SDCC 2015 Magic Panel

Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum

Posted on July 16, 2015, 6:20 p.m. by JWiley129

So the Magic Panel is live.

I'm not finished with it yet, but I just got to the part where Jenna Helland said that of the 5 Origin's walkers, all but Liliana will show up in Battle for Zendikar. I'm not sure if that means shows up as cards or shows up in story but not on cards, but I would like it to be the former.

seuvius says... #2

Jace, the Mind Sculptor reprint and unbanning! Lol

July 16, 2015 6:25 p.m.

buildingadeck says... #3

Haha! seuvius, have you seen the video of the guy making fun of the notion of reprinting him by one of the Magic producers? It's hilarious.

July 16, 2015 7:05 p.m.

abenz419 says... #4

From what I took away, they meant we wouldn't see Liliana in the BFZ story line but we would see the other 4 from origins in the story. Their images may be depicted on cards, but I don't think they necessarily meant we'd get 4 new planeswalker cards of them. They also showed some new art that showed Ob Nixilis, Kiora with Thassa's bident, and what looked like Nahiri (not all in the same image), so they will be apart of the story line for BFZ too. So it may even be possible to see a new Kiora or Nahiri planeswalker card.

July 16, 2015 7:36 p.m.

K34 says... #5

I like Nahiri, personally I'm tired of the other white walkers

July 16, 2015 7:48 p.m.

seuvius says... #6

Oh man if they use the new on nixilis art forms planeswalker card ill be so stoked!

July 16, 2015 8:21 p.m.

can someone link me to the new Ob Nixilis art? favorite 'Walker art is always good. :D

July 16, 2015 8:24 p.m.

JDMCRIB says... #8

"Allies... LITERALLY."

Guys... Allies are confirmed in BFZ :D

July 16, 2015 9:03 p.m.

abenz419 says... #9

@seuvius Ob Nixilis, as we know him when we first met him on Zendikar, had lost his spark, turned into a demon, and Nahiri forged a hedron into his forehead further limiting his power and removing his wings, hence Ob Nixilis, the Fallen.

Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath is him long ago before he traveled to zendikar and lost his spark. That was the appeal of all the planeswalkers in the commander 2014 decks. Each one is a planeswalker who's had a significant part in Magic's story, but never had an actual planeswalker card printed before.

So based on that information, and the new art they've shown, it's highly unlikely that Nixilis stops being a demon and gets his spark back.

July 16, 2015 9:25 p.m.

abenz419 says... #10

@canterlotguardian all the new art that I saw was directly from the SDCC Magic panel that JWiley129 linked in the original post. It's almost an hour long and the art is mixed in throughout the different things they're talking about. I don't know if any of it has been taken from the video and posted elsewhere.

July 16, 2015 9:28 p.m.

JWiley129 says... #11

canterlotguardian - They posted the art on the MtG Twitter page if you want to troll it for the rest of the art.

July 16, 2015 9:30 p.m.

seuvius says... #12

@abenz419 you have some great points,I'm pretty sure demons can't hold sparks so there's a good chance he'll probably just be a legendary creature. The cool thing about magics lore is they can pretty much do anything! Maybe he gains enough humanity back after getting rid of the hedron that his spark comes back or maybe he screws with the hedron to male him more powerful? Either way I'm stoked for a card with that art!

July 16, 2015 9:37 p.m.

seuvius says... #13

Shit,I forgot to tag you! abenz419

July 16, 2015 9:38 p.m.

buildingadeck says... #14

If Kiora is in BFZ, I might actually play standard. She's by far one of my favorite PWs.

July 16, 2015 9:41 p.m.

JWiley129 says... #15

seuvius - Ob Nixilis was a Demon while he was a planeswalker. Nahiri embedded a hedron into his head to seal his power, causing him to lose his spark.

July 16, 2015 9:45 p.m.

abenz419 says... #16

haha sorry about that, I guess in my rush to explain the two I didn't really put things in the exact order they happened. I was more or less trying to just explain why he's so different on Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath than when we first saw him on Zendikar.

Also, I found some of the art posted on MTG's twitter page that was linked and now that I have a better look at it, it might not be Nahiri with Ob Nixilis's hand on her throat. It may just be some other Kor. At first though it did look like Nahiri, especially considering her and Ob's past.

July 16, 2015 9:56 p.m.

snotice says... #17

that was an awesome look into the new changes. thanks for the update and post.

July 16, 2015 10:07 p.m.

see now I've been waiting for a really long time for Nixilis to get his Spark back, and though it may not be in BFZ, I'm still holding out hope that the following set will see him redeemed.

fucking baller art though.

July 16, 2015 10:58 p.m.

Rayenous says... #19

When speaking about the "Origin's 5"...

Quote: "You're gonna' see four of these Planeswalkers in the Battle for Zendikar block, but Liliana is not. You'll see her soon."

I knew that we would see Gideon, and would have found it very unlikely that Nissa would be absent. On Wednesday, the Uncharted Realms showed us that Gideon was seeking Jace's assistance in seeking answers to the 'puzzle' of the Eldrazi trap.

Chandra is one I did not expect... there has been little to no interaction with her regarding Eldrazi since their release.

There has also been mention that Ob Nixilis "has a plan"... I'm not certain that this means he will regain his spark, or if it just means we will see him in creature form. - I'm hoping to see him as a PW (finishing the cycle of 1-color Planeswalkers for the set).... but I doubt that will be what we get.

Kiora is much more likely, with Ob as a creature. She's depicted in Battle along side Gideon, showing a very direct interaction.

At least we should be able to quell the idea of having Nahiri, Sorin or Ugin... Though Ugin is depicted in artwork with Jace, I feel this will likely be more of a "Jace seeks out Ugin (or sees him in a vision) while trying to learn about the 'puzzle'.

July 17, 2015 8:57 a.m. Edited.

Bellock86 says... #20

As much as I would love ANOTHER Ugin walker, it seems very unlikely that we'll get one so soon after the original.

Although, I'm with buildingadeck about Kiora. I would love another version of her. Kiora, the Crashing Wave was just a tad off balance for me in terms of cost and starting loyalty. She should have been either 1 cmc less and abilities the same or same cost but up starting loyalty by 1 imho.

July 17, 2015 5:19 p.m.

abenz419 says... #21

That's the thing about her though, Bellock86, it's very likely they tested her as a 3 drop with with the same abilities and as a 4 drop with 3 starting loyalty before just deciding what her stats would finally be (especially since they test everything during development of a set repeatedly). So while "in your opinion" she's not balanced, they know from first hand experience that either of the changes your suggesting would be degenerate to the format. Trust me, she didn't end up with those stats by chance, it was very much planned and tested.

July 17, 2015 11:45 p.m.

snotice says... #22

I agree abenz419. She was well balanced for standard. Yes, in the eternal formats she will be a little more specific in where she fits, but this is so she didn't effect the overall balance and power of her use in standard.

July 18, 2015 1:38 a.m.

This discussion has been closed