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Magic: the Gathering |OT11| Amonkhet - Have you ever had decks with a Pharaoh?

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Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Magic Story - Hour of Revelation
* The story starts with a flashback. It appears to be soon after the Mending, and Bolas still has his old planeswalker powers, but he's running out of time before they're gone forever, so he has to get his affairs in order.
* He was already messing around with Amonkhet, but now he has to rush things more than he wanted. By this point, it's already the case that most of the plane is wrecked, leaving only the city.
* Bolas attacks the city and the eight gods fight back, but he easily fends them off. He casts a spell to kill everyone able to walk, leaving only babies incapable of prayer, further weakening the gods.
* He stores away three gods for later use and brainwashes the others. He releases mummies to act as caretakers. He writes his own prophecies and erects monuments to himself. He enchants the second sun to move according to his will, so it fulfills the prophecy of his return whenever he feels like returning.
* As suspected, he's using the plane to build an army.

* In the present, Djeru and Samut run through the city. Only now do they realize how empty it is, with mostly mummies and children, since so many died in the trials.
* The city is in chaos with Bolas returning soon. As Hazoret passes through, children beg her to give them a glorious death too. Djeru realizes it might not be too bad that he didn't die, since he will at least witness Bolas's return.
* Samut makes Djeru promise that they will protect their gods and each other. He nods without knowing what she means.
* Hazoret announces Bolas's arrival as the Gate of the Afterlife slowly opens.
* The Gate fully opens, revealing a desert, just like what's beyond the Hekma. Many are confused, but many cheer anyway.
* Samut asks Hazoret if that's supposed to be paradise. She doesn't reply. People are confused about why Bolas hasn't appeared yet.
* A dark figure flies out of the gate, and many assume it's Bolas, but Djeru recognizes it as the final test, a demon.
* The demon cuts himself and bleeds into the river. This turns the entire river into blood, killing everything in it.
* The demon calls out for Liliana to face him. Djeru is surprised that he would know her.

I feel like doing the whole plagues of Egypt thing but demons seems a little too on the nose.
 

DrArchon

Member
wonder what races will be playable other than human and elf

Merfolk and Leonin seem pretty obvious. Maybe Goblin? I'm figuring if it's a race other than Dragon that's gotten a planeswalker, they're fair game.

Which means... shit that doesn't leave a ton of options, does it?
 

Santiako

Member
So, Archenemy has new basic land art (seem to be before/after devastation), I wonder if these are the HOU basic lands + 5 full art lands.

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Rinh3bO.png
SlyaBUN.png


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E8D8naw.png


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kIJnvqn.png
 

DrArchon

Member
I imagined it has more to do with skeleton than being bipedal.

Dwarves are tiny humans but Goblins are real work to do.

I'd like to think they'd put in enough work for some variety of races for players to chose from. I'd hate to see the game come out and have Merfolk rep blue, Elves rep green, and nothing but generic humans rep red.

It's not like I'm asking for them to have Slivers as an option.
 

Daedardus

Member
They added Archenemy Nicol Bolas to Gatherer and Lightning Bolt has flavour text. *sigh*
I'll still get a copy, but I really want a frontier-frame Lightning Bolt with centered text and no flavour text.
The other ones I'm looking for are Stormblood Berserker with keyworded Menace and frontier-frame Grim Lavamancer (this one is lovely).

Flavour text lightning bolt is the best lighting bolt though. It feels so empty without. Plus, the text isn't that bad itself.
 

red13th

Member
Flavour text lightning bolt is the best lighting bolt though. It feels so empty without. Plus, the text isn't that bad itself.

Strongly disagree. I love cards with centered text. Nothing against Bolt's flavour text though.


I'm using this beauty but frontier-frame right now to me trumps centered text. I like the Beleren font too.
 

Daedardus

Member
Strongly disagree. I love cards with centered text. Nothing against Bolt's flavour text though.



I'm using this beauty but frontier-frame right now to me trumps centered text. I like the Beleren font too.

Somewhere, I understand where you're coming from, but I really appreciate the outlined text on the flavoured one. It lets the card hold more weight. If you want to go minimalist the full-art is better in my opinion. Really thinking of picking up a set though, anyone know how much the MSRP of the whole package is?
 
Real talk: The MMO is such a brain-dead, late by 10 years idea that I'm not surprised it's a thing, because it's right up there with "We shouldn't even release Magic Duels Origins on Android". Gramted, I think the "smart idea" would be to have the Starting Zone be Race Dependent (and adapt very much something closer to TOR then WoW), with the big bad of the Plane causing you to spark at/around level 10. Then you have the first Planeswalk be Ravnica, where you meet up with the Gatewatch, and then bing-bang-boom you've got a stew going.

Second thing: Hahaha that "No Religious references" went straight out of the window per Today's Story, because "Turn River into Blood" is straight out of Exodus(and the GOAT DreamWorks Film Prince of Egypt).

I'd like to change my nominee for the "Moses Figure" to Nissa, considering her talk with Kefnet a few weeks ago/her relation with Leylines. I still have money on Gideon "Dying", but I'm thinking that the big character arc for Nissa(Lol, Wizards and character arcs) is "realize the Eldrazi are a needed part of the Multiverse, willingly becomes The Silver Surfer to Emrakul's Galactus". Granted, that would actually require dynamic characters from WotC, who have shown relatively nothing of that sort.
 

ultron87

Member
That flashback was a cool read. Bolas disintegrating the entire non-infant population of the plane in a flash sure is a good way to remind everyone of premending planeswalker power.
 
Yeah, I'm not sure who the MMO is for, still. I play and enjoy MMORPGs and I play and enjoy Magic, and I'm not interested in it. I know I'm not representative of the entire union of those groups on the Venn Diagram, but I still figure it's got to be a pretty narrow sliver and the further group of interested parties within it has to be tiny.

I mean, I guess for Wizards you write off a lot of the expenses as "promotion", but I'm not sure how much reach a modern F2P western MMORPG has into new audiences.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Real talk: The MMO is such a brain-dead, late by 10 years idea that I'm not surprised it's a thing, because it's right up there with "We shouldn't even release Magic Duels Origins on Android". Gramted, I think the "smart idea" would be to have the Starting Zone be Race Dependent (and adapt very much something closer to TOR then WoW), with the big bad of the Plane causing you to spark at/around level 10. Then you have the first Planeswalk be Ravnica, where you meet up with the Gatewatch, and then bing-bang-boom you've got a stew going.

Second thing: Hahaha that "No Religious references" went straight out of the window per Today's Story, because "Turn River into Blood" is straight out of Exodus(and the GOAT DreamWorks Film Prince of Egypt).

I'd like to change my nominee for the "Moses Figure" to Nissa, considering her talk with Kefnet a few weeks ago/her relation with Leylines. I still have money on Gideon "Dying", but I'm thinking that the big character arc for Nissa(Lol, Wizards and character arcs) is "realize the Eldrazi are a needed part of the Multiverse, willingly becomes The Silver Surfer to Emrakul's Galactus". Granted, that would actually require dynamic characters from WotC, who have shown relatively nothing of that sort.

Do not want gatewatch
 

Violet_0

Banned
they should have split up the planeswalkers into multiple factions. Every walker who is not part of the Gatewatch is just doing their own thing, there can't be any overarching conflicts across the various planes because it's only ever the Gatewatch and whoever they are fighting against currently

think Ravincia guilds, but with walkers instead and not just confined to one single plane
 
they should have split up the planeswalkers into multiple factions. Every walker who is not part of the Gatewatch is just doing their own thing, there can't be any overarching conflicts across the various planes because it's only ever the Gatewatch and whoever they are fighting against currently

think Ravincia guilds, but with walkers instead and not just confined to one single plane

but there are factions. The infinite consortium for instance, on ravnica.
 
I'll be honest: I would rather they just not do (player) factions.

I understand everyone rushed to copy it as part of the success formula of WoW, and it's actually fairly integral to PvP-based MMOs, but I can't remember the last time I felt like it did anything other than detract from my experience in PvE-focused MMOs.

And I anticipate a relatively low PvP focus, if any, given their prior work and the general direction the genre has trended.
 
they should have split up the planeswalkers into multiple factions. Every walker who is not part of the Gatewatch is just doing their own thing, there can't be any overarching conflicts across the various planes because it's only ever the Gatewatch and whoever they are fighting against currently

think Ravincia guilds, but with walkers instead and not just confined to one single plane

Ehhhhh

I think that kind of thing would be better served by a general faction system (i.e. curry favor between AI factions) coupled to a guild system, no? Players form their own Infinite Consortiums and Gatewatches which interact with existing entities like the Ravnica Guilds or what have you, rather than setting up existing AI factions that the player actually joins themselves. Or that the player joins at the start of the game, at any rate. Maybe you could become an Izzet member or whatever down the road.
 

Violet_0

Banned
since the guilds don't operate beyond Ravincia, it would make more sense if you can join the local factions of whatever plane you're on. Like the Voldaren or Markov on Innistrad, for example

I wasn't only talking about only the MMO, though. Storytelling-wise they can't do anything interesting until they move away from the Guildwatch, the "group of heroes bands together to fight evil" trope is just extremely limiting
 
since the guilds don't operate beyond Ravincia, it would make more sense if you can join the local factions of whatever plane you're on. Like the Voldaren or Markov on Innistrad, for example

I wasn't only talking about only the MMO, though. Story-telling wise they can't do anything interesting until they move away from the Guildwatch, the "group of heroes bands together to fight evil" trope is just extremely limiting

No, I meant like MMO guilds, in terms of being player founded, managed, etc. I was just using Ravnica as an example.

And I think there's a place for the Gatewatch, and having a larger web of Planeswalker factions for them to interact with (and be overshadowed by occasionally) would go a ways to putting them there.
 

Santiako

Member
You know, a game purely set in Ravnica could be awesome. Choose your guild at the start, build your way up to guild champion and end up running the dragon's maze for your guild or something.
 
why does everyone hate mmos now?

mmorpg just seems like the new label for single player games where some parts can be played with friends/groups

sure, the business models tend to be confusing shit, but coming from mtg that shouldn't be a huge detriment
 

Yeef

Member
why does everyone hate mmos now?
I've hated MMO's for a long time.

My biggest problems with a lot of MMO's is that they're designed to be time sinks, because a portion of the player base is going to play virtually nonstop. These days I like the sort of game where I can play for an hour or so per session and feel like I accomplished something. Most MMO's don't fall under that umbrella.
 

Repgnar

Member
Any deck recommendations to get into modern? Mostly just looking for a way to be able to take part in FNM when they have modern nights. Been sticking to Draft/Sealed and haven't really ventured too far from Amonkhet while learning. I'm still really enjoying draft/sealed but my LGS doesn't have enough events in a month for me so wanting to get into my first real format and leaning towards Modern over Standard right now. I know it can be a little more expensive initially but would like to keep the first deck reasonable price-wise.
 

Ashodin

Member
I've hated MMO's for a long time.

My biggest problems with a lot of MMO's is that they're designed to be time sinks, because a portion of the player base is going to play virtually nonstop. These days I like the sort of game where I can play for an hour or so per session and feel like I accomplished something. Most MMO's don't fall under that umbrella.

Guild Wars 2 does that. I would imagine MTG would be built in the way you could piecemeal what you want to do at any given time.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Any deck recommendations to get into modern? Mostly just looking for a way to be able to take part in FNM when they have modern nights. Been sticking to Draft/Sealed and haven't really ventured too far from Amonkhet while learning. I'm still really enjoying draft/sealed but my LGS doesn't have enough events in a month for me so wanting to get into my first real format and leaning towards Modern over Standard right now. I know it can be a little more expensive initially but would like to keep the first deck reasonable price-wise.
Merfolk!

Like $500.
 

Santiako

Member
If you are going lower budget, Mono green stompy is the best sub-150 bucks deck I think. It's not going to win you a GP, but it can steal some FNMs here and there.
 

ironmang

Member
Any deck recommendations to get into modern? Mostly just looking for a way to be able to take part in FNM when they have modern nights. Been sticking to Draft/Sealed and haven't really ventured too far from Amonkhet while learning. I'm still really enjoying draft/sealed but my LGS doesn't have enough events in a month for me so wanting to get into my first real format and leaning towards Modern over Standard right now. I know it can be a little more expensive initially but would like to keep the first deck reasonable price-wise.

If you think you may be interested in playing it at bigger events in the future I'd say build affinity. Great deck that doesn't have any truly bad matchups. It's about average for modern too being around $700. It takes a very long time to master but that doesn't mean you can't win a lot of matches shortly after picking it up. Buddy of mine top 4d a big SCG classic like a month after owning it. I top 4d a PPTQ then won one the following week in my first two events. Learning the different lines and tricks is fun and much more satisfying than casting Lava Spike, Thoughtseize -> Tarmogoyf, or Karn imo.

Only problem with the deck as a first choice is that it doesn't really function unless you have the expensive pieces. If you want to play at FNM while learning the format and assembling a deck then I'd suggest something like Bant Eldrazi. You can get away without playsets of Cavern of Souls and Noble Hierarch at FNM and once you get past those the rest of the maindeck is pretty cheap. It's a linear deck so could become boring depending on how much you play though it's still strong and an optimal list can take you far in any tournament.
 

traveler

Not Wario
Affinity is also fairly well off from a hate position right now. GY hate is getting more attention than artifact at the moment. (Although you will have to contend with maindeck k commands from the various shadow decks)

Merfolk is in a relatively decent spot too- they actually have good DS matchups. Still rough against affinity, though.

One issue with both of these decks is that they don't really set you up with many staples that transfer to other decks, though, so keep that in mind.
 
Modern's not really that expensive, all things considered. Like, 50% of my decks current EV roughly is locked in 4 Cards, of which there are numerous budget options.

For a decent Modern Deck, I'd suggest Elves. While the creatures don't transfer, none of them break the bank (I think the creature base is $150 for everything you'd need, considering about half of the deck is Uncommons/Commons), the two Big-Noncreature cards give you access to Company/Chord Combo Decks, and the lands can either be budget or serve as a building block for Abzan(Canopy is the biggest offender)
 

bigkrev

Member
why does everyone hate mmos now?

mmorpg just seems like the new label for single player games where some parts can be played with friends/groups

sure, the business models tend to be confusing shit, but coming from mtg that shouldn't be a huge detriment

What was the last MMO that was actually successful? There were a billion games that came out in the wake of WOW, and it seems like every day another one of them goes F2P because they are loosing money, or is just shutting down.

Elder Scrolls Online was a unmitigated disaster that ended up needing to drop it's subscription system less than a year after release, and FF14 had to come out in a fucking terrible state, and basically get remade completely to get to where it's at now. Final Fantasy and Elder Scrolls mean a whole lot more to the average gamer than Magic does, and they had real issues making an MMO work. When I take a look at how Magic Online has been bad for 15 years now, what faith should I have in this product?

Any deck recommendations to get into modern? Mostly just looking for a way to be able to take part in FNM when they have modern nights. Been sticking to Draft/Sealed and haven't really ventured too far from Amonkhet while learning. I'm still really enjoying draft/sealed but my LGS doesn't have enough events in a month for me so wanting to get into my first real format and leaning towards Modern over Standard right now. I know it can be a little more expensive initially but would like to keep the first deck reasonable price-wise.

The awesome thing about Modern is that there are a billion decks worth playing, so you can narrow it down to the style of deck and the colors you want to play. Hell, you can even play weird/kitchen table stuff like Mill and have a deck that you can take to FNM and not be embarrassed by.
 

Ashodin

Member
What was the last MMO that was actually successful? There were a billion games that came out in the wake of WOW, and it seems like every day another one of them goes F2P because they are loosing money, or is just shutting down.

Can you give me an example of a recent MMO going F2P? Recent being this year or last year.

Can you give me an example of a successful MMO shutting down recently? Same time frame.

I'll wait.
 
Can you give me an example of a recent MMO going F2P? Recent being this year or last year.

Can you give me an example of a successful MMO shutting down recently? Same time frame.

I'll wait.

How many MMOs do you think have been released in western markets in the last year, exactly?
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
I don't know what this discussion is about really but The Secret World is going F2P late June and getting relaunched as The Secret World Legends.
 
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