I read the Nahiri story today... the entire time I was thinking "Why isn't Nahiri a red mage? Her repertoire is red?" At least historically - Earth Elemental, Stone Rain, Mountain.
Maybe they are flavorshifting the element of earth/stone to White? I can think of a few reasons:
- Red already has a monopoly over lightning and fire
- White desperately needs a new characteristic race, and flavorshifting earth magic to white would justify dwarves
- Earth magic is shielding/defensive in nature, like white
- White has a connection with equipment, and weapons are derived from metal from within stone
What you think? Maybe Nahiri is the first step to justify earth magic in white.
I ready in MaRo's article today that each two-color pair in KTK (well, in all sets) has a particular strategy. For example, he said that Secret Plans represents Blue/Green strategy is playing lots of morph cards.
"As I explained last week, design and development having been spending more time making sure each two-color combination has a draft strategy. In Khans of Tarkir, Erik spent extra time on the enemy-color pairings, as they play well with drafting wedges. Green-blue has an emphasis on morph. Because morph is bigger than the clans, it shows up in all five clans and in all five colors, but the stronger cards (for Limited) were concentrated in green and blue.
[card]Secret Plans[/cards] plays into another recent addition of design and development, the addition of a cycle of two-color uncommons that help reinforce those color combination's draft strategy. Green and blue are about morph, so their uncommon multicolor card encourages playing lots of morph creatures."
My question: What are the other two-color pair strategies?
"The exploratory team first stumbled upon morph because we needed a mechanic that could go through a series of changes. Morph in Khans of Tarkir wanted to be morph pretty much as you know it. There are a few tweaks and couple of new things, but we wanted to start out the block with the morph players already knew and loved. Let me stress, though, that as with the wedge theme, morph is going to go through some changes in this block, and not necessarily in the way many of you might expect. Most of that talk, though, is going to have to wait for Fate Reforged and "Louie.""
Does this imply that perhaps in Fate or Louie that morph will involve facedown cards that turn into non-creature permanents? Spells? Flip-cards?
I imagine Bear Cub to be a 1.5/1.5 rounded up to a 2/2. Maybe Grizzly Bears is a 2.49/2.49 rounded down to 2/2. Blame the limiting nature of the established P/T scale.
Outside of bears, in my mind I like to view real-life P/T as an exponential of the card's printed P/T. For example:
1/1 card = 1/1 real life
2/2 card = 4/4 real life
3/3 card = 9/9 real life
4/4 card = 16/16 real life
5/5 card = 25/25 real life
- Expect at least a trilogy. They will most likely resolve the story nicely by the end of the first movie in case it bombs, but leave a pseudo-cliffhanger ending to continue into "Episodes" 2 and 3 should the movie be a hit
- Probably will focus on the Neowalkers, like the poster above mentioned it will probably focus on Jace. The Neowalkers are the face of the brand for the time being. Audiences identify with human characters, so Chandra, Liliana, Garruk, Gideon also probably likely. A handful of non-human characters for flavor, but they won't be the main characters.
- Ravnica, which seems to have usurped Dominaria as the "standard plane", will probably be the main setting, or Shandalar which could be a standard fantasy world.
- Planeswalking is a core characteristic of Magic, so there will probably be multiple planes involved. It will be cool to see how they render the Blind Eternities, and distinguish that it's NOT the same as space travel. The concept of planes could be mistaken for planets in a galaxy.
- If the marketers are smart, they'll release 1 movie per year a la LoTR/HP, and could tie the movies in with the most recent sets
- I can see them doing something similar to X-Men/Marvel movies... one big bad per movie that tie into an overall larger plot, with a roster of Planeswalkers coming and going in the battle (like how the mutants varied from one X-Men to another)
- I can see them downplaying the concept of mana and the bonds with lands... maybe even downplaying the act of casting a creature and focus more on the planeswalking/spell slinging.
- They will NOT incorporate gameplay elements into the movie... untap, upkeep, draw... not important for a movie
It'd be interesting to see if the movies are considered canon and reflected in the story in the cards, or if they take place within an "alternate multiverse".
- Expect at least a trilogy. They will most likely resolve the story nicely by the end of the first movie in case it bombs, but leave a pseudo-cliffhanger ending to continue into "Episodes" 2 and 3 should the movie be a hit
- Probably will focus on the Neowalkers, like the poster above mentioned it will probably focus on Jace. The Neowalkers are the face of the brand for the time being. Audiences identify with human characters, so Chandra, Liliana, Garruk, Gideon also probably likely. A handful of non-human characters for flavor, but they won't be the main characters.
- Ravnica, which seems to have usurped Dominaria as the "standard plane", will probably be the main setting, or Shandalar which could be a standard fantasy world.
- Planeswalking is a core characteristic of Magic, so there will probably be multiple planes involved. It will be cool to see how they render the Blind Eternities, and distinguish that it's NOT the same as space travel. The concept of planes could be mistaken for planets in a galaxy.
- If the marketers are smart, they'll release 1 movie per year a la LoTR/HP, and could tie the movies in with the most recent sets
- I can see them doing something similar to X-Men/Marvel movies... one big bad per movie that tie into an overall larger plot, with a roster of Planeswalkers coming and going in the battle (like how the mutants varied from one X-Men to another)
- I can see them downplaying the concept of mana and the bonds with lands... maybe even downplaying the act of casting a creature and focus more on the planeswalking/spell slinging.
It'd be interesting to see if the movies are considered canon and reflected in the story in the cards, or if they take place within an "alternate multiverse".
The bottom of the borders bug me. I don't like how the squareness of the text box sits on top of the curved colored background (and leaves black emptiness in the bottom part of the card).
Designed by? MaRo said it's impossible to credit a card to a specific designer because it's a team effort. So they'll use it rarely? Why even do it at all?
I am very much in support of this. For those of you who don't think representation of homosexual characters belongs in Magic, imagine this scenario: an African-American boy purchases a booster of Scars of Mirrodin, and pulls a Koth of the Hammer. He thinks to himself, "He has dark skin like me. He's a hero. I can be a hero." He can identify with the card. His identity is validated.
Now, a gay man or woman would read the flavor text of Guardians of Meletis and get the same feeling. "These characters are portrayed as gay lovers. I identify with that. Wizards recognizes that I exist and made a card that's like me."
This is the same reason that there are female characters in Magic - females play the game, and can identify with the female characters.
It's about validation and inclusion - nothing remotely related to progressive propaganda.
So if you are casting an Aura spell and the target is destroyed in response, the Aura spell will fizzle for lack of a target and go to the graveyard.
Is that true? Doesn't the aura spell, if the target dies, still enter the battlefield but immediately go to the graveyard because it's not attached to anything?
Or does the actual aura spell get countered because it doesn't have a legal target? What if an aura had a EtB ability and it's target was destroyed? Would the EtB ability still trigger?
Back in the day, most creature removal included the phrase "It cannot be regenerated" (ala Wrath of God and Terror).
In order to encourage creature combat, WotC gravitated toward removing this clause from most removal cards (Day of Judgment). In parallel, Magic introduced indestructible as a keyword and began to integrate the exile zone more and more into the game (e.g. Burning Wish, flicker effects, etc.).
IMO, we're now at a point where it's easier to remove a creature from the game rather than destroy it and put it in the graveyard. There's an unmet need currently for a creature ability that prevents that creature from being removed from the game - e.g. "Tethered" or "Grounded" (If a spell or ability would remove this permanent from the game, counter that spell or ability.)
People weren't buying novels --> Cancel product line
While true, I think they need to take a step back and realize that:
Release poor quality novel product --> People don't buy novels
If they were to contract a good author with a solid track record, align the setting details with Wizard's internal godbook, give us a good, interesting, fun story that's more than "Kamahl angry. Kamahl punch dwarf. Bolas rules the universe", and proofread the darn thing (I can't count how many mispellings I remember in my Odyssey novel), then people will buy them.
Instead - they hire lackluster writers (even when they have written poor stories before for them) and disrupt the canon of the universe. And forget to press spell check.
Maybe they are flavorshifting the element of earth/stone to White? I can think of a few reasons:
- Red already has a monopoly over lightning and fire
- White desperately needs a new characteristic race, and flavorshifting earth magic to white would justify dwarves
- Earth magic is shielding/defensive in nature, like white
- White has a connection with equipment, and weapons are derived from metal from within stone
What you think? Maybe Nahiri is the first step to justify earth magic in white.
"As I explained last week, design and development having been spending more time making sure each two-color combination has a draft strategy. In Khans of Tarkir, Erik spent extra time on the enemy-color pairings, as they play well with drafting wedges. Green-blue has an emphasis on morph. Because morph is bigger than the clans, it shows up in all five clans and in all five colors, but the stronger cards (for Limited) were concentrated in green and blue.
[card]Secret Plans[/cards] plays into another recent addition of design and development, the addition of a cycle of two-color uncommons that help reinforce those color combination's draft strategy. Green and blue are about morph, so their uncommon multicolor card encourages playing lots of morph creatures."
My question: What are the other two-color pair strategies?
W/U:
W/B:
W/R:
W/G:
U/B:
U/R:
U/G: Morph
B/R:
B/G:
R/G:
"The exploratory team first stumbled upon morph because we needed a mechanic that could go through a series of changes. Morph in Khans of Tarkir wanted to be morph pretty much as you know it. There are a few tweaks and couple of new things, but we wanted to start out the block with the morph players already knew and loved. Let me stress, though, that as with the wedge theme, morph is going to go through some changes in this block, and not necessarily in the way many of you might expect. Most of that talk, though, is going to have to wait for Fate Reforged and "Louie.""
Does this imply that perhaps in Fate or Louie that morph will involve facedown cards that turn into non-creature permanents? Spells? Flip-cards?
Outside of bears, in my mind I like to view real-life P/T as an exponential of the card's printed P/T. For example:
1/1 card = 1/1 real life
2/2 card = 4/4 real life
3/3 card = 9/9 real life
4/4 card = 16/16 real life
5/5 card = 25/25 real life
So it would take nine Squires to defeat one Hill Giant.
- Expect at least a trilogy. They will most likely resolve the story nicely by the end of the first movie in case it bombs, but leave a pseudo-cliffhanger ending to continue into "Episodes" 2 and 3 should the movie be a hit
- Probably will focus on the Neowalkers, like the poster above mentioned it will probably focus on Jace. The Neowalkers are the face of the brand for the time being. Audiences identify with human characters, so Chandra, Liliana, Garruk, Gideon also probably likely. A handful of non-human characters for flavor, but they won't be the main characters.
- Ravnica, which seems to have usurped Dominaria as the "standard plane", will probably be the main setting, or Shandalar which could be a standard fantasy world.
- Planeswalking is a core characteristic of Magic, so there will probably be multiple planes involved. It will be cool to see how they render the Blind Eternities, and distinguish that it's NOT the same as space travel. The concept of planes could be mistaken for planets in a galaxy.
- If the marketers are smart, they'll release 1 movie per year a la LoTR/HP, and could tie the movies in with the most recent sets
- I can see them doing something similar to X-Men/Marvel movies... one big bad per movie that tie into an overall larger plot, with a roster of Planeswalkers coming and going in the battle (like how the mutants varied from one X-Men to another)
- I can see them downplaying the concept of mana and the bonds with lands... maybe even downplaying the act of casting a creature and focus more on the planeswalking/spell slinging.
- They will NOT incorporate gameplay elements into the movie... untap, upkeep, draw... not important for a movie
It'd be interesting to see if the movies are considered canon and reflected in the story in the cards, or if they take place within an "alternate multiverse".
- Expect at least a trilogy. They will most likely resolve the story nicely by the end of the first movie in case it bombs, but leave a pseudo-cliffhanger ending to continue into "Episodes" 2 and 3 should the movie be a hit
- Probably will focus on the Neowalkers, like the poster above mentioned it will probably focus on Jace. The Neowalkers are the face of the brand for the time being. Audiences identify with human characters, so Chandra, Liliana, Garruk, Gideon also probably likely. A handful of non-human characters for flavor, but they won't be the main characters.
- Ravnica, which seems to have usurped Dominaria as the "standard plane", will probably be the main setting, or Shandalar which could be a standard fantasy world.
- Planeswalking is a core characteristic of Magic, so there will probably be multiple planes involved. It will be cool to see how they render the Blind Eternities, and distinguish that it's NOT the same as space travel. The concept of planes could be mistaken for planets in a galaxy.
- If the marketers are smart, they'll release 1 movie per year a la LoTR/HP, and could tie the movies in with the most recent sets
- I can see them doing something similar to X-Men/Marvel movies... one big bad per movie that tie into an overall larger plot, with a roster of Planeswalkers coming and going in the battle (like how the mutants varied from one X-Men to another)
- I can see them downplaying the concept of mana and the bonds with lands... maybe even downplaying the act of casting a creature and focus more on the planeswalking/spell slinging.
It'd be interesting to see if the movies are considered canon and reflected in the story in the cards, or if they take place within an "alternate multiverse".
The holofoil stamp is tacky and extraneous.
The bottom of the borders bug me. I don't like how the squareness of the text box sits on top of the curved colored background (and leaves black emptiness in the bottom part of the card).
Designed by? MaRo said it's impossible to credit a card to a specific designer because it's a team effort. So they'll use it rarely? Why even do it at all?
Change for the sake of change = dumb.
Chimney Imp in close second. And both have flying!
But in all seriousness, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.
Now, a gay man or woman would read the flavor text of Guardians of Meletis and get the same feeling. "These characters are portrayed as gay lovers. I identify with that. Wizards recognizes that I exist and made a card that's like me."
This is the same reason that there are female characters in Magic - females play the game, and can identify with the female characters.
It's about validation and inclusion - nothing remotely related to progressive propaganda.
Is that true? Doesn't the aura spell, if the target dies, still enter the battlefield but immediately go to the graveyard because it's not attached to anything?
Or does the actual aura spell get countered because it doesn't have a legal target? What if an aura had a EtB ability and it's target was destroyed? Would the EtB ability still trigger?
Some goblins have turtle-like shells (Akki).
Some vampires have black sclera.
Some merfolk have legs.
Some elves have horns.
Why shouldn't slivers be granted this same freedom?
In order to encourage creature combat, WotC gravitated toward removing this clause from most removal cards (Day of Judgment). In parallel, Magic introduced indestructible as a keyword and began to integrate the exile zone more and more into the game (e.g. Burning Wish, flicker effects, etc.).
IMO, we're now at a point where it's easier to remove a creature from the game rather than destroy it and put it in the graveyard. There's an unmet need currently for a creature ability that prevents that creature from being removed from the game - e.g. "Tethered" or "Grounded" (If a spell or ability would remove this permanent from the game, counter that spell or ability.)
What do you guys think?
Why not just "Instant - Counter"?
People weren't buying novels --> Cancel product line
While true, I think they need to take a step back and realize that:
Release poor quality novel product --> People don't buy novels
If they were to contract a good author with a solid track record, align the setting details with Wizard's internal godbook, give us a good, interesting, fun story that's more than "Kamahl angry. Kamahl punch dwarf. Bolas rules the universe", and proofread the darn thing (I can't count how many mispellings I remember in my Odyssey novel), then people will buy them.
Instead - they hire lackluster writers (even when they have written poor stories before for them) and disrupt the canon of the universe. And forget to press spell check.