As I've said before in this thread, if the Eldrazi subtype was just thrown out in favor of Horror, there would be half as much complaining as there is now. DFC is a great platform on showcasing eldritch/cosmic horror. The fact that the cards have the subtype of Eldrazi did not mean they couldn't have made more interesting DFC's, that's just a logical fallacy.
Continue to ignore my point at your leisure, I'll just be asking a few questions:
How many creature DFCs did SOI have?
Of them, how many were Werewolves?
How many creature DFCs did EMN have?
Of them, how many were Werewolves?
Of those (and this is because some people don't like Eldrazi at all), how many aren't Eldrazi?
Werewolves are worse off. Non-creature DFCs are worse off. Of the 15 DFCs, 14 are Eldrazi. That's no longer a thematic mechanic of the plane, that's an Eldrazi mechanic.
By all means, they can showcase the horrid transformations, but not at the expense of everything else. We know uninfected werewolves still wander the plane, but do we see any of them? With one exception, no! We know there are vampires with mysterious other forms that aren't corrupted, but do we get to see them? No!
Well, first of all: The SOI block was supposed to be at least partially about Eldrazi and especially Emrakul since the last Innistrad block. That in mind there were not that many ways in which this could have been shown. They obviously didn't intend to make the SOI block another BFZ block, therefore they couldn't do many colorless Eldrazi cards. As was said before, this is not supposed to be an Eldrazi set like BFZ mostly was. So the only other option (and a quite flavorful too) was using the transform mechanic for the Eldrazi. Transform cards can't make up more than a minority of a set and the number of Eldrazi had to be large enough to justify their inclusion (which as I said was decided upon very early). The option they took was to show werewolves (and others) mutating further and becoming Eldrazi AND their old creature type. With only limited space in the set (and this being the possibly ONLY set with eldrazification) they had to make every transform card into an Eldrazi one. The new dronepack werewolves work really good mechanically with the old transform mechanic. They ARE werewolves and not only Eldrazi. You can argue about their strength all day, but this was the best compromise they could achieve in this situation in my opinion.
And set space is always limited. I didn't get Jenrik, Ludevic and another spirit lord either, but that happens because they can't put everything into a block. Innistrad 3 will come and then werewolves (most likely the old ones) will return.
Well the xenophobic part was dropped in all stories afterwards, so there is that. It definitely feels strange that she was xenophobic and elf centric in Zendikar, but when she planeswalked to Lorwyn she defended the goblins without a second thought from the elves (which happened before Teeths of Akoum). The other retcons I felt where not deviating from the previously established characters as much. Racism might have been to strong a word though. I'm glad that it wasn't that much of a retcon as I thought, although it is strange that the bio on the website is considered not canon.
Even during In the Teeth of Akoum she comes to the defense of humans without much thought, too.
The Lorwyn bit is weird, but Oath indicated it isn't as retconned as we thought, and that it's possible that she returned to Lorwyn later.
And I definitely agree with your comment re: character growth after releasing the Eldrazi. Kelly even outright confirmed it on twitter the other day, the intention was that much of her change into BFZ was because of her guilt. Nissa, Worldwaker is a pretty key story because of that.
I'm glad if that is actually the case. I retract my points then I really like it when such problems sort themselves out. I feel that there has been much turmoil about a lot of the new story since Origins and I hope that creative has left these early problems behind them now. The SOI block for me feels like a great improvement to BFZs story and if that trend continues, Kaladesh should be even better.
To be fair Nissas turn (before her character retcon in Origins) was at least explainable: She saw what she did to her home by releasing the Eldrazi and threatening everything she cares about, and the devastation changed her views on many things. This happens in real life too, people can change for the better by realizing their mistakes (obviously). The problem was the retcon in Origin, which just wasn't necessary. Her character developement had already progressed so that her becoming a protagonist (perhabs even a flawed one, with the flaw being her still present racism) was acceptable. But just deleting that flaw out of her history (and only very slightly hinting at her mistake of releasing the Eldrazi) felt wrong on many levels. I'm not as often disappointed in the storyline as others are around here, and I also don't cry "retcon" as fast, but that was a really big mistake by creative and as I said, absolutely unnecessary.
So, as for the Nissa 'retcon', what I gathered from a tweet back-and-forth with Kelly Digges was that neither DotP nor the website's bio were canon. They were based around her original concept, but I guess neither were written by the creative team?
Having re-read In the Teeth of Akoum more recently, she's not racist, although she is Xenophobic like the rest of her tribe. Origins didn't really retcon her more than any other character, she was already established as being an animist in Nissa, Worldwaker.
Well the xenophobic part was dropped in all stories afterwards, so there is that. It definitely feels strange that she was xenophobic and elf centric in Zendikar, but when she planeswalked to Lorwyn she defended the goblins without a second thought from the elves (which happened before Teeths of Akoum). The other retcons I felt where not deviating from the previously established characters as much. Racism might have been to strong a word though. I'm glad that it wasn't that much of a retcon as I thought, although it is strange that the bio on the website is considered not canon.
Nissa was originally intended to be a villain, actually, hence her whole elf-supremacist shtick. If not for the horrible writing Teeth of Akaoum would actually be interesting since they decided that both protagonists should be antagonist characters.
She was only completely rewritten when they couldn't find a Garruk replacement. That alone is worth a facepalm that pulverises the skull.
Nahiri, hypothetically, is not under the same risks, since she's never going to be a POV character. However, there's two ways in which her character could be ruined:
- Disregard the story so far and pull off an unwarranted redemption as they did for Ral. This is very likely because Nahiri has plenty of cultists in RL already.
- Discard the White and make her pure Red or Black/Red
A warranted redemption on the other hand would be pretty damn hard to pull of after the stunt she pulled on Innistrad. Anything but a really heroic sacrifice later on will probably not do. I believe though that Nahiri will be a recurring Boros villain for a very long time.
To be fair Nissas turn (before her character retcon in Origins) was at least explainable: She saw what she did to her home by releasing the Eldrazi and threatening everything she cares about, and the devastation changed her views on many things. This happens in real life too, people can change for the better by realizing their mistakes (obviously). The problem was the retcon in Origin, which just wasn't necessary. Her character developement had already progressed so that her becoming a protagonist (perhabs even a flawed one, with the flaw being her still present racism) was acceptable. But just deleting that flaw out of her history (and only very slightly hinting at her mistake of releasing the Eldrazi) felt wrong on many levels. I'm not as often disappointed in the storyline as others are around here, and I also don't cry "retcon" as fast, but that was a really big mistake by creative and as I said, absolutely unnecessary.
The Orzhov are still a religious institution that serves their communities and local banks (as well as other lucrative businesses, such as restaurants). Keep in mind that we're seeing usually the more negative aspects of the Black guilds; for example, we don't get to see the entertainment industry or mining side of the Rakdos very much.
Well they are more or less the mafia of Ravnica and I wouldn't call the real lifes mafias restaurants and other businesses they conduct as a facade "redeeming qualities". I admit that I liked them more before the revelations in the last Teysa story. Not being bound by any kind of guildpact and with obvious motivations to use this power to dominate the other guilds makes them as bad as the Dimir in my opinion. The only real redeeming aspect of them (and in my opinion one of their most important roles as a guild) was their work as defence lawyers, a job which is often underestimated in its importance in real life as well.
The Rakdos on the other hand are brutal and sadomasochistic to an absurd degree, but they don't have any real ambitions to rule Ravnica or destroy the other guilds as far as I know. And their legitimate businesses are portrayed as genuine (though perhabs more dangerous than their real life counterparts).
So now that the full set is out, counting the DFCs, what is the final count of Eldrazi in the set?
There are 12 actual, fully colorless Eldrazi, 14 DFCs that turn into Eldrazi, and 3 Meld pairs. That makes for 27 nontoken Eldrazi on 30 cards. There are 7 non-DFC cards that make 3/2 Eldrazi Horror tokens, plus 3 non-DFC cards designed to interact with Eldrazi. That makes 40 cards out of 205 all told, nothing compared to the Eldrazi presence in BFZ and OGW.
But considering that those were 100% Eldrazi focused sets/blocks.
I think 1/5 of the set being Eldrazi is a pretty big number for a set that is supposed to be "not full of" Eldrazi.
And it's more than the original Eldrazi set had, Rise of the Eldrazi.
I still don't know where this whole "EMN shouldn't have been full of Eldrazi" came from anyway. Maro said nothing of that sort. And nearly every Eldrazi in this Set (except for 2) is another creature type in addition to that, which makes it clear that the Eldrazi type on those cards is more for flavor and mechanical overlap with BFZ reasons than anything else. Maro said that the set is about the impact that Emrakul has on the plane. That's why so much of the art shows mutations. I understand not liking Eldrazi, but this whole "EMN should have had only miniscule amounts of Eldrazi" is really strange to me. Especially now that we know that Emrakul on Innistrad was the plan since the original block.
I think that it kind of clashes with what most would expect given her color alignment, but I don't know that I'd call it dumb. At least for her all she was concerned about was getting them off Zendikar, makes sense that she wouldn't really have a backup plan. Especially when she didn't exactly have time for one.
Sorry, should have been more specific: Dumb of whoever made this decision in creative. I mean, for me her getting revenge and at the same time sealing Emrakul could have made the whole story just a little bit more complex. Perhabs it's just because I think of revenge as one of the lowest possible motivations to kill a whole plane or do anything else really without any additional motives (and that is really only my opinion, don't want to start the whole "Is Nahiri evil" debate all over again).
This set was bad. Oath of the Gatewatch level bad, which is a shame considering how well it started. SOI was amazing, but then again, so was BFZ.
I disagree. Eldritch Moon hasn't provided us with a complete stinker of a mechanic such as Cohort. Even Meld isn't bad, just criminally underused.
The story on the other hand, is truly Oath level blandness, mostly because it has been copied from Oath. Eldrazi destroy everything - check. Survivors band together to face the threat - check. Gideon becomes the defacto resistance leader - check. Thanks to the exclusive effort of the Gatewatch members, and not any of the natives, the Eldrazi is defeated by the power of teaming up - check. Subplot about a planeswalker whose powers have been sealed by magical stone for 1000 years swears revenge against it's sealer and plans to destroy the plane by proxy mostly by calling forth one of the Eldrazi Titans and planeswalks away while the Eldrazi are wrecking havoc (and before they are sealing) after having gloated to planeswalkers they defeated in combat a few moments before? - check, check, and check.
Well if you want to oversimplify it that much you might as well stuff nearly all stories in MtG together (with a few exceptions). Here a totally subjective and not at all accurate summary of Invasion: Phyrexians destroy everything, survivors band together to face the threat, thanks to the exclusive efforts of planeswalkers (I mean, Karn was also only one such effort, as was the Weatherlight and the Legacy weapon if I remember correctly) Phyrexians (and Phyrexia itself) are defeated by the power of teaming up (literally with the Legacy Weapon, figuratively with the destruction of Phyrexia the plane). Some subplot about ancient dragons and their powers and a betrayal of a few of the planeswalkers. Nearly the same.
The resolution of how Emrakul is defeated alone is totally different to the end of OGW, not even remotely a deus ex machina and not ending in the destruction of the Titan. Innistrad is changed considerably, the resistance would have been defeated very easily without Liliana (as would have been the Gatewatch), I could go on. OGW did feel kinda bland. But Eldritch Moon? No, I really don't think it's comparable without some serious oversimplification.
Oh, I am definitly oversimplifying things. Comes with the snark and dislike. Doesn't change that we had a very similiar story the previous block, a story which wasn't great then and did taint the Eldrazi and Gatewatch for some.
And that I have nothing against. If you don't like it, that is fine. It's just a pet peeve of mine when people state their personal opinions as facts by leaving "in my opinion" out of their sentences. Now that you've said that your oversimplification etc. spring from personal dislike there is nothing else to debate about. I personally like this story and don't see it as OGW 2.0. If at all I would call it OGW done better/right.
EDIT: Except for the reveal that Nahiri didn't have ANY sort of plan to bind Emrakul. That I think was a pretty dumb move which nonetheless doesn't minimize my enjoyment of the blocks story.
Eldritch Moon feels a bit better than Oath to me too, looking forward to Kaladesh. Still a little ways off, but going to be glad to try going somewhere else. Wonder what they'll do for the face of Aether Revolt though.
I give creative the benefit of the doubt and say that they are getting where they always wanted to be step by step. BFZ and Origins were both the first sets in which story mattered more and the pace became faster, so they had to adapt and made mistakes along the way. SOI block had in my opinion a good story (and was definitely better than OGW). If this trend continues Kaladesh should be pretty good
This set was bad. Oath of the Gatewatch level bad, which is a shame considering how well it started. SOI was amazing, but then again, so was BFZ.
I disagree. Eldritch Moon hasn't provided us with a complete stinker of a mechanic such as Cohort. Even Meld isn't bad, just criminally underused.
The story on the other hand, is truly Oath level blandness, mostly because it has been copied from Oath. Eldrazi destroy everything - check. Survivors band together to face the threat - check. Gideon becomes the defacto resistance leader - check. Thanks to the exclusive effort of the Gatewatch members, and not any of the natives, the Eldrazi is defeated by the power of teaming up - check. Subplot about a planeswalker whose powers have been sealed by magical stone for 1000 years swears revenge against it's sealer and plans to destroy the plane by proxy mostly by calling forth one of the Eldrazi Titans and planeswalks away while the Eldrazi are wrecking havoc (and before they are sealing) after having gloated to planeswalkers they defeated in combat a few moments before? - check, check, and check.
Well if you want to oversimplify it that much you might as well stuff nearly all stories in MtG together (with a few exceptions). Here a totally subjective and not at all accurate summary of Invasion: Phyrexians destroy everything, survivors band together to face the threat, thanks to the exclusive efforts of planeswalkers (I mean, Karn was also only one such effort, as was the Weatherlight and the Legacy weapon if I remember correctly) Phyrexians (and Phyrexia itself) are defeated by the power of teaming up (literally with the Legacy Weapon, figuratively with the destruction of Phyrexia the plane). Some subplot about ancient dragons and their powers and a betrayal of a few of the planeswalkers. Nearly the same.
The resolution of how Emrakul is defeated alone is totally different to the end of OGW, not even remotely a deus ex machina and not ending in the destruction of the Titan. Innistrad is changed considerably, the resistance would have been defeated very easily without Liliana (as would have been the Gatewatch), I could go on. OGW did feel kinda bland. But Eldritch Moon? No, I really don't think it's comparable without some serious oversimplification.
I think you could have them be Angels without being "pure" angels. Feather, for instance, felt plenty enough like a character. They could do ones like her more. Albeit I don't remember the exact specifics of why she was the way she was, so quite likely I'm forgetting something. Still think that they don't have to be absolutes. Sigarda, from what little we saw of her mindset before she saw her corrupted sisters, seemed to have personality too.
And I kind of like when intraplaner threats are handled by intraplaner forces, but I get the desire to have a larger, continual plot. It does make me worry about how planes will be treated but it'll kind of depend on Kaladesh.
I have to admit, it has been some time for me too, but if I remember correctly her character began to develope because she was punished by binding her wings and working as a lowly street cop with Agros Kos. I don't remember exactly WHY she was punished though, so she could have had more of a character before that too.
I'm not sure one example out of a rather wide swathe of characters is really a strong point. And I think there are definite ways you could have the Angels doing angel-things while still getting character development. Though I think I would rather they remain in the background if the majority of them are just corrupted/killed, not exactly very fun.
But that is what I mean: "Pure angels" would have to be holy, powerful and dedicated only to serve as messengers of higher beings or in MtGs case as helpers for the weak and destroyers of evil. Because they are so clear cut normally (again, like Demons in my opinion) there are four ways in which they can become real characters without becoming side roles like Jenara or Iona: Being forced into a situation in which they have to adapt to a new role (Sigarda and Feather), being a villain because the dedication goes too far (Akroma and arguably Aurelia), becoming corrupted by outside forces (Avacyn, Radiant and the sisters) and/or finally getting killed sadly to impact the story. I will say that the first situation is the best, but it only works in very specific circumstances and in Sigardas case it had to involve her sisters and Avacyn to become at least corrupted.
Idk if wotc hates angels but, going back as far as I can remember for modern magic:
Asha - abandoned her realm / killed
Jenara - alive, no story relevance
Aurelia - alive, not super vital to any stories
Razia - killed and replaced by a clone.
Selenia - relevant to story, fallen, corrupted a major character
Radiant - relevant to story, went crazy, corrupted, then killed
Akroma - central to story, villain, killed and turned into garbage.
Avacyn - central to story, corrupted, then killed
Bruna - corrupted and killed
Gisela - "" ""
Sigarda - alive, some story development
4th sista - way dead
Feather - who?
Linvala - alive, no story, hurts wallets
Iona - alive, no story
My personal issue is, as you can see: any angel with story relevance is represented in a way that contradicts what they want us to see angels as. Either a villain, corrupt, inept at doing what we're made to believe they do. And if not those things, they just aren't that relevant (linvala, iona, feather, jenara, etc). So what I want, is an angel character that does embody what they're supposed to be about, have some meaningful character development, and surviving doesn't hurt. Doesn't seem like a lot to ask. For just one damn character, at that. Wotc probably does hate angels, but I think they're just afraid of committing to creating a character that doesn't align with their current meta of super-relatable-superheroes, which is unfortunate.
Ok, see, THIS I understand. And the point of Angels not being able to become planeswalkers is unfortunate too. (Although Feather did get quite the amount of character developement in the original Ravnica block, which is something I can't say for Bruna and Gisela in their respective set, which in turn is why I didn't like Feather to get pushed out of focus for Aurelia and only see the two sisters as character developement tools for the interesting of the three, Sigarda).
I have to admit, pure angelic figures who are as holy as possible are (only in my opinion mind you) not characters which can be developed in any meaningful way, which is why they tend to be a) corrupted, b) killed or c) relegated to tertiary characters. The same for most demons who also lack motives beyond their evilness. I had a block in which Innistrads angels were the good guys and did everything pure angels are supposed to do, but they were never really characters. Even Sigarda would have remained a one note angel like Jenara if not for the contrast she creates to her corrupted sisters which in turn helps her own developement as a character. I wouldn't have had anything against angels remaining uncorrupted and fighting against Emrakul... but except for Avacyn I fear they would have remained the rather shallow characters from Avacyn Restored. All of this is just my own opinion, but I hope it explains why I really don't mind their deaths as much as others do around here.
EDIT: And wait a minute, aren't we getting such a character with Sigarda herself? She does what angels are about, she is uncorrupted, she has character developement and she seemingly survives this block.
I won't get into the others, but you can't count the Tarkir dragons when in the same block they come back to life. They aren't reviving any of the characters killed here, but from the beginning the plan for Tarkir was bringing dragons back, it's silly to try and say that Wizards killed them. They don't see Ugin coming back as reviving the dead, the rest of the dragons are the same.
It's more about the fact that people wanted to see them dead immediately afterwards, but I agree that that was a weak argument from me and I retract it.
I'm also not saying that people can't be angry about that, it's just that the anger seems so strangely extreme now. I didn't want to insult the angel fans around here, but calling the whole block a failure and flipping the table against creative because of this... I don't know. For me it seems strange and Avacyn was my favorite angel of all time.
At this point I'm practically rolling on the floor at the need rage. It's so delicious. You people are such hypocrits. Thousands, possibly millions of humans, Mer, Kor, Vampires and others die on Zendikar and it's "meh, show don't tell, wotc. It's not an emotional impact on the reader." But a few dozen nameless angels die along with a couple of the leaders and you people flip your tables. It's just absurd. As always I'm happy to see angels get their due.
As I have said before, I can't really understand the outrage at all either. In the last block no named angel died (neither Linvala nor Iona), but one of the few named Octopus legends bites the dust. Not even remotely this much of an outrage followed. Sphinx characters have died, Polukranos has died, demons die all the time (and will in the forseeable future) and Dragons... well it took time travel to not let them all die on Tarkir. Also not much of an outrage (a few people even argue that Tarkir was better off with the dragons dead). Angels die so often because they are the most often represented of the five iconic creature types after dragons (and those died much more often, see the Numena, the Elder Dragons, the first timelines Tarkir dragons...). It has nothing to do with creative hating them or something like that.
Well, first of all: The SOI block was supposed to be at least partially about Eldrazi and especially Emrakul since the last Innistrad block. That in mind there were not that many ways in which this could have been shown. They obviously didn't intend to make the SOI block another BFZ block, therefore they couldn't do many colorless Eldrazi cards. As was said before, this is not supposed to be an Eldrazi set like BFZ mostly was. So the only other option (and a quite flavorful too) was using the transform mechanic for the Eldrazi. Transform cards can't make up more than a minority of a set and the number of Eldrazi had to be large enough to justify their inclusion (which as I said was decided upon very early). The option they took was to show werewolves (and others) mutating further and becoming Eldrazi AND their old creature type. With only limited space in the set (and this being the possibly ONLY set with eldrazification) they had to make every transform card into an Eldrazi one. The new dronepack werewolves work really good mechanically with the old transform mechanic. They ARE werewolves and not only Eldrazi. You can argue about their strength all day, but this was the best compromise they could achieve in this situation in my opinion.
And set space is always limited. I didn't get Jenrik, Ludevic and another spirit lord either, but that happens because they can't put everything into a block. Innistrad 3 will come and then werewolves (most likely the old ones) will return.
I'm glad if that is actually the case. I retract my points then
Well the xenophobic part was dropped in all stories afterwards, so there is that. It definitely feels strange that she was xenophobic and elf centric in Zendikar, but when she planeswalked to Lorwyn she defended the goblins without a second thought from the elves (which happened before Teeths of Akoum). The other retcons I felt where not deviating from the previously established characters as much. Racism might have been to strong a word though. I'm glad that it wasn't that much of a retcon as I thought, although it is strange that the bio on the website is considered not canon.
A warranted redemption on the other hand would be pretty damn hard to pull of after the stunt she pulled on Innistrad. Anything but a really heroic sacrifice later on will probably not do. I believe though that Nahiri will be a recurring Boros villain for a very long time.
To be fair Nissas turn (before her character retcon in Origins) was at least explainable: She saw what she did to her home by releasing the Eldrazi and threatening everything she cares about, and the devastation changed her views on many things. This happens in real life too, people can change for the better by realizing their mistakes (obviously). The problem was the retcon in Origin, which just wasn't necessary. Her character developement had already progressed so that her becoming a protagonist (perhabs even a flawed one, with the flaw being her still present racism) was acceptable. But just deleting that flaw out of her history (and only very slightly hinting at her mistake of releasing the Eldrazi) felt wrong on many levels. I'm not as often disappointed in the storyline as others are around here, and I also don't cry "retcon" as fast, but that was a really big mistake by creative and as I said, absolutely unnecessary.
Well they are more or less the mafia of Ravnica and I wouldn't call the real lifes mafias restaurants and other businesses they conduct as a facade "redeeming qualities". I admit that I liked them more before the revelations in the last Teysa story. Not being bound by any kind of guildpact and with obvious motivations to use this power to dominate the other guilds makes them as bad as the Dimir in my opinion. The only real redeeming aspect of them (and in my opinion one of their most important roles as a guild) was their work as defence lawyers, a job which is often underestimated in its importance in real life as well.
The Rakdos on the other hand are brutal and sadomasochistic to an absurd degree, but they don't have any real ambitions to rule Ravnica or destroy the other guilds as far as I know. And their legitimate businesses are portrayed as genuine (though perhabs more dangerous than their real life counterparts).
I still don't know where this whole "EMN shouldn't have been full of Eldrazi" came from anyway. Maro said nothing of that sort. And nearly every Eldrazi in this Set (except for 2) is another creature type in addition to that, which makes it clear that the Eldrazi type on those cards is more for flavor and mechanical overlap with BFZ reasons than anything else. Maro said that the set is about the impact that Emrakul has on the plane. That's why so much of the art shows mutations. I understand not liking Eldrazi, but this whole "EMN should have had only miniscule amounts of Eldrazi" is really strange to me. Especially now that we know that Emrakul on Innistrad was the plan since the original block.
Sorry, should have been more specific: Dumb of whoever made this decision in creative. I mean, for me her getting revenge and at the same time sealing Emrakul could have made the whole story just a little bit more complex. Perhabs it's just because I think of revenge as one of the lowest possible motivations to kill a whole plane or do anything else really without any additional motives (and that is really only my opinion, don't want to start the whole "Is Nahiri evil" debate all over again).
And that I have nothing against. If you don't like it, that is fine. It's just a pet peeve of mine when people state their personal opinions as facts by leaving "in my opinion" out of their sentences. Now that you've said that your oversimplification etc. spring from personal dislike there is nothing else to debate about. I personally like this story and don't see it as OGW 2.0. If at all I would call it OGW done better/right.
EDIT: Except for the reveal that Nahiri didn't have ANY sort of plan to bind Emrakul. That I think was a pretty dumb move which nonetheless doesn't minimize my enjoyment of the blocks story.
I give creative the benefit of the doubt and say that they are getting where they always wanted to be step by step. BFZ and Origins were both the first sets in which story mattered more and the pace became faster, so they had to adapt and made mistakes along the way. SOI block had in my opinion a good story (and was definitely better than OGW). If this trend continues Kaladesh should be pretty good
Well if you want to oversimplify it that much you might as well stuff nearly all stories in MtG together (with a few exceptions). Here a totally subjective and not at all accurate summary of Invasion: Phyrexians destroy everything, survivors band together to face the threat, thanks to the exclusive efforts of planeswalkers (I mean, Karn was also only one such effort, as was the Weatherlight and the Legacy weapon if I remember correctly) Phyrexians (and Phyrexia itself) are defeated by the power of teaming up (literally with the Legacy Weapon, figuratively with the destruction of Phyrexia the plane). Some subplot about ancient dragons and their powers and a betrayal of a few of the planeswalkers. Nearly the same.
The resolution of how Emrakul is defeated alone is totally different to the end of OGW, not even remotely a deus ex machina and not ending in the destruction of the Titan. Innistrad is changed considerably, the resistance would have been defeated very easily without Liliana (as would have been the Gatewatch), I could go on. OGW did feel kinda bland. But Eldritch Moon? No, I really don't think it's comparable without some serious oversimplification.
I have to admit, it has been some time for me too, but if I remember correctly her character began to develope because she was punished by binding her wings and working as a lowly street cop with Agros Kos. I don't remember exactly WHY she was punished though, so she could have had more of a character before that too.
Ok, see, THIS I understand. And the point of Angels not being able to become planeswalkers is unfortunate too. (Although Feather did get quite the amount of character developement in the original Ravnica block, which is something I can't say for Bruna and Gisela in their respective set, which in turn is why I didn't like Feather to get pushed out of focus for Aurelia and only see the two sisters as character developement tools for the interesting of the three, Sigarda).
I have to admit, pure angelic figures who are as holy as possible are (only in my opinion mind you) not characters which can be developed in any meaningful way, which is why they tend to be a) corrupted, b) killed or c) relegated to tertiary characters. The same for most demons who also lack motives beyond their evilness. I had a block in which Innistrads angels were the good guys and did everything pure angels are supposed to do, but they were never really characters. Even Sigarda would have remained a one note angel like Jenara if not for the contrast she creates to her corrupted sisters which in turn helps her own developement as a character. I wouldn't have had anything against angels remaining uncorrupted and fighting against Emrakul... but except for Avacyn I fear they would have remained the rather shallow characters from Avacyn Restored. All of this is just my own opinion, but I hope it explains why I really don't mind their deaths as much as others do around here.
EDIT: And wait a minute, aren't we getting such a character with Sigarda herself? She does what angels are about, she is uncorrupted, she has character developement and she seemingly survives this block.
It's more about the fact that people wanted to see them dead immediately afterwards, but I agree that that was a weak argument from me and I retract it.
I'm also not saying that people can't be angry about that, it's just that the anger seems so strangely extreme now. I didn't want to insult the angel fans around here, but calling the whole block a failure and flipping the table against creative because of this... I don't know. For me it seems strange and Avacyn was my favorite angel of all time.
As I have said before, I can't really understand the outrage at all either. In the last block no named angel died (neither Linvala nor Iona), but one of the few named Octopus legends bites the dust. Not even remotely this much of an outrage followed. Sphinx characters have died, Polukranos has died, demons die all the time (and will in the forseeable future) and Dragons... well it took time travel to not let them all die on Tarkir. Also not much of an outrage (a few people even argue that Tarkir was better off with the dragons dead). Angels die so often because they are the most often represented of the five iconic creature types after dragons (and those died much more often, see the Numena, the Elder Dragons, the first timelines Tarkir dragons...). It has nothing to do with creative hating them or something like that.