I hope one of the world's gods is created as a mockery of the Umezawas. Also - I think it would be great if Bolas were written more like Lord Beerus from Dragon Ball Super/Battle of the Gods. I know Bolas is a villain, but I also really want to like him.
I'm predicting a Rock III story, since we've been told about some kind of forge/trials thing. Question is - which Gatewatch gets to be Rocky, and who's gonna be our Clubber Lang?
I hope one of the world's gods is created as a mockery of the Umezawas. Also - I think it would be great if Bolas were written more like Lord Beerus from Dragon Ball Super/Battle of the Gods. I know Bolas is a villain, but I also really want to like him.
I'm predicting a Rock III story, since we've been told about some kind of forge/trials thing. Question is - which Gatewatch gets to be Rocky, and who's gonna be our Clubber Lang?
This is what i am talking about!!! i would love to see Bolas giving some hate out to his enemies of old on this plain!!!
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"Do the innocent pay for the crimes of the guilty? Of course they do. That's the fate of the weak."
—Nicol Bolas
I bet the story revolves around protagonists: Gideon, Lilliana and possibly Ajani (if he's not in KLD). I feel like that duo would be interesting there. the others will join later, just not in card.
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Wizards. listen. The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
I'd be fine with a partial victory, never a total victory on Amonkhet. I understand Bolas is supposed to be the ultimate villain, with virtually no way to defeat him, but wasn't Ajani already partially victorious at the end of the Alara block? Also, we know for the sake of storytelling, someday, somehow, someone is going to take Bolas down. Its the fate of every evil villain in a story that involves heroes, and all we are doing is complaining about who actually gets to do it. Does it matter if the Gatewatch does it, perhaps after many more years of experience? I personally feel that all the Gatewatch will do on Amonkhet is figure out what Bolas's aims are and that's it, maybe slow him down a bit, but no further.
Also, Emrakul being trapped really really can't be considered a victory. Sure Innistrad is temporary safe in a sense, but consider the losses. There were thousands of deaths, the loss of Avacyn, Sorin's entrapment, Thraben's possible destruction, the fates of many main characters (Thalia, Sigarda, Arlinn, etc.) mostly unknown, Emrakul's brood possibly being still active, werewolves making a comeback, the flight of nightmares coming into being and the loss of the majority of angels, the murders caused by the Lunarch inquisition, plus a lot more. Yep, a total victory I'd say. Furthermore, from Emrakul's perspective, she got everything she wanted. The world wasn't ready for her, so she wanted a place to wait, and the Gatewatch provided her with the perfect way to do it. From the Gatewatch's perspective, a possible victory, but they have no way of knowing.
I think Ajani didn't win on Alara. Bolas aim was to create the conflux and he did it. After the fight with Ajani he planeswalked away and wasn't harmed.
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I apologize for my English, it's not my main language.
Let's evaluate the Gatewatch's victories thus far:
Defeating Ulamog and Kozilek, saving Zendikar
Being tools for Emrakul to seal herself, saving Innistrad
Then we recall that the opponents the Gatewatch "defeated" had their release engineered by Bolas himself. Think about that for a moment.
I do not think Amonkhet will be a victory for the Gatewatch.
Let's evaluate the Gatewatch's victories thus far:
Defeating Ulamog and Kozilek, saving Zendikar
Being tools for Emrakul to seal herself, saving Innistrad
Then we recall that the opponents the Gatewatch "defeated" had their release engineered by Bolas himself. Think about that for a moment.
I do not think Amonkhet will be a victory for the Gatewatch.
It better not be, if they want people to keep caring about the story. It's been extremely predictable lately.
Look at Kaladesh, for example. It's not a matter of whether or not the Gatewatch will stop Tezzeret's plan (as we all know that they will), it's just a matter of what that plan is. If the plan was to help defeat Bolas, then it could lead to an amusing "congratulation, you played yourself" moment for the Gatewatch, but it's still a victory, because even if Tezzeret defeated Bolas, he would still be a manipulative planeswalker villain, even if slightly less powerful than Bolas.
4 victories in a row will make a lot of people lose interest in the story, myself included. Bolas should NOT be defeated in a single block.
i Like how everyone is passing by the question of how the gatewatch is going to get to amonkhet and the fact that they cant just go anywhere, they have to have felt a path there or unless in the end of aether revolt tezzeret throws them into the planar bridge thing to let his "master" deal with them.
Perhaps its just nostalgia but i really miss the days of yawgmoth and even the cabal. You dont really get the kind of slow moving, insidious villians in the story arch these days. All of their machinations were easily apparent but the actions and steps to achieve their ends were very subtle and far reaching. Also serra's plane was the last to be destroyed if memory serves me correctly. I miss large story archs like the legacy of urza story. Wotc has a captive audience already theres no rush to pump out storyline after storyline for the young masses. Hook them woth a quality line and theyll stay to see it through regardless. Saddest moment in my 23yr history with mtg was the death of urza
i Like how everyone is passing by the question of how the gatewatch is going to get to amonkhet and the fact that they cant just go anywhere, they have to have felt a path there or unless in the end of aether revolt tezzeret throws them into the planar bridge thing to let his "master" deal with them.
Planeswalkers can track someone who's just walked if they're fast enough, and Project Lightning Bug on Ravnica can identify both from where and to where a Planeswalker is going, if they stop through Ravnica on the way. Everyone leaves a trail.
Ajani also tells them of Amonkhet, and presumably in that process, how to get there. It's not as big of an issue as you might think.
So far the colors of planeswalkers are quite balance after ORI, only with absence of rakdos, golgari and dimir color planeswalkers. There is no point guessing the new planeswalker, so for the walkers we known, it is very likely that Bolas will be Rakdos(if not Grixis), vraska as the Golgari walker or Ashiok as the Dimir walker(I doubt that they will both show up together). And I think WotC is going to make more 3 colors planeswalkers, if Bolas is not RB then he is Grixis color, or we might have GW Ajani becoming Naya color(you know, DEVASTATION).
Since there will be at least one Gatewatch member in every block, we can first remove Chandra and Nissa from the possibility. They just got printed many times recently, and has very little connection to the story. It might be Jace tracking Vraska down to Amonkhet or Liliana searching for the next demon, and from there they realize the plot of Bolas and triggers the event. Gideon and/or Ajani might also show up in Hour of Devastation to help. But Ajani just got printed and we haven't seen Gideon for the last two blocks, so my guess is Gideon. If Ajani is not here, Bolas would be the 3-color planeswaler. Although Ashiok has a better reason here, her color might conflict with Bolas, so Vraska has a better chance. With Bolas and Vraska are also black-aligned and Lily's recent print, we probably won't get another Liliana here.
So the result might be:
W- Gideon
U- Jace
BG- Vraska
RBU- Bolas
and a new planeswalker,either black-aligned or white-aligned.
I hate to be that guy but....
I think Vraska (and Ajani for that matter)are going to be featured on some other plane very soon...
Edit: assuming at least the concepts behind these leaked Potential packaging is true. The products might not appear as these but that art, the work behind thes unified conceptualizations seem very real to me.
Hello, first time post here. IMO "Devastation" comes from the fact that Bolas could (maybe would) regain his oldwalker powers. It'll be AWESOME to have a double face Bolas like "Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker/Nicol Bolas, Oldwalker", that would bring some devastation to the multiverse. although i seriously doubt WotC it´s planning to do it, it's a hope i hold most dear.
On the other hand it's anoying that the power rangers (that's the perfect name for jace & co.) always wins
i Like how everyone is passing by the question of how the gatewatch is going to get to amonkhet and the fact that they cant just go anywhere, they have to have felt a path there or unless in the end of aether revolt tezzeret throws them into the planar bridge thing to let his "master" deal with them.
Planeswalkers can track someone who's just walked if they're fast enough, and Project Lightning Bug on Ravnica can identify both from where and to where a Planeswalker is going, if they stop through Ravnica on the way. Everyone leaves a trail.
Ajani also tells them of Amonkhet, and presumably in that process, how to get there. It's not as big of an issue as you might think.
Additionally, Liliana HAS been to Amonkhet. One of her Demon deals was done there. She can simply lead the Gatewatch there, much as she herself followed Chandra to Kaladesh.
No, them getting their asses handed to them on Innistrad but everything seemingly being fixed at the very end
does not count as a ''loss'' since Emrakul was sealed at the end. For better or for worse, Innistrad was saved and Emrakul was sealed. Their mission was a success.
Innistrad only lost all but one of its guardian Angels to madness or corruption, lost a good number of the human populace to Eldrazi corruption, saw the original church fall into fanatic zealotry with just an offshoot sliver retaining decency and sanity, and has the threat of Emrakul's eventual escape looming over it like a guillotine. Yeah, it's totally been "saved". Even if Emrakul's sealing makes it a technical victory, it sure as HFIL doesn't feel like one. Emrakul basically sealed herself away by possessing Tamiyo, so the heroes didn't truly defeat her, and the block's ending is anything but happy.
I find it galling how so many users on this forum treat the Zendikar and Innistrad victories as if they were just handed to the Gatewatch when the Gatewatch themselves had to push themselves to near death both times and many lives were lost on both worlds. Families torn apart, friends turned into foes, faiths shattered. But yeah, they're totally "successes" for the Gatewatch, even though so far the first 2/3 of their missions ended up as damage control with heavy casualties rather than outright prevention.
The war on Kaladesh did cause some damage, but far less than what happened on either Zendikar or Innistrad. The Gatewatch stopped Tezzeret from causing further damage with his Planar Bridge, while minimizing casualties on both sides and helping reform the Consulate into something better with Chandra's mom as the new Consul of Allocation. That's a victory, and a well-earned one at that, one that the entire renegade faction earned, not just the Gatewatch. That said, the news of Bolas and Amonkhet casts a shadow over even their most triumphant moment so far, so the Gatewatch still haven't had a clean "we win" moment.
Obviously I'm not expecting Bolas to be defeated by the Gatewatch on their own and certainly not for good. The principle of story drama indicates the Gatewatch should be imperiled at the end of Amonkhet the set, most likely as captives of Bolas, with HOD setting up a Big Damn Rescue courtesy Ajani and his allies (which I suspect will include Narset, Sarkhan, Tamiyo, and Ugin), which in turn leads to the Gatewatch recruiting new members (I anticipate at least two or three) and a temporary setback for Bolas, prompting the Elder Dragon to begin gathering allies of his own and plotting payback for the Gatewatch down the line. It delivers a positive outcome while also setting up new stories, expediting the addition of new members, and opening the door for more diverse Gatewatch representation in future blocks (so we're not stuck with just the Origins 5 and one multicolored guest all the time).
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MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
No, them getting their asses handed to them on Innistrad but everything seemingly being fixed at the very end
does not count as a ''loss'' since Emrakul was sealed at the end. For better or for worse, Innistrad was saved and Emrakul was sealed. Their mission was a success.
Innistrad only lost all but one of its guardian Angels to madness or corruption, lost a good number of the human populace to Eldrazi corruption, saw the original church fall into fanatic zealotry with just an offshoot sliver retaining decency and sanity, and has the threat of Emrakul's eventual escape looming over it like a guillotine. Yeah, it's totally been "saved". Even if Emrakul's sealing makes it a technical victory, it sure as HFIL doesn't feel like one. Emrakul basically sealed herself away by possessing Tamiyo, so the heroes didn't truly defeat her, and the block's ending is anything but happy.
And virtually none of that applies to the Gatewatch at all.
SOI block was absolutely catastrophic for the church, the plane, the people, but none of that was tied to the Gatewatch, or directly impacted them in any way. They came, they saw, they accomplished what they set out to do (even if only because Em did half the work for them).
For Innistrad it was and will likely continue to be a devastating loss/pyrrhic-at-best-victory.
For the Gatewatch it was just racking up another one for the good guys.
Modern Tallowisp Spirits - A Modern Tallowisp Deck UW
Eldrazi Ninjas - Summoning Octopus Jutsu YYYYAAAHHHH!
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I'm predicting a Rock III story, since we've been told about some kind of forge/trials thing. Question is - which Gatewatch gets to be Rocky, and who's gonna be our Clubber Lang?
I'll be honest, unless they bring back Annihilator, I never want to see another one. I used to love them, but the last few sets were an abomination
This is what i am talking about!!! i would love to see Bolas giving some hate out to his enemies of old on this plain!!!
—Nicol Bolas
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
—Nicol Bolas
I think Ajani didn't win on Alara. Bolas aim was to create the conflux and he did it. After the fight with Ajani he planeswalked away and wasn't harmed.
URXSurf's Up, Mizz Magnus!XRU
URGWKynaios and Tiro's Multiplayer MenagerieWGRU
Defeating Ulamog and Kozilek, saving Zendikar
Being tools for Emrakul to seal herself, saving Innistrad
Then we recall that the opponents the Gatewatch "defeated" had their release engineered by Bolas himself. Think about that for a moment.
I do not think Amonkhet will be a victory for the Gatewatch.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
It better not be, if they want people to keep caring about the story. It's been extremely predictable lately.
Look at Kaladesh, for example. It's not a matter of whether or not the Gatewatch will stop Tezzeret's plan (as we all know that they will), it's just a matter of what that plan is. If the plan was to help defeat Bolas, then it could lead to an amusing "congratulation, you played yourself" moment for the Gatewatch, but it's still a victory, because even if Tezzeret defeated Bolas, he would still be a manipulative planeswalker villain, even if slightly less powerful than Bolas.
4 victories in a row will make a lot of people lose interest in the story, myself included. Bolas should NOT be defeated in a single block.
Modern Tallowisp Spirits - A Modern Tallowisp Deck UW
Eldrazi Ninjas - Summoning Octopus Jutsu YYYYAAAHHHH!
STANDARD
Naban Wizards
Planeswalkers can track someone who's just walked if they're fast enough, and Project Lightning Bug on Ravnica can identify both from where and to where a Planeswalker is going, if they stop through Ravnica on the way. Everyone leaves a trail.
Ajani also tells them of Amonkhet, and presumably in that process, how to get there. It's not as big of an issue as you might think.
Since there will be at least one Gatewatch member in every block, we can first remove Chandra and Nissa from the possibility. They just got printed many times recently, and has very little connection to the story. It might be Jace tracking Vraska down to Amonkhet or Liliana searching for the next demon, and from there they realize the plot of Bolas and triggers the event. Gideon and/or Ajani might also show up in Hour of Devastation to help. But Ajani just got printed and we haven't seen Gideon for the last two blocks, so my guess is Gideon. If Ajani is not here, Bolas would be the 3-color planeswaler. Although Ashiok has a better reason here, her color might conflict with Bolas, so Vraska has a better chance. With Bolas and Vraska are also black-aligned and Lily's recent print, we probably won't get another Liliana here.
So the result might be:
W- Gideon
U- Jace
BG- Vraska
RBU- Bolas
and a new planeswalker,either black-aligned or white-aligned.
Sorry for my broken English.
I think Vraska (and Ajani for that matter)are going to be featured on some other plane very soon...
Edit: assuming at least the concepts behind these leaked Potential packaging is true. The products might not appear as these but that art, the work behind thes unified conceptualizations seem very real to me.
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
On the other hand it's anoying that the power rangers (that's the perfect name for jace & co.) always wins
Additionally, Liliana HAS been to Amonkhet. One of her Demon deals was done there. She can simply lead the Gatewatch there, much as she herself followed Chandra to Kaladesh.
Innistrad only lost all but one of its guardian Angels to madness or corruption, lost a good number of the human populace to Eldrazi corruption, saw the original church fall into fanatic zealotry with just an offshoot sliver retaining decency and sanity, and has the threat of Emrakul's eventual escape looming over it like a guillotine. Yeah, it's totally been "saved". Even if Emrakul's sealing makes it a technical victory, it sure as HFIL doesn't feel like one. Emrakul basically sealed herself away by possessing Tamiyo, so the heroes didn't truly defeat her, and the block's ending is anything but happy.
I find it galling how so many users on this forum treat the Zendikar and Innistrad victories as if they were just handed to the Gatewatch when the Gatewatch themselves had to push themselves to near death both times and many lives were lost on both worlds. Families torn apart, friends turned into foes, faiths shattered. But yeah, they're totally "successes" for the Gatewatch, even though so far the first 2/3 of their missions ended up as damage control with heavy casualties rather than outright prevention.
The war on Kaladesh did cause some damage, but far less than what happened on either Zendikar or Innistrad. The Gatewatch stopped Tezzeret from causing further damage with his Planar Bridge, while minimizing casualties on both sides and helping reform the Consulate into something better with Chandra's mom as the new Consul of Allocation. That's a victory, and a well-earned one at that, one that the entire renegade faction earned, not just the Gatewatch. That said, the news of Bolas and Amonkhet casts a shadow over even their most triumphant moment so far, so the Gatewatch still haven't had a clean "we win" moment.
Obviously I'm not expecting Bolas to be defeated by the Gatewatch on their own and certainly not for good. The principle of story drama indicates the Gatewatch should be imperiled at the end of Amonkhet the set, most likely as captives of Bolas, with HOD setting up a Big Damn Rescue courtesy Ajani and his allies (which I suspect will include Narset, Sarkhan, Tamiyo, and Ugin), which in turn leads to the Gatewatch recruiting new members (I anticipate at least two or three) and a temporary setback for Bolas, prompting the Elder Dragon to begin gathering allies of his own and plotting payback for the Gatewatch down the line. It delivers a positive outcome while also setting up new stories, expediting the addition of new members, and opening the door for more diverse Gatewatch representation in future blocks (so we're not stuck with just the Origins 5 and one multicolored guest all the time).
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
And virtually none of that applies to the Gatewatch at all.
SOI block was absolutely catastrophic for the church, the plane, the people, but none of that was tied to the Gatewatch, or directly impacted them in any way. They came, they saw, they accomplished what they set out to do (even if only because Em did half the work for them).
For Innistrad it was and will likely continue to be a devastating loss/pyrrhic-at-best-victory.
For the Gatewatch it was just racking up another one for the good guys.
I'm suspecting this is Alara all over again.
One thing I'm worried though: Amonket used to have eight gods, and three have gone missing. I hate that number.