I don't know what they pretend to do with Dominaria, but now that Uncle Bolas wants to conquer it, maybe a few planeswalkers are going to Dominaria to recruit other...planeswalkers?
I mean Tezz could just give the schematics of the bridge to Gitaxis and after a little while they would realize "well ***** we cant go because of this weak flesh. We clearly aren't Compleat enough." And a sixth faction of NP could arise.
Also something thinking about this made me realize: Is Tezz now the most deadly to plane-bound beings there is? When Aether Revolt ended I just thought that Tezz pulled the bridge core into his arm for atorage but it seems to be that he incorporated it into his arm as a part. So can he just be like, "Oh yeah? **** you planar bridge your ass." And kill someone?
They said the same about Planar portals though and that got brought back.
Not really though. They wanted planeswalkers to be special. Hence getting rid of planar portals and ships like the weatherlight. Rashmi/Tezzerets planar bridge only works on inorganic objects. They probably aren't bringing something like the weatherlight back. This way they can do things that bridge the gap like lazotep, which to our knowledge only Bolas knows about, but still maintain thw special status of Planeswalkers.
They aren't bringing the Weatherlight 2 into the fold..till the plot demands it, just like the Plot Demanded the Planar Bridge needed to be a thing because they realize you can't have a sensible multi planar threat that isn't a planeswalker without them, the Bridge can't transport organic matter because right now the plot doesn't need it to..the moment they need to transport a fleshy person like the Phyrexians?
Tezzeret : "Oh hey...Little Nicky? Know how you treat me like Crap..guess what I have been doing with the bridge while you were derping about with the Gatewatch...GET EM Atraxa"
Tezzeret with Planar Bridge reminds me irresistably of Soundwave from Transformers Prime.
And yes, unless Creative wants to compleatly (ha ha) dump the Praetors and the five factions on New Phyrexia, they have to develop a way to move between planes.
Tezzeret better not go back to New Phyrexia if he doesn't want to end up on Jin-Gitaxias's operating table. Planeswalkers may be immune to phyrexian corruption, but his arm (which holds the Bridge) isn't... or, at the least, can be removed.
I don't think they will make the Phyrexians compleatly (ha ha) inorganic, but rather have Jin-Gitaxias get a hold of a Bridge (likely Tezzeret's arm) and improve it to work at least for Phyrexians.
io9 can exclusively confirm that speculative fiction writer Martha Wells—whose latest novel, All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries, is currently up for the 2018 Phillip K. Dick Award—will be the new head writer behind Magic: The Gathering’s 78th expansion since the legendary card game began in 1993. As leader of Magic’s story team, she’ll be in charge of the story team, driving the fiction and building the lore around the newest expansion, which marks not only the game’s 25th anniversary but also a major event in the Magic franchise.
She also confirms that Gideon, Liliana and Chandra will be in the story and it will be focused on Gideon and Liliana killing her last demon and exploring Dominaria and see the changes such as Liliana 4th demon Belzenlok now the head of the cabal.
EDIT 2:
Two new characters, Tiana? a guardian angel for the weatherlight (which is going to be rebuilt) and Arbad (sorry idk right spelling for the names) a vampire who end up friends.
Dominaria will have elements of horror with Belzenlok and Steampunk with the weatherlight
“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"
So Belzenlok will be an actually prominent character, unlike his predecessors? I'm down with that. Not sure how they would do his card though, since he has to measure up to Griseldaddy and Razaketh.
Also, the Weatherlight coming back is neat, and maybe we can actually have non-planeswalker protagonists travelling the Multiverse again.
No to exploring a plane with such a deep lore and history through the lenses of characters that have zero connection (emotional or otherwise) to the places visited. Just the thought of Liliana going around places I wished to see again for over a decade acting snarky, dismissive and know-it-all, not giving a single damn about what are those places she visits and what has transpired there, makes my eyes roll.
You do realize Liliana is from Dominaria right?
You said it yourself, I think its too soon to cry out that the gatewatch is stealing all the spotlight in this set, all we have is the hook, Gideon and Liliana go to kill her last demon and explore the plane. From the end of todays story we do know Gideon is on the rebuilt weatherlight with Jaya so the more reasonable guess is that Gideon and Liliana end up crossing paths with the old characters and they all become a party of sorts.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“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"
No to exploring a plane with such a deep lore and history through the lenses of characters that have zero connection (emotional or otherwise) to the places visited. Just the thought of Liliana going around places I wished to see again for over a decade acting snarky, dismissive and know-it-all, not giving a single damn about what are those places she visits and what has transpired there, makes my eyes roll.
You do realize Liliana is from Dominaria right?
Knowing that would require doing actual research about the character.
So Belzenlok will be an actually prominent character, unlike his predecessors? I'm down with that. Not sure how they would do his card though, since he has to measure up to Griseldaddy and Razaketh.
So Belzenlok will be an actually prominent character, unlike his predecessors? I'm down with that. Not sure how they would do his card though, since he has to measure up to Griseldaddy and Razaketh.
for starters, he's gotta be a 9/9, yeah?
Of course. He'll also probably cost 8 mana like the previous two, and do something that's reminiscent of Cabal stuff.
I wonder if we'll get a dual storyline, like how they dealt with the Jace/Vraska plot line running along side with Huatli/Angrath/Planar Natives. We'll get Lilliana and Gideon taking on the demon while Karn, Jhoria and Teferi do something else(Geting the skyship up and running, fighting the Cabal, ect) with the two running into eachother before the end.
No to exploring a plane with such a deep lore and history through the lenses of characters that have zero connection (emotional or otherwise) to the places visited. Just the thought of Liliana going around places I wished to see again for over a decade acting snarky, dismissive and know-it-all, not giving a single damn about what are those places she visits and what has transpired there, makes my eyes roll.
You do realize Liliana is from Dominaria right?
I know that Liliana is from Dominaria, but this doesn't mean much when she has barely interacted with the plane and its cultures thus far and she has barely affected any of it. She is from Dominaria but she isn't associated with Dominaria in the slightest, unlike Teferi, Jhoira and Karn.
As far as her background lore up until now is concerned, she could be from anywhere else in the multiverse and it wouldn't make a difference.
Well this would be an opportunity to change that. Or are you saying Liliana should never have any significant role in her own home plane because she didn't get in on that hot Dominaria action many moons ago?
I wonder what Liliana will do after the inevitable kill of her 4th nemesis.
Will she try to rid herself of the chain veil next?
It doesn't seem that Jace is much interested in her companionship any longer and he was like her only proponent tbh.
Chandra is more on the Nissa train now it seemed.
So she really needs to form somewhat of a bond with Gideon in this set if she wants to stay with the gatewatch train (or airship now) imo.
I've seen speculation that The Raven Man is pushing her to kill her demons because the contracts actually shield her from being dominated by the Chain Veil.
Gideon forming a weird kind of camaraderie with her would be interesting to see if it's done believably. Unlike pre-Ixalan Jace, Gideon isn't up to being her whipping boy, so she has to use a different approach with him.
I am saying that she shouldn't have had a significant role in her own home plane this time around, when we haven't seen said plane in a decade. I wanted a story about Dominaria starring significant people tied to Dominaria showing us what is happening right now that apocalypses don't occur every other Tuesday, not a story about Liliana and Gideon that could happen on any other plane at any given time. Liliana is from Dominaria, but she isn't tied to Dominaria's past at all.
Given that this set is supposed to be a one off to commemorate the 25th anniversary, I expected the focus to shift on well known old characters that are still alive and that we might never see again unless we return to Dominaria, not on two characters that we see every other set. They could easily have Liliana as a secondary character if they wanted to expand on the Dominarian part of her backstory.
Anyway, while obviously not a fan of this announcement, I am not writing the set off. I was just expressing my skepticism. They might use this chance to finally confirm that the Raven Man is Lim-Dul, which would tie Liliana to the old stories.
Who ever said that Dominaria would be a one off?
Also Lili definitely has emotional connections to Dominaria. Its why she hasn't been back since she left. I can't wait for Gids to be endeared to her when he sees her actually be vulnerable for once when they pass through Calligo and she gets all up in her feels, maybe even encounters her brother, because he didn't appear to be a normal zombie.
This is something that I keep having to say. Let them tell the story they want to tell. If thats not the story you want then go elsewhere or tell your own.
I think this is an extremely encouraging announcement. This is exactly the sort of thing the Story Team has needed to do to get things back on track. And all the talk of revisions and process -- makes my copy editor's heart sing!
Also, in the podcast, Martha seems to indicate that there are a total of twelve stories she is working on. Six mostly finished, two and a half being revised, and three left to do.
If Liliana has little to no connection to Dominaria, why does she assure the Gatewatch that 'she knows it very well'? The fact is, we know she's from Dominaria, and we know that she hasn't gone back 'much', but she has the deepest past of any Gatewatch member, and so knowing what she does and does not do or know about Dominaria is... premature.
Now, Liliana and Gideon have a good chance to hit it off. They seemed to do well together in the fight against Emrakul and Nahiri's cultists in Eldritch Moon, at least in a purely tactical sense. Also, they were the two biggest failures in the fight with Nicol Bolas. Gideon's failure is obvious; he did squat except give Nicol Bolas some exercise. Also, his invulnerability... isn't against him, and that's supposedly his biggest 'claim to fame' thus far. Liliana, OTOH, did not fail in the combat except inasmuch as she failed to persuade the rest of the Gatewatch to run away. Her tactical acquiescence to Nicol Bolas--I refuse to believe that she took switching sides seriously--damaged her relationship with Chandra, but there's little else to look at, for her part. Gideon is ironically the Gatewatch member most likely to 'work with' Liliana, given his known issues with hubris. Liliana is also smart enough to know this. Whether she plays him or actually wishes to be rehabilitated in the eyes of the Gatewatch is still open.
Better questions, though:
1) Where is Nissa and Chandra? If Dominaria was the agreed-upon rendezvous, it seems that three to five of the Gatewatch didn't make it. Nissa and Chandra probably retreated to more 'safe spaces' to regroup. Nissa very likely went back to Zendikar, and then perhaps went back to Amonkhet to help as pictured on Hour cards. Chandra, well, she either went to Kaladesh to Mom or to Regatha to the Pyromancer Keep. In either case, the Gatewatch hasn't been reconstituted.
2) For that matter, where is Ajani? He was supposed to go get allies, and smart money was going to Dominaria to get it, but maybe he went to Tamiyo instead? Jace won't show up until long after Ajani was supposed to rejoin them, so... where is he? Also, note that Gideon and Liliana are apparently not in the same location. Most likely interpretation is that Liliana actually didn't go to the rendezvous, but went to Dominaria to hunt Belzenlok. Gideon, alone, actually followed orders...
If Ravnica is in the fall and is Gatewatch + Guilds vs. Nicol Bolas, we need to get the Gatewatch back together before then. If the Dominaria set is unlikely to have all of them in it, then it is very likely the core set will tell the story of Chandra, Nissa, and Ajani getting back to them.
Martha said that Gideon and Liliana went to kill Belzenlok and explore Dominaria together and also mentions the Chandra will be in the story as well, so she is in Dominaria. We don't know where Nissa is and Ajani should also be there if he hasn't left yet because the GW were taking too long to show up.
I am so stoked that the Cabal is returning! It was one of my favorite factions, due in part to how awesome Chainer was. I started playing at the tail end of Apocalypse, so Odyssey was the first book I picked up and was hooked from there. If we don't get a nod to Chainer, or The First or even Skellum (long shot), I will be sad. It will be nice to see if Otaria gets some screentime since we didn't see much of it, if at all, during Time Spiral.
As for the walkers this set, I do hope that the old walkers do get cards since this is Dominaria and they have more ties to its history than the new walkers. Who knows, maybe WotC will just give us five or six walkers since this is one of the more crucial sets. Gideon and Liliana are fine with two cards, so that would leave three or four more for walkers. It is unusual, but this set needs to stick the landing, and SOI showed that they are willing to up the walker count, so I don't see why Wotc wouldn't pull out the stops.
More I think on it Liliana works so well here. She can somewhat be an avatar for the older players. She hasn't been to Dominaria in a long time but dose have knowledge of it during her past and will be exploring what has changed since she has been away.
As for the walkers this set, I do hope that the old walkers do get cards since this is Dominaria and they have more ties to its history than the new walkers. Who knows, maybe WotC will just give us five or six walkers since this is one of the more crucial sets. Gideon and Liliana are fine with two cards, so that would leave three or four more for walkers. It is unusual, but this set needs to stick the landing, and SOI showed that they are willing to up the walker count, so I don't see why Wotc wouldn't pull out the stops.
I think thats defiantly a development issues, but I could see 4 walkers, Liliana or Gideon (I don't think we see both of them getting new card right after Amonkhet and them wanting to open the card slots to other walkers), Karn, Jaya and maybe re-sparked Teferi or someone we've yet to see. Walkers are pretty blanked in standard color wise with red and black being slightly lower (Liliana and Jaya) so hard to tell who could get a card.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“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"
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Also something thinking about this made me realize: Is Tezz now the most deadly to plane-bound beings there is? When Aether Revolt ended I just thought that Tezz pulled the bridge core into his arm for atorage but it seems to be that he incorporated it into his arm as a part. So can he just be like, "Oh yeah? **** you planar bridge your ass." And kill someone?
They aren't bringing the Weatherlight 2 into the fold..till the plot demands it, just like the Plot Demanded the Planar Bridge needed to be a thing because they realize you can't have a sensible multi planar threat that isn't a planeswalker without them, the Bridge can't transport organic matter because right now the plot doesn't need it to..the moment they need to transport a fleshy person like the Phyrexians?
Tezzeret : "Oh hey...Little Nicky? Know how you treat me like Crap..guess what I have been doing with the bridge while you were derping about with the Gatewatch...GET EM Atraxa"
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
And yes, unless Creative wants to compleatly (ha ha) dump the Praetors and the five factions on New Phyrexia, they have to develop a way to move between planes.
Tezzeret better not go back to New Phyrexia if he doesn't want to end up on Jin-Gitaxias's operating table. Planeswalkers may be immune to phyrexian corruption, but his arm (which holds the Bridge) isn't... or, at the least, can be removed.
I don't think they will make the Phyrexians compleatly (ha ha) inorganic, but rather have Jin-Gitaxias get a hold of a Bridge (likely Tezzeret's arm) and improve it to work at least for Phyrexians.
EDIT: They are also changing the ways they do magic stories now, the creative team will outline and draft the storyline but the writing will be left to writers they bring in from outside. Martha Wells is the first of these authors. I'm listening to the podcast and will put any story info;
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/introducing-martha-wells-dominaria-magic-story-author-2018-02-14
EDIT 2:
Two new characters, Tiana? a guardian angel for the weatherlight (which is going to be rebuilt) and Arbad (sorry idk right spelling for the names) a vampire who end up friends.
Dominaria will have elements of horror with Belzenlok and Steampunk with the weatherlight
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Also, the Weatherlight coming back is neat, and maybe we can actually have non-planeswalker protagonists travelling the Multiverse again.
You do realize Liliana is from Dominaria right?
You said it yourself, I think its too soon to cry out that the gatewatch is stealing all the spotlight in this set, all we have is the hook, Gideon and Liliana go to kill her last demon and explore the plane. From the end of todays story we do know Gideon is on the rebuilt weatherlight with Jaya so the more reasonable guess is that Gideon and Liliana end up crossing paths with the old characters and they all become a party of sorts.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Knowing that would require doing actual research about the character.
for starters, he's gotta be a 9/9, yeah?
Of course. He'll also probably cost 8 mana like the previous two, and do something that's reminiscent of Cabal stuff.
Perhaps Jaya Ballard will give Liliana a sassy talk down.
But my focus will be on Teferi, Karn, and Jhoira, the trio legends of old.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Well this would be an opportunity to change that. Or are you saying Liliana should never have any significant role in her own home plane because she didn't get in on that hot Dominaria action many moons ago?
I've seen speculation that The Raven Man is pushing her to kill her demons because the contracts actually shield her from being dominated by the Chain Veil.
Gideon forming a weird kind of camaraderie with her would be interesting to see if it's done believably. Unlike pre-Ixalan Jace, Gideon isn't up to being her whipping boy, so she has to use a different approach with him.
https://twitter.com/VIZMedia/status/963865817946443776
Thanks to DarkNightCavalier from Heroes of the Plane Studios for this sick Signature.
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
Who ever said that Dominaria would be a one off?
Also Lili definitely has emotional connections to Dominaria. Its why she hasn't been back since she left. I can't wait for Gids to be endeared to her when he sees her actually be vulnerable for once when they pass through Calligo and she gets all up in her feels, maybe even encounters her brother, because he didn't appear to be a normal zombie.
This is something that I keep having to say. Let them tell the story they want to tell. If thats not the story you want then go elsewhere or tell your own.
Also, in the podcast, Martha seems to indicate that there are a total of twelve stories she is working on. Six mostly finished, two and a half being revised, and three left to do.
Now, Liliana and Gideon have a good chance to hit it off. They seemed to do well together in the fight against Emrakul and Nahiri's cultists in Eldritch Moon, at least in a purely tactical sense. Also, they were the two biggest failures in the fight with Nicol Bolas. Gideon's failure is obvious; he did squat except give Nicol Bolas some exercise. Also, his invulnerability... isn't against him, and that's supposedly his biggest 'claim to fame' thus far. Liliana, OTOH, did not fail in the combat except inasmuch as she failed to persuade the rest of the Gatewatch to run away. Her tactical acquiescence to Nicol Bolas--I refuse to believe that she took switching sides seriously--damaged her relationship with Chandra, but there's little else to look at, for her part. Gideon is ironically the Gatewatch member most likely to 'work with' Liliana, given his known issues with hubris. Liliana is also smart enough to know this. Whether she plays him or actually wishes to be rehabilitated in the eyes of the Gatewatch is still open.
Better questions, though:
1) Where is Nissa and Chandra? If Dominaria was the agreed-upon rendezvous, it seems that three to five of the Gatewatch didn't make it. Nissa and Chandra probably retreated to more 'safe spaces' to regroup. Nissa very likely went back to Zendikar, and then perhaps went back to Amonkhet to help as pictured on Hour cards. Chandra, well, she either went to Kaladesh to Mom or to Regatha to the Pyromancer Keep. In either case, the Gatewatch hasn't been reconstituted.
2) For that matter, where is Ajani? He was supposed to go get allies, and smart money was going to Dominaria to get it, but maybe he went to Tamiyo instead? Jace won't show up until long after Ajani was supposed to rejoin them, so... where is he? Also, note that Gideon and Liliana are apparently not in the same location. Most likely interpretation is that Liliana actually didn't go to the rendezvous, but went to Dominaria to hunt Belzenlok. Gideon, alone, actually followed orders...
If Ravnica is in the fall and is Gatewatch + Guilds vs. Nicol Bolas, we need to get the Gatewatch back together before then. If the Dominaria set is unlikely to have all of them in it, then it is very likely the core set will tell the story of Chandra, Nissa, and Ajani getting back to them.
oh that's nice
that's real nice
As for the walkers this set, I do hope that the old walkers do get cards since this is Dominaria and they have more ties to its history than the new walkers. Who knows, maybe WotC will just give us five or six walkers since this is one of the more crucial sets. Gideon and Liliana are fine with two cards, so that would leave three or four more for walkers. It is unusual, but this set needs to stick the landing, and SOI showed that they are willing to up the walker count, so I don't see why Wotc wouldn't pull out the stops.
I think thats defiantly a development issues, but I could see 4 walkers, Liliana or Gideon (I don't think we see both of them getting new card right after Amonkhet and them wanting to open the card slots to other walkers), Karn, Jaya and maybe re-sparked Teferi or someone we've yet to see. Walkers are pretty blanked in standard color wise with red and black being slightly lower (Liliana and Jaya) so hard to tell who could get a card.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"