Fisco's got a lot of great stuff out there. If you're interested in Fisco, I strongly recommend Ruwin's story Two Bullets and a Pocketful of Hate. It's a really great piece, in my opinion.

It would be *fascinating*.



To be clear, your assumption is *totally* correct. That's definitely a family specialty. They're all red, just with different complementary colors.



Quoted for truth!

Hmmm.

Astria
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard

As ~ enters the battlefield, name a nonland card.
Opponents can't activate abilities of sources with the chosen name.
: Gain control of target permanent with the chosen name until end of turn. Untap it. It gains haste until end of turn.

2/2

Thoughts?

Very nice. I like both your version and Ruwin's version. I think they really capture the different sides of her scheming. One shows how she debases other people to protect herself, the other shows how she uses other people to do her dirty work for her. They both capture something very fundamental about how she treats people like objects and subverts them for her own purposes.

Man I wish I had more to contribute to the generality of this, but I genuinely don't know what there is to take away from my works.

As an aside, as much as I like Jackie, what with being part of Jakkard, she'd fit right into the Jakk set.

Two Bullets took a lot longer to read than expected, but it was indeed a great read.
Probably not nearly as driving as I don't know Fisco before & after, but good nonetheless.

It was actually Fisco's second story, and the first one was a relatively simple (though still good) intro piece. It is also the first story to have been set in Jakkard. All around, it's a pretty "important" piece, as far as the M:EM goes.

Glad you enjoyed it! I always like when people enjoy the things I recommend, even if I had nothing to do with their creation!

Fisco's "before" is relatively uneventful (the only things of note that happen to him before Jakkard are his ascension, saving Diana, enslaving Xeran, and a slow but inevitable spiral into depression brought on by his lack of meaningful emotional stimulus), and his after, uh, doesn't get a whole hell of a lot easier for him.

That being said, I'm glad you enjoyed Two Bullets. Though "The Good Pontiff" may have been my debut story in the M:EM, I regard Two Bullets fondly as my best work so far.

It's also 52 or so pages long on google docs. Sorry about that. O_o

Anyway, hey! Thanks for reading!

Why not Monocoloreds each with an off-color ability for each of its allied colors? Though, now that I see most people have already gone with the above, I can't help but think there should be clockwise and counterclockwise ally and enemy pair cycles.

I shudder to imagine what an "eventful" period is Fisco's life would look like.

Well, we won't have to imagine much longer. O_O

*SHAMELESS FORESHADOWING*

Seems like this thread exploded when I wasn't looking!


I didn't see an Aamir in the wiki archives. Who is Aamir?


Great! That means I have something to work from mechanically.

I think the rare, uncommon and common spells may draw too much focus to those planeswalkers in particular, though, since the set needs to celebrate the No Goblins Allowed community as a whole. Hence, I don't think I will add them to this first set.

I'm also reluctant to add the planeswalker cards directly to the set, because I'm a little worried about balance with the other cards in the format. Imagine how awful it would be for your planeswalker to be banned!

With that in mind, here are some tentative proposals for the five monocolored planeswalkers:






I'm still looking for a red planeswalker to include in NGA Masters. I don't think I can do Beryl justice with a monocolored card of her, though I might include her as a multicolored planeswalker once the main five colored planeswalkers are settled. Is a monocolored Kahr-ret-Taris possible?

Also, I've designed some other cards for your consideration. Please have a quick look over them!

Technically he's not in the archives yet, but he's one of the characters in the serial "Drifting Lights" which I've been putting together now and then.
He's a half-elf prince and 32nd in line to the throne on the plane of D'shan. However, the main thing that is his claim to fame is that he's a luminarch, someone who can create angels. It's a feature of his father's bloodline, but he's the first one in generations to demonstrate the ability.

He's, overall, just a really good guy and tries to help people when he can.

The other option for white, I'd say, would be Raef, who is the star of "Legacies", but that one, while finished, isn't in the archives yet... I need to find a better name for it since Legacies was only ever meant to be a working title.

Yes, shameless indeed.

I would certainly never do anything of the sort, myself.



By the way, I trust everyone is eagerly anticipating the next thrilling chapter of The War of the Wheel, coming to you every Tuesday!

That's right, The War of the Wheel, from the makers of Pariah, Raven's Rhymes, and several Raiker Venn stories!

First off: That Tezzeret card. Hilarious. I laughed for way too long.

All the planeswalkers are a straightforward, if a little unimaginative. That's not really a bad thing - this is a core set, after all! So I'm glad you decided to err on the side of caution.

Now, two Souls from your Soul cycle caught my attention: Zent and Arbagoth. Namely, Arbagoth is really weak in my opinion, and Zent is just AWESOME. There is nothing I don't love about Soul of Zent. Nothing. It really is such an excellent representation of that plane. If you keep nothing else about everything you just put down, keep that.

The rest of the souls vary. Jakkard is balanced (though I would drop mountainwalk in favor of haste), but Helvakin appears to be on the weak side as well. I understand these are repeatable effects, but I think that Helvakin could stand to have a little more oomph. Or maybe, just a little cheaper. , perhaps.

Enter the Amphiseum is really, really, cool but may be too complex at uncommon for NWO. That being said, there is nothing I would change about it. Er, well - maybe I'd drop Green. That is the only color of mana the Dual Walkers very specifically do not deal in.

I think the Song of Dominia should be a five-color enchantment - but we can't really put that in a core set, so I like it how it is.

A few things for everyone's perusal...





EDIT: New Beryl ulti! NOW WITH MORE RED MANA!!

Jinsen: I would probably shy away from doing an equipment ability on a PW for a core set.
Lourima: I'd make her first ability a +1 ability. The ult seems a bit underwhelming, and kinda overlaps with her +.
Daneera: I don't like the ability overlap, but it could be interesting.

Arbagoth: seems a bit weak. Maybe make it "Put three +1/+1 counters on target creature"? A bit scaveng-y, but hey.

Beryl: A free lightning bolt/strike or equivalent every turn for free seems a bit much, even at 5 cmc. Her ult is very underwhelming.
Aliavelli: a 6/6 unblockable for 6 is scary. A 6/6 unblockable for 6 that gains permanent control of things is scarier. A 6/6 unblockable for 6 that gains permanent control of things even when dead is even scarier.

I'd probably keep Lourima's first ability at +2 but have it make each player lose 2 instead of target.

6/6 unblockable for 6 is scary, yeah. Better than Hexproof, and Helvakin already has flying, so outside of Islandwalk, not a whole lot of choices. Granted, we could do the whole frost titan thing and make stuff that targets it cost 2 more or something.

The ability is 8 mana. Chances are, if the blue player has eight mana, you've already lost the game - as far as standard goes. In slower, more interesting formats (EDH), there are plenty of easier ways to go about mind controlling your opponents field (Memnarch comes to mind, but I'm sure there are even less hoops to jump through if you put your mind to it) and if they use this as an infinite mana outlet, the problem is the infinite mana, not the outlet.

Basically, what I'm getting at is that your implied objections aren't really really relevant because, uh, it's a mythic and is supposed to be scary.

As for Beryl, her +1, in my opinion, is plenty balanced, because it requires you to have something in the graveyard in the first place. She's a five mana planeswalker with 3(4) starting loyalty. Even if there weren't a handful of cards that just blew her up for cheaper, 4 damage on turn 5 is not a difficult amount of damage to deal to a planeswalker (or turn 6 if you're on the play)

So, again, I don't really see how her +1 is too powerful.

I am, however, probably going to add a little something to her ult. Stay tuned!

And next time you're going to criticize a handful of theoretical cards, try for something a little more constructive than "this is lackluster", "this is too powerful", and "I don't like this". Although I do like your suggestion for Arbagoth. That's a pretty good idea.

The point with the Soul is that it's a finisher you can play with no backsides.
No removal? Beat your opponent silly. It got removed? Fine, just take something your opponent has and start beating away with that.
It's the type of beaters control generally likes. And I think it does its job a little too well.

You must not be playing red if you're on T5 and you've got nothing in grave. Seriously.
A shock or lightning strike variant is bound to exist in any core set. Being able to hit a creature/player for 3 is historically a -2 ability on a 4 cmc planeswalker, -3 with upsides on the same. I'm not willing to believe that adding a single mana is worth making that a + ability.

I will generally not suggest alternatives on these themed designs, mostly because I know next to nothing about them.
On Beryl, I've already given my design(s), so my opinion for that is already out there.