It occurs to me that Planechase would be a great product in which to feature new Planeswalker cards, seeing as it's themed around planeswalking and all. For the third outing, what if they introduced a new cycle of Planeswalker face cards similar to how Planechase 2012 had a cycle of legendary creature face cards? (Maelstrom Wanderer, Krond the Dawn-Clad, Vela the Night-Clad, and Thromok the Insatiable). And since the first two had a five color deck each, how about this time we get another five color deck that thus features a five color planeswalker? A bit of a jump seeing as we've only gotten one tricolor planeswalker card so far, but surely there is a notable five color theme that a PW can use? As it so happens, there is: Slivers. Which would mean a Sliver-themed planeswalker. And there so happens to be one: Ess-Nelek from DotP, represented by an image of a Sliver, thus strongly implying that they are a Sliver themselves (I get the feeling this could be another Ashiok situation as far as gender pronouns are concerned).
Ess-NelekWUBRG
Planeswalker - Nelek
+2: Put two colorless 1/1 Sliver creature tokens onto the battlefield.
-3: Search your graveyard and/or library for a Sliver creature card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. If you search your library this way, shuffle it.
0: Until end of turn, ~ becomes a 7/7 Sliver creature with indestructible. (It doesn't lose loyalty while it's not a planeswalker.)
5
I've developed a theoretical backstory for Nelek that explains the humanoid Slivers, partly the reason why I put this in Baseless Speculation. My proposed backstory goes thus:
Ess-Nelek was once just another Sliver among countless Slivers, serving the Skep as part of a collective, until one fateful day when a curious planeswalker captured it and took it to a lab far away from the Skep to study a Sliver in isolation. The time spent separate from the Skep had a strange effect on the Sliver: It began developing self-awareness and for the first time in its life had independent thoughts. It studied the planeswalker and their associates even as they studied it, learning to speak and read their language, growing ever more humanoid until it began to resemble a human itself. The planeswalker dubbed the transformed creature a "Neo-Sliver", believing it to be a new evolutionary breakthrough. The Neo-Sliver continued learning many things from its caretakers and formed bonds with them, but over time it grew longing for its former home and its kin, tempting it to escape back to its own kind.
The planeswalker's experiment had not gone unnoticed by the outside world; when word got out about the "human-Sliver" the planeswalker's laboratory was besieged by soldiers seeking to destroy the creature before it could become a threat and to arrest the laboratory's staff for dangerous experimentation. The planeswalker managed to escape by planeswalking but not before incurring a grievous wound from the commander, while the remaining staff were captured or killed in the struggle. Facing imminent death and grieving the loss of friends, the Neo-Sliver's spark ignited. The Neo-Sliver had been told of planeswalking but had never witnessed such before, let alone experienced it. Its first planeswalk had taken it to the very plane where its friend had escaped to. The planeswalker had not only been wounded, but poisoned; the Neo-Sliver lacked the knowledge to remove or counteract the poison, meaning the planeswalker only had hours left at best.
The planeswalker explained their reason for undertaking the experiment in the first place: The Slivers' adaptive abilities surpassed those of other creatures, making them superior on a biological level. However, the planeswalker had hoped that the Slivers could not only adapt but learn, develop mentally as well as physically, perhaps find common ground with other species. The planeswalker always knew they would have to let the Neo-Sliver return to the Skep sooner or later, but hoped to teach the Neo-Sliver as much as possible first. As a final wish, the planeswalker asked to see how the Skep would react to the Neo-Sliver. Together, the duo walked back to the Neo-Sliver's home plane, back to the Skep. The Skep Slivers immediately recognized one of their own despite the considerable physical difference, and soon had all adapted the Neo-Sliver's humanoid form. The planeswalker was amazed and glad to have been able to witness such an extraordinary moment of evolution. With their last words, they told the Neo-Sliver that it would be able to decide its own evolutionary path now.
Private Mod Note
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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 love the references to previous Sliver "leaders" in the abilities.
All it needs is "Ess Nelek can be your Commander,"
and maybe tweak the - ability so it costs like -8-9
and puts three slivers into play rather than one into your hand.
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
Except that not every Sliver would have a spark, so not every Sliver could planeswalk or be a planeswalker. Way I figure it, Nelek is an ascended Sliver of sorts, a being who has evolved beyond the typical boundaries of the species. It still has the ability to summon and interact with Slivers, it just can't spread that one unique gift to others of its own kind.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
Except that not every Sliver would have a spark, so not every Sliver could planeswalk or be a planeswalker. Way I figure it, Nelek is an ascended Sliver of sorts, a being who has evolved beyond the typical boundaries of the species. It still has the ability to summon and interact with Slivers, it just can't spread that one unique gift to others of its own kind.
Except slivers inherently pass on any and every trait they have to other slivers. It's sorta their whole shtick. If one had a spark, any other sliver near it would get a spark. Just like if one had wings, every other one near it gets wings. Or claws, or fangs, etc, etc, etc. They could still have a 'sliver' planeswalker, but it would have to be a planeswalker that creates slivers that isn't actually a sliver itself. Perhaps the mage that created them in the first place, since they don't seem to be purely natural in any way. The only ability you came up with that wouldn't really work for that would be the 0.
Slivers don't pass on abilities as I understand it, other slivers adapt to acquire the abilities presented to them by those around them. Which is why often in stories containing slivers they copy the abilities of nearby species and characters they interact with. The spark is not something necessarily that can be copied in such a way. However they may be able to copy the ability to planeswalk or something similar which would be weird. Maybe the final would be more like, "Put an emblem into play that says, "All slivers have First Strike, Lifelink, Deathtouch, Trample, etc"" As some sort of mega sliver effect.
Ess-Nelek was not a planeswalker. Most of the characters that controlled decks in DotP games are planebound characters. Matter of fact, I just looked through them all and only Ramaz is a walker. The art for Ess-Nelek is that of Striking Sliver.
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Ess-Nelek WUBRG
Planeswalker - Nelek
+2: Put two colorless 1/1 Sliver creature tokens onto the battlefield.
-3: Search your graveyard and/or library for a Sliver creature card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. If you search your library this way, shuffle it.
0: Until end of turn, ~ becomes a 7/7 Sliver creature with indestructible. (It doesn't lose loyalty while it's not a planeswalker.)
5
I've developed a theoretical backstory for Nelek that explains the humanoid Slivers, partly the reason why I put this in Baseless Speculation. My proposed backstory goes thus:
The planeswalker's experiment had not gone unnoticed by the outside world; when word got out about the "human-Sliver" the planeswalker's laboratory was besieged by soldiers seeking to destroy the creature before it could become a threat and to arrest the laboratory's staff for dangerous experimentation. The planeswalker managed to escape by planeswalking but not before incurring a grievous wound from the commander, while the remaining staff were captured or killed in the struggle. Facing imminent death and grieving the loss of friends, the Neo-Sliver's spark ignited. The Neo-Sliver had been told of planeswalking but had never witnessed such before, let alone experienced it. Its first planeswalk had taken it to the very plane where its friend had escaped to. The planeswalker had not only been wounded, but poisoned; the Neo-Sliver lacked the knowledge to remove or counteract the poison, meaning the planeswalker only had hours left at best.
The planeswalker explained their reason for undertaking the experiment in the first place: The Slivers' adaptive abilities surpassed those of other creatures, making them superior on a biological level. However, the planeswalker had hoped that the Slivers could not only adapt but learn, develop mentally as well as physically, perhaps find common ground with other species. The planeswalker always knew they would have to let the Neo-Sliver return to the Skep sooner or later, but hoped to teach the Neo-Sliver as much as possible first. As a final wish, the planeswalker asked to see how the Skep would react to the Neo-Sliver. Together, the duo walked back to the Neo-Sliver's home plane, back to the Skep. The Skep Slivers immediately recognized one of their own despite the considerable physical difference, and soon had all adapted the Neo-Sliver's humanoid form. The planeswalker was amazed and glad to have been able to witness such an extraordinary moment of evolution. With their last words, they told the Neo-Sliver that it would be able to decide its own evolutionary path now.
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 it needs is "Ess Nelek can be your Commander,"
and maybe tweak the - ability so it costs like -8-9
and puts three slivers into play rather than one into your hand.
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
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.
Except slivers inherently pass on any and every trait they have to other slivers. It's sorta their whole shtick. If one had a spark, any other sliver near it would get a spark. Just like if one had wings, every other one near it gets wings. Or claws, or fangs, etc, etc, etc. They could still have a 'sliver' planeswalker, but it would have to be a planeswalker that creates slivers that isn't actually a sliver itself. Perhaps the mage that created them in the first place, since they don't seem to be purely natural in any way. The only ability you came up with that wouldn't really work for that would be the 0.
Alters