- Fossil Firebird
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Mar 13, 2018Fossil Firebird posted a message on Dominaria Spoiler Digest - Who's Who and What's What from the Release NotesI would like to know whether Serra and her realm came back into existence or not. The canon is cloudy there thanks to the novels, and I'm rather hoping she did (so maybe we could see a Serra planeswalker card next set).Posted in: Articles
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Good riddance, I say. Transform stuff is often more trouble than it's worth, especially in the case of planeswalkers. The idea that they are losing their power can simply be represented by taking loyalty counters from them, or stuff like The Immortal Sun which doesn't let them use their abilities. There's no need to add extra complexity that doesn't really reward anything.
I mean, after everyone and everything else in the nearest twelve planes softens him up, sure. Neither of those guys remotely stands a chance, even with a lot of help, until Bolas is weakened by something. On Amonkhet, he casually chose to face the Gatewatch, knowing they had some sort of battle plan for him. He willingly let them try everything they wanted to try, no-sold every single bit of it, then absolutely schooled them without putting in any effort. The only reason he didn't kill them all—which he could have with only a minimum of effort—was because of his longer-reaching plans that included them.
Bolas is already pretty much the most powerful being in the Multiverse. Maybe something like Emrakul could threaten him. Even then, the other Eldrazi Titans were slain by beings (the Gatewatch) whom Bolas already bested easily. Ugin got crushed by a Bolas who was less powerful then than he is now—although if his resurrection is truly a surprise to Bolas, I'm guessing that will be the key to his defeat. Somehow, I'd honestly be surprised if Bolas didn't know what happened on Tarkir and expect or know that Ugin's alive, but who knows?
Nicky B is already pretty absurdly powerful. I'd like to see his planeswalker card represent him nearly to the point of reaching godhood, just before he gets taken down. Just to see what it'd look like!
I thought it was an okay way to show a pumped-up Embalm, but honestly, I'm very much in favor of Magic streamlining lots of things. Subtypes and keywords in particular. I mean, maybe they could have given these creatures something like a trigger that puts +1/+1 counters on them when they're Embalmed? No need for two very similar yet distinct keywords for it. That's how you end up with flashback, jump-start, and retrace. Or Stampeding Serow and, say, anything with the Elk subtype. Is there anything that is going to care much about an Elk subtype? "Beast" covers a lot of nonspecific stuff. "Dinosaur" is good on its own, and maybe things like "Snake" and whatnot should stay, but do we need Elk? Rhino? Hippo? There's a lot of cruft. I think the list could stand to have some streamlining.
Believe it or not, some people dislike the characters you do, and especially when they're "Golden Boy" characters who eat up design space and spotlight space year after year. I don't hate Jace, but if they killed him off the setting and game would be the better for it. This idea that you can dismiss everyone who doesn't like Your Favorite Character as "haters" is pretty poor form and generally is an attempt to stifle discussion.
I think the game would be better off if Jace got killed, Lili got killed, and Bolas got killed, and they'd have valid story reasons to do so. I'm also pretty sure that not one of those things will happen. Wizards isn't very good in the storytelling department, clinging to extremely tired and re-hashed tropes and mediocre characters.
However, I also understand the idea of being upset if they kill off a character you like, and can relate. I damn near quit the game when they fridged Avacyn. That whole block was horrible and pretty much ruined Innistrad. So I'm not in a rush to see Jace fans made miserable by killing off their favorite guy, either. It's not a pleasant feeling.
Bolas is the likeliest to be "killed," and then in some kind of stinger ending there's a faint laugh in the distance, or a horned shadow half-glimpsed in the fading light, or some other way of showing that maybe Bolas isn't dead, for realsies, and could come back some day.
Honestly, I have to vehemently (but politely) disagree. Losing Jace wouldn't affect sales of Magic in the slightest. No one who plays the game competitively cares about the story that much. I almost quit after they fridged Avacyn and gave the Angels of Innistrad all Raid Boss Disease, so I understand, but competitive players don't care. The people who collect don't care. It wouldn't tank their sales. Magic isn't popular or successful right now because of Jace; losing him would disappoint some people, but at the end of the day things would go on.
They're not going to kill Jace, though, nor Liliana. Too many unresolved plot threads. Vryn is definitely one. The Raven Man and such. The soap opera-style switching of romantic partners—though I'll admit, the Jace and Vraska dynamic in Ixalan was probably the best-written stuff Wizards has put out, and that story was pretty enjoyable to read. It'd be a shame to lose that, though I'll admit I enjoyed reading Lili's snarky teasing of Jace. Either way, though, at the end of the day, none of that will affect the game's success in any meaningful way.
That is probably what will happen. Just like the Eldrazi in Innistrad were predicted and then done very poorly, and the storyline of Amonkhet, and of Theros, etc. Wizards' storytelling is about as good as that of Blizzard: passable at best, full of tired tropes and predictable, re-hashed storylines. It's only a matter of time before the Phyrexians become a thing again, and they've been pretty obviously foreshadowing the return for a while now. The problem is that when they do that, it's not likely to be anything but a re-hash of old stuff, and won't be done particularly well. Who knows? They might surprise me, but I don't have much faith in that at the moment.
Personally, what I'd like to see is the Weatherlight's power core destroyed and Serra's realm spring back into existence at the climax of a new Phyrexian invasion. The Phyrexians are utterly wiped out, we get Serra and her realm back, Jhoira gets a new awesome Angel-built ship capable of traveling through planes, Tiana as her mechanic/first mate, etc.
Because they aren't interested in creating a fun and fair game experience here. Like Hearthstone, this game is really a creation of pure greed, and one of the worst ways to get people into Magic I could imagine. You can't even get an unrigged shuffle, for crying out loud! It's not a good representation of what the game is actually like. The UI is, honestly, in many ways worse than MTGO—there are times I can't even see what I am targeting because of the awful curved arrows and the huge cards blocking the screen so I can't just target something.
Arena as a replacement for the aging MTGO and a way to get more people playing is, itself, a good idea. If it'd worked as such, it'd be great. Arena is an utter failure, in my opinion, in both ways, however. The limitations on buying cards means it's pretty much the dreaded "pay to win." Its interface is actually a lot worse than that of MTGO because it can be nearly impossible to just properly target or time something thanks to an inexcusable amount of cruft. All the flash and effects mean nothing when the end result is clunkier than its predecessor.
At this point, I kinda just want to post a lot of reviews and everything recommending people to stay away from the game. Definitely don't spend money on it. Wizards needs to start losing money so they get the idea that the product, as given to us, with a rigged shuffler, pay-to-win gambling-style system (as opposed to more straightforward P2W where you could just at least buy individual cards), and utterly heinous UI, is not acceptable. This game is, sadly, a complete failure in all aspects right now.
Wirewood Symbiote would play rather well with Dwynen's Elite, a card that's done a lot of work for me alongside Heritage Druid.
Personally, for my Elves, I'm hoping for any of: Wirewood Lodge, Priest of Titania, Wirewood Symbiote, Quirion Ranger, and Elvish Spirit Guide. Especially Priest and Guide, and maybe Lodge. But I'll settle for anything that helps buff up the Elves.
That'd be pretty cool!
Spirit Bomb
Legendary Sorcery
Suspend 7 - 4GWR
While this card is suspended, any player may pay X any time they could cast a sorcery. If they do, add X charge counters to this.
This spell can't be countered. Damage can't be prevented this turn.
Spirit Bomb does X damage to target player and all creatures and planeswalkers they control, where X is the amount of charge counters on it.
What's the tier deck list, if you don't mind my asking? I have not been keeping up well with the lists, but I am looking for some inspiration.
Not quite the same thing, but Lapse of Certainty was fun for a long time for me! I had built an Angel deck that used Quicksilver Amulet to help cheat in big legendary Angels, and a variety of countermagic and wraths to slow the game long enough for me to get there. Chancellor of the Annex was good in that regard, but I tell you what, no one expects Mana Tithe! You could slow people up quite a bit between the three of those, and then Dawn Charm in any of its modes was helpful, too. Ahhh, those were the days! I used the likes of Sunblast Angel as a big body/wrath effect (you could flash it in and keep your opponent wanting to hold back), Angelic Arbiter (flashed in via Amulet) to disrupt the opponent's gameplan, landed some Chancellors, and tended to let Akroma, Angel of Wrath, Iona, Shield of Emeria, and Reya Dawnbringer help me close out the games.
Wish I could build something close to that, hoping Modern Horizons gives me some tools to reinvent my Angel deck. Already considering Arbor Elf plus Utopia Sprawl to help speed things up. Maybe returning to the likes of Quicksilver Amulet, since being able to put it out on 2 and use it on 3 seems pretty strong. I've considered doing so with a Time of Need/turbofog-style shell; stall, dig for legendary Angels to answer the battlefield's needs (Linvala, Basandra, Iona, Sigarda, etc.), use their power and some removal to take the game over?
Magic has little to do with world mythology these days, guy. Just like D&D wizards are vastly more godlike than most actual gods in our mythology, magic in Magic is a lot more overt and powerful than anything we have in mythology. "Prowess" being an ability whereupon the creature in question powers up by focusing magic into itself, much like chi or simply super-charging via magic, is so easily explained this is a non-argument. All the actual source material that inspires Magic, which is far, far more than just mythology, has loads of examples.
I understand him fine, I just don't think he's very well-written. Most of their story stuff isn't. I'm sorry, I just don't agree. The beast attacked something, Garruk couldn't even live by his own rules, and threw a planar tantrum when he got bested by something he ought not to have provoked in the first place. Sorry. He deserved what he got. Lili will deserve her demise along with Bolas (though his is much more likely to be fake or transitory) if she gets it. And that's the last I will say on the matter.
I'll respond once, but your disrespectful use of the rolleyes emote is, itself, childish at best and as far as I am concerned makes me unwilling to engage you until and unless you can do so with maturity. Please reconsider your posting style if you want people to take you seriously in the future.
The beast attacked Liliana. She killed it in defense. I'm tired of the character, too, but in this case, what was she supposed to do, let it kill her? Garruk is so poorly written (or simply so stupid in-universe) that he doesn't even respect his own rules. Rather than "survival of the fittest" and "red in tooth and claw," he gets upset at the superior predator which killed a beast in self-defense, chases her down, and gets rightly cursed. It's all his own fault. He's not an intelligent character, and a poorly-written one, and generally deserves all the bad stuff that comes his way. So does Liliana. Doesn't make Garruk some innocent victim here. He 100% brought all of it on himself. I personally am hoping they both get the axe, and take Mr. Bland Jace with them.