.coincidence.theories.

Lord of Causality. Father. Husband. Sarcastic. Formerly pantsless. Hates adulting. MTG blogger. AFL tragic.

[mangojuulpoddd]

[pepperstrawberry]

Once more, I am attacked.

[mesprit]

@6o6

[loreleywrites]

History shows again and again how Nature points out the folly of Man

[moisellethefae]

A Long Vacation

Howdy friends. As of a week ago today, Voice of All has been active for 4 years. It’s been a long and winding road. Started with just me and a microphone and now we’ve had hundreds of actors, dozens of guests, over 200 tales and 5 literal days worth of storytelling recorded.

With those things accomplished, it’s time for us to step away. Fully away. At least for a while. Wizards of the Coast has made it increasingly difficult to justify bringing their content to life; difficult to trust the direction their story is going. Any support they’ve given us has been temporary and scattered and eventually they stopped replying to emails entirely. I love these worlds and these characters we’ve grown with, but the company has seen fit in the past year to either destroy them or just make it difficult to learn about them at all.

So as of today, Voice of All is on hiatus. I want to come back someday. There are plenty of lovely stories left to tell. But I need Magic to not be a source of stress first and to do that WotC needs to shape up.

To those of you on Patreon I entirely understand if you wish to unsubscribe. There will not be any new content for the near future. Any support you continue to give will go to keeping the stories hosted and available, as well as future plans. The crew and I have been discussing options for turning to original content, but I don’t expect that to be coming out soon.

Thank you everyone for 4 wonderful years. I’m still around in all my usual places if you’d like to reach me. Love, Gen

[coincidencetheories]

Why is this not called Crime and Puzzlement?

[closet-keys]

I was at a union meeting the other day and the speaker had this great quote

“When you’re a public worker and politicians come around talking about lower taxes, that means they want to lay you off.”

And it’s true. I’m a librarian, so my wages come from tax dollars. Lower taxes means the library has to cut costs, and that means either lowering wages or laying people off. It’s a pretty direct cause and effect.

My dad was a mechanic for public school buses. The first time he took me to vote it was for a local election and he told me even if I did nothing else to vote to pass the budget so they could replace two school busses that were beyond repair so kids were safe.

Politicians who try to sell you on lower taxes are usually just trying to cut social services & public resources and screw over public workers.

[libertarian-therapist]

100% I am trying to screw over public workers. If a public office is closed outside of business hours, it’s because they’re non-essential. If they’re non-essential, then the government shouldn’t be paying for it.

And I’m baffled that public workers are opposed to this? Do they not realize they would be able to hire more people AND get paid more if their position was part of a voluntary and free market and not some absurd bureaucracy?

[closet-keys]

[guyfierisbf]

[kayas-wife]

That whole train of thought is bizarre.

I wonder what things they think are essential, that need to be staffed 24/7? How are public workers going to be paid more if everything is owned privately? How are they hoing to ensure that private citizens are not going yo continue to exploit the working class? I don’t get it.

[coincidencetheories]

Governments in the world of capitalism are not 'essential services only'. Government's job is t9 manage the parts of society that should not be run for profit.

Military defense or strategy should not be predicated on shareholder value. Police, fire services' prime directive is not to balance the budget. Roads do not, in themselves make a profit. Education, social safety nets, aged care, dare i say it healthcare full stop should be something where decisions of need supersede the weight of profit. Post offices. Libraries. Ports, environment protection, national parks, professional accreditation, food and drug standards, courts, business regulation. These are in no way an exhaustive list.

This in no way stops the benefits for these things to be run efficiently, or even profitably. Much of the costs can be covered by thise who use them where a service or good is being provided. But ultimately these are subsidised by the people im society as a whole, as they all benefit when the standard fo living of those

[grungegoths]

[coincidencetheories]

Solution is let one measure and the other choose which one they want first...

[markrosewater]

Hi Mark! Would you say it's an if or when for returning to New Phyrexia and bringing back infect?

The return of infect seems just as polarized as infect was when it premiered. It’s fans *really* like it and its foes *really* dislike it. The reason I say if is I’m not 100% that we’re returning to New Phyrexia. Part of the fun of the Phyrexians is watching them adapt to new environments.

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

To return to New Phyrexia you need conflict. Which I guess could be Norn bringing other Praetors in line or something, but there’s not a particularly good hook in that for a majority of your audience.

No, the main way you’d accomplish a return to New Phyrexia (Same Old New Phyrexia) is Koth and the resistance somehow managing to make a push to cleanse the world that actually stands a chance at winning, but that’s go some serious issues.

One, any such push undermines the Borg-like horror that is Phyrexia. We have seen how absolutely unstoppable they are, eventually compleating even the Darksteel Colossus and Indomitable Archangel into trophies of Phyrexian dominion of all Mirrodin. Undoing that does a lot to undo what the threat of Phyrexia poses to the rest of the multiverse.

Two, you can’t just do a story of “look how close they are only to lose to Phyrexia again.” I mean, you could, but how absolutely crushing is that? It’s not an inspiring story, it’s not a useful story, and I doubt it’s a good story. The underdogs fight for their very existence only to be soul-crushingly defeated again is super depressing. We like rooting for underdogs, not seeing a reality stacked against them and then the “realistic” thing happens. And the flip side is the first point, where you undo a lot of the terror that Scars block built up. It would be ridiculous to squander that cache of fear, that specter over the multiverse, just to revert back to Mirrodin.

New Phyrexia is narratively stuck between what makes for good story telling on different levels. If we only had one plane and it was New Phyrexia/Mirrodin, then absolutely, yes, return and have the rebel faction beat back Phyrexia almost completely. The story over time would be about this back and forth. But on a scale where untold worlds exist that can be threatened by Phyrexia, absolutely do not return if it means Mirrodin is saved.

That said, I could see Core 21 being used to remind/introduce players to New Phyrexia, perhaps even with the plot relevant bit that allows Phyrexia onto a new plane (uh, Tezzeret’s Planar Bridge, anyone?), before we get a new Phyrexian invasion sometime next year. Mark’s said we are getting Rebel creatures this year. Maybe it’s in the core set to represent the remnants of resistance on New Phyrexia.

[shadowknight1224]

I think there are 2 ways you can go back to New Phyrexia:

Version 1: Karn takes the Sylex to New Phyrexia and blows it up. The few survivors left sacrifice themselves to make sure it goes off. Koth and Karn survive and either join the Gatewatch or team up with Elspeth or at the very least are freed from their responsibility to Mirrodin. This story has value because it’s a Phyrric victory against Phyrexia. You can’t defeat Phyrexia, no, but you can slow it down, take yourself out so that it can’t use you to destroy others. It’s like a heroic sacrifice in a zombie apocalypse. It’s not depressing, but it’s still poignant.

Version 2: The Tarkir alternate-timeline treatment. Karn’s Sylex attack for some reason creates an alternate timeline where Mirrodin won the war. However, both New Phyrexia and Mirrodin want to exist at the same time, so now you have two planes, and New Phyrexia is eager to keep invading (maybe they compleat Tezzeret and gain access to the Planar Bridge but it’s finnicky/broken and while it makes future invasions possible, there’s some dramatic conflict in the deployment). This preserves the original victory of Phyrexia and the existence of New Mirrodin is balanced by New Phyrexia getting a new way to invade other planes.

I can see either of these working, really.

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

I’m more into the first version here. I feel like that second take still undermines their story telling to some extent. There’s nothing built in to hint at alternate realities/time lines in Mirrodin/New Phyrexia currently so it has the taste of a retcon for the wrong reasons to me.

[blogging-phelddagrif]

i fear that phyrexia will just come to zendikar

[coincidencetheories]

Hear me out. Phyrexians come to Innistrad. It is a normal Tuesday.

[muffinrag]

So, VivinkArt on Twitter designed an Australian based Pokemon game, complete with starters, a map, and a regional champion - Steve Irwin

Gallopoli is the Pokemon Nurse companion

This little chicken turns into a goddamn 2 meter tall spider THAT IS BASED OFF A REAL SPIDER

[muffinrag]

BUT WAIT. THERE'S MORE.

All of these are ORIGINAL DESIGNS, and that last one is a regional form of Krookodile.

Game Freak hire this bitch challenge

[thechrishaley]

Done and done.

(Not pictured: “Butt window”, but trust me, it’s there.)

[gailsimone]

You have no idea how much this cheered me up just now.

[brinconvenient]

I for one, think this is a major improvement. Look how empowered he is! And it’s relevant to the character as someone who is powered by the sun, he’d want to maximize the amount of sunlight he receives, right? It’s not like it makes sense for him to cover himself from chin to toe. In fact, I think some strappy sandals might be an improvement.

[mybodythehandgrenade]

strappy high heeled sandals would increase his height making him closer to the sun. and if wonderwoman can fight in heels it can’t be that hard, right?

[isaia]

SO EMPOWERING

[americanninjax-deactivated20191]

Felt a dire need to contribute to the hilarity.

[olgaulanova]

Now I can tell right away he’s a strong male character. Whew! No more confusion.

[eschergirls]

+1 for him doing the boobs and butt pose too.

[foxy-mulder-deactivated20190929]

@vulcanette

[lauraantoniou]

Here’s to strong male characters who aren’t afraid to show their masculinity!

[arkilliandragon]

This is the shit I’m here for on Tumblr

[apersnicketylemon]

Just a reminder, but you do not need to “earn” being tired.

You’re allowed to be tired, even if you haven’t “done” anything and you’re allowed to be tired even if you did less than someone else.

Being tired is a normal thing your body does for a whole plethora of reasons, and is a basic bodily function. You don’t need to “earn” basic bodily functions, no matter what anyone else tells you.

[potamideriver]

hey hey hey this is really important, especially as a reminder to people with disorders that cause chronic exhaustion.

[badmtgcombos]

Thievery

[magus-of-the-color-pizza]

The most HILARIOUS combo I've seen in a while!

[coincidencetheories]

You now own and control *all* the lands. RIP your opponents manabase...

[the-revolution-continues]

Credit: Liesl Manone.

[markrosewater]

Your a strong proponent of the removal of the legend rule. Is there any opposing arguments that you personally find compelling?

The strongest argument against it is it would go over very poorly with the audience.

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

As a member of the audience, I wanna see it go.

[internet-recluse]

I like mirror gallery doing something

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

They change rules that redefine how cards work/don’t work. The interaction of one card isn’t a good reason to keep a bad rule.

natew000

I like it kept for flavor reasons. I don’t feel like summoning multiple copies of the same guy makes sense, and that’s more important than design constraints.

It really depends how magic “works” though. If you’re summoning the actual person, legend rule should stay. If it is truly a copy of the person, then whatever.

Of course, the ship has already sailed on opposing legendaries and different versions of the same planeswalker. So flavor is already pretty broken.

Flavor can stretch and contort to fit whatever rule they decide upon. As you mention, they haven’t really defined it clearly one way or another and the actual rule has changed in the past already.

The second strongest argument against it is cards that actually need to be limited to one copy, like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. But as Mark has said before, those are just the sort of cards you would write it out that you can’t control more than one on the card. The actual instances of this are few and far between.

[coincidencetheories]

Plenty of cards no longer worked the way they were designed to once mana burn got removed. Many more also interacted differently once damage no longer used the stack. Also when the Legend rule was originally amended. And again when it happened again.

[thevorthoscast]

We had a bunch of announcements this past week, but more importantly, we’re back to talking about The Gathering Storm by Django Wexler! We’re gonna be finishing this prequel series over the next three weeks, starting with chapters 11, 12, and 13 this week.

If you enjoy The Vorthos Cast, consider supporting us on Patreon at www.patreon.com/thevorthoscast!

01:01 – Announcing: Mystery Boosters Link: magic.wizards.com/en/articles/arch…oster-2019-10-10 03:21 – Announcing: Unsanctioned Link: magic.wizards.com/en/articles/arch…ioned-2019-10-10 06:28 – Game Night Product and Eldraine Holiday Gift Bundle 08:06 – War of the Spark: Forsaken Info Link: magic.wizards.com/en/articles/arch…saken-2019-10-09 13:18 – The Gathering Storm Chapter 11 Link: mailchi.mp/7d7e870cbf60/chapte…ango-wexler-1274875 20:25 – The Gathering Storm Chapter 12 Link: us14.campaign-archive.com/?u=671981442…d=6ab57d4759 23:24 – The Gathering Storm Chapter 13 Link: mailchi.mp/05c539e100c1/chapte…ango-wexler-1274903 30:57 – Final Thoughts

[jacebeleren]

i just wanted to talk about how its so cute that jace is using his telepathy to connect to vraska in the art for the 2019 magic game night box

and also nahiri is just there third wheeling i guess alkdshflafdkns

[coincidencetheories]

We can all relate to those awkward dinner parties that were going to be for two couples but one of them break up. She's there, but can talk of nothing else, while the two of you just communicate silently throughout the dessert course (and third recounting of her ex's personality flaws) via meaningful looks and furtive glances.

Meanwhile you both know that the two of them did pretty shitty things to each other, and it's hard to take sides when both of them managed to almost get the others Plane consumed by eldritch horrors from the great beyond.

[coincidencetheories]

Dream Night at Melbourne Zoo

Photos by me.