About time we get more elves, they have been shunned a lot of recent sets for little reason; although this Joraga extermination thing may me fear we could only see one legendary creature described as The Last Elf.
(I know there also the Mul Daya, but I suspect they look too unconventional for WotC's tastes and they seem to be opposite to Nissa).
There are a fair number of people who have been very vocal about how obsequious they've been to elves and goblins in the past, so giving them a break is likely both for flavor reasons and also marketing so that people don't continue to get burnt out on what are the most popular characteristic races.
Storywise.
All the things he does are born from a selfish place, even if they benefit others, and he's a bit too cavalier about casual murder and eating other people for the "greater good" to shine through.
Does Sarkhan even know he released the Eldrazi? I know he was in the Eye when it opened but did the brood pour out of it right away or did he walk away right after?
He did encounter some of the brood doing a corpsehatch out of a dragon. That's about when Ugin starting really chatting into his ear.
Time Spiral and legends of the past were like looking through a history book, not pulling them into the present physically via time travel, right?
No, they were physically displaced in time. (for purposes of flavor)
Okay, so what about Sarkhan's trip back? Did they explain how that works yet in comparison to Urza and Karn? From what I recall, it took a lot of energy to send Karn back just a short period of time, and he needed to be silver to survive the trip. I hadn't even thought about that until the video that one person posted.
Unfortunately no. When asked about it Doug just put us off saying "we'll explain later" and hinted it should be coming around about the time Sarkhan learns of it in DTK.
I hope not, it took way too long to finally get a kor walker. Tired of always getting human walkers. It's as if they are special and so get all the good things. I mean we finally got a zombie walker (i assume due to flavour) in Theros, Ashiok.
Ashiok isn't a zombie. If anything, Ashiok would qualify as a horror or nightmare.
So I was reading more about this on Reddit and I really like the idea proposed there about Gideon never knowing his father and possibly being the son of Heliod, like Hercules was of Zeus in a way, since he is holding a spear like his in the new art. It might explain his powers, since doesn't Gideon have some kind of immunity to physical force or something? IDK. It would be pretty interesting nonetheless.
The gods, as we know them, don't function that way. If Gideon had been created by any of the gods, he would be a Nyxborn, but quite frankly, we have no reason to believe the gods are even capable of normal reproduction.
I remember reading that they had done that and found it impressive. Which book was it in again? I'm surprised you think even Bolas couldn't make it past them by force either - any reason for that? I figured he's a powerful entity in his own right who has been there before (not that I disagree).
It was in Future Sight.
As to the rest, the sisters only barred Leshrac because Bolas had rolled up on Kamigawa to mete out some revenge against Night's Reach and the Umezawa lineage and once he left the sisters basically went "oh heeeeell no, that's not happening again."
The fact they could tell Leshrac no means they really stood with oldwalker level powers, and while Bolas ultimately won that duel, Bolas isn't what he used to be either.
True. O-Kagachi was a big deal and they took him down, so I imagine they're tough contenders. Not up there alongise Eldrazi or Bolas, but probably in the league of the Theros gods, Marit Lage, etc.
They actively barred Leshrac from entering Kamigawa when he was tracking Bolas during their duel. Bolas as he is now probably couldn't force his way into the world with them on the gates.
I'd put the sisters substantially higher than the Theros gods simply for that fact.
Garruk is also a summoner and can use Green Magic to augment himself, a la Giant Growth. He lost to Liliana largely because the Chain Veil caught him offguard, and then never lost to another 'walker. It isn't so much "brute force" as it's "magical brute force". While Chandra can hurl a fireball or two at him, he can in turn summon a stampede or augment his power enough to brute force her into a mangled mess. As I like both Garruk and Chandra, I pray the two never meet in combat.
You do have to keep in mind, as well, that his magic isn't working right with the curse biting into him. He hasn't actually cast ANYTHING (successfully) that we've seen since his affliction took root. When he was fighting the planeswalkers Jace set on his trail, or Liliana or Jace himself, he didn't use spells. He just used total brute force and tried to overwhelm his opponent.
Maybe it will be different now that he's achieved an equilibrium... but I'm not putting my money there. He seems to be a physical juggernaut now.
Doug has kind of hinted that Gideon leans a little bit red, so it's entirely possible that he could be RW. We haven't had such a color alignment on a planeswalker since Ajani Vengeant, and maybe there's a big demand for a Boros 'walker? As much as they say that they don't do color box-checking for planeswalkers, it looks like we got every color on the spectrum represented by planeswalkers for each block starting with Innistrad (we've actually had it for every block since Lorwyn except for Scars, which was missing green), so it's clearly something that they're aware of. Plus, with Nahiri possibly showing up, the field is disproportionately represented by white planeswalkers (Ajani, Gideon, Elspeth (who's "dead" but strongly hinted to possibly return (hopefully not with an upper case "R")), and now Nahiri). They may just decide that Gideon, being the most "super hero vigilante type" planeswalker out there, would be the best fit for a RW alignment.
They made a statement that they feel Gideon is still a white walker, despite allying with the Boros (and apparently being from Akros). He isn't one to actually use red mana because of various reasons, one of which is he feels red blinds people to their actions, makes the short sighted and reckless, but even then, he has a rather poor history of interacting with red, as well as the constant teaching his master gave him of how the walker who originally wielded the sural died to a pyromancer.
So, he has issues with red to begin with.
I think Ajani would be much more likely to lapse back into R with the kind of resentment and anger he has over how the establishment and authority treated Elspeth. I could see an anarchistic trend develop in him.
That would be a good example of Wizards listening to the customers. Correct me if Im wrong, but I remember him originally being just a throwaway legend until there was a lot of interest in him.
Well, the "former walker" part of his story was there from the beginning, so I wouldn't call him a throwaway legend, given how unique his condition was.
And WotC has a very Phyrexian way of handling unused or underdeveloped concepts. Nothing is ever thrown away.
Given, it might end up dismembered and put back together but...
All the things he does are born from a selfish place, even if they benefit others, and he's a bit too cavalier about casual murder and eating other people for the "greater good" to shine through.
He did encounter some of the brood doing a corpsehatch out of a dragon. That's about when Ugin starting really chatting into his ear.
So, it very definitely does not belong here.
but then again, Sorin has no business being white either so....
except of course the fact that the Order was based entirely around the Purifying Fire on Regatha.
It was in Future Sight.
As to the rest, the sisters only barred Leshrac because Bolas had rolled up on Kamigawa to mete out some revenge against Night's Reach and the Umezawa lineage and once he left the sisters basically went "oh heeeeell no, that's not happening again."
The fact they could tell Leshrac no means they really stood with oldwalker level powers, and while Bolas ultimately won that duel, Bolas isn't what he used to be either.
I'd put the sisters substantially higher than the Theros gods simply for that fact.
You do have to keep in mind, as well, that his magic isn't working right with the curse biting into him. He hasn't actually cast ANYTHING (successfully) that we've seen since his affliction took root. When he was fighting the planeswalkers Jace set on his trail, or Liliana or Jace himself, he didn't use spells. He just used total brute force and tried to overwhelm his opponent.
Maybe it will be different now that he's achieved an equilibrium... but I'm not putting my money there. He seems to be a physical juggernaut now.
They made a statement that they feel Gideon is still a white walker, despite allying with the Boros (and apparently being from Akros). He isn't one to actually use red mana because of various reasons, one of which is he feels red blinds people to their actions, makes the short sighted and reckless, but even then, he has a rather poor history of interacting with red, as well as the constant teaching his master gave him of how the walker who originally wielded the sural died to a pyromancer.
So, he has issues with red to begin with.
I think Ajani would be much more likely to lapse back into R with the kind of resentment and anger he has over how the establishment and authority treated Elspeth. I could see an anarchistic trend develop in him.