Perhaps it's just me, but I occasionally like legends that don't necessarily have reams of background. If they all get their story told in full, you end up with something like the Legends Novels where everyone is important, and thus, nobody is.
My favorite thing about Ob Nixilis is the Worldwake expansion symbol drilled into his head and glowing. To me, that tells his story much better than a few paragraphs about why he's stuck on Zendikar.
The worst part is when another player casts the same planeswalker. I mean, what were you doing in his deck, Tamiyo? Did you forget those endless summer nights we spent listening to Advantage Lucy and reading aloud from Sorairo Magatama? I'd expect Liliana to respond to anybody with enough mana and a crooked smile, but you? I thought you had class.
Don't you have any idea, Tamiyo, any idea at all how a man can hurt inside when he sees you enter the battlefield next to someone else's Stasis?
Wanting to help her home plane no matter what the cost?
That's about as white as it gets.
Kiora's not fighting the Eldrazi by rallying bands of brave but youthful human soldiers to the cause. She's throwing giant, many-tentacled sea monsters at them. She couldn't get more U/G unless she was also scream-singing Wolfmother lyrics.
Elspeth is charmingly terrible at her job. I'm sure the warriors on Theros raised their eyebrows when she burst in swearing she'd totally save the day, because they heard what happened on Alara and New Phyrexia, but figured "Eh, she might not ruin everything this time."
Then her after-battle kegger turns into a homecoming parade for Xenagos and Elspeth just shrugs and smiles like "Whoops, party foul!"
Way too much effort put into whining over something so trivial.
I appreciate your concern for my time, but that took very little of it to write and edit.
Anything that makes Magic cards less attractive is not what I would consider trivial. They may be aesthetic, streamlined, and just the sort of thing to compete in today's fast-paced marketplace, but they aren't pretty. The rectangle of artwork shouldn't have to pull the whole sled, considering how long flavor text has been napping in the back.
Picture it now, friends. Garruk and Liliana are circling one another across the barren landscape of a distant plane. Their eyes crackle with energy, their teeth grit and fists clench. This is a moment in which old scores will be settled and injuries both mental and physical avenged.
Garruk sends out his mightiest spell-beast in a torrent of green mana, Liliana throws up a dazzling barrage of dark, defensive sorcery. Suddenly the tension shatters.
"Judge!" Garruk screams.
A judge out of the smoky wasteland.
"My opponent is using an illegal spell." The Wildspeaker insists.
Liliana is frozen in place, hovering between shock and outrage. The judge walks over to inspect her spell. Careful examination is made of everything from the copyright text to the mana symbols.
The judge shakes his head. "I'm sorry. This spell is counterfeit. It doesn't have the holo-foil stamp present on all rare and mythic cards."
Liliana's spell dissipates and she is led away from the plane, protesting her innocence A large "disqualified" stamp is placed on her remaining spells, which are carefully stacked and taken to be destroyed.
"Also, I heard she doesn't like the new Slivers!" Garruk calls out.
The judge shakes Garruk's hand for being such a dilligent wizard/beast hunter guy in the quest to stamp out anything that doesn't look like a sub-premium 1980s baseball card. It is a rough business, that of planeswalking, but a safe one where Magic's intellectual property is protected by making the cards look as terrible as possible.
Funny story: Three days ago I'm pawing through my collection which just happens to occupy one very long, low shelf (the floor), and I discover a Theros Swamp and a Temple of Triumph, scribbled upon by me! "But Powdered Blackblade," I said to myself. "You altered and mailed out a set of basic lands from Theros and a couple nonbasics along with the oversized cards this year, right?"
It seems my gift was incomplete. The sleeves were stuck together (because I drew on them as well), and lay helpless, unable to cry out that they'd been forgotten.
So, Slavan, if you don't mind PM'ing your address to a near-total stranger, I'd be happy to send you the two cards that failed to reach their new home.
The item you're talking about was called a Deck Byndr. They were made by a company called Rembrandt and distributed by Ultra Pro. The copyright on the box says '1995', which is probably when they first came out.
They have a dragon's face up close on the front, a Jester's Cap-ish looking head on the spine, and a twisting wurm on the back.
I only ever saw these for sale at one hobby shop back in the late 90s, so I've got no idea how rare or plentiful these are.
I began collecting Magic cards during Legends, and stopped after Ice Age came out. At the time it felt like there were way too many cards to try and get.
At middle school I was coaxed into learning how to actually play the game, I picked it back up right when Mirage was released, attempted to turn pro and quit for what I thought was the last time when Mercadian Masques showed up (say what you want about hindsight, that was a rough expansion to follow Urza).
After selling/giving away most of my cards, I started collecting again for fun during Scourge and since then have waffled between playing and collecting, with arguable degrees of success.
Since when does Scott M. Fischer's artwork look like Terese Nielsen's? Like dead on...?!
Fischer and Nielsen have played around in the same abstract space for years, but the two aren't really that similar. Nielsen is probably closer to Ron Spencer, the way they both pile detail into their paintings.
The artwork for Kiora predates Fischer's cards in Ravnica 2: Lovers Again, and before that set, he was still painting massive full-scale art like Serra Avenger and Imperious Perfect.
Everyone knows that the planeswalker most interested in Kiora's arrival in Nissa Revane. Up until now, Nissa has been undefeated in the multiverse's much-loved, high stakes game of planeswalker racing, ever since she lashed a harness to Emrakul's topmost cranial pyramid and swept the Zendikar Classic, easily beating out Gideon and his meager efforts to tame an Eldrazi Spawn, and Jace, who simply leapt on Chandra's shoulders and began shouting instructions.
Kiora Atua and her kraken mount Gigglepuss the Unrepentant represent the greatest threat to Nissa's title. The Theros Open is coming up, and with a field previously sparse due to Elspeth's moral objection to the sport, Xenagos's consistent failure of the drug test, and Ashiok being unable to communicate with other beings outside the realm of terrifying thoughts, it becomes a heated race to see if newcomer Kiora can spur her kraken to victory against Nissa.
Of course, one can't discount the possibility of the mysterious, masked Racer M showing up astride The Unspeakable. Her sudden appearance at the Innistrad Rally is what cost Sorin Markov and his chariot of multicolored angels their victory.
You rarely get these impressions from the Magic cards, though. But if we're interpreting Kiora through that meager lens, I would assume she'll either play an integral role in the overarching story, or... not. There's really only two kinds of planeswalkers. Important ones on whose back a story can be carried, and the ones who get thrown in for the heck of it.
We tend to take things easier around here, but even then there's a limit, and this manages to hop over it. While it is important to foster a relaxed atmosphere, this kind of devolved into gibberish and spam. We try to make things cool for everyone, but something so elaborate really doesn't contribute as much as it should.
This year, when you receive your holiday gifts from online strangers who share the same appreciation for color-coded rectangles, you may say to yourself "I can sell this Galspanic alter for a Swiss fortune!" or "Powdered Blackblade's alters have dragged me weeping to the edge of sanity and threatened to kick me over the slippery precipice of my own mind!" But you will not be able to say "The alters I got this year were the best!"
Because I'm saying it. The one's I got were the best, and no force in existence will convince me otherwise.
First, let us gaze upon the timeless talents of Serrot_29 and Grant1. Nothing says the holidays are here like a hooded, bone-white death specter, and an elvish Kathryn Erbe getting candy cane acupuncture. Beautiful.
Next come a trio of gorgeous cards you will totally fume with envy over. According to a slip of paper these come from Slavan K. Guiser, hereafter known as the greatest of men to ever leave his footprints on our planet. Let me state beforehand that these cards are not done justice by the photos. They glitter, they sparkle with an inner light that would shame the disingenuous.
I'm glad Galspanic was brave enough to scan all the cards. I didn't have the chance to buy a new scanner before sending mine out. Whoever gets them has my sympathy. One would assume that after participating in three of these already I would have learned my lesson and abstained, but apparently not.
My favorite thing about Ob Nixilis is the Worldwake expansion symbol drilled into his head and glowing. To me, that tells his story much better than a few paragraphs about why he's stuck on Zendikar.
Don't you have any idea, Tamiyo, any idea at all how a man can hurt inside when he sees you enter the battlefield next to someone else's Stasis?
Kiora's not fighting the Eldrazi by rallying bands of brave but youthful human soldiers to the cause. She's throwing giant, many-tentacled sea monsters at them. She couldn't get more U/G unless she was also scream-singing Wolfmother lyrics.
Then her after-battle kegger turns into a homecoming parade for Xenagos and Elspeth just shrugs and smiles like "Whoops, party foul!"
I appreciate your concern for my time, but that took very little of it to write and edit.
Anything that makes Magic cards less attractive is not what I would consider trivial. They may be aesthetic, streamlined, and just the sort of thing to compete in today's fast-paced marketplace, but they aren't pretty. The rectangle of artwork shouldn't have to pull the whole sled, considering how long flavor text has been napping in the back.
Garruk sends out his mightiest spell-beast in a torrent of green mana, Liliana throws up a dazzling barrage of dark, defensive sorcery. Suddenly the tension shatters.
"Judge!" Garruk screams.
A judge out of the smoky wasteland.
"My opponent is using an illegal spell." The Wildspeaker insists.
Liliana is frozen in place, hovering between shock and outrage. The judge walks over to inspect her spell. Careful examination is made of everything from the copyright text to the mana symbols.
The judge shakes his head. "I'm sorry. This spell is counterfeit. It doesn't have the holo-foil stamp present on all rare and mythic cards."
Liliana's spell dissipates and she is led away from the plane, protesting her innocence A large "disqualified" stamp is placed on her remaining spells, which are carefully stacked and taken to be destroyed.
"Also, I heard she doesn't like the new Slivers!" Garruk calls out.
The judge shakes Garruk's hand for being such a dilligent wizard/beast hunter guy in the quest to stamp out anything that doesn't look like a sub-premium 1980s baseball card. It is a rough business, that of planeswalking, but a safe one where Magic's intellectual property is protected by making the cards look as terrible as possible.
It seems my gift was incomplete. The sleeves were stuck together (because I drew on them as well), and lay helpless, unable to cry out that they'd been forgotten.
So, Slavan, if you don't mind PM'ing your address to a near-total stranger, I'd be happy to send you the two cards that failed to reach their new home.
They have a dragon's face up close on the front, a Jester's Cap-ish looking head on the spine, and a twisting wurm on the back.
I only ever saw these for sale at one hobby shop back in the late 90s, so I've got no idea how rare or plentiful these are.
At middle school I was coaxed into learning how to actually play the game, I picked it back up right when Mirage was released, attempted to turn pro and quit for what I thought was the last time when Mercadian Masques showed up (say what you want about hindsight, that was a rough expansion to follow Urza).
After selling/giving away most of my cards, I started collecting again for fun during Scourge and since then have waffled between playing and collecting, with arguable degrees of success.
Fischer and Nielsen have played around in the same abstract space for years, but the two aren't really that similar. Nielsen is probably closer to Ron Spencer, the way they both pile detail into their paintings.
The artwork for Kiora predates Fischer's cards in Ravnica 2: Lovers Again, and before that set, he was still painting massive full-scale art like Serra Avenger and Imperious Perfect.
Kiora Atua and her kraken mount Gigglepuss the Unrepentant represent the greatest threat to Nissa's title. The Theros Open is coming up, and with a field previously sparse due to Elspeth's moral objection to the sport, Xenagos's consistent failure of the drug test, and Ashiok being unable to communicate with other beings outside the realm of terrifying thoughts, it becomes a heated race to see if newcomer Kiora can spur her kraken to victory against Nissa.
Of course, one can't discount the possibility of the mysterious, masked Racer M showing up astride The Unspeakable. Her sudden appearance at the Innistrad Rally is what cost Sorin Markov and his chariot of multicolored angels their victory.
You rarely get these impressions from the Magic cards, though. But if we're interpreting Kiora through that meager lens, I would assume she'll either play an integral role in the overarching story, or... not. There's really only two kinds of planeswalkers. Important ones on whose back a story can be carried, and the ones who get thrown in for the heck of it.
We tend to take things easier around here, but even then there's a limit, and this manages to hop over it. While it is important to foster a relaxed atmosphere, this kind of devolved into gibberish and spam. We try to make things cool for everyone, but something so elaborate really doesn't contribute as much as it should.
Because I'm saying it. The one's I got were the best, and no force in existence will convince me otherwise.
First, let us gaze upon the timeless talents of Serrot_29 and Grant1. Nothing says the holidays are here like a hooded, bone-white death specter, and an elvish Kathryn Erbe getting candy cane acupuncture. Beautiful.
Next come a trio of gorgeous cards you will totally fume with envy over. According to a slip of paper these come from Slavan K. Guiser, hereafter known as the greatest of men to ever leave his footprints on our planet. Let me state beforehand that these cards are not done justice by the photos. They glitter, they sparkle with an inner light that would shame the disingenuous.
Be jealous.
Oh well. Cringe, mortals!