San Diego Comic Con: Extra Stuff
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on Aug. 1, 2014, 2:46 p.m. by Rhinowarrior
So wizards just released a video of the 2014 Mtg Panel at San Diego Comic Con and there was some more stuff that hadn't previously been mentioned so I thought that I might re-cap some of those things such as creature types that will be present in each clan.
Abzan: - Desert Tribe- Use dragon scales as part of armor- Humans, Orcs, and new race Inoch] Humanoid Dog people.- Features Mechanic that is a "long- game mechanic"
Jeskai:- Clan of Marshal artists, Mystics, and Monks- Djinn, Efreet, Monks, and aven are creature types.- reside in misty mountain lakes in monastery's- Narset (Khan) is a good cook? lol
Sultai:- Led by the Naga (snake people)- feature new race rakshasa's (cat demon)- Lurk in jungles of tarkir- practice necromancy
Mardu:- Orcs, Goblins, warriors, and mountain riders- reside in rocky wastes of tarkir-employ magic combined with lightning magic with archery- there is some awesome new art for zurgo helmsmasher (can't find it on internet)
Temur:- Live in icy wilderness of tarkir- Khan wears the bear that he punched in the face. It is split down the face. Tis wierd.
So yup, That was all the extra little information on khans that wizards gave at comic con in case nobody saw this and they were curious. Interesting little bit of lore. It is curious that wizards is bringing 2 completley new races into magic and 2 obsolete race in efreets and djinn! Yay!
If you've seen the new Teferi planeswalker they previewed, they've also mentioned that there was going to be a full cycle of planeswalkers that are usable as a commander.
August 1, 2014 3:15 p.m.
abenz419 The new Teferi is for commander 2014 only. It isn't related to khans at all. Just to clarify.
August 1, 2014 3:19 p.m.
Wait wait wait. They've given the reanimation theme to BUG over BGW. Wtf wizards? Losing all faith.
August 1, 2014 3:50 p.m.
Rhinowarrior says... #6
Yeah it should definitley bring some intersting new things to the table as far as wedges go.
August 1, 2014 3:58 p.m.
White has far more reanimation than blue. It doesn't make any sense in the colour pie.
August 1, 2014 4:01 p.m.
In case anyone wanted to watch it, here is the video of the Magic panel at San Diego Comic Con 2014.
I won't be watching it until after FNM tonight. But I'm looking forward to cat demon necromancy
August 1, 2014 4:11 p.m.
Rhinowarrior says... #9
true maybe but looking at it flavorfully, i think sultai makes for a better reanimator background.
August 1, 2014 4:12 p.m.
Rhinowarrior says... #10
@ Fulcrum thanks for the link. why are you holding off to watch it?
August 1, 2014 4:13 p.m.
I think they should have just swapped the flavours around. Blue usually likes to play a longer game than white (white weenie aggro is always a thing) and white has a more classical tie with reanimation than blue. The two should be swapped.
August 1, 2014 4:20 p.m.
CommanderOfBolas says... #12
ChiefBell: Although I agree, blue does have the mill capability to put your own cards into the graveyard, i.e. Jace, the Living Guildpact
August 1, 2014 4:22 p.m.
Rhinowarrior says... #13
nah bro, I enjoy it how it is. The desert flavor is just so nice:) And they would not be able to do snakes with Abzan colors it doesn't fit right. Sultai strikes me as an evil simic. Abzan strikes me as hardened selesnya. I see jeskai as being a bad-ass renegade version of azorius. Temur is a smarter and more ruthless version of the gruul clan. Mardu is basically boros on steroids. Instead of attacking with a just cause they just rape and pillage and steal shit.
August 1, 2014 4:29 p.m.
Golgari had dredge. Black is the best for putting your own stuff in the graveyard...... But putting your own stuff into the graveyard is rarely a priority for re animator.
August 1, 2014 4:31 p.m.
@ChiefBell if you watch the video they mention that each of the wedges is based on one of the ally colors. So B/G/U is focused on the black aspect which makes much more sense for the ranimator than junk (W/B/G) which is focused on white.
@DrFunk27 Yes I completely realize that, I was just adding a little bit of information that I remembered from watching the video. I thought the topic was about the San Diego comic-con panel video, not Khans of Tarkir.
August 1, 2014 4:35 p.m.
Yes that is true. It's just very, very weird that they haven't taken all the colours together. Arbitrarily choosing one main one is peculiar.
August 1, 2014 4:50 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #17
Some speculate that in the third set, assuming the second set is the timey-wimey stuff gets it on, the wedges will be based around the enemy color rather than one of the ally colors as it currently is.
August 1, 2014 5:34 p.m.
Rhinowarrior says... #18
@ MagicalHacker say that they did that. Might we see alternate versions of each of the legendary khans? Say that zurgo helmsmasher (did i metion his alternate art is awesome?) was based in red right now... Could there be an alternate Zurgo [fill in the blank] that was based in white??????? One can only speculate....
August 1, 2014 5:46 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #19
Looks like khans is planeshifted 2.0 based on these speculations
August 1, 2014 5:54 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #20
ChiefBell- The only Reanimator I have ever played is legacy, but putting your own stuff into the graveyard is the only way to play it. I take it that isn't the case in Modern/Standard?
August 1, 2014 6:18 p.m.
In standard it's considered an optional extra. Same story in commander. In modern the most popular deck discards it's own hand but it isn't a popular archetype.
August 1, 2014 6:22 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #22
I don't see why it's a bad thing to see a little staying from the normal pie honestly. It works flavorfully so let's ride the hype
August 1, 2014 6:24 p.m.
But I'm saying it doesn't fit from a flavour perspective. Wizards have assigned roles to each colour and now they're deviating from those rules. Whether you like it or not is one thing, but it's undeniably NOT sticking to magics flavour. They've assigned the wrong themes to the wrong colours. The descriptions match the themes but not the colours.
August 1, 2014 6:27 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #24
From what we have seen so far, I'll stick to blue as that seems to be the largest issue here. They're giving it the loot aspect which seems like a red flavor. Am i correct?
August 1, 2014 6:28 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #25
Looting is a blue mechanic that red sometimes gets. Case in point the mechanic namer - Merfolk Looter
August 1, 2014 6:37 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #26
I'm just trying to pin point what exactly is it that warrants blue to not do necromancy. Mechanically i see blue doing the looting and green supplying most of the bodies and part of the necromancy spells while black doing more necro than bodies
August 1, 2014 6:40 p.m.
When has blue ever, ever done necromancy before? Ever?
There's synergy in separate mechanics. Loot does go well with necromancy, but it still doesnt go together as one cohesive unit in the same way as BGW does because ALL of those colours do necromancy.
August 1, 2014 6:43 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #28
Maybe that's that are going for? Who knows? It's wizards game. They felt the need to change the norm and here we are
August 1, 2014 6:52 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #29
If you count the flavor of necromancy inherent in Innistrad Zombies, then Innistrad Zombies, otherwise yeah I'm drawing a blank.
August 1, 2014 6:52 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #30
I think the fact that blue was more prevelantly aggro in theros is what's confusing me here
August 1, 2014 6:55 p.m.
I'm also mad because BGW is my favourite colour combination. I love it. However the weakest aspect of BGW is W. Wizards have chosen to focus on white for the wedge. That makes me sad. I really wished that they'd just focused on all of it together, because for me it's about control and reanimation. A flexible creature / control hybrid strategy. Instead if they focus on white I'm scared they'll give it lifegain and loads of useless shit.
You have to understand that this is the only time in a while that these enemy coloured wedges are going to see dedicated cards printed. It might not be for another 3 or 4 years that we see a set likely to print cards that require BGW to cast, for example. I'm praying that within the set are some cards that are modern playable. An Abzen charm for example that would be really powerful, but have a difficult casting requirement would be perfect for me. I hope they don't squander this opportunity to make a lot of players very, very happy.
August 1, 2014 7:05 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #32
I see what you're saying. I guess it's easy for me to be happy because my colors are and always have been r,w,b. They're focusing on the red which might not do so well for my modern deck that's focused around black but the aggro midrange beat down is very embedded in my colors where your colors seem to be deviating from what had already been set. Green/black/white dreg was already a thing and they had roo have known it would be...i wonder why that spoiled it....Well that so hate dreg. Maybe they were afraid of dreg appearing?
August 1, 2014 7:12 p.m.
I am happy that they said that abzan is about endurance. Because that's what rock (BG, sometimes BG/w and other variants like BG/r) tries to do - play the long game. I hope they get the right blend of that weird mix between strong board presence (Tarmogoyf , Liliana of the Veil , Lingering Souls ) and control (Abrupt Decay ). They seem to be suggesting that this will be the direction they take. I'm very much hoping they do. However these new developments, like giving BUG reanimation do worry me slightly. Just because they're...... weird.
August 1, 2014 7:22 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #34
I'm glad sultai is reanimation and this is why: too many people play BUG goodstuff/control. Honestly it's gotten old really fast, and kinda gives me a taste of what bullies are like.
Don't get me wrong, if I had to choose my favorite three color combination, it'd be sultai, but I wish I never had to play another sultai goodstuff control deck in EDH/Commander, because every other combo of colors is struggling to have as many powerful spells in their colors as it is for Sultai. It's just not fair when it comes to balance, and I like Sultai's themes (not necessarily the OP cards).
August 1, 2014 7:34 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #35
I'm honestly afraid at this point that with the amount of "rock" style decks mardu won't have a chance to keep up with things like courser and what not. I feel like truly green is taking a monopoly on midrange
August 1, 2014 7:38 p.m.
But isnt it more worrying that theyve just BUG MORE stuff to do? Like theyve taken colours that were already good at one thing and made them good at another thing. That won't make things better, it'll make them worse! If BUG already does generic goodstuff, then giving it generic goodstuff with reanimation tech is worse than generic goodstuff without it......
August 1, 2014 7:42 p.m.
VampireArmy - I see what you mean but green IS the main midrange colour.
August 1, 2014 7:43 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #38
That's always been true but I've always seen tge rwb deck as a lower cmc midrange. It just sucks that i can't play that style without going FebGreen for goyfs then abrupt drcay then ect. I like having the color mix of burn, control, beatdown. But like i said cards like courser and such are forcing the aggressive side of midrange into obscurity
August 1, 2014 7:47 p.m.
aeonstoremyliver says... #39
Blue saw some Necromancy in Innistrad with Skaab Ruinator and his kin. Narcomoeba is a popular Dredge card. White had the original Resurrection , though.
August 1, 2014 7:51 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #40
It could be distracting or nonbo.
Additionally, I think the blue cards are going to have Snapcaster Mage spells, green will have Eternal Witness spells, and black will have Hell's Caretaker spells. Look at the diluvians in the colors too.
August 1, 2014 7:53 p.m.
In the video Mark Rosewater mentions that the wedges will be focused on one of the ally colors, then says people are like "why don't you focus them on the enemy color". He says there is a reason for it but wasn't able to get too in depth about it. I'm assuming it has something to do with the story line the set will follow but there is another option. The SET Khans of Tarkir is focused on wedeges, the BLOCK is not. Since each clan is going to have their own mechanic, it's quite possible that in the other 2 sets (the ones not focused on the wedges) that the new mechanic fits better, flavor wise, in the ally color that each wedge is focused on. So in the case of W/B/G, whatever mechanic they get may be more of a white based mechanic as the sets become less focused on the wedges.
August 2, 2014 1:49 a.m.
@Rhinowarrior: I just had a busy day, and have to wait to see the panel. I still probably won't be able to watch it until tomorrow.
August 2, 2014 2:07 a.m.
biggestmtgnerd says... #43
ChiefBell I understand your point, but I still think that blue works with the graveyard enough for things to work. In Innistrad it was on of the zombie colors, and in Shards, it was a secondary color for unearth. Also, the main theme of the sultai is resource manipulation, and while the graveyard is one of these resources, there are many others. Blue can manipulate resources like the cards in your hand, your opponent's creatures (bounce), the cards in your opponents library (mill), and to a much lesser extent, the graveyard. Also, since the azban are the "endurance clan", they're bound to have some late-game recursion considering their ability to survive. Even if graveyard manipulation is stronger with the sultai, if you want, you could always just use some of the GB cards designed for the sultai in your azban deck, right?
August 2, 2014 9:23 a.m.
Of course. I do realise that most of the necromancy is going to be printed in BG cards.
August 2, 2014 12:13 p.m.
Anyone arguing blue has nothing to do with reanimation, remember The Mimeoplasm . Albeit white has more history with it, blue will be just fine. I think the change will be interesting
August 2, 2014 2:11 p.m.
Bro. The mimeoplasm doesnt reanimate. Its copy ability is blue, its exile from graveyard ability is white, additional power is black.
August 2, 2014 2:22 p.m.
CommanderOfBolas says... #47
I think the argument about bug being bad flavorwise is kind of irrelevant. I mean, innistrad zombies were blue in some cases, and cloning creatures (even from the yard) is something blue does. not to mention the fact that most of the reanimation spells will be black or b/g. blue is just a support color
August 2, 2014 3:01 p.m.
That's true. Black is the main colour overall. It's an argument about considering the wedge as a whole versus the wedges main colour.
August 2, 2014 3:54 p.m.
Does the fact that the Sultai practice necromancy ONLY restricts them to reanimation and not additional graveyard interactions? Abzan and Sultai both share green and black so if there's reanimation in the block, both of them would most likely get it.
It's mentioned in the video that Sultai uses zombies and there's a lot more blue zombies than white zombies.
I think you are making this out to be a larger deal than it is
August 2, 2014 4:44 p.m.
Necromancy in magic lore generally denotes reanimation mostly because that's exactly what the card Necromancy does. Generally this is something that wbg do. Not traditionally something that u does.
It is specifically mentioned that sultai gets necromancy. It is not specifically mentioned that abzan does. Given that information we can't assume that both do. I mean, it's likely that most of the cards that do it will just be black anyway but at that point were just guessing.
Zombies are certainly more blue than white..... But then they're more black than blue so that doesn't really settle it convincingly.
It's not a big deal. It's just wizards taking the color pie descriptions and disregarding them. No big deal. The most convincing explanation Is that sultai is primarily black aligned whereas abzan is primarily white aligned.
Nigeltastic says... #2
Oh hell yes, sultani necromancy makes my dredge deck excited!!
August 1, 2014 3:12 p.m.