Rise of the Eldrazi Will Bring an Ominous End to Zendikar
So far, we don’t know much about the Eldrazi other than that they made a weird monument that bestows awesome power, yet requires brutal sacrifice. Now we know a little more — next April, they will rise. With the tag line, “And Carnage Shall Follow,” we can assume things won’t be pleasant for planeswalkers when Rise of the Eldrazi is released.
Rise of the Eldrazi will be the third and final set of Zendikar block (the second set, Worldwake, will be released in February). Unlike most third sets, Rise will be a large set. If you’re unfamiliar with Magic’s release schedules, each set fits into a “block” of three sets. The first of each block is a large set, followed by two smaller sets (literally, the smaller sets have fewer cards in them). Rise of the Eldrazi being a large set simply means more cards (about 100). It also means drafting and sealed formats in Zendikar block will be a little different. Rise will stand alone in that regard — once all the sets are out, you’ll draft Zendikar and Worldwake together, but Rise won’t mix with those other sets.
Why the format change? Apparently, Rise differs in theme and mechanics from the other two sets, so it made sense to have it stand alone. In order to do that effectively, it had to be a large set. There’s precedent for mucking around with the release format, of course: Lorwyn block was really two mini blocks, each with one large and one small set.
Click for full size.
Ok, so now that all that business is out of the way, let’s start wildly speculating. Our sole contact with the Eldrazi so far has been Eldrazi Monument, a card I thought was pretty cool and recently made a big splash (and concomitant price jump) in a new tournament deck called Eldrazi Green (I’ve been referring to it as “Nissa Gone Wild”). The art shows us a strange, alien creature floating amidst an infinite field of floating Borg cubes. The flavor text quote offers an interesting clue: “Gods don’t die. They merely slumber.”
Now, the set symbol for Zendikar is one of the hedrons, those strange polyhedral monoliths seen floating all over the place. The Rise symbol is an open hedron. So is that where the Eldrazi have been hiding out? Who’s the fool who went and opened all the hedrons and lets the Eldrazi out?
Based on the two art teasers we have for Rise of the Eldrazi, the Eldrazi themselves are huge Lovecraftian (or Cloverfieldian) beasts with tentacles, bizarrely jointed arms and eyes in weird places. This leads one to suspect we’ll be getting some hugenormous mythic rare creatures in this set, but they’ll certainly have some steep cost to pay in terms of sacrifice, life loss, discard, and so on.
Finally, we have this image of Sorin Markov and Nissa Revane apparently cooperating, which is interesting. Click the image for a nice widescreen desktop wallpaper I put together (Robot Viking exclusive!). Are they working with those freaky Eldrazi standing behind them, or against them? All I know is, giant elder gods with tentacles are awesome.
Don’t forget to stop by TrollandToad.com to get all the Zendikar singles, boosters and boxes you need.
Click for full size wallpaper (large file).
Related posts:
November 17th, 2009 8:02 PM
Ia! Ia! Eldrazi ftaghn!
November 17th, 2009 8:19 PM
Yea, I dunno any of the plot since they stopped putting books in fat packs, but I don’t think Vampires and elves get along too well.
November 17th, 2009 9:35 PM
Yeah, but if a bunch of giant Edlrazi things were going to stomp all vampires and elves into one indistinguishable pile of intermixed goo, do you think that might motivate them to set aside their differences and work together for a little while? I don’t get the impression that Sorin is a depraved being of unreasoning evil, nor an evil being of unreasoning depravity. He’s just, you know…a vampire.
Maybe they’ll reprint Elves of Deep Shadow (again)?
November 17th, 2009 10:37 PM
It seems a bit early for that, but who knows what the plot will be. Sorin looks pretty damn Lawful evil to me, but I don’t know anything about him. Is there some sort of Magic wiki I could use to find this stuff?
EDIT: I found one, and Sorin is apparently the good guy. Didn’t see that coming.
November 18th, 2009 1:26 AM
I kinda wish he was more depraved. He and Liliana make a nice couple in the mono-black control deck.
November 18th, 2009 2:05 PM
What does “looks Lawful Evil” mean? ARE WE PROFILING NOW?!?!
November 18th, 2009 3:47 PM
Black Aligned Vampire of the Dark Count sub genus who uses his powers to kill and control? In a world where Vampires are Neutral Evil at best? I’d say Lawful Evil is being nice.
Besides, Liliana has been moving away from the depraved thing recently. I can’t imagine they’d find all that much in common. Or maybe a bit too much.
November 18th, 2009 4:03 PM
I’m not proud to say this, but I would probably read Liliana/Sorin slash fiction.
November 20th, 2009 12:58 PM
Everyone knows that Jace/Garruk is where it’s at.