Kamigawa: Rockin' Out?

[Exaulted_Leader]

...Is anyone else really hyped-up about the new set? I've been watching all of the news as they unfold it on the Wizards home page, and I know that the 'news' being released has an obvious bias... but seriously; check-out that ART!

This new block is going to get me all google-eyed!


The 'new stuff' doesn't seem any more or less spectacular than Mirrodin Block's new stuff - but that certainly isn't downplaying any of it. New sub-types for sorceries might just plain rock, Legend becoming a super-type might make things pretty interesting... and WOW! The ART!


I hope that it breaks into the whole game the way Mirrodin has (rather than doing a whole lot of nothing, like most of the Onslaught block. I mean, Legions? What the hell were they thinking?)

 

[Oversoul]

I think Legions is a candidate for worst set ever both in overall power-level and in level of interest. At least Homelands and Planeshift had flavor, and they've actually got some decent cards too...

Legions has what? Caller of the Claw and Akroma? Neither of those are actually good and they're much better than any other cards in the pathetic set...

Anyway, it almost seems to me like they're abandoning the whole block focus thingy that made Invasion-Fifth Dawn so stupid and unexciting (with the exception of Eon Hub, obviously, since that thing is just too cool). I am not going to get my hopes up this early about that, but it looks good so far...

 

[Spiderman]

I'm liking it... but then, I play Magic so rarely that any set is "new" and cool to me.

 

[Mikeymike]

I agree, so far I'm really digging the art something fierce. I love the themed art idea, and so far the actually quality seems quite high.

Regarding Legions, yeah the set did suck. But at least it has a good amount of solid/fun casual creatures, specifically the Muses. I also have big soft spots for Havoc Demon, Riptide Mangler, and Scion of Darkness. Withered Wretch however, I despise so very much.

 

[train]

Looks good so far - but haven't seen many blue cards yet...

 

[EricBess]

That would be the ideal for you, train...a whole set with NO blue cards

 

[train]

You ain't kiddin'!!!...

that would be friggin' awesome!...


But I do like the looks of the set so far... an dI think it will have many more uses in my decks than previous sets...

 

[Rooser]

Basically, I haven't seen a piece of art that hasn't been solid, and most border on amazing. IMO, WotC has every right to hype this set as having the best art ever, because its looking to actually be true.

As for the set itself, I think it's gonna rock. This might be my fav block since odyssey.

In short, I'm extremely optimistic about this stuff.

As for the Legions bashing - I agree that Legions was pretty bad, but your ignorant if you think it's worse than homelands, or even worse than Dark or FE or Alliances. Some of the slivers are worth crying over, and you all seem to be forgetting Bane of the Living and some of you seem to be forgetting Withered Wretch. Timberwatch elf is good, Phage is interesting to say the least, Goblin Goon can smash some face, Noxious Ghoul can be very solid if played correctly, (and by correctly I mean, "With Patriarch's Bidding"), Goblin Grappler is some tech, Gempalm Polluter is valid cause for alarm, Gempalm Incinerator has found a great home in most goblin decks, the muses are all worth considering, the Dark Supplicant - Scion combo is extremely playable, Havoc Demon is excellent in casual multi, Willbender is probably the most maindeckable redirection effect that will ever be printed, Voidmage Apprentice is at least worth consdiering, Wall of Deceit can get some weird combo action with some of the cards from Scourge, Keeper of the Nine Gales is welcome in any bird deck I'll ever build, Elvish Soultiller is a solid body that can be grabbed with Wirewood Elftutor Guy.

Heck, even warbreak trumpeter can put a bunch of litte dudes into play in the right situation.

Bash Legions if you want, but don't jump on the bandwagon and start making ridiculous comparisons.

 

[chris92]

i'm pretty excited about the whole CHK thing too. I've been collecting legends ever since. And i think will add a huge chunk too my collection

 

[Exaulted_Leader]

I didn't say that no cards in Legions were unplayable. I said that the set, as a whole, was a terrible idea. "Let's make a set comprised entirely of creatures!" "Oh, yeah! For sure!"

Like we needed that sort of an injection of creatures? In what way is that kind of set themely?


It may have introduced more playable creatures than Homelands ever did, but I'll argue that the overall idea was a whole lot worse.

 

[Nightstalkers]

Legions was okay... kinda... They could have tried a bit harder tho.

 

[Oversoul]

Talk about ignorance all you want. Legions' overall power-level is probably better than a few sets, but not by much. And flavor-wise, I can't think of how any set could be worse...

Also, Homelands, although terrible, was released in a different era. I mean, the two previous sets were Fallen Empires and Ice Age. Slice the top five or so cards out of each of those sets and you're left with crap, essentially. Legions was released after Onslaught. The difference in power level between Ice Age and Onslaught should be rather noticeable...

 

[Notepad]

If you guys like the preview artworks, prepare to wet yourselves over the basic lands. Mountain, Plains, even ISLAND have jaw-dropping artwork. Forest is good. Swamp is so-so. Still, all of them stand high above most set's basic land arts.

Don't get your hopes up too high for awesome art all around. The goblins/akki look like sewage. Go take a look at mtgnews.com spoilers for pictures.

This is one set which I will buy a whole box of (actually thinking of two boxes). Last time I bought a box was Scourge, and I was very disappointed. This time around I doubt I will be anything other than really happy with my purchase.

 

[Oversoul]

I like the Unglued basic lands...

 

[Nightstalkers]

Originally posted by Oversoul
I like the Unglued basic lands...

I play with those in a deck and people are still trying to tell me that they aren't playable because they are not M:TG cards.


Well... they are legal because they do not have a silver border, and they aren't marked in any way...



I wish they'd do something special with lands like they did with the unglued set. That would have impressed me.

If you guys thought the card change with 8th was bad when distinguishing between white and artifacts cards, you have no idea how badly I messed up when I was sorting the old lands and artifacts. I got them mixed up quite a few times... but hey, I think every type should have a different style... Well, artifacts at least should have more of a different look, and so should lands. The rest should keep their backgrounds and style tho...

Then again, whats stopping them from formatting sorceries/instants to something else while enchantments and creatures get yet another facelift. lol, I'm just throwing idea's about.

 

[Mikeymike]

Unglued lands are 100% legal in sanctioned play.

And if they are busting your stones for just casual play, smack them in the back of the head for me.

 

[Ephraim]

I'm looking forward to trading aggressively for Unhinged lands for use in booster drafts. At fifteen of each basic land, that's seventy-five packs I have to either personally open or "swipe" the land from.

 

[Exaulted_Leader]

Stuff from MTGNews.com:

Colored Mana Symbols Return!
WotC has gone back to printing colored mana symbols on cards, which we can all appreciate.

Uh... I'm confused. They always printed colored mana symbols on cards, I thought...?

Zombies appear to be on hiatus.

NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

I wanted Creature - Zombie Ninja, dammit! ;P

Reach Through Mists - U
Instant - Arcane
Draw a card.
Common

Sift Through Sands - 1UU
Instant - Arcane
Draw two cards, then discard a card. If you played a card named Peer Through Depths and a card named Reach Through Mists this turn, you may search your library for a card named The Unspeakable, put it into play, and then shuffle your library.
Uncommon

The Unspeakable - 6UUU
Legendary Creature - Spirit
Flying, Trample
Whenever The Unspeakable deals combat damage to a player, you may return target Arcane spell from your graveyard to your hand.
6/7
Rare

...Okay, let's just get this straight - Blue is now not only the king of permission, bu the king of Aggro? Gey. Really, really oink. x.x

Cranial Extraction - 3B
Sorcery - Arcane
Name a nonland card. Search target player's graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with that name and remove them from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
105/306
Rare

Distress - BB
Sorcery
Target opponent reveals his or her hand. Choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card.
Unknown

A duress for 1 more mana that has more options, and a mono-black Lobotomy. Now THAT's some business!

He Who Hungers - 4B
Legendary Creature - Spirit
Flying
1, Sacrifice a Spirit: Target opponent reveals his or her hand. Choose a card from it. That player discards that card. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.
Soulshift 4
3/2
Rare

This gujy is kinda nifty... if a little heavy on the mana curve.

Kokusho, the Evening Star - 4BB
Legendary Creature - Dragon Spirit
Flying
When Kokusho, the Evening Star is put into a graveyard from play, each opponent loses 5 life. You gain life equal to the life lost this way.

A new multiplayer card! Kewl.

Nezumi Graverobber - 1B
Creature - Rat Rogue
1B: Remove target card in an opponent(s graveyard from the game. If no cards are in that graveyard, flip Nezumi graverobber.
Nighteyes the Desecrator
Legendary Creature - Rat Wizard
4B: Put target creature card in a graveyard into play under your control.
4/2
2/1
129/306/306
Rare

...and another one!

Godo, Bandit Warlord - 5R
Legendary Creature - Human Barbarian
When Godo, Bandit Warlord comes into play, you may search your library for an Equipment card and put it into play. If you do, shuffle your library.
Whenever Godo attacks for the first time each turn, untap it and all Samurai you control. After this phase, you get an additional combat phase.
3/3
Illus. Paolo Parente
169/306
Rare

Holy CRAP I love this guy! What a toolbox!

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker - 2RRR
Legendary Creature - Goblin Shaman
Haste
[T]: Put a creature token into play that's a copy of target nonlegendary creature you control. That creature token has haste. Sacrifice it at end of turn.
2/2
Unknown

Sneak Attack in a box!? Are they serious!?

Azusa - 2G
Legendary Creature - Human Monk
You may play two additional lands each of your turns.
1/2
Illus. Todd Lockwood
Rare

I like it. A lot.

Budoka Gardener - 1G
Creature - Human Monk
: You may put a land card from your hand into play. If you control ten or more lands, flip Budoka Gardener.
Dokai, Weaver of Life
Legendary creature - Human Monk
4GG, T, Put a X/X green elemental creature token into play, where X is the number of lands you control.
3/3
2/1
202/306/306
Rare

I'm not a fan of elementals or fatties without trample... but damn, I've got to build something around this when it gets out.

Dosan the Falling Lord - 1GG
Legendary Creature - Human Monk
Players can play spells only during their turn.
2/2
Rare

A blue hose. I never mind seeing blue hoses get printed... though they so rarely do anything other than draw-off Counters.

Glimpse of Nature - G
Sorcery
Whenever you play a creature spell this turn, draw a card.
Unknown

Now, I can't think of it off-hand... but isn't there something you could do with Eternal Witness to turn this into a really powerful card-drawing tool? This is a must-have playset for me when it gets out - it makes 0-drop creatures become very bad news.

...Oh, crap. Oh, no. Forget about Eternal Witness. Capless Affinity is going to have this card banned in T2 before you can say "R&D is really stupid!"

Sakura-Tribe Elder - 1G
Creature - Snake Shaman
Sacrifice Sakura-Tribe Elder: Search your library for a basic land card, put that card into play tapped, then shuffle your library.
1/1
Unknown

Ooh! More library-thinners! I kind of like this guy... though he's certainly overshadowed by Jens.

Flagmark of Konda - 2
Legendary Artifact - Equipment
Flagmark of Konda can equip only a legendary creature.
Creatures that share a color with equiped creature get +1/+1.
Creatures that share a creature type with equiped creature get +++1/+1.
Equip
Illus. Donato Giancola
Rare

Interesting. Like Common Cause, though not entirely useless.

Sensei's Divining Top - 1
Artifact
1 : Look at the top three cards of your library, then put them back in any order.
T : Draw a card, then put Sensei's Divining Top on top of its owner's library.
Uncommon

Boseiju, Who Shelters All -
Legendary Land
Boseiju, Who Shelters All comes into play tapped.
Pay 2 life, T : Add to your mana pool. If that mana is spent on an instant or sorcery spell, that spell can't be countered by spells or abilities.
Rare

These both seem like contenders for real classic cards... though I have my doubts that the latter one will have as much impact as it should in Vintage.

Minamo, School at Water's Edge -
Legendary Land
Add to your mana pool.
U, T: Untap target Legendary permanent.
Rare

Holy God! Coupled with Tolarian Academy?

...Then again, it doesn't have mucb synergy with anything esle I can think of off the top of my head, so it probably won't make so much of a splash.


Yup - this only get me more wound-up about the release of CoK (the rules changes aggravate me, but I'll get over it. 'Defender' indeed!), although Blue seems to be gaining some really unneeded power (and Affinity is now going to splash green and continue to wreak havok).

 

[Notepad]

School At Water's Edge goes very well, really really well, with Arcanis! Wowza!

Stupid SCUMBAG mana!

 

[Oversoul]

Could the colored mana symbols thing be a reference to the fact that there was an inordinate amount of artifacts in the Mirrodin block? That's all I can think of...

I'm too lazy to read through all of those cards, but I'm waiting to see the broken cards in this set...

We have to have some brokenness...

And that wannabe Cabal Therapy is not going to cut it, since it doesn't turn Academy Rector into the "good game" enchantment...