I slept on Baby Jace, Newlamog and other cards in the past. I think from now on I'm just gonna take stabs at bigger cards like this.
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Magic: the Gathering - Battle for Zendikar |OT| Lands matter (but nothing else does)
- Thread starter SigmasonicX
- Start date
- Status
I slept on Baby Jace, Newlamog and other cards in the past. I think from now on I'm just gonna take stabs at bigger cards like this.
I think people have a hard time evaluating Kozilek because of the <C><C>.
But he's nutty, and those types of decks have no problem getting the <C><C> anyway.
Kozilek's return will drop. Card is obscene, but much more narrow than people might think- you really need to be playing Eldrazi to make it worth it.
But he's nutty, and those types of decks have no problem getting the <C><C> anyway.
Kozilek's return will drop. Card is obscene, but much more narrow than people might think- you really need to be playing Eldrazi to make it worth it.
darkside31337
Tomodachi wa Mahou
Yep.
I laughed out at loud at the part about Kozilek being confusing to people because they didn't get a livestream/have to read a bunch of articles explaining everything. If your cards generate a reaction of confusion and befuddlement at the first glance of the card/mechanic thats on you and not someone who leaked a card early.
And the bit about leaks being bad because cards in isolation can be underwhelming and boring... make less cards that are underwhelming and boring.
Leaks suck but they are part of every single industry. Throwing tantrums and complaining about it happening like this is just not a good look. Take care of your business behind the scenes if you must and adjust the way you do reveals and spoilers as a result of the leaks.
SigmasonicX
Member
Both of those claims are perfectly valid, though, and your suggestions aren't good. There are plenty of things in Magic that are confusing without explanation, such as planeswalker cards, or the old Eldrazi Titan cards that didn't have reminder text (and may I remind you that other <> cards have reminder text, just not the ones leaked). And by the nature of the game, there have to be cards that look underwhelming and boring.
Joe Molotov
Member
The 4th/5th paragraphs are terribly written and appear to blame MTG fans/websites for the actions of the leakers. (Talked with Trick on twitter, wasn't the intent, but it 100% reads that way.)
I kinda hate leaks but I'm guilty at looking at them. I agree with most of the sentiments in the article. You are messing up the timing of the reveal with leaks. It's easy to take anything out of context when not released in the order that was intended. It also takes away from buzz or promotions.
And this is speaking about leaks in general.
And this is speaking about leaks in general.
Wulfric
Member
Hmm, maybe they should have let the situation cool off before responding to the leak. I'm even surprised by the apathetic "Not my problem" responses here. Sure, there's not much the average player can do about it, but you can at least sympathize with the fact that it throws a wrench in the plans for things like DailyMTG and Uncharted Realms.
At the end of the day, Trick's article is clearly emotional, and WotC would have been better suited to give a boilerplate "We are investigating the event and take our intellectual property seriously." A lot of people seem to be reading the article as a personal affront.
At the end of the day, Trick's article is clearly emotional, and WotC would have been better suited to give a boilerplate "We are investigating the event and take our intellectual property seriously." A lot of people seem to be reading the article as a personal affront.
Some guy on Reddit is trying to convince everyone that Jace isn't lame.
He actually makes a decent argument.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
This article is fucking awful and it was a really stupid idea to even put it out. Were they expecting anyone to feel bad for WOTC? I don't really give a shit if the company literally selling pieces of cardboard gets the feelbads. I mean, sure, the marketing team exists for a reason, but trying to sell how salty you are over your careful marketing plan being ruined to the playerbase is a laughable concept. It's not a movie, it's the image of a product we can't actually buy at the time we see it and have to buy later.
Would I rather just see the entire expansion now? Yes, unequivocally. I don't give a fuck about their marketing. Go pound sand Trick.
I wish more people on gaming side thought like this. The primary goal of almost any corporation is profit. Wizards of the Coast is not your friend, and neither are Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.
CeruleanSilver
Member
Ignoring the marketing aspect, I'm going to say most people don't actually want to see the entire expansion now, even if they think they do. Getting a big dump of new cards all at once is exciting, but honestly it's more fun to space out the experience. It really is like regretsy binge eating: feels good in the moment, but in the time afterwards, not so much. If we see the whole expansion now, we'd probably be bored with it by the time its release rolled around.
CeruleanSilver
Member
My favorite leak so far:
...just for the art. I love those jelly fish!
Aside from pre-release events, I basically only play kitchen table magic with a few buddies, so any expeditions we pull we trade back to the local shop for packs for our little group. But if I opened this lovely looking card, I'd have a hard time parting with it.
...just for the art. I love those jelly fish!
Aside from pre-release events, I basically only play kitchen table magic with a few buddies, so any expeditions we pull we trade back to the local shop for packs for our little group. But if I opened this lovely looking card, I'd have a hard time parting with it.
SigmasonicX
Member
Nah, I would have preferred if things were revealed as they had planned it, especially the recent big leak. It's just going to make things less exciting during spoiler season.
By the way, it's worth noting that when we move over to OT again, there will be people who hadn't been following these leaks, so when cards that were leaked are revealed, we should still post them there.
Joe Molotov
Member
Yeah, I went last year. Channel Fireball had a booth and they were running events all during it, Standard/Modern/Sealed/2HG/etc. I may go again this year, but I haven't bought my tickets yet.
I'm starting work on a small (300 card) retro-themed cube for 2-player drafting. I want to use 4th edition + Chronicles as a base. I figured when I cut down from 480-some cards down to 300 I would have mostly playables left. Not true!
First problem - there are literally not enough white creatures. I'm aiming for 45 cards of each color, probably like 27 creatures / 18 spells for white. Even if I ran every single available white creature, there's only 25 of them.
So, I figured I'd bulk out the cube by throwing in Ice Age cards as well. That runs me into my second problem - Ice Age cards are absolutely terrible. Even compared the really, really low standard set by 4E. I know people talk about how bad Homelands is, but I honestly think the average IA card is worse than the average HL card. I'll may end up going for the whole ALICE environment (4E, CH, IA, HL, AL) just to get enough playables, or I might just junk it and build a Mirage block cube instead.
Other observations - I forgot how many artifacts the old sets have. There are more artifact cards in 4E+CH+IA than there are cards of any particular color (91 artifact cards to 72 white cards). And the artifact creatures are often a lot better than the colored cards. Obsianus Golem, a vanilla 4/6 for 6 is better than most creatures in these sets.
I've dabbled with cubes before, and have leaned on drafts.bestiare.org to help figure out which cards are good and which are bad, but these older sets don't have a large enough sample size, especially for the rares.
First problem - there are literally not enough white creatures. I'm aiming for 45 cards of each color, probably like 27 creatures / 18 spells for white. Even if I ran every single available white creature, there's only 25 of them.
So, I figured I'd bulk out the cube by throwing in Ice Age cards as well. That runs me into my second problem - Ice Age cards are absolutely terrible. Even compared the really, really low standard set by 4E. I know people talk about how bad Homelands is, but I honestly think the average IA card is worse than the average HL card. I'll may end up going for the whole ALICE environment (4E, CH, IA, HL, AL) just to get enough playables, or I might just junk it and build a Mirage block cube instead.
Other observations - I forgot how many artifacts the old sets have. There are more artifact cards in 4E+CH+IA than there are cards of any particular color (91 artifact cards to 72 white cards). And the artifact creatures are often a lot better than the colored cards. Obsianus Golem, a vanilla 4/6 for 6 is better than most creatures in these sets.
I've dabbled with cubes before, and have leaned on drafts.bestiare.org to help figure out which cards are good and which are bad, but these older sets don't have a large enough sample size, especially for the rares.
charlequin
Banned
I think there's a perception issue where WotC is still looking at leaks the way they worked eight years ago. When the Time Spiral playtest cards leaked, there was no Twitter, no Reddit; some actual outlet had to go out of their way to publish them and make them available to people (thus the MTGS lawsuit.) This latest leak is a perfect illustration of how it's different today: it showed up as a dump on Imgur and was instantaneously shared on numerous sites. By the time any actual outlet (GatheringMagic or whoever) posts about it, it's old news and already spread far and wide, so there's no point in staying quiet out of some platonic principle.
This is known to be true. It's happened twice: with Judgment (leaked six weeks early because lol MODO accidentally revealed the entire set) and New Phyrexia (leaked six weeks early via the Godbook PDF.) In both cases, WotC reported non-cyclical dips in prerelease attendance, and anecdotally softer upfront sales as well.
I saw someone on Twitter saying that the EV of opening an entire box of Ice Age is something like $6. 😂
I'd suggest going back instead; Chronicles draws on Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, and the Dark, and Fallen Empires came out after those sets but before 4E; if you raid all of those you should be able to fill out a few slots (like white creatures definitely.)
I don't think imma stick around playing mtg all day. I assume they gonna have spoilers announced so I'll try to hit that up. What else should I expect at PAX?
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I don't think anyone was arguing WOTC doesn't have a real reason for marketing the way they do. I just think it's asinine to expect anyone else to care about it.
The whole article reeks of "son I am disappoint" as though WOTC thinks the community belongs to it or that we should feel bad.
The whole article reeks of "son I am disappoint" as though WOTC thinks the community belongs to it or that we should feel bad.
Part of the reason I chose the sets I did is because they are super cheap. I have considered adding in the Dark & Fallen Empires since they are also cheap (Especially Fallen Empires, since it was type-2 legal at the same time as all of the other sets I listed), but am reluctant to go back further than that for money reasons.
I started playing during Revised, so I have a lot of nostalgia for those really early sets; I took about a year break (and missed Ice Age), but came back for Mirage, so I also have a ton of nostalgia for that as well.
Joe Molotov
Member
We pretty much browsed all the booths in a few hours, and then there was a few events that we went to. It was pretty big, but it wasn't massive. PAX South isn't the main one, and last year was the first year they did it, so I don't know how it compares to PAX Prime or if it'll be bigger this year. I don't know if there will be any MTG spoilers, there wasn't last year, but last year FRF had just come out that weekend (I bought a box while I was down there).
Precisely. It's as if we are supposed to care. They fucked up big time and they are chastising the community for it? It just reflects the ridiculous attitude that Wizards adopts towards its customers and it's utterly absurd.
SigmasonicX
Member
Draft of the Oath of the Gatewatch OT OP
Title: Magic: the Gathering - Oath o/t Gatewatch |OT| Look again, the mana is now diamonds!
(details to be added)
Official page
Oath of the Gatewatch information
Battle for Zendikar OT
Next block: Shadows over Innistrad
Welcome to the Multiverse! There are multiple worlds that exist side by side in different dimensions, known as planes, and each plane is as different as night is from the day. All of them, however, have a form of magical energy known as mana, generated from bonds to the land, that can be channeled into powerful spells. Residents of these planes are usually unaware of other worlds, but there are some special beings with the ability to safely travel between them, known as Planeswalkers.
Magic: the Gathering is a Trading Card Game, the first of its kind, developed by Richard Garfield and his playtesters for the gaming company Wizards of the Coast in 1993. The game quickly became a big hit, it is currently bigger than it has ever been. In the standard game, you and your opponent play the role of dueling Planeswalkers, using customized 60-card decks made up of your spells, the creatures you can summon, your mana bonds with lands, and even other Planeswalkers you can call in to help out. Whoever can get his or her opponent down to 0 life, from a start of 20, wins.
Oath of the Gatewatch is the second set of the Battle for Zendikar block, continuing many of the mechanics but adding some new ones, and concluding the story. This topic will cover the two weeks before all cards in the Oath of the Gatewatch set are fully revealed, known as the spoiler weeks, where cards are slowly unveiled every weekday, up through the set release itself. Some cards have already been revealed during events like World Magic Cup (or leaks), but this is when they are rolled out at a consistent pace. The main website updates at 8 AM PST / 11 AM EST, but Wizards also provides card previews to other sites that will unveil them throughout the day, including non-English sites.
GETTING STARTED
If you're a beginner, feel free to come in--that's why this is in OT, after all. Spoiler season is one of the most exciting times for a Magic player, and it would be great for more to join in. Us regulars can get a bit technical with card evaluations and use a lot of jargon, and many of us will loudly proclaim that a cool-looking card is junk, or say that a lame-looking card is really powerful, but feel free to ask us if you want an explanation.
To see what a game is like, check out Geek and Sundry's Spellslinger series, where Day[9] battles various geek celebrities, often losing, using simple and easy to follow decks.
To get started, check out the official page. Basically:
* It's recommended that new players play Magic Duels (thread). It's a great way to learn the game on your own, and it's free!
* For your first deck, you can buy an Intro Pack, a simple prebuilt deck that comes with a few booster packs. For each new set, five Intro Packs are released. There are also Clash Packs and Duel Decks that provide two decks for a game right out of the box, but are a bit more complicated, the latter more so.
* To get your physical collection started, buy a Deck Builder's Toolkit, which includes not just a starting collection of cards (including a lot of lands), but also has some booster packs and is a good place to store cards. You could also buy a Holiday Gift Box to get an even larger starting collection and better storage. You can watch this PAX panel about deckbuilding to learn how to make your own decks.
* To learn about the theories behind deckbuilding and gameplay, check out Level One.
* Once your skill advances, another popular way to play Magic casually is Commander. Each player chooses a legendary creature to act as commander and then chooses 99 additional cards, one of each card that isn't a basic land (of which you can have any number) and only of the colors of the commander, to make up the deck. In games, each player starts at 40 life and there are typically four or more players. Wizards provides prebuilt decks for this format too.
* While game stores will often hold Magic events at other times, every store that has Magic events will have Friday Night Magic. There, you will be able to find other players in your area to both have matches with and trade with. Find game stores here. And to get started participating in your local game store (LGS) scene, attend a prerelease!
PRERELEASE
While the set won't officially be sold until the release date, that isn't the first time you can get your hands on the new cards. Game stores hold prerelease events for every set, and in this set's event, every player is given a box with six booster packs and a random additional rare card. From this pool of cards, all of which you keep, each player builds a deck of 40 cards and participates in a Swiss-system tournament. This is a fun and casual event, where everyone is still trying to figure out the set, so don't worry about messing up. In addition to normal duels, there are also Two-Headed Giant events, where you pair up with another player and face off against another team.
Two-Headed Giant plays a larger role than usual in this set, with mechanics even designed to work better with a teammate, so even if you've never played it before, it's recommended that you try it out this time.
Prerelease events will be held on January 16–17, 2016. Call your local game store a few days ahead of time to register, or they might just run out of room. Find local game stores here.
CHANGES
Battle for Zendikar marked the start of a major change to how Magic sets are handled, with an in-depth explanation for why here. In short, the two-set block model means:
* No more core sets.
* Blocks will have two sets instead of three. Yes, that means Battle for Zendikar block will only have two sets.
* Without any core sets, there will now be two blocks a year.
* Standard (a rotating format that only includes the latest sets) rotates with each block, so it will now rotate twice a year. Three blocks will be in Standard at a time. Sets will be in Standard for a max of 18 months.
As for Oath itself, meet the thread title's namesake:
For a long time, Magic has been using the same symbol for colorless mana and generic costs, but no more! Colorless mana is now represented by the <> symbol (also represented as C) and generic costs are still represented as (1) and such, which can be seen in the below reprint in Zendikar Expeditions. Note that this card is not Standard legal, it's just a super rare bonus you can get from booster packs.
To explain Wastes further, this is a new basic land, but it does not have a basic land type and colorless is not a color. So you can use any number of Wastes in your deck, including in Commander, but it does not affect mechanics like domain or Battle for Zendikar's converge. Wastes are only going to appear in this set, and you must open them in your card pool. Limited games usually allow you to get basic lands from a land station that the store provides, but that won't be the case with Wastes. As for why this change wasn't introduced in Battle for Zendikar, it's a contentious issue within Wizards of the Coast itself, but we'll get to the winning reason in a bit.
(details to be added)
STORY
Lore introduction
Guide to Zendikar
Long ago, before mana even developed distinct colors, the Eldrazi were born in the gaps between planes. Like Planeswalkers, they are able to travel between worlds, but they devour every one that they come across. There appear to be swarms of Eldrazi, but in fact, there are only three--Ulamog, Kozilek, and the leader, Emrakul--whose projections into the third dimension appear as distinct beings. Over 6000 years ago, they were sealed inside Zendikar, a wild plane overflowing with mana. However, they were released, and that's where we started Battle for Zendikar.
Summary of the Battle for Zendikar story
At the end of the Battle for Zendikar story, Gideon, Jace, and Nissa succeeded in trapping the Eldrazi titan Ulamog in a hedron cage, but the demon Ob Nixilis took advantage of the situation by using the cage's power to reignite his Planeswalker spark. This released Ulamog, and as a last bit of spite, Nixilis called upon the other titan still on Zendikar, Kozilek. The armies gathered at the Sea Gate had a hard enough time fighting one titan, but now they must deal with two.
Oath of the Gatewatch story
Story archive - Scroll to the bottom for chronological order; the layout of this archive is trash.
SET THEMES
Cards (alternate, includes leaks)
Battle for Zendikar mechanics
Oath of the Gatewatch mechanics
Oath of the Gatewatch has the same mechanics as Battle for Zendikar, but with a few new additions. The returning mechanics are:
Rally - A new term for an existing effect. Whenever an Ally enters the battlefield under your control, each Ally you control with a rally ability reacts and makes something happen.
Landfall - This describes any effect that happens when a land enters the battlefield under your control.
Awaken - With awaken spells, you can have a land perform an action for you, and by pumping in some more mana, you can make the land come to life as an Elemental.
Converge - Converge spells care about having as many colors of mana as possible. Each color you use to cast it makes it stronger.
Devoid - These cards require colored mana to cast, but they still count as colorless cards, as shown by a neat frame effect.
Ingest - An ability where creatures exile the top card of a player's library when they deal combat damage to him or her, representing their ceaseless eating. This doesn't seem like much, but then you combine it with cards like Eldrazi Processors, which take the exiled cards and poop them into the graveyard for an effect.
Colorless mana matters
Here is the reason why the change to the colorless mana symbol was made in Oath of the Gatewatch and not Battle for Zendikar: to coincide with this new mechanic. The colorless mana symbol in costs can only be paid for by colorless mana. Note that these costs will only appear in this set, but the new colorless mana symbol will be permanent.
Teammates matter
Since the Eldrazi titans are teaming up, that means the Planeswalkers will have to team up too. I mentioned before that Two-Headed Giant plays a larger role in this set than usual, and this is shown by the surge mechanic. If you or your teammate already cast a spell this turn, then you can pay the alternate cost of this spell, which is cheaper and often adds a bonus effect. This mechanic still works perfectly fine without a teammate, in case your jimmies are being rustled.
Wallet Sculpting continued
Zendikar Expeditions is a special set within this set, made up of 20 full-art foil versions of lands: the Shadowmoor hybrid lands and 10 other classic nonbasic lands. However, these lands appear at about the same rate as a foil mythic rare card. Meaning to get any one of these lands, not a particular one, each booster pack has a 1:216 chance (getting a mythic rare is a 1:8 chance). So yeah, these will be expensive as hell. Note that these cards are only Standard legal if they appear in a Standard set normally, so none of these cards are Standard legal. These cards have their own set symbol to emphasize that they are not really part of the Oath of the Gatewatch set. If you open a card that is not Standard-legal during the prerelease or other Limited formats, you can use it in your deck, but not otherwise.
RESOURCES
Official articles - Nicknamed the Mothership, these articles are the primary source of news. Recommended columns are Making Magic, written by the head designer, Mark Rosewater (aka MaRo); Uncharted Realms, which tells the story, written by various authors; and Latest Developments, written by various Magic developers. The other articles generally discuss deck building. For older articles before the site changed, go here.
OGW official card list - Best way to see all of the spoiled cards together, but only updates once a day.
Blogatog - Tumblr ran by Mark Rosewater where he answers questions, updates very frequently.
Drive to Work - Mark Rosewater's weekly podcast about Magic that he literally records as he drives to work. Two episodes are released every Friday.
MTG Salvation's Rumor Mill - The best place to get new card information. The community sucks, though.
Mythic Spoiler - A good way to see what cards have been spoiled, updates throughout the day.
Gatherer - The official method of searching through released cards. Has an autocomplete.
magiccards.info - The better search engine for cards, with bigger pictures and more details. But it doesn't have an autocomplete.
Game store locator
PREVIOUS THREADS
Battle for Zendikar OT
OT4
OT3
OT2
OT1
Title: Magic: the Gathering - Oath o/t Gatewatch |OT| Look again, the mana is now diamonds!
(details to be added)
Official page
Oath of the Gatewatch information
Battle for Zendikar OT
Next block: Shadows over Innistrad
Welcome to the Multiverse! There are multiple worlds that exist side by side in different dimensions, known as planes, and each plane is as different as night is from the day. All of them, however, have a form of magical energy known as mana, generated from bonds to the land, that can be channeled into powerful spells. Residents of these planes are usually unaware of other worlds, but there are some special beings with the ability to safely travel between them, known as Planeswalkers.
Magic: the Gathering is a Trading Card Game, the first of its kind, developed by Richard Garfield and his playtesters for the gaming company Wizards of the Coast in 1993. The game quickly became a big hit, it is currently bigger than it has ever been. In the standard game, you and your opponent play the role of dueling Planeswalkers, using customized 60-card decks made up of your spells, the creatures you can summon, your mana bonds with lands, and even other Planeswalkers you can call in to help out. Whoever can get his or her opponent down to 0 life, from a start of 20, wins.
Oath of the Gatewatch is the second set of the Battle for Zendikar block, continuing many of the mechanics but adding some new ones, and concluding the story. This topic will cover the two weeks before all cards in the Oath of the Gatewatch set are fully revealed, known as the spoiler weeks, where cards are slowly unveiled every weekday, up through the set release itself. Some cards have already been revealed during events like World Magic Cup (or leaks), but this is when they are rolled out at a consistent pace. The main website updates at 8 AM PST / 11 AM EST, but Wizards also provides card previews to other sites that will unveil them throughout the day, including non-English sites.
GETTING STARTED
If you're a beginner, feel free to come in--that's why this is in OT, after all. Spoiler season is one of the most exciting times for a Magic player, and it would be great for more to join in. Us regulars can get a bit technical with card evaluations and use a lot of jargon, and many of us will loudly proclaim that a cool-looking card is junk, or say that a lame-looking card is really powerful, but feel free to ask us if you want an explanation.
To see what a game is like, check out Geek and Sundry's Spellslinger series, where Day[9] battles various geek celebrities, often losing, using simple and easy to follow decks.
To get started, check out the official page. Basically:
* It's recommended that new players play Magic Duels (thread). It's a great way to learn the game on your own, and it's free!
* For your first deck, you can buy an Intro Pack, a simple prebuilt deck that comes with a few booster packs. For each new set, five Intro Packs are released. There are also Clash Packs and Duel Decks that provide two decks for a game right out of the box, but are a bit more complicated, the latter more so.
* To get your physical collection started, buy a Deck Builder's Toolkit, which includes not just a starting collection of cards (including a lot of lands), but also has some booster packs and is a good place to store cards. You could also buy a Holiday Gift Box to get an even larger starting collection and better storage. You can watch this PAX panel about deckbuilding to learn how to make your own decks.
* To learn about the theories behind deckbuilding and gameplay, check out Level One.
* Once your skill advances, another popular way to play Magic casually is Commander. Each player chooses a legendary creature to act as commander and then chooses 99 additional cards, one of each card that isn't a basic land (of which you can have any number) and only of the colors of the commander, to make up the deck. In games, each player starts at 40 life and there are typically four or more players. Wizards provides prebuilt decks for this format too.
* While game stores will often hold Magic events at other times, every store that has Magic events will have Friday Night Magic. There, you will be able to find other players in your area to both have matches with and trade with. Find game stores here. And to get started participating in your local game store (LGS) scene, attend a prerelease!
PRERELEASE
While the set won't officially be sold until the release date, that isn't the first time you can get your hands on the new cards. Game stores hold prerelease events for every set, and in this set's event, every player is given a box with six booster packs and a random additional rare card. From this pool of cards, all of which you keep, each player builds a deck of 40 cards and participates in a Swiss-system tournament. This is a fun and casual event, where everyone is still trying to figure out the set, so don't worry about messing up. In addition to normal duels, there are also Two-Headed Giant events, where you pair up with another player and face off against another team.
Two-Headed Giant plays a larger role than usual in this set, with mechanics even designed to work better with a teammate, so even if you've never played it before, it's recommended that you try it out this time.
Prerelease events will be held on January 16–17, 2016. Call your local game store a few days ahead of time to register, or they might just run out of room. Find local game stores here.
CHANGES
Battle for Zendikar marked the start of a major change to how Magic sets are handled, with an in-depth explanation for why here. In short, the two-set block model means:
* No more core sets.
* Blocks will have two sets instead of three. Yes, that means Battle for Zendikar block will only have two sets.
* Without any core sets, there will now be two blocks a year.
* Standard (a rotating format that only includes the latest sets) rotates with each block, so it will now rotate twice a year. Three blocks will be in Standard at a time. Sets will be in Standard for a max of 18 months.
As for Oath itself, meet the thread title's namesake:
For a long time, Magic has been using the same symbol for colorless mana and generic costs, but no more! Colorless mana is now represented by the <> symbol (also represented as C) and generic costs are still represented as (1) and such, which can be seen in the below reprint in Zendikar Expeditions. Note that this card is not Standard legal, it's just a super rare bonus you can get from booster packs.
To explain Wastes further, this is a new basic land, but it does not have a basic land type and colorless is not a color. So you can use any number of Wastes in your deck, including in Commander, but it does not affect mechanics like domain or Battle for Zendikar's converge. Wastes are only going to appear in this set, and you must open them in your card pool. Limited games usually allow you to get basic lands from a land station that the store provides, but that won't be the case with Wastes. As for why this change wasn't introduced in Battle for Zendikar, it's a contentious issue within Wizards of the Coast itself, but we'll get to the winning reason in a bit.
(details to be added)
STORY
Lore introduction
Guide to Zendikar
Long ago, before mana even developed distinct colors, the Eldrazi were born in the gaps between planes. Like Planeswalkers, they are able to travel between worlds, but they devour every one that they come across. There appear to be swarms of Eldrazi, but in fact, there are only three--Ulamog, Kozilek, and the leader, Emrakul--whose projections into the third dimension appear as distinct beings. Over 6000 years ago, they were sealed inside Zendikar, a wild plane overflowing with mana. However, they were released, and that's where we started Battle for Zendikar.
Summary of the Battle for Zendikar story
At the end of the Battle for Zendikar story, Gideon, Jace, and Nissa succeeded in trapping the Eldrazi titan Ulamog in a hedron cage, but the demon Ob Nixilis took advantage of the situation by using the cage's power to reignite his Planeswalker spark. This released Ulamog, and as a last bit of spite, Nixilis called upon the other titan still on Zendikar, Kozilek. The armies gathered at the Sea Gate had a hard enough time fighting one titan, but now they must deal with two.
Oath of the Gatewatch story
Story archive - Scroll to the bottom for chronological order; the layout of this archive is trash.
SET THEMES
Cards (alternate, includes leaks)
Battle for Zendikar mechanics
Oath of the Gatewatch mechanics
Oath of the Gatewatch has the same mechanics as Battle for Zendikar, but with a few new additions. The returning mechanics are:
Rally - A new term for an existing effect. Whenever an Ally enters the battlefield under your control, each Ally you control with a rally ability reacts and makes something happen.
Landfall - This describes any effect that happens when a land enters the battlefield under your control.
Awaken - With awaken spells, you can have a land perform an action for you, and by pumping in some more mana, you can make the land come to life as an Elemental.
Converge - Converge spells care about having as many colors of mana as possible. Each color you use to cast it makes it stronger.
Devoid - These cards require colored mana to cast, but they still count as colorless cards, as shown by a neat frame effect.
Ingest - An ability where creatures exile the top card of a player's library when they deal combat damage to him or her, representing their ceaseless eating. This doesn't seem like much, but then you combine it with cards like Eldrazi Processors, which take the exiled cards and poop them into the graveyard for an effect.
Colorless mana matters
Here is the reason why the change to the colorless mana symbol was made in Oath of the Gatewatch and not Battle for Zendikar: to coincide with this new mechanic. The colorless mana symbol in costs can only be paid for by colorless mana. Note that these costs will only appear in this set, but the new colorless mana symbol will be permanent.
Teammates matter
Since the Eldrazi titans are teaming up, that means the Planeswalkers will have to team up too. I mentioned before that Two-Headed Giant plays a larger role in this set than usual, and this is shown by the surge mechanic. If you or your teammate already cast a spell this turn, then you can pay the alternate cost of this spell, which is cheaper and often adds a bonus effect. This mechanic still works perfectly fine without a teammate, in case your jimmies are being rustled.
Wallet Sculpting continued
Zendikar Expeditions is a special set within this set, made up of 20 full-art foil versions of lands: the Shadowmoor hybrid lands and 10 other classic nonbasic lands. However, these lands appear at about the same rate as a foil mythic rare card. Meaning to get any one of these lands, not a particular one, each booster pack has a 1:216 chance (getting a mythic rare is a 1:8 chance). So yeah, these will be expensive as hell. Note that these cards are only Standard legal if they appear in a Standard set normally, so none of these cards are Standard legal. These cards have their own set symbol to emphasize that they are not really part of the Oath of the Gatewatch set. If you open a card that is not Standard-legal during the prerelease or other Limited formats, you can use it in your deck, but not otherwise.
RESOURCES
Official articles - Nicknamed the Mothership, these articles are the primary source of news. Recommended columns are Making Magic, written by the head designer, Mark Rosewater (aka MaRo); Uncharted Realms, which tells the story, written by various authors; and Latest Developments, written by various Magic developers. The other articles generally discuss deck building. For older articles before the site changed, go here.
OGW official card list - Best way to see all of the spoiled cards together, but only updates once a day.
Blogatog - Tumblr ran by Mark Rosewater where he answers questions, updates very frequently.
Drive to Work - Mark Rosewater's weekly podcast about Magic that he literally records as he drives to work. Two episodes are released every Friday.
MTG Salvation's Rumor Mill - The best place to get new card information. The community sucks, though.
Mythic Spoiler - A good way to see what cards have been spoiled, updates throughout the day.
Gatherer - The official method of searching through released cards. Has an autocomplete.
magiccards.info - The better search engine for cards, with bigger pictures and more details. But it doesn't have an autocomplete.
Game store locator
PREVIOUS THREADS
Battle for Zendikar OT
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OT1
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
My brother's birthday is coming up...Any neat ideas for a MtG player that aren't packs, playmats, deck protectors/sleeves?
SigmasonicX
Member
You can check right now, we're still in the BFZ OT >_>
Anyway, I didn't. The OP is already pretty long, and I figured that a returning player would just ask.
You could get a print of the art of a card he likes from the artist.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
The hilarious part of expeditions is that they have shitty art for the most part.
Wulfric
Member
Hmm, that certainly limits your options. Does your brother play commander? The Commander 2015 series decks are pretty good on their own, or he can pick them apart to add the cards to his own decks.
If he likes foils, a From the Vault set wouldn't be a bad idea either. I do agree with a print from his favorite artist being a pretty cool idea though.
If he likes foils, a From the Vault set wouldn't be a bad idea either. I do agree with a print from his favorite artist being a pretty cool idea though.
Joe Molotov
Member
You only think they're shitty because you're seeing them outside of the planned marketing context that WotC had prepared for you to see them in. It would have even retroactively made you think the BFZ expeditions were awesome.
shrapnelmagnet
Member
Kinda small, but some sweet, useful dice like D6s or D12s?
Whiskey for those extended commander / multiplayer games?
SigmasonicX
Member
New card:
Snapcaster on a 5 mana CMC creature. lolz. Works with RG ramp, I guess.
It isn't at all comparable to Snapcaster Mage. You cast the spell for free, and the actual creature is more important.
This seems pretty good, especially with all of the three-mana spells hanging around Standard. I'm not sure if it will see play now, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did after rotation.
Plus, this is another red card that cares about the graveyard (along with the leaked Kozilek spell). It may just be because of Shadows over Innistrad, but hopefully this means something for red in the future.
keeblerdrow
Member
Maybe I'm missing your context, but that card is not better than the best creature ever printed.
It's really, really close.
charlequin
Banned
The fact that you always need to pay five whole mana to get this guy on the board is certainly pretty significant, but it's important to consider how the free-casting impacts that. When you flashback a 3-mana spell, you're getting the 4/4 Menace body for 2 mana.
keeblerdrow
Member
Different. Good. But whew, if it's ever in the same sentence as Snapcaster Mage, there needs to be a semicolon somewhere in there.
That body is why he's so close, even if he's less flexible.
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