Let's get one of these going! We need a place to talk flavor as this set rolls out.

Last time around, Innistrad hit a lot of really solid gothic horror tropes. This time, we've got a new story but hopefully we'll hit some of those same notes without it feeling like a retread.

We're off to a good start with this card, I'd say:



Incidentally, if you haven't checked out the SOI product page, it's worth doing so. It's kinda like the Scars of Mirrodin page, except that it actually loads properly:

http://magic.wizards.com/en/innistradmap

Knowing what a fan you are of Jar of Eyeballs, it makes sense you would be drawn to that card!

Also, I got really pumped when I saw "innistradmap" in that link name. I was disappointed (although not surprised) when I found it wasn't actually a map...

We do have one interesting bit of information from the image:

Apparently Markov Manor isn't just trashed, it's actually levitating trash. That's pretty interesting.

Well, we know it was Nahiri who trashed it, and her superpower is making stone hover

My guess is that she wrecked the place and killed everyone who was in there, then preserved its floating remains and is now waiting there for Sorin to face her.

Uh...guys? We got Fallen Angel sightings in the Cathedral!

Huh, that black angel is neat. I'd say it raises more questions than it answers, though. Clip Wings seems to indicate that at least some angels are now hostile towards humans, and yet the angel in the artwork doesn't look like she's corrupted by black mana or anything. Are there two different kinds of evil angels now? Would be cool if this was an actual Fallen Angel. Or maybe an Angel of Despair reprint.

I like how they're shaking up the good/evil lines a bit this time. Bad angels, probably some good werewolves led by Arlinn, the Falkenrath vampires going on a killing spree and playing well with Madness...



Hell, even Nahiri went from being a good girl to coming in like a wrecking ball.

It'd be a shame if the evil angels were Black. I'm assuming that particular angel is a White/Black specimen or a mono-White under some unflattering lighting, based on Maro's statements about the deliberate avoidance of mono-Black angels.

Not going to lie -- I read this, and then immediately imagined Nahiri in that Miley Cyrus music video.

Which is really galling considering how beloved fallen angel is and how powerful a trope that is on top of that.

I'm really loving the madness and madness tie-ins. Madness was one of my first real "flavor" mechanics and I loved its use in Torment (as witnessed by Dominian Nightmares...)

If I can get my ass in gear and get the last batch of things for the Kyren Story Auction graded soon I might be able to do a SOI card prompt by next week already, every single card we've seen has been great.

I mean, pretty sure this just stole my heart from the card name alone:

I really like the flavor of Madness (Basking Rootwalla was one of my first "favorite" cards), but I sort of hate the modern wording of the reminder text...

I dislike that it's longer and a little weirder but from what I've seen that Tabak has wrote about it I get the slight mechanical tweak. It's weird that it streamlines the ability technically but at the cost of streamlined reminder text...

Also, because who needs sleep anyway, here's a close up of whatever Nahiri did to Markov Manor:



I really love how this conveys "a really old planeswalker just got really angry." It feels like... I dunno, it feels more like it's from the perspective of the plane? In a way? I'll figure out how to describe this when my head doesn't feel like someone's been driving spikes into it.

That reminds me of why Nightcrawler never wanted to BAMF! into a place blind...

I suppose the idea (besides just reinforcing angels are White iconics, of course) is to drive away from the fact that Black isn't necessary to have evil angels (which is something I wholeheartily agree with), and to an extent New Phyrexia managed to show "fallen" angels in mono-White.

Good.

Yeah, Fallen Angel is Magic's most iconic evil angel. A reprint in this block would just nail it.

Holy ****, yes, this is epic. Why can't Sorin get that treatment?
(as in "being an epic Oldwalker" not as in "being baked into a wall")

Why not both? Oldwalkers are fun like that.

I like how the card for it is mono-White. Guess the Machine Orthodoxy isn't the only one sewing people in unbearable agony.

Man I gotta admit, I'm getting real nervous about Tamiyo.

I mean, it really kinda looks like they're actually going, in this the year 2K16 CE, to fridge a female character off screen to progress the story for their white boy protagonist.

Like... they've almost won be back here, they've almost convinced me that they can write a competent storyline. That'd pretty much demonstrate loud and clear that they can't, frankly.

It'd be a true surprise, given how much Creative has proclaimed open-mindedness. Though, it'd be qkind of funny in a messed up way that true major female characters got dye in a row.

If only they wanted to kill Nissa instead of Tamiyo.