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Magic: The Gathering |OT| Throne of Eldraine - Will and Rowan's Excellent Adventure
- Thread starter SigmasonicX
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Theros notably went above people's head with the references a lot of times and wasn't that popular IIRC.
I don't think Theros' problem was the mythology being too hidden, though I do wonder if the Greek mythology stuff is really popular enough to carry a product even if it were more direct. I feel like it just wasn't that exciting of a set that was followed up by two weaksauce expansions. That said, I feel like this set being closer to a direct analog might increase its popularity with casuals or even non-Magic folk.
You're thinking Kamigawa. The unpopular part of Theros was Born of the Gods because it was a really bad small set. Theros overall was popular just not Earth shatteringly so.
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Theros came upon the solution of leaving the more obscure references to rare, and in that regard, I think that worked out. Kamigawa was the "what even is this" block. Theros's problems were entirely on a card design level, and choosing not to have anything interesting storywise happen in the second set.
This is what I'm missing. This stuff is so on the nose that I'm looking for any kind of diegetic or metatextual explanation for why this stuff is happening in Eldraine, for why all the magic here is whimsical.
I wouldn't call it working out when there's almost no legendaries from Theros people remember but part of that is surely most of them being trash.
Here's what I think I'm missing: why are there so many one-offs in Eldraine? All the fairy tale stuff doesn't feel like worldbuilding, it just feels like weird stuff that happens to be occurring. The full set review could prove me wrong, but I don't get a sense that these fairy tale tropes are pointing at anything consistent underlying them.
Opportunistic Dragon
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Ah, that's what you meant earlier.
I would like to know what, say, Rowan thinks of all these fairy tale events.
The gods are pretty popular.
Neat design, and a cool way for red to get white "exile until CARDNAME leaves the battlefield" effects.
"Nobody remembers the Legendaries from this set, not counting the most major, front facing legendaries" seems pretty silly to me.
sure, or I'm clarifying what I meant. I'm talking about the triads of fate, the king macars, the RW pair whose name I can't even recall or know what they are referencing.
there are unmemorable cards from every set, though. so if that's what you originally meant it's not very illuminating imo.
I mean isn't this true of basically any set? Once you remove all the major legendary characters, people forget the minor ones. You think people are going to remember Lannery Storm or Kopala from Ixalan?
There are unmemorable cards in every set but a set that's drawing on the likes of Herakles, Orpheus, Leonidas, Achilles, Pandora, Helena,... for legends shouldn't have troubles making memorable ones beyond what the gods ended up being
Insatiable Appetite; Cauldron Familiar
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That's them but who are they supposed to be Greek history/mythology?
I mean, it's not like they're consistent in how they design dragons.
"I tame lightning in my spare time."
R&D: Let's not give it haste but give it firebreathing instead. Oh and it has echo because fuck you.
"I'm so fast I can make everyone attack again."
R&D: Give me artwork that has the most pedestrian looking dragon that looks bored out of its mind.
Maraleaf Rider; Bog Naughty
From Merchant on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAx83hiIc3I (solid channel btw)
Bog Naughty seems like a limited maybe card. Rider has a weird fight mechanic that could end up being good.
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I've been away from Magic for a while, and this probably sounds extremely silly, but my first reaction to all the spoilers in this thread isn't about the uninspired flavour (though that's true too) -- the thing that stands out as weirdest to me are the changes to templating/rules implementation since I've left. It feels so off, somehow... Influenced by digital, maybe? I dunno. But weird. Tangentially, I can't get behind how darn much text nigh-on every card has -- and I can't help but feel like those things are related, like they're now more okay fuzzing over some bits they used to spell out explicitly because they're focused on saving some space in the text box.
I guess it's been a trend since they changed mana generation to "add {M}." and ditched the Planeswalker bandaid rule in favour of "any target" templating. (It still bugs me that that's an outright lie. You can't target a card in a graveyard, for example, even though that is a legitimate thing to target on other cards that say so. Magic rules text shouldn't lie to you to make things simpler! That's what reminder text is for!)
So then, maybe they did this in other recent sets too, but now this set introduces two subtypes with rules meaning, Adventure and Food. That like, never happened before! Pretty much the only exceptions I can think of are the basic lands. It just feels so bizarre to me that the effect of those comes from the type, and not actual text; It's like if instead of making Changeling an ability, they tied it to the Shapeshifter creature type and just put it as reminder text on commons, or if they had never made Devoid, and just tied colour identity to the card frame instead. that's just not how they used to do things, but I can totally see those things happening now.
I know basically no one else even considers this stuff. I just felt like ranting for a bit.
On the plus side though, and it's a big plus: Adamant, now that's my jam. A clear, simple ability word that takes a no-nonsense effect and embiggens it under certain conditions? That's the kind of Magic I know and love.
I guess it's been a trend since they changed mana generation to "add {M}." and ditched the Planeswalker bandaid rule in favour of "any target" templating. (It still bugs me that that's an outright lie. You can't target a card in a graveyard, for example, even though that is a legitimate thing to target on other cards that say so. Magic rules text shouldn't lie to you to make things simpler! That's what reminder text is for!)
So then, maybe they did this in other recent sets too, but now this set introduces two subtypes with rules meaning, Adventure and Food. That like, never happened before! Pretty much the only exceptions I can think of are the basic lands. It just feels so bizarre to me that the effect of those comes from the type, and not actual text; It's like if instead of making Changeling an ability, they tied it to the Shapeshifter creature type and just put it as reminder text on commons, or if they had never made Devoid, and just tied colour identity to the card frame instead. that's just not how they used to do things, but I can totally see those things happening now.
I know basically no one else even considers this stuff. I just felt like ranting for a bit.
On the plus side though, and it's a big plus: Adamant, now that's my jam. A clear, simple ability word that takes a no-nonsense effect and embiggens it under certain conditions? That's the kind of Magic I know and love.
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Wizards is apologizing for previewing Trapped in the Tower on 9/11 and removed it from their preview article today.
My god it's been 18 years. That's almost 2 decades. It's a simple Magic card, they didn't miss anything.
Fervent Champion
I have to imagine that it's a cost reduction instead of making it totally free thanks exclusively to Hammer Time being in Standard.
T1: Sigarda's Aid
T2: Fervent Champion + Colossus Hammer
Fun times.
Obviously not in Standard and probably too fragile in Modern, but sure to annoy your friends around the kitchen table.
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Pervert Champion
I think I just heard Ashodin faint.
EDIT: OH SHIT IT'S THE NEW INVITATIONAL-STYLE CARD
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For those not aware, in the past, World Championship winners (or whatever it was back then) used to design a single card and it would be included in a future set with their face on the art. The last one of these was Snapcaster Mage in Innistrad, I believe. They brought this program back, but now the champion just chooses an existing card for their face to be on.
Auras, Equipment, and Vehicles are all common subtypes with rules meanings. Food is pretty much the same thing as Clues.
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