To me its a lose-lose situation for them. Nicol Bolas is Batman and Superman. He can plot and scheme the perfect plan for the Gatewatch if given time, but he also is very strong without planning required and would easily give them a run for their mana. Also Nicol Bolas has the homefield advantage and plenty of people who trust and look up to him.
I really loved this story article. So many quiet, touching and joy-filled moments.
I'm glad they had Yahenni die, instead of turning it into a monster "siphon-addict". That said, their final scene was amazing. I loved how Nissa realized the best final gift she could have given Yahenni was to tell them her secrets, about the multiverse, and make Yahenni realize that aether- the very thing it's made of, is what fuels it all, and that's what its going to be a part of.
Also, this is the second death we've had from a first person POV in the last year, and its an excellent contrast between Avacyn's mournful, regretful lamentations and Yahenni's exultant embrace of finale.
The final scene with Baral was great too. Chandra and Pia realized the perfect revenge for the man who ruined their family and haunted them for the past twelve years- crushing his little ego by making him realize he means nothing to them anymore.
And onto Amonkhet- which is going to be not nearly the hellhole I think the Gatewatch are going to assume it is (at least on the surface). And they are going to get their ASSES kicked.
Also, one final question- if Ajani's heading to Dominaria to find allies- is that where the next block is going to be? Because FINALLY YES PLEASE.
Thanks for clearing that up; I didn't fully get the reference to Elspeth's cloak and was expecting his mourning to be for someone more recent.
As for the story itself, I agree, Yaheeni's sections were fantastic; the Aetherborn have such a joie de vivre about them, even in transcendence (I won't call it death). Nissa's revelation to Yaheeni was fantastic, seeing them piece everything together and pick up some of the implications. I almost wished that would have triggered their spark and they would've jumped and been rejuvenated by the Blind Eternities. Maybe an Aetherborn PW can only jump when they are at (natural) death or something. Regardless, Yaheeni's part was great.
As for the Gatewatch and Amonkhet, Ajani's approach would have been the sanest. There is the risk of Tezzie filling Bolos in about Jace and company; but that information is less important than what the Gatewatch could get by having more allies on hand. Especially if they could have snuck in some of their allies to scout Amonkhet first. (Liliana would be risky but imperative, because she's been there. But maybe Ral Zarek and/or Tamiyo could be convinced to visit to check it out (neither of which have obvious Gatewatch connections that Tezzie would know of; but they are friendly/frenemies with the Gatewatch). Looking over the PW list, I'm not sure who else could really go or who might align with the GW. Baan would be recognized if he could be convinced to accompany the GW; Domri Rade might work if he could be found; Dack Fayden would be great, if the GW (Gidds maybe?) knew him and could find him on Theros; Arlinn might be convinced but I don't know if anyone realized she was a PW and she's too much of a lone wolf to work with them. Kaya would be perfect, and certainly hireable.
The story of looking for and trying to recruit these PWs would have made great filler storywise before actually starting Amonkhet. But ultimately it would imply/force them to put even more PWs in that set, and I've got a feeling they might be aiming to have more Bad-guy PWs. (Bolos is certain, Vraska is a strong maybe IMO)
Oh well, by doing their "Kick the door down, muddle through the mess they make, and somehow try to get a win out of it" method, it will almost certainly make the Amonkhet their first Loss-block. Might be nice to have it end with Jace or Giddion captured or something, to add extra oomph to the post Amonkhet blocks.
As for the Aether Reborn stories in general; some good, and some really good ones. But a really weak climax story last week that IMO brings the set-stories down a lot. The final destruction of the Planar Portal was barely a paragraph mentioning it in passing; and Lil and Tezzie's fight felt more like a shouting match than a proper mage duel. At least we got a strong coda story to wrap everything up (which was better than we got from Eldritch Moon)
So does Bolas use the "we were Gods once" speech with everyone he is trying to manipulate or did the authors make a mistake. That was said to Jace and not Liliana if I remember correctly.
I dislike the...lack of cost of the revolt. Why does the revolt suddenly end after Tezz is removed? The vast majority of people had issues with the government as a whole not a single enemy and yet it stays very intact with only a few additions from the renegade side? Maybe it's petty of me but I feel if you're going to write a story with politics in it you can't handwave the politics away.
On a positive note I strangely like "alien" nissa and I wish it's what they went with earlier so I wasn't constantly reminded of how jarring the shifts in her personality and character have been.
Also, how the hell did the old lady survive. The short lived character whose theme is "I'm dying" actually dying doesn't count as a loss to me.
I really feel the characters personalities are being warped to fit the story progression. Creative wants us to go to Amonkhet, but Jace never would and Gideon seems uncharacteristically stupid about it as well. I'm very bothered if characters are going to shift how they act just to fit a series of events rather than the events being shaped around the characters. It's forced and frankly bad writing.
Also, Pia is no better than Baral in how she acts when she sees him. I absolutely despise her as a character.
I see Ajani being kept out of the loop, the Gatewatch goes, they are losing, he comes back and helps them win, but is fatally injured in the process, before dying he tells them about Elspeth and eventually they go save her, with Gideon sacrificing himself and Elspeth being the new white walker.
Obviously that won't happen because the members of the Gatewatch have plot armor so strong you can't take any threat to them seriously and since primal gods are chumps now no threat matters even a little bit and they are immortal, but that is how I see an arc written with ANY attempt to be taken seriously going.
this week's chapter was actually quite good, well written and the bit with Nissa was cute
chapters can be good, but the ARCS are written pretty much for children, no threat, no engagement, playing it extremely safe, and a little bit of language doesn't disguise that
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This story felt like major shadowing for our first Gatewatch Death - the hubris of them going to Amonkhet, against Ajani's serious warning and with their heads enlarged by beating the Eldrazi and saving Kaladesh, can only end in tragedy. At the very least, it is going to be a crushing, team-rattling loss. My money is on Gideon biting the dust. I feel like I've read he is the least popular member of the Gatewatch, there are tons of white protagonists to slot into the Gatewatch later, it makes sense to kill "Mr. Invincible" as a way to show Bolas is a next-level threat, and him sacrificing himself to let the rest of the team live would feel like an appropriate send-off for his character arc about hubris, leadership, and survivor's guilt.
Story was excellent. Yahenni's section had me teary - easily the best-written character they've ever had. Overall this was one of the more satisfying entries of the main story.
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Nice wrap up to a meh ending. I'm sad that we didn't get any scene with Tezzeret / Bolas, hopefully that'll be the prelude for the Amonkhet storyline.
While I think the GW will take a loss in Amonkhet, I don't think anybody from the main cast will die. At the very worst, Liliana will betray them and join Bolas'gang. Pretty sure Liliana will be doing a lot of flip-flopping in the long run.
Bolas said that to Lilliana. He may also have to Jace, if I recall, but I know for certain he did to Lilliana.
Yahenni's part was especially well written. I admired how well it complimented the references to Elspeth and Ajani's emotional reasoning for taking the oath he did.
Amonkhet sounds foolish on their part and will surely be a loss.
I wonder if Ajani knows that Gideon has been to Bant, or is from Theros? Also, what is this "style themselves gods" - the Theros gods literally are gods.
I see Ajani being kept out of the loop, the Gatewatch goes, they are losing, he comes back and helps them win, but is fatally injured in the process, before dying he tells them about Elspeth and eventually they go save her, with Gideon sacrificing himself and Elspeth being the new white walker.
Obviously that won't happen because the members of the Gatewatch have plot armor so strong you can't take any threat to them seriously and since primal gods are chumps now no threat matters even a little bit and they are immortal, but that is how I see an arc written with ANY attempt to be taken seriously going.
this week's chapter was actually quite good, well written and the bit with Nissa was cute
chapters can be good, but the ARCS are written pretty much for children, no threat, no engagement, playing it extremely safe, and a little bit of language doesn't disguise that
Amonkhet will have losses for the Gatewatch. Physical, emotional, mental losses are inevitable. Death is questionable, only because I am not with WOTC so I have no exact idea who they would plan to kill off exactly. If I had to make an educated guess, it would be Gideon. There have been many, in retrospect, foreshadowing moments pointing to Gideon.
What the Gatewatch would lose is fairly obvious, but what do they gain in his demise? Jace is a very easy start, he would start having to be more charismatic like Gideon once was and rely less on his telepathy and mind magic to get him through social matters. Chandra is also fairly easily, she would have to stop hiding and running from her problems and instead start acting as a pillar of support to those around her like he was to her. Liliana can secretly raise Gideon's corpse and she would now have a personal bodyguard like she always wanted. The hard one to decipher is Nissa, in my personal opinion. What she would gain from his demise I have no idea.
It also seems right with how they been building up the Gatewatch. Seemingly unstoppable as they climb further heights, hubris kicks in, and then they get swatted back down to earth and realize the reality of their situation.
I see Ajani being kept out of the loop, the Gatewatch goes, they are losing, he comes back and helps them win, but is fatally injured in the process, before dying he tells them about Elspeth and eventually they go save her, with Gideon sacrificing himself and Elspeth being the new white walker.
Obviously that won't happen because the members of the Gatewatch have plot armor so strong you can't take any threat to them seriously and since primal gods are chumps now no threat matters even a little bit and they are immortal, but that is how I see an arc written with ANY attempt to be taken seriously going.
this week's chapter was actually quite good, well written and the bit with Nissa was cute
chapters can be good, but the ARCS are written pretty much for children, no threat, no engagement, playing it extremely safe, and a little bit of language doesn't disguise that
Which gods are chumps?
The first ones that come to mind are the Eldrazi. They were sold to us as Lovecraftian, so above gods, all-powerful, you can fight the spawn but never even get the attention of the titans, much less hurt them in any way. 3 oldwalkers (who have been called gods in their own right) and three fairly serious ones at that took DECADES to build a prison that would barely contain shadows of the Eldrazi, the idea that what, 4(?) planeswalkers of the modern age could KILL 2 of them just by adding more fire is honestly an insult to the intelligence of readers, even modern Sorin could just walk into the room and kill the entire Gatewatch. and the whole 'the energy of all of Zendikar' doesn't change things, the Eldrazi should have been trapped with what was already made. better, they should have won, destroyed Zendikar and driven the Gatewatch away, maybe with a death. I'm actually a fan of Chandra, my favorite of the Gatewatch by a mile, and i like Nissa, but on their very best day with every pyromancer from Keral Keep helping them, Ulamog should have been 'oh look, a sparkler, OM NOM NOM!!!'
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I see Ajani being kept out of the loop, the Gatewatch goes, they are losing, he comes back and helps them win, but is fatally injured in the process, before dying he tells them about Elspeth and eventually they go save her, with Gideon sacrificing himself and Elspeth being the new white walker.
Obviously that won't happen because the members of the Gatewatch have plot armor so strong you can't take any threat to them seriously and since primal gods are chumps now no threat matters even a little bit and they are immortal, but that is how I see an arc written with ANY attempt to be taken seriously going.
this week's chapter was actually quite good, well written and the bit with Nissa was cute
chapters can be good, but the ARCS are written pretty much for children, no threat, no engagement, playing it extremely safe, and a little bit of language doesn't disguise that
Which gods are chumps?
The first ones that come to mind are the Eldrazi. They were sold to us as Lovecraftian, so above gods, all-powerful, you can fight the spawn but never even get the attention of the titans, much less hurt them in any way. 3 oldwalkers (who have been called gods in their own right) and three fairly serious ones at that took DECADES to build a prison that would barely contain shadows of the Eldrazi, the idea that what, 4(?) planeswalkers of the modern age could KILL 2 of them just by adding more fire is honestly an insult to the intelligence of readers, even modern Sorin could just walk into the room and kill the entire Gatewatch. and the whole 'the energy of all of Zendikar' doesn't change things, the Eldrazi should have been trapped with what was already made. better, they should have won, destroyed Zendikar and driven the Gatewatch away, maybe with a death. I'm actually a fan of Chandra, my favorite of the Gatewatch by a mile, and i like Nissa, but on their very best day with every pyromancer from Keral Keep helping them, Ulamog should have been 'oh look, a sparkler, OM NOM NOM!!!'
I think it's commonly agreed upon that BFZ, specifically the deaths of Ulamog and Kozilek are the second-lowest point of the MTG story. The first was Gideon punching back Ulamog's tendrils at Sea Gate. I'm going to assume the Mending affected the titans and absolved them of their plane-recycling function, weakening and making their power obsolete just to reconcile that trash story.
I see Ajani being kept out of the loop, the Gatewatch goes, they are losing, he comes back and helps them win, but is fatally injured in the process, before dying he tells them about Elspeth and eventually they go save her, with Gideon sacrificing himself and Elspeth being the new white walker.
Obviously that won't happen because the members of the Gatewatch have plot armor so strong you can't take any threat to them seriously and since primal gods are chumps now no threat matters even a little bit and they are immortal, but that is how I see an arc written with ANY attempt to be taken seriously going.
this week's chapter was actually quite good, well written and the bit with Nissa was cute
chapters can be good, but the ARCS are written pretty much for children, no threat, no engagement, playing it extremely safe, and a little bit of language doesn't disguise that
Which gods are chumps?
The first ones that come to mind are the Eldrazi. They were sold to us as Lovecraftian, so above gods, all-powerful, you can fight the spawn but never even get the attention of the titans, much less hurt them in any way. 3 oldwalkers (who have been called gods in their own right) and three fairly serious ones at that took DECADES to build a prison that would barely contain shadows of the Eldrazi, the idea that what, 4(?) planeswalkers of the modern age could KILL 2 of them just by adding more fire is honestly an insult to the intelligence of readers, even modern Sorin could just walk into the room and kill the entire Gatewatch. and the whole 'the energy of all of Zendikar' doesn't change things, the Eldrazi should have been trapped with what was already made. better, they should have won, destroyed Zendikar and driven the Gatewatch away, maybe with a death. I'm actually a fan of Chandra, my favorite of the Gatewatch by a mile, and i like Nissa, but on their very best day with every pyromancer from Keral Keep helping them, Ulamog should have been 'oh look, a sparkler, OM NOM NOM!!!'
I'll be honest, this really bothered me:
"Well," said Gideon quietly. "What do you all think? Is he right? Do we need more information and more allies before we go to Amonkhet?"
There was a moment of dead silence.
"No," said Chandra. "We beat three Eldrazi and we beat Tezzeret. Let's hit him hard, now."
Because now, there are only two ways ths can go, and neither works for me. Either:
A) they lose to Bolas, which is ridiculous when you consider that they managed to KILL two of the Eldrazi - creatures so powerful it took THREE of Bolas' Oldwalker peers just to contain them. Not kill them, but stick them in what's basically the Cthulhu version of a drunk tank.
or
B) they defeat Bolas, and we have no villains left that can be taken seriously - WotC will have to start Villain Sue-ing it out the ears to create a credible threat for the GW.
And it all ties back to how they built up the Eldrazi to be these borderline unstoppable Eldritch Abominations, only to then have two of them get killed by four meddling kids, who didn't even have the decency to bring along a mangy dog for the occassion - yes, BFZ was so poorly handled it's poisoned the well for me.
... also, did Chandra equate f***ing Tezzeret with the Eldrazi?!
I agree, Gideon could be the target. Ajani could slot in just fine as his replacement (big guy who hits stuff).
I see it like this: the Gatewatch does okay at first, but Liliana maneuvers them into fighting her demon, causing them to fall into Bolas' clutches. He then makes the rest watch as he telepathically forces Gideon to lower his force field and burns him to a crisp. The rest are able to escape, and flee vowing a return once they have enough allies.
You can even comic book it out, by showing that the death scene was an illusion, and Gideon is actually a prisoner/torture victim now...
you didn't need to reignite feelings about Gideon punching Ulamog back -___- lol
I enjoyed today's story. The type of ending I would have liked to see for BFZ and SOI, in terms of structure. Though, I'm sure this LotR-style ending would get tired and predictable if they did it often, so that can be forgiven. Still, it was a well-earned closing chapter. I echo the sentiments about the revolt having no visible repercussions to the political and visual state of the world, or at least Ghirapur. Consolation being that it would undoubtedly be explored in the potential return to Kaladesh. At the same time, I felt like this wrapped up Kaladesh's story pretty well in such a way that it doesn't really feel like a plane that needs revisiting. There are so few loose-ends. Which is nice.
Yahenni's sections were really heartfelt. They really are gonna go block-after-block of creating interesting legendary characters who shine more than the Gatewatch, aren't they? I'm fine with that. (now go task Rashmi with Weatherlight-ing the Heart of Kiran and throw together a gatewatch B-team consisting of non planeswalker characters)
ps - if anyone's gonna die in Amonkhet, i'd rather it not be someone expendable like Gideon. Besides, what's wrong with having two tanks in their party? They're already 6 mages if you think about it...
I don't see what the problem is. Chandra thinks they can take them. Nissa thinks they can take them if the group believes so. Jace doesn't like the plan but he agrees with Chandra on this matter. This is hubris storytelling 101. Half the heroes of the Gatewatch are full of themselves. Their confidence has been boosted up by their past victories as they took down titans and foiled Nicol Bolas's plans once.
I personally dislike the idea of someone dying. What would I prefer? An uneasy deal being made with Nicol Bolas by say Gideon or Liliana. The safety of others is given as long as they leave and never return, but Nicol Bolas gets to add another member to his roster. The Gatewatch still loses a member, but more stories can be told in the future involving the lost party member.
I see Ajani being kept out of the loop, the Gatewatch goes, they are losing, he comes back and helps them win, but is fatally injured in the process, before dying he tells them about Elspeth and eventually they go save her, with Gideon sacrificing himself and Elspeth being the new white walker.
Obviously that won't happen because the members of the Gatewatch have plot armor so strong you can't take any threat to them seriously and since primal gods are chumps now no threat matters even a little bit and they are immortal, but that is how I see an arc written with ANY attempt to be taken seriously going.
this week's chapter was actually quite good, well written and the bit with Nissa was cute
chapters can be good, but the ARCS are written pretty much for children, no threat, no engagement, playing it extremely safe, and a little bit of language doesn't disguise that
Which gods are chumps?
The first ones that come to mind are the Eldrazi. They were sold to us as Lovecraftian, so above gods, all-powerful, you can fight the spawn but never even get the attention of the titans, much less hurt them in any way. 3 oldwalkers (who have been called gods in their own right) and three fairly serious ones at that took DECADES to build a prison that would barely contain shadows of the Eldrazi, the idea that what, 4(?) planeswalkers of the modern age could KILL 2 of them just by adding more fire is honestly an insult to the intelligence of readers, even modern Sorin could just walk into the room and kill the entire Gatewatch. and the whole 'the energy of all of Zendikar' doesn't change things, the Eldrazi should have been trapped with what was already made. better, they should have won, destroyed Zendikar and driven the Gatewatch away, maybe with a death. I'm actually a fan of Chandra, my favorite of the Gatewatch by a mile, and i like Nissa, but on their very best day with every pyromancer from Keral Keep helping them, Ulamog should have been 'oh look, a sparkler, OM NOM NOM!!!'
I think it's commonly agreed upon that BFZ, specifically the deaths of Ulamog and Kozilek are the second-lowest point of the MTG story. The first was Gideon punching back Ulamog's tendrils at Sea Gate. I'm going to assume the Mending affected the titans and absolved them of their plane-recycling function, weakening and making their power obsolete just to reconcile that trash story.
I dunno about you but I can parry an avalanche with a butter knife, it's totally realistic /sarcasm.
In all seriousness I second the motion that the tentacle punch was the lowest mtg story point. BFZ was painful to read and I generally look forward to the story articles now when I think back to the garbage they came out with before.
Although the lili/Tezz fight was tame, it at least showcased minions and spell slinging. What I found interesting is that her zombie (almost all incarnations of her zombies are 2/2 unless she's reanimating something huge) took on a 5/5 artifact (you know, the size of most of tezzerets creations) after a few rounds of combat.
She should have shown restraint and only raised 3 so at least the implied combat math for their spells and effects would make sense. Flavor fail...
Not the whole "The Gatewatch being beaten by Bolas is ridiculous because of ther victory over the Eldrazi which no one was capable of before."-crap again. I don't like their hubris either (they definitely DIDN'T defeat three Titans, what are you talking about Chandra?), but their "victories" over the Eldrazi weren't really victories at all (which makes it strange that they see it that way): Without Ugins, Nahiris and Sorins preparations, the strange way mana works on Zendikar, the hedron network and the information Ugin gave to Jace they would never have been able to kill Kozilek and Ulamog. They had extreme luck. Whether that's bad storytelling in itself is another matter, but it didn't come out of nowhere. The same goes for Gideon beating back one tentacle of Ulamog (he is indestructible and a planeswalker, which grants a certain immunity from the Eldrazi titans destructive influence). I don't defend this as "good storytelling" but I have the feeling that people really need to get over this. The gatewatch failed miserably against Emrakul which had to imprison itself and didn't even find out that Nahiri was responsible. Characters having plot armor isn't necessarily a bad thing. Quite a few of my favorite series dealing with horror or crime didn't kill of any of their main cast and I liked that. Death is often just the ultimate cheap writing tool to force characterization if no one can think of another way to do that in my opinion.
Now in regards to Amonkhet I don't really agree with the Gatewatches reasoning either, but I understand it. In their minds they defeated quite a few powerful foes already, why not another right now. Their hubris is showing and it is clear that Bolas will defeat them. I don't think anyone will die and I hope that that won't happen either, I want to see how they deal with that loss and how that furthers their respecive characters.
In regards to the story today, I loved it (apart from the Gatewatches reasoning). Yahennis death and Nissas last gift to them was very powerful in my opinion. Aside from the weak climax last week I really liked Kaladesh, it set up quite a few things and left not many dangling plot threads on the plane itself.
Hour of Devastation won't be very devastating if the Gatewatch doesn't suffer any major consequences for their hubris in this chapter. If a protagonist dies, I doubt that it'd be Jace (too popular) or Liliana (too much unfinished business). My guess -- based on foreshadowing throughout the current block -- is that a certain reckless pyromancer will endanger herself and Gideon will sacrifice himself to save her thanks in part to his apparently unrequited affection for her.
Regardless of how Amonkhet plays out, I hope that the block thereafter takes a break from the Gatewatch-Versus-BossMonster spectacle and instead plays out like Shadows Over Innistrad with a few disparate protagonists working towards separate-but-maybe-ultimately-related goals.
If the story doesnt want to completly destroy itself in powercreep they HAVE to lose.
They simply cannot succeed and beat Nicol Bolas.
Some little success sure, Liliana will for sure beat the Demon on the plane she needs, thats like "mandatory".
They might find enough people to mess with Nicol Bolas, but the story simply cannot just beat him, that would be a massive hit in the balls of magics story.
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Theres simply too much "friendly" planeswalkers around and not enough evil ones (as you would assume theres way more evil planeswalkers, as such big power would just make you go selfish much more often than it would make you benevolent, if people die around you, at some point you just cant care anymore).
Anyway, the current story article kinda made it look like they just walk in, collect more random planeswalkers they might "sacrifice" to mess up the plane , get in fight with Nicol Bolas and just crush him easily (sure they say "uh its a strong opponent" , but in the end, even individuals of them could win, cheating or not, if you have like 3 of them that could take him on their own, a small army of 10+ planeswalkers, maybe including ugin, sorin and what not powerful allies, will just obliterate any opposition ; and thats a super terrible story ... ).
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They need some massive set back and some MAJOR evil planning to unfold to rescue the little bit of threat they have left hanging in the little that is left.
Hour of Devastation won't be very devastating if the Gatewatch doesn't suffer any major consequences for their hubris in this chapter. If a protagonist dies, I doubt that it'd be Jace (too popular) or Liliana (too much unfinished business). My guess -- based on foreshadowing throughout the current block -- is that a certain reckless pyromancer will endanger herself and Gideon will sacrifice himself to save her thanks in part to his apparently unrequited affection for her.
You actually make a wonderful point I didn't consider initially, Chandra. Just a little fun factoid, Nicol Bolas is down one agent. That agent being Sarkhan who is at his core and is quite content with serving Ugin who is an arch rival to Nicol Bolas.
Perhaps Gideon does some form of self-sacrificing, but wouldn't it be kind of grand if Chandra was made into a pawn for Nicol Bolas? Just think of it. She could have her color identity expanded to or and she wasn't going to go either direction if she had Nissa around her. Her pyromancy becomes much more destructive yet focused under Nicol Bolas's tutelage. As after all who is the one instigated this plan in the first place to attack Nicol Bolas at Amonkhet now of all times? Why, its Chandra.
What does this open the door to? Koth joining the Gatewatch. What does Koth bring to the table? The problem plane of New Phyrexia which means the Phyrexians can take a step into the picture again after Amonkhet and a block for them can be given. Koth is also Elpseth's friend and by that extension is an ally to Ajani and that Koth would help him save Elspeth. Which means he also brings with him, a return to Theros. Saving Elspeth also means that she can join the Gatewatch. And then that means they can start assembling forces to start focusing on the strategics on how to defeat (or at least contain) the Phyrexian threat as Elspeth has massive beef with them.
This also gives Nissa character growth as she has been heavily depending on Chandra for social interaction. As she now has to deal with her support pillar, Chandra, no longer will be there for her.
This also affects Pia Nalaar as her daughter may return to Kaladesh but Chandra won't be the same and she now has to bear a terrible secret from her as Chandra is now basically working alongside Tezzeret, the very same man she helped defeat.
If Gideon is still alive, imagine it. Now he would be so heartbroken about how he has basically lost another close friend and he couldn't save her.
Liliana loses a pawn and little sister figure she liked keeping around.
Jace realizes that without Chandra, they the Gatewatch have lost their main firepower who is also a glass-cannon and has been the lynchpin for 2/3rds of their victories.
Hour of Devastation won't be very devastating if the Gatewatch doesn't suffer any major consequences for their hubris in this chapter. If a protagonist dies, I doubt that it'd be Jace (too popular) or Liliana (too much unfinished business). My guess -- based on foreshadowing throughout the current block -- is that a certain reckless pyromancer will endanger herself and Gideon will sacrifice himself to save her thanks in part to his apparently unrequited affection for her.
You actually make a wonderful point I didn't consider initially, Chandra. Just a little fun factoid, Nicol Bolas is down one agent. That agent being Sarkhan who is at his core and is quite content with serving Ugin who is an arch rival to Nicol Bolas.
Perhaps Gideon does some form of self-sacrificing, but wouldn't it be kind of grand if Chandra was made into a pawn for Nicol Bolas? Just think of it. She could have her color identity expanded to or and she wasn't going to go either direction if she had Nissa around her. Her pyromancy becomes much more destructive yet focused under Nicol Bolas's tutelage. As after all who is the one instigated this plan in the first place to attack Nicol Bolas at Amonkhet now of all times? Why, its Chandra.
What does this open the door to? Koth joining the Gatewatch. What does Koth bring to the table? The problem plane of New Phyrexia which means the Phyrexians can take a step into the picture again after Amonkhet and a block for them can be given. Koth is also Elpseth's friend and by that extension is an ally to Ajani and that Koth would help him save Elspeth. Which means he also brings with him, a return to Theros. Saving Elspeth also means that she can join the Gatewatch. And then that means they can start assembling forces to start focusing on the strategics on how to defeat (or at least contain) the Phyrexian threat as Elspeth has massive beef with them.
This also gives Nissa character growth as she has been heavily depending on Chandra for social interaction. As she now has to deal with her support pillar, Chandra, no longer will be there for her.
This also affects Pia Nalaar as her daughter may return to Kaladesh but Chandra won't be the same and she now has to bear a terrible secret from her as Chandra is now basically working alongside Tezzeret, the very same man she helped defeat.
If Gideon is still alive, imagine it. Now he would be so heartbroken about how he has basically lost another close friend and he couldn't save her.
Liliana loses a pawn and little sister figure she liked keeping around.
Jace realizes that without Chandra, they the Gatewatch have lost their main firepower who is also a glass-cannon and has been the lynchpin for 2/3rds of their victories.
This is a very interesting idea, and would open the door to a lot of storytelling possibilities, but since Chandra is supposedly the second most popular planeswalker, I don't see it being very likely. Also, just as Jace was off-focus in Kaladesh because he had just played a starring role in Shadows over Innistrad, I expect Chandra to be off-focus in Amonkhet because of her prominence in Kaladesh. I fully expect Gideon to be the focal character (with another heavy dose of Liliana, due to her demon being present), basically because he seems like he is next in line to take center-stage in a block.
Personally, I agree with the suggestions above that something bad might happen to Gideon - I do like the character and he has hidden depths, but the Captain America / Superman archetype is also one of the hardest for writers to keep from becoming one-note, and - as noted - there are other popular white 'walkers waiting in the wings. Plus, Gideon's removal might be used to advance the Chandra/Nissa plotline (depending upon where WotC ultimately plans on going with it, of course...)
I liked this story. It was cute. I don't know if there's any other way all of the interactions other than they provoked warm, fuzzy feelings (like Ajani). Yaheeni's section and Nissa revealing the Planeswalker secret to it was great. Yaheeni was just a great character overall and the nod to Aetherborns being reborn with a scrap of the thoughts of former Aetherborns was a nice touch.
With that said, as much as I sympathize with all of this "kill someone on the Gatewatch" talk, it simply doesn't make sense at this point. There's just too much product out there for the main five. Back in BFZ, you had the best chance in killing a planeswalker with Kiora (Zendikar native, arrogant, headstrong and still a trash character even after everything that happened in BFZ block). Everyone involved in Shadows either had too much importance (Gatewatch) or were simply too strong canonically (Sorin). Nahiri was a question mark but she ended up beating Sorin. There wasn't a strong plot point for anyone dying in Kaladesh, IMO.
Just having the Gatewatch taking an L is good. Maybe they just barely escape the last battle or someone suffers a serious injury. Bolas could re-conscript Liliana again somehow because of their previous history. Anything to make them rethink their YOLO strats for world-ending threats. Ajani could possibly be a casualty in a big battle but I think he has too many connections to events before Gatewatch.
Just having the Gatewatch taking an L is good. Maybe they just barely escape the last battle or someone suffers a serious injury. Bolas could re-conscript Liliana again somehow because of their previous history. Anything to make them rethink their YOLO strats for world-ending threats. Ajani could possibly be a casualty in a big battle but I think he has too many connections to events before Gatewatch.
I agree the mostly likely outcome is that they'll get their noses bloodied, be humbled and hopefully realize that their victories over the Eldrazi Titans were heavily dependent on external factors (pre-existing Hedron Network and Emrakul's own enigmatic plans, respectively), and then return home to start the process of recruiting new members to play the long game against Bolas. I just think that if anything bad does happen to anyone on the Gatewatch, Gideon is the mostly likely suspect. (Jace is MtG's Mickey Mouse; Liliana has her Demons and the Garruk plotline (And the Chain Veil. And the Raven Man...); Chandra is #2 in popularity, just had a focus block, and Wizards has just begun their plans for Chandra & Nissa.)
As for Ajani, there is a persistent rumor that Ajani (not Elspeth) was originally the one who was supposed to die at the end of the Theros (a la Obi Wan), but Elspeth's death (presumably) set up more interesting possibilities for the future. Whether true or not, I believe that Ajani will almost certainly be around for the inevitable "Return to Theros" block and that, if Ajani is going to die, it will be to resurrect Elspeth.
Hour of Devastation won't be very devastating if the Gatewatch doesn't suffer any major consequences for their hubris in this chapter. If a protagonist dies, I doubt that it'd be Jace (too popular) or Liliana (too much unfinished business). My guess -- based on foreshadowing throughout the current block -- is that a certain reckless pyromancer will endanger herself and Gideon will sacrifice himself to save her thanks in part to his apparently unrequited affection for her.
You actually make a wonderful point I didn't consider initially, Chandra. Just a little fun factoid, Nicol Bolas is down one agent. That agent being Sarkhan who is at his core and is quite content with serving Ugin who is an arch rival to Nicol Bolas.
Perhaps Gideon does some form of self-sacrificing, but wouldn't it be kind of grand if Chandra was made into a pawn for Nicol Bolas? Just think of it. She could have her color identity expanded to or and she wasn't going to go either direction if she had Nissa around her. Her pyromancy becomes much more destructive yet focused under Nicol Bolas's tutelage. As after all who is the one instigated this plan in the first place to attack Nicol Bolas at Amonkhet now of all times? Why, its Chandra.
What does this open the door to? Koth joining the Gatewatch. What does Koth bring to the table? The problem plane of New Phyrexia which means the Phyrexians can take a step into the picture again after Amonkhet and a block for them can be given. Koth is also Elpseth's friend and by that extension is an ally to Ajani and that Koth would help him save Elspeth. Which means he also brings with him, a return to Theros. Saving Elspeth also means that she can join the Gatewatch. And then that means they can start assembling forces to start focusing on the strategics on how to defeat (or at least contain) the Phyrexian threat as Elspeth has massive beef with them.
This also gives Nissa character growth as she has been heavily depending on Chandra for social interaction. As she now has to deal with her support pillar, Chandra, no longer will be there for her.
This also affects Pia Nalaar as her daughter may return to Kaladesh but Chandra won't be the same and she now has to bear a terrible secret from her as Chandra is now basically working alongside Tezzeret, the very same man she helped defeat.
If Gideon is still alive, imagine it. Now he would be so heartbroken about how he has basically lost another close friend and he couldn't save her.
Liliana loses a pawn and little sister figure she liked keeping around.
Jace realizes that without Chandra, they the Gatewatch have lost their main firepower who is also a glass-cannon and has been the lynchpin for 2/3rds of their victories.
This is a very interesting idea, and would open the door to a lot of storytelling possibilities, but since Chandra is supposedly the second most popular planeswalker, I don't see it being very likely. Also, just as Jace was off-focus in Kaladesh because he had just played a starring role in Shadows over Innistrad, I expect Chandra to be off-focus in Amonkhet because of her prominence in Kaladesh. I fully expect Gideon to be the focal character (with another heavy dose of Liliana, due to her demon being present), basically because he seems like he is next in line to take center-stage in a block.
Personally, I agree with the suggestions above that something bad might happen to Gideon - I do like the character and he has hidden depths, but the Captain America / Superman archetype is also one of the hardest for writers to keep from becoming one-note, and - as noted - there are other popular white 'walkers waiting in the wings. Plus, Gideon's removal might be used to advance the Chandra/Nissa plotline (depending upon where WotC ultimately plans on going with it, of course...)
Hmm yes. It also occured to me when I was doing errands, the other plot elements. How would Nicol Bolas make Chandra due to his bidding since its not likely Chandra would stay under his control for long? Browbeat, enslavement, mind control, enchantments, cursed artifact, removed inhibitions etc. Take your pick, I think Nicol Bolas can be quite persuasive. It could even be as good as "I will do unspeakable things to Nissa if you betray me."
1) Chandra isn't just any pyromancer, she is the abbot ( a leader) of a monastery of pyromonks. If Nicol Bolas had that under his grasp it would give him more power.
2) Zendikar and Innistrad would have been unwinnable fights if Chandra didn't leave the monastery and go help in Zendikar. As because of her action to destroy the Eldrazi Titans, she inadvertently saved Innistrad. As if she didn't, Emrakul would not have a reason to rewrite Tamiyo's planar destruction scroll into an abundant mana spell and seal herself inside the moon
3) Chandra beat Sarkhan, one of Nicol Bolas's top agents at that time with Jace at her side. Also because she used the colorless flame spell, she unlocked the Eldrazi Prison which helped Nicol Bolas.
The Gateway just suffers so much harder if Chandra is taken from them during their assault on Amonkhet. As she is basically so valuable and adaptable to her situations, that as an agent of NB, she would be quite formidable opponent for the GW. If there was anyone who would actually be a massive thorn in NB's side aside from Ugin, it would be Chandra. As if you don't deal with her, she could give the Gatewatch more victories. She is also a very strong planeswalker all things considered if her resume were something like:
"Slayed two Eldrazi Gods and forced a third into sealing itself in a moon. Also helped stopped an invading force by using her own pyromancy as a means to destroy a planar portal. Is a leader of a organization of pyromancers. At age eleven, she destroyed an entire foundry by herself on Kaladesh."
She basically has bailed out the Gatewatch out of three major planar crises, Which is huge.
Seriously if I was Nicol Bolas I would be most concerned with the redhead that slings fireballs. As this is Chandra who gained her spark post-mending, can you even imagine if she had the power that the pre-mending walkers would have?
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I really loved this story article. So many quiet, touching and joy-filled moments.
Also, this is the second death we've had from a first person POV in the last year, and its an excellent contrast between Avacyn's mournful, regretful lamentations and Yahenni's exultant embrace of finale.
The final scene with Baral was great too. Chandra and Pia realized the perfect revenge for the man who ruined their family and haunted them for the past twelve years- crushing his little ego by making him realize he means nothing to them anymore.
And onto Amonkhet- which is going to be not nearly the hellhole I think the Gatewatch are going to assume it is (at least on the surface). And they are going to get their ASSES kicked.
Also, one final question- if Ajani's heading to Dominaria to find allies- is that where the next block is going to be? Because FINALLY YES PLEASE.
As for the story itself, I agree, Yaheeni's sections were fantastic; the Aetherborn have such a joie de vivre about them, even in transcendence (I won't call it death). Nissa's revelation to Yaheeni was fantastic, seeing them piece everything together and pick up some of the implications. I almost wished that would have triggered their spark and they would've jumped and been rejuvenated by the Blind Eternities. Maybe an Aetherborn PW can only jump when they are at (natural) death or something. Regardless, Yaheeni's part was great.
As for the Gatewatch and Amonkhet, Ajani's approach would have been the sanest. There is the risk of Tezzie filling Bolos in about Jace and company; but that information is less important than what the Gatewatch could get by having more allies on hand. Especially if they could have snuck in some of their allies to scout Amonkhet first. (Liliana would be risky but imperative, because she's been there. But maybe Ral Zarek and/or Tamiyo could be convinced to visit to check it out (neither of which have obvious Gatewatch connections that Tezzie would know of; but they are friendly/frenemies with the Gatewatch). Looking over the PW list, I'm not sure who else could really go or who might align with the GW. Baan would be recognized if he could be convinced to accompany the GW; Domri Rade might work if he could be found; Dack Fayden would be great, if the GW (Gidds maybe?) knew him and could find him on Theros; Arlinn might be convinced but I don't know if anyone realized she was a PW and she's too much of a lone wolf to work with them. Kaya would be perfect, and certainly hireable.
The story of looking for and trying to recruit these PWs would have made great filler storywise before actually starting Amonkhet. But ultimately it would imply/force them to put even more PWs in that set, and I've got a feeling they might be aiming to have more Bad-guy PWs. (Bolos is certain, Vraska is a strong maybe IMO)
Oh well, by doing their "Kick the door down, muddle through the mess they make, and somehow try to get a win out of it" method, it will almost certainly make the Amonkhet their first Loss-block. Might be nice to have it end with Jace or Giddion captured or something, to add extra oomph to the post Amonkhet blocks.
As for the Aether Reborn stories in general; some good, and some really good ones. But a really weak climax story last week that IMO brings the set-stories down a lot. The final destruction of the Planar Portal was barely a paragraph mentioning it in passing; and Lil and Tezzie's fight felt more like a shouting match than a proper mage duel. At least we got a strong coda story to wrap everything up (which was better than we got from Eldritch Moon)
I dislike the...lack of cost of the revolt. Why does the revolt suddenly end after Tezz is removed? The vast majority of people had issues with the government as a whole not a single enemy and yet it stays very intact with only a few additions from the renegade side? Maybe it's petty of me but I feel if you're going to write a story with politics in it you can't handwave the politics away.
On a positive note I strangely like "alien" nissa and I wish it's what they went with earlier so I wasn't constantly reminded of how jarring the shifts in her personality and character have been.
Also, how the hell did the old lady survive. The short lived character whose theme is "I'm dying" actually dying doesn't count as a loss to me.
I really feel the characters personalities are being warped to fit the story progression. Creative wants us to go to Amonkhet, but Jace never would and Gideon seems uncharacteristically stupid about it as well. I'm very bothered if characters are going to shift how they act just to fit a series of events rather than the events being shaped around the characters. It's forced and frankly bad writing.
Also, Pia is no better than Baral in how she acts when she sees him. I absolutely despise her as a character.
Obviously that won't happen because the members of the Gatewatch have plot armor so strong you can't take any threat to them seriously and since primal gods are chumps now no threat matters even a little bit and they are immortal, but that is how I see an arc written with ANY attempt to be taken seriously going.
this week's chapter was actually quite good, well written and the bit with Nissa was cute
chapters can be good, but the ARCS are written pretty much for children, no threat, no engagement, playing it extremely safe, and a little bit of language doesn't disguise that
Story was excellent. Yahenni's section had me teary - easily the best-written character they've ever had. Overall this was one of the more satisfying entries of the main story.
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While I think the GW will take a loss in Amonkhet, I don't think anybody from the main cast will die. At the very worst, Liliana will betray them and join Bolas'gang. Pretty sure Liliana will be doing a lot of flip-flopping in the long run.
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Yahenni's part was especially well written. I admired how well it complimented the references to Elspeth and Ajani's emotional reasoning for taking the oath he did.
Amonkhet sounds foolish on their part and will surely be a loss.
I wonder if Ajani knows that Gideon has been to Bant, or is from Theros? Also, what is this "style themselves gods" - the Theros gods literally are gods.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
What the Gatewatch would lose is fairly obvious, but what do they gain in his demise? Jace is a very easy start, he would start having to be more charismatic like Gideon once was and rely less on his telepathy and mind magic to get him through social matters. Chandra is also fairly easily, she would have to stop hiding and running from her problems and instead start acting as a pillar of support to those around her like he was to her. Liliana can secretly raise Gideon's corpse and she would now have a personal bodyguard like she always wanted. The hard one to decipher is Nissa, in my personal opinion. What she would gain from his demise I have no idea.
It also seems right with how they been building up the Gatewatch. Seemingly unstoppable as they climb further heights, hubris kicks in, and then they get swatted back down to earth and realize the reality of their situation.
The first ones that come to mind are the Eldrazi. They were sold to us as Lovecraftian, so above gods, all-powerful, you can fight the spawn but never even get the attention of the titans, much less hurt them in any way. 3 oldwalkers (who have been called gods in their own right) and three fairly serious ones at that took DECADES to build a prison that would barely contain shadows of the Eldrazi, the idea that what, 4(?) planeswalkers of the modern age could KILL 2 of them just by adding more fire is honestly an insult to the intelligence of readers, even modern Sorin could just walk into the room and kill the entire Gatewatch. and the whole 'the energy of all of Zendikar' doesn't change things, the Eldrazi should have been trapped with what was already made. better, they should have won, destroyed Zendikar and driven the Gatewatch away, maybe with a death. I'm actually a fan of Chandra, my favorite of the Gatewatch by a mile, and i like Nissa, but on their very best day with every pyromancer from Keral Keep helping them, Ulamog should have been 'oh look, a sparkler, OM NOM NOM!!!'
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
I'll be honest, this really bothered me:
Because now, there are only two ways ths can go, and neither works for me. Either:
A) they lose to Bolas, which is ridiculous when you consider that they managed to KILL two of the Eldrazi - creatures so powerful it took THREE of Bolas' Oldwalker peers just to contain them. Not kill them, but stick them in what's basically the Cthulhu version of a drunk tank.
or
B) they defeat Bolas, and we have no villains left that can be taken seriously - WotC will have to start Villain Sue-ing it out the ears to create a credible threat for the GW.
And it all ties back to how they built up the Eldrazi to be these borderline unstoppable Eldritch Abominations, only to then have two of them get killed by four meddling kids, who didn't even have the decency to bring along a mangy dog for the occassion - yes, BFZ was so poorly handled it's poisoned the well for me.
... also, did Chandra equate f***ing Tezzeret with the Eldrazi?!
I see it like this: the Gatewatch does okay at first, but Liliana maneuvers them into fighting her demon, causing them to fall into Bolas' clutches. He then makes the rest watch as he telepathically forces Gideon to lower his force field and burns him to a crisp. The rest are able to escape, and flee vowing a return once they have enough allies.
You can even comic book it out, by showing that the death scene was an illusion, and Gideon is actually a prisoner/torture victim now...
I enjoyed today's story. The type of ending I would have liked to see for BFZ and SOI, in terms of structure. Though, I'm sure this LotR-style ending would get tired and predictable if they did it often, so that can be forgiven. Still, it was a well-earned closing chapter. I echo the sentiments about the revolt having no visible repercussions to the political and visual state of the world, or at least Ghirapur. Consolation being that it would undoubtedly be explored in the potential return to Kaladesh. At the same time, I felt like this wrapped up Kaladesh's story pretty well in such a way that it doesn't really feel like a plane that needs revisiting. There are so few loose-ends. Which is nice.
Yahenni's sections were really heartfelt. They really are gonna go block-after-block of creating interesting legendary characters who shine more than the Gatewatch, aren't they? I'm fine with that. (now go task Rashmi with Weatherlight-ing the Heart of Kiran and throw together a gatewatch B-team consisting of non planeswalker characters)
ps - if anyone's gonna die in Amonkhet, i'd rather it not be someone expendable like Gideon. Besides, what's wrong with having two tanks in their party? They're already 6 mages if you think about it...
I personally dislike the idea of someone dying. What would I prefer? An uneasy deal being made with Nicol Bolas by say Gideon or Liliana. The safety of others is given as long as they leave and never return, but Nicol Bolas gets to add another member to his roster. The Gatewatch still loses a member, but more stories can be told in the future involving the lost party member.
I dunno about you but I can parry an avalanche with a butter knife, it's totally realistic /sarcasm.
In all seriousness I second the motion that the tentacle punch was the lowest mtg story point. BFZ was painful to read and I generally look forward to the story articles now when I think back to the garbage they came out with before.
Although the lili/Tezz fight was tame, it at least showcased minions and spell slinging. What I found interesting is that her zombie (almost all incarnations of her zombies are 2/2 unless she's reanimating something huge) took on a 5/5 artifact (you know, the size of most of tezzerets creations) after a few rounds of combat.
She should have shown restraint and only raised 3 so at least the implied combat math for their spells and effects would make sense. Flavor fail...
Now in regards to Amonkhet I don't really agree with the Gatewatches reasoning either, but I understand it. In their minds they defeated quite a few powerful foes already, why not another right now. Their hubris is showing and it is clear that Bolas will defeat them. I don't think anyone will die and I hope that that won't happen either, I want to see how they deal with that loss and how that furthers their respecive characters.
In regards to the story today, I loved it (apart from the Gatewatches reasoning). Yahennis death and Nissas last gift to them was very powerful in my opinion. Aside from the weak climax last week I really liked Kaladesh, it set up quite a few things and left not many dangling plot threads on the plane itself.
Hour of Devastation won't be very devastating if the Gatewatch doesn't suffer any major consequences for their hubris in this chapter. If a protagonist dies, I doubt that it'd be Jace (too popular) or Liliana (too much unfinished business). My guess -- based on foreshadowing throughout the current block -- is that a certain reckless pyromancer will endanger herself and Gideon will sacrifice himself to save her thanks in part to his apparently unrequited affection for her.
Regardless of how Amonkhet plays out, I hope that the block thereafter takes a break from the Gatewatch-Versus-BossMonster spectacle and instead plays out like Shadows Over Innistrad with a few disparate protagonists working towards separate-but-maybe-ultimately-related goals.
They simply cannot succeed and beat Nicol Bolas.
Some little success sure, Liliana will for sure beat the Demon on the plane she needs, thats like "mandatory".
They might find enough people to mess with Nicol Bolas, but the story simply cannot just beat him, that would be a massive hit in the balls of magics story.
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Theres simply too much "friendly" planeswalkers around and not enough evil ones (as you would assume theres way more evil planeswalkers, as such big power would just make you go selfish much more often than it would make you benevolent, if people die around you, at some point you just cant care anymore).
Anyway, the current story article kinda made it look like they just walk in, collect more random planeswalkers they might "sacrifice" to mess up the plane , get in fight with Nicol Bolas and just crush him easily (sure they say "uh its a strong opponent" , but in the end, even individuals of them could win, cheating or not, if you have like 3 of them that could take him on their own, a small army of 10+ planeswalkers, maybe including ugin, sorin and what not powerful allies, will just obliterate any opposition ; and thats a super terrible story ... ).
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They need some massive set back and some MAJOR evil planning to unfold to rescue the little bit of threat they have left hanging in the little that is left.
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You actually make a wonderful point I didn't consider initially, Chandra. Just a little fun factoid, Nicol Bolas is down one agent. That agent being Sarkhan who is at his core and is quite content with serving Ugin who is an arch rival to Nicol Bolas.
Perhaps Gideon does some form of self-sacrificing, but wouldn't it be kind of grand if Chandra was made into a pawn for Nicol Bolas? Just think of it. She could have her color identity expanded to or and she wasn't going to go either direction if she had Nissa around her. Her pyromancy becomes much more destructive yet focused under Nicol Bolas's tutelage. As after all who is the one instigated this plan in the first place to attack Nicol Bolas at Amonkhet now of all times? Why, its Chandra.
What does this open the door to? Koth joining the Gatewatch. What does Koth bring to the table? The problem plane of New Phyrexia which means the Phyrexians can take a step into the picture again after Amonkhet and a block for them can be given. Koth is also Elpseth's friend and by that extension is an ally to Ajani and that Koth would help him save Elspeth. Which means he also brings with him, a return to Theros. Saving Elspeth also means that she can join the Gatewatch. And then that means they can start assembling forces to start focusing on the strategics on how to defeat (or at least contain) the Phyrexian threat as Elspeth has massive beef with them.
This also gives Nissa character growth as she has been heavily depending on Chandra for social interaction. As she now has to deal with her support pillar, Chandra, no longer will be there for her.
This also affects Pia Nalaar as her daughter may return to Kaladesh but Chandra won't be the same and she now has to bear a terrible secret from her as Chandra is now basically working alongside Tezzeret, the very same man she helped defeat.
If Gideon is still alive, imagine it. Now he would be so heartbroken about how he has basically lost another close friend and he couldn't save her.
Liliana loses a pawn and little sister figure she liked keeping around.
Jace realizes that without Chandra, they the Gatewatch have lost their main firepower who is also a glass-cannon and has been the lynchpin for 2/3rds of their victories.
This is a very interesting idea, and would open the door to a lot of storytelling possibilities, but since Chandra is supposedly the second most popular planeswalker, I don't see it being very likely. Also, just as Jace was off-focus in Kaladesh because he had just played a starring role in Shadows over Innistrad, I expect Chandra to be off-focus in Amonkhet because of her prominence in Kaladesh. I fully expect Gideon to be the focal character (with another heavy dose of Liliana, due to her demon being present), basically because he seems like he is next in line to take center-stage in a block.
Personally, I agree with the suggestions above that something bad might happen to Gideon - I do like the character and he has hidden depths, but the Captain America / Superman archetype is also one of the hardest for writers to keep from becoming one-note, and - as noted - there are other popular white 'walkers waiting in the wings. Plus, Gideon's removal might be used to advance the Chandra/Nissa plotline (depending upon where WotC ultimately plans on going with it, of course...)
With that said, as much as I sympathize with all of this "kill someone on the Gatewatch" talk, it simply doesn't make sense at this point. There's just too much product out there for the main five. Back in BFZ, you had the best chance in killing a planeswalker with Kiora (Zendikar native, arrogant, headstrong and still a trash character even after everything that happened in BFZ block). Everyone involved in Shadows either had too much importance (Gatewatch) or were simply too strong canonically (Sorin). Nahiri was a question mark but she ended up beating Sorin. There wasn't a strong plot point for anyone dying in Kaladesh, IMO.
Just having the Gatewatch taking an L is good. Maybe they just barely escape the last battle or someone suffers a serious injury. Bolas could re-conscript Liliana again somehow because of their previous history. Anything to make them rethink their YOLO strats for world-ending threats. Ajani could possibly be a casualty in a big battle but I think he has too many connections to events before Gatewatch.
"Kiora is the Aquaman of planeswalkers."
"Useless and everyone pretends to like her?"
I agree the mostly likely outcome is that they'll get their noses bloodied, be humbled and hopefully realize that their victories over the Eldrazi Titans were heavily dependent on external factors (pre-existing Hedron Network and Emrakul's own enigmatic plans, respectively), and then return home to start the process of recruiting new members to play the long game against Bolas. I just think that if anything bad does happen to anyone on the Gatewatch, Gideon is the mostly likely suspect. (Jace is MtG's Mickey Mouse; Liliana has her Demons and the Garruk plotline (And the Chain Veil. And the Raven Man...); Chandra is #2 in popularity, just had a focus block, and Wizards has just begun their plans for Chandra & Nissa.)
As for Ajani, there is a persistent rumor that Ajani (not Elspeth) was originally the one who was supposed to die at the end of the Theros (a la Obi Wan), but Elspeth's death (presumably) set up more interesting possibilities for the future. Whether true or not, I believe that Ajani will almost certainly be around for the inevitable "Return to Theros" block and that, if Ajani is going to die, it will be to resurrect Elspeth.
Hmm yes. It also occured to me when I was doing errands, the other plot elements. How would Nicol Bolas make Chandra due to his bidding since its not likely Chandra would stay under his control for long? Browbeat, enslavement, mind control, enchantments, cursed artifact, removed inhibitions etc. Take your pick, I think Nicol Bolas can be quite persuasive. It could even be as good as "I will do unspeakable things to Nissa if you betray me."
1) Chandra isn't just any pyromancer, she is the abbot ( a leader) of a monastery of pyromonks. If Nicol Bolas had that under his grasp it would give him more power.
2) Zendikar and Innistrad would have been unwinnable fights if Chandra didn't leave the monastery and go help in Zendikar. As because of her action to destroy the Eldrazi Titans, she inadvertently saved Innistrad. As if she didn't, Emrakul would not have a reason to rewrite Tamiyo's planar destruction scroll into an abundant mana spell and seal herself inside the moon
3) Chandra beat Sarkhan, one of Nicol Bolas's top agents at that time with Jace at her side. Also because she used the colorless flame spell, she unlocked the Eldrazi Prison which helped Nicol Bolas.
The Gateway just suffers so much harder if Chandra is taken from them during their assault on Amonkhet. As she is basically so valuable and adaptable to her situations, that as an agent of NB, she would be quite formidable opponent for the GW. If there was anyone who would actually be a massive thorn in NB's side aside from Ugin, it would be Chandra. As if you don't deal with her, she could give the Gatewatch more victories. She is also a very strong planeswalker all things considered if her resume were something like:
"Slayed two Eldrazi Gods and forced a third into sealing itself in a moon. Also helped stopped an invading force by using her own pyromancy as a means to destroy a planar portal. Is a leader of a organization of pyromancers. At age eleven, she destroyed an entire foundry by herself on Kaladesh."
She basically has bailed out the Gatewatch out of three major planar crises, Which is huge.
Seriously if I was Nicol Bolas I would be most concerned with the redhead that slings fireballs. As this is Chandra who gained her spark post-mending, can you even imagine if she had the power that the pre-mending walkers would have?