Understandable. It is hard to feel you can just walk into these worlds when it seems they sometimes don't follow thier own rules. To be fair though, from what I read of the lore previous to the mending there were inconsistencies and retcons as well. I'm not excusing what Wizards is doing now with continuity but it seems like a problem not entirely endemic to this era alone. Yay or nay?
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Wizards. listen. The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
Yes, yes, I remember she didn't stole it *from* Tarkir, but can't it be the same scroll? I don't know, it just seems like this is all connected. The scroll she stole is the one that teaches Ghostfire, which is a Ugin spell. Ugin looks to be connected to the Jeskai somehow, due to all the cards showing that, and the whole Ojutai thing about "forgetting that knowledge" suggests that. Am I really just tying stuff that can't be tied together?
Pretty much. It's important to remember that the Dragon Scroll wasn't just a "how to" manual for Ghostfire. It was also a map to Zendikar.
Aside from that, the Jeskai Scroll didn't exist until the khans were threatened by the dragonbroods taking over the clans.
And in fairness, Ugin seems pretty connected to the Temur as well as the Jeskai so...
I think Shu Yun's scroll is not the same as the Dragon Scroll that Chandra stole from Kephalai. Shu Yun's scroll is a meeting minute that records Yasova's story of Sarkhan saving Ugin's life. Considering the Dragon Scroll also contains a Zendikar map, it is very likely that the scroll was written by Ugin himself, or someone who knows Ugin very closely. My guess is that the Dragon Scroll was written in Zendikar not long after the trio imprisoned the Eldrazi titans. The scroll ended up in Kephalai because either Ugin himself brought it there or another walker did. (Nahiri maybe?) Then, some 4500 years later, the events in Fate Reforged take place and Shu Yun's scroll was written. I don't think the Dragon Scroll has ever been on Tarkir.
Yes, yes, I remember she didn't stole it *from* Tarkir, but can't it be the same scroll? I don't know, it just seems like this is all connected. The scroll she stole is the one that teaches Ghostfire, which is a Ugin spell. Ugin looks to be connected to the Jeskai somehow, due to all the cards showing that, and the whole Ojutai thing about "forgetting that knowledge" suggests that. Am I really just tying stuff that can't be tied together?
Pretty much. It's important to remember that the Dragon Scroll wasn't just a "how to" manual for Ghostfire. It was also a map to Zendikar.
Aside from that, the Jeskai Scroll didn't exist until the khans were threatened by the dragonbroods taking over the clans.
And in fairness, Ugin seems pretty connected to the Temur as well as the Jeskai so...
I'm wondering what happens to all planeswalker visits to Tarkir in these 1280 years, clearly the Hedron doesn't isolate Tarkir from the multiverse like Memnarch (largely) did for Mirrodin / O-Kagachi (largely) did for Kamigawa / First Guildpact did for Ravnica (since Zendikar was acessible with the hedron active) and 1280 years of no oldwalkers accessing an accessible plane, accidental or not, doesn't sound right.
So... did they land in Tarkir 1.0 or 1.1? Since Sarkhan's move altered only the course of Tarkir, does it mean a planeswalker's memories of Tarkir completely gets retcon'ed in their heads and they all now remember the actions they "did but never did" on Tarkir 1.1 instead of 1.0?
Since the Dragon Scroll has Ugin's knowledge and a map of Zendikar on it, unless Ugin wrote it himself (Which I personally think of it as unlikely, how big was the scroll in size?) it means whoever wrote the scroll has been to both Zendikar and Tarkir within this 1280 years. Nahiri never knew of Tarkir, Sorin and Sarkhan reached Tarkir and Zendikar respectively too late to have done that.
Even if Ugin wrote the scroll, it must have been for Sorin or Nahiri at best, we all know Ugin doesn't want to release the Eldrazi, so why write the secret at all - only plausible reason was in case the Eldrazi really needed to be released and he wasn't around, at least Sorin and Nahiri could find a pyromancer planeswalker to attempt it with instructions. I can't imagine any one of those 3 "accidentally" losing the scroll or donating it to another plane as a museum piece, which is why I think the Dragon Scroll had nothing to do with the 3 planeswalkers.
Considering that the Dragon Scroll was a lot less detailed, so it seems more likely that whoever wrote it ran out of paper, took out a map of Zendikar instead and scribbled on it vaguely copying the Shu Yun Scroll - Zendikar's environment changes all the time, so the accuracy of the map is not an indicator of whether it was a real map or a copied one. Of course, I don't think it was that much of a coincidence - whoever wrote it was conscious of the Hedrons on Zendikar.
I think someone else once upon a time landed on Zendikar, could read the Draconian and eventually found Tarkir to learn the secrets of Ghostfire. Why that person donated/sold/dropped that scroll away instead of unsealing the Eldrazi after all that work is confusing though (considering Ugin wasn't around either timeline to do any convincing). It's possible that the walker was along the lines of Dack Fayden and wasn't exactly interested in the the Eldrazi, but getting/creating valuable knowledge and artifacts.
I still don't see why the writer of the Dragon Scroll has to have visited Tarkir, and I don't think the Dragon Scroll mentions the Eldrazi at all. Chandra stole it and saw what's in it, yet she was still fully unaware of the Eldrazi imprisoned in Zendikar at the time. We still doesn't have any canon source to back up the claim that Shu Yun's scroll is the Dragon Scroll. Even though there is no explicit mention, canon sources seem to suggest that these two scrolls are different. I think it's very likely that the Dragon Scroll has been sitting in the Sanctum of Stars for ages when Khanfall takes place.
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Modern: | C Affinity | RWG Burn |
EDH: | UBG Tasigur / Damia V-Wealth | WU Brago, Flicker and Value | WB Teysa's Orzhov Aristocrats | RG Omnath, Landfall of Rage | RC Daretti |
I still don't see why the writer of the Dragon Scroll has to have visited Tarkir, and I don't think the Dragon Scroll mentions the Eldrazi at all. Chandra stole it and saw what's in it, yet she was still fully unaware of the Eldrazi imprisoned in Zendikar at the time. We still doesn't have any canon source to back up the claim that Shu Yun's scroll is the Dragon Scroll. Even though there is no explicit mention, canon sources seem to suggest that these two scrolls are different. I think it's very likely that the Dragon Scroll has been sitting in the Sanctum of Stars for ages when Khanfall takes place.
Unless Ugin was very generous in teaching the art of Ghostfire (and considering how the Jeskai are treating it as their best secret, I don't think he would be that generous elsewhere), the only ways to learn Ghostfire before the Dragon Scroll was either from Ugin or the Jeskai. So chances are you'll need to have visited Tarkir to have been able to scribble down the Dragon Scroll in the first place.
The Dragon Scroll doesn't indicate the Eldrazi, but it proves whoever wrote the Scroll has to have been on Zendikar. Shu Yun has never been on Zendikar clearly, so the two scrolls are definitely not the same. Considering that the Dragon Scroll wasn't exactly clear on Ghostfire instructions supports that (Shu Yun's scroll seemed to be at least a lot more detailed, since it carries history as well), so it implies the Dragon Scroll is literally a "copied in a hurry" copy of Shu Yun's scroll, with only the relevant parts of casting. But to be copied onto a map of Zendikar doesn't feel like a mere coincidence at all - whoever did that was consciously doing it, for reasons yet unknown. Of course, how it landed in the Sanctum of Stars is probably a separate, long story.
I think there's definitely alot of scrolls and not just one. Countless scribes must have written for Shu Yun. An "observer" role from the stuff we read about.
I think there's definitely alot of scrolls and not just one. Countless scribes must have written for Shu Yun. An "observer" role from the stuff we read about.
I was assume this was post-Khanfall, so only 1 copy was left after Ojutai destroyed the rest. It is possible that the visit was made between 1280 to 6000 years ago, where there were more of those scrolls.
But the main point was the Dragon Scroll was literally someone copying a Jeskai Scroll onto a Zendikar Map. Whoever copied that had to visit Zendikar first (or was from there) and deemed the scroll to be not enough importance to lose it or donate it to the Sanctum of the Stars.
The thing that makes me think the scroll was "recent" (at least post-Khanfall) though, was that Garruk could recognize the map. Considering Zendikar's landscape changes all the time, the map couldn't have been too far back in time. Of course, maybe Garruk got a extremely outdated map when he visited Zendikar from a Goblin there...
does it mean a planeswalker's memories of Tarkir completely gets retcon'ed in their heads and they all now remember the actions they "did but never did" on Tarkir 1.1 instead of 1.0?
Doug told us that this is what would happen.
Since the Dragon Scroll has Ugin's knowledge and a map of Zendikar on it, unless Ugin wrote it himself (Which I personally think of it as unlikely, how big was the scroll in size?) it means whoever wrote the scroll has been to both Zendikar and Tarkir within this 1280 years. Nahiri never knew of Tarkir, Sorin and Sarkhan reached Tarkir and Zendikar respectively too late to have done that.
No, it was clearly of Zendikari origins, but it was apparently written in Draconic, meaning that it pretty much had to be Ugin or someone copying Ugin's work to have written it.
Even if Ugin wrote the scroll, it must have been for Sorin or Nahiri at best, we all know Ugin doesn't want to release the Eldrazi, so why write the secret at all - only plausible reason was in case the Eldrazi really needed to be released and he wasn't around, at least Sorin and Nahiri could find a pyromancer planeswalker to attempt it with instructions. I can't imagine any one of those 3 "accidentally" losing the scroll or donating it to another plane as a museum piece, which is why I think the Dragon Scroll had nothing to do with the 3 planeswalkers.
Of the two, it would probably be Nahiri... and quite frankly, it isn't looking like she's still around, so if it was in her possession, could have been part of the things lost after her disappearance.
Considering that the Dragon Scroll was a lot less detailed, so it seems more likely that whoever wrote it ran out of paper, took out a map of Zendikar instead and scribbled on it vaguely copying the Shu Yun Scroll - Zendikar's environment changes all the time, so the accuracy of the map is not an indicator of whether it was a real map or a copied one. Of course, I don't think it was that much of a coincidence - whoever wrote it was conscious of the Hedrons on Zendikar.
It isn't a map OF Zendikar... it's a map TO Zendikar.
Check the webcomic "The Veil's Curse" and the Purifying Fire for those details.
I wouldn't be surprised if Dromoka at least allows allusions to the Abzan past (albeit without the Abzan name) as What Not To Do.
The regular art for Arashin Sovereign features a tree on a Dromoka fortress quite prominently. Perhaps she allowed the replanting of the kin trees minus the ancestor spirits, as a sort of symbolic gesture. She was only opposed to the necromantic aspects of the clan after all, not necesarily the ancestor worship itself.
Well to be fair, it's hard to believe that ALL the trees depicted in Abzan art are kin-trees. Otherwise there would be so many Abzan families, that it would probably account for the entire population of Tarkir. I'd expect many of the trees we had seen in the fortresses to be merely aesthetical or even agricultural. Note that Daghatar decreed to uproot the kin-trees, not all the plants the Abzan cultivated.
No, it was clearly of Zendikari origins, but it was apparently written in Draconic, meaning that it pretty much had to be Ugin or someone copying Ugin's work to have written it.
Of the two, it would probably be Nahiri... and quite frankly, it isn't looking like she's still around, so if it was in her possession, could have been part of the things lost after her disappearance.
It isn't a map OF Zendikar... it's a map TO Zendikar.
Check the webcomic "The Veil's Curse" and the Purifying Fire for those details.
I apologize for any errors I've made - I don't have a clear memory of the exact details of some of these aspects, so thanks for clearing the up, so I can refine what I think happened.
Actually, since it's a map TO Zendikar, it establishes that whoever wrote the scroll must more or less be a planeswalker and since pretty much only planeswalkers would draw maps to planes, the map and manual together must be intentional. Although I wonder why would Nahiri need a map to Zendikar if she's definitely capable of returning to Zendikar without any issues - I would actually think Sorin would need the map more, relatively speaking.
I still am not very convinced Ugin wrote the scroll, although by process of elimination he's the most likely to have done so left, it doesn't seem like a smart move in any way to just cryptically leave a hint behind to unseal the Eldrazi at all. Plus I'm not too sure if oldwalkers, given their powers then, could easily master Draconic. But I think I'll just leave it there, still too little information.
EDIT: Actually being part of a set seems to imply the writer's interest at artifacts/knowledge of power, so whoever wrote the scroll did get the link between the Hedrons and Ghostfire and investigated enough to learn Ghostfire through Draconic somehow, but either had no interest or wasn't aware of the Eldrazi prison at all. We don't know what the rest of the set does, right? (I don't recall anything concerning the others).
On the other hand, if wizards changes "Commander" back to EDH, I might forgive them for this retcon...
I would agree about the EDH/Commander thing, but unfortunately the name "Highlander" in Elder Dragon Highlander is copywriten to another company, and official use of that fan-name for that format would result in WotC and Hasbro being sued.
Also, I don't see choosing to "elder" for these dragons as a retcon. The older Elder dragons aren't somehow different because the term elder is used differently in reference to another group of dragons here. Using "elder" here creates a degree of semantic confusion, and the jury's still out for me as to whether it was a good idea or not, but I don't think this qualifies as a retcon.
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A polite player might call my card choices "interesting." At my budget, "interesting" is the only option.
I say from now on we call them neo-elder dragons and see how long before MaRo tries to ban that term. He hated the fact we refer to Jace as a neo-walker.
To be fair, there were people using the term in a somewhat viscous way. But on the other side, WotC does need to fully accept that such intense changes can and will be met with some deserving vitriol.
Doug Beyer's explanation that "these are the elder dragons of Tarkir just like the previous ones were the elder dragons of Dominaria" is satifying enough for me
Not all elder dragons have to be comparable power-level wise and it's hard to be harsh on WotC considering how far they've come in their stories: I'd rather they not be shackled by what was done 20 years ago by people who didn't really know what they were doing (the guys making Legends). People who care about the story are getting a bit of a bone thrown at us (clearly the Tarkir edler dragons are very powerful: both the ones we've seen punish planeswalkers cards), it's nice to have bad-ass dragons that matter once again outside of Bolas.
People asking questions is fine and expecting reasonnable answers is also fine; I feel we were given a reasonnable explanation as to why the term was used.
So the question with Narset 1.1 is, when she "lets go" at the end, is she letting go of her pursuit of knowledge, or of her dependence on Ojutai? (Maybe Ojutai has mellowed with age...) Or maybe letting go of a dream of a perfect Tarkir. On the other hand, her regarding Ojutai's presence as making Tarkir better...I wonder what will result once she and Vol meet. (Of course, the letting go might just be letting herself actually planeswalk. Maybe she'll wind up on Kamigawa and meet its not-so-proud dragons...)
I liked this weeks Uncharted Realms, but Narset felt very Red to me. She seeks knowledge, but seemed very impulsive. I guess I interpreted it wrong?
Also, Taigam is a jerk. Nothing new there.
She's more obsessive than impulsive. Obsession -- which tends toward both blue and green -- can often seem as impulsiveness since it causes one to not fully consider the consequences of his or her actions. She's very WU.
Also, if I didn't know that Scroll Rack was too busted for Standard (and Modern), I would swear that one of those images could have been used for a reprint.
I thought it was very much Narset finally letting go and planeswalking away from Tarkir. She couldn't do it before because she was still so attached to Ojutai. And yes, she did seem impulsive and knowledge seeking. I'm perfectly fine with that. Narset now does what many of us wanted. She represents the old Jeskai way and is free of the responsibilities of a Khan so she actually can let go enough to allow herself to leave the plane. An enjoyable story and a fitting origin for her. I would also say Kamigawa is a nice option for her first walk.
I thought it was very much Narset finally letting go and planeswalking away from Tarkir. She couldn't do it before because she was still so attached to Ojutai. And yes, she did seem impulsive and knowledge seeking. I'm perfectly fine with that. Narset now does what many of us wanted. She represents the old Jeskai way and is free of the responsibilities of a Khan so she actually can let go enough to allow herself to leave the plane. An enjoyable story and a fitting origin for her. I would also say Kamigawa is a nice option for her first walk.
I hope she meets up with Tamiyo. Those two would get lost in study for YEARS.
I like how Narset's obsession with "the Truth" ties nicely back to Sarkhan's own journey a couple of URs back.
I also find this current depiction of Ojutai more likeable than in Khanfall. It's less nineteen eighty-four "Big Brother" white-blue and more, well, Great Teacher. It's a bit problematic for me, though, to see him do a 180 turn from banning all knowledge of past Tarkir to being chill with Narset knowing the truth
I see a planeswalker buddy comic in the works lol!
Seriously, that could be one of the most intense, but quiet, planeswalker friendships ever (and you know something, we don't really see ANY of those). The walkers are generally kind of antagonistic towards one another. I really want to see some buddies show up now that I think about it. We summon Planeswalkers pretty easily. I wonder what it would be like if we got a story where one walker could summon another as back up as part of a close friendship. Narset and Tamiyo or Narset and Sarkhan are the most likely duo for that idea.
Also, in response to the change in Ojutai's personality, I found that interesting too. I'd hope that almost 1300 years would have mellowed out a dragon who sought enlightenment. He's had time to live with the non-draconians and learned to study and appreciate them. I have to check the story agin but it's possible that he never actually said to have the old records burned, just banned them. Still bad but not as horrid as destroying knowledge entirely. It's also possible that he suspected someone was going to find them one day.
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
Fun is definitely a word. Not the one I'd pick, but still a word.
My personal head canon now is Bolas wanted Ugin gone so people wouldn't confuse him with these neo-elder dragons
On the other hand, if wizards changes "Commander" back to EDH, I might forgive them for this retcon...
Pretty much. It's important to remember that the Dragon Scroll wasn't just a "how to" manual for Ghostfire. It was also a map to Zendikar.
Aside from that, the Jeskai Scroll didn't exist until the khans were threatened by the dragonbroods taking over the clans.
And in fairness, Ugin seems pretty connected to the Temur as well as the Jeskai so...
| C Affinity | RWG Burn |
EDH:
| UBG Tasigur / Damia V-Wealth | WU Brago, Flicker and Value | WB Teysa's Orzhov Aristocrats | RG Omnath, Landfall of Rage | RC Daretti |
I'm wondering what happens to all planeswalker visits to Tarkir in these 1280 years, clearly the Hedron doesn't isolate Tarkir from the multiverse like Memnarch (largely) did for Mirrodin / O-Kagachi (largely) did for Kamigawa / First Guildpact did for Ravnica (since Zendikar was acessible with the hedron active) and 1280 years of no oldwalkers accessing an accessible plane, accidental or not, doesn't sound right.
So... did they land in Tarkir 1.0 or 1.1? Since Sarkhan's move altered only the course of Tarkir, does it mean a planeswalker's memories of Tarkir completely gets retcon'ed in their heads and they all now remember the actions they "did but never did" on Tarkir 1.1 instead of 1.0?
Since the Dragon Scroll has Ugin's knowledge and a map of Zendikar on it, unless Ugin wrote it himself (Which I personally think of it as unlikely, how big was the scroll in size?) it means whoever wrote the scroll has been to both Zendikar and Tarkir within this 1280 years. Nahiri never knew of Tarkir, Sorin and Sarkhan reached Tarkir and Zendikar respectively too late to have done that.
Even if Ugin wrote the scroll, it must have been for Sorin or Nahiri at best, we all know Ugin doesn't want to release the Eldrazi, so why write the secret at all - only plausible reason was in case the Eldrazi really needed to be released and he wasn't around, at least Sorin and Nahiri could find a pyromancer planeswalker to attempt it with instructions. I can't imagine any one of those 3 "accidentally" losing the scroll or donating it to another plane as a museum piece, which is why I think the Dragon Scroll had nothing to do with the 3 planeswalkers.
Considering that the Dragon Scroll was a lot less detailed, so it seems more likely that whoever wrote it ran out of paper, took out a map of Zendikar instead and scribbled on it vaguely copying the Shu Yun Scroll - Zendikar's environment changes all the time, so the accuracy of the map is not an indicator of whether it was a real map or a copied one. Of course, I don't think it was that much of a coincidence - whoever wrote it was conscious of the Hedrons on Zendikar.
I think someone else once upon a time landed on Zendikar, could read the Draconian and eventually found Tarkir to learn the secrets of Ghostfire. Why that person donated/sold/dropped that scroll away instead of unsealing the Eldrazi after all that work is confusing though (considering Ugin wasn't around either timeline to do any convincing). It's possible that the walker was along the lines of Dack Fayden and wasn't exactly interested in the the Eldrazi, but getting/creating valuable knowledge and artifacts.
| C Affinity | RWG Burn |
EDH:
| UBG Tasigur / Damia V-Wealth | WU Brago, Flicker and Value | WB Teysa's Orzhov Aristocrats | RG Omnath, Landfall of Rage | RC Daretti |
Unless Ugin was very generous in teaching the art of Ghostfire (and considering how the Jeskai are treating it as their best secret, I don't think he would be that generous elsewhere), the only ways to learn Ghostfire before the Dragon Scroll was either from Ugin or the Jeskai. So chances are you'll need to have visited Tarkir to have been able to scribble down the Dragon Scroll in the first place.
The Dragon Scroll doesn't indicate the Eldrazi, but it proves whoever wrote the Scroll has to have been on Zendikar. Shu Yun has never been on Zendikar clearly, so the two scrolls are definitely not the same. Considering that the Dragon Scroll wasn't exactly clear on Ghostfire instructions supports that (Shu Yun's scroll seemed to be at least a lot more detailed, since it carries history as well), so it implies the Dragon Scroll is literally a "copied in a hurry" copy of Shu Yun's scroll, with only the relevant parts of casting. But to be copied onto a map of Zendikar doesn't feel like a mere coincidence at all - whoever did that was consciously doing it, for reasons yet unknown. Of course, how it landed in the Sanctum of Stars is probably a separate, long story.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
I was assume this was post-Khanfall, so only 1 copy was left after Ojutai destroyed the rest. It is possible that the visit was made between 1280 to 6000 years ago, where there were more of those scrolls.
But the main point was the Dragon Scroll was literally someone copying a Jeskai Scroll onto a Zendikar Map. Whoever copied that had to visit Zendikar first (or was from there) and deemed the scroll to be not enough importance to lose it or donate it to the Sanctum of the Stars.
The thing that makes me think the scroll was "recent" (at least post-Khanfall) though, was that Garruk could recognize the map. Considering Zendikar's landscape changes all the time, the map couldn't have been too far back in time. Of course, maybe Garruk got a extremely outdated map when he visited Zendikar from a Goblin there...
No, it was clearly of Zendikari origins, but it was apparently written in Draconic, meaning that it pretty much had to be Ugin or someone copying Ugin's work to have written it.
As a fun little thing though, the Dragon Scroll was part of a set (as can be seen in Fuel for the Fire) and its path was ALWAYS anchored on Zendikar.
http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/stf/74
This talks about some of the Dragon Scrolls history.
Of the two, it would probably be Nahiri... and quite frankly, it isn't looking like she's still around, so if it was in her possession, could have been part of the things lost after her disappearance.
It isn't a map OF Zendikar... it's a map TO Zendikar.
Check the webcomic "The Veil's Curse" and the Purifying Fire for those details.
Well to be fair, it's hard to believe that ALL the trees depicted in Abzan art are kin-trees. Otherwise there would be so many Abzan families, that it would probably account for the entire population of Tarkir. I'd expect many of the trees we had seen in the fortresses to be merely aesthetical or even agricultural. Note that Daghatar decreed to uproot the kin-trees, not all the plants the Abzan cultivated.
I could imagine the confusion on her stony face.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
I apologize for any errors I've made - I don't have a clear memory of the exact details of some of these aspects, so thanks for clearing the up, so I can refine what I think happened.
Actually, since it's a map TO Zendikar, it establishes that whoever wrote the scroll must more or less be a planeswalker and since pretty much only planeswalkers would draw maps to planes, the map and manual together must be intentional. Although I wonder why would Nahiri need a map to Zendikar if she's definitely capable of returning to Zendikar without any issues - I would actually think Sorin would need the map more, relatively speaking.
I still am not very convinced Ugin wrote the scroll, although by process of elimination he's the most likely to have done so left, it doesn't seem like a smart move in any way to just cryptically leave a hint behind to unseal the Eldrazi at all. Plus I'm not too sure if oldwalkers, given their powers then, could easily master Draconic. But I think I'll just leave it there, still too little information.
EDIT: Actually being part of a set seems to imply the writer's interest at artifacts/knowledge of power, so whoever wrote the scroll did get the link between the Hedrons and Ghostfire and investigated enough to learn Ghostfire through Draconic somehow, but either had no interest or wasn't aware of the Eldrazi prison at all. We don't know what the rest of the set does, right? (I don't recall anything concerning the others).
I would agree about the EDH/Commander thing, but unfortunately the name "Highlander" in Elder Dragon Highlander is copywriten to another company, and official use of that fan-name for that format would result in WotC and Hasbro being sued.
Also, I don't see choosing to "elder" for these dragons as a retcon. The older Elder dragons aren't somehow different because the term elder is used differently in reference to another group of dragons here. Using "elder" here creates a degree of semantic confusion, and the jury's still out for me as to whether it was a good idea or not, but I don't think this qualifies as a retcon.
Doug Beyer's explanation that "these are the elder dragons of Tarkir just like the previous ones were the elder dragons of Dominaria" is satifying enough for me
Not all elder dragons have to be comparable power-level wise and it's hard to be harsh on WotC considering how far they've come in their stories: I'd rather they not be shackled by what was done 20 years ago by people who didn't really know what they were doing (the guys making Legends). People who care about the story are getting a bit of a bone thrown at us (clearly the Tarkir edler dragons are very powerful: both the ones we've seen punish planeswalkers cards), it's nice to have bad-ass dragons that matter once again outside of Bolas.
People asking questions is fine and expecting reasonnable answers is also fine; I feel we were given a reasonnable explanation as to why the term was used.
Also, Taigam is a jerk. Nothing new there.
She's more obsessive than impulsive. Obsession -- which tends toward both blue and green -- can often seem as impulsiveness since it causes one to not fully consider the consequences of his or her actions. She's very WU.
Also, if I didn't know that Scroll Rack was too busted for Standard (and Modern), I would swear that one of those images could have been used for a reprint.
I hope she meets up with Tamiyo. Those two would get lost in study for YEARS.
Are you sure? I thought it softened Ojutai significantly. His reaction to her finding out the truth was to encourage her further.
Narset seemed very UR to me in this story.
UR Blue-Red Control
Modern:
UBR Grixis Control
UWR Jeskai Control
I also find this current depiction of Ojutai more likeable than in Khanfall. It's less nineteen eighty-four "Big Brother" white-blue and more, well, Great Teacher. It's a bit problematic for me, though, to see him do a 180 turn from banning all knowledge of past Tarkir to being chill with Narset knowing the truth
Seriously, that could be one of the most intense, but quiet, planeswalker friendships ever (and you know something, we don't really see ANY of those). The walkers are generally kind of antagonistic towards one another. I really want to see some buddies show up now that I think about it. We summon Planeswalkers pretty easily. I wonder what it would be like if we got a story where one walker could summon another as back up as part of a close friendship. Narset and Tamiyo or Narset and Sarkhan are the most likely duo for that idea.
Also, in response to the change in Ojutai's personality, I found that interesting too. I'd hope that almost 1300 years would have mellowed out a dragon who sought enlightenment. He's had time to live with the non-draconians and learned to study and appreciate them. I have to check the story agin but it's possible that he never actually said to have the old records burned, just banned them. Still bad but not as horrid as destroying knowledge entirely. It's also possible that he suspected someone was going to find them one day.