We simply didn't have very many mono-green Planeswalkers. Garruk has been laboring under the curse of the Chain Veil for years now. We had tried bringing him back as a mono-green card in Magic 2014's Garruk, Caller of Beasts, and the audience reacted with confusion. "Is Garruk still cursed? What's going on?" Besides, Garruk had no story connection to Bolas at all. Nissa didn't have a very compelling story connection to Bolas. Jiang Yanggu was still being worked on for Global Series: Jiang Yanggu & Mu Yanling, and we didn't want to entangle our process with that of the team working on that product. Freyalise was dead, and she didn't have any story connection to Bolas either. We didn't feel comfortable making mono-green versions of any of our multicolored characters who had green in their colors.
It became clear that, if we were going to make a core set every year, and that each core set would have five monocolor planeswalkers in it, and we didn't want to make the same characters over and over again, we would need to increase our stable of monocolor Planeswalker characters. This gave us the freedom to design a character with the power suite we wanted and give her the coolest creative treatment we could come up with to then write a backstory for her that made her an antagonist of Bolas.
I'm glad of this, we need more mono colored walker outside of the gatewatch (even before then the picking where slim), which might explain Jaya, Will and Rowan and the two global series walkers.
It sounds like a decent goal. The execution just feels like the creativity wasn't there. I hadn't really connected it with Jaya before the discussion here, but prior to recent sets I never saw a planeswalker and thought "Meh, kind of generic." Even if the goals are good, I personally would rather just have more gatewatch than cranking out a sterile version of them for the sake of doing it.
EDIT for clarification since many people are going off on mechanics. Even if Tibalt was a bad card mechnically, he did not disappoint from an artistic perspective. That is what I am talking about here. Feel free to insert whatever other "bad" planeswalker you don't like.
I am not feeling the "extremely different mechanically." I will concede there is a little. But look back at the post from Gerrod's Mom to see Nissa has cared about creatures more than once. But as I have tried to articulate, apparently poorly, it is the flavor/art that bother's me more even more than the mechanics. She is just a boring character.
While badass dominatrix creature Jaya predated Chandra, and seems like a different unique person, the old Planeswalker version does not. Again, the latter just strikes me as a more boring version of the Gatewatch member we are told to expect some distance from.
I think you guys that have a tone of disagreement, are still sort of agreeing in your explanation. I hear a lot of "Well, kind of like Nissa but more like Gurruk because she leans a little more on creatures than most previous versions of Nissa." If Gurruk is THE green male planeswalker and Nissa is THE female green planeswalker, then Vivien very clearly fits the statement "Let's make Nissa a little more masculine, give her a bow, and a new name. Voila! New planeswalker."
But even beyond mechanics, Vivien just isn't very interesting from a flavor perspective. Artistically, I look at her and see "generic female ranger." There is a lot more design space to be harvested. Ajani, Gidien, and Elspeth are all mono-white and feel like different interesting characters. Same with Jace, Tezzeret, Tamiyo, and Teferi. So on and so forth. Other than Jaya feeling like old-Chandra, most planewalkers seem like interesting individuals. Vivien just strikes me as uninspired.
I didn't realize until after I reread my post, but Vivien made me want Nissa back. Maybe that was wizards real goal.
To the poster above mentioning that Wizards never said they would kill the gatewatch, I was being more metaphorical. They said something to the effect of stepping away from them.
Wizards has been going on for over a year now that people are tired of seeing the Gatewatch, they have heard the public and they are responding.
Solution 1? Let's make cards that say they lost a battle!
Not good enough? HMMMMMMM Solution 2: Let's make Nissa a little more masculine, give her a bow, and a new name. Voila! New planeswalker.
There are some things I really like about the new set, but if you claim you are listening to the public and killing your sacred cows, please actually do it. I am as tired of the Gatewatch as anyone (except Liliana, she is sweet) but as it stands, I would rather just have another Nissa than this knock off.*
It sounds like a decent goal. The execution just feels like the creativity wasn't there. I hadn't really connected it with Jaya before the discussion here, but prior to recent sets I never saw a planeswalker and thought "Meh, kind of generic." Even if the goals are good, I personally would rather just have more gatewatch than cranking out a sterile version of them for the sake of doing it.
EDIT for clarification since many people are going off on mechanics. Even if Tibalt was a bad card mechnically, he did not disappoint from an artistic perspective. That is what I am talking about here. Feel free to insert whatever other "bad" planeswalker you don't like.
While badass dominatrix creature Jaya predated Chandra, and seems like a different unique person, the old Planeswalker version does not. Again, the latter just strikes me as a more boring version of the Gatewatch member we are told to expect some distance from.
But even beyond mechanics, Vivien just isn't very interesting from a flavor perspective. Artistically, I look at her and see "generic female ranger." There is a lot more design space to be harvested. Ajani, Gidien, and Elspeth are all mono-white and feel like different interesting characters. Same with Jace, Tezzeret, Tamiyo, and Teferi. So on and so forth. Other than Jaya feeling like old-Chandra, most planewalkers seem like interesting individuals. Vivien just strikes me as uninspired.
I didn't realize until after I reread my post, but Vivien made me want Nissa back. Maybe that was wizards real goal.
To the poster above mentioning that Wizards never said they would kill the gatewatch, I was being more metaphorical. They said something to the effect of stepping away from them.
Wizards has been going on for over a year now that people are tired of seeing the Gatewatch, they have heard the public and they are responding.
Solution 1? Let's make cards that say they lost a battle!
Not good enough? HMMMMMMM Solution 2: Let's make Nissa a little more masculine, give her a bow, and a new name. Voila! New planeswalker.
There are some things I really like about the new set, but if you claim you are listening to the public and killing your sacred cows, please actually do it. I am as tired of the Gatewatch as anyone (except Liliana, she is sweet) but as it stands, I would rather just have another Nissa than this knock off.*
Card seems mechanically pretty decent.
Edit *Sneaky WOTC