Just finished watching (finally) Shonen Onmyouji. Really good anime for those that are interested.
Never heard of that but speaking of Onmyouji, I just finished reading Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan. (Yes I know the 'translation' feels like a departure from original Japanese title but I like the sound of it for some reason. :p)
Currently half-way done with Dog Days while finally catching up with the latest chapter of Magi. The latter's nice actually but I can't help feeling turned off by its increasingly excessive politicizing.
I wonder how sincere Aurelia is being here, and how much of her talk of concern for the gateless citizens was just to try and get Gideon to join the Legion.
Part of me wants to believe this but another half tells me that just makes her too Dimir-ish now. And yeah, that same half is also wondering about the greater implications that many of us may have actually misunderstood Aurelia completely.
Don't get me wrong guys, I can't say I'm starting to like her all too much but she does seem easier to sympathize with in this story. I'm still hoping they didn't just axe Feather via Slobad Land treatment (as someone worded the last time I asked about her) but I'm now also curious to know more about Aurelia herself.
Sounds a little like all the worst aspects of Garruk's personality with none of his control or discipline.
... yay.
I don't know... sounds just like your typical Ash-Ketchum-type o' kid to me, except wilder. My guess WotC is reminiscing the days when it still had rights to Pokemon. 8P
Naruto and Bleach should be in the last manga arcs. One Piece on the other hand... who knows when that will be done, but I enjoy it none the less.
Nice to know I'm not alone in predicting the end of the Naruto epic. (Yes, people, I'm still a fan so I respectfully ask all the 4chan-style haters of it to save their breath. I'm not listening.)
Onepiece is probably only 55% completed. Expect it for another 10 years. Also, don't underestimate the marketing skills of Toei (who makes tens of millons of net profit EVERY YEAR).
I actually like those figures. At the very least, it's a mark of an industry's capacity to stay alive.
That's not a bright side. Some archetypes are best left unrealized.
Meh, I appreciate archetypes of all sorts, even those whom I would loathe to meet in person. Besides, since everyone's implying that he scares easy, I would take him over an obvious troll who is terribly obvious. The former I'd just frighten away with a Simic-engineered-Izzet-dragon-Gruul-beast hybrid.
Can't stop imagining Sorin yelling at him to keep off his lawn.
Sorin? Why not Urza? (Bolas too but he'd probably just fry the poor kid.)
I'd like to see him interact with Garruk too. Big guy might even make for a good mentor. Let's not ignore Dom's R side though. I'm thinking Chandra would hunt him down for flipping her skirt or something while grumpy old Koth would beat him up just cuz he's too carefree.
I had to log in just to say how shocked I am by people's reactions to this story. Domri struck me as a typical child/pre-teen. I don't really see where all the hate is coming from.
Someone already explained why that's the main reason. I'm not with them though. I like him for that too. You can even argue that he's targeted to the younger demographics of the player community (heck, he reminds me of my own kid brother now that I think about it).
I can't stand children or pre-teens. They're insufferable.
As much as I'm leaning more on Domri's side as a character, I can sympathize with the teen hate. I've had my own, er, regrettable experiences with their brand of maturity (even though I'm not old myself).
I think it's clear that there's a faction allied with the Izzet, specifically Niv, and a faction opposed to them or trying to stop them/find out what they're up to, containing Dimir, Golgari & possibly Selesnya. Though the Dimir & Selesnya would be more out of necessity than any actual allegiance. Lazav has been quoted in flavour text as actively trying to stall Niv, and Jarad's Orders reveals that he's (Jarad) also trying to find out what Niv's up to.
Actually, this just hit me but I realize the alliance can even be one-sided (parasitic even). Remember the Seven Bells? That's a forced Izzet-Dimir alliance right there. Unfortunately, it makes the idea of this being a one-vs-one faction conflict unlikely. Just roughly thinking about it, one or two of a guild's allies are the enemies to each other. (If we can count on both the Arcana and MaRo's word, Golgari and Selensya are not allied but they can both be allies of Orzhov or Simic.)
My guess it's a new spin on the old. The guilds are still vying against one another but we're clearly seeing more focus on cooperation between them (or at least their members) too. Example: One member of the Azorius could have strong Orzhov sympathies but you can also have another who hates them greedy ghosts and is on good terms with the Boros.
It's also canon that Aurelia publicly denounced Niv. Warmind Infantry.
Oh by no means am I saying these alliances are stable. They can be temporary or for the sake of pure convenience. I just find it nice that that the very notion makes it easy to imagine members of certain guilds walking side by side in whatever maze that Niv seems to be hinting to. (The only thing I find better than that is having dual or even tri-membership.)
Aside from that, MaRo clarified that the guilds have a defined set of secret allies. It's any guild that shares a color with them that appeared in the opposite set as their first RtR appearance.
This is also evident in how the Arcana describes the content of the prerelease packs. In my case, if I were an Izzet, my secret allies would be Simic, Dimir, Boros, or Gruul. If I were Simic, they would be Izzet, Golgari, Selesnya, or Azorius.
That said, I'm really excited about what could be said about these relationships. I think we can discern hints from the guild attitudes in the Planeswalker Guides but I want to know what fans of the other guilds here would think of their own possible allies. (Obviously as I favor RUG, I don't think highly of any guild that has either B or worse, W. Consider my attitude towards those two as rather Animar-ish.)
And moving on to the other guilds, quite a few of the guilds are rather offensive towards the Izzet; Jarad is especially wary of Niv, Lazav is curious about Niv's plans, the Selesnya and Gruul are total anti-techs, Aurelia cuts off her alliance with the Izzet... Thankfully the Izzet are probably not too concerned about public relations, otherwise their scientists would've gone emo fast.
The only disagreement I have here is that I don't think the Gruul are as completely opposed to the Izzet as the previous Ravnica block implied. A good piece of evidence is the Uncharted Realms article on Clan Defiance.
Just because Kal was born to the Gruul didn't mean he couldn't appreciate ingenious spellcasting. He watched the Izzet for hours, seeing how they moved mana into multiple avenues, chaining arcs of energy in a chaotic dance. It didn't always work—they were the Izzet after all—and their failures were often more spectacular than their successes, which forced Kal to stifle his laughter or gasps of astonishment.
- Net's better now. Just linked the Uncharted Realms story in question.
Sooo... anyone read the latest Arcana on Dragon's Maze? As much as I hoped (if not, personally predicted) it would lead to guild alliances, I want to know everyone else's thoughts.
Furthermore, it is official canon that the Izzet and Boros had recently worked together. If you ask me, I think it's enough to presume that other alliances are possible between guilds that share one color. What's even more interesting is that all possible alliances cover both shard and wedge combinations (with the Warmind Initiative being the latter to boot).
What do you think the other secret alliances would be like? As an RUG player, I can see how Simic and Izzet would get along (seeing as both are highly scientific/academic).
P.S.
On a final note, I seriously hope to nail that combination during the actual pre-release. If I end up with anything else, I risk being at wit's end both flavor-wise AND gameplay wise.
I'm pretty sure there aren't actually infinite planes, there are just a very large number.
As far as it goes, I can't think what a world full of planeswalkers would add to the game as a setting.
I mean, we've already got Ravnica, which as a hub has the added bonus of guilds and related mayhem.
I agree with the sentiment that having planeswalkers always at each others throats is getting boring. The real world's already in worse shape with people behaving exactly the same way.
Although, I also agree that Ravnica already has that potential versus an entirely different plane altogether. ._.
As said by others, it's kind of a form of immortality. You don't actually live forever, but you transfer a large portion of your memories to someone else which also makes them think that they're you.
That's plausible but one thing does not entirely add up. The fact that there is a certain awareness of the memory being in another body. That's the creepy part. The agent in this new story actually referred to himself as if the body were a host. Is it really a memory or something more sinister just posing as one?
I'd have to think about the graveyard's influence here, but the above summarises the basic ideas.
Here's an idea. The graveyard here can stand for both actual corpses of your creatures lying about as well as thoughts that have been more or less tossed out of your mind. They may not be there physically but I suppose their 'essence' is still there for the convenience of anything graveyard dependent (reanimation, flashback and so forth). Why do I think this? Well, looking at Deranged Assistant sounds like summoning him means deliberately tossing physical/mental parts of your brain just to use mana.
It might be a little presumptuous to make that call.
Agreed though it still has creepy implications in terms of using 'memories' when they could in fact be entire minds/souls getting ready to take over host bodies.
On the other hand, I like that small bit illustrating what an Izzet VS Dimir bout would be like. Dimir likes using mind power (U) under the table (B) while Izzet likes to use the same power thinking up ways to blow up that table (R).
My only minor gripe was how Dimir converted information into something they could hold over the Izzet like it was a Scooby Snack. Then again, I see perks to that as well (upon further reflection).
Aside from all that, the Gateless don't represent all of the guildless, and if they called themselves the Guildless, it might cause undesired harm to befall innocent bystanders.
Well this is news to me (and I'm starting to see implications). Do you have any further references for this distinction?
For a really, really odd reason, I now see Fblthp as the Ravnican version of Courage the Cowardly Dog.
P.S.
I would agree in saying this story was better than last week's though.
Never heard of that but speaking of Onmyouji, I just finished reading Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan. (Yes I know the 'translation' feels like a departure from original Japanese title but I like the sound of it for some reason. :p)
Currently half-way done with Dog Days while finally catching up with the latest chapter of Magi. The latter's nice actually but I can't help feeling turned off by its increasingly excessive politicizing.
Part of me wants to believe this but another half tells me that just makes her too Dimir-ish now. And yeah, that same half is also wondering about the greater implications that many of us may have actually misunderstood Aurelia completely.
Don't get me wrong guys, I can't say I'm starting to like her all too much but she does seem easier to sympathize with in this story. I'm still hoping they didn't just axe Feather via Slobad Land treatment (as someone worded the last time I asked about her) but I'm now also curious to know more about Aurelia herself.
Who is she really?
I don't know... sounds just like your typical Ash-Ketchum-type o' kid to me, except wilder. My guess WotC is reminiscing the days when it still had rights to Pokemon. 8P
... okay, I'm going to hide now.
Nice to know I'm not alone in predicting the end of the Naruto epic. (Yes, people, I'm still a fan so I respectfully ask all the 4chan-style haters of it to save their breath. I'm not listening.)
I actually like those figures. At the very least, it's a mark of an industry's capacity to stay alive.
Meh, I appreciate archetypes of all sorts, even those whom I would loathe to meet in person. Besides, since everyone's implying that he scares easy, I would take him over an obvious troll who is terribly obvious. The former I'd just frighten away with a Simic-engineered-Izzet-dragon-Gruul-beast hybrid.
The latter I would kill. Hyozan-Hidetsugu-style.
Sorin? Why not Urza?
I'd like to see him interact with Garruk too. Big guy might even make for a good mentor. Let's not ignore Dom's R side though. I'm thinking Chandra would hunt him down for flipping her skirt or something while grumpy old Koth would beat him up just cuz he's too carefree.
Someone already explained why that's the main reason. I'm not with them though. I like him for that too. You can even argue that he's targeted to the younger demographics of the player community (heck, he reminds me of my own kid brother now that I think about it).
As much as I'm leaning more on Domri's side as a character, I can sympathize with the teen hate. I've had my own, er, regrettable experiences with their brand of maturity (even though I'm not old myself).
Actually, this just hit me but I realize the alliance can even be one-sided (parasitic even). Remember the Seven Bells? That's a forced Izzet-Dimir alliance right there. Unfortunately, it makes the idea of this being a one-vs-one faction conflict unlikely. Just roughly thinking about it, one or two of a guild's allies are the enemies to each other. (If we can count on both the Arcana and MaRo's word, Golgari and Selensya are not allied but they can both be allies of Orzhov or Simic.)
My guess it's a new spin on the old. The guilds are still vying against one another but we're clearly seeing more focus on cooperation between them (or at least their members) too. Example: One member of the Azorius could have strong Orzhov sympathies but you can also have another who hates them greedy ghosts and is on good terms with the Boros.
On the bright side, it proves that he fills the archetypical slot that has been vacant among walkers: That of the juvenile, teenage punk.
Then again, that actually makes him less likeable as well in terms of my own self meeting him.
Hopefully we'll have another Walker young'un some time after to keep expanding the age range (my hopes is it's a goth-loli :P).
Oh by no means am I saying these alliances are stable. They can be temporary or for the sake of pure convenience. I just find it nice that that the very notion makes it easy to imagine members of certain guilds walking side by side in whatever maze that Niv seems to be hinting to. (The only thing I find better than that is having dual or even tri-membership.)
This is also evident in how the Arcana describes the content of the prerelease packs. In my case, if I were an Izzet, my secret allies would be Simic, Dimir, Boros, or Gruul. If I were Simic, they would be Izzet, Golgari, Selesnya, or Azorius.
That said, I'm really excited about what could be said about these relationships. I think we can discern hints from the guild attitudes in the Planeswalker Guides but I want to know what fans of the other guilds here would think of their own possible allies. (Obviously as I favor RUG, I don't think highly of any guild that has either B or worse, W. Consider my attitude towards those two as rather Animar-ish.)
What makes you think it's not there already?
The only disagreement I have here is that I don't think the Gruul are as completely opposed to the Izzet as the previous Ravnica block implied. A good piece of evidence is the Uncharted Realms article on Clan Defiance.
- Net's better now. Just linked the Uncharted Realms story in question.
Furthermore, it is official canon that the Izzet and Boros had recently worked together. If you ask me, I think it's enough to presume that other alliances are possible between guilds that share one color. What's even more interesting is that all possible alliances cover both shard and wedge combinations (with the Warmind Initiative being the latter to boot).
What do you think the other secret alliances would be like? As an RUG player, I can see how Simic and Izzet would get along (seeing as both are highly scientific/academic).
P.S.
On a final note, I seriously hope to nail that combination during the actual pre-release. If I end up with anything else, I risk being at wit's end both flavor-wise AND gameplay wise.
I agree with the sentiment that having planeswalkers always at each others throats is getting boring. The real world's already in worse shape with people behaving exactly the same way.
Although, I also agree that Ravnica already has that potential versus an entirely different plane altogether. ._.
That's plausible but one thing does not entirely add up. The fact that there is a certain awareness of the memory being in another body. That's the creepy part. The agent in this new story actually referred to himself as if the body were a host. Is it really a memory or something more sinister just posing as one?
Here's an idea. The graveyard here can stand for both actual corpses of your creatures lying about as well as thoughts that have been more or less tossed out of your mind. They may not be there physically but I suppose their 'essence' is still there for the convenience of anything graveyard dependent (reanimation, flashback and so forth). Why do I think this? Well, looking at Deranged Assistant sounds like summoning him means deliberately tossing physical/mental parts of your brain just to use mana.
That don't mean those parts can't still be used.
Agreed though it still has creepy implications in terms of using 'memories' when they could in fact be entire minds/souls getting ready to take over host bodies.
On the other hand, I like that small bit illustrating what an Izzet VS Dimir bout would be like. Dimir likes using mind power (U) under the table (B) while Izzet likes to use the same power thinking up ways to blow up that table (R).
My only minor gripe was how Dimir converted information into something they could hold over the Izzet like it was a Scooby Snack. Then again, I see perks to that as well (upon further reflection).
Well this is news to me (and I'm starting to see implications). Do you have any further references for this distinction?