Okey, I'm new to forums so I apologize if I'm doing this wrong. Here goes! Main pitch: The Gatewatch, but newer and more powerful after their initial run-in with Bolas. I've got this idea in my head and I need to bounce it off of some fellow fans.
SPOILERS AHEAD
(if you haven't read the stories)
As we know from the latest set and the online story archive, Nicol Bolas handed a pretty sound butt-whooping to the members of The Gatewatch. I get the feeling from the final Hour of Dev story that the original 1-color versions of The Gatewatch members are through. Nissa kicked things off on this one when she dealt with Kefnet's trial with her dabbling into blue mana and leylines. Of the original 5 members, she is the first one to have a dual-color version of herself printed. I'm choosing to leave out Ajani for now since he's not an original member and he's currently off and away drumming up support for the anti-Bolas movement.
NISSA (Green --> Green+Blue)
Starts mixing her elemental green with some board-control blue. This has already been established. I get that the "Genesis Mage" version of herself was back to good ol' mono-green, but I truly believe that the blue side is going to stick around. Leylines are becoming her thing and I can see this developing into some world-enchantment-style effects in the future.
JACE (Blue --> Blue+Black)
The battle with Bolas was particularly rough for Jace. (SPOILER), he pretty much got his mind squished. In the story, he can literally feel the insanity creeping in as his mind is peeled away. I foresee a Jace that is just a bit darker and more insane than his previous naive and overly-careful self, with some of his original discard effects in-tow. I'd like for him to have another encounter with someone like Garruk, who has experienced black mana corruption and knows how to overcome it. They've met before and things ended well enough (ie: Jace didn't get axed so that's a start), so I like to think that they could get along long enough for a mentor-mentee relationship.
LILIANA (Black --> Black+White)
This one was the toughest for me to piece together. In all honesty I had the other four figured out and then this one just kind of shook out. It's not too far-fetched though, since Liliana is beginning to actually have friendly thoughts about her fellow members and cares about their opinions. I can see her attempting to experiment in some kind of 'cursemute' style magic in an attempt to control the Onakke spirits inside the Chain Veil. Bolas said it could be done; I want her to figure that out on her own by trying a different color of mana. With all of her recent character development, she's in for a tiny shot of whole-hearted goodness.
GIDEON (White --> White+Red)
This is a pure Ajani-style move. During the fight with Bolas on Amonkhet, Gideon's teammates often remark how he is surrounded by a rage that they have never seen from him before. It's so bad that he loses focus and their entire plan of attack fails. I can see this rage--paired with his newfound resolve to improve and meet Bolas in combat again--pushing Gideon to take the full swing into the righteous fury of Red/White. He worked with some Boros on Ravnica anyway, right? (like really, did he? I know he arrested some folks while he was there. I'm hazy on most of his history). Maybe Ajani will help him through this as part of the 'Mentor of Heroes' role.
CHANDRA (Red ---> Red+Green)
Liliana is gone, and Chandra does not forgive easily. However, she seems constantly amazed by Nissa's resourcefulness and strength when things get tough; cheering openly at Nissa's anti-flying spikes and giant elemental combo during the Bolas smack-down. I believe that these two are going to work together to make Chandra into some sort of Green/Red rage engine. If she could glean some of Nissa's patience along with the mana control that Green spells provide, her pyromancy would be even more intimidating.
Ajani mentions at the end of the Aether Revolt storyline that one of the only reasons he was able to defeat Nicol Bolas on Alara was because he was able to come at the dragon with skills and tactics that he hadn't seen before (also because Bolas was busy maelstrom-wrangling at the same time, but mehhhh). Bolas knows everything about these members up to this point; his intelligence web is that good. For the Gatewatch to fight Bolas again, they'll need to tap into skills that are new to them, so they can hit Bolas with new and more powerful spells.
This would probably come to a close in the Dominaria set and would be a SWEET bridge between the original MTG stories and the 'neowalkers'. The Ixalan block would be the recuperation/learning phase for The Gatewatch and then things would spring from there.
Thoughts? Is this too crazy? Am I just getting tired of reprints of the same mono-color main characters?
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SPOILERS AHEAD
(if you haven't read the stories)
As we know from the latest set and the online story archive, Nicol Bolas handed a pretty sound butt-whooping to the members of The Gatewatch. I get the feeling from the final Hour of Dev story that the original 1-color versions of The Gatewatch members are through. Nissa kicked things off on this one when she dealt with Kefnet's trial with her dabbling into blue mana and leylines. Of the original 5 members, she is the first one to have a dual-color version of herself printed. I'm choosing to leave out Ajani for now since he's not an original member and he's currently off and away drumming up support for the anti-Bolas movement.
NISSA (Green --> Green+Blue)
Starts mixing her elemental green with some board-control blue. This has already been established. I get that the "Genesis Mage" version of herself was back to good ol' mono-green, but I truly believe that the blue side is going to stick around. Leylines are becoming her thing and I can see this developing into some world-enchantment-style effects in the future.
JACE (Blue --> Blue+Black)
The battle with Bolas was particularly rough for Jace. (SPOILER), he pretty much got his mind squished. In the story, he can literally feel the insanity creeping in as his mind is peeled away. I foresee a Jace that is just a bit darker and more insane than his previous naive and overly-careful self, with some of his original discard effects in-tow. I'd like for him to have another encounter with someone like Garruk, who has experienced black mana corruption and knows how to overcome it. They've met before and things ended well enough (ie: Jace didn't get axed so that's a start), so I like to think that they could get along long enough for a mentor-mentee relationship.
LILIANA (Black --> Black+White)
This one was the toughest for me to piece together. In all honesty I had the other four figured out and then this one just kind of shook out. It's not too far-fetched though, since Liliana is beginning to actually have friendly thoughts about her fellow members and cares about their opinions. I can see her attempting to experiment in some kind of 'cursemute' style magic in an attempt to control the Onakke spirits inside the Chain Veil. Bolas said it could be done; I want her to figure that out on her own by trying a different color of mana. With all of her recent character development, she's in for a tiny shot of whole-hearted goodness.
GIDEON (White --> White+Red)
This is a pure Ajani-style move. During the fight with Bolas on Amonkhet, Gideon's teammates often remark how he is surrounded by a rage that they have never seen from him before. It's so bad that he loses focus and their entire plan of attack fails. I can see this rage--paired with his newfound resolve to improve and meet Bolas in combat again--pushing Gideon to take the full swing into the righteous fury of Red/White. He worked with some Boros on Ravnica anyway, right? (like really, did he? I know he arrested some folks while he was there. I'm hazy on most of his history). Maybe Ajani will help him through this as part of the 'Mentor of Heroes' role.
CHANDRA (Red ---> Red+Green)
Liliana is gone, and Chandra does not forgive easily. However, she seems constantly amazed by Nissa's resourcefulness and strength when things get tough; cheering openly at Nissa's anti-flying spikes and giant elemental combo during the Bolas smack-down. I believe that these two are going to work together to make Chandra into some sort of Green/Red rage engine. If she could glean some of Nissa's patience along with the mana control that Green spells provide, her pyromancy would be even more intimidating.
Ajani mentions at the end of the Aether Revolt storyline that one of the only reasons he was able to defeat Nicol Bolas on Alara was because he was able to come at the dragon with skills and tactics that he hadn't seen before (also because Bolas was busy maelstrom-wrangling at the same time, but mehhhh). Bolas knows everything about these members up to this point; his intelligence web is that good. For the Gatewatch to fight Bolas again, they'll need to tap into skills that are new to them, so they can hit Bolas with new and more powerful spells.
This would probably come to a close in the Dominaria set and would be a SWEET bridge between the original MTG stories and the 'neowalkers'. The Ixalan block would be the recuperation/learning phase for The Gatewatch and then things would spring from there.
Thoughts? Is this too crazy? Am I just getting tired of reprints of the same mono-color main characters?