MTG Salvation

Quote from Squirrelclamp »

Quote from Shadowkill »

Could you be more specific? I read it right when it was put up, at least for me, and looked at it again after seeing this comment, but I couldn't spot a difference.

Original:

Nissa continued. "On Zendikar, I was without the company of people for most of my life. The plane was the closest thing to a friend I had. Learning to trust has been . . . slow—and there is still much for me to learn. Understanding and sustaining friendships is daunting when one has never really done it before."
Chandra shifted awkwardly. "So . . . friendship is about the limit of what you feel comfortable with right now?"
Nissa blinked. Chandra worked very hard not to stare.
"Yes," Nissa said, "I suppose so, given everything at hand."
"Ah."

Edited version:

Chandra shifted awkwardly. "So . . . friendship?"
Nissa blinked. Chandra worked very hard not to stare.
"Yes," Nissa smiled.
Nissa closed her eyes, and took another deep breath, her headache receding. It felt good to confess insecurities. She smiled and looked Chandra in the eye.

I prefer the latter variant; it's not as on-the-nose and it better demonstrates Nissa's feelings about what she's saying (the somewhat obtuse positivity of which is at odds with Chandra's less-wordy-but-still-obvious disappointment).

I must have read it after the change. I also agree the latter's better. The former seemed too clunky, and not very nissa-ish.

I think the poster who orginally brought this up might be overreacting a bit. They made it very clear in the story that Chandra had unreciprocated (for now) romantic feelings for Nissa. Nothing was changed in the edit, only made the dialogue flow smoother.

Quote from jshrwd »

I think Bolas' plan is to return to the plane, harvest those who passed his trials as leaders of his army, and then to destroy everyone else so that they can be his zombie army that will march from plane to plane via the Planar Bridge. Is that what you mean by "demise of the plane"?

I think it goes beyond that. Nissa said outright that the world itself was "killed" decades ago (probably when Bolas took over), and that its in its death throes- its VERY late death throes. Meanwhile, that whole Hours thing- which is basically the apocalypse- is two days away. I think the two might be connected here.

I think Amonkhet is about to go the way of Serra's Realm here, and whether or not Bolas set it up or just knew it was going to happen, he's using it to his advantage.

Also, I like how all these guys are training their entire life for these trials, Gids shows up, doesn't even get any sleep, and knocks one trial out before breakfast, and decideds to go for a second before lunch.

Gids is the man.

First of all, look at detective Nissa putting in some WORK. Poor Jace spent weeks on Innistrad putzing around, and Nissa figures out half of Amonkhet in an hour and a half on the second day. No wonder she's getting her Simic on in this set.

Second of all- I'm really intrigued about Oketra. She seems by and large benevolent, but Nissa mentions that the world is dying and just feels Oketra's fear. Is she afraid because she's scared for herself and her followers on what happens when the Hours start? Or is she afraid that Nissa knows, and might reveal the truth? Either way, whatever Oketra's motives are now, its clear she's also afflicted with amnesia, and thus has no idea of what happened "before".

As far as Gideon goes, remember, the guy grew up in Theros- a very faith-based society, and was basically trained by Hixus to concern himself with the greater good- which requires solidarity, which is Oketra's wheelhouse, so its pretty obvious why he's immediately drawn to her. His main character motivations are that he 1. Fears for his friends safety, given what happened with Erebros, and 2. Wants desperately to be part of something bigger than himself. That's why he was the Order, until he couldn't reconcile their methods with his belief. Why he joined the Boros. Why he immediately latched on with the Zendikari resistance, and why he joined the Gatewatch. Seeing the supposed living embodiment of that sentiment before him obviously makes him believe in her.

To what I think happens next:

First, and I think this might be next week- SOMETHING happens during one of Gideon's trials that completely pulls the wool off. Sounds like one initiate murders another to get ahead, and it turns out this is common and encouraged, because only the best can be the chosen. Heck, it may even be one per crop, considering it looks like there's gladatorial style combat in some card art. Either way, there definitely seems like a nefarious, cutthroat elements in play here that Gids can't abide by.

Whatever happens, it COMPLETELY flips Gideon on the gods (even Oketra?), given his quote on Anointed Procession. Combined with Chandra's already open disdain for them, spurs them into another revolt, this time against the gods, the state relgion, and the over all state of the society. And all this is going to go down merely days- or even hours- before their Elder Dragon God comes back to oversee the apocalypse, which probably results in the demise of the plane.

So yeah, the odds of this one ending well is getting to be pretty slim.

Also, this ties back really nicely with Kaladesh, as we now see WHY Tezzeret was so impatient. If Amonkhet's about to go down the tubes, its reasonable to assume that Tezz wanted the planar bridge- to get the Chosen form Amonkhet off the plane and to wherever Bolas hopes to use them. The timeline here is really tight. From the end of the Inventors Fair (when Rashmi is "hired" to work on the bridge) to when she escapes the Spire is just a bit over a month. Maybe another couple of weeks spent working with the Renegades to get the Heart of Kiran to work, and maybe another week or so for the actual battles in the rebellion (Jace/Kari Zev's skyship run, the attack on the turrets, Liliana vs. Tezzeret, and the Hope's kamikaze attack all were within a day- if that. After that a week or two for peace negotiations, the mop-up, Yahenni's Penultimate Party, final goodbyes, and then off to Amonkhet, where they arrive three days before the Hours are set to begin.

Add that all up, and Tezzeret and Bolas had just about two months to take Rashmi's Bridge, get her to alter it to suit their needs, transport it to Amonkhet (by the way of wherever, because neither's actually on Amonkhet right now- which means they may have needed to do additonal things). That's not a lot of time to implement a multiverse warping invention to effective capacity, and that's WITHOUT there being any setbacks, of which they obviously suffered a few. So pretty much everyone in this story is going to be cutting things VERY close.

Quote from MinaHarcourt »

I don't buy the "Amonkhet is a zombie factory for Bolas" theory at all. First of all, he is not a necromancer. Second of all, there are far better ways to make zombies than a convoluted plan of trials and promises of rebirth.

The thing about the mummies is that, unlike most zombies (and especially zombie tokens) they retain their original characteristics. Temmet's mummified token does everything Temmet would do. That suggests to me that the ritual they use somehow keeps the corpses soul intact, instead of just animating it as a dead puppet.

Which is actually horrifying on several levels, if you think about it.

First of all, thank you Wizards, for realizing where James Wyatt is best used, and it sure as hell isn't climactic battles.

Second, I think you really gotta feel for Gids. I mean, the poor guy's just had his faith in the gods restored, only he's about to discover that this place is just one very ****ed up death cult where people pretty much train to pretty much earn the "honor" of being ceremoniously executed. All for the glory of Nicol Bolas. Think the truth's gonna be pretty devastating, even if he learns to accept it.

It'll be interesting to see what happens when the others meet their colors' gods as well. Interesting note- Nissa was terrified of snakes in her earlier appearances, and the green god's a cobra. That could lead to a very awkward scenario.

Honestly, even if Wizards shut its doors, I think the game would continue, at least for a good while. First, there's so many cards out there now, so we already have enough more decks/concepts/mechanics than anyone could conceivably master anytime soon. Second, even if WotC were to go down, I wouldn't be shocked if another company bought the rights to the game, depending on whether they felt they could make money on it.

And if not, well, bummer. None of us were guaranteed anything when we bought into this game.

Quote from Empathogen »

Quote from RedGauntlet »

Hour of devastation will have Bolas return and collect his minions and he will order the Gods to destroy the barrier and kill everyone since he doesn't need the place anymore.

I'm betting he shows up and kills the gods
just to remind everyone who owns the place.

I don't know if they need reminding. He's the GOD-PHARAOH after all, and apparently everything they're doing is to honor/please him. Ownership of the place seems pretty damn clear.

Quote from OrzhovPlaneswalker »

Also the depiction of a glaring sun in the middle of a dessert is very inaccurate. When a Sandstorm comes, it all goes pretty shadowy.

Looks pretty sunny to me, dude.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6120QOlsfU

Quote from Xeruh »

Quote from Pollaski »

So this is a death cult entirely devoted to becoming a servant to the most evil, vicious mastermind in the Multiverse. And our plucky little heroes are going to walk right into this bubble and start telling everyone what a horrible horrible being their god-Pharaoh is.

You might as well put "This is gonna end well" on the horizon right around Bolas' horns.

I'm sure its going to be addressed, but I find it really intriguing that Bolas here has set up a machination for creating white zombies, when white seems so fundamentally against the concept of corporeal undeath. Furthermore, whatever he's doing,its completely groundbreaking, given that this hasn't been done anywhere else in the multiverse. And all coming from a Grixis-aligned planeswalker, to boot.

The colors vary from Plane to Plane though. The way mummies are being done here makes it a very White-focused venture.

If it was on the level, yeah. I'm just not thinking this whole "compete in trials to earn my favor because I value the bravest" schtick is anything but a dragon-sized load of bull*****.

So this is a death cult entirely devoted to becoming a servant to the most evil, vicious mastermind in the Multiverse. And our plucky little heroes are going to walk right into this bubble and start telling everyone what a horrible horrible being their god-Pharaoh is.

You might as well put "This is gonna end well" on the horizon right around Bolas' horns.

I'm sure its going to be addressed, but I find it really intriguing that Bolas here has set up a machination for creating white zombies, when white seems so fundamentally against the concept of corporeal undeath. Furthermore, whatever he's doing,its completely groundbreaking, given that this hasn't been done anywhere else in the multiverse. And all coming from a Grixis-aligned planeswalker, to boot.

So, in order to become a White Zombie, you have to be more human than human?

*walks away whistling*

Look, we all think the borders are overdone, the art is too small, and the font is eye-bleed inducing.

And every single one of us will be stoked to the moon if we actually pull one anyways.

As for a theme, I'm guessing it has to do with godly smackdown, and the colors focus on WUB because that's the gods we'll get in Amonkhet, with RG coming in for HoD. We'll probably get more of a sense on what they wanted in future stories or the artbook.

Ultimately, its so damn rare that Wizards whiffs like this, I think its more jarring than it would otherwise be. And they KNOW they whiffed- they flat out admitted on today's daily update that the response to the Invocations was less than what they'd hoped for.

Quote from magac »

You haven't seen Platinum and their Prized Amalgams (among the absolute WORST unkillable blocker ever; this + Graf Harvest easily puts pre-Nerf Runaway Carriage to shame), Olivias, Decimators (trample + HASTE + INSANE body = hell), Starfield + Silverstrike (an even worse hell if you have no support removal), Rattlechains etc.

I even have several decks in which I have at least 3 removals (mostly in black: Grip of Desolation + To The Slaughter + something else, maybe Oath of Liliana), and even then when those stupid Hexproofs hit the field things just go to hell immediately

I'm only silver in black, and I run Prized Amalgams, Oath of Lili, Diregraf Colossus. You get Last Hope's ult out, and it just gets ridiculous. Tormented Whispers on the Amalgam- you get ALL of them back, plus 4 zombie tokens, plus every single thing hitting the Diregraf. Its filthy, and I love it.

I really liked it. Thought it was a good introduction to the world through the eyes of outsiders, and I like that we got the perspective of each planeswalker in turn. Chandras all caps section made me laugh. I personally like her ADHD geek schtick.

Amonkhet definitely looks to be a world far more complex than Bolas HQ with a Luxor motif, and I'm looking forward to seeing what else is in store.