In the absence of FIRE REIGN 2, I am going to pick up where he left off. That is, I'm going to continue the Exit 267 articles. What are those? You know, rumors and info on the latest set that's summarized in an article format for everyone to enjoy! Join me as I walk down all of the known and rumored information for Planar Chaos.

First off, let me say the majority of this information was compiled originally by members over at MTGSalvation (MTGS) and also found and discussed at MTGS. Many thanks go to the dedicated members over there for providing me with fuel for this article. To make things more interesting than just a summary, I will make sure to put my own spin on things. As always, if you know of any additional information not mentioned, please post it in the MDV forums.

At some point, before Time Spiral ever hit the shelves, Mark Rosewater (MaRo) from Wizards of the Coast (WotC) said Time Spiral was going to "blow our minds."

Speaking first hand, it did.

Time Spiral brought us awesome new cards, surprising Time-shifted cards and a new way to bring back cards from the Reserved List. Never has there been as many powerhouse cards in limited and standard tournament formats and never has there been a plethora of viable deck types. Not that I personally care about those, but my point is this. WotC finally brought us something worth writing home about.  Every player type can enjoy the set -- even the old ones.

BUT! How can they follow it up? Will it be just another rehash of what they did in the main set? Doubtful. Based on the information we have thus far, and the rumors, of course, there are going to be several spins and even surprises that we don’t know about yet. (Hence, the surprise...)

Planar Chaos is set to release on February 2nd, 2007 with Pre-release tournaments on January 20th, 2006. MagictheGathering.com previews start on January 8th. That means we are less than a month away from WotC previews, and less than two months away from the release of Planar Chaos. These are exciting times. I personally am as hyped for Planar Chaos as I was and still am for Time Spiral.

Below is the Time Spiral logo and the symbol.

I’m not a big fan of the set symbol, but the logo is mighty beautiful. I suppose they were trying to simulate the links of time being broken in the symbol.  Sorry I had to shrink the logo a bit, but the I had to mimimize many of the images in an effort to cater to those still on dial up (you poor, poor souls).

More Technical Information.

This is set two of three in the Time Spiral block, there are 165 cards and the code name was 'Crackle'. The design team for the set includes Matt Place, Mark Rosewater and Paul Sottosanti. The development team includes Devin Low, Zvi Mowshowitz, Brian Schneider, Henry Stern and Mike Turian.

Planar Chaos, despite the past theme of Time Spiral, will be about the present except in an alternate reality type present. That is, picture now if something had gone different last year. That difference shaped the present into an entirely different state. That’s like what Planar Chaos will feel and embody

There will also be Timeshifted cards but not like Time Spiral’s Timeshifted cards. Time Spiral will have the only purple rarity cards in the block and thus Planar Chaos’s Timeshifting cards will have normal rarities (i.e. common, uncommon, rare). There will be 45 Timeshifted cards in Planar Chaos, according to this promotional article.

Planar Chaos will also feature the following:

• Many familiar cards, themes and mechanics except with the ‘altered reality’ theme running through them (such as color, type and execution).
• Popular mechanics will return.
• Creatures from the past will return.
• Block mechanics will be further developed. Those mechanics include Suspend, Flash and Split-Second.
• More legendary cards. MTGS notes that some will be familiar or unfamiliar (sometimes both at once).

Could flip cards be coming back? There's nothing certain about it, but with the ‘sometimes both at once’ comment for legendary cards, anything is possible.  As far as the other features of the set, developing new mechanics is nothing new.  Neither is creatures of the past or popular mechanics of the past.  However, in this block, creatures of the past means anything from Norritts to Kobolds to Avizoa's!  Not that I have any confirmation of any of the those...  At least we know there will be more Merfolk in our future.

Previously, this is where FIRE REIGN 2 discussed and presented the main speculations and rumors about the set. While there aren’t any confirmed cards to discuss at this time, there are plenty of pretty pictures to gawk at, including some of the preconstructed deck images and product images.

After you…

1. Planar Chaos Novel Art

The following book cover art shows an excellent image. It’s obvious that Karn is shown in the background – possibly two different personalities of him.  Note that one of his backgrounds looks like the Tolarian Academy. Then in the front you see a wizard of sorts, possibly an artificer on what could be a time machine. MTGS believes it to be Venser. Venser has only been referenced on a Magic card once, and that card is Venser’s Sliver. Nothing terribly character developing if you ask me.

2. Planar Chaos Prerelease Ad – Featuring a red Akroma???

While the following image has been floating around for a little while longer than the Magazine has been out, the following is on the back cover of Inquest from December 2006. On it you can clearly see the Planar Chaos logo, the dates for the Prerelease Events and a picture of what could be Akroma. It sure looks like her!

Many have speculated that this is in fact Akroma, except a very red version of her. Perhaps the rage she felt when chasing Phage lead her to this particular color. Who knows. It’s fun to entertain. Then there’s the PLAYPLANARCHAOS.COM web address at the bottom of the ad. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this, the link just takes you to the www.wizards.com homepage.

3. Dragon to Unseat Niv-Mizzet!?

Back in July of this year, Matt Cavotta mentioned in an article on www.wizards.com that "Planar Chaos has [a dragon] that could possibly unseat [Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind]." And thus, there is definitely going to be a powerful and beautiful dragon in Planar Chaos. The following image could possibility be it.

This image was found in the December issue of Inquest. While the above image doesn't show this, I have a copy of that Inquest and there is some additional information on the promotion.  In January's issue of Inquest they will provide exclusive preview cards for Planar Chaos, alternate timelines and new mechanics. New mechanics? How could there be even more NEW mechanics? We'll have to wait and see.  Perhaps they are just referring to the resurgence of old mechanics into the set.

4. Suspended Fireball?

Ertai's Meddling plus a Fireball Effect?  Sounds like fun. WotC released an early sneak peak piece of art from Planar Chaos earlier this year shown below.

You've got to feel sorry for that salt plains guy with the staff.

5. Foreign PRECON Images!

Below is a picture of the four preconstructed decks from Planar Chaos.

The precons, as translated from Japanese and German, are as follows:

Endless March (R/W)
Ixidor's Legacy (U)
Ritual of Rebirth (W/G/B)
Twisted Mind (B/R)

Notice that the B/R precon shows what we think is the vampiric Mirri art. The Endless March shows what could possibly be Viashino. Ixidor's Legacy shows what might be an alternate version of Ixidor himself. Ritual Of Rebirth shows a dragon of some kind -- who it could be is beyond me at this point. Whatever the arts really show, they all look fantasic.

6. Product Shots! WEEE!

Below is a picture of product including what looks like the fat pack contents. There's some new art on the box behind the card dividers, the card dividers and the booster packs.

Then we have more product shots below.  Can you make out what the picture on the box is???

How's about with a blow-up below?

Is it a dragon?  A Sliver?  A drake?  A sliver-dragon-drake?  Take your best guess, because the collective of the internet still can't tell for sure.

7. Booster Pack images.

Below are some close ups and zoom-ins of booster pack images. The first shows the cat I will be mentioning below. The second shows what could possibly be Radha, the half-elf Keldon (from the book cover of Time Spiral) and the third shows someone dark... ?

8. Possibly Jedit? A Cat Warrior...

The following image is from an announcement on a Japanese site showing a cat warrior. Some speculate that it shows Jedit while others think it to be Jaegar.  I don't know about you, but I have NO CLUE who Jaeger is.

The smaller image is that from the booster packs. Despite this, it is still very unclear who this really is, assuming it's legendary. One thing for sure: It's a tiger and not a cow. *grin*

9. Rumor has it... Black gets crazy! 

One of the MTGS moderators was contacted back in November from an anonymous source saying that there will be:

• A Black counterspell that says "Counter target spell unless the spell's caster pays 4 life".
• A Black Time Walk varient that says "Take another turn after the next unless an opponent pays half their life"
• A Magus of the Coffers that doubles black mana for swamps!

While none of this information is confirmed, it sure is entertaining to think about. It's a shame I'm not a huge fan of black else I would talk about this more.

10. Bleeding, Blinded Knight???

Below is a picture of what appears to be a red knight originally found in a Diamond Comic and posted on MTGS.

The original image wasn't very clear but the image above is a much clearer and awesome find. In the picture it looks as though both the knight and the horse are blinded. Why this is, I don't know. It has been speculated that the art is a RED Knight along the lines of a White or Black Knight. It could be a hybrid card, a gold card or just a good 'ol red knight. Make your own calls on this guy.

11. Blue Braids? Vampiric Mirri? More slivers!?!?

More tidbits were submitted to a MTGS staff member from an anonymous source. While this information isn't confirmed at all, the fact that the vampiric Mirri is shown on one of the boosters is a good indicator that some or all of this is true. Here are the tidbits:

• There will be a cycle of off-color legends.
• Mirri will be a black cat vampire.
• Crovax will be white and have 'whte creatures get +1/+1. Nonwhite creatures get -1/-1."
• Braids will be blue.
• A cycle of slivers that have off-color abilities (green gives haste, black - first strike and red - sac: draw a card).
• New mechanic called vanishing which uses time counters on permanents. According to the same source Vanishing is basically fading but it can do a few more things depending on the card. For instance, a 3/1 with vanishing 3. When the last time counter s removed, sacrifice it and put a 6/2 flying insect token into play.
• Suspend cards with triggers on removing a counter. Like WX: Suspend X -- Whenever a time counter is removed, put a creature token into play and the actual card is a creature with P/T "equal to the number of tokens".
• A cycle of multicolor dragons very similar to invasion ones (6/6 with abilities on combat damage). The green one has pay 2G on combat damage to put 6 +1/+1 counters on it. Black one has 2B to reanimate a creature.

That's quite a bit of information to digest, for a rumor. I'm just excited about more slivers and revisited legends in different colors. Note that most of the above was quoted (for lack of better paraphrasing) from MTGS. Also note that Aaron Forsythe hinted in a previous article of his on www.wizards.com that tpermanents will be using time counters in either PC or FS.

12. Consecrate Dragon???

A recent rumor is that of a picture someone received in a promotional email from WotC. This has not been confirmed, but some think it is either a Consecrate Land(Dragon) like card, or another cool Dragon Timeshifted into current MTG existence.

I just like the art.

I’m sorry to say this, but that’s all I’ve got for now. I hope I have enlightened you on the rumors and speculations of the upcoming set, Planar Chaos. Remember, the majority of this is just rumor and speculation. We don’t really get anything official until January 8th. And as previously mentioned, that’s less than a month away!

Can you taste the flavor of Planar Chaos?

Streetz

P.S. Just because I can, here are two Planar Chaos decks! *GRIN*

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.

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