Honestly I don't expect the Paradise druid to have such a restriction.
Really think it will be a non-flying BoP perhaps which makes perfect sense because it is more on color pie. Perhaps they really bump the toughness by 1. That would be a nice touch.
FNM cards are always C or UC, I cannot see a functional BoP reprint at UC.
Little prediction of some PW that could bite the dust based on personal feeling mixed with storylines and cards (I know, some may be a bit too much):
Jaya - she has done her part, the "Mother Luti" mystery has been solved, Chandra no longer needs a mentor (or the loss of her mentor may drive her to better herself). Card-wise it's very difficult to keep up 2 mono-red character so fire-centric and keep them distinctive enough.
Domri - his backstory has never been too much developed and there is an abundance of RG PW with creature-centric ability, while other has still open storyline (Samut as the protector of the people in Amonkhet) or particular mechanic identity (Arlin being DFC werwolf).
Gideon - (first of the extremely difficult theory) He is the main W PW but he is on a path of self-sacrifice from the start of his backstory, taking up the Blackblade and manage its curse continue that path down to his final immolation to take down Bolas (whom we know can pierce his immunity); we know from the Chandra comic that she is devastated from some kind of important loss and while the death of Jaya could be that she is VERY attached to Gideon and his death could really wreck her. His backstory on Theros is still partially open but the focus of a new Theros could simply be driven by Ajani freeing Elspeth from the Underworld. Mechanically speaking his design has always been a little too repetitive with one "turn into creature" ability and some "attack me" ability and its difficult to keep new Gideon cards to feel new, he can be replaced as the main W by Teyo with a new take on the defensive stance of withe and opening new stories.
Liliana - (another steep one) Her main story with the demons is ended, Bolas used up the "fine lines" of her contract so if he goes down (and we are quite certain of that) she completely ends that thread, more so if the Raven Man is revealed to be Bolas himself. Her only open plot remain the Chain Veil but this can be used up if she masters its power during her time with Bolas and uses it against him in conjunction with Gideon+Blackblade (and the ad art seems to point there) during the Dominaria story we see her starting to get along Gids quite well and getting some selfless thought. Her leaving us could open up some slot for new mono B character like Davriel (Sanderson stated that he is mainly B with a touch of U so he can be seen as mono and sometimes with a splash) or Ob Nixilis.
Nissa - (last big one) Her story has always been a bit strange, the retcon, her difficulties to get along with others (other than Chandra) and her stubborn thinking that only her plane is really in need of been saved (her motivation to break her oath in Dominaria) puts her in a tight spot, we may not see her doing anything story-wise until a return to Zendikar (many years off from now) and the plot could go on even without her and the plane trying to restore itself on the tracks of "adventure plane" (as pre-eldrazi). Her death could be another of the potential "Chandra wrecking" event. Mechanically speaking we already have a new G PW in Vivien and MaRo said that the Garruk fan will get some news in the near future so his return (with a possible curse ended with the death of Liliana) could fill her slot.
General thought: To get the real sense of danger and big universe-ending event we need stakes and that lead to deaths in all stories. We need to freshen up the cast a little (and we know that some new characters are joining), so I'm certain of a few "small death" of secondary characters (like Jaya and Domri but maybe someone else too) but the real hitter need to be the death of at least one of the main cast, of the three mentioned I'm more inclined towards Gideon for various reason.
After this event we could have a "pause" from a real Gatewatch story with a few sets dedicated to tell the story of new characters, the planes and some old storyline to close until a new REAL threat emerges back and a new Gatewatch (with old and new members) coming back in.
MaRo said that with the new collation technique there is no need of separate print sheet in case like this (such as dominaria having always a Legendary card inside a pack regardless of rarity)
They can use the same exact method with PW so that 1 pw per pack is present but keep the PW on various rarity to balance them. The most probable distribution is 20 UC 10 R 6 MR
This is the paragraph in question. I agree it sounds like we'll be getting old-bordered versions of the normal art on the card. It doesn't say there won't ba alternate art, though, and maybe full-art qualifies as "alternate frame?"
I think that the "alternate frame" is just the current FNM frame with inverted color, centered text and watermark
While I'm more aligned with this prediction than the one before I hardly see Teyo as WR, he is described as using his shield-magic to defend his people and nothing in that resonate with Red (both in flavor and in mechanics), as I stated in another thread U and G already has given us a lot of defensive spells and effect granting hexproof and the like. IMO the only switch I'd do to your list is switch Teyo to UG and Hat-Lady (or maybe the other new girl) to WR.
Why the talk of uncommon walkerss when 16 mythics and 20 rares is more likely? 36 planeswalkers is more than enough for this to be a walkers set, it's one more than the number of dinosaurs in Ixalan.
as MaRo stated many times you cannot have a "theme" if it's only present in higher rarity because in limited you can't really get it.
having a set with 16 mythic pw ( 1more mythic than a normal set) and 30 rare (more than half the normal numbers of rares) won't work.
for your example of the number of dinosaurs (and they were 1 of 4 factions) they were spread across all rarities, we still can consider common out of the equations but going down to UC like the legendary theme in Dominaria seems right to have a PW theme (obviously UC PW must be simple designs and not too powerful)
Really dislike this idea. Im all for exploring new solutions to what is perceived as a problem with the current mulligan, but imo the answer is not to replace it with something that lends itself to abuse and a certain style of deck. The bigger the card pool, the more room for abuse.
Maybe Mulligan N = Scry N? Such as if its first Mulligan then Scry 1, second is Scry 2, etc.
it does not solve the "non-start" hands.
if you mull down to 5 and draw a 1 land/4 spell hand scrying 2 instead of 1 it will not help your game (more so if you see 2 non land cards that you put to bottom), the real problem with "non playable" hands is that the more you mulligan the less is the chance to have a starting hand.
this method lessen this problem by giving you the same land/spell ratio in each mulligan BUT then you have to sacrifice some cards that you can chose. at this point you can start playing but with the classic disadvantage of having less resources
Tezzeret has been the only one who knows the whole plan and can leave if things go sour all along.
Dovin doesn't even count him in Dovin's Acuity and while he knows of the Bridge he doesn't know of the Sun. Vraska knows of the Sun but not the Bridge. Neither seem to know about the Immortals or Liliana. Kaya, Domri and Ral don't know anything about anything.
Vraska knows of the bridge, Tezz uses it to take away the Sun form Ixalan
With Teyo there are 3 partial White Walkers in the cover. Teyo has to be white. It makes the most sense for a shield mage, right? And we know white characters are the most likely candidate to get killed.
So there are three cards with "Shieldmage" in the name. Shieldmage Elder and Shieldmage Advocate are white and connected with the Otarian Order. Ethersworn Shieldmage is part-white and an Esperite. So none of this has anything to do with Teyo's world but if past is precedent, shieldmages are white mages. However... I can also easily see the concept being monoblue, especially if they're, seemingly, weather-mages.
I think he can be the new UG walker, both blue and green always had the concept of magical protection (shroud before and hexproof now) and defensive effect (cards like Plaxmanta,Heroic Intervention,Dive Down,Blossoming Defense,etc...) so a character that shileds others and himself in an arcane way can be a way to show the non-white side of defense
it seems I got it
lily is alredy shown as mythic, bolas is a given, third may be jace
FNM cards are always C or UC, I cannot see a functional BoP reprint at UC.
Draft Weekend
General thought: To get the real sense of danger and big universe-ending event we need stakes and that lead to deaths in all stories. We need to freshen up the cast a little (and we know that some new characters are joining), so I'm certain of a few "small death" of secondary characters (like Jaya and Domri but maybe someone else too) but the real hitter need to be the death of at least one of the main cast, of the three mentioned I'm more inclined towards Gideon for various reason.
After this event we could have a "pause" from a real Gatewatch story with a few sets dedicated to tell the story of new characters, the planes and some old storyline to close until a new REAL threat emerges back and a new Gatewatch (with old and new members) coming back in.
They can use the same exact method with PW so that 1 pw per pack is present but keep the PW on various rarity to balance them. The most probable distribution is 20 UC 10 R 6 MR
I think that the "alternate frame" is just the current FNM frame with inverted color, centered text and watermark
While I'm more aligned with this prediction than the one before I hardly see Teyo as WR, he is described as using his shield-magic to defend his people and nothing in that resonate with Red (both in flavor and in mechanics), as I stated in another thread U and G already has given us a lot of defensive spells and effect granting hexproof and the like. IMO the only switch I'd do to your list is switch Teyo to UG and Hat-Lady (or maybe the other new girl) to WR.
as MaRo stated many times you cannot have a "theme" if it's only present in higher rarity because in limited you can't really get it.
having a set with 16 mythic pw ( 1more mythic than a normal set) and 30 rare (more than half the normal numbers of rares) won't work.
for your example of the number of dinosaurs (and they were 1 of 4 factions) they were spread across all rarities, we still can consider common out of the equations but going down to UC like the legendary theme in Dominaria seems right to have a PW theme (obviously UC PW must be simple designs and not too powerful)
it does not solve the "non-start" hands.
if you mull down to 5 and draw a 1 land/4 spell hand scrying 2 instead of 1 it will not help your game (more so if you see 2 non land cards that you put to bottom), the real problem with "non playable" hands is that the more you mulligan the less is the chance to have a starting hand.
this method lessen this problem by giving you the same land/spell ratio in each mulligan BUT then you have to sacrifice some cards that you can chose. at this point you can start playing but with the classic disadvantage of having less resources
Vraska knows of the bridge, Tezz uses it to take away the Sun form Ixalan
I think he can be the new UG walker, both blue and green always had the concept of magical protection (shroud before and hexproof now) and defensive effect (cards like Plaxmanta,Heroic Intervention,Dive Down,Blossoming Defense,etc...) so a character that shileds others and himself in an arcane way can be a way to show the non-white side of defense
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