I wonder what changes MaRo is going to announce. The language they're using reminds me of the way they teased the move to two-set blocks.
Oh man. I don't wanna get my hopes up but PLEASE let this be the return of three set blocks. Or core sets.
I can only hope for Core Sets returning. We need reprints to an insane degree and many cards can only be reprinted in them what with their flavor only matching a few planes, if even that.
Um, wasn't it already confirmed we were going back to the three block structure?
Are you conflating the rotation structure with the block structure? When they went to two-blocks they also went to two rotations. The later was changed back but not the former.
Given how long MaRo complained about the "third block problem," I doubt we'll move back to that. Maybe a core set though.
We already have dragons. That leaves 5 more types. I think we can safely assume walls will not be included, so then the question is...who else gets the axe?
Humans? Spirits? Elementals? Slivers? My money is on Elementals.
Nothing says they have to go with the most printed tribes. In fact, it's probably better that they don't, since this is a chance to print some support for tribes without being beholden to standard or what tribes are on the current plane.
I had been saying that Dragons were a given since the start because they're, by far, the most popular tribe. Second is Angels, which could get a deck but might be hard to differentiate from dragons, both being big fatty fliers. Angels would probably not be 5c though and they could maybe emphasize angels as being a little smaller but with more recursion or stuff like Restoration Angel.
Other tribes: if this leak is true, I don't think we'll see Slivers. I had originally pegged that as one but I really don't think we'll see two 5c decks. And you don't do Slivers at less than 5c.
Of the others on your list:
Spirits seem moderately likely. They could be a small fliers deck. Some overlap with Angels though (mostly in color) so I don't think we'd see both.
Humans I actually think will happen. They get printed a lot but rarely get tribal cards.
Elemental would work but it has a lot of support already. Could work in nearly any color combination.
Yeah, walls is unlikely. But then, one of the decks is "a tribe we wouldn't expect." Would certainly be interesting, since it would assuredly rely on alt win conditions or wall-animation spells. A wall-type legendary though.... idk.
Well, this isn't truly the first time they've done this. I mean, there are those six Robot Chicken cards. I guess those are apparently just a sticker over a real card but still close enough to have value to a collector I'm sure.
I don't think this really cheapens the game. If they do it in silver border, it's just a fun side thing for folks who like it.
Haha. Just a day or two ago I was reading the timeline that was linked in this thread. I remember thinking "wow, the aetherboom on Kaladesh seems like it happened near the time of the Mending, I wonder if the two are related?"
Too bad I didn't actually post it to get in their folder lol.
I liked the Gatewatch in theory when they were announced. As a fan of Planeswalkers in the game, a bunch of them teaming up excited me. The walkers they chose seem fine (like there was any doubt they'd pick 5 monocolor in each color to be the first five, and going with existing walkers makes sense).
That said, I definitely agree the story shouldn't involve all 5 (now 6?) every time. After the Avengers, we didn't immediately get Age of Ultron. We got several solo movies that had cameos and teamups where they felt appropriate.
And I even more agree that we don't need tons of GW walkers as cards in every set. I'd rather see one per block to highlight the member who is involved the most in the story. They can easily slip references to GW members in other cards so why waste limited PW slots on the same characters. Nissa is one of my favorite walkers (admittedly due to my love of elves and having a fun deck around Nissa 1.0) and seeing her in 3 of the last 4 blocks is a bit much even for me.
I think it'll fit nicely in with the story. The 6 creatures in the graveyard represent the people who succeed in the trials but simply die and get their souls eaten by Razaketh. The enchantment will likely target a creature. Something along the lines of Target legendary creature becomes a planeswalker in addition to it's other types, its starting loyalty is equal to its toughness, and it has a random loyalty ability ultimate that synergises with Bolas.
I think it'll fit nicely in with the story. The 6 creatures in the graveyard represent the people who succeed in the trials but simply die and get their souls eaten by Razaketh. The enchantment will likely target a creature. Something along the lines of Target legendary creature becomes a planeswalker in addition to it's other types, its starting loyalty is equal to its toughness, and it has a random loyalty ability ultimate that synergises with Bolas.
Enchantment- Aura
Enchant creature
When ~ enters the battlefield, put 4 loyalty counters on enchanted creature.
Enchanted creature becomes a planeswalker with "+1: Fateseal 1" and "-7: You may cast a Bolas planeswalker card without paying its mana cost."
Could give it an alternate frame with the two "gifted" abilities in the planeswalker layout so you can put it under the creature with the abilities showing like an addition to the creature.
Most reputable online retailers will refund your purchase of cards banned within 30 days of the purchase (or orders placed as a result of the non-bannings if you bought an entire deck). Is it a hassle that shouldn't have occurred? Yeah, probably. At least players aren't completely left out in the weeds.
Will retailers refund purchases of Saheli when it was Felidar that was banned?
My local store is. They just posted on FB that they'll refund her since she was only played with the combo.
Maro often says that Dragons and Angels always top the tribe polls so I'd be surprised if we didn't see those. Both have plenty of cards to print and haven't seen a commander product before (though I guess they've had some duel decks and FTV stuff). Angels might be hard to expand beyond white though which is a knock. Dragons will obviously be base red but there's plenty of dragons in other colors and support they could toss in.
Slivers seems like a good choice. It's a perennial fan favorite and this would be an easy way to bring them back without having to shoehorn them into a standard set.
Zombies or vampires is possible but both have seen a lot of print in normal sets recently. Elves haven't had too much since Zendikar but there's already the mono green commander deck. I could see something like fairies or merfolk. Neither has all that much support but are close enough that they could probably make the few new cards they need.
Basically I think Dragons are very very likely, slivers are pretty likely, and then maybe Angels and something else that spreads out the colors.
Maybe they change "cycling" so permanents can be "cycled" aswell (by sacrificng them) , which would make a hole lot more cantrips viable, like all the clue-stones would simply have "cycling" (i mean, people used to call it cycling anyway, as its 2 mana = draw a card).
That would make sence for the archfiends wording too.
But it still says "Discard this card". So no they didn't change it. And cycling evolved why back in Odessey block from just being 2 to many varied costs which further continued being varied during Alara block. It's just become synonymous with paying its cost, drawing and maybe getting an additional effect.
I'm pretty sure the demons effect states dicard as well as cycling so the effect won't be parasitic. Haveing discard in the text keeps it open ended and having cycling in the text encourages a deck archetype. They've been doing everything they can to avoid parasitism since Splice & Arcane in Kamigawa. Astral Slide and other older cards like it don't trigger off of normal discard meaning you had to play cycling cards just to use it in the first place. The demons allows you to work with other mechanics like Embalm. This let them not have to put cycling on every embalm creature, which would have been ridiculous value, while still interacting with the demon.
Except energy in Kaladesh. Or Meld in Innistrad. Or processors in BFZ. Or, well you get the picture.
They still do some parasitic abilities. MaRo admits that one here or there is good as they tend to be more innovative than non-parasitic abilities. They're just more cognizant of allowing them to run roughshod like they did in Kamigawa, which had mostly parasitic abilities.
I still have no idea why Maro hates on Dominaria so much. It was the OG plane. There is a reason (outside of card value) why Reserved List cards are gobbled up & the 93/94 Magic old school format is still around.
I, for one, have been aching to see a return to Dominaria.
A) Card prices and formats played aren't necessarily impacted by the setting. I'd argue people are more nostalgic for the cards themselves than the setting. Save the vortos players. Reserve list cards are partially sought after because they are powerful or rare. No one is like "yeah Dominaria! Let's get some Legion packs!"
B) I don't think Mark hates Dominaria. He's just saying it's unlikely that they'll return there soon. But even then I think he has said it's a when, not an if, to returning.
Seems like there's a lot of Anticipation over the Early Ban and Restriction list coming within the next few hours (from this post). Many are expecting an infinite combo to be banned; but there is significant other chatter that Aetherworks will see the Ban-hammer; which would kill this deck outright.
So basically "Come back in 2.5 hours" and then people can start planning/adjusting this deck with the new cards.
I really hope they don't ban Marvel. I guess my home brewed build isn't quite as optimal as the pro ones so maybe I'm missing this being oppressive there but anecdotally I don't see much at my shop. I'm the only one running Marvel as far as I'm aware and while people don't enjoy the occasional turn four Emrakul there seem to be answers. Hell, sometimes my deck defeats itself if I brick and go multiple marvel activations without seeing a fatty. /shrug
I wonder how many more cards have direct interactions with planeswalker loyalty counters. Probably only at rare/mythic, but still, both of the mythics spoiled so far have it.
I doubt it's a theme if that's what you mean. Ajani has had "helps planeswalkers" as flavor before and it's likely that this vehicle has the ability for story reasons. I wouldn't really expect any more like this unless we get an Oath of Ajani that has some loyalty affecting ability.
Are you conflating the rotation structure with the block structure? When they went to two-blocks they also went to two rotations. The later was changed back but not the former.
Given how long MaRo complained about the "third block problem," I doubt we'll move back to that. Maybe a core set though.
Nothing says they have to go with the most printed tribes. In fact, it's probably better that they don't, since this is a chance to print some support for tribes without being beholden to standard or what tribes are on the current plane.
I had been saying that Dragons were a given since the start because they're, by far, the most popular tribe. Second is Angels, which could get a deck but might be hard to differentiate from dragons, both being big fatty fliers. Angels would probably not be 5c though and they could maybe emphasize angels as being a little smaller but with more recursion or stuff like Restoration Angel.
Other tribes: if this leak is true, I don't think we'll see Slivers. I had originally pegged that as one but I really don't think we'll see two 5c decks. And you don't do Slivers at less than 5c.
Of the others on your list:
Spirits seem moderately likely. They could be a small fliers deck. Some overlap with Angels though (mostly in color) so I don't think we'd see both.
Humans I actually think will happen. They get printed a lot but rarely get tribal cards.
Elemental would work but it has a lot of support already. Could work in nearly any color combination.
Yeah, walls is unlikely. But then, one of the decks is "a tribe we wouldn't expect." Would certainly be interesting, since it would assuredly rely on alt win conditions or wall-animation spells. A wall-type legendary though.... idk.
I don't think this really cheapens the game. If they do it in silver border, it's just a fun side thing for folks who like it.
Too bad I didn't actually post it to get in their folder lol.
That said, I definitely agree the story shouldn't involve all 5 (now 6?) every time. After the Avengers, we didn't immediately get Age of Ultron. We got several solo movies that had cameos and teamups where they felt appropriate.
And I even more agree that we don't need tons of GW walkers as cards in every set. I'd rather see one per block to highlight the member who is involved the most in the story. They can easily slip references to GW members in other cards so why waste limited PW slots on the same characters. Nissa is one of my favorite walkers (admittedly due to my love of elves and having a fun deck around Nissa 1.0) and seeing her in 3 of the last 4 blocks is a bit much even for me.
Enchantment- Aura
Enchant creature
When ~ enters the battlefield, put 4 loyalty counters on enchanted creature.
Enchanted creature becomes a planeswalker with "+1: Fateseal 1" and "-7: You may cast a Bolas planeswalker card without paying its mana cost."
Could give it an alternate frame with the two "gifted" abilities in the planeswalker layout so you can put it under the creature with the abilities showing like an addition to the creature.
Megacycling: put a +1/+1 counter on this card then discard it to draw a card. /s
My local store is. They just posted on FB that they'll refund her since she was only played with the combo.
Slivers seems like a good choice. It's a perennial fan favorite and this would be an easy way to bring them back without having to shoehorn them into a standard set.
Zombies or vampires is possible but both have seen a lot of print in normal sets recently. Elves haven't had too much since Zendikar but there's already the mono green commander deck. I could see something like fairies or merfolk. Neither has all that much support but are close enough that they could probably make the few new cards they need.
Basically I think Dragons are very very likely, slivers are pretty likely, and then maybe Angels and something else that spreads out the colors.
Or how about colorless Eldrazi tribal. /s
Except energy in Kaladesh. Or Meld in Innistrad. Or processors in BFZ. Or, well you get the picture.
They still do some parasitic abilities. MaRo admits that one here or there is good as they tend to be more innovative than non-parasitic abilities. They're just more cognizant of allowing them to run roughshod like they did in Kamigawa, which had mostly parasitic abilities.
A) Card prices and formats played aren't necessarily impacted by the setting. I'd argue people are more nostalgic for the cards themselves than the setting. Save the vortos players. Reserve list cards are partially sought after because they are powerful or rare. No one is like "yeah Dominaria! Let's get some Legion packs!"
B) I don't think Mark hates Dominaria. He's just saying it's unlikely that they'll return there soon. But even then I think he has said it's a when, not an if, to returning.
I really hope they don't ban Marvel. I guess my home brewed build isn't quite as optimal as the pro ones so maybe I'm missing this being oppressive there but anecdotally I don't see much at my shop. I'm the only one running Marvel as far as I'm aware and while people don't enjoy the occasional turn four Emrakul there seem to be answers. Hell, sometimes my deck defeats itself if I brick and go multiple marvel activations without seeing a fatty. /shrug
I doubt it's a theme if that's what you mean. Ajani has had "helps planeswalkers" as flavor before and it's likely that this vehicle has the ability for story reasons. I wouldn't really expect any more like this unless we get an Oath of Ajani that has some loyalty affecting ability.