MTG Salvation

Overall, the story is what it is, just a barebones guide to get us from point A to point B without much meat and left me wishing there were side stories to flesh things out. We've waited 10 years for a return to New Phyrexia and the most we get for it is when Nahiri makes the scale model of the plane's spheres. No details on just how the Mirrans survived/continue to survive this long. No deeper look at the tensions between the praetors and their factions. No real sense as to why the walkers chosen were needed (Lukka especially). There were some moments that were ok, mostly in the face commander stories, but for the mainline, I think I enjoyed Nahiri a bit more than most and that was just because there was a bit of respect for former oldwalker status.

I think my main issue is similar to one already voiced: New Phyrexia and the glistening oil being too virulent. I can get behind Gin refining the oil to better potency, and can totally see the actual plane of NP being more concentrated than other worlds for the oil. Walkers getting so easily compleated like other beings from scratches/splashes/inhaling is where things get so meh. I would rather have walkers need either Gin or another high ranking Phyrexian to finish the process than just a walker succumbing to phyresis so quickly and easily. Gin *just* cracked the code to keeping the spark intact; we're supposed to believe he was able to perfect that method so quickly he could upload the process into just the oil alone? I am with others in being lost on as to how Creative can solve this potency in a believable manner.

These stories were great, loved the length and quality of both the Past and Current chapters. It was a little harder for me to connect with the Past chapters not showing main characters, but I did enjoy seeing the Bro War retold and refreshed. The Current chapters def made the walkers feel real, and loved all the little callbacks and Vorthos easter eggs.

Today's main Teferi story was fantastic, def handling time travel well and providing us with a great Teferi and Urza scene.
As for the Epilogue

For Nissa's story, I liked her more than usual, she's far from tree-huggy in this one. She's downright dark at points and loved the "be the hand that moves" reference to keep her motivated. I def think we'll see her make hard decisions about compleated walkers; I don't think she'll show mercy thanks to Gaea's memories, but we shall see.

Over all, def excited to see more of the Phyrexian arc, and just how many of the assembled walkers will make it out alive.

****Bit of a rant, sorry****

Of course they continue to give Green things it doesn't need. Is it "Green"? I mean sure, Green can make Clues and Food, and dabbled with Treasures, and it is the color of mana production, so sure this fits. But does Green need to get yet another great Treasure engine (glares at Old Gnawbones)??? I was highly suspicious when the Gruul Treasure cards were spoiled (the one that only costs RG with Treasure mana and the Treasure Dork that hurts you) along with Ziatora creating Treasures, but now they are going to be solidly in Green from here. This is so stupid. Not only does the mana stick around, but Treasure strats are only going to get better as Magic goes on, and these are artifact tokens, so this can be splashed in every deck that wants high artifact counts/token creation. This and Doubling Season is just stupid. This and Chatterfang, Squirrel General is just stupid. This is just a truly awful, yet sadly inevitable, development.

Really happy to see Coffers back and with that gorgeous alt art, and the Torment set symbol watermark for the regular version is a nice touch. That said, the Mythic rarity reeks of "Oh we don't look at the secondary market *Agatha wink*"

Quote from lookingupanddown »

Image dump incoming for those who can't watch a 1-hour video. Starting with Zaffai's friends.

Decklist is here. Do not go check the Mothership link, it's a mess right now.

I love Octavia soooo much, the art is great, the abilities are fun, and they're an Elemental Octopus! Plus, there are 8 8's on the card, the last one is tucked into the set count of 081. If the Ward reminder text was on the card, that'd feel more legit, but I'll take it.

Wizards/Creative will always bend the Pie for set themes and world building. The biggest example would be New Phyrexia where all the colors got mean and felt tainted by Black. White had more life drain and negative rules agains the opponent. Blue got Vapor Snag, which Blue getting noncombat damage lifeless was big. So non Blue and Red colors caring about instants and sorceries is fine bc the whole set/plane cares about them, and Creative did do well to show the differences in *how* the colors care. Sure the Witherbloom Apprentice feels WB, but we've already seen BG get this effect in Poison-Tip Archer, we just now see it triggering off Magecraft. It's kind of nice seeing BG not care as much about the graveyard since we get than nearly every set these days.
And as for Boros getting graveyard matters abilities, that's def not a bad thing. Boros has been forced into the redzone for far too long and it's great that they expand flavorfully into new design space. Boros just feels like the archeology colors, we've seen this trope with the WR cards in Zendikar: caring about exploring, excavating, finding artifacts, etc. It will feel weird since Boros has largely been one note, but these new designs fit within the scope of the colors and the flavor of the world.
Overall, I think it's good that Creative went with different strategies that still fit within each color pair with this set than just say WR attacks, BG graveyard, WB lifedrain, UG gets everything (jkjkjk), and UR is the only one to care about spells in a magical school world.

[Edits for spelling and clearing up points]

At this point, expecting a plane's civilization to almost or exactly match its real world counterpart is not going to end well. WotC has demonstrated that they will include a multiracial and diverse populous in their worlds because that is a great power of fantasy: you can lift things from the real world and put a more ideal spin on things, like population diversity. This allows them to not only be inclusive, but also for more flexible storytelling when needed. They've consistently done this, and yes it has stepped up a bit in the last few years, but that's not a bad thing. So yeah, while Kaldheim is Norse inspired, it will not shock me when I see nonwhite characters living on that plane in greater numbers than actually in Scandinavia.

Quote from ChariSays »

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Quote from ChariSays »

I don't understand the whole "if this set wasn't for drafting" logic, as literally the entire reason this set exists is to facilitate drafting commander. That's the core concept that this set spring from.

Every booster set since Mirage has been for draft. There are collector's boosters that will help you dodge draft chaff, or you could just buy the cards you want on the secondary market to save money. This is not new to the game.

If only WotC had some sort of direct to consumer product line that was just decent, asked for cards, maybe with unique art? If only...

Quote from sleeper agent 2.0 »

Quote from ChariSays »

I don't understand the whole "if this set wasn't for drafting" logic, as literally the entire reason this set exists is to facilitate drafting commander. That's the core concept that this set spring from.

Every booster set since Mirage has been for draft. There are collector's boosters that will help you dodge draft chaff, or you could just buy the cards you want on the secondary market to save money. This is not new to the game.

This. Completely. I'm actually excited to DRAFT COMMANDER! This is going to be sweet! That said, I do think the power level of the commons and uncommons could have been bumped up a bit. It's disappointing to see stuff that would be draft chaff in a standard-legal set find its way here, when a lot of the fun of commander is you are all playing with powerful cards in a multiplayer environment.

If only WotC had some sort of direct to consumer product line that was just decent, asked for cards, maybe with unique art? If only...

I see what you're getting at... but secret lair ain't it.

In the same posts that you say you cannot wait to draft this set, you also say you wish it didn't have as much draft chaff...
I understand that the set was inspired by the idea of combining Commander with draft, but if there were ever a set that did not need to prioritize a draft environment, it was this one. It could have been that direct to the players set and def wouldn't have needed to be a larger set either. That would allow them to design legends appropriately, add more needed reprints, and design more format orientated cards. I do feel that the draft oriented mindset did hurt legend design and inclusion and reprints more than designing new commander cards. I am still excited for the set, but I'm def hoping things go differently when CL2 is designed and delivers more on Commander's needs than having to bend those needs around a draft experience.

But this set literally only exists to draft. It wasn't a missed opportunity to not be a drafting set. We've had over 50 non-draftable commander releases. This is literally the only one that is draftable. I really can't understand why anybody expected this set to be anything else.

Again, I understand that the set is to draft, my point is that I had hoped they would bend draft to Commander and still print/reprint cards for the format. Instead, Commander got bent for draft and their usual draft philosophy. That has resulted in the typical draft chaff, missed reprints at the uncommon and rare level, underpowered new legends, not near enough characters that needed cards getting them and bad designs for those that did get them (looking at you Glacian).

Quote from Xcric »

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even within the set itself a lot of its own themes just fall flat... they pushed equipment in white and red, but then didn't include ***** for equipment. no one expected all the swords, but one or two might've been good, or a handful of just exciting new equipments, or a few reprints of the ones in the $10-30 range, commander's plate is arguable in how good it is, but it also doesn't do much that's new or exciting in that design space

the pirate theme, its cute... but it would've been better served in an actual set. there's a bunch of similar examples, just half assed under explored almost concepts all over this set. just jammed together for the sake of saying HEY ITS GOT THAT THING YOU LIKE IN IT

where are the much hyped GOOD white cards? its just the same old catchup under powered crap as always but now we have keyword soup to do nothing with! a new printing of swords to plowshares, that's cool... what else you got? card isn't exactly difficult to come by and there should be more to the color white than that... but there isn't, even when promised there would be

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I agree with you on most of your post, especially re the parts I left above. My personally view is that once they decided this set needed to be drafted, the set would only be okay bc they’d have filler for draft archetypes and underpowered cards to prevent feel bads. Had they just let things be designed for unexplored spaces and for characters needing cards, I think this set would have sold regardless of draft experience. There’s also the expectation that characters without cards or in need of another version would be here and just weren’t bc they didn’t fit draft signposts.
And you are right that the needed White upgrades were not here. Barely any new design space and little to no card advantage, monarch being the exception. Heck, Black and Blue got arguably the best White cards in Opposition Agent and HullBreacher, respectively.
While I am still looking forward to my box and building/adding to decks, I do agree that they played this extremely safe and really just need to drop “draft experience” from supplemental sets.

I like Hullbreacher’s design, but a part of me wishes that this had been a white card. First Opposition Agent bled a bit of White’s rule-making and arguably has a better effect than White would get. Then this card does a thing that White should be doing, namely locking/slowing down and disrupting attempts to get ahead. They both even have Flash, which really encroaches on White’s slice of pie when connected to a tax effect.

Quote from Lectrys »

Why does the person on the regular-art Inventory Management card look like they're crying?

That is a late-game, high-level character and there are simply too many good weapons from which to choose.

Quote from Ryperior74 »

and if we get galactus I wonder if he'll be a 20/20+ creature

Universes Beyond version of Fog if he's anything like the movie

As a Spanish descended latino (my maternal surname is Álvarez) I don't mind the conquistadors being vampires. Actually it's a great flavor win if you think about what a vampire is and what they represent. And even though they are clearly bad guys, they are still really cool, though I hope they throw some pacifist/sympathetic vampires into the mix, just like not all spaniards who came to America were bloodthirsty murderers (the conquest wasn't just a military campaign, it was a mass migratory moveme t and people fromall walks of life came here). Finally, as a spanish speaker, the name Clavileño is kinda funny/awkward sounding, like clearly it was people who don't speak spanish who came up with that name.

Quote from Djau the Jackal »

The most important thing is he wanted a Mythos for Great Britain, a culture and history for us.

So he stole a bunch of German culture and Nordic myths. Typical Anglo-saxon thievery.

Quote from Gizlivadi »

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Raiyuu, Storm's Edge & Eiganjo Exemplar, but also possibly characters in Invoke Despair, Simian Sling, and Spirited Companion (because of the lighting, it's difficult to say with certainty if they are simply based on darker skinned Japanese like Satoru Umezawa, or if they are black.)

Also, like, any number of the characters who are completely covered in armor could be, but I'll agree that doesn't really count.

Tarkir is a bit harder (possibly Feat of Resistance, possibly Take Up Arms, possibly Murderous Cut, possibly Abzan Advantage) but it's also really diverse already. Really, what's weirder is how many white looking people there are for cultures based on Persia, Thailand, China, and Mongolia. Anafenza the Foremost, Dig Through Time, Dromoka's Command, Sheltered Aerie, Servant of the Scale, Dragonscale General, and Temporal Trespass all feature some really pale folk with debatable features.

Ixalan, again, already a pretty diverse group due to the theme, but just from set one: Storm Fleet Spy, Desperate Castaways, Fathom Fleet Firebrand, Rowdy Crew, and Sorcerous Spyglass all feature some people with arguably East Asian features. It makes some sense that the pirate faction hailing from Torrezon would have a more diverse grouping that the vampires, or the isolated empire, but with Torrezon being based on Spain you could just as easily argue that it doesn't make sense that the pirates aren't all Spanish in appearance.

The honest answer is that people don't use memory space for what they perceive as "normal." And the purists can't even decide if the Balrog had wings. Skin color is not culture, it just happens to correspond with it a lot in Human history. The physical appearance of these characters matters so much less than the beliefs they hold and the actions they take.

Tolkien was white man from England who published these books when he was 60 years old. He was an ardent anti-racist, but that doesn't mean the implicit biases of the time and culture he lived in didn't seep into his story. Following publication, he struggled with the fact that he created a race that was entirely evil, but also possessed free will, a discussion that has implications in things like D&D to this very day. If Tolkien were around today, I think he'd be way less happy about the people arguing his myth based work has a rigid structure and guidelines, and vastly more interested in how the myth shapes and in turn is shaped by the culture telling it.

Call me a grumpy old man, but I'm not a fan of this constant silly humour like "haha the ginger woman is now a knight and she's out for blood isn't that funny?". No.

OH FOR PEAK SAKES!!!

They actually lied to us!!!!!

it’s not a phyrexian tribal deck!!! This is orzhov artifact!!!

look at all of these reprints that could have been in the deck

as far as im concerned "Corrputing influence" is a authentic phyrexian tribal deck

So what exactly stopped Sheoldred from simply turning into a bunch of spiders like she did on Dominaria?

As for her death being too quick: I don't see it. She was never a big enough story character to "deserve" a death chapter/story all to herself. The only on-screen time she had was when she got the hell out of Dominaria once Ajani destroyed the sylex and our hearts. And then she quickly skittered off without even a word while the story continued focusing on Ajani. She's a high profile card but not character. Don't conflate the two.

Also, did anyone else notice that they showed Ephara but the text very clearly described Thassa?

"She tears off pieces for each, leaving herself without—a sacrifice no one will remember in light of what's about to happen." Godamn, chill Norn chill.

Here before people get mad because Aragorn is black.