Gathering Magic has received information about Arena of the Planeswalkers: Battle for Zendikar. The expansion unlocks two new Planeswalkers - Kiora and Ob Nixilis - and new spells and squads for these characters.
Arena of the Planeswalkers: Battle for Zendikar is scheduled to be released in January 2016 and is expected to retail for $19.99.
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
Oh, wow! I didn't think they were going to support this game! Now I'm kind of excited. I got a very 'meh' feeling off of the base game because it seemed like it was going to be tossed out sans support.
"Kiora, the Rising Tide" and "Ob Nixilis, Demon of Spite" are very likely the names of their respective cards
I've added those names to the crunch
Do we reason to expect three planeswalkers in BFZ? Two is normal in a large set. If we don't know specifically to expect three, then we could theoretically see Ob Nixilis in whatever set follows BFZ.
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On MTGO as Protoman.
On 7/14/10, broke 1900 mark! <3 ROE.
"Kiora, the Rising Tide" and "Ob Nixilis, Demon of Spite" are very likely the names of their respective cards
Actually not the case, the Planeswalker army cards in the first Arena of the Planeswalkers had totally different names from the cards they took their art from. (they used the art of Gideon, Battle-Forged and named the army card "Gideon, Combat Mage", and etc.).
This is probably their art from the set though, whether it's from BFZ or the set afterwards is maybe up for debate, but assuming they still do 5 per block, they could still fit Kiora and Nixilis with Gideon. Kiora's art looks like it's from the Duel Deck, however.
Excited for this, me and my friend have had some fun with this game, glad to have word of an expansion. Was kind of hoping something would come sooner than next year though.
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They didn't care that he was the savior of Fort Keff, the great hunter of Ondu, the champion of Kabira. To them, he was just another piece of flesh, a thing with life to be drained away.
It looks like it comes with:
Kiora
Ob Nixilis
Big Eldrazi
1x White Angel
3x Black Vampires
3x Red goblins (yay)
1x Blue Merfolk
3x Eldrazi Spawn
2x Green somethings (Elves?)
Also looks like it comes with a new standing piece of terrian, but that's pretty meh honestly.
The game itself is pretty okay. The planeswalker minis look intersting, but if I'm playing it I'm using old heroscape terrain rather than the bare bones stuff they provided with the core set.
Not an angel, but a flying Kor (those wings are too bat-like to be an Angel - it has to be a Kor with a Kitesail)
Would it have killed them to include a few more of the rocky terrain pieces? The number you get in the base set is completely inadequate, one tiny hill adds nothing to games
Not an angel, but a flying Kor (those wings are too bat-like to be an Angel - it has to be a Kor with a Kitesail)
Would it have killed them to include a few more of the rocky terrain pieces? The number you get in the base set is completely inadequate, one tiny hill adds nothing to games
Ah! Thanks, I was wondering what the heck was going on with that thing. I was going to say Demon but it was cast in white plastic.
The terrain situation has really got to suck for anyone who didn't have the old heroscape stuff.
I'm really surprised they went this route for the games, too, rather than just doing it like the Marvel Heroscape.
But it is cool that, by extension, you can have Gideon fight Captain America.
I've never played Heroscape, but I do have Arena of the Planeswalkers and its quite fun to play; especially with 3-5 players. This new expansion seems crazy, at least from my limited knowledge of the game. Really looking forward to it!
Yay goblins, I loved the phoenix red got in the first run, but I would rather had goblins instead of the cats, now I can switch them in. Sadly now I have to fight over who got to play red with a friend of mine who also loves goblins
Also a cool thing if I read it correctly, unnatural resilience on the eldrazi weakens him when the player has figures standing on the glyphs, which is a nice way to use something like a hedron network without the need to make new pieces.
The only question left for me is the distribution of the figures. I get it that each color gets a new one, with Kiora covering both green and blue (I still hope she gets a kraken figure and not only those two figures we have seen), but what about Ob? Does he only get the vampires and no second figure?
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Thanks to DarkNightCavalier from Heroes of the Plane Studios for this sick Signature.
Would it have killed them to include a few more of the rocky terrain pieces? The number you get in the base set is completely inadequate, one tiny hill adds nothing to games
My guess is they wanted it to be a little more portable and accessible. I loved Heroscape, and still have lots of terrain, but it was an ordeal to set up for a game and it took up a lot of room. They wanted the terrain to support the mana flavor, but not be as huge a part of the game as it was in Heroscape.
I have not played the game yet, that is just my theory.
I'm confused. So there are only 3 black squads, 2 green and 1 blue...for the black and the blue/green planeswalkers? So you have to mix and match other squads from the core? what if you want to play liliana and ob?
Also the description on the preorder from amazon says "Includes 2 Planeswalker figures, 3 hero figures, 11 squad figures, 15 spell cards, 9 army cards..." So there's the 2 planeswalkers (kiora and ob), and 3 heroes? The eldrazi titian and...are the white and blue figures "heroes"?
I'm confused. So there are only 3 black squads, 2 green and 1 blue...for the black and the blue/green planeswalkers? So you have to mix and match other squads from the core? what if you want to play liliana and ob?
Also the description on the preorder from amazon says "Includes 2 Planeswalker figures, 3 hero figures, 11 squad figures, 15 spell cards, 9 army cards..." So there's the 2 planeswalkers (kiora and ob), and 3 heroes? The eldrazi titian and...are the white and blue figures "heroes"?
That's what I'm wondering about too. If we take the amazon description as confirmed final list, then blue and white will get a "hero" creature, the bigger picture from amazon shows that on both the merfolk and the kor only one unit is shown, and the kor would have a pretty high attack value as a squad
So either the other colors also get hero cards, which the product shots so far seem to deny, or there are more units than the product descriptions lists so far. If not the game will be very unbalanced, as you already said, what if both Liliana and Ob are played, or Kiora and Nissa/Jace? I hope we get more on this before the end of the year
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Thanks to DarkNightCavalier from Heroes of the Plane Studios for this sick Signature.
Would it have killed them to include a few more of the rocky terrain pieces? The number you get in the base set is completely inadequate, one tiny hill adds nothing to games
My guess is they wanted it to be a little more portable and accessible. I loved Heroscape, and still have lots of terrain, but it was an ordeal to set up for a game and it took up a lot of room. They wanted the terrain to support the mana flavor, but not be as huge a part of the game as it was in Heroscape.
I have not played the game yet, that is just my theory.
I feel like there is a happy middle ground in there somewhere. Having the giant cardboard base frees up the need for a LOT of that terrain. I think a few more tilesets wouldn't have hurt. Marvel Heroscape came with enough terrain to keep things interesting, but not enough to be cumbersome. That amount of terrain would be nice, especially since you not longer need a base layer.
I can see that. If this new expansion is not coming with some additional tiles then the missed an opportunity to serve those that want more.
My son and I definitely ended up taking terrain to extremes with heroscape. The last game we put together was to try and get the rest of our tabletop group into it and we spent several hours designing and putting together a game board that was 3' x 6'. Our group looked at it and were impressed, but it was a little over the top. We never even finished that campaign and us making the board too big was a big factor. Getting two armies within ramg of each other took a long time, and there was almost never the tension of having to fight on more than one front.
I'm not saying that the this PW game is anywhere near being in danger of that level of extreme set up fatigue, but I can see why they erred on the conservative side for a game like this.
I absolutely love this expansion, $20 for all that stuff is such a fantastic deal. I'm glad they incorporated more classic creatures like goblins (even though nobody in my group will likely use them), merfolk (kinda wish the "hero" creatures were legendaries from the actual sets), and vampires. My boyfriend will flip over the Eldrazi.
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Arena of the Planeswalkers: Battle for Zendikar is scheduled to be released in January 2016 and is expected to retail for $19.99.
Source:
http://www.gatheringmagic.com/news-08282015-arena-of-the-planeswalkers-expansion-is-coming/
I've added those names to the crunch
I'm happy she stayed U/G. At least for the board game so far.
(as opposed to just being a "background character" who wouldn't need a new title)
Reprint Stasis!
Control needs more love.
EDH:
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm
WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW
WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
Which means Zendikar is likely a goner.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
Do we reason to expect three planeswalkers in BFZ? Two is normal in a large set. If we don't know specifically to expect three, then we could theoretically see Ob Nixilis in whatever set follows BFZ.
On 7/14/10, broke 1900 mark! <3 ROE.
Actually not the case, the Planeswalker army cards in the first Arena of the Planeswalkers had totally different names from the cards they took their art from. (they used the art of Gideon, Battle-Forged and named the army card "Gideon, Combat Mage", and etc.).
This is probably their art from the set though, whether it's from BFZ or the set afterwards is maybe up for debate, but assuming they still do 5 per block, they could still fit Kiora and Nixilis with Gideon. Kiora's art looks like it's from the Duel Deck, however.
Excited for this, me and my friend have had some fun with this game, glad to have word of an expansion. Was kind of hoping something would come sooner than next year though.
But the people behind the barrier knew.
http://toyland.gizmodo.com/the-magic-the-gathering-board-game-is-getting-a-new-g-1735154733
It looks like it comes with:
Kiora
Ob Nixilis
Big Eldrazi
1x White Angel
3x Black Vampires
3x Red goblins (yay)
1x Blue Merfolk
3x Eldrazi Spawn
2x Green somethings (Elves?)
Also looks like it comes with a new standing piece of terrian, but that's pretty meh honestly.
The game itself is pretty okay. The planeswalker minis look intersting, but if I'm playing it I'm using old heroscape terrain rather than the bare bones stuff they provided with the core set.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
Would it have killed them to include a few more of the rocky terrain pieces? The number you get in the base set is completely inadequate, one tiny hill adds nothing to games
The terrain situation has really got to suck for anyone who didn't have the old heroscape stuff.
I'm really surprised they went this route for the games, too, rather than just doing it like the Marvel Heroscape.
But it is cool that, by extension, you can have Gideon fight Captain America.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Also a cool thing if I read it correctly, unnatural resilience on the eldrazi weakens him when the player has figures standing on the glyphs, which is a nice way to use something like a hedron network without the need to make new pieces.
The only question left for me is the distribution of the figures. I get it that each color gets a new one, with Kiora covering both green and blue (I still hope she gets a kraken figure and not only those two figures we have seen), but what about Ob? Does he only get the vampires and no second figure?
Thanks to DarkNightCavalier from Heroes of the Plane Studios for this sick Signature.
My guess is they wanted it to be a little more portable and accessible. I loved Heroscape, and still have lots of terrain, but it was an ordeal to set up for a game and it took up a lot of room. They wanted the terrain to support the mana flavor, but not be as huge a part of the game as it was in Heroscape.
I have not played the game yet, that is just my theory.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
Also the description on the preorder from amazon says "Includes 2 Planeswalker figures, 3 hero figures, 11 squad figures, 15 spell cards, 9 army cards..." So there's the 2 planeswalkers (kiora and ob), and 3 heroes? The eldrazi titian and...are the white and blue figures "heroes"?
That's what I'm wondering about too. If we take the amazon description as confirmed final list, then blue and white will get a "hero" creature, the bigger picture from amazon shows that on both the merfolk and the kor only one unit is shown, and the kor would have a pretty high attack value as a squad
So either the other colors also get hero cards, which the product shots so far seem to deny, or there are more units than the product descriptions lists so far. If not the game will be very unbalanced, as you already said, what if both Liliana and Ob are played, or Kiora and Nissa/Jace? I hope we get more on this before the end of the year
Thanks to DarkNightCavalier from Heroes of the Plane Studios for this sick Signature.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
My son and I definitely ended up taking terrain to extremes with heroscape. The last game we put together was to try and get the rest of our tabletop group into it and we spent several hours designing and putting together a game board that was 3' x 6'. Our group looked at it and were impressed, but it was a little over the top. We never even finished that campaign and us making the board too big was a big factor. Getting two armies within ramg of each other took a long time, and there was almost never the tension of having to fight on more than one front.
I'm not saying that the this PW game is anywhere near being in danger of that level of extreme set up fatigue, but I can see why they erred on the conservative side for a game like this.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
—Mowagh the Gwyllion, Fang Skulkin