We know that Firemind's Research is a story spotlight card and if we look at the promo we might see why. I could be totally off, but it could be Bolas using his manipulations, like we saw in the M19 story to influence Niv, by acting like him talking to himself, tempting him.
I wondered if that card was a story spotlight yet I couldn’t figure out what it was trying to depict given that there was no flavour text and Niv’s experiments are often complicated and hard to describe even at best.
Both the original and promo versions of the art show some sort of illusion of Niv, Niv is always depicted as having a strong personality and ideals, i'm hoping that's enough to protect him from Bolas, if he turns out to become another puppet it would be quite anticlimactic IMO.
Kinda funny that they want to release another book, back when the only way to read the story was to buy a book, almost no one cared about the lore, now that people care they think people are going to actually spend money on the books, i'm guessing it's not going to go as they planned it, specially given how hard it is to find these books outside the US.
Interesting to make a set that takes place in Autumn when there was literally no mention of like seasonal changes before on Ravnica.
They are REALLY trying to set the tone for Bolas and the changes to come.
Vraska did mention to Jace that she loved Ravnica's winter.
I don't know if they did this just because of Bolas, if you think about it WotC plays extremely safe with Ravnica, the change of season was probably the only way they found to make Ravnica feel different without doing SOI all over again.
I like Regna, the Redeemer i'll definetly put her on my Karlov deck, and the Demon is quite a bonus.
It's hard i'm trying to explore different color combinations but every year WoTC releases cool orzhov cards. Also i find quite hard to use these "Partner with X" as Commanders, the problem with them (compared to the regular partners) is that to work "well" you need the other partner.
I don't think a plane (other than Dominaria), regardless of its popularity, should be overused like this. Yes, it has great design and history, but I'd argue most planes were designed fabulously for continuous stories. Three visits to a single plane, only Dominaria has the diversity to makes it work, and I still remember the second Ravnica block wasn't nearly as good as the first one, in both story and card design.
I also noticed that design team had used Raniva guilds as model for 2-color pie card design after it became popular. Boros always go Rawr Rawr, Orzhov always steal life, etc. Lorwyn was unlike that because it was designed before Ravnica became that popular, therefore was less plagued by it, other sets weren't so lucky.
It's extremely hard to make sets in planes like Ravnica, Alara and Tarkir without a 2-3 set model.
EDIT: It seems like doesn't matter what Wizards announce or release people will hate it, so i give up, i'll just read from now on.
A bit sad that this was too rushed, but really glad it was Ravnica. Thank God it wasn't Theros, the least the game needs right now after Ixalan did okay and Dominaria did so good was another *****show.
LOL.
Theros brought in a ton of new players. At Wizards, it's incredibly likely that Theros is generally regarded as one of the higher points of Magic in the past 5 years. The inevitable return to Theros will do very well, despite the personal preferences of some players.
On topic: Ravnica part 3 was entirely expected, based on the storyline direction. What we don't know yet: Will Shocklands come back?
Original Innistrad was the reason I considered playing MTG. Kamigawa reinforced that interest. But it was Theros the nailed me down as an invested, enfranchised player. I ended up spending ten times as much on Theros than I ever did in Yugioh, and abandoned Yugioh for good, which I'm grateful for. I remember seeing so many new players, our Commander games were massive. After BFZ, it's just been on this horrible decline. Magic Origins was my favorite pre-release of all time.
Congratulations, you're part of the so called minority.
I get that people WANT other planes, but if you were actually expecting another plane then you're probably blind because everything in the last two years indicated that Ravnica 3 was going to happen very soon.
That was very cute. But uhm, they did mess up a lot lore wise again. They have little to do with Yavimaya yet they keep bringing it up even in reference to Molimo who's from Llanowar. Also, they're originally from Sarpadia. Odd.
You're right, they messed up the lore, after all what kind of twisted world is this in which things change over time and people move from one place to another, also no one said Molimo is from Yavimaya, the only thing that was said is that Multani sees him/it as a rival.
I've wanted a return to Alara ever since we left Alara, but for some reason they don't want to visit the plane, which is kinda weird given the amount of Alara related card they release on suplemmental products.
I wonder if Wizards will keep publishing the story for a long period of time, i like the story, i get that they retconned some things i read a ton of comics and play a lot of RPG's so retcons are common for me, but it seems like for the Vorthos community having a retcon is like being hit by a bus.
Also i get that we dislike certain characters so we trashtalk the chapter because it was focused on a character we dislike i did that with Lili and Teferi and a lot of you folks are doing the same with the recent Chandra stuff.
Anyway i just don't see a reason for them to keep publishing it, they're not getting anything out of it and the only thing the community does is complain about how things aren't like they wanted it to be.
I decided to re-read the Lili chapters just to see if i actually hated and the funny thing is, i don't they're pretty well written i was entertained and i didn't had to pay anything for it, i still dislike Lili but i no longer dislike the chapters just because she was the focus of said chapter.
Also, about Belzenlok, let's just accept that the only one of Lili's demons who actually had a story was Grieselbrand (that's his name right? These demons names are super complicated)
Yeah they are trying make us feel bad for Lili but I really cannot.
She is Angel slaying, human mass murdering monster. Yeah Yeah she was tricked into killing her brother but really parents never taught her to trust strangers? She is attractive sure but her being on the Gatewatch never made sense to me in the first place. She is evil and she was not Anti-Bolas (if anything until Bolas screws her she should be pro Bolas) and no stopping Emrakul because its her preferred plane does not a hero make. Evil is not one big happy family.
She is dumb and lazy. The fact that she never reads the goddamn fine print on any deals she makes means I cannot feel bad for her. She has no foresight and always tries to take the easy way out. I mean sheesh Razaketh even tells her she didn't read the fine print she keeps on trucking along barely considering it. So again the Gatewatch being mean to her doesn't hurt me at all because really they never should have let her into the circle in the first place.
Thank you.
I feel like the only reason why Wizards choose Liliana to be a part of the gatewatch instead of creating a new character for the role was simply because players liked the sexy necromancer stereotype, i challenge anyone in this forum to give me 3 reasons why they would allow Liliana to be a part of a super-hero group.
Hell if i was a member of the gatewatch i would have at the very least arrested her ass back on Innistrad.
What you guys seem to completely forget, is that we only visit planes that are important to the story, and you don't need to read the lore for more then 10 minutes to know that Ravnica is currently the most important plane in the story.
Before thinking about which plane would be cool to visit, you need to think about which plane would any of the current protagonist/antagonist's visit, because those are the planes we are going to visit.
Anyone else getting Norse/Viking vibes from the dwarf?
Well maybe we are going to that Nordic Plane after all. Bolas you figure has to have a staging area.
Sarkhan is in this set? There is the rumor of 5 monocolor walkers. So Lili, Tezz and Sarkhan. That leaves W and G.
Thats a reprint, also Sarkhan has never been a mono-color walker.
The Onakke Ogre leads me to believe that Lili/Raven Man will be featured in the stories for the set, maybe they will finally give the Raven Man a card, who knows.
But still as far as i'm concerned he has alwais being multicolor, Gruul, then Rakdos then Temur, he was was mono-colored in one set and in the same block as that set he got his "ultimate" card and became Temur.
Sarkhan is in the same zone as Elspeth, i higly doubt she will ever become mono-white again.
Anyone else getting Norse/Viking vibes from the dwarf?
Well maybe we are going to that Nordic Plane after all. Bolas you figure has to have a staging area.
Sarkhan is in this set? There is the rumor of 5 monocolor walkers. So Lili, Tezz and Sarkhan. That leaves W and G.
Thats a reprint, also Sarkhan has never been a mono-color walker.
The Onakke Ogre leads me to believe that Lili/Raven Man will be featured in the stories for the set, maybe they will finally give the Raven Man a card, who knows.
In your opinion.
Both the original and promo versions of the art show some sort of illusion of Niv, Niv is always depicted as having a strong personality and ideals, i'm hoping that's enough to protect him from Bolas, if he turns out to become another puppet it would be quite anticlimactic IMO.
Vraska did mention to Jace that she loved Ravnica's winter.
I don't know if they did this just because of Bolas, if you think about it WotC plays extremely safe with Ravnica, the change of season was probably the only way they found to make Ravnica feel different without doing SOI all over again.
It's hard i'm trying to explore different color combinations but every year WoTC releases cool orzhov cards. Also i find quite hard to use these "Partner with X" as Commanders, the problem with them (compared to the regular partners) is that to work "well" you need the other partner.
It's extremely hard to make sets in planes like Ravnica, Alara and Tarkir without a 2-3 set model.
EDIT: It seems like doesn't matter what Wizards announce or release people will hate it, so i give up, i'll just read from now on.
Congratulations, you're part of the so called minority.
I get that people WANT other planes, but if you were actually expecting another plane then you're probably blind because everything in the last two years indicated that Ravnica 3 was going to happen very soon.
You're right, they messed up the lore, after all what kind of twisted world is this in which things change over time and people move from one place to another, also no one said Molimo is from Yavimaya, the only thing that was said is that Multani sees him/it as a rival.
Also i get that we dislike certain characters so we trashtalk the chapter because it was focused on a character we dislike i did that with Lili and Teferi and a lot of you folks are doing the same with the recent Chandra stuff.
Anyway i just don't see a reason for them to keep publishing it, they're not getting anything out of it and the only thing the community does is complain about how things aren't like they wanted it to be.
I decided to re-read the Lili chapters just to see if i actually hated and the funny thing is, i don't they're pretty well written i was entertained and i didn't had to pay anything for it, i still dislike Lili but i no longer dislike the chapters just because she was the focus of said chapter.
Also, about Belzenlok, let's just accept that the only one of Lili's demons who actually had a story was Grieselbrand (that's his name right? These demons names are super complicated)
Thank you.
I feel like the only reason why Wizards choose Liliana to be a part of the gatewatch instead of creating a new character for the role was simply because players liked the sexy necromancer stereotype, i challenge anyone in this forum to give me 3 reasons why they would allow Liliana to be a part of a super-hero group.
Hell if i was a member of the gatewatch i would have at the very least arrested her ass back on Innistrad.
Before thinking about which plane would be cool to visit, you need to think about which plane would any of the current protagonist/antagonist's visit, because those are the planes we are going to visit.
Yeeeeeaaaah my bad.
But still as far as i'm concerned he has alwais being multicolor, Gruul, then Rakdos then Temur, he was was mono-colored in one set and in the same block as that set he got his "ultimate" card and became Temur.
Sarkhan is in the same zone as Elspeth, i higly doubt she will ever become mono-white again.
The Onakke Ogre leads me to believe that Lili/Raven Man will be featured in the stories for the set, maybe they will finally give the Raven Man a card, who knows.