Well they just need to keep things according to the current layout. Destroy sends cards from play into the graveyard zone (barring certain circumstances), Cast puts cards from the hand into play (battlefield sounds clunky but I would deal with Field), Draw puts cards from the library to the hand, Remove from the game sends it to the RFG zone (which many mentioned as Exile), etc. I feel that the RFG zone should be called Void. It fits flavor wise with the cards printed (leyline of the void, planar void, etc.). Exile is ok but I feel better saying Banish. Banish something to the Void. If they do this though they really need to come up with new verbs for sending cards in play to the library (File? lol), sending cards from the library to the graveyard (Burn or Tear perhaps), sending cards in play to the hand (maybe Unsummon, but that only seems to fit for creatures or Revoke?), etc so that they keep with the proper format. It should help prevent confusion in the future and save space on the cards.
Seems to me like if they are doing tricolor they'd bring out mechanics like the *scape effects. Kickers and such. Casting cost of one color (the main one for that shard) and kicker costs for the secondary color. I don't think they'd be using hybrid so soon after shadowmoor and eventide. If they did they'd most likely have a cost like 1B(R/U), full mana for main color, hybrid for secondary colors. But I'm sticking with things like thunderscape battlemage and thunderscape familiar and thunderscape master. Frankly, I loved cards like those. Allowed a multicolor theme while still maintaining a kind of purity of color in the permanent. (I'm one of those crazy magic purists that thinks direct damage and plinking should be in red, cheap efficient fatties should be in green, paying life for added effects in black, and white and blue shouldn't be allowed to do everything that the other colors do.)
I don't know how many of you play multiplayer but Canker is fantastic in it. Any time I play a game with my friends there is always someone that has no creatures out. Note: "Target opponent." He WILL be a 6/6 in multi. And evershrike is a blessing to anyone playing an enchantress deck. Someone will inevitably wrath or damn you. This allows you to recouperate without being stalled by dead aura draws.
I remember back during Mirrodin era, there were some (Fifth Dawn, I think) style guides that got leaked out or showed up at a convention somewhere and among them were pictures and notes on creatures that 'transform' into other forms, etc. I think they were referring to them as 'Battle Forms' in the style guide. I remember a picture of Mephidross Vampire, specifically..
Nothing ever came of it, and the cards didn't make it into Mirrodin block.
Looks like they finally got back around to it... Cool.
Yeah I was thinking the exact same thing. They called it Evo-morph. I was anxiously awaiting how it would work but they just fizzled out. I would assume this to be the finalized idea of it.
However, that "scan" does not look like a scanner was used to obtain an image of the actual card. The graphic looks fake as hell. The card itself may actually exist, but this scan I just don't believe. But as I stated above, I was excited and let down. So this is pretty cool and I hope there'll be a 5 enemy color series of them. Really interesting concept, hope they develop it more.
Net decks used to irk me quite a bit. They lack creativity and just seem less fun to me than making a deck on your own. However, if you are a tournament player they make sense. (I'd still rather win a tournament with my own rogue deck though.) But the way I figure it, when you play a tournament you are in it to win for either prizes (which are usually more cards) or for ranking/bragging rights/feeling good. For me, I'd be in it for the prizes mainly and slightly for feeling good about winning. I don't, however play magic just to win. I play for a fun battle. I've had many many games that I lost but loved it because it was a great battle. In the case of the tournament, I'd be playing to win cards. But in order to win cards I'd have to buy the good cards for the net decks. So then once I win I get... more cards. But I don't need the more cards because I already paid for the cards I'd need to win... more cards. Just seems like an endless/pointless cycle. So I stick to casual and pre-releases (never expecting to win really) and tend to have much more fun with multiplayer rogue decks in a relaxed environment.
MAN, this art is WAY better than Lorwyn. I might buy a box just to oogle over the artwork. If the set's power level is anything like the demigod we're looking at another way overpowered set again. I for one welcome Cthulu to Magic.
Well if we're just going on the name to describe the whole set I would assume that since shadows are similar is shape and motion to the objects they come from the creatures in the set would have similarities but different. Like all the same tribes but they function slightly different or just more simplified or superficial (lacking the extra "dimension," as it were). The lands maybe lack the bright colorful aspect (vivid lands) and take a more bland and deficient identity, hence the "moor" aspect. Perhaps focusing more on isolating the tribes/colors rather than the crossover we have seen in lorwyn (kithkin greatheart, kithkin mourncaller, etc.) Much of lorwyn seemed to focus on boosting the various tribes. Maybe shadowmoor will focus on detrimental effects against the various tribes. (a la engineered plague). The fact that they used "shadow" and not "dark" leads me to believe that the aspects of lorwyn are the base identity and the next set will feature things that have a similar core idea but branch off in a different way. Perhaps creatures benefiting from enemy creatures in the graveyard, bonuses for opposing tribes in combat, or effects from enemy land types or permanent types in play. (deepwood legate, angry mob, etc)
It seems to me that the dolmen gate might be similar in form (but not identity) to the sengir gate in that it is the only way in/out of shadowmoor. It is possible that the two lands are maybe not the same plane but just very close (much like rath just before the overlay onto dominaria), with the gate sort of like piercing the vale between the spiritworld and the "real" world (like the old folk stories of samhain night).
They could be like two sides of a thick coin shaped (or lens shaped) world. One side facing the sun rotates with a slight wobble maybe to explain the sun reaching the horizon and wobbling back again. The opposite side being shadowmoor, constantly facing the eternal void away from the sun. The ring of mountains at the edge of the coin to isolate the two worlds from one another.
As far as the ecosystem of a totally dark world... You could have plants evolved from thermal bacteria such as those in sulfur vents or just mainly fungal vegetation. (like the orc's homeworld in the warcraft II expansion)
4 Frogtosser Banneret
4 Nightshade Stinger
4 Oona's Blackguard
4 Prickly Boggart
4 Stinkdrinker Bandit
2 Sygg, River Cutthroat
2 Footbottom Feast
4 Morsel Theft
4 Nameless Inversion
4 Pack's Disdain
Artifacts
2 Cloak and Dagger
2 Whispersilk Cloak
20 Swamp
4 Cairn Wanderer
2 Corrosive Mentor
2 Inkfathom Infiltrator
2 Marsh Flitter
2 Skeletal Changeling
2 Noggin Whack
1 Dolmen Gate
Burns: I suggest you leave immediately.
Homer: Or what? You'll release the dogs? or the bees? Or the dogs with bees in their mouths and when they bark they shoot bees at you?
Yeah I was thinking the exact same thing. They called it Evo-morph. I was anxiously awaiting how it would work but they just fizzled out. I would assume this to be the finalized idea of it.
However, that "scan" does not look like a scanner was used to obtain an image of the actual card. The graphic looks fake as hell. The card itself may actually exist, but this scan I just don't believe. But as I stated above, I was excited and let down. So this is pretty cool and I hope there'll be a 5 enemy color series of them. Really interesting concept, hope they develop it more.
It seems to me that the dolmen gate might be similar in form (but not identity) to the sengir gate in that it is the only way in/out of shadowmoor. It is possible that the two lands are maybe not the same plane but just very close (much like rath just before the overlay onto dominaria), with the gate sort of like piercing the vale between the spiritworld and the "real" world (like the old folk stories of samhain night).
As far as the ecosystem of a totally dark world... You could have plants evolved from thermal bacteria such as those in sulfur vents or just mainly fungal vegetation. (like the orc's homeworld in the warcraft II expansion)