Exclusive – A First Look at Magic: The Gathering’s Brand New Lotus
IGN is excited to reveal two new cards from Magic: The Gathering’s next set, Dominaria United. We’ve got the first look at a new rare merfolk creature with kicker called Vodalian Mindsinger, as well as the latest in a long and storied line of Lotus artifacts with a mythic rare called Timeless Lotus.
Both cards are visible in the gallery below, and you can flip through to see each one individually.
Timeless Lotus is a five-mana Legendary Artifact that enters the battlefield tapped and can tap to add five mana, one of each color. That’s a ton of mana to come from a single mana rock like this, though the high cost and tapped entry do slow it down significantly. The two closest comparisons that came to my mind were Gilded Lotus, which is another lotus that costs five and taps for three mana of a single color (without entering tapped), and Jegantha, the Wellspring, a five-mana creature that also taps for one of each color but with a restriction on how it can be spent.
The lotus has always been a symbol of raw power in Magic, tracing its lineage back to the game’s most iconic (and most expensive) card from the very first set: Black Lotus. I could go into its history, but if you’re interested in learning more I’d highly recommend this video from YouTuber Rhystic Studies expertly breaking down its significance, as well as this recent one from Magic designer Gavin Verhey digging into all the times the lotus has made its way back onto a card.
Our other preview card, Vodalian Mindsinger, is sure to make many a merfolk fan happy. It’s a 2/2 blue Merfolk Wizard for three-mana that lets you take control of a creature with power less than its own for as long as you control it. The kicker is that it literally has kicker, letting you pay one and a red, one and a green, or both to have it enter the battlefield with two or four +1/+1 counters on it, raising the cost but also growing its size to allow you to steal bigger things. It’s just a shame that the kicker’s red mana-pip means this won’t be playable in the vast majority of merfolk-themed commander decks.
Wizards of the Coast also previously announced that original cards from the 1994 set Legends will be hiding in Collector booster packs, which leaves an opportunity to open some extremely rare cards in you’re lucky. And in unrelated Magic news, WOTC also revealed just last week that the card game would be getting a Doctor Who crossover late next year.
Tom Marks is IGN’s Deputy Reviews Editor. He enjoys card games, puzzles, platformers, puzzle-platformers, and plenty more.
Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook
Original Source
