This feels like they designed the card with two goals in mind: 1) Have it be powerful enough that it sees some competitive play, 2) stick to a tried-and-tested design formula to avoid breaking something accidentally. The result is a reasonably powerful card that's ... just no all that exciting. I agree with the people saying that they should've tried some new thing for a character who's undergone such a dramatic transformation.
Art-wise, it still weirds me out that the face barely looks like Elspeht's. The wings are also a bit too quill-like for my taste. Does she follow the design conventions for angels on any plane? It looks like they tried to come up with a cool one-off design, but it doesn't really work for me. The sword looks like it's completely new too (aside from the two glowing circles in it). I'd have like some more callbacks to her earlier character design.
I am surprised how much I like Wrenn, despite them not being all that much of a character (she's barely been featured in the stories leading up to this event). I guess that goes to show the worth of an interesting character concept.
I am a bit confused about the role Zhalfir is going to play. I assume it is going to "replace" NP in the Blind Eternities, which NP being phased out instead. So Wrenn is doing the bulk of the work here. While it may be a nice nostalgic moment, going by how the advance of the Phyrexian invading force has been described, it doesn't feel like a few thousand Zhalfirins would do much to turn the tide from a military perspective.
It's interesting that we're already seeing the beginnings of the post-MOM storyline in the Ravnica side story (the last Ral POV seems to be set after the end of the invasion).
This might be the happiest I've been about a new PW in a long time. Arcavios/Strixhaven as a setting is a bit too whimsical/cheesy for my taste overall, but I really liked the Lorehold college as a "new approach to Boros" and Quintorius was my favorite character from the set. Also: One more non-human walker!
On her package art she has a lot of blueish color and a little red in addition to the yellow lightning stuff.
That ... is Elspeth? Doesn't look like her at all to me! My guess would be that this is a random uncommon that made it on the packaging for some reason.
I'd really hope wotc didn't fully kill him off and he comes back for a second round, would be a shame if all we saw of him compleated was the one spell card vs him getting a full card.
Same. At the absolute very least give us a card of compleat Tibalt, goddamnit.
Sometimes I find it weird what kind of stuff they're willing to handle offscreen and what not. For Tibalt, I kind of get it - he's a minor side villain and not terribly important in the grand scheme of things. But things like Nissa getting compleated offscreen, or the New Capennan angel comeback fiasco ("they started coming back, we just didn't go into it in the story ... whoops, actually they're still gone" - all despite the plane and its angels being one of the keys for defeating Phyrexia) really make me go "huh?"
Also why are the phyrexian planeswalkers falling like flies? I guess in-story you can argue that their (incompleat) souls are actively fighting and sabotaging the phyrexian plans but it makes the phyrexians look a bit silly in that aspect. Elesh would've been better off sending her elite agents to the various worlds, like she did with Atraxa and held the planeswalkers in the back as advisors and "intelligence staff" instead of wasting them at the front lines like cannon fodder.
I think this is another issue of (in your own words) a plane not being a functional setting, in this case New Phyrexia. The inconsistency of how the oil works comes to mind immediately. Planeswalkers get compleated in what feels like hours, and even though the Phyrexian invasion has just begun there are already compleated huge-ass serpents on Kaldheim. This gives off the impression that Phyrexia is this unbeatable, almighty force, but then the compleated walkers get killed off in a few paragraphs, and that causes some serious dissonance.
The idea of nanobot-infested, unstoppable Phyrexian oil is cool. The idea of compleated walkers is cool. The idea of seemingly unstoppable villains having a weakpoint and being defeated relatively swiftly is cool. But the way these things are connected here is just kind of wonky.
I mean, I know they have limited room, so what we got here is probably already close to the best they can do. But man ... aside from what's happening to the characters, the invasion feels so "template-y."
"Here's Kamigawa being invaded by Phyrexia, let's see - buildings are crumbling, oil is everywhere, people are screaming, swords-clanging.wav ... oh, we need something recognizable, OK, Boseiju is gone I guess. Done with the setup, Tamiyo is next..."
I actually liked the ending for Tamiyo though. I hope she's not just some kind of recording, but an actual living, non-corporeal consciousness. Maybe she can't planeswalk anymore, but since she doesn't have a biological body anymore, she could technically be taken through the Blind Eternities, right? That would be a neat concept for her character going forward. (Can regular spirits/kami cross between planes, by the way? It feels like they should, but I don't think we've seen it happen)
Obviously Sheoldred is not dead dead since we have seen card art of her from the invasion.
Wrenn is a nice addition to this story that I did not expect. She is containing a fire that would have consumed a an entire plane - it's exactly the kind of weapon caliber needed for this conflict. They went out of their way to bring it up (with Chandra giving Wrenn lessons on how to direct it even), so it will play a big role somehow. Maybe it will burn away the oil etc. and leave a "clean shell" for Wrenn to connect with?
Also, on New Capenna angels are apparently back to being gone after coming back offscreen at the end of the New Capenna story. Whew...
Yeah, still not into UB and every release drives me futher to returning to MtG as a game, because I'm just not interested in playing Smash Bros: The Card Game. (Talking about casual play)
Aside from personal preferences, the cards are neat I guess. For the Ring, I feel like it would've been more flavorful to be able to repeat the "putting it on" ability, since the invisibility part is pretty much the only clear-cut "ability" the ring grants in the story. I don't see why it gives you knowledge. But then again, easily repeatable protection from everything for a turn would probably have been too powerful.
Mario has confirmed that Commander Masters will draft/play with the same structure as Commander Legends, meaning Draft Boosters wil have 20 cards and potentially multiple races.
TIL Mario was a WtoC employee. After all those years in the pumbling business! I guess he got tired of it. I wonder if Yoshi works there too
I don't quite get why we see such a disproportionate amount of Strixhaven students. It seems like an odd choice to throw students at the greatest conflict in MtG yet. Especially Zimone who is the youngest of them. Both in universe and out of it.
Maybe Strixhaven is going to be particularly relevant? Maybe they'll make their last stand there?
Yeah ... out of all the planes that get invaded in this set, the whimsical happy college world is one of those that doesn't really fit tone-wise. In the last set they tried to build this atmosphere of dread with powerful walkers like Nahiri getting compleated, and now Zimone's here being like "I'm going to destroy you ... with math!"
I don't really see why Strixhaven would matter, since it has basically no ties to the current plotline. Dominaria, or even planes like Kaldheim, Kamigawa or New Capenna would make more sense.
Assuming the first pic is card art (and not just promotional art or something) it seems like something that would happen at the end of the story, with Kaldheim's worldtree obliterating all the Realmbreaker branches/tendrils.
He kind looks like a red-headed Dumbledore. Sure, he already looked like that before, but the very HP-looking wand makes that association even stronger
If Theros seas turned to oil, the world will be a lifeless husk after the Invasion II ends. An immensely popular world, lost.
You're reading too much into the flavor text of a single card (Tranquil Cove). Just think of Dominaria post-Time Spiral. All the plains were salt-filled wastes, all the islands slag heaps - but upon the next visit, Wizard went "well, there was some damage, but with the Mending mana flowed back into the land and everything healed pretty fast. Anyway... remember the old Dominaria you know and love?" (I'm still a bit bumed out by that)
The same thing happened with Innistrad, were apparently everyone and their mother (and even whole towns) turned into Eldrazi monstrosities, but then everything turned back to regular old spoopy land for the next return. They'll find a way to minimize/trivialize the effects to protect their future products planes, you can be sure.
I don't think it has to be time travel, because Elspeth/halo wouldn't really be needed for that one. I like 5colors' theory that Elspeth will weaponize halo as "anti-glistening oil" (they are both liquids, after all) and Zhalfir will help out somehow.
Art-wise, it still weirds me out that the face barely looks like Elspeht's. The wings are also a bit too quill-like for my taste. Does she follow the design conventions for angels on any plane? It looks like they tried to come up with a cool one-off design, but it doesn't really work for me. The sword looks like it's completely new too (aside from the two glowing circles in it). I'd have like some more callbacks to her earlier character design.
I am a bit confused about the role Zhalfir is going to play. I assume it is going to "replace" NP in the Blind Eternities, which NP being phased out instead. So Wrenn is doing the bulk of the work here. While it may be a nice nostalgic moment, going by how the advance of the Phyrexian invading force has been described, it doesn't feel like a few thousand Zhalfirins would do much to turn the tide from a military perspective.
It's interesting that we're already seeing the beginnings of the post-MOM storyline in the Ravnica side story (the last Ral POV seems to be set after the end of the invasion).
That ... is Elspeth? Doesn't look like her at all to me! My guess would be that this is a random uncommon that made it on the packaging for some reason.
I think this is another issue of (in your own words) a plane not being a functional setting, in this case New Phyrexia. The inconsistency of how the oil works comes to mind immediately. Planeswalkers get compleated in what feels like hours, and even though the Phyrexian invasion has just begun there are already compleated huge-ass serpents on Kaldheim. This gives off the impression that Phyrexia is this unbeatable, almighty force, but then the compleated walkers get killed off in a few paragraphs, and that causes some serious dissonance.
The idea of nanobot-infested, unstoppable Phyrexian oil is cool. The idea of compleated walkers is cool. The idea of seemingly unstoppable villains having a weakpoint and being defeated relatively swiftly is cool. But the way these things are connected here is just kind of wonky.
"Here's Kamigawa being invaded by Phyrexia, let's see - buildings are crumbling, oil is everywhere, people are screaming, swords-clanging.wav ... oh, we need something recognizable, OK, Boseiju is gone I guess. Done with the setup, Tamiyo is next..."
I actually liked the ending for Tamiyo though. I hope she's not just some kind of recording, but an actual living, non-corporeal consciousness. Maybe she can't planeswalk anymore, but since she doesn't have a biological body anymore, she could technically be taken through the Blind Eternities, right? That would be a neat concept for her character going forward. (Can regular spirits/kami cross between planes, by the way? It feels like they should, but I don't think we've seen it happen)
Wrenn is a nice addition to this story that I did not expect. She is containing a fire that would have consumed a an entire plane - it's exactly the kind of weapon caliber needed for this conflict. They went out of their way to bring it up (with Chandra giving Wrenn lessons on how to direct it even), so it will play a big role somehow. Maybe it will burn away the oil etc. and leave a "clean shell" for Wrenn to connect with?
Also, on New Capenna angels are apparently back to being gone after coming back offscreen at the end of the New Capenna story. Whew...
Aside from personal preferences, the cards are neat I guess. For the Ring, I feel like it would've been more flavorful to be able to repeat the "putting it on" ability, since the invisibility part is pretty much the only clear-cut "ability" the ring grants in the story. I don't see why it gives you knowledge. But then again, easily repeatable protection from everything for a turn would probably have been too powerful.
I don't really see why Strixhaven would matter, since it has basically no ties to the current plotline. Dominaria, or even planes like Kaldheim, Kamigawa or New Capenna would make more sense.
The same thing happened with Innistrad, were apparently everyone and their mother (and even whole towns) turned into Eldrazi monstrosities, but then everything turned back to regular old spoopy land for the next return. They'll find a way to minimize/trivialize the effects to protect their
future productsplanes, you can be sure.I don't think it has to be time travel, because Elspeth/halo wouldn't really be needed for that one. I like 5colors' theory that Elspeth will weaponize halo as "anti-glistening oil" (they are both liquids, after all) and Zhalfir will help out somehow.