Ok, so this is something I've been rolling around in my head for a long time. I love me some Nicol Bolas, and over the years we have been seeing him gain minions and artifacts and plans within plans.
Well I thought it might be fun to cast the forever serpent and his cronies as a band. But I'd love some help. So the rules are simple; each legendary creature in the deck must be someone bolas controls or has had work for him in the past, and they must have a piece of equipment to serve as their instrument. The equipment needs tp synergize with the creature's ability as well. For example:
Malfegor
Role:Drummer (his first art always struck me as spinning 4 drumsticks)
Instrument: Bonehoard(his drum kit)
I'd like to find spots somewhere for Raka Mar, Neheb the Eternal,and thraximundar.I have an idea that walkers act as his crew. I.e. Tezzeret is his roadie, grabbing everyone's gear. I look forward to community help on this, and I'm planning to have all the band members and their gear altered to look more the part.
If shandalar has been become the generic core set plane then we may at some point down the road get another dominaria based set.....i get that people didn't like Time Spiral (for the record I loved Time Spiral, full of good cards, and while it started the murder of how walkers used to be...it gave us at least a last look at several we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise). But that doesn't mean the plane is a bad place to have a set.
Also count me in as a reader. I want to know what you have for us next....
I want to thank you for picking up the torch and trying to make sense of the jumbled mess that is the current mirrodin storyline.
This means a lot to me as someone who started playing during mirrodin 1 and just wants to see the story done some justice.
so is this thing dead at this point, I can't even download the older casts....This saddens me as i enjoyed them, and I went and tried to download them onto my new computer and found the links all dead. I understand but am depressed that there is no more storyline based podcast.
First off, it seems this is an issue that several of us take to heart.
I have to side with the thought that the Mirrans will not win this war for their plane. This does not stop me from choosing Mirran though. I also call Mirroden my first set, and while I know the old stories and have been collecting the old cards, something about the metal world has kept my interest. I don't agree with some of the characterization that the Mirrans receive, nor do I agree with the retcons which were so hastily done that anyone who knows the storyline at all can see the many cracks and seams.
None of this matters to me, I see the stories that Wizards does not tell, the ones that I can easily create based on the information given, I see leonin fighting for their dens in the razorgrass fields, I see refugees evacuating the Tangle as it is overrun by the invasion to the caves surrounding Kuldotha. For me though, the Myr have captured my interest the most.
They lack a master, yet they continue to do their tasks set to them, and even more. There is enough information I think to suggest that they may be fighting the invasion off on their own. They have resisted infection better than any other race on the planet, Their Myr Matrix was clearly placed in front of Mirroden's core from the art, which is where the corruption is the strongest. Even though it has lost its indestructibility and its ability to strengthen myr directly, the battered Myr Turbine is still crafting myr and even summoning them from across the plane. Amusingly it takes one hive mind to fight another it seems.
I would like to state, for the record, that the blinkmoths were used to make the serum that the vedalken liked to have sloshing around their heads all the time, and that memnarch liked to have on giant tanks on his back. I don't have page numbers or anything atm, I could go and find them if I need to but I do remember that was an alluded to reason for the lack of blinkmoths in the sky, they were harvested by memnarch and the vedalken.
This is just very off the wall speculation, I know, but if we assume the other two "jailers" are absent due to death, and Ugin was a planeswalking dragon.......I know of one dead planeswalking dragon in magic lore, the one that was a corpse at the center of Phyrexia. That walker had no name, so is it possible that this is supposed to be a tie in? Remember, we have it on good authority that we are getting a heavy phyrexian themed set next year, and phyrexia was an artifact plane, and Ugin is all about the colorless things...
Perhaps I am just grasping at straws but that is my input.
This is the first of your articles I have read, and I now plan to go back and read the others. I've not seen a deep more philosophical look at the game we play and our lives before, and I can't wait for the next installment. Thank you for providing this column.
This will read contradictory as hell, but after re-reading the last 4 pages of posts, I'll agree, Green is pretty much its own Iconic creature, but only if wizards can push this with creatures that display that quality in spades, like was mentioned previously, things like master of the wild hunt but not expensive and slow like that, or maybe just better protected, I'm not sure, but that one mythic just kinda screams survival of the fittest, and the whole "my creatures are more vicious than yours" mentality that any green mage worth his spells should be thinking. Let's do more than make big dumb fatties and accelerate mana, let's have cards that use growth and predation in new and interesting ways.
Green just recently got a unicorn. However...it doesn't really match up to the real power of the Unicorn in popular mythology. They are no mere beast. They are magical, ancient, and possess the power to maintain the forces of nature and dispell the powers of darkess. This is largely based on the movie Legend...but the awesomeness of Legend is good enough for me.
I can easily see unicorns having:
Vigilance
Protection from Black
Protection from Red
Lifelink
First Strike
...pretty much non-flying green angels.
See....the issue with all those abilities you mentioned is that they really feel like they fit on a white creature, not a green one. When I see a big green creature of epic proportions I visualize something that can break through enemy ranks and smash the other player (trample) or shrug off the meaningless magic of the opponent (green version of shroud called simply "green shroud" in my group), or I can definitely see the sheer enormity of the monstrous thing scaring anything out of the way (this allows for intimidate)
I think we have to remember that Green has been, from day one, about making huge creatures then making them even huger. Usually with something else that makes them a beast in combat specifically, such as trample or deathtouch. Now this is the main reason I chose Wurm as they are usually on the scale of dragons, and are known as well as the other non-blue iconic creatures.
Side note: I think the sphinx decision ie; making a whole new creature type and running with it worked because in part blue is about mystery, cunning and intrigue, so why not have a new creature appear from nowhere and take the top spot? Green doesn't play that way normally.
Now I can also see why it is important for the Green Icon to be on a similar thought level as the other creatures mentioned, so they are just about "hulk smash!" but is nature always that smart?
So this leads me in two directions, either turn wurms into more than an expensive joke, or push hydras, because they could also do a lot of what I mentioned. The second option being one I just thought of while typing this, if green is about nature, and growth, why not something like Multani or Molimo since they both grow with your resources? or at least use them as inspiration for discussion here.
Edit: nath'd on the unicorn thing...
But Horseshoe Hermit definitely brings some interesting thoughts to the table, and I think he has something on the axis of Iconic balance (totally call TM on that btw..). Except Green has also had a kind of off and on rival throughout it's life, and that would be Artifacts, and while they aren't a real color, they certainly act more and more like it as the years progress (and they even have color sometimes, thanks Alara block for that) so if Artifacts are by and large mechanical and heartless, shouldn't Green have the most lively and explosive Iconic creature of them all?
Maybe I'm missing the obvious reason against it, but if we are running a moderate discard suite, such as duress and mind shatter/mind sludge why not run haunting echos as a two of?
I know that I have found that it can be a real tempo boost, when you remove all their threats from the deck, or at least a majority. What are the general thoughts?
@gerbil:
About a hoser in green, have you ever read wheel of sun and moon it can cancel mill, and is hard for u or u/b to deal with if it hits the board. Eventide may still surprise though, who knows, we might get a nice assortment of mill options that are balanced and still good.
Well, if you look at the past couple of years, WOTC has been testing the concept of "milling FTW". They pretty much threw away the House Dimir on the concept.(I love milling and the Dimir, but their milling effects, besides glimpse, were mediocre at best) In LOR/SHA We see another try, with the little pieces (merrow witsniper and Drowner Initiate and memory slucie. Then we have the big finisher with blaze like milling ability Oona, Queen of the Fae/ All we need is that middle ground.
I think WOTC is just afraid of making milling too powerful, lest it run rampant. Just my thoughts on the matter.
Well I thought it might be fun to cast the forever serpent and his cronies as a band. But I'd love some help. So the rules are simple; each legendary creature in the deck must be someone bolas controls or has had work for him in the past, and they must have a piece of equipment to serve as their instrument. The equipment needs tp synergize with the creature's ability as well. For example:
Nicol Bolas
Role: Lead singer/song writer
Instrument: sorcerors wand (his mic)
Malfegor
Role:Drummer (his first art always struck me as spinning 4 drumsticks)
Instrument: Bonehoard(his drum kit)
I'd like to find spots somewhere for Raka Mar, Neheb the Eternal,and thraximundar.I have an idea that walkers act as his crew. I.e. Tezzeret is his roadie, grabbing everyone's gear. I look forward to community help on this, and I'm planning to have all the band members and their gear altered to look more the part.
I want to thank you for picking up the torch and trying to make sense of the jumbled mess that is the current mirrodin storyline.
This means a lot to me as someone who started playing during mirrodin 1 and just wants to see the story done some justice.
I have to side with the thought that the Mirrans will not win this war for their plane. This does not stop me from choosing Mirran though. I also call Mirroden my first set, and while I know the old stories and have been collecting the old cards, something about the metal world has kept my interest. I don't agree with some of the characterization that the Mirrans receive, nor do I agree with the retcons which were so hastily done that anyone who knows the storyline at all can see the many cracks and seams.
None of this matters to me, I see the stories that Wizards does not tell, the ones that I can easily create based on the information given, I see leonin fighting for their dens in the razorgrass fields, I see refugees evacuating the Tangle as it is overrun by the invasion to the caves surrounding Kuldotha. For me though, the Myr have captured my interest the most.
They lack a master, yet they continue to do their tasks set to them, and even more. There is enough information I think to suggest that they may be fighting the invasion off on their own. They have resisted infection better than any other race on the planet, Their Myr Matrix was clearly placed in front of Mirroden's core from the art, which is where the corruption is the strongest. Even though it has lost its indestructibility and its ability to strengthen myr directly, the battered Myr Turbine is still crafting myr and even summoning them from across the plane. Amusingly it takes one hive mind to fight another it seems.
Perhaps I am just grasping at straws but that is my input.
See....the issue with all those abilities you mentioned is that they really feel like they fit on a white creature, not a green one. When I see a big green creature of epic proportions I visualize something that can break through enemy ranks and smash the other player (trample) or shrug off the meaningless magic of the opponent (green version of shroud called simply "green shroud" in my group), or I can definitely see the sheer enormity of the monstrous thing scaring anything out of the way (this allows for intimidate)
I think we have to remember that Green has been, from day one, about making huge creatures then making them even huger. Usually with something else that makes them a beast in combat specifically, such as trample or deathtouch. Now this is the main reason I chose Wurm as they are usually on the scale of dragons, and are known as well as the other non-blue iconic creatures.
Side note: I think the sphinx decision ie; making a whole new creature type and running with it worked because in part blue is about mystery, cunning and intrigue, so why not have a new creature appear from nowhere and take the top spot? Green doesn't play that way normally.
Now I can also see why it is important for the Green Icon to be on a similar thought level as the other creatures mentioned, so they are just about "hulk smash!" but is nature always that smart?
So this leads me in two directions, either turn wurms into more than an expensive joke, or push hydras, because they could also do a lot of what I mentioned. The second option being one I just thought of while typing this, if green is about nature, and growth, why not something like Multani or Molimo since they both grow with your resources? or at least use them as inspiration for discussion here.
Edit: nath'd on the unicorn thing...
But Horseshoe Hermit definitely brings some interesting thoughts to the table, and I think he has something on the axis of Iconic balance (totally call TM on that btw..). Except Green has also had a kind of off and on rival throughout it's life, and that would be Artifacts, and while they aren't a real color, they certainly act more and more like it as the years progress (and they even have color sometimes, thanks Alara block for that) so if Artifacts are by and large mechanical and heartless, shouldn't Green have the most lively and explosive Iconic creature of them all?
I know that I have found that it can be a real tempo boost, when you remove all their threats from the deck, or at least a majority. What are the general thoughts?
About a hoser in green, have you ever read wheel of sun and moon it can cancel mill, and is hard for u or u/b to deal with if it hits the board. Eventide may still surprise though, who knows, we might get a nice assortment of mill options that are balanced and still good.
I think WOTC is just afraid of making milling too powerful, lest it run rampant. Just my thoughts on the matter.