Death has a funny meaning in the world of MTG. Let's take Jeska as an example. She died and became Phage, who died and became Karona, who was killed and became Jeska Planeswalker, who then died AGAIN and should now be actually dead. And that's a character who didn't have any link to necromancy.
Jeska was turned to Phage by the Patriarch of the Cabal, which dealt in necromancy. Since then, she's been tainted with black magic. She's also one of the few characters in the Magic storyline that are brought back. But when you talk about a fantasy setting where necromancy exists, you shouldn't be surprised.
Also, Yawgmoth is the big daddy of necromancers, bringing every dead Dominarian to life as he entered the plane.
The reason I hate the change to "battlefield" is simple: It's what they use to denote the play zone in Yu-Gi-Oh and I don't want to be embarked on the same boat as they are.
I remember seeing this rumored around here, but I thought it was nice to have confirmation. Anyway, I was looking for some D&D info today, and came across this in the product page. I'm definitely going to pick this up as I don't have The Thran nor The Brother's War and they're pretty hard to come by.
Being sentient means being self-aware. If dragons aren't self-aware, they'd have a serious survival issue.
To answer the original question: He doesn't. It would just be too awkward for them to print "When Karrthus comes into play, gain control of all Dragon creature cards from the Shards of Alara block." Besides, why does it matter? I thought it had been made quite clear recently that the game has stopped focusing on any flavor but rather on being a game.
The reminder text for Bituminous Blast is really awkward:
When you play this spell, remove the top cards of your library from the game until you remove a nonland card that costs less. You may play that card without paying its mana cost. Put the removed cards on the bottom of your library at random.
Costs less than what? I see problems arising with this wording. The reason for this is quite obvious though, they couldn't fit "cad that costs less than this spell" in. I mean, look at the length of that! I bet all the Cascade cards will have really simple/short effects, or some will have no reminder text at all.
If this flavor text was found on an Onslaught block Sliver, chances are Rukarumel was a wizard researcher over at the Riptide labs, where they brought Slivers back from fossils, Jurassic Park style. Of course, this was never even slightly mentioned in the books, but you can sort of gather it from the cards.
I've been reading away at Watchmen over the past week and I'm just amazed at how good it is. Really. Incredible exploration of the characters' psychs. I can't wait to get on with it!
I'm not sure, definitely one of the novels from Invasion block ;).
All of them? I can't imagine that. Where are the world-sould of Rabiah, Mercadia, Ulgrotha or Ravnica then?
So little time was spent on those planes that the storyline didn't really get into it. Besides, when the story went to those planes, it had more important things to do than to mention what the world soul was and all the little details.
Think of it as Shiv phasing back into Dominaria. Teferi had to guide it back into place, and even that wasn't without it's problems. Now imagine 5 worlds phasing back together, not one into the other, but together, without a clear space to go. The shards aren't like jigsaw pieces, they are worlds on their own, they don't "just fit".
The dagger was contaminated with phthisis if I remember correctly. In any case, and as mentioned above, Dyfed was stabbed in her center of consciousness, which is basically where her "spark" was located. Urza explains this in Apocalypse when he gets his head cut off by Gerrard but is still alive, albeit unable to regenerate his body because of the blade used.
Jeska was turned to Phage by the Patriarch of the Cabal, which dealt in necromancy. Since then, she's been tainted with black magic. She's also one of the few characters in the Magic storyline that are brought back. But when you talk about a fantasy setting where necromancy exists, you shouldn't be surprised.
Also, Yawgmoth is the big daddy of necromancers, bringing every dead Dominarian to life as he entered the plane.
Not much to discuss, just giving the heads up.
To answer the original question: He doesn't. It would just be too awkward for them to print "When Karrthus comes into play, gain control of all Dragon creature cards from the Shards of Alara block." Besides, why does it matter? I thought it had been made quite clear recently that the game has stopped focusing on any flavor but rather on being a game.
Costs less than what? I see problems arising with this wording. The reason for this is quite obvious though, they couldn't fit "cad that costs less than this spell" in. I mean, look at the length of that! I bet all the Cascade cards will have really simple/short effects, or some will have no reminder text at all.
If it's not from Onslaught block, I have no clue.
Mistvein = mist + vein
Veinfire = vein + fire
Firewild = fire + wild
Wildfield = wild + field
Fieldmist = field + mist
From this, and if darkhiroki is correct, we can assume that:
Mist = Esper
Vein = Grixis
Field = Bant
Fire = Jund
Wild = Naya
And so:
Mistvein = Esper-Grixis
Fieldmist = Esper-Bant
Wildfield = Bant-Naya
Firewild = Naya-Jund
Veinfire = Jund -Grixis
So little time was spent on those planes that the storyline didn't really get into it. Besides, when the story went to those planes, it had more important things to do than to mention what the world soul was and all the little details.
Planeswalkers are mortals now.