Trying out my new Teysa Karlov deck in multi-player for the first time last night, ended up saccing a Seraph of the Scales to Maw of the Obzedat with Teysa, Orzhov Scion, Teysa Karlov, Zulaport Cutthroat and Wayward Disciple on my board. Even took me by surprise just how much life-loss could ensue: 1 sac became 15 sacs, dishing out 120 life-loss and killing everyone, incidentally netting me 60 life-gain in the process. I know Aristocrats archetypes are nothing new, but it was just a crazy moment to see it all go off so spectacularly on its very first outing. My only lands were 3 swamps in the entire game too
Minor nitpick incoming: I don't like how the eternals are handled in this set artwise. I mean, they were created from the cream of the crop of Amonkhet, from a culture entirely devoted to perfecting various martial arts and combat styles. And they get consistently owned in art by run of the mill Boros legionnaires, wurms, trolls and even vines? What the...
I only recently made the same observation. For the best of the best, made even tougher with lazotep, they sure come apart easily. It's as bad as the Emperor's 'elite' battalion of storm-troopers being beaten by teddy bears on the forest moon of Endor.
Teyo, Rat, Kaya, and Liliana as main characters, with Jace, Ral Zarek,
And it’s likely this book happens in the aftermath of the war
Where did that info come from? There seemed to be very little on the book page as linked. If true though, I'm glad Kaya survives the war; surprised Lili does.
Ok - here's my recollection of the story: If you read the first part of it again, it starts with Sorin basically coming out of something like a coma after the effort it took him to create Avacyn and the Helvault. While he's in this disoriented, out-of-it state, Nahiri turns up:
N: Where the hell were you?!
S: Oh. Hey. Hi Nahiri. Do you like my helvault? It's not as good as you could make, but not bad eh?
N: The Eldrazi just wrecked Zendikar? Didn't you get my distress call?
S: Er. No. I didn't.
N: Why the hell not?!
S: Ah. *****. My defences of Innistrad might have blocked it. Hadn't thought of that. Sorry.
N: WTF man! You were supposed to help me!
S: Um. Yeah. Do you need me to come back to Zendikar with you?
N: No! It's fine now. I sorted it.
S: Right. Ok. So...
N: I'm still immensely pissed at you though.
S: Ok...
Avacyn turns up.
A: Threat detected. Attack mode.
N: WTF. (starts beating on Avacyn, and winning)
S: (Still coming out of the effing coma for crying out loud.) Ah. Bugger. Um. Stop? Avacyn's part of the defences I made and...
N: AAAAAARRRRGGGGHH! (Keeps killing Avacyn)
Sorin steps in. Tries to get her to stop. Nahiri attacks him too, just to what? Prove herself to him? Sorin ends up sealing her in the helvault to protect himself, Avacyn and the whole of Innistrad. I don't get the impression it was a long, thought out, considered strategy. More '*****. How do I stop her. Look - Helvault!' FWOP. Sealed Nahiri.
After that he couldn't really get her out again without destroying the helvault, which was the other half of his defence mechanism for Innistrad that he'd just spent most of his energy creating, so that wasn't really an option. And if you look at his response to Ugin when he finally gets to chat to the resurrected dragon, you can tell he's ashamed of what happened.
All of which makes me more on Sorin's side than Nahiri's.
BUT, and this is my real gripe with it all, the whole damned storyline of their fight and Nahiri ending up in the vault was just so James Wyatt could have Emrakul come to Innistrad and feck it up. It was totally contrived to facilitate a storyline that I hated, because they butchered Innistrad, Avacyn, Gisela, Bruna etc. in the process, and they had to make both Sorin and Nahiri into ********s for it to happen. I hate everything about that creative decision. That's why I'm pissed that they're carrying it on here. They character-assassinated two walkers that I really liked, just to ruin the plane I most liked. I genuinely stopped following the Magic storyline after that for a couple of years until Ixalan.
And now we get an in-your-face reminder that they chose to make Sorin and Nahiri into ********s for no good reason.
Post-script: All the character attributes that made Sorin a cool, detached character have now been given to Davriel. I hope he doesn't get fecked over by creative the same way. Leave him safely in Brandon Sanderson's hands please.
Aaaand... like I said on the thread for the white card of them fighting, did we really have to bring them to Ravnica to continue all this crap? It was bad enough first time round.
I largely agree, but rather am tired of Nahiri. I love Sorin and his story and want to see more of him being a stoic badass and am upset when Nahiri (who I think is in the wrong) shows up and ruins stuff.
I agree entirely. What I meant was I hate the way they re-wrote Sorin's character in Shadows, giving him a petulance that was completely absent from his character before. He went from calm insouciance at the triviality of everyone's everyday worries to 'WAHH WAHH NAHIRI!' foot-stamping childishness. It was an abyssmal character assassination. I hold the SOI/EMN writers more to blame than Nahiri. And now they're continuing it here.
FFS. Did we really have to bring them to Ravnica just to start all the 'he said, she said' stuff again? It was bad enough having to deal with this crap last time around.
I really hate seeing Sorin - that cool as ice, 6000 year old, long-term thinking planeswalker - being reduced to a bickery schoolground kid.
There seems to be a statue of Nicol Bolas, toppled and broken in the center of the plaza. Or maybe...if there was someone who could turn Nicol Bolas into stone.... ;-)
Interesting... There's a much closer version of the art on the War of the Spark - Mechanic Spotlight: Planeswalkers video on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrjQSycSnSw
From about 36 seconds in it's zoomed right in on... well. Check out the pic.
Quick question: how does Amass interact with Divine Visitation? You Amass, you go to put a 0/0 zombie army token onto the battlefield, instead you get a 4/4 angel. And then...? I'm assuming nothing, but just want to check it doesn't keep looking for a non-existent army token and end up spamming infinite angels in an unstoppable loop
I only recently made the same observation. For the best of the best, made even tougher with lazotep, they sure come apart easily. It's as bad as the Emperor's 'elite' battalion of storm-troopers being beaten by teddy bears on the forest moon of Endor.
Where did that info come from? There seemed to be very little on the book page as linked. If true though, I'm glad Kaya survives the war; surprised Lili does.
N: Where the hell were you?!
S: Oh. Hey. Hi Nahiri. Do you like my helvault? It's not as good as you could make, but not bad eh?
N: The Eldrazi just wrecked Zendikar? Didn't you get my distress call?
S: Er. No. I didn't.
N: Why the hell not?!
S: Ah. *****. My defences of Innistrad might have blocked it. Hadn't thought of that. Sorry.
N: WTF man! You were supposed to help me!
S: Um. Yeah. Do you need me to come back to Zendikar with you?
N: No! It's fine now. I sorted it.
S: Right. Ok. So...
N: I'm still immensely pissed at you though.
S: Ok...
Avacyn turns up.
A: Threat detected. Attack mode.
N: WTF. (starts beating on Avacyn, and winning)
S: (Still coming out of the effing coma for crying out loud.) Ah. Bugger. Um. Stop? Avacyn's part of the defences I made and...
N: AAAAAARRRRGGGGHH! (Keeps killing Avacyn)
Sorin steps in. Tries to get her to stop. Nahiri attacks him too, just to what? Prove herself to him? Sorin ends up sealing her in the helvault to protect himself, Avacyn and the whole of Innistrad. I don't get the impression it was a long, thought out, considered strategy. More '*****. How do I stop her. Look - Helvault!' FWOP. Sealed Nahiri.
After that he couldn't really get her out again without destroying the helvault, which was the other half of his defence mechanism for Innistrad that he'd just spent most of his energy creating, so that wasn't really an option. And if you look at his response to Ugin when he finally gets to chat to the resurrected dragon, you can tell he's ashamed of what happened.
All of which makes me more on Sorin's side than Nahiri's.
BUT, and this is my real gripe with it all, the whole damned storyline of their fight and Nahiri ending up in the vault was just so James Wyatt could have Emrakul come to Innistrad and feck it up. It was totally contrived to facilitate a storyline that I hated, because they butchered Innistrad, Avacyn, Gisela, Bruna etc. in the process, and they had to make both Sorin and Nahiri into ********s for it to happen. I hate everything about that creative decision. That's why I'm pissed that they're carrying it on here. They character-assassinated two walkers that I really liked, just to ruin the plane I most liked. I genuinely stopped following the Magic storyline after that for a couple of years until Ixalan.
And now we get an in-your-face reminder that they chose to make Sorin and Nahiri into ********s for no good reason.
Post-script: All the character attributes that made Sorin a cool, detached character have now been given to Davriel. I hope he doesn't get fecked over by creative the same way. Leave him safely in Brandon Sanderson's hands please.
I agree entirely. What I meant was I hate the way they re-wrote Sorin's character in Shadows, giving him a petulance that was completely absent from his character before. He went from calm insouciance at the triviality of everyone's everyday worries to 'WAHH WAHH NAHIRI!' foot-stamping childishness. It was an abyssmal character assassination. I hold the SOI/EMN writers more to blame than Nahiri. And now they're continuing it here.
I really hate seeing Sorin - that cool as ice, 6000 year old, long-term thinking planeswalker - being reduced to a bickery schoolground kid.
Interesting... There's a much closer version of the art on the War of the Spark - Mechanic Spotlight: Planeswalkers video on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrjQSycSnSw
From about 36 seconds in it's zoomed right in on... well. Check out the pic.
As SilverWolf_27 said above, Bolas's Citadel. And previous cards like Future Sight / Magus of the Future and Garruk's Horde
"[Asker] Will there be WAR previews every day of the Mythic Invitational, or just on Sunday after the panel at PAX East?
[Maro] Just on Sunday."