Tricolor combos need more love. Especially wedges.
I agree, but a Bolas-focused block is definitely not the place for wedges. And monocolor makes sense as the default. It's possible they're arc-colored, but I wouldn't bet on it. Even two colors seems unlikely.
My guess and Im calling it, all the gods will have:
1.)4 cmc
2.)Tri color
3.)All 4 of them will be with Black
Cat - B/W/G WBG - Abzan Color - Look at the Art Black and White is predominantly in colored
(Bastet - Bastet was also depicted as the goddess of protection against contagious diseases and evil spirits)
Bird - B/U/W WUB- Esper Color - Art Depicts a Esper color landscape
(Horus - Horus was said to be the sky, he was considered to also contain the sun and moon)
Croc - B/W/R RWB- Mardu Color - Art Depicts a Mardu color landscape as the Sky is colored Black, Red, White like the Sunrise
(Sobek - Sobek was associated with pharaonic power, fertility, and military prowess, but served additionally as a protective deity with apotropaic qualities, "he who loves robbery", "he who eats while he also mates")
Dog - B/R/U UBR- Grixis Color - Art Depicts a Grixis color landscape as the Sky is colored Black, Red, Blue just like the Sunset
(Anubis - Depicted as a protector of graves, was also an embalmer. Zombies are predominantly in GRIXIS Color right??)
Snake - B/G/U BGU- Sultai Color - Art Depicts Sultai color
(Apep or Wadjet im not sure)
Things I'm sure of:
- The Jackal is the black god. WotC knows the importance of expectations. That's why there were krakens in Theros. Anubis is EASILY the most well known Egyptian gods and they'd be taking a hard left turn to not make the Jackal God the death or death related god.
- the gods will not be enchantments in fact I don't think they'll even have a condition that makes them not a creature. The gods don't need to have ANY connection to the Theros gods. In fact they shouldn't. They should have their own identity. Tangent to this is that devotion won't be involved. I think they're probably afraid of devotion after the various Theros standards.
Things I'm not 100% on but I think will be the case:
- The gods won't have extra creature types. While room on the type line was a factor for the gods not having extra types more importantly they wanted "God" to be the most important part (same reason Ajani doesn't have Cat as a type. Planeswalker is more important.)
- No God weapons. On Theros the gods weapons were all distinct not to mention items of the gods were very important to Greek mythology. I'm certainly no Egyptian mythology expert but I don't think they had the same level of importance and other than the cat's bow the weapons don't look very distinct.
Whos to say they weren't? The gods themselves may be young but the mythology behind certainly wouldnt be, especially with how much of a long term strategy he seems to favor. Maybe the gods only recently started walking amognst mortals which was a sign of the God-Pharo's return, but up till this point the people had never seen these gods, only worshiped them at the behest of Bolas
My guess and Im calling it, all the gods will have:
1.)4 cmc
2.)Tri color
3.)All 4 of them will be with Black
While the last bullet point, that all of the Gods are black is an interesting idea due to Bolas's heavy black leanings, I'm fairly certain this won't happen since Mark Rosewater has said that sets with color imbalance like Torment and Judgment led to too many problems in limited.
Tricolor combos need more love. Especially wedges.
I agree. I hope they do the Fate Reforged-style tribrid cards ala Tasigur and Alesha. More cube playables are better, and tribrids are the most flexible kind of multicolor cards.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I can't say I'm pleased to see you and must warn you I may have to do something about it.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: URDelver
Modern: UGRDelver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
Okay so first I would like to guess the myths these cards are based on.
The first one witch has a golden cat mask was probably inspired by Bastet- Egyptian goddess of protection and cats. So Ajhni has been wight red, white, and Green/White; so loosely braced on that I think she is Green + white + red = Naya. I could be wrong but I know she is at least white.
The second picture looks similar to Thoth in my opinion. Thoth is was the deity of art magic writing and helped to settle disputes between the gods. This sounds more then just blue to me but I could be wrong. I still think he is Blue + white + black = Esper. If he isn't esper then he is without a doubt Blue.
The crocodile is probably a joint concept between Ammit the one how devour evil souls and condemns them to eternal suffering or Sobek deity of protection military healing and fertility. If we focus more on the war and death sides with the fact that he is the only one kneeling then we could assume he has the same colors as Bolis Black + red + blue = Grixis. If not i'm sure he is at-least black.
The Jackal may not be Anubis but his father Set. Set was the Egyptian deity of the desert and war. this sounds very red. So I think she will be Red + green + black = Jund. I'm sure she is red look at the clouds and the stance.
Apophis is possibly the inspiration for the snake because he was a snake in mythology. He was said to be "the Lord of Chaos". Know if we want someone to be on the opposite spectrum of Boils then White + green + blue = Bant would make the most sense. If the eyes are the windows to the soul then this card has to have some green in it.
Things I'm sure of:
- The Jackal is the black god. WotC knows the importance of expectations. That's why there were krakens in Theros. Anubis is EASILY the most well known Egyptian gods and they'd be taking a hard left turn to not make the Jackal God the death or death related god.
- the gods will not be enchantments in fact I don't think they'll even have a condition that makes them not a creature. The gods don't need to have ANY connection to the Theros gods. In fact they shouldn't. They should have their own identity. Tangent to this is that devotion won't be involved. I think they're probably afraid of devotion after the various Theros standards.
Why would it be Anubis and not his father Set/Seth. The deity of the desert and war? You know the one how killed his brother Osiris. This could make her red not black. Also they could be indestructible artifact/creature that have a similar mechanic to the Gods of Theros.
Yeah, they are clearly meant to represent the five colors and clearly five gods. With my (somewhat limited) knowledge of Egyptian mythology, here are my guesses?
First:W - Bastet, Goddess of Cats. Cats have always been associated with W and Bastet was sometimes the goddess of the sun and protection. Quite a easy W shoehorn, though one wonders why not good ol' Ra. Second:U - Thoth, God of Knowledge. He was always associated with the ibis and is the god of writing and books. Flying dude that loves knowledge and books? Easiest U shoehorn ever. Third:R - Quite a hard one. The most well-known Croc God is Sobek, God of the Nile. A destructive god, would fit well in R's philosophy. However, I don't think they would use poor ol' Sobek as a R god instead of the Top Dawg Set, God of Warriors, Desert and Chaos. Would be a huge missed opportunity as Set is very well-known and the easiest R God shoehorn in the history of ever. Maybe it's a mixed god, kinda like Heliod was Zeus + Helios?
Fourth:B - Anubis, God of Judgment, sometimes known as God of the Dead even though that role was more usually attributed to Osiris. Of course, this one is female, so either he's gender-swapped or mixed with Nephthys, Goddess of Death (not of those that are already Dead, but the ones Dying - yeah, it's different, because Egyptians were weird). Either way, it's 90% likely it is the B one. I mean, Egyptian mythology without the most well-known god Anubis? Inconceivable. Fifth:G - Geb, God of Earth, oftentimes pictured as a serpent. Geb was actually more akin to a primordial deity, and father of Osiris and Set, but otherwise he fits the image of G god to a tee.
So I have already given my idea but Apophis is possibly the inspiration for the snake because he was a snake in mythology. He was said to be "the Lord of Chaos".
So green being in opposition to blue and black could give this snake a fitting theme. That isn't to say Geb, God of Earth who was represnted by snakes isn't any less accurate I'm just hoping for bant and tri colors.
You also mention Set the God of war and the desert, so why is the jackal Goddess based on his son Anubis and not him? It just looks like a more aggressive pose then the others. So I would say jund.
I also think that the cat Goddess could be based on Maahes; Bastets offspring the lion headed god of war, protection, and weather. This make me hope for the Naya theme for this cool cat. Ether way it is I agree with it being white.
Why would it be Anubis and not his father Set/Seth. The deity of the desert and war? You know the one how killed his brother Osiris. This could make her red not black. Also they could be indestructible artifact/creature that have a similar mechanic to the Gods of Theros.
I'm pretty sure I clearly explained why it would be closest to Anubis. Player expectation. I'd wager that if you took the picture of that god to a random on the street, said, "this is from Egyptian mythology. Who/what is it?" They'd reply with Anubis. If the average person made a top five Egyptian gods list Anubis would not only be on it he'd be on top of it. like sure the people really into Egyptian mythology would probably love a call out to Set but the average person wouldn't get it. That was the problem with Kamigawa. the same way people in the know would tell you that Krakens on Theros was wrong but thanks to Clash of the Gods the average person thinks that krakens were Greek in origin. Like sure, if they decide to do these multicolor they could throw in aspects of Set if the Jackal ends up in red as well since they're more than likelygoing to be mix'n'matching the Egyptian gods the way they did with the Greek gods on Theros.
And sure. They could be artifact creatures. They could also be Eldrazi Beebles. But that's not likely. If you think that those masks would make them artifacts or even that they're artifacts because Bolas made them I don't think you understand how WotC does things. And they could have some sort of mechanic that stops them from being creatures but the gods will be a defining feature of the plane to the fans, the same way they were with Theros. So they're going to want these gods to have their own distinct identity so that the plane is distinct sand not just "Theros with pyramids, sand and Bolas."
Why would it be Anubis and not his father Set/Seth. The deity of the desert and war? You know the one how killed his brother Osiris. This could make her red not black. Also they could be indestructible artifact/creature that have a similar mechanic to the Gods of Theros.
I'm pretty sure I clearly explained why it would be closest to Anubis. Player expectation. I'd wager that if you took the picture of that god to a random on the street, said, "this is from Egyptian mythology. Who/what is it?" They'd reply with Anubis. If the average person made a top five Egyptian gods list Anubis would not only be on it he'd be on top of it. like sure the people really into Egyptian mythology would probably love a call out to Set but the average person wouldn't get it. That was the problem with Kamigawa. the same way people in the know would tell you that Krakens on Theros was wrong but thanks to Clash of the Gods the average person thinks that krakens were Greek in origin. Like sure, if they decide to do these multicolor they could throw in aspects of Set if the Jackal ends up in red as well since they're more than likelygoing to be mix'n'matching the Egyptian gods the way they did with the Greek gods on Theros.
The average person knows almost nothing about Anubis though other than appearance and he's associated with death. So you can fill in a lot of space there with other references. Set's character, actually, is probably closer to the average person's expectation of Anubis than the actual Anubis.
Tricolor combos need more love. Especially wedges.
I agree, but a Bolas-focused block is definitely not the place for wedges. And monocolor makes sense as the default. It's possible they're arc-colored, but I wouldn't bet on it. Even two colors seems unlikely.
I would be very surprised not to see any tricolor support at all on the Bolas plane, even if the gods are monocolor. They want to give us incentive to play Bolas, after all. There might not be too much multicolor (KTK or FRF levels, not Alara block), but still enough to support Bolas.
They don't have to do all shards or all wedges; they can do 3 of one and 2 of the other. For example: GWU, UBR, RGW BGU, RWB. Some shards, some wedges, still equally represents each color. This would probably be a better choice than just all shards, since it would differentiate Amonkhet from Alara.
They don't have to do all shards or all wedges; they can do 3 of one and 2 of the other. For example: GWU, UBR, RGW BGU, RWB. Some shards, some wedges, still equally represents each color. This would probably be a better choice than just all shards, since it would differentiate Amonkhet from Alara.
Just a thought.
They've done this sort of thing before (see Lorwyn for the most eggregious example),
and I really hope they don't ever go this route again.
With my luck, the five gods would be Naya, Jund, Grixis, Temur, and Jeskai
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
The Theros gods used devotion and were enchantments only because it thematically fit the whole Nyx thing. Neither of those are likely to occur on Amonkhet.
It's more likely that these gods 'turn on' ( can attack/block ) if you meet an impressive condition, since they are explicitly called gods of trial. I don't think they will toggle creature-ness; that would force them to have an unnecessary second card type.
I expect Indestructible, then the attack/block clause, then an ability that rewards you for X, helping you activate the god. For ex: "Can't attack or block unless you have 40 or more life. // Creatures you control have lifelink, etc."
What I'm more interested in is whether R&D will try to make all Gods on par with each other.
That might be the snake god If my color theory is right.
I hope you're right!!! He's my favorite out of the 5. Anyone else think that the masks of the cat and hound look odd? I personally think they could've done a better job with them. They're still very nice.
My guess and Im calling it, all the gods will have:
1.)4 cmc
2.)Tri color
3.)All 4 of them will be with Black
Cat - B/W/G WBG - Abzan Color - Look at the Art Black and White is predominantly in colored
(Bastet - Bastet was also depicted as the goddess of protection against contagious diseases and evil spirits)
Bird - B/U/W WUB- Esper Color - Art Depicts a Esper color landscape
(Horus - Horus was said to be the sky, he was considered to also contain the sun and moon)
Croc - B/W/R RWB- Mardu Color - Art Depicts a Mardu color landscape as the Sky is colored Black, Red, White like the Sunrise
(Sobek - Sobek was associated with pharaonic power, fertility, and military prowess, but served additionally as a protective deity with apotropaic qualities, "he who loves robbery", "he who eats while he also mates")
Dog - B/R/U UBR- Grixis Color - Art Depicts a Grixis color landscape as the Sky is colored Black, Red, Blue just like the Sunset
(Anubis - Depicted as a protector of graves, was also an embalmer. Zombies are predominantly in GRIXIS Color right??)
Snake - B/G/U BGU- Sultai Color - Art Depicts Sultai color
(Apep or Wadjet im not sure)
Wait it just hit me, and it kind of hurt. We just got 4 color legends in comander 2016 so what is Wizards design team planned to give us some 4 color commanders in a slandered format as well.
I think their shard colors but you never know what Wizards is going throw at us A.K.A. Vehicles Heart of Kiran
These Gods are obviously presented in WUBRG order. I mean, it's MAGIC, come on. There's 1000 pieces of evidence saying that, as weird as the art palette looks at first, the Jackal God is definitely Red, not Black, and this is only confusing some people because Anubis is the more well-known Jackal God, and he's obviously Black in MTG mechanical terms (death.)
OK, so-- the is NICOL BOLAS WORLD, as far as the eye can see. I am suspecting that, the same trick that Alara pulled with "Relic of Progenitus" "Skyward Eye Prophets", etc...(remember THOSE???), is going on here. The Cat Goddess has a Bolas Horn Bow, the Ibis God has Large Bolas Wings, the other Gods have Bolas Weapons and Ornaments as well.
What this means is, there's going to be an evil Conspiracy/Archenemy feeling from all of them. Duh. They're all going to be Gods of the kind that could roleplay as Chaotic or Lawful Evil. Even if they are two-colored Gods, the Green-White one will have some Blue-Black-Redness to it. Because Bolas.
What does that mean? It means that "Anubis is the Death God" is going to spread and extend to "Egyptian Gods are Death Gods more than Theros Gods are", so we don't need to be concerned too much, we just need to be braced for them all to feel pretty Anubis-y, in addition to anything else done. Remember, the Theros Gods lost direct analogy with Greek Gods quickly, but kept in the themes of ''this feels like Ancient Fantasy Setting with Cultural Inspiration'', so the overall tone of "Egyptian World" is "Bolas World", and, basically, Everyone is Anubis in addition to whatever else you want to call them. It fits with early powerful Magic cards and everything with Bolas' Legacy.
OK, so, what's the backstory on these guys? I think all of them are probably mortal servants of Nicol Bolas, promoted to Godhood by the Dragon. They're not constructs, or illusions, they'll have names, and be Legendary Creatures....unless they're Planeswalkers. They could be Bolas' New Infinite Consortium. THAT's totally possible.
Let's finally talk about the Colors: The Cat is obviously base White, the Snake is obviously base Green. The question is: How many colors?
There's no reason at all to think that 4-colored Gods are being done this soon, and there's enough uniqueness to call that these aren't 5 colored either. Let's be complete with the other options:
Mono Colors: As the "Defining 5 Gods of the World", on a Large Set of a New Block, they could easily keep the Colors simple, and expand on God Mechanics and possibilities in other ways. They *COULD*. This is unlikely. There's too much Gold all over the World Art. It looks like City of Brass. It's Nicol Bolas World. Nicol Bolas' thing is Gold. Everywhere there's Gold in Magic, there's Nicol Bolas, even Ravnica (books only). These are Gold Gods, but that's not at first obvious.
I don't think they're Enemy Pair Gold Gods. The Ibis God doesn't look very Izzet (although, Orzhov, Golgari, Simic all *could* have been these Designs, and a Boros Jackal is not the weirdest thing ever.)
These are therefore, either 2-colored, or 3-colored, so which is it?
First, let's see if the Top and Bottom give us more clues:
The Cat Goddess: looks more Orzhov than Bant to be honest. This is the Bolas effect. The suggestion of shadow is to be expected, but if she were Bant, you'd think Blue or White would be more obvious.
The Snake God/Goddess: Snakes are a long mainstay of Black/Green as a Dual Color, and this is Bolas World. This Snake has glowing Green Eyes. This could easily be a Green/Black Snake. Could it be a Naya Snake? Well, it could be maybe. It doesn't seem like it, though.
The Ibis God/Goddess: This looks like it could be a White/Blue Flier classic. It looks so very like a White-Blue flier, that it's hard to imagine it being any other colors. This does call to mind remembering to ask if Khans are possible at all-- WEDGE Gods? Nah, don't really think so. But if the Cat was Abzan, this could have been Jeskai.
if we lay out a chart and ask each one individually, then compare the answers to each other, let's see:
Cat GW? WB? W? GWU? GWB? most likely? : W or WB
Ibis: WU? UR? U? WUB? WUR? most likely? WUB
Crocodile: UB? BG? B? UBR? UBG? most likely? UBG or BG
Snake: RG? GU? G? RGW? RGU? most likely? G
Jackal: BR? RW? R? BRG? BRW? most likely? *equally*-- this is the "tone setter" that looks the *very most at home on the whole plane*,
and the rest of the cards look like its colors, too.
the Jackal looks more Jundish than the Snake, and the Crocodile looks more Jundish than the Jackal,
which is enormously skewing the color palette. this is because of the "Gold in the Desert" effect.
the Jackal in general throws off guessing by the arts a lot.
the whole aesthetic looks "Jund + Esper + Mardu" really.
the Snake looks non-Green.
the Most-Jund-looking is the Crocodile, but Jund in no way would be listed 3rd, that's crazy.
the Crocodile is more like a Dragon than a Bird or a Jackal or a Snake, and the Bird is not likely to be UB, it's more likely to be UW.
the Crocodile could really, really go UBR, or BRG, either way, very strongly.
if we could get our *bearings* as to where we were in the Color Wheel, the other 4 images are a simple wrap-around, but it's not so easy as it looks
based on these arts. I don't even remember what the Green God looked like at all on original Theros, but it might help to reference the Theros cycles further to ask what kind of cycle this might be.
Lastly: I know that MTG Demons have a particular ''Lord of the Pit'' shape to them--- but "Kazaveth" was recently named as the 2nd or 3rd Demon, more powerful than Griselbrand or Kothoped, and it's plausible that the Crocodile "Sobek" God is also a Demon. It would be new and different, but not completely out of character for Liliana to face a non-mono-B, wingless Demon. A God on Nicol Bolas World is a big deal and all....
So here's how I'm calling it: there's no way the Ibis is Izzet, so there's no way the Cat is Orzhov, so there's no way this is Enemy Guilds.
I can't be sure whether to start the count at W/G or W/U to test for Allied Guilds, but it seems all wrong for Allied Guilds too.
Enemy Khans actually helps to resolve the Art Palette themes a lot better-- Abzan Cat, Jeskai Ibis, Sultai Crocodile, Mardu Jackal, Temur Snake
!!!!!!!!!!!!
Confusing and Confounding any final say is that Bolas was the central villain of BOTH Alara AND Tarkir, so there's just no telling at all-- except it seems safe to assume that the pile of evidence points towards THREE colored Gods, instead of Mono-Colored or Dual Colored!
Which basically leaves the question: Who the hell would be Bant?! The bird looks the most Bant in the end, and that would just be wrong too.
OK, in a very long process, I think it's actually something you can bet on:
These are.......WEDGE GODS.
wow. jumping straight to wedges. OK, they have my attention.
WAIT. TWO-SET BLOCK CYCLE. I FIGURED IT OUT.
These are SHARD, *AND* WEDGE GODS, MIXED TOGETHER! with both cycles to be completed in Amonkhet Part Deux!
OK now that really feels like a very good guess. It's either that, or just very wacky choices for arts for Mono Color Gods with some truly fantastic red herrings distracting people.
I am probably every color-combination it is possible to be, though it's really hard to figure out what it would mean to be 4-colored....it doesn't seem logical to be 4-colored without being 5-colored.
These Gods are obviously presented in WUBRG order. I mean, it's MAGIC, come on. There's 1000 pieces of evidence saying that, as weird as the art palette looks at first, the Jackal God is definitely Red, not Black, and this is only confusing some people because Anubis is the more well-known Jackal God, and he's obviously Black in MTG mechanical terms (death.)
Confusing and Confounding any final say is that Bolas was the central villain of BOTH Alara AND Tarkir, so there's just no telling at all-- except it seems safe to assume that the pile of evidence points towards THREE colored Gods, instead of Mono-Colored or Dual Colored!
Which basically leaves the question: Who the hell would be Bant?! The bird looks the most Bant in the end, and that would just be wrong too.
OK, in a very long process, I think it's actually something you can bet on:
These are.......WEDGE GODS.
wow. jumping straight to wedges. OK, they have my attention.
WAIT. TWO-SET BLOCK CYCLE. I FIGURED IT OUT.
These are SHARD, *AND* WEDGE GODS, MIXED TOGETHER! with both cycles to be completed in Amonkhet Part Deux!
OK now that really feels like a very good guess. It's either that, or just very wacky choices for arts for Mono Color Gods with some truly fantastic red herrings distracting people.
Okay I had an idea so the shard colors are suposed to focus on the ally colors red/green and green white but what if for two out of the 5 they didn't let say their is strife in the three colors.
Boros + Selesnya= Naya
Selesnya + Simic= Bant
Selesnya Green wight is the opposite of Bolus thus this could the the faction that the Gate-Watch can used to hide on the plain and not get brutally killed because it is the Selesnya.
This means the Cat could still be wight working with a Boros base having the red influence of Bolus but contesting with the green/white which opposes Bolus's Grixous colors. Same could be said for the green snake Bant being seen as not allies with wight but as the conflicting Simic and again Selesnya.
First of the trial of solidarity; this sounds veary white or Boros but, it could be seen as Selesnya. Then you have the snake with the trial of zeal. Zeal
solidarity -unity or agreement of feeling or action, especially among individuals with a common interest; mutual support within a group.
Zeal- great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective.
Simic want to improve upon nature this gives a gole to pursue.
Selesnya want structure order natural law. it cares about the group over the individual. Not very good ideals for trying to over come you opponents and achieve glory. Is all about selflessness witch goes against trials to prove superiority.
Boros: As Mark Rosewater stated "Red/white is always focused on its goal but its ends don't always match its means. Red/white often finds itself breaking the very rules it has set out to create. To create peace, it will kill. To ensure freedom, it will enslave. Its long term strategy and short term tactics are constantly at odds with one another."
So solidarity comes from the goal of peace and the willingness to do what ever it takes to maintain that peace. While still keeping natural order and working for the good of the hole. Naya could equal solidarity.
Simic: Evolution is zeal ever changing improving towards the best you can be; Simic is all about the pursuit.
This is why I believe we could see a perimeter shift in this set. Were the cat is Naya but focuses less on nature and or on the goals of maintaining order. This could conflict with the green/white and the Simic zeal for improvement over the needs of the group would again cause conflict pushing the Selesnya to the forefront in these trials. The Gate-Watch could then use this inner strife to infiltrate the plain.
I could be wrong it just feels like a goo rout to go creating inner conflict by swamping the key views of a wedge and splitting it into opposing sides. Even if the cat is about unity and solidarity in might be through hierarchy witch is unnatural and doesn't insure equal prosperity for everyone.
Zeal can lead to great abominations if the ambitions on seeks is not for the good of the whole. Still Zeal could be about the whole and making every part of the whole as good as it could be. To pursue this objective would be for the good of the whole but, could still be done naturally. Conflict with green white again. Of cores zeal is a strong unifying factor in Bant and a good example of this is in exulted so we see the possibility for unity harmony and conflict in the wedge colors but I could be completely wrong.
I'm kind of doubting ten gods. I wouldn't mind, and it would explain some odd omissions (mainly some sort of Ra or Horus, they're really major Gods), but I don't expect it. Though, if they are "bound" which is kind of what it looks like with the masks then maybe they could be different without being new gods entirely in the next block. But mono-color makes the most sense, Magic not paying attention to the mythology isn't too new after Theros.
I honestly don't want to see tricolored gods. I would much rather they go with enemy colored if they are multicolor. The reason being is just personal; I was pretty upset when the made the elder dragons in khans block allied. It was such a waste of potential to me to whiff on enemy colors yet again. This could be a chance to make enemy mythics to balance out the khans elder dragon allied mythics...I would go:
WB= Cat
UR= Aven
BG= Croc
RW= Jackel
GU= Snake
This wont happen, but I would like it to.
Tricolor combos need more love. Especially wedges.
I agree, but a Bolas-focused block is definitely not the place for wedges. And monocolor makes sense as the default. It's possible they're arc-colored, but I wouldn't bet on it. Even two colors seems unlikely.
1.)4 cmc
2.)Tri color
3.)All 4 of them will be with Black
Cat - B/W/G WBG - Abzan Color - Look at the Art Black and White is predominantly in colored
(Bastet - Bastet was also depicted as the goddess of protection against contagious diseases and evil spirits)
Bird - B/U/W WUB- Esper Color - Art Depicts a Esper color landscape
(Horus - Horus was said to be the sky, he was considered to also contain the sun and moon)
Croc - B/W/R RWB- Mardu Color - Art Depicts a Mardu color landscape as the Sky is colored Black, Red, White like the Sunrise
(Sobek - Sobek was associated with pharaonic power, fertility, and military prowess, but served additionally as a protective deity with apotropaic qualities, "he who loves robbery", "he who eats while he also mates")
Dog - B/R/U UBR- Grixis Color - Art Depicts a Grixis color landscape as the Sky is colored Black, Red, Blue just like the Sunset
(Anubis - Depicted as a protector of graves, was also an embalmer. Zombies are predominantly in GRIXIS Color right??)
Snake - B/G/U BGU- Sultai Color - Art Depicts Sultai color
(Apep or Wadjet im not sure)
- The Jackal is the black god. WotC knows the importance of expectations. That's why there were krakens in Theros. Anubis is EASILY the most well known Egyptian gods and they'd be taking a hard left turn to not make the Jackal God the death or death related god.
- the gods will not be enchantments in fact I don't think they'll even have a condition that makes them not a creature. The gods don't need to have ANY connection to the Theros gods. In fact they shouldn't. They should have their own identity. Tangent to this is that devotion won't be involved. I think they're probably afraid of devotion after the various Theros standards.
Things I'm not 100% on but I think will be the case:
- The gods won't have extra creature types. While room on the type line was a factor for the gods not having extra types more importantly they wanted "God" to be the most important part (same reason Ajani doesn't have Cat as a type. Planeswalker is more important.)
- No God weapons. On Theros the gods weapons were all distinct not to mention items of the gods were very important to Greek mythology. I'm certainly no Egyptian mythology expert but I don't think they had the same level of importance and other than the cat's bow the weapons don't look very distinct.
While the last bullet point, that all of the Gods are black is an interesting idea due to Bolas's heavy black leanings, I'm fairly certain this won't happen since Mark Rosewater has said that sets with color imbalance like Torment and Judgment led to too many problems in limited.
I agree. I hope they do the Fate Reforged-style tribrid cards ala Tasigur and Alesha. More cube playables are better, and tribrids are the most flexible kind of multicolor cards.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
The first one witch has a golden cat mask was probably inspired by Bastet- Egyptian goddess of protection and cats. So Ajhni has been wight red, white, and Green/White; so loosely braced on that I think she is Green + white + red = Naya. I could be wrong but I know she is at least white.
The second picture looks similar to Thoth in my opinion. Thoth is was the deity of art magic writing and helped to settle disputes between the gods. This sounds more then just blue to me but I could be wrong. I still think he is Blue + white + black = Esper. If he isn't esper then he is without a doubt Blue.
The crocodile is probably a joint concept between Ammit the one how devour evil souls and condemns them to eternal suffering or Sobek deity of protection military healing and fertility. If we focus more on the war and death sides with the fact that he is the only one kneeling then we could assume he has the same colors as Bolis Black + red + blue = Grixis. If not i'm sure he is at-least black.
The Jackal may not be Anubis but his father Set. Set was the Egyptian deity of the desert and war. this sounds very red. So I think she will be Red + green + black = Jund. I'm sure she is red look at the clouds and the stance.
Apophis is possibly the inspiration for the snake because he was a snake in mythology. He was said to be "the Lord of Chaos". Know if we want someone to be on the opposite spectrum of Boils then White + green + blue = Bant would make the most sense. If the eyes are the windows to the soul then this card has to have some green in it.
So what do you all think?
Why would it be Anubis and not his father Set/Seth. The deity of the desert and war? You know the one how killed his brother Osiris. This could make her red not black. Also they could be indestructible artifact/creature that have a similar mechanic to the Gods of Theros.
So I have already given my idea but Apophis is possibly the inspiration for the snake because he was a snake in mythology. He was said to be "the Lord of Chaos".
So green being in opposition to blue and black could give this snake a fitting theme. That isn't to say Geb, God of Earth who was represnted by snakes isn't any less accurate I'm just hoping for bant and tri colors.
You also mention Set the God of war and the desert, so why is the jackal Goddess based on his son Anubis and not him? It just looks like a more aggressive pose then the others. So I would say jund.
I also think that the cat Goddess could be based on Maahes; Bastets offspring the lion headed god of war, protection, and weather. This make me hope for the Naya theme for this cool cat. Ether way it is I agree with it being white.
I'm pretty sure I clearly explained why it would be closest to Anubis. Player expectation. I'd wager that if you took the picture of that god to a random on the street, said, "this is from Egyptian mythology. Who/what is it?" They'd reply with Anubis. If the average person made a top five Egyptian gods list Anubis would not only be on it he'd be on top of it. like sure the people really into Egyptian mythology would probably love a call out to Set but the average person wouldn't get it. That was the problem with Kamigawa. the same way people in the know would tell you that Krakens on Theros was wrong but thanks to Clash of the Gods the average person thinks that krakens were Greek in origin. Like sure, if they decide to do these multicolor they could throw in aspects of Set if the Jackal ends up in red as well since they're more than likelygoing to be mix'n'matching the Egyptian gods the way they did with the Greek gods on Theros.
And sure. They could be artifact creatures. They could also be Eldrazi Beebles. But that's not likely. If you think that those masks would make them artifacts or even that they're artifacts because Bolas made them I don't think you understand how WotC does things. And they could have some sort of mechanic that stops them from being creatures but the gods will be a defining feature of the plane to the fans, the same way they were with Theros. So they're going to want these gods to have their own distinct identity so that the plane is distinct sand not just "Theros with pyramids, sand and Bolas."
The average person knows almost nothing about Anubis though other than appearance and he's associated with death. So you can fill in a lot of space there with other references. Set's character, actually, is probably closer to the average person's expectation of Anubis than the actual Anubis.
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That might be the snake god If my color theory is right.
I would be very surprised not to see any tricolor support at all on the Bolas plane, even if the gods are monocolor. They want to give us incentive to play Bolas, after all. There might not be too much multicolor (KTK or FRF levels, not Alara block), but still enough to support Bolas.
They don't have to do all shards or all wedges; they can do 3 of one and 2 of the other. For example: GWU, UBR, RGW BGU, RWB. Some shards, some wedges, still equally represents each color. This would probably be a better choice than just all shards, since it would differentiate Amonkhet from Alara.
Just a thought.
They've done this sort of thing before (see Lorwyn for the most eggregious example),
and I really hope they don't ever go this route again.
With my luck, the five gods would be Naya, Jund, Grixis, Temur, and Jeskai
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
It's more likely that these gods 'turn on' ( can attack/block ) if you meet an impressive condition, since they are explicitly called gods of trial. I don't think they will toggle creature-ness; that would force them to have an unnecessary second card type.
I expect Indestructible, then the attack/block clause, then an ability that rewards you for X, helping you activate the god. For ex: "Can't attack or block unless you have 40 or more life. // Creatures you control have lifelink, etc."
What I'm more interested in is whether R&D will try to make all Gods on par with each other.
I hope you're right!!! He's my favorite out of the 5. Anyone else think that the masks of the cat and hound look odd? I personally think they could've done a better job with them. They're still very nice.
Wait it just hit me, and it kind of hurt. We just got 4 color legends in comander 2016 so what is Wizards design team planned to give us some 4 color commanders in a slandered format as well.
I think their shard colors but you never know what Wizards is going throw at us A.K.A. Vehicles Heart of Kiran
OK, so-- the is NICOL BOLAS WORLD, as far as the eye can see. I am suspecting that, the same trick that Alara pulled with "Relic of Progenitus" "Skyward Eye Prophets", etc...(remember THOSE???), is going on here. The Cat Goddess has a Bolas Horn Bow, the Ibis God has Large Bolas Wings, the other Gods have Bolas Weapons and Ornaments as well.
What this means is, there's going to be an evil Conspiracy/Archenemy feeling from all of them. Duh. They're all going to be Gods of the kind that could roleplay as Chaotic or Lawful Evil. Even if they are two-colored Gods, the Green-White one will have some Blue-Black-Redness to it. Because Bolas.
What does that mean? It means that "Anubis is the Death God" is going to spread and extend to "Egyptian Gods are Death Gods more than Theros Gods are", so we don't need to be concerned too much, we just need to be braced for them all to feel pretty Anubis-y, in addition to anything else done. Remember, the Theros Gods lost direct analogy with Greek Gods quickly, but kept in the themes of ''this feels like Ancient Fantasy Setting with Cultural Inspiration'', so the overall tone of "Egyptian World" is "Bolas World", and, basically, Everyone is Anubis in addition to whatever else you want to call them. It fits with early powerful Magic cards and everything with Bolas' Legacy.
OK, so, what's the backstory on these guys? I think all of them are probably mortal servants of Nicol Bolas, promoted to Godhood by the Dragon. They're not constructs, or illusions, they'll have names, and be Legendary Creatures....unless they're Planeswalkers. They could be Bolas' New Infinite Consortium. THAT's totally possible.
Let's finally talk about the Colors: The Cat is obviously base White, the Snake is obviously base Green. The question is: How many colors?
There's no reason at all to think that 4-colored Gods are being done this soon, and there's enough uniqueness to call that these aren't 5 colored either. Let's be complete with the other options:
Mono Colors: As the "Defining 5 Gods of the World", on a Large Set of a New Block, they could easily keep the Colors simple, and expand on God Mechanics and possibilities in other ways. They *COULD*. This is unlikely. There's too much Gold all over the World Art. It looks like City of Brass. It's Nicol Bolas World. Nicol Bolas' thing is Gold. Everywhere there's Gold in Magic, there's Nicol Bolas, even Ravnica (books only). These are Gold Gods, but that's not at first obvious.
I don't think they're Enemy Pair Gold Gods. The Ibis God doesn't look very Izzet (although, Orzhov, Golgari, Simic all *could* have been these Designs, and a Boros Jackal is not the weirdest thing ever.)
These are therefore, either 2-colored, or 3-colored, so which is it?
First, let's see if the Top and Bottom give us more clues:
The Cat Goddess: looks more Orzhov than Bant to be honest. This is the Bolas effect. The suggestion of shadow is to be expected, but if she were Bant, you'd think Blue or White would be more obvious.
The Snake God/Goddess: Snakes are a long mainstay of Black/Green as a Dual Color, and this is Bolas World. This Snake has glowing Green Eyes. This could easily be a Green/Black Snake. Could it be a Naya Snake? Well, it could be maybe. It doesn't seem like it, though.
The Ibis God/Goddess: This looks like it could be a White/Blue Flier classic. It looks so very like a White-Blue flier, that it's hard to imagine it being any other colors. This does call to mind remembering to ask if Khans are possible at all-- WEDGE Gods? Nah, don't really think so. But if the Cat was Abzan, this could have been Jeskai.
if we lay out a chart and ask each one individually, then compare the answers to each other, let's see:
Cat GW? WB? W? GWU? GWB? most likely? : W or WB
Ibis: WU? UR? U? WUB? WUR? most likely? WUB
Crocodile: UB? BG? B? UBR? UBG? most likely? UBG or BG
Snake: RG? GU? G? RGW? RGU? most likely? G
Jackal: BR? RW? R? BRG? BRW? most likely? *equally*-- this is the "tone setter" that looks the *very most at home on the whole plane*,
and the rest of the cards look like its colors, too.
the Jackal looks more Jundish than the Snake, and the Crocodile looks more Jundish than the Jackal,
which is enormously skewing the color palette. this is because of the "Gold in the Desert" effect.
the Jackal in general throws off guessing by the arts a lot.
the whole aesthetic looks "Jund + Esper + Mardu" really.
the Snake looks non-Green.
the Most-Jund-looking is the Crocodile, but Jund in no way would be listed 3rd, that's crazy.
the Crocodile is more like a Dragon than a Bird or a Jackal or a Snake, and the Bird is not likely to be UB, it's more likely to be UW.
the Crocodile could really, really go UBR, or BRG, either way, very strongly.
if we could get our *bearings* as to where we were in the Color Wheel, the other 4 images are a simple wrap-around, but it's not so easy as it looks
based on these arts. I don't even remember what the Green God looked like at all on original Theros, but it might help to reference the Theros cycles further to ask what kind of cycle this might be.
Lastly: I know that MTG Demons have a particular ''Lord of the Pit'' shape to them--- but "Kazaveth" was recently named as the 2nd or 3rd Demon, more powerful than Griselbrand or Kothoped, and it's plausible that the Crocodile "Sobek" God is also a Demon. It would be new and different, but not completely out of character for Liliana to face a non-mono-B, wingless Demon. A God on Nicol Bolas World is a big deal and all....
So here's how I'm calling it: there's no way the Ibis is Izzet, so there's no way the Cat is Orzhov, so there's no way this is Enemy Guilds.
I can't be sure whether to start the count at W/G or W/U to test for Allied Guilds, but it seems all wrong for Allied Guilds too.
Enemy Khans actually helps to resolve the Art Palette themes a lot better-- Abzan Cat, Jeskai Ibis, Sultai Crocodile, Mardu Jackal, Temur Snake
!!!!!!!!!!!!
Confusing and Confounding any final say is that Bolas was the central villain of BOTH Alara AND Tarkir, so there's just no telling at all-- except it seems safe to assume that the pile of evidence points towards THREE colored Gods, instead of Mono-Colored or Dual Colored!
Which basically leaves the question: Who the hell would be Bant?! The bird looks the most Bant in the end, and that would just be wrong too.
OK, in a very long process, I think it's actually something you can bet on:
These are.......WEDGE GODS.
wow. jumping straight to wedges. OK, they have my attention.
WAIT. TWO-SET BLOCK CYCLE. I FIGURED IT OUT.
These are SHARD, *AND* WEDGE GODS, MIXED TOGETHER! with both cycles to be completed in Amonkhet Part Deux!
OK now that really feels like a very good guess. It's either that, or just very wacky choices for arts for Mono Color Gods with some truly fantastic red herrings distracting people.
People need to read this fanfiction, though:
www.hpmor.com
I am probably every color-combination it is possible to be, though it's really hard to figure out what it would mean to be 4-colored....it doesn't seem logical to be 4-colored without being 5-colored.
This makes sense considering that snakes as a tribe are typically UG.
Okay I had an idea so the shard colors are suposed to focus on the ally colors red/green and green white but what if for two out of the 5 they didn't let say their is strife in the three colors.
Boros + Selesnya= Naya
Selesnya + Simic= Bant
Selesnya Green wight is the opposite of Bolus thus this could the the faction that the Gate-Watch can used to hide on the plain and not get brutally killed because it is the Selesnya.
This means the Cat could still be wight working with a Boros base having the red influence of Bolus but contesting with the green/white which opposes Bolus's Grixous colors. Same could be said for the green snake Bant being seen as not allies with wight but as the conflicting Simic and again Selesnya.
First of the trial of solidarity; this sounds veary white or Boros but, it could be seen as Selesnya. Then you have the snake with the trial of zeal. Zeal
solidarity -unity or agreement of feeling or action, especially among individuals with a common interest; mutual support within a group.
Zeal- great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective.
Simic want to improve upon nature this gives a gole to pursue.
Selesnya want structure order natural law. it cares about the group over the individual. Not very good ideals for trying to over come you opponents and achieve glory. Is all about selflessness witch goes against trials to prove superiority.
Boros: As Mark Rosewater stated "Red/white is always focused on its goal but its ends don't always match its means. Red/white often finds itself breaking the very rules it has set out to create. To create peace, it will kill. To ensure freedom, it will enslave. Its long term strategy and short term tactics are constantly at odds with one another."
So solidarity comes from the goal of peace and the willingness to do what ever it takes to maintain that peace. While still keeping natural order and working for the good of the hole. Naya could equal solidarity.
Simic: Evolution is zeal ever changing improving towards the best you can be; Simic is all about the pursuit.
This is why I believe we could see a perimeter shift in this set. Were the cat is Naya but focuses less on nature and or on the goals of maintaining order. This could conflict with the green/white and the Simic zeal for improvement over the needs of the group would again cause conflict pushing the Selesnya to the forefront in these trials. The Gate-Watch could then use this inner strife to infiltrate the plain.
I could be wrong it just feels like a goo rout to go creating inner conflict by swamping the key views of a wedge and splitting it into opposing sides. Even if the cat is about unity and solidarity in might be through hierarchy witch is unnatural and doesn't insure equal prosperity for everyone.
Zeal can lead to great abominations if the ambitions on seeks is not for the good of the whole. Still Zeal could be about the whole and making every part of the whole as good as it could be. To pursue this objective would be for the good of the whole but, could still be done naturally. Conflict with green white again. Of cores zeal is a strong unifying factor in Bant and a good example of this is in exulted so we see the possibility for unity harmony and conflict in the wedge colors but I could be completely wrong.
WB= Cat
UR= Aven
BG= Croc
RW= Jackel
GU= Snake
This wont happen, but I would like it to.