About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.
I am voting for Back from the Brink. It's another one of those, "I get where they were going with this, but it doesn't really work" texts. Maybe on a zombie card this would be okay, but this is just a reanimation spell and it isn't really even bringing the target back to life, it's re-creating it in the same image. Not exactly working with the job metaphor.
I am voting for Back from the Brink. It's another one of those, "I get where they were going with this, but it doesn't really work" texts. Maybe on a zombie card this would be okay, but this is just a reanimation spell and it isn't really even bringing the target back to life, it's re-creating it in the same image. Not exactly working with the job metaphor.
About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.
I disagree with your analysis of the flavor of the card. I see the card as a way to reanimate every creature that is put into the graveyard, once. The whole exiling and making a token instead of true reanimation is done for balancing issues, so you can't reanimate over and over, not for flavor. At least that is what I think when I see the card.
Vote pending.
Question re: Invisible Stalker. Are vamps known for keen sense of smell? I find it odd that he's more afraid of vampires smelling him than werewolves. I would think werewolves have better senses, but I'm not an expert of monsters nor a Twilight fan.
I disagree with your analysis of the flavor of the card. I see the card as a way to reanimate every creature that is put into the graveyard, once. The whole exiling and making a token instead of true reanimation is done for balancing issues, so you can't reanimate over and over, not for flavor. At least that is what I think when I see the card.
Vote pending.
Question re: Invisible Stalker. Are vamps known for keen sense of smell? I find it odd that he's more afraid of vampires smelling him than werewolves. I would think werewolves have better senses, but I'm not an expert of monsters nor a Twilight fan.
First....enough with the Twilight references!
Second, yes, a lot of stories do say vampires have enhanced senses. Especially where blood is involved.
I disagree with your analysis of the flavor of the card. I see the card as a way to reanimate every creature that is put into the graveyard, once. The whole exiling and making a token instead of true reanimation is done for balancing issues, so you can't reanimate over and over, not for flavor. At least that is what I think when I see the card.
The thing is, you may be right, but I'm not sure it's relevant. Even if the flavor is to bring back the creature itself, (a) that doesn't fit the name of the card, since "back from the brink" is akin to resurrecting out of a coma or some other state of limbo between life and death, not from a state of true death...as one other user has said, that's "beyond the brink," and (b) it still makes no sense with the job metaphor. What does bringing back to life have to do with a "career change"? It's not like "in life he was a human cleric, in death he is a zombie warrior." It's more like, "in life he was an elven mage...and...in this new life he's still an elven mage." Surely you can see the flavor fail. Nothing has changed. The creature doesn't gain a new type, any new abilities, nothing.
I'm going to leave this one open at least until tonight, to see if we have a clear winner. If not, I'll break the tie myself.
It's clear what the writers of the text were aiming for, but they missed. They want to say something about how on Innistrad, death is not the end. After you're dead, there's a great chance a corpse-stitcher will reanimate you.
The career change metaphor doesn't fit. If you define a career as a profession, the creatures that die will be reanimated with the same skill sets and stats as before. Their profession would not change. If you define career as both your profession and allegiance to a particular employer, the one who is reanimating you is the one who summoned you in the first place.
So, I don't like saying that death is just a career change. It doesn't fit the card, and they could have done a lot better for Back from the Brink.
The text would fit one of the blue zombie cards that are multiple corpses sewn together, but that makes it feel even more like a mistake to put it on Back from the Brink.
Manor Skeleton for me. Honestly, there's very little bad to be found in these entries, but this one uses pretty awkward syntax. The author tried a little too hard to be poetic, I think.
About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.
Markov Patrician. You're expecting something clever while reading it. "There's no way it can be that boring and cliche" you think to yourself. But it is. "Wine of the vein"... yawn.
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Quote from Seth Dracovitch »
If I could "like" or "upvote" you right now, I would.
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Into the Maw of Hell is a name so awesome, it deserves its own song.
It would be about a world of brown spikes and red fire, where men fight and scream and become blurry masses. Then it would change to somber, we learn that this glorious place exists only in Raymond Swanland's head. To visit it, you must enter the maw of Hell itself.
Curse of Oblivion = 3
Markhov Patrician = 2
Bump in the Night = 1
Heartless Summoning = 1
Manor Skeleton = 1
Reaper from the Abyss = 1
I'll break the tie in favor of Curse of Oblivion. I do believe that Markhov Patrician is a worthy adversary, however, not fitting the card appropriately is a greater sin in my book than cliched text.
I'll vote for Rage Thrower. This is about as stupid as it gets, using a modern day philosophical cliche to provoke a laugh in a pretty piss poor manner. There's no way the character would ever say this, as it's totally out of period and very much indicative of 21st century snark. On an unrelated note, the card doesn't even have a proper subtype...how is this man a shaman? He's just an angry dude with a blowtorch. "Human Warrior" or "Human Rogue" or even "Human Mercenary" would have made more sense.
HM: Pitchburn Devils, as apparently the author forgot that there's no goblins on Innistrad, and therefore no proper frame of reference for the comparison.
I'll vote for Rage Thrower. This is about as stupid as it gets, using a modern day philosophical cliche to provoke a laugh in a pretty piss-poor manner. There's no way the character would ever say this, as it's totally out of period and very much indicative of 21st century snark. On an unrelated note, the card doesn't even have a proper subtype...how is this man a shaman? He's just an angry dude with a blowtorch. "Human Warrior" or "Human Rogue" or even "Human Mercenary" would have made more sense.
About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.
While the art may be stellar, Innistrad's flavor text suuuuuuuuucks.
Ancient Grudge is my personal winner for Red; I have never seen exposition that bad on a Magic card. Any competent editor would have just left the flavor text at "If there's anything a werewolf hates, it's a collar."
I think Rage Thrower should have been a wizard, since his gear resembles Snapcaster Mage's and he controls magic with technology (Not very Shaman-like). He's my HM.
Darkthicket Wolf for me. A paragraph about killing wolves doesn't really add any flavor to a pumpable wolf, and it's pretty silly to think that werewolf hunters are just running around killing regular wolves at random.
About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.
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About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.
Legacy Decks:
Legendary Maverick GW
Feeling of Dread = 1
Thraben Militia = 1
Thraben Sentry = 1
Divine Reckoning gets its own judgment day.
Next: Innistrad Blue
I am voting for Back from the Brink. It's another one of those, "I get where they were going with this, but it doesn't really work" texts. Maybe on a zombie card this would be okay, but this is just a reanimation spell and it isn't really even bringing the target back to life, it's re-creating it in the same image. Not exactly working with the job metaphor.
Seconded.
About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.
Vote pending.
Question re: Invisible Stalker. Are vamps known for keen sense of smell? I find it odd that he's more afraid of vampires smelling him than werewolves. I would think werewolves have better senses, but I'm not an expert of monsters nor a Twilight fan.
First....enough with the Twilight references!
Second, yes, a lot of stories do say vampires have enhanced senses. Especially where blood is involved.
My vote....well... Armored Skaab.
So plain, so obvious, so pointless. The rest are appropriately creepy, that's been said about more than one artifact creature I'm sure.
The thing is, you may be right, but I'm not sure it's relevant. Even if the flavor is to bring back the creature itself, (a) that doesn't fit the name of the card, since "back from the brink" is akin to resurrecting out of a coma or some other state of limbo between life and death, not from a state of true death...as one other user has said, that's "beyond the brink," and (b) it still makes no sense with the job metaphor. What does bringing back to life have to do with a "career change"? It's not like "in life he was a human cleric, in death he is a zombie warrior." It's more like, "in life he was an elven mage...and...in this new life he's still an elven mage." Surely you can see the flavor fail. Nothing has changed. The creature doesn't gain a new type, any new abilities, nothing.
I'm going to leave this one open at least until tonight, to see if we have a clear winner. If not, I'll break the tie myself.
Norin the WaryRW
Legacy
BurnR
sig by DarkNightCavalier
Avatar by perv90210.
Currently Running
Cryffyl
It's clear what the writers of the text were aiming for, but they missed. They want to say something about how on Innistrad, death is not the end. After you're dead, there's a great chance a corpse-stitcher will reanimate you.
The career change metaphor doesn't fit. If you define a career as a profession, the creatures that die will be reanimated with the same skill sets and stats as before. Their profession would not change. If you define career as both your profession and allegiance to a particular employer, the one who is reanimating you is the one who summoned you in the first place.
So, I don't like saying that death is just a career change. It doesn't fit the card, and they could have done a lot better for Back from the Brink.
The text would fit one of the blue zombie cards that are multiple corpses sewn together, but that makes it feel even more like a mistake to put it on Back from the Brink.
Skaab Goliath = 2
Armored Skaab = 2
Curse of the Bloody Tome = 1
Quite a variety of opinions, but Back from the Brink ultimately treads furthest over the line.
Next up: Innistrad Black
Manor Skeleton for me. Honestly, there's very little bad to be found in these entries, but this one uses pretty awkward syntax. The author tried a little too hard to be poetic, I think.
Markov Patrician for me. Blood and wine...heard it before. And it doesn't tell me anything other than the Markov family is rich.
About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.
Markhov Patrician = 2
Bump in the Night = 1
Heartless Summoning = 1
Manor Skeleton = 1
Reaper from the Abyss = 1
I'll break the tie in favor of Curse of Oblivion. I do believe that Markhov Patrician is a worthy adversary, however, not fitting the card appropriately is a greater sin in my book than cliched text.
Next: Innistrad Red
I'll vote for Rage Thrower. This is about as stupid as it gets, using a modern day philosophical cliche to provoke a laugh in a pretty piss poor manner. There's no way the character would ever say this, as it's totally out of period and very much indicative of 21st century snark. On an unrelated note, the card doesn't even have a proper subtype...how is this man a shaman? He's just an angry dude with a blowtorch. "Human Warrior" or "Human Rogue" or even "Human Mercenary" would have made more sense.
HM: Pitchburn Devils, as apparently the author forgot that there's no goblins on Innistrad, and therefore no proper frame of reference for the comparison.
Seconded. Also, HYPHEN.
About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.
Ancient Grudge is my personal winner for Red; I have never seen exposition that bad on a Magic card. Any competent editor would have just left the flavor text at "If there's anything a werewolf hates, it's a collar."
I think Rage Thrower should have been a wizard, since his gear resembles Snapcaster Mage's and he controls magic with technology (Not very Shaman-like). He's my HM.
Thanks to Syndarion of Aeternal Studios for my sig!
Ancient Grudge = 2
Pitchburn Devils = 1
Rage Thrower incites the most fury.
Next up: Innistrad Green
Darkthicket Wolf for me. A paragraph about killing wolves doesn't really add any flavor to a pumpable wolf, and it's pretty silly to think that werewolf hunters are just running around killing regular wolves at random.
About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.