Bolas had the whole damn Gatewatch destroyed by the end of the first section. That was as glorious a clownstomping as I've ever seen.
"I promise not to listen if you all shout at each other" <- this line killed me.
Anyways thoughts
1. My god is Jace a dumbass. He's really a dumbass. Sure, lets try to invade the mind of the anciant dragon planeswalker who's psychic taunting me the entire time I'm trying to do it. That couldn't have possibly been any sort of a trap, could it have?
2. Welp, that's it for Lilliana as a trusted member of the Gatewatch. Not that anyone really expected her to stay til the last if things got dire.
3. Love how Bolas pretty much defeated everyone by just crushing their strengths. The Gatewatch really were just a bunch of kids who got lucky a couple times.
4. The big shock of the story, of course, is that Ral Zarek is working with Bolas. Which does NOT have good implications, given this pretty much means that Bolas is at least somewhat connected to Project Lightning Bug. That seems bad. On a side note, could you imagine Niv-Mizzets reaction to finding out about all this?
5. Still not sure exactly why Bolas wants the Gatewatch alive. But not killing any of them seemed pretty vital to his plans.
Good ending, we got what we wanted. On to Ixalan!
Man I can't wait until we don't have blocks anymore and can just jump to Ravnica for a set and see the implications of this project and if Niv Mizzet gets his spark
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"The essence of every world, every spell and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
5. Still not sure exactly why Bolas wants the Gatewatch alive. But not killing any of them seemed pretty vital to his plans.
He wants to use them as apart of his plans. He already has Liliana bowing down to him. This whole battle on Amonkhet was to show them what will happen if they try to stop him.
EDIT: Also cool to see how Liliana basically has to pull a Bontu with the other members.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Apparently, the role of Nicol Bolas will be played by every angry MTGSalvation member who despises the Gatewatch. Man are some of his lines funny though.
Quote from Bolas, Troll-Pharoh »
"They fancied themselves The Gatewatch. As though for some bizarre reason there were gates scattered throughout the Multiverse. That deserved watching.
The heroes, Nicol Bolas thought. Bless them, each and every one."
"That was your mind expert, I believe? Do you have a spare? I can wait, or I promise not to listen if you shout at each other."
"And then there were three. I didn't want to annoy your dear departed necromancer, but between us, I admit I know a fair bit of necromancy. Do you have an opening in your Gatewatch? Is there some type of application process?""
"But fire, against a dragon? A dragon. I have standards."
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So unless I horrendously misread the end of the Aether Revolt storyline, Tezzeret did NOT succeed in obtaining the Planar Bridge for Bolas, right? I mean, a pretty big part of that story was the Bridge getting blown up by the Gatewatch. Makes me wonder if that was what Tezzeret was trying to tell him before Bolas told him to shut up and get Ral Zarek.
The art book says that Tezzeret had take the core of the planar bridge with him into his etherium arm. The story hints at this with doing that with this;
Tezzeret shrugged. He tugged the sleeve of his robe down to cover most of his etherium arm again, hiding a strange glow that seemed to echo the eddying light of his portal. Only then did he grace her with his full attention. He arched an eyebrow.
but doesn't ever out right states it.
I read this story when it was posted and then read it a few weeks ago to make sure I understood whether Tezz had a bridge or not. This was written without much fact, so thank you for clearing this up.
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jace: he mind wash him then he blindlessly planeswalked off. (and he went to ixalan aparently.)
liliana: he tricked/hypnotize her to quit the gatewatch and join him he told her to planeswalk off to meet up with her later
chandra: broke a few of her ribs and also by bind her in his handto break another one and nissa saved her in just in time to escape
nissa: he had far more ground of controling the land than her gideon managed to stall him from killing her and escape.
gideon: first he simply prooved to him he can break threw his immunity shield then gave him a chance to choose life or death he chose life (surrender for short) then planeswalked out.
so note when ajani saids get more planeswalkers to fight him LISTEN TO AJANI!!!
and so Ral Zarek is another member of bolas team so i guess he will be added to bolas decks in edh then.
now to go to ixalan story (after the very short storys on the new legends of Commander 2017 ofcoarse.)
Bolas win, he very much wins. Lillian's defeat will bring a lot of interesting conflicts to the group later.
And it looks like Ral is an agent of Bolas.
Ral being an agent of Bolas was interesting, but wasn't terribly surprising. It also makes me wonder how Bolas makes stops in Ravnica without anyone noticing.
Also, I wonder if Bolas has a yet undisclosed BR walker pawn since he has a UB in Tezzeret and a UR pawn in Ral. (INB4: it's not Sarkhan. He's decidedly Temur now, and he spent the last 80% of his plotline trying to shake off the Bolas influence. If anything, he'll be a "pawn" of Ugin now (but not really a pawn, but in Ugin's camp).
EDIT:
Also, Bolas seems to have a larger goal that he needs the "heroes" for. As if they will share a common enemy in the future, and he wanted them to live so that they would get stronger so that they could be of better use to him in the future.
Chandra isn't up to his standards lol. I'm sort of disappointed he didn't kill her, because I feel that her arc is over, she's resolved the only interesting part of her story and I personally find her annoying and her dialogue, both internal and verbal, to be cringeworthy. I understand why he left her alive though, her death would have likely caused Nissa and Gideon to fight to the death rather than retreat, and he seems to actually want them alive (possibly Chandra as well, if only as a means to incinerate things).
His plans are still too ill defined at this point for me to have faith in his long term viability as a villain. He's still in full Bond Villain mode leaving the heroes alive and banking on convoluted plans, and he vamps around proffering condescending quips, toying with enemies and victims, and killing/destroying for fun. I'm a bit more forgiving or his mustache twirling nature than many here, as it can be done well (as in today's story), and mustache twirlers can make for good villains (Ramsey Bolton). It's also in line with his character, as he's a old walker Elder Dragon. His Draconic nature already makes him a predator with little regard for "lesser" beings, made more extreme by his Elder nature, especially given the history around that. Old Walkers were generally insane and detached from mortal life, with a strong tendency to treat mortals as tools and pawns, even the good old walkers, so a Grixis aligned Elder Dragon Old Walker should act like this. It just needs to pay off at some point in a way we can see that makes sense. His easy destruction of God's and Gatewatch help a great deal in backing up his gleefully arrogant nature and flippant regard for his enemies.
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Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
But I guess Ral Zarek being an agent of Bolas is exciting? Do we even care about Ral...
So the next time we'll see Bolas prominently is probably on Dominaria. I think it is safer to assume his role will not end there. Will things culminate on Ravnica? hmm
"Ral, Agent of Bolas" incoming. Hopefully that card is better than his original. I guess if he has to bow down to a dragon overlord, he'd rather bow down to the Elder Dragon that makes Niv-Mizzet look like a playground bully. The implications with his planeswalker-tracking project are also potentially interesting.
As for the Gatewatch losses, I think I felt bad for Liliana's in particular. Everyone else crumbled due to idiocy, but Liliana actually tried to plead with them to come to their senses and realize they were grossly outmatched. She could have just left them to their fate, but she cared enough about them to try to get them to leave with her, and now they see her as a traitor for wanting to stay alive. It is pretty similar to Bontu's situation, and I wonder if that's intentional.
Now that we know Ral is an Agent of Bolas, it does shed a slightly different light on Ajani's mission.
If the gatewatch HAD waited and gathered planeswalkers, there is a somewhat decent chance that Jace would have brought Ral along (as a Frenemy, or with the Common enemy argument), meaning Bolas would have had an inside man into the expanded Anti-Bolas-watch PW crew right from the start.
Even now, assuming Gidds, Chandra and Nissa regroup and meet up to grovel for Ajani's forgiveness, they'll likely be grabbing every PW they can find and feel they can somewhat trust.... So their ranks are probably going to have more than one Bolas-spy in it right from the start, and I doubt any of them are sufficiently paranoid to suspect the new ones, especially with Jace gone. Hell, Ral could show up at Tamiyo's place, claim he knows Jace and join in the team and short of actual mustache twirling, would probably be accepted in right off the bat.
Niv, Bolas, seems like Ral is a bottom for all dragons. Perhaps against his will, we'll see.
Despite how anticipated this story was, I cringed through the entire thing. Some of Bolas's lines were amusing for sure, but overall the taunting and excessive dialogue were just painful and uncharacteristic. Only his exchange with Lilliana felt natural, as I'd expect him to coerce her into leaving with promises of survival and more power. Otherwise, I found the development of this piece rather immature. I'd expect some wisdom from Bolas, some casual indifference, some display of experience - showing it, rather than telling it. Reminding everyone how long he's lived before even doing anything (as an example) cheapens him. Delivering the final blow and casually mentioning his millennia-long experience with the Gatewatch's form of magic at that last moment is more dramatic.
I had envisioned Bolas being rather silent and wise, casually sweeping the Gatewatch like an old, tired and disappointed parent. Partially distracted while doing it, even. The bit with the tail crushing Gideon was… odd. We've seen better battles than this, even recently. Bolas being so physical about this approach despite his access to Blue and Black mana felt awkward. I guess he wanted to defeat each with their own strengths, but really he could have mind-crushed them all. Perhaps the author was trying to highlight how diminished Bolas is - but the entire piece felt too passive. And dull. Thassa vs. Kiora, Kiora vs. Kozilek, GW vs. Emrakul, etc all felt like more engaging battles.
What's with the Raven Man saying she was never more a fool thinking she could win against Bolas? Lilliana was pretty outmatched against Emrakul just before.
Amonkhet as a desiccated backwater wasteland - so it seems like the plane was going to end, anyway?
I found it interesting that Jace had a brief recollection of Alhammarret (well, his mind in any case). I wonder if after he recovers from his presumed amnesia in Ixalan, he will regain some or all of his lost memories? That could be the hook to a future set on Vryn - maybe the Fall 2018 set?
I'm also curious as to whether the rest of the Gatewatch (sans Jace and Liliana) returned to Ravnica, or if they also blind-jumped. Regardless, I imagine we will probably see most of the team back together on Dominaria next year to meet up with Ajani and plan their next move.
Despite how anticipated this story was, I cringed through the entire thing. Some of Bolas's lines were amusing for sure, but overall the taunting and excessive dialogue were just painful and uncharacteristic. Only his exchange with Lilliana felt natural, as I'd expect him to coerce her into leaving with promises of survival and more power. Otherwise, I found the development of this piece rather immature. I'd expect some wisdom from Bolas, some casual indifference, some display of experience - showing it, rather than telling it. Reminding everyone how long he's lived before even doing anything (as an example) cheapens him. Delivering the final blow and casually mentioning his millennia-long experience with the Gatewatch's form of magic at that last moment is more dramatic.
I had envisioned Bolas being rather silent and wise, casually sweeping the Gatewatch like an old, tired and disappointed parent. Partially distracted while doing it, even. The bit with the tail crushing Gideon was… odd. We've seen better battles than this, even recently. Bolas being so physical about this approach despite his access to Blue and Black mana felt awkward. I guess he wanted to defeat each with their own strengths, but really he could have mind-crushed them all. Perhaps the author was trying to highlight how diminished Bolas is - but the entire piece felt too passive. And dull. Thassa vs. Kiora, Kiora vs. Kozilek, GW vs. Emrakul, etc all felt like more engaging battles.
What's with the Raven Man saying she was never more a fool thinking she could win against Bolas? Lilliana was pretty outmatched against Emrakul just before.
Bolas is still, at the end of the day, a dragon. He even points that out in this story. After spending ages scheming and planning, he's basically letting his horns down here. Also, that red symbol in his mana cost isn't just there for decoration or because he can wield red magic. Red is also a part of his personality.
Regarding the Raven Man, we still don't know what his deal is, but if I recall, he (and even the Chain Veil, for that matter) pleaded with Liliana to get out while the getting was good when things took a dark turn with Emrakul.
Amonkhet as a desiccated backwater wasteland - so it seems like the plane was going to end, anyway?
The Curse of Wandering is a natural feature of the plane, and the Hekma and wastes existed before Bolas enacted his plan to subjugate the Gods.
There are hints that Amonkhet was doomed from the start, but Bolas used the features of the plane to his advantage.
But we never had official confirmation of this until now. And we still don't have much in the way of details about it either, or what the point was all along. Just more hints that perhaps the eternals will be transported through the planar bridge from Kaladesh. But it's all still vague.
Amonkhet as a desiccated backwater wasteland - so it seems like the plane was going to end, anyway?
The Curse of Wandering is a natural feature of the plane, and the Hekma and wastes existed before Bolas enacted his plan to subjugate the Gods.
There are hints that Amonkhet was doomed from the start, but Bolas used the features of the plane to his advantage.
But we never had official confirmation of this until now. And we still don't have much in the way of details about it either, or what the point was all along. Just more hints that perhaps the eternals will be transported through the planar bridge from Kaladesh. But it's all still vague.
I know that things are still vague regarding what Bolas is planning to do with the Eternal army, or what the whole point of this is. He also has something planned for the Gatewatch, and we don't know what that is. We only know that it's the only reason he didn't mind-crush all of them, or reduce them to putty.
I was just addressing that particular bit about Amonkhet being dead in the water.
Bolas had the whole damn Gatewatch destroyed by the end of the first section. That was as glorious a clownstomping as I've ever seen.
"I promise not to listen if you all shout at each other" <- this line killed me.
Anyways thoughts
1. My god is Jace a dumbass. He's really a dumbass. Sure, lets try to invade the mind of the anciant dragon planeswalker who's psychic taunting me the entire time I'm trying to do it. That couldn't have possibly been any sort of a trap, could it have?
2. Welp, that's it for Lilliana as a trusted member of the Gatewatch. Not that anyone really expected her to stay til the last if things got dire.
3. Love how Bolas pretty much defeated everyone by just crushing their strengths. The Gatewatch really were just a bunch of kids who got lucky a couple times.
4. The big shock of the story, of course, is that Ral Zarek is working with Bolas. Which does NOT have good implications, given this pretty much means that Bolas is at least somewhat connected to Project Lightning Bug. That seems bad. On a side note, could you imagine Niv-Mizzets reaction to finding out about all this?
5. Still not sure exactly why Bolas wants the Gatewatch alive. But not killing any of them seemed pretty vital to his plans.
Good ending, we got what we wanted. On to Ixalan!
Man I can't wait until we don't have blocks anymore and can just jump to Ravnica for a set and see the implications of this project and if Niv Mizzet gets his spark
What if...Niv is some kind of Bolas induced trickery?
All evidence suggests that Amonkhet suffered some major plane-wide disaster at some point in the past (the Curse of Wandering, the God's reactions when Bolas arrived - that they must not fail again, that sort of thing). I believe discovering the truth of whatever occurred will be at the heart of a Return to Amonkhet. Since a Return set will likely have an archaeology / sifting through ruins and robbing tombs component (so as to capture the "Eqypt as a dead civilization" tropes), discovering what doom befell the ancient civilizations of Amonkhet seems like an obvious plot hook.
Gideon's wounded arm will hopefully force him to start using hieromancy again.
Maybe. Maybe getting knocked around will give Gideon the motivation he needs to start planning his tactics more carefully and using more finesse (like with hieromancy) than whipping his sural at everything.
This story was everything I wanted. I wasn't looking for anything deep, anything "characteristic" of a being with millennia-old plans. I was looking for a good-old fashioned ass-kicking handed out by my favorite character in MTG. I feel like people sometimes forget that he's a god-damn dragon.
"Over the long years, Nicol Bolas knew it served him poorly to be too much the dragon. But it was no fun to be the dragon too little."
Bolas didn't forget. If Bolas was just some powerful, ancient wizard guy, I wouldn't have cared about him at all and most likely would have despised the character. Instead, he's also a dragon that can do dragon things. I find that far more interesting. Not only can he dominate you on a mental/magical front, he can utterly decimate you on a physical front as well. He can do both at the same time. I would have been disappointed if he didn't fly around and dive bomb Nissa and Chandra or used his tail to racketball Gideon off of a wall while conversing with Jace and Liliana. Why shouldn't he use all of his strengths?
His taunts were just the right amount of smug as well. 25,000+ year old dragons need to have fun too.
"And then there were three. I didn't want to annoy your dear departed necromancer, but between us, I admit I know a fair bit of necromancy. Do you have an opening in your Gatewatch? Is there some type of application process?"
This line here? Solid gold delivered at the perfect time. He said it right after Liliana effectively betrayed the remaining three. Nissa, Chandra, and Gideon aren't known for keeping their cool. If they had even a small chance of winning, this line would have immediately changed the odds to 100% in Bolas's favor. What can I say? I'm a sucker for theatrics.
The story wasn't a literary masterpiece but it did everything I wanted it to do and it gave me a small plot point with Ral Zarek. I'd call it my second favorite HoD story after Endure.
So basically the story team has watched One Piece? Same type of thing happens. Then they come back together after years of training to fight together again with their new found abilities....
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Man I can't wait until we don't have blocks anymore and can just jump to Ravnica for a set and see the implications of this project and if Niv Mizzet gets his spark
He wants to use them as apart of his plans. He already has Liliana bowing down to him. This whole battle on Amonkhet was to show them what will happen if they try to stop him.
EDIT: Also cool to see how Liliana basically has to pull a Bontu with the other members.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
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Bolas won
the gatewatch stood no chance
jace: he mind wash him then he blindlessly planeswalked off. (and he went to ixalan aparently.)
liliana: he tricked/hypnotize her to quit the gatewatch and join him he told her to planeswalk off to meet up with her later
chandra: broke a few of her ribs and also by bind her in his handto break another one and nissa saved her in just in time to escape
nissa: he had far more ground of controling the land than her gideon managed to stall him from killing her and escape.
gideon: first he simply prooved to him he can break threw his immunity shield then gave him a chance to choose life or death he chose life (surrender for short) then planeswalked out.
so note when ajani saids get more planeswalkers to fight him LISTEN TO AJANI!!!
and so Ral Zarek is another member of bolas team so i guess he will be added to bolas decks in edh then.
now to go to ixalan story (after the very short storys on the new legends of Commander 2017 ofcoarse.)
Ral being an agent of Bolas was interesting, but wasn't terribly surprising. It also makes me wonder how Bolas makes stops in Ravnica without anyone noticing.
Also, I wonder if Bolas has a yet undisclosed BR walker pawn since he has a UB in Tezzeret and a UR pawn in Ral. (INB4: it's not Sarkhan. He's decidedly Temur now, and he spent the last 80% of his plotline trying to shake off the Bolas influence. If anything, he'll be a "pawn" of Ugin now (but not really a pawn, but in Ugin's camp).
EDIT:
Also, Bolas seems to have a larger goal that he needs the "heroes" for. As if they will share a common enemy in the future, and he wanted them to live so that they would get stronger so that they could be of better use to him in the future.
Chandra isn't up to his standards lol. I'm sort of disappointed he didn't kill her, because I feel that her arc is over, she's resolved the only interesting part of her story and I personally find her annoying and her dialogue, both internal and verbal, to be cringeworthy. I understand why he left her alive though, her death would have likely caused Nissa and Gideon to fight to the death rather than retreat, and he seems to actually want them alive (possibly Chandra as well, if only as a means to incinerate things).
His plans are still too ill defined at this point for me to have faith in his long term viability as a villain. He's still in full Bond Villain mode leaving the heroes alive and banking on convoluted plans, and he vamps around proffering condescending quips, toying with enemies and victims, and killing/destroying for fun. I'm a bit more forgiving or his mustache twirling nature than many here, as it can be done well (as in today's story), and mustache twirlers can make for good villains (Ramsey Bolton). It's also in line with his character, as he's a old walker Elder Dragon. His Draconic nature already makes him a predator with little regard for "lesser" beings, made more extreme by his Elder nature, especially given the history around that. Old Walkers were generally insane and detached from mortal life, with a strong tendency to treat mortals as tools and pawns, even the good old walkers, so a Grixis aligned Elder Dragon Old Walker should act like this. It just needs to pay off at some point in a way we can see that makes sense. His easy destruction of God's and Gatewatch help a great deal in backing up his gleefully arrogant nature and flippant regard for his enemies.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
But I guess Ral Zarek being an agent of Bolas is exciting? Do we even care about Ral...
So the next time we'll see Bolas prominently is probably on Dominaria. I think it is safer to assume his role will not end there. Will things culminate on Ravnica? hmm
As for the Gatewatch losses, I think I felt bad for Liliana's in particular. Everyone else crumbled due to idiocy, but Liliana actually tried to plead with them to come to their senses and realize they were grossly outmatched. She could have just left them to their fate, but she cared enough about them to try to get them to leave with her, and now they see her as a traitor for wanting to stay alive. It is pretty similar to Bontu's situation, and I wonder if that's intentional.
I recall there being confirmation that she does, but you wouldn't know it from this story, since it seems to imply that she gives up on Amonkhet.
If the gatewatch HAD waited and gathered planeswalkers, there is a somewhat decent chance that Jace would have brought Ral along (as a Frenemy, or with the Common enemy argument), meaning Bolas would have had an inside man into the expanded Anti-Bolas-watch PW crew right from the start.
Even now, assuming Gidds, Chandra and Nissa regroup and meet up to grovel for Ajani's forgiveness, they'll likely be grabbing every PW they can find and feel they can somewhat trust.... So their ranks are probably going to have more than one Bolas-spy in it right from the start, and I doubt any of them are sufficiently paranoid to suspect the new ones, especially with Jace gone. Hell, Ral could show up at Tamiyo's place, claim he knows Jace and join in the team and short of actual mustache twirling, would probably be accepted in right off the bat.
Despite how anticipated this story was, I cringed through the entire thing. Some of Bolas's lines were amusing for sure, but overall the taunting and excessive dialogue were just painful and uncharacteristic. Only his exchange with Lilliana felt natural, as I'd expect him to coerce her into leaving with promises of survival and more power. Otherwise, I found the development of this piece rather immature. I'd expect some wisdom from Bolas, some casual indifference, some display of experience - showing it, rather than telling it. Reminding everyone how long he's lived before even doing anything (as an example) cheapens him. Delivering the final blow and casually mentioning his millennia-long experience with the Gatewatch's form of magic at that last moment is more dramatic.
I had envisioned Bolas being rather silent and wise, casually sweeping the Gatewatch like an old, tired and disappointed parent. Partially distracted while doing it, even. The bit with the tail crushing Gideon was… odd. We've seen better battles than this, even recently. Bolas being so physical about this approach despite his access to Blue and Black mana felt awkward. I guess he wanted to defeat each with their own strengths, but really he could have mind-crushed them all. Perhaps the author was trying to highlight how diminished Bolas is - but the entire piece felt too passive. And dull. Thassa vs. Kiora, Kiora vs. Kozilek, GW vs. Emrakul, etc all felt like more engaging battles.
What's with the Raven Man saying she was never more a fool thinking she could win against Bolas? Lilliana was pretty outmatched against Emrakul just before.
Amonkhet as a desiccated backwater wasteland - so it seems like the plane was going to end, anyway?
|| 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 ||
The Curse of Wandering is a natural feature of the plane, and the Hekma and wastes existed before Bolas enacted his plan to subjugate the Gods.
There are hints that Amonkhet was doomed from the start, but Bolas used the features of the plane to his advantage.
I'm also curious as to whether the rest of the Gatewatch (sans Jace and Liliana) returned to Ravnica, or if they also blind-jumped. Regardless, I imagine we will probably see most of the team back together on Dominaria next year to meet up with Ajani and plan their next move.
Bolas is still, at the end of the day, a dragon. He even points that out in this story. After spending ages scheming and planning, he's basically letting his horns down here. Also, that red symbol in his mana cost isn't just there for decoration or because he can wield red magic. Red is also a part of his personality.
Regarding the Raven Man, we still don't know what his deal is, but if I recall, he (and even the Chain Veil, for that matter) pleaded with Liliana to get out while the getting was good when things took a dark turn with Emrakul.
|| 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 know that things are still vague regarding what Bolas is planning to do with the Eternal army, or what the whole point of this is. He also has something planned for the Gatewatch, and we don't know what that is. We only know that it's the only reason he didn't mind-crush all of them, or reduce them to putty.
I was just addressing that particular bit about Amonkhet being dead in the water.
What if...Niv is some kind of Bolas induced trickery?
This almost word-for-word the description of Ugin's mind in Revelation at the Eye.
Modern - Cheeri0s (building), Belcher (building), Lantern (building), UW Control (building)
RIP Magic Duels. Wizards will regret what they did to you.
Jace will clearly be playing the part of amnesiac castaway on Ixalan (if there was any doubt).
Gideon's wounded arm will hopefully force him to start using hieromancy again.
Nissa's exit was interesting. Maybe following up more on the 'Be the Hand that moves' stuff?
Ral working for Bolas is interesting, mostly because it seems so unexpected. Were there hints I missed?
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[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
Other than Ral happening to be in Grixis range color-wise, I can't think of anything.
If we used that as a hint to Bolas allegiance in any event, Saheeli, Ashiok and Dack would also all be seekrit Bolas agents.
Do it, Wizards.Maybe. Maybe getting knocked around will give Gideon the motivation he needs to start planning his tactics more carefully and using more finesse (like with hieromancy) than whipping his sural at everything.
"Over the long years, Nicol Bolas knew it served him poorly to be too much the dragon. But it was no fun to be the dragon too little."
Bolas didn't forget. If Bolas was just some powerful, ancient wizard guy, I wouldn't have cared about him at all and most likely would have despised the character. Instead, he's also a dragon that can do dragon things. I find that far more interesting. Not only can he dominate you on a mental/magical front, he can utterly decimate you on a physical front as well. He can do both at the same time. I would have been disappointed if he didn't fly around and dive bomb Nissa and Chandra or used his tail to racketball Gideon off of a wall while conversing with Jace and Liliana. Why shouldn't he use all of his strengths?
His taunts were just the right amount of smug as well. 25,000+ year old dragons need to have fun too.
"And then there were three. I didn't want to annoy your dear departed necromancer, but between us, I admit I know a fair bit of necromancy. Do you have an opening in your Gatewatch? Is there some type of application process?"
This line here? Solid gold delivered at the perfect time. He said it right after Liliana effectively betrayed the remaining three. Nissa, Chandra, and Gideon aren't known for keeping their cool. If they had even a small chance of winning, this line would have immediately changed the odds to 100% in Bolas's favor. What can I say? I'm a sucker for theatrics.
The story wasn't a literary masterpiece but it did everything I wanted it to do and it gave me a small plot point with Ral Zarek. I'd call it my second favorite HoD story after Endure.
"Kiora is the Aquaman of planeswalkers."
"Useless and everyone pretends to like her?"