Besides anthems, replacement effects that let creatures enter the battlefield with additional +1/+1 counters (like Master Biomancer) will also keep your clone alive.
Those lands look really nice, but I think they went a bit over the top with the Bolas horns...
They're too dominating for my taste, way more than the hedrons in most Zendikar land arts.
On the other hand, how are the prospects of getting ~1/4th of the pack lands as full art in general for future sets?
If they go that route, it seems quite reasonable to give them a more specific flavor for each set.
The mana ability and all included mana symbols are part of Noble Hierarch's rules text, not reminder text.
Reminder text is just the cursive text in parentheses after a keyword, so in case of the hierarch the explanation what exalted does.
So no, it's not legal.
edit: one instance where a mana symbol is in fact part of some cards reminder text is extort, so i.e. a Basilica Screecher can be played in a mono black EDH/Commander deck
If the wrapping is damaged, the box can't be considered factory sealed anymore, so you don't get what you ordered.
Might not make an actual difference for you personally, as long as you plan to open it anyway and trust the shop to not have changed the contets - but in general this is not acceptable.
In any case, bring your concerns to the shop owner's attention. You might just be slightly bothered, but for others this will be more of a problem.
What I fear happens: Wizards transitions MTG to an online-only game and abandons the physical entirely, introducing tons of RNG effects that no one likes except their inbred focus groups.
That's an absolutely worst case scenario that I can't see happening.
Magic is for physical TCGs what WoW is for MMORPGs, there is no way they would abandon a leading position in the market like that anytime soon.
It sounds like they might shift their online branch to some kind of 'magic light' though.
In any case that poses a very delicate act of balancing. If done well, this could improve the mtg online experience greatly, otherwise might just kill it.
What they should do imo is some quality of life stuff just to support a better 'flow' of the game, without really sacrificing complexity for playability.
Worst route they could go would be dumbing things down to Hearthstone levels - works well enough for blizzards approach (since it was built that way from scratch), but would basically neglect a lot of what makes Magic appealing.
In the end we have to wait and see. Let's hope they won't be tempted by the prospect of attracting a new online audience enough to alienate their actual playerbase.
The confusion here might be because of how mill works.
When you have to mill (put cards from your library directly to the grave) more cards than you have left in your library, that doesn't cause you to lose - only the next attempted draw (usually on your next draw step) will.
Magic is a vastly diffenrent game than hearthstone. You have a lot more options and can interact with your oponent's plays far better.
As has been said - if you like it, give it a shot. You don't have to buy heavily into cards just to get started and get a feeling for the game and how it works for you.
I think the most important thing is to find others to play with that won't just stomp you with years of experience and refined decks, but engage you on a level playing field and teach you a thing or two.
And that is a lot easier to do in Magic - the social aspect is more important here imo (at least if you're looking at paper magic, I have no personal experience with mtgo).
I consider adding a Treasure Keeper - since it 'cascades' on death there is a decent chance to get a hatebear out on an oponent's turn when blocking with it and triggering Ephara that way.
Not too happy with the randomness, but there aren't that many chances for it to whiff. Even a spell queller without a target would at least be another flyer to carry a sword (and could be bounced to use later). Hitting unneeded removal would be worst case, but in a multiplayer game there should be a somewhat valuable target most of the time, and at least you won't wipe the board by accident with cmc 3 or less.
Trophy Mage is pretty much an auto include for me - getting curio or a sword is absoluteley enough to justify a slot for her imo.
Since we have guildgates, alara tri-lands and fetches in the set, drafting bant or other shards should be quite reasonable.
They're too dominating for my taste, way more than the hedrons in most Zendikar land arts.
On the other hand, how are the prospects of getting ~1/4th of the pack lands as full art in general for future sets?
If they go that route, it seems quite reasonable to give them a more specific flavor for each set.
Reminder text is just the cursive text in parentheses after a keyword, so in case of the hierarch the explanation what exalted does.
So no, it's not legal.
edit: one instance where a mana symbol is in fact part of some cards reminder text is extort, so i.e. a Basilica Screecher can be played in a mono black EDH/Commander deck
Might not make an actual difference for you personally, as long as you plan to open it anyway and trust the shop to not have changed the contets - but in general this is not acceptable.
In any case, bring your concerns to the shop owner's attention. You might just be slightly bothered, but for others this will be more of a problem.
That's an absolutely worst case scenario that I can't see happening.
Magic is for physical TCGs what WoW is for MMORPGs, there is no way they would abandon a leading position in the market like that anytime soon.
It sounds like they might shift their online branch to some kind of 'magic light' though.
In any case that poses a very delicate act of balancing. If done well, this could improve the mtg online experience greatly, otherwise might just kill it.
What they should do imo is some quality of life stuff just to support a better 'flow' of the game, without really sacrificing complexity for playability.
Worst route they could go would be dumbing things down to Hearthstone levels - works well enough for blizzards approach (since it was built that way from scratch), but would basically neglect a lot of what makes Magic appealing.
In the end we have to wait and see. Let's hope they won't be tempted by the prospect of attracting a new online audience enough to alienate their actual playerbase.
When you have to mill (put cards from your library directly to the grave) more cards than you have left in your library, that doesn't cause you to lose - only the next attempted draw (usually on your next draw step) will.
As has been said - if you like it, give it a shot. You don't have to buy heavily into cards just to get started and get a feeling for the game and how it works for you.
I think the most important thing is to find others to play with that won't just stomp you with years of experience and refined decks, but engage you on a level playing field and teach you a thing or two.
And that is a lot easier to do in Magic - the social aspect is more important here imo (at least if you're looking at paper magic, I have no personal experience with mtgo).
Not too happy with the randomness, but there aren't that many chances for it to whiff. Even a spell queller without a target would at least be another flyer to carry a sword (and could be bounced to use later). Hitting unneeded removal would be worst case, but in a multiplayer game there should be a somewhat valuable target most of the time, and at least you won't wipe the board by accident with cmc 3 or less.
Trophy Mage is pretty much an auto include for me - getting curio or a sword is absoluteley enough to justify a slot for her imo.
Also, flavor text translates to 'catch me if you can'
hand of seven cardspiece of artI guess my next one won't take too long: