I knew Vraska would die from the moment she became important, what a waste.
They built the crap out of her character, made people like her just to wipe her memories...now let me guess we either wont see her again for years or she will join the gatewatch as a mono black walker with a *****y attitude.
I see you failed to read the part on she and Jace plane walks away.
As a matter of fact she ask jace to wipe it so bolas doesn't realize she knows about his evil plan.
In other words She diden't die.
Not really sure why you're still using spoiler tags when people have been blurting out the plot in this thread, including the person you're replying to. Besides that, these artbooks have a habit of not giving us the whole story, so there could be a lot we still don't know with regards to the upcoming story.
Well, at least we now know the reason Jace/Vraska doesn't happen isn't because they end up hating each other again. Go figure, the second Ravnican girlfriend he's had and he had to wipe her memory too, though moreso to protect them both than because she can't handle the truth (boy, would it be ironic if Emmara turned out to be a PW herself). Two amnesiacs by his own hands and Liliana; man, Jace has terrible luck with girls. I think Jori showed some interest in him, though her lack of planeswalking ability would make a relationship difficult.
I could see Jace/Lavinia working too, but most likely their respective stations would prohibit such an affair, or would certainly make the whole arrangement look very shady. People would assume the Azorius are getting favored simply because one of their officers is in bed with the Guildpact; classic political scandal.
We learn that Azor is a Sphinx planeswalker and the creator of the Immortal Sun, not to mention a possible influence on Sphinxes across the multiverse, and here I am waxing on about Jace's love life.
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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.
The absolute stupidity of the situation with the mind wipe is making me face palm. We're in a universe where Leyline of Sanctity exists, I don't think someone needs a mind wipe to stop someone from reading their mind. Also she would be safer with Jace than without since at least he gives her somewhat to survive because there's nothing that says Bolas wouldn't just mind break her and basically leave her for dead after getting what he wanted. It's not exactly like Bolas would want her walking around with knowledge about an artifact he so desperately sought out when Ugin is still alive and the gatewatch could come knocking.
They basically just pulled this to keep her from tagging along in the next set or something.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I'm honestly more unhappy that Jace seems to be getting his memories back. We have yet to see if Jace actually gets all of his memories back in a quick fashion but if he does this whole story is kind of a wash for me. He should get his bearings of what his past self did organically instead of just getting his head bumped and having then all come rushing back. And I Hope to god that we don't just go back to old Jace. New Jace is actually compelling and unlike his old self isn't someone I want to see get dunked in a trash can.
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"Pop in, find a dragon, roast a dragon."
-Chandra Nalaar
The absolute stupidity of the situation with the mind wipe is making me face palm. We're in a universe where Leyline of Sanctity exists, I don't think someone needs a mind wipe to stop someone from reading their mind. Also she would be safer with Jace than without since at least he gives her somewhat to survive because there's nothing that says Bolas wouldn't just mind break her and basically leave her for dead after getting what he wanted. It's not exactly like Bolas would want her walking around with knowledge about an artifact he so desperately sought out when Ugin is still alive and the gatewatch could come knocking.
They basically just pulled this to keep her from tagging along in the next set or something.
Not just that, but by now i think we all know that being mind wiped doesn't really "destroy" your memories, they just go away and can eventually come back (shown by Jace, not once but twice).
If Bolas ever find Jace or Vraska i'm sure he can get her memories back with ease.
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BWG
Art student, EDH lover and a strong believer that Delver has the best design in all of MTG.
I mean Vraska is now the perfect sleeper agent against Bolas. Seems like a good step to a way of taking Bolas down.
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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"
I could see Jace/Lavinia working too, but most likely their respective stations would prohibit such an affair, or would certainly make the whole arrangement look very shady. People would assume the Azorius are getting favored simply because one of their officers is in bed with the Guildpact; classic political scandal.
I can only imagine that when Jace finally makes it back to Ravnica and the whole plane is literally on fire because the Guildpact went MIA for months, Lavinia's first instinct is not gonna be "yo jace dtf?".
It really doesn't make sense to me that Azor needed to give up his spark to create the Immortal Sun. If he was able to create the Guildpact (which was basically the reverse of the enchantment of the Immortal Sun, keeping planeswalkers out rather than in, plus several other functions) without losing his spark, why would he lose his spark for this? Why not just say that he made the Immortal Sun without losing his spark, but it still prevented him from leaving on account of him being a planeswalker? I feel like the whole "planeswalker loses their spark" storyline is really played out by now anyway; they've used it several different times and in this case it really wasn't even necessary. Anyway, he must get his spark back from the Immortal Sun at some point, because they wouldn't be so stupid as to introduce Azor like this only to not make him a planeswalker. Maybe he'll be an Origins-style flip-walker though, since we already have DFCs in the set. Obviously it would be an exception to the "Ixalan DFCs are lands on the back" rule, but Ulrich was an exception to the "Eldritch Moon DFCs are eldrazi on the back" rule, so I could still see it happening.
This whole story synopsis raises more questions than it answers. Why would Azor even want to create the barrier keeping planeswalkers out of Ixalan? Does Azor end up getting his spark back from the Immortal Sun? Why would Azor allow Tezzeret to take the Immortal Sun while Azor is in the city guarding it? How does Vraska first react to meeting Azor, given her hatred of the Azorius? Why does Jace erase Vraska's memories rather than just tell her not to go back to Bolas and not to call Tezzeret? What are Jace and Azor doing when Tezzeret shows up, and why don't they try to stop him? Why wouldn't Bolas just do the same thing to Vraska that he did to Sarkhan and Tezzeret, completely taking over her mind, just to be safe? He really has no reason not to at this point. Also, what about all the other characters? How does Angrath and Huatli's alliance work out for them? When the Immortal Sun leaves the plane it will presumably let planeswalkers leave, and I assume that Angrath will go home, but what about Huatli? Does she go with Angrath, or to Kaladesh, or does she pull a Narset and stay on her home plane for the time being?
Some of these are just details that were left out of the art book summary but others seem like outright plot holes. Since art books are written before the actual story and tend to be an early blueprint of the story and not 100% accurate, hopefully the actual story will clear things up, but I still think that Jace allowing Vraska to summon Tezzeret and go back to Bolas doesn't make very much sense at all. It would be one thing if his whole ordeal on Ixalan made him decide to abandon the Gatewatch and not care about fighting Bolas anymore, but clearly he is still concerned with Bolas and he leaves to find the Gatewatch (meaning that he might show up in Dominaria), so why not take Vraska and/or the Immortal Sun with him instead of delivering them both to Bolas? The way it's described makes it sound like Jace will eventually find Vraska and give her back her memories of him, turning her into an ally again, quite possibly in Ravnica 3. But from Bolas's perspective, is their any reason not to just do what he did to Sarkhan and Tezzeret? He clearly has the power to do so, and it's much safer for him than letting his agents have their own free will. He already read Vraska's mind before she went to Ixalan and saw that she intended to betray him, so he probably should have done it then to be honest. There's just no way that what Jace is doing is a good idea. At all. Since he's the protagonist I'm sure it will actually end up paying off, since it will give him a future double agent working for Bolas when he needs it, but logically it really shouldn't work out for him, and it's a bad call any way you look at it.
This is just my gut reaction to everything and of course I will have to withhold judgement to some extent until we see things actually play out in the story. But I really feel like this is not a good way to end the story, and unless they have a damn good explanation that didn't make it into the art book, it leaves a lot of plot holes. Ravnica 3 should be able to redeem things somewhat even if this block's ending is little nonsensical. Hopefully there we will get to see Jace restore Vraska's memories that were specifically "sealed away" rather than destroyed. I don't know why Bolas wouldn't be able to see them in that case since he has been shown to be a much more powerful telepath than Jace, but I guess that the protagonists need to get a win somehow. Hopefully then we'll get the payoff for Vraska's character development and relationship with Jace. Ravnica 3 should also involve Azor, assuming that he gets his spark back, which I am confident that he will. I also hope to see him take over the role of Guildpact from Jace, since clearly Jace is completely incompetent and rarely even present on the plane. It's obvious that Jace being tied down to one plane does not mesh well with plane-hopping superhero story that creative is trying to tell, and Azor gives them a very convenient out. I would be appalled if they weren't planning to do this since they first decided to have Azor be involved on Ixalan.
It really doesn't make sense to me that Azor needed to give up his spark to create the Immortal Sun. If he was able to create the Guildpact (which was basically the reverse of the enchantment of the Immortal Sun, keeping planeswalkers out rather than in, plus several other functions) without losing his spark, why would he lose his spark for this? Why not just say that he made the Immortal Sun without losing his spark, but it still prevented him from leaving on account of him being a planeswalker? I feel like the whole "planeswalker loses their spark" storyline is really played out by now anyway; they've used it several different times and in this case it really wasn't even necessary. Anyway, he must get his spark back from the Immortal Sun at some point, because they wouldn't be so stupid as to introduce Azor like this only to not make him a planeswalker. Maybe he'll be an Origins-style flip-walker though, since we already have DFCs in the set. Obviously it would be an exception to the "Ixalan DFCs are lands on the back" rule, but Ulrich was an exception to the "Eldritch Moon DFCs are eldrazi on the back" rule, so I could still see it happening.
This whole story synopsis raises more questions than it answers. Why would Azor even want to create the barrier keeping planeswalkers out of Ixalan? Does Azor end up getting his spark back from the Immortal Sun? Why would Azor allow Tezzeret to take the Immortal Sun while Azor is in the city guarding it? How does Vraska first react to meeting Azor, given her hatred of the Azorius? Why does Jace erase Vraska's memories rather than just tell her not to go back to Bolas and not to call Tezzeret? What are Jace and Azor doing when Tezzeret shows up, and why don't they try to stop him? Why wouldn't Bolas just do the same thing to Vraska that he did to Sarkhan and Tezzeret, completely taking over her mind, just to be safe? He really has no reason not to at this point. Also, what about all the other characters? How does Angrath and Huatli's alliance work out for them? When the Immortal Sun leaves the plane it will presumably let planeswalkers leave, and I assume that Angrath will go home, but what about Huatli? Does she go with Angrath, or to Kaladesh, or does she pull a Narset and stay on her home plane for the time being?
Some of these are just details that were left out of the art book summary but others seem like outright plot holes. Since art books are written before the actual story and tend to be an early blueprint of the story and not 100% accurate, hopefully the actual story will clear things up, but I still think that Jace allowing Vraska to summon Tezzeret and go back to Bolas doesn't make very much sense at all. It would be one thing if his whole ordeal on Ixalan made him decide to abandon the Gatewatch and not care about fighting Bolas anymore, but clearly he is still concerned with Bolas and he leaves to find the Gatewatch (meaning that he might show up in Dominaria), so why not take Vraska and/or the Immortal Sun with him instead of delivering them both to Bolas? The way it's described makes it sound like Jace will eventually find Vraska and give her back her memories of him, turning her into an ally again, quite possibly in Ravnica 3. But from Bolas's perspective, is their any reason not to just do what he did to Sarkhan and Tezzeret? He clearly has the power to do so, and it's much safer for him than letting his agents have their own free will. He already read Vraska's mind before she went to Ixalan and saw that she intended to betray him, so he probably should have done it then to be honest. There's just no way that what Jace is doing is a good idea. At all. Since he's the protagonist I'm sure it will actually end up paying off, since it will give him a future double agent working for Bolas when he needs it, but logically it really shouldn't work out for him, and it's a bad call any way you look at it.
This is just my gut reaction to everything and of course I will have to withhold judgement to some extent until we see things actually play out in the story. But I really feel like this is not a good way to end the story, and unless they have a damn good explanation that didn't make it into the art book, it leaves a lot of plot holes. Ravnica 3 should be able to redeem things somewhat even if this block's ending is little nonsensical. Hopefully there we will get to see Jace restore Vraska's memories that were specifically "sealed away" rather than destroyed. I don't know why Bolas wouldn't be able to see them in that case since he has been shown to be a much more powerful telepath than Jace, but I guess that the protagonists need to get a win somehow. Hopefully then we'll get the payoff for Vraska's character development and relationship with Jace. Ravnica 3 should also involve Azor, assuming that he gets his spark back, which I am confident that he will. I also hope to see him take over the role of Guildpact from Jace, since clearly Jace is completely incompetent and rarely even present on the plane. It's obvious that Jace being tied down to one plane does not mesh well with plane-hopping superhero story that creative is trying to tell, and Azor gives them a very convenient out. I would be appalled if they weren't planning to do this since they first decided to have Azor be involved on Ixalan.
The closest thing I could think of was that maybe Azor might extract his spark from the Immortal Sun and put it back into himself (if that's even possible for him at this point), and they allow Bolas to get it because it'd be severely weakened if not outright inert. The problem with that though is Bolas should realize pretty quickly that something is off about the Sun.
The closest thing I could think of was that maybe Azor might extract his spark from the Immortal Sun and put it back into himself (if that's even possible for him at this point), and they allow Bolas to get it because it'd be severely weakened if not outright inert. The problem with that though is Bolas should realize pretty quickly that something is off about the Sun.
It'd be really piss-poor story telling, even for Wizards' standards, to finally reveal Azor as a planeswalking sphinx who is still alive after all this time, only to trap him on a plane that the story will not revisit again for several years, if ever.
I'd have to bet that Azor gets his spark back somehow in this ordeal, and that the Immortal Sun is still valuable to Bolas, even with the spark extracted. Bolas can probably find some other way to power it and give it comparable functionality.
Who says Azor lost his spark, anyway? All the artbook says is that he imbued the Sun with his spark's power and that he's not immune to its effects. Doesn't mean he burnt the thing out.
I could see Jace/Lavinia working too, but most likely their respective stations would prohibit such an affair, or would certainly make the whole arrangement look very shady. People would assume the Azorius are getting favored simply because one of their officers is in bed with the Guildpact; classic political scandal.
I can only imagine that when Jace finally makes it back to Ravnica and the whole plane is literally on fire because the Guildpact went MIA for months, Lavinia's first instinct is not gonna be "yo jace dtf?".
I imagine she's going to have more than a few choice words for him, to which he could say "yo, Lavi, you won't believe who I just met".
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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.
Well, considering on what happened with the Hour of Devastation artbook blurbs, I guess the spoilers mentioned in this Rivals of Ixalan artbook should be taken with a grain of salt (due to non-verbatim-ness).
Still... The snapback of Jace back to being himself kinds of annoys me, though at least the idea of Vraska asking Jace to have her memory wiped hopefully only means that she wants to lose ALL her memories of him, including their animosity. Of course, given that Ral knows about Jace and Vraska's scuffle, that kind of memory wipe would immediately set off some alarms and he may inform Bolas that Jace might be involved even if Bolas didn't know from the start that Jace was in Ixalan.
And since this is another story where Bolas gets his toys with no fuss, again, I again hope we'll be seeing less of him in the future; He has won way big time already, there's no way anyone ever can make a halfway decent story culminating in a believable defeat for him. (as in, a story of his defeat unfortunately will likely be a deus ex machina)
I hate to say this, but what hack wrote that? Its so absolutely terrible from a story standpoint. Its like any feelings or thoughts the two might have had about each other after going through all of that just got thrown out the window as they go back to the status quo. I was hoping a romp through meso-pirate land with a blank slate for memory would make Jace a better character, apparently nope. You are dead to me Jace.
EDIT: The more I think about this, the more dumb it is. If Jace doesn't state where hes going, all Vraska has to tell Nicol Bolas is that Jace escaped from Ixalan and regained his memory. No amount of telepathy is going to get Bolas a different answer. In fact why would Bolas care? He would be more busy trying to conqueror a plane with his brand spanking new army than deal with some pest of a planeswalker.
The Immortal Sun was, by necessity, always going to leave the plane somehow or other. I enjoy reading about Jace and Vraska, but it looks like neither are meeting their ultimate fate in this arc, and besides, I'm rather indifferent as to where they end up. I'm much more interested in seeing the results of the plane's drama, the fates of Angrath, Kumena and Tishana, and learning how the story of the Elder Dinosaurs plays out. Nothing much revealed about any these characters plot-wise, aside a little bit for Kumena. And nothing about St. Elenda yet. Lots of mysteries still abound, and enticingly, all the ones I really care about. I'm very much looking forward to the RIX story.
It'd be really piss-poor story telling, even for Wizards' standards, to finally reveal Azor as a planeswalking sphinx who is still alive after all this time, only to trap him on a plane that the story will not revisit again for several years, if ever.
I fail to see how. "Something I don't like," or "something I think is a waste" =/= "piss-poor storytelling."
I'm honestly more unhappy that Jace seems to be getting his memories back. We have yet to see if Jace actually gets all of his memories back in a quick fashion but if he does this whole story is kind of a wash for me. He should get his bearings of what his past self did organically instead of just getting his head bumped and having then all come rushing back. And I Hope to god that we don't just go back to old Jace. New Jace is actually compelling and unlike his old self isn't someone I want to see get dunked in a trash can.
Admittedly, I was hoping Jace was going to rediscover Vryn thanks to, say, an offhand remark from Dovin Baan about his tattoos resembling those found on Vryn.
As for his personality, I'm thinking he'll wind up a mix of the two; he's going to be more jaded than before, but his experiences on Ixalan and with Vraska will leave an impact on him. For starters, he's more physically built than before; maybe he'll start building his body as well as his mind, with Gideon's help of course. His opinion of Vraska will also have changed, seeing that she was willing to show mercy on him during his time of amnesia thus proving she isn't an irredeemable monster.
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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.
Vraska is a sleeper agent how are you people not getting this.
Jace sealed her memories of him, now Vraska will stay with Bolas and help him with what I can only assume is some type of invasion plan, a Planar Bridge, the Eternal Army and now the Immortal Sun, Bolas is planning to really **** some place up and he will probably bring his two remaining planeswalker minions with him when he does and then when the Gatewatch comes to stop him Jace can unlock Vraska's memories and she will turn on Bolas
Also this was just a summary in an art book, don't complain that it lacks detail or doesn't answer everything, its just a summary wait for the story articles on the mothership to complain that they didn't explain something
But also anyone else feel like we are discovering a before unknown ancient powerful planeswalker who is still alive like every other year?
Also also props to whoever first pointed out that the Immortal Sun looked like the Azorius Symbol
The Elder Dinosaurs were apparently preserved for ages in the Golden City. Compared to their smaller cousins they have less colorful plumage and more grayish scales, but their feathers are a bright gold that matches the city itself. They are strong willed and ferocious, but the power of the Immortal Sun give the Sun Empire warriors who wield it the ability to bring these elder dinosaurs under their command.
This leads me to believe that you need City's Blessing to cast the Elder Dinosaurs.
I hate to say this, but what hack wrote that? Its so absolutely terrible from a story standpoint. Its like any feelings or thoughts the two might have had about each other after going through all of that just got thrown out the window as they go back to the status quo.
Why would it go back to status quo? Just because Jace gets his memories back doesn't mean what happened on Ixalan and what he learned of Vraska and how the Azorius truly work. If they meet again he will, most likely, act less like she's a criminal and someone he cared for, which will probably confuse her.
There doesn't seem to be a reason to believe those two will go back to the same thing they did years ago with RTR block.
Love those spoilers with Azor appearing in the story.
My tinfoil hat theory:
When Azor felt the mending was happening, he transfered his spark into the immortal sun hoping it wouldn't be affected by the mending (hence why the sun has godlike powers).
He failed to transfer it back into him (or didn't have the technology for).
Somehow Bolas learned about the whole thing (maybe when fighting Ugin), he wants to steal the sun to get a pre mending spark.
The planar bridge was needed to be able to transfer the sun/still be able to planewalk (in case Bolas fails to use it).
They let Tezz take the sun to Bolas because Azor can track it/see through it (like a palantir) and they will get information on Bolas that way.
Luhnatic
I don't believe the timeline works for that. The Immortal Sun is centuries old (at least 800), but the mending only happened 60 years ago. I mean, could he have created the Immortal Sun 800years ago and then transferred his spark into it at a later time? Sure? It's possible. But why? If he was going to transfer his spark --the thing that allows him to planeswalk-- into an object for safekeeping, why in the multiverse would he transfer it into an object that specifically prohibits planeswalking? Stuff that mess into a locket and wear it around your neck as you merrily hop from plane to plane.
Love those spoilers with Azor appearing in the story.
My tinfoil hat theory:
When Azor felt the mending was happening, he transfered his spark into the immortal sun hoping it wouldn't be affected by the mending (hence why the sun has godlike powers).
He failed to transfer it back into him (or didn't have the technology for).
Somehow Bolas learned about the whole thing (maybe when fighting Ugin), he wants to steal the sun to get a pre mending spark.
The planar bridge was needed to be able to transfer the sun/still be able to planewalk (in case Bolas fails to use it).
They let Tezz take the sun to Bolas because Azor can track it/see through it (like a palantir) and they will get information on Bolas that way.
Luhnatic
I don't believe the timeline works for that. The Immortal Sun is centuries old (at least 800), but the mending only happened 60 years ago. I mean, could he have created the Immortal Sun 800years ago and then transferred his spark into it at a later time? Sure? It's possible. But why? If he was going to transfer his spark --the thing that allows him to planeswalk-- into an object for safekeeping, why in the multiverse would he transfer it into an object that specifically prohibits planeswalking? Stuff that mess into a locket and wear it around your neck as you merrily hop from plane to plane.
I think the synopsis is implying that his spark, or whatever bit of his spark that is inside the Sun, is what's powering the Ixalan's Binding feature of the Immortal Sun.
If that's the case, maybe if the spark was removed from the Sun somehow, the Binding stops working. The real question though is why he made this thing to begin with. What's so important on Ixalan that he had to make sure no-one could get out to tell their friends about it?
The Elder Dinosaurs were apparently preserved for ages in the Golden City. Compared to their smaller cousins they have less colorful plumage and more grayish scales, but their feathers are a bright gold that matches the city itself. They are strong willed and ferocious, but the power of the Immortal Sun give the Sun Empire warriors who wield it the ability to bring these elder dinosaurs under their command.
This leads me to believe that you need City's Blessing to cast the Elder Dinosaurs.
Only problem with this is we have already seen two of the six elder dinosaurs, Tetzimoc (the Black one) and Ghalta (the Green one). Neither of which need or interact in any way with the City's Blessing.
Of course we have no information about what the sixth one might be or do, other than that one picture. So it might have some connection, but I doubt it.
The Elder Dinosaurs were apparently preserved for ages in the Golden City. Compared to their smaller cousins they have less colorful plumage and more grayish scales, but their feathers are a bright gold that matches the city itself. They are strong willed and ferocious, but the power of the Immortal Sun give the Sun Empire warriors who wield it the ability to bring these elder dinosaurs under their command.
This leads me to believe that you need City's Blessing to cast the Elder Dinosaurs.
Only problem with this is we have already seen two of the six elder dinosaurs, Tetzimoc (the Black one) and Ghalta (the Green one). Neither of which need or interact in any way with the City's Blessing.
Of course we have no information about what the sixth one might be or do, other than that one picture. So it might have some connection, but I doubt it.
I don't think the Elder Dinos have anything directly to do with the city's blessing either.
The blessing is supposed to be some kind of boon you get from Orazca, which translates to rewards that enhance your spells and such, but the Dinos are a different thing altogether.
Love those spoilers with Azor appearing in the story.
My tinfoil hat theory:
When Azor felt the mending was happening, he transfered his spark into the immortal sun hoping it wouldn't be affected by the mending (hence why the sun has godlike powers).
He failed to transfer it back into him (or didn't have the technology for).
Somehow Bolas learned about the whole thing (maybe when fighting Ugin), he wants to steal the sun to get a pre mending spark.
The planar bridge was needed to be able to transfer the sun/still be able to planewalk (in case Bolas fails to use it).
They let Tezz take the sun to Bolas because Azor can track it/see through it (like a palantir) and they will get information on Bolas that way.
Luhnatic
I don't believe the timeline works for that. The Immortal Sun is centuries old (at least 800), but the mending only happened 60 years ago. I mean, could he have created the Immortal Sun 800years ago and then transferred his spark into it at a later time? Sure? It's possible. But why? If he was going to transfer his spark --the thing that allows him to planeswalk-- into an object for safekeeping, why in the multiverse would he transfer it into an object that specifically prohibits planeswalking? Stuff that mess into a locket and wear it around your neck as you merrily hop from plane to plane.
I think the synopsis is implying that his spark, or whatever bit of his spark that is inside the Sun, is what's powering the Ixalan's Binding feature of the Immortal Sun.
If that's the case, maybe if the spark was removed from the Sun somehow, the Binding stops working. The real question though is why he made this thing to begin with. What's so important on Ixalan that he had to make sure no-one could get out to tell their friends about it?
Well I agree on the timeline stuff not holding with avoiding mending, though I still think Bolas wants the (possibly) pre mending powered spark that is inside the immortal sun.
What's weird is that if the Immortal Sun was made to prevent some very important stuff from leaving Ixalan, why doesn't Bolas wants that too?
Maybe the reason Azor did this was to make Ixalan somehow 'invisible' for Eldrazis to live on a world that would never get destroyed? Or maybe he thought that at some point the Eldrazis would come to Ixalan and would be unable to leave forever?
Luhnatic
The Eldrazi don't "planeswalk" in the traditional sense (meaning they don't have sparks). They're native to the Blind Eternities, and they never directly enter the world of their own accord, but "project" portions of themselves into that world with 3D avatars that you can actually see. So I doubt the Sun would actually do anything to them.
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Aside from that, sweet artwork on all these.
Not really sure why you're still using spoiler tags when people have been blurting out the plot in this thread, including the person you're replying to. Besides that, these artbooks have a habit of not giving us the whole story, so there could be a lot we still don't know with regards to the upcoming story.
I could see Jace/Lavinia working too, but most likely their respective stations would prohibit such an affair, or would certainly make the whole arrangement look very shady. People would assume the Azorius are getting favored simply because one of their officers is in bed with the Guildpact; classic political scandal.
We learn that Azor is a Sphinx planeswalker and the creator of the Immortal Sun, not to mention a possible influence on Sphinxes across the multiverse, and here I am waxing on about Jace's love life.
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.
They basically just pulled this to keep her from tagging along in the next set or something.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
-Chandra Nalaar
Not just that, but by now i think we all know that being mind wiped doesn't really "destroy" your memories, they just go away and can eventually come back (shown by Jace, not once but twice).
If Bolas ever find Jace or Vraska i'm sure he can get her memories back with ease.
Art student, EDH lover and a strong believer that Delver has the best design in all of MTG.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I can only imagine that when Jace finally makes it back to Ravnica and the whole plane is literally on fire because the Guildpact went MIA for months, Lavinia's first instinct is not gonna be "yo jace dtf?".
This whole story synopsis raises more questions than it answers. Why would Azor even want to create the barrier keeping planeswalkers out of Ixalan? Does Azor end up getting his spark back from the Immortal Sun? Why would Azor allow Tezzeret to take the Immortal Sun while Azor is in the city guarding it? How does Vraska first react to meeting Azor, given her hatred of the Azorius? Why does Jace erase Vraska's memories rather than just tell her not to go back to Bolas and not to call Tezzeret? What are Jace and Azor doing when Tezzeret shows up, and why don't they try to stop him? Why wouldn't Bolas just do the same thing to Vraska that he did to Sarkhan and Tezzeret, completely taking over her mind, just to be safe? He really has no reason not to at this point. Also, what about all the other characters? How does Angrath and Huatli's alliance work out for them? When the Immortal Sun leaves the plane it will presumably let planeswalkers leave, and I assume that Angrath will go home, but what about Huatli? Does she go with Angrath, or to Kaladesh, or does she pull a Narset and stay on her home plane for the time being?
Some of these are just details that were left out of the art book summary but others seem like outright plot holes. Since art books are written before the actual story and tend to be an early blueprint of the story and not 100% accurate, hopefully the actual story will clear things up, but I still think that Jace allowing Vraska to summon Tezzeret and go back to Bolas doesn't make very much sense at all. It would be one thing if his whole ordeal on Ixalan made him decide to abandon the Gatewatch and not care about fighting Bolas anymore, but clearly he is still concerned with Bolas and he leaves to find the Gatewatch (meaning that he might show up in Dominaria), so why not take Vraska and/or the Immortal Sun with him instead of delivering them both to Bolas? The way it's described makes it sound like Jace will eventually find Vraska and give her back her memories of him, turning her into an ally again, quite possibly in Ravnica 3. But from Bolas's perspective, is their any reason not to just do what he did to Sarkhan and Tezzeret? He clearly has the power to do so, and it's much safer for him than letting his agents have their own free will. He already read Vraska's mind before she went to Ixalan and saw that she intended to betray him, so he probably should have done it then to be honest. There's just no way that what Jace is doing is a good idea. At all. Since he's the protagonist I'm sure it will actually end up paying off, since it will give him a future double agent working for Bolas when he needs it, but logically it really shouldn't work out for him, and it's a bad call any way you look at it.
This is just my gut reaction to everything and of course I will have to withhold judgement to some extent until we see things actually play out in the story. But I really feel like this is not a good way to end the story, and unless they have a damn good explanation that didn't make it into the art book, it leaves a lot of plot holes. Ravnica 3 should be able to redeem things somewhat even if this block's ending is little nonsensical. Hopefully there we will get to see Jace restore Vraska's memories that were specifically "sealed away" rather than destroyed. I don't know why Bolas wouldn't be able to see them in that case since he has been shown to be a much more powerful telepath than Jace, but I guess that the protagonists need to get a win somehow. Hopefully then we'll get the payoff for Vraska's character development and relationship with Jace. Ravnica 3 should also involve Azor, assuming that he gets his spark back, which I am confident that he will. I also hope to see him take over the role of Guildpact from Jace, since clearly Jace is completely incompetent and rarely even present on the plane. It's obvious that Jace being tied down to one plane does not mesh well with plane-hopping superhero story that creative is trying to tell, and Azor gives them a very convenient out. I would be appalled if they weren't planning to do this since they first decided to have Azor be involved on Ixalan.
The closest thing I could think of was that maybe Azor might extract his spark from the Immortal Sun and put it back into himself (if that's even possible for him at this point), and they allow Bolas to get it because it'd be severely weakened if not outright inert. The problem with that though is Bolas should realize pretty quickly that something is off about the Sun.
It'd be really piss-poor story telling, even for Wizards' standards, to finally reveal Azor as a planeswalking sphinx who is still alive after all this time, only to trap him on a plane that the story will not revisit again for several years, if ever.
I'd have to bet that Azor gets his spark back somehow in this ordeal, and that the Immortal Sun is still valuable to Bolas, even with the spark extracted. Bolas can probably find some other way to power it and give it comparable functionality.
I imagine she's going to have more than a few choice words for him, to which he could say "yo, Lavi, you won't believe who I just met".
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.
Still... The snapback of Jace back to being himself kinds of annoys me, though at least the idea of Vraska asking Jace to have her memory wiped hopefully only means that she wants to lose ALL her memories of him, including their animosity. Of course, given that Ral knows about Jace and Vraska's scuffle, that kind of memory wipe would immediately set off some alarms and he may inform Bolas that Jace might be involved even if Bolas didn't know from the start that Jace was in Ixalan.
And since this is another story where Bolas gets his toys with no fuss, again, I again hope we'll be seeing less of him in the future; He has won way big time already, there's no way anyone ever can make a halfway decent story culminating in a believable defeat for him. (as in, a story of his defeat unfortunately will likely be a deus ex machina)
I hate to say this, but what hack wrote that? Its so absolutely terrible from a story standpoint. Its like any feelings or thoughts the two might have had about each other after going through all of that just got thrown out the window as they go back to the status quo. I was hoping a romp through meso-pirate land with a blank slate for memory would make Jace a better character, apparently nope. You are dead to me Jace.
EDIT: The more I think about this, the more dumb it is. If Jace doesn't state where hes going, all Vraska has to tell Nicol Bolas is that Jace escaped from Ixalan and regained his memory. No amount of telepathy is going to get Bolas a different answer. In fact why would Bolas care? He would be more busy trying to conqueror a plane with his brand spanking new army than deal with some pest of a planeswalker.
The Immortal Sun was, by necessity, always going to leave the plane somehow or other. I enjoy reading about Jace and Vraska, but it looks like neither are meeting their ultimate fate in this arc, and besides, I'm rather indifferent as to where they end up. I'm much more interested in seeing the results of the plane's drama, the fates of Angrath, Kumena and Tishana, and learning how the story of the Elder Dinosaurs plays out. Nothing much revealed about any these characters plot-wise, aside a little bit for Kumena. And nothing about St. Elenda yet. Lots of mysteries still abound, and enticingly, all the ones I really care about. I'm very much looking forward to the RIX story.
I fail to see how. "Something I don't like," or "something I think is a waste" =/= "piss-poor storytelling."
Admittedly, I was hoping Jace was going to rediscover Vryn thanks to, say, an offhand remark from Dovin Baan about his tattoos resembling those found on Vryn.
As for his personality, I'm thinking he'll wind up a mix of the two; he's going to be more jaded than before, but his experiences on Ixalan and with Vraska will leave an impact on him. For starters, he's more physically built than before; maybe he'll start building his body as well as his mind, with Gideon's help of course. His opinion of Vraska will also have changed, seeing that she was willing to show mercy on him during his time of amnesia thus proving she isn't an irredeemable monster.
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.
Jace sealed her memories of him, now Vraska will stay with Bolas and help him with what I can only assume is some type of invasion plan, a Planar Bridge, the Eternal Army and now the Immortal Sun, Bolas is planning to really **** some place up and he will probably bring his two remaining planeswalker minions with him when he does and then when the Gatewatch comes to stop him Jace can unlock Vraska's memories and she will turn on Bolas
Also this was just a summary in an art book, don't complain that it lacks detail or doesn't answer everything, its just a summary wait for the story articles on the mothership to complain that they didn't explain something
But also anyone else feel like we are discovering a before unknown ancient powerful planeswalker who is still alive like every other year?
Also also props to whoever first pointed out that the Immortal Sun looked like the Azorius Symbol
Why would it go back to status quo? Just because Jace gets his memories back doesn't mean what happened on Ixalan and what he learned of Vraska and how the Azorius truly work. If they meet again he will, most likely, act less like she's a criminal and someone he cared for, which will probably confuse her.
There doesn't seem to be a reason to believe those two will go back to the same thing they did years ago with RTR block.
I don't believe the timeline works for that. The Immortal Sun is centuries old (at least 800), but the mending only happened 60 years ago. I mean, could he have created the Immortal Sun 800years ago and then transferred his spark into it at a later time? Sure? It's possible. But why? If he was going to transfer his spark --the thing that allows him to planeswalk-- into an object for safekeeping, why in the multiverse would he transfer it into an object that specifically prohibits planeswalking? Stuff that mess into a locket and wear it around your neck as you merrily hop from plane to plane.
I think the synopsis is implying that his spark, or whatever bit of his spark that is inside the Sun, is what's powering the Ixalan's Binding feature of the Immortal Sun.
If that's the case, maybe if the spark was removed from the Sun somehow, the Binding stops working. The real question though is why he made this thing to begin with. What's so important on Ixalan that he had to make sure no-one could get out to tell their friends about it?
Only problem with this is we have already seen two of the six elder dinosaurs, Tetzimoc (the Black one) and Ghalta (the Green one). Neither of which need or interact in any way with the City's Blessing.
Of course we have no information about what the sixth one might be or do, other than that one picture. So it might have some connection, but I doubt it.
I don't think the Elder Dinos have anything directly to do with the city's blessing either.
The blessing is supposed to be some kind of boon you get from Orazca, which translates to rewards that enhance your spells and such, but the Dinos are a different thing altogether.
The Eldrazi don't "planeswalk" in the traditional sense (meaning they don't have sparks). They're native to the Blind Eternities, and they never directly enter the world of their own accord, but "project" portions of themselves into that world with 3D avatars that you can actually see. So I doubt the Sun would actually do anything to them.