What if Bolas absorbs a UN-ignited spark? Will he emergency-planeswalk in near death or traumatic experience? For example when the Gatewatch or whoelse is just about to give him the final hit?
Also, some thinks, from a storytelling device used in the trailer (which is absolutely not a hint to timetravel by the way), that Teferi might go superman to save the day, but did Teferi even do something to the full extent of the time-space continuum like they suggest EVER? I know he can use time magic locally in a really small space, but to the entire multiverse? I don't think he can, unless historians here say otherwise.
One little thing more: the beacon is most probably not a beacon in the actual term, it's more likely a "tractor beam" (with the examples of Angrath AND EVEN MORE SORIN) triggering planeswalking to Ravnica. Also this opens a discussion on WHAT DID PREVENT THE BEACON TO ACTIVATE ON THE ABSENT PLANESWALKERS?
Isn't messing around with time how we started the whole mending business in the first place? They can't really use time travel shenanigans in this without some MAJOR repercussions down the line in a few years.
Time Travel ist best glossed over and not questioned in fiction that doesn't revolve around it. Especially in Magic causality does not seem to exist (cough Fate Reforged cough), so asking about the longterm effects is a little futile.
(Of course, lorewise there must be more than 36 non-Bolas planeswalkers on Ravnica with all the sparks floating around in the basic land art and in the trailer, so there's likely a bunch of unnamed planeswalkers present.)
THIS. I don't know why everyone is thinking that the cards printed = all the planeswalkers on ravnica. There's literally hundreds (if not thousands) there, that we won't ever see. Also, there could be all kinds of reasons why some planeswalkers didn't show up. Maybe there are minor magical versions of the Immortal Sun's effect on certain planes. Maybe casting specific spells interferes with the beacon. Maybe it only pulls them in when they planeswalk. Maybe the planes are located within certain 'distances' of each other through the Blind Eternities, and some planes are 'too far' away for the beacon to reach them. The beacon was an invention of the izzet, it's not guaranteed to summon 100% of all the planeswalkers everywhere. They hardly knew about other planes until recently, the fact it worked this well is already impressive.
I mean, the real reason is that they can only fit so many stories into the lore, and then they can only fit so many cards into the set. There are a few noteworthy PW they left out, most of which because they have upcoming plans for them. They may find Koth when we goto phyrexia, or he's been turned into a phyrexian, who knows? Garruk might show up in this arc, or maybe afterwards, hunting down Lilli and her friends help beat him.
You might make the argument that certain PW should've gotten a card over another (dack vs saheeli, for example), but while I'd personally have preferred a Dack card, from WotC's marketing research maybe Saheeli is more popular among standard players. Since, she just had a powerful card in a recent set and she is also popular in casual play. Dack only gets played in vintage, and that's a very, very small subset of players compared to standard. Plus, they may have been trying to balance out ethnicities and male/female characters a little bit, or that might be part of why she's popular, even. I mean, is there even another 'Indian' woman planeswalker? India is a huge growing market on the internet, after all.
Oh, and I don't think Angrath is necessarily on bola's 'side'. People are reading a lot into his Amass ability, but I think that's just showing he has the ability to take over the existing zombies. One of the flavor texts has him pondering something like 'if i had a crew like that, i'd beat anyone'. I just think he's taking advantage of the chaos and trying to steal some of the Eternals.
Oh, so, I just realized that Lilliana is the only non-Bolas PW in the set (not counting the promo Tezz) that has a normal PW setup. A plus, minus and ultimate. I feel like that was done on purpose for flavor reasons. Also, the mono color gatewatch PWs are the only other ones with 'ultimates', but only 2 abilities. I think they are trying to show the importance of the character to the story through their abilities. I.e. Lilli is the most powerful/important of them in defeating Bolas, but the rest of the original gatewatch are the next most important. No other PW has a minus they have to build towards, they can all use them immediately. So far anyway, but I feel like that will hold up through any remaining spoilers.
Considering we now know the Amonkhet gods are back as Eternals, and Nissa had figured out how they worked, her showing back up now seems obviously important in defeating them. I mean, I know I'm not saying anything groundbreaking here by stating the gatewatch = important. But, the trailer + Lilli's card setup makes me think this story is gonna revolve around her most of all. I originally thought someone like Ugin, Teferi, Karn or Niv-Mizzet would be bailing out the gatewatch, that they would be in over their heads again, but I think she's on the same level as any of those guys once the contract gets broken somehow.
Also, on an unrelated note, someone above said they were just looking forward to seeing the paruns kick some ass. Same I really hope we get to see people like Rakdos, Selesnya, etc.. putting aside their differences to wreck some eternals in defense of Ravnica.
The Gods to be transformed in eternal should have now an extremely different "biology", to be walking around on a different plane while they should be tied to the leylines of the plane generating them is difficult to achieve without having them morphed in a way extremely different from what Bolas did with the 3 past-missing Gods or Nissa with Kefnet, meaning they might not be comprised of leylines anymore. MIGHT, then wiz has all the wiggle space to do some wibbly wobbly poop.
Also am I the only one surprised by the fact the eternals are just dead organic matter encased in lazotep? I thought the transformation in eternals would just substitute every organic matter with lazotep alloy, not just covering them... So how is the planar bridge able to evaporate a plant in the vase, but not a dead corpse in Lazotep? So actually ANYONE, EVEN ALIVE can travel through Tezz' portal if they have a total body lazotep armor... I understand this does not change anything or undermine any of Bolas design or Wizz planification, I'm just surprised.
On the timetravel matter: yes, but the examples quoted are of ONE PERSON TRAVELING THROUGH TIME (being Sarkhan or Karn), what people are suggesting now is that TIME GEST UNRAVELED BACK IN THE ENTIRE TIME-SPACE CONTINUUM by one mage. Has this kind of time manipulation got any precedent in Magic history?
Mark Rosewater said that Bolas specifically prevented Garruk from being pulled to Ravnica with the other walkers, since Garruk would screw up his plans by killing the trapped planeswalkers before Bolas could steal their sparks.
As for other missing planeswalkers, who else is there?
Urza, Serra, Freyalise, Windgrace, Venser, Elspeth, and Xenagos are all dead, so it makes sense that none of them will be appearing.
Aminatou, Estrid, Rowan, and Will have never even appeared in any stories, and they've only had cards in supplemental sets. In terms of the meta-story, they effectively don't exist. For all we know, they might not have even sparked yet, it's not like Commander 2018 or Battlebond were set during any specific time period.
The same applies to Mu Yanling, she's never been in any stories and never had any cards in a main set. Although since Jiang Yanggu got a card, I wouldn't be surprised if she actually does show up in the story. She probably just doesn't have a card because there were already too many Blue planeswalkers, and the creative team preferred to make cards for characters like Narset and Tamiyo who've already appeared in main sets and already have ties to important characters.
Dack and Daretti have never had any cards in a main set either, but they have appeared in stories, so it's a similar situation. We know Dack is appearing in the story and Daretti probably will too. It just makes sense that Red card slots would be reserved for characters like Ral, Jaya, and Sarkhan who've already been in main sets and have larger roles in the plot.
That leaves a total of one planeswalker who's 1.) had a card in a main set, 2.) isn't dead, and 3.) isn't Garruk: Koth. He's not that popular and hasn't been seen in a while, but it's still a conspicuous absence. But since the story team has been heavily foreshadowed a return to New Phyrexia, I'm guessing there's a story reason for his exclusion too. Maybe the Phyrexians have found some way to keep him trapped on New Phyrexia? They're aware of the existence of planeswalkers, and while they don't have planar portals, I could see them building some kind of technological version of the Immortal Sun.
Because I have literally nothing else to do for a couple hours, I decided to compile a list of all planeswalkers and my predictions whether they'll die or not.
I agree with most of your list. It would be completely pointless to kill off characters like Ashiok, Tibalt, Ob Nixilis, Huatli, Angrath, Narset, and Arlinn who don't have any real connection to the overall plot or the main characters. I don't really see them killing off Saheeli either; while her death would have an impact on the Gatewatch, she's a very popular planeswalker who still has a lot of untapped story potential. I can see them killing off Kiora though, she's just relevant enough for her death to matter and the writers don't seem to know what to do with her anymore.
I also don't see them killing off characters they just introduced like Teyo, Davriel, and Yanggu, it's a complete waste of potential. (Also, it's been confirmed that Teyo will appear in the sequel novel, and Brandon Sanderson said that we'd see Davriel again.) But I disagree with you about the Wanderer, it's clear the story team is building up the mystery of her identity and have plans for her down the line. If any of the new walkers are going to die, it's going to be Kasmina, she seems like the kind of generic hero character who was created specifically to be cannon fodder.
As for the guildleaders, I could see any of them dying to redeem themselves by turning against Bolas. I don't think they'll all die, but I'd be surprised if none of them did. I see Kaya as the most likely to survive (she's got an interesting backstory and a unique power), and Dovin and Domri as the most likely to die (there's not much to them beyond "Lawful Stupid bureaucrat" and "Chaotic Stupid anarchist"). I think Vraska and Ral are somewhere in the middle, I'd prefer them to make it through, but I could also see either or both of them going out in a blaze of glory.
In terms of the Gatewatch and their allies, it's obvious enough that Ajani, Jace, Chandra, Gideon, and Liliana will all survive. And I strongly doubt Karn will die, they need him for the upcoming New Phyrexia storyline. Jaya and Nissa's deaths seem all but guaranteed, though, for all the reasons you mentioned. I could see Teferi going either way, there's not much left to do with him as a character, but the writers might not want to use the "old mentor figure sacrifices themselves to save the younger heroes" plot device twice in one story, plus they might not want to thin the Gatewatch's ranks too much and there's still the Zhalfir plot thread left hanging.
I'm almost certain that Bolas himself will die. I also don't see Vivien surviving, given that her entire purpose is taking him down. Similarly, I think Sarkhan's a goner, he's just too tied to the conflict between Bolas and Ugin. That said, I could see Samut dying for much the same reason; her story arc is entirely defined by what Bolas did to her homeworld, and while it would be incredibly bleak for her to die here, this is shaping up to be a fairly dark story overall. As for Ugin, I agree that it would be thematically appropriate for him to die alongside his twin, but I could also see the story team wanting to keep him around for future arcs.
Also, Sorin definitely isn't dying here, and neither is Nahiri. Mark Rosewater said that War of the Spark won't be the conclusion to their story. Although I do hope Ugin puts them both in their place at some point.
Teferi still got Zhalfir besides there is a certain Degree of Symmetry to Karn and Teferi finishing the War against Phyrexia given their Urza Connections. I mean Jaya said she help Karn but that is weird cause she didnt do anything about Phyrexia before and she was never friends with Karn on screen before, I don't think they even met once on screen.
I also don't see the point of WOTC talking a big game about Diversity, repowering Teferi and then killing him in the next story.
I mean they got what two or three Black Males? Teferi...KOTH who we havent see in what a decade and I maybe Tezz? Who is about as evil as they come lol.
Teferi still got Zhalfir besides there is a certain Degree of Symmetry to Karn and Teferi finishing the War against Phyrexia given their Urza Connections. I mean Jaya said she help Karn but that is weird cause she didnt do anything about Phyrexia before and she was never friends with Karn on screen before, I don't think they even met once on screen.
I also don't see the point of WOTC talking a big game about Diversity, repowering Teferi and then killing him in the next story.
I mean they got what two or three Black Males? Teferi...KOTH who we havent see in what a decade and I maybe Tezz? Who is about as evil as they come lol.
Is Tezz black? I always got more of a "white guy dreadlocks" vibe from him. Now that I'm looking at several different official arts of him, his features and skin tone change A LOT depending on who is drawing him. Sometimes he's clearly a black man, others he's indeterminate, others he's a white college sophomore who discovered pot freshman year.
But yeah, Teferi isn't dying. They didn't give him back his spark, have Karn ask him for help against phyrexia, and set up Zhalfir as a hook to return to dominaria just to kill him off a block later. They wouldn't have even brought him back, we already had Jhoira, Karn, and Jaya as nostalgic ties to old Dominaria. Jaya being the old mentor that dies has a lot more emotional impact and story relevance because she actually has been a mentor to chandra for an extended period of time, though we only recently learned she was actually Jaya. Teferi, to the gatewatch, is just some neat old dude they meant on their latest demon murder adventure, and even then Jace and Nissa have no connection to him. Most important, wizards isn't George RR Martin, they aren't going to kill off a fan favorite character who still has purpose in the story.
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I don't know about Tezz...WOTC has a real problem with consistent skin tones for me. Tezz has looked White, Indian and Black to me under various artists. Gideon is obviously the poster child for this and Vivian also looks inconsistent often to me as well.
But yes Jaya is got the old mentor dies storyline sewn up if you ask me. Its a shame WOTC seems to not want to giver her a good card before they off her. Cause they love Chandra so much and she is not associated with a second color like Teferi.
People are thinking of the "Why hasn't X shown up question" WAY to deeply.
We know that there is some sense of distance in the Blind Eternities and that planes move about. If you want to know why someone didn't appear? It is because they were too far away from Ravnica, for all we know The planes that Baldy, Loli, and The Lannisters come from are halfway across the Multiverse and they have never even heard of Ravnica or Nicol Bolas.
Re: Nissa and Vivien's respective chances for survival - I don't see *both* of them dying.
To my mind, Vivien is being potentially being positioned as the next focal green planeswalker to replace Nissa. For Nissa, given everything that happened in Amonkhet (and the subtitle of her War of the Spark card), I believe she will play a big role in defeating Bolas. From a narrative standpoint, that would be a good place to end her story arc (such as it is), since there doesn't really seem to be anywhere else her character can go. It would also be a good bait and switch with Liliana - the trailer makes you think they will kill one of the iconic Gatewatch members and then they instead kill a different one.
My one reservation about Nissa's potential death is this: WotC has been building up some kind of significant relationship (not necessarily romantic) between Chandra and Nissa (even Maro recently made a joking reference to it here) and from that perspective, I'm not sure they would want to kill both Jaya *and* Nissa (probably two of the three most important people in Chandra's life) off at the same time. For a variety of reasons other people have already brought up, I feel a lot more certain about Jaya's death.
Quick Edit - For the record, I would prefer that no preexisting character be killed off except Bolas. Every character is someone's favorite character, and even bad characters have plenty of potential in the hands of a good writer. Killing off characters just to show how serious the situation / how high the stakes are is one of the worst comic book cliches out there, but I can at least see the narrative case for Nissa, Liliana, Gideon, or Jaya dying (or Jace, as the Living Guildpact, but *no one* thinks that is going to happen).
Because I have literally nothing else to do for a couple hours, I decided to compile a list of all planeswalkers and my predictions whether they'll die or not.
I agree with most of your list. It would be completely pointless to kill off characters like Ashiok, Tibalt, Ob Nixilis, Huatli, Angrath, Narset, and Arlinn who don't have any real connection to the overall plot or the main characters. I don't really see them killing off Saheeli either; while her death would have an impact on the Gatewatch, she's a very popular planeswalker who still has a lot of untapped story potential. I can see them killing off Kiora though, she's just relevant enough for her death to matter and the writers don't seem to know what to do with her anymore.
I also don't see them killing off characters they just introduced like Teyo, Davriel, and Yanggu, it's a complete waste of potential. (Also, it's been confirmed that Teyo will appear in the sequel novel, and Brandon Sanderson said that we'd see Davriel again.) But I disagree with you about the Wanderer, it's clear the story team is building up the mystery of her identity and have plans for her down the line. If any of the new walkers are going to die, it's going to be Kasmina, she seems like the kind of generic hero character who was created specifically to be cannon fodder.
As for the guildleaders, I could see any of them dying to redeem themselves by turning against Bolas. I don't think they'll all die, but I'd be surprised if none of them did. I see Kaya as the most likely to survive (she's got an interesting backstory and a unique power), and Dovin and Domri as the most likely to die (there's not much to them beyond "Lawful Stupid bureaucrat" and "Chaotic Stupid anarchist"). I think Vraska and Ral are somewhere in the middle, I'd prefer them to make it through, but I could also see either or both of them going out in a blaze of glory.
In terms of the Gatewatch and their allies, it's obvious enough that Ajani, Jace, Chandra, Gideon, and Liliana will all survive. And I strongly doubt Karn will die, they need him for the upcoming New Phyrexia storyline. Jaya and Nissa's deaths seem all but guaranteed, though, for all the reasons you mentioned. I could see Teferi going either way, there's not much left to do with him as a character, but the writers might not want to use the "old mentor figure sacrifices themselves to save the younger heroes" plot device twice in one story, plus they might not want to thin the Gatewatch's ranks too much and there's still the Zhalfir plot thread left hanging.
I'm almost certain that Bolas himself will die. I also don't see Vivien surviving, given that her entire purpose is taking him down. Similarly, I think Sarkhan's a goner, he's just too tied to the conflict between Bolas and Ugin. That said, I could see Samut dying for much the same reason; her story arc is entirely defined by what Bolas did to her homeworld, and while it would be incredibly bleak for her to die here, this is shaping up to be a fairly dark story overall. As for Ugin, I agree that it would be thematically appropriate for him to die alongside his twin, but I could also see the story team wanting to keep him around for future arcs.
Also, Sorin definitely isn't dying here, and neither is Nahiri. Mark Rosewater said that War of the Spark won't be the conclusion to their story. Although I do hope Ugin puts them both in their place at some point.
Yea id be pissed if this is the last Ugin PW card we get. He also deserves another spotlight in story. Sorin and Nahiri got multiple spotlights recently and Ugin who is arguably more powerful than both of them only , only has a few supporting roles? He holds the same underlying influence that bolas does, yet he has har such little involvement. Sorry, just my opinion
Yea id be pissed if this is the last Ugin PW card we get. He also deserves another spotlight in story. Sorin and Nahiri got multiple spotlights recently and Ugin who is arguably more powerful than both of them only , only has a few supporting roles? He holds the same underlying influence that bolas does, yet he has har such little involvement. Sorry, just my opinion
Ugin being so powerful is probably why he takes a backseat in the story.
Ugin has one great card. Not everyone can be Teferi and Karn where its nothing but Aces (Outside of Teferi's Planeswalker Deck Card which doesnt count).
Jaya fans should be salty though she has got dead written all over her and WOTC wont let her get a good card cause it upstage Chandra.
Yea i get that he may be to powerful, and no doubt if he does live, they’re probably saving his “ace “ for when they eventually revisit tarkir. It still is kind of lame that he doesn’t get a redemption figh; i mean Stopping bolas has been one of his priorities as stated in the m19 story. In the Rosewater tumblr, he stated that Wotc wanted to put Ugin in M19 , but because of his late involvement in the storyline , M19 was already locked and set far before Ugins appearance. Unless i read that wrong, it seems that is the main reason for his bech warmer staus.
Jaya fans should be salty though she has got dead written all over her and WOTC wont let her get a good card cause it upstage Chandra.
Frankly, Jaya fans thought her dead for ten years, and were salty because it seemed that Wizards killed her offscreen. Her return in Dominaria was a treat, anything more of her continued existence is a bonus. She may die in peace now and I won't mind at all.
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Oh, frankly, I'd be surprised if they DIDNT kill Jaya. Also, I seriously think Gideon might be biting the dust, from the 'hole in his chest' foreshadowing in the original trailer, and his whole prophecy about dying to a God. That's why we've got Teyo coming in as a mono-white PW, potentially to take his spot in the gatewatch. Or, Ajani takes up the veteran leader role, as he's been more mono-white in his older incarnations anyway. Also, Nissa may not 'die', but I think she'll still decide to leave back to Zendikar after everything is done, and Vivien might join them instead.
Ajani/Teyo, Jace, Lilli (davriel??), Chandra and Vivien feels like a natural progression to the gatewatch core. With Teferi, Karn (we gotta get an oath of karn when they go help him clean up phyrexia, right?? :D), and a few others being auxiliary members.
I really, really hope Dovin ends up betraying Bolas in the end. His values and goals have never felt super 'evil' or self-serving, and his alliance with Bolas has always struck me as sorta odd. I accept that he could hate the gatewatch, but helping Bolas ascend to Godhood by killing hundreds/thousands of PW doesn't feel like something he'd be interested in. I'm still thinking he's got a greater plan or he saw a weakness in Bolas' plan that he's planning to take advantage of.
Heck, maybe Bolas setting up PWs as guild leaders is gonna bite him in the ass when Jace now has power over them as the guildpact. We already know Vraska, Ral and Kaya are basically on his side, or will be. I wouldn't be surprised if Dovin and Domri are, too. At the same time, other then Dovin setting up some subtle scheme, that all feels like something Bolas would have easily foreseen and planned for. Figuring they'd help him until it was too late, and then it wouldn't matter, which is why I keep coming back to Dovin being the one that feels out of place. Previous flavor text told us he'd figured out the other PW helping Bolas on Ravnica. He just seems too smart to be easily manipulated, yet that seems to be the cover story so far.
That leaves a total of one planeswalker who's 1.) had a card in a main set, 2.) isn't dead, and 3.) isn't Garruk: Koth. He's not that popular and hasn't been seen in a while, but it's still a conspicuous absence. But since the story team has been heavily foreshadowed a return to New Phyrexia, I'm guessing there's a story reason for his exclusion too. Maybe the Phyrexians have found some way to keep him trapped on New Phyrexia? They're aware of the existence of planeswalkers, and while they don't have planar portals, I could see them building some kind of technological version of the Immortal Sun.
I don't see Koth willingly leaving New Phyrexia, though, since he's the de facto leader of whatever is left of the Mirran resistance. I mean, it's possible he could have left to look for allies himself, but the first time he did that it ended in the zaniest hearttransplant ever.
This makes sense with my theory that the beacon is forcing planeswalkers to planeswalk to Ravnica whenever they try to go anywhere else - if you just don't planeswalk, you don't end up on Ravnica.
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Angrath threw me at first, however it does make sense...if you make a couple of assumptions (which you know what that says). He shares colors with Bolas, he hates Jace and Hualti, probably Varaska as well. Varaska’s false memories probably have him featured. Bolas could be using him to to gather sparks, having forced him by “sparing” his family or holding them hostage.
Or he’s like Ob and Tibalt, sewing chaos
He's never actually met Jace, though? (Or Vraska, for that matter.)
Like, literally the closest Angrath and Jace/Vraska ever came to interacting in the Ixalan story was that Jace "sensed" a minotaur off in the jungle while he and Vraska were rowing their boat toward Orazca. Their paths never actually crossed, and Angrath would never have even known Jace existed.
This is twice that I've seen the idea that Angrath hates Jace posited, and I have no idea where people are getting it from. (The planeswalker decks? Which are full of events that never actually happened in the story?)
Because one I missremembered, two I wasn’t overly invested in the Ixalan storyline (took a break during Kaladesh, only barely came back for Ahamenkhet and took another short break during Ixalan). Was thinking that Jace and Varaska meet Angrath and Hulati while in the city.
So my original pet theory was that Ugin would ultimately take out Bolas like Flynn takes out CLU in Tron Legacy. I had heard War will happen on more than one plane, and I thought it might happen in the Meditation realm.
However, I was perusing Maro's Tumblr and he says that the mythic walkers are the main players of the story (Bolas, Gideon, Liliana), and that Ugin will be rare because he's only a supporting character, with 'a role to play.' Which is kind of disappointing, after the core set last year set up their history.
So if what Maro says is true, then it's Liliana and Gideon that are most likely to take down Bolas? And I think Maro also said the other plane isn't Amonkhet. So which plane might it be? Dominaria?
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Ob Nixilis
Ashiok
Nahiri
Ugin
Kiora
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
Also, some thinks, from a storytelling device used in the trailer (which is absolutely not a hint to timetravel by the way), that Teferi might go superman to save the day, but did Teferi even do something to the full extent of the time-space continuum like they suggest EVER? I know he can use time magic locally in a really small space, but to the entire multiverse? I don't think he can, unless historians here say otherwise.
One little thing more: the beacon is most probably not a beacon in the actual term, it's more likely a "tractor beam" (with the examples of Angrath AND EVEN MORE SORIN) triggering planeswalking to Ravnica. Also this opens a discussion on WHAT DID PREVENT THE BEACON TO ACTIVATE ON THE ABSENT PLANESWALKERS?
THIS. I don't know why everyone is thinking that the cards printed = all the planeswalkers on ravnica. There's literally hundreds (if not thousands) there, that we won't ever see. Also, there could be all kinds of reasons why some planeswalkers didn't show up. Maybe there are minor magical versions of the Immortal Sun's effect on certain planes. Maybe casting specific spells interferes with the beacon. Maybe it only pulls them in when they planeswalk. Maybe the planes are located within certain 'distances' of each other through the Blind Eternities, and some planes are 'too far' away for the beacon to reach them. The beacon was an invention of the izzet, it's not guaranteed to summon 100% of all the planeswalkers everywhere. They hardly knew about other planes until recently, the fact it worked this well is already impressive.
I mean, the real reason is that they can only fit so many stories into the lore, and then they can only fit so many cards into the set. There are a few noteworthy PW they left out, most of which because they have upcoming plans for them. They may find Koth when we goto phyrexia, or he's been turned into a phyrexian, who knows? Garruk might show up in this arc, or maybe afterwards, hunting down Lilli and her friends help beat him.
You might make the argument that certain PW should've gotten a card over another (dack vs saheeli, for example), but while I'd personally have preferred a Dack card, from WotC's marketing research maybe Saheeli is more popular among standard players. Since, she just had a powerful card in a recent set and she is also popular in casual play. Dack only gets played in vintage, and that's a very, very small subset of players compared to standard. Plus, they may have been trying to balance out ethnicities and male/female characters a little bit, or that might be part of why she's popular, even. I mean, is there even another 'Indian' woman planeswalker? India is a huge growing market on the internet, after all.
Oh, and I don't think Angrath is necessarily on bola's 'side'. People are reading a lot into his Amass ability, but I think that's just showing he has the ability to take over the existing zombies. One of the flavor texts has him pondering something like 'if i had a crew like that, i'd beat anyone'. I just think he's taking advantage of the chaos and trying to steal some of the Eternals.
Considering we now know the Amonkhet gods are back as Eternals, and Nissa had figured out how they worked, her showing back up now seems obviously important in defeating them. I mean, I know I'm not saying anything groundbreaking here by stating the gatewatch = important. But, the trailer + Lilli's card setup makes me think this story is gonna revolve around her most of all. I originally thought someone like Ugin, Teferi, Karn or Niv-Mizzet would be bailing out the gatewatch, that they would be in over their heads again, but I think she's on the same level as any of those guys once the contract gets broken somehow.
Also, on an unrelated note, someone above said they were just looking forward to seeing the paruns kick some ass. Same I really hope we get to see people like Rakdos, Selesnya, etc.. putting aside their differences to wreck some eternals in defense of Ravnica.
Also am I the only one surprised by the fact the eternals are just dead organic matter encased in lazotep? I thought the transformation in eternals would just substitute every organic matter with lazotep alloy, not just covering them... So how is the planar bridge able to evaporate a plant in the vase, but not a dead corpse in Lazotep? So actually ANYONE, EVEN ALIVE can travel through Tezz' portal if they have a total body lazotep armor... I understand this does not change anything or undermine any of Bolas design or Wizz planification, I'm just surprised.
On the timetravel matter: yes, but the examples quoted are of ONE PERSON TRAVELING THROUGH TIME (being Sarkhan or Karn), what people are suggesting now is that TIME GEST UNRAVELED BACK IN THE ENTIRE TIME-SPACE CONTINUUM by one mage. Has this kind of time manipulation got any precedent in Magic history?
Mark Rosewater said that Bolas specifically prevented Garruk from being pulled to Ravnica with the other walkers, since Garruk would screw up his plans by killing the trapped planeswalkers before Bolas could steal their sparks.
As for other missing planeswalkers, who else is there?
I agree with most of your list. It would be completely pointless to kill off characters like Ashiok, Tibalt, Ob Nixilis, Huatli, Angrath, Narset, and Arlinn who don't have any real connection to the overall plot or the main characters. I don't really see them killing off Saheeli either; while her death would have an impact on the Gatewatch, she's a very popular planeswalker who still has a lot of untapped story potential. I can see them killing off Kiora though, she's just relevant enough for her death to matter and the writers don't seem to know what to do with her anymore.
I also don't see them killing off characters they just introduced like Teyo, Davriel, and Yanggu, it's a complete waste of potential. (Also, it's been confirmed that Teyo will appear in the sequel novel, and Brandon Sanderson said that we'd see Davriel again.) But I disagree with you about the Wanderer, it's clear the story team is building up the mystery of her identity and have plans for her down the line. If any of the new walkers are going to die, it's going to be Kasmina, she seems like the kind of generic hero character who was created specifically to be cannon fodder.
As for the guildleaders, I could see any of them dying to redeem themselves by turning against Bolas. I don't think they'll all die, but I'd be surprised if none of them did. I see Kaya as the most likely to survive (she's got an interesting backstory and a unique power), and Dovin and Domri as the most likely to die (there's not much to them beyond "Lawful Stupid bureaucrat" and "Chaotic Stupid anarchist"). I think Vraska and Ral are somewhere in the middle, I'd prefer them to make it through, but I could also see either or both of them going out in a blaze of glory.
In terms of the Gatewatch and their allies, it's obvious enough that Ajani, Jace, Chandra, Gideon, and Liliana will all survive. And I strongly doubt Karn will die, they need him for the upcoming New Phyrexia storyline. Jaya and Nissa's deaths seem all but guaranteed, though, for all the reasons you mentioned. I could see Teferi going either way, there's not much left to do with him as a character, but the writers might not want to use the "old mentor figure sacrifices themselves to save the younger heroes" plot device twice in one story, plus they might not want to thin the Gatewatch's ranks too much and there's still the Zhalfir plot thread left hanging.
I'm almost certain that Bolas himself will die. I also don't see Vivien surviving, given that her entire purpose is taking him down. Similarly, I think Sarkhan's a goner, he's just too tied to the conflict between Bolas and Ugin. That said, I could see Samut dying for much the same reason; her story arc is entirely defined by what Bolas did to her homeworld, and while it would be incredibly bleak for her to die here, this is shaping up to be a fairly dark story overall. As for Ugin, I agree that it would be thematically appropriate for him to die alongside his twin, but I could also see the story team wanting to keep him around for future arcs.
Also, Sorin definitely isn't dying here, and neither is Nahiri. Mark Rosewater said that War of the Spark won't be the conclusion to their story. Although I do hope Ugin puts them both in their place at some point.
I also don't see the point of WOTC talking a big game about Diversity, repowering Teferi and then killing him in the next story.
I mean they got what two or three Black Males? Teferi...KOTH who we havent see in what a decade and I maybe Tezz? Who is about as evil as they come lol.
Is Tezz black? I always got more of a "white guy dreadlocks" vibe from him. Now that I'm looking at several different official arts of him, his features and skin tone change A LOT depending on who is drawing him. Sometimes he's clearly a black man, others he's indeterminate, others he's a white college sophomore who discovered pot freshman year.
But yeah, Teferi isn't dying. They didn't give him back his spark, have Karn ask him for help against phyrexia, and set up Zhalfir as a hook to return to dominaria just to kill him off a block later. They wouldn't have even brought him back, we already had Jhoira, Karn, and Jaya as nostalgic ties to old Dominaria. Jaya being the old mentor that dies has a lot more emotional impact and story relevance because she actually has been a mentor to chandra for an extended period of time, though we only recently learned she was actually Jaya. Teferi, to the gatewatch, is just some neat old dude they meant on their latest demon murder adventure, and even then Jace and Nissa have no connection to him. Most important, wizards isn't George RR Martin, they aren't going to kill off a fan favorite character who still has purpose in the story.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
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But yes Jaya is got the old mentor dies storyline sewn up if you ask me. Its a shame WOTC seems to not want to giver her a good card before they off her. Cause they love Chandra so much and she is not associated with a second color like Teferi.
We know that there is some sense of distance in the Blind Eternities and that planes move about. If you want to know why someone didn't appear? It is because they were too far away from Ravnica, for all we know The planes that Baldy, Loli, and The Lannisters come from are halfway across the Multiverse and they have never even heard of Ravnica or Nicol Bolas.
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
To my mind, Vivien is being potentially being positioned as the next focal green planeswalker to replace Nissa. For Nissa, given everything that happened in Amonkhet (and the subtitle of her War of the Spark card), I believe she will play a big role in defeating Bolas. From a narrative standpoint, that would be a good place to end her story arc (such as it is), since there doesn't really seem to be anywhere else her character can go. It would also be a good bait and switch with Liliana - the trailer makes you think they will kill one of the iconic Gatewatch members and then they instead kill a different one.
My one reservation about Nissa's potential death is this: WotC has been building up some kind of significant relationship (not necessarily romantic) between Chandra and Nissa (even Maro recently made a joking reference to it here) and from that perspective, I'm not sure they would want to kill both Jaya *and* Nissa (probably two of the three most important people in Chandra's life) off at the same time. For a variety of reasons other people have already brought up, I feel a lot more certain about Jaya's death.
Quick Edit - For the record, I would prefer that no preexisting character be killed off except Bolas. Every character is someone's favorite character, and even bad characters have plenty of potential in the hands of a good writer. Killing off characters just to show how serious the situation / how high the stakes are is one of the worst comic book cliches out there, but I can at least see the narrative case for Nissa, Liliana, Gideon, or Jaya dying (or Jace, as the Living Guildpact, but *no one* thinks that is going to happen).
Ugin being so powerful is probably why he takes a backseat in the story.
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
Jaya fans should be salty though she has got dead written all over her and WOTC wont let her get a good card cause it upstage Chandra.
Frankly, Jaya fans thought her dead for ten years, and were salty because it seemed that Wizards killed her offscreen. Her return in Dominaria was a treat, anything more of her continued existence is a bonus. She may die in peace now and I won't mind at all.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Ajani/Teyo, Jace, Lilli (davriel??), Chandra and Vivien feels like a natural progression to the gatewatch core. With Teferi, Karn (we gotta get an oath of karn when they go help him clean up phyrexia, right?? :D), and a few others being auxiliary members.
I really, really hope Dovin ends up betraying Bolas in the end. His values and goals have never felt super 'evil' or self-serving, and his alliance with Bolas has always struck me as sorta odd. I accept that he could hate the gatewatch, but helping Bolas ascend to Godhood by killing hundreds/thousands of PW doesn't feel like something he'd be interested in. I'm still thinking he's got a greater plan or he saw a weakness in Bolas' plan that he's planning to take advantage of.
Heck, maybe Bolas setting up PWs as guild leaders is gonna bite him in the ass when Jace now has power over them as the guildpact. We already know Vraska, Ral and Kaya are basically on his side, or will be. I wouldn't be surprised if Dovin and Domri are, too. At the same time, other then Dovin setting up some subtle scheme, that all feels like something Bolas would have easily foreseen and planned for. Figuring they'd help him until it was too late, and then it wouldn't matter, which is why I keep coming back to Dovin being the one that feels out of place. Previous flavor text told us he'd figured out the other PW helping Bolas on Ravnica. He just seems too smart to be easily manipulated, yet that seems to be the cover story so far.
I don't see Koth willingly leaving New Phyrexia, though, since he's the de facto leader of whatever is left of the Mirran resistance. I mean, it's possible he could have left to look for allies himself, but the first time he did that it ended in the zaniest heart transplant ever.
This makes sense with my theory that the beacon is forcing planeswalkers to planeswalk to Ravnica whenever they try to go anywhere else - if you just don't planeswalk, you don't end up on Ravnica.
Because one I missremembered, two I wasn’t overly invested in the Ixalan storyline (took a break during Kaladesh, only barely came back for Ahamenkhet and took another short break during Ixalan). Was thinking that Jace and Varaska meet Angrath and Hulati while in the city.
However, I was perusing Maro's Tumblr and he says that the mythic walkers are the main players of the story (Bolas, Gideon, Liliana), and that Ugin will be rare because he's only a supporting character, with 'a role to play.' Which is kind of disappointing, after the core set last year set up their history.
So if what Maro says is true, then it's Liliana and Gideon that are most likely to take down Bolas? And I think Maro also said the other plane isn't Amonkhet. So which plane might it be? Dominaria?