The green card to the left of Apex of Power from the first angle:
Vine Mare
Creature - Elemental Horse
Keyword (reminder text)
Another ability
?/?
I can't make out the text, and the right edge is covered so no Mana cost or P/T.
A quick search for 'mare' and 'horse' on gatherer shows that other than nightmare (*/*) all other 'mares have been 5/5s for between 4 and 6 CMC. I would be surprised if they broke precedent and deviated too far from either of those ranges.
I'm surprised it hasn't been as clearly stated yet, but after the Johnny in me got tired of trying to combo this with Vigor and Greater Good, it didn't take a very long second glance to realize that this is actually just a new green card-draw sorcery that happens to be able to be a commander.
Alternate reading:
Even Greater Good 3GG
Sorcery
Play only before combat
As you declare attackers this turn, choose any number of attacking creatures you control with total power 8 or more
For each creature chosen this way: deal 10 damage to that creature and draw cards equal to its power.
And that is just one mode the spell can have (since it can ALSO be the combo tool we all want to make it).
The red reprint mythic has not ben show yet so at least 16 and possible 1 more mythic
I think its because the partners throw the count off. I actually assumed that they were going to count as one mythic as a pair (since they will both appear in the same pack together, it still makes for 15 options for a mythic pull).
This is weirding me out. I mean it's really good that there's so many good cards being reprinted, but no set is this good. Where's the Crap Rare Reprints? Are there any crap Rare Reprints?
Bunch of others are making similar comments, but just quotting the one for now. Wizards did announce that as an added challenge of making a 2-headed giant directed set, they wanted to make more accessible the format of 2HG sealed and draft, and to do that they wanted people to be able to make good decks with fewer packs so it wouldn't take all day to build decks with almost a full deck's worth of playable cards in the shared sideboard.
To achieve this, they decided to reduce the amount of chaff in the set: a much higher % of cards are going to be good in this set, because it is 2HG. The side effect we are seeing is that there is much less chaff in the set! It's so much value, I can only imagine how much just the spoilers have boosted sales on the secondary market for the decks people are suddenly eager to create.
I only hope that the massively rave reviews we all expect to be giving for this set will encourage Wizards to consider raising the power level of other sets as well (maybe not Standard sets, but future innovation/supplemental sets should definitely be boosted to continue this trend of amazing awesomeness).
(edited to not be so hard on other innovation products)
I don't understand why Demons and Angels don't end up together more often TBH... Demons are paragons of black mana: they are selfish and without empathy for others taking whatever they can at any cost, while Angels, as paragons of white mana would strive for the benefit of all, even giving of themselves to better others. One takes impulsively, the other gives generously. It can very easily be believable as long as the Demon is satisfied with what the Angel provides and the Angel can justify or otherwise direct the Demon to use its selfishness for the greater good more often than not (see: Liliana being a 'good guy' despite being very black-aligned/selfish). Now, will it be a healthy relationship? Never. It is the definition of co-dependence. But co-dependent relationships of black and white type characters are very common in fiction as well as in life.
Man I really hope when we finally get that Bolas showdown with Bolas vs. Gatewatch that he actually wins and literally kills of 75 % of the entire Gatewatch. Maybe leaving 1 alive and corruption another.
For God's sake. Maybe they should also change the name of the game to "Magic: the Edgelording".
I think people just want to see more of a Game of (Magic) Thrones. Let the PoV characters die every so often. Make us care about the stakes, and let the writers clean their plate when distaste grows for the main cast. There are plenty of ways to bring people back from the dead, so who cares if the main cast dies every so often?
So I activate Thran Temporal Gateway to put In Bolas's Clutches into play attached to your Lich's Mastery and carefully arrange my damage so I can sac the Aura before losing the Mastery/game. If I'm running a Thran-control deck anyways (and you happen to be silly enough to play any Lich effect, ever).
I think the flexibility of having Artifacts and Legendaries, combined with the wealth of toolbox legendaries that exist, just having an Aether Vial for half your deck might be worth the cost of running the Gateway just for the instant speed/color-fixing/uncounterability. If the right set of tools exists to control the meta that is ...
Not sure why the post about rarity skewing was deleted, but I was trying to quote/agree when it vanished. Exchanging life totals with a permanent is not something I want to see at rare. Frequently in draft, someone is going to have to explain how exchanging life totals with a permanent works. Especially with temporary/aura/equipment power boosts, i.e. on layer 7C or later, which I only know because this card has already blown peoples' minds and nobody has even played with it yet.
Except that your deck will keep getting thinner and thinner until one of your heads eventually decks itself and your entire team loses. Not to mention the mana thinning as you either grow mana-less heads or lose your precious resources to cast cards yourself. Once is great. Twice might be able to win the race. More than that is greedy and probably going to bite you in the behind.
Edit: didn't see the post about Lab Manning that downside into a feature.
Edit to edit: but ... There is no reason to add more than one ally for this combo. Just have lab man in play, cast this giving your new head the maniac, a cantrip, mana to cast it and zero cards in library.
I thought the planeswalker spark was supposed to be rare. How fortuitous that Samut has one and it advances the plot just so.
Would you rather we didn't get the native planeswalker for this block? Or maybe we should showcase how rare a planeswalker spark is by re-using the same five characters every single set instead of introducing new ones. Especially new ones that the less represented demographic can relate to, because who cares about the dark-skinned female players, amirite?
Well, I'm all for convenient plot device-driven sparks so I have nothing against Samut, but if there was going to be a plane where a newly sparked planeswalker had a bone to pick with its leaders, Nicol Bolas is plenty MacGuffiny to be the villain any number of random 'walkers from around the multiverse would gather to try and fight against. So we didn't need the power of plot to compel someone to spark right before Bolas' return (although a few prophecies about it would have been enough to lampshade it and make it less random) in order to get a new planeswalker if some random dude from any of the many planes Bolas has terrorized decided to throw their life away fighting Bolas on his home plane at the one time they knew he would be there (during the prophesied return).
Plot has not been one of Magic's strong suits these past couple years. I don't care that they did things badly, and I think Wizards knows this when writing their drivel. They are primarily making a fun card game, and people want to see how the planeswalker spark affects people of different situations differently. They decided that they couldn't throw away the chance to make a planeswalker from Amonkhet who has been ruled by the tyrant God-Pharaoh Bolas. Do people care if it's trite? Not enough to affect sales. Should they try harder? Probably.
Did you have a stroke while typing that out? There aren't any tribes mentioned there. People seem to be divided, but generally accept that there are no holds barred on the color combinations/quantities, the only mystery that we have to work with is that "there's at least 1 tribe you won't expect." So colorless being not unexpected does not disqualify it from that statement, since it could easily be Myr (which people are speculating on, but not expecting since it is a colorless tribe that is famous for producing colored mana, which would be out of place/illegal in a colorless commander deck).
A quick search for 'mare' and 'horse' on gatherer shows that other than nightmare (*/*) all other 'mares have been 5/5s for between 4 and 6 CMC. I would be surprised if they broke precedent and deviated too far from either of those ranges.
Alternate reading:
Even Greater Good 3GG
Sorcery
Play only before combat
As you declare attackers this turn, choose any number of attacking creatures you control with total power 8 or more
For each creature chosen this way: deal 10 damage to that creature and draw cards equal to its power.
And that is just one mode the spell can have (since it can ALSO be the combo tool we all want to make it).
I think its because the partners throw the count off. I actually assumed that they were going to count as one mythic as a pair (since they will both appear in the same pack together, it still makes for 15 options for a mythic pull).
Bunch of others are making similar comments, but just quotting the one for now. Wizards did announce that as an added challenge of making a 2-headed giant directed set, they wanted to make more accessible the format of 2HG sealed and draft, and to do that they wanted people to be able to make good decks with fewer packs so it wouldn't take all day to build decks with almost a full deck's worth of playable cards in the shared sideboard.
To achieve this, they decided to reduce the amount of chaff in the set: a much higher % of cards are going to be good in this set, because it is 2HG. The side effect we are seeing is that there is much less chaff in the set! It's so much value, I can only imagine how much just the spoilers have boosted sales on the secondary market for the decks people are suddenly eager to create.
I only hope that the massively rave reviews we all expect to be giving for this set will encourage Wizards to consider raising the power level of other sets as well (maybe not Standard sets, but future innovation/supplemental sets should definitely be boosted to continue this trend of amazing awesomeness).
(edited to not be so hard on other innovation products)
I think people just want to see more of a Game of (Magic) Thrones. Let the PoV characters die every so often. Make us care about the stakes, and let the writers clean their plate when distaste grows for the main cast. There are plenty of ways to bring people back from the dead, so who cares if the main cast dies every so often?
I think the flexibility of having Artifacts and Legendaries, combined with the wealth of toolbox legendaries that exist, just having an Aether Vial for half your deck might be worth the cost of running the Gateway just for the instant speed/color-fixing/uncounterability. If the right set of tools exists to control the meta that is ...
Except that your deck will keep getting thinner and thinner until one of your heads eventually decks itself and your entire team loses. Not to mention the mana thinning as you either grow mana-less heads or lose your precious resources to cast cards yourself. Once is great. Twice might be able to win the race. More than that is greedy and probably going to bite you in the behind.
Edit: didn't see the post about Lab Manning that downside into a feature.
Edit to edit: but ... There is no reason to add more than one ally for this combo. Just have lab man in play, cast this giving your new head the maniac, a cantrip, mana to cast it and zero cards in library.
Except the Pepsi card will obviously be Pepsiman.
Well, I'm all for convenient plot device-driven sparks so I have nothing against Samut, but if there was going to be a plane where a newly sparked planeswalker had a bone to pick with its leaders, Nicol Bolas is plenty MacGuffiny to be the villain any number of random 'walkers from around the multiverse would gather to try and fight against. So we didn't need the power of plot to compel someone to spark right before Bolas' return (although a few prophecies about it would have been enough to lampshade it and make it less random) in order to get a new planeswalker if some random dude from any of the many planes Bolas has terrorized decided to throw their life away fighting Bolas on his home plane at the one time they knew he would be there (during the prophesied return).
Plot has not been one of Magic's strong suits these past couple years. I don't care that they did things badly, and I think Wizards knows this when writing their drivel. They are primarily making a fun card game, and people want to see how the planeswalker spark affects people of different situations differently. They decided that they couldn't throw away the chance to make a planeswalker from Amonkhet who has been ruled by the tyrant God-Pharaoh Bolas. Do people care if it's trite? Not enough to affect sales. Should they try harder? Probably.
It's hard to imagine how that grandpa became one of the most notorious villains of the entire multiverse.
Did you have a stroke while typing that out? There aren't any tribes mentioned there. People seem to be divided, but generally accept that there are no holds barred on the color combinations/quantities, the only mystery that we have to work with is that "there's at least 1 tribe you won't expect." So colorless being not unexpected does not disqualify it from that statement, since it could easily be Myr (which people are speculating on, but not expecting since it is a colorless tribe that is famous for producing colored mana, which would be out of place/illegal in a colorless commander deck).