Obviously a three set expansion, there seems to be rumors of another, given the code names for the block and the 'summer set' being Peanut-Butter-Jelly-Sandwich.
Lorwyn predictions and TIME SPIRAL SPOILERS, I suppose...
Some early speculation I've thought of makes me wonder just WHAT is going to happen in Lorwyn, here. By this point in the storyline, most of the major characters ever introduced in Magic are either dead, resigned, or done with the multiverse.
There are seriously not very many people left, leaving mainly Karn, Venser, and Jeska as notable Planeswalkers. Yawgmoth's gone, Urza's dead, Teferi has no spark... Obviously, Time Spiral is the end of the 'first' saga of Magic.
Which leaves us this NEXT block. Of which we have little more then a name and some possible mechanics thanks to FS Timeshifts. A name that sounds much more green, much more lively, much more... Elven, I suppose. What could this mean, in a block that will probably start the next, whole new saga in the Magic storyline.
Certainly, it will share some mechanics with Time Spiral; the interconnected block structure guarantees that. But as for storyline... that will me another matter entirely. Will we see more of Venser's 'new' type of Planeswalker? Will Mirrodin, Kamigawa, and Ravinca be finally fit into the puzzle of their place in the grand scheme of things? Will we even still be inside the Shard?
Well, it looks like Tarmogoyf wasn't joking. Planeswalkers are coming to Magic! Like, for reals, in real card form.
Here's what we know so far. First, they seem to be actual, regular cards, complete with colors and mana costs. There seems to be five of them, most likely a cycle of each color. Planeswalker is a new Type, not Supertype or subtype, so it gets to stand with land, creature, instant, and them.
The jury still seems to be out, however, on how they work or what interactions with other cards there are. For example, Tribal, the other new card type, MUST be placed on cards with other Types, and cannot stand alone. So... its only kinda sorta a new type. I suspect that its highly likely we'll more Tribal cards in Lorwyn, as it sounds like, by all intents, that the block will be a tribal block.
Maybe they are trying something completely new. Maybe try something like Magi Nation and the Planeswalker cards are like the Wizards. They will power up your forces somehow and be able to do something else?
Also Magi Nation is supposed to be coming back. I enjoyed playing it with Art and Ant.
If a Devil is one who dares, when others hold back, then I am happy to play the Devil in this Mystery, boy.
William, bitten by wolf, became the most powerful Lycan.
Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says OOOOOOOOOO!
More information on the tribal elements of Lorwyn. First, there appears to be eight main races, some of which we already know. We've got evil Elves, mischivious Boggarts (goblins, most likely), Merrow (which are merfolk, but they live in rivers. No oceans on Lorwyn!), Kithkin, and Elementals. Giants have also been mentioned, while I'm certain Fairies are a shoe in, and I've also heard rumors of Treefolk getting a resurgence.
If this information is true, it corrolates on one rather intresting peice of info that I've noticed thus far. It's a tribal block, but all hints so far point to one intresting bit; No humans! This is pretty big, as humans have all been center points of all Magic blocks so far, for good reason. You generally require humans so the audience has someone to connect to, but there hasn't been a human in any peice of spoiler art I've seen yet.
How intresting...
Edit: Aaron Forsythe confirms my suspicions! Woot, I totally called it!
How does this apply to Lorwyn? With the race-class model firmly in place now, we aren't treating the two as interchangeable from a flavor standpoint (as Onslaught did—the races Goblin, Elf, and Beast meant the same thing as the classes Wizard, Soldier, and Cleric). Lorwyn deals with race only... and Human isn't one of the races. Using the setting conceived by the creative team, we managed to dodge the issue of making cards that referred to Humans. The word "Human" won't be on a single type line in the set, and I'm sure you'll agree with me that it's better that way. Once you immerse yourself in Lorwyn you'll see that humans just wouldn't fit.
Ok, looks like Wizards just released the first of the Planeswalker's cards, Liliana Vess.
Ok, we know a few things at this point. Planeswalkers can be attacked, the same way a player would attack another player. If this happens, you can have you creatures block for a Planeswalker that is on your side; ie, you control. If the Planeswalker takes damage, they loose that much Loyalty (the number in the bottom right, most likely). No word if that can be pinged or Lightning Bolted, but… I would imagine it’s not terribly likely.
From here, it’s a tad speculative, though it’s not a terribly large leap. I'm guessing that Vess' first ability will increase her current Loyalty, while the second and third abilities can only be used if you have that much Loyalty built up. I can assume that each ability can only be used once each turn, probably only at the beginning of your upkeep. You likely will only be able to activate one Planeswalker ability from one a card each turn. And since they are a permanent, I imagine once they have zero or less Loyalty, they go to the graveyard, though they could be removed from game. Flavor-wise, that makes sense, as they really don't want anything to do with you or this plane anymore.
One last bit, and that is Vess' subtype. I am assuming a couple things about Planeswalkers here. The first is that you can have more then one out in play. The second, I am guessing that the subtype is a variant of the Legend rule, and there can only be one of each Planeswalker on the field at a time. There may be different versions of Liliana Vess, for example, all of which would have the subtype "Liliana".
