Not only did not all my mythics come in the same pack art packs, but I got, and I'd swear to this in court, 18 mythics. Four are Lilliana, two Tamiyo, three Gissa and Gerald, and two Mirror wings were part of that.
I would LOVE that to be Marit-Lage, but I think it is just a very large octopus, maybe Lorthos's very distant cousin? I guess I should add, I doubt they are going to change the name, but it is interesting that there isn't a set symbol, so I'm guessing it won't be the moon. Unless it will be a round, globe-like symbol with moon patterns on it... Totally unlike Homelands symbol in every way ;-). Maybe they'll tie Innistrad to Ulgrotha, with its Dark Barony, somehow, they can be sister planes or some such nonsense.
I'm not 100% sure of the story as it was left standing, but if I recall, Garruk was last seen 'walking away intent now on happily becoming a demon. Maybe his curse has spread and is starting to drive everyone on the plane mad?
After Fevered Visions trigger resolves, it's still the end step and it will be until all players pass in succession. You will still get priority in that step, and so you can play Runeflare Trap.
Thanks! That makes sense since it isn't during the cleanup portion of the end step; I should have recognized that. Thanks again!
In short, if Fevered Visions draws your opponent their third card for the turn, can you still use Runeflare Trap for 1 mana, or is there no chance to respond after the draw?
Yes, but it is an extremely popular setting, and if they balance the block right, and don't have the broken/junk issue they had last time it would sell well. The problem was, I think, it followed Mirrodin, which was broken, and they were gun shy in development so they nerfed the heck out of everything so it wouldn't continue the brokenness of the Standard environment. They basically had to sacrifice a block to Mirrodin to keep people from quitting. I believe they said something to this effect in the past (I'm sorry, I don't want to dig that far back) and said that they realize in hindsight that they went too far. I'm not saying any of that proves anything (heck this whole postulate is based on one piece of art and MaRo saying Kamigawa before anything else in an unrelated article), but I don't think we can rule Kamigawa out.
A note, too. I thought it was interesting that MaRo included both Madness and Ninjutu as mechanics that would be unlikely to ever return unless they find the perfect place just after Madness's return in SOI was leaked, now we have that art. Again, it isn't much, but it is interesting that a professional word smith would would do that by accident. Before it starts, I know he also included a few other non-Tarkir related mechanics in his ramblings before he got to the list, but it was interesting that he chose those two in particular.
Edit - Oh! What made me think of that article is that he made a clear point that some of those mechanics are higher, or lower, on the list than they should be based on most criteria because public reception. So he made a point to say that the demands of the audience is a very strong influence on what they bring back and what they don't. Obviously some things won't be influenced by that (Force of Will in his recent article for example is unlikely to return even if 100% of the audience asked for it because it is SO broken) as they would drastically decrease the overall health and viability of the game for the next couple years, but something as harmless as a setting should be able to be influenced after the knee jerk reaction of "This set is weak and has killed Magic." wears off.
This may sound like baseless speculation, but I do have some clues to extrapolate from. Funny enough the first clue is from SOI.
Note the art on this guy. He has the little floating things around him, which I can only remember being featured on Kamigawa spirits as their symbols of being spirits (I did some decent searching and couldn't find the name of the floating things). On top of that, and this could be because I saw the article just after noticing the art on this guy, the first thing Mark Rosewater said people ask for is to return to Kamigawa. It could be a coincidence, and it likely is, but it seems interesting that he formatted his article that way, then said much of what was listed is coming within the next 7 years. Might they tie the spirits of Innistrad and Kamigawa together? I mean, we have Tamyio here, too, doing research. Could it be that it wasn't just the odd power of the moon that drew her there? Or that the moon and the spirits are tied together on both planes or some other such thing? With Wizard's creative team getting so good at making sure the themes stay distinct and separate it seems odd that they would let a key artistic idea that helped define Kamigawa bleed into Innistrad by accident. Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but I doubt it. They've been very good at hiding clues in things before.
Jace: "For the sake of the Multiverse"
Nissa: "For life."
Gideon: "Justice and peace."
Chandra: "Yeah, sure."
Even better, you can hear the "can we get this over with" in her voice, almost like the other three are just off camera scowling at her because she did just say, "Yeah, sure." and they want her to say something meaningful for the big occasion. The more I read it, the funnier it is.
So much salt over the Eldrazi "losing". So. Much. Salt. I can hardly believe it, actually. How does it so defy expectations as to make you people upset? It speaks to a huge lack of understanding, the effort that it takes to defeat them. Sorry, not "them", only "2 out of 3 of them". They have to get the land to fight, they have to get the inhabitants of the land to band together, they have to get not two or three but four planeswalkers, whose power levels have been time and time again explained to us nice and slowly, and you people still don't buy it cuz "muh cool monsters". SMFH
Because one old walker should be able to defeat any 5 or 6 neowalkers without breaking a sweat. They were god-like beings of incredible power, some of whom were actually worshipped as gods. Some of them even created entire planes of existence. Sorin (who was over 1000 years old at that point) and Nahiri combined could not defeat a single eldrazi titan while at their full oldwalker power. It took a third and even more powerful walker joining forces with them to defeat the titans, but not completely, just temporarily. The idea that 4 powerful mages could succeed where 2 oldwalkers failed is going to rub some folks the wrong way even if the neowalkers are drawing heavily on the work done by the oldwalkers over 6000 years ago.
Not only that, but from Bonds of Mortality you specifically see that they had to find the leylines and adjust them to make the Titans even able to be touced, which does fit the flavor of blue and green; two colors not found among Sorin, Nahiri, and Ugin. I mean, Ugin could presumably have done it, and I think they did use leylines to align the hedrons to do their thing, but adjusting the leylines is different. The point being, it didn't take immense power, just ingenuity, which funny enough would make this make sense. If you can brute force everything else you've encountered for 1000 years, you tend to forget how to be subtle and manipulative. Having omnipotent 'walkers try to smash through, then have to quick find a fix to stop the carnage while the weak-'walkers who have always had to mix cunning with their power (other than Garruk) would have to stop and devise a plan that actually works. That and they even went through all the trouble of altering Nissa's baseline personality from the racist elf to benevolent avatar of Zendikar itself to explain why she can realign the leylines, though I wouldn't be surprised if they just retconned her then realized it works for this bit of plot.
I feel old. I remember when a 4/4 for 4 in green, the giant creature color, was good with very little in the way of abilities. Now you get it in colorless (not even a high colorless requirement), and it has a black effect. And you get "green" 5/5s for 5 in colorless with a mainly red (haste is tertiary green I believe, though it may be secondary) and a blue ability (the counter if targeted clause). I realize that it is harder to splash these than the usual generically colorless cards, just like splashing green in a red deck for some finishing beaters, but it seems weird that their answer to colorless's color pie is to just take aspects of all the other colors and mix them in ways you couldn't get outside multicolor normally (ie: a "green" body and cost with a "blue" (maybe crossed in black?) ability tacked on) and at a great value price. For the pricing they basically take the value of if these had been multicolored it feels like the 5/5 for 5 which would not have felt out of place in Timur as 2GUR.
It does EXACTLY what Maro is saying he wants to do in that article. They wanted to put all the eldrazi (colorless) cards together. But doing so would dilute the color pie if they made purely colorless cards. You can't put devoid cards in any deck. The proposed solution lets you put all the devoid cards together THEMSELVES but not together with other things. This is not diluting the color pie.
It is. You have direct damage, counterspells and kill spells in one deck with one type of mana. At common, even. That's basically the definition of diluting the color pie.
It is absolutely not from a flavor perspective, that mana type has no color, all of these already exist in colorless by the nature of devoid itself. And it is absolutely not from a game play perspective due to the limited nature of the card pool. There is no hyper-efficient anything in the 20% of BFZ devoid cards, devoid has it's own overlapping piece of the pie; and they will not continue developing devoid cards in all future sets of mtg. You can't play the good kill spells, counterspells, and direct damage, only the limited pool R&D gives you in these 2 sets and ever decides to print in colorless, so it is very easy to control.
How can you say Devoid breaks the pie when you haven't defined devoid's slice of the pie?
Devoid is defined, and has been since Alpha. Artifacts have always been colorless, and give a base line for what colorless can accomplish. The problem here isn't one of flavor, but of breaking the game. If you have the option of playing Blue/Black control and being limited to only black and blue spells and being stuck with the inconsistency of two colors of mana, or being able to play all the best Devoid/artifact cards of any color (keeping in mind they were put into a color instead of colorless because they abilities were so strongly in that color and not colorless abilities) without any fear of color screw, which would you choose?
So finally people are gonna shut up about how "underpowered" the set is... so... at worst a trampling and vigilant hill giant, at best a 4 mana 7/7 with trample and vigilance, that's pretty good in my book.
It is hard to say for sure with this new rotation format. Wizards already acknowledged that they are going to have to be more liberal with in block reprints of things they want in standard since there will no longer be a core set. So if they want Goblin Guide back in standard, they will have to reprint it in a block, likely BFZ due to the theme. That said, I don't know that they'd want New Zendikar to bring the same things to standard as Old Zendikar. They'll likely save those types of reprints for a Modern Masters or supplemental set and do new, but throwbackish, cards for standard.
The first thing I thought of when I saw this art was Dovescape... You have the big swirl of magic and a bunch of birds flying out of it. I really hope it isn't that. It doesn't look like a spell killing lots of creatures or flyers, though, as the birds don't seem to be getting drawn into it, or fearful of it. Unless there is a spell I cannot think of that makes loads of birds. Maybe Desert Twister?
It would be nice to see Vindicate, even though that only destroys one thing.
Well, it's been ages, as in several years, but I have another card idea and figure I may as well just use the old thread.
The Gorgon Sisters 6BBB
Legendary Creature - Gorgon
When The Gorgon Sisters enters the battlefield, if you didn't cast it from your hand, you lose the game.
Trample
The Gorgon Sisters’ power cannot become higher or lower than 3.
Whenever The Gorgon Sisters deals combat damage to a creature, destroy that creature. It can't be regenerated. Put a 0/X colorless statue artifact creature token with defender into play, where X is that creature's toughness.
Whenever The Gorgon Sisters deals combat damage to a player, that player loses the game. Put a 0/X colorless statue artifact creature token with defender into play, where X is that player's health.
3/6
What with all the Greek mythology running around, and stumbling across an old copy of Phage the other day, this seemed like such a natural extension of the Gorgon's kill stuff abilities they have recently been given. The power and toughness refer to the original gorgon sisters being a trio, in this case each of them effectively being a 1/2, but they work in tandem. This makes for a bit of fun if multiple creatures block. Each of the sisters can turn soemething to stone.
Better wording of the abilities?
The Gorgon Sisters 6BBB
Legendary Creature - Gorgon
Trample, deathtouch
Whenever The Gorgon Sisters deals combat damage to a player, that player loses the game.
Whenever The Gorgon Sisters deals combat damage to a creature or player, put a 0/X colorless statue artifact creature token with defender into play, where X is that creature’s toughness or that player’s health.
The Gorgon Sisters' power can only be 3.
If The Gorgon Sisters would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, shuffle The Gorgon Sisters into your library instead.
3/6
OR:
The Gorgon Sisters 6BBB
Legendary Creature - Gorgon
Trample, deathtouch
Whenever The Gorgon Sisters deals combat damage to a player, that player loses the game.
Whenever The Gorgon Sisters destroys a creature, or causes a player to loose the game, put a 0/X colorless statue artifact creature token with defender into play, where X is that creature’s toughness or that player’s health.
The Gorgon Sisters' power can only be 3.
If The Gorgon Sisters would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, shuffle The Gorgon Sisters into your library instead.
3/6
Thanks! That makes sense since it isn't during the cleanup portion of the end step; I should have recognized that. Thanks again!
Fevered Visions
In short, if Fevered Visions draws your opponent their third card for the turn, can you still use Runeflare Trap for 1 mana, or is there no chance to respond after the draw?
What are you talking about? Do you have a link or details for those of us who missed that?
A note, too. I thought it was interesting that MaRo included both Madness and Ninjutu as mechanics that would be unlikely to ever return unless they find the perfect place just after Madness's return in SOI was leaked, now we have that art. Again, it isn't much, but it is interesting that a professional word smith would would do that by accident. Before it starts, I know he also included a few other non-Tarkir related mechanics in his ramblings before he got to the list, but it was interesting that he chose those two in particular.
Edit - Oh! What made me think of that article is that he made a clear point that some of those mechanics are higher, or lower, on the list than they should be based on most criteria because public reception. So he made a point to say that the demands of the audience is a very strong influence on what they bring back and what they don't. Obviously some things won't be influenced by that (Force of Will in his recent article for example is unlikely to return even if 100% of the audience asked for it because it is SO broken) as they would drastically decrease the overall health and viability of the game for the next couple years, but something as harmless as a setting should be able to be influenced after the knee jerk reaction of "This set is weak and has killed Magic." wears off.
Note the art on this guy. He has the little floating things around him, which I can only remember being featured on Kamigawa spirits as their symbols of being spirits (I did some decent searching and couldn't find the name of the floating things). On top of that, and this could be because I saw the article just after noticing the art on this guy, the first thing Mark Rosewater said people ask for is to return to Kamigawa. It could be a coincidence, and it likely is, but it seems interesting that he formatted his article that way, then said much of what was listed is coming within the next 7 years. Might they tie the spirits of Innistrad and Kamigawa together? I mean, we have Tamyio here, too, doing research. Could it be that it wasn't just the odd power of the moon that drew her there? Or that the moon and the spirits are tied together on both planes or some other such thing? With Wizard's creative team getting so good at making sure the themes stay distinct and separate it seems odd that they would let a key artistic idea that helped define Kamigawa bleed into Innistrad by accident. Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but I doubt it. They've been very good at hiding clues in things before.
Even better, you can hear the "can we get this over with" in her voice, almost like the other three are just off camera scowling at her because she did just say, "Yeah, sure." and they want her to say something meaningful for the big occasion. The more I read it, the funnier it is.
Not only that, but from Bonds of Mortality you specifically see that they had to find the leylines and adjust them to make the Titans even able to be touced, which does fit the flavor of blue and green; two colors not found among Sorin, Nahiri, and Ugin. I mean, Ugin could presumably have done it, and I think they did use leylines to align the hedrons to do their thing, but adjusting the leylines is different. The point being, it didn't take immense power, just ingenuity, which funny enough would make this make sense. If you can brute force everything else you've encountered for 1000 years, you tend to forget how to be subtle and manipulative. Having omnipotent 'walkers try to smash through, then have to quick find a fix to stop the carnage while the weak-'walkers who have always had to mix cunning with their power (other than Garruk) would have to stop and devise a plan that actually works. That and they even went through all the trouble of altering Nissa's baseline personality from the racist elf to benevolent avatar of Zendikar itself to explain why she can realign the leylines, though I wouldn't be surprised if they just retconned her then realized it works for this bit of plot.
Devoid is defined, and has been since Alpha. Artifacts have always been colorless, and give a base line for what colorless can accomplish. The problem here isn't one of flavor, but of breaking the game. If you have the option of playing Blue/Black control and being limited to only black and blue spells and being stuck with the inconsistency of two colors of mana, or being able to play all the best Devoid/artifact cards of any color (keeping in mind they were put into a color instead of colorless because they abilities were so strongly in that color and not colorless abilities) without any fear of color screw, which would you choose?
Lodestone Golem
Well, at least in casual...
It would be nice to see Vindicate, even though that only destroys one thing.
The Gorgon Sisters 6BBB
Legendary Creature - Gorgon
When The Gorgon Sisters enters the battlefield, if you didn't cast it from your hand, you lose the game.
Trample
The Gorgon Sisters’ power cannot become higher or lower than 3.
Whenever The Gorgon Sisters deals combat damage to a creature, destroy that creature. It can't be regenerated. Put a 0/X colorless statue artifact creature token with defender into play, where X is that creature's toughness.
Whenever The Gorgon Sisters deals combat damage to a player, that player loses the game. Put a 0/X colorless statue artifact creature token with defender into play, where X is that player's health.
3/6
What with all the Greek mythology running around, and stumbling across an old copy of Phage the other day, this seemed like such a natural extension of the Gorgon's kill stuff abilities they have recently been given. The power and toughness refer to the original gorgon sisters being a trio, in this case each of them effectively being a 1/2, but they work in tandem. This makes for a bit of fun if multiple creatures block. Each of the sisters can turn soemething to stone.
Better wording of the abilities?
The Gorgon Sisters 6BBB
Legendary Creature - Gorgon
Trample, deathtouch
Whenever The Gorgon Sisters deals combat damage to a player, that player loses the game.
Whenever The Gorgon Sisters deals combat damage to a creature or player, put a 0/X colorless statue artifact creature token with defender into play, where X is that creature’s toughness or that player’s health.
The Gorgon Sisters' power can only be 3.
If The Gorgon Sisters would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, shuffle The Gorgon Sisters into your library instead.
3/6
OR:
The Gorgon Sisters 6BBB
Legendary Creature - Gorgon
Trample, deathtouch
Whenever The Gorgon Sisters deals combat damage to a player, that player loses the game.
Whenever The Gorgon Sisters destroys a creature, or causes a player to loose the game, put a 0/X colorless statue artifact creature token with defender into play, where X is that creature’s toughness or that player’s health.
The Gorgon Sisters' power can only be 3.
If The Gorgon Sisters would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, shuffle The Gorgon Sisters into your library instead.
3/6