The way she's depicted in this planeswalker guide, Admiral Brass comes across as the biggest Mary Sue they've created in a long time.
Take the swordfighting tidbit, for instance. With intelligence, leadership qualities and skill in enchantment magic, Brass already had more than enough competencies to plausibly become a fleet admiral. But apparently that wasn't enough for WotC--they also had to make her a swordfighter of formidable reputation, for some reason. I understand them wanting to invoke the feeling of a "pirate of legend" like Blackbeard or Long John Silver, but making someone highly skilled in ALL relevant piratey and leadership proficiencies is a terrible way to do that.
A hypercompetent character only really becomes a Mary Sue if they're constantly in the story's spotlight. Otherwise they're just cool.
Yeah, if Beckett Brass was a major player in the story and she was portrayed as Mary Sue-ish as this article presented her, then we might have a problem, but luckily she hasn't appeared in the story at all. And I doubt that she's going to be appearing in the second set's story either. It seems like most of the major players are already in or around Orazca (Jace, Vraska, Huatli, Angrath, Tishana, Kumena), and if anyone faction gets reinforcements, I would bet on it being the vampires, since Mavren was mentioned in The Race Part 1 and is supposed to be finding Orazca, plus Vona (probably) died leaving the Legion without a representative at Orazca. Perhaps the Sun Empire could get reinforcements or Kopala could show up to help Tishana if the story demands it, but there's no reason for Beckett Brass or any other legendary pirate to show up. For one thing, the pirate faction already has more characters involved than any other faction, and I can't imagine Beckett Brass fitting a giant pirate ship down the small river Jace and Vraska used to get closer to Orazca. For better or worse, Beckett Brass will probably only be a minor footnote in the story.
So while I don't disagree that the way they wrote about Beckett Brass in that article was Mary Sue-ish, it doesn't really bother me unless she actually does something in the story. Mary Sues are really only a problem when it's a major character who is written that way. The most recent example I can think of would be Samut. At least Huatli has some hypocrisy going on and is at least kind of morally grey. That's more than I can say for Samut, who is so painfully obviously in the right just because of what she is fighting against. Plus Huatli's story has finished, so while she has been kind of boring so far, maybe the story of the second set will give her some more development and make her more interesting. I'm also interested to know what she does once she's given the opportunity to leave the plane. She better not choose to stay on her home plane. Not only does it defeat the entire point of planeswalkers, but it's been done so many times recently that's it's starting to get really old. Saheeli and Samut show 0% interest in exploring other planes, plus Ral and Narset also resolved to remain on their home planes at some point (thankfully both seem to have changed their minds since then).
Back on topic: I was kind of hoping that this article would tell us more about the other pirate captains rather than going on and on about Brass. From what I can tell, we have four pirate fleets: Fathom Fleet (UBR), Deadeye Fleet (UB), Dire Fleet (BR), and Storm Fleet (UR). Brass leads the Fathom Fleet of course, and Captain Storm must lead the Storm Fleet (I don't think it's been stated outright, but seriously, who else would it be?). I was hoping that this article would tell us a bit more about Captain Storm and also tell us about the leaders of the Deadeye Fleet and Dire Fleet. The leader of the Deadeye Fleet could be Captain Parrish (who "plunders secrets", according to the flavor text of Chart a Coure) or the siren captain mentioned on the plane page (seems like an odd detail to mention if they didn't intend to make a legendary siren pirate). The leader of the Dire Fleet should probably be an orc, since orcs are heavily associated with the Dire Fleet. It would have been nice if this article had shed some light on who leads those fleets (as well as on Captain Vance, who commands a volcanic fortress rather than a fleet of ships), but instead all we got was the biography of Beckett Brass.
I also really wish that creative did a better job of planning out how they put characters on cards. I get that they needed to make at least one non-planeswalker captain just as a pirate trope, but since none of them seem to be plot-relevant at all (and none of them except Beckett Brass, and to a much less extent, Captain Vance, if she even gets a card). I think it would have made a lot more sense to make cards for the members of Vraska's crew. They've already told us that this won't be happening because those characters didn't exist until after the cards were decided, but shouldn't they do something about that? It's the exact same thing that caused the outrage over Hal and Alena not getting printed, and what caused the easily-avoidable printing of a Rishkar card instead of a "Shadowblayde" card. Never mind the way that they put bios for Surash and the other lady who everyone thought would be a UR artifact legend on the website for Aether Revolt, and then didn't give them cards. It would have been so easy to avoid setting false expectations and yet they did it anyway.
What if the same thing happens with Arguel or Captain Vance? Both were mentioned in card titles, so you would think that they would get cards simply because Wizards learned from the Taigam mistake, but I'm not so sure anymore. We already have a mono-red pirate legend in the block, and yet instead of Vance, it's a different pirate who has no story role or lore. If they were going to put Vance in the set, why not put her in Captain Storm's place, in the same set as her blasting cannons, rather than waiting until the second set and having two different mono-red female legendary pirates? Plus Arguel has to compete with several other potential vampire or vampire-related legends (Elenda, Adanto, Aclazotz), and there's nothing tying him or Vance to the main story. Currently there are way more legends competing for spots in Rivals than it could possibly have. There's Kumena, the green elder dinosaur (and quite possibly two others, the red and white counterparts), the Sun Emperor, Captain Vance, the unnamed siren captain, Arguel, Aclazotz, Elenda... that's way too many for a small set. Someone isn't going to get a card, and will then end up on the "put this character in either a commander set or the next block when we visit their plane again". Characters seem to be getting added to that list far more quickly than they're getting taken off. Plus we already know that Breeches the goblin (and potentially the siren on Vraska's crew as well, especially if we don't get the siren captain in Rivals) will be getting added to that list as well. Why not just plan ahead and give cards to all the characters that need them? The way they go about this is unbelievably frustrating and inefficient. It seems like with just a little more effort into planning ahead, the vast majority of this could be avoided.
I keep saying this and it seems to keep getting ignored: Cpt. Vance, Adrian Adanto and Arguel already got their cards. Their great achievement is on display on a card. In fact I think this is a good solution to the excess of characters. Not every creature can be a legendary creature card. But if we can have non-creature cards, maybe even non-legendary cards that depict the thing or moment that makes a character legendary. I mean how much more interesting can Captain Vance get? She made a fortress out of a volcano using cannon fire. That's awesome.
Also: weird details. Those are called world building. There's probably at least one captain of every sapient race... Except maybe goblin. Hell I bet there's a dingy of goblins that pester the ***** out of Admiral Brass and their dread captain isn't put for treasure or fame or One Piece, just fun.
Unrelated to yesterday's Planeswalker's Guide, today's wallpaper from Explorers of Ixalan included some of that recurring rune patterning, but we get a much better look at it with the high-def wallpaper. Compared side-by-side with the runes on the side of Ugin's neck, it's pretty difficult to deny his involvement in this whole storyline:
That moment when a tribal block does a mystery better than a mystery block.
Perhaps because it's actively trying to hide what's going on, rather than flooding us with enough clues to make the culprit obvious in an attempt to capture the spirit of a "mystery" story.
Since we've basically established that Ugin is likely involved in this, what do you think is his motive for setting all this up in the first place? Was this a precursor to his Eldrazi prison plan, or is he trying to come up with a way to trap walkers on their respective planes to prevent them from wreaking havoc on the multiverse, or is it something else entirely?
That moment when a tribal block does a mystery better than a mystery block.
Perhaps because it's actively trying to hide what's going on, rather than flooding us with enough clues to make the culprit obvious in an attempt to capture the spirit of a "mystery" story.
Since we've basically established that Ugin is likely involved in this, what do you think is his motive for setting all this up in the first place? Was this a precursor to his Eldrazi prison plan, or is he trying to come up with a way to trap walkers on their respective planes to prevent them from wreaking havoc on the multiverse, or is it something else entirely?
I could be wrong on this - but, wasn't the whole idea about trapping the eldrazi on a plane based on the idea that the plane would have to have enough energy to attract the eldrazi? I thought there was mention that other planes were considered for the trap but Zendikar ended up being the strongest draw - wasn't that why Nahiri was upset about using Zendikar as the lure?
IF I am correct about that part of the story - perhaps there are other planes out there that were ear-marked for the plan and Ixalan was one of them. Along those lines, the planeswalker barrier could have been a different attempt to trap the eldrazi until Ugin learned that the Eldrazi travel between planes in a different way than planeswalkers. Thus, he realized that his barrier would not be effective against them...
I keep saying this and it seems to keep getting ignored: Cpt. Vance, Adrian Adanto and Arguel already got their cards. Their great achievement is on display on a card. In fact I think this is a good solution to the excess of characters. Not every creature can be a legendary creature card. But if we can have non-creature cards, maybe even non-legendary cards that depict the thing or moment that makes a character legendary. I mean how much more interesting can Captain Vance get? She made a fortress out of a volcano using cannon fire. That's awesome.
I get what you're saying, but history has showed us (and, more importantly, showed WotC) time and time again that this doesn't work very well.
Geralf's Messenger mentioned Geralf in the name, but he didn't get a card in the original Innistrad block. People asked WotC for a Geralf card so much that they made one in C14.
Ludevic's Test Subject mentioned Ludevic in the name, but he didn't get a card in either Innistrad block. People asked WotC for a Ludevic card so much that they made on in C16.
Taigam's Scheming mentioned Taigam in the name, but he didn't get a card in the Tarkir block. People asked WotC for a Taigam card so much that they made one in C17.
Notice a trend? Whenever WotC prints an interesting card with a character's name it, but doesn't print a card for the character in the same block, it ends up biting them in the ass, and they end up surrendering to player demand eventually. While it might be ok in theory for them to print a noncreature card as the entire representation of a character, we all know that it doesn't go over well with the fanbase, and WotC should realize that too. Either they print cards for Arguel and Vance in the second set, or they get flooded with requests for cards and end up feeling obligated to shove them into a Commander set.
It would have made so much sense to just make Captain Vance the mono-red pirate legend in Ixalan instead of Storm. Has Storm done anything in the main story that makes her deserve a card? No, she hasn't. Does she have some sort of lore that makes her important to the plane, like Brass and Vance both do? No, she doesn't. Was it essential that they make a mono-red treasure legend for Commander and Vance simply didn't work for that card flavorfully? No, a mono-red Treasure legend is nowhere near useful in Commander. Storm has a ridiculously narrow set of cards in her color combination that can support her ability, to an even greater extent than even Mavren Fein, making her an incredibly parasitic and underpowered Commander option. They could have used the same design they did for Storm on a nonlegendary red creature and done something else for Vance. Or it if they were really hellbent on making a mono-red treasure legend for some inexplicable reason, they could have just named the card Vance instead of Storm and added some random line about Vance hording treasure in Spitfire Bastion or something. Or they could have renamed Vance's Blasting Cannons "Storm's Blasting Cannons". There's no reason for these two characters to be separate entities. There's no reason why one red rare referencing a legendary female red-aligned pirate captain on Ixalan should use a different name than the other red rare referencing a legendary female red-aligned pirate captain on Ixalan.
If Vance gets a card in Rivals, then good. I would still argue that her card should have been in the same set as her "blasting cannons" (and Storm could have been moved to Rivals, or not printed at all because, once again, she's a piss-poor Commander), but still, if they give Vance a card, at least there's some sort of method to their madness (even if it's not the most efficient method). However, if they don't print a Vance card in Rivals, then we have every excuse to be angry, because, I repeat, it makes zero sense to reference a character on a card, and then print a card for a character who's basically the same but has a different name instead of just printing a card for the character you referenced. It's not even excusable as one of those "the set was finalized before we came up with the character" situations, because both characters are from the same thing: card titles. The names for both Storm's card and Vance's DFC were finalized at the exact same time. They have enough trouble printing cards for all the characters they reference already without making easily-avoidable mistakes like this.
It may seem like I'm ranting about a mistake that hasn't been made yet, which I kind of am, but even if they do print Vance in Rivals, it still would have made more sense to make Storm and Vance the same character. Instead of two legendary mono-red female pirates (three counting Kari Zev, as Emelica pointed out), they could have made:
A legendary pirate creature that's something other than a human female. Orcs, sirens, and goblins are all a thing on Ixalan. I appreciate the nonhuman pirate planeswalkers, but a nonhuman pirate legend would be nice as well.
A legendary pirate that's something other than mono-red. Why should we have three mono-red pirate legends printed within one year? Why should there be three mono-red pirate legends before even one mono-blue or mono-black? Red pirates weren't even a thing until less than a year ago.
A legendary creature that's actually playable in Commander. Storm is just laughable as a Commander. There are literally only four other cards that a mono-red deck can play that can create treasures to trigger Storm's ability. FOUR. Maybe once Rivals releases we can see that increase to 7 or 8 cards out of a 99 card deck you can play that make treasures. Then Storm will dominate the format for sure.
Also: weird details. Those are called world building. There's probably at least one captain of every sapient race... Except maybe goblin. Hell I bet there's a dingy of goblins that pester the ***** out of Admiral Brass and their dread captain isn't put for treasure or fame or One Piece, just fun.
Yeah, it is world building, but it's also a very specific detail about what could easily be a legendary creature, something which we know they plan ahead for (except when they don't). It's completely possible that it's just a world building detail that leads to nothing, but it could also be a hint for something more. In fact, I'm surprised that I haven't seen more discussion about and requests for a siren captain because of the plane page. It probably has to do with the plane page being published way later than it should have been and not advertised at all. And the demand for a legendary siren is much smaller than the demand for a UR artificer legend, for instance...
(It still appalls me that they published a bio with art for a character that would clearly cause us to think that an extremely commonly-requested UR artificer legend was coming, when it was just the art from a random uncommon. It's such a baffling stupid mistake that they could have easily avoided if they thought about the consequences of their actions for more than three seconds. Why even post names, bios, and art for characters you have no intention of making cards for in a place where you otherwise always show characters who will get cards, especially if it looks like it will be a type of legend that people have been wanting for years?)
In Amonkhet they actually did a very good job of making efficient use of their legendary creature spots. Every character with a role in the story (and then some) got cards. No one had a story role or a card title without getting a legendary creature card. Most blocks end up creating demand for at least a few characters to get cards that were missed in the original block. SOI alone, for instance, ended up creating (or renewing, since some of these have been referenced since the first Innistrad block) popular demand for Ludevic, Edgar Markov, Runo Stromkirk, Anje Falkenrath, Hal and Alena, the WB angel sister... the first two have already been given cards via commander sets, but the others are still on the ever-expanding list of characters that need to be given cards. Amonkhet managed to avoid adding any character to that list (with the exception of the deceased aven that Samut and Djeru were friends with and the pre-Bolas versions of the three corrupted gods, but unlike with most of the Innistrad legends that didn't get cards, those characters not getting cards was inevitable since they had died or been transformed before the block's story began, and the demand for them was comparatively tame when you look at some of Innistrad's cardless legends). I guess what I'm saying is that Amonkhet actually gave me hope that they might actually manage their legendary creatures competently in Ixalan, but it seems increasingly unlikely that they'll be able to do justice to all the characters they've introduced, and the existence of utterly pointless legendary creature cards like Captain Storm makes it all the more infuriating.
Amonkhet managed to avoid adding any character to that list (with the exception of the pre-Bolas versions of the three corrupted gods, but unlike with most of the Innistrad legends that didn't get cards, those were inevitable by the nature of the story).
Nakht actually seemed card-worthy to me, given that he was crucial to Djeru's and Samut's present character.
Otherwise, yes, I agree that Amonkhet was relatively efficient with its legends.
Amonkhet managed to avoid adding any character to that list (with the exception of the pre-Bolas versions of the three corrupted gods, but unlike with most of the Innistrad legends that didn't get cards, those were inevitable by the nature of the story).
Nakht actually seemed card-worthy to me, given that he was crucial to Djeru's and Samut's present character.
Otherwise, yes, I agree that Amonkhet was relatively efficient with its legends.
Yeah, I remembered Nakht right after I posted it and edited it in before I saw your response. But like the three uncorrupted gods, he was gone before the block's story even started so I can be a lot more forgiving than I can for a lot of other legends. Nakht and the gods are fair game for Commander sets to be sure, but you can't really blame them for being missed in the original block since they, you know, weren't around anymore. I can't say the same for characters like Taigam and Ludevic.
That moment when a tribal block does a mystery better than a mystery block.
I still maintain that Azor is a better fit for the story than Ugin, but man did they throw us some curveballs this time.
Ugin being involved still makes me wonder just how nobody has found this thing in over a thousand years.
Project lightning bug couldn't see it, and anyone that goes there doesn't escape. Pretty effective way of ensuring nobody finds out about it, and if they do they die there.
I can't help but feel like Orcaza and the Sun make up a kind of vault for Ugin. It's a plane where he can toss things he doesn't want to outright kill or remove, but save for a future purpose. Like he implanted the location into Jace along with the contingency to forget Ugin when Bolas went roaming in his mind. Instead of just triggering Jace to have a brain meltdown, he sent him off to Ixalan. I can't help but wonder if he's dropped off other things there for safe keeping until he can find a use for them.
No no, I don't mean the plane..I meant the people on it. The (eventual)vampires set out to get the thing back as soon as Whatever made off with the Sun, unless Ixalan is really big you would have thought that a vamp would have ran into it by now.
Edit : So..what are the odds that The Star of Extinction gave Ixalan it's crescent shape. After all..a 20 damage Meteor..would kill Emrakul and then some..
No no, I don't mean the plane..I meant the people on it. The (eventual)vampires set out to get the thing back as soon as Whatever made off with the Sun, unless Ixalan is really big you would have thought that a vamp would have ran into it by now.
It hasn't been 'missing' for thousands of years. The Legion of Dusk has only been 'looking' for the sun for less then 300 years. Only found Ixalan recently. The Sun Empire had it a few hundred years ago and only recently became a single nation once again, so only a few dozen years were spent looking for it. Neither the River Heralds nor the Pirates are actually looking for it so its not odd at all the no one has found it.
Edit : So..what are the odds that The Star of Extinction gave Ixalan it's crescent shape. After all..a 20 damage Meteor..would kill Emrakul and then some..
Creative has gone on record(can't find where right now, maybe a podcast?) saying that this isn't the case.
No no, I don't mean the plane..I meant the people on it. The (eventual)vampires set out to get the thing back as soon as Whatever made off with the Sun, unless Ixalan is really big you would have thought that a vamp would have ran into it by now.
It hasn't been 'missing' for thousands of years. The Legion of Dusk has only been 'looking' for the sun for less then 300 years. Only found Ixalan recently. The Sun Empire had it a few hundred years ago and only recently became a single nation once again, so only a few dozen years were spent looking for it. Neither the River Heralds nor the Pirates are actually looking for it so its not odd at all the no one has found it.
Edit : So..what are the odds that The Star of Extinction gave Ixalan it's crescent shape. After all..a 20 damage Meteor..would kill Emrakul and then some..
Creative has gone on record(can't find where right now, maybe a podcast?) saying that this isn't the case.
It hasn't been 'missing' for thousands of years. The Legion of Dusk has only been 'looking' for the sun for less then 300 years. Only found Ixalan recently. The Sun Empire had it a few hundred years ago and only recently became a single nation once again, so only a few dozen years were spent looking for it. Neither the River Heralds nor the Pirates are actually looking for it so its not odd at all the no one has found it.
Then Ugin is completely ruled out as the Guardian, he was dead* at the time of the Sun's release.
and I forgot about those questions, aside from Angrath being the best thing about this set.
*Not dead dead, but not exactly alive, he was as they say. "Only Mostly Dead." but he was indisposed of at the time.
It hasn't been 'missing' for thousands of years. The Legion of Dusk has only been 'looking' for the sun for less then 300 years. Only found Ixalan recently. The Sun Empire had it a few hundred years ago and only recently became a single nation once again, so only a few dozen years were spent looking for it. Neither the River Heralds nor the Pirates are actually looking for it so its not odd at all the no one has found it.
Then Ugin is completely ruled out as the Guardian, he was dead* at the time of the Sun's release.
and I forgot about those questions, aside from Angrath being the best thing about this set.
*Not dead dead, but not exactly alive, he was as they say. "Only Mostly Dead." but he was indisposed of at the time.
No, it's been missing that long, but for many hundreds of years the LoD(or the group that would become the LoD) was wrapped up in their own various internal wars, and then the conquest of Torrezon, and so wasn't actively searching for it (other than Elenda, who was presumed dead at the time).
I, too, had thought that the timeline ruled out Ugin, as I'd thought the Guide placed the disappearance of the Sun at 800years ago, but no that's when Elendra returned with Vampirism, after having been gone for an unspecified but considerable length of time. So it's possible/probable that it all wet down before Bolas ganked Ugin.
Alot of people are saying Ugin was in stasis when the Immortal Sun was taken because it was about 800 years ago, but and this is one BIG BUT here, if the multiverse work at least partially like our own Universe, then it's possible that 800 years ago in Ixalan wasn't 800 years ago in Tarkir, which means that maybe, the Immortal Sun was taken to Ixalan BEFORE our boy Ugin got himself in a coma.
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Alot of people are saying Ugin was in stasis when the Immortal Sun was taken because it was about 800 years ago, but and this is one BIG BUT here, if the multiverse work at least partially like our own Universe, then it's possible that 800 years ago in Ixalan wasn't 800 years ago in Tarkir, which means that maybe, the Immortal Sun was taken to Ixalan BEFORE our boy Ugin got himself in a coma.
To avoid this creative has said all planes have the same flow of time. While some has different ways tell time, (Ravnica has a slight different calendar set up and Mirrdoin and Amonkhet having more then one sun means days are slightly different to them to us) "one hour" worth of time on Ravnica is one hour worth of time on Theros etc. and creative tends have them all sync for timelines.
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I just posted this on the Mysteries of Ixalan article comments, but I thought this would also be a good place for it. One of the Pro Tour Ixalan videos on Youtube included images from the upcoming Ixalan art book. One image was of the page introducing Jace and how he ended up on Ixalan. To paraphrase, as his mind was overwhelmed, his last conscious move was to follow Vraska to the mysterious destination Ral Zarek's device had detected from her "anomalous" planeswalk in the hope that her activities were connected to Bolas and his schemes.
Thus, it was no million to one shot of Jace ending up on the same random plane as Vraska. This appears to be the "very good reason" (or some statement along those lines) for Jace ending up on Ixalan that Allison Luhrs referred to I believe in one of the podcasts.
It hasn't been 'missing' for thousands of years. The Legion of Dusk has only been 'looking' for the sun for less then 300 years. Only found Ixalan recently. The Sun Empire had it a few hundred years ago and only recently became a single nation once again, so only a few dozen years were spent looking for it. Neither the River Heralds nor the Pirates are actually looking for it so its not odd at all the no one has found it.
Then Ugin is completely ruled out as the Guardian, he was dead* at the time of the Sun's release.
and I forgot about those questions, aside from Angrath being the best thing about this set.
*Not dead dead, but not exactly alive, he was as they say. "Only Mostly Dead." but he was indisposed of at the time.
No, it's been missing that long, but for many hundreds of years the LoD(or the group that would become the LoD) was wrapped up in their own various internal wars, and then the conquest of Torrezon, and so wasn't actively searching for it (other than Elenda, who was presumed dead at the time).
I, too, had thought that the timeline ruled out Ugin, as I'd thought the Guide placed the disappearance of the Sun at 800years ago, but no that's when Elendra returned with Vampirism, after having been gone for an unspecified but considerable length of time. So it's possible/probable that it all wet down before Bolas ganked Ugin.
Not quite going against what you're saying, but Elenda returned 500 years ago after centuries of searching for the sun. The sun was stolen at some point, war broke out 800 years ago, 300 years after the war started Elenda came back and ended the war, over the course of the next 400 years they conquered the previously unnamed continent and named it Torrezon.
So while Ugin isn't ruled out by this timeline he does seem to be less likely. With his last activity being 1280 years ago, the Sun would of had to go missing before that, be given to the Sun Emipre, who misuses it; and then 'given' to the River Heralds. While not impossible, it seems unlikely to me that the sun went missing that long ago.
For hundreds of years Ugin slept, encased in the cocoon of stone and magic Sarkhan had created using a shard of a Zendikari hedron. As Ugin lay dormant, his spectral guardians kept vigil.
He has them, they are modeled off of him, they can operate independently of his will in order to enforce his will, and they are referred to as guardians. Speculation, but he may have developed them specifically for Ixalan and threw some up as Sarkhan encased him in hedron to act as his guardians because he already had the spell ready.
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It hasn't been 'missing' for thousands of years. The Legion of Dusk has only been 'looking' for the sun for less then 300 years. Only found Ixalan recently. The Sun Empire had it a few hundred years ago and only recently became a single nation once again, so only a few dozen years were spent looking for it. Neither the River Heralds nor the Pirates are actually looking for it so its not odd at all the no one has found it.
Then Ugin is completely ruled out as the Guardian, he was dead* at the time of the Sun's release.
and I forgot about those questions, aside from Angrath being the best thing about this set.
*Not dead dead, but not exactly alive, he was as they say. "Only Mostly Dead." but he was indisposed of at the time.
No, it's been missing that long, but for many hundreds of years the LoD(or the group that would become the LoD) was wrapped up in their own various internal wars, and then the conquest of Torrezon, and so wasn't actively searching for it (other than Elenda, who was presumed dead at the time).
I, too, had thought that the timeline ruled out Ugin, as I'd thought the Guide placed the disappearance of the Sun at 800years ago, but no that's when Elendra returned with Vampirism, after having been gone for an unspecified but considerable length of time. So it's possible/probable that it all wet down before Bolas ganked Ugin.
Not quite going against what you're saying, but Elenda returned 500 years ago after centuries of searching for the sun. The sun was stolen at some point, war broke out 800 years ago, 300 years after the war started Elenda came back and ended the war, over the course of the next 400 years they conquered the previously unnamed continent and named it Torrezon.
So while Ugin isn't ruled out by this timeline he does seem to be less likely. With his last activity being 1280 years ago, the Sun would of had to go missing before that, be given to the Sun Emipre, who misuses it; and then 'given' to the River Heralds. While not impossible, it seems unlikely to me that the sun went missing that long ago.
Ah, yes. Thank you for the corrections.
While at this point I kind of feel like it's going to be Ugin, the timeline does still feel wonky to me as well.
So this extremely far fetched but I thought it was a intersting find (please let me know if this has been brought up before lol) but the reprint for spell pierce has some interestin lore . The card reads , "A fool's fire is quickly quenched." —Shaper Kumena. The card clearly has Kuemena countering a flame. I do not remember reading about any beast or character being able to attack with fire, so naturally i made the most irrational conclusion, Chandra. I really dont know how or why Chandra would randomly show up. considering there is no inkling or hint at her,but itd be pretty sweet , and possibly lame , if she did. Once again if there is an obvious explanation to the spell pierce reprint's flavor and art , then let me know because i missed it obviously lol.
Yeah, if Beckett Brass was a major player in the story and she was portrayed as Mary Sue-ish as this article presented her, then we might have a problem, but luckily she hasn't appeared in the story at all. And I doubt that she's going to be appearing in the second set's story either. It seems like most of the major players are already in or around Orazca (Jace, Vraska, Huatli, Angrath, Tishana, Kumena), and if anyone faction gets reinforcements, I would bet on it being the vampires, since Mavren was mentioned in The Race Part 1 and is supposed to be finding Orazca, plus Vona (probably) died leaving the Legion without a representative at Orazca. Perhaps the Sun Empire could get reinforcements or Kopala could show up to help Tishana if the story demands it, but there's no reason for Beckett Brass or any other legendary pirate to show up. For one thing, the pirate faction already has more characters involved than any other faction, and I can't imagine Beckett Brass fitting a giant pirate ship down the small river Jace and Vraska used to get closer to Orazca. For better or worse, Beckett Brass will probably only be a minor footnote in the story.
So while I don't disagree that the way they wrote about Beckett Brass in that article was Mary Sue-ish, it doesn't really bother me unless she actually does something in the story. Mary Sues are really only a problem when it's a major character who is written that way. The most recent example I can think of would be Samut. At least Huatli has some hypocrisy going on and is at least kind of morally grey. That's more than I can say for Samut, who is so painfully obviously in the right just because of what she is fighting against. Plus Huatli's story has finished, so while she has been kind of boring so far, maybe the story of the second set will give her some more development and make her more interesting. I'm also interested to know what she does once she's given the opportunity to leave the plane. She better not choose to stay on her home plane. Not only does it defeat the entire point of planeswalkers, but it's been done so many times recently that's it's starting to get really old. Saheeli and Samut show 0% interest in exploring other planes, plus Ral and Narset also resolved to remain on their home planes at some point (thankfully both seem to have changed their minds since then).
Back on topic: I was kind of hoping that this article would tell us more about the other pirate captains rather than going on and on about Brass. From what I can tell, we have four pirate fleets: Fathom Fleet (UBR), Deadeye Fleet (UB), Dire Fleet (BR), and Storm Fleet (UR). Brass leads the Fathom Fleet of course, and Captain Storm must lead the Storm Fleet (I don't think it's been stated outright, but seriously, who else would it be?). I was hoping that this article would tell us a bit more about Captain Storm and also tell us about the leaders of the Deadeye Fleet and Dire Fleet. The leader of the Deadeye Fleet could be Captain Parrish (who "plunders secrets", according to the flavor text of Chart a Coure) or the siren captain mentioned on the plane page (seems like an odd detail to mention if they didn't intend to make a legendary siren pirate). The leader of the Dire Fleet should probably be an orc, since orcs are heavily associated with the Dire Fleet. It would have been nice if this article had shed some light on who leads those fleets (as well as on Captain Vance, who commands a volcanic fortress rather than a fleet of ships), but instead all we got was the biography of Beckett Brass.
I also really wish that creative did a better job of planning out how they put characters on cards. I get that they needed to make at least one non-planeswalker captain just as a pirate trope, but since none of them seem to be plot-relevant at all (and none of them except Beckett Brass, and to a much less extent, Captain Vance, if she even gets a card). I think it would have made a lot more sense to make cards for the members of Vraska's crew. They've already told us that this won't be happening because those characters didn't exist until after the cards were decided, but shouldn't they do something about that? It's the exact same thing that caused the outrage over Hal and Alena not getting printed, and what caused the easily-avoidable printing of a Rishkar card instead of a "Shadowblayde" card. Never mind the way that they put bios for Surash and the other lady who everyone thought would be a UR artifact legend on the website for Aether Revolt, and then didn't give them cards. It would have been so easy to avoid setting false expectations and yet they did it anyway.
What if the same thing happens with Arguel or Captain Vance? Both were mentioned in card titles, so you would think that they would get cards simply because Wizards learned from the Taigam mistake, but I'm not so sure anymore. We already have a mono-red pirate legend in the block, and yet instead of Vance, it's a different pirate who has no story role or lore. If they were going to put Vance in the set, why not put her in Captain Storm's place, in the same set as her blasting cannons, rather than waiting until the second set and having two different mono-red female legendary pirates? Plus Arguel has to compete with several other potential vampire or vampire-related legends (Elenda, Adanto, Aclazotz), and there's nothing tying him or Vance to the main story. Currently there are way more legends competing for spots in Rivals than it could possibly have. There's Kumena, the green elder dinosaur (and quite possibly two others, the red and white counterparts), the Sun Emperor, Captain Vance, the unnamed siren captain, Arguel, Aclazotz, Elenda... that's way too many for a small set. Someone isn't going to get a card, and will then end up on the "put this character in either a commander set or the next block when we visit their plane again". Characters seem to be getting added to that list far more quickly than they're getting taken off. Plus we already know that Breeches the goblin (and potentially the siren on Vraska's crew as well, especially if we don't get the siren captain in Rivals) will be getting added to that list as well. Why not just plan ahead and give cards to all the characters that need them? The way they go about this is unbelievably frustrating and inefficient. It seems like with just a little more effort into planning ahead, the vast majority of this could be avoided.
Also: weird details. Those are called world building. There's probably at least one captain of every sapient race... Except maybe goblin. Hell I bet there's a dingy of goblins that pester the ***** out of Admiral Brass and their dread captain isn't put for treasure or fame or One Piece, just fun.
I still maintain that Azor is a better fit for the story than Ugin, but man did they throw us some curveballs this time.
Perhaps because it's actively trying to hide what's going on, rather than flooding us with enough clues to make the culprit obvious in an attempt to capture the spirit of a "mystery" story.
Since we've basically established that Ugin is likely involved in this, what do you think is his motive for setting all this up in the first place? Was this a precursor to his Eldrazi prison plan, or is he trying to come up with a way to trap walkers on their respective planes to prevent them from wreaking havoc on the multiverse, or is it something else entirely?
I could be wrong on this - but, wasn't the whole idea about trapping the eldrazi on a plane based on the idea that the plane would have to have enough energy to attract the eldrazi? I thought there was mention that other planes were considered for the trap but Zendikar ended up being the strongest draw - wasn't that why Nahiri was upset about using Zendikar as the lure?
IF I am correct about that part of the story - perhaps there are other planes out there that were ear-marked for the plan and Ixalan was one of them. Along those lines, the planeswalker barrier could have been a different attempt to trap the eldrazi until Ugin learned that the Eldrazi travel between planes in a different way than planeswalkers. Thus, he realized that his barrier would not be effective against them...
I get what you're saying, but history has showed us (and, more importantly, showed WotC) time and time again that this doesn't work very well.
Notice a trend? Whenever WotC prints an interesting card with a character's name it, but doesn't print a card for the character in the same block, it ends up biting them in the ass, and they end up surrendering to player demand eventually. While it might be ok in theory for them to print a noncreature card as the entire representation of a character, we all know that it doesn't go over well with the fanbase, and WotC should realize that too. Either they print cards for Arguel and Vance in the second set, or they get flooded with requests for cards and end up feeling obligated to shove them into a Commander set.
It would have made so much sense to just make Captain Vance the mono-red pirate legend in Ixalan instead of Storm. Has Storm done anything in the main story that makes her deserve a card? No, she hasn't. Does she have some sort of lore that makes her important to the plane, like Brass and Vance both do? No, she doesn't. Was it essential that they make a mono-red treasure legend for Commander and Vance simply didn't work for that card flavorfully? No, a mono-red Treasure legend is nowhere near useful in Commander. Storm has a ridiculously narrow set of cards in her color combination that can support her ability, to an even greater extent than even Mavren Fein, making her an incredibly parasitic and underpowered Commander option. They could have used the same design they did for Storm on a nonlegendary red creature and done something else for Vance. Or it if they were really hellbent on making a mono-red treasure legend for some inexplicable reason, they could have just named the card Vance instead of Storm and added some random line about Vance hording treasure in Spitfire Bastion or something. Or they could have renamed Vance's Blasting Cannons "Storm's Blasting Cannons". There's no reason for these two characters to be separate entities. There's no reason why one red rare referencing a legendary female red-aligned pirate captain on Ixalan should use a different name than the other red rare referencing a legendary female red-aligned pirate captain on Ixalan.
If Vance gets a card in Rivals, then good. I would still argue that her card should have been in the same set as her "blasting cannons" (and Storm could have been moved to Rivals, or not printed at all because, once again, she's a piss-poor Commander), but still, if they give Vance a card, at least there's some sort of method to their madness (even if it's not the most efficient method). However, if they don't print a Vance card in Rivals, then we have every excuse to be angry, because, I repeat, it makes zero sense to reference a character on a card, and then print a card for a character who's basically the same but has a different name instead of just printing a card for the character you referenced. It's not even excusable as one of those "the set was finalized before we came up with the character" situations, because both characters are from the same thing: card titles. The names for both Storm's card and Vance's DFC were finalized at the exact same time. They have enough trouble printing cards for all the characters they reference already without making easily-avoidable mistakes like this.
It may seem like I'm ranting about a mistake that hasn't been made yet, which I kind of am, but even if they do print Vance in Rivals, it still would have made more sense to make Storm and Vance the same character. Instead of two legendary mono-red female pirates (three counting Kari Zev, as Emelica pointed out), they could have made:
Yeah, it is world building, but it's also a very specific detail about what could easily be a legendary creature, something which we know they plan ahead for (except when they don't). It's completely possible that it's just a world building detail that leads to nothing, but it could also be a hint for something more. In fact, I'm surprised that I haven't seen more discussion about and requests for a siren captain because of the plane page. It probably has to do with the plane page being published way later than it should have been and not advertised at all. And the demand for a legendary siren is much smaller than the demand for a UR artificer legend, for instance...
(It still appalls me that they published a bio with art for a character that would clearly cause us to think that an extremely commonly-requested UR artificer legend was coming, when it was just the art from a random uncommon. It's such a baffling stupid mistake that they could have easily avoided if they thought about the consequences of their actions for more than three seconds. Why even post names, bios, and art for characters you have no intention of making cards for in a place where you otherwise always show characters who will get cards, especially if it looks like it will be a type of legend that people have been wanting for years?)
In Amonkhet they actually did a very good job of making efficient use of their legendary creature spots. Every character with a role in the story (and then some) got cards. No one had a story role or a card title without getting a legendary creature card. Most blocks end up creating demand for at least a few characters to get cards that were missed in the original block. SOI alone, for instance, ended up creating (or renewing, since some of these have been referenced since the first Innistrad block) popular demand for Ludevic, Edgar Markov, Runo Stromkirk, Anje Falkenrath, Hal and Alena, the WB angel sister... the first two have already been given cards via commander sets, but the others are still on the ever-expanding list of characters that need to be given cards. Amonkhet managed to avoid adding any character to that list (with the exception of the deceased aven that Samut and Djeru were friends with and the pre-Bolas versions of the three corrupted gods, but unlike with most of the Innistrad legends that didn't get cards, those characters not getting cards was inevitable since they had died or been transformed before the block's story began, and the demand for them was comparatively tame when you look at some of Innistrad's cardless legends). I guess what I'm saying is that Amonkhet actually gave me hope that they might actually manage their legendary creatures competently in Ixalan, but it seems increasingly unlikely that they'll be able to do justice to all the characters they've introduced, and the existence of utterly pointless legendary creature cards like Captain Storm makes it all the more infuriating.
Nakht actually seemed card-worthy to me, given that he was crucial to Djeru's and Samut's present character.
Otherwise, yes, I agree that Amonkhet was relatively efficient with its legends.
Yeah, I remembered Nakht right after I posted it and edited it in before I saw your response. But like the three uncorrupted gods, he was gone before the block's story even started so I can be a lot more forgiving than I can for a lot of other legends. Nakht and the gods are fair game for Commander sets to be sure, but you can't really blame them for being missed in the original block since they, you know, weren't around anymore. I can't say the same for characters like Taigam and Ludevic.
Ugin being involved still makes me wonder just how nobody has found this thing in over a thousand years.
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The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
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Abzan
Project lightning bug couldn't see it, and anyone that goes there doesn't escape. Pretty effective way of ensuring nobody finds out about it, and if they do they die there.
I can't help but feel like Orcaza and the Sun make up a kind of vault for Ugin. It's a plane where he can toss things he doesn't want to outright kill or remove, but save for a future purpose. Like he implanted the location into Jace along with the contingency to forget Ugin when Bolas went roaming in his mind. Instead of just triggering Jace to have a brain meltdown, he sent him off to Ixalan. I can't help but wonder if he's dropped off other things there for safe keeping until he can find a use for them.
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Edit : So..what are the odds that The Star of Extinction gave Ixalan it's crescent shape. After all..a 20 damage Meteor..would kill Emrakul and then some..
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
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Creative has gone on record(can't find where right now, maybe a podcast?) saying that this isn't the case.
See Ten Burning Questions from the Ixalan Story, question #9 here.
Then Ugin is completely ruled out as the Guardian, he was dead* at the time of the Sun's release.
and I forgot about those questions, aside from Angrath being the best thing about this set.
*Not dead dead, but not exactly alive, he was as they say. "Only Mostly Dead." but he was indisposed of at the time.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
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Shogun Saskia
Hive World
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No, it's been missing that long, but for many hundreds of years the LoD(or the group that would become the LoD) was wrapped up in their own various internal wars, and then the conquest of Torrezon, and so wasn't actively searching for it (other than Elenda, who was presumed dead at the time).
I, too, had thought that the timeline ruled out Ugin, as I'd thought the Guide placed the disappearance of the Sun at 800years ago, but no that's when Elendra returned with Vampirism, after having been gone for an unspecified but considerable length of time. So it's possible/probable that it all wet down before Bolas ganked Ugin.
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To avoid this creative has said all planes have the same flow of time. While some has different ways tell time, (Ravnica has a slight different calendar set up and Mirrdoin and Amonkhet having more then one sun means days are slightly different to them to us) "one hour" worth of time on Ravnica is one hour worth of time on Theros etc. and creative tends have them all sync for timelines.
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Thus, it was no million to one shot of Jace ending up on the same random plane as Vraska. This appears to be the "very good reason" (or some statement along those lines) for Jace ending up on Ixalan that Allison Luhrs referred to I believe in one of the podcasts.
So while Ugin isn't ruled out by this timeline he does seem to be less likely. With his last activity being 1280 years ago, the Sun would of had to go missing before that, be given to the Sun Emipre, who misuses it; and then 'given' to the River Heralds. While not impossible, it seems unlikely to me that the sun went missing that long ago.
From the flavor text:
For hundreds of years Ugin slept, encased in the cocoon of stone and magic Sarkhan had created using a shard of a Zendikari hedron. As Ugin lay dormant, his spectral guardians kept vigil.
He has them, they are modeled off of him, they can operate independently of his will in order to enforce his will, and they are referred to as guardians. Speculation, but he may have developed them specifically for Ixalan and threw some up as Sarkhan encased him in hedron to act as his guardians because he already had the spell ready.
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Ah, yes. Thank you for the corrections.
While at this point I kind of feel like it's going to be Ugin, the timeline does still feel wonky to me as well.
So this extremely far fetched but I thought it was a intersting find (please let me know if this has been brought up before lol) but the reprint for spell pierce has some interestin lore . The card reads , "A fool's fire is quickly quenched." —Shaper Kumena. The card clearly has Kuemena countering a flame. I do not remember reading about any beast or character being able to attack with fire, so naturally i made the most irrational conclusion, Chandra. I really dont know how or why Chandra would randomly show up. considering there is no inkling or hint at her,but itd be pretty sweet , and possibly lame , if she did. Once again if there is an obvious explanation to the spell pierce reprint's flavor and art , then let me know because i missed it obviously lol.
Also, it could be Angarth creating the flame.
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB