Ravnica Allegiance - Kaya

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We should like to yatter a bit about the very real possibility of the Planeswalker character Kaya appearing as a card in the next Magic: the Gathering set 'Ravnica Allegiance'.  This set features five of the bi-colored Ravnican guilds: Azorius (white / blue), Rakdos (black / red), Gruul (red / green), Simic (green / blue), and Orzhov (white / black) and is to release on January 25, 2019.

One of the first hints we saw was the cover of the 2019 Ravnica novel (to be published in April 2019), the first major paper novel in about eight years from author Greg Weisman.  The blurb describes the story of Chandra Nalaar, Jace Beleren, and Gideon Jura pitted against Bolas and his relentless army of Eternals.  The cover does show Gids and Chandra alongside an unkown (new) Planeswalker and what appears to be Kaya.

Our next hint was rather obvious.  This was from the recent Pro Tour in the form of a very lovely looking 'Top 16' playmat from Ultra PRO.  This shows quite undeniably Kaya, framed with the powerful upper echelon of the Orzhov Syndicate.  What is noticeably absent here are any of the members of the 'Ghost Council'.  From the Fiora storyline, we know her to be an Assassin of Ghosts - so not much stretch of the imagination as to what may have happened.

But how did we get here ?  This is pure speculation.

We know that a big showdown between the malevolent Bolas and the Gatewatch is to take place on Ravnica.  Bolas wants the Guilds to fall in line behind him, and those which do not, he needs to destroy or at least destabilize.  Ghosts, such as Brago (the King Eternal) are difficult to deal with or destroy, and the Orzhov do have a good number of these spirits. 

To this end, it does sound reasonable that Bolas employs Kaya to remove these bothersome spirits.  We assume that Kaya does this effectively and then perhaps realizes the evil despot that Bolas is and joins the Gatewatch crew as suggested by the novel cover.

As for the card itself, it is anyone's guess, but Kaya's
incorporeal powers suggest that one ability is to be able to exile the card (phased out from the game) and then return.  As for the other abilities, please do suggest with a comment below.
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Hour of Devastation Leak 6-01

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps, 

Just a few minutes ago, the very first cards of the upcoming Magic: the Gathering set 'Hour of Devastation' were leaked.  In total there were three new cards spoiled from the set, which is to be released July 14, 2017.  The source of the leaked spoilers was Wizards of the Coast themselves.  

The Standard Showdown splash page was updated - specifically, the French Language page (linked here) spotted by redditor LeftZer0.  We suspect that this was a mistake as Wizards posts previews in quite a different manner.  As the cards are out in the open now, and appear official as having come directly from WotC, let's have a look at them.

S P O L I E R S !

Turn back now if you do not want to see

X X X

Nicol Bolas is big and splashy, with a higher casting cost which delivers a total of FOUR abilities - two plus and two minus, all of which are powerful.

Nicol Bolas, God-Pharoah, 4UBR 

Planeswalker - Bolas, Mythic Rare 

[+2] : Target opponent exiles cards from the top of his or her library until he or she exiles a nonland card. Until end of turn, you may cast that card without paying its mana cost. 

[+1] : Each opponent exiles two cards from his or her hand. 

[-4] : Nicol Bolas, God-Pharoah deals 7 damage to target opponent or creature an opponent controls. 

[-12] :  Exile each nonland permanent your opponents control. 

[7] 

140/184, illustrated by Raymond Swanland


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Four mana Planeswalker with a starting loyalty of four.  The first two abilities appear to be decent and the third ability makes this an 'auto-include' in any 'superfriends' decklist.

Samut, the Tested, 2RG 

Planeswalker — Samut, Mythic Rare 

[+1] : Up to one target creature gains Double Strike until end of turn. 

[-2] : Samut the Tested deals 2 damage divided as you choose among one or two target creatures. 

[-7] : Search your library for up to two planeswalker and/or creature cards and put the onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library. 

[4] 

144/184, illustrated by Aleski Briclot

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DANG - Talk about a board wipe.  As as three mana reset is silly overpowered, this must come along with a considerable downside.  Having your lands tapped down until the next un-tap step we think is reasonable.

Bontu's Last Reckoning, 1BB 

Sorcery, Rare 

Destroy all creatures. Lands you control don't untap during your next untap step. 

To the last, Bontu wanted only to be among the first of the God-Pharoah's subjects. 


040/184, illustrated by Victor Adame Minguez 
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