Magic: The Gathering (Unreleased Sets)

Rakdos's will be someones torn off face.

No, no, it'll be a ritual dagger with a note that says "You know what to do."

Lazav's note will say "burn after reading".

Really? It doesn't seem like Wizards' style to hand their players an instant match-win like that.

They feel that the downside is acceptable risk.

After all, it's quite hard to play Magic in prison.

Wizards is trying to go after the lucrative, untapped prison market.

edited 15th Jul '12 6:05:29 PM by moberemk

Well, they already have Patrick Chapin.

Who has a Wikipedia article, incidentally.

I saw the greatest post on reddit earlier.

"I can get you on board for a third Un set with two words:

Un Planeswalkers."

@Dorku: Which doesn't actually mention the bit about him going to prison for drug trafficking.

Not that it's really surprising. After all, he is technically a rapper. (Yes, I did have to link to that again.)

edited 15th Jul '12 7:28:56 PM by Nyktos

Emphasis on "technically".

Would anyone like a match?

I could go for a round or two.

Room is up.

The RTR buy-a-box promo is called Supreme Verdict. Sounds very Azorius.

Calling it right now, it's whatever Wizards is intending to replace Day of Judgment with.

Okay, I can't sleep so it's time for some serious speculation on new guild keywords:

Simic: The Evolve mechanic proposed in the GDS2 (whenever a creature with power greater than this enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on this).
Boros: Either reverse exalted (whenever this creature attacks it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each other attacking creature) or an ability word that's dependant on you attacking with three or more creatures.
Izzet: Maro said that replicate is a good mechanic but only an okay Izzet mechanic. Flavourfully the defining trait of the Izzet seems to be recklessness in the pursuit of knowledge, so I could almost imagine some sort of "risk kicker" mechanic - you can add a little something extra to your spell when you cast it but only if you also add an additional chance that the spell could backfire on you (not a total backfire, though; if the spell could just not work at all no-one would use the extra mode). I don't know if balancing such a mechanic would even be possible, though.
Orzhov: Something like Haunt but that affects the haunted creature rather than derping around with doing something when the haunted creature goes to the graveyard.
Rakdos: Something in the vein of Offering, maybe? They do like their human sacrifices. But I'm not sure R&D are going to be keen on straight-up cost reduction after the horrors of affinity.
Dimir: Something sneaky. Maybe something that lets you exile a card face-down "attached" to a creature and then when the creature damages your opponent you can play the face-down card?
Gruul: I almost want to say that they'll go Muraganda Petroglyphs/Imperiosaur for the Gruul given their emphasis on the primitive, but I have major doubts as to the workability of such a mechanic.
Golgari: A graveyard thingy.
Selesnya: Well, uh...soulbond feels quite Selesnya. Heh.
Azorius: Absolutely no clue.

edited 17th Jul '12 4:40:32 PM by Idler20

Maybe if it were a kicker that didn't rely on mana, but on the sacrifice of other resources? Like "Risk Kicker — As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may discard 2 cards at random. If you do..." or something of the sort. Red's got some good precedents in that department, usually stuff like random discards or coin flips, so I think it might be possible.

Re: Dimir, I doubt it. Hasn't Ma Ro mentioned that R&D doesn't have much love for mechanics like that or Morph?

Azorius might get something controlly or lawful, although I can't think of anything off the top of my head. I actually rather do hope it's Evolve that they use, it seems like a solidly thought-out mechanic.

It won't be coin flips - it's an established principle of Magic design that random effects should use stuff that is sometimes possible to control, like top cards of libraries.

I don't think so - Maro seems to treat it as a sure thing that Morph will come back one day.

You know, the Cult of Rakdos and the Skirsdag have quite a bit in common. Though the Rakdos are more...gleeful about it all.

...What if Rakdos is one of Liliana's demons?

wait no that doesn't work she was living on ravnica when she was trying to hide from them

edited 17th Jul '12 5:58:32 PM by Nyktos

The Skirsdag seem to take demon worship pretty seriously - some of them take vows of blindness. I imagine the Rakdos would find them to be a bunch of buzzkills.

The Skirsdag take vows of blindness, the Rakdos rip each other's eyes out for fun. End result is the same.

Agreed. The Rakdos would probably look at the Skirsdag and go "Where's the fun?"

Is it wrong I can't help but hear this song as a little ditty about playing Magic? Hell, it starts by talking about making a sacrifice, Judgement Day, and take your life.

edited 18th Jul '12 7:26:54 AM by Xiphoniii