Acolyte of the Firemind

Charterer of realms uncharted. The home of Senseless Speculation.

[loreleywrites]

Sisay’s descendant is ready to fight!

[vorthosjay]

I love it. And she’s on the new Weatherlight, no less!

[bace-jeleren]

Am love her

[senselessspeculation-blog]

Built in Memnarch protection, with bangin art from my girl Mags, I’m there 👍

[markrosewater]

To whom should we direct our complaints about the exclusivity of Firesong and Sunspeaker?

You can voice them to me. Emailing me through the link at the bottom of my column allows me to forward them to the proper people.

By the way, I have strongly received the message that this is unpopular with a lot of players. This message *is* getting passed along to the PowersThat Be.

[senselessspeculation-blog]

Super news!

[senselessspeculation-blog]

Reblog Cube-fans!

Hello!

I have taken my first (perilous) foray into the world of Cube. It’s average-powered, mostly comprises of my favourite archetypes, and is fun to play. But it’s a labour of love, and I’ve got a ways to go before I’m happy to say it’s done.

With improvement in mind, anyone that has an interest in cube, or knows of a dedicated blog that has advice, tips etc, please reblog! I’d love to get chatting with you all. :)

[vorthosjay]

Gosh, that Pro Tour Tee Shirt they revealed today sure is nice. I wonder where they got the idea for a horned skull with glowing eyes from? Man, if only we were going someplace next year that would make this shirt super relevant.

[senselessspeculation-blog]

I remember reading the "mana-bomb" of a theory - and I was like "hmm, yeah, might be a bit too far removed, but I like it."

But...yeah, this is a big indicator..!

[post-kayfabe]

[senselessspeculation-blog]

Mmm. Looking forward to when Phyrexia invades some hapless plane.

[jones-friend]

Filed under “cards that flew under the radar”

[moisellethefae]

If by “under the radar” you mean “I literally don’t remember seeing this on the card list”. Then yes.

[jones-friend]

Are we sure this was even printed in Hour of Devastation?

[maris-solstice]

*X-Files theme plays*

[ion0ra]

Maybe you just

Imagined it

[senselessspeculation-blog]

That's not how you spell Bearenstein

[markrosewater]

Theoretically, could Muraganda be another continent on Ixalan?

Muraganda is a prehistoric plane. Different thing.

[senselessspeculation-blog]

THERE IS STILL HOPE

[quarkmaster]

Sunpetal Grove

MTG: Ixalan AD: Cynthia Sheppard ©2017 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Dimitar Marinski

[senselessspeculation-blog]

I used to hate rare land reprints. I'm cracking open a pack and what am I getting as my rare? A poxy land that isn't even a new thing.

Now, I'm just super grateful to already have a head start on fixing my mana when Ixalan comes out ^_^

[voiddwellerstudios-deactivated2]

There Are Only 2 Genders

[senselessspeculation-blog]

Am I doin it rite

[senselessspeculation-blog]

Just visiting Wagamama's south of the wreckage at Sea Gate. Ordered some Eldrazi tea, and I'm loving the combo. It's an infusion of jasmine and eldritch limbs. Super tasty.

[sitoni42]

BG Aggro 

[senselessspeculation-blog]

This is awesome. If I learned to draw, it would be to visually recreate some of my favourite EDH decks/plays. Trostani, surrounded by a heavenly host of 4/4 flying tokens <3

[senselessspeculation-blog]

How did your boyfriend see vehicles as being marketed to young kids? Also to do a bit of a fact check, mtg has been marketed to 13 year old (boys) for over a decade now. Its why there internal "censorship" level is at a pg-13, Maro spoke on this a couple time. Its fine thay adults play, but mtg hasnt been aimed at them for quite some time now (if it ever was at all, check those 90s vids and adds that were all Teen mtv extreme style.)

The story was lighter, the card art brighter - Maro has said that they were going for a brighter, more optimistic feel with Kaladesh. The cries of "make the hydra drive the train!" across the LGS floor seemed to suggest that vehicles were a daft, funny gimmick. More childlike, I suppose.The BF enjoys magic when the aesthetic is darker. Eldritch Moon was a hit with him, New Phyrexia, Amonkhet too. I found it a hoot to make the Whale steer the dragster to victory; but goofiness isn't his idea of fun in a game of magic.

[markrosewater]

We're vehicles really so popular that it warranted making new ones in Ixalan? I personally hated them and so did most of my playgroup, I didn't think they'd ever come back for mechanical and popularity reasons

They were quite popular.

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

I personally have felt they should be treated more or less like equipment ever since their release. one or two really flavorful ones per block.

[senselessspeculation-blog]

My boyfriend hates vehicles, and was really sad to see their return in Ixalan.

He really dislikes what he sees as the dumbing-down of Magic - Kaladesh represented this for him, with the vehicles and the catchline of “the gatewatch goes to the fair!” He said it was like Magic was no longer being marketed towards adults, but to young kids.

Amonkhet was a step back in the right direction for him, and we agreed that Kaladesh was probably a one-off set, and that Magic would go back to being more in line with the mature fantasy he was used to.

And then Ixalan rolled around. With dinosaurs. And pirates. And treasure..and then that vehicle was spoiled yesterday, and he said to me, “if this carries on, I’m not sure I’ll carry on playing magic.”

I’m personally stoked for Ixalan. I hate pirates, I think they’re derpy, but dinosaurs seem really exciting.

We had a convo about how different people play for different reasons, and to just ignore the tribes you dislike. But it’s sad to think there are people that would give up the game because of its direction. I’m not sure what point that would be for me - but for the other half, it’s his belief that mtg is being “kiddified.”

[bugberry]

I find it odd that Kaladesh of all things would be seen as simplifying or making things childish. Not only has Maro talked about their recent sets, Kaladesh included, having higher complexity than they would like. Also, Magic has a long history of having many levels of silliness and lighthearted settings. It’s demo is pretty solidly PG13. Which also makes it odd to me that Dinosaurs and Pirates would be considered unusual or childish, since both have existed previously in Magic for a long time.

And while I can understand disliking the tone of Kaladesh, I don’t see how vehicles are a problem. Magic has never been marketed solely at adults. And something can be “dumbed down” and still be made for adults. Simplification doesn’t mean it’s being made for kids. I know plenty of adults that would find Magic, even the “childish” stuff, complex and hard to follow.

[senselessspeculation-blog]

I'm not saying the mechanics or the gameplay was simplified or childish; just that my boyfriend found the aesthetic and initial story fluff to be so.

[markrosewater]

It feels like, unintentionally or not, that Ixalan is in some form glorifying the conquistadors of old. I know you are generally positive with sets but with some of the criticisms of HOU and Kaladesh in this regard, is there anything you can say to relieve me of this concern?

Glorify them? We made them literal blood-sucking vampires.

[halandalena]

w o w

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

@markrosewater Check out that flavor text. It even plays very heavily into actual history of forced conversion and eradication of native cultures. This is absolutely glorification at least in these individual circumstances. I don’t want to come off as unnecessarily hostile here, but that response was way to flippant about this issue.

[orkinman911]

… we have different definitions of “glorifying”. Bishop of Rebirth says, “we murder unbelievers” sanguine sacrament says “we’re evil” where is the glorification?

[senselessspeculation-blog]

Yeah I don't think anyone is reading these flavour texts and nodding meaningfully.

These vamps come across as condescending arse-hats. They're not tools for the glorification of colonialism.

[murrkrow-deactivated20180612]

pirate grandma pirate grandma!!!!

[tripleash]

Is this a gang of lady pirates who aren’t conventionally attractive?

[sketchydoodles]

Jason Rainville used his mum as the model! :D

[senselessspeculation-blog]

Really wasn't excited for pirates - but Pirate Mum sounds like the most adorable thing ever!!

[markrosewater]

Treasure Cove's frame... was that the frame that the Ixalan Masterpieces were going to use before they were scrapped?

Yes, it was.

[vorthosjay]

Oh man, that would have been cool.

But it’s also cool to be able to realistically own the frame, too.

[senselessspeculation-blog]

Pleeease consider returning to Masterpieces in every set.

Having thirty per set was definitely ott.

Having none means I'll buy waaay fewer boosters. I can't tell you how many BFZ packs I bought on the off chance I'd get a sick looking land.

Can't we just have five well chosen reprints for each masterpiece release?

[markrosewater]

We're vehicles really so popular that it warranted making new ones in Ixalan? I personally hated them and so did most of my playgroup, I didn't think they'd ever come back for mechanical and popularity reasons

They were quite popular.

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

I personally have felt they should be treated more or less like equipment ever since their release. one or two really flavorful ones per block.

[senselessspeculation-blog]

My boyfriend hates vehicles, and was really sad to see their return in Ixalan.

He really dislikes what he sees as the dumbing-down of Magic - Kaladesh represented this for him, with the vehicles and the catchline of "the gatewatch goes to the fair!" He said it was like Magic was no longer being marketed towards adults, but to young kids.

Amonkhet was a step back in the right direction for him, and we agreed that Kaladesh was probably a one-off set, and that Magic would go back to being more in line with the mature fantasy he was used to.

And then Ixalan rolled around. With dinosaurs. And pirates. And treasure..and then that vehicle was spoiled yesterday, and he said to me, "if this carries on, I'm not sure I'll carry on playing magic."

I'm personally stoked for Ixalan. I hate pirates, I think they're derpy, but dinosaurs seem really exciting.

We had a convo about how different people play for different reasons, and to just ignore the tribes you dislike. But it's sad to think there are people that would give up the game because of its direction. I'm not sure what point that would be for me - but for the other half, it's his belief that mtg is being "kiddified."