Coda alerted me to this less than half an hour ago: the upcoming From the Vaults set is to be Legends, which ties in very nicely with the Commander releases they’re planning for later this year. 15 reprints of legendary creatures. Check out the hot new art for [card Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir]Teferi[/card]. I’ve always been a fan of the original artwork, and the new artwork looks even more bad-ass.

And now, on to rampant speculation:

The announcement included this fairly innocuous paragraph: “All cards are black bordered and tournament legal. This means that these cards are legal for use in any tournaments where the original printings are still legal. For some cards, it is their first time with a black border.”

First time with a black border? If my search through the Gatherer database for every Legendary creature printed to date is correct, that pretty much means at least one Portal 3 Kingdoms legendary creature, if not more. (Some cards. Some. Cards.) The Rumor Mill at MTG Salvation is going nuts.

As for my top picks for what cards are going to show up, I’m going to go out on a limb and say:

1. For white: In my opinion, [card]Crovax, Ascendant Hero[/card], [card]Iona, Shield of Emeria[/card] or [card]Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero[/card] would be some of the best choices.

2. For blue: well, we already know Teferi is a shoe-in. I’m thinking [card]Arcum Dagsson[/card], [card]Venser, Shaper Savant[/card] and [card]Azami, Lady of Scrolls[/card]  would be top contenders.

3. For black: in my opinion, we gotta have us some [card Balthor the Defiled]sex dwarf[/card]. Other mono-black legends that have been pretty amazing in action include [card]Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker[/card],  [card]Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief[/card], [card]Chainer, Dementia Master[/card], [card]Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni[/card] and [card]Lim-Dul the Necromancer[/card] .

4. For red: [card]Heartless Hidetsugu[/card], [card]Lovisa Coldeyes[/card], [card]Ashling the Pilgrim[/card] and [card]Godo, Bandit Warlord[/card] were the ones who came to mind. I’d say [card]Jaya Ballard, Taskmage[/card], but a) she’s not really a fantastic general, and b) she was recently reprinted in the Fire and Lightning set. But while I’m guessing that they’re probably releasing this to dovetail with the Commander releases, I don’t know how much a creature’s usefulness as a general would be a factor in determining its spot in this particular From the Vault set.

5. Green: [card]Omnath, Locus of Mana[/card] and [card]Azusa, Lost but Seeking[/card] are the two that I immediately thought of. If WotC didn’t have several mono-green legends on their no-reprint list, I would’ve said [card]Eladamri, Lord of Leaves[/card], [card]Multani, Maro-Sorcerer[/card] and [card]Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary[/card]. (Yes, I know Rofellos is banned as a General, but he’s an amazing enabler/utility creature, and an auto-include in any Elf or Omnath deck.)

6. Colorless: It’d be a toss-up between [card]Bosh, Iron Golem[/card] and [card]Memnarch[/card]. I guess reprinting legendary Eldrazi would also fit the bill, but while they’re powerful and stressful to play against, they’re incredibly boring in action, so I’m really hoping that they won’t be included.

7. Multi-color: now this is where it gets really hairy. There are a lot of good multi-colored legends, and most people, in my experience, build their EDH decks around hybrid- or gold-bordered generals. The ones that have defined the format, in my opinion, include [card]Uril, the Miststalker[/card](..alker! …alker! …alker…), [card]Oona, Queen of the Fae[/card], [card]Thraximundar[/card], [card]Mayael the Anima[/card], [card]Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund[/card], [card]Jhoira of the Ghitu[/card], [card]Doran, the Siege Tower[/card], [card]Captain Sisay[/card], [card]Teneb, the Harvester[/card], [card]Scion of the Ur-Dragon[/card], [card]Rhys the Redeemed[/card], [card]Rafiq of the Many[/card], [card]Merieke Ri Berit[/card], [card]Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind[/card], [card]Momir Vig, Simic Visionary[/card], [card]Wort, the Raidmother[/card], [card]Wort, Boggart Auntie[/card] and everybody’s favorite hippo (except Coda, who is a hippo-hatin’ kind of a girl), [card]Phelddagrif[/card].

I’m keeping my eyes peeled for further updates from WotC. It’ll be fun to see which legends make it and which ones don’t. My personal wishlist includes Oona, Captain Sisay, Mayael and Merieke Ri Berit, and I’m thinking Uril is too obvious a choice not to reprint.