Why do I have a hunch that all the calamity beasts want to do is drive out a certain extraplanar invader, then go back to sleep...
...complicating things is that, thanks to Bloomburrow's morphic field, every extraplanar visitor looks like a talking animal.
(On another note, I agree that Zoraline the bat likely isn't from Bloomburrow. That style of dress looks way too fancy, and this is considering that Mabel looks like an Embereth knight from far off. A little bit of me is still convinced that Bloomburrow is an Eldrainian enchanted book-turned-plane that fell off Eldraine at some point Immersturm-the-plane-fell-off-Kaldheim style.)
Hm...2-mana, 3-toughness non-legendary with flying and vigilance, that gets beefier as you draw. Good deal! Its ability to beef itself isn't that great, but you pair it up with the right things and you can pack a wallop for cheap.
Actually, the more I look at this card, the more I'd rather have Ledger Shredder. It isn't long before Ledger Shredder ties this duelist power-wise post-Brainstorm (often 1-2 turns after you play the Shredder). Both of them have the exact same mana cost. Both of them likely loot around as often. Ledger Shredder's buff boost is permanent.
Crime is gonna lead to very weird gameplay with spells you usually target on your own stuff, like giant growth.
Buffing your creatures, like a real hardened criminal.
Not entirely sure what to make of the mechanic. Targeting stuff is so common it feels like any deck built around crime will just... be a deck.
Targeting opponents and their stuff is pretty common...targeting them every turn is not, and it's prone to getting you hosed by Leyline of Sanctity and the latest craze in Modern, Hexproof granters.
Yeah, you'll play some more targeting stuff, but like, ok? You're not fundamentally doing anything different. You're not constructing your deck for synergy. You just slap cards together you always slap together, just with slightly different ratios.
It's like the color matters theme in Shadowmoor. It didn't lead to interesting deck building, because barring exceptions most decks play a very limited number of colours anyway (outside of multicolor formats).
And a single card shutting down an entire deck is not a point in favour of the mechanic, or Wizard's design philosophy in general.
In order to commit a crime every turn like Oko, the Ringleader encourages, you need quite a lot of cards that target opponents and/or their stuff. The density found in Modern Crashing Footfalls decks isn't high enough - think more like Burn, Discard, or just maybe Jund or No White Midrange. Flexible planeswalkers like Wrenn and Six and Teferi, Time Traveler help, as do removal spells out the wazoo. But, at least in Modern, I suspect decks will not go out of their way to commit more crimes, and crimes-matter cards are more likely to end up naturally slotting into decks. (What crimes-matter decks really want is a land that targets opponents or their stuff every turn.)
In one way, you're right - I don't predict that a new crimes-matter deck will emerge in Modern as a result of OTJ. In another way, I predict that crimes-matter cards will slot into significantly fewer decks than expected in Modern because you do have to go out of your way to enable them if you end up with one that wants you to commit a crime every turn for maximum reliability.
And then ending up with a mitt of discard spells against Turn 0 Leyline of Sanctity or a mitt of the wrong removal spells against Scion of Draco-Leyline of the Guildpact is among the worst feelings in the world.
Crime is gonna lead to very weird gameplay with spells you usually target on your own stuff, like giant growth.
Buffing your creatures, like a real hardened criminal.
Not entirely sure what to make of the mechanic. Targeting stuff is so common it feels like any deck built around crime will just... be a deck.
Targeting opponents and their stuff is pretty common...targeting them every turn is not, and it's prone to getting you hosed by Leyline of Sanctity and the latest craze in Modern, Hexproof granters.
And finally, the Imagine: Courageous Critters showcase treatment invites you to envision renowned Planeswalkers and creatures were they to visit the plane of Bloomburrow!
So, it's not canon. Just an art treatment. Ral is still human. Which... if everyone on bloomburrow is the size of the real animal, then Ral is a giant among those. It's possible Ral knows an izzet spell that shrinks him though, or shall I say downsizes him.
My theory is that Jace is not on the plane because his artwork didn't come with a name, so he's likely a reprint.
And finally, the Imagine: Courageous Critters showcase treatment invites you to envision renowned Planeswalkers and creatures were they to visit the plane of Bloomburrow!
...Right above a picture of Jace Fox.
Sorry, folks.
Cragflame really makes me think that Bloomburrow is an offshoot of Eldraine and its Irencrag. Maybe the imagination there has a corrupting influence on Ral...or maybe Ral is just a huge fan of planeswalkers. The only thing that doesn't sound like Eldraine is the calamity beasts.
Tibalt's death definitely falls into the "never checked the body" category. It's told from Elspeth's perspective as she's running the other direction. She sees him stabbed in what "should have" been his heart, he screams, he falls, he stops screaming. I assume he wakes up a bit later, complains about his head hurting and limps through an omenpath just before New Phyrexia gets phased out.
"The last thing Elspeth saw before she ran off the bridge, following the trail the others had taken, was Tyvar driving the twin barbs of Tibalt's tail into the space that should have held the Phyrexian's heart. Tibalt screamed, high and agonized, and was still screaming as Tyvar shoved him from the bridge. There was a sickening crunch as Tibalt slammed into the bridge below, followed by silence."
That's basically what I assumed until a Wizards employee outright said he's dead. Unfortunately I didn't bother keeping the source. Might have been a miscommunication either internally (not everyone will be kept updated on story plans) or by the employee at the time, but it wasn't a phrasing of the "looks like he's dead" kind.
As a "never found the body" situation the scene is far less awful, but as a final send-off it was severely lacking since Tibalt didn't even got to be a particular prominent Phyrexian 'walker throughout the rest of the final.
If he shows up here that will resolve one of the twenty things wrong with the MOM story.
Tyvar deserved a little vengeance for Kaldheim, as a treat.
Now, I am not the franchise owner (wow would some things be big different if I were!), so I can't guarantee he stays dead, but as of right now, Tibalt is very, very dead, and Tyvar is very, very smug. Or. Y'know. Would be, if he weren't about to be overrun by an army of Phyrexians.
At least the planeswalker's guide solidly confirms that Lazav is still alive (then heavily implies he staged his own death and disguised himself as various other Dimir workers - his card implies he disguised himself as detectives).
Cryptic Coat is excellent at offing planeswalkers, especially Teferi, Time Traveler, which RUG Crashing Footfalls has big problems with. However, it doesn't turn games around very fast, and the Subtlety I replaced with Cryptic Coat in UW Control would probably have helped me stabilize better. Cryptic Coat at least has fun synergies and is a good back-up win-con in Hammer Time.
...complicating things is that, thanks to Bloomburrow's morphic field, every extraplanar visitor looks like a talking animal.
(On another note, I agree that Zoraline the bat likely isn't from Bloomburrow. That style of dress looks way too fancy, and this is considering that Mabel looks like an Embereth knight from far off. A little bit of me is still convinced that Bloomburrow is an Eldrainian enchanted book-turned-plane that fell off Eldraine at some point Immersturm-the-plane-fell-off-Kaldheim style.)
Actually, the more I look at this card, the more I'd rather have Ledger Shredder. It isn't long before Ledger Shredder ties this duelist power-wise post-Brainstorm (often 1-2 turns after you play the Shredder). Both of them have the exact same mana cost. Both of them likely loot around as often. Ledger Shredder's buff boost is permanent.
In the meantime, the biggest enemies to pumping this guy are probably Orcish Bowmasters and Hullbreacher.
In order to commit a crime every turn like Oko, the Ringleader encourages, you need quite a lot of cards that target opponents and/or their stuff. The density found in Modern Crashing Footfalls decks isn't high enough - think more like Burn, Discard, or just maybe Jund or No White Midrange. Flexible planeswalkers like Wrenn and Six and Teferi, Time Traveler help, as do removal spells out the wazoo. But, at least in Modern, I suspect decks will not go out of their way to commit more crimes, and crimes-matter cards are more likely to end up naturally slotting into decks. (What crimes-matter decks really want is a land that targets opponents or their stuff every turn.)
In one way, you're right - I don't predict that a new crimes-matter deck will emerge in Modern as a result of OTJ. In another way, I predict that crimes-matter cards will slot into significantly fewer decks than expected in Modern because you do have to go out of your way to enable them if you end up with one that wants you to commit a crime every turn for maximum reliability.
And then ending up with a mitt of discard spells against Turn 0 Leyline of Sanctity or a mitt of the wrong removal spells against Scion of Draco-Leyline of the Guildpact is among the worst feelings in the world.
Targeting opponents and their stuff is pretty common...targeting them every turn is not, and it's prone to getting you hosed by Leyline of Sanctity and the latest craze in Modern, Hexproof granters.
The article also says this:
...with the Ral Zarek as Otter picture just below.
So planeswalkers get turned into talking animals upon entry, and Ral Zarek is likely the only planeswalker who actually visits Bloomburrow.
The mothership's A First Look at Bloomburrow says this:
...Right above a picture of Jace Fox.
Sorry, folks.
Does this happen to be your source?
https://www.tumblr.com/seananmcguire/706808344235720704/did-tibalt-die-in-the-one-story
Cryptic Coat is excellent at offing planeswalkers, especially Teferi, Time Traveler, which RUG Crashing Footfalls has big problems with. However, it doesn't turn games around very fast, and the Subtlety I replaced with Cryptic Coat in UW Control would probably have helped me stabilize better. Cryptic Coat at least has fun synergies and is a good back-up win-con in Hammer Time.