Woah, dude, that's a pretty bold juxtaposition of opinions right there. Do you care to elaborate some more (especially on the novels), because I'm genuinely struggling to grasp where you are coming from with this..? Don't get me wrong, you are entitled to your opinions, and I guess it's good for you that you've found other things to like in Magic's story. But speaking purely for myself, if I genuinely believed that "most MtG novels" (including Time Spiral*) were a "0/10", I can guarantee you I wouldn't have joined this forum in the first place, I'm not even sure I'd still be playing Magic...

Like, maybe you've just been reading the wrong novels or something? May I interest you in our Lord and Saviour, Jeff Grubb?


*I'm the last person to defend the actual outcome of that trilogy, mind you, what with the Mending and all the character deaths. But looking at the Time Spiral novels purely as a way to tell stories in Magic, with all the beloved old characters and some new ones coming together and interacting, travelling Dominaria and picking up old plot threads... boy, do we need more of this. In fact, I'd even argue that "not enough fanservice" (as in, genuine pay-offs for being an invested longtime fan) can be a legitimate reason to grow tired of a franchise.

New story today.

We were within splitting seconds of getting a new Travails.

I think the magic novels were genuinely the product of very little effort and rarely tied into the set's cards, I much prefer the 'story spotlight' + stories online for free era of magic flavour, even if it has some significant problems and some of the stories are dire.

Among old school stories that I like, I very much enjoy both the Weatherlight Saga (especially how it tied into the cards) and the mirrodin/scars of mirrodin stories. The time spiral stories were exactly as you say, a fanservice type of thing. The new era of storytelling that started with Mirrodin/Ravnica blocks was excellent imo and we didn't need to go back to Dominaria at that point.

As for liking Chandra, pretty much all of the characters these days are written like annoying children (I think Liliana referenced the 'doge' meme at one point), but Chandra...is kind of an annoying child and therefore should be tolerated way more!

As for this week's story the obligatory sentence of Chandra/Adeline was randomly shoved in there with no payoff as in literally all of the previous 8 stories, can they please have at least a long conversation or something? Meanwhile, it just felt like a total filler week, which you can't really have when there are only 5 weeks in the main story. We already saw Sorin being mad at everything for half of last week's story, we don't need to do so yet again. Also the explanation of "I guess my magic accidentally freed the angel...sure" did not feel like a good one.

It wasn't Sorin, it was Katilda who freed Sigarda;


And imo not really filler we got more good character work with Sorin, we learned Olivia's true plot and we found out what was up with Katilda soul going into the key and how the wards fell.

Crimson Vow has been great storywise so far i think.

It's at its heart a characterstudy of Sorin: no longer is he a pouting spoiled emo, he is a pouting spoiled emo with some background.
I've always liked Sorin as a character: he isn't likeable at all; he's a selfcentered egotist at best, but his long-term vision makes him stand out from his hedonistic kin and moves him to take actions that mostly benefit the greater good.

His relationship with Edgar was one of the grestest gaps in Innistrad's background and that is being fleshed out quite nicely.

From the flavortext on the new Edgar card, i think that Edgar is ok with the wedding so that he can turn the tables on Olivia and grab the reins of vampiric power on Innistrad once more. I simply can't believe that an individual as powerful as Edgar would fall for a simply glamour by Olivia. We'll see how that turns out.

Its a nice parallel of Arlinn in Midnight Hunt* and helps deepen what we already know about Sorin and is a good reminder he is very much anti-hero

*a lot of Crimson Vow is echoing Midnight Hunt which is nice for a two part story. "It's like poetry... It rhymes."

Yes; Arlinn is very much the yin to Sorin's yang.

Both come from different monster tribes that threaten humanity and contrary to their kin try to help the humans.
Both are outcasts from their respective monster tribes and as a result both are loners.

Sorin often tries to do good, but his complete lack of empathy means that he often does harm while trying to do good. He also always views problems and solutions in a very self-centered way. Arlinn on the other hand is very selfless and often views things from multiple viewpoints before acting.

Arlinn is Innistrad's true hero, Sorin is it's anti-hero. Sorin views himself as Innistrad's protector, Arlinn is Innistrad's protector.

Its also a nice echo of the Nissa and Nahiri conflict on Zendikar and in general how old walkers and neo walkers are different in mind set and how they prioritize things.

Forgot to post yesterday's: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2021-11-12

A solid story. It was ok, just ok. Not very memorable to me; none of the characters stand out, nor are they very likeable. Umbris, fear manifest was given more exposition that I thought it would get.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2021-11-17

Pretty intense cliffhangers.

I like how this story kinda reflected me and Vaevictis talk on how Arlinn and Sorin ^.^ really feels like we are getting the pay off for both characters arc for this story and a bleak cliff hanger for both of them.

Yes very nice!

Of course there has to be the generic 'We storm the castle!' bit which is mostly boring filler to me.

The duels were for the most part great.

I still hope that Edgar is pissed at Sorin for ruining his plan to marry Olivia and take back control of the vampires.
It would be rather disppointing if all his current actions are down to Olivia's glamour. We'll see next week, when we know everything will be a-okay.....god I wish these stories would come out AHEAD of spoilers. The cliffhanger is totally undone by us already knowing the outcome.

I love the art! The arm was obviously just hacked of the worse-for-wear zombie in the background and the axe behind Gisa's back. Just perfect. They have become quite iconic Magic characters over the years have they not?

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2021-11-19

Its good to see a vampire be terrified by another horror for a change

The Devouring House was a great read. Consistently interesting throughout. It's a little disappointing that we didn't learn much more about Strefan himself, but given the options of...

A) a less focused short story with more forced exposition, or
B) the same story but starring some other random character, or
C) a solid self-contained short story that adds a small bit of history to a character who at least might be relevant in the future

...I honestly can't complain about getting option C. It's kinda the same thing that made the Teferi and Wrenn story so great.

The story was nice...but it felt more like a generic horror story than a Magic story.

I like Strefan, but he felt really REALLY weak for a progenitor....almost impotently weak.
I know that he is considered one of the lesser progenitors, but not being able to take down a simple vampire Hunter for decades feels just wrong. He also keeps on losing throughout the story, without really scoring a win.

The story by itself was a nice little vignet.

I liked it. Imo as long as it's clearly set on a magic plane, it's a magic story. Not everything needs a clear tie to a planeswalker or mana or whatever, storytelling is about experimenting in your setting and IP.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2021-11-24

Final main story.