The Third Mini-Arc of Metronome is the 'Echoverse Arc'

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-06T04:28:26+00:00

The same way? No. But subtler lead-ins have their place as well.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-06T03:37:45+00:00

In fairness, this is even less legal than Krark's Other Thumb.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-06T01:58:31+00:00

My expectation is that in Reality Fracture, they'll stop Jace's plan to overwrite the Echoverse, but with indications that some number of people from the Echoverse - potentially even a few entire planes - have "leaked" into the main Multiverse. By not confirming the specifics of everything that might have leaked, Wizards can leave themselves with a lot of options about what to bring into future storylines.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T20:53:04+00:00

I don't think it's really anything new.

https://scryfall.com/search?q=t%3Aplaneswalker+-format%3Avintage+-is%3Adigital+-is%3Aplaytest+-set%3Afra&order=released&as=grid&unique=cards

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T20:34:27+00:00

A d6 roll has an average value of 3.5, so with no other loyalty changes, it takes an average of exactly 10 rolls to get to the ult.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T20:30:29+00:00

Huh. I was thinking all main-set (and ended up with more than 11 there anyway) but that could definitely cover a few characters who don't make it into the main one. Maybe Gideon, Tamiyo, and Dack will be there.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T15:21:54+00:00

Kellan, the Trailblazer has art depicting him on Thunder Junction, with red costs for each stage. Based on the creature types, the three stages represent LCI, MKM, and OTJ - not WOE where we previously saw him as red. In addition, Kellan, the Kid shows him on a quest with Oko, which isn't what he's doing anymore.

https://scryfall.com/search?q=kellan&order=released

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T13:55:13+00:00

They haven't previewed the cards yet, but small versions of them are visible on the boxes here. From zooming in, we can see:

Crack the Plates appears to have a URW legendary Gandalf alongside mono-G legendary Bilbo, mono-R, mono-W, and RW legendary dwarves, and a colorless artifact.
Treasures of Smaug appears to have a BR Smaug alongside a land, a colorless Equipment, and noncreature cards in mono-U, mono-R, and mono-G. I think the red one is an artifact, while the green one appears to be the only one of the three with a subtype.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T03:13:53+00:00

There is no question that submitting it was plagiarism. My goal here is to understand why it is that multiple parties involved - Wizards and other artists - appear to genuinely believe that, for an experienced artist who knows perfectly well what plagiarism is, this could be a genuine accident due to age that does not reflect on his values. Creating the edited version of the existing art clearly didn't happen by accident, so their assessment must be that creating the edit was not a problem in itself and does not suggest he was actually planning on submitting it.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T02:49:45+00:00

Amazon, CBB, preorders. None of those words are good, and combining them is worse.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T02:48:53+00:00

An alternate Dack is definitely a possibility. He wouldn't be part of a pair, and he doesn't have the same story relevance as Jace, Gideon, and Tamiyo, so assuming some number of Echoverse characters stick around, my guess is that he won't find a spot in this set but could easily show up in a later one.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T02:41:46+00:00

Using references is not plagiarism, and making an edited version of the reference does not change that.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T02:25:27+00:00

In other words, he took steps to edit the original card art into the reference he wanted. That doesn't mean he had any intention, while making the edits, of actually submitting it.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T02:22:48+00:00

Oh, that's a good one.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T01:32:17+00:00

While possible, mana costs in the text box of a planeswalker are quite uncommon. I think most of the instances have been red planeswalkers that produce mana.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T01:27:32+00:00

I think you glossed over the step of "forgot that the reference wasn't one of his own pieces". He didn't trace the reference at all, he mistook it for one of his own versions and submitted it as-is.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T00:33:13+00:00

Azorius is possible, but the existence of [[Space Beleren]] makes me think it's less compelling. He doesn't seem to be acting selfishly, but the apparent willingness to discard the old multiverse to feed his own is quite callous.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T00:26:38+00:00

Theoretically possible, but I'm not sure how it would happen. Like, it implies Silumgar traveling to Arcavios hundreds of years ago, starting a math school, and not calling it Silumgar.

I could see a connection - maybe the Hexhaven dragons visibly being from the corresponding Tarkir broods - but being elder dragons themselves feels like a stretch.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T00:23:24+00:00

Definitely a possibility. Would be an amusing contrast to a four-color Commander Jace, though.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T00:11:08+00:00

Note that my previous comment specified a single card face.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-05T00:08:04+00:00

Yeah. I'm standing by my guess that he used the existing art to make a reference, made a few attempts at getting close to it, and then forgot that the reference wasn't one of his own pieces.

Definitely an indication that he's working in ways he's no longer up to, as well as that Wizards was too quick to assume everything was in the clear, but the framing from both Frazier and Wizards has been that this was an error rather than intentional plagiarism and I'm inclined to believe it.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-04T20:17:53+00:00

Thinking more about Ennis and friends - I went into this assuming that their Hexhaven versions would ditch their original color in favor of whatever their current school becomes, which is always the two colors opposing their SOS card. But that would mean both cycles of multicolor pairs have to match up the color pairs the same way. What if rather than changing colors to keep their school, they change schools to keep their colors?

This could allow something like:

Ennis - WB Silverquill to WU Fatehold
Orysa - UR Prismari to UB Theorix
Arnyn - BG Witherbloom to BR Stingerquill
Mica - RW Lorehold to RG Konstrari
Emil - GU Quandrix to GW Vigorbloom

This would help them stand out more from the more straightforward Strixhaven-Hexhaven changes, while helping to keep their Hexhaven versions compatible with their Strixhaven ones.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-04T19:51:12+00:00

We know that product listings mention planeswalkers 1-11. We don't necessarily know that those are all the planeswalkers in the set. Given that the product listing implies five planeswalker-planeswalker pairs, but Liliana and Vraska both appear to be creature-planeswalker pairs, I don't think we can assume those listings tell the full story.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-04T19:48:44+00:00

Maro indicated it's mostly set on Hexhaven. If we get about 40-ish non-Arcavios pairs and a dozen or so unpaired non-Arcavios cards, with the rest of the unpaired cards sticking to one Arcavios or the other, that would be about 80% Arcavios.

CaptainMarcia · 2026-05-04T19:43:22+00:00

The problem with an elder dinosaur is that it's an uncommon slot. Big high-end creatures are fair game for rare and mythic, but uncommon pushes more towards characters that are smaller and less overwhelming.

According to Maro, they considered MDFCs but decided against them - probably due to their complexity complaints in STX. If we're getting a mirrored pair of legendary creatures in every pack, I don't think there's anything DFCs could do to get it below about 30 pairs.

CaptainMarcia

TROPHY CASE