Massive pile o' Planeshift cards!

[Cateran Emperor]

Hoookay, this all comes from the Planeshift ad in IQG #70:

Darigaaz's Caldera: as previously reported, it is uncommon as well.

Note, from this point on everything is copied right of the mag, so sorry for any weird statements - they aren't mine

Thunderscape Battlemage
2R
Creature - Wizard
Uncommon
Kicker 1B
Kicker G
When Battlemage comes into play, if you paid the 1B kicker cost, target player discards two cards from his hand.
When Battlemage comes into play, if you paid the G kicker cost, destroy target enchantment.
2/2

Shivan Wurm
3RG
Creature - Wurm
Rare
Trample
When Shivan Wurm comes into play, return a red or green creature you control to its owner's hand.
7/7

Now, on to the rumor mill provided in IQ:

Ready for red? Lord Windgrace delivers with Planeswalker's Fury an enchantment that deals damage to an opponent equal to the casting cost of a card you select at random from his hand. It's cheap top get out, but not so cheap to use.

Tahngarth, Talruum Hero is a 4/4 minotaur who doesn't tap to attack. Even better, he gains the Arena ability - tap him to trade damage with a target creature.

Gainsay is a cheap blue counterspell.

Blue's Planeswalker's Mischief is where the fun kicks in: it allows you to cast spells from your opponent's hand using you own mana.

Guff livens up gameplay with the white enchantment Planeswalker's Mirth: reveal an opponent's card at random and gain the converted mana cost in life.

The green Mirrorwood Treefolk is a 2/4 who can redirect damage. Nemata, Grove Guardian is a treefolk legend who allows you to put multiple saprolings into play without tapping. But wait, there's more! For every saproling you sacrifice, give every other saproling +1/+1.

Planeswalker's Favor is a green enchantment which allows its caster to give a target creature +X/+X, with X being the converted mana cost of a randomly selected card from an opponent's hand.

Ertai's grown up a bit: as Ertai, the Corrupted, he's a gold 3/4 who can spend one blue to counter any spell - as long as he sacs a creature at the same time. Ertai's Trickery offers a new spin on counters; it only counters spells with a paid kicker, but it's real cheap.

Exotic Disease is a Drain Life-type spell, while Sinister Strength gives a target creature +3/+1 for cheap. Lord Dralnu's star card is Lord of the Undead, which provides Zombie recursion and awards bonuses to Zombies in play.

Tevesh Szat brings a pair of black enchantments to the mix. Dark Suspicions causes an opponent to lose life equal to the number of cards in his hand over those in your own hand. Planeswalker's Scorn gives a target creature -X/-X, where X equals the converted mana cost of a random card from your opponent's hand.

Crovax's Diabolic Intent is a tutor which requires its controller to sac a creature and pay a nominal cost in exchange for teh ability to search the deck for goodies that go to your hand. And just thank your pappy that Phyrexian Tyranny wasn't aroung in the days of Necropotence. This black-and-red spell smacks you for life for each card you draw, a la the old Underworld Dreams.

Strafe is a cheap direct damage spell. A little more exciting is the Skyship Weatherlight card. Use it to fetch all the artifacts and creature cards from your deck you want and remove 'em from play. Thereafter, pay a set cost to bring any card from this stack directly to your hand. Be sure to protect Weatherlight, though; if it goes bye-bye, so does everything you fetched and haven't played.

Sisay's Ingenuity is a blue enchant creature spell which allows the creature to change color turn to turn.

Greven il-Vec's red/green Hull Breach destroys both a target artifact and a target enchantment.

{phew}, I'm out of breath. So far, Planeshift's looking good to me

 

[DÛke]

...thanks for this information, you're a real Emp!

Personally, I like the "Planeswalker's" cards. They sound fun -- though, it could be like the "Scent" cards from Urza's Destiny.

I'll take this information that the Ertai we've seen earlier is real, which is a majore put down for me. I would have thought they'd come up with something a bit more unique -- this is just terrible.

Ertai's Trickery COULD be a good card, if they know what to do with it. If they make this card counter ONLY spells with paid KICKERS, than WotC has just wasted ONE card slot, if they're imagenative, they should make something like:

Ertai's Trickery U
Instant
Kicker: 1U (or 2U, or UU)
Counter target spell if that spell's caster paid the Kicker cost of that spell.
If you paid the Kicker cost of Ertai's Trickery, you may counter any spell instead.

That would be something *I* would do. This COULD see play -- somewhat.

Shivan Wurm is insanely powerful...or so it seems. I will not judge a card still, but to my knowledge, this card doesn't have the biggest disadvantage, other than being gold (which isn't the biggest of drawbacks), and the "return a creature" thing, WHICH, if played correctly, could be an advantage: play Shivan Wurm, get a 7/7 that stomps, AND save your dying Blastoderm...sounds powerful...though I must play this before assuring.

Thunderscape Battlemage is really good. It has a reasonable Kicker cost (unlike what we've seen earlier in some of Invasion), PLUS, it's flexible, not to mention, you could play BOTH Kicker costs, which is fun. I think there will be a cycle of cards that have 2 Kicker costs...or actually, there could be 2 cycles: Creatures with 2 Kicker costs, and Instants/Sorceries with 2 Kicker costs.

Lord of the Undead is nothing I'm too fond of, yet.
Unless they bring up some zombies, Lord of the Undead is not much -- not in T2 anyway.

Dark Suspicions is not that great, unless you're not playing discard. If I understood correctly, the life loss is the result of OPPONENT'S hand MINUS my hand...I usually play discard in my Black decks, which means that my hand size will be greater most of the time, making this card nothing but for casual or newly found decks.

Now, is it just me, or WotC being a bit "heavy" on search cards for Black? Rhystic Tutor...Desperate Research...what else? Diabolic Intent. Hey, maybe it's good. I liked Rhystic Tutor and Desperate Research; I have a feeling I'll like this.

Skyship Weatherlight sounds a lot of fun, though...requires even more A LOT of mana. I'll have to see the exact thing to judge.

Planeshift sounds like a typical second set of a block: not to commotional, yet not too lame, and bringing a bit of speed to the environment. Very typical. Sounds fun.

 

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

The repercussions of many of the gating creatures that are being totally ignored, it would seem, at this point, by R&D, will end up causing big changes of some sort (whether bannings, or errata, I'm not sure). Coupled with the release of 7th Edition (it should come out between April and June right?), this will make these next couple of months very eventful. I'm not sure whether I will like Planeshift very much, because gating sounds like it is very easily abused, but most of these cards seem balanced - for now. Despite the fact that almost every one of these cards mentioned will be at least uncommon and probably rare, I look forward to most of Planeshift. But don't be surprised if Planeshift significantly changes things for the worse.

 

[Duel]

Zombies, zombies, where do I remember zombies?

Pyre Zombie (Recur this, uh, okay)

Vodalian zombie (Best use for the card)

Question, I have 6 cards in my hand, he has none, I cast dark suspiciouns. He gains 5 life?

 

[Apollo]

First of all, I hope that Ertai's Trickery is like DUke's version (reproduced here so no one has to go look again):
Ertai's Trickery U
Instant
Kicker: 1U (or 2U, or UU)
Counter target spell if that spell's caster paid the Kicker cost of that spell.
If you paid the Kicker cost of Ertai's Trickery, you may counter any spell instead.

If it only counters kickered spells, it's useless.

Shivan Wurm seems good with Fires; use some mana Elf to cast it, return the elf, and attack. If Fires comes out 3rd turn, this could attack 4th turn.

Some of the others look interesting, too, but I'll withold opinions until I see actual cards.

 

[Duel]

I actually disagree with that, consider:

1. Shivan wurm costs 5, same a saporling burst. At any point in the game, is the wurm better? No.

2. Look at the ideal curve
1: Forest, elf
2: Mountain, Fires
3: Derm, attack for 5
4: Shivan Wurm, bounce the derm, attack for 7?
OR
Saporling burst, attack for 17.

Fires is such a tempo-based deck that shivan wurm will not, I think, make it in. It will, however, make it into many other r/g decks,

 

[Chaos Turtle]

Thunderscape Battlemage looks cool. Iffy for constucted, but a very interesting card for limited. versatility is good, and the battlemages look to be very versatile.

Shivan Wurm.
Oh my god.
Recurring Blastoderms is obviously strong, but the best use of this might very well be in Fires. A turn 4 7/7 trampler with haste that can get +2/+2 if you sac the Fires is nothing short of utter brutality.

What's more, this shows that there will be a cycle of these "gating" creatures in each commonality (Silver Drake is common, Fleetfoot Panther is uncommon if I recall right, and this monster is rare). I have a feeling people are going to be bouncing a lot more than just Blastoderms.

I can't wait.

Planeswalkers cards.
Hmm... Well, this looks like one of those "fun" mechanics right now, as well as a good reason to keep basic lands in one's hand. Sort of a reverse Cursed Scroll ability... instead of rewarding you for sloppy play (emptying your hand) it punishes the opponent for the same thing.

Tahngarth.
Holy cow... I mean, "Holy Bull."
What's this guy gonna cost? A 4/4 that doesn't tap to attack? And has the "Arena Ability?" He's gonna be a real monster in combat. Attack for 4, then tap him to kill off another hapless weenie (just hope it stays a weenie).

I wonder if Mirrorwood Treefolk is green-white? Looks like this might be a return of the en-Kor ability. (Just a guess on my part.)

Ertai.
Well, I agree that it doesn't seem particularly innovative, but this is Ertai we're talking about, and he's usually countering something or drawing cards. I think the ability is in flavor for the character, and plenty of people see the potential with Nether-Go. Or Twilight's Call, anyone?

And his Trickery, I hope and pray, will have an associated kicker that makes it function as a normal counterspell for a total of 2UU. Otherwise, it's crap outside of limited (and not particularly amazinf there either).

Another Drain Life-type spell? I wonder how it works? And yet another black super-power-booster? It doesn't mention whether this is an enchantment or not. As an instant, it could be a weak black Giant Growth... as an enchantment, it needs to cost at least 2B or it's significantly better than Parallax Dementia. But it says "for cheap" so it's probably an instant or sorcery for 1B.

Lord of the Undead?
I'd like to see some card text here. "Awards bonuses?" Plural? And Zombie Recursion sounds like we may be seeing some more zombie cards in the near future.

Dark Suspicions might make suicide black a viable deck again. Play a bunch of weenies, emptying your hand, then get rid of some of your opponent's pesky life points. This is very situational, though, and I expect it won't be costed cheaply enouigh to make it worthwhile.

Then again, combined with a planeswalker's card, which encourages keeping 0-cost land cards in hand... Eh, maybe not.

Diabolic Intent. Now, I thought that Rhystic Tutor would be good, but it turns out to be overly dependent upon your opponent. Even at the cost of a creature, this one is probably going to be a bit better. "Nominal cost" probably means 2B.

Underworld Dreams redux? Phyrexian Tyranny may make those card-drawing maniacs (the blue ones as well as the black) settle down and play the game at a more reasonable pace.
This one might even have an effect in extended, if it's costed low enough to compete with Necropotence, which means 1RB.

Strafe, if the definition of the word matters (connotes a spray of artillery from side-to-side) sounds like it might allow multiple targets.

The Weatherlight is here! Offering a souped-up Mangara's Tome ability, the ability is perfect for the vessel which transports the Legacy. This could also be just sick in extended, where Tinker decks lurk in the shadows, waiting for something to overthrow the horror which is Trix.

Sisay's Ingenuity seems to show the ingenuity of turning an ability which has appeaered on creatures and spells into a creature enchantment. Well, I guess it had to happen sooner or later.

Hull Breach, card advantage? Or too situational? I vote situational, but time will tell.

Overall, looks very nice. I look forward to reviewing this set in a couple or three weeks, when the spoiler leaks.

 

[DÛke]

...quote Chaos Turtle:

Planeswalkers cards.
Hmm... Well, this looks like one of those "fun" mechanics right now, as well as a good reason to keep basic lands in one's hand. Sort of a reverse Cursed Scroll ability... instead of rewarding you for sloppy play (emptying your hand) it punishes the opponent for the same thing.

Do you see what's going on? Anyone? If more cards of the "Planeswalkers" mechanics are revealed...and I mean, A LOT more cards...do you know what that could mean? Cursed Scroll might be back in 7th.
That's because there would be A LOT of cards that would NOT focus if one plays the Scroll, therefore, one would sacrifice all those "useful" cards for the Scroll; all this ending up "balancing" the already-weakened power of the Scroll. Kind of like quality versus quantity. Besides all this, Planeshift has seems to have MANY creatures (and maybe spells) that require the player to "return" permenants back to owner's hand, which WILL decrease the Scroll's power. THIS Planeshift could be the set that's balancing the environment to fit 7th edition, along with Serra Angel, and MAYBE...Cursed Scroll <shudders>. I know it sounds "stupid", but...would you've ever thought that Serra would EVER come back? WotC is crazy...it will do anything...it's erratic, enigmatic, not logistic, and hermetic (a lot of "tic" endings.)

[Edited by DÛke on 12-27-00 at 08:39 AM]

 

[Lotus Mox]

Duel wrote:

1: Forest, elf
2: Mountain, Fires
3: Derm, attack for 5
4: Shivan Wurm, bounce the derm, attack for 7?

I just want to note that you can return the Elf instead of Blastoderm to attack for 12, not too shabby.

The power of the Planeswalker cards depends on when you are allowed to use them they might be insanely good (and will punish the opponent for playing all their lands) if they can be activated during the opponents draw step and may suck badly if they can can be used only anytime you could cast a Sorcery.



If the Weatherlight isn't too expensive it might see play I imagine it's something like this:

Skyship Weatherlight 5

Legendary Artifact

T: destroy target Pretador
5,T: search your library for any number of Artifacts and creatures reveal them and set them aside
7,T: put all cards set aside by Weatherlight into your hand

As with any new set I'm eagerly awaiting Weltenwechsel (german for Planeshift).

[Edited by Lotus Mox on 12-27-00 at 12:44 PM]

 

[Zadok001]

Interesting card set we have here...

Re: Battlemage

Possibly the most interesting (not _good_, interesting) card on this list, IMHO. I like the effect of having two entirely separate Kickers. This card also confirms, thank GOD, that WotC won't pull another Masques on us - The ability introduced in Invasion WILL be explored more throughly in the other sets. Yay! Three cheers! As for the card... This will probably be a cycle not dissimilar from the Apprentices in Invasion. The card is overcosted if you aren't gonna Kicker it, but if you just play either Kicker, you have a fairly effective creature. The Eagle was good way back when Tempest was around, this has the same converted mana cost and added versitility, sans Flying. Oh, well, can't win 'em all. I can't see the Battlemage as being too good in a Red deck, but it fits nicely with the strangely abandoned 5cG decks that haven't been showing up anywhere.

Re: Shivan Wurm

The tempo cost on this monster is enormous - Five mana and return a creature? In return, you get a 7/7 Trampler, a very impressive creature, though. Worth the tempo? Yes, under the correct circumstances. As long as black remains a dead color and decks can afford to play enchantment removal maindeck (say, Battlemages!), this card is emminantly undercosted and playable. I expect this will see play in Fires varients, at least for a while. Then it will probably die off as people realize that it gets stopped by Story Circle WAY too often. But until that happens...

Re: Planeswalker's Stuff

This is TOTALLY activation dependant. If the activation cost comes in at 5 mana, no one will ever play these. If the activation is 3 or less, and the casting cost isn't more than 3 either, these will be impressive little things. It should be noted that these cards are probably quite good at forcing an opponent to overcommit to the game, leaving them open for mass removal. I expect the Blue or Whit one to be the strongest, simply because those are the non-green colors connect to Wrath of God (not green because the Green Planeswalker requires you to have creatures, and therefore does not synergize with Wrath unless you have Idols). I'm invisioning a W/U/? deck with mana denial in the form of Ports and 'Geddons, Diamonds, Wraths/Routs/Waves, countermagic, and Planeswalker's stuff. The result could be interesting, if you're willing to stray from the beaten path as far as deck design is concerned.

(And now my short responses.)

Re: Duel's rule question

Not unless the card is worded that way. It'll only cause loss of life, based on what I see here.

Re: Exotic Disease

We almost certain know what THIS card does! Duh! 2B (or 3B), sorcery, deals X damage to target player where X is the number of different land types you control. Gain X life.

Planeshift looks good!!!!

 

[Baskil]

I sure hope they're rare. The effects seem way too overpowered in Limited. Reusable Giant Growth (Cackling Witch was good right?). Reusable Life Gain (Atayla is good in limited). Reusable Creature Kill(Scent of Nightshade was good, right?
Reusable Damage (Cinder Elemental was good, right?)

These things are going to be beasts in limited (depending on activation costs). It might cause people to hold lands after the sixth.

 

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

Is it just my imagination, or did you have to sacrifice Cinder Elemental?

 

[Baskil]

yeah, my point was is that this is somewhat a reusable Cinder Elemental.

 

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

maybe, but Cackling Witch and Atalya were reusable, while Scent of Nightshade and Cinder Elemental weren't. I just didn't get your exact point immediately.

Anyway, today while I was stuck in the Casual Decks section because the CPA had too many people on it to accept requests (a good sign), I happened to go to the Dojo to see if I could flame anyone. The front page article there was an analysis of the Planeshift cards that had been introduce already. After reading the article, I realized that the guy's "analysis" was nowhere near as indepth as this thread. I would have tried to make other people realize this too, but the stupid Dojo editor wouldn't have let me flame anyone, so I couldn't post anything there... Good job people!

 

[dw51688]

I stare at the names of the cards..... exotic disease?....

 

[Chaos Turtle]

Since someone's already posted a guess as to what this does, I thought I'd post the version I expect to be printed, based upon the scant information provided in the article.

Skyship Weatherlight
5
Legendary Artifact

When Skyship Weatherlight comes into play, search your library for any number of artifact and/or creature cards and remove them from the game.

5, Tap: Put into your hand an artifact or creature card removed from the game by Skyship Weatherlight.

2: Target creature gains flying until end of turn.

They may decide to actually mention stacking the removed cards under the Skyship, and removing them from the game if it leaves play, but that seems (to me) to be a bit too much text. The rules handle the situation fine, and it can be explained in the FAQ.

Also, there's nothing to suggest the flying ability, but I thought it would be stupid if it wasn't included, since Predator had it.
...

And I thought Cackling Witch was a reuseable Howl From Beyond...

 

[Zadok001]

Just to nitpick a little bit, CT's version would require that all the chosen cards be revealed so as to avoid people grabbing non-artifact non-creature cards. I would guess something closer to Mangara's Tome. And I would certainly lower the cost of the grabbing effect. My first theory would be like this:

Skyship Weatherlight
5
Legendary Artifacts
When Weatherlight comes into play, search your library for up to three artifact and/or creature cards, reveal them, and remove them from the game.
3, T: Take a card removed from the game by Skyship Weatherlight and put it into your hand.
2, T: Search your library for an artifact and/or creature card, reveal it, and remove it from the game.

 

[Apollo]

Duel: as Lotus Mox said, you would return the Elf and attack for 12-14. Not bad. Plus, it tramples, so smaller guys can't get in its way and wear it out, like they can with Burst/Derm. I do agree that Burst is most often better, but I expect the Wurm to see play in Fires decks, at least at first.

By the way, you said you expected to see it in many other R/G decks. But what R/G deck can compete with Fires (assuming something weird isn't printed in Planeshift)? If Scroll is reprinted, weenie-based R/G decks could become more viable, but this wouldn't see play there either.

 

[Duel]

Still, the wurm is an inferior creature, imho. Fires is a heavily tempo deck. My R/G/w deck MAY use it. Not sure.....

 

[DÛke]

...to go back to the Weatherlight, I think Chaos Turtle's version is more accurate than Zadok's.
I think WotC will try to make the Weatherlight as similar to the Predator as possible. Here's CT's version, again:

Skyship Weatherlight 5

Legendary Artifact

When Skyship Weatherlight comes into play, search your library for any number of artifact and/or creature cards and remove them from the game.

5, Tap: Put into your hand an artifact or creature card removed from the game by Skyship Weatherlight.

2: Target creature gains flying until end of turn.

Ok, this version has a casting cost the same as the Predator's. It's abilities are also both similar. A 2 mana ability, and a 5 mana ability, which is also similar to the Predator's. I think the Weatherlight will be VERY close to this version, if it's NOT this version. I think Chaos Turtle may have revealed the Weatherlight, but that's just in my opinion.