Man, I don't know if anyone pointed it out to me (who reads backposts on sites they barely haunt anymore?) but I misread the hell out of Trostani's cloning ability. Cloning a token is fine, especially with the token generators that'll surely come. Still should do nicely with Saprolings, but that +1/+1 counter hijinx with the green Spirit Dragon'll have to jump into a Green/Black Golgari-laden deck. Which makes it that much easier, but also less hard and clever to pull off.
Trostani is pretty versatile. Has great synergy with Autocthon Wurm, but at any rate, versatile enough to be used like a Soul Warden in a Saproling or Fungus deck, but the added benefit of 3-cost populating another copy of your Verdant Force to gain 7 life is pretty insane. 3-costing and cloning any huge creature is incredible mana-value. Just thinking about it enough for a little write-up has already got me planning something where I pair it with the green Dragon Spirit from Kamigawa.
Nivmagus Elemental is just straight up joyful good; the kind of card that'll be put in proper decks forever (like the charms). Cheap easy to play pump-machine for two different colors, and in the form of versatile +1/+1 counters? He's lovely.
Chaos Imps I'm stuck on. Like a lot of people I'm eagerly awaiting how and why Unleash is supposed to be good, or at least better than Hellbent. A 7/6 trample/flyer for 6 is massive and annoying but nothing Red shouldn't be able to manage in the form of far more useful dragons or some kind of ultra-hasty elementals. I expect my Imps to be a little more Impish, you know ... completely dickish cards. It's a beast, I just don't get why, even from a flavor point of view, because flavor-wise up until this Imp, I actually thought Rakdos was showing a marked and massive improvement and refinement in their "carnival of the damned"/"occult parlor games" thematics. And the art doesn't even look like Imps. So that one's odd.
Rix Maadi Guildmage I'm actually all for. I'm an old-school guy and I only ever really play casual and EDH, so if I'm playing Rakdos colors (suicide red/black and demonic self-afflicted damage) I'm going to be absolutely loaded with Burnt Offerings and Mana Flares and Furnaces of Rath anyway. Being able to feed the mages without tapping them means never having to worry about finishing off an attacking or blocking creature. The second ability would be better if it was just "Target player loses 1 life," but dear god you'd hope having "Who already lost life this turn" would at least stare at you, kick you in the pants and make you not waste any time burning and draining the hell out of your opponents. Gorgeous art on that one, far better than Dreads McReptile-Grin, the previous Rakdos Guildmage.
It's hard to say this early, but I can see the Eldrazi going two ways - the recurring horde role, like the Phyrexians ... or the "one-shot enemy" like the Spirits in Kamigawa. Whether they last several sets is completely up in the air, but they seem to have the flavor-legs for it, and considering that all we've seen of them are rumors, the force of nature that is The Roil, and a few sparse artifacts? That's saying something for flavor accomplishment.
Bolas, on the other hand? Bolas has been the villain since the beginning of Magic: The Gathering, and I prefer to think he'll always be in the background - rising and falling - going from shadowy player to a "big reveal" of a scheme, being defeated, and going back into hiding.
I think the role of "eternal pest" suits him nicely, and he's the perfect villain to have "nearly killed, but he found a way to survive" ... like a cockroach. It's going to be Bolas, cockroaches, and twinkies that survive the death of Magic.
It is a plane with a sun in the middle of it as a core. So it is always day and there is no night.
Dyfed first introduced this plane to Yawgmoth in order to prove to him that there are other planes other than that of Dominaria.
It's also almost 100% the same exact thing as Pryan, a world from Weis & Hickman's Death Gate Cycle. Alternately, there's the theoretical scientific "Dyson Sphere" (mentioned before), which is a man-made proposal, and is probably a good deal larger than a fantasy-based version would be. The Halos of Halo are like Dyson Spheres ... only they're rings, rather than spheres, and are much smaller ... and don't have suns in the center, rather encircling planets and using Forerunner generators to destroy the surrounded planet.
I imagine Pryan was the influence for the throwaway Magic: The Gathering Plane of Pyrulea, as MTG is a big game with a lot of homages to a LOT of great fantasy series. Anyone who hasn't should check it out, it's a pretty kick-ass seven issue series. There's also a water world with a sun in the center and an outer crust of ice ... a rock world with a lava core ... an air world that's suspeneded, floating islands (vaguely Zendikar) and a planet with a mind of its own that rearranges itself as a tortuous labyrinth for the prisoners inside ... (also pretty Zendikar-like).
As for Chandra and her card, well, the thing of it is, that if Zendikar takes place after Alara's conflux, it means that Chandra had been looking for Zendikar for nearly/more than THREE YEARS. Purifying Fire takes place about 4-6 months into Jace's time with the Consortium, and he didn't settle finish with Tezzeret until 3 years after he joined the Consortium. Something tells me that Chandra doesn't exactly have to have an interaction with anybody else to have changed in 3 years time. Even then, she did have character growth in Purifying Fire, so Sarkhan probably doesn't have anything to do with her new card.
Ah, I hadn't realized those were up yet!
Cool.
I'm still curious about Sorin. His relationship with Zendikar is settled to some extent, but how about his place of origin? And of course ... was he a Planeswalker first, vampirized, or are vampires not strictly "dead/undead", and therefore capable of having a spark (for instance, they're animated dead - but they seem to be animated by their own souls, made immortal by feeding on the souls/lifeblood of others)?
His age certainly seems right enough that he might've been the very Planeswalker who stranded Baron Sengir on Ulgrotha.
That's a line of speculation for another day, though.
I half-expected Sorin Markov to be the guy to save Chandra from that vampire, but here we have multiple storylines finally criss-crossing.
However, it reveals some interesting things. The vampires, for starters - or at least, a few of their prophet types, or well-versed, or ancients, or bloodchiefs or whatever ... don't want anybody tampering with the Eye of Ugin.
Vampires don't tend to worship ... well, jack ****, in 99% of the times they're depicted. But they do like status quo and self-preservation. The Eye of Ugin, some connection to some "spirit dragon" ... a seal on the Eldrazi - an ancient race that may be so powerful that where Dominaria had a rare, Urza-discovered Mana Vault, these things had ... entire fields of Mana Vaults ...
It still seems like Sorin is in Zendikar trying to trace the roots of vampirism to its source. Some of his quotes lend themselves to that, plus obviously his gothic era garb compared to the savage utility of Zendikar races. (We've speculated it to death, but it seems 50/50 like he's either from Ulgrotha pre-Apocalypse Chime ("I've seen entire planes destroyed") or from Ravnica (background art vibe)).
Tough to say. But any time you think "Spirits", whether it be Spirit Dragon Ugin, Kamigawa Spirits, or Ravnica Ghost Quarter spirits, you trace it to the Time Spiral Block storyline - Ghosts throughout the multiverse were seriously screwed up by the AEther being affected.
All very up in the air, and my own train of thought is leading to dead ends and loose ends ...
Chandra meets Sarkhan. G1 Neo-Walker meets G2 Neo-Walker, maybe like with Ajani, he helps her become her G3 "Ablaze" self.
The new Planeswalker's Guide is full of information about Bala Ged's primordial jungles and the elves of Zendikar's jungles and swamps.
The Surrakar are a savage race of lizard-people who have yet to really fully evolve into an intelligent society. But they're close. In a way they remind me of the Wendol (Grendels) from Eaters of the Dead (The 13th Warrior, if you only know the film). Those were neanderthals, still alive in the northern reaches of Scandinavia and a vicious terror that the Vikings feared. In this case ... it's reptile-based. Like a neanderthal Viashino ... (just using that as an example of sentient reptilinoids - there's no evidence the two races are related, of course).
It's kind of funny - a lot of our early Zendikar speculation was that it'd be the savage jungle setting with dinosaurs in it. There aren't any, but the Surrakar do seem kind of like "Velocirapters with a few more million years of evolution into the world's natural sentient species".
As for the other Zendikar natives - mammals do tend to evolve first, but in a world with as heavy magic and jungles and such, sure, deep in the jungle you could have a reptile evolution. Look at Dominaria (which features ALL kinds of evolved species).
The scuttlebutt has been a new Jace card in Worldwake or Eldrazi for a while now, but quoting him on a card is definitely solid evidence to add to the fact that he's heading that way in the web comics.
Is it proof? No. We won't see that until we see the card, or art, or something.
But it increases the odds. A lot.
They're a lot more careful about putting quotes on things these days. This is rather like how in Ravnica: City of Guilds, we'd occasionally get a Momir Vig or Augustin type quote on a card, even though those particular Legendary Creatures wouldn't show up until the final set in the block.
I'll fall into the category of assuming Jace, and an as-of-yet unknown white 'walker will join us in Worldwake or Rise.
Treefolk have made some strides toward sharing Green with Elves ... but they're bigger and less "massive, teeming tribe of these bastards". (Still, very iconic). Beasts? I think there's an overabundance of generic beasts ...
I'd love to see a new green communal race. Nantuko were too cliched (what is it about insect races that we mammals can't take seriously?)
Orochi were cool, but way too narrow. Dryads are too rare. The other Green iconic tribe used to be Faeries, but Blue stole them and I don't think there's any going back. White totally stole Cat Warriors ... Red tends to split Trolls with them fifty/fifty ...
If Green needs a communal race that's less "we're Foresty!" then Elves and more "For the Tribe!" ... there are Centaurs and Satyrs, both absolutely classical fantasy creature archetypes, both loaded with "woodland" vibes, but neither as dramatically Greenpeace Hippie Naturalist as the Elves.
They fit the communal theme very well - Centaurs are based on horses and Satyrs are based on goats, and both animals are herd animals. Why do animals travel in herds? To protect themselves from predators. VERY Green.
Personally, I'd go with satyrs. The Lorwyn Elves are already halfway there, might as well go all the way - plus I think furry legged, horned, mildly "Devil" looking warriors and hunters would look awesome, whereas Centaurs are often clunky looking (and I never could get over the way their four legs and two arms make them a six-legged animal).
Either that or go all out and give Green Werewolves. There are what, THREE Werewolves in Magic? The monster itself has the "call of the wild, pack hunt" mentality of Green ... the "anarchy and blood moon uncontrollable frenzy" of Red and the "strongest in the blackest night" of Black. But Wolves are largely Green, and people who transform into animals are more green then the others ...
Plus, total pack animals fits the communal "hive mind" concept, too.
Turntimber is good. He is over-costed, but he'll still be easy to play thanks to your various ramp via Archdruid or Nissa. There'd better be a few more "Elf Allies" to back him up, though. But I have a soft spot for Wolf token generators.
Uncommon dual land cycle with spell abilities? Surprised me. Cool art. Plenty of mystery. Very big tease.
Felidar Sovereign is pretty epic and explains where the number 40 came from.
Notice the possible hint in his flavor text - the name Hazir, Sejiri Cartographer could very well be the use of the word "Cartographer" from the Orb, and also a Legendary (probably white or blue).
EDIT:
Checked the orb. Sejiri does come up 3 times and Cartographer 2. Maybe he'll continue the long-established trend of naming "unnamed creatures" in the flavor text. Sejiri Cartographer seems likely.
It does piss me off a little that it's an Elemental and a Beast - two creature types with WAY too frigging much overexposure ... when the art so clearly depicts a Manticore.
Nivmagus Elemental is just straight up joyful good; the kind of card that'll be put in proper decks forever (like the charms). Cheap easy to play pump-machine for two different colors, and in the form of versatile +1/+1 counters? He's lovely.
Chaos Imps I'm stuck on. Like a lot of people I'm eagerly awaiting how and why Unleash is supposed to be good, or at least better than Hellbent. A 7/6 trample/flyer for 6 is massive and annoying but nothing Red shouldn't be able to manage in the form of far more useful dragons or some kind of ultra-hasty elementals. I expect my Imps to be a little more Impish, you know ... completely dickish cards. It's a beast, I just don't get why, even from a flavor point of view, because flavor-wise up until this Imp, I actually thought Rakdos was showing a marked and massive improvement and refinement in their "carnival of the damned"/"occult parlor games" thematics. And the art doesn't even look like Imps. So that one's odd.
Rix Maadi Guildmage I'm actually all for. I'm an old-school guy and I only ever really play casual and EDH, so if I'm playing Rakdos colors (suicide red/black and demonic self-afflicted damage) I'm going to be absolutely loaded with Burnt Offerings and Mana Flares and Furnaces of Rath anyway. Being able to feed the mages without tapping them means never having to worry about finishing off an attacking or blocking creature. The second ability would be better if it was just "Target player loses 1 life," but dear god you'd hope having "Who already lost life this turn" would at least stare at you, kick you in the pants and make you not waste any time burning and draining the hell out of your opponents. Gorgeous art on that one, far better than Dreads McReptile-Grin, the previous Rakdos Guildmage.
Bolas, on the other hand? Bolas has been the villain since the beginning of Magic: The Gathering, and I prefer to think he'll always be in the background - rising and falling - going from shadowy player to a "big reveal" of a scheme, being defeated, and going back into hiding.
I think the role of "eternal pest" suits him nicely, and he's the perfect villain to have "nearly killed, but he found a way to survive" ... like a cockroach. It's going to be Bolas, cockroaches, and twinkies that survive the death of Magic.
It's also almost 100% the same exact thing as Pryan, a world from Weis & Hickman's Death Gate Cycle. Alternately, there's the theoretical scientific "Dyson Sphere" (mentioned before), which is a man-made proposal, and is probably a good deal larger than a fantasy-based version would be. The Halos of Halo are like Dyson Spheres ... only they're rings, rather than spheres, and are much smaller ... and don't have suns in the center, rather encircling planets and using Forerunner generators to destroy the surrounded planet.
I imagine Pryan was the influence for the throwaway Magic: The Gathering Plane of Pyrulea, as MTG is a big game with a lot of homages to a LOT of great fantasy series. Anyone who hasn't should check it out, it's a pretty kick-ass seven issue series. There's also a water world with a sun in the center and an outer crust of ice ... a rock world with a lava core ... an air world that's suspeneded, floating islands (vaguely Zendikar) and a planet with a mind of its own that rearranges itself as a tortuous labyrinth for the prisoners inside ... (also pretty Zendikar-like).
Ah, I hadn't realized those were up yet!
Cool.
I'm still curious about Sorin. His relationship with Zendikar is settled to some extent, but how about his place of origin? And of course ... was he a Planeswalker first, vampirized, or are vampires not strictly "dead/undead", and therefore capable of having a spark (for instance, they're animated dead - but they seem to be animated by their own souls, made immortal by feeding on the souls/lifeblood of others)?
His age certainly seems right enough that he might've been the very Planeswalker who stranded Baron Sengir on Ulgrotha.
That's a line of speculation for another day, though.
Chandra, meet Sarkhan.
I half-expected Sorin Markov to be the guy to save Chandra from that vampire, but here we have multiple storylines finally criss-crossing.
However, it reveals some interesting things. The vampires, for starters - or at least, a few of their prophet types, or well-versed, or ancients, or bloodchiefs or whatever ... don't want anybody tampering with the Eye of Ugin.
Vampires don't tend to worship ... well, jack ****, in 99% of the times they're depicted. But they do like status quo and self-preservation. The Eye of Ugin, some connection to some "spirit dragon" ... a seal on the Eldrazi - an ancient race that may be so powerful that where Dominaria had a rare, Urza-discovered Mana Vault, these things had ... entire fields of Mana Vaults ...
It still seems like Sorin is in Zendikar trying to trace the roots of vampirism to its source. Some of his quotes lend themselves to that, plus obviously his gothic era garb compared to the savage utility of Zendikar races. (We've speculated it to death, but it seems 50/50 like he's either from Ulgrotha pre-Apocalypse Chime ("I've seen entire planes destroyed") or from Ravnica (background art vibe)).
Tough to say. But any time you think "Spirits", whether it be Spirit Dragon Ugin, Kamigawa Spirits, or Ravnica Ghost Quarter spirits, you trace it to the Time Spiral Block storyline - Ghosts throughout the multiverse were seriously screwed up by the AEther being affected.
All very up in the air, and my own train of thought is leading to dead ends and loose ends ...
Chandra meets Sarkhan. G1 Neo-Walker meets G2 Neo-Walker, maybe like with Ajani, he helps her become her G3 "Ablaze" self.
The new Planeswalker's Guide is full of information about Bala Ged's primordial jungles and the elves of Zendikar's jungles and swamps.
The Surrakar are a savage race of lizard-people who have yet to really fully evolve into an intelligent society. But they're close. In a way they remind me of the Wendol (Grendels) from Eaters of the Dead (The 13th Warrior, if you only know the film). Those were neanderthals, still alive in the northern reaches of Scandinavia and a vicious terror that the Vikings feared. In this case ... it's reptile-based. Like a neanderthal Viashino ... (just using that as an example of sentient reptilinoids - there's no evidence the two races are related, of course).
It's kind of funny - a lot of our early Zendikar speculation was that it'd be the savage jungle setting with dinosaurs in it. There aren't any, but the Surrakar do seem kind of like "Velocirapters with a few more million years of evolution into the world's natural sentient species".
As for the other Zendikar natives - mammals do tend to evolve first, but in a world with as heavy magic and jungles and such, sure, deep in the jungle you could have a reptile evolution. Look at Dominaria (which features ALL kinds of evolved species).
Who knows?
Is it proof? No. We won't see that until we see the card, or art, or something.
But it increases the odds. A lot.
They're a lot more careful about putting quotes on things these days. This is rather like how in Ravnica: City of Guilds, we'd occasionally get a Momir Vig or Augustin type quote on a card, even though those particular Legendary Creatures wouldn't show up until the final set in the block.
I'll fall into the category of assuming Jace, and an as-of-yet unknown white 'walker will join us in Worldwake or Rise.
I'd love to see a new green communal race. Nantuko were too cliched (what is it about insect races that we mammals can't take seriously?)
Orochi were cool, but way too narrow. Dryads are too rare. The other Green iconic tribe used to be Faeries, but Blue stole them and I don't think there's any going back. White totally stole Cat Warriors ... Red tends to split Trolls with them fifty/fifty ...
If Green needs a communal race that's less "we're Foresty!" then Elves and more "For the Tribe!" ... there are Centaurs and Satyrs, both absolutely classical fantasy creature archetypes, both loaded with "woodland" vibes, but neither as dramatically Greenpeace Hippie Naturalist as the Elves.
They fit the communal theme very well - Centaurs are based on horses and Satyrs are based on goats, and both animals are herd animals. Why do animals travel in herds? To protect themselves from predators. VERY Green.
Personally, I'd go with satyrs. The Lorwyn Elves are already halfway there, might as well go all the way - plus I think furry legged, horned, mildly "Devil" looking warriors and hunters would look awesome, whereas Centaurs are often clunky looking (and I never could get over the way their four legs and two arms make them a six-legged animal).
Either that or go all out and give Green Werewolves. There are what, THREE Werewolves in Magic? The monster itself has the "call of the wild, pack hunt" mentality of Green ... the "anarchy and blood moon uncontrollable frenzy" of Red and the "strongest in the blackest night" of Black. But Wolves are largely Green, and people who transform into animals are more green then the others ...
Plus, total pack animals fits the communal "hive mind" concept, too.
I hate that I need a playset.
The Pyromancer Ascension is pretty busted as well. Back in the day it would've had Cumulative Upkeep TONS.
God I hate the subtype - Beast more and more every day ...
That quest is pretty snazzy mana accel, and the Marsh Flats art is pretty cool.
Turntimber is good. He is over-costed, but he'll still be easy to play thanks to your various ramp via Archdruid or Nissa. There'd better be a few more "Elf Allies" to back him up, though. But I have a soft spot for Wolf token generators.
Uncommon dual land cycle with spell abilities? Surprised me. Cool art. Plenty of mystery. Very big tease.
Felidar Sovereign is pretty epic and explains where the number 40 came from.
Notice the possible hint in his flavor text - the name Hazir, Sejiri Cartographer could very well be the use of the word "Cartographer" from the Orb, and also a Legendary (probably white or blue).
EDIT:
Checked the orb. Sejiri does come up 3 times and Cartographer 2. Maybe he'll continue the long-established trend of naming "unnamed creatures" in the flavor text. Sejiri Cartographer seems likely.
It does piss me off a little that it's an Elemental and a Beast - two creature types with WAY too frigging much overexposure ... when the art so clearly depicts a Manticore.
Taking Swamps out ... no.
Casting Traumatize on yourself and then winning the game with a Consume Spirit? Hell yeah!