It's fine by me. I'm way more excited about Godzilla world than return-to-devotion world anyway. Theros was medium fine to acceptable-ish. I'm not sure it deserves a return set to begin with.
This has been bugging me for a while now about the state of the story and the future of the game. I'd appreciate some of the communities thoughts on this.
First let me say a couple things about my perspective. I'm a kitchen table player. Period. I've been playing for a good stretch of years (Started in Mirage block). I participated in the Champions of Kamigawa pre-release, and that was both my debut and my retirement from playing outside my friends basements and rec rooms.
I've rolled with a lot of changes to the game over the years and for the most part they've been positive for my little kitchen ecosystem. Planeswalkers, however have been a mixed bag. Sure, they're fun to play with and they're exciting to build around, but just the nature of basically being "an enchantment you can attack" means that people tend to build slower, grindier, defensive decks so they can keep planeswalkers on the board. And while it makes you feel powerful to control the board while you slowly tick up your Venser so you can go ultimate and exile your opponents permanents at will, it's not super fun for a table to know that the game is basically over five turns before it ends.
So I'm not a huge fan. But, this isn't a "planeswalkers stink" post. I just had to set up my feelings before I got to my point:
Now we come to War of the Spark. We have a couple of different ways that the War of the Spark can go technically. But, we all kind of know which way it's actually going to play out. There's going to be a struggle between The Gatewatch and Bolas. The Gatewatch will be victorious, but at a great cost (of probably some b level planeswalkers they'd like to replace with more interesting ones). This, in my opinion, just STINKS. So then Bolas (the most interesting personality in mtg, lets be real), either a) dies or b) gets imprisoned/neutralized or c) escapes to some secret plane to lick his wounds. We follow up this set with a few sets on new planes with some depressed and lightly beat-up gatewatch members. "Jace with an Eyepatch" "Ajani Peg Leg" "Chandra the Mildly Concussed" "Vivian, but Sorta Itchy".
The most interesting and engaging possibility, in my opinion, by far, with no close second, is a hands down win by Nicol Bolas. Hear me out. What actually happens if Bolas wins? Lots of planeswalkers die. Probably not all of them, that's marketing suicide. Some more resilient walkers will escape to far corners of the multiverse. But hey, wouldn't the newly ascended Bolas God hunt them down with his infinite power? Actually, probably not.
The thing about being omniscient and all powerful is that suddenly, the concerns of the lowly citizens of the planes tends to fade far in the background. Think of it this way: there's a couple visions of godhood in literature. There's the cackling demigod who sits on throne on top of a pyramid and demands constant sacrifices from his followers. This kind of god may be very powerful, but is physically and mentally attached to the world and what happens in it. Think of Aku from Samurai Jack.
The other kind is less of a physical presence in the world, more of a psychological and mythical "energy" that menaces the citizens and directs their actions and moods but doesn't necessarily directly interact with them. A good example of this is Sauron from LotR. You could even say that Emrakul played this role on Innistrad before her reveal.
I think this is the most interesting place the story AND the game could go with War of the Spark. Most of the current planeswalkers are killed. Bolas ascends to godhood, he begins to indirectly menace the remaining few. Cults pop up all over the multiverse worshiping "The Great Dragon". Those who get too close to the dragon-god are driven mad or enthralled. Planeswalkers are rarer than before. Maybe a planeswalker every two sets for a little while. I don't know, but a return to planeswalkers being unique and special cards that you're thrilled to open and play with would be good for everybody.
10
There are 31 different possible color combinations
1 W
2 U
3 B
4 R
5 G
6 WU
7 WB
8 WR
9 WG
10 UB
11 UR
12 UG
13 BR
14 BG
15 RG
16 WUB
17 WUR
18 WUG
19 WBR
20 WBG
21 WRG
22 UBR
23 UBG
24 URG
25 BRG
26 WUBR
27 WUBG
28 WURG
29 WBRG
30 UBRG
31 WUBRG
2
1
First let me say a couple things about my perspective. I'm a kitchen table player. Period. I've been playing for a good stretch of years (Started in Mirage block). I participated in the Champions of Kamigawa pre-release, and that was both my debut and my retirement from playing outside my friends basements and rec rooms.
I've rolled with a lot of changes to the game over the years and for the most part they've been positive for my little kitchen ecosystem. Planeswalkers, however have been a mixed bag. Sure, they're fun to play with and they're exciting to build around, but just the nature of basically being "an enchantment you can attack" means that people tend to build slower, grindier, defensive decks so they can keep planeswalkers on the board. And while it makes you feel powerful to control the board while you slowly tick up your Venser so you can go ultimate and exile your opponents permanents at will, it's not super fun for a table to know that the game is basically over five turns before it ends.
So I'm not a huge fan. But, this isn't a "planeswalkers stink" post. I just had to set up my feelings before I got to my point:
Now we come to War of the Spark. We have a couple of different ways that the War of the Spark can go technically. But, we all kind of know which way it's actually going to play out. There's going to be a struggle between The Gatewatch and Bolas. The Gatewatch will be victorious, but at a great cost (of probably some b level planeswalkers they'd like to replace with more interesting ones). This, in my opinion, just STINKS. So then Bolas (the most interesting personality in mtg, lets be real), either a) dies or b) gets imprisoned/neutralized or c) escapes to some secret plane to lick his wounds. We follow up this set with a few sets on new planes with some depressed and lightly beat-up gatewatch members. "Jace with an Eyepatch" "Ajani Peg Leg" "Chandra the Mildly Concussed" "Vivian, but Sorta Itchy".
The most interesting and engaging possibility, in my opinion, by far, with no close second, is a hands down win by Nicol Bolas. Hear me out. What actually happens if Bolas wins? Lots of planeswalkers die. Probably not all of them, that's marketing suicide. Some more resilient walkers will escape to far corners of the multiverse. But hey, wouldn't the newly ascended Bolas God hunt them down with his infinite power? Actually, probably not.
The thing about being omniscient and all powerful is that suddenly, the concerns of the lowly citizens of the planes tends to fade far in the background. Think of it this way: there's a couple visions of godhood in literature. There's the cackling demigod who sits on throne on top of a pyramid and demands constant sacrifices from his followers. This kind of god may be very powerful, but is physically and mentally attached to the world and what happens in it. Think of Aku from Samurai Jack.
The other kind is less of a physical presence in the world, more of a psychological and mythical "energy" that menaces the citizens and directs their actions and moods but doesn't necessarily directly interact with them. A good example of this is Sauron from LotR. You could even say that Emrakul played this role on Innistrad before her reveal.
I think this is the most interesting place the story AND the game could go with War of the Spark. Most of the current planeswalkers are killed. Bolas ascends to godhood, he begins to indirectly menace the remaining few. Cults pop up all over the multiverse worshiping "The Great Dragon". Those who get too close to the dragon-god are driven mad or enthralled. Planeswalkers are rarer than before. Maybe a planeswalker every two sets for a little while. I don't know, but a return to planeswalkers being unique and special cards that you're thrilled to open and play with would be good for everybody.
Of course, that's never going to happen. Sigh...
What are your thoughts?