Aetherdrift spoiler is over, and I noticed a dramatic lack of Dwarves, and not in background even? Instead, we suddenly have another emergence of Merfolks on Kaladesh, similar to how it's done on Ravnica.
The quote on Mindspring Merfolk says, "The Invasion roused the reclusive jalpari from the depths. Since then, they had fully integrated into Avishkari society."
I was like, WHAT? A whole new race/culture/faction doesn't just show up suddenly and/or instantly become accepted, ESPECIALLY not immediately after a war. It's abnormal from sociology point of view but it happened twice now. It's like people from both planes just go, "Oh ok," and be done with it.
Besides, Kalashi Dwarves was one of the pivotal races on the plane for engineering and vehicles, somehow they just disappear and make room for this never existed Merfolks (On a car!), AND Goblins from other planes. I understand WotC wants to be lazy and keep story writing easy for new writers via Omen Path, but is it really a good idea to omit corners of world-building for the sake of simplicity?
The Aetherborn in Aetherdrift have been cut down to 1 representative in Gonti. For that reason, I think neither the dwarves nor the Aetherborn have actually disappeared from Avishkar - they've just both been pushed aside for the time being (oh yeah, and the Gremlins).
Considering the Avishkar cards are focused in GU I just think the dwarfs got sidelined due to space and wrong colors. A weakness of the set is it has a bit too much going on creatively. We also didn't get any aetherborn outside of gonti nor gremlins (the WBR creature types with dwarves) and Amonkhet really was just the mummies shown. Even without the teams you would have dwarves fighting for space in W with humans, zombies, aven and whatever Muraganda white characteristic creature type(s) is/are.
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Yeah, both Avishkar and Amonkhet are missing some species representation (no Amonkheti minotaurs and if I remember correctly, no aven either) while both feature species we hadn't seen before (though explainable, it is a bit of a headscratcher), with not only the Avishkar merfolk and loxodon, but also the Amonkheti leonin (all undead, so probably wiped out by the first catastrophe).
Kinda weird that this isn't even mentioned in the otherwise quite thorough Planeswalker's Guide. Maybe yet another disconnect between creative and design? Have to admit, it doesn't bother me too much, but it is definitely a bit weird, especially because the omenpaths basically mean that there is an explanation for these already handed to them, yet they go out of their way to make these species natives.
So they've always been there, just never appeared, like the merfolks? Did it ever occur to the current lore people that it's ok to not have EVERY race/specie on a single world?
This is what I feared when Omen Path first opened, it dilutes the integrity of world building in an attempt to turn every location more and more similar to each another, both culturally and biologically. Hell, isn't this exactly what Norn did, and what Valgavoth is trying to do, put everything under their roof as one? How ironic it is for our esteemed WotC design team to do the demon's work for him.
So they've always been there, just never appeared, like the merfolks? Did it ever occur to the current lore people that it's ok to not have EVERY race/specie on a single world?
This is what I feared when Omen Path first opened, it dilutes the integrity of world building in an attempt to turn every location more and more similar to each another, both culturally and biologically. Hell, isn't this exactly what Norn did, and what Valgavoth is trying to do, put everything under their roof as one? How ironic it is for our esteemed WotC design team to do the demon's work for him.
It's especially weird if you consider that there is now a perfectly reasonable explanation for why new races appear on worlds we revisit. Like the omenpaths are right there and they still decide to pull the "uhh, they were just hiding but now they're suddenly everywhere" card.
You know, I don't even mind new races appearing every now and then, too terribly. Like how Kangee appeared during invasion and only later we learned he was an aven ("totally not a retcon you guys", but I'll take it) from presumably Otaria. If it's played like that it's actually okay. Makes the cards feel special and the worlds bigger.
But instead they go the Ravnica route where the new races appear from one day to the next and become fully integrated into the (to their eyes) alien society. Like what.
The quote on Mindspring Merfolk says, "The Invasion roused the reclusive jalpari from the depths. Since then, they had fully integrated into Avishkari society."
I was like, WHAT? A whole new race/culture/faction doesn't just show up suddenly and/or instantly become accepted, ESPECIALLY not immediately after a war. It's abnormal from sociology point of view but it happened twice now. It's like people from both planes just go, "Oh ok," and be done with it.
Besides, Kalashi Dwarves was one of the pivotal races on the plane for engineering and vehicles, somehow they just disappear and make room for this never existed Merfolks (On a car!), AND Goblins from other planes. I understand WotC wants to be lazy and keep story writing easy for new writers via Omen Path, but is it really a good idea to omit corners of world-building for the sake of simplicity?
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
https://scryfall.com/card/dft/130/gilded-ghoda
Considering the Avishkar cards are focused in GU I just think the dwarfs got sidelined due to space and wrong colors. A weakness of the set is it has a bit too much going on creatively. We also didn't get any aetherborn outside of gonti nor gremlins (the WBR creature types with dwarves) and Amonkhet really was just the mummies shown. Even without the teams you would have dwarves fighting for space in W with humans, zombies, aven and whatever Muraganda white characteristic creature type(s) is/are.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Kinda weird that this isn't even mentioned in the otherwise quite thorough Planeswalker's Guide. Maybe yet another disconnect between creative and design? Have to admit, it doesn't bother me too much, but it is definitely a bit weird, especially because the omenpaths basically mean that there is an explanation for these already handed to them, yet they go out of their way to make these species natives.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DKFQ7Q38/ a book based on Lusitanian Mythology
So they've always been there, just never appeared, like the merfolks? Did it ever occur to the current lore people that it's ok to not have EVERY race/specie on a single world?
This is what I feared when Omen Path first opened, it dilutes the integrity of world building in an attempt to turn every location more and more similar to each another, both culturally and biologically. Hell, isn't this exactly what Norn did, and what Valgavoth is trying to do, put everything under their roof as one? How ironic it is for our esteemed WotC design team to do the demon's work for him.
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
It's especially weird if you consider that there is now a perfectly reasonable explanation for why new races appear on worlds we revisit. Like the omenpaths are right there and they still decide to pull the "uhh, they were just hiding but now they're suddenly everywhere" card.
You know, I don't even mind new races appearing every now and then, too terribly. Like how Kangee appeared during invasion and only later we learned he was an aven ("totally not a retcon you guys", but I'll take it) from presumably Otaria. If it's played like that it's actually okay. Makes the cards feel special and the worlds bigger.
But instead they go the Ravnica route where the new races appear from one day to the next and become fully integrated into the (to their eyes) alien society. Like what.