I know using codenames for guessing about block themes is a bad idea.
Although Live Long and Prosper (Zendikar) refers to aliens (Eldrazi); Rock Paper and Scissors (Alara) refers to a game between three elements (shards); Lights, Camera and Action refer to preparing for a movie (the first two sets story wise were just to prepare the inevitible rebirth of Phyrexia); and Friends, Romans and Countrymen has some connection/connotation with ancient Rome/Greece ("Romans"). Huey, Dewey and Louie are about three rich nephews. The wealthy. Conspiracy. Illuminatii. The idea that there has always been a set up for a conspiracy in the multiverse involving Nicol Bolas... That being said, "Conspiracy" is a SUPER generic name for a block. So unless it was on Dominaria it wouldn't really make sense--as every other block refers to the name of the plane in the first set.
So its far more likely to be a summer set.
Perhaps the Assassin variant format is getting some love? I always felt like that was about conspiracies. Its always been one of my favorites so I certainly hope so!
I like how it refers to ragman, one of my favorite older cards.
I like that it won't be an overplayed tournament card because it means it'll surprise more people in commander and create less groans when it hits the field.
But I'm that loser freak who actually enjoys trying to build better decks with worse cards. Which is a very important target market for WotC.
Don't forget about making things unable to block. HUGE piece of the color pie there.
Its not Wizards fault that they thought the game would play more like a miniature game or like L5R with 15 minute combat steps full of tricks and shenanigans like False Orders and creature with Banding.
Because Red used to be pretty good at that too. Not as good as white, of course. But it had its moments.
Honestly I still don't understand why White is the board wipe color and not red. I guess I get the "a clean slate is a balanced and lawful field" argument...but every art for Wrath of God is just so blatantly red to me. Creatures dying left and right...even the big white ball of light. But red only gets it in the form of cards that still can't deal with Pro Red creatures...
But red also gets "random" as a theme! And coin flips! Unfortunately Wizards has decided to make coin flips "win or lose" instead of "get something decent or win big". I'd love to see a -1 that was like "Do 1 damage to target player. Flip a coin. If you get heads, do 1 damage to target creature or player."
But Chandra isn't that "random" and we got our coinflip walker in Dragon's Maze. Because for some reason adding the color of control and stasis makes things more random.
Weirds in every other Izzet set. I'm going to say yes. But that's not entirely baseless speculation, now is it?
A weird guild champion would be...kinda weird.
probably a bit too similiar to experiment kraaj though. TBH I'm almost tempted to speculate that all the guild champs will be (gasp) planeswalkers. But 10 planeswalkers in a single set is WAY too much.
I could see Raal being a planeswalker though...maybe even as a result of completing the maze.
But its sooo freaking obvious the "maze" is just the metaphorical entanglement of the plane via the feuding guilds; its a Gordian Knot. Not that it won't also be a physical location (I mean...a *lot* of physical things in Magic are metaphors so this isn't exactly anything new; but exploring the metaphors can help us come to a greater conclusion about the set, right?).
If the set is about guild cooperation against th eguildless or the guildless succeeding in their "rebellion" enough that the guilds have lost most of their identity then I also wouldn't be surprised by a "Alara Reborn" style fusion of the guilds. We've already recieved hints as to alliances, after all. i.e. A black/white imp/thrull (Orzhov-Boros) that you can pay red mana to give +1/+0… But even THAT seems too predictable for me to bet money on and the set already has a ton of firebreathing effects.
That being said, awesome mana bases have been expensive/harder to get since the first set in the game's history.
But I will agree that any card that goes in more than 2 or 3 types of decks in any given format should be common/uncommon. Rares should be things like big bombs for specific themes. But that layout won't sell boxes as well. And selling boxes means more incentive to keep printing the game. So I can't complain.
Honestly I'd wager its going to be the "Dragon's Maze" (even if not the actual card title). The idea being that the maze is Ravnica itself--its maze-like cityscape being merely a physical manifestation of its labyrinthine political landscape forged via the tremulous relationships between the guilds. Being able to navigate either would make you a master of the plane. And something I could see either Nicol Bolas (for his power hungriness) or Niv Mizzet wanting (as its the ultimate test of ones intellect to solve the puzzle). This is a very Gordian Knot sort of symbolism: the knot itself being a symbol for the difficulty one would have uniting the world through peaceful means given how many different factions want to take over the plane.
So there's two ways to solve the issue: destroying the guilds (the resolution we had in the last Ravnica block) or trying to get them to unite by solving the "gate problem" (i.e. if each guild stopped impeding one another's ability to do what the guilds were created to do each guild could flourish without the need to destroy them).
Manipulator doesn't just remove counters to steal. You can remove 0 counters to take a 0 (or less) power creature. And blue is the -X/-0 color.
That and manipulator is likely to always be able to evolve.
I'm not saying he's amazing by any stretch of the imagination. But he's not as bad as people are saying. Definately worse than Beguiler of Wills...a card that swung limited games so hard it hurt (if you could untap with her).
Maro likes to joke a lot in e-mails and the tumblr...I wouldn't take it seriously. They've discussed purple mana before--in fact, at one point it was an idea for Phyrexian mana. But its more likely they'd drop a color before adding one and I doubt they'd do that...
Although Live Long and Prosper (Zendikar) refers to aliens (Eldrazi); Rock Paper and Scissors (Alara) refers to a game between three elements (shards); Lights, Camera and Action refer to preparing for a movie (the first two sets story wise were just to prepare the inevitible rebirth of Phyrexia); and Friends, Romans and Countrymen has some connection/connotation with ancient Rome/Greece ("Romans"). Huey, Dewey and Louie are about three rich nephews. The wealthy. Conspiracy. Illuminatii. The idea that there has always been a set up for a conspiracy in the multiverse involving Nicol Bolas... That being said, "Conspiracy" is a SUPER generic name for a block. So unless it was on Dominaria it wouldn't really make sense--as every other block refers to the name of the plane in the first set.
So its far more likely to be a summer set.
Perhaps the Assassin variant format is getting some love? I always felt like that was about conspiracies. Its always been one of my favorites so I certainly hope so!
I like that it won't be an overplayed tournament card because it means it'll surprise more people in commander and create less groans when it hits the field.
But I'm that loser freak who actually enjoys trying to build better decks with worse cards. Which is a very important target market for WotC.
Its not Wizards fault that they thought the game would play more like a miniature game or like L5R with 15 minute combat steps full of tricks and shenanigans like False Orders and creature with Banding.
Because Red used to be pretty good at that too. Not as good as white, of course. But it had its moments.
Honestly I still don't understand why White is the board wipe color and not red. I guess I get the "a clean slate is a balanced and lawful field" argument...but every art for Wrath of God is just so blatantly red to me. Creatures dying left and right...even the big white ball of light. But red only gets it in the form of cards that still can't deal with Pro Red creatures...
But red also gets "random" as a theme! And coin flips! Unfortunately Wizards has decided to make coin flips "win or lose" instead of "get something decent or win big". I'd love to see a -1 that was like "Do 1 damage to target player. Flip a coin. If you get heads, do 1 damage to target creature or player."
But Chandra isn't that "random" and we got our coinflip walker in Dragon's Maze. Because for some reason adding the color of control and stasis makes things more random.
If Mythic is playable or overpowered: "Wizards promised us no tournament staple mythics! This is way too strong and is killing the game!"
A weird guild champion would be...kinda weird.
probably a bit too similiar to experiment kraaj though. TBH I'm almost tempted to speculate that all the guild champs will be (gasp) planeswalkers. But 10 planeswalkers in a single set is WAY too much.
I could see Raal being a planeswalker though...maybe even as a result of completing the maze.
But its sooo freaking obvious the "maze" is just the metaphorical entanglement of the plane via the feuding guilds; its a Gordian Knot. Not that it won't also be a physical location (I mean...a *lot* of physical things in Magic are metaphors so this isn't exactly anything new; but exploring the metaphors can help us come to a greater conclusion about the set, right?).
If the set is about guild cooperation against th eguildless or the guildless succeeding in their "rebellion" enough that the guilds have lost most of their identity then I also wouldn't be surprised by a "Alara Reborn" style fusion of the guilds. We've already recieved hints as to alliances, after all. i.e. A black/white imp/thrull (Orzhov-Boros) that you can pay red mana to give +1/+0… But even THAT seems too predictable for me to bet money on and the set already has a ton of firebreathing effects.
Guild Champs.
No Tibor and Lumia.
No Nephilim.
Nah it'll just bounce to your hand.
Don't get me wrong! I'm not saying either are too strong or impossible to deal with! They are just so common that it kinda ticks me off...
I'm super glad to see storm take a hit...
That being said, awesome mana bases have been expensive/harder to get since the first set in the game's history.
But I will agree that any card that goes in more than 2 or 3 types of decks in any given format should be common/uncommon. Rares should be things like big bombs for specific themes. But that layout won't sell boxes as well. And selling boxes means more incentive to keep printing the game. So I can't complain.
1.) Closest we have are Snow-Covered Land which, of course, are still technically basic. But they were in Ice Age and in Coldsnap.
2.) They do it for basics in blocks with two sets of basics (Lorwyn/Shadowmoor; Zendikar/Eldrazi).
So there's two ways to solve the issue: destroying the guilds (the resolution we had in the last Ravnica block) or trying to get them to unite by solving the "gate problem" (i.e. if each guild stopped impeding one another's ability to do what the guilds were created to do each guild could flourish without the need to destroy them).
That and manipulator is likely to always be able to evolve.
I'm not saying he's amazing by any stretch of the imagination. But he's not as bad as people are saying. Definately worse than Beguiler of Wills...a card that swung limited games so hard it hurt (if you could untap with her).
The paladin is really solid.