They certainly play several strings at once. Loving it.
Yay. Now Lili and Jace can live happily ever after in crazy land!
Not bad. Good interaction between them. I like how they managed to make her concerned about Jace and a complete ***** at the same time.
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"You say 'learn from history,' but that does not mean 'learn the same bull***** the people in history learned alongside phrenology and alchemy.'" - The Blinking Spirit
I really liked this one. I'm finding Jace a lot more readable this block. Lilli's also pretty good too, but I REALLY like that after their big sorcery/magic duel they were reduced to just being two people who ultimately care about each other (in their own ways of course). I like following human/relatable characters more than just following "tricksy telepath" and "backstabbing necromancer", so more of this is welcome.
The one thing that seemed odd was that Jace supposedly prepared for this encounter, but wasn't aware of the homunculus watching from the start? Maybe it was "skulking"?
Also, it could be my bad memory, but I recall Lilli killing the Raven Man either in her origin story or in an old comic. Is that right? I might be thunking of someone else.
They certainly play several strings at once. Loving it.
I would love for it not to be Emrakul, but did I miss where this week hurt that theory? If I did, please let me know. I need hope at this point that it isn't more Eldrazi shenanigans.
Very solid story with some key highlights. First, it's wonderful seeing the dueling madness-ridden walkers somewhat come to blows, with Jace succumbing further to the madness of the plane and Liliana fighting off the Raven Man and Chain Veil influence simultaneously. That made for quite an entertaining scene.
Second, Jace is a telepath, right? Yet he sees the Raven Man this week, or so it's implied. Could that be just his telepathy kicking in to find the Raven Man in Liliana's head, or did he actually see him in the real world? Probably won't know for sure for some time, but I like the way they continued thst mystery without answering it.
Third, it is amazing how Jace isn't dead at this point. Seriously. Not being a Jace-basher, but he's running around Innistrad half-insane and now plans to go confront Avacyn head-on? Not a smart plan, to quote Tony Stark. Also curious if Tamiyo just shows up randomly at Thraben at the same time, because in current-time we still haven't seen her.
Lastly, shout out to Dierk the geist mage. I guess Liliana is going to try and get a literal exorcist to try and exorcise the Chain Veil. Poor Dierk is about to get waaaaaaayyyy more than he bargained for. Alas, poor Dierk, I hardly knew ye.
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Vorthos-player with way too much time on his hands and a love of thematic decks.
EDH - Yes, Each One is Named After a Song. I love tying music to my decks.
Innistrad is clearly having an effect in jace's mind. it's actually pretty brilliant the way his unraveling has been written, and I'm interested in seeing how he recovers from this in future stories.
But is Lili being affected by the madness as well? Raven man has always been in her head, but still...
And, of course, a new mystery is introduced, as we know Lili is a houseguest of somebody else. So now the question is who is the guy, and does this have anything to do with Innistrad, or is this merely a setup for a future, Lili-centric block?
Innistrad is clearly having an effect in jace's mind. it's actually pretty brilliant the way his unraveling has been written, and I'm interested in seeing how he recovers from this in future stories.
But is Lili being affected by the madness as well? Raven man has always been in her head, but still...
And, of course, a new mystery is introduced, as we know Lili is a houseguest of somebody else. So now the question is who is the guy, and does this have anything to do with Innistrad, or is this merely a setup for a future, Lili-centric block?
let the baseless speculation begin.
I remembered the name and looked it up. Dierk is a geist mage mentioned in a few flavor texts from Innistrad 1.0. Im guessing it's still Liliana's manor given the mass presence of zombies, and that Dierk has been conscripted to excorcise the Veil. Liliana probably thinks it best to turn to an exorcist to deal with ghosts, but given the power of the particular spirits the Veil deals with, I don't think that is going to end well for our geist-binder.
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Vorthos-player with way too much time on his hands and a love of thematic decks.
EDH - Yes, Each One is Named After a Song. I love tying music to my decks.
Innistrad is clearly having an effect in jace's mind. it's actually pretty brilliant the way his unraveling has been written, and I'm interested in seeing how he recovers from this in future stories.
But is Lili being affected by the madness as well? Raven man has always been in her head, but still...
And, of course, a new mystery is introduced, as we know Lili is a houseguest of somebody else. So now the question is who is the guy, and does this have anything to do with Innistrad, or is this merely a setup for a future, Lili-centric block?
let the baseless speculation begin.
I think Lili is being affected by the moon as well.
Quote from Liliana »
"Don't tell me what to do!" she shouted—at both of them, at the Chain Veil, at the moon and the world and at death itself. "Stop it!"
Sounds to me like she's spent too much time sitting on her throne, brooding, and combined influence of the Raven Man, the moon, and the Chain-Veil is making her fall apart. She's still doing better than Jace, though, who is just completely psychotic at this point. I mean, confronting an old-walker made angel who is slaughtering hundreds of humans? Nuts.
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"You say 'learn from history,' but that does not mean 'learn the same bull***** the people in history learned alongside phrenology and alchemy.'" - The Blinking Spirit
I think at this point, it's safe to conclude that the Raven Man is indeed in Liliana's head - e.g. his panic over Jace penetrating Liliana's defenses, and Jace apparently seeing the Raven Man after starting to worm his way into her mind. In fact, Liliana's surprise at Jace seeing him for an instant suggests that even she has begun to realize he is in her mind and not the real world. The real question is whether the Raven Man is an independent entity that has been possessing Liliana since childhood, or whether he is just a figment of her imagination?
The most fascinating part of this story to me is how nicely it thematically fits into the "descent into madness" setting of Innistrad. The story was literally about Jace (or rather, what he represented to Liliana) and the Raven Man being the angel and demon on Liliana's shoulders and her directly arguing with both of them, being torn between conflicting desires and impulses.
As for the Eldritch Moon situation, I saw no new information, but rather a confirmation: the Nephalia Drownyard is directing mana towards an invisible "moon" in the heavens. If anything, that seems to rule out the "Sea God" hypothesis.
Lastly, shout out to Dierk the geist mage. I guess Liliana is going to try and get a literal exorcist to try and exorcise the Chain Veil. Poor Dierk is about to get waaaaaaayyyy more than he bargained for. Alas, poor Dierk, I hardly knew ye.
I'd love to see Dierk, Geistmage become Dierk, Geist.
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Also known as Blitzer or Romanoff Blitzer. WIXOSS wiki admin.
The hilsrious (or not) irony about this all is that in that regardless of where Nahiri's been the last millenia, she's been wrapped up inside her own anger and quest for revenge that she wasn't there to help her plane either when it absolutely needed her the most- and Sorin actually TRIED to stop it all (until Nissa screwed it all up). So basically, she not only committed the exact same crime Sorin did in not helping Zendikar, she's compounding it by wrecking Innistrad careless of all the innocent lives she's hurting.
I agree with your synopsis for the most part, but I think you are giving Sorin too much credit when you say he 'actually TRIED.' Nahiri spent approx 5K years bound to Zen, telling herself she can't leave for the sake of Zen. Sorin pops in for check ups for a short period after the titans are contained. Then he stops visiting all together after maybe a couple centuries. So for at least 4K years, it's just Nahiri. Sorin is off doing Sorin things, never bothering to come back. And when he does come back for RoE, does he actually help? Nope; we know he could have stopped Nissa, but he didn't and 'walks out.
He did actually tried. Nissa only managed to break the seal because she attacked the lock while Sorin was busy killing a mad kor. When he sees Nissa's betrayal its too late, her single blow cracks open the prison beyond he can repair it alone. Sorin then walks away, manly in disgust because of Nissa's stupidity, but also because without (Ugin's)help there was nothing left for him to do.
My main question is does Sorin know that the Helvault was destroyed and if so, at what point does he find out about it. This detail has some rather significant implications.
The comment about how "Nahiri's silence disturbed Sorin" as well as Sorin's vague knowledge of Nahiri's whereabouts in both Tarkir timelines only make sense if he knows that the Helvault was broken and that Nahiri was no longer trapped in there (assuming she was in fact in the Helvault in the first place).
Also, given that Liliana and Sorin apparently have a history together, how has she not gotten any blowback from destroying the Helvault?
Sorin knows that the Helvault was destroyed. He showed up on Innistrad, looking to find out what happened with Avacyn, and saw the situation had already been resolved.
I'm not sure he knows Liliana was behind it, but ultimately Avacyn is more important than the Helvault.
I think at this point, it's safe to conclude that the Raven Man is indeed in Liliana's head - e.g. his panic over Jace penetrating Liliana's defenses, and Jace apparently seeing the Raven Man after starting to worm his way into her mind. In fact, Liliana's surprise at Jace seeing him for an instant suggests that even she has begun to realize he is in her mind and not the real world. The real question is whether the Raven Man is an independent entity that has been possessing Liliana since childhood, or whether he is just a figment of her imagination?
The most fascinating part of this story to me is how nicely it thematically fits into the "descent into madness" setting of Innistrad. The story was literally about Jace (or rather, what he represented to Liliana) and the Raven Man being the angel and demon on Liliana's shoulders and her directly arguing with both of them, being torn between conflicting desires and impulses.
As for the Eldritch Moon situation, I saw no new information, but rather a confirmation: the Nephalia Drownyard is directing mana towards an invisible "moon" in the heavens. If anything, that seems to rule out the "Sea God" hypothesis.
I've suspected this for years, but I really think the Raven Man is Lim-Dul. I'm re-reading a whole lot of old lore to be sure, but he fits the bill so perfectly. Necromancer, ties to Dominaria AND Shandalar, old school Dominarian outfit, known to possess people, ultimate fate of his essence unknown. I mean, Lim-Dûl the Necromancer even looks a lot like the Raven Man, and if he's no longer a physical being, he may just not have the mutations anymore.
... Of course, with Shattered Alliance $40 a pop, it's hard to know the ending outside of summaries and exactly what is said about him.
I think they need to set a limit on how powerful Jace is telepathically. Its okay to read minds and control them but right now he could do so much so easily. I mean chandra has a hard time to spew out that fire in her Ob Nixilis duel, but Jace here can keep three illusions, steadily while being hit with Lily magic. Wtf, does he like ultra endurance to resist black magic? I would expect that when hit by death magic he would somewhat falter in keeping up his assaults and illusions. How does he stay mad, yet concentrated enough to keep illusions and brain prying while getting black deathed. I imagine that when someone as frail as Jace is hit by black magic hed crumple and almost die.
Jace cannot be interesting to read, nor exciting. They just reason that he is dangerous because he can mind wipe people on his whim, and they just let everyone be defenseless against his mind magic. I mean if someone was to battle jace, should the enemy be like "oh i have like awesome powers, giant lasers and impenetrable metal skin and insane regeneration and i can fly, but who f cares, Jace can like mind wipe, LoL GG". How could any battle be interesting with that.
They need to tone that powers, or at least make others have effective magic. Lol at chandra not able to burn Wings, Lol at Liliana, master of cruel torture and death, cannot cayse enough pain to stop Jace, lol at Alhamarret, the most useless all-knowing-sphinx.
I mean how can any enemy be a threat if they mindwiped/mind controlled so easily? oh is that A Vraska with a repulsor beam? Oh she misses everything because hax illusions, and now jace controls a Vraska as a personal puppet. See what happened? Vraska, who is supposed to be a THREAT was just mehhed. An Omnipotent protagonist is just not interesting to read.
I think they should make jace rely more on bluish tactics and planning. Because blue likes planning right? So far Jace has got to have the MOST stupidest/reckless plans ever. Even more then Chandra, wtf.
Chandra Tactics: I better not make too much fire, else i will attract attention
Jace Tactics: Suggest he go to Akoum Alone (luckily Gideon sent that fish chick with him), Walk through the front door of Markov Manor, confront Avacyn the Mad.
I mean does anybody want him to embody blue? I also do not like how they just say "he prepared for this encounter so he is well prepared" and end it at that. They could have like shown how he prepared for encounter, how he planned his preparations, his reasons for predicting what his adversary will do.
They should tonendown Jace because if he is that powerful, he will not have to strategize and plan well to overcome his weakness. Right now he just walks around with the most op weapon mindstuff and the most op shield of a hundered illusion dummies.
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MtG is where you can hate white players or black players, and still not be racist.
As for the Eldritch Moon situation, I saw no new information, but rather a confirmation: the Nephalia Drownyard is directing mana towards an invisible "moon" in the heavens. If anything, that seems to rule out the "Sea God" hypothesis.
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the sea-god theory based on that. What if the Object is the sea-god itself actively 'leaking' out of the moon? I don't think their perception of it being an invisible 'moon' necessarily provides proof that it's not the sea-god. Rather, it could go both ways. Wizards is doing a good job of making sure whatever new information is provided in each article is open to interpretation.
Not sure if it was mentioned here or elsewhere, but has anyone else noticed the old Mad Prophet(also, can someone tell me how to link the original mad prophet instead of the soi one?) from original innistrad? "Theres no heron in the moon! It's a shrew, a five-legged shrew, with a voice like whispering thunder!"
The fact that hes shouting that its something sinister in the moon instead makes me believe that Wizards has had the idea in mind of a 'sea-god'-ish new enemy since the beginning. In addition, this card takes place well before current events (before our return to Zendikar, at least).
I think they need to set a limit on how powerful Jace is telepathically. Its okay to read minds and control them but right now he could do so much so easily. I mean chandra has a hard time to spew out that fire in her Ob Nixilis duel, but Jace here can keep three illusions, steadily while being hit with Lily magic. Wtf, does he like ultra endurance to resist black magic? I would expect that when hit by death magic he would somewhat falter in keeping up his assaults and illusions. How does he stay mad, yet concentrated enough to keep illusions and brain prying while getting black deathed. I imagine that when someone as frail as Jace is hit by black magic hed crumple and almost die.
Jace cannot be interesting to read, nor exciting. They just reason that he is dangerous because he can mind wipe people on his whim, and they just let everyone be defenseless against his mind magic. I mean if someone was to battle jace, should the enemy be like "oh i have like awesome powers, giant lasers and impenetrable metal skin and insane regeneration and i can fly, but who f cares, Jace can like mind wipe, LoL GG". How could any battle be interesting with that.
They need to tone that powers, or at least make others have effective magic. Lol at chandra not able to burn Wings, Lol at Liliana, master of cruel torture and death, cannot cayse enough pain to stop Jace, lol at Alhamarret, the most useless all-knowing-sphinx.
I mean how can any enemy be a threat if they mindwiped/mind controlled so easily? oh is that A Vraska with a repulsor beam? Oh she misses everything because hax illusions, and now jace controls a Vraska as a personal puppet. See what happened? Vraska, who is supposed to be a THREAT was just mehhed. An Omnipotent protagonist is just not interesting to read.
I think they should make jace rely more on bluish tactics and planning. Because blue likes planning right? So far Jace has got to have the MOST stupidest/reckless plans ever. Even more then Chandra, wtf.
Chandra Tactics: I better not make too much fire, else i will attract attention
Jace Tactics: Suggest he go to Akoum Alone (luckily Gideon sent that fish chick with him), Walk through the front door of Markov Manor, confront Avacyn the Mad.
I mean does anybody want him to embody blue? I also do not like how they just say "he prepared for this encounter so he is well prepared" and end it at that. They could have like shown how he prepared for encounter, how he planned his preparations, his reasons for predicting what his adversary will do.
They should tonendown Jace because if he is that powerful, he will not have to strategize and plan well to overcome his weakness. Right now he just walks around with the most op weapon mindstuff and the most op shield of a hundered illusion dummies.
I don't really care for jace either,but in this story Lilliana was trying her best not to kill him.She battled him with the handicap of not wanting to kill him so the battle was harder for her since she's used to just outright killing threats immediately.Theres a lot of things wrong with magic's stories but this one was okay and I didn't really see jace as being over powered,he's gone mad and looks like went full force on Lilliana and she could of easily killed him,but chose not to.
I think they need to set a limit on how powerful Jace is telepathically. Its okay to read minds and control them but right now he could do so much so easily. I mean chandra has a hard time to spew out that fire in her Ob Nixilis duel, but Jace here can keep three illusions, steadily while being hit with Lily magic. Wtf, does he like ultra endurance to resist black magic? I would expect that when hit by death magic he would somewhat falter in keeping up his assaults and illusions. How does he stay mad, yet concentrated enough to keep illusions and brain prying while getting black deathed. I imagine that when someone as frail as Jace is hit by black magic hed crumple and almost die.
Jace cannot be interesting to read, nor exciting. They just reason that he is dangerous because he can mind wipe people on his whim, and they just let everyone be defenseless against his mind magic. I mean if someone was to battle jace, should the enemy be like "oh i have like awesome powers, giant lasers and impenetrable metal skin and insane regeneration and i can fly, but who f cares, Jace can like mind wipe, LoL GG". How could any battle be interesting with that.
I don't understand how you can have this problem or worry... one of the first stories for SOI had Jace come up against werewolves where his mind magic was barely useful due to their wild and tumultuous nature. In the initial confrontation with Ob Nixilis at the climax of BFZ and the beginning of OGW, Nixilis's experience with telepaths allowed him to strategize around and manipulate Jace's telepathy. There's even more instances of stories making Jace's powers arbitrary and useless. The interaction with Liliana and Jace described in this story featured a mental barrier that rendered his abilities useless. So how can anyone have this issue just because we get one story where Jace's mind magic was actually effective for once? All these other things that have happened and do happen are in place explicitly to avoid the pitfalls you described. People have actively complained about Jace's uselessness in the story due to all the things in place in an attempt to keep the potential of his psychic powers in check before.
Also, I think if there was any significance to Mad Prophet's original flavor text, it would have either been replicated or referenced on the new Mad Prophet reprint. That it wasn't is probably enough, at least for me to assume, that it meant nothing.
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They didn't care that he was the savior of Fort Keff, the great hunter of Ondu, the champion of Kabira. To them, he was just another piece of flesh, a thing with life to be drained away.
Also, I think if there was any significance to Mad Prophet's original flavor text, it would have either been replicated or referenced on the new Mad Prophet reprint. That it wasn't is probably enough, at least for me to assume, that it meant nothing.
If they printed more revealing flavor text on the reprint, wouldn't it defeat the purpose of keeping people guessing?
I just really want to believe its anything other than the Eldrazi.
Also -and I hope this isn't considered baseless speculation- but what about the card art for Deny Existence? I noticed it not long ago and can't help but wonder what the being behind him represents. Sure, it could just be some creature on Innistrad but I feel like the title 'Deny Existence' implies a control within the Aether/Blind Eternities, that kind of power in the aether is really only known to exist for either the Eldrazi, or some other interplanar threat we have yet to see. Additionally, if the represented entity in the card truly is something interplanar, it sure doesn't look like Eldrazi to me. Hell, its skin almost reminds me of the lattice-like growth in Mindwrack Demon and the other lands from SOI.
Also, I think if there was any significance to Mad Prophet's original flavor text, it would have either been replicated or referenced on the new Mad Prophet reprint. That it wasn't is probably enough, at least for me to assume, that it meant nothing.
If they printed more revealing flavor text on the reprint, wouldn't it defeat the purpose of keeping people guessing?
I just really want to believe its anything other than the Eldrazi.
Er... not necessarily, no. Just like some people might think the old flavor text might be a reference to whats going on now, they are perfectly capable of creating similar flavor text with a similar premise to reinforce its significance. And that's assuming that, again, if it was significant, they could have just kept the exact same text rather than giving it totally new and totally unrelated text.
The second thing is really had to say.
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They didn't care that he was the savior of Fort Keff, the great hunter of Ondu, the champion of Kabira. To them, he was just another piece of flesh, a thing with life to be drained away.
Third, it is amazing how Jace isn't dead at this point. Seriously. Not being a Jace-basher, but he's running around Innistrad half-insane and now plans to go confront Avacyn head-on? Not a smart plan, to quote Tony Stark. Also curious if Tamiyo just shows up randomly at Thraben at the same time, because in current-time we still haven't seen her.
Read the player's guide included in the SOI fat pack then...
Tamiyo shows up, both are attacked by Avacyn, Sorin shows up, unmakes Avacyn, which, Sorin discovers too late, plays directly into Nahiri's plan. (They don't say what that plan is.)
Thinking too mutch about old Mad Prophet. It was just a random rable of an insane person. I doubt Wizards was thinking of the current story back then.
I wouldn't be surprised if they were. Wizards does a lot of planning for the future. I'm sure this includes the creative team coming up with scenarios and potential plotlines to use when they revisit a plane.
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"You say 'learn from history,' but that does not mean 'learn the same bull***** the people in history learned alongside phrenology and alchemy.'" - The Blinking Spirit
Lastly, shout out to Dierk the geist mage. I guess Liliana is going to try and get a literal exorcist to try and exorcise the Chain Veil. Poor Dierk is about to get waaaaaaayyyy more than he bargained for. Alas, poor Dierk, I hardly knew ye.
I'd love to see Dierk, Geistmage become Dierk, Geist.
Flip card confirmed?
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Modern - UB Mill (casual)
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While I also believe looking too closely at Mad Prophet's flavor text is probably a fool's errand, there is something that I want to draw attention to:
So at the risk of reading waaaaay too much into Mad Prophet, the transformation that Tazri "experienced" could be a considered a form of transcendence...
I've suspected this for years, but I really think the Raven Man is Lim-Dul. I'm re-reading a whole lot of old lore to be sure, but he fits the bill so perfectly. Necromancer, ties to Dominaria AND Shandalar, old school Dominarian outfit, known to possess people, ultimate fate of his essence unknown. I mean, Lim-Dûl the Necromancer even looks a lot like the Raven Man, and if he's no longer a physical being, he may just not have the mutations anymore.
... Of course, with Shattered Alliance $40 a pop, it's hard to know the ending outside of summaries and exactly what is said about him.
I've long been in support of theories tying Lim-Dûl to either the Raven Man or the Chain Veil. However, Shattered Alliances as written was more or less compatible with the old PC game, and depicted him being taken to Shandalar by Leshrac at the climax, leaving behind the essence of Mairsil. So until the events of the game are definitely retconned (which could certainly happen), Lim-Dûl's spirit is assumed to be stuck on Shandalar, and Magic Origins confirmed Liliana's plane of origin as being Dominaria, not Shandalar, which seemingly scuttled the connection with the Raven Man.
Having said all of that... back around when Shards of Alara or so came out and Wizards was outlying their plans for the new, planeswalker-centric storylines going forward, Mark Rosewater mentioned the goal of establishing a rogue's gallery for Magic, which included bring back the best villains of the 'old days' including Nicol Bolas and the Phyrexians. Bringing back Lim-Dûl would also be consistent with that vision.
They certainly play several strings at once. Loving it.
I would love for it not to be Emrakul, but did I miss where this week hurt that theory? If I did, please let me know. I need hope at this point that it isn't more Eldrazi shenanigans.
It does not fit the part where Jace says it is full of ghosts, of souls. At least for me.
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Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Really good story this week, the most interesting thing to me was that Jace can see the Raven Man. I'm not sure this rules out the possibility that he's all in Liliana's head but I think it does confirm that he's not a figment of her imagination. Perhaps he's a possessing entity? I like the Lim Dul idea
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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"
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http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/lilianas-indignation-2016-04-20
Eldritch moon = not Emrakul.
Maybe Agyrem torn off Ravnica and drifted here?
They certainly play several strings at once. Loving it.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Yay. Now Lili and Jace can live happily ever after in crazy land!
Not bad. Good interaction between them. I like how they managed to make her concerned about Jace and a complete ***** at the same time.
"You say 'learn from history,' but that does not mean 'learn the same bull***** the people in history learned alongside phrenology and alchemy.'" - The Blinking Spirit
The one thing that seemed odd was that Jace supposedly prepared for this encounter, but wasn't aware of the homunculus watching from the start? Maybe it was "skulking"?
Also, it could be my bad memory, but I recall Lilli killing the Raven Man either in her origin story or in an old comic. Is that right? I might be thunking of someone else.
I would love for it not to be Emrakul, but did I miss where this week hurt that theory? If I did, please let me know. I need hope at this point that it isn't more Eldrazi shenanigans.
Very solid story with some key highlights. First, it's wonderful seeing the dueling madness-ridden walkers somewhat come to blows, with Jace succumbing further to the madness of the plane and Liliana fighting off the Raven Man and Chain Veil influence simultaneously. That made for quite an entertaining scene.
Second, Jace is a telepath, right? Yet he sees the Raven Man this week, or so it's implied. Could that be just his telepathy kicking in to find the Raven Man in Liliana's head, or did he actually see him in the real world? Probably won't know for sure for some time, but I like the way they continued thst mystery without answering it.
Third, it is amazing how Jace isn't dead at this point. Seriously. Not being a Jace-basher, but he's running around Innistrad half-insane and now plans to go confront Avacyn head-on? Not a smart plan, to quote Tony Stark. Also curious if Tamiyo just shows up randomly at Thraben at the same time, because in current-time we still haven't seen her.
Lastly, shout out to Dierk the geist mage. I guess Liliana is going to try and get a literal exorcist to try and exorcise the Chain Veil. Poor Dierk is about to get waaaaaaayyyy more than he bargained for. Alas, poor Dierk, I hardly knew ye.
EDH - Yes, Each One is Named After a Song. I love tying music to my decks.
B Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief B - Fear of the Dark
WG Sigarda, Heron's Grace WG - Strength in Numbers
RG Xenagos, God of Revels RG - Fullmoon (It's werewolves)
RW Archangel Avacyn // Avacyn, the Purifier RW - The End is Nigh
60 Card Kitchen Table Decks
WUB Avacyn, Spirit Ferrier
RG Arlinn Kord's Howlpack
But is Lili being affected by the madness as well? Raven man has always been in her head, but still...
And, of course, a new mystery is introduced, as we know Lili is a houseguest of somebody else. So now the question is who is the guy, and does this have anything to do with Innistrad, or is this merely a setup for a future, Lili-centric block?
let the baseless speculation begin.
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I remembered the name and looked it up. Dierk is a geist mage mentioned in a few flavor texts from Innistrad 1.0. Im guessing it's still Liliana's manor given the mass presence of zombies, and that Dierk has been conscripted to excorcise the Veil. Liliana probably thinks it best to turn to an exorcist to deal with ghosts, but given the power of the particular spirits the Veil deals with, I don't think that is going to end well for our geist-binder.
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I think Lili is being affected by the moon as well.
Sounds to me like she's spent too much time sitting on her throne, brooding, and combined influence of the Raven Man, the moon, and the Chain-Veil is making her fall apart. She's still doing better than Jace, though, who is just completely psychotic at this point. I mean, confronting an old-walker made angel who is slaughtering hundreds of humans? Nuts.
"You say 'learn from history,' but that does not mean 'learn the same bull***** the people in history learned alongside phrenology and alchemy.'" - The Blinking Spirit
The most fascinating part of this story to me is how nicely it thematically fits into the "descent into madness" setting of Innistrad. The story was literally about Jace (or rather, what he represented to Liliana) and the Raven Man being the angel and demon on Liliana's shoulders and her directly arguing with both of them, being torn between conflicting desires and impulses.
As for the Eldritch Moon situation, I saw no new information, but rather a confirmation: the Nephalia Drownyard is directing mana towards an invisible "moon" in the heavens. If anything, that seems to rule out the "Sea God" hypothesis.
I'd love to see Dierk, Geistmage become Dierk, Geist.
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He did actually tried. Nissa only managed to break the seal because she attacked the lock while Sorin was busy killing a mad kor. When he sees Nissa's betrayal its too late, her single blow cracks open the prison beyond he can repair it alone. Sorin then walks away, manly in disgust because of Nissa's stupidity, but also because without (Ugin's)help there was nothing left for him to do.
I'm not sure he knows Liliana was behind it, but ultimately Avacyn is more important than the Helvault.
I've suspected this for years, but I really think the Raven Man is Lim-Dul. I'm re-reading a whole lot of old lore to be sure, but he fits the bill so perfectly. Necromancer, ties to Dominaria AND Shandalar, old school Dominarian outfit, known to possess people, ultimate fate of his essence unknown. I mean, Lim-Dûl the Necromancer even looks a lot like the Raven Man, and if he's no longer a physical being, he may just not have the mutations anymore.
... Of course, with Shattered Alliance $40 a pop, it's hard to know the ending outside of summaries and exactly what is said about him.
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Jace cannot be interesting to read, nor exciting. They just reason that he is dangerous because he can mind wipe people on his whim, and they just let everyone be defenseless against his mind magic. I mean if someone was to battle jace, should the enemy be like "oh i have like awesome powers, giant lasers and impenetrable metal skin and insane regeneration and i can fly, but who f cares, Jace can like mind wipe, LoL GG". How could any battle be interesting with that.
They need to tone that powers, or at least make others have effective magic. Lol at chandra not able to burn Wings, Lol at Liliana, master of cruel torture and death, cannot cayse enough pain to stop Jace, lol at Alhamarret, the most useless all-knowing-sphinx.
I mean how can any enemy be a threat if they mindwiped/mind controlled so easily? oh is that A Vraska with a repulsor beam? Oh she misses everything because hax illusions, and now jace controls a Vraska as a personal puppet. See what happened? Vraska, who is supposed to be a THREAT was just mehhed. An Omnipotent protagonist is just not interesting to read.
I think they should make jace rely more on bluish tactics and planning. Because blue likes planning right? So far Jace has got to have the MOST stupidest/reckless plans ever. Even more then Chandra, wtf.
Chandra Tactics: I better not make too much fire, else i will attract attention
Jace Tactics: Suggest he go to Akoum Alone (luckily Gideon sent that fish chick with him), Walk through the front door of Markov Manor, confront Avacyn the Mad.
I mean does anybody want him to embody blue? I also do not like how they just say "he prepared for this encounter so he is well prepared" and end it at that. They could have like shown how he prepared for encounter, how he planned his preparations, his reasons for predicting what his adversary will do.
They should tonendown Jace because if he is that powerful, he will not have to strategize and plan well to overcome his weakness. Right now he just walks around with the most op weapon mindstuff and the most op shield of a hundered illusion dummies.
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the sea-god theory based on that. What if the Object is the sea-god itself actively 'leaking' out of the moon? I don't think their perception of it being an invisible 'moon' necessarily provides proof that it's not the sea-god. Rather, it could go both ways. Wizards is doing a good job of making sure whatever new information is provided in each article is open to interpretation.
Not sure if it was mentioned here or elsewhere, but has anyone else noticed the old Mad Prophet (also, can someone tell me how to link the original mad prophet instead of the soi one?) from original innistrad? "Theres no heron in the moon! It's a shrew, a five-legged shrew, with a voice like whispering thunder!"
The fact that hes shouting that its something sinister in the moon instead makes me believe that Wizards has had the idea in mind of a 'sea-god'-ish new enemy since the beginning. In addition, this card takes place well before current events (before our return to Zendikar, at least).
I didn't expect Lilliana to be collaborating with somebody on Innistrad... Curious to what that will lead to.
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I don't really care for jace either,but in this story Lilliana was trying her best not to kill him.She battled him with the handicap of not wanting to kill him so the battle was harder for her since she's used to just outright killing threats immediately.Theres a lot of things wrong with magic's stories but this one was okay and I didn't really see jace as being over powered,he's gone mad and looks like went full force on Lilliana and she could of easily killed him,but chose not to.
I don't understand how you can have this problem or worry... one of the first stories for SOI had Jace come up against werewolves where his mind magic was barely useful due to their wild and tumultuous nature. In the initial confrontation with Ob Nixilis at the climax of BFZ and the beginning of OGW, Nixilis's experience with telepaths allowed him to strategize around and manipulate Jace's telepathy. There's even more instances of stories making Jace's powers arbitrary and useless. The interaction with Liliana and Jace described in this story featured a mental barrier that rendered his abilities useless. So how can anyone have this issue just because we get one story where Jace's mind magic was actually effective for once? All these other things that have happened and do happen are in place explicitly to avoid the pitfalls you described. People have actively complained about Jace's uselessness in the story due to all the things in place in an attempt to keep the potential of his psychic powers in check before.
Also, I think if there was any significance to Mad Prophet's original flavor text, it would have either been replicated or referenced on the new Mad Prophet reprint. That it wasn't is probably enough, at least for me to assume, that it meant nothing.
But the people behind the barrier knew.
If they printed more revealing flavor text on the reprint, wouldn't it defeat the purpose of keeping people guessing?
I just really want to believe its anything other than the Eldrazi.
Also -and I hope this isn't considered baseless speculation- but what about the card art for Deny Existence? I noticed it not long ago and can't help but wonder what the being behind him represents. Sure, it could just be some creature on Innistrad but I feel like the title 'Deny Existence' implies a control within the Aether/Blind Eternities, that kind of power in the aether is really only known to exist for either the Eldrazi, or some other interplanar threat we have yet to see. Additionally, if the represented entity in the card truly is something interplanar, it sure doesn't look like Eldrazi to me. Hell, its skin almost reminds me of the lattice-like growth in Mindwrack Demon and the other lands from SOI.
Whaddya think? Too much of a stretch?
Er... not necessarily, no. Just like some people might think the old flavor text might be a reference to whats going on now, they are perfectly capable of creating similar flavor text with a similar premise to reinforce its significance. And that's assuming that, again, if it was significant, they could have just kept the exact same text rather than giving it totally new and totally unrelated text.
The second thing is really had to say.
But the people behind the barrier knew.
Read the player's guide included in the SOI fat pack then...
Tamiyo shows up, both are attacked by Avacyn, Sorin shows up, unmakes Avacyn, which, Sorin discovers too late, plays directly into Nahiri's plan. (They don't say what that plan is.)
I wouldn't be surprised if they were. Wizards does a lot of planning for the future. I'm sure this includes the creative team coming up with scenarios and potential plotlines to use when they revisit a plane.
"You say 'learn from history,' but that does not mean 'learn the same bull***** the people in history learned alongside phrenology and alchemy.'" - The Blinking Spirit
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1) The Zendikar art book mentions Emrakul's corruption effect can transform living things into members of her brood (or at least it implied that is what happens)
2) We've actually seen a transformation into an Elrazi happen (...sort of) here: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/blight-we-were-born-2016-01-13
So at the risk of reading waaaaay too much into Mad Prophet, the transformation that Tazri "experienced" could be a considered a form of transcendence...
I've long been in support of theories tying Lim-Dûl to either the Raven Man or the Chain Veil. However, Shattered Alliances as written was more or less compatible with the old PC game, and depicted him being taken to Shandalar by Leshrac at the climax, leaving behind the essence of Mairsil. So until the events of the game are definitely retconned (which could certainly happen), Lim-Dûl's spirit is assumed to be stuck on Shandalar, and Magic Origins confirmed Liliana's plane of origin as being Dominaria, not Shandalar, which seemingly scuttled the connection with the Raven Man.
Having said all of that... back around when Shards of Alara or so came out and Wizards was outlying their plans for the new, planeswalker-centric storylines going forward, Mark Rosewater mentioned the goal of establishing a rogue's gallery for Magic, which included bring back the best villains of the 'old days' including Nicol Bolas and the Phyrexians. Bringing back Lim-Dûl would also be consistent with that vision.
It does not fit the part where Jace says it is full of ghosts, of souls. At least for me.
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