In today's "Making Magic" column, MaRo confirmed that much like M14 having Blightcaster, Ajani's Chosen, and Oath of the Ancient Wood to support the upcoming Theros block themes, M15 contains cards seeded to support Khans of Tarkir's themes.
Looking through the set, the following patterns emerge (not looking at the "Special Designer" cards as they were likely made after the decisions for seeds were placed.): Convoke & Tokens in general - Due to Convoke being the returning mechanic, each color got some more token making cards than normal since token creatures really help Convoke out, and certain cards like Military Intelligence reward mass attacking (kind of the opposite of Exalted.) Perhaps Tarkir has a strong "army size matters" or "mass combat" theme? Walls - There are a lot of Creature - Walls in this set, and a few cards, such as Siege Dragon, Invisibility and Juggernaut, that reference walls. "If life was lost last turn" effects - First Response and Feast of the Fallen both track whether life was lost by a particular player in the previous turn and encourage or discourage combat. Dwarves are back! - Miner's Bane mentions dwarves and is pictured in a mountainous terrain that could match the promotional art for Khans. As a Dwarf lover, I have to hope. New kind of Artifact block - With cards like Chief Engineer, Aeronaut Tinkerer, Kurkesh, Onnake Ancient, Scrapyard Mongrel, and Shrapnel Blast there are quite a high number of "artifacts matter" cards for your typical core set.
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Commander Decks: WBRQueen Marchesa's Powerful FriendsRBW URArjun, Mindmoil SphinxRU GFreyalise and the ElvesG GROmnath, Ramping to RageRG UBaral, Chef of CounterspellsU
I dunno about you all, but a walls matter block sounds really durdly and dull to me.
It doesn't sound very exciting but the wall decks in Rise of the Eldrazi and Conspiracy are pretty fun to play
+1 for this. Also, if KTK is set in a plane reminding the Mongolian Empire as it seems to be, one could hope for a legendary wall creature that refers to the Great Wall of China.
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Walls aren't the theme of KTK since Maro definitely isn't a fan of walls and we would have heard if someone changed his mind about it. Also... "walls" isn't a theme.
In today's "Making Magic" column, MaRo confirmed that much like M14 having Blightcaster, Ajani's Chosen, and Oath of the Ancient Wood to support the upcoming Theros block themes, M15 contains cards seeded to support Khans of Tarkir's themes.
Looking through the set, the following patterns emerge (not looking at the "Special Designer" cards as they were likely made after the decisions for seeds were placed.): Convoke & Tokens in general - Due to Convoke being the returning mechanic, each color got some more token making cards than normal since token creatures really help Convoke out, and certain cards like Military Intelligence reward mass attacking (kind of the opposite of Exalted.) Perhaps Tarkir has a strong "army size matters" or "mass combat" theme? Walls - There are a lot of Creature - Walls in this set, and a few cards, such as Siege Dragon, Invisibility and Juggernaut, that reference walls. "If life was lost last turn" effects - First Response and Feast of the Fallen both track whether life was lost by a particular player in the previous turn and encourage or discourage combat. Dwarves are back! - Miner's Bane mentions dwarves and is pictured in a mountainous terrain that could match the promotional art for Khans. As a Dwarf lover, I have to hope. New kind of Artifact block - With cards like Chief Engineer, Aeronaut Tinkerer, Kurkesh, Onnake Ancient, Scrapyard Mongrel, and Shrapnel Blast there are quite a high number of "artifacts matter" cards for your typical core set.
The theme, IMO, is attacking / combat matters, as does large numbers of creatures. It's the war / army block.
This is likely the case.
Theroes was the "build your own super creature" block. KTK will be the "build your own super army" block. Tokens and amassing creatures will mater. I would not be surprised if there was a heavy tokens them. Tokens and convoke are two of MaRo's all time favorite mechanics.
The walls thing and miners bane might allude to some good "great wall" card or the inclusion of dwarves. But KTK probably wont have any sort of wall theme.
The Artifacts are just red/blues drafting archetype for limited. Don't look too far into that.
Combat matters would be the laziest design ever, as there hasn't been a NWO format that didn't revolve around attacking/combat as the primary way to win.
As far as Khans hints I would be reluctant to base speculation off of outsider designed cards.
Personally I'm going to hold on to a wedge block. I don't mind a wall sub-theme, but if it's a wall matters block I'll be extremely disappointed. I doubt it'll be that, simply because it isn't really appealing marketing wise. "Block, block, block! Enjoy the new cycle of walls, which slow down the game to a crawl and make aggro, the most approachable archetype, non-existent!"
I definitely see walls as a likely theme for Khans. Khans is meant to be Mongolian-inspired, and walls fit the flavour by representing isolated fortresses fending off raiders. I wouldn't be surprised to see more goblins either.
Just because the coreset hints at themes in the next block doesn't mean those themes will be viable ::cough:: every single mechanic in Theros block and enchantments ::cough::
The theme, IMO, is attacking / combat matters, as does large numbers of creatures. It's the war / army block.
This is likely the case.
Theroes was the "build your own super creature" block. KTK will be the "build your own super army" block. Tokens and amassing creatures will mater. I would not be surprised if there was a heavy tokens them. Tokens and convoke are two of MaRo's all time favorite mechanics.
The walls thing and miners bane might allude to some good "great wall" card or the inclusion of dwarves. But KTK probably wont have any sort of wall theme.
The Artifacts are just red/blues drafting archetype for limited. Don't look too far into that.
I'll say this much: I could see a legendary Wall in G/W or Naya colors, and maybe a small Wall subtheme for draft in KTK, but I think that'd be a minor aspect of the block. The Great Wall of China is a pretty iconic image, and I'd be shocked if it wasn't utilized for the block, given the likely flavor.
Realistically, I'm betting building your army is the logical choice. Maybe some amount of tribal shows up as a means to help you build your army in Limited, but overall, you'll be rewarded for playing and attacking with multiple creatures. Likely returning mechanics, IMO, are Bushido (with a new name), Battle cry, and/or Battalion.
I talked about it in another thread but there is a lot of support for the idea of this being a "build your army and wage war" theme. Heck the quote that we have is "Become a warlord and embody the power of the infamous dragons." So how do you become a warlord? You get an army, had a funky hat........always get a funky hat.
And as a token creature user, I think I might need news skivvies if MaRo declares that the block is token creature centered.
I think Warden of the Beyond seems a little out-of-place--my guess is Khans will have an Imprint-like mechanic that the Warden punishes. Would a consistent 3-mana 4/4 with Vigilance be too powerful?
Basically, if you want to open packs to get cards for Standard and Modern, the simpler approach is to just buy all the singles you need and then set some money on fire to make up the difference.
I think Warden of the Beyond seems a little out-of-place--my guess is Khans will have an Imprint-like mechanic that the Warden punishes. Would a consistent 3-mana 4/4 with Vigilance be too powerful?
This is unlikely. The block hate usually comes in the following Core Set, not the preceding one. This Core Set has cards that support whatever is in KTK block.
This shouldn't surprise anyone. RTR had the hybrid creatures to enable devotion, 2014 had Ajani's Chosen and other Enchantment support for Theros, and etc. Now, as to which specific cards are said support..... I personally like the "Going Wide" theory that's being floated in this thread, with the Convoke support pulling double duty supporting the future Khans/Theros Standard.
The theme, IMO, is attacking / combat matters, as does large numbers of creatures. It's the war / army block.
The speed vs cunning duel deck says something about "flanking and swarming" in its description if I remember correctly. I think the tokens/army theme is definitely legit.
Since we're speculating in here, I'm going to make another guess / prediction: "Dragons of Tarkir" will be the third set of the block, and thus the large set. The first two sets, Khans and Warlords, will feature NO dragons aside from tokens made by Sarkhan. The last set will feature a LOT of dragons, and have a very Battlecruiser Magic-esque feel for Limited, with Dragons taking the place of Eldrazi in a sense.
Some possible themes that they could be going for: Color Matters: We have quite a few cards that care about the color of your creatures. The Paragons, Hall of Triumph, Mass Calcify, etc Lands Matter: This is a stretch, but we have the 5 rares from Journey and the 5 M15 uncommons that care about what lands you have. We could see things based around number and/or types of lands you control. Life gain/loss: M15 has a thing going on about gaining life and losing life. Artifacts matter: While red and blue care about artifacts in M15, could this be something seen in red and blue in Khans? Maybe red and blue artificers makes an army of golems and constructs to fight for them? It could just be the M15 draft/sealed thing for R/U, but it could hint to something a bit more. Maybe we could see dwarf artificers and such. Maybe even a dwarf planeswalker. Tokens: We are going to war in Khans. Warlords need armies. What better represents an army than amassing tons of tokens? Walls: They're Walls. Walls are fun. Who doesn't like a good wall?
The longshot is exile matters. Some people I know have been speculating about graveyard themes and exile and blah blah because of things like Tormod's crypt and dissipate seeing reprints. Those are just enablers for the Warden. W
Looking through the set, the following patterns emerge (not looking at the "Special Designer" cards as they were likely made after the decisions for seeds were placed.):
Convoke & Tokens in general - Due to Convoke being the returning mechanic, each color got some more token making cards than normal since token creatures really help Convoke out, and certain cards like Military Intelligence reward mass attacking (kind of the opposite of Exalted.) Perhaps Tarkir has a strong "army size matters" or "mass combat" theme?
Walls - There are a lot of Creature - Walls in this set, and a few cards, such as Siege Dragon, Invisibility and Juggernaut, that reference walls.
"If life was lost last turn" effects - First Response and Feast of the Fallen both track whether life was lost by a particular player in the previous turn and encourage or discourage combat.
Dwarves are back! - Miner's Bane mentions dwarves and is pictured in a mountainous terrain that could match the promotional art for Khans. As a Dwarf lover, I have to hope.
New kind of Artifact block - With cards like Chief Engineer, Aeronaut Tinkerer, Kurkesh, Onnake Ancient, Scrapyard Mongrel, and Shrapnel Blast there are quite a high number of "artifacts matter" cards for your typical core set.
Commander Decks:
WBRQueen Marchesa's Powerful FriendsRBW
URArjun, Mindmoil SphinxRU
GFreyalise and the ElvesG
GROmnath, Ramping to RageRG
UBaral, Chef of CounterspellsU
UBBreya's Toybox (Competitive, Combo)WR
RGodzilla, King of the MonstersG
-Retired Decks-
UBLazav, Dimir Mastermind (Competitive, UB Voltron/Control)UB
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Correct; it has been stated multiple times that this is a "bottom-up" block, as in, it was designed with mechanics first and flavor second.
It doesn't sound very exciting but the wall decks in Rise of the Eldrazi and Conspiracy are pretty fun to play
Good good that's what I thought
+1 for this. Also, if KTK is set in a plane reminding the Mongolian Empire as it seems to be, one could hope for a legendary wall creature that refers to the Great Wall of China.
- Main Cube
- No Brains, All Feelings Cube
This is likely the case.
Theroes was the "build your own super creature" block. KTK will be the "build your own super army" block. Tokens and amassing creatures will mater. I would not be surprised if there was a heavy tokens them. Tokens and convoke are two of MaRo's all time favorite mechanics.
The walls thing and miners bane might allude to some good "great wall" card or the inclusion of dwarves. But KTK probably wont have any sort of wall theme.
The Artifacts are just red/blues drafting archetype for limited. Don't look too far into that.
As far as Khans hints I would be reluctant to base speculation off of outsider designed cards.
Personally I'm going to hold on to a wedge block. I don't mind a wall sub-theme, but if it's a wall matters block I'll be extremely disappointed. I doubt it'll be that, simply because it isn't really appealing marketing wise. "Block, block, block! Enjoy the new cycle of walls, which slow down the game to a crawl and make aggro, the most approachable archetype, non-existent!"
I'll say this much: I could see a legendary Wall in G/W or Naya colors, and maybe a small Wall subtheme for draft in KTK, but I think that'd be a minor aspect of the block. The Great Wall of China is a pretty iconic image, and I'd be shocked if it wasn't utilized for the block, given the likely flavor.
Realistically, I'm betting building your army is the logical choice. Maybe some amount of tribal shows up as a means to help you build your army in Limited, but overall, you'll be rewarded for playing and attacking with multiple creatures. Likely returning mechanics, IMO, are Bushido (with a new name), Battle cry, and/or Battalion.
- Main Cube
- No Brains, All Feelings Cube
And as a token creature user, I think I might need news skivvies if MaRo declares that the block is token creature centered.
This is unlikely. The block hate usually comes in the following Core Set, not the preceding one. This Core Set has cards that support whatever is in KTK block.
- Main Cube
- No Brains, All Feelings Cube
The speed vs cunning duel deck says something about "flanking and swarming" in its description if I remember correctly. I think the tokens/army theme is definitely legit.
- Main Cube
- No Brains, All Feelings Cube
Color Matters: We have quite a few cards that care about the color of your creatures. The Paragons, Hall of Triumph, Mass Calcify, etc
Lands Matter: This is a stretch, but we have the 5 rares from Journey and the 5 M15 uncommons that care about what lands you have. We could see things based around number and/or types of lands you control.
Life gain/loss: M15 has a thing going on about gaining life and losing life.
Artifacts matter: While red and blue care about artifacts in M15, could this be something seen in red and blue in Khans? Maybe red and blue artificers makes an army of golems and constructs to fight for them? It could just be the M15 draft/sealed thing for R/U, but it could hint to something a bit more. Maybe we could see dwarf artificers and such. Maybe even a dwarf planeswalker.
Tokens: We are going to war in Khans. Warlords need armies. What better represents an army than amassing tons of tokens?
Walls: They're Walls. Walls are fun. Who doesn't like a good wall?
The longshot is exile matters. Some people I know have been speculating about graveyard themes and exile and blah blah because of things like Tormod's crypt and dissipate seeing reprints. Those are just enablers for the Warden. W
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