I am about 90% certain Maro replied to an ask that confirmed that Ajani and Tezzeret are the only walkers in this set, but that post seems to be missing... as are a few others I recall from last week on the subject of planeswalkers. If I'm not imagining things, he probably deleted them for revealing too much.
And referencing Kaya, so she WAS done just to have a black female walker?
Presumably, she was created because the story called for someone to assassinate Brago. She's black because... why not? Planeswalkers, thanks to their ability to teleport between worlds, rarely have a narrative requirement for any particular ethnicity. Why not use that freedom to represent players?
I'd also hold open the possibility that Kaladesh could have a high-CMC theme to integrate with these last two blocks.
It doesn't really combo with living lore very well
You don't cast it for free. You reveal it then the card stays in your hand then when you get to 7 mana you can cast it. Potential ok for maybe a green / white ramp style deck giving u extra time to get to world breaker / ulamog etc
I never said anything about hard-casting it. Maybe you get the bonus 6 life at the start of the game. Neat. After that, any copies are now fodder for your choice of discard outlet, and enable a 7/7 for 3U that you can sac to reset your life total to 26.
I don't think the problem is that they choose to have a set progression of previews. My problem is that they trickle them out so slowly, and showing us Emrakul a week before previews nominally started just exacerbated the pain.
I'd prefer that they compact the spoilers into a single week. This drags on unpleasantly.
Though, that said, my current feelings might be skewed by the "extra" week caused by the pre-preview of Emrakul. That early showing has created an environment similar to the tedium of waiting for OGW after we saw Kozilek leaked early.
Unfortunately, this time, all we had to discuss in that week was a few legendary creatures, rather than a completely unexplained mechanic to puzzle over. If they want to start spoilers that far in advance, I'd rather they start us off with cards that are missing reminder text so that we have something worth solving.
Exactly correct. The only addendum I'd offer is that Sylvan Library just asks you to return any two cards you've draw this turn. If you ways to draw even more cards at some point in between your untap step and resolving the Library's trigger, any of those cards are valid options for keeping your 4 life.
With Life from the Loam, or any other dredge card, in your graveyard, you can choose to replace any draw with milling some cards from your library instead. Sylvan Library gives you the option of drawing either one card (as usual) or drawing three cards with an extra condition afterward. You can't choose to draw just one extra. If you do take the extra cards, you'll normally need to make a choice between putting two of those three cards back on your library, or paying life for keeping more than one.
The interesting interaction here is to have not just a single Life from the Loam, but three cards with dredge in your graveyard. Then, opt to take the two extra draws from Sylvan Library, and replace all three draws with a dredge effect. Now, there aren't any "cards in your hand drawn this turn", so the latter part of Sylvan Library has no effect, while you've self-milled several cards (and gotten the cards with dredge returned to your hand).
Nope. You need a valid target to activate the ability, and after activating it, it's happening unless that target disappears or the ability is otherwise countered via something like Stifle. Or the ability uses the word "may".
You opponent raises Saffi, then uses Saffi's ability. That ability only asks for a "target creature" with no further restrictions, so your opponent can target any creature they want.
However, Saffi's activated ability creates a triggered ability, and the trigger is "When target creature is put into your graveyard from the battlefield this turn", which puts some practical limits on what you'd want to target. If your opponent target a creature he or she owns, the ability will work as they'd hope. If they target a creature you own, the ability will never trigger, because "you" and "your" in Saffi's ability refer to the controller of the ability - a creature that you, Blubberburg, own will never go to your opponent's graveyard.
I love the art, the one thing that bothers me is the size of the buildings versus the people in the eldrazi ooze. Did it absorb a scale model of the city, or were the villagers secretly giants?
I think the art is suffering from foreshortening, and the core blob is much further back than it might appear.
The myojin trigger is an enters the battlefield trigger, as identified by the words "Myojin... enters the battlefield with" so it triggers when the card actually enters the battlefield.
This is incorrect. A triggered ability starts with the words "when", "whenever", or "at". Myojin's ability is a replacement effect, which alters the way in which the card enters the battlefield, and which looks back in time to see where the card was cast from. While the timing is roughly similar to an ETB triggered ability, it functions in a fundamentally different way.
I hope that the deck builder will include newly previewed cards as soon as they're confirmed. That would be a killer feature that Deckstats and TappedOut have yet to incorporate.
Between the Kaladesh panel and the WoW:Legion launch, I thought nothing could bring this week down. I was wrong.
Presumably, she was created because the story called for someone to assassinate Brago. She's black because... why not? Planeswalkers, thanks to their ability to teleport between worlds, rarely have a narrative requirement for any particular ethnicity. Why not use that freedom to represent players?
http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/146824287208/how-much-of-current-story-was-already-decided-when#notes
http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/146825508113/how-much-of-current-story-was-already-decided#notes
http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/146827843098/to-lock-this-subject-emrakuls-presence-in-the#notes
http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/146838385153/did-you-really-mean-that-the-whole-story-of#notes
I never said anything about hard-casting it. Maybe you get the bonus 6 life at the start of the game. Neat. After that, any copies are now fodder for your choice of discard outlet, and enable a 7/7 for 3U that you can sac to reset your life total to 26.
I'd also hold open the possibility that Kaladesh could have a high-CMC theme to integrate with these last two blocks.
Though, that said, my current feelings might be skewed by the "extra" week caused by the pre-preview of Emrakul. That early showing has created an environment similar to the tedium of waiting for OGW after we saw Kozilek leaked early.
Unfortunately, this time, all we had to discuss in that week was a few legendary creatures, rather than a completely unexplained mechanic to puzzle over. If they want to start spoilers that far in advance, I'd rather they start us off with cards that are missing reminder text so that we have something worth solving.
The interesting interaction here is to have not just a single Life from the Loam, but three cards with dredge in your graveyard. Then, opt to take the two extra draws from Sylvan Library, and replace all three draws with a dredge effect. Now, there aren't any "cards in your hand drawn this turn", so the latter part of Sylvan Library has no effect, while you've self-milled several cards (and gotten the cards with dredge returned to your hand).
However, Saffi's activated ability creates a triggered ability, and the trigger is "When target creature is put into your graveyard from the battlefield this turn", which puts some practical limits on what you'd want to target. If your opponent target a creature he or she owns, the ability will work as they'd hope. If they target a creature you own, the ability will never trigger, because "you" and "your" in Saffi's ability refer to the controller of the ability - a creature that you, Blubberburg, own will never go to your opponent's graveyard.
I'll give them credit for creating cute puzzles. I won't give them credit for a non-existent "mystery".
I think the art is suffering from foreshortening, and the core blob is much further back than it might appear.
This is incorrect. A triggered ability starts with the words "when", "whenever", or "at". Myojin's ability is a replacement effect, which alters the way in which the card enters the battlefield, and which looks back in time to see where the card was cast from. While the timing is roughly similar to an ETB triggered ability, it functions in a fundamentally different way.