It seems pretty likely that the checklist card we've seen is not the only one(it has a number and it's pretty low on flip cards) so I would bet she's a flip 'walker in SOI and a second checklist card in the style of Origins' will be made. A checklist card for the non-legendary flip cards and another for the legendaries and 'walker/s.
It seems pretty likely that the checklist card we've seen is not the only one(it has a number and it's pretty low on flip cards) so I would bet she's a flip 'walker in SOI and a second checklist card in the style of Origins' will be made. A checklist card for the non-legendary flip cards and another for the legendaries and 'walker/s.
There's 24 on the checklist, which is more than both Innistrad and Dark Ascension, so that doesn't really work. And it has to be made up of 3 characters so that it's CL1 doesn't mean much. It could be 000, it could be 298(/297), or it could be CL1 like it is. But there's got to be two anyway since this character is definitely portrayed on a dfc because she has two different pieces of art and none of the cards on the list make sense for Arlinn. The only thing to figure out is what the split is. To be honest I have no idea what's the most likely split. I think I lean towards the suggested C/U and R/M one.
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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.
An interesting thought... a DFC walker does not have the same drawback that a DFC legend / walker does; simply because of the Planeswalker - Arlinn subtype. A player will never be able to have two in play at once, and will only ever be able to control a single Arlinn, regardless of the side. Thus she's most likely a DFC walker and not a DFC Legend / Walker like the origins walkers. That way she can flip between both sides and "control" her transformation.
This leads me to speculate a DFC walker and a second checklist card. Or potentially even a combo checklist emblem... that would be just for her.
Edit: That combo emblem / checklist totally wouldn't work... the list would need to exist in the grave too, while the emblem sticks in play.
Dance, and bring forth the coil! It is an umbilical to Gaea herself, fattening us with the earth's rich bounty. Decks Played: GBWJunk ReanimatorGBW GBRHydraGen BombGBR UGWMaze's EndUGW
Eternal Formats: GCurio ElvesG GBWMelira PodGBW RWKnights of the RoundRW
An interesting thought... a DFC walker does not have the same drawback that a DFC legend / walker does; simply because of the Planeswalker - Arlinn subtype. A player will never be able to have two in play at once, and will only ever be able to control a single Arlinn, regardless of the side. Thus she's most likely a DFC walker and not a DFC Legend / Walker like the origins walkers. That way she can flip between both sides and "control" her transformation.
This leads me to speculate a DFC walker and a second checklist card. Or potentially even a combo checklist emblem... that would be just for her.
Edit: That combo emblem / checklist totally wouldn't work... the list would need to exist in the grave too, while the emblem sticks in play.
If you need to show Arlinn being in the graveyard, why not just use her card? You don't need the checklist unless its in a hidden zone. The only time it would be problematic is if someone somehow bounced Arlinn or put her into your library. While both of those are possible, neither is particularly likely. I think a checklist/emblem would work just fine.
Then again, using the logic that planeswalkers often have their own token cards anyway, it's not such a far-fetched idea that she could simply have her own checklist card, even if she doesn't actually make a token or emblem. They would just need to make that checklist common enough that it's at least more likely that you pull that than the actual card.
I highly doubt they will have more flip cards than those on the list as symmetry is met and they cannot make a whole set based around 1 mechanic that requires the checklist. Also for multicolored ones, only the huntmaster of the fells fits that criterion out of all the flip cards.
In other news:
They didn't focus on Gold cards for Conflux.
They didn't make colored artifacts for Esper.
Theros didn't have enchantment creatures.
Etc, etc.
Because, as Zulzanet pointed out, Wizards "cannot" challenge themselves to do the unexpected. Especially with a mechanic as beloved as dfc.
WR as human (Goldnight archmage) => RG as werefolf.
But I have no idea how this can interact with EDH rulings.
If she was RW on the front and RG on the back, hypothetically, she'd have a RGW color identity. But I still think that, like Garruk Relentless, she'll be walker on both faces. It's what makes the most sense. This isn't a story about her sparking - she did that long ago.
I guess if you think about it the only real reasons they would make her a flipwalker is because of 2 things:
1) She changes drastically when flipped. I don't think this is a thing because in the text I think it said she become one with her ferociousness or something like that. Also since she can change at will (and we are focusing on this plane) yoou would think that she would constitute her ww abilities into her life, thus altering her battle abilities etc.
2) Her becoming a walker is a part of the story like in Origins. The way it seems so far based on the story makes me feel she is already a walker.
With that in mind I say she will not be a flipwalker although there could be notes of her being able to transform in the art on the card.
I guess I just want a ww as the main art for the card though. :/
I will bet money that if sleeves were required to play the game, as you're suggesting, Magic would see an abrupt and drastic decrease in new players, as well as a huge loss of existing players. This is not what WotC is trying to do. In fact, the whole point of the checklist is to avoid this very thing.
As far as speculation for Arlinn goes, I would also bet money that she will be a RG dfc planeswalker (both sides). She is likely the biggest example of box-checking Magic has seen and will see in years (not necessarily a bad thing though, I'm very excited for this card) in that she is likely the werewolf planeswalker that they wanted to include in the first block, but got replaced by Garruk Relentless. Not only that, but she is also probably their answer to the missing werewolf legend, as an actual dfc legend has issues that are difficult to work around and a planeswalker fills much the same roll as a legend in this case (though commander players end up missing out). Assuming that this idea is where they started, I think it's safe to assume they stuck with RG, the established colors for werewolves. It wouldn't make much sense to use different colors (just think how odd it would be, for example, to see a BR Grimgrin instead of a UB one).
Furthermore, I believe that both sides of her will be planeswalker for a few reasons, though the first is pretty much based on feeling.
The first is that her human art seems to be formatted more for a planeswalker frame than a creature frame. There's no concrete evidence for this, but it just doesn't seem to look right to me in a creature frame. There's also a bigger sense of depth and separation between the character and the background in most planeswalker arts than in creature arts, where the character seems to be interacting more with the setting most of the time. Compare Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper and Kiora, Master of Depths to try and see what I'm talking about. It's subtle, but it's something I've noticed with most planeswalker arts, including Arlinn's. Like I said, this is a feel thing for me, so I understand if you all disagree.
The second is a more functional reason. The issue with a double-faced legend is that, technically, you can control two of them at once as long as one is transformed and the other isn't. This is a glitch that I'm guessing WotC doesn't want to encounter, and having one side of the card be a legendary creature and the other be a planeswalker doesn't fix that problem. However, if both sides are planeswalkers of the same type, you can still only control one, no matter which side any copy is on. This means that the "legend rule" remains intact using a planeswalker.
As far as the missing checklist, I think the "CH1" is a pretty clear indicator of "CH2" and (possibly, but not likely) beyond. Even considering that CH1 has more names than either Innistrad or Dark Ascension, it's entirely possible for Arlinn to have her own checklist, or even for there to be a much larger number of dfc's than we might expect.
Raise your hand if you want a RG legend for werewolf EDH that flips into a walker. Also raise your hand if you want them to finish the INN-DKA cycle of monsters. Huntmaster has no INN counterpart, but all the other DKA monsters do.
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My favorite flavor text: Time of Heroes
Feel free to tell me yours!
On the topic of her colors, she appeared in today's official fiction (formerly Uncharted Realms) and her personality gave off a super RG vibe regardless of if she's a human or werewolf. If they went back into her past, yes, she'd probably be white, but she's not showing any of it currently. If you haven't read it yet, here's the link - http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/under-silver-moon-2016-03-02.
If she's formatted like the Origins 'walkers being a creature up front and a 'walker in the back, I'd be completely fine with that and would be glad to have the opportunity to legally build a Commander deck for a multicolored planeswalker. Also, that means we finally get our legendary werewolf. Birds, meet stone.
Inb4 Lillys brother didn't really die and eventually got a spark too.
Dun dun duuuun....
And became Raven Man?
It looks like planeswalkers igniting their spark upon transformation into non-human creatures is becoming more and more common in the multiverse. So perhaps there's still hope for a zombie walker that got Ghoulflesh'd before igniting his spark?
The same is true for Ob Nixilis.
Tibalt as well. He was human now he is a devil.
Think she will be RG. Fighting for the survival of your race is very much freedom fighting and thats a red trait.
It's much easier to have a walker that's human so it can better be related to by the audience. Bolas and Ugin supposedly think far beyond our understanding because they're dragons. They can't really be main characters because of that. Nissa is an elf, which is nearly human in many respects, yet since becoming more of a character she lost many of her "elf" abilities and instead became a druid/geomancer.
Humans have been on almost every plane because Magic wants the cards to sell, and having relate-able races works. Sure, there weren't Humans in Lorwyn/Shadowmoor, but there also weren't demons, leonin, angels, devils, etc.
They've found a way to have the best of both worlds. Planeswalkers that the player base can understand, and non-human planeswalkers. They just have them spark before/when they change.
1) she starts off as a walker, then flips into a creature werewolf. It hasn't been done yet, so Wizards may use this gimmick.
2) Legendary, then flips into a Lycan walker. RG legendary werewolf was something MaRo promised us.
3) Walker flipping into walker. They did it with Garruk, so they might go with this route again. Boring, yes, but cannot be counted out.
I would prefer the 1st. the 2nd is cool, but Wizards did inferred that once you ascended, you probably won't be treated as a mere creature anymore.
1) she starts off as a walker, then flips into a creature werewolf. It hasn't been done yet, so Wizards may use this gimmick.
2) Legendary, then flips into a Lycan walker. RG legendary werewolf was something MaRo promised us.
3) Walker flipping into walker. They did it with Garruk, so they might go with this route again. Boring, yes, but cannot be counted out.
I would prefer the 1st. the 2nd is cool, but Wizards did inferred that once you ascended, you probably won't be treated as a mere creature anymore.
1) is a really cool option. The werewolf art is, however, significantly vertical and planeswalker-formatted. Not to mention that this would be an epic-level trolling from Wizards, because people would indeed get their legendary werewolf, but totally unusable as commander. In this regard, a clean DFC walker would be better, because Wizards could not tick the box and a classic legendary werewolf should be given to us afterwards.
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100% Vorthos Spike and Storyline Expert
Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Doesn'tknow if it was mentioned before but the leaked check list card for the upcoming SOI set (http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/the-rumor-mill/668696-shadows-over-innistrad-leaks) indicates that she wouldn't be included as card, either a dfc planeswalker or legendary creature - planeswalker card, cause her name wasn't mentioned on the check list.
Maybe we get her in Eldritch Moon, at least I hope to get a werewolf dfc planeswalker in this block!
Yes, it was. More than a couple of times. Just use the search function...
When the checklist was leaked, people also noted that compared to Origins, where the checklist was labeled 000/272, the SoI one is labeled CH1/297. That might hint on possible CH2. In Origins, the checklists were included only in the packs with walkers. It might mean that there is a specific checklist for Arlinn that will be included in "her" pack.
Also, so far it never happened that a planeswalker introduced for a particular set did not have a card there. This fact combined, an Occam's Razor solution is that there is a separate checklist for her.
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100% Vorthos Spike and Storyline Expert
Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Personally I think Arlinn's going to be a planeswalker on both sides. We have the short summary of her ascension, but I think she's going to be involved with at least one major plot and a card depicting her ascension process doesn't quite make sense (plus honestly her human-form art looks nowhere near the teenager age she ascended at, although I won't take that as absolute evidence against any possibility either).
The description also indicates she couldn't transform back to her human-form while she wasn't on Innistrad. While we don't have any evidence on what happens when she leaves the plane in human-form (she could be automatically transformed straight into werewolf-form upon leaving Innistrad and be unable to turn back, or she could be stuck in her human-form on another plane), the only thing we're sure is that when she leaves transformed, she stayed transformed and can't transform back. Taking a bold (and unsupported) assumption that her transformed state is her "Main State" instead of her Human-Form (because of her planeswalking restrictions)...
I actually think the front side of her card will the "transformed" state and will be RG, whereas her flip side will actually be her "Human" state and will be GW. She's trained in Avacyn's Magic, which is undoubtedly W and there's the possibility the Magic isn't efficient/effective outside of Innistrad. On Innistrad, her Human form is more powerful because of the Magic she can cast (I'm suspecting she can't cast them while transformed), but elsewhere the physical status of transformation is stronger, which is why she prefers to stay in her transformed state (assuming she has the option to when on another plane).
As for why I think she's GW instead of RW is because I think her (known so far) characterization revolves around survival, which is more G than R (which means Red simply represents the loss of Magic for savagery when she transforms).
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Art is life itself.
Have you met Tibalt? Not a lot of competition in the 2 mana walker category...
Sure, doesn't change the fact Jace is a freaking powerhouse. That'd be like faulting Usain Bolt if his only 200m competition was Nathan Lane.
There's 24 on the checklist, which is more than both Innistrad and Dark Ascension, so that doesn't really work. And it has to be made up of 3 characters so that it's CL1 doesn't mean much. It could be 000, it could be 298(/297), or it could be CL1 like it is. But there's got to be two anyway since this character is definitely portrayed on a dfc because she has two different pieces of art and none of the cards on the list make sense for Arlinn. The only thing to figure out is what the split is. To be honest I have no idea what's the most likely split. I think I lean towards the suggested C/U and R/M one.
But the people behind the barrier knew.
This leads me to speculate a DFC walker and a second checklist card. Or potentially even a combo checklist emblem... that would be just for her.
Edit: That combo emblem / checklist totally wouldn't work... the list would need to exist in the grave too, while the emblem sticks in play.
Dance, and bring forth the coil! It is an umbilical to Gaea herself, fattening us with the earth's rich bounty.
Decks Played:
GBWJunk ReanimatorGBW
GBRHydraGen BombGBR
UGWMaze's EndUGW
Eternal Formats:
GCurio ElvesG
GBWMelira PodGBW
RWKnights of the RoundRW
Then again, using the logic that planeswalkers often have their own token cards anyway, it's not such a far-fetched idea that she could simply have her own checklist card, even if she doesn't actually make a token or emblem. They would just need to make that checklist common enough that it's at least more likely that you pull that than the actual card.
-Chandra Nalaar
In other news:
They didn't focus on Gold cards for Conflux.
They didn't make colored artifacts for Esper.
Theros didn't have enchantment creatures.
Etc, etc.
Because, as Zulzanet pointed out, Wizards "cannot" challenge themselves to do the unexpected. Especially with a mechanic as beloved as dfc.
But I have no idea how this can interact with EDH rulings.
If she was RW on the front and RG on the back, hypothetically, she'd have a RGW color identity. But I still think that, like Garruk Relentless, she'll be walker on both faces. It's what makes the most sense. This isn't a story about her sparking - she did that long ago.
1) She changes drastically when flipped. I don't think this is a thing because in the text I think it said she become one with her ferociousness or something like that. Also since she can change at will (and we are focusing on this plane) yoou would think that she would constitute her ww abilities into her life, thus altering her battle abilities etc.
2) Her becoming a walker is a part of the story like in Origins. The way it seems so far based on the story makes me feel she is already a walker.
With that in mind I say she will not be a flipwalker although there could be notes of her being able to transform in the art on the card.
I guess I just want a ww as the main art for the card though. :/
As far as speculation for Arlinn goes, I would also bet money that she will be a RG dfc planeswalker (both sides). She is likely the biggest example of box-checking Magic has seen and will see in years (not necessarily a bad thing though, I'm very excited for this card) in that she is likely the werewolf planeswalker that they wanted to include in the first block, but got replaced by Garruk Relentless. Not only that, but she is also probably their answer to the missing werewolf legend, as an actual dfc legend has issues that are difficult to work around and a planeswalker fills much the same roll as a legend in this case (though commander players end up missing out). Assuming that this idea is where they started, I think it's safe to assume they stuck with RG, the established colors for werewolves. It wouldn't make much sense to use different colors (just think how odd it would be, for example, to see a BR Grimgrin instead of a UB one).
Furthermore, I believe that both sides of her will be planeswalker for a few reasons, though the first is pretty much based on feeling.
The first is that her human art seems to be formatted more for a planeswalker frame than a creature frame. There's no concrete evidence for this, but it just doesn't seem to look right to me in a creature frame. There's also a bigger sense of depth and separation between the character and the background in most planeswalker arts than in creature arts, where the character seems to be interacting more with the setting most of the time. Compare Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper and Kiora, Master of Depths to try and see what I'm talking about. It's subtle, but it's something I've noticed with most planeswalker arts, including Arlinn's. Like I said, this is a feel thing for me, so I understand if you all disagree.
The second is a more functional reason. The issue with a double-faced legend is that, technically, you can control two of them at once as long as one is transformed and the other isn't. This is a glitch that I'm guessing WotC doesn't want to encounter, and having one side of the card be a legendary creature and the other be a planeswalker doesn't fix that problem. However, if both sides are planeswalkers of the same type, you can still only control one, no matter which side any copy is on. This means that the "legend rule" remains intact using a planeswalker.
As far as the missing checklist, I think the "CH1" is a pretty clear indicator of "CH2" and (possibly, but not likely) beyond. Even considering that CH1 has more names than either Innistrad or Dark Ascension, it's entirely possible for Arlinn to have her own checklist, or even for there to be a much larger number of dfc's than we might expect.
GXTronGX
RWxBurnRWx
Feel free to tell me yours!
If she's formatted like the Origins 'walkers being a creature up front and a 'walker in the back, I'd be completely fine with that and would be glad to have the opportunity to legally build a Commander deck for a multicolored planeswalker. Also, that means we finally get our legendary werewolf. Birds, meet stone.
It's much easier to have a walker that's human so it can better be related to by the audience. Bolas and Ugin supposedly think far beyond our understanding because they're dragons. They can't really be main characters because of that. Nissa is an elf, which is nearly human in many respects, yet since becoming more of a character she lost many of her "elf" abilities and instead became a druid/geomancer.
Humans have been on almost every plane because Magic wants the cards to sell, and having relate-able races works. Sure, there weren't Humans in Lorwyn/Shadowmoor, but there also weren't demons, leonin, angels, devils, etc.
They've found a way to have the best of both worlds. Planeswalkers that the player base can understand, and non-human planeswalkers. They just have them spark before/when they change.
3 probables IMO.
1) she starts off as a walker, then flips into a creature werewolf. It hasn't been done yet, so Wizards may use this gimmick.
2) Legendary, then flips into a Lycan walker. RG legendary werewolf was something MaRo promised us.
3) Walker flipping into walker. They did it with Garruk, so they might go with this route again. Boring, yes, but cannot be counted out.
I would prefer the 1st. the 2nd is cool, but Wizards did inferred that once you ascended, you probably won't be treated as a mere creature anymore.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
The part of me that wants to run her in Saffi wants her to be either monogreen or gw with no other color on either side...
Regardless, I need a playset of foils.
UBBreya's Toybox (Competitive, Combo)WR
RGodzilla, King of the MonstersG
-Retired Decks-
UBLazav, Dimir Mastermind (Competitive, UB Voltron/Control)UB
"Knowledge is such a burden. Release it. Release all your fears to me."
—Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1) is a really cool option. The werewolf art is, however, significantly vertical and planeswalker-formatted. Not to mention that this would be an epic-level trolling from Wizards, because people would indeed get their legendary werewolf, but totally unusable as commander. In this regard, a clean DFC walker would be better, because Wizards could not tick the box and a classic legendary werewolf should be given to us afterwards.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Yes, it was. More than a couple of times. Just use the search function...
When the checklist was leaked, people also noted that compared to Origins, where the checklist was labeled 000/272, the SoI one is labeled CH1/297. That might hint on possible CH2. In Origins, the checklists were included only in the packs with walkers. It might mean that there is a specific checklist for Arlinn that will be included in "her" pack.
Also, so far it never happened that a planeswalker introduced for a particular set did not have a card there. This fact combined, an Occam's Razor solution is that there is a separate checklist for her.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
The description also indicates she couldn't transform back to her human-form while she wasn't on Innistrad. While we don't have any evidence on what happens when she leaves the plane in human-form (she could be automatically transformed straight into werewolf-form upon leaving Innistrad and be unable to turn back, or she could be stuck in her human-form on another plane), the only thing we're sure is that when she leaves transformed, she stayed transformed and can't transform back. Taking a bold (and unsupported) assumption that her transformed state is her "Main State" instead of her Human-Form (because of her planeswalking restrictions)...
I actually think the front side of her card will the "transformed" state and will be RG, whereas her flip side will actually be her "Human" state and will be GW. She's trained in Avacyn's Magic, which is undoubtedly W and there's the possibility the Magic isn't efficient/effective outside of Innistrad. On Innistrad, her Human form is more powerful because of the Magic she can cast (I'm suspecting she can't cast them while transformed), but elsewhere the physical status of transformation is stronger, which is why she prefers to stay in her transformed state (assuming she has the option to when on another plane).
As for why I think she's GW instead of RW is because I think her (known so far) characterization revolves around survival, which is more G than R (which means Red simply represents the loss of Magic for savagery when she transforms).