MTG Salvation

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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.

Lilly's comment was that she didn't get a tour when she came for the demon and much 'could' have changed. It's quite clear that she came after Bolas made it his own, which is why she says it's his and assumes he made it.

Hmm, that's true. Also, it would line up with the timeline of events since she went to Razaketh after the Mending, and Bolas was taking over Amonkhet just after the Mending in a hurry before he completely lost his oldwalker powers.

Still, I wonder how long he knew Razaketh.

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.

Quote from 9talete9 »

Interesting story. What do we know? The plane was already damaged before Bolas arrival. When the three kids went outside the hekma they found a ruin with inscription of a trespasser (don't remember if they say it was a dragon). Now, for what we know that ruin is there from before Bolas arrival. This make me think that there was another trespasser who destroyed the plane. If it was a dragon this would explain why the gods attacked Bolas or maybe they sensed his evil intent. This would also explain the inscription inside Naktamun, while Samut thought was talking of Bolas in reality talk about another dragon.
Now we only now of another dragon planeswalker who look quite similar to Bolas: Ugin. It could be it was another dragon, but maybe it was the colorless guy having a bad day.

Ugin seems to be all about doing things for the greater good of the multiverse, which is why he didn't kill the Eldrazi (or at least try to), why he went out of his way to warn Bolas of the dangers of whatever he was planning to do during their muffled conversation on Tarkir, and why he didn't give a hoot about Zendikar being destroyed by Ulamog and Kozilek. If he actually had colours, he'd probably be Bant to directly contrast with Bolas' Grixis (Ghostfire notwithstanding).

He doesn't seem like the type of person to just go to a random backwater plane and wreck stuff, even when he's upset.

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

I'm still inclined to think that it wasn't Bolas that laid waste to the majority of Amonkhet. I think something major happened on the plane before he arrived there, and he just took advantage of the situation.

Quote from MrBiggelz »

Personally I hope they don't fix it, but still return. There are two sides to Egypt, it's ancient thriving past, and it's dead and buried present.
It would be cool if years down the line they did a set called something like Mysteries of Amonkhet, where a planeswalker discovers the plane and it's ancient ruins. Done with more of an archaeological take on the plane, it would be a good chance to have more traps/curses.

They'll also conveniently omit the Grim Striders, zombies, sandwurms and Horrors of the Broken Lands from the planeswalker tourist brochure.

Quote from Northjayhawk »

Yeah, I agree with this. I think it was his 2nd (or more) visit, and the plane was mostly destroyed by Bolas. I think the plane itself told Nissa that Bolas did everything.

Amonkhet did say that Bolas tried to kill it; on the other hand, I'm not discounting the possibility that Bolas just took advantage of a situation that was already there.

Also, am I the only one wondering about all these worlds Bolas said he created? Liliana thought he created Amonkhet, which turned out to be completely false, but I think it'd be interesting to see some worlds he did actually forge.

Quote from 5colors »

Quote from Lord_Mektar »

Can we just have Ms. Luhrs do all the stories from now on? Because damn.

Semi-agreed, out of the 9 stories she has written nearly all of them been great and none I think been too bad received (last weeks story, Yahenni stories, the Teysa story and the SoI Gisa and Geralf).

On the other hand, if she does too many of them, she risks having her quality decrease.

So what are the odds of Amonkhet actually surviving this? It seems like a waste to have an Egypt plane and then just turn into a horror version of Tatooine or Bolas slurpie.

Yeah, I guess I'm being too harsh, and I see your point about the "old habits die hard" aspect of the dissenters.

Also, I don't know if it's been said already, but Alison confirmed on the Reddit for this story that the Hekma and the wastelands outside it were around before Bolas waltzed in. Makes you wonder what happened to make the plane so dead. We knew the Curse of Wandering was a natural phenomenon on Amonkhet (the worldsoul itself said as much).

Quote from smashkicker »

So Bolas shows up casts Damnation and then takes apart the gods one by one. I like this Bolas he doesn't mess around.

This is Bolas when he's in a hurry, desperate and has no time to put "Plots that Span Centuries" into motion when he wants to just get something done right quick.

I mirror the opinions of others that this was a great way to start off Hour of Devastation, and I'm actually pleased that they kept Razaketh's appearance. On the other hand, this may sound very cold, but I don't feel an ounce of sympathy for the populace; I feel sorry for the Gods because they were twisted into what they were and had no choice in the matter, but the people still had minds of their own, and had their fair share of dissenters that they made sure to silence at every given opportunity. Now they're starting to see that the dissenters, most notably Samut, were right after all. I'm especially interested in how Djeru is going to take all this in, given everything.

Quote from Mullerornis »

Kefnet's also a reptile.

Isn't Kefnet an ibis?

Quote from Mullerornis »

Plus, dragons aren't really bound by being reptiles either (see Kaladesh dragons or Atarka's brood). They're just bestial incarnations of Red mana

What about Dragons that don't have any red in their mana costs like Ojutai or Dromoka?

Quote from SecretInfiltrator »

They are Horrors. That's what exists in the Broken Lands past the Hekma. We know Bolas will raze the Hekma. So the simplest explenation for black Horros running rampart in the city is that they just walked in from outside the former city limits and are just the same Horrors we know already. This is supported by the clear depiction of/reference to the two only Horror creatures from Amonkhet we have in card form.

What do you mean by "they"? We know that the Horrors in Delight in the Hunt are similar to the Horrors we've seen already. What we're talking about when referring to the former Worthy are Horrors of the variety seen in For Each of You, A Gift and the Horror Tokens. The Horror Token shows a Horror that looks vaguely like a former person, with bandages on their person.

For Each of You, A Gift could be interpreted as Bolas screwing with the minotaur by creating a horror clone of sorts, but it's also possible that the horror used to be an actual minotaur. The broader implication though is that Bolas is the source of these things, including Grim Striders and Horrors of the Broken Lands.

Quote from SecretInfiltrator »

When people are talking about the three gods on Delight in the Hunt, are they refering to the Horrors (of which there are at least four - it's just one doesn't have glowing eyes - being a Grim Strider) being corrupted gods or to the things that look like three long-necked aven?

Did you read Jay's post three steps above yours? A few people do seem to think Delight is showing the 3 Gods, but others have pointed to Power Without Equal, and that's definitely way more plausible considering there are exactly three phantom giants depicted in it, and its effect has a theme of three.

Quote from Mullerornis »

It's pretty clear that this is what happened to the worthy: become horrors, probably due to being pierced by Hazoret.

If that's the case (and I believe it is), Bolas does grant the Worthy an "afterlife"; it just wasn't the afterlife the poor saps were expecting.