The raptor would only be a plant if there's some considerable lizard tribal going on in the hypothetical pre-historic block. Not that unlikely, but I'm not sure a single card that could maybe hint towards a theme that could maybe be in a block seems a bit farfetched. Plus, if there really would be lizard-tribal, then they would have had a lot more chances at printing lizards than just a single raptor.
If there's no lizard tribal, then the card won't be a plant. They don't do flavour plants.
Overall, I'd say it's unlikely, but not impossible. I also think going from Zendikar to Muraganda (or another pre-historic block) would be a bit too similar. Both Zendikar and Muraganda are very primal in nature, so I would assume we get to a more "civilized" world after BFZ.
Martyr of Frost is, like the other martyrs in the cycle, female in german. Dat beard tho.
Also, in german they translated hellion into "Teufelsbraten", literally "Devil's Roast" and is usually used to describe a very naughty and mischievious child.
It makes me laugh whenever people bring up Najiri's age, considering we just saw a lithomancy-derived cryofreeze that kept Ugin alive well beyond his natural lifespan.
Umm, do we know anything about the natural lifespan of a spirit dragon?
You could probably find the poison by searching the person first. But then again, if the Sultai are dumb enough to try to poison Silumgar, they're probably too dumb to think about searching someone before they meet their leader.
And yes, I do expect Silumgar being poison-related to be common knowledge considering that's the same for all of his brood.
How would you go about killing him? You know he's a dragon, and you know the poison you're bringing to kill him managed to kill the extremely durable, tough Dromoka dragons; Regents of Dromoka, no less. There's literally no reason to think the poison wouldn't work on Silumgar. It's a risk you have to take since it isn't like you can capture lesser Silumgar dragons and use it on them without being found out and killed.
You should read the story. This guy's people and family will get killed because of his lousy assassination attempt. And no, there's not "literally" no reason to think the poison wouldn't work when the dragon literally breaths poison. Even Sidisi tells him that. Once again, read the story first.
That is standard fantasy wishy-washy magic logic though. While I guess it makes sense from a meta-perspective, because the dragons are of magical origins, the inhabitants of the jungle have come in contact with countless of poisonous animals that still die to other poisons.
I also think there's a lot of desperation on the people's side. If you live life in misery and have your population be decimated just because you brought in a few coins less than Silumgar would like to, you start resorting to even "obviously" stupid methods if they at least provide a glimmer of hope.
Given there are two-set blocks now, I'm not so sure. I could easily see them sticking around for one more set, then jumping on.
So you really think there going to start the new 2 set block rotation by giving us another 3 set block? What would the point in telling us now about 2 set blocks and a new rotation if they had another 3 set block to go? You didn't think at all before you typed did you?
Two blocks on Zendikar is what I meant, since you'd assume most blocks from here on out would not need the set up set that Origins is going to be. I could see them not wanting to shaft Zendikar and instead of giving them just one expansion, giving them three, and then sticking with two per world after that.
But Origins isn't part of any block. It will be Origins (Coreset) and then Battle for Zendikar block (one large set and a small set).
Also Sarkhan isn't selfish from his perspective. To him dragons are - and I quote - "freakin awesome, mate". It never occurs to him that other people might not be fond of having giant winged predators living in the same area as them. And if he does, he probably only shakes his head and pities the fool who cannot admire the majesty of dragons. Black doesn't make much sense for him. To be honest I never really saw the black in him during his mad times either... I guess that was Bolas' influence.
However, I also don't really buy the blue in using timetravel:
A) I think the tools to be used matter little in determining one's colour alignment, the motivation for using those tools seems much more important in my opinion. But this is a bold claim considering that this is the official explanation from the guy who maintains and grooms the colour pie, so whatever, but there's still:
B) Sarkhan didn't really intend to use timetravel, he was basically shoved through the whole process by a series of events that ultimately led him to go to Tarkir, step through the portal and encase Ugin in the cocoon. It was never really his plan to change Tarkir, it was merely just a side effect of saving Ugin, something to which he was pushed to by Ugin's whispers in the first place.
But I will wait until we get to the UR dealing with Sarkhan. Maybe he had an enlightment or something that justifies him adopting blue. I'm not going to judge his character development, before we actually get to read about it.
What? Did you miss battle for Zendikar or are you just here to troll?
I would also like to see that link that said Emrakul and Ulamog left Zendikar.
There is no confirmation yet, but during an article a while back it was stated that Emrakul and Kozilek have not been seen on Zendikar lately and the promotional artwork for BFZ only shows eldrazi of the Ulamog brood. Thus it is not at all unreasonable to think that Emrakul and Kozilek have indeed left Zendikar and BFZ will only feature Ulamog.
An interesting thought you come up with: what happens with eldrazi spawn tokens? Will they be there again or is there a new way to ramp into big spells?
When I saw Virulent Plague in the DTK spoiler I thought it was a plant as a sideboard card against eldrazi tokens in standard once BFZ is out, but honestly a card that hoses an entire strategy for just 3 mana seems a bit overkill, so I'm not too sure, honestly.
I also do not expect annihhilator to return. I vaguely remember Maro saying once that he considers the mechanic unfun.
Ulamog is the "Infinite Gyre" - I expect the infiniteness indestructibility be played up more. In the past the impact of the Titans was achieved through "When you cast"-triggers, but a single Doom Blade still kills the Titan effectively
And the reason why they choose allied colors weren't limited. Both type of multicolor pairs would be equally good.
You know they specifically said they went with allied colors because of draft? As in, drafting wedges you start with an enemy pair, choosing the third color later, which would make Khans and Dragons (as an enemy set) drafts veeery similiar - and they wanted them to be different.
Oh I didn't knew that. If that was the real reason then it's a bad one in my opinion :/
Prioritising gameplay over flavour fluff is a bad reason? Boy, am I glad at least Wizards has their priorities straight, or they'd be bankrupt in no time.
If it was for gameplaay purposes they failed in that aswell because it would make litle diference the dificulty in casting him eitherway.Man Dragons was really a mess in the color pairing department mixed with flavour.I'm still salty that they made DoT ALLY color pair instead of enemy wich was their intention in the beggining of Khans,even the art showed that
What makes you think that? Yes, it was an idea at the beginning, but DTK was going to be ally-colour long before any artists were commisioned to draw art, probably even before creative worked on concepts.
If she was really turned into Avacyn then she couldn't planeswalk, and we know she can't, because she enlisted Vronos to hunt for Garruk as she couldn't do it herself.
Where did this information come from? I don't recall the Avacyn connection to that story at all...
EDIT: Oh, wait... It must have been in the DoP campaign. All of that was so weird...
I don't exactly remember where it was, but Avacyn enlisted planeswalkers to hunt Garruk as she wasn't able to do it herself. I thought it was in the story about Vronos, but it could also have been in the DoP game.
The idea that Avacyn is Nahiri doesn't add up for several reasons, but I could see Sorin enlisting the latter's help in creating the Hellvault - and maybe the creation of Avacyn required something that triggered Nahiri to hate him (or she found out humanity is meant to be livestock after the fact and went ballistic for some reason).
Was that really Sorin's reason to create Avacyn? The way I see it all this talk about balance implies that Sorin is not concerned with the vampires alone but the entire plane of Innistrad. Basically he prevents humans from going extinct, to prevent everything else - including vampires - from going extinct. Basically he set up Avacyn as the protector of humanity to keep the whole plane from collapsing eventually.
That was not the point though. The point I made was that both "Naturalize's" are showing something decaying that is extinct in that timeline. In KTK it's a dragon skull, as dragons are extinct. In DTK it's remnants of the clans, which went extinct in DTK.
Plus, I don't think the naturalize art is specifically meant to evoke Collateral Damage. Consider that the same weapon can be seen in Pyrotechnics so I don't think the mere presence of the flamethrower is enough to call this a reference. The artist was probably just tasked to show one of those things from the styleguide. The mirror of showing something rot away that is extinct in this timeline is a much stronger point.
If there's no lizard tribal, then the card won't be a plant. They don't do flavour plants.
Overall, I'd say it's unlikely, but not impossible. I also think going from Zendikar to Muraganda (or another pre-historic block) would be a bit too similar. Both Zendikar and Muraganda are very primal in nature, so I would assume we get to a more "civilized" world after BFZ.
Also, in german they translated hellion into "Teufelsbraten", literally "Devil's Roast" and is usually used to describe a very naughty and mischievious child.
How do you get from "Sprengel" to "deformities"?
I find this likely. It's exactly the sort of stuff I expect Phenax to pull on someone who asks for a request or a blessing.
Compare to the flavour text of Hubris. Phenax is probably some sort of djinn-like being who corrupts the wishes hes granting.
Umm, do we know anything about the natural lifespan of a spirit dragon?
Not to mention that it glows.
Anyone who suggests smuggling a vial of dragonfire to an assassination attempt loses all rights to call a fictional character in a story stupid.
That is standard fantasy wishy-washy magic logic though. While I guess it makes sense from a meta-perspective, because the dragons are of magical origins, the inhabitants of the jungle have come in contact with countless of poisonous animals that still die to other poisons.
I also think there's a lot of desperation on the people's side. If you live life in misery and have your population be decimated just because you brought in a few coins less than Silumgar would like to, you start resorting to even "obviously" stupid methods if they at least provide a glimmer of hope.
But Origins isn't part of any block. It will be Origins (Coreset) and then Battle for Zendikar block (one large set and a small set).
However, I also don't really buy the blue in using timetravel:
A) I think the tools to be used matter little in determining one's colour alignment, the motivation for using those tools seems much more important in my opinion. But this is a bold claim considering that this is the official explanation from the guy who maintains and grooms the colour pie, so whatever, but there's still:
B) Sarkhan didn't really intend to use timetravel, he was basically shoved through the whole process by a series of events that ultimately led him to go to Tarkir, step through the portal and encase Ugin in the cocoon. It was never really his plan to change Tarkir, it was merely just a side effect of saving Ugin, something to which he was pushed to by Ugin's whispers in the first place.
But I will wait until we get to the UR dealing with Sarkhan. Maybe he had an enlightment or something that justifies him adopting blue. I'm not going to judge his character development, before we actually get to read about it.
There is no confirmation yet, but during an article a while back it was stated that Emrakul and Kozilek have not been seen on Zendikar lately and the promotional artwork for BFZ only shows eldrazi of the Ulamog brood. Thus it is not at all unreasonable to think that Emrakul and Kozilek have indeed left Zendikar and BFZ will only feature Ulamog.
When I saw Virulent Plague in the DTK spoiler I thought it was a plant as a sideboard card against eldrazi tokens in standard once BFZ is out, but honestly a card that hoses an entire strategy for just 3 mana seems a bit overkill, so I'm not too sure, honestly.
I also do not expect annihhilator to return. I vaguely remember Maro saying once that he considers the mechanic unfun.
Ulamog is indestructible...
Prioritising gameplay over flavour fluff is a bad reason? Boy, am I glad at least Wizards has their priorities straight, or they'd be bankrupt in no time.
What makes you think that? Yes, it was an idea at the beginning, but DTK was going to be ally-colour long before any artists were commisioned to draw art, probably even before creative worked on concepts.
I don't exactly remember where it was, but Avacyn enlisted planeswalkers to hunt Garruk as she wasn't able to do it herself. I thought it was in the story about Vronos, but it could also have been in the DoP game.
Was that really Sorin's reason to create Avacyn? The way I see it all this talk about balance implies that Sorin is not concerned with the vampires alone but the entire plane of Innistrad. Basically he prevents humans from going extinct, to prevent everything else - including vampires - from going extinct. Basically he set up Avacyn as the protector of humanity to keep the whole plane from collapsing eventually.
Plus, I don't think the naturalize art is specifically meant to evoke Collateral Damage. Consider that the same weapon can be seen in Pyrotechnics so I don't think the mere presence of the flamethrower is enough to call this a reference. The artist was probably just tasked to show one of those things from the styleguide. The mirror of showing something rot away that is extinct in this timeline is a much stronger point.