In fact, Lim-Dul not being able to leave Shandalar was a whole point, as him being unable to leave it made him wage constant war on the plane.

Even if he was a walker at first, isnt the raven man just a fraction of him? I highly doubt it could become a planeswalker

Personally, I haven't enjoyed this set. I was never around for Dominaria so it doesn't have that same sense of history to me but this set felt very rushed narratively. They uncover the phyrexian plot, form the coalition, a city falls (I think??), and they have a massive battle which seems sort of climactic. It's possible I was reading quickly but this just seems like a series of big events with little to no build up, sort of like how they got all the guilds to align in the War of the Spark book (particularly with how easily and quickly they fixed Trostani).

I was heavily bothered by how fast Dominaria's been infiltrated and how much. So many people were compleated and it just seems so fast. I suppose that the Phyrexians have been improving and perfecting their technique but on Mirrodin it felt like a seeping sort of corruption and here it is explosive.

I also hate Karn. As a character, I find him whiny and like he was given the idiot ball. I do not know him well, but the fact that he spares phyrexianized people is beyond stupid. This whole plot could have been averted if he just killed Rona and threw the bomb. He can make more, could he not just napalm the heck out of Sheoldred. But no, you stuff your "tongue" hand in her like "what could possibly go wrong " This could absolutely come from me not understanding the character outside of a few short stories and the novel Quest for Karn but has he always been indestructible? He seems so self-assured that I get the feeling he has never faced a real threat.

I also feel like the Weatherlight getting compleated (how did it seem like a good idea to not even take time to remove the Phyrexian gunk from her and cleanse her and give her breaks?), Ajani's completion being revealed, and Jaya getting killed could've been climaxes on their own if played right. Instead they were thrown one after the other.

I'm not normally so bitter about a set so this is likely just a matter of "I'm not the target audience" than it necessarily being bad. Also, forgive me if I seem a little ranty!

I'm not sure who the audience is.
Anybody that had been around would probably be deeply aggrieved and pissed off about the characters and objects they corrupted/killed.
Anybody that wasn't around, like you, probably hate the abrupt... Everything about the set.

So, seriously, no clue who this was for.

Honestly, I've been playing and keeping up with the lore since 1996, which i guess makes me quite an invested vorthos. I obviously also grew up with Dominaria and to me it will always be Magic's central plane. So you could say that I'm absolutely the target for this is, but honestly i didn't really like this set all that much either. It's not that I'm pissed off about Jaya dying (it was one of the things that I thought was handled quite well) or about Ajani being compleated (I just can't really care).

I don't know....for as much as I loved Dominaria four years ago...this just mostly falls flat. Dominaria had a feel of exploration and a deep love of Dominaria about it, both in the respect for the lore and the geographical scope of the cards in the set.

I just miss that feel here somewhat. It feels a bit all over the place. For one, characters like Sol'Kanar and Zur still being alive fell completely flat for me because they were given no attention at all. It felt more like they were looking for old-timey characters that would fit the colors and could possibly still be alive in the present and they settled on these.

For another, why make cards for Shana and Raff, but not for Tiana, Arvad and Slimefoot? Why even use the Weatherlight and it's crew at all when it wasn't really necessary? Why (and how) is Rith released and why don't we hear about it??? Rith being released was a very big deal back in the Invision block, as that set in motion the release of the other primevals and Darigaaz's eventual downfall. In this set: just a card.

The set feels absolutely packed with stuff; it feels cramped. Most of it also feels like pandering, some of it feels inconsequential where it really shouldn't and some of it falls absolutely flat, while many of those things could have been cool. That sucks.

The main story also doesn't feel anchored in a particular place. Dominaria's story hopped around as well, but it felt connected. This felt rushed at best.

It's not that it's Streets of New Capenna bad. Not at all, but because it is a plane which such a rich history, a little bit less of it would have gone a long way I think. A shame.

I'm confused about how they where able to complete Ajani, since don't they need the Reality Chip to complete Walkers? As far as I can tell, there is no indication that Sheoldred brought it with her, and if she personally took Ajani back to New Phyrexia, she'd have to rebuild her body again for each trip.

I don't think the reality chip is necessary; new walkers just are vulnerable tp phyresis. Then again, it isn't clear* if Ajani is a planeswalker anymore since he got blown up at the planar bridge.

*Card may very well be his last.

I'm keeping an eye out for the survey they always post.
It'll be a few weeks yet, but I really want everyone to lay into them so they mark this whole thing as being a mistake.

And Phyrexia could always just had Tamiyo bring the chip and I'm thinking Tamiyo is likely helped capture Ajani.

I don't think that everything about it was a mistake. There are cetainly things to like. But as a whole it feels like a mishapen mish mash of half- or underused ideas.

If you would have asked me some months ago what this set would be about i would have guessed the return of Zhalfir and an overall continuation of the good work done on Dominaria, not a vehicle for a multi-set-spanning Phyrexia arc wherein a second, but overall very anticlimactic, incredibly rushed Phyrexian invasion would hit Dominaria out of the blue.

However, i do love Dominaria with all my heart and i woudn't want Wizards to get the idea that i somehow don't like Dominaria!

I think this story suffers from the same issues the online fiction had since Zendikar 3 there just isn't enough words/chapter to let the story breath now it needs to so everything is rushed and they can't spend as much time giving the characters more emotional beats.

And I'm sad about characters I like getting the oil, I wasn't part of the fandom telling wizards for more deaths/stakes so hope y'all are enjoying what you asked for.

I think one part of the characters getting oiled that makes me upset beyond just the harm it does to my investment is that it feels like the ones they've chosen so far are a marketing choice.
They've opted for characters that are inconvenient in that they don't want to put effort into developing, either because the arcs are done or that they're redundant from the color pie marketing department. "We have Basri and Elspeth, what do we need Ajani for?"
"Tamiyo is weird and niche, Jace is our popular blue character!"

It's odd, really. The Dominaria stuff, like the revisited legends, I mostly enjoyed. The mechanics seem pretty good, I like a lot of the themes in the set -- less so Domain, but many of the others. But Invasion 2: Sheoldred Boogooloo: Let's Play Mafia is... less my cup of tea.

The original Weatherlight Saga benefited heavily from saturation, this feels like it's jumping from prelude material like Weatherlight right to Invasion. Technically the bits are all there if you read it as Scars-Kaldheim-NEO-SNC but because we had some other little... multi year arcs in there, and because the entire thing has to be done in one bloody set rather than unfolding over a year, it feels very abrupt. The death of blocks has not been kind to the vorthos side of things since it pushes for a much more "episodic road trip" sort of format than the fantasy epic.

What I'm getting at is were going to a place with an artifact that can explicitly bring characters back to life and cure them of curses.
And look at all these walkers that are getting completed...

Oh damn

Survey is up on the mother ship