Just thought of something thats kinda crazy. What was the Gatewatch planning to tell Ajani if everything worked out pretty much as they planned? They go to Amonkhet, quickly find Bolas, figure out what he's doing, foil all his plans, Chandra transforms Bolas into well-done dragon steak, and then they go to the agreed meetup place where Ajani is waiting.
"Welcome new friends, I have located a couple new allies who will join us, one of them knows something about Bolas and his possible schemes, and we have supplies. At last, I believe we may be ready for this great, and dangerous mission."
"uhhh yeah..... about that. See, we never agreed with your argument and didn't really trust you, so we pretended to agree to your plan, waited till you left so you couldn't discover what we were up to, then we went to Bolas with the element of surprise. His plan is foiled and he's dead now, but don't worry, you are still totally a member of the gatewatch and our friend!"
At that point, if I was Ajani, I'd be an ex-member of the Gatewatch.
While I don't hope that happens, it could lead to the interesting storyline of two "faces" squaring off against one another based on varying interpretations of "Good."
Just thought of something thats kinda crazy. What was the Gatewatch planning to tell Ajani if everything worked out pretty much as they planned? They go to Amonkhet, quickly find Bolas, figure out what he's doing, foil all his plans, Chandra transforms Bolas into well-done dragon steak, and then they go to the agreed meetup place where Ajani is waiting.
"Welcome new friends, I have located a couple new allies who will join us, one of them knows something about Bolas and his possible schemes, and we have supplies. At last, I believe we may be ready for this great, and dangerous mission."
"uhhh yeah..... about that. See, we never agreed with your argument and didn't really trust you, so we pretended to agree to your plan, waited till you left so you couldn't discover what we were up to, then we went to Bolas with the element of surprise. His plan is foiled and he's dead now, but don't worry, you are still totally a member of the gatewatch and our friend!"
At that point, if I was Ajani, I'd be an ex-member of the Gatewatch.
While I don't hope that happens, it could lead to the interesting storyline of two "faces" squaring off against one another based on varying interpretations of "Good."
Seconded. I don't think or hope they'll kill Bolas on the altar of this storyline, but I do hope there will be a Gatewatch schism and a babyface-versus-babyface storyline.
First, the story itself. I was expecting the first story in the block to involve a new planeswalker native to the plane question, as SOI and KLD both did, but I was (not very) pleasantly surprised to discover otherwise. The action scene dragged on for quite a while but it was better written than most action scenes so far so... improvement, I guess? Chandra is still unbearable to read from her POV. This story took her already over-the-top narration when Doug Beyer writes her and turns it up to an eleven. Liliana getting eaten by a wurm was weird... she didn't have the veil on beforehand so he she would have had to put the veil on in the wurm's stomach? Really? That is, assuming that wurms don't chew their food. Anyway, since we seem to be focusing on Liliana for this block, that might make it a bit more readable, as the cringe-inducing Chandra narration should be minimal.
It annoys me how so much of Nissa's story arc revolves around concepts that had talked about very little or not at all beforehand, and that are never properly explained to us. First there was the whole Soul of Zendikar and Soul of Lorwyn/Shadowmoor thing (besides a weird mythic cycle, there is no context or explanation for this). Then there was a bunch of talk about leylines, which would be fine (as leylines have always kind of been a thing, even if not as plot-relevant). Except she uses weird terms to describe leylines and planes. "Corrupted leylines," "life/death balance," etc. What do these things even mean? It reminds me of in movies where the writers need to explain something and don't know how, they have the smartest character rattle off a bunch of scientific-sounding nonsense that makes no sense to any of the characters, let alone the audience.
I can't decide if Gideon's bit talking about gods is hint at Gideon dying or a Gideon-centric return to Theros (I would prefer the former, tbh). The fact that they are foreshadowing in two different directions is an improvement over their previous storytelling that was painfully straightforward and blunt when hinting at anything. (Kozilek on Zendikar? Who would have guessed? Emrakul on Innistrad? No way!) What really disturbs me is that we are already starting on a Gatewatch-centric story arc yet again. If there was any time to do some world-building and let us see the non-Gatewatch characters as anything but background noise, it would be in stories before the Gatewatch arrive. They even did that for Kaladesh, which was extremely focused on the Gatewatch. But they missed that opportunity already for Amonkhet, which worries me. The entire block of Kaladesh had like two stories that didn't involve the Gatewatch, and Amonkhet might not be much better at this rate. If we are going to have to have the Gatewatch present in every block, I would prefer storytelling more like what we got in SOI, with focus on just one (or maybe two) Gatewatch member in the first set followed by greater emphasis for the main conflict in the second, but still giving us plenty of actually relevant side characters and secondary story arcs like Sorin vs. Nahiri. Kaladesh and Amonkhet, however, have been nowhere close to that. But that's ok, it's not like they just skipped a six-week opportunity to give us stories not involving the Gatewatch! (Oh, wait...)
Ok, enough Gatewatch ranting. Time to talk about Amonkhet itself.
We have, more or less, confirmation that the Gods are controlled by Bolas. Source: Here.
As other have said, they might have free will, but they are definitely his pawns, whether they know their true purpose or not.
The more important takeaway from that information, in my opinion, is that the red god KILLS anyone who survives the trials. (As others have said, the trials likely happen in the order that they appear on that checklist card, which explains why they are not in color order). But anyway, this immediately reminded me of a theory that the trials and the Worthy were really just a ploy of Bolas's so that he can get more planeswalker minions, and I think that "prize" for winning the trials basically confirms that. The entire culture of Amonkhet is based around competing in the trials, so they will get lots of recruits. Only the strongest warriors or magic users survive, so the undesirable candidates for minions will be eliminated (although if a loser's spark ignites and save them, Bolas might not be opposed to using them as a minion anyway). Only the strongest potential planeswalkers can win, but they are then executed. This, of course, is intended to activate the victor's planeswalker spark if they have one. If they don't spark they get turned into an honored mummy that will supposedly get some glorious afterlife when Bolas returns (this is likely a blatant lie but it provides the motivation for people to take part in the trials in the first place).
So essentially Bolas created or conquered a plane and then set up a civilization in such a way that everything about it is perfect for creating useful new planeswalkers. This is just too much for it to be a coincidence. I think it's safe to assume that Amonkhet is Bolas's planeswalker training and recruitment system. He also might be using it as a mana battery as some have suggested, planning to harvest power from it in Hour of Devastation in a way not unlike what he attempted on Alara. But Amonkhet's capacity for generating new pawns for Bolas should not be ignored. Furthermore, I think that it is extremely likely that we get a new planeswalker in this block who ascends through the trials and has their spark ignite at the end. They could go two directions with this: have the new planeswalker work for Bolas as intended, or have them join (or at least assist) the Gatewatch instead. In fact, the new planeswalker might join one side and then switch to the other partway through. We might see a legendary creature in the first set that becomes a planeswalker in the second, or it might just be a planeswalker card (in either set).
Bolas using Amonkhet to recruit planeswalkers raises a few more questions: Are the gods aware of their role in this process? Are they even aware of Bolas at all? If they are aware of Bolas, do they know that he is a planeswalker or just think that he is a superior god? If someone fails the trials and dies, but their spark ignites, will Bolas still try to recruit them? Has Bolas recruited any planeswalkers in this way yet? Is Ashiok such a planeswalker? Is Hour of Devastation how Bolas destroys and rebuilds the civilization on Amonkhet at regular intervals, or is it just referring to him fighting the Gatewatch?
I think Bolas chose this plane specifically because it is so inhospitable and *****ty in its natural state, and that he is directly responsible for the paradisaical city state. This would allow him to point to an actual, significant, tangible benefit that he brought to the populace, and since he didn't cause their suffering in the first place he wouldn't have to worry about anyone finding out the "awful truth". He keeps the evil in the future, so all anyone sees is past benevolence, and they are thus easier to fool. To the inhabitants, he really is a benevolent God that provided them with a paradise in the midst of their terrible world, and all he asks of them is to strive to better themselves with the reward being an even greater boon from him. It even helps explain why the Gods would follow him if they predate him (are natural to the plane). If the Gods see their role as protecting the living, then Bolas shows up and just helps them do that better than they have ever done before, why wouldn't they follow him? All of this is speculation of course, maybe I'm just hopeful and wishing that the above is true so Bolas could finally have an evil mastermind moment rather than just "eat all the mana" and "Step 1: Release Eldrazi. Step 2: ???. Step 3: Profit."
One thing that isn't speculation though: ******* SANDWORMS *****ES. WE HAVE WORMSIGN MOTHER ****ERS!!!!!
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
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Although its a clever idea, there is one very big problem with the "Bolas is trying to spark Planeswalkers to recruit them as minions" theory: you do not spark without a traumatic event, either something terrible happens or is about to happen and in your grief or desperation you discover the latent ability you always had. An execution is not traumatic if its welcomed.
If these guys who volunteer for the trials are all true believers, the victors will be smiling up at the God and welcoming their glorious death with open arms, as part of their reward. The only way they would spark is if they never believed in any of this nonsense, they are culturally forced by their talent to participate in the trials, which they win, and they spark as they are about to receive the reward they never actually wanted. Possible, but not likely. (If it ever did happen, I'm sure Bolas would chase them down and see if they could be an asset)
I think its simpler, Bolas somehow knew (even if Tezzeret did not) that from Kaladesh he would bring him the knowledge to create a planar bridge. Perhaps he had a vision, blue is in his portfolio after all. I think Bolas just simply wants an army to knock down the planes one after another and rule them all as a Godlike figure. If he can't get his pre-mending powers back, thats fine, he still wants to be as Godlike as possible.
I don't get why people are expecting anything bad to happen to the Gatewatch that is more permanent. A loss is definite, but the entire premise of building up the Gatewatch is to have a core group. Killing off any of the members right now would be silly. There isn't anyone suitable to replace any of them currently (no, Ajani doesn't count, he isn't humanoid enough unfortunately), and even if there was the entire marketing thing they've been doing since Origins makes no sense if they planned to just off one of them. Same goes for losing one of them to mind control or the like. I don't know what will wind up happening, but I do think it'll be a loss, just not something more permanent.
An execution could still very well be physically traumatic, even if it wasn't emotionally so. Nowhere does it indicate that it's a quick and/or painless process.
Besides the traumatic aspect I think one's planeswalker spark igniting also has to do with experiencing a moment of intense emotion or completely unlike anything that has ever happened before. Even good things are similar to being traumatic if they are utterly transformative events. Being killed by the god you've worshipped all your life after completing the challenge you've spent your entire life training for seems traumatic in the sense that it is an ultimate, all-changing event from which it is impossible to come back from (which seems like what your planeswalker spark igniting is, "traumatic" can just be a word used to convey the sense of what this inconvievable, all-transforming event is like).
An execution could still very well be physically traumatic, even if it wasn't emotionally so. Nowhere does it indicate that it's a quick and/or painless process.
Thats true, but the art seemed to show the guy about to be run through by an enormous spear. Though maybe thats just art and it would damage the mummy too badly.
In any case, if he's a true believer, I don't think he's going to be searching for a way out even in the midst of horrible pain.
edit: I am more open minded about it though, I hadn't thought of that angle. I think you guys moved me from "hah, clever but no way is that the story" to "hmmm, I still doubt it, but sure I can see that maybe"
Amonkhet apparently has a tradition of killing the best people to turn them undead, I wonder if it's a way of finding who might "spark" and become a PW to serve Bolas?
Think one of the Gatewatch might get killed THEN turned into a zombie PW serving Bolas? I hope so.
So this is a death cult entirely devoted to becoming a servant to the most evil, vicious mastermind in the Multiverse. And our plucky little heroes are going to walk right into this bubble and start telling everyone what a horrible horrible being their god-Pharaoh is.
You might as well put "This is gonna end well" on the horizon right around Bolas' horns.
I'm sure its going to be addressed, but I find it really intriguing that Bolas here has set up a machination for creating white zombies, when white seems so fundamentally against the concept of corporeal undeath. Furthermore, whatever he's doing,its completely groundbreaking, given that this hasn't been done anywhere else in the multiverse. And all coming from a Grixis-aligned planeswalker, to boot.
So this is a death cult entirely devoted to becoming a servant to the most evil, vicious mastermind in the Multiverse. And our plucky little heroes are going to walk right into this bubble and start telling everyone what a horrible horrible being their god-Pharaoh is.
You might as well put "This is gonna end well" on the horizon right around Bolas' horns.
I'm sure its going to be addressed, but I find it really intriguing that Bolas here has set up a machination for creating white zombies, when white seems so fundamentally against the concept of corporeal undeath. Furthermore, whatever he's doing,its completely groundbreaking, given that this hasn't been done anywhere else in the multiverse. And all coming from a Grixis-aligned planeswalker, to boot.
The colors vary from Plane to Plane though. The way mummies are being done here makes it a very White-focused venture.
So this is a death cult entirely devoted to becoming a servant to the most evil, vicious mastermind in the Multiverse. And our plucky little heroes are going to walk right into this bubble and start telling everyone what a horrible horrible being their god-Pharaoh is.
You might as well put "This is gonna end well" on the horizon right around Bolas' horns.
I'm sure its going to be addressed, but I find it really intriguing that Bolas here has set up a machination for creating white zombies, when white seems so fundamentally against the concept of corporeal undeath. Furthermore, whatever he's doing,its completely groundbreaking, given that this hasn't been done anywhere else in the multiverse. And all coming from a Grixis-aligned planeswalker, to boot.
The colors vary from Plane to Plane though. The way mummies are being done here makes it a very White-focused venture.
If it was on the level, yeah. I'm just not thinking this whole "compete in trials to earn my favor because I value the bravest" schtick is anything but a dragon-sized load of bull*****.
So this is a death cult entirely devoted to becoming a servant to the most evil, vicious mastermind in the Multiverse. And our plucky little heroes are going to walk right into this bubble and start telling everyone what a horrible horrible being their god-Pharaoh is.
You might as well put "This is gonna end well" on the horizon right around Bolas' horns.
I'm sure its going to be addressed, but I find it really intriguing that Bolas here has set up a machination for creating white zombies, when white seems so fundamentally against the concept of corporeal undeath. Furthermore, whatever he's doing,its completely groundbreaking, given that this hasn't been done anywhere else in the multiverse. And all coming from a Grixis-aligned planeswalker, to boot.
The colors vary from Plane to Plane though. The way mummies are being done here makes it a very White-focused venture.
If it was on the level, yeah. I'm just not thinking this whole "compete in trials to earn my favor because I value the bravest" schtick is anything but a dragon-sized load of bull*****.
I don't think that the motivation of the person doing it has to be in line with the participants, and either way it still seems set up to be all about undying loyalty kind of things. I'm sure it's at least somewhat insincere, the only question is to what extent.
Although its a clever idea, there is one very big problem with the "Bolas is trying to spark Planeswalkers to recruit them as minions" theory: you do not spark without a traumatic event, either something terrible happens or is about to happen and in your grief or desperation you discover the latent ability you always had. An execution is not traumatic if its welcomed.
If these guys who volunteer for the trials are all true believers, the victors will be smiling up at the God and welcoming their glorious death with open arms, as part of their reward. The only way they would spark is if they never believed in any of this nonsense, they are culturally forced by their talent to participate in the trials, which they win, and they spark as they are about to receive the reward they never actually wanted. Possible, but not likely. (If it ever did happen, I'm sure Bolas would chase them down and see if they could be an asset)
I think its simpler, Bolas somehow knew (even if Tezzeret did not) that from Kaladesh he would bring him the knowledge to create a planar bridge. Perhaps he had a vision, blue is in his portfolio after all. I think Bolas just simply wants an army to knock down the planes one after another and rule them all as a Godlike figure. If he can't get his pre-mending powers back, thats fine, he still wants to be as Godlike as possible.
The event that ignites a spark often comes as a surprise, but not always. Chandra was well aware that she was about to be executed by Baral, and Kiora willingly sacrificed herself to save her sister from being eaten by a sea monster. Besides, creative has historically been quite vague about the nature of the spark: what species can have it, the requirements for ignition, how planeswalking actually works, whether the spark works as a translator, etc. And even if they said somewhere that this wouldn't work to ignite sparks for some reason, they can (and will) retcon it without a second thought if it benefits the story they want to tell.
Plus, Bolas is way toi smart to have his best warriors executed for no other reason. If he doesn't want planeswalker minions, then why would he waste his best assets on Amonkhet by killing them? They could be useful in other ways. It seems that trying to ignite sparks is the only logical explanation.
Also I could'nt be the only one who thought sheltering within a giant dome of GLASS,
Midday, under TWO SUNS, would be a BAD IDEA, right?? Ants under a microscope!
-but of course the authors didn't think of that.
Also the depiction of a glaring sun in the middle of a dessert sandstorm is very inaccurate. When a Sandstorm comes, it all goes pretty shadowy.
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Wizards. listen. The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
Remember if Nicol has been using the trials as a way to ignite planeswalker sparks, it likely is a hold over from before when Planeswalkers could yank other through the blind eternities and could sense other sparks (even if they weren't ignited)
The original plan was probably "I sense a spark." -kidnap person he senses, dump them on Amonkhet, they have to participate in the trials, maybe ascend, maybe not.- "Oh I got an ascent from someone, okay time to give them the chance to work for me..or kill them if they say no."
Now that he can't yank people from all over, he just lets things continue as normal because why bother changing it.
So, I read the story this afternoon, and I've been going about my day, occasionally ruminating on it, and I find myself annoyed at the inconsistency of character power level. What I mean is this:
The Gatewatch was ambushed by a horde of undead and then some wurms just for good measure;
Jace is a mind mage and virtually useless against ranks of undead - Accepted
Nissa was having trouble drawing mana for some unexplained reason - Alright
That leaves Gideon, Chandra and Liliana to do most of the fighting. The problem I have is that absolutely nothing in the description of the fight made it sound like the situation was at all different from ones that each of those three have INDIVIDUALLY handled solo. After all the battles that the Gatewatch has been trough in the past that largely amounted to speedbumps on their road to victory, I just can't take it seriously that a bunch of zombies and a handfull of wurms could have ever posed a real threat to even ONE of them, let alone all three.
It feels like they were neutered just to fit the narrative of "Uh OH! They're in real danger now!" except no they're not and never were.
It's just plot armour and exposition, as in every other form of entertainment medium. Stormtroopers are wildly inaccurate and hit all of like 3 targets in 6 films. People probably wouldn't watch James Bond if he got shot and killed by one of the thousands of stray bullets within the first 15 minutes. Protagonists will always remain unscathed in fillers, redcoats are clearly outlined by the offset, and cannon fodder provide some action sequence filler between conversation and more exposition.
It still feels bad though, especially when you're reading because you have more time to reflect on what is happening. Also, "random fight because there hasn't been any fighting for a while" has to be one of the absolute worst common fantasy tropes. If your characters have to be temporarily nerfed for the sake of an "exciting fight scene", then you maybe shouldn't write the fight scene in the first place or write a different one that's actually believable. (On the other hand, this is probably nitpicking and setting high standards, considering that the authors probably don't have too much time to write the articles, which results in literary fast food - wew, sounding pretty pretentious here...)
Remember if Nicol has been using the trials as a way to ignite planeswalker sparks, it likely is a hold over from before when Planeswalkers could yank other through the blind eternities and could sense other sparks (even if they weren't ignited)
The original plan was probably "I sense a spark." -kidnap person he senses, dump them on Amonkhet, they have to participate in the trials, maybe ascend, maybe not.- "Oh I got an ascent from someone, okay time to give them the chance to work for me..or kill them if they say no."
Now that he can't yank people from all over, he just lets things continue as normal because why bother changing it.
... maybe that's why Bolas sent Tezzeret to Kaladesh for a Planar Portal?
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While I don't hope that happens, it could lead to the interesting storyline of two "faces" squaring off against one another based on varying interpretations of "Good."
Seconded. I don't think or hope they'll kill Bolas on the altar of this storyline, but I do hope there will be a Gatewatch schism and a babyface-versus-babyface storyline.
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
It annoys me how so much of Nissa's story arc revolves around concepts that had talked about very little or not at all beforehand, and that are never properly explained to us. First there was the whole Soul of Zendikar and Soul of Lorwyn/Shadowmoor thing (besides a weird mythic cycle, there is no context or explanation for this). Then there was a bunch of talk about leylines, which would be fine (as leylines have always kind of been a thing, even if not as plot-relevant). Except she uses weird terms to describe leylines and planes. "Corrupted leylines," "life/death balance," etc. What do these things even mean? It reminds me of in movies where the writers need to explain something and don't know how, they have the smartest character rattle off a bunch of scientific-sounding nonsense that makes no sense to any of the characters, let alone the audience.
I can't decide if Gideon's bit talking about gods is hint at Gideon dying or a Gideon-centric return to Theros (I would prefer the former, tbh). The fact that they are foreshadowing in two different directions is an improvement over their previous storytelling that was painfully straightforward and blunt when hinting at anything. (Kozilek on Zendikar? Who would have guessed? Emrakul on Innistrad? No way!) What really disturbs me is that we are already starting on a Gatewatch-centric story arc yet again. If there was any time to do some world-building and let us see the non-Gatewatch characters as anything but background noise, it would be in stories before the Gatewatch arrive. They even did that for Kaladesh, which was extremely focused on the Gatewatch. But they missed that opportunity already for Amonkhet, which worries me. The entire block of Kaladesh had like two stories that didn't involve the Gatewatch, and Amonkhet might not be much better at this rate. If we are going to have to have the Gatewatch present in every block, I would prefer storytelling more like what we got in SOI, with focus on just one (or maybe two) Gatewatch member in the first set followed by greater emphasis for the main conflict in the second, but still giving us plenty of actually relevant side characters and secondary story arcs like Sorin vs. Nahiri. Kaladesh and Amonkhet, however, have been nowhere close to that. But that's ok, it's not like they just skipped a six-week opportunity to give us stories not involving the Gatewatch! (Oh, wait...)
Ok, enough Gatewatch ranting. Time to talk about Amonkhet itself.
As other have said, they might have free will, but they are definitely his pawns, whether they know their true purpose or not.
The more important takeaway from that information, in my opinion, is that the red god KILLS anyone who survives the trials. (As others have said, the trials likely happen in the order that they appear on that checklist card, which explains why they are not in color order). But anyway, this immediately reminded me of a theory that the trials and the Worthy were really just a ploy of Bolas's so that he can get more planeswalker minions, and I think that "prize" for winning the trials basically confirms that. The entire culture of Amonkhet is based around competing in the trials, so they will get lots of recruits. Only the strongest warriors or magic users survive, so the undesirable candidates for minions will be eliminated (although if a loser's spark ignites and save them, Bolas might not be opposed to using them as a minion anyway). Only the strongest potential planeswalkers can win, but they are then executed. This, of course, is intended to activate the victor's planeswalker spark if they have one. If they don't spark they get turned into an honored mummy that will supposedly get some glorious afterlife when Bolas returns (this is likely a blatant lie but it provides the motivation for people to take part in the trials in the first place).
So essentially Bolas created or conquered a plane and then set up a civilization in such a way that everything about it is perfect for creating useful new planeswalkers. This is just too much for it to be a coincidence. I think it's safe to assume that Amonkhet is Bolas's planeswalker training and recruitment system. He also might be using it as a mana battery as some have suggested, planning to harvest power from it in Hour of Devastation in a way not unlike what he attempted on Alara. But Amonkhet's capacity for generating new pawns for Bolas should not be ignored. Furthermore, I think that it is extremely likely that we get a new planeswalker in this block who ascends through the trials and has their spark ignite at the end. They could go two directions with this: have the new planeswalker work for Bolas as intended, or have them join (or at least assist) the Gatewatch instead. In fact, the new planeswalker might join one side and then switch to the other partway through. We might see a legendary creature in the first set that becomes a planeswalker in the second, or it might just be a planeswalker card (in either set).
Bolas using Amonkhet to recruit planeswalkers raises a few more questions: Are the gods aware of their role in this process? Are they even aware of Bolas at all? If they are aware of Bolas, do they know that he is a planeswalker or just think that he is a superior god? If someone fails the trials and dies, but their spark ignites, will Bolas still try to recruit them? Has Bolas recruited any planeswalkers in this way yet? Is Ashiok such a planeswalker? Is Hour of Devastation how Bolas destroys and rebuilds the civilization on Amonkhet at regular intervals, or is it just referring to him fighting the Gatewatch?
One thing that isn't speculation though: ******* SANDWORMS *****ES. WE HAVE WORMSIGN MOTHER ****ERS!!!!!
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!
If these guys who volunteer for the trials are all true believers, the victors will be smiling up at the God and welcoming their glorious death with open arms, as part of their reward. The only way they would spark is if they never believed in any of this nonsense, they are culturally forced by their talent to participate in the trials, which they win, and they spark as they are about to receive the reward they never actually wanted. Possible, but not likely. (If it ever did happen, I'm sure Bolas would chase them down and see if they could be an asset)
I think its simpler, Bolas somehow knew (even if Tezzeret did not) that from Kaladesh he would bring him the knowledge to create a planar bridge. Perhaps he had a vision, blue is in his portfolio after all. I think Bolas just simply wants an army to knock down the planes one after another and rule them all as a Godlike figure. If he can't get his pre-mending powers back, thats fine, he still wants to be as Godlike as possible.
Thats true, but the art seemed to show the guy about to be run through by an enormous spear. Though maybe thats just art and it would damage the mummy too badly.
In any case, if he's a true believer, I don't think he's going to be searching for a way out even in the midst of horrible pain.
edit: I am more open minded about it though, I hadn't thought of that angle. I think you guys moved me from "hah, clever but no way is that the story" to "hmmm, I still doubt it, but sure I can see that maybe"
Think one of the Gatewatch might get killed THEN turned into a zombie PW serving Bolas? I hope so.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
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Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
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Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
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Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
You might as well put "This is gonna end well" on the horizon right around Bolas' horns.
I'm sure its going to be addressed, but I find it really intriguing that Bolas here has set up a machination for creating white zombies, when white seems so fundamentally against the concept of corporeal undeath. Furthermore, whatever he's doing,its completely groundbreaking, given that this hasn't been done anywhere else in the multiverse. And all coming from a Grixis-aligned planeswalker, to boot.
The colors vary from Plane to Plane though. The way mummies are being done here makes it a very White-focused venture.
If it was on the level, yeah. I'm just not thinking this whole "compete in trials to earn my favor because I value the bravest" schtick is anything but a dragon-sized load of bull*****.
I don't think that the motivation of the person doing it has to be in line with the participants, and either way it still seems set up to be all about undying loyalty kind of things. I'm sure it's at least somewhat insincere, the only question is to what extent.
The event that ignites a spark often comes as a surprise, but not always. Chandra was well aware that she was about to be executed by Baral, and Kiora willingly sacrificed herself to save her sister from being eaten by a sea monster. Besides, creative has historically been quite vague about the nature of the spark: what species can have it, the requirements for ignition, how planeswalking actually works, whether the spark works as a translator, etc. And even if they said somewhere that this wouldn't work to ignite sparks for some reason, they can (and will) retcon it without a second thought if it benefits the story they want to tell.
Plus, Bolas is way toi smart to have his best warriors executed for no other reason. If he doesn't want planeswalker minions, then why would he waste his best assets on Amonkhet by killing them? They could be useful in other ways. It seems that trying to ignite sparks is the only logical explanation.
What the....!?!
Walking Dead meets Ancient Egypt.
Also I could'nt be the only one who thought sheltering within a giant dome of GLASS,
Midday, under TWO SUNS, would be a BAD IDEA, right?? Ants under a microscope!
-but of course the authors didn't think of that.
Also the depiction of a glaring sun in the middle of a dessert sandstorm is very inaccurate. When a Sandstorm comes, it all goes pretty shadowy.
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
The original plan was probably "I sense a spark." -kidnap person he senses, dump them on Amonkhet, they have to participate in the trials, maybe ascend, maybe not.- "Oh I got an ascent from someone, okay time to give them the chance to work for me..or kill them if they say no."
Now that he can't yank people from all over, he just lets things continue as normal because why bother changing it.
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Looks pretty sunny to me, dude.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6120QOlsfU
The Gatewatch was ambushed by a horde of undead and then some wurms just for good measure;
Jace is a mind mage and virtually useless against ranks of undead - Accepted
Nissa was having trouble drawing mana for some unexplained reason - Alright
That leaves Gideon, Chandra and Liliana to do most of the fighting. The problem I have is that absolutely nothing in the description of the fight made it sound like the situation was at all different from ones that each of those three have INDIVIDUALLY handled solo. After all the battles that the Gatewatch has been trough in the past that largely amounted to speedbumps on their road to victory, I just can't take it seriously that a bunch of zombies and a handfull of wurms could have ever posed a real threat to even ONE of them, let alone all three.
It feels like they were neutered just to fit the narrative of "Uh OH! They're in real danger now!" except no they're not and never were.
Modern:R 8Whack R|W White Knights W
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