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[explodet]

Friends are like zombies but better

I like the cut of this one's jib!

 

[Angry Grimace]

I thought it was pretty interesting. Unless you're just referring to the length.

A very large portion of it was wrapped up in Emrakul-speak/crazy mind dialogue that's hard to actually summarize in any meaningful way.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Magic Online article for Eldritch Moon
* No surprise, meld was the most complicated thing to implement.
* Soul Separator was originally a creature, designed by the article writer, and then an artifact that could activate repeatedly. It was actually paper issues that made it only usable once, due to the difficulty of representing the tokens. Online could handle it just fine.
* MTGO promos are now getting art commissioned specifically for them, as opposed to using rejected paper art commissions.

New Pro Tour rules
* Decks are submitted electronically.
* The way pairings are posted will be changed as an anti-scouting measure.

Melissa Li talks about the gender strides Magic is making.

 

[Hero]

So Emmy possessed Tamiyo to help seal herself because it wasn't her time? u wot m8

 

[Angry Grimace]

So Emmy possessed Tamiyo to help seal herself because it wasn't her time? u wot m8

I will be not even vaguely surprised and in fact completely expect that when Emrakul emerges from the Silver Moon, it will have both humanoid form and be of ambiguous alignment, possibly even a straight up good guy.

Magic's story is basically fanfic level and absurd heel-face turns are legendarily common in that type of fiction (e.g. "Draco Malfoy was actually a good guy who was trying to stop Voldemort behind the scenes, and oh, he was secretly dating Hermione Granger. Also, Ron is a Death Eater.").

All I am saying is to not be surprised if Jace is adventuring with a loli-tsundere named Emeria-chan in tow about three blocks from now.

 

[SigmasonicX]

So Emmy possessed Tamiyo to help seal herself because it wasn't her time? u wot m8

The implication is that Emrakul sensed the absence of Ulamog and Kozilek, and decided to go to sleep until they came back. Emeria's mention of the soil not feeling right seems to mean that Emrakul prefers to wait for those two to erase everything before she does something to the plane, and her mention that things should be blooming seems to support the theory that the Eldrazi provide some sort of renewal to planes.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I mean, the "Chaotic Neutral Cosmic Abomination" is a pretty common fantasy archetype and they're very rarely without purpose or actually evil. Galactus, for example is apparently of higher intelligence than something like Emrakul, but he has a cosmic purpose as a balance between Eternity and Death or something like that and he's not really evil.

 

[OnPoint]

The implication is that Emrakul sensed the absence of Ulamog and Kozilek, and decided to go to sleep until they came back. Emeria's mention of the soil not feeling right seems to mean that Emrakul prefers to wait for those two to erase everything before she does something to the plane, and her mention that things should be blooming seems to support the theory that the Eldrazi provide some sort of renewal to planes.

This is what I took from it as well.

It also lends reason to the visage of Emrakul as an angel, or a creature or creation/rebirth.

Just look at the flavor of Emeria, the Sky Ruin.

 

[MjFrancis]

There are a few Venture Bros fans in my playgroup so we will definitely be annoying the rest of our crew by dropping Monarch quotes nonstop during those Conspiracy 2 games.

 

[Ashodin]

What an interesting line

We must flee the World-Ender. The World-Creator.

Very interesting.

 

[Hero]

Speaking of which, did anything ever happen with Iona during BFZ block?

 

[Angry Grimace]

Speaking of which, did anything ever happen with Iona during BFZ block?

Basically no. They mentioned her once or twice but it never became relevant storywise. You would think a FIFTY FOOT TALL ANGEL would do something, but nope.

 

[Ashodin]

The implication is that Emrakul sensed the absence of Ulamog and Kozilek, and decided to go to sleep until they came back. Emeria's mention of the soil not feeling right seems to mean that Emrakul prefers to wait for those two to erase everything before she does something to the plane, and her mention that things should be blooming seems to support the theory that the Eldrazi provide some sort of renewal to planes.

I like this a LOT, actually. That the Eldrazi are the cleaners of the multiverse. Kozilek and Ulamog come and wipe everything into nothingness and then Emrakul takes all remaining living things, shapes it into itself, reseeds, and reshaping everything into new life.

That Emrakul could notice it was "not the right time" and control the sealing of her own body is pretty amazing. Emrakul is quite clearly the most powerful being in existence, most likely even more powerful than Phyrexians or Yawgmoth himself was.

All in all, I think the best touch was that it wasn't really the Gatewatch who sealed her. She did it to herself. Once Emrakul knew what was going to happen (Tamiyo was talking to Jace before they got mindblasted, thus Emrakul got the info once Jace was mindrationalizing Emrakul's presence), it took control of Tamiyo to ensure what was going to happen, even rewriting one of her scrolls to not do Planar Collapse but rather Channel lol

I. AM. NOT. A. VESSEL!

Vess, L.

did I just blow your mind

 

[TheBlackMarvel]

I like this a LOT, actually. That the Eldrazi are the cleaners of the multiverse. Kozilek and Ulamog come and wipe everything into nothingness and then Emrakul takes all remaining living things, shapes it into itself, reseeds, and reshaping everything into new life.

That Emrakul could notice it was "not the right time" and control the sealing of her own body is pretty amazing. Emrakul is quite clearly the most powerful being in existence, most likely even more powerful than Phyrexians or Yawgmoth himself was.

IIRC the only plane we've actually seen the Eldrazi consume was a dying one... Sorin, Ugin and Nahiri completely mistaking their actions and thus, being directly responsible for all the terrible shit that happened on Zendikar would be a nice touch. Shame the consequences of actually destroying some of them seem to be... rather muted in comparison.

EDIT: The Gatewatch seemed really inconsequential this block, I can't help but feel the story would have been improved by not having them in it.

 

[Ashodin]

IIRC the only plane we've actually seen the Eldrazi consume was a dying one... Sorin, Ugin and Nahiri completely mistaking their actions and thus, being directly responsible for all the terrible shit that happened on Zendikar would be a nice touch. Shame the consequences of actually destroying some of them seem to be... rather muted in comparison.

I'm sure there will be consequences, we just don't know what yet.

 

[TheBlackMarvel]

I'm sure there will be consequences, we just don't know what yet.

I hope so.

Now I think about it, them being the cosmic clean-up squad raises the question of why the multiverse hasn't been breaking down since they were sealed in the first place...

 

[SigmasonicX]

I hope so.

Now I think about it, them being the cosmic clean-up squad raises the question of why the multiverse hasn't been breaking down since they were sealed in the first place...

Time Spiral block involved the Multiverse, and Dominaria in particular, breaking down. It had to be fixed by the Mending. I've posted before that it's possible this wouldn't have happened if the Eldrazi had continued doing what they do.

 

[Ashodin]

Time Spiral block involved the Multiverse, and Dominaria in particular, breaking down. It had to be fixed by the Mending. I've posted before that it's possible this wouldn't have happened if the Eldrazi had continued doing what they do.

Sheeeeit I like this idea. Makes sense.

 

[Angry Grimace]

So I guess the RAVEN MAN is a dude inside the Chain Veil. I guess the idea is he will eventually get out and be a new villain or something?

 

[El Topo]

So I guess the RAVEN MAN is a dude inside the Chain Veil. I guess the idea is he will eventually get out and be a new villain or something?

They've teased him long enough. It's about time he actually did something. Easily the MtG mystery I'm most interested in.

 

[Santiako]

If they are going to Kaladesh to presumably look into the Chain Veil maybe they'll set him free.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

So EMN was totally Lili's set...

I wish Leshrak was the Raven Man, that's an ambiguously chaotic neutral oldwalker

 

[SigmasonicX]

Raven Man was present during Liliana's origin story on Dominaria, long before she got the Chain Veil on Shandalar. I don't think they're necessarily connected.

 

[Ashodin]

So I guess the RAVEN MAN is a dude inside the Chain Veil. I guess the idea is he will eventually get out and be a new villain or something?

It's alternate timeline evil Urza, I'm telling you

Spoiler

It's likely the planeswalker from shandalar the video game

Spoiler

who fuckin knows

 

[El Topo]

I wish Leshrak was the Raven Man.

Leshrac is dead and buried, son.

Spoiler

It's likely the planeswalker from shandalar the video game

Eh, doesn't seem to make much sense, given what we know. Would be an amusing throwback, but I'm sure they could do more interesting stuff.

Raven Man was present during Liliana's origin story on Dominaria, long before she got the Chain Veil on Shandalar. I don't think they're necessarily connected.

Yup. His interest clearly lies on Liliana, not the veil.

 

[Joe Molotov]

Jace was the true monster all along.

 

[Firemind]

The implication is that Emrakul sensed the absence of Ulamog and Kozilek, and decided to go to sleep until they came back. Emeria's mention of the soil not feeling right seems to mean that Emrakul prefers to wait for those two to erase everything before she does something to the plane, and her mention that things should be blooming seems to support the theory that the Eldrazi provide some sort of renewal to planes.

What? So nothing actually happened? The eldrazi titans aren't even dead? What a complete farce the eldrazi have been.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Leshrac is dead and buried, son.

Not if the chain veil is actually the black myojin's mask.

 

[MotionBlue]

Todays story was amazing. I loved the ending.

 

[SigmasonicX]

What? So nothing actually happened? The eldrazi titans aren't even dead? What a complete farce the eldrazi have been.

Well, Ulamog and Kozilek are "dead". But it's entirely likely that they can regenerate, even if it takes thousands of years.

 

[Firemind]

So Jace will long be dead by then.

 

[A Serious Man]

Thanks for the summary Sigma, as soon as I saw how long that story was I came to this thread.

I'll take that ending over "And we won again, yay!". The theory that the Eldrazi are the planar equivalent of a forest fire is something I can get behind, if only because they make such garbage villains. Magic is in dire need of a great bad guy, fingers crossed we get something in the next couple blocks.

 

[Firemind]

The Eldrazi are the Anti-Spiral. It all makes sense now.

 

[OnPoint]

Well, Ulamog and Kozilek are "dead". But it's entirely likely that they can regenerate, even if it takes thousands of years.

I posit that Emrakul, as the "alpha and omega" creates them again, should they become destroyed. I think theories that Brisela was set to take the place of Ulamog were correct (though just on size alone, Ulamog should be way bigger than a 10/10 if Brisela was a 9/10). I have a feeling that Kozilek's sequel would have come afterward, they would raze and wipe clean the plane, and Emrakul would do her thing. Now we may have Innistrad continue to twist under the influence of Emrakul, though lesser, and through the moon. I would guess a new Ulamog and Kozilek will form underground, or slowly, over time.

Also, I believe that while we haven't seen the ramifications of keeping the Eldrazi from doing their work yet, we will. Perhaps the planar balance is offset when there are too many active planes drawing from the same life source or something along those lines. That theory may be a little too FFVII, but I can't help but think it's something similar.

And it makes you think about what Bolas might be up to, and why he was involved.

 

[El Topo]

Rest assured, if they want to do another Time Spiral block, that will be the explanation.
"Oh no, without the Eldrazi all shit is falling apart!"

 

[An-Det]

New Pro Tour rules
* Decks are submitted electronically.
* The way pairings are posted will be changed as an anti-scouting measure.

Hopefully these go well enough to be universally adopted at the GP level and above, especially the electronic decklists. Connecting the deck database to DCI Reporter and having electronic submission for all major events would be amazing.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Hopefully these go well enough to be universally adopted at the GP level and above, especially the electronic decklists. Connecting the deck database to DCI Reporter and having electronic submission for all major events would be amazing.

This will somehow result in the Top 8 being selected at random.

And then Selfless Spirit will stop working on MODO.

 

[MotionBlue]

So Jace will long be dead by then.

Ulamog and Kozilek are the end result of Emrakuls presence. Brisela would likely replace one or both had she not been slain.

New story is also filled with quotables.

"I. AM. NOT. A. VESSEL!"
-Liliana Vess
(Vess, L.)

"Manipulated correctly, friends were like better zombies."
-Liliana

"They are all my pieces, Jace Beleren. They always were. I just no longer want to play."
-Emrakul

Confirms Emrakul is intelligent, and won the instant the Gatewatch showed up. Hiding in the moon so she can't be manipulated by others for their own means.

 

[bigkrev]

Hopefully these go well enough to be universally adopted at the GP level and above, especially the electronic decklists. Connecting the deck database to DCI Reporter and having electronic submission for all major events would be amazing.

lol thinking that anything will ever be connected to DCI reporter, a piece of technology literally out of 1997

 

[TheBlackMarvel]

Ulamog and Kozilek are the end result of Emrakuls presence. Brisela would likely replace one or both had she not been slain.

New story is also filled with quotables.

"I. AM. NOT. A. VESSEL!"
-Liliana Vess
(Vess, L.)

"Manipulated correctly, friends were like better zombies."
-Liliana

"They are all my pieces, Jace Beleren. They always were. I just no longer want to play."
-Emrakul

Confirms Emrakul is intelligent, and won the instant the Gatewatch showed up. Hiding in the moon so she can't be manipulated by others for their own means.

If that is the case it really needed to be spelled out imo.

Emrakul being "intelligent" seems like the wrong conclusion to draw. Emrakul being "intelligent" seems more like Jace's way of comprehending "her". (Again, imo.)

Spoiler

Having Jace interact with Emrakul really didn't work for me, any of the times they did it.

 

[MotionBlue]

If that is the case it really needed to be spelled out imo.

Emrakul being "intelligent" seems like the wrong conclusion to draw. Emrakul being "intelligent" seems more like Jace's way of comprehending "her". (Again, imo.)

Spoiler

Having Jace interact with Emrakul really didn't work for me, any of the times they did it.

I think it works well either way. The ambiguity is part of the charm. Regardless, Emrakul is a fundamental force, and not something you 'resist'.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Reading the summary I thought at first that Emeria as a goddess had come into a separate existence and consciousness from Emrakul.
Like gods often do in fantasy, being the manifestation of faith in them but that'd have been even worse.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Reading the summary I thought at first that Emeria as a goddess had come into a separate existence and consciousness from Emrakul.
Like gods often do in fantasy, being the manifestation of faith in them but that'd have been even worse.

That is literally the plot of Theros.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

That is literally the plot of Theros.

I know I meant Emeria being a separate entity would be so much worse.
And it's not exactly Theros, in Theros the origin is unclear, some people became gods.
There's a difference between powered by faith and faith manifested.

 

[red13th]

Fun Cube interaction with Selfless Spirit I found while goldfishing. T3 Alesha, T4 Spirit, sac, attack with Alesha, bring back Spirit attacking. Love that card.

 

[Ashodin]

Speaking of, the card is spiking hard right now.

$5 for a rare, wat.

 

[ElyrionX]

Magic Story - The Promised End - Really long one this time.
* Tamiyo arrives and Liliana is annoyed that there's another useless mind mage.
* Liliana looks at Emrakul and compares it to the feelings of wrongness she had when her brother died, when she met Bolas, and when she first used the Chain Veil.
* Raven Man pops up in her head and tells her it's insanity to stay there. Liliana's zombies start talking and tell her to flee, and then start chanting Emrakul's name. It's unclear if this is a hallucination or not.
* Jace is hallucinating about his sanctum on Ravnica, which now has a spiral staircase leading down. Emrakul is destroying the place from the top down, and the staircase is beckoning with warm light. Having no other choice, Jace goes down the stairs.
* From Liliana's perspective, everyone except her is caught in a blue glow from Jace, but they're all writing in agony but him. Liliana uses the Chain Veil and is able to push back against Emrakul's madness.
* Jace finds himself witnessing Gideon's hallucination, which is the moment where he fought Erebos and let his companions get killed, except his companions are substituted with the Gatewatch. Erebos is killing them one by one until Gideon tells him what he most desires. The vision ends before Gideon says it.
* Jace then sees Tamiyo's hallucination. He sees her surrounded by books and scrolls, and feels nostalgic for when he had time to do that. Tamiyo is getting Eldrazified as she reads. He can't do anything to help, and he goes further down the stairs.
* With the power of the Chain Veil, Liliana is actually pushing Emrakul back a bit.
* Back to Jace, he's seeing Chandra's hallucination, which has her as a child back on Kaladesh, confronted by the men that killed her parents. She starts setting everything on fire.
* He goes to the next one, expecting Liliana, and is disappointed to find Nissa.
* Nissa's hallucination places her still on Innistrad. She's being Eldrazified. She speaks gibberish. Jace finds himself being caught up on details of how she's speaking and such, and has to pull himself back. He tries to talk with her, communications break down.
* Jace is disappointed that Liliana isn't there.
* Liliana is still blasting Emrakul, but her body gives out and Emrakul immediately surges back. All she can do now is stand her ground. Raven Man is still telling her how foolish she is and such.

* Jace reaches a door. It leads into a formless and colorless room, which turns into a white room with an angel in it. The angel approaches and is much larger than perspective implied. As it gets closer, its true appearance becomes apparent. And that angel's name... EINSTEIN HITLER EMRAKUL!
* Jace starts laughing, but then his mind snaps back and he thinks about the Emeria statues on Zendikar. He addresses the angel with that name.
* The angel responds with a normal voice and asks if she can sit down. They sit at a table. The angel has an iron-bound scroll like the one Tamiyo has. She asks if she can work while they talk. Jace allows it, and she starts writing in the scroll.
* Jace asks questions. The angel feels incomplete and inchoate (not fully developed), and says that the soil doesn't feel right. Things should be blooming. It isn't her time to be there, not yet.
* Jace demands some straight answers. The angel offers to play chess with him, and will leave if he wins.
* The angel sucks at chess and Jace is winning easily. She says communication is difficult, since she's not even sure Jace actually exists, but his brain is adaptable. Jace hesitates because he's getting potentially useful information.
* Jace asks Emeria if she's real, and she responds that she was personified a long time ago. She says a force can't be reasoned with, but if he takes shortcuts to grapple with what he can't perceive, who is she to argue?
* Jace realizes this isn't something Emrakul is doing, but his own mind trying to make sense of it.
* Jace checkmates the angel, but the angel turns all of his pieces into her own, and they start attacking Jace's king, who now looks like Jace. The room breaks apart and Emrakul proper returns. Jace flees out another door.

* Liliana is still fighting back against Emrakul, drawing energy out of her zombies just to stay alive. One good thing is that there are no more voices from Raven Man or the Chain Veil. She sees that the only one of the Gatewatch still conscious is Jace, but he's just standing there with a blue glow. She yells at him to do something useful.
* Jace runs into himself. The doppelganger asks him a riddle to make sure he's him. Jace acknowledges that he's annoying to interact with.
* "No bigger than a pebble but my closing covers the entire world, what am I?" The answer is

Spoiler

eyes, because when you close them, the whole world goes away

. The true purpose of the riddle was to see how Jace would respond to an easy riddle, and the doppelganger confirms he's the real Jace.
* After talking, Jace realizes where he is. He reflexively cast a spell to protect his mind from immediate dissolution, and also used it to protect his friends.
* When Jace arrived on Innistrad, he knew something weird was going on, so he split up his mind, keeping one part sheltered from the outside, to figure things out while the other part took the brunt of the madness. That's the Jace he was talking to.
* Doppelganger Jace tells him that he needs to talk with Tamiyo. Jace doesn't find this helpful, but the doppelganger also has the solution for how they can get out of the immediate situation. He also knows that Liliana is close to death. The two Jaces merge.
* Jace returns to the real world. Liliana is unconscious, but the others are waking up. There are much fewer zombies left to defend them. Gideon charges into the fray to back up the zombies. Chandra's confidence quickly returns, to Jace's surprise, and she wants to burn Emrakul. Nissa is healing Liliana.
* Tamiyo tells Jace that they must seal Emrakul in the moon.
* She pulls out a scroll and starts casting a spell. Jace helps bind the spell to Emrakul. Nissa provides mana.
* It isn't enough mana, so Tamiyo brings out a second scroll, one of the iron-bound ones. It seems to provide them with mana. Emrakul is successfully Imprisoned in the Moon.

* After using the second scroll, Tamiyo starts vomiting.
* Liliana is happy she's still alive. She thinks that perhaps working in a team isn't so bad. Friends are like zombies but better, and thinks about how useful they could be to her. They're all children compared to her, and will be easy to manipulate.
* As Gideon talks to Tamiyo about joining the Gatewatch, Liliana remarks that she has zombies that are smarter than him. Tamiyo turns Gideon down.
* Jace talks to Gideon, and he looks upset, but he approaches Liliana anyway. Liliana joins the Gatewatch.
* Jace talks with Tamiyo. When Tamiyo used that second scroll, that wasn't actually her in control. Moreover, the contents of the scroll were different from what they were supposed to be.
* Jace thinks back to his conversation with Emeria, where she was writing in an iron-bound scroll. Emrakul was in control of Tamiyo's body, and used it to cast a spell to seal itself in the moon. He remembers the angel saying that it wasn't her time yet.

Great summary as always. Do you have links to your old summaries by any chance?

 

[Giant Panda]

I'm updating my two modern decks for EMN:

GW Aggro

I swapped out two Warden of the First Trees for the Kessig Prowler. I'll have to do some testing to see if Prowler is better but it looks like it will be close. Anybody got any opinions on this one?

BU Zombies

3 Cryptbreaker went in over the 3 Diregraf Ghouls. I'm considering trying to find room for Graf Harvest and Gisa and Geralf too but I don't know what I'd swap for those.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Great summary as always. Do you have links to your old summaries by any chance?

I suppose I can start putting them in the table of contents. For now, the stories go up every Wednesday, so just look around the thread on those days.

 

[Maledict]

I actually liked this week's story. I just wish they didn't felt obliged to jam in the colour philosophy into the characters - it comes across as shallow and a bit dumb.

Definitely liked Emrakul and the resolution to that story.