It's not unlikely that Bolas decided to end Amonkhet now that the Bridge technology has finally become available, knowing it was always possible as mentioned here, just a matter of when, and what plane.
Remember everyone, The Hour of Revelation confirms that Bolas was controlling the progress of the Second Sun, so it's no coincidence Hour of Devastation is taking place just days after Tezzeret acquired the Planar Bridge Technology.
Now, perhaps interplanar transportation changed or became harder after the Mending; I don't know if there are any canonical sources that address that.
This has been explicitly stated a few times, especially right after the Mending. The Planar Bridge is the first known post-Mending interplanar tech that works.
I think he want to conquer a specific plane with his eternal army. May be Dominaria? Returning to Madara?
A return to Madara would be interesting. Or maybe WotC won't like that since it might just become a Kamigawa version 2.
Bolas could also use his army of eternals to challenge the phyrexians currently in Mirrodin... althought I'm also wondering if the mirrodin phyrexians are too strong for Bolas to handle alone.
In regards to portals, I remember something about Baron Sengir leading his army of vampires through a certain portal. Bolas might know the locations of those.
I'm still confused on why he seems to be destroying Amonkhet. Yes, he has his army, but the lazotep hasn't run out yet has it? Couldn't he just leave the natives alive so they pump out additional soldiers. Once he moves his army off-plane he can just make regular trips back to collect additional support. One small army can't conquer an entire multiverse, and the number of worthy dead compared to the number of failures makes it seem like that army must be far smaller than anything he could use to invade entire planes. It just makes far more sense to not destroy everything. I just don't get it.
I'm still confused on why he seems to be destroying Amonkhet. Yes, he has his army, but the lazotep hasn't run out yet has it? Couldn't he just leave the natives alive so they pump out additional soldiers. Once he moves his army off-plane he can just make regular trips back to collect additional support. One small army can't conquer an entire multiverse, and the number of worthy dead compared to the number of failures makes it seem like that army must be far smaller than anything he could use to invade entire planes. It just makes far more sense to not destroy everything. I just don't get it.
As has been said elsewhere, he is a douche and probably doesn't really care to squeeze a few more ressources out of Amonkhet before destroying it. He'd obviously rather take sadistic pleasure in destroying it directly. He is red/black after all. You could just ask why he needs all this power or why he wants to conquer everything, since he doesn't "need" to do either. The answer is: Because he can. We also don't know whether there is much Lazothep left. And he probably doesn't have the power to just restart everything for a new cycle.
Let's also not forget that Bolas entire plan is to regain oldwalker powers. Destroying Amonkhet could be Bolas flexing his muscles so to say, reveling in a glimpse of his old power.
Let's also not forget that Bolas entire plan is to regain oldwalker powers. Destroying Amonkhet could be Bolas flexing his muscles so to say, reveling in a glimpse of his old power.
That's exactly what he wanted to do on Alara, before Ajani created that Soul Avatar of Bolas that ran him off.
Bolas freely admits to siring races on a whim just to watch them kill themselves. So not only is he guilty of countless examples of genocide just to stave off boredom, he also is guilty of rape to do so. He has no real endgoal besides being evil.
Living for 15,000 years, I guess only the extreme would entertain.
I have a feeling that there's still a motive Bolas hasn't revealed base on the cards we see. On Crook of Condemnation it mentioned angels stealing power from people's cartouches, that may have something to do with it as well.
There is no point. Even if he really, REALLY needed the army he still had no purpose for destryoing Amonkhet. He could have simply left it alone and kept it as a factory giving him more free zombies, which he apparently really needs.
Someone just thought Bolas raising an undead army would be cool, and they went with it. They will invade a plane or something, only to become canon fodder and killed by Chandra's fireballs.
I find it coincidental that the Gatewatch showed up just as hours were arriving. I wonder if they caused the hours to come by tripping some kind of Bolas security measure alerting him to come back curbstomp the interlopers take his prize and destroy the evidence of his schemes.
I find it coincidental that the Gatewatch showed up just as hours were arriving. I wonder if they caused the hours to come by tripping some kind of Bolas security measure alerting him to come back curbstomp the interlopers take his prize and destroy the evidence of his schemes.
Nothing so elaborate. They learned that Bolas would be on Amonkhet, so they went there to confront him. The Gatewatch is there because Bolas is, not the other way around.
I find it coincidental that the Gatewatch showed up just as hours were arriving. I wonder if they caused the hours to come by tripping some kind of Bolas security measure alerting him to come back curbstomp the interlopers take his prize and destroy the evidence of his schemes.
Bolas can control the second sun so he had control of when the Hours would begin and moved the sun the closer he came to finishing his plans. So far it looks like Tezzeret finding the Planar Bridge is what had Bolas start the Hours.
“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"
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I'm still confused on why he seems to be destroying Amonkhet. Yes, he has his army, but the lazotep hasn't run out yet has it? Couldn't he just leave the natives alive so they pump out additional soldiers. Once he moves his army off-plane he can just make regular trips back to collect additional support. One small army can't conquer an entire multiverse, and the number of worthy dead compared to the number of failures makes it seem like that army must be far smaller than anything he could use to invade entire planes. It just makes far more sense to not destroy everything. I just don't get it.
Because lol, he's the villain! For a dragon who makes plans whose duration is measured in decades and centuries he's just decided that it's mustache twirling time.
I'm still confused on why he seems to be destroying Amonkhet. Yes, he has his army, but the lazotep hasn't run out yet has it? Couldn't he just leave the natives alive so they pump out additional soldiers. Once he moves his army off-plane he can just make regular trips back to collect additional support. One small army can't conquer an entire multiverse, and the number of worthy dead compared to the number of failures makes it seem like that army must be far smaller than anything he could use to invade entire planes. It just makes far more sense to not destroy everything. I just don't get it.
Because lol, he's the villain! For a dragon who makes plans whose duration is measured in decades and centuries he's just decided that it's mustache twirling time.
Which is why, IMO, he'll never be more than a hamfisted charicature. Evil for the sake of evil. And completely uncredible as a villain I'd ever take seriously.
I'm still confused on why he seems to be destroying Amonkhet. Yes, he has his army, but the lazotep hasn't run out yet has it? Couldn't he just leave the natives alive so they pump out additional soldiers. Once he moves his army off-plane he can just make regular trips back to collect additional support. One small army can't conquer an entire multiverse, and the number of worthy dead compared to the number of failures makes it seem like that army must be far smaller than anything he could use to invade entire planes. It just makes far more sense to not destroy everything. I just don't get it.
Because lol, he's the villain! For a dragon who makes plans whose duration is measured in decades and centuries he's just decided that it's mustache twirling time.
People always emphasize these plans spanning centuries but don't forget that he was also basically dead for centuries, too. A lot of what he had build up and set in motion across the multiverse might simply have vanished...
That said, I don't like that they decided that the mending was only 60 years ago. It really throws off a lot of the numbers...They really produced that many eternals in only 60 year? He managed to set up several interplanar organizations including the consortium AND lose it to Tez in under 60 years? Etc, etc...I mean, that's sort of plausible, I guess.
Also, yes, if they're not careful they'll turn him into a twirling moustache villain :-( But he was done well in other stories.
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I'm still confused on why he seems to be destroying Amonkhet. Yes, he has his army, but the lazotep hasn't run out yet has it? Couldn't he just leave the natives alive so they pump out additional soldiers. Once he moves his army off-plane he can just make regular trips back to collect additional support. One small army can't conquer an entire multiverse, and the number of worthy dead compared to the number of failures makes it seem like that army must be far smaller than anything he could use to invade entire planes. It just makes far more sense to not destroy everything. I just don't get it.
Because lol, he's the villain! For a dragon who makes plans whose duration is measured in decades and centuries he's just decided that it's mustache twirling time.
People always emphasize these plans spanning centuries but don't forget that he was also basically dead for centuries, too. A lot of what he had build up and set in motion across the multiverse might simply have vanished...
That said, I don't like that they decided that the mending was only 60 years ago. It really throws off a lot of the numbers...They really produced that many eternals in only 60 year? He managed to set up several interplanar organizations including the consortium AND lose it to Tez in under 60 years? Etc, etc...I mean, that's sort of plausible, I guess.
Manticore Eternal shows the Eternals are made up of more then just Worthy and re-reading the players guild from the fatpack it says Viziers get a glorious death so some of the worthy might be former Viziers. Huh I wonder if the the non-worthy Eternals are creatures that where used in the trials.
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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"
There is no point. Even if he really, REALLY needed the army he still had no purpose for destryoing Amonkhet. He could have simply left it alone and kept it as a factory giving him more free zombies, which he apparently really needs.
I think he almost has to destroy it at this point. The way he set it up, everything happens according to the schedule he put in place before the mending, so when he shows back up the river turns to blood, the insect gods are released, and everything generally goes to hell. Of course he planned this grandiose spectacle to happen this way, but I doubt he has the power any more to bend the leylines like he used to and make his arrival any more subtle. The problem is, once he pulls off this trick, the cat's out of the bag. Bolas hadn't even shown up yet and the people and gods were figuring out their entire belief system was a lie. He can't just put his pet gods back to bed, slap a bandaid on the regular gods, and tell the people, "Good work, your god-pharaoh is pleased. Now just get back to your trials and pretend I was never here. Just keep believing in that sweet sweet promised land I've set up for you that totally isn't a barren desert with a giant zombie factory." It only worked last time because he wrathed every sentient being old enough to understand what was going on and overwrote the gods minds. Even if Bolas had everything go as planned, there was no gatewatch to interfere, and he once again wiped out 90% of the plane's population, reflashing a deity's memory and rewinding the clock on the hours might be out of reach for a neowalker, even an elder dragon.
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Maybe Bolas is the "hero" here and the only reason he's doing any of this, including trying to restore his pre-mending powers, is to stop the Phyrexians. I mean, yes he's a selfish dick that wants every world to bow down to him, but that also means he cares about larger existential threats like he did during Time Spiral. Even if he can save himself from phyresis, he wouldn't be able to stop the Phyrexians on his own from invading and corrupting the countless worlds he worked so hard to conquer. So my guess is he needs an army that's immune to phyresis and coating the undead in lazotep accomplishes that. Why no army of planeswalkers instead? Because the Eternals are mindless slaves and just about every planeswalker we've seen work for Bolas has betrayed him at one point or another. Planeswalkers are also quite rare and not easy to mass produce.
As to why Bolas would destroy Amonkhet, could the answer not simply be "leaving no witnesses" in regards to where his Eternal army comes from? I don't find it unrealistically at all that the biggest Mastermind Villain in MTG lore does everything he can to cover his tracks.
The most pressing question to me is: what is he going to do with the Eternals? He must have a way to transport them across planes otherwise they serve no purpose, since they would be stuck on an already destroyed world. So that seens a given.
As much as I like the Phyrexia theory, regaining his oldwalker power leven seems to be priority nr. 1 for Bolas. After all, once he has them he has nothing to fear from the Phyrexians: the only "Phyrexian" that could maybe best him was Yawgmoth himself and he is gone. So realistically, I see this going only one of two ways:
Bolas uses the Eternals to reclaim Madara, because he has something hidden away there that helps his cause.
Bolas uses the Eternals to invade some yet unheard of plane to recover some yet unheard of thing that willl help his cause.
Both would be stories that could support a block.
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If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
As to why Bolas would destroy Amonkhet, could the answer not simply be "leaving no witnesses" in regards to where his Eternal army comes from? I don't find it unrealistically at all that the biggest Mastermind Villain in MTG lore does everything he can to cover his tracks.
Again, why? It's not like there's a World-Bottling Kit for Amonkhet. Leaving no witnesses is a trope that is correctly used only when there's a real reason to not leave a witness. You're posing as someone else, there's a great weakness that the builders know about. So far we've learned nothing of the sort other than "Bolas evil."
As to why Bolas would destroy Amonkhet, could the answer not simply be "leaving no witnesses" in regards to where his Eternal army comes from? I don't find it unrealistically at all that the biggest Mastermind Villain in MTG lore does everything he can to cover his tracks.
Again, why? It's not like there's a World-Bottling Kit for Amonkhet. Leaving no witnesses is a trope that is correctly used only when there's a real reason to not leave a witness. You're posing as someone else, there's a great weakness that the builders know about. So far we've learned nothing of the sort other than "Bolas evil."
He's not killing the plane off to leave no witnesses, he is killing the plane off to prevent future enemies from appearing. His plans span an unorthodox amount of time due to his life span and it is far too easy to leave a plane with a legend about a great evil, have the survivors pass this knowledge down, and eventually some champion will rise and start nagging him. Given he probably doesn't want yet another repeat of the events of Alara and Dominaria, just killing everybody sounds like a logical thing to do.
Also, as far as the army goes (and this is speculation), I'm suspecting the other reason he wanted to use lazotep is that it is an inorganic material. Planeswalkers can take inorganic objects with them between worlds, but organic life just gets shredded to bits from what I've read. Since the beings are basically encased in inorganic material and the beings inside are undead, thus lacking much of the fragility of a living being, it's possible to planeshift them like an army of Dr. Who Cybermen. They are basically "already dead people" trapped inside a space suit of sorts made of Lazotep. Even the phyrexians can't really planeshift most of their creations because of the organic bits on them being exposed, though given the praetors created Atraxa, Praetors' Voice, they may have just found a way to do it.
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2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
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This has been explicitly stated a few times, especially right after the Mending. The Planar Bridge is the first known post-Mending interplanar tech that works.
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A return to Madara would be interesting. Or maybe WotC won't like that since it might just become a Kamigawa version 2.
Bolas could also use his army of eternals to challenge the phyrexians currently in Mirrodin... althought I'm also wondering if the mirrodin phyrexians are too strong for Bolas to handle alone.
In regards to portals, I remember something about Baron Sengir leading his army of vampires through a certain portal. Bolas might know the locations of those.
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As has been said elsewhere, he is a douche and probably doesn't really care to squeeze a few more ressources out of Amonkhet before destroying it. He'd obviously rather take sadistic pleasure in destroying it directly. He is red/black after all. You could just ask why he needs all this power or why he wants to conquer everything, since he doesn't "need" to do either. The answer is: Because he can. We also don't know whether there is much Lazothep left. And he probably doesn't have the power to just restart everything for a new cycle.
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Living for 15,000 years, I guess only the extreme would entertain.
I have a feeling that there's still a motive Bolas hasn't revealed base on the cards we see. On Crook of Condemnation it mentioned angels stealing power from people's cartouches, that may have something to do with it as well.
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I imagine he is bringing them to another plane, the question is: Which one?
Someone just thought Bolas raising an undead army would be cool, and they went with it. They will invade a plane or something, only to become canon fodder and killed by Chandra's fireballs.
Nothing so elaborate. They learned that Bolas would be on Amonkhet, so they went there to confront him. The Gatewatch is there because Bolas is, not the other way around.
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Bolas can control the second sun so he had control of when the Hours would begin and moved the sun the closer he came to finishing his plans. So far it looks like Tezzeret finding the Planar Bridge is what had Bolas start the Hours.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Which is why, IMO, he'll never be more than a hamfisted charicature. Evil for the sake of evil. And completely uncredible as a villain I'd ever take seriously.
YMMV, of course.
People always emphasize these plans spanning centuries but don't forget that he was also basically dead for centuries, too. A lot of what he had build up and set in motion across the multiverse might simply have vanished...
That said, I don't like that they decided that the mending was only 60 years ago. It really throws off a lot of the numbers...They really produced that many eternals in only 60 year? He managed to set up several interplanar organizations including the consortium AND lose it to Tez in under 60 years? Etc, etc...I mean, that's sort of plausible, I guess.
Also, yes, if they're not careful they'll turn him into a twirling moustache villain :-( But he was done well in other stories.
Affinity
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Sidisi, Undead Vizier
Purphoros, God of the Forge
Dragonlord Ojutai
Gishath, Sun's Avatar
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Manticore Eternal shows the Eternals are made up of more then just Worthy and re-reading the players guild from the fatpack it says Viziers get a glorious death so some of the worthy might be former Viziers. Huh I wonder if the the non-worthy Eternals are creatures that where used in the trials.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
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LifeUndeath is such a fragile thing.The most pressing question to me is: what is he going to do with the Eternals? He must have a way to transport them across planes otherwise they serve no purpose, since they would be stuck on an already destroyed world. So that seens a given.
As much as I like the Phyrexia theory, regaining his oldwalker power leven seems to be priority nr. 1 for Bolas. After all, once he has them he has nothing to fear from the Phyrexians: the only "Phyrexian" that could maybe best him was Yawgmoth himself and he is gone. So realistically, I see this going only one of two ways:
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Again, why? It's not like there's a World-Bottling Kit for Amonkhet. Leaving no witnesses is a trope that is correctly used only when there's a real reason to not leave a witness. You're posing as someone else, there's a great weakness that the builders know about. So far we've learned nothing of the sort other than "Bolas evil."
He's not killing the plane off to leave no witnesses, he is killing the plane off to prevent future enemies from appearing. His plans span an unorthodox amount of time due to his life span and it is far too easy to leave a plane with a legend about a great evil, have the survivors pass this knowledge down, and eventually some champion will rise and start nagging him. Given he probably doesn't want yet another repeat of the events of Alara and Dominaria, just killing everybody sounds like a logical thing to do.
Also, as far as the army goes (and this is speculation), I'm suspecting the other reason he wanted to use lazotep is that it is an inorganic material. Planeswalkers can take inorganic objects with them between worlds, but organic life just gets shredded to bits from what I've read. Since the beings are basically encased in inorganic material and the beings inside are undead, thus lacking much of the fragility of a living being, it's possible to planeshift them like an army of Dr. Who Cybermen. They are basically "already dead people" trapped inside a space suit of sorts made of Lazotep. Even the phyrexians can't really planeshift most of their creations because of the organic bits on them being exposed, though given the praetors created Atraxa, Praetors' Voice, they may have just found a way to do it.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!