MTG Salvation

Poor, poor Autocthon Wurm.

But then again, who cares about him?

So essentially this guy cannot take combat damage by blocking? Well... neat, I guess, possibly a bit too powerful though even if you do eat face damage. Otherwise, no issue.


Just a random Un card.

Three-Foot Avenger 3W
Creature - Dwarf Soldier (U)
Double strike
Whenever a creature you control attacks a player taller than you, that creature gains Skulk until end of turn.
"The taller they are, the easier it is to get to their weak points!"
1/3

Yeah, I know the flavor text is cheap

Well, as expected, old ancient 10K old sphinx that doesn't really feel much like a 10K old sphinx again. Beaten by his own failsafe. Lunging when he's more of a mind mage. Pathetic. And seriously, reading his part gives me the impression that he is not a 10K old planeswalker, he's a robot. Where oh where can I find a story of a 10K old character who's not so damn single-mindedly automatic like this little beardie?

Sad that the only thing I can say I like from this story is Angrath roasting Huatli's pet...

Though on the other hand, at least the community have their fun by being proven right about Azor and Ugin being involved in the Immortal Sun. The only question I have, then, is how exactly Bolas found out about the Immortal Sun, and how and most importantly why Bolas came to Tarkir.

I don't know why this should be legendary, especially since the name is too mundane. Otherwise, this is a fine lord, though not flashy enough to be mythic.


Next

Estate Swap 4GU
Sorcery (R)
Two target players exchange control of all nonbasic lands they control.
"I've always dreamed of how it feels like to live in marble castle."

This means that if you yourself play mostly basic lands and an opponent heavily plays nonbasics, this becomes a ramp/LD combo of sorts. I think the cost is probably too steep, but what do you think?

Hmmm.... a bit hard to evaluate.... I think this probably works, all in all, allowing you to punish X/X creatures with impunity, but mostly works if you have low power/high toughness creature to use it. For now I see it's fine, but someone may give a second thought.


Inspired by some Pokemon.

Eschaton Dragon 3RR
Creature - Dragon (M)
Flying
3RR, T: If there is no dragonfire counter on Eschaton Dragon, put a dragonfire counter on it. Otherwise, remove a dragonfire counter from it and it deals 10 damage to each opponent and each creature and/or planeswalker an opponent controls. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
4/4

Comments?

Now we just need Blood Star to complete the set

Slightly worse than Blood Moon, agreed, although at least the cantrip helps.

First strike in those colors feel weird, but otherwise the card itself is generally fine, cost-wise.


Next

Lesson Of Betrayal 4RR
Sorcery (R)
Target creature deals damage equal to its power to its controller, then that player draws that many cards.
"A betrayal hurts, but as with anything else, we can always learn something from it."

You can cast it on yourself for a one-shot, semi-unreliable Yawgmoth's Bargain, or cast it on an opponent's Eldrazi for a killing blow. Comments?

"The plot thickens" is a kinda cliched comment, but I think for this one it fits.

I agree with those who like Angrath's part and Vraska's growing liking to Jace. Angrath's is especially hilarious, as this pretty much sums it up:

Quote from RaltheMad »

Angrath: We are friends now!

Huatli: Wait wha-

Angrath: AND WE ARE GOING TO KILL EVERYONE ELSE!

Almost Murder, but a bit narrow. Still, sacrifice bypasses indestructible, so maybe 2 mana for this? Maybe not, but I'm sure there are ways to abuse this.


More variation of an old card.

Elzataerinn, Tempestuous Mind 5URG
Legendary Creature - Dragon Horror (M)
Flying
At the beginning of each upkeep, reveal a number of cards from the top of your library equal to the number of spells that have been cast by all players last turn, then choose one among the revealed cards. If it is a land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, otherwise cast it without paying its mana cost. Then put all other cards revealed this way at the bottom of your library in random order.
"If I were to add... Ah, yes, that should work... Except..."
5/5

I guess I'm just trying to be safe with the mana cost since this guy almost always guarantees you get a free spell every single turn, including the upkeep after you cast him. Comments?

5/5 trample reach which can create Saprolings. Well, I guess in the current power level, there shouldn't be any problem.


Next

Refuge Seeker 1G
Creature - Human Scout (U)
Whenever you lose life during an opponent's turn, add that many G to your mana pool.
3GG: Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped, then put all other cards revealed this way at the bottom of your library in random order.
Legend has it that her ancestors have been seeking an elysium somewhere in the wartorn lands.
1/1

The land fetch ability I think might be a tad too expensive, but what do you say, anyway?

Battle for Orazca? That wasn't a battle, that was a scuffle.

Between eight people.

With no casualties.

What a letdown. The card flavor and product info promises a titanic clash between four armies. The card art shows battles, golems, and giant Elder Dinosaurs stomping around the city (the artbook also describes a big, climactic struggle). But then all the writers can manage now is this playground fight, with a few bloody noses and a couple bruises?

Bait and switch, much? This isn't a mere case of disgruntled fans not having pet theories met. This is a case of Wizards deliberately setting up specific expectations, previewing actual battles and events, showing key moments and conflicts in the art... Only for the fiction writers to finally dismiss it all with a shrug.

It's a disservice to the game, disrespectful to the readers, and diminishing to the world they created.

I have no idea how we got here.

I'm just stunned. Stunned that they could make such a rich, vibrant world full of compelling tribes and mysteries, and then fritter it away so casually and completely. There is no excitement here, no sense of mystery, wonder, or meaningful drama. Reading through the art book, looking through the cards, you can see all the inspiration, effort, and frankly joyful creativity that went into shaping such a colorful world--a world full of dinosaurs, pirates, exploration, and adventure. But the online story--both in its content and its writing--throws away all of that promise. Not just once, not just twice, but again and again, week after week. Each time I keep telling myself it will get better, but it’s like watching the slow, steady defacement of a beloved painting. Aside from the scenes centered on Jace and Vraska, there is no sense that the writers are taking pride in their work, no sense that they even really care about this story at all. There’s not even a sense that they care about the craft of writing itself--setting scenes, staging compelling action, taking the time to paint complex characters, and composing meaningful dialogue. The writing is often stilted and juvenile, and it’s frankly depressing to read. The characters are trite, barely-living clichés. When it comes to storytelling, competent writing is the bare minimum of acceptability, but this isn’t even competent. Not only doesn’t it achieve its main objective (to present an immersive and compelling narrative for the world depicted on the cards), it actually achieves its opposite, decreasing the stature of this plane and it’s characters. It's relentlessly and heartbreakingly disappointing, and I’m just exhausted. Exhausted from caring so much and investing so much excitement in a world whose own writers just can’t seem to make a real effort.

Jace and Vraska were well written, and whoever composed their scenes should be congratulated on making this unlikely pair work. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to elevate the rest of the story with it, and nearly everything else is left in a baffling, frustrating slurry of wasted potential. Angrath deserved better than this. So did Elenda, Mavren Fein, Zacama, and especially Kumena. More painful than anything is to see such characters set up, bursting with promise, only to have them treated with such frivolity, such disregard.

I don’t think it’s at all hyperbole to say that the Ixalan story would have been better had it just been left to the cards, the art book, and the fat pack summaries. Aside from a select few installments of the online fiction (specifically Jace Alone, The Shapers, and Something Else Entirely—all back from the previous set), the story as portrayed on the website has only served to cheapen, demean, and suck all the joy from the beautiful world that is Ixalan.

It seems we’ll have another haitus before Dominaria, and that’s just as well. I just hope the story team can get its act together in the interim.

I'm not asking for Jeff Grubb. I’m not asking for Scott McGough. I’m just asking for something that does justice to the game, and doesn’t feel like it’s scraping by on minimal effort. Again, something that indicates that its writer's care.

That hiatus isn’t coming a moment too soon. I'm out of energy, out of enthusiasm, and I need a break from Magic’s story for a while.

Rant incoming:

This is easily the worst story we've had in months. Granted, some of those months had no stories at all, but it's still most certainly the worst story for this set (so far) and quite possibly the entire block. It's clear that this was intended to be part of a longer story and was written to condense several large events into a relatively short span. Eventually, the decision was made to split up the last story into two, so one would think that they would add more detail to the rushed first half. But they didn't. The solution was so blindingly obvious and they still just left it the way it was. And as a result, things like Huatli calling Zacama - which should have been one of the most epic moments in the story - is instead reduced to a few lines the have no relevance to anything else except for calling out a card in the set. It was absolutely pathetic. The exchange with the emperor could have been longer as well. And, of course, there's the fact that Huatli gets visibly upset about the emperor' revisionist history... and then proceeds to leave the plane for a week instead of doing something about it. What? They had more than enough time to have her give a speech telling what actually happened and THEN planeswalk away. But they didn't, and the story - as well the character of Huatli - suffers.

And the fact that Huatli's cousin survived adds insult to injury: we already - in this exact same set - had them try to make us think that Vona and Kumena had died. They kind of did it with Tishana in the previous set as well. They pulled this FOUR times in one block. Why would they do that? It's so obvious what they're doing. We know not to consider a character dead until we see the body. We're not idiots. They've pulled this stunt so many times recently that not only will we never fall for it again, but that it causes more irritation than suspense. And they really could have used an actual death too. This whole storyline stinks of Kaladesh and Aether Revolt's constant death-teasing with no actual death (except Yahenni, but that was related to the conflict). At least Kaladesh block had the excuse of the revolution being somewhat civil with neither side wanting to completely destroy the other. Ixalan is about four very different cultures that hate each other and are at actual war with one another. They can't kill off a single named character in the conflict? Seriously? They've passed up so many chances to kill characters and have teased us to the point where it's become annoying. Amonkhet block, to its credit, was not afraid to kill off relatively major characters. What happened to that mindset? Why does everyone have to start constantly surviving near-death experiences again?

There was also, of course, plenty of awful dialogue. Vona is still the most aggressively terrible and Bond villain-esque character we've had in a while. Mavren yelling an extended "no" was almost a funny way to mock a cliche, but kind of undermined by how the rest of the dialogue uses tons of cliches without any irony or self-awareness. People seem to truly enjoy Breeches but his outbursts seem like comedic low-hanging fruit to me, and it hasn't been very funny since the first time they used it. Angrath's all-caps dialogue has also gotten old and seems to undermine their attempt at making a more sympathetic and less stereotypical BR character. When we see Angrath actually talking normally, it shows us an insightful and reasonable version of the BR philosophy (even if he does repeat the word "freedom" way to much). But that's only 10% of his dialogue. The other 90% is just YELLING ANGRY THINGS IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE IT'S FUNNY. It's such a waste of what could and should be an amazing character. I really did enjoy the unexpected yet perfectly in-character timing of Angrath's exit. I just don't like the way most of his dialogue has been.

This storyline had the potential to be really great. It had everything it needed for me to like it: only one Gatewatch member instead of five, another returning character who I actually like getting an equal role to said Gatewatch member, well-conceived new characters like Angrath and Kumena, a morally grey conflict between factions for the first time in years, exploration of the plane itself instead of just the main plot, etc. But the writers seem to have really stumbled in resolving the story. I could have thought of a dozen better ways to end the story than this. Part of the issue is writing quality. You would think that they would have figured out who should be writing which types of stories (and who shouldn't be writing any at all) by this point, especially since they seem to be losing creative team members rather than gaining them. They have a few writers who can actually write, so give them the reigns and stop letting the weaker ones keep writing to spare their feelings. I thought that the writing quality was significantly better throughout Hour of Devastation and Ixalan, but in parts of previous stories for Rivals and the entirety of this one, the writing simply hasn't been that good.

But I think that the greater issue is disorganization. Let us not forget that they took two months off from writing stories. Two months. And yet still we see tons of issues. There have been huge disconnects between the story and the cards. At least three cards show characters doing things that they never actually did in the story. There are also inconsistencies between the fat back booklet and the actual stories (like the former saying that Huatli and Angrath leave Ixalan together), and the art book, while not technically incorrect, leaves out major details of the story. Several missed legendary creature cards, which I thought might be a thing of the past after Amonkhet and was proven overwhelmingly wrong. Malcolm, Breeches, Inti, and the emperor all play significant roles in the story but don't have cards; while Arguel, Captain Vance, Hadana, and the "Grim Captain" are all called out on cards in such a way that would likely make players want to see cards for them. Instead, we get five dinosaur legends that do nothing in the story and one that was a glorified taxi. Then, of course, there's the last minute change from five stories to six that gave us this absolute gem of a story: short, poorly-written, and in desperate need of details that they could have easily added. This, of course, is the result of the tribe poll, which in itself has been a dumpster fire: complete inconsistencies in scoring up to this point and a horribly designed poll on the mothership released today that accidentally made everyone vote for vampires. As a result, many people have lost faith in the poll and believe that it was rigged from the start (personally, I think that their intention was to have an actual vote and simply managed it horribly, but I don't know for sure that it wasn't rigged).

I would like to think that most if not all of this storyline's issues were caused by the polling experiment. Writing four stories instead of one would have to take a long time, plus planning out how to poll people on social media, distribute and track geocaching materials, etc. This probably took up a lot of the time on their two month story break that could have otherwise been devoted to actually giving us stories during that time or having better quality control for this set's story. Hopefully the realize that the poll was a failed experiment that only distracted them from more important things, and as a result, we see the quality increase significantly for Dominaria since it has no such poll. I just wish that they had realized from the start that the voting was a bad idea. Why they thought that devoting time to an arbitrary gimmick instead of more important things was a good idea is beyond me. And I don't know why they would think we would rather have them write four stories and release one than just write four stories and release all of them. But if the polling was the main cause of some of these issues and we see far fewer issues in Dominaria as a result, I'll be relieved. The resolution of Ixalan left a lot to be desired, but I'll call myself cautiously optimistic for Dominaria.