Magic Story

Designated Shit Joke Edition: this ain't gonna end until we get to Amonkhet boys.

Anyways, I like the dynamic of an elf and a Vedalken working together on research, with a human helping out a little during clutch. It actually reminds me of the research I do in real life where it's all so damn international. For all we bitch about forced progressiveness, this is a spark I feel is somewhat good.

Now we wait a few weeks to see the Gatewatch shit the whole plane up.

Also I'll be dumping the art from the story because I really love the art and artifice of Kaladesh.

Other urls found in this thread:

magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/time-innovation-2016-08-31
youtube.com/watch?v=o7ixdHQj3O4
youtube.com/watch?v=LdDXMG9jvwg
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

Bugger me I forgot the link:

magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/time-innovation-2016-08-31

Also do you think Dovin Baan and Saheeli are aware of each other's capabilities as planes walkers?

Saheeli a qt

Also they have Pokemon battles on Kaladesh.

I feel like at this point of you take the word "aether" and replace it with the appropriate substitution, be it "photons", "electrons" or "magnetic field", you end up with essentially real world technology or at least science fiction.

story was actually really well done, much better than the tumblr fanfiction shit on monday

So how long before New Phyrexia figures out a complimentary portal device that accidentally syncs up with what's going on in Kaladesh and end up invading the plane?

Well, he wasn't toootally wrong.

My opinion is that barring BFZ, in-plane stories seem solid so far until the Gatewatch come and ruin everything. I was very much entertained by how much Jace got fucked over on Innistrad but then it just fell flat in EMN. I'm fairly certain we'll come to love life on Kaladesh until everyone comes along to ruin the figurative curry pot.

Can't wait till the set releases, my wife does 3D cards art with foils and I'm pretty sure she's going to have a field day with all this goddamn filigree.

3 more sets

Maybe when we return to Kaladesh? This plot seems focused on class wars.

I kind of wished the Vedalken were bigger condescending douchebags but it's nice to see them get along with the other races I suppose.

Mitul's honestly pretty cute.

Side thought, how DO the Vedalken on Kaladesh flip the bird?

THE GREAT WORK IS AT HAND

POST YOUR FACE WHEN PHYREXIA RETURNS TO CLEAR THE WORLD FROM THE GATEWATCH

youtube.com/watch?v=o7ixdHQj3O4

youtube.com/watch?v=LdDXMG9jvwg

ALL WILL BE ONE

ALL WILL BE ONE

ALL WILL BE ONE

ALL WILL BE ONE

ALL WILL BE ONE

they use a controlled stream of aether to gently rotate the avian creature til it is upsidedown

Egypt set had like a 1 in 3 chance of being the next set. It wasn't hard to predict.

I DO feel like someone called the Bolas angle tho, just like someone called basically the entire BFZ to SOI eldrazi cthulhu progression.

I and a droid and you put parcels on me

A-doot doot doot

You know, it did like a song

Reprint in Kaladesh 2?

Myr? On Kaladesh? God I hope so.

Well played

kimberly is apparently a fine writer as long as nissa isn't involved. looking at monday guy's writing credits, he's apparently great at setting up narratives and story arcs, but is balls at prose and dialogue. magic creative really needs to be honest with what are and aren't their respective strengths.

Return to Kaladesh.

Aether Revolt doesn't really sound related to the Phyrexians. The set name would be more on the nose.

I think it'd be cooler if the remaining Mirrans used it to escape to another plane.

Or the Phyrexians commandeer it, that works too.

>some brown elf just came up with an idea for mass production planar portals
>but they only currently work on inorganic matter

What DEFCON should we be at for threat of Phyrexian invasion?

>1 in 3
I don't think you know how odds work.

Really liked the story. The interaction between the characters were great.

I was kinda surprised how much character the Vedalken guy had. They tend to just be one note side characters so this was very refreshing.

Now we start the countdown until the Gatewatch ruins everything.

unfortunately high. there was a recent blog post by maro where he suggested that having the villain defeated almost every time was a good thing, so maybe we can finally get rid of phyrexia when this portal technology ivariably goes tits up.

Kaladesh, where everyone is brown, except Chandra.

>finally get it to work on organic stuff
>Kaladesh has mass production ambulators
>brown people tear apart the multiverse exploring planes with their spark-emulating gadgets
>it turns out Kaladesh was long overdue for annihilation by the Eldrazi, and the biggest reason why there's no tech-heavy planes in the multiverse is that the Eldrazi keep devouring them before they hit the "entire plane's population can now planeswalk, massive damage to fabric of the multiverse ensues" mark

>Emrakul isn't ready to leave the moon yet, so the Gatewatch has to hire Garruk to kill brown people

I'm actually pretty comfortable with only the jund girls playing a part in this block, which might bode well. the more gatewatch involved, the worse things tend to get narratively. BfZ's story wasn't so bad until deus ex chandra happened, maybe three and under is the sweet spot. also chandra is my waifu and liliana's gotten progressively more enjoyable to read, so if we get the good version of nissa's schizophrenic character this could be solid.

are the blue dwarves from kaladaesh?

>not a new plane
>not deserty
>not egyptian
>indian with a touch of arabian knights
>mostly steampunky planar city though
>no bullshit with obscure deities or pantheons
>plot is likely gonna be RBG underclass vs. WUB ruling class

So literally nothing like what he said.

>~o Parcel-bot, Parcel-bot, carries parcels, is a bot ~o

Maybe pyromancers turn white when they get burnt?

Maybe Chandra has a sad story where she was throw on a fire and her skin is 100% scar tissue.

I think just how brick-shittingly dangerous the fact those rings even exist in a functional form is something that would go over the heads of people new to the lore.

If you have even a passing familiarity with what Phyrexia was, it's a total red flag, yet anyone not up to speed would clearly go "what could possibly go wrong?"

It's rather neat how it rewards longtime plotfags like that.

a rare bit of Gatewatch featuring stories are okay.
The ending of Eldritch Moon was a lot better than I expected.
Jace finds himself increadibly annoying, Lilliana felt like Lilliana, and managed to deal with Emrakul in the short term while still making her seem like a massive threat.
The one in Shadows where Jace goes buggerfuck crazy was also alright.

Those were the exceptions to the rule for Gatewatch stories, but it does show that it can be done.

Anyone know when the next story is going to drop? Is next wednesday or this week?

I kinda want to see chandra finally going home. Then again, Kaladesh seems to be okay without her so far.

Well you gotta be fair, some of them are blue. And I'm pretty sure I recall the inquisitor hounding Chandra was also white.

The only problem is that Wizards has all but confirmed that Phyrexia is the final big bad of MTG. Unless they completely start over they're here for the long run to some degree.

Also, Jund girls on what seems essentially a UWR heavy plane thus far seems pretty fair and interesting for interaction.

Though I suspect Rashmi is UG.

I'm thinking about it and the three and under rule really seems to hold. jace/liliana on the most awkward date in ravnican history was fun to read. gideon crashing in on them and going "if you want to save an entire wirld, come with me" worked. gideon and jace attempting to fix everything being fucked worked, and both of them being solo before the final confrontation was fine. jace, gideon and nissa leading an army and trapping ulamog was great and their ass kicking at the hands of Ob Nixilis was great. chandra alone in a monestar seemed like a real personal struggle. then chandra showed up on zendikar and the four of them beat Ob because reasons, despite three of them being torturously suspended in warped time and Chandra having had the shit kicked out of her, then the four of them killed two eldrazi titans, out of fucking nowhere. jace and lili running around innistrad was good, then the rest if the gatewatch showed up, emrakul was put down and a huge wtf rose up (but then the actual story didn't mention much about the naya trio and the ending was not as shitty as it looked). then the story with all five members was total garbage. the only reason nissa's solo stories sucked is because they can't keep her character straight for two in a row.

You're an idiot. The plane AFTER Kaladesh is Egypt styled, has something called the Trial Of The Five Gods, and is ruled by Nicol Bolas.

Chainveil-empowered Liliana was kinda obnoxious and too much a caricature, her other characterizations from SoI onward have been pretty good though.

I unironically read the lore nowadays for Liliana not acting like queen bitch. She's doing a decent service for characterizing Black beyond its public image of superdickery and ultraviolence.

That's why I think of Kaladesh being very steampunk.

In so much that -punk means replicating current society with fantastic technologies.

I can certainly agree with these sentiments. We do need a better Nissa atm though. The Professor did a FANTASTIC video on why her character sucks right now.

I'm sure that WotC commissioned some art to be inclusive of whites in their setting.

:^P

I like Liliana when she's written as self-centered and will do things for you only if she feels like she'd benefit in some way. Because I thoroughly resound with that sentiment. And though I'm pissed that she had to join the Gatewatch, I can live with her mentality for doing so.

Also if she'd keep the Chandra scenes coming that'd be really nice too.

one subtle thing they're doing with the gatewatch is having members of allied colors grnerally get along with each other and while they don't hate enemy members, there's definitely some distance and opposition. it's not generally overt (nissa and gideon's reaction to liliana being the exception) and it's done super well, especially in the context of the numerous absences of subtlety.

Yes he does.
I think he mean.
There are 3 probable Planes after Kaladesh, where Egypt is one of them.

The other two is maybe Norse/Viking world and sterotypical high fantasy/Fairy Tale World.

huh; I thought we were doing a new block, then a return block and so on. Guess I imagined that from doing half and half.

Unless Amonkhet is Rabiah after a thousand years of Nicol Bolas rule or some shit.

Also, I can't remember if we'd normally know the symbol for Hour Of Devestation yet?

I note that as well though I wish they'd make the enemy colors get along a little too.

Though I assume they have the good sense in writing to eventually make that happen

It's pretty much speculative fiction built around "what if technology advanced by lightyears during the steam age?"

Like, there are bottlenecks in technology during that age, but take Babbage's proto-computers for example. We could've had computers back then if people took his difference and analytical engines seriously, the modern-day computer arose without even considering Babbage's work.

We'd have had an extra century (and the hardware limitations to greatly reward) to develop algorithms that'd make computations efficient as fuck, computer culture might've advanced much like in Gibson's "the Difference Engine" such that we'd have steampunk hackers if not message board shitposters shitposting like the ancient Romans did...

Steampunk, in its most pure form, is about taking things that theoretically could've worked back in the day, and exploring how having these advanced technologies ahead of schedule would affect us.

That said, Kaladesh isn't really steampunk since steampunk by its nature operates as an alternate history setting. Plus, Kaladesh's narrative is poised to deal with what happens when a magic-based world advances in science far enough to cross the line from fantasy to science fiction.

I'd dub it aetherpunk, at the least. That's the magic fuel they're using after all.

It's just that her being a shameless walking Black cliche in the buildup to taking her oath was garbage compared to the more nuanced exploration of her philosophy elsewhere in her arc. Caring about one's self and maximizing agency are very interesting aspects of Black that are lost to the meme of SUCK MY DICK, I'M THE BOSS OF THIS GYM, it's a lot more interesting to see Black's quirks played out in ways that don't invoke the power-hungry despot endgame.

I'm not asking to tear pages out of Atlas Shrugged, but exploring the Objectivist aspects of Black through Liliana would be great. The empowerment of the self without obligations to others.

>She assumed that, like most vedalken she knew, he subscribed to the unending process of working successively closer to a solution by repeating the previous method with a slight variation.

So we're gonna get Ponder in Standard r-right guys?

I'd think it'd be now, nut we know the plot is moving to Bolas next set already and it seems weird to wrap up phyrexians in one small set, and as said the name doesn't seem indicative of phyrexians. Seems strange since hints of interplanar portals on an artifact world SCREAMS Phyrexia , unless maybe Bolas wants the technology to involve the Phyrexians somehow and Amonkhet is the lead in, which seems weird since Kaladesh is the perfect place for them to go, so why would they take it from there? It's just weird.

Nope, just a reprint of Anticipate at a Rare level for balanced Limited play.

Okay, I'm reaching here, that triggered even me.

Ponder is the literal exact opposite of that, though.

well they have, nissa and jace worked together very well on zendikar, but rven as they did it was made coear that their thought processes and ways of comprehending the same thing were diametrically opposed. gideon and chandra haven't had much direct interaction but i think that they'd probably operate similarly. orderly tactics and reckless fire are both good for a frontile fight or spearhead. even though they don't fully understand each other they can accomplish the same end.

I guess it's more like Serum Visions

>implying Nicol Bossass isn't all five gods wearing different hats.

Pretty much this. I don't know about one in three, but Egypt world was extremely high up on the list. It wasn't a stretch. Id believe the top tree were egypt, Viking/Norse/Valla and prehistoric/Muraganda but still.

just like how OG mirrodin layed the groundwork for scars block, it makes no sense to introduce a plane and then immediately decimate it. this is kaladesh's establishing shot, we have an internal struggle that chandra is likely going to push into full out revolt (see what they did there) then on return to kaladesh, anarchy is still a driving force and the plane is ripe for phyrexian invasion to impose order upon it, proving that whatever inequities the consulate created, there are worse forms of tyranny.

somehow the original elder dragons are the five gods, bolas is just the only one left standing

where the fuck are blue cantrips coming from? the reprint being referenced here is obvious

A return block after 2 return blocks in a row, before kaladesh?

Will probably be new world after egypt aswell.

No returning mechanics.

>BFZ
>SOI
>POOINLOO
>WEWUZ
>RTR2ELECTRICBOOGALOO
Is it just me or are there a LOT of planes unaware of the BE's and Planeswalkers?

Nah, next return will be Alara or Dominaria.
Maro will get pooinloo if it's Ravnica again so soon.

Yeah, that was way better than what I would have expected out of her from the Nissa stuff. I'm really starting to like Kaladesh as a world, too, the idea of underground robot battles is amazing.

The majority of planes are ignorant of planeswalkers. I only started playing back around Lorwyn, but hasn't that always been the case?

>Return to Alara
>The Conflux has been reduced to some slight ripples of volatile energy
>The shards, now forced to live together, are in an unsteady stalemate
>Five leaders rise up among their ranks, and now must live together
>The set is called The Alara Bunch

yes and no. in oldschool magic when planeswalkers were nearly omnipitent a number of them basically made themselves gods of planes or peoples but even then their worshippers didn't usually understand their true nature or the nature of the multiverse, just that the planeswalker in question could unmake them wih little effort

I think NWO planes are largely unaware of planeswalkers because the ones that walked there are new walkers and don't have the power to casually wreck planes the way old walkers do.

'post mending'

that isn't what NWO means

It seems to be the unwritten code of being a Planeswalker that you don't divulge much about it, because then people start asking questions and sticking their dicks in the fabric of the multiverse and so on and so forth.

I think Lavina is the first normal person in the Gatewatch arc to be brought up to speed about things, but she's so rigid and by the book that the only danger she could prove to be is unintentionally divulging details to Niv Mizzet who will totally pound Ral Zarek's boipussy for answers about how planeswalkers work.

We're like at the tipping point of people potentially learning too much about what exists beyond their world.

Innistrad, Mirrodin, Alara, Dominaria, Fiora, Theros, and Zendikar definitely know. Everywhere else it's either relatively unknown or sooper sekrit

technically, the population of zendikar were the first brought into the loop. also for neowalkers specifically it's a good rule not to talk about planeswalking because regardless if your opinion about the fabric if reality, it's a lot harder to get out of the alien autopsy scenario thannit used to be.

What are those two doing in this pic

From this size it looks like some swole dude is carrying blue-aligned human guy away from the portal.

.... You release that this makes Nicol Bolas an Apocalypse clone, like totally.

no, apocalypse has an entire plane he is the undisputed god-king of. bolas has done that on at least two.

>tfw they try to beat a reborn Bestwalker.

There are no Mirrans left on New Phyrexia,user. They probably got converted and Gin Gitaxias got to toy with their prototype portal.
So, New Phyrexia invades Kaladesh?

no, wait, i'm thinking of darkseid. wrong comic universe.

We know Koth is still alive
New Phyrexia won but there aren't literally 0 more and still alive.

Koth is still fighting.

To be fair, Phyrexia is 2-0 against Elspeth

I heard you talking shit.

>The set name would be more on the nose.
They'd pretend the set didn't have a name yet and only reveal it when it started getting obvious it'd be phyrexia.

I think it is.

I remember that there was this story where a planeswalker (I think the one from the first cospiracy) said it to a woman on Innistrad and Sorin appeared out of nowhere to kick him out of the plane.

But, I think there are cases in which there are planes where they know about them, Regatha maybe?

That's the point you moron. It's the closest we will get to sci-fi (Esper also had aether-based technorgy)

Well, we knew Eldritch Moon's name the whole time but I get the point. Doubt they'd pull that twice in a row

Should also factor in that those losses involved Elspeth becoming a murder machine against the Phyrexians. Kind of ironically.

She won the battles but lost the wars.

Maro said that, which I want to take with a grain of salt since Maro himself is salty about how Weatherlight and phyrexia ended because WotC hired an actual writing team to finish it up and move on.

He's like the worst phyrexiafag going "muh phyrexia is the best enemy" all the time, but luckily, he isn't writing the story

I think on every plane there are individuals or groups that know about them, it's just not common knowledge. We know shit all about regatha, but we know the monks there know about planeswalkers since their order is based entirely on the teachings of one.

That being said, I doubt it's possible to acquire the resources necessary right now to win a war against Phyrexia if they get off the plane. The last time they needed 9 old walkers, 10,000 years of collected white mana, a book capable of changing destiny the Legacy Weapon

Kaladesh is described as "ethnically diverse"

don't forget 10,000 years of prep time.

and three dwarves no one noticed. they were integral.

That was old Phyrexia
New Phyrexia is like Mormonism to Old Phyrexia's Roman Catholocism

Chandra's father Kiran was a red headed white man. Her mother is east Indian.

Looking at Origins you see whites, blacks, Indians. Now there are elves and Vedalkens.
That's pretty diverse right there.

But the weatherlight ending sucked. And source on it being an actual writing team?

Also dwarves.

I think I saw an Asian in the background of one image too.