Magic The Gathering

[Very Professional]

Also, if it is so lawless, why the hell did they make a lawyer faction?

They're just bodyguards and negotiators with a lawyer set-dressing. No, it doesn't really make a lot of sense.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

had to go hunting for the actual answer because it was a LITERALLY WHO made for the FUCKING SET that they killed off. Who the fuck cares about Kylox??? I fucking hate the WORC story team. Does make Ill-timed explosion make more sense but still. Car-bombing on Ravnica was not on my bingo card, so I’ll take my partial credit.

I actually meant Anzrag the Not-Groudon gettimg released from his Pokeball

 

[Logistical Nightmare]

I actually meant Anzrag the Not-Groudon gettimg released from his Pokeball

Was that even related to anything that happened? I thought that was just Ravnica set dressing because what else are the Gruul doing in a set that requires intrigue and subterfuge.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Was that even related to anything that happened? I thought that was just Ravnica set dressing because what else are the Gruul doing in a set that requires intrigue and subterfuge.

The Middle Dryad spored someone to release the Rage mole from its Evidence capsule in the detective HQ to distract them.

 

[Very Professional]

I miss when the Gruul were just violent anarcho-primitivists and not Antifa pagan LARPers (that was the Cult of Yore).

 

[Flexo]

I think it definitely plays a role. MaRo is on record that they were trepidatious about doing another Phyrexia-focused set because of how intense the art direction in the original was, and even with the shitty licorice suit redesign they gave the Phyrexians, Redditors still complained it was too edgy. You can only water down a design so much before it's unrecognizable. It might be the general atmosphere more so than the art direction itself, but they surely ask themselves "Is this world marketable to the modern Magic audience?" when scheduling Return sets, and I don't think Alara has what they're looking for despite how much potential the setting has. Hell, even with Dominaria I think the main thing that saved it was that it was, for a good ten years, Magic's "default" setting.

That's so dumb you're probably right. Especially because a Phyrexian focused set would have almost no where to hide from the... well body horror. But Alara, the thing about it is that it was 5 different shards. So yeah while Grixis was horrifying, you had Bant (high fantasy Disneyland). And other parts of it that each had their own aesthetic. So like in theory Alara2 would be a good thing because everybody should be able to find something in it to enjoy.

had to go hunting for the actual answer because it was a LITERALLY WHO made for the FUCKING SET that they killed off. Who the fuck cares about Kylox??? I fucking hate the WORC story team. Does make Ill-timed explosion make more sense but still. Car-bombing on Ravnica was not on my bingo card, so I’ll take my partial credit.

lol wut?

THIS guy???


From that game text I'd assume he was more the killing type than the "be killed" type. They can't even pull off a flavor of "when this guy dies..."?

And dang, he got killed so hard it wiped his entire species into lizard.

I actually meant Anzrag the Not-Groudon gettimg released from his Pokeball

What?

The Middle Dryad spored someone to release the Rage mole from its Evidence capsule in the detective HQ to distract them.

WHAT?????

No seriously, what even? Here I thought Bloomburrow was kind of pathetic just copying Kamigawa 1's story, but MKM was way off the rails this whole time.

Should I go read Thunder Junction's story? How insane is it?

 

[Very Professional]

That's so dumb you're probably right. Especially because a Phyrexian focused set would have almost no where to hide from the... well body horror. But Alara, the thing about it is that it was 5 different shards. So yeah while Grixis was horrifying, you had Bant (high fantasy Disneyland). And other parts of it that each had their own aesthetic. So like in theory Alara2 would be a good thing because everybody should be able to find something in it to enjoy.

I think the other shards present their own baggage for a Return set. For Esper, see their hideous redesign of Breya in MH3. If they do Naya and Jund they'll make all the tribals into niggers (but then if they do that they're depicting niggers as savages), not to mention the goblin suicide cults of Jund just don't seem to gel with modern WotC's softer vision for the game. And as for Bant, while I like the "so chivalrous it's actually autistic" theme, I think WotC probably thinks knights are too basic of a hook. When we got Wilds of Eldraine, for example, there were half as many knights as in the first set and zero tribal synergies for them. In general they seem to be moving away from the "generic" fantasy that was the game's bread-and-butter for two decades. It has to have some kind of pop culture tie-in like detectives, cowboys, slashers, etc.

 

[Yamaha YM2612]

I miss when the Gruul were just violent anarcho-primitivists and not Antifa pagan LARPers (that was the Cult of Yore).

God im so glad I left the game. Im in the process of making a cube of older cards (old sets, newer core sets, some masters stuff) and am probably never gonna buy new product again

 

[Flexo]

I think the other shards present their own baggage for a Return set. For Esper, see their hideous redesign of Breya in MH3. If they do Naya and Jund they'll make all the tribals into niggers (but then if they do that they're depicting niggers as savages), not to mention the goblin suicide cults of Jund just don't seem to gel with modern WotC's softer vision for the game. And as for Bant, while I like the "so chivalrous it's actually autistic" theme, I think WotC probably thinks knights are too basic of a hook. When we got Wilds of Eldraine, for example, there were half as many knights as in the first set and zero tribal synergies for them. In general they seem to be moving away from the "generic" fantasy that was the game's bread-and-butter for two decades. It has to have some kind of pop culture tie-in like detectives, cowboys, slashers, etc.

Possibly, though are detectives and cowboys that much more in pop culture than knights? I mean you could point to LotR, GOT and then the lesser stuff like Witcher or Wheel of Time as at least all being knight related. What was the last thing with cowboys? Red Dead Redemption? And detectives? That's all boomer tv nowadays.

Also I wasn't sure which Breya artwork you were referring to. lol

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

THIS guy???

Oh right he does get got! I thought he got killed but i thought that was me just gaslighting myself.

What?

Okay so when Kellen and Amalia first arrive on Ravnica, they pick up a job working for Azorious Arbiter mans Detective club, one of his missions was to capture Anzrag the Quake Mole, on Ravnica they keep dangerous Evidence in Capsules that shrink them down, given that he is a Giant Clawed Earthquake causing guy I thought a joke about him being a Temu version of the Pokemon Groudon was funny.

Especially because they shove him in a tiny Shrinking Capsule thing..

WHAT?????

No seriously, what even? Here I thought Bloomburrow was kind of pathetic just copying Kamigawa 1's story, but MKM was way off the rails this whole time.

Should I go read Thunder Junction's story? How insane is it?

Thunder Junction is...the best story that they have done from Post March of the Machines. Like the entire set up of Thunder Junction is fucking silly but the actual events save the fact that Gisa and Geralf are really fucking annoying approach "Okay" levels of writing.

 

[Very Professional]

Possibly, though are detectives and cowboys that much more in pop culture than knights? I mean you could point to LotR, GOT and then the lesser stuff like Witcher or Wheel of Time as at least all being knight related. What was the last thing with cowboys? Red Dead Redemption? And detectives? That's all boomer tv nowadays.

I think you're right that knights are more timeless and relevant than detectives or cowboys, but I think that's WotC's (flawed) thought process nevertheless.

Also I wasn't sure which Breya artwork you were referring to.

The first one, top-left. Bottom-right is her original art.

on Ravnica they keep dangerous Evidence in Capsules that shrink them down

The idea that the detention spheres from Return to Ravnica can somehow house a demigod seems wrong to me, even if it doesn't strictly break any established lore.

 

[Flexo]

I think you're right that knights are more timeless and relevant than detectives or cowboys, but I think that's WotC's (flawed) thought process nevertheless.

You know what? Totally fair point. I'll give that one to you.

The first one, top-left. Bottom-right is her original art.

Gotcha. Though IIRC isn't the top-left one a tribute to Olivia Golbert-Hicks who liked to play and cosplay as Breya? (which may just go further to prove your point)

The idea that the detention spheres from Return to Ravnica can somehow house a demigod seems wrong to me, even if it doesn't strictly break any established lore.

Yeah, I still can't believe it.

The last few sets have all sounded horrible lore wise. We were discussing Duskmourne. I mean why not have an entire story about how the omenpaths could cause havoc with that plane now getting superhighways to the other planes? So there's your story - let's work to cut that demon bitch off from the rest of the multiverse.

But no, it's all about a rat kid wanting to talk to his mom? da faq?

 

[Very Professional]

Gotcha. Though IIRC isn't the top-left one a tribute to Olivia Golbert-Hicks who liked to play and cosplay as Breya? (which may just go further to prove your point)

Not sure who that is, so if that was the intention I wasn't aware of it. I still think it looks bad but if it's some kind of wholesome community tribute I guess I can't hate it entirely.

The last few sets have all sounded horrible lore wise. We were discussing Duskmourne.

Duskmourne is probably one of the most nonsensical settings they've ever made. There are so many things wrong with it I'd have to compose an itemized list. I didn't hate Bloomburrow, but it's also very hard to fuck up "literally the plot of Kamigawa but with cute Redwall animals" since OG Kamigawa's story was really fun, although even the Redwall vibes are a little half-baked since Redwall was really violent.

 

[Flexo]

Not sure who that is, so if that was the intention I wasn't aware of it. I still think it looks bad but if it's some kind of wholesome community tribute I guess I can't hate it entirely.

She was actually on the Commander Rules Committee before it died.

Nowadays she's with Brian Kibler and they do the Commander at Home show.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

But no, it's all about a rat kid wanting to talk to his mom? da faq?

This one I will kind of defend since Tamiyo died right in front of Nashi.

Watching your Mom show up as a Phyrexian Abomination and then getting smote by the gods of your plane is probably a bit traumatizing when you are 8.

 

[Yamaha YM2612]

In general they seem to be moving away from the "generic" fantasy that was the game's bread-and-butter for two decades.

I mean, thats what people fell in love with. I guess they couldnt do "dnd with cards" forever.

and that's why I thought ravnica was so cool

it DID have a little bit of the high fantasy generic stuff BUT it also had a lot of potential to do other things

Ravnica as an aesthetic could house anything. It was broad enough and like, ubiquitous enough that you could explore lots of ideas and aesthetics inside it

I think lorwyn also had this. It had a tribal focus but there was so much mechanical potential and lore potential

It has to have some kind of pop culture tie-in like detectives, cowboys, slashers, etc.

And that's why it doesn't feel special anymore. It doesn't really have an identity. One year its an eldritch horror game, the next its an Indian game with cars and vehicles, a few years later its Harry Potter, then a tmnt tcg, then a tcg of...furry animals

I mean...if youre new and just getting into the game, you are so lost. Am I playing an egypt tcg? Is this spider man?

It has no central identity anymore

With the cube im building im trying to really avoid cards that have a specific plane aesthetic. Im sticking mostly to old sets and core sets (believe it or not, cores have always been my favorite) and occasional other "ubiquitous" cards from supplemental sets. Like if it depicts a specific plane, explicitly, im avoiding it.

Im trying to create a cube that captures what magic felt like to me as a kid. Its own world of knights and wizards and sorcery and shit. And I bend that a little, I have a couple eldrazi and stuff but all these mechanics and aesthetics tied to specific planes gotta go

Anything referencing Chandra or jace, etc is out. If youre new and you open "Chandras pheonix" you're like "who tf is chandra". You have to go in with knowledge of these retarded characters and shitty story.

Yes, only sets had characters and references, but most of the time, you didnt have to know the story. Because characters were on the cards, and were ubiquitous enough that it felt like how Garfield intended. You were discovering or being told and ancient story. If I open hazazon Tamar, or starke of rath, I dont need the story. I can look at the art and color identity and almost intuitively know what this dude is about. The story merely reinforced this stuff.

In the modern era, you open Chandra or Jace and just know they're a fire mage or a blue mage of some kind. I dont know anything about their flavor other than "fire mage is red". No shit

Compare to a card like...fire elemental. Azure Drake. Emperor crocodile. I can open a "killer whale" and fully get what the fuck is going on.

Maybe some of this is art direction and overall card design, but.. I guess when you're going in knowing the game is high fantasy, you can grok that Urza was an inventor perhaps. You can get who squee or or roefellos is. In the modern shit you have to figure out how red girl fire mage fits into ancient egypt...it doesn't come across in thie generic ass art. There's no flavor to the characters. You have to find some dumb story online to figure out these things

Rant over

 

[Flexo]

This one I will kind of defend since Tamiyo died right in front of Nashi.

Watching your Mom show up as a Phyrexian Abomination and then getting smote by the gods of your plane is probably a bit traumatizing when you are 8.

So he should become Batrat like a normal kid.

(Tongue-in-cheek)

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

So he should become Batrat like a normal kid.

(Tongue-in-cheek)

Become?

He is already a Ninja.

 

[Flexo]

Become?

He is already a Ninja.

Well now I want to write a story about a kid ninja who loses his parents and then goes on a quest to become rich.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Well now I want to write a story about a kid ninja who loses his parents and then goes on a quest to become rich.

By stealing from people?


Arena has powered cube, costs twice as much to join despite not giving you cards
pay for it
get error.

Fucking thanks WOTC.