Oh shit, Jace is fucking dead

Make a Homarid or Chephalid planeswalker.

Y'all bitches thought you could take down Slim Scaly

Teferi, who through some contrived circumstance in the upcoming Dominaria set, gets his planeswalker spark back.

Also this coincides with the return of my unironically favorite mechanic/keyword.

I'd be super on board with this, since we'd get Tamiyo and friends observing planes and the events and characters around them instead of interfering.

>Oh look! We found another contrived way to RESPARK an oldwalker

>phasing
I always thought blue should get more lore-to-mechanics clarification for its removal. Phasing is not only straight forwards (time blink) it can be a mechanical drawback for your own cards and an offensive hindrance for your opponents. As long as it isn't on garbage cards like before, I'd welcome it coming back.

When I was younger I made an entire set of 150 cards where every single one of them interacted with phasing in some way.

I'm...not terribly proud of it. The only card that I think was any good in it was pic, mostly for the weird situations it creates.

My vote is for a vedalken that is 2 cost with starting loyalty 2

Byx, Reckless scholar
+1 target player puts the top x cards of their library into their graveyard where x is the number cards in you hand
-1 target player draws a card then discards a card
-6 You get an emblem that says, "whenever a card enters your opponents graveyard from anywhere draw a card"

This is why i don't work at wizards. That card sucks. please don't crucify me

I think Phasing could be made interesting. Haste or ETB creatures go get value out of them turn one. Maybe time or charge counters get attached to them every time they phase in, fueling activated abilities. Cards that get stronger if you have a phased permanent, and blue "removal".

I also realized I want to see this conversation happen.
>Teferi to Liliana: So you're from Dominaria, but instead of slow time water (I'm at least 10 times older than you by the way) you made four different demon pacts and THEN found contrived ways to kill them?

I'll bring in Urza, who was pretty Blue.

Phasing also gets props because it can achieve with one word and one line what Exile takes twenty words and three lines to do (and that only if you make use of the extant Suspend keyword; otherwise you need even more).

As an example...

That emblem is a little too dependant on tef in a vacuum. Maybe giving target player an emblem that gives phasing to permanents/nonland permanents they control?

I'll post my counter points and counter counter points to Urza.

>he's dead
But bad writers never shy away from "he was alive all along" "death doesn't matter" and blatant retcons.
>his spark is with Karn/he never had his own spark
Like the writers are consistent with the concept of losing/regaining sparks, or how likely they are to just pop into existence.
>his character's arcs played out and there's nothing more to do with him
Nothing except introduce the kooky inventor character quips at interrupt speed.

I'm honestly surprised we haven't gotten a set of promos that feature old powerhouses, like a 3-5 color Urza planeswalker that costs 10 and has five abilities, or a Yawgmoth artifact creature card that just takes shit and makes it black from your opponents hand or field or graveyard, or a Death Of Argoth sorcery that just ends the game with everyone losing. All of which not even commander playable, but just trying to sell shiny paper to nostalgic nerds.

I'm ashamed to admit that I would probably buy it.

They changed Phasing to make it a lot simpler and more intuitive than it used to be, too.
The problem is that, since it used to be one of the big two Nobody Understands This mechanics, they're terrified of ever using it again.
Then again, they're terrified of lots of things nowadays.

The important thing is you tried.
Vedalken are awesome and you are awesome too

You could go 'At the beginning of your upkeep, exile Phases of the Moon until the beginning of your next upkeep'. Won't try to leave again because it's past the time it could trigger once it hits the battlefield.

tamiyo is a well-liked character who isn't shit at decision-making like jace was. after being shaken by emrakul on innistrad, she could reasonably lose green and/or white and be the posterchild for monoblue.
also this would give us an excuse to go back to kamigawa

>the Internet is instantly accessible to anyone, and thus so are detailed rules clarifications
>they waste time printing adds to fill their boosters with instead of tokens with rules scribbled on the back
How can they waste so much time on social media and filling their website with hype and fluff not not know how to educate?

Marty Stu is dead, rejoice!

She only had green and white so that they didn't have two monoblue walkers in the same block. They were there to try to limit the number of decks she'd be in - she's a monoblue character still.

tamiyo is a blue/green character because of her firm belief that she shouldn't alter the events of other planes, letting things progress as they are supposed to.

He's dead; but business as usual.

And yet you still get people thinking Book Burning and friends do damage and the other effect unless the other person owns a copy of the card.

I liked him enough in Agents of Artiface. Is that book even cannon anymore or was it dumped with every other decent idea around Origins-Fate?

Hi! My name is Mark Rosewater, and you had me until "go back to kamigawa". Next set we'll have Tamiyo be expressly against homosexuals and free speech, so we'll never be able to print her again and no one will mention Kamigawa.

Probably just use the Moon Sage

I wish he has just one line in return to dominaria
>Get the fuck out of my island.

Still takes a bunch of words to accomplish functionally the same thing that Phasing accomplishes in one.

Even that is a pretty interesting angle, and very different from the normal Blue/Green color scheme that instead leans towards the opposite.

Still, each card of a character we get is a "snapshot" of them at a given point in time, and doesn't necessarily represent their totality (e.g., Blind Seer is Urza in disguise. It's a Blue card, but Urza had previously been described (in the novel Planeswalker) as being White, and had motivations that were all over the place).

So there's no reason why Tamiyo couldn't be printed as Blue-Green while still being considered primarily Blue.

Hmm...

Phasing still requires reminder text. That'll chew through more words.

This was a joke but they did basically do this in one of he novels thats still canon in terms of the broad brushstrokes. It was more like a brainswap with his best friend but the idea is the same.

You don't, strictly speaking, NEED the reminder text. That's the entire point of a keyword, after all. Whereas unless you keyword a phasing-like ability for Exile, you'll need to spell out how the card functions each and every time.

Now, mind, inherently there's no real reason why you couldn't keyword a phasing-like ability for Exile, but I think it's more fun to just use what already exists, especially seeing as it's become simple to understand now.

I liked that reveal.

If it ends up being a set mechanic, it'll have reminder text on every card with the mechanic, other than MAYBE one or two big important high-rarity cards, because it's not the usual stuff and not everyone has been playing forever.
If it's intended to be something used every set from now on, it'll STILL get reminder text for the first few years because it will be the most complicated evergreen keyword and keyword action.

It's not even complicated...

D O V I N
B A A N

He's hilarious

Shroud was misplayed enough that we now have hexproof. Regeneration was dropped because people consistently forgot about things becoming tapped and removed from combat.
Imagine what they'll do with Phasing (This phases in or out before you untap during each of your untap steps. While it's phased out, it's treated as though it doesn't exist.)
And that's not including people misplaying because it changed how it worked back with M10

Urga was all five colors, which is one of the biggest hurdles they have to get over to be able to put him in a supplemental set.

Not all of them at the same time, though. And he was always blue.

I'd say blue-white or blue-red was early Urza, mixing green into him after he merged with Multani, and got big into eugenics. Black seeps into his personality later as he starts to do just what the Phyrexians do to gain power and advantage.

You could go monoblue though, or stick to only a few colors. Just because a person is greedy or angry or curious from time to time doesn't make them black or red or blue, and you can hone in on one of Urza's facets if you wanted.

Well, she's happily married and helps raise a bunch of children (IIRC it was unclear if they were hers) back on Kamigawa.

So she's already a bit nicer than the standard monoblue, but certainly when she's in the field she fits it well.

I want to know more about her family in a way that isn't the writers killing them off.

At least some of them are explicitly not hers. Like the ratfolk kid she adopted from that village that got wiped out, and raised as her own.

I forget, was it ever confirmed that Urza went planeswalker with Glacian's spark that was in the might/meekstones? Or am I remembering details wrong?

Also, seconding/thirding/whatevering Teferi. It'd shut up the people looking to be progressive and would bring back an actually interesting blue planeswalker.

Yes Agents of Attifice is still canon. That was previously Jace's only interactions with Bolas and Tezzeret and Liliana which were and are all still acknowledged, and also Origins had fucking Al Hammaret.

Why would they ever get rid of their biggest moneymaker?
That'd be like the WWE getting firing Roman Reigns

I think it's implied to be a combination of the two. The stones are the source of Urza's (previously a normal man) power, but the stones had drained Glacian's life force/soul, and presumedly his spark. Recombining the stones, absorbing them, and blowing himself up triggered the spark.

That being said, I don't know if Urza had his own spark, or if it's directly stated that he got Glacian's untriggered one.

Marketing ploy? Kill Superman and sell books about the aftermath. Kill Optimus and hype up a new character and a new story. Kill Urza and Gerrard and take the story in a fresh direction.

Unless I got the rules for phasing wrong, this wouldn't work because the effect would not be able to "go off" because the permanent is phased out. I think it'd work better to create something along the lines of:

>Phasing. When ~ phases out, add two mana of any colour to your mana pool. This mana doesn't empty from your mana pool as phases end until the start of your next turn.

or maybe

> Phasing. Tap: add 1 mana of any colour to your mana pool, then add 1 mana of any colour to your mana pool for each permanent named ~ that phased out this turn.

Bring Teferi back, so not only we have a better character, but that character also happens to be a black guy to placate the SJWs

Fblthp

I just want contained stories back. Have Bolas and tentacles and Garruk or Nahiri as characters that show up every once and a while as an overarching plot, but give me a set about the Phyrexian factions fighting each other for power, or a white dragon sending serpent angels to subjugate a plane, or a farm boy getting linked to a plane's muguffin and being lead on a magical adventure though an entire world of living tree roots and green hybrid cards. Your characters and your writing sucks Wizards. Use your worldbuilding team from a decade ago.

>25 year old key word needs reminder text

A Homarid planeswalker.

Best girl

>25 year old keyword that only showed up on cards in a single block, which most people have never played and thus are unaware of, and has traditionally held the title of second most confusing keyword
Just because it's old doesn't mean people know it. Especially since it's been completely irrelevant since then.

>this wouldn't work because the effect would not be able to "go off" because the permanent is phased out.

Specific beats general in Magic. Generally, something that is phased out is treated as it doesn't exist, so you'd be right, but if a card specifically interacts with phased-out cards, then the card trumps the normal rule that phased-out cards don't exist.

I phrased it a bit better with my follow-up card here, . However as actual precedent, I present Time and Tide, an actual Magic card, in pic. Current Gatherer text is:

>Simultaneously, all phased-out creatures phase in and all creatures with phasing phase out.

The point being that if a card says that something happens while it's phased out, then it happens.

>Especially since it's been completely irrelevant since then.

Actually Dream Fighter and Rainbow Efreet both saw play for some time, and Shimmer is still great in multiplayer, especially if paired with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.

I mean, a 15-year-old keyword needed reminder text when it was brought back, so...yes.

>who isn't shit at decision-making
From a writing perspective, that's a downside.

Main characters need to make flawed decisions in order to keep things moving.

I've never understood the confusion with Phasing. I always thought it was one of the most straightforward and intuitive mechanics the game ever produced, but maybe I'm biased because Mirage is like my second or third favorite block.

It changed zones, except it doesn't, except it triggers leaves play effects (but not comes into play effects), and despite changing zones keeps counters and local enchantments unlike every other zone change (but also unlike any other zone change those local enchantments have to stay attached to the thing they WERE attached to), but just like every other zone change tokens cease to exist, but any local enchantments on those tokens don't phase back in ever. And no summoning sickness despite all of this mess, but also no haste. It was a mass of conflicting rules.
The M10 change, where it stays around and is just treated as if it doesn't exist until it phases back in, IS rather straightforward and intuitive. Not one of the most straightforward and intuitive mechanics, but still decently so.

> And no summoning sickness despite all of this mess

There's actually three major iterations of the phasing rules: the original Mirage version, a later version that simplified it; and the M10 revision.

In the middle version, a creature that phased in was actually granted haste, although this was largely redundant: since phasing happens during the Untap step, a creature that phases in passes through its controller's Upkeep, and thus wouldn't be affected by summoning sickness anyway. They gained Haste mostly so that Time and Tide could still function as intended.

Not him, but I think that emblem is fine if not a little strong. Especially if there's targetable phasing combat tricks

My thoughts exactly when I made it. It basically turns a card like, say, Sapphire Charm or Reality Ripple, into "Gain control of target creature."

Not to mention the havoc you can play with Shimmer.

> madness is 15 years old

Well shit, I feel old.

bump

Fish waifu time

Source on the story that discusses this? I need deets but have no idea how to search Wotc archive for it

Maro has stated on his blog that Urza is all five colors which makes him hard to fit in.

I am really confused about why WotC didn't just make one of the original five a black guy. Like, they knew it was an issue even back then or else they've all literally lived under a rock for over a decade, and they had colored protagonists before so it's not like they didn't care before then either.

This company and their actions confuses me greatly.

And also, Chandra was already Jaya 2.0, so why not make Jace 2.0. Did they really plan for Jace to be the face of the game and think that no one would like him if he was black?

I don't know myself. I'm mostly going off wiki details and haven't dug through the stories yet. She's got three (?) kids, one is a nezumi. She also has a story circle with Ajani and a few other walkers to trade stories.

I'm really confused why they didn't make Jace a red man with long white hair.

magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/release-2016-10-05
Skips around a bunch between the 'present' of Aether Revolt and the 'past' of Ajani meeting with Tamiyo

8 on the Rabiah Scale

A legitimately ancient wizard, and more 'cool old guy' than 'arrogant magical nexus' at that.

Spends most of his time in the HQ, and it's immediately apparent why when he does tag along because he is actually a geriatric. Not a magical prodigy or anything like that either, his thing is being well learned, read, and practiced. Can function as the Gatewatch member who's the chessmaster on their side, at least while Nissa's still learning.

In terms of powers, he's probably aggressively invested in metamagic, counterspells and that sort of stuff. He cards would also be really good at drawing cards, which is just him giving the player advice instead.

I'd also be fine with making him Uncle Iroh the Blue Mage.

The specifics don't matter, ultimately I just want a dude that will use planning and guile to overcome his foes instead of brute force or deus ex machina, as has been the established trend for the Gatewatch. Either that or Arcanis the fucking Omnipotent.

Hey fuck you, Uncle Iroh is R and we're not giving him up

Nah he's izzet, look where he got inspiration for lightning bending from.

So if Jace dies, do the Ravnicans skin the guildpact off of him?

Thanks fampai, that was a very enjoyable story

>"Actions have consequences," Tamiyo told Ajani. "Sometimes people like us...forget how big our feet are."

Seems like one of the few self aware stories I've read recently. Of course it still has the young girls having funny codenames and dropping Gids spaghetti, but it's decent enough levity to contrast with Ajani's somberness.

Tamiyo best girl indeed. 10/10 would have tea with her and her husband. Also apparently her grandparents live with her. And Kamigawans literally count in Japanese. All interesting facts. And Ajani's blade isn't super sharp...maybe the writer is a Berserk fan?

>I'm really confused why they didn't make Jace a red man with long white hair.
Well yeah. Why didn't they? Only one of the original five was non-human and it was a race we'd already seen. I think they seriously their audience when they say that they're not interested unless they can relate and that they're unable to relate unless the character is a white human.

He also hung out with a bunch of sun worshippers, even petted their dragons, doesn't make him part W.
Uncle Iroh is rightful R clay.

Agents of Artifice is weird. For Jace it seems to still be canon, and for Tezzeret it doesn't?

>Roman Reigns
>a money maker
Any dipshit in his position would be making as much money if not more, he's the definition of an artificial draw

C U T E
U
T
E

Huh, will have to look into Tez and see if I notice the changes.

What's wrong in regards to Tezz?

In the book he had a Type C diarrhea.

of course WWE made him and could easily have made anyone else in hsi palce, but they made him and once you made somethingrelevant, people are going to want that thing. They can't just say fuck you to rman tomorrow or people will be pissed.

We're not seeing Tamiyo again until Return to Return to Innistrad.

Don't tell me that's human fucking skin please god

Bring back Uncle Istvan as a planeswalker. His abilities should be all about hating planeswalkers.