I mean, there's one thing that's interesting about this survey; theoretically any plane that has sufficient knowledge of the mechanics of the multiverse could easily have something approaching "sufficiently advanced" magic, when they realize that this strange esoteric red energy can provide them with gigawats of electricity with a reliable methodology.
i mean ravinca just played host to an essentially multiplanar war that sent pulses of energy across the multiverse, especially attuned to 'walker sparks. given how wizards is always so unspecific but insistent about how that sort of thing works. it's not beyond imagining that said interplanar beacon made an alarm bell in a control room somewhere go off, the indicator light for "civilization making contact" flipping from green to red.
Any speculation on what the dual-sided mechanic is going to be? That's a pretty steep ability cost for a 1 mana 1/2 to have, so i'm wondering if it'll have any sort of cost reduction integral to it (hence the split)
otherwise, i'm pumped. It's been a bit since wizards has eased off the murder stick and actually let us take a ******* vacation on a plane that's not 3 picoseconds from impending doom. I'm guessing there's still going to be a decent amount of legend support, and i'd guess that the Lady up there is probably going to tutor for a legendary artifact (or a more limited top x cards for a normal artifact since wizards apparently doesn't have the balls to print straight tutors again)
Otherwise since this is A: arthurian myth and B: wizards we're talking about, i'm going to bet that the story is probably going to be something akin to the mordred cycle, so Not!arthur is going to have to get their bastard son off the throne. also, I'm specifically using they because i'm not sure if Wiz is going to go with a female arthur given we already have art of some mother****er using unlimited blade works.
Now the real question is going to be whether or not they throw in a sidelong shrek reference
I see someone with a lot of time on their hands who is very interested in blowing things out of proportion.
Yes, this is probably the "PW at rare" set, and likely with seeded packs. No, this will not cause values to explode. Bad walkers are still bad walkers, and with high saturation of bad walkers, prices will still be low. This could be a good thing for collectors, and maybe make these boxes valuable at a later date which has not happened for Standard boxes in 7 years. Dropping MSRP is not related to WAR.
Now to your credit, I think you had 2 pretty good ideas here. First, using this set as an excuse to print cards that directly interact with Walkers, even ones strong enough for Modern/Legacy (and barely impacting most Standard decks), would be quite smart for designers to capitalize on. Second, PW Intro decks have been the norm for years and give players a quick solution if they're so new to the game that they don't understand the PWs they just opened in their Wal Mart Boosters. "Hey, that card on that preconstructed deck looks like this card, I'll buy that next so we can figure this out." Therefore this is a decent time to create a PW Matters theme set that won't feel totally alien to most players.
There's a good chance this set is a total disaster (MaRo is caught in some major design restraints if they had to create a bajillion PWs just for story tie-in), but if they pull it off, it could be a historic achievement. But nothing good comes from this tin foil hatting and assuming WotC is stalling on a terrible set or out to ruin pack values. Just chill and wait for the usual spoiler times, aka 3-4 weeks from release.
ah yes, just like all great rebuttals, this one begins with a personal attack and assigning motive. care to explain to me how you know this?
You're also ignoring what i said would screw with the EV of the set. a bad walker is a bad walker (and your assumption all of them will be trash because they're a rarity grade lower is rather bold), but if this is designed around having cards that interact with planeswalkers, the they could be aimed at synergistic interactions with cards in the set to make them passable. what the real threat would be in this case is the very real chance that there's a card somewhere in the set that interacts with a previous planeswalker in an unforeseen way, or the much more real threat that the greater number in modern will end with multiple cards banned, and a warped format.
Wizard's lack of transparency isn't a good thing. if it's positive, it will be a surprise, at the cost of keeping the base informed. and since it's starting to look like a negative, not speculating using available information just means getting blindsided.
post toy fair, and well, I've moved from somewhat confused to rather concerned.
Well, Hasbro apparently had no presence at Toyfair (as noted above) which makes me rather uneasy. not only was everything investor only, which suggests a degree of corporate scummery, but at the same time, it's something that in the end, didn't say too much about magic.
but now we've got a few specters to face. First, i'd like to direct your attentions to two questions answered by Mark Rosewater
paladin8000 asked: Mark, I loved the trailer of "war of the Sparks" would like to know if we can see all the stained glass with the planewalker?
I assume we’ll show them off at some point (in a clear and easy way to see them). You don’t put thirty-six pieces of art from a set in a trailer and not want people to appreciate them. : )
the emphasis added is mine.
theuninvitedghost asked: Would you ever do a set with, like, 30 planeswalkers in it?
That would be crazy! : )
Now, this is a question that would be outside the realm of possibility in basically any other scenario, and unfortunately, a longstanding lack of communication from this set means that for once, rosewater's traditional non answer for the second question is less "lol look at this crazy dood" and more "oh christ what is wizards actually planning". now, i figured at first that this would end up being more of a curiosity than anything. perhaps this is pointing to the return of masterpieces, but that would be more than a little bit odd for a set to essentially choke standard with planeswalkers. besides, wouldn't doubling (tripling if you don't count intro deck walkers like me) the number of walkers in standard not only threaten to crash the format, but royally screw with the EV of the set?
And then wizards announced that they'd be removing MSRP. not just phasing it out, but ending it immediately, starting with War of the Spark
I'm going to go a bit out on a limb, but the most classic paradigm of speculation is basing it on all available information, and extrapolating possible conclusions from what (little) information we have. so, to state our known factors
1. WotC has been uncharacteristically gunshy about giving out any information from this set. if anyone here has an example of them withholding this much info 2 months out from a standard legal set, please bring it to my attention, because i haven't found anything of the like.
2. What little we have heard has described the set as doing something "incredibly crazy that hasn't been tried before." Rosewater's comments above echo his own statement.
3. This set is totally divorced from the previous two, and has no beholden mechanical requirements.
4. Wizards has stated in the past, that a planeswalker set would be unviable due to the relative unavailability of planeswalkers compared to literally any other permanent type, and their relative scarcity on any given plane.
5. we aren't scheduled to get any information about the set until pax east, a month before the release.
6. This set has thus far, been pointing towards planeswalkers being utterly central to the narrative
7. Wizards has abandoned MSRP, starting with this set.
Now, given these parameters, the conclusion isn't that hard to draw.
I firmly believe that this set is going to be dropping planeswalkers down to rare, with a slight possibility of uncommon being thrown into the mix. it's been a longstanding statement that PWs need to stay at mythic due to the complexity of the card type, but most people who play the game have enough of a grasp of the rules to understand how the cards work. given this increase in availability, the idea of cards that mechanically work alongside planeswalkers, outside of the typical "destroy" paradigm, would become viable in a draft environment.
I have no doubt this is going to be the "Planeswalker Set" the community has been begging for, but i also see this as something to be more than a bit concerned with. this set could very easily force people to reevaluate the entirety of standard and modern, not to mention that speculation could easily implode the secondary market, which could explain the tight leash on information. The idea of making a card like Tefiri or Karn any better than they already are could easily double the price of both, if not more. it could also see speculations occurring day to day over the course of spoilers, with new cards casting older 'walkers in an entirely new light. The removal of MSRP could also be a legitimate factor, as this set could have further reaching consequences than wizards understands, and thus, could inflate average value of the cards interacting with the current 140 extant planeswalkers. a drop in MSRP makes sense then, as that frees them of any liability of setting it below a "fair" point.
Honestly, if you see something different in the cards, please, let me know.
So, two weeks later now, i'd like to make a few observations.
first, seven people in the poll were wrong
First, We're going to be hearing about WAR before the end of the coming week, and this is absolute. Toyfair opens seven days from now (to be precise, 7 days, 2 hours, and 41 minute from the time i checked writing this post at 1:19 eastern) and this is going to mean that wizards can no longer keep the cat in the bag. they're going to have to start talking about the things they're exhibiting soon on their website, or i can guarantee the backlash will be phenomenal. People like to talk about the fact that wizards cares more about their bottom line than their player base (AKA the reason they have that bottom line to begin with) but literally waiting until an industry event to announce things would categorically prove that to a lot of people, and just generally be a PR disaster.
Second, no story this week. this means that wizards planned to have something take over the spot in the lineup. is this the fabled ANNOUNCEMENT WEEK! wizards has flirted with in the past? nobody outside of wizards knows that answer until Monday when they post the articles, but I've got a feeling if they just post the WAR announcement and nothing else, it'll still leave a lot of players feeling hollow that they announced the bare minimum amount of content, unless the bomb in so massive a whole week is needed.
but overall, while i'm excited to see what the coming week will bring, i'm left with a definite sense of trepidation. i've seen in a few places that wizards is toying with the announcement window to see how it works out with general publicity. i would like to note the rumor mill hasn't really leaked out any details. There's a reason why their lips are so tight, and the question until saturday at the absolute latest is going to be why
This is more of what i was talking about. by now, it feels like we should have something more than a name and release window. i'm not screaming "where are the spoilers!?!??!?!?!?1?" what i'm honestly wondering is just how little we've seen by this point. Key art would at least give us something to look at to give us some vague idea of the set, and for people who need to plan around this (like store owners) are being kept in the dark for quite some time comparatively.
Now, one thing i did notice is that the RNA story has a gap on the week of the 13th, which makes it seem like that's the week we're going to start getting info, but that seems to put out an undeniable fact: Wizards wanted to hold onto this as long as possible for whatever reason. NY toy fair is at the end of that week, and they want to keep it until they logistically can't anymore. what i'm speculating on, i suppose, is the why of it all.
We're presumably about 2 months out now from the release of War of the Spark, and at this point, I don't think i'm the only one who's starting to notice the lack of well... things to notice.
The story only started this week, and while it contained bare hints at the wider story moving forward, the gatewatch and bolas are seemingly miles away from anything going on, outside of the bare hints of speculation as to how whatever is mentioned within figures into the plot dragon's 19th dimensional chess game. The ravnica artbook even stopped dead in it's tracks before bolas' arrival save for hints of what we all knew was coming; the planeswalker war 2.0
Now, the one thing that is starting to get confusing is that we're entering a period where the lack of hype is almost a cause for concern. Announcement day, as we've known it, has essentially ceased to exist (now watch one somehow get posted later today to make me seem like a moron) and the last one let us off on RNA,meaning that we're flying blind into a set that's supposed to be "treading new ground" without even knowing when exactly it's going to come out. So far from the way things have been going, if they wait until absolutely everything is said and done from RNA including it's story before a peep is said about WAR, that puts the earliest it comes to light close to the end of February, not even a week from when spoilers could conceivably start. From a marketing perspective alone, this is sheer insanity.
What little we have is basically from alternative sources.Product art from MTG arena hints at the war to come, but the fact that this is something i'm currently failing to find a source for, not something on the product announcement page, almost makes it seem like wizards is trying to take some intentional measure of secrecy. this almost seems antithetical to a block that I've seen multiple sources list as the end of the gatewatch storyline leads one to wonder why we only got the name about two weeks ago. like it or not, this is going to be a moment of enormous gravity to the brand. on a purely corporate level, this is akin to marvel going "whoops, new avengers movie, out in two months". the thing that they've put three years into building up, and the momentum from the mothership is more akin to a cart pushed by a solitary husky as opposed to the full boiler hype train one would expect.
I'll be adding a poll as to some of the possibilities in my head, but honestly, I want other perspectives. i feel like i'm taking crazy pills.
i mean ravinca just played host to an essentially multiplanar war that sent pulses of energy across the multiverse, especially attuned to 'walker sparks. given how wizards is always so unspecific but insistent about how that sort of thing works. it's not beyond imagining that said interplanar beacon made an alarm bell in a control room somewhere go off, the indicator light for "civilization making contact" flipping from green to red.
otherwise, i'm pumped. It's been a bit since wizards has eased off the murder stick and actually let us take a ******* vacation on a plane that's not 3 picoseconds from impending doom. I'm guessing there's still going to be a decent amount of legend support, and i'd guess that the Lady up there is probably going to tutor for a legendary artifact (or a more limited top x cards for a normal artifact since wizards apparently doesn't have the balls to print straight tutors again)
Otherwise since this is A: arthurian myth and B: wizards we're talking about, i'm going to bet that the story is probably going to be something akin to the mordred cycle, so Not!arthur is going to have to get their bastard son off the throne. also, I'm specifically using they because i'm not sure if Wiz is going to go with a female arthur given we already have art of some mother****er using unlimited blade works.
Now the real question is going to be whether or not they throw in a sidelong shrek reference
ah yes, just like all great rebuttals, this one begins with a personal attack and assigning motive. care to explain to me how you know this?
You're also ignoring what i said would screw with the EV of the set. a bad walker is a bad walker (and your assumption all of them will be trash because they're a rarity grade lower is rather bold), but if this is designed around having cards that interact with planeswalkers, the they could be aimed at synergistic interactions with cards in the set to make them passable. what the real threat would be in this case is the very real chance that there's a card somewhere in the set that interacts with a previous planeswalker in an unforeseen way, or the much more real threat that the greater number in modern will end with multiple cards banned, and a warped format.
Wizard's lack of transparency isn't a good thing. if it's positive, it will be a surprise, at the cost of keeping the base informed. and since it's starting to look like a negative, not speculating using available information just means getting blindsided.
Well, Hasbro apparently had no presence at Toyfair (as noted above) which makes me rather uneasy. not only was everything investor only, which suggests a degree of corporate scummery, but at the same time, it's something that in the end, didn't say too much about magic.
but now we've got a few specters to face. First, i'd like to direct your attentions to two questions answered by Mark Rosewater
paladin8000 asked: Mark, I loved the trailer of "war of the Sparks" would like to know if we can see all the stained glass with the planewalker?
I assume we’ll show them off at some point (in a clear and easy way to see them). You don’t put thirty-six pieces of art from a set in a trailer and not want people to appreciate them. : )
the emphasis added is mine.
theuninvitedghost asked: Would you ever do a set with, like, 30 planeswalkers in it?
That would be crazy! : )
Now, this is a question that would be outside the realm of possibility in basically any other scenario, and unfortunately, a longstanding lack of communication from this set means that for once, rosewater's traditional non answer for the second question is less "lol look at this crazy dood" and more "oh christ what is wizards actually planning". now, i figured at first that this would end up being more of a curiosity than anything. perhaps this is pointing to the return of masterpieces, but that would be more than a little bit odd for a set to essentially choke standard with planeswalkers. besides, wouldn't doubling (tripling if you don't count intro deck walkers like me) the number of walkers in standard not only threaten to crash the format, but royally screw with the EV of the set?
And then wizards announced that they'd be removing MSRP. not just phasing it out, but ending it immediately, starting with War of the Spark
I'm going to go a bit out on a limb, but the most classic paradigm of speculation is basing it on all available information, and extrapolating possible conclusions from what (little) information we have. so, to state our known factors
1. WotC has been uncharacteristically gunshy about giving out any information from this set. if anyone here has an example of them withholding this much info 2 months out from a standard legal set, please bring it to my attention, because i haven't found anything of the like.
2. What little we have heard has described the set as doing something "incredibly crazy that hasn't been tried before." Rosewater's comments above echo his own statement.
3. This set is totally divorced from the previous two, and has no beholden mechanical requirements.
4. Wizards has stated in the past, that a planeswalker set would be unviable due to the relative unavailability of planeswalkers compared to literally any other permanent type, and their relative scarcity on any given plane.
5. we aren't scheduled to get any information about the set until pax east, a month before the release.
6. This set has thus far, been pointing towards planeswalkers being utterly central to the narrative
7. Wizards has abandoned MSRP, starting with this set.
Now, given these parameters, the conclusion isn't that hard to draw.
I firmly believe that this set is going to be dropping planeswalkers down to rare, with a slight possibility of uncommon being thrown into the mix. it's been a longstanding statement that PWs need to stay at mythic due to the complexity of the card type, but most people who play the game have enough of a grasp of the rules to understand how the cards work. given this increase in availability, the idea of cards that mechanically work alongside planeswalkers, outside of the typical "destroy" paradigm, would become viable in a draft environment.
I have no doubt this is going to be the "Planeswalker Set" the community has been begging for, but i also see this as something to be more than a bit concerned with. this set could very easily force people to reevaluate the entirety of standard and modern, not to mention that speculation could easily implode the secondary market, which could explain the tight leash on information. The idea of making a card like Tefiri or Karn any better than they already are could easily double the price of both, if not more. it could also see speculations occurring day to day over the course of spoilers, with new cards casting older 'walkers in an entirely new light. The removal of MSRP could also be a legitimate factor, as this set could have further reaching consequences than wizards understands, and thus, could inflate average value of the cards interacting with the current 140 extant planeswalkers. a drop in MSRP makes sense then, as that frees them of any liability of setting it below a "fair" point.
Honestly, if you see something different in the cards, please, let me know.
first, seven people in the poll were wrongFirst, We're going to be hearing about WAR before the end of the coming week, and this is absolute. Toyfair opens seven days from now (to be precise, 7 days, 2 hours, and 41 minute from the time i checked writing this post at 1:19 eastern) and this is going to mean that wizards can no longer keep the cat in the bag. they're going to have to start talking about the things they're exhibiting soon on their website, or i can guarantee the backlash will be phenomenal. People like to talk about the fact that wizards cares more about their bottom line than their player base (AKA the reason they have that bottom line to begin with) but literally waiting until an industry event to announce things would categorically prove that to a lot of people, and just generally be a PR disaster.
Second, no story this week. this means that wizards planned to have something take over the spot in the lineup. is this the fabled ANNOUNCEMENT WEEK! wizards has flirted with in the past? nobody outside of wizards knows that answer until Monday when they post the articles, but I've got a feeling if they just post the WAR announcement and nothing else, it'll still leave a lot of players feeling hollow that they announced the bare minimum amount of content, unless the bomb in so massive a whole week is needed.
but overall, while i'm excited to see what the coming week will bring, i'm left with a definite sense of trepidation. i've seen in a few places that wizards is toying with the announcement window to see how it works out with general publicity. i would like to note the rumor mill hasn't really leaked out any details. There's a reason why their lips are so tight, and the question until saturday at the absolute latest is going to be why
Now, one thing i did notice is that the RNA story has a gap on the week of the 13th, which makes it seem like that's the week we're going to start getting info, but that seems to put out an undeniable fact: Wizards wanted to hold onto this as long as possible for whatever reason. NY toy fair is at the end of that week, and they want to keep it until they logistically can't anymore. what i'm speculating on, i suppose, is the why of it all.
The story only started this week, and while it contained bare hints at the wider story moving forward, the gatewatch and bolas are seemingly miles away from anything going on, outside of the bare hints of speculation as to how whatever is mentioned within figures into the plot dragon's 19th dimensional chess game. The ravnica artbook even stopped dead in it's tracks before bolas' arrival save for hints of what we all knew was coming; the planeswalker war 2.0
Now, the one thing that is starting to get confusing is that we're entering a period where the lack of hype is almost a cause for concern. Announcement day, as we've known it, has essentially ceased to exist (now watch one somehow get posted later today to make me seem like a moron) and the last one let us off on RNA,meaning that we're flying blind into a set that's supposed to be "treading new ground" without even knowing when exactly it's going to come out. So far from the way things have been going, if they wait until absolutely everything is said and done from RNA including it's story before a peep is said about WAR, that puts the earliest it comes to light close to the end of February, not even a week from when spoilers could conceivably start. From a marketing perspective alone, this is sheer insanity.
What little we have is basically from alternative sources.Product art from MTG arena hints at the war to come, but the fact that this is something i'm currently failing to find a source for, not something on the product announcement page, almost makes it seem like wizards is trying to take some intentional measure of secrecy. this almost seems antithetical to a block that I've seen multiple sources list as the end of the gatewatch storyline leads one to wonder why we only got the name about two weeks ago. like it or not, this is going to be a moment of enormous gravity to the brand. on a purely corporate level, this is akin to marvel going "whoops, new avengers movie, out in two months". the thing that they've put three years into building up, and the momentum from the mothership is more akin to a cart pushed by a solitary husky as opposed to the full boiler hype train one would expect.
I'll be adding a poll as to some of the possibilities in my head, but honestly, I want other perspectives. i feel like i'm taking crazy pills.