I thought Wizards were wiser but no, they just killed part of uniqueness of Nicol Bolas).
They didn't really kill it so much as confused the matter. It's not elegant and I'm certainly miffed with the decision, but I'm finding it hard to be really mad. I am deeply deeply annoyed though.
I feel the same on one hand. On the other Elder is a very flavorful term and its kinda nice that we might get Elder on a few cards in the future. HOWEVER I do agree putting Creature- Dragon Elder would have worked better. And lets face it these are Wizards "toys" they can name/do with them whatever they want, its not like a bunch of people are gonna quit magic over this.
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For Akki_Akki, Its fine. This one time Akki_Akki will personally let the Rule of Cool go by scott-free. Normally outrage but as long as they didn't expand beyond the now seven alive from two Elder Dragons, Akki_Akki feels it is fine. If more did get printed Akki_Akki will expect those even newer Elder Dragons to be printed ten years minimum from now and even then that would be way too soon for Akki_Akki's liking.
I thought Wizards were wiser but no, they just killed part of uniqueness of Nicol Bolas).
They didn't really kill it so much as confused the matter. It's not elegant and I'm certainly miffed with the decision, but I'm finding it hard to be really mad. I am deeply deeply annoyed though.
its not like a bunch of people are gonna quit magic over this.
Actually, between this and all the other retcons over the past few years, I just might.
Willy nilly use of terms that are loaded with meaning, like Elder Dragon, may seem cool, but it not only lessens the value of the term, but leads readers to assign less importance to other loaded terms, because it signals that those in charge of the story either don't care, or aren't talented enough to spin a tale worth caring about.
^This.
Yes, we get that they're not ElderDragons, they're elder Dragons, but of all the synonyms, why choose one with so much baggage and history? I mean, it's like... if you call someone the "Great Helmsman" in China, then it seems like you're comparing him to Mao Zedong, even if it's just a guy who happens to be very good at steering a ship. Using "Elder Dragon" instead of even "Dragon Elder" shows a stunning lack of concern for the Magic storyline before the Mending.
Like, how about "Dragon God"? We literally just had a whole God cycle.
Pfft. If it doesn't cost 3 different color mana in your upkeep, 8 mana of 3 different color, and be 7/7, it ain't an Elder Dragon.
Also, agree on the flavor fail of zombie djinn. Djinn's don't really have corpses, do they? They live in lamps.
It's like Graveborn Muse being a zombie spirt. One day Suzy and Betty died. Suzy became a spirit and got buried. Betty had her corpse reanimated, and then died again and became the spirit of a zombie. What happened to the spirit in between? Do only some zombies have souls?
I think they messed up this time. No buenos for Wizards. I figured it was the right time to reintroduce/rebrand the "Lord" class.
They also assumed we're stupid. The name "Dragonlord" already suggests that said dragon is possibly the most powerful, or at least the highest ranking being in his/her respective brood. There's absolutely no need to add in the "Elder" part.
Flavor text can also help shape the storyline, or represent growth and increased stature over the millennia they've been in power.
Being an Elder means they should be transcended beyond their own dragonhood, but it's clear they haven't, so this is certainly a weird decision.
Elder and Dragon are creature type designations and there is a set format to which order they are presented. If Ugin was printed as legendary creature, typecasting conventions would either cast him as "Dragon," "Elder Dragon," or "Dragon Spirit," not, as you assume, "Spirit Dragon." Ugin being the Spirit Dragon is only his title, not his mechanical creature type.
Ugin, if he had a creature type box, would still be "Dragon Spirit," but ONLY due to naming conventions used to unify the 10000+ card pool that magic possesses.
Whether they messed or not will be determined by how generally popular these cards will be amongst Magic players. If Silumgar is anything to go by, I'd say WoTC did not mess up at all.
Sorry to be the Melvin in the group here But there is mechanical baggage to creature types, even if sometimes those baggage don't immediately show up now. For example, we are introduced to the Naga creature type, and even if we don't have Naga matters cards in Tarkir blog, that "naga" is now a creature types opens doors to "naga" matters cards in the future.
This is why WoTC actually tries NOT to make new creature types unless absolutely necessary. In that light, the only extant creature type that can emphasize the importance of these dragons in the Tarkiri ecosystem is "Elder."
If you are standing in the shoes of WoTC R/D and Creative, this is not a weird decision at all.
Sorry to be the Melvin in the group here But there is mechanical baggage to creature types, even if sometimes those baggage don't immediately show up now. For example, we are introduced to the Naga creature type, and even if we don't have Naga matters cards in Tarkir blog, that "naga" is now a creature types opens doors to "naga" matters cards in the future.
This is why WoTC actually tries NOT to make new creature types unless absolutely necessary. In that light, the only extant creature type that can emphasize the importance of these dragons in the Tarkiri ecosystem is "Elder."
If you are standing in the shoes of WoTC R/D and Creative, this is not a weird decision at all.
As I mentioned - how about "God"? or "Dragon Elder"?
I'm not too sure I follow you on the format, anyway. If said creature is a Dragon who is an elder of his race, then wouldn't he be a Dragon Elder not a Elder Dragon? Like a Human Wizard rather than a Wizard Human.
The rule of cool is a trap that kills long term storylines and franchises. Maro is actually aware of this, which is why he constantly emphasizes not giving players what they want if its bad for the game. The more retconning you do, and the more often you do it, the worse it is for the story. Willy nilly use of terms that are loaded with meaning, like Elder Dragon, may seem cool, but it not only lessens the value of the term, but leads readers to assign less importance to other loaded terms, because it signals that those in charge of the story either don't care, or aren't talented enough to spin a tale worth caring about. You set up rules in a story so the reader can form expectations, and if you break the rules too often the reader stops caring, and the dumber your story looks. You can do it every once in a while, but only when it is necessary or else you'll cheapen the franchise. Now, to clarify, when I say reader expectations, I don't mean how they expect the story to play out, I mean how they expect the story to follow its own internal logic and to remain consistent. Star Wars fans hated midichlorians because the long established logic behind the force was that it was a magical connection between all things. Midichlorians violated that logic for no good reason, and that pissed off fans. Magic's storyline has done that with increasing frequency. Retconning for no good reason, and with no good payoff, pisses off dedicated fans far more than it woos new fans.
Rules and internal logic are important for creating tension and suspension of disbelief. You care that Han Solo is being lowered into the chamber to be frozen in carbonite, because he can't just force jump out of the pit and punch Vader in the throat. If he suddenly did, despite not having that ability previously, the movie would suck. You care that Frodo has to walk to Mount Doom, because he has to cross dangerous territory, and the Ring's invisibility won't hide him from Sauron. If he found a magic portal in the Grey Marshes to take him there, the story would suck. Harry Potter would suck if there was a spell to just kill Voldemort that Harry could cast from his Aunt and Uncle's house before playing some Xbox. Rule of cool too often is an excuse to allow lazy writers to do something they want without having it make sense. Rule of cool gave us pod racing. People loved it at first, then turned on it, because while it was a cool idea, Lucas didn't put the work into justifying it. Had there been a better set up and presentation, it would have worked. Had it been a side project, it would have worked. Rule of Cool gave us Jar Jar, because wouldn't it be cool to have an all CGI main character? Had he put the work into justifying it, it would have been, but he trusted its innate coolness, and failed.
Doug's justification boils down to "its cool", but its really just lazy. They could have justified it by saying that they are now actual Elder Dragons, having siphoned power from the tempests to approach the strength of the original Elders, but no, that would have required work and commitment.
THANK.YOU.FOR.THIS.
This comment totally puts what I am thinking much more eloquently about these couple of changes they are applying with pre-Mending stuffs.
The desire of having the Post-Mending Magic Continuity be an alternate world just grows stronger within me if they continue going with these kind of things. (Though if these ends up making male angels a thing, then I might just relent...)
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Serra Stan - Angel Enthusiast - Garruk and Tyvar thirsty follower - Flavor and Art Enthusiast
I do not understand why they haven't used a neutral term such as "Ancient Dragon". I mean...what is the point of borrowing a name and putting it in a different context if all they wanted to achieve is a showcase of age and power.
I do not understand why they haven't used a neutral term such as "Ancient Dragon". I mean...what is the point of borrowing a name and putting it in a different context if all they wanted to achieve is a showcase of age and power.
Well...not sure if there's an "Ancient" type. But "Dragon Elder" or "Dragon God" or "Dragon Avatar" could certainly work. At best, laziness. At worst, cheap thrills and shock value.
Elder and Dragon are creature type designations and there is a set format to which order they are presented. If Ugin was printed as legendary creature, typecasting conventions would either cast him as "Dragon," "Elder Dragon," or "Dragon Spirit," not, as you assume, "Spirit Dragon." Ugin being the Spirit Dragon is only his title, not his mechanical creature type.
Ugin, if he had a creature type box, would still be "Dragon Spirit," but ONLY due to naming conventions used to unify the 10000+ card pool that magic possesses.
Whether they messed or not will be determined by how generally popular these cards will be amongst Magic players. If Silumgar is anything to go by, I'd say WoTC did not mess up at all.
I'm not sure if you ever held a lifetime belief in something, or at least in an idea for a long period of time. Only to be debunked one fine day with a single paragraph of text. How would you feel?
I'm not speaking for myself (on this vorthosian matter) of course, but I do know how it feels to be completely stripped and shattered after investing so much time and effort in a particular belief/idea. That's how some people feel right now, and one day you could feel that way.
[quote from="Subbak »" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-storyline/597857-elder-dragons-are-back-is-that-a-good-thing?comment=47"]Plus, the old Elder Dragons are objectively terrible. /quote]
In terms of playability as cards, they were crap, but most creatures of that era are crap my modern standards. In terms of storyline, however, they are very important and still continue to be today (see Nicol Bolas).
Wizards COULD have found a way to convey the awesomeness of the Tarkir lords without retconning the elder dragons. Heck, even "Dragon Elder" would be acceptable. And yet, they didn't want to, or couldn't be bothered.
That's like...naming Gideon Jura Gerrard Jura because, you know, he is Gerrard, it's a cool name, and he is totally not that Gerrard, there are like so many Gerrards in the multiverse yo. Plus, you know, why should the name Gerrard be wasted on a crap card?
Okay, so the Elder Dragons on Tarkir are different from Elder Dragons on Dominaria. How is this not the same thing as Kamigawa goblins, who look nothing like regular goblins? Or even blue Innistrad zombies, or the switch from huge vampires to rather small vampires?
Because they weren't the elder dragons "of Dominaria". They were The Elder Dragons of the whole multiverse. Nicol Bolas and the others were even, apparently, older than Dominaria. They empire extended through multiple planes and they were the progenitors of dragons everywhere.
Okay, so the Elder Dragons on Tarkir are different from Elder Dragons on Dominaria. How is this not the same thing as Kamigawa goblins, who look nothing like regular goblins? Or even blue Innistrad zombies, or the switch from huge vampires to rather small vampires?
Because they weren't the elder dragons "of Dominaria". They were The Elder Dragons of the whole multiverse. Nicol Bolas and the others were even, apparently, older than Dominaria. They empire extended through multiple planes and they were the progenitors of dragons everywhere.
Where in the lore is any of this? Isn't even close to official canon anymore?
EDIT: How sad that wizards didn't think to keep the encyclopedias when they moved sites. Nothing worse than knowledge left to waste and be forgotten.
I don't see anything about the Elder Dragon Wars remaining canon past the revisionist era over 15 years ago. Nicol Bolas' age, power, original duel, and losing to Umezawa are all I can find in canon for him as well, but nothing referencing the other ones, their importance, or even their names. Even the Dragons of Magic don't go into detail past the Primevals.
I don't see anything about the Elder Dragon Wars remaining canon past the revisionist era over 15 years ago. Nicol Bolas' age, power, original duel, and losing to Umezawa are all I can find in canon for him as well, but nothing referencing the other ones, their importance, or even their names. Even the Dragons of Magic don't go into detail past the Primevals.
The Revisionist era is a bit of a problem in itself, because while they changed many of the preconceived notions established during that time, if they didn't directly address it, it was still considered canon. Out of the revision, it was mostly to set the stage for the Urza & Weatherlight saga by better defining the Brother's War and Phyrexia. Everything else is still canon despite coming from that era.
One could argue that they've changed Elder Dragon well well after the fact, except that still doesn't gel well because of the treatment they've given Bolas, which is built off of that history, though it doesn't reference his kin. Though he has mentioned they're all dead now and he killed some of them himself.
So nowhere does it say there are only 5 Elder Dragons ever right? Just that he's that there were only 5 that survived the Dragon War? This little bit of ambiguity and the immense amount of space for writing seems important.
Being a really old dragon doesn't make you an Elder as Niv Mizzet showed us. Being born from mystical mana storms and harnessing control over a whole brood might do.
As has been pointed out, this was all true for the Fate Reforged era dragonlords, and though I doubt being born from mystical mana storms has anything to do with it, Niv-Mizzet is a lot older than these kids and if being a long-running Ravnican guildmaster with a telepathic link to your entire guild doesn't count as harnessing control over a whole "brood," I don't know what does. I mean, the dragonlords harnessed control over their lesser dragon pals in Fate Reforged and the only thing that really seems to have changed since then is adding multi-species diversity to their broods, a la the Izzet League's diversity. Sure, Niv-Mizzet doesn't control any dragons of his own species, but neither does Nicol Bolas, and he still gets to be an Elder. And again, I doubt being born of the tempests has anything to do with it, as that's just the nature of non-Ugin Tarkiri dragons. If anything, the dragon tempests are evidence of Ugin being a true Elder, versus the new kids, as he is the progenitor of all dragons on, at least, this plane.
What if there was an exact condition for the "creation of Elder Dragons" and Ugin did it?
We only know that 5 Elder Dragons survived the Dragon War. Which means we only know there were more Elder Dragons before that. We don't know what created the Elder Dragons - they may be an entirely different species from dragons, but nothing implied they didn't "evolve" from "regular" dragons through some unknown method / some unknown force did that to them.
What if Ugin actually replicated the same processes that created Elder Dragons, including Nicol Bolas, without his own knowledge? The Dragonlords are old dragons, but they're young Elder Dragons, having been "re-created" the same way Nicol Bolas the Elder Dragon came into existence over 26,000 years ago?
Well, it was a gray area before and normally it shouldn't be raised, but with the Dragonlords revealed to be Neo-Elder-Dragons, I thought it now exists as a possibility - I didn't state any specific methods, just implying Ugin achieved the same thing whoever created Bolas did, except on a "smaller scale", which the Mending may or may not be involved in.
What if there was an exact condition for the "creation of Elder Dragons" and Ugin did it?
We only know that 5 Elder Dragons survived the Dragon War. Which means we only know there were more Elder Dragons before that. We don't know what created the Elder Dragons - they may be an entirely different species from dragons, but nothing implied they didn't "evolve" from "regular" dragons through some unknown method / some unknown force did that to them.
What if Ugin actually replicated the same processes that created Elder Dragons, including Nicol Bolas, without his own knowledge? The Dragonlords are old dragons, but they're young Elder Dragons, having been "re-created" the same way Nicol Bolas the Elder Dragon came into existence over 26,000 years ago?
Well, it was a gray area before and normally it shouldn't be raised, but with the Dragonlords revealed to be Neo-Elder-Dragons, I thought it now exists as a possibility - I didn't state any specific methods, just implying Ugin achieved the same thing whoever created Bolas did, except on a "smaller scale", which the Mending may or may not be involved in.
Again, we talk about 1000 years during which Ugin was inactive/near dead in hedron cocoon - it was said he didn't interfere with anything + Silumgar&co. were present during FRF and still weren't Elders. The question is: what could happen during the time to justify their change? The clear answer is nothing - we know that Ugin is in coffin, we know no other planeswalker interfered with Tarkir during that time significantly (we were told there is continuity in "{multiverse}-Tarkir") and we know that Niv-Mizzet is more old, wise and "awesome" then them and still is not an Elder Dragon - if anybody can give any logical event in this sense, I would be really surprised.
Precisely it was Ugin's non-interference that is the reason - Ugin's existence is the factor for the Dragonlords to exist, but his consciousness suppresses their "personality & outlook" to some extent. When Ugin is conscious, the Dragonlords must obey him. Now he's not, they're free to expand on their life, potentially "evolving".
Like mentioned earlier, we don't know what happened that resulted in the Elder Dragon Brood that Bolas was part of at all. For all we know, something greater than the Old Elder Dragons (the "Old-Ugin", so-to-speak) was the progenitor of this brood and was also "sealed", hence allowing the First Elder Dragon Broods to be created. I'm not implying this was the exact, correct case, I'm implying everything that has happened to Ugin and the Neo-Elder-Dragons happened all those years back in Dominia - I cannot specify on any process because there is no evidence at all, but the end result is undoubtedly the same - Elder Dragons. The fact they're unique and not considered as just "really old" dragons means something specific must happen.
Of course, it's possible what Ugin did was totally different from the Creator of Bolas, with the same result, but that has as much evidence as using the same method (near-to-none), since we don't know the original method to creating Elder Dragons.
Why this only happened to Dominia/Tarkir is an issue though.
Niv-Mizzet seemed to be a natural-born dragon on Ravnica, not created by a Tempest Storm of a being that transcended the colors of mana, at the very least.
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I feel the same on one hand. On the other Elder is a very flavorful term and its kinda nice that we might get Elder on a few cards in the future. HOWEVER I do agree putting Creature- Dragon Elder would have worked better. And lets face it these are Wizards "toys" they can name/do with them whatever they want, its not like a bunch of people are gonna quit magic over this.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I just said that a page ago...
Actually, between this and all the other retcons over the past few years, I just might.
^This.
Yes, we get that they're not ElderDragons, they're elder Dragons, but of all the synonyms, why choose one with so much baggage and history? I mean, it's like... if you call someone the "Great Helmsman" in China, then it seems like you're comparing him to Mao Zedong, even if it's just a guy who happens to be very good at steering a ship. Using "Elder Dragon" instead of even "Dragon Elder" shows a stunning lack of concern for the Magic storyline before the Mending.
Like, how about "Dragon God"? We literally just had a whole God cycle.
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Also, agree on the flavor fail of zombie djinn. Djinn's don't really have corpses, do they? They live in lamps.
It's like Graveborn Muse being a zombie spirt. One day Suzy and Betty died. Suzy became a spirit and got buried. Betty had her corpse reanimated, and then died again and became the spirit of a zombie. What happened to the spirit in between? Do only some zombies have souls?
That being said, Tarkir's djinn and efreet are... weird. And we've NEVER gotten any actual explanation to them.
Only zombies who find somewhere safe to keep them.
They also assumed we're stupid. The name "Dragonlord" already suggests that said dragon is possibly the most powerful, or at least the highest ranking being in his/her respective brood. There's absolutely no need to add in the "Elder" part.
Flavor text can also help shape the storyline, or represent growth and increased stature over the millennia they've been in power.
Being an Elder means they should be transcended beyond their own dragonhood, but it's clear they haven't, so this is certainly a weird decision.
Bad day for Vorthos.
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Ugin, if he had a creature type box, would still be "Dragon Spirit," but ONLY due to naming conventions used to unify the 10000+ card pool that magic possesses.
Whether they messed or not will be determined by how generally popular these cards will be amongst Magic players. If Silumgar is anything to go by, I'd say WoTC did not mess up at all.
This is why WoTC actually tries NOT to make new creature types unless absolutely necessary. In that light, the only extant creature type that can emphasize the importance of these dragons in the Tarkiri ecosystem is "Elder."
If you are standing in the shoes of WoTC R/D and Creative, this is not a weird decision at all.
As I mentioned - how about "God"? or "Dragon Elder"?
I'm not too sure I follow you on the format, anyway. If said creature is a Dragon who is an elder of his race, then wouldn't he be a Dragon Elder not a Elder Dragon? Like a Human Wizard rather than a Wizard Human.
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Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
THANK.YOU.FOR.THIS.
This comment totally puts what I am thinking much more eloquently about these couple of changes they are applying with pre-Mending stuffs.
The desire of having the Post-Mending Magic Continuity be an alternate world just grows stronger within me if they continue going with these kind of things. (Though if these ends up making male angels a thing, then I might just relent...)
Serra Stan - Angel Enthusiast - Garruk and Tyvar thirsty follower - Flavor and Art Enthusiast
Well...not sure if there's an "Ancient" type. But "Dragon Elder" or "Dragon God" or "Dragon Avatar" could certainly work. At best, laziness. At worst, cheap thrills and shock value.
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mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
I'm not sure if you ever held a lifetime belief in something, or at least in an idea for a long period of time. Only to be debunked one fine day with a single paragraph of text. How would you feel?
I'm not speaking for myself (on this vorthosian matter) of course, but I do know how it feels to be completely stripped and shattered after investing so much time and effort in a particular belief/idea. That's how some people feel right now, and one day you could feel that way.
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
In terms of playability as cards, they were crap, but most creatures of that era are crap my modern standards. In terms of storyline, however, they are very important and still continue to be today (see Nicol Bolas).
Wizards COULD have found a way to convey the awesomeness of the Tarkir lords without retconning the elder dragons. Heck, even "Dragon Elder" would be acceptable. And yet, they didn't want to, or couldn't be bothered.
That's like...naming Gideon Jura Gerrard Jura because, you know, he is Gerrard, it's a cool name, and he is totally not that Gerrard, there are like so many Gerrards in the multiverse yo. Plus, you know, why should the name Gerrard be wasted on a crap card?
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mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
Because they weren't the elder dragons "of Dominaria". They were The Elder Dragons of the whole multiverse. Nicol Bolas and the others were even, apparently, older than Dominaria. They empire extended through multiple planes and they were the progenitors of dragons everywhere.
Where in the lore is any of this? Isn't even close to official canon anymore?
I don't see anything about the Elder Dragon Wars remaining canon past the revisionist era over 15 years ago. Nicol Bolas' age, power, original duel, and losing to Umezawa are all I can find in canon for him as well, but nothing referencing the other ones, their importance, or even their names. Even the Dragons of Magic don't go into detail past the Primevals.
The Revisionist era is a bit of a problem in itself, because while they changed many of the preconceived notions established during that time, if they didn't directly address it, it was still considered canon. Out of the revision, it was mostly to set the stage for the Urza & Weatherlight saga by better defining the Brother's War and Phyrexia. Everything else is still canon despite coming from that era.
One could argue that they've changed Elder Dragon well well after the fact, except that still doesn't gel well because of the treatment they've given Bolas, which is built off of that history, though it doesn't reference his kin. Though he has mentioned they're all dead now and he killed some of them himself.
As has been pointed out, this was all true for the Fate Reforged era dragonlords, and though I doubt being born from mystical mana storms has anything to do with it, Niv-Mizzet is a lot older than these kids and if being a long-running Ravnican guildmaster with a telepathic link to your entire guild doesn't count as harnessing control over a whole "brood," I don't know what does. I mean, the dragonlords harnessed control over their lesser dragon pals in Fate Reforged and the only thing that really seems to have changed since then is adding multi-species diversity to their broods, a la the Izzet League's diversity. Sure, Niv-Mizzet doesn't control any dragons of his own species, but neither does Nicol Bolas, and he still gets to be an Elder. And again, I doubt being born of the tempests has anything to do with it, as that's just the nature of non-Ugin Tarkiri dragons. If anything, the dragon tempests are evidence of Ugin being a true Elder, versus the new kids, as he is the progenitor of all dragons on, at least, this plane.
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We only know that 5 Elder Dragons survived the Dragon War. Which means we only know there were more Elder Dragons before that. We don't know what created the Elder Dragons - they may be an entirely different species from dragons, but nothing implied they didn't "evolve" from "regular" dragons through some unknown method / some unknown force did that to them.
What if Ugin actually replicated the same processes that created Elder Dragons, including Nicol Bolas, without his own knowledge? The Dragonlords are old dragons, but they're young Elder Dragons, having been "re-created" the same way Nicol Bolas the Elder Dragon came into existence over 26,000 years ago?
Well, it was a gray area before and normally it shouldn't be raised, but with the Dragonlords revealed to be Neo-Elder-Dragons, I thought it now exists as a possibility - I didn't state any specific methods, just implying Ugin achieved the same thing whoever created Bolas did, except on a "smaller scale", which the Mending may or may not be involved in.
Wizards is playing the role of Ojutai. Funny that they created a refection of themselves in the very game we play.
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
Precisely it was Ugin's non-interference that is the reason - Ugin's existence is the factor for the Dragonlords to exist, but his consciousness suppresses their "personality & outlook" to some extent. When Ugin is conscious, the Dragonlords must obey him. Now he's not, they're free to expand on their life, potentially "evolving".
Like mentioned earlier, we don't know what happened that resulted in the Elder Dragon Brood that Bolas was part of at all. For all we know, something greater than the Old Elder Dragons (the "Old-Ugin", so-to-speak) was the progenitor of this brood and was also "sealed", hence allowing the First Elder Dragon Broods to be created. I'm not implying this was the exact, correct case, I'm implying everything that has happened to Ugin and the Neo-Elder-Dragons happened all those years back in Dominia - I cannot specify on any process because there is no evidence at all, but the end result is undoubtedly the same - Elder Dragons. The fact they're unique and not considered as just "really old" dragons means something specific must happen.
Of course, it's possible what Ugin did was totally different from the Creator of Bolas, with the same result, but that has as much evidence as using the same method (near-to-none), since we don't know the original method to creating Elder Dragons.
Why this only happened to Dominia/Tarkir is an issue though.
Niv-Mizzet seemed to be a natural-born dragon on Ravnica, not created by a Tempest Storm of a being that transcended the colors of mana, at the very least.