Yeah but they put a quote of his in the guildgates and he opposes Domri while Nikya supports him. Which breaks the cycle from every other guild having two legendaries with opposing views that have quotes in the guildgates. So I don't expect consistency in GK RAV/RTR/GRNA representation when they can't keep it anywhere else.
My understanding is that Nikya does not support Domri. Although they're both set on razing the city, their philosophy is very different. Nikya is deeply spiritual and believes that the razing of the city is a sacred event, and that the full destruction of Ravnica must not begin until Ilharg appears (at which point the End-Raze will happen and the world will end). Domri's approach is entirely secular. He doesn't care about the Ilharg prophecy, and he doesn't want to bring about the end of the world: his plan is to entirely destroy the social structure of Ravnica and start society again (with the wilds restored and everyone forced into a Gruul style of living).
Eh Raff is like 18 at youngest. He hardly be in the same class as Domri and Pir.
Someone from WotC said he was still a teenager, though I don't remember who. And if it was someone who wasn't from the story team (I have a feeling it was Maro), then they might not even be right about that.
So yeah, I'm seeing, at most, 4 characters in Magic who are less than 20 years old? Not exactly "too many".
So... Pir, Domri Rade, Kari Zev and Raff Capashen? And that's... it? The only other child/teenage characters we've seen in the past decade are either dead, or snapshots of the current adult cast when they were younger.
I'm failing to see the problem with having a teenage character in Battlebond.
They can't spend any amount of money to print "good" promos -- people's expectations are just too high. If you want them to just copy-paste the most popular uncommons each Standard and then hop in their time machine and start working on that card well in advance, I can see why, but that's not going to happen because physics.
They don't know what cards are going to see the most Standard play -- they test decks that never get found and people find decks they never test. The pros are innovative and spend a lot of time in a very short period bashing Standard decks together, and the metagame usually stems from that work. So every time somebody complains "this doesn't get played!" I shrug my shoulders and think "it very well could have been."
^This
FNM promos are based off cards that saw play in Wizards' internal testing, the Future Future League. They do their best to predict what will see the most play, but it's hampered by limited testing time and the fact that they're playing with playtest cards - the cards they're using are constantly being tweaked and sometimes replaced entirely during the testing period. It may have been that Noose Constrictor was a totally bonkers card at one point when paired with another green Delirium card that later got powered down or cut entirely. There's no way for us to know, unfortunately, short of badgering WotC employees until they decide it's enough of an issue to warrant the topic of their next article.
Dark Intimations is bananas on multiplayer, though, I mean.... 2UBR to make 3 people sac a dude and discard a card, fetch 3 cards from grave and draw 3 cards is an awesome deal, even if the card is nowhere near playable in regular constructed magic.
lol.
Fetch one card and draw one. The second part doesn't scale with opponents (most "each opponent" effects don't these days).
Edit: oops, beaten to it. Should have refreshed the page before I wrote my post.
I don't know that it's amazing, but it is neat. The edict part is pretty meh, just like Remorseless Punishment, but recurring a planeswalker, drawing a card and threatening to set up a better Nicol Bolas later seems like enough value to make it worthwhile. I wouldn't jump into Grixis superfriends because of this card, but if I was already inclined towards playing Grixis, well...
Grave Titan. I had the phyrexian half of the Phyrexia vs Coalition duel deck, with a playset of Diregraf Zombie thrown in. When I found out that Grave Titan existed... I was more than a little bit excited
So is tapping to crew an effect? So is it possible to just play a creature that hss summoning sickness, and immediatey just crew a vehicle with that creature and swing with the vehicle?
Tapping the creature(s) is a cost, but it is a cost for the activated ability of the Vehicle, not the creature. So yes, it still works the way you want it to.
My guess is that the planeswalker decks will be Nissa and Saheeli in Kaladesh and Chandra and Baan in Aether Revolt. I would be somewhat surprised if we continue to see planeswalker duel decks after the Nissa vs Ob one, since it seems the planeswalker decks would fill that space fairly well, but I guess we'll have a better idea tomorrow.
...and why it says "Bane of bala ged" instead of "this creature"
I think there's something worth adding to pok_annet's answer. The reason why cards refer to themselves by name when they really mean "this permanent" is flavour driven. Having cards refer to themselves by name is more evocative. It makes you consider the creature from a lore perspective, rather than just as a card with some game mechanics printed on it. Wizards feel that this is the correct decision on their part, and is worth some occasional confusion (the current Rules Manager, Matt Tabak, has fielded this question a couple of times on his Tumblr blog).
Can't look at another player's sideboard now? The game is now literally unplayable.
Actually, I think exceptions might be made if you control another player's turn and they draw one of the old wish spells? Would you then be allowed to? I would have to assume so to prevent illegal targets. Not that this kind of thing would happen often, but I'm just saying.
To be fair, Marchesa isn't all that old - in her early 30s at most. She just prefers the styles of older women. (Mentioned in The Black Rosehttp://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/black-rose-2014-05-21)
While I didn't recognise her at first in the new artwork, after spending a bit more time comparing the art on Marchesa, the Black Rose and this new artwork of her on the throne, I don't think she actually looks all that different. I really think it's just the angle of her face and her very wide mouth when she smirks that makes them seem different.
Also, is it just me or does the color pie seem a bit looser this set? Like, how is Nissa's Judgment within pie?
Nissa's Judgement is perfectly within the colour pie. It doesn't make creatures, like Ezuri's Predation, which is a break. It only allows you to destroy your opponent's creatures if you already have creatures on the board. That's very much how green does things. So far as I can see, the only things which stretch the colour pie are Stone Haven Outfitter, which is a deliberate attempt to experiment with white's portion of the pie (the idea that maybe white can be allowed to draw cards if it's tied to very specific white strategies) and Chandra, Flamecaller who allows red to have actual permanent card advantage.
Feels like a less-obnoxious Craterhoof Behemoth to me. Not too expensive to get onto the field, strong ability, but generally wants you to wait a turn to do it (seems perfectly fair and fine to me, and creates a better feeling at the table than the more abrupt "Resolve Craterhoof Behemoth, swing you out" play). Most importantly though, it's a Goat :3
My understanding is that Nikya does not support Domri. Although they're both set on razing the city, their philosophy is very different. Nikya is deeply spiritual and believes that the razing of the city is a sacred event, and that the full destruction of Ravnica must not begin until Ilharg appears (at which point the End-Raze will happen and the world will end). Domri's approach is entirely secular. He doesn't care about the Ilharg prophecy, and he doesn't want to bring about the end of the world: his plan is to entirely destroy the social structure of Ravnica and start society again (with the wilds restored and everyone forced into a Gruul style of living).
Someone from WotC said he was still a teenager, though I don't remember who. And if it was someone who wasn't from the story team (I have a feeling it was Maro), then they might not even be right about that.
So yeah, I'm seeing, at most, 4 characters in Magic who are less than 20 years old? Not exactly "too many".
So... Pir, Domri Rade, Kari Zev and Raff Capashen? And that's... it? The only other child/teenage characters we've seen in the past decade are either dead, or snapshots of the current adult cast when they were younger.
I'm failing to see the problem with having a teenage character in Battlebond.
Edit: remembered one more
Pretty sure it's something Ryan Yee actually did himself for the prank.
Definitely an April Fools, kids, it's even tagged as such on his Tumblr.
^This
FNM promos are based off cards that saw play in Wizards' internal testing, the Future Future League. They do their best to predict what will see the most play, but it's hampered by limited testing time and the fact that they're playing with playtest cards - the cards they're using are constantly being tweaked and sometimes replaced entirely during the testing period. It may have been that Noose Constrictor was a totally bonkers card at one point when paired with another green Delirium card that later got powered down or cut entirely. There's no way for us to know, unfortunately, short of badgering WotC employees until they decide it's enough of an issue to warrant the topic of their next article.
Fetch one card and draw one. The second part doesn't scale with opponents (most "each opponent" effects don't these days).
Edit: oops, beaten to it. Should have refreshed the page before I wrote my post.
I don't know that it's amazing, but it is neat. The edict part is pretty meh, just like Remorseless Punishment, but recurring a planeswalker, drawing a card and threatening to set up a better Nicol Bolas later seems like enough value to make it worthwhile. I wouldn't jump into Grixis superfriends because of this card, but if I was already inclined towards playing Grixis, well...
Tapping the creature(s) is a cost, but it is a cost for the activated ability of the Vehicle, not the creature. So yes, it still works the way you want it to.
No, the Chandra planeswalker deck is for Kaladesh, not Aether Revolt. They even showed us the packaging for the deck back in May. (http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/ramp-approval-2016-05-16)
I think there's something worth adding to pok_annet's answer. The reason why cards refer to themselves by name when they really mean "this permanent" is flavour driven. Having cards refer to themselves by name is more evocative. It makes you consider the creature from a lore perspective, rather than just as a card with some game mechanics printed on it. Wizards feel that this is the correct decision on their part, and is worth some occasional confusion (the current Rules Manager, Matt Tabak, has fielded this question a couple of times on his Tumblr blog).
Nope, the spell just resolves with no effect. http://tabakrules.tumblr.com/post/147598104424/so-with-the-updates-to-the-tournament-rules-to-no
While I didn't recognise her at first in the new artwork, after spending a bit more time comparing the art on Marchesa, the Black Rose and this new artwork of her on the throne, I don't think she actually looks all that different. I really think it's just the angle of her face and her very wide mouth when she smirks that makes them seem different.
Nissa's Judgement is perfectly within the colour pie. It doesn't make creatures, like Ezuri's Predation, which is a break. It only allows you to destroy your opponent's creatures if you already have creatures on the board. That's very much how green does things. So far as I can see, the only things which stretch the colour pie are Stone Haven Outfitter, which is a deliberate attempt to experiment with white's portion of the pie (the idea that maybe white can be allowed to draw cards if it's tied to very specific white strategies) and Chandra, Flamecaller who allows red to have actual permanent card advantage.