Magic: The Gathering (Unreleased Sets)

That card is going to be way good in a Jeskai Tempo list. It's too bad she isn't good at all in any sort of control shell.

Edit edit edit edit: that -2 with dig through time never mind

edited 4th Mar '15 11:50:13 AM by Funden

Rebounding Temporal Trespass anyone?

Or Treasure Cruise...

Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time yes. Temporal Tresspass exiles itself by it's own effect before Rebound so it wouldn't work. Other stuff is cool though. :)

I finally finished reading the Narset UR and despite not liking what direction this took overly, I do like the way it was done. Ojutai is, while still prideful as hell, really endearing, imo, in that he really cares for his students and didn't actually banish Narset, even after she found out the truth. Really different from his FRF version. Character development and stuff. My previous assessments of him as best dragonlord stand more so now.

To be fair, Narset didn't seem like she was actually going to do anything with her knowledge. If she had a bit more red in her, then maybe he wouldn't have been so accepting.

On Ojutai's character development:

The way I interpret this is that Ojutai originally wanted the scrolls destroyed right after he put the Dragonfire Warriors to death. However, he couldn't bring himself to destroy the records so he had them hidden and buried and forbade the knowledge. As the eons went on and he continued to train the former Jeskai (he actually seems able to stand on his hind legs and has just a humanoid enough body shape to actually teach martial arts to humanoid races) he developed a sort of respect for them. Overtime as he helped others seek enlightenment he began to see problems with the world he'd created but realized that fixing it would reveal his past and the things he now considers mistakes of his youth. One could make the interpretation that he's now trapped between his desire to teach his students and his old lies. Narset's discovery of the past and her ascension may have been a weight of a certain type off of his shoulders. Every teacher's greatest desire is that their student surpasses them of course.

Of course, it doesn't change the fact that he's still plenty jerkish by our standards since he won't admit to the past mistake and I'm still mad at him for forbidding the knowledge in the first place when he could have worked with Shu Yun 1280 years ago and turned the Jeskai into something beyond either of their solo visions! (yes I'm still miffed about that.)

Or maybe it's Ojutai being happy that someone is taking the journey to enlightenment even further than him. You know, with the whole "the pursuit of knowledge can take you to places that you cannot imagine or approve". Ojutai's been places, but not to those places. Narset has, and that's possibly the reason for the dragon's So Proud of You moment.

aaaaaaa new Narset aaaaaaaaaaaaa

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Again, a similar thought. I did point out the ultimate desire of a teacher is to have their student surpass them.

So, my thoughts on the cards and mechanics we've seen so far;

It's nice to see Rebound returning, and especially in my colors Distortion Strike is a key card in my UB Ninjas deck. It's still too early to tell how useful the mechanic as a whole will be to me. There could still be some rebound cards not yet revealed that would be perfect for my deck.

I'm a little underwhelmed by megamorph. But Maro's saying this is the kind of mechanic you shouldn't knock until you try. It'll depend on what I pull at the prerelease.

I'm liking Ojutai's Command, though I'd have to do a little bit of tweaking to my WU deck to get the most out of it. It'll depend on whether or not the set has any good cheap creatures for WU control to bring back with it.

Shaman of the Forgotten Ways could have a place in my Kruphix Commander deck. Imagine this; I cast Cyclonic Rift for it's overload cost at the end step of the turn before mine, then activate the Shaman on my turn. GG!

Oh, and apparently according to Doug Beyer, Narset might be autistic. As someone with Aspergers' Syndrome, what I'm feeling right now is similar to how people felt with Alesha's big reveal. I too have had times when being in crowded and noisy places overwhelmed me. For instance, about a month ago at my playgroup's annual Super Bowl party, my performance in the games I played in took a serious nosedive thanks to the unfamiliar opponents and noise level (here's the post I made back then about it).

Oh my, that Uncharted Realms. I loved it.

I should also say that I like the kinder, gentler Ojutai presented in that story as a character. I'll have to wait and see what Dragonlord Ojutai is like as a card to see if I'll use that instead of Ojutai, Soul of Winter as the commander of the new Commander deck I'm building.

Clearly after a millennium and a quarter of ruling humans he's gotten fond of the little buggers.

So, not only is Alesha trans, but Narset's apparently autistic. And Alesha was a one-off character; Narset's a planeswalker, which gives her a ticket to showing up in non-Tarkir storylines.

I hope Narset becomes total bros with Tamiyo. (yes I know they're both ladies)

This is the second time someone has suggested the idea of Narset and Tamiyo being friends. I'd personally love it as we don't have a enough walkers being buddies.

And yes, the Narset as autistic thing is kind of cool. I feel bad I didn't pick up on it since I used to baby sit a kid with autism for years but I never saw him out of an environment in which he was comfortable so I'd have never seen him in an overwhelmed state.

On a side note, I'm not digging Narset's armor as much as I did when I first saw it. It's a bit too busy for my taste. I liked the simple elegance of her concept images.

Jace x Narset, calling it. Jace will be multi-color for the first time because of Narset.

Is there a romantic pairing of planeswalkers already? LOL

Sarkhan is too engrossed with Dragons now, how he sees Narset is different.

edited 4th Mar '15 7:40:11 PM by entropy13

I definitely agree that Narset and Tamiyo would make for awesome LEARNING! and KNOWLEDGE! sisters.

They can be all LEARN ALL THE THINGS ABOUT ALL THE MULTIVERSE! and go on awesome field trips together.

Side note: How does Rebound work with Soulfire Grandmaster's ability? Could you play a rebound spell (or use Narset's -2) one turn, then use the SFGM's ability before the card rebounds on turn 2 to have the rebound take effect and still have it go to your hand anyway?

edited 4th Mar '15 7:51:52 PM by TheSpaceJawa

I don't think it would work that way. The Grandmaster needs the card to go to the graveyard. Rebound exiles the spell. I think you'd have to do it on the first cast (when you cast it from your hand) and I'm pretty sure it misses the timing since Rebound exiles the spell. Then when it comes back from rebound you can't use the grandmaster's ability then because you're casting from exile, not your hand.

Ok, yeah, looking at the wording of SFGM, that makes sense.

There's teasings between Chandra/Gideon and Jace/Liliana have been in a relationship before.

Other slightly notable potential ships:

Sarkhan x Narset (I think there's a lot of things pointing to it from Sarkhan's Po V, she saved him from madness, and he's more obsessed with her than with pretty much any other non-dragon. Time messes it up from the other way around obviously, and we'll have to see how that turns out)

Nahiri x Sorin (The art, at least, makes Sorin look comforting to Nahiri when she was doing what she did)

Various egotistical planeswalkers x themselves

Ajani x Elspeth (only partly joking, he seems very moved by her death)

Bar, of course, the ones that exist in fandom despite the characters actually obviously hating each other in character, like Jace x Chandra.

Edit: (Note, by "other significan... blablablah", I don't mean that Jace x Narset is a significant pairing, as... they have as of yet never met)

edited 4th Mar '15 9:20:45 PM by ImperialSunlight

Sarkhan/Kiora is the best ship hands down.

Where'd that one come from?