Battle for the Spoiler Season of Zendikar

[SixFootTurkey]

This is indeed correct; sadly reanimation doesn't allow it to inherently affect the board other than forcing a chump. (He would allow for an interesting reanimate+mill strategy though.)

[Tacos_yay]

http://imgur.com/a/JlgCc

Link to the art for Ob Nixilis and Kiora, both arts will appear on boosters.
I'm super exited to see if the Ob Nixilis leak was correct.
And I'm defiantly gonna buy like two fat packs just for the land.

[JackSlack]

Uggggh. That Kiora art is awful, to my mind. There's nothing dynamic, nothing powerful, nothing characterizing about it. It's just eye candy. Bleh.

[Tacos_yay]

Hmmmm...I can see what you mean about it not conveying Koira's personality. The art itself is very good, but Kiora herself is very expressionless. I actually don't like the Ob Nixilis art, its...soft? Is that the right word? Blurry? And the contrast is just to dark! I think Raymond Swanland should have done Ob Nixilis, he could have done something really cool with it.

[The Martini]

Now I just want to throw Ulamog at my opponent with a Barrage Tyrant, just for the sheer ridiculousness of it

[SixFootTurkey]

Even better, play a more open format that lets you have all three titans 'in the air' at the same time.

[The Martini]

Uggggh. That Kiora art is awful, to my mind. There's nothing dynamic, nothing powerful, nothing characterizing about it. It's just eye candy. Bleh.

"Hmmm...I wonder what I should have for dinner tonight. Oh, and I can't forget to check my Fallout: Shelter," thought Kiora.

[The Martini]

Since the Scions are "mature Spawn" (they're 1/1's instead of 0/1's), I assume that Spawn won't be showing up. However, I'm also interested in finding out what a Processor is in terms of the Eldrazi.

Mechanically, I don't know how well it'll work out, but the flavor on the Ingest/Processor is a pretty good hit in my book. Ingest creatures are gobbling up the land and its mana (exiling cards), and the Processors - and they hinted at PAX that it wasn't only creatures; there's at least one non-creature spell with processor in its name - using that energy to power the Eldrazi horde.

I mean, decking your opponent with Ulamog vs using his 20 exiled cards as power for some sort of "Move X cards from your opponent's exile to their graveyard to dome them for X." We'll have to see!

[JackSlack]

Hmmmm...I can see what you mean about it not conveying Koira's personality. The art itself is very good, but Kiora herself is very expressionless. I actually don't like the Ob Nixilis art, its...soft? Is that the right word? Blurry? And the contrast is just to dark! I think Raymond Swanland should have done Ob Nixilis, he could have done something really cool with it.

By contrast (no pun intended) I really like the Ob Nixilis. Good posing, wonderful sense of menace. B- rating from me. The Kiora is a C-, maybe.

[phlip]

The Processors feel a little odd to me in terms of being an area Magic has shied away from... we now have both cards that treat the graveyard as a resource and move cards to exile when they're "used up", and cards that tread exile as a resource and move cards to the yard when they're "used up"... given an Eldrazi Processor (and a way to recur it, if they're all EtB abilities like the spoiled one), and a Scavenging Ooze or Deathrite or similar would let you keep bouncing a card in and out of exile, gaining value each time.

It really feels like they're going to back themselves into a corner, design-wise, and might eventually need to actually make the AWOL zone... actually have separate zones for "this is gone forever, it's not even in a graveyard" vs "this is in a temporary holding area while we do something fancy"... it's always seemed a little odd to me that the exile zone serves both roles...

Is something they've done before? Things that interact with cards in exile, that they didn't put there? All I can think of is two creatures that can get themselves from exile, and Runic Repetition...

[RedNightmare]

I think they are going to make sure Processers only work with your opponent's cards, which should limit the wackyness. Also, I kinda like the Eldrazi being able to interact with such a alien zone as Exile. Really their kind of thing.

[SixFootTurkey]

Indeed, they've already specified that the only reason they were able to 'get away with' messing with cards in exile, is that you will only be able to do so to your opponents cards. (You won't be able to use your own exile zone as an additional resource, and it will be harder to control what is in your opponent's exile zone.)

The Eldrazi are alien and unknowable, so they wanted to give them a mechanic that was bizarre itself; messing with exile fit the bill, and the limitation mentioned above kept it in check.

[SixFootTurkey]

Indeed, they've already specified that the only reason they were able to 'get away with' messing with cards in exile, is that you will only be able to do so to your opponents cards. (You won't be able to use your own exile zone as an additional resource, and it will be harder to control what is in your opponent's exile zone.)

The Eldrazi are alien and unknowable, so they wanted to give them a mechanic that was bizarre itself; messing with exile fit the bill, and the limitation mentioned above kept it in check.

[necargoface]

Note that there is easily a way to get Ulamog T5 in limited (Granted that they print a 2-drop mana accelerator in BFZ). I have a feeling that this set will be a lot faster than ROE (Compare Hedron Archive to Dreamstone Hedron), but much slower than original ZEN.

[Asthanius]

We're going to have Leaf Gilder, Rattleclaw Mystic, and Whisperer of the Wilds, all of which are two-drop creatures that tap for mana. We also have Shaman of Forgotten Ways for turn three (it gives two mana for creature spells). So for standard, we won't have any problems with getting him down turn 5.

T1: Land
T2: Land, 2-drop mana dork.
T3: Land, 2-drop mana dork x2 or Shaman.
T4: Land, 2-drop mana dork x2 or Shaman.
T5: Land, Ulamog.

[Tacos_yay]

https://www.facebook.com/MagicTheGather ... =1&theater

Translation:
Scavenger of the depth [U][B]

creature - eldrazi drone

Devoid, deathtouch, ingest

[3][U][B]: Draw a card, each opponent exile the top card of their library.

1/1

Deathtouch should be called Mortal Contact from now on.

[SixFootTurkey]

Asthanius, your assumption is that your opponent allows you to do this (Tron works because it's harder to kill lands), and necar was talking about limited.

Although in limited, you'd need quite a bit of luck to not only get Ulamog, but to get the ramp you need and then have both ramp and Ula in hand. Also, there's no guarantee we'll get a two-drop dork. Or we may get a dork that can't ramp for Eldrazi.

[Tacos_yay]

http://mythicspoiler.com/

Well, that leak was right about Ob Nixilis. It looks really sweet. He is defiantly going right into my commander deck. Kiora's not bad either.

[JackSlack]

Holy shit. Yeah, Ob Nixilis is going to be sweet. Draw, unconditional removal and synergy between first and last abilities for five mana in a slow format? Holy shit.

[SixFootTurkey]

The 'synergy' you speak of is a bit of a stretch; it's highly unlikely you'll get him to 8, and then decide to wait 'just one more turn' unless you're already winning that game anyway. Sure it's great if you have two Obs, but I tend not to worry about the synergy between multiple copies of a Legend or Planeswalker.

[Tacos_yay]

I've seen people complain that Ob is just five mana removal because hes never gonna cook off.

Kiora's ultimate is also awesome. Not only do you get an 8/8, but you can have that 8/8 just kill something.

Also, Desolation Twin looks like a blowout. 20 power for 10.

[SixFootTurkey]

Ob's Emblem if you get it, is quite potent - especially in multiplayer. Also, at worst he's a five mana removal that gains you some life. Considering the upside he has, I don't mind that at all considering the upside it has.

Kiora's ultimate is actually three 8/8s, just an FYI. ^^

Twin is solid, but it's 10 mana; it better hurt for that. It's two bodies, which is nice (one of which can't be countered - although it can still be bounced).

[AdmiralMemo]

Cards: Get in my deck. NOW!

[JackSlack]

Kiora's probably better on a second look.

If only the art were better.

[SixFootTurkey]

Kiora (the card) looks pretty sweet. Its floor is 4 mana draw two cards gain some life. She doesn't protect herself all that well though, which is probably going to be the biggest knock against her. If she'll fit will, as always, depend on how the meta shakes out.

Kiora (the art) is a bit lacking, but I could rant on that for a while, so I'd rather not.