Speaking of Theros I'm a little confused why Ajani's mission on Theros was in any way related to Elspeth? Norn sent him there because she was afraid of Elspeth, but... What did turning Theros have to do with any of that?
(Somehow.)
I too was miffed about how super lacking the Theros repped have been... for how Norn seemingly made it so important and shi. Here's hoping MOM: Aftermath stories talk about post-MOM Theros more. :/
I think Theros and New Capenna where lures/distractions for Elspeth to go after them so Norn wouldn't have to face her.
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"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Heliod being killed within a sentence is just rough, and while Kaya is a skill ghost-killer she was also facing a god, something that stays alive by the power of its followers. Making Theron gods so vulnerable to one mortal, a cut on their "ethereal" throat, is just... I don't know, lame? It's like how Ob Nixilis just swoop in on Capenna and suddenly defeated all five families with ease.
And where's Caberetti?
Being the smartest Phyrexian, Jin certainly picked the worst time to rebel. Plot armor much?
Elspeth pierced Nissa's head from behind, that'd kill most phyrexians on the spot, and somehow she was alive for days to be cured? I suspect this is WotC's compensation for killing Chandra-Nissa relationship, back in the days when the company had less courage.
Melira, being the cure and prevention of Phyresis, never had any chance to shine until her death. You'd think with all the invention rebels came up with they would've alchemically create a cure out of her now. Admittedly, I find it poetic that Karn gave up his spark on Zhalfir and will resides there, a plane from the first invasion with his best friend. We just need Jhoira there.
As much as I'm happy to see Ajani alive and well, it does the story a disservice, much like how DC/Marvel kills off characters but always revive them, readers will stop feeling for the loss.
WotC should stop building climaxes for a set then end it with such luke warm finale.
Welcome to my leading complaint about MTG lore: "Because Planeswalker" which is evidently sufficient justification to have completely cheap, unreasonable, and inexplicable OP feats for no other reason than the character being the planeswalker protagonist. Makes them feel more like marketing tools than genuine characters in a well crafted story.
It's just such lazy and unappealing storytelling that makes me less and less invested in the lore. Planar overlords depicted as pushovers relative to mortals that would have otherwise worshipped these entities, just because the latter have sparks (which are explicitly stated to strictly allow for planar travel, not imbue a character with superior magic) really deprives all these planes as settings, and the vast majority of characters, of having any inherent value in the story, when all that matters is whatever protagonist the lore is promoting at the expense of any consistency or character development or challenges. There seem to be no limitations, and it cheapens the adventures of MTG characters knowing they can what... whip back an Eldrazi titan with a surral, "kill" a horizon spanning deity with a knife to the throat, or take out 5 crime families on their own turf just by showing up? lol k
Heliod being killed within a sentence is just rough, and while Kaya is a skill ghost-killer she was also facing a god, something that stays alive by the power of its followers. Making Theron gods so vulnerable to one mortal, a cut on their "ethereal" throat, is just... I don't know, lame? It's like how Ob Nixilis just swoop in on Capenna and suddenly defeated all five families with ease.
And where's Caberetti?
Being the smartest Phyrexian, Jin certainly picked the worst time to rebel. Plot armor much?
Elspeth pierced Nissa's head from behind, that'd kill most phyrexians on the spot, and somehow she was alive for days to be cured? I suspect this is WotC's compensation for killing Chandra-Nissa relationship, back in the days when the company had less courage.
Melira, being the cure and prevention of Phyresis, never had any chance to shine until her death. You'd think with all the invention rebels came up with they would've alchemically create a cure out of her now. Admittedly, I find it poetic that Karn gave up his spark on Zhalfir and will resides there, a plane from the first invasion with his best friend. We just need Jhoira there.
As much as I'm happy to see Ajani alive and well, it does the story a disservice, much like how DC/Marvel kills off characters but always revive them, readers will stop feeling for the loss.
WotC should stop building climaxes for a set then end it with such luke warm finale.
Welcome to my leading complaint about MTG lore: "Because Planeswalker" which is evidently sufficient justification to have completely cheap, unreasonable, and inexplicable OP feats for no other reason than the character being the planeswalker protagonist. Makes them feel more like marketing tools than genuine characters in a well crafted story.
It's just such lazy and unappealing storytelling that makes me less and less invested in the lore. Planar overlords depicted as pushovers relative to mortals that would have otherwise worshipped these entities, just because the latter have sparks (which are explicitly stated to strictly allow for planar travel, not imbue a character with superior magic) really deprives all these planes as settings, and the vast majority of characters, of having any inherent value in the story, when all that matters is whatever protagonist the lore is promoting at the expense of any consistency or character development or challenges. There seem to be no limitations, and it cheapens the adventures of MTG characters knowing they can what... whip back an Eldrazi titan with a surral, "kill" a horizon spanning deity with a knife to the throat, or take out 5 crime families on their own turf just by showing up? lol k
Agreed. I think WotC has not yet understood that a protagonist does not necessarily need to be the most powerful character in a story.
It's especially grating with MoM, because if there was ever a time to assemble the planebound legendaries of the multiverse it would have been now. If there was ever a time to show us how the planes fare and not the planeswalkers, it would have been now.
But instead most of the side-stories focused on the planeswalkers. The only off-plane characters to fight on New Phyrexia were the Zhalfirans (and maybe the Capennan angels? Though they seem to have been forgotten in the last two stories). Several feats of pushing back the invaders were done by, you guess it, planeswalkers, like Kaya killing Heliod, lmao. Which was honestly the dumbest moment in all of MoM and that's saying something because the whole resolution to the plot hinged on every involved character having read the script.
Non-planeswalkers are repeatedly shown as drooling imbeciles who couldn't find their way out of a shoe box. And then the planeswalkers swoop in to save the day.
I'm not exaggerating when I say these final stories have not only snuffed out my enthusiasm for the MOM set, but for Magic Lore for the foreseeable future. I've been a fan of the story for 20+ years and so I don't say this lightly, but depending on how Aftermath shakes out, I may just need to take a long, long break from all this.
Phyrexia is not supposed to be a joke. It is the ultimate evil, the most dangerous malevolent power in the Multiverse. Magic has been building up to this climactic showdown for 13 years, so now that it's time for the Phyrexians to lose, defeating them should feel truly difficult and desperate, an effort worthy of the danger they (supposedly) pose. This last clash should feel not just worthy of Phyrexia, but of the Multiverse, which is at stake.
Yet Phyrexia's power starts collapsing long before the end. Sheoldred, Urabrask, Vorinclex, Jin-Gitaxias - these long-iconic faces of Phyrexia - are killed off with minimal effort and without ceremony. The praetors devolve into almost comical incompetents, while Norn herself spends the last handful of stories as a frightened, shrieking thing, flailing desperately to hold her crumbling Phyrexia together. There was no suspense in this story after Elspeth's return; the villains didn't rally to put up a good final fight, and their defeat, when it came, felt inevitable, preordained, and banal. Phyrexia is not scary here. It is not formidable. Phyrexia and its praetors are mere props and stepping stones for the heroes to have their Big Moments and to look cool.
Yet even those moments fall short, for in the end, these heroes don't feel like they're fighting any threat of stature.
All that work that went into designing New Phyrexia - the language, the factional aesthetic, the praetor designs, the seeds of this conflict being laid across multiple worlds over multiple years - all of that comes together in the final accounting to yield... this. A mediocre faceplant that diminishes Phyrexia, diminishes the Multiverse, and diminishes my faith that Magic can still tell a well-crafted story again in the current era.
Perhaps it was the nostalgia for Dominaria, Phyrexia, and Mirrodin that got me so invested over this past year, but I wanted this story to succeed so bad.
K. Rivera has written some excellent stories in the past, and yes, some of her installments for MOM were very well done (particularly Chapters 3, 6, and 8). She writes the Planeswalker characters stirringly well, and she did a great job with Chandra and Nissa. That said, she seems to have little interest whatsoever in the villains and reduces them to trivial, often cartoonish figures. Doing that to the likes of Olivia Voldaren is one thing. Doing that to Elesh Norn and Jin-Gitaxias is another matter entirely, and it severely blunts the impact of what should be an epic story. Nevertheless, if Wizards had only given her another two chapters to work with, I'm sure she'd have fleshed out a somewhat more satisfying final showdown.
In any case, I'm going to go back and read the story again to see if I feel any differently the second time around. The resolution to the Phyrexian story was something I've been looking forward to for over a decade, and as recently as last week things still looked so promising. But seeing the end handled like this(especially after the lackluster conclusion of the Bolas arc) finally makes me think... what's the point of investing myself in the story at all?
Well... it's odd - i kinda liked the story and conclusion. At least they didn't do the dirty "time-trick" to solve the phyrexians. I like how nearly each plane on it's own evolved something to battle new phyrexia... ikorias monsters evolved, capennas angels returned... I like Wren's arc (even if unexpected) and how Elspeth turned out as Serra 2.0.
Ultimately Elesh's "All will be one"-concept was her downfall - as urabrask said. First of all - New Phyrexia was never "one" under the five suns... Its not old Phyrexia under one Yawgmoth because lil Elesh isn't a God like he was. This flaw in strategy and unity was really bad during the invasion - as no general wants to have a rebellion in your homeland during an full scale invasion or a double agent in you prepation phase. Next you attack a multitude of diffent planes with different enviroments at once and split you forces... that's just dumb and ignorant, and opened up the counter attacks. Old Yawgi evoved different weopons and strategies for different settings - on one plane alone...
Some small flaws remain - as ever in modern stories but nothing major (as I think).
- Kaya killing Heliod... Well he was compleated, which was weird in the first place. So maybe he became corporal/spiritual to be killed by kaya... why not.
- Some adventures and an angel killing Nahiri? First of all Nahiri ("the" Nahiri) should be dead - burned out. Why she has memory of her older self is beyond my understanding and I don't like how they defeated her... IF she doesn't return. (Maybe she is a "future" plant as well? The story describes her as stubborn beyond comprehension, she is milenia years old and powerful and tough, we haven't seen her body, could be in slumber, there can be an "uncompleation" and we have Nissa back.)
- Tibalt. His whole story after Kaldheim is missing - from compleation to death.
- Zhalfir becoming a plane. Thats weird, as it was "only" a continent on dominaria... but okay maybe it can "grow" and become more than that.
- Karn losing "his" spark. Not that he gives up his spark to cleanse his friends, just that he did it on Zhalfir instead of Dominaria. But he is made of silver, so maybe he can be transported by his friend to his resting place?
But what remains for aftermath?
The planes not mentioned? Ulgrotha, Lorwyn, ... ?
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For all you have done for the game we love.
Glen Angus, Magic Artist, 1970-2007 ; Richie Proffitt, MTG Salvation Mod (PolarBearGod), 1977-2008
Rest in Peace.
I'm not exaggerating when I say these final stories have not only snuffed out my enthusiasm for the MOM set, but for Magic Lore for the foreseeable future. I've been a fan of the story for 20+ years and so I don't say this lightly, but depending on how Aftermath shakes out, I may just need to take a long, long break from all this.
Phyrexia is not supposed to be a joke. It is the ultimate evil, the most dangerous malevolent power in the Multiverse. Magic has been building up to this climactic showdown for 13 years, so now that it's time for the Phyrexians to lose, defeating them should feel truly difficult and desperate, an effort worthy of the danger they (supposedly) pose. This last clash should feel not just worthy of Phyrexia, but of the Multiverse, which is at stake.
Yet Phyrexia's power starts collapsing long before the end. Sheoldred, Urabrask, Vorinclex, Jin-Gitaxias - these long-iconic faces of Phyrexia - are killed off with minimal effort and without ceremony. The praetors devolve into almost comical incompetents, while Norn herself spends the last handful of stories as a frightened, shrieking thing, flailing desperately to hold her crumbling Phyrexia together. There was no suspense in this story after Elspeth's return; the villains didn't rally to put up a good final fight, and their defeat, when it came, felt inevitable, preordained, and banal. Phyrexia is not scary here. It is not formidable. Phyrexia and its praetors are mere props and stepping stones for the heroes to have their Big Moments and to look cool.
Yet even those moments fall short, for in the end, these heroes don't feel like they're fighting any threat of stature.
All that work that went into designing New Phyrexia - the language, the factional aesthetic, the praetor designs, the seeds of this conflict being laid across multiple worlds over multiple years - all of that comes together in the final accounting to yield... this. A mediocre faceplant that diminishes Phyrexia, diminishes the Multiverse, and diminishes my faith that Magic can still tell a well-crafted story again in the current era.
Perhaps it was the nostalgia for Dominaria, Phyrexia, and Mirrodin that got me so invested over this past year, but I wanted this story to succeed so bad.
K. Rivera has written some excellent stories in the past, and yes, some of her installments for MOM were very well done (particularly Chapters 3, 6, and 8). She writes the Planeswalker characters stirringly well, and she did a great job with Chandra and Nissa. That said, she seems to have little interest whatsoever in the villains and reduces them to trivial, often cartoonish figures. Doing that to the likes of Olivia Voldaren is one thing. Doing that to Elesh Norn and Jin-Gitaxias is another matter entirely, and it severely blunts the impact of what should be an epic story. Nevertheless, if Wizards had only given her another two chapters to work with, I'm sure she'd have fleshed out a somewhat more satisfying final showdown.
In any case, I'm going to go back and read the story again to see if I feel any differently the second time around. The resolution to the Phyrexian story was something I've been looking forward to for over a decade, and as recently as last week things still looked so promising. But seeing the end handled like this(especially after the lackluster conclusion of the Bolas arc) finally makes me think... what's the point of investing myself in the story at all?
I'm not to the point of giving up in general on story, but you have a lot of very valid points here. It's legitimately depressing to me to see how much work and care goes into the WORLDBUILDING before a set. They make living. breathing, functioning worlds and settings with legitimately interesting characters and ideas... and then when it comes time to tell a story within those worlds, it feels like an afterthought at times. Everything feels rushed, there are generally gaping plot or logic holes that are never addressed, the endings are usually lackluster or contrived, and we get outright contradictions or omissions between the story presented on the cards and the story that we're told. And then we're whisked off to the next setting and told to get excited for the deep lore of this next location like it won't just happen again.
For all the excitement WotC tries to drum up for each set in terms of big, epic stories and high adventure, it's pretty blatantly obvious that it's the one of their lower priorities at this point.
At least he wasn't killed during his "execution" so he's the only praetor not confirmed dead. He probably weaseled his way through some portal somewhere before the Zhalfir/New Phyrexia shift and we'll see him again in the future.
I'm not exaggerating when I say these final stories have not only snuffed out my enthusiasm for the MOM set, but for Magic Lore for the foreseeable future. I've been a fan of the story for 20+ years and so I don't say this lightly, but depending on how Aftermath shakes out, I may just need to take a long, long break from all this.
I voiced the same sentiment before. I am veteran of storyline discussions since 2002. I remember discussing proverbially each page of a novel, spinning theories about planes and characters, because back then, the lore was immensely deep and people who wrote it actually cared a lot, respected rules and principles, even those defined in-universe. That was what distinguished Magic lore from similar sources, an amount of care comparable to great fantasy sagas.
It ended basically with Lorwyn books. The planeswalker novels? Agents of Artifice was great, The Purifying Fire was rewritten several times, Test of Metal is a pile of stinking ****, and Curse of the Chain Veil was cancelled. Alara book from Doug Beyer was like poor fanfic from 15-yr old, and the less be said about Teeth of Akoum and Quest for Karn, the better.
They made a solid comeback with the new format. There were some VERY good pieces, Chronicles of Bolas are coming to mind, and couple of really good standalone stories - Nahiri's fate in the Helvault, Emrakul emerging...
And then it went into the last phase - the 5-6 stories per set. Too few to tell a good, non-rushed story. With casual resurrection of long-dead characters (some of us even remember a rule of "no resurrection if the character's death was storywise important") - yes, I am looking at you, Ertai...
I accepted what you describe in the last year, and frankly I had low expectations on how this would be resolved. M
Discrepancy between cards and story became normal and even admitted. People behaving off character, character development thrown out of the window... Years wasted. Urabrask's revolt, hinted elready in Scars block, then again in Capenna, forget it, he just got them to the tree and got butchered afterwards. Sheoldred did not even accomplished as much. At least they brought back Nissa and Ajani and gave Tamiyo a nice way to continue "existing".
Magic lore has become DC/Marvel, where rules and even character histories are relegated to the backseat. Characters returning, rising from dead at random when needed. Everything in the name of cool. It has basically lost everything that used to make it just another fictional world.
On a positive note - some of the episodes, namely 6,7 and 8 (the two Elspeth stories and Wrenn and Eight) were quite awesome, reminiscent of the greatest works of old. And I really liked Brothers' War stories - mainly because the premise was clear and the results given.
But with having still less and less time and Magic lore being the last thread holding me onto this game...what it became is not enough to remain.
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I take it you haven't read Odyssey, Onslaught and the original Mirrodin books. Or rather, excised them from memory, couldn't blame you.
Point is Magic story has always been a bit of a mixed bag and everyone who says the good old days were objectively great storytelling is just wearing three sets of nostalgia goggles.
Magic storytelling was always a little bit "mmh, whatever", but at least they managed to get the basics right. The stories were serviceable. ONE and MoM doesn't even manage that. BOTH arcs fell apart on the first or second chapter already, into non-salvageable pieces. It's not the ending that is broken, it is the whole thing, the process and the intent behind each writing decision. Magic story is currently fundamentally broken because not a single thought is spared to those aspects that make a story a story.
Heliod being killed within a sentence is just rough, and while Kaya is a skill ghost-killer she was also facing a god, something that stays alive by the power of its followers. Making Theron gods so vulnerable to one mortal, a cut on their "ethereal" throat, is just... I don't know, lame? It's like how Ob Nixilis just swoop in on Capenna and suddenly defeated all five families with ease.
And where's Caberetti?
Being the smartest Phyrexian, Jin certainly picked the worst time to rebel. Plot armor much?
Elspeth pierced Nissa's head from behind, that'd kill most phyrexians on the spot, and somehow she was alive for days to be cured? I suspect this is WotC's compensation for killing Chandra-Nissa relationship, back in the days when the company had less courage.
Melira, being the cure and prevention of Phyresis, never had any chance to shine until her death. You'd think with all the invention rebels came up with they would've alchemically create a cure out of her now. Admittedly, I find it poetic that Karn gave up his spark on Zhalfir and will resides there, a plane from the first invasion with his best friend. We just need Jhoira there.
As much as I'm happy to see Ajani alive and well, it does the story a disservice, much like how DC/Marvel kills off characters but always revive them, readers will stop feeling for the loss.
WotC should stop building climaxes for a set then end it with such luke warm finale.
Welcome to my leading complaint about MTG lore: "Because Planeswalker" which is evidently sufficient justification to have completely cheap, unreasonable, and inexplicable OP feats for no other reason than the character being the planeswalker protagonist. Makes them feel more like marketing tools than genuine characters in a well crafted story.
It's just such lazy and unappealing storytelling that makes me less and less invested in the lore. Planar overlords depicted as pushovers relative to mortals that would have otherwise worshipped these entities, just because the latter have sparks (which are explicitly stated to strictly allow for planar travel, not imbue a character with superior magic) really deprives all these planes as settings, and the vast majority of characters, of having any inherent value in the story, when all that matters is whatever protagonist the lore is promoting at the expense of any consistency or character development or challenges. There seem to be no limitations, and it cheapens the adventures of MTG characters knowing they can what... whip back an Eldrazi titan with a surral, "kill" a horizon spanning deity with a knife to the throat, or take out 5 crime families on their own turf just by showing up? lol k
Agreed. I think WotC has not yet understood that a protagonist does not necessarily need to be the most powerful character in a story.
It's especially grating with MoM, because if there was ever a time to assemble the planebound legendaries of the multiverse it would have been now. If there was ever a time to show us how the planes fare and not the planeswalkers, it would have been now.
But instead most of the side-stories focused on the planeswalkers. The only off-plane characters to fight on New Phyrexia were the Zhalfirans (and maybe the Capennan angels? Though they seem to have been forgotten in the last two stories). Several feats of pushing back the invaders were done by, you guess it, planeswalkers, like Kaya killing Heliod, lmao. Which was honestly the dumbest moment in all of MoM and that's saying something because the whole resolution to the plot hinged on every involved character having read the script.
Non-planeswalkers are repeatedly shown as drooling imbeciles who couldn't find their way out of a shoe box. And then the planeswalkers swoop in to save the day.
And it's worse than frustrating. It's boring.
Agreed on all counts. And frankly, I feel like Legendary characters are more interesting, because they're thematically unique to the plane. A Planeswalker can show up in any plane or story, theoretically, but a plane-bound Legend is more unique to the story, or at least should be. My favorite MTG story focused on the anti-hero Toshiro saving Kamigawa. I loved how he worked with the original magic of the plane, Kanji and myojin magic, to work out solutions, make sacrifices, and occasionally yes - even fail at some attempts.
I also suspect MTG has not learned restraint, either. This story was just so overblown and exhausting. It's as if they cannot rely or count on good writing to engage the reader, so they feel the need to plunge their collective settings into utter ruin every time, in the hopes that desperation will sell enough interest in the lore. When in reality, all it takes is good author, respect for the settings and Legendary characters, and a restraint. A highlight from the recent lore for me was Jace and Vraska on Ixalan for example - two characters simply bonding in a thematic setting. The work, authors, vision, and writing was all collectively better during the Gatewatch era honestly.
Probably. You can run "into" someone without penetrating them. And if the idea was penetration, then specifying the pommel would be a weird choice. Here "into" means direction "perpendicular towards the object", not extend "until it is inside".
Going by the top two dictionary definitions:
You thought (1): "expressing movement or action with the result that someone or something becomes enclosed or surrounded by something else", but they meant (2): "expressing movement or action with the result that someone or something makes physical contact with something else".
Too literally. The amount of force it would take to drive a blunt round object like a pommel into someone's skull would leave them without a good chunk of their skull.
I honestly would've preferred that. The original invasion was great because it left a very bitter taste, this one is a fairytale by comparison. Death on its own doesn't become a good tragedy, it's the part about dashing hope (Chandra) that makes the stake high.
We will have Aftermath story May 1-2 and previews 2-3. Reminder its a 50 micro set. From packaging for it;
Nahiri seems to have survived
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"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
As far as the released novels go, the Highlights to me have always been:
- Thran
- Artifacts Cycle (Brothers War, Planeswalker, Time Streams, Bloodlines)
- Ice Age Cycle (Gathering Dark, Eternal Ice, Shattered Alliance)
- Nemesis
- Invasion Cycle (I know they're not great but they were the first ones I read as a kid and I've always had a soft spot for them)
- Chainer's Torment
- Kamigawa Cycle
- Ravnica Cyle
As far as I'm concerned, the quality dropped off a cliff after Ravnica, even though there had previously been some definite lowlights like the Mirrodin and Onslaught block books. But even those lowlights beat the hell out of the mishmash we are given now.
THEY better explain how Nahiri gets uncompleated or something!?
Because MtG is very good at explaining these things and making them make sense, yes.
Don't worry,
Ajani will purify her soul or something because he got soul magic you guys and it totally works and as a result it will completely undo the weight of Melira's sacrifice.
I take it you haven't read Odyssey, Onslaught and the original Mirrodin books. Or rather, excised them from memory, couldn't blame you.
.
Indeed. That was my only pause from Magic - Odyssey to Legions. I kinda liked Odyssey block books, though. Onslaught trilogy was bad, and only Fifth Dawn was worth something from the other trilogy. But what followed - Kamigawa and Ravnica - belongs among the best books, as well as what preceded - Urza's story and Legends II, to name a few.
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Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
THEY better explain how Nahiri gets uncompleated or something!?
Because MtG is very good at explaining these things and making them make sense, yes.
Don't worry,
Ajani will purify her soul or something because he got soul magic you guys and it totally works and as a result it will completely undo the weight of Melira's sacrifice.
I agree that Ajani can be the one to purify Nahiri and uncompleat her... I mean it IS one of his abilities:
His specialty is magic of the purification of body and soul: spells that heal and strengthen his allies, and spells that evoke the inner, spiritual essence of others.
I think they still can write a decent stories (books) even nowadays, but better no be tied to actual card set.
Examples:
Django Wrexler: The Gathering Storm (prequel for War of the Spark) - the Niv-Mizzet vs Bolas fight is brilliant
Kate Elliott: Chronicles of Bolas (loosely tied to Core Set 2019)
Kate Elliott: The Wildered Quest (Eldraine book)
Brandon Sanderson: Children of the Nameless (Innistrad spinoff book)
I think when authors have greater freedom, they could make a nice piece. However, when they have strict boundaries of action, heroes, and quota of 5 chapters, it usually goes wrong...
WOTC have basically made planeswalkers their brand, so they kind of have to maintain that ultra powerful being(s) as the main protagonists with durdling non-PWs as fun side stories or support actors. I doubt they'll make planeswalkers be second fiddle, but it would be a cool distraction for once.
Makes me think of Gerrard in the original Weatherlight Saga. A fallible human non-planeswalker doing the planehopping as if he were a planeswalker and a cast of non-PW crew doing the same thing. The romantic elements between Gerrard and Hanna, for example, were great. But they can't go back to that now, not with the heavy investment into PWs as their core brand identity.
I personally liked some of the storytelling leading up to the War of the Spark, like the character development of Jace and Vraska was excellent, the stuff with Angrath, etc, were fantastic. EVen this go around, I know the storytelling has been rather dry after the disaster that was Forsaken and the knee-jerk reaction thereafter (No story for Theros Beyond Death? Excuse me?) but there have been some nice storytelling reprieves lately. The MoM story actually did a decent job capturing the invasion on a level without drawing it out too much that people lose interest or grow frustrated.
I liked the emotional connection the authors attempted to create. Any time a story can elicit emotion in some form is one that tendst o hit the spot from a literary standpoint.
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HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset. Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
Predictably the trailer is more badass than the actual confrontation
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but even with the trailer looking a bit like a kid's cartoon, its visuals (and the card art that has been spoiled so far) are really making me more excited for this set's story than ... the actual story.
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I think Theros and New Capenna where lures/distractions for Elspeth to go after them so Norn wouldn't have to face her.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
It's just such lazy and unappealing storytelling that makes me less and less invested in the lore. Planar overlords depicted as pushovers relative to mortals that would have otherwise worshipped these entities, just because the latter have sparks (which are explicitly stated to strictly allow for planar travel, not imbue a character with superior magic) really deprives all these planes as settings, and the vast majority of characters, of having any inherent value in the story, when all that matters is whatever protagonist the lore is promoting at the expense of any consistency or character development or challenges. There seem to be no limitations, and it cheapens the adventures of MTG characters knowing they can what... whip back an Eldrazi titan with a surral, "kill" a horizon spanning deity with a knife to the throat, or take out 5 crime families on their own turf just by showing up? lol k
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Agreed. I think WotC has not yet understood that a protagonist does not necessarily need to be the most powerful character in a story.
It's especially grating with MoM, because if there was ever a time to assemble the planebound legendaries of the multiverse it would have been now. If there was ever a time to show us how the planes fare and not the planeswalkers, it would have been now.
But instead most of the side-stories focused on the planeswalkers. The only off-plane characters to fight on New Phyrexia were the Zhalfirans (and maybe the Capennan angels? Though they seem to have been forgotten in the last two stories). Several feats of pushing back the invaders were done by, you guess it, planeswalkers, like Kaya killing Heliod, lmao. Which was honestly the dumbest moment in all of MoM and that's saying something because the whole resolution to the plot hinged on every involved character having read the script.
Non-planeswalkers are repeatedly shown as drooling imbeciles who couldn't find their way out of a shoe box. And then the planeswalkers swoop in to save the day.
And it's worse than frustrating. It's boring.
Phyrexia is not supposed to be a joke. It is the ultimate evil, the most dangerous malevolent power in the Multiverse. Magic has been building up to this climactic showdown for 13 years, so now that it's time for the Phyrexians to lose, defeating them should feel truly difficult and desperate, an effort worthy of the danger they (supposedly) pose. This last clash should feel not just worthy of Phyrexia, but of the Multiverse, which is at stake.
Yet Phyrexia's power starts collapsing long before the end. Sheoldred, Urabrask, Vorinclex, Jin-Gitaxias - these long-iconic faces of Phyrexia - are killed off with minimal effort and without ceremony. The praetors devolve into almost comical incompetents, while Norn herself spends the last handful of stories as a frightened, shrieking thing, flailing desperately to hold her crumbling Phyrexia together. There was no suspense in this story after Elspeth's return; the villains didn't rally to put up a good final fight, and their defeat, when it came, felt inevitable, preordained, and banal. Phyrexia is not scary here. It is not formidable. Phyrexia and its praetors are mere props and stepping stones for the heroes to have their Big Moments and to look cool.
Yet even those moments fall short, for in the end, these heroes don't feel like they're fighting any threat of stature.
All that work that went into designing New Phyrexia - the language, the factional aesthetic, the praetor designs, the seeds of this conflict being laid across multiple worlds over multiple years - all of that comes together in the final accounting to yield... this. A mediocre faceplant that diminishes Phyrexia, diminishes the Multiverse, and diminishes my faith that Magic can still tell a well-crafted story again in the current era.
Perhaps it was the nostalgia for Dominaria, Phyrexia, and Mirrodin that got me so invested over this past year, but I wanted this story to succeed so bad.
K. Rivera has written some excellent stories in the past, and yes, some of her installments for MOM were very well done (particularly Chapters 3, 6, and 8). She writes the Planeswalker characters stirringly well, and she did a great job with Chandra and Nissa. That said, she seems to have little interest whatsoever in the villains and reduces them to trivial, often cartoonish figures. Doing that to the likes of Olivia Voldaren is one thing. Doing that to Elesh Norn and Jin-Gitaxias is another matter entirely, and it severely blunts the impact of what should be an epic story. Nevertheless, if Wizards had only given her another two chapters to work with, I'm sure she'd have fleshed out a somewhat more satisfying final showdown.
In any case, I'm going to go back and read the story again to see if I feel any differently the second time around. The resolution to the Phyrexian story was something I've been looking forward to for over a decade, and as recently as last week things still looked so promising. But seeing the end handled like this(especially after the lackluster conclusion of the Bolas arc) finally makes me think... what's the point of investing myself in the story at all?
- Kaya killing Heliod... Well he was compleated, which was weird in the first place. So maybe he became corporal/spiritual to be killed by kaya... why not.
- Some adventures and an angel killing Nahiri? First of all Nahiri ("the" Nahiri) should be dead - burned out. Why she has memory of her older self is beyond my understanding and I don't like how they defeated her... IF she doesn't return. (Maybe she is a "future" plant as well? The story describes her as stubborn beyond comprehension, she is milenia years old and powerful and tough, we haven't seen her body, could be in slumber, there can be an "uncompleation" and we have Nissa back.)
- Tibalt. His whole story after Kaldheim is missing - from compleation to death.
- Zhalfir becoming a plane. Thats weird, as it was "only" a continent on dominaria... but okay maybe it can "grow" and become more than that.
- Karn losing "his" spark. Not that he gives up his spark to cleanse his friends, just that he did it on Zhalfir instead of Dominaria. But he is made of silver, so maybe he can be transported by his friend to his resting place?
The planes not mentioned? Ulgrotha, Lorwyn, ... ?
For all you have done for the game we love.
Glen Angus, Magic Artist, 1970-2007 ; Richie Proffitt, MTG Salvation Mod (PolarBearGod), 1977-2008
Rest in Peace.
I'm not to the point of giving up in general on story, but you have a lot of very valid points here. It's legitimately depressing to me to see how much work and care goes into the WORLDBUILDING before a set. They make living. breathing, functioning worlds and settings with legitimately interesting characters and ideas... and then when it comes time to tell a story within those worlds, it feels like an afterthought at times. Everything feels rushed, there are generally gaping plot or logic holes that are never addressed, the endings are usually lackluster or contrived, and we get outright contradictions or omissions between the story presented on the cards and the story that we're told. And then we're whisked off to the next setting and told to get excited for the deep lore of this next location like it won't just happen again.
For all the excitement WotC tries to drum up for each set in terms of big, epic stories and high adventure, it's pretty blatantly obvious that it's the one of their lower priorities at this point.
At least he wasn't killed during his "execution" so he's the only praetor not confirmed dead. He probably weaseled his way through some portal somewhere before the Zhalfir/New Phyrexia shift and we'll see him again in the future.
I voiced the same sentiment before. I am veteran of storyline discussions since 2002. I remember discussing proverbially each page of a novel, spinning theories about planes and characters, because back then, the lore was immensely deep and people who wrote it actually cared a lot, respected rules and principles, even those defined in-universe. That was what distinguished Magic lore from similar sources, an amount of care comparable to great fantasy sagas.
It ended basically with Lorwyn books. The planeswalker novels? Agents of Artifice was great, The Purifying Fire was rewritten several times, Test of Metal is a pile of stinking ****, and Curse of the Chain Veil was cancelled. Alara book from Doug Beyer was like poor fanfic from 15-yr old, and the less be said about Teeth of Akoum and Quest for Karn, the better.
They made a solid comeback with the new format. There were some VERY good pieces, Chronicles of Bolas are coming to mind, and couple of really good standalone stories - Nahiri's fate in the Helvault, Emrakul emerging...
And then it went into the last phase - the 5-6 stories per set. Too few to tell a good, non-rushed story. With casual resurrection of long-dead characters (some of us even remember a rule of "no resurrection if the character's death was storywise important") - yes, I am looking at you, Ertai...
I accepted what you describe in the last year, and frankly I had low expectations on how this would be resolved. M
Discrepancy between cards and story became normal and even admitted. People behaving off character, character development thrown out of the window... Years wasted. Urabrask's revolt, hinted elready in Scars block, then again in Capenna, forget it, he just got them to the tree and got butchered afterwards. Sheoldred did not even accomplished as much. At least they brought back Nissa and Ajani and gave Tamiyo a nice way to continue "existing".
Magic lore has become DC/Marvel, where rules and even character histories are relegated to the backseat. Characters returning, rising from dead at random when needed. Everything in the name of cool. It has basically lost everything that used to make it just another fictional world.
On a positive note - some of the episodes, namely 6,7 and 8 (the two Elspeth stories and Wrenn and Eight) were quite awesome, reminiscent of the greatest works of old. And I really liked Brothers' War stories - mainly because the premise was clear and the results given.
But with having still less and less time and Magic lore being the last thread holding me onto this game...what it became is not enough to remain.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
I take it you haven't read Odyssey, Onslaught and the original Mirrodin books. Or rather, excised them from memory, couldn't blame you.
Point is Magic story has always been a bit of a mixed bag and everyone who says the good old days were objectively great storytelling is just wearing three sets of nostalgia goggles.
Magic storytelling was always a little bit "mmh, whatever", but at least they managed to get the basics right. The stories were serviceable. ONE and MoM doesn't even manage that. BOTH arcs fell apart on the first or second chapter already, into non-salvageable pieces. It's not the ending that is broken, it is the whole thing, the process and the intent behind each writing decision. Magic story is currently fundamentally broken because not a single thought is spared to those aspects that make a story a story.
I also suspect MTG has not learned restraint, either. This story was just so overblown and exhausting. It's as if they cannot rely or count on good writing to engage the reader, so they feel the need to plunge their collective settings into utter ruin every time, in the hopes that desperation will sell enough interest in the lore. When in reality, all it takes is good author, respect for the settings and Legendary characters, and a restraint. A highlight from the recent lore for me was Jace and Vraska on Ixalan for example - two characters simply bonding in a thematic setting. The work, authors, vision, and writing was all collectively better during the Gatewatch era honestly.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
I honestly would've preferred that. The original invasion was great because it left a very bitter taste, this one is a fairytale by comparison. Death on its own doesn't become a good tragedy, it's the part about dashing hope (Chandra) that makes the stake high.
Will they start a Roman prosecution of Elspeth, Daughter of Serra? Tibalt is too dead to give a kiss. (Again, what a waste.)
Yet, they're doing a Lord of the Rings set. *Eyeing Frodo*
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
Predictably the trailer is more badass than the actual confrontation
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
- Thran
- Artifacts Cycle (Brothers War, Planeswalker, Time Streams, Bloodlines)
- Ice Age Cycle (Gathering Dark, Eternal Ice, Shattered Alliance)
- Nemesis
- Invasion Cycle (I know they're not great but they were the first ones I read as a kid and I've always had a soft spot for them)
- Chainer's Torment
- Kamigawa Cycle
- Ravnica Cyle
As far as I'm concerned, the quality dropped off a cliff after Ravnica, even though there had previously been some definite lowlights like the Mirrodin and Onslaught block books. But even those lowlights beat the hell out of the mishmash we are given now.
THEY better explain how Nahiri gets uncompleated or something!?
Because MtG is very good at explaining these things and making them make sense, yes.
Don't worry,
Indeed. That was my only pause from Magic - Odyssey to Legions. I kinda liked Odyssey block books, though. Onslaught trilogy was bad, and only Fifth Dawn was worth something from the other trilogy. But what followed - Kamigawa and Ravnica - belongs among the best books, as well as what preceded - Urza's story and Legends II, to name a few.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Examples:
Django Wrexler: The Gathering Storm (prequel for War of the Spark) - the Niv-Mizzet vs Bolas fight is brilliant
Kate Elliott: Chronicles of Bolas (loosely tied to Core Set 2019)
Kate Elliott: The Wildered Quest (Eldraine book)
Brandon Sanderson: Children of the Nameless (Innistrad spinoff book)
I think when authors have greater freedom, they could make a nice piece. However, when they have strict boundaries of action, heroes, and quota of 5 chapters, it usually goes wrong...
Makes me think of Gerrard in the original Weatherlight Saga. A fallible human non-planeswalker doing the planehopping as if he were a planeswalker and a cast of non-PW crew doing the same thing. The romantic elements between Gerrard and Hanna, for example, were great. But they can't go back to that now, not with the heavy investment into PWs as their core brand identity.
I personally liked some of the storytelling leading up to the War of the Spark, like the character development of Jace and Vraska was excellent, the stuff with Angrath, etc, were fantastic. EVen this go around, I know the storytelling has been rather dry after the disaster that was Forsaken and the knee-jerk reaction thereafter (No story for Theros Beyond Death? Excuse me?) but there have been some nice storytelling reprieves lately. The MoM story actually did a decent job capturing the invasion on a level without drawing it out too much that people lose interest or grow frustrated.
I liked the emotional connection the authors attempted to create. Any time a story can elicit emotion in some form is one that tendst o hit the spot from a literary standpoint.
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
the Mom story (main and sides) didn't contain the “change forever” thing “aftermath” story has it.
so are nonwalkers can go to planes again is back on the table
edit:ooooooh
it’s not just karn who’s losing a spark
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/DEFDB8B3-7197-4EE4-8B18-CD2108BD4E79?ingress=0&visitId=affbb627-0f7d-4095-b82f-8d363edd0ad9
Kiora might be another one who desparks
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.