They rushed through the Eldrazi, to the point that they shoe-horned Emrakul into Innistrad just so they could wrap it up as quickly as they could. Then the next several blocks basically focused solely on the Bolas arc so that they could get that done with and while for the most part they handled it alright, it was still over pretty quick for something that they had been building up more or less since what, Alara? Now we have Garruk's curse, the hunter of planeswalkers, he completely misses an all you can eat buffet of walkers back on Ravnica and we finally get him back and...they cure him, just like that. Did they ever really do anything with his curse or his newfound lust for planeswalker blood? No, not really, that would involve some effort and long-term story telling and actual stakes and consequences. Instead they just *poof* cure him amd we're done with it.
The problem is that pre-gatewatch Wizards loved to start plot threads without any definite plan on how to finish them. Once Garruk was cursed, they probably didn't quite know what to do with him, because nobody planned that far ahead. He went back and forth between "being healed" to "actually kinda not". The same can be seen with multiple storylines inbetween Time Spiral and Magic Origins. With Garruk being cursed now, the (post)gatewatch era being a thing and Elspeth supposed rescue coming up next it might be that Wizards is now trying to collect all those stray plotlines and weave a more coherent and planned story from now on.
Honestly not sure it was a very interesting plot line anyways so glad it’s over. I’d rather they hastily wrap up plots than expand on unappealing ones.
With Garruk being cursed now, the (post)gatewatch era being a thing and Elspeth supposed rescue coming up next it might be that Wizards is now trying to collect all those stray plotlines and weave a more coherent and planned story from now on.
They said that was a goal of the creative team going forward as part of the gatewatch-era story telling. The pacing of having 3 set blocks and switching in-between characters had a lot of storylines dragging as well as you said creative tossing out long running storylines threads without really knowing where they where going. Thats why since the gatewatch era we got Chandra past with her home fixed up, Jace's memories back, Liliana demons deals are done and Garruk been cured after 10 years of those storylines going on, as well as the ends of the eldraiz and Bolas arc as big bads which haven't been going for much shorter.
Garruk storyline issue was also a mess how looking back. It started with the webcomics which gave us his origins, fight with Liliana and leading Jace to Zendikar. Next was gonna be a novel featuring him and Liliana about the chain veil that got canceled so whatever storyline there was shelved. I'd think elements got used for Innistrad but again no novels so we got the barest of bones of story for him (with only his getting worse and fighting Liliana of note). Then we got the his core set in which the story is shakey canon-wise as it was a game with the two UR as the hard canon. So now 10 years of him being cursed I think it was good they finally just had that storyline wrapped up. Also add in that since he was the mono-green core set walker for so long many people thought he had already been cured or didn't know he was cursed or think it didn't happen until Innistrad.
Looking forward I think the cured Garruk has more to go. We don't need to keep thinking of the ticking time clock of him getting worse, it makes him a more active agent as a character, its showing growth as he learns to trust people through the Kenrith family and depends on how War of the Spark 2 goes with Liliana and the gatewatch it add a better dynamic. If Garruk was cursed and going mad would be easy for the gatewatch to side with Liliana and stop him and will now have the settings up of a more complex conflict.
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I think wizards missed the oportunity in (2015?) to make something with Garruk's curse, back there they did not know how much they were gonna push planeswalker design. Imo they should had made another coreset with the same Theme: Garruk's curse and in that coreset properly do cards for all important plots from the curse.
If not making a reprint from the chain veil then make a flavorfull card for the Chain Veil curse. They could do with garruk something similar to what they did to chandra in core 2020: an uncomon Garruk as a mono green walker prior to the curse (i know that for chandra the age-card order is rare, uncommon, Mythic) , a rare Garruk with some not fitting abilities like "-3: deal 4 damage to target creature or planeswalker. " or "+1: create a 3/3 black beast with death touch, sacrifice it at the end of turn", at mythic they could have done a GB or mono black garruk-demon hybrid with a turn into a creature static or loyalty ability.
About plots ending quickly i think it is normal cause they had before the model of folowing planeswalkers and focusing in one each year, soo when we had a villain and plot(that didn't end in a block) being introduced we had to wait literaly 3-4 years to see that being touched again (exemple: Ugin and Sarkhan). With the Gatewatch and one or 2 sets blocks they can quickly solve plots and that is cool but they did indeed overdone it a bit.
Following the gatewatchers is boring, eldraine for exemple gives me hope that they return to the separated story focus they had at Alara-Khans era. And i m ok with solving plots from 5-10 years ago, but yeah like you said, give some breaks between those, no need to rush it all. Imo they should focus on a long plots in a way that we have diferent plots starting and taking their time to end, this way the player base can feel entrertained.
Again, if they continue to make core sets as back story of walkers i do hope they do one for garruk and his curse. (and if they do, make that masked walker guy into a card, maybe do a core set with a cycle of walkers at rare rarity)
You can probably blame the lack of story guidance primarily on the fact that they had been more or less wrapping up one of the original big storylines the game has known since its inception and were trying to find ideas on how to move forward. From the Brothers' War and its tie in to the Weatherlight cycle, the arc spanned over a decade of lore and set design and character development etc. That's a lot to consider and I guess they were trying to find their right point and specific content to build on that would whet the lore tongues of those in the game. It's like the post-Apocalypse storyline with the Mirari felt weird and almost out of place.
The Gatewatch arc was an interesting concept but I think they took too long to build on it where it got to the point of people being tired of it way before it should've ended. The wrap-up in War felt premature. Hopefully they've learned their lesson(s) over the last 26 years and know how to develop a sound story without the sudden knee-jerk reaction or improper planning and developmental stages in between.
'buster
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'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset. Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
I mean, Gatewatch is still the story. And I don't think that it's as bad as people make it out to be, given that prior to the Gatewatch being a thing there was still basically what we had with them, just not really tied together.
Plot has been wasted since the continuity's inception. Just read the wonderful jabs and stabs the writers of the first novels and comics had to Creative.
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What a waste.
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They said that was a goal of the creative team going forward as part of the gatewatch-era story telling. The pacing of having 3 set blocks and switching in-between characters had a lot of storylines dragging as well as you said creative tossing out long running storylines threads without really knowing where they where going. Thats why since the gatewatch era we got Chandra past with her home fixed up, Jace's memories back, Liliana demons deals are done and Garruk been cured after 10 years of those storylines going on, as well as the ends of the eldraiz and Bolas arc as big bads which haven't been going for much shorter.
Garruk storyline issue was also a mess how looking back. It started with the webcomics which gave us his origins, fight with Liliana and leading Jace to Zendikar. Next was gonna be a novel featuring him and Liliana about the chain veil that got canceled so whatever storyline there was shelved. I'd think elements got used for Innistrad but again no novels so we got the barest of bones of story for him (with only his getting worse and fighting Liliana of note). Then we got the his core set in which the story is shakey canon-wise as it was a game with the two UR as the hard canon. So now 10 years of him being cursed I think it was good they finally just had that storyline wrapped up. Also add in that since he was the mono-green core set walker for so long many people thought he had already been cured or didn't know he was cursed or think it didn't happen until Innistrad.
Looking forward I think the cured Garruk has more to go. We don't need to keep thinking of the ticking time clock of him getting worse, it makes him a more active agent as a character, its showing growth as he learns to trust people through the Kenrith family and depends on how War of the Spark 2 goes with Liliana and the gatewatch it add a better dynamic. If Garruk was cursed and going mad would be easy for the gatewatch to side with Liliana and stop him and will now have the settings up of a more complex conflict.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
If not making a reprint from the chain veil then make a flavorfull card for the Chain Veil curse. They could do with garruk something similar to what they did to chandra in core 2020: an uncomon Garruk as a mono green walker prior to the curse (i know that for chandra the age-card order is rare, uncommon, Mythic) , a rare Garruk with some not fitting abilities like "-3: deal 4 damage to target creature or planeswalker. " or "+1: create a 3/3 black beast with death touch, sacrifice it at the end of turn", at mythic they could have done a GB or mono black garruk-demon hybrid with a turn into a creature static or loyalty ability.
About plots ending quickly i think it is normal cause they had before the model of folowing planeswalkers and focusing in one each year, soo when we had a villain and plot(that didn't end in a block) being introduced we had to wait literaly 3-4 years to see that being touched again (exemple: Ugin and Sarkhan). With the Gatewatch and one or 2 sets blocks they can quickly solve plots and that is cool but they did indeed overdone it a bit.
Following the gatewatchers is boring, eldraine for exemple gives me hope that they return to the separated story focus they had at Alara-Khans era. And i m ok with solving plots from 5-10 years ago, but yeah like you said, give some breaks between those, no need to rush it all. Imo they should focus on a long plots in a way that we have diferent plots starting and taking their time to end, this way the player base can feel entrertained.
Again, if they continue to make core sets as back story of walkers i do hope they do one for garruk and his curse. (and if they do, make that masked walker guy into a card, maybe do a core set with a cycle of walkers at rare rarity)
The Gatewatch arc was an interesting concept but I think they took too long to build on it where it got to the point of people being tired of it way before it should've ended. The wrap-up in War felt premature. Hopefully they've learned their lesson(s) over the last 26 years and know how to develop a sound story without the sudden knee-jerk reaction or improper planning and developmental stages in between.
'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.