Firewild Borderpost can be seen on the Alara Reborn Products page.
We can see the first few words of its text box, and a couple words on the second line. The first five words are:
You may pay and
These are the beginning of an ability allowing an alternative cost for the spell, i.e., something along the lines of "You may pay and [do some other stuff] rather than pay Firewild Borderpost's mana cost."
I've created this thread since the topic of the Borderposts hasn't come up since the discussion with the fake scan, while this new information gives us much to work with.
Now, I have an idea what the two, somewhat more blurry words are, but I would allow for others to make a guess uninfluenced by my own suspicion, to allow guesses that converge to be considered better as evidence for their correctness.
My guess is
The first word is 'hand'. The second one seems to be 'and'.
Are there other ideas, thoughts, speculations?
EDIT: Gosh darn it, I used the search function, I tells ya! The other thread didn't come up. Will this get merged or will I just copy the post over there? I won't make a move until a mod does whatever with this thread.
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I don't see how anyone can make out the numbers on these borderposts... they are so tiny. I am sorry, but I seriously don't think it is safe to say much of anything with regards to these cards as of yet.
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I agree that it's a 1, not a 4, if only because 4 is a helluva lot of mana to pay as an alternate cost.
Something that allows you to replace a land in play with an artifact that produces two colors is a great way to fix mana while not accelerating or slowing (assuming the borderposts don't come into play tapped--although even this wouldn't be too bad).
I agree that it's a 1, not a 4, if only because 4 is a helluva lot of mana to pay as an alternate cost.
Something that allows you to replace a land in play with an artifact that produces two colors is a great way to fix mana while not accelerating or slowing (assuming the borderposts don't come into play tapped--although even this wouldn't be too bad).
As long as it reads untapped land thats okay
otherwise turn 2 you could cast a 3cc spell
Also any decks running birds/noble could get 4 mana by turn 2
This seems a little too powerful
I think it will probably CIPT
I don't think there's enough room for "return an untapped" on the first line. See Thick-Skinned Goblin and compare where the mana symbol comes using the type line as a guide.
However, I do see "land you" on the second line, now.
As for what it means, well, I was just thinking we can make a guess about the whole card, knowing something about how you pay for this. It's probably simple. It's either a normal Signet-type card, or, someone proposed elsewhere, it's a Medallion or another spellcasting aide of that nature.
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As long as it reads untapped land thats okay
otherwise turn 2 you could cast a 3cc spell
Also any decks running birds/noble could get 4 mana by turn 2
This seems a little too powerful
I think it will probably CIPT
How do you figure?
Turn 1: land, go
Turn 2: land (you have 2 mana available); pay 1, return the tapped land to your hand, play borderpost (you have 2 mana available, still)
You've already played a land for the turn, and at this point, you have 1 land in play and 1 artifact which presumably produces 1 mana (EDIT: 1 mana at a time; obviously they'd produce 2 or more colors of mana). If this is the case, you've neither accelerated your mana nor set it back. However, thinking about it, this would make the borderposts almost as good as the original duals except that they could not be played on turn 1 and would not count as "Forest Plains" (for example). Borderposts would also be susceptible to artifact hate.
I'm not sure if that's too powerful, or if it would need to come into play tapped. But either way, it doesn't accelerate your mana unless it produces more than 1 on its own.
It should say untapped land, because otherwise it usually means nothing to pay 1 and return that same land.
We know that these cards reference themselves twice, once in the form of a possessive, so that helps. We know there is an alternate cost, which is also helpful...
The orb does good sometimes.
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You may pay 1 and return a land you control to owner's hand instead of paying this card's mana cost.
~ comes into play tapped
T: Add R or G to your mana pool
Still strong. Early fixing, later ramp. Me likes.
Seconded. A 4 cost artifact that adds 2 seems extremely slow, and if you have to sacrifice a land for the alternate cost, what a ridiculous tempo loss when someone just Naturalizes your Borderpost after you sac a land! They'd be like terrible versions of the RAV block Karoos.
Does anyone know if these Borderposts are supposed to be Rare?
I've been orb-crunching all morning, looking especially for instances of 5 or 10 to pair with these borderposts. Untapped land doesn't work, but how about "Basic"?
Firewild Borderpost
"You may pay 1? and return a basic land you control to it's owner's hand rather than pay Firewild Borderpost's mana cost.
Firewild Borderpost comes into play tapped.
Tap: Add <something> to your mana pool.
Orb results:
Firewild (etc.) - 3
Borderpost - 10
Borderpost's - 5
basic - 5
land - 10 (it's not hard to imagine that these will say land again or another cycle will mention land)
rather - 5
add - 5
owner's - 7 (2 more direct bounce effects, Soulquake does not count)
tapped - 6
pool - 6
This strongly suggests that there is a card with "Pool" in the name, since there are no more instances of add to add mana to your mana pool. These will be the only cards with mana abilities in the set.
I think this should do it, all that remains is to determine the actual quantities of mana.
Edit: The spell's cost and the mana produced may be as simple as 1RG and RG respectively, especially since the alternative cost allows them to act as fixing, so it seems less backwards.
A voice for Timmy.
Commander R Ashling, the Pilgrim Mono Red Wildfire Control GBW Karador, Ghost Chieftain Abzan Dredge Rock WBR Tariel, Reckoner of Souls Mardu Aggro-Reanimator Midrange
I've been orb-crunching all morning, looking especially for instances of 5 or 10 to pair with these borderposts. Untapped land doesn't work, but how about "Basic"?
Firewild Borderpost
"You may pay 1? and return a basic land you control to it's owner's hand rather than paying Firewild Borderpost's mana cost.
Firewild Borderpost comes into play tapped.
Tap: Add <something> to your mana pool.
Orb results:
Firewild (etc.) - 3
Borderpost - 10
Borderpost's - 5
basic - 5
rather - 5
add - 5
owner's - 7 (2 more direct bounce effects, Soulquake does not count)
tapped - 6
pool - 6
This strongly suggests that there is a card with "Pool" in the name, since there are no more instances of add to add mana to your mana pool. These will be the only cards with mana abilities in the set.
I think this should do it, all that remains is to determine the actual quantities of mana.
Actually, "basic" does make a lot of sense. Wizards has said they want to push basics, so this would be a step in that direction. 5cc decks couldn't put them to great use with an alternate cost like this, and even in block most decks want to play their tri lands early (or on turns when they have nothing better to do, like turn 1 or 2). Requiring a basic land would be enough of a "drawback," along with the CIPT.
You may pay 1 and return a basic land you control to it's owner's hand rather than pay Firewild Borderpost's mana cost.
~ comes into play tapped
T: Add R or G to your mana pool
Lets compare this to an Obelisk:
-3 mana
-makes 3 kinds of mana
-when played sets you back
Borderpost:
-2 (colored) mana to cast, acc of and bouncing a land.
-CIPT
-makes 2 kinds of mana
If you cast this borderpost on turn one, you aren't ramping. It is functioning the same as a Shivan Oasis. If you hardcast it, you are. You can use the mana on turn 3, which is good.
It really depends on the intention of the cycle. Are these for fixing, or acceleration, or both? If the alternate cost severely crushes your tempo, (Even lairs let you use them the turn they dropped, and Ravnica bouncelands let you tap the lands you returned) the card should tap for more than just one of two colors.
But after turn 3, this has no advantage over an obelisk. (Naya or Jund)
I think it might be 2cmc CIPT, but I think the rest might be different. It is a little redundant like this, IMO.
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I'm pretty sure that the Borderposts are going to be ramping just like the Ravnica Signets were. I'm in the camp that says that Firewild will tap to add RG to your mana pool. Which is definitely better than the Obelisks, and very cool.
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A voice for Timmy.
Commander R Ashling, the Pilgrim Mono Red Wildfire Control GBW Karador, Ghost Chieftain Abzan Dredge Rock WBR Tariel, Reckoner of Souls Mardu Aggro-Reanimator Midrange
Okay I'll definitely agree that that's a 4, not a 1, especially after 4 has 5 hits in the orb. Let's give this another try:
Firewild Borderpost2RG
You may pay 4 and return a basic land you control to it's owner's hand rather than pay Firewild Borderpost's mana cost.
Firewild Borderpost comes into play tapped.
Tap: Add RG to your mana pool.
This is fixing, this is ramping, but it's at 4 mana or later, so it makes sense.
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A voice for Timmy.
Commander R Ashling, the Pilgrim Mono Red Wildfire Control GBW Karador, Ghost Chieftain Abzan Dredge Rock WBR Tariel, Reckoner of Souls Mardu Aggro-Reanimator Midrange
Wizards must love doing this. Releasing the worlds smallest spolier, and then watching as the MTGSalvation community desperately tries to figure out what a card does from 6 words of blurry text. My Guess:
You may play ~ instead of putting a card named meddling mage from your hand into play.
T: Add GR to your opponent's mana pool.
T: Flip, Flip.
edit: this was much funnier if you just read the orb compilation thread ...
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The only safe lotus variant: White Lotus0
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We can see the first few words of its text box, and a couple words on the second line. The first five words are:
You may pay and
These are the beginning of an ability allowing an alternative cost for the spell, i.e., something along the lines of "You may pay and [do some other stuff] rather than pay Firewild Borderpost's mana cost."
I've created this thread since the topic of the Borderposts hasn't come up since the discussion with the fake scan, while this new information gives us much to work with.
Now, I have an idea what the two, somewhat more blurry words are, but I would allow for others to make a guess uninfluenced by my own suspicion, to allow guesses that converge to be considered better as evidence for their correctness.
My guess is
Are there other ideas, thoughts, speculations?
EDIT: Gosh darn it, I used the search function, I tells ya! The other thread didn't come up. Will this get merged or will I just copy the post over there? I won't make a move until a mod does whatever with this thread.
Awesome avatar provided by Krashbot @ [Epic Graphics].
"You may pay 1 and return an untapped land you control to owner's hand instead of paying this card's mana cost."
I see "you may pay 1 and..." "land you..." for sure.
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Also, Lich Lord of Unx seems to read:
:symu::symb:, : Put a 1/1 blue (and black) Zombie Wizard creature (token into play)
Note to self: Your mafia theories are usually wrong, so don't act on them.
I dunno... it looks kinda small. But "You may pay (some amount of colourless mana)" seems likely.
It looks like: "You may pay 1 and... land you (control?)..."
Which would be "You may pay 1 and return a land you control to its owner's hand instead of..." [paying a cost, probably the borderpost's].
And for the UB lich, it definitely looks like "UB,T: Put a 1/1 blue... zombie wizard creature..."
So "UB,T: Put a 1/1 blue and black zombie wizard creature token into play"
You could be right. Also, it seems to be a zombie beast.
Something that allows you to replace a land in play with an artifact that produces two colors is a great way to fix mana while not accelerating or slowing (assuming the borderposts don't come into play tapped--although even this wouldn't be too bad).
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As long as it reads untapped land thats okay
otherwise turn 2 you could cast a 3cc spell
Also any decks running birds/noble could get 4 mana by turn 2
This seems a little too powerful
I think it will probably CIPT
However, I do see "land you" on the second line, now.
As for what it means, well, I was just thinking we can make a guess about the whole card, knowing something about how you pay for this. It's probably simple. It's either a normal Signet-type card, or, someone proposed elsewhere, it's a Medallion or another spellcasting aide of that nature.
Awesome avatar provided by Krashbot @ [Epic Graphics].
How do you figure?
Turn 1: land, go
Turn 2: land (you have 2 mana available); pay 1, return the tapped land to your hand, play borderpost (you have 2 mana available, still)
You've already played a land for the turn, and at this point, you have 1 land in play and 1 artifact which presumably produces 1 mana (EDIT: 1 mana at a time; obviously they'd produce 2 or more colors of mana). If this is the case, you've neither accelerated your mana nor set it back. However, thinking about it, this would make the borderposts almost as good as the original duals except that they could not be played on turn 1 and would not count as "Forest Plains" (for example). Borderposts would also be susceptible to artifact hate.
I'm not sure if that's too powerful, or if it would need to come into play tapped. But either way, it doesn't accelerate your mana unless it produces more than 1 on its own.
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It´s much more likely that the artifacts give 2 mana, since they´re multicolored and BORDERposts. Borders between Shards, that is.
So the G/R Borderpost will give acces to GR.
I meant that they produce 1 mana at a time, not 1 colored mana. As in, Stomping Ground produces 1 mana at a time, either G or R.
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We know that these cards reference themselves twice, once in the form of a possessive, so that helps. We know there is an alternate cost, which is also helpful...
The orb does good sometimes.
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untapped - 1
It's not untapped land. Probably something similar though.
Seconded. A 4 cost artifact that adds 2 seems extremely slow, and if you have to sacrifice a land for the alternate cost, what a ridiculous tempo loss when someone just Naturalizes your Borderpost after you sac a land! They'd be like terrible versions of the RAV block Karoos.
Does anyone know if these Borderposts are supposed to be Rare?
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Firewild Borderpost
"You may pay 1? and return a basic land you control to it's owner's hand rather than pay Firewild Borderpost's mana cost.
Firewild Borderpost comes into play tapped.
Tap: Add <something> to your mana pool.
Orb results:
Firewild (etc.) - 3
Borderpost - 10
Borderpost's - 5
basic - 5
land - 10 (it's not hard to imagine that these will say land again or another cycle will mention land)
rather - 5
add - 5
owner's - 7 (2 more direct bounce effects, Soulquake does not count)
tapped - 6
pool - 6
This strongly suggests that there is a card with "Pool" in the name, since there are no more instances of add to add mana to your mana pool. These will be the only cards with mana abilities in the set.
I think this should do it, all that remains is to determine the actual quantities of mana.
Edit: The spell's cost and the mana produced may be as simple as 1RG and RG respectively, especially since the alternative cost allows them to act as fixing, so it seems less backwards.
Commander
R Ashling, the Pilgrim Mono Red Wildfire Control
GBW Karador, Ghost Chieftain Abzan Dredge Rock
WBR Tariel, Reckoner of Souls Mardu Aggro-Reanimator Midrange
Actually, "basic" does make a lot of sense. Wizards has said they want to push basics, so this would be a step in that direction. 5cc decks couldn't put them to great use with an alternate cost like this, and even in block most decks want to play their tri lands early (or on turns when they have nothing better to do, like turn 1 or 2). Requiring a basic land would be enough of a "drawback," along with the CIPT.
Hopefully they're uncommons or commons.
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Lets compare this to an Obelisk:
-3 mana
-makes 3 kinds of mana
-when played sets you back
Borderpost:
-2 (colored) mana to cast, acc of and bouncing a land.
-CIPT
-makes 2 kinds of mana
If you cast this borderpost on turn one, you aren't ramping. It is functioning the same as a Shivan Oasis. If you hardcast it, you are. You can use the mana on turn 3, which is good.
It really depends on the intention of the cycle. Are these for fixing, or acceleration, or both? If the alternate cost severely crushes your tempo, (Even lairs let you use them the turn they dropped, and Ravnica bouncelands let you tap the lands you returned) the card should tap for more than just one of two colors.
But after turn 3, this has no advantage over an obelisk. (Naya or Jund)
I think it might be 2cmc CIPT, but I think the rest might be different. It is a little redundant like this, IMO.
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Commander
R Ashling, the Pilgrim Mono Red Wildfire Control
GBW Karador, Ghost Chieftain Abzan Dredge Rock
WBR Tariel, Reckoner of Souls Mardu Aggro-Reanimator Midrange
Firewild Borderpost 2RG
You may pay 4 and return a basic land you control to it's owner's hand rather than pay Firewild Borderpost's mana cost.
Firewild Borderpost comes into play tapped.
Tap: Add RG to your mana pool.
This is fixing, this is ramping, but it's at 4 mana or later, so it makes sense.
Commander
R Ashling, the Pilgrim Mono Red Wildfire Control
GBW Karador, Ghost Chieftain Abzan Dredge Rock
WBR Tariel, Reckoner of Souls Mardu Aggro-Reanimator Midrange
You may play ~ instead of putting a card named meddling mage from your hand into play.
T: Add GR to your opponent's mana pool.
T: Flip, Flip.
edit: this was much funnier if you just read the orb compilation thread ...
The only safe lotus variant:
White Lotus 0
Artifact
Sacrifice White Lotus, Q: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool.
Answering a simple puzzle to unleash legendary power
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