Rivals of Ixalan could also be the title for Ixalan's masterpiece series, like Amonkhet Invocations, Kaladesh Inventions, and Zendikar Expeditions.
If Rivals is the Masterpiece series, and Ixalan is like a plane for less moral 'walkers, we could get reprints of many of the villain 'walkers. Tibalt, Vraska, Garruk, etc! Good theory, but I doubt they would put that many walkers in Sealed, even as mythic mythic rare. Could just be antagonists, but pretty sure Masterpieces are supposed to be on the plane.
It's all relative, Sephon. Planes are metaphysically different from one another. That's why goblins on Kamigawa have shells and the ones on Ravnica do not. Or why the elves of Lorwyn have horns and the ones on Kaladesh do not. Or why the vedalken of Kaladesh have six fingers while those of Mirrodin tend to have more arms. And so forth and so on. Is it truly so inconceivable that one's ultimate god may be subpar to another?
It's not inconceivable, I can rationally accept the argument, it just doesn't feel right. Scaling this way is just kind of... an iffy solution to sets' power levels. If that's why things are as they are. Is this something that has been confirmed somewhere, or is it speculation? Is it something they have been very public about, or a cornerstone information?
Part of MTG design is to match player expectations and this thread is full of people, Kamigawa fans particularly, I expect, (I'm not very versed in lore, I love Kamigawa's aesthetics but I think it'd be a disservice to "real" enfranchised fans to say I'm also a Kamigawa fan) where many have expressed their dissatisfaction with this iteration of O-Kagachi.
Flavor text makes it pretty clear it's just after That Which was Taken was taken. Sort of like Green Lantern without the ring, or Batman without his suit. Still impressive, but not the same level.
1) This could be an intentional leak by wizards in order to do some viral marketing.
2) This is an unintentional leak that wizards is silently cleaning up because they don't want to bring attention to the wrong product. Case in point, where they actively attacked the leak on social media.
3) It's someone being clever and being a troll in the most professional manner possible.
I'm going with either 1 or 3, with a stronger inclination to 3 unless we see spoilers because 1 sounds too smart for wizards marketing department. Especially given how well the standard development has been going the last two years...
This actually begs the question. If a Wizards employee finds a leak, what are the protocols? I would assume report it to Wizards/Hasbro before any response is made, but with all of the social media they need to make sure the response is uniform. Since it was on twitter, and many of the employees there follow the "big" mtg streams, it's likely the default is just stand back and let it happen, and then IT steps in to track it before lawyers take the helm.
If I was a Wizards employee and tracking leaks, I would give out some "preview" cards to a few outlets. Make it especially similar to the final card, but have the art be a bit off or something. That way you know who is leaking if it's a photo. Unfortunately, this leaves distribution without a way to be tracked, but unless Wizards starts doing digital before paper releases, the stores need the cards in advance to sell on time, and there's no good way to track distribution being a leak. And then there's the issue of mock-ups! Honestly, perhaps the best thing Wizards could do is flood the airwaves with fake leaks so that nobody is garnering attention, fake leaks are no longer trusted, and the mothership is once again the best place to find verified card previews.
Sanguivore it would stillinvolve photoshopping it in on the old cards that are on the pictures. From many different angles.
True, you could use photoshop to put the image on there. But my point is that unless they're a timetraveler or psychic, we don't know the set symbol yet, So that's the mostly likely thing to confirm or deny these cards.
Unless Jace or Teferi admit they're the leakers.
These are almost certainly real, there is no way someone would have access to the art work to make all of these fakes. If they are fake someone went to a lot of trouble and for what?
While I agree that they are real based on the amount of photo shopping put the expansion symbol on old cards, and the art is not taken from anywhere else so they have to draw the cards. That is very unlikly. But asking 'If they are fake someone went to a lot of trouble and for what?' just means you do not know troll motivasion very much.
"Amount of photo shopping put the expansion symbol" ...what expansion symbol, exactly? Since that isn't one that we've seen before, and the expansion symbol hasn't been announced yet. They couldn't have just photoshopped the expansion symbol. Either they know what the expansion symbol is, and either these cards are mockups or the real deal, or when we see the expansion symbol and it's different, we know these are almost definitely fake (though could still be mock-ups).
Forgive me for not reading the entire 10 pages of thread before asking this...
... but usually any legendary creature in the deck that matches the deck's colours fully are printed in foil, correct?
So shouldn't The Ur-Dragon be foiled out in the screenshots? It doesn't look it at first glance...
But yeah... I would love these to be real. My 8yo will be begging for this deck for Christmas.
And if one of the other three is Angels, my wife will probably go "screw it, just buy all four now".
Though that has been a trend in the past, it has raised complaints and is not confirmed to be the case for this release.
I already want this in a Hardened Scales style deck. At this Point I really doubt they're fake just because of how well-done they are. But Pure numbers make it seem Pretty unlikely there would be this many rares and legendaries in a deck, making me wonder if there are either two dragon decks, or how broken the other decks would be. Has anyone been checking collector numbers yet?
Very interesting. They look too good for been fakes
Kasitora says "if the player" but O-Kagachi says "that player". Could just be another grammatical error, but I doubt they would use different wording like that on purpose, which means likely either typo or fake... even if some of these are real, it doesn't seem like they all are.
I was ok with it until the token. that art cannot be real =)
Yeah the token is one of the main reason why the authenticy of these things are in doubt. But I can't find the art anywhere else...
Also, the token is just gold, which seems weird now that they have the indicators for DFC and such. But Godsire was also gold without indicator. Still, I most frequently see 2-color tokens, not 3. Still, even if fan-made, those are some nice cards. As for the others, if true this either means all decks have dragons, or these will be harder to find than the Grixis commander deck was. So many legendaries!
I hope that one of the decks if 5 colored and comes with a Changeling commander where you name a type and give benefits for that type, or a 5 color Cryptic Gateway legendary creature with changeling. Either way, this would allow another 2-3 new commanders to go in this deck that buff neglected tribes that also didn't get a deck for themselves, and the rest of the deck can be filled with a bunch of esoteric lords and changelings with a reprint commander going to Reaper King. The estimate of 3-4 new commanders being made for this deck is based off of the fact that every year before 2016 has had 10 new commanders, but with 2016 giving more than 3 new ones each, and 2017 having four decks instead of five, I figured that they would go back to having 10 of the new cards being Commanders for the decks, with the 5 color deck getting some of the extras.
You know about Karona? She could be a reprint, but I hearily agree we should see more of the inhabitants of Velis Vel. And Amoeboid Changeling does well for or against tribal decks.
I like the idea of each deck having a class tribal + race tribal combo.
Preferably with the general being a [class+race] guy and the other two (alternative) legends in the deck being a [class] guy with Partner and a [race] guy with Partner.
As for which class+race combos that would be...no clue. I know what I'd choose in Christmassy Magic-land though: Minotaur Wizards, Rat Artificers, Frog Knights, and Troll Advisors.
I'd like it a lot if you could mix and match the decks for class or race. Like the red and white decks both have some goblin and soldier tribal, white and green both have human and elf tribal, green and red have some goblin and warrior tribal, etc.
It is set that way possible but not garateed to happen.
What does that mean?
By the for Myr, well Eldrazi is more likely than them but they would be the subtype for that deck believe it or not.
Does "they" refer to Myr or Eldrazi? Also what deck? What is the insight here that I am missing?
1) my poll is Based on probable
2) they refers to Myr being a sub type and I'm talking about one of these commander decks being colorless and Eldrazi/Myr is probably just that. Wizard said a while back (forgot the source) they would not mind at all At making a pre-built colorless commander deck, heck they maybe even want to I don't remember. This is a golden opportunity to try it because it's not color focused this time.
The poll says "possible" as in having any likelihood, no matter how low. "Probable" is a bit more objective, but at least requiring a 50% likelihood. Crabs, for instance, are possible based on numbers, but highly improbable.
A five colour "Legendary Matters" deck would be very interesting.
I've also wondered about a commander that actually cares about planeswalkers?
I'm betting on an Eldrazi deck being one of the four. As mentioned above, all pervious decks have had alternate commanders as well as reprints and have had the potential to go in a couple of different directions. I'm thinking that the Eldrazi deck will be 5 colour with a new version of Kozilek to enable devoid careds to be included, but will also include a new version of Ulamog as a colourless matters.
Most land will have tap for colour or tap for colourless.
Throw in a Emrakul reprint as the reprint commander and to round off the Trio.
Possible?
Kozilek, Devoid of Reason would be a good name for it, reminding you that devoid cards work in the deck. Maybe an ability like "Creatures you control get +1/+1 for each color they are not." So that it is a big boost to Eldrazi and most artifact creatures, but a Painter's Servant or similar would only take away some of the pump. It's not quite tribal when written that way, but it would be very good for colorless decks, despite being all 5 colors and thus allowing devoid. Maybe do it like Reaper King so you could pay the 2 instead of a color.
As for legendary matters, it would be nice to have some of the Kamigawa reprints for that.
Did you ever play Limited with Lorwyn and Morningtide? Mixed tribes can still feel tribal if there is sufficient cross-over synergy, and especially if the tribes are race + class. Also this would leave fewer tribes neglected, and encourage people to buy more cards to further specialise their deck.
I think at least 1 deck having either a secondary tribal theme or a full blown duo-tribe is a reasonable prediction.
Just about every commander deck printed so far has been trying to go in two directions. Ezuri couple years ago was about playing creatures to attack big, but Kaseto was a general that wanted you to make snakes unblockable, meaning add more snakes. Last year they made Partner, which encouraged you to mix and match commanders that often did something entirely different than the main commander. I would not be surprised if they did a Lorwyn callback to Treefolk/shaman and goblin/rogue style tribal, so the deck could be focused in either direction. But if it goes that way, we better get either Pirate or Ninja, as it's simply been too long and this would be a great opportunity.
I still expect Eldrazi (likely) or Werewolf (less likely but still unexpected enough to be likely) for at least one deck.
Oh about werewolfs
Doesn't necessary eliminate them but turns out maro confirmed wizards is trying to avoid DFC as best as possible for commander products
Marosays that there are concerns with it. I'm pretty sure there are various other sources but they aren't found as easily. This makes werewolves unexpected. Gavin says that we're getting a tribe that's unexpected. That's why I think of the unexpected tribes, werewolves and Eldrazi are top contenders. It's very possible we instead get a lesser loved tribe with a lot of fluff and changelings or something, but werewolves are at the top of the unexpected list.
You can reasonably put two tribes in a deck, especially if one is a Racial tribe and the other one is a Class tribe. This would allow for supporting two tribes in one deck.
The question is, which races and classes to mix? Zombies and Wizards are an easy choice because necromancy, and I suppose one could make a case for Elves and Archers, but classes like Warriors and Shamans aren't really tied to one particular race (to be fair, neither are Wizards to Zombies, but that at least is a relationship most fantasy fans can easily get). See, this makes me want a cycle of five decks each with two Partner legends, one for races, one for classes, that encourage mix-and-matching.
A side note about Partners real quick: One of the many things I love about Partners is that if you want to print a deck with a color combination and there isn't a good reprint legend currently available (like was the case with C16's four color decks), Partner legends can fill in and help you reach that "three options" quota. In future commander products, I would be just fine if the second new commander slot was taken by a pair of Partners, or if Partners got their own slot alongside the two new Mythics and the reprint.
Speaking of both Zombie/wizards and partner, I'm planning to build an Esper Zombie deck using Ravos and Silas Renn. I do think it would be cool and potentially more balanced for them to make mono-color partner commanders, though. A green elf/druid and a white elf/warrior, for instance. Black goblin/rogue and red goblin/soldier. White human/cleric and white human/soldier, etc. That way you can mono-color for a race or dual-color for a class or something.
If Rivals is the Masterpiece series, and Ixalan is like a plane for less moral 'walkers, we could get reprints of many of the villain 'walkers. Tibalt, Vraska, Garruk, etc! Good theory, but I doubt they would put that many walkers in Sealed, even as mythic mythic rare. Could just be antagonists, but pretty sure Masterpieces are supposed to be on the plane.
Flavor text makes it pretty clear it's just after That Which was Taken was taken. Sort of like Green Lantern without the ring, or Batman without his suit. Still impressive, but not the same level.
This actually begs the question. If a Wizards employee finds a leak, what are the protocols? I would assume report it to Wizards/Hasbro before any response is made, but with all of the social media they need to make sure the response is uniform. Since it was on twitter, and many of the employees there follow the "big" mtg streams, it's likely the default is just stand back and let it happen, and then IT steps in to track it before lawyers take the helm.
If I was a Wizards employee and tracking leaks, I would give out some "preview" cards to a few outlets. Make it especially similar to the final card, but have the art be a bit off or something. That way you know who is leaking if it's a photo. Unfortunately, this leaves distribution without a way to be tracked, but unless Wizards starts doing digital before paper releases, the stores need the cards in advance to sell on time, and there's no good way to track distribution being a leak. And then there's the issue of mock-ups! Honestly, perhaps the best thing Wizards could do is flood the airwaves with fake leaks so that nobody is garnering attention, fake leaks are no longer trusted, and the mothership is once again the best place to find verified card previews.
True, you could use photoshop to put the image on there. But my point is that unless they're a timetraveler or psychic, we don't know the set symbol yet, So that's the mostly likely thing to confirm or deny these cards.
Unless Jace or Teferi admit they're the leakers.
"Amount of photo shopping put the expansion symbol" ...what expansion symbol, exactly? Since that isn't one that we've seen before, and the expansion symbol hasn't been announced yet. They couldn't have just photoshopped the expansion symbol. Either they know what the expansion symbol is, and either these cards are mockups or the real deal, or when we see the expansion symbol and it's different, we know these are almost definitely fake (though could still be mock-ups).
Though that has been a trend in the past, it has raised complaints and is not confirmed to be the case for this release.
I already want this in a Hardened Scales style deck. At this Point I really doubt they're fake just because of how well-done they are. But Pure numbers make it seem Pretty unlikely there would be this many rares and legendaries in a deck, making me wonder if there are either two dragon decks, or how broken the other decks would be. Has anyone been checking collector numbers yet?
Kasitora says "if the player" but O-Kagachi says "that player". Could just be another grammatical error, but I doubt they would use different wording like that on purpose, which means likely either typo or fake... even if some of these are real, it doesn't seem like they all are.
Also, the token is just gold, which seems weird now that they have the indicators for DFC and such. But Godsire was also gold without indicator. Still, I most frequently see 2-color tokens, not 3. Still, even if fan-made, those are some nice cards. As for the others, if true this either means all decks have dragons, or these will be harder to find than the Grixis commander deck was. So many legendaries!
You know about Karona? She could be a reprint, but I hearily agree we should see more of the inhabitants of Velis Vel. And Amoeboid Changeling does well for or against tribal decks.
I'd like it a lot if you could mix and match the decks for class or race. Like the red and white decks both have some goblin and soldier tribal, white and green both have human and elf tribal, green and red have some goblin and warrior tribal, etc.
The poll says "possible" as in having any likelihood, no matter how low. "Probable" is a bit more objective, but at least requiring a 50% likelihood. Crabs, for instance, are possible based on numbers, but highly improbable.
Kozilek, Devoid of Reason would be a good name for it, reminding you that devoid cards work in the deck. Maybe an ability like "Creatures you control get +1/+1 for each color they are not." So that it is a big boost to Eldrazi and most artifact creatures, but a Painter's Servant or similar would only take away some of the pump. It's not quite tribal when written that way, but it would be very good for colorless decks, despite being all 5 colors and thus allowing devoid. Maybe do it like Reaper King so you could pay the 2 instead of a color.
As for legendary matters, it would be nice to have some of the Kamigawa reprints for that.
Maro says that there are concerns with it. I'm pretty sure there are various other sources but they aren't found as easily. This makes werewolves unexpected. Gavin says that we're getting a tribe that's unexpected. That's why I think of the unexpected tribes, werewolves and Eldrazi are top contenders. It's very possible we instead get a lesser loved tribe with a lot of fluff and changelings or something, but werewolves are at the top of the unexpected list.
Speaking of both Zombie/wizards and partner, I'm planning to build an Esper Zombie deck using Ravos and Silas Renn. I do think it would be cool and potentially more balanced for them to make mono-color partner commanders, though. A green elf/druid and a white elf/warrior, for instance. Black goblin/rogue and red goblin/soldier. White human/cleric and white human/soldier, etc. That way you can mono-color for a race or dual-color for a class or something.