All those cards have a flavor text which more or less means "it used to be better for humans than it is now". Now I do realize that the change was a few months befor the events of Innistrad as opposed to a thousand years before the events of Tarkir. But still, if Wizards doesn't show me enough that before was better than now, I can't be expected to buy it. Especially since "dragons" are less universally accepted as good news than "angels".
Has Wizards said "Tarkir was better with dragons" anywhere?
No, but many people mistake Sarkhan for a reliable narrator.
Some like me think that the clans being forced to redirect their war efforts away from one another and onto the threat posed by the dragons is in the interest of the greater good.
Eh, there's really nothing to say that the brood cycle isn't complete. "Should" is the basis of speculation...in addition to that fact that we are dealing with enemy-colored tri clans. We have allied dragons for the tri clans. So it only makes sense that they cycle will be completed or complemented in Dragons with the enemy pairings.
^Read the post above yours and chillax my flamekin bro. They should incorporate those enemies to fill out the brood cycle: allies and enemy pairs. Less game-related reasons? Those dragon-hatching storms loosing dragons that are in enemy colored pairs to complement each clan's allied dragon.
We've already got a full cycle of allied colored dragons (we have Abzan in GW, and Jeskai will be in WU). Dragons of Tarkir will likely bring on a cycle of enemy colored dragons (GB/WB etc).
There really isn't anything to lead to this conclusion other than that people WANT it. There really isn't any evidence to support it.
The wedge theme persisted into FRF with the new khans like Yasova. Mono colored, but with a hybrid activated ability that puts all three wedge symbols on a card. So its not a big honking wedge like with KTK, but more a subtle wedge theme. Unless all of Tarkir has been reset with FRF Tarkir as the starting point (as in the story for Dragons not jumping back 1200 something odd years to KTK's timeline), I see a cycle of ten enemy colored dragons in Dragons of Tarkir. Or even if the old timeline has been erased up until the FRF Tarkir we see here, the storms may still hatch those enemy dragons.
We've already got a full cycle of allied colored dragons (we have Abzan in GW, and Jeskai will be in WU). Dragons of Tarkir will likely bring on a cycle of enemy colored dragons (GB/WB etc). Abzan's black is pretty apparent. They're freaking tapeworms.
The last thing I would call Mardu is a war of attrition. Mardu as a clan is aggro incarnate. In the context of this thread, it is just a color combination and does not reflect on the deck's playstyle. The deck list above does not play as a midrange deck, which is what prompted my question. Please do not presume that all decks in one color combination will play the same. I can assure you that my Team Italia deck will play significantly differently than a Dega Midrange deck from Born of the Gods Standard.
Mardu decks respond to an opponent's threat with cards like Chained to the Rocks, Thoughtseize, Lightning Strike/Bile Blight, Crackling Doom and sometimes Stoke the Flames, then play Rabblemasters, Butchies, and Stormbreaths/Rocs/Sarkhan to go for the kill. There's two takes on the deck, one that goes RWb and one that plays RBw. The RWb builds tend to favor Hordeling Outburst as well, and some of the RBw builds have been including the card in their 75 as well.
No, I mean the clans centralizing and shifting their focus to their dragon problem. This shifted focus comes with some implied benefits, such as finding a way to maximize available resources and create ways to produce further resources to adapt to the dragons. Death is inevitable, and those that do try to continue interclan warfare would be weeded out early on, either by their own clansmen, enemy clansmen, or the dragons. In the end, you're left with a human population of separate clans united in their struggle to survive the dragons. Eventually, this progresses to clan/dragon vs clan/dragon if the earlier pieces of artwork are any indication. At this point, something has happened to make the alliance of dragon/clan advantageous to one party or the other, though there are likely benefits for both parties: territory and resource related most likely. The benefits arising from this alliance is that whichever group proves the most successful at manipulating their environment will emerge victorious while helping control the dragon population. After so many of these great predators are unleashed or generated, something's gotta go, else you'd have a horribly screwed up food web.
Am I the only one thinking that the "End Goal" of KTK isn't Dragons or Khans but Dragons+Khans? If both can work together they will find some kind of balance. Right now we can only choose 1 side, because that is what Tarkir is like at the moment. Through the actions of Sarkan and Ugin they will find some way to co-exist together though.
So it is not dragons killing everyone but people and dragons doing horrible things to each other together...
Nature has a way of righting itself in the interest of balance. If resources become strained, I could see these alliances forming an then rotting away when they became a hindrance to nature. I don't think we can find a strict "moral sense" with which to evaluate the clans. Mardu and Sultai are just trying to have a good time. You're digging your own grave if you cross them without having prepared for the consequences. Jeskai monks seem like they're decent arbiters. Abzan taking in the orphaned children is better than leaving them to die. All of these are the flip side of your take, about50 and are not meant to say that yours aren't true. They're equally as true as mine.
No, the confirmation that she was dead was the confirmation she was dead.
Now the question is if she'll have ever been born, and if she HAS, then she will without doubt be a different person than she was. So yeah, the Narset that everyone is getting twisted up about is dead no matter how you slice it.
In that case, what was the point of even having any stories that focused on her, or even developing her as a character, at all? Was it so that her death would have a greater emotional impact? If so, the stories writers failed to do that, at least for me. If what you are saying is true, then her character was completely wasted, in my mind.
I interpreted their intent as the readers meeting Narset so that we see what's lost or gained in terms of her personality once Sarkhan is done in the past. Also, to give a sense of what Sarkhan lost, though he didn't have any meaningful interaction with Narset prior to meeting her near the Nexus. I don't take her character as a waste...its sort of like when you know a person before their Alzheimer's takes over, and then they become someone completely different. Or how someone regresses after a massive stroke. These assume Narset's change is for the worse.
Some like me think that the clans being forced to redirect their war efforts away from one another and onto the threat posed by the dragons is in the interest of the greater good.
The wedge theme persisted into FRF with the new khans like Yasova. Mono colored, but with a hybrid activated ability that puts all three wedge symbols on a card. So its not a big honking wedge like with KTK, but more a subtle wedge theme. Unless all of Tarkir has been reset with FRF Tarkir as the starting point (as in the story for Dragons not jumping back 1200 something odd years to KTK's timeline), I see a cycle of ten enemy colored dragons in Dragons of Tarkir. Or even if the old timeline has been erased up until the FRF Tarkir we see here, the storms may still hatch those enemy dragons.
Edit: Trigger Warning
I wonder if I should invest in this for my RW Midrange in Standard? The token one with Stoke.
Mardu decks respond to an opponent's threat with cards like Chained to the Rocks, Thoughtseize, Lightning Strike/Bile Blight, Crackling Doom and sometimes Stoke the Flames, then play Rabblemasters, Butchies, and Stormbreaths/Rocs/Sarkhan to go for the kill. There's two takes on the deck, one that goes RWb and one that plays RBw. The RWb builds tend to favor Hordeling Outburst as well, and some of the RBw builds have been including the card in their 75 as well.
I was wondering about that myself. Perhaps he wanted to try doing something with the hedrons and the dragon-birthing storms.
People banding together for a common good is the short answer. Go back a page or two, I have a longer post that goes into more detail.
Nature has a way of righting itself in the interest of balance. If resources become strained, I could see these alliances forming an then rotting away when they became a hindrance to nature. I don't think we can find a strict "moral sense" with which to evaluate the clans. Mardu and Sultai are just trying to have a good time. You're digging your own grave if you cross them without having prepared for the consequences. Jeskai monks seem like they're decent arbiters. Abzan taking in the orphaned children is better than leaving them to die. All of these are the flip side of your take, about50 and are not meant to say that yours aren't true. They're equally as true as mine.
I interpreted their intent as the readers meeting Narset so that we see what's lost or gained in terms of her personality once Sarkhan is done in the past. Also, to give a sense of what Sarkhan lost, though he didn't have any meaningful interaction with Narset prior to meeting her near the Nexus. I don't take her character as a waste...its sort of like when you know a person before their Alzheimer's takes over, and then they become someone completely different. Or how someone regresses after a massive stroke. These assume Narset's change is for the worse.