It seems that many people are taking these 5 as a sign that they'll be only what the set has to offer. We'll get less than 1/5 of the set's rares in these (with perhaps a mythic or two thrown in). This number will increase with uncommons and rares, but it won't get near 100%. These decks can be focused two-color allied with many new spells and have plenty of room for two-colored enemy, all 10 three colors, and plenty of 4 or 5 at uncommon/rare/mythic in Alara Reborn proper.
I think the five intros here were chosen because, being an amalgam of at least two shards, they can go in many existing decks if you aren't buying it just for itself (which I think would increase with the 3rd set of a block). The move, in my mind, is not to sell Alara Reborn but instead just sell themselves.
But speaking of, I'm fairly curious about the following dilemma. Any two color pair in the first two sets could at most come from 1 to 3 shards (for instance, W/B could only come from Bant, Esper, and Grixis [though not Bant+Grixis] in Conflux and ONLY Esper in SoA). But take the following card:
This could have: 1.) Primary Jund with Bant Influence.
2.) Primary Jund with Esper Influence.
3.) Primary Jund with Naya Influence.
4.) Primary Bant with Jund Influence.
5.) Primary Bant with Grixis Influence.
6.) Primary Bant with Naya Influence.
7.) Just Naya.
8.) Naya with Jund Influence.
9.) Naya with Grixis Influence.
10.) Naya with Bant Influence.
11.) Naya with Esper Influence.
Ad Nauseam.
The point is, that with all of the shards converging, any color combo could be concepted in a multitude of ways. I'm not saying this would stop them, but I think WotC'd come up with a consistent strategy so that shards don't get over-represented, and hopefully that system would be intuitive and not arbitrary.
I assure you that I'm not god, but I do know how long it's been: One Year.
Shadowmoor was released at about the same time as Alara Reborn last year, with 5 allied-color precons.
I am an advocate of the 2-color theory because Bant doesn't exist anymore, neither does Esper, Grixis, Jund, or Naya. It is Alara now and there are bound to be some strange interactions between the former denizens of each world. If I am 100% wrong I won't be surprised, but all that I have seen thus far points towards a strong mix of the 5 cultures and the strange center at which they converge.
Yeah people hate on 5-color all they like, but those of us who love prismatic thought it was about time.
It'll be fine to have 2-color friendly back in the game, but I hope they do a bit of enemy colors in there as well, or the gimmick will get really old quickly even in such a small set.
Hrm...looks like ARB might be 'ally explosion' as someone speculated earlier today.
I welcome it, honestly. It settles things back down while still keeping in with the block.
Im not sure its that.
I think they are going wedge. Think about what the intro packs dont tell you... whether or if there is a third color...
I suspect, especially if you think about the titles and what they suggest:
I think they are going wedge. Think about what the intro packs dont tell you... whether or if there is a third color...
I suspect, especially if you think about the titles and what they suggest:
WUR
UBG
BRW
RGU
GWB
There's a colored circle on each side of the name, for each of the two colors that the card on the front has. And the titles really don't suggest the third color you say they suggest:
Sky Army implies (surprise) white and blue, and does not imply red. Red doesn't do much with flying.
Unnatural Plans mostly implies blue but could apply to black too. It does not imply green. Green is natural and often mindless.
Deathly Invitation implies black. I suppose it could imply white-black, but that's a stretch to get white from "invitation." Invitation fits more with blue, red, or green, since they're the colors that take control and play with your mind and emotions. Green lures.
Agent of Chaos implies red and could slightly imply green. It could imply red-blue, I suppose since blue does spying and has agents.
Relentless Attack implies white, mostly, or possibly red or green. It does not imply blue, which thinks about when and where it's going to attack.
Why wouldn't they mark them as 3 color if that was the case, as they did in shards?
The decks aren't three colors because they aren't marked so.
There's no way these decks will be wedge. That doesn't mean that there can't be wedge or 4 color cards, it could be just like the WUBRG cards in Conflux did not appear in any theme decks.
Nice art and names on those sample cards. I love how just the words "Filigree Angel" tells us so much about
After pondering it a moment, I definitely don't buy the idea that this set is nothing but 2-color spells, not for a moment. We've already seen what shards overlapping does to the creatures of Alara: it expands the repertoire of mechanics and mana colors they can use. Before, everything was limited to 3 colors; after the overlap, suddenly people could use 5 colors of mana. Regardless of whether the wedge combinations show up in this set, there's no way that the 3-color combinations of Alara and 5-color theme of Conflux are dropped completely in this set.
No, I think it's more likely that the decks are allied colors so they can build decks around overlapping shard mechanics, and simply because they'll have enough gold cards to do it now that ARB is all-gold.
There's no way these decks will be wedge. That doesn't mean that there can't be wedge or 4 color cards, it could be just like the WUBRG cards in Conflux did not appear in any theme decks.
Right. It's clear that in the new era of the Intro Packs, the preconstructed decks are no longer constructed to cover all the sets' themes as thoroughly as the old Precons did. We would've thought there were no WUBRG spells in Conflux based on its intro packs.
EDIT: I realized something while I was posting on Speculation:
We saw in Conflux that a half-gold small set can support five 2-color combinations, five 3-color combinations, and the highest-ever number of 5-color spells; having all those combinations makes building the set easier, since the mechanics that fit on a WUB spell are different from those for any of the three pairs that go into it, or than the 5-color combination that it is a part of. 125 cards would be enough room to give each of the twenty-five gold combinations five cards to itself; if there are no colorless artifacts, you could do something like nine of each pair, four of each triad, one of each four-color combo, five WUBRG, and still have room for a cycle of lands. (Meanwhile, to do only allied colors, each pair would need a minimum of twenty-five cards -- that's twice as many as each pair got in Ravnica.)
The idea that they'd design a small set with double the gold cards of each allied pair as those pairs got in Ravnica block, while ignoring the color combinations the earlier sets in the block followed (arcs and 5-color) altogether, seems incredibly unlikely to me.
Looks like it Ajani Vengeant to me. Looks like the figure has a mane, like one found addorning a lion.
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Because she's the hero standard deserves, but not the one it needs right now... and so we'll chase her... because she can take it... because she's not a hero... she's a silent guardian
There's a colored circle on each side of the name, for each of the two colors that the card on the front has. And the titles really don't suggest the third color you say they suggest:
Sky Army implies (surprise) white and blue, and does not imply red. Red doesn't do much with flying.
Unnatural Plans mostly implies blue but could apply to black too. It does not imply green. Green is natural and often mindless.
Deathly Invitation implies black. I suppose it could imply white-black, but that's a stretch to get white from "invitation." Invitation fits more with blue, red, or green, since they're the colors that take control and play with your mind and emotions. Green lures.
Agent of Chaos implies red and could slightly imply green. It could imply red-blue, I suppose since blue does spying and has agents.
Relentless Attack implies white, mostly, or possibly red or green. It does not imply blue, which thinks about when and where it's going to attack.
Unnatural plans does suggest green, because something is called "unnatural" when it's otherwise natural and gets twisted. That's very Simic/Golgari.
Agent of Chaos is very RGU because think of what RU had a lot of in Guildpact etc... granted, this is a different block, but hey...
As for Relentless Attack, I named WGB. White-green-BLACK. Not blue. White-green-black is perfect for that deck title because white-green attacks with armies and black brings them back from the dead, hence, relentless.
Of course as you say, it might be nothing like this. That is entirely possible.
Spellcrasher Behemoth probably has Troll Ascetic shroud... maybe a 4/3?
Deathbringer Thoctar is probably huge... the other 2 have 5 power, but this one might have Unearth or maybe deathtouch?
Filigree Angel seems like a beast... 5/5, flying and maybe lifelink?
The other two don't seem that exciting though.
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I am an advocate of the 2-color theory because Bant doesn't exist anymore, neither does Esper, Grixis, Jund, or Naya. It is Alara now and there are bound to be some strange interactions between the former denizens of each world. If I am 100% wrong I won't be surprised, but all that I have seen thus far points towards a strong mix of the 5 cultures and the strange center at which they converge.
WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.
It'll be fine to have 2-color friendly back in the game, but I hope they do a bit of enemy colors in there as well, or the gimmick will get really old quickly even in such a small set.
It costs 4. The only good counterspell in standard costs 4, and marginal 2CC situational counters are the only other ones to see play.
Broodmate costs 6, can be countered and is a great creature that sees play in almost every toast deck.
Im not sure its that.
I think they are going wedge. Think about what the intro packs dont tell you... whether or if there is a third color...
I suspect, especially if you think about the titles and what they suggest:
WUR
UBG
BRW
RGU
GWB
Why wouldn't they mark them as 3 color if that was the case, as they did in shards?
The decks aren't three colors because they aren't marked so.
There's a colored circle on each side of the name, for each of the two colors that the card on the front has. And the titles really don't suggest the third color you say they suggest:
Sky Army implies (surprise) white and blue, and does not imply red. Red doesn't do much with flying.
Unnatural Plans mostly implies blue but could apply to black too. It does not imply green. Green is natural and often mindless.
Deathly Invitation implies black. I suppose it could imply white-black, but that's a stretch to get white from "invitation." Invitation fits more with blue, red, or green, since they're the colors that take control and play with your mind and emotions. Green lures.
Agent of Chaos implies red and could slightly imply green. It could imply red-blue, I suppose since blue does spying and has agents.
Relentless Attack implies white, mostly, or possibly red or green. It does not imply blue, which thinks about when and where it's going to attack.
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There's no way these decks will be wedge. That doesn't mean that there can't be wedge or 4 color cards, it could be just like the WUBRG cards in Conflux did not appear in any theme decks.
After pondering it a moment, I definitely don't buy the idea that this set is nothing but 2-color spells, not for a moment. We've already seen what shards overlapping does to the creatures of Alara: it expands the repertoire of mechanics and mana colors they can use. Before, everything was limited to 3 colors; after the overlap, suddenly people could use 5 colors of mana. Regardless of whether the wedge combinations show up in this set, there's no way that the 3-color combinations of Alara and 5-color theme of Conflux are dropped completely in this set.
No, I think it's more likely that the decks are allied colors so they can build decks around overlapping shard mechanics, and simply because they'll have enough gold cards to do it now that ARB is all-gold.
Right. It's clear that in the new era of the Intro Packs, the preconstructed decks are no longer constructed to cover all the sets' themes as thoroughly as the old Precons did. We would've thought there were no WUBRG spells in Conflux based on its intro packs.
EDIT: I realized something while I was posting on Speculation:
The idea that they'd design a small set with double the gold cards of each allied pair as those pairs got in Ravnica block, while ignoring the color combinations the earlier sets in the block followed (arcs and 5-color) altogether, seems incredibly unlikely to me.
Looks like Bant Knights have surrounded some cats from Naya.
Please attach images.
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~
This one seems solid though. Plus Bant Knights > Nacatls all day long
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Or me.
And on the flying thing, it looks white, so I'd think angel, but it isnt shaped angel-ish.
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It can be a combination of red/white or red/green vs white which would be the reason why soldiers are on one side and goblins are in the other.
special thanks to sentimentgx4 for the sig
Pourquoi?
Ahh, can you smell it? Rumor is just beginning to rev up. It's refreshing, like a bar of Irish Spring, early in the wee hours... Top'o the mornin' to ya', laudie!
EllE:
Unnatural plans does suggest green, because something is called "unnatural" when it's otherwise natural and gets twisted. That's very Simic/Golgari.
Agent of Chaos is very RGU because think of what RU had a lot of in Guildpact etc... granted, this is a different block, but hey...
As for Relentless Attack, I named WGB. White-green-BLACK. Not blue. White-green-black is perfect for that deck title because white-green attacks with armies and black brings them back from the dead, hence, relentless.
Of course as you say, it might be nothing like this. That is entirely possible.
Deathbringer Thoctar is probably huge... the other 2 have 5 power, but this one might have Unearth or maybe deathtouch?
Filigree Angel seems like a beast... 5/5, flying and maybe lifelink?
The other two don't seem that exciting though.