Though I am a little sad that after Kelly Digges, I see that another man highly responsible for the gem that is Dominaria left Wizards.
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- Caranthir
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Losing Miles had to hurt, indeed. I like your choice of team....playing with Miles and Phobeya together is one of my preferred combinations. Just add Harass and you got my fav "supervillain" team. But Sil is powerful with any high-damage super character.
He refers to Tolarian Academy (kind of).
He refers to Temporal Aperture.
Only minor complaint:like on Urza's Ruinous Blast,he is depicted in the most well-known planeswalker attire from Invasion block,instead of his mortal form. But I suppose it was made with the same reason like the URB - so that people recognize him.
Final thoughts: I am giving this 7,5/10.
First of all, it was a titanic effort to describe such a conflict believably. With the chosen method of different POVs and not an omniscient narrator, some things were just hinted and not explored deeper, like Sorin-Nahiri fight. But that is okay, because otherwise it would be a damned mess. Choosing a rookie walker like Teyo to be basically the main spectator was a good move. Yes, someone would complain that it means we got several pages of Teyo and the company underground, and just like two paragraphs of some emotional reunion..but that is how it is meant to be.
Second, I liked the writing. Simply liked. It is no worse than Martha Wells' Dominaria. What I find disruptive was the seemingly random capitalization of some words. Okay, I grudgingly accepted seeing Planeswalker again with capital (P), like in the ancient comics. But Hazoret's Spear?
Third - for everyone complaining about predictability - I actually liked how all the stratagems supposed to lead to Bolas's downfall played (at least to some extent) to his hand.
- the thing with the Beacon: devised to call planeswalkers to fight Bolas, in fact planted to the Firemind by Bolas and devised to call walkers for Bolas to harvest, really in fact known by Mizzet and Ugin to make things happen (with expected high casualties for having just a shot to stop Bolas). Leaves Zarek with guilt about being partially responsible for all walkers that died - possible character growth?
- to certain extension, this is also valid for Jace
- the whole Blackblade thing.
- the fact that the newly resurrected Mizzet managed only to take out Kefnet and then fainted. Of course, not exactly Apocalypse levels of hope lost, but it was there.
- And I must admit that I liked the twist with Vraska. Because everybody expected the climax to be different, Jace restoring her memory in crucial moment, her petrifying Bolas or something, everybody rejoices and dances, Ewoks bang on stormtrooper helmets... instead, a kraul telepath restores her mind in the prequels and she kills Isperia and plunges the whole world deeper into crisis just because she failed to control herself about the old injustices, and, like Ral, is partially responsible for what comes next.
- I liked the solution of elimination of the Living Guildpact power by disrupting the leyline nexus. Makes sense.
- And I liked the many hinted future stories to be explored - what happened between Karn and Sarkhan to just coldly acknowledge each other, what is the story of The Wanderer and Sarkhan, it would also be interesting to go back to Davriel after all this, because he went on full badass mode in one moment - but I loved the fact, that despite his card does not reflect that, the book makes use of his spellstealing exactly as in the Children.
- Dack's chapters were immensely satisfying here. Good way of saying farewell.
- I have already spoken about the walker cameos. I am disappointed that the Story Circle walkers in particular did not get a greater role (with the exception of Ajani, of course). Tamiyo, Narset, newly Kiora. Ashiok and Kasmina are not mentioned once at all. Tibalt is in one sentence about leading devils into battle, but not before and not after. I hoped to learn more about The Wanderer, besides three really cool action scenes. At least Yanggu & Yanling were funny.
- overall - the book is different than those in the past. But also of the piles of mess from Wintermute, and the enthusiastic, but amateurish attempts of Doug Beyer (Alara Unbroken, The Secretist). And after all those years, I am not disappointed.
- now that you mention it, I checked the book, and Kasmina is not mentioned once. Yeah, it seems that Yanling was replaced by her in the cards.
- there's actually quite high number of planeswalker deaths, not just named ones...
Jace didn’t even know the names of the fallen. Hadn’t even realized there were this many Planeswalkers to fall.
Who was that vedalken? Who was that tall elven woman? Who was that four-armed ogre or that very short green-haired man or
that ancient crone or that frightened teenager or…?
a large viashino with lime-green skin materialized right in front of her, surrounded by the distinct gold aura of a Planeswalker.
He had just enough time to hiss, “What izzzz thissss?” before a female Eternal grabbed him from behind - pity to see a viashino walker and not even learned his name...
Rhonas reached out faster than Angrath’s chain, grabbing a human Planeswalker with a shaved head and metal-casting powers...
We’ve kept the Dreadhorde at bay, but it’s a losing battle. Khazi was harvested when an Eternal punched its hand right through the wall and grabbed her by the wrist.” - actually a named one, yet unknown to us.
An unnammed vedalken walker is also seen harvested. The number of walkers arriving is said to be over two hundred...
The cruel thing is that the walkers are super-vulnerable to the Eternals, more than mortals- a firm grip is enough...and the God-Eternals does not have the dignity to explode upon harvesting.
- the saddest thing is that all the harvested sparks in the end dissipate after Bolas is attacked by Bontu and Oketra and the Elderspell fizzles into nothing.
- Mazirek was Bolas's agent, busted by Vraska and killed by his fellow kraul.
https://mtg.gamepedia.com/War_of_the_Spark_prequel
That will cover the setup for War, like
Angrath was pretty awesome, especially before he went hunting Eternals with Huatli. His speech like "well, I am trapped for the second time by this stupid thing, and I just want to go home to my daughters and kick this dragon's minions ass. Just show me what to hit."
Some musings:
-Sorin and Nahiri are mentioned like twice, once fighting together, once fighting against Eternals (their quarrel forgotten for time being). Because the book is written from several POVs and not an omniscient narrator, this makes sense.
- a certain thing revealed about Ral Zarek is...surprising.
- I quite liked the writing, it fits the chosen way of telling the story (the limited POV of characters)
- plenty of walkers are just cameoing without even speaking (Narset, Tamiyo), Tibalt is mentioned once, Ashiok not at all. But there is Mu Yanling, who does not have a card in the set.
- Mowu can "transform" from the cute puppy into a big, three-tailed dog.
- team-up of Karn, Samut, Dack, Nixilis and Sarkhan to destroy the Planar Bridge on Amonkhet is great.
- Dack actually has a great arc and lots of action before dying, and his POVs including his passing are well-written. His death is unfornutate, and indirectly caused by the intentional reactivation of the Sun by the allies, so that Bolas cannot escape. It comes in a critical moment for Dack, because he would be able to planeswalk from the Eternal's grip.
- Davriel actually fights a bit.
- we do not learn much about The Wanderer.
- what is a little annoying is having to wait for the prequel stories, because the book starts immediately after their conclusion.
https://twitter.com/Card_Kingdom/status/1118967579421356032
Fixed that for you.
I absolutely love the fact that it is just Oketra, poor Oketra, who extracts his spark. Karmic justice.
https://soundcloud.com/user-345643028/war-preview-the-end-of-nicol-bolas
1RG
Creature-Human Berserker (U)
Haste
When ~ attacks, it gets +X/+0 until EOT, where X is the greatest power among creatures you control.
"If the system is broken, break the system." - Domri Rade
0/4
I think Wizards let her live only to troll us
Excellently said. That was my reasoning for the Rakdos not joining Bolas all the time, it is nice to see the parun himself basically embody the philosophy in a crucial (kinda) moment.
In short:
Yes, Oketra was aiming at Gideon.
Yes, it is friggin' RAKDOS who gave him a ride.
Followed by Desperate Lunge/Gideon Blackblade and Tyrant's Scorn.