Ravnica Allegiance: Spoilers and Speculation
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on Dec. 17, 2018, 11:52 a.m. by AgentGreen
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-preview/ravnica-allegiance-promos-and-packaging-2018-12-17
Let's start the talking now :D
ZendikariWol says... #3
Ooooh. I confused it for the Stomping Ground flavor text (feat. someone named Nikya).
January 5, 2019 4:16 p.m.
Darkshadow327 says... #4
Aaaah ZendikariWol, that makes sense. Who knows, maybe the people mentioned on the flavor texts of the shock lands will be in the third set.
Although, it is more likely that they are just some people that will never get a card.
January 5, 2019 5:25 p.m.
Nikya of the Old Ways is also credited on Rust Scarab, Skarrg Goliath, and Rubblebelt Raiders. I believe Nikya is a shaman for the Gruul. If so, I'd like to see this character get a card.
January 5, 2019 6:20 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #6
What happened to Borborygmos? There is no way that someone as powerful and badass as him could be killed, at least not offscreen, so I hope that he gets a card in the third set, and, having said that, it now seems that the common fan theory of Kaya helping Teysa to overthrow the Obzedat shall come true, but I hope that the Obzedat gets one more card in the third set, as well.
January 5, 2019 7:58 p.m.
DemonDragonJ: I imagine old Borby stepped aside so Domri can do his thing.
Also, remember Teysa was imprisoned the last time we saw her. Here's what I think happened.
-
Bolas tasks Kaya with killing the Obzedat.
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She learns that Teysa's currently imprisoned. As she knows where the Obzedat's crypt is, she's an obvious go-to.
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Kaya makes a deal with Teysa: I'll set you free and let you keep your position if you let me be guildmaster and help me take out the Obzedat.
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Obzedat dies; and the bargain's fulfilled.
The caveat? Like on the flavor text of Karlov of the Ghost Council, Teysa's ambitious, so she's no doubt biding her time until something happens to Kaya so she can make her move and claim the guildmaster title.
January 5, 2019 9:32 p.m.
Darkshadow327: I dare you to say (or imagine) those words in Barney's voice.
Nothing's more beautiful (in this case) than a purple dinosaur going on a bloody rampage.
January 5, 2019 10:11 p.m.
ZendikariWol says... #9
Darkshadow327, I got the flavor text on the cards confused, I didn't think that the legends on the shocks were getting cards.
legendofa, that is so weird, I have two of those cards and I never noticed until you pointed it out. Now I want a Nikya card more!
DemonDragonJ how fucking cool would it be if Teysa found evidence of their crimes, used it to force them into debt (she may well be capable, as an experienced advokist), and made slaves of the Obzedat!?
Phaetion, thanks for that, now everything I read for the rest of my life is gonna be in a barney voice. Especially the smut.
January 5, 2019 10:37 p.m.
Honestly if they did that it'd be interesting. But I wouldn't want them to produce weak legendaries like they did with some of the maze runners.
January 6, 2019 1:16 a.m.
Finally, a Skeleton! Gutterbones has a slightly better effect than Dread Wanderer, I think (not sorecery speed, can fuel discard tricks, smae total cost after recasting), but it still can't compete with Gravecrawler. Still, any progress toward breaking the Zombie monopoly on undead armies is a very good thing, in my not-at-all humble opinion.
January 6, 2019 11:17 a.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #12
Huh interesting. We might be getting a Nikya of the Old Ways card after all. I haven't seen it confirmed on mtgsalvation with a source yet, but mythicspoiler has it posted with a translation (and they usually do their homework on real vs fake cards). I still expect a Ruric Thar card as it would be odd to break the Guildgate trend over the last 2 sets. Out of all of the guilds, however; Gruul would be the most likely to do so.
January 6, 2019 11:42 a.m.
I'm pretty sure that's the real card, in which case I'm pretty surprised to see the cycle get broken that way. Maybe we'll be getting three members of Gruul this time around?
January 6, 2019 12:42 p.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #16
So here are my thoughts on possibilities on what's going on:
a) We have another Emmara Tandris/Voice of Resurgence situation. As Phaetion pointed out, Nikya's abilities seem very Ruric Thar-esq.
b) Someone mixed up the flavor text on the Guildgate and Stomping Ground.
c) Because the Gruul don't really have a hierarchy, they are exempt from the pattern that has emerged.
d) Just about all of the rare legends from the guilds controlled by Bolas are leaders of the dissenting faction, and lets be honest, Ruric Thar isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. Nikya might just have been chosen as she is more capable of leading (from a story standpoint). That being said, this possibility is a bit perplexing as the Gruul don't care about smarts, just brute strength. Furthermore, most quotes from Nikya have her rejoicing in the idea of the City of Ravnica being razed to the ground (which is what Domri Rade is after).
c) We still have 170+ cards left to be spoiled and WOTC is just trolling us over the weekend and will drop a Ruric Thar early next week.
January 6, 2019 1:37 p.m.
Darkshadow327 says... #17
I honestly think we will still get a new Ruric Thar. Wizards doesn't really break cycles, and I don't see them doing it now. I feel like she is just a bonus legendary because she's been on so much flavor text.
January 6, 2019 1:38 p.m.
ZendikariWol says... #18
I'm with Darkshadow327 on this one. I think she's just here because she's been foreshadowed so much, kinda like Brudiclad, but to an even greater extent.
January 6, 2019 2:13 p.m.
Coward_Token says... #19
Apparently, in the art book Ruric is anti-Domri so we can't rule him out yet.
https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/abv6gr/ruric_thar_or_nikya/
Regardless, I feel trolled.
January 6, 2019 2:17 p.m.
Darkshadow327 says... #20
I'm pretty sure I heard this somewhere, so correct me if I'm wrong.
Isn't the legendary creature under the Planeswalker for the guild kind of against them? Like Niv-Mizzet, Parun is against Ral, Izzet Viceroy.
Not sure if this is right, but if Ruric Thar is against Domri then we will still likely see him.
January 6, 2019 2:30 p.m.
ZendikariWol says... #22
Hey, so, is it just me or are a lot more of the spoilers uncommons and commons this time around?
January 6, 2019 3:39 p.m.
AgentGreen says... #23
Anyone want a new 4CMC board wipe? Kayla is happy to oblige
Kayla's Wrath
Rare
Sorcery
Destroy all creatures. You gain life equal to the number of creatures you control that were destroyed this way
January 7, 2019 11:11 a.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #24
Hot damn, the spoilers are starting out spicy today. All of these cards look great:
January 7, 2019 11:13 a.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #26
Note that on Theater of Horrors, you don't have to play the spell the turn it is exiled.
January 7, 2019 11:15 a.m.
Damn. Kaya's wrath is like... a better Damnation (if you're in the right colors, of course). It's not like regeneration is terribly meaningful anymore
January 7, 2019 11:30 a.m.
ZendikariWol says... #28
Why is the mana sink abiltiy on Theater of Horrors so god-awful? It could just be 1 less mana. Then it would be bad but not the actual worst, like this!
January 7, 2019 1:38 p.m.
ZendikariWol - I actually really like Theater of Horrors is designed and costed. The card is pretty powerful as it is--Rakdos often runs into card advantage problems, particularly in slower formats like Limited. This provides card advantage that should be pretty easy to enable in Red/Black. Adding an additional ping allows it to enable itself, but at a cost. The point of this card is to encourage a hyper-aggressive playstyle, requiring you to draft burn cards or other cards that can easily do damage. If it enabled itself at too low a cost, it would be far too easy to slide into any deck for some simple card advantage.
January 7, 2019 1:49 p.m.
ZendikariWol says... #30
Okay fair and I still love the card too but why even include that ability? I think this is the only ability I would genuinely love to see swapped out for flavor text.
January 7, 2019 2:50 p.m.
The card enables itself, preventing it from being a dead play. Without that ability, if your board state is stalled and you can't punch through damage, or you do not draw a burn spell, or do not have a "beginning of your upkeep each opponent loses life" enabler, this card would have been a complete waste of your turn 3 play. You would just be exiling the top card of your library, without any potential return.
This mostly goes back to Limited, where you cannot consistently draw into a Lightning Bolt and stalled boards are pretty common. Further, in Limited, it's entirely possible for the game to durdle around until you have 7 or 8 lands in play--this allows you to ping for one and play a 3-4 mana threat from exile, even if, otherwise, you would not be able to force life-loss that turn. In a format where a 3-4 drop can turn the tide of the game, that's going to be a pretty good way to utilize otherwise useless mana.
January 7, 2019 3:13 p.m.
AgentGreen says... #32
Dormi is scary AF.
T1 Mana dork, T2 something, T3 Dormi, T4 Carnie-T with haste....
The only flaw he has is he can't protect himself
January 7, 2019 3:32 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #33
Several guildmages were revealed today, but, unfortunately, as was the case with the guildmages from the previous set, they were very underwhelming compared to the guildmages from the previous two Ravncia blocks.
However, the new Domri is very nice, and I also like Kaya's wrath, although the fact that is provides life only for creatures that were controller by the player who cast it is ridiculous; is WotC encouraging players to destroy their own creatures? I know that it is supposed to have synergy with the afterlife mechanic that the Orzhov have in this block, but I still feel that the card should have given life for all creatures that it destroys, especially considering its strict casting cost.
Skatewing spy is almost entirely worse than Abzan Falconer, but it could have been so much better if it had a lower cost to activate its adapt ability.
Archway angel is simply far too expensive for its effect; it could easily have cost only 4 mana and still been perfectly balanced, especially considering that there are creatures with far better power/toughness-to-mana-cost ratios that have better abilities than what she has.
January 7, 2019 10:24 p.m.
Coward_Token says... #34
AgentGreen: It does help that he got a sturdy 5 base loyalty and that you can uptick him further to 6. Ideally you got a 1 mana chump blocker in hand when you cast him (bonus points if it got vigilance).
DemonDragonJ: They probably wanted to differentiate Kaya's from Fumigate and felt the cost wasn't enough
January 8, 2019 12:43 a.m.
ZendikariWol says... #35
Senate Guildmage is actually pretty decent? Being able to loot or gain life seems like a nice upside in control.
January 8, 2019 10:31 a.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #36
So some comments on the cards which I missed that were spoiled yesterday:
The Guildmages seem fine. The Rakdos and Simic ones are very synergistic with their guilds. The Orzhov one is just bad, but oh my that Azorius one. That will be a nice card in limited.
I am starting to see why WOTC designed Adapt the way they did with so many pushed uncommons appearing in Simic. Galloping Lizrod is a sweet build around that only needs 1 creature with a +1/+1 counter on it to be a 5/5 for 5 (with trample). Any more after that is just gravy. Both Skatewing Spy and Trollbred Guardian are great payoffs for +1/+1 strategies. And then we have Winged Salamander. In limited it is just good, but in constructed this will be a 5/5 flyer for more times than not.
The artwork on Thrash//Threat makes me more concerned about Ruric Thar appearing in this set (it shows Nikya instead). I am now thinking he shows up in the final set instead.
Mesmerizing Benthid seems like a really cool mythic and pairs very nicely with Phantasmal Image. My Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer deck might want this guy.
January 8, 2019 10:44 a.m.
ZendikariWol says... #37
I am super disappointed by one thing about the Combine Guildmage- NO COUNTER REMOVAL!!
I am SO underwhelmed by that in Adapt- it's practically designed for counter removal strategies! But the only card in the set that removes counters so far is Bolrac-Clan Crusher and it's Gruul!!
January 8, 2019 12:02 p.m.
ZendikariWol: You just made Galloping Lizrog very sad. Go to your corner and think about what you just said.
That said, I agree with you. There's only a couple of cards that remove +1/+1 counters. A pity.
January 8, 2019 12:41 p.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #39
ZendikariWol - Are you sure you read Combine Guildmage properly? It's second ability literally removes counters from creatures. So far we have three: Galloping Lizrog, Combine Guildmage, and Bolrac-Clan Crusher, and they are all at uncommon to boot. Plus there is the rare Biomancer's Familiar that allows for additional adapt.
It isn't a lot, and I'd like to see more for sure, but there is support for counter removal.
Also, Standard merfolk just got a nice boost:
January 8, 2019 1 p.m.
ZendikariWol says... #40
Galloping Lizrog is a 5-drop, but good point on Combine Guildmage. I've always put a thicc barrier between moving and REmoving counters, but they could serve the same purpose. Good call.
Now maybe a repeatable ability, Wizards? Something Zameck Guildmage-esque? And by repeatable I mean multiple times on the same turn.
January 8, 2019 1:07 p.m.
AgentGreen says... #42
Who does this benefit more Phaetion? This basically removes all leverage the Syndicate has over the populace.
Is this Tayla's plan or Bolas's plan?
January 8, 2019 1:28 p.m.
AgentGreen: I wouldn't say Bolas's plan. Remember, she's very likely to defect when she learns the truth. If anything, this is what Kaya would do. It's a part of her character.
That said, I bet Teysa won't be too thrilled about it.
January 8, 2019 1:57 p.m.
ZendikariWol says... #44
First, Teysa.
Second, I have a feeling that a lot of guilds are going to take a hit in this invasion- specifically the ones Bolas has control over. After all, they're going to take the fall when the invasion fails, and when that happens
1) the Azorius probably loses a lot of faith in its leader, sets up a lot more checks and balances, and makes itself much weaker and less decisive.
2) apparently the Orzhov lose their ghosts, and when that happens, they have to make some massive overhauls to their whole system. They are also crippled.
3) Gruul, seeing they've been manipulated by their leader, become indecisive and confused, rethinking their system as well. They probably bounce back first.
4) the Izzet, in response to their betrayal, probably try to give their guild a little more structure.
5) meanwhile in the Golgari- what if the Kraul see this as their chance to rise? Suddenly there's a huge power vacuum, so many people have died, and the Kraul now likely outnumber the survivors by three times or so.
January 8, 2019 2:01 p.m.
Coward_Token says... #45
Apparently, Kaya's MO is to, with good intentions, kill corrupt ghost leaders while being the pawn of people who end up taking advantage of the power vacuum.
(Also, I kind of doubt that it will show in the story, but since the Orzhov seem to be the economic backbone of Ravnica in terms of handling money, you'd think them losing what's probably a very large part of their workforce would potentially lead to major financial consequences for the world.)
January 8, 2019 3:24 p.m.
Honestly as strong as some of the last couple sets Planeswalkers have been, I kind of like seeing some utility Walkers. They don't have to all be over powered monsters that require immediate answer. Some can just help the way things work already. That being said, I like Kaya
January 8, 2019 4:14 p.m.
ZendikariWol says... #47
I LOVE Kaya, being a vorthos. The card's personality is abounding and it's gonna help a lot against my friend's Meren of Clan Nel Toth deck. ... and his Feldon of the Third Path deck. Aaand his Living End deck in modern.
My friend likes using the graveyard.
January 8, 2019 4:22 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #48
On the revenge half of revival/revenge, it was so nice to see a black cards with the words "target player loses life," even if it is only a single card.
Angel of grace is an excellent angel, and definitely makes up for the other two underwhelming angels in this set.
Azorius skyguard and ethereal absolution both are far too expensive for what they do; they each could have cost 1 less mana and been perfectly balanced (or the skyguard could have been a 4/4).
Nikya of the old ways would have been awesome, especially as an EDH general, except for her ridiculously restrictive first ability, which severely limits what other cards can be included in decks that feature her.
January 8, 2019 10:18 p.m.
ZendikariWol in response to what might happen when Bolas falls,
The Gruul don’t think! I doubt that they will be majorly effected, which I think you said as well. Given the nature of the guild and their power structure (they don’t have formal rulers like other guilds. They gravitate towards elders and more powerful people within the guild, but they don’t have a an Obzedat or Trostani), they could escape the conflict with nothing more than more distrust of the other guilds.
And that’s assuming Bolas loses. The battle could go either way, in which case these guilds get off free.
January 9, 2019 8:39 a.m.
ZendikariWol says... #50
1) I would hotly contest that "the Gruul don't think". They are simplistic, yes, but intentionally so. They have assessed and choose to rebel against the society presented to them. They are not savages, rather, they value simplicity and honesty.
2) while I think that all trust in all other guilds is going to be destroyed, I think that the Gruul, like the other guilds that fell under Bolas, are going to lose a lot of faith in their guildmasters, now and in the future. I think that is especially true of the Gruul. Think about it- is there anything the Gruul would hate more than being manipulated? I don't think so, I really don't.
3) if Bolas wins this, he's taking over Ravnica, I think, but more importantly, he doesn't give a damn about the guilds, their structure, or their purpose. Everyone suddenly serves the same purpose in his eyes; minions. But the ravnicans still see themselves as partisan (that is, as guild members). The guilds that brought this hell to ravnica will be universally despised and, without Bolas' continued protection, openly persecuted. And you can be certain Bolas wouldn't protect them.
Phaetion says... #1
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor: GATE? GRUUL SMASH GATE!
ahem
I imagine Ruric will have riot, since the non-mythic legends either have the guild mechanic or are tied to it in some way. What would be awesome is that Ruric embodies the "Gruul Smash!" mold that Xenagos, God of Revels exemplifies.
January 5, 2019 3:57 p.m.