Am I seeing the interaction between Wedding Ring and Consecrated Sphinx correctly? Presumably you'll get to the end of your deck first, drawing two cards at a time and all, but there's no "may" rider: once you've drawn a card on your turn, you can force repeated draws until one of you runs out of cards.
Edit: now I am legitimately curious about how the triggers would stack. You control C. Sphinx and one Ring then draw on your draw step. Your opponent then must draw a card, which allows you to draw two. Does Wedding Ring then put a trigger on the stack for each of your draws, and after the first resolves you draw twice again? Or does it respond to a single event that drew you two cards with one trigger that draws both cards at once? This interaction seems kinda nutty to me.
Second edit: also, isn't it weird that you can force any opponent (who doesn't have hexproof, at least,) to marry you? Granted, this ring isn't legendary, so draw enough copies and you can forcibly marry the whole table (or Megamarry that one blue player who draws a ton.)
All the Ice Age lands were reprinted. This is more of putting the new frame on them than anything else
Sorry for the low-res images, it might be unclear. They reused the art from Snow-Covered Island on a basic Island. Same art, two cards with different names. As far as I know this is the only time that this has happened.
Has this ever happened before with a Magic card art? Reusing the art on a different card is a bad idea, unless they have no intention of printing Lord of Extinction's Amonkhet version in paper.
Fun trivia time, yes it has! Snow-Covered Island was also reprinted in CSP with new art, just for bonus confusion. Kinda wish I knew what happened there.
Sorry I've taken so long to reply to this, real life has been a little bit busy. I'll replace this text with my next entry tonight, I just wanted to update to let you know I haven't forgotten about it.
Hey Mergatroid_Jones, now that we've kicked off I want to say this challenge seems like good fun, thanks for hosting it! Everyone's designs and flavor are cool, I'm looking forward to see what we all come up with.
This post got a little long, so I'm hiding passages behind spoiler tags. This was my phase 1 design and the thoughts behind it:
Moppe, Enthusiastic Custodian1RW
Legendary Artifact Creature - Gnome
Protection from rats, spiders, and insects "You forget to close one little teleportal and off it goes, sweeping right into the painforges of the archzebrademons. I wonder how far it got?"
--Luka Pnyx, Laboratory Assistant
0/1
My initial idea was to create a card that met the bare minimum of the requirements at each stage in the cheekiest way possible, and see where that led me. A 0/1 with what amounts to trinket text seemed like a good place to start, and the first concept that came to mind to fit these stats was a tiny creature with a push-broom, keeping the vermin at bay. I chose gnome because we've never had a legendary example, and I liked the humble and affable vibe they give off. There's exactly one mono-red gnome and the rest are artifacts, but neither identity seemed exciting. I decided to go RW to lean into potential artifact equipment synergies, and because Moppe's cheerfully industrious character touched on both those colors. I landed on 1RW as it had both colors, the one generic visually hinted at the artifact nature of the card, and it left a bit of ceiling for the card to power up.
I chose the name Moppe (which, in my mind, sounds like the word moppet without the t) to reflect its designated purpose and because I thought it sounded kinda cute. I added the flavor text to steal some of that Fblthp tiny-creature-in-a-world-full-of-dangers magic (and yeah, I chose archzebrademons as the villains specifically because the word is a hot mess to scan,) but with the second prompt I've decided to lean into it.
The story so far:
Moppe doesn't know how long it's been active, but every day it cleans the magical research laboratory at the academy, and every night it dreams of dusting and decluttering more important, more heroic, halls. Tidiness is next to justice, after all. It has been a good life, full of purpose. One day, lost in a fantasy of clearing the floor of litter in some valorous general's command tent, or polishing the marble of an august senate gallery, Moppe blithely strides through a floor-level portal that has been left open accidentally. What awaits on the other side is a cacophony of screams and clanks, and underneath that hammering din: soot. Cake. Strips of leather, charred and discarded. It's a mess!
Moppe instantly gets to work tidying, but gradually begins to notice that the figures towering above it aren't the familiar robed magicians... these striped and braying forgemasters are looking at it quizzically, whinnying and snorting some apparently hilarious joke between them. At first they torment poor Moppe, kicking it over, throwing tongs and ingots and coal at its head, but soon they grow bored of their game and let the little gnome sort out the messes they've made around the workshop. Not knowing what to do, Moppe continues its tasks, but as the days go by it starts to notice troubling signs. The mages treated it with indifference, but their experiments seldom resulted in anything other than a gentle glow, a soft buzz, or some combination of smells following a bang. These smiths, however... their tools look wicked, their materials oddly organic and familiar. When Moppe sees the first captive brought in for harvesting, its recent uneasiness is suddenly confirmed. It knows it has to do something. It knows that the zebra demons must be stopped. But how?
It maintains the appearance of mindlessly cleaning the space around it, but its mind is whirring with possibilities. It stashes every bit and morsel of usable material, every pin, length of wood, and stray demon-hair. It doesn't know what these will become, but some day or night when the archzebrademons leave to rest, or raid, or satisfy whatever twisted desires they may have, Moppe will have the forges to itself. Yes. And it will get to work...
And here, after some alone-time at the forges, is Moppe Phase 2:
Moppe, Enthusiastic Custodian1RW
Legendary Artifact Creature - Gnome
First strike, haste, protection from Rats, from Spiders, and from Insects (Melds with Demonbristle Broom) "I forgot to close one little teleportal and off it went, sweeping right into the painforges of the archzebrademons. I wonder, how long could it have survived in there?"
--Luka Pnyx, Laboratory Assistant
0/1
Demonbristle Broom1R
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +3/+0 and has "R: this creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn."
Equip: 2 RW: If you both own and control Demonbristle Broom, and it is equipping a creature you both own and control named Moppe, Enthusiastic Custodian, exile them, then meld them into It That Pans the Dust. Restrictions breed creativity. Of course, having plentiful magical materials to hand and access to hellfire-fueled forges doesn't hurt.
It That Pans the Dust
Color Indicator: Red and White
Legendary Artifact Creature - Gnome
Double strike, haste, protection from Rats, from Spiders, from Insects, and from Demons (R/W): It That Pans the Dust gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
When It That Pans the Dust enters the battlefield it deals damage equal to its power to each creature you don't control. Moppe turned toward its demonic captors with a righteous fury it had never before known. At long last it had completed its weapon and cleared the dungeons of vermin: now it was going to take out the trash.
3/1
First, I decided to keep Moppe's PT at 0/1. That seems kinda central to the design at this point, but I wanted it to feel more naturally RW. I added First Strike and Haste, which in a vacuum do nothing to increase its power, but make it a more tempting equip target. I also cleaned up the text itself a bit.
Making a relic-level broom out of zebrademon manes seemed too fun to pass up. There aren't a lot of colored equipment cards yet, but WotC seems to be moving in that direction. It's a little more aggressively costed than equivalent uncommons, but it's not nearly a world-beater outside of the meld ability.
Lastly, It That Pans the Dust. I didn't want the melded form to simply portray Moppe wielding the broom (which is a prerequisite to using the meld ability) but to represent the plucky little gnome stepping into its destiny. The stats are a combination of Moppe's base form and the equipment abilities, only the first strike has been layered over the regular attack to yield double strike, and the firebreathing ability has been shifted into hybrid R/W. I don't think the one-sided boardwipe is too much, given that you've invested nine mana to get it, and all the pieces are fragile (two artifacts, one of which is also a 0/1 creature.) I do like how it's tempting to wait on melding until you have the free mana to pump It That Pans the Dust in response to the ETB, but I'm worried that the card is getting a little busy. I may have to cut things drastically in later phases.
Moppe, Enthusiastic Custodian1RW
Legendary Artifact Creature - Gnome
Protection from rats, spiders, and insects "You forget to close one little teleportal and off it goes, sweeping right into the painforges of the archzebrademons. I wonder how far it got?"
--Luka Pnyx, Laboratory Assistant
0/1
My first thought was "oh, how cute, the faeries have repurposed mundane objects from the 'big' world into weapons - I think I see a key, a sewing needle, is that a quill? Oh, hold on..."
My second thought: "EVERYTHING IS PURPLE. That is *exactly* the thing Maro tried to introduce ten years ago in Time Spiral block. HRM."
Very much looking forward to more details on Saturday, but even if it isn't an extra color (Faerie magic, woo!) I'm still intrigued by the art style on the flier. I'm quite happy with this.
Hey everyone, I've just come back from a long-ish break from Magic and have noticed something that I'd like to discuss. Forgive me if this runs long. What struck me while reviewing XLN/RIX is that three cards use the text "mana of any type" as opposed to "mana of any color" (Dead Man's Chest, Dire Fleet Daredevil, and Hostage Taker.) All three of these cards enable you to spend mana as "mana of any type" for playing cards owned by opponents, which in the current standard is mechanically indistinguishable from the usual template. Three cards from KLD/AKH blocks (Gonti, Lord of Luxury, Naga Vitalist, and Vizier of the Menagerie,) also used this templating, but that meant something as they shared time in standard with cards from OGW with colorless costs. For comparison, fifty-one cards in standard use "mana of any color", and there are only four other cards in all of Magic's history whose current Oracle text refers to "mana of any type".
I see two possibilities here, but please feel free to correct me or to add more:
It could be the case that WotC re-discovered the "mana of any type" terminology in KLD for the purpose of paying colorless costs and, deciding to have a high enough density of pirates in XLN block to support an EDH deck, chose to past-and-future-proof these cards.
The second likelihood is that an upcoming set is planning to use colorless costs, snow or some descendant thereof, or some other form of mana entirely which cannot be generated by basics. To share a standard environment with the pirate cards, this hypothetical mechanic would have to appear in Core Set 2019, Spaghetti, Meatballs, Milk, or Cookies (which is now Core Set 2020.)
I feel that the first is unlikely, as no other tribe has this rider and it deviates from standard templating for marginal gain (affecting nine extant cards, and specifically allowing pirates to press-gang Eldrazi into service isn't exactly a flavor home-run,) leaving the second option as the stronger possibility. Beyond that I'm speculating, but I hope not baselessly. Dire Fleet Daredevil limits its ability to paying for instants and sorceries. OGW had plenty of instants and sorceries with Devoid, but only Spatial Contortion and Warping Wail have colorless mana in their costs. Hostage Taker cares only about creatures, but Dead Man's Chest works for all non-land cards. For the color/type distinction to be meaningful, the typed-mana mechanic would have to be much more prevalent than colorless costs were in OGW; this suggests a major theme, factional identity/strategy, or a major planar characteristic.
It is unlikely that such a mechanic would be introduced in a Core Set, and it sounds very much like Wizards is still unsure on how to deliver Wastelands for colorless Brawl commanders (meaning Eldrazi in Core 2019 are even less likely than they were to begin with,) so that leaves us with Spaghetti, Meatballs, and Milk in which to look for it. We could see as many as three new planes sharing standard with XLN/RIX if all the scheduled two-set blocks collapsed into one set, or as few as one new plane (if Dominaria part two were moved into the Spaghetti slot, and that plane had two sets taking over Meatballs and Milk,) so it is possible that any interaction in standard of the pirate trio with cards they'd care about got pre-empted by this shift if it was a Milk and Cookies thing, but my guess is that if there is something to this it will show up immediately post-Dominaria (else why design around it if the cards were going to rotate out at the next available opportunity?)
In any case, I haven't been able to infer much from this yet, but I do think that the argument that *something* is in the pipeline is compelling. Colorless costs returning as a faction demarcator in an artifact-themed set, a Mirrodin automata resistance vs Phyrexians or something like that, might provide the necessary volume of instants/sorceries to have Dire Fleet Daredevil make sense. Having Karn meet the Gatewatch certainly puts New Phyrexia back on the table after a long absence. I also think that hints of Viking-world/Kaldheim are being seeded for a near-future visit (the RIX storyline with Angrath returning home is cute, creating an in-universe reason for Magic vikings to have/emulate having horns,) but snow mana 1.0 mechanically is a mis-fit: snow mana hasn't yet appeared in a casting cost, which is all that three XLN/RIX cards care about, and presumably vikings or their allies would be snow-themed and not centered in WG, meaning you would have access to snow lands playing UBR anyway. Snow mana 2.0 would make more sense in this situation.
On a related note, this also suggests to me that planes with strong mana-base associations like Theros, Alara, and Ravnica (which is endgame for the current arc anyway,) are less likely to be coming up next. That's pretty much all I've got right now, but I'd be very interested if anyone else sees something in this notion.
I apologize for the wall of text; I still have the post-lapse glow, and noticing this got me to thinking. I'd also like to note that I did a search for discussion on this topic and came up empty; if I've missed something please feel free to relocate/remove this post.
The figures seemed human, but she didn't recognize their clothing from any culture she knew. Flimsy gauze barely covered their chests, revealing the stark red paint adorning their ashen skin. Sharp hooks protruded from their shoulders and upper arms and, as they snarled at her approach, she saw slightly protruding fangs.
Vampires? she thought. There are no vampires on Zendikar.
Let's break this down nice and simple-like:
1. Nahiri discovers vampires on Zendikar for the first time around 1,000 years ago.
2. Nahiri leaves Zendikar in search of Sorin for answers (not just about the vampires, but other things).
3. When Sorin awakens Ugin at the end of Tarkir block, Ugin asks Sorin about Nahiri's whereabouts. Sorin responds thusly:
The notion of shame had long since evaporated from Sorin. Over the millennia, Sorin's human frailties and neurosis had grown, blossomed, and withered away—he was as immune to regret as he was to old age. And yet, for the first time in years, an uncomfortable feeling grew within him, an unpleasant itch, the sense that he was responsible—solely—for something important going awry. It wasn't remorse exactly, just a dull, discordant echo ringing in the space where remorse had once resided.
"She is—not here," said Sorin, to no particular patch of air.
"That is clear," said Ugin. "I inquired about her whereabouts. Is she still on Zendikar? We should rejoin her, as soon as I am able to travel."
"I do not believe that she is there," Sorin said carefully.
Ugin's neck pleats fanned in irritation. "Speak facts, you vague thing. She's dead?"
"No," said Sorin. "She lives." The fuller extent of the truth was not something Ugin needed to know at this time, in Sorin's estimation. "I think I may know where she might be."
So Sorin knows where Nahiri is, and not on Zendikar, meaning that Nahiri found Sorin, something happened between them which is causing Sorin some approximation of shame, and now Nahiri is pissed as hell because of something that Sorin did to Zendikar.
So yes, it seems it's because Sorin made vampires on Zendikar.
IMHO, those excerpts make it sound like Sorin and Nahiri had a romantic relationship, he turned her into a vampire without her consent, and then they had a falling out so epic that she has avoided him in a way only a planeswalker can and is now back to decimate his little vampire-planet (perhaps by leading an Eldrazi right to it - she knows how to bind the things, after all.)
The notion of shame had long since evaporated from Sorin. Over the millennia, Sorin's human frailties and neurosis had grown, blossomed, and withered away—he was as immune to regret as he was to old age.
Okay, so he has done something for which he recognizes he should feel shame. Apparently, it's linked to his former "human frailties", what he considers a "neurosis" that peaked at some point millennia after his vampirism but has since abated (he uses the term "blossomed", so I imagine its cessation was as gradual as its build-up.) Splitting the difference, the event in question probably took place around 1000 years ago. IIRC, neo-walkers (who aren't dragons or vampires, at least,) shouldn't normally live that long, but Nahiri was alive and active around that time and is somehow confirmed to be still alive in the present, and his very next thought is about his immunity to old age and how it changes a person...
It sounds to me like he found companionship in Nahiri, someone who had his multi-planar perspective on things, but who was also mortal and fragile. At the height of his "human frailty" he feared his inevitable loneliness after her death so much that he made her immortal. Against her will. (It's kind of his MO, honestly, controlling other players' turns is second nature to him.) It would explain why she loathes him now.
And yet, for the first time in years, an uncomfortable feeling grew within him, an unpleasant itch, the sense that he was responsible—solely—for something important going awry. It wasn't remorse exactly, just a dull, discordant echo ringing in the space where remorse had once resided.
Note that his thoughts were dealing in the scale of millennia just a moment ago, but when he thinks of the thing for which he used to be remorseful it's "for the first time in years." Not centuries. For an immortal that's the equivalent of constant fretting. And he describes it as "something important going awry." It's not really supporting evidence, but it fits the theory: he thought Nahiri would willingly accept immortality, he wanted an indefinite future with her and thought she would see it as a gift, and on her refusal he decided to force the issue. He stills sees her continued existence as something important, but it came at the cost of her eternal hatred.
"No," said Sorin. "She lives." The fuller extent of the truth was not something Ugin needed to know at this time, in Sorin's estimation.
This is the money quote. "She lives," but there's more to it than that. What else could it be?
Anyway, my guess would be mono-red or WR Vampire Nahiri, bringing down Emrakul-sized vengeance on Sorin and his "necessary evils" in the pursuit of keeping his vampiric race alive. Furthermore, given the next set's name, my guess would be that Emmy was either summoned to the plane *through* Innistrad's moon, or some aspect of her has been inside the moon for centuries and is partly the cause of it's strange effects which Tamiyo has been studying. I would absolutely love to see her again (with a card or otherwise,) contributing the final clue necessary (in all likelihood for Junior Detective Jace) to solve the mystery.
[edit:] I wrote this in a rush this morning in response to seeing the text orlouge82 quoted. Rereading it now, while a failed romance between Nahiri and Sorin would be both conventional and interesting, it just struck me that Sorin wouldn't need any extra motivation to want Nahiri immortal: she, he, and Ugin are to their knowledge all required to combat and contain the Eldrazi should they remerge. The violation being a result of a relationship would also make it so that Nahiri would be a domestic-abuse/basically-rape survivor, and this subject matter might too heady to be printed directly on cards. I also noticed that I assumed the conversation between Sorin and Ugin is happening in the post-FRF present, which might not be the case.
In any case, I still like this explanation, even if it's not a convincing slam-dunk. Bring on our second white + enemy color vampire! <crosses fingers>
Hey, everyone! I am yet another lapsed player (probably gone longer than most,) looking to get back into constructed. I've been spectating standard the last few years (since Innistrad the set) but I haven't taken the leap to making decks and going out to play. It is a little intimidating after a long gap. Yesterday I suddenly got the notion that making a Sage of Hours deck would be a fun way to spend an evening (it was! I missed this. ^_^) Anyway, after coming up with a rough draft I checked to see what similar decks are running around and found out that I pretty much had a horribly optimized, creature-light version of Bant Hardened Scales. Reading through this thread has provided a ton of improvements (thanks!)
I know my evaluation skills are rusty, so I hope you don't mind me running my untested build past you guys to get your feedback. I've done extensive solo testing (for what that's worth,) and I think that unless I'm missing something, it's consistent enough and just zany enough that I'll want to actually suit up some better version of this in real life.
I know the mana base needs to be tweaked (I just distributed the lands symmetrically for the moment,) but I'm actually pretty happy with the scry-lands. If the game goes to turn five, you'll want that to drop untapped (since it enables Ajani, Mentor of Heroes and a host of profitable three-instant combinations,) but the filtering seems invaluable. I also cut Ajani down to two to make room for another Swan Song, good move / bad move?
I might be wrong on some judgment calls here, but I can explain every one. If you think this list is just terrible, please let me know why so I can see what to do better (and what I'm doing wrong.)
I haven't finalized the sideboard yet, either, but I don't think it will be too hard to swing in a much more traditional Bant Hardened Scales shell. I haven't thought very deeply about this yet, but I actually think Bant might be a winner coming out of FRF for this deck: you guys have brought up Monastery Mentor, am I crazy in thinking that it has amazing synergy with Ephara's Enlightenment? You play Enlightenment, spawn a token, and immediately return Enlightenment to your hand to cast again. It's good even without a Hero of Iroas on the board, but with both Mentor and Hero in play it basically reads:
Ephara's Enlightenment, {W}{U}
Sorcery
Trigger heroic on target creature (place one to five +1/+1 counters on that creature)
Place one to five +1/+1 counters on target creature
Monk tokens you control get +1/+1 until end of turn, then place a 1/1 white Monk token with Prowess into play
When Ephara's Enlightenment resolves, if it would be placed into your graveyard instead return it to your hand
That's the best sorcery ever printed for this deck!
Anyway, thanks everyone for tuning your Hardened Scales decks and sharing your info and results, and thanks for taking a look at mine.
Edit: Maybe this is why I shouldn't post when I'm so sleepy, it looks like Mentor triggers off Enlightenment being cast, so the token comes into play before the Enlightenment is on the battlefield to notice it. Darn.
Maybe point him to the following section of the CR:
601.2h Once the steps described in 601.2a–g are completed, the spell becomes cast. Any abilities that trigger when a spell is cast or put onto the stack trigger at this time. If the spell's controller had priority before casting it, he or she gets priority.
So you cast your Ordeal, it goes on the stack, then the Phalanx Leader ability triggers and goes on the stack, and when all this is done you still have priority. Only after you pass priority can your opponent cast his Downfall, at which point your PL trigger is already on the stack. His Downfall resolves, killing your PL. The Leader's triggered ability goes off, putting a +1/+1 counter on your remaining creatures. Lastly, the Ordeal fizzles due to lack of a legal target.
edit: Oh, if the issue is that he thinks your Leader's trigger won't resolve because your creature is no longer on the battlefield, show him this:
603.3. Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that's not a card the next time a player would receive priority. See rule 116, "Timing and Priority." The ability becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has the text of the ability that created it, and no other characteristics. It remains on the stack until it's countered, it resolves, a rule causes it to be removed from the stack, or an effect moves it elsewhere.
Nothing about the Phalanx Leader dying while the trigger is on the stack causes the trigger to be countered, so it goes ahead and resolves.
You guys realize that in the inevitable Return to New Phyrexia they could have someone(like Serra) go to Slobad's grave and resurrect him?
If we ever get Slobad instead of Venser that will be a whole other wall of text. Wizards have talked about a current moratorium on resurrections, and I doubt we'll ever see Slobad again now that we have Daretti (I'd be happy to be proven wrong, though.)
(Seriously though, no UW planeswalker in four years? And they killed Daxos off too, for the moment at least. I was hoping he'd be the next.)
[quote from="Swithin »"]The problem with that is that this was never meant to be a Planar Chaos style "what if?" set up. It was always more like Time Spiral with the theme being "remember when?"
What you would have asked for just was never meant to be. Slobad was briefly considered, but wizards themselves thought that it was too brief to be flavorful.
Well, yeah. I was just speaking to the question of why we wanted him. But now that you mention it, Time Spiral and its in-canon alternate histories happened... why not "hey, remember that Planar Chaos (but still mono-red) Slobad you never got on a card?" Still no? Darn.
Edit: now I am legitimately curious about how the triggers would stack. You control C. Sphinx and one Ring then draw on your draw step. Your opponent then must draw a card, which allows you to draw two. Does Wedding Ring then put a trigger on the stack for each of your draws, and after the first resolves you draw twice again? Or does it respond to a single event that drew you two cards with one trigger that draws both cards at once? This interaction seems kinda nutty to me.
Second edit: also, isn't it weird that you can force any opponent (who doesn't have hexproof, at least,) to marry you? Granted, this ring isn't legendary, so draw enough copies and you can forcibly marry the whole table (or Megamarry that one blue player who draws a ton.)
Sorry for the low-res images, it might be unclear. They reused the art from Snow-Covered Island on a basic Island. Same art, two cards with different names. As far as I know this is the only time that this has happened.
Fun trivia time, yes it has! Snow-Covered Island was also reprinted in CSP with new art, just for bonus confusion. Kinda wish I knew what happened there.
This post got a little long, so I'm hiding passages behind spoiler tags. This was my phase 1 design and the thoughts behind it:
Moppe, Enthusiastic Custodian 1RW
Legendary Artifact Creature - Gnome
Protection from rats, spiders, and insects
"You forget to close one little teleportal and off it goes, sweeping right into the painforges of the archzebrademons. I wonder how far it got?"
--Luka Pnyx, Laboratory Assistant
0/1
My initial idea was to create a card that met the bare minimum of the requirements at each stage in the cheekiest way possible, and see where that led me. A 0/1 with what amounts to trinket text seemed like a good place to start, and the first concept that came to mind to fit these stats was a tiny creature with a push-broom, keeping the vermin at bay. I chose gnome because we've never had a legendary example, and I liked the humble and affable vibe they give off. There's exactly one mono-red gnome and the rest are artifacts, but neither identity seemed exciting. I decided to go RW to lean into potential artifact equipment synergies, and because Moppe's cheerfully industrious character touched on both those colors. I landed on 1RW as it had both colors, the one generic visually hinted at the artifact nature of the card, and it left a bit of ceiling for the card to power up.
I chose the name Moppe (which, in my mind, sounds like the word moppet without the t) to reflect its designated purpose and because I thought it sounded kinda cute. I added the flavor text to steal some of that Fblthp tiny-creature-in-a-world-full-of-dangers magic (and yeah, I chose archzebrademons as the villains specifically because the word is a hot mess to scan,) but with the second prompt I've decided to lean into it.
The story so far:
Moppe doesn't know how long it's been active, but every day it cleans the magical research laboratory at the academy, and every night it dreams of dusting and decluttering more important, more heroic, halls. Tidiness is next to justice, after all. It has been a good life, full of purpose. One day, lost in a fantasy of clearing the floor of litter in some valorous general's command tent, or polishing the marble of an august senate gallery, Moppe blithely strides through a floor-level portal that has been left open accidentally. What awaits on the other side is a cacophony of screams and clanks, and underneath that hammering din: soot. Cake. Strips of leather, charred and discarded. It's a mess!
Moppe instantly gets to work tidying, but gradually begins to notice that the figures towering above it aren't the familiar robed magicians... these striped and braying forgemasters are looking at it quizzically, whinnying and snorting some apparently hilarious joke between them. At first they torment poor Moppe, kicking it over, throwing tongs and ingots and coal at its head, but soon they grow bored of their game and let the little gnome sort out the messes they've made around the workshop. Not knowing what to do, Moppe continues its tasks, but as the days go by it starts to notice troubling signs. The mages treated it with indifference, but their experiments seldom resulted in anything other than a gentle glow, a soft buzz, or some combination of smells following a bang. These smiths, however... their tools look wicked, their materials oddly organic and familiar. When Moppe sees the first captive brought in for harvesting, its recent uneasiness is suddenly confirmed. It knows it has to do something. It knows that the zebra demons must be stopped. But how?
It maintains the appearance of mindlessly cleaning the space around it, but its mind is whirring with possibilities. It stashes every bit and morsel of usable material, every pin, length of wood, and stray demon-hair. It doesn't know what these will become, but some day or night when the archzebrademons leave to rest, or raid, or satisfy whatever twisted desires they may have, Moppe will have the forges to itself. Yes. And it will get to work...
And here, after some alone-time at the forges, is Moppe Phase 2:
Moppe, Enthusiastic Custodian 1RW
Legendary Artifact Creature - Gnome
First strike, haste, protection from Rats, from Spiders, and from Insects
(Melds with Demonbristle Broom)
"I forgot to close one little teleportal and off it went, sweeping right into the painforges of the archzebrademons. I wonder, how long could it have survived in there?"
--Luka Pnyx, Laboratory Assistant
0/1
Demonbristle Broom1R
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +3/+0 and has "R: this creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn."
Equip: 2
RW: If you both own and control Demonbristle Broom, and it is equipping a creature you both own and control named Moppe, Enthusiastic Custodian, exile them, then meld them into It That Pans the Dust.
Restrictions breed creativity. Of course, having plentiful magical materials to hand and access to hellfire-fueled forges doesn't hurt.
It That Pans the Dust
Color Indicator: Red and White
Legendary Artifact Creature - Gnome
Double strike, haste, protection from Rats, from Spiders, from Insects, and from Demons
(R/W): It That Pans the Dust gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
When It That Pans the Dust enters the battlefield it deals damage equal to its power to each creature you don't control.
Moppe turned toward its demonic captors with a righteous fury it had never before known. At long last it had completed its weapon and cleared the dungeons of vermin: now it was going to take out the trash.
3/1
First, I decided to keep Moppe's PT at 0/1. That seems kinda central to the design at this point, but I wanted it to feel more naturally RW. I added First Strike and Haste, which in a vacuum do nothing to increase its power, but make it a more tempting equip target. I also cleaned up the text itself a bit.
Making a relic-level broom out of zebrademon manes seemed too fun to pass up. There aren't a lot of colored equipment cards yet, but WotC seems to be moving in that direction. It's a little more aggressively costed than equivalent uncommons, but it's not nearly a world-beater outside of the meld ability.
Lastly, It That Pans the Dust. I didn't want the melded form to simply portray Moppe wielding the broom (which is a prerequisite to using the meld ability) but to represent the plucky little gnome stepping into its destiny. The stats are a combination of Moppe's base form and the equipment abilities, only the first strike has been layered over the regular attack to yield double strike, and the firebreathing ability has been shifted into hybrid R/W. I don't think the one-sided boardwipe is too much, given that you've invested nine mana to get it, and all the pieces are fragile (two artifacts, one of which is also a 0/1 creature.) I do like how it's tempting to wait on melding until you have the free mana to pump It That Pans the Dust in response to the ETB, but I'm worried that the card is getting a little busy. I may have to cut things drastically in later phases.
Legendary Artifact Creature - Gnome
Protection from rats, spiders, and insects
"You forget to close one little teleportal and off it goes, sweeping right into the painforges of the archzebrademons. I wonder how far it got?"
--Luka Pnyx, Laboratory Assistant
0/1
My second thought: "EVERYTHING IS PURPLE. That is *exactly* the thing Maro tried to introduce ten years ago in Time Spiral block. HRM."
Very much looking forward to more details on Saturday, but even if it isn't an extra color (Faerie magic, woo!) I'm still intrigued by the art style on the flier. I'm quite happy with this.
I see two possibilities here, but please feel free to correct me or to add more:
It could be the case that WotC re-discovered the "mana of any type" terminology in KLD for the purpose of paying colorless costs and, deciding to have a high enough density of pirates in XLN block to support an EDH deck, chose to past-and-future-proof these cards.
The second likelihood is that an upcoming set is planning to use colorless costs, snow or some descendant thereof, or some other form of mana entirely which cannot be generated by basics. To share a standard environment with the pirate cards, this hypothetical mechanic would have to appear in Core Set 2019, Spaghetti, Meatballs, Milk, or Cookies (which is now Core Set 2020.)
I feel that the first is unlikely, as no other tribe has this rider and it deviates from standard templating for marginal gain (affecting nine extant cards, and specifically allowing pirates to press-gang Eldrazi into service isn't exactly a flavor home-run,) leaving the second option as the stronger possibility. Beyond that I'm speculating, but I hope not baselessly. Dire Fleet Daredevil limits its ability to paying for instants and sorceries. OGW had plenty of instants and sorceries with Devoid, but only Spatial Contortion and Warping Wail have colorless mana in their costs. Hostage Taker cares only about creatures, but Dead Man's Chest works for all non-land cards. For the color/type distinction to be meaningful, the typed-mana mechanic would have to be much more prevalent than colorless costs were in OGW; this suggests a major theme, factional identity/strategy, or a major planar characteristic.
It is unlikely that such a mechanic would be introduced in a Core Set, and it sounds very much like Wizards is still unsure on how to deliver Wastelands for colorless Brawl commanders (meaning Eldrazi in Core 2019 are even less likely than they were to begin with,) so that leaves us with Spaghetti, Meatballs, and Milk in which to look for it. We could see as many as three new planes sharing standard with XLN/RIX if all the scheduled two-set blocks collapsed into one set, or as few as one new plane (if Dominaria part two were moved into the Spaghetti slot, and that plane had two sets taking over Meatballs and Milk,) so it is possible that any interaction in standard of the pirate trio with cards they'd care about got pre-empted by this shift if it was a Milk and Cookies thing, but my guess is that if there is something to this it will show up immediately post-Dominaria (else why design around it if the cards were going to rotate out at the next available opportunity?)
In any case, I haven't been able to infer much from this yet, but I do think that the argument that *something* is in the pipeline is compelling. Colorless costs returning as a faction demarcator in an artifact-themed set, a Mirrodin automata resistance vs Phyrexians or something like that, might provide the necessary volume of instants/sorceries to have Dire Fleet Daredevil make sense. Having Karn meet the Gatewatch certainly puts New Phyrexia back on the table after a long absence. I also think that hints of Viking-world/Kaldheim are being seeded for a near-future visit (the RIX storyline with Angrath returning home is cute, creating an in-universe reason for Magic vikings to have/emulate having horns,) but snow mana 1.0 mechanically is a mis-fit: snow mana hasn't yet appeared in a casting cost, which is all that three XLN/RIX cards care about, and presumably vikings or their allies would be snow-themed and not centered in WG, meaning you would have access to snow lands playing UBR anyway. Snow mana 2.0 would make more sense in this situation.
On a related note, this also suggests to me that planes with strong mana-base associations like Theros, Alara, and Ravnica (which is endgame for the current arc anyway,) are less likely to be coming up next. That's pretty much all I've got right now, but I'd be very interested if anyone else sees something in this notion.
I apologize for the wall of text; I still have the post-lapse glow, and noticing this got me to thinking. I'd also like to note that I did a search for discussion on this topic and came up empty; if I've missed something please feel free to relocate/remove this post.
IMHO, those excerpts make it sound like Sorin and Nahiri had a romantic relationship, he turned her into a vampire without her consent, and then they had a falling out so epic that she has avoided him in a way only a planeswalker can and is now back to decimate his little vampire-planet (perhaps by leading an Eldrazi right to it - she knows how to bind the things, after all.)
Okay, so he has done something for which he recognizes he should feel shame. Apparently, it's linked to his former "human frailties", what he considers a "neurosis" that peaked at some point millennia after his vampirism but has since abated (he uses the term "blossomed", so I imagine its cessation was as gradual as its build-up.) Splitting the difference, the event in question probably took place around 1000 years ago. IIRC, neo-walkers (who aren't dragons or vampires, at least,) shouldn't normally live that long, but Nahiri was alive and active around that time and is somehow confirmed to be still alive in the present, and his very next thought is about his immunity to old age and how it changes a person...
It sounds to me like he found companionship in Nahiri, someone who had his multi-planar perspective on things, but who was also mortal and fragile. At the height of his "human frailty" he feared his inevitable loneliness after her death so much that he made her immortal. Against her will. (It's kind of his MO, honestly, controlling other players' turns is second nature to him.) It would explain why she loathes him now.
Note that his thoughts were dealing in the scale of millennia just a moment ago, but when he thinks of the thing for which he used to be remorseful it's "for the first time in years." Not centuries. For an immortal that's the equivalent of constant fretting. And he describes it as "something important going awry." It's not really supporting evidence, but it fits the theory: he thought Nahiri would willingly accept immortality, he wanted an indefinite future with her and thought she would see it as a gift, and on her refusal he decided to force the issue. He stills sees her continued existence as something important, but it came at the cost of her eternal hatred.
This is the money quote. "She lives," but there's more to it than that. What else could it be?
Anyway, my guess would be mono-red or WR Vampire Nahiri, bringing down Emrakul-sized vengeance on Sorin and his "necessary evils" in the pursuit of keeping his vampiric race alive. Furthermore, given the next set's name, my guess would be that Emmy was either summoned to the plane *through* Innistrad's moon, or some aspect of her has been inside the moon for centuries and is partly the cause of it's strange effects which Tamiyo has been studying. I would absolutely love to see her again (with a card or otherwise,) contributing the final clue necessary (in all likelihood for Junior Detective Jace) to solve the mystery.
[edit:] I wrote this in a rush this morning in response to seeing the text orlouge82 quoted. Rereading it now, while a failed romance between Nahiri and Sorin would be both conventional and interesting, it just struck me that Sorin wouldn't need any extra motivation to want Nahiri immortal: she, he, and Ugin are to their knowledge all required to combat and contain the Eldrazi should they remerge. The violation being a result of a relationship would also make it so that Nahiri would be a domestic-abuse/basically-rape survivor, and this subject matter might too heady to be printed directly on cards. I also noticed that I assumed the conversation between Sorin and Ugin is happening in the post-FRF present, which might not be the case.
In any case, I still like this explanation, even if it's not a convincing slam-dunk. Bring on our second white + enemy color vampire! <crosses fingers>
I know my evaluation skills are rusty, so I hope you don't mind me running my untested build past you guys to get your feedback. I've done extensive solo testing (for what that's worth,) and I think that unless I'm missing something, it's consistent enough and just zany enough that I'll want to actually suit up some better version of this in real life.
4 Sage of Hours
4 Favored Hoplite
Enchantments (12)
4 Hardened Scales
4 Aqueous Form
4 Ordeal of Thassa
Instants (14)
4 Solidarity of Heroes
4 Gods Willing
4 Feat of Resistance
2 Swan Song
2 Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
Lands (24)
4 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Temple of Plenty
4 Temple of Mystery
3 Windswept Heath
3 Flooded Strand
2 Forest
2 Island
2 Plains
I know the mana base needs to be tweaked (I just distributed the lands symmetrically for the moment,) but I'm actually pretty happy with the scry-lands. If the game goes to turn five, you'll want that to drop untapped (since it enables Ajani, Mentor of Heroes and a host of profitable three-instant combinations,) but the filtering seems invaluable. I also cut Ajani down to two to make room for another Swan Song, good move / bad move?
I might be wrong on some judgment calls here, but I can explain every one. If you think this list is just terrible, please let me know why so I can see what to do better (and what I'm doing wrong.)
I haven't finalized the sideboard yet, either, but I don't think it will be too hard to swing in a much more traditional Bant Hardened Scales shell. I haven't thought very deeply about this yet, but I actually think Bant might be a winner coming out of FRF for this deck: you guys have brought up Monastery Mentor, am I crazy in thinking that it has amazing synergy with Ephara's Enlightenment? You play Enlightenment, spawn a token, and immediately return Enlightenment to your hand to cast again. It's good even without a Hero of Iroas on the board, but with both Mentor and Hero in play it basically reads:
Ephara's Enlightenment, {W}{U}
Sorcery
Trigger heroic on target creature (place one to five +1/+1 counters on that creature)
Place one to five +1/+1 counters on target creature
Monk tokens you control get +1/+1 until end of turn, then place a 1/1 white Monk token with Prowess into play
When Ephara's Enlightenment resolves, if it would be placed into your graveyard instead return it to your hand
That's the best sorcery ever printed for this deck!
Anyway, thanks everyone for tuning your Hardened Scales decks and sharing your info and results, and thanks for taking a look at mine.
Edit: Maybe this is why I shouldn't post when I'm so sleepy, it looks like Mentor triggers off Enlightenment being cast, so the token comes into play before the Enlightenment is on the battlefield to notice it. Darn.
601.2h Once the steps described in 601.2a–g are completed, the spell becomes cast. Any abilities that trigger when a spell is cast or put onto the stack trigger at this time. If the spell's controller had priority before casting it, he or she gets priority.
So you cast your Ordeal, it goes on the stack, then the Phalanx Leader ability triggers and goes on the stack, and when all this is done you still have priority. Only after you pass priority can your opponent cast his Downfall, at which point your PL trigger is already on the stack. His Downfall resolves, killing your PL. The Leader's triggered ability goes off, putting a +1/+1 counter on your remaining creatures. Lastly, the Ordeal fizzles due to lack of a legal target.
edit: Oh, if the issue is that he thinks your Leader's trigger won't resolve because your creature is no longer on the battlefield, show him this:
603.3. Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that's not a card the next time a player would receive priority. See rule 116, "Timing and Priority." The ability becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has the text of the ability that created it, and no other characteristics. It remains on the stack until it's countered, it resolves, a rule causes it to be removed from the stack, or an effect moves it elsewhere.
Nothing about the Phalanx Leader dying while the trigger is on the stack causes the trigger to be countered, so it goes ahead and resolves.
If we ever get Slobad instead of Venser that will be a whole other wall of text.
(Seriously though, no UW planeswalker in four years? And they killed Daxos off too, for the moment at least. I was hoping he'd be the next.)
Well, yeah. I was just speaking to the question of why we wanted him. But now that you mention it, Time Spiral and its in-canon alternate histories happened... why not "hey, remember that Planar Chaos (but still mono-red) Slobad you never got on a card?"