Marrow Shards for me: the high contrast of Raymond Swanland's art really lends itself well to foiling AND you get Elesh Norn looking all badass. Bloodfire Expert and his promo Devil's Play also warrant honourable mentions.
I'm trying to get every WB card in foil (if available), and this is one I've been unable to get hold of yet. Those stained glass wings must look spectacular.
Because we know that Lilliana's motives right now are very specific(killing her remaining demon masters and ridding herself is the Chain Veil) I see no reason for her to be on Innistrad either. It would be bad writing for Liliana to have already killed Griselbrand and then, while on the search for her next target, find out that her next demon master was there the entire time and be forced to turn her proverbial car around.
I believe and hope that Shadows Over Innistrad will have a new, mostly self contained story without Lili or the Eldrazi.
There may not be an obvious in-world reason for Lili to be on Innistrad, but as the only one of the Origins 5 to be absent from Zendikar, there is a compelling real-world reason: those 5 are going to be the focus of the story arc for a while now. We've just spent time with four of them - it's almost certain we'll have to see the fifth now for marketing reasons. And since Jace has linked Lili to Innistrad during his conversation with Ugin, on top of the link being reinforced by Origins, we know it's very much there in the mind of Creative. Something will be concocted to make her come back, though I expect it to be unrelated to the demon-slaying quest. More likely Raven Man, Jace, or just the fact they've made it a plane she feels at home on.
I've played since Ice Age and I think we can be selective with our choices from every set. There were some quite appalling pieces of art in the early years. Personally, I still find art that makes me smile in most sets. In fact, I probably have a longer list of cards I want for their art from recent sets than I do for their mechanics / abilities / whatever. Cynthia Sheppard's Thief of Blood, Anna Steinbauer's Anointer of Champions, virtually anything by Johannes Voss or Karla Ortiz. All beautifully created. And I have a collection of foil Raymond Swanland cards that is getting nearer to completion (damn you Ugin, the Spirit Dragon ). All those sit comfortably in my art folder alongside Quinton Hoover and Terese Nielsen.
I think the art is more consistent now, yes, and artists like Swanland, Nielsen and Wayne Reynolds maybe stand out more for that reason, but I wouldn't call it more cartoonish, or, subjectively, worse.
(Incidentally, I prefer Transgress the Mind to Distress, just to prove how subjective this all really is. Not that Distress is bad in any way.)
Ah black - the colour of selfish self interest. Yup, sounds perfectly suited to taking a place on a team of heroes dedicated to upholding the greater good (the greater good).
Maro has said that the Gatewatchers' oaths aren't really a cycle - they just happened to be four mono-colour walkers who ended up in it in OGW, so there's no law to say they have to add in a black walker. Personally I hope they maintain the character integrity of the black walkers and not sign any of them up. At an outside push, if Sorin were to join I think we'd get a WB oath rather than a mono-black one, but why a 6 millenia old walker who has never felt beholden to other people for anything other than his own reasons would tie himself into something so potentially limiting is beyond me. Sorin would surely go 'You know what - I've been quite happy doing my own thing thanks *for thousands of years*, so I'll be giving this one a miss.'
I just can't believe the set name wasn't deliberately chosen as a nod to Lovecraft, and we know Wizards consider the Eldrazi to be their version of Lovecraftian horrors, so I fear Emrakul is very much in line to be our Innistrad antagonist. Add to that we've been told Emrakul now has the gig of distorting living things, and the trailer hinted at distortion and some kind of corruption of Avacyn / the angels. AND we're told the story arc will span blocks a bit more now, so they could see this as a direct continuation of the BFZ / OGW storyline. Maybe the Mad Prophet wasn't so mad after all (if you can think of Emrakul as a 5-legged shrew)?
However, should Emmie not show up, both Raven Man and Ob Nixilis have potential to be present: we know Lili will be in it because Origins 5, and there's always been something a little Innistradi about Raven dude; or we know Ob would dearly love to serve vengeance on Nahiri, and Jace is meant to be Innistrad-bound in search of her and Sorin - could Ob have somehow gleaned that kind of information too? Plus he's a big ol' demon, so he'd fit in nicely. I still think Emrakul is the most likely though.
Garruk as a hypersexualised barbarian? Yeah - can't see that happening in a game aimed at 13+ I also don't really see much in the way of steampunk in MtG right now; some aspects of the Izzet and Kaladesh maybe, but otherwise... For a genre whose starting point is 'Victorian', the entirety of the MtG multiverse falls technologically too far short. I certainly can't picture steam engines or dirigibles on any other plane. But personally, I'm all for the MtG story staying centred on mediaeval / high fantasy, with influences from elsewhere thrown into that setting to taste.
I think my concern about the Gatewatch / Origins 5 focus of the current story-telling idiom is that it will become boring; over-exposure of some characters and under-exposure of others. People already complain of Jace overload. But I'm being presumptuous here; we don't actually know *how* centrally they'll weave the 5 into the longer arc, and with how much focus, or how well they'll integrate other characters along the way.
I think we do have to accept though that the arc will be aimed at a different target audience that the invested, bookish, mature Vorthoses who populate places like this. Late-teen comic book seems more likely, and we'll just have to take the bones of better storycraft from wherever we can find them, without, as Anteaterking says, becoming Spike-ish in our disdain for anything that doesn't happen to hit our own personal buttons.
I wouldn't mind the Gatewatch approach if they were made more interesting. Like this lineup of oaths and watchers:
Ashiok: For the sake of my designs, I'll keep watch.
Tamiyo: For the potential behind each horizon, I'll keep watch.
Vraska: For the survival of my ambitions, I'll keep watch.
Tibalt: Oh, I'll keep watch, I'll keep watching you, all the time....
Tezzeret: Flips them off.
Narset: Of course I will watch for the Eldrazi. They are fascinating.
Domri: Yeah, whatever!
Sarkhan: For the beauty of the multiverse, I will keep watch.
Ob Nixilis: *roars of laughter*
Sorin & Ugin: What the **** do you think we've been doing? Damned knowitall kids.
Bolas: And who do you think watches the watchers...?
I'm quite curious to hear more about Drana and the bloodchiefs. Any word on if she survives the joint Kozilek-Ulamog Sea Gate rout, what she does after that or anymore on "The Culling?"
I feel the same; Drana is one the characters I'm most interested in on Zendikar. I'm choosing to believe, from the flavour texts on Untamed Hunger and Drana's Chosen that she survived and is still commanding the Kalastrian vampires.
For me, what loxiloxus said bhogal83 said. It all feels... unlikely. Too easy. Diminishing to the older walkers. But come on, we've seen a few tiny bits of text about it all so far. I'm holding onto the good feels of the Jace & Ugin UR from BFZ for hope that they'll deliver it in a more compelling way, but right now, the conclusion feels deeply unsatisfying.
I also hate that, in life, practicality seems to always trump a good story. In this instance, it feels like valuable Hasbro IP might be making it impossible to kill Kiora and destroy Zendikar, because profit. It's like r/l practicality is intruding on my escapist fantasy. And I *really* hate that.
Ahh - thanks Evo_Kaer. I didn't have time to go back and trawl the URs. In that case, I have no idea why the moon is now silver ore instead of pure silver. Maybe a geologist has joined Creative?
Well, my extensive real-world experience of lithomancy would indicate...
Actually, maybe not. Lithomancy is clearly stone-magic, but I suppose it depends on exactly what kind of substance things like the Stoneforged Blade are made of? Can she manipulate stone to the extent of extracting metals from their ores and then doing stuff with those too? The boundary between lithomancy and metallomancy is probably quite ambiguous.
Nevertheless, I don't think the moon was ever expressed to be silver ore before, so it is a change, and the only difference it makes is to make the moon more explicitly rock than metal than it was. I can't think of any other reason for making that change.
If anything, this 'distorted' kind of demon gives me hope Emrakul *won't* be on Innistrad. Emrakul-ish-ness is more rocky, with that weird lattice type structure, maybe the glowing inner purpleness, or strangely distorted finger-like appendages that look like were given a rather generous helping of knuckles (see Vestige of Emrakul). The demon displays none of those things. In fact, the most Eldrazi-like thing about it to me is the bone structure of its wings, but other than that - nah, not very Eldrazi-ish.
Jokes aside am i the only one who thinks set symbols look too half and half now? Duel decks, BFZ, SoI. Also it looks like xenahorns
The set symbol on that spoiled demon is the Duel Decks symbol for Blessed v Cursed, not SoI.
Something I think is pertinent to potential SoI plot: we all thought the moon was silver, right? But somewhere amongst the blurb around the SoI announcement, the moon was clearly stated to be 'silver ore'. Unfortunately, I can't find the reference now. However, it has definitely changed in lore from being something metal, to something rock. You know, like, say, the stuff a lithomancer could manipulate. I know we're all pretty well expecting Nahiri to be involved, but that little change all but confirmed it for me.
I'm trying to get every WB card in foil (if available), and this is one I've been unable to get hold of yet. Those stained glass wings must look spectacular.
There may not be an obvious in-world reason for Lili to be on Innistrad, but as the only one of the Origins 5 to be absent from Zendikar, there is a compelling real-world reason: those 5 are going to be the focus of the story arc for a while now. We've just spent time with four of them - it's almost certain we'll have to see the fifth now for marketing reasons. And since Jace has linked Lili to Innistrad during his conversation with Ugin, on top of the link being reinforced by Origins, we know it's very much there in the mind of Creative. Something will be concocted to make her come back, though I expect it to be unrelated to the demon-slaying quest. More likely Raven Man, Jace, or just the fact they've made it a plane she feels at home on.
I think the art is more consistent now, yes, and artists like Swanland, Nielsen and Wayne Reynolds maybe stand out more for that reason, but I wouldn't call it more cartoonish, or, subjectively, worse.
(Incidentally, I prefer Transgress the Mind to Distress, just to prove how subjective this all really is. Not that Distress is bad in any way.)
Maro has said that the Gatewatchers' oaths aren't really a cycle - they just happened to be four mono-colour walkers who ended up in it in OGW, so there's no law to say they have to add in a black walker. Personally I hope they maintain the character integrity of the black walkers and not sign any of them up. At an outside push, if Sorin were to join I think we'd get a WB oath rather than a mono-black one, but why a 6 millenia old walker who has never felt beholden to other people for anything other than his own reasons would tie himself into something so potentially limiting is beyond me. Sorin would surely go 'You know what - I've been quite happy doing my own thing thanks *for thousands of years*, so I'll be giving this one a miss.'
However, should Emmie not show up, both Raven Man and Ob Nixilis have potential to be present: we know Lili will be in it because Origins 5, and there's always been something a little Innistradi about Raven dude; or we know Ob would dearly love to serve vengeance on Nahiri, and Jace is meant to be Innistrad-bound in search of her and Sorin - could Ob have somehow gleaned that kind of information too? Plus he's a big ol' demon, so he'd fit in nicely. I still think Emrakul is the most likely though.
I think my concern about the Gatewatch / Origins 5 focus of the current story-telling idiom is that it will become boring; over-exposure of some characters and under-exposure of others. People already complain of Jace overload. But I'm being presumptuous here; we don't actually know *how* centrally they'll weave the 5 into the longer arc, and with how much focus, or how well they'll integrate other characters along the way.
I think we do have to accept though that the arc will be aimed at a different target audience that the invested, bookish, mature Vorthoses who populate places like this. Late-teen comic book seems more likely, and we'll just have to take the bones of better storycraft from wherever we can find them, without, as Anteaterking says, becoming Spike-ish in our disdain for anything that doesn't happen to hit our own personal buttons.
Sorin & Ugin: What the **** do you think we've been doing? Damned knowitall kids.
Bolas: And who do you think watches the watchers...?
I feel the same; Drana is one the characters I'm most interested in on Zendikar. I'm choosing to believe, from the flavour texts on Untamed Hunger and Drana's Chosen that she survived and is still commanding the Kalastrian vampires.
Because they're pushing 2HG as a format in this set, so it adds to the 'your team v their team' flavour.
I also hate that, in life, practicality seems to always trump a good story. In this instance, it feels like valuable Hasbro IP might be making it impossible to kill Kiora and destroy Zendikar, because profit. It's like r/l practicality is intruding on my escapist fantasy. And I *really* hate that.
Actually, maybe not. Lithomancy is clearly stone-magic, but I suppose it depends on exactly what kind of substance things like the Stoneforged Blade are made of? Can she manipulate stone to the extent of extracting metals from their ores and then doing stuff with those too? The boundary between lithomancy and metallomancy is probably quite ambiguous.
Nevertheless, I don't think the moon was ever expressed to be silver ore before, so it is a change, and the only difference it makes is to make the moon more explicitly rock than metal than it was. I can't think of any other reason for making that change.
The set symbol on that spoiled demon is the Duel Decks symbol for Blessed v Cursed, not SoI.
Something I think is pertinent to potential SoI plot: we all thought the moon was silver, right? But somewhere amongst the blurb around the SoI announcement, the moon was clearly stated to be 'silver ore'. Unfortunately, I can't find the reference now. However, it has definitely changed in lore from being something metal, to something rock. You know, like, say, the stuff a lithomancer could manipulate. I know we're all pretty well expecting Nahiri to be involved, but that little change all but confirmed it for me.
I really need to find that reference again now.