Ideas for an Ancient Egypt-Themed Block
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on Sept. 7, 2015, 10:11 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
Many players whom I know wish to have a block set on a world inspired by ancient Egypt, since that culture has long been a source of fascination for the western world. Therefore, I wish to start a thread for discussion of ideas for a possible block set on such a world.
I am not nearly as familiar with ancient Egyptian culture as I am with Greek and Norse mythology, so my speculation about this idea shall be less detailed than my speculation about a potential Norse-themed block.
First and foremost, such a block would definitely need to have mummies, since those are the first thing of which most people think when they think of ancient Egypt. There would be many different types of mummies, for both humans and non-humans, since the ancient Egyptians did mummify non-human animals that they held in high regard.
On that subject, such a block would definitely also contain cats, jackals, crocodiles, snakes, scorpions, scarabs, and falcons, all of which are significant in ancient Egyptian culture and folklore.
Given that the ancient Egyptian placed a great emphasis on the afterlife, I expect that such a block would place a great emphasis on the graveyard, such effects triggering when a creature is put into a graveyard or using a graveyard as a resource.
What does everyone else say about this? What ideas do you have for an ancient Egypt-themed block?
RoarMaster says... #3
Sounds cool. Always liked the Warhammer take on ancient egypt myself. Fuck the mtg storyline anyway, it sucks, bad. So dont try and stick with it.
September 7, 2015 10:22 p.m.
I think one of the biggest obstacles to an Egyptian set is that it's hard to imagine a culture like that in a place with diverse enough biomes to get the mana sources in there. You basically have desert (plains) a river (island) and some marsh (swamp) along the coast of the river.
September 7, 2015 10:28 p.m.
scopesightzx says... #6
white would be large expanses of flat deserts
blue would be rivers
red could be pyramids (or mountain ranges)
black could be tombs (not all tombs were pyramids, some were underground)
green could be the oasis type setting.
I could see Liliana coming to the plane to further her necromantic powers (she could even be revered as a god by the denizens of the plane).
September 7, 2015 11:08 p.m.
shinobigarth says... #7
scopesightzx, actually archaeologists will tell you that NO pyramids are tombs. the Valley of the Kings is where most if not all the pharaohs were buried, in connecting underground caves. nobody really knows what pyramids were actually for, though there are theories. most likely had to do with their religious practices.
September 8, 2015 4:13 a.m.
If that happened, with the Multiverse's luck, the Eldrazi would come and eat everything, including (sniff, sniff) the Camels!!!!!
September 8, 2015 6:57 a.m.
Adameus2012 says... #9
What about having new planeswalkers like Ra, Set, Horus, etc? They could easily tie the storyline together from there. It could be something like: all of these Egyptian gods were actually revered as Gods but unknowingly (perhaps even to themselves at the time) were in actuality, planeswalkers. Maybe they could be stumbled across by a more familiar planeswalker, who learns that the pyramids were created to keep in the souls of these "gods" because in prophecy someone would one day come to reveal to them their true powers, perhaps even thousands of years after their deaths. The emphasis on the mummies sounds good as does the emphasis on creatures like cats, crocodiles, etc. I also think that it would be VERY easy to make this into an artifact based set as well, having various exotic weaponry, charms, baubles, as well as suspend type mechanics (to represent the types of old magic they may have used back then, taking days, months, or even years to produce powerful effects) Example: Mummify - instant 1B - exile target creature, it gains suspend 2. When that creature enters the battlefield it gains intimidate, 3 +1/+1 counters and counts as a mummy in addition to other creature types. This would replicate in a way the "waiting period" for mummification. Also, they could bring back the trap type cards that were in zendikar block, but make many of them exile themselves face down under certain permanents. That way if a condition is met the trap card could cast itself from exile. Example: Mummy Rot - Instant - Trap - 2B - may only be played on a mummy. When this creature blocks or is blocked by another creature in combat you may reveal Mummy Rot and give each creature blocking or blocked by this creature 3 -1-/-1 counters. Draw a card for each creature destroyed this way. I see a lot of potential...
September 8, 2015 7:52 a.m.
alexthegreat38 says... #10
Trap cards exiled face-down? Now we're getting into Yu-Gi-Oh! territory.
Cool ideas though.
September 8, 2015 8:25 a.m.
Adameus2012 says... #12
Oh that is a Yugioh thing isn't it? Never played I started MTG before yugioh was out lol
September 8, 2015 9:06 a.m.
Vengeful Pharaoh approves of an Egyptian block.
Hmm maybe they could do a cycle of similar cards, each one having a different trigger and effect out of the graveyard.
September 9, 2015 12:11 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #15
scopesightzx, none of the "Origins five" planeswalkers would fit into such a set, so I would rather not see them in it, although one of Liliana's demons did resemble an Egyptian-style pharaoh, so perhaps that idea would work.
Having mentioned that, as a side note, Liliana's backstory implied that Kothophed was the most powerful of her demons, but, since he was defeated first, that obviously is not true. I imagine that Liliana is going after them from weakest to strongest, so that she can become more powerful after every battle, meaning that I fully expect that the final two shall be even more powerful than were Kothophed and Griselbrand.
September 14, 2015 6:37 p.m.
I do love this idea... I love love love Egyptian mythology... my only worry is that it wouldn't happen anytime soon since they just did ancient Greece in Theros... and for the most part Egyptian mythos was already very prevalent in Nyx
Keranos = Set
Erebos = Osiris
Heliod = Ra
Atheros = Aken
Then again... since they already have the baseline set up for a God mythos... wouldn't be too hard to write it into Magic's storyline.
Eldrazi do some crazy Aether nonsense... all of a sudden the plane of Theros is unstable (Oh Noes) and suddenly the plane begins to merge with the plane of whereever the hell... suddenly there are two warring pantheons of gods all vying for the devotion of the mortals... as they battle against each other they destroy the plane underneath them... and only Gideon and his super pals can save the plane.
We've already had Return to Ravinica... and now Battle for Zendikar... so maybe in 5 years there will be War for Theros...
September 16, 2015 11:31 a.m. Edited.
shinobigarth says... #17
Maybe not so much merging planes as the whole disruption Xenagos caused as well as Heliod acting like a douche caused a divide in the Theros pantheon and they formally announce a civil war type thing where the gods split up between 2 sides and start fighting. It already seemed like things were unstable and there was a little fighting such as with Iroas and Mogis so all out war would seem natural.
And you could have one of the sides take on an Egyptian motif as if they were deciding to split off and start a different mythology altogether. Maybe that's the straw that broke the camels back and caused the war to start.
September 16, 2015 12:39 p.m.
Jimmy_Chinchila says... #18
Arabian Nights block from back in the day kinda already touched on Egyptian themes. The issue is that they dont like to make real-world analogous cards, hence Heliod instead of Zeus. I agree with khaos2639 in that the pantheon of gods that meddle in mortal lives, which is indicative of Ancient Egypt, was just done with the Greek/Roman themed Theros block.
I would like to see a magic version of Anubis, though he may look like a Athreos/Erebos due to similarity of roles.
One thing not mentioned are Sphinxes. Though the Great Sphinx predates Ancient Egypt by a few thousand years they would fit well. Stuff like chariots and plagues already been done too, but good ideas.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #2
Obligatory Desert and Camel reprints. But I personally don't really like the idea of history-themed sets. Also, it would have nothing to do with the story line.
September 7, 2015 10:17 p.m.