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2022-04-30, 05:43 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
It's supposed to be 3-color like Alara, but 2-color works, I guess.
Also, apparently this multicolor mob world is the home of the most mono white knightly character now that Gids is gone (and well, honestly none of the knights from the knight set left much of an impression). Didn稚 see that coming.
I use braces (also known as "curly brackets") to indicate sarcasm. If there are none present, I probably believe what I am saying; should it turn out to be inaccurate trivia, please tell me rather than trying to play along with an apparent joke I don't know I'm making.
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2022-04-30, 05:44 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
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2022-04-30, 06:48 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2008
Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
Yup, that was a mistype. I do see that it is 3 color.
Ahh. Always liked Elspeth, I think I might have a go at reading this set's story unless it's tripe. What's your verdict LaZodiac? I apologize if this is wrong, but I think you're the one who reads these things.
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2022-04-30, 07:22 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2011
Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
I also read the online story articles. General consensus is "it would be great, if they didn't cut it off near the early middle" which is pretty much my take, too.
Last edited by enderlord99; 2022-04-30 at 07:22 PM.
I use braces (also known as "curly brackets") to indicate sarcasm. If there are none present, I probably believe what I am saying; should it turn out to be inaccurate trivia, please tell me rather than trying to play along with an apparent joke I don't know I'm making.
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2022-04-30, 07:26 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2012
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- Shreveport, Louisiana, US
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
I had become very disillusioned with working towards a better society, and the color test I came across during this time, I was Sultai. Going to Bant is a reversion, but once I had clawed my way into a somewhat stable and physically comfortable position in life, I no longer needed to be so driven to dominate and destroy people who wanted to hurt me or put me down. I can afford to work towards a world where people work together for the benefit of everyone else, at least in part because I am able to separate myself from the system somewhat.
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2022-04-30, 09:09 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2011
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
More or less yeah. Forgot to post about it cause I couldn't actually find the thread lol.
Anyway, story is quite good! The side stories are all very flavourful, showcasing the world and it's inhabitants, showing how... honestly kinda brutal it is. It is a mafia plane through and through, complete with a government body outside of the five families that can't do **** and all to anyone the families don't want things done to. The stories make good use of characters who actually get cards (pretty much every named character gets a card in the set or the commander stuff attached to it) and they're all rather well written,
The main story is also really good; the story of Elspeth finding her home thanks to Ajani, and realizing her home bares as many scars as she does... and that until Phyrexia is razed from the surface of existence she'll never truly feel right with herself, and thus never truly feel home no matter what plane she is on. Vivien is also here, and she teams up with, of all people, Tezzeret... and Urabrask, who of the three of them is probably the most trustworthy actually! Viviene has cooled down a bit from her "any civilization that abuses nature instead of living in harmony should be razed to the ground" mood due to her time on Ikoria, Tezzeret is by his own admission playing both sides because Elspeth REALLY has something he needs, but he really truly does not want her to win at all, and Urabrask is 100% behind bringing the flames of revolution to New Phyrexia, and has even forgone consuming people to repair his form. He's studying Halo, the magical oil of this plane that is (unknown to the people of the plane) made via fermenting the lost angels inside all of the city's splendid angel status.
The story ends with Elspeth finding most of the information she needs regarding how Old Capenna beat back the Phyrexian's (the angels of this plane, their blood is poisonous to Phyrexian's. The Archdemons betrayed them after making the flying super-city together and created the Halo system in doing so to use it to eradicate the Phyrexian's... and then most of the Phyrexian's shut off mysterious. Timeline wise it'd fit perfectly with Yawgmoth's death.) She then saves Giada, a cool young girl who is definitely smitten with her, who was giving the Cabaratti family access to unlimited Halo... because she could generate it. Because Giada was, unbeknowst to everyone, an angel (possibly half angel, with the idea that people on this plane are slowly becoming angels to compensate for all the angels dying off slowly inside statues). Giada frees all said angels, Ob Nixilis begins his conquest of the plane (killing Xander, maybe mortally wounding Jetmir, but that's about it so far as we know) and Elspeth ****s off to go tell Ajani about all she's learned, about the plane, their weapon, and Urabrask. Elspeth also gets a snazzy new sword given to her by Giada; so she's three for three for super cool blessed weapons.
If there is one negative I can say to this; It does feel a little rushed at times, to fit within the five stories structure they have now. It's not barebones, but it is pretty light. Maybe that's okay, but I'd like the return to novels... but as we've seen numerous times, the novels have a difficult time keeping with the cards, and need to be written QUICKLY, which can lead to some issues. There's really no way to win, not method that is perfect, so I'll take "heavily refined and excellently executed, but a little quick" over any other alternative.
And of course there's always the possibility of side-stories like Davriel's story, which aren't tied to a set and thus can be written in a way that is sane.
Some personal highlights
* There's a good showing of LGBTA stuff, as is usually the case nowadays. One of the side stories is about Anhelo trying to find time to make his daughter's wedding to her future wife, inbetween doing an important job. Both of these characters get cards and mechanically work well together! One of the side characters who doesn't get a mention beyond maybe like, an aside glance, is nonbinary so that's cool.
* They've clearly put a lot of thought into what the old Capenna was like, and I wouldn't be surprised if we got a supplemental or return "Kingdoms of Old Capenna" set somewhere down the line, going over more of the Kingdom Era and stuff.
* Tezzeret continues his trend of being the most ****ing nasty but also most genuinely pragmatic villains in the series. Vivien calls him on his bull**** of playing both sides even though Elspeth is absolutely going to kill him once he's done being useful and he straight up is like "yeah no **** I get that, but you need to understand how important this is to ME." He doesn't try to justify it, he just fully admits this is an incredibly stupid thing he's doing; it's just also necessary.
* Xander was my favorite of the family heads so of course he died q_q for me I guess.
* Mechanically showing that Urabrask is less nasty than the other Praetor's by having his card's non-symetrical effect actually be beneficial both ways, just more so for you, is genius.
One final note: The MTG Boom comics are apparently ****ING EXCELLENT. I've only seen bits and pieces of the Chandra comic they tried, cancelled, and then replaced with a far more successful MTG inprint. It's "canon until the main story decides otherwise" so I should really give it a check. It's finally Marit Lage! Among other things!Last edited by LaZodiac; 2022-04-30 at 09:13 PM.
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2022-04-30, 09:11 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2013
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- Location, Location
Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
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2022-04-30, 09:19 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2011
Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
I use braces (also known as "curly brackets") to indicate sarcasm. If there are none present, I probably believe what I am saying; should it turn out to be inaccurate trivia, please tell me rather than trying to play along with an apparent joke I don't know I'm making.
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2022-04-30, 09:49 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2011
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
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2022-05-01, 08:36 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2013
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- Germany
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
The bits and bobs of new cards lend themselves to enhance existing EDH-strategies however, and not necessarily in 3-color decks. They have just good cards smattered into a standard set.
Halo Fountain is a cool card draw effect in token decks.
An Offer You Can't Refuse is 1 mana non creature counterspell for a treasure.
Cemetery Tampering fills your graveyard AND gives you a card to cast for free once your graveyard is filled with a decent amount of cards.
Ubrarask is a cool commander and also nice idea for a 99 card.
Bootlegger's Stash is great.
Vivien is a birthing pod on a stick.
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2022-05-01, 11:20 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2012
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
It's almost never beneficial (and never is, barring other card effects that punish hand size or something). Almost always it reads as 'your opponent has to use the first card they draw on their turn that turn or lose it' which stuffs reactive cards in a big way. Note that they don't get any extra cards, they're just forced to use their first one or lose it. Another in a long line of red effects that try to restrict the way their opponents play to the way red stereotypically wants to play (tap out each turn, play all the cards, swing with everything etc).
Last edited by The Hellbug; 2022-05-01 at 11:23 AM.
Coach and Owner of Hellbug's Heroes, Sneak Kings, Sultans of Slaughter, and Commercial Cast-Offs. Season II and III runner-up. Season IV league champion. Season VII division champion.
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2022-05-01, 11:24 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2011
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
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2022-05-01, 11:29 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2011
Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
I use braces (also known as "curly brackets") to indicate sarcasm. If there are none present, I probably believe what I am saying; should it turn out to be inaccurate trivia, please tell me rather than trying to play along with an apparent joke I don't know I'm making.
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2022-05-02, 10:48 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2011
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
*bursts through the front door*
THREAD HOLY ****
New Secret Lair package; Pride Across the Multiverse.
Including a short story about how Huatli and Saheeli actually hooked up.
Today I am alive.
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2022-05-03, 03:57 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2008
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
Last edited by Androgeus; 2022-05-03 at 03:58 AM.
"Three blokes walk into a pub. One of them is a little bit stupid, and the whole scene unfolds with a tedious inevitability." - Bill Bailey
Androgeus' 3 step guide to Doctor Who speculation:
Spoiler- Pick a random character
- State that person is The Rani
- goto 1
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2022-05-03, 07:11 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2011
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
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2022-05-03, 04:04 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2010
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- Kaeda
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
So WotC printed a new Commander that really likes voting. And no other cards that so much as reference that mechanic. Not even reprints.
I tried to make the deck work, I really did. But there are only 16 cards in Esper that care about voting, and that's counting Tivit. And some of them wound up being cut because they just plain suck.
You know what Tivit's real home is though? Artifacts. In a standard four-man pod, you get five of them on ETB, and another five when he smacks a player in the face. It'll most likely be two Treasures and three Clues, but those are still artifacts. Affinity, Urza, Karnstructs, etc. There are a lot of ways to go about this.Kaedanis Pyran, tai faernae.
The LA Assignment Threads: Attempting to Make Monsters Playable Since 2016
My Homebrewer's Extended Signature
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2022-05-04, 06:25 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2011
Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
Math is for blockers... and I'm a Quandrix. That was a funny way of admitting I durdle, in case you couldn't tell.
I use braces (also known as "curly brackets") to indicate sarcasm. If there are none present, I probably believe what I am saying; should it turn out to be inaccurate trivia, please tell me rather than trying to play along with an apparent joke I don't know I'm making.
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2022-05-04, 01:06 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2010
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
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2022-05-04, 03:31 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2011
Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
I use braces (also known as "curly brackets") to indicate sarcasm. If there are none present, I probably believe what I am saying; should it turn out to be inaccurate trivia, please tell me rather than trying to play along with an apparent joke I don't know I'm making.
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2022-05-04, 10:27 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2013
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
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2022-05-05, 12:21 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2011
Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
Neither.
More like "Sure, you've got my life below zero, but I have Lich's Mastery. Oh, now I need to exile a bunch of things because of the damage I took? And if I take that much damage again, which I will next turn, I'll have to exile everything (including Lich's Mastery itself) and therefore lose the game? I think I'll exile it now, instead, and the trigger won't kill me because of my Gideon of the Trials. What's that? Gideon's gone? Good thing my life's above zero again!" et cetera.
The opponent is doing exactly what they were already planning to do, but I survive it.Last edited by enderlord99; 2022-05-05 at 12:58 AM.
I use braces (also known as "curly brackets") to indicate sarcasm. If there are none present, I probably believe what I am saying; should it turn out to be inaccurate trivia, please tell me rather than trying to play along with an apparent joke I don't know I'm making.
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2022-05-05, 11:56 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
So it's Pillow Fort: The strategy that makes attacking you so useless that people go do something else. Primarily used in multiplayer to benefit from everybody else taking each other out and sweeping up the game afterwards. Sub-families for non-multiplayer formats include Turbofog and Stasis.
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2022-05-05, 12:39 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2011
Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
I use braces (also known as "curly brackets") to indicate sarcasm. If there are none present, I probably believe what I am saying; should it turn out to be inaccurate trivia, please tell me rather than trying to play along with an apparent joke I don't know I'm making.
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2022-05-09, 09:33 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2012
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2022-05-09, 09:58 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
Oh on the story front, we got a new one out of nowhere last week, straight up on the heels of the wonderfully gay "Notes For A Stranger", we get "The Garden of Flesh".
Wherein we flash back to just after Theros Underworld. Elesh Norn is having a very good and perfect day, compleat with all the things that make being praetor of the Machine Orthodoxy wonderful. Then a little wispy nonbinary ******* shows up and shows that even if Phyrexian's cannot dream, and seemingly do not sleep... they can have nightmares. It is horrifyingly gruesome, brutally dark, and is also why Elesh Norn has decided Elspeth Must Die, at any costs.
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2022-05-09, 10:45 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2009
Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
I really enjoyed The Garden of Flesh, it was delightfully creepy. Plus, if Ashiok's going to be screwing around giving people nightmares, I'm sort of ok with targeting Elesh Norn.
Incidentally, I've just started getting back into the game after a few years (I lost interest around Ixalan). How is Wizards telling the story these days, outside the cards themselves?ithilanor on Steam.
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2022-05-09, 11:59 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2011
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
Quite well, now. We had a minor hiccup in War of the Spark, where they wanted to get a big ole set of two books to explore the war and the fallout of it, but due to extreme time constraints rushed the **** out of it- so much so that the pretty important prequel novella (which is much better written because it was allowed to take slightly more time) released like, a handful of months after the initial book.
The fallout of this led to a complete restructuring of the story team and how it does thing. As a consequence, Elspeth's return story was never seen, which sucks because she's the current primary protagonist of this entire story arc aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah god that sucks so much doesn't it.
On the plus side, the small novels done for Eldraine and Ikoria are good (Eldraine's got some shaky writing at points but it's good, Ikoria is more solid but also has a massive disconnect with the cards and also is a villain origin story so if you don't like those you're **** out of luck).
Following that they returned purely to web fiction, five short stories within the set and five plot stories. This has led to having much more refined stories over all, but stories that are a little light in content. Zendikar Rising was fun, Strixhaven was certainly enjoyable, the twin Innistrad series started good and eventually ramped up to actually pretty incredible, Kamigawa was executed wonderfully but suffered most from the "trim all the fat" style. New Capenna was great except a lot of people who aren't quite adept at reading comprehension didn't understand the big finale which led to it kinda flopping for some.
Over all we're now fully back on track, with great story content. I'm really excited to see where Dominaria United goes, especially since after that we're getting the Brother's War revamp, which means... well, what're they going to do? That's already a story. So it'll give them more time to work on future stories, potentially!
EDIT: STRAIGHT UP FORGOT ABOUT KALDHEIM LOL! It was good too and was the actual start of the current major story arc, showing Vorinclex doing his nasty business. I completely spaced on it though oops!Last edited by LaZodiac; 2022-05-09 at 12:00 PM.
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2022-05-09, 08:08 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2009
Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
Thanks for the update! I'd heard some things about War of the Spark not working well, which definitely sucks, though I wasn't too invested in the Bolas arc anyways.
There wasn't any story for Theros: Beyond Death?! That really sucks.
I'm glad they've returned to the web stories, those are nice and accessible.
I'm definitely looking forward to the Brother's War set; I reread the old Brother's War book (and Planeswalker; I'm happy to see that Xantcha got a card) recently. I don't know how much of that old fluff they'll stick to, but I hope they keep the general feel of the Brother's War as this exhausting, years-long struggle between the stubborn personalities of Urza and Mishra, that consumes more and more of Dominaria as the war goes on.ithilanor on Steam.
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2022-05-09, 08:39 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2011
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Re: Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spi
They did have a story summary of "here is what we wanted the novel to be", so we know the deets of what happened, but otherwise... yeah.
Yeah I'm SUPER excited for Brother War. What I want them to do is just... reprint the book with modern art, and then use this time to refine the stories coming up. If we get any story content that isn't old, let it be like... super side things or "people in modern day reacting to this story".