MTG Salvation

Just for accuracy's sake, I feel compelled to mention that Phosphorescent Feast was reprinted in Eventide.

Draft 4W
Sorcery (U)
Put a 1/1 white Human Soldier creature token onto the battlefield for each plains you control.

Psychogenic Labyrinth 2U
Enchantment-Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets -3/-0 and its activated abilities can’t be played.

Sepulchral Demon 2BB
Creature-Demon (R)
Haste
At the beginning of your upkeep, put the top card of your library into your graveyard, then you lose life equal to the number of cards in your graveyard.
5/4

Balothform Topiary 2GG
Creature-Plant (R)
Whenever a creature you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you gain four life.
4/4

Invoke Doubt WU
Instant (U)
Counter target spell unless its controller taps each untapped permanent he or she controls.

Ritual Detonation 1RG
Instant (U)
Add five mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool.

Clay Golem 4
Artifact Creature-Golem (U)
Whenever Clay Golem deals combat damage to an opponent or a creature you don’t control, put a +1/+1 counter on it. Then, if there are two or more +1/+1 counters on Clay Golem, it deals damage to you equal to the number of +1/+1 counters on it.
2/4

Any and all comments & critiques are much appreciated!
drenik

So, in the realm of sad songs, two stand out for me - Bright Eye's Poison Oak (about nostalgia and loss) and Sonic Youth's/Yeah Yeah Yeah's Diamond Sea (about staying in a failed relationship and the helplessness of it).

And I'm surprised no one's mentioned Death Cab for Cutie yet; Ben Gibbard is a master of melancholy.

And then there's Smashing Pumpkins, and I don't even know where to begin with them. I guess To Forgive, Shame, Blank Page and For Martha are the most openly melancholy, but Today, Disarm, Mayonaise, Try Try Try, their cover of Landslide and a lot of the aptly named Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness album reveal a little more subtle sorrow, one veiled by images of happiness and contentment; in a way I think that's the saddest kind of sadness. (Of course, there's also the late period Smashing Pumpkins that's sad because its awful and reminds you of what a great band they once were and now aren't, but I digress...)

So I realize that everyone here is operating under the assumption that Scars of Mirrodin is an artifact-themed set, but do we have any proof of the artifact theme? (Forgive me if its already been confirmed and I just missed it.) I acknowledge that there are a lot of hints pointing in that direction (like FtV: Relics, although FtV: Dragons had a Shards card in it, and Shards wasn't primarily dragon themed) but I'd like to know if we have, say, anyone from R&D telling us that Scars is artifact themed.

Quote from cheethorne

I don't think so. Arabian Nights has an incredibly strong cultural background coming from the original source material (ie. the name of the set) and Mirage brought in some African mythology as well. Kamigawa might be the most recent blatant cultural mythology, but it certainly wasn't the first.

This is true. My point, however, is that, while Arabian Nights and Mirage drew from non-Western mythologies for inspiration, Magic was not yet popular in either the Middle East or Africa. Kamigawa was then the first set when the designers and creative team had to tackle the idea that they were using a mythology for inspiration that some of their playerbase would likely be intimately familiar with, while other players would not be.

Quote from charlequin

The difference is that in the English language, words like "demon" and "angel" and "knight" have already been repurposed to refer to a broad swathe of related concepts by analogy, so it's totally normal to do so further. When people are already used to applying a word like "angel" as a linguistic metaphor ("You're an angel for helping me with this") or applying the word "knight" to anyone who fights for good (see last year's biggest movie) the necessary slippage to apply these concepts across cultural boundaries is already there.

Literally no one ever uses the word samurai in English conversation to refer to anything but a warrior living by a bushi code who fights with a katana and is either sworn to, or formerly sworn to, a master, and for good reason -- we already have purposed the words "knight" and "warrior" to cover all that broader territory. So in English, the word "samurai" has a much narrower use and is inherently culturally-specific in a way that the other words you mention no longer are.

For the most part, I agree with this line of thinking. The problem with it is that Magic is a game that is not only played by English speakers or people living in countries that speak English. When Magic began, Americans were the intended audience for the game. Thus, Magic's roots lie in mythologies that were already familiar to Americans that would likely play magic. These mythologies, largely (but not exclusively) Greco-Roman, were already a part of American gamer culture, so Magic did not need to introduce them to Magic players; instead, Magic could create its own interpretations of the myths.

Then Magic became increasingly popular, and its audience grew beyond America, to Europe. In terms of the mythology, this was mostly fine, since much of the mythology Magic relied on was European to start. Europeans were also familiar with most of the mythologies that inspired Magic. Then Magic spread to the rest of the world, notably gaining a huge fan base in Asia. While I am not intimately familiar with any Asian cultures, to my knowledge (if I'm wrong someone please correct me here), a decent amount of the Western mythology that Magic is based of off is not as common in, say, Japan, as it is in the U.S. and Europe. What this means is that, when Magic first emerged in Japan, many players were likely not as intimately familiar with the mythological roots of the game as American or European players were.

Magic is a game played across multiple continents and many different cultures, yet the game has its origins in one particular culture's mythology. As the game's playerbase expands, there is a tension between staying true to the game's roots, and drawing on cultures as varied as those of the playerbase for flavor. Kamigawa was the first set designed to have to tackle the issue of cultural differneces in the Magic playerbase. If the game just used Japanese mythology as the base and then interpreted it for Magic, it ran the risk of alienating American and European players who were not already famailiar with the mythology. On the other hand, if the game didn't create its own interpretations of the mythology, it ran the risk of being inauthentic and making the players already familiar with the mythology uncomfortable, creating the impression that Magic exotified Japanesse culture.

I'm not sure if this cycle will be as rigid as the speculation so far has been. I could easily see something like this for the u/b one:

U/B Manland
Land (R)
~ enters the battlefield tapped.
t: Add U or B to your mana pool.
2UB: ~ becomes a 1/4 blue and black illusion horror creature with intimidate and "whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player puts the top 7 cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard."

Yeah, its a little wordy, but its also, in my mind, quite flavorful and exactly what a u/b manland would do. Similarly, the g/w could be (although this feels a little less likely):

G/W Manland
Land (R)
~ enters the battlefield tapped.
t: Add G or W to your mana pool.
1GW: ~ becomes a 2/2 green and white elemental creature with lifelink and "this creature gets +1/+1 for each enchantment you control."

I'd also keep in mind, that, given the collector's number of this card, there's likely to be another cycle of lands, which I believe is probably going to be an uncommon cycle of mono-colored manlands. Given that, I think, more attention will be given to these rare ones to make them truly feel dual-colored.

Some new blue cards, mostly looking ahead towards where blue could be going.

Imperious Thoughtskimmer 2U
Creature-Illusion (U)
Shroud
Whenever Imperious Thoughtskimmer attacks and isn’t blocked, defending player puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard, where X is Imperious Thoughtskimmer’s toughness.
0/5

Yielding Thoughtskimmer 2U
Creature-Illusion (U)
Shroud
Whenever Yielding Thoughtskimmer is dealt damage, the controller of that source of damage puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
0/5

Lethargy 1U
Enchantment-Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Whenever enchanted creature taps or untaps, put a daze counter on Lethargy.
Enchanted creature gets -2/-0 for each daze counter on it.
When enchanted creature’s power is 0 or less, destroy it and return Lethargy to its owner’s hand.

Envelop in Dreams U
Enchantment-Aura (C)
Enchant permanent
When Envelop in Dreams enters the battlefield, draw a card.
When enchanted permanent leaves the battlefield, put it on top of its owner’s library.

Wash Up U
Instant (C)
Put target nonland permanent on top of its owner’s library. Then that player reveals the top 3 cards of his or her library, may put one of them into his or her hand and the rest into his or her graveyard.

Discerning Conception 2U
Instant (C)
Target player draws three cards. Then that player discards two cards unless he or she discards a creature card.

Soporific Aven 2UU
Creature-Bird Wizard (R)
Flying
Whenever Soporific Aven or a creature you control becomes the target of a spell or ability, you may counter that spell or ability. If you do, tap target creature that spell or ability’s controller controls. It doesn’t untap during its controller’s next untap step.
2/1

Tidal Suppression UU
Instant (U)
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1 for each island you control.

Mindwracking Feedback 3U
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a permanent leaves the battlefield, target player puts the top X cards of his or library into his or her graveyard, where X is that permanent’s converted mana cost.

thanks!

What is also interesting is that both Coral Merfolk and Merfolk Sovereign are both blue merfolk without a class. Given the great creature type update, when most sentient creatures were given both a race and a class, this is also important. Especially because Merfolk Sovereign feels very much like it could be a wizard.

That said, a lot of the apparent lack of blue wizards in M10 could just be explained by the fact that generally only sentient races get classes, and about half of M10's blue creatures have flying. Aside from the rare and mythic Djinn of Wishes and Sphinx Ambassador, none of blue's flying creatures have sentient creature types, (Okay, Air Elemental and Zephyr Sprite can be debated too.) and, frankly, both of those cards would lose some of thier inherent coolness if thier creature types lines read "Creature - Djinn Wizard" or "Creature-Sphinx Wizard" instead of how they read now.

So, is the lack of blue wizards in M10 odd? Yeah. Conserning? No. We'll have to wait till Zenikar to find out if this is a new design philosophy or an odd quirk of the set.

A couple "updates" of classic white cards.

Temple Apothecary 1W
Creature-Human Cleric (C)
T: Prevent all damage that would be dealt to target creature this turn.
1/1
(Samite Healer)

Cloister Angel 2WW
Creature-Angel (U)
Flying, vigilance
3/3
(Serra Angel)

Compulsory Judgment 3WW
Sorcery (R)
Each player chooses from the permanents he or she controls a permanent of each permanent type, then sacrifices the rest. (The permanents types are artifact, creature, enchantment, land, planeswalker and tribal.)
(Cataclysm)

Kaleya, Archangel 5WWW
Legendary Creature-Angel (M)
Flying, lifelink
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control three or fewer creatures, you may put target creature card in your graveyard onto the battlefield. Otherwise put a 1/1 white spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
When Kaleya, Archangel leaves the battlefield, your life total becomes 20.
5/7
(Reya Dawnbringer)

Splash U
Instant (C)
Choose one - Prevent the next one damage that target red source would deal this turn; or counter target red spell unless its controller pays 1.

Seasonal Grove
Land (R)
t: Add 1 to your mana pool.
t: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Play this ability only during your turn. Put a depletion counter on Seasonal Grove.
If there are two or more depletion counters on Seasonal Grove, sacrifice it.

Asteroid's Core 2
Artifact (R)
When you play Asteroid's Core, each player, starting with you, may sacrifice any number of lands. Repeat this process until no one sacrifices any lands. Asteroid's Core enters the battlefield under the control of the player who sacrificed the most lands.
Sacrifice Asteroid's Core: Permanents you control are indestructible until end of turn.

Uncontrollable Blaze 2RR
Enchantment (R)
Cumulative Upkeep - Uncontrollable Blaze deals two damage to each creature and to you. (At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost for each age counter on it.)

and another card that Seasonal Grove made me think of, not top-down though:

Diplomat's Estate
Land (R)
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player untaps Diplomat's Estate and gains control of it.
t: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool for each diplomacy counter on Diplomat's Estate.
Whenever Diplomat's Estate's owner gains control of it, put a diplomacy counter on it.

Hollywood URR
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of each players upkeep, put a fame counter on a randomly chosen permanent.
Permanents with fame counters on them are legendary.
At the end of each player's turn, destroy a randomly chosen legendary permanent.

In all likelihood, colored equipment aren't coming back anytime soon. What I could see, and I would like to see more of, is regular equipment with colored equip costs. That doesn't break any of Wizard's rules about what artifacts usually can do, but if helps tie the flavor of a piece of equipment to a particular color in the same way that a colored mana cost would.

So I was completely not thinking about Psychatog when I made Sewerdepths Salvager. There's really no way to fix the insane brokenness that occurs when these two cards are paired together. I guess I could add a mana/life cost for the draw, but that seems sort of sad.

or...flavor reboot:

Philanthropic Therapist GW
Creature-Human Cleric (R)
Whenever a player discards a card, he or she may draw a card.
1/3

I almost think this feels better, since green and white are black's enemies, and black's the main discard color. And yes, its a therapist: the flavor fit well. Okay, so it still works well with Psychatog, buts its in two other colors. I don't think its a huge problem. Yeah, there'd be combo decks that abuse the relationship, but since the 'tog isn't legal in extended anymore, it wouldn't ruin tournaments (or I'm totally naive about the tourney scene).


As for Rockslide, I admit that it is very powerful. But there's not a whole lot of room to cost this effect fairly since Stone Rain costs 2R. Besides, I think that, given how many nonbasics are in the current standard, this would be a good wake-up call for players not playing any basics. Or, perhaps, if it is too strong, something like this:

Rockslide 1R
Sorcery (C)
Each player sacrifices a nonbasic land.

or

Rockslide 1R
Sorcery (C)
Choose target nonbasic land an opponent controls. That player sacrifices the chosen land.
That opponent may choose a target nonbasic land you control. If he or she does, sacrifice that land.

Are those any better?

Thanks for the correct wording for Noxious Lavaspitter. I'm still getting used to the new terminology. And thanks for the reminder about tapped creatures on Festive Moment. And thanks for all the love for Redo.

I'll take a stab at "translating" some of these. Some of my comments might be off if I made mistakes in the "translation."

Dual Archer - 3W
Creature - Human Archer
T, W: Tap two target creatures.
2/3

This one was fairly simple. A combatant is a creature, and exhaust is tap. As far as the card goes, I think its fine.

Trans-Era Bridge
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Sacrifice Trans-Era Bridge, U, T: Draw a card.

So a source is a land, forfeiting is sacrificing, recalling memories is drawing cards (or so I assume, given that the card's activated ability is blue, and drawing cards is the only blue ability that works for moving something from a "mind" to a "tale"). I like the card. Its a land that gives you the option of mana or secrets, which has an eerie coolness to it.

Energy Metamorph - :2mana::symug:
Enchantment
Kicker- :symug::symug:
You may have Energy Metamorph enter the battlefield as a copy of target land. If you paid the kicker cost, you may have Energy Metamorph enter the battlefield as a copy of target creature instead.

I like the versatility the card offers, but the flavor is odd. What kind of magic can both copy creatures and lands?

Screeching Goblet - 4
Artifact
Creatures you control have haste.

This is fine, both power and flavor wise.

Pyramid Spear - 2R
Instant
Pyramid Spear deals 2 damage to target creature. If that creature exits the battlefield this turn, Pyramid Spear deals two damage to another target creature.

I'd be a little wary of this one. It'll almost always take out at least one creature, and likely two. See Arc Lightning for a comparison. Even though this is a little less versatile, I still think it might be overdoing it. Maybe at 1RR and uncommon I'd feel more comfortable with it.

Edit: 'nathed on most of the translations. darn. still got the first one though