I guess Dominaria looks a bit more interesting than your typical block but the "historic matters" theme is boring and repeatable as usual - to do something, cycle or discard a card (Amonkhet), you need to have an artifact entered or left the battlefirld this turn (Kaladesh), you need to have four different card types among cards in your graveyard (Innistrad), cast a historic spell (Dominaria)...
I wouldn't be surprised if the series of "boring and repeatable" themes has to do with focus on draft. (Do we know when WotC started making draft a major concern?) I'll grant I have no use for draft, but I do wonder if Constructed design and Draft design are inherently at cross purposes.
Just to get a sense of perspective, when would you say the last block whose theme wasn't "boring and repeatable" was?
Nice card in an even nicer set. This set will not be forgotten like all the crapp before it.
Wish richard garfield could stay and work on more sets. That man is the only reason dominaria will be great.
I hope wizards learned a few things on buildings sets now.
Because if they go from hero with garfield to zero with rosewater again it is seriously going to be cost them this time.
Yes please. The design sensibilities in this set feel a lot more fresh and a lot let by the numbers than they have in a long time. Sadly I'm sure Garfield is probably going to leave to work on other things but I hope that R&D takes notes. (Sadly, again, I doubt they will.)
I know I honestly wonder if part of the problem might be emphasis on draft concerns. I do get the feeling that for the most part, commons and uncommons are made for draft, rares for constructed. It's not a possibility that sits well with me; I feel like uncommons, at least, should be nuts-and-bolts material for constructed, not be rendered pointless after the draft game. And we certainly have the former with this set, with all the uncommon legends, not to mention things like Damping Sphere.
(Do we know when WotC started making draft a major concern? I'm thinking that the latest would be Zendikar, considering the infamous Lotus Cobra was probably made mythic precisely because of draft concerns.)
Also, Azor's opinion upon meeting Ugin isn't very rosy. calling him a friend seemed a bit tongue in cheek. Wondering if most MTG Vorthoses looking at Ugin as the "good" answer to Bolas might be a bit skewed?
There has been a distinct anti-oldwalker bias in Creative over the past couple of years. I suspect it's part of Wizards' drive to convince players (especially older ones) that neowalkers are better because they're nicer people or something.
Well, not all oldwalkers. Jaya, Karn, and Teferi are/were oldwalkers, right? Then again, compared to the likes of Ugin and Azor, they're pretty young still. So maybe it's a bias against the unfathomably ancient.
But I don't think Ugin's actions have ever been good--or evil. As I said before, he's so concerned about the gestalt Multiverse that the fates of individual entities--or individual planes--just can't matter to him as long as they're not part of a trend.
Which admittedly brings up an interesting contrast. Ugin is portrayed as being unable to see the trees for the forest...but perhaps Creative, with their human constraints, have difficulties seeing the forest for the trees?
It's too bad Jace never thought to (or had the knowledge necessary to) tell Azor that Szadek essentially made the original Guildpact abolish itself. I suppose Azor would have thought the Living Guildpact to be of a piece with the original Guildpact, though.
As for Ugin being enlightened good...that kind of falls flat when you consider that he showed little to no remorse for allowing the Eldrazi to consume several planes before deciding to seal them. He isn't evil...but he isn't good. In fact, he probably considers himself to necessarily be above the very concepts of good and evil. However, to tweak a phrase, he can't see the trees for the forest. In fact, I keep thinking of the deadlock he helped maintain on Tarkir (remember that he's the one who taught the khanates manifestation magic); that it's varying degrees of "desperate" for both dragons and non-dragons isn't as important to him as the "balance" he's maintaining. At a guess, I'd say he's given up on saving individuals, and only cares about the gestalt.
It also says something that he apparently became friends with someone as obsessed with conjuring strict order on multiple planes as Azor. That's why I'm thinking Ugin's own goal is something along the lines of setting up whatever oldwalkers remain (and aren't as willfully vile as Bolas) as gods of the Multiverse, expressly to keep it from tearing itself apart. Which brings me to another suspicion of mine regarding Ugin's goals--I think he wants to preserve the Multiverse in the state he knew it as forever. Hence my interest in finding out his reaction to the change in the Spark...
I'm surprised Azor isn't a planeswalker. Then again, the preview article did surmise the possibility of him having lost (relinquished?) his spark. I wonder what's up...
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I wouldn't be surprised if the series of "boring and repeatable" themes has to do with focus on draft. (Do we know when WotC started making draft a major concern?) I'll grant I have no use for draft, but I do wonder if Constructed design and Draft design are inherently at cross purposes.
Just to get a sense of perspective, when would you say the last block whose theme wasn't "boring and repeatable" was?
1
I know I honestly wonder if part of the problem might be emphasis on draft concerns. I do get the feeling that for the most part, commons and uncommons are made for draft, rares for constructed. It's not a possibility that sits well with me; I feel like uncommons, at least, should be nuts-and-bolts material for constructed, not be rendered pointless after the draft game. And we certainly have the former with this set, with all the uncommon legends, not to mention things like Damping Sphere.
(Do we know when WotC started making draft a major concern? I'm thinking that the latest would be Zendikar, considering the infamous Lotus Cobra was probably made mythic precisely because of draft concerns.)
1
Well, not all oldwalkers. Jaya, Karn, and Teferi are/were oldwalkers, right? Then again, compared to the likes of Ugin and Azor, they're pretty young still. So maybe it's a bias against the unfathomably ancient.
But I don't think Ugin's actions have ever been good--or evil. As I said before, he's so concerned about the gestalt Multiverse that the fates of individual entities--or individual planes--just can't matter to him as long as they're not part of a trend.
Which admittedly brings up an interesting contrast. Ugin is portrayed as being unable to see the trees for the forest...but perhaps Creative, with their human constraints, have difficulties seeing the forest for the trees?
1
As for Ugin being enlightened good...that kind of falls flat when you consider that he showed little to no remorse for allowing the Eldrazi to consume several planes before deciding to seal them. He isn't evil...but he isn't good. In fact, he probably considers himself to necessarily be above the very concepts of good and evil. However, to tweak a phrase, he can't see the trees for the forest. In fact, I keep thinking of the deadlock he helped maintain on Tarkir (remember that he's the one who taught the khanates manifestation magic); that it's varying degrees of "desperate" for both dragons and non-dragons isn't as important to him as the "balance" he's maintaining. At a guess, I'd say he's given up on saving individuals, and only cares about the gestalt.
It also says something that he apparently became friends with someone as obsessed with conjuring strict order on multiple planes as Azor. That's why I'm thinking Ugin's own goal is something along the lines of setting up whatever oldwalkers remain (and aren't as willfully vile as Bolas) as gods of the Multiverse, expressly to keep it from tearing itself apart. Which brings me to another suspicion of mine regarding Ugin's goals--I think he wants to preserve the Multiverse in the state he knew it as forever. Hence my interest in finding out his reaction to the change in the Spark...
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