Gavin said they think they had found a place they can reprint Oubliette. So expect it, Dark Ritual & Scathe Zombies ,just those and nothing else, in a lair for $39.99 next year. So there’s your ABU specific lair.
$39.99? Obviously due to the foil full art Scathe Zombies.
Not sure if a retcon, but it might be similiar to when Wizards just does it for shock value. Like when one of the first story articles for Scars of Mirrodin was literally killing off Glissa and Squee, then resurrecting Glissa into a phyrexian monster. As I know the reason that the Akoum novel isn't canon, aside from origins. Is the unsavory character trait that was originally Nissa believing that the Joraga elves were better than any other race, which basically made her an Elf Supremacist. I think retconning that novel and character trait resulted in a much worse of character ironically than just keeping it canon and having Nissa mellow out when it turns out the Joraga people she believed better were all gone, except for her anyway.
They didn't retcon that out. We saw her change during her core 15 story realizing it was now Zenikdar vs Eldrazi.
@Ree Wicker they also make reference to Nissa having used black mana in the past doing a few BtZ stories so that aspect was kept.
Did they keep it in? I remember back during origins that a lot of websites chatted about how that character trait of Nissa was retconned.
Issue was most of the elf racist stuff was in her original bio for duel of the planeswalker and not mentioned much outside of that. We got the M15 story which seems not canon compared to her origins but later said to be the shift in character for her. Its a mess but it seem that with Nissa character that she trusted the elves and Zendikar more so then anyone else and after her tribe tossed her out she got worst and only talked to Zendikar. She been said to be 60 something so I guess she has had some time to swing in character some, thought her character has been a mess all the same.
Yeah, definitely a hot mess.
As it will be interesting to see how this plays out with her in Zendikar Rising, considering how Forsaken went. My personal guess is she just ends up being that sort of wise hermit character that doesn't like dealing with people.
Also something to chew on, the other things on why the breakup seems really rough:
1) Also the Joraga lived before getting retconed to dying horribly to the Eldrazi. As this now does make Nissa one of the few survivors of that culture which wasn't a thing before retconning.
When was that retconed?
Not sure if a retcon, but it might be similiar to when Wizards just does it for shock value. Like when one of the first story articles for Scars of Mirrodin was literally killing off Glissa and Squee, then resurrecting Glissa into a phyrexian monster. As I know the reason that the Akoum novel isn't canon, aside from origins. Is the unsavory character trait that was originally Nissa believing that the Joraga elves were better than any other race, which basically made her an Elf Supremacist. I think retconning that novel and character trait resulted in a much worse of character ironically than just keeping it canon and having Nissa mellow out when it turns out the Joraga people she believed better were all gone, except for her anyway.
They didn't retcon that out. We saw her change during her core 15 story realizing it was now Zenikdar vs Eldrazi.
@Ree Wicker they also make reference to Nissa having used black mana in the past doing a few BtZ stories so that aspect was kept.
Did they keep it in? I remember back during origins that a lot of websites chatted about how that character trait of Nissa was retconned.
Also something to chew on, the other things on why the breakup seems really rough:
1) Also the Joraga lived before getting retconed to dying horribly to the Eldrazi. As this now does make Nissa one of the few survivors of that culture which wasn't a thing before retconning.
When was that retconed?
Not sure if a retcon, but it might be similiar to when Wizards just does it for shock value. Like when one of the first story articles for Scars of Mirrodin was literally killing off Glissa and Squee Slobad, then resurrecting Glissa into a phyrexian monster. As I know the reason that the Akoum novel isn't canon, aside from origins. Is the unsavory character trait that was originally Nissa believing that the Joraga elves were better than any other race, which basically made her an Elf Supremacist. I think retconning that novel and character trait resulted in a much worse of character ironically than just keeping it canon and having Nissa mellow out when it turns out the Joraga people she believed better were all gone, except for her anyway.
EDIT: (Whoops my bad, meant Slobad, brain went to Squee as usually people talk about dying, also Slobad didn't deserve to die, but that is neither here nor their)
Happily Ever After2W Enchantment (R)
When Happily Ever After enters the battlefield, each player gains 5 life and draws a card.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are five colors among permanents you control, there are six or more card types among permanents you control and/or cards in your graveyard, and your life total is equal to or greater than your starting life total, you win the game.
I feel this card warrants more attention.
Sure, the card looks clunky and its sorcery-speed makes it look far more fair than a Coalition Victory on cursory examination.
However if you manage to flash this in (Vedalken Orrery, Leyline of Anticipation, Vernal Equinox, etc, etc) at the end of an opponents turn that conveniently rolls over to your turn and your upkeep trigger happens, that nobody has an answer that is instant speed, it creates a win out of nowhere that nobody could respond to.
And for those that say its more fragile, you may want to reexamine the card's type, enchantment. A card type that actually has fairly strong reanimation and recovery abilities through enchantress-centric decks.
And for those saying you just destroy their board like with Coalition Victory before the trigger happens, that is not necessarily a fool proof way. As you need to also exile their graveyard as HEA, if still on the board, still counts the card types in it's controller's graveyard.
And because the safest option is to spring this at the end of a turn that would go to yours, combat is out of the option unless an opponent suspects you of having HEA in hand.
The other safe alternative is lock the other players in the game so they don't have mana or creatures to fight back. Which means some combination of stax and/or pillowfort which are also fairly enchantress-centric strategies and only opens itself really to sorcery speed removal if an opponent has a means to do so.
Then there is the next part [life total greater than starting]. It doesn't state how much it needs to be, just that it is, which means 41+ life meets the requirements. Which is also 9 less life than Test of Endurance and Aetherflux Reservoir. 1 life more than Felidar Sovereign, but trades lifelink and body for a harder to remove card type and 2W less cost, which also makes it W cheaper than Test and Reservoir.
The other requirement [five colors among permanents you control], well we do have Scuttlemutt, Scrapbasket, Planewide Celebration, Sphinx of the Guildpact, and Transguild Courier. It really becomes a question of which to run and how many of them just for that category. Plus since they are mostly artifacts, this benefits even an enchantress deck because a lot of their cards also interact with artifacts as well.
Plus being artifact creatures ticks off 2/6 of the boxes required to fulfill the win condition. Yes, even Planewide Celebration ticks off 2/6 of the boxes, it creates a creature and is a sorcery in your graveyard which gets counted by HEA and even gains the controller 4 life per time chosen which neatly works back into the life requirement from earlier, and can even recover a HEA in your graveyard.
EDIT: Also one more thing, the win-condition card is mono- in its identity, which means it has more flexibility in its cost and less restriction to what deck it can go into which is a pretty powerful thing.
SECOND EDIT: The reason I feel also warrants attention: Coalition Victory (sorcery) used things like Scrapbasket (artifact creature), lands of every type (Prismatic Omen (enchantment) or Gaea's Balance [sorcery]) and basic [lands], and maybe an instant. Which is 5-6 card types along with 5 colors.
Coalition Victory and Happily Ever After are both sorcery-speed win conditions that desire to be flashed in when your opponents have already spent their mana and their sorcery speed answers can't touch it, leaving only instant-speed answers. That aside from the life requirement, HEA is 5 mana cheaper than Coalition.
While sound intrusion is uncommon, fatal push was also uncommon and was also hard to come by as it might as well have been a rare. And if this new black spell sees serious play, it could easily be in a printing slot that is rarer than other uncommons.
2U to mill 7 a turn isn't bad at all. Anything higher than 7 is just icing on the mill cake. Also as a group hug card, this can give you a friend who wants cards in the graveyard through self-mill.
As it will be interesting to see how this plays out with her in Zendikar Rising, considering how Forsaken went. My personal guess is she just ends up being that sort of wise hermit character that doesn't like dealing with people.
SqueeSlobad, then resurrecting Glissa into a phyrexian monster. As I know the reason that the Akoum novel isn't canon, aside from origins. Is the unsavory character trait that was originally Nissa believing that the Joraga elves were better than any other race, which basically made her an Elf Supremacist. I think retconning that novel and character trait resulted in a much worse of character ironically than just keeping it canon and having Nissa mellow out when it turns out the Joraga people she believed better were all gone, except for her anyway.EDIT: (Whoops my bad, meant Slobad, brain went to Squee as usually people talk about dying, also Slobad didn't deserve to die, but that is neither here nor their)
Enchantment (R)
When Happily Ever After enters the battlefield, each player gains 5 life and draws a card.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are five colors among permanents you control, there are six or more card types among permanents you control and/or cards in your graveyard, and your life total is equal to or greater than your starting life total, you win the game.
I feel this card warrants more attention.
Sure, the card looks clunky and its sorcery-speed makes it look far more fair than a Coalition Victory on cursory examination.
However if you manage to flash this in (Vedalken Orrery, Leyline of Anticipation, Vernal Equinox, etc, etc) at the end of an opponents turn that conveniently rolls over to your turn and your upkeep trigger happens, that nobody has an answer that is instant speed, it creates a win out of nowhere that nobody could respond to.
And for those that say its more fragile, you may want to reexamine the card's type, enchantment. A card type that actually has fairly strong reanimation and recovery abilities through enchantress-centric decks.
And for those saying you just destroy their board like with Coalition Victory before the trigger happens, that is not necessarily a fool proof way. As you need to also exile their graveyard as HEA, if still on the board, still counts the card types in it's controller's graveyard.
And because the safest option is to spring this at the end of a turn that would go to yours, combat is out of the option unless an opponent suspects you of having HEA in hand.
The other safe alternative is lock the other players in the game so they don't have mana or creatures to fight back. Which means some combination of stax and/or pillowfort which are also fairly enchantress-centric strategies and only opens itself really to sorcery speed removal if an opponent has a means to do so.
Then there is the next part [life total greater than starting]. It doesn't state how much it needs to be, just that it is, which means 41+ life meets the requirements. Which is also 9 less life than Test of Endurance and Aetherflux Reservoir. 1 life more than Felidar Sovereign, but trades lifelink and body for a harder to remove card type and 2W less cost, which also makes it W cheaper than Test and Reservoir.
The other requirement [five colors among permanents you control], well we do have Scuttlemutt, Scrapbasket, Planewide Celebration, Sphinx of the Guildpact, and Transguild Courier. It really becomes a question of which to run and how many of them just for that category. Plus since they are mostly artifacts, this benefits even an enchantress deck because a lot of their cards also interact with artifacts as well.
Plus being artifact creatures ticks off 2/6 of the boxes required to fulfill the win condition. Yes, even Planewide Celebration ticks off 2/6 of the boxes, it creates a creature and is a sorcery in your graveyard which gets counted by HEA and even gains the controller 4 life per time chosen which neatly works back into the life requirement from earlier, and can even recover a HEA in your graveyard.
EDIT: Also one more thing, the win-condition card is mono-
SECOND EDIT: The reason I feel also warrants attention: Coalition Victory (sorcery) used things like Scrapbasket (artifact creature), lands of every type (Prismatic Omen (enchantment) or Gaea's Balance [sorcery]) and basic [lands], and maybe an instant. Which is 5-6 card types along with 5 colors.
Coalition Victory and Happily Ever After are both sorcery-speed win conditions that desire to be flashed in when your opponents have already spent their mana and their sorcery speed answers can't touch it, leaving only instant-speed answers. That aside from the life requirement, HEA is 5 mana cheaper than Coalition.