MTG Salvation

They also have "horror" creature types for non-eldrazi eldritch stuff.

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The Leviathan was not Ugin. Ugin "died" on Tarkir.
The corpse of The Demonic Leviathan, which was slain by Bolas, was located on Dominaria (also known as The Talon Gates).

Uuuuuuuuuuuugin.

Sorry I'm too lazy to track down the story where Bolas killed him the first time. It happened during the Bolas Origin story during C19.

Nah you all misread that chapter. Bolas killed Ugin on the Mediation Realm and in the Mediation Realm made his own horns.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/chronicle-bolas-unwritten-now-2018-08-15

In the Meditation Realm, the god-emperor perches atop an outcropping of rock amid the ruins of a once handsome temple whose columns and roof were dashed to the ground at the time of the cataclysm. To Bolas, these marks of devastation are marks of victory. His wings, outspread, cast a shadow over the waters. He can't quite recall exactly where Ugin fell, but fall he did, and now the opaque waters have become his grave.

This, the site of his greatest triumph, is a fitting place for him to ruminate over his plans. To give himself a focal point on which to center his meditation, he chooses a spot at the center of a vast span where no islands break the surface. Here, he erects two gigantic curved horns so they emerge from the waters as if a gargantuan dragon lies sleeping beneath, body hidden from sight. When he is done, the sky gleams with a contentment that matches his own.

Not my thing but it looks cute, glad others are loving these and if they do any good reprint it will hopefully bring prices down.

Modern Horizons had UR draw lots of cards archetype that Eldraine followed. I think its more likely they wanted to give red a draw spell that felt red and played with that archetype since impulse draw isn't drawing.

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Y'all know they been doing ~50% return planes, new planes since Scars of Mirrodin right?

I should probably rephrase: When I said old, I meant "overused", losing freshness, visited too frequently within short time span. Theros on second visit still has some freshness. Dominaria had always been a lot more diverse and historically intriguing (no pun intended) and it's set centuries after the war, which made returning to it a new experience.

I was mention the fact people are acting surprised/whining that we are returning to Theros and Zendikar when we have been retuning to old worlds for a while as well as well as knowing the timeframe of return when to except them.

Y'all know they been doing ~50% return planes, new planes since Scars of Mirrodin right?

Well the Gathering Storm is all out and thought on the "novel";

Pros;
-Over all I liked it. Django Wexler did a great job with tone, characters, action scenes and understanding of the lore and world building. More on each below;

-Ral- Ral was a great protagonist and I like how we saw him go from the ass in RtR to the more heroic character that felt natural. We also got his full background mostly which also was nice since I do like hearing about walker origins. It was nice finally having a clearly out gay character in magic and loved how him and Tomik where written as a couple. I also think it really helps having Ral being the focus as Ravnica giving it a personal touch as well being walker giving him knowing the dangers of Bolas.

-Kaya- As the newest gatewatch member it was nice seeing her get some character and backstory more. I'm wondering what the Broken Sky fully is and how she will deal it now Bolas is gone (but she now has the gatewatch). I also like the exploration of her abilities showing us her skills and limits such as the creative ways she uses her magic to sneak around, break in, escape or even break her falls or keep herself from being hurt. I also find the heartbeat weakness a cool idea. I also like seeing how her version of WB clashed with the Orzhovs and I wonder how she will get out of the contracts. After this story it looks like her and Teysa aren't very friendly so not sure if or how that transfer of power will happen.

-Hekara- I really enjoy her and felt like she brought a lot of heart to the group they had formed. Kinda sad she didn't get a card over Judith but just add her to the list LOL. I also like the diversity we see from her for Rakdos instead of the murder demon cult we saw in Ravnica 1 and 2.

-Niv- Never been a fan of Niv and while I’m still not thinking its the best for the vainest dragon on Ravnica (and the only intelligent one left cuz you know, narcissistic genoidice) being guildpact I do think Wexler did a good job showing how Bolas helped humble Niv somewhat and show Niv what Ravnica means to him. And holy moly the fight between him and Bolas was great. Bolas gonna win but I like that it shows that Niv didn’t go down without a good fight and I could see that if Niv and Ral plan had worked Niv could have taken down Bolas or at least make Bolas flee.

-Bolas- I feel like Wexler really built off Elliot work well here showing bolas twisting the guilds with his ghost and his pulling of Ral’s strings to become a walker. As well as a theory I heard about him plotting Ajani’s sparking and chances are helped a few other walkers spark in order to seed walkers for the elder spell add to this thought. And while pregnant lady Bolas still wins for scariest Bolas in human form, sugar daddy Bolas was creepy too.

-Ravnica- I really liked Wexler fleshing out of the world. He did a great job showing the stereotypes of the guilds, but also adding in more grounded and realist elements. Certain guilds did get more focus due to characters so can’t say all the guilds were fleshed out but I enjoyed the notes that while Izzets like flashe experiments and pushing limits they all aren’t blowing up labs daily. I also felt like we got a good look at how bad Ravnica got messed up due to Jace being gone.

-Cons

-Vraska- As option I did not enjoy the Vraska arc. I don’t think it fit with her character working (un)willing for Bolas with her memories back and feel it was really stupid of her killing Isperia with her memoires knowing how much Ravnica was in danger due to Bolas. I’d rather she recover her memories after Isperia imo then get the struggle of identity and depression she goes through.

-Release- I think the handling of the releases of this was awful. I didn’t mind the email thing but having a 20 chapter book over 21? 22? (I know they were a week or 2 they didn’t have a story) was hard to keep invested at point to due my next issue.

Being released as a prequel and having the core set, commander deck and Eldraine coming out made it hard to focus on these stories even more since we not only know the ending with War but already had most of the pieces known and semi-explained months before with the two set.

Finally I felt this hurt war of the spark since there are many plot points and hooks we are except to fully know but couldn’t quite tell. Hekara return to life for example would have had a much more emotional punch now we saw who she was and it would have really pulled off the “Event” set feel since we have this plot, the Gatewatch plot and somewhat the Amonkhet plot all paying off. I think they could have set it to have half the Gathering storm first, Drayden stories for 10 weeks and then the final of this story that broughts us right to War of the Spark.

Happy Halloween to us, we got a planeswalker guide. After the art book was cancelled I we wouldn't get to see the world of Eldraine from a non-story pov.

Things I found interesting;

-The five court artifacts where originally the elves. The arficts are also the sources of magic for the knights of each court.

-Ardenvale loyalty is based on kinship and trust and not on rulership.

-The test of knighthood from Ardenvale is to walk through the circle of loyalty. Those who fail don't always die, they get saved and healed, but are rarely allowed to try again.

-Vantress knighthood test is telling the magic mirror a secret and the mirror might then grant knighthood.

-Magic mirror was said to be made from an answered question that it tries to solve.

-Vantress is ruled by the mirror though the day to day stuff is run by an archmage the current one is Gadwick. He is as powerful as any other ruler of a the courts but tends to say of it to work on Vantress.

-Castle Locthwain floats on clouds and its knights are granted clouds to float on to get up and down.

-Figuratively Locthwain is lost with the Cauldron missing and super focused on getting the back. They also tend to look down on nobles who aren't knight and/or making efforts to help find the Cauldron.

- Ayara it seems was the ruler of Locthwain before the realms formed and the elves lost power. She is likely immortal and her court she her as a the pinnacle of persistence for still ruling, adopting and moving forward. Also all the terms used for her lovers and spouses she sends to their deaths looking for the Cauldron where gender neutral so I'm guess she has had non-male lovers.

-As the red court Embereth isn't too orderly with the "castle" being the whole city around it and the burning yards.

-They don't believing in being fearless but using fear to motive courage.

-Irencrag is a boulder that has magical heat. A wanna-be knight must plunge thier sword into it and try to remove it with sometimes the sword getting magical upgrade which is what shows Embercleave.

-Embereth is ruled by a counsel of nobles and knights.

-To gain a knighthood in Garenbrig one has to prove thier strength determined by Yorvo.

-Similar to Locthwain, Garenbrig was a giants kingdom before the realm and its giants joined the realm willingly.

-Non-humans are collectivly called the fair folk and various goals and motivation from creature to creature.

-Three kind of fae, meddling W, thieving U and prankster B.

-Dwarfs tend to dislike the too orderly systems the courts have so many tend to live in the wilds, but a few seek knighthood. Torbran was one but his sword was insulted by Irencrag he left, rumors said to forge an even better one to show up the stone.

I can't wait to see what they did for a set of commander. Great way to knock out a bunch of requested characters as well since no hard theme or color balancing needs. I hope to see partner (with).

This should be where they put arcane signet reprint.

Oh I hope we get a few more *not* heroic cards.

Quote from Melkor »

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Yeah, they probably should have banned the cards that were banned in standard like they did when modern first came out, like Aetherworks marvel and Emrakul, the promised end.

I think they made the right call waiting to see about that stuff. they did it for Modern, using the context of previous Standard, and how many cards on the initial list have proven that they never should have been banned? a bunch. 6 of those cards are currently in the format and not making any waves at all. a lot of cards especially in the last couple years were too strong because there was probably the fewest number of answers there has ever been in Standard. Marvel was broken because there was almost nothing to answer it. Marvel was banned before Abrade was even printed, it could have been fine if they had waited a few weeks. they should definitely wait and see

To add on, this was when they switching with rotation so sets like BfZ and Kaladesh and Amonkhet where in the same standard season when they weren't meant to be.

Hey y'all sorry life took more out of me and I couldn't find much motivation to finish this but I finally did! Let me know if I missed anything or if you have questions!

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I thought bestow was a little over costed, but it was the first go 'round for it, this time they know what it is and how it plays so they should be able to better cost it. Really looking forward to devotion and constellation. I think heroic has been superseded by prowess.

Which gods you think make it in? I doubt they'll include all 15. If the story is about Elspeth and the underworld, you have to figure Heliod, Phenax and Erebos, possibly Athreos. The only way they 15 make it in is if they make some rare.

I don't know. She doesn't look like a returned or undead in the picture we saw. They usually have darker skin almost dark grayish. So I don't think Phenax will play an important role. Well Heliod and Erebos should get what they deserve. If they add Gods than it will be in form of a cycle. So I think it will be the 5 major Gods (the mono-colored ones). I don't know if we will get gods as rares. It would be the first time.

Phenax is the god of the returned in the sense he himself escaped the underworld and left a path for them to follow. He could has a role in this set.

Ravos has been set up to play a role between the commander decks and the hint Dack gave regarding him in War of the Spark.

Edit: Do we know if the pantheon we saw in the last Theros block is complete? I remember that Maro has written something that there is at least one missing one. God of Love or something like that. I would like to see something like Nike but Iroas has taken part of her domain.

In lore the pantheon stabilized with 14 gods, the RG spot missing until Xenagos took that spot. In a story with Krupix he mentions how the gods are shaped by mortal belief and gods had been created and forgotten using a god of love as an example.

As said before wizards feels like they could use Rome or another world and really that all that matters. A number of ways the trope space of rome could be used, imo not as its own world but as the flavor for a bottom up set (Kaladesh) or part of a faction (Tarkir). Similar to pirate troops I think Rome has enough for a section of a world but not as the only focus.

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Hopefully we get some better mechanics this time around. Constellation and Devotion were good, but the rest were hot garbage in my opinion.

I will always fight that monstrous, bestow and heroic are good as well, just got nerfed by development and strive is decent as a add on for heroic.