Time Spiral - Orb of Insight Data Mining
Quotes from MaRo's latest column:
Just Teasing - Finally, I'm happy to announce that I've decided to start up an old tradition. Back in “Insider Trading” one of my old Duelist columns, I used to give a hint of the upcoming set by teasing you with a few pieces of information. These little nuggets were almost always incomplete and heavy on the teasing, but readers used to love them. I've had numerous people ask for me to start doing them again (including Scott), so I've decided to play along. Here, my faithful readers, are a few things that you'll find in Time Spiral:
(Card guesses are added after a "-" and are my own uneducated opinion)
* an angel that costs two mana (yes, that angel, and no she's not some wimpy 2/2) - Akroma + Suspend
* a female legend that players have been begging us to do for a long time - Jaya Ballard
* a new hermit with a love of tokens and an old keyword (but not the same one) - Deranged Hermit, pt. 2?
* a direct damage spell that can do 5 damage for a single red mana - A Goblin Grenade or Shrapnel Blast knockoff.
* a new Lotus (oh wait, you've already seen that one) - Yeah we have
* a Power Nine card with buyback - It's gotta be Timetwister, Timewalk, or Ancestral Recall. I'm going to guess the twister.
* a card with the word “squirrel” in its rules text - Oh dear. No clue.
* a legend who uttered one of the most popular lines of flavor text of all time - Jaya Ballard could qualify for this, too. XD
* and a cycle of artifact mana sources that turn into creatures from the Reserved List - The Chronatog Totem's already been posted. Any thoughts? Reserved List = things that will never be reprinted. Ever.
And finally, a few juicy card names for you to chew on:
* Liege of the Pit - Lord of the Pit redo?
* Magus of the Candelabra - The only Candelabra I know is Candelabra of Tawnos.
* Stuffy Doll - YAY!
* Vesuvan Shapeshifter - Vesuvan Doppleganger on crack?
* Wheel of Fate - Probably a Wheel of Fortune redo
Stuffy Doll as an actual card? *fighter pose* We have a winner!
Jaya Ballard is a card. The Orb doesn't search flavor text, and since "Jaya" and "Ballard" each appear 3 times. *dance!*
Mechanics we know are back:
This is just a count of the number of times a given word appears in card names or rules text. I don't know whether the Orb reads the reminder text or not...I'm going to assume that it does, though).
Buyback: 7 cards (because of how Buyback is templated, it is never mentioned more than once on a given card)
Echo: 13 cards (although this could just be because of card names)
Flanking: 21 times
Flashback: 23 times
Indestructible: 1 time
Morph: 18 times. So 9 critters with morph.
Shadow: 28 times
Split Second: 10 (10 instances of the word "split", 11 of "second". Ergo...)
Storm: 5 times
Suspend: 26 times. 26 cards with suspend? I am doubtful, but I wouldn't be surprised.
Keywords that come back with a 0: Affinity, arcane, phasing, ravnica keywords (guessing here, I haven't searched them all...someone feel free to prove me wrong). Suggest more for me to search, because I'm too lazy to hunt down ALL the damn mechanics.
These are just counts of words I felt like searching.
Academy: 1
Force: 2
Fungus: 12 (Goes along with Thallid)
Icatian: 1
Legendary: 20 (?!)
Mindstab: 1
Rebel: 8
Saproling: 12 (Goes with Thallids and god knows what else)
Sarpadian: 1 (Fallen Empires!)
Scarwood: 2
Sliver: 54
Slivers: 26 (These Don't overlap with "sliver")
Thallid: 14 (thallids return?! Oh god!)
Thelon: 1 (Fallen Empires reference, I think)
Thrull: 2 (I'm predicting Mindstab Thrull to make a return)
Tolarian: 1 (they wouldn't reprint this...would they?)
That's all for now. I'll edit/update more later.
Edit: Added in the count from Dar_Kun's comment.
Edit 2: Added Scarwood, Sarpadian, and Thelon
Just Teasing - Finally, I'm happy to announce that I've decided to start up an old tradition. Back in “Insider Trading” one of my old Duelist columns, I used to give a hint of the upcoming set by teasing you with a few pieces of information. These little nuggets were almost always incomplete and heavy on the teasing, but readers used to love them. I've had numerous people ask for me to start doing them again (including Scott), so I've decided to play along. Here, my faithful readers, are a few things that you'll find in Time Spiral:
(Card guesses are added after a "-" and are my own uneducated opinion)
* an angel that costs two mana (yes, that angel, and no she's not some wimpy 2/2) - Akroma + Suspend
* a female legend that players have been begging us to do for a long time - Jaya Ballard
* a new hermit with a love of tokens and an old keyword (but not the same one) - Deranged Hermit, pt. 2?
* a direct damage spell that can do 5 damage for a single red mana - A Goblin Grenade or Shrapnel Blast knockoff.
* a new Lotus (oh wait, you've already seen that one) - Yeah we have
* a Power Nine card with buyback - It's gotta be Timetwister, Timewalk, or Ancestral Recall. I'm going to guess the twister.
* a card with the word “squirrel” in its rules text - Oh dear. No clue.
* a legend who uttered one of the most popular lines of flavor text of all time - Jaya Ballard could qualify for this, too. XD
* and a cycle of artifact mana sources that turn into creatures from the Reserved List - The Chronatog Totem's already been posted. Any thoughts? Reserved List = things that will never be reprinted. Ever.
And finally, a few juicy card names for you to chew on:
* Liege of the Pit - Lord of the Pit redo?
* Magus of the Candelabra - The only Candelabra I know is Candelabra of Tawnos.
* Stuffy Doll - YAY!
* Vesuvan Shapeshifter - Vesuvan Doppleganger on crack?
* Wheel of Fate - Probably a Wheel of Fortune redo
Stuffy Doll as an actual card? *fighter pose* We have a winner!
Jaya Ballard is a card. The Orb doesn't search flavor text, and since "Jaya" and "Ballard" each appear 3 times. *dance!*
Mechanics we know are back:
This is just a count of the number of times a given word appears in card names or rules text. I don't know whether the Orb reads the reminder text or not...I'm going to assume that it does, though).
Buyback: 7 cards (because of how Buyback is templated, it is never mentioned more than once on a given card)
Echo: 13 cards (although this could just be because of card names)
Flanking: 21 times
Flashback: 23 times
Indestructible: 1 time
Morph: 18 times. So 9 critters with morph.
Shadow: 28 times
Split Second: 10 (10 instances of the word "split", 11 of "second". Ergo...)
Storm: 5 times
Suspend: 26 times. 26 cards with suspend? I am doubtful, but I wouldn't be surprised.
Keywords that come back with a 0: Affinity, arcane, phasing, ravnica keywords (guessing here, I haven't searched them all...someone feel free to prove me wrong). Suggest more for me to search, because I'm too lazy to hunt down ALL the damn mechanics.
These are just counts of words I felt like searching.
Academy: 1
Force: 2
Fungus: 12 (Goes along with Thallid)
Icatian: 1
Legendary: 20 (?!)
Mindstab: 1
Rebel: 8
Saproling: 12 (Goes with Thallids and god knows what else)
Sarpadian: 1 (Fallen Empires!)
Scarwood: 2
Sliver: 54
Slivers: 26 (These Don't overlap with "sliver")
Thallid: 14 (thallids return?! Oh god!)
Thelon: 1 (Fallen Empires reference, I think)
Thrull: 2 (I'm predicting Mindstab Thrull to make a return)
Tolarian: 1 (they wouldn't reprint this...would they?)
That's all for now. I'll edit/update more later.
Edit: Added in the count from Dar_Kun's comment.
Edit 2: Added Scarwood, Sarpadian, and Thelon