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Magic: the Gathering |OT11| Amonkhet - Have you ever had decks with a Pharaoh?

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Santiako

Member
C9Ohc6VUIAAvBbR.jpg


Reusable Clone
 
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/writing-wall-2017-04-12

It also pretty much confirms that Chandra wants to boink Nissa. They even edited this out



to this



Tumblr girls are going to go crazy for channel fireball lesbo action.

I read it before they changed it and I am so confused right now. Have they not heard of editors prior to publishing something? The original version of the scene was utterly explicit that Chandra was interested in Nissa while in the new version, uh, Chandra is still pretty clearly interested in Nissa, although it's not quite as explicit, there's less strength clearly demonstrated, and the "So . . . friendship?" line becomes a bit odd. They had no issue with Gideon being written that explicitly in regards to his feelings towards Chandra so this is a bit perplexing unless the reason is "Chandra's romantic feelings towards Nissa aren't quite that strong yet." Pretty much any other possible answer reflects pretty badly on WotC.
 

OnPoint

Member
All these ways to interact with CopyCat are great /s


To be honest, I forgot to copy the link after reading the story in my mid-morning haze. My bad.

I don't mean to take it out solely on you. It's just that for YEARS in these threads now people talk about stories and articles and don't bother linking. (Yes I just did it with that fake Nissa like 2 days ago but I had a reason haha)
 
Magic Story - Writing on the Wall
* Nissa is meditating and communicates with the plane. It is very old and in deep pain. The plane abhors death, which is why nothing that doesn't rot dies. However, their souls were meant to remain with the body in catacombs.
* They wake up, and Chandra talks about getting breakfast. In response, a mummy bursts through the door and everyone panics. It places breakfast on the table and leaves. An Amonkhet breakfast comes with ale.
* Fully awake after all of that, Nissa and Chandra go on a walk. They notice that everyone is training, and mummies are doing all the work. Moreover, everyone appears to be in their 20's at oldest. They even see a 6 year old doing a bench press, with an 8 year old spotting. Even Nissa finds this weird.
* Nissa underestimated how dehydrated she'd get with the heat, and they have to sit down. A mummy gets them water.
* They talk about friendship and such.
* They walk to Rhonas's Monument, where they run into Hapatra. She's the oldest person they have seen there, and she's lively and friendly. Chandra gets along with her well, because ally colors.
* Nissa mentions that they are travelers from a faraway place, and Chandra tries to stop her, remembering that's the wrong thing to say here, since they have no concept of that. Hapatra is unusually open to the idea, however, and explains things as though they weren't natives.
* She says the mummies were always used as servants, though that doesn't match Nissa's vision.
* Bolas is set to arrive in about two days.
* They decide to look for the woman who was yelling the previous day, who I guess was Samut.
* Nissa is able to locate her through mana bonds, and they go to an area with sarcophagi. The buildings here are older than everywhere else.
* There are carvings on the wall, depicting among other things, old women with canes, and an additional three animal headed gods, neither of which are present now. Above them is a Bolas horn carving, much newer than the rest.
* Nissa realizes with fury that Bolas didn't create this world, he conquered it. He took what he liked about the culture, corrupted it, and destroyed the rest, just like the white man. Moreover, he only did this a few decades ago.
* Gideon runs into them there. He is accompanied by Oketra, whose voice is able to calm Nissa. She says that the sarcophagi are off limits.
* Nissa psychically asks Oketra about the other gods. She has no memory of that.
* Oketra is leading Gideon to his next trial. He already completed one. They ask him why he's doing this, and he swears that these gods are good. He wishes to prove himself to them. Chandra thinks this is idiotic, but Nissa understands that he must do this.
* Once Oketra and Gideon leave, Nissa tells Chandra what she learned. Chandra is furious, and says they should find out what Bolas changed and bring everything back. Nissa believes that would just be putting their own standards on the Amonkheti, but Chandra insists they should still check.
* They decide to seek out Kefnet, since he's the god of knowledge.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Nissa realizes with fury that Bolas didn't create this world, he conquered it. He took what he liked about the culture, corrupted it, and destroyed the rest, just like the white man. Moreover, he only did this a few decades ago.

Boo this story is more interesting if the gods were created by Bolas and if he's been running this domeworld for centuries

Oh well, still cool
 
Everything on her except Vigiliance "makes sense".

Even that lets you attack with her and someone else, then untap the other creature as a blocker afterwards.

Shes totally sparking out and going full Naya next set. Pretty much confirms its a shards set.

I saw the card on my phone while I was out and literally my first thought was "oh, kirblar's going to be happy about that," lol.

Red is GOOD this set.

Confusing, right?

Oh.

Uh...Well.

I actually love this ridiculous flavor text, lol.

Boo this story is more interesting if the gods were created by Bolas and if he's been running this domeworld for centuries

I actually disagree. I think it's cooler if it's a real plane that Bolas just slimed his way into than if the whole thing is just set up as his own BS playground.
 

Tunoku

Member
Well, it's not like they could have known Copy Cat existed when this set was created.

Fully aware of that. I've been playing 4c Saheeli pretty much since the first week, and they need to ban that shit way sooner than a card like Heart of Kiran. They were fully aware of the power level in that case and are printing appropriate answers. Cat remains a tier 1 deck until it rotates, unless they do something about it.
 

Metroidvania

People called Romanes they go the house?
there's plenty of good RG commanders, but Samut definitely looks like she could be up there.

By Force, though.....that seems really (potentially) hosing to artifact decks, lol.

A wee bit disappointed Bolas' takeover is recent, but we kind of already had 'shaping a plane' with Sorin and Innistrad, and seeing how Bolas differed in doing so will make things interesting, especially if he messed with the plane's gods.

edit: Also, in the story....how do they specifically 'know' the kids are 8 and 6 years old? Say one is bigger or w/e, sure, but how would non-native planeswalkers have any indication of age?

edit2:

Fiddling hands paused, while a meandering mind searched for the words to lend shape to unfamiliar feelings

What in the world is this sentence I don't even.
 

OnPoint

Member
Amonkhet being a place before Bolas made it "his" makes it a place they can return to later once they start to undo what he's done.

I think this is better.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
I actually disagree. I think it's cooler if it's a real plane that Bolas just slimed his way into than if the whole thing is just set up as his own BS playground.

Oh I agree with that part, I just wish it was more than a few decades old. I sort of liked the idea that he's been absent for centuries and the gods have basically been automatons carrying out his project in his absence
 
Random thought. Perhaps the plan is: GU Nissa as she better understands people, RG Chandra as she wants to, uh, better understand Nissa, BR Lili as she comes to value the rest of the team as something beyond pawns, WB Gideon because, I dunno, he becomes emo or something, and UW Jace because his day job is being a bureaucrat.

Boo this story is more interesting if the gods were created by Bolas and if he's been running this domeworld for centuries

Oh well, still cool

Nah. The world we'd seen so far really only made sense if Bolas came in and imposed himself on something that already existed. Also that's more up to his speed. Bolas is historically generally less interested in creating than he is in manipulating what already exists to his own ends.
 
I do agree that the age of the city is a smidge disappointing. One of the biggest parts of Egyptian mythology in pop culture is the sheer age of it.

That said, having it be something Bolas corrupted/conquered does work pretty well for me. Expecting the remaining gods to be multicolor and feature in Hour.
 

Maledict

Member
I like the idea it's an existing plane he's corrupted, and the 'twist' that it only happened relatively recently and he mindwiped the remaining gods to serve him and killed off all the adults is interesting territory for magic.

I want to know why they edited the story though. That seems incredibly clumsy and very dumb, and doesn't reflect what they are trying to do at all. Puts them in a bad light.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Wait so three other gods? Bet it is going to be a shard theme. Grixis Bolas, Naya Samut, and then Bant, Esper and Jund gods

On the one hand an eight year old bench pressing is like, literally dumb. On the other hand, its also full anime, in a way I approve of

so

shrug
 

OnPoint

Member
I like the idea it's an existing plane he's corrupted, and the 'twist' that it only happened relatively recently and he mindwiped the remaining gods to serve him and killed off all the adults is interesting territory for magic.

I want to know why they edited the story though. That seems incredibly clumsy and very dumb, and doesn't reflect what they are trying to do at all. Puts them in a bad light.

Yeah it looks bad. I also don't get why they're beating around the bush. Just let her be gay and write her that way.
 

Maledict

Member
I do agree that the age of the city is a smidge disappointing. One of the biggest parts of Egyptian mythology in pop culture is the sheer age of it.

That said, having it be something Bolas corrupted/conquered does work pretty well for me. Expecting the remaining gods to be multicolor and feature in Hour.

But that's the cool thing - the plane itself is very, very old. It's just the city itself and the current setup that's new. There's huge amounts of archaeology and history to uncover once whatever Bolas did is undone. In fact, that might be how they put the archeology aspect into the world next time around.

One thing I am curious about though is how Bolas did this as a disempowered planeswalker. If he's capable of singlehandily conquering a plane, killing and enslaving its gods, then it seems slightly odd that Ugin was his equal when they fought. That sort of thing is far mor inline with the old planeswalkers (heck, even they would struggle to do this to an entire plane).
 

Maledict

Member
Yeah it looks bad. I also don't get why they're beating around the bush. Just let her be gay and write her that way.

Yep. I mean, they are doing to oh so typical, safest gay character move anyways (two really attractive women), so why on earth this needed editing out seems ridiculous. If my bosses didn't follow me on twitter I'd be tweeting at Maro right now about it.

(I think they should have Jace and Gideon kiss, just to see fans heads explode)
 

But I'm not sure if he actually created that place and, even if he did, it's referred to as a "pocket plane" when I've seen it mentioned so it's not even a "full" plane.

Yep. I mean, they are doing to oh so typical, safest gay character move anyways (two really attractive women), so why on earth this needed editing out seems ridiculous. If my bosses didn't follow me on twitter I'd be tweeting at Maro right now about it.

(I think they should have Jace and Gideon kiss, just to see fans heads explode)

Eh, the way it has been written so far isn't that surprising given the context of everything around it. One or both of them gradually gaining feelings for the other isn't unreasonable. Heck, so far it seems like Chandra could be bi- or pansexual and, for all we know, Nissa will turn out to be asexual and/or aromantic.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Magic Story - Writing on the Wall
* Nissa is meditating and communicates with the plane. It is very old and in deep pain. The plane abhors death, which is why nothing that doesn't rot dies. However, their souls were meant to remain with the body in catacombs.
* They wake up, and Chandra talks about getting breakfast. In response, a mummy bursts through the door and everyone panics. It places breakfast on the table and leaves. An Amonkhet breakfast comes with ale.
* Fully awake after all of that, Nissa and Chandra go on a walk. They notice that everyone is training, and mummies are doing all the work. Moreover, everyone appears to be in their 20's at oldest. They even see a 6 year old doing a bench press, with an 8 year old spotting. Even Nissa finds this weird.
* Nissa underestimated how dehydrated she'd get with the heat, and they have to sit down. A mummy gets them water.
* They talk about friendship and such.
* They walk to Rhonas's Monument, where they run into Hapatra. She's the oldest person they have seen there, and she's lively and friendly. Chandra gets along with her well, because ally colors.
* Nissa mentions that they are travelers from a faraway place, and Chandra tries to stop her, remembering that's the wrong thing to say here, since they have no concept of that. Hapatra is unusually open to the idea, however, and explains things as though they weren't natives.
* She says the mummies were always used as servants, though that doesn't match Nissa's vision.
* Bolas is set to arrive in about two days.
* They decide to look for the woman who was yelling the previous day, who I guess was Samut.
* Nissa is able to locate her through mana bonds, and they go to an area with sarcophagi. The buildings here are older than everywhere else.
* There are carvings on the wall, depicting among other things, old women with canes, and an additional three animal headed gods, neither of which are present now. Above them is a Bolas horn carving, much newer than the rest.
* Nissa realizes with fury that Bolas didn't create this world, he conquered it. He took what he liked about the culture, corrupted it, and destroyed the rest, just like the white man. Moreover, he only did this a few decades ago.
* Gideon runs into them there. He is accompanied by Oketra, whose voice is able to calm Nissa. She says that the sarcophagi are off limits.
* Nissa psychically asks Oketra about the other gods. She has no memory of that.
* Oketra is leading Gideon to his next trial. He already completed one. They ask him why he's doing this, and he swears that these gods are good. He wishes to prove himself to them. Chandra thinks this is idiotic, but Nissa understands that he must do this.
* Once Oketra and Gideon leave, Nissa tells Chandra what she learned. Chandra is furious, and says they should find out what Bolas changed and bring everything back. Nissa believes that would just be putting their own standards on the Amonkheti, but Chandra insists they should still check.
* They decide to seek out Kefnet, since he's the god of knowledge.

just like the white man lol
 

Metroidvania

People called Romanes they go the house?
Yep. I mean, they are doing to oh so typical, safest gay character move anyways (two really attractive women), so why on earth this needed editing out seems ridiculous. If my bosses didn't follow me on twitter I'd be tweeting at Maro right now about it.

(I think they should have Jace and Gideon kiss, just to see fans heads explode)

Hey, according to 'convention' (or at least cliche), mind-readers care more about the inside of a person rather than limiting themselves to physical appeal, so it's not like it's even breaking precedent with Jace having previous relations with Liliana.

But in all seriousness, that is pretty odd if Wizards suddenly said 'nope' and edited things out to make Chandra less apparent about it.

Could be related to them trying to de-emphasize the Gatewatch in terms of their impact on the meta-narrative, but idk, still feels a bit odd.

Twist: the three other gods are Eldrazi Titans and the barrier is keeping them out. Next set all Edrazi again!

Oh man, the riots this would cause....it would be glorious. And terrible.
 

A_Dang

Member
Twist: the three other gods are Eldrazi Titans and the barrier is keeping them out. Next set all Edrazi again!

But this time they will be infected with Phyrexian oil as they move to a final confrontation on Dominaria! Ugin uses fancy dragon magic and brings Urza back as a true 5 color walker to contain (not kill, that would break the balance of the blind eternities!!!) the Eldrazi!!!!!!!

/s

Edit: Urza acts as a "Zordon" figure for a new batch of Gatewatch members as the entire current team is sacrificed in the battle against the Phyrex-idrazi. Gatewatch Turbo...Gatewatch Ninja Force...Or Gatewatch Neo...or....
 

Yeef

Member
But that's the cool thing - the plane itself is very, very old. It's just the city itself and the current setup that's new. There's huge amounts of archaeology and history to uncover once whatever Bolas did is undone. In fact, that might be how they put the archeology aspect into the world next time around.
I don't think the city is new. The way it's written, there are hieroglyphs on some of the buildings that are old, then newer ones with Bolas.

One thing I am curious about though is how Bolas did this as a disempowered planeswalker. If he's capable of singlehandily conquering a plane, killing and enslaving its gods, then it seems slightly odd that Ugin was his equal when they fought. That sort of thing is far mor inline with the old planeswalkers (heck, even they would struggle to do this to an entire plane).
Well, Bolas and Ugin weren't quite equals; that's why Ugin lost :p

Also, when they fought they were still old walkers. When Ugin wakes up in Dragons of Tarkir, he wakes up as a new walker for the first time.
 

Crocodile

Member
My Graveyard Cube is going to feast from this set <3

Anyway, given the timeline described, wouldn't the takeaway be that Bolas conquered Amonkhet AFTER the Mending? How many years has it been since then again?
 

Maledict

Member
My Graveyard Cube is going to feast from this set <3

Anyway, given the timeline described, wouldn't the takeaway be that Bolas conquered Amonkhet AFTER the Mending? How many years has it been since then again?

Yes, Bolas did this all fairly recently and many years after the mending. Which means even his de-powered level is equal to an Eldrazi titan. But of course he's a lot sneaker.
 

Ashodin

Member
I'm down with three more gods. Didn't expect that. That was the real bombshell of this story

I thought so once upon a time Ravnica had land.

Only when the plane was first born. Nephalem walked the lands and shaped it. Then inhabitants started moving in and industrializing the plane and created the ten guild setup that lasted for ages. The plane became a city-hub, then a city-plane. It's literally all covered by city now, except Gruul areas that are more like quarry pits, Selesnya spots that are forested areas on skyscrapers (think Mumbai or something) and that's about it.

I like the idea of "Fantasy Coruscant" even though D&D did it first.
 

Adaren

Member
Yes, Bolas did this all fairly recently and many years after the mending. Which means even his de-powered level is equal to an Eldrazi titan. But of course he's a lot sneaker.

Mind controlling the gods and having them massacre everyone except for the smallest children seems like an adequately sneaky and Bolas-like plan.
 

Ashodin

Member
The question is why bolas did it. Why reduce the plane to rubble, because a pocket of a city is easier to maintain than a whole plane?
 
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