MTG Salvation

Kaervek is not overcosted...as someone mentioned, Parallectric Feedback for everything, plus only 2B more for a 5/4 body? He pretty much has to be that expensive. Nice effect.
Interesting to think about Mangara and Kaervek's fight. Hopefully Mangara had the tome before Kaervek showed up. It must have been a close fight, since Kaervek stole one or more Aku Djinns (not sure who they were sacrificing, they were fighting at the Pillar Tombs of Aku). Mangara would have to have survived three rounds with the Djinn to fight Kaervek to a draw, and five rounds to beat him. I guess he could have blessed himself a few times to keep alive. Of course, if he could get his Equity going he could then cast any four cost spell to kill Kaervek (say his friend, Quirion Trailblazer). In the end he put Kaervek in the Amber Prison anyhow, so it doesn't make much sense.
I can also see how Jolrael would have put the beatdown on Kaervek for a while, since she could just discard her cards to make her lands into guys to smash on him.

Yeah, I'm thinking a mega-cycle like the Legendary Lands, spread out over sets or even blocks.

What about the artwork in Rosewater's post? I don't think it is, but it bears at least a passing resemblance to Dakkon Blackblade. I don't have a place to upload the image, if someone could help with that. It's mentioned in the Flash section, so I guess it could be some flash guy...could be a Knight of some kind.

So, some further speculation on unknown legends. I really hope the legends have new and cool effects, and aren't just a conglomeration of abilities from cards that referenced them.

Ith is multicolored, so it seems very possible that we could have a cycle of multicolored legends. The other four might be:

Stonebrow of Krosa
CC - 3rg
Body - 6/3, like Citanul Centaurs?
Ability - Trample, pump, maybe even something involving morph, given his experience in the Topos? He could have 1gr suspend or activated ability.

Kaervek something or other
CC - 5br
Body - 5/5 maybe
Ability - His story is all about summoning evil spirits and wreaking havoc on the land, and his representative cards are all creature kill and direct damage, very b/r stuff. Other than a Kaervek's Purge on a stick sort of effect, the best I can come up with is some kind of Threaten (red) that also causes the opponent to lose life equal to the creature's power or cc (black). Maybe that's too devastating. There is also a br that could be used for suspend, like Ith, or for an activated ability here.

Lim-Dûl, the Necromancer
CC -3ub
Body - 3/3 or something fairly weeny
Ability - There are two ub cards that let you look at 5 cards and draw one, maybe he'll have some play on this. What about milling yourself 5 cards and putting one creature into play? It would have to have maybe another mana cost. If he is the Necromancer, he should obviously have some necromantic abilities.

Saffi Eriksdotter
CC - 1gw
Body - 2/2
Ability - Who knows, probably a sac ability? Something that saves your other creatures from Lhurgoyfs...Maybe remove herself from the game to regenerate another creature, or your team? Seems a little too much like Loxodon Hierarch. Or maybe since she got pulled through time, Hans ends up dying, so she doesn't save people after all.

Thoughts on other legends:

Mangara of Corondor
CC - 2www?
Body - 3/5
Ability - Mangara is all about peace and sorting out people's problems. His associated cards are life gain, hosing red/black attackers, and roundabout tutoring. I could see Vigilance, and an attack punishing ability like dealing damage to creatures when they damage you a la Equity.
(His art does remind me of gw, and he was friends with the Quirion elves, but I don't think he could be gw or 1gw.)

Lich Lord Dralnu (or whatever)
CC - 5bbb or 4bb
Body - 5/5
Ability - I'm a little confused, since I think he died in Planeshift or Apocalypse, so this version is less powerful than the previous one? Or are they just disowning Dralnu from that card and making a real lich style version? Maybe he has general lich like abilities of ignoring life and sacrificing permanents for damage, with some kind of twist like being able to return zombies, in effect keeping you alive longer, or maybe even a Grave Pact style effect forcing the opponent to sacrifice too?

Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician (I wonder if he's pictured on Spoils of War?)
CC - 1rr or 1r
Body - 1/1 or 2/2
Ability - As a flavor text character, we don't have many hints except that he's reckless. Hopefully he does something to reward recklessness in the combat step, like allowing coin flips to save your creatures or otherwise enabling crazy alpha strikes.

Tivadar of Thorn
CC - 1ww
Body - 2/2
Ability - You have to hope he's not just a pro-red goblin destroyer. Not sure otherwise though.

Thelon of Havenwood
CC - 2ggg
Body - 2/4
Ability - Hmm, besides damaging swamp players and locking down blue creatures, his team seems to be very much about sacrificing green creatures to help the forests. Heroes of History mentions his fungus connections, so I'd say maybe he adds fungus counters to all your dudes every turn or for a cost, speeding up Thallids so he has guys to sacrifice for some effect, possibly converting lands into creatures, possibly something more interesting.

Norin the Wary
CC - who knows? Seems white, red, or green, or a combination thereof. He could be 1rg if Stonebrow is just green. Really no clue though.
Body - 1/1 or 2/2, clearly a weenie
Ability - Hmm...a character known for being afraid of things and knowing that they're not ordinary. I'd guess some goofy ability like peeking at cards in hand or library.

A last thought - maybe Lim-Dûl, Dralnu, Kaervek, and Endrek can all be supported because there's more black mana around than usual, due to the Phyrexian remnants Jarvis mentioned in the podcast.

Yeah Lim-Dul could be blue-black, and Mangara white-green. Yes, Kaervek is almost certainly red-black, from a look at his cards. What are all the ally-pair mana costs in the Orb? (too lazy to look now)

Geesh, how many black mages do we need? Are there enough swamps to go around? Endrek Sahr is just a dude, but Lim-Dûl, Kaervek, and Dralnu are all powerful black mana users. No wonder Teferi finds all his allies against him or whatever, although I guess that is talking about planeswalkers more than all the regular mages. The nostalgia is nice, but maybe it's just a touch overdone...?

Too bad about that woman. Mangara was from Corondor (a white area), but he saved the Quirion elves and was in charge of them for a long time, so he could easily be WG.

What in the heck makes you think Lim-Dûl will be in the set? We can't check his name in the Orb, but there is no reference to him on the Heroes of History site. The Necromancer hit could easily be Dralnu.

confirmed cards:

Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Ith, High Arcanist
Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
Kher Keep
Gemstone Mine
Scion of the Ur-Dragon
Academy Ruins

almost 100% names + art:

Thelon of Havenwood
Stonebrow of Krosa
Tivadar of the Thorn
Mangara of Corondor
Dralnu something or other (Necromancer, Lich)

Name only:

Ib Half-Heart, Goblin Tactician
Norin the Wary
Kaervek
Saffi Eriksdotter

This leaves two spots: Possibly Stuffy Doll, although I don't see why it would necessarily be Legendary. Did that thing survive being Vised and Racked and Leshrac's Rited or whatever? I think there could easily be more than one, but who knows.
Good call on Norin and Ib, though, I had missed those. Ib is clearly Red, but Norin could be anything, really, he appears on 2 red cards, a white card and an artifact. Being Wary doesn't seem particularly Red to me.
How about the last artwork on the Heroes of History page, with the bandages and the snake? Kaervek? Does the figure have breasts? I have no clue if so. Is there yet someone else we haven't seen yet? What the heck was the barbarian elf-girl's name? Rhoda, if that's right, doesn't show up on the Orb.
I think Stonebrow will be Stonebrow of Krosa, since that also has 1 hit on the Orb.
Does the Scion of the Ur-Dragon have anything to do with Ur-Drago, or is that just totally confusing? I know there were some Invasion block references to the Ur-Dragon from Darigaaz and pals, and apparently Nicol Bolas is back in town, how do those all relate?

I think maybe Foriysian Totem, since Foriysian shows up 5 times, could be the name of a 2HG Totem.
Weatherseed is also there 3 times, I think that's pretty sure.
There are plenty of other things that could be Thunder, Ivory Gargoyle makes a much more interesting totem. I think it would look a lot like the one posted above.

Whoa, Sasman, where did you hear the last bit about Nicol Bolas' travels?

So we've established:

Vesuvan Doppelganger (0,0 Alpha Reserved) -> Vesuvan Shapeshifter
Deranged Hermit (1/1 Reserved) -> Thelonite Hermit
Rock Hydra (0/0 Alpha Reserved) -> likely, 6 Hydra in Orb
Lord of the Pit (7/7 Alpha) -> possibly Liege of the Pit
Hand of Justice (2/6 Reserved) -> also likely, 2 Justice in Orb


This would be 3 Alpha Creatures, 4 Reserved Creatures, and 10/14.

Based on Eureka being a card of the day, I'd say it's a possibility for green. I suppose a creature is also possible. Armageddon is definitely possible, but Balance seems like it would be more interesting to be creeping up on people with suspend.

Yeah, obviously he came through a time portal, that's what the whole minisite article is about. I guess he'll be beefy green since he's a giant centaur, he should have some sort of interesting ability from what I've seen of the story.

Just a quick stab at Borborygmos' flavor text -

"If you wonder why the Gruul trash-drivers follow him, just look at him and you'll understand - the only orders he gives are 'Smash!' and 'Let's eat!'"
-Teysa

http://mtg.takaratoys.co.jp/ is the Japanese Magic site, which I only found out recently. I'm not sure why there is info for Malaysia and the Philippines under Asia on the prerelease page but not Japan, so I contacted the Japanese organized play department and found that page.