[Astroking112]

It might be useful to mark the units that are already in a pod, that way it's easy for everyone to see what has already been claimed and what hasn't.

In the interest of bringing the pre-launch discussion around the project to these forums, I've gone through the list and added some brief synopses of the conversations we had before. I'm sure that I have missed many things, so I'd encourage everyone who was able to talk on the Discord to bring up whatever else they find pertinent.

• Arlinn Kord, Goldnight Outcast
• Arlinn Kord, Moon-Blessed
• Avacyn, on Bloodied Wings
• Blazing Firecats (squad of 3)
• Blighted Reavers (squad of 3)
• Chandra Nalaar, Pyromancer
  One idea that I've seen thrown out on the forums throughout the years before this project started was to have Chandra Nalaar place lava tiles or help the Obsidian Guards in some way. Given that the Arena sets contain no lava tiles (or suitable proxies, even), I don't think that this direction is possible.
  On the other hand, Rise of the Valkyrie included many units like Syvarris and Deathwalker 9000 that were simple, offense-oriented, and relatively unsynergistic. Going with a straightforward offensive design here could be a welcome opportunity for some more simplicity like that.
• Eldrazi Ruiner
  This is one of the units that was chosen for the first pod. @flameslayer93 has suggested that it is an alien originating from within a black hole, and another explanation for the purple color could be that it's an eldritch Lovecraftian horror. The purple color is slightly disappointing, but the sheer size of this miniature makes us want to use it.
  One suggestion for a gameplay mechanic for the Eldrazi Ruiner that I made (assuming we go with a black hole-oriented approach) was a "Gravity Crush Special Attack," with 1 range and an attack equal to the height of the defending figure.
• Eldrazi Scions (squad of 3)
  Notably, these guys aren't in our pod, despite the fact that the Eldrazi Ruiner is. I'd encourage whoever's interested in these guys to come up with a design unconstrained by a need to tie them to the big Eldrazi.
• Flamewing Phoenixes (squad of 3)
  These guys would make great pheonixes, and they even aesthetically match an upcoming C3V design. There's no need to tie the two together mechanically, though, and pheonixes basically beg some kind of a revival mechanic.
  This does have implications for the rest of the set that are important to note, though. It might be tempting for many of these Unique Squads to include some kind of way to bring back units, but classic HeroScape didn't have a huge number of units that can revive themselves. It makes sense for the pheonixes, but we don't want to overload the set with units that can revive when it was so uncommon before.
• Gideon Jura, Combat Mage
• Illusionary Projections (squad of 3)
  These are the Jace Beleren, Mindmage lookalikes. They make a lot of sense as illusions tied to the Mindmage version of Jace, but @NecroBlade had the idea of making him an Archmage and then allowing for these guys to work with any Archmage that you control (but being forced to choose one at the start of the game, like the Greenscales or MacDirks). I believe that outside of potentially this set, that would only add Sonlen as a potential choice for the illusions.
• Jace, Investigator
  This is one of the units that we've chosen. The current plan is to give him a cyberpunk theme, something that classic HeroScape never truly delved into, but that has a lot of potential for fun powers.
• Jace Beleren, Mindmage
• Kiora, the Rising Tide
• Lantern Geists (squad of 2)
  This is another unit that was chosen for the first pod. Most of the discussion has been around making them an Undead squad (potentially following Jandar or another nonconventional general). @flameslayer93 also had an idea for giving them a curse ability, where you can place the figure on an opposing figure's card when they're destroyed. Every time the other player takes a turn with that unit, there will be a small chance that it takes damage or is destroyed.
• Leyline Phantoms (squad of 3)
  There's lots of discussion around these guys, since they're one of the units that were chosen for the initial pod that we're leading. The general consensus is that they should be aliens rather than another illusion squad, to add some more sci-fi into the set and broaden the design possibilities for them.
• Liliana Vess, Necromancer
  Liliana is in a bit of an interesting spot. She works well as a Necromancer, but the set is unlikely to include any true undead squads to pair her with. A general purpose Necromancer is fine, but for it to focus on reviving undead, we'd preferably need some undead in the box for her to take advantage of.
  One suggestion to address this was to make her mostly standalone in her power set, but give her the Lady class so that she can revive Skeletons of Annellintia.
• Merfolk Roilmage
• Nahiri, Fury in Stone
  She and Sorin have a very pale skin color, which could imply that they're vampires. She could also pass as a gladiator, however, and there are other ways to explain her pale skin if people want to avoid the vampire route. Examples thrown around on the Discord server included making her from a subterranean species or being covered in ashes, much like Kratos from the God of War games.
• Nissa Revane, Animist
• Ob Nixilis, Demon of Spite
  It was tossed around that Ob could be some kind of a related race to the Kyrie, perhaps altered from some experimentation like Valkrill did with Azazel the Kyrie Warrior. The tail is a little disconcerting, though.
  Alternatively, Ob could be a demon. It's not clear what synergies this could entail in the future, though, since the only current demon synergy that we know of is Morgoloth's Demon Leadership.
• Restless Zombies (squad of 4, combined with Ghoul Vanguard)
  The current idea behind these guys is that they're living shadows. @All Your Pie had an excellent idea for them that involves bringing back destroyed members for one turn only.
• Rhox Veterans (squad of 3)
  There hasn't been too much discussion over the powers here, but NecroBlade had an excellent idea for them as porcelain rhinos. They could easily be animata.
• Sorin of the Eternal Thirst
  The pale skin of Sorin makes him an easy choice for becoming a vampire, although we discussed the potential of him being a loose interpretation of Vlad the Impaler to add some historical flavor to the set.