So am I understanding this correctly that there is no formal reconciliation between liliana and the gatewatch? :/
No, and Ravnica, through the living guildpact Niv-Mizzet, hires Kaya to kill Liliana.
Gideon forgives her though, Jace tells her to leave, and Chandra is initially pissed at Gideon trading his life for Lily's, but then understands why it's done.
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Modern
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
Niv-Mizzet Kills Kefnet after being reborn, and then goes into some sort of coma until he stabs Bolas with Hazoret's spear several chapters later. The biggest change from the Books to the cards is that Finale of Eternity shows Lily destroying the Gem of Becoming by shattering The Chain Veil. In the books she just takes the Gem of Becoming and peaces.
I will say that I thought the narrator of the audiobook did a very good job with delivery and different voices for different characters, and made some of the bad writing more enjoyable. I don't know if the narration from the Audiobook is cannon, but if it is then Domri had an Australian accent, the "z" in Orzhov is pronounced like the "s" in measure, Nicol is pronounced "Neecole," Hultai is pronounced "Whatley," if you say "what" like Hank Hill, and "Parun" is pronounced like "Parin."
I was always under the impression that the reason Wizards led with human planeswalkers was that they were popular because people could find pieces of themselves so to speak in these characters. As an example with the new set Ral Zarek is revealed to be in a realtionship to Tomik, appealing to that demographic. Narset has Autism, Gideon shows classic signs of recovery from abuse and tragedy, Huatli is inspired by an area of Latin America. Things like that are why I thought they were more prominent?
I'm not buying that. As a father who has to travel for work sometimes I can relate to Angrath. As someone who has lost friends and made mistakes I can relate to Karn. People who are judged for looking rough or their race and are tough but have a kind heart under that exterior can relate to Vraska. They had an female Gruul Ogre who had a female Ogre ex in the Gruul story. My favorite story was Izzet, which featured a human who ended up as a Simic experiment gone wrong(or right, depending on your perspective). The Ixalan Vampires are inspired by Spanish Conquistadors.
In fact, Sci/Fi and Fantasy have always done a good job of portraying human issues using nonhumans. Kirk slept with a green alien in Star Trek to show that interracial love can be a beautiful thing. The very first interracial kiss ever on TV was on Star Trek. In LOTR a Dwarf and Elf become good friends and reevaluate their racist stances. Gollum represents people with addiction issues. The X-men is all about how we shouldn't judge or be afraid of people who are different than us.
So Maro said the Eternals kill when they despark someone. We have a 'Despark' card with two big Eternals apparently desparking 'someone,' but that someone appears later on a card in a different area.
Did we ever get any cards that show Jace returning Vraska’s memory and her betraying Bolas? Or any cards of Niv-Mizzet doing something after being reborn?
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Modern
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
All of the Boros are attacking with Frontline Medic, so none of them can die. 😉
In all seriousness, I think the gameplay works well with the lore here. Most externals are 4/4s, and would be able to kill the weaker members of the guild, but would get wrecked by other, like Dragons, Angels, Demons, Wurms, Sphinxs, ghosts, Gorgons, Ogres, Horrors, and Hydras. The externals May have experience, but they’ve never fought a weird before. Also, the enternals can get bottlenecked through the portal, and Ravnica has plenty of firepower to throw at a bottleneck.
In the end I’m not sure how much it matters because it looks like Bolas will lose by betrayal.
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Delver U
Elves G
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Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
WHY RAVNICA, WHY NOT DO THIS ON A PLANE YOU ALREADY CONTROL.
At some point Ravnica became the center of the multiverse instead of Dominaria and has more powerful magic, or something like that. Also, project lightning bug is on Ravnica.
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Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
I mean come on Guys Ob Nixilis looks Evil. He is not and has never been Subtle. Also you think he make the list of Evil Planeswalkers who might help Bolas. Considering he fought the Gatewatch and Karn went to Ravnica with the Gatewatch. So yeah sure Dack might not know who Ob is but Karn should because Jace, Chandra, or Gideon should have told him.
Evil people fight against each other all the time. Hitler vs. Stalin, criminals fighting against each other, and Magic has a history of this - Bolas killed Bontu, Crovax killed Volrath and Tsabo Tavoc. Even Bolas stood up against the mending. If Bolas is trying to steal every planeswalkers spark, Ob is not going to be cool with that.
Black is the color of ambition and selfishness, and often times people who are ambitious and selfish clash with other people who are ambitious and selfish.
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Commander
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Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
The Selesnya aren't corrupt per se, but their organization is way too shady to be a good example. The Boros are also particularly involved in the backstabbing politics this time around, so definitely corrupt beyond belief.
The Jeskai are also shown to be dogmatic and possibly manipulative in the Narset debut.
Every government that has ever existed has had some amount of corruption.
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Also, a lot of governments and organizations have had some form of backstabbing at some point, so I’m not sure how the Boros backstabbing now makes them “corrupt beyond belief.”
Additionally, the hero of the first Ravnica series was a Boros detective who wasn’t corrupt. There will always be bad cops, corrupt politicians, and shady people. No government has ever been perfect and free of shadiness, especially in midevil Times. In fantasy when you write about conflict, you’re going to touch on these themes.
The word Utopia literally means a place that does not exist. Wizards will never depict a perfect world because that is beyond belief, not corruption.
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JundBGR
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Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
We got another cute story, but all the stories are kind of the same and all the main characters have the same personality: a low ranking member of the guild has confidence issues but is trying his/her best to make it in the guild. It’s a brutal world that can be difficult to live in, but the main character is really a nice person who really wants to succeed. In the end, everything works out.
I'm just waiting for the Azorius story to inevitably come along and instead portray the main character as some laughable, incompetent lawful stupid - or even directly villainous - putz, because "gov'ment bad." It'd certainly fit the theme that MTG's been playing up in recent sets. (Seriously, when was that last set where the governing body wasn't either pointlessly useless, or actively corrupt?)
/salt
Have we ever gotten a body of authority that wasn't corrupt or useless? Magic lore never has the best track record with positive governments and religions in general.
Human history doesn’t have the best track record with governments and religions in general, especially in the Middle Ages, which is what fantasy is based on.
However, there are some positive governments/religions in Magic.
-Benalia during the dominaria story.
-The church of Thraben during the first innistrad story.
-the selesnya religion I would argue isn’t corrupt. The Jeskai, Temur, and Abzan clans had their advantages. So do some guilds.
-In the first ravnica story the protagonist was a Boros detective.
Also, when writing fantasy often times you have corruption for conflict.
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Modern
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
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Delver U
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Control B
Commander
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Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
We got another cute story, but all the stories are kind of the same and all the main characters have the same personality: a low ranking member of the guild has confidence issues but is trying his/her best to make it in the guild. It’s a brutal world that can be difficult to live in, but the main character is really a nice person who really wants to succeed. In the end, everything works out.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern
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
I’m not saying all the planeswalkers should die, but we’ve now had 9 sets in a row with 0 planeswalker deaths, and the last planeswalker who died is in the underworld and can get rescued. Before that we had 6 sets with 0 planeswalker deaths. I understand they like printing new versions of planeswalkers, but planeswalkers aren’t immortal, and at some point some of them should die.
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Modern
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Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
Hopefully Bolas is triumphant. Gideon dies trying to use The Blackblade, all the other walkers lose their sparks and Bolas ascends.
Would be so sweet!
Oh yeah, lets just kill off all the face characters of the game, most of which are actually popular outside of places like this who hate on every planeswalker that shows up for one block. That is totally a good hook to go with now that we got our Shocklands sales bump.
Game of Thrones has proven that you can have successful fantasy storytelling and characters dying. It’s boring to have the same characters in the story over and over and over again with them facing death-defying odds all the time and always escaping with little more than scratches.
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Modern
JundBGR
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Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
1. The Gruul don’t have any other spellcaster who can summon boar after boar like Domri. Domri may also have received some help from Nicol Bolas.
2. The power of old walkers, neowallers, and legendaries are on a Spectrum. A couple of legendaries scaring old walkers are the exception. The power of Urza can’t be compared to the power of Squee, Hannah, cho-Manno, Tangarth, etc.
Bogey is powerful, but what’s his conditioning like? If you keep sending boar after boar at him, eventually he would yield.
No, and Ravnica, through the living guildpact Niv-Mizzet, hires Kaya to kill Liliana.
Gideon forgives her though, Jace tells her to leave, and Chandra is initially pissed at Gideon trading his life for Lily's, but then understands why it's done.
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
I will say that I thought the narrator of the audiobook did a very good job with delivery and different voices for different characters, and made some of the bad writing more enjoyable. I don't know if the narration from the Audiobook is cannon, but if it is then Domri had an Australian accent, the "z" in Orzhov is pronounced like the "s" in measure, Nicol is pronounced "Neecole," Hultai is pronounced "Whatley," if you say "what" like Hank Hill, and "Parun" is pronounced like "Parin."
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
I'm not buying that. As a father who has to travel for work sometimes I can relate to Angrath. As someone who has lost friends and made mistakes I can relate to Karn. People who are judged for looking rough or their race and are tough but have a kind heart under that exterior can relate to Vraska. They had an female Gruul Ogre who had a female Ogre ex in the Gruul story. My favorite story was Izzet, which featured a human who ended up as a Simic experiment gone wrong(or right, depending on your perspective). The Ixalan Vampires are inspired by Spanish Conquistadors.
In fact, Sci/Fi and Fantasy have always done a good job of portraying human issues using nonhumans. Kirk slept with a green alien in Star Trek to show that interracial love can be a beautiful thing. The very first interracial kiss ever on TV was on Star Trek. In LOTR a Dwarf and Elf become good friends and reevaluate their racist stances. Gollum represents people with addiction issues. The X-men is all about how we shouldn't judge or be afraid of people who are different than us.
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
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
Despark
Did we ever get any cards that show Jace returning Vraska’s memory and her betraying Bolas? Or any cards of Niv-Mizzet doing something after being reborn?
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
In all seriousness, I think the gameplay works well with the lore here. Most externals are 4/4s, and would be able to kill the weaker members of the guild, but would get wrecked by other, like Dragons, Angels, Demons, Wurms, Sphinxs, ghosts, Gorgons, Ogres, Horrors, and Hydras. The externals May have experience, but they’ve never fought a weird before. Also, the enternals can get bottlenecked through the portal, and Ravnica has plenty of firepower to throw at a bottleneck.
In the end I’m not sure how much it matters because it looks like Bolas will lose by betrayal.
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
At some point Ravnica became the center of the multiverse instead of Dominaria and has more powerful magic, or something like that. Also, project lightning bug is on Ravnica.
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
Evil people fight against each other all the time. Hitler vs. Stalin, criminals fighting against each other, and Magic has a history of this - Bolas killed Bontu, Crovax killed Volrath and Tsabo Tavoc. Even Bolas stood up against the mending. If Bolas is trying to steal every planeswalkers spark, Ob is not going to be cool with that.
Black is the color of ambition and selfishness, and often times people who are ambitious and selfish clash with other people who are ambitious and selfish.
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
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
Every government that has ever existed has had some amount of corruption.
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Also, a lot of governments and organizations have had some form of backstabbing at some point, so I’m not sure how the Boros backstabbing now makes them “corrupt beyond belief.”
Additionally, the hero of the first Ravnica series was a Boros detective who wasn’t corrupt. There will always be bad cops, corrupt politicians, and shady people. No government has ever been perfect and free of shadiness, especially in midevil Times. In fantasy when you write about conflict, you’re going to touch on these themes.
The word Utopia literally means a place that does not exist. Wizards will never depict a perfect world because that is beyond belief, not corruption.
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
Human history doesn’t have the best track record with governments and religions in general, especially in the Middle Ages, which is what fantasy is based on.
However, there are some positive governments/religions in Magic.
-Benalia during the dominaria story.
-The church of Thraben during the first innistrad story.
-the selesnya religion I would argue isn’t corrupt. The Jeskai, Temur, and Abzan clans had their advantages. So do some guilds.
-In the first ravnica story the protagonist was a Boros detective.
Also, when writing fantasy often times you have corruption for conflict.
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
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
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
Game of Thrones has proven that you can have successful fantasy storytelling and characters dying. It’s boring to have the same characters in the story over and over and over again with them facing death-defying odds all the time and always escaping with little more than scratches.
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
2. The power of old walkers, neowallers, and legendaries are on a Spectrum. A couple of legendaries scaring old walkers are the exception. The power of Urza can’t be compared to the power of Squee, Hannah, cho-Manno, Tangarth, etc.
Bogey is powerful, but what’s his conditioning like? If you keep sending boar after boar at him, eventually he would yield.
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