For many years before the events of the Innistrad block, Avacyn (the big angel creature we all know and love) had basically been the patron god of the people of Innistrad. Her magic kept the evils of the world away-- the vampires, the werewolves, the zombies, and the ghosts (spirits)-- and she and her legion of angel soldiers constantly fought against the great demons. They would kill demons left and right, but new ones always formed up to take the perished ones' places because demons in the Magic universe are made entirely of energy and cannot be truly killed (because you can't destroy energy). So Avacyn decided that, if she couldn't kill them, she would contain them.
The Innistrad set is a snapshot of that moment-- she's containing demons instead of killing them. And in order to detain these demons, Avacyn needs a place to keep them; they call it the Helvault, and it's a giant obelisk of silver in the middle of the region known as Thraben. Avacyn chases demons to the Helvault and uses her swanky magic powers to trap them inside the giant monument.
But then it gets real. Griselbrand, the biggest and baddest demon around, decides that he won't have any more of Avacyn's nonsense; he makes his way to the Helvault itself and challenges her to a duel. They fight for days, and when Avacyn figures out that she'll never beat him into submission, she tries to use her magic while Griselbrand can still fight-- and Griselbrand strikes Avacyn down just as she seals him away. This causes BOTH of them to be thrown into the Helvault. And, because the source of all of the protective magic in all of Innistrad has just been trapped inside a mountain of steel, the protective spells fall. This leads to the rising of Innistrad's nasty beasts (the vampires / werewolves / zombies / spirits)... a Dark Ascension. This is where Dark Ascension takes place in the story.
Finally, as more and more places fall to the night creatures, some unimportant shenanigans that would require a LOT more explaining than this go down in Thraben (where the Helvault is). And the Helvault ends up breaking open, releasing everything back into the world-- including Griselbrand and all of his demons... and Avacyn. She returns at full strength, and her magic floods the plane once again-- Avacyn has been restored (thus the set Avacyn Restored exists). And then Avacyn figures out a way to turn a lot of the werewolves into Wolfir, a non-evil version of themselves, and uses all of the rallied peoples of Innistrad to beat the demons SO HARD that they can't re-form into new demons anymore. Yay, Avacyn.
So, now, we have a new Avacyn card in M15. The core sets of Magic don't tell new stories, though; rather, they expand on old ones. For example, they printed a new Jace in M15 called Jace, the Living Guildpact; that's because in the Ravnica block, Jace literally became the new Guildpact (an entirely different story, which deserves its own post). The same is true for Avacyn. The Avacyn from the Innistrad blockĀ represented Avacyn as she emerged from the Helvault; the new M15 AvacynĀ represents her as she saves the peoples of Innistrad from the werewolf disease and other stuff that isn't important enough to go into.Ā
So, that's the story of Avacyn in a nutshell. Which plane/character should I do next?
Avacyn is an angel from the plane of Innistrad. Magic sets are released in "blocks"-- the first set of the block usually contains the name of the plane in which the block takes place, and the second two sets are relevant to the story of the block. So the Innistrad block began with the set called Innistrad (also the name of the plane), followed by Dark Ascension (named for an event in the story behind the set) and finally Avacyn Restored (named for a subsequent event in the same story, of which the character Avacyn was a major part). I'm now going to write a post explaining the story of Innistrad, for the sake of enlightening anyone who's too lazy to look it up themselves.Ā
I don't normally reblog things unrelated to MTG, but I'm fairly certain that this is one of those posts that's about to explode into something everyone will see. So I'm getting onto the hype train before it takes off.
If you got the chance to work on a third Unset, do you think you would want to set aside card slots for Uncommanders? Is there even much design space for something like that?
A fine question. If we made silver-bordered legendary creatures to serve as commanders, would people play them in Commander?
I'm back, and with a slew of new Magic cards being released with JOU / M15 / Conspiracy, we'll have a lot about which to talk. Not to mention my latest Commander creation, and my greatest life achievement...
Ladies and gentlemen? I have finally assembled THE KEMBATRON.
Destroy target creature. It canāt be regenerated.
Target creature is indestructible.Ā (āDestroyā effects and lethal damage donāt destroy it.)
Target creature canāt be indestructible.
Target creature canāt be prevented from being indestructible.
Spells and abilities canāt stop target creature from being prevented from being indestructible.
Players canāt play spells or abilities that would prevent the stopping of the prevention of the indestructibility of target creature.
Cards that would halt the prevention of the stopping of the prevention of the indestructibility of target creature have no text.
A player who plays a spell or ability that would remove the text of cards that would prevent the prevention of the cessation of stopping the indestructibility of target creature loses the game.
Whenever a player plays a spell or ability that would cause a player to lose the game for playing a spell or ability that would remove the text of cards that would prevent the prevention of the cessation of stopping the indestructibility of target creature, players play a MAGIC subgame using their libraries as their decks. Each player who loses the subgame loses the main game.
MAGIC subgames canāt be played.
MAGIC subgames canāt be prevented.
Players are insubgamable.Ā (āSubgameā effects donāt make them play subgames.)
Card text cannot make players insubgamable.
Card text does not exist.
Each card text that would exist exists and cannot be prevented from existing. That card text cannot be prevented from reading what it would read or doing what it would do. All card text always destroys all creatures, and no card text can stop card text that would destroy all creatures from destroying them. Card text that would alter the existence of card text that would destroy all creatures cannot alter the existence of any card text, which is immutable and cannot be changed by any card text or any rule.
Ignore all rules.
Destroy target creature. This rule can't be ignored.
Commander Synergy of the Day: Because heās put into play attacking, you can bypass the restrictions on Masterā¦ And that kills the person this is aimed at. It kills them very, very dead. Masterās ability triggers first, so it puts their life total to 1. Then Kaalia finishes the job. Then you lose your friends.
Remember all the times that your heart was ripped from your chest?
Disney movies (and others like it) taught us how to love, how to cherish life and how powerful death can be. At a young age, these were very important lessons.
Colorless EDH Decks waste of time or pleasantly unexpected?
Currently there are 4 colorless Legendary Creatures: Emrakul, Kozilek, Ulamog, and Karn. Emrakul is banned in Commander, so that leaves us with three choices.
I think the three that are left art worth it to play as commanders. You may not have access to a ton of cards, but sometimes the joy of a good commander deck is the challenge of building it!
I've recently begun constructing my Karn build. The ramp is ridiculous, especially when you're lucky enough to open the game with the Urzatron in hand (Expedition Map is worth running).
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