We have another UR story spotlight which relates to project Lightning Bug. I am dubious however that it’d be part of Bolas’s ritual to godhood, as it seems to be more like a monitoring system but you never know.
Seems like Bolas desires a critical mass of planeswalkers. Scary.
Ravnica becomes again the setting of an all out Planeswalker war.
ATTACHMENTS
333F1EF4-4741-4158-AA1D-C3408D9D3ACA
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Wizards. listen. The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
We have another UR story spotlight which relates to project Lightning Bug. I am dubious however that it’d be part of Bolas’s ritual to godhood, as it seems to be more like a monitoring system but you never know.
Seems like Bolas desires a critical mass of planeswalkers. Scary.
Ravnica becomes again the setting of an all out Planeswalker war.
I don't remember how it worked. Did every Planeswalker entering or exiting Ravnica trigger a lightning in the position of the planeswalking, enabling a statistical study on lightning strikes and so, through the correlation to planeswalking, a report on planeswalkers presence? Also, is it a joke about the players who are going to "storm" extra turn spells or is it really going to be 1000 years long?
We have another UR story spotlight which relates to project Lightning Bug. I am dubious however that it’d be part of Bolas’s ritual to godhood, as it seems to be more like a monitoring system but you never know.
Seems like Bolas desires a critical mass of planeswalkers. Scary.
Ravnica becomes again the setting of an all out Planeswalker war.
I don't remember how it worked. Did every Planeswalker entering or exiting Ravnica trigger a lightning in the position of the planeswalking, enabling a statistical study on lightning strikes and so, through the correlation to planeswalking, a report on planeswalkers presence? Also, is it a joke about the players who are going to "storm" extra turn spells or is it really going to be 1000 years long?
In the event you weren't just joking around, hundred year storm, thousand year storm, terms like that mean a storm so bad it occurs rarely, once every hundred or thousand years. The United States Army Corps of Engineers uses terms like 'hundred-year flood' in their descriptions of flood zones, for instance, as a more or less official form of measurement for flood history in certain regions.
I do hope Project Lightning Bug sheds some light on Ravnican history. As much as my stand on Azor now is "he's still worse than Jace because he had omnipotent powers back then and effectively used them to set-up systems that oppressed populations of sentient "lesser beings" while avoiding the responsibility needed to maintain them" (yes I know the Guildpact eventually bit him back, but I'm referring to responsibility born out of self-discipline, not out of a Magical Pact you stupidly cast to be capable of punishing yourself for said lack of self-discipline). I doubt anything will ever take the "stupid" out of the "Lawful-Stupid" alignment I gave Azor (the entire guildpact system was just poorly designed for someone of his power), but the History of Ravnica (pre-guilds) might be the crux to make his "Lawful" side seem better at the very least.
We know the first Guildpact effectively banned walking to/from the plane entirely and that might be exactly why Bolas wanted Lightning Bug. While more meta and not directly stated in the story yet, WotC did mention the plane to be a main hub and considering the focus on planeswalkers currently, it could easily tie to Ravnica's history and why the First Guildpact isolated the plane.
While we can never confirm Bolas's plans until he gloats about it, The Immortal Sun and Eternals might drop some hints and the History of Ravnica might also reinforce it. Bolas wants to harvest sparks to power himself back and Ravnica is the key to creating the prison for doing so because of its properties, the same way Ugin deemed Zendikar ideal for trapping the Titans. You can't have a prison be a livable place like the plane currently is, so this entire war is just a facade for him to cause as much destruction without having to exert his own forces (very Bolas thing to do), he'll save the Eternals to torture the planeswalkers he imprisons on the plane afterwards. I know I'm pushing the use of the Eternals a bit awkwardly, but when Bolas first arrived on Amonkhet post-mending, he did mention the whole hurried scheme was part of his plan to regain power, so they have to fit somewhere (now that "harvesting the leylines" wasn't the plan which I initially thought was during Amonkhet).
As lame as it sounds, Lightning Bug is probably a number-tracker for Bolas, since Bolas himself isn't too sure how well Ravnica attracts walkers, since it hasn't been that long since the first Guildpact was broken (and any history before that isn't that accessible).
These grand plans aren't far apart from the war at hand though, last return we had the Simic literally uncover an unknown underground ocean and merfolk, so I wouldn't be surprised if "lost history" is also their department this time around and I wonder if Bolas overlooking that is a key to his (eventual) failure.
On the topic on which sides the guilds will choose, it's pretty obvious the Izzet, Golgari and Azorius are in Bolas' clutches already, which leaves the 2 of the Orzhov, Simic, Rakdos and Gruul to side with Bolas. I feel Rakdos and Gruul are "similar enough" that they'll be on opposing sides and honestly any flavor can justify any one of them being on either side (to be honest both Guildpact & Bolas are oppressive in their own ways, so it's a matter of how Bolas tricked them than anything else). Assuming that leads to Orzhov and Simic being on opposite sides and the "lost history" tangent I felt could be a thing, the Simic might be on Team Guildpact.
The Orzhov mess will probably clear up, but my guess is the Ghost Council actually prefers the Guildpact (since they're actually immune to it) to being under Bolas (no doubt life is harder there for them), but since we know Kaya is there (and pretty much we already know the targets), I wouldn't be surprised if the likes of Teysa (who supports Bolas for now-unknown reasons they'll make up later) "manipulated" Kaya to end the Council. Wouldn't be difficult considering I'm sure the Council are arrogant enough to make their actual position unclear to outsiders. If Bolas activates the Immortal Sun then, then it becomes Kaya's personal vendetta to end Teysa even if it's not her specialty, putting Kaya on Team Guildpact while putting the Orzhov (under Teysa now) with Bolas.
Either way I really don't expect the Ghost Council to last long at all this return (Isperia being gone this early does indicate willingness to dispose of characters to move the guild pieces).
This storyline seems ripe for planeswalkers to die. I feel like this would be a decent vehicle to knock out some walkers we see all the time, and give us a bunch of new walkers to follow. Kind of taking up the mantle of the Gatewatch, in memoriam.
But, Wizards is also really into merchandising and love their main five walkers and Bolas. How likely is it that more than one long-term walker dies by the end of this story?
My guess is at least one, possibly two - Jace and/or Vraska. I know people will disagree with that, but the promo for the upcoming Chandra comic book puts it after Ravnica and describes it as Chandra dealing with the "recent tragedy" that happened there, or something to that effect. This would indicate to me someone she cares about is killed or hurt in some way. And with Nissa out of the picture at the moment, that doesn't leave a big list of possibilities. It could also be Liliana or Gideon, but they still have Stuff To Do storywise.
I do hope Project Lightning Bug sheds some light on Ravnican history. As much as my stand on Azor now is "he's still worse than Jace because he had omnipotent powers back then and effectively used them to set-up systems that oppressed populations of sentient "lesser beings" while avoiding the responsibility needed to maintain them" (yes I know the Guildpact eventually bit him back, but I'm referring to responsibility born out of self-discipline, not out of a Magical Pact you stupidly cast to be capable of punishing yourself for said lack of self-discipline). I doubt anything will ever take the "stupid" out of the "Lawful-Stupid" alignment I gave Azor (the entire guildpact system was just poorly designed for someone of his power), but the History of Ravnica (pre-guilds) might be the crux to make his "Lawful" side seem better at the very least.
We know the first Guildpact effectively banned walking to/from the plane entirely and that might be exactly why Bolas wanted Lightning Bug. While more meta and not directly stated in the story yet, WotC did mention the plane to be a main hub and considering the focus on planeswalkers currently, it could easily tie to Ravnica's history and why the First Guildpact isolated the plane.
While we can never confirm Bolas's plans until he gloats about it, The Immortal Sun and Eternals might drop some hints and the History of Ravnica might also reinforce it. Bolas wants to harvest sparks to power himself back and Ravnica is the key to creating the prison for doing so because of its properties, the same way Ugin deemed Zendikar ideal for trapping the Titans. You can't have a prison be a livable place like the plane currently is, so this entire war is just a facade for him to cause as much destruction without having to exert his own forces (very Bolas thing to do), he'll save the Eternals to torture the planeswalkers he imprisons on the plane afterwards. I know I'm pushing the use of the Eternals a bit awkwardly, but when Bolas first arrived on Amonkhet post-mending, he did mention the whole hurried scheme was part of his plan to regain power, so they have to fit somewhere (now that "harvesting the leylines" wasn't the plan which I initially thought was during Amonkhet).
As lame as it sounds, Lightning Bug is probably a number-tracker for Bolas, since Bolas himself isn't too sure how well Ravnica attracts walkers, since it hasn't been that long since the first Guildpact was broken (and any history before that isn't that accessible).
If there was ever a set to feature generic Planeswalkers, perhaps not as cards but in the art of the spells and summoned creatures, the third set would be the perfect time.
Think of it. In the game we ARE Planeswalkers, dueling, touring and experiencing. But the lore has never done a good job at highlighting this.
What if this is the first story WE get to participate in? Fighting a war against or on behalf of Bolas?
I mean if each lightning strike of the project symbolizes a Planeswalker entering or leaving the plane, and this is described as a storm the like of which has not happened ‘since a thousand years’, it can’t be just recording the movement of team Gatewatch or team Bolas, or just known Planeswalkers.
If Wizards actually did this, I would applaud and crow.
This is it! In this ‘block’ are all Avengers!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Wizards. listen. The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
I would disagree Chandra and Nissa are the most killable.
Gideon has unresolved issue with the Gods and now has a God Killing Weapon.
Jace still have to go back to Vyrn eventually not pressing sure but its a story thread. And he is the Face of the Franchise.
Lili....still have the Raven Man unresolved.
Ajani has issues with the Gods of Theros as well.
Teferi has Zhalfir and just joined and New Phyrexia since Karn is his friend.
So with Chandra and Ajani save...the odds of any Gatewatcher dying seem pretty remote to me.
Vraska or Jaya sure...an actual Gatewatch member unless they bring back Nissa to die I doubt it.
If there was ever a set to feature generic Planeswalkers, perhaps not as cards but in the art of the spells and summoned creatures, the third set would be the perfect time.
Think of it. In the game we ARE Planeswalkers, dueling, touring and experiencing. But the lore has never done a good job at highlighting this.
What if this is the first story WE get to participate in? Fighting a war against or on behalf of Bolas?
I mean if each lightning strike of the project symbolizes a Planeswalker entering or leaving the plane, and this is described as a storm the like of which has not happened ‘since a thousand years’, it can’t be just recording the movement of team Gatewatch or team Bolas, or just known Planeswalkers.
If Wizards actually did this, I would applaud and crow.
This is it! In this ‘block’ are all Avengers!
This sounds pretty amazing. I don't think it'll be the case, but still.
Maybe they'll do something slightly less but still kinda cool thing by having past planeswalkers return and a card associated with them in the set. So even if Arlinn Kord isn't in the set as a card, there's still a wolf-token making card with her in the artwork. And maybe the various planeswalker avatars from the duels games. This would be the closest to "you are in the set" as they could make it.
Still, having such a huge planeswalker battle, I'd expect them to have a better buildup. So far it was always no more than 6 planeswalkers in the same place. Going from 6 to a couple dozen planeswalkers at once would feel off.
I do hope Project Lightning Bug sheds some light on Ravnican history. As much as my stand on Azor now is "he's still worse than Jace because he had omnipotent powers back then and effectively used them to set-up systems that oppressed populations of sentient "lesser beings" while avoiding the responsibility needed to maintain them" (yes I know the Guildpact eventually bit him back, but I'm referring to responsibility born out of self-discipline, not out of a Magical Pact you stupidly cast to be capable of punishing yourself for said lack of self-discipline). I doubt anything will ever take the "stupid" out of the "Lawful-Stupid" alignment I gave Azor (the entire guildpact system was just poorly designed for someone of his power), but the History of Ravnica (pre-guilds) might be the crux to make his "Lawful" side seem better at the very least.
We know the first Guildpact effectively banned walking to/from the plane entirely and that might be exactly why Bolas wanted Lightning Bug. While more meta and not directly stated in the story yet, WotC did mention the plane to be a main hub and considering the focus on planeswalkers currently, it could easily tie to Ravnica's history and why the First Guildpact isolated the plane.
While we can never confirm Bolas's plans until he gloats about it, The Immortal Sun and Eternals might drop some hints and the History of Ravnica might also reinforce it. Bolas wants to harvest sparks to power himself back and Ravnica is the key to creating the prison for doing so because of its properties, the same way Ugin deemed Zendikar ideal for trapping the Titans. You can't have a prison be a livable place like the plane currently is, so this entire war is just a facade for him to cause as much destruction without having to exert his own forces (very Bolas thing to do), he'll save the Eternals to torture the planeswalkers he imprisons on the plane afterwards. I know I'm pushing the use of the Eternals a bit awkwardly, but when Bolas first arrived on Amonkhet post-mending, he did mention the whole hurried scheme was part of his plan to regain power, so they have to fit somewhere (now that "harvesting the leylines" wasn't the plan which I initially thought was during Amonkhet).
As lame as it sounds, Lightning Bug is probably a number-tracker for Bolas, since Bolas himself isn't too sure how well Ravnica attracts walkers, since it hasn't been that long since the first Guildpact was broken (and any history before that isn't that accessible).
These grand plans aren't far apart from the war at hand though, last return we had the Simic literally uncover an unknown underground ocean and merfolk, so I wouldn't be surprised if "lost history" is also their department this time around and I wonder if Bolas overlooking that is a key to his (eventual) failure.
On the topic on which sides the guilds will choose, it's pretty obvious the Izzet, Golgari and Azorius are in Bolas' clutches already, which leaves the 2 of the Orzhov, Simic, Rakdos and Gruul to side with Bolas. I feel Rakdos and Gruul are "similar enough" that they'll be on opposing sides and honestly any flavor can justify any one of them being on either side (to be honest both Guildpact & Bolas are oppressive in their own ways, so it's a matter of how Bolas tricked them than anything else). Assuming that leads to Orzhov and Simic being on opposite sides and the "lost history" tangent I felt could be a thing, the Simic might be on Team Guildpact.
The Orzhov mess will probably clear up, but my guess is the Ghost Council actually prefers the Guildpact (since they're actually immune to it) to being under Bolas (no doubt life is harder there for them), but since we know Kaya is there (and pretty much we already know the targets), I wouldn't be surprised if the likes of Teysa (who supports Bolas for now-unknown reasons they'll make up later) "manipulated" Kaya to end the Council. Wouldn't be difficult considering I'm sure the Council are arrogant enough to make their actual position unclear to outsiders. If Bolas activates the Immortal Sun then, then it becomes Kaya's personal vendetta to end Teysa even if it's not her specialty, putting Kaya on Team Guildpact while putting the Orzhov (under Teysa now) with Bolas.
Either way I really don't expect the Ghost Council to last long at all this return (Isperia being gone this early does indicate willingness to dispose of characters to move the guild pieces).
Well, we know that Teysa will not be leading the Orzhov under Bolas with Kaya fighting against her, because it's been confirmed that the Bolas guilds will all be ran by Planeswalkers. Meaning that, if the Orzhov are with Bolas, Kaya will be in charge, with Teysa either resisting or following her, depending on if she thinks Kaya is in charge or not.
The big wrench in these predictions is Liliana. We seem to be assuming that the walkers will be matched to their guilds in terms of color, like Vraska and Ral, and that they will have already been those colors. We know the Azorious are likely going to fall to Bolas when Isperia dies, begging a UW walker, and we see Kaya and Domri as walkers (Domri is a native, Kaya is confirmed as present). But it also seemed like Bolas was bringing Lili to Ravnica at the end of Dominaria. Is he going to hold her in reserve and reveal her in the third set? Is she going to run the Orzhov or Rakdos? Maybe replace Vraska as the head of the Golgari once Vraska betrays Bolas?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I do hope Project Lightning Bug sheds some light on Ravnican history. As much as my stand on Azor now is "he's still worse than Jace because he had omnipotent powers back then and effectively used them to set-up systems that oppressed populations of sentient "lesser beings" while avoiding the responsibility needed to maintain them" (yes I know the Guildpact eventually bit him back, but I'm referring to responsibility born out of self-discipline, not out of a Magical Pact you stupidly cast to be capable of punishing yourself for said lack of self-discipline). I doubt anything will ever take the "stupid" out of the "Lawful-Stupid" alignment I gave Azor (the entire guildpact system was just poorly designed for someone of his power), but the History of Ravnica (pre-guilds) might be the crux to make his "Lawful" side seem better at the very least.
We know the first Guildpact effectively banned walking to/from the plane entirely and that might be exactly why Bolas wanted Lightning Bug. While more meta and not directly stated in the story yet, WotC did mention the plane to be a main hub and considering the focus on planeswalkers currently, it could easily tie to Ravnica's history and why the First Guildpact isolated the plane.
While we can never confirm Bolas's plans until he gloats about it, The Immortal Sun and Eternals might drop some hints and the History of Ravnica might also reinforce it. Bolas wants to harvest sparks to power himself back and Ravnica is the key to creating the prison for doing so because of its properties, the same way Ugin deemed Zendikar ideal for trapping the Titans. You can't have a prison be a livable place like the plane currently is, so this entire war is just a facade for him to cause as much destruction without having to exert his own forces (very Bolas thing to do), he'll save the Eternals to torture the planeswalkers he imprisons on the plane afterwards. I know I'm pushing the use of the Eternals a bit awkwardly, but when Bolas first arrived on Amonkhet post-mending, he did mention the whole hurried scheme was part of his plan to regain power, so they have to fit somewhere (now that "harvesting the leylines" wasn't the plan which I initially thought was during Amonkhet).
As lame as it sounds, Lightning Bug is probably a number-tracker for Bolas, since Bolas himself isn't too sure how well Ravnica attracts walkers, since it hasn't been that long since the first Guildpact was broken (and any history before that isn't that accessible).
These grand plans aren't far apart from the war at hand though, last return we had the Simic literally uncover an unknown underground ocean and merfolk, so I wouldn't be surprised if "lost history" is also their department this time around and I wonder if Bolas overlooking that is a key to his (eventual) failure.
On the topic on which sides the guilds will choose, it's pretty obvious the Izzet, Golgari and Azorius are in Bolas' clutches already, which leaves the 2 of the Orzhov, Simic, Rakdos and Gruul to side with Bolas. I feel Rakdos and Gruul are "similar enough" that they'll be on opposing sides and honestly any flavor can justify any one of them being on either side (to be honest both Guildpact & Bolas are oppressive in their own ways, so it's a matter of how Bolas tricked them than anything else). Assuming that leads to Orzhov and Simic being on opposite sides and the "lost history" tangent I felt could be a thing, the Simic might be on Team Guildpact.
The Orzhov mess will probably clear up, but my guess is the Ghost Council actually prefers the Guildpact (since they're actually immune to it) to being under Bolas (no doubt life is harder there for them), but since we know Kaya is there (and pretty much we already know the targets), I wouldn't be surprised if the likes of Teysa (who supports Bolas for now-unknown reasons they'll make up later) "manipulated" Kaya to end the Council. Wouldn't be difficult considering I'm sure the Council are arrogant enough to make their actual position unclear to outsiders. If Bolas activates the Immortal Sun then, then it becomes Kaya's personal vendetta to end Teysa even if it's not her specialty, putting Kaya on Team Guildpact while putting the Orzhov (under Teysa now) with Bolas.
Either way I really don't expect the Ghost Council to last long at all this return (Isperia being gone this early does indicate willingness to dispose of characters to move the guild pieces).
Well, we know that Teysa will not be leading the Orzhov under Bolas with Kaya fighting against her, because it's been confirmed that the Bolas guilds will all be ran by Planeswalkers. Meaning that, if the Orzhov are with Bolas, Kaya will be in charge, with Teysa either resisting or following her, depending on if she thinks Kaya is in charge or not.
The big wrench in these predictions is Liliana. We seem to be assuming that the walkers will be matched to their guilds in terms of color, like Vraska and Ral, and that they will have already been those colors. We know the Azorious are likely going to fall to Bolas when Isperia dies, begging a UW walker, and we see Kaya and Domri as walkers (Domri is a native, Kaya is confirmed as present). But it also seemed like Bolas was bringing Lili to Ravnica at the end of Dominaria. Is he going to hold her in reserve and reveal her in the third set? Is she going to run the Orzhov or Rakdos? Maybe replace Vraska as the head of the Golgari once Vraska betrays Bolas?
It isn't an assumption, Maro has stated that the Planeswalkers are two colors in the same colors as the guilds they lead. So if Liliana is next set, then she is Rakdos or Orzhov. Of the two I would say Orzhov fits more, but given that this set is supposed to be around the same time as Dominaria then I don't see how she'd take over a hierarchy like Orzhov so fast.
Kaya, if she is the Orzhov walker, is the leader, yeah. Given that Tesya has kind of stuck around for two sets I expect she'll be here in the third, likely as the rebel side, but I'm not sure how Kaya could take over the Orzhov so fast either, nor does it seem like her style to lead a guild.
It's honestly a pretty big mystery. Like, from a color balance standpoint Orzhov should fall to Bolas. And I can't see them having Orzhov Planeswalker next set and then Kaya third set, it just seems silly. But Kaya, from what we've seen, is an assassin, sitting around and ruling the Orzhov just seems odd. Unless they wind up going into a rather open revolt where Kaya is purging ghosts and others are pushing her to help clean up the Guild or some such. Though how that helps Bolas is a mystery.
It isn't an assumption, Maro has stated that the Planeswalkers are two colors in the same colors as the guilds they lead. So if Liliana is next set, then she is Rakdos or Orzhov. Of the two I would say Orzhov fits more, but given that this set is supposed to be around the same time as Dominaria then I don't see how she'd take over a hierarchy like Orzhov so fast.
Actually Liliana in Orzhov would be interesting, if there is one group of people in the Multiverse who can help her with her current Bolas Contract problem, it is the Orzhov.
Still, there isn't really a reason for the guilds to be color balanced pro vs anti Bolas. If anything, pro order guilds should be aligned primarily for the guild pact, and pro chaos with Bolas. Order would be Azorious, Boros, Orzhov, Simic, and Selesnya, with Chaos as Dimir, Rakdos, Gruul, Izzet, and Golgari. We already know that the Azorious are going to Bolas, but because Isperia gets murdered and an agent of Bolas takes over. Dimir has lost their original Parun who favored chaos, and replaced him with Lazav, who has so far seemed to favor balancing the other guilds against each other rather than tearing down the guild pact, and so more likely to preserve the status quo as it works for them. The Orzhov should be against Bolas based on how they operate and their goals, BUT nuking the Ghost Council and replacing them with an agent of Bolas, but who replaces them? Gruul is unlikely because we have Domri as a native planeswalker who'd I expect to show up as the new leader. Rakdos is probably the one that sides against Bolas, but why? The chaos that Bolas will unleash would be right up their alley. The only thing I can think of is that Rakdos himself feels threatened or realizes that after the blood orgy of chaos that Bolas is about to unleash, there won't be anything left for him, and so he whips his guild into order. We know that as disorganized as his cultists usually are, when Rakdos awakens he is capable of making them come together as a cohesive unit.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
A big issue with trying to turn it into order vs chaos is that Bolas has no reason to really adhere to order or chaos. It’s also, again, highly unlikely any of the guilds know what he is doing. Like Ral’s big task seems to be completing an Izzet experiment, not really against their status quo either way. Azorius maybe will focus on implementing obstructive laws, or maybe they have access to some item or knowledge he wants given it is the guild Azor founded. Things like that. I don’t expect Bolas to take over the Gruul for instance and they suddenly want to be lawyers, it’ll be more subtle.
I think the recent trgedy that Chandra will be dealing with is the death of Jaya Ballard. She has kind of been mentoring Chandra this entire time, and I remember in one of the Dominaria stories Jaya mentioning how she feels she doensn't have a lot of time left. Jaya's story doesn't really have anywhere to go, but her death could bring cause Chandra to undergo some interesting character developments.
Ravnica has one of the biggest, densest populations of all planes in the Multiverse. The number of latent sparks on this plane(including those that will never ignite at all) must be comparably higher here than on other planes. Might that have something to do with Bolas' designs here?
I have this feeling that at least one purpose of Project Lightning Bug could be to trigger and ignite these latent sparks in men, women, children, and beasts all across the plane for Bolas' ends. In a plane the size of Ravnica, there must be hundreds. If he's gathering planeswalkers for the harvest, the crop on Ravnica would be like no other.
I think the recent trgedy that Chandra will be dealing with is the death of Jaya Ballard. She has kind of been mentoring Chandra this entire time, and I remember in one of the Dominaria stories Jaya mentioning how she feels she doensn't have a lot of time left. Jaya's story doesn't really have anywhere to go, but her death could bring cause Chandra to undergo some interesting character developments.
I think until we see what happens we should assume that the Recent Tragedy..is Ravnica betting torn apart, This is one of those fights that at best ends with "Ravnica's entire population has PTSD and needs some hot coca and hugs" at best.
A few people have mentioned the fact that this block is collecting planeswalkers on Ravnica, and that Bolas may be trying to harvest the sparks to boost himself.
Years and years ago, though (I think around New Phyrexia), I got into a debate with other folks in the forum about the nature of the spark. I put forth the argument that if sparks can be transferred, then maybe absorbing several sparks will bring more 'energy' to the walker, or something like that. I may have even mentioned Bolas, but I can't be certain.
Anyway, the two sides of the debate became 1) sparks don't have any inherent power or energy of their own and thus combining them doesn't do anything, and 2) sparks do have some inherent power or energy and combining them could empower a planeswalker beyond what they were before.
This block is making me revisit the debate in my head. I don't recall anything about Ravnica that would make it integral to Bolas wanting his power back. But, Bolas through Ral is keeping track of planeswalkers coming to Ravnica, and now has a tool to trap them there. If his goal isn't to harvest their sparks somehow, that means his ultimate goal is off-plane (by this I mean, keeping all the walkers on Ravnica frees Bolas up to act without interruption on Plane X). But this block isn't building to a continuation. It's building to the crescendo of the story.
So if Bolas isn't intending to harvest sparks to power himself up to godhood, the only other reason to do all this on Ravnica has to be for a reason we (or at least I) don't know anything about, but which has to be tied into the plane. I highly doubt the third set of the block will take place on another plane, especially since there are implications that Bolas will be defeated.
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Well, if in the third set there is a war between two factions, colour balance would be important so that every color have both the ability of the factions. If there are such abilities or keywords.
MaRo said the first two sets serve to establish the essence of the guilds as every ravnica block did, but the third is something different, I don't know if by that he meant that guilds identity is not vital, but still synergistic, in the third set. So maybe guild identity is of secondary importance, and they link those pentaguilds alliances with two abilities or keywords or something: and in this context colour balance can be important depending on what they want to do.
Please dont screw up the best thing you got going. Wizards
Not until October.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
A big issue with trying to turn it into order vs chaos is that Bolas has no reason to really adhere to order or chaos. It’s also, again, highly unlikely any of the guilds know what he is doing. Like Ral’s big task seems to be completing an Izzet experiment, not really against their status quo either way. Azorius maybe will focus on implementing obstructive laws, or maybe they have access to some item or knowledge he wants given it is the guild Azor founded. Things like that. I don’t expect Bolas to take over the Gruul for instance and they suddenly want to be lawyers, it’ll be more subtle.
The order vs chaos thing is baked into the backstory of Ravnica. It is the reason for the guildpact being created. The five order aligned guilds banded together to fight the five chaos aligned guilds, and it nearly destroyed the plane. Azor created te guildpact and convinced Szadek, Parun of the chaos aligned Dimir, to sell his side on it. The guildpact has, however, been a tool of promoting order at the expense of chaos. Selesnya, Azorious, Boros Orzhov, and Simic flourished (until Vig screwed the Simic), while the Golgari became an underclass, the Gruul were devestated, the Dimir disappeared for 10000 years, and the Rakdos were thrown into the mines. The only chaos guild that thrived was the Izzet, though Niv continued to plot to take over the plane, and the post Szadek Dimir (which has grown substaintially and integrated itself into the system). The chaos guilds would have motivation to go along with actions that hurt the guildpact, while the order aligned ones would want to preserve it. Of course Bolas could always undermine the order based ones in various ways, like killing Isperia and installing a puppet, and chaotic ones might be wary of Bolas even if his actions undermine a system they don't like (Lazav seems to be suspicious and against an unknown actor even if that person is hurting the other guilds).
Edit: need to make it clear, I think Bolas is taking over guilds based primarily on opportunity. He's going after whatever guilds he can get, though perhaps prioritizing the Azorious because they are basically the government and therefore corrupting them is a major win, with the added benefit of sticking it to Azor. Because of the preexisting order vs chaos theme on the plane, I believe that the nature of the chaotic guilds makes them more prone to infiltration and taking over. The Golgari leadership are overthrown from within, similarly to how Savra and her elves overthrew the Gorgons in the first block. Isperia, by contrast, will be murdered by outside forces. It won't always hold,like how the Dimir are chaotic but paranoid and untrusung by nature and thus unlikely to be played, but its a starting point. I'd be shocked if there's an equal split between order and chaos, it seems most likely that pro guildpact will be 3 order 2 chaos and Bolas controlled will be the opposite, with the possibility remaining of a 4/1 to 1/4 split.
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Except they weren't divided into order vs chaos sides. They were just ten factions fighting and that fighting was tearing up Ravnica.
The Dimir were doing fine, they didn't want to be in the center of the stage, and they were performing their specific function within the Guild Pact. The Rakdos haven't seemed to have suffered either. Gruul and Golgari certainly have, though that's not too surprising giving that Ravnica is a very WU aligned place so those two color combinations would have the hardest time fitting in.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
We have another UR story spotlight which relates to project Lightning Bug. I am dubious however that it’d be part of Bolas’s ritual to godhood, as it seems to be more like a monitoring system but you never know.
Seems like Bolas desires a critical mass of planeswalkers. Scary.
Ravnica becomes again the setting of an all out Planeswalker war.
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
I don't remember how it worked. Did every Planeswalker entering or exiting Ravnica trigger a lightning in the position of the planeswalking, enabling a statistical study on lightning strikes and so, through the correlation to planeswalking, a report on planeswalkers presence? Also, is it a joke about the players who are going to "storm" extra turn spells or is it really going to be 1000 years long?
In the event you weren't just joking around, hundred year storm, thousand year storm, terms like that mean a storm so bad it occurs rarely, once every hundred or thousand years. The United States Army Corps of Engineers uses terms like 'hundred-year flood' in their descriptions of flood zones, for instance, as a more or less official form of measurement for flood history in certain regions.
We know the first Guildpact effectively banned walking to/from the plane entirely and that might be exactly why Bolas wanted Lightning Bug. While more meta and not directly stated in the story yet, WotC did mention the plane to be a main hub and considering the focus on planeswalkers currently, it could easily tie to Ravnica's history and why the First Guildpact isolated the plane.
While we can never confirm Bolas's plans until he gloats about it, The Immortal Sun and Eternals might drop some hints and the History of Ravnica might also reinforce it. Bolas wants to harvest sparks to power himself back and Ravnica is the key to creating the prison for doing so because of its properties, the same way Ugin deemed Zendikar ideal for trapping the Titans. You can't have a prison be a livable place like the plane currently is, so this entire war is just a facade for him to cause as much destruction without having to exert his own forces (very Bolas thing to do), he'll save the Eternals to torture the planeswalkers he imprisons on the plane afterwards. I know I'm pushing the use of the Eternals a bit awkwardly, but when Bolas first arrived on Amonkhet post-mending, he did mention the whole hurried scheme was part of his plan to regain power, so they have to fit somewhere (now that "harvesting the leylines" wasn't the plan which I initially thought was during Amonkhet).
As lame as it sounds, Lightning Bug is probably a number-tracker for Bolas, since Bolas himself isn't too sure how well Ravnica attracts walkers, since it hasn't been that long since the first Guildpact was broken (and any history before that isn't that accessible).
These grand plans aren't far apart from the war at hand though, last return we had the Simic literally uncover an unknown underground ocean and merfolk, so I wouldn't be surprised if "lost history" is also their department this time around and I wonder if Bolas overlooking that is a key to his (eventual) failure.
On the topic on which sides the guilds will choose, it's pretty obvious the Izzet, Golgari and Azorius are in Bolas' clutches already, which leaves the 2 of the Orzhov, Simic, Rakdos and Gruul to side with Bolas. I feel Rakdos and Gruul are "similar enough" that they'll be on opposing sides and honestly any flavor can justify any one of them being on either side (to be honest both Guildpact & Bolas are oppressive in their own ways, so it's a matter of how Bolas tricked them than anything else). Assuming that leads to Orzhov and Simic being on opposite sides and the "lost history" tangent I felt could be a thing, the Simic might be on Team Guildpact.
The Orzhov mess will probably clear up, but my guess is the Ghost Council actually prefers the Guildpact (since they're actually immune to it) to being under Bolas (no doubt life is harder there for them), but since we know Kaya is there (and pretty much we already know the targets), I wouldn't be surprised if the likes of Teysa (who supports Bolas for now-unknown reasons they'll make up later) "manipulated" Kaya to end the Council. Wouldn't be difficult considering I'm sure the Council are arrogant enough to make their actual position unclear to outsiders. If Bolas activates the Immortal Sun then, then it becomes Kaya's personal vendetta to end Teysa even if it's not her specialty, putting Kaya on Team Guildpact while putting the Orzhov (under Teysa now) with Bolas.
Either way I really don't expect the Ghost Council to last long at all this return (Isperia being gone this early does indicate willingness to dispose of characters to move the guild pieces).
Can you tell me the source, please?Found everything!My guess is at least one, possibly two - Jace and/or Vraska. I know people will disagree with that, but the promo for the upcoming Chandra comic book puts it after Ravnica and describes it as Chandra dealing with the "recent tragedy" that happened there, or something to that effect. This would indicate to me someone she cares about is killed or hurt in some way. And with Nissa out of the picture at the moment, that doesn't leave a big list of possibilities. It could also be Liliana or Gideon, but they still have Stuff To Do storywise.
If there was ever a set to feature generic Planeswalkers, perhaps not as cards but in the art of the spells and summoned creatures, the third set would be the perfect time.
Think of it. In the game we ARE Planeswalkers, dueling, touring and experiencing. But the lore has never done a good job at highlighting this.
What if this is the first story WE get to participate in? Fighting a war against or on behalf of Bolas?
I mean if each lightning strike of the project symbolizes a Planeswalker entering or leaving the plane, and this is described as a storm the like of which has not happened ‘since a thousand years’, it can’t be just recording the movement of team Gatewatch or team Bolas, or just known Planeswalkers.
If Wizards actually did this, I would applaud and crow.
This is it! In this ‘block’ are all Avengers!
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
Gideon has unresolved issue with the Gods and now has a God Killing Weapon.
Jace still have to go back to Vyrn eventually not pressing sure but its a story thread. And he is the Face of the Franchise.
Lili....still have the Raven Man unresolved.
Ajani has issues with the Gods of Theros as well.
Teferi has Zhalfir and just joined and New Phyrexia since Karn is his friend.
So with Chandra and Ajani save...the odds of any Gatewatcher dying seem pretty remote to me.
Vraska or Jaya sure...an actual Gatewatch member unless they bring back Nissa to die I doubt it.
This sounds pretty amazing. I don't think it'll be the case, but still.
Maybe they'll do something slightly less but still kinda cool thing by having past planeswalkers return and a card associated with them in the set. So even if Arlinn Kord isn't in the set as a card, there's still a wolf-token making card with her in the artwork. And maybe the various planeswalker avatars from the duels games. This would be the closest to "you are in the set" as they could make it.
Still, having such a huge planeswalker battle, I'd expect them to have a better buildup. So far it was always no more than 6 planeswalkers in the same place. Going from 6 to a couple dozen planeswalkers at once would feel off.
Well, we know that Teysa will not be leading the Orzhov under Bolas with Kaya fighting against her, because it's been confirmed that the Bolas guilds will all be ran by Planeswalkers. Meaning that, if the Orzhov are with Bolas, Kaya will be in charge, with Teysa either resisting or following her, depending on if she thinks Kaya is in charge or not.
The big wrench in these predictions is Liliana. We seem to be assuming that the walkers will be matched to their guilds in terms of color, like Vraska and Ral, and that they will have already been those colors. We know the Azorious are likely going to fall to Bolas when Isperia dies, begging a UW walker, and we see Kaya and Domri as walkers (Domri is a native, Kaya is confirmed as present). But it also seemed like Bolas was bringing Lili to Ravnica at the end of Dominaria. Is he going to hold her in reserve and reveal her in the third set? Is she going to run the Orzhov or Rakdos? Maybe replace Vraska as the head of the Golgari once Vraska betrays Bolas?
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
It isn't an assumption, Maro has stated that the Planeswalkers are two colors in the same colors as the guilds they lead. So if Liliana is next set, then she is Rakdos or Orzhov. Of the two I would say Orzhov fits more, but given that this set is supposed to be around the same time as Dominaria then I don't see how she'd take over a hierarchy like Orzhov so fast.
Kaya, if she is the Orzhov walker, is the leader, yeah. Given that Tesya has kind of stuck around for two sets I expect she'll be here in the third, likely as the rebel side, but I'm not sure how Kaya could take over the Orzhov so fast either, nor does it seem like her style to lead a guild.
It's honestly a pretty big mystery. Like, from a color balance standpoint Orzhov should fall to Bolas. And I can't see them having Orzhov Planeswalker next set and then Kaya third set, it just seems silly. But Kaya, from what we've seen, is an assassin, sitting around and ruling the Orzhov just seems odd. Unless they wind up going into a rather open revolt where Kaya is purging ghosts and others are pushing her to help clean up the Guild or some such. Though how that helps Bolas is a mystery.
Actually Liliana in Orzhov would be interesting, if there is one group of people in the Multiverse who can help her with her current Bolas Contract problem, it is the Orzhov.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I have this feeling that at least one purpose of Project Lightning Bug could be to trigger and ignite these latent sparks in men, women, children, and beasts all across the plane for Bolas' ends. In a plane the size of Ravnica, there must be hundreds. If he's gathering planeswalkers for the harvest, the crop on Ravnica would be like no other.
I think until we see what happens we should assume that the Recent Tragedy..is Ravnica betting torn apart, This is one of those fights that at best ends with "Ravnica's entire population has PTSD and needs some hot coca and hugs" at best.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
Years and years ago, though (I think around New Phyrexia), I got into a debate with other folks in the forum about the nature of the spark. I put forth the argument that if sparks can be transferred, then maybe absorbing several sparks will bring more 'energy' to the walker, or something like that. I may have even mentioned Bolas, but I can't be certain.
Anyway, the two sides of the debate became 1) sparks don't have any inherent power or energy of their own and thus combining them doesn't do anything, and 2) sparks do have some inherent power or energy and combining them could empower a planeswalker beyond what they were before.
This block is making me revisit the debate in my head. I don't recall anything about Ravnica that would make it integral to Bolas wanting his power back. But, Bolas through Ral is keeping track of planeswalkers coming to Ravnica, and now has a tool to trap them there. If his goal isn't to harvest their sparks somehow, that means his ultimate goal is off-plane (by this I mean, keeping all the walkers on Ravnica frees Bolas up to act without interruption on Plane X). But this block isn't building to a continuation. It's building to the crescendo of the story.
So if Bolas isn't intending to harvest sparks to power himself up to godhood, the only other reason to do all this on Ravnica has to be for a reason we (or at least I) don't know anything about, but which has to be tied into the plane. I highly doubt the third set of the block will take place on another plane, especially since there are implications that Bolas will be defeated.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
MaRo said the first two sets serve to establish the essence of the guilds as every ravnica block did, but the third is something different, I don't know if by that he meant that guilds identity is not vital, but still synergistic, in the third set. So maybe guild identity is of secondary importance, and they link those pentaguilds alliances with two abilities or keywords or something: and in this context colour balance can be important depending on what they want to do.
Please dont screw up the best thing you got going. Wizards
Not until October.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
The order vs chaos thing is baked into the backstory of Ravnica. It is the reason for the guildpact being created. The five order aligned guilds banded together to fight the five chaos aligned guilds, and it nearly destroyed the plane. Azor created te guildpact and convinced Szadek, Parun of the chaos aligned Dimir, to sell his side on it. The guildpact has, however, been a tool of promoting order at the expense of chaos. Selesnya, Azorious, Boros Orzhov, and Simic flourished (until Vig screwed the Simic), while the Golgari became an underclass, the Gruul were devestated, the Dimir disappeared for 10000 years, and the Rakdos were thrown into the mines. The only chaos guild that thrived was the Izzet, though Niv continued to plot to take over the plane, and the post Szadek Dimir (which has grown substaintially and integrated itself into the system). The chaos guilds would have motivation to go along with actions that hurt the guildpact, while the order aligned ones would want to preserve it. Of course Bolas could always undermine the order based ones in various ways, like killing Isperia and installing a puppet, and chaotic ones might be wary of Bolas even if his actions undermine a system they don't like (Lazav seems to be suspicious and against an unknown actor even if that person is hurting the other guilds).
Edit: need to make it clear, I think Bolas is taking over guilds based primarily on opportunity. He's going after whatever guilds he can get, though perhaps prioritizing the Azorious because they are basically the government and therefore corrupting them is a major win, with the added benefit of sticking it to Azor. Because of the preexisting order vs chaos theme on the plane, I believe that the nature of the chaotic guilds makes them more prone to infiltration and taking over. The Golgari leadership are overthrown from within, similarly to how Savra and her elves overthrew the Gorgons in the first block. Isperia, by contrast, will be murdered by outside forces. It won't always hold,like how the Dimir are chaotic but paranoid and untrusung by nature and thus unlikely to be played, but its a starting point. I'd be shocked if there's an equal split between order and chaos, it seems most likely that pro guildpact will be 3 order 2 chaos and Bolas controlled will be the opposite, with the possibility remaining of a 4/1 to 1/4 split.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
The Dimir were doing fine, they didn't want to be in the center of the stage, and they were performing their specific function within the Guild Pact. The Rakdos haven't seemed to have suffered either. Gruul and Golgari certainly have, though that's not too surprising giving that Ravnica is a very WU aligned place so those two color combinations would have the hardest time fitting in.