Khans of Tarkir SDCC 2014
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on July 26, 2014, 4:56 p.m. by -Fulcrum
Since a lot of the information is sporadic and across multiple threads, I wanted to compile it all here, just to make it easier to find.
Tarkir is a plane of five warring clans, each worshiping an aspect of the now extinct dragons.
Clans:
Abzan Houses: WBG
The Khan is named Anafenza
The aspect of dragons they worship is Endurance
The theme of their mechanic is Control
Jeskai Way: URW
The Khan is named Narset
The aspect of dragons they worship is Cunning
The theme of their mechanic is Tricks
Sultai Brood: BUG
The Khan is named Sidisi
The aspect of dragons they worship is Ruthlessness
The theme of their mechanic is Resource Manipulation
Mardu Horde: RBW
The Khan is named Zurgo Helmsmasher
The aspect of dragon they worship is Speed
The theme of their mechanic is Aggro
Temur Frontier: RUG
The Khan is named Surrak Dragonclaw
The aspect of dragon they worship is Savagery
The theme of their mechanic is Midrange Fatties
Additionally, only the set is about wedges. The block, as a whole, is not. There is also supposed to be a time travel element.
The other thread that has some of this information:
Right. Completely forgot that morph is the returning mechanic. Each clan will also have its own unique mechanic, for a total of six in the set.
July 26, 2014 5:13 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #5
Very very interesting. Time travel? Could Karn be making a comeback?
July 26, 2014 5:29 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #6
I'm wondering now why morph? Was it that good of a mechanic? I've seen it abused with Flicker but that's it
July 26, 2014 5:38 p.m.
Morph rules + Animar, Soul of Elements , please someone explain. This is the first tri-color block that's come out since I started playing and got into EDH.
July 26, 2014 5:44 p.m.
Time Travel, eh? Maybe that's where our dragons of Tarkir will be coming from.
July 26, 2014 5:45 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #9
Wait, Morph? SHIT! Now I won't be able to see what I'm countering!
July 26, 2014 5:47 p.m.
JakeHarlow says... #10
Looks very exciting. I'm glad the wedges won't dominate the block. And I don't think these new names will force out the traditional slang of BUG, RUG, Junk, Dega, and America too quickly.
But still. Very cool.
July 26, 2014 5:57 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #11
.........making people risk countering the wrong thing by morphing...Oh...Oh....oh my goodness....I'm...i need Kleenex for these tears of joy
July 26, 2014 5:58 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #12
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
July 26, 2014 6 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #14
-UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!
July 26, 2014 6:07 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #15
But I just made my first counter deck....
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUuu
July 26, 2014 6:50 p.m.
Since everyone's ignoring Kravian's question, I might as well answer it. Kravian, remember, though, even though the question is kinda relevant to the discussion, it's still a rules question, so it goes in the Q&A.
From the Comprehensive Rules:
702.36a Morph is a static ability... "Morph [cost]" means "You may cast this card as a 2/2 face-down creature, with no text, no name, no subtypes, no expansion symbol, and no mana cost by paying 3 rather than paying its mana cost." (Emphasis added)
Let's assume Animar, Soul of Elements has 3 counters on it. To figure out how much it costs to cast something, the formula is (Mana Cost or Alternate Cost) + (Additional Cost) - (Cost Reductions). Morph is an alternate cost of 3 colorless mana, and Animar reduces creature casting costs by 3 colorless mana, so you'd get (3) + (0) - (3) = 0 mana to cast.
Note that Animar doesn't affect the mana requirements to "un-morph" a creature, just to cast it.
July 26, 2014 6:51 p.m.
For those curious, Maro went over what the draft format will be here
July 26, 2014 7:01 p.m.
That's what I figured, as the actual "morphing" or "un-morphing" (flipping) is an ability of the card, not a part of its casting cost. I just wanted to double check that playing a creature face-down still worked with the same rules as casting creatures as opposed to, let's say, cycling, which doesn't follow the same rules as the card type. I suppose the wording is pretty specific regarding the card's creature-ness, but I was just double-checking.
Thanks, erabel; sorry for the forum technicality . . . I was just reading here when the question popped up.
July 26, 2014 7:04 p.m.
Unrelated note (and again as a newer player) where does the whole Irindu, Dega, etc. cycle of wedge names come from?
Inspired by JakeHarlow's comment.
July 26, 2014 7:05 p.m.
@Kravian: Dega comes from Dega Disciple . I don't know about anything else.
July 26, 2014 7:07 p.m.
Okay. There are two sets of names. There's Dega, Ana, Raka, Necra, and Ceta, which come from the Apocalypse set.
Then there's another set of five, that you'll find if you Google the wedge colors sometimes. They're from a good while back, when TO wanted to do a community built set. They made it a wedge set and came up with names for each. The project sorta fell flat after a bit, though.
July 26, 2014 7:13 p.m.
BlackShadowBlaze says... #23
Kravian - come from the set with Apocalypse in itVampireArmy - No there isn't going to be a set along side khans, each block has 3 sets within them, Wizards is just release their standard end of year products i.e. - duel decks in September and the commander 2014 stuff in November
July 26, 2014 7:13 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #24
I see. I misread what maro ess saying about the draft. It'll be the same as innistrad was from what i can tell which was a lot of fun in terms of drafting
July 26, 2014 7:17 p.m.
VampireArmy - Sort of. So you'll do 3x Khans until Dewey comes out, then you'll do Dewey-Khans-Khans like you usually would. But since Louie is large as well and you draft the most recent set first, the last draft format will be Louie-Louie-Dewey. Although I guess you could do 3x Louie since it IS a large set.
July 26, 2014 7:20 p.m.
chrishuffman95 says... #26
Just in case you guys haven't seen this yet, this is a card art Wizards put up for Khans of Tarkir.
July 26, 2014 7:42 p.m.
chrishuffman95 says... #28
I'm not quite sure if that's Sarkhan or not.
But bear punch.
I want it in foil.
July 26, 2014 8:58 p.m.
InconspicuousPotato says... #30
Grizzly Bears let him punch him. Grizzly Bears could easily take him down.
July 26, 2014 9:01 p.m.
Abzan Houses
White/Black/Green
Endurance
Scale of the Dragon
Jeskai Way
Red/White/Blue
Cunning
Eye of the Dragon
Mardu Horde
Red/White/Black
Speed
Wing of the Dragon
Sultai Brood
Black/Blue/Green
Ruthlessness
Fang of the Dragon
Temur Frontier
Red/Blue/Green
Savagery
Claw of the Dragon
July 27, 2014 2:12 a.m.
@ChiefBell: What do you think of the potential for Abzan (Junk) Control?
July 27, 2014 3:27 a.m.
Excited. I love Golgari in all its incarnations, whether it's BUG or BGW. I hope to see some interesting new Abzan specific cards printed and Sultai specific too. Not a big fan of morph as the returning mechanic though.
I do think it's interesting that they chose Abzan to be controlly over Sultai. They both have potential. Blue hands you counterspells and card draw, white hands you 'exile target permanent'. Both of which are very useful. In EDH I favour white due to its power to tutor, its board clear availability and it's ability to answer things after they've already been played. However in shorter games like standard I think I may prefer blue because counterspells are significantly better in a 1v1 format.
Whatever happens I'm interested to see what they do with BG/x combinations. Mostly because I like killing stuff at instant speed and playing large threats.
July 27, 2014 5:45 a.m.
VampireArmy says... #35
I saw the trend begin with theros. As of late wotc has been setting up black as the center of control for this year's season in standard and it only makes sense to give white the secondary to it with the amazing amount of support it has. Green added I'm iffy with but i think we'll start to see a little bit of a stretch on the color pie. I.e. blue has been the aggro deck for some time now
July 27, 2014 8:42 a.m.
This Abzan Control thing makes me almost wish Abrupt Decay was staying in standard. Almost. But I've got my playset and I'm just waiting for it to increase in value.
July 27, 2014 12:33 p.m.
VampireArmy - green is typically added because it answers enchantments and artifacts. Black kills creatures, green kills other stuff. Hence Abrupt Decay . Anyway, given the power that black and green have to remove things I may opt for blue as support because white is largely u necessary.
I don't see white as a primarily control colour. Historically it's not.
July 27, 2014 1:28 p.m.
Like white gives you two fantastic examples in pathTE and swordsTP but that's it.
Every colour has ways to be controlly really. It's just out of B, W, U and G, I see W adding the least extra - because it does nothing that BG can't already do.
July 27, 2014 1:34 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #39
I'm speaking strictly for this standard. Blue historically has not been a very Aggro color either on it's own but Mono-u devo has been one of the "attrition" aggro decks. The way i see it, it's going :
Black - removal of creatures, removal of hand, removal of life
White - removal of creatures, or *conditionally permanents, recoup life, some threats
removal of artifacts-enchantments, some fat beaters.
Like I said, with these wedges we could see a little bending of what we think colors should do, wizards seem to want to give other colors a chance at control.
Also worth a note that most historic control decks in history of mtg have had and still have white/black as the support color.
July 27, 2014 1:37 p.m.
Dalektable says... #40
I am super stoked. If given the support, I am super excited to represent the Jeskai Way...
July 27, 2014 1:52 p.m.
Dalektable says... #41
GOD, I love this time of the year. I love finding out info about the new blocks, all the lore, the theme, and this one is just awesome. Warring clans? That's freaking awesome. Just wait until spoiler season...I'll be a mess...
July 27, 2014 1:55 p.m.
sertsew123 says... #42
Dalektable(love the name) I know right. The thrill of seeing new concept arts is amazing. however personally i am a member of the Sultai Brood. All hail Sidisi! we do share blue though so we arent entirely opposed but still about as opposite as can be.prepare for war! (or we can team up on those Mardu numbskulls)
July 27, 2014 2:06 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #44
sertsew123 Come at us, bro and feel the speed of the dragon!
July 27, 2014 2:27 p.m.
@Dalektable: I agree, definitely my favorite part of the year. We get to enjoy the full extent of Standard with both core sets and both blocks at our disposal, and we're getting ready for the next new thing. Is it strange that I'm already more excited for Khans than I was for Theros?
And just to be clear... you will all bow to the Abzan.
July 27, 2014 2:59 p.m.
Does anyone have any speculation on the new wrath? Perhaps an Abzan wrath, considering it's supposed to be the "control" clan?
July 27, 2014 3:01 p.m.
Dalektable says... #47
If Abzan gets a playable wrath then I'm going to be playing BUG control no questions asked. And I am definitely more excited for khans than theros, though I was stoked for theros too bc i love greek mythology.
July 27, 2014 3:03 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #48
I BOW TO NO ONE! ._. With that being said, there will probably be some kind of wrath or risk the midrange decks completely dominate again., Fulcrum
July 27, 2014 3:04 p.m.
chrishuffman95 says... #50
I'll most likely be representing the Sultai Brood all the way. BUG is too good of a color combination.
Jay says... #2
Morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph morph
July 26, 2014 5:10 p.m.