I'm tired of PWs being the catalysts and answers to all crisis on every plane. God, how I missed Kamigawa storyline.
Agreed on all counts.
You mean the story that put into motion due to rifts caused by planeswalkers and the whole thing ended up not meaning anything to the wider magic lore beside being backstory/set up for Bolas?
Honestly, whether a story ends up meaning anything to the wider lore isn't all that important as long as it's is well-crafted and enjoyable.
They're using the fact that WotC didn't specify a time as an excuse, and while they can do their stream however they see fit it's still not a good look. Just spoil the decks first, problem solved.
Did, did they just forget that these are colleges and not Harry Potter houses?
Yeah ... and the general atmosphere I'm getting here is less university and more magical high school too. And reading about Mage Tower is just as boring as reading about Quidditch.
Man, these stories move so fast. The next one is the finale? There's barely time for anything except the most rudimentary beats. I like some stuff that's in here, like the friendship between Quint and Will. But everything is so on rails, it feels hollow.
I could really do with less cards that show people barfing up money ... one was already more than enough
The cards are OK, but I'm not that excited for most of them. Alibou is neat I guess, as is Losheel. But they just couldn't help themselves and had to put combat-related text on all of the secondary commanders. Is it that scary to try something different? I really wish they would've gone deeper into the activated ability theme. I like how Alibou supports it though, you can attack with a random token and still get extra damage from your tappers and mana rocks.
Yeah, Divide By Zero feels like a wasted spot for a great card name.
Mechanics-wise, my favorite card from the set probably is Hofri Ghostforge. It's a shame that his art is so bad though. What is that composition? It looks like ... nothing. Why is there no movement? Why is the spirit ball thing right in front of him? Atrocious. I don't play Commander anymore, but if I did I'd definitely have to get a custom-made alter for this card.
Ok, I guess that mistakes happen, but this one is the second one for this spoiler season, and both were on big, splashy mythics ... at that point, you should really ask yourself if your QA is working properly
Harness Infinity and Excavated Wall go into my list of fav art from this set.
Dina looks like she will be a semi-popular commander since she's both cheaper and has more colors than Vito and also enables the Exquisite Blood combo.
I liked the Planeswalkers Guide, it's always nice when a plane has a map! My only complaint is that for being described as being close to the Witherbloom campus of Strixhaven, the Detention Bog looks to be ridiculously far way - which either makes the description further up in the article not accurate, or the northern continent super small.
The second story was ... OK? It felt perfunctory, to move stuff along. I kind of wish they'd cut out more of the fight scenes, almost every story has them and they're always kind of tedious to read. I'd prefer more character stuff instead.
I don't think it's "ask people instead of research" but that it helps you get closer to a first hand account. Focusing on spirits also helps make it much more distinctly magical, White/Red already does Equipment pretty regularly so this gives it a new angle mechanically as well.
Yeah, I could see how it could be spun to be more interesting, but we don't know for sure so far. Stonebound Mentor's and Spirit Summoning's flavor text sure makes it seem like "you ask them, and they tell you the facts", which would be kind of lame. Also, I'd be interested in where they get the statues from. Can you make new spirit sculptures, or are they all being found (Make Your Mark suggests the former)? Do you have to die to have a spirit scultpure made out of you?
So this is how they're going to handle card draw in white, huh? Your opponent also gets to draw, but better and for free. The players are going to love it...
Man, these stories move so fast. The next one is the finale? There's barely time for anything except the most rudimentary beats. I like some stuff that's in here, like the friendship between Quint and Will. But everything is so on rails, it feels hollow.
The cards are OK, but I'm not that excited for most of them. Alibou is neat I guess, as is Losheel. But they just couldn't help themselves and had to put combat-related text on all of the secondary commanders. Is it that scary to try something different? I really wish they would've gone deeper into the activated ability theme. I like how Alibou supports it though, you can attack with a random token and still get extra damage from your tappers and mana rocks.
Mechanics-wise, my favorite card from the set probably is Hofri Ghostforge. It's a shame that his art is so bad though. What is that composition? It looks like ... nothing. Why is there no movement? Why is the spirit ball thing right in front of him? Atrocious. I don't play Commander anymore, but if I did I'd definitely have to get a custom-made alter for this card.
Dina looks like she will be a semi-popular commander since she's both cheaper and has more colors than Vito and also enables the Exquisite Blood combo.
Alt art Quandrix is neat. I think I prefer all of the alt arts to the regular versions sogar, which doesn't usually happen
Yeah, I could see how it could be spun to be more interesting, but we don't know for sure so far. Stonebound Mentor's and Spirit Summoning's flavor text sure makes it seem like "you ask them, and they tell you the facts", which would be kind of lame. Also, I'd be interested in where they get the statues from. Can you make new spirit sculptures, or are they all being found (Make Your Mark suggests the former)? Do you have to die to have a spirit scultpure made out of you?