A couple of other cards serve as background, accompanying and adding atmosphere. Like Dispel, Hedron Archive, Courier Griffin etc. But these five are the official ones.
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100% Vorthos Spike and Storyline Expert
Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
I don't want to sound as if I didn't like it because I did, but the writing was really bad. First of all there is no sense of scale, I mean you look at the cards but if the cards weren't there you would have problems imagining everything. That makes the writing too dependent on the art and bad a giving you a sense of the geography, the size of the allies army, how many eldrazi were in there or what kind of eldrazi were there, and all the action was cluttered in small sections of text lacking proper descriptions. I'm not super fan of Tolkien but the writer should take a note from his texts which are properly written.
Secondly, I can't believe Gideon would just charge the first day with no plan, you don't need to be a master strategist to understand that given how allegedly different is the allies army and how structurally complex the eldrazi are, you can't just throw yourself there. I think it's too evident but whatever. I think there could be a lot of better ways of telling how Gideon learned to think more strategically without him having to lost that many soldiers -in fact, the writing is so bad that it is difficult to perceive how big their losses were-, Gideon could have suffered an insurrection of sorts from their troops too afraid to just charge into the eldrazis and then having to calm his men down devising a convincing strategy, but bleh.
Yet after Kiora appeared I just had a smile on my face and stopped paying attention to the awful writing, Wizards really have some great characters here. I really hope they get better writers for the next Uncharted Realms, or at least please get the current ones to writing 101 classes.
What a tease wizards! You know, if they hadn't leaked the info earlier, I'd be really excited for Nov. 18th right now. Actually, I am kinda excited.
This story was alright, not overly exciting. I do like how things came together, albeit a little deus ex machina for my tastes.
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A giant dork. Who likes to eat with forks. Never used a spork.
Decks: Casual R Burn R
EDH R Godo Voltron R RUG ETB Overload RUG BW Clerics Pain and Drain BW GW Spirits!!! GW RUG Landfall Silliness RUG
I like the hindsight going on in here. Yes, in retrospect, Gideon really should have had a plan, but honestly, how many of us really would have come up with a real strategy?
That aside, what rubs me the wrong way is that apparently Tazri has a lot of military expertise, which does not make any sense, because Zendikar doesn't have any large armies. There are no wars to be fought, because everyone is too busy looting ruins or surviving the roil. The Zendikari shouldn't even know of the concept of large-scale warfare. So that is odd. It would have been better if Gideon had to look for advice elsewhere, maybe even going off world to an old mentor of his (On Bant, Ravnica or whereever) because Tazri shouldn't have the knowledge she has.
Also, I really would have loved an UR just dedicated to all the commanders hatching a battle plan. Why can't we have Drana and Noyan interact with more characters. Why?!
PS: Did anyone else notice Kiora in that previously unknown art? What is she doing in a picture with other nameless people without even taking the spotlight. It looks like she's just a random bystander, but it is definitely her as evidenced by the bident and her crown-tiara-sapphire-thing. So weird.
Gideon didn't leave because he promised he wouldn't. Also I wouldn't call Tazri's advice military experience. The things she said we're pretty basic to anyone who was watching.
Gideon did have a plan in the first assault. Wedge formation, drive forward to Sea Gate. It fell apart because he as the rallying point and commander got to far away.
Oh and on the note of Tazri: someone mentioned that she was faking being an angel or something a couple pages back. That's not the case. She definitely is an angel.
So here is the image of Sea Gate from a long time ago:
Where is the city part? On the other end of the wall? Behind the lighthouse?
The UR says that "A third of the wall was rubble, and another third was chalky dust," but this is "the outer wall of Sea Gate," so is that some not-pictured city wall? It seems like the area would be in some trouble if 2/3rds of the damn wall was gone, but then again I don't really know why they have a dam here.
I like the hindsight going on in here. Yes, in retrospect, Gideon really should have had a plan, but honestly, how many of us really would have come up with a real strategy?
I mean at least I would have tried to put together a strategy.
Read last week's story. It was pretty okay, but only "okay" because Noyan isn't my cup of tea. I can see why others would like him though, since he's delightfully condescending. I wish they would've done more stories like this one from the perspective of random people on Zendikar instead of Walkers every week when there's clearly not that much there in said walkers.
Read this week's story. First of all, they needed to describe the landscape. If the land is only a massive plane, then Gideon had no choice but to push forward since there's no "safe" way of proceeding when it's just flatlands. Nah, this isn't on Gideon. And, you know, if Akros' army is anything like the Spartans on which they're based, flatland combat is what Gideon is most used to. We know he trained on Bant, which is probably the worst army in Magic since they believe so strongly in single combat and honor. Here we have Gideon who's used to battles on flatlands, leading an army into the flatlands and assuming they'll be able to carry their weight. It's really on his support, like Tazri, to give him reports on who's with them and what they can do. It's not the general's job to go interview every soldier. Her acting all high and mighty is annoying as hell, and I wouldn't fault him for punching her out.
By the way, you know who leads exactly like Gideon? Darth Vader. The Stormtroopers idolize him because he's out in the frontlines with them leading the charge. Because they're an organized unit, while Vader is cutting into enemy lines, they hold formation and support him. Gideon expects at least that much, but the soldiers weren't good enough.
Anyway, to sum up, the story did a poor job of conveying the situation clearly and we had to take it's word for Gideon messing up. This story's also guilty of what all the other stories are: the Eldrazi are boring, and they really shouldn't be judging by the effects, art and lore. I never got a sense of the loss either, since we were with Gideon the whole time and no named character actually died, so it failed in conveying a crushing loss. I don't like this story, but I don't hate it either. Just indifference, and that's the worst feeling to generate in your audience for your story's big climax.
Oh and on the note of Tazri: someone mentioned that she was faking being an angel or something a couple pages back. That's not the case. She definitely is an angel.
Tazri is human.
She was a brown-skinned woman in elaborate plate armor, adorned with small wings at her shoulders and a glowing metal ring like an angel's halo, but around her neck. A heavy, flanged mace hung at her belt.
As for Gideon's plan, it seemed like the writers tunneled in on one character's viewpoint and kind of...forgot that they had an ensemble cast.* Or forgot that we care about characters other than Gideon. Surely Gideon would have had to float this plan past Tazri and Munda to get all the soldiers together in one place to begin with? Why wouldn't they object then, before all the casualties? What about Drana and Noyan Dar? Their magical skills are wasted on this "run straight at the enemy" plan. I mean, I'm someone who likes Gideon as a character, and would still rather have had all of the characters get actual speaking lines, perhaps in a "war council" using the Kieran Yanner art, than a section of plot spent on Gideon reminiscing and angsting.
*Heck, this is a story with more named female than male characters that fails the Bechdel Test, because every single scene has Gideon in it.
To all the people who thought that Gideon would have a plan, I agree he should have... but it kind of makes sense he didn't.
This has been one of Gideon's problems from jump. He doesn't think large scale because he doesn't have to. His response to his friends all dying because he pissed off Erebos wasn't to get smarter as a tactician and be mindful of his hubris, it was to ensure nobody else got hurt by not letting anyone else help him. Gideon's been soloing this campaign for a good long while and he it's in character for him to have flubbed here. People said he should have learned something of strategy and tactics with the Boros but when would he have? He was protecting people in the gang war but he wasn't leading anyone. He wasn't planning any formations. He was a one man army the Boros let do what he wanted because it suited them. I will agree though that this was a missed opportunity to get some great character interactions with Tazri, Munda and Noyan Dar all together. I also was sad the roil mages didn't get direct and clear descriptions for their work in the battle. And seconded on the unnecessary Bechdel test fail
I'll agree the Tazri stuff MIGHT be a bit awkward about large scale battle stuff but I think it's explainable because she's extrapolating the army to being like an especially large adventuring party. Everyone has a role and a job to do and that's how they function. Also, the Eldrazi have been loose for a while. She's bound to have helped organize some of the smaller scale fighting against them before and seen what works.
Overall, okay story not great. Kiora showing up was really my favorite part.
WAY more excited for the new Commander stuff than I ought to be though.
This story was alright, not overly exciting. I do like how things came together, albeit a little deus ex machina for my tastes.
Magic has a few of deus ex machina moments, but this really wasn't any of them. Both Nissa and Kiora were known to head for seagate with their own armies. Even the seemingly timely arrival of Nissa is not a DEM, because the battle lasted for days and Kiora was not there during the initial assault but a few days later on their second attempt.
Gideon didn't leave because he promised he wouldn't. Also I wouldn't call Tazri's advice military experience. The things she said we're pretty basic to anyone who was watching.
How many of the people here realized that Gideon's strategy was lacking or wrong or indeed what he should have changed, before Tazri pointed it out. I would say next to nobody. If you did, or someone else, hey props to you, but I think that the hindsight here is what makes most people go "It was obvious!"
She was a brown-skinned woman in elaborate plate armor, adorned with small wings at her shoulders and a glowing metal ring like an angel's halo, but around her neck. A heavy, flanged mace hung at her belt.
This actually is an interesting description though. A halo around her neck, wings adorning the shoulders on her armour? If she indeed turns out to be an angel in disguise, this is some sweet foreshadowing, if not it's a bit weird to mention all of that, especially since zendikari are not known to wear glowing rings reminiscent of halos or ornate battle armour.
*Heck, this is a story with more named female than male characters that fails the Bechdel Test, because every single scene has Gideon in it.
I don't think this is fair. The story focused on Gideon, so it's only natural that every character interacted with him or at least with other characters near him. The Bechdel test is a way to test the level of sexism in fiction, but if 3 of your main 5 characters are females, I don't think you can be accused of failing the Bechdel test. It's like judging a single scene in a movie whether or not it fails the test, regardless of the fact that it wouldn't even make any sense for a woman to appear in that particular scene, without looking at the whole movie.
As for Gideon's plan, it seemed like the writers tunneled in on one character's viewpoint and kind of...forgot that they had an ensemble cast.* Or forgot that we care about characters other than Gideon. Surely Gideon would have had to float this plan past Tazri and Munda to get all the soldiers together in one place to begin with? Why wouldn't they object then, before all the casualties? What about Drana and Noyan Dar? Their magical skills are wasted on this "run straight at the enemy" plan. I mean, I'm someone who likes Gideon as a character, and would still rather have had all of the characters get actual speaking lines, perhaps in a "war council" using the Kieran Yanner art, than a section of plot spent on Gideon reminiscing and angsting.
*Heck, this is a story with more named female than male characters that fails the Bechdel Test, because every single scene has Gideon in it.
Hmmm maybe I remembered it wrong. My bad.
It's interesting that you think that the writer focusing so hard on Gideon in the first attack was a flaw. I don't think it was. I think it was intentional to demonstrate that Gideon forgot about everyone else. For so long he's relied on only himself that he ignored the fact that he had an army and because of that he lost a substantial chunk of that army. It's WotC doing with Gideon what Marvel didn't do with Cap in Ultron, making him deal with his flaws and poor decisions. He tried so hard to take on the responsibility of protecting everyone because he's got a savior complex that he missed the point of being commander-general.
Now in the second attack they could have made more mention of other things. I think they did fine with the vampires even if they could have made a mention or two more of Drana. It's the roilshapers that really lost out here. They only got mentioned in their preparation ritual.
I think the worst part of the story was Nissas appearance. It was just kind of our of the blue.
I'm pretty sure the city's supposed to be on the other side of the dam, past the lake we see in the art of Gideon, Kiora, and the army. The Dam and the Wall are separate. What we're seeing in these pictures is the dam, while the wall blocks off the only land entrance to Sea Gate that doesn't pass over the mountains we see on both sides of the dam.
I'm guessing that when the Aligned Hedron Network fails, they'll stop Ulamog by breaking the dam, loosing the city again in the process.
Halimar isn't a natural sea. Surrounded on three sides by rocky cliffs, the fourth side is enclosed by an ancient Sea Gate. The seawall is more than 500 feet tall with a white-stone cylindrical tower (now used as a lighthouse) that soars an additional 350 feet into the air. Collectively, the seawall and lighthouse are known as the Sea Gate, the largest settlement in Tazeem.
The Lighthouse at Sea Gate
The city of Sea Gate is the closest thing to a hub of civilization in Tazeem. The city is nominally based around trade houses, with a central house for blacksmiths, coopers, butchers, etc. The flat space at the top of the sea wall is approximately 20 acres, and nearly every inch has been built up with houses and shops. Even the narrow corridors between the buildings are covered because of the risk of attacks from drakes and other aerial predators.At the eastern side of the sea gate stands the Lighthouse, a cylindrical tower that is the center of all learning in Tazeem. The Lighthouse has 20 floors and is a nexus for merfolk explorers/chroniclers. The walls are lined with leather scrolls filled with maps, spells, archeological finds, lists of plant and animal classifications, and theoretical discussions of The Roil.
So it is on top of the wall. Have they just drawn it wrong in the art? It clearly a bare surface in almost every image we see. Buildings of even a few levels should be easily visible.
Gideon didn't leave because he promised he wouldn't. Also I wouldn't call Tazri's advice military experience. The things she said we're pretty basic to anyone who was watching.
How many of the people here realized that Gideon's strategy was lacking or wrong or indeed what he should have changed, before Tazri pointed it out. I would say next to nobody. If you did, or someone else, hey props to you, but I think that the hindsight here is what makes most people go "It was obvious!"
Must admit I didn't realize Gideon's strategy was wrong. Didn't realize even that "chaaarge!" was entire strategy and not just what PoV and his group were doing. So when Tazri started blaming Gideon on not utilizing strongest sides of his people, it had the effect similar to if someone approached and said they should've organized sleeping places and latrines - "what do you mean it wasn't done before?".
So it is on top of the wall. Have they just drawn it wrong in the art? It clearly a bare surface in almost every image we see. Buildings of even a few levels should be easily visible.
It's a really big cliff, look at the images again.
In this image, you can see the buildings against the far end, and there is a lot of greenery near the lighthouse that more buildings are nestled in.
The buildings are really clear in this image. The blank space is where everything has been turned to the chalky dust (which doesn't help visibility since Sea Gate is also chalky white):
You can see the fires from the buildings in this one.
Now, most of it is either chalky dust, or it's been retconned to being along only portions of the wall. Based on the second image, it looks like most of sea gate is nestled on the far side of the lighthouse (you can tell because you can see bits from the lighthouse in the image of everything burning.
Huh, good catch on the fires being close to the lighthouse. Seems like a ridiculously inconvenient place for a city. Actually given that its blindingly white and on top of a cliff I wonder if the city of Sea Gate is inspired by Santorini.
"Halimar isn't a natural sea. Surrounded on three sides by rocky cliffs, the fourth side is enclosed by an ancient Sea Gate"
Wait. What? Three sides covered by cliffs and one side dammed by a gigantic wall? So where does the water come from? Do the cliffs have rivers that foment the artificial sea? Is it just raining water that keeps the sea alive?
Looking at the pictures it seems that the dam is actually damming the ocean. If that is the case, where does the water go to? Because it seems that the ocean and the sea should be at the same level unless the water can really quickly escape to some place else, otherwise it would acumulate between "cliff walls" and "huge white dam wall". Boy, this is confusing.
OBS: I say that the ocean and the sea are not at the same level because you can clearly notice a waterfall behind the Lighthouse in the pictures. A waterfall that is clearly coming from the ocean.
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"Halimar isn't a natural sea. Surrounded on three sides by rocky cliffs, the fourth side is enclosed by an ancient Sea Gate"
Wait. What? Three sides covered by cliffs and one side dammed by a gigantic wall? So where does the water come from? Do the cliffs have rivers that foment the artificial sea? Is it just raining water that keeps the sea alive?
I assume its fed by rivers and rain and the same stuff that maintains any other inland sea like the Caspian or Lake Superior. Also Zendikar in a plane where there are giant floating cups of water so there's that.
OBS: I say that the ocean and the sea are not at the same level because you can clearly notice a waterfall behind the Lighthouse in the pictures. A waterfall that is clearly coming from the ocean.
The water from the waterfall is definitely coming from Halimar, you can see the mountains beyond it. The art also suggests that Halimar it at the same depth as the sea, hundreds of feet below Sea Gate, which is really confusing.
OBS: I say that the ocean and the sea are not at the same level because you can clearly notice a waterfall behind the Lighthouse in the pictures. A waterfall that is clearly coming from the ocean.
The water from the waterfall is definitely coming from Halimar, you can see the mountains beyond it. The art also suggests that Halimar it at the same depth as the sea, hundreds of feet below Sea Gate, which is really confusing.
Wait wait. How can you say that Halimar is at the same level as the body of water on the other side of the Dam (that I assume is an Ocean)? If your interpretation of which side is Halimar is correct, then the body of water (the Ocean) on the other side is below Halimar's level. There is a waterfall from Halimar to this body of water, that would be the only reasonable explanation. And if the side that you said that is Halimar is, in fact, Halimar, then Ulamog is coming from the Ocean?
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OBS: I say that the ocean and the sea are not at the same level because you can clearly notice a waterfall behind the Lighthouse in the pictures. A waterfall that is clearly coming from the ocean.
The water from the waterfall is definitely coming from Halimar, you can see the mountains beyond it. The art also suggests that Halimar it at the same depth as the sea, hundreds of feet below Sea Gate, which is really confusing.
Wait wait. How can you say that Halimar is at the same level as the body of water on the other side of the Dam (that I assume is an Ocean)? If your interpretation of which side is Halimar is correct, then the body of water (the Ocean) on the other side is below Halimar's level. There is a waterfall from Halimar to this body of water, that would be the only reasonable explanation. And if the side that you said that is Halimar is, in fact, Halimar, then Ulamog is coming from the Ocean?
It has to be Halimar on the far side of Sea Gate because we can see the shore and because draining the ocean into Halimar neither makes sense nor seems entirely possible. That means Ulamog is coming from the ocean, yes.
I'm pointing out how strange the art it. It perspective suggests (to me at least) that Halimar and the ocean are at roughly the same level even though the waterfall requires Halimar to be nearly as high as the top of Sea Gate.
I'm pointing out how strange the art it. It perspective suggests (to me at least) that Halimar and the ocean are at roughly the same level even though the waterfall requires Halimar to be nearly as high as the top of Sea Gate.
Nah, I think they're at the same level.
Remember, this is a plane where we get spontaneous waterfalls from floating pieces of land all the time.
This is so weird. I thought Ulamog was on land, so it crossed the Ocean swimming to reach Sea Gate? Does that make sense given its original position when Jace found it?
From the picture with Gideon and Kiora staring at the eldrazi it seems to me that Halimar and the ocean are not at the same level (disconsidering the waterfall), but maybe it depends on how you look, since the perspective makes it hard to figure out.
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Ugin's Insight.
A couple of other cards serve as background, accompanying and adding atmosphere. Like Dispel, Hedron Archive, Courier Griffin etc. But these five are the official ones.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Secondly, I can't believe Gideon would just charge the first day with no plan, you don't need to be a master strategist to understand that given how allegedly different is the allies army and how structurally complex the eldrazi are, you can't just throw yourself there. I think it's too evident but whatever. I think there could be a lot of better ways of telling how Gideon learned to think more strategically without him having to lost that many soldiers -in fact, the writing is so bad that it is difficult to perceive how big their losses were-, Gideon could have suffered an insurrection of sorts from their troops too afraid to just charge into the eldrazis and then having to calm his men down devising a convincing strategy, but bleh.
Yet after Kiora appeared I just had a smile on my face and stopped paying attention to the awful writing, Wizards really have some great characters here. I really hope they get better writers for the next Uncharted Realms, or at least please get the current ones to writing 101 classes.
This story was alright, not overly exciting. I do like how things came together, albeit a little deus ex machina for my tastes.
Decks:
Casual
R Burn R
EDH
R Godo Voltron R
RUG ETB Overload RUG
BW Clerics Pain and Drain BW
GW Spirits!!! GW
RUG Landfall Silliness RUG
That aside, what rubs me the wrong way is that apparently Tazri has a lot of military expertise, which does not make any sense, because Zendikar doesn't have any large armies. There are no wars to be fought, because everyone is too busy looting ruins or surviving the roil. The Zendikari shouldn't even know of the concept of large-scale warfare. So that is odd. It would have been better if Gideon had to look for advice elsewhere, maybe even going off world to an old mentor of his (On Bant, Ravnica or whereever) because Tazri shouldn't have the knowledge she has.
Also, I really would have loved an UR just dedicated to all the commanders hatching a battle plan. Why can't we have Drana and Noyan interact with more characters. Why?!
PS: Did anyone else notice Kiora in that previously unknown art? What is she doing in a picture with other nameless people without even taking the spotlight. It looks like she's just a random bystander, but it is definitely her as evidenced by the bident and her crown-tiara-sapphire-thing. So weird.
Gideon did have a plan in the first assault. Wedge formation, drive forward to Sea Gate. It fell apart because he as the rallying point and commander got to far away.
Oh and on the note of Tazri: someone mentioned that she was faking being an angel or something a couple pages back. That's not the case. She definitely is an angel.
Where is the city part? On the other end of the wall? Behind the lighthouse?
The UR says that "A third of the wall was rubble, and another third was chalky dust," but this is "the outer wall of Sea Gate," so is that some not-pictured city wall? It seems like the area would be in some trouble if 2/3rds of the damn wall was gone, but then again I don't really know why they have a dam here.
I mean at least I would have tried to put together a strategy.
This picture suggests that the city of Sea Gate is on top of the wall but honestly that raises way more questions than it answers.
http://media.wizards.com/2015/images/daily/mhenbhvort.jpg
Read this week's story. First of all, they needed to describe the landscape. If the land is only a massive plane, then Gideon had no choice but to push forward since there's no "safe" way of proceeding when it's just flatlands. Nah, this isn't on Gideon. And, you know, if Akros' army is anything like the Spartans on which they're based, flatland combat is what Gideon is most used to. We know he trained on Bant, which is probably the worst army in Magic since they believe so strongly in single combat and honor. Here we have Gideon who's used to battles on flatlands, leading an army into the flatlands and assuming they'll be able to carry their weight. It's really on his support, like Tazri, to give him reports on who's with them and what they can do. It's not the general's job to go interview every soldier. Her acting all high and mighty is annoying as hell, and I wouldn't fault him for punching her out.
By the way, you know who leads exactly like Gideon? Darth Vader. The Stormtroopers idolize him because he's out in the frontlines with them leading the charge. Because they're an organized unit, while Vader is cutting into enemy lines, they hold formation and support him. Gideon expects at least that much, but the soldiers weren't good enough.
Anyway, to sum up, the story did a poor job of conveying the situation clearly and we had to take it's word for Gideon messing up. This story's also guilty of what all the other stories are: the Eldrazi are boring, and they really shouldn't be judging by the effects, art and lore. I never got a sense of the loss either, since we were with Gideon the whole time and no named character actually died, so it failed in conveying a crushing loss. I don't like this story, but I don't hate it either. Just indifference, and that's the worst feeling to generate in your audience for your story's big climax.
Your mods are terrified of me.
Tazri is human.
As for Gideon's plan, it seemed like the writers tunneled in on one character's viewpoint and kind of...forgot that they had an ensemble cast.* Or forgot that we care about characters other than Gideon. Surely Gideon would have had to float this plan past Tazri and Munda to get all the soldiers together in one place to begin with? Why wouldn't they object then, before all the casualties? What about Drana and Noyan Dar? Their magical skills are wasted on this "run straight at the enemy" plan. I mean, I'm someone who likes Gideon as a character, and would still rather have had all of the characters get actual speaking lines, perhaps in a "war council" using the Kieran Yanner art, than a section of plot spent on Gideon reminiscing and angsting.
*Heck, this is a story with more named female than male characters that fails the Bechdel Test, because every single scene has Gideon in it.
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This has been one of Gideon's problems from jump. He doesn't think large scale because he doesn't have to. His response to his friends all dying because he pissed off Erebos wasn't to get smarter as a tactician and be mindful of his hubris, it was to ensure nobody else got hurt by not letting anyone else help him. Gideon's been soloing this campaign for a good long while and he it's in character for him to have flubbed here. People said he should have learned something of strategy and tactics with the Boros but when would he have? He was protecting people in the gang war but he wasn't leading anyone. He wasn't planning any formations. He was a one man army the Boros let do what he wanted because it suited them. I will agree though that this was a missed opportunity to get some great character interactions with Tazri, Munda and Noyan Dar all together. I also was sad the roil mages didn't get direct and clear descriptions for their work in the battle. And seconded on the unnecessary Bechdel test fail
I'll agree the Tazri stuff MIGHT be a bit awkward about large scale battle stuff but I think it's explainable because she's extrapolating the army to being like an especially large adventuring party. Everyone has a role and a job to do and that's how they function. Also, the Eldrazi have been loose for a while. She's bound to have helped organize some of the smaller scale fighting against them before and seen what works.
Overall, okay story not great. Kiora showing up was really my favorite part.
WAY more excited for the new Commander stuff than I ought to be though.
Magic has a few of deus ex machina moments, but this really wasn't any of them. Both Nissa and Kiora were known to head for seagate with their own armies. Even the seemingly timely arrival of Nissa is not a DEM, because the battle lasted for days and Kiora was not there during the initial assault but a few days later on their second attempt.
How many of the people here realized that Gideon's strategy was lacking or wrong or indeed what he should have changed, before Tazri pointed it out. I would say next to nobody. If you did, or someone else, hey props to you, but I think that the hindsight here is what makes most people go "It was obvious!"
This actually is an interesting description though. A halo around her neck, wings adorning the shoulders on her armour? If she indeed turns out to be an angel in disguise, this is some sweet foreshadowing, if not it's a bit weird to mention all of that, especially since zendikari are not known to wear glowing rings reminiscent of halos or ornate battle armour.
I don't think this is fair. The story focused on Gideon, so it's only natural that every character interacted with him or at least with other characters near him. The Bechdel test is a way to test the level of sexism in fiction, but if 3 of your main 5 characters are females, I don't think you can be accused of failing the Bechdel test. It's like judging a single scene in a movie whether or not it fails the test, regardless of the fact that it wouldn't even make any sense for a woman to appear in that particular scene, without looking at the whole movie.
Hmmm maybe I remembered it wrong. My bad.
It's interesting that you think that the writer focusing so hard on Gideon in the first attack was a flaw. I don't think it was. I think it was intentional to demonstrate that Gideon forgot about everyone else. For so long he's relied on only himself that he ignored the fact that he had an army and because of that he lost a substantial chunk of that army. It's WotC doing with Gideon what Marvel didn't do with Cap in Ultron, making him deal with his flaws and poor decisions. He tried so hard to take on the responsibility of protecting everyone because he's got a savior complex that he missed the point of being commander-general.
Now in the second attack they could have made more mention of other things. I think they did fine with the vampires even if they could have made a mention or two more of Drana. It's the roilshapers that really lost out here. They only got mentioned in their preparation ritual.
I think the worst part of the story was Nissas appearance. It was just kind of our of the blue.
I'm pretty sure the city's supposed to be on the other side of the dam, past the lake we see in the art of Gideon, Kiora, and the army. The Dam and the Wall are separate. What we're seeing in these pictures is the dam, while the wall blocks off the only land entrance to Sea Gate that doesn't pass over the mountains we see on both sides of the dam.
I'm guessing that when the Aligned Hedron Network fails, they'll stop Ulamog by breaking the dam, loosing the city again in the process.
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[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
In this image, you can see the buildings against the far end, and there is a lot of greenery near the lighthouse that more buildings are nestled in.
The buildings are really clear in this image. The blank space is where everything has been turned to the chalky dust (which doesn't help visibility since Sea Gate is also chalky white):
You can see the fires from the buildings in this one.
Now, most of it is either chalky dust, or it's been retconned to being along only portions of the wall. Based on the second image, it looks like most of sea gate is nestled on the far side of the lighthouse (you can tell because you can see bits from the lighthouse in the image of everything burning.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santorini#/media/File:Santorini-20070808-058248-panorama-small.jpg
Looking at the pictures it seems that the dam is actually damming the ocean. If that is the case, where does the water go to? Because it seems that the ocean and the sea should be at the same level unless the water can really quickly escape to some place else, otherwise it would acumulate between "cliff walls" and "huge white dam wall". Boy, this is confusing.
OBS: I say that the ocean and the sea are not at the same level because you can clearly notice a waterfall behind the Lighthouse in the pictures. A waterfall that is clearly coming from the ocean.
Read my other stories as well (some ongoing):
Reaper King (a horror story), Kaalia of the Vast (an origin story), Sequels for Innistrad (Alternative sequels for Inn), Grey Areas (Odric's fanfic), Royal Succession (goblins),The Tracker's Message (eldrazi on Innistrad) and Ugin and his Eye (the end of OGW).
I assume its fed by rivers and rain and the same stuff that maintains any other inland sea like the Caspian or Lake Superior. Also Zendikar in a plane where there are giant floating cups of water so there's that.
The water from the waterfall is definitely coming from Halimar, you can see the mountains beyond it. The art also suggests that Halimar it at the same depth as the sea, hundreds of feet below Sea Gate, which is really confusing.
Wait wait. How can you say that Halimar is at the same level as the body of water on the other side of the Dam (that I assume is an Ocean)? If your interpretation of which side is Halimar is correct, then the body of water (the Ocean) on the other side is below Halimar's level. There is a waterfall from Halimar to this body of water, that would be the only reasonable explanation. And if the side that you said that is Halimar is, in fact, Halimar, then Ulamog is coming from the Ocean?
Read my other stories as well (some ongoing):
Reaper King (a horror story), Kaalia of the Vast (an origin story), Sequels for Innistrad (Alternative sequels for Inn), Grey Areas (Odric's fanfic), Royal Succession (goblins),The Tracker's Message (eldrazi on Innistrad) and Ugin and his Eye (the end of OGW).
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
It has to be Halimar on the far side of Sea Gate because we can see the shore and because draining the ocean into Halimar neither makes sense nor seems entirely possible. That means Ulamog is coming from the ocean, yes.
I'm pointing out how strange the art it. It perspective suggests (to me at least) that Halimar and the ocean are at roughly the same level even though the waterfall requires Halimar to be nearly as high as the top of Sea Gate.
A bay is only partially enclosed. It would have been a bay prior to Sea Gate, though.
Remember, this is a plane where we get spontaneous waterfalls from floating pieces of land all the time.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
From the picture with Gideon and Kiora staring at the eldrazi it seems to me that Halimar and the ocean are not at the same level (disconsidering the waterfall), but maybe it depends on how you look, since the perspective makes it hard to figure out.
Read my other stories as well (some ongoing):
Reaper King (a horror story), Kaalia of the Vast (an origin story), Sequels for Innistrad (Alternative sequels for Inn), Grey Areas (Odric's fanfic), Royal Succession (goblins),The Tracker's Message (eldrazi on Innistrad) and Ugin and his Eye (the end of OGW).