It is, Niv and Aurelia both have stars near their collector numbers.
Aw man, me and my Boros buddy are going to be happy campers. Though that does raise an interesting question. Those two are the only ones stared among the spoiled. Does that mean Boros and Izzet are the only ones getting foils, or are the other three getting foils of new cards, or are there more reprints to be spoiled?
Please tell me that Niv is going to be available in foil. I don't want to live in a world where the trash art of the duel deck is foil while that gorgeous piece isn't.
And that is just the top of the pile. There is no reason for a mono-white Serra, particularly considering that when she was introduced as a planeswalker she was associated with three colors: Green, White, and Blue. She is more associated with enchantments and angels than with a color. But we shall see if we get her or not.
That really depends on what your definition of 'good' is. Most of what you just listed do far better in the 99 than as the commander. No lie some of those can be really fun janky commanders; buddy of mine had a Avacyn board-wipe tribal deck that was kinda funny when it got going, but I wouldn't call it good. Of the ones you listed Kemba/Sram/Nahiri are the only good ones. The rest either don't do anything (or anything worth the cost) or are obviously overshadowed by things in dual color.
Though to be fair to your point, there are some decent mono-white commanders.
More on point though, I could see Serra going either way. She's associated with Bant colors sure enough, but the overwhelming majority of her stuff is mono-white. Bare in mind that a number of characters have been associated with colors not on their card. I do agree with you on your point that if we see a Serra card now it'd be Bant colored. No real reason to throw in a mono-white legend into a tri-colored deck.
As it's already been stated, count down timers are nothing new. I still remember my time in Time Spiral standard/limited and how players reacted to Suspend cards. Heck, you still see Jhoira of the Ghitu show up in Commander from time to time.
Sagas are interesting. If you play them raw, as you're likely going to have to do in Standard, you're forcing your opponent's hand. It pushes the game closer to a perfect knowledge state. They know what's coming, but you know that they know. Again with Phyrexian Scriptures as the example, they know the board wipe is coming, so now they have to choose between either holding their creatures, leaving them vulnerable to attack, or play creatures to be defensive knowing they're going to lose them.
Once you break into larger formats, especially Commander, I can see a lot of these seeing play hand in hand with Proliferate. I know I want Phyrexian Scriptures for my Atraxia deck, both for the flavor win and the effect.
Hmm, Standard Commander sounds iffy to me. I'd expect a lot of jank would be forced to be played if you combine the one of rule with the limited pool of Standard. Maybe they'll do something nuts like dig Extended out of its grave and slap Commander on it.
My biggest concern for that idea is Dominaria. Sure having all those legends will let the new format hit the ground running, but the flip side is they're either going to have to make upcoming sets more legend heavy than we've seen, or the format will have an audible crunch when Dominaria rotates out. Unless they do something absolutely bonkers and use Dominaria as a tent pole and say 'this doesn't rotate.' That also raises the question, will the Commander deck cards, the product sold to push the format, be playable in this new Brawl format?
Naysaying aside, I do think it's a good idea. With the ever increasing cost of Reserve List cards Commander is starting to slide into the same money pit that the other eternal formats have become. Plus it'll finally give set-locked legends like Admiral Beckett Brass and Gishath, Sun's Avatar a place to shine.
I'm split about this. On the one hand, I don't care about this specific product. I have all the cards I want from the list and I don't care about Jace at all. He's got main character man syndrome pretty hard, which makes him fairly bland in comparison to the rest of the cast. The cheese pizza of characters; not the topping anyone really wants, but one everyone will at least grudgingly accept.
On the other hand the value is there for a $20 product. Jace, Tutor, and Gifts gets you there, and since I've never seen a foil Brainstorm drop bellow $10 no matter how many printings it gets you have a 50/50 chance on pulling value from the foil. I'm actually happy the foil is random. Yeah, it means you're not sure which foil you're going to get, but it means all the art has a foil variant. It's maddening to get cool new art and not have foil variants of it (maybe one day Goblin Sharpshooter, one day). Plus I'll take this over modern From the Vaults any day of the week. I'd much rather have affordable packs of useful, if unexciting cards with cool art rather than packs of good cards scalped into oblivion or worse, overpriced packs of bad cards. Let's face it, From the Vault stopped being exciting once they stopped putting Reserve list cards in it.
But my real hope is that this is successful so they do it for the other walkers. I'd love some Bolas, Karn, or Ajani theme cards, hell if they do it enough they might even get to Ral when he comes back into the story. In all likelihood either Chandra or Lily will be next. I got my fingers crossed that we'll finally see a foil demonic tutor with the Lily art.
To be honest I'd be shocked if Goblin Lore ends up in. It's a cool card but it was totally irrelevant up until very recently, too recently for it to influence this set. Goblin Settler would be boss, since that card is crazy overpriced due to scarcity of printings.
Okay, so with Notion Thief and Totally Lost Gatecrash has representation. That leaves, what, 20 sets let without cards?
Arabian Nights
Portal 1
Portal 2
Urza's Sage
Urza's Legacy
Prophecy
Betrayers of Kamigawa
Shards of Alara
Alara Reborn
M11
M12
Scars of Mirrodin
Planchase 2012
Fate Reforged
Dragons of Tarkir
Origins
Oath of the Gatewatch
Eldrich Moon
Conspiracy: Take the Crown
Aether Revolt
Assuming Portal &2 get anything.
Also Triscadecaphobia taking up one of the black rare slots. Does that still leave one slot in the black rare or was that the last one?
I actually got a bunch of my little wishlist items, albeit some at higher rarity than I wanted: Ancient Stirrings at U, Simian Spirit Guide at U, and thankfully Nettle Sentinel still at C. Others that I really wanted seem unlikely based on the fact that we haven't seen any hybrid mana (Manamorphose, Slippery Bogle) nor phyrexian mana (Dismember, Gitaxian Probe, Apostle's Blessing).
Phyrexian mana seems like an outside possibility at this point. On the one hand we haven't seen it in the set yet. On the other hand it was only ever in one set, not even a full block, and it's not that complex of mechanic. I could see them dropping Gitaxian Probe or Surgical Extraction in, since they're the most played P-mana cards.
Also looking at the list of sets still not represented, Alara Reborn jumps out. First thought was maybe the remaining multi rares would come out of that, but unless they decide to pup Maelstrom Pulse in the same set as Vindicate I have a hard time believing it'll be anything other than Bloodbraid Elf, since they unbanned that with Jace.
Then there's Prophecy. Really hoping Rhystic Study is the card out of that set. Though I have a dreadful feeling that they're going to reprint Avatar of Woe again and double-tap the Prophecy card slot and one of the last black rares.
Also aslo, any word if the Planechase sets are going to be represented? Or the first two Portal sets?
So we've got what, 1 black rare and three multi rares left? I have a candle lit for Demonic Tutor in that last slot as the hype card for the last day of spoils, mainly hoping we finally can get the Lilli tutor art in foil. Not expecting it, but there's still hope.
Hoping they slip in Rhystic Study, Eternal Witness, and Wood Elves. Last cards on my whishlist that hasn't been confirmed or excluded by the crunch. Unless I'm misscounting and the green and blue uncommons have been predicted.
Well with Courser of Kruphix in I doubt they're also going to reprint Oracle of Mul Daya. Oh well. I can still hope to see Bloom Tender which is in desperate need of a reprint, though there's already so much shadowmore/eventide stuff. Still got hope for Doubling Season and my dark horse pick Mirri's Guile. Though if we're being honest after Tree we'd need stuff like Scapeshift and/or Noble Hierach to get people to forgive the Tree.
There's still room for some more good high value rares and the uncommons are open field. I've got my fingers crossed for Phyrexian Altar, Bloom Tender, and Doubling Season. Nothings stopping them from printing Demonic Tutor either, though with Vampiric Tutor at mythic that might be a long shot. Plus I think Rhystic Study is a safe bet for the Prophecy card. There's a lot of love for Commander in this set, so I'd be surprised if they choose to reprint Avatar of Woe again over Study.
Aw man, me and my Boros buddy are going to be happy campers. Though that does raise an interesting question. Those two are the only ones stared among the spoiled. Does that mean Boros and Izzet are the only ones getting foils, or are the other three getting foils of new cards, or are there more reprints to be spoiled?
That really depends on what your definition of 'good' is. Most of what you just listed do far better in the 99 than as the commander. No lie some of those can be really fun janky commanders; buddy of mine had a Avacyn board-wipe tribal deck that was kinda funny when it got going, but I wouldn't call it good. Of the ones you listed Kemba/Sram/Nahiri are the only good ones. The rest either don't do anything (or anything worth the cost) or are obviously overshadowed by things in dual color.
Though to be fair to your point, there are some decent mono-white commanders.
More on point though, I could see Serra going either way. She's associated with Bant colors sure enough, but the overwhelming majority of her stuff is mono-white. Bare in mind that a number of characters have been associated with colors not on their card. I do agree with you on your point that if we see a Serra card now it'd be Bant colored. No real reason to throw in a mono-white legend into a tri-colored deck.
Sagas are interesting. If you play them raw, as you're likely going to have to do in Standard, you're forcing your opponent's hand. It pushes the game closer to a perfect knowledge state. They know what's coming, but you know that they know. Again with Phyrexian Scriptures as the example, they know the board wipe is coming, so now they have to choose between either holding their creatures, leaving them vulnerable to attack, or play creatures to be defensive knowing they're going to lose them.
Once you break into larger formats, especially Commander, I can see a lot of these seeing play hand in hand with Proliferate. I know I want Phyrexian Scriptures for my Atraxia deck, both for the flavor win and the effect.
My biggest concern for that idea is Dominaria. Sure having all those legends will let the new format hit the ground running, but the flip side is they're either going to have to make upcoming sets more legend heavy than we've seen, or the format will have an audible crunch when Dominaria rotates out. Unless they do something absolutely bonkers and use Dominaria as a tent pole and say 'this doesn't rotate.' That also raises the question, will the Commander deck cards, the product sold to push the format, be playable in this new Brawl format?
Naysaying aside, I do think it's a good idea. With the ever increasing cost of Reserve List cards Commander is starting to slide into the same money pit that the other eternal formats have become. Plus it'll finally give set-locked legends like Admiral Beckett Brass and Gishath, Sun's Avatar a place to shine.
On the other hand the value is there for a $20 product. Jace, Tutor, and Gifts gets you there, and since I've never seen a foil Brainstorm drop bellow $10 no matter how many printings it gets you have a 50/50 chance on pulling value from the foil. I'm actually happy the foil is random. Yeah, it means you're not sure which foil you're going to get, but it means all the art has a foil variant. It's maddening to get cool new art and not have foil variants of it (maybe one day Goblin Sharpshooter, one day). Plus I'll take this over modern From the Vaults any day of the week. I'd much rather have affordable packs of useful, if unexciting cards with cool art rather than packs of good cards scalped into oblivion or worse, overpriced packs of bad cards. Let's face it, From the Vault stopped being exciting once they stopped putting Reserve list cards in it.
But my real hope is that this is successful so they do it for the other walkers. I'd love some Bolas, Karn, or Ajani theme cards, hell if they do it enough they might even get to Ral when he comes back into the story. In all likelihood either Chandra or Lily will be next. I got my fingers crossed that we'll finally see a foil demonic tutor with the Lily art.
To be honest I'd be shocked if Goblin Lore ends up in. It's a cool card but it was totally irrelevant up until very recently, too recently for it to influence this set. Goblin Settler would be boss, since that card is crazy overpriced due to scarcity of printings.
Arabian Nights
Portal 1
Portal 2
Urza's Sage
Urza's Legacy
Prophecy
Betrayers of Kamigawa
Shards of Alara
Alara Reborn
M11
M12
Scars of Mirrodin
Planchase 2012
Fate Reforged
Dragons of Tarkir
Origins
Oath of the Gatewatch
Eldrich Moon
Conspiracy: Take the Crown
Aether Revolt
Assuming Portal &2 get anything.
Also Triscadecaphobia taking up one of the black rare slots. Does that still leave one slot in the black rare or was that the last one?
Phyrexian mana seems like an outside possibility at this point. On the one hand we haven't seen it in the set yet. On the other hand it was only ever in one set, not even a full block, and it's not that complex of mechanic. I could see them dropping Gitaxian Probe or Surgical Extraction in, since they're the most played P-mana cards.
Also looking at the list of sets still not represented, Alara Reborn jumps out. First thought was maybe the remaining multi rares would come out of that, but unless they decide to pup Maelstrom Pulse in the same set as Vindicate I have a hard time believing it'll be anything other than Bloodbraid Elf, since they unbanned that with Jace.
Then there's Prophecy. Really hoping Rhystic Study is the card out of that set. Though I have a dreadful feeling that they're going to reprint Avatar of Woe again and double-tap the Prophecy card slot and one of the last black rares.
Also aslo, any word if the Planechase sets are going to be represented? Or the first two Portal sets?
Hoping they slip in Rhystic Study, Eternal Witness, and Wood Elves. Last cards on my whishlist that hasn't been confirmed or excluded by the crunch. Unless I'm misscounting and the green and blue uncommons have been predicted.