The races have started to spread out, exploring the world, some of them encountering each other for the first time. Trade was established, knowledge was shared, but old animosities have flared. The planeswalkers of Sithas have become aware of each other and the strange force that holds them to this plane. In the goblin city of Barkus, King Barkus and his son Grimtooth the Chosen wield the insidious power of Soul Slayer, a sword crafted by Hearteater and The Hag to cut life off from the Vitae and syphon it into Soul Slayers wielder instead. Mad with it's power, Grimtooth stands at the head of a growing army of goblins, ogres, hobgoblins, trolls and orcs that bide their time and wait for the right moment to strike. In Eldun Forest, Lady Theranji has gathered a group of heroes that may have a chance at defeating Hearteater. Lucas Tulgan, Kurdar, Beauregard, Brimstone Sal, Gregor Runeweaver and Millicent Walker, aided by Lady Theranji and Samson Oldoak are gathering items to aid them in their quest to enter Athrad Angren and confront Hearteater. In Ravenblight, the Tears are spitting out unholy demons at an alarming rate as Septimus attempts to hold back the denizens of The Shroud from reaching their undead master, Malhedra, imprisoned deep under Ravenblight. Maldrus, the human city has become a hot bed of political intrigue. The Clan of the Spider, a rich and powerful guild of wizards loyal to Malhedra have integrated themselves into all levels of government and are doing their best to undermine human resistance. The Shroud, a world wide even of supernatural horror, sweeps across the land of Sithas more frequently now, and with longer duration, and bringing with it bloodthirsty demons and natural disasters like earthquakes and flooding. The races of Sithas are scared. Tensions are high. The races are buckling down, drawing their lines in the sand and quick to violence to protect themselves and their homes from the inevitable storm that is coming. The Hag is gleefully in her element, stirring trouble wherever she can. Samson continues to try and manipulate events to save the world. Through it all, Hearteater sits on the Throne of Athrad Angren, lost in his madness and burning desire for revenge, toying with the idea of destroying Sithas once and for all...
Design Notes:
Sithas: Rising Storms is the second set of the Sithas Block (of 3).
When I released the first set, Sithas, I never realized how organized and thought out NGA Constructed/Limited was. I made what I thought was a cool set and released it. I quickly learned a lot from the comments directed to me. I have taken the things I learned from Sithas and applied them here to Sithas: Rising Storms. I was very careful with each card. I have agonized over lots of minor details like race, class, each point of toughness and power, mana costs and how each card could affect the limited environment. However, making sets that are actually balanced is a very difficult thing to do. I am sure, despite my attempts at making it perfect, I have failed somewhere.
Resonance has returned and has a minor tweak to the wording which I think makes it more succinct, thanks to Mown and his Threnody mechanic. I have pushed the power level on Resonance to the uncommon rarity for this set. There is one Resonance uncommon for each color.
With the first set of the block I was more concerned with Flavor than anything else, and because of that there was color bleed. I'm not against color bleed, but Sithas had to much, and I know now that when designing functioning sets, flavor is important, but function should dictate where it should be used. There is still a little bleed in this set, but I used it where I felt it would help the set instead of just where I thought it would be cool. As I was designing this set I came across cards or posted ideas that other people designed or extrapolated on. I have borrowed a few of these designs and included them in the set. Thanks goes to Ty, Rush and Altimis for this. If you do not want me using your designs, please let me know and I will replace them with a card that is almost exactly the same.
I have included design notes on a card by card basis if you are interested. Please, take the time to review these cards and let me know where you think I can make changes.
New Mechanics:
*Basic Land Type*home(Whenever a *basic land type* enters the battlefield under your control you may untap this creature.)
This mechanic is obviously a re-designed landhome from old school magic. The old mechanic has been retired and I saw no reason why I wouldn't redesign it. I wanted a mechanic that showcased the sense of territory and "home" base mentality that prevails in Sithas. The races are very segregated and its getting worse, not better. It is similar to landfall of course, but I wanted a nice simple mechanic that was easy to grok and could play nicely at all rarity levels and in all colors.
Bloodied —When this creature is damaged, if it doesn’t have a bloodied counter, put a bloodied counter on it.
I wanted a mechanic that could flavorfully show the skirmishes and beginnings of warfare that are starting to break out across the world, and how the races are ready to strike back against those that would attack them. It has a nice tension to it and plays well at all rarity levels. Bloodied appears in all colors, but it is mostly a green and red mechanic.
Subvert(Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player mills that many cards.)
This mechanic went through a million changes. It is now nothing even close to what it was (it used to provide protection from cards in graveyards, then is made cards cost more for each copy in graveyards.) I really wanted a blue/black mechanic that had the flavor of undermining a players power base. This was the simpilest interation and it played nicely at all rarity levels again. I really wanted something more flavorful than 'mill', but that verbage is very familiar to magic players so I think is the easiest to grok. If I had used a different word, people would have had to read it and then said "oh...its just mill." If anyone has a better idea please give me suggestions. I realize that the damage from many of these creatures would kill a player long before the milling would, but I have designed the set to play well with Subvert in many cases.
Berserk (If this creature would be destroyed, it is destroyed at the beginning of the next end step instead) Resonance (You may cast this from your graveyard as you cast another spell with the same name. If a spell cast this way would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.) and Settle (lands equipping lands) all return.
Perfect originality is overrated and often ugly. The best and most beautiful cards I've ever seen were clearly inspired by something else. Cards are not entirely unlike living organisms in this regard. All the good ones are a result of long evolution; the 'original' ones are either mono-cellular or mutant aberrations.
Cato
A true warrior seeks out the greatest foe. Their heart cries out for glorious battle, heedless even to its own end.
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