I think we know the phyrexians are going to try and invade another plane. With the flavor of Fountain of Ichor taking place on Ixalan is this foreshadowing of what is to come? Or is that too obvious?
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Seems much likelier to imply that Ixalan was already compromised at some point in the past, either by Karn's wanderings when he was dripping the oil all over the multiverse, or perhaps even by some off-branching of the original Phyrexians.
I would hope that they would have learned by now from other foreshadowing and red-herring flops that showing us black, oily goop with that specific aesthetic and sinister flavortext wording as a misdirect or "joke" will play pretty poorly to a lot of people.
The wording of the card is important. Ichor is a word not often used in MTG, but 4 of the 5 previous times have been in reference to Phyrexia (specifically, New Phyrexia). I'm sure Wizards did this deliberately, as they could have easily called it Fountain of Oil or Fountain of Tar and used slightly different flavor text.
Edit: If this is in fact Phrexian (which I believe it to be but also understand that it is pure speculation at this point), I think it is old Phyrexian, pre-dating Azor's arrival and trapping on plane. A dormant evil being reawoken, so to speak. Would interesting to see how the Phyrexian corruption of Ixalan would look compared to Mirrodin. We could have a clash between Elesh Norn's Phyrexians and Ixalan Phyrexians (Possibly lead by a corrupted Sun Emperor).
I mean... Fountain of Ichor becomes a dino, and the flavor text implies they found oil while digging a well (a common trope for accidentally finding valuable Texas Tea). I'd say it's a bit of a stretch to think this implies an invasion.
Personally, I think an invasion of Ixalan would be horribly misusing the plane. It has so much potential to be like original Zendikar - an adventure plane! (With relics to find, and pirates, and dinosaurs!!) To immediately put Ixalan into a trans-planar war against post-industrial artifact-driven antagonists would be exceptionally poor storytelling, IMO.
The wording of the card is important. Ichor is a word not often used in MTG, but 4 of the 5 previous times have been in reference to Phyrexia (specifically, New Phyrexia). I'm sure Wizards did this deliberately, as they could have easily called it Fountain of Oil or Fountain of Tar and used slightly different flavor text.
Edit: If this is in fact Phrexian (which I believe it to be but also understand that it is pure speculation at this point), I think it is old Phyrexian, pre-dating Azor's arrival and trapping on plane. A dormant evil being reawoken, so to speak. Would interesting to see how the Phyrexian corruption of Ixalan would look compared to Mirrodin. We could have a clash between Elesh Norn's Phyrexians and Ixalan Phyrexians (Possibly lead by a corrupted Sun Emperor).
I could see vampires defecting to seek completion as a means to freedom from the curse of vampirism (not knowing fully what completion will entail).
Zombie dinosaurs are also quite scary, but the planes pirates and existing wildlife could put up a good fight. I'd be along for the ride.
I guess my issue is that wouldn't the merfolk have sensed something like that lurking for literally hundreds of years? The plane also has a unique feel to it and it's the exploration theme plane after zendikar was ransacked by the eldrazi. I have to imagine they wouldn't be tripping over themselves to pitch an asset like that to what could end up being SOI v2.0. Also, the oil would have been introduced at the surface level of the plane, so why was the plane already complete and why is it underground?
I mean... Fountain of Ichor becomes a dino, and the flavor text implies they found oil while digging a well (a common trope for accidentally finding valuable Texas Tea). I'd say it's a bit of a stretch to think this implies an invasion.
This.
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The wording of the card is important. Ichor is a word not often used in MTG, but 4 of the 5 previous times have been in reference to Phyrexia (specifically, New Phyrexia). I'm sure Wizards did this deliberately, as they could have easily called it Fountain of Oil or Fountain of Tar and used slightly different flavor text.
I would hope that they would have learned by now from other foreshadowing and red-herring flops that showing us black, oily goop with that specific aesthetic and sinister flavortext wording as a misdirect or "joke" will play pretty poorly to a lot of people.
they couldve called it many other things and not invoke phyrexians.
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It's just regular oil, made from dead dinosaurs, hence how the fountain becomes a Dinosaur creature. Ichor refers to the blood of the gods in Greek mythology, and it's not a stretch at all to imagine that the Sun Empire (which, of course, worships the sun) would think that this strange black liquid they found is similar to that.
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It's just regular oil, made from dead dinosaurs, hence how the fountain becomes a Dinosaur creature. Ichor refers to the blood of the gods in Greek mythology, and it's not a stretch at all to imagine that the Sun Empire (which, of course, worships the sun) would think that this strange black liquid they found is similar to that.
How do we know it’s for that and not ichor the wiki saids ichor is a known name for the glistening oil
It's just regular oil, made from dead dinosaurs, hence how the fountain becomes a Dinosaur creature. Ichor refers to the blood of the gods in Greek mythology, and it's not a stretch at all to imagine that the Sun Empire (which, of course, worships the sun) would think that this strange black liquid they found is similar to that.
How do we know it’s for that and not ichor the wiki saids ichor is a known name for the glistening oil
How do we know? Wizards has directly confirmed it isn't phyrexian related...
It is possible that they just want to stir up speculation. If there is no connection to phyrexia it's a pretty poorly named card. All Ichor cards are related to phyrexia including Ichor Slick which is probably the remnants literal dead body of Yawgmoth in Urborg if you look at the art. It's a vanity name for the glistening oil referencing the fact that the blood of the "god" Yawgmoth runs through his phyrexian creations. Outside of MTG, Ichor has nothing to do with oil and usually has to do with bodily fluids.
Alison Luhrs said "also sometimes the struggle of naming a card is matching the name to both the mechanics AND the art. Sometimes one wins out over the other"
So the goal was to make a card that made mana and animated, but also was a joke about dinosaurs being oil, but not invoke phyrexia? I think this card was a flop in that case.
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There is no way they could win this. Calling it Fountain of Oil would be even worse, while most other synonyms (like petroleum) would raise complaints that the word doesn't fit in Magic/on Ixalan...
There is no way they could win this. Calling it Fountain of Oil would be even worse, while most other synonyms (like petroleum) would raise complaints that the word doesn't fit in Magic/on Ixalan...
Quoted for truth.
If they called it Fountain of Oil, we would be having this exact same conversation about glistening oil (even though oil is a thing that exists in MtG, as evidenced by burning oil or midnight oil). There is no way that the regular substance of oil could be introduced as a plot point/joke without wizards being accused of "giving false herrings".
Guys, "Ichor" is just a generic fantasy term for "mystical/magical venom/poison/blood", nothing more, nothing less. It's a poetic term that WotC gave to the Phyrexian glistening oil in cards, but it was also the same exact term used to describe the venom/poison that the Scorpion God would use to kill the Amonkhet Gods.
If you think it was a "bad name", it's only because you are not familiar with this fantasy trope (used in greek mythology, Lovecraft, D&D, and a lot of fantasy fictions)
Anyway Lurhs gave the final nail in the coffin about this speculation.
I mean... Fountain of Ichor becomes a dino, and the flavor text implies they found oil while digging a well (a common trope for accidentally finding valuable Texas Tea). I'd say it's a bit of a stretch to think this implies an invasion.
Personally, I think an invasion of Ixalan would be horribly misusing the plane. It has so much potential to be like original Zendikar - an adventure plane! (With relics to find, and pirates, and dinosaurs!!) To immediately put Ixalan into a trans-planar war against post-industrial artifact-driven antagonists would be exceptionally poor storytelling, IMO.
I agree with you on this. I think they need to use New Phyrexia very sparingly, just because of burnout. Before Battle of Zendikar the Eldrazi were mysterious beings that many people enjoyed, but after back to back to back to back sets of Eldrazi I was like done. I understand for many Phyrexia was a connection to the root beginnings of Magic, but I feel that if we have phyrexians everywhere, especially in planes where it wouldn't exactly fit like Ixalan, we would be burned out by them and they would lose their menace. It can be argued that Bolas lost a lot of his sheen from overexposure the last two years.
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The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
I mean, it's only likely that the next big baddies of the lore will be the Phyrexians. Bolas is imprisoned, the Eldrazi problem is stabilized. The Phyrexians are the next big threat. The Theros God Kruphix said, after he went into the minds of Kiora, Elspheth, and Ajani, that the three biggest threats he fears are Nicol Bolas, the Eldrazi, and the Phyrexians...
As we all know, the only singular possible thing that the word 'ichor' can refer to in Magic is the Phyrexian goodjuice. Any evidence to the contrary is wrong and should be shouted down and ignored. Noxious Groodion's flavor text clearly states it slurps ichor, and it was printed before Fountain of Ichor. How could it slurp ichor if there wasn't any already there? Ergo, Tezzeret left some Phyrexian body lotion (ichor) on Ravnica in preparation for the coming invasion.
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Most Used (of many dozens) EDH Decks:
Brago, King Eternal - Stax
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden - Aggro Combo
Wort, the Raidmother - Spellslinger Swarm Control
Animar, Soul of Elements - Tempo Combo
Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder - Spellslinger
Exodia the Forbidden One:
Oona, Queen of the Fae - Combowins.dec
That being said I'm all for phyrexian dinosaurs and robot zombie conquistadors.
Most Used (of many dozens) EDH Decks:
Brago, King Eternal - Stax
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden - Aggro Combo
Wort, the Raidmother - Spellslinger Swarm Control
Animar, Soul of Elements - Tempo Combo
Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder - Spellslinger
Exodia the Forbidden One:
Oona, Queen of the Fae - Combowins.dec
Edit: If this is in fact Phrexian (which I believe it to be but also understand that it is pure speculation at this point), I think it is old Phyrexian, pre-dating Azor's arrival and trapping on plane. A dormant evil being reawoken, so to speak. Would interesting to see how the Phyrexian corruption of Ixalan would look compared to Mirrodin. We could have a clash between Elesh Norn's Phyrexians and Ixalan Phyrexians (Possibly lead by a corrupted Sun Emperor).
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
Personally, I think an invasion of Ixalan would be horribly misusing the plane. It has so much potential to be like original Zendikar - an adventure plane! (With relics to find, and pirates, and dinosaurs!!) To immediately put Ixalan into a trans-planar war against post-industrial artifact-driven antagonists would be exceptionally poor storytelling, IMO.
I could see vampires defecting to seek completion as a means to freedom from the curse of vampirism (not knowing fully what completion will entail).
Zombie dinosaurs are also quite scary, but the planes pirates and existing wildlife could put up a good fight. I'd be along for the ride.
I guess my issue is that wouldn't the merfolk have sensed something like that lurking for literally hundreds of years? The plane also has a unique feel to it and it's the exploration theme plane after zendikar was ransacked by the eldrazi. I have to imagine they wouldn't be tripping over themselves to pitch an asset like that to what could end up being SOI v2.0. Also, the oil would have been introduced at the surface level of the plane, so why was the plane already complete and why is it underground?
This.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
it this is just a dino joke, then THIS:
they couldve called it many other things and not invoke phyrexians.
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But does it mean ixalan is in trouble and they are next we don’t know
This might mean the oil from yawgmoth spread a lot further than karn anticipated from the accident
But for my opinion they may be just hinting the New Phyrexia phyrexians are the next villains in the main story
How do we know it’s for that and not ichor the wiki saids ichor is a known name for the glistening oil
How do we know? Wizards has directly confirmed it isn't phyrexian related...
So the goal was to make a card that made mana and animated, but also was a joke about dinosaurs being oil, but not invoke phyrexia? I think this card was a flop in that case.
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The artist said it’s not phyrexian oil it’s just regular oil it was suppose to be a joke
Quoted for truth.
If they called it Fountain of Oil, we would be having this exact same conversation about glistening oil (even though oil is a thing that exists in MtG, as evidenced by burning oil or midnight oil). There is no way that the regular substance of oil could be introduced as a plot point/joke without wizards being accused of "giving false herrings".
If you think it was a "bad name", it's only because you are not familiar with this fantasy trope (used in greek mythology, Lovecraft, D&D, and a lot of fantasy fictions)
Anyway Lurhs gave the final nail in the coffin about this speculation.
I agree with you on this. I think they need to use New Phyrexia very sparingly, just because of burnout. Before Battle of Zendikar the Eldrazi were mysterious beings that many people enjoyed, but after back to back to back to back sets of Eldrazi I was like done. I understand for many Phyrexia was a connection to the root beginnings of Magic, but I feel that if we have phyrexians everywhere, especially in planes where it wouldn't exactly fit like Ixalan, we would be burned out by them and they would lose their menace. It can be argued that Bolas lost a lot of his sheen from overexposure the last two years.
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
As we all know, the only singular possible thing that the word 'ichor' can refer to in Magic is the Phyrexian goodjuice. Any evidence to the contrary is wrong and should be shouted down and ignored.
Noxious Groodion's flavor text clearly states it slurps ichor, and it was printed before Fountain of Ichor. How could it slurp ichor if there wasn't any already there? Ergo, Tezzeret left some Phyrexian body lotion (ichor) on Ravnica in preparation for the coming invasion.
- Rabid Wombat