Hmm... it could be the Mirari. Isn't it described as a pulsing sun?
While not 'OUR' Mirari, as in the one that was at the core of Memnarch, it could be A mirari, since they were probes Karn sent out.
...Actually, that could really flow well into Dominaria once we leave Ixalan, since I have a hunch that Karn will be appearing in the Dominaria set.
Nah. I doubt Bolas is going through the trouble of hiring Vraska to go to a dangerous Planeswalker trap and seek out a secret city horrendously difficult to discover in order to recover just any old Mirari that might have replicas elsewhere. It's either THE Mirari, or not it at all.
What if the whole Orazca deal was a testing site for Ugin to try planar binding Magic?
so while Bolas is trying to find a way to transport stuff across planes, his counterpart Ugin is working on a way to keep stuff on planes from leaving?
that would be quite poetic, actually...
Hmm... it could be the Mirari. Isn't it described as a pulsing sun?
While not 'OUR' Mirari, as in the one that was at the core of Memnarch, it could be A mirari, since they were probes Karn sent out.
...Actually, that could really flow well into Dominaria once we leave Ixalan, since I have a hunch that Karn will be appearing in the Dominaria set.
Nah. I doubt Bolas is going through the trouble of hiring Vraska to go to a dangerous Planeswalker trap and seek out a secret city horrendously difficult to discover in order to recover just any old Mirari that might have replicas elsewhere. It's either THE Mirari, or not it at all.
That's a stretch of a conclusion from a three year old blog post that says "We didn't say where it was."
There is really not an "it" The Mirari (Multiple) were created by Karn to probe planes. The one on Dominaria was just faulty, I doubt that there is still an active one after all these years after the mending and the fall of Mirrodin though.
Hmm... it could be the Mirari. Isn't it described as a pulsing sun?
While not 'OUR' Mirari, as in the one that was at the core of Memnarch, it could be A mirari, since they were probes Karn sent out.
...Actually, that could really flow well into Dominaria once we leave Ixalan, since I have a hunch that Karn will be appearing in the Dominaria set.
Nah. I doubt Bolas is going through the trouble of hiring Vraska to go to a dangerous Planeswalker trap and seek out a secret city horrendously difficult to discover in order to recover just any old Mirari that might have replicas elsewhere. It's either THE Mirari, or not it at all.
That's a stretch of a conclusion from a three year old blog post that says "We didn't say where it was."
Your right I bet it will show up with Solbad, Agrus Kos and the other stuff creative put on a bus and we haven't heard of in years.
The way Doug wrote this off very much hint to me they done with the Mirari for storyline reasons and if it is a factor it would be in a return to New Phyrexia. But with the mess of a canon we have between the creative team, the mirrodin block books and the quest for karn, I'd think it would just be safe to write off the Mirari since it mostly only known by older players.
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While not 'OUR' Mirari, as in the one that was at the core of Memnarch, it could be A mirari, since they were probes Karn sent out.
...Actually, that could really flow well into Dominaria once we leave Ixalan, since I have a hunch that Karn will be appearing in the Dominaria set.
Nah. I doubt Bolas is going through the trouble of hiring Vraska to go to a dangerous Planeswalker trap and seek out a secret city horrendously difficult to discover in order to recover just any old Mirari that might have replicas elsewhere. It's either THE Mirari, or not it at all.
That's a stretch of a conclusion from a three year old blog post that says "We didn't say where it was."
Your right I bet it will show up with Solbad, Agrus Kos and the other stuff creative put on a bus and we haven't heard of in years.
No need to get snippy.
The way Doug wrote this off very much hint to me they done with the Mirari for storyline reasons and if it is a factor it would be in a return to New Phyrexia. But with the mess of a canon we have between the creative team, the mirrodin block books and the quest for karn, I'd think it would just be safe to write off the Mirari since it mostly only known by older players.
That's one way to look at it, the other is that they've mentioned it as a corrupting force on Mirrodin, and they keep reprinting the legendary artifact. Commander 2013 wasn't that long ago.
I'm really liking the way that the three factions we've gotten good looks at so far have at least some characters portrayed sympathetically. The message that it's possible for two people to be at cross-purposes without either one being an evil sack of s*** is one that we could really use today.
That's one way to look at it, the other is that they've mentioned it as a corrupting force on Mirrodin, and they keep reprinting the legendary artifact. Commander 2013 wasn't that long ago.
To be fair, there's an excellent reason to reprint Mirari that has nothing to do with story concerns: it's a pretty cool, fun card.
I think the Immortal Sun is most likely something new (to us - it seems at least old-ish, if not necessarily ancient, in-story), perhaps created by someone known to us. If that is the case, I think Ugin is the best candidate.
The Abzan within me hopes they do what must be done and kill him, wasted intellectual resources or no.
He is too great of a threat, has harmed too many worlds and ended/manipulated too many lives to live- and all of these out of pure, selfish ambition.
That being said it might be all that the heroes are capable of just to seal him.
The [insert whatever color combination fits this mindset here] in me is saying that though he has done that, the big golden lizard might be needed if the New Phyrexians ever had a breakthrough with portal technology, or something even more threatening to the Multiverse came along.
The dog in me says if you can't eat it or play with it, pee on it and walk away.
I think this indicates a tonal shift from Amonkhet. there was so much wanton death and destruction in that plane, perhaps a plane where the casualties are minimal is a way to cleanse the pallette. kinda like hoe kaldesh itself was an tonal shift from Innistrad. I just hope we don't get into a dark set/light set pattern.
Yes, I understand the need for a "palate cleanser" set if they don't want the overall tone of the game to get too grim (I'm glad they learned from the old criticisms of that long run of Time Spiral/Lorwyn/Alara/Zendikar/Scars/Innistrad, when every block was about some apocalyptic disaster). I just thought that Kaladesh was a bit too artificial in the way that it dialed back the violence and danger. So far, Ixalan seems to be to be doing a better job of balancing things out without feeling fake (for the most part). The first time a dinosaur actually eats somebody, I'll be perfectly happy.
Have you considered that the Immortal Sun itself might not be native to Ixalan, but was instead planted there by a walker?
Planeswalkers have shaped the histories of many planes, and Ixalan is probably no different.
Yes, Jay has got me on board with the theory that Ugin is responsible for the Immortal Sun's anti-planeswalking power. The question I'm more curious about now is what else can the Immortal Sun do? I wouldn't think it would have such a strong mythical reputation if the shield thing were all there was to it. And was it created/brought there by Ugin, or did Ugin alter something that was already on the plane? Could he have considered it to be so dangerous to the multiverse that he enchanted it to prevent planeswalkers from easily stealing it?
Cool story today, good cliffhanger ending. Kumena is the best kind of villain in that he's one with understandable motivations. I wonder if every faction is going to have a "good" representative and a "bad" representative. Vraska is our protagonist while Angrath seems like a walking disaster. Huatli seems like a chill chick while the Sun emperor comes off a little shady, and even though the shapers overall seem fairly benevolent Kumena is clearly ruthless. Maybe in the legion we'll see Arguel as a more moderate force while Vona is butchering away? It would be kind of cool if WOTC showed that there were heroes and villains in every part of this conflict. Even if they don't though I'm really enjoying Ixalan so far.
Yes, I hope this is the direction they go with it. At this point, it seems like the Legion of Dusk is the only faction we haven't had a viewpoint story for yet. I hope they have a protagonist/antagonist pair as compelling as the other ones we've seen so far.
Nah. I doubt Bolas is going through the trouble of hiring Vraska to go to a dangerous Planeswalker trap and seek out a secret city horrendously difficult to discover in order to recover just any old Mirari that might have replicas elsewhere. It's either THE Mirari, or not it at all.
That's a stretch of a conclusion from a three year old blog post that says "We didn't say where it was."
Your right I bet it will show up with Solbad, Agrus Kos and the other stuff creative put on a bus and we haven't heard of in years.
No need to get snippy.
The way Doug wrote this off very much hint to me they done with the Mirari for storyline reasons and if it is a factor it would be in a return to New Phyrexia. But with the mess of a canon we have between the creative team, the mirrodin block books and the quest for karn, I'd think it would just be safe to write off the Mirari since it mostly only known by older players.
That's one way to look at it, the other is that they've mentioned it as a corrupting force on Mirrodin,
That was Dominaria, on Mirrodin was reshaped into Memnarch who said by Doug fell into the core, by in the book was left in the care of Glissa and Solbad (and IIRC Karn "turn it off" so it won't be a monkey paw anymore). The corrupting force on Mirrodin was always Phyrexia
and they keep reprinting the legendary artifact. Commander 2013 wasn't that long ago.
You could also say that we going to see a sacrificial vampire king on Zenikdar because Butcher of Malakir has been printed in 4 commander sets and the commander anthology. The commander deck are for the most part a bottom-up desgin, the chose of reprint matters for the deck and not always the story. They they had been putting out story info/reminder or having new art that features Mirari I'd say you had a better point.
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I hope they do something along those lines. It's much more interesting if there aren't any totally "good" or "bad" factions in this conflict.
On a separate note, has there been any discussion about the artwork on Grim Captain's Call? With the necromancy, and the fact that they don't entirely show her face, I'm wondering if that's supposed to be Liliana (Maybe Bolas sent multiple Planeswalkers to retrieve the Immortal Suns - I seem to recall he mentioned redundancies in his plans at the end of Hour of Devastation). i didn't see any other indications of this Grim Captainin any of the other cards, but did not look very thoroughly.
Bit of a stretch. It's not so much a Grim Captain, it's the actual captain's call that is grim (given the necromantic nature.)(which is a very basic black card thing to convey). A "captain's call" is basically an order given without consulting others.
Did anyone notice the part where Kumena says that the sun empire have a visionary (Huatli) and so do the bloodsuckers? So who do you guys think the PW aligned with the vamps is? I would think it's someone we know considering we already have to new walkers (Angrath not confirmed but likely).
So far it has been assumed the compass will only point to the Immortal Sun.
We have also made the possible leaps that the Immortal Sun is something not native to this world.
What if, rather than the compass being tuned solely to the Immortal Sun, it is simply attuned to ANYTHING that is not native to the world Ixalan inhabits?
I like mixing today's story with Jay's Raven Man story and assuming the following:
Orcaza is the source of the binding on Ixalan
It's the remnant artifact created by The Guardian to protect Shandalar
Bolas has the demon's spell that was used to seek out the artifact on Shandalar and has infused that spell into the Thaumatic Compass
Why would Bolas want an artifact that can prevent planeswalker movement?
---My first thought was to use it as a planeswalker prison, but that's what Ixalan is now
---Maybe he wants to use it to keep rivals away from his conquests
Somehow, the destruction of the Onnake on Shandalar relates to the destruction foretold in the story of Orcaza, but I can't figure how just yet
Why does the compass point to Jace though?
I never got that impression from the last story.
It felt like finding him was coincidental.
They kept sailing after finding him and there's no mention of the compass.
I assumed they were continuing to follow it after they found him.
Did I miss something?
Navigator Malcolm pointed out that Jace (or the direction the compass was pointing) was south, completely away from the continent of Ixalan. If they had continued to head south, they would have wound up nowhere near Orazca (Unless the plane of Ixalan is a very small sphere, and continuing south eventually leads to them descending from the north).
Vraska held out the thaumatic compass. "We need to go south."
Malcolm, ever the careful navigator, made a small noise of concern. "Are you certain?"
Vraska nodded. "We go where it points, and what we need is that way."
Malcolm was staring at the strange compass. "But the direction it is pointing to is away from the continent of Ixalan. The Golden City isn't an island off its coast . . ."
Right, but nowhere does it say specifically that the compass led them to Jace. Nor does it say that it stopped working after that. They sailed for days and days after finding Jace. Even though they don't mention the compass after finding Jace, I doubt they were just meandering about with a spinning compass always pointing at him.
I guess I should have said "Why did the compass point in Jace's direction?"
From what I remember, the compass pointed them in the direction Bird Poop Island happened to be in, and then after they found Jace, they never brought up what it was pointing to again in the story. I don't believe it was a coincidence that Vraska found Jace after the biggest needle on the compass pointed in a direction that wasn't the continent of Ixalan.
The dragon held out his upright claw.
"You will use this spell to call my associate when you have reached the center of the Golden City . . ."
At first I thought Bolas is referring to Tezzeret, but after Vraska coincidentally bumped into Jace
I'm starting to think that Jace IS bolas's associate! (his mind got manipulated, but will only manifest once that specific spell is cast)
Tadaa! "Jace, Associate of Bolas"
the most devastating UB planeswalker and the Gatewatch's worst nightmare
I like mixing today's story with Jay's Raven Man story and assuming the following:
Orcaza is the source of the binding on Ixalan
It's the remnant artifact created by The Guardian to protect Shandalar
Bolas has the demon's spell that was used to seek out the artifact on Shandalar and has infused that spell into the Thaumatic Compass
Why would Bolas want an artifact that can prevent planeswalker movement?
---My first thought was to use it as a planeswalker prison, but that's what Ixalan is now
---Maybe he wants to use it to keep rivals away from his conquests
Somehow, the destruction of the Onnake on Shandalar relates to the destruction foretold in the story of Orcaza, but I can't figure how just yet
Why does the compass point to Jace though?
I never got that impression from the last story.
It felt like finding him was coincidental.
They kept sailing after finding him and there's no mention of the compass.
I assumed they were continuing to follow it after they found him.
Did I miss something?
Navigator Malcolm pointed out that Jace (or the direction the compass was pointing) was south, completely away from the continent of Ixalan. If they had continued to head south, they would have wound up nowhere near Orazca (Unless the plane of Ixalan is a very small sphere, and continuing south eventually leads to them descending from the north).
Vraska held out the thaumatic compass. "We need to go south."
Malcolm, ever the careful navigator, made a small noise of concern. "Are you certain?"
Vraska nodded. "We go where it points, and what we need is that way."
Malcolm was staring at the strange compass. "But the direction it is pointing to is away from the continent of Ixalan. The Golden City isn't an island off its coast . . ."
Right, but nowhere does it say specifically that the compass led them to Jace. Nor does it say that it stopped working after that. They sailed for days and days after finding Jace. Even though they don't mention the compass after finding Jace, I doubt they were just meandering about with a spinning compass always pointing at him.
So far it has been assumed the compass will only point to the Immortal Sun.
We have also made the possible leaps that the Immortal Sun is something not native to this world.
What if, rather than the compass being tuned solely to the Immortal Sun, it is simply attuned to ANYTHING that is not native to the world Ixalan inhabits?
So, I had a theory occur to me: That as a Thaumatic Compass, it points towards intense magic(s), not necessarily places or material things. And that it was never actually pointing at/to Jace. It was pointing to the intense spike of magic that would likely have occurred when Jace attempted to planeswalk away, and the Binding kicked in. Finding Jace was merely a coincidence. In this case, once the surge of magic from the binding dissipated, the compass may well have gone back to pointing towards Orazca (or another strong source of magic, as it's stated that the compass occasionally changes direction, only to change again a few hours later).
There is the matter of timing, though. Jace spent 40days on Useless Island, which seems like a very long time for Vraska and crew to sail south. Additionally the compass would also have pinged on Huatli's aborted walk, and since I simply have no idea when in the overall timeline of events that happened, I couldn't begin to say what happened with that.
I think there are holes in this theory, but I figured I'd share it anyhow.
I think people are making this more complicated than it has to be. The compass is a piece of magic in a story with very limited space. It's not going to have any super-convoluted means to operate. It'll either be a compass that points to "what vraska needs" (to fulfill her quest) or "what she wants" (the compass knowing what she desires).
Also Jace literally can't be the associate Bolas talked about, because he went to Ixalan after Vraska and Bolas seemingly wasn't aware of the Gatewatch being on Amonkhet. Plus, it's kind of silly on a meta-level anyway.
On a side note, I'm really curious when we'll meet Ramaz in the story. I don't think he fits well into Ixalan, plus he doesn't seem to be the "clean business" type, more like the "do you need stuff burned down business" type.
I think people are making this more complicated than it has to be. The compass is a piece of magic in a story with very limited space. It's not going to have any super-convoluted means to operate. It'll either be a compass that points to "what vraska needs" (to fulfill her quest) or "what she wants" (the compass knowing what she desires).
The Pirates of the Caribbean forum is athataway ->
Also Jace literally can't be the associate Bolas talked about, because he went to Ixalan after Vraska and Bolas seemingly wasn't aware of the Gatewatch being on Amonkhet. Plus, it's kind of silly on a meta-level anyway.
Did he? I agree that Jace isn't the associate, but why isn't it possible that this story starts before Hour of Devestation and concludes after it? We're making an assumption that the stories are happening chronologically.
So far it has been assumed the compass will only point to the Immortal Sun.
We have also made the possible leaps that the Immortal Sun is something not native to this world.
What if, rather than the compass being tuned solely to the Immortal Sun, it is simply attuned to ANYTHING that is not native to the world Ixalan inhabits?
Well, that would make it pretty awkward for Vraska to use, wouldn't it? "Why does this piece-of-junk compass always point directly at me?"
I think people are making this more complicated than it has to be. The compass is a piece of magic in a story with very limited space. It's not going to have any super-convoluted means to operate. It'll either be a compass that points to "what vraska needs" (to fulfill her quest) or "what she wants" (the compass knowing what she desires).
The Pirates of the Caribbean forum is athataway ->
And the "Plot devices stolen directly from Pirates of the Caribbean" forum is right here.
Flisch is right. The compass points at wherever the next plot point is that Vraska needs to get though to eventually find Orazca.
I think people are making this more complicated than it has to be. The compass is a piece of magic in a story with very limited space. It's not going to have any super-convoluted means to operate. It'll either be a compass that points to "what vraska needs" (to fulfill her quest) or "what she wants" (the compass knowing what she desires).
The Pirates of the Caribbean forum is athataway ->
Also Jace literally can't be the associate Bolas talked about, because he went to Ixalan after Vraska and Bolas seemingly wasn't aware of the Gatewatch being on Amonkhet. Plus, it's kind of silly on a meta-level anyway.
Did he? I agree that Jace isn't the associate, but why isn't it possible that this story starts before Hour of Devestation and concludes after it? We're making an assumption that the stories are happening chronologically.
Generally the stories are happening chronologically, with a few of them serving as the occasional flashback such as Mazirek's story.
We know Jace ended up on Ixalan after fleeing Amonkhet and has been on the plane for roughly 40 days. Vraska has been there longer than that. Based on what Ral said when he last tracked her she probably went to Ixalan before or during the beginning of Kaladesh which was a few months ago in the story.
I think people are making this more complicated than it has to be. The compass is a piece of magic in a story with very limited space. It's not going to have any super-convoluted means to operate. It'll either be a compass that points to "what vraska needs" (to fulfill her quest) or "what she wants" (the compass knowing what she desires).
The Pirates of the Caribbean forum is athataway ->
Also Jace literally can't be the associate Bolas talked about, because he went to Ixalan after Vraska and Bolas seemingly wasn't aware of the Gatewatch being on Amonkhet. Plus, it's kind of silly on a meta-level anyway.
Did he? I agree that Jace isn't the associate, but why isn't it possible that this story starts before Hour of Devestation and concludes after it? We're making an assumption that the stories are happening chronologically.
Generally the stories are happening chronologically, with a few of them serving as the occasional flashback such as Mazirek's story.
We know Jace ended up on Ixalan after fleeing Amonkhet and has been on the plane for roughly 40 days. Vraska has been there longer than that. Based on what Ral said when he last tracked her she probably went to Ixalan before or during the beginning of Kaladesh which was a few months ago in the story.
Not to mention that Vraska said she has been on Ixalan for months. So that's very likely longer than 40 days.
I don't think they have, actually. We only know of Jace attempting it once (iirc). Likewise we've only seen Hualti do it once. Vraska seems like she's tried it at least once (cause she described it when she first saw Jace), but most likely not more than that. Bolas told her she couldn't return till her task was done, and while she(we) might have interpreted that to mean that the meditation realm wouldn't let her back in without completing her objective, it's not a far leap to consider that he might (also) have meant that she couldn't leave Ixalan till she found what he sent her for.
Angrath's really the only definitely unknown variable here, we have no idea how long he's been there, nor how many times he's tried to leave.
It's possible that it's only happened three times recently. Once with Vraska, most likely not long after she arrived a few months ago. Once for Jace over a month ago, and once for Hualti, an indeterminate time ago.
Depending on how long, and how often Angrath's been trying to leave, this might not be all that unusual at all.
I'm just really excited we finally have an exploration story that surveys the plane and showcases it. I'm more excited about these rivaling factors and their search through their world for this city than I ever would be about the plane becoming a trash heap and ending and the cards only being about War: The Gathering. This is finally MAGIC. And Tishana is shaping up to be an interesting Simic character. I like her voice abilities. It's neat when mages have a predilection for certain types of magic. Simic seems good for her powers.
I'm more excited about these rivaling factors and their search through their world for this city than I ever would be about the plane becoming a trash heap and ending and the cards only being about War: The Gathering. This is finally MAGIC.
Say that to Dominaria, whose whole existence has been dotted by war and apocalypse after war and apocalypse, and may soon have another if Bolas is aiming for the plane with whatever his grand scheme is. Also, we don't know how this story will end, so it's a bit premature to celebrate where Ixalan is concerned.
The multiverse is a cruel and dangerous place, and if your plane is as peaceful as Kaladesh, you hit the jackpot.
So, I had a theory occur to me: That as a Thaumatic Compass, it points towards intense magic(s), not necessarily places or material things. And that it was never actually pointing at/to Jace. It was pointing to the intense spike of magic that would likely have occurred when Jace attempted to planeswalk away, and the Binding kicked in. Finding Jace was merely a coincidence. In this case, once the surge of magic from the binding dissipated, the compass may well have gone back to pointing towards Orazca (or another strong source of magic, as it's stated that the compass occasionally changes direction, only to change again a few hours later).
There is the matter of timing, though. Jace spent 40days on Useless Island, which seems like a very long time for Vraska and crew to sail south. Additionally the compass would also have pinged on Huatli's aborted walk, and since I simply have no idea when in the overall timeline of events that happened, I couldn't begin to say what happened with that.
I think there are holes in this theory, but I figured I'd share it anyhow.
Regardless of the holes, I think this is the most plausible theory. That the compass points towards planeswalking magic or maybe the nearest place where the "barrier" between the plane and the blind eternities is the thinnest (I imagine each plane having a sort of ozon layer that separates it from the blind eternities, and only planeswalkers can travel through these layers).
I wonder what the Immortal Sun would do though. Cardwise, it would make most sense as a sort of thing preventing planeswalkers from leaving (eg, running out of loyalty counters):
The Immortal Sun5
Legendary Artifact
Whenever an ability of a Planeswalker you control would remove one or more loyalty counters from a Planeswalker you control, no loyalty counters are removed instead.
This way, when it comes to loyalty counters, the only way is up so Planeswalkers never leave the battlefield. however, the can still be killed (destruction or damage) and the card remains balanced since you cannot activate abilities you have not accumulated enough counters for yet.
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That's a stretch of a conclusion from a three year old blog post that says "We didn't say where it was."
so while Bolas is trying to find a way to transport stuff across planes, his counterpart Ugin is working on a way to keep stuff on planes from leaving?
that would be quite poetic, actually...
Click the pic for more info.
There is really not an "it" The Mirari (Multiple) were created by Karn to probe planes. The one on Dominaria was just faulty, I doubt that there is still an active one after all these years after the mending and the fall of Mirrodin though.
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
Your right I bet it will show up with Solbad, Agrus Kos and the other stuff creative put on a bus and we haven't heard of in years.
The way Doug wrote this off very much hint to me they done with the Mirari for storyline reasons and if it is a factor it would be in a return to New Phyrexia. But with the mess of a canon we have between the creative team, the mirrodin block books and the quest for karn, I'd think it would just be safe to write off the Mirari since it mostly only known by older players.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
No need to get snippy.
That's one way to look at it, the other is that they've mentioned it as a corrupting force on Mirrodin, and they keep reprinting the legendary artifact. Commander 2013 wasn't that long ago.
To be fair, there's an excellent reason to reprint Mirari that has nothing to do with story concerns: it's a pretty cool, fun card.
I think the Immortal Sun is most likely something new (to us - it seems at least old-ish, if not necessarily ancient, in-story), perhaps created by someone known to us. If that is the case, I think Ugin is the best candidate.
EDIT:
The dog in me says if you can't eat it or play with it, pee on it and walk away.
RWU
GUB
WBR
URG
BGW
Yes, I understand the need for a "palate cleanser" set if they don't want the overall tone of the game to get too grim (I'm glad they learned from the old criticisms of that long run of Time Spiral/Lorwyn/Alara/Zendikar/Scars/Innistrad, when every block was about some apocalyptic disaster). I just thought that Kaladesh was a bit too artificial in the way that it dialed back the violence and danger. So far, Ixalan seems to be to be doing a better job of balancing things out without feeling fake (for the most part). The first time a dinosaur actually eats somebody, I'll be perfectly happy.
Yes, Jay has got me on board with the theory that Ugin is responsible for the Immortal Sun's anti-planeswalking power. The question I'm more curious about now is what else can the Immortal Sun do? I wouldn't think it would have such a strong mythical reputation if the shield thing were all there was to it. And was it created/brought there by Ugin, or did Ugin alter something that was already on the plane? Could he have considered it to be so dangerous to the multiverse that he enchanted it to prevent planeswalkers from easily stealing it?
Yes, I hope this is the direction they go with it. At this point, it seems like the Legion of Dusk is the only faction we haven't had a viewpoint story for yet. I hope they have a protagonist/antagonist pair as compelling as the other ones we've seen so far.
That was Dominaria, on Mirrodin was reshaped into Memnarch who said by Doug fell into the core, by in the book was left in the care of Glissa and Solbad (and IIRC Karn "turn it off" so it won't be a monkey paw anymore). The corrupting force on Mirrodin was always Phyrexia
You could also say that we going to see a sacrificial vampire king on Zenikdar because Butcher of Malakir has been printed in 4 commander sets and the commander anthology. The commander deck are for the most part a bottom-up desgin, the chose of reprint matters for the deck and not always the story. They they had been putting out story info/reminder or having new art that features Mirari I'd say you had a better point.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
On a separate note, has there been any discussion about the artwork on Grim Captain's Call? With the necromancy, and the fact that they don't entirely show her face, I'm wondering if that's supposed to be Liliana (Maybe Bolas sent multiple Planeswalkers to retrieve the Immortal Suns - I seem to recall he mentioned redundancies in his plans at the end of Hour of Devastation). i didn't see any other indications of this Grim Captainin any of the other cards, but did not look very thoroughly.
I guess I should have said "Why did the compass point in Jace's direction?"
From what I remember, the compass pointed them in the direction Bird Poop Island happened to be in, and then after they found Jace, they never brought up what it was pointing to again in the story. I don't believe it was a coincidence that Vraska found Jace after the biggest needle on the compass pointed in a direction that wasn't the continent of Ixalan.
The dragon held out his upright claw.
"You will use this spell to call my associate when you have reached the center of the Golden City . . ."
At first I thought Bolas is referring to Tezzeret, but after Vraska coincidentally bumped into Jace
I'm starting to think that Jace IS bolas's associate! (his mind got manipulated, but will only manifest once that specific spell is cast)
Tadaa! "Jace, Associate of Bolas"
the most devastating UB planeswalker and the Gatewatch's worst nightmare
So, I had a theory occur to me: That as a Thaumatic Compass, it points towards intense magic(s), not necessarily places or material things. And that it was never actually pointing at/to Jace. It was pointing to the intense spike of magic that would likely have occurred when Jace attempted to planeswalk away, and the Binding kicked in. Finding Jace was merely a coincidence. In this case, once the surge of magic from the binding dissipated, the compass may well have gone back to pointing towards Orazca (or another strong source of magic, as it's stated that the compass occasionally changes direction, only to change again a few hours later).
There is the matter of timing, though. Jace spent 40days on Useless Island, which seems like a very long time for Vraska and crew to sail south. Additionally the compass would also have pinged on Huatli's aborted walk, and since I simply have no idea when in the overall timeline of events that happened, I couldn't begin to say what happened with that.
I think there are holes in this theory, but I figured I'd share it anyhow.
Also Jace literally can't be the associate Bolas talked about, because he went to Ixalan after Vraska and Bolas seemingly wasn't aware of the Gatewatch being on Amonkhet. Plus, it's kind of silly on a meta-level anyway.
On a side note, I'm really curious when we'll meet Ramaz in the story. I don't think he fits well into Ixalan, plus he doesn't seem to be the "clean business" type, more like the "do you need stuff burned down business" type.
The Pirates of the Caribbean forum is athataway ->
Did he? I agree that Jace isn't the associate, but why isn't it possible that this story starts before Hour of Devestation and concludes after it? We're making an assumption that the stories are happening chronologically.
Well, that would make it pretty awkward for Vraska to use, wouldn't it? "Why does this piece-of-junk compass always point directly at me?"
And the "Plot devices stolen directly from Pirates of the Caribbean" forum is right here.
Flisch is right. The compass points at wherever the next plot point is that Vraska needs to get though to eventually find Orazca.
Generally the stories are happening chronologically, with a few of them serving as the occasional flashback such as Mazirek's story.
We know Jace ended up on Ixalan after fleeing Amonkhet and has been on the plane for roughly 40 days. Vraska has been there longer than that. Based on what Ral said when he last tracked her she probably went to Ixalan before or during the beginning of Kaladesh which was a few months ago in the story.
UBarrin, Master WizardU
USticher GeralfU
UIxidor, Reality SculptorU
UWNoyan Dar, Roil ShaperUW
Not to mention that Vraska said she has been on Ixalan for months. So that's very likely longer than 40 days.
Angrath's really the only definitely unknown variable here, we have no idea how long he's been there, nor how many times he's tried to leave.
It's possible that it's only happened three times recently. Once with Vraska, most likely not long after she arrived a few months ago. Once for Jace over a month ago, and once for Hualti, an indeterminate time ago.
Depending on how long, and how often Angrath's been trying to leave, this might not be all that unusual at all.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Say that to Dominaria, whose whole existence has been dotted by war and apocalypse after war and apocalypse, and may soon have another if Bolas is aiming for the plane with whatever his grand scheme is. Also, we don't know how this story will end, so it's a bit premature to celebrate where Ixalan is concerned.
The multiverse is a cruel and dangerous place, and if your plane is as peaceful as Kaladesh, you hit the jackpot.
Regardless of the holes, I think this is the most plausible theory. That the compass points towards planeswalking magic or maybe the nearest place where the "barrier" between the plane and the blind eternities is the thinnest (I imagine each plane having a sort of ozon layer that separates it from the blind eternities, and only planeswalkers can travel through these layers).
I wonder what the Immortal Sun would do though. Cardwise, it would make most sense as a sort of thing preventing planeswalkers from leaving (eg, running out of loyalty counters):
The Immortal Sun 5
Legendary Artifact
Whenever an ability of a Planeswalker you control would remove one or more loyalty counters from a Planeswalker you control, no loyalty counters are removed instead.
This way, when it comes to loyalty counters, the only way is up so Planeswalkers never leave the battlefield. however, the can still be killed (destruction or damage) and the card remains balanced since you cannot activate abilities you have not accumulated enough counters for yet.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.