Yes, but...it's still not surprising. MaRo's been moaning for ages about how keywording Fear was a bad idea, precisely because it was colour specific. This is the natural implementation of a non-colour-specific Fear.
In addition, the keyword itself is new, which doesn't fit the quote:
(this is in an article about bringing Cycling back, so it's definitely referring to an old mechanic)
For this reason, I think the prime candidates are the Ravnica guild mechanics. They're the only natural coupling of mechanic/flavour that exist, and the only real mechanic/mechanic coupling is Splice/Arcane* (which is equally likely). Trouble is...which one?
*OK, also Poison/Poisonous, but that doesn't seem so far fetched.
They already brought back all of the Ravnica block guild mechanics in the Time Spiral block. Try again.
You have it backwards. What we're looking for is an ability that wasn't used on Bolas because it wasn't evil enough.
No, the ability wasn't used because it didn't feel game-winning enough. It felt very Nicol Bolas, as Maro stated in the article that we're all referencing.
There are lots of mechanics that are not fully explored.
Ravnica mechanics, for example, are all limited to their respective guilds (and 2 colors). Any one of those can be expanded to all 5 colors (Ok, maybe Bloodthirst is not in flavor for all colors)
Future Sight mechanics of course are there as possible future mechanics.
The guild specific keyword abilities were made for those specific colors because they felt best in those colors. Green and white both are creature heavy colors (consider Planar Chaos, with Glorious Anthem being shifted to Gaia's Anthem, and Soul Warden shifted to Essence Warden). Convoke naturally fits well into those two specific colors.
Likewise, Hellbent felt very BR. Consider cards like One with Nothing or Gamble. Red and black together make a very reckless color combination, and Hellbent represented that feeling very well. It also worked well with the return of Madness, conveniently put heavily into red and black for the Time Spiral block.
The only ability I personally felt could have been done better was Haunt.
The card itself I agree didn't represent the Naya 5 Power theme, and the casting cost is skewed for a shard based card, but still, it represented a race from the plane.
Oh really? Naya seemed to have far more Behemoths than Nacatl, considering it was power 5 or greater theme. Actually, wizards themselves said that the plane was about monstrous creatures and the elves that glorify them. I'm still not at all convinced about the supposed connection between the two.
If the cycle were meant to be symmetrical it would have to look like this,
River of Tears being first:
Land Dropped > No Land Dropped
::symB:: > ::symU::
::symU:: > ::symW::
::symW::> ::symG::
::symG:: > ::symR::
::symR:: > ::symB::
A: Zendikar most likely won't have any dual lands. As Maro said, they're moving away from multicolored for awhile. Does that mean there will be no gold cards? No. But look at the TSP block. The only dual lands we saw were the "experimental" future shifted ones.
B: If they are printed, who's to say that the enemy colors won't be printed as well? Your example is a very narrow view of the big picture.
You know I've been giving this some thought, what makes delve bad is that theirs no real way to maintain a steady stream of cards going to your graveyard, but if their was a complementary ability that put cards in your graveyard then it would see more play play. Then I got thinking on MaRo's "convertible turtle" and thought well why not have an ability that allows you to convert permanents into other resources by sacing them, then Delve will get the fuel it needs to be effective.
Here's a few examples
Convertible Turtle 2U
Creature - Turtle
Convert: Sacrifice Convertible Turtle draw X cards, X equals Convertible Turtle's power
1/4
Convertible Bear 1G
Creature - Bear
Convert: Sacrifice Convertible Bear put X +1/+1 divide as you choose among creatures you control, X equals Convertible Bears power (or toughness)
2/2
Convertible Cantrip 1
When ~ comes into play draw a card
Convert: Sacrafice ~ add X mana to your mana pool, X equals ~ mana cost
Convetible Gaurdian 3WW
Creature - Angel
Flying
Convert: Sacrifice Convertable gaurdian, prevent the next X damage dealt by a source target player controls, deal Y damage to that player. X is equal to Convertible Gaurdians Toughness, Y is equal to Convertable Gaurdians power
3/3
This gives Delve resources to work with and with the new combat rules it is no that broken, it also seems to fit with the erratic nature that's being pushed for Zendikar. Also if combined with a few cards that deal with returning cards from the exiled zone then we have two very synergistic mechanics
Interesting idea, but it's been my experience that the kinds of players that Magic is trying to appeal to right now don't like sacrificing their own permanents. It feels counterproductive.
My vote is still that Convertible Turtle will be a functional reprint of Tidewater Minion, although that 4/4 with "Creatures without flying get -3/-0" one was a cool idea.
This list isn't very well done. I'm sorry, but it's extremely biased.
For example: Fleshwrither being out of flavor?
We hardly know any of the flavor of the block. We have 2, maybe 3, arts from the set.
Also, Futuresight was not about pre-prints being printed. It's about the mechanics being printed.
For all you know, Fleshwrither may not be reprinted EVER, but Transfigure might be a HUGE PART of Zendikar.
I keep seeing people say that nacatl War-Pride showed Alara flavor. He has zero Alara flavor. He doesn't fit properly in ANY of the shards. I think there's still some mechanic space that he holds that has yet to be tapped into.
Also, Phospherescent Feast didn't just explore chroma, it was reprinted, and Chroma was added.
Could be. I'm surprised that somebody else hasn't said anything about it yet (to my knowledge).
Quote from Trancebam »
They've made cards like Ghitu Encampment before, and with the printing of Gargoyle Castle in M10, it seems likely that it could happen. I'm speculating that the creature types will resonate with the lords of M10, making Zendikar a very Fantasy Noir type place. It certainly seems like a very plausible idea, and with cards like Gargoyle Castle and Awakener Druid, it's not too far-fetched.
That was in the other Zendikar speculation thread.
It's been discussed a lot. It's also agreed that having a block around these kinds of ideas, and cards with mechanics like Glissa Sunseeker's.
Not to single you out, but to address all questions regarding the possibility of re-printing Tarmogoyf: WotC rarely reprints format defining cards. Tarmogoyf is a format defining creatures, whose power far exceeds what R&D expected it to and just like other format defining block cards, like Cryptic Command, there is very little chance that the card will come back into Standard again.
As for the large list in the first post, I think the original poster is taking too narrow a view of these cards. For example, I would say that Sancromite Myr has fulfilled its place in the pre-print list. While the flavour of the card and that specific card name wasn't shown again, it's purpose was to pre-print a coloured artifact and it did that.
I might do a more detailed critique of the list later, but in general, but as we get further away from when the set was printed, the future shifted cards should be looked at with mechanics in mind, not individual cards. Mechanics like Fortification on Darksteel Garrison and creature searching using the Cycling mechanic like on Homing Sliver.
First off, thank you for that. Not many people seem to understand that. Secondly, I wouldn't be surprised if Tarmogoyf was specifically printed to spoil the new Planeswalker card type. If you look on the reminder text on him, it gives all the card types, including Planeswalker, and even tribal, although that was given away on Bound in Silence.
well the next duel deck is garruk vs lilliana so hes sorta right
Again, that will make those particular two planeswalkers the focus of that duel deck. There are two other duel decks that have been made (Elves vs. Goblins and Divine vs. Demonic) which had no planeswalkers at all, but focused on Legendary creatures (although one could argue that Akroma is technically a planeswalker). Either way, Duel decks aren't exclusively about planeswalkers.
Darksteel Garrison itself may not be reprinted, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that mechanic brought back, considering the speculations behind Zendikar's theme.
And Bound in Silence's flavor has already been reprinted with the tribal mechanic in Lorwyn.
I also wouldn't be surprised to see Yixlid Jailer be reprinted. She's be a hoser against Grixis' unearth ability, and she's a zombie, which would fit in with one of the new lords.
And why are you automatically ruling out morph? Perhaps the morph mechanic will be moved to noncreatures for the Zendikar block. After all, it would fit the "____ without ____" clause, "morph without creatures".
Nix would also be a very viable reprint. The Cascade mechanic would give Nix a reason to be reprinted, and if some of the speculation on cards that care about how much mana is in your mana pool without spending that mana, Nix would again be very useful.
And you have absolutely confirmed Imperiosaur? Of all the cards, Imperiosaur seems like a maybe at best.
are we even sure if the plane cards only do one thing? like the way vanguard would give all your creatures first strike or let u ponder your draws ? or are there multiple abilities that correspond to the planar die u get one thing depending on what u role during your upkeep
It's generally accepted that the Planar die changes the plane card currently effecting the battlefield. That doesn't mean that there won't be multiple abilities on each plane, perhaps even activated abilities such as some of those on the vanguard cards.
My favorite deck in Time Spiral block was my thallid deck. I still have an extended thallid deck that uses Mycoloth (clearly the best saproling producing fungus) and Scavenger Drake for the win. Saprolings are definitely my favorite support creature tokens.
Well, the flavor of planeswalker cards have always been calling in a buddy to give you a hand. But honestly, for $20 bucks each, that's around what the Duel Decks are, and a couple of those come with two planeswalkers.
One of those comes with two planeswalkers, and that's because it's the focus of the Duel deck, Jace vs. Chandra.
The deckboxes and sleeves Chandra and Sorin were on were the Zendikar ones. Planeswalkers are unlikely to be in Planechase but if they are, Planechase will be an awesome deal.
The deckboxes are Planechase, but the sleeves are most likely Zendikar art based.
i think ur exactly right, i would imagine it being Sorin's ultimate because its obv wouldnt work with chandra or nissa. Why are so many ppl speculating chandra and nissa to be multicolored anyway? Planeswalkers will be mono by default, Ajani got the gold treatment because he was on alara. Sorin will be mono black, chandra mono red, and nissa mono green. i would imagine a blue and white walker in the following sets to balance the colors.
Considering the Duels game, there's a great chance that Nissa is GB. Certainly this doesn't mean Chandra and/or Sorin will be multicolored, but considering Ajani 'walked and then turned multicolored, there's a good chance that Chandra will too. And there were two 'walkers in the Shards block that were mono-colored, so being in the shards block most likely had nothing to do with it.
They already brought back all of the Ravnica block guild mechanics in the Time Spiral block. Try again.
No, the ability wasn't used because it didn't feel game-winning enough. It felt very Nicol Bolas, as Maro stated in the article that we're all referencing.
The guild specific keyword abilities were made for those specific colors because they felt best in those colors. Green and white both are creature heavy colors (consider Planar Chaos, with Glorious Anthem being shifted to Gaia's Anthem, and Soul Warden shifted to Essence Warden). Convoke naturally fits well into those two specific colors.
Likewise, Hellbent felt very BR. Consider cards like One with Nothing or Gamble. Red and black together make a very reckless color combination, and Hellbent represented that feeling very well. It also worked well with the return of Madness, conveniently put heavily into red and black for the Time Spiral block.
The only ability I personally felt could have been done better was Haunt.
Oh really? Naya seemed to have far more Behemoths than Nacatl, considering it was power 5 or greater theme. Actually, wizards themselves said that the plane was about monstrous creatures and the elves that glorify them. I'm still not at all convinced about the supposed connection between the two.
A: Zendikar most likely won't have any dual lands. As Maro said, they're moving away from multicolored for awhile. Does that mean there will be no gold cards? No. But look at the TSP block. The only dual lands we saw were the "experimental" future shifted ones.
B: If they are printed, who's to say that the enemy colors won't be printed as well? Your example is a very narrow view of the big picture.
Interesting idea, but it's been my experience that the kinds of players that Magic is trying to appeal to right now don't like sacrificing their own permanents. It feels counterproductive.
My vote is still that Convertible Turtle will be a functional reprint of Tidewater Minion, although that 4/4 with "Creatures without flying get -3/-0" one was a cool idea.
Two things.
I keep seeing people say that nacatl War-Pride showed Alara flavor. He has zero Alara flavor. He doesn't fit properly in ANY of the shards. I think there's still some mechanic space that he holds that has yet to be tapped into.
Also, Phospherescent Feast didn't just explore chroma, it was reprinted, and Chroma was added.
That was in the other Zendikar speculation thread.
It's been discussed a lot. It's also agreed that having a block around these kinds of ideas, and cards with mechanics like Glissa Sunseeker's.
First off, thank you for that. Not many people seem to understand that. Secondly, I wouldn't be surprised if Tarmogoyf was specifically printed to spoil the new Planeswalker card type. If you look on the reminder text on him, it gives all the card types, including Planeswalker, and even tribal, although that was given away on Bound in Silence.
Again, that will make those particular two planeswalkers the focus of that duel deck. There are two other duel decks that have been made (Elves vs. Goblins and Divine vs. Demonic) which had no planeswalkers at all, but focused on Legendary creatures (although one could argue that Akroma is technically a planeswalker). Either way, Duel decks aren't exclusively about planeswalkers.
I'll take that bet
And Bound in Silence's flavor has already been reprinted with the tribal mechanic in Lorwyn.
I also wouldn't be surprised to see Yixlid Jailer be reprinted. She's be a hoser against Grixis' unearth ability, and she's a zombie, which would fit in with one of the new lords.
And why are you automatically ruling out morph? Perhaps the morph mechanic will be moved to noncreatures for the Zendikar block. After all, it would fit the "____ without ____" clause, "morph without creatures".
Nix would also be a very viable reprint. The Cascade mechanic would give Nix a reason to be reprinted, and if some of the speculation on cards that care about how much mana is in your mana pool without spending that mana, Nix would again be very useful.
And you have absolutely confirmed Imperiosaur? Of all the cards, Imperiosaur seems like a maybe at best.
It's generally accepted that the Planar die changes the plane card currently effecting the battlefield. That doesn't mean that there won't be multiple abilities on each plane, perhaps even activated abilities such as some of those on the vanguard cards.
One of those comes with two planeswalkers, and that's because it's the focus of the Duel deck, Jace vs. Chandra.
The deckboxes are Planechase, but the sleeves are most likely Zendikar art based.
Considering the Duels game, there's a great chance that Nissa is GB. Certainly this doesn't mean Chandra and/or Sorin will be multicolored, but considering Ajani 'walked and then turned multicolored, there's a good chance that Chandra will too. And there were two 'walkers in the Shards block that were mono-colored, so being in the shards block most likely had nothing to do with it.