A friend of mine (Hi Andethir ;-)) suggested an interesting theory.
We know more or less that the decision to erase Vraska's memories is reached by Jace and Vraska after meeting with Azor. Yet, they decide to let Vraska activate the beacon, call Tezzeret, steal the Sun. I do not believe that this is not done after consulting Azor, and with some deeper plan going on. I just cannot imagine Azor just letting them steal the very thing his role on Ixalan revolved around.
Can Azor somehow repower himself from the Sun and make himself a walker again? Or at least could he somehow alter or failsafe the Sun's function, so that Bolas gets what he wants (saving Vraska from his wrath or suspicions), and yet he does not?
Just sitting there and allowing the Sun to be taken away is simply the stupidest thing to do. And the artbook is so vague on Azor's doing except serving as a trigger for Jace to got ALL memories, that I believe there must be a purposefully unrevealed twist...
Thats why I believe Ixalan has something else about it/on it that Azor doesn't want planeswalker to know about and the Sun was made to trap walkers, so losing it would be bad for Azor but better then having Bolas or more of his minions showing up.
Another thought though is from Azor reaction to hearing the living guild pact was now trapped on Ixalan, might lead him to thinking Jace returning to Ravnica is the greater good than whatever Bolas might use the Sun for.
“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"
Hmm, on Ravnica there were gigantic beasts called Nephilim that showed up halfway through the story were utterly unbeatable and came out of nowhere then vanished.
Here no Ixalan there are a set of Gigantic Primal Dinosaurs that look to be unbeatable as well. Azor locked both worlds away..maybe there is something in two halves that he set up the "No go Zones" on both planes to keep safe?
So, going off another tangent, what's Elenda going to do to make the Legion "remember" what they're supposed to be about?
Is she going to go on a murder spree, or is she going to target specific individuals? Is she even going to off anyone? Is she going to do something about Queen Miralda (who I wish we got a card for, but I guess that's for Return to Ixalan or Commander products)?
Great story. I hated Jace, now I'm looking forward to his parts in the stories. The Ugin link is a very sweet touch. Good job wotc.
Random question, what would Huatli do on other planes if her power is to control dinos?
A good question. I think she would either have to broaden her dinosaur magics to include other animal types (more general "Beast/animal magic"), or focus more on her martial training and combat magics (which would end up making her even more generic, imo [yay r/w does... combat magic.. woo]).
Or perhaps like WotC's errata, there will be dino on different planes for her to control.
I should point out there is another plane that has a whole bunch of dinosaurs
So, going off another tangent, what's Elenda going to do to make the Legion "remember" what they're supposed to be about?
Is she going to go on a murder spree, or is she going to target specific individuals? Is she even going to off anyone? Is she going to do something about Queen Miralda (who I wish we got a card for, but I guess that's for Return to Ixalan or Commander products)?
That’d be nice if they could use commander products to tell stories, each literally a “commander” of their respective faction.
Elenda fights the Legion like Jesus battling the Rome. High drama, that.
I really enjoyed the setup of Elenda seeking to root out the corruption in the Legion of Dusk and return it to her original principles. I wish that section were a little better written, but it's a really strong concept that introduces the internal conflict that I was wishing the Legion of Dusk had been given from the beginning. Makes me wonder how and why she ended up in that tomb for so long, though...
Still loving the Jace-Vraska relationship more than anything that's been written in Magic storyline is a long time. Over the last four blocks, only Yahenni tops it for me.
I hope Angrath and Huatli get more time to hang out together. They're both kinda crudly-written characters so far, but their combined energy seems really promising to me.
Great story. I hated Jace, now I'm looking forward to his parts in the stories. The Ugin link is a very sweet touch. Good job wotc.
Random question, what would Huatli do on other planes if her power is to control dinos?
A good question. I think she would either have to broaden her dinosaur magics to include other animal types (more general "Beast/animal magic"), or focus more on her martial training and combat magics (which would end up making her even more generic, imo [yay r/w does... combat magic.. woo]).
Or perhaps like WotC's errata, there will be dino on different planes for her to control.
I should point out there is another plane that has a whole bunch of dinosaurs
(And before you all ask no ixalan and muraganda are not the same plane MaRo confirmed this.)
One (or a couple since we don't know all of them) other plane out of thousands doesn't really change the fact that she has very narrow magic. In at least 90% of other planes she would just be a regular human like you and me that can planeswalk. I really hope creative expands her powers because she's already pretty bland on her home turf
Great story. I hated Jace, now I'm looking forward to his parts in the stories. The Ugin link is a very sweet touch. Good job wotc.
Random question, what would Huatli do on other planes if her power is to control dinos?
A good question. I think she would either have to broaden her dinosaur magics to include other animal types (more general "Beast/animal magic"), or focus more on her martial training and combat magics (which would end up making her even more generic, imo [yay r/w does... combat magic.. woo]).
Or perhaps like WotC's errata, there will be dino on different planes for her to control.
I should point out there is another plane that has a whole bunch of dinosaurs
(And before you all ask no ixalan and muraganda are not the same plane MaRo confirmed this.)
One (or a couple since we don't know all of them) other plane out of thousands doesn't really change the fact that she has very narrow magic. In at least 90% of other planes she would just be a regular human like you and me that can planeswalk. I really hope creative expands her powers because she's already pretty bland on her home turf
She might be like Kiora and Elspeth and able to summon aether copies using the essence of the Ixalan dinosaurs.
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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"
So, going off another tangent, what's Elenda going to do to make the Legion "remember" what they're supposed to be about?
Is she going to go on a murder spree, or is she going to target specific individuals? Is she even going to off anyone? Is she going to do something about Queen Miralda (who I wish we got a card for, but I guess that's for Return to Ixalan or Commander products)?
My theory is that she will just punish some specific individuals (most likely Vona and Mavren), and then ominously state that she needs to clean up her own mess in Torrezon. Then, everything about the power struggle among vampires, including a Queen Miralda card, will be left to next time a block comes back to Ixalan: in other words, this particular plot thread will NOT be resolved in this block. Or at least, I believe so.
This is the sense that I got from her part in the story. I fully expect any return to Ixalan to feature a schism, or possibly even all out civil war, within the Legion of Dusk (The Queen and current church VS Elenda and some sort of Reformationist sect (possibly including Mavren Fein, since he seemed to be a big time Elenda fanboy)).
If the Sun Empire claims Orazca (as it look like they will from the geocache), and they go on an expansionist push like I've speculated before, and the LoD in Torrezon is fractured, that could be used as a reason for the pirates to try and reclaim the Free Cities... then we'd only need a reason for the River Heralds to be on Torrezon...
It's my hope that we've been hasty about Azor, and that he's actually a bit different. This guy did go out of his way to bring the law to many different planes, so if any oldwalker would care about "the little people", he'd be one of them. Also, to be perfectly fair, he acted as hostile as he did because Vraska threatened him. Jaya and Karn also could break that mold too, but we'll have to wait for Dominaria.
More importantly, Azor gave up his spark for The Immortal Sun (okay, granted we don't know whether he can simply recall it) after everything he has done in the Multiverse. I would imagine among oldwalkers those who would voluntarily gave up their sparks were those who couldn't withstand the insanity that came with it (mainly agelessness), but even my saying of giving it up is hypothetical (they probably just ended themselves for simplicity, since Spark Transfer isn't exactly the most common of tech - Yawgmoth, Memnarch and Venser were to varying degrees specialized artificers).
It took the Time Rifts and the threat it presented for generally "neutral" planeswalkers to agree giving up their sparks (reminder said threat was bad enough Bolas himself actually thought he had partial blame as well and was willing to sacrifice Leshrac instead of using him for some other nefarious self-serving plans and despite his hatred of the Mending, never once did Bolas ever thought of the letting the alternative happen was better). Even if Azor can retrieve his Spark easily, the very act of transferring it either means whatever else the Immortal Sun is for is likely near "Rift-Level" (if Azor is "neutral"), or Azor might be the most "good" oldwalker we've ever met yet.
Of course, for all we know, the secret to multiverse peace was locked by Azor via the Sun (making him the most evil being instead, but still something drastic enough on the opposite end to validate the spark transfer), but well let's just say the typical cliches don't usually invert that bad in MTG lore.
then we'd only need a reason for the River Heralds to be on Torrezon...
Maybe they finally get tired of being on the defensive against the invaders from the other side of the ocean, so they take the fight to them?
At least that's what I imagine Kumena and his group would do, assuming he's survived the events of this block.
Alternatively, the Brazen Coalition strikes a deal with the River Heralds that if the latter helps them to retake the continent, they'll never bother them again.
At Mastermind's Acquisition, we see darkened, but otherwise quite non-damaged (save for a small pile of rubble) Sanctum of the Sun, Azor's "perch/throne" and all, and Vraska looking while the Sun is being planarbridge'd.
At Shake the Foundations, we see Zacama wrecking the Sanctum of the Sun in such a way that the Immortal Sun is flying to the right, half of the walls are non-existent and the "throne" is breaking.
There is no way how both of these cards can be canon. Or is there?
The only way I can think of is that Zacama would break into the vault the very moment when the Sun is being stolen, sends it flying and prevents it from being transported.
Thoughts?
The throne designs are different and the room looks more derelict than merely recently damaged (as opposed to the room we see Azor in which is well maintained). So presumably after Zakama knocks the Immortal Sun off it is moved to a different room for transportation. I doubt Azor would have been content to be confined to a single room when spending an eternity in a hidden but vast city.
I really dont understand Elenda. What part of becoming an immortal bloodthirty monster is supposed to teach people humility?
The "bloodthirsty" part. The only vamp we've seen on Ixalan that we know to genuinely like being a bloodsucker is Vona.
To everyone else, it's a tremendous burden and curse that reduces even the most stately individual to a raving lunatic if they don't feed for too long. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop them from letting the awesome powers bundled with that curse get to their heads.
A friend of mine got a bundle and found this bit of spoiler for Huatli;
After Tezzeret takes the Sun, Huatli ends up leaving with Angrath to explore the multiverse and find her place in the multiverse
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():
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"
A friend of mine got a bundle and found this bit of spoiler for Huatli;
After Tezzeret takes the Sun, Huatli ends up leaving with Angrath to explore the multiverse and find her place in the multiverse
Considering what went down, and the things that were said in the story, I'm fully on board with this development.
Angrath has made an effort to show Huatli that there was more to life than what she was doing, and Huatli clearly likes Angrath to some extent, and has been interested in exploring "the other side of the Sun" since she was a child. Since Angrath is the one who introduced her to planeswalking, it'd be appropriate that he'd show her the ropes.
“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"
Angrath has made an effort to show Huatli that there was more to life than what she was doing, and Huatli clearly likes Angrath to some extent, and has been interested in exploring "the other side of the Sun" since she was a child. Since Angrath is the one who introduced her to planeswalking, it'd be appropriate that he'd show her the ropes.
In other words, I told y'all I ship it.
So I guess you could say she's gonna be...
*wears sunglasses*
... full of bull.
YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH
I'm shocked at y'all! Angrath has a wife and children!
Angrath has made an effort to show Huatli that there was more to life than what she was doing, and Huatli clearly likes Angrath to some extent, and has been interested in exploring "the other side of the Sun" since she was a child. Since Angrath is the one who introduced her to planeswalking, it'd be appropriate that he'd show her the ropes.
In other words, I told y'all I ship it.
So I guess you could say she's gonna be...
*wears sunglasses*
... full of bull.
YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH
I'm shocked at y'all! Angrath has a wife and children!
He's been on Ixalan for 14 years. If he has a wife, I'm pretty sure it won't be a warm and fuzzy reunion if/when he goes back to his home plane.
Angrath has made an effort to show Huatli that there was more to life than what she was doing, and Huatli clearly likes Angrath to some extent, and has been interested in exploring "the other side of the Sun" since she was a child. Since Angrath is the one who introduced her to planeswalking, it'd be appropriate that he'd show her the ropes.
In other words, I told y'all I ship it.
So I guess you could say she's gonna be...
*wears sunglasses*
... full of bull.
YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH
I'm shocked at y'all! Angrath has a wife and children!
As far as we know he doesn't have a wife. Its only mentioned that he wants to see his daughters, nothing about their mother(s)
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"
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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
Thats why I believe Ixalan has something else about it/on it that Azor doesn't want planeswalker to know about and the Sun was made to trap walkers, so losing it would be bad for Azor but better then having Bolas or more of his minions showing up.
Another thought though is from Azor reaction to hearing the living guild pact was now trapped on Ixalan, might lead him to thinking Jace returning to Ravnica is the greater good than whatever Bolas might use the Sun for.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Here no Ixalan there are a set of Gigantic Primal Dinosaurs that look to be unbeatable as well. Azor locked both worlds away..maybe there is something in two halves that he set up the "No go Zones" on both planes to keep safe?
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
Is she going to go on a murder spree, or is she going to target specific individuals? Is she even going to off anyone? Is she going to do something about Queen Miralda (who I wish we got a card for, but I guess that's for Return to Ixalan or Commander products)?
I should point out there is another plane that has a whole bunch of dinosaurs
Muraganda
https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Muraganda
She could very well planeswalk to there
It's also the home of the mineoplasm
(And before you all ask no ixalan and muraganda are not the same plane MaRo confirmed this.)
That’d be nice if they could use commander products to tell stories, each literally a “commander” of their respective faction.
Elenda fights the Legion like Jesus battling the Rome. High drama, that.
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
Still loving the Jace-Vraska relationship more than anything that's been written in Magic storyline is a long time. Over the last four blocks, only Yahenni tops it for me.
I hope Angrath and Huatli get more time to hang out together. They're both kinda crudly-written characters so far, but their combined energy seems really promising to me.
One (or a couple since we don't know all of them) other plane out of thousands doesn't really change the fact that she has very narrow magic. In at least 90% of other planes she would just be a regular human like you and me that can planeswalk. I really hope creative expands her powers because she's already pretty bland on her home turf
She might be like Kiora and Elspeth and able to summon aether copies using the essence of the Ixalan dinosaurs.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
This is the sense that I got from her part in the story. I fully expect any return to Ixalan to feature a schism, or possibly even all out civil war, within the Legion of Dusk (The Queen and current church VS Elenda and some sort of Reformationist sect (possibly including Mavren Fein, since he seemed to be a big time Elenda fanboy)).
If the Sun Empire claims Orazca (as it look like they will from the geocache), and they go on an expansionist push like I've speculated before, and the LoD in Torrezon is fractured, that could be used as a reason for the pirates to try and reclaim the Free Cities... then we'd only need a reason for the River Heralds to be on Torrezon...
More importantly, Azor gave up his spark for The Immortal Sun (okay, granted we don't know whether he can simply recall it) after everything he has done in the Multiverse. I would imagine among oldwalkers those who would voluntarily gave up their sparks were those who couldn't withstand the insanity that came with it (mainly agelessness), but even my saying of giving it up is hypothetical (they probably just ended themselves for simplicity, since Spark Transfer isn't exactly the most common of tech - Yawgmoth, Memnarch and Venser were to varying degrees specialized artificers).
It took the Time Rifts and the threat it presented for generally "neutral" planeswalkers to agree giving up their sparks (reminder said threat was bad enough Bolas himself actually thought he had partial blame as well and was willing to sacrifice Leshrac instead of using him for some other nefarious self-serving plans and despite his hatred of the Mending, never once did Bolas ever thought of the letting the alternative happen was better). Even if Azor can retrieve his Spark easily, the very act of transferring it either means whatever else the Immortal Sun is for is likely near "Rift-Level" (if Azor is "neutral"), or Azor might be the most "good" oldwalker we've ever met yet.
Of course, for all we know, the secret to multiverse peace was locked by Azor via the Sun (making him the most evil being instead, but still something drastic enough on the opposite end to validate the spark transfer), but well let's just say the typical cliches don't usually invert that bad in MTG lore.
Maybe they finally get tired of being on the defensive against the invaders from the other side of the ocean, so they take the fight to them?
At least that's what I imagine Kumena and his group would do, assuming he's survived the events of this block.
Alternatively, the Brazen Coalition strikes a deal with the River Heralds that if the latter helps them to retake the continent, they'll never bother them again.
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
My mistake, I meant Jesus battling the Roman Empire.
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
The throne designs are different and the room looks more derelict than merely recently damaged (as opposed to the room we see Azor in which is well maintained). So presumably after Zakama knocks the Immortal Sun off it is moved to a different room for transportation. I doubt Azor would have been content to be confined to a single room when spending an eternity in a hidden but vast city.
UBarrin, Master WizardU
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The "bloodthirsty" part. The only vamp we've seen on Ixalan that we know to genuinely like being a bloodsucker is Vona.
To everyone else, it's a tremendous burden and curse that reduces even the most stately individual to a raving lunatic if they don't feed for too long. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop them from letting the awesome powers bundled with that curse get to their heads.
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They are only 9,500 miles away from hitting a quarter of a million miles (250k) and pirates just barely got above 200k and they are second place.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Considering what went down, and the things that were said in the story, I'm fully on board with this development.
Angrath has made an effort to show Huatli that there was more to life than what she was doing, and Huatli clearly likes Angrath to some extent, and has been interested in exploring "the other side of the Sun" since she was a child. Since Angrath is the one who introduced her to planeswalking, it'd be appropriate that he'd show her the ropes.
In other words, I told y'all I ship it.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I'm shocked at y'all! Angrath has a wife and children!
He's been on Ixalan for 14 years. If he has a wife, I'm pretty sure it won't be a warm and fuzzy reunion if/when he goes back to his home plane.
As far as we know he doesn't have a wife. Its only mentioned that he wants to see his daughters, nothing about their mother(s)
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"