Magic Story: In This Very Arena
Lore forum
Posted on Oct. 12, 2016, 11:23 a.m. by GoldGhost012
Ral and Jace have a conversation, Tezzeret and Pia have a Fateful Showdown, the Gatewatch arrives in a Dramatic reversal, but Tezzeret escapes after the Confiscation Coup.
AgentGreen says... #3
What bothers me the most is that Tezz was prepared for EVERY contingency. Why else would he close off his mind to Jace? Why consider that unless he knew the Gatewatch would come.
Someone tipped him off, and was prepared for it.
October 12, 2016 11:46 a.m.
AgentGreen: That someone could've been Dovin Baan. He, Tezzy and Kambal seem to be in kahoots here.
October 12, 2016 11:50 a.m.
AgentGreen says... #5
That makes perfect sense; and since Dovin has a knack of discovering flaws in every invention or plan, he could've said to Tezz that his plan will fail if the Gatewatch shows up; and that he should prepare for their arrival
October 12, 2016 11:54 a.m.
That felt very rushed... I'm also not sure I buy the dovin baan story. He was the one who called the gatewatch to kaladesh. Why bring the gatewatch? Why not just stage this coup of inventions, and build whatever dimensional portal Tezz is working on?
Kaladesh has impressed me so far; it feels refreshing and new with the introduced concepts of vehicles and energy. But the story-telling so far has been a roller coaster of confusion for me.
October 12, 2016 12:36 p.m. Edited.
DuTogira: In the past few articles, Baan was not in league with them:
Who was the one who alerted Baral to Chandra's return? Baan. (see "Bottled Up")
When Tezzy confronted Pia the first time (when Chandra was with Liliana), which side did Baan take? Tezzy's. (See "Renegade Prime")
Early in this story, in the Skysovereign, who was Kambal with? Baan.
Dovin Baan is clearly not with the Gatewatch.
October 12, 2016 12:41 p.m.
Phaetion I'm not saying Baan should be part of the jacestice league (I'll be disappointed if Ajani joins), I'm just saying I see no reason the kaladeshi illuminati should want the gatewatch on kaladesh. If baan is part of it, which he very well could be, why bring the gatewatch to kaladesh? If he's not, what ARE his motives for pitting the gatewatch against the kaladeshi gov't
October 12, 2016 12:45 p.m.
DuTogira: You do bring up a good point. Perhaps Baan turns against Tezzy once he realizes what he's been doing and knows who he's working for (ahem Bolas)? It's hard to say. Perhaps we have yet to see his real role in the story.
October 12, 2016 12:51 p.m.
Thus why I'm unimpressed with the story-telling so far. Hopefully we get some explanations, but the story has been revolving around Baan's actions, and so far he's just a plot device with OCD.
I hope his character gets more development. I love vedalken, and I'd hate for the first vedalken walker we know of to be a shallow character.
October 12, 2016 12:58 p.m. Edited.
We might see it next week, as it focuses more on the Confiscation Coup.
October 12, 2016 1:04 p.m.
As soon as Tezzeret was revealed I knew that Rashmi's invention was going straight to Bolas. This is going to be super crazy lol
October 12, 2016 3:19 p.m.
Nice to see Ral Zarek and Vraska the Unseen get mentions on Ravnica (I miss that plane). Vraska hypuuu! Of course, if she wandered into the Blind Eternities, I'm sure they wouldn't just mention that without hinting towards something in the future...more sigh eldrazi stuff? Eldrazi Gorgon Planeswalkers?
I know this is just preaching to the choir, but I'm a little indifferent to this whole Gatewatch thing. It's just not really working for me. Not saying you need to Game of Thrones it up and kill off every other member, but by having them be a team that goes from plane to plane, Wizards is losing a good bit of storytelling tension. Nothing really worries me because I feel like it just turns Kaladesh (in this instance, but whichever plane they go to next) into a flavor-of-the-week set. Every story just feels "safe" so far. None of them are really threatened with any real danger, and considering they banded together and took down the Eldrazi titans, I don't think anything else can even have that level of threat to them. I understand that each color needs to be represented and all for marketing purposes, but it's not exactly helping the storytelling for me.
I also feel like they missed a good character-building moment for Chandra by not having Pia be mortally wounded or anything. Would've been a great, classic motivation for Chandra to take on Tezzeret next set.
October 12, 2016 3:26 p.m.
My name is Inigo Montoya [Chandra Nalaar]. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
October 12, 2016 3:38 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #17
I think we have to remember Baan found the gatewatch with the intention of getting them to catch Pia, little did he know that he would find her daughter and the dynamic would change. He is getting played by Tezzeret though and I'm interested for the reveal.
October 12, 2016 8:09 p.m.
I don't buy that simply because baan went in search of jace, who has a history with tezzeret. Baan and Tezz are both too calculating for jace's encounter with Tezz to be an accident, and I'd believe baan to be too calculating to be an unwitting accomplise of Tezz.
MAYBE chandra's presence was an accident, but I doubt it.
October 12, 2016 9 p.m.
Actually... if baral is somehow a crucial part of the illuminati conspiracy going on, I could see Chandra's death being his terms of agreement in exchange for co-operation.
If that's not the case, my boy tezzeret had better have one heck of a sinister trap in mind for jace (maybe trying to make him bolas' slave, I hear mind mages are useful in bending others to your will) to justify bringing the jacestice league to kaladesh.
October 12, 2016 10:46 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #20
I was not at all surprised that Tezzeret stole the inventions for his own nefarious plans, but I was surprised that Pia did not die. If WotC is unwilling to kill off any major protagonists, there will be little sense of tension and suspense in the story. I am not saying that the writers need to imitate George R.R. Martin and kill everyone, but the current storytelling method makes it easy to predict that the members of the Gatewatch will survive, and not ever suffer major losses. They almost feel like the Strawhat Crew from One Piece, visiting a new plane in each block, and becoming involved with that plane's affairs.
The conversation with Ral Zarek and the mention of Vraska was nice, showing that WotC has not forgotten about them, so I imagine that they shall be important to the plot, again, at some point.
Why does Jace not give the responsibility of being the guildpact to someone else, since he continually ignores it? What effects are his prolonged absences from Ravnica having on the plane?
October 13, 2016 1:24 a.m.
RicketyEng says... #21
Wrt Vraska's anomalous planeswalking, there is clearly some foreshadowing happening there. If Ral's detector is able to detect the destination of a 'walk, yet couldn't for Vraska, then where could she be going? I'm not terribly familiar with all of the lore around Dominaria, but do I recall correctly that it is supposed to be sealed off in some manner? If it is not normally a legal target for a 'walk but Vraska has a way of going there, would that produce the data Ral is observing?
I like the quality of the story telling. Those of you claiming that the members of the Gatewatch need to suffer some sort of loss should keep in mind that we are still in the early stages of their story as a group of friends. Maybe there will be room for death or fractures in the alliance later on, but I think too many folks are in too much of a rush to get there.
Let's enjoy the exploration of the story telling design space of how things can go when there exist circles of planeswalkers who actively work together. Tamiyo's story sharing circle fits so awesomely into that category too and I love it. Any guesses on how long until we see some organization among the villains on the scale of SPECTRE? That's the type of thing for which Bolas would be interested in being Number 1 and I guess Tezzeret would be Number 2, or maybe he would be Dr. No.
I think it is perfectly acceptable that Chandra is one of very few planswalkers we know who have any family. It is something that makes her unique so let's let her have this victory.
October 13, 2016 10:18 a.m.
I think Tezzy's building an interdimensional portal to Kaladesh from Amonkhet and somehow Vraska got caught up in Tezzy's plan. It's probable, but I can't say for certain.
October 13, 2016 10:54 a.m.
AgentGreen says... #23
Thinking about what you said DuTogira, how would Baral know Chandra survived? All he saw was Chandra bursting into flames and then vanish (before he could kill her). I don't think he knows the existence of Planeswalkers and that Chandra is one.
October 13, 2016 12:12 p.m.
Tezz/Bolas is definitely building a portal for the Phyrexians.
October 13, 2016 12:50 p.m.
Why is everyone saying someone tipped Tezz off to the gatewatch's existence?
Preparation is Tezz's M.O. He already ran into Lili on Kaladesh, somewhere he wasn't expecting her to be, and in his experience Lili and Jace are known associates, so it makes sense that he would prep for the possibility of having to contend with a mind mage.
It seemed like that was all here prepared for, since he was none to trilled about needing to contend with six different PW's.
October 13, 2016 12:58 p.m.
How does Baral know about pw's and Chandra being one? I don't know but he made a trap-box that could hold 2 using pia nalaar as bait. I think it's safe to say he knows.
I'm sure an interdimensional portal is the plan. From where to where I don't know. Time will tell.
How do we know Tezz was tipped off about the gatewatch? Being head judge of the inventor's fair and having control of skysovereign means he's a high ranking gov't official. So is Dovin Baan. Both Baan and Tezz are OCD planners who prepare for every contingency, so it stands to reason that they are working together and that neither is acting without the co-operation of the other (so far). This means that Baan fetching jace had to be part of Tezz's and therefore bolas' plan. This also means Tezz knew about the jacestice league when he sent for jace. He wouldn't have contacted them if he didn't know what he was getting into. That means the only unknowns so far are: what is bolas plan? How do bolas and Tezz know of the jacestice league? And Why are Baan and the kaladeshi gov't working with Tezz?
The former I don't expect to know, the middle is probably just: bolas planned for them to kill the eldrazi; of course he knows, but the latter needs answering (next story?), thus why I pose the question.
October 13, 2016 1:58 p.m.
DuTogira, Baral doesn't know about PW's. That was the point of last weeks story.
Nissa and Chandra could leave at any time, but they couldn't bring themselves to abandon Mrs. Pashiri.
Also, there is nothing in Baan's character to suggest he's ok with opening a portal between his home plane and Phyrexia. He likes order and efficiency, not flaying and machine holocaust.
And when has Tezzeret ever shared information or cooperated with people rather than use them like puppets?
October 14, 2016 9:42 p.m.
I'll cede the baral point.
You're right, there's nothing in Baan's character suggesting he's ok opening a portal to phyrexia. We also have nothing to suggest that's the plan, and nothing on baans character beyond: OCD in the gov't.
Tezz uses people yes, but they have to co-operate to be used. I didn't say they were equals or co conspirators. I said they were co-operating.
October 14, 2016 10:19 p.m.
I just thought of something, in Dovin Baan's case, its stated that he can see the flaw in any plan. Is that alluding to the fact that the phyrexians will attack/infect anything they see as imperfect? Maybe they will have Baan at some point in the distant future become infected? Just speculation, i just think its too much of a coincidence.
October 17, 2016 10:36 a.m.
There are far too many coincidences. The most plausible theory at this rate (imo) is that Wotc is pulling another clue token hidden message thing on us except with a much larger timeframe. Phyrexians will not be appearing this block, or likely in Amonkhet. "Hour of devastation" does sound Phyrexian worthy, but still unlikely. I would be pleasantly surprised, however, if there are phyrexians great or small in Aether Revolt.
October 17, 2016 11:19 a.m.
I could definitely see Phyrexians appearing in Hour of Devastation and then the block after that being a return to Mirrodin/New Phyrexia block. I'd be super pumped for that.
October 17, 2016 1:41 p.m.
I don't think we'll be returning to New Phyrexia this quickly. The way the story's going, Theros and Ravnica are more likely after Amonkhet.
October 17, 2016 5:39 p.m.
Phaetion however, it has been a lot longer since Scars Block than since Theros or RTR. But, they put Innistrad up on the list for a return to above Phyrexia so this may not impact Wotc's method of thinking.
October 18, 2016 4:26 a.m.
Harashiohorn says... #34
Okay so first real fast, no we are probably not going back to Mirrodin/New-Phyrexia anytime soon, there are just too many problematic mechanics and design elements to those blocks, also Phyrexias MO is to invade other planes so I would expect more of that.
Anyway, so for Tezzerets mind being Jace immune there are a lot of potential reasons, given that he was rebuilt by Bolas and had extended contact with the Phyrexians, that could just be clever design by someone who doesn't want their operant to be found out or turned, it doesn't mean Tezz foresaw the coming of Jace, so much as Bolas was like, "You know what would suck? If Jace stole my master plan from Tezz's head, I should make sure that won't happen."
As to Tezz being in league with Dovin and the others, I think Tezz has certainly helped them with maintaining control, and they have helped him get access to the inventions, but beyond that I don't think they have the slightest idea that Tezz is in cahoots with the Phyrexians and/or Bolas.
Now Vraska is the interesting part of the puzzle. To my knowledge there are 4 "banned" planes, and 1 additional place nobody would see you walk to , and those are Dominaria, Old-Phyrexia (or whats left of it), Kuldotha, and Ulgrotha for the planes, and the Blind Eternities for the other place. Now of these places Old-Phyrexia is by far the least likely, but the most functionally intersting. The Blind Eternities is probably the most likely, and could provide the Ugin tie-in before we go fight Bolas next plane, but it is also by far the least interesting option. Also doesn't Jace know at least a little bit about the Blind Eternities by now? If Vraska went to Dominaria that would be great, and set up a ton of wonderful directions for the story to go, but its also really open ended which makes it only likely if the Vraska walk was a long term plot device being introduced. The final possible place Vraska could have walked is Kuldotha. That would be odd to me, why would a gorgon want to go to the inner layer of Machine hell? but would best support the theories that Phyrexia is on its way to returning soon.
And finally, of planes we will return to soon I would probably put the top 5 most probably as Alara, Lorwyn/Shadowmoor, Theros, Dominaria, and Kamigawa (I mean it was just included in a story)
On Ulgrotha, yeah apparently this is the place Feroz's Ban protects, I'm not sure anything else about it.
Phaetion says... #2
Saheeli showing up? Tezzeret building some kind of "Doomsday Machine?" Confiscation Coup and Fateful Showdown in the same story?
October 12, 2016 11:42 a.m.