Nemesis was the first MTG Novel I had an opportunity to read, so there will always be a place in my heart for Crovax. Yes, he wasn't always a villain and had a tragic backstory, but man, once he went full evil, he went alllllllll the way down the rabbit hole. Dude was just an outright bastard.
Nahiri is still liked because people somehow think she's justified.
Elesh Norn is also regarded as cool, and her delusions are seen as horrific in an interesting way
Nahiri's complicated. She absolutely was justified in being pissed off at Sorin. She just picked the worst possible ever way to go about it.
Also, remember, she's an oldwalker, and oldwalker's generally didn't have the same sense of morality and empathy with mortals like we've seen the neowalkers have. Teferi was the only one who even seemed personable most of the time, and that was to Jhoira, who is practically immortal, and he drove even her nuts at times.
Heck, even look at Sorin. He didn't give a flying damn about the mortals on the plane- only maintaining the balance so the vampires didn't hunt their prey to extinction. The moment Emrakul showed up, he shrugged, went "that's it, worlds screwed, not even gonna try", and went after Nahiri for revenge. Heck, outside of Liliana (who barely even qualifies as oldwalker), every story we've seen lately has had the oldwalkers pissing around doing god knows what, while its the kids who actually try to go out and solve the problem.
So for Nahiri, I think it matters what we see her doing outside of the context of her feud with Sorin. There's every bit a chance she's back to being benevolent on another world as there is to her destroying it. She should definitely face consequences for Innistrad, but I'd rather see those consequences be a heel realization and attempt to make amends than outright killing her or some other form of comeuppance.
There are two categories of answers here, in my mind. There are villains you love to hate, the ones you want to see get more screen time because they're just such fantastic villains. Then there are the villains that you simply hate, that you wish would either just go away or get a radical rewrite.
Phyrexians, old and new, are probably the best villains in Magic. They are perfect for Magic's card-based storytelling, a massive environmental threat. (The Eldrazi could be described this way as well, but lose points simply for the "villain or natural disaster" ambiguity. That's not a bad thing, it makes them interesting in their own way, it just makes it difficult to say whether they belong in a discussion of villains.) The Phyrexians are unstoppable, not even the destruction of their plane and their leader could do them in. They don't simply kill you, they make you their own. They're terrifying, and I can't get enough of them.
On the other side, I have to go with Bolas. I would love to love to hate him, he originated in the first set I ever cracked a pack from, and he has so much potential as a character. Like the Phyrexians, he's been a part of Magic almost from the beginning. He belongs in the upper echelons of the rogues gallery, but the way he's written keeps making me cringe. I was excited for Hour of Devastation, I hoped it would give us what always should have been the real Bolas. Instead, we learn that he used his last hours of godlike power to... set in motion a plan to create a small, if elite, zombie army in sixty years, then blow up his own zombie factory? Really? If Wizards can't do justice to the character, just kill him.
There are two categories of answers here, in my mind. There are villains you love to hate, the ones you want to see get more screen time because they're just such fantastic villains. Then there are the villains that you simply hate, that you wish would either just go away or get a radical rewrite.
Phyrexians, old and new, are probably the best villains in Magic. They are perfect for Magic's card-based storytelling, a massive environmental threat. (The Eldrazi could be described this way as well, but lose points simply for the "villain or natural disaster" ambiguity. That's not a bad thing, it makes them interesting in their own way, it just makes it difficult to say whether they belong in a discussion of villains.) The Phyrexians are unstoppable, not even the destruction of their plane and their leader could do them in. They don't simply kill you, they make you their own. They're terrifying, and I can't get enough of them.
On the other side, I have to go with Bolas. I would love to love to hate him, he originated in the first set I ever cracked a pack from, and he has so much potential as a character. Like the Phyrexians, he's been a part of Magic almost from the beginning. He belongs in the upper echelons of the rogues gallery, but the way he's written keeps making me cringe. I was excited for Hour of Devastation, I hoped it would give us what always should have been the real Bolas. Instead, we learn that he used his last hours of godlike power to... set in motion a plan to create a small, if elite, zombie army in sixty years, then blow up his own zombie factory? Really? If Wizards can't do justice to the character, just kill him.
Honestly I feel like Bolas has been SO built up (by the community, by the writers, by whoever) that there's simply no way they COULD do him justice.
Bolas is SO powerful, and SO cunning, and SO ruthless etc., etc., that there's just nothing to DO with him that makes any damned sense if you ever expect to write a story where he's at all stoppable.
I honestly don't much like the Phyrexians either, but they are at least containable (until creative eventually makes the IMO mistake of giving them a means of planar travel again).
I've always thought that the best villains we're the ones like Nahiri, where you can see and understand their reasoning and their justifications even if you adamantly disagree with their actions.
Honestly I feel like Bolas has been SO built up (by the community, by the writers, by whoever) that there's simply no way they COULD do him justice.
Bolas is SO powerful, and SO cunning, and SO ruthless etc., etc., that there's just nothing to DO with him that makes any damned sense if you ever expect to write a story where he's at all stoppable.
The really annoying thing, to me, is that I actually think Hour of Devastation could have been made much better by moving the timing of the flashback in Hour of Revelation by two months in either direction, depending on how you want to emphasize Bolas's awesomeness. If he set everything in motion before he knew the Mending was coming, Amonkhet becomes a cute little side project that he's finally decided to take advantage of. Later, and it would be "he did all that AFTER losing his powers???" As is, I'm simply unable to comprehend his actions, and not in a I-can't-understand-the-designs-of-a-millennia-old-dragon way.
EDIT: Yes, I know Bolas wasn't around right before the Mending, but if he had set all this in motion millennia before, the point still stands.
There are two categories of answers here, in my mind. There are villains you love to hate, the ones you want to see get more screen time because they're just such fantastic villains. Then there are the villains that you simply hate, that you wish would either just go away or get a radical rewrite.
Phyrexians, old and new, are probably the best villains in Magic. They are perfect for Magic's card-based storytelling, a massive environmental threat. (The Eldrazi could be described this way as well, but lose points simply for the "villain or natural disaster" ambiguity. That's not a bad thing, it makes them interesting in their own way, it just makes it difficult to say whether they belong in a discussion of villains.) The Phyrexians are unstoppable, not even the destruction of their plane and their leader could do them in. They don't simply kill you, they make you their own. They're terrifying, and I can't get enough of them.
On the other side, I have to go with Bolas. I would love to love to hate him, he originated in the first set I ever cracked a pack from, and he has so much potential as a character. Like the Phyrexians, he's been a part of Magic almost from the beginning. He belongs in the upper echelons of the rogues gallery, but the way he's written keeps making me cringe. I was excited for Hour of Devastation, I hoped it would give us what always should have been the real Bolas. Instead, we learn that he used his last hours of godlike power to... set in motion a plan to create a small, if elite, zombie army in sixty years, then blow up his own zombie factory? Really? If Wizards can't do justice to the character, just kill him.
Honestly I feel like Bolas has been SO built up (by the community, by the writers, by whoever) that there's simply no way they COULD do him justice.
Bolas is SO powerful, and SO cunning, and SO ruthless etc., etc., that there's just nothing to DO with him that makes any damned sense if you ever expect to write a story where he's at all stoppable.
I honestly don't much like the Phyrexians either, but they are at least containable (until creative eventually makes the IMO mistake of giving them a means of planar travel again).
I've always thought that the best villains we're the ones like Nahiri, where you can see and understand their reasoning and their justifications even if you adamantly disagree with their actions.
Although for Nahiri in particular, it only secures her status as a good villain for that one particular block and it becomes a lot more harder to discern her in the grander scale. The same factors that supported Nahiri in "one of her stories" supported the likes of Konda (and probably Heliod as well) through their entire existence, which is why those two are considered "greater" villains than even Nahiri. Nahiri can't have that support carrying her beyond Tarkir at best.
To be fair though, it's very hard to come-up with a true "life-scarring, burden-carrying" support well for the likes of oldwalkers. Nahiri may have the reason of Zendikar's destruction (even if it is misinformation), but even if Zendikar was actually destroyed, if Nahiri goes around destroying other unrelated planes so people will suffer like she did, that justification becomes flimsy... extra flimsy when most oldwalkers probably don't actually even care about their homeplanes that much. Of course, we could have Nahiri destroy Tarkir and be done with it, but that brings the same problem again - those justifications made her a great villain for two blocks, but beyond that point, she's technically not a "villain".
Long story cut short, her justifications were narrow. They were good in making her a great villain when that narrow path applied, but it ultimately cannot be used a supporting backbone of her "character villainy", only the "story villainy". Ob-Nixilis probably has a better "supporting character villain backbone" even if his backstory was a relatively bland one.
So when you look back at Nahiri as a whole, you can't really call her a great villain in the sense of character, only for the story. The scale really does matter here.
The Phyrexians are honestly no different from the Eldrazi, we ultimately know their mode of operations and goals, but we don't really know the actual purposes behind those goals, so they're both just walking, killing machines in the end. The Phyrexians are just lucky they haven't been made use of by a planeswalker with a planar portal and Bolas happens to be sick of backstabbing subordinates (which the Phyrexians tend to be).
I can agree with that. Nahiri was a great villain for Innistrad. She might even be a decent villain put up against Ugin (though being dead IS a pretty good excuse for missing the planar bat-phone).
Beyond that there's the possibility of expanding her "retribution" to ANYONE involved with the Eldrazi's release (conveniently putting her in direct conflict with our protagonist group, seeing as half of them were in at least some way involved in their release) but that becomes tenuous at best.
I kinda feel like after a showdown with Ugin (where he none-too-gently corrects her misconceptions) the best plotline for her would be a redemption arc (possibly against Bolas, who orchestrated the release in the first place).
I can agree with that. Nahiri was a great villain for Innistrad. She might even be a decent villain put up against Ugin (though being dead IS a pretty good excuse for missing the planar bat-phone).
Beyond that there's the possibility of expanding her "retribution" to ANYONE involved with the Eldrazi's release (conveniently putting her in direct conflict with our protagonist group, seeing as half of them were in at least some way involved in their release) but that becomes tenuous at best.
I kinda feel like after a showdown with Ugin (where he none-too-gently corrects her misconceptions) the best plotline for her would be a redemption arc (possibly against Bolas, who orchestrated the release in the first place).
Ob and her also have some tense history as well.
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I don't know if there's anyone who's ever MET Ob that doesn't have a tense history with him.
I'd find it hilarious if she caged him with another hedron again... But that would cut off one of the relatively few PW villains that we've got, so I wouldn't expect that outcome.
I figure if we ever get an "evil gatewatch" (which I feel is inevitable) Tibalt is a lock, I'm fairly positive he'll show up again, just not sure where.
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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 figure if we ever get an "evil gatewatch" (which I feel is inevitable) Tibalt is a lock, I'm fairly positive he'll show up again, just not sure where.
They mentioned that Origins was originally pitched as a villains spotlight set before Creative shifted into Gatewatch mode, and that a lot of that scrapped set was designed. I imagine whenever we do get our Legion of Doom, the roster will be pretty much the same as whoever those 5 were gonna be.
Idk if I hate him because he's an awesome character but I'm surprised no one has brought up Baral. He wasn't the primary antagonist in Kaladesh block but he's a detestable (and understandable) villain.
Baral is trying to kill Chandra. That takes him right out of the villain pen and ushers him into the ticker-tape parade hero category.
If I had to pick a most hated villain, I'd probably pick Nahiri, because there but for the grace of god go I. If someone had wronged me as badly as Sorin had her, then I would have responded with exactly the same level of pettiness and cruelty that Nahiri did, if I had her level of power. And that is a very uncomfortable mirror to hold up to myself.
Of course, that being said, I'm assuming based on your original post, that you want the villain that I personally hate the most in a constructive fashion, that is, tacit opining on the storyline. If you want to know the villain I actually hate the most, that'd be Yawgmoth. Nahiri is fairly petty, but it'd be hard to beat sheer amount of villainy Yawgmoth perpetrated for the most awful of reasons. He screwed over countless worlds because of he was bitter about a woman. He is the ultimate trilby'd neckbeard.
I fail to see the hate with Nahiri. People seem to think she's supposed to be this altruistic character and revenge is boring or 2 dimensional or whatever. Nahiri was convinced by two powerful planeswalkers to trap world ending beings on her home plane that she grew to love. She watched then fail to kill the eldrazi and so they repurposed the hedrons to trap them on the plane (note that the system was made by Nahiri over years to bind the eldrazi to the plane, they are simply repurposed to a permanent measure instend of temporary until Ugin could kill them, which failed). She was then trapped near these world enders by an agreement to guard the eldrazi with the promise that the walkers would return should an anomaly occur with the system.
Lo and behold, a goblin ate a rock and the eldrazi started to escape. Nahiri called for help but none came, so she has to retrap the eldrazi while feeling betrayed and then went to find Sorin and Ugin to learn why they didn't help. Sorin then pretty much told her he didn't care enough to help and trapped her in a rock for a long long time, surrounded by demons.
When she finally got out, she lost a significant portion of her powers, the first thing she saw was her own blood, and eldrazi had once more broken free of her world and she wasn't even there to stop that from happening.
To sum up, she is forced to use her home as bait for world ending creatures, guarded them for a thousand years, was betrayed by the two walkers that promised to help guard to eldrazi, gets trapped in a rock surrounded by demons for another thousand years, and then finds out her powers are severely weakened and her homeworld is in ruins. And you guys think she should be altruisitic and not seek revenge? Honestly, because of her revenge and the fact that she learned how to pseudo control the eldrazi by manipulating leylines to make herself completely invisible to them (something nobody else has done), she has become one of my favorite villains.
Now as far as boring villains that I'm glad they got what was coming to them, how about the Weaver King? His entire thing was "dance on my puppet strings." He made people do things because it entertained him and he tried to threaten Venser who's response was to trap him in the blind eternities with two unstable mana stone (forget what exactly they were as I'm running off memory), where they exploded killing him.
Of course, he was being used by Leshrac, but still, he was a character that I hated the moment I met him and was glad when he died. At least Leshrac actually had some dimension to him, even though it wasn't much. Also, that fight with Bolas where the planeswalked across countless planes while Bolas's body degraded and collapsed? That was awesome.
Another boring villain is Ob Nixilis. He was a garbage tyrant that became a walker. he got trapped in a demon form, then trapped on Zendikar, and the only thing that did as far as character development is make him want to destroy zendikar, yet all he did was leave it to the eldrazi and not bother trying to stick around (I know he lost to the pre-gatewatch gatewatch, but he could have stayed on the plane to savor its ruin rather than just go). He's just boring and I hope he becomes developed soon or just dies.
Yeah Nahiri's revenge is justified in reference to Sorin's own system of morality, because she neatly turns his own world-view and previous activities against him.
For anyone not paying attention: Sorin publicly claims to have a utilitarian morality, but it's all twisted so the things he cares about personally are more important. This justifies sacrificing Zendikar because (privately) he doesn't care about Zendikar, and (publicly) it's just one world to save the Multiverse.
Nahiri berating him for not helping stop the Eldrazi and then using Emrakul to damage Innistrad shows the lie in Sorin's behavior, because by not living up to his public goal of protecting the Multiverse Sorin has doomed Innistrad.
According to Sorin's own system of morality, Nahiri was almost entirely justified in her actions. Emrakul retreating into the moon neatly ties up the comparison: whatever influence Emrakul has on Innistrad is justified because Nahiri has ruined one world to save the Multiverse.
I'm not saying she's justified, because she's still a mass-murdering [redacted]. I'm saying she's deliberately set up as the Anti-Sorin. That's a neat character.
The above two replies are perfect examples of why I hate Nahiri. The problem is not that Nahiri wanted revenge against Sorin, the problem is that if the Gatewatch didn't show up she would have doomed an entire plane willingly and she knew what she was doing. Thousands of innocent lives lost that had nothing to do with the injustice caused to her by Sorin. Nahiri is a crazy serial murderer, and yet she has legions of fans who try to justify everything she did as if she was in the right. In the right to kill thousands of innocents? And from my (admittedly limited) experience with her fans, it's mostly because she's sexy. Not saying that the above two posters defend her because of that, just stating my experience.
It's clear you didn't read the replies you referenced. They didn't excuse her actions. They explained her motivations, shedding light on her character.
As for your second point, it sounds a bit underhanded. Yes, some people latch onto evil characters just because they're sexy, but that still doesn't mean that everyone who likes Nahiri as a villain is part of that group. The argument works both ways you know? People are allowed to root for Ob Nixilis and Bolas but not for Nahiri on the grounds that she's pretty?
This may sound cold, but Nahiri wasn't totally wrong about Innistrad; it is a pretty wretched place overall, though it reached a high point when Avacyn was freed of the Helvault.
That said, those humans still managed to eke out a decent enough existence that Emrakul's corruption of the plane and its inhabitants really hit hard.
The above two replies are perfect examples of why I hate Nahiri. The problem is not that Nahiri wanted revenge against Sorin, the problem is that if the Gatewatch didn't show up she would have doomed an entire plane willingly and she knew what she was doing. Thousands of innocent lives lost that had nothing to do with the injustice caused to her by Sorin. Nahiri is a crazy serial murderer, and yet she has legions of fans who try to justify everything she did as if she was in the right. In the right to kill thousands of innocents? And from my (admittedly limited) experience with her fans, it's mostly because she's sexy. Not saying that the above two posters defend her because of that, just stating my experience.
Oh, I'm not excusing her actions. Liking a character and excusing their actions are separate. And worth noting, regardless of whether the Goatwatchers showed or not, the Eldrazi were loose and rampant on the multiverse, Nahiri simply gave Emrakul a new target: the plane of one of the Walkers that could be blamed for the eldrazi not being retrapped on Zendikar.
She's not justified per se, but I doubt very few wouldn't have done the exact same in her position.
Also, last statement is not applicable considering not all her fans are interested in women (myself included).
Even though Bolas' machinations made for an engaging and tragic story in Amonkhet, he turned out to be too over the top and one-dimensional for me. He'd be more interesting if his power was scaled down, his ego was bruised, but he kept that cunning and intellect. I think the pieces are there for an engaging antagonist but they turned all his dials to 10 and now he's basically a 90s Disney villain.
Even though Bolas' machinations made for an engaging and tragic story in Amonkhet, he turned out to be too over the top and one-dimensional for me. He'd be more interesting if his power was scaled down, his ego was bruised, but he kept that cunning and intellect. I think the pieces are there for an engaging antagonist but they turned all his dials to 10 and now he's basically a 90s Disney villain.
I fully disagree, without the giant piles of ham and cheese Nicol is just "another Evil Overlord."
Edit : it also fits his colors really well. Nicol Bolas can sort of fill the Grixis wedge of "Dimir Loving Complex Plots, Izzet doing things to see what happens and Rakdos doing things for the LULZ."
Call me neophytic on the older times of Magic's storyline, but I seriously can't think of a villain I hate. I believe that's fair... But wait, are we forgetting Mochi? I'd not read the Kamigawa cycle but I recall people not liking him because of reasons. What would those be?
A bit off topic question...
There have been villains in all colors of magic, but I cannot seem to remember a green villain (but Vorinclex)... Am I missing something?
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*shakes fist in rage!
Nahiri's complicated. She absolutely was justified in being pissed off at Sorin. She just picked the worst possible ever way to go about it.
Also, remember, she's an oldwalker, and oldwalker's generally didn't have the same sense of morality and empathy with mortals like we've seen the neowalkers have. Teferi was the only one who even seemed personable most of the time, and that was to Jhoira, who is practically immortal, and he drove even her nuts at times.
Heck, even look at Sorin. He didn't give a flying damn about the mortals on the plane- only maintaining the balance so the vampires didn't hunt their prey to extinction. The moment Emrakul showed up, he shrugged, went "that's it, worlds screwed, not even gonna try", and went after Nahiri for revenge. Heck, outside of Liliana (who barely even qualifies as oldwalker), every story we've seen lately has had the oldwalkers pissing around doing god knows what, while its the kids who actually try to go out and solve the problem.
So for Nahiri, I think it matters what we see her doing outside of the context of her feud with Sorin. There's every bit a chance she's back to being benevolent on another world as there is to her destroying it. She should definitely face consequences for Innistrad, but I'd rather see those consequences be a heel realization and attempt to make amends than outright killing her or some other form of comeuppance.
Phyrexians, old and new, are probably the best villains in Magic. They are perfect for Magic's card-based storytelling, a massive environmental threat. (The Eldrazi could be described this way as well, but lose points simply for the "villain or natural disaster" ambiguity. That's not a bad thing, it makes them interesting in their own way, it just makes it difficult to say whether they belong in a discussion of villains.) The Phyrexians are unstoppable, not even the destruction of their plane and their leader could do them in. They don't simply kill you, they make you their own. They're terrifying, and I can't get enough of them.
On the other side, I have to go with Bolas. I would love to love to hate him, he originated in the first set I ever cracked a pack from, and he has so much potential as a character. Like the Phyrexians, he's been a part of Magic almost from the beginning. He belongs in the upper echelons of the rogues gallery, but the way he's written keeps making me cringe. I was excited for Hour of Devastation, I hoped it would give us what always should have been the real Bolas. Instead, we learn that he used his last hours of godlike power to... set in motion a plan to create a small, if elite, zombie army in sixty years, then blow up his own zombie factory? Really? If Wizards can't do justice to the character, just kill him.
RWU
GUB
WBR
URG
BGW
Honestly I feel like Bolas has been SO built up (by the community, by the writers, by whoever) that there's simply no way they COULD do him justice.
Bolas is SO powerful, and SO cunning, and SO ruthless etc., etc., that there's just nothing to DO with him that makes any damned sense if you ever expect to write a story where he's at all stoppable.
I honestly don't much like the Phyrexians either, but they are at least containable (until creative eventually makes the IMO mistake of giving them a means of planar travel again).
I've always thought that the best villains we're the ones like Nahiri, where you can see and understand their reasoning and their justifications even if you adamantly disagree with their actions.
The really annoying thing, to me, is that I actually think Hour of Devastation could have been made much better by moving the timing of the flashback in Hour of Revelation by two months in either direction, depending on how you want to emphasize Bolas's awesomeness. If he set everything in motion before he knew the Mending was coming, Amonkhet becomes a cute little side project that he's finally decided to take advantage of. Later, and it would be "he did all that AFTER losing his powers???" As is, I'm simply unable to comprehend his actions, and not in a I-can't-understand-the-designs-of-a-millennia-old-dragon way.
EDIT: Yes, I know Bolas wasn't around right before the Mending, but if he had set all this in motion millennia before, the point still stands.
RWU
GUB
WBR
URG
BGW
Although for Nahiri in particular, it only secures her status as a good villain for that one particular block and it becomes a lot more harder to discern her in the grander scale. The same factors that supported Nahiri in "one of her stories" supported the likes of Konda (and probably Heliod as well) through their entire existence, which is why those two are considered "greater" villains than even Nahiri. Nahiri can't have that support carrying her beyond Tarkir at best.
To be fair though, it's very hard to come-up with a true "life-scarring, burden-carrying" support well for the likes of oldwalkers. Nahiri may have the reason of Zendikar's destruction (even if it is misinformation), but even if Zendikar was actually destroyed, if Nahiri goes around destroying other unrelated planes so people will suffer like she did, that justification becomes flimsy... extra flimsy when most oldwalkers probably don't actually even care about their homeplanes that much. Of course, we could have Nahiri destroy Tarkir and be done with it, but that brings the same problem again - those justifications made her a great villain for two blocks, but beyond that point, she's technically not a "villain".
Long story cut short, her justifications were narrow. They were good in making her a great villain when that narrow path applied, but it ultimately cannot be used a supporting backbone of her "character villainy", only the "story villainy". Ob-Nixilis probably has a better "supporting character villain backbone" even if his backstory was a relatively bland one.
So when you look back at Nahiri as a whole, you can't really call her a great villain in the sense of character, only for the story. The scale really does matter here.
The Phyrexians are honestly no different from the Eldrazi, we ultimately know their mode of operations and goals, but we don't really know the actual purposes behind those goals, so they're both just walking, killing machines in the end. The Phyrexians are just lucky they haven't been made use of by a planeswalker with a planar portal and Bolas happens to be sick of backstabbing subordinates (which the Phyrexians tend to be).
Beyond that there's the possibility of expanding her "retribution" to ANYONE involved with the Eldrazi's release (conveniently putting her in direct conflict with our protagonist group, seeing as half of them were in at least some way involved in their release) but that becomes tenuous at best.
I kinda feel like after a showdown with Ugin (where he none-too-gently corrects her misconceptions) the best plotline for her would be a redemption arc (possibly against Bolas, who orchestrated the release in the first place).
Nobody likes him.
I actually tried him out in a red Madness deck one time. He was OK.
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Ob and her also have some tense history as well.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I'd find it hilarious if she caged him with another hedron again... But that would cut off one of the relatively few PW villains that we've got, so I wouldn't expect that outcome.
1: that is amazing.
2: I wish we had seen more of tibalt. I think he's really funny as a villain, very monty python's Spanish inquisition.
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"
They mentioned that Origins was originally pitched as a villains spotlight set before Creative shifted into Gatewatch mode, and that a lot of that scrapped set was designed. I imagine whenever we do get our Legion of Doom, the roster will be pretty much the same as whoever those 5 were gonna be.
Baral is trying to kill Chandra. That takes him right out of the villain pen and ushers him into the ticker-tape parade hero category.
If I had to pick a most hated villain, I'd probably pick Nahiri, because there but for the grace of god go I. If someone had wronged me as badly as Sorin had her, then I would have responded with exactly the same level of pettiness and cruelty that Nahiri did, if I had her level of power. And that is a very uncomfortable mirror to hold up to myself.
Of course, that being said, I'm assuming based on your original post, that you want the villain that I personally hate the most in a constructive fashion, that is, tacit opining on the storyline. If you want to know the villain I actually hate the most, that'd be Yawgmoth. Nahiri is fairly petty, but it'd be hard to beat sheer amount of villainy Yawgmoth perpetrated for the most awful of reasons. He screwed over countless worlds because of he was bitter about a woman. He is the ultimate trilby'd neckbeard.
Lo and behold, a goblin ate a rock and the eldrazi started to escape. Nahiri called for help but none came, so she has to retrap the eldrazi while feeling betrayed and then went to find Sorin and Ugin to learn why they didn't help. Sorin then pretty much told her he didn't care enough to help and trapped her in a rock for a long long time, surrounded by demons.
When she finally got out, she lost a significant portion of her powers, the first thing she saw was her own blood, and eldrazi had once more broken free of her world and she wasn't even there to stop that from happening.
To sum up, she is forced to use her home as bait for world ending creatures, guarded them for a thousand years, was betrayed by the two walkers that promised to help guard to eldrazi, gets trapped in a rock surrounded by demons for another thousand years, and then finds out her powers are severely weakened and her homeworld is in ruins. And you guys think she should be altruisitic and not seek revenge? Honestly, because of her revenge and the fact that she learned how to pseudo control the eldrazi by manipulating leylines to make herself completely invisible to them (something nobody else has done), she has become one of my favorite villains.
Now as far as boring villains that I'm glad they got what was coming to them, how about the Weaver King? His entire thing was "dance on my puppet strings." He made people do things because it entertained him and he tried to threaten Venser who's response was to trap him in the blind eternities with two unstable mana stone (forget what exactly they were as I'm running off memory), where they exploded killing him.
Of course, he was being used by Leshrac, but still, he was a character that I hated the moment I met him and was glad when he died. At least Leshrac actually had some dimension to him, even though it wasn't much. Also, that fight with Bolas where the planeswalked across countless planes while Bolas's body degraded and collapsed? That was awesome.
Another boring villain is Ob Nixilis. He was a garbage tyrant that became a walker. he got trapped in a demon form, then trapped on Zendikar, and the only thing that did as far as character development is make him want to destroy zendikar, yet all he did was leave it to the eldrazi and not bother trying to stick around (I know he lost to the pre-gatewatch gatewatch, but he could have stayed on the plane to savor its ruin rather than just go). He's just boring and I hope he becomes developed soon or just dies.
For anyone not paying attention: Sorin publicly claims to have a utilitarian morality, but it's all twisted so the things he cares about personally are more important. This justifies sacrificing Zendikar because (privately) he doesn't care about Zendikar, and (publicly) it's just one world to save the Multiverse.
Nahiri berating him for not helping stop the Eldrazi and then using Emrakul to damage Innistrad shows the lie in Sorin's behavior, because by not living up to his public goal of protecting the Multiverse Sorin has doomed Innistrad.
According to Sorin's own system of morality, Nahiri was almost entirely justified in her actions. Emrakul retreating into the moon neatly ties up the comparison: whatever influence Emrakul has on Innistrad is justified because Nahiri has ruined one world to save the Multiverse.
I'm not saying she's justified, because she's still a mass-murdering [redacted]. I'm saying she's deliberately set up as the Anti-Sorin. That's a neat character.
Art is life itself.
It's clear you didn't read the replies you referenced. They didn't excuse her actions. They explained her motivations, shedding light on her character.
As for your second point, it sounds a bit underhanded. Yes, some people latch onto evil characters just because they're sexy, but that still doesn't mean that everyone who likes Nahiri as a villain is part of that group. The argument works both ways you know? People are allowed to root for Ob Nixilis and Bolas but not for Nahiri on the grounds that she's pretty?
That said, those humans still managed to eke out a decent enough existence that Emrakul's corruption of the plane and its inhabitants really hit hard.
Oh, I'm not excusing her actions. Liking a character and excusing their actions are separate. And worth noting, regardless of whether the Goatwatchers showed or not, the Eldrazi were loose and rampant on the multiverse, Nahiri simply gave Emrakul a new target: the plane of one of the Walkers that could be blamed for the eldrazi not being retrapped on Zendikar.
She's not justified per se, but I doubt very few wouldn't have done the exact same in her position.
Also, last statement is not applicable considering not all her fans are interested in women (myself included).
I fully disagree, without the giant piles of ham and cheese Nicol is just "another Evil Overlord."
Edit : it also fits his colors really well. Nicol Bolas can sort of fill the Grixis wedge of "Dimir Loving Complex Plots, Izzet doing things to see what happens and Rakdos doing things for the LULZ."
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There have been villains in all colors of magic, but I cannot seem to remember a green villain (but Vorinclex)... Am I missing something?