Two Issues with Domri one is specific to him and one is general walker issue
1) Domri, he beat Borbo buy just summoning enough Boars? What how does that work? No one else though to toss a bunch of summons at Borbo? Borbo has been in what power for centuries and no in the RG thought hey maybe I can just toss summons at him until he gets tired.
2) General Issue. Neowalkers are suppose to be weaker then Oldwalkers but it really seems that Neowalkers are stronger relative to Legendaries. Sure one can make excuses on individual fights but its adds up when we see Legend after Legend go down easy to Neowalkers when they put up way better fights against Oldwalkers. Guys like Baron Sengrir put the fear in Walkers like Serra and her Husband. Serra's creation in Radiant was curbstomping Urza himself. Meanwhile current Legends are getting rekt left and right. Eldrazi Titans down to Channel Fireball. Isperia dropped by Vraksa in an obvious trap despite being a telepath. The list goes on by feats Neowalkers do way better against Legends then Oldwalkers did on average. So really all it seems Neowalkers have lost is immorality/regeneration. We were told Oldwalkers got nerfed cause they were too OP only to see OP Neowalkers with little to no experience routinely trounce Legends with ease. Legends who should be far stronger in terms of power and magic and experience. Experience apparently ain't worth anything against Neowalker Plot Armor. Even worse former Oldwalkers get treated like Jokes as we saw Teferi, Karn and Jaya do nothing in combat on Dominaria at the end. While Azor got sent to his room. So Oldwalkers are jobbing out to names while Neowalkers are crushing Paruns. Bolas being the exception...although you could make the case he did in that Core Set story.
Because Rakdos himself can 1v9 the other guild leaders, specially now that Niv and the Obzedat are gone.
I also got from the Rakdos story that they are trying to pull the Rakdos away from the all murder all the time thing. I mean, the feature was a Demon doing bad poetry and stand up, so its like they are moving back into their original role as described by Flisch, just without the mining and smelting.
And even then the art book and planeswalker guide all also mention thats still the main purpose of the guild. Its not gone its just hasn't been in focus in any of the Ravnica sets.
Frankly, the Rakdos in original RAV weren't either entertainers or miners. All their cards just depicted the "bloodthirsty crazy ruffians and mercenaries" aspect of the guild. See Slaughterhouse Bouncer. Jagged Poppet. Anthem of Rakdos.
So what actually happened (on cards) was establishment of the entertainment topic in RtR and fully expanding it in RNA. The mining and hard menial work were never there.
1. The Gruul don’t have any other spellcaster who can summon boar after boar like Domri. Domri may also have received some help from Nicol Bolas.
2. The power of old walkers, neowallers, and legendaries are on a Spectrum. A couple of legendaries scaring old walkers are the exception. The power of Urza can’t be compared to the power of Squee, Hannah, cho-Manno, Tangarth, etc.
Bogey is powerful, but what’s his conditioning like? If you keep sending boar after boar at him, eventually he would yield.
Eldrazi Titans down to Channel Fireball. Isperia dropped by Vraksa in an obvious trap despite being a telepath.
I mean, the titans 'issue' was dealt with by claiming that the 3 oldwalkers that had imprisoned them hadn't put in much, if any, effort in killing them. Sorin lacked the capacity to channel a plane's worth of mana into a spell against them. Nahiri theoretically had the means to harm them, but was convinced by Ugin and Sorin that containing them was a necessity. Lastly, Ugin didn't want them dead.
The Gatewatch (primarily thanks to Ugin and Nissa) had the means, motive (they failed at re-imprisoning the titans), and knowledge to both pull the titans into the plane and channel said plane's mana into a single spell against them. There's an argument there that there should have been more consequences to channelling so much mana at once, but they made a pretty strong case that the oldwalkers could have killed the titans but didn't because the main planner of the team (Ugin) didn't want to.
As for the Isperia situation, we don't yet know the specifics of how Vraska petrified her. Given that she's working for Bolas (a powerful telepath himself), I wouldn't put it past him to have worked some mind magic to make it seem to Isperia that Vraska had no ill intent towards her.
Edit) On the topic of Neowalkers vs Legends:
Koth and Elspeth failed against the Phyexian praetors and their forces.
Gods have almost universally overpowered neowalkers (Elspeth was forced to undertake a trial by one of the gods to enter Nyx with Ajani, Heliod killed Elspeth, Kiora was easily overpowered in both strength and magic by Thassa and only escaped by tricking the god into loosening the bident's press on Kiora's throat, and the Gatewatch were powerless to the whims of the gods of Amonkhet) with the sole exception of a newly ascended god (Xenagos) falling to Elspeth (who was wielding a weapon literally made to kill gods).
The entirety of Baral vs Chandra (only appearing to fail in killing them because he was denied reinforcements on two occasions by Dovin Baan (once because they were meant to be a distraction and once because Dovin cares about the law and Baral had just admitted to breaking it).
Kiora and her sea monster summons amounting to nothing against Kozilek.
And these are just what I can think of off the top of my head.
Eldrazi Titans down to Channel Fireball. Isperia dropped by Vraksa in an obvious trap despite being a telepath.
I mean, the titans 'issue' was dealt with by claiming that the 3 oldwalkers that had imprisoned them hadn't put in much, if any, effort in killing them. Sorin lacked the capacity to channel a plane's worth of mana into a spell against them. Nahiri theoretically had the means to harm them, but was convinced by Ugin and Sorin that containing them was a necessity. Lastly, Ugin didn't want them dead.
The Gatewatch (primarily thanks to Ugin and Nissa) had the means, motive (they failed at re-imprisoning the titans), and knowledge to both pull the titans into the plane and channel said plane's mana into a single spell against them. There's an argument there that there should have been more consequences to channelling so much mana at once, but they made a pretty strong case that the oldwalkers could have killed the titans but didn't because the main planner of the team (Ugin) didn't want to.
As for the Isperia situation, we don't yet know the specifics of how Vraska petrified her. Given that she's working for Bolas (a powerful telepath himself), I wouldn't put it past him to have worked some mind magic to make it seem to Isperia that Vraska had no ill intent towards her.
Edit) On the topic of Neowalkers vs Legends:
Koth and Elspeth failed against the Phyexian praetors and their forces.
Gods have almost universally overpowered neowalkers (Elspeth was forced to undertake a trial by one of the gods to enter Nyx with Ajani, Heliod killed Elspeth, Kiora was easily overpowered in both strength and magic by Thassa and only escaped by tricking the god into loosening the bident's press on Kiora's throat, and the Gatewatch were powerless to the whims of the gods of Amonkhet) with the sole exception of a newly ascended god (Xenagos) falling to Elspeth (who was wielding a weapon literally made to kill gods).
The entirety of Baral vs Chandra (only appearing to fail in killing them because he was denied reinforcements on two occasions by Dovin Baan (once because they were meant to be a distraction and once because Dovin cares about the law and Baral had just admitted to breaking it).
Kiora and her sea monster summons amounting to nothing against Kozilek.
And these are just what I can think of off the top of my head.
I think all of this comes down to accentuating the negative ("Neowalkers are op and Wizards deliberately tries to force them down our throats!") and then only searching for examples that prove this point (or reducing plotpoints in such a way that it seems like they do) instead of considering points that disprove this notion.
Now, that doesn't mean that Wizards DOESN'T sometimes fail in their handling of the Gatewatch and other neowalkers. I especially find it a bit curious that they don't point out more often why they actually DO have kind of an advantage against planebound entities (to a degree of course): Traveling to other planes gives them insights and knowledge that these entities simply can't have (or are even weak to without them knowing it). Take for example Nissas' escape from Kefnets' trial. She was more or less crushed by the god, but since she was knowledgeable in leylines and direct manipulation of mana (and saw a vision of Nicol Bolas using those against the gods) she was able to slightly change Kefnet in a way no one on Amonkhet would probably be able to. Every planeswalker thus has the potential to become an outside context problem for legendaries for example: They might be very familiar with any magic or magitek used on their plane, but that won't help against totally different magic. That in itself was the reason Heliod killed Elspeth in the end, just like Xenagos using his outside knowledge to ascend into godhood, he thought of her as a threat for knowing things that he himself had no access to (and because he is an egomaniac who styles himself as being the top god of his plane, he couldn't allow that).
Now, to Ravnica: I don't get the complaint about the guilds becoming caricatures of themselves. If anything they have become more varied since the first Ravnica, with clearer basic identities. Outside of the Ravnica books of the time the guilds were pretty one-dimensional, Rakdos were all evil sado-masochist ********s on their cards, Boros actually looked pretty much exactly as they do now (only with their police functions even less pronounced), same goes for Golgari, Orzhov and quite a few others (there was not a single card in OG Ravnica mentioning the Golgaris' rot-farms which provide food to much of the poorer populace of the city, nor was there one card depicting a defence lawyer or banker for the Orzhov). Simic and Dimir also had no cards until RtR that depicted their "official" businesses (and I'm still waiting for a simic doctor healing patients being depicted, with the Simic being THE medical branch in Ravnica).
In the end the cards don't depict the less interesting menial tasks the guilds do most of the time, though I would say that RtR and RtRtR were doing better in this regard than the original City of Guilds, as much as I love that block.
Because Rakdos himself can 1v9 the other guild leaders, specially now that Niv and the Obzedat are gone.
I also got from the Rakdos story that they are trying to pull the Rakdos away from the all murder all the time thing. I mean, the feature was a Demon doing bad poetry and stand up, so its like they are moving back into their original role as described by Flisch, just without the mining and smelting.
And even then the art book and planeswalker guide all also mention thats still the main purpose of the guild. Its not gone its just hasn't been in focus in any of the Ravnica sets.
Frankly, the Rakdos in original RAV weren't either entertainers or miners. All their cards just depicted the "bloodthirsty crazy ruffians and mercenaries" aspect of the guild. See Slaughterhouse Bouncer. Jagged Poppet. Anthem of Rakdos.
So what actually happened (on cards) was establishment of the entertainment topic in RtR and fully expanding it in RNA. The mining and hard menial work were never there.
The books mentioned Rakdos clubs and resteraunts, and that Rix Maadi (and the surrounding Rakdos territory in Ravnica City's undercity) was as much of a mine and foundry as it was a base of operations.
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Not really I am just looking at recent examples. And the really problem is mostly in the Gatewatch Era. Also the Gods arguments proves little unless you think most Oldwalkers could beat Gods. Bolas showed he could but Bolas right now in lore is the Greatest Oldwalker in history (at least in combat) so he is hardly the average. I should also note Helioid had to wait for Elspeth to let her guard down before he pulled that.
Neowalkers: Jace takes down Azor, Vraksa takes out Isperia, Domri beats Borbo, and Kaya slaughters the Obzedat. Now for Kaya and Jace sure you can say they have a natural advantage Jace using the Guildpact and Kaya being a ghostbuster. But still doesn't seem these legends are putting up much of a fight or even getting hits in.
Oldwalkers: Bolas punked by twins, Teferi, Jaya and Karn worthless against Urborgos. So we got Oldwalkers losing to no names while Neowalkers are dunking on Guild Leaders who are well known with no issue.
Only thing Baral and Chandra shows is inconsistent power levels strong enough to beat Eldrazi Titans but not strong enough to beat Baral? Yeah yeah he counters did Chandra not know any uncounterable fire spells.
Because Rakdos himself can 1v9 the other guild leaders, specially now that Niv and the Obzedat are gone.
I also got from the Rakdos story that they are trying to pull the Rakdos away from the all murder all the time thing. I mean, the feature was a Demon doing bad poetry and stand up, so its like they are moving back into their original role as described by Flisch, just without the mining and smelting.
And even then the art book and planeswalker guide all also mention thats still the main purpose of the guild. Its not gone its just hasn't been in focus in any of the Ravnica sets.
Frankly, the Rakdos in original RAV weren't either entertainers or miners. All their cards just depicted the "bloodthirsty crazy ruffians and mercenaries" aspect of the guild. See Slaughterhouse Bouncer. Jagged Poppet. Anthem of Rakdos.
So what actually happened (on cards) was establishment of the entertainment topic in RtR and fully expanding it in RNA. The mining and hard menial work were never there.
The books mentioned Rakdos clubs and resteraunts, and that Rix Maadi (and the surrounding Rakdos territory in Ravnica City's undercity) was as much of a mine and foundry as it was a base of operations.
Agreed, but note that I am talking about cards, not novels.
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Only thing Baral and Chandra shows is inconsistent power levels strong enough to beat Eldrazi Titans but not strong enough to beat Baral? Yeah yeah he counters did Chandra not know any uncounterable fire spells.
"It's unrealistic that a hunter can kill an elephant when he has a high-caliber rifle and the elephant is trapped, but gets stomped by Mike Tyson in a fist fight. Obviously the elephant is a lot more powerful than Mike Tyson!"
Also, if Baral's countermagic is enough to stifle Chandra's flames, why wasn't Ulamog's mana-eating aura enough to do the same? No matter which way you slice it or which mental gymnastics you go through to justify the resolution to Battle for Zendikar, it remains -at best!- a narratively highly dissatisfying ending.
My favorite is Gideon blocking a strike from Ulamog but getting bounced like a Ball by Bolas. Ulamog has no reason to hold back so this means a Bolas that is holding back hits harder then Ulamog. In what world does that make sense?
My favorite is Gideon blocking a strike from Ulamog but getting bounced like a Ball by Bolas. Ulamog has no reason to hold back so this means a Bolas that is holding back hits harder then Ulamog. In what world does that make sense?
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Also, if Baral's countermagic is enough to stifle Chandra's flames, why wasn't Ulamog's mana-eating aura enough to do the same? No matter which way you slice it or which mental gymnastics you go through to justify the resolution to Battle for Zendikar, it remains -at best!- a narratively highly dissatisfying ending.
Because eating too much of something in a short time can't kill you?
It doesn't matter what Gatewatch hatred you have, it remains -at worst- nowhere near as terrible as people said, and at least The resolution to Battle for Zendikar made some sort of Narrative sense.
"Ugin always had a way to kill the Eldrazi, he was just a massive prick who cares more about the balance than he does about the little people, which is entirely in character for an Oldwalker Elder Dragon."
Which was better than the garbage that went down in SOI "Emrakul decides randomly to stuff herself in the moon meaning that one of the most popular planes in the setting now has a gun to it's head permanently" The problem with the Eldrazi is that there is no ending that is satisfying, by their very nature you either lose every fight involving them..or have to pull something out of your arse to make the good guys win.
The Eldrazi never should have existed in MTG, they were a mistake. Going back to Zendikar after they got loose to try and "save" the plane was doubling down on that mistake.
I don't necessarily agree that the Eldrazi should never exist but I do agree they present problems.
There are two different issues though one Eldrazi Titans are suppose Endgame Bosses so going from beating them to struggling with Baral just doesn't work. It would have been a better story if they had let Zendikar get rekt or baited.
Emrakul though shows the issue properly written these Titans should be unstoppable so they either rekt the plane or have to be sealed. Issue here is Emrakul just deciding to seal herself. So in Battle of Zendikar, you walk out thinking oh Jace is right Ugin is a dick but the Shadows tell you actually wait a second these Eldrazi Titans might actually have a higher purpose so Ugin is right and Jace is a dick.
I don't understand why it's so hard to understand the difference between Chandra's fight with Baral as opposed to her against the Eldrazi. When she fought Baral she didn't have someone channeling the mana of an entire plane through her into one big fireball when she was fighting Baral. The two situations are not comparable. It's honestly not even really right to say that it was Chandra fighting the Eldrazi. She was just a conduit for the power of Zendikar, which has long been established as wild and powerful. Against Baral though it was just her and of everyone on Kaladesh Baral is uniquely suited to beating Chandra.
Also none of this has anything to do with the events on Ravnica.
We gonna talk about the new story or are we going to talk about other planes?
The new story about Gruul, I like it, it showcases the loyalty aspect of Gruul and how one could rage over clans' wellbeing instead of just rawr rawr. It adds perspective, much like how the Boros story shows more of their police-investigation side instead of just the police-brutality side. I also like how they smoothly added a lesbian couple there, inter-specie and inter-clan no less, it's cute.
I also appreciate how Selesnya is doing dirty work here. While it may or may not be Trostani's idea, the tactic is clearly Selesnyan and shows the rare facet of aggression (outside of tokens and wurms, that is).
Honestly I just feel blueballed by these stories I fear the switch to book is coloring my impressions and if the books are bad I am going to rate this shorts very poorly. I kinda like them though, I did say we needed more slice of life and not focus on walkers problem is I wanted nonwalkers to actually help drive the story and they really are not.
People talking about Ugin's comments about not killing Eldrazi, as if this plot point matters. There will never be consequences for this, just like there was no consequence for Jace, the ''living guildpact'' leaving Ravnica for an extended period of time.
People talking about Ugin's comments about not killing Eldrazi, as if this plot point matters. There will never be consequences for this, just like there was no consequence for Jace, the ''living guildpact'' leaving Ravnica for an extended period of time.
Umm... Aren't the consequences for Jace's absence coming to light in this latest return to Ravnica? The guilds are preparing to go to war with each other, pushing what remains of the guild pact to its limit in order to crack down on guilds others than their own.
Or do you mean consequences for Jace (the guy who was given the choice to either be the living guild pact, a job I'd say no person would be equipped to perform (not even Azor given how long he's been absent from the plane), or let all life on Ravnica be wiped out)?
[sarcasm] It's not like he protested the idea of him, a planeswalker, becoming the living guild pact, but stayed on Ravnica with the rest of the Gatewatch (and even prior to the Gatewatch's formation) between dealing with interplanar threats with his apparently longest absence being almost entirely due to his mind getting wiped by Bolas before warping into a planeswalker prison plane thanks to Ugin. [/sarcasm]
Of course, any personal consequences for Jace's absence on the plane kind of need to wait for him to get back to Ravnica in the first place, which won't happen until War of the Spark.
Indeed there are consequences for Jace leaving the plane all the time. Its what allowed Bolas to get stuff done on Ravnica by bring in ringers to lead half of the guilds. Now you can make the case that Jace hasn't really suffered personal consequences as his last encounter with Bolas left him with a new gf and more powerful then ever before. But again the story is not over yet. Ravnica though has obviously paid a price.
I liked the most recent story. At first I was a bit sceptical of the 'new' vignette approach, but I don't care about the main story/characters that much anyway, so it's actually pretty nice to see the world become a bit more fleshed out from the perspectives of other characters (especially non-archetypical ones that tend to not appear on cards, like a tatoo artist in this case). It'd be great if some aspects of theses stories would show up in the upcoming novel.
I found it entertaining as from I'm starting a D&D Ravnica campaign and incidentally wanted to do a Merfolk Monk. After reading that story it didn't seem as ridiculous as it did on paper originally.
Plus I liked the callbacks to Momir Vig. I much prefer the mad scientist approach of the Simic rather than peaceful cooperation (sorry Zegana).
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1) Domri, he beat Borbo buy just summoning enough Boars? What how does that work? No one else though to toss a bunch of summons at Borbo? Borbo has been in what power for centuries and no in the RG thought hey maybe I can just toss summons at him until he gets tired.
2) General Issue. Neowalkers are suppose to be weaker then Oldwalkers but it really seems that Neowalkers are stronger relative to Legendaries. Sure one can make excuses on individual fights but its adds up when we see Legend after Legend go down easy to Neowalkers when they put up way better fights against Oldwalkers. Guys like Baron Sengrir put the fear in Walkers like Serra and her Husband. Serra's creation in Radiant was curbstomping Urza himself. Meanwhile current Legends are getting rekt left and right. Eldrazi Titans down to Channel Fireball. Isperia dropped by Vraksa in an obvious trap despite being a telepath. The list goes on by feats Neowalkers do way better against Legends then Oldwalkers did on average. So really all it seems Neowalkers have lost is immorality/regeneration. We were told Oldwalkers got nerfed cause they were too OP only to see OP Neowalkers with little to no experience routinely trounce Legends with ease. Legends who should be far stronger in terms of power and magic and experience. Experience apparently ain't worth anything against Neowalker Plot Armor. Even worse former Oldwalkers get treated like Jokes as we saw Teferi, Karn and Jaya do nothing in combat on Dominaria at the end. While Azor got sent to his room. So Oldwalkers are jobbing out to names while Neowalkers are crushing Paruns. Bolas being the exception...although you could make the case he did in that Core Set story.
Frankly, the Rakdos in original RAV weren't either entertainers or miners. All their cards just depicted the "bloodthirsty crazy ruffians and mercenaries" aspect of the guild. See Slaughterhouse Bouncer. Jagged Poppet. Anthem of Rakdos.
RTR had some circus-related cards, like Rakdos Ringleader, or Gore-Hoouse Chainwalker, but still much of the "crazy murderous thug" cards, like Splatter Thug, Hellhole Flailer, Cackler, Grim Roustabout, Thrill-Kill Assassin.
So what actually happened (on cards) was establishment of the entertainment topic in RtR and fully expanding it in RNA. The mining and hard menial work were never there.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
2. The power of old walkers, neowallers, and legendaries are on a Spectrum. A couple of legendaries scaring old walkers are the exception. The power of Urza can’t be compared to the power of Squee, Hannah, cho-Manno, Tangarth, etc.
Bogey is powerful, but what’s his conditioning like? If you keep sending boar after boar at him, eventually he would yield.
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
I mean, the titans 'issue' was dealt with by claiming that the 3 oldwalkers that had imprisoned them hadn't put in much, if any, effort in killing them. Sorin lacked the capacity to channel a plane's worth of mana into a spell against them. Nahiri theoretically had the means to harm them, but was convinced by Ugin and Sorin that containing them was a necessity. Lastly, Ugin didn't want them dead.
The Gatewatch (primarily thanks to Ugin and Nissa) had the means, motive (they failed at re-imprisoning the titans), and knowledge to both pull the titans into the plane and channel said plane's mana into a single spell against them. There's an argument there that there should have been more consequences to channelling so much mana at once, but they made a pretty strong case that the oldwalkers could have killed the titans but didn't because the main planner of the team (Ugin) didn't want to.
As for the Isperia situation, we don't yet know the specifics of how Vraska petrified her. Given that she's working for Bolas (a powerful telepath himself), I wouldn't put it past him to have worked some mind magic to make it seem to Isperia that Vraska had no ill intent towards her.
Edit) On the topic of Neowalkers vs Legends:
Koth and Elspeth failed against the Phyexian praetors and their forces.
Gods have almost universally overpowered neowalkers (Elspeth was forced to undertake a trial by one of the gods to enter Nyx with Ajani, Heliod killed Elspeth, Kiora was easily overpowered in both strength and magic by Thassa and only escaped by tricking the god into loosening the bident's press on Kiora's throat, and the Gatewatch were powerless to the whims of the gods of Amonkhet) with the sole exception of a newly ascended god (Xenagos) falling to Elspeth (who was wielding a weapon literally made to kill gods).
The entirety of Baral vs Chandra (only appearing to fail in killing them because he was denied reinforcements on two occasions by Dovin Baan (once because they were meant to be a distraction and once because Dovin cares about the law and Baral had just admitted to breaking it).
Kiora and her sea monster summons amounting to nothing against Kozilek.
And these are just what I can think of off the top of my head.
I think all of this comes down to accentuating the negative ("Neowalkers are op and Wizards deliberately tries to force them down our throats!") and then only searching for examples that prove this point (or reducing plotpoints in such a way that it seems like they do) instead of considering points that disprove this notion.
Now, that doesn't mean that Wizards DOESN'T sometimes fail in their handling of the Gatewatch and other neowalkers. I especially find it a bit curious that they don't point out more often why they actually DO have kind of an advantage against planebound entities (to a degree of course): Traveling to other planes gives them insights and knowledge that these entities simply can't have (or are even weak to without them knowing it). Take for example Nissas' escape from Kefnets' trial. She was more or less crushed by the god, but since she was knowledgeable in leylines and direct manipulation of mana (and saw a vision of Nicol Bolas using those against the gods) she was able to slightly change Kefnet in a way no one on Amonkhet would probably be able to. Every planeswalker thus has the potential to become an outside context problem for legendaries for example: They might be very familiar with any magic or magitek used on their plane, but that won't help against totally different magic. That in itself was the reason Heliod killed Elspeth in the end, just like Xenagos using his outside knowledge to ascend into godhood, he thought of her as a threat for knowing things that he himself had no access to (and because he is an egomaniac who styles himself as being the top god of his plane, he couldn't allow that).
Now, to Ravnica: I don't get the complaint about the guilds becoming caricatures of themselves. If anything they have become more varied since the first Ravnica, with clearer basic identities. Outside of the Ravnica books of the time the guilds were pretty one-dimensional, Rakdos were all evil sado-masochist ********s on their cards, Boros actually looked pretty much exactly as they do now (only with their police functions even less pronounced), same goes for Golgari, Orzhov and quite a few others (there was not a single card in OG Ravnica mentioning the Golgaris' rot-farms which provide food to much of the poorer populace of the city, nor was there one card depicting a defence lawyer or banker for the Orzhov). Simic and Dimir also had no cards until RtR that depicted their "official" businesses (and I'm still waiting for a simic doctor healing patients being depicted, with the Simic being THE medical branch in Ravnica).
In the end the cards don't depict the less interesting menial tasks the guilds do most of the time, though I would say that RtR and RtRtR were doing better in this regard than the original City of Guilds, as much as I love that block.
The books mentioned Rakdos clubs and resteraunts, and that Rix Maadi (and the surrounding Rakdos territory in Ravnica City's undercity) was as much of a mine and foundry as it was a base of operations.
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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!
Neowalkers: Jace takes down Azor, Vraksa takes out Isperia, Domri beats Borbo, and Kaya slaughters the Obzedat. Now for Kaya and Jace sure you can say they have a natural advantage Jace using the Guildpact and Kaya being a ghostbuster. But still doesn't seem these legends are putting up much of a fight or even getting hits in.
Oldwalkers: Bolas punked by twins, Teferi, Jaya and Karn worthless against Urborgos. So we got Oldwalkers losing to no names while Neowalkers are dunking on Guild Leaders who are well known with no issue.
Only thing Baral and Chandra shows is inconsistent power levels strong enough to beat Eldrazi Titans but not strong enough to beat Baral? Yeah yeah he counters did Chandra not know any uncounterable fire spells.
Agreed, but note that I am talking about cards, not novels.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
"It's unrealistic that a hunter can kill an elephant when he has a high-caliber rifle and the elephant is trapped, but gets stomped by Mike Tyson in a fist fight. Obviously the elephant is a lot more powerful than Mike Tyson!"
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-storyline/638944-storytelling-critique-thread?page=4
You should just post there instead of derailing thread with the same critiques.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Because eating too much of something in a short time can't kill you?
It doesn't matter what Gatewatch hatred you have, it remains -at worst- nowhere near as terrible as people said, and at least The resolution to Battle for Zendikar made some sort of Narrative sense.
"Ugin always had a way to kill the Eldrazi, he was just a massive prick who cares more about the balance than he does about the little people, which is entirely in character for an Oldwalker Elder Dragon."
Which was better than the garbage that went down in SOI "Emrakul decides randomly to stuff herself in the moon meaning that one of the most popular planes in the setting now has a gun to it's head permanently" The problem with the Eldrazi is that there is no ending that is satisfying, by their very nature you either lose every fight involving them..or have to pull something out of your arse to make the good guys win.
The Eldrazi never should have existed in MTG, they were a mistake. Going back to Zendikar after they got loose to try and "save" the plane was doubling down on that mistake.
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
There are two different issues though one Eldrazi Titans are suppose Endgame Bosses so going from beating them to struggling with Baral just doesn't work. It would have been a better story if they had let Zendikar get rekt or baited.
Emrakul though shows the issue properly written these Titans should be unstoppable so they either rekt the plane or have to be sealed. Issue here is Emrakul just deciding to seal herself. So in Battle of Zendikar, you walk out thinking oh Jace is right Ugin is a dick but the Shadows tell you actually wait a second these Eldrazi Titans might actually have a higher purpose so Ugin is right and Jace is a dick.
Also none of this has anything to do with the events on Ravnica.
The new story about Gruul, I like it, it showcases the loyalty aspect of Gruul and how one could rage over clans' wellbeing instead of just rawr rawr. It adds perspective, much like how the Boros story shows more of their police-investigation side instead of just the police-brutality side. I also like how they smoothly added a lesbian couple there, inter-specie and inter-clan no less, it's cute.
I also appreciate how Selesnya is doing dirty work here. While it may or may not be Trostani's idea, the tactic is clearly Selesnyan and shows the rare facet of aggression (outside of tokens and wurms, that is).
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Umm... Aren't the consequences for Jace's absence coming to light in this latest return to Ravnica? The guilds are preparing to go to war with each other, pushing what remains of the guild pact to its limit in order to crack down on guilds others than their own.
Or do you mean consequences for Jace (the guy who was given the choice to either be the living guild pact, a job I'd say no person would be equipped to perform (not even Azor given how long he's been absent from the plane), or let all life on Ravnica be wiped out)?
[sarcasm] It's not like he protested the idea of him, a planeswalker, becoming the living guild pact, but stayed on Ravnica with the rest of the Gatewatch (and even prior to the Gatewatch's formation) between dealing with interplanar threats with his apparently longest absence being almost entirely due to his mind getting wiped by Bolas before warping into a planeswalker prison plane thanks to Ugin. [/sarcasm]
Of course, any personal consequences for Jace's absence on the plane kind of need to wait for him to get back to Ravnica in the first place, which won't happen until War of the Spark.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/principles-unnatural-selection-2019-02-06
Just a doot doot doot do kinda story. Entertaining but nothing very revealing
Plus I liked the callbacks to Momir Vig. I much prefer the mad scientist approach of the Simic rather than peaceful cooperation (sorry Zegana).