So based on the art and flavor text of Lifespring Druid it looks like Zendakari shamans have the ability to restore land calcified by the eldrazi to its' former health and life. Zendikar is going to be able to go right back to as lush and verdant as it always was. I'm not sure if this is a trait unique to Zendikar, but if not it kind of makes me think Sorin and Nahiri probably could've saved that other nameless plane just by having the nature mages restore any areas Ulamog wasn't currently in. (Just jokes guys, but I do think this reduces the magnitude of Ulamog's impact on the plane.)
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My Decks:
UG Merfolk RG 8-Whack BWG Abzan midrange GRB Living End UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin" RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!" BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
I just came to discuss the weirdness of Emrakul being a "she" but I see this has already been addressed. I wonder if there's anything behind this at all or if it's just creative toying around.
I just came to discuss the weirdness of Emrakul being a "she" but I see this has already been addressed. I wonder if there's anything behind this at all or if it's just creative toying around.
I assume its just creative being aware that a lot of players refer to Emrakul as female.
Even if they're unidentifiable in regards the male/female sex, I'm fine with it. It's a tendency for people to assume other beings operate under the same rules and guidelines as they do. Almost all the sentient characters are either male or female in sex, and it's easy to attribute these traits to things that don't necessarily have such a notion. Emrakul can be called a 'she' as much as the other two are 'he'. It's just the perspective of the anthropocentric species trying to make unfathomable entities fit in some way to what they know.
While it wouldn't be 'politically correct' to refer to them as either he or she (how do we know they don't identify as either anyhow?), from the perspective of an average, relatively ignorant life form it makes sense.
Shame that none of the upcoming story titles give us an idea of when Jace and Ugin are going to have their talk.
I pity whoever has to write that one. It's not going to be easy to make Jace and Ugin's arguments hold the same weight.
Especially when Jace keeps saying snarky bullcrap in flavor text that makes him look like an idiot with a high opinion of himself.
Shame that none of the upcoming story titles give us an idea of when Jace and Ugin are going to have their talk.
I pity whoever has to write that one. It's not going to be easy to make Jace and Ugin's arguments hold the same weight.
Especially when Jace keeps saying snarky bullcrap in flavor text that makes him look like an idiot with a high opinion of himself.
From what we've seen of Ugin it won't be hard for Jace to come off looking better than him. There's like a 50/50 chance that Ugin will suggest letting Zendikar die because he's curious about how Ulamog operates solo.
So based on the art and flavor text of Lifespring Druid it looks like Zendakari shamans have the ability to restore land calcified by the eldrazi to its' former health and life.
It's like Creative is trying its damnedest to destroy the entire concept of the Eldrazi. This whole thing may as well just be a damn filler arc since Zendikar will just go back to being the Zendikar we were introduced to.
Looking at the flavor text for Dispel, I'm thinking that they just decide to kill Ulamog rather than seal him.
People may be disappointed about this, but after reading Drana's UR this week, I'm pretty convinced that the Eldrazi actually do have a greater purpose in the Multiverse, and that the heroes are going to come to regret their actions (except for Ugin, who's just gonna be like, "ha ha, told you so!"
To destroy eldrazi heroes must first find out how it can be done. Lacking such method they may WANT to destroy for all they like.
Same with Lifespring Druid. I hope she's overestimating her abilities.
They shouldn't associate the titans with genders since that only further destroys the idea of the Eldrazi being incomprehensible. They should all be "it"s, but that sometimes reads weird. "Him" in that regard is a better word since nobody stops and goes "Oh, they're guys" but the moment you use "Her" people automatically assume it's female. You know, unless it's a ship. Ships are always "her"/"she" for some reason.
What were the Eldrazi doing? Were they still clambering over its walls and spreading their corruption across the rocks? Or were they on the move, as Tazri suggested?
The purpose of Tazri's vigilance was obvious to Gideon. If the persistent coughing that he heard from the commander meant what Gideon feared—Eldrazi corruption—then soon enough Tazri...
Inside the commander's tent it was stuffy and smelled of dry, rotten fungus—the smell of Eldrazi corruption.
Vorik coughed again. A hard, racking cough that brought up a chunk of corruption as large as a coin. He fought for breath, shaking his head.
"In the same way that the corruption spread to claim our friend's body, so too do the corrupting monsters spread across this land.
Again, stop being so literal. Yes, the Eldrazi are destroying, but it's represented as corruption instead of destruction. They tell us the Eldrazi are destroying, but visually, it's just white phyrexian oil.
Actually I think they don't want to convey this "corruption" in the phyrexian sense of taking something over to make it something else, but in the sense of, for example, rust (which can be seen as a corruption of iron), a destructive change of matter. As far as I know it was always said that the Eldrazi are sucking all mana, energy and life from their surrounding materials and I believe that the chalky lattice is a very good indicator for this "empty shell" like matter they leave behind. The key difference between the oil and the Eldrazi "corruption" is that the oil propagates itself and is active while the chalky dust is only the material indicator of the removal of mana etc. by an Eldrazi and doesn't spread by itself (it acts like necrotic flesh in life forms which is why it kills someone even though he is only partially affected). As such I would say that there is a huge difference between the concepts.
I hope that the druid is overestimating her abilities too though.
Actually I think they don't want to convey this "corruption" in the phyrexian sense of taking something over to make it something else, but in the sense of, for example, rust (which can be seen as a corruption of iron), a destructive change of matter. As far as I know it was always said that the Eldrazi are sucking all mana, energy and life from their surrounding materials and I believe that the chalky lattice is a very good indicator for this "empty shell" like matter they leave behind. The key difference between the oil and the Eldrazi "corruption" is that the oil propagates itself and is active while the chalky dust is only the material indicator of the removal of mana etc. by an Eldrazi and doesn't spread by itself (it acts like necrotic flesh in life forms which is why it kills someone even though he is only partially affected). As such I would say that there is a huge difference between the concepts.
I hope that the druid is overestimating her abilities too though.
Or just don't have this corruption thing going on and just have the Eldrazi destroy. When Phyrexia and the Eldrazi are already so close, you don't want them to overlap any more than they did at the start.
Looking at the flavor text for Dispel, I'm thinking that they just decide to kill Ulamog rather than seal him.
People may be disappointed about this, but after reading Drana's UR this week, I'm pretty convinced that the Eldrazi actually do have a greater purpose in the Multiverse, and that the heroes are going to come to regret their actions (except for Ugin, who's just gonna be like, "ha ha, told you so!"
To destroy eldrazi heroes must first find out how it can be done. Lacking such method they may WANT to destroy for all they like.
Same with Lifespring Druid. I hope she's overestimating her abilities.
It's flavor text like that and Hedron Archive's that make me hate Jace so much. He is just such an annoying little idiot and gets away with it.
Yeah, I mean, Ugin is this ancient being who cares about maintaining the balance and order of the Multiverse. Then this little 20-something punk comes along and says, "yeah, I know better than you. We should destroy the Eldrazi because I say so"
So based on the art and flavor text of Lifespring Druid it looks like Zendakari shamans have the ability to restore land calcified by the eldrazi to its' former health and life.
It's like Creative is trying its damnedest to destroy the entire concept of the Eldrazi. This whole thing may as well just be a damn filler arc since Zendikar will just go back to being the Zendikar we were introduced to.
The gender of the false god based on Emrakul (and Ulamog, and Kozilek) matters because it is the point of reference for the survivors. We are hearing their perspective of the Eldrazi, which is informed partially by their representations as gods. The denizens of Zendikar are technically incorrect to refer to them by gendered pronouns, but its ok for characters in a story to be wrong about the world they live in, or to not completely understand it.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Yeah, I mean, Ugin is this ancient being who cares about maintaining the balance and order of the Multiverse. Then this little 20-something punk comes along and says, "yeah, I know better than you. We should destroy the Eldrazi because I say so"
"Children destroy the hedrons, now children want to permanently end the natural process that I disrupted for thousands of years."
Okay, that's pretty snarky, even for me, but the point remains.
What I find interesting is that the Eldrazi know they're supposed to be somewhere else. But what does that 'supposed to be' mean?
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Just to give some update with the full spoiler, apparently there are still some Emrakul's drones lingering in Zendikar. Also, we have spoiler of more of Kozilek'sdrones, and they do look like they're coming from underground. Although if that is any indication that Kozilek is hiding underground or not, no idea. We also have some flavor text spoiling some conversations and scenes, but nothing too big.
For me, Vestige of Emrakul's biggest "revelation" is the reference to Emrakul as "her". Yes, Emeria/Kamsa was female godess, but I feel that attributing any gender to the Titans is wrong. "it" would be the best pronoun here.
It felt really weird for me too! "It" would have been much better, though to be honest we are used to associate "it" with "he", so if someone said "Ulamog and his spawns" nobody would bat an eye, which makes me think there is some prejudice involved to see "her" being used and looking weird.
My thoughts exactly. And only now I see the irony of discussing this with somebody with username Ashiok
Actually, in Lovecraftian lore many of the entities were referred to with male and female pronouns and many have familial relations like mother, father, brother, sister etc etc. So its actually pretty on par flavorwise
Edit: Ulamog and Kozilek are referred to as him and he
Just to give some update with the full spoiler, apparently there are still some Emrakul's drones lingering in Zendikar. Also, we have spoiler of more of Kozilek'sdrones, and they do look like they're coming from underground. Although if that is any indication that Kozilek is hiding underground or not, no idea. We also have some flavor text spoiling some conversations and scenes, but nothing too big.
For me, Vestige of Emrakul's biggest "revelation" is the reference to Emrakul as "her". Yes, Emeria/Kamsa was female godess, but I feel that attributing any gender to the Titans is wrong. "it" would be the best pronoun here.
It felt really weird for me too! "It" would have been much better, though to be honest we are used to associate "it" with "he", so if someone said "Ulamog and his spawns" nobody would bat an eye, which makes me think there is some prejudice involved to see "her" being used and looking weird.
My thoughts exactly. And only now I see the irony of discussing this with somebody with username Ashiok
Actually, in Lovecraftian lore many of the entities were referred to with male and female pronouns and many have familial relations like mother, father, brother, sister etc etc. So its actually pretty on par flavorwise
Edit: Ulamog and Kozilek are referred to as him and he
To be fair, H.P. Lovecraft himself did not assign his deities genders, for exactly the same reason. The genders, and even family relationships into which the classic Lovecraftian things like Cthulhu were inserted, were mainly the work of Clark Ashton Smith, and they were generally looked upon negatively by the readers, again for exactly the same reason - making the incomprehensible more mundane.
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100% Vorthos Spike and Storyline Expert
Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
The gender of the false god based on Emrakul (and Ulamog, and Kozilek) matters because it is the point of reference for the survivors. We are hearing their perspective of the Eldrazi, which is informed partially by their representations as gods. The denizens of Zendikar are technically incorrect to refer to them by gendered pronouns, but its ok for characters in a story to be wrong about the world they live in, or to not completely understand it.
Cool. The flavor text in question is not a quote though.
Actually I think they don't want to convey this "corruption" in the phyrexian sense of taking something over to make it something else, but in the sense of, for example, rust (which can be seen as a corruption of iron), a destructive change of matter. As far as I know it was always said that the Eldrazi are sucking all mana, energy and life from their surrounding materials and I believe that the chalky lattice is a very good indicator for this "empty shell" like matter they leave behind. The key difference between the oil and the Eldrazi "corruption" is that the oil propagates itself and is active while the chalky dust is only the material indicator of the removal of mana etc. by an Eldrazi and doesn't spread by itself (it acts like necrotic flesh in life forms which is why it kills someone even though he is only partially affected). As such I would say that there is a huge difference between the concepts.
I hope that the druid is overestimating her abilities too though.
Or just don't have this corruption thing going on and just have the Eldrazi destroy. When Phyrexia and the Eldrazi are already so close, you don't want them to overlap any more than they did at the start.
Well, to be honest, I just don't think that there is that much overlap to begin with. Eldrazi and Phyrexians (or better, the Glistening Oil itself) don't act similarly. The Eldrazi consume mana and energy and leave behind this waste matter. Once they've eaten enough the plane destabilizes (or something) and collapses/breaks down (as seen in The Lithomancer). I don't know exactly what you would like them to do, smashing stuff would take them even further away from their (supposed) lovecraftian origins and just leaving void spaces would be... strange to say the least. I mean I'm not against the idea, but I don't find it necessary and if they thought that the waste matter would make for a more interesting kind of "destruction" I'm not against that either. Thats just personal aesthetics in my opinion. The only real overlap between the Eldrazi and the Glistening Oil was the "alien invasion" vibe both give off, other than that I don't see any really. If you have more I would like to hear them.
I believe that the reason that they went "Chalky White Stuff" rather than "Absolute nothingness" is representative of the problem "It's hard to show something that isn't there."
We've had two examples of it in Magic's past. AWOL and Resounding Silence. And I know that personally, Resounding Silence took me far longer to figure out than I'm comfortable with.
Well, to be honest, I just don't think that there is that much overlap to begin with. Eldrazi and Phyrexians (or better, the Glistening Oil itself) don't act similarly. The Eldrazi consume mana and energy and leave behind this waste matter. Once they've eaten enough the plane destabilizes (or something) and collapses/breaks down (as seen in The Lithomancer). I don't know exactly what you would like them to do, smashing stuff would take them even further away from their (supposed) lovecraftian origins and just leaving void spaces would be... strange to say the least. I mean I'm not against the idea, but I don't find it necessary and if they thought that the waste matter would make for a more interesting kind of "destruction" I'm not against that either. Thats just personal aesthetics in my opinion. The only real overlap between the Eldrazi and the Glistening Oil was the "alien invasion" vibe both give off, other than that I don't see any really. If you have more I would like to hear them.
Phyrexia is sci-fi horror. Eldrazi is cosmic horror. They're two different genres with a lot of overlap.
1. Both Phyrexia and the Eldrazi are invasive species.
2. Both were dormant "evils" that emerged and dominated their respective planes after having been brought there by planeswalkers
3. Both are alien.
4. Both enslave civilizations.
They started close, but distinct in that the Eldrazi were presented as incomprehensible abominations, and everyone gets that because Cthulhu is popular in internet culture, while Phyrexia wasn't presented as anything more than a virulent plague, which is also easy to grok because the Alien movies are a huge part of popular culture.
BFZ muddies the distinct lines between them by having:
1. The Eldrazi do not destroy, but "corrupt". Yes, we know the corruption comes from the destruction, but that didn't need to be so. Of course, Phyrexia's modus operandi is corruption. So Life's Finale's art makes sense on Phyrexia stuff, but when they essentially recycle that look for the Eldrazi it's just... ugh.
2. The Eldrazi moved from incomprehensible to "weird". Not only do you see them being killed en masse on cards (which demystifies them since they can die like everything else when hit hard enough; only a problem because it's depicted on so many cards), but we get flavor text that undermines them being outside understanding. Weird is Phyrexia, who's philosophies are very much what you'd expect from a given color, but twisted in an offputting and uncomfortable way.
Generally, it's an unnecessary crossing of the streams, if you will.
I believe that the reason that they went "Chalky White Stuff" rather than "Absolute nothingness" is representative of the problem "It's hard to show something that isn't there."
We've had two examples of it in Magic's past. AWOL and Resounding Silence. And I know that personally, Resounding Silence took me far longer to figure out than I'm comfortable with.
"Chalky white stuff" would be okay if they did it like it was in the alt All is Dust, where you always see the death toll and lightning cascading off the surface. It's a scene of complete annihilation (see wut i did thar?), instead of just "oh, pretty white structures."
As for "what's not there" I was thinking you look at any random card from BFZ with the white stuff, then replace that white stuff with the Nyx starfield, but remove all the pretty colors from it. That's visually striking and weird, because you'd see these dark blotches of nothing intermingling with actual landscapes and such. That would mean the Eldrazi literally spread void—nothingness.
Of course, I'm not the art director, and my suggestion might be complete crap for others. That's irrelevant. What is relevant is anything other than what they have now would probably be better.
Nothingness isn't easy to present properly though. Do you make it black? Or just put...nothing there? I mean, the closest you get in pop culture is probably as shown on the Neverending Story, and even there there seemed to be "something" in the Nothing. Look at that movie, and try to imagine that kind of nothingness, but now on Zendikar. It's a weird thought.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
"Chalky white stuff" would be okay if they did it like it was in the alt All is Dust, where you always see the death toll and lightning cascading off the surface. It's a scene of complete annihilation (see wut i did thar?), instead of just "oh, pretty white structures."
As for "what's not there" I was thinking you look at any random card from BFZ with the white stuff, then replace that white stuff with the Nyx starfield, but remove all the pretty colors from it. That's visually striking and weird, because you'd see these dark blotches of nothing intermingling with actual landscapes and such. That would mean the Eldrazi literally spread void—nothingness.
Of course, I'm not the art director, and my suggestion might be complete crap for others. That's irrelevant. What is relevant is anything other than what they have now would probably be better.
I don't know. The thing is, on the art side, when it comes to reproduction, the freaky colors and variation in the Nyx starfield make the image pop and are easily visible on the reduced size of the cards. I'm not certain that black would have had the same effect. The kind of chalky desication thing is a strong visual signifyer of something being used up. Think about what happens when you suck the flavoring out of a slushy. I don't see those structures as pretty... I see it as being a very strong and clear signifyer of something that's been drained away.
I'm glad someone brought up the Nyx Starfield, because it's actually a great argument against having Eldrazi destruction create black voids instead of something more material (like the white chalk). Theros was too recent for them to go back to the visual hook of "matter replaced by night-like void."
Creative is pretty careful about separating the visuals of blocks that are within a couple years of each other. The article where they explained everything they had to do to try and keep three consecutive "horror" worlds (Rise of the Eldrazi, New Phyrexia, Innistrad) distinct is great reading.
(For those who haven't seen said article, some examples are the way they made the Eldrazi brightly colored and generally showed them in bright daylight to contrast with the darker lighting and palettes of Innistrad and Phyrexia, and asked for different "camera" angles in the Phyrexia vs. Innistrad art. New Phyrexia used a lot of high angles to cast the viewer as a detached, clinical observer, whereas they tried to do more "first person" viewpoints in Innistrad to cast the viewer as the horror movie protagonist who rounds a corner and comes face to face with the monster. Interesting stuff)
"Chalky white stuff" would be okay if they did it like it was in the alt All is Dust, where you always see the death toll and lightning cascading off the surface. It's a scene of complete annihilation (see wut i did thar?), instead of just "oh, pretty white structures."
As for "what's not there" I was thinking you look at any random card from BFZ with the white stuff, then replace that white stuff with the Nyx starfield, but remove all the pretty colors from it. That's visually striking and weird, because you'd see these dark blotches of nothing intermingling with actual landscapes and such. That would mean the Eldrazi literally spread void—nothingness.
Of course, I'm not the art director, and my suggestion might be complete crap for others. That's irrelevant. What is relevant is anything other than what they have now would probably be better.
I don't know. The thing is, on the art side, when it comes to reproduction, the freaky colors and variation in the Nyx starfield make the image pop and are easily visible on the reduced size of the cards. I'm not certain that black would have had the same effect. The kind of chalky desication thing is a strong visual signifyer of something being used up. Think about what happens when you suck the flavoring out of a slushy. I don't see those structures as pretty... I see it as being a very strong and clear signifyer of something that's been drained away.
I like the slushy metaphor for it describes what is the heart of the problem. We know that eldrazi eats planes and starting with the known primary world of such a plane is not a bad start. Perhaps with the three of them the titans could dissolve a plane in one go but in this case Ulamog's sucking Zendikar dry is a slower process then we are used to seeing.
However when I eat a slushy I eat the entire thing but not until after I have drained away the more succulent juices. Maybe Ulamog would eat the husked Zendikar and more metaphysical elements of the plane (and other cosmological features therin) after it eats the juicy part
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Wizards. listen. The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
The gender of the false god based on Emrakul (and Ulamog, and Kozilek) matters because it is the point of reference for the survivors. We are hearing their perspective of the Eldrazi, which is informed partially by their representations as gods. The denizens of Zendikar are technically incorrect to refer to them by gendered pronouns, but its ok for characters in a story to be wrong about the world they live in, or to not completely understand it.
Cool. The flavor text in question is not a quote though.
That doesn't necessarily mean it's from a meta perspective. Quoted flavor text is either a statement the character in the art depicted is saying, or a character referring to the depicted object in the artwork.
Flavor text without quotes doesn't mean it references a view-point we have and more that it is a thoughts from the perspective of an observer within the game.
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RG 8-Whack
BWG Abzan midrange
GRB Living End
UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin"
RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!"
BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
I assume its just creative being aware that a lot of players refer to Emrakul as female.
While it wouldn't be 'politically correct' to refer to them as either he or she (how do we know they don't identify as either anyhow?), from the perspective of an average, relatively ignorant life form it makes sense.
I pity whoever has to write that one. It's not going to be easy to make Jace and Ugin's arguments hold the same weight.
Especially when Jace keeps saying snarky bullcrap in flavor text that makes him look like an idiot with a high opinion of himself.
From what we've seen of Ugin it won't be hard for Jace to come off looking better than him. There's like a 50/50 chance that Ugin will suggest letting Zendikar die because he's curious about how Ulamog operates solo.
It's like Creative is trying its damnedest to destroy the entire concept of the Eldrazi. This whole thing may as well just be a damn filler arc since Zendikar will just go back to being the Zendikar we were introduced to.
Your mods are terrified of me.
Same with Lifespring Druid. I hope she's overestimating her abilities.
Actually I think they don't want to convey this "corruption" in the phyrexian sense of taking something over to make it something else, but in the sense of, for example, rust (which can be seen as a corruption of iron), a destructive change of matter. As far as I know it was always said that the Eldrazi are sucking all mana, energy and life from their surrounding materials and I believe that the chalky lattice is a very good indicator for this "empty shell" like matter they leave behind. The key difference between the oil and the Eldrazi "corruption" is that the oil propagates itself and is active while the chalky dust is only the material indicator of the removal of mana etc. by an Eldrazi and doesn't spread by itself (it acts like necrotic flesh in life forms which is why it kills someone even though he is only partially affected). As such I would say that there is a huge difference between the concepts.
I hope that the druid is overestimating her abilities too though.
Or just don't have this corruption thing going on and just have the Eldrazi destroy. When Phyrexia and the Eldrazi are already so close, you don't want them to overlap any more than they did at the start.
It's flavor text like that and Hedron Archive's that make me hate Jace so much. He is just such an annoying little idiot and gets away with it.
Your mods are terrified of me.
The gender of the false god based on Emrakul (and Ulamog, and Kozilek) matters because it is the point of reference for the survivors. We are hearing their perspective of the Eldrazi, which is informed partially by their representations as gods. The denizens of Zendikar are technically incorrect to refer to them by gendered pronouns, but its ok for characters in a story to be wrong about the world they live in, or to not completely understand it.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
"Children destroy the hedrons, now children want to permanently end the natural process that I disrupted for thousands of years."
Okay, that's pretty snarky, even for me, but the point remains.
What I find interesting is that the Eldrazi know they're supposed to be somewhere else. But what does that 'supposed to be' mean?
On phasing:
Actually, in Lovecraftian lore many of the entities were referred to with male and female pronouns and many have familial relations like mother, father, brother, sister etc etc. So its actually pretty on par flavorwise
Edit: Ulamog and Kozilek are referred to as him and he
To be fair, H.P. Lovecraft himself did not assign his deities genders, for exactly the same reason. The genders, and even family relationships into which the classic Lovecraftian things like Cthulhu were inserted, were mainly the work of Clark Ashton Smith, and they were generally looked upon negatively by the readers, again for exactly the same reason - making the incomprehensible more mundane.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Cool. The flavor text in question is not a quote though.
Your mods are terrified of me.
Well, to be honest, I just don't think that there is that much overlap to begin with. Eldrazi and Phyrexians (or better, the Glistening Oil itself) don't act similarly. The Eldrazi consume mana and energy and leave behind this waste matter. Once they've eaten enough the plane destabilizes (or something) and collapses/breaks down (as seen in The Lithomancer). I don't know exactly what you would like them to do, smashing stuff would take them even further away from their (supposed) lovecraftian origins and just leaving void spaces would be... strange to say the least. I mean I'm not against the idea, but I don't find it necessary and if they thought that the waste matter would make for a more interesting kind of "destruction" I'm not against that either. Thats just personal aesthetics in my opinion. The only real overlap between the Eldrazi and the Glistening Oil was the "alien invasion" vibe both give off, other than that I don't see any really. If you have more I would like to hear them.
We've had two examples of it in Magic's past. AWOL and Resounding Silence. And I know that personally, Resounding Silence took me far longer to figure out than I'm comfortable with.
Phyrexia is sci-fi horror. Eldrazi is cosmic horror. They're two different genres with a lot of overlap.
1. Both Phyrexia and the Eldrazi are invasive species.
2. Both were dormant "evils" that emerged and dominated their respective planes after having been brought there by planeswalkers
3. Both are alien.
4. Both enslave civilizations.
They started close, but distinct in that the Eldrazi were presented as incomprehensible abominations, and everyone gets that because Cthulhu is popular in internet culture, while Phyrexia wasn't presented as anything more than a virulent plague, which is also easy to grok because the Alien movies are a huge part of popular culture.
BFZ muddies the distinct lines between them by having:
1. The Eldrazi do not destroy, but "corrupt". Yes, we know the corruption comes from the destruction, but that didn't need to be so. Of course, Phyrexia's modus operandi is corruption. So Life's Finale's art makes sense on Phyrexia stuff, but when they essentially recycle that look for the Eldrazi it's just... ugh.
2. The Eldrazi moved from incomprehensible to "weird". Not only do you see them being killed en masse on cards (which demystifies them since they can die like everything else when hit hard enough; only a problem because it's depicted on so many cards), but we get flavor text that undermines them being outside understanding. Weird is Phyrexia, who's philosophies are very much what you'd expect from a given color, but twisted in an offputting and uncomfortable way.
Generally, it's an unnecessary crossing of the streams, if you will.
"Chalky white stuff" would be okay if they did it like it was in the alt All is Dust, where you always see the death toll and lightning cascading off the surface. It's a scene of complete annihilation (see wut i did thar?), instead of just "oh, pretty white structures."
As for "what's not there" I was thinking you look at any random card from BFZ with the white stuff, then replace that white stuff with the Nyx starfield, but remove all the pretty colors from it. That's visually striking and weird, because you'd see these dark blotches of nothing intermingling with actual landscapes and such. That would mean the Eldrazi literally spread void—nothingness.
Of course, I'm not the art director, and my suggestion might be complete crap for others. That's irrelevant. What is relevant is anything other than what they have now would probably be better.
Your mods are terrified of me.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
I don't know. The thing is, on the art side, when it comes to reproduction, the freaky colors and variation in the Nyx starfield make the image pop and are easily visible on the reduced size of the cards. I'm not certain that black would have had the same effect. The kind of chalky desication thing is a strong visual signifyer of something being used up. Think about what happens when you suck the flavoring out of a slushy. I don't see those structures as pretty... I see it as being a very strong and clear signifyer of something that's been drained away.
Creative is pretty careful about separating the visuals of blocks that are within a couple years of each other. The article where they explained everything they had to do to try and keep three consecutive "horror" worlds (Rise of the Eldrazi, New Phyrexia, Innistrad) distinct is great reading.
(For those who haven't seen said article, some examples are the way they made the Eldrazi brightly colored and generally showed them in bright daylight to contrast with the darker lighting and palettes of Innistrad and Phyrexia, and asked for different "camera" angles in the Phyrexia vs. Innistrad art. New Phyrexia used a lot of high angles to cast the viewer as a detached, clinical observer, whereas they tried to do more "first person" viewpoints in Innistrad to cast the viewer as the horror movie protagonist who rounds a corner and comes face to face with the monster. Interesting stuff)
I like the slushy metaphor for it describes what is the heart of the problem. We know that eldrazi eats planes and starting with the known primary world of such a plane is not a bad start. Perhaps with the three of them the titans could dissolve a plane in one go but in this case Ulamog's sucking Zendikar dry is a slower process then we are used to seeing.
However when I eat a slushy I eat the entire thing but not until after I have drained away the more succulent juices. Maybe Ulamog would eat the husked Zendikar and more metaphysical elements of the plane (and other cosmological features therin) after it eats the juicy part
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
Flavor text without quotes doesn't mean it references a view-point we have and more that it is a thoughts from the perspective of an observer within the game.