Hmmmm....
Chandra gets her pyro gloves
Ajani his hand axes
Elspeth her Spear
Tibalt his Dagger
Lilliana her Viel
Garruk his Axe
Gideon his Sural
Nissa her Staff
Xenagos his torch-thing
Sarkhan his staff/halbred-thing
Narset her....hair?
She's a monk, everyone knows monks fight better unarmed. (Then again, she's also a monk with magic, so the point is kind of moot.)
First thought about the Narset bit was basically, "yeah, she was definitely still red." Pity Ojutai was having none of that in his brood. (I do hope she's still alive in some capacity: if nothing else, it feels like poor storytelling for Sarkhan to be all "I did it all for her" and then have her be, likely, the one notable character that didn't survive into the present. Also, the fact that Taigam doesn't actually explain what it is Narset did feels like it's implying we'll find out at some point later on in the story.)
Nice set-up for the rest of the Tarkir adventures, some really nice art that I'm looking forward to seeing the cards they appear on. (Vial of Dragonfire is one, presumably, and modern-day Kolaghan - yay! - looks like another. Still a couple unspecified, though.)
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"The true measure of all heroes is not what they achieve, but who they inspire." —Triumph of Gerrard
I really hope that they explain Sarkhan's continued existence as he had been. He was a product of the old Tarkir, which no longer exists, and it doesn't make any sense that everyone else we knew about in KTK is still around, but Sarkhan somehow isn't (at least, that new version of Sarkhan). Maybe Ugin is still somehow shielding him from the effects of the altered timeline? I dunno, they really opened a can of worms with this time-travel mumbo jumbo.
And I'm also left wondering about how Sarkhan becomes "unbroken". Ugin merges the current Sarkhan with the Sarkhan that was supposed to be in the new timeline? Does he conscript Sarkhan into being his lieutenant (thus explaining his ghost-firey strands of hair)?
I really hope that, assuming Narset really is alive and a planeswalker, she isn't U/R. We already have Ral Zarek AND Dack Fayden. You know what color combinations are in Jeskai colors that we don't have? W/U and W/R. Venser's dead and Ajani is no longer vengeant. I'd much prefer Narset to be one of those two than a third U/R.
I think Narset has to be UWR. The blue and white are essential to her enlightenment, but the red is essential to her freedom and her rejection of Ojutai. Taigam will be UW, not Narset.
On the other hand, if she is two color, the red in the artwork shown today is much more understated than the blue and white, so that would be my guess.
Agreed. Assuming that all the speculation of her being a walker is actually true and she ascended I'd like the difference between her and Ojutai to be the differences between Authoritarian W/U (ojutai) and Populist W/U (her), or something like that. All that said, I won't lose any sleep over her being U/R as someone else stated Tarkir is a Red plane in its soul and the walkers arising from it would likely reflect that on some level.
I really hope that they explain Sarkhan's continued existence as he had been. He was a product of the old Tarkir, which no longer exists, and it doesn't make any sense that everyone else we knew about in KTK is still around, but Sarkhan somehow isn't (at least, that new version of Sarkhan). Maybe Ugin is still somehow shielding him from the effects of the altered timeline? I dunno, they really opened a can of worms with this time-travel mumbo jumbo.
And I'm also left wondering about how Sarkhan becomes "unbroken". Ugin merges the current Sarkhan with the Sarkhan that was supposed to be in the new timeline? Does he conscript Sarkhan into being his lieutenant (thus explaining his ghost-firey strands of hair)?
The actual odds of any of the KTK people having new versions are astronomically bad. Over a thousand years, small changes would magnify and resonate with each other to create an entirely different population. It is far better for the story for them to exist, so here they are.
I think the way this kind of time travel would explain the potential paradox is that the act of traveling back caused a discontinuity in Sarkhan's personal history. He removed himself from the time stream, breaking the links between his past and his present. His past (on Tarkir, at least) no longer exists, but it doesn't impact his present state. Whether that is a function of his spark, or just the way time travel is being portrayed in this scenario is still unknown, but I'd bet on the former.
As for Narset, I'd love to see 1UWR as her cost, or possibly some hybrid mana in there. She clearly isn't dead, or Taigam would have said dead instead of the other hinting euphemisms.
I really hope that, assuming Narset really is alive and a planeswalker, she isn't U/R. We already have Ral Zarek AND Dack Fayden. You know what color combinations are in Jeskai colors that we don't have? W/U and W/R. Venser's dead and Ajani is no longer vengeant. I'd much prefer Narset to be one of those two than a third U/R.
I think Narset has to be UWR. The blue and white are essential to her enlightenment, but the red is essential to her freedom and her rejection of Ojutai. Taigam will be UW, not Narset.
On the other hand, if she is two color, the red in the artwork shown today is much more understated than the blue and white, so that would be my guess.
Unfortunately, as Skynight has pointed out, there won't be any wedge cards in DTK. So Narset is almost certainly going to be two or less colors.
I have to ask, why do you say that blue AND white are essential to her enlightenment? Red representing her rejection of Ojutai and his teachings, sure, I get. And sure, enlightenment is a blue thing. But White? White doesn't really care about enlightenment at all. Like, I mean, some philosophies claim that enlightenment can come about as a result of being socially aware and trying to do good in your community and what not. That's true. But in MtG, White's goals and methods have nothing to do with enlightenment, and any enlightenment that is achieved would be secondary to the goal of "achieving peace through structure".
Many people fostering a UR Narset and complaining about a RG Sarkhan because is a color combination used repetedly for currently years, but if Narset becomes UR we would have 3 walkers of that combination printed in less time than RG.
Sarkhan: "Screw this world I've always wanted! One person that I barely know may or may not be dead in it! SCREW IT, I say!"
I mean what lol. Tarkir is such a dumb place. Let's just hurry up and get to Magic Origins stuff, because Tarkir's story is nonsensical.
Wholeheartedly agree. I love Ugin's character and card, but the time travel stuff is just so poorly executed how it just throws causality to the wind that it feels like an insult to our intelligence.
Tarkir's a red plane. I stopped expecting it to make sense a long time ago. Sarkhan is emotional. He made a connection with Narset (they could have been traveling on foot for days or even weeks to get to that bloody chasm) and he watched her die at the hands of a dude he hated and couldn't do anything to stop it. Naturally he'd want to fix that and hope that it would have been fixed with changing of the timeline. And time doesn't necessarily matter for making a lifelong friend. One of my closest friends and I became such after our first conversation and were completing each other's sentences 20 minutes in. I'm not even as emotionally driven as Sarkhan so imagine how he's feeling here.
@VorthosSpike He later backtracked and said there could be one or two wedge cards in the set. If you're going to spread information around, make sure it's up to date.
That pic of Kolaghan is by the same artist who drew her card. Hopefully their new versions (assuming we get them) are all drawn by their previous artists, as they're really well done. Especially Ojutai and Kolaghan.
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if Narset (who doesn't seem to have changed much) actually had a planes walker spark ignite when Zurgo "killed her" and was whisked away and healed by her spark BEFORE Sarkhan's shenanigans in the past altered the future. When she finally managed to walk back to Tarkir, she got back before Sarkhan, found her clan in the hands of Ojutai and had abandoned their red side, and got a bit careless with her new information and perspective with the dragon casting her out.
That doesn't work.
A spark will not protect you from your history changing. Doug was pretty clear about that.
Sarkhan is a huge exception, but it isn't because he's a planeswalker, rather because he was the agent of change.
I really hope that, assuming Narset really is alive and a planeswalker, she isn't U/R. We already have Ral Zarek AND Dack Fayden. You know what color combinations are in Jeskai colors that we don't have? W/U and W/R. Venser's dead and Ajani is no longer vengeant. I'd much prefer Narset to be one of those two than a third U/R.
I think Narset has to be UWR. The blue and white are essential to her enlightenment, but the red is essential to her freedom and her rejection of Ojutai. Taigam will be UW, not Narset.
On the other hand, if she is two color, the red in the artwork shown today is much more understated than the blue and white, so that would be my guess.
Unfortunately, as Skynight has pointed out, there won't be any wedge cards in DTK. So Narset is almost certainly going to be two or less colors.
I have to ask, why do you say that blue AND white are essential to her enlightenment? Red representing her rejection of Ojutai and his teachings, sure, I get. And sure, enlightenment is a blue thing. But White? White doesn't really care about enlightenment at all. Like, I mean, some philosophies claim that enlightenment can come about as a result of being socially aware and trying to do good in your community and what not. That's true. But in MtG, White's goals and methods have nothing to do with enlightenment, and any enlightenment that is achieved would be secondary to the goal of "achieving peace through structure".
Blue might be knowledge, but to me enlightenment implies more than that. There's a serenity/inner peace/self-control that's essential to enlightenment, which is what white provides. Without white, you get Izzet, blowing up entire city blocks in their grand experiments. It's possible that Narset doesn't have that inner control after growing up under the tyranny of Ojutai, but that is quite the change in her character. And to be a bit meta, her outfit in the hair-whip picture screams White.
it is clearly evident now that Sarkhan's personal history has changed. In fact, since there are no more Khans, he can't even be "Sarkhan" anymore. we have to call him Vol now. I wonder how this affects his memories, since the stuff he remembers now officially never happened. and since he is no longer the Sar-Khan, what is his title now?
I don't think he has a title. At least, not one like Sarkhan. It's not like Sarkhan was ever actually a proper rank that he was entitled to anyway. It was just something people (specifically Bolas, if I recall correctly) called him.
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if Narset (who doesn't seem to have changed much) actually had a planes walker spark ignite when Zurgo "killed her" and was whisked away and healed by her spark BEFORE Sarkhan's shenanigans in the past altered the future. When she finally managed to walk back to Tarkir, she got back before Sarkhan, found her clan in the hands of Ojutai and had abandoned their red side, and got a bit careless with her new information and perspective with the dragon casting her out.
That doesn't work.
A spark will not protect you from your history changing. Doug was pretty clear about that.
Sarkhan is a huge exception, but it isn't because he's a planeswalker, rather because he was the agent of change.
My mistake then. I thought that it was stated the historical change was limited to Tarkir. I suspected that if she weren't on world, it wouldn't cause any changes to her.
I really hope that, assuming Narset really is alive and a planeswalker, she isn't U/R. We already have Ral Zarek AND Dack Fayden. You know what color combinations are in Jeskai colors that we don't have? W/U and W/R. Venser's dead and Ajani is no longer vengeant. I'd much prefer Narset to be one of those two than a third U/R.
I think Narset has to be UWR. The blue and white are essential to her enlightenment, but the red is essential to her freedom and her rejection of Ojutai. Taigam will be UW, not Narset.
On the other hand, if she is two color, the red in the artwork shown today is much more understated than the blue and white, so that would be my guess.
Unfortunately, as Skynight has pointed out, there won't be any wedge cards in DTK. So Narset is almost certainly going to be two or less colors.
I have to ask, why do you say that blue AND white are essential to her enlightenment? Red representing her rejection of Ojutai and his teachings, sure, I get. And sure, enlightenment is a blue thing. But White? White doesn't really care about enlightenment at all. Like, I mean, some philosophies claim that enlightenment can come about as a result of being socially aware and trying to do good in your community and what not. That's true. But in MtG, White's goals and methods have nothing to do with enlightenment, and any enlightenment that is achieved would be secondary to the goal of "achieving peace through structure".
Blue might be knowledge, but to me enlightenment implies more than that. There's a serenity/inner peace/self-control that's essential to enlightenment, which is what white provides. Without white, you get Izzet, blowing up entire city blocks in their grand experiments. It's possible that Narset doesn't have that inner control after growing up under the tyranny of Ojutai, but that is quite the change in her character. And to be a bit meta, her outfit in the hair-whip picture screams White.
Her red doesn't have to portray itself as chaos; it could just represent her free thinking. I like the way this block has represented the colors so far (save, perhaps, UB). The Narset we know from KTK had difficulty following the accepted practices of the Jeskai, so I think it's plausible that she drops white from her character.
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if Narset (who doesn't seem to have changed much) actually had a planes walker spark ignite when Zurgo "killed her" and was whisked away and healed by her spark BEFORE Sarkhan's shenanigans in the past altered the future. When she finally managed to walk back to Tarkir, she got back before Sarkhan, found her clan in the hands of Ojutai and had abandoned their red side, and got a bit careless with her new information and perspective with the dragon casting her out.
That doesn't work.
A spark will not protect you from your history changing. Doug was pretty clear about that.
Sarkhan is a huge exception, but it isn't because he's a planeswalker, rather because he was the agent of change.
My mistake then. I thought that it was stated the historical change was limited to Tarkir. I suspected that if she weren't on world, it wouldn't cause any changes to her.
Doug did say that the changes were limited to Tarkir, but if any walker had been there in the past, they would experience changes in their personal history to reflect that. What Doug was trying to do was calm down doomsayers who thought this would be used to undo the Mending.
Akki_Akki think it Ugin Magic that shielded Sarkhan from timey-wimey magic. Not a second spell by Ugin but as the spell was finishing/ending it whisked Sarkhan back again to where he was with Narset before she died. Yet to different timeline. Akki_Akki looking at this from scientific point of view in which normally when choices are involved the theory that two separate worlds is created by the opposite choice. Normally not important like which cereal did Akki_Akki have today however this is Did Ugin Live or Die? In one world there is no Khans in the other is Dragon-lords.
Narset is alive. Yet which Narset? KTK Narset or DTK Narset?
Two possibilities for why she is killed for being a heretic.
#1: Narset was from KTK and when she returned home she is seen as the heretic for strange tattoos, utterance of forbidden word "Khan" for she would see herself still as the "Khan", and the old Jeskai teachings. To avoid death she planeswalked in the nick of time.
#2: Narset was from DTK and when she found the lost scrolls she read and read them and tried to teach her fellow Brood about what she found in these old scrolls like how her Brood was originally a clan known as Jeskai and how Khans not Dragon-lords ruled. For her heresey she was to be put to death yet in this near-death experience Narset's spark ignited and she planeswalked away from the danger, now a heretic.
A heretic to Ojutai's teachings would be or or WUR.
As for why Sarkhan wants to see Narset, Akki_Akki think they closely bonded as friends during their travel. It is emotional response yes but it must emotionally hurt Sarkhan to not know if a friend be dead or alive. Yet this depends on which Narset is alive if Sarkhan meets her again, KTK Narset or DTK Narset. One that knows him and is glad to see him back or one that doesn't know him at all.
Zurgo Bellstriker, that made Akki_Akki chuckle.
Akki_Akki can confirm that Narset is using her hair as whip.
I don't know. She was so focused and disciplined I'd suspect that she ends up being one of the Wedge cards and an example of the old Jeskai in the modern day. If she's changed due to the time shenanigans the red still represents her free thinking and less dogmatic approach.
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She's a monk, everyone knows monks fight better unarmed. (Then again, she's also a monk with magic, so the point is kind of moot.)
First thought about the Narset bit was basically, "yeah, she was definitely still red." Pity Ojutai was having none of that in his brood. (I do hope she's still alive in some capacity: if nothing else, it feels like poor storytelling for Sarkhan to be all "I did it all for her" and then have her be, likely, the one notable character that didn't survive into the present. Also, the fact that Taigam doesn't actually explain what it is Narset did feels like it's implying we'll find out at some point later on in the story.)
Nice set-up for the rest of the Tarkir adventures, some really nice art that I'm looking forward to seeing the cards they appear on. (Vial of Dragonfire is one, presumably, and modern-day Kolaghan - yay! - looks like another. Still a couple unspecified, though.)
And I'm also left wondering about how Sarkhan becomes "unbroken". Ugin merges the current Sarkhan with the Sarkhan that was supposed to be in the new timeline? Does he conscript Sarkhan into being his lieutenant (thus explaining his ghost-firey strands of hair)?
Unfortunately, Rosewater confirmed that DTK would have no wedge-color cards at all.
I think Narset has to be UWR. The blue and white are essential to her enlightenment, but the red is essential to her freedom and her rejection of Ojutai. Taigam will be UW, not Narset.
On the other hand, if she is two color, the red in the artwork shown today is much more understated than the blue and white, so that would be my guess.
The Organized Play preview on the mothership has a new picture of someone dressed just like Narset.
Actually, he explicitly stated that there could be some, just not as a major theme.
The actual odds of any of the KTK people having new versions are astronomically bad. Over a thousand years, small changes would magnify and resonate with each other to create an entirely different population. It is far better for the story for them to exist, so here they are.
I think the way this kind of time travel would explain the potential paradox is that the act of traveling back caused a discontinuity in Sarkhan's personal history. He removed himself from the time stream, breaking the links between his past and his present. His past (on Tarkir, at least) no longer exists, but it doesn't impact his present state. Whether that is a function of his spark, or just the way time travel is being portrayed in this scenario is still unknown, but I'd bet on the former.
As for Narset, I'd love to see 1UWR as her cost, or possibly some hybrid mana in there. She clearly isn't dead, or Taigam would have said dead instead of the other hinting euphemisms.
I have to ask, why do you say that blue AND white are essential to her enlightenment? Red representing her rejection of Ojutai and his teachings, sure, I get. And sure, enlightenment is a blue thing. But White? White doesn't really care about enlightenment at all. Like, I mean, some philosophies claim that enlightenment can come about as a result of being socially aware and trying to do good in your community and what not. That's true. But in MtG, White's goals and methods have nothing to do with enlightenment, and any enlightenment that is achieved would be secondary to the goal of "achieving peace through structure".
No, he said the exact opposite of that.
http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/104357441083/so-when-you-say-no-wedges-in-dragons-of-tarkir
I mean what lol. Tarkir is such a dumb place. Let's just hurry up and get to Magic Origins stuff, because Tarkir's story is nonsensical.
Your mods are terrified of me.
Wholeheartedly agree. I love Ugin's character and card, but the time travel stuff is just so poorly executed how it just throws causality to the wind that it feels like an insult to our intelligence.
That's far from an explicit statement.
Now, this post from roughly three weeks later? That's an explicit statement of possibility.
That doesn't work.
A spark will not protect you from your history changing. Doug was pretty clear about that.
Sarkhan is a huge exception, but it isn't because he's a planeswalker, rather because he was the agent of change.
Blue might be knowledge, but to me enlightenment implies more than that. There's a serenity/inner peace/self-control that's essential to enlightenment, which is what white provides. Without white, you get Izzet, blowing up entire city blocks in their grand experiments. It's possible that Narset doesn't have that inner control after growing up under the tyranny of Ojutai, but that is quite the change in her character. And to be a bit meta, her outfit in the hair-whip picture screams White.
He had the name before he ever met Bolas though.
My mistake then. I thought that it was stated the historical change was limited to Tarkir. I suspected that if she weren't on world, it wouldn't cause any changes to her.
Her red doesn't have to portray itself as chaos; it could just represent her free thinking. I like the way this block has represented the colors so far (save, perhaps, UB). The Narset we know from KTK had difficulty following the accepted practices of the Jeskai, so I think it's plausible that she drops white from her character.
UR Blue-Red Control
Modern:
UBR Grixis Control
UWR Jeskai Control
Akki_Akki think it Ugin Magic that shielded Sarkhan from timey-wimey magic. Not a second spell by Ugin but as the spell was finishing/ending it whisked Sarkhan back again to where he was with Narset before she died. Yet to different timeline. Akki_Akki looking at this from scientific point of view in which normally when choices are involved the theory that two separate worlds is created by the opposite choice. Normally not important like which cereal did Akki_Akki have today however this is Did Ugin Live or Die? In one world there is no Khans in the other is Dragon-lords.
Narset is alive. Yet which Narset? KTK Narset or DTK Narset?
Two possibilities for why she is killed for being a heretic.
#1: Narset was from KTK and when she returned home she is seen as the heretic for strange tattoos, utterance of forbidden word "Khan" for she would see herself still as the "Khan", and the old Jeskai teachings. To avoid death she planeswalked in the nick of time.
#2: Narset was from DTK and when she found the lost scrolls she read and read them and tried to teach her fellow Brood about what she found in these old scrolls like how her Brood was originally a clan known as Jeskai and how Khans not Dragon-lords ruled. For her heresey she was to be put to death yet in this near-death experience Narset's spark ignited and she planeswalked away from the danger, now a heretic.
A heretic to Ojutai's teachings would be or or WUR.
As for why Sarkhan wants to see Narset, Akki_Akki think they closely bonded as friends during their travel. It is emotional response yes but it must emotionally hurt Sarkhan to not know if a friend be dead or alive. Yet this depends on which Narset is alive if Sarkhan meets her again, KTK Narset or DTK Narset. One that knows him and is glad to see him back or one that doesn't know him at all.
Zurgo Bellstriker, that made Akki_Akki chuckle.
Akki_Akki can confirm that Narset is using her hair as whip.
Also Akki_Akki want to point out two last things.
1) The architecture behind Narset is Jeskai not Ojutai.
2) Narset has same clothes as KTK Narset.