[MtG] [EMN] Emrakul, the Promised End

[heraldry_lord]

Emrakul is awesome and criminally underrated by a number of guys online (as is usual for cards that aren't patently obvious that they're good or don't immediately scream "Broken!").

 

As for Nahiri, I honestly don't care what her other plan for Emrakul is; she and Sorin can both burn, or bugger off somewhere where we never see them again.  For Sorin's part, I'd rather have Liliana as the "lord" of Innistrad and Sigarda as its protector, as the former is actually helping to save the plane that he ironically and indirectly helped in ultimately ruining in his efforts to "protect" it, and the latter isn't some semi-automaton that is vulnerable to all kinds of manipulation.  I feel bad for Avacyn, Gisela and Bruna, but their fate is linked to the fact that, unlike Sigarda, they weren't equipped to handle this mess.

 

For Nahiri's part, the Gatewatch did what Nahiri didn't even try to do when she saw what happened to Zendikar.  Sure, it was a deus ex machina in how they killed Ulamog and Kozilek, but even if they failed, they at least tried.  Nahiri instead decided that she'd slink over to another plane and cause pain and misery for people who had nothing to do with her issues with Sorin, all out of some petty need for revenge (and maybe a twisted sense of right by sealing Emrakul there).

 

That said, if she does intend to trap the Spaghetti Momma in the Heron Moon, I imagine that it would make Eldritch horror a permanent fixture on Innistrad, considering what Emrakul did just by being near it, and how much the moon influences the plane.

[Flame Dragon]

That said, if she does intend to trap the Spaghetti Momma in the Heron Moon, I imagine that it would make Eldritch horror a permanent fixture on Innistrad, considering what Emrakul did just by being near it, and how much the moon influences the plane.

While I'm not saying that won't happen it bugs me that Zendikar would have had NONE despite Be'mrakul being there for 6000 years.

[bury the year]

Also, for people's reference, we're continuing the illustrious trend of beatnik Eldrazi with:

 

[heraldry_lord]

While I'm not saying that won't happen it bugs me that Zendikar would have had NONE despite Be'mrakul being there for 6000 years.

 

I think it might be because of the Hedron Network and the Eye of Ugin; that might have prevented them from influencing Zendikar in the same way.  Not to mention, Zendikar is extremely mana-rich, semi-sentient and had an immune system of sorts that fought off the Eldrazi influence in the form of the Roil.

 

With Innistrad, the only thing standing between Emmy and the plane was a wafer-thin plane-wide ward held up by an insane angel and a piece of silver that was already smashed to pieces.  Even with that in place, she could still slurp up that delicious mana and have her own mojo leak into the plane in the process, creating the weird mutations and madness effects in SOI.

[Flame Dragon]

I think it might be because of the Hedron Network and the Eye of Ugin; that might have prevented them from influencing Zendikar in the same way.  Not to mention, Zendikar is extremely mana-rich, semi-sentient and had an immune system of sorts that fought off the Eldrazi influence in the form of the Roil.

 

With Innistrad, the only thing standing between Emmy and the plane was a wafer-thin plane-wide ward held up by an insane angel and a piece of silver that was already smashed to pieces.  Even with that in place, she could still slurp up that delicious mana and have her own mojo leak into the plane in the process, creating the weird mutations and madness effects in SOI.

Based on when Nissa went to Shadowmoor I think all planes have a soul of some kind. The immune system was a result of them being there, not clear if other planes would develop it. I also question how much stronger the hedron lock would be than the moon if being trapped in the moon is like being trapped in the Helevalt. Based on Nahiri's time in there its total isolation so her influence might not even leak out.

[heraldry_lord]

Based on when Nissa went to Shadowmoor I think all planes have a soul of some kind. The immune system was a result of them being there, not clear if other planes would develop it. I also question how much stronger the hedron lock would be than the moon if being trapped in the moon is like being trapped in the Helevalt. Based on Nahiri's time in there its total isolation so her influence might not even leak out.

 

I know that Alara has Progenitus as its soul, so it wouldn't be far-fetched.

 

If they trap Emmy in the moon, it might seal her off completely, and it might not; we'll have to see what happens.

 

Again, I feel bad for Gisela and Bruna; I didn't see that coming at all, but in retrospect, the circumstances were right for it.  They were the closest to Avacyn, and thus the most affected by her madness, and they were practically in hive-mind mode the last time we saw them in the story.  They also don't have the kind of resistance to mind-hacking that Sigarda does. When Emrakul took over from Avacyn as queen bee, they were all but doomed.

[Aerion Brightflame]

I somewhat forgive Nahari's motives being rather petty - Because a) She was trapped by Sorin in the Helavault for lord knows how long, something that would have driven her mad if she didn't fixate on vengance. b) She comes back to find the Eldrazi not just pressing at the boundaries but actually out and destroying the world she loves. She had an intimate understand of the danger and power of them, she would never be able to ask Sorin and Ugin for help, so as far as she knew her homeland was just dead. 

 

Like she had no idea that superfriends existed or that they even had a chance of bailing the plane out. As far as she could assume Zenndikar was just going to die, so the only options left to her would be futile death, or exacting vengeance on the man who imprisoned her for insanely petty reasons. Like good lord. 

 

I'd also imagine that the Hedron network would be a stronger seal given that it was made by the combinations of 3 immensly powerful Planeswalkers instead of just one. And the Eldrazi had some influences outside of the hedron network even when sealed in it so Ema would have to do stuff to the plane when trapped within the Moon. 

 

EDIT; I would also guess that the influence of the other Eldrazi cancled out some of the more Lovecraft elements of Ema. This is the first time we've only seen one Eldrazi influencing a plane. 

[heraldry_lord]

I somewhat forgive Nahari's motives being rather petty - Because a) She was trapped by Sorin in the Helavault for lord knows how long, something that would have driven her mad if she didn't fixate on vengance.

 

Actually, she could only do that for so long; what kept her "sane" was recreating Zendikar in her head.  That may have actually helped push her over the edge when she saw what had happened to the plane under Ulamog's reign of terror.  She didn't even know that Kozilek was being sneaky somewhere inside the world too.

[Aerion Brightflame]

Tinfoil time:

 

http://imgur.com/78R1d9J

 

Bolas Horns. Bolas Horns everywhere. 

[heraldry_lord]

I somewhat forgive Nahari's motives being rather petty - Because a) She was trapped by Sorin in the Helavault for lord knows how long, something that would have driven her mad if she didn't fixate on vengance. b) She comes back to find the Eldrazi not just pressing at the boundaries but actually out and destroying the world she loves. She had an intimate understand of the danger and power of them, she would never be able to ask Sorin and Ugin for help, so as far as she knew her homeland was just dead. 

 

Like she had no idea that superfriends existed or that they even had a chance of bailing the plane out. As far as she could assume Zenndikar was just going to die, so the only options left to her would be futile death, or exacting vengeance on the man who imprisoned her for insanely petty reasons. Like good lord.

 

I know why she did these things, but that doesn't excuse them. 

 

As for Sorin's part in this, I did imply that I detest both of them, and that's fine because it means I find their characters interesting enough to hate.

[Flame Dragon]

Again, I feel bad for Gisela and Bruna; I didn't see that coming at all, but in retrospect, the circumstances were right for it.  They were the closest to Avacyn, and thus the most affected by her madness, and they were practically in hive-mind mode the last time we saw them in the story.  They also don't have the kind of resistance to mind-hacking that Sigarda does. When Emrakul took over from Avacyn as queen bee, they were all but doomed.

Agreed. Of the 3 Gisela had my favorite design so to see her become that thing made me very sad.  

 

I somewhat forgive Nahari's motives being rather petty - Because a) She was trapped by Sorin in the Helavault for lord knows how long, something that would have driven her mad if she didn't fixate on vengance. b) She comes back to find the Eldrazi not just pressing at the boundaries but actually out and destroying the world she loves. She had an intimate understand of the danger and power of them, she would never be able to ask Sorin and Ugin for help, so as far as she knew her homeland was just dead. 

 

Like she had no idea that superfriends existed or that they even had a chance of bailing the plane out. As far as she could assume Zenndikar was just going to die, so the only options left to her would be futile death, or exacting vengeance on the man who imprisoned her for insanely petty reasons. Like good lord. 

 

I'd also imagine that the Hedron network would be a stronger seal given that it was made by the combinations of 3 immensly powerful Planeswalkers instead of just one. And the Eldrazi had some influences outside of the hedron network even when sealed in it so Ema would have to do stuff to the plane when trapped within the Moon. 

 

EDIT; I would also guess that the influence of the other Eldrazi cancled out some of the more Lovecraft elements of Ema. This is the first time we've only seen one Eldrazi influencing a plane.

I REALLY do feel bad for Nahiri. Sorin basically laughed her off for wanting him to keep helping her like he said he would, trapped her in the Helavault and away from Zendikar indirectly causing the release of the Eldrazi (she would have stopped it had she been there), and then she sees her home destroyed. Remember, it wasn't vengeance that kept her going, but the thought of Zendikar making it all the more devastating to see it all but lost.

 

I guess it containing 3 does show it to be super strong. And it is true that the influence of the 3 could be different than 1 at a time. I honestly want to ask Doug if they thought up an answer to this.

 

I know why she did these things, but that doesn't excuse them. 

 

As for Sorin's part in this, I did imply that I detest both of them, and that's fine because it means I find their characters interesting enough to hate.

O yea, she is 100% wrong for doing this. But I get why. Based on everything we've heard Planeswalkers are likely to be indifferent about a world and its people than not.

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

So does that mean that we now have a bunch of new half-Eldrazi spawn and Eldrazi subraces/hybrid races, like "Eldrazi Angel" or "Eldrazi Werewolf"?

[Flame Dragon]

So does that mean that we now have a bunch of new half-Eldrazi spawn and Eldrazi subraces/hybrid races, like "Eldrazi Angel" or "Eldrazi Werewolf"?

I'm honestly not sure. Like, one of the benefits of having the corrupted creatures is potentially allowing for a critical mass of Eldrazi that also support the tribal elements already in the set. It would also allow for Eldrazi without them being colorless. They also have DFCs to play around with in this regard having creatures tern into Eldrazi.

[Delibirb]

Well. Hm. There's a lot of opinions in my head. Let's do one thing at a time.

 

Name: Joyously tear-wrenching

 

Cost: Reasonable.

 

P/T: Coo, coo.

 

Set Symbol: Funny

 

Art: Jaw Dropping

 

Effect: A bit to be desired. She doesn't defend herself nearly as well, the effect, while interesting, shouldn't have had to give them an extra turn, and the cost reduction I would have been more than happy to trade for better focus in both the former categories. So she's disappointing; it doesn't seem like it's good enough to be the power of Emrakul.

 

Fact that it's Emrakul: Mildly discontent. It was completely obvious it would be her in the 13th hour, but I really wish they had milked her a bit longer. I can only hope that the fact she isn't very wild in her effects means she'll not die here and will be back in a far more impressive state one day. I want a legal Emrakul who's worth being a commander.

 

I can dream.

 

Also Coax is awesome.

[Flame Dragon]

Mindslavering plus the pro-instant actually does a really good job of protecting her. You play her, they can't do anything to her, then you play their next two turns wasting any removal on their own creatures. Two turns is actually pretty big since it gives you a TON more time to waste their resources not just by wasting spells but by chump attacking. You then follow up by smashing for 13. They then have a single turn and draw step to find an answer or they die.

 

In commander games mindslavering someone has an even bigger impact since you can burn all their resources damaging everyone else while also making them easy pray for you.

[Delibirb]

Mindslavering plus the pro-instant actually does a really good job of protecting her. You play her, they can't do anything to her, then you play their next two turns wasting any removal on their own creatures. Two turns is actually pretty big since it gives you a TON more time to waste their resources not just by wasting spells but by chump attacking. You then follow up by smashing for 13. They then have a single turn and draw step to find an answer or they die.

 

In commander games mindslavering someone has an even bigger impact since you can burn all their resources damaging everyone else while also making them easy pray for you.

I didn't consider how the effect could be used as protection. IDK, maybe I'm slightly biased because I'm so used to Emrakul being an auto-scoop in Modern as I think she rightfully should be. And I think I made it seem like it, but I didn't mean to imply her effect isn't good at all. I just feel like it's not earth shattering enough to be worthy of being written on her card.

[Flame Dragon]

I didn't consider how the effect could be used as protection. IDK, maybe I'm slightly biased because I'm so used to Emrakul being an auto-scoop in Modern as I think she rightfully should be. And I think I made it seem like it, but I didn't mean to imply her effect isn't good at all. I just feel like it's not earth shattering enough to be worthy of being written on her card.

The difference between the two is that the power in We'mrakul first card is in the annihilator and working when cheated out. Personally, while it makes her powerful, nothing about that feels like its Aree'mrakul, just general Eldrazi. Her signature stuff was the time walk and the protection, which has nothing to do with her power in Modern. This does captures those elements though and its just as insanely powerful, but you need to work for it this time. If you cast this, you do very likely to just win. Your opponent will lose all their removal by casting it on their own creatures, any remaining will just jump into One'mrakul. You then crack in for 13 and unless they top deck an answer they are 90% just dead.

 

 

Edit: Opps been misreading the card. Thought you controlled both turns. Don't think thats a MAJOR difference since any answers would be used up on the first turn, but it does make it worse.

[Dementuo]

tbh i gotta wonder how much despair sorin's feeling right now

first the angels go crazy, nahiri comes back and wrecks his house, then he finds out the world-destroying behemoth he sealed up so long ago is freed and nomming on his world

 

like, damn. what a day

[Rodrigo]

Today, we tenta.

 

[Delibirb]

Hey, with Coax being blue, I'm curious if Emrakul might be partially backed by Runo Stromkirk, believing her to be his ancient sea God? Would be neat to have UB Vampires being Eldrazi support, Imo.

[heraldry_lord]

So this showed up on MTGSalvation:

 

 

It isn't 100% confirmed, as I understand it, so I didn't want to make a thread for it, and I wasn't sure where else to put it.

 

Thoughts?

[Flame Dragon]

Would be a really interesting mechanic if real. Curious what the art on the back would look like. I imaging BFM. Would also be neat if Mark got another un thing into black boarder. Curious what the CMC would be too since DFC now have the CMC of the front face, but this has two.

 

Personally I'm going to vote that this isn't real. The value of the mechanic in draft seems decently suspect especially at higher rarities, the bigger issue is one of volume. For them to make this mechanic I think they would need to make a good number and since we are likely going to get less DFC than we did in SOI and we are going to still have tradition DFCs in the set I'm afraid they won't have enough space.

[heraldry_lord]

Would be a really interesting mechanic if real. Curious what the art on the back would look like. I imaging BFM. Would also be neat if Mark got another un thing into black boarder.

 

If it's real, I imagine that Brusela will be a meld creature, and some people were already speculating that it would be something like that.

[bury the year]

This seems to be legit to me.

 

Graf Rats art is from the trailer, but Midnight Scavengers' is new. It would also justify why we didn't see the front half of Hanweir yet - it actually has two front halves. Finally, does anyone remember the two-sided Endbringer test prints?

 

The biggest argument against meld being legitimate is that unless you can get more than one flip card a pack, it would be really hard to trigger in draft. It's also been confirmed that EMN only has 21 DFCs, so we probably won't be seeing this mechanic too frequently if real.

 

Dunno what to think, personally.

 

EDIT: Also, notice how the symbol in the upper-left is a full moon, not a sun? Ulrich has a sun, but these guys don't. Suggests a different transformation mechanic, which checks out.

 

EDIT 2: If meld triggers occur at beginning of combat, it would also explain why Hanweir has haste. It'd feel bad otherwise to get your big beasty and not be able to swing with it right away.

[Flame Dragon]

If it's real, I imagine that Brusela will be a meld creature, and some people were already speculating that it would be something like that.

This is actually a 3rd problem with merge cards. The two of them would be mythic and getting them both for most players would be a nightmare. The back face might as well not exist for them.

 

Also, this could run into a commander problem on legendary creatures. Not a lot of fun when one of the major draws of the card can't really work. Even worse if they keep their original colors meaning they couldn't even be played together unless you're RWU.