Usually I have a difficult time picking favorites, but without a doubt my favorite Magic card is Terramorphic Expanse. It can go in any multicolored deck, it fixes mana, it thins your deck, it shuffles your deck, it does so many useful things! Yeah, I have favorite cards in each specific color, but this one does everything. The only deck it's bad in is a monocolor one, most cards don't have that going for them. Certain cards like JTMS and Tarmogoyf are ridiculously good, but only if you have the right type of deck for them. Why spend $100+ on one of those two when you could spend $1 on a playset of mana fixers?
Disclaimer: I only play casual and EDH.
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- skellett
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Member for 12 years and 16 days
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He's in a rough patch since his card sucked and, beyond his origin, the only thing we know about him is he got whooped by Sorin. I see Tibalt as having potential, despite the community perspective of him as a joke.
It's just that I can't think of Kiora doing anything, and unlike Tibalt she's had two expansions and story spotlight to do so.
Okay, so I have been trying to keep up with the story postings thus far (finished Amonkhet recently). I remember the Kaladesh storyline and others actually beginning to develop planeswalkers as characters (Chandra's relationship with her mother, developing a friendship with Nissa, getting horny from Gideon -- usual teen girl stuff but actually somewhat compelling).
They also delved into non-Planeswalker characters, which I liked. Amonkhet did do a good job at communicating the horror and struggle of the regular folks (in my opinion at the expense of developing any of the Gatewatch besides Nissa, but I digress).
ANYWAYS, I also decided to look at each Planeswalker alive right now and saw many one-dimensional characters. To be fair though, many have not had much time in the spotlight, if any.
Then I got to Kiora. She's been featured in Theros and Battle for Zendikar. From what I can remember, the only things of note she's done is steal Thassa's Bident (which in my opinion is the ONLY potential relevance she has to the story anymore) and kill our first legendary octopus (which is actually her biggest contribution to the story).
Moving on from that, what does she do? I don't remember anything noteworthy about her personality wise, and I don't know of any connection she has to the story now beyond the Bident.
Other planeswalkers have had less time in the spotlight, but that also means they have potential if the writers make it happen. Kiora, on the other hand, has no more potential.
So, is she the most expendable planeswalker at the moment? Is there a planeswalker I missed who's been more of a wasted opportunity story wise? Is there a key thing about Kiora I'm forgetting?
Specifically, I would appreciate:
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I first read this and was disgusted and amused at the same time. I'm not sure if the laughter was because of how clever this was or how disturbing the sudden revelation was. Props to you.
True, though I am more in Flisch's boat now on not speculating. Also Bolas knowing they can be killed is different than knowing they will be. Killing them was by no means easy. I think for every argument at this point for or against Bolas' scheming is always going to have a counterpoint. So either Creative does indeed have comprehensive overall plan from him, or they have a half-assed one. Or, worst case scenario is they forgot and are going to be like "OH CRAP RETCON!"
You just one-upped yourself. Hot damn I'll be sure to only read this if I want to feel my brain melt.
I don't know if a more vehement critique has ever been made of a piece of literature. I'll be sure to heed this advice though. Yikes.
I agree he is powerful, but there is no way he could have anticipated four neowalkers killing what three oldwalkers believed to be unkillable. And if he didn't know that there was a way to kill them post-Mending, it would make far more sense for him to leave them locked up and scheme to prevent the Eye from ever opening.
As a distraction the Eldrazi could make sense, but given that Bolas is a powerful genius, he could easily kill/bribe/bully/imprison/exile any other meddling planeswalker. I know we agree the methods are bad for storytelling, but right now Bolas is just an attempt to make an Avengers' Loki or Dark Knight Joker (in which almost everything conveniently falls into plan A and/or B). Maybe I'm just in an overly critical mode with him, but there has got to be something easier than releasing the Eldrazi.
His power does make sense, but his intellect/schemes are seeming waaay too lackluster.
Also I stand corrected on the Leshrac statement.
Are you seriously saying Bolas had a motive for releasing the Eldrazi titans? He had a reason for releasing literally the only things in the Multiverse which are an actual threat to him in terms of sheer power? Officially, Bolas had a reason to release them, but as that reason has not been revealed yet, Wizards clearly just had Bolas "mastermind" the whole thing so that way he would look like Loki does in the Marvel movies. There is no good reason for Bolas to release the Titans given what has been said so far. They'll invent a (presumably half-assed and pathetic, though possibly decent or good) reason for him to have them released, but right now there isn't one. Bolas is just the big bogeyman-mastermind who is somehow behind everything despite there not being any reason for him to do/foresee half of what he does. Unless there's something regarding Zendikar or the Eldrazi which can give him more world-breaking power, he cannot have a good reason to release them.
Bolas isn't a good villain, he's just like a Loki/Superman hybrid who somehow is involved in everything because lazy story-writing. And he also isn't omnipotent. He has plenty of defeats and embarrassments (Tetsuo exiling him, almost killed by Leshrac, Ajani messing with his conflux plan, and presumably more). Think about it, there is not a reason to release world-destroying titans when you need said worlds to exist and have power. Letting them loose is just adding 8+ variables into your scheming equations.
Bolas is fallible. He's not just always going to have a near-perfect plan A followed by a perfect plan B followed by a plan C just in case that infinitesimal chance of failure for plan B comes up. Sorry, I just don't get why people think he's some sort of amazing villain or something. Until more story stuff comes along, he's just like the Eldrazi were and the Phyrexians are: a convenient antagonistic force to drive some plot.
Are the Soratami ageless like elves though? They seem like they should/could/would be IMO.
Good point. I didn't really even think about her being a soratami and that being the reason for it. Not exactly certain, but definitely lends a reason for her personality and values as a post-Mending walker.
Do we have any idea of what the timeline from Mirrodin (1st block) to Scars is? I know one is pre-Mending, but if we know how many years went between Memnarch and Scars we could have an idea of a window of when she might have visited.
However, that being said Mirrodin/New Phyrexia is kind of a really young plane, especially in terms of life being there. We know the first generation to arrive there was alive during the whole thing between Glissa, Slobad, and Memnarch. Curious to see how many generations passed.
Also, how long ago was the Mending from the current story time?
That being said, she does have a scroll about the destruction of Serra's realm, so she could have witnessed that event or other events around that time.
Or, did she merely find a record (or multiple accounts of it) and create that scroll from those?
Also, in what ways might Tamiyo being a pre- or post-Mending walker affect her story arc and character development? What planes and already-existing storylines will she appear in? How might her having lived through the Mending or not influence how she might behave?
I realize a lot of this has little concrete basis, but I think it's interesting to think about. Based on her detached personality, I think she could be a former Oldwalker. That being said, she also has been made into more of an adventuring scholar by Creative, so could that be them leaning towards her being post-Mending?