Also of note is that Ob is an oldwalker. Oldwalkers, among other things, were shapeshifters. It has been made clear in the past that Ob had chosen the form of a demon. The image we have of him here is of him prior to assuming his more well known form.
I don't understand why people are worried about the gender balance of the characters. Would you really be bothered if the white planeswalker does turn out to be Elspeth and surprise they change their mind and make Tamiyo the blue one? I mean really.
I think in "Dragons" the clans will be lead by legendary dragons, one of each color and we will see mono, maybe two color, versions of all of the current clan leaders serving the dragons. I'm sure there will be other dragons. I also think we will see a quiet theme of many colored symbols so that devotion doesn't just up and die. Also there will be Ugin in Fate Reforged as a walker and possibly a few dragons.
Since the Alara block had at least two legendary creatures associated with each shard (at least two of which were tri-colored), I expect that there shall be at least one more cycle of legendary creatures associated with each clan of Tarkir, at least one of which shall be tri-colored, as well.
If we're going back in time to change the future in Fate then there's no reason to believe that the clans will even exist in "Dragons." We have no reason to compare anything that could happen in the future to Alara. This is not the Alara block of wedges.
I think in "Dragons" the clans will be lead by legendary dragons, one of each color and we will see mono, maybe two color, versions of all of the current clan leaders serving the dragons. I'm sure there will be other dragons. I also think we will see a quiet theme of many colored symbols so that devotion doesn't just up and die. Also there will be Ugin in Fate Reforged as a walker and possibly a few dragons.
I wanted to follow a pirate theme, so I wanted to call it "leadership" instead of "devotion".
There's no reason to rename a perfectly good mechanic. One can be devoted to things other than a god as in Theros. One can be devoted to a country, to a loved one, to a leader. By simply renaming a mechanic you take away a name that could be used for something else. Devotion suits your needs to a tee. Save "Leadership" for something unique.
And yes 15 is waaaayyyy to many mechanics for a single set. RTR had 11 across an entire block. Future Sight was considered a failure due to the complexity because it had far to many mechanics.
Oh and Vigilance is no where near mono-reds slice of the color pie.
The others are fine with one exception. The Izzet Dragon is going to run into some rules issues. As things stand imprinting a sorcery on him is equivalent to discarding a card. Sorceries may only be cast during your mainphase one or two while the stack is empty. The Izzet Dragon's trigger occurs during combat. Thus without adding in some caveat allowing the player to ignore timing rules imprinting a sorcery is pointless. This is why Isochron Scepter allowed only instants as adding in such a caveat would be unnecessarily wordy.
As for fixing the other two if that's what you want the justification to be for the Rakdos Dragon that's fine but you have to remember that if this thing is opened in a booster that player isn't going to know that. They know what the Rakdos do. And that is kill things. Not scare the piss out of them. Kill them. Something as simple as First Strike or attacks each turn if able feels much more Rakdos. As far as the Azorius one goes damaging attacking creatures will only yield the desired result if you separate the two abilities. What's the point of detaining an already attacking creature? Perhaps something like "cost: Untap target attacking creature. Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to and dealt by that creature this turn. Detain that creature."
So flavor-wise you know there have always been dragons on Ravnica, right? Niv isn't alone on the plane. The Rubblebelt and Utvara areas are well populated with Hellkites. Perhaps if you're wanting the Phyrexians to bring dragons back to a plane you want them going to Tarkir. It could be done hypothetically. Say Bolas sends Tez to Tarkir to get Sarkhan in line. Tez has been exposed to Phyrexia so there's no reason to think he doesn't have Glistening Oil on him to spread to the old dragon bones.
So far as design goes Azorius is slightly out of color. Direct damage is not a blue thing and is only a white thing against attacking or blocking creatures. Also Wither is not a very Rakdos mechanic, and it's damage triggers is either downright busted because you're getting a 2 mana Wit's End or downright useless because they have no cards in hand because the player decided to pay the mana instead of the life to cast him.
My girlfriend and I were discussing how only 2 of the generals had that "where x is the mana spent to cast____" clause in COMM13. Anywho, it got me thinking; what are the chances that not all colors "get a planeswalker general"? Has there been any official statements declaring that each of the mono colored decks will get a planeswalker general (no really, I'm asking. I haven't been looking this stuff up). If not, what are the chances it will be teferi and maybe only one or two more commanders who are planeswalkers?
Yes there has. Our official knowledge of the decks are: mono colored, 5 planeswalkers who've never had planeswalker cards before, 5 legends who have never had cards before.
Spoilers should start on the 20th as we should have the entirety of new cards on the 31st. 2 weeks with the full spoiler 1 week before release as with every other release.
I wouldn't bet on seeing flavor text characters from this set showing up in the rest of the block. Fate we're going back in time so characters from this block will not have been born yet. In "Dragons" I think we'll see the characters that are now Khans as high level servants to legendary mono colored dragons. Other legendaries? Probably not. Planeswalkers from among the people of Tarkir? Probably not recognized. I mean there's no reason to say that there's not a member of each clan that's not already a planeswalker. That also doesn't mean they'll ever show up in the story or be given any actual existence.
I think Return to Zendikar will be a spring block. I think this because I also think that the Magic movie will involve Zendikar. I think resolving the Zendkar story in 2 sets is ambitious so I think they will have the second set be a cliffhanger only concluded by the movie and 95% of the ad cards in the blocks boosters will be for said movie. "Want the thrilling conclusion to Battle for Zendikar? Be sure to see the Magic Movie out in Theaters on XX/XX/20XX!" Would piss a lot of people off but would also sell a lot of movie tickets.
No it doesn't. It mentions the veil once. It never makes any connection between the veil and his demonic form.
If we're going back in time to change the future in Fate then there's no reason to believe that the clans will even exist in "Dragons." We have no reason to compare anything that could happen in the future to Alara. This is not the Alara block of wedges.
There's no reason to rename a perfectly good mechanic. One can be devoted to things other than a god as in Theros. One can be devoted to a country, to a loved one, to a leader. By simply renaming a mechanic you take away a name that could be used for something else. Devotion suits your needs to a tee. Save "Leadership" for something unique.
And yes 15 is waaaayyyy to many mechanics for a single set. RTR had 11 across an entire block. Future Sight was considered a failure due to the complexity because it had far to many mechanics.
Oh and Vigilance is no where near mono-reds slice of the color pie.
The others are fine with one exception. The Izzet Dragon is going to run into some rules issues. As things stand imprinting a sorcery on him is equivalent to discarding a card. Sorceries may only be cast during your mainphase one or two while the stack is empty. The Izzet Dragon's trigger occurs during combat. Thus without adding in some caveat allowing the player to ignore timing rules imprinting a sorcery is pointless. This is why Isochron Scepter allowed only instants as adding in such a caveat would be unnecessarily wordy.
As for fixing the other two if that's what you want the justification to be for the Rakdos Dragon that's fine but you have to remember that if this thing is opened in a booster that player isn't going to know that. They know what the Rakdos do. And that is kill things. Not scare the piss out of them. Kill them. Something as simple as First Strike or attacks each turn if able feels much more Rakdos. As far as the Azorius one goes damaging attacking creatures will only yield the desired result if you separate the two abilities. What's the point of detaining an already attacking creature? Perhaps something like "cost: Untap target attacking creature. Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to and dealt by that creature this turn. Detain that creature."
So far as design goes Azorius is slightly out of color. Direct damage is not a blue thing and is only a white thing against attacking or blocking creatures. Also Wither is not a very Rakdos mechanic, and it's damage triggers is either downright busted because you're getting a 2 mana Wit's End or downright useless because they have no cards in hand because the player decided to pay the mana instead of the life to cast him.
Yes there has. Our official knowledge of the decks are: mono colored, 5 planeswalkers who've never had planeswalker cards before, 5 legends who have never had cards before.
Spoilers should start on the 20th as we should have the entirety of new cards on the 31st. 2 weeks with the full spoiler 1 week before release as with every other release.