It so weird and creepy that team gatewatch gets two out of three of the grixis colors combos especially rakdos
Weird, right? One would think that the promise of undead Eternal armies rampaging through Ravnica would be enough for Rakdos to jump on board. Maybe they just want all the mayhem to be their own.
To be fair, most members of the Cult of Rakdos don't actually care about chaos and disorder. They are just all about pleasure/fun, even if it causes pain to others. They are the 'entertainers' of Ravnica after all.
And Rakdos himself doesn't seem like the sort of demon would want to serve anyone else. And to want to usurp Rakdos, Bolas' RB planeswalker would have to not be in their right mind. And I can't think of anyone that could fit that descr..... oh wait Tibalt.... but I don't even think Bolas would want him around.
That is definitely a selesnya elf.
Does the kaya art behind the elf mean that kaya is in the set? If so, I'm super hyped.
That's not a Selesnyan elf. The little vial or whatever she's holding has the Simic icon on it, and she definitely looks like an elf/merfolk hybrid.
That does look like Kaya, but it could be from an independently designed playmat that has nothing to do with Wizards.
it's the official ProTour Playmat
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again"
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.
Fair enough but we know each guild under Bolas sway is led by a Walker so process of elimination.
Yep. The way I see it, Bolas promises Domri similar things to what he promised Vraska. They are both anarchists, at the end of the day, and Ravnica is a Balkan setting, right?
The inspiration for Ravnica is medieval Prague, and as someone who lives there, I feel the need to inform you that it's definitely NOT Balkan. Prague is central Europe, Ravnica is generally inspired by central to eastern Europe.
I assume he confused Croatia and Czech Republic? What can I say geography is not the American Strong Suit.
I have to agree, if Ravnica was Balkan-themed it should have some Greek-inspired flavor, and a history of conquests, which isn't the case, and the architecture is very Central European. An interesting tidbit is that one guild has a Hungarian name, Boros, which I can't believe is a coincidence seeing that Boros means winemaker in Hungarian and the guild is in both...red and white, and the Ghost Quarter has a Hungarian name as well, Agyrem (Agyrém means ghost in Hungarian), and another guild has a Turkish name, the Izzet, Izzet means glory or renown in Turkish but it's a very old fashioned word by now, it still survives as a male given name, and definitely fits with the vain Niv-Mizzet. There are no other Turkish elements I can think of, which fits Central Europe, the Ottomans never conquered the most important Central European city back then (Vienna), and only managed to occupy parts of Hungary for a few centuries, but not a long as the Balkans.
Fair enough but we know each guild under Bolas sway is led by a Walker so process of elimination.
Yep. The way I see it, Bolas promises Domri similar things to what he promised Vraska. They are both anarchists, at the end of the day, and Ravnica is a Balkan setting, right?
The inspiration for Ravnica is medieval Prague, and as someone who lives there, I feel the need to inform you that it's definitely NOT Balkan. Prague is central Europe, Ravnica is generally inspired by central to eastern Europe.
I assume he confused Croatia and Czech Republic? What can I say geography is not the American Strong Suit.
Close. I was thrown off by the name Simic. (And yes, I know, Boros is Hungarian.) And the whole idea of a collection of factions who are at each other's throats in the absence of a supreme leader.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
I'm curious as to what that thing is the elf is holding. I know they have the stasis chambers and stuff, but that thing is itty bitty, so maybe they're going to be bioterrorists this time around? Germ warfare? Though that sounds more like something the Golgari would think up.
Also, is it just me or did Domri get swole? I guess he's been working out in the six years since last we saw him.
I guess we may have figured out the teams if this is true
Team bolas UR Izzet BG golgari WB orzhov RG gruul WU azorius (if dovin really in this according to the story)
Team gate watch UB dimir UR rakdos GW selesyna RW Boris GU simic
It so weird and creepy that team gatewatch gets two out of three of the grixis colors combos especially rakdos
Weird, right? One would think that the promise of undead Eternal armies rampaging through Ravnica would be enough for Rakdos to jump on board. Maybe they just want all the mayhem to be their own.
Eternals are also unfeeling, cold-souled war machines. Hardly in the Rakdos spirit of "fun."
There are lots of ways to justify why Bolas recruited the specific guilds he did, including the fact that he would then control the power supply, a huge amount of food production, banking, wild spaces, and the laws, but from a more "meta" perspective, why would he need to add stuff with colors he already can use pretty effectively?
Fair enough but we know each guild under Bolas sway is led by a Walker so process of elimination.
Yep. The way I see it, Bolas promises Domri similar things to what he promised Vraska. They are both anarchists, at the end of the day, and Ravnica is a Balkan setting, right?
The inspiration for Ravnica is medieval Prague, and as someone who lives there, I feel the need to inform you that it's definitely NOT Balkan. Prague is central Europe, Ravnica is generally inspired by central to eastern Europe.
I assume he confused Croatia and Czech Republic? What can I say geography is not the American Strong Suit.
The inspiration for the architecture is Prague. The inspiraiton for names and most of everything else is definitely Balkan, and more specifically ex-Yugoslavia (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia). Pretty much every other name in the set is Croatian, Serbian or Bosnian, people from Czech Republic wouldn't even know those aren't made up names. "Ravnica" even means "plain" in Yugoslav languages (was meant to be "plane", but I guess "ravan" just didn't sound right so they went with the diminutive). It even goes down to the cheeze being menitoned in the flavor for Ratcatcher being a Serbian type of cheeze, and Drekavac ("Dreka" = screaming, "Drekavac" = screamer) being a tybe of beastly banshee out of Serbian Folklore. Razija, Momir, Jozhica etc., 80% of the names are pedestrian Yugoslav names, and the funniest thing is probably Lazav, which just means "Liar" in Yugoslav languages. And Boros is just "Borac" the way a anglo speaker would pronounce it. Simply means "fighter". "Mirko Vosk" is pretty funny, because it sounds like it has something to do with "murk" so they gave the name to a vampire, when in fact it's just short for Miroslav and means something like "serene" or "peaceful". "Dimir" is pretty cool, though, it's "Dim" (smoke) + "mir" (stillness), so it's something like "Stillsmoke" when you translate it. Izzet is a Bosnian name, and Simic is a Croatian surname, I guess they sounded cool to the devs for some reason.
All this makes some standard MtG terminology which caught on since the original ravnica hilarious to Balkan people because they know what those words actually mean. "Izzet" is particuarly funny because we mostly associate it with a crazy retired guy from a Bosnian sitcom of the same name. And we universaly cringe when everyone pronounces it RavniKa, because that's not how you pronounce it (it's ravnizza, like in pizza).
"Masques Block is the worst block ever! There's not one decent card in there! The whole internet say's so, you're literally the only person who ever said it was good!" - random noob in a conversation with an Eldrazi.
I always pronounce it that way, myself. And Simic is shimmich. Which does make for some nice trolling:
Make me a Simic!
What kind?
I was thinking something with four arms and gills...
By the way, for anyone here not familiar with Slavic languages, there are two alphabets. (The basic difference between Serbian and Croatian languages is the former uses extended Latin and the latter uses Cyrillic. Otherwise, mutually intelligible.) For Serbian, it uses a similar one to Czech, Polish, and the Americanist Phonetic Notation. (Many early 20th century American anthropolgists were from Bohemia, as Czechia was known then. Others from Germany and Poland.) That's how I know how to pronounce so many names in Ravnica.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Well, the inspiration for names and most of everything else is definitely Slavic, that means central, eastern, and southern Europe (Balkan) included.
I believe every Slavic language could find some word here and there. For Czech it's "rusalka", "bumbat" (literally "to drink", but used only for small babies - to drink baby milk from bottle). And for example incantation "Vrazi" used by Agrus when destroying ghosts with his pendrek (it's literally "murderers").
Well, if Kaya and Rade are the two walkers in the next set, I can officially say that Simic is now the most bad ass bunch of mad scientists on Ravnica. They don't care about the equivalent of Tiamat coming from space when they can make their own organic version of Godzilla!
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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!
Well, if Kaya and Rade are the two walkers in the next set, I can officially say that Simic is now the most bad ass bunch of mad scientists on Ravnica. They don't care about the equivalent of Tiamat coming from space when they can make their own organic version of Godzilla!
We need Bio Niv-Mizzet
So we can get one real Niv, one that is actually Lazav and one made by the Simic?
Well, if Kaya and Rade are the two walkers in the next set, I can officially say that Simic is now the most bad ass bunch of mad scientists on Ravnica. They don't care about the equivalent of Tiamat coming from space when they can make their own organic version of Godzilla!
We need Bio Niv-Mizzet
So we can get one real Niv, one that is actually Lazav and one made by the Simic?
I'm sure there's a Game of Thrones meme somewhere in this, but I don't know where.
But yeah, it's funny how many blue dragons there are on Ravnica now that I think about it.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
That's not a Selesnyan elf. The little vial or whatever she's holding has the Simic icon on it, and she definitely looks like an elf/merfolk hybrid.
That does look like Kaya, but it could be from an independently designed playmat that has nothing to do with Wizards.
To be fair, most members of the Cult of Rakdos don't actually care about chaos and disorder. They are just all about pleasure/fun, even if it causes pain to others. They are the 'entertainers' of Ravnica after all.
And Rakdos himself doesn't seem like the sort of demon would want to serve anyone else. And to want to usurp Rakdos, Bolas' RB planeswalker would have to not be in their right mind. And I can't think of anyone that could fit that descr..... oh wait Tibalt.... but I don't even think Bolas would want him around.
it's the official ProTour Playmat
Domri: Go, GROUDON!
Kiora: Go, KYOGRE!
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 have to agree, if Ravnica was Balkan-themed it should have some Greek-inspired flavor, and a history of conquests, which isn't the case, and the architecture is very Central European. An interesting tidbit is that one guild has a Hungarian name, Boros, which I can't believe is a coincidence seeing that Boros means winemaker in Hungarian and the guild is in both...red and white, and the Ghost Quarter has a Hungarian name as well, Agyrem (Agyrém means ghost in Hungarian), and another guild has a Turkish name, the Izzet, Izzet means glory or renown in Turkish but it's a very old fashioned word by now, it still survives as a male given name, and definitely fits with the vain Niv-Mizzet. There are no other Turkish elements I can think of, which fits Central Europe, the Ottomans never conquered the most important Central European city back then (Vienna), and only managed to occupy parts of Hungary for a few centuries, but not a long as the Balkans.
Close. I was thrown off by the name Simic. (And yes, I know, Boros is Hungarian.) And the whole idea of a collection of factions who are at each other's throats in the absence of a supreme leader.
On phasing:
Also, is it just me or did Domri get swole? I guess he's been working out in the six years since last we saw him.
With that plain blue background? Nah, that's box/banner art right there.
That doesn't mean it isn't taken from the card art, just cut and pasted on a plain blue background.
There are lots of ways to justify why Bolas recruited the specific guilds he did, including the fact that he would then control the power supply, a huge amount of food production, banking, wild spaces, and the laws, but from a more "meta" perspective, why would he need to add stuff with colors he already can use pretty effectively?
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
The inspiration for the architecture is Prague. The inspiraiton for names and most of everything else is definitely Balkan, and more specifically ex-Yugoslavia (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia). Pretty much every other name in the set is Croatian, Serbian or Bosnian, people from Czech Republic wouldn't even know those aren't made up names. "Ravnica" even means "plain" in Yugoslav languages (was meant to be "plane", but I guess "ravan" just didn't sound right so they went with the diminutive). It even goes down to the cheeze being menitoned in the flavor for Ratcatcher being a Serbian type of cheeze, and Drekavac ("Dreka" = screaming, "Drekavac" = screamer) being a tybe of beastly banshee out of Serbian Folklore. Razija, Momir, Jozhica etc., 80% of the names are pedestrian Yugoslav names, and the funniest thing is probably Lazav, which just means "Liar" in Yugoslav languages. And Boros is just "Borac" the way a anglo speaker would pronounce it. Simply means "fighter". "Mirko Vosk" is pretty funny, because it sounds like it has something to do with "murk" so they gave the name to a vampire, when in fact it's just short for Miroslav and means something like "serene" or "peaceful". "Dimir" is pretty cool, though, it's "Dim" (smoke) + "mir" (stillness), so it's something like "Stillsmoke" when you translate it. Izzet is a Bosnian name, and Simic is a Croatian surname, I guess they sounded cool to the devs for some reason.
All this makes some standard MtG terminology which caught on since the original ravnica hilarious to Balkan people because they know what those words actually mean. "Izzet" is particuarly funny because we mostly associate it with a crazy retired guy from a Bosnian sitcom of the same name. And we universaly cringe when everyone pronounces it RavniKa, because that's not how you pronounce it (it's ravnizza, like in pizza).
Make me a Simic!
What kind?
I was thinking something with four arms and gills...
By the way, for anyone here not familiar with Slavic languages, there are two alphabets. (The basic difference between Serbian and Croatian languages is the former uses extended Latin and the latter uses Cyrillic. Otherwise, mutually intelligible.) For Serbian, it uses a similar one to Czech, Polish, and the Americanist Phonetic Notation. (Many early 20th century American anthropolgists were from Bohemia, as Czechia was known then. Others from Germany and Poland.) That's how I know how to pronounce so many names in Ravnica.
On phasing:
I believe every Slavic language could find some word here and there. For Czech it's "rusalka", "bumbat" (literally "to drink", but used only for small babies - to drink baby milk from bottle). And for example incantation "Vrazi" used by Agrus when destroying ghosts with his pendrek (it's literally "murderers").
And of course, there is Urban Evolution which depicts exactly the Church of St. Francis of Assisihttps://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostel_svat%C3%A9ho_Franti%C5%A1ka_z_Assisi_(Star%C3%A9_M%C4%9Bsto), as well as Old Town Tower of Charles Bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bridge#/media/File:Karl%C5%AFv_most.jpg.
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!
So we can get one real Niv, one that is actually Lazav and one made by the Simic?
I'm sure there's a Game of Thrones meme somewhere in this, but I don't know where.
But yeah, it's funny how many blue dragons there are on Ravnica now that I think about it.
On phasing: