Sets [DMU] Dominaria United Spoilers

Spoiler season never ends! After a brief respite with a reprint set in 2XM, we're back at it with Dominaria United coming up in September and we just got our first previews through the stream earlier today. Here are a few of the more interesting cards thus far:

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Neat card, kind of doing a Figure of Destiny impression but as an aggressive black card. Another good one drop for inclusion (and a human to boot!), but it's probably a pass for me as I really dislike ability counters as a mechanic in paper Magic.

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Not quite sure how to evaluate this one, it's kind of all over the place with its abilities. Seems like a callback to Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh but doesn't have quite the raw power that made it such a strong card. Being able to take out a guy with 4 damage, generate some card advantage on a +1, or just ramp ahead of schedule made that a really sweet card that I've continued to play to this day. Jaya though? Not really feeling it on first glance for my environment.

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Sweet art and I really enjoy simple and flexible designs like this. We're way past the days of Ivy Elemental being enough, Endless One was a needed upgrade, and this lets us take it up a notch with flying and haste. There seems to be a weird sweet point with this card in different decks. Coming down as your typical 3CMC phoenix on T3 is solid if unexciting, but as a 3/3 on T4 that's actually quite appealing when it comes to pushing through damage. Stiff competition at 5 mana, but the splashability with a single {R} makes this a fine inclusion for ramp heavy decks that just want an outlet to funnel mana into. You could do much worse than pushing out a repeatable Lava Axe to the face to close out the game. I'll see if I can make room for this one and give it a whirl, that promo art is just too sweet to not have somewhere in my collection.

Mostly I'm just hoping for a return to form with this set. The last year or so of sets have either been a miss for me mechanically (both Innistrad sets, Day/Night was abysmal) or aesthetically (SNC + NEO), so I'm ready for some good old fashioned Magic sets with that comfy fantasy aesthetic. Give me more of this and I'll be a happy camper.
 
They are doing the Zendikar thing again. Putting original Legends cards in Dominaria Unite Collectors Booster. Apparently they "found" some cases in a warehouse somewhere. So they cracked these and out some of the cards into packs. Nice way to dodge the stupid reserve list.
 
They are doing the Zendikar thing again. Putting original Legends cards in Dominaria Unite Collectors Booster. Apparently they "found" some cases in a warehouse somewhere. So they cracked these and out some of the cards into packs. Nice way to dodge the stupid reserve list.

Are you joking or trying to say that you think they did not find a warehouse that had Legends boxes? It’s impossible to tell online when you use “”.
 
Are you joking or trying to say that you think they did not find a warehouse that had Legends boxes? It’s impossible to tell online when you use “”.
Yes, that's what I think. Finding Legends boxes in that quantity sounds quite fishy. Why didn't they sell them in 94? The set was highly sought after even back then. I can't imagine them just forgetting about these at that time. It's probably as real as the story they told about Coldsnap. If you recall they told that they found the file in Garfields old desk.
This could very much be them testing the waters for abolishing the reserved list.
 
Yes, that's what I think. Finding Legends boxes in that quantity sounds quite fishy. Why didn't they sell them in 94? The set was highly sought after even back then. I can't imagine them just forgetting about these at that time. It's probably as real as the story they told about Coldsnap. If you recall they told that they found the file in Garfields old desk.
This could very much be them testing the waters for abolishing the reserved list.
So you're saying you can prove it in a few years after they have either confessed to the stunt (We bought so many boxes) or when they announce that the Reserved List is being abolished? (Because they didn't get sued from Legend cards owners). Third option is that it can't be proven because they get sued and nothing happens afterwards which will make this whole 'stunt' a mystery for the ages [cue X-Files theme song]
 
I can't prove anything, only state my opinion. I just can't believe that Wizards was that incompetent as a company back then, just forgetting that they have display cases of Legends which they easily could have sold.
 
So what if they print? I do not care for the reserve list. It is a game.
they can print a better version without cheating on the reserve list. With the power level going on most cards can be printed without problems. Furthermore, they can print black lotus + healing salve for 0 . And than ban it….

for a player the reserve list is like you could not play chesss with certain pieces. For a collector the reserve list protects your highly sought after pieces by something weird.

secondly, If they do not print, forgeries will lower the price…

however, this is a thread drift which is not worth it. Do they deliver cards we want or not?
 
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I really like the Loamspeaker as a mana dork that still does something when you don't need to ramp anymore.

As for the Firestorm... I wonder if we're just going to get a cycle of volver-style kicker cards, or if kicker is a more general mechanic?
 
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I really hope this Monk token gets used on more cards than just this one Planeswalker. I think Jaya seems like a good midrange card, but she doesn't seem like the sort of card an aggressive Prowess deck would want to play. I don't think we'll get a red Monastery Mentor but a better Goblin Wizardry would be nice.

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Between the set symbol, the and/or kicker costs, and evidently another Phyrexian invasion, it seems like this set might be one big Invasion block nostalgia festival. I think that's cool but I really hope the set design isn't too close to the original. I dislike the way Invasion block was designed because even though it gave us some iconic cards, the bulk of the block was extremely clunky in order to facilitate 4 and 5 color goodstuff greed piles in limited. It was a novel format structure for the time period but I don't think it aged very well considering the advances in design technology since then.

Likewise, I'm really hoping they bring something innovative and new to the table as a complement to the nostalgia. Dominaria 2018 worked well because it placed a veneer of nostalgia over groundbreaking new mechanics that benefited from drawing on 25 years of Magic's history for flavor. If we are truly getting a second full-scale Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria, it would be cool if there was a mechanic to reflect that instead of simply getting a higher than average number horrors in black.
 
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