Magic: the Gathering Wednesday Flavor and Lore Thread

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first for best girl

>>44209090
I'm still surprised they thought we wouldn't know Kozilek was going to show up in Oath.

>>44209359
WotC has 0 competent people working in its offices, so why would you think they had any value at all?

>>44209359
A lot of people didn't know. People who don't follow the story with painstaking detail didn't see all the hints, and even some story people thought that the Kozilek hints were no more significant than Vestige of Emrakul.

The fact that it was possible to see doesn't mean that the majority saw it. After all, right up to spoiler season, we had people in these threads arguing that DTK wasn't going to be based on two-color factions.

>>44209556
>DTK wasn't going to be based on two-color factions

WHAT!? IT ISN'T?

>the Ob Nix story is going to be from Nissa's perspective

Oh man this is gonna suck. I'm waiting for Kreines to have Nissa go Super Saiyan again and kill Bobby Nix off.

>>44209137
Wish they do more with her already.

>Finally shows up
>Tosses fireball that does literally nothing
>Interjected over previous article

I just wanted to see her do something.

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>>44212251
I guess we'll know more about her in OGW since she got a planeswalker card.

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>>44212624

My favorite thing about Bolas is his derpy fucking face.

Also, I was discussing Planeswalkers and power levels, particularly premending, and had to remind someone that Bolas was so powerful that he would break planes just by showing up. Even now with a portion of his power, he's easily the most powerful Planeswalker, especially since it was confirmed that his power grab during Alara worked. Looking at what Ob did to the hedrons, it's not out of the blue to say that Bolas did something similar during the Conflux. Not with Hedrons of course, but rather just pulling all the excess mana from each shard reuniting, much like energy being released in chemistry when bonds are formed. Bolas basically used Alara as a fusion reactor.

Random speculation, if releasing the Eldrazi wasn't just some crazy distraction, maybe he's planning on siphoning the excess mana when Zendikar shatters.

>>44213789
He was probably fucking around transforming when the mending hit and got stuck with the derpface.
Like, he was mocking an Umezawa by shifting to one of the Umezawa's faces (probably his close relatives) and was in the middle of shifting back when BAM.
That's why he wants his oldwalker powers back so badly. Not for the power in and of itself (though that is, of course, always something he desires, no doubts there), but so he can get his own damn face back

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Reposting.

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>>44215060
Yeah, Jace is pretty fantastic.

>>44214253
As funny as that would be, I think he could just change at will if he wanted. At the very least, his size is very mutable.

I want to see Bolas show up on Theros and watch a bunch of heroes try to fight him because he's a big scary monster only to realize how fucked they are.

>>44209745
Pls no

Ob is awesome but I hate Nissa so much, Ob's last UR was fantastic, he's literally so selfish that he's the only planes-walker who uses first person narration i also liked his brutal practicality and the way he can give his enemy credit.

He also broke the hedron network on purpose and set kozilek free cause he's a Olympic level hater.

>>44216986
>Olympic level hater
completely justifiable

>>44215060
Why is Duel Decks: Jace vs. Chandra being counted three times?

>>44217392
Normal duels, anthology and weaboo version.

>>44216986
Ob Nixilis is literally the Chandere of Planeswalkers
"NAHIREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

>>44217651
My sides.

>>44215060
Obviously, Jace is the wizards's mary sue.

>>44217651
Except Nahiri's legitimately harmed Ob Nixilis. Meanwhile with Chandere, Nahiri just looked at Sorin.

>>44213789
Aren't Elder Dragons able to rival Oldwalkers anyway? Bolas lost one side of his obscene power to the Mending, but most of the Elder Dragon power should still be intact.

>>44223690
Even Elder Dragons have their limits. He's meant to be dead or senile, not still going. He doesn't want to 'just' be an Elder Dragon that can wander between the planes, he wants to be the god that he once was and to reign once more.

>>44221481
>> Piercing straight THROUGH the bicep
> Warrior

Kamigawa gets a lot of love here, it seems. Is /tg/ like the only place on the internet that actually likes this plane?

>>44226975
I don't know, but you must admit that the lore of Kamigawa is amazing.

>>44228135
Oh I'm not saying otherwise. That place is rad.

>>44228930
The problem with Kamigawa is was released after Mirrodin.

>>44230140
I know. And some of the mechanics were dumb, like "cards in hand matter," but god damn that flavor and story is through the roof. Legendaries everywhere was neat too

>>44230152
And even had a great internal balance, but Mirrodin was really broken.

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We can hope SOI will be awesome right?

Not the lukewarm plate of mediocrity the was BfZ?

I can pray for a RWB legendary vampire knight, can't I?

>>44217425
So, "literally just to pad the numbers," then?

>>44234945
Sadly it looks like the person who made that chart is retarded, since you can't count different arts in the same set and same art in different sets at the same time.

I'd cut the jap duel deck for being the same exact set with different art, the online only one for being online only, and the anthology one for literally being identical reprints of the first four duel decks.

>>44234945
>muh husbando

>>44234897
Is it wrong that I'd enter into a crazy exploitative Orzhov contract just to fuck that angel?

are there any MtG novelizations that you guys would recommend? I've heard they're mostly god awful with the occasional gem shining through the shit. I'm particularly interested in Urza shit and the Lowryn blocks if anything from those arcs were good.

Could the current Gatewatch IV take on Atropus, from DnD? Could they fight Starwars EU Sidious?

What I wanna know is where the fuck is Nahiri?

>>44237070
>muh shitposting

>>44241319
Atropus causes every dead thing in the world to start rising as Undead. And the Oath-Rangers don't have a Black Ranger, so they wouldn't do very well against that. Depends a little on the plane they're fighting on though. Then they have to cross the gulf of space to get to Atropus before he collides with the planet and kills it, and none of them are artificers so no skyships. Would be incredibly bad for them.

The Oath-rangers are really small-scale os the problem. One has mind magic, one is indestructible, one can manipulate the land, one can set things on fire. Significantly below the threshold for taking on literal gods. Best case scenario is always a pyhrric victory.

>>44241541
Nobody knows, that's the problem

>>44240354
The original Ravnica trilogy is fantastic.

>>44215060
>>44237070
Oh, good, I'm glad to see that the new chandere made it to this thread as well.

>>44243945
I'm not. We finally got rid of the actual chandere and now we have to deal with Anti-Jace Chandere.

>>44240354
see this >>44228135

>>44239764
Don't even have to enter that exploitative a contract. Just join the orzhov, work your way out of debt and be good enough at making money to hire her as an enforcer or something and you too can fuck an Orzhov angel as much as you want.

>>44240354
The writing isn't too great but I really liked the odyssey block. Kamahl is dope

>>44243945
>>44244122
>jace isn't overused

>>44247596
Not really, no.

>>44247596
Whether or not Jace is a marketing icon is really irrelevant to his likeability as a character and the role he fills in the story.

Yes, they plaster his mug on too many things. I actually think he's a pretty decent character, but I admit that too many products feature Jace's glowing blue eyes regarding you cautiously. But I treat marketing and story as different parts of the beast, the same way that I don't get my panties in a bunch over the fact that the rules of the game allow walls to wear boots.

So, yes. Jace really needs to be in fewer products. I actually groaned when I saw him in the SOI key art, because...really? Come on. That makes this the second return block that's been sold with Jace's face on it--and they did it with the two most popular planes they have. Though I do find it amusing that he didn't get a card in the return block that actually returned to a plane he'd been seen on previously. SOI should have had Tamiyo show up again, poor thing.

However, again, I can still like Jace and recognize that he is a reasonably well-developed character who has some interesting conflicts and doesn't warp the story around himself. Because marketing and the story are different things.

So, by all means, rail against how often they feel the need to jam Jace into products. I'll be right there complaining with you. But don't pretend that it has any bearing on his character, and that anyone who likes him as he appears in the fiction is some kind of drooling, brain-addled fangirl.

>>44244122
Seriously, this is some extremely tiresome bullshit.

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>Not all heroes die in armor.

;_;

>>44248475
Of course. Some are wizards.

Is there anything at all pointing to a possible return to Kamigawa? I know there's that one Soratami Planeswalker running around, but anything besides that?

>>44248887
The legendary UG Orochi from the latest Commander set. Other than that, nope.

>>44248887
There's so much pointing against a return to Kamigawa that a lot of us are expected Tamiyo's next appearance to involve a UR where she was turning in her notes when Emrakul does an eldrazi drive by on the plane.

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>>44248975

As much as I hate Pepe memes, this image seems appropriate.

>>44248887
Kamigawa has (unfortuately) been taken by WotC as an objective lesson in how NOT to do a mythology-plane: they think it drew from the source material too much.

This use of actual mythology made it complicated, with lots of strangeness, and have alot of hard to pronounce names and unfamiliar objects. The word they keep using is Unintuitive: what this means is that it made people learn actual interesting things from a different culture, rather than just be a bastardised version people are already familiar with.

The plane WotC considers a success as far as mythology goes, is Theros. Which was created by literally getting "baby's first book of greek stuff" and slapping it down, then tearing out anything that was too tricky. Don't get me wrong, there were interesting things done with it as a setting: the Enchantment theme, the Gods and Devotion and Nyx, everything Ashiok was doing with dreams, the Hero's Journey with Elspeth. But as far as an interesting transcription of the base mythology goes, it falls vastly short.

What does this judgement mean for Kamigawa? You can fix alot about a plane when you return to it: in Ravnica 2 - Jace Boogaloo they introduced vampires suddenly, despite it previous canon that Szadek was the only humanoid one. But Kamigawa's setting is so entirely out of line with what they think current Magic should be. There's too much that they;d need to change to make it fit, and once you had it wouldn't be Kamigawa any more. It would be "Naruto - Now with Planeswalkers!"

Personally, I hope they don't go back. The occasional scraps of lore, a Legendary Commander here or there, and maybe a plotline with Tamiyo if we're lucky, are enough.

>>44249445
>The word they keep using is Unintuitive: what this means is that it made people learn actual interesting things from a different culture, rather than just be a bastardised version people are already familiar with.
Thing is, the majority of players aren't playing Magic to learn. While sets often have flavor that CAN be investigated and lead to interesting things, Kamigawa basically FORCED players to learn pronunciation and the like. Theros was successful because, while it has more obscure things like the hecatoncheires, the bulk of material was familiar to the audience, so those who didn't want to have to study a foreign culture didn't have to. Those who did want to, however, had a few pieces thrown their way that they could follow up on. It's kind of like the lenticular design thing he goes on about: so long as you don't force the disinterested people to think too hard about something that they don't want to, you can hide all sorts of stuff in plain sight.

>>44249595
I understand why it's a good idea for the company, rounding off corners to appeal to the lowest common denominator will always be a successful strategy because normal people outnumber everyone else put together.

It just makes me sad, because it puts a hard limit on the creativity the world building team can use when designing the multiverse. "Behold, a realm of Infinite Possibilities!... so long as you can explain them in two sentences to an 8 year old". There's so much more they could explore and try out.

I don't blame NWO for everything wrong with magic, but it has alot to answer for in dumbing down the game.

>>44249792
NWO has nothing whatsoever to do with Creative. It's entirely about the design of commons and uncommons.

>>44249445
>Personally, I hope they don't go back. The occasional scraps of lore, a Legendary Commander here or there, and maybe a plotline with Tamiyo if we're lucky, are enough.

The way you just described things, how's they'd remove everything I love about the block, makes me hope they don't go back there either.

I do hope they do a W/R Lendary Samurai Commander though.

>>44248372
I like your words.

>>44250030
>W/R/B Legendary Samurai Commander
fixed that for you.
You need both R and B to make them worth it to White, which has 20 samurai to red's 9 and black's 6. Green has 1 samurai and Blue has 0, making them useless in this situation.

>>44250904

Ugh, Black. I hate Black.

I see your point on a gameplay level though.

>>44249445
I wish Doug would read this.

>>44248475
As if I needed another reason to hate children

>>44248475
>implying all heroes use armor

>>44245345
>fucking the angel
>when you can just keep her in a frilly maid outfit for all eternity to drag in indebted schmucks who think they can fuck the angels

>>44253441
>Not fucking the angel WHILE dragging in and indebting poor schmuks who think they'll be succesful enough to fuck the angels.