Alara Reborn: Ardent Plea

[Ransac]

For those of you who haven't seen the "preview" card with no rules text, not much can be said about how this card represents Alara Reborn....


I read an interesting fact at mtgsalvation.com. Someone noticed about the card.

It has a card number of 1/145. A MULTI-COLORED card is the first listed card in the set...... meaning NO mono-colored cards......


Ransac, cpa trash man

 

[Ransac]

No one on the CPA finds this interesting?


Ransac, cpa trash man

 

[Modus Pwnens]

I find it bollocks.. what's wrong with single colored cards? Drafts are gonna get soooo messy now =/

 

[Oversoul]

No one on the CPA finds this interesting?

Meh, they've done weird things before. Legions was a set with no non-creature cards at all, and that seems worse than a set with no monocolored cards. I don't know about the rest of you, but I thought that set was dumb. Almost enough to ruin the whole block, except they somehow managed to make the very next set the most awesome thing to happen to the game since color-coded expansion set symbols. I love Scourge.

Anyway, are we positive that this no monocolored cards thing is the case? What if the organization of the card numbers in sets is being changed to strict alphabetization or multicolored cards first? To be honest, I never really paid much attention to the card number thing or if it's even been consistent this whole time. Most of my cards don't even have it because they predate it. I think it started with Exodus, just like those color-coded expansion set symbols we all know and love. But unlike them, I don't care about the numbering system. The only time I've used it for anything was my Unglued set, and that's because of the hidden message.

 

[EricBess]

The whole point of previewing this card without text would be to hint that there are no mono-colored cards in the set. Doing this just the preview that they are changing the numbering scheme would be pretty lame. They know what the implications are.

I don't see how this compares to an all non-creature set. Scourge took a lot of non-creature stuff and put it on a stick in a lot of creative ways.

Personally, I haven't played enough Alara to know how easy or difficult it is to play a 3- or even 4-color deck in draft. Invasion decks could do it, but only if you already had a green commitment, then you could just draft the best card in each pack after that.

From what I've seen, there are a decent number of color fixers. Of course, this pretty much means that there won't be any color-fixers in this set, right? I supose there could be some land, but would that defeat the novelty of an all-gold set?

 

[Ransac]

From what I've heard on recent podcasts, the best current drafting scheme in Alara block is to draft a 3-color shard, 3-color shard + splash 1, or straight up 5-color.


Ransac, cpa trash man

 

[Oversoul]

The whole point of previewing this card without text would be to hint that there are no mono-colored cards in the set. Doing this just the preview that they are changing the numbering scheme would be pretty lame. They know what the implications are.

Probably. But it also seems possible that they didn't notice at all. I doubt it, since they didn't even reveal any text for the card or anything else that would make it special.

I don't see how this compares to an all non-creature set. Scourge took a lot of non-creature stuff and put it on a stick in a lot of creative ways.

Not all non-creature. All creature. You know, Legions. For most of the game's history, multicolored cards have been a neglected. I liked the Invasion block. I liked the Ravnica block. I'm not thrilled about the idea of an all multicolored set, since it all depends on the execution of the concept. But knowing nothing else about a set, I'd prefer all multicolored to another all creatures set like Legions. My point in bringing it up was that this sort of thing is something WotC seems fine doing. Most sets are pretty balanced, but every once in a while they'll throw in something different.

Personally, I haven't played enough Alara to know how easy or difficult it is to play a 3- or even 4-color deck in draft. Invasion decks could do it, but only if you already had a green commitment, then you could just draft the best card in each pack after that.

Yeah, I don't know what this will mean for drafts. I'm guessing that is one set in block is all multicolored, they've looked into it and think they have it figured out. Maybe the next set will be all monocolored and/or have colorfixing to make up for it. Or maybe certain two-color combinations will be given all the emphasis.

 

[Spiderman]

I don't think they're changing the numbering scheme. So yes, this could be the first block with no mono-colored cards. It also goes with the colliding of the Shards storyline, so though it's "different", WOTC can probably pull it off.

 

[Spiderman]

From Tom LaPille's poll results regarding how many multicolored cards people think are in the set based on this card

Those of you who voted 1 would have caught us if that card was a deliberate trick on our part, but it wasn't. Alara Reborn will contain lots of new multicolored goodness.