Magic: The Gathering (Unreleased Sets)

So which classic Legends Elder Dragon do you think is the worst? I think we can all agree that classic Nicol Bolas was the only halfway decent one given his rather unique and powerful ability to force discarding.

Palladia. She has...Trample. Vaevictus is a potential wincon with BRG firebreathing, and Sabboth is useful in a deck that wants to go wide with tokens or something. Chromium's rampage actually makes it a decent finisher against creature decks, once you take your pick of the 1,001 ways to get trample on your really big flier. None of them are world beaters, but 4 of them have at least an outside shot of seeing play in singleton formats. Palladia has nothing going for her.

edited 19th Jun '18 8:15:28 PM by ViperMagnum357

The new version of Palladia on the other hand...

She still has Trample, gains Vigilance, and has hexproof as long as she hasn't dealt damage yet. Meaning you're guaranteed to get some use out of her (assuming the other player doesn't unleash a Damnation or Wrath of God on you or something). Though she is only 6/6 now as opposed to 7/7.

edited 19th Jun '18 8:25:17 PM by M84

Magic Story: Chronicle of Bolas: The First Lesson

• Knightly, featuring;
  • Lena, Selfless Champion
  • Valiant Knight
  • Sigiled Sword of Valeron

I'm glad that they managed to keep some of the knight tribal they'd planned for the set back when it was still slated to be Dominaria block's small set. I had been disappointed by my Gatherer search of knights and cards that mention them that I did when I got the idea of building an Aryel, Knight of Windgrace Commander deck.

I was checking on Reddit about this story, and there was some speculation as to whether there was any meaning behind Nicol and Ugin knowing each other's names. Turns out that's just something Elder Dragons can do.

So if Chromium's theory is correct, Nicol and Ugin were originally supposed to be one bigger dragon, whose name was presumably Nicol Ugin or Ugin Nicol. We also see another way the brothers contrast. Nicol felt the need to be more like a "proper" dragon and so gave himself a second name. Ugin on the other hand didn't care about such things and was thus satisfied with just being named Ugin.

Man, Chromium and Palladia were asshole siblings. It's clear that Nicol was stung by their words. Everything he is now, right down to his new name, is his means of compensating.

I rather like Arcades Sabboth. His characterization in this story not only will fit whatever his new card will be, it's even in line with his original card. He protects others.

I'm calling it now: Nicol Bolas' and Ugin's story arc will end with them somehow merging into the original dragon they were meant to be.

edited 20th Jun '18 6:59:48 PM by M84

Damn Dominaria's old. I didn't expect the people around when Ugin and Nicol were born to be already be living in the ruins of previous civilizations. (They haven't got the hang of geometry yet, though. Globes are finite and 3D, planes are infinite and 2D. Completely different.)

Baby Ugin reads blue-green strongly enough to make me suspect that his color alignment's locked down in a story bible somewhere.

The fact that the framing story prominently features a human set of Polar Opposite Twins of the non-fraternal variety is I think an indication that we should be reading Ugin and Nicol as separate beings rather than two halves destined to be reunited. Unless Naiva and Baishya are also getting fused together, which would be quite a twist.

Come to think of it, he reads pretty strongly blue-green in the Zendikar story, too, does't he? And his body is bluish green. Seems a safe bet.

He might also have some white in there.

Bant colours would certainly establish him as very different from Bolas.

Bant or Simic, it makes for a nice contrast when Ugin's talking about how they should learn about the world because learning's fun and the world's neat, while Nicol just want to learn how to kill things really hard in the face. They share that blue interest in knowledge, but not much else.

For the other articles, we've got kitty cards and some deckbuilding based on single previewed cards.

It would also jive with the new story, where Ugin learned under Arcades Sabboth-one of the original Bant creatures, and chronologically the oldest such in the fluff.

Actually it seems like Nicol was the one who spent the most time learning under Arcades while Ugin spent his free time meditating with an old human sage. Her lessons were the starting point for Ugin eventually transcending the limitations of the whole color thing entirely.

edited 21st Jun '18 8:23:07 PM by M84

Eh, we get literally 2 conversations with Sabboth and one with a human mystic serving him in a city built around him, so I would lean towards the former being a stronger influence; even if the human was the first to teach Ugin the nuts and bolts of basic magic. Hopefully we get more info in the later stories.

edited 21st Jun '18 8:25:22 PM by ViperMagnum357

So I took a peek at Arcades, the Strategist. To say he's a step up from his classic card is an understatement.

Only costs four mana, acts as a draw engine, and grants defenders the ability to attack and deal damage based on their toughness? Holy crap. And that's on top of being 3/5 with flying and vigilance. All for four mana.

edited 21st Jun '18 8:30:46 PM by M84

The draw engine really catches my interest, especially including the 2 best wall colors. Amusingly, he also combos reasonably well with his old self-providing a 2 damage boost to go with the toughness for a double Lord effect, and gaining Pearlbreathing that also boosts his toughness thanks to his younger, hipper self.

Out of all of the new Elder Dragon cards, I think Vaevictis is potentially the most dangerous and the one that can most easily backfire.

It is a symmetrical effect that is mandatory, and I almost never like those. The chance of flipping a potential blocker for you opponent and putting it into play during your attack...yuck. And having to blow up your own stuff for possibly no gain...hard pass.

The only saving grace is that if Vaevictis does grant your opponent a powerful permanent for free, then Vaevictis can immediately destroy it on your next turn (provided the opponent doesn't neutralize Vaevictis beforehand). Unless of course said permanent has protection from Vaevictis or something. Then you're properly fucked.

Probably better off just sticking with the rest of the Elder Dragons. I particularly like Chromium, though as I mentioned before Arcades is cool.

edited 21st Jun '18 8:54:07 PM by M84

The Core Set 2019 Card Image Gallery is complete!

I will note that there are a ton of ways to abuse Vaevictis's attack trigger in Commander. Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest, Grave Pact, Ichor Wellspring, Spine of Ish Sah, etc. Pair it with cheap token generators like Bitterblossom and Awakening Zone for sac fodder and you can have a pretty solid deck.

Yeah, but I can come up with a lot of better sac outlet material, without considering a splash for Red and a creature that triggers once, on an attack, and is potentially beneficial for my opponent; in Singleton, where I have no real guarantee of being able to deal with what they may flip. Maybe circa 2012, but these days there are so many better options I think I will still take a pass, even in a deck catering to those mechanics.

I do like the ability to disintegrate something with hexproof, even with the element of risk.

Asmadi pretty explicitly targets, so I am not sure what you are referring to.

You are absolutely correct. This is why I don't go to Prereleases.

Honestly, I am rather disappointed-the other 4 are pretty solid, if specific. Vaevictis really got the short end of the ugly stick here.

Clearly it's because he's not one of their siblings, for whatever reason that's a thing. Mere cousins of Nicol and Ugin don't have the same swat.