Second what Sene said about those templates; I think we can safely archive them away.
As to the front page, I think it's a great idea to try and improve it. Seconding Corv's proposals of introducing featured article criteria and setting up links to the portal pages. With the featured article criteria, that will go a long way to giving us rotating content for the front page as we can select new featured articles at set intervals. I think also adding rotating news highlight will help making the front page better as well, because we'll have a constant stream of fresh content.
I'm not one to think highly of people but the MtG subset tends to be, at least to some reasonable amount, intelligent.
...have you read some of the posts in this forum? I long ago gave up thinking Magic was the pastime of best and brightest.
Personally, I think this change is for the best. Yes, it's a dry and flavorless name, but if you take a player who's never been exposed to the WotC website, handed them a mouse, and said "find the story of Magic" they wouldn't go "oh, Uncharted Realms sounds like where they would keep the fiction." They're going to see a bunch of columns, none of which have the word story in the name, and get confused. There's a fine line between flavorful naming and obfuscation.
I don't think calling us "entitled" is helping your argument, kaburi.
You're absolutely right. That was a poor word choice. I was trying to find a word that was more serious than "enfranchised", and I didn't think about the connotations. I was going for "emotionally invested".
I don't see where the current storyline is any different than the past. The Weatherlight Saga, for example, ends with the defeat of Phyrexia and the saving of Dominaria.
They didn't blow up the world the last time we had an apocalypse.
The SET was called Apocalypse and they didn't blow up the world.
There's a difference between taking narrative risks and being dark for the sake of dark. I get the impression people are upset that Zendikar isn't being destroyed because if Zendikar lives we get a happy ending, and happy endings aren't cool. I want Zendikar to not be destroyed. I like Zendikar. I want our heroes to win.
I think the biggest problem is that people don't give the story the chance it needs. Part of this is because of the current storytelling model being so different than what we've been used to in the past. We're getting snippets of crucial story moments now, during preview weeks, yet we won't know the full story until the last UR goes up a couple of weeks after the set releases. People are judging the plot based on these tiny glimpses and summaries of summaries, and when these plot summaries aren't what they want they get angry.
It'd be like watching the Star Wars trailer and deciding that because those moments in the trailer weren't exactly the ending you wanted you aren't going to see the movie. The trailer isn't supposed to have the plot of the entire movie, just enough key moments to draw you in. We're seeing key story moments out of order and out of context (the Oaths, Fall of the Titans), which is causing people to come to conclusions about the story without having actually experienced it.
It's an adjustment in expectations on the part of the audience that hyper-invested enfranchised people on the internet aren't willing to make because of the nature of being an enfranchised entitled internet person.
With Oath of the Gatewatch specifically, Creative is setting up the Gatewatch to be the multiversal Avengers. For this to happen, there has to be a threat exists large enough that these people (who other than Gideon suck in the teamwork department) decide they need to work together. As Creative set up the Eldrazi as that threat, there are only two outcomes that lead to the Avengers Assemble! moment: Zendikar is destroyed and the titans move on (and it's not likely that WotC would destroy one of their most popular worlds) or the 'walkers manage to drive the Eldrazi off (which is a terrible thing because they saved Zendikar at the expense of the multiverse, but makes the most sense for the narrative). I fully expect Ugin to show up, call out the younger 'walkers for being idiots and freeing the Titans back into the Eternities, and tell them they have to clean up this mess (hence they swear their respective oaths)*.
From a narrative standpoint, the only way to have the Gatewatch formed is for there to still be a looming threat. You can't have the Superfriends if there's not some reason for them to join forces.
*Or, say they actually do destroy Ulamog and Kozilek, utterly and completely. We still don't know what the actual role(s) of the Eldrazi are in the greater ecosystem of the multiverse, so Ugin still shows up to call out the younger 'walkers because now they've damaged some fundamental function of existence, and he tells them they have to clean up this mess (hence they swear their respective oaths). This is the new looming threat.
Please do not post fan fiction or fanon in Storyline. This forum is for the discussion of official Magic story information only. If you would like to write your own Magic fan fiction, the Personal Writing subforum is the appropriate venue.
applying any gender to the Eldrazi is a dicey business (they should probably get the Ashiok treatment)
It's previously seemed like they've been applying the genders of the appropriate Merfolk gods to the titans. Cosi/Kozilek and Ula/Ulamog are generally given male pronouns, Emeria/Emrakul is generally given female pronous.
Which means calling Ulamog "her" here is still a screw-up, but it at least explains the expected pronoun convention for the Titans.
They're hatching from the vampires--see also Corpsehatch for spawn emerging from a corpse, Emrakul's Hatcher for the same glowing abdomen effect as Carrier Thrall.
Typically they rerun "best-ofs" for all columns during the two weeks between Christmas and New Years. I'm actually shocked we're getting a new story on December 30.
I have a pair of Contigo travel mugs that I use for both hot and cold drinks when I'm gaming at my friends' house. (I also use them at work at my desk.) You can turn them upside down and nothing comes out, and they also are double-wall so they don't sweat, which is a must when you have cards or character sheets all over your part of the table. (As an added bonus they keep hot things hot for several hours; if I make coffee in one before I leave for work it's still warm at lunch five hours later.)
When I'm at the game store I typically want a larger glass, so I use a 24 oz Tervis tumbler with a lid and (if I remember to put it on before I leave the house) a handle. I like that the lid has a slide to seal it, so you don't risk serious spill when they fall, but they may be a little too sippy-cup for your aesthetics. (The lids are sold separately and are optional; this is also my main drinking glass around the house, and I don't use the lid when it's just me at home.) The main thing I like is that, like the Contigos, the tumbler is double-walled so there's no issue with sweating.
I know I linked to the manufacturer's pages, but I got my Contigos at Costco, and just bought my dad one at Target, and I got the Tervis at Bed Bath and Beyond, but I've seen them at Target, WalMart, etc.
One other option that I have been looking at but haven't actually purchased yet--the Saturn spill-proof wine glass. They've got this neat design where as long as you don't overfill it, they won't fall all the way over. They're ridiculously expensive, which is why I haven't bought a set yet, but I saw them on HuffPo a while back and bookmarked them. (List price is $52 PER GLASS!)
I don't think the demon *is* Xenagos, but like others have said I think it's intentionally using the motifs because that would be the most effective way to torment Daxos.
I like this one a lot. It really focused on the positive red emotions--passion, devotion--that we don't get to see enough of. And Chandra being last week's mysterious rustling leaves? Awesome callback.
As to the front page, I think it's a great idea to try and improve it. Seconding Corv's proposals of introducing featured article criteria and setting up links to the portal pages. With the featured article criteria, that will go a long way to giving us rotating content for the front page as we can select new featured articles at set intervals. I think also adding rotating news highlight will help making the front page better as well, because we'll have a constant stream of fresh content.
Personally, I think this change is for the best. Yes, it's a dry and flavorless name, but if you take a player who's never been exposed to the WotC website, handed them a mouse, and said "find the story of Magic" they wouldn't go "oh, Uncharted Realms sounds like where they would keep the fiction." They're going to see a bunch of columns, none of which have the word story in the name, and get confused. There's a fine line between flavorful naming and obfuscation.
They didn't blow up the world the last time we had an apocalypse.
The SET was called Apocalypse and they didn't blow up the world.
There's a difference between taking narrative risks and being dark for the sake of dark. I get the impression people are upset that Zendikar isn't being destroyed because if Zendikar lives we get a happy ending, and happy endings aren't cool. I want Zendikar to not be destroyed. I like Zendikar. I want our heroes to win.
It'd be like watching the Star Wars trailer and deciding that because those moments in the trailer weren't exactly the ending you wanted you aren't going to see the movie. The trailer isn't supposed to have the plot of the entire movie, just enough key moments to draw you in. We're seeing key story moments out of order and out of context (the Oaths, Fall of the Titans), which is causing people to come to conclusions about the story without having actually experienced it.
It's an adjustment in expectations on the part of the audience that hyper-invested enfranchised people on the internet aren't willing to make because of the nature of being an enfranchised entitled internet person.
With Oath of the Gatewatch specifically, Creative is setting up the Gatewatch to be the multiversal Avengers. For this to happen, there has to be a threat exists large enough that these people (who other than Gideon suck in the teamwork department) decide they need to work together. As Creative set up the Eldrazi as that threat, there are only two outcomes that lead to the Avengers Assemble! moment: Zendikar is destroyed and the titans move on (and it's not likely that WotC would destroy one of their most popular worlds) or the 'walkers manage to drive the Eldrazi off (which is a terrible thing because they saved Zendikar at the expense of the multiverse, but makes the most sense for the narrative). I fully expect Ugin to show up, call out the younger 'walkers for being idiots and freeing the Titans back into the Eternities, and tell them they have to clean up this mess (hence they swear their respective oaths)*.
From a narrative standpoint, the only way to have the Gatewatch formed is for there to still be a looming threat. You can't have the Superfriends if there's not some reason for them to join forces.
*Or, say they actually do destroy Ulamog and Kozilek, utterly and completely. We still don't know what the actual role(s) of the Eldrazi are in the greater ecosystem of the multiverse, so Ugin still shows up to call out the younger 'walkers because now they've damaged some fundamental function of existence, and he tells them they have to clean up this mess (hence they swear their respective oaths). This is the new looming threat.
Which means calling Ulamog "her" here is still a screw-up, but it at least explains the expected pronoun convention for the Titans.
When I'm at the game store I typically want a larger glass, so I use a 24 oz Tervis tumbler with a lid and (if I remember to put it on before I leave the house) a handle. I like that the lid has a slide to seal it, so you don't risk serious spill when they fall, but they may be a little too sippy-cup for your aesthetics. (The lids are sold separately and are optional; this is also my main drinking glass around the house, and I don't use the lid when it's just me at home.) The main thing I like is that, like the Contigos, the tumbler is double-walled so there's no issue with sweating.
I know I linked to the manufacturer's pages, but I got my Contigos at Costco, and just bought my dad one at Target, and I got the Tervis at Bed Bath and Beyond, but I've seen them at Target, WalMart, etc.
One other option that I have been looking at but haven't actually purchased yet--the Saturn spill-proof wine glass. They've got this neat design where as long as you don't overfill it, they won't fall all the way over. They're ridiculously expensive, which is why I haven't bought a set yet, but I saw them on HuffPo a while back and bookmarked them. (List price is $52 PER GLASS!)
I don't think the demon *is* Xenagos, but like others have said I think it's intentionally using the motifs because that would be the most effective way to torment Daxos.
I like this one a lot. It really focused on the positive red emotions--passion, devotion--that we don't get to see enough of. And Chandra being last week's mysterious rustling leaves? Awesome callback.