As far as we can tell with merge, if, at any point, the merge creature that's become an aura stops being attached to a creature, it becomes a creature again. That's the same way bestow works. It just doesn't have the mandatory power/toughness bonus or making you choose while in hand whether you want the aura or want to skip it. This is a mechanic you can actually cost where you can use it before late game. It isn't that bestow wasn't neat when you could actually use it. The way it and merge work, you don't have the card disadvantage of auras. You can also merge repeatedly for only 1-3 mana. It's only sorcery speed, though, other than the aura mover card, so it isn't a combat trick and gives the "shields down" moment,though. It's actually a very well designed mechanic that I think people will really enjoy, if real. It isn't bestow. It's improved bestow that might actually let them print a constructed merge card or two. I think it looks really fun, kind of like bloodrush. It's a creature you can also use for something else, but like cycling, adventure, channel, or reinforce, you can actually use it reasonably because it isn't locked behind 6+ mana. It also fits with the trend of monstrosity improvement, channel that lets you have both at a reasonable cost (adventure), and flashback that can work on any card type (escape). I could actually see it existing along with mutate, especially if mutate is something like monstrosity but you can have a choice of keywords. This is black border host/augment set but without the card disadvantage and the design issues of a+b mechanic. It isn't that contraptions or host/augment weren't good ideas but this improves the latter and food improved the former.
As for designing a card that later saw print, I personally designed the exact card Murder only with a different name. An enemy ultimatum that's practically a ripoff of Violent Ultimatum isn't exactly the pinnacle of innovation. It's spicy and exciting but lets do the opposite of a card in the same cycle isn't going to surprise.
Are you really going to give up a 2/3 reach creature for an aura that does nothing but grant another creature reach, though? Or, similarly, vigilance?
I am going to laugh my butt off if loading all of your merge creatures onto one dude before casting shatter the sky and returning them to the field becomes a legitimate strategy in standard.
"Oh, and we're doing five decks instead of four, with 71 brand-new cards—more than ever before.
What's the occasion? Well, for Commander (2020 Edition), we're trying something new: we're aligning the Commander decks with Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths. They'll release with Ikoria on April 24, and you'll even be able to try them (in casual play, of course) at the Ikoria Prerelease April 17–19!
All the new cards in the decks are set on the world of Ikoria. (The reprints can be from anywhere.) This is a way to dig even deeper into this wild new world of monsters! You can still expect the same power level of years past, and the cards are only legal in Eternal formats like Legacy, Vintage, and, of course, Commander. These didn't have to be built with Standard in mind, and they have their own expansion symbol to set them apart.
And just to quell any doubts: the 71 new cards are not also found in Draft Boosters; these are not cards from the rest of the Ikoriaset. They were made just with these decks in mind!
There are a handful of cards from the Ikoriaset in these decks in the "reprint" slots, but the number is fairly small. Those cards are mostly just there to help make a couple themes work. (Imagine, for example, if Kaladesh had done this: if we had an energy Commander deck, you would definitely want a couple energy cards from the main set also in your deck.)"
Judging by this article, the supposed leaked decklist does, matches up with those qualifiers. 71 new cards, which would mean each deck gets around 14 new cards, not including cards from ikoria (those are counted as reprints). I would assume those bogus commons would be the few cards added from ikoira main set. This leaves the "good cards" in the deck at 14 (+1 for the land which I assume every deck will have).
If it is fake, it is a well done one because it is underwhelming. The reprints are rather lackluster and the decklist is kind of all over the place.
Merge initially seems bad. Perhaps it's just the cards they're showing, but why on earth would I pay 5 mana for First strike? It's definitely a common card, but why is this in the Commander deck? I know they were adding cards from Ikoira since the decks are themed around the set, but you think they could have added some better cards. Merge has the potential to be interesting, but I feel like the cards are really lazy.
The new cards are weird. Although I like the idea of a mothra type legend in these colors, the card itself seems really weak. 5 mana for a 4/3 flier seems really unplayable. It does nothing when it first comes out, and doesn't come out nearly fast enough or initially strong enough to be a plausible threat.
I also think it is weird they chose to throw in Anafenza as the 4th legend and made it a big deal on the deck boxes. "4 foil legends!" Anafenza doesn't really strike me as a good fit for this deck, and it's not like it was a card you could previously never get in foil. It doesn't really work well as a Commander for this theme.
The only reason I believe they would have left them underwhelming is because they know people would want to buy Ikoira packs to upgrade their Commander decks with the themes that are somewhat present.
This decklist is pretty rough. There are cards that care about sacrifice and gaining life, but also trying to do an aura voltron thing at the same time? It's all over the place.
Also, this still leaves the aforementioned "keyword counters" ability out of the question. So unless we are seeing two different types of mutations that augment creatures with abilities in this set, I would almost call this fake.
This would mean Mutate would be a similar ability that just adds keywords onto creatures in one way or another, making Merge seem like just a different version of that by just turning creatures into auras.
I would find it hard to believe that WotC would do two abilities that are so similar in the same set.
"Oh, and we're doing five decks instead of four, with 71 brand-new cards—more than ever before.
What's the occasion? Well, for Commander (2020 Edition), we're trying something new: we're aligning the Commander decks with Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths. They'll release with Ikoria on April 24, and you'll even be able to try them (in casual play, of course) at the Ikoria Prerelease April 17–19!
All the new cards in the decks are set on the world of Ikoria. (The reprints can be from anywhere.) This is a way to dig even deeper into this wild new world of monsters! You can still expect the same power level of years past, and the cards are only legal in Eternal formats like Legacy, Vintage, and, of course, Commander. These didn't have to be built with Standard in mind, and they have their own expansion symbol to set them apart.
And just to quell any doubts: the 71 new cards are not also found in Draft Boosters; these are not cards from the rest of the Ikoriaset. They were made just with these decks in mind!
There are a handful of cards from the Ikoriaset in these decks in the "reprint" slots, but the number is fairly small. Those cards are mostly just there to help make a couple themes work. (Imagine, for example, if Kaladesh had done this: if we had an energy Commander deck, you would definitely want a couple energy cards from the main set also in your deck.)"
Judging by this article, the supposed leaked decklist does, matches up with those qualifiers. 71 new cards, which would mean each deck gets around 14 new cards, not including cards from ikoria (those are counted as reprints). I would assume those bogus commons would be the few cards added from ikoira main set. This leaves the "good cards" in the deck at 14 (+1 for the land which I assume every deck will have).
If it is fake, it is a well done one because it is underwhelming. The reprints are rather lackluster and the decklist is kind of all over the place.
Merge initially seems bad. Perhaps it's just the cards they're showing, but why on earth would I pay 5 mana for First strike? It's definitely a common card, but why is this in the Commander deck? I know they were adding cards from Ikoira since the decks are themed around the set, but you think they could have added some better cards. Merge has the potential to be interesting, but I feel like the cards are really lazy.
The new cards are weird. Although I like the idea of a mothra type legend in these colors, the card itself seems really weak. 5 mana for a 4/3 flier seems really unplayable. It does nothing when it first comes out, and doesn't come out nearly fast enough or initially strong enough to be a plausible threat.
I also think it is weird they chose to throw in Anafenza as the 4th legend and made it a big deal on the deck boxes. "4 foil legends!" Anafenza doesn't really strike me as a good fit for this deck, and it's not like it was a card you could previously never get in foil. It doesn't really work well as a Commander for this theme.
The only reason I believe they would have left them underwhelming is because they know people would want to buy Ikoira packs to upgrade their Commander decks with the themes that are somewhat present.
That’s a good explanation but it’s still recommended to assume fake until proven real other wise by the horses mouth
But anyway two big problems
1 would they really reprint triumph of the hordes ina casual pre-con deck (infect in a casual deck) and also this card has serve salt level since it can just end games the moment it’s cast
2 one of the new cards is called “whiptongue frog” however.....that name is already done on a card so they gave a name already done it’s suppose to be a reprint not new only possiblity it could be from a forensic language page and it’s a mistranslation
Now the ultimatum that doesn’t work as a reason that this is fake yes same name yes somewhat same ability as the “mad Gary” guy here on mtgsalvation but it’s easily just a coincidence it’s preditable ability for abzan second you guys made a mistake it’s not the same it’s saids permanent there’s something missing from his list.....Planeswalker so this leaks version can get walkers while the mtgsalvation version doesn’t
"Oh, and we're doing five decks instead of four, with 71 brand-new cards—more than ever before.
What's the occasion? Well, for Commander (2020 Edition), we're trying something new: we're aligning the Commander decks with Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths. They'll release with Ikoria on April 24, and you'll even be able to try them (in casual play, of course) at the Ikoria Prerelease April 17–19!
All the new cards in the decks are set on the world of Ikoria. (The reprints can be from anywhere.) This is a way to dig even deeper into this wild new world of monsters! You can still expect the same power level of years past, and the cards are only legal in Eternal formats like Legacy, Vintage, and, of course, Commander. These didn't have to be built with Standard in mind, and they have their own expansion symbol to set them apart.
And just to quell any doubts: the 71 new cards are not also found in Draft Boosters; these are not cards from the rest of the Ikoriaset. They were made just with these decks in mind!
There are a handful of cards from the Ikoriaset in these decks in the "reprint" slots, but the number is fairly small. Those cards are mostly just there to help make a couple themes work. (Imagine, for example, if Kaladesh had done this: if we had an energy Commander deck, you would definitely want a couple energy cards from the main set also in your deck.)"
Judging by this article, the supposed leaked decklist does, matches up with those qualifiers. 71 new cards, which would mean each deck gets around 14 new cards, not including cards from ikoria (those are counted as reprints). I would assume those bogus commons would be the few cards added from ikoira main set. This leaves the "good cards" in the deck at 14 (+1 for the land which I assume every deck will have).
If it is fake, it is a well done one because it is underwhelming. The reprints are rather lackluster and the decklist is kind of all over the place.
Merge initially seems bad. Perhaps it's just the cards they're showing, but why on earth would I pay 5 mana for First strike? It's definitely a common card, but why is this in the Commander deck? I know they were adding cards from Ikoira since the decks are themed around the set, but you think they could have added some better cards. Merge has the potential to be interesting, but I feel like the cards are really lazy.
The new cards are weird. Although I like the idea of a mothra type legend in these colors, the card itself seems really weak. 5 mana for a 4/3 flier seems really unplayable. It does nothing when it first comes out, and doesn't come out nearly fast enough or initially strong enough to be a plausible threat.
I also think it is weird they chose to throw in Anafenza as the 4th legend and made it a big deal on the deck boxes. "4 foil legends!" Anafenza doesn't really strike me as a good fit for this deck, and it's not like it was a card you could previously never get in foil. It doesn't really work well as a Commander for this theme.
The only reason I believe they would have left them underwhelming is because they know people would want to buy Ikoira packs to upgrade their Commander decks with the themes that are somewhat present.
That’s a good explanation but it’s still recommended to assume fake until proven real other wise by the horses mouth
But anyway two big problems
1 would they really reprint triumph of the hordes ina casual pre-con deck (infect in a casual deck) and also this card has serve salt level since it can just end games the moment it’s cast
2 one of the new cards is called “whiptongue frog” however.....that name is already done on a card so they gave a name already done it’s suppose to be a reprint not new only possiblity it could be from a forensic language page and it’s a mistranslation
Now the ultimatum that doesn’t work as a reason that this is fake yes same name yes somewhat same ability as the “mad Gary” guy here on mtgsalvation but it’s easily just a coincidence it’s preditable ability for abzan second you guys made a mistake it’s not the same it’s saids permanent there’s something missing from his list.....Planeswalker so this leaks version can get walkers while the mtgsalvation version doesn’t
Yeah it still doesn't make sense to me.
Also, we are missing information for Wardshell Tortoise.
This decklist is pretty rough. There are cards that care about sacrifice and gaining life, but also trying to do an aura voltron thing at the same time? It's all over the place.
Also, this still leaves the aforementioned "keyword counters" ability out of the question. So unless we are seeing two different types of mutations that augment creatures with abilities in this set, I would almost call this fake.
This would mean Mutate would be a similar ability that just adds keywords onto creatures in one way or another, making Merge seem like just a different version of that by just turning creatures into auras.
I would find it hard to believe that WotC would do two abilities that are so similar in the same set
Merge has been done before in some capacity. It's the Licids as a keyword.
'buster
Yeah but Licid-like abilities isn't too bad because if the creature dies, so does the Licid. Assuming you don't, or can't, pay the deactivation costs. This Merge ability automatically turns it back to a creature if it "falls" off.
This Merge ability, if true, really ratchets up the annoying factor quite a bit IMHO. There is virtually ZERO risk to attaching the creature. If the creature dies, your enchantments come back as creatures. This effectively alters board wipes. Cards like Kaya's Wrath would be more one sided. Attach all your creatures to a single token, cast Kaya, boom, you have an army of creatures to attack with. It would also diminish the effectiveness if the opponent uses a Merge strategy, there is that. But I digress, WotC already has crap removal. Remember what was said about Reds solution to removing Oko? Use a Shock and Fry.
The first Merge creature without the reminder text about it returning as a creature is fine. It adds an amount of risk to the mechanic. Should you attach the creature and risk a Murder?
In any case, I'll wait for official word before I get angry with WotC. Then we'll see how this mechanic plays out.
Merge has been done before in some capacity. It's the Licids as a keyword.
'buster
Yeah but Licid-like abilities isn't too bad because if the creature dies, so does the Licid. Assuming you don't, or can't, pay the deactivation costs. This Merge ability automatically turns it back to a creature if it "falls" off.
This Merge ability, if true, really ratchets up the annoying factor quite a bit IMHO. There is virtually ZERO risk to attaching the creature. If the creature dies, your enchantments come back as creatures. This effectively alters board wipes. Cards like Kaya's Wrath would be more one sided. Attach all your creatures to a single token, cast Kaya, boom, you have an army of creatures to attack with. It would also diminish the effectiveness if the opponent uses a Merge strategy, there is that. But I digress, WotC already has crap removal. Remember what was said about Reds solution to removing Oko? Use a Shock and Fry.
The first Merge creature without the reminder text about it returning as a creature is fine. It adds an amount of risk to the mechanic. Should you attach the creature and risk a Murder?
In any case, I'll wait for official word before I get angry with WotC. Then we'll see how this mechanic plays out.
Difference between the licids and merge licids do it instant speed these do not
But if real we don’t even know the rules of merge yet and is merge different from mutate?
Merge has been done before in some capacity. It's the Licids as a keyword.
'buster
Yeah but Licid-like abilities isn't too bad because if the creature dies, so does the Licid. Assuming you don't, or can't, pay the deactivation costs. This Merge ability automatically turns it back to a creature if it "falls" off.
This Merge ability, if true, really ratchets up the annoying factor quite a bit IMHO. There is virtually ZERO risk to attaching the creature. If the creature dies, your enchantments come back as creatures. This effectively alters board wipes. Cards like Kaya's Wrath would be more one sided. Attach all your creatures to a single token, cast Kaya, boom, you have an army of creatures to attack with. It would also diminish the effectiveness if the opponent uses a Merge strategy, there is that. But I digress, WotC already has crap removal. Remember what was said about Reds solution to removing Oko? Use a Shock and Fry.
The first Merge creature without the reminder text about it returning as a creature is fine. It adds an amount of risk to the mechanic. Should you attach the creature and risk a Murder?
In any case, I'll wait for official word before I get angry with WotC. Then we'll see how this mechanic plays out.
Difference between the licids and merge licids do it instant speed these do not
But if real we don’t even know the rules of merge yet and is merge different from mutate?
You're correct. You also can't detach these at will and turn them back to creatures.
I'm specifically talking about when these "drop off" according to the reminder text. That means that, while attached, they will survive most Wrath of God-like spells and direct removal.
In any case, the only speculation that matters at this point is whether this list is a real leak or not.
Merge has been done before in some capacity. It's the Licids as a keyword.
'buster
Yeah but Licid-like abilities isn't too bad because if the creature dies, so does the Licid. Assuming you don't, or can't, pay the deactivation costs. This Merge ability automatically turns it back to a creature if it "falls" off.
This Merge ability, if true, really ratchets up the annoying factor quite a bit IMHO. There is virtually ZERO risk to attaching the creature. If the creature dies, your enchantments come back as creatures. This effectively alters board wipes. Cards like Kaya's Wrath would be more one sided. Attach all your creatures to a single token, cast Kaya, boom, you have an army of creatures to attack with. It would also diminish the effectiveness if the opponent uses a Merge strategy, there is that. But I digress, WotC already has crap removal. Remember what was said about Reds solution to removing Oko? Use a Shock and Fry.
The first Merge creature without the reminder text about it returning as a creature is fine. It adds an amount of risk to the mechanic. Should you attach the creature and risk a Murder?
In any case, I'll wait for official word before I get angry with WotC. Then we'll see how this mechanic plays out.
Difference between the licids and merge licids do it instant speed these do not
But if real we don’t even know the rules of merge yet and is merge different from mutate?
While it certainly seems to be a setup for Ikoria, perhaps that is not where mutate will appear after all? They've conspicuously stopped short of confirming it.
Secondly, they may be reappropriating the word "Swarm". Perhaps it will henceforth refer to the faction and will be decoupled from referring to deploying large numbers of creatures.
Also the creature types are all over the place. There's a white 'ape'. All apes to date have been in red or green, so making a white ape seems highly suspect to me. Also insects are pretty entirely in green and yet there's white insects here.
I'm calling this a fake as there are too many strikes against it for my liking.
Also the creature types are all over the place. There's a white 'ape'. All apes to date have been in red or green, so making a white ape seems highly suspect to me. Also insects are pretty entirely in green and yet there's white insects here.
I'm calling this a fake as there are too many strikes against it for my liking.
I could imagine white insects and apes, both have pretty sound community structures after all. I'm pretty sure even Maro's talked about white insects before (ants maybe?).
While it certainly seems to be a setup for Ikoria, perhaps that is not where mutate will appear after all? They've conspicuously stopped short of confirming it.
They have actually explicitly stated mutate is Ikoria.
What happened next was a mischievous idea. While trying to think of things that were host or augment-like, I realized we had a brand-new mechanic coming up in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths that fit the bill, something called mutate. Unsanctioned was coming out before Ikoria, but what if I let it care about mutate? That way, when Ikoria came out, there'd be a new series of cards that you could use in the deck. And it would be a fun tease of a future mechanic, something we hadn't done before. So, I figured out who all the people were that I had to ask permission of to do this, and I asked them. All of them said yes. I'll admit, I was a bit skeptical that would happen, but was very excited when it did. So, what exactly does mutate do? Patience. Ikoria previews will start soon enough.
"Oh, and we're doing five decks instead of four, with 71 brand-new cards—more than ever before.
What's the occasion? Well, for Commander (2020 Edition), we're trying something new: we're aligning the Commander decks with Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths. They'll release with Ikoria on April 24, and you'll even be able to try them (in casual play, of course) at the Ikoria Prerelease April 17–19!
All the new cards in the decks are set on the world of Ikoria. (The reprints can be from anywhere.) This is a way to dig even deeper into this wild new world of monsters! You can still expect the same power level of years past, and the cards are only legal in Eternal formats like Legacy, Vintage, and, of course, Commander. These didn't have to be built with Standard in mind, and they have their own expansion symbol to set them apart.
And just to quell any doubts: the 71 new cards are not also found in Draft Boosters; these are not cards from the rest of the Ikoriaset. They were made just with these decks in mind!
There are a handful of cards from the Ikoriaset in these decks in the "reprint" slots, but the number is fairly small. Those cards are mostly just there to help make a couple themes work. (Imagine, for example, if Kaladesh had done this: if we had an energy Commander deck, you would definitely want a couple energy cards from the main set also in your deck.)"
Judging by this article, the supposed leaked decklist does, matches up with those qualifiers. 71 new cards, which would mean each deck gets around 14 new cards, not including cards from ikoria (those are counted as reprints). I would assume those bogus commons would be the few cards added from ikoira main set. This leaves the "good cards" in the deck at 14 (+1 for the land which I assume every deck will have).
If it is fake, it is a well done one because it is underwhelming. The reprints are rather lackluster and the decklist is kind of all over the place.
Merge initially seems bad. Perhaps it's just the cards they're showing, but why on earth would I pay 5 mana for First strike? It's definitely a common card, but why is this in the Commander deck? I know they were adding cards from Ikoira since the decks are themed around the set, but you think they could have added some better cards. Merge has the potential to be interesting, but I feel like the cards are really lazy.
The new cards are weird. Although I like the idea of a mothra type legend in these colors, the card itself seems really weak. 5 mana for a 4/3 flier seems really unplayable. It does nothing when it first comes out, and doesn't come out nearly fast enough or initially strong enough to be a plausible threat.
I also think it is weird they chose to throw in Anafenza as the 4th legend and made it a big deal on the deck boxes. "4 foil legends!" Anafenza doesn't really strike me as a good fit for this deck, and it's not like it was a card you could previously never get in foil. It doesn't really work well as a Commander for this theme.
The only reason I believe they would have left them underwhelming is because they know people would want to buy Ikoira packs to upgrade their Commander decks with the themes that are somewhat present.
That’s a good explanation but it’s still recommended to assume fake until proven real other wise by the horses mouth
But anyway two big problems
1 would they really reprint triumph of the hordes ina casual pre-con deck (infect in a casual deck) and also this card has serve salt level since it can just end games the moment it’s cast
2 one of the new cards is called “whiptongue frog” however.....that name is already done on a card so they gave a name already done it’s suppose to be a reprint not new only possiblity it could be from a forensic language page and it’s a mistranslation
Now the ultimatum that doesn’t work as a reason that this is fake yes same name yes somewhat same ability as the “mad Gary” guy here on mtgsalvation but it’s easily just a coincidence it’s preditable ability for abzan second you guys made a mistake it’s not the same it’s saids permanent there’s something missing from his list.....Planeswalker so this leaks version can get walkers while the mtgsalvation version doesn’t
Yeah it still doesn't make sense to me.
Also, we are missing information for Wardshell Tortoise.
This decklist is pretty rough. There are cards that care about sacrifice and gaining life, but also trying to do an aura voltron thing at the same time? It's all over the place.
Also, this still leaves the aforementioned "keyword counters" ability out of the question. So unless we are seeing two different types of mutations that augment creatures with abilities in this set, I would almost call this fake.
This would mean Mutate would be a similar ability that just adds keywords onto creatures in one way or another, making Merge seem like just a different version of that by just turning creatures into auras.
I would find it hard to believe that WotC would do two abilities that are so similar in the same set
this is where I am with things. Not sure the set is big enough for mutate with ability word counters and mutate with similar functionality.
Also the creature types are all over the place. There's a white 'ape'. All apes to date have been in red or green, so making a white ape seems highly suspect to me. Also insects are pretty entirely in green and yet there's white insects here.
I'm calling this a fake as there are too many strikes against it for my liking.
I could imagine white insects and apes, both have pretty sound community structures after all. I'm pretty sure even Maro's talked about white insects before (ants maybe?).
Yes but a swarm definition is...
a large or dense group of insects, especially flying ones
This deck list doesn’t even loom swarm like at all so clearly there should be lots of token makers with the mutate stuff
By the way for everyone merge and mutate are pretty similar but not quite the same
Mutate
to change or cause to change in form or nature.
Merge
combine or cause to combine to form a single entity
You know that all these thesaurus definition means almost nothing in magic vocabulary right?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
How i feel about competitive players and casual players in EDH: The competitive are german tourists, the casual are italian tourists, both in a italian beach. The italians asking themselves "why are the germans here?" make a legitimate question, the answer is because the beach is beautiful, no matter the country you came from. The italians wanting to ban the germans are dumb, because if the germans pay for their stay and follow the rules like everyone else, they have the right to be in the beach. Hovewer, if the germans started to ask themselves "why are the italians here?"... they would be dumb as hell.
While it certainly seems to be a setup for Ikoria, perhaps that is not where mutate will appear after all? They've conspicuously stopped short of confirming it.
They have actually explicitly stated mutate is Ikoria.
Did not know that, thanks! Weird that merge would be alongside something that seems sure to be similar in theme and execution.
1. Anafenza would be the fourth legendary creature here (according to the decklist). Reprint commanders have been done before (it not particularly recently)
... you realize that you just linked the 3 new generals released in 2017?
They moved from 2 generals, 1 liutetant in 2016 to 3 new generals. They added liutenants back in 2018 and they are now printing 3 generals and 1 liutenant
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
How i feel about competitive players and casual players in EDH: The competitive are german tourists, the casual are italian tourists, both in a italian beach. The italians asking themselves "why are the germans here?" make a legitimate question, the answer is because the beach is beautiful, no matter the country you came from. The italians wanting to ban the germans are dumb, because if the germans pay for their stay and follow the rules like everyone else, they have the right to be in the beach. Hovewer, if the germans started to ask themselves "why are the italians here?"... they would be dumb as hell.
Maybe "mutate" is what merging is called? You "merge" the creature into Aura and "mutate" the creature that is now enchanted.
Judging by these leaks, it doesn't seem that way. It also sounds confusing to do that.
Just some thoughts on the new cards:
The Crysalis is very interesting. It is a good form of "removal" and protection all in one. I would be excited to see how it plays out.
Drakitar Warlord is also kinda nuts. I had to read it a few times because it is a wild card. 8 mana cmc? 5/3 stats? I also just ready that it deals the total power of all of your attacking creatures and you gain that much life. This is a bomby card for sure, but I could see this being a reanimation target.
Are you really going to give up a 2/3 reach creature for an aura that does nothing but grant another creature reach, though? Or, similarly, vigilance?
The new card could be called something like "Lash-tongue Anura" or Anurid (From judgement and MH1)
GWUBRDraft my Old Border Nostalgia Cube! and/or The Little Pauper Cube That Could!RBUWG
Modern:WDeath & TaxesW | RUGRUG DelverRUG
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/big-things-are-coming-commander-2020-2019-10-30
Here are the highlights:
"Oh, and we're doing five decks instead of four, with 71 brand-new cards—more than ever before.
What's the occasion? Well, for Commander (2020 Edition), we're trying something new: we're aligning the Commander decks with Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths. They'll release with Ikoria on April 24, and you'll even be able to try them (in casual play, of course) at the Ikoria Prerelease April 17–19!
All the new cards in the decks are set on the world of Ikoria. (The reprints can be from anywhere.) This is a way to dig even deeper into this wild new world of monsters! You can still expect the same power level of years past, and the cards are only legal in Eternal formats like Legacy, Vintage, and, of course, Commander. These didn't have to be built with Standard in mind, and they have their own expansion symbol to set them apart.
And just to quell any doubts: the 71 new cards are not also found in Draft Boosters; these are not cards from the rest of the Ikoriaset. They were made just with these decks in mind!
There are a handful of cards from the Ikoriaset in these decks in the "reprint" slots, but the number is fairly small. Those cards are mostly just there to help make a couple themes work. (Imagine, for example, if Kaladesh had done this: if we had an energy Commander deck, you would definitely want a couple energy cards from the main set also in your deck.)"
Judging by this article, the supposed leaked decklist does, matches up with those qualifiers. 71 new cards, which would mean each deck gets around 14 new cards, not including cards from ikoria (those are counted as reprints). I would assume those bogus commons would be the few cards added from ikoira main set. This leaves the "good cards" in the deck at 14 (+1 for the land which I assume every deck will have).
If it is fake, it is a well done one because it is underwhelming. The reprints are rather lackluster and the decklist is kind of all over the place.
Merge initially seems bad. Perhaps it's just the cards they're showing, but why on earth would I pay 5 mana for First strike? It's definitely a common card, but why is this in the Commander deck? I know they were adding cards from Ikoira since the decks are themed around the set, but you think they could have added some better cards. Merge has the potential to be interesting, but I feel like the cards are really lazy.
The new cards are weird. Although I like the idea of a mothra type legend in these colors, the card itself seems really weak. 5 mana for a 4/3 flier seems really unplayable. It does nothing when it first comes out, and doesn't come out nearly fast enough or initially strong enough to be a plausible threat.
I also think it is weird they chose to throw in Anafenza as the 4th legend and made it a big deal on the deck boxes. "4 foil legends!" Anafenza doesn't really strike me as a good fit for this deck, and it's not like it was a card you could previously never get in foil. It doesn't really work well as a Commander for this theme.
The only reason I believe they would have left them underwhelming is because they know people would want to buy Ikoira packs to upgrade their Commander decks with the themes that are somewhat present.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Edit: Ooh they're mainly insect type creatures. Super lame. I expected a more going wide theme. Even still. 3 bugs in play is hardly a "swarm"
BChainer, Dementia Master(Big Mana/Reanimator)
BRRakdos, The Showstopper (Mass Life Loss/Ramp)
BUThe Scarab God (Zombie Tribal/Control)
BWKarlov of the Ghost Council (Life Gain)
BGJarad, Golgari Lich Lord (Stompy/Dredge)
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher (Tokens/Non-infinite Combo)
Yeah it still doesn't make sense to me.
Also, we are missing information for Wardshell Tortoise.
This decklist is pretty rough. There are cards that care about sacrifice and gaining life, but also trying to do an aura voltron thing at the same time? It's all over the place.
Also, this still leaves the aforementioned "keyword counters" ability out of the question. So unless we are seeing two different types of mutations that augment creatures with abilities in this set, I would almost call this fake.
This would mean Mutate would be a similar ability that just adds keywords onto creatures in one way or another, making Merge seem like just a different version of that by just turning creatures into auras.
I would find it hard to believe that WotC would do two abilities that are so similar in the same set.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
That’s a good explanation but it’s still recommended to assume fake until proven real other wise by the horses mouth
But anyway two big problems
1 would they really reprint triumph of the hordes ina casual pre-con deck (infect in a casual deck) and also this card has serve salt level since it can just end games the moment it’s cast
2 one of the new cards is called “whiptongue frog” however.....that name is already done on a card so they gave a name already done it’s suppose to be a reprint not new only possiblity it could be from a forensic language page and it’s a mistranslation
Now the ultimatum that doesn’t work as a reason that this is fake yes same name yes somewhat same ability as the “mad Gary” guy here on mtgsalvation but it’s easily just a coincidence it’s preditable ability for abzan second you guys made a mistake it’s not the same it’s saids permanent there’s something missing from his list.....Planeswalker so this leaks version can get walkers while the mtgsalvation version doesn’t
Yeah it still doesn't make sense to me.
Also, we are missing information for Wardshell Tortoise.
This decklist is pretty rough. There are cards that care about sacrifice and gaining life, but also trying to do an aura voltron thing at the same time? It's all over the place.
Also, this still leaves the aforementioned "keyword counters" ability out of the question. So unless we are seeing two different types of mutations that augment creatures with abilities in this set, I would almost call this fake.
This would mean Mutate would be a similar ability that just adds keywords onto creatures in one way or another, making Merge seem like just a different version of that by just turning creatures into auras.
I would find it hard to believe that WotC would do two abilities that are so similar in the same set
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Yeah but Licid-like abilities isn't too bad because if the creature dies, so does the Licid. Assuming you don't, or can't, pay the deactivation costs. This Merge ability automatically turns it back to a creature if it "falls" off.
This Merge ability, if true, really ratchets up the annoying factor quite a bit IMHO. There is virtually ZERO risk to attaching the creature. If the creature dies, your enchantments come back as creatures. This effectively alters board wipes. Cards like Kaya's Wrath would be more one sided. Attach all your creatures to a single token, cast Kaya, boom, you have an army of creatures to attack with. It would also diminish the effectiveness if the opponent uses a Merge strategy, there is that. But I digress, WotC already has crap removal. Remember what was said about Reds solution to removing Oko? Use a Shock and Fry.
The first Merge creature without the reminder text about it returning as a creature is fine. It adds an amount of risk to the mechanic. Should you attach the creature and risk a Murder?
In any case, I'll wait for official word before I get angry with WotC. Then we'll see how this mechanic plays out.
Difference between the licids and merge licids do it instant speed these do not
But if real we don’t even know the rules of merge yet and is merge different from mutate?
You're correct. You also can't detach these at will and turn them back to creatures.
I'm specifically talking about when these "drop off" according to the reminder text. That means that, while attached, they will survive most Wrath of God-like spells and direct removal.
In any case, the only speculation that matters at this point is whether this list is a real leak or not.
While it certainly seems to be a setup for Ikoria, perhaps that is not where mutate will appear after all? They've conspicuously stopped short of confirming it.
Secondly, they may be reappropriating the word "Swarm". Perhaps it will henceforth refer to the faction and will be decoupled from referring to deploying large numbers of creatures.
I'm calling this a fake as there are too many strikes against it for my liking.
I could imagine white insects and apes, both have pretty sound community structures after all. I'm pretty sure even Maro's talked about white insects before (ants maybe?).
this is where I am with things. Not sure the set is big enough for mutate with ability word counters and mutate with similar functionality.
Yes but a swarm definition is...
This deck list doesn’t even loom swarm like at all so clearly there should be lots of token makers with the mutate stuff
By the way for everyone merge and mutate are pretty similar but not quite the same
Mutate
Merge
Did not know that, thanks! Weird that merge would be alongside something that seems sure to be similar in theme and execution.
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
Dictionary....
But yeah, the amass mechanic is a perfect example om how WotC never actually uses a dictionary.
... you realize that you just linked the 3 new generals released in 2017?
They moved from 2 generals, 1 liutetant in 2016 to 3 new generals. They added liutenants back in 2018 and they are now printing 3 generals and 1 liutenant
Judging by these leaks, it doesn't seem that way. It also sounds confusing to do that.
Just some thoughts on the new cards:
The Crysalis is very interesting. It is a good form of "removal" and protection all in one. I would be excited to see how it plays out.
Drakitar Warlord is also kinda nuts. I had to read it a few times because it is a wild card. 8 mana cmc? 5/3 stats? I also just ready that it deals the total power of all of your attacking creatures and you gain that much life. This is a bomby card for sure, but I could see this being a reanimation target.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries