MTG Salvation

Or maybe he was just answering one of the many questions he answers each week?

Quote from Arcanus Dominus

(for example, remember when Randy Buehler was fired?).

Buehler was fired? 0_o I thought he just sorta... left?

Quote from Don_Quixote

Sorry, I interpreted "greatest will to oppose idiotic Comic Book-style shenanigans" as implying that he was the only reliable force doing so.

Apologies.

S'alright, I'm getting a bit overly touchy about some of the misinterpretation going on in this thread is all. Sorry u_u

But yeah, I think we've still got people watching out for the flavor (again, Beyer and Helland and so on) but not having someone who has the specific job of telling Marketing that no, bringing back Urza is a mindbendingly stupid idea... it's just unsettling. We're just a little bit closer to the edge than we were before, if that makes sense.

(It also means Barinellos and I can no longer point to Brady specifically saying, "No, as long as I'm here we're not bringing the dead back to life." And that's a horrible, horrible loss for us during spoiler season )

Quote from Don_Quixote

While I won't deny that Brady has a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of Magic lore, I don't know if we can really state that he's the only one who opposes "idiotic Comic Book-style shenanigans." Maro, despite his lack of storyline fluency, has gone on record stating that "dead is dead," and I don't think anyone else has expressed any desires to the contrary.

Sure. That might be why I didn't state that.

Quote from Canadian Guy of Wrath

I think some people might be a wee bit overreacting

We don't know too much about what is going on other than that the Creative Director position has been overhauled and Brady was not part of the plans (or maybe WotC asked him if he would stay but under different conditions and he declined)

I very much doubt that the whole creative department got the axe since they are the ones who decide which planeswalkers will be in a set and their colour identities. I honestly think that due to the Emmera debacle WotC is just restructuring the Creative department and it is conceivable that Brady just didn't want to be part of the change.

It's not quite that simple.

Brady, of anyone at WotC, knew the most about the storyline, even if he didn't always value that information in the same way that some of the fans did. While I'm sure Helland, Beyer, & al. know their stuff, too, I'm willing to bet they don't know as much as Brady did, or have as complete a sense of how all the pieces fit together into a cohesive whole. I mean, you can know all the parts and still not quite picture how it all fits together.

And that's leaving aside the fact that other members of R&D (MaRo is the most obvious repeat offender here) know diddly squat about Magic's flavor as it stands today. That's disconcerting.

No-one suggested that the whole creative team was gone. That would be absurd. Our concerns are about the loss of the person who had the greatest knowledge, and the greatest will to oppose idiotic Comic Book-style shenanigans.

Quote from hairlessThoctar

To MaRo's credit, he was largely responsible for the Weatherlight Saga's origins, and is a writer by training.

This is true, but we haven't really seen him working with the kind of specialized storytelling that the last few sets have used... and I don't always find myself agreeing with his philosophy of storytelling... I mean, isn't he the one that decided it would be a great idea to tell the story of the Mirran/Phyrexian war? >_>


In other news, Doug Beyer has a tumblr now: http://dougbeyermtg.tumblr.com/

I have some strong suspicions that this tumblr's sudden appearance is not coincidental. Either way, though, it's pretty cool that Doug is doing this. I hope people aren't jerks to him.

Quote from Karakas

Sounds mostly just like some restructuring to benefit the game (in WotC's opinion). Might be that the creative resources will report up through design/MaRo now to help keep everyone on the same page. This stuff usually happens when the company reevaluates the team setup/reporting structure and simply determines that position X just isn't needed anymore. It's a little different than getting fired, even though it's the same end result, unfortunately.

This isn't exactly a huge consolation to us, either. :/ I mean, is MaRo really capable of doing a better job than Brady when it comes to worldbuilding and storyline stuff? I really, really doubt it. I'm not bashing MaRo here, he's great at what he does, but I'm just not convinced that he can match Brady's leadership in this particular field.

Quote from leslak

lol if Yawgmoth or other character(Urza) come back in the current timeline i will be soo... soo :facepalm::flame::argh:
They could do this in some kind of supplemental products but please not make a "" Urza and Jace adventures""...

Oh god I didn't even think of this.

"So long as I'm head of Creative we won't bring back dead characters."

[gets fired]

Ahahahaha this is going to suck so much.

EDIT: I used the Expanded Multiverse account to drop a line to MaRo asking him what's going on. We'll see what happens.

From his thread on the Wizards community forums:

Hey everyone,

Just a quick note to let you know that my position at Wizards has been eliminated, so for now my time with Magic is over. Thanks so much for your dedication and passion for the game and its characters, settings, and plots. Magic is stronger than it’s ever been, and I think you can expect to see more stories for a very long while.

Signing off.

—Brady

What is this I don't even D:

Since Barinellos said I could plug this here, I figured I might as well let everyone know that the full Fragments anthology is now up and available.

Here's the promo text thingummy:



At the horizon, then, slowly, five discs, multicolored and iridescent, began lifting above the unique topography of their world, bathing everything in a glorious, shimmering brilliance... Five suns, shining of liquid summer, tempestuous gold, perpetual storm, radiant void, and molten strength.

The plane of Alara split, millenia ago, into five Shards, each possessing but three of the five colors of mana, each unaware of the others. Now, the five shards are coming together again, and the once fragmentary plane is becoming whole. For some, the change will be terrifying and destructive. For others, it will provide them the first glimmer of hope for a new life.

Fragments--a fully illustrated anthology of fiction written by fans of the game Magic: The Gathering--brings the story of Alara to life through the experiences of the plane's inhabitants. Drawing upon the existing storyline of Magic, this project, part of the Magic: Expanded Multiverse, fills in the spaces left unexplored by the cards themselves and by the novel Alara Unbroken. Free to download and distribute, this collection is the first large collection of fan work of its kind for Magic. Follow the link below and dive into a whole magical world--a world that is really five worlds in one.


About the Expanded Multiverse: The Magic: Expanded Multiverse project is a cohesive collection of fan art and fan fiction expanding on the settings and stories of Magic: The Gathering. Unlike other fan projects, everything in the archives is required to pass an editorial review before acceptance, and it can't contradict existing storyline materials. The result is a body of high-quality, internally consistent works that explore the boundaries of what is possible within Magic's storyline.

To learn more, check out the archives, and get involved, visit
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/27388945/Infinite_Flavor_Library_and_the_Magic:_Expanded_Multiverse_Project

I'm sorely tempted to link you folks to one of the recent Expanded Multiverse stories about an actual (semi-)good Orzhov pontiff but I'm not sure that is permitted here... >_>

Quote from Plaguefather

My point was that She made a pact with Bolas, a binding agreement, and she's never held up to it. In the 4 years since that story came out, she's gotten off scott free. Even gotten more powerful! (Chain Veil) And Bolas still hasn't come looking for her. Surely he would've sent an agent to come collect the bill.

I think you misunderstood that bit. Bolas was going to take care of Liliana's demon problem in return for the successful carrying out of her plan. The plan didn't work, so Bolas didn't have to hold up his end of the bargain. He offered, however, to still take care of the demons in return for Liliana's servitude. She declined.


And yeah, it's implied very strongly that Bolas manipulated the Zendikar events. Really, it's arguably quite hard to see how some of the character actions make sense at all without the meddling of a powerful, malevolent mind mage... >_>

Barinellos sees all and knows all.

Also, Brady has a thread where he answers questions on the Wizards forum. But I'm pretty sure only Barinellos has a powerful enough memory to keep track of all the responses.

...Huh. Why haven't we gone through and collected all the questions and answers in an easily readable format? 0_o I can't believe that only just occurred to me.

Everything within the confines of art is within the confines of Theory. But that wasn't really the purpose behind me bringing that up. In fact, you guys are like a dude with a depth perception problem trying to stab himself to death. You just keep missing the point.

Also, what Jivan said. People that've put the time in have more valuable opinions than those who don't. It's really as simple as that. Sorry to break it to you I guess?

...I really don't know how I could have laid the sarcasm on any thicker, but apparently I should have. [headdesk]