I can't stand the gatewatch, not because they are all superman, but rather because they are the weatherlight crew, only on steroids, and not nearly as intresting. Gerrard was probably the least intresting member of the weatherlight, had very few cards that were directly related to him, but I still know more about him then I care to know about his Planeswalker counterpart, Giddeon.
I'm going to ignore the rest of what you said because I kind of agree. But this, what do you mean directly related to him? Do you mean have his name in the card's name? Mention him in flavor text? Depict him in art?
Because while he only have a measly 6 cards with his name in the title he shows up on far more cards than any member of the gatewatch. Gerrard is mentioned in flavor text 94 times, while the highest gatewatch count is Jace at 45, not even half. Gerrard appears in 53 different cards art, while jace only gets 38. Gerrard's story only lasted for 3ish years and he got that many appearances and references,the gatewatch has only had over a year but each member had several previous appearances. The level of characters being pushed has dropped so much you can't help but know less about the newer characters. You know more about Gerrard because you have interacted with his name more.
That kind of is the point. We learned more about him because he was built into the lore. We didnt need a kot of cards for him to be relivant. Its a great case if show dont tell, were the gatewatch are shoved down our throat at every turn.
That kind of is the point. We learned more about him because he was built into the lore. We didnt need a kot of cards for him to be relivant. Its a great case if show dont tell, were the gatewatch are shoved down our throat at every turn.
Do you know what the words you are saying here mean? This is literally the opposite of what I demonstrated. The Weatherlight was shoved down our throats at every turn. How can you say we didn't need lots of cards when we got lots of cards? In Mercadian Masks the weatherlight crew featured in 10.7% of the cards in the set, while in Amonkhet the gatewatch features in 7.3% of the cards(my count may be off on either set{I'm only human}). If you say the gatewatch is being shoved down our throats how much harder was the weatherlight shoved?
The Weatherlight crew were not nigh-omnipotent gods. They had stuff happen to them over and over. For the love of god, one of them was KILLED over and over again. How many times has the jacetice league lost someone?
What does this have to do with how often they show up in cards or how much they are shoved down our throats? I'm pretty sure the answer is nothing but it says you responded to me so...
When did the Mending happen in relation to the founding of the Gatewatch?
We don't know. Wizards has been extremely coy about the timeline regarding the Mending. Most people assume its been roughly a century, but that begs the question of how Venser could look like he was in his twenties or thirties when Elspeth met him. Venser was canonically in his twenties when the Mending actually happened and was a part of Teferi's crew, so either he got his hands on some of Jhoira's water of youth or the timeline is screwed up. Then again, he also had an addiction to blinkmoth serum despite never having visited Mirrodin before the New Phyrexia story arc, so I err on the side of "the timeline is whack, yo."
We could appeal to Nissa's age, but we only know that she is at least 40 years old. As an elf, she could very well be older than that and no one would be the wiser. Not only does Ajani's narration on Kaladesh state as much about elves, we know it for a fact because Eladamri was over 100 years old and still in his prime (albeit, looking a bit older than Nissa). We also don't know how long ago Nissa sparked, as NIssa's narration was rather poetic (I mean, seriously, she used the word "score" rather than twenty, just like Abe Lincoln). Nissa's narration could be taken to mean that she was born 40 years ago or that she first achieved enlightenment/a connection to the Spirit of Zendikar 40 years ago. We don't even know whether she was referring to a time before or after her spark ignited. One possibility would put a lower limit on the timeline, BUT only if we assume that one year on Zendikar is the same as one year on Dominaria (a problem with dating anything in Magic is that the planes might not have the same yearly cycles). The other would not preclude Nissa having been born before the Mending and sparking after it.
We could also appeal to the aging that Lilliana experienced after the mending. But given how vain Lilliana is I wouldn't trust her narration to give an accurate picture of how old she really started to look, nor a good impression of how much time had passed. Besides, some people just don't age well. For instance, my father's hair was going gray when he was just in his late 30's, and I don't remember a time when it wasn't grey or white, as he stopped even dying it when I was very young.
Lastly, we could appeal to things the creators have implied, which is why most people think that its about a century. Again, though, the implication doesn't give us a specific number, so it could be 80 years or 120 years. Also, it still leaves us with the problem of Venser and the problem that different planes might have different calendar years.
Venser is undoubtedly a problem for the timeline, but Nissa has be flat out stated to be mid 60s by creative members. The 40 years ago is a little weird but it makes sense to be when she sparked because she became friends with Zendikar and then sparked within a few weeks and any other reading would push the mending further back so going with the minimum seems safest. It has been implied that Liliana and by extension all premending walkers experienced a sort of catching up of their age on their body. This is backed up by Bolas feeling all 25,000 years of his life despite it only being at max a century since the mending. Nahiri has some problems with this, though having been in stasis for the last thousand years it could make her case an exception. The timeline is further complicated by the previous creative head having once said that the conflux on Alara was shortly after the mending, and with Gideon having been to Bant what appears to be about ten years ago and being less than 30 himself...it puts a lot of strain on the logistics of the timeline. Its probably best to ignore that old comment because even if true then it is more than likely changed since. So the mending was definitively 40+ years ago but almost certainly less than 100 years. The conflux was at most ten years ago so a minimum of 30 years after the mending. We could probably narrow down more time frames but its a hassle and subject to change.
I liked the Gatewatch in theory when they were announced. As a fan of Planeswalkers in the game, a bunch of them teaming up excited me. The walkers they chose seem fine (like there was any doubt they'd pick 5 monocolor in each color to be the first five, and going with existing walkers makes sense).
That said, I definitely agree the story shouldn't involve all 5 (now 6?) every time. After the Avengers, we didn't immediately get Age of Ultron. We got several solo movies that had cameos and teamups where they felt appropriate.
And I even more agree that we don't need tons of GW walkers as cards in every set. I'd rather see one per block to highlight the member who is involved the most in the story. They can easily slip references to GW members in other cards so why waste limited PW slots on the same characters. Nissa is one of my favorite walkers (admittedly due to my love of elves and having a fun deck around Nissa 1.0) and seeing her in 3 of the last 4 blocks is a bit much even for me.
I liked the Gatewatch in theory when they were announced. As a fan of Planeswalkers in the game, a bunch of them teaming up excited me. The walkers they chose seem fine (like there was any doubt they'd pick 5 monocolor in each color to be the first five, and going with existing walkers makes sense).
That said, I definitely agree the story shouldn't involve all 5 (now 6?) every time. After the Avengers, we didn't immediately get Age of Ultron. We got several solo movies that had cameos and teamups where they felt appropriate.
And I even more agree that we don't need tons of GW walkers as cards in every set. I'd rather see one per block to highlight the member who is involved the most in the story. They can easily slip references to GW members in other cards so why waste limited PW slots on the same characters. Nissa is one of my favorite walkers (admittedly due to my love of elves and having a fun deck around Nissa 1.0) and seeing her in 3 of the last 4 blocks is a bit much even for me.
I'm pretty much in this same boat. The Gatewatch could be better used as a centralizing hub from which individual members could go off and have their own adventures. The formula I would favor would be for most blocks to feature just one or two of the members. Kaladesh could have just been about Chandra, with maybe Nissa or Gideon along as a sidekick. Innistrad would have been just Jace and Liliana (which it mostly was, until the end -- I thought that worked pretty well). That would also free the story up to bring in non-Gatewatch planeswalkers, like Tamiyo, Ajani, Sorin, etc., without things feeling quite so overcrowded.
I liked the Gatewatch in theory when they were announced. As a fan of Planeswalkers in the game, a bunch of them teaming up excited me. The walkers they chose seem fine (like there was any doubt they'd pick 5 monocolor in each color to be the first five, and going with existing walkers makes sense).
That said, I definitely agree the story shouldn't involve all 5 (now 6?) every time. After the Avengers, we didn't immediately get Age of Ultron. We got several solo movies that had cameos and teamups where they felt appropriate.
And I even more agree that we don't need tons of GW walkers as cards in every set. I'd rather see one per block to highlight the member who is involved the most in the story. They can easily slip references to GW members in other cards so why waste limited PW slots on the same characters. Nissa is one of my favorite walkers (admittedly due to my love of elves and having a fun deck around Nissa 1.0) and seeing her in 3 of the last 4 blocks is a bit much even for me.
I'm pretty much in this same boat. The Gatewatch could be better used as a centralizing hub from which individual members could go off and have their own adventures. The formula I would favor would be for most blocks to feature just one or two of the members. Kaladesh could have just been about Chandra, with maybe Nissa or Gideon along as a sidekick. Innistrad would have been just Jace and Liliana (which it mostly was, until the end -- I thought that worked pretty well). That would also free the story up to bring in non-Gatewatch planeswalkers, like Tamiyo, Ajani, Sorin, etc., without things feeling quite so overcrowded.
Maro told on blogatog that this is the most common "complaint" that they get, and they are going to incorporate this into storytelling either from Hour of Devastation or the set thereafter (can't remember exactly) onward. Less recurring GW members and more time for others.
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If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
Because while he only have a measly 6 cards with his name in the title he shows up on far more cards than any member of the gatewatch. Gerrard is mentioned in flavor text 94 times, while the highest gatewatch count is Jace at 45, not even half. Gerrard appears in 53 different cards art, while jace only gets 38. Gerrard's story only lasted for 3ish years and he got that many appearances and references,the gatewatch has only had over a year but each member had several previous appearances. The level of characters being pushed has dropped so much you can't help but know less about the newer characters. You know more about Gerrard because you have interacted with his name more.
Behind the eyes of truth, is a world of illustions.
Dragon Riderof a Mist Dragonn anyway with the Dragon Riders Clan.
40+ years, based on Nissa sparking post mending 40 years ago.
We don't know. Wizards has been extremely coy about the timeline regarding the Mending. Most people assume its been roughly a century, but that begs the question of how Venser could look like he was in his twenties or thirties when Elspeth met him. Venser was canonically in his twenties when the Mending actually happened and was a part of Teferi's crew, so either he got his hands on some of Jhoira's water of youth or the timeline is screwed up. Then again, he also had an addiction to blinkmoth serum despite never having visited Mirrodin before the New Phyrexia story arc, so I err on the side of "the timeline is whack, yo."
We could appeal to Nissa's age, but we only know that she is at least 40 years old. As an elf, she could very well be older than that and no one would be the wiser. Not only does Ajani's narration on Kaladesh state as much about elves, we know it for a fact because Eladamri was over 100 years old and still in his prime (albeit, looking a bit older than Nissa). We also don't know how long ago Nissa sparked, as NIssa's narration was rather poetic (I mean, seriously, she used the word "score" rather than twenty, just like Abe Lincoln). Nissa's narration could be taken to mean that she was born 40 years ago or that she first achieved enlightenment/a connection to the Spirit of Zendikar 40 years ago. We don't even know whether she was referring to a time before or after her spark ignited. One possibility would put a lower limit on the timeline, BUT only if we assume that one year on Zendikar is the same as one year on Dominaria (a problem with dating anything in Magic is that the planes might not have the same yearly cycles). The other would not preclude Nissa having been born before the Mending and sparking after it.
We could also appeal to the aging that Lilliana experienced after the mending. But given how vain Lilliana is I wouldn't trust her narration to give an accurate picture of how old she really started to look, nor a good impression of how much time had passed. Besides, some people just don't age well. For instance, my father's hair was going gray when he was just in his late 30's, and I don't remember a time when it wasn't grey or white, as he stopped even dying it when I was very young.
Lastly, we could appeal to things the creators have implied, which is why most people think that its about a century. Again, though, the implication doesn't give us a specific number, so it could be 80 years or 120 years. Also, it still leaves us with the problem of Venser and the problem that different planes might have different calendar years.
That said, I definitely agree the story shouldn't involve all 5 (now 6?) every time. After the Avengers, we didn't immediately get Age of Ultron. We got several solo movies that had cameos and teamups where they felt appropriate.
And I even more agree that we don't need tons of GW walkers as cards in every set. I'd rather see one per block to highlight the member who is involved the most in the story. They can easily slip references to GW members in other cards so why waste limited PW slots on the same characters. Nissa is one of my favorite walkers (admittedly due to my love of elves and having a fun deck around Nissa 1.0) and seeing her in 3 of the last 4 blocks is a bit much even for me.
I'm pretty much in this same boat. The Gatewatch could be better used as a centralizing hub from which individual members could go off and have their own adventures. The formula I would favor would be for most blocks to feature just one or two of the members. Kaladesh could have just been about Chandra, with maybe Nissa or Gideon along as a sidekick. Innistrad would have been just Jace and Liliana (which it mostly was, until the end -- I thought that worked pretty well). That would also free the story up to bring in non-Gatewatch planeswalkers, like Tamiyo, Ajani, Sorin, etc., without things feeling quite so overcrowded.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.