From my number crunch 52 (53 if you count Urza which I don't personally) walkers have gotten a card, 14-20 (depending on how you split hairs) non-human walkers is ~26%-38% of total walkers which means roughly 1/3 of walkers who have gotten card is a non-human. IMO seems like a pretty decent number.
Your counting characters...how many actual cards do they have.
Also its about focus...having them is great how much focus do they actually get.
This is a big sticking point for me. It's not just about seeing pictures of them. It's about having them actually involved in story.
I hate modern Magic story (for several reasons I won't get into). But when Ajani, who has long been one of my favourite characters, joined the main cast at the end of Kaladesh, I was actually excited. Finally, a nonhuman (as I've said before, no Nissa does not count) member of the main cast that I can get invested in!
...then in the very next set, he was completely kicked aside. And remained absent in the set after that. And the two set block after that. Before finally returning in Dominaria...for all of, what, one or two scenes? Would you want to watch a full twenty plus episode season of a TV show just for the chance of seeing one or two scenes of a character you liked?
That's the big thing for me. It's all well and good to have them there, now how about we actually let them be important? Actually give them chances to be heroes, rather than existing solely to support the human heroes for the umpty-thousandth time at best?
I really wonder what the actual line is for nonhuman humanoids. On the topic of claiming Liliana was a nonhuman, you missed the point quite a bit because every nonhuman human like character has a fairly distinguishing trait to show their non-humanness. As was pointed out Elfs have pointy ears, dwarfs are short and stout, Merfolk(are merfolk considered too human?) have fins, ect.
I didn't miss the point, I was making one of my own - that nonhumans need to have a somewhat sufficiently different and nonhuman trait to really be satisfying as nonhumans (and for the record, I'm talking purely physical, visible traits here). Like I mentioned, having one very minor difference (like I said, giving her slit pupils) is hardly enough to be satisfying to those of us who want more nonhumans. Yes, elves have pointy ears, but is that really enough? If all a character needs to do to appear human is put on a hat, is that really sufficiently nonhuman? Not to me.
However I can help here. You take Lily exactly as is as you said, but now instead of her tattoos being a mark of magic or of her demon contracts they are a racial trait, every member of her race, the majin, have these tattoos. Then you randomly insert other traits that aren't visible but people can mention, the majin are long lived and naturally talented with magic and their entire purpose in live is to wipe out nonmagic races because they view them as unworthy of life. There now you've made what can pass as a fake magic race for Lily but she still looks exactly the same so we can say you wouldn't call her a nonhuman, though honestly speaking if such a race existed I would except them as nonhuman and would look forward to meeting more of them.
Like I said in my above post, everyone will have a different line as to just how nonhuman they need to appear, which does make it difficult. All I mean is that it's hardly unreasonable to say that such minor differences like elves, kor, dwarves etc have isn't different enough. You may disagree, and that's fine, but you must at least understand where someone who believes otherwise is coming from. I, for one, am never going to look at, for example, Nahiri, and think "Yeah, this pasty-skinned human sure satisfies my desire for more nonhumans".
I don't see Nissa and think "she's too human" because well when looking at classic fantasy she looks what an elf should be. Said thing when we get a dwarf planeswlaker.
She does look like an elf should, but that doesn't mean elves themselves aren't "too human" for those of us who want more interesting nonhumans.
Here's one way to think of it. Take one a human character - let's say Liliana. Keep her exactly as she is, but say "She's not actually a human, she's actually a Namuh, a race that happens to look exactly like humans!". Yeah, it shouldn't be hard to understand why that's not particularly satisfying to people who want more nonhumans. Now do the same thing - take Liliana exactly as she is, but with one minor tweak - let's say, she has slit pupils like a cat. "There you go! Funny looking eyes! Now she's totally not human!". Yeah, again, shouldn't be hard to understand why that's not exactly something we're after when we say we want more nonhumans.
Satisfying nonhumans need to be significantly different from actual humans. And yes, everyone will have a different "line" as to just how different is significant enough to count, but surely it's not hard to understand why things like "pointy ears", "off colour skin" or "unusually short" isn't going to hit that line for a lot of us.
While they appear human like, another factor is how they are as a species. Elves tend to live longer and have a connection to nature, dwarfs seems better at building things and are harder than most ect.
Here's my answer to that - why does it not go both ways? People would look at the human characters differently if they weren't human. People would perceive Chandra differently if she were a goblin, they'd look at Gideon differently if he were a centaur. Even if nothing else about the characters changed, people would perceive them differently. If that's the case, which I absolutely believe it is, then it's not unreasonable to say that having so many "non"humans who look almost exactly like humans doesn't really satisfy those of us who want actual nonhumans.
...going off topic a little, but man this is something I'm passionate about.
Well, considering the head/body/leg ratio, maybe, just maybe, she could be a dwarf?
Bigger picture on Magali's pages.
As someone else who also cannot get excited for more human walkers, dwarf is still way too close to human to be excited about. If you're unsure whether or not they're human or this other thing that's really really close to human, then it's too close to human.
It was a four-player game of Commander that I won on 1 life, with no cards left in my library, spending all of my mana, and dealing the exact amount of damage I needed. It was quite a while ago so I don't remember the exact details, but I was playing Bladewing the Risen, and the card that did it for me was Heretic's Punishment.
This whole spellbook just really endears Gideon's character. That's one way to add oomph to a character death alright.
Agreed 100%. These 8 cards/arts (well really just Martyr's Bond, RiP and Worship) make me care about Gideon and his death more than maybe everything that has come before it.
I honestly kind of feel the exact opposite. Between this and Heartwarming Reunion, it feels to me like they're beating us over the head with it way too hard. "Gideon's dead! But he died heroically! He did a heroic sacrifice! But it's okay because he gets to rest in peace now! It's sad! BE SAD!" I know subtlety is hardly Magic's strong point, but it feels like they're cramming this into our faces so hard that it kind of just makes me resent him even more.
Then again I never liked Gideon in the first place, so I may be biased.
I hate modern Magic story (for several reasons I won't get into). But when Ajani, who has long been one of my favourite characters, joined the main cast at the end of Kaladesh, I was actually excited. Finally, a nonhuman (as I've said before, no Nissa does not count) member of the main cast that I can get invested in!
...then in the very next set, he was completely kicked aside. And remained absent in the set after that. And the two set block after that. Before finally returning in Dominaria...for all of, what, one or two scenes? Would you want to watch a full twenty plus episode season of a TV show just for the chance of seeing one or two scenes of a character you liked?
That's the big thing for me. It's all well and good to have them there, now how about we actually let them be important? Actually give them chances to be heroes, rather than existing solely to support the human heroes for the umpty-thousandth time at best?
Like I said in my above post, everyone will have a different line as to just how nonhuman they need to appear, which does make it difficult. All I mean is that it's hardly unreasonable to say that such minor differences like elves, kor, dwarves etc have isn't different enough. You may disagree, and that's fine, but you must at least understand where someone who believes otherwise is coming from. I, for one, am never going to look at, for example, Nahiri, and think "Yeah, this pasty-skinned human sure satisfies my desire for more nonhumans".
Here's one way to think of it. Take one a human character - let's say Liliana. Keep her exactly as she is, but say "She's not actually a human, she's actually a Namuh, a race that happens to look exactly like humans!". Yeah, it shouldn't be hard to understand why that's not particularly satisfying to people who want more nonhumans. Now do the same thing - take Liliana exactly as she is, but with one minor tweak - let's say, she has slit pupils like a cat. "There you go! Funny looking eyes! Now she's totally not human!". Yeah, again, shouldn't be hard to understand why that's not exactly something we're after when we say we want more nonhumans.
Satisfying nonhumans need to be significantly different from actual humans. And yes, everyone will have a different "line" as to just how different is significant enough to count, but surely it's not hard to understand why things like "pointy ears", "off colour skin" or "unusually short" isn't going to hit that line for a lot of us.
Here's my answer to that - why does it not go both ways? People would look at the human characters differently if they weren't human. People would perceive Chandra differently if she were a goblin, they'd look at Gideon differently if he were a centaur. Even if nothing else about the characters changed, people would perceive them differently. If that's the case, which I absolutely believe it is, then it's not unreasonable to say that having so many "non"humans who look almost exactly like humans doesn't really satisfy those of us who want actual nonhumans.
...going off topic a little, but man this is something I'm passionate about.
Then again I never liked Gideon in the first place, so I may be biased.