What is astonishing is that War of the spark was their grand finale to a 5 years arc that started in Battle for zendikar, they committed to the arc,developed characters, romance, conflicts, they hyped the arc, they made a big deal about its ending in War of the Spark, the greatest event in Magic since the end of the weatherlight saga.
They spent millions on the animated video which was supper, they made a teaser that left us wanting to know more.
I can't believe the person in charge gave a green light to the war of the spark plot, and then the novel. Who ever was in charge of approving this: doesn't care, has bad taste or maybe he is one of those "i know what is best" guys and thought he had a good "story" for the ending.
And it is a shame because it will take years before we have this kind of build up again, it was a big missed opportunity to engage players in the story (every one was paying attention, the set was story driven, you have 36 PW in it) and really make us engage emotionally with the characters. And they blew it out of the atmosphere.
In short: War of the Spark ****ed it up for everyone and they were spooked by it. Nice to see them admitting this and are going back to the latest tried-and-true approach.
This ought to be interesting moving forward.
'buster
It genuinely irks me that Greg Weisman and his incompetent trash compromised the Theros story release for us all. As if Vorthos didn’t suffer enough enduring what he did to the Bolas arc and all the characters and relationships creative worked so hard to establish. Let alone the insult to injury. I doubt this vetting process for Theros fiction was even warranted. This was a Greg weisman issue. Unless he was the author, they could have just released the Theros ebook. That said, I understand why they needed to take this approach. But if Kate Elliot and the Wildered Quest demonstrated anything, it’s that Greg was the problem, not consumer sensitivity, not the lore itself, but a horrible “author” who smashed the “novels” he “wrote” together the night before on dragon software with Junior high locker room banter in the background evidently.
Greg wasn't the problem alone, someone had to approve his work and since he is an outsider they probably gave him the plot and some details to write about, did they requested him to get up to date in magic lore? who gave the green light on the whole teyo-rat sub plot, Greg in fact stated on twitter that the Chandra-Nissa resolution was requested by higher ups.
Greg writing was terrible but I doubt he is the one responsible for the content.
So we are going to new phyrexia with Elspeth and Ashiok it seems, it is going to be an exciting expansions, wonder when.
It said ashiok planeswalked to learn about the phyrexians i didn’t said Elspeth went there as well (but she could go to face her fears)
It’s not like they gonna make ashiok the new heir to yawgmoths throne are they?
My train of thought is that after the nightmares and new powers gained by Elspeth she is determined to go back and help what ever remains to save in new phyrexia.
They spent millions on the animated video which was supper, they made a teaser that left us wanting to know more.
I can't believe the person in charge gave a green light to the war of the spark plot, and then the novel. Who ever was in charge of approving this: doesn't care, has bad taste or maybe he is one of those "i know what is best" guys and thought he had a good "story" for the ending.
And it is a shame because it will take years before we have this kind of build up again, it was a big missed opportunity to engage players in the story (every one was paying attention, the set was story driven, you have 36 PW in it) and really make us engage emotionally with the characters. And they blew it out of the atmosphere.
Greg wasn't the problem alone, someone had to approve his work and since he is an outsider they probably gave him the plot and some details to write about, did they requested him to get up to date in magic lore? who gave the green light on the whole teyo-rat sub plot, Greg in fact stated on twitter that the Chandra-Nissa resolution was requested by higher ups.
Greg writing was terrible but I doubt he is the one responsible for the content.
My train of thought is that after the nightmares and new powers gained by Elspeth she is determined to go back and help what ever remains to save in new phyrexia.