plenty of stuff to discuss.

color arcs, Shield counters, Connive, Hideaway, Casualty, Blitz, Alliance

I like connive. I have a soft spot for those keyword actions your creatures can do, like explore.

Hideaway is a solid improvement and now quite similar to my old hoard keyword ability. Thumbs up.

Blitz and casualty are neat.

Alliance... I forgot what alliance does. I got distracted by the other ability word that returns voting to the commander product.

Is it just on creature ETB? It's like getting an ability word for "Whenever you gain life" or "Whenever a creature dies" - it just is a very basic aspect of gameplay and we've seen it a lot. It won't revolutionize how I think about card designs and is fairly tame in flavor.

The common land cycle is neat.

I like the pun on Anhelo, the Painter a lot. :)

I don't vibe with shield counters, probably because of the setting. A friend also pointed out that at base they just kind of work similarly to totem armor (not identically, I am aware) and that probably lowers my opinion of it.

Casualty also misses with the flavor for me, but I actually like the mechanic. I think having to tie a power to the creature sacrificed is an interesting way of making a balance for each card.

I like connive.

Blitz is aight. I don't love it from the little I've seen so far, but I don't see anything wrong with it either. Maybe other cards will make the mechanic interesting to play with.

Alliance is cool. I'm more likely to give ability words more slack because they have more room with what they can do.

No opinion on Hideaway yet.

Alliance is basically "creaturefall". name is probably homage to the similar Ally tribal mechanic.

Blitz is like Evoke, but more rules baggage.

Most interesting card yet seems Urabrask. really screws over opponent, particularly blue control.

@amuseum- I figured Alliance’s name was in reference to gang alliances rather than the Ally type mechanic.

I like the token diversity we are getting. I make no secret out of my love for token diversity.

And I tried for a while to come up with a good Wizard token that could sacrifice to counter something. Realizing that Force Spike was too much, I haven't figured that "noncreature" would be all that I was missing to get there. v.v"

But the Ogres, Cats and Dogs are all nice, too.

I think alliance was insultingly lazy. We literally get those effects (sometimes with minor variations) all the damn time. Ability words have usually been applied to unusual triggers or conditions.

If the reason is "we've been trying to formally name creaturefall forever" fine, but they shouldn't try to act as though it makes anything more than a merely serviceable faction mechanic!

The rules say some cards have "interchangeable names", which are, as far as I can tell, the same name with a different spelling (i.e. what the name of the card is called), it seems.

It would help to have examples so that we can see what cards have interchangeable names, and to be able to query them in Gatherer and/or Scryfall.

Also, if a source with deathtouch deals unpreventable damage to a creature with shield counters, how many shield counters are removed?

"A creature with a shield counter on it may still be destroyed by state-based actions if it has damage marked on it equal to its toughness or has been dealt unpreventable damage by a source with deathtouch."

OK, I read it again, it says "if this permanent would be destroyed as the result of an effect", and "an effect" means "something that happens in the game as a result of a spell or ability". So, I suppose that you are correct.

@zzo38- The interchangeable names are for Universes Beyond, like the Stranger Things Secret Lair. I don't think either version of the cards is currently on Gatherer. E.g. Lucas the Sharpshooter is interchangeable with Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist