M20 Spoilers

[Soren841]

Chandra!

[WWolfe]

Wow, 3 Chandra's. One is for a planeswalker deck I'd assume?

[Soren841]

I hope. Personally I'm predicting emblem interaction in this set.

[Morganator 2.0]

Personally I'm predicting emblem interaction in this set.

I really hope not. For a long time people have been calling for a card that removes emblems. But the way I see it, an emblem is your reward for managing to keep a Planeswalker alive for so long.

[Soren841]

Not anymore... have you seen the new Chandra..

[WWolfe]

Apparently MTG already heard some issues from fans with there being 3 different rarity Chandra's.

https://dotesports.com/mtg/news/chandra-is-the-only-planeswalker-getting-three-rarity-cards-in-mtg-core-set-2020

tl;dr- Chandra is the face of M20. All other PW's will only be mythics.

[Red_Wyrm]

Personally I'm predicting emblem interaction in this set.

I really hope not. For a long time people have been calling for a card that removes emblems. But the way I see it, an emblem is your reward for managing to keep a Planeswalker alive for so long.

That is how they were intended, but when you can hit most emblems the turn they come out with doubling season in play, it isn't a reward for anything, it is a punishment for your opponents letting that stupid enchantment stay on the table. I mean you can deploy the gatewatch and get two ultimates right away with it in play. Or with Evolution Sage that can give you 4 counters with a card like exploration and fetch lands.

But yeah a +2 that gives everyone an emblem like that, I can see emblem interaction coming into the game, although it is in the command zone, so the wording on such a card would be weird. You can't exile or destroy it since it isn't on the battlefield. We'll see what happens. And also I would hope the cards are capable of doing something other than get rid of an emblem, otherwise it is too narrow for most EDH decks and probably only sideboardable at best in standard, but maybe 1 copy main deck if walkers are going to be prevalent. Not sure how many walkers are in top tier decks with war of the spark out. Someone in standard, tell me if this would be maindeckable as of today's standard.

Some mana cost,
Instant
get rid of target emblem in your command zone.

But seriously, after all this time, she is still only a novice pyromancer? My god I can't wait for her to become a prodigious pyromancer.

[WWolfe]

I think there needs to be ways to interact with emblems. I really didn't think so until the other day...

A friend cast Narset Transcendent, played The Elderspell before he activated one of her abilitues and killed two other PW's. He was able to put 4 loyalty counters on her and ultimate her the turn she came out. With Doubling Season already having been a thing, The Elderspell having the ability to help a PW ult the turn they come out, and now a PW that's +2 gives opponents an emblem...

[Red_Wyrm]

I think there needs to be ways to interact with emblems. I really didn't think so until the other day...

A friend cast Narset Transcendent, played The Elderspell before he activated one of her abilitues and killed two other PW's. He was able to put 4 loyalty counters on her and ultimate her the turn she came out. With Doubling Season already having been a thing, The Elderspell having the ability to help a PW ult the turn they come out, and now a PW that's +2 gives opponents an emblem...

Yeah emblems that lock people out of the game aren't fun. 6 mana, your opponents can cast non creature spells? No way to remove it? Two cards I know of that can counter it, Stifle and Disallow. That is too stupid. And narset was still alive after that. It should be a general rule of plansewalkers that they have ultimate sickness. They cannot use their ultimate the turn they come down, no matter what. But then there are cards like the new karn that would suffer.

[ApothecaryGeist]

I REALLY hope to see some emblem interaction.  I have often said that emblems are currently the most broken mechanic in all of Magic.  Especially in the eternal formats -like commander.  It is the only mechanic that neither player can interact with.  Not even that there are poor/unplayable card choices to do so.  It just simply does not currently exist within the game rules.

Some mana cost,
Instant
get rid of target emblem in your command zone.

How about ...

2D (D is whatever color they decide to put this mechanic into)
Sorcery
Target player loses all counters and sacrifices all emblems from their command zone.

Sorcery speed would let the player reap the emblem benefit for a single turn.  Also losing all counters might make it playable (at least in EDH) - usable against energy and experience.  Or you could target yourself to remove poison counters.

[ORCH1D]

The problem is that this is a core set, and most new players don't even know what a command zone is. It's kinda like referencing the stack. Since you "get" emblems, I feel like the wording would be like "Chose an emblem target player owns. That player loses that emblem." It's a bit long for a simple ability, but it should avoid weirdness with targeting things that are in the command zone without acknowledging that issue.

[Firegriff]

Chandra, Awakened Inferno should have had the non-elementals damage as her plus and her emblem as a minus.  The ability to stack static, non counterable damage every turn on EVERY opponent (gets around shroud and hexproof) is broken.  And with Steamkin and goblin sack fodder, she could potentially come down turn 3 in Standard.

[ApothecaryGeist]

Since you "get" emblems, I feel like the wording would be ...

I personally don't care how they template the ability, so long as it really does exist. 

One of the concepts that I teach new players ... is that Magic doesn't have trump cards.  Everything can be beaten by something else.  Then when they learn about emblems and how nobody can mess with them EVER.  Yeah, those are kinda like trump cards.   
 
I really want the ability to interact with emblems.

The conversation was that the ability is likely too narrow to be viable, even in EDH when emblems happen fairly frequently.  My point was not so much the templating but that pairing it with other abilities could make it more playable.

[Morganator 2.0]

But... There is a way to deal with emblems. Don't let them come out.

Most emblems are final abilities of Planeswalkers that take 3 or 4 turns to become ready to use, assuming no other factors (both positive and negative). The ones that can come out right away are minor abilities (like what we see on Gideon of the Trials and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad).

You also need to think if this from the opposite end as well. It would be hella annoying to spend 4 turns protecting this planeswalker to get its emblem out, only to have someone spend 1 black mana to get rid of it.

But I did put some though to this "emblem removal". The only way I could see it work is if it is the activated ability of another Planeswalker, that takes at least two turns to become usable.

[Soren841]

If they're going to be making walkers like this new Chandra, which turn emblems into jokes, there needs to be emblem interaction.