Ancient Tomb.Originally Posted by H
Flavor wins for sure, but certainly not eye catching like Mana Crypt or Mana Vault. What is the headliner there?
Now that I feel is pretty damn certain. Both a great (playable) card and a flavor win.
"The Ancients teach us that if we can but last, we shall prevail."
—Kaysa, Elder Druid of the Juniper Order
I disagree, it was an Expedition in BfZ/Oath.
I think you are looking at it the wrong way... 'Egypt Matters' isn't a theme.
BfZ - Lands matter - Land Expeditions
Kaladesh - Artifacts matter - Artifact Inventions
The Masterpiece from Amonkhet will try to showcase the "'blank' matters" theme of the set. And unfortunately at this point we don't have enough to go on to make an educated guess on Amonkhet's theme. Knowing that there will be 5 gods on this plane is reminiscent of Theros and 'enchantment matters', but I kinda doubt WotC would be that lazy. Unless they are admitting the block sucked thematically and are trying to redeem themselves...
Good point. If the X-matters scheme continues, I would go with my initial prediction that this one will be creatures, based off what scant inference we can make based off the tag line.
"The Ancients teach us that if we can but last, we shall prevail."
—Kaysa, Elder Druid of the Juniper Order
I'm going to go with graveyard interactions-themed set. Possibly monuments subset of artifacts to tie in with Kaladesh?
Graveyard matters! I could see that. That's probably why they went with Madness instead of Flashback in Innistrad 2 (besides the whole 'Emrakul's making me craaaazy' thing).
So maybe Bridge from Below, Entomb, Goryo's Vengeance...
It's a shame Pyramids is such a shitty card.
Since the only Egypt-style cards I remember are zombies - Vengeful Pharaoh etc. - and the afterlife is the topic - I think a graveyard theme may be fairly accurate.
Bridge from Below maybe?
City of Brass is highly likely.
Perhaps it'll be a aura-matters expension, with the return of the curse mechanic. That would fit flavour-wise. But what auras could be considered worthy of a "masterpiece" treatment then?
All the ones that I can think of are reserved list items i.e. chains, the abyss, etc. Other than that I don't think there are many enchantments that would be considered masterpieces, maybe counterbalance?
I think this would be pretty neat, since Bridge is barely an actual Magic card, I actually would like it to have some cockamamie boarder.
God, I hope not. Every time they try to make an "enchantments matter" set, it either sucks (Theros) or the whole theme is so minor as to be irrelevant (Urza's Block). Enchantments really are Magic's red-headed stepchildren, which is really stupid and shitty, but it just is what it is now.
Once they made colored Artifacts, the design space for Enchantments was so reduced as to now largely be an afterthought. Auras are also largely a joke, as Equipment is so much better, unless you are playing Modern Boggles for some reason. Masterpiece enchantments would be a joke, the only ones worth anything/exciting/actually playable are basically all on the Reserve List.
"The Ancients teach us that if we can but last, we shall prevail."
—Kaysa, Elder Druid of the Juniper Order
True - but there is still design space for Auras I think. For example - why are there no aura's as powerful as the swords? Wizards has the space to PUSH auras hard. To combat the Boggle threat, I'm sure they can figure out some hate cards or whatever.
Oh, indeed, there is plenty of hypothetical design space to make Auras relevant. Rarely is it ever developed or used though. Gryff's Boon is actually a great example of a simple and not all that overpowered way to make an Aura playable. Granted, not Eternal playable in that example, but that mechanic certainly could be, if pushed.
Do they really want another "Enchantment" block right now though? Theros wasn't all that long ago, was it?
"The Ancients teach us that if we can but last, we shall prevail."
—Kaysa, Elder Druid of the Juniper Order
In general, the mechanical complexity of cards [not due to poor wording] was at its peak in Mirage/Visions; I doubt there are that many cards simple enough for limited/standard/modern which can be reprinted from those sets and come close to capturing the feel of that block.
Perhaps the Wish cycle could make a return. Wishes fit with the djinn/efreet theme and Ring of Ma'Ruff first introduced the mechanic in the Arabian Nights. This won't happen if the master pieces will be called Monuments or Relics though. They could also pull the unthinkable, and abolish the reserved list for Master Pieces. This is what I am speculating on.
Could be possible, given the success of EMA, but I wouldn't count on it. And even then, it's probably going to take years before they take that step.
If Burning Wish wasn't the most valuable and just reprinted in Conspiracy then I'd like those chances.
Plus I think they made a choice to not have them in Modern.
They should just print aura's that help to negate the downside. IE. fuel their own recursion - like Rancor etc.
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