In my sad opinion, if Liliana dies I think I will hold a party and if Liliana ends up with Jace I will write a 'very!' rude letter to the writer.
Well, book spoilers if you're interested:
Neither of those things happen. Liliana lives, after she turns on Bolas and Gideon sacrifices himself to save her when Bolas voids her contract. Jace and Vraska appear to get together from what spoilers of the book I've found. (They share a kiss, at the least.)
Ok I just read the book. I think a lot was lost without the Prequel. There was so much story we missed. The attempted Niv Mizzet ascension and death; the lighting of the Beacon; Vraska getting her memories back and then betraying them; Kaya killing the Obzedat and taking their debts; etc.
Overall I think the story was very satisfying. All of the POV walkers had good moments. There were several satisfying arcs with Dack, Liliana, Teyo, and Gideon. I like how their was progressive tasks that were needed to stop Bolas to fill out the 2nd Act, and yet it was still difficult to beat Bolas. The careful machinations of Ugin. How Bolas laughed at how he tricked the walkers, and didn't realize that Liliana was slowly gaining the courage to sacrifice herself.
As for the aftermath, I like it. We have some interesting plot-hooks hunting down the remaining Bolas Aligned walkers. Vraska hunting a blind foe, Ral hunting Tezzeret as a fellow scientist of sorts, and then Kaya the death killer vs Liliana the necromancer. Liliana has a lot of potential now. She is hated by most of the current walkers adding inherent conflict when she appears. There is internal tension in the gatewatch with their complicated history with Liliana. And she has her own internal conflicts with her sacrifice and Gideon sacrificing himself for her. Plus you have the Onakke and Raven Man.
The other 2 don't have a major plot hook aside from Tezzeret and New Phyrexia. But now each can branch out into their own plots. And you still have Ob Nixilis who also disappeared to plot.
Another strong moment was seeing the various complex interactions. The various Ravnican walkers, Angrath with Arlinn and Huatli, Dack with Nixilis and the others, etc. Apparently Kiora seems to be part of Tamiyo's story circle, which actually makes some sense.
Finally a shoutout to my man Sarkhan. He played a key role at points and Ugin points out that Bolas pissed him off a lot. He also apparently has a history with the Wanderer who is almost definitely not Elspeth.
So, what exactly WAS the deal with Angrath? Was he actually on Bolas' side, or was he just commandeering eternals and running amok all on his own, like some here speculated? (Or did the implications of his card have literally no basis in story?)
And he reunited with Huatli? And teamed up with wolfmom?
As for Ral, he was working for Bolas, it just turned out that he was a triple agent who was actually loyal to Niv the whole time. But Bolas was also aware of Ral's true loyalties, which is how he was able to manipulate Ral into activating the beacon. To make things even more complicated, Niv knew that Bolas knew, and had secretly been working with Ugin to outmaneuver Bolas from the very start.
Man the art on some of these are SO busy.
I like Angrath and Dovin best, but probably not enough to actually bother with getting them over the regular printing.
Can't protect herself. Her -2 is a lame Shimmer of Possibility (or an Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin activation). I guess that does mean that regular opponents are incentivized to attack her or she digs another 4 deep.
That hoser is decent against quite a few combo decks in Modern and up that cannot attack her profitably, even post-board (although Legacy's Storm variants can sculpt hands that ignore her and OHKO, they'll take a while to do so because all their cantrips now incur card disadvantage).
It's not that good a sign for her hoser when Spirit of the Labyrinth pretty much doesn't see play in Modern or Legacy, though.
I suspect she'll only earn her slot in metas that let her -2 twice.
...Or she might sneak into Bolas's Citadel decks in Standard because of the ability to delay the -2 to whenever you want.
The difference between her and Spirit of the Labyrinth is that Narset doesn't stop YOU from drawing extra cards. That could well make all the difference in the world.
I don’t really get this policy given how leaked cards are treated, but okay.
I kind of get it. I mean, with regards to card spoilers, yes you want to know what's going on in the story, but knowing that doesn't (generally) stop you from buying the cards, which you need to do to play with them. The story of a card game is secondary to the game itself.
Literally the purpose of a book is to convey the story. If the story gets leaked, well now you have less reason to actually go out and purchase the book.
Leaks don't financially hurt a card game in the same way that they might hurt a book.
Eh, I don't really agree with that. If you're going to buy or not buy the book based on knowing some information ahead of time that seems kind of... weird. It's not like the posts was the entire story, just snapshots. Wikipedia and other sites exist that tell summaries of stories (basically this) but it doesn't stop books from being sold that are already out.
And the point is more that if talking about the book someone read (and seemingly got legally) is illegal then talking about cards which someone definitely opened ahead of time illegally and discussing them should be an issue too.
Oh certainly. I wasn't saying that I necessarily agreed with the Mod's reaction, just that I could understand why they would view the two things differently.
For what it's worth, as someone who wasn't going to buy the book anyway (cause 1. disposable income? What's that? and 2. I live in the middle of nowhere Iowa and would probably need to drive an hour to even find a store that carried it) I'm sad that I missed the spoilers/leaked info.
I don’t really get this policy given how leaked cards are treated, but okay.
I kind of get it. I mean, with regards to card spoilers, yes you want to know what's going on in the story, but knowing that doesn't (generally) stop you from buying the cards, which you need to do to play with them. The story of a card game is secondary to the game itself.
Literally the purpose of a book is to convey the story. If the story gets leaked, well now you have less reason to actually go out and purchase the book.
Leaks don't financially hurt a card game in the same way that they might hurt a book.
Now I'm left with bits and pieces that I can kinda-sorta puzzle out, and things that I want to discuss (specifically a characteristic of a certain guildmage) that I don't know if I can even though they're not actually relevant to plot the Book itself.
Something I still don't know: was Ral Zarek previously out as being gay or not?
Also it is implied that Kaya has had a girlfriend in the past.
I think it was hinted somewhere before, but I can't really find the quote. I mean, it shouldn't be much of an issue either way. He was definitely never stated to be straight, so it doesn't contradict anything. And I know some people don't like it, but for me as a gay man it feels good to have a bit more representation (I was really happy when we got the Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis card for example). And I also like that its Ral, a flawed individual who isn't a villain though. Color me intrigued. Same goes for Kaya, liked her very much in her original story (and her helping Teysa in overthrowing the Obzedat, even if that was ultimately orchestrated by Bolas, was also great).
I will withhold my judgement of the book until I read it myself (as well as the prequel and the sequel, which may very well fill in what seems to be left out now). My ideas of what is good and what I want to see might differ from yours after all. The broad strokes of the story for example sound much more appealing and interesting to me than you make them out to be.
Agreed, I'm also gay and the fact that not only is it one of my fave walkers but also the one that represents (and will likely still lead after Niv mizzets transformation) arguably the most popular guild is astonishing to me and it makes me oh so happy to see. I love it, but I am wondering how this was handled in the story. Do we see he has a partner ? If so is that who the white cloth Viceroy Ral is holding from ? (cause real talk that's been driving me nuts for ages, especially since it showed up again on Contingency plan).
At the risk of getting an infraction (though I don't think I would if these posts didn't get deleted before now) I think there was some indication in Project Lightning Bug:
Ral frowned. "It should have happened by now." The clouds above were silent—no telltale pop of thunder, no indication of a planeswalk. "It's a Planeswalker I've been tracking. One that the others in Project Lightning Bug haven't discovered yet. He usually appears here every evening."
"Every evening?"
"Like clockwork. He arrives, does some visiting around the city, and planeswalks away again before morning."
"Who is he?"
"I don't know. Human. Tall. Broad. Striking eyes. Seems to have some contacts among the Boros. I haven't had a chance to get in contact with him."
Ral was of course talking about Gideon... I took it as an indication (cause why bother bringing up his eyes?), but I figured without any confirmation I could have simply been reading into it.
Curious as to this card's interaction with token doublers (Doubling season, anointed procession etc).
This depends heavily on the actual wording of the card obviously, but taken at face value, you'd make two tokens and then when ?either one? of them died you'd get the card? (With no benefit to both of them dying, because the card's already in your hand by time the second token tried to put it there.)
Of course, if it actually does just pseudo-manifest the top card directly, then it doesn't interact with token doublers at all. (Which makes me think that that is more likely to be what it does, just to avoid confusion.)
But then, who knows. They might actually do it this time. God knows they already assassinated his character. May as well actually kill him too.
Someone hovering between Lawful Neutral and Lawful Good taking a big nosedive to be Lawful or maybe even Neutral Evil is pretty sucky yeah. Given we've got two other White/Blue Planeswalkers though (and maybe more) I don't think it's a bad thing if he does die, but I like him. Turning him into a villain really makes no sense.
I think Dovin's always been intended to be a villain. Not a cackling megalomaniac, but just someone who's always put processes and bureaucracy ahead of the well-being of other people. Almost an 'accidental' villain, because he has such a massive empathy blind-spot.
I mean, his role in the story up to now indicates he’s so focused on law and order because he thinks it helps people, not because he cares about it for its own sake. It especially ties in with his power.
Indeed. In the Kaladesh story he did just about everything he could to minimize casualties and collateral damage. Even when he was sabotaging the Heart of Kiran/Hope of Girapur he didn't just blow it up, he made sure that the Gatewatch/Rebels would have time to land/evacuate/abandon ship.
If anything Dovin's having been created for this role (I believe it was MaRo(?) who said that both Dovin and Kaya were created for their roles in Bolas' arc) makes it all the more jarring. If THIS was the character Dovin was supposed to be all along, then they did a TERRIBLE job of conveying it during Kaladesh.
Kaladesh Dovin was nuanced and innovative and interesting.
Ravnica Dovin is... some awful lawful evil cliche.
Wayne Reynolds has never been, and will never be, one of my favorite MTG artists (I've never been a fan of superfluous spikes and chains and skulls and stuff so common to a lot of fantasy art).
That said, I don't think her art is that bad. Okay. Not great, but certainly not the worst. The black lipstick is just random and out of place though, imo.
Well, book spoilers if you're interested:
So I guess you can go either way.
So, what exactly WAS the deal with Angrath? Was he actually on Bolas' side, or was he just commandeering eternals and running amok all on his own, like some here speculated? (Or did the implications of his card have literally no basis in story?)
And he reunited with Huatli? And teamed up with wolfmom?
I like Angrath and Dovin best, but probably not enough to actually bother with getting them over the regular printing.
The difference between her and Spirit of the Labyrinth is that Narset doesn't stop YOU from drawing extra cards. That could well make all the difference in the world.
Oh certainly. I wasn't saying that I necessarily agreed with the Mod's reaction, just that I could understand why they would view the two things differently.
For what it's worth, as someone who wasn't going to buy the book anyway (cause 1. disposable income? What's that? and 2. I live in the middle of nowhere Iowa and would probably need to drive an hour to even find a store that carried it) I'm sad that I missed the spoilers/leaked info.
I kind of get it. I mean, with regards to card spoilers, yes you want to know what's going on in the story, but knowing that doesn't (generally) stop you from buying the cards, which you need to do to play with them. The story of a card game is secondary to the game itself.
Literally the purpose of a book is to convey the story. If the story gets leaked, well now you have less reason to actually go out and purchase the book.
Leaks don't financially hurt a card game in the same way that they might hurt a book.
Me too. Me too.
Now I'm left with bits and pieces that I can kinda-sorta puzzle out, and things that I want to discuss (specifically a characteristic of a certain guildmage) that I don't know if I can even though they're not actually relevant to plot the Book itself.
At the risk of getting an infraction (though I don't think I would if these posts didn't get deleted before now) I think there was some indication in Project Lightning Bug:
Ral was of course talking about Gideon... I took it as an indication (cause why bother bringing up his eyes?), but I figured without any confirmation I could have simply been reading into it.
He's not the only one in the set to borrow another's moniker.
Ajani, the Greathearted
Feather, the Redeemed
And now Ugin.
This depends heavily on the actual wording of the card obviously, but taken at face value, you'd make two tokens and then when ?either one? of them died you'd get the card? (With no benefit to both of them dying, because the card's already in your hand by time the second token tried to put it there.)
Of course, if it actually does just pseudo-manifest the top card directly, then it doesn't interact with token doublers at all. (Which makes me think that that is more likely to be what it does, just to avoid confusion.)
It turns out that it really doesn't matter what order they come in, because Chandra's only "Binding" him.
How one "binds" a person with a wrap of fire without killing them (or at the very minimum severely, debilitatingly burning them) I don't know.
Indeed. In the Kaladesh story he did just about everything he could to minimize casualties and collateral damage. Even when he was sabotaging the Heart of Kiran/Hope of Girapur he didn't just blow it up, he made sure that the Gatewatch/Rebels would have time to land/evacuate/abandon ship.
If anything Dovin's having been created for this role (I believe it was MaRo(?) who said that both Dovin and Kaya were created for their roles in Bolas' arc) makes it all the more jarring. If THIS was the character Dovin was supposed to be all along, then they did a TERRIBLE job of conveying it during Kaladesh.
Kaladesh Dovin was nuanced and innovative and interesting.
Ravnica Dovin is... some awful lawful evil cliche.
It's like they're completely different beings.
Is he, though? We've been here before.
But then, who knows. They might actually do it this time. God knows they already assassinated his character. May as well actually kill him too.
That said, I don't think her art is that bad. Okay. Not great, but certainly not the worst. The black lipstick is just random and out of place though, imo.