For Jace ending up on Ixalan, I wonder if it is an effect of Ral's briefing. The disappearing Vraska and the hidden plane might have been tugging at the back of his mind all this time. So when his mind snaps under Bolas's attack and he jumps, it takes him in the same direction Vraska went to.
I'd almost bet that the first scenes of Ixalan stories will include fragments of Ral's briefing echoing in Jace's mind, implying that was how/where he went.
And WotC is actively and visibly making efforts to imporve at every opportunity.
This is a very good point. As much as I don't like the new way of focusing on characters, at least I recognize creative's attempts to improve. And I think they've come quite a way since BFZ.
I've said this what feels like a thousand times in this forum but here it is again; if you dont like the story that's being told go tell your own.
This comment on the other hand is very unfair and misses the point. If I wanted to write my own fiction, I wouldn't go and consume something. Creating fiction is an entirely different animal than writing it and some people like one but not the other. Heck, many people, me included, like both, but at different times and in different contexts.
Furthermore the story is only one aspect of Magic. Many here follow MtG for other reasons than only the story. I want to enjoy Magic in it's entirety, or at least the parts I'm interested in. I don't want to ignore half of it and make my own stuff, which I actually do in my freetime anyway, just that it's not Magic related.
"If you don't like <thing> go and make your own." is a really flawed and childish argument.
Bolas could have also orchestrated Jace's desire to land on Ixalan. He's responsible for the GW itself in some way after all.
BFZ was actually very good in some parts. The issue was Nissa's development, Gideon's development and how the Eldrazi were handled. But select stories in BFZ were some of the best in MTG.
It's odd I'm not a fan of Zendikar but I'm really excited for Ixalan, even thought both seem like an adventure/exploring themes. Could be the rainbow colored dinosaurs, could be seeing people like me in the game, but I'm super excited for this next (and the final) block.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
And WotC is actively and visibly making efforts to imporve at every opportunity.
This is a very good point. As much as I don't like the new way of focusing on characters, at least I recognize creative's attempts to improve. And I think they've come quite a way since BFZ.
I've said this what feels like a thousand times in this forum but here it is again; if you dont like the story that's being told go tell your own.
This comment on the other hand is very unfair and misses the point. If I wanted to write my own fiction, I wouldn't go and consume something. Creating fiction is an entirely different animal than writing it and some people like one but not the other. Heck, many people, me included, like both, but at different times and in different contexts.
Furthermore the story is only one aspect of Magic. Many here follow MtG for other reasons than only the story. I want to enjoy Magic in it's entirety, or at least the parts I'm interested in. I don't want to ignore half of it and make my own stuff, which I actually do in my freetime anyway, just that it's not Magic related.
"If you don't like <thing> go and make your own." is a really flawed and childish argument.
I guess my problem is is that the story has hijacked the game to the point where you can't really escape it. I hated the story of Shadows Over Innistrad but there were some aspects of the sets that I enjoyed that I can't fully appreciate because of the over story saturization. They killed off my favorite Magic character and "replaced" her with Sigarda and Thalia if the set had been made before this big story push I probably could have ignored it but they make a point of reminding you in nearly half of the set how the Angels have abandoned the people and how noble Sigarda and Thalia are. This may seem chilidish of me but I absolutly venomisly abhore the stupid Sigarda heron that they have plastered everywhere. So what used to be my favorite plane is now a constant reminder that it's turned into a pile of dog feces. I enjoyed the Kaladesh and Amonkhet sets but when it came to Aether Revolt and Hour of Devistation it made the story hijack the planes as well.
I am very bitter but I'm hoping Ixalan will be something that reinvigorates my love for Magic that I haven't really felt since they decided to focus on the story. They should provide some story seeds in the sets but not in the whole set, let us go down paths we want to not just the paths they are wanting us to. If we are to make the story our own they need to sandbox the sets a little more. They can still have a story but they need to let us escape it if we aren't digging it. My rant is complete.
I am very excited for Ixalan, I just hope it doesn't prevent the possibility of a Muraganda block somewhere down the line. Pirates/lost cities/Mesoamerica world is awesome, but it's different from a Primal Nature vs Remnants of Civilization world, and tha's something that I'd like to see at some point.
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My Decks:
UG Merfolk RG 8-Whack BWG Abzan midrange GRB Living End UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin" RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!" BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
And WotC is actively and visibly making efforts to imporve at every opportunity.
This is a very good point. As much as I don't like the new way of focusing on characters, at least I recognize creative's attempts to improve. And I think they've come quite a way since BFZ.
I've said this what feels like a thousand times in this forum but here it is again; if you dont like the story that's being told go tell your own.
This comment on the other hand is very unfair and misses the point. If I wanted to write my own fiction, I wouldn't go and consume something. Creating fiction is an entirely different animal than writing it and some people like one but not the other. Heck, many people, me included, like both, but at different times and in different contexts.
Furthermore the story is only one aspect of Magic. Many here follow MtG for other reasons than only the story. I want to enjoy Magic in it's entirety, or at least the parts I'm interested in. I don't want to ignore half of it and make my own stuff, which I actually do in my freetime anyway, just that it's not Magic related.
"If you don't like <thing> go and make your own." is a really flawed and childish argument.
I guess my problem is is that the story has hijacked the game to the point where you can't really escape it. I hated the story of Shadows Over Innistrad but there were some aspects of the sets that I enjoyed that I can't fully appreciate because of the over story saturization. They killed off my favorite Magic character and "replaced" her with Sigarda and Thalia if the set had been made before this big story push I probably could have ignored it but they make a point of reminding you in nearly half of the set how the Angels have abandoned the people and how noble Sigarda and Thalia are. This may seem chilidish of me but I absolutly venomisly abhore the stupid Sigarda heron that they have plastered everywhere. So what used to be my favorite plane is now a constant reminder that it's turned into a pile of dog feces. I enjoyed the Kaladesh and Amonkhet sets but when it came to Aether Revolt and Hour of Devistation it made the story hijack the planes as well.
I am very bitter but I'm hoping Ixalan will be something that reinvigorates my love for Magic that I haven't really felt since they decided to focus on the story. They should provide some story seeds in the sets but not in the whole set, let us go down paths we want to not just the paths they are wanting us to. If we are to make the story our own they need to sandbox the sets a little more. They can still have a story but they need to let us escape it if we aren't digging it. My rant is complete.
The problem there isn't the story being prominent so much as they really need to stop royally trashing beloved planes. At this rate, returning to a set is the worst thing a fan can want for a plane they liked. Because that means it'll get trashed, and characters we hoped to see get killed. Great!
Cosmic Horror was great and the story was well written but Innistrad just isn't the same anymore.
And WotC is actively and visibly making efforts to imporve at every opportunity.
This is a very good point. As much as I don't like the new way of focusing on characters, at least I recognize creative's attempts to improve. And I think they've come quite a way since BFZ.
I've said this what feels like a thousand times in this forum but here it is again; if you dont like the story that's being told go tell your own.
This comment on the other hand is very unfair and misses the point. If I wanted to write my own fiction, I wouldn't go and consume something. Creating fiction is an entirely different animal than writing it and some people like one but not the other. Heck, many people, me included, like both, but at different times and in different contexts.
Furthermore the story is only one aspect of Magic. Many here follow MtG for other reasons than only the story. I want to enjoy Magic in it's entirety, or at least the parts I'm interested in. I don't want to ignore half of it and make my own stuff, which I actually do in my freetime anyway, just that it's not Magic related.
"If you don't like <thing> go and make your own." is a really flawed and childish argument.
I guess my problem is is that the story has hijacked the game to the point where you can't really escape it. I hated the story of Shadows Over Innistrad but there were some aspects of the sets that I enjoyed that I can't fully appreciate because of the over story saturization. They killed off my favorite Magic character and "replaced" her with Sigarda and Thalia if the set had been made before this big story push I probably could have ignored it but they make a point of reminding you in nearly half of the set how the Angels have abandoned the people and how noble Sigarda and Thalia are. This may seem chilidish of me but I absolutly venomisly abhore the stupid Sigarda heron that they have plastered everywhere. So what used to be my favorite plane is now a constant reminder that it's turned into a pile of dog feces. I enjoyed the Kaladesh and Amonkhet sets but when it came to Aether Revolt and Hour of Devistation it made the story hijack the planes as well.
I am very bitter but I'm hoping Ixalan will be something that reinvigorates my love for Magic that I haven't really felt since they decided to focus on the story. They should provide some story seeds in the sets but not in the whole set, let us go down paths we want to not just the paths they are wanting us to. If we are to make the story our own they need to sandbox the sets a little more. They can still have a story but they need to let us escape it if we aren't digging it. My rant is complete.
The problem there isn't the story being prominent so much as they really need to stop royally trashing beloved planes. At this rate, returning to a set is the worst thing a fan can want for a plane they liked. Because that means it'll get trashed, and characters we hoped to see get killed. Great!
Cosmic Horror was great and the story was well written but Innistrad just isn't the same anymore.
I have a fear of returning to Ravnica for that very reason. When they introduced the planar portal in Khaladesh's story my immediate thought was that Ravnica was going to be turned into Phyravnica but now it seems more like all of the guild symbols will have Bolas plastered onto them. I actually enjoyed the Eldrazi being turned into cosmic horror, but I think it's timing was off. If they had Emmy come to Innistrad five years later after we had left BFZ long behind I would have enjoyed it more (though I wouldn't be surprised much either). I'm a novice in Lovecraftian horror but having their Cthulu summoned for a revenge story just didn't come across scary to me. If Emmy had come on her own remembering the cultists that worshipped her it would have been more up my alley. Or if it took place on a slightly more advanced noirish world would have been awesome.
And WotC is actively and visibly making efforts to imporve at every opportunity.
This is a very good point. As much as I don't like the new way of focusing on characters, at least I recognize creative's attempts to improve. And I think they've come quite a way since BFZ.
I've said this what feels like a thousand times in this forum but here it is again; if you dont like the story that's being told go tell your own.
This comment on the other hand is very unfair and misses the point. If I wanted to write my own fiction, I wouldn't go and consume something. Creating fiction is an entirely different animal than writing it and some people like one but not the other. Heck, many people, me included, like both, but at different times and in different contexts.
Furthermore the story is only one aspect of Magic. Many here follow MtG for other reasons than only the story. I want to enjoy Magic in it's entirety, or at least the parts I'm interested in. I don't want to ignore half of it and make my own stuff, which I actually do in my freetime anyway, just that it's not Magic related.
"If you don't like <thing> go and make your own." is a really flawed and childish argument.
I guess my problem is is that the story has hijacked the game to the point where you can't really escape it. I hated the story of Shadows Over Innistrad but there were some aspects of the sets that I enjoyed that I can't fully appreciate because of the over story saturization. They killed off my favorite Magic character and "replaced" her with Sigarda and Thalia if the set had been made before this big story push I probably could have ignored it but they make a point of reminding you in nearly half of the set how the Angels have abandoned the people and how noble Sigarda and Thalia are. This may seem chilidish of me but I absolutly venomisly abhore the stupid Sigarda heron that they have plastered everywhere. So what used to be my favorite plane is now a constant reminder that it's turned into a pile of dog feces. I enjoyed the Kaladesh and Amonkhet sets but when it came to Aether Revolt and Hour of Devistation it made the story hijack the planes as well.
I am very bitter but I'm hoping Ixalan will be something that reinvigorates my love for Magic that I haven't really felt since they decided to focus on the story. They should provide some story seeds in the sets but not in the whole set, let us go down paths we want to not just the paths they are wanting us to. If we are to make the story our own they need to sandbox the sets a little more. They can still have a story but they need to let us escape it if we aren't digging it. My rant is complete.
The problem there isn't the story being prominent so much as they really need to stop royally trashing beloved planes. At this rate, returning to a set is the worst thing a fan can want for a plane they liked. Because that means it'll get trashed, and characters we hoped to see get killed. Great!
Cosmic Horror was great and the story was well written but Innistrad just isn't the same anymore.
Alara is my favourite plane, and it got "trashed" (the shards were smashed back together) in the same block as it was introduced.
Considering the volatile nature of the plane, they'd have to do something extremely drastic (like eliminate an entire shard or something) to make me hate a Return to Alara set.
I guess my problem is is that the story has hijacked the game to the point where you can't really escape it. I hated the story of Shadows Over Innistrad but there were some aspects of the sets that I enjoyed that I can't fully appreciate because of the over story saturization. They killed off my favorite Magic character and "replaced" her with Sigarda and Thalia if the set had been made before this big story push I probably could have ignored it but they make a point of reminding you in nearly half of the set how the Angels have abandoned the people and how noble Sigarda and Thalia are. This may seem chilidish of me but I absolutly venomisly abhore the stupid Sigarda heron that they have plastered everywhere. So what used to be my favorite plane is now a constant reminder that it's turned into a pile of dog feces. I enjoyed the Kaladesh and Amonkhet sets but when it came to Aether Revolt and Hour of Devistation it made the story hijack the planes as well.
I am very bitter but I'm hoping Ixalan will be something that reinvigorates my love for Magic that I haven't really felt since they decided to focus on the story. They should provide some story seeds in the sets but not in the whole set, let us go down paths we want to not just the paths they are wanting us to. If we are to make the story our own they need to sandbox the sets a little more. They can still have a story but they need to let us escape it if we aren't digging it. My rant is complete.
I didn't mind Sigarda taking over from Avacyn, to be honest. Avacyn wasn't a natural angel, and she basically shoe-horned herself into the angel hierarchy. The plane's humans and angels became so dependent on her that not only did things go to hell when she got dragged into the Helvault, but Nahiri's machinations and Emrakul's influence had an easy way to turn the angels on the humans by using Avacyn as a conduit.
Sigarda stood out because she didn't entirely depend on Avacyn and tried to do her own thing to an extent.
The problem there isn't the story being prominent so much as they really need to stop royally trashing beloved planes. At this rate, returning to a set is the worst thing a fan can want for a plane they liked. Because that means it'll get trashed, and characters we hoped to see get killed. Great!
I strongly disagree. Having planes change and die etc is a big part of having them be the "acting" elements of a story. You cannot have Magic focus on planes rather than planeswalkers and then expect planes to remain stagnant throughout the narrative.
The problem there isn't the story being prominent so much as they really need to stop royally trashing beloved planes. At this rate, returning to a set is the worst thing a fan can want for a plane they liked. Because that means it'll get trashed, and characters we hoped to see get killed. Great!
I strongly disagree. Having planes change and die etc is a big part of having them be the "acting" elements of a story. You cannot have Magic focus on planes rather than planeswalkers and then expect planes to remain stagnant throughout the narrative.
Planes are the settings though, not characters in and of themselves. It's like expecting the stage to act alongside the actors.
The problem there isn't the story being prominent so much as they really need to stop royally trashing beloved planes. At this rate, returning to a set is the worst thing a fan can want for a plane they liked. Because that means it'll get trashed, and characters we hoped to see get killed. Great!
I strongly disagree. Having planes change and die etc is a big part of having them be the "acting" elements of a story. You cannot have Magic focus on planes rather than planeswalkers and then expect planes to remain stagnant throughout the narrative.
Planes are the settings though, not characters in and of themselves.
I'd argue that Zendikar might be a character of sorts, since it was an active participant in the struggle against the Eldrazi.
The problem there isn't the story being prominent so much as they really need to stop royally trashing beloved planes. At this rate, returning to a set is the worst thing a fan can want for a plane they liked. Because that means it'll get trashed, and characters we hoped to see get killed. Great!
I strongly disagree. Having planes change and die etc is a big part of having them be the "acting" elements of a story. You cannot have Magic focus on planes rather than planeswalkers and then expect planes to remain stagnant throughout the narrative.
Planes are the settings though, not characters in and of themselves.
I'd argue that Zendikar might be a character of sorts, since it was an active participant in the struggle against the Eldrazi.
That's more of a story element for Nissa. Either way, the idea is that PWs can walk between worlds. The settings change as they travel. They don't need to be rent asunder every time to deliver something new. Just following these characters in their travels brings change. I think the variability they're going for is more harmful than good when it compromises the identity of a plane.
Anyway… I am looking forward to Ixalan to finally see more of Jace. I love how he is written and his overall story. Jace and Tamiyo were perfect in SOI/EMN - investigating, doing their best to help but within the confines of their abilities and understanding. Jace in general is just cute in every way too - curious, fumbles a lot, always thinking up plans, just doing his best as a good guy. <3 Have been missing my husbando.
And WotC is actively and visibly making efforts to imporve at every opportunity.
This is a very good point. As much as I don't like the new way of focusing on characters, at least I recognize creative's attempts to improve. And I think they've come quite a way since BFZ.
I've said this what feels like a thousand times in this forum but here it is again; if you dont like the story that's being told go tell your own.
This comment on the other hand is very unfair and misses the point. If I wanted to write my own fiction, I wouldn't go and consume something. Creating fiction is an entirely different animal than writing it and some people like one but not the other. Heck, many people, me included, like both, but at different times and in different contexts.
Furthermore the story is only one aspect of Magic. Many here follow MtG for other reasons than only the story. I want to enjoy Magic in it's entirety, or at least the parts I'm interested in. I don't want to ignore half of it and make my own stuff, which I actually do in my freetime anyway, just that it's not Magic related.
"If you don't like <thing> go and make your own." is a really flawed and childish argument.
I guess my problem is is that the story has hijacked the game to the point where you can't really escape it. I hated the story of Shadows Over Innistrad but there were some aspects of the sets that I enjoyed that I can't fully appreciate because of the over story saturization. They killed off my favorite Magic character and "replaced" her with Sigarda and Thalia if the set had been made before this big story push I probably could have ignored it but they make a point of reminding you in nearly half of the set how the Angels have abandoned the people and how noble Sigarda and Thalia are. This may seem chilidish of me but I absolutly venomisly abhore the stupid Sigarda heron that they have plastered everywhere. So what used to be my favorite plane is now a constant reminder that it's turned into a pile of dog feces. I enjoyed the Kaladesh and Amonkhet sets but when it came to Aether Revolt and Hour of Devistation it made the story hijack the planes as well.
I am very bitter but I'm hoping Ixalan will be something that reinvigorates my love for Magic that I haven't really felt since they decided to focus on the story. They should provide some story seeds in the sets but not in the whole set, let us go down paths we want to not just the paths they are wanting us to. If we are to make the story our own they need to sandbox the sets a little more. They can still have a story but they need to let us escape it if we aren't digging it. My rant is complete.
The problem there isn't the story being prominent so much as they really need to stop royally trashing beloved planes. At this rate, returning to a set is the worst thing a fan can want for a plane they liked. Because that means it'll get trashed, and characters we hoped to see get killed. Great!
Cosmic Horror was great and the story was well written but Innistrad just isn't the same anymore.
Alara is my favourite plane, and it got "trashed" (the shards were smashed back together) in the same block as it was introduced.
Considering the volatile nature of the plane, they'd have to do something extremely drastic (like eliminate an entire shard or something) to make me hate a Return to Alara set.
I guess my problem is is that the story has hijacked the game to the point where you can't really escape it. I hated the story of Shadows Over Innistrad but there were some aspects of the sets that I enjoyed that I can't fully appreciate because of the over story saturization. They killed off my favorite Magic character and "replaced" her with Sigarda and Thalia if the set had been made before this big story push I probably could have ignored it but they make a point of reminding you in nearly half of the set how the Angels have abandoned the people and how noble Sigarda and Thalia are. This may seem chilidish of me but I absolutly venomisly abhore the stupid Sigarda heron that they have plastered everywhere. So what used to be my favorite plane is now a constant reminder that it's turned into a pile of dog feces. I enjoyed the Kaladesh and Amonkhet sets but when it came to Aether Revolt and Hour of Devistation it made the story hijack the planes as well.
I am very bitter but I'm hoping Ixalan will be something that reinvigorates my love for Magic that I haven't really felt since they decided to focus on the story. They should provide some story seeds in the sets but not in the whole set, let us go down paths we want to not just the paths they are wanting us to. If we are to make the story our own they need to sandbox the sets a little more. They can still have a story but they need to let us escape it if we aren't digging it. My rant is complete.
I didn't mind Sigarda taking over from Avacyn, to be honest. Avacyn wasn't a natural angel, and she basically shoe-horned herself into the angel hierarchy. The plane's humans and angels became so dependent on her that not only did things go to hell when she got dragged into the Helvault, but Nahiri's machinations and Emrakul's influence had an easy way to turn the angels on the humans by using Avacyn as a conduit.
Sigarda stood out because she didn't entirely depend on Avacyn and tried to do her own thing to an extent.
Yeah but the humans weren't exactly doing good anytime Avacyn wasn't there. That's why Sorrin created her in the first place. What did Sigarda do to change anything in either blocks besides fight her own sisters? What changed that made Sigarda this awesome amazing angel? She helped Thalia defeat her sisters and that's about it. She didn't stand against darkness she hid and gave humans weapons out of fear of going crazy. Avacyn was something unique in magic not just a stereotypical angel. Even in her madness Avacyn's rampage was a veign attempt to eliminate Emmy's influence from the plane. She was trying through the delirium in a very wrong way to solve the true porblem not just the symptom like Sigarda and Thalia. Would you call Serra's angels not important or abominations just because Serra made them?
The problem there isn't the story being prominent so much as they really need to stop royally trashing beloved planes. At this rate, returning to a set is the worst thing a fan can want for a plane they liked. Because that means it'll get trashed, and characters we hoped to see get killed. Great!
I strongly disagree. Having planes change and die etc is a big part of having them be the "acting" elements of a story. You cannot have Magic focus on planes rather than planeswalkers and then expect planes to remain stagnant throughout the narrative.
Planes are the settings though, not characters in and of themselves.
I'd argue that Zendikar might be a character of sorts, since it was an active participant in the struggle against the Eldrazi.
Zendikar is a character to me as well but you can develop a character without mamming/killing them which is usually what Wizards does in every block.
The problem there isn't the story being prominent so much as they really need to stop royally trashing beloved planes. At this rate, returning to a set is the worst thing a fan can want for a plane they liked. Because that means it'll get trashed, and characters we hoped to see get killed. Great!
I strongly disagree. Having planes change and die etc is a big part of having them be the "acting" elements of a story. You cannot have Magic focus on planes rather than planeswalkers and then expect planes to remain stagnant throughout the narrative.
Planes are the settings though, not characters in and of themselves. It's like expecting the stage to act alongside the actors.
Which is why I specifically called them "acting elements" rather than characters.
I mean it's all hypothetical anyway as planes have been reduced to background props. I just think Magic storytelling was at its height when planes themselves were the driving agents in the overarching plot. I also think that sort of narrative would be the best a card game is able to tell. You can't convey the journey of a character through ~350 random cards. You can however, paint a picture of the conflict and explore the different perspectives very very well.
Yes, they're trying to mitigate the problem through things like story spotlights, but that's just patching up holes in a rubber boat, rather than getting a proper ship.
Yeah but the humans weren't exactly doing good anytime Avacyn wasn't there. That's why Sorrin created her in the first place. What did Sigarda do to change anything in either blocks besides fight her own sisters? What changed that made Sigarda this awesome amazing angel? She helped Thalia defeat her sisters and that's about it. She didn't stand against darkness she hid and gave humans weapons out of fear of going crazy. Avacyn was something unique in magic not just a stereotypical angel. Even in her madness Avacyn's rampage was a veign attempt to eliminate Emmy's influence from the plane. She was trying through the delirium in a very wrong way to solve the true porblem not just the symptom like Sigarda and Thalia. Would you call Serra's angels not important or abominations just because Serra made them?
The funny thing about the whole situation there is that humans weren't holding up largely because of...other humans.
What I mean is: Vampires were former humans, werewolves are humans that transform into wolves, zombies are typically undead humans or patchwork abominations made by humans, and even among "regular" humans were the aforementioned skaberen, serial killers and cultists. This isn't a counterargument, but something I wanted to point out.
Sorin created Avacyn primarily because he needed to keep his own kind in check so that they didn't stupidly exhaust their own food supply. He used a huge portion of his own life force as an oldwalker to create her, which is why she can't be remade. He also tied her and the Helvault to the fabric of the plane as a planar defense system, which is why she has so much power and influence. That system was never foolproof though, because Sorin didn't put in safeguards to shield the Helvault from being blown up by locals, or to shield Avacyn's mind from being twisted or being pulled into the very same Helvault he created.
Sigarda isn't super-powerful, and she isn't invulnerable. She is, however, more resistant to external influence (which is represented by her hexproof in gameplay). Avacyn, by contrast, is indestructible at her peak, but her mind is still vulnerable. Sigarda didn't become more powerful, but she was all that the people who avoided being Eldrazified had left as far as angels go.
Avacyn's death was indeed among Creative's worst mistakes. I'll let my past rants about it speak for themselves.
So are we saying that important figures like Avacyn are supposed to be untouchable or unkillable? You can disagree with how they went about it, but I don't consider killing off Avacyn in and of itself some kind of cardinal sin.
Yeah but the humans weren't exactly doing good anytime Avacyn wasn't there. That's why Sorrin created her in the first place. What did Sigarda do to change anything in either blocks besides fight her own sisters? What changed that made Sigarda this awesome amazing angel? She helped Thalia defeat her sisters and that's about it. She didn't stand against darkness she hid and gave humans weapons out of fear of going crazy. Avacyn was something unique in magic not just a stereotypical angel. Even in her madness Avacyn's rampage was a veign attempt to eliminate Emmy's influence from the plane. She was trying through the delirium in a very wrong way to solve the true porblem not just the symptom like Sigarda and Thalia. Would you call Serra's angels not important or abominations just because Serra made them?
The funny thing about the whole situation there is that humans weren't holding up largely because of...other humans.
What I mean is: Vampires were former humans, werewolves are humans that transform into wolves, zombies are typically undead humans or patchwork abominations made by humans, and even among "regular" humans were the aforementioned skaberen, serial killers and cultists. This isn't a counterargument, but something I wanted to point out.
Sorin created Avacyn primarily because he needed to keep his own kind in check so that they didn't stupidly exhaust their own food supply. He used a huge portion of his own life force as an oldwalker to create her, which is why she can't be remade. He also tied her and the Helvault to the fabric of the plane as a planar defense system, which is why she has so much power and influence. That system was never foolproof though, because Sorin didn't put in safeguards to shield the Helvault from being blown up by locals, or to shield Avacyn's mind from being twisted or being pulled into the very same Helvault he created.
Sigarda isn't super-powerful, and she isn't invulnerable. She is, however, more resistant to external influence (which is represented by her hexproof in gameplay). Avacyn, by contrast, is indestructible at her peak, but her mind is still vulnerable. Sigarda didn't become more powerful, but she was all that the people who avoided being Eldrazified had left as far as angels go.
Avacyn's death was indeed among Creative's worst mistakes. I'll let my past rants about it speak for themselves.
So are we saying that important figures like Avacyn are supposed to be untouchable or unkillable? You can disagree with how they went about it, but I don't consider killing off Avacyn in and of itself some kind of cardinal sin.
Innistrad was a classic case of "we want to return to this plane but accidentally ruined the thing players liked most about it, time to use a bunch of contrived story developments to "fix" the plane". See also: Ravnica, Tarkir, Zendikar (what happens when they don't "fix" the plane), Mirrodin (what happens when they can't "fix" the ending of the original block so they retcon it instead).
They knew that they had to return to the gothic horror world of Innistrad/Dark Ascension, not the Avacyn Restored world they ended the original block with, so Avacyn either turning evil or dying was inevitable. They already turned her evil so they didn't have to kill her off I suppose, but I guess it makes sense to kill off the first set's big bad so that the second set's bigger bad can have full attention.
Was killing Avacyn good storytelling? Debatable. It definitely was a consequence of trying to tell a story through the trading card game medium, because ultimately Avacyn was killed not for the good of the story but for the good of the SOI block. It was bad storytelling in the sense that it was forced and unnecessary as a part of the story alone if you ignore other factors, but good storytelling in the sense that it was probably the best they could do given all the constraints involved in trying to tell a story through a trading card game.
Yeah but the humans weren't exactly doing good anytime Avacyn wasn't there. That's why Sorrin created her in the first place. What did Sigarda do to change anything in either blocks besides fight her own sisters? What changed that made Sigarda this awesome amazing angel? She helped Thalia defeat her sisters and that's about it. She didn't stand against darkness she hid and gave humans weapons out of fear of going crazy. Avacyn was something unique in magic not just a stereotypical angel. Even in her madness Avacyn's rampage was a veign attempt to eliminate Emmy's influence from the plane. She was trying through the delirium in a very wrong way to solve the true porblem not just the symptom like Sigarda and Thalia. Would you call Serra's angels not important or abominations just because Serra made them?
The funny thing about the whole situation there is that humans weren't holding up largely because of...other humans.
What I mean is: Vampires were former humans, werewolves are humans that transform into wolves, zombies are typically undead humans or patchwork abominations made by humans, and even among "regular" humans were the aforementioned skaberen, serial killers and cultists. This isn't a counterargument, but something I wanted to point out.
Sorin created Avacyn primarily because he needed to keep his own kind in check so that they didn't stupidly exhaust their own food supply. He used a huge portion of his own life force as an oldwalker to create her, which is why she can't be remade. He also tied her and the Helvault to the fabric of the plane as a planar defense system, which is why she has so much power and influence. That system was never foolproof though, because Sorin didn't put in safeguards to shield the Helvault from being blown up by locals, or to shield Avacyn's mind from being twisted or being pulled into the very same Helvault he created.
Sigarda isn't super-powerful, and she isn't invulnerable. She is, however, more resistant to external influence (which is represented by her hexproof in gameplay). Avacyn, by contrast, is indestructible at her peak, but her mind is still vulnerable. Sigarda didn't become more powerful, but she was all that the people who avoided being Eldrazified had left as far as angels go.
Avacyn's death was indeed among Creative's worst mistakes. I'll let my past rants about it speak for themselves.
So are we saying that important figures like Avacyn are supposed to be untouchable or unkillable? You can disagree with how they went about it, but I don't consider killing off Avacyn in and of itself some kind of cardinal sin.
I think what we are both saying is that Avacyn's death was not handled properly. I can find character death to be very moving if done right but they didn't check that box for me. I think that creative made a mistake by thinking that Avacyn was the reason that Innistrad wasn't "scary" anymore. In truth the legions of angels that popped out in Avacyn's Restored was the reason. I think they could have had Avacyn and the powerpuff girls live and there still be frightening things about Innistrad. This is a really strange example but is Gotham City less scary with Batman around? No the Joker is freaking terryifying killing hundreds of people on a regular basis all the while with Batman patrolling every night. I think that killing her, Gisela, and Bruna off and the whole Shadows over Innistrad block was Wizards "fixing" their "mistake" and as time passes it makes me less intrigued with Innistrad as a whole.
I understand on a card basis why Sigarda was spared from the madness, but it holds no real poetry for me. She was probably the best one to discover the truth about Emmy, but they built her up as this great bastion for humanity when in truth she hid. She is angry with Avacyn for killing their BW sister but engages in the deaths of her other sisters instead of trying to save them as well. People like to demonize Sorin's motives for creating Avacyn but she was the best chance of all the species of Innistrad to live.
Like I said before I would have rather the story be played out as Emmy wondering to Innistrad or another plane on her own and kept the whole convuluted revenge story out of it. I love the gothic horror of the plane and thought that Avacyn's story before this mess was a beautiful counterpoint that Sigarda and Thalia don't do it for me. In hindsight I would have rather had the once in a blue moon Innistrad commander than SOI.
I do find what you said about humanity to be interesting. I think horror can be an expression of the evil people can be capable of.
I'm just hoping that Ixalan is a giant sandbox that we can all play in.
I think that HOU shows that Creative has been experimenting with different levels of PW focus and all I can suggest is that if you like the level of PW focus in HOU then you should give Wizards vocal feedback to that effect.
It's kind of like a Goldilocks approach to narrative marketing, but if a brand like Magic has the built-up goodwill of its customer base to sustain, it's a very simple approach.
I think that HOU shows that Creative has been experimenting with different levels of PW focus and all I can suggest is that if you like the level of PW focus in HOU then you should give Wizards vocal feedback to that effect.
It's kind of like a Goldilocks approach to narrative marketing, but if a brand like Magic has the built-up goodwill of its customer base to sustain, it's a very simple approach.
The Planeswalkers actually are very interesting, but it became too much of a good thing, and they were eating up too much of the creative space that natives should have had. HOU was a good balance of both that kept everyone earnest about what the Gatewatch was up to.
Innistrad was actually more frightening with Avacyn there. This is what I wrote to MaRo about the issue:
Innistrad may be #1 on the Rabiah scale but sadly I don't want to return there anymore. I started playing with Avacyn Restored and she was one of my favorite characters. I liked when Innistrad's horrors were done in secret, away from the eyes of the church. That was haunting. And Innistrad was always dark even with her there. Without Avacyn it's just not the same. And I don't like building up something great, then destroying it. AVR was supposed to be a semi-happy ending. But nope.
The addition of Emrakul really was enough. Robbing Innistrad of its identity during SOI/EMN really was excessive and compromised things. That's just it… they're always going over the top with no need to do so. It makes me uneasy about returns which should be anticipated instead.
Honestly? I'm gonna have to completely disagree. Avacyn's death was legitimately heartbreaking for me, and every time I cast Anguished Unmaking I wept manly tears. My only wish is that Sorin would have broken his stoic facade during the fight with Nahiri and referred to Avacyn as his daughter. SOI block was the highlight of Magic's storytelling so far, though the actual quality of the writing itself of course peaked during Kaladesh (Chris L'Etoile's "Release" is pure poetry).
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Xantcha, Phyrexian Reject
Jodah, Archmage Eternal
Tovolar, Howlpack Alpha
Pivlic, Orzhov Informant
Crixizix, Master Engineer
Feather, Boros Peacekeeper
Marisi Coilbreaker
O-Kagachi
Gix, Phyrexian Praetor
Karn, Father of Machines
Yawgmoth, Father of Machines
Serra, Mother of All Angels
Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools
Leshrac the Nightwalker
Jeska, the Thrice-Touched
Elspeth Returned
Crucius the Mad
Taysir the Infinite
Urza's Head (Unglued!)
The MTG multiverse is a dark and unforgiving realm. If your plane's story ends on a happy note, you're just obscenely lucky IMO.
Kaladesh was fortunate that Bolas wasn't interested in appearing in person to check on Tezzeret.
Lorwyn was fortunate that none of the major baddies know or care about it.
Alara was fortunate that Bolas decided to leave forever after Ajani forced him to play the "Stop hitting yourself" game, instead of just coming back and obliterating the place anyway.
All of these places are fortunate that they don't have a single drop of glistening oil or weren't visited by Eldrazi or who knows what else is out there.
Honestly? I'm gonna have to completely disagree. Avacyn's death was legitimately heartbreaking for me, and every time I cast Anguished Unmaking I wept manly tears. My only wish is that Sorin would have broken his stoic facade during the fight with Nahiri and referred to Avacyn as his daughter. SOI block was the highlight of Magic's storytelling so far, though the actual quality of the writing itself of course peaked during Kaladesh (Chris L'Etoile's "Release" is pure poetry).
I found it heartbraking but also maddening because it served only Emmy getting through. Their are a lot of people who want Nahiri to have some kind of redemption story but why wasn't Avacyn given that option? All of Avacyn's wicked deeds were the fault of two planeswalkers. It would have meant more for me to have her die defending Innistrad from Emmy than having her death be Emmy's back door. But on my personal Rabiah scale I would rate Innistrad as a 9 now were it used to be a 1.
I guess one thing everyone can agree on is that SOI brings up a lot of debate.
I really hope that Ixalan wows me though cuz I still think the engine of the game is amazing I just need a new home lol.
Honestly? I'm gonna have to completely disagree. Avacyn's death was legitimately heartbreaking for me, and every time I cast Anguished Unmaking I wept manly tears. My only wish is that Sorin would have broken his stoic facade during the fight with Nahiri and referred to Avacyn as his daughter. SOI block was the highlight of Magic's storytelling so far, though the actual quality of the writing itself of course peaked during Kaladesh (Chris L'Etoile's "Release" is pure poetry).
I found it heartbraking but also maddening because it served only Emmy getting through. Their are a lot of people who want Nahiri to have some kind of redemption story but why wasn't Avacyn given that option? All of Avacyn's wicked deeds were the fault of two planeswalkers. It would have meant more for me to have her die defending Innistrad from Emmy than having her death be Emmy's back door. But on my personal Rabiah scale I would rate Innistrad as a 9 now were it used to be a 1.
I guess one thing everyone can agree on is that SOI brings up a lot of debate.
I really hope that Ixalan wows me though cuz I still think the engine of the game is amazing I just need a new home lol.
I like the tradgy moment of it, even sadder with Avacyn final thought of only wanting to protect and bring hope.
Also Avacyn needed to "die". She was too strong, no conflict could rise up on Innistrad because once something changes the balance between humans and anything that want to hurt humans, Avacyn would simply grow in power to match it. We saw in SoI that she was able to keep Emrakul at bay and IIRC Avacyn only went mad because Nahiri cryptoliths multiplied Emrakul influence. If they didn't kill her off every Innistrad set would have had to find someway to explain why Avacyn couldn't swoop in and save the day.
And as Etherium Sage pointed out world changing conflict is what Wizards like to do a lot. How many apocalypses has Dominaria had by now? Before now we need a big conflict to drive the block, now we might now see more "checking" in with the blockless plan now since they don't need to think of to spread world and story over multiple sets.
Private Mod Note
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
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I'd almost bet that the first scenes of Ixalan stories will include fragments of Ral's briefing echoing in Jace's mind, implying that was how/where he went.
This is a very good point. As much as I don't like the new way of focusing on characters, at least I recognize creative's attempts to improve. And I think they've come quite a way since BFZ.
This comment on the other hand is very unfair and misses the point. If I wanted to write my own fiction, I wouldn't go and consume something. Creating fiction is an entirely different animal than writing it and some people like one but not the other. Heck, many people, me included, like both, but at different times and in different contexts.
Furthermore the story is only one aspect of Magic. Many here follow MtG for other reasons than only the story. I want to enjoy Magic in it's entirety, or at least the parts I'm interested in. I don't want to ignore half of it and make my own stuff, which I actually do in my freetime anyway, just that it's not Magic related.
"If you don't like <thing> go and make your own." is a really flawed and childish argument.
BFZ was actually very good in some parts. The issue was Nissa's development, Gideon's development and how the Eldrazi were handled. But select stories in BFZ were some of the best in MTG.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I guess my problem is is that the story has hijacked the game to the point where you can't really escape it. I hated the story of Shadows Over Innistrad but there were some aspects of the sets that I enjoyed that I can't fully appreciate because of the over story saturization. They killed off my favorite Magic character and "replaced" her with Sigarda and Thalia if the set had been made before this big story push I probably could have ignored it but they make a point of reminding you in nearly half of the set how the Angels have abandoned the people and how noble Sigarda and Thalia are. This may seem chilidish of me but I absolutly venomisly abhore the stupid Sigarda heron that they have plastered everywhere. So what used to be my favorite plane is now a constant reminder that it's turned into a pile of dog feces. I enjoyed the Kaladesh and Amonkhet sets but when it came to Aether Revolt and Hour of Devistation it made the story hijack the planes as well.
I am very bitter but I'm hoping Ixalan will be something that reinvigorates my love for Magic that I haven't really felt since they decided to focus on the story. They should provide some story seeds in the sets but not in the whole set, let us go down paths we want to not just the paths they are wanting us to. If we are to make the story our own they need to sandbox the sets a little more. They can still have a story but they need to let us escape it if we aren't digging it. My rant is complete.
RG 8-Whack
BWG Abzan midrange
GRB Living End
UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin"
RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!"
BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
Cosmic Horror was great and the story was well written but Innistrad just isn't the same anymore.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
I have a fear of returning to Ravnica for that very reason. When they introduced the planar portal in Khaladesh's story my immediate thought was that Ravnica was going to be turned into Phyravnica but now it seems more like all of the guild symbols will have Bolas plastered onto them. I actually enjoyed the Eldrazi being turned into cosmic horror, but I think it's timing was off. If they had Emmy come to Innistrad five years later after we had left BFZ long behind I would have enjoyed it more (though I wouldn't be surprised much either). I'm a novice in Lovecraftian horror but having their Cthulu summoned for a revenge story just didn't come across scary to me. If Emmy had come on her own remembering the cultists that worshipped her it would have been more up my alley. Or if it took place on a slightly more advanced noirish world would have been awesome.
Alara is my favourite plane, and it got "trashed" (the shards were smashed back together) in the same block as it was introduced.
Considering the volatile nature of the plane, they'd have to do something extremely drastic (like eliminate an entire shard or something) to make me hate a Return to Alara set.
I didn't mind Sigarda taking over from Avacyn, to be honest. Avacyn wasn't a natural angel, and she basically shoe-horned herself into the angel hierarchy. The plane's humans and angels became so dependent on her that not only did things go to hell when she got dragged into the Helvault, but Nahiri's machinations and Emrakul's influence had an easy way to turn the angels on the humans by using Avacyn as a conduit.
Sigarda stood out because she didn't entirely depend on Avacyn and tried to do her own thing to an extent.
I strongly disagree. Having planes change and die etc is a big part of having them be the "acting" elements of a story. You cannot have Magic focus on planes rather than planeswalkers and then expect planes to remain stagnant throughout the narrative.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
I'd argue that Zendikar might be a character of sorts, since it was an active participant in the struggle against the Eldrazi.
Anyway… I am looking forward to Ixalan to finally see more of Jace. I love how he is written and his overall story. Jace and Tamiyo were perfect in SOI/EMN - investigating, doing their best to help but within the confines of their abilities and understanding. Jace in general is just cute in every way too - curious, fumbles a lot, always thinking up plans, just doing his best as a good guy. <3 Have been missing my husbando.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Yeah but the humans weren't exactly doing good anytime Avacyn wasn't there. That's why Sorrin created her in the first place. What did Sigarda do to change anything in either blocks besides fight her own sisters? What changed that made Sigarda this awesome amazing angel? She helped Thalia defeat her sisters and that's about it. She didn't stand against darkness she hid and gave humans weapons out of fear of going crazy. Avacyn was something unique in magic not just a stereotypical angel. Even in her madness Avacyn's rampage was a veign attempt to eliminate Emmy's influence from the plane. She was trying through the delirium in a very wrong way to solve the true porblem not just the symptom like Sigarda and Thalia. Would you call Serra's angels not important or abominations just because Serra made them?
Zendikar is a character to me as well but you can develop a character without mamming/killing them which is usually what Wizards does in every block.
Which is why I specifically called them "acting elements" rather than characters.
I mean it's all hypothetical anyway as planes have been reduced to background props. I just think Magic storytelling was at its height when planes themselves were the driving agents in the overarching plot. I also think that sort of narrative would be the best a card game is able to tell. You can't convey the journey of a character through ~350 random cards. You can however, paint a picture of the conflict and explore the different perspectives very very well.
Yes, they're trying to mitigate the problem through things like story spotlights, but that's just patching up holes in a rubber boat, rather than getting a proper ship.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
The funny thing about the whole situation there is that humans weren't holding up largely because of...other humans.
What I mean is: Vampires were former humans, werewolves are humans that transform into wolves, zombies are typically undead humans or patchwork abominations made by humans, and even among "regular" humans were the aforementioned skaberen, serial killers and cultists. This isn't a counterargument, but something I wanted to point out.
Sorin created Avacyn primarily because he needed to keep his own kind in check so that they didn't stupidly exhaust their own food supply. He used a huge portion of his own life force as an oldwalker to create her, which is why she can't be remade. He also tied her and the Helvault to the fabric of the plane as a planar defense system, which is why she has so much power and influence. That system was never foolproof though, because Sorin didn't put in safeguards to shield the Helvault from being blown up by locals, or to shield Avacyn's mind from being twisted or being pulled into the very same Helvault he created.
Sigarda isn't super-powerful, and she isn't invulnerable. She is, however, more resistant to external influence (which is represented by her hexproof in gameplay). Avacyn, by contrast, is indestructible at her peak, but her mind is still vulnerable. Sigarda didn't become more powerful, but she was all that the people who avoided being Eldrazified had left as far as angels go.
So are we saying that important figures like Avacyn are supposed to be untouchable or unkillable? You can disagree with how they went about it, but I don't consider killing off Avacyn in and of itself some kind of cardinal sin.
Innistrad was a classic case of "we want to return to this plane but accidentally ruined the thing players liked most about it, time to use a bunch of contrived story developments to "fix" the plane". See also: Ravnica, Tarkir, Zendikar (what happens when they don't "fix" the plane), Mirrodin (what happens when they can't "fix" the ending of the original block so they retcon it instead).
They knew that they had to return to the gothic horror world of Innistrad/Dark Ascension, not the Avacyn Restored world they ended the original block with, so Avacyn either turning evil or dying was inevitable. They already turned her evil so they didn't have to kill her off I suppose, but I guess it makes sense to kill off the first set's big bad so that the second set's bigger bad can have full attention.
Was killing Avacyn good storytelling? Debatable. It definitely was a consequence of trying to tell a story through the trading card game medium, because ultimately Avacyn was killed not for the good of the story but for the good of the SOI block. It was bad storytelling in the sense that it was forced and unnecessary as a part of the story alone if you ignore other factors, but good storytelling in the sense that it was probably the best they could do given all the constraints involved in trying to tell a story through a trading card game.
I think what we are both saying is that Avacyn's death was not handled properly. I can find character death to be very moving if done right but they didn't check that box for me. I think that creative made a mistake by thinking that Avacyn was the reason that Innistrad wasn't "scary" anymore. In truth the legions of angels that popped out in Avacyn's Restored was the reason. I think they could have had Avacyn and the powerpuff girls live and there still be frightening things about Innistrad. This is a really strange example but is Gotham City less scary with Batman around? No the Joker is freaking terryifying killing hundreds of people on a regular basis all the while with Batman patrolling every night. I think that killing her, Gisela, and Bruna off and the whole Shadows over Innistrad block was Wizards "fixing" their "mistake" and as time passes it makes me less intrigued with Innistrad as a whole.
I understand on a card basis why Sigarda was spared from the madness, but it holds no real poetry for me. She was probably the best one to discover the truth about Emmy, but they built her up as this great bastion for humanity when in truth she hid. She is angry with Avacyn for killing their BW sister but engages in the deaths of her other sisters instead of trying to save them as well. People like to demonize Sorin's motives for creating Avacyn but she was the best chance of all the species of Innistrad to live.
Like I said before I would have rather the story be played out as Emmy wondering to Innistrad or another plane on her own and kept the whole convuluted revenge story out of it. I love the gothic horror of the plane and thought that Avacyn's story before this mess was a beautiful counterpoint that Sigarda and Thalia don't do it for me. In hindsight I would have rather had the once in a blue moon Innistrad commander than SOI.
I do find what you said about humanity to be interesting. I think horror can be an expression of the evil people can be capable of.
I'm just hoping that Ixalan is a giant sandbox that we can all play in.
It's kind of like a Goldilocks approach to narrative marketing, but if a brand like Magic has the built-up goodwill of its customer base to sustain, it's a very simple approach.
Innistrad was actually more frightening with Avacyn there. This is what I wrote to MaRo about the issue:
Innistrad may be #1 on the Rabiah scale but sadly I don't want to return there anymore. I started playing with Avacyn Restored and she was one of my favorite characters. I liked when Innistrad's horrors were done in secret, away from the eyes of the church. That was haunting. And Innistrad was always dark even with her there. Without Avacyn it's just not the same. And I don't like building up something great, then destroying it. AVR was supposed to be a semi-happy ending. But nope.
The addition of Emrakul really was enough. Robbing Innistrad of its identity during SOI/EMN really was excessive and compromised things. That's just it… they're always going over the top with no need to do so. It makes me uneasy about returns which should be anticipated instead.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Xantcha, Phyrexian Reject
Jodah, Archmage Eternal
Tovolar, Howlpack Alpha
Pivlic, Orzhov Informant
Crixizix, Master Engineer
Feather, Boros Peacekeeper
Marisi Coilbreaker
O-Kagachi
Gix, Phyrexian Praetor
Karn, Father of Machines
Yawgmoth, Father of Machines
Serra, Mother of All Angels
Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools
Leshrac the Nightwalker
Jeska, the Thrice-Touched
Elspeth Returned
Crucius the Mad
Taysir the Infinite
Urza's Head (Unglued!)
Kaladesh was fortunate that Bolas wasn't interested in appearing in person to check on Tezzeret.
Lorwyn was fortunate that none of the major baddies know or care about it.
Alara was fortunate that Bolas decided to leave forever after Ajani forced him to play the "Stop hitting yourself" game, instead of just coming back and obliterating the place anyway.
All of these places are fortunate that they don't have a single drop of glistening oil or weren't visited by Eldrazi or who knows what else is out there.
I found it heartbraking but also maddening because it served only Emmy getting through. Their are a lot of people who want Nahiri to have some kind of redemption story but why wasn't Avacyn given that option? All of Avacyn's wicked deeds were the fault of two planeswalkers. It would have meant more for me to have her die defending Innistrad from Emmy than having her death be Emmy's back door. But on my personal Rabiah scale I would rate Innistrad as a 9 now were it used to be a 1.
I guess one thing everyone can agree on is that SOI brings up a lot of debate.
I really hope that Ixalan wows me though cuz I still think the engine of the game is amazing I just need a new home lol.
I like the tradgy moment of it, even sadder with Avacyn final thought of only wanting to protect and bring hope.
Also Avacyn needed to "die". She was too strong, no conflict could rise up on Innistrad because once something changes the balance between humans and anything that want to hurt humans, Avacyn would simply grow in power to match it. We saw in SoI that she was able to keep Emrakul at bay and IIRC Avacyn only went mad because Nahiri cryptoliths multiplied Emrakul influence. If they didn't kill her off every Innistrad set would have had to find someway to explain why Avacyn couldn't swoop in and save the day.
And as Etherium Sage pointed out world changing conflict is what Wizards like to do a lot. How many apocalypses has Dominaria had by now? Before now we need a big conflict to drive the block, now we might now see more "checking" in with the blockless plan now since they don't need to think of to spread world and story over multiple sets.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"