Neat.

(Hymn of the Wilds)

Is, is that a feathered dinosaur?

Yes, didnt we have them on a plane before?

When I first looked at that card I thought the panther+the lion was a lion faced women lounging casually in an elegant black gown.

STUFF AND THINGS

"If monstrous is here, what does that mean for the city?" "Maybe Selvala is setting free all the beasts of burden."
Said by Shawn Main in his design article last monday.

The city of Trest was confirmed to be on the plane of Fiora.

IMPORTANT PEOPLE ON FIORA!!!

Marchesa

The new queen.

Kaya

Planeswalking assassin hired by Marchesa to kill the king.
Can turn immaterial to punch ghosts in the face.
Born into nobility.
Doesn't like tyranical leaders.

Daretti

Wants revenge on the city for spurning him.
Brilliant inventor.
Responsible for the Academy being closed, because he told Grenzo about Muzzio's clockwork army, who then told Marchesa about it.

Leovold

From Trest.
We don't know anything about him yet.

Adriana

Captain of the Guard, Brago's former bodyguard.
Told Marchesa to get bent.
Wants to protect the people of Paliano.
Currently in possession of Brago's sword.

Mklthd

A rude homunculus.
High chance of going memetic.

Selvala

Famous explorer and long-time friend of Brago.
Lives outside Paliano because city life doesn't suit her.
Adriana wishes for her to assume a position of power in place of Marchesa because she is well-liked and respected by the people of the city.

Grenzo

Former dunegonmaster and agent of chaos.
Kicked out of his position after Marchesa took over.
He know just wants to sow chaos across the city to remind Marchesa how the game is played.
Currently in cahoots with Daretti to goblin it up.

I thought the academy had been disbanded under Brago some time before Marchesa's reign? I read the stories but some of the timing and ties in them was a little confusing for me.

I'm pretty sure brago disbanded it because of whats-his-faces plan to take over the throne via clockwork soldiers

Yeah, that was Ghost Brago. The part about Daretti blowing Muzzio's cover and alerting Grenzo is accurate, though. Apparently that was what prompted Brago to close the Academy.

Leovold's Dossiers, by Nik Davidson

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/ar ... 2016-08-24

This one was laugh out loud funny, really enjoyed it.

It's so funny seeing him waxing poetics and taking pride of his machinations when Marchesa's spies see him as basically an inflated bufoon.

Also hints at Trest being really interesting. There's all this display of civility and sophistication, yet it is appearently still "primitive" and Leovold seems like the rare hedonist

It was quite enjoyable. think I'm going to like Leovold.

I'm irrationally delighted that we got a new pirate (Smuggler Captain). Fiora is the perfect setting for that kind of thing, most people there dress quite piraty anyway and there's a lot of unexplored land with exotic beasts everywhere. I think I'll be really disappointed if we ever get a Pirates of the Carribean style block and it's not set on Fiora.

And it would be amazing if Fiora had a city state that's pretty much the Magic equivalent of Venice, with canals and carnival and winged lions and more of whatever Canal Courier is riding.

We do have Trest, of whom two known members of government (Edric and Leovold) are blue-aligned. Blue-green aligned, no less. Also, Leovold has clearly had practice with endless parties.

That's the first non-actiony Swanland piece I've seen. Beautiful. More of whatever the courier's ridding and playable mono red lizards would be the top of my list for a third Conspiracy set.

Marchesa's especially intriguing; the way she presents herself, she's almost reminiscent of the "Dega" alignment of red, black, and white rather than the Mardu style.

Why mono-red lizards? I agree that lizards are cool, but is there a specific reason?

I need one at 2R for my Dragon Stompy deck. It don't feel right playing a deck with kavus, dragons, but no lizards. I'd split the tribe with green, though, and maybe white for some monitoresque lizards. Seeing that red mythic that gives you a 4/4 lizard if you spend 8 mana on its X cost got me thinking we might see more of them in red. I want to say Urza Block is the last time we saw a lot of them in that color.

Lizards are always just laying there, watching. Flavorfully they could make excellent spies if their minds were made impenetrable to a druid like Selvala.

Is black still Marchesa's core color?

A bit miffed that the story ends there what with Kaladesh's picking up.
Methinks we might be more likely to see returns in things like Commander what with Fiora and its plot being established.

Having stumbled across Monique Jones talking about her contributions (I wouldn't recommend reading much of her stuff unless you really really want to dig into certain topics) there was an interesting bit gleaned from her discussion.

They already know where she's from.

The implications are noteworthy because it means it's not an X factor or that they have a general idea of where she might fit, but have a choice made. Which means it's either a known plane or an upcoming one.

Do you mind posting a link, if we want context?