MTG Salvation

Quote from sleeper agent 2.0 »

Yeah sure, but (1) would you call this story relevant?

Yes. It introduces a new plane, one which has been majorly influenced by a new phenomenon in the story (omenpaths) in a way we haven't seen before. It reveals key details about the Coin Empire, it advances the story of Oko and Kellan, and it establishes that Jace and Vraska are still around doing mysterious things. Rakdos and Tinybones are partners in crime now.

...and (2) it just feels a bit like a betrayal of the character to have him just, I don't know, walking around a saloon and being a part of a bigger (in current story terms) villain's posse.

It's not a betrayal of Kaervek's character, it's a continuation of a story that's literally been frozen in amber for a long time. Zhalfir is entirely separate from Dominaria now, Urborg is radically different, and one of his arch-nemeses (Jolrael) has been establishing a powerbase in Jamuraa for about 600 years. Don't even get him started on Teferi. He's got to start over from nothing now, and he's smart enough to temporarily swallow his pride if it'll get him such a huge leg up in rebuilding all the power he lost. Especially if he finds something that'll let him just kill the rest of the group after they find the treasure. That all seems pretty in-character for him to me.

My first instinct is to say, "For friggin' out loud, y'all, you already jacked up the price on the packs! Pick something and stick with it," but it occurs to me they probably haven't jiggered around the pack format like this for years. One's sense of timing gets...skewed, after playing this game for a while and not keeping up with these kind of things.

That being said - "Hey, we're putting one less card in the packs, but you have a higher chance of getting a sweet foil or a mythic that's not even in the set!" Tell me again about how this totally isn't gambling, guys; you've been saying the quiet part awful loud lately.

Quote from Flisch »

So we use different templating now for UB cards?

Man, UB sounds better and better as time moves on.

Creative has, to their credit, been trying to listen to players' critiques of UB (beyond the usual "it stinks") and making it feel distinctly different from regular sets. That's a challenge, but also ends up being good for the sets, because like with Horizons, they get to think outside the box they normally have to design for.

I admit, I do like the baseball-card Lorwyn walkers a lot more than I thought I would.

Quote from HighHolder »

Newer players like yourself obviously don't realize just how powerful tapping down lands is. They are terrified to ever do that again for some unfathomable reasons

I'm sorry, this is just really funny because I've been playing since Urza's Saga.

I genuinely forgot about Icy letting you tap down lands, because I haven't played against a Stasis or Rishadan Port style deck in like 20 years. Yes, it's a powerful effect (even if it's not nearly as powerful as the rules used to let it be), but it's also a great way to alienate other players.

Cool card, but I do miss the classic discard specters.

Quote from Felas »

With standard format pretty much dead I guess commander sells more boosters hence more legendary creatures than planeswalkers.

Standard has been netdecking & pay-to-win for 20 years, so at least it's consistent. It'll always stick around in one form or another, mostly because that's the easiest way to encourage a local tournament scene.

Deciding to lean off the gas a bit with planeswalkers is a pretty reasonable decision; they were originally rarer, more influential figures, and that lent something more to their flavor impact. I can't blame creative for wanting to get back to that more, while still keeping them low-powered enough to be playable. I'm sure that dovetailed with more people getting sick of standard to play commander instead, though, and honestly I've been waiting for standard to quit being their primary driving force for set design.

Quote from Ryperior74 »

6. could be another trap in tricking us into thinking its eldraine the goblins don't look eldraine

The lack of a Wizards copyright (which is present in every other image) and the distinctive White Hand on the discarded shield, say LotR to me.

Also, regarding what several people have said about the art of the scarred traveler...

Quote from WarMachinePrime »

Interesting. A world with no humans, elves, goblins, dwarves, etc. Just anthropomorphic creatures.

Seriously though, a Redwall plane would be so dope. I loved those books.

Quote from buffntuff »

Does ixalan have gods?

It does.

"That rabbit's dynamite!"

Maro and Roy Graham (the new story leader) have given a few reasons for the desparking that relates to the 1 planeswalker planeswalkers per set;

-Yes and no to planeswalkers running out of design space. What it really is, is that planewwalkers card space is shallow. They are limited by what kinds effects they can do and how much room each ability can have. Then you add in that each card is meant to be flavored as a certain character and then has to be balanced for whatever format the card is being put into and they need to be somewhat playable, which can make planeswalker cards harder to design. And since they been trying to give each planeswalker a "gimmick" some planeswalkers started running out of good design space depending on the gimmick.

-On that note planeswalkers are tricky to balance which is why development also has rough a color balance with the planeswalkers in standard (which was a way to predict who might show up in upcoming sets). This would also lead to creative having to figure out why certain characters would on certain planes or what character shift would change a walkers colors when the biggest reason to do so was development needed a walker of certain color(s) to balance out standard. This also why it took years for them to make another BR planeswalker between Sarkhan and Angrath in standard or why a lot of walkers color identifies changed between different cards a lot.

-They want planeswalkers to feel more special again as cards and as characters and want to really give better story reasons for why planeswalker would want to planeswalk.

-And as noted they really really made a lot of planeswalker cards within the last eight years and I can see why they wanna step back a bit from them. That said I wish they just been more conservative about the number of walker cards.

Quote from Evil Never Dies »

I think Saga are kinda replacing the PW design space somehow. They have similar functions but seems Sagas have much more design spaces, it's also more difficult they warp standard around them since they don't stick around a lot for their nature. The fact that they are putting almost 20 new sagas only for Dr.Who Commander decks is really telling.

Nah, Maro has always noted saga are just super popular whenever they do them. They would be an every set thing but are held back by wanting to be related to some sort of strong flavor or well know story events to up tie together the abilities of the saga. Universe Beyound work well as they have stories and events that lend well to sagas.

I can put three counters on my Time Bomb for 7? I'm gonna party like it's 1995.

These look fun and I honestly hope people who are looking forward to this find joy in it.

Bill Urabrasky is a sonofa*****! A two ton man-mountain who could palm a medicine ball! I once saw him scissor kick Angela Landsbury! Did I ever tell you about the time Urabrasky took me out to go get a drink with him? We go off looking for a bar and we can't find one. Finally Urabrasky takes me to a vacant lot and says, "Here we are." We sat there for a year and a half and sure enough someone constructs a bar around us. The day they opened we ordered a shot, drank it, and then burned the place to the ground. Urabrasky yelled over the roar of the flames, "Always leave things the way you found em!" He once had sex with a cigarette machine! If you drop a phonograph needle on Urabrasky's nipple, it plays the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds"! To Bill Urabrasky!!!

Quote from Spaz350 »

I can't help but read that flavor text in the voice of Satan from Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny. I want to, but God help me, I can't.

The guy hiding in the doorway is probably going "FuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUCK" like Jack and Kyle

Quote from Gizlivadi »

Quote from Mergatroid_Jones »

Do actual people actually care that they made Aragorn black?

Yes, some people who care both for Magic the Gathering (THE Trading Card Game par excellence) and Lord of the Rings (one of the last, if not the last true and exemplar modern product of a particularly European -specifically Germanic and Norse- sensibility and heritage), care that their favorite game represents their most beloved cultural product well.

When it comes to Tolkien, I think people should realize that a big section of the fans don't just see his works as "generic fantasy world". They see a manifestation of a culture they identify with. Just like the Japanese would see Ruruoni Kenshin or other Samurai/Yokai/etc stories. Everyone is entitled to feel pride for their culture. Does that mean that nobody else can enjoy Samurai anime or LOTR? Of course not, but that doesn't mean people are obligated to take well the inclusion of external ethnicities (for commercial reasons, at that) in your traditional/mythological/historical setting. Case in point: Dragon Ball Evolution. Heck, even Rings of Power to an extent.

Alright, putting aside the reasons for why WotC did this, this whole 'LotR is basically a manifestation of the culture of a certain ethnicity and how they see the world, and therefore external ethnicities should have no place in it' is... Let's just say, a very special kind of interpretation in and of itself. I love LotR, and yeah, Tolkien imagined it to be along the lines of Beowulf, a form of ancient myth for the British people, which he thought they were lacking. Notice that it was specifically british people. Nothing about skin tone or something, though Tolkien obviously couldn't escape the Zeitgeist of his time entirely (his description of Orcs as looking like 'the least lovely looking mongole types' in one of his letters and the fact that ALL people of color appearing in LotR are on the side of evil are good indicators of that). So what exactly is the ethnicity you mean whose 'cultural manifestation' LotR supposedly is, and what exactly does skin color change about the story? We can discuss all day long what Tolkien believed, but my point is that unless you follow his myth-making almost religiously (in which case yes, as a british person you could maybe become upset about this, since the 3rd age Numenorans can be interpreted as expies of you, just like the Hobbits are), this change means nothing. This is not a historic story, this is not changing historic people's ethnicities. There is no cultural baggage that would influence LotR if there were black Numenorans (or elves or whatever) into another direction, unless you believe some weird stereotypes. So... Is the change necessary? Not really. Is it a disgrace to LotR? No. It is pretty much a stylistic choice.
Oh and most legends and myths of cultures across the world are surprisingly diverse, the Japanese for example have stories of Yasuke, the first foreign, black Samurai (16th century). So no, that's not as monolithic as you think it is either. I understand and actually might agree that it is a corporate driven decision by WotC, but this kind of discussion always veers into the strangest directions.

Switching back to the cards, Aragorn and Arwen are interesting in GW, and Gollum's flavor is on point in my opinion.

Here before people get mad because Aragorn is black.

Looks like a paddle.

"Thank you sir, may I have another."

Quote from Stoogeslap »

Quote from Dusque »

Quote from Stoogeslap »

Quote from Dusque »

Eyyy fun demon fella

What do you mean by " eyyy"?

Just excitedly exclaiming my friend

What country are you from?

I don't listen to country music

Quote from ilovesaprolings »

Who thought that vivisection was overtuned as a common?

Likely less "overtuned" and more "much stronger in an environment where decayed tokens are rampant and thus the cost to sacrificing a creature is much lower."