Would it be cool to have the story start off as being a new plane, then midway through Teferi shows up and tells us we're actually on Dominaria? Dude, please clean your brain matter off my face
But in all seriousness, I have a problem thinking up with a story in which a long storyline on Dominaria, about Dominaria would make sense without the plane being shoehorned in. While part of it is because the place is massive and a thematic block does not work (i.e. horror for Innistrad, guilds for Ravnica, mythology for Theros), the crux of the problem is twofold:
1. Ravnica has become pivotal to most of the recent storylines
2. Time Spiral "took care" of the "messes" that had been made on the plane
Not to mention our inter-planar villains have little to no interest in the place. The Eldrazi haven't shown up yet, the Phyrexians are under new management, and when Nicol Bolas showed up on the plane he pretty much said "Yup, been there done that". And I will be honest, if the Eldrazi showed up to wipe the plane, I'd probably applaud it.
So I'll ask you (other readers): What would make a Return to Dominaria block (or set) worth it?
Lately, I've been rereading stories that took place in Dominaria. And the more I revisit the plain, the more thoughts of: "How To Destroy a Good Lore" comes to my mind. I honestly think that they should just be done with Dominaria, ease it's suffering, and destroy it with one cataclysmic explosion and relegate Ravnica as the center of the multiverse.
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I honestly think that they should just be done with Dominaria, ease it's suffering, and destroy it with one cataclysmic explosion and relegate Ravnica as the center of the multiverse.
...You're basically describing what happened.
Dominaria has been ravaged by like 6 apocalypses and is now "post-apocalyptic wasteland world", and Ravnica is the most frequently occurring setting in the lore.
There is nothing more that blowing up Dominaria can accomplish that isn't already happening.
Dominaria has been ravaged by like 6 apocalypses and is now "post-apocalyptic wasteland world", and Ravnica is the most frequently occurring setting in the lore.
There is nothing more that blowing up Dominaria can accomplish that isn't already happening.
Except for... y'know, NOT being a wasteland. It's "recovering post-apocalyptic world".
Except for... y'know, NOT being a wasteland. It's "recovering post-apocalyptic world".
Yeah, it never sounded like it was finished off. It always seems to rebound from cataclysmic events. I never visualized it as some destroyed plane bereft of life. It's still living and things are still going on. There's more than one continent on the plane, after all. Does the fact that it's like a nexus of Dominia aid it in recovering from these events?
I like the idea of Dominaria being the setting for a future wedge-color block. I don't think it was ever really explained what the 'volver cults were all about and it's easy to imagine weird religious organizations increasing in significance in the wake of multiple world-shattering catastrophes.
You know, I never really liked how Otaria was apparently untouched by the events of Invasion block. It would be like genocidal aliens attacking earth and somehow completely overlooking Australia. Dominaria was overrun with Phyrexians! Rath was overlaid on top of it! The Father of Machines himself physically manifested! I would have preferred it if Odyssey and Onslaught took place on a different plane altogether, so we'd see Dominaria getting invaded and then come back to see the aftermath in Time Spiral.
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Xantcha, Phyrexian Reject
Jodah, Archmage Eternal
Tovolar, Howlpack Alpha
Pivlic, Orzhov Informant
Crixizix, Master Engineer
Feather, Boros Peacekeeper
Marisi Coilbreaker
O-Kagachi
Gix, Phyrexian Praetor
Karn, Father of Machines
Yawgmoth, Father of Machines
Serra, Mother of All Angels
Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools
Leshrac the Nightwalker
Jeska, the Thrice-Touched
Elspeth Returned
Crucius the Mad
Taysir the Infinite
Urza's Head (Unglued!)
After all these retcons I'm a bit confused about what is canon and what isn't, but wasn't the glistening oil supposed to be a secret weapon that didn't see mass-scale use and none at all during the invasion of Dominaria? Unless, of course, they say that all oil on Phyrexia has the properties of the glistening oil.
The glistening oil on Mirrodin wasn't supposed to be oil. It was an unfinished weapon, but they screwed that up and declared the weapon to be glistening oil... with no regards to the fact that there is a TON of the stuff soaking into Dominaria.
Incidentally though, people are affected by it. But it didn't have the insane brainwashing properties until Mirrodin 2: Voltaic Boogaloo. https://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/arcana/1389
So yeah, it's all screwed up because of MaRo's "brilliant idea" and the big red retcon button.
Yeah. The whole Scars block was the time I ceased to care about the storyline in general and stopped considering myself to be a storyline expert, because they proved they are willing to retcon everything if it fits their intentions, and arguments based on detailed knowledge of the storyline and rules suddenly became less valid. The crappy Alara and Zendikar books culminated in the atrocity of Quest for Karn. The Mirrans were retconned back, the oil was made glistening oil, and don't get me started on the idiotic way of Karn getting his walkerhood back. That was indeed the last drop.
Oh well, in retrospect I can be glad that they did not resurrect Yawgmoth...
On topic: I agree that the biggest potential flaw of a return to Dominaria is the fact that the plane was home to numerous cultures, each one as different as the cultures of individual planes we are used to visit each year now. Pretty much the only unifying theme, the postapo-world, was done in Time Spiral. I think that one of the ways could be return to the history of the world.
If this would be a possibility, I would like to revisit Madara and Legends II setting very much. I just loved the books.
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Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Jodah and Jhoira returning to try and help Dominaria recover its pre-Invasion glory would make for a good ebook. Maybe even a Jodah planeswalker card. Alara is fine literature when you compare it to the Zendikar/Quest novels.
Jodah and Jhoira returning to try and help Dominaria recover its pre-Invasion glory would make for a good ebook. Maybe even a Jodah planeswalker card. Alara is fine literature when you compare it to the Zendikar/Quest novels.
Except for the entire... y'know, Jodah isn't a walker.
Suddenly making a character who wasn't a walker for his very long presence as a character into a walker years after he was last relevant as a character is terrible writing.
He had three novels as a protagonist. Depends on who's writing as to if its bad writing. Lebaron, the guy who did Nemesis, they could make it work. Grubb too, but I don't think he's with Wizards nowadays. Maybe the other Elder Dragons waking and building cults of followers and gaining influence with the people and sentients of Dominaria. Say one thing for the primevals, say they buggered their gambit up bigtime in the Invasion novels, and the Elders want to remind their children of thir former glory. Jodah wants to save Dominaria from their tyranny and ascends at some point. The heart of it is a classic fantasy type story of your hero farmboy going to battle big bad dragons with a distinctly Dominarian flavor.
Jodah, Jhoira, and Teferi get together to restart a new "Tolarian Academy." Their many centuries of knowledge could foster a new generation of mages and artificers that spread out to help rebuild Dominaria. This happens to draw the attention of one of the Neo-Walkers or the school actually finds out they are training a new Neo-Walker.
Jodah, Jhoira, and Teferi get together to restart a new "Tolarian Academy." Their many centuries of knowledge could foster a new generation of mages and artificers that spread out to help rebuild Dominaria. This happens to draw the attention of one of the Neo-Walkers or the school actually finds out they are training a new Neo-Walker.
Yawgmoth's defeat was a plot-point in the Invasion cycle, and it looks like he's still slinking around the ruins of old Phyrexia while Teferi tinkers with white mana for whatever reason...maybe casting a massive Circle of Protection over wherever he'd need to stick the stuff he phased out. What happened in some older books may or may not be important to the present, if the past is anything to go by.
Yawgmoth's defeat was a plot-point in the Invasion cycle, and it looks like he's still slinking around the ruins of old Phyrexia while Teferi tinkers with white mana for whatever reason...maybe casting a massive Circle of Protection over wherever he'd need to stick the stuff he phased out. What happened in some older books may or may not be important to the present, if the past is anything to go by.
Then the explicit word of god that there isn't even remnants of Phyrexia as a plane pretty much kills your defense there.
Yawgmoth's defeat was a plot-point in the Invasion cycle, and it looks like he's still slinking around the ruins of old Phyrexia while Teferi tinkers with white mana for whatever reason...maybe casting a massive Circle of Protection over wherever he'd need to stick the stuff he phased out. What happened in some older books may or may not be important to the present, if the past is anything to go by.
Then the explicit word of god that there isn't even remnants of Phyrexia as a plane pretty much kills your defense there.
I don't want to come off as snarky, because I'm genuinely wondering where we got told explicitly that Phyrexia as a plane is no more. I thought Phyrexia still exists but is damaged beyond repair and is fading away due to the fact it's an unnatural plane. (I guess it's dying a lot faster than natural planes but still too slow for mortals to witness the process.)
I don't want to come off as snarky, because I'm genuinely wondering where we got told explicitly that Phyrexia as a plane is no more. I thought Phyrexia still exists but is damaged beyond repair and is fading away due to the fact it's an unnatural plane. (I guess it's dying a lot faster than natural planes but still too slow for mortals to witness the process.)
But in all seriousness, I have a problem thinking up with a story in which a long storyline on Dominaria, about Dominaria would make sense without the plane being shoehorned in. While part of it is because the place is massive and a thematic block does not work (i.e. horror for Innistrad, guilds for Ravnica, mythology for Theros), the crux of the problem is twofold:
1. Ravnica has become pivotal to most of the recent storylines
2. Time Spiral "took care" of the "messes" that had been made on the plane
Not to mention our inter-planar villains have little to no interest in the place. The Eldrazi haven't shown up yet, the Phyrexians are under new management, and when Nicol Bolas showed up on the plane he pretty much said "Yup, been there done that". And I will be honest, if the Eldrazi showed up to wipe the plane, I'd probably applaud it.
So I'll ask you (other readers): What would make a Return to Dominaria block (or set) worth it?
...You're basically describing what happened.
Dominaria has been ravaged by like 6 apocalypses and is now "post-apocalyptic wasteland world", and Ravnica is the most frequently occurring setting in the lore.
There is nothing more that blowing up Dominaria can accomplish that isn't already happening.
Level 1 Judge
I write flavor articles for RoxieCards.
I play and judge at Giga Bites Cafein Marietta, Georgia.
Except for... y'know, NOT being a wasteland. It's "recovering post-apocalyptic world".
Oh, so its Odyssey block Otaria again?
B Lover Since '09 ~
Standard:
meh.
Modern:
Urzatron GR
Vintage:
Contol-Slaver UBR
EDH:
Drana B
Jhoira UR
Savra BG
Turned into:
Adun Oakenshield BGR
Sharuum BUW
Turned into:
Memnarch U
KiKi-Jiki R
Turned into:
Godo R
Turned into:
Aurelia RW
The Mimeoplasm UBG
Rasputin Dreamweaver UW
Turned into:
Geist of Saint Traft -French 1v1 UW
Nekusar UBR
Yeah, it never sounded like it was finished off. It always seems to rebound from cataclysmic events. I never visualized it as some destroyed plane bereft of life. It's still living and things are still going on. There's more than one continent on the plane, after all. Does the fact that it's like a nexus of Dominia aid it in recovering from these events?
Not quite.
THAT particular wasteland was "the last apocalypse never reached us" rather than "we're getting better from the last apocalypse"
Xantcha, Phyrexian Reject
Jodah, Archmage Eternal
Tovolar, Howlpack Alpha
Pivlic, Orzhov Informant
Crixizix, Master Engineer
Feather, Boros Peacekeeper
Marisi Coilbreaker
O-Kagachi
Gix, Phyrexian Praetor
Karn, Father of Machines
Yawgmoth, Father of Machines
Serra, Mother of All Angels
Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools
Leshrac the Nightwalker
Jeska, the Thrice-Touched
Elspeth Returned
Crucius the Mad
Taysir the Infinite
Urza's Head (Unglued!)
Yeah. The whole Scars block was the time I ceased to care about the storyline in general and stopped considering myself to be a storyline expert, because they proved they are willing to retcon everything if it fits their intentions, and arguments based on detailed knowledge of the storyline and rules suddenly became less valid. The crappy Alara and Zendikar books culminated in the atrocity of Quest for Karn. The Mirrans were retconned back, the oil was made glistening oil, and don't get me started on the idiotic way of Karn getting his walkerhood back. That was indeed the last drop.
Oh well, in retrospect I can be glad that they did not resurrect Yawgmoth...
On topic: I agree that the biggest potential flaw of a return to Dominaria is the fact that the plane was home to numerous cultures, each one as different as the cultures of individual planes we are used to visit each year now. Pretty much the only unifying theme, the postapo-world, was done in Time Spiral. I think that one of the ways could be return to the history of the world.
If this would be a possibility, I would like to revisit Madara and Legends II setting very much. I just loved the books.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Karn could always return to Dominaria to meet with his old friends and do an adventure.
I would like to see more Thran stuff, even an actual Thran theme deck.
Except for the entire... y'know, Jodah isn't a walker.
Level 1 Judge
I write flavor articles for RoxieCards.
I play and judge at Giga Bites Cafein Marietta, Georgia.
That's already a thing and they will kill you for messing with time magic.
Technically they've already trained two (dubious) walkers.
Then the explicit word of god that there isn't even remnants of Phyrexia as a plane pretty much kills your defense there.
I don't want to come off as snarky, because I'm genuinely wondering where we got told explicitly that Phyrexia as a plane is no more. I thought Phyrexia still exists but is damaged beyond repair and is fading away due to the fact it's an unnatural plane. (I guess it's dying a lot faster than natural planes but still too slow for mortals to witness the process.)
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/stf/107