A good point, but, to be fair, I think WotC is probably going to keep things majorly more toned down than the original stories even if they have a little more darkness than the Disney versions.
So far we just have a handful of arts.
One has a little girl with a bloodied sword and three decapitated bears and a beartrap.
In the alternative version she made a rug out of one of them.
I really don't expect Bashful, Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sneezy, Sleepy and Dopey to be featured.
Just look at the witch a few posts up
I expect them to be just as 'grimm' (excuse the pun) as the original stories, if not worse.
Hey, maybe they're bringing Lord back as a creature type? Or Royal? Or they could have King, Queen, Prince, and Princess as separate types grouped into a royal batch mechanic. Like a Knight creature that gets +1/+1 as long as you control a royal creature.
WotC is still seems to be focused on pandering to SJW’s so if they did it would be Royal to not force gender roles onto characters. Though it does make sense to use Royal since it denotes lineage of which the gender isn’t the focal point and this would definitely be the plane to introduce it with.
To bad all the SJW’s are gonna hate Rowan now. She’s annoyed the didn’t summon her brother as well. A female showing concern for a white male isn’t going over well with WotC’s preferred demographic....non white, non males.
Except Will is in the set so your entire gripe is pretty much just a meaningless screed against diverse characters. After all, how dare Wizards work to make a cast of characters that are proportionally representational to society at large? I can certainly understand how you personally loose out by having some characters that don't look like you in the game that you and many other people play. This is sarcasm.
I wonder what kind of equipment swords, aura and enchantments are we getting here?
I just hope the theme would reflect the those cards appeal and abilities.
EXCALIBUR!
Well, maybe the MTG version of it, so like "Eldralibur" or something, lol.
I'm thinking like 5 CMC, but 10 mana to equip, gives +10/+10, first strike, vigilance, indestructible, lifelink, trample, or something like that. And maybe "can only equip onto legendary creatures" or something. That could be fun. And have it be some huge sword sticking out of a powerstone.
I guess they could also have some MTG version of a "holy grail" where it gives you a bunch of lifegain or something.
Is it just me, or does that art with the knights around the table look like a white parallel to the original Doomsday art?
How should we call this one? Holy Day is already taken.
And about ladies taking more prominent roles in MtG... we HAD plenty of powerful non-male figures in the past, did we not? Serra, Freyalise, Xantcha/Karn, Jolrael, Ashnod, Oona, Alesha, Narset, Tamiyo, etc, most of them lovable, and many of them aren't white or human either. And damn, I love Liliana's character development over the years.
The problem is not that MtG lacks powerful female characters, the problems is that the new ones aren't as hashed out as the old ones, regardless of race, gender, and creed. Rowan might turn out to be a very interesting character, but she's also competing with other great female characters, which is not her fault, just a challenge to overcome.
Hell, I rarely see people complain about not having enough kick-ass Asian male protagonist, like, do we have any after Toshiro Umezawa? Hopefully they will come when the time comes.
Hell, I rarely see people complain about not having enough kick-ass Asian male protagonist, like, do we have any after Toshiro Umezawa? Hopefully they will come when the time comes.
Hell, I rarely see people complain about not having enough kick-ass Asian male protagonist, like, do we have any after Toshiro Umezawa? Hopefully they will come when the time comes.
Sarkhan?
The emphasis is on "kick-ass". Spineless dragon bootlicker doesn't count.
I've gotten used to WOTC pandering to the identity politics left, so it no longer bothers me.
Man that's really funny. They are doing that to sell more. It's capitalism baby. They want to broad their customers audience by bringing in nonwhite and women. Because nonwhite and women have $$$. They want to hire nonwhite and women to help them create a product that will sell to them.
So if you want to blame something, blame the $$$
It's funny that this kind of topic pop up when a set like this... how can we say it? Different? Experimental? When a set like this pops up.
I'm not liking it very much, faerie tale is not one of my top tropes, i can even dare to say that fairy tale is somehow too girlish for me, but for sure i won't feel threatened as a cis white man because my game is trying something different.
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How i feel about competitive players and casual players in EDH: The competitive are german tourists, the casual are italian tourists, both in a italian beach. The italians asking themselves "why are the germans here?" make a legitimate question, the answer is because the beach is beautiful, no matter the country you came from. The italians wanting to ban the germans are dumb, because if the germans pay for their stay and follow the rules like everyone else, they have the right to be in the beach. Hovewer, if the germans started to ask themselves "why are the italians here?"... they would be dumb as hell.
Hell, I rarely see people complain about not having enough kick-ass Asian male protagonist, like, do we have any after Toshiro Umezawa? Hopefully they will come when the time comes.
Sarkhan?
The emphasis is on "kick-ass". Spineless dragon bootlicker doesn't count.
Well Sarkhan and Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter are as close to a Asian Kick-ass character as Toshi was. I mean, Toshiro was very skilled but he had real limits on what he could do. He defeated group of people with still mischief and inteligence. He was more of a very resourcefull guy than anything, he had trouble fighting more than 4 somewhat skilled warriors (even non mages) he most of times used alies to cover fights he couldn't win alone. When Kiku and Marrow-Gnawer came after hin with 7 other soldiers he outsmarted them using the eviroment and some kami that had no business with hin and any of the others.
Sarkhan uses dragons to fight when he realy needs but for example in khans he was almost alone and fought his way to the nexus, also in zendikar he was guarding the chamber of the eye of ugin hedron network and he did most of this job alone and not summoning many dragons (but transforming into one).
Jiang Yanggu is more like a Jack Chan green mage with a magic dog that he can make grow with his magic, think he would fit into a martial artist kinda of Assian male Kickass character.
I didn't read the Imperror trilogy to know much about Tetsuo Umezawa but i guess he would fit more into the kickass assian male hole way better than Toshi would.
The emphasis is on "kick-ass". Spineless dragon bootlicker doesn't count.
If by "Spineless dragon bootlicker" you mean one of the few people smart enough to worship an entity powerful enough to be considered an apex being across multiple planes sure. How is Sarkhan any different than anyone who worships a "God?"
Oh and all that "bootlicking" has gotten him the ability to transform himself into one himself. As someone who would certainly find himself in Sarkhan's boots if dragons were real in our world I think he's pretty bad ass regardless of whether he has epicanthic folds or not.
well we ll probably learn more on the set this week as they will make one article on brawl and the new brawl decks. Probably some new arts for legendary creatures or planeswalkers (each deck will have 7 new cards not found on the draft pack). It would not surprise people if they made new planeswalkers and new legendary creatures exclusive to those decks and the $20 boosters (also did they used that karn art on Vryn? hummmmmmmmmmm).
People speculated that this Karn was in Vryn or in a place with Thran architecture but looking at a arthusian set maybe karn is in a ruin of somekind of structure with archs-archways... Maybe karn would not fit well in the main set but could very well appear in the plane on a suplemental product (and before people complain about cash grab on the brawl decks... They have done this for years in the commander decks, if one card indeed sees play in standard they can ban it or print it on the reward-FNM boosters, and they will also be on the $20 boosters soo the cards will not be on a scarcity even if they see competitive play)
I want to belive Karn in Eldraine ! (and a artifact-colorless or close based brawl deck)(they could realy go over the top and make a Wizard of Oz reference lol)
And While i m at it.
Why and what would karn be doing in Eldraine a very Fairy Tail - darker take on Disney movies - meets King Arthur legend world? ha i have a answear for you...
Well lets be quick and get into the rabbit's hole...
Well if they are making a world about fairy tails why not make some homage to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland while we are at it? What could karn be looking into Eldraine and why i m talking about Alice? Well, what if Karn is looking for powerfull planeswalkers to invade and destroy new phyrexia? Who he could call? The gatewatch? Maybe and probably. But we know Karn has acess to some memories of Urza. If only Urza had fought Phyrexia once... But he did... If only Urza had recruited some powerfull planeswalkers.... But he did... If only they were alive today... Well Teferi is alive and there is another planeswalker that didn't die on screen and did not even appeared.... Yes! What if Karn is looking for Parcher the walker Urza was gonna recruit but as soon as another walker was called for the job Urza dismissed the idea of Parcher on the Titans... Well we only saw his name being called once and it was followed by the thoughts of how crazy or lunatic he was... Well there is a character in Alice with similar features and it is the Mad Hatter ( named Hatta). My theory: We will see Karn looking for Parcher who was the lord/protector of the plane in the past and why the plane looks crazy in comparison to other planes we have seen soo far.
MaRo has already confirmed there are three planeswalkers in Eldraine: Rowan Kenrith, Will Kenrith and a new planeswalker. Karn can't be here.
Has he confirmed for the main set-story or for the whole set? I mean would he consider something done for a suplemental product that is not tecnically in the main set/ the thing he worked in R&D as part of the set? The thing with Brawl decks is they can have planeswalkers and if they are done like the commander decks then the team developing the main set is not the same as the team making the set. And we have confirmation that there will be 7 new cards for each deck, it would be kinda meh if maro said there will be 3 walkers in the main set and some more in the brawl decks... Better wait and see in Gavin Verhey's article or if maro answears that there will be no new planeswalker in the brawl decks.
With the Battlebond twins in the set, I wonder if Partner will make an appearance in some form? The fairytale conceit offers plenty of pairing possibilities.
Well Sarkhan and Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter are as close to a Asian Kick-ass character as Toshi was. I mean, Toshiro was very skilled but he had real limits on what he could do. He defeated group of people with still mischief and inteligence. He was more of a very resourcefull guy than anything, he had trouble fighting more than 4 somewhat skilled warriors (even non mages) he most of times used alies to cover fights he couldn't win alone. When Kiku and Marrow-Gnawer came after hin with 7 other soldiers he outsmarted them using the eviroment and some kami that had no business with hin and any of the others.
Sarkhan uses dragons to fight when he realy needs but for example in khans he was almost alone and fought his way to the nexus, also in zendikar he was guarding the chamber of the eye of ugin hedron network and he did most of this job alone and not summoning many dragons (but transforming into one).
Jiang Yanggu is more like a Jack Chan green mage with a magic dog that he can make grow with his magic, think he would fit into a martial artist kinda of Assian male Kickass character.
I didn't read the Imperror trilogy to know much about Tetsuo Umezawa but i guess he would fit more into the kickass assian male hole way better than Toshi would.
Here's the problem: Kick-ass (or bad-ass) is a term refers to more than just raw power. Toshiro wasn't the most powerful character by a large margin, but he was cunning, resourceful, perceptive, despite his mortality and not being a PW he demonstrated how capable and instrumental he was in Kamigawa lore.
Sarkhan is a powerful PW in his own right, but the personality facets he demonstrated thus far primarily leads to one: Submission. His story shows how he continuously looking for one master after another, or just an entire dragon race he could submit to.
Despite his devotion, Sarkhan never truly understand dragon. Remember why Surrak killed and ate a dragon and what he said to the subordinate who snitched him? Dragon is power, "...the dragon we found was weak. Sick. So what reverence did we owe it?" Yet, on the card Pinion Feast, Sarkhan said, "Even paradise is not without tragedies." Hello? Dragons is the apex of natural order, how is one dragon eating another being a tragedy? Hell, Sarkhan even cried out of anger when one of the Temur killed a dragon in front of him, without understanding that dragon deserved its death. Sarkhan doesn't even understand what he's worshiping, he simply adores the fact that most dragon are more powerful than human as a race, like a mentally perfected superstar in a child's mind, and got upset when the toy was shattered by others who don't share the ideal.
Perhaps Sarkhan and Bolas were meant for each other.
Sarkhan said that dragons deserve to rule over men, despite he himself knew exactly what happened when a dragon-god dominated him, despite Ugin intentionally maintained a balance between dragon and other races on Tarkir, who obviously didn't find Sarkhan's obsession amusing. History of Dominaria taught Ugin better.
With or without his raw power, Sarkhan is not a kick-ass character. He spent most of his story being a meek minded lost child looking for a parent. It's a blessing that he becomes Masterless in the end, but that's not enough to mend his history.
If by "Spineless dragon bootlicker" you mean one of the few people smart enough to worship an entity powerful enough to be considered an apex being across multiple planes sure. How is Sarkhan any different than anyone who worships a "God?"
Say hello to Domri Rade, who was "smart enough" to worship a dragon. If power is the only thing you believe deserve worship, or that people ought to revere strength alone, you're a perfect fit for tyrants.
Oh and all that "bootlicking" has gotten him the ability to transform himself into one himself. As someone who would certainly find himself in Sarkhan's boots if dragons were real in our world I think he's pretty bad ass regardless of whether he has epicanthic folds or not.
See my reply above for leslak. Strength of personality is what makes a person bad-ass. There's a reason why Batman is more popular than Superman, despite their obvious gap in physical power.
See my reply above for leslak. Strength of personality is what makes a person bad-ass. There's a reason why Batman is more popular than Superman, despite their obvious gap in physical power.
I mean, being "a badass" (whatever we decide that is) isn't the only reason either of them would ever be popular.
But I do agree that Sarkhan's personality is lacking. He can fight and all, and is decently good at it, but he doesn't have a lot of personality to him and I'm surprised he could support as much of a character arc as he had.
Getting back to the main topic, if you look at the art with the sleeping king and the planeswalker symbol castle, we might try to speculate on some parts of the setting, if not for the main story, at least for the environment:
Pure speculation is that the current king was cursed and put into an unbreakable eternal sleep (more fairytale-like than outright death) and with the Throne of Eldraine vacant, there is a power-struggle between the various courts.
Planeswalkers are either being invited as allies of the various factions or as impartial judges for the selection of the regent (similar way as Picard was asked to judge on the selection of the new Klingon chancellor in Star Trek TNG.)
Assuming that the currently sleeping king is their version of Arthur that was put out of the picture in a less controversial way than having his own incest son skewering him with a spear.
Not too much of a sidenote, but is it just me, or has Seb Mckinnon been in hyper overdrive mode lately? Even in the artwork that's been revealed he has some crazy good stuff.
His style is very distinct and I like that it's got that sort of old school magic feel.
Another thing, am I the only one who thinks it's a massive flavour fail or at least just sad that they didn't use the old Magic logo for this set?
I mean I get the whole "we want to look modern and cool lame ass blah blah blah" thing why they changed the logo, but it looks out of place with this set. The old logo would have fit it so much better on the boster packs.
For me McKinnon's art is very hit or miss.
Some I like very much, for example Blood for Bones, Unholy Indenture or Answered Prayers, others are a complete miss for my tastes (Deliver Unto Evil or Dirge of Dread), yet he seems he got his stride going when he started using more abstract compositions starting from Dominaria (or little earlier with Phantom Tiger).
Looking at the artwork he is doing now for cards, you would be hard pressed to believe that he also made pretty generic artwork like Attended Knight or Blind Obedience
Any speculation on what the dual-sided mechanic is going to be? That's a pretty steep ability cost for a 1 mana 1/2 to have, so i'm wondering if it'll have any sort of cost reduction integral to it (hence the split)
otherwise, i'm pumped. It's been a bit since wizards has eased off the murder stick and actually let us take a ******* vacation on a plane that's not 3 picoseconds from impending doom. I'm guessing there's still going to be a decent amount of legend support, and i'd guess that the Lady up there is probably going to tutor for a legendary artifact (or a more limited top x cards for a normal artifact since wizards apparently doesn't have the balls to print straight tutors again)
Otherwise since this is A: arthurian myth and B: wizards we're talking about, i'm going to bet that the story is probably going to be something akin to the mordred cycle, so Not!arthur is going to have to get their bastard son off the throne. also, I'm specifically using they because i'm not sure if Wiz is going to go with a female arthur given we already have art of some mother****er using unlimited blade works.
Now the real question is going to be whether or not they throw in a sidelong shrek reference
For me McKinnon's art is very hit or miss.
Some I like very much, for example Blood for Bones, Unholy Indenture or Answered Prayers, others are a complete miss for my tastes (Deliver Unto Evil or Dirge of Dread), yet he seems he got his stride going when he started using more abstract compositions starting from Dominaria (or little earlier with Phantom Tiger).
Looking at the artwork he is doing now for cards, you would be hard pressed to believe that he also made pretty generic artwork like Attended Knight or Blind Obedience
Heh heh, I was wondering whether anyone would bring up Deliver Unto Evil, and I'm glad you did, because I definitely have a very strong opinion on it (albeit not the same one as you have).
To me, Deliver Unto Evil was by far and away the single most important card (art-wise) in the War of the Spark set. I was getting super duper artistically-depressed by all the generic cgi-videogame-screenshot looking all-looks-like-it's-made-by-the-same-person card art in the WAR set, so, I was absolutely THRILLED to see that card art, because it showed that WoTC was still, to this day (even if unfortunately only rarely at this point) willing to allow some actual VARIETY in the art-styles of the card art, rather than demand full homogeneity of all the art falling into one main style-category overall.
Ideally, I wish they'd kick it back to their more retro stance in being willing to have even MORE cards that diverge massively from the category-norms of art styles at hand on most of the MTG cards.
Like, upon browsing through the card art of the olden sets of the 1990s, there was a LOT more variety between the styles on a really "fundamental" level (like that card, for example). Not just the more subtle differences between artists who are in the same overall category (i.e. the difference between, say, Monet and Van Gogh, who you can easily tell apart from each other, brushstrokes-wise, but who are still both in the same overall category (impressionism, that is), but rather, variety of a more fundamental nature (as in, the difference between, say, Monet and Da Vinci, or Sargent and Picasso, who are in just totally different categories from each other (and occasionally from themselves) with some of them having hyper-realistic styles, some having romantic styles, some having impressionistic styles, some having expressionist/abstract styles, and so on and so forth.
I think we need more of that (regardless of whether we happen to like the specific individual art on a "divergent" card, itself), the willingness to "get weird" and try out blatantly different-from-the-norm art styles I think is very important and a good thing in the grander scheme of things, even if it might not seem like it in instances where you come across a card that looks very different but don't happen to like the way that card happens to look.
But, the pessimistic side of me thinks that's not the direction we're headed. I think we're gonna see less and less variety at the most "fundamental" of category-style levels. We've already seen a continuous, drastic decrease in the amount of truly divergent card arts over the years, so, at the rate we're going, it wouldn't surprise me if it just stops happening altogether at some point in the near future.
But, card art like that randomly popping up in an otherwise VERY fundamentally-homogeneous set at least give me some small glimmer of hope, lol.
Not to mention, best of all, the fact that it was Seb who was the one to do that super-divergent instance of card art. That's particularly great news for someone like me, because, given how top-notch talented Seb is, WoTC can't just casually toss him away for wanting to do fundamentally-divergent instances of card art, because then they'd also lose all his other, less-divergent, extremely popular art that the vast majority of MTG fans tend to love, if you know what I mean. So, that means, even if WoTC wants to nerf the art into becoming fundamentally homogeneous, at the very least, they won't be able to fully do that so long as Seb is still around, which he probably will be for a while, given that he's arguably their top card artist. And perhaps because he's not just willing to do non-standard stuff, but also is really GOOD at it when he occasionally does do it, he could also serve as an eye-opener mechanism of sorts, or "bridge" or whatever you want to call it, that opens people's eyes to the wonder of card art that diverges massively from the category-norms of 99% of the card art, and that it can actually be fun and interesting from an art standpoint/variety standpoint.
Cliffnotes: Deliver Unto Evil was my favorite card art in that entire set, and also one of the most important MTG cards made in the current era of MTG, from a card-art standpoint. So yea, I'm a huge fan of his now (well, already was, but even MORE so than ever now, lol), and hope he can save WoTC from itself when it comes to the card art aspect of the game, and seduce them back to the (occasionally) non-standard side of card art, with the full range of variety of the good ole days of MTG, when that level of extreme artistic variety was considered normal and expected, in basically every set.
edit: Also, on a sidenote, although I agree that his art on Attended Knight was relatively standard/generic looking (not actively bad or anything, but definitely didn't jump out as being particularly unique or interesting), I would actually disagree that Blind Obedience falls into the same category. I think his unique style (and especially his raw talent, from even just a sheer quality standpoint) is already coming through pretty strongly in Blind Obedience. He's evolved even further since then, but I'd say he had definitely already started evolving/improving quite a bit as an artist by the time he made that one.
edit #2 Some other very important cards, art-wise, in regards to this topic, in recent sets, I would say would be some of the "Saga" cards in Dominaria.
I would love to see more cards (regular ones, I mean, not just strictly Sagas) that have these sorts of "fundamentally different" types of artwork rather than solely ever focusing on strict realism-style art on 100% of the cards. Don't get me wrong, I'm cool with like 80+% of the cards having a realism-based style. It's just, it was nice when SOME percentage, like 10 or 20 or 30% had that fundamental-style variety (take the old circles of protection art in the early sets, for example, like the "Circle of Protection: Green" in 4th edition, or, in a hybrid realism-weirdism-combo sort of way, stuff like "Circle of Protection: White" in Ice Age, or "Circle of Protection: Artifacts" in 4th edition. Just using those as random examples off the top of my head. They are far from my favorite card art. Just trying to explain what I mean by the terminology I'm using, when I say "fundamentally different" or "non-realism-based" or "hybrid realism-non-realism" or stuff like that).
Or, also, the way they had cards like [card]Cave People [4th edition][card] in The Dark/4th edition, for example. That one isn't as abstract as the circles of protection, but it isn't hyper-realism based. It's, much more of a mood/vibe-based kind of art.
Also love the artwork of a card like Crumble for example of somewhat hybrid-type artwork. Realism-based in the foreground, and taking some artistic-interpretation-ey-ness in the background. Just really refreshing compared to just card after card after card of all the same fundamental style in most of the recent sets, if you see what I mean. Back in the old days, every other card was diverging from some set conformation-"type". It was glorious! Now, it's just once in a blue moon when we see a card like Deliver Unto Evil every once in a while that varies from the set-standard in a fundamental sort of way.
And even from the less interpretationistic/somewhat more realism-ey styles of artwork from back then, I mean, just check out the art on a card like, oh, say, Brothers of Fire for example. SOOOOOOOOO cool. It has such a unique and intense look to it. So, it's not as if I'm saying something has to be impressionistic or interpretation-ey in order to look cool or unique or non-generic. That right there would be a great example of one that's in neither of those categories, yet still stands out very dramatically, art-wise, and which seems so rare compared to the current norms of artwork that seem so cgi auto-fill-ish and over-smoothed/over-polished (which would also be okay, btw, if it was just-another-random-thing that happened some percentage of the time, just like all those other random art styles, rather than 95+% of the time).
Any speculation on what the dual-sided mechanic is going to be? That's a pretty steep ability cost for a 1 mana 1/2 to have, so i'm wondering if it'll have any sort of cost reduction integral to it (hence the split)
Do we know something about it? Like, it's an alternate cost, or an activated ability like level up?
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How i feel about competitive players and casual players in EDH: The competitive are german tourists, the casual are italian tourists, both in a italian beach. The italians asking themselves "why are the germans here?" make a legitimate question, the answer is because the beach is beautiful, no matter the country you came from. The italians wanting to ban the germans are dumb, because if the germans pay for their stay and follow the rules like everyone else, they have the right to be in the beach. Hovewer, if the germans started to ask themselves "why are the italians here?"... they would be dumb as hell.
Not too much of a sidenote, but is it just me, or has Seb Mckinnon been in hyper overdrive mode lately? Even in the artwork that's been revealed he has some crazy good stuff. His style is very distinct and I like that it's got that sort of old school magic feel.
PREACH!!!
Seb is almost single handedly enabling me to still have some small vestige of hope that there will continue to be real, blatant actual VARIETY and uniqueness in MTG card art in years to come.
I hope he keeps it up! I hope his art gets EVEN WEIRDER than it's already occasionally getting. Or at the very least continues to get as weird (and fantastic) as it currently occasionally does.
Good job, Seb!!!
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I just hope the theme would reflect the those cards appeal and abilities.
So far we just have a handful of arts.
One has a little girl with a bloodied sword and three decapitated bears and a beartrap.
In the alternative version she made a rug out of one of them.
I really don't expect Bashful, Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sneezy, Sleepy and Dopey to be featured.
Just look at the witch a few posts up
I expect them to be just as 'grimm' (excuse the pun) as the original stories, if not worse.
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StaffExcept Will is in the set so your entire gripe is pretty much just a meaningless screed against diverse characters. After all, how dare Wizards work to make a cast of characters that are proportionally representational to society at large? I can certainly understand how you personally loose out by having some characters that don't look like you in the game that you and many other people play. This is sarcasm.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
EXCALIBUR!
Well, maybe the MTG version of it, so like "Eldralibur" or something, lol.
I'm thinking like 5 CMC, but 10 mana to equip, gives +10/+10, first strike, vigilance, indestructible, lifelink, trample, or something like that. And maybe "can only equip onto legendary creatures" or something. That could be fun. And have it be some huge sword sticking out of a powerstone.
I guess they could also have some MTG version of a "holy grail" where it gives you a bunch of lifegain or something.
Looks like people are rehashing the same dumb argument again. Good job guys. Never gets old. Anytime I see the letters SJW, I just scroll on by.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
How should we call this one? Holy Day is already taken.
And about ladies taking more prominent roles in MtG... we HAD plenty of powerful non-male figures in the past, did we not? Serra, Freyalise, Xantcha/Karn, Jolrael, Ashnod, Oona, Alesha, Narset, Tamiyo, etc, most of them lovable, and many of them aren't white or human either. And damn, I love Liliana's character development over the years.
The problem is not that MtG lacks powerful female characters, the problems is that the new ones aren't as hashed out as the old ones, regardless of race, gender, and creed. Rowan might turn out to be a very interesting character, but she's also competing with other great female characters, which is not her fault, just a challenge to overcome.
Hell, I rarely see people complain about not having enough kick-ass Asian male protagonist, like, do we have any after Toshiro Umezawa? Hopefully they will come when the time comes.
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
Sarkhan?
The emphasis is on "kick-ass". Spineless dragon bootlicker doesn't count.
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
Man that's really funny. They are doing that to sell more. It's capitalism baby. They want to broad their customers audience by bringing in nonwhite and women. Because nonwhite and women have $$$. They want to hire nonwhite and women to help them create a product that will sell to them.
So if you want to blame something, blame the $$$
It's funny that this kind of topic pop up when a set like this... how can we say it? Different? Experimental? When a set like this pops up.
I'm not liking it very much, faerie tale is not one of my top tropes, i can even dare to say that fairy tale is somehow too girlish for me, but for sure i won't feel threatened as a cis white man because my game is trying something different.
Well Sarkhan and Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter are as close to a Asian Kick-ass character as Toshi was. I mean, Toshiro was very skilled but he had real limits on what he could do. He defeated group of people with still mischief and inteligence. He was more of a very resourcefull guy than anything, he had trouble fighting more than 4 somewhat skilled warriors (even non mages) he most of times used alies to cover fights he couldn't win alone. When Kiku and Marrow-Gnawer came after hin with 7 other soldiers he outsmarted them using the eviroment and some kami that had no business with hin and any of the others.
Sarkhan uses dragons to fight when he realy needs but for example in khans he was almost alone and fought his way to the nexus, also in zendikar he was guarding the chamber of the eye of ugin hedron network and he did most of this job alone and not summoning many dragons (but transforming into one).
Jiang Yanggu is more like a Jack Chan green mage with a magic dog that he can make grow with his magic, think he would fit into a martial artist kinda of Assian male Kickass character.
I didn't read the Imperror trilogy to know much about Tetsuo Umezawa but i guess he would fit more into the kickass assian male hole way better than Toshi would.
If by "Spineless dragon bootlicker" you mean one of the few people smart enough to worship an entity powerful enough to be considered an apex being across multiple planes sure. How is Sarkhan any different than anyone who worships a "God?"
Oh and all that "bootlicking" has gotten him the ability to transform himself into one himself. As someone who would certainly find himself in Sarkhan's boots if dragons were real in our world I think he's pretty bad ass regardless of whether he has epicanthic folds or not.
https://twitter.com/stillcary/status/1015352880340008960
https://twitter.com/loreleywrites/status/1009973130536935424
People speculated that this Karn was in Vryn or in a place with Thran architecture but looking at a arthusian set maybe karn is in a ruin of somekind of structure with archs-archways... Maybe karn would not fit well in the main set but could very well appear in the plane on a suplemental product (and before people complain about cash grab on the brawl decks... They have done this for years in the commander decks, if one card indeed sees play in standard they can ban it or print it on the reward-FNM boosters, and they will also be on the $20 boosters soo the cards will not be on a scarcity even if they see competitive play)
I want to belive Karn in Eldraine ! (and a artifact-colorless or close based brawl deck)(they could realy go over the top and make a Wizard of Oz reference lol)
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
Why and what would karn be doing in Eldraine a very Fairy Tail - darker take on Disney movies - meets King Arthur legend world? ha i have a answear for you...
Well lets be quick and get into the rabbit's hole...
Well if they are making a world about fairy tails why not make some homage to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland while we are at it? What could karn be looking into Eldraine and why i m talking about Alice? Well, what if Karn is looking for powerfull planeswalkers to invade and destroy new phyrexia? Who he could call? The gatewatch? Maybe and probably. But we know Karn has acess to some memories of Urza. If only Urza had fought Phyrexia once... But he did... If only Urza had recruited some powerfull planeswalkers.... But he did... If only they were alive today... Well Teferi is alive and there is another planeswalker that didn't die on screen and did not even appeared.... Yes! What if Karn is looking for Parcher the walker Urza was gonna recruit but as soon as another walker was called for the job Urza dismissed the idea of Parcher on the Titans... Well we only saw his name being called once and it was followed by the thoughts of how crazy or lunatic he was... Well there is a character in Alice with similar features and it is the Mad Hatter ( named Hatta). My theory: We will see Karn looking for Parcher who was the lord/protector of the plane in the past and why the plane looks crazy in comparison to other planes we have seen soo far.
the Mad Hatter Hatta Parcher
Has he confirmed for the main set-story or for the whole set? I mean would he consider something done for a suplemental product that is not tecnically in the main set/ the thing he worked in R&D as part of the set? The thing with Brawl decks is they can have planeswalkers and if they are done like the commander decks then the team developing the main set is not the same as the team making the set. And we have confirmation that there will be 7 new cards for each deck, it would be kinda meh if maro said there will be 3 walkers in the main set and some more in the brawl decks... Better wait and see in Gavin Verhey's article or if maro answears that there will be no new planeswalker in the brawl decks.
Here's the problem: Kick-ass (or bad-ass) is a term refers to more than just raw power. Toshiro wasn't the most powerful character by a large margin, but he was cunning, resourceful, perceptive, despite his mortality and not being a PW he demonstrated how capable and instrumental he was in Kamigawa lore.
Sarkhan is a powerful PW in his own right, but the personality facets he demonstrated thus far primarily leads to one: Submission. His story shows how he continuously looking for one master after another, or just an entire dragon race he could submit to.
Despite his devotion, Sarkhan never truly understand dragon. Remember why Surrak killed and ate a dragon and what he said to the subordinate who snitched him? Dragon is power, "...the dragon we found was weak. Sick. So what reverence did we owe it?" Yet, on the card Pinion Feast, Sarkhan said, "Even paradise is not without tragedies." Hello? Dragons is the apex of natural order, how is one dragon eating another being a tragedy? Hell, Sarkhan even cried out of anger when one of the Temur killed a dragon in front of him, without understanding that dragon deserved its death. Sarkhan doesn't even understand what he's worshiping, he simply adores the fact that most dragon are more powerful than human as a race, like a mentally perfected superstar in a child's mind, and got upset when the toy was shattered by others who don't share the ideal.
Perhaps Sarkhan and Bolas were meant for each other.
Sarkhan said that dragons deserve to rule over men, despite he himself knew exactly what happened when a dragon-god dominated him, despite Ugin intentionally maintained a balance between dragon and other races on Tarkir, who obviously didn't find Sarkhan's obsession amusing. History of Dominaria taught Ugin better.
With or without his raw power, Sarkhan is not a kick-ass character. He spent most of his story being a meek minded lost child looking for a parent. It's a blessing that he becomes Masterless in the end, but that's not enough to mend his history.
Say hello to Domri Rade, who was "smart enough" to worship a dragon. If power is the only thing you believe deserve worship, or that people ought to revere strength alone, you're a perfect fit for tyrants.
See my reply above for leslak. Strength of personality is what makes a person bad-ass. There's a reason why Batman is more popular than Superman, despite their obvious gap in physical power.
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
But I do agree that Sarkhan's personality is lacking. He can fight and all, and is decently good at it, but he doesn't have a lot of personality to him and I'm surprised he could support as much of a character arc as he had.
Pure speculation is that the current king was cursed and put into an unbreakable eternal sleep (more fairytale-like than outright death) and with the Throne of Eldraine vacant, there is a power-struggle between the various courts.
Planeswalkers are either being invited as allies of the various factions or as impartial judges for the selection of the regent (similar way as Picard was asked to judge on the selection of the new Klingon chancellor in Star Trek TNG.)
Assuming that the currently sleeping king is their version of Arthur that was put out of the picture in a less controversial way than having his own incest son skewering him with a spear.
His style is very distinct and I like that it's got that sort of old school magic feel.
Another thing, am I the only one who thinks it's a massive flavour fail or at least just sad that they didn't use the old Magic logo for this set?
I mean I get the whole "we want to look modern and cool lame ass blah blah blah" thing why they changed the logo, but it looks out of place with this set. The old logo would have fit it so much better on the boster packs.
Some I like very much, for example Blood for Bones, Unholy Indenture or Answered Prayers, others are a complete miss for my tastes (Deliver Unto Evil or Dirge of Dread), yet he seems he got his stride going when he started using more abstract compositions starting from Dominaria (or little earlier with Phantom Tiger).
Looking at the artwork he is doing now for cards, you would be hard pressed to believe that he also made pretty generic artwork like Attended Knight or Blind Obedience
otherwise, i'm pumped. It's been a bit since wizards has eased off the murder stick and actually let us take a ******* vacation on a plane that's not 3 picoseconds from impending doom. I'm guessing there's still going to be a decent amount of legend support, and i'd guess that the Lady up there is probably going to tutor for a legendary artifact (or a more limited top x cards for a normal artifact since wizards apparently doesn't have the balls to print straight tutors again)
Otherwise since this is A: arthurian myth and B: wizards we're talking about, i'm going to bet that the story is probably going to be something akin to the mordred cycle, so Not!arthur is going to have to get their bastard son off the throne. also, I'm specifically using they because i'm not sure if Wiz is going to go with a female arthur given we already have art of some mother****er using unlimited blade works.
Now the real question is going to be whether or not they throw in a sidelong shrek reference
Heh heh, I was wondering whether anyone would bring up Deliver Unto Evil, and I'm glad you did, because I definitely have a very strong opinion on it (albeit not the same one as you have).
To me, Deliver Unto Evil was by far and away the single most important card (art-wise) in the War of the Spark set. I was getting super duper artistically-depressed by all the generic cgi-videogame-screenshot looking all-looks-like-it's-made-by-the-same-person card art in the WAR set, so, I was absolutely THRILLED to see that card art, because it showed that WoTC was still, to this day (even if unfortunately only rarely at this point) willing to allow some actual VARIETY in the art-styles of the card art, rather than demand full homogeneity of all the art falling into one main style-category overall.
Ideally, I wish they'd kick it back to their more retro stance in being willing to have even MORE cards that diverge massively from the category-norms of art styles at hand on most of the MTG cards.
Like, upon browsing through the card art of the olden sets of the 1990s, there was a LOT more variety between the styles on a really "fundamental" level (like that card, for example). Not just the more subtle differences between artists who are in the same overall category (i.e. the difference between, say, Monet and Van Gogh, who you can easily tell apart from each other, brushstrokes-wise, but who are still both in the same overall category (impressionism, that is), but rather, variety of a more fundamental nature (as in, the difference between, say, Monet and Da Vinci, or Sargent and Picasso, who are in just totally different categories from each other (and occasionally from themselves) with some of them having hyper-realistic styles, some having romantic styles, some having impressionistic styles, some having expressionist/abstract styles, and so on and so forth.
I think we need more of that (regardless of whether we happen to like the specific individual art on a "divergent" card, itself), the willingness to "get weird" and try out blatantly different-from-the-norm art styles I think is very important and a good thing in the grander scheme of things, even if it might not seem like it in instances where you come across a card that looks very different but don't happen to like the way that card happens to look.
But, the pessimistic side of me thinks that's not the direction we're headed. I think we're gonna see less and less variety at the most "fundamental" of category-style levels. We've already seen a continuous, drastic decrease in the amount of truly divergent card arts over the years, so, at the rate we're going, it wouldn't surprise me if it just stops happening altogether at some point in the near future.
But, card art like that randomly popping up in an otherwise VERY fundamentally-homogeneous set at least give me some small glimmer of hope, lol.
Not to mention, best of all, the fact that it was Seb who was the one to do that super-divergent instance of card art. That's particularly great news for someone like me, because, given how top-notch talented Seb is, WoTC can't just casually toss him away for wanting to do fundamentally-divergent instances of card art, because then they'd also lose all his other, less-divergent, extremely popular art that the vast majority of MTG fans tend to love, if you know what I mean. So, that means, even if WoTC wants to nerf the art into becoming fundamentally homogeneous, at the very least, they won't be able to fully do that so long as Seb is still around, which he probably will be for a while, given that he's arguably their top card artist. And perhaps because he's not just willing to do non-standard stuff, but also is really GOOD at it when he occasionally does do it, he could also serve as an eye-opener mechanism of sorts, or "bridge" or whatever you want to call it, that opens people's eyes to the wonder of card art that diverges massively from the category-norms of 99% of the card art, and that it can actually be fun and interesting from an art standpoint/variety standpoint.
Cliffnotes: Deliver Unto Evil was my favorite card art in that entire set, and also one of the most important MTG cards made in the current era of MTG, from a card-art standpoint. So yea, I'm a huge fan of his now (well, already was, but even MORE so than ever now, lol), and hope he can save WoTC from itself when it comes to the card art aspect of the game, and seduce them back to the (occasionally) non-standard side of card art, with the full range of variety of the good ole days of MTG, when that level of extreme artistic variety was considered normal and expected, in basically every set.
edit: Also, on a sidenote, although I agree that his art on Attended Knight was relatively standard/generic looking (not actively bad or anything, but definitely didn't jump out as being particularly unique or interesting), I would actually disagree that Blind Obedience falls into the same category. I think his unique style (and especially his raw talent, from even just a sheer quality standpoint) is already coming through pretty strongly in Blind Obedience. He's evolved even further since then, but I'd say he had definitely already started evolving/improving quite a bit as an artist by the time he made that one.
edit #2 Some other very important cards, art-wise, in regards to this topic, in recent sets, I would say would be some of the "Saga" cards in Dominaria.
So, cards like:
Chainer's Torment
Fall of the Thran
History of Benalia
Phyrexian Scriptures
Rite of Belzenlok
The Mirari Conjecture
Time of Ice
etc.
I would love to see more cards (regular ones, I mean, not just strictly Sagas) that have these sorts of "fundamentally different" types of artwork rather than solely ever focusing on strict realism-style art on 100% of the cards. Don't get me wrong, I'm cool with like 80+% of the cards having a realism-based style. It's just, it was nice when SOME percentage, like 10 or 20 or 30% had that fundamental-style variety (take the old circles of protection art in the early sets, for example, like the "Circle of Protection: Green" in 4th edition, or, in a hybrid realism-weirdism-combo sort of way, stuff like "Circle of Protection: White" in Ice Age, or "Circle of Protection: Artifacts" in 4th edition. Just using those as random examples off the top of my head. They are far from my favorite card art. Just trying to explain what I mean by the terminology I'm using, when I say "fundamentally different" or "non-realism-based" or "hybrid realism-non-realism" or stuff like that).
Or, also, the way they had cards like [card]Cave People [4th edition][card] in The Dark/4th edition, for example. That one isn't as abstract as the circles of protection, but it isn't hyper-realism based. It's, much more of a mood/vibe-based kind of art.
Also love the artwork of a card like Crumble for example of somewhat hybrid-type artwork. Realism-based in the foreground, and taking some artistic-interpretation-ey-ness in the background. Just really refreshing compared to just card after card after card of all the same fundamental style in most of the recent sets, if you see what I mean. Back in the old days, every other card was diverging from some set conformation-"type". It was glorious! Now, it's just once in a blue moon when we see a card like Deliver Unto Evil every once in a while that varies from the set-standard in a fundamental sort of way.
And even from the less interpretationistic/somewhat more realism-ey styles of artwork from back then, I mean, just check out the art on a card like, oh, say, Brothers of Fire for example. SOOOOOOOOO cool. It has such a unique and intense look to it. So, it's not as if I'm saying something has to be impressionistic or interpretation-ey in order to look cool or unique or non-generic. That right there would be a great example of one that's in neither of those categories, yet still stands out very dramatically, art-wise, and which seems so rare compared to the current norms of artwork that seem so cgi auto-fill-ish and over-smoothed/over-polished (which would also be okay, btw, if it was just-another-random-thing that happened some percentage of the time, just like all those other random art styles, rather than 95+% of the time).
Do we know something about it? Like, it's an alternate cost, or an activated ability like level up?
PREACH!!!
Seb is almost single handedly enabling me to still have some small vestige of hope that there will continue to be real, blatant actual VARIETY and uniqueness in MTG card art in years to come.
I hope he keeps it up! I hope his art gets EVEN WEIRDER than it's already occasionally getting. Or at the very least continues to get as weird (and fantastic) as it currently occasionally does.
Good job, Seb!!!