War of the Spark: Spoilers and Speculation
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on March 31, 2019, 10:56 a.m. by AgentGreen
Spoiler season technically kicks off today
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #2
The problem with that ZendikariWol is that only people who die with regrets travel to the Theros underworld. Now again, we don't have all of the info yet so this is just speculation, but since Heartwarming Redemption calls him 'Kytheon' again, it's safe to assume that he has dropped the moniker of 'Gideon'. This name was what he took after his first planeswalk to Bant. He whore the name 'Gideon' almost as a badge/stain of regret for failing to save his friends back on Theros. To me that name change signifies that he has died without regrets (he was able to redeem himself in his eyes by sacrificing himself to save a friend) and thus allowed him to go to the Theros version of paradise (Elysium if we are following Greek mythology). I really don't see him coming back as lore wise he would have no reason to do so.
Plus WotC just introduced 2 new white walkers in The Wanderer and Teyo. Teyo was even the main focus of the book teaser, so it seems WotC may have plans for him. It's not like they really need to continue with Gideon at this point.
April 19, 2019 10:56 a.m.
ZendikariWol says... #3
I did not realize that was how the underworld worked, Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor. That’s some good insight. But I don’t suspect that Teyo or the Wanderer will be taking Gideon’s place. The Wanderer they’ll want to sort of keep a mystery and Teyo seems even less interesting than Beefslab. We thought it was impossible. Wizards did it anyway. Idk tho- I’ll have to reserve judgement until the book comes out.
April 19, 2019 11:32 a.m.
I may be missing something but there seems to be a 9-card incomplete cycle here, with no XXY spell/legend that is BBW.
Feather and Time Wipe both have WW in the mana cost but only Storrev has BB... my pedantry on this is like a Tormenting Voice !
April 19, 2019 12:30 p.m.
ShutUpMokuba says... #5
We have no infos about Vraska or others PW being alive or not. Gideon and domri die for sure (Dovin too i think).
If Vraska dies i hope she can say goodbye to Jace. Something like: J:"we should have stayed on that boat" V:"you remember nothing, jace beleren"
April 19, 2019 2:33 p.m.
| tfw no crimped/foiled/miscut U/B/x Vintage deck to add cools card to ;_;
Why is life suffering?
April 19, 2019 6:43 p.m. Edited.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #7
O.K. this is actually kind of cool what they did with the Army tokens:
1)
2)
3)
April 19, 2019 11:39 p.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #8
Oh geez...I just realized how great Finale of Devastation is with an army-in-a-can type creature like Avenger of Zendikar . Definitely will be picking one up for my Lord Windgrace deck as a another finisher.
April 22, 2019 12:13 p.m.
Alt art for Japanese planeswalkers. 50% chance of the pw in Japanese boosters will have different art! (source)
April 22, 2019 9:13 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #11
Why is it that Finale of Revelation exiles itself, when the others do not? Would it be too powerful, otherwise? Also, on that subject, why have recently-printed "extra turn" effects had the self-exiling clause? Would they be too powerful without it?
April 22, 2019 10:15 p.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #12
Clearly you haven't had the pleasure of sitting there watching your opponent play solitaire as they continuously recycle Time Warp , Nexus of Fate , or Walk the Aeons DemonDragonJ....
April 22, 2019 11:35 p.m.
ShutUpMokuba says... #13
What do you think of the new Japanes manga-style artworks for the pw that have been released today? Some of them are pretty awesome.
(To see them, if you're intrested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFkdpA71eDM )
April 23, 2019 1:12 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #14
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor, I see; so, the reason is the same for which Vengeful Rebirth has the self-exiling clause (i.e., two of them could generate an infinite combo if they did not have it)?
For that reason, I do hope that WotC eventually reprints Time Warp again, to keep it available and inexpensive.
April 23, 2019 11:02 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #15
ShutUpMokuba, that artwork is quite amazing, and I am very sad that it will not be available in the United States.
That artwork made me realize that Nahiri is a complete yandere, as she embarked on a murderous rampage across Sorin's home plane because he was focusing on it more than he was on her; does anyone else here think that?
April 24, 2019 10:44 p.m.
These arts will be available in the States: “We've made Japanese boosters available to retailers around the world, so you can find them nearby wherever you live.”
April 24, 2019 11:07 p.m.
ShutUpMokuba says... #17
Yes cdkime that is true but in my city there are two lgs and both are quite small. I don't think they would order a couple of japanese boxes just because a couple of guys would tell them that they will buy some pack just because half of them have the alternative artwork of the pw. I mean big lgs will surely have them but is pretty risky for the small ones.
DemonDragonJ nahiri received the basic manga adaptation with bigger eyes and bigger breasts. She's one of my favourite though along with vraska, tamiyo, narset and arlinn. Bolas just got worse but he's one of the few.
April 25, 2019 3:28 a.m.
Just finished playing at my last prerelease, at least for a while.
Can't see myself playing another one, unless we go back to Kaladesh.
A lot of the Planeswalkers were very underwhelming. Ajani was one that seemed to work.
I got Nahiri and Massacre Girl as my promos. Neither went in my deck but I love Nahiri and Massacre Girl is a cool name, so I was still pleased to get them.
I also cracked Jace, Teferi, and heaps of Blue, White, and Colourless fliers, which determined my build.
I got completely stomped in my first match by a deck with loads of ramp and big fatties.
I did whittle him down in the first game, only for him to play a card that put his life total back to 18.
I obliterated my second Opponent, also playing , with too many fliers for him to deal with. He had two Ajani's, but they weren't enough to save him.
My third Opponent played and had a preponderance of non-creature spells.
She was able to kill all of my creatures in our first game, and then laid down a God-Pharaoh's Statue that meant I couldn't cast some of my spells in hand. She only got some small creatures on the field but they, along with the chip damage from God-Pharaoh's Statue , eventually wore me down.
I got ahead of her with my creatures in the next game, playing so many that she couldn't kill them all.
In our final game we were fairly evenly matched. She was going very wide and I had a lot of fliers. Neither of us could attack because then we would leave ourselves vulnerable to a return attack by our Opponent.
I started to put some fliers on the field, got some +1/+1 counters on them, and was able to get a bit of flying damage through.
Then I played God-Pharaoh's Statue , which not only shut her down, but added more chip damage to my flying combat.
Eventually it was all over, in my favour. Good game to finish with as I've played against my Opponent on many occasions, she's a nice person, and I thought it was great to end my prerelease experience playing another female, which is rare for me.
This was my deck:
1x
Ashiok's Skulker
2x
Aven Eternal
1x
Battlefield Promotion
1x
Charmed Stray
1x
Crush Dissent
1x
Dovin's Veto
1x
Enforcer Griffin
1x
Erratic Visionary
1x
God-Pharaoh's Statue
1x
Iron Bully
8x
Island
1x
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
1x
Karn's Bastion
1x
Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor
1x
Martyr for the Cause
8x
Plains
1x
Rescuer Sphinx
2x
Saheeli's Silverwing
1x
Teferi, Time Raveler
2x
Teyo's Lightshield
1x
Thunder Drake
1x
Totally Lost
1x
War Screecher
My thoughtw on some of the cards from tonight:
Ajani is excellent.
God-Pharaoh's Statue is better than you might imagine - the person who played it won both matches I saw it in.
Make sure your Planeswalker is going to do something right away that will effect the match - I killed so many of them the turn after they dropped, with flying creatures ie. Don't rely on their static abilities.
There are enough fliers to make a deck with a lot of them - the ability on Saheeli's Silverwing isn't useful most of the time, but the flying is great
The limited environment didn't feel much different to me, even with more Planeswalkers. Most of the time they didn't really affect things. Better Planeswalkers might, though.
I only ever played my Teferi, Time Raveler at a point in the game that I didn't need him to win. My Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor never came to hand. So, basically, I kept winning games without any of my Planeswalkers helping.
Be careful when building with Planeswalkers. Remember they AREN'T creatures, so should not be taking up many or even ANY of your creature slots. Some people learnt this the hard way, running too many of them for little gain, and not having enough creatures to protect them.
I had started off with two Emergence Zone cards in my deck but didn't find them useful, and took them out to colour fix better. I just found that I was never in a position where I could afford to sac them and needed to Flash a card in.
Mobilized District was very good. A bit like Mutavault . It having Vigilance works well as you can still tap it for mana in your second Main phase.
seems VERY strong. Most people were playing it.
I think that's all I have to pass on.
Thanks for reading my prerelease reports over the years.
Hope everyone has fun this weekend, and cracks some good cards.
April 26, 2019 4:50 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #19
I noticed that the gods in this set can return themselves from exile, meaning that there is no way to permanently remove them from the game, so I really hope that that ability does not become more commonplace, since exile is supposed to be a way to eliminate a card permanently for the remainder of the game.
April 27, 2019 8:53 a.m.
Squee, the Immortal is the only one even if they counter the spell can still hit the battlefield.While the gods are still really strong at least it is from the battlefield so the key is to never let it reach the battlefield oh wait only blue really does that I guess everyone has to splash blue now and we have a counter war
April 27, 2019 2:23 p.m. Edited.
Looks like I chose exactly the right time to stop playing Standard, then.
I don't like being forced to splash a colour, even though I like the Izzet Guild.
I wonder if these new Gods are going to make good Commanders?
April 27, 2019 2:36 p.m. Edited.
They've definitely given wall tactic players more options: Wall of Runes and Huatli, the Sun's Heart !
April 27, 2019 2:55 p.m.
I play arena and I switched few cards to my Niv-Mizzet, Parun around one of them is God-Eternal Kefnet I dropped him five times times four of them scoped right away the other two turns later.
April 27, 2019 8:49 p.m.
It seems to me that there are a few things that can be done to shut down these new Gods. I haven't looked at the latest set to see if any of these actions are possible:
-
Use something like Thoughtseize to remove them from hand.
-
Use a card that lets you name another card, and put all copies in the Graveyard or Exile.
-
Have the player who owns the God place it on the bottom of their library.
-
There was a card I was looking at recently that said something like you had to Exile your library, then shuffle your hand, and put that into your library.
-
Obviously countering works. Or using Disallow on the trigger that puts the card back in your library third from the top.
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Force a player to discard them from hand.
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Force a player to sac a God with something like Crackling Doom .
Ah Magic! There's always a way around everything.
There are probably other ideas, but those came to me off the top of my head.
April 28, 2019 5:45 p.m.
There are better cards than Pacifism (which is not in standard but card s like it are) because that does not help you because of the static abilities are in play and since they are not activated abilities Lawmage's Binding and other similar white cards not in standard will not help.
Blue has some of the best cards with things like Kasmina's Transmutation and Deep Freeze but once again blue also Merfolk Trickster or Warkite Marauder can help.
Black has a few things as while with removal from hand but overall I am thinking splashing blue in a deck is the goto color
I also Forgot Ashiok, Dream Render is pretty darn good if you can get him down and mill them
April 29, 2019 7:17 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #26
I was disappointed that Borborygmos did not appear in this set, since he is not dead and definitely would wish to defend his homeland from invasion. Hopefully, he shall appear, again, in a future product (perhaps this year's Commander product).
Also, Mark Rosewater's Making Magic article today really has me hoping that condition first strike shall not displace normal first strike; condition first strike is acceptable on occasion, but there is nothing wrong with normal first strike, so I hope that WotC does not make this change simply for the sake of making a change.
April 29, 2019 9:25 p.m.
Funkydiscogod says
"It won't stop God-Eternal Oketra or God-Eternal Kefnet 's triggered abilities, but there is always a Pacifism effect in standard."
Disallow can counter a triggered ability, if I understand the card correctly.
hejtmane I'm confused as to what you mean by "if you can get him down and mill them".
Ashiok has no gender and not all Magic players are male. Just a slip of the tongue?
Ashiok, Dream Render does seem viable. The player who casts it will retain priority until the first Planeswalker ability has resolved. If a god goes into the bin it will then go into Exile, without ever hitting the field.
Looks like there are a few little tricks against those pesky gods. Shame so many of them seem to need
April 30, 2019 9:42 a.m.
LittleBlueHero says... #28
Ok so speaking of Ashiok, Dream Render I was wondering... since its art depicts Ashiok in the meditation realm and considering Ashiok was not in the book at all (leading me to believe she/he/it spent the conflict in the meditation realm); could it be possible that ole' Ashiok is Bolas's backup plan? That Bolas will use Ashiok's talents to somehow invade people's dreams in an eventual effort to get free of the meditation realm that has become his prison?
Or am I reaching too far lol.
April 30, 2019 1:08 p.m.
LittleBlueHero all I can tell you is that I love that new Ashiok art.
May 22, 2019 9:57 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #30
I am very disappointed that there was not a variation of Diabolic Tutor with proliferate, nor a function reprint of Fuel for the Cause in this set, but the numerous new cards with that mechanic did provide plenty of awesome additions for my Atraxa EDH deck, so I am not terribly upset about those glaring omissions.
May 22, 2019 10:24 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #31
When proliferate first appeared in the Scars of Mirerodin block, it represented Phyrexia slowly spreading, like a disease, so what does it represent in War of the Spark? The planeswalkers rallying to fight against Bolas?
ZendikariWol says... #1
That is fair. Perhaps he’ll help Elspeth out and be unable or, for some reason, unwilling to return.
April 19, 2019 10:46 a.m.