MTG Salvation

I thought it was a good story. Very "millennial" in its depiction of this Selesnya friend group pulling together to overcome their problems. The depiction of Orzhov contract magic seemed a little weak and mustache-twirly, but maybe we'll get a better depiction once the second block rolls out and we get a true Orzhov-focused story. Gotta watch out for those copper-to-gold machines, though; that's a great way to destabilize the whole plane's monetary system...

I'm very much in favor of this new direction, since it gives plenty of space for exactly the kind of side-stories we've been asking for. With modern digital book distribution systems, I don't think anybody has to worry too much about not being able to read the novel if they want to.

I probably won't read the novel, because I generally don't find novel-length MTG stories worthwhile, though Greg Weisman is a pretty strong draw for me. But I'm still not worried about not being able to get the whole plot without reading the novel; that's what wiki pages and outlines are for. I've never read any of the old novels (with the exception of Lorwyn, which was garbage), but I'm quite happy with the degree to which I've absorbed the old stories. I'm never gonna be at Jay13x's level (congratulations, Jay!), but I'm still a happy Vorthos.

Having largely enjoyed the first two installments, despite agreeing with some of the criticisms of Vivien's character, this chapter has brought me around closer to the negative viewpoint. Looks like it was all pushing toward thinly-justified eco-terrorism the whole time. And also apparently she could have planeswalked out of the torture cells earlier, and just didn't. Okay.

I've been defending the writing style, but by this chapter was wearing thin on me, too. Stuff like:

"I'm really not sure what the protocol is on this." Unbidden, a smile anchored itself. "But I keep feeling like some measure of informational exposition is necessary."

So now the shamans of Skalla talk like Azorius lawyers, I guess.

And:

"Someone once described the death of a nation to me as a 'mercy.' I didn't really understand his point then, or where he was coming from. But now, now I find myself in perfect comprehension." Vivien drew lazy figure eights with her fingers, magic beginning to collect in her palm, spokes of glittering power. "Anyway. This is a mercy. This is the last that you will see of Luneau. By this time tomorrow, the wilds will have this place again and you will be nothing but a memory to be forgotten."

I certainly hope they're deliberately pitching her as a villain, because that's certainly what this bit of dialogue does. I don't know if she's quoting Nicol Bolas or someone else, But it's something he certainly might say (with a bit of a G twist).

That being said, I'm down for non-heroic neo-walkers, and even a return to walkers in general being almost bad guys by default. But I'd rather they come off as smart and reflective, even in their villainy, rather than monomaniacal and kinda dumb.

I also agree with Lord Mektar above, that Vivien's personality and behavior come off as more R in nature, or RG. She seems to really enjoy watching violence, and has more regard for raw power than natural order.

But hey, I guess when you manage to use your -8 Ult, it feels pretty good to swing with everything.

Quote from Joao Wockeez »

Quote from OrzhovPlaneswalker »

Quote from Urabrask »

We know that Firemind's Research is a story spotlight card and if we look at the promo we might see why. I could be totally off, but it could be Bolas using his manipulations, like we saw in the M19 story to influence Niv, by acting like him talking to himself, tempting him.

I wondered if that card was a story spotlight yet I couldn’t figure out what it was trying to depict given that there was no flavour text and Niv’s experiments are often complicated and hard to describe even at best.

Both the original and promo versions of the art show some sort of illusion of Niv, Niv is always depicted as having a strong personality and ideals, i'm hoping that's enough to protect him from Bolas, if he turns out to become another puppet it would be quite anticlimactic IMO.

Bolas is gonna go all Darth Vader and reveal that he's Niv's father, I've been tellin' ya!

Then Niv's gonna find out what the B in UBR means when daddy Bolas stabs him in the back.

Quote from OrzhovPlaneswalker »

While the writing was fair and Vivian’s rage is easy to empathize with in this story-

-I find myself critical of environmental justice heroes whose main goal is to obliterate society. All things in balance. Would such a character maim farmers, tanners and such as well?

It is however likely true that animal menageries in the Age of Discovery were unlikely to have been humane and Black and White are sometimes negligent of Green values such as humble living, acceptance, etc.

I wonder how she’d view the Dromoka and their Abzan ancestors?

Yes, anti-civilization nature heroes can be a tiresome trope, hopefully Vivien doesn't get stuck too hard inside that box. That said, if you want to make such a hero sympathetic, this is a good way to do it. Have the "civilization" in question be pretty horrid and disgusting. And shout out to Cassandra Khaw for knocking that one out of the park! Pay attention, Wizards: if you want people to hate your vampire conquistadors, write 'em like this. The historically-inspired animal cruelty was highly effective in creating revulsion against them.

Maybe a little too effective, though. In this story, Vivien comes off as pretty immature and passive, what with all the waiting around and wallowing in internal disgust before taking any action. I'm not quite sure why seeing the starved monstrosaur was enough to push her over the edge, and not any one of the dozens of other awful things she'd already seen. There's also the unanswered question of what she's doing on Ixalan in the first place, which I hope we find out more about in the coming chapters. And it will be interesting to see her in a more balanced, sustainable civilizational situation, like among the Selesnya on Ravnica.

I liked the rather florid vocabulary, as it seemed to fit the tone of Luneau, though perhaps a little contrast in style between the descriptions of the city and aristrocrats and Vivien's internal monologue might have heightened the effect. It's a little showy, but that's a minor complaint compared to the original Ixalan story's inability to keep its tenses and numbers consistent.

That being said -- Vivien sure seems to be a chump, huh? Waiting all through a long torture party before doing anything? Then going down against a single vampire baron and a bunch of mook guards? Nissa she ain't.

Maybe this is the original neo-walker power level they always intended, before they let the Gatewatch get over-leveled. But it's not very impressive.

This is one of the reasons why I don't like color combos being named after particular in-universe organizations (the other being simply the barrier of remembering what combos the names refer to -- how easy is it for a new player to remember what "Mardu" and "Jeskai" mean, especially if they didn't even start playing until after Tarkir rotated out? While much fewer people are going to be confused by just calling them WBR or WUR).

Three-color combos, even more than two-color pairs, can have a wide variety of flavor and mechanical identities. Your UBR card could come from a wide variety of places, from Admiral Beckett Brass to Mairsil, the Pretender, from Sedris, the Traitor King to Nicol Bolas. How many of these cards are "Grixis"? Only one of those four. Calling the entire color combination by one name does a disservice to the variety of the game, both mechanically and lorewise.

Overall, fabulous story, great characters, excellent writing, and I'm suuuper pumped for an eventual return to Tarkir. I liked the Tarkir parts much more than all the dragon history.

I think they did the best they could to justify the ending. Yeah, it's pretty hard to come up with a plausible scenario for Bolas not beating a bluff with telepathy (or just, you know, Death Starring Tarkir from orbit for the lulz), but our heroes weren't exactly going to stab him to death, now were they? The twin thing was a clever bit of justification: every time he'd try to mind-control Naiva, it would work on the real Naiva back in the hedron cave, but then the ambient protection of Ugin helped her resist. Sure, maybe Bolas could have/should have read Yasova and figured out the ruse, but hey, I'm willing to give the story team credit for coming up with a reasonable explanation for why he didn't.

Now, why Bolas wouldn't go do a little research, come back a year later and nuke 'em all then...ah well.

Speaking of which, on the timeline, how much time elapses between this story and Bolas's defeat by Tetsuo Umezawa?

Vraska (the planeswalker gorgon from Ravnica) and Jace fell in love during the Ixalan block story (the only well-done part of an otherwise poor story). Then Jace had to erase all of her memory of him to prevent Nicol Bolas from finding out about their plan to stop him on Ravnica. It was pretty tragic. Until he restores her memory, she'll have no recollection of their relationship.

Visara is a completely different gorgon from the old Onslaught block storyline, who lived on Dominaria and wasn't a planeswalker.

Really good story this time, continuing the high quality of this whole block.

The story voice this time reflects Nicol Bolas's perspective, not Ugin's. That's why it is so fawning and aggrandizing toward him. This is the Bolas propaganda version of the Elder Dragon War.

I'm really loving the Tarkir sections, especially. I think the author is doing a great job of creating believable, differentiated characters with understandable personalities and motivations. And the depiction of Tarkir as a setting, with the beauty and danger of the landscape, the weather, and the material living conditions of the Atarka tribe -- man, it's great.

It's making me want a new Tarkir set, that's for sure.

Quote from Leaf »

If I'm reading this right, the process goes:
First Mull: Seven cards, one to bottom
Second Mull: Seven cards, two to bottom
Third Mull: Seven cards, three to bottom
etc

Seems fair to me and also a godsend to make the mulligan system less harsh.

You're reading it right.

I absolutely LOVE this for limited and Standard, we get more actual games of magic with a more forgiving mulligan rule.

But as for Modern and Legacy? I own green Tron in Modern (sorry), and that deck will be a lot better if my mull to four lets me see seven cards and pick the four I want from them. Like, a LOT better. Not sure if I'm onboard with that.

By the way, has anyone noticed this little nod to us hardcore Vorthoses (and an acknowledgment of the original books)?



Migellic was Kos's colleague in Ravnica book, and, for some time, de facto leader of the Wojek after the Decamillenial. Bell was the first name of Bell Borca, Kos's rookie partner in the same book, whose murder set Kos to the path that ended with all the events in the same book.

https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Migellic

Niv has an established track record of running from not just fights he cannot win, but fights where he actually risks death. He, unlike the other guildmasters replaced by Bolas, wasn't killed or overthrown. Instead, he figured out that he was in danger, ran away, and hid, putting out a cover that he was working on a super secret project and ceding the running of the guild to the Izmagus. He's the only OG Parun still around and alive besides Mat Selesnya and Rakdos, and she is inactive while he spends most of his time sleeping (the ghost council is, by definition, dead, though still around). He enjoys that distinction because he is manifestly unwilling to risk harm to himself, and smart enough to avoid it. Azor is trapped on Ixalan, Razia and Szadeck are dead, the Golgari guy is dead/powerless, Gruul guy and Simic whomever died ages ago,

I think people are overthinking Bolas choosing those guilds. He was most likely spreading his influence around, scattering seeds to take over every guild, but knew he wouldn't be successful everywhere, so it was just statistically very likely he gets like half of them, which is good enough for his purposes. He doesn't want to take over Ravnica's guilds. He wants to decpaitate them so they are unable to mount a resistance. So he didn't care which guilds exactly would fall, just that enough would.

At least that's how I see it.

Quote from 5colors »

From Sphinx's Insight it seems Isperia realized Bolas's plot through Dovin which might have lead to her death. Seems like Dovin was able to become Grand Arbiter and might be how is able to become guild master after Isperia gets stoned.

Indeed. It fills the gaps nicely.

Dovin somehow becomes the Grand Arbiter of the Azorius.
Isperia uncovers Dovin's intentions and plans (and the master), and unfortunately lets Dovin know it.
Isperia calls the Guild Summit.
Dovin notices Bolas about Isperia's revelation.
Bolas orders Isperia turned to garden decoration by Vraska.
Dovin takes over as second-in-command and activates Emergency Powers.

Anyway, I am quite surprised that Dovin's six-fingered hands (clearly visible at Emergency Powers) did not attract attention of anyone; the six fingers are a specific Kaladeshi trait. On the other hand, he could always say he volunteered as Simic test subject when he was at college and needed money.

Quote from Gutterstorm »

Quote from AUTUMNTWILIGHT »

Shades of Grey in a Gatewatch magic story?

In fairness, if any guild is evil it’s the Orzhov.

The Rakdos would like a word...

Every black aligned guild was concepted as evil. Orzhov was concepted as Lawful Evil, but their original iteration was much subtler. It looks like literally everyone sees through their front now and their territory is openly dystopian, but that's a change from the original block. In the books, they were portrayed more like the romanticized conception of the mob, bad guys who you could deal with and who followed rules. They were portrayed as providing a number of essential services that everyday Ravnican's utilized, from defense attorneys to banks to business organization. Their dark side wasn't as in the open, and wouldn't always bite you. You didn't become a debt slave just from associating with the Orzhov. They had their banks, then they had their loan sharks. They served as the primary religion in Ravnica, with the Selesnyans and Rakdos only serving their own guilds, and the dark side was that the religion was a complete sham that took in tons of donations and spent it on themselves. It wasn't a religion that just made all its followers debt slaves, its corruption was more like that of the medieval Catholic church or modern televangelists. They sold indulgences that did nothing and asked for tithes, and they got the followers to buy into it, but it wasn't debt, it was free giving based on a con, simple charlatanism. Yes, the Orzhov always had debt slaves, always found some desperate fools to take out a predatory loan or rely on "charity" that they'd owe for, but they also had more legitimate services that provided cover, as many ordinary Ravnicans could interact with them and walk away thinking they were all right. The current way they are portrayed, as purely mustache twirling caricatures that use every interaction to enslave people to eternal debt is stupid.

The Rakdos were concepted as chaotic evil, and they live up to it. They've also suffered, however, from a change in characterization from the first block that's really freaking dumb. They always had the Insane Clown Posse infernal circus thing, but it was a side aspect originally. The main service they provided were as miners toiling in terrible conditions mining ore and other valuables and smelters. The rest of Ravnica could stick them down there and mostly not have to deal with them, which is why they were tolerated, and the Rakdos were free to murder and torture each other without interference (and didn't care about the terrible working conditions). On the side they'd provide some dark circuses, but those were usually hidden like the Kumite from Blood Sport and not the accepted form of entertainment for the average Ravnican, present on theatre row.

The Dimir are neutral evil, they don't care about order or chaos, they just care about being in control and use both to achieve that. They certainly are, and the neo Dimir are actually pretty interesting, as they've found a way to exist withing the system rather than focusing on tearing it down, and play a role in the system (Private detectives, tutors, private spies and assassins, etc.). Its a little dumb that the latest block is trying to have it both ways, portraying it as if most of Ravnica still doesn't believe in them while also have them operating brazenly. The OG Dimir were really deep in the shadows, a small guild of isolated cells working patiently on the fringes in pursuit of one goal and most of Ravnica thinking there were only 9 guilds, and the RTR Dimir were portrayed as being much more in the open, with their sigil added back into representations of all the guilds, everyone aware of the role they played in the original block, and them offering their services openly, and running in the damn Dragon's Maze! Saying that they are still up to all that but most people view them the same way they viewed the OG Dimir (as a myth) is really dumb.

The Golgari were concepted as neutral evil, predatory outcasts with an internal caste system, a guild based on Darwinian struggle. They are focused on personal advancement within the guild at the expense of other members, and the advancement of the guild at the expense of the outside world. Its a straightforward form of evil, ambition mated to ruthlessness, and the sort that's clearly evil yet understandable and not particularly malicious. You understand that the Golgari are trying to get ahead by any means, and they might make you a zombie, but you know they aren't going to wipe your memories because you may have overheard a secret code or mutilate you for *****s and giggles, and most of their evil ***** is inflicted on each other.

Quote from robot »

Next story doesnt come until December.

And on a "and a beloved plane". I'd guess Theros or something out of left field like Lorwyn or Alara.

I really like Nicky Draydens writing for the stories, I hope she returns for sometime more tied to the main story.

A nice wholesome story to end the stories for a while. Next story doesnt come until December.

It's also the realistic outcome of any revolution that involves more than one group rising up against the ruling class. Historically, revolutions almost never result in total societal equality; they usually result in whichever group was the second most powerful becoming the most powerful, and whichever group was on the bottom staying on the bottom. The nobility might rise up against the monarchy, and the wealthy merchants might rise up against the nobility, but the peasants and the workers remain poor regardless. When the American revolutionaries won their independence from Britain, they didn't suddenly start treating Native Americans or African slaves or poor whites any better, they just replaced a distant British landed aristocracy with a local American landed aristocracy. When Mao Zedong overthrew the Chinese government, he didn't implement racial equality, he just had the Han majority take control from the ruling Manchu minority; under the new system, the traditionally-oppressed Uyghurs remained subject to extreme oppression, just like they had been under the previous one.

It doesn't matter what Vraska personally wanted either, just like it didn't matter that some of the Founding Fathers opposed slavery and favored a more egalitarian form of democracy. If most of the Elves still view the Gorgons as monsters despite being forced to treat them as equals, and most of the Gorgons still resent the Elves for oppressing them for so long, just keeping those two groups from killing each other is going to be difficult enough. And when there's a third race who they both view as being far beneath them, it's pretty obvious who's going to get thrown under the bus.