I don't see where the two have to be mutually exclusive.
I don't understand why they can't do a good job on the story on top of the game design considering the fact that it isn't that hard to not set yourself up to be contradicted again and again.
Hell, they've already decided that they have no interest in a solid definite timeline for precisely the reason that they don't want anybody to be able to point out contradictions.... of course, this has the problem that without a timeline they too often contradict themselves.
I get that they have to work a few years in advance, but it just doesn't seem like it's something hard to take into consideration. This isn't a situation like Scars where there was a last minute change.
Because MtG is a game, first and foremost, and the needs of the game change. Just a few years ago, going back to a previously used plane for a new block wasn't a thing, except for Dominaria; WotC was content to jump from place to place. That meant stories could have closure because you could safely assume that a plane (and its story) were basically finished once the block wrapped up.
But when the decision was made to reuse planes, the closure stories had received previously became a liability. My assumption is that, going forward, any story closure given to a plane's previous appearance will be retconned as necessary to meet the new block's needs, especially the need to repeat what the players liked. It may be bad for the overall story, sure, but anecdotal evidence suggests that players have no idea the guilds even disbanded, so having them come back in RtR fits with what they know (I guess no one read Agents).
And, let's face it, the overall story right now isn't great. Most of the planeswalkers are treated one-dimensionally, what actually happens in a block can be summed up in a paragraph or two, and the focus is on player experience (vignettes) rather than narrative arcs (which didn't go over well when they did it with the Weatherlight). Story and game don't have to be mutually exclusive, sure, but when push comes to shove the story is far and away the most expendable.
I can't see Nissa voluntarily being on Ravnica. She went there briefly after she started planeswalking and NOPE'd out as fast as she could because of how little nature was left.
Also, all the Shandalar references are interesting...
I guess what strikes me is that they're rehabilitating a plane few people remember as a generic fantasy setting instead of using, say, Dominaria (Onea used to be the generic fantasy Core Set location) or making a new plane. I guess they want to conserve planes, so they'd rather flesh out the underused ones they have, but it's also odd that seem to have only used Shandalar in name but not in lore (as Voila pointed out elsewhere). Thus far, there's no references to locations known from pre-revisionist stuff, the MicroProse game, or Lim-Dul & Co.'s adventures there during Ice Age block: they have, in effect, made a new plane without making a new plane. Why?
So...let's hypothesize: what creatures, real or fictional, that could be portrayed in MtG but haven't yet should fall under what type? what mechanics should they have? Is a naga a Snake? Its own type? Is a lamia a Centaur? Its own type?
It's worth noting that the closest thing MtG has to a lamia/naga is Coiling Oracle, a Snake Elf Druid. Maybe they would be Snake Humans?
It's not tremendously good, sure, but it's not awful either. A midrange R/x deck might value the ability to spring a surprise 4/4 on the opponent after fully charging the land.
I love that everyone assumes he left the plane.
Because it's easier to believe he left the world entirely rather than turned his bloody phone off.
The book never said he left. They said he stopped talking and nobody could find him. Which just means he hid himself.
It was a joke, although one tinged with the bitterness of having had this same argument before.
At the end of the day, the popular opinion seems to be as follows:
1) The planeswalker card type is cool and awesome;
2) MtG has characters who are cool and awesome;
3) Therefore, all cool and awesome MtG characters are planeswalkers.
This was why people were jonesing so hard for Avacyn to be a walker and why the collective force of their wishful thinking about Niv risks tearing a hole in continuity, out of which will emerge Niv-Mizzet, Planeswalker.
Really? That's funny, I never remember anybody mentioning he had a spark before. Imagine that.
Niv is not a planeswalker. There is no proof that he might have had a spark. At all.
Interesting that Krenko's flavor text mentions the Azorius. I wonder if the guilds are back in RTR despite being overthrown prior to Agents of Artifice? That they fell is certainly something most people don't seem to know - most people quoting the story are expecting a new guildpact like the one mentioned at the end of the Ravnica novels.
Actually, I would think we would hear more from Shandalar when Liliana breaks or succumbs to the Veil's curse. The Veil is from Shandalar, and so are its makers, so it's likely that any magical MacGuffin needed to resolve the curse will come from there as well.
I just hope for the Medallions to be in. I love those guys.
And let's face it, the blue one would go a LONG way to simmer the pissiness the blue players have been having lately.
Having one medallion out turns all your cancels/dissipates into 2 mana hard counters.
Edit: maybe on second thoughts they never would do that exactly because of the above scenario. Aw well. Too bad.
Medallions are actually not very good outside of combo applications. You're spending mana and a card to save mana over the long run, which is...okay, but if all you're doing is milking a little extra value out of your spells, you're probably better off just running more value cards.
In combo decks, and storm decks in particular, the savings on mana add up over the course of the combo turn. The cards are almost like free Rituals.
That said, storm decks in Modern might be a little too good with Ruby and Sapphire Medallions, but who knows. What storm decks really need is good card selection, which they're missing since the banning of Ponder and Preordain.
I'm fairly certain that if there's a UR walker, it'll be Niv-Mizzet. The fan demand for such a thing is colossal and, depending on how you interpreted his disappearance in the Guildpact novel, it's also canon-supported. Personally, I don't think he is a planeswalker and would rather him stay non-walker to avoid cheapening his character, but I'm very much in the minority on this one.
People seem to forget about the updates to the Ravnica storyline from the planeswalker novels anyway, so I would expect both the guilds to return and for Niv to get an upgrade.
I kinda figured that, but part of me really wants Wizards to do crossovers with other companies. For example (granted this is beyond reason), I think a Drizzet Do'Urden (He's a Dungeons and Dragons character) would be really cool.
That's what I'd like to see happen, but I don't actually ever expect it to happen.
MaRo recently received some questions on his Tumblr about whether D&D would ever feature settings from MtG. His response was that Wizards does not want to cross over its various properties in order to keep them feeling separate and distinct.
As for the Blood Elf, I sincerely doubt Wizards told the artist to draw that. He probably submitted a sketch with her that Creative liked and they let him roll with it.
[Edit - or what about 1 :sym2u::sym2u: ? My thought process is that if it were opened up to other colors - is a hard counter more fair? ]
No.
The experience of Mental Misstep in Legacy showed that blue decks utilize hard counters much better than non-blue decks. The consistency of blue's cantrips combined with the support of other counters makes free or cheap counters much, much better than in non-blue decks, especially decks (like Zoo) whose basic game plans aren't amenable to running counters.
Because MtG is a game, first and foremost, and the needs of the game change. Just a few years ago, going back to a previously used plane for a new block wasn't a thing, except for Dominaria; WotC was content to jump from place to place. That meant stories could have closure because you could safely assume that a plane (and its story) were basically finished once the block wrapped up.
But when the decision was made to reuse planes, the closure stories had received previously became a liability. My assumption is that, going forward, any story closure given to a plane's previous appearance will be retconned as necessary to meet the new block's needs, especially the need to repeat what the players liked. It may be bad for the overall story, sure, but anecdotal evidence suggests that players have no idea the guilds even disbanded, so having them come back in RtR fits with what they know (I guess no one read Agents).
And, let's face it, the overall story right now isn't great. Most of the planeswalkers are treated one-dimensionally, what actually happens in a block can be summed up in a paragraph or two, and the focus is on player experience (vignettes) rather than narrative arcs (which didn't go over well when they did it with the Weatherlight). Story and game don't have to be mutually exclusive, sure, but when push comes to shove the story is far and away the most expendable.
Well, look what they had to work with. The Mirrans were never exactly interesting.
More than that, the ending was completely out of left field. What the heck was the deal with that?
I guess what strikes me is that they're rehabilitating a plane few people remember as a generic fantasy setting instead of using, say, Dominaria (Onea used to be the generic fantasy Core Set location) or making a new plane. I guess they want to conserve planes, so they'd rather flesh out the underused ones they have, but it's also odd that seem to have only used Shandalar in name but not in lore (as Voila pointed out elsewhere). Thus far, there's no references to locations known from pre-revisionist stuff, the MicroProse game, or Lim-Dul & Co.'s adventures there during Ice Age block: they have, in effect, made a new plane without making a new plane. Why?
It's worth noting that the closest thing MtG has to a lamia/naga is Coiling Oracle, a Snake Elf Druid. Maybe they would be Snake Humans?
It's not tremendously good, sure, but it's not awful either. A midrange R/x deck might value the ability to spring a surprise 4/4 on the opponent after fully charging the land.
It was a joke, although one tinged with the bitterness of having had this same argument before.
At the end of the day, the popular opinion seems to be as follows:
1) The planeswalker card type is cool and awesome;
2) MtG has characters who are cool and awesome;
3) Therefore, all cool and awesome MtG characters are planeswalkers.
This was why people were jonesing so hard for Avacyn to be a walker and why the collective force of their wishful thinking about Niv risks tearing a hole in continuity, out of which will emerge Niv-Mizzet, Planeswalker.
But...but...but...he left Ravnica!
Medallions are actually not very good outside of combo applications. You're spending mana and a card to save mana over the long run, which is...okay, but if all you're doing is milking a little extra value out of your spells, you're probably better off just running more value cards.
In combo decks, and storm decks in particular, the savings on mana add up over the course of the combo turn. The cards are almost like free Rituals.
That said, storm decks in Modern might be a little too good with Ruby and Sapphire Medallions, but who knows. What storm decks really need is good card selection, which they're missing since the banning of Ponder and Preordain.
People seem to forget about the updates to the Ravnica storyline from the planeswalker novels anyway, so I would expect both the guilds to return and for Niv to get an upgrade.
MaRo recently received some questions on his Tumblr about whether D&D would ever feature settings from MtG. His response was that Wizards does not want to cross over its various properties in order to keep them feeling separate and distinct.
As for the Blood Elf, I sincerely doubt Wizards told the artist to draw that. He probably submitted a sketch with her that Creative liked and they let him roll with it.
No.
The experience of Mental Misstep in Legacy showed that blue decks utilize hard counters much better than non-blue decks. The consistency of blue's cantrips combined with the support of other counters makes free or cheap counters much, much better than in non-blue decks, especially decks (like Zoo) whose basic game plans aren't amenable to running counters.