Or well, at least anything but another "power of friendship saves the day" story again.
Yeah the Oath of the Gatewatch Storyline was the weakest I have seen since I have been playing Magic (Kamigawa block). Two great Nemesis destroyed in one attack. Lame.
@Yatsufusa: I'm a customer, they offer a product, I'm going to buy it if I like it. At the moment, I'm not liking what I've seen. That's all. If you are satisfied with what they offer, I'm not going to try and convince you you shouldn't be. But even with all the involvement of the community wizards established (which I really like), I still view myself only as a someone who they have to convince again for each product that it's worth my money.
And I'm not saying they should have anticipated that BFZ block would have created some dislike of eldrazi, but they should know that people at large don't want theme repetition in consecutive blocks. I doubt they would do a large artifact theme in a block following an artifact block. It should be obvious that that would raise eyebrows.
You're right. We're all customers in the end, each with different tastes. I understand the feeling - I personally didn't like Theros, although I could see why others liked it.
I know your decision was based on what we've seen so far, but I would like to point out that if a theme isn't at common, it isn't considered a theme. So far we've been given 2 Mythics and 2 Rares as preview cards. From what I've heard over at the Number Crunch Thread, Blogatog (MaRo's tumblr) established that there isn't any Devoid cards nor cards with C as a cost in EMN. While that doesn't confirm anything, it does show that mechanically Emrakul isn't going to be anything like Ulamog and Kozilek at the very least.
I guess you could say it has the same flavor-theme, but that's if you generalize the Eldrazi (and their inevitably) as a whole. According to "The Art of Zendikar" guidebook, Emrakul quite functions differently from Ulamog and Kozilek, right down to the way they create their Lineage (Ula and Kozi just create them, whereas Emrakul converts the local denizens to her lineage instead). BFZ and OGW literally just went straight to the fighting since the other two brood lineages don't have interesting creation processes, but if EMN is less about fighting but more about the creation itself, then the theme is rather different.
While I wouldn't say that I'm not trying to convince anyone at all (this is a forum after all), but I'm not going to force the opinion on people either, I just felt like stating the opinion that the theme can still be vastly different at this point of time and simply saying it's definitively BFZ3 simply because there's Emrakul and a few Eldrazis is quite shallow in my opinion. While I may foresee that indeed, the people at large may not like the repetition based on that assumption and sales will take a hit because of that, I still think at the end of the day, we can't declare the set a "cut-and-paste" of BFZ/OGW all because Emrakul showed up.
They have the same title of "Eldrazi" and Ulamog and Kozilek might have a bit too similar for our liking, but to write off Emrakul because of that is like writing off a set for featuring a planeswalker again (Jace being a good culprit here). I find the overarching appearance of a species on two consecutive planes that's not a planeswalker a rather refreshing change, actually. But that's just my opinion. We'll just have to agree to disagree here.
I take this as a sign that they are going to let the blocks bleed over more into each other to attempt to create a longer, linear story with the planeswalkers instead of resetting the story for each new block. We might see stuff happening in this block affecting the next block, such as some Innistrad vampire/werewolf lord gaining power and wrecking stuff in Kaladesh, or something happening to one of the planeswalkers that will impact his/her story going forward... this leading into some Kaladesh thopter troop saving the day in the block after that, et cetera et cetera.
I`m not sure if I like it personally, but I can see how they might think that this will engage fans and create a more immersive experience, and for all I know, they might be right.
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Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
I hated Battle For Zendikar on the initial release, after the Eldrazi Modern deck for Processor was completed, I enjoyed the constructed design. It wasn't until it was broken with Oath of the Gatekeepers that created Eldrazi Winter that people hated the Eldrazi. Quite frankly, I vastly enjoyed the colorless set.
Shadows Over Innistraad is a good set, but it was Odyssey all over again with a better veneer. It killed off one of my favorite characters as well. With this it takes one of my favorite walkers, one of my favorite planes, and one of my favorite concepts with mutations and such. SOI is to Odyssey as Eldritch Moon is to Onslaught with Emrakul being super Miari and the Mutant creature type being replaced with Eldrazi.
I feel that this is necessary to complete the Eldrazi cycle and have the final showdown with the Eldrazi. If this is the end of the line for the Eldrazi as a tribe, then it has to be good. Frankly, I enjoy having the push to have some more Eldrazi's available. The original ROI ones sucked outside of two, while it took the second block to really to make them a thing.
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I just don't get why they brought emrakul there. There was no need for that. We just had an eldrazi block, and everyone was glad when it finished. They could easily have made cosmic horror without eldrazi.
So yeah, I'm glad that eldrazi will not be the focus. Still disappointed that they're there at all.
I am not sure about that. Look at it in this way:
When Eldrazi were first introduced, they were advertised as eldritch, lovecraftian style horrors. In RoE, there was not enough exposition of the Titans themselves, and fighting the spawn and drones was just Phyrexian invasion repeated. So these expectations were kind of not met and we were disappointed.
Now, in EMN, six years after introduction, and after two/three if you count SoI/ sets, they are finally making them justice. This is what the Eldrazi were meant to embody, were expected to be. What Emrakul does here is Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, Abhoth and Yog-Sothoth rolled into one. They had to retcon Emrakul into warping and corrupting the living matter, but well, everything comes at price.
Which would mean if they want to do the Lovecraftian idea true justice, it HAS to end with Emrakul trapped in the Heron Moon or on the loose to travel to another plane. They can't kill her off.
I do not agree at all. You may be annoyed by seeing Emrakul invade Innistrad, but I am not, and its a perfect fit for cosmic horror. You suggested that maybe they could have done cosmic horror with something else, but whats the point of that? Make up a different tentacled eldritch horror creature, call it "totally not Emrakul, this is something else", and its fine?
To be fair, Marit Lage already exists. When they made Emrakul the first time they were making up a different tentacled edritch horror creature that was totally not Marit Lage. And it was fine.
In this case though, they just showed Ulamog and Kozilek, so people are going to want to see the cycle completed. You can't do cosmic horror in the very next block and not have it feature Emrakul.
Sure they could've. They just didn't. It had more to do with the original design of the BFZ block than it did about any sort of story integrity.
@Yatsufusa your theory kind of falls flat, Maro said they knew they where going back to Innistrad before the two set shift. They even knew they where going to Kaladesh when they start designing magic origins. SoI was always return to Innistrad not core set 2017 or the third set to Zendikar.
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Glad to hear it. I'm fine with Emrakul being here, but I was really hoping there would be no other Eldrazi. When Coax from the Blind Eternities was spoiled, I was not pleased. So hopefully that's just a random one-off and the other colorless cards will somehow not be Eldrazi.
While that's true, Coax needs to have something to do in Limited (As Coax + Emrakul is unfeasible in limited)
Be sure that because of Coax we will see a fair number of Eldrazi commons. There will probably be at least 1 Eldrazi per pack.
I still feel a emrakul wastes and a few eldrazis like the ones from BFZ block will still be in this
I don't think we'll see Wastes. Again, since C is a Kozilek exclusive mechanic I can't see any reason why it would be included here. And without C in costs there is no need for Wastes.
I take this as a sign that they are going to let the blocks bleed over more into each other to attempt to create a longer, linear story with the planeswalkers instead of resetting the story for each new block. We might see stuff happening in this block affecting the next block, such as some Innistrad vampire/werewolf lord gaining power and wrecking stuff in Kaladesh, or something happening to one of the planeswalkers that will impact his/her story going forward... this leading into some Kaladesh thopter troop saving the day in the block after that, et cetera et cetera.
I`m not sure if I like it personally, but I can see how they might think that this will engage fans and create a more immersive experience, and for all I know, they might be right.
I feel like this is exactly on point. With only two sets to explore a story, Wizards may have to get creative to fit everything they want in a storyline. Despite WOTC's sometimes weak story focus in the past, three set blocks were perfect for story telling. One set for the beginning, one for the middle, one for the end. With two, they have to fit a lot more story into each card. I predict this sort of "story bleed" will be occurring way more often.
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Incorrect. Colorless mana is NOT restricted to Kozilek in ANY way. Yes, colorless COSTS are currently tied only to Koilek, but there is no reason they couldn't use colorless costs in a future set not related to the Eldrazi in any way.
Correct. I was specifically referring to costs - obviously things line Warped Landscape already exist on Innistrad.
If there are no cards that have C in their costs, there is no need for wastes. It will be strictly worse than any other basic land.
Yes, in a future set we might see it in a way not tied to Eldrazi (As we saw hybrid in Shadowmoor not tied to guilds) However since this set has Emrakul and C costs are Kozilek's thing, I stand by my opinion that C costs will not be in this set.
As for Emrakul getting a Wastes art in EMN, Ulamog and Kozilek BOTH have Wastes art (albeit in the same set), so it actually makes sense for Emrakul to get a Wastes art as well.
No, it doesn't. Wastes is useless in a set that doesn't have cards that require C to cast - and I guarantee you this set won't do that.
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@Yatsufusa your theory kind of falls flat, Maro said they knew they where going back to Innistrad before the two set shift. They even knew they where going to Kaladesh when they start designing magic origins. SoI was always return to Innistrad not core set 2017 or the third set to Zendikar.
Wasn't that just a general comment regardless of block structure? They could be confident that they would return to Innistrad (and visit Kaladesh), but not exactly when. If the two set shift not been approved, then BFZ might have been a 3-set block (one for each titan) and Innistrad another 3-set block taking Kaladesh's timeslot (and Kaladesh would be the year after). Do you have a quote that MaRo said they exactly planned Emrakul on Innistrad even if BFZ had to be a 3-set block instead?
Planning to return to Innistrad doesn't automatically means they got the plot of that Return planned out the minute they decided (based on feedback reports) they might return to it. They could have planned to return to Ravnica for a long time already, but they still let Agents of Artifice more or less state that the Guilds were sort of fallen (which was then retcon'ed back when we got to RTR because they realized no one wants an entirely guildless Ravnica).
I just don't get why they brought emrakul there. There was no need for that. We just had an eldrazi block, and everyone was glad when it finished. They could easily have made cosmic horror without eldrazi.
[disagree]
Eldrazi were supposed to be cosmic horrors in Lovecraftian style. This is the Eldrazi block we always needed.
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My issue with Eldrazi is how terrible BFZ was on so many levels. The titans should have been the sole focus as villains, and they should not have gone down in the story as they did, either. The brood lineage with such a high volume of Eldrazi making the set heavily tribal alongside allies felt extremely polarizing. Devoid was awkward, and not in a good way. The art is abstract and reminiscent of what was the reason Kamigawa had been received poorly despite having many loved cards and a popular mythos - the Kami art. Shinto was not the ideal approach, and an overwhelming number of Eldrazi and colorless crowding out Adventure World and what was originally a Monochrome plane just did not resonate well. It even lead to Eldrazi fatigue AND stole the spotlight from the main titans.
Please people, I beg you, stop calling this block "cosmic horror". That term has a very specific definition, and it cannot be applied to a story about superheroes fighting a space-jellyfish.
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Wasn't that just a general comment regardless of block structure? They could be confident that they would return to Innistrad (and visit Kaladesh), but not exactly when. If the two set shift not been approved, then BFZ might have been a 3-set block (one for each titan) and Innistrad another 3-set block taking Kaladesh's timeslot (and Kaladesh would be the year after). Do you have a quote that MaRo said they exactly planned Emrakul on Innistrad even if BFZ had to be a 3-set block instead?
I'll look around his blog and articles but Maro has said that the two set shift happened in the middle battle for zendikar block, which means Innistrad was in exploratory design by then and Kaladesh was on deck.
Planning to return to Innistrad doesn't automatically means they got the plot of that Return planned out the minute they decided (based on feedback reports) they might return to it. They could have planned to return to Ravnica for a long time already, but they still let Agents of Artifice more or less state that the Guilds were sort of fallen (which was then retcon'ed back when we got to RTR because they realized no one wants an entirely guildless Ravnica).
Very true, however Maro has said he rather have had SoI come out around halloween for marketing, but they couldn't since everything was already too far along. This implies the story and/or the mechanic structure was already thought out enough they could not move it and Kaladesh around.
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Please people, I beg you, stop calling this block "cosmic horror". That term has a very specific definition, and it cannot be applied to a story about superheroes fighting a space-jellyfish.
Then please, enlighten us to the correct definition of Cosmic Horror.
Please people, I beg you, stop calling this block "cosmic horror". That term has a very specific definition, and it cannot be applied to a story about superheroes fighting a space-jellyfish.
Then please, enlighten us to the correct definition of Cosmic Horror.
Please people, I beg you, stop calling this block "cosmic horror". That term has a very specific definition, and it cannot be applied to a story about superheroes fighting a space-jellyfish.
Then please, enlighten us to the correct definition of Cosmic Horror.
This isn't really the thread for that. If you want a detailed guide, Google the terms "Cosmic horror" and "Cosmicism" (stay away from Wikipedia and TVTropes, tho).
If you want a REALLY detailed guide, read Lovecraft's letters and S. T. Joshi's commentaries.
If you can't be bothered to do any of that: Cosmic horror is fiction informed by Lovecraft's philosophy of cosmicism, which asserts that human beings -- their lives, works, sentiments and ideals -- are insignificant against the immensity of time and space and the backdrop of a blind, alien and uncaring universe. It's important in literary history because it essentially made Lovecraft the Copernicus of fiction.
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Are you actually trying to argue that Emrakul is somehow NOT pretty much just a Great Old One? I see Lovecraft's cosmic horror invading a setting of Gothic horror... the genre HPL started with. What is that colorless quality other than an absolute lack of regard for our level of existence, our definitions? A being of hideous power approaching the world from Outside, totally outside of the classifications and tropes of this reality. Emrakul is a space jellyfish like Cthulhu is a space octopus. That is a small extension of Cthulhu's real being, misinterpreted as just a big extradimensional psychic Godzilla.
I just don't get why they brought emrakul there. There was no need for that.
Emrakul on Innistrad is the perfect fit. Using the Titan of Corruption to shift Innistrad's gothic horror towards Lovecraftian cosmic horror? Perfect! There wouldn't have been a better way to do this. Was therefore absolutely needed.
We just had an eldrazi block, and everyone was glad when it finished.
I still don't get all the hate for the BFZ block. The execution was a bit rough and it had some flaws, but the general gist was good. It certainly wasn't "everyone" that disliked it and was glad when it finished. "you" =/= "everyone" Is this just another instance of a certain minority hating on a type of Magic villain, like it was the case with the return of the Phyrexians in Scars block?
They could easily have made cosmic horror without eldrazi.
Not anymore. They could have done that before the original Zendikar block, but now, Eldrazi are Magic's version of cosmic horror. So, if they want to do cosmic horror, it has to involve the Eldrazi.
Are you actually trying to argue that Emrakul is somehow NOT pretty much just a Great Old One? I see Lovecraft's cosmic horror invading a setting of Gothic horror... the genre HPL started with.
Whether or not Emrakul is supposed to be a Great Old One is immaterial. An MTG block can never be cosmic horror, because the concept of planeswalkers puts human beings at the centre of the universe.
There are other points, too: For instance, non-humans and even the Eldrazi themselves feel fear -- Ulamog and Kozilek were described as being scared after Chandra went super-Saiyan on their asses -- suggesting that human emotions are not just limited to a tiny speck of dust in a single brief moment of the universe, but are in fact a quality inherent to the multiverse itself -- a decidedly anthropocentric conceit.
A being of hideous power approaching the world from Outside, totally outside of the classifications and tropes of this reality.
Steady on, bro. Emrakul may be described as a being of hideous and unfathomable power, but she is completely at the mercy of Hasbro's marketing department, and will eventually be humiliated by the power rangers -- you know this. Sure, Cthulhu got rammed by a ship, but it's important to note that Lovecraft hated doing stuff like that, and felt he had been reduced to a hack by his financial concerns. The MTG creative team have no such qualms.
It's also important to note that not everything Lovecraft wrote about aliens was cosmic horror.
Non-human planeswalkers exist. Hell, Emrakul is one. Not represented by a planeswalker card, but given the way she just went "bye!" and left Zendikar, to travel to another plane, she is by definition a planeswalker.
Plane travelers and Planeswalkers are not the same thing. Emrakul doesn't have a Spark.
The basics, for Yawgmoth's sake!
Doesn't she? Just because we've not been told she does? For all we know she came into existence with her spark ignited.
Yawgmoth doesn't count, he was specifically called out as "not a plansewalker".
Are you actually trying to argue that Emrakul is somehow NOT pretty much just a Great Old One? I see Lovecraft's cosmic horror invading a setting of Gothic horror... the genre HPL started with.
Whether or not Emrakul is supposed to be a Great Old One is immaterial. An MTG block can never be cosmic horror, because the concept of planeswalkers puts human beings at the centre of the universe.
There are other points, too: For instance, non-humans and even the Eldrazi themselves feel fear -- Ulamog and Kozilek were described as being scared after Chandra went super-Saiyan on their asses -- suggesting that human emotions are not just limited to a tiny speck of dust in a single brief moment of the universe, but are in fact a quality inherent to the multiverse itself -- a decidedly anthropocentric conceit.
A being of hideous power approaching the world from Outside, totally outside of the classifications and tropes of this reality.
Steady on, bro. Emrakul may be described as a being of hideous and unfathomable power, but she is completely at the mercy of Hasbro's marketing department, and will eventually be humiliated by the power rangers -- you know this. Sure, Cthulhu got rammed by a ship, but it's important to note that Lovecraft hated doing stuff like that, and felt he had been reduced to a hack by his financial concerns. The MTG creative team have no such qualms.
It's also important to note that not everything Lovecraft wrote about aliens was cosmic horror.
To this, I can only shrug. The word Lovecraftian doesn't really mean anything anymore.
Couldn't agree more with all of these points. I find it tiresome that some people just have to cover their ears and go all "I can't hear you!" when presented with facts.
Really guys, go read Joshi before you discuss the topic of cosmic horror. To provide an analogy to how you act: Adrian Sullivan wrote an article some time ago explaining what is an aggro-control deck. In it he told a story how he noticed that people think aggro-control is midrange, because sometimes it plays like aggro and sometimes like control. Did them calling a specific WB deck an aggro-control changed the fact that the deck was a midrange? Definitely not. Now, you here argue that the current Innistrad story is a cosmic horror, but you not knowing what the term 'cosmic horror' means does not make it a cosmic horror story any more than Avengers were a cosmic horror story. I will not add any concrete explanations, Bhogal83 already did that in a sufficient manner without getting too technical. I just want to ask you to actually do some research on your own before you go spewing BS all over the internet. But hey, what do I know - it seems that's the actual purpose of the internet. Carry on, then.
Yeah the Oath of the Gatewatch Storyline was the weakest I have seen since I have been playing Magic (Kamigawa block). Two great Nemesis destroyed in one attack. Lame.
You're right. We're all customers in the end, each with different tastes. I understand the feeling - I personally didn't like Theros, although I could see why others liked it.
I know your decision was based on what we've seen so far, but I would like to point out that if a theme isn't at common, it isn't considered a theme. So far we've been given 2 Mythics and 2 Rares as preview cards. From what I've heard over at the Number Crunch Thread, Blogatog (MaRo's tumblr) established that there isn't any Devoid cards nor cards with C as a cost in EMN. While that doesn't confirm anything, it does show that mechanically Emrakul isn't going to be anything like Ulamog and Kozilek at the very least.
I guess you could say it has the same flavor-theme, but that's if you generalize the Eldrazi (and their inevitably) as a whole. According to "The Art of Zendikar" guidebook, Emrakul quite functions differently from Ulamog and Kozilek, right down to the way they create their Lineage (Ula and Kozi just create them, whereas Emrakul converts the local denizens to her lineage instead). BFZ and OGW literally just went straight to the fighting since the other two brood lineages don't have interesting creation processes, but if EMN is less about fighting but more about the creation itself, then the theme is rather different.
While I wouldn't say that I'm not trying to convince anyone at all (this is a forum after all), but I'm not going to force the opinion on people either, I just felt like stating the opinion that the theme can still be vastly different at this point of time and simply saying it's definitively BFZ3 simply because there's Emrakul and a few Eldrazis is quite shallow in my opinion. While I may foresee that indeed, the people at large may not like the repetition based on that assumption and sales will take a hit because of that, I still think at the end of the day, we can't declare the set a "cut-and-paste" of BFZ/OGW all because Emrakul showed up.
They have the same title of "Eldrazi" and Ulamog and Kozilek might have a bit too similar for our liking, but to write off Emrakul because of that is like writing off a set for featuring a planeswalker again (Jace being a good culprit here). I find the overarching appearance of a species on two consecutive planes that's not a planeswalker a rather refreshing change, actually. But that's just my opinion. We'll just have to agree to disagree here.
I`m not sure if I like it personally, but I can see how they might think that this will engage fans and create a more immersive experience, and for all I know, they might be right.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
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Shadows Over Innistraad is a good set, but it was Odyssey all over again with a better veneer. It killed off one of my favorite characters as well. With this it takes one of my favorite walkers, one of my favorite planes, and one of my favorite concepts with mutations and such. SOI is to Odyssey as Eldritch Moon is to Onslaught with Emrakul being super Miari and the Mutant creature type being replaced with Eldrazi.
I feel that this is necessary to complete the Eldrazi cycle and have the final showdown with the Eldrazi. If this is the end of the line for the Eldrazi as a tribe, then it has to be good. Frankly, I enjoy having the push to have some more Eldrazi's available. The original ROI ones sucked outside of two, while it took the second block to really to make them a thing.
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Which would mean if they want to do the Lovecraftian idea true justice, it HAS to end with Emrakul trapped in the Heron Moon or on the loose to travel to another plane. They can't kill her off.
Sure they could've. They just didn't. It had more to do with the original design of the BFZ block than it did about any sort of story integrity.
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(By eldrazis like BFZ block I mean pure breed not mutated double creature)
While that's true, Coax needs to have something to do in Limited (As Coax + Emrakul is unfeasible in limited)
Be sure that because of Coax we will see a fair number of Eldrazi commons. There will probably be at least 1 Eldrazi per pack.
I don't think we'll see Wastes. Again, since C is a Kozilek exclusive mechanic I can't see any reason why it would be included here. And without C in costs there is no need for Wastes.
I feel like this is exactly on point. With only two sets to explore a story, Wizards may have to get creative to fit everything they want in a storyline. Despite WOTC's sometimes weak story focus in the past, three set blocks were perfect for story telling. One set for the beginning, one for the middle, one for the end. With two, they have to fit a lot more story into each card. I predict this sort of "story bleed" will be occurring way more often.
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Correct. I was specifically referring to costs - obviously things line Warped Landscape already exist on Innistrad.
If there are no cards that have C in their costs, there is no need for wastes. It will be strictly worse than any other basic land.
Yes, in a future set we might see it in a way not tied to Eldrazi (As we saw hybrid in Shadowmoor not tied to guilds) However since this set has Emrakul and C costs are Kozilek's thing, I stand by my opinion that C costs will not be in this set.
No, it doesn't. Wastes is useless in a set that doesn't have cards that require C to cast - and I guarantee you this set won't do that.
Wasn't that just a general comment regardless of block structure? They could be confident that they would return to Innistrad (and visit Kaladesh), but not exactly when. If the two set shift not been approved, then BFZ might have been a 3-set block (one for each titan) and Innistrad another 3-set block taking Kaladesh's timeslot (and Kaladesh would be the year after). Do you have a quote that MaRo said they exactly planned Emrakul on Innistrad even if BFZ had to be a 3-set block instead?
Planning to return to Innistrad doesn't automatically means they got the plot of that Return planned out the minute they decided (based on feedback reports) they might return to it. They could have planned to return to Ravnica for a long time already, but they still let Agents of Artifice more or less state that the Guilds were sort of fallen (which was then retcon'ed back when we got to RTR because they realized no one wants an entirely guildless Ravnica).
Eldrazi were supposed to be cosmic horrors in Lovecraftian style. This is the Eldrazi block we always needed.
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I'll look around his blog and articles but Maro has said that the two set shift happened in the middle battle for zendikar block, which means Innistrad was in exploratory design by then and Kaladesh was on deck.
Very true, however Maro has said he rather have had SoI come out around halloween for marketing, but they couldn't since everything was already too far along. This implies the story and/or the mechanic structure was already thought out enough they could not move it and Kaladesh around.
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Then please, enlighten us to the correct definition of Cosmic Horror.
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(Again they confirmed not eldrazi focused just a. Few will be like from the other sets.)
This isn't really the thread for that. If you want a detailed guide, Google the terms "Cosmic horror" and "Cosmicism" (stay away from Wikipedia and TVTropes, tho).
If you want a REALLY detailed guide, read Lovecraft's letters and S. T. Joshi's commentaries.
If you can't be bothered to do any of that: Cosmic horror is fiction informed by Lovecraft's philosophy of cosmicism, which asserts that human beings -- their lives, works, sentiments and ideals -- are insignificant against the immensity of time and space and the backdrop of a blind, alien and uncaring universe. It's important in literary history because it essentially made Lovecraft the Copernicus of fiction.
-- The Gatewatch
Phyrexia is pretty Lovecraftian at times, too.
I still don't get all the hate for the BFZ block. The execution was a bit rough and it had some flaws, but the general gist was good. It certainly wasn't "everyone" that disliked it and was glad when it finished. "you" =/= "everyone" Is this just another instance of a certain minority hating on a type of Magic villain, like it was the case with the return of the Phyrexians in Scars block?
Not anymore. They could have done that before the original Zendikar block, but now, Eldrazi are Magic's version of cosmic horror. So, if they want to do cosmic horror, it has to involve the Eldrazi.
Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
Whether or not Emrakul is supposed to be a Great Old One is immaterial. An MTG block can never be cosmic horror, because the concept of planeswalkers puts human beings at the centre of the universe.
There are other points, too: For instance, non-humans and even the Eldrazi themselves feel fear -- Ulamog and Kozilek were described as being scared after Chandra went super-Saiyan on their asses -- suggesting that human emotions are not just limited to a tiny speck of dust in a single brief moment of the universe, but are in fact a quality inherent to the multiverse itself -- a decidedly anthropocentric conceit.
It's a game mechanic.
Steady on, bro. Emrakul may be described as a being of hideous and unfathomable power, but she is completely at the mercy of Hasbro's marketing department, and will eventually be humiliated by the power rangers -- you know this. Sure, Cthulhu got rammed by a ship, but it's important to note that Lovecraft hated doing stuff like that, and felt he had been reduced to a hack by his financial concerns. The MTG creative team have no such qualms.
It's also important to note that not everything Lovecraft wrote about aliens was cosmic horror.
To this, I can only shrug. The word Lovecraftian doesn't really mean anything anymore.
-- The Gatewatch
http://dougbeyermtg.tumblr.com/post/77207457615/since-the-eldrazi-are-from-the-blind-eternities
Here you go. No spark for the Eldrazi.
Couldn't agree more with all of these points. I find it tiresome that some people just have to cover their ears and go all "I can't hear you!" when presented with facts.
Really guys, go read Joshi before you discuss the topic of cosmic horror. To provide an analogy to how you act: Adrian Sullivan wrote an article some time ago explaining what is an aggro-control deck. In it he told a story how he noticed that people think aggro-control is midrange, because sometimes it plays like aggro and sometimes like control. Did them calling a specific WB deck an aggro-control changed the fact that the deck was a midrange? Definitely not. Now, you here argue that the current Innistrad story is a cosmic horror, but you not knowing what the term 'cosmic horror' means does not make it a cosmic horror story any more than Avengers were a cosmic horror story. I will not add any concrete explanations, Bhogal83 already did that in a sufficient manner without getting too technical. I just want to ask you to actually do some research on your own before you go spewing BS all over the internet. But hey, what do I know - it seems that's the actual purpose of the internet. Carry on, then.
BUG The Baron (it doesn't work, but I try anyway)
modern:
RGShaman Aggro
legacy:
UHigh Tide
German highlander:
BUG aggro control
EDH:
a positively unhealthy amount of decks