I agree with the occasional sentiment I've seen expressed that the lands are the key. I think each land in the block, including basics, will have either a day or a night symbol. Like poison counters, one of the cards in the token slot will be a double-sided Day/Night card, which starts in the "Day" position at the beginning of the day. Then, whenever a land is played with either the Day or Night symbol, flip the Day/Night card to the appropriate side. They might even have only Night symbols on lands, and state that any land without a Night symbol changes it back to Day.
Any non-land card with a Day/Night symbol has a matching card or (preferably) token card (that comes with the main card?). Those cards are placed atop/below one another, with the two switching as the game changes from Day to Night to Day.
Something like that seems the most implementable, to me.
Goblins and elves, probably not. They don't seem to fit very well, even when considering how dark they can be in lore. Think faerie tale goblins and elves, nasty little buggers who you really don't want to upset, thus appease regularly with lots of silly superstitious actions. They definitely don't fit, however, even in such a light.
Merfolk, however, can still easily be themed as Lovecraftian deep ones. Infiltrating harbor towns, coming in the middle of the night from the deep to kill, steal and wreak havoc, etc. Of the three, they are easily, IMHO, the simplest and most thematic to include. This doesn't mean they will, of course. But they could.
Think Deep Ones from Lovecraft. A merfolk tribe centered around dark, nasty, vicious merfolk who worship massive underwater tentacled Lovecraftian beings beyond understanding would fit the horror theme extremely well. They would also flavorfully tie in with Kiora, at least in terms of the worship of massive, ancient, unknowable aquatic entities.
It's not a remotely subtle difference, it's a glaringly obvious error, and one I don't see passing through WotC. Every other planeswalker with a title after the first name is likewise separated with a comma, as is proper.
That error is enough to make me question both of these planeswalkers immediately.
Actually not. No trolling and no it doesn't mean that with 100 % certainty. It could be a mistake. We can't know for sure yet. Time will tell. All we know is the fact that they have new pictures and that Gideon + Sorin are the new PW's of the set. I do not wish to argue with you guys when you see all in black and white. That seems so juvenile sorry.
This isn't a matter of black and white. This is a level of sufficient evidence to constitute a strong case that this proves that the other three planeswalkers in M12 are new versions of the old 'walkers. They have different artwork, and they have different Japanese names. That's rock-solid evidence for these being new. Stronger than the evidence that they are older versions.
Do you know what proof means? It means 100 % certainty. When anything is less than 100 % we have no proof so 0 % proof.
Umm...no, no it doesn't:
proof –noun 1. evidence sufficient to establish a thing as true, or to produce belief in its truth.
There is no absolute threshold of evidence at which point said evidence constitutes "proof", not even in mathematics. Rather, it is a "sufficient level" of evidence that constitutes proof, which differs dependent on the subject in question. So, no, this is a false premise.
The "Germ" token's creature type is not necessarily referring to a disease, methinks. However, think a germ cell, or germination. I think the "germ" is the baseline organism from which the "living weapon" is grown. Yes, it also conjures that image up, and is reinforced due to Phyrexia's nature. Thus, you have a nice double entendre, which is generally a good thing, IMO.
I'm fairly certain Wizards stated somewhere that the original five PW's were here to stay for a while. And I highly doubt they'll reprint something as dumb as big Jace or Primeval Titan. My guess for m12 is that they'll reprint the 7 that were reprinted from m10 in m11. 5 PWs, Platinum Angel, and BSA.
What I would like to see is a cycle of big, stupid sorceries. But that's another topic. ::awaiting ensuing infraction::
I actually DO see WotC reprinting Jace 2.0, especially after seeing the effect reprinting Baneslayer had. I actually think WotC would perceive a drop in price on Jace 2.0 due to a sudden influx of supply to satiate demand as a positive effect on Standard, not a negative. In fact, I could easily see them purposefully reprinting some of the top end $$$ planeswalkers, one per color, for precisely this reason: to stabilize the prices down to a more reasonable, more widely accessible level.
Quite a bit of the negative feelings towards standard at the moment is the cost of entry for the top tier decks. At least, as a retailer/TO that is my experience.
I think this is very awesome. Rewarding the players with the highest ranking during the swiss is definitely a good idea.
I thought they already rewarded the top player of the Swiss in the top 8...by making them play the bottom-ranked player in the playoffs. Player #1 plays #8, #2 plays #7, #3 plays #6, and #4 plays #5. So, the top 4 already play the least competitive opponents in the top 8, at least according to the score.
I'm guessing he's being sneaky, and it's something more along the lines of:
Bane Slayer B
Sorcery
Multikick: B
Choose target non-black creature, then choose another target creature with the same name for each time Bane Slayer was kicked. Destroy each chosen creature.
I'm calling BS on this one. We just received the December FNM info, and the January sign-up period isn't even over with, yet. There is no bloody way anyone has actually RECEIVED their Jan FNM cards yet.
Colourless spells that still need coloured mana to play?
Maybe, maybe not.
Or, more accurately, my guess is a little from column "a", and a little from column "b". I am guessing there will be ghostfire-esque colorless spells (spells with a colored cost, yet colorless), and TRUE colorless spells (non-artifact spells with only colorless mana in the casting cost).
I'm going to have to utterly disagree with the folks that don't think these Eldrazi are massive creatures. First, in Eldrazi Monument, the explorers are on a series of cliffs/cave entrance, climbing around. They are completely and utterly out of the light of the monument itself, as is evidenced by the brightly lit interior, but utter darkness of said humanoids in the foreground as well as the rocky surfaces they climb upon. Plus, the very gradual line of perspective of the floating cubes as they go off the image indicates the cubes (and in turn the statue) are absolutely enormous.
Next, notice the hedrons (also known to be quite large on average, with some here and there being smaller, some larger) floating directly in front of it, and also below and to the front of it half-hidden by the foreground. Again, that indicates a likely cyclopean size for the Eldrazi. This gives us a more concrete context for the size of the objects in question. Also, who says that statue is simply a statue? It is entirely possible that is an actual imprisoned eldrazi, slumbering as the flavor text hints at.
Finally, the Rise of the Eldrazi promo image itself. Sorin and Nissa are in the foreground, raised atop a platform, with a perspective from below them. The Eldrazi are in the background. There is no context to indicate the true size of those Eldrazi. The haze gives the impression they are large, certainly. Larger than a mere 20 feet, that's for certain. You will NOT get that kind of haze from something 20 feet tall with that sort of perspective shot. Go to a 2-story building, have someone stand in front of it, and get down low while looking up until the perspective looks the same as the promo image. You will not see any haze. Now, go do the same in front of a 10 story building (around 100' tall), and you might get haze like that in a particularly hazy city setting (but not outside). Now, try a 30-50 story building (~300'-500' tall). That looks much more correct, in terms of the haze, even in a wilderness setting. All of my art training tells me these Eldrazi are simply gargantuan.
Now, Marit Lage does indeed look to be a significant bit larger. The one on the left does NOT look like Marit Lage at all. Marit Lage's head is in the middle of its body, not on top, it doesn't have the floating "crown", and it has massive tentacles with hands coming off of them in a ring around the area where its head is, with the four largest tentacles located on the left, right, top left, and top right. The Eldrazi on the left has semi-claw-like appendages that do indeed appear to be somewhat similar to the "arm" on slivers. This is not to say Marit Lage can't be an Eldrazi. Who knows? It might very well be one of the most powerful, who escaped imprisonment ages ago. However, none of the three Eldrazi pictured resembles Marit Lage at all.
This being the third time in a row, I'm absolutely convinced that they're doing it on purpose. some how it seems they've found a way to profit from this. perhaps they see it like this: if players see supplies as limited they're more likely to buy in bulk early on.
I said it with Zen, and I'll say it again: This is to make sure that brick and mortar stores are more likely to have product they can sell at full retail without having to compete with (foolish) stores selling at a (tremendously deep) discount online. Our brick and mortar store has had zero problems getting their orders, but has seen greater in-store sales. However, the online deep discounters have consistently been unable to fulfill their deep discount sales, and have had to raise the price of their product to much more reasonable levels when they do finally get them in stock.
Look, these online stores, they aren't making money on this product. You know what they are doing? It is really quite obvious with any knowledge of economics. They are using Magic releases as short term, interest-free loans to generate revenue from the remainder of the products they provide. They sell huge quantities of Magic on preorder at no profit. Then, they use all that money to purchase (much) smaller quantities of disparate products to stock in their store which they proceed to sell at normal margins, to generate profit. Then, when the Magic set releases, they fulfill their obligations using the money they made in the interim on said disparate products (while keeping the profit), returning monies to anyone they had to due to allocations. Voila! They've just used an interest free loan!
I would imagine this infuriates WotC to no end, for a few reasons. Most importantly, these folks are devaluing Magic across the board. Of course, WotC is also not in the loan business, and I'm sure they don't appreciate their products being used in this manner (especially when it also devalues their product at the same time).
I think the dissonance in your argument is that, commonly, people do associate behemoths and leviathans together. And while the modern depiction of angels may digress from the ancient descriptions, it's nevertheless what people expect to see.
The way angels are depicted in magic is legitimatized by the evolution of them as a symbol. Therefore people can relate to it. Referencing behemoths for the express purpose of invoking their ancient depiction while simultaneously disassociating them with leviathans is not going to be successful. You can't force people to see things in a different way, it takes time and paradigm shifts for it to happen.
Except that the disassociation is what I've seen to be the norm, with few exception. Anecdotal? Sure. However, even in this very thread, it is only a small handful of posters that are associating the two, and only to say that one cannot exist without the other. *shrug* On the other hand, in pop culture, et al, you don't commonly see the concept of behemoth and leviathan together.
In other words, the paradigm shift with regards to the majority has (long since) occurred. I am quite comfortable stating that the majority who hear the word "behemoth" will think some massive being, and will not immediately associate the word, not even in passing, with "leviathan". Just as most who hear the word "leviathan" will conjure something whale-like, massive, ocean-going creature in their mind's eye, yet will not immediately associate it with "behemoth".
So no, I disagree with the assertion that the common association is behemoth + leviathan together. That is only amongst those who have studied mythology in detail, more specifically biblical and Hebrew mythologies. Any more than most will imagine eyeless, genital-less angels with swords coming from various orifices. Any more than most will associate sphinx with Greek demon of bad luck and destructive force.
Any non-land card with a Day/Night symbol has a matching card or (preferably) token card (that comes with the main card?). Those cards are placed atop/below one another, with the two switching as the game changes from Day to Night to Day.
Something like that seems the most implementable, to me.
Merfolk, however, can still easily be themed as Lovecraftian deep ones. Infiltrating harbor towns, coming in the middle of the night from the deep to kill, steal and wreak havoc, etc. Of the three, they are easily, IMHO, the simplest and most thematic to include. This doesn't mean they will, of course. But they could.
I disagree due to one simple mistake:
Garruk Predator
Instead of:
Garruk, Predator
It's not a remotely subtle difference, it's a glaringly obvious error, and one I don't see passing through WotC. Every other planeswalker with a title after the first name is likewise separated with a comma, as is proper.
That error is enough to make me question both of these planeswalkers immediately.
This isn't a matter of black and white. This is a level of sufficient evidence to constitute a strong case that this proves that the other three planeswalkers in M12 are new versions of the old 'walkers. They have different artwork, and they have different Japanese names. That's rock-solid evidence for these being new. Stronger than the evidence that they are older versions.
Umm...no, no it doesn't:
proof
–noun
1. evidence sufficient to establish a thing as true, or to produce belief in its truth.
There is no absolute threshold of evidence at which point said evidence constitutes "proof", not even in mathematics. Rather, it is a "sufficient level" of evidence that constitutes proof, which differs dependent on the subject in question. So, no, this is a false premise.
I actually DO see WotC reprinting Jace 2.0, especially after seeing the effect reprinting Baneslayer had. I actually think WotC would perceive a drop in price on Jace 2.0 due to a sudden influx of supply to satiate demand as a positive effect on Standard, not a negative. In fact, I could easily see them purposefully reprinting some of the top end $$$ planeswalkers, one per color, for precisely this reason: to stabilize the prices down to a more reasonable, more widely accessible level.
Quite a bit of the negative feelings towards standard at the moment is the cost of entry for the top tier decks. At least, as a retailer/TO that is my experience.
I thought they already rewarded the top player of the Swiss in the top 8...by making them play the bottom-ranked player in the playoffs. Player #1 plays #8, #2 plays #7, #3 plays #6, and #4 plays #5. So, the top 4 already play the least competitive opponents in the top 8, at least according to the score.
Bane Slayer
B
Sorcery
Multikick: B
Choose target non-black creature, then choose another target creature with the same name for each time Bane Slayer was kicked. Destroy each chosen creature.
Maybe, maybe not.
Or, more accurately, my guess is a little from column "a", and a little from column "b".
Next, notice the hedrons (also known to be quite large on average, with some here and there being smaller, some larger) floating directly in front of it, and also below and to the front of it half-hidden by the foreground. Again, that indicates a likely cyclopean size for the Eldrazi. This gives us a more concrete context for the size of the objects in question. Also, who says that statue is simply a statue? It is entirely possible that is an actual imprisoned eldrazi, slumbering as the flavor text hints at.
Finally, the Rise of the Eldrazi promo image itself. Sorin and Nissa are in the foreground, raised atop a platform, with a perspective from below them. The Eldrazi are in the background. There is no context to indicate the true size of those Eldrazi. The haze gives the impression they are large, certainly. Larger than a mere 20 feet, that's for certain. You will NOT get that kind of haze from something 20 feet tall with that sort of perspective shot. Go to a 2-story building, have someone stand in front of it, and get down low while looking up until the perspective looks the same as the promo image. You will not see any haze. Now, go do the same in front of a 10 story building (around 100' tall), and you might get haze like that in a particularly hazy city setting (but not outside). Now, try a 30-50 story building (~300'-500' tall). That looks much more correct, in terms of the haze, even in a wilderness setting. All of my art training tells me these Eldrazi are simply gargantuan.
Now, Marit Lage does indeed look to be a significant bit larger. The one on the left does NOT look like Marit Lage at all. Marit Lage's head is in the middle of its body, not on top, it doesn't have the floating "crown", and it has massive tentacles with hands coming off of them in a ring around the area where its head is, with the four largest tentacles located on the left, right, top left, and top right. The Eldrazi on the left has semi-claw-like appendages that do indeed appear to be somewhat similar to the "arm" on slivers. This is not to say Marit Lage can't be an Eldrazi. Who knows? It might very well be one of the most powerful, who escaped imprisonment ages ago. However, none of the three Eldrazi pictured resembles Marit Lage at all.
I said it with Zen, and I'll say it again: This is to make sure that brick and mortar stores are more likely to have product they can sell at full retail without having to compete with (foolish) stores selling at a (tremendously deep) discount online. Our brick and mortar store has had zero problems getting their orders, but has seen greater in-store sales. However, the online deep discounters have consistently been unable to fulfill their deep discount sales, and have had to raise the price of their product to much more reasonable levels when they do finally get them in stock.
Look, these online stores, they aren't making money on this product. You know what they are doing? It is really quite obvious with any knowledge of economics. They are using Magic releases as short term, interest-free loans to generate revenue from the remainder of the products they provide. They sell huge quantities of Magic on preorder at no profit. Then, they use all that money to purchase (much) smaller quantities of disparate products to stock in their store which they proceed to sell at normal margins, to generate profit. Then, when the Magic set releases, they fulfill their obligations using the money they made in the interim on said disparate products (while keeping the profit), returning monies to anyone they had to due to allocations. Voila! They've just used an interest free loan!
I would imagine this infuriates WotC to no end, for a few reasons. Most importantly, these folks are devaluing Magic across the board. Of course, WotC is also not in the loan business, and I'm sure they don't appreciate their products being used in this manner (especially when it also devalues their product at the same time).
Except that the disassociation is what I've seen to be the norm, with few exception. Anecdotal? Sure. However, even in this very thread, it is only a small handful of posters that are associating the two, and only to say that one cannot exist without the other. *shrug* On the other hand, in pop culture, et al, you don't commonly see the concept of behemoth and leviathan together.
In other words, the paradigm shift with regards to the majority has (long since) occurred. I am quite comfortable stating that the majority who hear the word "behemoth" will think some massive being, and will not immediately associate the word, not even in passing, with "leviathan". Just as most who hear the word "leviathan" will conjure something whale-like, massive, ocean-going creature in their mind's eye, yet will not immediately associate it with "behemoth".
So no, I disagree with the assertion that the common association is behemoth + leviathan together. That is only amongst those who have studied mythology in detail, more specifically biblical and Hebrew mythologies. Any more than most will imagine eyeless, genital-less angels with swords coming from various orifices. Any more than most will associate sphinx with Greek demon of bad luck and destructive force.