Now that Gatecrash had been set loose upon the streets of Ravnica, I thought we could try something different and evaluate the flavor of the new cards in the set.
Urban Flavor
There's a special place in my heart for the "city flavor" cards. It's rare that we visit urban worlds, so to see that flavor encapsulated so clearly makes me giddy.
Murder Investigation: Someone dies, and investigators show up. I think it's interesting that you have to enchant the creature before it dies or it's death isn't investigated. Basically, only important deaths get investigated. And the more powerful the victim, the more investigators show up. (Also, I want to build a deck with both Murder and Murder Investigation.)
Gridlock: Traffic. The bane of every commuter's life. Lazav's quote sums this up perfectly.
Smog Elemental: Pollution and industrialization given life. The wistful nostalgia in the flavor text just brings it home: progress always has a price.
Mugging: The creature takes a hit, and if they survive they're out of commission for a while. I'd rather have seen the name used with something like equipment stealing, but it's not a complete flavor miss.
Thespian's Stage: Having been a theatre geek in high school/undergrad, I felt an instant attraction to this card. The flavor is spot on: with a little effort, you can change the set and represent anywhere you can imagine.
Other Flavorful Cards
Guildscorn Ward: I have to mention this card because of the art. See that background? That's Tablet of the Guilds. The flavor text is also excellent. It reads like the tag line to a summer action blockbuster.
Rapid Hybridization: Oh, you wacky Simic and your biomancy. I love the disdain dripping in that last line: "You're welcome." Plus, Frog Lizard!
Miming Slime: So Orzhov to try and save a buck by having oozes copy guards rather than hiring actual guards.
Biovisionary: Seriously, if I could just clone myself, my scientific career would be so much easier.
Lazav, Dimir Mastermind: Of all the guildmasters in Gatecrash, I feel Lazav is the biggest flavor home run. An untouchable operator, lurking in the shadows, ready to impersonate the dead? Pure, flavorful awesome.
Honorable Mention Shambleshark: Because CRAB SHARK!
Edit: I completely forgot about poor Fblthp! Totally Lost certainly deserves an honorable mention.
Most flavourful card is, by far, Act of Treason. You see an Orzhov member with Rakdos pins in his flesh. His flavour text says that because it's so scary out, more and more people come to the Juri Revue. It wins, hands down.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[I was permabanned and all I got to show for it was .... well, nothing.]
Most flavourful card is, by far, Act of Treason. You see an Orzhov member with Rakdos pins in his flesh. His flavour text says that because it's so scary out, more and more people come to the Juri Revue. It wins, hands down.
Good pick! I noticed that while putting my Gatecrash cards away the other day. If the war to end all wars is coming, you may as well hang out with the Rakdos, right?
I personally really dislike Glaring Spotlight. Like, it works, I can see where the flavour ties in, but it's just too literal smash-you-in-the-face-with-flavour for my liking. It feels really forced somehow.
I personally really dislike Glaring Spotlight. Like, it works, I can see where the flavour ties in, but it's just too literal smash-you-in-the-face-with-flavour for my liking. It feels really forced somehow.
This. The templating is really forced, so while it captures the flavor it jumps through too many hoops to get there.
Overall I feel like WotC has been hitting the flavor mark pretty well on the expert level sets for a while, and especially so in GTC. All of your options seem reasonable, and I went with Lazav. He fits Dimir's style perfectly.
I think a couple more cards could have easily been on the poll.
Borborygmos Enraged: Comes at you swinging and ripping up chunks of the ground to throw at you.
Obzedat, Ghost Council: Blinks in and out, siphoning your soul each time. I would find them more flavorful if they were smaller P/T wise but still think Dad has great flavor.
Structural Collapse: If the card effect to name concept doesn't ooze flavor, the flavor text should win you over.
Hold the Gates: Again, the city cards almost all hit the mark
Voted for smog elemental, due in part for my love of the old smogsteed rider card from old Rav. These also remind me a lot of pollution shamans/elementals from the Shadowrun and Werewolf rpgs.
Considering the relative lack of forests on Ravnica, I wonder what folks are burning all the time that screws up the air so bad. Are there passages in the Ravnica novels on quarries and/or coal mines?
Borborygmos Enraged: Comes at you swinging and ripping up chunks of the ground to throw at you.
Obzedat, Ghost Council: Blinks in and out, siphoning your soul each time. I would find them more flavorful if they were smaller P/T wise but still think Dad has great flavor.
See, I didn't get the "throwing chunks of ground" thing on Borby until you said that. Suddenly it seems much less random.
With the Ghost Council, I thought they were another Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius. The first iteration was so spot-on that the second iteration just seems like a rehash.
Am I the only one sorta dislike cards like Totally Lost , I feel like they aren't spells, they are just statements.
Fireball is a spell, your channelling red mana to create a huge Fireball.
Psychic Blast is a spell, your channeling blue energy to create a blast that back lashes at you.
Wrath of God , Giant Growth, Dark Ritual etc all spells and dont even get me started on enchantments, how is murder investigation an enchantment.
Totally Lost? Uhh how is the name relevant, Arcane Distortion or something would have been a better name, it actually feels like a spell a mage would cast.
My pick, Guildscorn Ward , its a magical ward that you enchant on yourself that protects you against the guilds, makes complete sense
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Don't you see that the whole aim of Moderators is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make infractions literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten.
I voted for Murder Investigation, it really evokes some vibes.
Favorite flavor is Tower Defense, though. My troops all randomly decided to tower up Warcraft 3 style? Awesome.
I voted for you feeing bad, mainly because Totally Lost wasn't on there. But as a Thespian, I like the fact that it costs (2) to perform a scene change.
I opened this card in the prerelease and it really made me laugh.
I could just see Tesya writing that clause on the alms coins, then
filing all the paperwork to get a full tax deduction. You get a few
of the alms coins, goto an Orzhov business and find that it's a total ripoff
that only applies on Tuesday, and by the way, there's an entry fee
into the store, so payup buddy.
Gatecrash Edition
Now that Gatecrash had been set loose upon the streets of Ravnica, I thought we could try something different and evaluate the flavor of the new cards in the set.
Urban Flavor
There's a special place in my heart for the "city flavor" cards. It's rare that we visit urban worlds, so to see that flavor encapsulated so clearly makes me giddy.
Murder Investigation: Someone dies, and investigators show up. I think it's interesting that you have to enchant the creature before it dies or it's death isn't investigated. Basically, only important deaths get investigated. And the more powerful the victim, the more investigators show up. (Also, I want to build a deck with both Murder and Murder Investigation.)
Gridlock: Traffic. The bane of every commuter's life. Lazav's quote sums this up perfectly.
Smog Elemental: Pollution and industrialization given life. The wistful nostalgia in the flavor text just brings it home: progress always has a price.
Mugging: The creature takes a hit, and if they survive they're out of commission for a while. I'd rather have seen the name used with something like equipment stealing, but it's not a complete flavor miss.
Thespian's Stage: Having been a theatre geek in high school/undergrad, I felt an instant attraction to this card. The flavor is spot on: with a little effort, you can change the set and represent anywhere you can imagine.
Other Flavorful Cards
Guildscorn Ward: I have to mention this card because of the art. See that background? That's Tablet of the Guilds. The flavor text is also excellent. It reads like the tag line to a summer action blockbuster.
Rapid Hybridization: Oh, you wacky Simic and your biomancy. I love the disdain dripping in that last line: "You're welcome." Plus, Frog Lizard!
Miming Slime: So Orzhov to try and save a buck by having oozes copy guards rather than hiring actual guards.
Biovisionary: Seriously, if I could just clone myself, my scientific career would be so much easier.
Lazav, Dimir Mastermind: Of all the guildmasters in Gatecrash, I feel Lazav is the biggest flavor home run. An untouchable operator, lurking in the shadows, ready to impersonate the dead? Pure, flavorful awesome.
Honorable Mention
Shambleshark: Because CRAB SHARK!
Edit: I completely forgot about poor Fblthp! Totally Lost certainly deserves an honorable mention.
@_kaburi_ on Twitter
Special thanks to Serrot_29 for Catbug'mrakul!
Write-in for Totally Lost. If that was on the poll, I'm pretty sure Fblthp would beat them all out.
@_kaburi_ on Twitter
Special thanks to Serrot_29 for Catbug'mrakul!
Good pick! I noticed that while putting my Gatecrash cards away the other day. If the war to end all wars is coming, you may as well hang out with the Rakdos, right?
Act of Treason for winner of this poll!
I'm a sucker for continuity, so Thespian's Stage gets my vote.
@_kaburi_ on Twitter
Special thanks to Serrot_29 for Catbug'mrakul!
I personally really dislike Glaring Spotlight. Like, it works, I can see where the flavour ties in, but it's just too literal smash-you-in-the-face-with-flavour for my liking. It feels really forced somehow.
This. The templating is really forced, so while it captures the flavor it jumps through too many hoops to get there.
@_kaburi_ on Twitter
Special thanks to Serrot_29 for Catbug'mrakul!
I think a couple more cards could have easily been on the poll.
Borborygmos Enraged: Comes at you swinging and ripping up chunks of the ground to throw at you.
Obzedat, Ghost Council: Blinks in and out, siphoning your soul each time. I would find them more flavorful if they were smaller P/T wise but still think Dad has great flavor.
Structural Collapse: If the card effect to name concept doesn't ooze flavor, the flavor text should win you over.
Hold the Gates: Again, the city cards almost all hit the mark
All your Ice Age Foil Basics are belong to us
If you have any foil 7ED Island #334 I am very interested!
Considering the relative lack of forests on Ravnica, I wonder what folks are burning all the time that screws up the air so bad. Are there passages in the Ravnica novels on quarries and/or coal mines?
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
See, I didn't get the "throwing chunks of ground" thing on Borby until you said that. Suddenly it seems much less random.
With the Ghost Council, I thought they were another Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius. The first iteration was so spot-on that the second iteration just seems like a rehash.
@_kaburi_ on Twitter
Special thanks to Serrot_29 for Catbug'mrakul!
If I recall correctly, besides running hedonistic pleasure dens, the Rakdos are miners. I'm trying to track down my source for that.
@_kaburi_ on Twitter
Special thanks to Serrot_29 for Catbug'mrakul!
Fireball is a spell, your channelling red mana to create a huge Fireball.
Psychic Blast is a spell, your channeling blue energy to create a blast that back lashes at you.
Wrath of God , Giant Growth, Dark Ritual etc all spells and dont even get me started on enchantments, how is murder investigation an enchantment.
Totally Lost? Uhh how is the name relevant, Arcane Distortion or something would have been a better name, it actually feels like a spell a mage would cast.
My pick, Guildscorn Ward , its a magical ward that you enchant on yourself that protects you against the guilds, makes complete sense
That's true. I believe that was explicitly stated a few times in the original Ravnica trilogy.
This is a very good point
All your Ice Age Foil Basics are belong to us
If you have any foil 7ED Island #334 I am very interested!
Anyway, quite a few cards are flavorful, so it's hard to pinpoint which one has the best flavor.
Favorite flavor is Tower Defense, though. My troops all randomly decided to tower up Warcraft 3 style? Awesome.
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I opened this card in the prerelease and it really made me laugh.
I could just see Tesya writing that clause on the alms coins, then
filing all the paperwork to get a full tax deduction. You get a few
of the alms coins, goto an Orzhov business and find that it's a total ripoff
that only applies on Tuesday, and by the way, there's an entry fee
into the store, so payup buddy.
EDH Decks
RGMarhault Elsdragon (A Touch of Rampage)RG
GWTrostani, Early Bird (Wurm Tribal)GW
RWAgrus Kos, Bumbat Drinkin' BadassRW
RDiaochan, Hateful BeautyR
On Modern Masters 2:
Will be kept until 12/31/2013 to prove if Right or Wrong.Proven right 1/27/2013