SO.

Someone I follow on twitter (@vronos) noticed that Ludevic (accidentally) got a blurb as a character on Innistrad's page on the mothership. They only do this for characters, so between this and someone on reddit realizing it linked to a gatherer ID that doesn't exist yet, Ludevic is definitely a character in C16

https://i.reddituploads.com/67856ddeb68 ... 56d8245398

I'm guessing UBRG
Scientist (U) who uses dead matter (B) to illicit response from people (R) from the monsters he makes (G)

What do y'all think?
What do you want to see?

Four-coloured Ludevic sounds like a terrible idea.

What I REALLY want is a non-black Jodah, preferably one that tutors for legendary permanents (or at least creatures and planeswalkers). Having met all famous people, been at all important events in the Ice Age trilogy and knowing how to handle planeswalkers was what made him special after all.

Yeah, I'm with Pavor, four color Ludevic sounds like a huge misstep. Maybe he'll be three colors and a secondary commander in the same vein as Basandra.

Ludevic might be one of the "Sub-commanders" they often do, like Basandra, Battle Seraph in Kaalia of the Vast's deck. I could see him adding to the traditional Skaberen to distinct him from Gisa and Geralf and represent his mad inspiration/skaberen-as-artist tenancies.

Some classics I could see would be Jodah as non - (though he was more 5C), Marsil as non - (though again...), and Urza as non - (he needed serious help with that side of his Legacy, the least artifact-friendly color, and the only color he's not directly associated with by "Urza's something-or-other", or Word-of-Serra). All three could be creatures, depicting Urza pre-ascension. Non - and Non - are kind of eluding me right now... They always add some new figures though with the chaos of 4-color identities having touchstones could help. I suppose Jason Carthalion would be who I'd dredge up for Non - -- he was a centered mage, close friends with -aligned Freyalise, one of the founders of Kjeldor, and able to tap into the influence of Tevesh Szat at least enough to use Icequake. For forsaking , you want a being that's cold, hard, and dispassionate. Orderly and intellectual in the greatest order, but also selfish and 'natural'. Writing that out I think of the Moon King from Kubo and the Two Strings and wonder if there wasn't a kami somewhere who'd fit that description. Either that, or perhaps some uber-phyrexian (seeing as ultimately resisted/rejected core Phyrexian ideology while , intially a color to resist the hardest with , fell the farthest.)

I think the only in Jodah is the fact that he can access black mana and probably has some theoretical knowledge about it (because that's true of all colours). It's probably the least dominant part of his personality, and the only colour he doesn't frequently cast spells in. In fact, I don't think he ever really casts a black spell at all, except for Gate to Phyrexia, which he screws up because he uses white mana.

Mairsil on the other hand explicitly makes a show of being a 'rainbow mage' and all that, and it's even referenced again at the showdown of The Eternal Ice. Plus, he's quoted on Fellwar Stone. Yes, I know you know all that

I don't necessarily think Ludevic will be four-colored, but we'll see how it goes. It really depends on how many options they want to give, especially considering these will be the only legal choices for four-colored decks under stock Commander rules.

I agree that Ludevic will probably be a sub-commander like Geralf and Gisa before him.

I wonder if there will be any reprinted legends at all. I could see there being all new ones this time around. Something like one true four-colour legend, another one with a four-colour identity, e.g. due to activation costs or hybrid mana, and a 'secondary' commander that's three colours or something like that. Then again, the secondary commander could be the reprint. Which would leave Ludevic in a weird four-colour position. Hm.

Tevish's non- Jason Carthalion idea would be amazing. I think a lot of the pre-rev characters would be a good fit for four-colour, because colour identity wasn't as rigorously defined as it is today and characters were more likely to splash different colours in their spellcasting. Maybe they'll go crazy and somehow have Greensleeves in there, but I wouldn't exactly count on it...

Would be kinda crazy if the four-colour legends were legendary nephilim, but I guess they'd shy away from that because it would look a bit uninspired. Unless Ravnica 3 is around the corner and they'd end up being relevant for the story or something. Well, probably not.

I'm just hoping there's a wide array of exposure. Some Ravnica, some Theros, some Innistrad, some Zendikar, some Fiora, some Tarkir, Alara and so on. I'm assuming beside the 4-colors, it won't be anything TOO refreshing, as the last time that happened (Planeswalker Commanders) they got a lot of coverage prior to release.

Gods I hope we don't get the safety net planes AGAIN. No more Theros, no more Ravnica, no more Zendikar or Innistrad.

With 10-15 commanders, I hope some are sprinkled in. Especially when who knows the next opportunity for such characters/creatures. Shandalar too, Dominaria, and of course some unknown ones.

I suspect the sub commander will make use of the "Activated abilities count for determining the commander colors" rule.

Seriously, if she ends up appearing that would trump Feldon.

Has she ever been illustrated in any MTG related materials of old?

Besides novel covers?

I mean, Feldon was spot on, and the fact that the card's artwork is among my favourite pieces of MtG art ever helps, too. But the longer I think about it, the more I feel this round of decks would be an excellent place for some deep cuts from old lore, precisely because of what I said about many older characters having more colours than newer ones. I'm currently re-reading the Greensleeves trilogy (I'm halfway through the final volume now), but I'm not quite sure where exactly I'd put Greensleeves. Her core colour is , that much is obvious, and you can't do her without because she really cast a lot of red spells. The other three colours seem to be equally present in her spellcasting. feels like it should be in there because of the cause she's fighting for, so a Naya-coloured Greensleeves would probably work for me if she had to be three colours, and so would a five-coloured one because all colours are in there somehow, at least in terms of spellcasting and summoning. For a four-coloured deck, I'd probably go with a non- Greensleeves. I could understand if Creative didn't want to touch characters like Greensleeves or especially Garth One-Eye anymore, though, because their stories pretty heavily rely on a lot of pre-rev specific rules that don't mesh well with how magic and planeswalkers were portrayed in subsequent stories. You'd have to change quite a few things in those books to make sense of some of the events in there (that's also true of several novels from the post-Mending era now, though. Grumble grumble...). Still, a Greensleeves card would be cool, and it's not like the broad strokes of her story have been contradicted by the Revision.

I hope they'll find a way to break the symmetry of the deck cycles one day and do a five-coloured deck with a Taysir planeswalker commander, Mairsil the Pretender, and one of the existing five-colour legends as a reprint.

It's been a LONG time since I've done anything here, but I agree certainly hope older lore will be mined for the four color commanders. Jodah in particular stands out as a major character that never got a card, despite almost everyone else that appears in the novels having one. I'd put him in no-black, even though he probably knows how to use it he never employs it in the novels.

Edit: Apparently I never actually posted. I could have sworn I'd had an account here years ago.