On a somewhat unrelated note, what the hell is going on with Sphinx's Decree? It clearly shows Azor using his magic on Huatli, but we just saw him fly off to Useless Island without even encountering Huatli at all.
So either:
A. We haven't seen the last of Azor in the story for this set or
B. It was just an oversight by the creators.
The latter seems likely, since as we know they've had some serious issues lately as far as lining up the story between different mediums (cards, story articles, fat pack summaries, art books, etc.), especially when they change things at the last minute. But I really, REALLY hope it's the former instead. Partly because the sloppiness of showing a story moment on a card that never even happened in the actual story is irritating for those who read the story and misleading for those who don't, but also because Azor's appearance so far leaves a lot to be desired.
To those who think Jace's actions were petty and hypocritical in some way, I interpreted things differently.
It's not the actions that are hypocritical, it's the justification. Jace criticizes Azor for abandoning Ravnica to its own devices so that he could go and meddle in the affairs of various other planes. He says this after we have just watched Jace abandon Ravnica to its own devices so that he can go and meddle in the affairs of various other planes. Why is it only wrong when Azor does it?
Jace continued, a crease on his brow and a grimace in his expression. "Your intentions were noble, but the effect of the Immortal Sun on Ixalan has been catastrophic. You and the Immortal Sun are a danger to the stability of this plane.""
Just to be clear, I don't have an issue with this logic. It's some of the other accusations that are hypocritical. It's extremely ironic that Jace is upset at someone for doing the exact same things he's been doing, except on a larger scale. Maybe that's the entire point, and this experience will make Jace realize the error of his ways and try harder to not be like Azor. Or maybe it's selectively forgetful writing to establish a clear protagonist and antagonist despite the similarities between them. We'll see if they can justify it in the next story.
First of all, Jace recieves information we do not have yet. You say he should have used Azor as an ally? Well, he now probably knows all he needs to know, so he probably doesn't need Azor.
If Jace can get Azor to do whatever he wants, which seems to be the case, then why wouldn't he make more use of that? Sure, he doesn't necessarily need to, but he certainly could have if he wanted to. Assuming that Azor getting his spark back is not possible, he could have at the very least given Azor instructions that would have been beneficial to the inhabitants of the plane - for instance, not meddling with the factions any further and acting exclusively to protect the plane from external threats.
And if it is possible for Azor to get his spark back, Jace could get even more use out of him. Granted, there's no way for Jace to know if retrieving the spark is possible (unless he found out from Azor's memories), but what it really comes down to is whether the writers want Azor to be a planeswalker again or not. There are several reasons why having Azor be a planeswalker would be beneficial - namely, the popular demand for a sphinx planeswalker, the necessity of explaining why Jace would let Bolas have the Immortal Sun, and the potential benefits of getting Jace out of his job as Guildpact - so I think that there is still a possibility they could choose to take the story that direction.
Secondly, he deems Azor a threat of sorts to the people of this plane. I...can't necessarily disagree. He's clearly been acting like he owns the place. Jace probably figured that letting the sphinx do what he wants wasn't the best option, yet he didn't want to kill him either, so seeing how Azor does not have a spark and can't leave Ixalan, banashing him was the next best option.
But why banish him when you have complete control over him and can make him do something that's actually beneficial to the plane? Or when you can (assuming that it's possible) give him back his spark and have him take over your job that you can't/won't do?
Also, like Jay13x points out, mad oldwalker BS should not necessarily be tolerated <.<
Jace is guilty of much of same "oldwalker BS" that Azor is. He's meddled in plenty of planes and failed to pay any attention to the consequences of his actions. So far Jace has:
Worked for an interplanar crime syndicate
Accidentally helped to release the Eldrazi upon the multiverse
Accidentally became the leader of an entire plane's government without any qualifications
Neglected his position on that plane by leaving for months at a time, causing chaos on Ravnica
Removed the hedron from Ob Nixilis, allowing him to regain his spark and terrorize other planes
Helped to kill two of the Eldrazi he released, which could have apocalyptic consequences in the distant future
Helped overthrow an entire government as a means to get to the one guy who was a threat within that government
So while someone should call out Azor for what he's done, someone should call out Jace for all the stuff he's done as well.
Azor's M.O. doesn't seem to be total control, but rather giving people the tools to control themselves. The OG Guildpact required the guilds to all sign on to it to work because Azor didn't impose it, he suggested it and persuaded the others that it was the only way to prevent the ongoing war from destroying everything. He created the guildpact with input from all the guilds.
Now, the real explanation is that Ravnica was written before creative had any idea that the story would go in this direction, and that Azor being a Sphinx, and a Walker, are likely retcons, regardless of what they claim. Lets face it, they've written themselves into a bit of a corner and its up to readers to make it all fit. We can find explanations that sort of work, but we wouldn't have to if this was actually the plan all along. The way the Guildpact works makes perfect sense when Azor is just a guy, maybe a guy with magic, and its a completely collaborative effort between the 10 OG Paruns. Once Azor is an Oldwalker Sphinx, it gets messed up. He's either an idiot who made a needlessly convoluted system with loopholes and unreasonable weak points that still managed to work for 10,000 years, or you have to start assuming things about his motivations that would explain why he accepted those weaknesses, things that haven't actually been stated in story. It can work if, like I said, he is looking to give the populace a system to use to govern themselves effectively rather than trying to impose control, that rather than a W/U Lawful Neutral "I will impose order" jerk he actually wants the planes he visits to control their own fate, that this matters to him as much as creating order, and that he really is gifting them with the tools to better their lives and showing them how to use them, then giving them the freedom to succeed or fail. That would explain the weaknesses of the OG Guildpact, because he'd have to find a way to make it work without eliminating the people's ability to rule themselves. But none of this is in the story, so its headcanon. The alternative, though, is just bad storytelling.
These are all good points. You're absolutely right that the retcons are probably the reason for the majority of the plot holes, and your explanation could easily account for most of it. I just wish that we could get some sort of acknowledgement from the writers of the past storylines rather than acting like it all lines up in a perfect and obvious way, because it most certainly doesn't.
The whole thing felt kind of rushed and some of the dialogue wasn't particularly good. Having characters TALK IN ALL CAPS to be funny has gotten kind of old at this point. Many people seem to adore Breeches but he feels like lazy comic relief to me. Angrath, on the other hand, has the potential to be a legitimately interesting character and using him as comic relief feels like a waste of potential. Also, the Jace banishing Azor happened way to quickly. Having Azor be defeated by his own laws was a nice touch, but it happened so quickly that it felt like it came out nowhere.
While Azor probably never intended to return to Ravnica and had no reason to expect that the Living Guildpact would happen to be a planeswalker who could use it to exert power over him, making the Living Guildpact a person in the first place seems like a terrible idea. The only reason that it was even possible for the original Guildpact to be broken was because of the clause about the Dimir being revealed. That might have made sense if Azor and Szadek (and presumably the other paruns) were all on equal terms, allowing each of them to negotiate so that certain things would be in the document, but if Azor was an oldwalker and Szadek was just a planebound vampire, Azor should have been able to do whatever he wanted. As such, there was no reason to make the Guildpact breakable in the first place, let alone make the backup Guildpact a person rather than just another enchantment.
Jace calling out Azor for what he did to Ravnica would have been fine coming from any other person, but since it's Jace it just sounds hypocritical. Yes, Azor shouldn't have completely neglected Ravnica despite being the embodiment of law, but Jace did the exact same thing.
"The Guildpact was perfect"? Really? Even before the original was broken, you had guilds systematically oppressing the guildless, as well as some guilds straight-up murdering people. Loopholes in the original document made it possible for the Dimir to exert influence on every guild with no consequences, and the Guildpact being broken only made them more powerful. How was that a perfect system? Again, if Szadek was on equal footing with Azor, it would make sense for him to have been able to negotiate these advantages, but there's no reason why an oldwalker should have had to concede anything.
Telling the second part of the story from the perspective of Vraska didn't really add anything. There was nothing particularly relevant to be gained from getting Vraska's perspective on this rather than Jace's. I guess that they wanted to avoid using Jace so that they could fit it in this story and save the BIG REVEAL that Ugin was the one working with Jace for the next story... but it's such an obvious twist now that they brought up Ugin right before this story, and it's going to force them to at least partially retell the events of this story from another perspective. It would have been better if they had put the Huatlli/Tishana/Angrath part in a different story and just had one full story dedicated to Jace and Vraska confronting Azor, from Jace's perspective, including all the knowledge Jace got from Azor and his recollections about Bolas.
Good stuff:
It was good, if unsurprising, to see that Kumena is still alive. He was one of the most interesting villains we've had in a while and killing him off so quickly and unceremoniously would have been a waste. Since he's evidently going to join up with Tishana, he might be more of an anti-hero now, but hopefully he gets a larger role in a later story. It might largely depend on which tribe wins the poll and is given more attention in the story as a result.
I was legitimately afraid that the writers would just let Ugin and Bolas know about Ixalan because they're super smart elder dragons rather than actually explaining how they find about the binding if no one can leave. Fortunately, this story offers a real explanation: Ugin knew Azor and planned the binding with him, while Bolas most likely found out by reading Ugin's mind before he killed him.
Ixalan has managed to make Ugin become one of the most interesting characters in the entire story without even featuring Ugin onscreen at all. Bolas had the advantage of existing in the story for decades, which allows us to see his influence on numerous planes, exactly the way we should for a mastermind planeswalker. Ugin, on the other hand, wasn't given a proper introduction until a few years ago, and until now has been almost exclusively tied to the Eldrazi. What we've seen from this block tells us that Ugin, like Bolas, has influence on lots of other planes and planeswalkers, and he could actually be a formidable threat to Bolas despite being out of commission for over a thousand years. But Ugin still shows the trademark oldwalker disregard for individual lives that we know and love, making him only a good guy when looking at the big picture. While he still looks like a saint compared to Bolas and is functioning as Magic's "big good" type of character for the time being, he could still easily serve as a villain eventually due to his disregard for individual people or even entire planes. If Bolas kicks the bucket somewhere down the line, Ugin could easily replace him as the big bad.
Speculation:
Since presumably the fifth story will resolve who gains control of the city (making it the one that they have, at least in theory, written four different versions of), we should see the last two story spotlights resolved next week.
There's no way in hell in that Jace remembers everything about Bolas and still lets Vraska deliver the Immortal Sun to Bolas, and we also know that Vraska doesn't betray Jace. There has to be something we don't know about. At this point I still think it would make the most sense for them to let Azor take his spark back out of the Immortal Sun, so that when Vraska delivers it to Bolas he doesn't get what he was hoping for.
Since we now know that Jace has control of Azor, after commanding him to remove his spark from the Immortal Sun, Jace could command him to take over as Guildpact. The narrative requires Jace to do lots of plane-hopping so continuing to have him tied down to one plane - especially when Azor offers an easy out - would be a huge mistake. Plus, this would allow players to get the sphinx planeswalker that is constantly being requested - teasing one like this would be cruel to those players and only cause more demand. And this might make it possible for Azor to not have the lamest role in story since... Kumena two stories ago? Azor as he appeared in this story was nowhere close to meeting the hype for a former oldwalker/guild parun, and it would be disappointing and surprising if we have already seen his entire presence in the story.
My mind went Azor but I don't think so. Maybe the bat god and/or Elenda?
Well, looking at the art of Azor, the Lawbringer and Sanctum of the Sphinx, the Immortal Sun is clearly on the ceiling, but Kumena describes it as being on the floor. That means that Azor's Sanctum is directly underneath the upper temple that Kumena was operating from. So it would make a lot of sense for Azor to be the voice. He could actually be just shouting at Kumena, no telepathic magic required.
Wait... is Kumena *done*? Already? After all that buildup? What about the Tyrant of Orazca? What about the dangerous opponent that Tishana was so determined to stop? He was such an interesting villain with believable goals, and he just gets punked like that in the opening scene of Rivals by a two-dimensional cartoon like Vona?
Either he'll be back, or that was just the biggest waste of potential I've seen from the Magic story in ages.
Rule #1 of storylines like this one: No one is dead unless you see the body. Within the last year or so they've already pulled this exact same stunt with Pia Nalaar, Jaya Ballard, and Vona. Kumena will be back. If he was actually dead, they would have made sure that we all know it. If there's even a shadow of a doubt about a character's fate, it means that the writers want to have the ability to bring that character back when they see fit.
Jace's memory of Alhammaret would probably affect how he handles Azor, who is without a doubt MUCH more powerful than Alhammaret. Who knows, Azor might even be Alhammaret's acquaintance or teacher at one point and immediately recognizes Jace's symbol (Alhammaret's collar). Azor might even told Jace that it was HIM who invented the Mage Rings, and Alhammaret was appointed to watch over the balance. O_O
That would make a lot of sense. I was already expecting Vraska to be hostile towards Azor given her experience with his guild, but I thought that Jace would have to mediate between them. But the way that Azor was introduced in this story makes it seem like Jace is also going to be hostile towards Azor, at least at first. And the fact that they finally pointed out the connection between Jace's symbol and Alhammaret's collar can't be a coincidence either. There is almost definitely some sort of connection between Azor and Alhammaret, a connection that we will learn once we finally see Azor and Jace have a conservation. Maybe Azor and Alhammaret knew each other in the past like you said, or maybe Azor doesn't know him personally but is rather the progenitor of all sphinxes on Vryn. It would explain why Azor and Alhammaret have faces that are noticeably more humanlike than any other sphinxes we've seen. Alhammaret would have to be around for several centuries to have known Azor before the latter trapped himself on Ixalan, and we don't know if that's possible since we don't know the lifespan of sphinxes. But Alhammaret and all other sphinxes on Vryn being descendants of Azor could easily fit with the timeline and what we know about Azor.
With the Sun, Bolas will have two planeswalker sparks in his possession.
Can Ugin and Karn stop him now?
I have a feeling that Azor will take his spark back out of it and leave the plane before Tezzeret takes it. One because it would be awful storytelling to hype up Azor such in such a way only to leave him on Ixalan, two because Jace will probably tell him about the terrible job he's been doing as guildpact and Azor will want to go to Ravnica to fix it, and three because it would be weird for Tezzeret to take the Immortal Sun with its ultra-powerful sphinx guardian in the same room.
sorry if this is the wrong discussion, but after seeing Silent Gravestone, i have a big question: who is the Grim Captain? Have they said something about him/her?
Necromancy isn't something seen on Ixalan, right?
EDIT: well, except for the vampires if you count them. But i mean, reanimating corpses
The way I see it, there are two possibilities: either the Grim Captain is the a literal pirate captain who uses necromancy (presumably the human in the art of Grim Captain's Call) or it's just a euphemism for death on Ixalan, similar to the Grim Reaper. The former would make sense for a legendary creature; the latter would not. But even if the Grim Captain is an actual person, we won't be seeing a legendary creature card in this set, on account of all the rare and mythic spots being spoken for. However, it could be a possibility for a future Commander set or Return to Ixalan, especially since I've been seeing a lot of people saying that they want to see such a card (and the fact that pirates are in desperate need of a better Commander).
Azor will regain his spark. if not in this set, then in a future one.
MTG Vorthos completists will demand an Azor PW card incessantly, because we want a card for EVERY Planeswalker we see referenced in story, and especially planeswalkers that aren't aren't planeswalking anymore (re: Ob Nix, Ugin and Nahiri).
Came to write exactly the same thing. He will get his spark back somehow.
I think that he'll get it back at the end of this set's story, though it may be something that is shown only in the actual stories themselves and not on the cards. I have a feeling that he would have gotten a planeswalker card in this set if not for external reasons, which is why had him arbitrarily lose his spark offscreen only to regain it. A GW walker did work better for color balance here than a WU one would, and if Ravnica is going to be the setting for the next fall and winter sets (which it very likely will), then they might have done this too avoid putting two WU walkers to close to each other. It's especially relevant if the Azorius appears in the first set rather than the second, since that would be only three sets away from Rivals. Vraska's PW card at least came one set earlier than Azor's hypothetically would have, and her next appearance might be one set later, depending on how they distribute the guilds between two sets this time around. A four or five set gap between planeswalkers of the same color identity is pretty normal, but three sets is definitely not optimal.
So here's what I'm predicting: Jace and Vraska find Azor. They tell Azor about how the original Guildpact was broken, how Jace became the the Living Guildpact, and how he's been doing an absolutely awful job. Azor takes his own spark out of the Immortal Sun and planeswalks away to Ravnica to clean up Jace's mess. Then Jace wipes Vraska's mind at her request and leaves. Vraska calls in Tezzeret, who is now able to take the Immortal Sun easily with Azor gone. Vraska goes to Bolas's meditation plane to claim her reward. Jace most likely goes to Dominaria since he now remembers that being where he is supposed to meet the Gatewatch. At the same time, Angrath and Huatli realize that the barrier is down. Angrath returns home immediately, while Huatli has to decide if she wants to continue serving the Sun Empire or leave Ixalan to explore the multiverse.
The Dominaria story will focus on at least some of the Gatewatch reuniting (probably Jace, Liliana, and Ajani, but possibly others as well) and also recruiting new members like Karn. After Dominaria and the core set, we'll return to Ravnica for two sets. Azor takes over as Living Guildpact (or, alternatively, gets rid of the position entirely and rewrites the Guildpact so that it is once again a document rather than an actual person). Vraska takes leadership of the Golgari, and will most likely have an encounter with Jace in which her memories that were "sealed away" are restored (possibly resulting in her taking an oath). Ral Zarek continues working on behalf of Bolas and will likely be the main antagonist. I don't think Dominaria or Ravnica will be the sets where Bolas uses the planar portal/eternal army/Immortal Sun for a full-scale invasion. It's too soon after Amonkhet, and there's a lot of other things going on in those sets - both mechanically and in the story - that there wouldn't be room for if everything was focused on another apocalypse caused by Bolas and his eternals.
Azor confirmed once and for all (even though the art book confirmed it)
Yeah, theory has been shot down. This means no allied color DFC enchantments either. Evidently we'll be getting WU and BG uncommons in place of two of them, with Jungle Creeper being already spoiled and the WU one still unrevealed. Protean Raider was also spoiled today, so the one remaining multicolor card will likely be a rare dinosaur (similar to how Regisaur Alpha mirrored Hostage Taker in Ixalan).
Alright I've been crunching the numbers and it looks like this set is going to have 23 multicolored cards. 151 is World Shaper, but 152 is Angrath, the Flame-Chained. 173 is Storm the Vault, and 175 is Awakened Amalgam, so 174 must be Zacama, Primal Calamity. 152 through 174 means 23 multicolored cards, which is quite a lot for a small set without a multicolor theme.
Here's what we consider as good as confirmed so far:
8 archetype-defining uncommons (every color pair except WU and BG, just like Ixalan)
That's 18 cards. 23 minus 18 leaves 5 more unaccounted for. Previously, I was wondering if there might ally-colored DFC enchantments in addition to enemy ones. But we also need to have Azor in there someone, since he's obviously WU. So what if... Azor is part of the DFC cycle?
Think about it. We get 9 regular DFC enchantments at rare: one for every color pair except WU. The WU member of the cycle, however, is mythic rare, and instead of flipping from an enchantment to a land, it flips from a legendary creature to a planeswalker.
It would be an exception to all Ixalan DFCs being all lands on the back, but Ulrich was a similar exception to all Eldritch Moon DFCs being eldrazi on the back. It also contradicts Maro's statement that Rivals has two planeswalkers, but Maro is known to say things that are only true by technicality, and for the purposes of counting the number of cards of a certain type/color/rarity, usually only the front sides of DFCs are counted. By that logic, Ixalan has two planeswalkers and 9 legendary creatures (one which just happens to be a planeswalker on the back).
This is by no means a guarantee, and there are other cards that could account for the missing spots, but I think that this would explain a lot - why there are so many multicolored cards in this set, why Huatli was allowed to be the second planeswalker despite Azor being on the plane as well, why Azor losing his spark was included in the story, and why Azor was even included in the story in the first place (if he's not able to go to Ravnica, then what would even be the point of introducing him?)...
So if I'm correct, the multicolored cards will end up being:
"Remember Chasm Skulker? Let's do that again, but dressed up as a vampire."
I don't hate the card, and I kind of want to build around it, but it is a bit underwhelming. I feel like a lot of this set's mythics feel like rares. But then again, a lot of rares feel like mythics (elder dinos in particular). Technically having the rares at mythic and the mythics at rare just lets us get the better cards more often, so I guess it's a good thing.
It's unfortunate that its last ability doesn't work well in Commander, because that's where it should shine the most. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that in order to get the death trigger in an EDH game you have to let her go to the graveyard rather than the command zone to get the death trigger. Putting her back in the command zone is a replacement effect, so if you do so, she isn't put into a graveyard from the battlefield (which is the definition of dying). It doesn't make her unplayable in EDH or anything, but throwing in a lot of recursion effects just to be able to use her last ability more than once is an inconvenience, plus I'm sure that it will confuse a fair number of less experienced EDH players and lead to disappointment when they're corrected.
They could have fixed it easily by having the ability trigger whenever Elenda leaves the battlefield instead of when she dies. It would have made her marginally more powerful, but I don't think the card is anywhere close to being too powerful as it is. It would have opened up blinking shenanigans as well, but the counters would fall off and she would only return as a 1/1, so it would be good but not broken. I don't know, I think it's a fun card, but the functionality leaves something to be desired.
My main issue with this is that Samut is already a planeswalker. If Samut wasn't a planeswalker, I think that Hazoret could have easily replaced her as a native planeswalker from Amonkhet, and probably have been a much more interesting character to be perfectly honest. But having Samut and Hazoret both be planeswalkers creates some issues for me. For one thing, it's a huge coincidence that both would even have sparks. Amonkhet is plane with a relatively low population to begin with, and it's extremely low after the apocalypse. So what are the odds that two of those survivors, who number probably only in the hundreds of a few thousand at the most, are both planeswalkers? Keep in mind that sparks are supposed to be a one-in-a-million thing.
Granted, we just had a block about how a political leader from one plane planeswalked completely at random to a plane that happened to have his nemesis on it, then almost immediately runs into nemesis from the same plane he's a political leader one, and this plane also happens to be where the founder of the government he's in control of is trapped on. That's an insane series of coincidences. Magic's story is built on coincidences. With focus on a handful of planeswalkers in an infinite number of planes, it has to be. The Ixalan story relied on coincidence but was told in such a way that it felt at least somewhat natural, and much of it was explained decently rather than happening completely by chance. Samut and Hazoret both being planeswalkers (or Samut and Djeru, as I've seen other people suggest) would just feel to forced in my opinion. I think as a general rule, it's best to avoid people who knew each other before either became a planeswalker both becoming planeswalkers later on. We never see two planebound friends both igniting, it's always one igniting (and then, if they're lucky, befriending other planeswalkers, often from other planes). I feel like your proposal violates that unspoken rule. It's almost offensively coincidental.
The other issue that Samut creates for Hazoret as a theoretical planeswalker is that both have the same story role. If we never return to Amonkhet, it does make a lot of sense to have a planeswalker carry on its legacy, much like Tamiyo for Kamigawa. But Samut does that just fine. We don't need a Hazoret planeswalker. Don't get me wrong, I would have much rather seen Hazoret fill that role than Samut, because I think that a fallen god would have been a much more interesting character than yet another human with a superpower, but as long as Samut exists, Hazoret doesn't seem practical.
Samut reminds us that Amonkhet still exists in the same way that Hazoret would. She has the same backstory to motivate her to fight Bolas. She would bring more or less the same set of skills (speed, strength, fighting prowess, and the ability to inspire others) to the Gatewatch. Their personalities might differ (at least Hazoret has a personality), but the whole fish-out-of-water comic relief thing that Hazoret would bring to the table is already present thanks to Nissa, and to a lesser extent, Ajani. Wanting more non-human planeswalkers is a valid concern (and one that I have voiced my opinion on in the past) but there are many other non-human planeswalkers that could also diversify the Gatewatch (and give us more fish-out-of-water humor like Nissa and Ajani; if we even need any more of that, because personally I think they've had every chance at it already with Nissa and have yet to do it particularly well).
So basically, if Samut wasn't a planeswalker, I'd say go for it. But because she exists, I don't think Hazoret as a planeswalker would be very practical. I think that she's mainly a seed for a return block on Amonkhet if they decide to even make one (which will depend on multiple factors, including the perceived audience response to the first block and where the story goes). I could see Hazoret playing a very major role if/when we do return, but I don't think that introducing her as a planeswalker would be the right move even then.
I don't follow the lore of Magic like many other players. I am curious to know based on the story and other known information, what characters are likely to receive cards in the Rivals of Ixlan set? What is their likely color identity and what type of mechanics or abilities would these creatures have based on lore?
Zetalpa, Primal Dawn ( elder dinosaur with flying)
Nezahal, Primal Tide ( elder dinosaur, probably with hexproof)
Zacama, Primal Calamity ( or elder dinosaur, almost certainly mythic)
Elendra, the Dusk Rose ( vampire, anyone's guess for mechanics)
Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca ( merfolk that will likely interact with city's blessing given role in story)
There could be others (note the lack of pirates), but these are as good as confirmed since their full card names appear in the art book.
There isn't much in terms of lore. Kumena is a merfolk who searched for the golden city of Orazca (the merfolk are supposed to protect from everyone, including themselves, but Kumena went rogue). Evidently he found it, causing the city to rise out of the ground and the six elder dinosaurs to be released.
Elendra was a human on Torrezon (another continent on the plane where the vampires and pirates come from). She went to Ixalan centuries ago and became the first to receive the "blessing" of vampirism, likely from the bat god Aclazotz (Temple of Aclazotz). She returned to Torrezon and taught other humans how to become vampires. Later, the Immortal Sun was stolen from Torrezon and taken to Ixalan. She went back to Ixalan in search of it and is evidently still alive there.
Insightful analysis.
Not sure if mono blue dino will get hexproof. It seems like they have been straying away from giving legendary creatures hexproof for commander purposes (because it's less fun due to it not being interactive). Perhaps blue could be unblockable or flying. White could be lifelink or vigilance.
My guesses mainly come from the images from the Ixalan art book (https://imgur.com/gallery/kizSI). The (presumably) blue one is the sea monster-like one and the (presumably) white one has wings. Since the black and green members of the cycle seem to indicate that each would have a single evergreen keyword, I think that flying is a safe bet for white.
Blue doesn't have access to many evergreen keywords so I tried to figure out its keyword by process of elimination. It isn't flying because the white one has flying and the blue one clearly doesn't fly in its art. Prowess is an option for blue but would be pretty lame on a large creature (the same can be said for Tetzimoc's deathtouch, but prowess even more so). That pretty much leaves hexproof and flash, and hexproof shows up much more frequently on large sea creatures than flash. But as you said, unblockable is also a possibility, and it wouldn't be the first time that unblockable was used as a replacement for an evergreen keyword in a cycle (Azorius Herald, Dimir Keyrune).
It's difficult to guess what the non-keyword abilities will be for the other members of the cycle. The static cost reduction on the green one and the activated ability on the black one have little in common, except that both affect the card while it's in your hand, but not while it's on the battlefield. It's possible that the other three (or four, depending on whether or not the multicolored one breaks form) might also have abilities that function in your hand, or at least in a zone other than the battlefield. Or they might not. We'll find out in a few days.
I don't follow the lore of Magic like many other players. I am curious to know based on the story and other known information, what characters are likely to receive cards in the Rivals of Ixlan set? What is their likely color identity and what type of mechanics or abilities would these creatures have based on lore?
Zetalpa, Primal Dawn ( elder dinosaur with flying)
Nezahal, Primal Tide ( elder dinosaur, probably with hexproof)
Zacama, Primal Calamity ( or elder dinosaur, almost certainly mythic)
Elendra, the Dusk Rose ( vampire, anyone's guess for mechanics)
Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca ( merfolk that will likely interact with city's blessing given role in story)
There could be others (note the lack of pirates), but these are as good as confirmed since their full card names appear in the art book.
There isn't much in terms of lore. Kumena is a merfolk who searched for the golden city of Orazca (the merfolk are supposed to protect from everyone, including themselves, but Kumena went rogue). Evidently he found it, causing the city to rise out of the ground and the six elder dinosaurs to be released.
Elendra was a human on Torrezon (another continent on the plane where the vampires and pirates come from). She went to Ixalan centuries ago and became the first to receive the "blessing" of vampirism, likely from the bat god Aclazotz (Temple of Aclazotz). She returned to Torrezon and taught other humans how to become vampires. Later, the Immortal Sun was stolen from Torrezon and taken to Ixalan. She went back to Ixalan in search of it and is evidently still alive there.
It really doesn't make sense to me that Azor needed to give up his spark to create the Immortal Sun. If he was able to create the Guildpact (which was basically the reverse of the enchantment of the Immortal Sun, keeping planeswalkers out rather than in, plus several other functions) without losing his spark, why would he lose his spark for this? Why not just say that he made the Immortal Sun without losing his spark, but it still prevented him from leaving on account of him being a planeswalker? I feel like the whole "planeswalker loses their spark" storyline is really played out by now anyway; they've used it several different times and in this case it really wasn't even necessary. Anyway, he must get his spark back from the Immortal Sun at some point, because they wouldn't be so stupid as to introduce Azor like this only to not make him a planeswalker. Maybe he'll be an Origins-style flip-walker though, since we already have DFCs in the set. Obviously it would be an exception to the "Ixalan DFCs are lands on the back" rule, but Ulrich was an exception to the "Eldritch Moon DFCs are eldrazi on the back" rule, so I could still see it happening.
This whole story synopsis raises more questions than it answers. Why would Azor even want to create the barrier keeping planeswalkers out of Ixalan? Does Azor end up getting his spark back from the Immortal Sun? Why would Azor allow Tezzeret to take the Immortal Sun while Azor is in the city guarding it? How does Vraska first react to meeting Azor, given her hatred of the Azorius? Why does Jace erase Vraska's memories rather than just tell her not to go back to Bolas and not to call Tezzeret? What are Jace and Azor doing when Tezzeret shows up, and why don't they try to stop him? Why wouldn't Bolas just do the same thing to Vraska that he did to Sarkhan and Tezzeret, completely taking over her mind, just to be safe? He really has no reason not to at this point. Also, what about all the other characters? How does Angrath and Huatli's alliance work out for them? When the Immortal Sun leaves the plane it will presumably let planeswalkers leave, and I assume that Angrath will go home, but what about Huatli? Does she go with Angrath, or to Kaladesh, or does she pull a Narset and stay on her home plane for the time being?
Some of these are just details that were left out of the art book summary but others seem like outright plot holes. Since art books are written before the actual story and tend to be an early blueprint of the story and not 100% accurate, hopefully the actual story will clear things up, but I still think that Jace allowing Vraska to summon Tezzeret and go back to Bolas doesn't make very much sense at all. It would be one thing if his whole ordeal on Ixalan made him decide to abandon the Gatewatch and not care about fighting Bolas anymore, but clearly he is still concerned with Bolas and he leaves to find the Gatewatch (meaning that he might show up in Dominaria), so why not take Vraska and/or the Immortal Sun with him instead of delivering them both to Bolas? The way it's described makes it sound like Jace will eventually find Vraska and give her back her memories of him, turning her into an ally again, quite possibly in Ravnica 3. But from Bolas's perspective, is their any reason not to just do what he did to Sarkhan and Tezzeret? He clearly has the power to do so, and it's much safer for him than letting his agents have their own free will. He already read Vraska's mind before she went to Ixalan and saw that she intended to betray him, so he probably should have done it then to be honest. There's just no way that what Jace is doing is a good idea. At all. Since he's the protagonist I'm sure it will actually end up paying off, since it will give him a future double agent working for Bolas when he needs it, but logically it really shouldn't work out for him, and it's a bad call any way you look at it.
This is just my gut reaction to everything and of course I will have to withhold judgement to some extent until we see things actually play out in the story. But I really feel like this is not a good way to end the story, and unless they have a damn good explanation that didn't make it into the art book, it leaves a lot of plot holes. Ravnica 3 should be able to redeem things somewhat even if this block's ending is little nonsensical. Hopefully there we will get to see Jace restore Vraska's memories that were specifically "sealed away" rather than destroyed. I don't know why Bolas wouldn't be able to see them in that case since he has been shown to be a much more powerful telepath than Jace, but I guess that the protagonists need to get a win somehow. Hopefully then we'll get the payoff for Vraska's character development and relationship with Jace. Ravnica 3 should also involve Azor, assuming that he gets his spark back, which I am confident that he will. I also hope to see him take over the role of Guildpact from Jace, since clearly Jace is completely incompetent and rarely even present on the plane. It's obvious that Jace being tied down to one plane does not mesh well with plane-hopping superhero story that creative is trying to tell, and Azor gives them a very convenient out. I would be appalled if they weren't planning to do this since they first decided to have Azor be involved on Ixalan.
MaRo has already said that the more recent mechanical implementation of Slivers is what we should expect going forward.
I'm not a fan of any tribal card that benefit only the controllers, it's a lazy design like Hexproof instead of Shroud, or recent design of black moving away from severe risk.
It's not lazy design. Lazy design does exist, but this isn't it. The new and old templates for slivers are functionally identical 95% of the time or more, except in sliver-heavy limited environments. "Slivers you control have flying" is no lazier than "all slivers you control have flying". This is a templating issue, not a design one.
Essentially it's attempting to cater to newer players by making things more intuitive (and arguably less complex). The change in the sliver template and the change from shroud to hexproof are alike in that way, so your comparison was perfect. Players, especially new players, assumed that shroud wouldn't stop their own positive spells from targeting their creatures. Similarly, they assumed that their tribal lords wouldn't help their opponents' creatures. (Keep in mind that it wasn't just slivers that used to be that way; all tribes had the template change but it was most jarring for slivers because the change happened so much later for them). In both cases, the change just made the cards function the way many people originally assumed they would. If it's not blatantly either a group hug/political card or a card with a clear drawback like most demons, newer player expect their cards to help them and not their opponents. You can understand how fighting against that instinct might be more trouble than it's worth.
Don't get me wrong; I'm not totally against the sliver templating change. It bothers me that different slivers are worded in different ways and I wouldn't have minded it the old version staying just by the virtue of being grandfathered in. I could also understand the appeal of how the old wording creates difficult choices in sliver mirror matches, both constructed and limited, which can create interesting gameplay. But like shroud was before hexproof, the old wording is not particularly good for new players. In a game that has a high barrier of entry and a lot of complexity already, it's probably for the best.
I get it. Seeing new players take priority kind of sucks when you're more experienced and those things aren't confusing at all for you. But while experienced players do spend more time and money on the game, it's important to keep new players coming in as well. There needs to be a balance. It requires some compromises.
There are times when I will take a stand against their attempts to reduce complexity. I disagree with Maro's belief that every set between Origins and Ixalan was too complex, and I felt that the decresed complexity on Ixalan was to the detriment of the overall set. But with things like hexproof versus shroud and the wording on slivers, it's on a much smaller scale. There are pros and cons to both sides but it's a relatively minor change that will save new players some headaches, and if that's the sacrifice we need to make for more complexity in other areas, so be it.
So either:
A. We haven't seen the last of Azor in the story for this set or
B. It was just an oversight by the creators.
The latter seems likely, since as we know they've had some serious issues lately as far as lining up the story between different mediums (cards, story articles, fat pack summaries, art books, etc.), especially when they change things at the last minute. But I really, REALLY hope it's the former instead. Partly because the sloppiness of showing a story moment on a card that never even happened in the actual story is irritating for those who read the story and misleading for those who don't, but also because Azor's appearance so far leaves a lot to be desired.
It's not the actions that are hypocritical, it's the justification. Jace criticizes Azor for abandoning Ravnica to its own devices so that he could go and meddle in the affairs of various other planes. He says this after we have just watched Jace abandon Ravnica to its own devices so that he can go and meddle in the affairs of various other planes. Why is it only wrong when Azor does it?
Just to be clear, I don't have an issue with this logic. It's some of the other accusations that are hypocritical. It's extremely ironic that Jace is upset at someone for doing the exact same things he's been doing, except on a larger scale. Maybe that's the entire point, and this experience will make Jace realize the error of his ways and try harder to not be like Azor. Or maybe it's selectively forgetful writing to establish a clear protagonist and antagonist despite the similarities between them. We'll see if they can justify it in the next story.
If Jace can get Azor to do whatever he wants, which seems to be the case, then why wouldn't he make more use of that? Sure, he doesn't necessarily need to, but he certainly could have if he wanted to. Assuming that Azor getting his spark back is not possible, he could have at the very least given Azor instructions that would have been beneficial to the inhabitants of the plane - for instance, not meddling with the factions any further and acting exclusively to protect the plane from external threats.
And if it is possible for Azor to get his spark back, Jace could get even more use out of him. Granted, there's no way for Jace to know if retrieving the spark is possible (unless he found out from Azor's memories), but what it really comes down to is whether the writers want Azor to be a planeswalker again or not. There are several reasons why having Azor be a planeswalker would be beneficial - namely, the popular demand for a sphinx planeswalker, the necessity of explaining why Jace would let Bolas have the Immortal Sun, and the potential benefits of getting Jace out of his job as Guildpact - so I think that there is still a possibility they could choose to take the story that direction.
But why banish him when you have complete control over him and can make him do something that's actually beneficial to the plane? Or when you can (assuming that it's possible) give him back his spark and have him take over your job that you can't/won't do?
Jace is guilty of much of same "oldwalker BS" that Azor is. He's meddled in plenty of planes and failed to pay any attention to the consequences of his actions. So far Jace has:
So while someone should call out Azor for what he's done, someone should call out Jace for all the stuff he's done as well.
These are all good points. You're absolutely right that the retcons are probably the reason for the majority of the plot holes, and your explanation could easily account for most of it. I just wish that we could get some sort of acknowledgement from the writers of the past storylines rather than acting like it all lines up in a perfect and obvious way, because it most certainly doesn't.
Good stuff:
Speculation:
Well, looking at the art of Azor, the Lawbringer and Sanctum of the Sphinx, the Immortal Sun is clearly on the ceiling, but Kumena describes it as being on the floor. That means that Azor's Sanctum is directly underneath the upper temple that Kumena was operating from. So it would make a lot of sense for Azor to be the voice. He could actually be just shouting at Kumena, no telepathic magic required.
Rule #1 of storylines like this one: No one is dead unless you see the body. Within the last year or so they've already pulled this exact same stunt with Pia Nalaar, Jaya Ballard, and Vona. Kumena will be back. If he was actually dead, they would have made sure that we all know it. If there's even a shadow of a doubt about a character's fate, it means that the writers want to have the ability to bring that character back when they see fit.
That would make a lot of sense. I was already expecting Vraska to be hostile towards Azor given her experience with his guild, but I thought that Jace would have to mediate between them. But the way that Azor was introduced in this story makes it seem like Jace is also going to be hostile towards Azor, at least at first. And the fact that they finally pointed out the connection between Jace's symbol and Alhammaret's collar can't be a coincidence either. There is almost definitely some sort of connection between Azor and Alhammaret, a connection that we will learn once we finally see Azor and Jace have a conservation. Maybe Azor and Alhammaret knew each other in the past like you said, or maybe Azor doesn't know him personally but is rather the progenitor of all sphinxes on Vryn. It would explain why Azor and Alhammaret have faces that are noticeably more humanlike than any other sphinxes we've seen. Alhammaret would have to be around for several centuries to have known Azor before the latter trapped himself on Ixalan, and we don't know if that's possible since we don't know the lifespan of sphinxes. But Alhammaret and all other sphinxes on Vryn being descendants of Azor could easily fit with the timeline and what we know about Azor.
I have a feeling that Azor will take his spark back out of it and leave the plane before Tezzeret takes it. One because it would be awful storytelling to hype up Azor such in such a way only to leave him on Ixalan, two because Jace will probably tell him about the terrible job he's been doing as guildpact and Azor will want to go to Ravnica to fix it, and three because it would be weird for Tezzeret to take the Immortal Sun with its ultra-powerful sphinx guardian in the same room.
There is some necromancy on Ixalan, just not as much as somewhere like Innistrad. Grim Captain's Call and March of the Drowned for instance.
The way I see it, there are two possibilities: either the Grim Captain is the a literal pirate captain who uses necromancy (presumably the human in the art of Grim Captain's Call) or it's just a euphemism for death on Ixalan, similar to the Grim Reaper. The former would make sense for a legendary creature; the latter would not. But even if the Grim Captain is an actual person, we won't be seeing a legendary creature card in this set, on account of all the rare and mythic spots being spoken for. However, it could be a possibility for a future Commander set or Return to Ixalan, especially since I've been seeing a lot of people saying that they want to see such a card (and the fact that pirates are in desperate need of a better Commander).
I think that he'll get it back at the end of this set's story, though it may be something that is shown only in the actual stories themselves and not on the cards. I have a feeling that he would have gotten a planeswalker card in this set if not for external reasons, which is why had him arbitrarily lose his spark offscreen only to regain it. A GW walker did work better for color balance here than a WU one would, and if Ravnica is going to be the setting for the next fall and winter sets (which it very likely will), then they might have done this too avoid putting two WU walkers to close to each other. It's especially relevant if the Azorius appears in the first set rather than the second, since that would be only three sets away from Rivals. Vraska's PW card at least came one set earlier than Azor's hypothetically would have, and her next appearance might be one set later, depending on how they distribute the guilds between two sets this time around. A four or five set gap between planeswalkers of the same color identity is pretty normal, but three sets is definitely not optimal.
So here's what I'm predicting: Jace and Vraska find Azor. They tell Azor about how the original Guildpact was broken, how Jace became the the Living Guildpact, and how he's been doing an absolutely awful job. Azor takes his own spark out of the Immortal Sun and planeswalks away to Ravnica to clean up Jace's mess. Then Jace wipes Vraska's mind at her request and leaves. Vraska calls in Tezzeret, who is now able to take the Immortal Sun easily with Azor gone. Vraska goes to Bolas's meditation plane to claim her reward. Jace most likely goes to Dominaria since he now remembers that being where he is supposed to meet the Gatewatch. At the same time, Angrath and Huatli realize that the barrier is down. Angrath returns home immediately, while Huatli has to decide if she wants to continue serving the Sun Empire or leave Ixalan to explore the multiverse.
The Dominaria story will focus on at least some of the Gatewatch reuniting (probably Jace, Liliana, and Ajani, but possibly others as well) and also recruiting new members like Karn. After Dominaria and the core set, we'll return to Ravnica for two sets. Azor takes over as Living Guildpact (or, alternatively, gets rid of the position entirely and rewrites the Guildpact so that it is once again a document rather than an actual person). Vraska takes leadership of the Golgari, and will most likely have an encounter with Jace in which her memories that were "sealed away" are restored (possibly resulting in her taking an oath). Ral Zarek continues working on behalf of Bolas and will likely be the main antagonist. I don't think Dominaria or Ravnica will be the sets where Bolas uses the planar portal/eternal army/Immortal Sun for a full-scale invasion. It's too soon after Amonkhet, and there's a lot of other things going on in those sets - both mechanically and in the story - that there wouldn't be room for if everything was focused on another apocalypse caused by Bolas and his eternals.
Yeah, theory has been shot down. This means no allied color DFC enchantments either. Evidently we'll be getting WU and BG uncommons in place of two of them, with Jungle Creeper being already spoiled and the WU one still unrevealed. Protean Raider was also spoiled today, so the one remaining multicolor card will likely be a rare dinosaur (similar to how Regisaur Alpha mirrored Hostage Taker in Ixalan).
So:
Here's what we consider as good as confirmed so far:
That's 18 cards. 23 minus 18 leaves 5 more unaccounted for. Previously, I was wondering if there might ally-colored DFC enchantments in addition to enemy ones. But we also need to have Azor in there someone, since he's obviously WU. So what if... Azor is part of the DFC cycle?
Think about it. We get 9 regular DFC enchantments at rare: one for every color pair except WU. The WU member of the cycle, however, is mythic rare, and instead of flipping from an enchantment to a land, it flips from a legendary creature to a planeswalker.
It would be an exception to all Ixalan DFCs being all lands on the back, but Ulrich was a similar exception to all Eldritch Moon DFCs being eldrazi on the back. It also contradicts Maro's statement that Rivals has two planeswalkers, but Maro is known to say things that are only true by technicality, and for the purposes of counting the number of cards of a certain type/color/rarity, usually only the front sides of DFCs are counted. By that logic, Ixalan has two planeswalkers and 9 legendary creatures (one which just happens to be a planeswalker on the back).
This is by no means a guarantee, and there are other cards that could account for the missing spots, but I think that this would explain a lot - why there are so many multicolored cards in this set, why Huatli was allowed to be the second planeswalker despite Azor being on the plane as well, why Azor losing his spark was included in the story, and why Azor was even included in the story in the first place (if he's not able to go to Ravnica, then what would even be the point of introducing him?)...
So if I'm correct, the multicolored cards will end up being:
This will probably get either confirmed or disproven very soon, but I wanted to get it out here before that happens. Thoughts, anyone?
I don't hate the card, and I kind of want to build around it, but it is a bit underwhelming. I feel like a lot of this set's mythics feel like rares. But then again, a lot of rares feel like mythics (elder dinos in particular). Technically having the rares at mythic and the mythics at rare just lets us get the better cards more often, so I guess it's a good thing.
It's unfortunate that its last ability doesn't work well in Commander, because that's where it should shine the most. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that in order to get the death trigger in an EDH game you have to let her go to the graveyard rather than the command zone to get the death trigger. Putting her back in the command zone is a replacement effect, so if you do so, she isn't put into a graveyard from the battlefield (which is the definition of dying). It doesn't make her unplayable in EDH or anything, but throwing in a lot of recursion effects just to be able to use her last ability more than once is an inconvenience, plus I'm sure that it will confuse a fair number of less experienced EDH players and lead to disappointment when they're corrected.
They could have fixed it easily by having the ability trigger whenever Elenda leaves the battlefield instead of when she dies. It would have made her marginally more powerful, but I don't think the card is anywhere close to being too powerful as it is. It would have opened up blinking shenanigans as well, but the counters would fall off and she would only return as a 1/1, so it would be good but not broken. I don't know, I think it's a fun card, but the functionality leaves something to be desired.
Granted, we just had a block about how a political leader from one plane planeswalked completely at random to a plane that happened to have his nemesis on it, then almost immediately runs into nemesis from the same plane he's a political leader one, and this plane also happens to be where the founder of the government he's in control of is trapped on. That's an insane series of coincidences. Magic's story is built on coincidences. With focus on a handful of planeswalkers in an infinite number of planes, it has to be. The Ixalan story relied on coincidence but was told in such a way that it felt at least somewhat natural, and much of it was explained decently rather than happening completely by chance. Samut and Hazoret both being planeswalkers (or Samut and Djeru, as I've seen other people suggest) would just feel to forced in my opinion. I think as a general rule, it's best to avoid people who knew each other before either became a planeswalker both becoming planeswalkers later on. We never see two planebound friends both igniting, it's always one igniting (and then, if they're lucky, befriending other planeswalkers, often from other planes). I feel like your proposal violates that unspoken rule. It's almost offensively coincidental.
The other issue that Samut creates for Hazoret as a theoretical planeswalker is that both have the same story role. If we never return to Amonkhet, it does make a lot of sense to have a planeswalker carry on its legacy, much like Tamiyo for Kamigawa. But Samut does that just fine. We don't need a Hazoret planeswalker. Don't get me wrong, I would have much rather seen Hazoret fill that role than Samut, because I think that a fallen god would have been a much more interesting character than yet another human with a superpower, but as long as Samut exists, Hazoret doesn't seem practical.
Samut reminds us that Amonkhet still exists in the same way that Hazoret would. She has the same backstory to motivate her to fight Bolas. She would bring more or less the same set of skills (speed, strength, fighting prowess, and the ability to inspire others) to the Gatewatch. Their personalities might differ (at least Hazoret has a personality), but the whole fish-out-of-water comic relief thing that Hazoret would bring to the table is already present thanks to Nissa, and to a lesser extent, Ajani. Wanting more non-human planeswalkers is a valid concern (and one that I have voiced my opinion on in the past) but there are many other non-human planeswalkers that could also diversify the Gatewatch (and give us more fish-out-of-water humor like Nissa and Ajani; if we even need any more of that, because personally I think they've had every chance at it already with Nissa and have yet to do it particularly well).
So basically, if Samut wasn't a planeswalker, I'd say go for it. But because she exists, I don't think Hazoret as a planeswalker would be very practical. I think that she's mainly a seed for a return block on Amonkhet if they decide to even make one (which will depend on multiple factors, including the perceived audience response to the first block and where the story goes). I could see Hazoret playing a very major role if/when we do return, but I don't think that introducing her as a planeswalker would be the right move even then.
My guesses mainly come from the images from the Ixalan art book (https://imgur.com/gallery/kizSI). The (presumably) blue one is the sea monster-like one and the (presumably) white one has wings. Since the black and green members of the cycle seem to indicate that each would have a single evergreen keyword, I think that flying is a safe bet for white.
Blue doesn't have access to many evergreen keywords so I tried to figure out its keyword by process of elimination. It isn't flying because the white one has flying and the blue one clearly doesn't fly in its art. Prowess is an option for blue but would be pretty lame on a large creature (the same can be said for Tetzimoc's deathtouch, but prowess even more so). That pretty much leaves hexproof and flash, and hexproof shows up much more frequently on large sea creatures than flash. But as you said, unblockable is also a possibility, and it wouldn't be the first time that unblockable was used as a replacement for an evergreen keyword in a cycle (Azorius Herald, Dimir Keyrune).
It's difficult to guess what the non-keyword abilities will be for the other members of the cycle. The static cost reduction on the green one and the activated ability on the black one have little in common, except that both affect the card while it's in your hand, but not while it's on the battlefield. It's possible that the other three (or four, depending on whether or not the multicolored one breaks form) might also have abilities that function in your hand, or at least in a zone other than the battlefield. Or they might not. We'll find out in a few days.
There could be others (note the lack of pirates), but these are as good as confirmed since their full card names appear in the art book.
There isn't much in terms of lore. Kumena is a merfolk who searched for the golden city of Orazca (the merfolk are supposed to protect from everyone, including themselves, but Kumena went rogue). Evidently he found it, causing the city to rise out of the ground and the six elder dinosaurs to be released.
Elendra was a human on Torrezon (another continent on the plane where the vampires and pirates come from). She went to Ixalan centuries ago and became the first to receive the "blessing" of vampirism, likely from the bat god Aclazotz (Temple of Aclazotz). She returned to Torrezon and taught other humans how to become vampires. Later, the Immortal Sun was stolen from Torrezon and taken to Ixalan. She went back to Ixalan in search of it and is evidently still alive there.
This whole story synopsis raises more questions than it answers. Why would Azor even want to create the barrier keeping planeswalkers out of Ixalan? Does Azor end up getting his spark back from the Immortal Sun? Why would Azor allow Tezzeret to take the Immortal Sun while Azor is in the city guarding it? How does Vraska first react to meeting Azor, given her hatred of the Azorius? Why does Jace erase Vraska's memories rather than just tell her not to go back to Bolas and not to call Tezzeret? What are Jace and Azor doing when Tezzeret shows up, and why don't they try to stop him? Why wouldn't Bolas just do the same thing to Vraska that he did to Sarkhan and Tezzeret, completely taking over her mind, just to be safe? He really has no reason not to at this point. Also, what about all the other characters? How does Angrath and Huatli's alliance work out for them? When the Immortal Sun leaves the plane it will presumably let planeswalkers leave, and I assume that Angrath will go home, but what about Huatli? Does she go with Angrath, or to Kaladesh, or does she pull a Narset and stay on her home plane for the time being?
Some of these are just details that were left out of the art book summary but others seem like outright plot holes. Since art books are written before the actual story and tend to be an early blueprint of the story and not 100% accurate, hopefully the actual story will clear things up, but I still think that Jace allowing Vraska to summon Tezzeret and go back to Bolas doesn't make very much sense at all. It would be one thing if his whole ordeal on Ixalan made him decide to abandon the Gatewatch and not care about fighting Bolas anymore, but clearly he is still concerned with Bolas and he leaves to find the Gatewatch (meaning that he might show up in Dominaria), so why not take Vraska and/or the Immortal Sun with him instead of delivering them both to Bolas? The way it's described makes it sound like Jace will eventually find Vraska and give her back her memories of him, turning her into an ally again, quite possibly in Ravnica 3. But from Bolas's perspective, is their any reason not to just do what he did to Sarkhan and Tezzeret? He clearly has the power to do so, and it's much safer for him than letting his agents have their own free will. He already read Vraska's mind before she went to Ixalan and saw that she intended to betray him, so he probably should have done it then to be honest. There's just no way that what Jace is doing is a good idea. At all. Since he's the protagonist I'm sure it will actually end up paying off, since it will give him a future double agent working for Bolas when he needs it, but logically it really shouldn't work out for him, and it's a bad call any way you look at it.
This is just my gut reaction to everything and of course I will have to withhold judgement to some extent until we see things actually play out in the story. But I really feel like this is not a good way to end the story, and unless they have a damn good explanation that didn't make it into the art book, it leaves a lot of plot holes. Ravnica 3 should be able to redeem things somewhat even if this block's ending is little nonsensical. Hopefully there we will get to see Jace restore Vraska's memories that were specifically "sealed away" rather than destroyed. I don't know why Bolas wouldn't be able to see them in that case since he has been shown to be a much more powerful telepath than Jace, but I guess that the protagonists need to get a win somehow. Hopefully then we'll get the payoff for Vraska's character development and relationship with Jace. Ravnica 3 should also involve Azor, assuming that he gets his spark back, which I am confident that he will. I also hope to see him take over the role of Guildpact from Jace, since clearly Jace is completely incompetent and rarely even present on the plane. It's obvious that Jace being tied down to one plane does not mesh well with plane-hopping superhero story that creative is trying to tell, and Azor gives them a very convenient out. I would be appalled if they weren't planning to do this since they first decided to have Azor be involved on Ixalan.
It's not lazy design. Lazy design does exist, but this isn't it. The new and old templates for slivers are functionally identical 95% of the time or more, except in sliver-heavy limited environments. "Slivers you control have flying" is no lazier than "all slivers you control have flying". This is a templating issue, not a design one.
Essentially it's attempting to cater to newer players by making things more intuitive (and arguably less complex). The change in the sliver template and the change from shroud to hexproof are alike in that way, so your comparison was perfect. Players, especially new players, assumed that shroud wouldn't stop their own positive spells from targeting their creatures. Similarly, they assumed that their tribal lords wouldn't help their opponents' creatures. (Keep in mind that it wasn't just slivers that used to be that way; all tribes had the template change but it was most jarring for slivers because the change happened so much later for them). In both cases, the change just made the cards function the way many people originally assumed they would. If it's not blatantly either a group hug/political card or a card with a clear drawback like most demons, newer player expect their cards to help them and not their opponents. You can understand how fighting against that instinct might be more trouble than it's worth.
Don't get me wrong; I'm not totally against the sliver templating change. It bothers me that different slivers are worded in different ways and I wouldn't have minded it the old version staying just by the virtue of being grandfathered in. I could also understand the appeal of how the old wording creates difficult choices in sliver mirror matches, both constructed and limited, which can create interesting gameplay. But like shroud was before hexproof, the old wording is not particularly good for new players. In a game that has a high barrier of entry and a lot of complexity already, it's probably for the best.
I get it. Seeing new players take priority kind of sucks when you're more experienced and those things aren't confusing at all for you. But while experienced players do spend more time and money on the game, it's important to keep new players coming in as well. There needs to be a balance. It requires some compromises.
There are times when I will take a stand against their attempts to reduce complexity. I disagree with Maro's belief that every set between Origins and Ixalan was too complex, and I felt that the decresed complexity on Ixalan was to the detriment of the overall set. But with things like hexproof versus shroud and the wording on slivers, it's on a much smaller scale. There are pros and cons to both sides but it's a relatively minor change that will save new players some headaches, and if that's the sacrifice we need to make for more complexity in other areas, so be it.