Nice story. I am surprised, And pleased, at how much I now like Vraska after all these stories. She has been a real highlight this set and hopefully that continues on a whole block scale. C'mon Jace, don't turn into an unlikable mess again after those memories return. We're all rooting for you.
Im starting to be more sold on the Ugin thing, even if only because I'm selling myself on the idea that Ugin getting to represent Quetzalcoatl sounds pretty neat.
I enjoyed the story but it was certainly not as focused as many of the stories so far have been. The only vampire pov's we've seen are at least decently interesting. They don't paint the vampires as monsters or anything villainous. Yeah they are religious fanatics but they have rules. They play BW super well here as they are the faction most opposed to those outside of itself. Even then, glad there isn't really a clear villain here.
The most interesting bit of the story, for me, is Angrath. I'm curious if he will encounter Vrace and learn that they are walkers. If he does, I'm pretty sure he would be helping them. We've already learned that he really just wants to leave
Can't wait for my opponent to go Genesis Wave for my whole deck and refuse them. Also, the name Refuse is pretty silly in context. "I cast Omniscience" "I Refuse"
As I see the Kytheon death situation is that it is metaphorical rather than pbysical. His encounter with Bontu, Hazoret and his belief in their ability to defeat Bolas shows his arrogance has not changed from the days on Theros as Kytheon. Also, Bolas is an immortal being, just one that's less powerful than he wants to be, so being humbled by him, which we've already assumed is happening, is something I could believe Hazoret is forshadowing. As such, the death of Kytheon will mean the true end of Gideon's arrogance which has been proven to still exist, and has only been reinforced by the gatewatch's 3 victories.
Or it could just be me being disappointed about creative crumbling to people who don't like the Gatewatch or Gideon. I love Gideon and think out of all the gatewatch he has the most room for improvement as a character, as I always felt the stoic hero was a great character to have grow and realize his worldview is so limited. A story that ends in tragedy for them is so generic and expected that I will be pretty angry if they do kill him off. But hey, I actually like the GW and think it is what magic needed for its storytelling even if it hasn't been perfect execution wise.
I'd like to point out that Bolas is definitely not the kind to leave all his eggs in one basket. He probably has dozens of plans happening all at once in attempt to find a way to restore his power (his only real goal).
The god talk is rather interesting but I think people are missing exactly how Ajani views gods. I love it because it's so in line with my own beliefs. It's simply a Feast or Famine view of the term where a god that allows or commits such atrocities, a god capable of envy, a god that uses power and fear to bring supporters, is not a god worth believing in.
Away from that now as its so likely to bring about arguments not meant for this discussion that I don't want to continue. I loved this story. Yahenni came to be a personal favorite this block and that amazes me as I don't often find black aligned characters that I like. Her death was sad but not a death to grieve over and the writing for her is so good about this. The concept of Aetherborn death is something truly impressive and creative did a wonderful job on the life and death of the Aetherborn. Seeing a hint of that knowledge passed on through the Aether is a wonderful moment.
Chandra interactions with Pia were very nice and the fact that there also exists a momnument to Chandra was a cool little thing. I felt very connected to the characters as I've felt trapped in a circumstance like that.
The gatewatch was the Gatewatch. I like the Gatewatch and think this was an excellent set up to hubris being a down fall. The punishment I would love to see and would actually bring about character growth would be if they became connected with some citizens on the Plane and when Bolas has them beaten and bruised instead of killing them, he kills all these people with the view that he owns the plane and they are his ti do with as he pleases. That would be great motivation for the Gatewatch.
First of all, I saw a lot of people discussing Yahenni's color identity on the last story. I don't know where nobody comes and says white outside of them just not wanting another black/white character. The part that pushes it for me is the moral quandary she has. A mono black character of any kind would never have that. Black as a color represents amorality. It's not that has morals and isn't afraid of breaking them, it's that it does not believe in morals. White is the stand out color for morality. Not saying she can't be Green but she is certainly not mono black. I don't think she's green after this story as the use of her life draining powers is strictly against the natural order in such an extreme way.
Anyway, I can't be the only person here who didn't like the bracketed language in the Yahenni story. It felt so out of place that it just bothers me. The rest of the story was great and makes me think they are really on the right track with the side stories now.
The Gideon story was also very enjoyable. Especially his interactions with Liliana. I think they've started to really hit a stride and a good balance.
Hoping for a big standout story in this block about Pia and Chandra after seeing one of the early spoilers and the secret weapon from this week's story.
So after a search I have seen 0 decks focused around clues and decided to post mine for some feedback and improvements. The deck has performed reasonably well in my local area. People enjoy the theme though I've been working towards learning what I want every tutor as the deck does a lot of it and it can be a little slow with the shuffling. Otherwise, the decks is actually very fun to play and the concept is just so entertaining and interesting. The basis of the deck is find Tamiyo's Journal and use it to search up things. Which gets to the current nature of the problem of things to find. Finding the clue synergy cards is solid as you can actually do some very good things with the effects. I've had the mole gaining me 9+ life every turn multiple times and it becomes very difficult to die with that much life. You CAN mill someone out like that too and you can get a lot of tokens or a giant Tireless Tracker quite reasonably. The synergy cards look a little mediocre but when the engine gets going the really do hit hard and can just win you games.
I'll note that the general choice is very open. I run Derevi but honestly you can reasonably justify Angus, Jenara, or Rubinia as well. The problem with the deck that I see is that my local group is very much a good stuff as meta. This tends to cause decks I build to lose focus to match it and i'm not sure how to refocus. I want this deck to focus primarily on clues and Artifact synergy that plays well with them, with a legendary sub as back-up. This sub also allows access to cards like Captain Sisay to find my Journal as well as finding ways to recur it, like Hanna and Academy Ruins. It seems like a good sub but again it currently feels polluted by some good stuff things and I'm looking for help with switching those out. I'm thinking the deck would benefit from going harder on big combo's but I don't know where to focus that. I want to find pieces that go infinite with things I am certainly running. One I've considered is Beacon of Tomorrows as you can use it to take infinite turns with Journal + repeatable clue + Doubler or just 2 Doublers. Any help and feedback would be great.
Haven't posted in a while so I missed the talk on some very good stories. Firstly, the Ajani story was indeed one of favorites. Ajani is a character I really like and the ending really got me. Well done on that one.
Now, to the current story. This is what I wanted to see for Dovin. He doesn't come off as a villain in any traditional sense and he shouldn't as he isn't. He doesn't have evil intentions. Quite the opposite really. He cares about Kaladesh and he wants to keep people safe and preserve order. There are costs that he is willing to pay to get there. I appreciate that the made what could look entirely like a passion for his work is more than just that. With it being a compulsion it just adds to being able to sympathize with him. I really like the idea that he has these big flaws that we can see, but with his ability to see flaws doesn't even notice. His devotion to his work and Ghirapur is admirable as well. His last appearance can probably have the issues chocked up to poor writing. This is the Dovin I wanted to see. A true WU character to a fault. I still have hope for more interesting story with Dovin and that wasn't something I felt after the Pia getting captured story.
I really hate how they actually are making the consulate and Dovin feel villainous. I was looking forward to the consulate being outright used by Tezzeret and getting screwed over in the end. I was hoping to see the Consulate as more of a highly organized group trying to do what is best for everyone and looking like the villains in the process. This is pretty disappointing really, with the levels of cliche this rebellion plot hits.
Ooohh, this story leaves some really interesting plot threads. Tezzeret is the head judge of the inventors fair. Obviously that means he's looking for some kind of special invention. This pushes the direction of the consulate working with Tezzy, and probably, unwittingly, helping in some scheme. This pushes us in the direction that the renegades are actually trying to protect Kaladesh from whatever Tezzeret plans. The annoying thing is instead of going for interesting internal conflict within the gatewatch, we get obvious bad guy manipulating consulate so rebel of team gets to fight alongside the rebels for just reasons. There's so much more potential in internal conflict it's a little disappointing. The upside is that the gatewatch stands a not unreasonable chance to lose this BECAUSE it's not an interplanar world eating threat (for now), I mean who knows what Tezz is up to, but if it involves Bolas it eventually will be an interplanar world destroying threat. I'm assuming he's there to obtain something and leave. No more, no less, and the best way to do so is through being head judge. Seeing the gatewatch lose one would certainly give interesting internal conflict in the future. Could lead to good things.
I agree, Ashiok, that the action sequences are not particularly great. The problem to me isn't being that they describe overly (though this is a personal pet peeve in general that basically makes it impossible to read Tolkien for me). Descriptive language is great when used correctly. I want a picture painted. I enjoy being able to read a scene like I'm watching a movie. The problem is that the writers generally fail to impart what should be an interesting action sequence as anything of the sort. They often seem too busy showing off a characters unique ability to really make a gripping fight. The lack of stakes doesn't really help either, but I would call that a different criticism.
That all said I still enjoyed the story. Thought the betrayal of the noble was a little strange but she's a planeswalker. Minus her home plane, The stakes to her career are low when she can just find a new plane in need of her skills. The twist was grossly obvious and contrived. The only reason for it was to say that she wasn't just some ghost killer but also has a sense of justice. A forced way of saying here's a new W/B 'walker.
Her character is still quite likeable though. She has neat abilities and seems like a good addition to the ever-growing cast of 'walkers. Excited to see her card more than anything.
Story still gets a B for being just fine at stepping us into the world of Fiora again, and for introducing a character that I do want to see more of.
People are talking about how the eldrazi are part of this big cycle of rebirth, but we know what happens when a plane ends. It's torn to shreds and becomes an empty white void. That said it remains a plane of existence, or else we wouldn't be able to learn that knowledge. So what of Kozilek's role in that case. Does he create geometry from nothing, not merely warp what is there?
Also curious if the multiverse is actually infinite. There is a center as well as planes on the edge, even if those may just be on the edge what exists and not on what can exist. If it's not infinite is there empty space? How else would a planeswalker create a plane a la Serra's Realm. Are created planes within the scope of the Eldrazi?
What determines of a plane is ready to be reborn? I've seen talk about New Phyrexia possibly being an Eldrazi target but that type of corruption and devastation means nothing to the Eldritch minds we speak of here. Just some interesting musings I had floating around.
Quick edit actually. I didn't specifically talk about this story yet.
I really enjoyed this one. They did a great job on Jace and Liliana here. The trip through Jace's mind was certainly something different and interesting. Length made up for the rather lacking episode we had last week. They actually did something horrific with the Eldrazi in this block and I appreciate it. The body horror was a very interesting way to utilize Emrakul and worked quite well. Was sufficiently creepy and enthralling.
This story was too short and nothing really happened. The most interesting part for me was Nissa's comment about not liking the elemental she could summon. I would have liked to see that done just to see what would have appeared.
Considering just green elementals I'd be with her in not wanting one. Between Bloodbriar, Splinterfright or Vorstclaw she's not likely to get a good one. Soul of the Harvest seems peaceful enough though.
I enjoyed the story but it was certainly not as focused as many of the stories so far have been. The only vampire pov's we've seen are at least decently interesting. They don't paint the vampires as monsters or anything villainous. Yeah they are religious fanatics but they have rules. They play BW super well here as they are the faction most opposed to those outside of itself. Even then, glad there isn't really a clear villain here.
The most interesting bit of the story, for me, is Angrath. I'm curious if he will encounter Vrace and learn that they are walkers. If he does, I'm pretty sure he would be helping them. We've already learned that he really just wants to leave
Or it could just be me being disappointed about creative crumbling to people who don't like the Gatewatch or Gideon. I love Gideon and think out of all the gatewatch he has the most room for improvement as a character, as I always felt the stoic hero was a great character to have grow and realize his worldview is so limited. A story that ends in tragedy for them is so generic and expected that I will be pretty angry if they do kill him off. But hey, I actually like the GW and think it is what magic needed for its storytelling even if it hasn't been perfect execution wise.
Away from that now as its so likely to bring about arguments not meant for this discussion that I don't want to continue. I loved this story. Yahenni came to be a personal favorite this block and that amazes me as I don't often find black aligned characters that I like. Her death was sad but not a death to grieve over and the writing for her is so good about this. The concept of Aetherborn death is something truly impressive and creative did a wonderful job on the life and death of the Aetherborn. Seeing a hint of that knowledge passed on through the Aether is a wonderful moment.
Chandra interactions with Pia were very nice and the fact that there also exists a momnument to Chandra was a cool little thing. I felt very connected to the characters as I've felt trapped in a circumstance like that.
The gatewatch was the Gatewatch. I like the Gatewatch and think this was an excellent set up to hubris being a down fall. The punishment I would love to see and would actually bring about character growth would be if they became connected with some citizens on the Plane and when Bolas has them beaten and bruised instead of killing them, he kills all these people with the view that he owns the plane and they are his ti do with as he pleases. That would be great motivation for the Gatewatch.
Excellent story and I was glad to read it.
Anyway, I can't be the only person here who didn't like the bracketed language in the Yahenni story. It felt so out of place that it just bothers me. The rest of the story was great and makes me think they are really on the right track with the side stories now.
The Gideon story was also very enjoyable. Especially his interactions with Liliana. I think they've started to really hit a stride and a good balance.
Hoping for a big standout story in this block about Pia and Chandra after seeing one of the early spoilers and the secret weapon from this week's story.
I'll note that the general choice is very open. I run Derevi but honestly you can reasonably justify Angus, Jenara, or Rubinia as well. The problem with the deck that I see is that my local group is very much a good stuff as meta. This tends to cause decks I build to lose focus to match it and i'm not sure how to refocus. I want this deck to focus primarily on clues and Artifact synergy that plays well with them, with a legendary sub as back-up. This sub also allows access to cards like Captain Sisay to find my Journal as well as finding ways to recur it, like Hanna and Academy Ruins. It seems like a good sub but again it currently feels polluted by some good stuff things and I'm looking for help with switching those out. I'm thinking the deck would benefit from going harder on big combo's but I don't know where to focus that. I want to find pieces that go infinite with things I am certainly running. One I've considered is Beacon of Tomorrows as you can use it to take infinite turns with Journal + repeatable clue + Doubler or just 2 Doublers. Any help and feedback would be great.
3 Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
Land (38)
3 Plains
3 Island
3 Forest
1 Savannah
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple Garden
1 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Windswept Heath
1 Flooded Grove
1 Mystic Gate
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Brushland
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Treva's Ruins
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Command Tower
1 Reflecting Pool
1 City of Brass
1 Tolaria West
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Academy Ruins
1 Phyrexia's Core
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Maze of Ith
1 Thraben Inspector
2 Arcbound Ravager
2 Erdwal Illuminator
3 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
3 Byway Courier
3 Eternal Witness
3 Graf Mole
3 Master of Etherium
3 Tireless Tracker
3 Hanna, Ships Navigator
4 Brago, King Eternal
4 Captain Sisay
4 Drownyard Explorers
4 Gisela, the Broken Blade
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Sakashima the Imposter
5 Seedborn Muse
5 Thalia's Lancers
7 Bruna, the Fading Light
8 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
10 Broodstar
10 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
11 Metalwork Colossus
Artifact (16)
0 Mox Opal
1 Sol Ring
2 Azorius Signet
2 Selesnya Signet
2 Simic Signet
2 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Magnifying Glass
3 Coalition Relic
3 Obelisk of Bant
3 Helm of Kaldra
4 Shield of Kaldra
4 Sword of Kaldra
4 Thran Dynamo
4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
4 Trading Post
5 Tamiyo's Journal
2 Ongoing Investigation
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Banishing Light
3 Fleeting Memories
3 Ulvenwald Mysteries
4 Parallel Lives
4 Thopter Spy Network
5 Doubling Season
Instant (7)
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Counterspell
3 Voidslime
5 Confirm Suspicions
5 Force of Will
Sorcery (6)
2 Reshape
2 Transmute Artifact
3 Fabricate
4 Wrath of God
4 Supreme Verdict
10 Soulscour
Planeswalker (1)
5 Tezzeret the Seeker
Now, to the current story. This is what I wanted to see for Dovin. He doesn't come off as a villain in any traditional sense and he shouldn't as he isn't. He doesn't have evil intentions. Quite the opposite really. He cares about Kaladesh and he wants to keep people safe and preserve order. There are costs that he is willing to pay to get there. I appreciate that the made what could look entirely like a passion for his work is more than just that. With it being a compulsion it just adds to being able to sympathize with him. I really like the idea that he has these big flaws that we can see, but with his ability to see flaws doesn't even notice. His devotion to his work and Ghirapur is admirable as well. His last appearance can probably have the issues chocked up to poor writing. This is the Dovin I wanted to see. A true WU character to a fault. I still have hope for more interesting story with Dovin and that wasn't something I felt after the Pia getting captured story.
That all said I still enjoyed the story. Thought the betrayal of the noble was a little strange but she's a planeswalker. Minus her home plane, The stakes to her career are low when she can just find a new plane in need of her skills. The twist was grossly obvious and contrived. The only reason for it was to say that she wasn't just some ghost killer but also has a sense of justice. A forced way of saying here's a new W/B 'walker.
Her character is still quite likeable though. She has neat abilities and seems like a good addition to the ever-growing cast of 'walkers. Excited to see her card more than anything.
Story still gets a B for being just fine at stepping us into the world of Fiora again, and for introducing a character that I do want to see more of.
Also curious if the multiverse is actually infinite. There is a center as well as planes on the edge, even if those may just be on the edge what exists and not on what can exist. If it's not infinite is there empty space? How else would a planeswalker create a plane a la Serra's Realm. Are created planes within the scope of the Eldrazi?
What determines of a plane is ready to be reborn? I've seen talk about New Phyrexia possibly being an Eldrazi target but that type of corruption and devastation means nothing to the Eldritch minds we speak of here. Just some interesting musings I had floating around.
Quick edit actually. I didn't specifically talk about this story yet.
I really enjoyed this one. They did a great job on Jace and Liliana here. The trip through Jace's mind was certainly something different and interesting. Length made up for the rather lacking episode we had last week. They actually did something horrific with the Eldrazi in this block and I appreciate it. The body horror was a very interesting way to utilize Emrakul and worked quite well. Was sufficiently creepy and enthralling.
Considering just green elementals I'd be with her in not wanting one. Between Bloodbriar, Splinterfright or Vorstclaw she's not likely to get a good one. Soul of the Harvest seems peaceful enough though.