Let's not forget that the two colour decks from GRN mostly haven't been totally defined by guild mechanics, just supported by them. For example, Boros is an aggro deck, and mentor works well in that deck, but I wouldn't say we have a "mentor deck." Same with jump-start: Izzet decks are spellslingery decks that get there with drakes and arclights. Jump-start plays well in those decks, but they're not "jump-start decks". The only real exception is the occasional surveil deck you see floating around, enabled by like two cards that care specifically about surveil. It's early to call it, but based on the four cards we have so far it seems like Simic will basically want to a ramp/midrange deck, maybe with an emphasis on doing stuff at instant speed. You ramp into big mana, leave said big mana up for interaction (heck, with Growth Spiral, you can leave mana up and ramp at the same time) then dump it into adapt creatures if you don't need to interact. Add in a few flash creatues (which doesn't seem like a crazy ask in UG) and you've got a fun deck.
And speaking of Dominaria, Haunt of Hightower is another attack-to-make discard for 6 mana: I'm not a fan of those.
NB that unlike Dominaria's Urgoros, The Haunt of Hightower doesn't need to connect to make op discard - it's just an attack trigger. I'm not saying that makes it amazing, but it's definitely way better, and if there's some discard synergy, who knows?
shout out to RhysticStudy's fantastic video on Seb McKinnon's art for helping me appreciate the moody, flat, stylized aesthetic. Also, this one in particular reminds me a bit of Hieonymus Bosch.
Check out the symbol in the circle just to the right of the dividing line between chapter I and II. Is that the brand Urza put on Karn's chest? Kinda looks like it to me - the Tolarians have figured out a lot indeed!
I am very excited to read Teferi's portions of the story once we get them. Heck, it might even be tomorrow! Wait and see. Teferi may yet end up being a total badass. The planeswalker deck card Temporal Machinations shows he's still got that mischievous side he was known for back in the day.
As for devastating the homelands of black guys... I mean that's par for the course in Magic. Nissa's home? Absolutely hecked. Sorin's home? Became squidland, then he got put in a rock. Sarkhan's home got erased from ever having existed, although to be fair he was in favour of that. Urza exploded his entire home continent to stop it getting Yawgmoth'd. Jace is totally estranged from his home - until recently he didn't know it had ever existed - and Vraska's home is, and always has been essentially a sewer. Liliana's home is so heavily cursed there are folk tales about how she went mad and killed her family, and Elder Demons (which is a thing, apparently?) are jumping at the chance to use it as a staging ground for necromantic shenanigans. And so on. Apocalypses and lost homelands are dime-a-dozen in MtG, especially on Dominaria.
I absolutely love the abstract nature of the art these sagas have. I'm a big fan of modern Magic's art direction, but if there's one thing I missed from older art it's the stylized and iconographic pieces. So far the sagas have been scratching that itch beautifully.
EDIT: on the subject of which, who are the artists for these cards? It's obscured by the crop
Aw man, I love the art on this. The way they've made him into a marble statue, symbolically wielding the weatherlight as his spear... *chef kiss*
I'm not totally sure what the watermark is supposed to represent though. Anybody know?
Zooming in on the digital brushstrokes does this art a disservice, I reckon. I expect they will look really nice at card-size, and I like the little story they tell.
Corin seemed very young and dispirited, his robes dragging in the wet grass. [...] "I see," Gideon said, and nodded politely, privately deciding to try to come up with a plan that didn't include mages.
later...
They had managed some quick preparations, but most of the plan depended on Corin's spells.
I enjoyed reading that a great deal. Jaceka was good, but overall, this is a whole other level compared to the Ixalan story. This feels like a paperback fantasy that I would happily take out of the library and waste a weekend reading.
NB that unlike Dominaria's Urgoros, The Haunt of Hightower doesn't need to connect to make op discard - it's just an attack trigger. I'm not saying that makes it amazing, but it's definitely way better, and if there's some discard synergy, who knows?
Also, I can't wait to build Temur Cantrips.
As for devastating the homelands of black guys... I mean that's par for the course in Magic. Nissa's home? Absolutely hecked. Sorin's home? Became squidland, then he got put in a rock. Sarkhan's home got erased from ever having existed, although to be fair he was in favour of that. Urza exploded his entire home continent to stop it getting Yawgmoth'd. Jace is totally estranged from his home - until recently he didn't know it had ever existed - and Vraska's home is, and always has been essentially a sewer. Liliana's home is so heavily cursed there are folk tales about how she went mad and killed her family, and Elder Demons (which is a thing, apparently?) are jumping at the chance to use it as a staging ground for necromantic shenanigans. And so on. Apocalypses and lost homelands are dime-a-dozen in MtG, especially on Dominaria.
...yee!
EDIT: on the subject of which, who are the artists for these cards? It's obscured by the crop
I'm not totally sure what the watermark is supposed to represent though. Anybody know?
I laughed out loud.