Magic: The Gathering (Unreleased Sets)

In one of the articles on the Mothership they mentioned that they started by drawing up "Bolas Pie" - the colour pie according to Nicol Bolas, where they tried to figure out which elements of each colour fit best with his overall philosophy. It's why green, for example, has gone full-on survival-of-the-fittest.

The only hope for rebellion that I see is if Oketra holds the rules/laws/principles she embodies to be more important than Bolas's personal authority. That is, if Bolas said that X would happen when he returned, then he returns and Y starts happening, and his only explanation is "I'm the boss, so suck it up," Oketra might take exception because even the Horned One isn't above the rules.

I'm revising what I hope for now - now I want to see the gods deciding that Bolas is incompatible with their purviews when he returns.

Gideon has a new crush~

Also things are gonna go south for him fast if the leaks are indicative of anythin.

G I D E O N J U R A

-shuffle shuffle-

I N J U R E A G O D

Holy shit

K Y T H E O N I O R A

- shuffle shuffle -

KENYA HO RIOT

Holy shit!

Whyyy? Why not a snake?

Oh, and the white God.

edited 10th Apr '17 8:00:03 AM by googlebot

You thought it was Oketra, but it was really me, Dio!

My current theory regarding the nature of the gods and why they follow Bolas is that, as was theorized in the first story, Amonkhet was actually an already existing plane before, and the gods existed back then, as well. Bolas merely subjugated them along with the plane. But then, it could just as well be any of the other things... The "taking the aspects of the colour pie most applicable to bolas and making things based on that" does seem to point to him having made them, however...

Oh, also the gods exist as cards, I guess. I'm pretty uninterested in them, tbh. They have great art, but the mechanics seem messy. So far I think Oketra is the most effectively-thought-out. Four creatures still seems like it's forcing you to overextend a bit, and it doesn't seem to be sure whether it's a token card or a "large creatures" card, since you make tokens to make a big double striker, but at least it's not as awkward as the requirements of the two previously revealed ones. And double strike is genuinely great as a reward for meeting the requirement. Unlike haste, when it's too late for haste to matter... Still nothing really new or interesting as a commander, but I guess they can't all be Sram.

edited 10th Apr '17 9:14:59 AM by ImperialSunlight

The main reason I believe the claim that Bolas created Amonkhet is because of how small it is. So far as anyone knows, this city that the Gatewatch are in is the only city that exists. The only city. This population center is the sole population for the entire world. That's a pretty tiny plane, but it makes sense if Amonkhet was created by an Oldwalker rather than naturally-occurring and sustains a population that exists purely as a resource and not as an actual civilization.

And this is a plane with gods. So, like, they would know.

A lot of planes seem to be pretty small in general, and having only one major city is pretty common - Thraben, for example. Or Ghirapur.

Only one major city, sure, but we're told that this is the only city at all. There are no other cities. There aren't even towns. All life on Amonkhet begins and ends here.

And while we don't know exactly what it's for, that life exists to serve a purpose. As this latest chapter pointed out, these "crops" of soldiers are meant to be harvested. This city, the one and only population center in the entire world, isn't a society at all. It's a farm, meant to supply Bolas with a renewable resource: people.

Amonkhet is a machine.

edited 10th Apr '17 1:55:10 PM by TobiasDrake

Said it months ago and will say it again because this is really what everything so far is hinting at: Amonkhet is a Planeswalker Factory.

Considers what the old Abomination is cooking up...*shudders*

As I've said earlier, the only smart play for the Gatewatch right now is to run like hell and never look back. If that speculation about Amonkhet being a planeswalker factory holds up, then this place just got a lot more dangerous. It means it isn't just defended against walkers. The harvesting snare was built with them in mind.

I don't think Bolas is actually here. I think he'll be here shortly, but I think Tez only said he was here so that the Gatewatch would be here when the Hour of Promise reaps them all.

Though it's also not beyond the realm of possibility that there are other cities and none of them know about each other because of the vast, wurm-churned, zombie-haunted wasteland between them. Bolas could have multiple "farms," after all.

I feel like the gods would know. Being gods.

Nissa, Steward of Elements

I guess this answers the question of when we'll have the first Gatewatch member branch out into a new color.

edited 11th Apr '17 9:13:52 AM by LeChuck4

Her ult is kinda shitty as game-ending "F*ck you, I just won" moves go. Her other abilities, however, are pretty nice. I figure she's probably going to get played more for that 0 ability than anything else.

All we need now is a Jace and we'll have the whole Gatewatch within this and the last block. I know we got a Jace in Innistrad, but we got a Liliana there too and that didn't stop them.

edited 11th Apr '17 9:23:19 AM by TobiasDrake

I kinda wanna put that in my Ezuri EDH deck.

We didn't even need this new Nissa for that. Nissa, Vital Force was in Kaladesh.

They didn't even wait one full block to make another one. D:

edited 11th Apr '17 9:35:27 AM by LeChuck4

Oh yeah, that's right. Wow. I think Nissa just won the award for quickest re-card by a planeswalker. Only way to beat her now is to have two cards in the same block.

Technically, Xenagos had two cards in Theros block, but only one was a planeswalker so it doesn't count.

I think you might have forgotten about Sarkhan there.

Huh. Sure enough. He did have two cards in Tarkir, didn't he?

Yep, one in Khans and one in Dragons. There was still one Standard legal set betwen the two versions though, so he and Nissa are technically tied, but I think Sarkhan still holds the record because we got both cards in the same block.