Amonkhet Spoilers

[Jabilac]

Liliana was planning to use the Gatewatch to defeat her demons, but she is indentured to Nicol Bolas. No doubt she thinks he can be killed like her demons in order to prevent being beholden to anyone. She underestimates him, but not as much as the rest of them, surprisingly including Jace.

I think Nicol Bolas will force Liliana to obey him, either by revealing their plans to him or by indirectly betraying the Gatewatch. Using the demon on his plane as leverage of sorts, shielding him from them, unless she co-operates.

Nicol Bolas could, as you mentioned, G.Moto, control Gideon by using his mental domination, to expose his fears and emotions to cause him to betray the Gatewatch. (He is a master at manipulation after all)

Nicol Bolas has played the Gatewatch like chess pieces, the entire time since Ravnica, even instigating the release of the Eldrazi on Zendikar by luring Chandra there.

Jabilac, I want to know who the Raven man is as well, it is written like we should know who it is. (He's from Dominaria) I've heard people say it could be Urza, but I highly doubt that. I think it could very well be Yawgmoth, since he was presumed dead, his corpse is now tainting Urborg, perhaps a portion of him has seeped into Liliana's consciousness, thus allowing him to live on through her. (He was known as Thran's healer, the original, heretical healer, giving Liliana the recipe for her brother's reanimation and triggering her planeswalker spark is more than feasible.)

It is interesting to consider Yawgmoth as a possible candidate for The Raven Man.  I am not a major MTG story follower but I did some reading on Yawgmoth and he is noted as one of the most well known villains in the MTG universe.  I wonder how The Mending effected Magic's history and specifically Yawgmoth's demise.

I do believe Bolas will manipulate Liliana into a betrayal of the Gatewatch, basically the same as you've said.  Maybe this time Liliana will be forced to uphold the pact she made with the Demons.  The question is what kind of defeat will the Gatewatch experience?  A break in the oaths?

[Jabilac]

I was surfin the web and I ran across this picture



Brazil versions of Planeswalker decks cards.  Its very hard to read but here is a translation of the text.

Gideon, Martial Paragon 4W
+2: Untap all creatures you control, those creatures get +1/+1 until end of turn.

Liliana, Death's Manipulator 5BB
+2: Put a -1/-1 counter on up to one target creature.

If these are accurate pictures then we can see -1/-1 counters might be making a comeback to Standard... Does this mean Wither as well?

I also found several more pictures from here.



Gives is a lot of info for the Intro Planeswalkers.  You can see that Gideon has a + Ability, a 0 Ability, and a - Ability while Liliana has a + Ability and two - Abilities.  These are just the Intro Planeswalkers but still interesting to see.

Last pic



That spindown counter is freaking awesome!  Sorry about the pic size.. I usually find smaller pics

[G. Moto]

  Nice yo know you guys are doing your research. What do you guys think about possible creatures and deck builds? With the whole Egyptian theme we might get some interesting beast or human soldiers. Maybe some good zombie creatures.

[ladof]

I can almost guarantee that sphinx will make an appearance here, which might trigger Jace. I'm going to guess Tezzeret might have some sway here, too, so probably more artifacts.

[Jabilac]

Its gonna be an interesting plane to say the least.  I am guessing that we will see some Mummies which are just fancy Zombies, right    I am really interested in how they are going to represent the God cards.  I am hoping they use a different mechanic then with the Theros Gods.  Also are the Trial's going to be represented like the Quest cards? (Quest for the Holy Relic, Quest for the Gravelord, ect)

[G. Moto]

Looking back at Egyptians maybe they will have their own summoning triggers. For example; Sobek (the crocodile looking god) could be sacrifice X amount of creatures, Sobek enters the battlefield with X+1/+1 counters equal to the total power of the sacrificed creatures. During your upkeep, distribute  a single +1/+1 counter to as many creatures that you choose. It would be good in a B/G sac deck or a B/R aggro kill everything style of play. Also 3 color gods would be interesting to see. The Main 5 could be 3 color (just like Alara) and then there could be the 10 minor gods (of course Ravnica Colors). Maybe they'd be like advisers or leaders among the chosen. With Nicol Bolas involved there are a lot of possibilities when it comes to multiple colors in this block.

[KouriNick]

Its gonna be an interesting plane to say the least.  I am guessing that we will see some Mummies which are just fancy Zombies, right    I am really interested in how they are going to represent the God cards.  I am hoping they use a different mechanic then with the Theros Gods.  Also are the Trial's going to be represented like the Quest cards? (Quest for the Holy Relic, Quest for the Gravelord, ect)

I've been thinking about the new Gods as well, and wondering if they'd do something similar to the Theros Gods. I like the idea of being permanents that provide a buff, that turn into creatures under certain conditions. I could see them being like G.Moto suggested, and requiring additional cost to cast, but I'm thinking something like this:

Sobek, God of Death 3B
Legendary Land Creature -  Swamp God
Indescructible, Hexproof
Sobek, God of Death isn't a creature unless you control at least 3 other black creatures
When Sobek, God of Death Attacks, Each opponent  sacrifices 3 creatures.
When Sobek, God of Death deals combat damage to a player, sacrifice 3 creatures.
3B: put a 1/1 black cleric creature token into play
8/8

I think this is pretty balanced, as when he isn't active, he's essentially a mana rock that can spit out dudes to bring him to life.
The other color gods could be similar, but maybe White requires you to have a certain amount of life, green just takes a lot of mana, blue needs you to have a certain number of cards in hand, and red must attack alongside a number of other creatures. Could be a really cool set of Gods, and I can't wait to see what R&D comes up with.

[robort]

The people of this plane want to do and finish the trials. By doing and completing all 5 trial will they become an ultimate.
Ultimate warrior? or Ultimate to Bolis? So guessing here, a 1/1 on the field completes a trial. Is becoming bigger, indestructable, give you card draw? What do the trials give? If by chance the 1/1 completes all trials and Bolis is around what type of features is this 1/1 gonna have apon completion? Will there allready be creatures whom have completed all 5 trials? What happens when one doesn't complete a trial ? What plans does Bolis have for those who complete the trials? What reign does Bolis have on the gods? they are gods.

[G. Moto]

   But if Bolas created the plane then doesn't he already have supreme control over those god's? I mean let's be real here: you have an extremely old, cunning and dangerous being who wants to reach his old level of god like power. Wouldn't it make sense for him to raise up an army of similar individuals such as himself in order to
(a steal THEIR power for himself in a similar method when he stole someone else's planeswalker spark,
(b manipulate those humans or planeswalkers that complete the trials in order to manipulate them as part of his legion
(c use the trials as a lure in order to bring other walkers to the world in a similar manner as Zendikar is known for its mana or
(d Bolas could be working with the demon in order to use all of the energy from the participants or offerings in order to convert their stolen energy or life force into himself.
      What this being has in store could be big for everyone, after all he does have connections across the multi-verse.

[Jabilac]

Our first real spoiler for Amonkhet!  This tell us quite a bit about how Amonkhet will function.  We are going to have a new Aftermath ability that will only work in graveyards.  I also like how they decided to put the actual spell facing the correct way for us so we don't give away information by either cocking our heads sideways or turning our cards sideways to read them... I'm looking at you Fuse cards

We are also looking at a 4cmc board wipe in standard... When was the last time that happened?  As far as I can remember they have been printing 5cmc board wipes.  Interesting.  Hopefully they will actually print a new way to mess with people's graveyards.  Break up Delirium and these new aftermath effects.

So does this give anyone some new ideas of things we might see?

[robort]

Our first real spoiler for Amonkhet!  This tell us quite a bit about how Amonkhet will function.  We are going to have a new Aftermath ability that will only work in graveyards.  I also like how they decided to put the actual spell facing the correct way for us so we don't give away information by either cocking our heads sideways or turning our cards sideways to read them... I'm looking at you Fuse cards

We are also looking at a 4cmc board wipe in standard... When was the last time that happened?  As far as I can remember they have been printing 5cmc board wipes.  Interesting.  Hopefully they will actually print a new way to mess with people's graveyards.  Break up Delirium and these new aftermath effects.

So does this give anyone some new ideas of things we might see?

LOL right here Yahenni's Expertise cost 4 Not to mention Languish which was popular. Then we have Incendiary Sabotage as well, didn't want to get the ones all in black

[Jabilac]

Our first real spoiler for Amonkhet!  This tell us quite a bit about how Amonkhet will function.  We are going to have a new Aftermath ability that will only work in graveyards.  I also like how they decided to put the actual spell facing the correct way for us so we don't give away information by either cocking our heads sideways or turning our cards sideways to read them... I'm looking at you Fuse cards

We are also looking at a 4cmc board wipe in standard... When was the last time that happened?  As far as I can remember they have been printing 5cmc board wipes.  Interesting.  Hopefully they will actually print a new way to mess with people's graveyards.  Break up Delirium and these new aftermath effects.

So does this give anyone some new ideas of things we might see?

LOL right here Yahenni's Expertise cost 4 Not to mention Languish which was popular. Then we have Incendiary Sabotage as well, didn't want to get the ones all in black

Your right Robort. I guess I was thinking of the destroy effects instead of the damage based or -x/-x based sweepers but I was wrong about it obviously.  Nothing about the rest of my post though?  Doesn't surprise me really.

[robort]

Ummm ok, do I think aftermath is going to be good? dunno because 1 card isn't much to go on. To cast it from a graveyard is ok. Not exactly the same but flashback comes to mind just a little twist on the wording and an entirely different spell comes out of the graveyard. Rebound also comes to mind. I also don't care much for sorcery speed, a sorcery always gives my opponent a chance to ruin plans. I also don't like bringing stuff back to my hands, while this card does a good job of it. I now have to use mana resources to recast those cards. Mana is the 2nd most important thing next to life. So paying 9 for a board wipe and bringing other cards to my hand. Those have to be some powerful creatures for me to play afterwards.

So on that, I will wait to see what else comes along before passing that opinion based apon 1 card.
I have already commented, took a stab about the creatures with the trials.

[TheWakaEmu117]

So seeing this first spoiler gives me hopes for some cool stuff in standard but it also makes me think that this sets power level might be really high. If we look at the past couple of years standard has been struggling with deck diversity. If you guys look at the banning of Emrakul, Reflector Mage and Copter, those actually lower the deck diversity and how standard is now dominated by Saheeli cat combo and mardu vehicles. Maybe this set will shake the format up and give us some powerful cards. I am think a 4 mana board wipe shows that they be printing some slightly more powerful cards and abilities.

[ladof]

My only thing is that if they're going to give us graveyard casting, they need to give us graveyard hate, too. Otherwise, you're just going to have things that aren't very interactive again. Card looks like it could be solid; not a fan of split cards like that, though. They give me a headache.