Gaea's been pretty heavily implied to be a real god. See Gaea's Avenger and the more recent Gaea's Protector. Svyelun less so, but the card doesn't necessarily represent someone hanging around Vodalia today.
As for Gaea getting a card in the Brothers' War, I'd say why not? She's a distant god, but one event that apparently moved her to action was the destruction of Argoth during said war.
Ilharg, the Raze-Boar is a God, despite being (from what I can tell, anyway) just a big boar. It seems to be a God just because the Gruul worship it as such. So if we do get Dominarian Gods, it could be because they're worshipped as gods, regardless of whatever they truly are?
Going by the information from Amonkhet and Theros, gods in the MTG universe are entities that wield power fueled by faith and worship. The more believers, the stronger the god and vice versa. And there are very specific requirements to become one.
Kaldheim is a bit of an outlier due to not having enough information on how the plane works, besides the fact that their gods need to drink their juice.
The Amonkhet Gods were embodiments of the planes leylines. They don't need believers, or at least the 3 corrupted by Bolas did not. Being a god seems to operate very differently on different planes.
As far as I'm aware, the nature of Ilharg remains largely unspecified.
Edit: Oh, and I definitely had the impression that the tree juice was what made the Kaldheim gods into gods.
With Neon Dynasty looking the way it does, a western themed set certainly won't be too high tech or "futuristic" for Magic. It looks like they're pushing REALLY hard to expand Magic from only being fantasy style stuff. I'm definitely not a fan of it moving in that direction and like I said earlier in the thread, that's coming from somebody who prefers sci fi stuff.
Sometimes I feel the need to recall that the story of Invasion block involved an airship, an army of genetically modified clones and people in mech suits fighting off an alien invasion.
That's true, but the overall aesthetic of everything was still very not sci fi looking.
Futuristic tech in a premodern setting? Kinda sounds like Steampunk…
Yeah, the early stuff was bordering on high tech stuff was done in a similar vein as maybe steampunk (or aetherpunk with Kaladesh which is my favourite), where it's high tech and they have airships, phyrexian mechs, Urza has power plants beaming with energy and stuff like that, but it's still rooted in fantasy and not "futuristic high tech" if that makes sense.
Yeah, that makes sense. I'm not picturing Neon Dynasty as "not rooted in fantasy". The one city shot we saw has a bit of a Blade Runner vibe, but there's a guy on the roof with a sword too. We'll see, I guess.
But again not sure if they said it was a planesawalker who was emperor or the possibility someone from the original block somehow lived (or they have a kami emperor now). Tezzeret just has been on the plane before thought as someone else has brought up Oko could be in disguise here.
They have not said it's a planeswalker, but the mortals from the last Kamigawa are dead and you can't form a dynasty without a hereditary line of succession, which requires mortality.
Therefore, it's either a planeswalker (from Kamigawa or pretending to be) or Yuriko.
If they can do a Gangster setting then a Western set is more possible. It will show us how they will creatively work around the guns aspect of a genre that predominantly features guns.
With Neon Dynasty looking the way it does, a western themed set certainly won't be too high tech or "futuristic" for Magic. It looks like they're pushing REALLY hard to expand Magic from only being fantasy style stuff. I'm definitely not a fan of it moving in that direction and like I said earlier in the thread, that's coming from somebody who prefers sci fi stuff.
Sometimes I feel the need to recall that the story of Invasion block involved an airship, an army of genetically modified clones and people in mech suits fighting off an alien invasion.
That's true, but the overall aesthetic of everything was still very not sci fi looking.
Futuristic tech in a premodern setting? Kinda sounds like Steampunk…
If they can do a Gangster setting then a Western set is more possible. It will show us how they will creatively work around the guns aspect of a genre that predominantly features guns.
With Neon Dynasty looking the way it does, a western themed set certainly won't be too high tech or "futuristic" for Magic. It looks like they're pushing REALLY hard to expand Magic from only being fantasy style stuff. I'm definitely not a fan of it moving in that direction and like I said earlier in the thread, that's coming from somebody who prefers sci fi stuff.
Sometimes I feel the need to recall that the story of Invasion block involved an airship, an army of genetically modified clones and people in mech suits fighting off an alien invasion.
I wonder how they're going to justify the lore we've already seen from current day Kamigawa. Because we know that there are sections that aren't all cyberpunked from the stories about Tamiyo and her children.
Could Tamiyo be the Emperor?
Tamiyo the observer being Empress seems quite out of character to me.
The Sisters of Flesh and Spirit somehow figuring out how to planeswalk would be spicy, but part of me dreads Nicol Bolas finally tracking the Umezawas back to where they came from, escaping his Prison Realm, and becoming Emperor. (Honestly, Bolas not getting killed off still smells like Wizards left open the opportunity for him to come back, and him coming back might only be a matter of time.)
Someone else mentioned Oko as a possibility; IMO, the only way Oko is on the Emperor's throne is if he usurped it. While the flavour behind Oko definitely sounds like the faerie(/Yosei?) faction he came from espouses Asiatic philosophies of harmony, I suspect Wizards left his home plane open instead of fixing it on Kamigawa.
Oko's home plane is ruled by fascist faeries, so he's not from Kamigawa. I intended to suggest he has gained it through some means other than legitimate succession, possibly involving turning the previous emperor into an elk.
I wonder how they're going to justify the lore we've already seen from current day Kamigawa. Because we know that there are sections that aren't all cyberpunked from the stories about Tamiyo and her children.
Could Tamiyo be the Emperor?
Seems a little out of character, but it does pretty much have to be a planeswalker (or Yuriko, I suppose) since the non-immortal Kamigawans are all dead. My guess: Oko.
Theory for New Capenna: Given that they said "Three-Color Factions" but didn't specify arcs or wedges, and that the Three-Color Factions all correspond to Demon run gangs, and Demons are specifically Black's signature creature, we might be looking at a redo of Torment.
Instead of Arcs or Wedges, some combination of the three colors that include black. I think, balance wise, it'd probably be something like: WUB, UBR, BRG, RBW, GBU. Black getting the most representation, followed by Red and Blue, then White and Green.
Or, as with the dragon sets, we're going to be getting Demons in colors other than black, which could be fascinating in it's own right.
Additionally, based on that other piece of art we got for Ob Nixilis and the set, it looks like we might be seeing the start of the Anti-Gatewatch here.
EDIT: Also meant to say that if not the above combination, almost assuredly Arcs, as it's been some time since we've seen those three color combinations.
Don't you find it funny how every storyline for the spring set always revolves around 5 of something based on color, and each of those somethings have to be color balanced with the other 4 because the Spring set happens to have the major annual Commander deck release? Before the major annual Commander deck release being tied to the Spring set, the sets weren't color based because there were no Commander Decks to be made for them. The story of those sets weren't based on color identity, and now, with Ikoria, Strixhaven, and Capenna, it is all about color identity.
Do you think Ikoria and Strixhaven are "specific color combinations matter" sets? Even if gameplaywise, color does not matter, the story still revolves around 5 of something based on color, because of Commander.
What I'm saying is, the storyline of those sets isn't influencing the Commander decks. Commander is influencing the story of the set.
It has been done where Commander didn't influence the story of the set, and that set is the D&D set.
They do 5 faction sets pretty commonly, so it could be a coincidence or they could have simply shifted the 5 faction sets to match the commander products.
I was wondering if Commander had any influence as to how the story is told for the Spring sets. Sure, every set has 5 factions, but some aren't as big of a deal as others, while Ikoria, Strixhaven, and most like Capenna, the 5 factions are a big deal. For Ikoria and Strixhaven, rather than something are these colors, like Werewolves are Red Green, it is Red White is Lorehold. Color combination is a certain faction because of the Commander influence in these sets.
I predict that, as long as the major Commander set release is tied to the Spring set, every spring set will have a storyline involving "these colors are a specific faction".
Ikoria's factions weren't particularly story relevant, they corresponded to a geographic region with a 3 color apex predator while the story was about humans fighting/bonding with monsters. The commander product wasn't even tied to the apex monsters particularly, just came in the colors.
wait a minute.... guys maybe this is her home plane?
It was old phyrexians on her homeplane yawgmoth died so they clearly deactivated with to little angels to protect (the ones the phyrexians killed) the demons took over.
and the brothers wars maybe its karn having a flashback telling the story to all the walkers whos gonna be involved of the war. (the story is how the phyrexians became a planar threat in the first place)
Yawgmoth died 300+ years before Elspeth was born, so not sure that lines up, but it definitely makes sense that the Brothers' War is tied to the coming phyrexian invasion 2.0.
Don't you find it funny how every storyline for the spring set always revolves around 5 of something based on color, and each of those somethings have to be color balanced with the other 4 because the Spring set happens to have the major annual Commander deck release? Before the major annual Commander deck release being tied to the Spring set, the sets weren't color based because there were no Commander Decks to be made for them. The story of those sets weren't based on color identity, and now, with Ikoria, Strixhaven, and Capenna, it is all about color identity.
Do you think Ikoria and Strixhaven are "specific color combinations matter" sets? Even if gameplaywise, color does not matter, the story still revolves around 5 of something based on color, because of Commander.
What I'm saying is, the storyline of those sets isn't influencing the Commander decks. Commander is influencing the story of the set.
It has been done where Commander didn't influence the story of the set, and that set is the D&D set.
They do 5 faction sets pretty commonly, so it could be a coincidence or they could have simply shifted the 5 faction sets to match the commander products.
I like the Gangs of New York/Sin City feel of Streets of New Capenna (Al Capone reference? Street Wraith reprint?, but if it's a shard theme then I think I'd have liked to see us go back to Alara in that case.
BUT I'm curious to see how this goes down.
'buster
Calling it now, but New Capenna is a city on Alara. Please note that they said that the city has special significance to Elspeth. With Alara merging the demons of Grixis will have infiltrated the other shards that were once separate. Demon led gangs and a city that was built by Angels (the city on Bant no doubt). With there being 3 colour factions I'm guessing this is what Alara has become and after Elspeth escaped Theros she decided to head back to her adopted home only to find how much it had changed.
Not impossible, but there are some issues. The demon we've seen does not resemble a Grixis demon and they showed some art that shows way more development than I'd expect for 10 years or so, assuming there's not a time jump for it.
Edit: On further investigation, Aaron Forsythe distinctly says "new plane" when discussing it, so not on Alara.
If Slivers and Shocklands return in this standard, my poor wallet.
Shocklands == Ravnica only (mostly likely)(as they will need something to hype the return to return to return to return to ravnica)
The exception to this being the science fiction shocklands that Unfinity will have. Maybe they'll be reprints and black border, maybe they'll be new and silver.
I highly doubt he would have mentioned it if they were silver border.
Them being in Unfinity does make me think we won't see them in standard next year though.
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As for Gaea getting a card in the Brothers' War, I'd say why not? She's a distant god, but one event that apparently moved her to action was the destruction of Argoth during said war.
The Amonkhet Gods were embodiments of the planes leylines. They don't need believers, or at least the 3 corrupted by Bolas did not. Being a god seems to operate very differently on different planes.
As far as I'm aware, the nature of Ilharg remains largely unspecified.
Edit: Oh, and I definitely had the impression that the tree juice was what made the Kaldheim gods into gods.
Yeah, that makes sense. I'm not picturing Neon Dynasty as "not rooted in fantasy". The one city shot we saw has a bit of a Blade Runner vibe, but there's a guy on the roof with a sword too. We'll see, I guess.
They have not said it's a planeswalker, but the mortals from the last Kamigawa are dead and you can't form a dynasty without a hereditary line of succession, which requires mortality.
Therefore, it's either a planeswalker (from Kamigawa or pretending to be) or Yuriko.
Futuristic tech in a premodern setting? Kinda sounds like Steampunk…
Sometimes I feel the need to recall that the story of Invasion block involved an airship, an army of genetically modified clones and people in mech suits fighting off an alien invasion.
Oko's home plane is ruled by fascist faeries, so he's not from Kamigawa. I intended to suggest he has gained it through some means other than legitimate succession, possibly involving turning the previous emperor into an elk.
Seems a little out of character, but it does pretty much have to be a planeswalker (or Yuriko, I suppose) since the non-immortal Kamigawans are all dead. My guess: Oko.
I doubt it's Torment 2, but arcs makes sense.
Ikoria's factions weren't particularly story relevant, they corresponded to a geographic region with a 3 color apex predator while the story was about humans fighting/bonding with monsters. The commander product wasn't even tied to the apex monsters particularly, just came in the colors.
Yawgmoth died 300+ years before Elspeth was born, so not sure that lines up, but it definitely makes sense that the Brothers' War is tied to the coming phyrexian invasion 2.0.
They do 5 faction sets pretty commonly, so it could be a coincidence or they could have simply shifted the 5 faction sets to match the commander products.
Not impossible, but there are some issues. The demon we've seen does not resemble a Grixis demon and they showed some art that shows way more development than I'd expect for 10 years or so, assuming there's not a time jump for it.
Edit: On further investigation, Aaron Forsythe distinctly says "new plane" when discussing it, so not on Alara.
I highly doubt he would have mentioned it if they were silver border.
Them being in Unfinity does make me think we won't see them in standard next year though.