Saying humans have trouble relating to non-humans isn't wizards making BS, its a part of psychological othering. By default humans will relate to what is the most familiar and like them and harder time relating to things unfamiliar and unlike them. Thats why we like mammals by default more then birds and we like birds more then bugs. Lindsay Ellis goes over how Hollywood does this with aliens and you can relate this what wizards been saying; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srul5Xd2kT4
All true yet this is Fantasy genre. The name of the game is Magic the Gathering, not Human Nature the Blandening. When you can start to predict what Wizards is going to do that isn't fantasy at all. That's formula, rote methodology. Might as well show up to a classical Shakesperian play and be put to sleep by its linear known plot line. I'm not supporting a SJ line at all. I just want it to be Fantasy, be different and exciting, not predictable.
So for now I'm pro-Bolas, hope he kills/imprisons/banishes the entire Gatewatch. Then I hope a planes-walking insectoid being devours Bolas and leaves and Wizards opens up the creative floodgates.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
There's also Liliana, who is Middle Eastern according to MaRo. (source linky)
(And then they decided to make her Special Item be a *veil*. I'll leave everyone to their own opinion on that.)
I always picked Liliana as the Grimm's Snowwhite kind of Middle-European-style white. That might just be her fair necromancers teint and Innistradi fashion sense and the air of fairy tale I get from her origin story.
I always suspected that the planeswalkers were meant to be really diverse but the depiction in actual card art is white-washed through some unknown mechanism (artist's interpretation, deciding to depict characters as the cultural "default" white unless told differently by the art direction?). In this context I also now more than ever believe that we have only one reference image for the 'walkers intended ethnicity: And that's Planeswalkers Pantheon by.Brad Rigney. I've got a feeling Jeremy Jarvis paid extra attention on that one to the recognizable depiction of every 'walkers ethnicity.
Though it also seems to be unique in that way as it clashes extremely with some other depictions to the point where Liliana looks like another woman dressed up similarly.
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Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
What WarMachinePrime just said. I'd multi quote or whatever but the mobile site is dicks. I didn't fall in love with Magic back in 1994 because of humans. I fell in love with it because of Dragons, Minotaurs, Merfolk, Elves, Goblins, and Thallids. Humans have historically been the LEAST interesting part of the game for me, and even the ones who were interesting, like Urza and Mishra, they drove into the ground and made boring.
Also, now that the game has become Social Justice: the Warrioring, I care even less about their boring characters.
Samut could have been an Aven. Same Naya color identity and title (Voice of Dissent). Then make their planeswalker card naya in identity as well at the same CMC with it being 1WRG. Loyalty stays the same. +1 ability could make a 2/2 white bird warrior token with flying ( ). -0 ability creates an emblem that gives your creatures haste ( ). -7 ultimate remains the same ( ).
Not to get too political, but isn't it a good thing that nobody brought up Samut's skin color? Isn't that what our society is supposed to be striving for?
I have been playing Magic for a long time now and this is the first time i hear someone mention something about a charactors skin color. I don´t think the Magic Community care about that stuff to be honest.
Then again, there were a lot of discussion on the homosexuel couple when they were announced (Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis)
Saying humans have trouble relating to non-humans isn't wizards making BS, its a part of psychological othering. By default humans will relate to what is the most familiar and like them and harder time relating to things unfamiliar and unlike them. Thats why we like mammals by default more then birds and we like birds more then bugs. Lindsay Ellis goes over how Hollywood does this with aliens and you can relate this what wizards been saying; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srul5Xd2kT4
All true yet this is Fantasy genre. The name of the game is Magic the Gathering, not Human Nature the Blandening. When you can start to predict what Wizards is going to do that isn't fantasy at all. That's formula, rote methodology. Might as well show up to a classical Shakesperian play and be put to sleep by its linear known plot line. I'm not supporting a SJ line at all. I just want it to be Fantasy, be different and exciting, not predictable.
So for now I'm pro-Bolas, hope he kills/imprisons/banishes the entire Gatewatch. Then I hope a planes-walking insectoid being devours Bolas and leaves and Wizards opens up the creative floodgates.
Let me be a little more clear, it is perfect valid for people to say they want more non-human walkers but saying Wizard are lying about how humans by default relate to humans better isn't. It been explored in other media and has a whole psychological definition for why people feel this way. Outside of Tolkien no popular fantasy media I can think off the top of my head isn't human-centered. So I what I encourage people to do is contact wizards and say politely that while they understand that the average magic player will like human character by default more, that there is a number player who would like to see more non-human walkers.
Also worth to note we gotten 2-3 non-humans walker as cards since the start of the gatewatch arc so they aren't being totally ignored;
BtZ-Ob, Nissa, Kiora
SoI- Tamayo, Nahiri, Sorin*, Arlinn*
Kaladesh- Dovin, Ajanin**, Nissa**
Amonkhet- Nissa**, Bolas
Ixalan***- Ajani**, Vraska
*If you count them as non-human.
**Nissa (and to a lesser extent Ajani) as a gatewatch members kinda shifts the numbers so you can not counter as much.
*** If that leaked booster art turns out to be true.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Okay, am I really gonna be the first one here, 8 pages into this thread, who is actually happy that we have a black character (and a female one at that) finally taking center stage in the main story? Seriously? Yall think it's boring.
Why does everything have to be a social justice? 3/5 of the main cast of magic's good guys are female. Kaya was a female person of color. Saheeli was a female person of color. Nahiri, Kiora, Narset. It's harder to find a block without a female pro/antagonist. We're all upset that the card is *****. I don't care what shape or color the character is. The game is first and foremost just that; a card game. ***** cards in the flashy mythic slot make for negative feedback.
So many quotable posts in this thread I will simply quote yours as this is the problem with the whole entertainment (brainwash?) industry these days.
Stop paying if you feel that way. Don't fuel their fire anymore and perhaps they will understand.
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Cult of the Succubi Eating Kitten and Brotherhood of Hamsters - Zombie One/Hulking One - Brotherhood of Hamsters disapproves of Damage on the Stack amputation, the corruption of Mythics, and the "Major changes to Extended" in July 2010. You aborted our cards., but we approve of the Modern format. Even if it doesn't ha ve Carrion Feeder or Caller of the Claw in it.
Dex: http://deckbox.org/users/Egementium_instructoid
Saying humans have trouble relating to non-humans isn't wizards making BS, its a part of psychological othering. By default humans will relate to what is the most familiar and like them and harder time relating to things unfamiliar and unlike them. Thats why we like mammals by default more then birds and we like birds more then bugs. Lindsay Ellis goes over how Hollywood does this with aliens and you can relate this what wizards been saying; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srul5Xd2kT4
But we are talking about humanoid versions of the creatures. So, in reference to the link you attached, in the likes of Christopher Johnson from District 9. The creatures as Planeswalkers act human, have human emotions, human priorities, and are even proportioned as human (for the most part). Thus, we don't need to put as much emphasis on actually being STRICTLY human. In this example, it should be reasonable for us to connect to a Jackal Planeswalker from Amonkhet. Planeswalkers today are also front and center in the story. So, again, we have more opportunity to become attached to the walkers without the need for them to be human. Even the sphinxes in our settings have had primarily human faces while sometimes adopting the face of a cat or dog - two creatures that human beings have a high emotional connection to and find easy to relate to.
But, even with the idea that people will connect better to the human planeswalker in a fantasy setting, we already have multiple human planeswalkers with diverse motivations, personalities, and perspectives on life for players to connect to. We don't need more of them.
What seems to be really happening is that Wizards is using that argument as an excuse to spend less time creating new characters. "Our players connect to human walkers more easily" = "We don't have to spend as much time on new characters." But that can be a slippery slope leading to boring and shallow character development as a whole. Which, I believe, is what we are seeing with the Gatewatch and now Samut.
Also I don't care what color, gender, species or whatever the characters are. It's their struggles that we are looking to identify with not their bodies.
I appreciate the fact that we are looking to connect with their struggles as well. But to me a non-human character is just immediately more interesting because of their body. It's intriguing and fantastical. That is what I want in a fantasy setting.
Okay, am I really gonna be the first one here, 8 pages into this thread, who is actually happy that we have a black character (and a female one at that) finally taking center stage in the main story? Seriously? Yall think it's boring.
Why does everything have to be a social justice? 3/5 of the main cast of magic's good guys are female. Kaya was a female person of color. Saheeli was a female person of color. Nahiri, Kiora, Narset. It's harder to find a block without a female pro/antagonist. We're all upset that the card is *****. I don't care what shape or color the character is. The game is first and foremost just that; a card game. ***** cards in the flashy mythic slot make for negative feedback.
So many quotable posts in this thread I will simply quote yours as this is the problem with the whole entertainment (brainwash?) industry these days.
Stop paying if you feel that way. Don't fuel their fire anymore and perhaps they will understand.
Including prominent characters that aren't white men is brainwashing? Do you need a safe space, snowflake?
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee derailed thread is a go!!!!!
So SaffronOlive posited that Bolas maybe won't be the best target for Marvel because its current targets - Chandra & Ulamog - will do a better job of bringing a Marvel player back from behind. Sure, Bolas' 7 points of damage could just finish a game on the spot, but if the opponent is at 8 life and has the ability to swing for lethal, Chandra or Ulamog will probably be a better hit for Marvel.
If you're playing a build then you're probably going to try to hit a board wipe either way. I'd say Chandra is a better target if you're being stared down by creatures with power 4 or less. Like I said, I'm doing Grixis Aetherworks with Glassblower's Puzzleknot and plenty of board wipes (3 Sweltering Suns, etc). Bolas is fine the way he is. When Ulamog rotates out, people will definitely be using Bolas.
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"The essence of every world, every spell and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
Samut being black or female wasn't even part of my evaluation, some of the most interesting characters in the lore is black or female, and Kaya is both, Samut's character was just not very appealing. Djeru, being a conflicted and misguided person, would've made a FAR more interesting PW, even work for Bolas.
And I do find it boring that almost every PW presented in a fantasy world is human. Yes, Human is the most populated race in multiverse, but PW is a rarity, I see no reason why PW ratio has to follow that rule. If we look at Lorwyn, there were NO human, yet it was such an amazing design, who said Human has to be a norm? My favorite character after the Mending are Ajani and Bolas, and they are non-human.
And, as WarMachinePrime pointed out, the cast are too beautiful/perfect that it's really annoying, there's a reason why people joke it as Jacetice League, because they arranged it like a group of heroes who're meant to be worshiped, rather than being "us". Wizards said players are suppose to be PW in reality, so how about some reality in the design? I will believe in Wizards' vow for diversity, when they add a extra t h i c c female PW into the crew.
Weatherlight and the Nine Titans had a much better crew, much more relatable one. Then again, it was also a better story.
What WarMachinePrime just said. I'd multi quote or whatever but the mobile site is dicks. I didn't fall in love with Magic back in 1994 because of humans. I fell in love with it because of Dragons, Minotaurs, Merfolk, Elves, Goblins, and Thallids. Humans have historically been the LEAST interesting part of the game for me, and even the ones who were interesting, like Urza and Mishra, they drove into the ground and made boring.
Also, now that the game has become Social Justice: the Warrioring, I care even less about their boring characters.
I hear you. I've also bought far less Amonkhet product this block as compared to recent past sets. It seems stale and the weakness of many of the Amonkhet cards is a turn off as well. I'm not asking for rampant power creep, but at least spice it up. I want Fantasy to be an escape, not a mirror of everything that is going on in the real world at the moment. Same goes for Hollywood. Its the usual formulaic drivel. I don't spend my money on them as well. Guardians of the Galaxy is a perfect example. Young white guy main character. Check. Young sexed-up green skinned love interest. Check. Sidekicks of varying races, in less prominent roles. Check. Yawn. I even really like Chris Pratt. Loved him from Parks and Rec. He was a pudgy/doughy kind of everyday guy. Then Hollywood gets ahold of him and has to thin him down & buff him up to meet their standards. Predictable.
So Wizards. How about a colorless parasitic entity planeswalker that can take over/steal another walker. Then it exiles, you use up the walker & it dies and the parasite walker comes back into play to repeat the process (or whatever if no walkers present). Something different.
But I think I've derailed enough in the thread.
My grades for these 3 cards.
Bolas: A-
Samut: D
Bontu wipe: B+
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Heroic figures/characters throughout human history have always tended towards being beautiful/perfect/idealized depictions of real life humans.
Some of us seek the fantasy element to take us away from reality, not remind us of it.
As far as Planeswalkers go, they are supposed to wield powerful magical abilities and travel between planes. They are not "us".
Got dragged back in…
So why is that? I want the escape as well, but if the escape is a homogenized universe of predominant humans of 18-25 years of age at the peak of physical beauty/shape where the men all look like Cross-fit gym models and the women are scantily clad, big boob eye candy, why bother? Mix it up a little, I'm not adverse to any of that, but when that is all that is served, wouldn't you get tired of eating Filet Mignon every day? Fantasy needs to be fantastic, not just predictable. Okay, I'll shut up. (for a while)
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I hope you don't mind me replying, but your position misses the heart of the issue. I think so, too: Samut is more likable than Djeru. I know which of the two I would prefer hanging out with if they happen to planeswalk into the neighborhood.
But Djeru is the more interesting character. His story has potential to go into many directions. He seems fully indoctrinated, but might break faith during the Hour of Devastation - or follow the path of the worthy despite his inner turmoil... or turn out to grow increasingly resentful of Samut's denial of his highest deity and just snap into the direction of feeling that now as a planeswalker and maybe some additional insight in consequence should still stand with Nicol Bolas, because he still feels that Samut and the Gatewatch have interfered where they have had no right to.
Samut's story arc is just that: a ballistic curve where within some error margins it seems quiet easy to predict where she lands. She was an initiate once, but always more rebellious than Djeru and her acceptance of Bolas as the "Trespasser" came to her easy and early (before we first met her), so one of the most interesting struggles of any initiate becoming a dissenter is already behind her, and her actions during the time since were... well, laid out during the less well written parts of the Amonkhet story and were either unclearly motivated or solely focussed on ideas of which the inception is not clear to the audience (Djeru supposedly being some kind of savior who can talk sense into the gods).
Thank you for wording your dissatisfaction with a more pleasant tone.
Djeru might be a "more interesting character" by your reckoning, but that doesn't make him worthy of a PW slot. Either he ends up being a Bolas minion who's unbelievably blind to the wickedness of his master's deeds, or he ends up disillusioned with the whole God-Pharaoh charade and...then what? Try to take control of Gatewatch because being a pushy leader is what he knows? Start his own Gatewatch-esque organization with blackjack and hookers?
I just think Samut as a PW works better for the story flow. Plus they also needed to color balance Bolas; we already have two black PWs this block and we have only one other red. Yes, she could have been Naya in keeping with her original card and also given us a second white PW (bringing the grand total to two per color) but they wanted her to be easier to cast and play, so they put her in RG. Plus out of all the RG PWs so far she's the most likely to join Gatewatch; Xenagos was a bad guy and is now dead, Domri Rade is more a wild card (though I could see him eventually joining as the representative of RG fatty smash), Arlinn Kord is a bit limited by the Werewolf theme, and Sarkhan Vol isn't strictly RG.
And of course, there is always the possibility that this is another 6-PW block and Djeru turns out to be a PW as well. And when his card inevitably fails to meet the forum's lofty expectations, they'll complain about that too.
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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.
So Wizards. How about a colorless parasitic entity planeswalker that can take over/steal another walker. Then it exiles, you use up the walker & it dies and the parasite walker comes back into play to repeat the process (or whatever if no walkers present). Something different.
Dude, I'm actually interested, like the "tell me more about this parasite" interested.
Because that actually sounds like an unsettling antagonist for MTG. Its probably got some alien thought pattern yet its not part of some huge collective (slivers/eldrazi), like an enemy on the microcosm scale instead of macro. It might even have access to its host's mannerisms and memories in addition to their planeswalker powers. It could currently be sealed away in some forgotten ruin and its prison prevents it from planeswalking out or using its shapeshifting. Better yet, have it's prison be on Amonkhet, but because of Nicol Bolas screwing with the plane, nobody has gone in decades/centuries to check up on this parasite to see if it hasn't escaped. The seals to its prison, created by the three now-dead gods, are weakening and this parasite planeswalker has been just biding its time. Stuck in some unassuming-maybe-even-innocent form, it patiently waits for its next prey and an opportunity to escape Amonkhet.
That is why I don't believe MaRo for a second when he says a non-human would be uninteresting/unrelatable as a planeswalker.
And of course, there is always the possibility that this is another 6-PW block and Djeru turns out to be a PW as well. And when his card inevitably fails to meet the forum's lofty expectations, they'll complain about that too.
I'm not particularly harsh in my assessment of planeswalkers (I actually tend to like the vast majority of these cards), but Samut's card is both uninspired design-wise, and underpowered. The forum's reaction is accurate in this case.
Her three abilities are incredibly generic and have zero interaction with one another, flavor-wise and mechanically. The only other planeswalker card that comes close to the level of non-interactiveness across loyalty abilities is Gideon, and people generally ignored that because he is so pushed from a competitive standpoint, and because his insta-emblem is a unique direction from a mechanical standpoint.
The widespread criticism from the forum is a condemnation of the card's design, not of the character herself, which definitely deserved a far better first planeswalker card.
I won't deny that I would have chosen some different abilities for Samut based on what we know so far. But I've commented on armchair developer comments before (it's in my sig), and I want to hear development's reasoning for giving her what abilities they did before making final judgments on the card.
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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.
I think that I'm also sick to ******* death of Nicol Bolas. They took another thing that was neat and interesting because we WEREN'T getting clubbed over the head with it, and screwed it up by clubbing us over the head with it.
So Wizards. How about a colorless parasitic entity planeswalker that can take over/steal another walker. Then it exiles, you use up the walker & it dies and the parasite walker comes back into play to repeat the process (or whatever if no walkers present). Something different.
Dude, I'm actually interested, like the "tell me more about this parasite" interested.
Because that actually sounds like an unsettling antagonist for MTG. Its probably got some alien thought pattern yet its not part of some huge collective (slivers/eldrazi), like an enemy on the microcosm scale instead of macro. It might even have access to its host's mannerisms and memories in addition to their planeswalker powers. It could currently be sealed away in some forgotten ruin and its prison prevents it from planeswalking out or using its shapeshifting. Better yet, have it's prison be on Amonkhet, but because of Nicol Bolas screwing with the plane, nobody has gone in decades/centuries to check up on this parasite to see if it hasn't escaped. The seals to its prison, created by the three now-dead gods, are weakening and this parasite planeswalker has been just biding its time. Stuck in some unassuming-maybe-even-innocent form, it patiently waits for its next prey and an opportunity to escape Amonkhet.
That is why I don't believe MaRo for a second when he says a non-human would be uninteresting/unrelatable as a planeswalker.
This is awesome. I just want to see where these three Gods show up (if at all) and a peek into more of Bolas's plan.
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"The essence of every world, every spell and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
Is the set supposed to have 184 cards or 199 cards? I'm confused.
I'm pretty sure it's 184 in the main set then 10 cards from the Planeswalker decks and 5 full art land. That would make 199.
The cards from the Planeswalker decks always have a collector number that's higher than the number of cards in the official set and thus they don't count in the (usually) 184 cards. For example, Ajani's Aid is number 189/184. The fact here is that these three cards appear to have written 199 where 184 would normally be, that's the strange thing. In fact, you can check all cards in Aether Revolt (the last small set) and they all have collector number X/184, not X/199 like we have here. In my opinion, the only solution is that there are three cycles of basic lands showing the change that occurs with the destruction of the Hekma. There could also be something strange going on like with DFCs in Innistrad, but it seems unlikely to me. What's also strange is that the official page for HOU states there are 184 cards in the set, while these cards say 199. That could indicate these are fake, but they come from WotC themselves! In short, there is probably something going on with the size of the set that we don't know yet.
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MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016 DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for: "Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index.Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
I think that I'm also sick to ******* death of Nicol Bolas. They took another thing that was neat and interesting because we WEREN'T getting clubbed over the head with it, and screwed it up by clubbing us over the head with it.
So Wizards. How about a colorless parasitic entity planeswalker that can take over/steal another walker. Then it exiles, you use up the walker & it dies and the parasite walker comes back into play to repeat the process (or whatever if no walkers present). Something different.
Dude, I'm actually interested, like the "tell me more about this parasite" interested.
Because that actually sounds like an unsettling antagonist for MTG. Its probably got some alien thought pattern yet its not part of some huge collective (slivers/eldrazi), like an enemy on the microcosm scale instead of macro. It might even have access to its host's mannerisms and memories in addition to their planeswalker powers. It could currently be sealed away in some forgotten ruin and its prison prevents it from planeswalking out or using its shapeshifting. Better yet, have it's prison be on Amonkhet, but because of Nicol Bolas screwing with the plane, nobody has gone in decades/centuries to check up on this parasite to see if it hasn't escaped. The seals to its prison, created by the three now-dead gods, are weakening and this parasite planeswalker has been just biding its time. Stuck in some unassuming-maybe-even-innocent form, it patiently waits for its next prey and an opportunity to escape Amonkhet.
That is why I don't believe MaRo for a second when he says a non-human would be uninteresting/unrelatable as a planeswalker.
Its likely gone at least somewhat stir crazy after being left there without any social interactions for the untold amount of years. But I agree with you, there is plenty of untold stories that we never get to see because they don't want to delve into these exact areas. Like this kind of story that was just brewed up on the fly really works and draws in my interest.
All true yet this is Fantasy genre. The name of the game is Magic the Gathering, not Human Nature the Blandening. When you can start to predict what Wizards is going to do that isn't fantasy at all. That's formula, rote methodology. Might as well show up to a classical Shakesperian play and be put to sleep by its linear known plot line. I'm not supporting a SJ line at all. I just want it to be Fantasy, be different and exciting, not predictable.
So for now I'm pro-Bolas, hope he kills/imprisons/banishes the entire Gatewatch. Then I hope a planes-walking insectoid being devours Bolas and leaves and Wizards opens up the creative floodgates.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I always picked Liliana as the Grimm's Snowwhite kind of Middle-European-style white. That might just be her fair necromancers teint and Innistradi fashion sense and the air of fairy tale I get from her origin story.
I always suspected that the planeswalkers were meant to be really diverse but the depiction in actual card art is white-washed through some unknown mechanism (artist's interpretation, deciding to depict characters as the cultural "default" white unless told differently by the art direction?). In this context I also now more than ever believe that we have only one reference image for the 'walkers intended ethnicity: And that's Planeswalkers Pantheon by.Brad Rigney. I've got a feeling Jeremy Jarvis paid extra attention on that one to the recognizable depiction of every 'walkers ethnicity.
Though it also seems to be unique in that way as it clashes extremely with some other depictions to the point where Liliana looks like another woman dressed up similarly.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
Also, now that the game has become Social Justice: the Warrioring, I care even less about their boring characters.
A 4CMC PW who +'s to make a 2/2 flyer? Lol.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
I have been playing Magic for a long time now and this is the first time i hear someone mention something about a charactors skin color. I don´t think the Magic Community care about that stuff to be honest.
Then again, there were a lot of discussion on the homosexuel couple when they were announced (Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis)
Let me be a little more clear, it is perfect valid for people to say they want more non-human walkers but saying Wizard are lying about how humans by default relate to humans better isn't. It been explored in other media and has a whole psychological definition for why people feel this way. Outside of Tolkien no popular fantasy media I can think off the top of my head isn't human-centered. So I what I encourage people to do is contact wizards and say politely that while they understand that the average magic player will like human character by default more, that there is a number player who would like to see more non-human walkers.
Also worth to note we gotten 2-3 non-humans walker as cards since the start of the gatewatch arc so they aren't being totally ignored;
BtZ-Ob, Nissa, Kiora
SoI- Tamayo, Nahiri, Sorin*, Arlinn*
Kaladesh- Dovin, Ajanin**, Nissa**
Amonkhet- Nissa**, Bolas
Ixalan***- Ajani**, Vraska
*If you count them as non-human.
**Nissa (and to a lesser extent Ajani) as a gatewatch members kinda shifts the numbers so you can not counter as much.
*** If that leaked booster art turns out to be true.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Stop paying if you feel that way. Don't fuel their fire anymore and perhaps they will understand.
Cult of the Succubi Eating Kitten and Brotherhood of Hamsters - Zombie One/Hulking One - Brotherhood of Hamsters disapproves of Damage on the Stack amputation, the corruption of Mythics,
and the "Major changes to Extended" in July 2010. You aborted our cards., but we approve of the Modern format. Even if it doesn't ha ve Carrion Feeder or Caller of the Claw in it.Dex: http://deckbox.org/users/Egementium_instructoid
But we are talking about humanoid versions of the creatures. So, in reference to the link you attached, in the likes of Christopher Johnson from District 9. The creatures as Planeswalkers act human, have human emotions, human priorities, and are even proportioned as human (for the most part). Thus, we don't need to put as much emphasis on actually being STRICTLY human. In this example, it should be reasonable for us to connect to a Jackal Planeswalker from Amonkhet. Planeswalkers today are also front and center in the story. So, again, we have more opportunity to become attached to the walkers without the need for them to be human. Even the sphinxes in our settings have had primarily human faces while sometimes adopting the face of a cat or dog - two creatures that human beings have a high emotional connection to and find easy to relate to.
But, even with the idea that people will connect better to the human planeswalker in a fantasy setting, we already have multiple human planeswalkers with diverse motivations, personalities, and perspectives on life for players to connect to. We don't need more of them.
What seems to be really happening is that Wizards is using that argument as an excuse to spend less time creating new characters. "Our players connect to human walkers more easily" = "We don't have to spend as much time on new characters." But that can be a slippery slope leading to boring and shallow character development as a whole. Which, I believe, is what we are seeing with the Gatewatch and now Samut.
I appreciate the fact that we are looking to connect with their struggles as well. But to me a non-human character is just immediately more interesting because of their body. It's intriguing and fantastical. That is what I want in a fantasy setting.
Including prominent characters that aren't white men is brainwashing? Do you need a safe space, snowflake?
So SaffronOlive posited that Bolas maybe won't be the best target for Marvel because its current targets - Chandra & Ulamog - will do a better job of bringing a Marvel player back from behind. Sure, Bolas' 7 points of damage could just finish a game on the spot, but if the opponent is at 8 life and has the ability to swing for lethal, Chandra or Ulamog will probably be a better hit for Marvel.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
And I do find it boring that almost every PW presented in a fantasy world is human. Yes, Human is the most populated race in multiverse, but PW is a rarity, I see no reason why PW ratio has to follow that rule. If we look at Lorwyn, there were NO human, yet it was such an amazing design, who said Human has to be a norm? My favorite character after the Mending are Ajani and Bolas, and they are non-human.
And, as WarMachinePrime pointed out, the cast are too beautiful/perfect that it's really annoying, there's a reason why people joke it as Jacetice League, because they arranged it like a group of heroes who're meant to be worshiped, rather than being "us". Wizards said players are suppose to be PW in reality, so how about some reality in the design? I will believe in Wizards' vow for diversity, when they add a extra t h i c c female PW into the crew.
Weatherlight and the Nine Titans had a much better crew, much more relatable one. Then again, it was also a better story.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
I hear you. I've also bought far less Amonkhet product this block as compared to recent past sets. It seems stale and the weakness of many of the Amonkhet cards is a turn off as well. I'm not asking for rampant power creep, but at least spice it up. I want Fantasy to be an escape, not a mirror of everything that is going on in the real world at the moment. Same goes for Hollywood. Its the usual formulaic drivel. I don't spend my money on them as well. Guardians of the Galaxy is a perfect example. Young white guy main character. Check. Young sexed-up green skinned love interest. Check. Sidekicks of varying races, in less prominent roles. Check. Yawn. I even really like Chris Pratt. Loved him from Parks and Rec. He was a pudgy/doughy kind of everyday guy. Then Hollywood gets ahold of him and has to thin him down & buff him up to meet their standards. Predictable.
So Wizards. How about a colorless parasitic entity planeswalker that can take over/steal another walker. Then it exiles, you use up the walker & it dies and the parasite walker comes back into play to repeat the process (or whatever if no walkers present). Something different.
But I think I've derailed enough in the thread.
My grades for these 3 cards.
Bolas: A-
Samut: D
Bontu wipe: B+
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Some of us seek the fantasy element to take us away from reality, not remind us of it.
As far as Planeswalkers go, they are supposed to wield powerful magical abilities and travel between planes. They are not "us".
I play Magic: the Gathering, not Magic: the Commandering.
GGo Elf YourselfG
WThat Cat Has A Knife!W
BUGWhip your assBUG
Got dragged back in…
So why is that? I want the escape as well, but if the escape is a homogenized universe of predominant humans of 18-25 years of age at the peak of physical beauty/shape where the men all look like Cross-fit gym models and the women are scantily clad, big boob eye candy, why bother? Mix it up a little, I'm not adverse to any of that, but when that is all that is served, wouldn't you get tired of eating Filet Mignon every day? Fantasy needs to be fantastic, not just predictable. Okay, I'll shut up. (for a while)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Thank you for wording your dissatisfaction with a more pleasant tone.
Djeru might be a "more interesting character" by your reckoning, but that doesn't make him worthy of a PW slot. Either he ends up being a Bolas minion who's unbelievably blind to the wickedness of his master's deeds, or he ends up disillusioned with the whole God-Pharaoh charade and...then what? Try to take control of Gatewatch because being a pushy leader is what he knows? Start his own Gatewatch-esque organization
with blackjack and hookers?I just think Samut as a PW works better for the story flow. Plus they also needed to color balance Bolas; we already have two black PWs this block and we have only one other red. Yes, she could have been Naya in keeping with her original card and also given us a second white PW (bringing the grand total to two per color) but they wanted her to be easier to cast and play, so they put her in RG. Plus out of all the RG PWs so far she's the most likely to join Gatewatch; Xenagos was a bad guy and is now dead, Domri Rade is more a wild card (though I could see him eventually joining as the representative of RG fatty smash), Arlinn Kord is a bit limited by the Werewolf theme, and Sarkhan Vol isn't strictly RG.
And of course, there is always the possibility that this is another 6-PW block and Djeru turns out to be a PW as well. And when his card inevitably fails to meet the forum's lofty expectations, they'll complain about that too.
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.
Because that actually sounds like an unsettling antagonist for MTG. Its probably got some alien thought pattern yet its not part of some huge collective (slivers/eldrazi), like an enemy on the microcosm scale instead of macro. It might even have access to its host's mannerisms and memories in addition to their planeswalker powers. It could currently be sealed away in some forgotten ruin and its prison prevents it from planeswalking out or using its shapeshifting. Better yet, have it's prison be on Amonkhet, but because of Nicol Bolas screwing with the plane, nobody has gone in decades/centuries to check up on this parasite to see if it hasn't escaped. The seals to its prison, created by the three now-dead gods, are weakening and this parasite planeswalker has been just biding its time. Stuck in some unassuming-maybe-even-innocent form, it patiently waits for its next prey and an opportunity to escape Amonkhet.
That is why I don't believe MaRo for a second when he says a non-human would be uninteresting/unrelatable as a planeswalker.
I'm not particularly harsh in my assessment of planeswalkers (I actually tend to like the vast majority of these cards), but Samut's card is both uninspired design-wise, and underpowered. The forum's reaction is accurate in this case.
Her three abilities are incredibly generic and have zero interaction with one another, flavor-wise and mechanically. The only other planeswalker card that comes close to the level of non-interactiveness across loyalty abilities is Gideon, and people generally ignored that because he is so pushed from a competitive standpoint, and because his insta-emblem is a unique direction from a mechanical standpoint.
The widespread criticism from the forum is a condemnation of the card's design, not of the character herself, which definitely deserved a far better first planeswalker card.
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.
I think that I'm also sick to ******* death of Nicol Bolas. They took another thing that was neat and interesting because we WEREN'T getting clubbed over the head with it, and screwed it up by clubbing us over the head with it.
This is awesome. I just want to see where these three Gods show up (if at all) and a peek into more of Bolas's plan.
The cards from the Planeswalker decks always have a collector number that's higher than the number of cards in the official set and thus they don't count in the (usually) 184 cards. For example, Ajani's Aid is number 189/184. The fact here is that these three cards appear to have written 199 where 184 would normally be, that's the strange thing. In fact, you can check all cards in Aether Revolt (the last small set) and they all have collector number X/184, not X/199 like we have here. In my opinion, the only solution is that there are three cycles of basic lands showing the change that occurs with the destruction of the Hekma. There could also be something strange going on like with DFCs in Innistrad, but it seems unlikely to me. What's also strange is that the official page for HOU states there are 184 cards in the set, while these cards say 199. That could indicate these are fake, but they come from WotC themselves! In short, there is probably something going on with the size of the set that we don't know yet.
MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here)
CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016
DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for:
"Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index. Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
3 total cards = beating over the head???
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588