Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
But Giant Sea Fatties aren't historically good but Giant Green Fatties are.
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Magic: the Gathering |OT4| Izzet Me; Izzet You? A Love Story
- Thread starter The Technomancer
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But Giant Sea Fatties aren't historically good but Giant Green Fatties are.
Etrian Oddity
Member
It's also lousy writing and retconning. It seems they've written out the fact she was a racist entirely, rather than intending to use it as a way to strengthen her character.
She cares about nature just as much -- if not more -- than knowledge. Were she true blue, she'd abduct the sea creatures and augment them to perform better (like Simic).
Honestly, Kiora seems to be blue just for the sake of her merfolk race, I see no other blue traits about her. She doesn't even study her sea monsters.
Are we going to wager which planeswalkers we see bite the dust in the BfZ block? It's time some got written out so we could rotate in a new crop. How about Kresh?
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I like how nobody asked the creative panel about Nissa's story being entirely retconned and instead tried to ask them questions about esoteric drafting rules.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
It might be Sorin. I hope its not though, Sorin is like, one of the best characters they have right now
They did actually, IIRC. Got fobbed of with some bullshit answers
SigmasonicX
Member
It seems like Sorin will not actually be in this block. The planeswalker roundup posted before PAX mentioned that he was sent off to get Nahiri; I had previously assumed that Ugin would go "oh well, let's go to Zendikar anyway, but you really should have gotten her first", but that appears to not be the case. Plus, he hasn't been in any new art, including for Oath.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Hm, I thought we saw some art that was almost certainly him falling off a cliff, but in retrospect that makes more sense. They can use the Origins characters for this block and Sorin, Nahiri and (maybe Ugin) can all show up for Kozilek Boogaloo
SigmasonicX
Member
All of the kor have white hair and skin, so you probably confused one for Sorin.
"We need to make sure our characters align with our company's values"
Translation: Don't expect anything other than cookie-cutter Mary Siue types other than Liliana who is OBVIOUSLY EVIL.
Apparently telling the story of someone raised in a racist environment who learns to overcome their upbringing and become a better person was too hard for them to tell.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
I don't even think Liliana is "obviously evil" anymore.
Etrian Oddity
Member
They won't. They're very aware of how popular, successful and well-done Sorin is. He's easily the best character in MtG.
So we can look forward to #SorinIsUseless2k15 continuing?
I really, really like all of the Noah Bradley full-art lands. Just saw a feature where he showed how he oil painted all of them. I do wonder now, how much does Wizards pay to artists for the cards? I imagine things like the full-art in oil painting or other paintings for special/rare/powerful cards fetch a higher price than a CG art for a vanilla critter, but what's the range we would be looking at?
FreedomFrisbee
Member
They were asked, actually. The answer was 'she was made to be a xenophobic villain in duels, and now she's supposed to be a hero so we changed things'.
I'm big into the lore, and really I don't care. Most of the walkers are super blank slate and it's not like she was the only one with retcons and changes. Gideon, Chandra, and Jace were all tweaked in Origins. All the characters have been receiving changes to make them less bland.
The real problem is that they didn't take the care to do this when they made the characters to begin with.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
That's sort of arguable for me. Their Origins stories didn't exactly grab me, they were all just variations on the same thing.
FreedomFrisbee
Member
The nature of 'sparking' a planeswalker has always been samey tho. It's always a goku going super saiyan situation. What I meant is that previously these characters were mostly ciphers and now they're actually characters.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
They're all the same character. Seriously five characters and they're all outcasts, rebels or urchins? The "driven by their ideals" part I can at least get since they're meant to be our new embodiments of monocolor philosophy but still
I feel like they're boiling the Origin 5 into the most archetypal versions of the colors. Nissa = Green = Nature. Chandra = Red = Angry. So on, so forth. Make them basically unobjectionable so that people can cosplay them and use them as avatars and post their quiz results on social media...
Their current push is "Magic as an identity" and, with their big name Planeswalkers, too much depth or too many flaws are liabilities when it comes to widespread acceptance.
Their current push is "Magic as an identity" and, with their big name Planeswalkers, too much depth or too many flaws are liabilities when it comes to widespread acceptance.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
The idea that Origins somehow made the characters less bland blows my mind.
SigmasonicX
Member
FreedomFrisbee
Member
Outcast, rebel, and urchin are 3 distinct things actually. I think you're saying 'why couldn't any of them be more normal?'. I think it's more that they have the same arc in those stories.
My general point is that previously they weren't their own characters, they were just avatars for the color pie. Now they have motivation, a tied down history, and distinct character traits.
Personally, I've been disappointed to see the disregarding of old lore. Kid Chandra started using tons of fire magic and didn't lose all of her memory and that makes me a little sad.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
The problem I have with retconning Nissa is that the only thing MTG lore really has going for it is a lot to draw on.
Making it all unreliable is just dumb.
Making it all unreliable is just dumb.
shaowebb
Member
For those that missed the news, Magic the Gathering is teaming with Puzzle Quest this fall on the App Store, Google Play, and Amazon App store for "Magic the Gathering- Puzzle Quest"
Link to article on it
Quick Highlights on play mechanics
Sounds like a great mobile title, and as a Marvel Puzzle Quest player I can say that it sounds like it is building upon a lot of the best aspects of MPQ and going in a very new and more open direction with them to make it more suited to Magic the Gathering.
Keep your eyes open. MPQ is one of the highest rated and played titles out so I could see big things from this tie in.
Link to article on it
Quick Highlights on play mechanics
Sounds like a great mobile title, and as a Marvel Puzzle Quest player I can say that it sounds like it is building upon a lot of the best aspects of MPQ and going in a very new and more open direction with them to make it more suited to Magic the Gathering.
Keep your eyes open. MPQ is one of the highest rated and played titles out so I could see big things from this tie in.
Keru_Shiri
Member
It's little things like this that make me love Magic.
charlequin
Banned
You may be in luck
Woot!
Practically speaking that's not where the wind is blowing. Every entertainment business is built around targeting people upmarket nowadays, and Magic is no exception.
Honestly, given how many entry-level products they have now, how accessible drafting still generally is, how easily you can play Commander or whatever without spending a fortune, I don't think the cost of Modern is actually that big an issue for the medium-term health of the game. Long-term they need to get it in shape because they need at least one healthy non-rotating format (and Modern's the option they've got) but they have a pretty long timescale to work with. (And the most recent problems are price hikes far beyond what they were planning for two years ago with Khans/MM2/etc. so the lag time will be a bit longer.)
divisionbyzorro
Member
*shrug* I loved PQ1 and PQ2 and thought MPQ was a steaming pile of shit. I honestly don't have high expectations for this.
charlequin
Banned
If we're right about Gideon/Ob/Kiora in BFZ and Jace/Chandra/Nissa in OGW then it's just the real basic fly-by cameos like Sorin and Ugin who don't get cards, and they were both specifically in the last block for this exact reason.
He's made more of a point than usual of saying that the "default" was 3/2, that things would shift around in the new paradigm, and that the most important thing was how many were in Standard at one time, which all to me sounds like a hedge on a 6-PW block.
They're not gonna kill Kiora because she fills a useful role (unlike Xenagos who is lol red-green-smash PW number 3), they're not gonna kill Ob yet because they need to flesh out their rogue's gallery, they're not gonna kill anyone in the Oathwatch picture because lol Power Rangers, so... nobody?
That's because MPQ (like this, sadly) was a licensed-out sack of crap.
Horatorobor
Member
"You curved yourself out" such a nice expression
Etrian Oddity
Member
Thinking about this a bit more, its kind of amazing how samey/boring a lot of the PW cast is. Like I don't hate them or anything but there is barely an ounce of charisma in the whole lot (ally or villain). Like Gideon wants to help Zendikar because he has a boner for helping people and Nissa wants to help because she lives there. What really distinguishes them personality wise even superficially? The OG Power Rangers had more personality and more diversity among them than the "Origin 5".
Leading a coalition of like every race on Zendikar against the Eldrazi seems like a great backdrop to have this character growth moment too :/
Leading a coalition of like every race on Zendikar against the Eldrazi seems like a great backdrop to have this character growth moment too :/
[Proper] Spoilers start on September 7th.
Huh, I thought big sets did 3 weeks in advance of prerelease, but that makes sense now then.
SigmasonicX
Member
It seems like they've dropped that in favor of two proper weeks of spoilers and random spoilers spread out before that.
They usually put PW on the pack art. I was already a believer. If this doesn't confirm it for people I don't know what will.
I was at PAX. The Eldrazi/Zendikar stuff all over was really cool.
I'm not jazzed on the whole special lands thing, and am a little butthurt about it. I don't like uber mythics. I even hate actual mythics but tolerate them. Just reprint the damned fetches already. I'm sick of this crap.
Also, Newlamog sucks.
shrapnelmagnet
Member
The term "Tangoland" bothers me I don't want to ever have to use it in a conversation or read it in articles or hear it on podcasts. It's certainly clever, but a full Cringe-Factor 10, in my opinion.
That said, I believe the battle is lost
EDIT: Two frowny faces without intending to. Not even gonna change it, lol
I don't want to ever have to use it in a conversation or read it in articles or hear it on podcasts. It's certainly clever, but a full Cringe-Factor 10, in my opinion.That said, I believe the battle is lost
EDIT: Two frowny faces without intending to. Not even gonna change it, lol
charlequin
Banned
Killing people just to kill people is the lowest form of hack writing anyway. (I submit the Scars of Mirrodin novel as evidence.)
Surprised that Kiora is real but the name from the board game is still wrong!
They're not uber mythics, they're just fancy foils.
They 100% already have a plan in place to do this within the next couple years and this doesn't detract from it in any way.
what factors in to the "Cringe-Factor" for cutesy, in-group nicknames being chosen for overly expensive pieces of cardboard used to play a children's card game, exactly
"God's Beard!"
Member
Some dude hosting a holiday cube draft on cockatrice just spouted a bunch of super sexist shit about the inherent subservience of being female. It was completely unprovoked and he went on for like two paragraphs in the group chat. Then I said as long as he's accepted his misogyny I guess I can't complain. He proceeded to call misogyny a myth and kicked me.
What a weird evening.
What a weird evening.
charlequin
Banned
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";177282113]Some dude hosting a holiday cube draft on cockatrice just spouted a bunch of super sexist shit about the inherent subservience of being female. It was completely unprovoked and he went on for like two paragraphs in the group chat. Then I said as long as he's accepted his misogyny I guess I can't complain. He proceeded to call misogyny a myth and kicked me.
What a weird evening.[/QUOTE]
hashtag magicplayers
What a weird evening.[/QUOTE]
hashtag magicplayers
Infinite Stars
Member
Hashtag Nerds
I mean, Magic is wierd to me in that WotC is super inclusive and yet a outspoken portion of the fanbase is a a sack of dicks. Like, 90% of Magic players I know are friendly and inclusive, but the 10% that aren't are among the worst people in fandom. It's wierd to me.
charlequin
Banned
Re: more than five PWs in a block:
I rest my case!
That's because WotC R&D is made up mostly of humanities majors and pleasantly enthusiastic nerds, while a significant portion of Magic player communities self-select for people who think eating cheetos in a 100 degree greenhouse while surrounded by BO is a worthwhile way to spend a Saturday.
maro said:
I rest my case!
That's because WotC R&D is made up mostly of humanities majors and pleasantly enthusiastic nerds, while a significant portion of Magic player communities self-select for people who think eating cheetos in a 100 degree greenhouse while surrounded by BO is a worthwhile way to spend a Saturday.
I'd say you are being generous with that ratio. Closer to 50-50 from what I've observed. Although it differs greatly depending on what kind of event you are attending and the size of it.
Infinite Stars
Member
Yeah, I'm probably being overly generous and where I play is of note(I used to live in a Small Town before University, so my LGS would barely have the 8 needed for Draft some nights) so the player size is smaller then most.
As for land name, I'm inclined to lean towards Tango, only because it's a fitting unique name. BB isn't bad though
SigmasonicX
Member
I don't know what "BB-Lands" is supposed to mean. "Basic-basic"?
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