The Narset love in here is real, she's honestly not that impressive to me.
She's very similar to Thassa, god of the sea except slightly worse most of the time. Let me explain how I see her;
Firstly, Costs 1 more (including adding a color).
Thassa always has scry 1 <> Narset lets you gamble on drawing what's on top. Keep in mind Narset has no control over what card you will draw, if you are to draw something you don't want you will still be drawing that card. And not that you should, but if you play this in a non-control deck you will have to cator most every card to her needs. If you were to pay mana for this ability it would he grossly overcosted (Peer through Depths). Just play an Omenspeaker or Augur of Bolas, they block better too.
Thassa has '1U: Target creature is unblockable' <> Narset has 'give next inst/sorc rebound' While these aren't as comparable as the first abilities, there is a clear distinction between which is more useful. If it isn't clear how Narset's second ability will play out, look back to similar cards like Chandra, the firebrand, whose similar effect was lackluster at best but initially saw praise. Yes i'm aware that rebound is better than instant copy in some cases, no this doesn't change my prediction for her usefulness.
Thassa: 5 devotion to Blue - Indestructible 5/5 <> Narset: Wait to Turn 8, having been unattacked, and only using the +1 'pseudoscry' - opponent can only cast creatures I don't see how Narset's ability could win you more games. Yes this will (in theory) kill a control player, but you're basically sacrificing her usefulness in order to do so.
Thassa: Indestructible, Enchantment, sometimes creature <> Narset: high (6) loyalty, Planeswalker, no other defenses. Mono-god hate is less common in the meta than planeswalker killers, IIRC.
Some of this is the little bolas inside of me, sour over his egregious omission, but I won't be buying a playset, i'll put it that way.
I highly doubt Bolas appears. We just saw a huge battle between Bolas and Ugin. We don't need a Duel Deck to tell us the story again. What would the themes be? Dragon vs Dragon because they both were controlling them or God vs God because that is what they were pre-mending?
Yes you and I have read the uncharted realms I'm sure, and yes we saw a glimpse in Crux of fate, but there's still story to be told to the general audience. There are others who have explained options for what their decks could be, but it wouldn't be hard given that they're fairly well defined characters at this point.
Bolas should be at least one of the DTK walkers, fellas;
Duel decks - later this year they'll need two walkers pitted against each-other for their DD release. Sarkhan v Sorin v Ugin in any combination doesn't make a ton of sense, but Bolas would fit rather well. Keep in mind that, so far, the only planeswalker fight in the current story-line of Tarkir is Ugin vs Bolas.
Character continuity - Yes, Tezzeret and Ramaz are slaves of bolas, but do you really think they'd bring in entirely uninvolved characters that have had no mention, over Bolas in this situation? I do not. At first I thought ramaz might have a chance strictly with being Temur, but why bring in someone with almost no backstory in such a pivotal time. Same for Tezzeret, they'd have to explain how he left phyrexia and what happened there to some degree, as well as explain why Bolas would want an artificer to go to an uncivilized, unadvanced world to do his dirty work in the first place, and against a comparable elder-dragon no less.
Name of set - Set is called Dragons of Tarkir. They should have a dragon we remember. (loosest speculation)
Interestingly, though, we'd still need Planeswalkers for Blue, Green, and to a small degree Black/White, which suggests that maybe Grixis Bolas isn't the most fitting for the remaining planeswalker. There's also the question of whether we will see two planeswalkers in DTK or one. Mirrodin, in comparison, nixed the green in favor of Karn, I wonder if they will do something similar.
There is no "new" Sarkhan, he was never born.
Old Sarkhan was transported back to where he begun his time travel
Cite this please, last uncharted realms leaves him flaking into dust and us clueless, as far as i'm aware. I do agree with you that Bolas is a very likely DTK walker, though.
His blue lock of hair is almost certainly a 'ghostblue' like Ugin's color.
Here's a direct comparison between the higher resolution image of the pin that was posted in today's Arcana and Sarkhan from the KTK trailer in the moment just before he says "I was never born at all". There are indeed many similarities in my opinion.
I'm sure that the KTK trailer sarkhan is the post FRF sarkhan, the one we might see in DTK. Evidence being that Ugin's hedron is on Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker but no longer on his staff in the KTK 'never born' trailer. Sarkhan lost the hedron in the act of healing Ugin, and so these pictures depict sarkhan afterward.
What colors will (new) Sarkhan be? Well, If you look at the new pin or the 'never born' trailer sarkhan, his shoulders are now, quite literally, dragonscale. Dragonscale Boon and other scale-granting cards are green, and the pin shown today also makes them seem very green in tint. In addition, Sarkhan v1 was RG and doing fine, while Sarkhan the mad (haunted by bolas) was RB. With Sarkhan being UN-Mad, I'd doubt he'd be back to black (a bolas influence), and instead fully predict his RG status. DTK currently needs a Blue planeswalker and a green one. If they're fine with giving both white and black a *****ty sorin, we can assume they would let the Green planeswalker of the set be a dual as well.
Blue walker? Everyone (but me) loves the idea of Narset, and while it seems most likely due to fan following, there are others in the running that shouldn't be counted out. Ramaz (DotP) was a big prediction for this plane when it was first shown (very much a Temur vibe), Taigam (Taigam's scheming) was depicted as a mysterious up-and-comer of the sultai in Khans, and if you get deep in your lore you'll read about a temur shaman with a lot of involvement with sarkhan named Chianul. Any one of these could be our blue walker.
One of the posters here totally called it re: the expansion symbol being a twist on the KTK symbol-
like, back when we first got the Khans symbol.
That's pretty impressive!
Thanks!
Edit: Ugin is in Fate Reforged (almost) for sure, he was the first picture we got, and my thinking is, when do you not get that card in the set? The question is if Bolas gets one in FRF or DTK. The Crux of fate card (spoiled FRF) has me optimistic.
I don't see an actual reason to suspect the swords are coming. They wouldn't fit with flavor (swords are a Mirrodin thing) and it's much too soon to see that cycle back in play. I honestly didn't enjoy the metagame when they were around; when everyone wants to play the same legendary swords the flavor suffers.
That's not to say that important artifacts won't play a role on Tarkir. There was a small artifact theme in M15 limited, and while Kurkesh, Onnake Ancient is from shandalar and The Chain Veil is flavor-y, I don't think they would have been printed like that without an ability to interact (more) effectively at some point.
Posted this deep in the khans post, but DOE see a dragon in the Khans symbol?? I did a (edit: *****ty) mock-up to illustrate the point, someone tell me i'm not crazy.
In that article after it shows Thousand Winds, it says that Jeskai "uses the ancient dragon magic of morph to hide their true form."
Does that mean the dragons of tarkir are already there, morphed? Seems to be what that sentence is alluding to, but time will tell.
ALSO does anyone else see how the khans symbol (shield with swords) is easily transformed into a dragon head? (Sword handles are horns, shield is head). I did a mock-up just for reference.
Was wrong about sarkhan colors (But really, why add blue?).
Stoked for Zendikar. Jace, the Mind Sculptor reprint plz
She's very similar to Thassa, god of the sea except slightly worse most of the time. Let me explain how I see her;
Firstly, Costs 1 more (including adding a color).
Thassa always has scry 1 <> Narset lets you gamble on drawing what's on top. Keep in mind Narset has no control over what card you will draw, if you are to draw something you don't want you will still be drawing that card. And not that you should, but if you play this in a non-control deck you will have to cator most every card to her needs. If you were to pay mana for this ability it would he grossly overcosted (Peer through Depths). Just play an Omenspeaker or Augur of Bolas, they block better too.
Thassa has '1U: Target creature is unblockable' <> Narset has 'give next inst/sorc rebound' While these aren't as comparable as the first abilities, there is a clear distinction between which is more useful. If it isn't clear how Narset's second ability will play out, look back to similar cards like Chandra, the firebrand, whose similar effect was lackluster at best but initially saw praise. Yes i'm aware that rebound is better than instant copy in some cases, no this doesn't change my prediction for her usefulness.
Thassa: 5 devotion to Blue - Indestructible 5/5 <> Narset: Wait to Turn 8, having been unattacked, and only using the +1 'pseudoscry' - opponent can only cast creatures I don't see how Narset's ability could win you more games. Yes this will (in theory) kill a control player, but you're basically sacrificing her usefulness in order to do so.
Thassa: Indestructible, Enchantment, sometimes creature <> Narset: high (6) loyalty, Planeswalker, no other defenses. Mono-god hate is less common in the meta than planeswalker killers, IIRC.
Some of this is the little bolas inside of me, sour over his egregious omission, but I won't be buying a playset, i'll put it that way.
Yes you and I have read the uncharted realms I'm sure, and yes we saw a glimpse in Crux of fate, but there's still story to be told to the general audience. There are others who have explained options for what their decks could be, but it wouldn't be hard given that they're fairly well defined characters at this point.
Duel decks - later this year they'll need two walkers pitted against each-other for their DD release. Sarkhan v Sorin v Ugin in any combination doesn't make a ton of sense, but Bolas would fit rather well. Keep in mind that, so far, the only planeswalker fight in the current story-line of Tarkir is Ugin vs Bolas.
Character continuity - Yes, Tezzeret and Ramaz are slaves of bolas, but do you really think they'd bring in entirely uninvolved characters that have had no mention, over Bolas in this situation? I do not. At first I thought ramaz might have a chance strictly with being Temur, but why bring in someone with almost no backstory in such a pivotal time. Same for Tezzeret, they'd have to explain how he left phyrexia and what happened there to some degree, as well as explain why Bolas would want an artificer to go to an uncivilized, unadvanced world to do his dirty work in the first place, and against a comparable elder-dragon no less.
Name of set - Set is called Dragons of Tarkir. They should have a dragon we remember. (loosest speculation)
Interestingly, though, we'd still need Planeswalkers for Blue, Green, and to a small degree Black/White, which suggests that maybe Grixis Bolas isn't the most fitting for the remaining planeswalker. There's also the question of whether we will see two planeswalkers in DTK or one. Mirrodin, in comparison, nixed the green in favor of Karn, I wonder if they will do something similar.
You bring up some good points, thank you for clearing that up.
Cite this please, last uncharted realms leaves him flaking into dust and us clueless, as far as i'm aware. I do agree with you that Bolas is a very likely DTK walker, though.
What colors will (new) Sarkhan be? Well, If you look at the new pin or the 'never born' trailer sarkhan, his shoulders are now, quite literally, dragonscale. Dragonscale Boon and other scale-granting cards are green, and the pin shown today also makes them seem very green in tint. In addition, Sarkhan v1 was RG and doing fine, while Sarkhan the mad (haunted by bolas) was RB. With Sarkhan being UN-Mad, I'd doubt he'd be back to black (a bolas influence), and instead fully predict his RG status. DTK currently needs a Blue planeswalker and a green one. If they're fine with giving both white and black a *****ty sorin, we can assume they would let the Green planeswalker of the set be a dual as well.
Blue walker? Everyone (but me) loves the idea of Narset, and while it seems most likely due to fan following, there are others in the running that shouldn't be counted out. Ramaz (DotP) was a big prediction for this plane when it was first shown (very much a Temur vibe), Taigam (Taigam's scheming) was depicted as a mysterious up-and-comer of the sultai in Khans, and if you get deep in your lore you'll read about a temur shaman with a lot of involvement with sarkhan named Chianul. Any one of these could be our blue walker.
Thanks!
Edit: Ugin is in Fate Reforged (almost) for sure, he was the first picture we got, and my thinking is, when do you not get that card in the set? The question is if Bolas gets one in FRF or DTK. The Crux of fate card (spoiled FRF) has me optimistic.
In the article, after it shows Thousand Winds, it says that Jeskai "uses the ancient dragon magic of morph to hide their true form."
Does that mean the dragons of tarkir are already there, morphed?
That's not to say that important artifacts won't play a role on Tarkir. There was a small artifact theme in M15 limited, and while Kurkesh, Onnake Ancient is from shandalar and The Chain Veil is flavor-y, I don't think they would have been printed like that without an ability to interact (more) effectively at some point.
In that article after it shows Thousand Winds, it says that Jeskai "uses the ancient dragon magic of morph to hide their true form."
Does that mean the dragons of tarkir are already there, morphed? Seems to be what that sentence is alluding to, but time will tell.
ALSO does anyone else see how the khans symbol (shield with swords) is easily transformed into a dragon head? (Sword handles are horns, shield is head). I did a mock-up just for reference.