But seriously, you're researching a magical nuke as necessary to deal with them... and then you decide to charge in solo without telling anyone so you can be written out of the plot.
Is there any particular reason like 80% of my games on Arena are against the exact same white healing decks? I've basically built a deck specifically to beat it and it works fine but it's monotonous as hell.
Honestly the simple answer is that "lifegain=damage" is a very popular archetype, mentally, for newer or more casual players. It really satisfies a lot of anxieties those players have about the game. It's also recommended as a budget deck to a lot of people.
Karn's arc and growth in the first part of the story:
While Karn is mechanically a colorless planeswalker, his personality is very White, and this proves to be his undoing. His lack of ruthlessness stifles his potential.
Karn's memory of Urza foreshadows the story's themes. Urza says that people are less willing to harm something if it can experience pain. Sheodred uses this psychological tactic against Karn. She recruits agents, modifies them, but does not fully compleat them. She knows Karn will slaughter soulless Phyrexian monsters, but not people who still retain their free will.
Karn admits to himself that sparing the lives of the first two cultists he encountered was a tactical error, as it allowed one of them to warn her comrades about his presence.
Karn decided to solo the base because he still fills guilty over Venser's death and believes that his allies are more vulnerable to the Phyrexians than he himself is. This reveals two flaws in his character. He does not have the resolve to sacrifice others, even when victory is absolutely necessary. Nor does he have the humility to admit that he cannot overcome this challenge alone.
Despite acknowledging his earlier mistake with the cultists, he makes the exact same one a moment later with Rona. When questioned, he states he is not a weapon. This reveals another flaw in his character, vanity. He acts as if weapons are beneath him, and he feels superior to them.
The story seems to be setting Karn up for a lesson about the limits of what he can accomplish while keeping his hands clean. He is facing the Black Phyrexian faction, the most utilitarian of them all. He will never defeat them as long as they can use his own conscience as a shield.
Honestly the simple answer is that "lifegain=damage" is a very popular archetype, mentally, for newer or more casual players. It really satisfies a lot of anxieties those players have about the game. It's also recommended as a budget deck to a lot of people.
Also isn’t one of the starter decks literally white/green lifegajn with the unicorn, Drizzt, and all of those cards?
Lifegain is one of the most popular, strongest, and easiest to build bad decks.
The last part is important. Arena uses both a poorly implemented rating system and, for non-ranked decks, deck strength matchmaking based on how often the cards in the deck are crafted and the card rarity. Lifegain is very easy to craft or build cheaply, but not made often by seriously competitive players because it's bad, meaning that in casual matchmaking, a lot of cards_i_own.dek or jank brews will wind up playing against semi-optimized lifegain builds because of its popularity in that deck strength bracket.
In ranked, that "poorly implemented" part of the rating system comes into play, because the rating system creates a very, very long climb out of noob island to the main pack of players, which again, means that there's a strong chance you will play against specifically whatever is most popular among new, F2P players, which tends to be lifegain decks.
He's trying to pop off the Sylex, which is a nuke in all but name, Karn doesn't care about killing. His fuck ups in this story were about his arrogance ("I helped beat the Phyrexians before, now I'll blow them off the face of my creation.") and paranoia ("Phyrexia's already here. I'm not crazy, you're crazy!") both inherited from Urza. While he acted much more stupidly that I think he should have, his motivations make sense as both a creation of Urza and bearer of his spark.
That said, I hated most everything else about this story
From Phyrexia already infiltrating Dominaria so deeply (How the fuck, especially when your praetors are literally getting eaten almost wholesale by traveling the Blind Eternities), to Karn having driven everyone off with his obssession with the Sylex (Last we'd checked, some folks had split off for intel, but the implication had been people were going to help Karn figure out the Sylex before Phyrexia began spreading again). Like, it feels like coming into a movie an hour in, we're missing story beats that should be necessary to get to where this part picked up. Would've been nice if we had those missing beats instead of radio silence for 2 months after the very sweet and fun Saheeli/Huatli interlude. This in addition to Karn, a planeswalker, getting taken to clown town by some cultists. He shouldn't have made just one bomb, he should've been chucking grenades and forming golems to stuff the cultists in, even if he wasn't trying to be lethal except for Sheoldred. I'm not saying he had to win, but that he's not fucking Robocop, clomping along inexorably with only a pistol to his name.
Really, if the story had been either just Karn musing on the Sylex and his relationship to the Phyrexians, only for him to get notification some shit's going down elsewhere, or it was him and a couple others fighting into the Phyrexian beachhead ("How are they moving in so fast!?" Tezzret: "Later suckers, have fun playing whack-a-bad!") only to find out the problem's much worse than they thought, this could have focused things and allowed for some necessary points to shine through/not force people to carry an idiot ball for plot twist points.
As it is, they tried to split the difference and made Karn and the rest of the Gatewatch look like blithering idiots cause this feels like the sort of thing they should have been on the lookout for.
Matev on
"Go down, kick ass, and set yourselves up as gods, that's our Prime Directive!"
He's trying to pop off the Sylex, which is a nuke in all but name, Karn doesn't care about killing. His fuck ups in this story were about his arrogance ("I helped beat the Phyrexians before, now I'll blow them off the face of my creation.") and paranoia ("Phyrexia's already here. I'm not crazy, you're crazy!") both inherited from Urza. While he acted much more stupidly that I think he should have, his motivations make sense as both a creation of Urza and bearer of his spark.
That said, I hated most everything else about this story
From Phyrexia already infiltrating Dominaria so deeply (How the fuck, especially when your praetors are literally getting eaten almost wholesale by traveling the Blind Eternities), to Karn having driven everyone off with his obssession with the Sylex (Last we'd checked, some folks had split off for intel, but the implication had been people were going to help Karn figure out the Sylex before Phyrexia began spreading again). Like, it feels like coming into a movie an hour in, we're missing story beats that should be necessary to get to where this part picked up. Would've been nice if we had those missing beats instead of radio silence for 2 months after the very sweet and fun Saheeli/Huatli interlude. This in addition to Karn, a planeswalker, getting taken to clown town by some cultists. He shouldn't have made just one bomb, he should've been chucking grenades and forming golems to stuff the cultists in, even if he wasn't trying to be lethal except for Sheoldred. I'm not saying he had to win, but that he's not fucking Robocop, clomping along inexorably with only a pistol to his name.
Really, if the story had been either just Karn musing on the Sylex and his relationship to the Phyrexians, only for him to get notification some shit's going down elsewhere, or it was him and a couple others fighting into the Phyrexian beachhead ("How are they moving in so fast!?" Tezzret: "Later suckers, have fun playing whack-a-bad!") only to find out the problem's much worse than they thought, this could have focused things and allowed for some necessary points to shine through/not force people to carry an idiot ball for plot twist points.
As it is, they tried to split the difference and made Karn and the rest of the Gatewatch look like blithering idiots cause this feels like the sort of thing they should have been on the lookout for.
No comment on the rest, but as for the first question in the second spoiler:
New Phyrexia doesn't seem to have any connection to Gix or Mishra, so I'm guessing the Society of Mishra group grew from Tolarians that read the history of the war with Old Phyrexia and decided "you know, Yawgmoth had a good idea."
My thought is that Tezzeret or Tamiyo sniffed them out and put them in contact with Shelodred when she showed up on Dominaria
I'm guessing the Society of Mishra group grew from Tolarians that read the history of the war with Old Phyrexia and decided "you know, Yawgmoth had a good idea."
While they didn't make it into the actual set, they're mentioned in the Dominaria art book, which I own. They are one of two unofficial pedagogical lineages that operate in the shadows of the Tolarian academies. They are described as "Phyrexian sympathizers" who are super into body modification. So yeah, you're pretty much right on the money.
Not a day goes by where I don't miss that art book series. So much good worldbuilding.
Not a day goes by where I don't miss that art book series. So much good worldbuilding.
I get why they stopped those (ignoring financial/sales reasons) while we were visiting a bunch of worlds for the first time for one set each, but man Kamigawa should have had one.
I top 8d a modern local rcq today playing creativity today. I am doubling down on thinking this deck is good. I lost to a player I beat in the Swiss on the 4c deck but I still feel pretty good about that matchup, it’s just miserable once you let them get to infinite value stage of the game
Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Hmm, I'm trying out decks on Arena and before a win I'll just forfeit since I don't need the wins for the Great Quota, but am I screwing myself with this weird ranking system and stuck fighting bad decks by losing constantly?
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
Hmm, I'm trying out decks on Arena and before a win I'll just forfeit since I don't need the wins for the Great Quota, but am I screwing myself with this weird ranking system and stuck fighting bad decks by losing constantly?
In unranked? I don’t think MMR is calculated or accounted for outside of ranked.
Hmm, I'm trying out decks on Arena and before a win I'll just forfeit since I don't need the wins for the Great Quota, but am I screwing myself with this weird ranking system and stuck fighting bad decks by losing constantly?
In unranked? I don’t think MMR is calculated or accounted for outside of ranked.
There is an unranked rating iirc, and a mythic rating separate from ranked rating, but I imagine in unranked deck strength matchmaking is more weighted.
Mark Rosewater has posted his usual Tumblr teaser for Dominaria United. Some highlgihts: we're getting a new evergreen counter, a "popular" planeswalker reprint, a new cycle of +1/+1 granting lords, a new card with "lotus" in the name, a card with the Lhurgoyf creature type, and a creature with this typeline: Legendary Creature – Phyrexian Merfolk Wizard.
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Also an idiot. Seriously, that's some weapons grade idiot ball there.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
The story seems to be setting Karn up for a lesson about the limits of what he can accomplish while keeping his hands clean. He is facing the Black Phyrexian faction, the most utilitarian of them all. He will never defeat them as long as they can use his own conscience as a shield.
Also isn’t one of the starter decks literally white/green lifegajn with the unicorn, Drizzt, and all of those cards?
The last part is important. Arena uses both a poorly implemented rating system and, for non-ranked decks, deck strength matchmaking based on how often the cards in the deck are crafted and the card rarity. Lifegain is very easy to craft or build cheaply, but not made often by seriously competitive players because it's bad, meaning that in casual matchmaking, a lot of cards_i_own.dek or jank brews will wind up playing against semi-optimized lifegain builds because of its popularity in that deck strength bracket.
In ranked, that "poorly implemented" part of the rating system comes into play, because the rating system creates a very, very long climb out of noob island to the main pack of players, which again, means that there's a strong chance you will play against specifically whatever is most popular among new, F2P players, which tends to be lifegain decks.
That said, I hated most everything else about this story
Really, if the story had been either just Karn musing on the Sylex and his relationship to the Phyrexians, only for him to get notification some shit's going down elsewhere, or it was him and a couple others fighting into the Phyrexian beachhead ("How are they moving in so fast!?" Tezzret: "Later suckers, have fun playing whack-a-bad!") only to find out the problem's much worse than they thought, this could have focused things and allowed for some necessary points to shine through/not force people to carry an idiot ball for plot twist points.
As it is, they tried to split the difference and made Karn and the rest of the Gatewatch look like blithering idiots cause this feels like the sort of thing they should have been on the lookout for.
Of the two hearts Karn has had, neither of them were Urza's.
And not just because Urza was a heartless asshole.
No comment on the rest, but as for the first question in the second spoiler:
My thought is that Tezzeret or Tamiyo sniffed them out and put them in contact with Shelodred when she showed up on Dominaria
While they didn't make it into the actual set, they're mentioned in the Dominaria art book, which I own. They are one of two unofficial pedagogical lineages that operate in the shadows of the Tolarian academies. They are described as "Phyrexian sympathizers" who are super into body modification. So yeah, you're pretty much right on the money.
Not a day goes by where I don't miss that art book series. So much good worldbuilding.
I get why they stopped those (ignoring financial/sales reasons) while we were visiting a bunch of worlds for the first time for one set each, but man Kamigawa should have had one.
But he is between one and a hard place.
Got a nice empty space on my wall for these bad boys.
I mean, we got another Phyrexian war on Dominaria, and Karn doesn’t even have one eugenics program running.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
It's one of the best, yes.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Yeah if it were weren't for the promo expansion symbol and different card data, this could've come from a Horizons booster.
Although now that I think about it, were they doing these treatments for MH1?
Karn: Creator, why do I feel such a great concern for the welfare of all living things.
Urza: I installed my sense of compassion, decency, and pity into you.
Karn: Because you wanted me to experience human emotions?
Urza: No, because I was tired of it taking up space in my closet ever since I had it removed.
Karn: But won't this level of empathy make me less effective in combat?
Urza: That sounds like a you problem.
In unranked? I don’t think MMR is calculated or accounted for outside of ranked.
There is an unranked rating iirc, and a mythic rating separate from ranked rating, but I imagine in unranked deck strength matchmaking is more weighted.