Magic Story Thread: Gatewatch BTFO Edition

Chandra is literally a teenager though, isn't she? She's early twenties at the oldest, just from the way her character acts.

I liked it. Bolas got to have fun playing the moustache-twirling villain openly for the first time in forever by toying with a bunch of wannabe crimefighter children.

I love that Ral Zarek is making a return, and I'm not surprised he's working with Bolas. I hope he's our first Grixis Walker.

Didn't they try the same thing with Gatecrash in RtR? What is up with WotC and their fetish for gates?

Ral Zarek just went from serving best dragon to serving second-best dragon

Why didn't they leave with Liliana? Their one chance to beat him got his mind wiped and fled, they needed to regroup. I swear Jace and Liliana are the only two with their heads on straight.

Ral being one of Bolas' minions is funny to me, trading one smug dragon asshole for another.

You sweet summer child. You really think they're never going to go back to the Eldrazi/lookalike eldritch horror well?

Because they don't want Planeswalkers, they want the X-Men. The Gatewatch is a group of editorially mandated Poochies designed to appeal to kids, or rather "The Youth Demographic."

>yfw it will eventually refer to the massive numbers of Planar gates created by Yawgmoth that reactivated for some bullshit reason

I want Niv-Mizzet to scientifically engineer his own planeswalker spark with Izzet tech and replace Ral as the Izzet Walker while Ral goes Rakdos. We haven't had one yet.

>He saw the slight widening of Chandra's eyes as she realized, seemingly for the first time, just how large Nicol Bolas was.
BOLAS'D.COM

>Niv-Mizzet does what Yawgmoth spent 10,000 years trying to do.

that'd be funny as hell.

>Grixis walker
bolas already took that metal dearie

two out of five gatewatch members literally don't think and the other one is a treehugging hippy

they genuinely thought they could take down bolas without a plan

The fuck are you talking about? They sequestered emrakul away onto the horror world specifically so they could return to eldrazi in a more natural habitat than zendikar. What does that have to do with naming their long term, cross world hero team after a single place on a single plane that now that I recall doesnt even exist anymore seeming like a poor idea? They literally lampshaded the irrelevance of the name as a joke in this story.

Sarkhan the Mad?

Gideon was in bloodlust rage mode. It seems the death of the gods/amonkhet people was weighing on him.

Chandra is a fucking kid, and thought she could take him on regardless, she is prime red character matieral.

Nissa seemed to accept defeat faster then the other two left given really the first opportunity she could (after allowing chandra to leave).

We dont talk about sarkhan the mad, he was shit

So where do the eternal sit on power rankings? We already saw Neheb get rekt by Djeru and Samut so they don't seem that strong. Obviously they are nowhere near Phyrexian or Eldrazi levels so what planes would they actually be a threat too, especially without the bug God's bolstering them. It's seems like at least half the planes we've seen in the history of the game could easily deal with Eternals.

So was Ral Zarek but you seem fine talking about him

Phyrexian goons aren't that strong. The the thing they have going for them is near infinite numbers since a dead phyrexian can be used to create a new phyrexian

I liked how throughout the whole thing, Bolas was utterly unconcerned. Even bored in places. And the bit where Lilliana fled and he looks at the remaining three, the sheer shit-eating grin Bolas must have had.
>"And then there were three. I didn't want to annoy your dear departed necromancer, but between us, I admit I know a fair bit of necromancy. Do you have an opening in your Gatewatch? Is there some type of application process?"

23, yeah, based on Kaladesh stories.

Eternals are 4/4 at minimum that are immune to glistening oil, and there are at least thousands of them, so I imagine they'd be a sufficiently formidable and consistent force of loyal bolas goons.

Neheb was beaten, yes, but by a tag team of Gideon and two of the strongest fighters left on Amonkhet.

IT'S
MOTHERFUCKING
KEN
TROOP

Did Liliana even use the chain veil in this story? Bolas just calls her out on being a manipulative bitch, she begs everyone to leave, then retreats in shame like a slut losing the last bit of trust anyone had in her.

>in a few sets they instantly forgive her because the team needs a black mana user

Twice as strong as a Grizzly Bear.

>immune to glistening oil

Source

no time to read the article at the moment. is gatewatch finally retired for good? it was fucking retarded

The point of the Gatewatch was promising "If the Eldrazi start some shit we'll be there to stop it." Stands to reason that they'll be reunited by that goal at some future date.

>retired for good
lmao
no

>Bolas, Phyrexia and the Eldrazi all attack a plane at the exact same time
>everyone thinks they'll end up fighting each other
>Instead they each partition the plane into equal segments

How would you react?

Rhe geoup is currentky disbanded after a geeat sefeat following a heightened sense of confidence, but will come back and reform after learning some lessons. Basic story telling.

Well it has been scattered to the corners of the multiverse with every member emergency walking away.

>Rhe geoup is currentky disbanded after a geeat sefeat

She didn't even do anything wrong in this story specifically, and she ended up being right in that Bolas wrecked their shit. Why would they really be mad at her?

No, it was not specifically about eldrazi, and that still has nothing to do with being called the GATEwatch.

That'd actually be pretty neat. Shame it will never happen because there would be no threat greater than that sans for Yawgmoth returning.

I still think urza is on the same threat Level as papa yawg

The fact that Yawgmoth made Urza his bitch makes me think otherwise. Urza would be limited by the Mending while Yawgmoth would not.

>but she hurt a retarded pyromancer's feelings

I must say the Bolas I got was a little dissapointing. It must be because I'm re-reading Timespiral and just finished the chapter where he manipulates Teferi's party, frees himself and duals and defeats Teferi. And while by no means shakespear his character in there is way better then the mustache twirling Bolas we get here.

Also, and I've said this a dozen times now but it still bugs me, how is all this going to make him an oldwalker again. At least the conflux plan sounded like it could work but this. As the story states, he now has the planar bridge, the army, the gatewatch loose in the multiverse (whatever the fuck good that will do) and Ral Zarek as his new minion. This better be building up to something.

Because someone you consider a friend abandoning you in a time of need is pretty hurtful? Especially when it's a life-or-death situation?

People tend to get emotional over that sort of stuff. Only a robot would think "It was okay for you to run away, your hypothesis about our defeat was sound and it was the optimal choice for self-preservation."

So yes, they're all going to treat her like a traitor and she might genuinely be a traitor and ally with Nicol Bolas.

They were already wary of her, given half the reason she brought them to amonkhet was to kill a demon, but she never told them that.

Ditching them was probably just icing on the cake.

While the mustache twirling was pretty over the top here, it is one of the few moments when Bolas fully deserves to do it. He has 5 of the more powerful (excluding Garruk) planeswalkers in a Plane he pretty much owns, without a good plan and unprepared. So he chooses to indulge himself in some petty insults and showing off, because whats the point of utterly defeating your opponent if you can't enjoy the tears they weep as you do it?

Granted, the only reason she stuck around after killing the demon was because she felt bad about tricking the jacetice league.

But they all ran. She just ran first.

I don't know why Liliana has to be such a bitch about it. You got what you wanted out of them you dumb slut, why you acting like you give a shit about your pawns?

Well, if we are going back to Dominaria, I imagine he might be making an invasion there. Aside of retaking his old seat of power, is there something in there we know of that's hard enough to get to need an army?

I'd call bullshit because there is no way Bolas or Phyrexia would ever share anything.

I'm not a fan of Bolas but I got a real kick out of the mustache twirling this time.
>is there an application process?
Cheeky cunt.

Jace ran away because his mind was being fucking eat by that of Bolas.
Chandra ran away because most of the bones in her body were broken by Bolas squeezing her with his hand.
Nissa ran away because the very essence of nature that she was connected to was defiled and she was being choked to death by it.
Gideon ran away because his invulnerability was actually pierced by Bolas and if he didn't leave right at that moment, he was going to die.
Liliana ran away because Bolas was persuasive and appealed to the coward in her.

One of these is not like the others. Liliana was not pushed to the verge of death at any point, she was not forced to choose between running or dying at any point. Her choice was between running or fighting and she chose to run rather than fight alongside her 'friends.'

I knew liliana was smart

>it is one of the few moments when Bolas fully deserves to do it
Perhaps, but it still bugs me it was so over the top. I somehow expected better from Ken Troop. He's written some good stories, loved the end of Eldritch Moon for instance.
>is there something in there we know of that's hard enough to get to need an army?
Don't know. Last time we were there was during Timespiral and, as my re-reading is reminding me, it is a post apocalyptic timerift-raped wasteland. It's mana is ravished and while al the timerift fuckery gets fixed in the end by the mending I doubt al of it is healed in only sixty years. Still, it's a big plane and I don't know all of it's lore so, perhaps?

Shes not black so she had to be nasty snd mean. Thats not true but thats the way they play her. I really dont like the "revels in being bad" archetype. Its suh a waste on a character with as interesting a concept as Liliana once you sig past "bad girl who makes a demon pact and betrays them" which is the forefront of her character we see. Most of the gatewatch characters have amazing core concepts imo.

It has also 2 continents still phased ou

I get the feeling that this one had a lot of oversight from other writers, since it's the big finale of this set.

At the very least, a lot of the dialogue sounds very not-Troop.

>Shes got

So are we going to get 5 different blocks of where each of the Gatewatch walked to now? That would really stretch this story out.

Also did I read the story wrong or is Jace's mind actually completely wiped right now?

>Liliana ran away because she knew they would get smeared but she foolishly allowed her minions ignorant optimism affect her right up to the moment they confronted Bolas. Then Bolas said, "Lili, sweety, darling. You goddamn know better. Why dont you toddle off to the kitchen before I peel your skin and mindslaver you body through a salt mine."
Ftfy

It's not about being nasty and mean. It's about number one.

Yes, we knew Jace was probably going to have most if not all of his memories fucked up due to appearing in Ixalan as the "planar castaway". Its probably set up for a storyline where they get his memories back including his ones about Vryn, and he remembers his home and family. And also something something neglecting the Guildpact, which is probably one reason they went with Vraska in Ixalan as well.

t. black mage

2? I haven't finished my re-read yet but I kinda remember that Shiv got phased back in succesfully. Isn't that how Teferi loses his spark? While phasing in Shiv he has to heal the rift there and does it by sacrificing his spark to it?
Perhaps, maybe he just didn't have his day. I don't know but like I said, I expected better when I saw his name.

And women/SJWs.

The internal Bolas dialogue before the defeats started happening was pretty good, though.

Besides, hammy villains can be enjoyed once in a while.

>They fancied themselves The Gatewatch. As though for some bizarre reason there were gates scattered throughout the Multiverse. That deserved watching.
My sides have departed the plane.

So, a few months back, I was playing 5e D&D and me and one other party member got separated from the rest of the group. We're all level 14 by this point, incidentally. Wandering around, we stumbled across an Ancient White Dragon (CR 20, i.e., designed to be challenging for four 20th-level characters - or in other words a near-certain death sentence for two 14th level characters) who was specifically out to kill me, because I'd killed its mate some levels and time ago. This was one of the penultimate encounters of the entire campaign.

We roll initiative, and the other party member goes first. And what does he do? He bolts in the other direction, leaving me to die since I could not run nearly as fast as him, and certainly not faster than the dragon could move.

Left with little choice, I fought the dragon. And though it took every single trick I had available to me and a LOT of luck, I WAS able to defeat it, single-handedly. But in the process I got myself (and the dragon) stuck in another plane of existence with no way home.

If my "friend" had stuck around, we might have been able to slay the dragon together, and my character would not have functionally died and missed the actual ending of the campaign by being trapped in another plane of existence.

>Ral Zarek, the last remaining white male planeswalker alive outside of Jace, has been made evil
>Tezzeret, formerly a black villain, is now white
>Gideon, formerly a white hero, is now black
Clever, Wizards.

>thinking Lili would want to fight an impossible foe right after seeing her little Cloak Boy's mind completely wrecked
Liliana did nothing wrong.

IIRC the stuff they're preserved with prevents them from being transformed.

>Bolas slapping the shit out of Gideon
>"That was your mind expert, I believe? Do you have a spare? I can wait, or I promise not to listen if you shout at each other." Nicol Bolas lingered on each word, his voice rumbling through the open plaza, punctuated only by the continued thwaps as he bounced Gideon off the wall.

Also, they went all in on trying t9 make Bolas feel more red this set by emphasizing theatrics, hence the framing of the set being that of a disaster movie. Its also more useful for a creative design perspective to have big villains that make a big deal about showing off themselves, which is why Bolas had amonkhet remade to feature his image, and also why the eldrazi developed distinct effects on the environment between OG Zen and now.

In other words, expect Bolas to be more showy than he might have previously been portrayed from now on. As much as some will shit on the conxept of the "mustache twirling villain", I also generally feel most people like guys who like being bad guys and indulge in it, hence Liliana's popularity as well. So theyre just latching onto what most people like about then.

>Why bother being smart when the Multiverse so conveniently conspired to keep your idiocy alive?

I imagine the good of letting them live is for when they round up all of his opposition in one convenient spot so Bolas can crush them at one time

...

>Strokeposting

This was the beatdown. The next few sets will be the training montage, and then there will be the rematch. And then maybe we'll be done with them for a little while.

So then.

- Jace went down first, and fast.
- Liliana ran away. Even with the Chain Veil at full power she'd have lost.
- Chandra got messed up and nearly died after her fire failed.
- Nissa landed a hit by using her best summons and then had the land infect her.
- Gideon basically did nothing except be a punching bag, then fled.

They definitely got their shit pushed in.

I thought this was interesting as well. It also reminds me of something that I think Doug Beyer said on his vorthos thing a few years back, that Nicol Bolas has been "keeping an eye on Niv-Mizzet" for quite some time now. And now we find out that Ral Zarek, Izzet mage and walker who just recently helped Jace hide planeswalking from Niv, works for Bolas. Nicely done.

I wonder who Bolas had spying on the others. Liliana, Gideon, Nissa, Chandra... he's probably got eyes and ears much closer than they might realise.

Nissa wouldn't have left before Chandra did, and both Chandra and Gideon were refusing.

Liliana's still very tsundere about Jace.

>My wings hurt
>I miss my powers
>I wish Urza wasn't dead
>I wonder what happened to the Umezawas

Yawg only had those mind dominating powers while on Phyrexia IIRC. Something about having dominion over the entire plane's inhabitants.

>how is all this going to make him an oldwalker again
We don't know. Remember, he himself says that these are only the very first open steps. There's a ways yet before he's done.

She does give a shit about them, and several shits in the case of Jace, she just cares about herself and her survival more.

From what I gathered in today's story, Bolas was just really excited to get to play the villain again. He'd been doing it for millennia, and old habits die hard.

He also killed reality warping old walkers by simply brushing against them.

>>I wonder what happened to the Umezawas
From memory, he implied after he resurrected and planeswalked away back in Time Spiral that he was going to track them down. Or their descendants, at any rate. All of them. And their friends. And their pets.

Liliana still best girl confirmed.

>No deaths
>everyone lives
>get sent away to different places

This is so goddamn lame. It's like a generic shonen manga... the heroes get trounced, then go find "separate mentors", cue a story where they rejoin and pep talk each other, then go defeat the big bad bolas.

This is more disappointing than eldritch moons "twist"... I didn't even think that was possible, but there it is.

Ok then,
>After I get my powers back, I should kill the Umezawas again

>Phyrexians are literally the only villains capable of killing heroes

Well, we did just witness a seriously fucking broken team there. Jace got mindraped again, Lili fucked off to god knows where, Chandra is pissed at Lili and the world, Nissa is a low functioning autist with no handler, and Gideon has no one to hero complex for. They may not be dead, but they are broken.