How to autocard (do this to specify a card in your posts): Type [c]Black Lotus[/c] to get Black Lotus . Type [c=Black Lotus]The Overpowered One[/c] to get The Overpowered One .
Lots of angels in the art doesn't necessarily mean lots of angels in the set; I'd expect three or four, tops.
Fun trivia bit #1, no set has yet to top Urza's Saga for pieces of art that include angels (a total of 23), and that set only had four actual Creature - Angel cards (after errata, because Angelic Page was not originally an angel).
Fun trivia bit #2, the sets with the most actual angels in them are 7th Edition, 8th Edition, and 10th Edition, with five apiece. A few sets have had four angels (M10, M11, Urza's Legacy, Urza's Destiny, Invasion), but the greatest amount we've seen since Invasion has been three in a single set (most recently in Zendikar, and in Shards of Alara before that).
Fun trivia bit #3, Innistrad has six angel pieces of art, with two angels. Dark Ascension has four angel pieces of art, with one angel. No expansion set has hit double-digit pieces of angel art since Invasion (8th, 10th, and M10 have done so in core sets).
Lastly, for anyone that wants to double-check my numbers, note that I do count any sort of angelic depiction in the art, which includes statuary (Increasing Devotion), carvings (the coin on Make a Wish), and / or stained-glass windows (Endless Ranks of the Dead), in addition to the usual "angels flying around" (Geist of Saint Traft) and / or getting zotted (Enslave). I've got a significantly-sized list that I use to keep track of which cards I'm missing out of my collection, which includes angels, angel art, and angel-related names.
Your friendly neighborhood fanatic angel collector, signing off
Lots of angels in the art doesn't necessarily mean lots of angels in the set; I'd expect three or four, tops.
Fun trivia bit #1, no set has yet to top Urza's Saga for pieces of art that include angels (a total of 23), and that set only had four actual Creature - Angel cards (after errata, because Angelic Page was not originally an angel).
Fun trivia bit #2, the sets with the most actual angels in them are 7th Edition, 8th Edition, and 10th Edition, with five apiece. A few sets have had four angels (M10, M11, Urza's Legacy, Urza's Destiny, Invasion), but the greatest amount we've seen since Invasion has been three in a single set (most recently in Zendikar, and in Shards of Alara before that).
Fun trivia bit #3, Innistrad has six angel pieces of art, with two angels. Dark Ascension has four angel pieces of art, with one angel. No expansion set has hit double-digit pieces of angel art since Invasion (8th, 10th, and M10 have done so in core sets).
Lastly, for anyone that wants to double-check my numbers, note that I do count any sort of angelic depiction in the art, which includes statuary (Increasing Devotion), carvings (the coin on Make a Wish), and / or stained-glass windows (Endless Ranks of the Dead), in addition to the usual "angels flying around" (Geist of Saint Traft) and / or getting zotted (Enslave). I've got a significantly-sized list that I use to keep track of which cards I'm missing out of my collection, which includes angels, angel art, and angel-related names.
Your friendly neighborhood fanatic angel collector, signing off
I get the feeling like this is going to turn into a Rosewater article right after AVR breaks the mold.
I see in Wednesday's Arcana some new UltraPro products. Can somebody please tell them to start packaging sleeves in 100's instead of (or in addition to) 80's? An 80-sleeve pack is useless to the commander player, unless you want to buy five packs and split them among four decks.
Does anyone else see that the main Angel (likely Avacyn) looks likely to be a black/white angel (like Sorin in this block, her creator). With this in mind, I think the other three angels in the second picture of playmats seem to be white/blue, white/red, and white/green respectively. Not referring to just the color scheme, but the "red" angel is weilding 2 swords, and the "green" angel's weapon looks something like a harvest implement, etc. So, a group of 3 'sidekick' angels for Avacyn? Maybe Avacyn's restoration involves her splitting into these 4 aspects? Something else?
To me it looked like a Blue angel, a Red angel, and a White angel. I'm personally expecting a cycle of mythic angels in each color, mainly because the art on that third one reminds me of Sun Titan for some reason.
The Cube that was placed probably makes for a good template for people wanting to craft their own Cube to work with, although I have a few light issues (one or two possibly chalkable to my uncertainty that a heady rush of power is supposed to be the main draw for this format)...
--Slight repetition in effect (probably one of the only two really problematic). Elite Vanguard and Savannah Lions ; Armageddon and Ravages of War ; Wildfire and Burning of Xinye . Keep in mind that I'm only counting within a specific color. Wrath of God and Damnation AREN'T duplicates by this measure, nor are Wrath of God and Day of Judgment (former keeps them from regenerating, latter lets you regenerate). With the Vanguard and Lions, I'd probably replace one of them with Loyal Sentry ...just not sure which one (Stromkirk Noble is the only real factor to look into). --Card interdiction (this would be the main chalkable, although I can understand if one would rather abjure this factor): Basically, if a card that is strictly inferior *OR* strictly superior has been printed to another card since the latter's last printing in a booster-available set, the latter card is regarded by me as "interdicted". Thus, Counterspell has been interdicted by Cancel . But in the other direction, Volcanic Hammer is interdicted by Incinerate . Dissipate and Cancel don't interdict each other, by the way; Cancel leaves the card available for taking from their graveyard, Dissipate doesn't. But other than that, Dissipate would take priority as the most recently printed. --Ban/restriction in Vintage/Legacy/Modern. I was tempted to extend to ever having been banned or restricted, but I decided that would be unwarranted (meaning things like Maze of Ith are safe). It's mostly a matter of ratios; restriction works by keeping the ratios of the immensely more powerful cards at a relatively safe level, but in a singleton environment like this, I'm not so sure that works so well. --Color amount mismatch (the other really problematic). If I counted correctly, white has 95, blue 100, and the others 99. Needs a bit of tweaking there, if you ask me. Also, while I was relieved to find that all the color dyads have six representatives apiece, and the allied triads two each, I'm looking a little askance at the fact that the ONLY wedges to have representatives are Necra (Doran, the Siege Tower ) and Raka (Ruhan of the Fomori ). For the record, the representatives I've settled upon for the others are Oros, the Avenger , Riku of Two Reflections , and Fungal Shambler ... --Not actually a cube number (REALLY nitpicky...). 720 was probably chosen on account of being a multiple of 15 (15*48). Thankfully, that's close to an actual cube number, 729 (9^3). Unless the term "Cube" comes from someplace else...{sweatdrop}
I'm working on tweaking the list with replacements (and nine additions...); mostly a matter of finding cards that match the due-to-be-excludeds in effect as closely as possible (e.g. Wheel of Fortune ->Wheel of Fate , Tundra series->Mystic Gate series), although that's not all THAT easy (e.g. deciding to include all ten Invasion block splits because of Fire//Ice and my color amount exactness concerns...Stand//Deliver only remotely matching Absorb in effect type, though? Maybe I should just kick the splits out outright, and make each dyad four gold and two hybrid...). Once I get the whole thing done and balanced out with regard to how often each color is represented, I'll post the adjusted list.
Not actually a cube number (REALLY nitpicky...). 720 was probably chosen on account of being a multiple of 15 (15*48). Thankfully, that's close to an actual cube number, 729 (9^3). Unless the term "Cube" comes from someplace else.
I am positive that the term "Cube" does not come from the total number of cards being the third power of a number. I assume it is called a Cube, because a stack of cards or a box full of cards looks like a cube shape.
Beguiler of Wills: My, Rubinia, your hair looks lovely today.
To be honest, I'm not surprised a Beguiler of Wills would compliment people, but Preacher ? I would expect him to tell Rubinia to wear some more clothes.
Sorry for the grammar nazi, but I just laughed when I got the idea of those three cards complimenting Rubinia (the word you were looking for was complement).
