Magic: The Gathering (Spoiler-free)

It had a purpose. He wants revenge on the woman who almost killed him twice over, once by crushing and once by consigning him to die with the plane he believes has no chance for survival.

Bolas, meanwhile, performed a Scry-and-Die murder on Ugin and we still have no idea why, condemning Tarkir to die in the process.

Every time he moves, Bolas leaves destroyed worlds and collapsed civilizations in his wake.

edited 25th Nov '15 9:47:08 AM by TobiasDrake

So basically, Bolas may be a massive jerk, but he's a jerk because it's the easiest way to get what he wants, but Ob is a bigger jerk because he's a jerk for the sake of it?

Though, didn't Bolas one time seek out and kill every single descendant he could find of the man who had trapped him somewhere despite that man being long dead? Because that kind of behavior takes a special kind of dedication to ish behavior.

I thought Bolas killed Ugin because the two were basically arch-enemies and a villain killing his heroic counterpart is the easiest way to stop him from interfering with your plans.

edited 25th Nov '15 9:52:06 AM by TheSpaceJawa

I thought so too right up until the point where it actually happened, and then it came off less like the climactic final battle between two longstanding rivals and more like a straight-up murder. The ease with which Bolas just popped in and killed Ugin and the fact that Ugin was barely even able to put up a fight undercuts the idea that Ugin has long been Bolas's nemesis.

edited 25th Nov '15 10:54:16 AM by TobiasDrake

Not pictured: Bolas spending the century prior enacting a Byzantine series of Xanatos Gambits in order to breach the barrier Ugin paced around Tarkir.

Or some shit.

edited 25th Nov '15 11:09:37 AM by Elfive

If it was meant to look like an incredibly difficult task for Bolas, it would have been depicted as an incredibly difficult task. Instead, Ugin just came off as severely Out-Gambitted. All of his defenses were turned inward on himself and he was ripped apart by his own powerset while Bolas victoriously strode into the Blind Eternities no worse for wear.

Seriously, there's not even any dialogue for the audience's benefit like, "At last, after thousands of years, I've found you!" or "It took me a while, but even your formidable defenses could be breached!" He just showed up in an instant, went, "LOL MURDER," and then Ugin was dead.

edited 25th Nov '15 11:17:28 AM by TobiasDrake

What did Ob awaken exactly? My first impression was Kozilek. But! Rereading it again made me think there might be more to it. Omnath maybe?

I also first thought he awakened Kozilek, but why would Kozilek need to bee awakened? Omnath is an intressting idea, although wouldn´t Omnath help the zendikari? What´s Omnath like as a character?

edited 25th Nov '15 11:58:19 AM by Samaldin

I'd be so amused if the Oath of the Gatewatch story begins with Ob being immediately and unceremoniously killed by whatever he called out to. It won't, of course. I guess the multiverse just needs another black-aligned schemer. But it'd make me laugh.

I was legitimately surprised that this did not, in fact, turn out to be the resolution. I've been expecting that to be the final blow ever since the cards were revealed.

I have absolutely no idea where this is going and that's fascinating. My thoughts for who he reached out to are Ulamog, Kozilek, or Omnath as was proposed earlier in the thread.

Kiora also is missing from recent events.

I had an interesting day of Magic-playing tonight. I got myself the Ezuri, Claw of Progress pre-con Commander deck at the local game shop, which I will later customize into my own latest creation. I didn't have a chance to play it there since they weren't willing to keep the place open late for us like they normally do because of Thanksgiving being tomorrow (which is also why my playgroup met there today instead of our usual Thursday nights).

So some of us went to a nearby Wendy's and I got to play it in a game there against decks helmed by Mizzix of the Izmagnus (also fresh out of the box), Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, and Grand Arbiter Augustin IV. We didn't get to finish that game because Wendy's was also closing early for tomorrow's holiday, but I'd managed to get myself 12 experience counters (which for my deck means putting 12 +1/+1 counters on one of my creatures each turn) before we had to leave. Ezuri was just as awesome as I'd imagined he'd be, even out of the box! The only change I made was to replace the Ezuri's Predation (which I traded away) for an Avenger of Zendikar.

I don't know why Ezuri's Predation is in the GU +1/+1 counter deck when it would work so much better in the BG morbid deck.

She's not an Origins-walker, and thus is not allowed to carry the story forward in any significant way.

But Nixilis also isn't an Origins Walker, yet I am pretty sure what he just did does count as "carrying the story forward in any significant way".

edited 26th Nov '15 12:59:17 AM by LeChuck4

Also, whatever the Big Horrible Thing is (probably Kozilek, if I'm honest), it's coming out of the ocean, so she's probably going to have to do something about it.

Nixilis is a bad guy. They're avoiding non-origins protagonists being significant.

edited 26th Nov '15 10:45:38 AM by Elfive

Plot Twist: Ob will kill Lilliana at some undetermined point in the future. For reasons that I've yet to think of.

To get the Chain Veil?

No, just because he's a massive .

Getting the Chain Veil turns out to be merely a bonus.

The chain veil is what turned him into a demon. I don't think he'd want to touch it with a barge pole.

edited 26th Nov '15 3:12:38 PM by Elfive

They fleshed out and solidified Liliana's character quite a bit in origins, and given her general plotline, I really doubt she's going anywhere until that gets near the end of her crusade, and if she is... well, I'll just be pretty sad, I guess (if she is, it'll probably have more to do with the chain veil than getting killed, since they were pretty heavy on emphasizing how much of a problem that is when she met Jace). Also, she's not white, which, seems to make you much more likely to die. If anyone, I'm much more worried about Mr. "Hey, I'm going to stand in front of the face of an eldritch abomination, while having overworked myself for a while, and meanwhile being the whitest of white (Ajani isn't as white, since he's really more tied to Naya, whereas Gideon had every justification for going boros in rtr, but stuck with the same old thing. The only reason I'm really rooting for him to survive this at all now is so he can eventually have something terrible happen to him that pushes him down that path, 'cause it would be much more interesting to watch... Particularly given his history with Chandra. And oh, look... Plently of sources of awfulness all around. ).

Gideon dying does seem way too predictable, but then, so is the second set not being about Jace and friends going "okay, we won, gang, let's all get snacks and pat ourselves on the back" (Assuming this did happen, Ashaya, would, of course, not be getting a medal).

edited 27th Nov '15 2:50:40 AM by ImperialSunlight

Yeah, but that's because her impulsiveness got the better of her. She should be part red.

She stormed off into the ocean to murder Ulamog with as much violence as the ocean could muster. Unfortunately for her, Ulamog came across the bay after crawling over Tazeem. As a result, Kiora rebelliously stormed off in the wrong goddamn direction, accomplishing nothing further than excusing herself from the actual fight.

She's clever but not very smart, especially when she's drunk on her own ego. She'll probably be back when she realizes the party started without her.

edited 30th Nov '15 8:40:11 AM by TobiasDrake

I did not actually realize this was the case, but now I find it hilarious.

I think Kiora's blue is mostly for the sea monsters.

She's also an explorer of sorts.