You are perhaps correct, Revan. But a bit more flavourful explanation might be that the Nim simply attack whatever gets in their path. I personally would like a seperate black group more than automatically grouping the Nim with the Phyrexians by grace of both of them being black...
Then again, I believe that ALL cards have watermarks so that they're either Mirran Coalition or New Phyrexian. (MC or NP). And there's no way that Elspeth would fight alongside the Phyrexians. Two and two. Dammit, I just proved my own fluffy explanation wrong. UUUURGH.
Well I doubt they'd be unaligned, but considering they are, as far as I know, not incredibly intelligent, it could be that they just attacked Elspeth because she's planeswalked there and they didn't know what else to do with her. After all the picture has been shown ages ago and they probably didn't want to spoil anything Phyrexian at that point, so it may be they just put the Nim there so they're fighting against something.
One thing nobody seems to have thought about yet is the quite likely return of the sunburst mechanic for the Mirran side. If that's indeed the case, then they'll more or less have to be at least a little bit black. Probably not as focused upon as on the other colors. Also Liliana which is said to return in the block (memoricide, anyone?) although not being the nicest person ever, I cannot see as a Phyrexian ally. But then again that's just my impression.
Also, on the other hand it's quite likely that the Nim are allied with Phyrexia, as the Fatpack artwork depicts Koth and Elspeth fighting them.
Not yet, but Pacifism and Narcolepsy are good "removal" when the good removal disappears.
Agreed, but in my opinion Journey to Nowhere is far superior.
As for the card, it kind of wouldn't make sense if only one half lived on, so I'm guessing it'll be and. It is very powerful, but in standard not really much more than Grave Titan. It creates more powerful tokens and if it dies, but Grave Titan creates more. What really might be a bit over the top is the fact that it's entirely colorless, but all the artifact removal compensates nicely for that. I kind of prefer mythic rares like this over crap ones. Yes they're twice as hard to get as usual cards, but at least you get something and not a worthless Lorthos. Also very glad it's the promo, because it's actually useful for me, just like Sun Titan was.
Are we certain that it's for M12? I mean just because somone stated it was it really doesn't have to be. I also think it highly unlikely that they'd create a new card so very similar to Chandra's Phoenix. What I think it might be is infact a Spitfire. Either new artwork for M12 or possibly an FNM card? (They were always uncommons AFAIK).
Ive got an idea about sacrifice deck, where the key is to sacrifice, which would interact with everything you know, everything. And it is not devour deck. So, it is a combo deck?
Sounds like what I just came up with within the last hour.
It's way too complicated and will probably never work because it needs way to many cards but I'd call it a combo deck.
A while back there was this article on dailymtg talking about fun things to do with a Spawnsire of Ulamog, Doubling Season and Training Grounds. Unfortunately Doubling Season isn't in standard, so all you can get is 2 Eldrazi Spawn Tokens for 2 mana, AKA an endless chain of dying Spawn Tokens. Still sounds like fun, doesn't it? Say, you have a Hissing Iguanar, Moritcian Beetle or Deathgreeter out there, this could have some seriously fun consequences. Now there's one big problem to be dealt with. The bloody thing costs 10 mana. Even by ramping you'd have a while to get there. But there are other ways. Consider Skill Borrower it costs three mana and with a Spawnsire in place you'll get the important part anyway. The problem is getting everything in the right place, the combo needs an awful lot of pieces, thus is very fragile and hard to assemble. As protection I'd obviously suggest counterspells. While Mana Leak provides awesomely versatile countermagic, it does cost 2 mana. That one mana difference to Spell Pierce and Dispel is quite significant. I cannot decide between the two latter, though, as spellpierce is "buyable" and Dispel limited to Instants. The biggest threats are clearly posed by instants like Lightning Bolt, Counterspells, etc... and Dispel deals with them all, so I'm kind of a fan of it. Of course you'll need something to dig for the combo pieces and to keep them in place. Crystal Ball seems awesome to keep something on top of your library. Jace, The Mindsculptor is a no-brainer if he's available and Liliana Vess' Vampiric Tutor will fetch our Spwansires nicely ontop of the library. Dead Reckoning might serve as another opportunity to put it onto the library, with Liliana's +1 and possibly an Enclave Cryptologist (which synergize with Training Grounds) to get rid of superflous, uncastable Spawnsires in hand. Dead Reckoning has the advantage of also killing another fairly large creature, which gives us additional time. Augury Owl might provide another scrying opportunity and a reasonable chump blocker, on which sticking a Blade of the Bloodchief might work quite well as a win-condition.
Yeah well that's pretty much it. Now let's see whether I can craft anything reasonable from my random brainstorming...
I know that half of my list from up there didn't make the cut, but isn't it always like that? Anyway, if you manage to get out 2 Training Grounds you should be able to activate the Spawnsires second ability as a secondary win condition, thus an Emrakul and a Ulamog in the sideboard. The other Emrakul serves as a game finisher in games where Hissing Iguanar and Mortician Beetle do not succeed and the infinite life Deathgreeter combo takes effect. The Into the Roil is obviously for dealing with annoying things which can still kill you with infinite life, such as Jace and Leyline of the Void.
I haven't had any time to test this but I certainly will. It'll probably turn out not to work at all but who knows, with the right ammount of twisting. I'm of course open for any kinds of suggestions, I have no idea whether this works or doesn't.
Well I doubt they'd be unaligned, but considering they are, as far as I know, not incredibly intelligent, it could be that they just attacked Elspeth because she's planeswalked there and they didn't know what else to do with her. After all the picture has been shown ages ago and they probably didn't want to spoil anything Phyrexian at that point, so it may be they just put the Nim there so they're fighting against something.
Also, on the other hand it's quite likely that the Nim are allied with Phyrexia, as the Fatpack artwork depicts Koth and Elspeth fighting them.
Agreed, but in my opinion Journey to Nowhere is far superior.
As for the card, it kind of wouldn't make sense if only one half lived on, so I'm guessing it'll be and. It is very powerful, but in standard not really much more than Grave Titan. It creates more powerful tokens and if it dies, but Grave Titan creates more. What really might be a bit over the top is the fact that it's entirely colorless, but all the artifact removal compensates nicely for that. I kind of prefer mythic rares like this over crap ones. Yes they're twice as hard to get as usual cards, but at least you get something and not a worthless Lorthos. Also very glad it's the promo, because it's actually useful for me, just like Sun Titan was.
Sounds like what I just came up with within the last hour.
It's way too complicated and will probably never work because it needs way to many cards but I'd call it a combo deck.
A while back there was this article on dailymtg talking about fun things to do with a Spawnsire of Ulamog, Doubling Season and Training Grounds. Unfortunately Doubling Season isn't in standard, so all you can get is 2 Eldrazi Spawn Tokens for 2 mana, AKA an endless chain of dying Spawn Tokens. Still sounds like fun, doesn't it? Say, you have a Hissing Iguanar, Moritcian Beetle or Deathgreeter out there, this could have some seriously fun consequences. Now there's one big problem to be dealt with. The bloody thing costs 10 mana. Even by ramping you'd have a while to get there. But there are other ways. Consider Skill Borrower it costs three mana and with a Spawnsire in place you'll get the important part anyway. The problem is getting everything in the right place, the combo needs an awful lot of pieces, thus is very fragile and hard to assemble. As protection I'd obviously suggest counterspells. While Mana Leak provides awesomely versatile countermagic, it does cost 2 mana. That one mana difference to Spell Pierce and Dispel is quite significant. I cannot decide between the two latter, though, as spellpierce is "buyable" and Dispel limited to Instants. The biggest threats are clearly posed by instants like Lightning Bolt, Counterspells, etc... and Dispel deals with them all, so I'm kind of a fan of it. Of course you'll need something to dig for the combo pieces and to keep them in place. Crystal Ball seems awesome to keep something on top of your library. Jace, The Mindsculptor is a no-brainer if he's available and Liliana Vess' Vampiric Tutor will fetch our Spwansires nicely ontop of the library. Dead Reckoning might serve as another opportunity to put it onto the library, with Liliana's +1 and possibly an Enclave Cryptologist (which synergize with Training Grounds) to get rid of superflous, uncastable Spawnsires in hand. Dead Reckoning has the advantage of also killing another fairly large creature, which gives us additional time. Augury Owl might provide another scrying opportunity and a reasonable chump blocker, on which sticking a Blade of the Bloodchief might work quite well as a win-condition.
Yeah well that's pretty much it. Now let's see whether I can craft anything reasonable from my random brainstorming...
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Crumbling Necropolis
3 Drowned Catacomb
4 Dragonskull Summit
2 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Swamp
3 Island
1 Mountain
Combo: 11
3 Spawnsire of Ulamog
4 Training Grounds
4 Skill Borrower
3 Jace, The Mind Sculptor
4 Liliana Vess
2 Dead Reckoning
2 Crystal Ball
2 Enclave Cryptologist
Counterspell Backup: 4
4 Dispel
Win-Condition: 10
3 Mortician Beetle
4 Hissing Iguanar
2 Deathgreeter
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Mana Leak
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Into the Roil
1 Deathgreeter
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
4 Duress
I know that half of my list from up there didn't make the cut, but isn't it always like that? Anyway, if you manage to get out 2 Training Grounds you should be able to activate the Spawnsires second ability as a secondary win condition, thus an Emrakul and a Ulamog in the sideboard. The other Emrakul serves as a game finisher in games where Hissing Iguanar and Mortician Beetle do not succeed and the infinite life Deathgreeter combo takes effect. The Into the Roil is obviously for dealing with annoying things which can still kill you with infinite life, such as Jace and Leyline of the Void.
I haven't had any time to test this but I certainly will. It'll probably turn out not to work at all but who knows, with the right ammount of twisting. I'm of course open for any kinds of suggestions, I have no idea whether this works or doesn't.