MTG Salvation

Quote from SyntheticDreamer »

Whoa. Build a better Decimate. Yeah, you're probably not going to be able to choose all the modes, but you're going to get good enough value out of this in most Commander games...and probably make everyone hate you in the process.

Jund and blow everything up.

Quote from Tibalt"s Advocate »

Quote from Manite »

I don't want to waste my time on a story with a downer ending where the good guys I've been rooting for end up losing. And I flat out reject stories that confuse "realism" with "pessimism", where the downer ending is supposed to represent some fatalistic philosophy about life. It's bad enough that real life has been disappointing and depressing, I will NOT waste my time on disappointing and depressing fiction. If the bad guy ends up winning, what's even the point of caring? What's even the point of reading the damn fiction in the first place!? Amonkhet felt like a waste of time. Shadows Over Innistrad felt like a waste of time. Scars of Mirrodin felt like a waste of time. Kaladesh, Ixalan, and Dominaria didn't feel like a waste of time.

So yeah, pardon me if I celebrate with the Ravnicans here. Down with Bolas and good riddance. At least in fiction world, dictators and tyrants get the death and defeat they deserve.

meanwhile it seems instead that the defenders just steamrolled bolas like he was more of a punchline than Tibalt from the cards.

Basically, this.

An ancient dragon who was the smartest and most powerful creature to ever walk the multiverse was out-smarted and overpowered with no meaningful cost to those who bested him.

Quote from genini2 »

Quote from idSurge »

I'm fairly annoyed that we know Bolas loses.

Course he lost. If he won the story would sorta end and that's not good for business.

I was hoping for a multiverse-reset event.

Nicol Bolas is defeated, but not after the majority of planeswalkers die. Then for the next few years, there would be zero planeswalkers until their eventual return.

Quote from NGW »

This is a pretty major set story-wise, so why then do they use a rare slot on a running joke character? Why is he even in the set to begin with? Mechanically he feels..odd, like I don't get how the first effect really ties in with him at all, the second at least is somewhat worthwhile as far as flavor goes. I'm sure most people don't care, they're just happy that he finally got a card, but this really feels like something that should have been in a supplemental set or something, where they usually stick characters like this. I mean, they literally took a non-character from some flavor text and made him a full blown rare legend in one of the biggest even sets the game's ever had. Like, really? But again, this is probably falling on deaf ears because "omg hahaha, they actually made a Fblthp card!"

"But the meme value is through the roof!"
-WotC, probably

Quote from TheOnlyOne652089 »

This would be cool if it would actually give your creatures lifelink to combo off from it.

As it is, a pretty lame board sweeper, at least you can build around a little so it wont kill your stuff (but most cards you want to play dont really contribute for that in red/white, and not even in a multicolor deck).

----

But the flavourtext is sweet, Ravnicas "Death Star" is going on a rampage, makes you wonder why it doesnt go directly for Nicol Bolas right away.

It probably works like a lie detector.

Nicol Bolas did nothing wrong. So it has no effect.

If nothing else, the Ravnica guilds are good at branding.

I'd like to think the Boros artisans took extra time, at the cost of time/lives, to get the Boros logo just right.

Quote from RedGauntlet »

Just want the Zombie Gods already

They have to be Act II reveals, right? So we should be getting them this week.

• Act I (intro): Planar Bridge opens on Ravnica, Nicol Bolas and zombie army arrives, planeswalker response
• Act II (middle): Amonkhet zombie gods mark the dark, middle chapter. Gatewatch thinks up a plan
• Act III (end): Gatewatch's plan goes wrong, Karn/Teferi do some timey-wimey stuff, Niv-Mizzet returns as WUBRG

Quote from scottjhebert »

Quote from Hunter »

Re: Bolas harvesting sparks

The art book mentions that Bolas is counting on the Gatewatch to show up....

Ah. If Bolas is indeed harvesting sparks, then what we're likely to get are Legendary creatures (i.e., non-walkers) of all the PWs. That WotC can do without screwing up balance, etc.

So the idea is:

1) Everyone arrives
2) Bolas steals everyone's sparks (and holds them somewhere)
3) Everyone attacks Bolas while he tries to make Oldspark.
4) Everyone defeats Bolas before he gets Spark, and everyone gets their Spark back. Niv-Mizzet gains Bolas's spark.

This makes a lot of sense. It also explains why Bolas didn't want to kill the Gatewatch on Amonkhet, and also perhaps why he needs the Eternal army: to handle de-powered PWs. The plan (from a WotC 'how will it all work' perspective) hinges on the fact that post-Mending PWs gain very little from their Sparks, except the power to planeswalk.

And then Ugin arrives with the Allspark and with the help of the artificers of Kaladesh and the dinosaurs from Ixilan, Grimlock, Dinobot Leader enters from stage left and says, "one shall stand, and one shall fall."

Fade out to black...

Nicol Bolas and Grimlock will return in Ravnica IV: Winter Edition.

...roll credits.

Hm... just noticed new Dovin is missing. Can’t say I’m a fan if that decision.

EXCELLENT!

Also, lots of lore implications from that roster.

Speculation: Tezzeret, Deretti, and Dack all deal with artifacts (and Karn). Therefore, an artifact theme for either Grixis colors or the entire set, will be introduced in War of the Sparks (or whatever it’s going to be called).

Not really any more than watching people play physical Magic.

Quote from Trov »

Quote from JaceBluesMaster »

Quote from Ninja Bob »

Stopped again at 35,784 units sold.

Are they just releasing them in 12,000 unit batches at a time to meet demand?

edit: 37, 531 units sold. "More than 78% sold."

Well my first order was "sold" but then canceled. I do not think my purchase is subtracted from the ticker. So if there are only 12,000 boxes, then 25,000 orders have been canceled (if not more, lol).

I agree, but it does show how crazy the demand is lol. It must be some algorithm canceling all the orders that where put at the same time (and can't process) and then slowly putting the ones that didn't go through back up so the same problem doesn't show up again.

Most likely WotC are only putting X number up at a time. Once they get X number of fully completed and paid for orders, all pending or new orders are canceled. Then they add Y number of boxes to the store and repeat the process. Then once those are gone, repeat again with Z number of boxes.

Only activated abilities have the cost represented as the portion before the colon. Instants and Sorceries will have the phrasing "As an additional cost to cast.." see tormenting voice

That being said the discard is part of the resolution and because it is an effect of the spell they are effected by Library of Leng should you so choose.

They certainly can. There are two triggered abilities here that you control, so you can put them on the stack in such away that the melding occurs first.

Quote from Ninja Bob »

Bruna, the Fading Light is on the battlefield. On my second main phase, I cast Goryo's Vengeance targeting Gisela, the Broken Blade.

Both Gisela and Bruna are on the battlefield at end of turn.

Do they transform into Brisela, Voice of Nightmares?

That's up to you.

603.3b If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities they control on the stack in any order they choose. (See rule 101.4.) Then the game once again checks for and resolves state-based actions until none are performed, then abilities that triggered during this process go on the stack. This process repeats
until no new state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the appropriate player gets priority.

Sequence A:

1. Your ending phase begins. Your end step begins. This triggers two abilities, the delayed trigger from Goryo's Vengeance and the trigger from Grisela.
2. You would get priority, but there are two triggered abilities to put on the stack. A) You put "Exile it [Gisela] at the beginning of the next end step." on the stack. B) You put "At the beginning of your end step, if you both own and control Gisela, the Broken Blade and a creature named Bruna, the Fading Light, exile them, then meld them into Brisela, Voice of Nightmares." on the stack.
3. You get priority and pass.
4. Opponent gets priority and passes.
5. The top object on the stack (the ability put there in step 2B) resolves. You exile Gisela and Bruna, then meld them into Brisela.
6. You get priority and pass.
7. Opponent gets priority and passes.
8. The top object on the stack (the ability put there in step 2A) resolves. It does nothing because Gisela ceased to exist in step 5.
9. You get priority and pass.
10. Opponent gets priority and passes.
11. The end step ends.

Sequence B:

1. Your ending phase begins. Your end step begins. This triggers two abilities, the delayed trigger from Goryo's Vengeance and the trigger from Grisela.
2. You would get priority, but there are two triggered abilities to put on the stack. A) You put "At the beginning of your end step, if you both own and control Gisela, the Broken Blade and a creature named Bruna, the Fading Light, exile them, then meld them into Brisela, Voice of Nightmares." on the stack. B) You put "Exile it [Gisela] at the beginning of the next end step." on the stack.
3. You get priority and pass.
4. Opponent gets priority and passes.
5. The top object on the stack (the ability put there in step 2B) resolves. You exile Gisela.
6. You get priority and pass.
7. Opponent gets priority and passes.
8. The top object on the stack (the ability put there in step 2A) resolves. The intervening if condition is no longer true, so it does nothing.
9. You get priority and pass.
10. Opponent gets priority and passes.
11. The end step ends.

This feels like a false perception. In Return to Ravnica, 84 out of 274 cards were multicolor, which is not only almost exactly the same number but a slightly lower ratio of cards. The original Ravnica: City of Guilds contained over 300 cards, of which only 64 were multicolor. There were some cards with things like off-color activation costs and the enhanced spells, plus guild artifact and land cycles, to make up the difference, but even factoring things like that in, the number of cards with a "multicolor connection" still seems to be greater in the most recent Ravnica sets.

Ravnica block sets have many times more multicolor cards than the average set, but they don't completely dominate the card count because multicolor isn't the block theme; the guilds and their mechanical identities are the block theme.

There's definitely fewer hybrid-mana cards in Guilds compared to past Ravnica outings, but it seems as though R&D just wanted to focus on traditional multicolor this go-around, with things like the pushed uncommon cycle for MMNN. There are also design space considerations, as hybrid is much harder to design for than straight multicolor for the simple reason that multicolor is additive (can do things color A can do and/or things color B can do, usually in combination) and hybrid is subtractive (can do only things color A AND color B can do).

EDIT: Invasion, the original set to be marketed as "the multicolor set", had 71 out of 350 of its cards multicolor. Shards of Alara had 57 out of 249 multicolor cards.

Aurelia, Image(Ideal?Avatar?) of Justice

Legendary Creature - Angel

Flying

Mentor

At the start of combat on your turn, choose up to one target creature you control. Until end of turn, that creature gains +2/+0, trample if it is red, and vigilance if it is white.

> Unban Library

/sighs, opens wallet