I think there was some sort of corrupting influence affecting everyone's behavior, not just Avacyn. the ill-fated mother noted that something caused her to act not like herself for a brief moment after Avacyn saved her son. A lot of folk have speculated that Emrakul is affecting this plane. It's hard to say without knowing exactly how Emrakul works, but the type of madness these people are experiencing resembles what comes from dealing with Elder Gods. Regardless, something is planting bugs in Avacyn's ear to lead her down this path, and it will be interesting to see who is pulling the string. (Over/Under on how long it takes for somebody to blame Bolas?)
Thats been my thoughts too (thought I don't think its Emrakul). This explains why the vampires are losing control over their blood crazes and the flavor of madness and delirium mechanics, which are appearing on almost every "faction" on Innistrad (Demons, angels, geists, humans ect.
EDIT: I'm also thinking Avacyn madness isn't the endgame of whoever the big bad in this story, just a side effect.
Ah your are right (about Bruna), her staff with avacyns symbol on it seems to be twisted as well.
I wonder why Sigarda seems to be the one immune to the madness, if anything I'd figured it be Bruna (since she is WU and madness seems to be a red thing for this set).
I agree this story had me shivering at point. I also find it interesting that there used to be a fourth powerpuff angel who seemed to be WB that Avacyn killed.
Also seems the cursemute had fully cured some werewolves (for awhile).
Also find it interesting that only Sigarda had new art in the story, I'm guessing we won't see Bruna or Gisela.
Sorin could have made a failsafe that would allow him to kill or stop Avacyn if anything ever goes wrong with her. That is clever thinking.
However I guess that Sorin is far more powerful than any known neo walker. He is the second oldest planeswalker that we currently know of with
thousands upon thousands of years of experience. With that experience comes power. Look at Ugin for example. Just because he lost his oldwalker
power, Ugin is still hinted to being extremely powerful and possibly more powerful than the gatewatch. Hell, Nicol Bolas lost a lot of his power
and Kruphix still claims that Bolas is more powerful than all of Theros gods combined.
The fail safe theory is a very plausible possibility. But I wasn't saying that because I don't think Sorin is powerful, I do believe he might the third strongest neowalker we've seen (Nicol Bolas and Ugin being stronger), but the fact is he could create a construct that would be easily much more powerful than him now back when he was an Oldwalker. If oldwalkers were as busted as Bolas keeps claiming they were, then imagine Sorin created Avacyn using 50% of his power at the time. 50% of busted is still pretty busted, and maybe even with all the years of training and experience he wouldn't be able to catch up in power level (Bolas keeps saying he is much less powerful than he was, and Bolas certainly has more resources/experience than Sorin to try and recover his original power).
Brady in the old wizard forums said Sorin had some way to influence her/reprogram her so I'm guessing he also built in a fail safe as well. Granted this is from Brady behind the scenes so it might not be in their world bible anymore.
Yeah, I thought the odds of a planeswalker's spark igniting were supposed to be extremely low. Has this been affected by the Mending? Or is Innistrad a world so full of traumatic experiences that ignition is frequent?
We know off only three walkers native to Innistrad: Sorin, Tibalt and now Arlinn. Sorin ascended 8,000+ years ago, Tibalt sometime during the previous Innistrad block and Arlinn we don't know for sure but from what her bio page says, I'd say around the same time as, or maybe a few years earlier than Tibalt.
She doesn't have to be a Flip-Walker, couldn't she just have an ability like other walkers for example Gideon? +0 Turn into a Green Werewolf creature to attack?
Although I think that's unlikely, it is a possibility.... I'm still gonna bet she is a flip-walker....
I'm guessing this block, and any other block with transform that she might appear in, she will be a transform walker and in other blocks without transform she have a Gideon like ability.
I thought at the end of OG Innistrad, werewolves were locked into their werewolf form but regained their human intelligence, creating the Wolfir? Perhaps it was only some that this happened to, and others are still typical werewolves.
They had a choice of if they wanted to be a Wolfir. Some choice to remain werewolves and now that I think about it, any werewolves "created" after the cursemute also wouldn't get the choice of becoming a Wolfir which could explain why they seem to be returning.
Anyway, really excited about this character. It's super cool to have a werewolf walker (and I bet ShadowFenrir is going to be super happy). I'm hoping she'll be Naya as that's what her description points towards: RG for lycanthropy and W for being so deep into the clergy if the church and using Avacynian magic. This is a cool direction for a character. Also, her name just feels cool to say.
My only fear is that this is the only time we see this character ever or for decades. It is very, very likely that she will be a transforming planeswalker and that isn't something they can do in just any set. So she's a lot more limited than most planeswalkers.
They actually built an out to this in her bio: "The only way she could return to her human form was to planeswalk back to Innistrad, but now she finds that she can control the transformation, in both directions, with relative ease." The implication is that she's stuck in her wolf form when she's off of innistrad, letting them make single faced planeswalker cards for her then. It's actually a pretty clever solution, I think.
Anyway, really excited about this character. It's super cool to have a werewolf walker (and I bet ShadowFenrir is going to be super happy). I'm hoping she'll be Naya as that's what her description points towards: RG for lycanthropy and W for being so deep into the clergy if the church and using Avacynian magic. This is a cool direction for a character. Also, her name just feels cool to say.
My only fear is that this is the only time we see this character ever or for decades. It is very, very likely that she will be a transforming planeswalker and that isn't something they can do in just any set. So she's a lot more limited than most planeswalkers.
Not necessarily; they mechanically represented Sarkhan's otherkin dragon complex as an animate ability; they could easily give her a 0 or + that turns her into a werewolf creature until end of turn that wouldn't require a flip.
In general, I'm digging Wolfmom. Seems like a cool character.
You guys are right, they could make it work. She's gonna be my chase foil as well.
Also, nice to see that they got Sigourney Weaver to pose for the art
Also a planeswalker card shows them in them that one moment, so that also gives them more room to play with her designs as well.
As a fan of Sigourney Weaver I approve of that comment and demand thats is who plays Arlinn
I rolled my eyes at a Werewolf planeswalker, knowing it's what just about everyone else wanted. But after reading Arlinn's bio, it seems pretty well done. So congrats to everyone who had wanted this. She looks cool too, and her journey on Innistrad should be interesting to follow. I didn't expect the legendary werewolf to be female, but it actually works out, interestingly. WOTC is funny. Everyone wanted a legendary werewolf, and we got a planeswalker one no less. Not for me, but hey, it's cool to see something so many wanted finally realized on a plane we all love.
Shhh...you have a good shot of a Jenrik card in this block...;)
Great story. Seems that Kimberly Kreines can actually write when not handled a cliched task.
Both Halana and Alena were referred in flavortexts in the original block,btw.
That's exciting to think about. And at this rate, Arixmethes in Return to Theros too, perhaps. This game is a far cry from the misery of playing Yugioh, where Konami always did the opposite of what players wanted lol.
I agree about Kreines this time around. She seems to be in her niche. She's more scientifically oriented, so her mind would naturally prefer mystery and horror stories over the emotional development of specific characters I suppose. Or perhaps the BFZ storyline, which we can all agree was cliche as you said, didn't suit her. Whatever the reason, she performed quite well here.
Gonna have to look up which cards referenced Alena. Man it's been a while since Innistrad, but I LOVE all this continuity by using these characters finally.
I agree, I find it awesome that they are going back at the flavor text characters and weaving them into the story.
Also anyone get a romantic from the two? I felt it when Hal was thinking about being a werewolf and that should would left Alena as a foil of what she thought the cathar did with his wife.
EPISODE 02: A GAZE BLANK AND PITILESS
Humans are on the brink of a new golden age for Innistrad, ushered in with the loving guidance of the powerful angel Avacyn, who has for centuries been the protector of humans everywhere.
Ah, so it appears we've got our first Werewolf planeswalker. Maybe a DFC? Although, probably not as the spoiled checklist card didn't indicate anything.
Maybe she gets her own check list card? Being a mythic means she wouldn't be pull very often or we might not see her till Moon.
I find it odd though that three walkers all ignited their sparks around the same time on Innistrad but since its a werewolf walker idc.
Was gonna post this too. Surprised it hadn't come up yet, sounds like the most likely.
There was a question on Blogatog the other day on whether SOI spoilers starts on the 14th, and Rosewater answered with "That's the first day of preview articles" or some such. I paused then, as he was specifying that it was the preview articles that started that day, but left it open whether other things would be revealed beforehand. This could be part of it.
I hope this is the case love to see what the basic outline of SoI for the story this time around.
Thats been my thoughts too (thought I don't think its Emrakul). This explains why the vampires are losing control over their blood crazes and the flavor of madness and delirium mechanics, which are appearing on almost every "faction" on Innistrad (Demons, angels, geists, humans ect.
EDIT: I'm also thinking Avacyn madness isn't the endgame of whoever the big bad in this story, just a side effect.
I wonder why Sigarda seems to be the one immune to the madness, if anything I'd figured it be Bruna (since she is WU and madness seems to be a red thing for this set).
Also seems the cursemute had fully cured some werewolves (for awhile).
Also find it interesting that only Sigarda had new art in the story, I'm guessing we won't see Bruna or Gisela.
Brady in the old wizard forums said Sorin had some way to influence her/reprogram her so I'm guessing he also built in a fail safe as well. Granted this is from Brady behind the scenes so it might not be in their world bible anymore.
Thats been my thought for awhile, I'm guessing a lot of monsters, angels and Nahiri have been driven crazy by something.
Yeah design so far for the set seems to been nailing it. Their are so many things that can have cross synergy with them.
Vronos
http://mtgsalvation.gamepedia.com/Vronos
I wasn't counting Sorin.
I'm guessing this block, and any other block with transform that she might appear in, she will be a transform walker and in other blocks without transform she have a Gideon like ability.
They had a choice of if they wanted to be a Wolfir. Some choice to remain werewolves and now that I think about it, any werewolves "created" after the cursemute also wouldn't get the choice of becoming a Wolfir which could explain why they seem to be returning.
Also a planeswalker card shows them in them that one moment, so that also gives them more room to play with her designs as well.
As a fan of Sigourney Weaver I approve of that comment and demand thats is who plays Arlinn
Could be what the flip side of her card name is, Arlinn, Embraced by the Moon?
I agree, I find it awesome that they are going back at the flavor text characters and weaving them into the story.
Also anyone get a romantic from the two? I felt it when Hal was thinking about being a werewolf and that should would left Alena as a foil of what she thought the cathar did with his wife.
EPISODE 02: A GAZE BLANK AND PITILESS
Humans are on the brink of a new golden age for Innistrad, ushered in with the loving guidance of the powerful angel Avacyn, who has for centuries been the protector of humans everywhere.
The UR had what looked like planeswalker art for her wolf form so I think its safe to bet she will.
Maybe she gets her own check list card? Being a mythic means she wouldn't be pull very often or we might not see her till Moon.
I find it odd though that three walkers all ignited their sparks around the same time on Innistrad but since its a werewolf walker idc.
If it is a preview card or mechanic reveal I'm betting it is for madness. Maybe a story card that has it.
I hope this is the case love to see what the basic outline of SoI for the story this time around.
Wonder if Hanweir leaving is symbolizing the church becoming divided.