Alara Reborn - Spoilers

by **Nyth** » 09 Mar 2009, 07:00

Today saw our first Alara Reborn preview card (with no rules text) spoiled.
And they've specifically told us to speculate.
So here it is:

I'll just point out things as I see them:

Ardent Plea is a Gold card
It is numbered 1 out of 145 in the Alara Reborn set
TM & (C) 1993-2009 Wizards of the Coast L.L.C. is now the current signoff for all new MTG products
Chippy has only been commissioned to do Esper art thus far in this block
The character in the image seems to be Elspeth Tirel. Her sword, armour and cloak match. Her earrings have changed and her dark hair is uncovered to show Leia-esque buns.
A Bant looking castle burns in the background while Elspeth is kneeling amongst the ruins of another.

And there are a few schools of thought on this one:

All of Alara Reborn will be Gold coloured (apart from uncoloured artifacts). If this is the case, this will mean no coloured one mana costed cards can exist.
Wizards have decided to change the way they number the cards and are putting Gold cards before WUBRG.
Wizards have decided to change the way they number the cards and are doing the whole set alphabetically.
Potentially, Elspeth is offering up her sword and/or power to Asha. This might be an offering in the hopes of returning Bant to the glory she remembers.

Any other speculations?

by **extreme** » 09 Mar 2009, 09:08

i think i agree with all the set being gold (plus artifacts or lands eventually). The probability of AR- being the first alphabetically is pretty slim, R is quite far.

by **Nyth** » 12 Mar 2009, 07:24

That's it. Another announcement on Wizards' Magic Arcana today clinches the deal and enforces my previous suspicions.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/144

As mentioned in the article...

Alara Reborn Fat Packaging wrote:A spiffy gold-colored Alara Reborn Spindown Life Counter, available only in this Fat Pack

At this stage, there's no doubt that Alara Reborn is an all gold set.

No one drops... Could be interested in Limited but I've just realised how jarring it will be to the eyes when cracking open a booster and seeing all gold...

by **chaudakh** » 23 Mar 2009, 13:57

Here are the prerelease and release cards in French, with homemade English translation :

Broodmother Dragon (??)
Creature --- Dragon
Flying
At the beginning of each upkeep, put a 1/1 red and green Dragon creature token with flying and devour 2 into play.

Knight of the New Alara
Creature --- Human Knight
Each other multicolored creature you control gets +1/+1 for each of its colors.

(sources : MtGSalvation)