MTG Salvation

Quote from Faruel »

Maybe we have a 4-Faction setting in Kaldheim? I mean we have some evidence for that. 4 MDFC-Lands and the leaked figures were a Wolf, Snake, Odin-Like dude and an Winged Woman. I believe that Ixalan was like that. Vampire, Pirates, Merfolk and Humans.

They weren't with Ixalan factions' structure, i don't think we will have something similar in Kaldheim

Quote from Tiro of Meletis »

To be fair, Viven is actually the worst character in MTG. Although only Vorthos know that. I remember celebrating her depiction in Zack Stella art and thinking she had this amazing story of a lost home, hoping she would get revenge on Bolas someday, only to get a righteous eco-terrorist that only drove my criticism of OP Planeswalkers further by single-handedly leveling an entire advanced city of powerful vampire mages. Mages that are capable of conquering an entire continent and crossing an ocean to hold their own on another, but an whole city of them couldn't handle one person.

Vivien was my favourite planeswalker before Ikoria (just a little info for anyone thinking that there is an agenda behind my hate for Kaya).
Vivien may look like a mary sue because she has too a super duper special power that help her out a lot. The difference is that her power isn't her but it's an item, if you take away her arkbow she's almost nothing (and she can't make another one. Not can anyone else); also she paid a high price for that power.
But after Ikoria i hate her too. Actually i don't hate her, i just find her the cringiest thing ever made. I could handle an eco-terrorist extremist... but you have to write it in a good and credible way. What she said about Ikoria looked like the rambling of a vegan emo teenager who never met another real person in his life. If you wanna advocate animal's rights, ok. If you wanna condemn killing animals even for eating, you may sound a little dumb related to some fantasy planes, but ok i guess. If you condemn people just fightning for their own survival, to not get eaten... that's beyond dumb. That's a level of not being a credible character that shouldn't even be possible.

Quote from Decadent_Creed »

Not exactly. Characters experience undeserved and unearned fortune all the time and that's not a problem.

That's like your opinion, which is clearly not shared by many others here

If you are happy with Kaya going around in a norse block killing Valhallan spirits because "ghosts are bad!" good for you. But don't expect the same by people with a little better critical sense.
If it comes out that the big bad of Kaldheim is some kind of ghost it will still be *****ty because when you think of norse mythology you don't think of a BBEG ghost and because Kaya can kill it extremely easy. She just need the stab the ghost with a knife (not a mary sue at all, totally a well balanced and thought after power).

If you are so adamant at the thesis of racism and wanna expose us supposed bad racist mtg players, i suggest you to look at the announcements of Ikoria and M21. If the people triggered by Kaya were triggered also by Vivien and Teferi being the faces of those sets, you have found your racists. Otherwise, you just have found people who dislike Kaya because of the countless reasons that have been posted in this thread and that you are choosing to ignore.

Quote from Decadent_Creed »

Professor X is the only one who can stop Magneto with his helmet off. Oh I guess he's a Mary Sue because he has a special power and it saves the day.
King Arthur is the only one who can pull the sword from the stone and lead the people to victory. He must be a Mary Sue too.
Luke Skywalker becomes super strong and can basically do no wrong in the original trilogy. Mary Sue.
James Bond might as well be named Double Oh Sue because he's a big old Mary Sue.
Michael Jordan in Space Jam? More like Mary Sue Jordan.
Hercules? I think you mean Suecules.
Bruce Willis in Die Hard? Mary Sue. Only special boy Bruce Willis can beat the terrorists because special boy Bruce Willis is just so much better than other cops or the FBI.

You can't even tell the difference between a good written character and a bad one. Being successfull is not the requirement for being a mary sue. Being successfull without earning it and without facing any consequence/hardship is. A description that fits Kaya and not many characters you listed.
If you wanna get triggered because the term "mary sue" is gendered... well get triggered i guess? The term started after a female character called mary sue, it's not random.
If you ask me, a male character can totally be a mary sue. Many male characters from action movies can be considered mary sues. But those kind of movies have *****ty writing and everyone knows it. If we are helding what is supposed to be a fantasy story on the same standard as Rambo or Fast&Furious... well maybe that's already a sign that fantasy story is *****.

As i said before "ghost-assassin is hired to kill some spirits" is a *****ty recipe for a norse block. I of course can't know what will happen on Kaldheim, but if it will be something like Kaya killing spirits of Valhalla because spirits are "unnatural", it will be a *****ty story.

Quote from Decadent_Creed »

Wait now I'm confused. Is she a bad person because of all her flaws or is she literally a flawless character because she's a Mary Sue? And don't you think it's a little silly to just use the term Mary Sue to describe a female character you don't like? Why not just call her a Karen too if these words have lost all meaning?

She is a mary sue because she is a mary sue. She can solve any problem with her special power and come out unscathed.
In the game mechanic is extremely easy to exile a spirit, but in the lore is a power that almost no one has.
Except Kaya! Enter the miracolous power she received from birth and that she can can easily use without any training/character development/whatever. And no, that power is not also ghost-killing, is also planeswalking!
And yeah, that can be said for many neowalkers and i say that about them too, don't worry.
Returning to Kaya, she go to a plane, kill and extremely old and powerful being with a knife, get some money and get out.
Oh yeah, let's add the fact that her power somehow let her bypass the fact non-walker can't do planar travels! That will totally make her a good written character!
... i don't get why i should like her. Is that because she helped a tyrant like Marchesa get in power? Is that because she helped Bolas with his plan? Is that because she got some money while doing so?

There are plenty of neowalkers i dislike and that i'm glad are not the face of this block. In the end Kaya isn't even one of worse, it just striked me how much some people had to do mental gymnastic to defend what is a mediocre written character, at best.
If you want to make it about racism, do it. Honestly i don't care about some strangers on the internet insulting me because i dislike their favourite avengers wannabe. I know who i am as a person, i know for who i voted and i know that being antiracism doesn't mean like the black character no matter what.

In the end i just think that "ghost-killer mercenary get paid to kill some old spirits" doesn't make a good story for a norse block, no matter the skin color of the ghost-killer mercenary. Maybe Kaya will do something different this time, but let's be honest she's a one trick pony.
If you really want a noncaucasian woman as the face of Kaldheim, idk probably Huatli or Samut could have been better. Huatli could learn poetry about Kaldheim's heroes and become a skald or Samut could have done... idk warrior stuff.

Quote from Decadent_Creed »

You're acting like this scenario is unique to Kaya and the Obzedat as opposed to the poor writing found all throughout the Magic storyline. I mean wasn't that kind of what happened when they wrapped up Battle for Zendikar block? A group of tweens managed to hold hands and then use a BIG FIREBALL to beat imperceptible extraplanar entities that destroy worlds? Then there's Innistrad 2. Was Lili and her high school friends holding off Emrakul with the chain veil until the eldrazi decided to jump in the moon for no reason better writing? Vraska killed a guild leader no problem and without much pomp and circumstance but no one really complains about that. Why is it only Kaya's dumb story you guys have a problem with? There's plenty of dumb stories to whinge about but this minor point in the last Ravnica block sure is getting an undue amount of focus.

Lol, putting words in my mouth? Yeah, those are examples of dumb storytelling too. The killing of the eldrazi was atrocious too, but at least it had a little more planning behind.

Quote from Xeruh »

Something tells me you must not like almost any form of fiction, as “guy more powerful than protagonist still loses” is hardly original to Magic, nor is “protagonist has a unique power”.

Yeah and mary sue succeeding at everything because it's mary sue is still bad storytelling, no matter how much you try to twist it, generalize it or strawman it.

Quote from Xeruh »

In general just can’t agree with that stance. If what happened with the Obzedat is too easy then you really are just setting it up so Legendary creatures are infinitely more powerful than Walkers, which is absurd.

Yeah, how dare those millennias-old creatures be more powerful than some 20-years-old walker who was just born with a special power because the plot said so?

Can i scream "PAY TO WIIIIIIN!!!"?
By the way nice art. A gingerman from Eldraine?

Quote from Werewolf_Rawr »

So who cares? The few like me that are still around that don't appreciate lazy, power house, self-contained cards.

Yeah, printing him as a 2/2 with trample and vigilance would totally have created a format-warping powerhouse
No one will play this because there are through many hoops you have to jump before making him useful, especially in naya where you have a lot of valid generals

Quote from Ryperior74 »

once the next turn hits....JUST PLAY ANYTHING WITH MONARCH ABILITY!

Yeah... and then you get a 3/3 phytohydra
You use it for attacking? You opponent won't block
You use it for blocking? Can't stop evasion or big tramplers from getting monarch back
You somehow manage to give him tons of counters? Still chumpable and dies to removal.

You have to waste resources getting monarch back, you have to have resources making him big, you have to waste resources making evasive, you have to waste resources protecting him. That's too much

Quote from seilaoque »

Jared is overflowing with flavor.

unfortunately he's BAD... I mean, really, really bad.
lol.

you pay 3 mana for a vanilla 3/3 that will make someone else draw a card....
and when you're finally able to hit the monarch with a creature he's still arguably worse than Stormwild Capridor
man, this is a sad day for me. hahahah

Yeah, they could have given him trample or vigilance

Damn, soul of eternity is better than Serra Avatar, but Serra Avatar promo has a way better art...

Lol they downgraded Daring Saboteur... it took really little time to understand how weak that card was as a rare. Poor Ixalan.

Quote from boombox_smk »

Obviously this goes in an Esper list with Underworld Dreams and Tainted Remedy. Some Vision Skeins, maybe some Megrim + Delirium Skeins.

The opponent can just refuse

I was disappointed that Jared didn't get a card. I was not expecting him to be the naya one.