How you feel about the concept of male sirens that assist the

>male sirens
it's weird, i find it hard to believe a bunch of pirates with feathers singing is all that entrancing.
>that assist the sailors of the seas instead of preying on them
that one i'm fine with, oddly enough. two seaborne hazards joining forces works for me.

>>55226759
>male sirens

Once again MTG promotes it's insidious anti-masculinity agenda!

> that assist the sailors of the seas instead of preying on them

Wow the SJWs are going to pounce on this and make a big deal about it.

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>>55226954

>Grognards complain about"Strong independent women taking traditional male roles"
>Male in a traditional female role, and a benevolent twist on it at that.
>Grognards still complain about "hurrr durrr SJWs!"

I mean, what's next? A flying multiplanar ship captained by a dark-skinned, strong, independent woman? Pshaw! Knowing Wizards with all their pandering, they'd also probably give them a minotaur friend, a simpering goblin, a female inventor, and a dopey male swashbuckler. And just imagine if Urza had a multicultural band of heroes including a mixed-race elf/human girl and a black pacifistic time wizard! All this pandering these days!

Oh wait, that was back in the 90s?

>>55226759
>Males are constructive, females are destructive
It's realistic.

>>55226759
Sure, why not. Reversing tropes is a tried and true tradition in fantasy gaming, and story-telling in general. I don't get how sirens with a song meant to entice and lure can help sailors except maybe as winged lighthouses, but eh, whatevs. It's also a reversal of the 'women are bad luck at sea' and 'albatross' tropes too.

I guess I could read more into it but MtG lore is kind of a joke now so fuck it.

>Male sirens
The fuck is this gay shit?

>>55226759
Meh. I mean, I'll take 'em. Fliers win limited games. Dunno about the Flying Men there but the ability could be worth it.

>>55226759
Eh, it's whatever. I can see why they wanted to include them, since Blue wouldn't have many flyers otherwise with the tribes they have set .

I wonder if they'll Bleed over to any of the other flying colors at all

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>>55227282
Sisay was a strong, interesting character; she also happened to be black and female
Samut and Kaya are strong independent black women

If you can't tell the diference between those two statements, Then it seems I've wasted my time replying to an idiot

How the fuck are female sirens gonna do anything with female pirates?

>>55227829
Magical charm effects, I suppose.

>>55227751
So you only accept black female characters when you consider them well-written.

Do you extend this same standard towards white characters and male characters?

>>55228060
>no one has ever complained about a poorly written white male

>>55228060
People birch about Jace all the Fucking time. A shotty character is a shotty character, and making them a token ethnicity for pity points should be considered insulting.

>>55227751
>>55228060
>>55228101
So what you're saying is that the problem isn't Wizards trying to push diversity, it's Wizards gutting the story by writing it for blog posts instead of novels.

>>55228101
The word is "shoddy," for the record. Also "bitch," but that one I'm certain was a typo.

>>55228170
It just so happens that the latter is inextricably linked to their attempts at the former in this case. Really takes the ol' shoulder-topper running doesn't it?

>>55228193
anon is probably a filthy phone-poster
Atuocorrect changes shitty to shotty all the time. Which is funny because shotty isn't even a fucking word.

>>55228276
I've heard it used as slang for "shotgun." I don't know why I didn't think of "shitty" before "shoddy," but in my defense they're both about as close and appropriate in that context.

>>55226954

male sirens only make since because most of the pirates in Ixalan are chicks. The art for almost all the pirates in Ixalan prominently feature women pirates. Hell, we have like 4 legendary chick pirates and zero guy ones.

>>55228060
Yes. I fucking hate new-Jace because he's so obviously being pushed to fit what WotC believes is the stereotypical Magic player.
MaRo himself has basically said that Jace is MTG's mascot, a la Mickey Mouse.

Pandering of any kind - whether it's to hipsters, sjws, or nerds - is something to be rejected outright. It's a pro-corporate anti-playerbase move that dilutes the playerbase more and more with less dedicated players.

>>55226759
I think its fucking dumb. WotC keeps going out of their way to "subvert tropes" to the point that it is getting annoying. Frankly we are reaching a point where avoiding cliches has become a cliche.

>>55228447
>male sirens only make since because most of the pirates in Ixalan are chicks
This is actually a fairly interesting observation (and amusing when take >>55227324 into account)

>Hell, we have like 4 legendary chick pirates and zero guy ones.
There is at least one male captain according to lore. He will probably be in the next set.

>>55228227
It's possible to tell a good story in that sort of format, of one puts in the effort. They don't seem to care too much though.

What bugs me about the new female walkers though is that they don't go anywhere. Narset forcibly prevented herself from Planeswalking thanks to Autistic monk training. Samut went to somewhere else for a grand total of 5 seconds before willing herself back. Saheeli gets some backstory, but it isn't clear if she went somewhere and left or if she just stayed like Narset. It isn't going to get better with the next set either since the plane itself traps people there.

That really irks me as a whole though, since the entire point of Planeswalking, especially the initial one, is that your Spark takes you somewhere you need to be to grow and discover more about yourself. Not only that, but it helps the universe feel more connected as we get glimpses of past or future sets when people jump around.

But instead all of them have their motives so tied up in their home planes that they can't leave. They won't go on that journey of self-discovery, and they won't really grow as Planeswalkers.

Hell, my favorite Planeswalker is Domri Rade, and he does the same thing where he returns shortly after, but even his story gets across that he clearly wants to go back and see more of the universe.

Why make a character a planeswalker if they aren't going anywhere?

>>55228227
>inextricably linked
Nah, it's just that Doug Bayer is a garbage writer. The diversity shit came later.

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>>55228170
It's not impossible to have well-written stories in blog format.
plz no bully

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>>55228519
>There is at least one male captain according to lore. He will probably be in the next set.
We already have at least one male captain in this set.

>>55228570
I think they're referring to the Planeswalker guy. Angrath or something

>>55228570
Wonder will this kind of creature work this time around. Back then Mardu Strike Leader was shit even for limited.

>>55228705

>mardu strike leader was shit in limited

really? i dont remember that at all

>>55228592
What do we know about Angrath? On a scale between Sparrow and Blackbeard, where does he fall?

>>55228503
>new Jace
Jace hasn't changed at all.
You just are actually seeing him, instead of the out-of-character quips on flavor texts attributed to him.
He's always been a socially awkward, pasty turbonerd.

The real question is why do we still care about the writing in Magic at all.

It's gone progressively down the shitter for quite possibly over a decade. It's been plain watered-down and inoffensive fantasy. Anybody with any long-term experience with the game should at some point feel that anybody who expresses love for the game's plot has never read a book and/or thinks Game of Thrones is a coherent television show.

There are zero signs they're going to improve with the story, they've caught the social justice bug, which if you ask me, is like getting pneumonia after a long battle with HIV - you're irredeemably fucked, and they've put so little effort into their creative work that they're just wholesale jacking ideas from Earth mythology. Not that there is anything wrong with stealing from Earth mythology but it requires a combination of capturing the essence, culture, and imagery and adding your own twist (like in Kamigawa and Lorwyn) and not like this tepid bullshit from Theros or Kaladesh wholly lacking in any unique culture whatsoever or soon-to-be Ixian.

I'm just surprised that anybody can care after all the time. Ironically I'm posting this to seem like I care but I don't.

>>55228764
He hates the plane he's trapped on and would love nothing more than to burn the entire damn thing to the ground.
He is male.
He is a pirate captain.
I'm afraid that's all we know.

>>55228764
I think he's more Blackbeard. The flavortext so far refers to him basically wanting to burn down the plane to find the thing trapping them there. Plus, I had it pointed out that his name is similar to another Minotaur character, and one of the artworks on the packs here http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-preview/ixalan-promos-planeswalker-decks-packaging-and-fnm-tokens-2017-09-01 has a minotaur that's clearly got some fire magic going on.

>>55228525
Narset, at least, has been exploring since then - at the very least, she's been to Kamigawa on more than one occasion, hanging out with Tamiyo and her kids.

>>55228840
I really hope he's a minotaur. We need more non-human planeswalkers. I don't count Kor, Vampires, and Werewolves as non-human.

>>55228773
Old-Jace was an expert manablade fencer. New Jace literally doesn't even know how to make a fist.

Also, New Jace isn't a socially awkward pasty turbonerd: he's an idealized turbonerd with few (if any) embarrasing features. Old Jace was a believable turbonerd who actually bumbled social shit and got sexually frustrated by both Liliana and Emmara.

>>55228858
Yeah. Personally, I especially like it for the Blackbeard angle. Blackbeard lit fuses in his beard so he'd be billowing smoke and look terrifying, so a Minotaur with his horns on a plane without any might just use his fire magic and play up the idea that he's a demon to scare his enemies further.

>>55228840
>world is pretty close to being run by vampires and their dumb religion

I can see from experience where he's coming from

>>55228840
Why is he on pack art if he's not in this set?

Probably just some random instant/sorcery with him as flavor? Pack art is usually of walkers and creatures so it would be kind of odd. Is it confirmed that there are no other Minotaurs? Is he from another plane?

I MUST KNOW

Why do they have the type "pirate" when they are clearly not pirates and rather just help anyone at sea?

>>55228519
The male pirate captain is a planeswalker, a madman and most probably the real villain in the set.

>>55229259
Some of them murder people at sea and others find or take treasure, those are pretty pirate-y things to do.

>>55226759
Assist sailors? They're still pirates (the scourge of the seas), so it's cool.

If they were part of a fishing vessel I might have a different opinion.

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>>55229219
He's from another plane. He accidently called a Dino a Dragon when he first got there and the name stuck with his crew. He's also implied to be BR by the cards he's featured in.

>>55229634
That's a hilarious way to reprint a card

>>55226759
I think that the one mana dude will replace neonate in GPG decks

>>55229710
doesn't really do anything similar but maybe that's okay

>>55228860
I dont read much lore, but was there a specefic event that changed Old-Jace into neoJace or did they simply changed the way he was written?

>>55229219
I'll admit, I'm just speculating. All we really know for certain is that he's male, a pirate, and most likely Red due to him having a red creature from his crew.

>>55229746
well he sacrifice himself to fill your yard, not as efficient as neonate but you get to counter some spells

>>55227751
>strong independent black woman
>spent her whole life trying to prevent her people from being sucked into a never ending cycle of death, cared immensely for the few people that were her friends and fought tooth and nail for her goddess and friends

Wow, look at all that race-baiting empowerment they put out there.

>>55228101
>implying the majority of people complaining about Jace have read the stories he's involved in

Their precious donut steel boogeyman is nowhere near the golden child they think he is. If anyone is deserving of criticism within the Gatewatch, it's Nissa.

>>55229750
Liliana killed all his friends and Tezzeret beat him brutally.
Then he went SSJ, beat Tezzeret so hard Bolas had to spend months putting him back together, erased his own mind and walked away.

>>55229820
so why is Liliana part of the gatewatch?

Isnt it the MTG equivallent of the justice league?

>>55229750
He's been fairly consistent. The only time he's been particularly strong is almost killing himself from sheer exertion to break Tezzeret.

>>55229806
No but he's nowhere as cool as uzra

>>55229806
>Glorious, beautiful elf-supremacist
>Embodies the ideals of green mana through fascism
>Turned into a traitorous hippy

>>55229850
Because Jace is a faggot.

>>55229970
I can get behind that theory

When will we get succubus (male) card

>>55226759
Fuck them, if they can make male sirens they can make female demons.

>>55229634
>>55229664
Dinosaurskull Summit just doesn't sound right.

>>55230105
I kinda always liked their female angels / male demons rule

>>55230036
We don't even have succubus (female) cards

>>55230116
We did have male angels in Amonkhet, though, so having female demons on some plane or another wouldn't be entirely out of line at this point.

>>55230158
Yeah, at this point I would -think- it's an inevitability since they broke the female angel rule (though the male ones were created by Bolas so maybe that's why it's different?) but I doubt they'll go for a succubus type demon

>>55230113
but Raptorskull Summit does

>>55230158
>>55230179
I'm pretty sure the idea with the male angels on Amonkhet was that the entire plane was supposed to feel 'off' on purpose. That's why it had White zombies and -1/-1 counters. It was supposed to make it apparent that things weren't normal around there.

>>55230158
We've had male angels in Dominaria and the undisclosed plane where the Malachim are from, decades before Amonkhet.
We will never have female demons because creative thinks it promotes a harmful stereotype.

>>55230250
Well, yeah, but Legends was dumb and the Malachim were from an alien timeline so they didn't feel like they counted.

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>>55230105
>>55230130
>>55230179
>>55230216
As long as Maro is in charge we will never get female demons.

I mean if the flavor is that there is a crew that is just sirens then I'll be ok with that.

If the flavor is that sirens have more motivations than just "lol I'm going to kill these sailors by taking them to these here rocks" but they still have singing and flying abilities then that's great.

If WOTC just made male sirens for the heck of it then that would be sad

>>55230333
He said we won't get succubi, not female demons

It just means if we get a female demon it will look closer to Griselbrand

>>55230356
I mean, a demon girl with bone plates and tentacles would be much sexier than a succubus.

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>>55230333
I think that just says we won't get succubi. We could still get demons who are feminine, but, y'know, in an inhuman monstrous sort of way, like the way other demons are inhumanly monstrously masculine. Pic may or may not be a good example.

>>55227751

Normally, I don't mind a little bit of SJW pandering. While the arguments can go a bit too far, there's usually an understandable core issue they care about that does need addressing (despite falling into the pessimism trap of everything is hate).

The way MtG does it, however, irks me terribly. The whole idea of the Gatewatch matches the attitudes that "those from outside who have the power are morally obliged to make others have the same views." It's just validating attitudes that cause all the injustice (for lack of a better term) in the first place. Just because you morally agree, it doesn't mean that they're not doing the same thing that those in the past did whom are condemned today. Pandering while trying to promote the Gatewatch just feels wrong.

>>55230407
I just get bugged by a lot of the hypocrisy sometimes. 'We have to prove women are strong and equal! By coddling them like children!' or 'All races bring value with their diversity! Which is why we're going to treat them like a boring checklist to pander to!'

All they're doing is stifling the creativity and freedom of the designers and then saying it's in the name of freedom and creativity.

>>55230356
>>55230391
>>55230401
MaRo doesn't want demon girls that's not the only post where he's said it won't happen.

>>55230499
Well as long as we get more thigh high big titty angels I'm fine with it

>>55230499
Can we at least get a qt Eldrazi-influence planeswalker?

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>>55230576

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>>55230333
I'm not even asking for succubi. I love succubi and everything they represent, but I don't want them in mtg. Fuck anyone who directly asks for succubi. If it happens, fantastic. If not, then drop the subject. Not everyone is fine with semen demons, and that's OK. But ruling out female demons all together seems silly to me.

>>55228193
>I have no counter argument to a valid point so I'll just insult this guys grammar
Go circle jerk somewhere else fag

>>55226759
So we have mannatees.

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>>55230879
haha.

>>55226759
>siren creature type
Wtf The Grand Creature Type Update called and want their useless tribes back.

>>55230802
I didn't say I disagreed with him.

>>55231059
They basically threw that out the window with Theros

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Reposting for a more relevant thread.
I strongly feel that MTG needs characters like Taarna.
Because you know what? People strive for this shit. Cards like Liliana, Avacyn, and Tesya are extremely popular, both because they're good cards, but because they also have high sex appeal. Tons more people showed up to the EMN gameday because the promise of the Liliana Champion mat is so much more alluring than the anguished unmaking in the last gameday. Strong women can be sexy, so how come they seem to be pushing for the opposite? Why is Admiral Beckett Brass a fat old woman standing in a stoic pose and why are all the swashbucking pirates around her fat? Why did Samut look like a quarter chimpanzee? Why does Tishana look like Tishana?

Sorry for posting this twice in one day, and I really hope this doesn't come off as "I NEED MORE SEXY CARDS", but I've been thinking a lot about this lately.

>>55231103
What's the point then?

>>55231127
But she is an unrealistic object of manlust.

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>>55231127
I honestly think it's a problem with the art direction in general. It feels like they're trying to play it 'safe' in many regards, which, when combined with their new reliance on more digital art, means that you get more characters in plain styles with lame poses, most likely because someone higher up demanded it.

To use Samut as an example, her creature card looks very off. The chestpiece on her armor bulges out, and her facial expression looks ridiculous. It's very much something that seems like the artist didn't care or had drawn something and then was told to revise it several times to make her armor less sexual or make her look angrier or something.

Then you look at her planeswalker card, where she's just sort of standing there with two swords looking stern. Not only that, but her armor is not only less bulky, but the straps have swapped direction. Again, this just feels like they had put it off and simply needed to get it done.

Pic related, however, is a much better depiction of her. She's properly in focus, the pose gets across the fact that she's supposed to be a very fast character. Her expression is angry and serious, but not to the degree that it is silly or boring. Not only that, but her face also doesn't look like somebody erased it 50 times due to someone demanding they redraw it, probably because this art was simply on some random common.

We aren't going to have important cards with good art anymore I feel, because those are the ones that will be most subject to scrutiny and be art designed by committee. And even that doesn't work, because they'll mess up simple shit like the straps on someone's armor.

>>55231265
Wait, that's samut? It doesn't look like her at all!

>>55231127
It's those SJW's man. They see the people that want sexy cards for the sake of it and the people like you and can't distinguish the two.

>>55231291
Yep. It's from Blur of Blades. Flavortext says it's her, and they even used it for one of her article stories.

The big difference is here, she actually has good art, looks nice, and has a normal facial expression.

>>55228785

This. I expect each world to just be worse than the last, and so far I don't seem wrong. Cthulhu monsters, cthullu monsters in gothic land, indian steampunk, plain old egyptian mythology, and now we're at hearthstone-levels of pirates versus dinosaurs RAWR!

I'm actually curious as to how they will shoehorn the return to Dominaria into their new, narrow imaginations. I think MaRo already said that they will try to give Dominaria a "theme" like all the other recent sets, but I'm wondering exactly how they plan on doing that (and how badly it will mar what is currently a really cool world).

>>55231265
Samut actually looks really cool here. Her armor's pretty dope

>>55231377
Yeah, I actually really like it composition wise. You can actually pick out a lot of details of her outfit that you can't from other angles due to the range of motion she's showing off.

I guarantee you'd have half as much bitching about her if this was her actual card art instead.

>>55231265

This. There was a bit about their art direction from MaRo I think that said "Women can look attractive, so long as they look like they're kicking ass." Which is great in theory, but you know that in practice what the art directors are telling the writers is to uglify any female that looks too attractive or revealing. Additionally, as the Ixalan art has shown (and not been shy about), the art direction is strongly pushing unattractiveness and unconventionality. There are already several fat/ugly looking characters, pieces that would have been laughed at in Magic's past.

People want cool, attractive looking art. They don't want to see the people they see on the train or on the highway transposed into their fantasy world - they want beautiful witches, strong and elegant knights, blood-curdling horrors, majestic steeds, princes and princesses. Cliches aren't good, but the reason most people play Magic is because it is (or has the potential to be) a fantasy game with deep, thrilling lore. When the heads at WotC force their political opinions into the lore and art direction, of course you're going to end up with Samut, and the fat granny card that got spoiled, and ugly women characters, and stereotypical token people, white, black, brown, red, and yellow alike. They're not writing a story, their writing their own political insecurities.

When did everything go so wrong with the story?

>>55228785
lorwyn was great and kamigawa had a really interesting concept but those things throw people off who are not super into these kinds of things or already in the game. if they want to keep selling pack they need to appeal to the most common denominator and they do that by using the most overused cliches, stuff that players who arent familiar with the game will make them say "hey, I used to really be into greek mythology when I was a kid, what is this game about?" if mtg was more original or complex then it wouldve died a long time ago.

>>55231424
Around when they made Jace, someone who hops around worlds on a whim and isn't there half the time, the living guildpact.

>>55231422
Is there really anything that wrong with old people characters though? No one bitches about Gandalf

Arlinn Kord was pretty cool.

And note, I'm not saying they have to be there. That there's some quota. But some older lady witch or wizard or even pirate captain seems fine.

>>55231422
It isn't even a matter of being attractive or not, at least not fully. I wouldn't say Samut here >>55231265 is overly attractive. Overall, she's rather plain looking, and her hair is wild. However, she certainly does look very cool doing what she's doing there, and that makes her far more appealing.

Until they learn that again though, I'm sure we're going to get stuck with the art that's been carefully crafted by a dozen people to be as inoffensive as possible while failing at even that.

>>55231424
when they decided that the jaceteace league could destroy cosmic entities that they didnt even fully comprehended. damn im still salty about that

>>55231489
I don't mind old characters. I mind old characters in context. Why is an old woman a swashbuckling pirate? I'd have just as much of an issue with this if it was an old man.

>>55231424
At the earliest? I would say around Rise of the Eldrazi or Scars of Mirrodin. Rise was them shoehorning in Eldritch abominations and kickstarting a massive universal threat because they thought it might be a bit neat, and Scars was made entirely because they wanted to bring back Phyrexia using Mirrodin but had to be told to actually tell the story of the war happening first.

Reading articles about that period really make it seem like they were just throwing shit at a wall. And of course, it took another nosedive more recently with the Gatewatch stupidity and trying to cram the same 4 characters in every single block no matter how little sense it made.

>>55231518
In regards to the card you're talking about, she is an Admiral. It makes some sense that the leader of all the pirates would be someone more older and tactically wise.

What annoys me about the card is like you said, the women in the background also looking about as old while swinging on ropes, and the fact that the artist apparently just drew her own mother in pirate clothes. Like, I'm sure her mom is nice and all, but her mom isn't a badass pirate queen.

>>55231489
I feel like people are complaining now because it's happening really frequently and it's pretty obvious the "inclusive" characters are in here for the wrong reasons

>>55227282

To be fair: Sisay spent most of her series being kidnapped. Gerard was the real hero, and the Chosen One. I'll add that Sisay was part of a breeding programs, the way you'd breed negro farmhands.

>>55228823
>He hates the plane he's trapped on and would love nothing more than to burn the entire damn thing to the ground.
Reminds me of Ob Nixilis before he got his spark back.

>>55231489
The problem is that the designers have decided there's a quota, but they clearly don't care about it enough aside from there being a quota.

I'm sure they'll all show up to an art meeting and agree that X characters have to be women and Y characters have to be elderly, but then once they write down those traits on the background of the card they just stop trying, because they feel like they've already done their job. Then the artist who has to draw it has to do a very basic pose from a forward angle with plain clothing, so that nobody gets confused as to where this person fits on the checklist, or accuses it of being offensive because they wore something fashionable.

>>55231582
like that 'good' assassin

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>>55231492
To me, you've nailed it. I want cards that I actually want to look at. Some cards are just complete and total eyesores. They don't look good on the card, on deck boxes, on playmats, sleeves, or anything. To me there is nothing more annoying than having to use a card that has shit art but a good effect. Because every time I look at, I'm reminded of how much I dislike it. Lucky me, almost every important card Wizards pushes is unplayable, but I shudder to think of the day when we get a LOTV level walker that looks like Samut.

I'm >>55231127 and I probably should have said something like this in my post.

>>55231422
I believe that there is nothing wrong with trying to flex creativity by creating characters that are elderly, scarred, disabled, mutated, masked, unfit, or whatever. As long as they also insert redeeming qualities within those characters, ideally redeeming qualities that are related to whatever is unconventional.
Thing is that appearance means a lot in a character's first impression. Artists should try to make the character look good in some sort of way, ideally by also implementing a background in the art that creates context or works well with the character in the art.
I for one welcome more old and middle-aged women characters of various kinds. The only thing I don't like about Admiral Beckett is that her outfit is made of ropes and she doesn't look as thrilled as she should be (like the pirates that are boarding with her). If you want another reason it's because it's harder for the SJWs to project their stupid tumblr OCs or brag about an actual robust female character.

>>55231582
I believe that if diversity was done without any bragging or phony "virtue" flaunting we would be complaining a lot less. The antagonism and self-righteous noise has stole many people's passions. Nowadays you can't even eat ice cream without implying your political alignment.

>>55231685
I think that's really the core of it. It's strange to, since it often feels like the rares and mythics are some of the worst offenders, while lower rarities seem to still have a pretty good style to them.

I guess at the end of the day I really just want to know that Wizards is trying instead of phoning it in.

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>>55230333
MaRo and the other male feminists are the worst.

They deserve to get married to obese SJW screechers who proceed to cuck the shit out of them and then divorce them and take all their money.

Having sexy temptresses isn't sexist for the same reason that having stereotypical, hot tempered tyrannical men isn't sexist.

>>55230787
we'll have to hit another 'bizaro plane' ala Amonkhet to get what you're asking for

>>55231127
Because there's not enough attractive women in administrative roles within the company.
That's it.
If every female choice maker was hot, we'd be seeing a lot of cute girls. But they're not, everyone in PR is a hag or a hamplanet and Dawn Murin who is one of the three art directors is the kind of person you'd expect to find at a vegan hippie commune. Gabby and Cynthia can't drown out the sex-negatives on their own.

Almost all women are egalitarians, but only unattractive women are militant feminists.

>>55230995
Holy shit is that a young Antoni Fantoni Baloni

>>55231833
Well, with any luck, maybe they'll figure out their crappy designs have been testing poorly and they'll shuffle around who's in charge until we get someone good.

>>55231756
Calm down dude. Play something else if MtG triggers you this much.

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>Ajani is in second set
>Minotaur walker is from Theros
>they meet up when they figure out how to leave
>plot leads to MUH ELSPETH

>>55231864
>He's an 8 foot tall albino lion man who goes by the book
>He's a 9 foot tall fire-breathing minotaur who doesn't play by the rules
>Together they fight crime

>>55231896
only if

>>55231756
MaRo's wife and his children celebrate Christmass unironically.

>>55231941
what a jew

>>55231988
>Jews
>Christian holidays
Oy vey!

>>55231665
What good assassin? I don't know who you're referring to because 1. I'm tired and (a bigger factor) 2. THEY HAVE NO CHARACTER TRAITS.

I honestly wouldn't mind if the next planeswalker revealed is a physically disabled transvestite non-binary black woman that uses "qua" pronouns. what I do care for is that the character is LIKEABLE in some way. I want a character that actually has weaknesses and has major character flaws that are JUSTIFIED. I want a character that I can't relate to, but not because I know nothing about them or that they're a jerk, but because they have non-direct characterization and are fleshed out. I want a character that CHANGES and progress and doesn't have the same thoughts every encounter.

Now notice what I want; they aren't tied to any sex, race, class or body type. That's the beauty of a good character! You can make them whatever you want to make them, as long as there's good reasoning behind it! But that's where WOTC's writing/story department fail! They believe that all they need is for the SJW's to like them! They're forgetting what makes a good character tick!

I was always told in high school that I'm a good writer, over multiple occasions and from multiple people. Now that I'm not going to be a NEET in a couple of months, I kinda want to improve my writing even more so I can bust down WOTC's door with a college degree in hand and say "hey people are lukewarm with your story for magic let me change that" and write for a game that I love.

Maybe that won't happen and they'll say something like "sorry sweetie we already have white cis-gender Christian male working" and kick me out and I won't even be able to see Maro.

I need bed rest

>>55231838
It's famous chicken boy Steven supic. He has a YouTube channel called sugar pine 7.

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>>55232099
I -think- he's talking about Kaya

>>55232144
BINGO

>>55231854
My issue is that there is only one MtG on the market. No other companies can produce this game so if I want to play it I have to play it and make due with the way WotC is flavoring it. Right now the art and themes are dull, uninspired garbage that prioritizes the opinions of a handful of deranged authoritarian puritans over everyone else.

>>55227282
who was the mixed-raced elf/human girl?
I dont recall which one is.

>>55231854
remember when there were truckloads of tcg?

>>55232187
>prioritizes the opinions of a handful of deranged authoritarian puritans over everyone else.
Which to me is funny because the past two blocks have been 100 percent focused on tearing down the oppression set up by the bad guys.

>>55232225
Tyrants never recognize themselves. We'd still be hearing Maduro whine all day that the eternal gringo is controlling the oposition if he hadn't banned television.

>>55232144
>"good" assassin

Brago turned into an emotionless tyrant after his death. Her words were completely justified in the moment.

Now, in the context of the snake-in-woman-form that got on the throne afterwards? Not so much.

>>55232292
That's cool and all but Kaya killed him because
a) She was paid to
b) She's racist againt ghosts
Monologues don't make that right.

>>55232389
Hence the quotes. She's still a hired killer and thief.

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>>55226759
Interesting.
Could there be other rule 63/aligment reversed versions of mythological creatures.

Male Sphinxes that like to solve riddles.

Male Banshees that are old man dressed in white that speaks in whispers and are heralds of a new family member being soon to be born

Male Lamia that protects children

Male Gorgons that ... could use their eyes to turn statues into living creatures ??

Male Yuki-onna (Yuki-onji?) who rescue people lost on the snow, but look grumpy instead of serene

Male Alkonost that sing haunting songs to scare people who are unknowingly walking towards danger

Jees, most female monsters are evil, we need some evil male counterparts

Male Valkyrie that drag those who die coward deaths to Hel or something

What of females?

Female Minotaur that helps people go through labyrinths?

>>55231587
That's not really fair though, everyone was part of Urza's breeding/weapon development program. Fucker was crazy unethical with his plans

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>>55226759
>How you feel about the concept of male sirens that assist the sailors of the seas
Pretty sure those are called fog signals, OP.

>>55232528
So, would incubi be zealous guardians of chastity in this idea?

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>>55226759
still trying to figure out how i feel about dino tribal when it seems you need non dinos to make them usable... but pirates and merfolk get self contained tribal in spades >_>

>>55232794
It's a bit weird. I get what they were going for, since they seem to want all of the dinosaurs to be big and impressive as a whole.

I feel like it's going to run into a similar problem to Lorwyn's Giant tribal though, where you're stuck using a bunch of Kithkin and Goblins to curve out until you can actually start dropping giants. Hopefully it'll be a bit better since the Dinos come in Green and can therefore ramp, but even that's still a mismatch like you said because Pirates could theoretically be run as UBR, UB, UR, BR, U, B, or R, while Dinos are basically gonna be forced into WRG, RG, or WG in order to actually get around to playing the game.

I don't mind that some of the support is outside the tribe, but it feels like Dinos are oddly going to be the trickiest to build despite having the most blatant support and being the most Timmy of all of them.

>>55232854
There was that 2/2 white dinosaur in the dino-focused planeswalker deck, and also the 3-mana pterosaur, so I think there's still hope for a somewhat lower-to-the-ground RW dino strategy.

>>55231422

The artist who drew the old lady admiral tweeted out that it was their tribute to their mom.

>>55233204
Yeah, I'm really hoping WR aggro dinos ends up being an option, even if it does end up having to include a lot of the warriors to make it work properly. I'm not sure that vigilance bear dino is an actual card in the set though. Planeswalker decks are weird. The Sunwing seems really nice though. Solid body for a flyer of its cost, and the effect really shuts down some options.

>>55233270
Vigilance bear dino is almost definitely not in the set, but it does imply that weenies are in their idea of dinosaur design space, hopefully. That's all I meant.

>>55233270
As far as I can tell, it is a pw deck exclusive, and feel it will be a staple more than they realize for how good a 2/2 vigilance for 2 is.

>>55233390
Yeah, it seems rather strong. PW deck cards are standard legal right? So some kid doesn't buy one and show up to FNM with illegal cards?

>>55233352
Ah, yeah that makes sense. I remember seeing a post clarifying that they did include some smaller dinosaurs beyond just the pteradon, so here's hoping. It'd be interesting to see what they'd do with Enrage on really small creatures.

>>55232099
Don't waste your fucking time trying to improve things at Wizards. The countless articles and discussions had in the past show that internally your fellow workers have zero motivation or incentive to change. The people that used to work there have all said you get paid less and they don't know how to manage for shit.

Anybody who crusades in with a golden solution will hit a fucking brick wall - look up the story of Jon Loucks who tried to fix MTGO - he left Amazon to try and do it. For the most part he's a fucking retard but the issues he encountered at Wizards were very real. Everyone there is just interested in following orders or simply stealing any good idea you have. There's a reason why everyone working there is some fucking nerd who couldn't find a job elsewhere or a person who couldn't be hired elsewhere and it pays "good enough".

Dinosaurs were popular maybe 30 years ago. Pirates were last funny a goddamn decade ago. MMORPGs were popular a decade ago but they're making one. A functional card game is popular NOW but Wizards won't have a competitive product together until at the earliest 2020 - 6 fucking years after Hearthstone came out.

Fucking DINOSAURS. It's simply an unwritten rule in fiction that you do not include fucking dinosaurs for any goddamn reason - they've suffered decades of ridicule and position in Western culture as a fascination of children. Even if dinosaurs are cool they are culturally a joke; it is a word used to insult. And the fact that Wizards has somehow forgotten that its audience is entrenched in fantasy universes just tells us nobody in the fucking building making decisions is under the age of 40; because only a retarded adult with no connection to reality would think that just because their 20-30 year old kids liked dinosaurs when they were young, maybe it would still work on this generation.

>>55233429
Yeah, PW Deck and I think the decks they give out free to new players are all standard legal. Garruk's Horde, Nightmare, Sengir Vampire, Serra Angel and Shivan Dragon are legal in standard and I'm fairly certain they always will be.

>>55231503
Calm down Ugin, I'm sure it'll have some consequences later on.
Like 3 brand new Eldrazi for Dominaria! wouldn't that be neat?

>>55227925
Yeah, like some sort of irresistible song or something.

>>55231896
10/10 would watch instead of gatewatch

>>55229634
The flavor text on this card would have been much better if the creative team just learned about subtlety. Don't tell us that he's a planeswalker and instead drop small hints about his nature, such as him calling dinosaurs dragons and let the players figure it out themselves.

>>55234842
Subtlety misses the lowest common denominator.

>>55228060
I don't accept any badly wriotten character. Especially if everyone's answer to her flaws is some token bait. I fucking hate tartuffe buillshit like this.

>>55228564
Good taste, anon. Sequel and rewrite soon!

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>>55226759
>male sirens

Are you fucking for real

What the fuck is WRONG with you WotC

MALE fucking SIRENS

What's next? Succubus (male)?

That's it, that's fucking it, I'm not buying one single box of this bullshit garbage ruined set.

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>>55234897

>>55234912
What is Chandra's face trying to convey?

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>>55234897
>What's next? Succubus (male)?
Those are called Incubi and are actually the same thing as a Succubus. The lore is the fiends can't reproduce normally so they take the form of a woman to receive human seed then take the form of a man to impregnate a chick they seduce.

>>55234923
amusement

>>55230391
Isn't this just Elesh Norn? Who very much exists and is a hugely popular character?

>>55234961
Exactly.

>>55233577
Dinosaurs are in right now. Hearthstone has them, Ark is one of the most popular games on steam. They're quickly becoming the Zombies of our time.

>>55234980
In Yugioh and Vanguard, Dinosaurs are big decks right now also.

>>55234923
>is dis nigga siwious

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>>55234897
I'm ready for the age of female demons in mtg. It's only fair now.

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>>55235043

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>>55235054

>>55234930

I didn't say incubus. I said succubus (male).

They took a race that has always been entirely female (siren) and made it entirely male instead. And you know what the fucking reason is. The reason is so that there would be exactly zero sexy chicks in art. A million fucking female characters but none of them erotic, not even the ones that should be.

>>55228227
>really takes the ol' shoulder-topper running
Kek

>>55228860
>Old-Jace was an expert manablade fencer.
I don't remember this, but l do remember a number of fights/duels, and some times he mind-attacked people.

>>55229969
God forbid we get a fucking anti-villain/hero that isn't cartoonishly and obviously evil like Liliana. A character with opinions, room to grow and change, and interact with the people around her in ways that don't involve shipping or cliche Chosen One backstories.

>>55231422

They're taking their audience for granted. They consciously, deliberately pander to women and assorted minorities because they think they can get more customers that way, which makes sense to a degree, but they completely forget that they have the audience they have now because that audience has been pandered to for decades. They take the white male nerd for granted, think "we don't need to work for those, we've got them in the bag already", and spare no further thought for them. They don't realize that once the white male nerd realizes there's nothing entertaining in the game left for him anymore, he will leave for the million other things competing for his attention and wallet.

Seriously. They're making a set with pirate chicks, sirens, vampires, dinosaurs, and somehow there are zero hot female characters anywhere in it. That is not an accident. That was done on purpose, because they think they can attract the tumbl feminist without driving away their current buyers.

>>55234923
You've never had a friend whisper in your ear while you take the fattest, most solid dump of your life?

>>55235335
The only metric that matters to big companies is growth, doesn't matter if your current fanbase is mad as long as the fanbase is growing. It doesn't need to be sustainable because you just sell the company when you're done with it.

>>55235335
>They're making a set with pirate chicks, sirens, vampires, dinosaurs, and somehow there are zero hot female characters anywhere in it. That is not an accident.
I'm usually on top of the outrage, but I never realized this.

I stopped caring about their designs long ago because it has long gone to shit. I would've said the only rewedding feature before was that some of the art was hot.

And now we have nothing. That's actually pretty tragic when you think about it. I really do wonder what sort of retards were answering their surveys or got hired at Wizards and in such quantity that they actually changed things such that people like Steve Argyle would no longer get any work.

I just skimmed over the spoilers again. There is nothing that is memorable about this set and the art direction. It would have been fantastic back in the day when Magic was at the forefront of fantasy art, but now, it's forgettable dogshit.

>>55235855

Just imagining what this set would have looked like if it was printed in the early 90's makes me angry. Or even just mid-00s, after the Gerrard bullshit has died off.

It's insane how they're letting one or two feminists ruin their product like this.

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>>55235955
It would've looked like this. Whatever they got Wayne Reynolds drawing now (if they didn't fire him too), it certainly isn't as good as this with his overused retarded pose and endless amounts of spikes. I fucking love his art even if most people have issues with the spikes.

I mean, who the fuck is going to write them demanding the good kickass art come back.

They could've just said, "Hey Wayne, make us incredible pirates" and he would have been all over it. I actually don't know what to say about Ixalan's art other than the fact that it's forgettable. Like, I'm going to carry this image around with me and when someone says they like the art I'm doing to just pull this out and say, "It could've looked like this - note how not a single card comes even close to this. They have this guy in their address book and looking at the spoiler they didn't commission him for a single fucking card."

Yunno what, some people would call us sexity Hitlers for wanting dashing men and striking women.

>>55236047
>Yunno what, some people would call us sexity Hitlers for wanting dashing men and striking women.

They still have the dashing men, some of the pirates look like straight out of a gay porno. But female characters are consciously getting turned into middle-aged soccer moms. It's the double standard that pisses me off the most.

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>>55226759
I'm pretty OK with a Flying Man. Hopefully I open 5 at prerelease.

>>55226954
I don't really mind having strong female characters, but I was kind of miffed that they weren't changing up much for men's roles so this is actually really refreshing.

>>55232528
>Male Gorgons
presumably they'd create creatures from stone
which has mechanical niches in magic - either creating tokens or turning artifacts into creatures. you could even push it further and make some gorgons that animate land.

>>55235080
I'm not a big fan of the single-sex fantasy race trope, so at first I thought "Oh, cool. Male sirens." Then it dawned on me that this was just another one of those, minus the tits. Awesome, just what I wanted.

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>>55236062
I don't really agree that the men look dashing; they look more like generic thugs doing generic thug things. Like, look at this; the art is minimal but it says a lot more than the busy bullshit in this set. Compare this to Jace's art, which looks like shit compared to Gerrard. We need more Kor Aeronaut cards and less whatever this shit is with people standing around.

But I don't mean to say my tastes are correct. You're right about the double standard; it's ridiculous.

Additionally I feel like they just shit the bed on the whole dinosaur and pirate thing. It was like they didn't fucking bother coming up with a consistent style guide for neither the pirates or dinosaurs and just let the artists do whatever incoherent crap they could imagine - without tits of course. It's like the worst things about Japanese character design - impractical bits and belts everywhere, except in this case it has zero appeal or lasting impression. And that's where it fails as art, you don't give a fuck about any of it.

I'll give them credit on one thing, the design on Bishop of Rebirth is amazing. Stealing the vertical stripe thing from Spanish colonialism is the best.

But as for the rest, I don't know what they're thinking. It's almost impressive how creatively bankrupt they've become. I mean they even have a dinosaur meteor extinction card. What are the odds there will be a Moby Dick reference.

>>55236047
That picture is fucking terrible though. The sharkman is alright but the chick looks like a bunch of random shapes haphazardly copy-pasted on top of each other.
His Tariel is complete shit, too. If they're not getting Reynolds anymore then that's one of the best art decisions they've made.

>>55228447
>most of the pirates in Ixalan are chicks
If I got it right, we're at 15 girls and 18 guys.

>>55227751
The difference is that you were 12 when Sissy was around, and you're not 12 any more. Nostalgia, baby!

>>55231896
People on here have been fantasizing about buddy-cop planeswalkers at least since Theros.

>>55235358
...but who the hell buys a company that is failing?
I never understood this.

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>>55236224
Not the other guy but I agree with most of your points. But they still had Reynolds doing a card for Ixalan (maybe others ?) and the character's costume rocks. She just has an absolutely abhorrent nigger face that ruins the whole card. Did they really fire Reynolds though ?

>>55237045
They fired Guay back in the day, so even if they did it wouldn't really mean anything.

>>55234923
Disgust at feeling Liliana's gross old lady tits pressed against her.

>>55226954
Fuck off its just a game, be glad in some variation, instead of just more merfolk.

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>>55230333
There has technically been a female demon in the game for a very long time. Same goes for the male angel, of course.

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>>55235335
>They're making a set with pirate chicks, sirens, vampires, dinosaurs, and somehow there are zero hot female characters anywhere in it.

How dare you insult my waifu.

>>55231127
Of the Veil is popular and one of if not the ugliest Lilianas out there. Big Teysa is also pretty unpopular.
People care more about a good card than sexy women.

>>55237838
>Of the Veil is popular and one of if not the ugliest Lilianas out there.
Do you just go on the internet to tell lies?

>>55235193
Marchesa?

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>>55237180
The less distinctive art styles we have access to, the worse the game and its universe will become because what attracts people to MtG is, quite often, the art style. If you want to see generic and bland digital chink shit riddled with Photoshop effects, you don't pick MtG and yet, this is increasingly what you get art-wise. It's quite sad actually.

>>55237961
I think he means that the fact that they fired Guay and then brought her back in later on means that firing Reynolds lacks a bit of genuine finality. If they can bring back an artist, then obviously they can bring back any artist who is willing to come back.

>>55235358
The first step is to keep the customers you have. Attracting new customers is the second. Wizards will see shrink if they keep up their track record of making shitty sets while pandering exclusively to tumblrinas.

>>55228447
I want it to be canon that, across the planes, only women can become pirate captains and that's why Ramirez di Pietro has to crossdress.

>>55238001
And said tumblrinas don't ever play or will ever attempt to play... Ie pandering to a non existant crowd to avoid the "that's sexist"

>>55237887
Defiant necromancer looks so much better than it.

Bullshit. See Tamiyo.

>>55238097
>moonfolk are sirens

>>55237980
Ok, my bad. Let's just hope that they bring back some good ones, or give more work to the good ones. By good ones, I mean artists who focus more on traditional mediums instead of relying heavily on digital software while having a good technical understanding of it, but without grasping the things that make a good composition. But it seems to me that they're making more money than ever so it's not like they'll be distancing themselves from the generic digital art direction that they've taken

>>55230158
Except they'll be fake demons, secretly created by a good planeswalker as part of her anti-genocidal master plan.

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>>55238203
They haven't entirely stomped out unique artstyles, so there's some hope yet.

>>55238270
What better way to keep evil occupied than to distract it by having it spend all its time fucking hot demon girls?

>>55231489
But if you have old female characters, some green-haired girl on tumblr will be happy and that causes nerdrage.

>>55234842
They don't trust us to be that clever.
They are probably right desu

>>55238367
The problem is that some flavor text is supposed to be about world building more than being clever now. So you get mandated infodumps like Avacyn's infodump, the symbol of her exposition.

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>>55235335
I honestly think most players don't give much of a shit about the culture war as long as it doesn't go full-Ghostbusters'16 on them. If you want to drive players away from the most profitable format, Standard, do a really bad job in R&D. So far we have had numerous recent bannings, shitty alpha playtesting, and downgrading in giveaway items such as promos. It doesn't matter how much WotC attempts to welcome women and minorities into the hobby if 1) it's expensive and requires significant investment 2) the cheapest format to get into is muddled with problems that reduce fun. Standard attendance is shrinking as a result of WotC de-incentivizing players from doing Standard.
The other thing is that trying to appeal to a more "progressive" audience has not had much success, although the failures usually have outright pandering and antagonization, so I think it's more about the latter than the former itself.


>>55237838
This, although I'm not sure if LotV is considered ugly.

>>55238366
>tumblr
>caring about old female characters
Maybe I'm wrong, but I would think that tumblr would not care for old female characters because they can't project themselves into them as easily, or it's harder to complain about because old people aren't supposed to be pretty so they can't in-fight about "muh unrealistic beauty standards" and "muh Miss Man" crap.

>>55232528
>>55236156
There was a thread about this.

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>>55226759
How dumb, right, no one ever did male sirens before.

>>55227751
You missed out that Sisay is actually attractive and shows character flaws, making her more appealing to the audience

>>55227282

Did you forget that Weatherlight Saga was the most hated thing that happened in Magic storyline and made thousands of people quit the game?

>>55238879
The cards in Urza's block made people quit the game, not the story.

>>55238562
I really like the concept for not!dwarves, they're going in my next campaign

>>55239028
The urza block has nothing to do with the weatherlight

>>55239358
They did the Urza block as a flashback to establish Urza's history and introduce him into the Weatherlight saga. Urza block was even mechanically an Enchantment set before they were forced to put a thin veneer of Urza on it at the last second.

The "thousands of people" who quit the game during the Weatherlight saga as a whole quit for the most part during that block.

>>55232528
>Male Sphinxes that like to solve riddles.
There's already plenty of male sphinxes, if not the majority of them, in MtG, you new to this game?

>>55239477
I wasn't active during this time so I haven't played with a lot of those cards, but what was so bad about the block that thousands quit?

>>55239813
Tolarian Academy.

>>55232528
>Female Satyrs that are reasonable and practical

>>55239813
The running joke was that the early game was shuffling, midgame was mulligans, and lategame was turn one. There were decks in a Standard season capable of winning on the first turn.

It was obscenely overpowered and sometimes the matches were all but decided at the coinflip.

>>55239813
The combo winter of urza block was like eldrazi spring but much much much much worse

>>55239851
>>55239856
>>55239891
Ah I see, thank you.

>>55226759
>Explicitly try to make the European styled, white skinned, invader tribe the villainous one
>Accidentally make them the only one with a good aesthetic and attractive humanoids

Wizards is actually retarded

>>55228060

that's a different kind of poor writing though. A badly written white, male, straight character tends to just be poorly written. Recently, poorly written non-white/non-straight/female characters have a disturbing tendency to be little more than whatever set of traits marks them as "different". Look at, say,
Nightvale, and the main character's boyfriend who is defined by only two traits: muh science, and muh boyfriend. When a character is written in such a way that they only thing you can focus on is the #diversity checklist they're meant to fill in, that's what he's talking about.

>>55239856
Could I see some of these decklists? I love solitairing degenerate combo decks.

>>55228276

shotty is a word, "hard and round". Think of anything that can be easily compared to a shotgun pellet.

>>55228570

he meant as an actual character

>>55239937
They're explicitly avoiding trying to make the conquistadors the villains, if you have read ANY of the design articles. Everybody is equally good and bad.

>>55239937
The vampires aren't evil, though. They have prohibitions on killing innocents. The Immortal Sun was stolen from them, which is the thing that allows them to live without feasting on the wicked or rebellious.

>>55239937
>the villainous one

The pirates are actually the villains and the vampires are kind of a mixed bag. The Legion of Dusk are only involved because the Immortal Sun was stolen from them and they want it back so they don't have to drink blood to survive.

The pirate team just wants the Immortal Sun because it's real fucking shiny. The dinosaur team wants it to consolidate their control over the continent.

The Merfolk are the traditionally "good" team, just wanting to keep the other teams from using the Immortal Sun.

>>55240010
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-online/throwback-standard-gauntlet-2-combo-winter-urza-block-2017-05-04

>>55226759
>male sirens that assist the sailors of the seas instead of preying on them
cool gaybro sirens

>>55238273
I'm hoping unstable will have more unique art styles. I'm kinda worried considering that the art we have seen so far is very uniform, but I would imagine un sets would be the place to make some really creative art.

>>55238273
>something something market research something something abstract designs don't resonate with new players

I fucking miss Lorwyn and Kamigawa's surreal shit. Hell, the last time we got anything even remotely close was New Phyrexia and the Gatecrash Primordials

>>55232426
>hired killer
>thief
>black woman
holy shit, that's so racist. How did that got approved?

>>55240345
It was made by a black woman specifically hired to make them better at printing black women without offending them

>>55240376
so the black woman failed spectaculary and made the black women they printed even more racist. Nice going there, Maro

>>55226759
seems fine to me, bit weird. counter to the entire myth
they really are just birds and should have been birds really and i'm annoyed but they wanted to have the mythlogical sea thing in there.
mind you i play birb decks
>>55226954
>>55227282
can you two stop shitting up threads.

>>55231265

Imma be real, I like this better cause she don't look so niggish.

Blog about it all you like, yall like this better cause she don't look black.

>>55232031
>>Christian holidays
>pagan holidays
well that just ain't right
It's a capitalist holiday anyway.

>>55240561
Honestly, I could care less as long as they don't beat a character in the face with an ugly stick in the name of being progressive.

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>>55234930
>receive human seed then take the form of a man to impregnate a chick they seduce
do they do something to the seed to actually reproduce or are they the cuckhold fairy?

>>55230333
I sincerely hope Maro dies in a car crash live on his "way to work" podcast. Not even being edgy that cunt is a waste of oxygen and deserves to suffer.

>>55230482
>'We have to prove women are strong and equal! By coddling them like children!'
Also have you noticed there hasn't been art where a woman suffers from violence/pain in a really long while? Violence only happens to males in NUmagic.

>>55240791
Does Maro really deserve all this hate, or is he just the lightning rod because he's the most visible one from R&D.

>>55236839
Buy it, gut it, repackage it, sell it again.
>>55238001
Nah dude, once you're an "enfranchised player" they're done, it's really really easy to keep people around once they feel invested in the product. They're only goal is to grow, which puts a premium on new people.

>>55240828
>Does Maro really deserve all this hate, or is he just the lightning rod because he's the most visible one from R&D.
He is just the lightning rod because of his status as Mouth of WotC
MaRo did nothing wrong!

>>55240791
I'm certain Mark Rosewater has designed some of your favorite cards. Probably even your favorite blocks.

>>55240828
He's a company man and has to speak the company speak sometimes.

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>>55240827
>Also have you noticed there hasn't been art where a woman suffers from violence/pain in a really long while?

I don't think you've actually looked at card art in a really long while.

>>55240861
As I understand it, he is on board with the SocJus bullshit himself to some degree, but I think he tends to just blow with the prevailing wind for the most part. He's a corporate guy at the end of the day.

>>55240827
When was the last time things got very morbid?
Also
>Anguished Unmaking
>Fevered Visions
>Clip Wings

Two of those are relatively notable.
If you want to complain about anything, you can bitch about how WotC are putting females in the stronger cards, but that would be stooping to the level of SJW-tier feminists, and going SJW is not a good way to live and think.

>>55240828
It's mostly because he's so visible, but sometimes because of above.

It's hard to tell how much is him being a mouthpiece for the company and how much is his opinion.

I'll put it this way, he rarely talks about these social issues on his podcasts, his work is primarily focused on designing the cards, which is something people complain less about.

>>55240827
Amonkhet had a whole bunch of female characters suffering. Plenty of suffering was for everyone there.

Heck, we have a card with Nissa being tentacle raped.

>>55240683
It's how they used to explain that a woman's child would look just like the neighbor. Evil demons, nothing she could do about it.

>>55240886
>>Anguished Unmaking
>>Fevered Visions
>>Clip Wings
None of those cards are remotely violent you fucking pussies.
The last one I remember is honestly Stab Wound.

>>55241114
>None of those cards are remotely violent you fucking pussies

>>55240827
>art where a woman suffers from violence/pain

You ever throw your back out from the weight of those goalposts?

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>>55241114
How about a woman dying and coming back as a zombie missing half her face? Does that suit your fetish?

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>>55241114
Shooting people with arrows isn't violent?

>>55240273
Original Innistrad at least had consistent art and worldbuilding.

>>55236047
>even if most people have issues with the spikes.
I don't consider myself a fan of Reynolds in much anyway, but to his credit, something is actually happening in that art. You get the sense of movement and action even if what is seemingly happening doesn't make much sense. That's more than what you can say about the Jarvis currently commissions for the game.

>>55237180
>They fired Guay
They stopped commissioning her. WotC has maybe a handful of artists, at best, who actually work in house. The rest are independent of WotC and simply get payed per art piece. They have no form of contract with Wizards saying that they're supposed to get X amounts of commissions each set or anything like that.

>>55241201
After shredding their limbs with ropes? That anon can't be serious.

>>55235043
>>55235054
>>55235069
Never gonna happen, female demons "promote harmful stereotypes".

>>55241445
How about you just play another card game that has female demons?

>>55241860
IF SEXY DEMONS AREN'T EVERYWHERE THE SJWS WIN!!

I wish we were on planes long enough to care about them.

>>55241993
I feel the other way around. I feel that staying too long on a plane wears the novelty out. The planes aren't designed to be that incredibly deep with worldbuilding, so I feel staying for a short while there gives enough to enjoy it and prime it for a return, but not too much to get bored of it.

>>55241860
I don't mind, was just stating truth: MaRo said WotC doesn't want to print female demons for reasons.

Why are you so vindicated?

>>55242049
>I need new planes constantly because I'm the kind of guy who brings a fidget spinner to FNM

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>>55226759
Male sirens are bros while female sirens are complete Thots that lead men to destruction?
>Also, no Trap Male Siren that could be your Snuggly the Storm Crow.
Feels bad man.

>>55237045
>She just has an absolutely abhorrent nigger face that ruins the whole card
I'm a fan of Reynolds and that nigger face hurts my feelings. This artwork combines everything that Reynolds is good in, but then he got told to make the pirate a nigger and it ruined everything...
>Did they really fire Reynolds though?
>means that firing Reynolds lacks a bit of genuine finality
Reynolds is primarily doing concept art for wizards, that's why there's so little of his cards nowadays.

>>55241993
I wish we saw multiple continents of a plane instead of having a plane be one themepark city like the past 4 blocks

>>55242120
Thanks for strawmanning me. But my point is that the last few blocks we have gotten a lot of >>55242185
I don't think much of those would be that fun to stretch out.
Planes with multiple continents like Domninaria are the exception, they have more going on, those would be planes worth exploring for longer.

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>>55241445
It could very well happen, but they will be extremely prudish and unattractive when it does.

>>55242225
The issue is that planes are currently designed as disposable; that's why they usually only have one city/culture/conflict. If the need to explore absolutely everything in two sets weren't there, worldbuilding could be more naturalistic and interesting (like when Dominaria was intended to sustain the whole game forever).

>>55226759
I don't really see the reasoning for it.

>>55242445
I don't either. Is it because the pirates are half women? Why is wotc pushing cisgender identification so hard? This is an outrage and I am offended by the lack of diverse representation in this game.

>>55242349
The "harmful stereotype" is that women can be evil.
Marchesa, Olivia, Nahirir and Liliana are victims of circumstances caused by evil men, Emrakul is an unfathomable goddess, Drana is now a hero.

Women can't be evil in Magic.

>>55242349
This "all women in Magic are ugly now" meme is mystifying. They're less likely to be nearly nude, which one can feel free to hate, but they're still overwhelmingly attractive. Wanting more tits is one thing, but insisting that everyone is ugly all of a sudden just sounds insane.

>>55242932
>women can't be held accountable for their actions because they're helpless and emotional

I swear every time I see something trying to be progressive it has the opposite effect.

>>55242932
Don't know the lore of Conspiracy, didn't really care, Nahiri you could maybe argue she had a point but just overreacted, but how the fuck are Olivia and Liliana victims of circumstance?

>>55242932
>Olivia
>Marchesa
>Liliana
Catch me up on them again?

>>55242993
It's the very difficult balance between trying to make things equal that are arguably unfairly made unequal, and actually presenting equality without making it look like the "less valued" group is being whitewashed.

>>55242993
It's always been like this. Tumblr is the most sexist, racist and heteronormative website on the internet.

Even stormfront considers "niggers", "roasties" and "fags" to be independent individuals even if they hate/fear them. Tumblr acts like they're monolithic entities of absolute retardations that have no agency and need suburbanite white teenage girls to speak for them.

>>55243082
>Olivia was fooled by the evil Edgar Markov to become a vampire. That she turned from reclusive aristocrat suspected to be a serial killer into social butterfly known to torture and murder humans at her parties for the lulz is all HIS fault!
>Liliana was fooled by the Raven Man to use a soul-damning potion on her own brother, it was all HIS fault!
Progressives think like cults and conspiracy theorists, they'll always find a way to twist it on their favor.

Point is, MaRo has said we won't ever get female demons because they don't want their only always evil creature to be female.

>>55240828
Nobody ever wants to acknowledge the positive influence MaRo has had on the game in tightening the color pie and moving the game away from favoring the top-down design that permeated Magic in the 90s. Some of the best sets and mechanics in Magic were created directly by him, including the players' overall favorite, Flashback. He has to walk the corporate line, and he's fucked up before, but he's nowhere near the biggest culprit of modern Magic's sterilization.

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>>55243167
>No female demons because non-reason.

Then why, MaRo, is there male scum taking slots from the always benevolent creature pool? They have no place there.

>>55243271
>Amonkhet's angels
>Benevolent

That's the point

>>55243167
Forgot about the Raven Man since he's basically a plot device. I guess you could pin that on him, though she didn't have to sell her soul to four fucking demons, but whatever.

You are correct, though, progressives are conspiracy theorists par none.

>>55243220
He was the lead for Odyssey and Ravnica, so yeah, he can't be all bad.

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>>55243283
At least one demoness and all will be fine.

Even a monkeypaw will suffice.

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>>55243220
>Mark "If it's blue, there's nothing it can't do" Rosewater
>tightening the color pie

>>55243318
Yeah, it probably wouldn't be hard for them to do a one off goody-two shoes lady demon, especially factoring in multicolor.

>>55243304
>she didn't have to sell her soul to four fucking demons
Bolas tricked her into it.
You can't pin women for shit, they're never responsible for their misdeeds and mistakes.

>>55243356
The closest we'll ever get is if they print a card for the WB Innistrad legendary angel. And they've been avoiding that too.

>>55228840
Would love for it to be Tahngarth, but uhh... good luck with that. I don't remember if he canon died or if they'd just retcon it that he sparked and left before he died.

Would be a good reason to get us to Dominaria, though.

>>55243793
Tahngarth never died, but I don't recall him ever being anything but mortal. To be honest I hope it's not him, though, they'd find a way to ruin him.

>>55243555
>And they've been avoiding that too.

Where exactly would you have put her?
The only place for a printing I can see would've been C15 I guess, which they used the opportunity to print Daxos and Karlov, or C17 where I guess she would've been Ravos. I think they can do a lot better with her than printing her as Ravos.

>>55243887
Maybe it'll be Son of Tahngarth.
The name is just too similar to bar no meaning, especially in this day and age of Magic lore.

>>55243283
Will we have female Bolas demons that are good?

>>55243937
Wizards doesn't like to mention their old lore because of how embarrassed they are of how much better it is then the current gatewatch crap they put out now.

>>55243983
Right, but we are going back to Dominaria regardless. I don't feel like saying "Me Angrath, son of Tahngarth" is going to pull enough current lore-readers' attention.

>>55230787
Mate, every single female demon is going to look like the stereotypical succubus because horns, wings and tail, hooves optional are part of the demon design kit.

>>55243937
We just had a character whose name was an anagram of Mishra without there being any relevant connection.

>>55244093
Oy, fuck, I forgot about Rashmi.
I suppose the difference here is that she's a legendary creature, and Angrath will be a walker.
Still, point taken.

>>55226759
Great! It reinforces the stereotype that males get the job done while female equivalents just sit there, bitch and whine and disrupt services. Male sirens are wingmen. Female sirens are murderous, deranged, attention-seeking harpies.

You know, just like in real life.

Good job, Wizards!

>>55244013
they have proven time and again that they can take a potentially interesting setting and ruin it with neo-walkers and generic gatewatch saves the day plots. Kaladesh and Amonkhet are neat settings and so was Innistrad but the story was just the usual gatewatch saves the day crap with the exeption of the most recent set where they finally get their asses kicked. People are getting tired of the same group of bland self inserts showing up and fixing everything.

>>55226759
I really don't think they're pushing pirates hard enough for these pay offs

It's gonna cause Ixalan to become another Kaladesh where the cards all work well with each other then are useless once the block rotates

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>>55242971
They are progressively becoming all ugly. Let me generically define what is attractive by our grognard nerd standards - ugly having none of those qualities.

Being attractive means having one or more of the qualities:
- Looking hot
- Wearing something that looks good, perhaps familiar
- Feels exotic
- Doing something awesome
- A near-impossible camera position

Before, the thing that was lacking most was the fourth and fifth qualities. For the most part characters were just standing around and this is still a problem.

Except now we have little of the first three.

Did a random Google search of "Kamigawa" and picked out a picture. Kamigawa is cultural appropriation done right - because they hook with something familiar but they make their own style - they don't steal wholesale where we can say "I've seen this before". The samurai were for most people a new take on the aesthetic.

This art does not feature a hot person; nor is there a weird camera position. However it hits all other three qualities. We all know robes, but it's wispy and smoke-like with a nice design and blends with the clouds and resembles the spell she's casting, which makes her hand positions look great.

And the end of the day you're curious JUST OFF THE ART. The card text doesn't have to matter nor do you have to read any background shit - someone created something fresh.

In Theros nothing separated that world from a stereotypical Greek myth. The Eidolons were just stupid wispy bullshit that you couldn't care about and Bestow creatures were just creatures with stars in them. See, you couldn't accuse Kamigawa of being Japan you CAN accuse Theros never straying from Greek myth stereotypes and you can do the same with Amonkhet and Egypt.

And now, in Ixalan we just have pirates and dinosaurs. It's just fucking pirates and dinosaurs doing sterotypical shit. Nothing is unique; nothing is titillating. Admittedly the Mayan stuff is interesting but who gives a fuck about that.

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>>55245529
This is pretty hot at least.

>>55242971
This >>55245529 really nailed it. It isn't about women being pinup models or anything. It's about cards actually being cool, and artwork that's only designed to be static and easily recognized as a checked off box on a list is boring and bland.

Sure, not every card is gonna have amazing art, but right now a lot of it just feels lazy.

>>55245529
There were too many quality posts in this clear and blatant bait thread. When did we start becoming rational?

>>55245690
But does it make you give a fuck? It doesn't.

She's just some hot thing sitting there on a rock looking at more rocks. There's nothing to show that the blue shit is anything but weird body paint. We know she's half-in-reality and half-in-Nyx but the art does zero work expressing that fact so as a result is is a failure.

Here's something to consider. Approach or question the next person in real life who likes the art in Ixalan. Find out how much artwork and literature they consume of pirates and dinosaurs or just in general. There's a good fucking chance that if they like Ixalan that they only have a surface-level understanding of pirates and dinosaurs; in fact, Ixalan might even be their entry-level dinosaur/pirate fantasy experience, which means from their perspective this shit is mind-blowing.

When your "best" perspective of pirates is Pirates of the Caribbean and dinosaurs is Jurassic Park, of course Ixalan looks fantastic. And it's fucking offensive that Wizards consciously or not panders to people who have such undeveloped standards.

Jace was able to put on some fucking clothes for Innistrad but he couldn't take off his ripped shit for Ixalan - did their fucking focus testing show that nobody could recognized Punished-Jace without his fucking outfit? I know people bitched about his anime-hair but given the choice between the anime-hair and that fucking ridiculous shit hair he has now I'll take the anime hair because at least the anime-hair implies he does some epic fucking magic from time to time that blows wind through it.

>>55246000
That's a good point. Why couldn't they have given Jace a bandanna made of his torn cloth and some weird runic merfolk armor. It'd be entirely possible to make him look recognizable while being more piratey, rather than just missing a random 16% of fabric

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>>55246071
The only mind sculpting he's doing nowadays is making you forget about his wild teen anime hair phase

>>55246071
What I'm about to say might be taking things a bit far, but it panders to that retarded portion of the population that refuses to change what they wear to make everyone feel a bit more comfortable.

In reality, pirates and just about anybody would just talk shit at Jace 100% of the time for wearing his otherworldly outfit. Not only is he clearly fucking lost, but he also doesn't want to conform to the local dress, which just means people are just going to make more fun of him.

I remember a literal cowboy came to visit and we took him out on a boat and he just refused to take off his boots and blue jeans out on the water. I mean he must have been fucking cooking in the heat but he just kept trucking on. The second day his girlfriend smartened him up and he changed but but we make fun of him to this day.

So Jace refusing to change is just fucking "pink hair syndrome". If someone was hired at my firm with pink hair we would tell them to fucking never color it again. It's not that we don't like pink hair it's just that we can't risk alienating our clients who don't. And I can tell you we all know which portion of the population (the same portion Wizards wants to appease) that refuses to change their clothes or present themselves in a way that makes everyone comfortable.

>>55243220

Oh yeah he was really great in ensuring red get nothing but overcosted burn spells and "Reveal the top 2 cards of your deck, you may play one this turn, otherwise you take 5 damage" for 3RRR. Good thing that color pie has been solidified

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>>55246289

>>55246322
I know what you're doing, but all you've done is make me sad that we won't see scarecrow tribal again, because Maro would rather create ~brand new~ tribes with the same abilities as other ones

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>>55246355
There's still a way.

>>55245529
This, really, I mean imagine if Huatli's armor looked like this instead of the mess she's wearing which doesn't even look meso-american >>55244648

Nu-males and beta orbiters immediately screech about porn and shit whenever someone complains about modern Magic women looking so unappealing, when sensuality is barely the peak of the aesthetics iceberg.

>>55246513
That's a rad collared vest.

>>55231489
>Arlinn Kord was pretty cool
Did she actually do anything?

>>55246800
She did fuck all. Saved a pair of lesbians from some Eldrazi and showed up at the big finale to justify having existed in the first place, near as I recall.

>>55246867
I recall the lines were pretty blurry on if the werewolf girls were dykes or just really good friends.

>>55246913
It's nu-Wizards, so I just assumed. If they weren't I'm sure someone at the company would appreciate me mistakenly thinking so.

>>55246942
I'd love to get ahold of their outline documents for what writers need to write.
Having gay characters and everything else is fine and good, assuming they're relatively rare and not in there just to be in there. Which, given how subtle the dykewolves could be read, is fine as far as I'm concerned.

The more dreadful thing to consider is that Arlinn Kord was always a mediocre planeswalker as a card. That's the real crime. Feels like design made something that could be powerful, if a bit niche, but then dev watered it down too much.

>>55246513
Dude Hualti's armor looks dope, that shit you linked looks lame

At least link something good looking if you're gonna complain

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>>55247077
Metal armors for the empire were stupid. Aztecs wore cloth armor and the spaniards started wearing them too because it was better vs spears/bullets than their plate even if it wouldn't stop a rapier or halberd.

A mix of cloth and feathers would have been the best, but that would require actual character design.

>>55234842

If there's anything a pirate hates...