I wouldn't be too surprised if we got legendary Nephilims in ''Sinker''
This would be the most logical thing to do. Here's hoping that if MaRO does get his wish and they print 4-color legends... that they're at least slightly better than the last Nephilims. Hell, story-wise I can't even recall their purpose, but that's not too important here.
While I do love everything about this card, I shudder at those pre-order prices. I will probably wait for her to drop to the $20s, since I don't see her as a 4-of in a future T1 deck. But really, this is par for the course; there are always people willing to pay a premium for the hottest stuff so that they can get to brewing right away.
Even if money wasn't an issue, I don't know if I could ever spend that much on cardboard that has an extremely high chance of dropping upwards of 50% in value once the hype is done. It pays to be patient!
That it does... although sometimes it'll kill ya, such was the case with Umezawa's Jitte. I remember snatching up about 4 playsets worth when they where in pre-order for $2 or so a pop. I made out like gang busters a few weeks after release when people finally realized how good they actually where.
Vraska... a walker I actually think could turn out to be pretty fun. Welp, time to set the starting bid at $40 and watch her crash to (hopefully) under $10 ASAP.
I'll have to check out the mothership for her story. Her name sounds eerily familiar.
My thoughts on the sets mechanics not that it matters or that anyone cares:
The Azorius Senate: Detain:(Until your next turn, that permanent can't attack or block and its activated abilities can't be activated.)
This is absolutely bananas; it locks down a permanent SO damn hard and it's flavorful as all hell. Perfect job here. The trouble is, this is a pretty limited mechanic without much room for growth or variation and I can see it being a little too over-powered (sup bounce?). We'll have to wait and see, though it looks like the cards with this ability might be slightly over-costed to compensate.
The Izzet League: Overload:(You may cast this spell for its overload cost. If you do, change its text by replacing all instances of "target" with "each".)
Again, this is a pretty limited mechanic... and boring too. I won't argue that it'll have its uses and having utility when you need it is rarely ever a bad thing, but I was expecting something a little more from a guild of crazy spell mages. It's good, don't get me wrong, it's just not too exciting or impressive to me with what I've seen so far.
The Cult of Rakdos: Unleash:(You may have this creature enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. It can't block as long as it has a +1/+1 counter on it.)
This mechanic is absolutely terrible. Unless the Rakdos are packing some VERY VERY cost efficient creatures or there are a decent selection of cards that get additional bonuses when they have +1/+1 counters, this is a garbage mechanic. First Hellbent, now this? You're telling me that Wizards couldn't think of a better BR mechanic than this? Hell, at least make it Unleash # or have the negative effect vary... what a disappointment. I mean come on, another guild that does (a) +1/+1 counter(s)? And at the cost of blocking? Soooo daaaaamn laaaaaame. At least they got an interesting theme this time.
The Golgari Swarm: Scavenge:(COST, Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a number of +1/+1 counter's equal to this card's power on target creature. Scavenge only as a sorcery.)
While this is certainly not the most creative mechanic I've ever seen; it's hard to deny it's a pretty darn good one. It boasts synergy with the previous block, Dredge, and good lord it's picture perfect to team up Graft with. The flavor is there too and while the scavenging guild didn't get something fresh and minty, they knocked it out of the park with its usability, synergy, and resource capacity. I'm VERY excited to see how WotC will work the +1/+1 counters and triggers into other Golgari cards and we've already seen some very playable cards with this mechanic.
The Selesnya Conclave: Populate:(Put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of a creature token you control.)
Very limited mechanic to work with, but it fits with the Conclave very well and has excellent synergy with Convoke, the guilds previous mechanic. I could see the ability to generate copies of ANY creature token you own (not even targeted), but from what little we've seen of it, it looks like the spells are going to be relatively costly. With White and Green being the best token generating color pair, I'm interested to see just how token focused they are this time around as it seems the Golgari might be Saproling heavy from what little we've seen. I just can't shake the fact that this just feels blue though.
Would it be far-fetched to guess that perhaps RTR is taking place BEFORE Ral's spark ignites? It might be something like what happened with Ajani and the Alara block. Perhaps Ral will be featured as a character (a second Izzet legend after Niv maybe?) in RTR. This could set up a place in the story for him for his spark to ignite DURING the block's storyline, and perhaps we'd then get a card of him as a PW later on. Maybe during Sinker, maybe in a later block.
I'd say this is quite possible. We already know that Niv has sat to work on a massive guild wide project consisting of hundreds of parts different sections of the guild are working on (more than likely the manufacturing of an artificial spark). This, mixed with the guilds reckless self experimental nature, add up to Ral using himself as a test subject for Nivs pet project and the project working or at the least pre-maturely igniting Ral's spark.
I hope so, and with how successful WotC saw Commander being... and with Legends in the core set again, I'd say the chances for 20 legends this block are good. Hell, maybe even some 4 color generals like MaRO always wanted from the first RAV.
Rakdos gets the short end of the mechanic stick again; Overload looks like it might be interested, but it seems pretty limited, Populate is amazing, and Scavenge is pretty darn great and sync very VERY well with the old Simic mechanic.
I'd rather we just have more non-human walkers. With all the different races and worlds Magic has to offer, Humans seem to have the best odds of having and activating sparks it seems.
If that's the majority of the target audience, I suspect that mos that audience is hetro, thus the creation of more female 'walkers will increase demand. As some of my friends have a Female Binder.
If it IS shocklands... well I guess I can wait another two years to get back into standard. Maybe then I can develop a decent deck whos manabase doesn't cost over $100
I'll be honest, none of the new guild mechanics have excited me very much yet. Although I still have hope as not even a 3rd of the set has been spoiled yet so there's still a good chance that R&D can make some interesting cards/ interactions with these abilities.
And it sounds to me like we might be getting a new preview card of one of them.
This would be the most logical thing to do. Here's hoping that if MaRO does get his wish and they print 4-color legends... that they're at least slightly better than the last Nephilims. Hell, story-wise I can't even recall their purpose, but that's not too important here.
... I can't recall a single hybrid legend actually.
That it does... although sometimes it'll kill ya, such was the case with Umezawa's Jitte. I remember snatching up about 4 playsets worth when they where in pre-order for $2 or so a pop. I made out like gang busters a few weeks after release when people finally realized how good they actually where.
It never left. You can't stop the rock; only bury it for a little.
I'll have to check out the mothership for her story. Her name sounds eerily familiar.
Finally another non-human walker!
Now if we could only get something a little more exotic... like a Wurm.
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
A WurmWalker would be amazing; but WotC will never ever do any non-humanoid walker.
I'd say this is quite possible. We already know that Niv has sat to work on a massive guild wide project consisting of hundreds of parts different sections of the guild are working on (more than likely the manufacturing of an artificial spark). This, mixed with the guilds reckless self experimental nature, add up to Ral using himself as a test subject for Nivs pet project and the project working or at the least pre-maturely igniting Ral's spark.
Your friends sound like pretty creepy dudes.