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Magic: the Gathering |OT8| Eldritch Moon - It's only a paper (and digital) moon

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red13th

Member
Kaladesh has elves too.
"Elves are deeply in tune with the flow of aether and the subtle ways it influences and shapes the natural world. Their inventions are inspired by nature and in turn they inspire others, offering a vision of progress that is elegant, efficient, and harmonious with the Great Conduit's aether patterns."
 

Crocodile

Member
Why the quotes lol

Last page I just blunty said what if Saheeli was a villain. Just kind of an out-of-left-field called shot, knew it would probably not be true (she's too sweet looking). Obviously this will not be the case, this dude is clearly the secret villain. It's telegraphed beyond belief and WotC is not yet known for narrative subtlety.

Ah I see. Yeah that would have been a called long shot given what little we know about her. I can't say I disagree with anything you've said either about this new guy. I appreciate the story focus but the complete lack of subtlety and nuance in characterization or narrative is kind of off-putting.

As an aside, does Magic have any female villains? Elesh Norn (Shelodred is dead right?) and.........? Aside from Phage and Tsabo Tsvec (who are both dead) I'm having a hard time thinking of past female villains of prominence too. Did Freyalise count (who is also dead)?
 

Santiako

Member
Ah I see. Yeah that would have been a called long shot given what little we know about her. I can't say I disagree with anything you've said either about this new guy. I appreciate the story focus but the complete lack of subtlety and nuance in characterization or narrative is kind of off-putting.

As an aside, does Magic have any female villains? Elesh Norn (Shelodred is dead right?) and.........? Aside from Phage and Tsabo Tsvec (who are both dead) I'm having a hard time thinking of past female villains of prominence too. Did Freyalise count (who is also dead)?

We just had Nahiri.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Kaladesh has elves too.
"Elves are deeply in tune with the flow of aether and the subtle ways it influences and shapes the natural world. Their inventions are inspired by nature and in turn they inspire others, offering a vision of progress that is elegant, efficient, and harmonious with the Great Conduit's aether patterns."

Aaaaand Vryn loses yet another thing that would make it interesting
 

OnPoint

Member
Let's assess the standard walkers that will remain when the set hits. Dragons and Origins rotate out when this comes in, right?

BFZ
  • White - Gideon
  • Black - Ob
  • Blue/Green - Kiora
OGW
  • Green - Nissa
  • Red - Chandra
SOI
  • Blue - Jace
  • Red/Green - Arlin
  • Red/White - Nahiri
  • Black/White - Sorin
EMN
  • Black - Liliana
  • Green/White/Blue - Tamiyo

All tallied up we have:
.
  • White: 4
  • Blue: 3
  • Black: 3
  • Red: 3
  • Green: 4

This shows that an imbalance is not necessarily something they're against, though it still stays pretty close to even. Saheeli is pretty clearly UR. The new guy could be anything, and while it's Chandra's home plane, I actually expect they won't give her a card until the new set so she can be the face like Lili was with EMN.

My prediction for Kaladesh 'walkers is:
.
  • Saheeli
  • Dovin
  • Gideon or Nissa

My prediction for Aether Revolt is:
.
  • Chandra
  • Tezzeret
 

Crocodile

Member
We just had Nahiri.

Derp. Totally forgot about her. I guess that brings the total to a whopping two (which is better than zero to be fair)! Though like what was her deal aside from her weird has hell grudge against Sorin that never made complete sense? What does she intend to do in the future? There isn't a lot to work with. At least she would be someone with a personality and voice - giant monsters as the antagonist du jour gets boring after a while.
 

OnPoint

Member
Ah I see. Yeah that would have been a called long shot given what little we know about her. I can't say I disagree with anything you've said either about this new guy. I appreciate the story focus but the complete lack of subtlety and nuance in characterization or narrative is kind of off-putting.

As an aside, does Magic have any female villains? Elesh Norn (Shelodred is dead right?) and.........? Aside from Phage and Tsabo Tsvec (who are both dead) I'm having a hard time thinking of past female villains of prominence too. Did Freyalise count (who is also dead)?

Two pages ago I tallied the current roster up to the best of my knowledge: We've got Nahiri (won't be back for a bit I bet), Emrakul (sort of a female but probably doesn't count), Elesh Norn (sort of a big villain), Avacyn (dead), Brisela (dead) and... uh... ?
 
Serious question- what did you like about BFZ?

For one, it's the sequel to Rise of the Eldrazi, one of my favorite sets ever, so for me, they absolutely did revisit the good part of Zendikar. I like Eldrazi, and I got more of them. Devoid was a bit clunky but not nearly deserving of the amount of hate it got. The colorless mana changes made in BFZ were long overdue IMO, though I agree they should not have been introduced mid-block (and I wish Wastes could just have been the sixth basic land type). Landfall was a fine mechanic to bring back and awaken was pretty sweet too. Other mechanics were perhaps not very memorable but mediocre at worst.

Why did you hate Innestrad?

Whoa now, who said I hated Innistrad? I don't, (certainly not as much as i hate Ravnica)but I don't like it much either. Mostly that's the setting and theme's fault (Horror, Gothic or otherwise, is completely unappealing to me, as is the faux-eighteenth-century European aesthetic), and it just didn't have the mechanical positives to balance, let alone outweigh, that humongous flavor negative. (Though I must say, double-faced cards, meld and investigate rank among my favorite mechanics ever, and Curses and soulbond are not far behind. Plus, of course, EMN had Eldrazi, so no complaints there)
It's not my second-least-favorite setting thusfar because it is bad, but because others are so much better.

In summary I suppose I liked BFZ better than SOI because to me, BFZ was a block with many minor flaws and SOI was a block with a few huge flaws.
 

Toxi

Banned
New story "Homesick"

tl;dr - The Gatewatch has made Jace's house in Ravnica their home base, Baan comes to ask for their help, they refuse, Chandra and Lili planeswalk away to Kaladesh, Nissa and Baan follow.

About half of the story is showing you how cute they all are, it's weird.
Well this is... A thing.
 
Magic Story - Homesick - Another really long one, filled with small character moments.

Short version:
* Baan comes to the Gatewatch asking them to act as security at Kaladesh's Inventor's Fair. He's shot down.
* Chandra is angry. She and Liliana go to Kaladesh on their own.
* Nissa and Baan go after them, while the others stay on Ravnica, due to reports of Vraska killing people.
* They are playing up Nissa being on the autism spectrum.
* It looks like the next block will be Return to Return to Ravnica.

* Three months have passed since the end of Eldritch Moon. The Gatewatch is on Ravnica now, so nothing about what Innistrad is like now.
* Chandra has a messy bedroom, and she's still sleepy after noon.
* She went to see Izzet Air Races the previous night, which feature a lot of exploding goblins.
* Liliana tells her that Beefslab wants them for a meeting in an hour. Chandra doesn't realize who she means at first, but then laughs. Liliana comments that it always feels like she has to tell Gideon to put on a shirt.
* They've barely seen Nissa ever since they arrived on Ravnica. She's sleeping in a roof garden instead of her room.
* Chandra doesn't like that the common breakfast on Ravnica is toast with butter; she prefers Indian breakfasts. Liliana doesn't know what a mango is. Apparently Kaladesh is the only plane where they grow. It's jarring to read a white woman reminisce about Indian food, even if I logically know where she's supposed to be from.
* The narrative refers to Gideon as Mancake.
* Gideon and Nissa are training. Nissa summons an elemental, which drives Gideon into the ground like a nail. He's fine, though, and laughs, noting that he forgot that while he's indestructible, the floor isn't. Gideon touches her shoulder, which makes her uncomfortable. He asks about this, and says he won't do it again. Liliana is annoyed that Nissa gets apologies and promises, when she didn't get any of that growing up.

* Liliana has taken to going into Jace's library and rearranging the organized books as a prank.
* Jace's library has become the meeting room; he got noticeably annoyed when people started eating meals in there.
* Lavinia (of the Azorius guild) is stationed at an entrance, while Jace paces back and forth. She knows about Planeswalkers now, but Jace has bound her to secrecy with a new Guildpact bylaw.
* Gideon actually does come down the stairs shirtlessly, but he puts a shirt on.
* Chandra runs into the meeting late with toast a pastry in her mouth. She talks with it still in her mouth.
* Jace is having Tamiyo pass on information about the Gatewatch to any other Planeswalkers she comes across. This has already worked out, because a planeswalker has come asking for their help.

* Dovin Baan enters. He's a vedalken Minister of Inspections for the Inventor's Fair on Kaladesh.
* He says how much better Kaladesh's government is than Ravnica's, since everyone is unified in a meritocracy and there is no want.
* Chandra is laying low, but is annoyed.
* There have been vandals leading up to the Inventor's Fair, and he simply wants the Gatewatch to act as security.
* Baan is dismissive of the vandals' complaints, which angers Chandra, and she leaves shouting obscenities.
* Gideon says if there aren't any Planeswalkers involved, they can't help, but Jace points that he simply doesn't know if there are, and they can check. Baan asks which one of them is the leader, and when they're unclear, he reacts as if he had a migraine.
* Liliana says that they focus on threats from outside a plane, not internal matters. Baan apologizes for misunderstanding their group's purpose and starts to leave.
* Gideon asks him to stay for dinner. Baan says his energy level is adequate, but if it's their custom, he'll respect it.
* Lavinia reminds Jace about a matter local to Ravnica. Azorius members are being turned to stone, which points to Vraska (gorgon Planeswalker). Jace asks Gideon to handle it.
* Lavinia seems to be attracted to Gideon.

* It suddenly switches to a first person perspective with Chandra. She's angry about Baan, since his sort were the ones who already killed the best inventors on Kaladesh. How dare they throw an Inventor's Fair?
* She sets a punching bag on fire and puts it out. She wonders if she should make a sandcastle out of the resulting mud, and it's later revealed she did.
* She rushes out to confront Baan, against her better judgment, but runs into Nissa, who's the image of tranquility, with flowers and butterflies around her. Chandra walks toward her and trips over a root. Nissa reaches out, but stops a bit away from Chandra, as though she's afraid to touch her.
* Chandra doesn't know what they should talk about, so she rambles on about that time on Zendikar when their minds were connected when beating the Titans, and speaks poetically. Chandra's embarrassed, but Nissa thinks it's eloquent.
* Nissa just creepily stares at people, without ever looking away. Nissa asks what's wrong, and Chandra doesn't want to give the real answer, so she instead talks about this. Nissa is upset, since she thought that was the polite thing to do. Chandra apologizes and runs away.

* Gideon is showing Baan around, and they come to the messed-up gym. Chandra rushes past them and apologizes. Liliana sees Nissa fretting on a floor above, understands what happened, and goes after Chandra outside.
* She finds Chandra in an alley. She pretends she was out shopping and happened to come across Chandra, which she believes, and invites her along. Liliana leaves a necromancer joke open for Chandra to complete.

* Nissa has a weird dream involving nature. When she wakes up, she needs effort to remind herself about words.
* She's uncomfortable in Ravnica. Both due to the lack of nature, and the sheer number of people.
* She's still wondering how she offended Chandra.
* Baan talks to her about leylines. On Kaladesh, aether streams through the sky, and they siphon it from mountaintops and thopters to store for later use. Nissa is upset about this, saying that on Zendikar, they would ask permission from the land first. Baan asks if they would ask ask permission from a tree to get fruit. Nissa can't explain it well, so she just says, "Yes," and leaves it at that.
* Jace comes in, asking for a drink. Lavinia already has one prepared for him.
* Jace has some meal with cheese and grains, and he's upset about there being broccoli in it.
* Baan, observing him, notes that he was bullied as a child. Jace is surprised, but says he doesn't remember his childhood.
* Baan gives a spiel about how early childhood events shape a person forever, regardless of memory, and that you can't really change after that. For instance, a criminal will always be a criminal. Jace objects, but Baan says that the brain is a mechanism like any other, and you simply have to observe it in action to draw the appropriate conclusions.
* Nissa eats fish! She isn't a vegetarian!
* Baan is asked about how he liked the tour. He notes inefficiencies in the furniture layout and such. He notes that the mess in the gym was caused by Chandra, and says they haven't taken appropriate measures to fireproof the place. Gideon is upset that Chandra is being treated as a hazard.
* They notice that Chandra and Liliana aren't there. Lavinia reveals that Gideon asked her to have someone follow Liliana at all times. Jace glares at Gideon, but he thinks it's only prudent.
* Chandra and Liliana have planeswalked.
* Baan reacts to Chandra's last name, Nalaar. He explains his version of what happened to her parents. He deflects blame by saying this was done by a previous administration, and the officer responsible for things getting out of control has been charged.
* Baan explains why pyromancy is a crime. Aether is everywhere on Kaladesh, and they avoid accidents by restricting interaction with it to artifice only.
* This is the first time they're learning about Chandra's past. Nissa realizes why Chandra was upset. They realize that Chandra and Liliana must have gone to Kaladesh.
* Nissa volunteers to go to Kaladesh after her, since Gideon and Jace are busy on Ravnica. Baan will be her guide.
 

Santiako

Member
Kaladesh's site, looks really nice

The set symbol appears to be that of the Kaladesh Consulate

14079528_1758617564385277_1707160312276983732_n.jpg


In that site:

"Have no fear, demonstrations of a variety of new weaponry will take place under careful supervision and strict regulation! Judges will assess all kinds of weapons, from massive aether projectors to small, personal construct-mounted devices." Vehicles confirmed?
 

sgjackson

Member
While we're calling story shots:

Gideon says in the story "If I know it's coming, I'm indestructible", which really stuck out to me - if one of the main complaints about the Gatewatch is the fact that the protagonists don't ever feel like they're in any danger, killing off a member makes sense, and in that context that line sticks out quite a bit (especially because a lot of the other writing has the subtlety of a sledgehammer).

Also this is a ridiculous one but Maro spending a day answering questions about a blonde planeswalker and basically confirming dwarves are coming back at some point is making me wonder if a Viking plane is coming.
 
I enjoyed the story, but I should have figured you guys wouldn't like it, haha.

I'm a bit disappointed that Kaladesh has vedalkens and elves. Gremlins at least don't appear that often. The presence of elves especially reduces the chances that we'll see bear people, like I wanted.

Kaladesh itself looks really neat, but in Ghirapur, "the metalworking zone of Weldfast"? Seriously? Also, I'm a bit disappointed that we're getting a nature vs. artifice conflict; when we saw it in Magic Origins, I got the feeling that they already had that worked out, and we'd just get a red vs. white conflict.

Baan is almost certainly blue, and likely white/blue, but the red glow from the artifacts in his art makes me wonder. This means it's very unlikely we'll get another blue planeswalker in Kaladesh, since Saheeli is almost certainly blue/red, and that means no Tezzeret or Bolas. Given that, the conflict seems local.

Planeswalkers in Kaladesh are almost definitely Chandra, Saheeli, and Baan. MaRo has said that every planeswalker that gets a Planeswalker Deck will also appear in that set, since part of the purpose is to advertise the set, which means Chandra will be in the set.

Concerning the State of Design, it's largely stuff MaRo has already said on his blog, but not everyone reads that. It's nice to know that they're going to think more about whether they really should replace large set mechanics with new ones in the small set. Support, cohort, and escalate definitely felt like they were new for the sake of being new, and didn't really serve a purpose that the large set mechanics they replaced didn't.
 

OnPoint

Member
Baan is a vedalken though, so he has to be at least part blue, right?

I guess? Blue White works for him as well. It's just that there's a lot of blue. So maybe Tezzeret isn't in the second set? But they need someone to represent Black. I guess maybe Bolas could come in and be Grixis and cover all three.
 
I guess? Blue White works for him as well. It's just that there's a lot of blue. So maybe Tezzeret isn't in the second set? But they need someone to represent Black. I guess maybe Bolas could come in and be Grixis and cover all three.
Last we heard of Tezzeret he overcame his corruption, not sure whether that's canon anymore though.
In general UW fits Tezzeret more than UB considering his story but ultimately he should end up straight Esper
 
I guess? Blue White works for him as well. It's just that there's a lot of blue. So maybe Tezzeret isn't in the second set? But they need someone to represent Black. I guess maybe Bolas could come in and be Grixis and cover all three.

Using your previous tally
White: 4
Blue: 3
Black: 3
Red: 3
Green: 4

In Kaladesh, we have:
Chandra - Red
Saheeli - Blue/(red)
Baan - Blue/(white)

Without the "likely but not guaranteed" colors, we have:
White: 4
Blue: 5
Black: 3
Red: 4
Green: 4

Adding the likely colors:
White: 5
Blue: 5
Black: 3
Red: 5
Green: 4

The colors with deficiencies are black and green. Nissa will be in the story of Kaladesh, but there's no guarantee she'll actually get a card, as we saw with Jace in BFZ. We'll almost certainly get a black Planeswalker in Aether Revolt, but they won't be any other color than perhaps green.

EDIT: Another monoblack Planeswalker would mean three in the same Standard. Perhaps Vraska (black/green) will randomly show up.
 

bigkrev

Member
I am also curious if the "Constructed Unplayable" Walkers in the Planeswalker decks will "count" as that Planeswalkers appearance- will we see a booster Mythic Chandra as well?
 
I am also curious if the "Constructed Unplayable" Walkers in the Planeswalker decks will "count" as that Planeswalkers appearance- will we see a booster Mythic Chandra as well?

MaRo has already confirmed that every Planeswalker with a Planeswalker Deck will also be in the booster set. They are partially meant to advertise the main set. Besides, they target two difference audiences, and a player who just plays Limited may not even know about the Planeswalker Decks, so they can't relegate story aspects to just that.
 
I'm surprised the state of design article doesn't mention the lack of many madness cards in the second set. They were printing tons of madness enablers but nothing to actually payoff with.
 

OnPoint

Member
The colors with deficiencies are black and green. Nissa will be in the story of Kaladesh, but there's no guarantee she'll actually get a card, as we saw with Jace in BFZ. We'll almost certainly get a black Planeswalker in Aether Revolt, but they won't be any other color than perhaps green.

EDIT: Another monoblack Planeswalker would mean three in the same Standard. Perhaps Vraska (black/green) will randomly show up.
I think Nissa will be the inclusion in Kaladesh. She's the one chasing into Kaladesh to find Chandra and Lili, and as you mentioned, Green needs an addition.

Vraska would not be an odd inclusion. They did mention her. Maybe Vraska will be in and not Tezz. So the second set could be Vraska and Chandra.
 
I'm gonna be honest, the Liliana perspective in this story is the overall tone they should be going for. It's very Tony Stark and we all know they're going for Avengers. The story is mostly reactive to the audience and self aware and I think Magic in general could stand to have more of that, art and story wise. Audience jokes about Jace coats? Closet of them. Audience jokes about Gideon being shirtless muscle man? Canon. Don't like Nissa a whole lot? Now she's a shut in you won't hear a whole lot from. They've been reactive in a way that makes each of the characters more unique, and really that's exactly what they should be doing.

The only thing that really put me off was the Chandra perspective, that was full on 'just like one of my japanese animes'.

I would venture a guess that Kaladesh is the first story made with the Gatewatch in mind. This lead in feels much more cohesive than either Zendikar or Innistrad. There they Gatewatch felt shoehorned into a setting that wasn't made for them to interact with. Kaladesh is starting to feel like an episode in the Magic saturday morning cartoon, and I think that's a good thing for storytelling.

Baan is gonna be blue red black, he's going to be mind controlled by Bolas, that's why he has glowing eyes, Bolas is angling for artifact tech he can use in his eventual take over of New Phyrexia.
 
I am glad he noted that they understand they are doing too many mechanics and are not going to get rid of big set mechanics in the small sets anymore- he points Escalate out as something that should have been investigate again

Yes, this was the big new takeaway for me. We already knew why BFZ was bad and I think the take on Eldrazi in SOI was predictable and fair, but I didn't think about how these piddly mechanics no one cares about have been an issue. I would definitely agree that these mostly waste space and add low-value complexity -- I actually had to look up Support when it came up because I had completely forgotten it existed, and that was just three sets ago.

Interesting how the conclusion earlier was that in the 2-set block world they would make the second set more different than they used to, and now they're saying it'll be less different after all.

That State of Design column is super depressing for folks like me who loved BFZ and couldn't care less about SOI.

Good. :p I don't know what type of preferences one needs to have to think Innistrad and Ravnica are the worst, but it's definitely not a type I am interested in seeing supported.

Chandra is on the planeswalker precon, so she might not be in the actual set.

Actually it's the other way around, Rosewater was pretty explicit that the precons don't "count" in terms of plot characters being represented, and should always be characters who also get regular cards in the block. If anything I think this establishes that Chandra is in KLD and not Aether Revolt.

Baan is a vedalken though, so he has to be at least part blue, right?

Yes. There are no non-blue vedalken and they're certainly not going to start now. Also his bio literally starts with talking about how he's obsessed with perfection. He's either mono-U or UW, I think.

Also this is a ridiculous one but Maro spending a day answering questions about a blonde planeswalker and basically confirming dwarves are coming back at some point is making me wonder if a Viking plane is coming.

Out of the "short list" of new plane concepts, the two with far and away the most prevalent interest are Viking World and Egyptian World, so I think we'll see each of them within the next, say, four years. Viking World already has an established plane with a name (Kaldheim) so I would guess it'll be first.

* They are playing up Nissa being on the autism spectrum.

Narset is explicitly the spectrum planeswalker tho.
 

Daedardus

Member
Am I allowed to say that they half-assed three of their "return to" sets, even though Innistrad, Zendikar and Ravnica are pretty much my favorite sets. Scars wasn't too hot either since they created Infect, which is personally one of my most disliked mechanics. I hope they don't go overboard with all these return blocks, or else they might burn out on them pretty quickly.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
I love how they've basically already set up pieces of Return to Return to Ravnica.

Also, I'm genuinely convinced Gideon has some sort of pheremone power, considering how nearly everyone seems to enjoy the view.

Bets for the Walkers in the set? I'm guessing Saheeli, Baan, and Chandra, but then who's in Aether Revolt?



I mean, the set was opened for 3 reasons really- Gideon, Full Arts, and Expeditions. Gideon would have hit Jace VP levels if the set wasn't opened as much.

Nah he just has the power of female writers with no restraint.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Am I allowed to say that they half-assed three of their "return to" sets, even though Innistrad, Zendikar and Ravnica are pretty much my favorite sets. Scars wasn't too hot either since they created Infect, which is personally one of my most disliked mechanics. I hope they don't go overboard with all these return blocks, or else they might burn out on them pretty quickly.

Nah Scars is amazing with Infect as a blemish. But most of the other return sets havent been doing anything nearly as interesting from a setting or mechanical standpoint.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
I'm gonna be honest, the Liliana perspective in this story is the overall tone they should be going for. It's very Tony Stark and we all know they're going for Avengers. The story is mostly reactive to the audience and self aware and I think Magic in general could stand to have more of that, art and story wise. Audience jokes about Jace coats? Closet of them. Audience jokes about Gideon being shirtless muscle man? Canon. Don't like Nissa a whole lot? Now she's a shut in you won't hear a whole lot from. They've been reactive in a way that makes each of the characters more unique, and really that's exactly what they should be doing.

The only thing that really put me off was the Chandra perspective, that was full on 'just like one of my japanese animes'.

I would venture a guess that Kaladesh is the first story made with the Gatewatch in mind. This lead in feels much more cohesive than either Zendikar or Innistrad. There they Gatewatch felt shoehorned into a setting that wasn't made for them to interact with. Kaladesh is starting to feel like an episode in the Magic saturday morning cartoon, and I think that's a good thing for storytelling.

Baan is gonna be blue red black, he's going to be mind controlled by Bolas, that's why he has glowing eyes, Bolas is angling for artifact tech he can use in his eventual take over of New Phyrexia.

That just makes me worry Kaladesh will get overshadowed by tumblr bait storytelling of cardboard mascots.
 

Ashodin

Member
That just makes me worry Kaladesh will get overshadowed by tumblr bait storytelling of cardboard mascots.
Literally shipping material, Tumblr drawing of Chandra and cats Inc, and memes in that story. I cringed at a lot of it. The Chandra inner dialogue esPecially.
 
Kaladesh interactive website, which has new art. Inventor's Fair subpage, and a location subpage, which links to the others. I don't think the pages are quite ready, looking at the browser page titles.

Doug Beyer confirms we have another story on Wednesday, but this is just for the lead up to PAX. Next week is back to one story.

From the developer blog, reacting to card reactions. An interesting thing to note is that Aurelia's Fury during Gatewatch spoilers was assumed to be aimed at Constructed and thus failed in that regard, but it was actually designed to just be a casual card.
manycookies asked:
Does the development team pay attention to the first impressions of spoiled cards? Have there been any that really surprised the team?

From Adam Prosak:

One of my greatest joys in working at Wizards is releasing cards that I’ve worked on for over a year. First and foremost, seeing reactions to previews is just vindication that what I do actually matters. I have nightmares of previewing a set, and nobody has anything to say about it.

I love both positive and negative feedback on cards, as it really helps me learn about the types of cards that you want to play with. So keep it coming!

As for individual cards, we thought internally that Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy was one of the strongest cards in Magic Origins. When it was previewed there was only a lukewarm reaction, which surprised us. As it turned out, it did not take long for Jace to start having tournament success.

From Ian Duke:

We’re constantly reading forums, articles and social media looking for what’s going on in the community, and preview season is one of the most fun times for us. It’s great to get feedback on our work, and to see how our expectations match (or don’t match!) what’s exciting the community. There’s always a lot of energy in the preview seasons, and we love tapping in to that.

The card that surprised me most since I’ve been here was Aurelia’s Fury from Gatecrash. That was a card we expected to be exciting for booster draft, sealed deck or casual play, but not a competitive constructed tournament card. When Aurelia’s Fury was previewed, the community really started buzzing about it, Like REALLY! So I went and added some copies to my FFL decks to double check that we hadn’t missed anything. Ultimately there was no need for panic, because the card ended up not making huge waves in constructed.

Similar to the Hanweir Chronicles of Shadows over Innistrad, we have the Kaladesh Consulate, a Facebook page for Kaladesh's government promoting the Inventor's Fair.
Come one and all to experience the innovation, industry, and imagination of the Ghirapur Inventors' Fair!

From the wilds of Peema to the metalworks of Weldfast, from the depths of the Cowl to the heights of Lathnu, inventors from across Kaladesh will gather in Ghirapur to show off their marvelous designs and compete for distinction and glory. The Inventors' Fair promises to be the greatest gathering of engineering pioneers in history. The Consulate looks forward to hosting these brilliant inventors, and in the spirit of innovation and creativity, extends a warm welcome to all.

Citizens in attendance can expect to be awed and amazed by quicksmith competitions, invention demonstrations, and creative performances. Delicacies from every corner of Ghirapur will be available to sample at the food pavilion, and personally engraved devices designed by some of Kaladesh's most notable inventors and artisans will be for purchase at the Fair's market. Those looking for an adventure can get a bird's-eye view of both the Fair and the surrounding city by way of an airship tour. And the young—and young at heart—will delight in animal construct rides and our hundred-acre automaton zoo. With the chance to rub shoulders with tomorrow's luminaries, attend panels, lectures, and autograph signings, and even glean insight into your own domestic projects from some of the best in the industry, this is the can't-miss event of the year!

Plane page has land art now
KLD_Swamp_image_Gallery.jpg


Even the sewers are pretty!
 
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