What if the thaumatic compass pointed to Jace because Vraska needed help in figuring it out? So far, she's just been winging it where the compass is concerned (I'm honestly wondering why Bolas didn't give her specific instructions on how to use it), but Jace (based on the Compass's actual card) can figure out how it works and use it better than she can. If it's true that the Thaumatic Compass is like Jack Sparrow's compass, maybe it pointed to him because she subconsciously needed his expertise.
As for Vraska being a black character who cares about others: My rationalization is that she is projecting. Black is about self-interest and Vraska sees herself in others who are similarly at the bottom of the foodchain, so to speak. In a way, she doesn't really care about the others as much as she cares about what she sees of herself In them. if that makes sense. That's a reasonably enough black notion for me, especially coupled with the "born into it" part that green comes with and Vraska realizes is part of the problem.
I have to massively disagree here, Black is about Ambition, and Desire. It can go into self-interest such as Liliana but it can go to strange places depending on what the person truly wants.
"You wanna bring back someone you lost, ya might want money, maybe you want women, or you might wanna protect the world. These are all common things people want, things that their hearts desire, Greed may not be good, but its not so bad either. You humans think Greed is just for money and power, when everyone wants something they don't have."
—Greed
Self interest does not necessarily mean selfishness, but Black believes that there is only one person who can make your life better: And that is yourself. I did not mean to imply that Vraska doesn't care about others, as clearly she sees them as kin, but not because of any sort of obligation, but simply because subconsciously she sees in them parts of herself and that's why she cares.
Is it so hard to believe that Ixalan just isn't sexist? There's no reason that, just because when we had pirates we were sexist, means that it has to be the same on a fantasy world that has pirates.
If it was a completely fantastical world, then sure. Same goes for the more science fiction-based worlds, because it makes sense for them to be more progressive. But when a world borrows very heavily from elements of a time period in our past, it's natural to assume that everything not explicitly different is about the same as was on Earth during that time. In Ixalan's case, it's based on about the 1500s, so while things that are obviously departures from that are fine (dinosaurs, vampires, magic), we kind of expect other things to line up with the time period. Even if it was just Vraska (whose species should make it easy to assume leadership regardless of gender roles) and one other female planebound captain, it wouldn't seem that out of place, but virtually every pirate with a leadership role is female, which has no basis in the actual history that Ixalan is based on.
On a different world with pirates that's heavier on fantasy or sci-fi than Ixalan, I wouldn't have a problem, but on a world where the pirates are based on real-world pirates from the real-world age of exploration, it just feels a bit off. It's so much that the pirates aren't sexist enough, because they did remove some of the more negative real-world aspects from all factions (like human sacrifice), it's just that real-world legendary pirates were almost invariably male, so not having a single one with a card in Ixalan doesn't feel very true to the source material. I guess there will be Angrath in the next set, but that's still a 3:1 ratio in favor of women (if not 4:1 or 5:1 since if we get more pirate legends in Rivals they will most likely be Vance and/or Parrish), when it should be 50/50 at the best if they're trying to be even a little historically accurate.
I honestly can't stand this kind of commentary. It's this kind of discussion that keeps sexism alive and strong.
Pretty sure it's the actual sexists who are keeping sexism alive and strong. If you think this is sexism, you need to get out more.
Let me be clear, whether they are male or female HAS ZERO influence over this story. I mean that insofar as the story could be just as compelling with a 3:1 male ratio as it can be with a 3:1 female ratio. Perhaps Wizards will explain the lopsided genders. Perhaps they won't. But the fact is, if they choose not to, then it wouldn't pull away from the story at all. In fact, why are you even counting? Why does it matter at all? I'm far from a social justice warrior. I'm not arguing that everything should be equal or that it should be lopsided one way or another. What I am arguing is that it has no bearing on the effectiveness of this story so you have no reason to be out there looking for something to pick at. It's absolutely ludicrous that this discussion even exists.
You're correct that it doesn't really affect the story. I just made the observation that the gender balance was a little off compared to real-world influences these pirates are clearly based on. Someone asked me why Ixalan's pirates would have to be the same way as real-world pirates, and I explained why. I'm not going to let it ruin the story for me, it's just a minor nitpick that I'm explaining my reasoning for.
And for the love of all that is good, can people PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, STOP thinking that this fantasy story needs to directly and accurately
reflect our history?!
It doesn't need to be a perfect reflection of history (obviously) but when we see pirates based on the 1500s showing an attitude towards gender roles from the 2000s, it's just a little strange. Yes, there's magic and dinosaurs on this world, but none of that would really affect how strong sexism is in that type of society. Age of Exploration pirates are Age of Exploration pirates, so seeing them being inexplicably progressive with regard to gender roles is a little odd and something for which an explanation might be nice.
It is inspired by tropes from our history.
There are a lot more tropes of male pirate captains from history than female ones, so even if they're aiming for the trope-based pop culture version of history they still aren't doing it very well in this regard. It's not like every captain has to be male by any means, but making them all female is really pushing it in my opinion.
This is not a story about the pirates that roamed the sea of earth, it is not about the meso-American people, and it has NOTHING to do with the dinosaurs that roamed the earth up to 65 million years ago.It is its OWN story in its OWN setting simply inspired by what we know as ALL STORIES SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME HAVE BEEN. Every story we tell is inspired by our experiences and learnings.
Which is exactly why having so many female captains feels so wrong. Our "experiences and learnings" tell us that pirates during the Age of Exploration were quite sexist and that their leadership positions were male-dominated, so when they not only ignore that but showcase the exact opposite, it's going to make people scratch their heads at the very least.
This is not the product for historically accurate ANYHING. Once you start realizing that, maybe, juuuusst maybe, you can enjoy the product and story for what it is and stop trying to find crap to be disappointed about.
If you look at the original post you'll see that the overall post was mostly positive, and I even explained how having a lot of female pirates actually made sense based on what we know about the world. My only complaint was that so many pirate captains being female was a little off-putting, which is of course the only part that people are focusing on now.
lol "sexism" - Sultai's post isn't sexist at all. Women cannot be as physically strong as their male counterparts. Their upkeep, especially every month, even more so if pregnant, is hindering to being out on high seas like that. And a woman on a ship with deprived men is a recipe for disaster. Men don't get ahead because they're superior, it's just a logistics thing. Here I can see WOTC wants representation. My issue with equal representation is it makes women less special. Usually, when a woman is a leader (like Queen Miralda for example) in a man's world, I always think to myself damn, she made it to the top in a male-dominated world, and I'm compelled to know more. For me it actually detracts not to have more scarcity. In history the women who defied the odds and made it to the top are always the most interesting, such as Queen Elizabeth being a more powerful monarch than any Tutor men. Here, that appeal feels cheapened "eh, so it's a female ruler in a world where women in leader roles is ubiquitous - and lately, the status quo"
What's sexist to me is hemorrhaging out female characters to get even by the same means. Just to get numbers? Seems disingenuous to me. Look at the native PWs lately from the past several worlds. Not that I mind, but it's pretty transparent. Yet people still complain. Don't even get me started on how people on Blogatog want Maro to be aware of every gender term they identify with.
At least the sexism debate is better than the stupid race/history debate from a few pages ago that made me cringe. I can't believe some of the things people were saying. Quit buying into propaganda and being media sheep by taking everything at face value. I blame the mods for allowing the bait to stay fresh for so long and banning anyone who takes it.
On the bright side - I love Ixalan. It's finally what I've been asking for - a relatively peaceful exploration story that takes a survey of the natural world and its denizens and showcases them all on cards. Not apocalyptic wastelands and war scenes everywhere in a dismal trash heap of world. Cynthia Shepherd took the art in a very welcoming vibrant direction too. Plane is gorgeous and the story is refreshing and equally compelling.
Yeah, basically this. Especially the part about how a female leader in a male-dominated world actually sends a much stronger message. When every world is as progressive as our world, it's kind of diminishes the importance of the individual female leaders. Vraska and perhaps one other female captain being captains would be a lot more interesting and impressive if there weren't female captains all over the place. I think a world where a few women manage to overcome the sexism of their time and take leadership roles is much, much more interesting than a world where there are female captains everywhere because these 16th-century pirates have modern views on gender for no discernable reason. Obviously there is a time and a place for progressive, modern/post-modern societies in Magic, Kaladesh and Ravnica being perfect examples, but Ixalan doesn't seem like the place for it.
Ok, enough about that, time for the actual story. Story was pretty good overall. Jarad being retconned into a villain annoys me. Vraska has gone from anti-hero to villain to anti-hero again. I’d like to see a character I actually like join the Gatewatch, so I kind of hope she replaces Liliana as the token anti-hero on the team. Vraska admitting that her plan to use Jace on Ravnica was clumsy, which seems like they’re admitting it wasn’t the best writing. I’m noticing a trend of them mocking their own writing and characters, between this, Jace’s self-depreciating humor, and of course, Bolas criticizing the Gatewatch. I like that they’re actually willing to point out the flaws in their own story rather than just repeating that “Gatewatch is great and everyone loves them”. Not taking themselves so seriously and making fun of themselves means that those of us who aren’t big fans of the Gatewatch or the modern style of story can still enjoy the writing quite a bit.
Bolas being able to info dump people is actually a pretty cool power, but of course you have to wonder why he hasn’t used it on his minions before. You also have to wonder why Bolas doesn’t simply mind control other planeswalkers instead of letting them retain their free will and potentially stop helping him or even work against him later. We’ve already seen this happen with Sarkhan, and both Tezzeret and Vraska have demonstrated a desire to not stay loyal to Bolas forever, and Bolas even knows that in both cases. Even if the writers don’t want Bolas to completely dominate those characters’ minds, they could at least have him use some sort of mental failsafe to prevent them from betraying him, like what he does on Tezzeret in Test of Metal (which has sadly also been retconned).
Bolas sending an associate to help Vraska is interesting of course. Here’s a crazy conspiracy theory that’s probably wrong: what if Bolas sent Jace as his “associate”? Jace had been a castaway for a long time when Vraska found him, so it’s entirely possible that Bolas didn’t enlist Vraska until after defeating Jace. Since Jace planeswalked away while Bolas was in his mind, it’s also entirely possible that Bolas influenced where Jace planeswalked to. And since Bolas’s explanation to Vraska was a flashback, we don’t for sure that she hasn’t used the device to call for the associate already. So what if instead of calling some planeswalker from across the multiverse, instead it changed the direction of Vraska’s compass (which she even said kept changing direction and pointed away from where they were supposed to go), causing it to temporarily point towards Jace instead of Orazca, thus explaining how Vraska somehow found Jace’s island in the middle of a giant ocean. Bolas, of course, knew that Jace would be there because he sent Jace there himself. And since Bolas claims that the Gatewatch are his pawns, what better way to show him actually using a Gatewatch member that way?
Yeah, there’s probably no way that this is correct, but it’s fun to speculate. More realistic predictions would probably be Ral Zarek, Tezzeret, and maybe Dovin Baan.
Jace has apparently been on Ixalan for 40 days:
The galley around them dissolved. Vraska remained seated in her chair, but now sat in a grove of bamboo taller than the masts of her ship. Jace sat in his chair, eyes aglow, and began an illusory summary of his last forty days.
Vraska's been there for at least 60 days, but likely longer:
She had spent the prior months assembling her crew.
So Vraska's been there longer.
The general timeline seems to be:
1) Flashbacks of Vraska and Marizek chatting; Pride of the Kraul
2) Meditation realm flashback, Vraska walks to Ixalan and starts gathering her crew; The Talented Captain Vraska
3) Marizek carries out his assassination and starts his power play; Pride of the Kraul
4) Gathewatch gets owned by Bolas and Jace ends up on Ixalan
5) Jace's story on Useless Island; Jace, Alone
6) The rest of The Talented Captain Vraska
I think the other Bolas agent will either be Tezzeret, as the story implies that Vraska will need the Planar Bridge to move the Immortal Sun (the likely macguffin) off-world. Or less likely Ral, assuming Ral's assignment was related to rebuilding/powering the Planar Bridge from the core that Tezzeret was able to acquire.
Good to know. Like I said, it was a pretty dumb theory in the first place so I was expecting to be proven wrong. Although it would have been nice to get an explanation for once of how planeswalkers always manage to run into each other by coinicidence.
And yeah, Tezzeret seems pretty likely at this point. He may or may not get a card in Rivals if he does make an appearance, this Angrath, Ugin, possibly Ajani, and an agent of Bolas are all competing for two planeswalker spots. We'll have to wait and see what happens I guess.
This story really has me hoping that Vraska joins the Gatewatch. She IS way more likable as a black-aligned character than Liliana, especially after Lili's little stunt during the Hours.
The strongest black element of Vraska's personality is the "by any means necessary." She still has a sense of justice/morality, she's just willing to do whatever it takes to effect that justice. That's been an element missing from the Gatewatch dynamic from the start (Liliana is certainly willing to do anything to achieve her goals, but she doesn't have any particularly strong convictions aside from keeping herself alive and doing what she wants). Vraska's presence in the Gatewatch would set up some very interesting moral dilemmas between the characters that should make for good reading.
Like I said, she'd basically be playing Wolverine's role on the X-Men and Avengers: the one who is willing to cross lines the others wouldn't cross and get his/her hands dirty for the greater good. Lili couldn't fill that role because her motivations were purely selfish. To keep the comic book trope running, Lili is more like when Lex Luthor joined the Justice League.
and hey, here's another Wolverine trope we'd get: a love triangle! well, if Vraska and Jace ever get out of the friendzone. Wolvie had a thing for a certain telepath that had a significant other, we could see a similar situation with Vraska, Jace and Lili.
also about Vraska: I like how they handled her stone gaze. the fact that she can't just use her stone gaze wily-nily is a good way to keep her from being overpowered. I think they need to put more of a limitation on it than just "needing to be charged," but it's better than nothing.
Human Sacrifice is "A tired old trope." and CRAPPY LOVECRAFT RIPOFFS ARE NOT?
To be fair, Emrakul's version of the Eldrazi in Eldritch Moon was (IMO) how the Eldrazi should have always been done (both in terms of flavour and gameplay), but yeah Lovecraft has been a tad overused.
Nah, Emrakul was stapled onto the plane after they decided to move onto the two block format and couldn't get all 3 into Battle for Zendikar, it was a dumb move, ruined the "mystery" since everyone guessed it from the start and pretty much doomed a plane that WAS interesting because at some point they are going to have to revisit "We stuffed Emrakul in a Fridge Moon" at some point.
Dime Store Lovecraft Ripoffs are terrible 99% of the time and authors need to stop doing them.
It would have worked better if they did it the other way around.
One of the reasons why it was so obvious we'd see Emrakul again was rather than letting Eldrazi be a hidden evil we just spent a block dealing with them. Rise of the Eldrazi was nearly 10 years ago and many players only knew of them as either game ending monstrosities or weird cards whose dumb mana costs the lold at on gatherer. If you do Innistrad first then players get to see one of these titanic maddening beasts and then go to the plane where they come from. Instead you introduce players to two thirds of a trio and then take them to a place where everything is twisted and going mad. What do you mean it looks like the last block? Shhh, don't spoil the "mystery"!
If it was a completely fantastical world, then sure. Same goes for the more science fiction-based worlds, because it makes sense for them to be more progressive. But when a world borrows very heavily from elements of a time period in our past, it's natural to assume that everything not explicitly different is about the same as was on Earth during that time. In Ixalan's case, it's based on about the 1500s, so while things that are obviously departures from that are fine (dinosaurs, vampires, magic), we kind of expect other things to line up with the time period. Even if it was just Vraska (whose species should make it easy to assume leadership regardless of gender roles) and one other female planebound captain, it wouldn't seem that out of place, but virtually every pirate with a leadership role is female, which has no basis in the actual history that Ixalan is based on.
On a different world with pirates that's heavier on fantasy or sci-fi than Ixalan, I wouldn't have a problem, but on a world where the pirates are based on real-world pirates from the real-world age of exploration, it just feels a bit off. It's so much that the pirates aren't sexist enough, because they did remove some of the more negative real-world aspects from all factions (like human sacrifice), it's just that real-world legendary pirates were almost invariably male, so not having a single one with a card in Ixalan doesn't feel very true to the source material. I guess there will be Angrath in the next set, but that's still a 3:1 ratio in favor of women (if not 4:1 or 5:1 since if we get more pirate legends in Rivals they will most likely be Vance and/or Parrish), when it should be 50/50 at the best if they're trying to be even a little historically accurate.
I honestly can't stand this kind of commentary. It's this kind of discussion that keeps sexism alive and strong.
Pretty sure it's the actual sexists who are keeping sexism alive and strong. If you think this is sexism, you need to get out more.
Let me be clear, whether they are male or female HAS ZERO influence over this story. I mean that insofar as the story could be just as compelling with a 3:1 male ratio as it can be with a 3:1 female ratio. Perhaps Wizards will explain the lopsided genders. Perhaps they won't. But the fact is, if they choose not to, then it wouldn't pull away from the story at all. In fact, why are you even counting? Why does it matter at all? I'm far from a social justice warrior. I'm not arguing that everything should be equal or that it should be lopsided one way or another. What I am arguing is that it has no bearing on the effectiveness of this story so you have no reason to be out there looking for something to pick at. It's absolutely ludicrous that this discussion even exists.
You're correct that it doesn't really affect the story. I just made the observation that the gender balance was a little off compared to real-world influences these pirates are clearly based on. Someone asked me why Ixalan's pirates would have to be the same way as real-world pirates, and I explained why. I'm not going to let it ruin the story for me, it's just a minor nitpick that I'm explaining my reasoning for.
And for the love of all that is good, can people PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, STOP thinking that this fantasy story needs to directly and accurately
reflect our history?!
It doesn't need to be a perfect reflection of history (obviously) but when we see pirates based on the 1500s showing an attitude towards gender roles from the 2000s, it's just a little strange. Yes, there's magic and dinosaurs on this world, but none of that would really affect how strong sexism is in that type of society. Age of Exploration pirates are Age of Exploration pirates, so seeing them being inexplicably progressive with regard to gender roles is a little odd and something for which an explanation might be nice.
It is inspired by tropes from our history.
There are a lot more tropes of male pirate captains from history than female ones, so even if they're aiming for the trope-based pop culture version of history they still aren't doing it very well in this regard. It's not like every captain has to be male by any means, but making them all female is really pushing it in my opinion.
This is not a story about the pirates that roamed the sea of earth, it is not about the meso-American people, and it has NOTHING to do with the dinosaurs that roamed the earth up to 65 million years ago.It is its OWN story in its OWN setting simply inspired by what we know as ALL STORIES SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME HAVE BEEN. Every story we tell is inspired by our experiences and learnings.
Which is exactly why having so many female captains feels so wrong. Our "experiences and learnings" tell us that pirates during the Age of Exploration were quite sexist and that their leadership positions were male-dominated, so when they not only ignore that but showcase the exact opposite, it's going to make people scratch their heads at the very least.
This is not the product for historically accurate ANYHING. Once you start realizing that, maybe, juuuusst maybe, you can enjoy the product and story for what it is and stop trying to find crap to be disappointed about.
If you look at the original post you'll see that the overall post was mostly positive, and I even explained how having a lot of female pirates actually made sense based on what we know about the world. My only complaint was that so many pirate captains being female was a little off-putting, which is of course the only part that people are focusing on now.
lol "sexism" - Sultai's post isn't sexist at all. Women cannot be as physically strong as their male counterparts. Their upkeep, especially every month, even more so if pregnant, is hindering to being out on high seas like that. And a woman on a ship with deprived men is a recipe for disaster. Men don't get ahead because they're superior, it's just a logistics thing. Here I can see WOTC wants representation. My issue with equal representation is it makes women less special. Usually, when a woman is a leader (like Queen Miralda for example) in a man's world, I always think to myself damn, she made it to the top in a male-dominated world, and I'm compelled to know more. For me it actually detracts not to have more scarcity. In history the women who defied the odds and made it to the top are always the most interesting, such as Queen Elizabeth being a more powerful monarch than any Tutor men. Here, that appeal feels cheapened "eh, so it's a female ruler in a world where women in leader roles is ubiquitous - and lately, the status quo"
What's sexist to me is hemorrhaging out female characters to get even by the same means. Just to get numbers? Seems disingenuous to me. Look at the native PWs lately from the past several worlds. Not that I mind, but it's pretty transparent. Yet people still complain. Don't even get me started on how people on Blogatog want Maro to be aware of every gender term they identify with.
At least the sexism debate is better than the stupid race/history debate from a few pages ago that made me cringe. I can't believe some of the things people were saying. Quit buying into propaganda and being media sheep by taking everything at face value. I blame the mods for allowing the bait to stay fresh for so long and banning anyone who takes it.
On the bright side - I love Ixalan. It's finally what I've been asking for - a relatively peaceful exploration story that takes a survey of the natural world and its denizens and showcases them all on cards. Not apocalyptic wastelands and war scenes everywhere in a dismal trash heap of world. Cynthia Shepherd took the art in a very welcoming vibrant direction too. Plane is gorgeous and the story is refreshing and equally compelling.
Yeah, basically this. Especially the part about how a female leader in a male-dominated world actually sends a much stronger message. When every world is as progressive as our world, it's kind of diminishes the importance of the individual female leaders. Vraska and perhaps one other female captain being captains would be a lot more interesting and impressive if there weren't female captains all over the place. I think a world where a few women manage to overcome the sexism of their time and take leadership roles is much, much more interesting than a world where there are female captains everywhere because these 16th-century pirates have modern views on gender for no discernable reason. Obviously there is a time and a place for progressive, modern/post-modern societies in Magic, Kaladesh and Ravnica being perfect examples, but Ixalan doesn't seem like the place for it.
Ok, enough about that, time for the actual story. Story was pretty good overall. Jarad being retconned into a villain annoys me. Vraska has gone from anti-hero to villain to anti-hero again. I’d like to see a character I actually like join the Gatewatch, so I kind of hope she replaces Liliana as the token anti-hero on the team. Vraska admitting that her plan to use Jace on Ravnica was clumsy, which seems like they’re admitting it wasn’t the best writing. I’m noticing a trend of them mocking their own writing and characters, between this, Jace’s self-depreciating humor, and of course, Bolas criticizing the Gatewatch. I like that they’re actually willing to point out the flaws in their own story rather than just repeating that “Gatewatch is great and everyone loves them”. Not taking themselves so seriously and making fun of themselves means that those of us who aren’t big fans of the Gatewatch or the modern style of story can still enjoy the writing quite a bit.
Bolas being able to info dump people is actually a pretty cool power, but of course you have to wonder why he hasn’t used it on his minions before. You also have to wonder why Bolas doesn’t simply mind control other planeswalkers instead of letting them retain their free will and potentially stop helping him or even work against him later. We’ve already seen this happen with Sarkhan, and both Tezzeret and Vraska have demonstrated a desire to not stay loyal to Bolas forever, and Bolas even knows that in both cases. Even if the writers don’t want Bolas to completely dominate those characters’ minds, they could at least have him use some sort of mental failsafe to prevent them from betraying him, like what he does on Tezzeret in Test of Metal (which has sadly also been retconned).
Bolas sending an associate to help Vraska is interesting of course. Here’s a crazy conspiracy theory that’s probably wrong: what if Bolas sent Jace as his “associate”? Jace had been a castaway for a long time when Vraska found him, so it’s entirely possible that Bolas didn’t enlist Vraska until after defeating Jace. Since Jace planeswalked away while Bolas was in his mind, it’s also entirely possible that Bolas influenced where Jace planeswalked to. And since Bolas’s explanation to Vraska was a flashback, we don’t for sure that she hasn’t used the device to call for the associate already. So what if instead of calling some planeswalker from across the multiverse, instead it changed the direction of Vraska’s compass (which she even said kept changing direction and pointed away from where they were supposed to go), causing it to temporarily point towards Jace instead of Orazca, thus explaining how Vraska somehow found Jace’s island in the middle of a giant ocean. Bolas, of course, knew that Jace would be there because he sent Jace there himself. And since Bolas claims that the Gatewatch are his pawns, what better way to show him actually using a Gatewatch member that way?
Yeah, there’s probably no way that this is correct, but it’s fun to speculate. More realistic predictions would probably be Ral Zarek, Tezzeret, and maybe Dovin Baan.
Jace has apparently been on Ixalan for 40 days:
The galley around them dissolved. Vraska remained seated in her chair, but now sat in a grove of bamboo taller than the masts of her ship. Jace sat in his chair, eyes aglow, and began an illusory summary of his last forty days.
Vraska's been there for at least 60 days, but likely longer:
She had spent the prior months assembling her crew.
So Vraska's been there longer.
The general timeline seems to be:
1) Flashbacks of Vraska and Marizek chatting; Pride of the Kraul
2) Meditation realm flashback, Vraska walks to Ixalan and starts gathering her crew; The Talented Captain Vraska
3) Marizek carries out his assassination and starts his power play; Pride of the Kraul
4) Gathewatch gets owned by Bolas and Jace ends up on Ixalan
5) Jace's story on Useless Island; Jace, Alone
6) The rest of The Talented Captain Vraska
I think the other Bolas agent will either be Tezzeret, as the story implies that Vraska will need the Planar Bridge to move the Immortal Sun (the likely macguffin) off-world. Or less likely Ral, assuming Ral's assignment was related to rebuilding/powering the Planar Bridge from the core that Tezzeret was able to acquire.
Good to know. Like I said, it was a pretty dumb theory in the first place so I was expecting to be proven wrong. Although it would have been nice to get an explanation for once of how planeswalkers always manage to run into each other by coinicidence.
And yeah, Tezzeret seems pretty likely at this point. He may or may not get a card in Rivals if he does make an appearance, this Angrath, Ugin, possibly Ajani, and an agent of Bolas are all competing for two planeswalker spots. We'll have to wait and see what happens I guess.
I get the hints that Ugin might be involved with the Immortal Sun and other Ixalani phenomena, but when did we conclude that he'd get a card here, even if does show up?
Also, regarding the obviousness of Emrakul in Innistrad, while all the signs were there (to the point where people immediately suspected Emrakul when we were met with tentacles, lattice formations, Nahiri's disturbing synergy with Aeons Torn, the knowledge that she was originally intended to be in the third BFZ block set and the fact that she wasn't anywhere to be found on Zendikar), there was also a lot of "It can't possibly be Emrakul, because I hate Eldrazi/it must be Marit Lage/it must be the Stromkirk Sea God/etc." There was a mix of denial and ignorance going on where the clues were concerned, to the point where short of Emrakul actually being revealed, there were a few vocal individuals insisting that it couldn't possibly be her.
Human Sacrifice is "A tired old trope." and CRAPPY LOVECRAFT RIPOFFS ARE NOT?
To be fair, Emrakul's version of the Eldrazi in Eldritch Moon was (IMO) how the Eldrazi should have always been done (both in terms of flavour and gameplay), but yeah Lovecraft has been a tad overused.
Nah, Emrakul was stapled onto the plane after they decided to move onto the two block format and couldn't get all 3 into Battle for Zendikar, it was a dumb move, ruined the "mystery" since everyone guessed it from the start and pretty much doomed a plane that WAS interesting because at some point they are going to have to revisit "We stuffed Emrakul in a Fridge Moon" at some point.
Not really. Maro reveled they have meeting to have story draft brainstorm meetings to figure out what possible return block stories and mechanical themes they might wanna do and the most popular draft for Innistrad 2 was Emrakul showing up and adding in cosmic horror to the gothic horror themes (which I loved since cosmic horror was born out of gothic horror). This was shorty after the first Innistrad. Then when they shifted to the two block system and needed to cut a eldrazi titan they picked Emrakul since they already had the the story drafts of her showing up in Innistrad anyways. Emrakul was always planned for Innistrad 2.
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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"
Human Sacrifice is "A tired old trope." and CRAPPY LOVECRAFT RIPOFFS ARE NOT?
To be fair, Emrakul's version of the Eldrazi in Eldritch Moon was (IMO) how the Eldrazi should have always been done (both in terms of flavour and gameplay), but yeah Lovecraft has been a tad overused.
Nah, Emrakul was stapled onto the plane after they decided to move onto the two block format and couldn't get all 3 into Battle for Zendikar, it was a dumb move, ruined the "mystery" since everyone guessed it from the start and pretty much doomed a plane that WAS interesting because at some point they are going to have to revisit "We stuffed Emrakul in a Fridge Moon" at some point.
Not really. Maro reveled they have meeting to have story draft brainstorm meetings to figure out what possible return block stories and mechanical themes they might wanna do and the most popular draft for Innistrad 2 was Emrakul showing up and adding in cosmic horror to the gothic horror themes (which I loved since cosmic horror was born out of gothic horror). This was shorty after the first Innistrad. Then when they shifted to the two block system and needed to cut a eldrazi titan they picked Emrakul since they already had the the story drafts of her showing up in Innistrad anyways. Emrakul was always planned for Innistrad 2.
As far as I'm concerned, Innistrad should have been where they were introduced. Innistrad was always better-suited as a Lovecraft setting, and Emrakul's depiction there just confirms that to me.
Liliana can be pragmatic when she wants to, but Vraska puts her to shame completely in the department. I'm liking that Vraska is just tired of being shoehorned on Ravnica (especially when you can planeswalk) and is already desensitized (which is a huge contrast to a good portion of the Gatewatch) although her thoughts when with Bolas does show some inexperience (yeah, think about double-crossing when you clearly know you're currently being mind-read by a dragon)... or she's way desensitized to the point she doesn't care...
Although it's great to see Vraska get some characterization, I personally think this isn't one of the better stories (like some people already said some awkward phrasing/storytelling and as mentioned earlier, even Vraska's character isn't fully introduced here, we got some good snippets, but not the whole picture). The direction they're pointing Vraska towards is great, but the story itself is quite average to me.
It'll probably look better when we piece it together with either the entire Ixalan plot and/or Vraska's nature/overall plans later on, but as a standalone story it's just there. I probably shouldn't have too high expectations since we haven't even really got the plot proper, but even as an "appetizer" it doesn't really build my appetite for anything plot-related.
I liked the story. Interaction between Jace and Vraska is fun and its cool learning more about her character.
As for Bolas's agent, I'm hoping we finally see Ramaz in story. Although idk how we'll fit him in. I think Angrath is a lock and the leaked boosters suggest Ajani is in Rivals. That's 2 pw already in a small set. Although it leaves the option of 3 pw in a small set, a walker showing up in story but not in card form, or (plot twist) Ajani is Bolas's agent!!! (Jk bout that last one)
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My Decks:
UG Merfolk RG 8-Whack BWG Abzan midrange GRB Living End UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin" RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!" BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
I liked the story. Interaction between Jace and Vraska is fun and its cool learning more about her character.
As for Bolas's agent, I'm hoping we finally see Ramaz in story. Although idk how we'll fit him in. I think Angrath is a lock and the leaked boosters suggest Ajani is in Rivals. That's 2 pw already in a small set. Although it leaves the option of 3 pw in a small set, a walker showing up in story but not in card form, or (plot twist) Ajani is Bolas's agent!!! (Jk bout that last one)
Well no-one would see Ajani being Bolas's agent coming, that's for certain.
Ramaz is a possibility, and it'd be nice to have a card for him after all this time.
I predict that the planar bridge will be used to move the Immortal Sun off of Ixalan, which will remove the anti-planeswalking shield from the plane. I suspect that Bolas is planning to use it to lock in a different plane, so that no one can leave it without using his bridge. What plane could that be, though?
I predict that the planar bridge will be used to move the Immortal Sun off of Ixalan, which will remove the anti-planeswalking shield from the plane. I suspect that Bolas is planning to use it to lock in a different plane, so that no one can leave it without using his bridge. What plane could that be, though?
In other words, you think he'll use the wombo combo of the Sun and the Planar Bridge to hold planeswalkers on a plane of his choosing at ransom?
Considering it's a popular hub for planeswalkers, Ravnica perhaps?
Crazy speculation time: What if Bolas' contact is not one of Bolas contacts per se, but simply the planeswalker who set up the binding spell on Ixalan. Essentially the tugging spell Vraska would cast would be more like an alarm going off, making the other planeswalker return to Ixalan to see what's wrong, which is when Bolas will spring the trap, steal the immortal sun and leave ixalan as the other planeswalker is forced to lift the binding spell in order to escape himself.
And that planeswalker would be no other than...
Ugin!
Dun dun duuuun.
Yeah I dunno...
On another note I just wanted to take the moment that I'm loving male sirens in Ixalan. Now we just need non-androgynous male angels*, male gorgons and female demons and we're set.
*A race of androgynous-looking individuals is actually a pretty cool idea, but I don't think it fits for angels. The closest we have are the soratami.
The real question is... can a PW arrive at Orazca? Bolas's contact would presumably have to find it once arriving. Unless they have an artifact synched with Vraska's compass I suppose.
If the Sun is what's fueling the Binding, wouldn't removing it allow walkers to walk out of Ixalan?
Most likely. There's no way that they leave all these planeswalkers trapped at the end of the block, especially since Jace is one of them. It's kind of unfortunate to see them use up a cool plot element so quickly, since it would have been better utilized if they left a few planeswalkers trapped there until the return block on Ixalan, but they definitely have plans for Jace before then, and Vraska too. They're getting off the plane somehow, and the Immortal Sun probably has something to do with it.
I honestly can't stand this kind of commentary. It's this kind of discussion that keeps sexism alive and strong.
Pretty sure it's the actual sexists who are keeping sexism alive and strong. If you think this is sexism, you need to get out more.
Let me be clear, whether they are male or female HAS ZERO influence over this story. I mean that insofar as the story could be just as compelling with a 3:1 male ratio as it can be with a 3:1 female ratio. Perhaps Wizards will explain the lopsided genders. Perhaps they won't. But the fact is, if they choose not to, then it wouldn't pull away from the story at all. In fact, why are you even counting? Why does it matter at all? I'm far from a social justice warrior. I'm not arguing that everything should be equal or that it should be lopsided one way or another. What I am arguing is that it has no bearing on the effectiveness of this story so you have no reason to be out there looking for something to pick at. It's absolutely ludicrous that this discussion even exists.
You're correct that it doesn't really affect the story. I just made the observation that the gender balance was a little off compared to real-world influences these pirates are clearly based on. Someone asked me why Ixalan's pirates would have to be the same way as real-world pirates, and I explained why. I'm not going to let it ruin the story for me, it's just a minor nitpick that I'm explaining my reasoning for.
And for the love of all that is good, can people PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, STOP thinking that this fantasy story needs to directly and accurately
reflect our history?!
It doesn't need to be a perfect reflection of history (obviously) but when we see pirates based on the 1500s showing an attitude towards gender roles from the 2000s, it's just a little strange. Yes, there's magic and dinosaurs on this world, but none of that would really affect how strong sexism is in that type of society. Age of Exploration pirates are Age of Exploration pirates, so seeing them being inexplicably progressive with regard to gender roles is a little odd and something for which an explanation might be nice.
It is inspired by tropes from our history.
There are a lot more tropes of male pirate captains from history than female ones, so even if they're aiming for the trope-based pop culture version of history they still aren't doing it very well in this regard. It's not like every captain has to be male by any means, but making them all female is really pushing it in my opinion.
This is not a story about the pirates that roamed the sea of earth, it is not about the meso-American people, and it has NOTHING to do with the dinosaurs that roamed the earth up to 65 million years ago.It is its OWN story in its OWN setting simply inspired by what we know as ALL STORIES SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME HAVE BEEN. Every story we tell is inspired by our experiences and learnings.
Which is exactly why having so many female captains feels so wrong. Our "experiences and learnings" tell us that pirates during the Age of Exploration were quite sexist and that their leadership positions were male-dominated, so when they not only ignore that but showcase the exact opposite, it's going to make people scratch their heads at the very least.
This is not the product for historically accurate ANYHING. Once you start realizing that, maybe, juuuusst maybe, you can enjoy the product and story for what it is and stop trying to find crap to be disappointed about.
If you look at the original post you'll see that the overall post was mostly positive, and I even explained how having a lot of female pirates actually made sense based on what we know about the world. My only complaint was that so many pirate captains being female was a little off-putting, which is of course the only part that people are focusing on now.
lol "sexism" - Sultai's post isn't sexist at all. Women cannot be as physically strong as their male counterparts. Their upkeep, especially every month, even more so if pregnant, is hindering to being out on high seas like that. And a woman on a ship with deprived men is a recipe for disaster. Men don't get ahead because they're superior, it's just a logistics thing. Here I can see WOTC wants representation. My issue with equal representation is it makes women less special. Usually, when a woman is a leader (like Queen Miralda for example) in a man's world, I always think to myself damn, she made it to the top in a male-dominated world, and I'm compelled to know more. For me it actually detracts not to have more scarcity. In history the women who defied the odds and made it to the top are always the most interesting, such as Queen Elizabeth being a more powerful monarch than any Tutor men. Here, that appeal feels cheapened "eh, so it's a female ruler in a world where women in leader roles is ubiquitous - and lately, the status quo"
What's sexist to me is hemorrhaging out female characters to get even by the same means. Just to get numbers? Seems disingenuous to me. Look at the native PWs lately from the past several worlds. Not that I mind, but it's pretty transparent. Yet people still complain. Don't even get me started on how people on Blogatog want Maro to be aware of every gender term they identify with.
At least the sexism debate is better than the stupid race/history debate from a few pages ago that made me cringe. I can't believe some of the things people were saying. Quit buying into propaganda and being media sheep by taking everything at face value. I blame the mods for allowing the bait to stay fresh for so long and banning anyone who takes it.
On the bright side - I love Ixalan. It's finally what I've been asking for - a relatively peaceful exploration story that takes a survey of the natural world and its denizens and showcases them all on cards. Not apocalyptic wastelands and war scenes everywhere in a dismal trash heap of world. Cynthia Shepherd took the art in a very welcoming vibrant direction too. Plane is gorgeous and the story is refreshing and equally compelling.
Yeah, basically this. Especially the part about how a female leader in a male-dominated world actually sends a much stronger message. When every world is as progressive as our world, it's kind of diminishes the importance of the individual female leaders. Vraska and perhaps one other female captain being captains would be a lot more interesting and impressive if there weren't female captains all over the place. I think a world where a few women manage to overcome the sexism of their time and take leadership roles is much, much more interesting than a world where there are female captains everywhere because these 16th-century pirates have modern views on gender for no discernable reason. Obviously there is a time and a place for progressive, modern/post-modern societies in Magic, Kaladesh and Ravnica being perfect examples, but Ixalan doesn't seem like the place for it.
Ok, enough about that, time for the actual story. Story was pretty good overall. Jarad being retconned into a villain annoys me. Vraska has gone from anti-hero to villain to anti-hero again. I’d like to see a character I actually like join the Gatewatch, so I kind of hope she replaces Liliana as the token anti-hero on the team. Vraska admitting that her plan to use Jace on Ravnica was clumsy, which seems like they’re admitting it wasn’t the best writing. I’m noticing a trend of them mocking their own writing and characters, between this, Jace’s self-depreciating humor, and of course, Bolas criticizing the Gatewatch. I like that they’re actually willing to point out the flaws in their own story rather than just repeating that “Gatewatch is great and everyone loves them”. Not taking themselves so seriously and making fun of themselves means that those of us who aren’t big fans of the Gatewatch or the modern style of story can still enjoy the writing quite a bit.
Bolas being able to info dump people is actually a pretty cool power, but of course you have to wonder why he hasn’t used it on his minions before. You also have to wonder why Bolas doesn’t simply mind control other planeswalkers instead of letting them retain their free will and potentially stop helping him or even work against him later. We’ve already seen this happen with Sarkhan, and both Tezzeret and Vraska have demonstrated a desire to not stay loyal to Bolas forever, and Bolas even knows that in both cases. Even if the writers don’t want Bolas to completely dominate those characters’ minds, they could at least have him use some sort of mental failsafe to prevent them from betraying him, like what he does on Tezzeret in Test of Metal (which has sadly also been retconned).
Bolas sending an associate to help Vraska is interesting of course. Here’s a crazy conspiracy theory that’s probably wrong: what if Bolas sent Jace as his “associate”? Jace had been a castaway for a long time when Vraska found him, so it’s entirely possible that Bolas didn’t enlist Vraska until after defeating Jace. Since Jace planeswalked away while Bolas was in his mind, it’s also entirely possible that Bolas influenced where Jace planeswalked to. And since Bolas’s explanation to Vraska was a flashback, we don’t for sure that she hasn’t used the device to call for the associate already. So what if instead of calling some planeswalker from across the multiverse, instead it changed the direction of Vraska’s compass (which she even said kept changing direction and pointed away from where they were supposed to go), causing it to temporarily point towards Jace instead of Orazca, thus explaining how Vraska somehow found Jace’s island in the middle of a giant ocean. Bolas, of course, knew that Jace would be there because he sent Jace there himself. And since Bolas claims that the Gatewatch are his pawns, what better way to show him actually using a Gatewatch member that way?
Yeah, there’s probably no way that this is correct, but it’s fun to speculate. More realistic predictions would probably be Ral Zarek, Tezzeret, and maybe Dovin Baan.
Jace has apparently been on Ixalan for 40 days:
The galley around them dissolved. Vraska remained seated in her chair, but now sat in a grove of bamboo taller than the masts of her ship. Jace sat in his chair, eyes aglow, and began an illusory summary of his last forty days.
Vraska's been there for at least 60 days, but likely longer:
She had spent the prior months assembling her crew.
So Vraska's been there longer.
The general timeline seems to be:
1) Flashbacks of Vraska and Marizek chatting; Pride of the Kraul
2) Meditation realm flashback, Vraska walks to Ixalan and starts gathering her crew; The Talented Captain Vraska
3) Marizek carries out his assassination and starts his power play; Pride of the Kraul
4) Gathewatch gets owned by Bolas and Jace ends up on Ixalan
5) Jace's story on Useless Island; Jace, Alone
6) The rest of The Talented Captain Vraska
I think the other Bolas agent will either be Tezzeret, as the story implies that Vraska will need the Planar Bridge to move the Immortal Sun (the likely macguffin) off-world. Or less likely Ral, assuming Ral's assignment was related to rebuilding/powering the Planar Bridge from the core that Tezzeret was able to acquire.
Good to know. Like I said, it was a pretty dumb theory in the first place so I was expecting to be proven wrong. Although it would have been nice to get an explanation for once of how planeswalkers always manage to run into each other by coinicidence.
And yeah, Tezzeret seems pretty likely at this point. He may or may not get a card in Rivals if he does make an appearance, this Angrath, Ugin, possibly Ajani, and an agent of Bolas are all competing for two planeswalker spots. We'll have to wait and see what happens I guess.
I get the hints that Ugin might be involved with the Immortal Sun and other Ixalani phenomena, but when did we conclude that he'd get a card here, even if does show up?
Much like Tezzeret (or pretty much anyone else besides Angrath), Ugin definitely doesn't have to get a card even if makes an appearance. While there's basically no way that they don't give a card to Angrath, the other planeswalker card in Rivals is a toss-up between a bunch of other characters who could appear, Ugin being only one of them.
Also, regarding the obviousness of Emrakul in Innistrad, while all the signs were there (to the point where people immediately suspected Emrakul when we were met with tentacles, lattice formations, Nahiri's disturbing synergy with Aeons Torn, the knowledge that she was originally intended to be in the third BFZ block set and the fact that she wasn't anywhere to be found on Zendikar), there was also a lot of "It can't possibly be Emrakul, because I hate Eldrazi/it must be Marit Lage/it must be the Stromkirk Sea God/etc." There was a mix of denial and ignorance going on where the clues were concerned, to the point where short of Emrakul actually being revealed, there were a few vocal individuals insisting that it couldn't possibly be her.
Lol, my logic for thinking it was something other than Emrakul early on in SOI was that the writers were deliberately trying to throw us off. I thought that WotC’s creative department would be able to tell a mystery story at least as well as your average episode of Scooby Doo. Evidently, I was wrong.
I liked the story. Interaction between Jace and Vraska is fun and its cool learning more about her character.
As for Bolas's agent, I'm hoping we finally see Ramaz in story. Although idk how we'll fit him in. I think Angrath is a lock and the leaked boosters suggest Ajani is in Rivals. That's 2 pw already in a small set. Although it leaves the option of 3 pw in a small set, a walker showing up in story but not in card form, or (plot twist) Ajani is Bolas's agent!!! (Jk bout that last one)
The art on the other leaked booster for Rivals was Huatli’s art from her planeswalker card in Ixalan, so the art doesn’t necessarily line up with the real set that is the equivalent of the fake set for the packaging test. As such, I think that the Ajani art might be not for Rivals, but for Dominaria. Kaladesh clearly set up Ajani going to Dominaria for allies while we’ve seen nothing to suggest that Ajani would go to Ixalan. He didn’t even know that the rest of the team went to fight Bolas, so he might not even know that they were defeated. Even if he does know that, how would he know where Jace is? Even if he knows where Jace is, how would he find a hidden plane like Ixalan? Plus there are several other planeswalkers that might need cards in Rivals, whereas Dominaria’s planeswalker spots are pretty much completely open aside from Liliana almost certainly being there.
The only thing we can really be sure of is Angrath getting a card. There’s no way that they don’t give him one. It’s probably BR (there’s a shortage of black planeswalkers in Kaladesh/Amonkhet/Ixalan standard); I suppose it could be mono-red but probably only if the other planeswalker is partially black (meaning Tezzeret most likely). I won’t rule Ajani or Ugin out completely, but unless they do something really unexpected with who Bolas’s associate is (like it being someone already on the plane, like Angrath) or they really downplay the Bolas agent’s role in the story (similar to Tezzeret only showing up at the end of Amonkhet), it seems pretty unlikely that they would not give the Bolas agent a card.
The real question is... can a PW arrive at Orazca? Bolas's contact would presumably have to find it once arriving. Unless they have an artifact synched with Vraska's compass I suppose.
Pretty sure thats the point of Bolas sending Vraska to Orazca to cast the spell to call his agent.
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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"
I like strong female characters, what I don't like is when writers portray them too frequently like typical macho Hollywood heroes: Fighters, badass, don't give a frack about oppositions, sexual, etc. While the above traits were all doable, they are also very boring and cater towards masculinity > femininity mentality. Look at Captain Janeway from Start Trek, Queen Victoria, Princess Diana, Oracle from Batman, you CAN be a dominating presence with poise, wisdom, and femininity.
That said, I'm happy to see how Vraska portrayed was here. The way she became the matron for her crew, pondered her options, honor before killing, all the while described Jace "like a puppy" and served him sugar tea, stood out way more than her ability to afflict violence. This is how good female characters, nay, how good fantasy characters should be directed, who they are UNDER their sexuality, appearances, and fighting skills.
As to whether or not females could physically handle the high sea, there were records of great female warriors all over the world before silly patriarchy put a roadblock down. Yes, they could be pirates.
At this juncture I'd be surprised if the Agent is someone other than Tezzeret. Is playing the role of head-henchman to Bolas's Bond villian. I doubt he'll get a card. What will be interesting is seeing his interaction with memory-wiped Jace; does Tezz know this heading in?
I think what I like most of all about Ixalan is that it's a backwater plane, which can be kinda fun between visiting Bolas World and Center of the Multiverse world.
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Wizards. listen. The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
The real question is... can a PW arrive at Orazca? Bolas's contact would presumably have to find it once arriving. Unless they have an artifact synched with Vraska's compass I suppose.
Pretty sure thats the point of Bolas sending Vraska to Orazca to cast the spell to call his agent.
So it'll take some time for the agent to catch up with her, presumably. Unless of course the spell identifies Orazca's location to walk directly to it. If possible?
Self interest does not necessarily mean selfishness, but Black believes that there is only one person who can make your life better: And that is yourself. I did not mean to imply that Vraska doesn't care about others, as clearly she sees them as kin, but not because of any sort of obligation, but simply because subconsciously she sees in them parts of herself and that's why she cares.
At least, that's how it looks to me.
Good to know. Like I said, it was a pretty dumb theory in the first place so I was expecting to be proven wrong. Although it would have been nice to get an explanation for once of how planeswalkers always manage to run into each other by coinicidence.
And yeah, Tezzeret seems pretty likely at this point. He may or may not get a card in Rivals if he does make an appearance, this Angrath, Ugin, possibly Ajani, and an agent of Bolas are all competing for two planeswalker spots. We'll have to wait and see what happens I guess.
Edit 40 Days? Latvia must be having an absolute break down by now.
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
Like I said, she'd basically be playing Wolverine's role on the X-Men and Avengers: the one who is willing to cross lines the others wouldn't cross and get his/her hands dirty for the greater good. Lili couldn't fill that role because her motivations were purely selfish. To keep the comic book trope running, Lili is more like when Lex Luthor joined the Justice League.
and hey, here's another Wolverine trope we'd get: a love triangle! well, if Vraska and Jace ever get out of the friendzone. Wolvie had a thing for a certain telepath that had a significant other, we could see a similar situation with Vraska, Jace and Lili.
also about Vraska: I like how they handled her stone gaze. the fact that she can't just use her stone gaze wily-nily is a good way to keep her from being overpowered. I think they need to put more of a limitation on it than just "needing to be charged," but it's better than nothing.
Click the pic for more info.
It would have worked better if they did it the other way around.
One of the reasons why it was so obvious we'd see Emrakul again was rather than letting Eldrazi be a hidden evil we just spent a block dealing with them. Rise of the Eldrazi was nearly 10 years ago and many players only knew of them as either game ending monstrosities or weird cards whose dumb mana costs the lold at on gatherer. If you do Innistrad first then players get to see one of these titanic maddening beasts and then go to the plane where they come from. Instead you introduce players to two thirds of a trio and then take them to a place where everything is twisted and going mad. What do you mean it looks like the last block? Shhh, don't spoil the "mystery"!
I get the hints that Ugin might be involved with the Immortal Sun and other Ixalani phenomena, but when did we conclude that he'd get a card here, even if does show up?
Also, regarding the obviousness of Emrakul in Innistrad, while all the signs were there (to the point where people immediately suspected Emrakul when we were met with tentacles, lattice formations, Nahiri's disturbing synergy with Aeons Torn, the knowledge that she was originally intended to be in the third BFZ block set and the fact that she wasn't anywhere to be found on Zendikar), there was also a lot of "It can't possibly be Emrakul, because I hate Eldrazi/it must be Marit Lage/it must be the Stromkirk Sea God/etc." There was a mix of denial and ignorance going on where the clues were concerned, to the point where short of Emrakul actually being revealed, there were a few vocal individuals insisting that it couldn't possibly be her.
Not really. Maro reveled they have meeting to have story draft brainstorm meetings to figure out what possible return block stories and mechanical themes they might wanna do and the most popular draft for Innistrad 2 was Emrakul showing up and adding in cosmic horror to the gothic horror themes (which I loved since cosmic horror was born out of gothic horror). This was shorty after the first Innistrad. Then when they shifted to the two block system and needed to cut a eldrazi titan they picked Emrakul since they already had the the story drafts of her showing up in Innistrad anyways. Emrakul was always planned for Innistrad 2.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
As far as I'm concerned, Innistrad should have been where they were introduced. Innistrad was always better-suited as a Lovecraft setting, and Emrakul's depiction there just confirms that to me.
Although it's great to see Vraska get some characterization, I personally think this isn't one of the better stories (like some people already said some awkward phrasing/storytelling and as mentioned earlier, even Vraska's character isn't fully introduced here, we got some good snippets, but not the whole picture). The direction they're pointing Vraska towards is great, but the story itself is quite average to me.
It'll probably look better when we piece it together with either the entire Ixalan plot and/or Vraska's nature/overall plans later on, but as a standalone story it's just there. I probably shouldn't have too high expectations since we haven't even really got the plot proper, but even as an "appetizer" it doesn't really build my appetite for anything plot-related.
As for Bolas's agent, I'm hoping we finally see Ramaz in story. Although idk how we'll fit him in. I think Angrath is a lock and the leaked boosters suggest Ajani is in Rivals. That's 2 pw already in a small set. Although it leaves the option of 3 pw in a small set, a walker showing up in story but not in card form, or (plot twist) Ajani is Bolas's agent!!! (Jk bout that last one)
RG 8-Whack
BWG Abzan midrange
GRB Living End
UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin"
RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!"
BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
Well no-one would see Ajani being Bolas's agent coming, that's for certain.
Ramaz is a possibility, and it'd be nice to have a card for him after all this time.
In other words, you think he'll use the wombo combo of the Sun and the Planar Bridge to hold planeswalkers on a plane of his choosing at ransom?
Considering it's a popular hub for planeswalkers, Ravnica perhaps?
And that planeswalker would be no other than...
Ugin!
Dun dun duuuun.
Yeah I dunno...
On another note I just wanted to take the moment that I'm loving male sirens in Ixalan. Now we just need non-androgynous male angels*, male gorgons and female demons and we're set.
*A race of androgynous-looking individuals is actually a pretty cool idea, but I don't think it fits for angels. The closest we have are the soratami.
|| 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 ||
Most likely. There's no way that they leave all these planeswalkers trapped at the end of the block, especially since Jace is one of them. It's kind of unfortunate to see them use up a cool plot element so quickly, since it would have been better utilized if they left a few planeswalkers trapped there until the return block on Ixalan, but they definitely have plans for Jace before then, and Vraska too. They're getting off the plane somehow, and the Immortal Sun probably has something to do with it.
Much like Tezzeret (or pretty much anyone else besides Angrath), Ugin definitely doesn't have to get a card even if makes an appearance. While there's basically no way that they don't give a card to Angrath, the other planeswalker card in Rivals is a toss-up between a bunch of other characters who could appear, Ugin being only one of them.
Lol, my logic for thinking it was something other than Emrakul early on in SOI was that the writers were deliberately trying to throw us off. I thought that WotC’s creative department would be able to tell a mystery story at least as well as your average episode of Scooby Doo. Evidently, I was wrong.
The art on the other leaked booster for Rivals was Huatli’s art from her planeswalker card in Ixalan, so the art doesn’t necessarily line up with the real set that is the equivalent of the fake set for the packaging test. As such, I think that the Ajani art might be not for Rivals, but for Dominaria. Kaladesh clearly set up Ajani going to Dominaria for allies while we’ve seen nothing to suggest that Ajani would go to Ixalan. He didn’t even know that the rest of the team went to fight Bolas, so he might not even know that they were defeated. Even if he does know that, how would he know where Jace is? Even if he knows where Jace is, how would he find a hidden plane like Ixalan? Plus there are several other planeswalkers that might need cards in Rivals, whereas Dominaria’s planeswalker spots are pretty much completely open aside from Liliana almost certainly being there.
The only thing we can really be sure of is Angrath getting a card. There’s no way that they don’t give him one. It’s probably BR (there’s a shortage of black planeswalkers in Kaladesh/Amonkhet/Ixalan standard); I suppose it could be mono-red but probably only if the other planeswalker is partially black (meaning Tezzeret most likely). I won’t rule Ajani or Ugin out completely, but unless they do something really unexpected with who Bolas’s associate is (like it being someone already on the plane, like Angrath) or they really downplay the Bolas agent’s role in the story (similar to Tezzeret only showing up at the end of Amonkhet), it seems pretty unlikely that they would not give the Bolas agent a card.
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
Pretty sure thats the point of Bolas sending Vraska to Orazca to cast the spell to call his agent.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
That said, I'm happy to see how Vraska portrayed was here. The way she became the matron for her crew, pondered her options, honor before killing, all the while described Jace "like a puppy" and served him sugar tea, stood out way more than her ability to afflict violence. This is how good female characters, nay, how good fantasy characters should be directed, who they are UNDER their sexuality, appearances, and fighting skills.
As to whether or not females could physically handle the high sea, there were records of great female warriors all over the world before silly patriarchy put a roadblock down. Yes, they could be pirates.
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 Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
|| 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 ||