Getting enemy-color Commander decks is a pretty exciting prospect, especially after C14 was such a home run.
There's lots to speculate and get excited about:
- Will these be headlined by planeswalkers as well?
- Some of the common guild themes already exist as Commander decks: Izzet's spell-matters with Jelava, Orzhov's life gain/drain with Oloro, Golgari's graveyard-matters with The Mimeoplasm. Will these decks revisit those themes or go elsewhere? What other themes might be appropriate?
- Which "returning legends" will be included? Any chance it will be the gods, Keranos and company?
- I like the idea of finishing the Mirage fetch cycle, especially if they concept them as looking like they came from Jamuraa. I like completed cycles as well as enemy-themed nonbasics. What else could they do? The Sungrass Prairie cycle from Odyssey?
Whether or not you think it's good art (which is strictly a matter of opinion), you have to acknowledge the sheer amount of nonbasics arts they had to commission for this set:
5 slowlands
5 enemy manlands (*could be spread out 3-2 with Oath)
20 full-art basics
2+ other nonbasics (Evolving Wilds, Shrine of the Forsaken Gods)
10 shocks (expedition)
10 fetches (expedition)
5 slowlands (expedition)
That's got to be a record.
If you like them, it's a feat. If you don't like them, well, they had to come up with a million.
I wasn't pleased with what I read in Maro's article today.
On the topic of Rise of Eldrazi Limited:
The end result was the creation a Limited environment that was unlike any other. If you could figure out what was going on, there was all sorts of offbeat gameplay. But if you didn't, the Limited gameplay was filled with traps that would result in your deck disastrously not working. Putting a simple thing like a 2/2 creature for two in your deck, which normally was functional, became a mistake. The end result of all this is that the audience diverged greatly on Rise of the Eldrazi. The enfranchised Limited players loved it. It was different and quirky and rewarded skill. The less enfranchised players hated it. They didn't understand what was going on and would always lose with game states that were painfully unfun.
I think of ROE as one of the best, if not THE best, Limited formats of all time. Many pros put it in their top lists.
It's pretty disheartening to see WOTC's interpretation of it as "quirky" and unfriendly to new drafters, instead of them feeling like "we captured lightning in a bottle that time." Really dampens my hopes of BFZ recapturing the old magic.
Maybe making these playable in Limited was a very bad call.
I don't disagree with your other points, but I think they basically had to make them Limited playable. Having convoluted rules where some cards in your booster are able to be used in Draft/Sealed and others are not is even worse.
Imagine trying to explain that to a casual: sorry buddy! You can't play the land you drafted that slightly improves your manabase!
Also, the presence of these, rare as they are, will occasionally be cool in some tiny percentage of games.
"Kiora, the Rising Tide" and "Ob Nixilis, Demon of Spite" are very likely the names of their respective cards
I've added those names to the crunch
Do we reason to expect three planeswalkers in BFZ? Two is normal in a large set. If we don't know specifically to expect three, then we could theoretically see Ob Nixilis in whatever set follows BFZ.
Wow, major info here. This is the first real insight into what to expect this block.
The small Eldrazi are executed very differently here. ROE had some little Drones (Nest Invader, etc), but they served mostly to ramp up to the big guys.
These devoid guys feel a lot more aggro than ramp this time.
Between Sower and now Ingest guys, Eldrazi seem to feed on the opponent's library instead of annihilating this time.
Interesting that Veteran Warleader is an Ally that doesn't have an Ally trigger (like Stonework Puma). I'm guessing we'll get a split of Allies with Ally triggers and guys who are just named Ally to enable them.
Awaken seems cool. Good flavor: kicker to animate a land.
I also want to take a moment to appreciate how weird and cool the gold/colorless Eldrazi border looks.
I'd be kinda annoyed if it followed the same 'break free of Bolas plot' too closely with Sarkhan
Thanks for all the flavor knowledge. When I read up on Test of Metal, I was too confused to know what to make of it.
I agree with the notion that this should not just be another straightforward redemption arc for Tezzeret. It's too boring and predictable to follow Sarkhan so closely, especially since they had such similar starting points.
And just comparing them in terms of character, I really don't think Sarkhan was ever a bad dude (just crazy), whereas Tezzeret sort of IS. Even aside from being manipulated from Bolas, he's selfish, wrathful, and scheming. He'd make a fine villain on his own; maybe the block could explore him coming into his own right as one. Either way, for at least the sake of variety, I hope his return wouldn't be another straightforward redemption.
Tezzeret's appearance on the MM2015 spoiler leads me to believe he'll be the central character of an upcoming block (possibly the one after BFZ).
The original Modern Masters included Elspeth, Knight Errant and Sarkhan Vol. Both were fairly off the radar at the time (much like Tezzeret is now) but then were the headliners of Theros and Khans of Tarkir.
In a lot of ways, Tezzeret has a similar trajectory to Sarkhan. Both first appeared in Shards of Alara. Both fell into the service of Nicol Bolas. Both made a second appearance in a later block as minions of Bolas, now with black mana as part of their color identities.
We last saw Tezzeret in New Phyrexia, but I'll defer to the flavor gurus on whether Test of Metal precedes or follows those events. We had last seen Sarkhan on Zendikar, but the block he headlined was elsewhere. A new Tezzeret-centered block could be set anywhere.
Hmm. Of all the possible answers I could get when I posted this poll, I never would have guessed the longshot of Sarkhan vs. Sarkhan would be getting so much support.
There's lots to speculate and get excited about:
- Will these be headlined by planeswalkers as well?
- Some of the common guild themes already exist as Commander decks: Izzet's spell-matters with Jelava, Orzhov's life gain/drain with Oloro, Golgari's graveyard-matters with The Mimeoplasm. Will these decks revisit those themes or go elsewhere? What other themes might be appropriate?
- Which "returning legends" will be included? Any chance it will be the gods, Keranos and company?
- I like the idea of finishing the Mirage fetch cycle, especially if they concept them as looking like they came from Jamuraa. I like completed cycles as well as enemy-themed nonbasics. What else could they do? The Sungrass Prairie cycle from Odyssey?
5 slowlands
5 enemy manlands (*could be spread out 3-2 with Oath)
20 full-art basics
2+ other nonbasics (Evolving Wilds, Shrine of the Forsaken Gods)
10 shocks (expedition)
10 fetches (expedition)
5 slowlands (expedition)
That's got to be a record.
If you like them, it's a feat. If you don't like them, well, they had to come up with a million.
On the topic of Rise of Eldrazi Limited:
I think of ROE as one of the best, if not THE best, Limited formats of all time. Many pros put it in their top lists.
It's pretty disheartening to see WOTC's interpretation of it as "quirky" and unfriendly to new drafters, instead of them feeling like "we captured lightning in a bottle that time." Really dampens my hopes of BFZ recapturing the old magic.
I don't disagree with your other points, but I think they basically had to make them Limited playable. Having convoluted rules where some cards in your booster are able to be used in Draft/Sealed and others are not is even worse.
Imagine trying to explain that to a casual: sorry buddy! You can't play the land you drafted that slightly improves your manabase!
Also, the presence of these, rare as they are, will occasionally be cool in some tiny percentage of games.
Btw, do we know yet if these will exist on MODO?
25 cards that people actually want (well, we'll see about the slowlands)?
New art? Full-art frame? New sweet hedron border? We finally get to see shocklands set somewhere other than Ravnica?
It's pure upside. There could just be no promotion and this would just be another common in your pack. Why are there endless pages of complaining?
"Slowlands" is intuitive and obvious, an easy choice.
Do we reason to expect three planeswalkers in BFZ? Two is normal in a large set. If we don't know specifically to expect three, then we could theoretically see Ob Nixilis in whatever set follows BFZ.
"[name] enters the battlefield tapped unless you control two or more other lands."
This is probably modest in power enough that it could be a true dual with both land types (Plains Island), obviously ideal in a format with fetches.
The small Eldrazi are executed very differently here. ROE had some little Drones (Nest Invader, etc), but they served mostly to ramp up to the big guys.
These devoid guys feel a lot more aggro than ramp this time.
Between Sower and now Ingest guys, Eldrazi seem to feed on the opponent's library instead of annihilating this time.
Interesting that Veteran Warleader is an Ally that doesn't have an Ally trigger (like Stonework Puma). I'm guessing we'll get a split of Allies with Ally triggers and guys who are just named Ally to enable them.
Awaken seems cool. Good flavor: kicker to animate a land.
I also want to take a moment to appreciate how weird and cool the gold/colorless Eldrazi border looks.
Thanks for all the flavor knowledge. When I read up on Test of Metal, I was too confused to know what to make of it.
I agree with the notion that this should not just be another straightforward redemption arc for Tezzeret. It's too boring and predictable to follow Sarkhan so closely, especially since they had such similar starting points.
And just comparing them in terms of character, I really don't think Sarkhan was ever a bad dude (just crazy), whereas Tezzeret sort of IS. Even aside from being manipulated from Bolas, he's selfish, wrathful, and scheming. He'd make a fine villain on his own; maybe the block could explore him coming into his own right as one. Either way, for at least the sake of variety, I hope his return wouldn't be another straightforward redemption.
The original Modern Masters included Elspeth, Knight Errant and Sarkhan Vol. Both were fairly off the radar at the time (much like Tezzeret is now) but then were the headliners of Theros and Khans of Tarkir.
In a lot of ways, Tezzeret has a similar trajectory to Sarkhan. Both first appeared in Shards of Alara. Both fell into the service of Nicol Bolas. Both made a second appearance in a later block as minions of Bolas, now with black mana as part of their color identities.
We last saw Tezzeret in New Phyrexia, but I'll defer to the flavor gurus on whether Test of Metal precedes or follows those events. We had last seen Sarkhan on Zendikar, but the block he headlined was elsewhere. A new Tezzeret-centered block could be set anywhere.