MTG Salvation

Quote from Felecorr

Yeah...White, Blue, Black, Red, Green. Then a (currently being disputed) Purple one.
I mean, there are lines and labels for you to look at if you don't see it initially. Unless you want to count the stars and rocks too, but those wouldn't be very accurate representations of any of the colors.

I see giant orbs that could be interpreted as planets or other stellar objects, maybe as planes, but isn't "Blind Eternities" the term for the stuff between the planes? How can you count the Æther?

The lines and labels do not include a "Blind Eternities here" sign...

I have in no way tried to imply that anything introduced into Magic will never return... except for islandhome. I just concentrate my argumentation on the introduction of the thing... without specifying what happens afterwards, because those things depend wholly on the success of the one of many possible implementation chosen by the team behind the game.

Am I supposed to apologize for asking you a question rather than going with my assumption; or are you supposed to apologize for yelling at me? I always mix up that kind of stuff.

SHOULD I YELL AT YOU TO MAKE IT EVEN?

Addendum:

So if it does come out and we love it, be assured we will have purple mana.

So if it does come out and we hate it, be assured we still have purple mana.

Once it will have come out, we will have to live with its existence.

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/25

I'm sure there was another more in-depth article, but I can't be bothered to find it right now...

Quote from Surf and Magic

Even if they don't reprint O-ring, that doesn't mean they'll leave planeswalkers unanswered. They might, you know, design some new cards to deal with them. *gasp*

QFT

I like the position that planeswalker hate can be less universal.

To anyone loving the "siggable quote": *sigh* Way to go down the beaten path.

Quote from The_second_try

Cards like Coalition Victory are irrelevelant. It doesn't need a rewording. Of course, it's slightly worsened, but who cares? Wizards certainly didn't when they obsoleted Serra Angel.

I don't care about Coalition Victory. You don't care about Coalition Victory.
WotC does. At least they did the last time introducing a sixth basic land type was discussed (Conflux by my count). And more importantly: CV is just one example of cards that care about basic land types and colors - the whole Domain mechanic is more than one card. Read the article and associated forum threads to get a more complete picture.

I see no relation between "Coalition Victory" anda hypothetical event "obsoleting Serra Angel".

Quote from Felecorr

There are (5?) identified Blind Eternities, one for each color. There are six represented in this picture. x_X

What? There is a countable number of Blind Eternities in the picture?

Quote from DeathRowChris

So if they do purple and people like it, you best bet your ass we will be having purple until the next big thing happens.

Do you mean "before the next big thing happens"? It's the only way I could squeeze a smidgen of sense out of that statement - and I really wanted to.

Quote from Wickeddealer

Lorwyn - Oblivion Ring is first introduced
Shards of Alara - O-Ring gets reprinted
Zendikar - Journey to Nowhere, the creature variant is introduced.

By that logic to me it's almost a given that it will be back at some point in Scars block if not in Scars itself.

By that logic I expect Journey to Nowhere to replace O-Ring for a while.

I'm rather interested in seeing such a widely played card leave to figure out what might replace it.

Quote from Darklightz

A new color means a new basic land.

Strictly speaking, no.

Just as the other way around a new basic land doesn't mean a new color.

Any set that wants to introduce both of them though will need to address the problems of both. I personally have no problem with making a change to Coalition Victory, but others have.
As long as that mentality remains there is a problem; I guess though at some point people just will conclude the change is not that much of a problem.

Quote from DrTeeth

Maybe at uncommon and rare, there can be some Knight Cleric creatures who have a knight's combat prowess plus some healing-type abilities (e.g. "If a source would deal damage to a creature you control, it deals that much damage minus 1 to that creature instead.")

Makes sense for crusaders. It would be kind of interesting to have a defensive and offensive tribe in white with a few creatures belonging to both.
It just seems a little restrictive for a core set.

Quote from nammertime

As many have mentioned before, if there's a new 'color,' it'll probably just be a variation on what snow lands were.

Nope - since they made a point of telling us how snow is *not* a new color anything "variation of what snow" was wouldn't be a new color either.

It'll be kind of like when we were told that there'd be a new type of kicker and 'it's so exciting,' and it only turned out to be multikicker.

That's a stupid comparisson.
What other kind of mechanic do you expect that's "a new type of kicker", but couldn't be described as "just <name>kicker"? The point of the mechanic was to be a variation of another.

For a good comparisson of WotC making a false promise look at "the new card type" Equipment.

Quote from SClone

based on the popularity of Twilight I guess

Riiiiight, that's the only possible reason... I'm sure the Eldrazi were created as a delayed reaction to Eternal Darkness. Surely there is no internally consistent reasoning for the change that works without relating to another franchise.

Really, if this were just a reaction to Twilight, then the anti-Vampire stance would be justified. It isn't though. The assignment of a new characteristic race for black was something I called for since before Lorwyn (though it got a boost with the tribal theme of that set, and with white getting finally Kihkin).

As a fact though we *can* broaden the tribal spectrum of the colors if it suits us.

I don't get the hate for Vampires, but have no problem to oblige - just remember that Vampires are a very flavorful race and cutting them from the set means leaving out some potential flavorful designs!
This is also true for Zombies.

To me both tribes have their justification for existence - actually there should be less discussion about what to cut and more about what cool flavorful things could be put in (and if they are cool enough the free market dynamics have a chance to push aside the less cool cards).
2 cents I'll never get back.

Quote from SClone

So what else could we use? Nightstalkers?

I like them actually, but they are not very resonant with the masses.

Some other possibilities:
Make black the demonology color:
Clerics in black for the Cultists
Devils (small) and Demons (big) for their creatures.


Considering the Missing Mythics in M10/M11: They certainly were not planned in these colors, e. g. I imagine M11 had fifteen Mythic Rare slots - five planeswalkers; five for a (then) yet to be determined cycle; five for an assortment of single cards, but without guaranteeing each color one - it turned out when you keep an Artifact Creature at Mythic Rare you have to cut something else and probably red's designs weren't as appealing as those from other colors.


As for strategies: I'd like to continue providing interesting and powerful cards for a mill-strategy; I see you decided against Ajani Goldmane for your planeswalker, so it could mean Jace Beleren should be cut in your mind - nevertheless mill is *the* alternative win condition.
And it has fans.


Overall I see the typical strategies for each color in:
I'd like to see the midrange strategie be viable - it seems most balanced.

Building a set skeleton is actually quite easy - working with it is hard. ^^"

Quote from netn9

I don't think we decided on the final version of any of the shards.

"We" won't ever decide - I am strictly opposed to some ideas brought forth by others, who do not embrace some ideas I have suggested and am *very* happy with.

Hence I suggest you as the creator of the thread make a call based on what you consider popular and fitting and we commit to that decision to get the creative process going before we spent another month on the back and forth of mechanic suggestions and rewordings.

Everyone has their pet-mechanic, but by virtue of OP your word should decide.

Quote from blue

Ajani, the Dauntless - 2WG
Planeswalker - Ajani
+1: You gain 1 life for each forest you control. You gain 1 life for each plains you control.
-1: Put a 1/1 green and white Forest Plains Dryad land creature onto the battlefield.
-7: Creatures you control become 5/5 and gain vigilance until end of turn.
3

"Fixed." as they say...

I find with this change its greatly interesting - I'm not sure about the amount of life gain, but otherwise it's quiet nice.

One thing to note about Ajani: His theme seems to be life gain - both of his incarnations have this (as opposed to the other white 'walker: Elspeth). Not surprisingly it appears on his theme cards in M11 as well.
I think it is just something that needs to be there.

Quote from netn9

Well, I asked you many times and I will ask again now - What I need to put in the OP?

Final decisions on which incarnation of which shard/theme/keyword (or lack there-of) is valid is still the answer.

We have, but only for the commons. I am trying to make a full skeleton and a skeleton for Valheim now.

Yeah, I was mostly thinking of a skeleton... for each shard (including slots for inter-shard cycles, intra-shard cycles etc.) as well as maybe a subset of slots for things that can be filled shard-independent needs here in this thread.

In ancient times there was a king on Rabiah who had gathered great riches from all over the world, but has made just as many enemies, who envied his riches. So one day finally an army composed of enemies of different nations approached the city of the king. Vastly outnumbered he saw no way to defend his kingdom. But then a wazir approached him with fortunate news.
The humble advisor had met a man on the market some time ago who traded only in the most wonderous things. Thought as a gift for an annual festivity the wazir bought a mirror of which the merchant told: The mirror was created by a powerful marid and it contains the whole world once again; but the only way to travel to the other side of the mirror is to stand before it and remove a little piece from it, and the only way to return to your side is to put the piece back in place.
Now the men devised a plan: When the army of the enemy approached the city, they brought forth the mirror and placed it on the city walls, so all the soldiers would be reflected on its surface. As the king had the mirror shattered into thousand pieces, the soldiers vanished. Just a thousandst part of them remained. For the mirror has broken into a thousand pieces and each part of the army was transported to the world behind the shard it was reflected in. Now that the men of the king ver superior in numbers they easily drove away the enemy on every single of the thousand shards.
Pleased to have succeeded the king wanted the worlds to reunite and tried to reassemble the mirror putting a thousand pieces next to each other. But when the puzzle was completed he noticed a thousandandfirst piece was missing - and so the mirror and the whole world of Rabiah remains disassembled.

As you could look onto the shards of the mirrors and observe the other worlds, some scholars had theorized that the missing shard is a different one on each of thousandandone versions of Rabiah - always the shard that represents exactly the version of the world it was missing from.
Others yet said the wazir was tricked by an evil entity disguised as a merchant, some being who removed a part of the mirror beforehand knowing it could never be fully reassembled that way.
The truth had never been discovered, remembered was only the Tale of How Rabiah Was Refracted Thousand-fold.

Or maybe not...
I have decided to divide the Djinn into six tribes who are organized by color (which will be partially different to how Efreet and Djinn appeared one each in the four nonwhite colors):

Marid The rarest and most powerful tribe - they have left the main land for good and live out onto the open see. Not troubled with the lesser tribes any more after the end of the War of Djinn, which decimated their number.
They still bear a grudge against the lesser tribes, which is why they are bannished from the open sea on Rabiah. If a lesser djinn travels onto open waters and loses sight of the coast, the Marid's curse keeps them from ever seeing land again.
Creature type: Djinn

Djinn :symg::symu: The True Djinn have been neutral in the War of Djinn, but the Marid's curse was all-encompassing (also some Djinn fought on either side of the war) so they, too, are bound to the land and have moved from the saltwater of the coast towards any place of water - each oasis or stream can be considered the realm of a True Djinn and their whim decides whether a thirsting traveller will be allowed to drink from their waters - hence they are revered by the desert nomads.
Creature type: Djinn

Djann :symg::symrw: The Djann sided with the non-djinn creatures in the War of Djinn. Compassionate with the lesser beings they wouldn't allow the efreet to purge the humans and stood by their side. To these days the Djann are the most benevolent tribe and try to populate the barren deserts left after the war with life wherever they can.
Creature type: Djinn

Efreet :symb::symr: The desert-dwelling Efreet tribe has developed into something vastly different from the other tribes - pure in their essence and embracing their fiery form they reign over the burning desert sands. When the lesser humans attempted to travel the desert, the Efreeti didn't welcome the intruders. Some would allow them passage for a tribute, but others were to proud to be bought like that and destroyed anyone coming to close. When the Djann created safe passages through Efreeti lands, the conflict that would become the War of Djinn began.
Creature type: Efreet

Ghoul The lowest of the tribes they are numerous in places of death as they feed on the dead. Scavengers by nature they dwell in the desert and try to disorient wanderers with unearthly howling. As they, too, have diverged in their essence far from their djinni roots the Efreet recruited them with promises of great slaughter in the War of Djinn.
Creature type: Zombie??

Nekrataal :symb::symur:?? The Nekrataal tribe was always mischievous and parasitic - latching onto lesser beings and sometimes controlling them, always causing symptoms of great illness and plague. Themselves physically weak they were manipulators and some may wonder whether the War of Djinn wasn't secretly fabricated from among the Nekrataal despite the minor role they played compared to Djann and Efreet. Maybe that's the reason they received a special punishment when the Marid ultimately left for the open sea in the aftermath of the war: A course has bound them to the most recent creature they have been inhabiting with their powers. As the humans were the greatest ally of the Djann among the non-djinni this meant almost the whole tribe of Nekrataal was turned into what they despised most and ever since they have seperated themselves forming a cult of outcasts devoted to death.
Creature type: Human

Locations:
City of Brass - Will have a small artifact based faction. It is said that Fatima the creator of the Brass Men lives deep within the city in seclusion from the world. I consider expanding on that story and theme with maybe even a planeswalker card.

Serendib - A plentiful island kingdom where Djinni and Efreeti rule, but are unable to leave due to the Marid curse. In result they have started to trade with humans in spite of the past.

---

While working on the desert theme I considered this:


as a cycle - the names will refer to shiftsand, mirages and/or simply Rabiah-specific places.