EDIT: Oh, hello high resolution closeup. Now that I can see them all better (should've clicked the picture twice the first time), I get the feeling that the artist grabbed a bunch of pictures of actors/actresses for references. I take back what I said about Jace and Sorin looking fine. Jace looks like an actor I know, but I can't place the name. Also, Ajani's missing the wrong eye...
Yea I get the picture up to full size and I have Tez looking strait at me.
Ajani has always had a messed up left eye, I just checked both of his cards.
Looking full size it's nice to see walkers that have racial inspiration that isn't Caucasian. Sarkan as some have said looks like one of the Huns, Koth is African-american, and is it just me or is Lilliana looking a bit latino it seems like her skin is a bit more tanned then usual.
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There's no proof she's being chased
by ninja squirrels either. - Dr. Wilson
Yeah I liked the ethnic planeswalkers, like Liliana and in her alternate art card. Then they went and made her light skinned in ISD. I just don't get it. I guess the artists are "interpreting" them differently, but you would think ethnicity wouldn't be changing by the block.
Yeah I liked the ethnic planeswalkers, like Liliana and in her alternate art card. Then they went and made her light skinned in ISD. I just don't get it. I guess the artists are "interpreting" them differently, but you would think ethnicity wouldn't be changing by the block.
The reason she had black skin for a lot of her card art was because she had that deal with Kothophed. It was an aesthetic choise, as she was the black mana walker, dark outside, she was channeling black mana at the time, etc. Now she's reverted to her original form, and she's white. Not that big of a deal. Also, Liliana's Caress in M11.
Venser isnt overlapping with jace,
other way around (chicken egg scenario)
I really want there to be a goblin planeswalker,
nothing fancy, just ping, blow up things,
maybe instant speed gob grenade himself as an ultimate
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Avid teacher of Magic to new players.
Flavor enthusiast, Storyteller, and Illustrator
Red Blue aligned Mage
I play limited, casual modern, and keep several standard decks on hand.
In process of writing articles about MTG as a subculture delving into it from a sociological standpoint. If you know of a mtg site looking for a column like that, please private message me. Thanks
There already was a Gobbie planeswalker, his name was Slobad, and he had the stupidest death in MTG storyline history, of planeswalkers, if I do say so myself. It made me so sad =/ Well, I dunno, kinda on par with Gerrard just kinda going "lol decapitate" and Urza dying. I think that's how it went?
But I really WOULD love to see a goblin, and I don't think it's far off-Beasts got one, then elves and vampires got one, now Merfolk is getting one, and one could argue that Chandra is very wizard-y, so....Goblins are next in line, really.
Oh, and I guess Elspeth would be the one for soldiers...I'm really loving the walkers, so far, besides Jace, Venser, and Karn XD;
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Currently Getting Back into the swing of MTGS. Bear with me folks~
It's taken a few years but I'm now actually invested in walkers as characters. It took time, but the strategy they had from the get go is actually panning out. That poster rules.
...you ARE aware that development has occurred with maybe a third of them...and that most of that has been tossed out in favor of contradictory statements that attempt to simplify them as much as possible and lose unique attributes...and that most of them are essentially annoying idiots who bungle, accomplish zilch, and take off at the first sign of trouble...right? I really hope that statement was meant to be sarcastic, because if not, you are clearly very easily swayed by marketing and your standards are too low.
Sarkan wasn't from alara at all. His original background story had him searching the multiverse for dragons partly because they had died out on his home world or something. He considered Jund to be paradise pretty much though.
EDIT: Nathed
Tsk, not like it matters. If the last storyline was any indication, current Creative couldn't care less about keeping things consistent; all that matters is marketing to the latest new crowd of incoming players, and if a focus group deems him originating from Jund to be more marketable...well screw logic.
What I find interesting about this assembly is that we have the 5 M12 walkers as the central feature and Elspeth and Liliana prominently on the sides (mirroring the core newcomers Gideon and Sorin).
This to me is saying that Ajani is now the 3rd rate white planeswalker, ditched for both Elspeth and Gideon.
It also makes me feel green needs a more 'human' planeswalker that is just as deep/mysterious/interesting as Sorin/Jace/Chandra. The brawn that is Garruk is more for one of those background characters.
And Sarkhan looks Asian =p
...you think Sorin is more deep then Garruk? Sorin?!? ...somebody clearly needs to actually read In the Teeth of Akoum, because the Sorin of that travesty was a know-it-all jackass with no depth or character whatsoever. He was a one-dimensional man-child with no tact or intrigue at all. Obviously, had Wintermute been writing Garruk instead, Garruk would be the one to suffer such poor characterization, but as is, with Garruk's only storyline appearances being in the webcomics, he is far, FAR more interesting and deep than that shallow, bland, only-marginally-better-than-Twilight husk of a character that was Wintermute's Sorin.
I really think that the story treatement made by WotC in SoM block was wonderful... but the people that write the book "Quest for Karn" know more about care and raising of elephants babys than Magic Storyline, not a single fragment is really concordant with the previous story and/or the articles in magicthegathering.com... i think that Wizards need to explain the mass of confusion that the book brought to us... For me, and until there is no a official notice from WotC; Venser is alive, and the planeswalker's spark there isn't located in a single organ...
Oh yes, wonderful...except for the fact it screwed over many previous stories...made earlier struggles seem pointless...introduce a huge logical failure of why the oil hasn't just overtaken Dominaria by this point if it's so virulent...screwed over Mirrodin's timeline further with the plot holes of earlier points...treated the previous foray into Mirrodin like it was nothing but some minor skirmish and not something that embroiled the entire plane in its own right...treated the characters of said story like garbage (seriously, Slobad didn't even get an on-page death, he was just killed off randomly with NO dignity at all!)...and didn't even let their new characters properly speak for themselves as they had no presence in a book or more than TWO pages of a comic...erm...no, this storyline is absolutely atrocious and makes less sense than the book and movie franchise I mentioned up above.
About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.
Jeez Voila, you dont seem to ever have anything positive to say. Do you read all the books and comics just to find all the plot holes and inconsistencies just so you have something to complain about later?
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I expect with this [Transform] mechanic that everyone playing a Werewolf tribal deck will say "Autobots, rollout!" whenever the majority of their army transforms.
Jeez Voila, you dont seem to ever have anything positive to say. Do you read all the books and comics just to find all the plot holes and inconsistencies just so you have something to complain about later?
I'd have more positive to say about modern storylines if there was anything good to say about them. Frankly, most are crap and the good ones are tossed aside in favor of generic marketing. I know I come off as a bitter loon at the worst of times, but that's what this trend of utter laziness and carelessness with the storyline has done to me, to the point I refuse to buy any more books when I'd bought all previous ones (even the Onslaught Cycle) or take any real interest in anything going on. And it's not just Beyer and Wintermute either, just about everyone who's written an article in the past few years has made some glaring error that could've been fixed by just double-checking a wiki page. Nobody at WotC takes the storyline seriously anymore (and as M12 flavor text shows, they clearly think of everything flavorful with the game as something frivolous and not worth getting invested in), so why should I hold them in any high regard for it?
About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.
I would love to see more humanoid planeswalkers. Kiora and Ajani are perfect examples. I wanna beat someone down with a Loxodon, Goblin, Nezumi, Kitsune or werewolf planeswalker.
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"All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved." ~Sun Tzu
Honestly, flavor text and storylines in Magic have never been very good. Yeah, they fill their purpose at making the game feel like a vague representation of a world, but that's all they do. There's no sense of quality control or consistency or engaging detail at all.
I remain constantly astonished at how they can spend so much effort on Design and on art (not that they don't make errors in those areas, but there's clear effort spent there), and then spend so little effort on making it all coherent and consistent. I mean, nobody expects the books to be masterpieces, but there are plenty of authors out there who'd give the story enough respect to avoid egregious inconsistencies, and at least give the characters some decent dialogue. But instead, we get boring, soulless crap like Prophecy or Time Spiral, or else psychotic, stream-of-consciousness nightmares like Apocalypse. I haven't read any of the books since Lorwyn, but since I have yet to hear anything good about any of them, I don't see it as likely that anything has changed - especially since cards' flavor text has actually gone downhill, if anything, over the past few years.
Wit's End is the PERFECT answer to your opponent's Monomania however.
Just hold on to your Wit's End when they Monomania, so you can Wit's End them on your next turn!!!
I think this is fairly reminiscent of the "Jace Battles" we have seen in past standards.. My guess is we will soon witness the great Monomania-Wit's End battles.
Honestly, flavor text and storylines in Magic have never been very good. Yeah, they fill their purpose at making the game feel like a vague representation of a world, but that's all they do. There's no sense of quality control or consistency or engaging detail at all.
I remain constantly astonished at how they can spend so much effort on Design and on art (not that they don't make errors in those areas, but there's clear effort spent there), and then spend so little effort on making it all coherent and consistent. I mean, nobody expects the books to be masterpieces, but there are plenty of authors out there who'd give the story enough respect to avoid egregious inconsistencies, and at least give the characters some decent dialogue. But instead, we get boring, soulless crap like Prophecy or Time Spiral, or else psychotic, stream-of-consciousness nightmares like Apocalypse. I haven't read any of the books since Lorwyn, but since I have yet to hear anything good about any of them, I don't see it as likely that anything has changed - especially since cards' flavor text has actually gone downhill, if anything, over the past few years.
You're right that magic novels vary widely in quality - and generally for the worse.
But check out Agents of Artifice, the first planeswalker novel, with Jace, Lilly and Tezzeret. I think it's the better Magic novel of all - it tops Brother's War, Nemesis and Chainer's Torment imo (I never read the Ice Age trilogy, though).
Pantheon, pantheon...
So wait these walkers are considered gods now?
Aren't they? Last time I checked they do things no one else in the multiverse can do. Also hi def version is WAY better that original picture, like I mistook Tezzeret for a Predator... I was about to call Arnold!
I can't wait to see what Koira can do, more blue planeswalkers! This also makes me more excited for the new Liliana even more cause just look at her, she's amazing
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Standard: Esper Spirits-WUB
Modern: Bant Geist-WUG
Legacy: Reanimator-UB-WRG
EDH:
Ramirez DePietro: Pirate Themed-UB
Riku of Two Reflections: "Oops I Win"-URG
Pantheon, pantheon...
So wait these walkers are considered gods now?
They can't be gods because that will pretty much downplay the reason why Planeswalkers got Mended. Pretty much, they're just wizards who can planeswalk.
Standard: Superfriends!
Legacy: Nic Fit / Pod
Pauper: Delvar; Tron; Flicker Stuff
Commander: Riku ("Some weird doubple spell thing happened"); Keranos ("I did a Gatherer search for 'random' and 'flip a coin.'"); Superfriends!
Yea I get the picture up to full size and I have Tez looking strait at me.
Ajani has always had a messed up left eye, I just checked both of his cards.
Looking full size it's nice to see walkers that have racial inspiration that isn't Caucasian. Sarkan as some have said looks like one of the Huns, Koth is African-american, and is it just me or is Lilliana looking a bit latino it seems like her skin is a bit more tanned then usual.
There's no proof she's being chased
by ninja squirrels either. - Dr. Wilson
EDH Decks:
B Toshiro Umezawa B
W Mikaeus, the Lunarch W
G Azusa, Lost but Seeking G
UB Grimgrin, Corpse-Born BU
BGU The Mimeoplasm UGB
GUW Rubinia Soulsinger WUG
GRB Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper BRG
The reason she had black skin for a lot of her card art was because she had that deal with Kothophed. It was an aesthetic choise, as she was the black mana walker, dark outside, she was channeling black mana at the time, etc. Now she's reverted to her original form, and she's white. Not that big of a deal. Also, Liliana's Caress in M11.
60-Card Casual
XUX Vintage Illegal Myr/Eldrazi
EDH
R Urabrask the Hidden
WBR Oros, the Avenger
He looks a little like a young Kevin Bacon to me.
other way around (chicken egg scenario)
I really want there to be a goblin planeswalker,
nothing fancy, just ping, blow up things,
maybe instant speed gob grenade himself as an ultimate
Avid teacher of Magic to new players.
Flavor enthusiast, Storyteller, and Illustrator
Red Blue aligned Mage
I play limited, casual modern, and keep several standard decks on hand.
In process of writing articles about MTG as a subculture delving into it from a sociological standpoint. If you know of a mtg site looking for a column like that, please private message me. Thanks
But I really WOULD love to see a goblin, and I don't think it's far off-Beasts got one, then elves and vampires got one, now Merfolk is getting one, and one could argue that Chandra is very wizard-y, so....Goblins are next in line, really.
Oh, and I guess Elspeth would be the one for soldiers...I'm really loving the walkers, so far, besides Jace, Venser, and Karn XD;
Done by Rivenor of Miraculous Recovery signatures!
Two reasons...
1)Bolas is too big.
and
2) Venser is dead. As in dead as a doornail.
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EDH:
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...you ARE aware that development has occurred with maybe a third of them...and that most of that has been tossed out in favor of contradictory statements that attempt to simplify them as much as possible and lose unique attributes...and that most of them are essentially annoying idiots who bungle, accomplish zilch, and take off at the first sign of trouble...right? I really hope that statement was meant to be sarcastic, because if not, you are clearly very easily swayed by marketing and your standards are too low.
Tsk, not like it matters. If the last storyline was any indication, current Creative couldn't care less about keeping things consistent; all that matters is marketing to the latest new crowd of incoming players, and if a focus group deems him originating from Jund to be more marketable...well screw logic.
...you think Sorin is more deep then Garruk? Sorin?!? ...somebody clearly needs to actually read In the Teeth of Akoum, because the Sorin of that travesty was a know-it-all jackass with no depth or character whatsoever. He was a one-dimensional man-child with no tact or intrigue at all. Obviously, had Wintermute been writing Garruk instead, Garruk would be the one to suffer such poor characterization, but as is, with Garruk's only storyline appearances being in the webcomics, he is far, FAR more interesting and deep than that shallow, bland, only-marginally-better-than-Twilight husk of a character that was Wintermute's Sorin.
Oh yes, wonderful...except for the fact it screwed over many previous stories...made earlier struggles seem pointless...introduce a huge logical failure of why the oil hasn't just overtaken Dominaria by this point if it's so virulent...screwed over Mirrodin's timeline further with the plot holes of earlier points...treated the previous foray into Mirrodin like it was nothing but some minor skirmish and not something that embroiled the entire plane in its own right...treated the characters of said story like garbage (seriously, Slobad didn't even get an on-page death, he was just killed off randomly with NO dignity at all!)...and didn't even let their new characters properly speak for themselves as they had no presence in a book or more than TWO pages of a comic...erm...no, this storyline is absolutely atrocious and makes less sense than the book and movie franchise I mentioned up above.
About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.
Amazing banners made by Brofaux.
I'd have more positive to say about modern storylines if there was anything good to say about them. Frankly, most are crap and the good ones are tossed aside in favor of generic marketing. I know I come off as a bitter loon at the worst of times, but that's what this trend of utter laziness and carelessness with the storyline has done to me, to the point I refuse to buy any more books when I'd bought all previous ones (even the Onslaught Cycle) or take any real interest in anything going on. And it's not just Beyer and Wintermute either, just about everyone who's written an article in the past few years has made some glaring error that could've been fixed by just double-checking a wiki page. Nobody at WotC takes the storyline seriously anymore (and as M12 flavor text shows, they clearly think of everything flavorful with the game as something frivolous and not worth getting invested in), so why should I hold them in any high regard for it?
About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.
Current Decks
R RDW R
I remain constantly astonished at how they can spend so much effort on Design and on art (not that they don't make errors in those areas, but there's clear effort spent there), and then spend so little effort on making it all coherent and consistent. I mean, nobody expects the books to be masterpieces, but there are plenty of authors out there who'd give the story enough respect to avoid egregious inconsistencies, and at least give the characters some decent dialogue. But instead, we get boring, soulless crap like Prophecy or Time Spiral, or else psychotic, stream-of-consciousness nightmares like Apocalypse. I haven't read any of the books since Lorwyn, but since I have yet to hear anything good about any of them, I don't see it as likely that anything has changed - especially since cards' flavor text has actually gone downhill, if anything, over the past few years.
You're right that magic novels vary widely in quality - and generally for the worse.
But check out Agents of Artifice, the first planeswalker novel, with Jace, Lilly and Tezzeret. I think it's the better Magic novel of all - it tops Brother's War, Nemesis and Chainer's Torment imo (I never read the Ice Age trilogy, though).
http://cryptcrawler.deviantart.com/art/Planeswalkers-Pantheon-244408198
So wait these walkers are considered gods now?
Aren't they? Last time I checked they do things no one else in the multiverse can do. Also hi def version is WAY better that original picture, like I mistook Tezzeret for a Predator... I was about to call Arnold!
I can't wait to see what Koira can do, more blue planeswalkers! This also makes me more excited for the new Liliana even more cause just look at her, she's amazing
Modern: Bant Geist-WUG
Legacy: Reanimator-UB-WRG
EDH:
Ramirez DePietro: Pirate Themed-UB
Riku of Two Reflections: "Oops I Win"-URG
They can't be gods because that will pretty much downplay the reason why Planeswalkers got Mended. Pretty much, they're just wizards who can planeswalk.
After the Mending, I believe the only exclusive thing to them is their planeswalking ability (with inclusive exit marker!).
Serra Stan - Angel Enthusiast - Garruk and Tyvar thirsty follower - Flavor and Art Enthusiast
Currently playing:
Standard: Superfriends!
Legacy: Nic Fit / Pod
Pauper: Delvar; Tron; Flicker Stuff
Commander: Riku ("Some weird doubple spell thing happened"); Keranos ("I did a Gatherer search for 'random' and 'flip a coin.'"); Superfriends!
You would be to if you home had just been "Phyrexianized".
Sig by Rivenor
Cube. The best way to play Magic. PERIOD. Come over and check it out. Also, check out my Peasant Split Card Cube.
The World of Pokemon RPG has been rebooted. Come over and check it out.
Set Creation Projects: Archester: Frontier of Steam Come over and check out our AWESOME Steampunk set.
(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)
I think you mean complaeted, but yeah, that can be a bit of a downer. Also Karn looks like a pervert in that picture.