Guys, I'm super excited for Amonkhet. I'm really digging the idea of an Egyptian theme, and I think it is a brilliant platform for many new directions. The new Gods should in my opinion be much different than in Theros. I've seen where others have stated they don't want them to be indestructible, which is cool with me, but then what? If this is the case, then they need to be hard to get ride of. Maybe Hexproof, with some interesting abilities? Another angle I've been thinking about is the new Gods being flip cards. Maybe when destroyed they can flip into a Blessing (for you)or a Curse (for target opponent)? Also, I would like to see a heavy priest theme (which could then be used for devotion, or some kind of improvise type mechanic). Pharaohs that flip into Mummies could be cool too. Any one have any good ideas, thoughts, comments, etc? Also, let me get at least 1 deathtouch menace creature...
I was considering a card similar to King Macar (make it a Pharaoh). It could have "Whenever a Land enters a graveyard from anywhere, put an artifact token named "Gold" onto the battlefield. It has "Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool". Lastly it could have "Tap: Each player draws a card then discards a card". It's CMC would depend on Power/Toughness, but I'm thinking 4 drop in Dimir colors. Could make a mean Sultai deck with Gitrog.
I like to try and speculate on block mechanics by looking at what synergy we could exploit with the previous blocks. Remember when doing this, however, that Amonkhet would have been designed as if Zendikar/OotGW were not in standard for it, so no synergies there.
1) Revolt and Delirium play well with sacrifice shenanigans; Madness and Delirium love discarad. I could see Exploit returning or some other new mechanic that emphasized sacrifice and filling of the graveyard. There could also just be a lot of graveyard synergy in general, which would be fitting for a world that (to us modern folks) seems obsessed with death and the afterlife.
2) Gold tokens are a good call. "Priceless treasure" is a thing in Egyptian mythology with gold-filled tombs. Gold tokens would interact AWESOMELY with Revolt and the "metalcraft-lite" cards in KALA/AER, and would have some synergy with Improvise as well although I don't think you can "double dip" with Improvised Gold (rules lawyers correct me if I'm wrong). At the very least, while not having a ton of artifacts I do expect a fair amount of artifacts to interact with Kaladesh and play up the treasure aspect.
3) Bolas is a tricolor planeswalker, and MtG likes to push the pendulum. Innistrad and Kaladesh have been more focused on playing traditional 1 or 2 color decks, but Kaladesh has lots of artifacts to help smooth out a tri or quad-color deck. I suspect that there will be a strong multicolor theme in Amonkhet; possibly Shards since we do have Bolas as the All-Father of the plane's pantheon.
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Sufferer of EDHD
Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
Moved the thread to Speculation. Please keep in mind that we got a special subforum for creating cards.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
I have to wonder if the crocodile/alligator humanoids from Egypt might be considered Viashino for creature type purposes, or they will be Lizard Human <class>.
I expect quite a legendary mummy (not with the creature type mummy of course), a legendary pyramid and/or oasis, and more skeletons than usual (but this is my hope more than anything.)
Unearth would be a good fit here, although I don't know how much we need even more value creatures that are annoying to deal with.
I like where you are going with the afterlife theme. I like the Gods not being a creature unless you have X cards in your graveyard. Maybe you could have Afterlife as a keyword on creatures, and when you play a God they could have some variation of Delve (but you can only exile creatures with Afterlife). Then Afterlife's true ability would be to shuffle it into your library from exile for a price. Maybe X (where X is the number of cards you have in exile?) To far? Im just spitballing.
I like to try and speculate on block mechanics by looking at what synergy we could exploit with the previous blocks. Remember when doing this, however, that Amonkhet would have been designed as if Zendikar/OotGW were not in standard for it, so no synergies there.
No deliberate synergies, you mean. You take any two blocks in Magic history and I guarantee you will find some synergies between them. Magic as a game is built on synergy.
That said, I echo other posters' opinions that some kind of graveyard theme is a must. We have mummies and undead, so a reanimation mechanic akin to Unearth or Undying is a possibility. Personally I would like to see an action word that reanimates a creature for one turn, similar to a reusable Unearth except that the reanimation effect comes from spells and other permanents. Something like "Reanimate target creature card in your graveyard. (Put that creature card onto the battlefield under your control and untap it. It gains haste until end of turn. At the beginning of the next end step, sacrifice that creature.)" Obviously many of the reanimation effects would have to specify a subrange, like converted mana cost 3 or less, for the sake of balance.
Another option would be some manner of Disentomb-like effect, perhaps reminiscent of Soulshift. "When this creature enters the battlefield, return target creature card that costs less from your graveyard to your hand." Or conversely, a mechanic that allows you to bring a particular card back whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, like a tweaked Recover.
Of course, Undying would play well with Kaladesh's +1/+1 counter theme as well as Revolt; sac a creature with Undying to Yahenni, it comes back with a +1/+1 counter and enables Revolt, neatly tying together KLD's two Abzan color mechanics.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Undying should definitely be included in this set. Maybe on a variety skeleton or mummy subtype. They should make a group of lands that can be used to support more colors. For instance, (Enter Name: Comes in tapped, (Pay 1 Green and Tap): Add R/B/U to your mana pool). Also, I would enjoy a new type of pain land. Maybe Taps for (1) colorless, or discard a card: Taps for B or R, and so on and so forth. I'd also like to see some more Artifact Enchantment type cards such as Whip of Erebos (and others) with an Egyptian theme. Also, a perfect opportunity to bring back obelisks. Additionally, I'm looking for a wide variety of traps, Sandstorm elementals, maybe a plague sorcery, Gold artifact tokens, hybrid creatures, several entertaining leaves the battlefield/enters the graveyard abilities, and I lastly I would love some new flip cards. Werewolves are an all time favorite of mine, and I think a series of flip cards could add a ton of flavor to this set. Weenies that flip to Skeletons, Pharaohs to Mummies, Lands to traps, or Gods to Enchantments perhaps? The possibilities are endless.
But it is time for a return of Deserts. Camels. Oasis. Oases.
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The Steamflogged
Human Rigger Rebels
Resisting The Tyranny of the Anti-Contraptionists. Viva L'Assemblage!
Modern-- Fish; Jund; Burn; Affinity; Mill Legacy--UGBFood Chain; UFish; UBRG Delver Commander--UB Sygg, River Cutthroat; W Isamaru, H.O.K.WRG Naya grouphug Enchantress 60 Card Singleton -- WB value drain UN- -- W Weenie (Wordmail on Knight of the Hokey Pokey is good beats)
One thought I'd had (And I recognize that this probably won't actually happen) is this:
Since Bolas created Amonkhet, isn't he also trying to create planeswalkers, or an army thereof?
What if we saw some low-cost planeswalker "minions," that came into play with 2 or so loyalty, and only had minus abilities? I.e. -2 - Target creature gets -1/-1 until EoT. That said, I definitely see why this could be a *BAD* idea, since PlanesWalkers can be so overpowered.
I was trying to think of something that would be mechanically "cool" while fitting the Amonkhet theme of Bola's plans for Multiverse Domination.
More realistically: I hope we see cool mummies that play into dope graveyard recursion strategies, which could make Delirium even <i>cooler</i> than it is now.
I think something like a monument subtype would be more likely, because while pyramids are cool, it is a limiting concept. Egyptians built all sorts of crazy monuments to their gods and kings, so why not. I like the previously stated entomb idea, and it seems very WotC in style. I just hope they dont fall flat on Egyptian flavor. THat is really the most important thing to me about this set. There are many sick ideas that can be exploited. You know how there are always the set of cards that have a different color associated to them (Like the various shrines, or puzzleknots?) They should look to do this with organ jars. You know how when someone was mummified, they extracted their vital organs? Maybe they could be 4 drops. Tap for (1) colorless, and have pay (X) and sac, return target creature from exile with CMC(X) to the battlefield. It gains (Flying for Blue, Deathtouch for Black, Menace for Red, First Strike for White, Trample for Green) Then exile it at end of turn. If it dealt damage to a player, shuffle it into your library instead. Just a thought. Could be neat.
I think organ jars are a little too weird for WotC. They would be afraid some people don't get the flavour. They tried very specific, topdown flavour things in Kamigawa and called it a fail afterwards (which is really sad, since the only thing Kamigawa made wrong imo, was the terrible quality of most cards, especially commons). They got the flavour on point in Theros too, pretty much, but stayed more on the safe site. I expect Amonkhet to be Theros-like Egypt.
Although I agree with you that WotC plays it safe, it's crazy to me they dance around that kind of stuff when they printed Jar of Eyeballs in Innistrad, which is essentially organ jars.
My wants:
- Lots of graveyard interaction. The less exiling, the better. I would love for some really cool reanimation effects like Undying or maybe even some spin off of Retrace.
- Traps, Treasures, Temples, and Tombs. Bring what Battle for Zendikar left behind from the original Zendikar.
- Good utility lands, as most people imagine Egypt for its grand monuments and structures.
- All the animal-people hybrids. I'm talking about crocodile people (Viashino), Bird people (Aven), Dog people (Hounds?).
- Sweet new legendaries. I mean, there are gods, so there has to be cool legends.
- Flavor. Give me basic lands with art that makes me want to run them in all of my casual decks. Give me camels, nomads, oases, deserts...
I think organ jars are a little too weird for WotC. They would be afraid some people don't get the flavour. They tried very specific, topdown flavour things in Kamigawa and called it a fail afterwards (which is really sad, since the only thing Kamigawa made wrong imo, was the terrible quality of most cards, especially commons). They got the flavour on point in Theros too, pretty much, but stayed more on the safe site. I expect Amonkhet to be Theros-like Egypt.
Although I agree with you that WotC plays it safe, it's crazy to me they dance around that kind of stuff when they printed Jar of Eyeballs in Innistrad, which is essentially organ jars.
My wants:
- Lots of graveyard interaction. The less exiling, the better. I would love for some really cool reanimation effects like Undying or maybe even some spin off of Retrace.
- Traps, Treasures, Temples, and Tombs. Bring what Battle for Zendikar left behind from the original Zendikar.
- Good utility lands, as most people imagine Egypt for its grand monuments and structures.
- All the animal-people hybrids. I'm talking about crocodile people (Viashino), Bird people (Aven), Dog people (Hounds?).
- Sweet new legendaries. I mean, there are gods, so there has to be cool legends.
- Flavor. Give me basic lands with art that makes me want to run them in all of my casual decks. Give me camels, nomads, oases, deserts...
I don't think it would be too off base for them to use canopic jars. They are featured in the Mummy movies so they are out there in pop culture.
Thinking about mechanics for the set, I think it would be nice to have a return of -1/-1 counters. Stick wither and persist on some things, wither to represent poisons, infectious diseases, and curses and the like, and persist for graveyard interaction or pushing on despite crippling injuries out of desperation or the like.
I'd also be interested in seeing a sort of anti-magic themed group in UG that has a focus on hexproof and pseudo-hexproof abilities like the Frost Titan, Diffusion Sliver and Icefall Regent type stuff, who are good at handling some types of curses and the like.
I'd also love to see the new red mechanics taking a bit more of a shine, 'chandrawing' (Act on Impulse and such) and the new land-tapping mechanic (Chandra's Revolution, Stensia Innkeeper) along with some more prowess and menace in red to fill out red's non-rotating constructed options in those colors some more.
On that note, I'd like to see more prowess in blue and white as well of course. Plus menace in black and perhaps green. And scry in all the colors and colorless (but especially white, which is supposed to be bad at card draw, but could perhaps make up for it somewhat with getting some extra scry on some common things it wants to do).
An exalted-ish mechanic on some creatures that only triggers for that creature attacking alone (but doesn't for another creature attacking alone) to represent some sort of going on a dangerous trial and putting in your best effort on it kind of theme like hinted at by what we've heard so far might be interesting.
I'd also be interested in seeing some punisher mechanics, along the lines of a dire warnings if you interfere you get cursed kind of thing.
I'd also like to see something along the lines of magical ritual focused black stuff, not in the MTG ritual sense (with getting mana from casting a spell), but in the Sorcery card type sense, some Sorcery matters mechanics, stuff like counting the number of sorcery spells in the graveyard, triggering whenever you cast a sorcery, tutoring sorcery spells, and the like. I've always felt black should have a bit of a Sorcery card-type sub-theme, similar to white's enchantments, blue's artifacts, and green's creatures. Stuff that would tie in well with things like demonic rituals and ritual sacrifices to the gods and mummification rituals and stuff.
Along those lines, I'd like the same for red and Instant spells, flavored perhaps along the lines of caring about battlemagic. Cards that trigger of instants, tutor an instant, count the number of instants in the graveyard, etc. Stuff that would tie in well to magical adepts trained to use magic for war, who seek every advantage and grow from battle experience and knowledge of rapid spellcasting duels and the like. Trying to overcome trials and observing the efforts of those who tried before them.
If that is done, blue focusing on artifacts could be done partially through Tezzeret's presence on the plane, perhaps.
White and green don't really need excuses for their focuses on enchantments and creatures respectively.
I'd also be interested in some form of representation for stuff like tombs and temples and stuff, either lands, a return of the fortification mechanic, wall-type creatures, random non-creature artifacts, aura-enchantments that target lands, or the like. Probably just a mix of lands and non-creature artifacts.
I think another good thing would be a big focus on Liliana's demon pact baddie on this plane. Give them a good legendary card and a bunch of spells and creatures linked to them, perhaps a legendary land or powerful artifact representing their home/temple/tomb or whatnot, and have them dominate a good portion of the mono-black as-fan, with cards appearing in every rarity, for them in mono-black, but a relatively high number of common ones, and at least one story-spotlight type thing.
So rumor has it that Nicol Bolas made this plane? I feel as though this sets up for a lot of potential.
1) I'm with Tolarian Community College on the perdiction of "If Nicol Bolas shows up, the Gatewatch isn't going to win," but not for the same reasons. There have been confirmed talks about Dominaria as it popped up in Kaladesh block flavor text, however, this is not the most important part of the Kaledesh block, no, that would be Tezzeret and the Planar Bridge. Cardwise we haven't seen something exactly like this printed on a single card but flavor wise this is Planar Portal. These portals were used by the Phyrexians to invade Dominaria during Invasion. This time however it is not the Phyrexians that have built their own plane (a la Rath), but Nicol Bolas (assumedly) with Amonkhet.
Nicol Bolas is always plotting something for his personal agenda, so attempting to JUST be the savior against the Phyrexians is basically an impossibility. However, it cannot be argued that Bolas and his resources would not be valuable against the Phyrexian threat.
This is where Ugin comes in. Ugin is probably never going to trust Bolas, for good reason. Ugin will suspect Bolas is going to somehow subjugate New Phyrexia to his own scheme and will actually ally himself with New Phyrexia. This will cause a schism in the Gatewatch and make them pick sides.
1) It fits thematically with "Hour of Devastation" and Nicol Bolas (an Evil god).
2) It needs reprinting.
3) It is the best time to print a strong sweeper, because it is at its weakest at the moment, thanks to vehicles and pushed 'walkers (Gideon mainly).
If we don't see Damnation in Modern Masters 2017, I would wager that we will see it in Amonkhet, though that "regeneration" clause will cause confusion with newer players.
I like some of your's ideas but the thing that realy are making the hype on me is the metion of gods and the desire of more theros' like gods.
1) Revolt and Delirium play well with sacrifice shenanigans; Madness and Delirium love discarad. I could see Exploit returning or some other new mechanic that emphasized sacrifice and filling of the graveyard. There could also just be a lot of graveyard synergy in general, which would be fitting for a world that (to us modern folks) seems obsessed with death and the afterlife.
2) Gold tokens are a good call. "Priceless treasure" is a thing in Egyptian mythology with gold-filled tombs. Gold tokens would interact AWESOMELY with Revolt and the "metalcraft-lite" cards in KALA/AER, and would have some synergy with Improvise as well although I don't think you can "double dip" with Improvised Gold (rules lawyers correct me if I'm wrong). At the very least, while not having a ton of artifacts I do expect a fair amount of artifacts to interact with Kaladesh and play up the treasure aspect.
3) Bolas is a tricolor planeswalker, and MtG likes to push the pendulum. Innistrad and Kaladesh have been more focused on playing traditional 1 or 2 color decks, but Kaladesh has lots of artifacts to help smooth out a tri or quad-color deck. I suspect that there will be a strong multicolor theme in Amonkhet; possibly Shards since we do have Bolas as the All-Father of the plane's pantheon.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
Like this?
Ritual - As an additional cost to cast ~, sacrifice [something/multiple things]
or
Faith - As long as ~ is in play, you may not cast [cardtype] spells.
Just spitballing obviously..
This hope is in way guided by the fact that I am primarily an EDH player, I swear.. lol
Similar to Champion from Lorwyn?
The Deep Ones
Cyborg Huey's Bosh, Iron Golem Deck
Cyborg Huey's Rosheen Meander Deck
BUGThe Dunwich Horror and Other Lovecraftian TalesBUG
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Commander: WUBRG Superfriends, GW Rhys Tokens, WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon
Kitchen Table (now that's real Magic): WUBRG Domain, GU Biovisionary, UB Korlash Grandeur, UW Merfolk Mill
I expect quite a legendary mummy (not with the creature type mummy of course), a legendary pyramid and/or oasis, and more skeletons than usual (but this is my hope more than anything.)
Unearth would be a good fit here, although I don't know how much we need even more value creatures that are annoying to deal with.
No deliberate synergies, you mean. You take any two blocks in Magic history and I guarantee you will find some synergies between them. Magic as a game is built on synergy.
That said, I echo other posters' opinions that some kind of graveyard theme is a must. We have mummies and undead, so a reanimation mechanic akin to Unearth or Undying is a possibility. Personally I would like to see an action word that reanimates a creature for one turn, similar to a reusable Unearth except that the reanimation effect comes from spells and other permanents. Something like "Reanimate target creature card in your graveyard. (Put that creature card onto the battlefield under your control and untap it. It gains haste until end of turn. At the beginning of the next end step, sacrifice that creature.)" Obviously many of the reanimation effects would have to specify a subrange, like converted mana cost 3 or less, for the sake of balance.
Another option would be some manner of Disentomb-like effect, perhaps reminiscent of Soulshift. "When this creature enters the battlefield, return target creature card that costs less from your graveyard to your hand." Or conversely, a mechanic that allows you to bring a particular card back whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, like a tweaked Recover.
Of course, Undying would play well with Kaladesh's +1/+1 counter theme as well as Revolt; sac a creature with Undying to Yahenni, it comes back with a +1/+1 counter and enables Revolt, neatly tying together KLD's two Abzan color mechanics.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
And lots of that good stuff y'all are saying.
But it is time for a return of Deserts. Camels. Oasis. Oases.
The Steamflogged
Human Rigger Rebels
Resisting The Tyranny of the Anti-Contraptionists.
Viva L'Assemblage!
Legacy--UGBFood Chain; UFish; UBRG Delver
Commander--UB Sygg, River Cutthroat; W Isamaru, H.O.K.WRG Naya grouphug Enchantress
60 Card Singleton -- WB value drain
UN- -- W Weenie (Wordmail on Knight of the Hokey Pokey is good beats)
Since Bolas created Amonkhet, isn't he also trying to create planeswalkers, or an army thereof?
What if we saw some low-cost planeswalker "minions," that came into play with 2 or so loyalty, and only had minus abilities? I.e. -2 - Target creature gets -1/-1 until EoT. That said, I definitely see why this could be a *BAD* idea, since PlanesWalkers can be so overpowered.
I was trying to think of something that would be mechanically "cool" while fitting the Amonkhet theme of Bola's plans for Multiverse Domination.
More realistically: I hope we see cool mummies that play into dope graveyard recursion strategies, which could make Delirium even <i>cooler</i> than it is now.
Although I agree with you that WotC plays it safe, it's crazy to me they dance around that kind of stuff when they printed Jar of Eyeballs in Innistrad, which is essentially organ jars.
My wants:
- Lots of graveyard interaction. The less exiling, the better. I would love for some really cool reanimation effects like Undying or maybe even some spin off of Retrace.
- Traps, Treasures, Temples, and Tombs. Bring what Battle for Zendikar left behind from the original Zendikar.
- Good utility lands, as most people imagine Egypt for its grand monuments and structures.
- All the animal-people hybrids. I'm talking about crocodile people (Viashino), Bird people (Aven), Dog people (Hounds?).
- Sweet new legendaries. I mean, there are gods, so there has to be cool legends.
- Flavor. Give me basic lands with art that makes me want to run them in all of my casual decks. Give me camels, nomads, oases, deserts...
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
I don't think it would be too off base for them to use canopic jars. They are featured in the Mummy movies so they are out there in pop culture.
I'd also be interested in seeing a sort of anti-magic themed group in UG that has a focus on hexproof and pseudo-hexproof abilities like the Frost Titan, Diffusion Sliver and Icefall Regent type stuff, who are good at handling some types of curses and the like.
I'd also love to see the new red mechanics taking a bit more of a shine, 'chandrawing' (Act on Impulse and such) and the new land-tapping mechanic (Chandra's Revolution, Stensia Innkeeper) along with some more prowess and menace in red to fill out red's non-rotating constructed options in those colors some more.
On that note, I'd like to see more prowess in blue and white as well of course. Plus menace in black and perhaps green. And scry in all the colors and colorless (but especially white, which is supposed to be bad at card draw, but could perhaps make up for it somewhat with getting some extra scry on some common things it wants to do).
An exalted-ish mechanic on some creatures that only triggers for that creature attacking alone (but doesn't for another creature attacking alone) to represent some sort of going on a dangerous trial and putting in your best effort on it kind of theme like hinted at by what we've heard so far might be interesting.
I'd also be interested in seeing some punisher mechanics, along the lines of a dire warnings if you interfere you get cursed kind of thing.
I also want to see curses and traps.
I'd also like to see something along the lines of magical ritual focused black stuff, not in the MTG ritual sense (with getting mana from casting a spell), but in the Sorcery card type sense, some Sorcery matters mechanics, stuff like counting the number of sorcery spells in the graveyard, triggering whenever you cast a sorcery, tutoring sorcery spells, and the like. I've always felt black should have a bit of a Sorcery card-type sub-theme, similar to white's enchantments, blue's artifacts, and green's creatures. Stuff that would tie in well with things like demonic rituals and ritual sacrifices to the gods and mummification rituals and stuff.
Along those lines, I'd like the same for red and Instant spells, flavored perhaps along the lines of caring about battlemagic. Cards that trigger of instants, tutor an instant, count the number of instants in the graveyard, etc. Stuff that would tie in well to magical adepts trained to use magic for war, who seek every advantage and grow from battle experience and knowledge of rapid spellcasting duels and the like. Trying to overcome trials and observing the efforts of those who tried before them.
If that is done, blue focusing on artifacts could be done partially through Tezzeret's presence on the plane, perhaps.
White and green don't really need excuses for their focuses on enchantments and creatures respectively.
I'd also be interested in some form of representation for stuff like tombs and temples and stuff, either lands, a return of the fortification mechanic, wall-type creatures, random non-creature artifacts, aura-enchantments that target lands, or the like. Probably just a mix of lands and non-creature artifacts.
I think another good thing would be a big focus on Liliana's demon pact baddie on this plane. Give them a good legendary card and a bunch of spells and creatures linked to them, perhaps a legendary land or powerful artifact representing their home/temple/tomb or whatnot, and have them dominate a good portion of the mono-black as-fan, with cards appearing in every rarity, for them in mono-black, but a relatively high number of common ones, and at least one story-spotlight type thing.
1) I'm with Tolarian Community College on the perdiction of "If Nicol Bolas shows up, the Gatewatch isn't going to win," but not for the same reasons. There have been confirmed talks about Dominaria as it popped up in Kaladesh block flavor text, however, this is not the most important part of the Kaledesh block, no, that would be Tezzeret and the Planar Bridge. Cardwise we haven't seen something exactly like this printed on a single card but flavor wise this is Planar Portal. These portals were used by the Phyrexians to invade Dominaria during Invasion. This time however it is not the Phyrexians that have built their own plane (a la Rath), but Nicol Bolas (assumedly) with Amonkhet.
Nicol Bolas is always plotting something for his personal agenda, so attempting to JUST be the savior against the Phyrexians is basically an impossibility. However, it cannot be argued that Bolas and his resources would not be valuable against the Phyrexian threat.
This is where Ugin comes in. Ugin is probably never going to trust Bolas, for good reason. Ugin will suspect Bolas is going to somehow subjugate New Phyrexia to his own scheme and will actually ally himself with New Phyrexia. This will cause a schism in the Gatewatch and make them pick sides.
Why on earth did he think Damnation is going to get reprinted in this set? I mean MM17 I can see but this I don't think so.
1) It fits thematically with "Hour of Devastation" and Nicol Bolas (an Evil god).
2) It needs reprinting.
3) It is the best time to print a strong sweeper, because it is at its weakest at the moment, thanks to vehicles and pushed 'walkers (Gideon mainly).
If we don't see Damnation in Modern Masters 2017, I would wager that we will see it in Amonkhet, though that "regeneration" clause will cause confusion with newer players.
WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
Tomb of the Dead
When ~ enters battlefield, exile a card from your graveyard.
T Add one mana of any color card exiled by ~