Angry Mongrel, 1G
Creature - Hound 2/2
If you have 19 or less life ~ have +1/+1
Blue Drawer, 1U
Sorcery
Draw a card. If you have 15 or less life draw two extra cards.
These first two are quite interesting, and I suspect that this is how the change will open up design space, since we lose one sure way to achieve the life needed for maximum effect.
Black Drawer, BBB
Sorcery
Draw three cards, lose three life.
Chain Bolt, R
Sorcery
~ deals 3 damage to any target. ~ deals 3 damage to you.
Rejuvenation, 1W
Instant
You gain 5 life. You may have an opponent gain 2 life.
These last three, however, is not disimmilar to cards already in excistence.
Chain Bolt is like Char, only worse. And a host of other red cards that deals damage to you for a benefitial effect.
Black Drawer is like..... well, almost every powerful black card-draw/tutor in existence, from Vampiric Tutor to Necropotence. Oh, and EXACTLY like Night's Whisper!
Rejuvenation is like Bargain. But Rejuvenation is at least interesting in conjunction with your first two cards, since it can disrupt your opponents plans
I like it. Manafixing, putting a fairly fat creature into your graveyard for ranimation, cycling. Not terribly overcosted if you want to hardcast it, either.
If nothing else, expect to face a casual Astral Slide (most notably the Eternal Slide versions, with Eternal Witness and Eternal Dragon) deck testing this card once Reborn hits the boutiques.
Oh, and here's a thought: We have a fair share of innovation when it comes to cycling in this block.
We have the basic landcyclers: Fiery Fall, etc.
We have the "resounding"-cyclers: Resounding Thunder, etc.
And now it seems we get creatures with double cycling for allied colored lands (forests/plains, etc.) in addition to whatever else we might get in Alara Reborn.
We haven't had so much innovation in cycling since onslaught block.
Here's a few things we might foresee from this:
Where will the futuresighted cycling cards show up (if they do)? next block, to continue the synergy? Or will we see them in alara reborn? (Edge of autumn seems most likely here)....
Will the next block have cards focused towards cycling (with cards like Astral Slide) or will it have a graveyard theme? Or both?
In my opinion, the Indestructable will be one of the abilitys that Thornlings will be able to have until the end of the turn. It fits in with green and +1/-1 and -1/+1
And you are quite right - see the spoiled Thornling for reference.
Ok, so that was one miss. But I still think the WWUUBBRRGG mana cost is tied to 'Child of Alara'. After looking at this thread - http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=142242 - I became more convinced of this. A Multicolor Mythic Rare Avatar named 'Child of Alara'? Seems likely to me.
The only other card I can realisticly see with this mana cost is 'Apocalypse Hydra', which seems to be a Multicolor Mythic Rare Hydra with APOCALYPSE in its name......
I think it's a fair assumption that any card with that mana cost is Mythic Rare.
The only other two cards that has a chance of being tied with this mana cost as I see it, is 'Maelstrom Archangel', and 'Progenitus'; both Mythic Rare Multicolor cards. But I don't think they will be, since Angels are heavily linked to Bant, and Progenitus is a Naya card.......
If I am not mistaken, Inkwell is a name for a particularly deep and dark region of Esper oceans. So, it's a metaphorical name, guys.
The one thing that we can assume is that it's gonna be an artifact creature.
Ah, that would make more sense. I don't read the stories and just barely remember info like this when I come across it.
Hmmmm, PARTICULARY DEEP and DARK region of Esper Oceans?
So, an 'artifact creature - leviathan' in blue and black, most likely. I don't see how white would fit into such a creature flavourvise, other than being one of the colors of Esper.
I browsed through the leaked list of Conflux card names, and among other cards that looked like they could be interesting, Inkwell Leviathan struck me as somewhat peculiar.
I had to consult dictionaries just to be sure:
LEVIATHAN: -1 often capitalized : a sea monster defeated by Yahweh in various scriptural accounts b: a large sea animal -2 capitalized : the political state ; especially : a totalitarian state having a vast bureaucracy -3: something large or formidable
INKWELL -a container (as in a desk) for ink
SO, WITH Leviathans usually being HUGE seabased creatures that usually sports equally HUGE drawbacks (there are exeptions) in the magic multiverse mixed with a small container that houses ink and can usually fit on a desk, what do you get?
A normal-sized Leviathan that lives in the inkwell belonging to a gigantic creature?
A small Leviathan that lives inside a normal-sized inkwell?
You think so? I see seven appendages; five heads, one appendage going out of the top of the art, and a seventh something dipping below the hillside that the knight in the foreground is riding on.
The only way I can see this being Progenitus is if one of the extras is a tail, and the other turns out to be its back. But really, I expect Apocalypse Hydra for this art.
d'Oh!
Focused a bit too much on the similarity of the heads.
Ok, Apocalypse Hydra seems more likely; allthough it could be a sorcery/instant with said Hydra in it. Like the planeswalkers that appears in the art of the Ultimatums (and countless examples from earlier sets).
Conflux, perhaps, or Shard Convergence. Or my personal favourite, Suicidal Charge!
I see your logic, but none of those are actually new color combinations. Notice that you're really just saying "Bant becomes Esper and Naya's color combinations," "Jund becomes Grixis and Naya's color combinations," and so on.
Keeping the same 5 arc color combos but having each one represent two shards, neither of which is the shard it represented last set? Doesn't make much sense at all.
I'm just making it up as I go along, so I don't expect to be right about much of what I say here. If I just keep throwing ideas around, I MIGHT be right about some of it, or, more likely, provide someone with the spark to nail down the correct solution.
But look at it this way: new colors WILL most likely be available for each of the former shards, and I don't see how it is so far-fetched that each of the shards get torn to pieces and then put together in a new configuration during Conflux and Alara reborn.
It can be interesting to see how shards will turn out in new colors. Cards that support Exalted in black and red?
I think all of the cardnames mentioned above might fit well to the art. Really well in the case of Apocalypse Hydra and Progenitus.
I also included a few cardnames that MIGHT fit to the art, but they are a bit of a stretch (and then some):
Celestial Purge (Spell)
Suicidal Charge (Spell) (Yes, attacking that thing WOULD be suicidal)
Exploding Borders (Spell)
Might of Alara (Spell)
Beacon Behemoth (Creature)
Of these, I only think Suicidal Charge have the slightest chance of being correct.....
EDIT: Just had a look on the art of Relic of Progenitus. Look at the insignia in the middle of the stone. Progenitus?
This is a continuation of a previous post I made in this thread (page 3), where I focused on the expansion symbols and what could be interpreted by how they were shaped. Please read it if any of this doesn't make much sense.
The first speculation I made, was that in conflux, creatures and such was going to move over to shards where they don't belong, but on a limited basis.
And behold, I found a piece of art on a promo/token card that would fit with that theory:
Multiple giant worms passing through the veil from Naya to Bant, creating havoc. So, my guess is still that Conflux will have the original three-color setup, but with splashes (however they choose to implement it) into both enemy colors.
The speculation I had for Alara Reborn was that the splashes will be cemented, and that the shards will be like before, but changed by what happens in Conflux, where worlds collide. But I took a closer look at the expansion symbol for ALR, and I see that I may have been a little bit wrong in my assumption. As I looked at it, I realised that the ES wasn't just slashed in 5 'shard'-pieces, but also down the middle of each shard, with the shards diverging a bit in different directions:
My guess is that each shard may be stretched into two factions, one for each of the enemy colors.
But I cannot see how they can accomplish 10 three-color pairings in ONE set, especially since they will overlap.
Perhaps they go for two-color cards that splash into the appropriate color (with activation costs, cycle costs, etc)?
If that theory is correct, we may have:
Bant is UW with splash in B, AND WG with splash in R.
Esper is WU with splash in G, AND UB with splash in R.
Grixis is UB with splash in W, AND BR with splash in G.
Jund is BR with splash in U, AND RG with splash in W.
Naya is RG with splash in B, AND GW with splash in U.
Okey, that may not be possible, but it seems plausible to me. Gives a wide variety of three-color options, and can support four-color play.
Well obviously Conflux will be about the Shards merging together. However since we just came out of Shadowmoor wich had the Allied Color/Enemy Color themes, I"m thinking of another 5 Color Matters, like Fifth Dawn.
I don't think we will see shards merging together in Conflux; I'm leaning toward believing that all the shards will be temporarily linked together, letting creatures and such pass over to where they don't belong.
Here's why I think this, based on the Expansion Symbols (ES hereafter):
Shards of Alara:
Conflux:
In the first ES, the five shards are set apart and have a 'solid', edged look, signifying how the shards have been unchanged for a long time, and that there are clear, unpassable 'borders' between the shards.
But in the Conflux ES, the shards are still set apart, but they are bending towards a single point, and the edges are more rounded for each shard. To me, this says that there is now a possibility to pass between the shards, but on a fairly limited basis (through a nexus in the centre of the plane/by the help of a planeswalker?), and that the shards will get new inhabitants that don't belong there, resulting in chaos (and most likely, mayhem). Maybe we will also see that the original inhabitants of each shard will adopt these newcomers and put them to use how they see fit. Knights on Dragons, perhaps?
Now lets look at the ES for Alara Reborn:
Here, the shards are clearly linked together, but they have gotten back their 'solid' look of the ES for Shards of Alara. Alara is now one single plane, and it is now possible to go wherever the inhabitants want to go. But the inhabitants of this reconnected plane have overcome the chaos and mayhem of conflux, and hold onto what used to define them when the shards were broken apart, plus/minus what they lost or gained in the chaos of conflux.
So, for gameplay purposes, I believe this will be the case:
Conflux: Original three-color theme, but with splashes into both enemy colors
Alara Reborn: Okay, I'm at a bit of loss here, but I guess we will see that the splashes into the enemy colors are more cemented (after each of the former shards liking), and that some permanent changes have been made according to what have survived conflux and have been adopted into the schemes of each of the former shards. Like, for example, Knights on Dragons.
Good idea, or should I go buy some mind-numbing pills to hinder me from spewing nonsence?
exalted isn't a weenie mechanic, it is aggro control or just outright control more...promoting conservative play over swarming with weenies. It is designed to allow lone creatures to beat harder (evasive creatures, after all whites allies provide unblockability and trample and flying) while the others sit back and act as glorious anthems for the guy that is winning you the game. Admittedly bitter blossom frustrates this strategy somewhat, but bant also has the best 2 colors at enchantment removal.
That is what I thought as well. Have a strong defence and get several exalted creatures into play and then start swinging with one evasive creature. Also, the Bant Battlemage solves evasion pretty handily, since it can give out trample or flying (or both, if you have two). Stoic Angel also supports the "attack with one" strategy. And of course, Mirrorweave is perhaps the best combat trick with the Exalted mechanic yet (at least on the offense).
It looks like it's going to be a fun mechanic to play with.
Creature - Hound 2/2
If you have 19 or less life ~ have +1/+1
Blue Drawer, 1U
Sorcery
Draw a card. If you have 15 or less life draw two extra cards.
These first two are quite interesting, and I suspect that this is how the change will open up design space, since we lose one sure way to achieve the life needed for maximum effect.
Black Drawer, BBB
Sorcery
Draw three cards, lose three life.
Chain Bolt, R
Sorcery
~ deals 3 damage to any target. ~ deals 3 damage to you.
Rejuvenation, 1W
Instant
You gain 5 life. You may have an opponent gain 2 life.
These last three, however, is not disimmilar to cards already in excistence.
Chain Bolt is like Char, only worse. And a host of other red cards that deals damage to you for a benefitial effect.
Black Drawer is like..... well, almost every powerful black card-draw/tutor in existence, from Vampiric Tutor to Necropotence. Oh, and EXACTLY like Night's Whisper!
Rejuvenation is like Bargain. But Rejuvenation is at least interesting in conjunction with your first two cards, since it can disrupt your opponents plans
What to do with it?
Make an extended Beast deck with Contested Cliffs, Ravenous Baloth, Woolly Thoctar, Spellbreaker Behemoth and such? Cool.
Or perhaps a enchanter deck with Greater Auramancy, Shield of the Oversoul and Rancor?
Perhaps even Flickerform, Yavimaya Enchantress, Mark of Asylum, Aspect of Mongoose, Fists of Ironwood, Idyllic Tutor or Pariah (on a Uril with shield of oversoul!)? Add in various shrouded/trollshrouded (Troll Ascetic, at least) and other cards that support the creature/enchantment theme.
And then use various enchantments as removal and control elements? Cool. Possibility for EDH, at least!
Or just simply make a ZOO deck with as much cheap, hard-to-kill fat as possible, with this as the top of the mana curve.....
This is top notch. 9/10 for playability, 10/10 for opening up new deck building territory!
If nothing else, expect to face a casual Astral Slide (most notably the Eternal Slide versions, with Eternal Witness and Eternal Dragon) deck testing this card once Reborn hits the boutiques.
Oh, and here's a thought: We have a fair share of innovation when it comes to cycling in this block.
We have the basic landcyclers: Fiery Fall, etc.
We have the "resounding"-cyclers: Resounding Thunder, etc.
And now it seems we get creatures with double cycling for allied colored lands (forests/plains, etc.) in addition to whatever else we might get in Alara Reborn.
We haven't had so much innovation in cycling since onslaught block.
Here's a few things we might foresee from this:
Where will the futuresighted cycling cards show up (if they do)? next block, to continue the synergy? Or will we see them in alara reborn? (Edge of autumn seems most likely here)....
Will the next block have cards focused towards cycling (with cards like Astral Slide) or will it have a graveyard theme? Or both?
Hmmmm, sounds like its the 'better half' of Broodmate Dragon. Would make sense from a flavor perspective....
Should be fun!
If that is the case, I predict here and now that few will use the name of the card; it will simply be the called 'seven-eleven'......:banana:
And you are quite right - see the spoiled Thornling for reference.
Ok, so that was one miss. But I still think the WWUUBBRRGG mana cost is tied to 'Child of Alara'. After looking at this thread - http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=142242 - I became more convinced of this. A Multicolor Mythic Rare Avatar named 'Child of Alara'? Seems likely to me.
The only other card I can realisticly see with this mana cost is 'Apocalypse Hydra', which seems to be a Multicolor Mythic Rare Hydra with APOCALYPSE in its name......
I think it's a fair assumption that any card with that mana cost is Mythic Rare.
The only other two cards that has a chance of being tied with this mana cost as I see it, is 'Maelstrom Archangel', and 'Progenitus'; both Mythic Rare Multicolor cards. But I don't think they will be, since Angels are heavily linked to Bant, and Progenitus is a Naya card.......
Yes, I noticed that, too.
Could it be that this is connected to the casting cost of WWUUBBRRGG?
Could it be Child of Alara, perhaps?
Held captive by Nicol Bolas to be used in his evil schemes? Indestructible, so that he couldn't outright kill it?
From a standpoint of flavor, it makes sense to me.....
Ah, that would make more sense. I don't read the stories and just barely remember info like this when I come across it.
Hmmmm, PARTICULARY DEEP and DARK region of Esper Oceans?
So, an 'artifact creature - leviathan' in blue and black, most likely. I don't see how white would fit into such a creature flavourvise, other than being one of the colors of Esper.
I had to consult dictionaries just to be sure:
LEVIATHAN:
-1 often capitalized : a sea monster defeated by Yahweh in various scriptural accounts b: a large sea animal
-2 capitalized : the political state ; especially : a totalitarian state having a vast bureaucracy
-3: something large or formidable
INKWELL
-a container (as in a desk) for ink
SO, WITH Leviathans usually being HUGE seabased creatures that usually sports equally HUGE drawbacks (there are exeptions) in the magic multiverse mixed with a small container that houses ink and can usually fit on a desk, what do you get?
A normal-sized Leviathan that lives in the inkwell belonging to a gigantic creature?
A small Leviathan that lives inside a normal-sized inkwell?
Thoughts?
d'Oh!
Focused a bit too much on the similarity of the heads.
Ok, Apocalypse Hydra seems more likely; allthough it could be a sorcery/instant with said Hydra in it. Like the planeswalkers that appears in the art of the Ultimatums (and countless examples from earlier sets).
Conflux, perhaps, or Shard Convergence. Or my personal favourite, Suicidal Charge!
I'm just making it up as I go along, so I don't expect to be right about much of what I say here. If I just keep throwing ideas around, I MIGHT be right about some of it, or, more likely, provide someone with the spark to nail down the correct solution.
But look at it this way: new colors WILL most likely be available for each of the former shards, and I don't see how it is so far-fetched that each of the shards get torn to pieces and then put together in a new configuration during Conflux and Alara reborn.
It can be interesting to see how shards will turn out in new colors. Cards that support Exalted in black and red?
Shard Convergence (Spell)
Progenitus (Creature)
Conflux (Spell)
Apocalypse Hydra (Creature)
I think all of the cardnames mentioned above might fit well to the art. Really well in the case of Apocalypse Hydra and Progenitus.
I also included a few cardnames that MIGHT fit to the art, but they are a bit of a stretch (and then some):
Celestial Purge (Spell)
Suicidal Charge (Spell) (Yes, attacking that thing WOULD be suicidal)
Exploding Borders (Spell)
Might of Alara (Spell)
Beacon Behemoth (Creature)
Of these, I only think Suicidal Charge have the slightest chance of being correct.....
EDIT: Just had a look on the art of Relic of Progenitus. Look at the insignia in the middle of the stone. Progenitus?
Looks like it to me....
The first speculation I made, was that in conflux, creatures and such was going to move over to shards where they don't belong, but on a limited basis.
And behold, I found a piece of art on a promo/token card that would fit with that theory:
Multiple giant worms passing through the veil from Naya to Bant, creating havoc. So, my guess is still that Conflux will have the original three-color setup, but with splashes (however they choose to implement it) into both enemy colors.
The speculation I had for Alara Reborn was that the splashes will be cemented, and that the shards will be like before, but changed by what happens in Conflux, where worlds collide. But I took a closer look at the expansion symbol for ALR, and I see that I may have been a little bit wrong in my assumption. As I looked at it, I realised that the ES wasn't just slashed in 5 'shard'-pieces, but also down the middle of each shard, with the shards diverging a bit in different directions:
My guess is that each shard may be stretched into two factions, one for each of the enemy colors.
But I cannot see how they can accomplish 10 three-color pairings in ONE set, especially since they will overlap.
Perhaps they go for two-color cards that splash into the appropriate color (with activation costs, cycle costs, etc)?
If that theory is correct, we may have:
Bant is UW with splash in B, AND WG with splash in R.
Esper is WU with splash in G, AND UB with splash in R.
Grixis is UB with splash in W, AND BR with splash in G.
Jund is BR with splash in U, AND RG with splash in W.
Naya is RG with splash in B, AND GW with splash in U.
Okey, that may not be possible, but it seems plausible to me. Gives a wide variety of three-color options, and can support four-color play.
I don't think we will see shards merging together in Conflux; I'm leaning toward believing that all the shards will be temporarily linked together, letting creatures and such pass over to where they don't belong.
Here's why I think this, based on the Expansion Symbols (ES hereafter):
Shards of Alara:
Conflux:
In the first ES, the five shards are set apart and have a 'solid', edged look, signifying how the shards have been unchanged for a long time, and that there are clear, unpassable 'borders' between the shards.
But in the Conflux ES, the shards are still set apart, but they are bending towards a single point, and the edges are more rounded for each shard. To me, this says that there is now a possibility to pass between the shards, but on a fairly limited basis (through a nexus in the centre of the plane/by the help of a planeswalker?), and that the shards will get new inhabitants that don't belong there, resulting in chaos (and most likely, mayhem). Maybe we will also see that the original inhabitants of each shard will adopt these newcomers and put them to use how they see fit. Knights on Dragons, perhaps?
Now lets look at the ES for Alara Reborn:
Here, the shards are clearly linked together, but they have gotten back their 'solid' look of the ES for Shards of Alara. Alara is now one single plane, and it is now possible to go wherever the inhabitants want to go. But the inhabitants of this reconnected plane have overcome the chaos and mayhem of conflux, and hold onto what used to define them when the shards were broken apart, plus/minus what they lost or gained in the chaos of conflux.
So, for gameplay purposes, I believe this will be the case:
Conflux: Original three-color theme, but with splashes into both enemy colors
Alara Reborn: Okay, I'm at a bit of loss here, but I guess we will see that the splashes into the enemy colors are more cemented (after each of the former shards liking), and that some permanent changes have been made according to what have survived conflux and have been adopted into the schemes of each of the former shards. Like, for example, Knights on Dragons.
Good idea, or should I go buy some mind-numbing pills to hinder me from spewing nonsence?
That is what I thought as well. Have a strong defence and get several exalted creatures into play and then start swinging with one evasive creature. Also, the Bant Battlemage solves evasion pretty handily, since it can give out trample or flying (or both, if you have two). Stoic Angel also supports the "attack with one" strategy. And of course, Mirrorweave is perhaps the best combat trick with the Exalted mechanic yet (at least on the offense).
It looks like it's going to be a fun mechanic to play with.