I'll give you that these are all absolutely positioned as products for new players, though Core Sets admittedly serve a dual purpose of being the place where they can always safely put reprints.
Admittedly these qualify as a "new player" thing, but not so much as a "product." They filled the void left by core sets after those disappeared, and are technically given away to new players for free. They're now also ostensibly part of the new core sets.
These, on the other hand, I'd argue aren't strictly meant for new players. Draft sets are a casual product. They aren't meant for enfranchised competitive players, but are just as much for enfranchised casual players as they are for new players, in much the same way Commander decks are. As for Challenger Decks, they aren't so much for brand new players, but more for established casual players that want an onramp to competitive Standard.
Global Series products aren't really anything more than region-locked Planeswalker decks, so I wouldn't count them as a separate product. Gift Boxes are less for new players than for new buyers. They aren't positioned as anything that's actually helpful for a new player, and they don't even offer any real value to a new player like they used to. They're just a quick cash-grab for uneducated buyers looking for an easy "gift" product to give to a Magic player they know.
My point being that it's less imbalanced than you think. And aside from Planeswalker decks (and I guess Booster Battle Packs if they keep making them), basically all of the "new player" products are released once a year, where enfranchised players get three non-Core expansions a year, and what's looking like at least one Masters set a year, on top of whatever casual format products (Commander, Battlebond) are released each year.
“It's going to be a wild ride as we return to one of Magic's favorite planes, and the long-boiling war with Nicol Bolas reaches its crescendo.“
Long boiling war?!?
The Gatewatch literally confronted Edit: Bolas for the first time just recently on Amonkhet!!
Even only counting the current arc of the Bolas storyline, he's had his fingers in the pie since Kaladesh, which means the entire current Standard rotation has in some way been influenced by him.
That said, Bolas has been around being a pain in the ass for a lot longer. Going only 60 years back in-universe, he fought Teferi on Dominaria shortly before The Mending, facilitated Liliana's deal with the demons, caused war to break out across Alara leading to a conflict with Ajani, and manipulated Sarkhan, Chandra, and Jace into opening the Eye of Ugin and releasing the imprisoned Eldrazi titans on Zendikar. And that's not even counting his interests in New Phyrexia and Kamigawa, neither of which have been explored as of yet in story, nor does it cover the thousands of years of general villainy he was responsible for pre-Mending.
So yes, I think "long-boiling" is an apt description of the overarching conflict with Bolas.
...and after 60 years of that event, not only Teferi didn't age almost at all, but he even gained his spark back again. And why so? Simply because Teferi is popular amongst players and bring him back as a creature wasn't apparently good enough for the marketing.
Teferi was never going to age much. His disassociation with time had nothing to do with his planeswalker spark, and everything to do with his experience being trapped inside a slow time bubble. This is why Teferi essentially hasn't aged, but why Jaya has (Jhoira and Jodah have similarly not aged, and neither have ever been planeswalkers).
Admittedly, the way they chose to give him back his spark was a bit of an ass-pull, but it was kind of necessary for him to be able to help the Gatewatch against Bolas, and I can kind of understand them maybe not having the time to spend the better part of a larger arc regaining his spark when there are other more important stories to tell. Considering the consequences of The Mending, it's not as if it suddenly returns Teferi to his previous status, either. He still doesn't have the power to return Zhalfir to Dominaria, he just regains the ability to travel from plane to plane. Most of the consequences of Teferi sacrificing his spark in the first place remain intact.
Definitely interested in the History of Benalia one, it's one of my favorite pieces of Magic art to date. Would buy several if I could get my hands on ones for The Mirari Conjecture, Phyrexian Scriptures, The Eldest Reborn, and Fall of the Thran.
Having had some time to consider brawl I think I have reached a controversial conclusion on it.
I think it's better than standard
Hear me out.
- can make a brawl deck from the cards you get from drafting, meaning there's a direct link from draft into a constructed format.
- don't need playsets of the most expensive cards
- potentially busted combos are limited by only having one copy of each card
- is a springboard into commander
- can function competitively or casually
And maybe most importantly:
- builds your playing experience around the major characters in the game, embedding the themes and stories of magic into general play.
Guys. I think this format is actually legit.
Honestly, not having to get playsets of cards is the biggest draw of this format to me. If anything, it's the reason this is likely to be the primary format I play on Arena once it makes it there, since getting playsets of cards there is a nightmare as the game's economy is currently designed.
And again the art on the fake card is falsely credited to Chris Rahn. (because that's how it's also falsely credited in the site with the full art.)
I'm not about to jump on calling this card real, but that blob of text could just as easily be Rallis as Rahn.
In fact, I tested recreating the blurred text using the correct font (it's a little rough because of perspective, but close enough for this) and it honestly looks closer to Rallis than to Rahn.
Liliana has been in each set that included her going up against one of her four demons and Dominaria has the last remaining one. I as well think there is a high chance she is in here.
Not to mention Dominaria is her home plane. I personally would find it weird if she was omitted from the set entirely considering that fact.
I was reading up the other day on how confusing "regeneration" was to not only new players, but even the WOTC staff that led away from using that and replacing it with indestructible until end of turn effects. My bet would be that that is it. I understand it is a functionality change, but WOTC HAS done that with other cards, such as Lord of Atlantis, Lord of the Undead, and also every creature that has been reprinted and had different creature types multiple times, Phage the Untouchable as an example there.
A slight wording change meant to keep functionality as intact as possible, and the occasional change of creature types to keep cards in a place that makes sense is a whole world of things different than replacing one keyword mechanic with another entirely. Replacing regenerate with temporary indestructible would be way too drastic a change to make and would set a very bad precedent in a paper card game. If I could see them doing anything to change how regenerate is presented on cards, it would be deleting the keyword entirely, and just spelling out the rules in whatever way they think makes the most sense.
That said, the most likely culprit here for hiding the card is some kind of special treatment for the card (full art, new frame, new foiling treatment, whatever) that they don't want to spoil just yet.
I like it. Then again, I'm a creative director / designer and this is the kind of stuff I do for a living.
As a fellow designer, I can say that it's not without issues (balance is all over the place and the styling on that planeswalker logo is a little gaudy, though I am curious to see how it looks in print). I'm not against the idea of a rebrand, and I don't think every aspect of this logo is bad, but it's got some weird problems the old logo didn't have.
Anyway, wherever the truth lies, both ships were destroyed on Urborg. And who knows who rests in peace there? Maybe this is also related to the plot?
I wouldn't be surprised if they used the combined salvage from the wreckage of both Weatherlight and Predator to create a new skyship to lead the charge/defense against Bolas.
But with things like hexproof versus shroud and the wording on slivers, it's on a much smaller scale. There are pros and cons to both sides but it's a relatively minor change that will save new players some headaches, and if that's the sacrifice we need to make for more complexity in other areas, so be it.
Basically agree with all of this (including the unquoted portions of your post). I don't think reducing complexity needs to be something that's done across the board, because complexity is what makes the game fun for invested players, but I'm also not going to complain about ruining complexity in places where it make sense.
Keeping cards from "accidentally" giving your opponent a benefit makes the game feel much better for players that aren't thinking about every single angle of play at all times (primarily newer players) and it's strictly a positive change for the game. More importantly, cards that aren't strictly designed to interact with your opponents board probably shouldn't be interacting with your opponent's board. This is the same reason the Legendary rule was eventually changed to only affect one side of the board. Playing your copy of a card shouldn't inherently be a benefit or detriment to your opponent unless the card is specifically designed to do so. Preventing that kind of fringe unintuitive board interaction is only good for the health of the game in the long run.
Need to say, I am pretty sure we will get Slivers in Core Set (with current "all Slivers you control" wording). Not so sure about lots of Slivers in Dominaria set though.
If the second set of what was originally planned to be a Dominaria block did actually become Core 2019, I would be very confused if there wasn't some creative and mechanical overlap. Certainly possible one set will have more of them than the other, but I would not at all be surprised to see Slivers show up in both sets.
I still think Dominaria would be the perfect set to bring back Masterpieces with a Legendary theme, and this art just reinforces how fitting that would be.
I don't like this art at all. It looks like cheap CGI. I miss art like Rebecca Guay, Christopher Moeller, Quinton Hoover, etc. Like actually painting. All these artworks look like cheap DeviantArt fanboy renders made on MS Paint. Horrible. There's no sense of fantasy at all.
What a fail.
Something gives me the feeling this post is laced with sarcasm. Can't put my finger on what, though.
Admittedly these qualify as a "new player" thing, but not so much as a "product." They filled the void left by core sets after those disappeared, and are technically given away to new players for free. They're now also ostensibly part of the new core sets.
These, on the other hand, I'd argue aren't strictly meant for new players. Draft sets are a casual product. They aren't meant for enfranchised competitive players, but are just as much for enfranchised casual players as they are for new players, in much the same way Commander decks are. As for Challenger Decks, they aren't so much for brand new players, but more for established casual players that want an onramp to competitive Standard.
Global Series products aren't really anything more than region-locked Planeswalker decks, so I wouldn't count them as a separate product. Gift Boxes are less for new players than for new buyers. They aren't positioned as anything that's actually helpful for a new player, and they don't even offer any real value to a new player like they used to. They're just a quick cash-grab for uneducated buyers looking for an easy "gift" product to give to a Magic player they know.
My point being that it's less imbalanced than you think. And aside from Planeswalker decks (and I guess Booster Battle Packs if they keep making them), basically all of the "new player" products are released once a year, where enfranchised players get three non-Core expansions a year, and what's looking like at least one Masters set a year, on top of whatever casual format products (Commander, Battlebond) are released each year.
That said, Bolas has been around being a pain in the ass for a lot longer. Going only 60 years back in-universe, he fought Teferi on Dominaria shortly before The Mending, facilitated Liliana's deal with the demons, caused war to break out across Alara leading to a conflict with Ajani, and manipulated Sarkhan, Chandra, and Jace into opening the Eye of Ugin and releasing the imprisoned Eldrazi titans on Zendikar. And that's not even counting his interests in New Phyrexia and Kamigawa, neither of which have been explored as of yet in story, nor does it cover the thousands of years of general villainy he was responsible for pre-Mending.
So yes, I think "long-boiling" is an apt description of the overarching conflict with Bolas.
Admittedly, the way they chose to give him back his spark was a bit of an ass-pull, but it was kind of necessary for him to be able to help the Gatewatch against Bolas, and I can kind of understand them maybe not having the time to spend the better part of a larger arc regaining his spark when there are other more important stories to tell. Considering the consequences of The Mending, it's not as if it suddenly returns Teferi to his previous status, either. He still doesn't have the power to return Zhalfir to Dominaria, he just regains the ability to travel from plane to plane. Most of the consequences of Teferi sacrificing his spark in the first place remain intact.
In fact, I tested recreating the blurred text using the correct font (it's a little rough because of perspective, but close enough for this) and it honestly looks closer to Rallis than to Rahn.
That said, the most likely culprit here for hiding the card is some kind of special treatment for the card (full art, new frame, new foiling treatment, whatever) that they don't want to spoil just yet.
Keeping cards from "accidentally" giving your opponent a benefit makes the game feel much better for players that aren't thinking about every single angle of play at all times (primarily newer players) and it's strictly a positive change for the game. More importantly, cards that aren't strictly designed to interact with your opponents board probably shouldn't be interacting with your opponent's board. This is the same reason the Legendary rule was eventually changed to only affect one side of the board. Playing your copy of a card shouldn't inherently be a benefit or detriment to your opponent unless the card is specifically designed to do so. Preventing that kind of fringe unintuitive board interaction is only good for the health of the game in the long run.