared in Mono-Color before already is eligible for the Core Set in some incarnation, Plus Nicol Bolas.
I am probably every color-combination it is possible to be, though it's really hard to figure out what it would mean to be 4-colored....it doesn't seem logical to be 4-colored without being 5-colored.
I like these comics, especially because they come with an alt-art card, but would it kill WOTC to put some really good, playable promo cards in with them this time around? Faithless Looting, Standstill, Electrolyze and Turnabout- ok cool. not high value cards, but still playable in multiple formats. Treasure Hunt isn't my favorite, but sure, it makes for good flavor. Arrest? Feast of Blood? OGRE ARSONIST? Yeesh- what a waste. Please WOTC, put a desirable standard rare in with the comics once- just once... try it, you might like it. I'm not asking for Deathrite Shaman or Boros Reckoner- but would putting some more Immortal Servitudes or Blasphemous Acts into circulation really be that bad? Including more standard/modern playable rares might actually sell enough comics to get people interested in this storyline/product- of my playgroup, I seem to be the only one remotely interested.
I genuinely want to know why? Do you read any other comics?
So far the only people I have chatted with that genuinely liked the MTG comics are people who did not read comics. I know I sound like a jerk-face here, but I have a hard time believing that someone that enjoys some of the amazing writing in comic books right now (indy and big 2) could read these comics and find the writing and storytelling to be good.
I said I like them- I'm not in love with them. They aren't great by any stretch of the imagination, but they serve their purpose of being mildly entertaining, mostly through art references to cards/spells. I read a lot of other comics, and these aren't my favorite by a long shot (my favorites comics tend to have been published by Slave Labor Graphics back in the '90s)- frankly these MTG comics could use a lot of improvement, but I don't have high expectations of an MTG comic. They do their thing well enough, but they aren't as good as the Path of the Planeswalker web comics / graphic novels, which had better stories and better art (most of the time).
Ral Zarek was always planned for Return to Ravnica, because they always planned to Return to Ravnica. We almost got him 6 months early, and it was just because of a few details here and there with the Block Structure that he was in the last set rather than the first or second. So we've known Ral Zarek was going to be a card pretty much as soon as Return to Ravnica was announced, and WOTC has known he was going to be a card for almost as long as Dack Fayden has existed....
Kiora Atua differs from Ral Zarek in that she seems so generically fit to "Magic" but it's difficult to tell whether she's more "Therosy" or "Lorwyny" that she could end up anywhere.
I'm pretty sure that Kiora Atua (the character, not the card) was created just to be an AI opponent in Duels of the Planeswalkers (2012?) and that they did not originally intend for her to show up in card form. However, since people kept asking for her, they decided to go ahead and give her a more fleshed out back story and find a spot to print her in card form.
While Ral, as you said, was always intended to feature as a story character in Return to Ravnica block.
I said I like them- I'm not in love with them. They aren't great by any stretch of the imagination, but they serve their purpose of being mildly entertaining, mostly through art references to cards/spells. I read a lot of other comics, and these aren't my favorite by a long shot (my favorites comics tend to have been published by Slave Labor Graphics back in the '90s)- frankly these MTG comics could use a lot of improvement, but I don't have high expectations of an MTG comic. They do their thing well enough, but they aren't as good as the Path of the Planeswalker web comics / graphic novels, which had better stories and better art (most of the time).
I guess I see where you are coming from but to me money spent on them is money not spent on another comic that I enjoy reading. I sort of did have high expectations for them when they first came out, partly due to the Planeswalker webcomics and partly due to the fact that I thought they could do better with a more visual method of storytelling. I mean, when it comes to spending that $3.99 I could be buying a Saga, or Hawkeye, or Deadpool, or Lock and Key, or any number of the books that are so amazing right now. I can see how a person that does not buy comics would see picking up the MTG comic every month, but since I am already buying less comics than I would really like to each month I would never waste my money on these.
I'm pretty sure that Kiora Atua (the character, not the card) was created just to be an AI opponent in Duels of the Planeswalkers (2012?) and that they did not originally intend for her to show up in card form. However, since people kept asking for her, they decided to go ahead and give her a more fleshed out back story and find a spot to print her in card form.
I seem to recall MaRo saying as much in his tumblr, but I can't quote it so take it with a grain of salt.
Please WOTC, put a desirable standard rare in with the comics once- just once... try it, you might like it.
If they had asked IDW to put Deathrite Shaman in as soon as he became popular he'd come out in november at the earliest, comics, like magic sets and everything that deals with printing has things scheduled months if not years ahead.
And then you would complain that you got your promo "too late".
Also, Standstill is a better card that anything in standard today.
I thought it was chaps at first, but now I think it is a leather onesie that snaps at the crotch. Most babies wear them under their pants, but PW roll with their own style.
Irrelevant Side note: I find it very funny that someone called BeaArthur_Cosplay and someone named deadpool848 are posting in the same thread. LOL!
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
Fate demanded this connection!
Ral Zarek was always planned for Return to Ravnica, because they always planned to Return to Ravnica. We almost got him 6 months early, and it was just because of a few details here and there with the Block Structure that he was in the last set rather than the first or second. So we've known Ral Zarek was going to be a card pretty much as soon as Return to Ravnica was announced, and WOTC has known he was going to be a card for almost as long as Dack Fayden has existed.
That said.
The Lorwyn 5 are...they're not yet so-old-they're-tired out, because we have a whole new Core Set version of them, and this is only the second time they've been Gathered in the Core Set in their new versions.
Goldmane Cycle: two Mythic Prints: M10 and M11.
Caller of the Pride Cycle: two Mythic Prints as a Cycle: M13 and M14.
I believe WOTC will likely want to replace the Ajani-Garruk Walkers, though, to keep the Core Set fresh, in either M15 or M16. (M15 could see an interesting selection of Walkers we don't see together, like how M12 had Gideon, Sorin, and introduced the new versions of Jace, Chandra, and Garruk)
Jace Beleren is the only character they've almost squeezed the life out of.
Either he gets ANOTHER book or comic book appearance, cementing him as THE "Hero" against Nicol Bolas THE "Villain"- not just a Planar story, but a Multiversal story, something we really haven't had since the Infinite Consortium...
Or Jace needs to retire.
Kiora Atua differs from Ral Zarek in that she seems so generically fit to "Magic" but it's difficult to tell whether she's more "Therosy" or "Lorwyny" that she could end up anywhere. She could have a Sorin or Ral Zarek type Planar Background, or she could be given a Mono-Blue card in the Core Set, and a Blue-Green card in a following set. A lot of things could be done with her character because she's so undefined. But she probably can't be Mono-Green.
So, if M15 features an Almost Totally New cycle of 5 Mono Colored Planeswalkers, I think that Kiora Atua and Dack Fayden are competing against Tamiyo the Moon Sage for the "Blue Spot". I believe Dack Fayden has the best chance of filling the shoes left in Beleren's wake, since he can Flavorfully be given all the Mechanics in Blue that Jace can't.
My thoughts for M15's Planeswalkers:
WHITE
Gideon (Gatecrash). He's weak in some ways, but he's fun. More importantly, I don't think he's strongly loved enough to get a 3.0 and I don't think 1.0 is the power level WOTC wants to see in Walkers. This one is very unique, even if that niche-ness is of questionable use.
BLUE
Tamiyo the Moon Sage. She's more likely to get it than Dack Fayden, and Kiora Atua I'm convinced is the one who will have to wait forever to get a card. Of course, if Jace remains too popular with WOTC, Jace 4.0 or hell, 5.0 is just as likely.
BLACK
Sorin 3.0! He's the Coolest Planeswalker they've got, because Jace and Garruk each used to be this, and then got a few too many cards to feel 'special'.
Sorin is going to sneak up on people with a lot more prints than they remember, because 1.0 is played heavily in Commander (needs another reprint) and 2.0 is a Badass.
Unless..
Liliana of the Veil? It would be pretty odd for WOTC to reprint a card representing a specific moment in Liliana's story in the Core Set, but they are actually committed to reducing the cost of Modern and Legacy, not RELIGIOUSLY, but just enough that Liliana 2.0, since she is safe for Standard, could be a very high profile reprint actually anywhere.
Remember that they almost printed Jace, the Mind Sculptor in M12, and they might feel like reprinting Liliana is an apology for not reprinting Jace, since she is not actually dangerous to formats.
RED
New Chandra from M14 I hope will be Exciting and Good and should get at least one reprint, as Caller of the Pride and Dark Realms have gotten.
Or Koth of the Hammer.
GREEN
This one I've got nothing, because WOTC has got nothing.
There's Garruk (a lot of him)
There's Nissa (please God no)
There's...I mean a mono-Green Sarkhan isn't impossible? But it's probably undesirable.
There's...
nobody else.
I would say, though, that almost every Planeswalker except for terrible terrible cards like Nissa Revane should expect 2 Reprints ''just Because you're a Planeswalker" (unless you are played in Modern and Legacy *and* are worth about $50..or $200),
and that a Planeswalker card that seems "staple enough for Core" can expect 3 Reprints or more, adding up Duel Decks and Block prints.
Between the normal process of making Planeswalkers for Blocks and the Planeswalkers that have room for 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 versions, I would say that Wizards has a very strong cast of characters that they can cycle through, without overloading 'Modern' Vorhoses with too many characters to keep the stories straight about.
Blue is the strongest color (duh)
followed by White
followed by Black
Red and Green I think each could use New Blood, but I suppose Tibalt or Koth could get 2.0's at completely different power levels. Any Planeswalker that's appeared in Mono-Color before already is eligible for the Core Set in some incarnation, Plus Nicol Bolas.
People need to read this fanfiction, though:
www.hpmor.com
I am probably every color-combination it is possible to be, though it's really hard to figure out what it would mean to be 4-colored....it doesn't seem logical to be 4-colored without being 5-colored.
BRYAUGH plays punk and metal covers of songs from LOTR movies! Check out BRYAUGH on bandcamp and facebook!
So far the only people I have chatted with that genuinely liked the MTG comics are people who did not read comics. I know I sound like a jerk-face here, but I have a hard time believing that someone that enjoys some of the amazing writing in comic books right now (indy and big 2) could read these comics and find the writing and storytelling to be good.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
BRYAUGH plays punk and metal covers of songs from LOTR movies! Check out BRYAUGH on bandcamp and facebook!
I'm pretty sure that Kiora Atua (the character, not the card) was created just to be an AI opponent in Duels of the Planeswalkers (2012?) and that they did not originally intend for her to show up in card form. However, since people kept asking for her, they decided to go ahead and give her a more fleshed out back story and find a spot to print her in card form.
While Ral, as you said, was always intended to feature as a story character in Return to Ravnica block.
I guess I see where you are coming from but to me money spent on them is money not spent on another comic that I enjoy reading. I sort of did have high expectations for them when they first came out, partly due to the Planeswalker webcomics and partly due to the fact that I thought they could do better with a more visual method of storytelling. I mean, when it comes to spending that $3.99 I could be buying a Saga, or Hawkeye, or Deadpool, or Lock and Key, or any number of the books that are so amazing right now. I can see how a person that does not buy comics would see picking up the MTG comic every month, but since I am already buying less comics than I would really like to each month I would never waste my money on these.
I seem to recall MaRo saying as much in his tumblr, but I can't quote it so take it with a grain of salt.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
If they had asked IDW to put Deathrite Shaman in as soon as he became popular he'd come out in november at the earliest, comics, like magic sets and everything that deals with printing has things scheduled months if not years ahead.
And then you would complain that you got your promo "too late".
Also, Standstill is a better card that anything in standard today.
I think her placing in the official expanded version of the M12 promotional art means she's part of the paper family now.
Explore ? I don't know, really
Rishadan Port :3
Many thanks to DNC at Heroes of the Plane Studios
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!