Magic: The Gathering (Unreleased Sets)

For someone who was so brilliant and powerful, Urza sure screwed up the multiverse good. So many things wrong with the mulitverse and Dominaria especially can find its roots in one of Urza's fuck ups.

Urza may well have been a Villain Protagonist from the start-he was always cold, brutal, ruthless, and used others as disposable tools. When you get right down to it, he was a conquering warlord with delusions of godhood, who initiated a decades long war with his brother over one upmanship that resulted in the destruction on multiple civilizations and severe damage to a plane. The difference between him and most other warlords with a god complex is that the ruin resulted not in his death, but immortality and his genuine ascension to make those dreams a reality.

When he finally turns near the end of Apocalypse, it seems perfectly sane and logical in hindsight-only the reawakening of his last few shreds of empathy when he sees his brother provide an opening for Gerard.

edited 18th Mar '18 9:36:19 PM by ViperMagnum357

The Brothers' War really was little more than a massive pissing contest between Urza and Mishra, a mere extension of their drunken fight over the Thran powerstones that resulted in their teacher Tocasia's death. And they dragged all of Dominaria into it.

I still find it rather amusing that Yawgmoth's ultimate plan to defeat Urza boiled down to "show him all of my cool shit".

edited 18th Mar '18 9:43:37 PM by M84

I found that plan to be the single best thing about the Invasion trilogy. Essentially, 'This is where you belong. You know this.'

It's even foreshadowed in some of the cards' flavor text.

'"As the invasion drew closer, Urza's means began to resemble Phyrexia's end."

Not to mention the whole Metathran thing. Creating an entire race of sapient sentient beings whose sole purpose is to fight and die for you? That's all kinds of screwed up, and is pretty much exactly what Yawgmoth does.

edited 18th Mar '18 9:59:00 PM by M84

Several Dominaria articles are now up on the Mothership.

• Dominaria Frame, Template, and Rules Changes
• Dominaria Mechanics
  • Sagas, demonstrated by The Flame of Keld
  • Historic, demonstrated by Serra Disciple and Guardians of Koilos
  • Kicker, demonstrated by Academy Drake, Keldon Overseer, Saproling Migration, and Vicious Offering
  • Legendary Sorceries, demonstrated be Urza's Ruinous Blast
  • "Hexproof from ...", demonstrated by Knight of Grace
• Dominaria Buy-A-Box Pre-order Promotion, featuring Firesong and Sunspeaker

And finally, Magic Story; Return to Dominaria: Episode 1, by Martha Wells

EDIT: Here's the Dominaria trailer.

edited 21st Mar '18 6:59:03 PM by Lightblade

Y'know, I never realized till now how much I missed Dominaria.

Magic Story: Return to Dominaria: Episode 2

And also, Join the Brawl

edited 22nd Mar '18 11:33:42 AM by Lightblade

So-french rules EDH, except with 60 cards, Standard only? Not sure that really qualifies as a new format.

Also, that will kinda pigeonhole them into weighting more heavily towards Legends and Planeswalkers per rotation. But I do need to give them a tip of the cap for figuring out another way to drive up prices for Standard.

Okay after reading that story, my first thought consisted of two words I never thought I'd have reason to utter except in a sarcastic manner: poor Liliana.

Dominaria Card Image Gallery

I'm seeing a small theme of "spells that are identical to old powerful spells if you control a wizard".

We got not-Counterspell and not-Lightning Bolt already. Wonder what else we'll see.

Those two cards were the subject of yesterday's Mothership preview article (which also has a few tidbits about the Tolarian Academies). I think that might just be a single pair, but we won't know for sure until spoiler season is over.

And here's today's Dominaria Card of the Day; The First Eruption

The flavor text suggests they're a linked pair, not a cycle.

"The study of magic began when the first mage taught herself how to throw lightning." ~Naban, dean of iteration

"The second mage learned to dissipate blasts of lightning. Threat and response: thus did the study of magic progress." ~Naban, dean of iteration

That feels like a complete story.

Magic Story: Return to Dominaria: Episode 3

Dominaria Card of the Day: Time of Ice

Man, Ajani Goldmane's new card is really taking his whole "buff others" shtick Up To Eleven. Literally with that last ability.

And man, this storyline is really making me nostalgic.

edited 28th Mar '18 11:44:51 PM by M84

That card is not new. It's his Planeswalker Deck card from Aether Revolt.

This card, however, is;

Dominaria Card of the Day: The Mirari Conjecture

...Crap, you're right. My bad.

As for that new card...wow, that seems like it could be pretty powerful.

edited 29th Mar '18 6:19:10 PM by M84

I have to say, I love the art on all of the Sagas so far.

I think my favorite though would have to be the art for Time of Ice, which is an absolute boatload of old continuity references.

Also, Hipsters of the Coast has given us a preview that surprisingly isn't an April Fool's joke: a vanilla mono-black bear.◊ Not too interesting by itself, but the flavor text is appropriately hilarious.

Yeah, the April Fools' stuff has been taking place on Blogatog, which has included claims like "we're never going back to Ravnica because the bar is set too high" and "Development weren't convinced by the card Quadrupling Season in a coming set so they cut it back to Tripling".

One wonders if Belzenlok would be dumb enough to try and claim credit for one of Nicol Bolas' accomplishments. Assuming he isn't doing this on Nicol Bolas' orders, of course.

And it just occurred to me that Nicol Bolas already did on Amonkhet what Belzenlok is trying to do on Dominaria.

edited 1st Apr '18 7:36:48 PM by M84

"Your evil plan is vicious, sadistic, ruthless, and worst of all, derivative!"

If it was Nicol Bolas, it'd be more like this:

"Your evil plan is vicious, sadistic, ruthless...all admirable qualities. But it's derivative. And that I cannot abide."

It'd be pretty similar to what he said to Chandra:

"Chandra Nalaar. You had so many useful characteristics. Powerful. Emotionally unstable. Easy to manipulate. Refreshingly predictable unpredictability. I really wanted to make this work.

But fire, against a dragon? A dragon. I have standards."

I've been falling behind on sharing Mothership preview links. It's time to correct that.

• Last Friday:
  • Dominaria Card of the Day: Karn's Temporal Sundering
• Monday:
  • Making Magic: Returning Home, featuring the new Weatherlight, a card related to it, and its crew;
    • Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain
    • Shanna, Sisay's Legacy
    • Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage
    • Tiana, Ship's Caretaker
    • Arvad the Cursed
    • Slimefoot, the Stowaway
    • Board the Weatherlight
    • Weatherlight
• Wednesday:
  • Magic Story: Return to Dominaria; Episode 4
  • Memorializing Dominaria, featuring the Memorial land cycle;
    • Memorial to Glory
    • Memorial to Genius
    • Memorial to Folly
    • Memorial to War
    • Memorial to Unity
• Thursday:
  • A Clever Wizard Never Pays Full Price, featuring Jodah, Archmage Eternal
• And finally, today's previews;
  • Marwyn, the Nurturer
  • A Look into Standard Mana Bases, featuring the reprinting of the enemy checkland cycle;
    • Isolated Chapel
    • Sulfur Falls
    • Woodland Cemetery
    • Clifftop Retreat
    • Hinterland Harbor

I gotta admit, I'm looking forward to seeing how Slimefoot's first meeting with the rest of the new Weatherlight crew is going to turn out.

Jhoira is cut from the same cloth as Sisay, it seems. Unfortunately, she will be neither a replacement nor supplement for Sisay in EDH-hard to top 'search for any legendary card and put it in your hand'.