MTG Salvation

EDIT: 2/12/2015
Decklists revealed!
-ktkenshinx-

Quote from Lorelorn »

Guys, here's the decklist, don't ask me how I know:

Elspeth:

Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Icatian Javelineers
1 Mother of Runes
2 Kinsbaile Skirmisher
1 Kor Skyfisher
1 Precinct Captain
2 Veteran Armorsmith
1 Court Street Denizen
1 Standing Troops
2 Veteran Swordsmith
1 Banisher Priest
2 Gustcloak Harrier
1 Gustcloak Skirmisher
1 Gustcloak Sentinel
1 Gustcloak Savior
2 Loxodon Partisan
1 Gempalm Avenger
1 Noble Templar
1 Captain of the Watch

1 Mortal's Ardor
2 Sunlance
1 Mighty Leap
2 Raise the Alarm
1 Soul Parry
1 Celestial Flare
1 Dauntless Onslaught
1 Dictate of Heliod
1 Decree of Justice

2 Secluded Steppe
22 Plains

Kiora

Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1 Omenspeaker
2 Coiling Oracle
1 Kiora's Follower
2 Grazing Gladehart
2 Netcaster Spider
2 Man-O'-War
2 Lorescale Coatl
1 Nessian Asp
2 Surrakar Banisher
1 Sealock Monster
1 Scourge of Fleets
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Nimbus Swimmer

2 Explore
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Peel from Reality
2 Time to Feed
1 Explosive Vegetation
1 Aetherize
1 Whelming Wave
1 Plasm Capture
1 Urban Evolution

2 Evolving Wilds
1 Temple of the False God
11 Forest
11 Island

Source: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/the-rumor-mill/577815-evk-duel-decks-elspeth-vs-kiora-announced?comment=362


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From the Mothership

It was spoiled last weekend during Pax Australia but Monday morning the official announcement along with pictures of the packaging have come.

Announcing Duel Decks: Elspeth vs. Kiora



The knight Planeswalker Elspeth Tirel sees herself as the protector of the Multiverse. She has pledged her sword and shield to all who suffer, and she summons forth impressive armies to assist her. The merfolk Planeswalker Kiora calls upon the creatures of the deepest oceans to fight at her side. She is the master of the world beneath the waves, her true power only now beginning to surface. How will these Planeswalkers measure up when they meet in battle?



Deck Design and Deck Development: Chris Millar and Sam Stoddard

Twitter Hashtag: #MTGEVK

Languages: English, Japanese

Release Date: February 27, 2015

MSRP: $19.99




Also a big well done to

Quote from PW Koa »

I think that Elspeth v Xenagos is the most probable, but if we wanted to throw a random and unlikely battle out there, I think that Elspeth v. Kiora would be interesting. I can't imagine the reasoning behind it, but it could be a tasty treat.

The first and one of the few people to correctly call the match up in this years speculation threads.

(Also could someone please upload the alt artwork spoiled at Pax ? Seems wizard didn't want to give to much away in the announcement :/ )

Quote from Jay13x »

Hey - What tokens are included? And are they double-sided, like in the recent commander product, or single sided with a Magic Card back?

They single sided.

Divine vs Demonic has a X/X demon token, multiply Thrall tokens and multiply spirit tokens
Elves vs Goblins has the 7/7 elemental token, tons of 1/1 elves and 1/1 goblins
Jace vs Chandra has a ton of 3/1 elemental shaman tokens
Garruk vs Liliana has bat tokens, 3/3 beasts, 4/4 beasts and 3/3 elephant all in multiply.

Quote from Wotanubis »

Quote from Epic_Bubble »

I will freak if this happens especially since I have ordered 4 O.o

Hoarders and speculators are why we can't have nice things for decent prices. Core stores only get 5 and even Advanced Plus stores only get 12-15.

Don't really think I am a hoarder since duel decks are the only magic product I buy and I do open the box and play with the decks. hence my signature. I would have been way more happy if I didn't have to jump through loopholes just to get this product.

Quote from Kabirum »

I don't know why but i am always annoyed how wotc seems to make every plot she (Elspleth) is involved in tragic

Also according to her wiki, Ashiok is of unknown Species, gender and Origin.



Let's assume that on printing kiora and Elspleth will reach around $10 each, that leaves about practically nothing in the cap for the rest of the deck that is of anything of value if the total mrsp is $20, i would actually be fine if they raised it to $25-$30 mrsp so that the rest of the deck gets a bit better.

Not really sure what your talking about :/ For these products the planeswalkers themselves add up to around $15-20 and then wizards adds around another $10-$15 worth of reprints. Kiora will drop blow $5 Elspeth might hover around $10

Quote from TheOnlyOne652089 »

Kiora's colors are kinda strange, as she could totally be a red/blue planeswalker with that, its just too much of that color.

Overall 20$ seems a pretty nice deal if this deck contains at least some semi usefull lands (temples anyone ?).

Come on, we both been on this site long enough to there wont be mana fixing rare lands in this product

Quote from Fjams »

Why is Kiora and Elspeth fighting?

I think people are kinda getting worked up about this whole "OMGZ PLANESWALKERS ARENT FIGHTING WHY THEY FIGHTING YOLO" for nothing. Since Venser vs Koth wizards has been moving away from doing planeswalker vs planeswalker fighting simply cause it limits world building. The story doesn't always need 2 planeswalker fighting.

I can imagine vorthos are a bit miffed about it but I kinda don't care, we get the 2 best planeswalkers from the set.

Quote from Teysa_Karlov »

You also get multiples of several of those (Counterspell, Promenade) plus around 70 other $1 cards. More like $220-280 depending on your area.

Yes Yes yes we get it you get your moneys worth. However the only reason those cards are so expensive is because the duel decks that make up anthology had such a short run. Akroma, Angel of Wrath would be a lot less if Divine vs Demonic had sold a lot more. Do you imagine expect zugos helmsmasher to go into the $20? No cause speed vs cunning and khans have massive print runs in comparison.

I really don't care about value what I care about is how they are playing this product up to be a great x mas buy or a chance for players to get hold of something they might have never gotten the first time due to numerous reasons. Yet the products pricing and the insane store allocation means no one is going to get hold of this. Ill be surprised if I manage to get 1 of these let alone 4.

Quote from JunKurisu »

i'm gonna pick this up simply for the fixer-upper quality of the decks.

$100 on a fixer up deck?

Then again Im going to get 4 cause its the only magic product I spend money on. Guess I am going to have to raid every store in South Africa to get atleast 1. Wish the print run wasn't so limited else they really should of just called this, from the vault Duel Decks. Featuring 15 of the best cards from Magic's duel deck product line. Now for a limited time get your hands on that Demonic tutor or 14 alt artwork islands.


Still could of had 4 dice but ill take the 2 dice with hopefully the duel deck symbols on it and the 35 tokens are never a bad thing.

Quote from Lock3Down »

Quote from P for Pizza »

I don't see all that resemblance, aside from the fact that they're both huge dragons, like me and you are both humans.



Ugin is turquoise and has feathery wings. Nicol bolas is of a golden-orange color and has bat-like wings.
And the horns are different: Ugin has flattened, almost buffalo-like horns; Bolas' are smooth, high and have that levitating ball in beetwen.

There was some small "family" resemblance.. For me, it's the horns despite the differences you have pointed out.. I guess I was expecting something different from a colorless dragon.. I do like the wings though..

For me its the body, both share upright humanoid positions, the body shape is sleek at best. Most other dragons in magic do not have a humanoid pose to them.

Horns while difference shape are still long and pointed. Notice the similar neck line as well. Also they both have goatee type beards.

Just my 2 cents to echo the chorus of people.

Outlast : this just screams development had issues, it would be an ok mechanic if it wasn't at sorcery speed. I guess its decent in constructed.

Prowess : probably the nicest mechanic, might see tournament play depending on what cantrips there are.

Delve : Not impressed by what I have seen so far , but considering dredge was powerful, I wouldn't be surprised if this had a few very good spiky cards.

Raid: a nice mechanic, simply, again will likely see tournament play depending on what other cards there are.

ferocious: boring

I have to say I am not in awe of these mechanics, Return to Ravnica had some very cool ones like overload or populate. These just seem to be very boring. Hopefully Monday will give some decent cards with the mechanics else the most exciting thing in this set is sadly the fetch lands.




I have to say I am 3 out of the 5 mechanics are just ...triggers, if this then do this.

More juicy art!

Let's give Igor a break. He explained he wasn't that comfortable doing "covers" as opposed to normal cards. He's human, not a Myr or Zombie Wizard lol.

I think if there's any criticism, it should be directed at the art director instead. I'm very sure many of us wonder why promo arts tend to look worse majority of the time. There're very few examples of good ones; i.e. think of Karla Ortiz's Vindicate as better than the first promo.

Art Directors have the responsibility to sanction/commision arts for cards. Usually, they have the final word on the cards before they go to the printing room.

The thing is, we're not sure how things are done. Some promo cards may be given to budding artists to show their worth, but some are given to veterans as well.

We've seen enough promos over the years to say the process and art quality of promos and normal set cards are definitely different. Whether it's a lot better or worse is up to the beholder. I for one think they are generally poorer than the originals.

The instructions given to these artists are what I'm concerned with. Because the art directors have the final say, they are also socially responsible for any backlash fans/viewers/detractors give. Loose instructions, or perhaps telling artists to not overshadow the original art COULD be given; we don't know.

Perhaps that's how the trade works between artists and directors. So long as the service is compensated for. You draw your thing, we pay you and you keep mum. However, not telling/revealing how this process is done means they're willing to bear the brunt, if any. But the art directors haven't come out to say anything. Usually the roses are for them, and brickbats go to these artists who did a "bad job". Directors haven't come out to protect their artists.

If anything, their judgement (for art) is the critical difference between a praise and condemnation.

Master Biomancer has a replacement effect. It alters how the creature enters the battlefield. It's not a triggered ability, the creature enters the battlefield with the counters. So the Behemoth will always enter the battlefield with the counters, then its triggered ability will go on the stack.

WOTC claims that Mythic promos reduces the mythicness of the card in packs.

Decides to completely devalue 5 rares per set by printing them as much as uncommons.

#logic

Quote from Landrid

We should be seeing some spoilers next week either by wizards or by another site.

This saturday night (-> tomorrow) we will get some spoilers. There is some sort of MTG PAX Party and MaRo even stated on his blog he has some nice stuff to spoil.

Quote from FlossedBeaver

I'd love to move on, but I don't think we can until people pick up a history book instead of pulling facts out of their ass.

Not only are you being pompous, you're also incorrect. Ancient Greek can be studied as a separate discipline: it's a separate language from the Latin of the Romans, and we have preserved texts directly from ancient greece. However, Greek culture as we understand it, including the entire foundation of Western thought (philosophy/empirical scientific method), has been preserved for us by the Romans.

A set cannot be based on Greek mythology sans Roman influence because our understanding of what Greek mythology is does not exist without Roman influence.

Quote from Landrid

My word do you come across as being spoiled. Fine here is a quick round up

Hellspark elemental $1
Hellrider $12
Brow Beat $2
Breaking Point $2
Blightning $1
Devils play $0.50
Terminate $1
Flame Javelin$2
Sulfuric Vortex$4
Tibalt, Fiend-blooded$2

Thats already $15.50 excluding Hellrider
Tibalts deck alone is worth around $35 im not sure how you can call it cheap considering for $20 you getting it and sorins deck.

Even if most of the cards are $1-$2 they are still staples in many Red/black Decks and having alt art blightnings and brow beats will increase their price further.

thank you very much for the analysis again. To be fair to empathogen it is pretty hard to realize all of the value in this upon first glance. Wthout the synopsis of what's contained e product doesnt look THAT great but it definitely is a pretty good one this time

You're not responding to him tapping Kiki-Jiki. You are responding to the activated ability of Kiki-Jiki.

So after he activates Kiki's ability and passes priority, the ability is on the stack. You now cast Fling. Fling is on the stack.

Fling resolves first because the stack resolves top-down. You kill Kiki-Jiki.
Then Kiki's ability goes to resolve. It will resolve because the ability is independent of its source. He will get the Angel.
Kiki is no longer on the battlefield, so Kiki can't be targeting, thus preventing the combo you are worried about.

If you killed the angel instead, Kiki's activated ability would be countered on resolution, because there is no legal target for the ability.

*Edit : As it is his turn and he doesn't need to pass priority after pod'ing for either Angel or Kiki-Jiki, yes, he can put the copy onto the stack, making the removal for the angel useless.

Priority always has to passed before something resolves, be it your turn or not. You will always get a chance to respond to Kiki-Jiki's activated ability.