Timmy, Johnny, Spike, Vorthos, and Melvin.

[jackofallgeeks]

Some geeking as I put off going to school; Thursdays are almost as slack as Fridays for me. It's about Magic: The Gathering, so if you aren't familiar with the game and/or don't care, the following babbles won't make much sense to you.

So a new set of Magic: The Gathering comes out this month (OK, it 'comes out' May 4th, but the pre-release is two weeks before that, mid-to-late April, and that's what matters to me). I, for one, really enjoy *not* finding spoilers online, and instead I thrive off of the teasers that Magic.com gives us.

The very first card I saw previewed was Fleshwrither, which not only had some really awesome art, but it had a cool ability (slightly less cool when I saw the 'play as a socery' bit) and it was timeshifted, so it had a really sweet futuristic border. The second card was Venser, Shaper Savant who has an amazng comes-into-play ability; anything that effectively counters un-counterable spells is awesome. Seht's Tiger has a white timeshifted border, which I don't think works as well as the black one, but it gets awesome points for the precedent it sets: giving Protection to a player. I was kind of disappointed with Spellweaver Volute for similar reasons: the border doesn't thrill me the way Black's did, and the card itself is, I think, mediocre with it's high cost and arguably awkward implementation. It gets points for being a really cool idea, though, enchanting Instants in your graveyard. Glittering Wish was also kind of a let down; it's an OK card and I like the reference to the long-lost Wishes (and it's flavor text is kind of cool) but that's about it.

But I was very happy to see the 'special' preview they did on the Future Sight mini-site. Yixlid Jaler is just all-around cool. Once again it's a Black timeshift, so it gets the cool border, and it's a nice quick Black creature. But it's *also* an awesome control card, shutting down entire archetypes! Piles of really annoying cards -- Firemane Angel, Dredge cards, Flashback spells, Nether Traitor -- where the only answer used to be removing them from the game entirely are now stopped nicely with a 2/1 for 1B. Not to mention that it's got cool art and awesome flavor text: I have an eternity to know the souls who are bound here, to see their every facet. But moments from now they will be gagged and masked, and they shall be known by none other.

I was very happy to see that card.

(As a side note: the new timeshifted cards have an enigmatic symbol in their top-left corner. Maro said that it's meaningful, but he didn't want to give away the surprise. Originally I thought this might be the expansion symbol for the card's 'original' set, which kind of made sense and would be really cool. After a few cards we'd still only seen the 'claw' symbol, but I figured they could easily only show us one or two such symbols if they chose the preview cards right. Then we got a sunburst on Spellweaver Volute, and another claw on the Yixlid Jailer, and a new thought came to mind: perhaps they denote card types. After all, the Volute is the only non-creature we've seen, and also the only non-claw we've been given. It wouldn't be quite as cool, but it would make more sense -- after all, even though these cards are almost definitely out of the Future-Future League card files, expansion symbols aren't supposed to be finalized until, what, 6 months in advance of the release? So we shouldn't *have* symbols for these Future-Future sets. plus, it would kinf of ruin a bit of WoD's unveiling; once we saw the expansion symbol for the new set, we'd know what cards were timeshifted from it, and be able to extrapolate from there. So I'm going with the card-type idea for now.)

Comments

[bsgnome.livejournal.com]

Yixlid Jailer + Dralnu, Lich Lord

[bsgnome.livejournal.com]

In case your skeptical:

Dralnu's ability is either a text-changing effect (layer 3), in which it's too late to be affected by the Jailer's layer 5, or it's a layer 5 as well, in which time-stamp applies.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

I was skeptical, and I still am, because if Dralnu applies at Layer 3, then the card in question has the ability at Layer 5, in time to be lost to the Jailer. However, I think that Dralnu's is an Ability-granting effect, and thus falls into the "all other" category, and applies at Layer 5. Thus, as you note, Timestamps will apply Dralnu after the Jailer, and you can flashback your Demonfire for the win*.


*I'm not sure that works; I imagine the Flashback cost becomes XR, and thus you can pay the X.

[bsgnome.livejournal.com]

I realised that soon after the words escaped the post button.

Still, I'm pretty sure Dralnu is a layer 5. As, thinking about it, Layer 3 deals with Slight of Mind and the sort.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Layer 3 deals with Slight of Mind and the sort.

This is true.

[bsgnome.livejournal.com]

Spellweaver's Volute would also still work even with a Jailer in play.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

This is true, because they're being copied by something in-play, and when they're on the stack they have their full effect. You can even Kicker, Entwine, etc with the Volute.

[otakulk.livejournal.com]

Man, its been a while since I played that game, I have no idea what a timeshift is!

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Well, Timeshift isn't a mechanic the way most things are, like Flying or Cycling or Morph. In the first set, Timeshifted cards were old, old cards reprinted in their original borders, things from Arabian Nights and The Dark and stuff; it was a very nostalgic set for old-timers like me. In the second set, Timeshifted cards were from 'alternate versions' of the present, like a Black Wrath of God (Damnation) or a Blue Serra's Angel (Serra's Sphinx). In this new set coming out, the Timeshifted cards are From The Future, presumably cards that they're going to print in sets that are still years away. If you check out the links, Fleshwriter and Yixlid Jailer are both Timeshifted From The Future, and both have the 'timeshifted' border -- each set of Timeshifted cards has it's one border, unique from the current standard. It's all pretty cool stuff.