so comparing the ENTIRE sagas of Urza/Weatherlight and Bolas/Gatewatch, including novels, comics, short stories on the mothership and the cards themselves, who would you say had the overall better story?
Let's do a deep dive into what worked and what didn't work for each saga.
and lest you look back at the Weatherlight saga through Urza's glasses, don't forget that that saga had its share of stinkers just like the Gatewatch saga did (Prophecy, anybody?), and also had is share of nonsensical story elements and gaping plot holes.
Honestly I don't bother too much about plot holes in this kind of story. For me the most important thing is the game having it's own, cool identity. With old-walkers I felt the story was more unique because it was a weird mix of wizardry fantasy and fictional mythology. Old walkers being god-like was very much in character for the game you cast 'Wrath of God' as a spell and even their inconsistent, fluctuating power levels gave the sense of conflicting sources which is everywhere in non-fictional mythology.
The main thing I don't like about the Gatewatch Saga is how they handled the planeswalkers.
I really don't like each one having a very narrow and distinct set of powers. This was done as mean to set the characters apart. Fostering identity that way is a super hero thing and really lessens the setting imo. I don't mind Jace being specialized in mind magic and illusions but I wish this specialization didn't go as far as to make him more like a x-men then a wizard.
And even the non-wizard pws have this ridiculous narrow but strong set of powers to set then apart from other characters. They felt like a pw archer was not enough for Vivien, so they gave her spirit animal arrows - a power I'm pretty sure no one else in the multiverse has. I think this is really lame and corny.
Even ignoring nostalgia goggles, I vastly prefer the old Urza storyline. I've said it before, but my biggest issue with the whole Gatewatch story is how bland and utterly devoid of ideas it is. It's content to just mimic the popular trend, without contributing anything of substance. The Urza storyline, although far from perfect and with problems of its own, at least tried to be its own thing, to have its own identity, to contribute its own ideas. I've seen the Gatewatch story told a thousand times before, and this incarnation has nothing to set it apart from those that have come before it (and likely those that will come after it).
There's another issue too. It's obviously trying to mimic the comic book superhero trend, that's no secret. They were even introduced as Magic's answer to the Avengers. The problem is that it seems like they're trying to mimic two different eras of comic book superheroes - both the over-the-top cheesy fun of the Saturday morning cartoon, and the more mature and realistic modern day take. And maybe it's possible to mix those things in a way that works, but Magic just isn't doing it well. It takes itself way too seriously - and expects to be taken too seriously - to properly capture the sheer fun of the Saturday morning cartoon, but it's too silly and generic to be worth taking as seriously as the modern take on superheroes.
The Weatherlight saga may not have been perfect, but here we are nearly twenty years later and I still remember it. The mythical "feel" that italofoca mentioned certainly contributes. It felt like something made by fantasy fans, for fantasy fans. The Gatewatch story feels like something made by marketing execs for the mass market.
Even ignoring nostalgia goggles, I vastly prefer the old Urza storyline. I've said it before, but my biggest issue with the whole Gatewatch story is how bland and utterly devoid of ideas it is. It's content to just mimic the popular trend, without contributing anything of substance. The Urza storyline, although far from perfect and with problems of its own, at least tried to be its own thing, to have its own identity, to contribute its own ideas. I've seen the Gatewatch story told a thousand times before, and this incarnation has nothing to set it apart from those that have come before it (and likely those that will come after it).
There's another issue too. It's obviously trying to mimic the comic book superhero trend, that's no secret. They were even introduced as Magic's answer to the Avengers. The problem is that it seems like they're trying to mimic two different eras of comic book superheroes - both the over-the-top cheesy fun of the Saturday morning cartoon, and the more mature and realistic modern day take. And maybe it's possible to mix those things in a way that works, but Magic just isn't doing it well. It takes itself way too seriously - and expects to be taken too seriously - to properly capture the sheer fun of the Saturday morning cartoon, but it's too silly and generic to be worth taking as seriously as the modern take on superheroes.
The Weatherlight saga may not have been perfect, but here we are nearly twenty years later and I still remember it. The mythical "feel" that italofoca mentioned certainly contributes. It felt like something made by fantasy fans, for fantasy fans. The Gatewatch story feels like something made by marketing execs for the mass market.
You do know the weatherlight saga was based on Star Trek as much as the gatewatch is based on the Avengers right?
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Oh look, I'm not claiming the Weatherlight saga was the pinnacle of originality. Maybe it's just because I never saw anything Star Trek related so I can't really see the parallels, I dunno. All I know is that I was actually interested enough in the old stories to read them despite my lack of prior attachment to it, whereas whenever I try to read anything about the Gatewatch (and I have legitimately tried to get into it), all I can think of is how I could be doing literally anything else.
Voted the Urza storyline. Although I don't dislike the gatewatch, I enjoyed reading the web comics when Jace, Chandra, Garrk, and Liliana were first introduced.
With old-walkers I felt the story was more unique because it was a weird mix of wizardry fantasy and fictional mythology. Old walkers being god-like was very much in character for the game you cast 'Wrath of God' as a spell
Wrath of God has nothing to do with Planeswalkers depicted powerful as gods. Wrath of God exist since Alpha, it's one of those cards that predates any lore about PWs. That card is just a mere judeochristian reference, just like Armageddon or all that cards that have bible quotes in the flavor text.
With old-walkers I felt the story was more unique because it was a weird mix of wizardry fantasy and fictional mythology. Old walkers being god-like was very much in character for the game you cast 'Wrath of God' as a spell
Wrath of God has nothing to do with Planeswalkers depicted powerful as gods. Wrath of God exist since Alpha, it's one of those cards that predates any lore about PWs. That card is just a mere judeochristian reference, just like Armageddon or all that cards that have bible quotes in the flavor text.
Originally MtG's fluff was described as two powerful magicians battling each other and each card depicting a spell. Later on Planeswalkers were created to differentiate common magicians from the ones players represents. So it's the other way around: oldswalkers were made godlike to properly represent 'players' casting things like Balance and such, summoning characters from different planes and not physically existing alongside the mortal characters.
The problem is that it seems like they're trying to mimic two different eras of comic book superheroes - both the over-the-top cheesy fun of the Saturday morning cartoon, and the more mature and realistic modern day take. And maybe it's possible to mix those things in a way that works, but Magic just isn't doing it well. It takes itself way too seriously - and expects to be taken too seriously - to properly capture the sheer fun of the Saturday morning cartoon, but it's too silly and generic to be worth taking as seriously as the modern take on superheroes.
This. I feel like this is especially apparent with some of the dialogue. Too many of the characters talk in this casual Joss Whedon style, where they act like they know they're in an action flick. Not to the point of outright fourth wall breaking, but they'll treat life-threatening situations like an exciting game and reference the story's tropes within the story. I have nothing against gallows humor, and I don't mind some action movie one-liners here and there, but it's really annoying when characters are always making quips that make light of the plot itself and lampshade the cliches that the story relies on.
The flavor text for Lazotep Behemoth is a perfect example of what I mean. A monster like that should be absolutely terrifying, it's an enormous undead zombie beast, it's definitely not something that a normal soldier should be taking lightly. If the quote was from a character who was meant to be a badass who isn't fazed by anything (as opposed to some random grunt), then I wouldn't have minded a generic action movie quip like "the bigger they are, the harder they fall." But when a character says something like "LOL look how ridiculous this thing is," then at that point, the story is just making fun of itself. Which is fine for a story that's meant to be ridiculous like Deadpool or the 60s Batman show, but it really doesn't work in a story that's otherwise meant to be serious.
This is a huge part of why I hated the character of Rat so much. Not the only reason, by a long shot, but a big one. She talked in Whedon speak like that all the time, and it was even more grating in the bonus chapters told from her POV, since even her internal monologue was filled with comments that poked fun at the whole situation she was in.
Even ignoring nostalgia goggles, I vastly prefer the old Urza storyline. I've said it before, but my biggest issue with the whole Gatewatch story is how bland and utterly devoid of ideas it is. It's content to just mimic the popular trend, without contributing anything of substance. The Urza storyline, although far from perfect and with problems of its own, at least tried to be its own thing, to have its own identity, to contribute its own ideas. I've seen the Gatewatch story told a thousand times before, and this incarnation has nothing to set it apart from those that have come before it (and likely those that will come after it).
There's another issue too. It's obviously trying to mimic the comic book superhero trend, that's no secret. They were even introduced as Magic's answer to the Avengers. The problem is that it seems like they're trying to mimic two different eras of comic book superheroes - both the over-the-top cheesy fun of the Saturday morning cartoon, and the more mature and realistic modern day take. And maybe it's possible to mix those things in a way that works, but Magic just isn't doing it well. It takes itself way too seriously - and expects to be taken too seriously - to properly capture the sheer fun of the Saturday morning cartoon, but it's too silly and generic to be worth taking as seriously as the modern take on superheroes.
The Weatherlight saga may not have been perfect, but here we are nearly twenty years later and I still remember it. The mythical "feel" that italofoca mentioned certainly contributes. It felt like something made by fantasy fans, for fantasy fans. The Gatewatch story feels like something made by marketing execs for the mass market.
You do know the weatherlight saga was based on Star Trek as much as the gatewatch is based on the Avengers right?
As someone who's watched a lot of Star Trek (95% TNG), I'm not seeing the parallel. Beyond 'people on a ship,' which could apply to many, many things.
Even ignoring nostalgia goggles, I vastly prefer the old Urza storyline. I've said it before, but my biggest issue with the whole Gatewatch story is how bland and utterly devoid of ideas it is. It's content to just mimic the popular trend, without contributing anything of substance. The Urza storyline, although far from perfect and with problems of its own, at least tried to be its own thing, to have its own identity, to contribute its own ideas. I've seen the Gatewatch story told a thousand times before, and this incarnation has nothing to set it apart from those that have come before it (and likely those that will come after it).
There's another issue too. It's obviously trying to mimic the comic book superhero trend, that's no secret. They were even introduced as Magic's answer to the Avengers. The problem is that it seems like they're trying to mimic two different eras of comic book superheroes - both the over-the-top cheesy fun of the Saturday morning cartoon, and the more mature and realistic modern day take. And maybe it's possible to mix those things in a way that works, but Magic just isn't doing it well. It takes itself way too seriously - and expects to be taken too seriously - to properly capture the sheer fun of the Saturday morning cartoon, but it's too silly and generic to be worth taking as seriously as the modern take on superheroes.
The Weatherlight saga may not have been perfect, but here we are nearly twenty years later and I still remember it. The mythical "feel" that italofoca mentioned certainly contributes. It felt like something made by fantasy fans, for fantasy fans. The Gatewatch story feels like something made by marketing execs for the mass market.
You do know the weatherlight saga was based on Star Trek as much as the gatewatch is based on the Avengers right?
As someone who's watched a lot of Star Trek (95% TNG), I'm not seeing the parallel. Beyond 'people on a ship,' which could apply to many, many things.
corveroth asked: The Weatherlight Saga was the highest point in Magic's storytelling. It had a continuity without reducing to the Star Trek formula or needing an Avengers team.
A: We literally modeled the Weatherlight Saga when we made it after “Star Trek”. We had a captain, a first mate, an engineer, a security guy, a healer. They travelled in a ship from world to world.
as well as Phyrexia is an expy of the borg and from Karn and the weatherlight we do explore the trope of an AI finding selfhood.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
The flavor text for Lazotep Behemoth is a perfect example of what I mean. A monster like that should be absolutely terrifying, it's an enormous undead zombie beast, it's definitely not something that a normal soldier should be taking lightly.
Yup, even a charging normal hyppo would be enough to terrorize a normal soldier, an undead beast from an other world should be even more frightening. I know that on Ravnica there are wurms, giants and ogres, but the existence of these creatures shouldn't be enough to make light of something that could nevertheless kill you...
Even ignoring nostalgia goggles, I vastly prefer the old Urza storyline. I've said it before, but my biggest issue with the whole Gatewatch story is how bland and utterly devoid of ideas it is. It's content to just mimic the popular trend, without contributing anything of substance. The Urza storyline, although far from perfect and with problems of its own, at least tried to be its own thing, to have its own identity, to contribute its own ideas. I've seen the Gatewatch story told a thousand times before, and this incarnation has nothing to set it apart from those that have come before it (and likely those that will come after it).
There's another issue too. It's obviously trying to mimic the comic book superhero trend, that's no secret. They were even introduced as Magic's answer to the Avengers. The problem is that it seems like they're trying to mimic two different eras of comic book superheroes - both the over-the-top cheesy fun of the Saturday morning cartoon, and the more mature and realistic modern day take. And maybe it's possible to mix those things in a way that works, but Magic just isn't doing it well. It takes itself way too seriously - and expects to be taken too seriously - to properly capture the sheer fun of the Saturday morning cartoon, but it's too silly and generic to be worth taking as seriously as the modern take on superheroes.
The Weatherlight saga may not have been perfect, but here we are nearly twenty years later and I still remember it. The mythical "feel" that italofoca mentioned certainly contributes. It felt like something made by fantasy fans, for fantasy fans. The Gatewatch story feels like something made by marketing execs for the mass market.
You do know the weatherlight saga was based on Star Trek as much as the gatewatch is based on the Avengers right?
As someone who's watched a lot of Star Trek (95% TNG), I'm not seeing the parallel. Beyond 'people on a ship,' which could apply to many, many things.
corveroth asked: The Weatherlight Saga was the highest point in Magic's storytelling. It had a continuity without reducing to the Star Trek formula or needing an Avengers team.
A: We literally modeled the Weatherlight Saga when we made it after “Star Trek”. We had a captain, a first mate, an engineer, a security guy, a healer. They travelled in a ship from world to world.
as well as Phyrexia is an expy of the borg and from Karn and the weatherlight we do explore the trope of an AI finding selfhood.
Fair points. Though Maro essentially describes any ship crew (understandable, as Enterprise was a human ship with our standards), and Weatherlight went to only . . . three planes, I think? (Serra, Rath, Mercadia). And the purpose of Weatherlight vs. Enterprise was very different.
But I'm generally picking up what you're putting down. Borg and Phyrexia also good comparison.
The flavor text for Lazotep Behemoth is a perfect example of what I mean. A monster like that should be absolutely terrifying, it's an enormous undead zombie beast, it's definitely not something that a normal soldier should be taking lightly.
Yup, even a charging normal hyppo would be enough to terrorize a normal soldier, an undead beast from an other world should be even more frightening. I know that on Ravnica there are wurms, giants and ogres, but the existence of these creatures shouldn't be enough to make light of something that could nevertheless kill you...
In the face of a stressful situation, some people will resort to humor as a coping mechanism. This is especially true when the stressful situation is particularly ridiculous and/or absurd. I know that I personally have cracked many jokes throughout occasions when I was in quite intense pain (appendicitis, breaking a bone, falling through a floor/ceiling to the floor below, etc...).
I feel like the climax of a story matters a lot, and the invasion block was so much more epic and detailed than war of the spark. In the Invasion block Dominaria was invaded several times, Zalifar warped out, the elder dragons were reborn and died, the Stranglehold was invaded, Phyrexia was invaded, Gerard, Urza, and Yawgmoth died.
In War of the Spark the tenth district was invaded and Domri Rade died.
Also Yawgmoth was defeated by the legacy weapon, which was the past blocks all coming into cumulation. Bolas was defeated by Niv-Mizzet Guildpact using Hazoret’s Spear and then Lily betraying him and Ugin trapping him, which came out of nowhere.
The Weatherlight saga also had put much more weight early with the deaths of fellow ship members. After Rufelos, Crovax, Mirri, Ertai and other friendly characters to the cause we became uncertain of what could happen. The character plots and shifts were in card arts, we could feel crovax falling to selenia, we felt sorry for morri after she followed crovar (and also his card art at the moment he reveals his cursed body and go after mirri). Also there was a lot more plot development done well. In Rath we followed the crew until they discovered the invasion plans and even if we knew they would scape, their flight back was painfull and well pictured on card arts and in the story. And then in Ivasion we did not knew what was gonna happen (I started playing about 4 m before the release of ivasion and got into the story as the set came, it was exciting and we really looked on the cards to try and find what happened to the characters) and I have to say that even if the cards did not represented all the story in the block that well, the story in cards and the stakes were way high than the ones in war.
And imo the gatewatch story is not all trash as war was, I really liked Amonkhet(one of the best, Amonkhet had totally changed by the end of the set gods died, pw almost died and we later discovered why they didn’t, it felt real imo, could have been better but anyway is good enough), I liked Ixalan (although I think it should have been in one huge set, but at least it wasn’t a 3 set block, the story was soo slow passed), Kaladesh was a ok set up was a good Chandra setup set, and even if shadows don’t fit much into bolas vs gatewatch big plan I liked a lot the story(much more weight than most of the other stories with the gatewatch, the weight being on important characters for the setting). Oath and battle was the worst mostly on how they handled the superfriends power but also is not complete trash.
From a art and playability stand point war of the spark was great but regards to the story it was really bad. Imo they could have corrected it if they used the first 2 sets to make the conflict.
If Guild of Ravnica was named War of the Spark:Ravnica and had a bit less focus on the guilds and showed some set ups for the war and then if allegiance was named War of the Spark: Allegiance and there indeed the focused a lot more on showing the planeswalkers bolas had setup to make the invasion easier, and in both set they showed a image on a card of the planar bridge opening the portal... and in the end in the War itself if they focused the uncommon walkers slots with new walkers (no seccond Ral named ral, but a new name with possibly the same card; the same for domri, vraska, dovin, kaya, etc) and showing the new walkers dying in the battle, and again jaya , kiora, sorin or tibalt being killed... then the gatewatch vs bolas story line would at least be very good on the cards. (The book is hated by most, not a good one lol)( I did not readed the prequel but the war of the spark main book is really bad took me a lot of time to finish)
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Let's do a deep dive into what worked and what didn't work for each saga.
and lest you look back at the Weatherlight saga through Urza's glasses, don't forget that that saga had its share of stinkers just like the Gatewatch saga did (Prophecy, anybody?), and also had is share of nonsensical story elements and gaping plot holes.
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The main thing I don't like about the Gatewatch Saga is how they handled the planeswalkers.
I really don't like each one having a very narrow and distinct set of powers. This was done as mean to set the characters apart. Fostering identity that way is a super hero thing and really lessens the setting imo. I don't mind Jace being specialized in mind magic and illusions but I wish this specialization didn't go as far as to make him more like a x-men then a wizard.
And even the non-wizard pws have this ridiculous narrow but strong set of powers to set then apart from other characters. They felt like a pw archer was not enough for Vivien, so they gave her spirit animal arrows - a power I'm pretty sure no one else in the multiverse has. I think this is really lame and corny.
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
There's another issue too. It's obviously trying to mimic the comic book superhero trend, that's no secret. They were even introduced as Magic's answer to the Avengers. The problem is that it seems like they're trying to mimic two different eras of comic book superheroes - both the over-the-top cheesy fun of the Saturday morning cartoon, and the more mature and realistic modern day take. And maybe it's possible to mix those things in a way that works, but Magic just isn't doing it well. It takes itself way too seriously - and expects to be taken too seriously - to properly capture the sheer fun of the Saturday morning cartoon, but it's too silly and generic to be worth taking as seriously as the modern take on superheroes.
The Weatherlight saga may not have been perfect, but here we are nearly twenty years later and I still remember it. The mythical "feel" that italofoca mentioned certainly contributes. It felt like something made by fantasy fans, for fantasy fans. The Gatewatch story feels like something made by marketing execs for the mass market.
You do know the weatherlight saga was based on Star Trek as much as the gatewatch is based on the Avengers right?
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
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Wrath of God has nothing to do with Planeswalkers depicted powerful as gods. Wrath of God exist since Alpha, it's one of those cards that predates any lore about PWs. That card is just a mere judeochristian reference, just like Armageddon or all that cards that have bible quotes in the flavor text.
Originally MtG's fluff was described as two powerful magicians battling each other and each card depicting a spell. Later on Planeswalkers were created to differentiate common magicians from the ones players represents. So it's the other way around: oldswalkers were made godlike to properly represent 'players' casting things like Balance and such, summoning characters from different planes and not physically existing alongside the mortal characters.
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
This. I feel like this is especially apparent with some of the dialogue. Too many of the characters talk in this casual Joss Whedon style, where they act like they know they're in an action flick. Not to the point of outright fourth wall breaking, but they'll treat life-threatening situations like an exciting game and reference the story's tropes within the story. I have nothing against gallows humor, and I don't mind some action movie one-liners here and there, but it's really annoying when characters are always making quips that make light of the plot itself and lampshade the cliches that the story relies on.
The flavor text for Lazotep Behemoth is a perfect example of what I mean. A monster like that should be absolutely terrifying, it's an enormous undead zombie beast, it's definitely not something that a normal soldier should be taking lightly. If the quote was from a character who was meant to be a badass who isn't fazed by anything (as opposed to some random grunt), then I wouldn't have minded a generic action movie quip like "the bigger they are, the harder they fall." But when a character says something like "LOL look how ridiculous this thing is," then at that point, the story is just making fun of itself. Which is fine for a story that's meant to be ridiculous like Deadpool or the 60s Batman show, but it really doesn't work in a story that's otherwise meant to be serious.
This is a huge part of why I hated the character of Rat so much. Not the only reason, by a long shot, but a big one. She talked in Whedon speak like that all the time, and it was even more grating in the bonus chapters told from her POV, since even her internal monologue was filled with comments that poked fun at the whole situation she was in.
As someone who's watched a lot of Star Trek (95% TNG), I'm not seeing the parallel. Beyond 'people on a ship,' which could apply to many, many things.
Per Maro;
https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/146371928278/the-weatherlight-saga-was-the-highest-point-in
as well as Phyrexia is an expy of the borg and from Karn and the weatherlight we do explore the trope of an AI finding selfhood.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Yup, even a charging normal hyppo would be enough to terrorize a normal soldier, an undead beast from an other world should be even more frightening. I know that on Ravnica there are wurms, giants and ogres, but the existence of these creatures shouldn't be enough to make light of something that could nevertheless kill you...
Fair points. Though Maro essentially describes any ship crew (understandable, as Enterprise was a human ship with our standards), and Weatherlight went to only . . . three planes, I think? (Serra, Rath, Mercadia). And the purpose of Weatherlight vs. Enterprise was very different.
But I'm generally picking up what you're putting down. Borg and Phyrexia also good comparison.
In the face of a stressful situation, some people will resort to humor as a coping mechanism. This is especially true when the stressful situation is particularly ridiculous and/or absurd. I know that I personally have cracked many jokes throughout occasions when I was in quite intense pain (appendicitis, breaking a bone, falling through a floor/ceiling to the floor below, etc...).
In War of the Spark the tenth district was invaded and Domri Rade died.
Also Yawgmoth was defeated by the legacy weapon, which was the past blocks all coming into cumulation. Bolas was defeated by Niv-Mizzet Guildpact using Hazoret’s Spear and then Lily betraying him and Ugin trapping him, which came out of nowhere.
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
And imo the gatewatch story is not all trash as war was, I really liked Amonkhet(one of the best, Amonkhet had totally changed by the end of the set gods died, pw almost died and we later discovered why they didn’t, it felt real imo, could have been better but anyway is good enough), I liked Ixalan (although I think it should have been in one huge set, but at least it wasn’t a 3 set block, the story was soo slow passed), Kaladesh was a ok set up was a good Chandra setup set, and even if shadows don’t fit much into bolas vs gatewatch big plan I liked a lot the story(much more weight than most of the other stories with the gatewatch, the weight being on important characters for the setting). Oath and battle was the worst mostly on how they handled the superfriends power but also is not complete trash.
From a art and playability stand point war of the spark was great but regards to the story it was really bad. Imo they could have corrected it if they used the first 2 sets to make the conflict.
If Guild of Ravnica was named War of the Spark:Ravnica and had a bit less focus on the guilds and showed some set ups for the war and then if allegiance was named War of the Spark: Allegiance and there indeed the focused a lot more on showing the planeswalkers bolas had setup to make the invasion easier, and in both set they showed a image on a card of the planar bridge opening the portal... and in the end in the War itself if they focused the uncommon walkers slots with new walkers (no seccond Ral named ral, but a new name with possibly the same card; the same for domri, vraska, dovin, kaya, etc) and showing the new walkers dying in the battle, and again jaya , kiora, sorin or tibalt being killed... then the gatewatch vs bolas story line would at least be very good on the cards. (The book is hated by most, not a good one lol)( I did not readed the prequel but the war of the spark main book is really bad took me a lot of time to finish)