Again, that's not the reason at all. Only the knights in the sun empire don't kill personally. They kill through dinosaur to show their mastery over their beast companions.
And I find that to be bullox, especially when Hualti shows up she always reminds us about "I dun kill."
Also, as Etherium Sage said, the creative team has stated in the past that they didn't want any one force in this conflict to be "good" or "bad". It's all supposed to be various shades of grey.
and I am saying that they failed in what they were going for, the Vampires were not grey.
after people show you that you're wrong by quoting or linking to articles etc.
If you have to link articles where the authors have to tell us that the conflict is supposed to be shades of grey instead of that coming across in the actual story that proves that they didn't get the shades of grey correct in the actual story.
You can empathize with the Vampires because they are addicted to blood and are trying to get over their addiction. I don’t know if you know anyone in your life who has struggled with addiction, but I empathize with the Vampires more than any other tribe.
Only my Mother, My father, my Step Father, My Step Brother. Effectively my entire family, but that doesn't mean WOTC didn't completely drop the ball on making the Vampires look morally grey.
Edit : And the fact that the Vampires want the Sun to sate their "addiction" sort of undercuts the empathy because it just sort of means they want the Ultimate High and they only got addicted in the first place to get the Sun back in the first place.
I think one thing that adds a touch of grey to the vampire's that may have been a little overlooked, is the blood fasting.
It's not something they do to have fun, or to get stronger.
It's excruciating, it drives them insane, they have to resist their most basic instincts until it completely overwhelms them and takes control.
Why do this?
MORALITY.
Most of the vampires here do not enjoy killing. (With the exception of Vona, but they've stressed not all are like her.) They don't kill innocents, they are strict about who the feed one only those guilty of a crime. If they don't have guilty people they don't eat.
Many of the vampires also regularly willingly bloodfast for as long as they can.
Granted we didn't see many stories from the vampire point of view, and Vona seemed to overshadow his, but we did get a story about a fasting vampire. There was also plenty of this info in the planeswalkers guide to Ixalan.
Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there.
Those Sphinx deck boxes!! We haven't seen any sphinxes on Ixalan. The text says the art is from Ixalan.
Could it be Crucius?? Or maybe another Sphinx planeswalkers?
Check Amazon. They sometimes have full art/alternate art/and regular art proxies.
I picked up an Angus Mackenzie for 6 bucks that is exactly like the real card front and back. Except the color isn't as faded as an original would be.
I typically don't use proxies unless I intend to buy the real thing, and then I'd usually just print em. These are worth it for extremely pricey cards, and for a card like gwendlyn that should not be 60 to 70 bucks it's really the only way to go.
Gwendlyn Di Corci
She's not the best legend, but discard at random isn't awful. She was errated into a rogue, and that adds red for Artifact hate.
I doubt she'd be better than Marchesa, but it was the only idea I had.
Immortal Sun 9
Legendary Artifact
Your life total cannot change.
Creatures and Planeswalkers you control have indestructible.
If a planeswalker you control would be put into the graveyard with no loyalty counters on it, exile it. At the end of your turn return it to the battlefield.
(I assume planeswalkers with indestructible would still go to a graveyard with no loyalty counters, like creatures getting -X-Xed.)
Well first off I diden't see dilophosaurus in ixalan 1 which saddened me the closest thing was sun-crowned hunters
Next up I diden't see any duck billed dinosaurs in this so I should exspect one of those catergoried dinosaurs in ixalan 2
Next up with the heck diden't they make a allosaurus in ixalan 1 I hope to see one in 2
I diden't see a iguanodon either which saddened me hope to see one here
A Lambeosaurus would be a nice sight on a card
We got oviraptor what about the Struthiomimus?
And ofcoarse Parasaurolophus we got teased with ranging raptors since one of those is the prey of those guys.
Great suggestions!! They could definitely make a lambeosaur look amazing and colorful in this next set.
I was thinking Thundering Spineback was an iguanadon, but I could be wrong.
I just want to see a colorless or very color light (ideally colorless) Dino with a high cmc and some serious impact. If it were strong, I could see replacing Wurmcoil in Tron because Commune with Dinosaurs just has so much potential.
I could see a colorless dino, if it turns out Ugin is a big part of the plot. It'd be a stretch though.
Why do people keep mentioning Ugin?
Is there a reason to believe he will be involved?
It's all just speculation, but there's a few things.
1. Binding magic is his specialty, and there seems to a lot of binding magic in play.
2. Dinosaurs have feathers and so does he.
3. A winged beast took the immortal sun from the vampires.
Not conclusive evidence by any means but it's a fun theory. I think he'd make a great Quetzalcoatl.
I think the bloodthirst would be interesting and on theme. With Dinos but also with the Vamps. That or more fighting-based mechanics for the Dinos to work with the enrage tech.
I hadn't thought of bloodthirst, but it does make flavor sense. For both tribes really, especially vamps in the middle of a blood fast.
2. Dilophosaurus. The spitting dinosaur from Jurassic Park. Now there's no fossil evidence for it's spitting ability, but that's what everyone thinks of when they think of this dinosaur. I think it's too iconic for them not to design a card around this.
I was wondering if we'd get a death touch Dinosaur and I think a Dilophosaurus could fit that with the spitting.
3. Procompsognathus. Compies!! These little scavengers would make a great card. I can see them being. something like a graveyard based scute mob, as creatures die the swarm grows.
Idk about Procompsognathus since Ranging Raptors seems to have stolen the pop culture trope of them.
4 Archaeoptryx. I could see this being Mana producing dinosaur. Maybe:
1G creature-dinosaur, 0/1
Tap add either WG, GR, or RW to your Mana pool use this Mana only to cast Dinosaur spells.
With using the bright and/or tropical colored feathers for the Dinosaurs I think an Archaeoptryx as a "fixed" birds of paradise would be cool. Maybe its GW to justify having flying?
Personally I could see less rexes and raptors and more of the other types of Dinos simplely cause (imo) the better dinosaur cards feature raptors or rexes.
For the compies I was thinking something along the lines of a cheap monogreen or red green creature with whenever a creature dies put a +1/+1 counter on it.
I could definitely see less rexes and raptors as well. There's just not that many iconic carnivores to replace them with. We did already get one spinesaurus.
I just want to see a colorless or very color light (ideally colorless) Dino with a high cmc and some serious impact. If it were strong, I could see replacing Wurmcoil in Tron because Commune with Dinosaurs just has so much potential.
I could see a colorless dino, if it turns out Ugin is a big part of the plot. It'd be a stretch though.
In Ixalan we got a good variation of different species of dinosaur. Mainly Tyrannosaurs, Sauropods, Raptors, and Cerasaurs.
In rivals we're likely to get more, so I thought I'd make a thread sharing my predictions, and see if anyone has any more.
1. Parasaurolophus. We saw on in Ixalan, however it was just prey for Ranging Raptors im sure this species will be represented in RoI.
2. Dilophosaurus. The spitting dinosaur from Jurassic Park. Now there's no fossil evidence for it's spitting ability, but that's what everyone thinks of when they think of this dinosaur. I think it's too iconic for them not to design a card around this.
3. Procompsognathus. Compies!! These little scavengers would make a great card. I can see them being. something like a graveyard based scute mob, as creatures die the swarm grows.
4. Archaeoptryx. I could see this being Mana producing dinosaur. Maybe:
1G creature-dinosaur, 0/1
Tap add either WG, GR, or RW to your Mana pool use this Mana only to cast Dinosaur spells.
5. Baryonyx. This one's a little far fetched. I was trying to think of a large carnivore. It's a cool dino, but I just don't think many people would recognize it.
As far as returning Dinosaurs breeds, we will certainly have more raptors and rexes. My only prediction here is that we get more Stegosaurs, and less Cerasaurs. Their roles seem very interchangable.
I've got one last prediction: a dinosaur flipland. Basically the idea is a dinosaur graveyard.
Wonunded Ceratops- 2WW
Creature Dinosaur
At the beginning of your upkeep put a -1/-1 counter on wounded Ceratops. When it dies if it had at least 3 -1/-1 counters transform it.
-----
Ceratops graveyard.
Land
Whenever a dinosaur you controls dies you may exile it and add a bone counter to Ceratops graveyard.
Tap- add either a W,G, or R.
Tap- remove x bone counters from Ceratops graveyard. Add x to your Mana pool.
Technically it's. Magic the gathering: Explorers of Ixalan.
If you look at the side of box the MTG logo is right above the title.
So they could come back with something like, Magic the gathering: explorers of zendikar. Or just mix up the title with different planes/theme.
Magic the gathering: excavating Amonkhet. I doubt if they do another hex tile game it'll have the same goal of discovering a lost city.
But the amonkhet archaeology would be good. Finding artifacts, tombs, and traps that help or hurt you when you flip.
I'm sure there are 1000 ways to make the hex tiles fun and interesting.
I wouldn't mind getting the emperor over another dino, as long he has a dino centric ability. I wouldn't mind him being white, with a red/green ability to make room for one more dino legend though.
I think pirates will have at least two more legends one being red/blue, the other blue/black.
Vamps should get a mono black legend and merfolk a mono green.
I actually am hoping that Ajani isn't in rivals and was just used a placeholder to keep a secret.
If Angrath is red/black (which I very much think he will be, Mardu wouldn't be bad colors for him but I just don't see that happening) then I don't see them hitting the same color balance we had in Ixalan without having a third walker.
Destruction could be white in this case. In fact wakening sun's avatar "destroys" all non-dinosaur creatures. White has long been associated with mass destroy effects.
That would mean red=creativity, white=destruction, and green=sustenance.
I think one thing that adds a touch of grey to the vampire's that may have been a little overlooked, is the blood fasting.
It's not something they do to have fun, or to get stronger.
It's excruciating, it drives them insane, they have to resist their most basic instincts until it completely overwhelms them and takes control.
Why do this?
MORALITY.
Most of the vampires here do not enjoy killing. (With the exception of Vona, but they've stressed not all are like her.) They don't kill innocents, they are strict about who the feed one only those guilty of a crime. If they don't have guilty people they don't eat.
Many of the vampires also regularly willingly bloodfast for as long as they can.
Granted we didn't see many stories from the vampire point of view, and Vona seemed to overshadow his, but we did get a story about a fasting vampire. There was also plenty of this info in the planeswalkers guide to Ixalan.
Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there.
The Sphinx is sitting atop a golden ledge. He's gotta be in Orazca
Could it be Crucius?? Or maybe another Sphinx planeswalkers?
I picked up an Angus Mackenzie for 6 bucks that is exactly like the real card front and back. Except the color isn't as faded as an original would be.
I typically don't use proxies unless I intend to buy the real thing, and then I'd usually just print em. These are worth it for extremely pricey cards, and for a card like gwendlyn that should not be 60 to 70 bucks it's really the only way to go.
She's not the best legend, but discard at random isn't awful. She was errated into a rogue, and that adds red for Artifact hate.
I doubt she'd be better than Marchesa, but it was the only idea I had.
Legendary Artifact
Your life total cannot change.
Creatures and Planeswalkers you control have indestructible.
If a planeswalker you control would be put into the graveyard with no loyalty counters on it, exile it. At the end of your turn return it to the battlefield.
(I assume planeswalkers with indestructible would still go to a graveyard with no loyalty counters, like creatures getting -X-Xed.)
Great suggestions!! They could definitely make a lambeosaur look amazing and colorful in this next set.
I was thinking Thundering Spineback was an iguanadon, but I could be wrong.
It's all just speculation, but there's a few things.
1. Binding magic is his specialty, and there seems to a lot of binding magic in play.
2. Dinosaurs have feathers and so does he.
3. A winged beast took the immortal sun from the vampires.
Not conclusive evidence by any means but it's a fun theory. I think he'd make a great Quetzalcoatl.
That would really be awesome.
I hadn't thought of bloodthirst, but it does make flavor sense. For both tribes really, especially vamps in the middle of a blood fast.
For the compies I was thinking something along the lines of a cheap monogreen or red green creature with whenever a creature dies put a +1/+1 counter on it.
I could definitely see less rexes and raptors as well. There's just not that many iconic carnivores to replace them with. We did already get one spinesaurus.
I could see a colorless dino, if it turns out Ugin is a big part of the plot. It'd be a stretch though.
In rivals we're likely to get more, so I thought I'd make a thread sharing my predictions, and see if anyone has any more.
1. Parasaurolophus. We saw on in Ixalan, however it was just prey for Ranging Raptors im sure this species will be represented in RoI.
2. Dilophosaurus. The spitting dinosaur from Jurassic Park. Now there's no fossil evidence for it's spitting ability, but that's what everyone thinks of when they think of this dinosaur. I think it's too iconic for them not to design a card around this.
3. Procompsognathus. Compies!! These little scavengers would make a great card. I can see them being. something like a graveyard based scute mob, as creatures die the swarm grows.
4. Archaeoptryx. I could see this being Mana producing dinosaur. Maybe:
1G creature-dinosaur, 0/1
Tap add either WG, GR, or RW to your Mana pool use this Mana only to cast Dinosaur spells.
5. Baryonyx. This one's a little far fetched. I was trying to think of a large carnivore. It's a cool dino, but I just don't think many people would recognize it.
As far as returning Dinosaurs breeds, we will certainly have more raptors and rexes. My only prediction here is that we get more Stegosaurs, and less Cerasaurs. Their roles seem very interchangable.
I've got one last prediction: a dinosaur flipland. Basically the idea is a dinosaur graveyard.
Wonunded Ceratops- 2WW
Creature Dinosaur
At the beginning of your upkeep put a -1/-1 counter on wounded Ceratops. When it dies if it had at least 3 -1/-1 counters transform it.
-----
Ceratops graveyard.
Land
Whenever a dinosaur you controls dies you may exile it and add a bone counter to Ceratops graveyard.
Tap- add either a W,G, or R.
Tap- remove x bone counters from Ceratops graveyard. Add x to your Mana pool.
If you look at the side of box the MTG logo is right above the title.
So they could come back with something like, Magic the gathering: explorers of zendikar. Or just mix up the title with different planes/theme.
Magic the gathering: excavating Amonkhet. I doubt if they do another hex tile game it'll have the same goal of discovering a lost city.
But the amonkhet archaeology would be good. Finding artifacts, tombs, and traps that help or hurt you when you flip.
I'm sure there are 1000 ways to make the hex tiles fun and interesting.
I think pirates will have at least two more legends one being red/blue, the other blue/black.
Vamps should get a mono black legend and merfolk a mono green.
I actually am hoping that Ajani isn't in rivals and was just used a placeholder to keep a secret.
If Angrath is red/black (which I very much think he will be, Mardu wouldn't be bad colors for him but I just don't see that happening) then I don't see them hitting the same color balance we had in Ixalan without having a third walker.
That would mean red=creativity, white=destruction, and green=sustenance.