One other option for Raven Man: we know Lili had already started her Dark Dabbling before her origin story really kicks in. Maybe she had inadvertently given something (person / creature / demon) a foothold inside her head, and she is now carrying a fragment or aspect of that being around with her like a mental parasite. It would make it slightly distinct from a Tyler Durdenesque mental issue, but still explain how it can manifest to her beyond the bounds of Dominaria without necessarily being a planeswalker. Just a thought.
Speaking of art without cards in the art book, that picture of Nahiri in her profile is really beautiful. I actually kind of like it better than the one used on Nahiri, the Lithomancer.
I agree entirely. I quite like Eric Deschamps's version on her card, but it plays just too close to SFM for me. Everything about the UDON version in the art book though is perfect.
The Magali Villeneuve piece 'March of the Gatewatch' on pages 202/3 is similarly unused on any cards (though I expect it might possibly be used in the UR where the four head towards the Titans, annihilating Eldrazi spawn along the way). I guess they just commissioned more pieces than they actually used in card art.
The biggest problem with an oceanworld would be getting any of the current planeswalkers roster in there in an unforced manner. Kiora, fine, but otherwise? And if you can't get PWs in, then at the moment they can't tie it to ongoing story arcs, so I think it would require too many contortions for them to consider it viable.
BFZ - Pretty much how it went until Jace meets Ugin. Then Ugin becomes the main mastermind behind the heroes' plans throughout the block. Seriously - why did they bring him back from the dead just to sit in a cave and think about things for the entire block? Jace tells Ugin about Nissa; Ugin tasks Jace with managing their short-term plan (temporarily rebinding Ulamog) while he works on the long-term plan (first, re-energising the plane-wide hedron network; then coming up with a strategy to deal with the absent Kozilek and Emrakul).
Sea Gate happens, with Nissa only knowing what to do because Jace has relayed Ugin's instructions to her. Chandra joins them just as Ob does his stuff, Kozilek appears, Ob sods off.
OGW - In the wake of Kozilek's return and Kiora's death (yes, really*), Gideon tries to rally the Zendikari remnant and is aided by Chandra, and Jace and Nissa retreat to the Eye of Ugin to tell him what has happened and that Koz is back. Gideon and Chandra manage to give the Zendikari enough cover to perform an organised retreat. Everything ends up at the Eye. Jace is all for still trying to win; Ugin understands that Zendikar is lost. He tells Jace of the absolute importance now of finding Sorin and Nahiri and tells him to bring them to him on Tarkir, then walks away. Jace and Gideon convince Nissa and Chandra that they can still win. With Eldrazi closing in all around, the battle goes ill. The final straw for Gideon is seeing Tazri die. He thinks back to his Irregulars and how his arrogance cost them their lives, sees he's done it again here, and admits defeat. As Noyan Dar, Drana, Jori-En et al fall, the walkers have no choice but to flee. They rendezvous on Ravnica where they make their oaths never to let the fate of Zendikar befall another plane. Nissa takes time out amongst the Selesnyan elves to deal with the loss of her home plane; Chandra and Gideon depart together to search for traces of trails of the titans; Jace heads to Innistrad to begin his search for Sorin and Nahiri.
*EDIT: As an alternative to Kiora's death, I would have liked to see her enthralled by Kozilek, to work, as someone said before, like the Surfer to Galactus. The art for 'Kiora, Herald of Kozilek' would then have her glassy-eyed with the obsidian shards around her head.
"Gideon, Jace, Nissa, and Chandra emerged from Ob Nixilis's prison. With two titans rampaging across the land, it looked like Zendikar's end was nigh. Gideon turned to the others, urging them to stay and fight. He believed that together they could save Zendikar—and more, he believed that they could use their gifts, their Planeswalker sparks, to protect against all forces that threatened the Multiverse. The others were moved by Gideon's sincerity. In turn, each of them took an oath to work together to protect the people and planes of the Multiverse. Thus, the Gatewatch was born."
Blargh! Pass the sick bucket.
"The Planeswalkers of the Gatewatch battled their way across the corrupted landscape in pursuit of Ulamog and Kozilek, destroying hundreds of lesser Eldrazi along the way. Though they could no longer use the hedrons, they had a plan. Jace had identified a leyline pattern that would hem in the two titans, so with Gideon and the Zendikari survivors corralling them, Nissa—whose powers extended far beyond what she and others had realized—bent Zendikar's leylines into the pattern. That was Chandra's cue to unleash a continuous blast of fire. Augmented by the mana of the bonds Nissa had created, the fire destroyed the two titans."
Jace had a plan? Just like that? Nissa's powers are suddenly even greater? Really? Cheese, cheese, cheese.
"Exhausted, the four Planeswalkers stood on a floating rock high above the land they had saved. They had accomplished something together that they could not have achieved working separately."
Wow - thanks for the He-Man extra little moral at the end of the tale. Can we go and buy the action figures now Mum? Can we?!
Next week on 'My Little Planeswalker: Friendship is Magic'... :/
Yeah - I agree with Ashiok here: Kiora doesn't seem to have learned much from her experience with Kozilek; and I did like the idea that she's somewhat claustrophobic - definitely more suited to wide open ocean.
Overall it was a bit hit and miss to me - I thought the end was going to be some Kozilek-spawn mind-game on Jori: "See? You did just crawl into a hole." But no, looks like she just broke some ribs after all that. Presumably though the pain she was feeling wasn't antagonised in any way by a sudden inrush of ocean that was powerful enough to split rock...
Jori-En didn't seem very R but I liked the use of Kiora's G aspect (especially Jori being impressed with Kiora's healing magic, and the use of green growth on the Skulker).
Oh - and my pedantry requires I point out it's minuscule, not miniscule.
EDIT: Kinda odd that on the same day as this story is published, we get the '5 moments' article that says "The Zendikari army and the Planeswalkers scattered, with Kiora planeswalking away from her home world in despair" which makes it sound like she left straight away because of Kozilek's appearance. Feels like a bit of a disconnect.
I'm a collectoholic of all things WB, and I really liked Athreos - and the gods in general - in Theros, so I'd love to see Norse-world (presumably Valla) with a suitable pantheon again. I'm intrigued what Norse deity archetypes they'd use for each combo.
I'd also like SoI to expand our geographical knowledge of the plane beyond the regions focused on in INN.
It brings into question what innate safeguards must walkers also have to ensure they don't accidentally just walk into a fatal plane? Or turn up in the heart of a volcano on Jund, or deep under the ocean on Zendikar? Does the spark have some kind of automatic 'take me somewhere not totally dissimilar to here' feature for when a walker is heading somewhere new? Which implies it's possible when travelling through the Blind Eternities to somehow sense the nature of the new bit of space you're going to end up in. Is there some kind of signature to habitable space that can be sensed before or during walking? If that's the case, then I presume either a walker would consciously avoid a 'space' with an unusual or unfamiliar signature, and that an accidental walk (like everyone's first one) automatically goes to one not too dissimilar from it's starting point.
Garruk was able to tell Jace that a map he was looking at led to Zendikar. How does a map like that even work? Does it somehow indicate a path through the Maybe-not-as-blind-as-you-think Eternities leading to a safe space on the new plane?
Are there, then, thrill-seeker adrenaline junkie walkers who dare each other to walk to less familiar signature points? 'Go on - dare you to walk to that... weird glowy purple signature place.'
As for why it wouldn't happen before now, Avacyn's origin was a very well-kept secret for almost all of her existence. It was only recently, shown in an Uncharted Realms story, that someone on the plane has stumbled upon that hidden knowledge. It isn't much of a leap to imagine that this information found its way to either Edgar directly or to the Skirsdag, from whom Shilgengar could learn the secret and relay it to Edgar.
I thought the whole reason Sorin is considered a pariah amongst the other vampires is because he created Avacyn? Isn't that already public knowledge, amongst the vamps at least? Maybe the humans of the church didn't know it / didn't believe it ('those vamps will say *anything*, won't they?'), but I doubt it's new intel for Edgar.
Of more relevance, I think, is the blurb for the Innistrad Art Book which states that 'the nightmare [the planeswalkers of the Gatewatch] will uncover is a threat to the whole Multiverse'. That's my main reason for assuming the big bad will be something larger and less plane-bound than Edgar or the demons. That doesn't mean it has to be Emrakul per se, but I do think we have to look at planeswalk-capable options: Emrakul, Bolas, Ob, Garruk, Raven Man, or some other as-yet unknown extraplanar threat.
But can angels get a spark since they're technically artificially made by the beliefs of people?
No no. Angels can't get a spark because they're just creatures of pure mana. But that's also true for demons, and yet we have Ob. That's why I said "she'd have to be a 'walker who has all the features and characteristics of an angel' rather than an actual angel though" - it would have to be an 'angel-like' walker, in the same way that Ob is a 'demon-like' walker rather than an actual demon.
I just searched and found the image on some Twitter post:
As others have pointed out, this is fake.
Yeah - just got back onto the site and seen the DeviantArt link, so I'll go back and remove that link. Not sure how I feel now. Do I want Bolas to be the big bad? Or are we back to Emrakul? I *really* don't want it to be Emrakul, but I think she's back to being the most likely.
Personally, I have my fingers crossed for Raven Man.
well... sense we have a demon planeswalker (kind of.. not really)... I would like to see an Angel planeswalker
Ditto, though I'd like her to be WB (WB Vampires and WB Angels being my two favourite MtG creature types, and Sorin fills one of those slots very nicely). Like Ob though, she'd have to be a 'walker who has all the features and characteristics of an angel' rather than an actual angel though, for the same reason that Ob isn't really a demon.
I agree entirely. I quite like Eric Deschamps's version on her card, but it plays just too close to SFM for me. Everything about the UDON version in the art book though is perfect.
Sea Gate happens, with Nissa only knowing what to do because Jace has relayed Ugin's instructions to her. Chandra joins them just as Ob does his stuff, Kozilek appears, Ob sods off.
OGW - In the wake of Kozilek's return and Kiora's death (yes, really*), Gideon tries to rally the Zendikari remnant and is aided by Chandra, and Jace and Nissa retreat to the Eye of Ugin to tell him what has happened and that Koz is back. Gideon and Chandra manage to give the Zendikari enough cover to perform an organised retreat. Everything ends up at the Eye. Jace is all for still trying to win; Ugin understands that Zendikar is lost. He tells Jace of the absolute importance now of finding Sorin and Nahiri and tells him to bring them to him on Tarkir, then walks away. Jace and Gideon convince Nissa and Chandra that they can still win. With Eldrazi closing in all around, the battle goes ill. The final straw for Gideon is seeing Tazri die. He thinks back to his Irregulars and how his arrogance cost them their lives, sees he's done it again here, and admits defeat. As Noyan Dar, Drana, Jori-En et al fall, the walkers have no choice but to flee. They rendezvous on Ravnica where they make their oaths never to let the fate of Zendikar befall another plane. Nissa takes time out amongst the Selesnyan elves to deal with the loss of her home plane; Chandra and Gideon depart together to search for traces of trails of the titans; Jace heads to Innistrad to begin his search for Sorin and Nahiri.
*EDIT: As an alternative to Kiora's death, I would have liked to see her enthralled by Kozilek, to work, as someone said before, like the Surfer to Galactus. The art for 'Kiora, Herald of Kozilek' would then have her glassy-eyed with the obsidian shards around her head.
"Gideon, Jace, Nissa, and Chandra emerged from Ob Nixilis's prison. With two titans rampaging across the land, it looked like Zendikar's end was nigh. Gideon turned to the others, urging them to stay and fight. He believed that together they could save Zendikar—and more, he believed that they could use their gifts, their Planeswalker sparks, to protect against all forces that threatened the Multiverse. The others were moved by Gideon's sincerity. In turn, each of them took an oath to work together to protect the people and planes of the Multiverse. Thus, the Gatewatch was born."
Blargh! Pass the sick bucket.
"The Planeswalkers of the Gatewatch battled their way across the corrupted landscape in pursuit of Ulamog and Kozilek, destroying hundreds of lesser Eldrazi along the way. Though they could no longer use the hedrons, they had a plan. Jace had identified a leyline pattern that would hem in the two titans, so with Gideon and the Zendikari survivors corralling them, Nissa—whose powers extended far beyond what she and others had realized—bent Zendikar's leylines into the pattern. That was Chandra's cue to unleash a continuous blast of fire. Augmented by the mana of the bonds Nissa had created, the fire destroyed the two titans."
Jace had a plan? Just like that? Nissa's powers are suddenly even greater? Really? Cheese, cheese, cheese.
"Exhausted, the four Planeswalkers stood on a floating rock high above the land they had saved. They had accomplished something together that they could not have achieved working separately."
Wow - thanks for the He-Man extra little moral at the end of the tale. Can we go and buy the action figures now Mum? Can we?!
Next week on 'My Little Planeswalker: Friendship is Magic'... :/
Overall it was a bit hit and miss to me - I thought the end was going to be some Kozilek-spawn mind-game on Jori: "See? You did just crawl into a hole." But no, looks like she just broke some ribs after all that. Presumably though the pain she was feeling wasn't antagonised in any way by a sudden inrush of ocean that was powerful enough to split rock...
Jori-En didn't seem very R but I liked the use of Kiora's G aspect (especially Jori being impressed with Kiora's healing magic, and the use of green growth on the Skulker).
Oh - and my pedantry requires I point out it's minuscule, not miniscule.
EDIT: Kinda odd that on the same day as this story is published, we get the '5 moments' article that says "The Zendikari army and the Planeswalkers scattered, with Kiora planeswalking away from her home world in despair" which makes it sound like she left straight away because of Kozilek's appearance. Feels like a bit of a disconnect.
I'd also like SoI to expand our geographical knowledge of the plane beyond the regions focused on in INN.
Garruk was able to tell Jace that a map he was looking at led to Zendikar. How does a map like that even work? Does it somehow indicate a path through the Maybe-not-as-blind-as-you-think Eternities leading to a safe space on the new plane?
Are there, then, thrill-seeker adrenaline junkie walkers who dare each other to walk to less familiar signature points? 'Go on - dare you to walk to that... weird glowy purple signature place.'
Personally, I blame the Elder Gods (again).
I thought the whole reason Sorin is considered a pariah amongst the other vampires is because he created Avacyn? Isn't that already public knowledge, amongst the vamps at least? Maybe the humans of the church didn't know it / didn't believe it ('those vamps will say *anything*, won't they?'), but I doubt it's new intel for Edgar.
No no. Angels can't get a spark because they're just creatures of pure mana. But that's also true for demons, and yet we have Ob. That's why I said "she'd have to be a 'walker who has all the features and characteristics of an angel' rather than an actual angel though" - it would have to be an 'angel-like' walker, in the same way that Ob is a 'demon-like' walker rather than an actual demon.
Yeah - just got back onto the site and seen the DeviantArt link, so I'll go back and remove that link. Not sure how I feel now. Do I want Bolas to be the big bad? Or are we back to Emrakul? I *really* don't want it to be Emrakul, but I think she's back to being the most likely.
Personally, I have my fingers crossed for Raven Man.
Ditto, though I'd like her to be WB (WB Vampires and WB Angels being my two favourite MtG creature types, and Sorin fills one of those slots very nicely). Like Ob though, she'd have to be a 'walker who has all the features and characteristics of an angel' rather than an actual angel though, for the same reason that Ob isn't really a demon.