I sure hope that he emerges out of this a planeswalker again next block (as corrupted or redeemed, I suppose). It would be a shame to see a character who has been so important to Magic history simply abandoned.
That new art on Distant Memories though, that's pretty awesome.
If the religion doing the baptism was the "logical&knowledge through water&ice" religion, then, yes, I would say it should be blue.
These guys are converting people to Phyrexia... using poison.
But the Phyrexians don't see infection as poison, they see it as a cure. Moral relativity has never translated well into the color pie unfortunately, but these priests are definitely white.
As for whether -1/-1 counters can never be used in white, one of the recent GDS2 submissions was a white enchantment that put -1/-1 counter on any creatures that attacked you (No Mercy style), where the -1/-1 counters were seen as 'shackles'. Just because we use -1/-1 counters to signify something a certain way doesn't mean that meaning can't change overtime.
With this priest card, the -1/-1 counters are more of a conversion method that happens to weaken the opponent, rather than a garden variety "plague" or whatever. Similarly, you can see the poison counters being put on an opponent not as a literal poison molecules coursing through your veins, but as markers on how much the Phyrexians are influencing you mentally/physically (I mean, if it happened to Karn, it can happen to any of us).
Any chance they would print new multiplayer-friendly Planeswalkers? It seems like it might make the pre-cons too good for their price (I guess depending on the power level of the planeswalker), but it would give Wizards a chance to print cards for old Planeswalkers who were post-mending but before lorwyn/hinting planeswalkers for new sets.
With 5 decks, 51 seems like such an odd number to me - what if that 51st card is actually a prerelease card, which comes with its own oversized version, ala previous planechase/archenemy release event oversized cards? Like a new colorless/5 color general anyone?
I hope they don't waste slots of new multiplayer friendly cards on manafixing, but I wouldn't mind stuff like reprints of Ravnica duals.
Also, I don't see the problem if they include really rare cards in the product (other than the fact that it pisses off collectors). Since it isn't a limited print run, if its really popular, they can just print more. I believe there were multiple printings of Planechase, so what's the problem? In fact, I hope they do, so the new multiplayer-centric cards are easier to find as singles.
I really hope that all 51 cards (or 41 if you take away the 10 new generals) will NOT be manafixing and instead be completely multiplayer centric cards. Is it really that difficult to get manafixing for tricolor decks? How often does Wizards get to print cards directly to an oft-neglected audience?
So, they haven't had a Magic Invitational tournament since 2007. I don't know about you, but Magic Invitational was always my favorite to watch since it had a broad spectrum of players playing a diverse number of formats, and of course, it was always cool to see the card designed by the Pros.
I assume that it was cut for budget reasons - but now that Magic is doing alot better and the economy is starting to recover, do you guys think we'll see them reimplement this?
Well, until they release some kind of sane eternal format, I will be sticking to attending the occasional prerelease and playing Magic casually. My true hope is that they dump Extended, and replace it with Overextended, but I suppose they can't do that for at least a year or more. I mean, the only point of Extended now is to give a fleeting bit more longevity to people's standard decks that rotate out - unlike the old extended which was actually 'nearly' an eternal format itself.
I do have hope though, cause Wizards in recent years has starting paying attention to many different demographics (collectors with the FtV stuff, multiplayer with Planechase/Archenemy, EDH with all the shiny new generals), so maybe, just maybe, they'll listen to the people who want to play in a healthy, sustainable, eternal format. One day at least.
The main issues I've seen are that Vintage is obviously broken, Legacy is slowly dying because format staples are on the reserve list, so they will become rarer and rarer overtime, driving the prices into ridiculous ranges (in addition to the fact that you can't fix a non-renewable format). Standard and Extended (which used to be not too bad, but is now essentially Standard 2.0) both rotate and have small cardpools with not old cards.
Most of the suggestions I've heard have been Masques forward and 7th forward, because 6th has those tutors. But yeah, the B/R list would be fairly short.
As for an eternal format not being healthy, I would have to disagree. We already have Standard and Extended as the formats to get new players into the tournament scene - not every format needs to cater to people with new cards. Overextended would be sustainable, because unlike Legacy, Wizards could reprint cards whenever they feel like it in order to balance the health/availability of the cards in the format. Sure the metagame would definately be alot more stable than Standard or Extended, but the new sets released would add new cards to the cardpool, bringing in fresh types of decks. Especially if they decide to continue the powercreep =\.
I just would like a format that doesn't kill your wallet - either with broken, hard to find expensive old cards, or with the cost of sustaining a deck in a rotating format.
Side note: I don't see how Brainstorm = Ancestral Recall, since you're still netting only one card, whereas Recall nets you three cards. I mean, I suppose shuffling improves it, but then its about the same as "Draw three, discard 2".
Here's hoping the last WRU general is super awesome.
That new art on Distant Memories though, that's pretty awesome.
Phyrexians. Then again, I've always been for the good guys.
But the Phyrexians don't see infection as poison, they see it as a cure. Moral relativity has never translated well into the color pie unfortunately, but these priests are definitely white.
As for whether -1/-1 counters can never be used in white, one of the recent GDS2 submissions was a white enchantment that put -1/-1 counter on any creatures that attacked you (No Mercy style), where the -1/-1 counters were seen as 'shackles'. Just because we use -1/-1 counters to signify something a certain way doesn't mean that meaning can't change overtime.
With this priest card, the -1/-1 counters are more of a conversion method that happens to weaken the opponent, rather than a garden variety "plague" or whatever. Similarly, you can see the poison counters being put on an opponent not as a literal poison molecules coursing through your veins, but as markers on how much the Phyrexians are influencing you mentally/physically (I mean, if it happened to Karn, it can happen to any of us).
Also, I don't see the problem if they include really rare cards in the product (other than the fact that it pisses off collectors). Since it isn't a limited print run, if its really popular, they can just print more. I believe there were multiple printings of Planechase, so what's the problem? In fact, I hope they do, so the new multiplayer-centric cards are easier to find as singles.
*hoping the former*
Can't wait for my new red-white-blue and red-green-blue generals.
I assume that it was cut for budget reasons - but now that Magic is doing alot better and the economy is starting to recover, do you guys think we'll see them reimplement this?
Well, until they release some kind of sane eternal format, I will be sticking to attending the occasional prerelease and playing Magic casually. My true hope is that they dump Extended, and replace it with Overextended, but I suppose they can't do that for at least a year or more. I mean, the only point of Extended now is to give a fleeting bit more longevity to people's standard decks that rotate out - unlike the old extended which was actually 'nearly' an eternal format itself.
I do have hope though, cause Wizards in recent years has starting paying attention to many different demographics (collectors with the FtV stuff, multiplayer with Planechase/Archenemy, EDH with all the shiny new generals), so maybe, just maybe, they'll listen to the people who want to play in a healthy, sustainable, eternal format. One day at least.
Most of the suggestions I've heard have been Masques forward and 7th forward, because 6th has those tutors. But yeah, the B/R list would be fairly short.
As for an eternal format not being healthy, I would have to disagree. We already have Standard and Extended as the formats to get new players into the tournament scene - not every format needs to cater to people with new cards. Overextended would be sustainable, because unlike Legacy, Wizards could reprint cards whenever they feel like it in order to balance the health/availability of the cards in the format. Sure the metagame would definately be alot more stable than Standard or Extended, but the new sets released would add new cards to the cardpool, bringing in fresh types of decks. Especially if they decide to continue the powercreep =\.
I just would like a format that doesn't kill your wallet - either with broken, hard to find expensive old cards, or with the cost of sustaining a deck in a rotating format.
Side note: I don't see how Brainstorm = Ancestral Recall, since you're still netting only one card, whereas Recall nets you three cards. I mean, I suppose shuffling improves it, but then its about the same as "Draw three, discard 2".