Ok, so we have four mechanics: consequences, cycling, embalm, and exert. We also have -1/-1 counters and brick counters. The question is, what role will each one play in the set?
(Warning: This is very long and I’m too lazy to shorten it. Skip to the bottom if you want to see my predictions for limited archetypes.)
The easiest one is definitely consequences. Split cards have always appeared as cycles, at uncommon and/or rare. I don’t expect this to change. It’s not a mechanic that really leans towards any particular color(s), as it’s really just flashback with a different second effect. It’s almost certainly too complex for common, and there’s no way that they are going to fit a second mythic cycle in the set (they already have the gods). We will definitely have a rare monocolor cycle. In theory, that could be all we get (the Hideaway mechanic only appeared on a five-card cycle, as did enchantment artifacts in Theros and colored artifacts in Kaladesh) but I think it’s more likely that we get more. That could involve monocolored uncommons or multicolored rares (more likely to be with two monocolored halves than two multicolored halves, since this does not appear to be a multicolor set). I doubt that we will see multicolored uncommons, however, as the multicolor uncommon slots are reserved for defining archetypes, which would be difficult to do with only instants and sorceries.
Cycling is something that will also show up in all colors, however, this time we may see cards that actually reward you for cycling/discard like that rare demon. I’m going to guess that this is going to be a theme for black and red, since those were the colors based on discard in SOI and they will want to have synergy between blocks. The other thing that cycling is good with is reanimation, which I could definitely see black and red caring about in limited. Black, of course, is the best at reanimation, while red has been getting quite a few effects that essentially unearth a creature for one turn. The other color to do reanimation is white, but white looks like it will be more focused on embalm which will be a separate archetype. Since this block looks like it’s going to have a strong graveyard theme, I would expect to see some reanimation even at lower rarities, especially since SOI was surprisingly lacking in reanimation.
Embalm is certainly an odd mechanic. I like it a lot, but it’s just unusual. The main thing that makes it so weird is how the mechanic itself calls out a specific color, which is not something that happens very often. We’ve had cards that make off-color tokens before (usually for tribal themes, like Lorwyn or Innistrad) but an entire mechanic is a new concept. Assuming that this mechanic is not just in white, which I think is quite probable, decks that don’t even use white will have white tokens in limited. The demographics of creatures in limited as a whole are going to skew white. Even stranger is that it’s an activated ability, so will there be embalm costs requiring blue, black, red, or green mana to make white tokens? Possibly, but it would seem odd. There could be off-color abilities, but this would warp the entire format in the direction of white unless there were off-color ability cards for non-white color pairs. They also might use generic mana on non-white creatures with the ability, which might look a little better, but also would allow one to embalm a creature outside of a deck’s colors if the card was discarded or self-milled into the graveyard. Anyway, since we already have consequences and cycling (as well as quite possibly exert and maybe -1/-1 counters) in all colors, I’m guessing that this mechanic will not be in every color. Obviously it’s in white, and white will probably be the color it is centered in, but I also suspect that it will be in black because black is the traditional color of zombie tokens and reanimation. It could be just those two, or it might show up and green and/or blue as well (although I doubt red). No matter what, however, I am fairly confident that embalm will be the WB limited archetype.
Exert is the type of mechanic that seems like it would be in all colors, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if was only in some. Flavorwise, however, no color seems to really have an edge over the others. Any color can have creatures that need rest. What we do know is that red is already confirmed by the dragon, however, that does not prove that red is a central color for the mechanic. Remember that white and black both got rares that used energy in Kaladesh block, even though energy was primarily in green, blue, and red. We don’t have many other clues to go on, except for Gideon. His planeswalker card is obviously meant to synergize with the exert mechanic. Our previous planeswalker decks have had strong mechanical themes and have been focused on the main colors for the mechanic (Chandra’s RW vehicles, Nissa’s GU energy, Ajani’s GW revolt, and Tezzeret’s UB Improvise). However, none of the previous planeswalker cards save Tezzeret have synergized with their mechanic as bluntly as Gideon does. As a result, I am quite confident that white is going to be a central color for exert. The previous planeswalker decks with monocolored face cards were duel colored, but the colors are decided for the mechanical themes, not by which secondary color the planeswalker might lean towards. We are yet to see two planeswalker decks in the same set that share a color, so we can assume that Gideon’s deck is not black (and Liliana’s is not white). Therefore Gideon’s deck is WU, GW, or RW. Which one is going to be a secondary color for exert? It could be any of them in theory, but my guess is green. Blue has creature untapping effects for synergy with the mechanic but is generally not aggressive enough to feature such an attack-centric mechanic heavily. Red is plenty aggressive but can’t really untap creatures. Green, like white, is capable of both playing aggressively and untapping its creatures, plus both have vigilance. So I’m going to pin down the GW archetype as exert aggro. Other color pairs such as RW or WU (or, I suppose, GU) could feature exert as well, but I think that GW will be the main one.
-1/-1 counters return at last. So what is the mechanic for it going to be? Persist? Wither? Infect? Something new? My prediction is none. For one thing, there are already a lot of mechanics in this set (four named ones, plus two types of counters) and we know that Wizards has been trying to dial down the complexity. Also, Maro was asked a couple weeks ago if -1/-1 counters could return without a related mechanic and not only did he say yes, but I remember him answering quite enthusiastically, probably because that is exactly what they had done for Amonkhet. Furthermore, I’m not sure that -1/-1 counters will be featured in the same capacity that they were in previous blocks, maybe not even in every color. We already have lots of mechanics filling space, at least two and maybe three appearing in all five colors, so -1/-1 counters might not be featured super prominently. We already know that black uses them thanks to the demon and Liliana, and, like Gideon, Liliana has direct synergy with the mechanic that leads me to believe that black will have a major -1/-1 counter theme (black’s history with -1/-1 counters contributes to that theory as well). Liliana’s deck can’t be white (because Gideon’s is, plus white is pretty busy between exert and embalm anyway) so it must be UB, BR, or BG. If my BR cycling/reanimation archetype theory is correct, then BR probably isn’t the main focus of -1/-1 counters. UB and BG are both possible but I’m going to go with BG. Why? First, green has a snake god and probably a fair number of snakes, as well as spiders and deadly warriors. All of these would be good creatures to use -1/-1 counters. Blue, having humans, birds, and sea creatures, would not really be thematically appropriate for lots of -1/-1 counters. Second, green has a much easier time using -1/-1 counters within the color pie than blue. Green is allowed to have deadly creatures (it’s secondary in deathtouch). Black has always gotten the most -1/-1 counters (thanks to being the best at removal, specifically –X/-X effects) but green has been second. Red and white are permitted to use them whenever they would use damage in blocks where they are a major theme, but blue is only supposed to have temporary removal. Most of blue’s card utilizing -1/-1 counters either use them as a drawback or as part of a mechanic (persist, wither, or infect). When blue does get to put them on opponent’s creatures, it’s always inefficient and one at a time. So green is just historically, flavorfully, and mechanically better at -1/-1 counters than blue. So black and green will be the main colors for -1/-1 counters. Will other colors get them to? Possibly, but I’m not completely sure. If they do, it will be in smaller numbers and just as a form of removal rather than a full mechanical theme like they will likely be for BG.
Finally, there are the brick counters. What even are brick counters? They seem to act somewhat like charge counters, except instead of being something that you build up and remove, or having effects that scale by how many counters you have, you have to get a certain number to get an upgraded effect. It’s actually a threshold-type mechanic. Now, all that is just based on the one card we’ve seen, but I think there’s enough design space there. What types of cards will have them? Artifacts for sure, possibly lands, and maybe even enchantments. If they don’t show up on enchantments, it will be a colorless thing that’s only on artifacts and lands. However, that doesn’t have to stop them from having support in certain colors, like vehicles had most of their support in RW. If they do show up on enchantments, that will indicate which colors will get to use them. In theory, builder-themed creatures might have them too, although probably only to move them onto other permanents for flavor reasons. I might have thought that this was just a gimmick for a single card or perhaps a handful, but seeing that punchout card makes me think otherwise. There are the same number of brick counters as -1/-1 counters. That has to indicate a fair amount of relevance in the set. Which colors will use brick counters? We might see a cycle of enchantments in each color representing monuments to build (not unlike Zendikar’s quests), or we might see no colored cards that store bricks at all, but I suspect that certain colors will have cards that can place bricks on the permanents that want them, double brick counters, give you effects for having bricks, or otherwise reward you for using bricks. Which colors? White seems to be the color of most monuments, public infrastructure, and building things, but it already has lots of mechanics to worry about. Blue and red, on the other hand, are lacking in mechanics (if my predictions are correct) and are supposed to synergize with artifacts (which will likely be most of the brick-related cards), especially in the current standard. Plus, blue and red have a history with adding unique types of counters to things (like time and charge counters), and blue has proliferate-ish cards from Aether Revolt. There could be some support in white too, but I think that bricks will probably be the UR archetype.
Bonus speculation time: tribal. Every block nowadays gets some sort of tribal. However, this is only sometimes relevant in limited. Theros minotaurs, Tarkir warriors, BFZ eldrazi, and SOI’s many tribes were playable in limited but Kaladesh didn’t really care about tribes in limited. I predict that the pendulum is going to swing back towards tribal in higher numbers (and lower rarities) for this block. For one thing, zombies in both white and black gives me a feeling that there is going to be some WB zombie tribal, definitely a legendary creature for Commander (although people will inevitably want WUB one eventually so they can play all the zombies). We also have minotaurs returning, who have had tribal support in the past and I believe were fairly popular for it, although they could show up in BR, RW, or just R this time (I’m guessing RW though, they look like goats or sheep which have been traditionally white). There might also be cat, bird, crocodile, jackal, and/or snake tribal based on the five gods. The other thing that makes me suspect this is that there have already been many cards showing overlap between potential tribes. Lorwyn and Innistrad both had a number of cards that somehow represent multiple tribes. Treefolk that make elf tokens, humans that make zombie tokens, etc. In this set, however, anything can make a zombie token thanks to embalm (while conveniently retaining its other creature types). Plus there are more traditional zombies like the zombie jackal and zombie minotaur that could overlap between two tribes. Anyway, the only thing I’m fairly sure about is zombie tribal and maybe minotaurs, anything more than that might happen but I’m not too sure.
Now I’m going to try to predict the limited archetypes based on what we know so far:
WU: Grindy control using brick counters and embalm
UB: Graveyard control
BR: Cycling and reanimation
RG: Exert beatdown? I’m not sure about this one
GW: Exert aggro
WB: Embalm zombie tribal
UR: Brick counters/artifacts matter
BG: -1/-1 counters
RW: Minotaur tribal with exert subtheme
GU: Exert with untapping? Self-mill? Not sure about this one either
I like the idea of brick counters. You are quite literally building something. This leads me to believe this will be an artifact only mechanic. I hope I am wrong.
I love the idea that as I use this card I am building it up to its final point. This could also mean level cards but that is unlikely since they would have spoiled that effect with the rest.
First you play the spell so you have started the project the you lay the foundation followed by the main body and you top it off with the headstone and you are ready to start using the _______ you built that is if you were able to build it. I wander what amazing things I will be able to build in this set.
I hate the fact that embalm is sorcery speed. Plus if the card has flash can you embalm at instant speed probably not because your not casting it.
I like the complexity but what is this a white zombie. Let me seat that again a WHITE ZOMBIE. Their are 0 mono white zombies. Stillmoon Cavalier Putrid Warrior Daxos the Returned Tidehollow Sculler are the closest we ever got to white Zombies and now we have amonkeht a set full of them.
I can't believe this set has so many mechanics. Four plus the Gods which is really a fifth. After new world order they have been pretty gung ho about 2 mechanics in a set with 3 in follow up sets. To start one off with 5 is quite the change from the last several years. I am certainly happy but I hope newer players don't get overwhelmed which is why they started restricting the number of mechanics per set in the first place.
I can't believe this set has so many mechanics. Four plus the Gods which is really a fifth. After new world order they have been pretty gung ho about 2 mechanics in a set with 3 in follow up sets. To start one off with 5 is quite the change from the last several years. I am certainly happy but I hope newer players don't get overwhelmed which is why they started restricting the number of mechanics per set in the first place.
Eh, some of them are really easy to understand, one so easy that it really should be evergreen (cycling). The most difficult of the four revealed mechanics to understand would be Exert, and that is mostly because people tend to forget when something can't untap during their untap step.
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It's about time for the reserved list to die, for the sake of Vintage and Legacy (And Commander).
I like the idea of brick counters. You are quite literally building something. This leads me to believe this will be an artifact only mechanic. I hope I am wrong.
I think it could definitely make flavorful sense on a land that represents a monument being built. Enchantments could in theory represent the concept, too. I think we might see creatures that can place brick counters on other permanents, so maybe “[Cardname] enters the battlefield with two brick counters on it. T: You may move a brick counter from [cardname] onto an artifact control (or another permanent you control, if there are nonartifact permanents that want brick counters).”
I love the idea that as I use this card I am building it up to its final point. This could also mean level cards but that is unlikely since they would have spoiled that effect with the rest.
Doubtful. While Maro did say on his blog that we haven’t seen all the mechanics of Amonkhet yet, this is almost certainly referring to consequences. This set is already full of mechanics, plus level cards were historically unpopular and very complex. I believe that Maro rated level cards pretty high on the storm scale, which means their chances of returning are low, especially in a set that already has plenty of mechanics, including a returning mechanic (cycling).
First you play the spell so you have started the project the you lay the foundation followed by the main body and you top it off with the headstone and you are ready to start using the _______ you built that is if you were able to build it. I wander what amazing things I will be able to build in this set.
Hopefully, as others have suggested, there’s some sort of Great Pyramid/Temple/Monument that works as an alternate win condition if you get enough brick counters on it.
I hate the fact that embalm is sorcery speed. Plus if the card has flash can you embalm at instant speed probably not because your not casting it.
It would be really overpowered if it was instant speed. The one card we have seen with embalm so far is quite powerful for its cost even at sorcery speed. Also, there’s no reason why we couldn’t see a creature with “You may embalm [cardname] any time you could cast an instant.” But then that text would have to be on the token, right? But then again, embalm doesn’t go on the token because it’s irrelevant so maybe they could remove that line of text, too.
Maybe there will be an instant (or a creature with flash with an ETB effect) that says “Exile target creature card from your (a?) graveyard. Create a token that’s a copy of that token except it’s white and it’s a zombie in addition to its other types.” Basically spelling out the mechanic so that you can get it on a card type that is doesn’t usually go on, like what Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper did for awaken.
I like the complexity but what is this a white zombie. Let me seat that again a WHITE ZOMBIE. Their are 0 mono white zombies. Stillmoon Cavalier Putrid Warrior Daxos the Returned Tidehollow Sculler are the closest we ever got to white Zombies and now we have amonkeht a set full of them.
Yeah, but Innistrad has blue zombies, as well as red vampires, wolves, werewolves, and angels. Lorwyn has white merfolk, white treefolk, black treefolk, black elves, black faeries, and black goblins. Shadowmoor has white elves, black elementals, black merfolk, and green goblins. Theros has white centaurs, black minotaurs, and red satyrs. Tarkir has black orcs and dragons in all colors, not just red. And Kaladesh has white dwarves. The point is, different worlds will use creature types in colors that they don’t normally appear in. As long as there’s a good reason for the world to have the creature type in that color, people will generally accept it. In this case, Amonkhet’s mummies are honored dead and/or loyal servants, making them feel justifiably white, just as Frankenstein’s Monster-type science zombies feel justifiably blue.
"Consequences"/"Aftermath" hasn't been confirmed. There are a lot of people (myself included) that believe the card Dusk//Dawn is fake.
Um… ok then… most people have accepted the leak as real (although many of them are not happy about it). Typically when I hear anyone doubt the legitimacy of this leak, it’s something along the lines of “it’s so ugly that I don’t want to believe it’s true.” Which is fine to hope for, but that doesn’t make it any more likely. I would be appalled if this turns out to be a fake. The design is plausible but likely too crazy for anyone other than Wizards to come up with, let alone create a realistic-looking mockup of. So I’m going to operate under the assumption that it’s real for the time being.
I can't believe this set has so many mechanics. Four plus the Gods which is really a fifth. After new world order they have been pretty gung ho about 2 mechanics in a set with 3 in follow up sets. To start one off with 5 is quite the change from the last several years. I am certainly happy but I hope newer players don't get overwhelmed which is why they started restricting the number of mechanics per set in the first place.
Well, there’s really no reason that the God cycle would involve an extra mechanic. Even if they do have some sort of unifying theme (which is likely), it probably won’t be a keyworded mechanic. Regardless, if it’s something that only appears on mythic rares then it really isn’t a real mechanic for limited purposes.
So there are four mechanics in a large set, which is pretty normal to be honest. BFZ had six (rally, landfall, awaken, converge, devoid, ingest/process) which was widely regarded as too many by both players and by Maro himself, so I doubt that we will see that many in a large again barring extreme circumstances. SOI had four mechanics: investigate, madness, delirium, transform. That was actually a pretty good number. Kaladesh had only three mechanics but they were all very well-developed, each mechanic having many different cards featuring it. This worked just fine, too, but it’s still lower than usual. So not only to I think that four is possible, but I also think that it will be the normal/average number of mechanics for large sets from here on out.
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(Warning: This is very long and I’m too lazy to shorten it. Skip to the bottom if you want to see my predictions for limited archetypes.)
The easiest one is definitely consequences. Split cards have always appeared as cycles, at uncommon and/or rare. I don’t expect this to change. It’s not a mechanic that really leans towards any particular color(s), as it’s really just flashback with a different second effect. It’s almost certainly too complex for common, and there’s no way that they are going to fit a second mythic cycle in the set (they already have the gods). We will definitely have a rare monocolor cycle. In theory, that could be all we get (the Hideaway mechanic only appeared on a five-card cycle, as did enchantment artifacts in Theros and colored artifacts in Kaladesh) but I think it’s more likely that we get more. That could involve monocolored uncommons or multicolored rares (more likely to be with two monocolored halves than two multicolored halves, since this does not appear to be a multicolor set). I doubt that we will see multicolored uncommons, however, as the multicolor uncommon slots are reserved for defining archetypes, which would be difficult to do with only instants and sorceries.
Cycling is something that will also show up in all colors, however, this time we may see cards that actually reward you for cycling/discard like that rare demon. I’m going to guess that this is going to be a theme for black and red, since those were the colors based on discard in SOI and they will want to have synergy between blocks. The other thing that cycling is good with is reanimation, which I could definitely see black and red caring about in limited. Black, of course, is the best at reanimation, while red has been getting quite a few effects that essentially unearth a creature for one turn. The other color to do reanimation is white, but white looks like it will be more focused on embalm which will be a separate archetype. Since this block looks like it’s going to have a strong graveyard theme, I would expect to see some reanimation even at lower rarities, especially since SOI was surprisingly lacking in reanimation.
Embalm is certainly an odd mechanic. I like it a lot, but it’s just unusual. The main thing that makes it so weird is how the mechanic itself calls out a specific color, which is not something that happens very often. We’ve had cards that make off-color tokens before (usually for tribal themes, like Lorwyn or Innistrad) but an entire mechanic is a new concept. Assuming that this mechanic is not just in white, which I think is quite probable, decks that don’t even use white will have white tokens in limited. The demographics of creatures in limited as a whole are going to skew white. Even stranger is that it’s an activated ability, so will there be embalm costs requiring blue, black, red, or green mana to make white tokens? Possibly, but it would seem odd. There could be off-color abilities, but this would warp the entire format in the direction of white unless there were off-color ability cards for non-white color pairs. They also might use generic mana on non-white creatures with the ability, which might look a little better, but also would allow one to embalm a creature outside of a deck’s colors if the card was discarded or self-milled into the graveyard. Anyway, since we already have consequences and cycling (as well as quite possibly exert and maybe -1/-1 counters) in all colors, I’m guessing that this mechanic will not be in every color. Obviously it’s in white, and white will probably be the color it is centered in, but I also suspect that it will be in black because black is the traditional color of zombie tokens and reanimation. It could be just those two, or it might show up and green and/or blue as well (although I doubt red). No matter what, however, I am fairly confident that embalm will be the WB limited archetype.
Exert is the type of mechanic that seems like it would be in all colors, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if was only in some. Flavorwise, however, no color seems to really have an edge over the others. Any color can have creatures that need rest. What we do know is that red is already confirmed by the dragon, however, that does not prove that red is a central color for the mechanic. Remember that white and black both got rares that used energy in Kaladesh block, even though energy was primarily in green, blue, and red. We don’t have many other clues to go on, except for Gideon. His planeswalker card is obviously meant to synergize with the exert mechanic. Our previous planeswalker decks have had strong mechanical themes and have been focused on the main colors for the mechanic (Chandra’s RW vehicles, Nissa’s GU energy, Ajani’s GW revolt, and Tezzeret’s UB Improvise). However, none of the previous planeswalker cards save Tezzeret have synergized with their mechanic as bluntly as Gideon does. As a result, I am quite confident that white is going to be a central color for exert. The previous planeswalker decks with monocolored face cards were duel colored, but the colors are decided for the mechanical themes, not by which secondary color the planeswalker might lean towards. We are yet to see two planeswalker decks in the same set that share a color, so we can assume that Gideon’s deck is not black (and Liliana’s is not white). Therefore Gideon’s deck is WU, GW, or RW. Which one is going to be a secondary color for exert? It could be any of them in theory, but my guess is green. Blue has creature untapping effects for synergy with the mechanic but is generally not aggressive enough to feature such an attack-centric mechanic heavily. Red is plenty aggressive but can’t really untap creatures. Green, like white, is capable of both playing aggressively and untapping its creatures, plus both have vigilance. So I’m going to pin down the GW archetype as exert aggro. Other color pairs such as RW or WU (or, I suppose, GU) could feature exert as well, but I think that GW will be the main one.
-1/-1 counters return at last. So what is the mechanic for it going to be? Persist? Wither? Infect? Something new? My prediction is none. For one thing, there are already a lot of mechanics in this set (four named ones, plus two types of counters) and we know that Wizards has been trying to dial down the complexity. Also, Maro was asked a couple weeks ago if -1/-1 counters could return without a related mechanic and not only did he say yes, but I remember him answering quite enthusiastically, probably because that is exactly what they had done for Amonkhet. Furthermore, I’m not sure that -1/-1 counters will be featured in the same capacity that they were in previous blocks, maybe not even in every color. We already have lots of mechanics filling space, at least two and maybe three appearing in all five colors, so -1/-1 counters might not be featured super prominently. We already know that black uses them thanks to the demon and Liliana, and, like Gideon, Liliana has direct synergy with the mechanic that leads me to believe that black will have a major -1/-1 counter theme (black’s history with -1/-1 counters contributes to that theory as well). Liliana’s deck can’t be white (because Gideon’s is, plus white is pretty busy between exert and embalm anyway) so it must be UB, BR, or BG. If my BR cycling/reanimation archetype theory is correct, then BR probably isn’t the main focus of -1/-1 counters. UB and BG are both possible but I’m going to go with BG. Why? First, green has a snake god and probably a fair number of snakes, as well as spiders and deadly warriors. All of these would be good creatures to use -1/-1 counters. Blue, having humans, birds, and sea creatures, would not really be thematically appropriate for lots of -1/-1 counters. Second, green has a much easier time using -1/-1 counters within the color pie than blue. Green is allowed to have deadly creatures (it’s secondary in deathtouch). Black has always gotten the most -1/-1 counters (thanks to being the best at removal, specifically –X/-X effects) but green has been second. Red and white are permitted to use them whenever they would use damage in blocks where they are a major theme, but blue is only supposed to have temporary removal. Most of blue’s card utilizing -1/-1 counters either use them as a drawback or as part of a mechanic (persist, wither, or infect). When blue does get to put them on opponent’s creatures, it’s always inefficient and one at a time. So green is just historically, flavorfully, and mechanically better at -1/-1 counters than blue. So black and green will be the main colors for -1/-1 counters. Will other colors get them to? Possibly, but I’m not completely sure. If they do, it will be in smaller numbers and just as a form of removal rather than a full mechanical theme like they will likely be for BG.
Finally, there are the brick counters. What even are brick counters? They seem to act somewhat like charge counters, except instead of being something that you build up and remove, or having effects that scale by how many counters you have, you have to get a certain number to get an upgraded effect. It’s actually a threshold-type mechanic. Now, all that is just based on the one card we’ve seen, but I think there’s enough design space there. What types of cards will have them? Artifacts for sure, possibly lands, and maybe even enchantments. If they don’t show up on enchantments, it will be a colorless thing that’s only on artifacts and lands. However, that doesn’t have to stop them from having support in certain colors, like vehicles had most of their support in RW. If they do show up on enchantments, that will indicate which colors will get to use them. In theory, builder-themed creatures might have them too, although probably only to move them onto other permanents for flavor reasons. I might have thought that this was just a gimmick for a single card or perhaps a handful, but seeing that punchout card makes me think otherwise. There are the same number of brick counters as -1/-1 counters. That has to indicate a fair amount of relevance in the set. Which colors will use brick counters? We might see a cycle of enchantments in each color representing monuments to build (not unlike Zendikar’s quests), or we might see no colored cards that store bricks at all, but I suspect that certain colors will have cards that can place bricks on the permanents that want them, double brick counters, give you effects for having bricks, or otherwise reward you for using bricks. Which colors? White seems to be the color of most monuments, public infrastructure, and building things, but it already has lots of mechanics to worry about. Blue and red, on the other hand, are lacking in mechanics (if my predictions are correct) and are supposed to synergize with artifacts (which will likely be most of the brick-related cards), especially in the current standard. Plus, blue and red have a history with adding unique types of counters to things (like time and charge counters), and blue has proliferate-ish cards from Aether Revolt. There could be some support in white too, but I think that bricks will probably be the UR archetype.
Bonus speculation time: tribal. Every block nowadays gets some sort of tribal. However, this is only sometimes relevant in limited. Theros minotaurs, Tarkir warriors, BFZ eldrazi, and SOI’s many tribes were playable in limited but Kaladesh didn’t really care about tribes in limited. I predict that the pendulum is going to swing back towards tribal in higher numbers (and lower rarities) for this block. For one thing, zombies in both white and black gives me a feeling that there is going to be some WB zombie tribal, definitely a legendary creature for Commander (although people will inevitably want WUB one eventually so they can play all the zombies). We also have minotaurs returning, who have had tribal support in the past and I believe were fairly popular for it, although they could show up in BR, RW, or just R this time (I’m guessing RW though, they look like goats or sheep which have been traditionally white). There might also be cat, bird, crocodile, jackal, and/or snake tribal based on the five gods. The other thing that makes me suspect this is that there have already been many cards showing overlap between potential tribes. Lorwyn and Innistrad both had a number of cards that somehow represent multiple tribes. Treefolk that make elf tokens, humans that make zombie tokens, etc. In this set, however, anything can make a zombie token thanks to embalm (while conveniently retaining its other creature types). Plus there are more traditional zombies like the zombie jackal and zombie minotaur that could overlap between two tribes. Anyway, the only thing I’m fairly sure about is zombie tribal and maybe minotaurs, anything more than that might happen but I’m not too sure.
Now I’m going to try to predict the limited archetypes based on what we know so far:
WU: Grindy control using brick counters and embalm
UB: Graveyard control
BR: Cycling and reanimation
RG: Exert beatdown? I’m not sure about this one
GW: Exert aggro
WB: Embalm zombie tribal
UR: Brick counters/artifacts matter
BG: -1/-1 counters
RW: Minotaur tribal with exert subtheme
GU: Exert with untapping? Self-mill? Not sure about this one either
I love the idea that as I use this card I am building it up to its final point. This could also mean level cards but that is unlikely since they would have spoiled that effect with the rest.
First you play the spell so you have started the project the you lay the foundation followed by the main body and you top it off with the headstone and you are ready to start using the _______ you built that is if you were able to build it. I wander what amazing things I will be able to build in this set.
I hate the fact that embalm is sorcery speed. Plus if the card has flash can you embalm at instant speed probably not because your not casting it.
I like the complexity but what is this a white zombie. Let me seat that again a WHITE ZOMBIE. Their are 0 mono white zombies.
Stillmoon Cavalier
Putrid Warrior
Daxos the Returned
Tidehollow Sculler are the closest we ever got to white Zombies and now we have amonkeht a set full of them.
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Numquam evolutioni obstes. Solum conculceris.
Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.
Eh, some of them are really easy to understand, one so easy that it really should be evergreen (cycling). The most difficult of the four revealed mechanics to understand would be Exert, and that is mostly because people tend to forget when something can't untap during their untap step.
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Numquam evolutioni obstes. Solum conculceris.
Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.
I think it could definitely make flavorful sense on a land that represents a monument being built. Enchantments could in theory represent the concept, too. I think we might see creatures that can place brick counters on other permanents, so maybe “[Cardname] enters the battlefield with two brick counters on it. T: You may move a brick counter from [cardname] onto an artifact control (or another permanent you control, if there are nonartifact permanents that want brick counters).”
Doubtful. While Maro did say on his blog that we haven’t seen all the mechanics of Amonkhet yet, this is almost certainly referring to consequences. This set is already full of mechanics, plus level cards were historically unpopular and very complex. I believe that Maro rated level cards pretty high on the storm scale, which means their chances of returning are low, especially in a set that already has plenty of mechanics, including a returning mechanic (cycling).
Hopefully, as others have suggested, there’s some sort of Great Pyramid/Temple/Monument that works as an alternate win condition if you get enough brick counters on it.
It would be really overpowered if it was instant speed. The one card we have seen with embalm so far is quite powerful for its cost even at sorcery speed. Also, there’s no reason why we couldn’t see a creature with “You may embalm [cardname] any time you could cast an instant.” But then that text would have to be on the token, right? But then again, embalm doesn’t go on the token because it’s irrelevant so maybe they could remove that line of text, too.
Maybe there will be an instant (or a creature with flash with an ETB effect) that says “Exile target creature card from your (a?) graveyard. Create a token that’s a copy of that token except it’s white and it’s a zombie in addition to its other types.” Basically spelling out the mechanic so that you can get it on a card type that is doesn’t usually go on, like what Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper did for awaken.
Yeah, but Innistrad has blue zombies, as well as red vampires, wolves, werewolves, and angels. Lorwyn has white merfolk, white treefolk, black treefolk, black elves, black faeries, and black goblins. Shadowmoor has white elves, black elementals, black merfolk, and green goblins. Theros has white centaurs, black minotaurs, and red satyrs. Tarkir has black orcs and dragons in all colors, not just red. And Kaladesh has white dwarves. The point is, different worlds will use creature types in colors that they don’t normally appear in. As long as there’s a good reason for the world to have the creature type in that color, people will generally accept it. In this case, Amonkhet’s mummies are honored dead and/or loyal servants, making them feel justifiably white, just as Frankenstein’s Monster-type science zombies feel justifiably blue.
Um… ok then… most people have accepted the leak as real (although many of them are not happy about it). Typically when I hear anyone doubt the legitimacy of this leak, it’s something along the lines of “it’s so ugly that I don’t want to believe it’s true.” Which is fine to hope for, but that doesn’t make it any more likely. I would be appalled if this turns out to be a fake. The design is plausible but likely too crazy for anyone other than Wizards to come up with, let alone create a realistic-looking mockup of. So I’m going to operate under the assumption that it’s real for the time being.
Well, there’s really no reason that the God cycle would involve an extra mechanic. Even if they do have some sort of unifying theme (which is likely), it probably won’t be a keyworded mechanic. Regardless, if it’s something that only appears on mythic rares then it really isn’t a real mechanic for limited purposes.
So there are four mechanics in a large set, which is pretty normal to be honest. BFZ had six (rally, landfall, awaken, converge, devoid, ingest/process) which was widely regarded as too many by both players and by Maro himself, so I doubt that we will see that many in a large again barring extreme circumstances. SOI had four mechanics: investigate, madness, delirium, transform. That was actually a pretty good number. Kaladesh had only three mechanics but they were all very well-developed, each mechanic having many different cards featuring it. This worked just fine, too, but it’s still lower than usual. So not only to I think that four is possible, but I also think that it will be the normal/average number of mechanics for large sets from here on out.