@@MagicArcanum Satoru's in a weird place where he needs to mechanically fit with what's in standard but as a character is blue-black, and it would be aesthetically weird if he didn't mechanically work with ninjas in some capacity. I guess this was their compromise. I personally would have preferred if this were a wholly new character that better matched the identity of the set, but I at least understand the reasons the card we got may be the way it is. Love your vids btw, I know I tend to be critical, but it comes from a place of respect and enjoyment for your work! Keep it up my man 👍
Probably not a super relevant idea, but a Golgari artifacts matter/removal pile deck with Vraska at the helm could be interesting. Thinking things like Teething Wurmlet, Elvish Archivist and other recent green artifacts matter cards, but also maybe Cranial Plating, Reprocess and Monumental Corruption (maybe also new Braids since it'd be easily repeatable?) Just spit-balling, but I think it could be a neat take
I've taken to calling Rakdos "Hulkdos," in this set, because that's basically how he acts throughout most of it. Like a big dumb brute, who is amused by childish things, the way that the Incredible Hulk often is. I'm still not sure I like this character transformation, but at the same time, I don't really care enough about Rakdos, as a character, to really get up in arms over it.
I hope the miserable Kellan story arc is now finished. And I wouldn't mind to never see Oko again. And wtf is Rakdos himself doing in every set now? This seems so monumentally misplaced and misguided. And why are Eriette and Gisa+Geralf and Marchesa and Lazav and ... there. So unnecessary and pointless. I really hate those nonsense omenpaths freakshow sets! And why does Tinybones even exist? Makes no sense. Wtf is that Loot creature for?
Man I wonder whatever happened to Dack Fayden, he would've been really perfect for this set. I hope WotC didn't do anything disapointing with him a few years ago
That Rakdos, the Guild leader, had joined them, literally, just for the thrills, is the most amusing to me xD I love that :D although Tinybones is also rather funny nice video!
The (side)story establishes Geralf is researching how the local mana affects wizards, I can believe he joined the gang to watch the rest of the team, and see what happens
I was really curious what lazav, was doing here. Hoping one of these epilogues covered it. Damn him for being so slippery, no wonder Mirko is still foaming at his fangs over this
Another thing I love about Kellan even if I dont care much for the character himself - the fact that this version of him doesn't have an adventure half unlike all his previous instances. His adventure is over. Hes settling down now.
People mention Annie's card reflecting digging up her rifle, but it also synergieses 100% with her ride "Fortune, Loyal Steed" even her tap trigger with the saddle ability
Thunder Junction has been "open" for about two years now, and one of the side stories (the one featuring Gisa and Geralf) has them visiting a massive graveyard, filled with would-be adventurers who weren't cut out for life in the desert.
So I think Annie couldn't see Jace as Jace because his illusions are a combination of magic and telepathy; he's "talking" directly and forcefully into their minds to see him as Ashiok
Wasn't Rakdos asleep during the events of MKM because Judith wanted control of the Rakdos guild? How is it he is awake and able to go to Thunder Junction?
The time between story events is more than the time it is for set releases. In other words, for us those sets were a few months apart, but for the characters it was closer to half a year. Plenty of time for Rakdos to wake up, become bored, wander through an omenpath, and be hired by Oko.
I have an idea for Vraska. Instead of deathtouch how about sacrifice abilities? You have black so you can use a bunch of cards that force your opponent to sacrifice a creature thus making them agonize what card they would be giving you.
I think the new Satorou card was meant to work with the new Plot mechanics that let you precast a card to then use mana free on a later turn alongside ninjutsu.
In the epilogue chapters, they tell us that he had to practice his performance in front of Vraska for a while to make it convincing. If he could just use mind magic to make everyone think he was Ashiok, he wouldn't need to do that, but he really did need to "sell" the illusion by not only looking like Ashiok, but moving behaving like them, as well.
People keep on saying that Annie could see through Oko's illusion but not Jace's My take, Oko uses glimmer-like illusions, just projections, while Jace is casting the illusion into your mind. Annie can't see through Jace because her mind is superceding her magical eye
In the epilogue chapters, they tell us that he had to practice his performance in front of Vraska for a while to make it convincing. If he could just use mind magic to make everyone think he was Ashiok, he wouldn't need to do that, but he really did need to "sell" the illusion by not only looking like Ashiok, but moving behaving like them, as well.
I suspect it is to set her up as a villain for future adventures. They needed her out of prison on Eldraine and motivated to "get even" with Jace and Vraska, so there would be more people standing in their way and preventing them from remaking the multiverse. So while her inclusion here doesn't make a ton of sense, it's a necessary inclusion for stories yet to come.
In Murders at Karlov Manor we learned Rakdos has been asleep long enough to provide an alibi for the recent murders, but nobody could predict how much longer he would slumber. Also, even though for us these sets were close together, for the characters a considerable amount of time passes between each expansion.
Yes, Jace was originally part of The Big Score, an Aftermath style epilogue set, but they folded it into Outlaws of Thunder Junction so we do have two planeswalker cards together, even though WotC insists that won't be normal going forward.
I've got a Vraska themed deck that's been running Sisters of Stone Death for a thematic commander, but they will most definitely be getting swapped out for actual commander Vraska
Watching Kellan grow up makes me feel kinda bad for his Eldraine dad He tried his best to be there for him but Kellan ended up focusing on looking for his biological dad and grew up on his own
Ya know, i wast mostly excited for the story because of Vraska, but just like March of the Machines Gisa and Geralf were the best part of the story for me.
Look at cards for Shelob to help you build Vraska. They are functionally the same, with the exception of not needing spiders specifically. I plan on trying to find room for her in Shelob for redundancy.
I have a few win conditions in the deck (Mirkwood Bats, Halsin, Fynn, etc). But the realnfun of the deck comes from it playing differently every game and constructing weird board states from other people's stuff.
What bothers me is that not a single cultist of Rakdos seems to have followed their demon lord through the omenpaths. It feels like WotC didn’t really consider what the theological implications of the godhead of a 10,000 year old cult just up and leaving would be for its adherants.
He often sleeps in his lair, deep under the city, so people go long stretches without actually seeing him. If anything, he'd have the easiest time vanishing compared to any of the other highly-visible guild leaders.
Satoru being a ninja rogue feels kinda clunky. In NEO, they fixed the plane-specific nature of ninjas by making cards that affect ninjas also affect rogues, so that there's backwards compatibility and future proofing if you want to mix and match cards from different planes for creature type synergies. (The same happened to samurai and warriors.) In OTJ, outlaws include several creature types, including rogues. But ninjas aren't outlaws. Satoru has to be a ninja, because it wouldn't make sense if he isn't. But he also has to be a rogue to be considered an outlaw. So now he's a ninja rogue even though those two creaure types are almost treated as the same thing in Kamigawa.
I fully agree. He had to be a rogue to be an outlaw, but being a rogue NINJA is somewhat redundant given how those types were batched for NEO, exactly.
I LOVEEEEEED THIS VIDEO so much i didnt know i wanted it but boy howdy did i want it. I know march of the machine is so old now but I WOULD OF LOVED to have known which planeswalker was on the strike team , a brief backstroy, does their card make sense, and if they kept a spark. This video idea is amazing!! cant wait for me if ever
Something about the way you said "Oko acts like hes one step ahead of everyone" really struck home with me. While I do thing he plans some things out, I think he's better at on the fly thinking. But he's blue and not red so maybe he really is that far ahead?
He did send the location of Tarnation to the Sterling Company, before letting himself get captured on purpose (or so he claims) so that he could get the key off Akul and achieve his goal of reaching the vault - but a lot had to go right for that plan to actually work, so he seems to get by on a combination of luck and skill.
Something fun I noticed looking at the cards again now, this version of Kellen doesnt have an Adventure like all the previous versions of him had. Cuz., you know, he found his dad. The adventure is over. Obviously, he still has new things to see and do, but I thought that was a fun little detail.
I thought it was weird how much Rakdos shrank in size. If I remember correctly in the war of the spark book he was described as being huge but in Thunder Junction he’s maybe 3-4 feet taller than the tallest person in there party where did the extra feet go or can he mass shift and no one has mentioned it.
I LOVE this breakdown! Mechanics, lore, backstory... I feel WAY BETTER about how they all fit in (even if it's tangentially). One thousand bonus points for "skeleton key". More Tinybones, plz!
As someone pointed out, Annie Flash's weird ETB might be a reference to how she simply digs up her rifle for "One Last Job" (that is conveniently another card in the set). I think her ability to impulse draw after tapping (not just attacking) is much more flavorful as she is a skillful rancher, having a particularly close bond with a certain mount named Fortune (who also has a card in the set with some synergy with her card, which I find really neat).
I think that Annie’s reanimation ability reflects the part in the story where she dug up her rifle for one last job and you could say that the exiling part is here looking through the deck for more cards
People mention Annie's card reflecting digging up her rifle, but it also synergieses 100% with her ride "Fortune, Loyal Steed" even her tap trigger with the saddle ability
My take on Eriette. She is using some type of witch magic to make herself young. Based on the Wilds of Eldraine story, I'm guessing she feeds on the dreams of others. Her sister with the cauldron likely used a similar magic to feed off of the youth of those she ate. Much like Liliana, despite being very old, she has the body of a young woman. It's not an illusion.
@@MagicArcanum The reflection shows her TRUE self. She has a young body gained by magic. Her true self is that of an old chrone. If you were to undo her magic or if her magic ran out, she would revert to her true self. Like the other person replied, it's like Dorian Gray. He has a young body, but his true self is reflected in the picture. It's not an illusion.
@@MagicArcanum I haven't read the Magic story, so what I'm about to say could be wrong. 1- To my knowledge, Annie can turn her magic eye on and off. I don't know if she purposely used her eye on Eriette in the story. If she did, then there are issues. If she didn't, then Annie wouldn't see anything. 2- Different magics work in different ways. Again, I didn't read the story, so I don't know the details of Annie's eyes. I don't know if her eye would see Dorian Gray's true self. Does Annie's eyes see the target's true physical form, or the target's soul? I would argue Eriette's true physical form is young while her soul is shown through reflections. 3- I also didn't read the Eldraine story. I don't know if the story says Eriette's old self is shown in reflections. If not, the card art could just be a visual representation of Eriette and her magic. The closest comparison we have is Liliana. She's over 100 years old, but has the body of someone in her 30's. Liliana used demon magic to make herself young. Demon magic and witchcraft are not the same. It could be that demon magic is strong enough to make the reflection a non-issue. Perhaps witchcraft comes with a steep price that is shown in the reflection. There are many ways to explain it. It depends on the detailed explanation of both of their powers.
