If you don't want to kill many characters don't make this (WotS Teaser) video then: https://youtu.be/Zn_0ZjpjntE
Its a very simple and elegant video. 36 stained glass windows as we pan around representing the 36 planeswalkers aside from Tezzeret as we learn he is "off plane" in the form of a buy-a-box promo. The first stained glass window to break is Gideon's. Then we see many candles, all but one gets extinguished, which leads one to believe the last candle is Nicol Bolas, which is then reinforced as the smoke form the horns and the candle his gem of becoming. Then, finally, everything becomes darkness as its presumed the villain has won.
Sure it got people talking, but the backlash is you set up a false expectation on how the audience thought the war would have gone, that anyone could have died, but when the body count is low, then the teaser video in retrospect essentially sets up a bait-and-switch story.
There is also quiet a few story beats missing from the cards that the book has that has left people consistently and outright confused. I have the book, if you want an answer, private message me.
I would not be surprised to see one of those arts used in a future Liliana Spellbook.
EDIT: eh, scratch that. They would probably use the original Liliana Vess art and that one would not fit well in a regular card.
Also that it seems they been opting for the first time you seen the planeswalker which for Jace's is Jace Beleren and Gideon's is Gideon Jura. Even though they could have easily handwaved it with Jace for example and put Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
Assuming that Garruk ever shows up again, how will this affect him? Is he now free of the Veil's curse?
I also like how Bolas forgot that he is a dragon
Asking the real questions.
Also, does this free the Onakke? Seems like there is the need for more malevolent characters with the resolution of Bolas's arc and a super powerful ogre artificer race would do nicely (See Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient).
Would be interesting if they also followed up on that.
Assuming that Garruk ever shows up again, how will this affect him? Is he now free of the Veil's curse?
I also like how Bolas forgot that he is a dragon
TBH I think it felt rushed. Part of me says they could have spread the actual war over two sets rather than one. Create the build up in the first and the second with the climatic conclusion. That way you build momentum, intrigue and suspense. It's a lot of a story finale to cram into one set of 249 cards.
But by now people are so sick of the Gatewatch that anything more would've come close to turning off a lot of people. It's a change we all need and the outcome is a much better arrangement than their previous long-term arc. And to be fair we don't know whether this is the complete end of the arc as we don't know if the next set might feature the aftermath given the title of the proposed book by the same author coming out in November. The crux of the conflict might be over...we still may have other things to finish off before we say toodles for good.
Oh well. It is what it is. Let's move on people.
'buster
Have you considered picking up the phone? Because you called it. War of the Spark was originally two sets.
Source was an image that was floating around from one of the main writers for MTG who put it on twitter, then a couple hours later took it down because it was technically spoilers. This image basically showed a road map of how the story went from Kaladesh to War of the Spark. It had a few other neat tidbits like how Nicol Bolas's homeplane was actually Amonkhet before it got changed.
People in this thread are really trying to argue that a group who trick people into predatory loans, binds their souls into eternal servitude, and racketeers people for protection money while burying them under incomprehensible legal jargon isn't bad.
Because its not simply that black and white (Pun intended).
Don't we need to wait for another return to Ravnica to see if Kaya actually hurt the Orzhov? It could turn out that Teysa is a much better leader than the Obzedat.
No need for more sets to find out that. Can confirm we get our answer from the War of the Spark book coming out.
Apparently Kaya cost the guild millions for just her slaying Obzedat, because the guild uses their ancestor spirits to hold onto coins for their entrenched families, without the ghost council all that coin went away. Plus because the indentured dead are gone, that means a lot of their workforce is gone which means they lost a lot of the debts they collected.
Also because of Kaya the tithe percentage of 10%, which was before Obzedat's death and is the percentage of your salary that you pay normally to the guild, went up 30%, then after seventeen days that went up to 40%. That after being raised to 40% and 15 days passing, the guild had to suspend tithe takings for 34 days. In this time span of the tithes being raised and eventually lowered there is also numbers that tell a bit of a story on how the citizens reacted to the Orzhov being forced to increase tithes. Also that the numbers for each category 30/40/18 are from different locations and combined.
At 30% tithe only 359 in total were willing to pay full tithe, at 40% tithe only 34 citizens paid in full, and at 18% tithe 551 citizens paid in full.
At 30% tithe 214 submitted partial payments with debt promises, at 40% tithe 339 citizens submitted partial payments with debt promises, and at 18% tithe 65 citizens submitted partial payments with debt promises.
At 30% tithe 50 citizens opted for public flogging and indentured servitude instead of paying the tithe, at 40% tithe 34 citizens opted for public and indentured servitude instead of paying the tithe, and at 18% tithe 5 citizens opted for public flogging and indentured servitude instead of paying the tithe.
At 30% tithe 9 citizens refused to pay tithe, at 40% tithe 29 citizens outright refused to pay, and at 18% tithe 0 citizens refused to pay tithe.
But then she decides to release the indebted dead from their servitude.
Which she did for what ammounts to racism. After being told plenty that it was a terrible idea. Bolas counted on her to be a self-righteous ******** and she delivered.
It’s only terrible because the Orzhov was using them as slave labor, and instead of trying to do anything else they just tried to tax the living immensely. Crazy that people are defending the Orzhov as though they aren’t a very good example of the bad in Ravnica.
Well taxing the living was also Kaya's decision. So again, she didn't fix a corrupt system, she made it worse. As she acted as not only an assassin but as the guild's leader which meant she had control over how to actually fix the system.
EDIT: Also the easiest manner to handle the issue with the indebted dead is to consider knocking out two birds with one stone. The way to do this is to have the indebted perform at charity functions to work off their debt. Because the church currently doesn't do charities, since they emphasis wealth. Having the church be reformed in that matter actually would help their image while also strengthening what they already do of helping the community they have fostered. Think the Amonhket mummies within the city state but less nefarious.
But then she decides to release the indebted dead from their servitude.
Which she did for what ammounts to racism. After being told plenty that it was a terrible idea. Bolas counted on her to be a self-righteous ******** and she delivered.
I don't know if I would consider that racism. Necrophobia? But yeah, she basically caused the guild to start sinking.
She desserves to be in a cage for ruining two societies, not join the heroes.
I liked her as a concept in Conspiracy 2, a lot actually, but repeating the same "naive girl ruins everything" thing while destroying one of Ravnica's most interesting and unique features and getting a bunch of quotes that make her sound like Rocket Raccoon's less funny and more sociopathic sister has wore out her welcome.
And to add insult to injury she keeps stealing legendary creature spots from my favorite color combination.
I’m not sure she “ruined” Floria. I mean, in both cases there is a corrupt, immortal entity making matters worse for the still living. When they get taken out there is a power vacuum and other also not good people take over, but I can’t really see it as “worse”. Bolas is an issue, but I don’t really blame Kaya for that.
But Brago wasn't corrupt. He was actually a paragon and benevolent ruler who sought to take out corruption from the system. What Kaya did was assassinate a good person and help install an actual tyrant, not actually fix the system.
Also Kaya was only contracted to assassinate Obzedat which is a corrupt parun, all good so far compared to Brago. But then she decides to release the indebted dead from their servitude, which also came with a cost, raising the taxes on the living immensely. Which in turn caused the living to revolt for they were being more oppressed by the Orzhov guild, not less. Which like before, she didn't actually fix the system, she just made it worse.
Its a very simple and elegant video. 36 stained glass windows as we pan around representing the 36 planeswalkers aside from Tezzeret as we learn he is "off plane" in the form of a buy-a-box promo. The first stained glass window to break is Gideon's. Then we see many candles, all but one gets extinguished, which leads one to believe the last candle is Nicol Bolas, which is then reinforced as the smoke form the horns and the candle his gem of becoming. Then, finally, everything becomes darkness as its presumed the villain has won.
Sure it got people talking, but the backlash is you set up a false expectation on how the audience thought the war would have gone, that anyone could have died, but when the body count is low, then the teaser video in retrospect essentially sets up a bait-and-switch story.
There is also quiet a few story beats missing from the cards that the book has that has left people consistently and outright confused. I have the book, if you want an answer, private message me.
Wait a minute, is this what Rosewater meant when he said they had a plan for Garruk?
Source was an image that was floating around from one of the main writers for MTG who put it on twitter, then a couple hours later took it down because it was technically spoilers. This image basically showed a road map of how the story went from Kaladesh to War of the Spark. It had a few other neat tidbits like how Nicol Bolas's homeplane was actually Amonkhet before it got changed.
https://youtu.be/fRs0OqV4uSc
Joke Sound Effect (Ba dum tss!)
Also because of Kaya the tithe percentage of 10%, which was before Obzedat's death and is the percentage of your salary that you pay normally to the guild, went up 30%, then after seventeen days that went up to 40%. That after being raised to 40% and 15 days passing, the guild had to suspend tithe takings for 34 days. In this time span of the tithes being raised and eventually lowered there is also numbers that tell a bit of a story on how the citizens reacted to the Orzhov being forced to increase tithes. Also that the numbers for each category 30/40/18 are from different locations and combined.
At 30% tithe only 359 in total were willing to pay full tithe, at 40% tithe only 34 citizens paid in full, and at 18% tithe 551 citizens paid in full.
At 30% tithe 214 submitted partial payments with debt promises, at 40% tithe 339 citizens submitted partial payments with debt promises, and at 18% tithe 65 citizens submitted partial payments with debt promises.
At 30% tithe 50 citizens opted for public flogging and indentured servitude instead of paying the tithe, at 40% tithe 34 citizens opted for public and indentured servitude instead of paying the tithe, and at 18% tithe 5 citizens opted for public flogging and indentured servitude instead of paying the tithe.
At 30% tithe 9 citizens refused to pay tithe, at 40% tithe 29 citizens outright refused to pay, and at 18% tithe 0 citizens refused to pay tithe.
Source: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/ledger-hidden-fortunes-2019-02-20
EDIT: Also the easiest manner to handle the issue with the indebted dead is to consider knocking out two birds with one stone. The way to do this is to have the indebted perform at charity functions to work off their debt. Because the church currently doesn't do charities, since they emphasis wealth. Having the church be reformed in that matter actually would help their image while also strengthening what they already do of helping the community they have fostered. Think the Amonhket mummies within the city state but less nefarious.
Also Kaya was only contracted to assassinate Obzedat which is a corrupt parun, all good so far compared to Brago. But then she decides to release the indebted dead from their servitude, which also came with a cost, raising the taxes on the living immensely. Which in turn caused the living to revolt for they were being more oppressed by the Orzhov guild, not less. Which like before, she didn't actually fix the system, she just made it worse.
We traded the pragmatic paladin for this mess.