Can anyone refresh me on all the 'crimes' Heliod committed?
Other than stabbing elspeth in the back, something she deserved for being overpowered anyway.
1) Causing Purphuros to get the equivalent of Alzheimer.
2) Causing Thassa to be permanently depressed due to the prior as she and Purphoros are a couple.
3) Killing a mortal, Elspeth, because they simply knew more than he did.
4) Attempting to remake the religion into a monotheistic one and depriving the rest of the pantheon by erasing their presence in Meletis. (He would have succeeded if Elspeth hadn't disarmed him of Khrusor.)
Also Elspeth has always been written, even now, with a lower power budget than other planeswalkers. Her main power is her refined martial training. Which if that is overpowered, then Gideon must appear obscene in comparisons.
The lack of a developed story for Theros is the most unfortunate part. One of the main benefits of a set that returns to an established plane is that it gives you an opportunity to deepen the storyline, provide character development, and build a coherent plot through larger story arcs. These were issues they had when they kept on going to a new setting every block. After the presumed end of the Bolas arc with Ravnica, Theros was the first plane where old plot threads were present to be picked up. But the most we have to show for that is a synopsis, so the narrative is pretty much in limbo. That's something that I feel is especially critical to resolve since Bolas was honestly a terrible villain and we need to move on to something better asap.
Given the arguably substandard storywriting of the War of the Spark novels and past novels and some of the web stories, we may be better off with synopses for the set narratives and let the fans fill the gaps with their headcanons.
I haven't even had my coffee yet today. What a super depressing comment.
Sorry to be Debbie Downer. I have been around Revised and the sets pre-Weatherlight were essentially like Theros Beyond Death in narrative. Most of the narrative was alluded to by the cards themselves and it left the gaps to the fan's imagination.
Wizards is not spending the money or political will to have a consistent and cohesive lore that Blizzard does with Warcraft/World of Warcraft. As a result, most of these narratives are not satisfying to Vorthos fans. A few web stories and Bryan Sanderson's story on Daveriel were received well, but for other narratives, the reaction has been bad.
It may be just cost cutting by Hasbro, who only care about the game itself and don't consider story to be super important. They probably think if all the Vorthos players left the game, it would have little financial impact on Magic sales.
Ultimately, I cannot emphasize enough how amazing this set is, at least in my opinion. Even factoring in my disappointment about lack of lore, it's my absolute favorite set of all time, giving all of my decks a very high volume of cards. Meaning this set hit almost all of my desires for a return to Theros. The only thing it didn't deliver is an Arixmethes reference, which wasn't necessary. I'd love a "Spawn of Arixmethes" card in the future. A baby kraken. But overall, my goodness has this set been amazing. It's given me years, truly years, worth of cards to love. As in, in the last 6 years since the previous Theros, I have not wanted as many cards in all the sets in that timeframe as I do from this one set alone.
Couldn't have been more perfect if I had designed this set myself.
The lack of a developed story for Theros is the most unfortunate part. One of the main benefits of a set that returns to an established plane is that it gives you an opportunity to deepen the storyline, provide character development, and build a coherent plot through larger story arcs. These were issues they had when they kept on going to a new setting every block. After the presumed end of the Bolas arc with Ravnica, Theros was the first plane where old plot threads were present to be picked up. But the most we have to show for that is a synopsis, so the narrative is pretty much in limbo. That's something that I feel is especially critical to resolve since Bolas was honestly a terrible villain and we need to move on to something better asap.
Given the arguably substandard storywriting of the War of the Spark novels and past novels and some of the web stories, we may be better off with synopses for the set narratives and let the fans fill the gaps with their headcanons.
I haven't even had my coffee yet today. What a super depressing comment.
Sorry to be Debbie Downer. I have been around Revised and the sets pre-Weatherlight were essentially like Theros Beyond Death in narrative. Most of the narrative was alluded to by the cards themselves and it left the gaps to the fan's imagination.
Wizards is not spending the money or political will to have a consistent and cohesive lore that Blizzard does with Warcraft/World of Warcraft. As a result, most of these narratives are not satisfying to Vorthos fans. A few web stories and Bryan Sanderson's story on Daveriel were received well, but for other narratives, the reaction has been bad.
It may be just cost cutting by Hasbro, who only care about the game itself and don't consider story to be super important. They probably think if all the Vorthos players left the game, it would have little financial impact on Magic sales.
I was being somewhat humorous. But it is kind of depressing how you make good points on an undesirable conclusion.
This has been discussed in another thread, but I think it is somewhat myopic for them to consider the investment in the story only through its direct impact on the bottom line. Although only Vorthoses place the lore at the center stage of their fandom, it's also in the background for most other players. Otherwise they would probably just play poker or something like that.
I guess that headcanons aren't always so bad. One of the things I enjoy about the lore of Fromsoftware games is the openness to interpretation. But the lore in those games is very purposefully crafted in that way, which I haven't seen MtG do successfully. I think the brand has a very serious crisis about how it's going to do its storytelling.
I guess that headcanons aren't always so bad. One of the things I enjoy about the lore of Fromsoftware games is the openness to interpretation. But the lore in those games is very purposefully crafted in that way, which I haven't seen MtG do successfully. I think the brand has a very serious crisis about how it's going to do its storytelling.
Up until Weatherlight, the headcanon-way was pretty normal for magic with a tagline like: "Visit the Shores of Imagination".
I find it weird people think this set is top down instead of bottom up. It’s bottom up Theros, with some additional Greek specific stuff they wanted to cover. The mechanics they brought back still serve the same purpose they did originally, and Escape is all about the story, namely things escaping from the Underworld. Just because it’s not what people want that doesn’t make it top down.
I don't get why people are mad about this set. It' surely better than original Theros
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
How i feel about competitive players and casual players in EDH: The competitive are german tourists, the casual are italian tourists, both in a italian beach. The italians asking themselves "why are the germans here?" make a legitimate question, the answer is because the beach is beautiful, no matter the country you came from. The italians wanting to ban the germans are dumb, because if the germans pay for their stay and follow the rules like everyone else, they have the right to be in the beach. Hovewer, if the germans started to ask themselves "why are the italians here?"... they would be dumb as hell.
I find it weird people think this set is top down instead of bottom up. It’s bottom up Theros, with some additional Greek specific stuff they wanted to cover. The mechanics they brought back still serve the same purpose they did originally, and Escape is all about the story, namely things escaping from the Underworld. Just because it’s not what people want that doesn’t make it top down.
Escape is all about the story but the set is bottom up? Hmmm?
This has been discussed in another thread, but I think it is somewhat myopic for them to consider the investment in the story only through its direct impact on the bottom line. Although only Vorthoses place the lore at the center stage of their fandom, it's also in the background for most other players. Otherwise they would probably just play poker or something like that.
I would agree with you if Magic was a new card game with little or no tournament support. However, Magic is established now and has tournament support, with money and prizes on the line. I think the number of competitive or semi-competitive players dwarf the Vorthoses, so as long as Wizards creates cards that players believe will help them win games, the story (excluding basic world building and synopsis) can take a backseat. Modern Horizons and Core Sets had no story support, but they sold well if they had cards people wanted. (Modern Horizons appears to have sold to expectations, at least.)
I think the brand has a very serious crisis about how it's going to do its storytelling.
Either Wizards goes back to the pre-Weatherlight days of storytelling for their sets, or they will spend money on story for a reduced number of sets. Likely, Wizards will spend money for story on sets taking place on new planes like the upcoming Ikoria, and less or no money on story for most returning planes. For example, Zendikar's story about its people vs Eldrazi is concluded, so in the next Zendikar set, the cards tell the general narrative of "D&D adventuring in dangerous places with a token amount of Eldrazi remnants," and we get a story synopsis.
This has been discussed in another thread, but I think it is somewhat myopic for them to consider the investment in the story only through its direct impact on the bottom line. Although only Vorthoses place the lore at the center stage of their fandom, it's also in the background for most other players. Otherwise they would probably just play poker or something like that.
I would agree with you if Magic was a new card game with little or no tournament support. However, Magic is established now and has tournament support, with money and prizes on the line. I think the number of competitive or semi-competitive players dwarf the Vorthoses, so as long as Wizards creates cards that players believe will help them win games, the story (excluding basic world building and synopsis) can take a backseat. Modern Horizons and Core Sets had no story support, but they sold well if they had cards people wanted. (Modern Horizons appears to have sold to expectations, at least.)
I think the brand has a very serious crisis about how it's going to do its storytelling.
Either Wizards goes back to the pre-Weatherlight days of storytelling for their sets, or they will spend money on story for a reduced number of sets. Likely, Wizards will spend money for story on sets taking place on new planes like the upcoming Ikoria, and less or no money on story for most returning planes. For example, Zendikar's story about its people vs Eldrazi is concluded, so in the next Zendikar set, the cards tell the general narrative of "D&D adventuring in dangerous places with a token amount of Eldrazi remnants," and we get a story synopsis.
Yet if the quality of the overall franchise declines, its popularity probably will eventually follow. Now that the game is bigger than any previous point, it is the time to expand on what makes it unique rather than to regress to an earlier stage when the game was small and new.
I find it weird people think this set is top down instead of bottom up. It’s bottom up Theros, with some additional Greek specific stuff they wanted to cover. The mechanics they brought back still serve the same purpose they did originally, and Escape is all about the story, namely things escaping from the Underworld. Just because it’s not what people want that doesn’t make it top down.
Escape is all about the story but the set is bottom up? Hmmm?
Oh, did I mix up top down and bottom up? I meant that Theros is based on flavor first, not mechanics. I think I thought bottom up was that because that’s where the flavor text is, but I mixed them up. Sorry.
The departure of Kelly Digges and Alison Lurhs, addition of Greg Weisman with his two War of the Spark travesties and the lack of a Theros novel, ebook or web stories, as well as the overall outsourcing of material over its control by an in-house creative team... all following the appearance of Nic Kelman, are surely all related.
And the loss of lore in the game is the loss of the brand itself. They’re capitalizing on Vorthos-targeted material in their Netflix series, the movie they’re anticipating, and yes, to enrich their set releases as well. When it was web stories, it wasn’t just Vorthos reading either.
All of this was the hard work of the creative team that was clearly dismantled and left in ruins. They’re all sadly strained and overworked no doubt. What’s left of them anyway. You’d think they’d fortify rather than obliterate such a motivating marketing tool. One that got the brand where it is. The web stories on Wednesdays as the height of MTG. I was sorely anticipating it for Theros, imagining which authors would pen which stories. What a loss.
Perhaps it's the Netflix show, the MMORPG, and all of the other resources that the brand is focusing on that's siphoning creative from the actual TCG. I've been playing MTG since pretty much the beginning and the lore was still fun back when it was vague and we had to fill in the gaps, yet through the decades WotC has ratcheted up the Vorthos component of MTG such that they have the capability for things such as an MMORPG and a Netflix series, so maybe this is just a natural progression. Who knows, we may get story lines and sets of cards that are based on the show or the video games if they are well received enough.
This is quite arguably a very weak set (where’s all the evasion?!), and - so far as I’m personally concerned - yawn inducing on the order of magnitude of Amonkhet. So unexcited and ready to move on already; no wonder there was much ado about the other upcoming sets leading into this spoiler season.
Also: that story article? Horribly written. I could teach a high schooler to do better.
Hate to say it but I would expect some high schoolers to do better
Yet if the quality of the overall franchise declines, its popularity probably will eventually follow. Now that the game is bigger than any previous point, it is the time to expand on what makes it unique rather than to regress to an earlier stage when the game was small and new.
Wizards will probably cost cut on the story until product sales revenue slips notably. It's always this way with companies: they will seek to save money to make more profit, so they will cut in areas until the product quality gets bad enough for visible complaints and sales loss. I just don't think Wizards is at that point yet.
Alternatively, as Tiro and MoonKnightLite pointed out, much of the creative focus has moved to other properties, basically putting the card game on cruise control. As long as they print competitive cards and enticing thematic sets, Wizards can probably coast on a light narrative for a while. As I said, Wizards will probably focus stories on new sets, not returning ones, to avoid consecutive "synopsis only" sets.
I wonder if the issue has to do with all of the negative reaction that the War of the Spark story received. Eldraine's story was likely already mostly done by the time WAR's story came out but it was definitely still early enough to pull the plug on the Theros story. Additionally, other posters have stated that Theros apparently had a lot of difficulty during the design and development phase, so perhaps WotC decided to cut their losses on this set and focus on Ikoria and the other products coming out this year?
Yet if the quality of the overall franchise declines, its popularity probably will eventually follow. Now that the game is bigger than any previous point, it is the time to expand on what makes it unique rather than to regress to an earlier stage when the game was small and new.
Wizards will probably cost cut on the story until product sales revenue slips notably. It's always this way with companies: they will seek to save money to make more profit, so they will cut in areas until the product quality gets bad enough for visible complaints and sales loss. I just don't think Wizards is at that point yet.
Alternatively, as Tiro and MoonKnightLite pointed out, much of the creative focus has moved to other properties, basically putting the card game on cruise control. As long as they print competitive cards and enticing thematic sets, Wizards can probably coast on a light narrative for a while. As I said, Wizards will probably focus stories on new sets, not returning ones, to avoid consecutive "synopsis only" sets.
And the problem with that is that returning sets is where story arcs can be developed. When the story only gets brought up with a new setting, people get fatigued with the same rehash of "oh no the world is on fire, but protagonist saves it!" It's important to get the audience invested in established characters and not just planeswalkers who are mostly written as color caricatures at this point.
I also believe that as consumers how we choose to respond can affect the tipping point where business decisions become unprofitable.
We can speculate all we want but at the end of the day we don't know anything but no story for Theros and this isn't the plan for the future. That is all they have bothered to tells us and until then we can't say whats going on for sure.
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 the Hunt for Lili(Ana?), Dovin, and Tezzeret. And with all the knowledge and resources Tezz had he could probably, himself, be a big bad. He also has ties to Phyrexia.
The fate of Dovin was described in the book War of the Spark: Forsaken. Also, in that book, Liliana was found.
The lack of a developed story for Theros is the most unfortunate part. One of the main benefits of a set that returns to an established plane is that it gives you an opportunity to deepen the storyline, provide character development, and build a coherent plot through larger story arcs. These were issues they had when they kept on going to a new setting every block. After the presumed end of the Bolas arc with Ravnica, Theros was the first plane where old plot threads were present to be picked up. But the most we have to show for that is a synopsis, so the narrative is pretty much in limbo. That's something that I feel is especially critical to resolve since Bolas was honestly a terrible villain and we need to move on to something better asap.
Given the arguably substandard storywriting of the War of the Spark novels and past novels and some of the web stories, we may be better off with synopses for the set narratives and let the fans fill the gaps with their headcanons.
Headcanon is part of the reason Forsaken was so badly received, so I'm not sure letting fans run with that is the best idea.
Now that the titans are loose we have some new Eldrazi-ish baddies to use for some plot. What existing antagonists do we have left in the MTG multiverse except for Phyrexia?
I don't think the Titans are near the scale of Eldrazi. For one, they're stuck on Theros - nothing has indicated otherwise other than unfounded speculation that the rest of them are on Ikoria for some reason.
Isn't Marit Lage still around, technically? Tezzeret is still out there, along with whatever the Raven Man is, too.
Given the arguably substandard storywriting of the War of the Spark novels and past novels and some of the web stories, we may be better off with synopses for the set narratives and let the fans fill the gaps with their headcanons.
Headcanon is part of the reason Forsaken was so badly received, so I'm not sure letting fans run with that is the best idea.
Your statement is not correct. The problem with Forsaken is that past cards and Wizards stories over the past 2 years had established certain characterizations, relationships, and situations that Forsaken reversed or deviated from those past lore quite suddenly. Essentially, Forsaken was retconning past cards and Wizards stories, so some of the fan base was confused and upset.
If fans want to run with their headcanon or write fan fiction to fill in the gaps, that's their prerogative until Wizards releases official lore.
Perhaps it's the Netflix show, the MMORPG, and all of the other resources that the brand is focusing on that's siphoning creative from the actual TCG. I've been playing MTG since pretty much the beginning and the lore was still fun back when it was vague and we had to fill in the gaps, yet through the decades WotC has ratcheted up the Vorthos component of MTG such that they have the capability for things such as an MMORPG and a Netflix series, so maybe this is just a natural progression. Who knows, we may get story lines and sets of cards that are based on the show or the video games if they are well received enough.
I actually wouldn't be shocked if they're planning to get real brand integrate-y with either the mmo or the netflix show, where the story now has to match up to whatever's going on in those. Maybe what we're seeing now is more clearing house to get some characters up and ready for whatever's written for those. Garruk is back, liliana is kinda redeemed, elspeth is back. Beefing up the cast a lil.
Also as a total aside, wild to watch tiro (of meletis) have gone from absolutely livid and irrationally angry about this set before it was previewed to raving about it in effortposts now the whole thing has dropped. There's a lesson there, but I'm not gonna be the one to figure out what it is.
Perhaps it's the Netflix show, the MMORPG, and all of the other resources that the brand is focusing on that's siphoning creative from the actual TCG. I've been playing MTG since pretty much the beginning and the lore was still fun back when it was vague and we had to fill in the gaps, yet through the decades WotC has ratcheted up the Vorthos component of MTG such that they have the capability for things such as an MMORPG and a Netflix series, so maybe this is just a natural progression. Who knows, we may get story lines and sets of cards that are based on the show or the video games if they are well received enough.
I actually wouldn't be shocked if they're planning to get real brand integrate-y with either the mmo or the netflix show, where the story now has to match up to whatever's going on in those. Maybe what we're seeing now is more clearing house to get some characters up and ready for whatever's written for those. Garruk is back, liliana is kinda redeemed, elspeth is back. Beefing up the cast a lil.
Also as a total aside, wild to watch tiro (of meletis) have gone from absolutely livid and irrationally angry about this set before it was previewed to raving about it in effortposts now the whole thing has dropped. There's a lesson there, but I'm not gonna be the one to figure out what it is.
The key word there is "irrational."
Using the show and the mmo as media for the overall narrative is probably a good move, as they're likely to be more accessible and thus expand the audience. I think one of the difficulties they've been having is trying to coordinate the stories with block releases a little too much. Of course that has to do with wanting to push sales of the new product, so it makes sense on paper that every set would have its story published at the same time, but I think there's a practical issue of getting reasonably high quality content written under those conditions. It would be better if they had several ongoing stories being printed that would eventually "catch up" and incorporate new settings while maintaining the audience's investment with the overall set of characters and settings. Comics and story articles might be sufficient to push new sets upon release.
In all the feeling I got from this Theros storyline was merely in place to tie up loose ends from the end of the first block, with little or no main correlation to the next big arc that seems to be setting up via Eldraine. I suspect the same thing with Zendikar III.
But with Ikoria? A new place, new dynamics. I thought this morning about who or what would be an ideal character for this, and immediately I thought of Vivien. Her homeworld is ravaged and Ikoria seems to be the place where she would call home as a refugee.
Then I saw a pic of an Ikoria ad on the back of one of the THB cards, so it looks like my theory was right re: Vivien. Where that will go? Who knows. It's cool though nonetheless.
'buster
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset. Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
2) Causing Thassa to be permanently depressed due to the prior as she and Purphoros are a couple.
3) Killing a mortal, Elspeth, because they simply knew more than he did.
4) Attempting to remake the religion into a monotheistic one and depriving the rest of the pantheon by erasing their presence in Meletis. (He would have succeeded if Elspeth hadn't disarmed him of Khrusor.)
Also Elspeth has always been written, even now, with a lower power budget than other planeswalkers. Her main power is her refined martial training. Which if that is overpowered, then Gideon must appear obscene in comparisons.
Sorry to be Debbie Downer. I have been around Revised and the sets pre-Weatherlight were essentially like Theros Beyond Death in narrative. Most of the narrative was alluded to by the cards themselves and it left the gaps to the fan's imagination.
Wizards is not spending the money or political will to have a consistent and cohesive lore that Blizzard does with Warcraft/World of Warcraft. As a result, most of these narratives are not satisfying to Vorthos fans. A few web stories and Bryan Sanderson's story on Daveriel were received well, but for other narratives, the reaction has been bad.
It may be just cost cutting by Hasbro, who only care about the game itself and don't consider story to be super important. They probably think if all the Vorthos players left the game, it would have little financial impact on Magic sales.
Couldn't have been more perfect if I had designed this set myself.
|| 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 was being somewhat humorous. But it is kind of depressing how you make good points on an undesirable conclusion.
This has been discussed in another thread, but I think it is somewhat myopic for them to consider the investment in the story only through its direct impact on the bottom line. Although only Vorthoses place the lore at the center stage of their fandom, it's also in the background for most other players. Otherwise they would probably just play poker or something like that.
I guess that headcanons aren't always so bad. One of the things I enjoy about the lore of Fromsoftware games is the openness to interpretation. But the lore in those games is very purposefully crafted in that way, which I haven't seen MtG do successfully. I think the brand has a very serious crisis about how it's going to do its storytelling.
Escape is all about the story but the set is bottom up? Hmmm?
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
I would agree with you if Magic was a new card game with little or no tournament support. However, Magic is established now and has tournament support, with money and prizes on the line. I think the number of competitive or semi-competitive players dwarf the Vorthoses, so as long as Wizards creates cards that players believe will help them win games, the story (excluding basic world building and synopsis) can take a backseat. Modern Horizons and Core Sets had no story support, but they sold well if they had cards people wanted. (Modern Horizons appears to have sold to expectations, at least.)
Either Wizards goes back to the pre-Weatherlight days of storytelling for their sets, or they will spend money on story for a reduced number of sets. Likely, Wizards will spend money for story on sets taking place on new planes like the upcoming Ikoria, and less or no money on story for most returning planes. For example, Zendikar's story about its people vs Eldrazi is concluded, so in the next Zendikar set, the cards tell the general narrative of "D&D adventuring in dangerous places with a token amount of Eldrazi remnants," and we get a story synopsis.
Yet if the quality of the overall franchise declines, its popularity probably will eventually follow. Now that the game is bigger than any previous point, it is the time to expand on what makes it unique rather than to regress to an earlier stage when the game was small and new.
Oh, did I mix up top down and bottom up? I meant that Theros is based on flavor first, not mechanics. I think I thought bottom up was that because that’s where the flavor text is, but I mixed them up. Sorry.
And the loss of lore in the game is the loss of the brand itself. They’re capitalizing on Vorthos-targeted material in their Netflix series, the movie they’re anticipating, and yes, to enrich their set releases as well. When it was web stories, it wasn’t just Vorthos reading either.
All of this was the hard work of the creative team that was clearly dismantled and left in ruins. They’re all sadly strained and overworked no doubt. What’s left of them anyway. You’d think they’d fortify rather than obliterate such a motivating marketing tool. One that got the brand where it is. The web stories on Wednesdays as the height of MTG. I was sorely anticipating it for Theros, imagining which authors would pen which stories. What a loss.
|| 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 ||
Hate to say it but I would expect some high schoolers to do better
Wizards will probably cost cut on the story until product sales revenue slips notably. It's always this way with companies: they will seek to save money to make more profit, so they will cut in areas until the product quality gets bad enough for visible complaints and sales loss. I just don't think Wizards is at that point yet.
Alternatively, as Tiro and MoonKnightLite pointed out, much of the creative focus has moved to other properties, basically putting the card game on cruise control. As long as they print competitive cards and enticing thematic sets, Wizards can probably coast on a light narrative for a while. As I said, Wizards will probably focus stories on new sets, not returning ones, to avoid consecutive "synopsis only" sets.
And the problem with that is that returning sets is where story arcs can be developed. When the story only gets brought up with a new setting, people get fatigued with the same rehash of "oh no the world is on fire, but protagonist saves it!" It's important to get the audience invested in established characters and not just planeswalkers who are mostly written as color caricatures at this point.
I also believe that as consumers how we choose to respond can affect the tipping point where business decisions become unprofitable.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Headcanon is part of the reason Forsaken was so badly received, so I'm not sure letting fans run with that is the best idea.
I don't think the Titans are near the scale of Eldrazi. For one, they're stuck on Theros - nothing has indicated otherwise other than unfounded speculation that the rest of them are on Ikoria for some reason.
Isn't Marit Lage still around, technically? Tezzeret is still out there, along with whatever the Raven Man is, too.
Your statement is not correct. The problem with Forsaken is that past cards and Wizards stories over the past 2 years had established certain characterizations, relationships, and situations that Forsaken reversed or deviated from those past lore quite suddenly. Essentially, Forsaken was retconning past cards and Wizards stories, so some of the fan base was confused and upset.
If fans want to run with their headcanon or write fan fiction to fill in the gaps, that's their prerogative until Wizards releases official lore.
I actually wouldn't be shocked if they're planning to get real brand integrate-y with either the mmo or the netflix show, where the story now has to match up to whatever's going on in those. Maybe what we're seeing now is more clearing house to get some characters up and ready for whatever's written for those. Garruk is back, liliana is kinda redeemed, elspeth is back. Beefing up the cast a lil.
Also as a total aside, wild to watch tiro (of meletis) have gone from absolutely livid and irrationally angry about this set before it was previewed to raving about it in effortposts now the whole thing has dropped. There's a lesson there, but I'm not gonna be the one to figure out what it is.
The key word there is "irrational."
Using the show and the mmo as media for the overall narrative is probably a good move, as they're likely to be more accessible and thus expand the audience. I think one of the difficulties they've been having is trying to coordinate the stories with block releases a little too much. Of course that has to do with wanting to push sales of the new product, so it makes sense on paper that every set would have its story published at the same time, but I think there's a practical issue of getting reasonably high quality content written under those conditions. It would be better if they had several ongoing stories being printed that would eventually "catch up" and incorporate new settings while maintaining the audience's investment with the overall set of characters and settings. Comics and story articles might be sufficient to push new sets upon release.
But with Ikoria? A new place, new dynamics. I thought this morning about who or what would be an ideal character for this, and immediately I thought of Vivien. Her homeworld is ravaged and Ikoria seems to be the place where she would call home as a refugee.
Then I saw a pic of an Ikoria ad on the back of one of the THB cards, so it looks like my theory was right re: Vivien. Where that will go? Who knows. It's cool though nonetheless.
'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
|| 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 ||