Kaladesh and Aether revolt were meh, Energy was shit but the story would've been okay if there were no Gatewatch elements. There aren't any references to trump in the story either, Tezzeret has a mostly peaceful coup of the government with Baral goes along with since it benefits with and Dovin Baan kind of just gets caught up in, then the Gatewatch and the rebels kick Tezzert out of power but he already accomplished his goal.
I can't really say how well the set was thought of at the time..but quite frankly Kaladesh was the worst designed of the small set blocks (yes it was worse than Battle for Zendikar, at least BFZs shit didn't destroy standard like energy did)
Kaladesh was released in 2016. Aether revolt came out in 2017. BFZ was the shit. I knew a guy who cracked a case and didn't get a single expedition which was hilarious. It was quite a let down after Khans though.
The Original Bonus Sheets, don't you love how people enjoyed those immensely..and the only complaint was that the Amonkhet/Hour ones were almost unreadable and WOTC's response to that was "WELL THEN WE JUST WON'T DO THEM THEN"
Yeah, I figured R&D would be too far ahead, but a lot of the flavor text just kinda made me raise my eyebrow a bit. Maybe I'm just becoming more of a jaded cynic these days.
Tezzeret being a SUPER DUPER ARTIFICER got picked as a Judge for a yearly Invention Fair..and just happened to trip over an artifact that Nicol Bolas needed for his invasion of Ravnica Plan.
Possible but unlikely: Licensed vs. original IP aside I've found that UB has had issues with power level + mechanics that just don't feel like MtG. I would imagine that the latter problem will get worse as we move into IPs like SpongeBob that already don't fit neatly into Magic's generic fantasy setting.
I see it as logical. He was actively searching for the thing and decided to stick around on a plane with lots of technology.
That could have happened on any plane with technology though. Rashmi discovered it from scratch by pure accident.
Yeah, I think that's the thing that's bullshit about the plot. Bolas knew he'd need a planar portal back when he first set up Amonkhet to be a zombie supersoldier factory just after the events of Time Spiral block, but he also didn't have one and - as far as we know - wasn't actively trying to invent one. He just sort of sat around and waited for someone else to invent it, then sent his lackey in to steal it. Rashmi invented it at the time that she did because the plot dictated that Bolas needed a way to dump his zombies onto Ravnica to start Jacetice League: End Game, and Tezz found it right away because they only had two sets to work with and they had the whole 'heroic freedom fighters vs. evil fascists' plot to do too.
What if what he wanted was impossible though? Bolas doesn't know everything. He had no idea that the multiverse would heal in the way it did after the rifts were closed. What if planar travel for non walkers/Eldrazi was literally impossible post mending. He just said fuck it and killed off the whole adult population of Amonkhet with what little of his old walker powers he had. Absolute retard.
He didn't even do that, Tezzeret was just THERE when it happened for no actual discernible reason. Rashmi wasn't famous or even trying to invent a Planar Bridge she did it by complete accident.
It kind of gets even worse, if Lazotep is so useful...why hadn't Bolas subjugated that plane already?
We didn't have many planes with that degree technology at that point, I believe. And Bolas could've had more than one agent overseeing more than one plane. Kaladesh just got what's needed first. What works in its favor is that aether became a driving force of progress, instead of magic. Only certain people can use magic, but aether, being a universal power source, could be used by anyone. And the culture that formed around it incentivised constant invention and improvement of contraptions.
It is Bolas, He (according to Himself in Legends 2) Rules several planes. He has no reason to spy on Random planes when he should have a plane with more Advanced Technology than Kaladesh when he could set up a Research plane run by someone more trustworthy than Tezzeret, and Kaladesh isn't THAT much further advanced than other planes.
Problem. He is cartoonishly evil. His idea of ruling is beating everyone over the head, sometimes just for lulz. It works well for simple tasks, but not for those where people supposed to think really hard. I would assume even somebody like he understands that.
They aren't exactly a scientific nation. what they do is graft funny magic metal onto themselves, so they can do more magic. They were being in the process of running out of it by the point when the Alara-imploding shart happened, which only complicated matters.
I don't think they had a concrete vision for both of these when Kaladesh was considered. Plus, I bet Bolas was still salty about Kamigava in particular.
Their entire technological advancements were based on digging up Thran shit. Their portal technology was developed for the pre-mending conditions and wouldn't have worked now, I assume.
There wouldn't really be a story in such case. In reality there could've been some amount of portal technology that did not worked to the specs and was thrown into the shredder alongside its creators. But this is not reality, and wizards were planning to get on with it.