#mtgixa

[nbsilvally]

Reblog if you, too, are gay, not cis, or love dinosaurs

[dezconocido]

Best art ever!

[jimharbor]

Exploring Ixalan: The Religion of the Sun Empire

This week, Wizards of the Cost is doing previews for their new card set Ixalan. Its a world of Dinosaur Empires, Pirates and Vampire Conquistadors, themed around the age of exploration. There’s been a lot of picking over the lore by greats like @vorthosjay and @sarpadianempiresvol-viii but today I’m going to explore the roots of on the coolest groups, the Sun Empire.

The Sun Empire is an Aztec inspired faction on Ixalan, a “New World” continent Island on the world that has recently been contacted by Vampire invaders from the west. They once ruled their mighty empire from the Golden City of Orazca, from which they pushed out the other native faction, the Maya inspired Merfolk known as the River Heralds.

Orazca has been lost to time , and now the Empire searches for their city on the backs of their massive Dinosaur mounts, all while fighting the pirates of the Brazen Coalition and the blood thirsty Vampire Legion of Dusk, who want it and its sacred Immortal Sun for themselves.

Keep reading and I’ll break down the real world inspirations behind this unique fantasy culture.

The Five Suns

The Three Suns of the Sun Empire take inspiration from the Five Suns of the Aztec creation. In the classical Aztec lore, the Sun was a position held by a god. Each gods’s reign as the sun would end with their version of humanity wiped out by some divine incident only to replaced by a new god as a sun and a new crop of humans. Somewhat similar to the Classical Greek ages of man. Tezcatlipocas, four primal gods, were each tied with a each tied with a color , and several served as the Sun, including The Black Sun (Tezcatlipoca) and the White Sun (Quetzalcoatl). 

On Ixalan, the three suns are given colors for the three colors of mana the Sun Empire faction is in (White, Green and Red) and also given names, as in Aztec lore.  It was believed by the Aztecs’ the the current Fifth Sun, needed to be served through blood and worship to avoid the apocalypse from coming once again. A similar end of days, has been foreshadowed on Ixalan as well.

Modalism

The Sun Empire influence doesn't stop at just the Aztecs . In the panel, Worldbuilding Lead and former minster James Wyatt joked about finally being able to use his Master’s in theology for work when he got to bring up modalistic monarchianism. 

As opposed to the trinity, modalism holds there is one God entity (monarchian) but that acts in three different roles (modal).  The Father, the Sun and the Holy Ghost are not three different figures, but one figure with three different “jobs.” 

Applied to the Sun Empire, it means though they have one Sun, they worship its three different roles uniquely. Kinjalli The Wakening Sun, with the power of creation, Ixalli  the Verdant Sun, with the power of preserving and Tilonalli  the Burning Sun, with the power of consumption. Each of these suns gets it’s own Dinosaur Avatar, with one Legendary Avatar for the sun as a whole.

The Trimurti

The specific roles of the Three Suns is no coincidence. While they neatly fit into the three Naya colors,they are also the roles of The Trimurti, the Supreme Hindu trinity of  Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer. A syncretic belief, the Trimurti emerged as a way for various Hinduistic factions to unite their deities into a singular supreme framework. (As @talinthas has said Hinduism is “a religion of a thousand religions.”)

Together, this forms an image of worshiping the three aspects of the sun as three named figures. The Wakening Sun of White mana, tied with dawn and the Sun as the creator of life, the Verdant Sun of Green Mana, tied with noon and the Sun as the preserver of life, and the Burning Sun of Red Mana, tied with sunset and the sun as consumer of life.

But what about the Dinos?

WOTC used the feathered dinos to play into the mesoamerican figure of the feathered serpent. A dualistic figure uniting the wings of the sky and the slithering of the earth , its most well known incarnation is probably the Aztec Quetzalcoatl, deity of the Winds, priesthood, knowledge and craftsmanship. Tying them to the Sun, you’ll note their feathers spread out from centered “sunspots” radiating out and dulling in color through their bodies.

Gold and the City

Visually the Sun Empire don’t wear gold, always adorned in silver, feathers and steel. While acting a cue to separate them from the Gold obsessed Vampires, it also shows their removal fro Orazca, the scared city of gold.

Similar to classic “New world treasure cities” like El Dorado, The City of Caesaers and many others,  Orazca’s status as the original homeland of the Sun Empire makes it a version of  Aztlán, the legendary home of the Aztec people.

The Mexico Valley culture that spawned the Aztec Empire was founded by Nahua immigrants from the north. Their original homeland had been called a paradise and a tyranny in various sources, but their migration south would lead a tribe to take the named Mexica and grow from squatters and mercenaries to a regional superpower.

While it wasn't confirmed if they lack Gold because its considered sacred to them or because they have none, now that the city is lost, it serves as a key factor of their identity opposed to gold hungry Vampires. 

Wrap Up 

WIzards as always has fused many real world sources into something new and entertaining, join the discussion with your thoughts on Ixalan and it’s culture in the lines below and look forward to more articles  this week.

[edh-a-to-z]

Every Ixalan Card - Green

Seriously, jeez. So many cards. I gotta spread this out next set. 

I identify with that dog.

Carnage Tyrant

Grade: B+

Remove this!

I like a good green fatty.

Ancient Brontodon

Grade: D+

Amazingly massive tribal fodder.

Atzocan Archer

Grade: D+

The most odd limited filler I’ve ever seen.

Blinding Fog

Grade: D+

I prefer Heroic Intervention

Blossom Dryad

Grade: D+

There are better mana dorks.

Colossal Dreadmaw

Grade: F+

Tribal fodder. But cool.

Commune with Dinosaurs

Grade: B-

Good first turn play. Better in a dino deck, as then it’s even good mid to late game.

Crash the Ramparts

Grade: F

Bad combat trick

Crushing Canopy

Grade: D-

Not great, but options make it better than some.

Deathgorge Scavenger

Grade: B

Oozes. Dino oozes now.

What a fascinating plane.

Deeproot Champion

Grade: C

Nice ability. It either works slowly, or it dies horribly and fast. I’d say skip it.

Deeproot Warrior

Grade: F+

Tribal fodder.

Drover of the Mighty

Grade: B

Might be a little high, but it’s Werebear impression is great. Dino tribal has some great support from lots of angles.

Emergent Growth

Grade: F

Bad combat trick.

Emperor’s Vanguard

Grade: D

Pretty dependent on the explore mechanic and getting in for combat damage, but doesn’t have trample. And 4 mana for 4/3 isn’t great. I know “dies to Doom Blade / Lightning Bolt” is a bit trite, but applies here. 

We don’t like 4 mana that has no immediate benefit, has growing potential, and no protection.

Grazing Whiptail

Grade: F+

Vanilla creature. It’ll save your life at least once at the pre-release, but doesn’t hold water for EDH.

Gaea’s Cradle Itlimoc Flip

Grade: A+

I don’t care how hard it is to flip (not that hard really), build-your-own Gaea’s Cradle is amazing. And the flip side even taps for mana without creatures! Amazing!

Ixalli’s Diviner

Grade: F

I really hate these limited explore cards.

Ixalli’s Keeper

Grade: F

This cycle really isn’t for EDH.

Jade Guardian

Grade: F

Tribal fodder.

Jungle Delver

Grade: F-

Tribal fodder. But i’m gotta get killed by this once in draft.

Kumena’s Speaker

Grade: F+

Tribal dependent cards with conditional benefits are not my faves.

Merfolk Branchwalker

Grade: C-

Not exactly ramp, but costed pretty well, and milling/looking at a card and getting a +1/+1 is nice. I like explore, I think.

New Horizons

Grade: D-

Not bad ramp, nice counter. I’ve seen worse.

Old-Growth Dryads

Grade: D, B for 1v1

Ramping your opponents is nice for group hugs, but I’m not nice, and I don’t like group hugs. Good body for the cost, hang-up on the ability. Not that you need me to tell you that.

Pounce

Grade: D

There’s better green removal.

Ranging Raptors

Grade: B

If it gets you more than one land, it’s amazing, and pretty good for one land.

Ravenous Daggertooth

Grade: D+

Not a bad ability, just doesn’t scale well to EDH. Definitely part of your first draft of Dino Tribal EDH, but also in the first batch to be cut.

Ripjaw Raptor

Grade: A-

Big enough to get more than a card off of it. Not scary enough to use removal.

River Heralds’ Boon

Grade: F+

I love that big frog. We should have had a giant poisonous frog.

DINO BASH!!! Savage Stomp

Grade: B

Green removal is fighting, and fighting, Dino tribal for 1?

Sweet.

Shaper’s Sanctuary

Grade: B+

The ability part makes it mind-boggling fun imo, and all the potential draw for (G) is a bargain.

Slice in Twain

Grade: C-

It’s reliable and self-replacing, and a known card.

Snapping Sailback

Grade: B-

The card that lets me act out my favorite parts from Jurassic Park III. Flash makes it better, and counter growth is nice.

Spike-Tailed Ceratops

Grade: F+

Tribal Fodder.

Thundering Spineback

Grade: C-

Overpriced as heck, but I’m still running it. Making 4/4 dino tokens with trample is worth the fun. 

Stegosaurus token-making dino lord is what we never knew that we always needed.

Tishana’s Wayfinder

Grade: D-

Explore ain’t that good.

Verdant Rebirth

Grade: C

Nice save for a creature, and replaces itself.

Verdant Sun’s Avatar

Grade: C+

(how mana dang Sun’s Avatars do these people have? it’s like we’re on Mirrodin!)

Get it off of Gishath for maximum fun, but a decent, removal-drawing dino in the other cases.

Vineshaper Mystic

Grade: D

Merfolk are really pushing the +1/+1 counters. To an unhealthy, Simic-esque level.

Waker of the Wilds

Grade: C

I kill my land for GG. 

Graf Mole Wildgrowth Walker

Grade: F+

Not enough explore.

So, whatchat think?

Agree?

Disagree?

Let me know!

[sam-keeper]

Sam Keeper struggles with their love of goblins and their historically poor treatment in Magic lore.

GOBLINS GOBLINS GOBLINS GOBLINS

[callmearas]

So I wanted to try my hand at analyzing cards and I thought this would be a good place to start. 

Jace, Cunning Castaway is the “illusionist” Jace that story fans have been asking for, as opposed to the “mind mage” Jace that most of his cards up to now have represented.  In that regard, this card also reflects that change in focus moving away from his typically control-focus nature to something that is way more combative. His +1 wants you to first have a creature and second, to be attacking with that creature so you can benefit from the looting ability.  Given the 3 CMC cost, that means ideally you want to have played a 1 or 2 drop that wants to attack before he comes down.  That is unless you want to start by using his -2 ability which makes a 2/2 illusion token that dissapears if targeted by spells (but not abilities so it avoids a bit more, but not much, than illusions typically do).  However you don’t really want to make this token first since it’s not especially powerful and it puts Jace down to 1 loyalty for not a terribly great benefit.  The token can block things coming at Jace but since it takes more loyalty to make the token than you get by using his +1, you can’t keep up a constant guard with just the planeswalker, so it’s only really useful if you’re already on the offensive in which case, you should probably be using his +1 anyways.  So to use this Jace effectively, you really do need to focus on putting down early aggressive creatures.  Next his ultimate, which creates to 2 copies of the card which reflects all those times when Jace makes (often inneffectual) illusion copies of himself.  While this ability is super broken with Doubling Season (INFINITE TOPLESS MEN), it feels just as inneffectual as that technique often is in the story, since It not only takes 4 turns of using his +1 and not taking any hits to get there which is unlikely UNLESS you play controlly which runs counter to the implied aggressiveness of the first two abilities, and the pay off is not that great either since multiples of this card still face the same problems of wanting creatures to target and putting down not so great tokens.

So in review, this card wants to be in a creature focussed, aggressive deck, which is super different from the Jace cards we are used to, which is appropriate as it is an experiement in showing off the other side of Jace’s canon abilities that often get ignored.  However, his abilities make it hard for him to survive very long unless you already pusing your opponent towards the ropes which makes you wonder if you would need him in the first place rather than putting down another threat on turn 3.  You could keep up the pressure and save him for a turn or 2 later, but again, it feels like in a aggressive deck, you really don’t want to be putting down something that only gets you some slight incremental benefits rather than winning you the game.

Also interesting to note that this is getting released in a set that contains merfolk, which is historically, blues most offensive creature type. So maybe this card might turn out to have a little more impact than I think it would.

[kastumoem]

I am unsure whether to blame the new Planeswalker rules on Jace finding out how paradoxs can be utilized to flood a plane with himself (and 150% more illusions). Or Whether it was Bolas trying to get closer to his Premending Power Level and deciding the best way to move forward is to wield 3 of himself all by himself. Either way OOPS! All Gideons!

[jimharbor]

Amazing Jacobsen piece from the ixalan panel