I'm running Kytheon in my R/W heroic deck and he is useful in FNM. A one drop that transforms later into a 4/4 that can't be killed in combat is useful. Granted he dosn't win me games but I never thought he would.
Gideon's Phalanx is actually from Ravnica. The soldiers he's with are Boros.
Also, I'll move it, but I can't 100% agree to Gideon's Phalanx being in Ravnica due to how R&D and multiple articles keep mentioning that each walker gets 1 spell mastery spell for when on their home plane, 1 for when near they first walked on their first walked plane, and 1 more in their prime on their first walked plane. The buildings in the art as well do look somewhat Band in design, plus the number of trees. Then again, all three of Nissa's spell mastery cards look like their in Zendikar so maybe they fudged the cycles a bit for those two.
Those are, without a doubt, Boros soldiers though, so it has to be on Ravnica.
They are not soldiers, they are knight which makes me think of Alara before I think of Ravnica.
I hope the Zendikar story isn't linear. Seems from now like it'll be "Jace and Ugin figure out leylines. Gideon, Kiora and co. hold Eldrazi back. Leyline puzzle activates, Ulagmog dies. kbye."
There's probably going to be a Nahiri-related twist in there somewhere...
And don't forget if Ob gets his spark. Although creative will most likey have him regain his spark, since Sorin going all B/W we need another mono-black walker besides Liliana for variance, there is always the chance he still be stuck on Zendikar at the end...or die lol.
The follow up question (more related to Lilliana's Origins story) is how many years are we post-mending, because as a pre-mending walker she would not have aged until the mending, and then she aged to be a wicked ol' crone pre-demonic pact and all the time since (chain veil, korthoped kill, garruk's curse, innistrad and griselbrand)... Though a lot of the issue here could be the pacing of magic stories being tied to blocks that move so slowly. Has it really taken Lilliana 3-4 years since griselbrand to come looking for help from Jace [acknowledging in-universe time most likely moves at a different pace], that's an awfully scenic round-trip (even if it was via Shandalar)!
Tren
We don't 100% know for sure. In Shards of Alara they said it had been ~100 since the mending but things got all wonky with Scares of Mirrodin and Venser was still around so its not very clear.
When the meding happened all oldwalkers slowly started to age to what they age they truly are.
We don't know an excate timeline but we do know its been two years since the eldrazi rose onto Zendikar.
I'm starting to wonder if Kothophed actually knew what the Chain Veil was, other than a powerful artifact. If we reason that Raven Man orchestrated all of this, it's possible that Raven Man is the one that informed Kothophed about the artifact, but not about it's power. This would give Liliana an out to her Demonic partners, while creating the opportunity for Liliana to become indebted to the Raven Man if the Raven Man were to free her from the Veil.
I really like this idea, could her new arc after she finishes off the demons.
Over I really liked this story. Out of the Origins 5 Liliana is the only one I'm really interested in and I like see she getting some character development. She dose care for Jace and I like shes starting to see how her own choices will lead to her own death.
I'm not seeing any development. Her actions aren't changing, even her words haven't changed. Thoughts don't count for anything if they don't influence what you do.
I wonder if we won't get a keyword for the eldrazi this time. I could see the Eldrazi "eating" at a players field, deck, hand and graveyard and the higher rare ones getting benifts from it. This way they kinda run more like how they had been doing tribal themes.
I must say that I am not a fan of James Wyatt's writing. Funny, because from the current team, he seems to be the most experienced writer.
Some things:
Kothophed was said to be the mightiest of the four. Now the Raven Man says the two remaining are stronger than the first two.
We still do not know who or what the Raven Man is, but he is apparently able to manifest anywhere.
This is my biggest issue so far with the Raven man, it would be safe to say he is a planeswalker but he dosn't seem any less powerful since the mending, still having his youth ect. And its getting a little messy, trying to show that he has been muiliplating Liliana for centuries.
Garruk is still hunting Liliana?
Yeah at the end of the coreset I remnber reading that while Garruk was now hunting all planeswalkers he still was keeping an eye out for Liliana. Hes a hunter going after a heard of deer but Liliana is the prized buck.
If the next two demon's cards are as underwhelming as Kothoped's, I'm going to be severely disappointed given what this story said. They're powerful demons that are going to require the Chain Veil to destroy; there is no need to say they are even more powerful than earlier demons, unless the cards are going to actually reflect it.
Character power dosn't = card power. Kothoped was designed for a core set legendary creature at rare and being the starter deck promo. Where you really excepting Griselbrand level?
Over I really liked this story. Out of the Origins 5 Liliana is the only one I'm really interested in and I like see she getting some character development. She dose care for Jace and I like shes starting to see how her own choices will lead to her own death.
I could see a few W/B based decks splashing in Rattleclaw since you can morph it for colorless and if BFZ is anyting like the last one, every color will be wanting some ramp.
You did point out something relevant: different planes SHOULD have different languages. Heck, even different races would have different languages to use among them, and the planeswalkers apparently speak all of them. Is there any sort of explanation for that?
Plot convenience, it would be hard to tell stories if the walkers had to learn all kinds of differnet languages before they could interact with anyone else in the new plane. Same reason why all the planes seem to be on the same time flow as each other. Plus we get a far bit of differnt languages on planes, like with spirits being geists on Innstrad and we have also gotten scattered storybits about planeswalkers recognizing each other because of accents and names.
anyone else notice the small gay couple cameo in the flower seller part?
EDIT: Missed your SimicNuggets post lol
Like wise I enjoyed the story and I like how this weeks, last weeks and next weeks will connect since I'm guessing we will see the set up for the block after Zendikar with Liliana in the spot light for demon number three.
Also find it funny Jace keeps getting put next to other taller planeswalkers (Gideon and Garruk).
The main reason they even did red vampires in Innistrad was because of something called 'Draft Archetypes'. Every new set, they try to work in a sufficient # of cards that will support a variety of strategies or types of decks--aka Archetypes. Innistrad had maybe the most beloved Limited environment of all time and a BIG part of that success was their focus on creating TEN different paths you could potentially try.
So, red vampires and their Slith mechanic were created to support the R/B archetype option.
The OTHER big reason it became Vampires (instead of, say, *Devils is that they ALSO wanted to push five central TRIBES in Innistrad Limted evironment via allied color pairs:
(*I guess it was just easier to justify red vampires than black Devils...those would be Demons--it doesn't really work.)
There was a LOT pushing Vampires into red in Innistrad.
Not very much pushing them in that direction on any other plane but I would expect to see some more is WHEN we go back there. You could potentially see one in a supplemental product at some point too, I guess.
Thats not quite what happend. They explain it in many articles and some of maros podcasts. They went top-down design and wanted to do tribal with humans with monsters. They picked what they figured out to be the biggest "gothic" horror monsters, vampires, werewolves and zombies. Since they didn't want black to eat up too much of the design space they decided to try to give anything to other colors if they could. But since vampires and zombies are the characteristic black races there was no avoiding them being in those colors. Werewolves where falvorly fit in red (werewolves can be used as a metaphore for someone looseing emotional control) and green (animalistic beasts), zombies in blue (as Frankenstien like zombies) and vampires in red (more blood thirsty and less restrained vampires) and seeing they 3/5 allie colors they decied to give a little bit of green to humans (who they wanted to be mono white at first) and added in spirits in white and blue (which is one reason I think thier theme was so weak in Innistrad).
EDIT: Still wanting Liliana lol
Let me rephrase, when I hear knights I think Bant/Alara over Boros/Ravnica. It helps none of your examples are Boros.
They are not soldiers, they are knight which makes me think of Alara before I think of Ravnica.
And don't forget if Ob gets his spark. Although creative will most likey have him regain his spark, since Sorin going all B/W we need another mono-black walker besides Liliana for variance, there is always the chance he still be stuck on Zendikar at the end...or die lol.
We don't 100% know for sure. In Shards of Alara they said it had been ~100 since the mending but things got all wonky with Scares of Mirrodin and Venser was still around so its not very clear.
When the meding happened all oldwalkers slowly started to age to what they age they truly are.
We don't know an excate timeline but we do know its been two years since the eldrazi rose onto Zendikar.
I really like this idea, could her new arc after she finishes off the demons.
Which is why I said some.
This is my biggest issue so far with the Raven man, it would be safe to say he is a planeswalker but he dosn't seem any less powerful since the mending, still having his youth ect. And its getting a little messy, trying to show that he has been muiliplating Liliana for centuries.
Yeah at the end of the coreset I remnber reading that while Garruk was now hunting all planeswalkers he still was keeping an eye out for Liliana. Hes a hunter going after a heard of deer but Liliana is the prized buck.
Character power dosn't = card power. Kothoped was designed for a core set legendary creature at rare and being the starter deck promo. Where you really excepting Griselbrand level?
Over I really liked this story. Out of the Origins 5 Liliana is the only one I'm really interested in and I like see she getting some character development. She dose care for Jace and I like shes starting to see how her own choices will lead to her own death.
Plot convenience, it would be hard to tell stories if the walkers had to learn all kinds of differnet languages before they could interact with anyone else in the new plane. Same reason why all the planes seem to be on the same time flow as each other. Plus we get a far bit of differnt languages on planes, like with spirits being geists on Innstrad and we have also gotten scattered storybits about planeswalkers recognizing each other because of accents and names.
anyone else notice the small gay couple cameo in the flower seller part?
EDIT: Missed your SimicNuggets post lol
Like wise I enjoyed the story and I like how this weeks, last weeks and next weeks will connect since I'm guessing we will see the set up for the block after Zendikar with Liliana in the spot light for demon number three.
Also find it funny Jace keeps getting put next to other taller planeswalkers (Gideon and Garruk).
Umm what are you talking about? His memories where only erased (majorly) once, after his duel with Alhammarret.
Thats not quite what happend. They explain it in many articles and some of maros podcasts. They went top-down design and wanted to do tribal with humans with monsters. They picked what they figured out to be the biggest "gothic" horror monsters, vampires, werewolves and zombies. Since they didn't want black to eat up too much of the design space they decided to try to give anything to other colors if they could. But since vampires and zombies are the characteristic black races there was no avoiding them being in those colors. Werewolves where falvorly fit in red (werewolves can be used as a metaphore for someone looseing emotional control) and green (animalistic beasts), zombies in blue (as Frankenstien like zombies) and vampires in red (more blood thirsty and less restrained vampires) and seeing they 3/5 allie colors they decied to give a little bit of green to humans (who they wanted to be mono white at first) and added in spirits in white and blue (which is one reason I think thier theme was so weak in Innistrad).