MTG Salvation

This is a worse Grim Haruspex.

So, artifacts and Karn. Got it.

If somebody breaks this in modern, Flamekin Harbinger can act as copies 5-8.

Quote from Perkunas687 »

According to today's MaRo article, two guilds in this set and three guilds in the next will be under Bolas' control/influence. Also, each of the five Bolas guilds will be led by a planeswalker loyal to Bolas.

Yep. What I'm wondering is which three guilds in Allegiance will fall under his sway. We only really know of two 'walkers besides Ral and Vraska still under his command: Liliana and Tezzeret. Liliana is both easy and poetic. I can easily imagine Bolas going "Hey, Lili, you have some experience killing demons, yes? Be a doll and go off Rakdos for me. Then take over the guild while you're at it."

Tezzeret is harder. We now know that Isperia is out of the picture, which makes Azorius a slightly more likely choice than Simic for the blue artificer. Especially given that he's originally from Esper, and that the Simic would likely firmly object to a technologically, as opposed to biologically, enhanced individual as their leader.

As for the last one, it's up in the air. Kaya doesn't seem like the sort to work for Bolas. We haven't heard from Domri in ages, and the same applies to him. Though he would obviously know how the Gruul operate, were he to be swayed via mind control. My bet though is on Ramaz taking over the Gruul. He never got a card, we know he works for Bolas, and the Gruul already have shamans. Yes, he'd be yet another RG planeswalker, but oh well.

Well, this thing is going straight into my Unesh commander deck.

I think you're all thinking about Vivien from the wrong angle. The author, overall, failed at conveying Vivien's character as shown on the cards from the set. It's not that she's portrayed as a villain when she's supposed to be the protagonist. Rather, she comes across as a very red character when she's supposed to be green. Apart from the actual spells she casts, which are all in green's color pie, this Vivien is red through and through. She's driven almost solely by emotion, not any universal values, acting out violently even when it's very much against her best interests. Her hatred of Bolas and the vampires stem from her own personal feelings on Skalla and her own morals respectively. A green character might level a city like Luneau to return it to nature, Vivien just did it because they took away her bow and her freedom. If anything, she reminds me of Koth, in terms of story arc and personality. Heck, we know Ms. Khaw is a fan of New Phyrexia, she probably wanted to write a story about Koth but was forced into this instead.

These mechanics are all fairly basic, so I'm hoping the individual cards will have interesting, synergistic designs. Like a Mentor creature that makes tokens, or a Jump-Start spell that cantrips.

I have two major problems with Unbowed so far. First, Vivien's character seems more subdued and humorless than how she's depicted on cards like Prodigious Growth and Gigantosaurus. I didn't get a sense that she genuinely appreciates the animals she's fighting to protect. Second, why the hell is she on Ixalan in the first place? Bolas was never there, so that can't be it. Is she trying to complete the planar Pokédex? If so, why didn't she try to 'catch' the injured dinosaurs to preserve their essences? There better be an explanation for the latter at some point in the next two parts, at least.

The Game Night box comes with a much needed Colossal Dreadmaw reprint!

In all seriousness, I actually really like Angler Turtle as a design for commander. Blue can usually only force creatures to attack one at a time (Alluring Siren), with mass attacking being in red's color pie (Call of the Nightly Hunt). The fact that it comes with hexproof means that your seven mana investment into combat shenanigans will stick on the battlefield.

I feel like snow overlaps too much with colorless mana now for design space, except that there's more of a developmental failsafe in that case since wastes can't make colored mana as well. They'd have to make sure to print enough hate cards for snow permanents to counteract the upsides of using them.

I think the main reason he didn't rip apart their minds was because he figured it was a waste of effort. Bolas treats people like we do ants. To use an analogy, even though a soldier could make absolutely sure to kill a particular ant by using a rocket launcher, it's more efficient for them to just use their boot.

Yllandra, Merciless Animist BRG
Legendary Creature - Elf Shaman
Lands you control have haste.
Basic Swamps you control are 2/2 black creatures with deathtouch. They're still lands.
Basic Mountains you control are 3/3 red creatures with first strike. They're still lands.
Basic Forests you control are 4/4 green creatures with trample. They're still lands.
1/1

Don't forget all the admirable genderless characters! Karn and Yahenni are both pretty swell. Ashiok, not as much.

I can't believe I hadn't heard of this. Here's my quick take on the archetype. I cut most of the hard counters and removal for tempo effects in the form of Remand and Eye of Nowhere, because the deck really just wants to buy time to assemble the combo. Ideas Unbound, Sift Through Sands, and Eerie Procession help with that. Plus, we get to swap out Rise from the Tides for The Unspeakable, which rebuys our stuff.

Apparently black gets Flash at common now? Also, they fixed Rancor.