-Huatli confirms that the Sun Empire knights don't kill but do give their foes to the dinosaurs to eat... and Vona is dead.
From my reading, this isn't actually confirmed - Huatli left a disabled Vona behind while she summoned dinosaurs to eat her, but then immediately left. Vona was not killed "on screen" so to speak, so we can't definitively count Vona out of the race yet.
Maybe it's less the head injury and more being close to a massive source of magic that is bring back his memories.
That was also my interpretation - especially if we assume the Immortal Sun somehow resonates with planeswalkers.
By the way, Jace speculated that the Immortal Sun might be something that was brought to Ixalan - I'm willing to bet that's the writers telling us that this is an extraplanar artifact, and is definitely more fuel for the Ugin theory.
All evidence suggests that Amonkhet suffered some major plane-wide disaster at some point in the past (the Curse of Wandering, the God's reactions when Bolas arrived - that they must not fail again, that sort of thing). I believe discovering the truth of whatever occurred will be at the heart of a Return to Amonkhet. Since a Return set will likely have an archaeology / sifting through ruins and robbing tombs component (so as to capture the "Eqypt as a dead civilization" tropes), discovering what doom befell the ancient civilizations of Amonkhet seems like an obvious plot hook.
I really don't get the confusion on leylines. It's just basically saying that the Gods are tied to the plane. Using water as an analogy, rivers are leylines, lakes are the Gods. Or possibly they're a dense intersection of leylines.
You wouldn't at least find it weird if someone describe a lake as "a tightly woven collection of rivers" rather than "a mass of water"?
Think of it more like "the lake and the river are both made of H2O molecules."
But that's not what was said and not what people take issue with.
A leyline pretty much always (ie every time I've ever seen it referred to except in this exact story) refers to a large thing that possesses tremendous power. This implies that there are also little leylines that can be woven into relatively small objects. It is very much outside of the norm in a strange way and not for any apparent reason. Its like being given a wicker basket a being told it is woven out of tree trunks, that would be a weird redefinition of tree trunk and you'd probably ask if the person who said it knew what a tree trunk was and maybe they meant something else.
One possibility here is that the use of the term "leyline", which has a specific meaning, in this story, is because we are seeing things from Nissa's perspective. As a green mage heavily tied to the land, it makes sense that she would think of currents of mana (which is what we are all really talking about, I think) in terms of something she is most familiar with. To put it another way, Nissa's power is to manipulate currents of mana, and in this story, she figured out how to create a brand new and different type of one. Someone like Jace would probably conceptualize what Nissa did as as some form of essence alteration or magical reprogramming, but to green-oriented Nissa, she perceived what she did in terms of leylines.
Or maybe I'm giving the Creative Team too much credit.
What exactly is the sigificance of the number 8? 8 feels like a weird number in a magic context, especially considering the existing gods being 5 mono colored. I wonder if theres any reason or if its just arbitrary or tying into somethig besides colors. I also wonder how they were forgotten-- do they work like Theros gods and die off when they are no longer worshipped, or were they outright killed or maybe mummified or otherwise incapacitated, tying into their more physical nature than the Theros gods?
Like a lot of people, Im dying to know what all this means. Some really great puzzle pieces being weaved together here, like rhe significance of the young or the silent sphinxes that all build towards the reveal.
Right now, I am assuming the 8 gods is a reference to the Ogdoad of Egyptian mythology:
As for the Sphinxes, I am assuming Bolas somehow silenced them because they remember the truth (as they are presumably older than 20 or 30 years). As to why he simply didn't kill them all - that's a good question, and I am hoping there is a good answer.
Two things - on the culture and "weird" debate, I find it interesting that Egyptian mythology is considered to be a one of the 'Big 3' in the West (just the USA?) alongside Greco-Roman and Norse mythology. I would argue that it's really Ancient Egyptian culture (or at least a Hollywood version thereof) that people are familiar with. How much of Egyptian mythology do most people really know? Sure - Ra, Osiris, Set, Thoth, Bast, Anubis (especially) and animal-headed gods in general turns, maybe the Book of the Dead... but after that, how much is really familiar? How many mythological entities from Egyptian mythology other than the Gods themselves and the Sphinx is the average person - even the average Fantasy buff or role-player - really aware of? (Am I selling everyone short here? That's not my intention.)
On the story side - Throne of the God-Pharaoh names four Hours - the Hour of Revelation, Hour of Glory, Hour of Promise, and Hour of Eternity. I'm assuming Hour of Devastation is the final, fifth Hour - perhaps unknown to the average citizen of Amonkhet? Any thoughts about this? Does each Hour correspond to a God?
Hapatra being Cleopatra now confirms what Temmet implied, that on Amonkhet Viziers are stand-ins for historical Pharaohs (since Amonkhet only has one Pharaoh: Bolas).
Does this mean we can expect Viziers for Ramses, Nefertiti and maybe Akhenaten? (Or even the historical Scorpion King?)
And while I'm at it, I'd love cards to see cards referencing Ozymandias (the poem), Imhotep (movie version and historic version), the Book of the Dead, Ammit, Apophis, and Djoser.
This chapter is beautiful, I love the emotions here, bittersweet chocolate everywhere, and Yahinni, you will be remembered. Nissa's conversations in this chapter is touching, how she assists Yahinni's passing by letting them know the grander universe they are key to, and how she helps Chandra in handling anger and sadness.
I wanted to second this opinion. While I do hope we get an epilogue with Tezzeret and Bolas that gives us some hints as to Bolas's larger scheme, this was the sort of story Eldritch Moon desperately needed to give us some sense of closure on both the characters and the world as a result of the events of the block.
(Also - memo to WotC Re: Future Kaladesh sets: We don't need to always visit a plane in the midst of an apocalypse. Happy endings that were hard-earned (*I know, individual mileage may vary as to how much it was earned) can be allowed to stick, more or less. Return to Ravnica featured a major crisis that was basically rooted in the conflicts innate to the existing society, and I hope the inevitable "Return to Kaladesh" goes the same route, instead of having the Phyrexians invade or the Aether becoming corrupt or Marit Lage or a plague of Homarids or whatever.)
Somewhat off topic - Liliana suggested Amonkhet was created by Bolas. If true, that makes things even more interesting. Did Bolas create the local gods and demons? Is Liliana's Demon #3 one of Bolas's creations? There are many interesting implications here...
If someone had asked anyone to design a Reyhan card you could bet your right arm that 99% of all people would have gone for -at the very least- a partially white card, but most likely BGW. That is because she was the leader of the Abzan. It's a pattern that is so ingrained in Magic, that the leaders of a certain faction have all the colours of that faction. All of the Khan cards match their clan's identity, as do the dragons and their broods. Then there's the guilds, the shards of Alara. The list goes on. This Reyhan card not only goes against player expectations, but even worse, it does it for no good reason. Reyhan wasn't designed to be Reyhan. Her name was simply slapped on a card that was clearly not intended to be Reyhan from the beginning.
There are two ways to make a character fit to a card: Justifications and reasons. Justifications come after the card is made. ("Okay so Reyhan isn't white, but it's because she's a rebel!") While reasons come before. ("Which colours would Reyhan be? Well, considering she's the khan of literally the last true Abzan, BGW seems to be the most fitting.") Personally, I want to see legendary creature cards designed with a reason, not have them justified retroactively.
Fair enough - I definitely can see your point, and understand why you are disappointed...
But Reyhan was never the true leader of the Abzan, at least how they used to be. The Abzan ceased to be when Daghatar bent knee to Dromoka. Reyhan was the leader of a splinter faction, and was barely recognized as a Khan by the others - and only then because they needed her. Flavorfully, BG still fits. And she can still pilot an Abzan deck, she just needs a WB or WG partner.
As for Reyhan, she was clearly designed with Abzan in mind. She's incomplete... as she should be.
...But I happen to agree with these assessments more. But while I might disagree about Reyhan, I completely agree with you and everyone else complaining about Ludevic.
I don't see why anyone is pissed at Ludevic being Blue/Red. Necro-alchemists are pretty strongly Blue, there's plenty of Red spells associated to them, and several of the innistrad decks involve zombies in combinations beyond Blue/Black. Frankly, I'm glad that they went this direction, it was a very pleasant surprise (though personally I was expeting Ludevic to be Green/Blue).
If i was making Ludevic, I would have him in the grixis colors: blue, red, and black. They make far more sense for the mad scientist necro-alchemist that he is.
Here... I can see why they went they way they did, and there is indeed some cleverness in the concept. (And understand the desire to keep Ludevic distinct from Geralf and Gisa.) My problem is that Ludevic's card concept isn't intuitive. Nothing about his card screams "Necro-Alchemist". Even a fairly knowledgeable Vorthos would expect Ludevic to interact with the graveyard in some fashion or at least 'create monsters' somehow, as the cards that quote him almost always deal with reanimated creatures or horrible monstrosities. Would anyone here designing Ludevic in a vacuum have started with the top-down traits of "Reclusive" and "Makes Others Do His Dirty Work" instead of "Master Monster Maker"? (I think my platonic ideal for Ludevic would have been either BUR(as Herkles) suggests) or URG, but that is just me.) Reyhan's card concept and mechanical link I could grok just by looking at the card; the fact that the article had to explain what Ludevic's card is trying to convey seems like a huge flavor fail to me.
As an aside: I have absolutely nothing against "story-less one-off characters that will never get expanded on". Not only do they make the Multiverse feel bigger, but they also fill a very important niche: Not everyone is a Vorthos, moreover, not everyone wants to replay the lore. Some people want to make up their own stories. Who is Ghave and what does he do? We only got the barest hint of his character in his blurb and that gets some people's imaginations rolling. Some want to make up their own stories. "Zero lore" characters fill that particular niche, especially for commander, where you actually have a face for your deck.
I also agree, provided they give us some story tidbits to go with the new characters. I love having glimpses of entirely new worlds, or little-known worlds like Valla or Ir. I think my ideal would be about 50/50 new characters and old characters still lacking cards.
You're forgiven.
**) I'm actually really annoyed that Nissa is not in AER (That's my feelings so far - I can imagine a sufficiently interesting and well executed twist to make me perfectly content with AER) - she's getting the short end on story and sorely needs some focus after she got apparently retroactively changed from her original character. If OGW is actually to be counted as a Chandra set this is the second time Nissa is playing support for main character Chandra. If anything that should have meant Nissa should have been the focus of at least one of BFZ/OGW (set on her home plane).
If AER gets another focus (e. g. a shift towards the villain Tezzeret without replacing Chandra as protagonist, or focussing on a non-Gatewatch planeswalker (Saheeli? Ajani? Parcher?)) then I can see why people feel Nissa is getting mishandled.
This is part of what threw me. I had a feeling you might have been talking about stories (especially since you said story) but most people I talk to say that Zendikar is Nissa's and Shadows in Liliana's (because the first is a home plane and the 2nd is a first walk) and now Kaladesh is Chandra's home plane. Amonket threw a spanner in that theory though.
I agree with your WUBRG theory, now that you've explained it. I didn't follow BFZ story - I started following the story again since Eldritch Moon (I haven't been following the stories since Mercadian Masques block). It does feel like Nissa is getting the shaft and is underdeveloped. She feels like she's just being shoved to the side a lot - but I figured maybe she was just a passive/zen character who doesn't draw a lot of attention (unlike Chandra) and maybe her story was developed elsewhere.
But I'm a bit biased - I never liked Nissa. I much prefered Garruk for the iconic green planeswalker - but they went and made him an antagonist.
First of all, I agree with both of the above that Nissa's time to shine should have been BFZ - and she did get a fair bit of focus, including her fight with Ob Nixilis - but since the purpose of that block was to establish the Gatewatch, she was only one member of an ensemble cast.
Related to that, I think the purpose of Amenkhet isn't to focus on one member of the Gatewatch (although it could induct Ajani into the Gatewatch, and one of Liliana's demons could be there, so I'm not ruling it out), but rather to establish Bolas as the major reoccurring nemesis for the Gatewatch, the proverbial Lex Luthor to their Justice League. One goal of the creative era that begin in Alara was to establish MTG's major villains - Bolas, New Phyrexia, the Eldrazi, Ob Nixilis, possibly the Chain Veil and Raven Man. That creative era has given way to the Gatewatch era (with an even greater focus on comics-style storytelling), so now those villains need to brought into conflict with the Gatewatch. The Eldrazi and Nixilis have already crossed paths with the Gatewatch - Bolas is up next. I believe it is only a matter of time before New Phyrexia is back in focus for the same reason, and fully expect we'll see a return to New Phyrexia either Fall 2017 or Spring 2018.
1
More than you would think - for example, two of the Islands in Merfolk vs. Goblins have prominent trees on them.
Having said that - I love the idea that it's a green ramp spell that is biased towards fetching Forests.
4
From my reading, this isn't actually confirmed - Huatli left a disabled Vona behind while she summoned dinosaurs to eat her, but then immediately left. Vona was not killed "on screen" so to speak, so we can't definitively count Vona out of the race yet.
That was also my interpretation - especially if we assume the Immortal Sun somehow resonates with planeswalkers.
By the way, Jace speculated that the Immortal Sun might be something that was brought to Ixalan - I'm willing to bet that's the writers telling us that this is an extraplanar artifact, and is definitely more fuel for the Ugin theory.
1
1
One possibility here is that the use of the term "leyline", which has a specific meaning, in this story, is because we are seeing things from Nissa's perspective. As a green mage heavily tied to the land, it makes sense that she would think of currents of mana (which is what we are all really talking about, I think) in terms of something she is most familiar with. To put it another way, Nissa's power is to manipulate currents of mana, and in this story, she figured out how to create a brand new and different type of one. Someone like Jace would probably conceptualize what Nissa did as as some form of essence alteration or magical reprogramming, but to green-oriented Nissa, she perceived what she did in terms of leylines.
Or maybe I'm giving the Creative Team too much credit.
2
Right now, I am assuming the 8 gods is a reference to the Ogdoad of Egyptian mythology:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogdoad_(Egyptian)
As for the Sphinxes, I am assuming Bolas somehow silenced them because they remember the truth (as they are presumably older than 20 or 30 years). As to why he simply didn't kill them all - that's a good question, and I am hoping there is a good answer.
1
On the story side - Throne of the God-Pharaoh names four Hours - the Hour of Revelation, Hour of Glory, Hour of Promise, and Hour of Eternity. I'm assuming Hour of Devastation is the final, fifth Hour - perhaps unknown to the average citizen of Amonkhet? Any thoughts about this? Does each Hour correspond to a God?
3
Does this mean we can expect Viziers for Ramses, Nefertiti and maybe Akhenaten? (Or even the historical Scorpion King?)
And while I'm at it, I'd love cards to see cards referencing Ozymandias (the poem), Imhotep (movie version and historic version), the Book of the Dead, Ammit, Apophis, and Djoser.
1
I wanted to second this opinion. While I do hope we get an epilogue with Tezzeret and Bolas that gives us some hints as to Bolas's larger scheme, this was the sort of story Eldritch Moon desperately needed to give us some sense of closure on both the characters and the world as a result of the events of the block.
(Also - memo to WotC Re: Future Kaladesh sets: We don't need to always visit a plane in the midst of an apocalypse. Happy endings that were hard-earned (*I know, individual mileage may vary as to how much it was earned) can be allowed to stick, more or less. Return to Ravnica featured a major crisis that was basically rooted in the conflicts innate to the existing society, and I hope the inevitable "Return to Kaladesh" goes the same route, instead of having the Phyrexians invade or the Aether becoming corrupt or Marit Lage or a plague of Homarids or whatever.)
Somewhat off topic - Liliana suggested Amonkhet was created by Bolas. If true, that makes things even more interesting. Did Bolas create the local gods and demons? Is Liliana's Demon #3 one of Bolas's creations? There are many interesting implications here...
1
Fair enough - I definitely can see your point, and understand why you are disappointed...
...But I happen to agree with these assessments more. But while I might disagree about Reyhan, I completely agree with you and everyone else complaining about Ludevic.
Here... I can see why they went they way they did, and there is indeed some cleverness in the concept. (And understand the desire to keep Ludevic distinct from Geralf and Gisa.) My problem is that Ludevic's card concept isn't intuitive. Nothing about his card screams "Necro-Alchemist". Even a fairly knowledgeable Vorthos would expect Ludevic to interact with the graveyard in some fashion or at least 'create monsters' somehow, as the cards that quote him almost always deal with reanimated creatures or horrible monstrosities. Would anyone here designing Ludevic in a vacuum have started with the top-down traits of "Reclusive" and "Makes Others Do His Dirty Work" instead of "Master Monster Maker"? (I think my platonic ideal for Ludevic would have been either BUR(as Herkles) suggests) or URG, but that is just me.) Reyhan's card concept and mechanical link I could grok just by looking at the card; the fact that the article had to explain what Ludevic's card is trying to convey seems like a huge flavor fail to me.
Completely agree.
I also agree, provided they give us some story tidbits to go with the new characters. I love having glimpses of entirely new worlds, or little-known worlds like Valla or Ir. I think my ideal would be about 50/50 new characters and old characters still lacking cards.
2
First of all, I agree with both of the above that Nissa's time to shine should have been BFZ - and she did get a fair bit of focus, including her fight with Ob Nixilis - but since the purpose of that block was to establish the Gatewatch, she was only one member of an ensemble cast.
Related to that, I think the purpose of Amenkhet isn't to focus on one member of the Gatewatch (although it could induct Ajani into the Gatewatch, and one of Liliana's demons could be there, so I'm not ruling it out), but rather to establish Bolas as the major reoccurring nemesis for the Gatewatch, the proverbial Lex Luthor to their Justice League. One goal of the creative era that begin in Alara was to establish MTG's major villains - Bolas, New Phyrexia, the Eldrazi, Ob Nixilis, possibly the Chain Veil and Raven Man. That creative era has given way to the Gatewatch era (with an even greater focus on comics-style storytelling), so now those villains need to brought into conflict with the Gatewatch. The Eldrazi and Nixilis have already crossed paths with the Gatewatch - Bolas is up next. I believe it is only a matter of time before New Phyrexia is back in focus for the same reason, and fully expect we'll see a return to New Phyrexia either Fall 2017 or Spring 2018.