So recently WotC has tried to craft each set's mechanics to reflect the theme. Ie, in Kaladesh you're supposed to feel like an inventor, so there's lots of combos and synergies.
I feel the #1 theme War of the Spark has to capture is the player choosing a side in the epic battle between the Gatewatch and Bolas. There's a few ways they could reflect this, while also considering the issue of it being too parasitic like the Spirit vs. non-Spirit clash was in Kamigawa block.
First of all, cards that trigger off of a Gatewatch watermark. This design space has previously been played with in Unstable, but it only has to be a silver-border mechanic because some cards have been reprinted without watermarks. It could work in black-bordered Magic if all Gatewatch watermark cards were new, and always reprinted with the Gatewatch.
At first I thought there could be both a Gatewatch and Bolas watermark. However, the benefit of having the conflict be Gatewatch watermark vs. without Gatewatch watermark is that the Gatewatch watermark is generic enough to be slated into all blocks going forward to some degree.
For example, here's some sample limited cards:
Riot Stoker 2R
Creature - Human Berserker (U) 1, sacrifice Riot Stoker: It deals 4 damage to each creature and planeswalker with a Gatewatch watermark.
4/1
Back-Alley Agent 1B
Creature - Vampire Rogue (C)
As long as you control no creatures or planeswalkers with a Gatewatch watermark, ~ gains lifelink and menace.
2/1
Simple Boros Draft common 3(R/W)
Creature - Human Soldier (C)
(Gatewatch watermark)
First strike
3/2
Call for Aid GW
Instant (R)
(Gatewatch watermark)
Search your library for a creature or planeswalker card with a Gatewatch watermark, reveal it to all players, and put it into your hand. Shuffle your library.
They could also use the same design technology of "grouping" as Historic in Dominaria. Something like:
Bolas-Aligned (A card is Bolas-Aligned if it's Blue, Black, or Red and not Green or White)
Gatewatch-Aligned (A card is Gatewatch-Aligned if it's Green or White).
Suppression Bolt 2R
Instant (C)
Suppression Bolt deals 3 damage to target creature. If that creature is Gatewatch-Aligned, Suppression Bolt deals 3 damage to that creature's controller.
Orzhov Traitor 1B
Creature - Human Advisor (U)
Whenever you cast a Bolas-Aligned spell, each opponent loses 1 life.
1/3
There could also be cards that just have a rules-setting thing that says they're either alignment, like a Vraska planeswalker that just says "This card is Bolas-Aligned" or a Dimir member that says "This card is Gatewatch-Aligned."
R&D tries to avoid mechanical parasitism as much as possible, and watermarks matter is purely parasitic and sets up a promise they might not want to make (why limit what reprints you can in the future do for the same of one mechanic, now?). Because of printing policy, I believe this mechanic is silver bordered-only.
Aligned is colors matter, which is doable, but how it's set up doesn't make sense, as the default is that, for example, the Azorius and Golgari are Gatewatch-aligned and the Rakdos and Dimir are Bolas-aligned. Putting in lines of text to make exceptions for multicolored guild cards makes a mess of the whole thing and also has no backwards compatibility.
Why not choice cards like what FRF had? The Siege cycle, Crux of Fate, the common "+1/+1 counter or something else" cards, etc.
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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.
If anything they'll have mechanics that represent the gatewatch and those that represent Bolas, kind of like they did with Scars block with Infect representing Phyrexia and Metalcraft representing the Mirrans.
I'm not sure how they would do that but it's an idea. Watermarks notwithstanding.
'buster
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'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset. Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
I think there's going to be a mechanic similar to Conspiracy's Monarch. Maybe something involving capturing a Spark, and getting benefits for controlling it.
I think there's going to be a mechanic similar to Conspiracy's Monarch. Maybe something involving capturing a Spark, and getting benefits for controlling it.
Or what if it's like Ascend from Rivals wherein you get X benefits if you have Y planeswalker cards on the battlefield? Almost like a Threshold for planeswalkers. But yes it could be templated to be like Monarch from Conspiracy II. That way there are cards that can interact with it and gives you the risk of losing it to another person too.
Hopefully more wide and open-ended. Time for more coffee!:gonk:
'buster
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HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset. Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
I'm guessing that we'll get all the Gatewatch in the next set. We haven't seen much from them recently and I think that the set is likely to have a planeswalker theme to it.
I wonder if it will be something similar to Legendary matters.
We will see a ton of planeswalkers, but maybe as Legendary Creature cards as they have their sparks lost or suppressed thanks to the Immortal Sun. Its soon after Dominaria, but it would be interesting to have such thing again in the same set.
Could be useful to give characters who don't have creature cards creature cards. Bolas, Teferi, Karn and Jaya do have them already. Gatewatch besides Ajani have flip walkers.
What if this battle has such a devastating effect on the multiverse that planeswalkers suddenly lose the ability to planeswalk thanks to the huge amount of energy that Bolas et al attempt to accumulate and because of the disruption it causes the sparks to become almost temporarily null? It'd be like the effects of the Mending only going way beyond to the next stage and they're forced to walk around as "ordinary" wizards and mages etc... And then the arc would be to maybe search for a way to rediscover or find a way to planeswalk again?
'buster
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'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset. Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
Ugh, no. Explicitly mentioning art, watermarks, etc on black bordered cards would be a huge turn-off. Not to mention, cards that are literally worthless outside their own expansions are generally terrible.
What if this battle has such a devastating effect on the multiverse that planeswalkers suddenly lose the ability to planeswalk thanks to the huge amount of energy that Bolas et al attempt to accumulate and because of the disruption it causes the sparks to become almost temporarily null? It'd be like the effects of the Mending only going way beyond to the next stage and they're forced to walk around as "ordinary" wizards and mages etc... And then the arc would be to maybe search for a way to rediscover or find a way to planeswalk again?
'buster
Planeswalkers are popular, money cards that often represent the main characters of storylines. Once upon a time they were only supposed to show up in some blocks but their overwhelming, runaway success made the policy of 2-3 planeswalkers per Standard-level expansion set (and 5+ per Core Set) we know today.
Deliberately not printing planeswalkers in the service of a storyline for multiple sets would be at least bad press, if not the kiss of death for a year+ of new Magic products.
Might be interesting if they had some planeswalkers with only one or two abilities, and all of them are minus abilities equal to the planeswalkers' loyalty, and they were lower rarity, inexperienced or temporarily weakened (like by injuries in battles of the set or curses or something) planeswalkers drawn there for some kind of Bolas plot, increasing the planeswalker as-fan and acting something like permanents that can sac themselves for an effect under normal conditions, except that they can potentially be activated multiple times if you have a way to increase the loyalty, and they can be attacked by opponents if you don't use them right away or whatnot.
I wonder whether the whole luring planeswalkers to Ravnica thing is going to create enough of a turnout to result in some nonmythic nonlegendary planeswalker cards.
Ascendancy, Commands, Siege, point being Modal cards are great especially in best of one formats.
Yeah, I feel the recent split cards really hammered home that philosophy with Bedazzle, Collision and Consecrate all being sideboard cards paired with more maindeckable options.
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Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
A part of me is wondering if this set will be planeswalker themed more so than any set in the past, perhaps by making every mythic (or majority of mythics) in the set a planeswalker.
So, we have apparently confirmation of the Eternals making another appearance. Will they get a mechanical theme?
They likely will not be represented by eternalize anymore since that mechanic fit very well into the world where they were created, but not so well into a world, where they are deployed fully-eternalized. Also the predetermined 4/4 body kinda defines a more anrrow design-space.
They might have afflict again. I like the keyword, but it's not by itself impactful. It's a support player like skulk.
If I was thinking about a Bolas-mechanic, then Eternals might play into my mind - maybe side-by-side with how they'll come to Ravnica: Tezzeret, the Planar Bridge. Maybe a mechanic that shows these uber-warriors deploying into the middle of a fight.
---
From the flavor text's of the first two sets you can also take away that the populace of Ravnica is described as a real power, more fundamental than the guilds. We might get a mechanic showing the united force of the people - including guildless - as a base theme for the Gatewatch-side.
Sidenote: Storywise the people of Ravnica might even end up rejecting planeswalkers with force after the destruction they wreck on their plane; Jace's role as the Guildpact would get undermined that way.
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Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
Afflict would work pretty well with Spectacle, so I could see it returning.
For the Gatewatch side, since they'll presumably be uniting Ravnica's people against Bolas, how about Unite?
Unite - [effect] for each color among permanents you control.
Unite plays into a similar space as Domain and Converge, but focuses on the colors of your permanents rather than basic land types or colors of mana spent, making it far easier to support.
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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.
I think the main 'schtick' of War of the Spark is going to be similar to Worldsaverinc's idea.
All of the PWs will be Rare and be flipwalkers. (Except, likely, Bolas.) That is, they are all Legendary Creatures who can flip into Planeswalkers. Then, they all have the same Flip Condition: Control the Spark. (For this to work, it would have to be a single PW would flip. Not all you control.)
And then the marketing idea is to fix one of these (rare) flipwalkers in each pack. This would be a very high complexity set, but the only way to add more PWs than normal to a set/format is to ensure that they can't all be PWs at the same time.
This would be even more of a 'fixed Champions of Kamigawa' than Dominaria. Because, under this plan, you would have a LOT of Legendary creatures (and all the rares/mythics would be PWs). Additionally, you would have a 2-sided conflict raging in all of the colors. Current list of PWs likely to be on Ravnica for War of the Spark:
Nicol Bolas
Kaya
Ral Zarek
Vraska
Domri Rade
Tezzeret
Dovin Baan
Liliana
Note: I am not saying this is just a classification; I am not commenting on the ultimate alignment of any of these.
Listing all of them, that's currently 29 PWs. I'm sure I missed a couple. So the question is whether they add more or if there isn't a better way of handling what I'm suggesting
Fun fact: You can cast the entire current Gatewatch + associates + Story Circle (as of this list) with only white, blue and red mana. Ajani, Tamiyo and Huatli had partially green cards, but also have mono-white, mono-blue and red-white versions. It's been argued that black doesn't play well with others, so it only ever got a representative in, but with Nissa having left and Vivien not having shown up in the story proper yet... green shows itself to be a rather antisocial color as well. Maybe association with society and its dogmas is too advanced a concept - dulling and corrupting the primal instinct with its need for compromise.
EDIT: Or in other words: The Gatewatch needs to get through this story arc and recruit Vraska, because she's such a colorful character.
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Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
I think the main 'schtick' of War of the Spark is going to be similar to Worldsaverinc's idea.
All of the PWs will be Rare and be flipwalkers. (Except, likely, Bolas.) That is, they are all Legendary Creatures who can flip into Planeswalkers. Then, they all have the same Flip Condition: Control the Spark. (For this to work, it would have to be a single PW would flip. Not all you control.)
And then the marketing idea is to fix one of these (rare) flipwalkers in each pack. This would be a very high complexity set, but the only way to add more PWs than normal to a set/format is to ensure that they can't all be PWs at the same time.
This would be even more of a 'fixed Champions of Kamigawa' than Dominaria. Because, under this plan, you would have a LOT of Legendary creatures (and all the rares/mythics would be PWs). Additionally, you would have a 2-sided conflict raging in all of the colors. Current list of PWs likely to be on Ravnica for War of the Spark:
I rhink flavor-wise, it might make more sense for it to be Planeswalkers that flip into Legendary Creatures when they hit 0 loyalty, to represent losing their Spark by using up their remaining power. And they'd only have - abilities with low starting loyalty, so it'd be like a modal spell of sorts. Then gaining/having control of the Spark allows you to flip one back once per turn. Maybe gain control of the Spark when an opponent's Planeswalker flips? They'd probably have to give it some sort of multiplayer-friendly wording, though.
Can't do "watermark matters" in black-border. First, it's parasitic, and secondly, it means that different printings of cards are functionally different. ffs, they have enough trouble with Golgothian Sylex, Apocalypse Chime, and City in a Bottle. (Fortunately, none of those are playable.)
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
A mechanic can be cards that remove walker counters easily
And one speculation is they may be legendary creatures and can be flipped into walkers as if they got their spark back
And suposivly 36 walkers based on the glass excluding ravnica walkers
That’s 31 walkers if there’s gonna be that many walkers some will probably be rare like back in the very first time ever of a introduction of walkers and they may potential can’t resist giving some to all them the “can be your commander” ability
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I feel the #1 theme War of the Spark has to capture is the player choosing a side in the epic battle between the Gatewatch and Bolas. There's a few ways they could reflect this, while also considering the issue of it being too parasitic like the Spirit vs. non-Spirit clash was in Kamigawa block.
First of all, cards that trigger off of a Gatewatch watermark. This design space has previously been played with in Unstable, but it only has to be a silver-border mechanic because some cards have been reprinted without watermarks. It could work in black-bordered Magic if all Gatewatch watermark cards were new, and always reprinted with the Gatewatch.
At first I thought there could be both a Gatewatch and Bolas watermark. However, the benefit of having the conflict be Gatewatch watermark vs. without Gatewatch watermark is that the Gatewatch watermark is generic enough to be slated into all blocks going forward to some degree.
For example, here's some sample limited cards:
Riot Stoker 2R
Creature - Human Berserker (U)
1, sacrifice Riot Stoker: It deals 4 damage to each creature and planeswalker with a Gatewatch watermark.
4/1
Back-Alley Agent 1B
Creature - Vampire Rogue (C)
As long as you control no creatures or planeswalkers with a Gatewatch watermark, ~ gains lifelink and menace.
2/1
Simple Boros Draft common 3(R/W)
Creature - Human Soldier (C)
(Gatewatch watermark)
First strike
3/2
Call for Aid GW
Instant (R)
(Gatewatch watermark)
Search your library for a creature or planeswalker card with a Gatewatch watermark, reveal it to all players, and put it into your hand. Shuffle your library.
They could also use the same design technology of "grouping" as Historic in Dominaria. Something like:
Bolas-Aligned (A card is Bolas-Aligned if it's Blue, Black, or Red and not Green or White)
Gatewatch-Aligned (A card is Gatewatch-Aligned if it's Green or White).
Suppression Bolt 2R
Instant (C)
Suppression Bolt deals 3 damage to target creature. If that creature is Gatewatch-Aligned, Suppression Bolt deals 3 damage to that creature's controller.
Orzhov Traitor 1B
Creature - Human Advisor (U)
Whenever you cast a Bolas-Aligned spell, each opponent loses 1 life.
1/3
There could also be cards that just have a rules-setting thing that says they're either alignment, like a Vraska planeswalker that just says "This card is Bolas-Aligned" or a Dimir member that says "This card is Gatewatch-Aligned."
What do y'all think?
Corrupt Control B | Burn R | UG Turbofog UG | White Weenie W | GW Tethmos WG | BG Cycling Combo BG
Enchantress GBW | Colorless Tron C | Red Deck Wins R | UG Madness UG | Mono-G Tron G | UR Puzzlehorns UR
Rhystic Tron WU| WU Prowess WU | BR Reanimator BR | Mono-R Control R | Stompy G | Temur Tron URG
Mardu Infinite Priest WBR | 85-Card Dredge BRG | Elves GU | Boros Bully RW | Jeskai Familiars RWU
Aligned is colors matter, which is doable, but how it's set up doesn't make sense, as the default is that, for example, the Azorius and Golgari are Gatewatch-aligned and the Rakdos and Dimir are Bolas-aligned. Putting in lines of text to make exceptions for multicolored guild cards makes a mess of the whole thing and also has no backwards compatibility.
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
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.
Ascendancy, Commands, Siege, point being Modal cards are great especially in best of one formats.
I'm not sure how they would do that but it's an idea. Watermarks notwithstanding.
'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
Or what if it's like Ascend from Rivals wherein you get X benefits if you have Y planeswalker cards on the battlefield? Almost like a Threshold for planeswalkers. But yes it could be templated to be like Monarch from Conspiracy II. That way there are cards that can interact with it and gives you the risk of losing it to another person too.
Hopefully more wide and open-ended. Time for more coffee!:gonk:
'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
We will see a ton of planeswalkers, but maybe as Legendary Creature cards as they have their sparks lost or suppressed thanks to the Immortal Sun. Its soon after Dominaria, but it would be interesting to have such thing again in the same set.
What if this battle has such a devastating effect on the multiverse that planeswalkers suddenly lose the ability to planeswalk thanks to the huge amount of energy that Bolas et al attempt to accumulate and because of the disruption it causes the sparks to become almost temporarily null? It'd be like the effects of the Mending only going way beyond to the next stage and they're forced to walk around as "ordinary" wizards and mages etc... And then the arc would be to maybe search for a way to rediscover or find a way to planeswalk again?
'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
Deliberately not printing planeswalkers in the service of a storyline for multiple sets would be at least bad press, if not the kiss of death for a year+ of new Magic products.
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Yeah, I feel the recent split cards really hammered home that philosophy with Bedazzle, Collision and Consecrate all being sideboard cards paired with more maindeckable options.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
I would hope for some Planeswalker interaction cards adding and removing loyalty counter etc.
Hands to the sky
Give a round of applause
For the great Miss Y!
If I was thinking about a Bolas-mechanic, then Eternals might play into my mind - maybe side-by-side with how they'll come to Ravnica: Tezzeret, the Planar Bridge. Maybe a mechanic that shows these uber-warriors deploying into the middle of a fight.
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From the flavor text's of the first two sets you can also take away that the populace of Ravnica is described as a real power, more fundamental than the guilds. We might get a mechanic showing the united force of the people - including guildless - as a base theme for the Gatewatch-side.
Sidenote: Storywise the people of Ravnica might even end up rejecting planeswalkers with force after the destruction they wreck on their plane; Jace's role as the Guildpact would get undermined that way.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
For the Gatewatch side, since they'll presumably be uniting Ravnica's people against Bolas, how about Unite?
Unite - [effect] for each color among permanents you control.
Unite plays into a similar space as Domain and Converge, but focuses on the colors of your permanents rather than basic land types or colors of mana spent, making it far easier to support.
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.
All of the PWs will be Rare and be flipwalkers. (Except, likely, Bolas.) That is, they are all Legendary Creatures who can flip into Planeswalkers. Then, they all have the same Flip Condition: Control the Spark. (For this to work, it would have to be a single PW would flip. Not all you control.)
And then the marketing idea is to fix one of these (rare) flipwalkers in each pack. This would be a very high complexity set, but the only way to add more PWs than normal to a set/format is to ensure that they can't all be PWs at the same time.
This would be even more of a 'fixed Champions of Kamigawa' than Dominaria. Because, under this plan, you would have a LOT of Legendary creatures (and all the rares/mythics would be PWs). Additionally, you would have a 2-sided conflict raging in all of the colors. Current list of PWs likely to be on Ravnica for War of the Spark:
Gideon
Jace
Teferi
Chandra
Ajani
Karn
Jaya
Ugin
Tamiyo
Narset
Saheeli Rai
Huatli
Sarkhan
Vivien Reid
Nissa
Nahiri
Samut
Kiora
Tibalt
Dack Fayden
Garruk
Nicol Bolas
Kaya
Ral Zarek
Vraska
Domri Rade
Tezzeret
Dovin Baan
Liliana
Note: I am not saying this is just a classification; I am not commenting on the ultimate alignment of any of these.
Listing all of them, that's currently 29 PWs. I'm sure I missed a couple. So the question is whether they add more or if there isn't a better way of handling what I'm suggesting
Fun fact: You can cast the entire current Gatewatch + associates + Story Circle (as of this list) with only white, blue and red mana. Ajani, Tamiyo and Huatli had partially green cards, but also have mono-white, mono-blue and red-white versions. It's been argued that black doesn't play well with others, so it only ever got a representative in, but with Nissa having left and Vivien not having shown up in the story proper yet... green shows itself to be a rather antisocial color as well. Maybe association with society and its dogmas is too advanced a concept - dulling and corrupting the primal instinct with its need for compromise.
EDIT: Or in other words: The Gatewatch needs to get through this story arc and recruit Vraska, because she's such a colorful character.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
I rhink flavor-wise, it might make more sense for it to be Planeswalkers that flip into Legendary Creatures when they hit 0 loyalty, to represent losing their Spark by using up their remaining power. And they'd only have - abilities with low starting loyalty, so it'd be like a modal spell of sorts. Then gaining/having control of the Spark allows you to flip one back once per turn. Maybe gain control of the Spark when an opponent's Planeswalker flips? They'd probably have to give it some sort of multiplayer-friendly wording, though.
On phasing:
A mechanic can be cards that remove walker counters easily
And one speculation is they may be legendary creatures and can be flipped into walkers as if they got their spark back
And suposivly 36 walkers based on the glass excluding ravnica walkers
That’s 31 walkers if there’s gonna be that many walkers some will probably be rare like back in the very first time ever of a introduction of walkers and they may potential can’t resist giving some to all them the “can be your commander” ability