As One Planeswalker Exits, Three New Ones Arrive
Jace, the Mind Sculptor is no longer with us (in Standard), but there are always more wizards willing to stride the pathways between the planes. Who are these new planar adventurers?
First up is Ral Zarek. He’s the most speculative of the bunch. Someone on the MTGSalvation message boards dug the information out of the game files on the new Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 (review forthcoming). Little is known about him other than his name, but we can infer a fair amount.
Based on the clothing and electromechanical/steampunk paraphernalia, there’s a lot of speculation that he’ll be a blue/red Planeswalker, the colors of the Izzet Guild in Ravnica (there’s some argument as to whether he’s standing in front of a Ravnican cityscape or a gothic city in the upcoming Innistrad set). I can pretty much confirm that he’ll be in Izzet colors — check out this Izzet styleguide image from MTGWiki. It’s a close match.
Next up we have the new blue/green Planeswalker, Kiora Atua (further confirming that Ral is Izzet — they seem to be pushing enemy-colored Planeswalkers). Kiora is official, she appears in Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012. We have no idea what her abilities are. Her deck in DotP12 has an aquatic theme, and focuses heavily on fetching lands out of your library, then casting huge beasties. I’d expect something like, “-1: search your library for a basic land and put it into play tapped, then shuffle your library.” Check out the amazing full-size art.
Finally, there’s yet another version of Jace. I really hate Jace. The only version I want of Jace is one that’s like that video of Tyrion slapping Joffrey for ten minutes straight. I’ll let Roger Daltrey explain Jace 3.0: “Meet the new Jace! Worse than the old Jace!”
Actually, make that four new Planeswalkers. This October, the Innistrad set will come out, and it’s all but guaranteed to include a new version of Liliana Vess. One more reason I’m very excited about Innistrad.
June 24th, 2011 9:12 AM
Who is the artist on that Ral piece?
June 24th, 2011 10:41 AM
Yeah, I have to say that Ral guy looks pretty awesome. you can just feel his cockiness. And lots of glowing blueness must mean he’s pretty powerful too.
June 24th, 2011 12:52 PM
Because that image hasn’t been officially released, there’s no artist credit on Ral yet. Speculation is that it looks like the work of Aleksi Briclot, who has done most of the Planeswalker art.
June 24th, 2011 12:53 PM
Hmmm… I knew suspenders were going to come back into style.
June 25th, 2011 1:30 PM
I’d like to reiterate my speculation that Innistrad is Ravnica Returns. Lilianna is on Ravnica the first time you see her in the novels, and Ravnican archtecture, especially Orzhov, is in the background of the promo. On the subject of Jace, screw the anime haired emo kid. Give me more Venser!