Battle for Zendikar Preview - Day 5!

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Hibernum_JC
Hibernum_JC Posts: 318 Mover and Shaker
edited April 2016 in MtGPQ General Discussion
Hi folks! Today’s the last preview update for Battle for Zendikar! The update will release very shortly, and hopefully these few previews have been helpful at understanding the new mechanics and you’re hyped at seeing some of the new Mythics we’re adding into the game!

In this final update, we’ll talk about the last mechanic we’re introducing into the set, Converge, and we’ll show the final Mythic preview!

Converge is a new mechanic in Battle for Zendikar that affects cards in hand. Essentially, it scales card power for each different color gem you match to fill it up.

For example, a card that has Converge would have it’s card text read as “Deal X damage, where X is your converged mana”, if you fill the card with a single color, it would deal 1 damage. If you fill the card with 5 different colors, it would deal 5 damage. This creates an interesting choice in how you make your matches - you might end up matching gems that give you less mana for a bigger payoff with the card, or you might decide you don’t need the payoff and match for higher mana gains. It’s a very interesting mechanic as in really influences the choices you will make when these cards are in your hand.

As for the final card preview - let me introduce Akoum Firebird!
Akoum_Firebird.png

This mighty Phoenix is a pure interpretation of Red - loads of damage, quick. The fun thing too is that being a Phoenix, he can come back from the dead - whenever you do a Landfall Red, if he has been Destroyed, he comes back to life, *with* Haste! When playing against him, Red mana denial is the key to ensure he stays down.

Finally, you can see his mana cost is rather low for an 8/8. This is the new baseline for Mythics cards - we understand that a lof of Mythics in Origins are very technical cards that do not seem useful, so we made sure that the Battle for Zendikar Mythics are appropriately costed so that you will never be unhappy when getting one!

This is it for the Battle for Zendikar preview! We hope you’ve liked this little series of posts, and we look forward to you feedback once the set releases!

Comments

  • rulerhumankind
    rulerhumankind Posts: 47
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    How does converge work with abilities that gain mana, ex: mage ring network or Nissa's first ability?
  • Keegan
    Keegan Posts: 284 Mover and Shaker
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    Hibernum_JC wrote:
    Hi folks! Today’s the last preview update for Battle for Zendikar!

    How dare you all take a weekend icon_e_biggrin.gif

    Thanks for the previews, looking forward to the release.
  • Hibernum_JC
    Hibernum_JC Posts: 318 Mover and Shaker
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    Keegan wrote:
    Hibernum_JC wrote:
    Hi folks! Today’s the last preview update for Battle for Zendikar!

    How dare you all take a weekend icon_e_biggrin.gif

    Thanks for the previews, looking forward to the release.

    Thanks icon_e_smile.gif And you're welcome, I hope you guys enjoy it! It feels pretty different than what the original release plays like, and this is much faster and hopefully more interesting.
  • loroku
    loroku Posts: 1,014 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Hibernum_JC wrote:
    As for the final card preview - let me introduce Akoum Firebird!
    That is a seriously Mythic card. You have absolutely set a new benchmark, I agree!
  • Unknown
    Unknown
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    Recognizing the disappointment with Origins Mythics, does this now mean that you will be buffing those are disappointments?
  • nexus13
    nexus13 Posts: 191 Tile Toppler
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    Will there be further details on how converge works? For example if I've filled out a card with red and there is one mana left and I make a match that generates both red and green at the same time will the card get counted as having green added to it?
  • Rootbreaker
    Rootbreaker Posts: 396
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    Will there be a graphical interface to see what colors your converge hard has stored in it?
  • Keegan
    Keegan Posts: 284 Mover and Shaker
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    kore wrote:
    Recognizing the disappointment with Origins Mythics, does this now mean that you will be buffing those are disappointments?

    Now now, the quote is that they recognize that Origins Mythics are very technical and don't seem very useful. There's no admission of disappointment because those Mythics behave exactly as intended in the story/Heroic games. Outside of those one or two off uses, then they become useless icon_e_biggrin.gif
  • LordWill
    LordWill Posts: 341
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    Thanks for the preview! It was definitely welcomed!

    I do have one question...

    Are you hoping to do 1 BIG patch a month? Or more split them out over the month?
  • Morphis
    Morphis Posts: 975 Critical Contributor
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    Converge looks... Strange at least.
    I do not know how it is going to actually work in game cause in this game you cannot(almost) control mana flow.
    What I mean is how is it going to be balanced?
    To be able to fill with more colors you need it to be medium costed at the very least(10 or more mana) or else there is no chance at higher levels in getting the converge bonus.
    The fact itself that getting higher pwalker level is "penalizing" converge is a sign of a problem.

    Also to be honest new mythics are way better balanced(taking in account how hard is to get it) in mana cost than almost all basic ones. I just hope this game does not develop into "new expansion, huge op cards" making old ones completely useless.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
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    Yea converge is...well, doesn't seem like a mechanic many people would bend over to use, more of a "bonus" type of thing.

    The bird looks very good, since we apparently have a real graveyard will multiple "dead" copies (or a dead reinforced copy) res all of them, or only res 1? And if it dies again, will it die as multiple copies, or only 1?
  • ChrisTot
    ChrisTot Posts: 167
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    pandabear wrote:
    Yea converge is...well, doesn't seem like a mechanic many people would bend over to use, more of a "bonus" type of thing.

    The bird looks very good, since we apparently have a real graveyard will multiple "dead" copies (or a dead reinforced copy) res all of them, or only res 1? And if it dies again, will it die as multiple copies, or only 1?

    Hey, if we're getting a real graveyard perhaps we'll get a real update to Skaab Goliath? One can dream.
  • Meto5000
    Meto5000 Posts: 583
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    ChrisTot wrote:
    Hey, if we're getting a real graveyard perhaps we'll get a real update to Skaab Goliath? One can dream.

    Skaab Goliath: A card so bad you need to have already cast 2 other terrible creatures first before it even makes sense to cast this one.
  • rulerhumankind
    rulerhumankind Posts: 47
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    Skaab Goliath would be a good card if it cost 5 mana instead of 13, making it actually worthy of the mythic rank. It would also need the AI to know how to cast it properly, intead of it hitting the table, then blowing up the second it lands.
    It is funny to run into a deck that is trying to use it, seeing the AI spend 3 turns building for an epic card, then watching it die.

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