MTG Salvation

Quote from Saandro »

Quote from Etherium Sage »

Quote from Saandro »

So, after the Egyptian plane has become a playground for the GW, the Mesoamerican set becomes the pirate set? Amazing.

They never officially said that Ixalan was a purely Mesoamerican set, IIRC.

Also, Amonkhet was Bolas's playground before the Gatewatch even got there.

That's not the point.

Then let me make my point clearer: Ever since planeswalkers became the focus of the story (even before the Gatewatch), almost every plane we've been introduced to has been their playground to some extent (you have exceptions, of course). The Gatewatch plot just ramped that up even further.

Hopefully by spreading them thin, we get more focus on the plane denizens themselves both in the story and in the cards.

Quote from Lilijuana »

And, if real, no way a real leaker is going to leak this w/o a clean shot of the PW in upper left corner...just a tease from WotC this is...also a way for them to "prove" some of what they've said about Standard lately. See, we told you answers were on their way, and here's a glimpse of one!

Yeah, the Spyglass being front and center is pretty funny, both for "We have actual answers now gaiz!!!" and for how appropriate it is for this situation.

Quote from Tiro of Meletis »

ME tooooooooooo

Like how do you have a new version of Jace and focus the camera instead on Sorcerus Spyglass.

Maybe they have standards as a leaker and don't want to fully reveal the really juicy cards?

As sad as their fate is, you have to admit that these Bolasified Gods look pretty awesome.

Quote from 5colors »

Liliana I bet will play a role in this story. They been setting up seeing the origin 5 going home, with Nissa, Chandra and now Liliana and Theros beening the next most returnable plane after Ravnica.

Technically Nissa was already home when she joined the Gatewatch.

But yeah, I can see them all heading back to their home planes at some point, which means Jace will find his way back to Vryn at some point.

Quote from Tiro of Meletis »

Always nice hearing back from my fans.

What about those of us who love Ravnica, its people or its guilds? I don't particularly like Theros for many reasons, but you'd never hear me complain about returning there as I'm aware that there are a number of people who do like the place.

Also, for someone who loves Jace so much, you seem to have a pretty irrational hatred for one of the planes that are most pivotal to his character.

I wonder if Razaketh's card will have some sort of Mindslaver ability, since he basically cast Worst Fears on Liliana here.

Granted it was because of her contract, but still....

So the last 3 Gods (I presume) are going to be used by Bolas to spread plagues, eh?

Quote from Tiro of Meletis »

I think what's odd about Lilli is that she had been on Innistrad before the mending studying with Lich lords only to cite the planes where Bolas took her for her pacts as unfamiliar? How could she not know of Griselbrand?

Well Innistrad is an entire world, so I think it's possible that you can be living there and not know of every angel, demon or skaberen on the plane.

Quote from Tiro of Meletis »

Why wouldn't the gods have known Bolas to be a "monster" and threat from him having been the original trespasser who destroyed the plane on their first encounter, save for Naktamun? After all, the story says the 8 gods were determined not to fail again "now that Naktamun was all that remained." In order to know about Amonkhet, Bolas had to have visited it before. It's not beyond the realm of imagination that he damaged it then, became the trespasser, and returned to face the gods and overtake the plane.

Well clearly he was there before the place got reduced to just Naktamun, since Liliana noted that the place looked very different from when she paid a visit to get her Razaketh contract.

The Archenemy set continues to foreshadow the bleakness that is Hour of Devastation:

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.