MTG Salvation

Quote from Mister M »

Quote from speedstar15 »

Oh She is so GOOOD! Have Lightning Greaves or Fervor on the field. Yeah only once, but put soulbound him/her with Deadeye Navigator and then feed him/her with Gilded Lotus = Infinite Colored mana! Not satisfied yet? After that feed Him/her with Walking Ballista for unli shoot. Oh it's just a beginning I have a lot in my mind to do with Him/her! It will be my new grixis commander.

Mairsil is a man.

To be fair, he's a pretty old character and that long hair makes him look quite fabulous.

But yeah, he's a dude.

Quote from Ashiok »

Not to be the one to rain on everyone's parade, but Mairsil is not a good card. The only once each turn clause ruins infinite combos unless you can blink him and/or loop from the yard.

No offense, but that does seem to be a recurring theme with a few of your posts, whether you mean to or not.

Some people are getting excited because Mairsil is pretty flavourful. If he was more bottom-up in his design, I doubt those people would be that hyped.

Quote from schindar »

Sorry, I just don't see it. Great ability but terrible creature type to attach it to. I don't really see any ETB wizards that make me want build a deck around this. I suppose it is Grixis so maybe a sacrifice theme would be worth exploring. Ugh, sometimes I feel WotC goes out of their way to give us the worst versions of the best concepts

Why do some of us have a habit of underestimating cards like this until people actually build decks with them?

Also I agree that Eminence (I'd extend it to command zone abilities as a whole) might not have been the best idea.

So if I put Trinket Mage down while Inalla is chilling in the command zone, I can pay 1 to get two cheap artifact searches?

Quote from KolbaneX »

Huh..."Rome World" Wonder if it's the same plane as Saskia?

Saskia being the "barbarian" to Licia's Roman? I'd dig that.

What would be great is if they broke the mold and told us the homeplane of all of these new characters.

Give us a name and, if it's a plane we haven't seen before, a brief description of that world.

Probably won't happen though.

I'm hyped for Castaway Jace not because it's Jace (though I'm usually neutral to the character himself), but because the ultimate means that they're finally starting to unlock that design space with Jace's illusion magic that they ignored on his cards before.

Quote from netn10 »

Exile your Leveler and laugh! You just won the table.

You win the thread, Sir.

Quote from Ashiok »

Quote from Etherium Sage »

Quote from Manite »

So both Narset and Taigam have the ability to grant Rebound to your instants and sorceries. Rivalry!

That's because they're both from the Ojutai clan (whose signature mechanic is rebound) in the Dragons of Tarkir timeline, and not because of rivalry.

Taigam was jealous of Narset being Ojutai's favourite student for a time though.

How does that even work? Ojutai is a dragonlord no? How can Taigam, a mere human that is much younger, be his master? If both he and Narset were disciples I would understand.

Taigam's epithet doesn't mean that Taigam is Ojutai's master; it means that Taigam is a master-level warrior in the Ojutai clan.

Narset previously had that status before she was ousted from the clan, and Ojutai himself is still the top dog.

Quote from NZB2323 »

Why would I do research on a character that I hate to read about?

Considering you used a blatantly false claim about Jace's age range as part of your justification, it would have made you appear less ignorant if you at least knew that he's pretty young.

Quote from Tiro of Meletis »

I would have preferred Esper Wizards because Jeleva and Nekusar are already a thing. White Wizards with tax or restrict effects would be cooler, like Magus of the Moat or whatever. Also I just love Esper. But hey, I'm sure the deck will lean heavy to Blue which I have no complaints about

I'm guessing the Wizard deck will have an instant and sorcery spell theme to it which works better in UBR (the three colors with the lowest % of creatures). From my own custom designs that played with a UBR fraction I found it can be interesting to play UR spell forced like deck that added in the extra control, kill spells and graveyard recursion that B can give. A spell focused deck also would be a flavorful deck for wizards.

So my comments:

1) There's a lot more in this story than people realize, I think, or at least they're commenting on. Ral Zarek is about 4th on this list. Let's go through them.

A) The Gatewatch is NB's creation and tool.
NB clearly believes--and in most cases can back up--the idea that the Gatewatch is his creation and tool. It is discovered that Jace has been relatively surrounded by his agents in his PW 'life'. Tezzeret, Ral Zarek, and Liliana all qualify, and before the Gatewatch, are the PWs that Jace met and interacted with. Chandra and Nissa were manipulated into releasing the Eldrazi. Liliana's dealings with NB are well known. Gideon's is the least well known, but Gideon's forays in Bant give a clear ability for NB to manipulate him and learn about him.
More importantly than this, defeating the Gatewatch is an accomplishment the equal of obtaining the Planar Bridge and the Eternals in NB's mind. He describes the Gatewatch as 'loose in the Multiverse'. Not 'scattered', not 'lost', not 'not a threat'. He makes clear at the beginning that 'kill the Gatewatch' was an acceptable but not preferred outcome of the situation. He wants the Gatewatch as the Gatewatch around. Why?

B) Ugin (and perhaps Jace) may have a much longer plan.
Jace runs into NB's mind, and encounters something that reminds him of another mind. I (and most) thought it was Alhammeret, but then someone pointed out that it was a verbatim description of Ugin's mind. And... why would Jace not only not remember something like that, but it seems that Jace himself erased the memory. Why? When have Jace and Ugin met? Only twice; at the Eye when Ugin lectures him and after the defeat of the Titans when Ugin berates the Gatewatch. So... what was there to forget? Only the meeting at the Eye was one-on-one. Perhaps Ugin and Jace discussed more than the story revealed? Perhaps NB? Perhaps a plan? The point is not that I know what's going on. It's that there's clearly a gap in Jace's mind regarding Ugin and we know of no reason for there to be one. It should be noted here that 'creating a plan and then wiping it from your own mind' is a known plan for dealing with a mind mage. There's also the fact that Jace is known to be able to survive his mind being fractured... given that he's been doing so for most if not all of his life.
The other option is that this indeed is Alhammeret's mind and not Ugin's and they recycled the text for... little to no gain.

C) Ral Zarek is an agent of NB.
I think Jay said everything appropriate here, but I might point out that there is some discussion that Ral may have become an agent of Bolas because of Jace becoming the Guildpact or something similar. The opposite may be much more compelling: Ral was trying to become the Guildpact as a way to get out of being an agent of Bolas. Tezzeret and Liliana both make clear that working for Bolas royally sucks. Ral might have been searching for a way out of that tyranny. He tried to kill Jace in the Maze because Jace was going to win.
Also realize that if Ral is an agent of Bolas, maybe his report of Vraska PWing to 'nowhere' was simply a lie. We have only his word for it. Alternately, a very long plan of NB would be for him to say that to Jace so that when Jace fled on Amonkhet his mind would take him to the first plane it attached to... being Ral's reference to nowhere. IOW, some form of (nonmagical) hypnotic suggestion.

2) Liliana didn't betray the Gatewatch.
Why does anyone believe that? She first pleaded with them to run away and then ran away herself. She did whatever she had to do to get away. Where is there any indication that she plans to uphold her end of the 'bargain' with NB? There is none. Now, NB played it for all it was worth (see below) and Liliana was forced to go along--the alternative being death--but her entire arc is regaining her self-control and not being beholden to anyone for anything. She may have taken (another) step back here, but she is slowly learning that part of her self-control is not being self-reliant. So yeah.

3) NB's personality is fine.
Who's going to tell him how he should behave? Who can compel him otherwise? He's a classic example of an internet persona. He says what he wants and does what he wants because there can be no consequences for those actions. So sure, he's a dick. (He has other reasons as well.) He's a ham. What are you going to do, kill him? Pssh. As if.

4) His plan for taking out the Gatewatch was precise and subtle.
Ignore the banter and taunting that was just surface glitter on the plan. He took the Gatewatch out like dominos, one falling after another, and each fall causing the next. I'm guessing the only reason 'falling like dominos' wasn't explicitly used was because dominos aren't around or easily referenced in Magic.

A) Target #1: Jace. Why Jace first? He's the weakest, for one; for two, his weakness is his own mind. He is his own greatest weakness. You start dominos falling with a domino that is already unbalanced, and Jace is certainly that.

B) Target #2: Liliana. Jace makes Liliana fall. He is her pressure point, particularly within the Gatewatch. (Note also that Chandra is becoming one.) The only reason Liliana was still around was because Jace was there. As soon as he vanished, the scales tilted towards 'getting out of here'. And then things unfolded as discussed above.

C) Target #3: Chandra. Liliana wasn't Chandra's pressure point, per se, but she would definitely take betrayal that way. Particularly after the sisterly escapades in Kaladesh and regaining her family, loyalty has become important to her, and she falls because she can't deal with Liliana's (very rational) response to a terrible situation.

D) Target #4: Nissa. Chandra's fall then leads to Nissa. This mainly hearkens back to Kaladesh and the fact Gideon had to be last. Also, NB had to know how long it would take for Nissa to use her animistic powers, so she could be pushed back in the list. Finally, it should be noted that Nissa was the most effective member of the Gatewatch here.

E) Target #5: Gideon. Gideon thinks he's strong when he doesn't have to worry about his friends. He's wrong. He needs his friends. For a purpose if nothing else. A very appropriate weakness for a White character in Magic is an external locus of control; he defines himself by his friends. And so he is left alone.

5) NB is lying about being able to control the Chain Veil. If he isn't, and he can use the Veil safely, why didn't he take it? There wasn't anything preventing him, as far as I could tell. The only way he isn't lying is if he believes that it serves him better for Liliana to have it. And how would that work out?

Anyway, it was very interesting and, appropriately, left more questions. The biggest question in my mind is what is Ral doing that NB wants and why is he late? What timetable is NB working from, and are there consequences (for NB) for not meeting it?

This story was everything I wanted. I wasn't looking for anything deep, anything "characteristic" of a being with millennia-old plans. I was looking for a good-old fashioned ass-kicking handed out by my favorite character in MTG. I feel like people sometimes forget that he's a god-damn dragon.

"Over the long years, Nicol Bolas knew it served him poorly to be too much the dragon. But it was no fun to be the dragon too little."

Bolas didn't forget. If Bolas was just some powerful, ancient wizard guy, I wouldn't have cared about him at all and most likely would have despised the character. Instead, he's also a dragon that can do dragon things. I find that far more interesting. Not only can he dominate you on a mental/magical front, he can utterly decimate you on a physical front as well. He can do both at the same time. I would have been disappointed if he didn't fly around and dive bomb Nissa and Chandra or used his tail to racketball Gideon off of a wall while conversing with Jace and Liliana. Why shouldn't he use all of his strengths?

His taunts were just the right amount of smug as well. 25,000+ year old dragons need to have fun too.

"And then there were three. I didn't want to annoy your dear departed necromancer, but between us, I admit I know a fair bit of necromancy. Do you have an opening in your Gatewatch? Is there some type of application process?"

This line here? Solid gold delivered at the perfect time. He said it right after Liliana effectively betrayed the remaining three. Nissa, Chandra, and Gideon aren't known for keeping their cool. If they had even a small chance of winning, this line would have immediately changed the odds to 100% in Bolas's favor. What can I say? I'm a sucker for theatrics.

The story wasn't a literary masterpiece but it did everything I wanted it to do and it gave me a small plot point with Ral Zarek. I'd call it my second favorite HoD story after Endure.

Quote from scottjhebert »

I might note here that the one person we know of who can heal madness and other psychological problems is Tamiyo. So it's very likely that Jace loses his memory, Ajani finds him, and takes him to Tamiyo to be healed. It also allows Ajani to find out what's going on with the rest of the GW. Presumably.

Someone else suggested on the HoD thread that it might be more fun if Bolas fixes Jace's memories. That could be even more traumatic for him than getting memory-wiped again.

They got too cocky. Jace and Liliana should have known better about Bolas's power. Only Ajani was smart enough to know that they needed more help

Quote from theMarc »

Quote from Etherium Sage »

Quote from racer_xis »

Because when a ship sunks, pirates drown, and when vehicles are destroyed , nothing happens to the crew

We're talking about a game where the most powerful known Eldritch multiverse-travelling abomination can die to 13 or 15 flying squirrels, depending on which version you go with.

And snakes can wear boots.

And wurms can wield Loxodon Warhammers.

Quote from Etherium Sage »

Quote from racer_xis »

Because when a ship sunks, pirates drown, and when vehicles are destroyed , nothing happens to the crew

We're talking about a game where the most powerful known Eldritch multiverse-travelling abomination can die to 13 or 15 flying squirrels, depending on which version you go with.

And snakes can wear boots.