It's like ThyLordQ said. It matters how they present it for the first time (or how they would have, if it weren't for us discovering it).
I'm thinking that, because this would be so far away from the norm, they'd want to reveal it in the best light possible, like on a flashy preview card. I think that would provoke more positive reactions and first impressions than just showing it to us when they announced EMN.
Edit: I'm just gonna concede and admit I was wrong for saying anything on the matter. I never intended to offend anyone and I'm legitimately sorry that I have offended you or anyone else. I mean it whole-heartedly when I say that equal representation in all forms of media is something I think the world should strive for. Women, as well as people of any gender, race, faith, or otherwise, deserve just as much recognition as men have in the past.
Usually, the best way to tell someone's color identity in Magic is to look at their clothing. Creative tries their best to make their color scheme match the color of the card face that represents them (card face and not color identity, this is why characters like Bolas have lots of gold tones).
Saheeli seems to be wearing a lot of red, a lot of blue, and a lot of gold, which tels me she will likely be both red and blue.
Edit: Please excuse my horribly offensive bit about getting a lot of new female characters in a row. It was pretty insensitive of me. I'm sorry.
They'e said that they're willing to experiment with how the set symbol looks. Khans of Tarkir is a good example of them doing so. I don't find it too unrealistic that this image is actually the symbol.
I mean, they've been really hush-hush about it, likely because they want to see people react to it when they see it on a card, not in a vacuum. And a small set is probably the best place to try something like this anyway.
So my money is on this being the actual set symbol. I'm really actually quite excited to see how each varient looks on a card.
Demon of Unlucky Number 74BBB
Creature - Demon
Flying
Spells and abilities you control can't cause you to sacrifice ~.
When ~ enters the battlefield, your life total becomes 100.
At the beginning of each end step, you lose half your life rounded up.
7/7
Basically, this card is supposed to evoke the flavor of making a deal with a demon. He offers you something very attractive (100 life), but then you owe him your soul and every turn that passes brings you closer to death, bringing you to frantically search for a way to get rid of him. Interestingly, it takes 7 turns to lose if you're only losing life from this guy.
I know this is pretty powerful, which is why I added the can't-be-sacrificed text. Is there any other way we can make this work?
Voreus, the All-Consuming3GG
Legendary Creature - Ooze
Whenever a non-1/1 Ooze creature you control dies, choose one:
- Put X 1/1 green Ooze creature tokens onto the battlefield where X is that creature's toughness.
- Put X +1/+1 counters on target Ooze creature you control where X is that creature's toughness.
3/3
It's kind of a color bend, but probably okay. It might be interesting to include Auras in this ability too. that would make it more white and still trigger prowess.
When I said 'spells' I meant specifically 'instant and sorceries'. There is a theme in set with caring about only instants or only sorceries then cards that care about not just either but both. In this way, there's different archetypes of the spells decks related to this. This card is a part of that.
I wasn't saying you should make it Auras instead of, but rather in addition to instants. It still fits in the spells theme, but has a bit of its own identity as well. A card can be made for a specific theme and play well with that theme while not catering specifically to that theme, ya know?
But in any case, it looks okay as is. I was just telling you what I would do, but it's up to you.
Natalia, Abzan Avenger2GW
Planeswalker - Natalia
Loyalty - 5
+1: Your opponents can't cast spells this turn.
0: Put a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
-9: Destroy all other nontoken permanents. You get an emblem with "You may play land cards from your graveyard."
It's kind of a color bend, but probably okay. It might be interesting to include Auras in this ability too. that would make it more white and still trigger prowess.
Why in the world do people keep saying that mummies would be white? Because the classic movie mummy is wrapped in white cloth? It's absolutely ridiculous. What about mummies says "white" to you people?
While Black is certainly the color of death, we have seen venerated death only a small handful of times in the history of mtg. I would imagine imperial pharaohs being white in life and the systematic removal of organs and sacred burial to ensure a smooth journey to an afterlife to be kind of white. Alternatively, the idea of a mummy as the guardian of a tomb or as an agent of divine justice (if you want to go beyond real-life mummies) seems kind of white. Again, the idea of the dead being raised up out of respect instead of having it shown as rampant desecration is surprisingly new for mtg.
Undead mummies have nothing to do with venerated dead and a smooth journey to the afterlife. They're a modern western cultural invention and usually involve curses set up to thwart grave robbers and evil pharaohs seeking immortality. Sounds pretty black to me.
I kinda see it as mummies still being a black concept, but dressed up in a white-looking fashion. They are preserved sanctified, giving off a pretty white vibe. Not to mention that the mummification process is based on a pretty white-centered belief in the afterlife. It's tradition to praise 'holy' or 'royal' individuals in death and ensure their prosperity in the afterlife. There is certainly a black component surrounding death and protecting riches, but it's done in a pretty white way. It's basically greed mixed with faith.
Long story short, mummies could very well be WB. I mean, heck, Magic has pulled off red vampires and blue zombies fairly well, despite the fact that those would have seemed pretty outlandish before Innistrad. I have faith that WB mummies could be a thing.
That said, I don't think mummies would be their own tribe. Even if they just had the Zombie creature type, we've seen Zombie tribal a lot and on top of that, mummies are the Zombies of past kings and priests in Egyptian culture. Given that kind of social status, I wouldn't expect to see too many, and the ones we would would probably be at higher rarities.
I'm not gonna lie. It's threads like this one that would make me leave this forum forever if it weren't such a convenient source of mtg news. Seriously, this is stupid.
@Mods: This was a stupid move on your part. Calling fake info real and attempting to back it up, then justify that decision is a horrible idea, even on 4/1. Misinformation is for websites like the Onion, not sites people go to to actually get legit info. I don't care if it IS just a joke, it was a bad one, and yall should feel bad.
@Everyone else: A full set list was posted on 4/1 and some of you (no doubt due to the MODS wrongly vouching for its veracity, but still) believed it was real? Yeah, it was a bad move on the mods' part, but come on. Common sense people. Don't believe ANYTHING you hear on 4/1 EVER.
Regarding Bolas, He may fit in the block as well. He is shard-colored which would be kinda weird, but he would balance out the colors, given that the walker line-up would look like:
Mechanically for Natalia, I would focus on using the graveyard as a resource, but in very different ways than the Sultai. Conjuring spirits would be flavorful, focusing on creatures in the 'yard would probably be ideal. I don't know how that would fit in with the Abzan/Dromoka mechanics yall focus on, but that's just what I would aim for.
Multicolor sets include at least one monocolor planeswalker. A mono-r or mono-U would fit well. THat planeswalker would need to be off-plane (there's always at least 1 nonnative 'walker) and probably a new character to balance the amount of old ones (though hardly a necessity: BFZ block has no new planeswalker character, and it looks likely that Shadows block won't have one either).
In that case, Ugin doesn't necessarily need to be on Tarkir. Heck, if this block is supppsed to be the start of the clan resurgence, Ugin's absense could very well be the cause.
Imagine this: On another plane, due to the events of another plotline, Ugin is gravely injured and weakened (details? unclear at the moment). Because of this, he remains absent from Tarkir and the force of the dragon tempests begins to weaken as well. Suddenly, the people notice a drop in the dragons' numbers and start to wonder if a takeover is possible.
At first, Natalia remains loyal to her brood. She grew up thinking that the people were simply meant to live at the mercy of the dragons. But doubt starts to grow in the back of her mind that maybe the people could have a better life under their own rule. Maybe, as impossible as it seems, the people might not have to answer to the dragonlords any longer. Still, her loyalt holds.
Then, after encountering Anafenza's spirit and learning the truth from Narset, she realizes that the people could have- no, WOULD HAVE had a better life, a life free of the tyrannical dragons, had the timeline not been altered. She realizes that she and her people were robbed of freedom and prosperity that should have been theirs because someone went meddling where they shouldn't have.
Now, knowing that Ugin's life is connected to the continued existance of dragons on Tarkir, she as a reason to leave Tarkir in search of him after fighting Sarkhan in this block.
Basically, taking out Ugin leaves us with an open slot for a monocolor walker AND gives an interesting dimension to the story.
Decided to take a break from Innistrad and take a crack at a shard set. I don't really have any flavor in mind, but I do know it will not be on Alara. None of the existing shard factions will be in this set. For that reason, I want these factions to feel very different than the Alara factions.
First: WUB "Espionage - Whenever one or more creatures you control attacks and isn't blocked, [effect]"
Ex: "Strike ScoutW
Creature - Human Scout (C) Espionage - Whenever one or more creatures you control attacks and isn't blocked, untap all creatures you control.
1/1"
This mechanic is the most radically different from Esper. Artifacts have nothing to do with this mechanic. I was trying to figure out what these colors like to do the most and then I thought about Skulk, from SOI. It's a mechanic designed to let small creatures through for incremental damage. It's basically an evasive weenie strategy. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that white could also play along with it. While blue and black have evasion as ways to get their creatures through, white has a wide spread of creatures. All three colors have a nice suite of removal and combat-trick effects to utilize. This lead me to try a mechanic that triggered off of combat damage to a player. While that was the easiest way to benefit from your creatures getting through, it actually has pretty little design space, not enough for an entire mechanic, I think. Then I tried the current version. I like it a lot better because it allows you to get combat-relevant benefits, like creature-pumping and keywords like lifelink or doublestrike. What I like best about this mechanic is that it doesn't require a lot of alteration to a set because it draws support from stuff that's usually there in reasonable amounts anyway, unlike Madness, for example.
Basically, it's a mechanic that encourages you to get through with small, evasive or inconspicuous attackers to reap some interesting benefits.
Next: UBR "Antagonize(Whenever an opponent becomes the target of a spell or ability you control, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)"
Ex: "Mischievous Mesmer2U
Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Antagonize (Whenever an opponent becomes the target of a spell or ability you control, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.) 2: Target player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
1/2"
This one came kinda out of nowhere for me. I was kinda stuck, trying to figure out what UBR could do together without just looking exactly like Grixis. I knew they all liked messing with the opponent somehow. Blue has milling and bounce removal, black has discard and destroy/exile removal as well as Memoricide effects, red has burn, etc. I thought about a mechanic that triggered off of damage, perhaps noncreature damage, but that didn't feel very blue to me. I thought about dealing damage by milling, but that didn't feel red. I thought about focusing on hand destruction, but that just seems overpowered for a mechanic. Then it hit me. All of these things I was mulling over were effects that can target a player. I realized that, out of all of the colors, these three seemed to like targeting your opponents the most. So that's where I started. Then I wondered about what kind of mechanic would care about something like that? And is there enough support available for it? With a little card-shaping, yes, I think I can pull off a set that makes this mechanic relevant without doing harm. But what is the mechanic exactly? I thought about something similar to Espionage, an ability word. But having to keep track of all of your Antagonize triggers on top of the triggering spell or ability itself seems like it could get out of hand pretty quickly. Also, having two mechanics both be ability word that trigger off a certain action seems redundant. Then prowess came to mind. What if it was just a simple little buff to your creatures? It offers creature support to spell-heavy decks while encouraging a completely different playstyle than prowess decks, and it's easy to keep track of.
So basically, it comes to this: A creature-support mechanic for control-style decks that like invasive, opponent-focused effects. A bit more narrow than prowess, but enough design space, I think, to make for a refined UBR faction with a clear identity.
If this thread is still taking suggestions, I had a pretty cool idea for an Abzan 'walker. Let's call her Natalia.
Basically, grows up in the Dromoka, oppressed but loyal. Then, with Anafenza's help, discovers necromancy and access to a small portion of Tarkir's forbidden history. With the seed of doubt planted, she starts investigating more, eventually running into Narset. After a brief altercation, Narset reveals what she knows about Tarkir's past, all but shattering Natalia's whole view of the world. Realizing that her people, as well as the rest of the peoples of Tarkir, were cheated out of a future where the clans reigned free and victorious over their oppressive dragonlords. Knowing that, if it weren't for some mysterious dragon-man messing with the natural timeline, the dragons would now be extinct and the people would be in power, she turns her attention to Sarkhan and Ugin. After further searching, she finds Sarkhan and fights him. The outcome is unclear, except that it results in Natalia focusing her efforts on finding and ending Ugin.
She grows up accepting the oppression of the Dragonlords as just the way the world is and was always supposed to be. But after learning of what could have been from Narset, she becomes bitter and develops a vendetta against Sarkhan for meddling with the natural order and robbing her people of a prosperous life, as well as Ugin for, basically, not dying when he should have.
That's pretty much all I have for her. Her origin story is unknown at the moment. While she hasn't had any involvement with Bolas yet, that is a fairly strong possibility for the future.
Regarding Bolas, He may fit in the block as well. He is shard-colored which would be kinda weird, but he would balance out the colors, given that the walker line-up would look like:
Mechanically for Natalia, I would focus on using the graveyard as a resource, but in very different ways than the Sultai. Conjuring spirits would be flavorful, focusing on creatures in the 'yard would probably be ideal. I don't know how that would fit in with the Abzan/Dromoka mechanics yall focus on, but that's just what I would aim for.
As for the rest of the set, I have no real contribution to the mechanics or anything.
Susa, Ambassador to the Trees2GG
Planeswalker - Susa
Loyalty - 4
+1: Put a 1/1 green Squirrel creature token onto the battlefield.
-3: For each creature token you control, you may put another of those tokens onto the battlefield.
-6: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control with base power and toughness 1/1 get +3/+3."
Next: A Bant planeswalker who's never been to Bant
So, about the rename credits, I think I got one and used it to change my name, but the next time I logged in, the change was undone. Is this because of bugs on the first couple of days? Also, could I get my rename credit back?
I'm thinking that, because this would be so far away from the norm, they'd want to reveal it in the best light possible, like on a flashy preview card. I think that would provoke more positive reactions and first impressions than just showing it to us when they announced EMN.
Saheeli seems to be wearing a lot of red, a lot of blue, and a lot of gold, which tels me she will likely be both red and blue.
Edit: Please excuse my horribly offensive bit about getting a lot of new female characters in a row. It was pretty insensitive of me. I'm sorry.
I mean, they've been really hush-hush about it, likely because they want to see people react to it when they see it on a card, not in a vacuum. And a small set is probably the best place to try something like this anyway.
So my money is on this being the actual set symbol. I'm really actually quite excited to see how each varient looks on a card.
Creature - Demon
Flying
Spells and abilities you control can't cause you to sacrifice ~.
When ~ enters the battlefield, your life total becomes 100.
At the beginning of each end step, you lose half your life rounded up.
7/7
Basically, this card is supposed to evoke the flavor of making a deal with a demon. He offers you something very attractive (100 life), but then you owe him your soul and every turn that passes brings you closer to death, bringing you to frantically search for a way to get rid of him. Interestingly, it takes 7 turns to lose if you're only losing life from this guy.
I know this is pretty powerful, which is why I added the can't-be-sacrificed text. Is there any other way we can make this work?
Legendary Creature - Ooze
Whenever a non-1/1 Ooze creature you control dies, choose one:
- Put X 1/1 green Ooze creature tokens onto the battlefield where X is that creature's toughness.
- Put X +1/+1 counters on target Ooze creature you control where X is that creature's toughness.
3/3
Next: a suicide commander
But in any case, it looks okay as is. I was just telling you what I would do, but it's up to you.
Planeswalker - Natalia
Loyalty - 5
+1: Your opponents can't cast spells this turn.
0: Put a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
-9: Destroy all other nontoken permanents. You get an emblem with "You may play land cards from your graveyard."
Next: A protagonistic UB planeswalker
Long story short, mummies could very well be WB. I mean, heck, Magic has pulled off red vampires and blue zombies fairly well, despite the fact that those would have seemed pretty outlandish before Innistrad. I have faith that WB mummies could be a thing.
That said, I don't think mummies would be their own tribe. Even if they just had the Zombie creature type, we've seen Zombie tribal a lot and on top of that, mummies are the Zombies of past kings and priests in Egyptian culture. Given that kind of social status, I wouldn't expect to see too many, and the ones we would would probably be at higher rarities.
@Mods: This was a stupid move on your part. Calling fake info real and attempting to back it up, then justify that decision is a horrible idea, even on 4/1. Misinformation is for websites like the Onion, not sites people go to to actually get legit info. I don't care if it IS just a joke, it was a bad one, and yall should feel bad.
@Everyone else: A full set list was posted on 4/1 and some of you (no doubt due to the MODS wrongly vouching for its veracity, but still) believed it was real? Yeah, it was a bad move on the mods' part, but come on. Common sense people. Don't believe ANYTHING you hear on 4/1 EVER.
Imagine this: On another plane, due to the events of another plotline, Ugin is gravely injured and weakened (details? unclear at the moment). Because of this, he remains absent from Tarkir and the force of the dragon tempests begins to weaken as well. Suddenly, the people notice a drop in the dragons' numbers and start to wonder if a takeover is possible.
At first, Natalia remains loyal to her brood. She grew up thinking that the people were simply meant to live at the mercy of the dragons. But doubt starts to grow in the back of her mind that maybe the people could have a better life under their own rule. Maybe, as impossible as it seems, the people might not have to answer to the dragonlords any longer. Still, her loyalt holds.
Then, after encountering Anafenza's spirit and learning the truth from Narset, she realizes that the people could have- no, WOULD HAVE had a better life, a life free of the tyrannical dragons, had the timeline not been altered. She realizes that she and her people were robbed of freedom and prosperity that should have been theirs because someone went meddling where they shouldn't have.
Now, knowing that Ugin's life is connected to the continued existance of dragons on Tarkir, she as a reason to leave Tarkir in search of him after fighting Sarkhan in this block.
Basically, taking out Ugin leaves us with an open slot for a monocolor walker AND gives an interesting dimension to the story.
First: WUB "Espionage - Whenever one or more creatures you control attacks and isn't blocked, [effect]"
Ex: "Strike Scout W
Creature - Human Scout (C)
Espionage - Whenever one or more creatures you control attacks and isn't blocked, untap all creatures you control.
1/1"
This mechanic is the most radically different from Esper. Artifacts have nothing to do with this mechanic. I was trying to figure out what these colors like to do the most and then I thought about Skulk, from SOI. It's a mechanic designed to let small creatures through for incremental damage. It's basically an evasive weenie strategy. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that white could also play along with it. While blue and black have evasion as ways to get their creatures through, white has a wide spread of creatures. All three colors have a nice suite of removal and combat-trick effects to utilize. This lead me to try a mechanic that triggered off of combat damage to a player. While that was the easiest way to benefit from your creatures getting through, it actually has pretty little design space, not enough for an entire mechanic, I think. Then I tried the current version. I like it a lot better because it allows you to get combat-relevant benefits, like creature-pumping and keywords like lifelink or doublestrike. What I like best about this mechanic is that it doesn't require a lot of alteration to a set because it draws support from stuff that's usually there in reasonable amounts anyway, unlike Madness, for example.
Basically, it's a mechanic that encourages you to get through with small, evasive or inconspicuous attackers to reap some interesting benefits.
Next: UBR "Antagonize (Whenever an opponent becomes the target of a spell or ability you control, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)"
Ex: "Mischievous Mesmer 2U
Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Antagonize (Whenever an opponent becomes the target of a spell or ability you control, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
2: Target player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
1/2"
This one came kinda out of nowhere for me. I was kinda stuck, trying to figure out what UBR could do together without just looking exactly like Grixis. I knew they all liked messing with the opponent somehow. Blue has milling and bounce removal, black has discard and destroy/exile removal as well as Memoricide effects, red has burn, etc. I thought about a mechanic that triggered off of damage, perhaps noncreature damage, but that didn't feel very blue to me. I thought about dealing damage by milling, but that didn't feel red. I thought about focusing on hand destruction, but that just seems overpowered for a mechanic. Then it hit me. All of these things I was mulling over were effects that can target a player. I realized that, out of all of the colors, these three seemed to like targeting your opponents the most. So that's where I started. Then I wondered about what kind of mechanic would care about something like that? And is there enough support available for it? With a little card-shaping, yes, I think I can pull off a set that makes this mechanic relevant without doing harm. But what is the mechanic exactly? I thought about something similar to Espionage, an ability word. But having to keep track of all of your Antagonize triggers on top of the triggering spell or ability itself seems like it could get out of hand pretty quickly. Also, having two mechanics both be ability word that trigger off a certain action seems redundant. Then prowess came to mind. What if it was just a simple little buff to your creatures? It offers creature support to spell-heavy decks while encouraging a completely different playstyle than prowess decks, and it's easy to keep track of.
So basically, it comes to this: A creature-support mechanic for control-style decks that like invasive, opponent-focused effects. A bit more narrow than prowess, but enough design space, I think, to make for a refined UBR faction with a clear identity.
Anyway, thoughts?
Basically, grows up in the Dromoka, oppressed but loyal. Then, with Anafenza's help, discovers necromancy and access to a small portion of Tarkir's forbidden history. With the seed of doubt planted, she starts investigating more, eventually running into Narset. After a brief altercation, Narset reveals what she knows about Tarkir's past, all but shattering Natalia's whole view of the world. Realizing that her people, as well as the rest of the peoples of Tarkir, were cheated out of a future where the clans reigned free and victorious over their oppressive dragonlords. Knowing that, if it weren't for some mysterious dragon-man messing with the natural timeline, the dragons would now be extinct and the people would be in power, she turns her attention to Sarkhan and Ugin. After further searching, she finds Sarkhan and fights him. The outcome is unclear, except that it results in Natalia focusing her efforts on finding and ending Ugin.
She grows up accepting the oppression of the Dragonlords as just the way the world is and was always supposed to be. But after learning of what could have been from Narset, she becomes bitter and develops a vendetta against Sarkhan for meddling with the natural order and robbing her people of a prosperous life, as well as Ugin for, basically, not dying when he should have.
That's pretty much all I have for her. Her origin story is unknown at the moment. While she hasn't had any involvement with Bolas yet, that is a fairly strong possibility for the future.
Regarding Bolas, He may fit in the block as well. He is shard-colored which would be kinda weird, but he would balance out the colors, given that the walker line-up would look like:
WU Narset
RG Sarkhan
C Ugin
WBG Natalia
(2xW, 1xU, 1xB, 1xR, 2xG)
Mechanically for Natalia, I would focus on using the graveyard as a resource, but in very different ways than the Sultai. Conjuring spirits would be flavorful, focusing on creatures in the 'yard would probably be ideal. I don't know how that would fit in with the Abzan/Dromoka mechanics yall focus on, but that's just what I would aim for.
As for the rest of the set, I have no real contribution to the mechanics or anything.
Planeswalker - Susa
Loyalty - 4
+1: Put a 1/1 green Squirrel creature token onto the battlefield.
-3: For each creature token you control, you may put another of those tokens onto the battlefield.
-6: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control with base power and toughness 1/1 get +3/+3."
Next: A Bant planeswalker who's never been to Bant