I don't think they have, actually. We only know of Jace attempting it once (iirc). Likewise we've only seen Hualti do it once. Vraska seems like she's tried it at least once (cause she described it when she first saw Jace), but most likely not more than that. Bolas told her she couldn't return till her task was done, and while she(we) might have interpreted that to mean that the meditation realm wouldn't let her back in without completing her objective, it's not a far leap to consider that he might (also) have meant that she couldn't leave Ixalan till she found what he sent her for.
Angrath's really the only definitely unknown variable here, we have no idea how long he's been there, nor how many times he's tried to leave.
It's possible that it's only happened three times recently. Once with Vraska, most likely not long after she arrived a few months ago. Once for Jace over a month ago, and once for Hualti, an indeterminate time ago.
Depending on how long, and how often Angrath's been trying to leave, this might not be all that unusual at all.
I like mixing today's story with Jay's Raven Man story and assuming the following:
Orcaza is the source of the binding on Ixalan
It's the remnant artifact created by The Guardian to protect Shandalar
Bolas has the demon's spell that was used to seek out the artifact on Shandalar and has infused that spell into the Thaumatic Compass
Why would Bolas want an artifact that can prevent planeswalker movement?
---My first thought was to use it as a planeswalker prison, but that's what Ixalan is now
---Maybe he wants to use it to keep rivals away from his conquests
Somehow, the destruction of the Onnake on Shandalar relates to the destruction foretold in the story of Orcaza, but I can't figure how just yet
Why does the compass point to Jace though?
I never got that impression from the last story.
It felt like finding him was coincidental.
They kept sailing after finding him and there's no mention of the compass.
I assumed they were continuing to follow it after they found him.
Did I miss something?
Navigator Malcolm pointed out that Jace (or the direction the compass was pointing) was south, completely away from the continent of Ixalan. If they had continued to head south, they would have wound up nowhere near Orazca (Unless the plane of Ixalan is a very small sphere, and continuing south eventually leads to them descending from the north).
Vraska held out the thaumatic compass. "We need to go south."
Malcolm, ever the careful navigator, made a small noise of concern. "Are you certain?"
Vraska nodded. "We go where it points, and what we need is that way."
Malcolm was staring at the strange compass. "But the direction it is pointing to is away from the continent of Ixalan. The Golden City isn't an island off its coast . . ."
Right, but nowhere does it say specifically that the compass led them to Jace. Nor does it say that it stopped working after that. They sailed for days and days after finding Jace. Even though they don't mention the compass after finding Jace, I doubt they were just meandering about with a spinning compass always pointing at him.
So far it has been assumed the compass will only point to the Immortal Sun.
We have also made the possible leaps that the Immortal Sun is something not native to this world.
What if, rather than the compass being tuned solely to the Immortal Sun, it is simply attuned to ANYTHING that is not native to the world Ixalan inhabits?
So, I had a theory occur to me: That as a Thaumatic Compass, it points towards intense magic(s), not necessarily places or material things. And that it was never actually pointing at/to Jace. It was pointing to the intense spike of magic that would likely have occurred when Jace attempted to planeswalk away, and the Binding kicked in. Finding Jace was merely a coincidence. In this case, once the surge of magic from the binding dissipated, the compass may well have gone back to pointing towards Orazca (or another strong source of magic, as it's stated that the compass occasionally changes direction, only to change again a few hours later).
There is the matter of timing, though. Jace spent 40days on Useless Island, which seems like a very long time for Vraska and crew to sail south. Additionally the compass would also have pinged on Huatli's aborted walk, and since I simply have no idea when in the overall timeline of events that happened, I couldn't begin to say what happened with that.
I think there are holes in this theory, but I figured I'd share it anyhow.
I like mixing today's story with Jay's Raven Man story and assuming the following:
Orcaza is the source of the binding on Ixalan
It's the remnant artifact created by The Guardian to protect Shandalar
Bolas has the demon's spell that was used to seek out the artifact on Shandalar and has infused that spell into the Thaumatic Compass
Why would Bolas want an artifact that can prevent planeswalker movement?
---My first thought was to use it as a planeswalker prison, but that's what Ixalan is now
---Maybe he wants to use it to keep rivals away from his conquests
Somehow, the destruction of the Onnake on Shandalar relates to the destruction foretold in the story of Orcaza, but I can't figure how just yet
Why does the compass point to Jace though?
I never got that impression from the last story.
It felt like finding him was coincidental.
They kept sailing after finding him and there's no mention of the compass.
I assumed they were continuing to follow it after they found him.
Did I miss something?
Navigator Malcolm pointed out that Jace (or the direction the compass was pointing) was south, completely away from the continent of Ixalan. If they had continued to head south, they would have wound up nowhere near Orazca (Unless the plane of Ixalan is a very small sphere, and continuing south eventually leads to them descending from the north).
Vraska held out the thaumatic compass. "We need to go south."
Malcolm, ever the careful navigator, made a small noise of concern. "Are you certain?"
Vraska nodded. "We go where it points, and what we need is that way."
Malcolm was staring at the strange compass. "But the direction it is pointing to is away from the continent of Ixalan. The Golden City isn't an island off its coast . . ."
Ugin, at the very least, should know that trapping is at best a temporary solution; and as Ugin is really the only one of Bolas'current enemies with a long enough lifespan to realistically be around when a pissed off elder dragon who already killed him once inevitably gets free I doubt Ugin would be okay with a plan that merely contains him.
ETA: That is, of course, unless Ugin has nebulous plans that somehow require Bolas' continued survival. At which point I will heave the most put-upon sigh, shake my head, and wash my hands of the whole mess.
Except Bolas isn't looking for Ugin, which gives us the advantage.
Obscure Star Wars quote aside, Bolas's plan's cannot possibly include Ugin, as Bolas believed the Spirit Dragon to be dead.
Hopefully this small detail is enough to upset Bolas's goals somewhere down the line...
No, it was revealed at some point during the Amonkhet storyline that he's aware Ugin's back from the dead.
I think that's a wasted opportunity on creative's part, sadly. They could have held Ugin in reserve until Bolas was on the verge of achieving his ultimate goal, and then had Ugin show up and wreck his sh**. That's really the only plausible way for Bolas to lose at this point. He's just SO FAR beyond the abilities of other walkers that a surprise Ugin is just about the only way to keep him in line without a total ass-pull deus ex machina.
Where?
Are we reading the same stories b/c I don't recall anywhere that Bolas learned of Ugin's resuscitation
It was the art book for Amonkhet. It states Bolas plans didn't count for Ugin reappearing on Zenikdar and helping the gatewatch kill/seal the eldrazi but it didn't throw off his plans too much.
Yes, thank you, I was recalling the incorrect source. Spent a good while reviewing the story articles last night trying to find it.
Art books may have a spotty accuracy record, but IMO it's best to accept them as canon until otherwise contradicted.
Except Bolas isn't looking for Ugin, which gives us the advantage.
Obscure Star Wars quote aside, Bolas's plan's cannot possibly include Ugin, as Bolas believed the Spirit Dragon to be dead.
Hopefully this small detail is enough to upset Bolas's goals somewhere down the line...
No, it was revealed at some point during the Amonkhet storyline that he's aware Ugin's back from the dead.
I think that's a wasted opportunity on creative's part, sadly. They could have held Ugin in reserve until Bolas was on the verge of achieving his ultimate goal, and then had Ugin show up and wreck his sh**. That's really the only plausible way for Bolas to lose at this point. He's just SO FAR beyond the abilities of other walkers that a surprise Ugin is just about the only way to keep him in line without a total ass-pull deus ex machina.
Honestly if we go back to Ravnica and the entire plane isn't in disarray due to Jace's multiple extended, unplanned absences, I just don't think I'd be able to suspend my disbelief enough to take the set seriously.
Hmm, could the Eternal Sun be a Thran Power Stone?
Edit 40 Days? Latvia must be having an absolute break down by now.
Worse than that, Jace went to Ixalan directly from Amonkhet, which he went to directly from Kaladesh. He's been gone for 2-3 MONTHS or more, all this after having only been back on Ravnica for a few months after spending months away on ZendikarEDIT: Innistrad, sorry.
Lavinia's going to wrap that stupid cloak around his neck and nail it to the wall.
At first, I was surprised at the number of female pirates on Ixalan. Sure, there were a few female pirates in real life, but on Ixalam they make up at least half of all pirates, which isn't realistic at all. It's even stranger when you realize they didn't give the vampires the same PC treatment: virtually all the conquistadors are male, just like they were in real life. What gives?
But then I realized why this all makes sense: the pirates are refugees. Unlike in real life, where pirates were just a minority of sailors, Ixalan's pirates consist of all the non-vampires (save a few humans that are still being forced to serve the Dusk Legion) from Torrezon. All of them. All races and both sexes.
That still doesn't explain why 80% of pirate captains are female. We all know that sexism was still running rampant in the time period Ixalan was based on, so even if a lot of women were pirates, they would still have difficulty getting positions of leadership. I could see Vraska taking over by the virtue of being a deadly and intimidating gorgon, but that doesn't excuse four out of five planebound captains/admirals being female. So that part is revisionist history and perhaps overly PC. But the presence of so many female pirates in general makes a lot of sense.
As for the block's villain(s), I agree that Vraska has gone full anti-hero, so Angrath and Kumena are far more likely to take on antagonistic roles, especially in the second set. However, the villain I have my eye on is Arguel and the bat god whose name I don't care to look up or try to spell (I suspect that the latter will end up possessing the former).
Still, I'm really hoping for a "every faction is terrible in its own way" type of story, much like Tarkir and Ravnica. In general faction sets tend to result in storylines that are less black-and-white, which is a win in my book (New Phyrexia is obviously the exception to this).
The whole "Sun Empire doesn't kill people" thing, however, makes me skeptical that this block will be as morally grey as Tarkir, which would be disappointing. We haven't had a good moral debate since SOI, and that's a shame. Bolas and Tezzeret could not possibly be justified in their actions, which in my opinion makes those storylines much less interesting and compelling than something morally grey like SOI or Tarkir.
Is it so hard to believe that Ixalan just isn't sexist? There's no reason that, just because when we had pirates we were sexist, means that it has to be the same on a fantasy world that has pirates.
If it was a completely fantastical world, then sure. Same goes for the more science fiction-based worlds, because it makes sense for them to be more progressive. But when a world borrows very heavily from elements of a time period in our past, it's natural to assume that everything not explicitly different is about the same as was on Earth during that time. In Ixalan's case, it's based on about the 1500s, so while things that are obviously departures from that are fine (dinosaurs, vampires, magic), we kind of expect other things to line up with the time period. Even if it was just Vraska (whose species should make it easy to assume leadership regardless of gender roles) and one other female planebound captain, it wouldn't seem that out of place, but virtually every pirate with a leadership role is female, which has no basis in the actual history that Ixalan is based on.
On a different world with pirates that's heavier on fantasy or sci-fi than Ixalan, I wouldn't have a problem, but on a world where the pirates are based on real-world pirates from the real-world age of exploration, it just feels a bit off. It's so much that the pirates aren't sexist enough, because they did remove some of the more negative real-world aspects from all factions (like human sacrifice), it's just that real-world legendary pirates were almost invariably male, so not having a single one with a card in Ixalan doesn't feel very true to the source material. I guess there will be Angrath in the next set, but that's still a 3:1 ratio in favor of women (if not 4:1 or 5:1 since if we get more pirate legends in Rivals they will most likely be Vance and/or Parrish), when it should be 50/50 at the best if they're trying to be even a little historically accurate.
I honestly can't stand this kind of commentary. It's this kind of discussion that keeps sexism alive and strong.
Pretty sure it's the actual sexists who are keeping sexism alive and strong. If you think this is sexism, you need to get out more.
Let me be clear, whether they are male or female HAS ZERO influence over this story. I mean that insofar as the story could be just as compelling with a 3:1 male ratio as it can be with a 3:1 female ratio. Perhaps Wizards will explain the lopsided genders. Perhaps they won't. But the fact is, if they choose not to, then it wouldn't pull away from the story at all. In fact, why are you even counting? Why does it matter at all? I'm far from a social justice warrior. I'm not arguing that everything should be equal or that it should be lopsided one way or another. What I am arguing is that it has no bearing on the effectiveness of this story so you have no reason to be out there looking for something to pick at. It's absolutely ludicrous that this discussion even exists.
You're correct that it doesn't really affect the story. I just made the observation that the gender balance was a little off compared to real-world influences these pirates are clearly based on. Someone asked me why Ixalan's pirates would have to be the same way as real-world pirates, and I explained why. I'm not going to let it ruin the story for me, it's just a minor nitpick that I'm explaining my reasoning for.
And for the love of all that is good, can people PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, STOP thinking that this fantasy story needs to directly and accurately
reflect our history?!
It doesn't need to be a perfect reflection of history (obviously) but when we see pirates based on the 1500s showing an attitude towards gender roles from the 2000s, it's just a little strange. Yes, there's magic and dinosaurs on this world, but none of that would really affect how strong sexism is in that type of society. Age of Exploration pirates are Age of Exploration pirates, so seeing them being inexplicably progressive with regard to gender roles is a little odd and something for which an explanation might be nice.
It is inspired by tropes from our history.
There are a lot more tropes of male pirate captains from history than female ones, so even if they're aiming for the trope-based pop culture version of history they still aren't doing it very well in this regard. It's not like every captain has to be male by any means, but making them all female is really pushing it in my opinion.
This is not a story about the pirates that roamed the sea of earth, it is not about the meso-American people, and it has NOTHING to do with the dinosaurs that roamed the earth up to 65 million years ago.It is its OWN story in its OWN setting simply inspired by what we know as ALL STORIES SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME HAVE BEEN. Every story we tell is inspired by our experiences and learnings.
Which is exactly why having so many female captains feels so wrong. Our "experiences and learnings" tell us that pirates during the Age of Exploration were quite sexist and that their leadership positions were male-dominated, so when they not only ignore that but showcase the exact opposite, it's going to make people scratch their heads at the very least.
This is not the product for historically accurate ANYHING. Once you start realizing that, maybe, juuuusst maybe, you can enjoy the product and story for what it is and stop trying to find crap to be disappointed about.
If you look at the original post you'll see that the overall post was mostly positive, and I even explained how having a lot of female pirates actually made sense based on what we know about the world. My only complaint was that so many pirate captains being female was a little off-putting, which is of course the only part that people are focusing on now.
lol "sexism" - Sultai's post isn't sexist at all. Women cannot be as physically strong as their male counterparts. Their upkeep, especially every month, even more so if pregnant, is hindering to being out on high seas like that. And a woman on a ship with deprived men is a recipe for disaster. Men don't get ahead because they're superior, it's just a logistics thing. Here I can see WOTC wants representation. My issue with equal representation is it makes women less special. Usually, when a woman is a leader (like Queen Miralda for example) in a man's world, I always think to myself damn, she made it to the top in a male-dominated world, and I'm compelled to know more. For me it actually detracts not to have more scarcity. In history the women who defied the odds and made it to the top are always the most interesting, such as Queen Elizabeth being a more powerful monarch than any Tutor men. Here, that appeal feels cheapened "eh, so it's a female ruler in a world where women in leader roles is ubiquitous - and lately, the status quo"
What's sexist to me is hemorrhaging out female characters to get even by the same means. Just to get numbers? Seems disingenuous to me. Look at the native PWs lately from the past several worlds. Not that I mind, but it's pretty transparent. Yet people still complain. Don't even get me started on how people on Blogatog want Maro to be aware of every gender term they identify with.
At least the sexism debate is better than the stupid race/history debate from a few pages ago that made me cringe. I can't believe some of the things people were saying. Quit buying into propaganda and being media sheep by taking everything at face value. I blame the mods for allowing the bait to stay fresh for so long and banning anyone who takes it.
On the bright side - I love Ixalan. It's finally what I've been asking for - a relatively peaceful exploration story that takes a survey of the natural world and its denizens and showcases them all on cards. Not apocalyptic wastelands and war scenes everywhere in a dismal trash heap of world. Cynthia Shepherd took the art in a very welcoming vibrant direction too. Plane is gorgeous and the story is refreshing and equally compelling.
Yeah, basically this. Especially the part about how a female leader in a male-dominated world actually sends a much stronger message. When every world is as progressive as our world, it's kind of diminishes the importance of the individual female leaders. Vraska and perhaps one other female captain being captains would be a lot more interesting and impressive if there weren't female captains all over the place. I think a world where a few women manage to overcome the sexism of their time and take leadership roles is much, much more interesting than a world where there are female captains everywhere because these 16th-century pirates have modern views on gender for no discernable reason. Obviously there is a time and a place for progressive, modern/post-modern societies in Magic, Kaladesh and Ravnica being perfect examples, but Ixalan doesn't seem like the place for it.
Ok, enough about that, time for the actual story. Story was pretty good overall. Jarad being retconned into a villain annoys me. Vraska has gone from anti-hero to villain to anti-hero again. I’d like to see a character I actually like join the Gatewatch, so I kind of hope she replaces Liliana as the token anti-hero on the team. Vraska admitting that her plan to use Jace on Ravnica was clumsy, which seems like they’re admitting it wasn’t the best writing. I’m noticing a trend of them mocking their own writing and characters, between this, Jace’s self-depreciating humor, and of course, Bolas criticizing the Gatewatch. I like that they’re actually willing to point out the flaws in their own story rather than just repeating that “Gatewatch is great and everyone loves them”. Not taking themselves so seriously and making fun of themselves means that those of us who aren’t big fans of the Gatewatch or the modern style of story can still enjoy the writing quite a bit.
Bolas being able to info dump people is actually a pretty cool power, but of course you have to wonder why he hasn’t used it on his minions before. You also have to wonder why Bolas doesn’t simply mind control other planeswalkers instead of letting them retain their free will and potentially stop helping him or even work against him later. We’ve already seen this happen with Sarkhan, and both Tezzeret and Vraska have demonstrated a desire to not stay loyal to Bolas forever, and Bolas even knows that in both cases. Even if the writers don’t want Bolas to completely dominate those characters’ minds, they could at least have him use some sort of mental failsafe to prevent them from betraying him, like what he does on Tezzeret in Test of Metal (which has sadly also been retconned).
Bolas sending an associate to help Vraska is interesting of course. Here’s a crazy conspiracy theory that’s probably wrong: what if Bolas sent Jace as his “associate”? Jace had been a castaway for a long time when Vraska found him, so it’s entirely possible that Bolas didn’t enlist Vraska until after defeating Jace. Since Jace planeswalked away while Bolas was in his mind, it’s also entirely possible that Bolas influenced where Jace planeswalked to. And since Bolas’s explanation to Vraska was a flashback, we don’t for sure that she hasn’t used the device to call for the associate already. So what if instead of calling some planeswalker from across the multiverse, instead it changed the direction of Vraska’s compass (which she even said kept changing direction and pointed away from where they were supposed to go), causing it to temporarily point towards Jace instead of Orazca, thus explaining how Vraska somehow found Jace’s island in the middle of a giant ocean. Bolas, of course, knew that Jace would be there because he sent Jace there himself. And since Bolas claims that the Gatewatch are his pawns, what better way to show him actually using a Gatewatch member that way?
Yeah, there’s probably no way that this is correct, but it’s fun to speculate. More realistic predictions would probably be Ral Zarek, Tezzeret, and maybe Dovin Baan.
Jace has apparently been on Ixalan for 40 days:
The galley around them dissolved. Vraska remained seated in her chair, but now sat in a grove of bamboo taller than the masts of her ship. Jace sat in his chair, eyes aglow, and began an illusory summary of his last forty days.
Vraska's been there for at least 60 days, but likely longer:
She had spent the prior months assembling her crew.
So Vraska's been there longer.
The general timeline seems to be:
1) Flashbacks of Vraska and Marizek chatting; Pride of the Kraul
2) Meditation realm flashback, Vraska walks to Ixalan and starts gathering her crew; The Talented Captain Vraska
3) Marizek carries out his assassination and starts his power play; Pride of the Kraul
4) Gathewatch gets owned by Bolas and Jace ends up on Ixalan
5) Jace's story on Useless Island; Jace, Alone
6) The rest of The Talented Captain Vraska
I think the other Bolas agent will either be Tezzeret, as the story implies that Vraska will need the Planar Bridge to move the Immortal Sun (the likely macguffin) off-world. Or less likely Ral, assuming Ral's assignment was related to rebuilding/powering the Planar Bridge from the core that Tezzeret was able to acquire.
The whole "Sun Empire doesn't kill people" thing, however, makes me skeptical that this block will be as morally grey as Tarkir, which would be disappointing. We haven't had a good moral debate since SOI, and that's a shame. Bolas and Tezzeret could not possibly be justified in their actions, which in my opinion makes those storylines much less interesting and compelling than something morally grey like SOI or Tarkir.
Agreed, both in that the Sun Empire/Huatli's nonviolence was cringy and forced, and that I'm hoping for a lot more grey area for all factions.
Where are you guys getting this "The Sun Empire is nonviolent" idea from? All the last fiction said was that Huatli and her warriors managed to triumph in their last battle without any lives lost on either side. Engagements like this have happened in real life.
Just because they won a bloodless victory doesn't mean they don't fight bloody battles as well. They're an expansionist empire, after all, who command dinosaurs with names like "Carnage Tyrant."
Nonviolent may not be the best word to describe it, cause martial combat is inherently violent, but when the story contains not one, but two instances where Huatli and Co deliberately avoid killing invaders it starts to feel forced and unnatural.
She and Intli had the element of surprise and a horde of dinosaurs at their disposal but instead just killing the pirates they burn their supplies and chase them off? Burning their supplies virtually guarantees that they'll HAVE to make a(nother) raid, likely against Sun Empire citizens, to resupply. By not simply crushing the pirates, they've now put their own citizens in danger.
That's simply not how you win a conflict, so it feels like WotC was trying too hard to say "These are the good guys!" and it feels contrived and artificial.
At first, I was surprised at the number of female pirates on Ixalan. Sure, there were a few female pirates in real life, but on Ixalam they make up at least half of all pirates, which isn't realistic at all. It's even stranger when you realize they didn't give the vampires the same PC treatment: virtually all the conquistadors are male, just like they were in real life. What gives?
But then I realized why this all makes sense: the pirates are refugees. Unlike in real life, where pirates were just a minority of sailors, Ixalan's pirates consist of all the non-vampires (save a few humans that are still being forced to serve the Dusk Legion) from Torrezon. All of them. All races and both sexes.
Torrezon isn't all, or likely even mostly, vampires though. While the cards depict almost entirely vampires, that's a mechanical concession. The vampires are only the nobility, clergy, and the conquistadors (which seems to be a position of some measure of power within the military, not just a reference to military personnel in general). The rank and file of the military, as well as presumably the entire underclass/peasant class are humans.
From the concept sheets show at PAX:
"Their expeditions of discovery are lead by vampire conquistadors and priests, with human soldiers filling the rank and file and additional humans serving support roles as sailors and menial laborers."
The pirates are the remnants of the other kingdoms on Torrezon that the Legion conquered, not all the non-slave humans. It'd just be hard to have a mechanical "Vampire Tribe" when half of the cards would be humans, so their presence within the Legion is largely ignored.
Still, I'm really hoping for a "every faction is terrible in its own way" type of story, much like Tarkir and Ravnica. In general faction sets tend to result in storylines that are less black-and-white, which is a win in my book (New Phyrexia is obviously the exception to this).
The whole "Sun Empire doesn't kill people" thing, however, makes me skeptical that this block will be as morally grey as Tarkir, which would be disappointing. We haven't had a good moral debate since SOI, and that's a shame. Bolas and Tezzeret could not possibly be justified in their actions, which in my opinion makes those storylines much less interesting and compelling than something morally grey like SOI or Tarkir.
Agreed, both in that the Sun Empire/Huatli's nonviolence was cringy and forced, and that I'm hoping for a lot more grey area for all factions.
I understand why they do this, as they want us to know intuitively what planes we're seeing. Also, since we know about Ghirapur already, it makes Huatli's assumption that it's Orazca all the more hilarious. Whether or not that's a good approach is another argument.
I understand what they are doing, however it is the polar opposite of what they should be doing, they should be using these Random walks to show us places we have never been, It gives us a short feel of what the newbie walker feels by making us go "Woah, what is -that- place?", It makes the Multi-verse feel larger because since Origins every first planeswalk we have seen has been to a place we have known except for 1 and we didn't actually see his first planeswalk, and it could foreshadow planes we could be going too in the future, or give us small glimpses of the ones we aren't going to specifically go to like wherever the Vampire Gladiator Lady from this years Commander is from.
But then you get stuck in the bind of "Can't make this too interesting, or people will want to know more about that instead of the story we're actually trying to tell right now." Or worse "Here's a cool plane that we didn't have time to do all the logistics for, so we may never see it again, and if we do, it may end up completely different." A la Planechase.
It's not really a good situation either way.
This really seems to be the jist of it. Showing unknown planes creates expectation among the playerbase that we'll someday GO TO that plane. Showing any amount of actual detail about that plane paints them into a corner if they ever decide to do just that, now the development of that plane faces artificial restrictions, or is flat out retconned which pisses off fans.
I think the only way we're realistically going to see planeswalkers walking to unknown planes is if those planes are already in development for near future release, but making a habit of doing that just leads right back to problem #1; creating expectations within the playerbase.
Destruction could be white in this case. In fact wakening sun's avatar "destroys" all non-dinosaur creatures. White has long been associated with mass destroy effects.
That would mean red=creativity, white=destruction, and green=sustenance.
I can definitely agree with this. It's also a refreshing take on the colors (even if it's really not NEW at all), red gets to be about something other than "heh, heh, fire" and white gets it's not-such-a-good-guy aspects that most people generally overlook highlighted.
Welp, I guess the Angrath=Tibalt theory is busted.
I loved the bit about mistaking Girapur for Orazca, that was very clever. And the way Angrath reacted to the revelation of another planeswalker was also a good twist.
Does it feel like this story has the Sun Empire pulling its punches a little bit, to make sure that Huatli is an unambiguous goodguy? Odd that they'd only try to destroy the pirates' supplies and not try to kill or capture them all with their dinosaurs. Goes double for the fight with the Legion of Dusk before the story starts, with no casualties on either side. Nice I guess, but that ain't how you win a war. Is this going to be another sort of 80's-cartoon-show-violence block, like Kaladesh was?
I've got to agree with this too. They were really trying too hard to paint Huatli as a good guy, it felt really forced. We're only two stories in, so I can't say anything really for the narative as a whole, but it's starting to feel very Kaladesh-y. Kaladesh was frankly cringeworthy how everyone survived (minus a handful of nameless redshirts), it was simply unbelievable. I really, really hope they don't go the same direction with Ixalan (or even any faction on Ixalan).
Return to Innistrad was a whole block of white villians.
Maybe Invasion block and before White was rarely the villian but going back as far as the Dark white has been villianous.
Akroma, Konda, Heliod, Avacyn and the whole church of Avacyn.
How many mono-black central villians have there been after Invasion?
I didn't mean to imply I was referring to White being villainous. White absolutely can be, has been, and will likely again in the future be, the villain.
I said that white as the destruction aspect of the sun would highlight it's not so nice traits that a lot of people simply, or even willfully overlook. Many people still blindly hold Black and White, as colors in MTG, up to BE black and white, as good and evil.
*EDIT: I note there's some ambiguity in my earlier post, when I said not-such-a-good-guy, i didn't mean Good as in virtuous, but rther good as in nice guy. I'll edit that post to clear that up.
Destruction could be white in this case. In fact wakening sun's avatar "destroys" all non-dinosaur creatures. White has long been associated with mass destroy effects.
That would mean red=creativity, white=destruction, and green=sustenance.
I can definitely agree with this. It's also a refreshing take on the colors (even if it's really not NEW at all), red gets to be about something other than "heh, heh, fire" and white gets it's not-such-a-nice-guy* aspects that most people generally overlook highlighted.
Welp, I guess the Angrath=Tibalt theory is busted.
I loved the bit about mistaking Girapur for Orazca, that was very clever. And the way Angrath reacted to the revelation of another planeswalker was also a good twist.
Does it feel like this story has the Sun Empire pulling its punches a little bit, to make sure that Huatli is an unambiguous goodguy? Odd that they'd only try to destroy the pirates' supplies and not try to kill or capture them all with their dinosaurs. Goes double for the fight with the Legion of Dusk before the story starts, with no casualties on either side. Nice I guess, but that ain't how you win a war. Is this going to be another sort of 80's-cartoon-show-violence block, like Kaladesh was?
I've got to agree with this too. They were really trying too hard to paint Huatli as a good guy, it felt really forced. We're only two stories in, so I can't say anything really for the narative as a whole, but it's starting to feel very Kaladesh-y. Kaladesh was frankly cringeworthy how everyone survived (minus a handful of nameless redshirts), it was simply unbelievable. I really, really hope they don't go the same direction with Ixalan (or even any faction on Ixalan).
*Edited to clear up that by not-such-a-good-guy, I was meaning more behavior (being nice) as opposed to "Good Guy" morality or ethics or whatever.
Angrath's really the only definitely unknown variable here, we have no idea how long he's been there, nor how many times he's tried to leave.
It's possible that it's only happened three times recently. Once with Vraska, most likely not long after she arrived a few months ago. Once for Jace over a month ago, and once for Hualti, an indeterminate time ago.
Depending on how long, and how often Angrath's been trying to leave, this might not be all that unusual at all.
So, I had a theory occur to me: That as a Thaumatic Compass, it points towards intense magic(s), not necessarily places or material things. And that it was never actually pointing at/to Jace. It was pointing to the intense spike of magic that would likely have occurred when Jace attempted to planeswalk away, and the Binding kicked in. Finding Jace was merely a coincidence. In this case, once the surge of magic from the binding dissipated, the compass may well have gone back to pointing towards Orazca (or another strong source of magic, as it's stated that the compass occasionally changes direction, only to change again a few hours later).
There is the matter of timing, though. Jace spent 40days on Useless Island, which seems like a very long time for Vraska and crew to sail south. Additionally the compass would also have pinged on Huatli's aborted walk, and since I simply have no idea when in the overall timeline of events that happened, I couldn't begin to say what happened with that.
I think there are holes in this theory, but I figured I'd share it anyhow.
Navigator Malcolm pointed out that Jace (or the direction the compass was pointing) was south, completely away from the continent of Ixalan. If they had continued to head south, they would have wound up nowhere near Orazca (Unless the plane of Ixalan is a very small sphere, and continuing south eventually leads to them descending from the north).
From The Talented Captain Vraska:
ETA: That is, of course, unless Ugin has nebulous plans that somehow require Bolas' continued survival. At which point I will heave the most put-upon sigh, shake my head, and wash my hands of the whole mess.
Yes, thank you, I was recalling the incorrect source. Spent a good while reviewing the story articles last night trying to find it.
Art books may have a spotty accuracy record, but IMO it's best to accept them as canon until otherwise contradicted.
No, it was revealed at some point during the Amonkhet storyline that he's aware Ugin's back from the dead.
I think that's a wasted opportunity on creative's part, sadly. They could have held Ugin in reserve until Bolas was on the verge of achieving his ultimate goal, and then had Ugin show up and wreck his sh**. That's really the only plausible way for Bolas to lose at this point. He's just SO FAR beyond the abilities of other walkers that a surprise Ugin is just about the only way to keep him in line without a total ass-pull deus ex machina.
Worse than that, Jace went to Ixalan directly from Amonkhet, which he went to directly from Kaladesh. He's been gone for 2-3 MONTHS or more, all this after having only been back on Ravnica for a few months after spending months away on
ZendikarEDIT: Innistrad, sorry.Lavinia's going to wrap that stupid cloak around his neck and nail it to the wall.
Jace has apparently been on Ixalan for 40 days:
Vraska's been there for at least 60 days, but likely longer:
So Vraska's been there longer.
The general timeline seems to be:
1) Flashbacks of Vraska and Marizek chatting; Pride of the Kraul
2) Meditation realm flashback, Vraska walks to Ixalan and starts gathering her crew; The Talented Captain Vraska
3) Marizek carries out his assassination and starts his power play; Pride of the Kraul
4) Gathewatch gets owned by Bolas and Jace ends up on Ixalan
5) Jace's story on Useless Island; Jace, Alone
6) The rest of The Talented Captain Vraska
I think the other Bolas agent will either be Tezzeret, as the story implies that Vraska will need the Planar Bridge to move the Immortal Sun (the likely macguffin) off-world. Or less likely Ral, assuming Ral's assignment was related to rebuilding/powering the Planar Bridge from the core that Tezzeret was able to acquire.
Nonviolent may not be the best word to describe it, cause martial combat is inherently violent, but when the story contains not one, but two instances where Huatli and Co deliberately avoid killing invaders it starts to feel forced and unnatural.
She and Intli had the element of surprise and a horde of dinosaurs at their disposal but instead just killing the pirates they burn their supplies and chase them off? Burning their supplies virtually guarantees that they'll HAVE to make a(nother) raid, likely against Sun Empire citizens, to resupply. By not simply crushing the pirates, they've now put their own citizens in danger.
That's simply not how you win a conflict, so it feels like WotC was trying too hard to say "These are the good guys!" and it feels contrived and artificial.
Torrezon isn't all, or likely even mostly, vampires though. While the cards depict almost entirely vampires, that's a mechanical concession. The vampires are only the nobility, clergy, and the conquistadors (which seems to be a position of some measure of power within the military, not just a reference to military personnel in general). The rank and file of the military, as well as presumably the entire underclass/peasant class are humans.
From the concept sheets show at PAX:
"Their expeditions of discovery are lead by vampire conquistadors and priests, with human soldiers filling the rank and file and additional humans serving support roles as sailors and menial laborers."
The pirates are the remnants of the other kingdoms on Torrezon that the Legion conquered, not all the non-slave humans. It'd just be hard to have a mechanical "Vampire Tribe" when half of the cards would be humans, so their presence within the Legion is largely ignored.
Agreed, both in that the Sun Empire/Huatli's nonviolence was cringy and forced, and that I'm hoping for a lot more grey area for all factions.
This really seems to be the jist of it. Showing unknown planes creates expectation among the playerbase that we'll someday GO TO that plane. Showing any amount of actual detail about that plane paints them into a corner if they ever decide to do just that, now the development of that plane faces artificial restrictions, or is flat out retconned which pisses off fans.
I think the only way we're realistically going to see planeswalkers walking to unknown planes is if those planes are already in development for near future release, but making a habit of doing that just leads right back to problem #1; creating expectations within the playerbase.
I didn't mean to imply I was referring to White being villainous. White absolutely can be, has been, and will likely again in the future be, the villain.
I said that white as the destruction aspect of the sun would highlight it's not so nice traits that a lot of people simply, or even willfully overlook. Many people still blindly hold Black and White, as colors in MTG, up to BE black and white, as good and evil.
*EDIT: I note there's some ambiguity in my earlier post, when I said not-such-a-good-guy, i didn't mean Good as in virtuous, but rther good as in nice guy. I'll edit that post to clear that up.
I can definitely agree with this. It's also a refreshing take on the colors (even if it's really not NEW at all), red gets to be about something other than "heh, heh, fire" and white gets it's not-such-a-nice-guy* aspects that most people generally overlook highlighted.
I've got to agree with this too. They were really trying too hard to paint Huatli as a good guy, it felt really forced. We're only two stories in, so I can't say anything really for the narative as a whole, but it's starting to feel very Kaladesh-y. Kaladesh was frankly cringeworthy how everyone survived (minus a handful of nameless redshirts), it was simply unbelievable. I really, really hope they don't go the same direction with Ixalan (or even any faction on Ixalan).
*Edited to clear up that by not-such-a-good-guy, I was meaning more behavior (being nice) as opposed to "Good Guy" morality or ethics or whatever.