Though you raise a good point. Hopefully we eventually swing back to more exploratory planeswalkers, but it seems now that many of the new ones are just here for a one block "hey, look at this new cool character!" moment and then they're shelved for some years. Which is just sad is all; Narset, Koth and Ajani are some of my favorite characters, but they seem shelved indefinitely for these new 5 origins/"main focus of the storyline" characters. Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel many were asking for Nissa and Gideon to replace Garruk and Ajani. Seems forced to me, is all.
I don't know when you started magic but the Shards of Alara block was bascally Ajanis origins story, so it makes sence that they replace him with Gideon since Ajanis origins story was already told and the fact he was very WR at the time means it would be odd for them to make him the white orignas walker.
To give my answer to the main question of the thread I think its just a simple case of keeping characters organized. Their are 30+ wakers now and its a lot easier to some have them to be staying on one plane (waiting for a bus) for a while, then having every single one having ongoing plotlines that creative have to keep track of.
Well we do know Chandra is from a new plane for sure and I agree Ravnica is a good bet for Chandra.
I'm guessing Liliana first planeswalker trip be to the plane where the thrid demon master she is going ater is from, since it could set the stage for Lilianas next storyline.
So the idea Gideon killed the old red/green gods is didn't happen because the last red/green god was forgot by mortals long before the currtant storyline. Plus what would be the point? So Gideon and Elsepths story mesh together even more? To esablish that the red/green gods seem to be picked off by white planeswalkers?
Kiora blue comes from how she battles and thinks. A mono green character would have use pure force, while Kiora was only trying to destract Thassa in order to bond with arixmethes.
And I remembered that the Born of the Gods fatpack book had some extra info that wasn't in the planeswalker guides and was wondering if the Journey into Nyx had any extra info on the enemey colored gods as well. So if anyone with a Journey into Nyx with a fat pack booklet knows let me know!
I didn't read Godsend so maybe I'm just out of the loop here, but a lot of you guys care a lot about Thassa and its a little bewildering to me.
It's just two. They're just being very vocal about it.
And one of them is just an obsessive blue-lover in general....
Speaking of Kiora, I am really curious about the consequences of this fight, also because we do not quite know how summoning works now. Did Kiora summon real creatures she had a summoning bond with (just like it worked in Odyssey block, when Kirtar summoned some nomads who sold him their "summoning rights"), and lost all of them, or these were just summoned copies and she still retains the bond with their originals? Because it is the first case, it seems to me quite a steep price for the bident.
I'm thinking its mana copies and any of the bonds she lost to Thassa will keep her from summoning those copies again until she makes a bond with them again.
I wonder if this will lead into the Return to Theros plotline where Thassa helps Elsepth/Ajani in exchange for them to hunt Kiora and get back the bident.
Really fun story, I always like seeing how the different planeswalker fight. I'm also happy we got too see more of Kiora personality and now the blue and green in her works.
The plot is unraveling. Three oldwalkers couldn't do anything against even the weakest Eldrazi, so why should I care that Kiora got Thassa's bident (which Purphoros can replace anyway)? Further, throwing animals at the Eldrazi is dumb since they emit a constant killing field that, well, kills anything that gets caught in it. This is all dumb.
I kinda figured that was the tragic point. Kiora would gather an army of sea monsters, thinking that they could fight the Eldrazi, only for the Eldrazi to kill her beasts. I'm guessing Kiora dosn't know much about the Eldrazi besides the fact they are huge, hungery monsters.
On a side note... I wonder when and where Ob Nix factors into all of this. I was convinced that the disruption had been caused by him and was surprised to see the vampires having anything to do with it.
I'm guessing during the time that she was living with the kor.
This was set ~1000 years before the events of Zendikar/RoE, which (in post-Alara retcon) was at most a couple of hundred years after the Mending. This story, therefore, is VERY pre-Mending.
Ah, I did not internalize this part deeply. Bonkers me.
But seeing that Ugin was still not being attacked by the Mending Effects after being in a similar stone magic coccoon and unless they show what actually happened to Nahiri right now... hmmm.
Ugin is also a spirit dragon and Bolas considers him a rival so its not surprising Ugin isn't "attacked by the Mending Effects" as much as lets say Liliana.
Everyone uses sleeves. I don't see the problem. What I don't like is taking the cards in and out of sleeves during the game because that wears them down a lot. So I just flip the card over, sleeve and all and expect my opponent to know what it is. Since I only use Delver, its not that hard.
Yeah...that's why I hope DFC stay a rare, special thing. Imagine a deck containing 30 DFC....all this switching back and forth in the sleeves would really suck.
Hey everyone, it's been quite a while since this project went on hiatus, but I've been recently interested in resuming work. I've taken some time away from the set, and coming back (plus a bit of playtesting) I have some ideas about where we might want to take things moving forward.
Undying - This was an idea that came up while I was asking people independent from this project for ideas. They immediately gravitated towards using Undying, which fits into the slot Revive is trying to fill here both mechanically and creatively. Personally, I think it's a great idea that can basically replace Revive. It's true that revive has a little more design space, but Undying is much more elegant and a lot cleaner (no second costs, no tokens, etc.) The main thing that draws me to Undying is the fact that it naturally fits into what the set is trying to do: our major mechanics deal with large creatures, either caring about them (power 4) or making them (via. monstrosity or suit up). Revive was really the only mechanic that didn't scale up as time went on. Undying, on the other hand, grows your creature just like the others.
Although I did like the idea of Revive, your right in saying Udying works better since it can help out "Super".
Mutate - Something I saw in another thread was a twist on monstrosity that used a creature type (mutant) instead of an independent state (monstrous). They functioned almost identically, but the mutant version adds extra flavor and can be more easily referenced (we can more easily have mutants point to other mutants, rather than having to look for "monstrous creatures"). This is another swap that seems like a good fit.
I like this better then Monstrous, though I do think we should make it a little more differnt then Monstrous.
An idea is Mutate can be used a few times but then hits a stopping point (like Figure of Destiny), since a comman trope is mutants further mutanting and getting more powerful. We could scale how much far they can mutate based on rarity.
"Super" - Power 4 is a theme that we all generally liked, but it never really caught on. The flavor was always a bit off, and didn't mesh with every color. A size threshold still seems like a good idea (it's where all of our other mechanics point to) but we needed a twist that set this apart from other versions of this mechanic. Then I thought, what if we looked at the creature's combined power and toughness? For instance, a PT threshold of 8 would mean not only 4/4s, but also 3/5s, 6/2s, and 0/8s would count. This would open up far more options for designs (especially in colors without high power creatures) while keeping the general concept in tact.
I can forgive time travel because I know it was forced onto the creative team by the design team and that it was likely a pain trying to use it alongside a multiverse of lore you can't mess up with.
Two things I disliked were Sarkhan being a protagonist you just can't identify with, and also the numerous filler stories at the beginning and end of the block.
I thought the Fate Reforged articles were excellent. You had multiple protagonists in the form of the khans, and none of their stories felt like filler since they all built up to the climax that was Khanfall. I really hope they do have multiple protagonists in the future, it would help show the world without feeling like going through filler stories.
Well all the Dragons of Tarkir UR where about the new timeline versions of the Khans, so them and the Khans UR to me felt like the Fate Reforged UR, so only a few of the Khans of Tarkir UR felt like "filler" stories. With the new block format I'm guessing the UR will be a lot more of how Fate Reforged UR went, focus on some key characters stories that advance the plot.
The DTK stories felt different to me because they didn't really lead anywhere. Khanfall was essentially the climax and the DTK stories were more about checking in with the khans then about them taking actions that will change the world. There were a few hints at the clans rebelling, but we're not getting any follow-ups for a few years.
Thats another downside of the time travel element though, they couldn't give the Khans any huge actions because it would be eased in the new timeline and when we got to Dragons timeline we could have any huge action since it was the last set.
I can forgive time travel because I know it was forced onto the creative team by the design team and that it was likely a pain trying to use it alongside a multiverse of lore you can't mess up with.
Two things I disliked were Sarkhan being a protagonist you just can't identify with, and also the numerous filler stories at the beginning and end of the block.
I thought the Fate Reforged articles were excellent. You had multiple protagonists in the form of the khans, and none of their stories felt like filler since they all built up to the climax that was Khanfall. I really hope they do have multiple protagonists in the future, it would help show the world without feeling like going through filler stories.
Well all the Dragons of Tarkir UR where about the new timeline versions of the Khans, so them and the Khans UR to me felt like the Fate Reforged UR, so only a few of the Khans of Tarkir UR felt like "filler" stories. With the new block format I'm guessing the UR will be a lot more of how Fate Reforged UR went, focus on some key characters stories that advance the plot.
I don't know when you started magic but the Shards of Alara block was bascally Ajanis origins story, so it makes sence that they replace him with Gideon since Ajanis origins story was already told and the fact he was very WR at the time means it would be odd for them to make him the white orignas walker.
To give my answer to the main question of the thread I think its just a simple case of keeping characters organized. Their are 30+ wakers now and its a lot easier to some have them to be staying on one plane (waiting for a bus) for a while, then having every single one having ongoing plotlines that creative have to keep track of.
I'm guessing Liliana first planeswalker trip be to the plane where the thrid demon master she is going ater is from, since it could set the stage for Lilianas next storyline.
http://dougbeyermtg.tumblr.com/post/73488442600/was-there-a-rg-god-before-xenagos-ascension-if
So the idea Gideon killed the old red/green gods is didn't happen because the last red/green god was forgot by mortals long before the currtant storyline. Plus what would be the point? So Gideon and Elsepths story mesh together even more? To esablish that the red/green gods seem to be picked off by white planeswalkers?
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-storyline/515690-theros-pantheon
And I remembered that the Born of the Gods fatpack book had some extra info that wasn't in the planeswalker guides and was wondering if the Journey into Nyx had any extra info on the enemey colored gods as well. So if anyone with a Journey into Nyx with a fat pack booklet knows let me know!
I'm thinking its mana copies and any of the bonds she lost to Thassa will keep her from summoning those copies again until she makes a bond with them again.
I kinda figured that was the tragic point. Kiora would gather an army of sea monsters, thinking that they could fight the Eldrazi, only for the Eldrazi to kill her beasts. I'm guessing Kiora dosn't know much about the Eldrazi besides the fact they are huge, hungery monsters.
I'm guessing during the time that she was living with the kor.
Ugin is also a spirit dragon and Bolas considers him a rival so its not surprising Ugin isn't "attacked by the Mending Effects" as much as lets say Liliana.
As a werewolf tribal player its not a huge deal.
Although I did like the idea of Revive, your right in saying Udying works better since it can help out "Super".
I like this better then Monstrous, though I do think we should make it a little more differnt then Monstrous.
An idea is Mutate can be used a few times but then hits a stopping point (like Figure of Destiny), since a comman trope is mutants further mutanting and getting more powerful. We could scale how much far they can mutate based on rarity.
I'm down since for this.
Thats another downside of the time travel element though, they couldn't give the Khans any huge actions because it would be eased in the new timeline and when we got to Dragons timeline we could have any huge action since it was the last set.
Well all the Dragons of Tarkir UR where about the new timeline versions of the Khans, so them and the Khans UR to me felt like the Fate Reforged UR, so only a few of the Khans of Tarkir UR felt like "filler" stories. With the new block format I'm guessing the UR will be a lot more of how Fate Reforged UR went, focus on some key characters stories that advance the plot.