What is your favorite Plane, and why?
Lore forum
Posted on Sept. 21, 2021, 3:30 a.m. by TypicalTimmy
Not your favorite set or block, though it is true that most of the worlds we have visited are typically one-shots.
But in all of MTG lore, be it showcased on cards, in Planechase, in comics and books... or merely spoken about in hushed tongues.
What's your favorite Plane, and why?
Mine is Tarkir. I love the lore and the warring nations. I love the constant battle and push of endurance. If I could live on Tarkir, I'd want to live among the Temur. Outdoors wilderness in the vast expanse of the tundra, surviving off the land and carving your history in rock and bone. To me, that sounds like paradise. Just yourself and your skills. Survive or die.
shadeslayerx22 says... #3
Zendikar. Boundless adventure in every direction is exactly where I would want to be as a planeswalker. Also the roils as mana coming alive is a terrifyingly awesome concept. The whole idea of the sky being a traversable tangle of rock and root is also very appealing, even if i'm a little afraid of heights.
September 21, 2021 8:20 a.m.
Wendithewendigo says... #4
Ikoria, being able to travel among an ever changing world and have a beast companion to share the journey with
September 21, 2021 8:56 a.m.
I was always fond of good old fashioned Earth - having lived in that particularly plane for a while, it doesn’t seem too bad.
Jest aside, I would say Dominaria. It has a rich and complicated history, a number of fun characters, and a diverse set of places to explore. That it also holds a fair bit of nostalgia for me also helps.
Of planes introduced in the past five years, I would say Eldraine is my current favorite, but Ixalan has the most potential.
As an avid reader of both fairy tales and Arthurian legend, Eldraine was a delight. It had a number of fun references, some delightful art, and the right amount of dark whimsy. However, I also think it hit its peak with its first go around - they covered the vast majority of fairy tales, leaving few common stories to be covered in subsequent sets. I mean, I’m sure there are others out there who would find a card referencing The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage amusing, but I think we are few and far between.
Ixalan has the greatest potential for one of the same reasons I like Dominaria - it feels like more than a trope. Most planes are defined by a single trait. Eldraine is the fairy tale plane. Ravnica is the city one. Innistrad is the horror one.
Ixalan has cultures and continents, all wrapped in a complex and fascinating Age of Discovery motif. Dominaria is the only other plane that appears as diverse, and it would be great to explore Ixalan and see what it has to offer. What is going on back on the vampire conquistador’s continent? Are they expending to other continents, as the West did during the Age of Discovery? Are there other great civilisations on that plane, other than just the Spanish and Aztec inspired ones?
Ixalan has given us more promise than any plan since Dominaria, and I hope we return there - but to a different part of there - soon.
September 21, 2021 10:05 a.m.
Omniscience_is_life says... #6
Kaladesh for me!
I love the way in which machinery was mixed with magic, so as to make even the most high-tech inventions fit perfectly with this fantasy game.
And I love how happy the people are--even before the revolt, but especially after, Kaladesh just seems like a great place to live. It's so diverse, lush, and colorful!
September 21, 2021 1:12 p.m.
tiffanyann says... #7
Lorwyn - Shadowmoor.
Coolest set. Basic lands look dope. Tribes are awesome. I usually find myself building around its legendaries or bomb cards. Only set with Noggles...
♡
September 21, 2021 2:50 p.m.
brandonplaysmagic says... #8
I think I’d have to say Kamigawa! Flavor, mood, story, and overall aesthetic of the plane was on point. I’m also super pumped for the return.
September 21, 2021 3:37 p.m. Edited.
FormOverFunction says... #9
I’m too old to not say Dominaria; goblins and dwarves (that hate each other) and THRULLS that no one likes, and weird old artifacts being dug up by anyone who puts in the effort... lots of fun.
September 21, 2021 6:23 p.m.
Alara. I've mentioned my preference for planes that aren't "Earth folklore/history with magic" before, and Alara is one of the most truly unique and un-Earth planes in the game. Sure, Naya has a little bit of Mesoamerica and Bant is slightly Middle Eastern and generic medieval, but that's only a light facade, mostly for naming purposes. There's nothing equivalent to Grixis or Esper.
I also like multicolor-heavy sets (although Alara Reborn might have been too heavy, maybe), and it was only the second tricolor-focused set, and the first that went all in on allied colors.
Then there's the story. Something about the idea of five mutually exclusive subplanes becoming one interests me. Like the societies interacting, or the biomes merging together. I really, really, REALLY want a Return to Alara to see how the subplanes are arranged now and how the culture develops. Are they fully integrated? Is there a patch of Jund in the middle of Esper?
Finally, it's simply when I started to get invested in the game. I poked around a little bit with Portal but didn't know what I was doing, started buying more cards from Time Spiral block, skipped Lorwyn/Shadowmoor, then dove in headfirst.
September 21, 2021 11:13 p.m.
Segovia, which has yet to get a set. The plane’s defining characteristic is its incredibly tiny and planeswalking there shrinks you to fit the plane’s scale. If designed I’d like to think the sheer bulk of the cards would be mostly cmc 1 or 2. I think they might also add unset mechanics such as power/toughness with fractions and half-mana cmc costs, however these mechanics would be changed to be more accommodating for black border MTG.
September 22, 2021 5:41 a.m.
Amonkhet. The society Bolas had set up there was really interesting. But more then that is the history he changed. The gods were all different colours then what we knew them as and the plane it's self has the power of turning lost souls in the sands into zombies. Plus Egyptian theme is my favourite and there is no shortage of flavour from a desert world. Hope we go back so I can find a new Hazoret and see the aftermath of the Hour of Devastation.
September 22, 2021 12:25 p.m.
Suns_Champion says... #13
Ixalan.
I love Ixalan, and think it is a great plane to expand on for a lot of the reasons Caerwyn mentioned.
Aesthetically it is a cool place. Basing it on a broad historical topic is really beneficial, and creates a bigger variety than most planes. Compare to Innistrad or Amonkhet, which are inspired by times and places both very specific and localized. Ixalan, borrowing the age of empire and exploration, has a lot more themes and factions that it can cover and expand on. Already we have 4 great ones: pirates, conquistador vampires, and two south/central American-inspired civilizations, one more mystical, one more militant. It's all so cool. Whoever thought of conquistador vampires should get a raise.
What's really cool is where we could go from here. How will Elenda, the Dusk Rose's new view on the vampire religion shake up their faith? If Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose is any indication, there will be some conflict. How will the return of their saint upset the balance of power in the vampire empire? I'd imagine the royal hierarchy will be threatened by the return of the long-dead saint.
Are the pirates just gonna float around forever, or are they gonna attempt to recapture their homeland as the vampire society decends into a civil war? Or will the merfolk ask them for help against the expanding sun empire?
I'd like to see the sun empire fleshed out a bit. Who are their leaders? What is their culture besides dino riding? How do we represent in magic the poetry side of their warrior-poet obsession? Will the dinosaurs stay with them forever? What else can we do with dinosuars?
Can we create an analog for the British empire? Look at Dockside Extortionist and just tell me you don't want to see RW goblin British empire. With their little goblin east-India trading co. OMG.
What can magic do to represent french trading in North America? Or magics version of North Amerindian culture in this period? The possibilities are endless. And I can't wait.
September 22, 2021 3:06 p.m.
Omniscience_is_life says... #14
Suns_Champion I fear if we did return to Ixalan, we wouldn't get as much of the expansion that is possible there. I can't imagine WotC's story department stepping up their game enough to get such depth as you describe, as much as I'd love it.
Ixalan was a beautifully underpowered set; it didn't push cards as must-plays, and it allowed for some of the interesting building space that I love. But it was a mess for standard, so I can't imagine they'll design it in such a way again... which would ruin that part (for me at least!)
As far as possible storylines: I'd really enjoy seeing Huatli return to reckon with her Naya-aligned people, now having dropped red herself. That could be an interesting conflict.
September 22, 2021 4:06 p.m.
Omniscience_is_life - I disagree; Magic's story at this point is more about what it hints at than what is actually written, and Suns_Champion's dream of more in-depth Ixalan lore is well within Wizards' skill set.
Let's look at Dominaria's most recent set. The story addresses a whole lot of really interesting points:
- Various figures trying to live up to legacies that echo across entire planes.
- A Lawful Good paladin who is struggling with his transformation into the very thing he was supposed to hunt.
- A legendary immortal who became mortal and was trying to start a new life and family, while dealing with the regrets of his past... before circumstances brought him back into the fight.
- Another legendary immortal trying desperately to rebuild the ship and crew that made her important and famous.
- Yet another legendary immortal who is on a destructive and genocidal quest to destroy an entire plane of existence due to his past imprisonment on that plane.
- A world that is covered and old traps and puzzles, as the remnants of Urza's power still dot the world.
- A city out of time and space and those still bitter over its having been taken.
I could go on. The most recent Dominaria set opened so many interesting discussions in the lore; introduced a whole bunch of compelling and fascinating characters; and left everyone wanting to learn more about the world and its people.
It also was a garbage story that was poorly written and had some rather unfortunate and out-of-character internal monologues. Still, if you cut past all the junk and looked behind the text (and at the cards and flavor text itself) and you got what was one of the greatest lore-based sets in recent memory.
Wizards has always been good at worldbuilding--and it is the worldbuilding folks find interesting. That the story itself is mediocre (at best) is irrelevant--they know how to deliver an interesting and deep world, and we are perfectly capable of looking past the bad wrapping paper and seeing the fascinating and complex work put into the world itself.
September 22, 2021 6 p.m.
Omniscience_is_life says... #16
Caerwyn you’re not wrong; but Dominaria came out many years ago— when I’d argue Wizards’ entire design team was more skilled—and that wasn’t so much a remake as I think WotC is inclined to do with their more recent secondary visits to planes (Kamigawa, anyone?)
September 22, 2021 6:39 p.m.
I know 2020 felt like it was six years long, but it wasn’t. Dominaria was released in 2018 - hardly “many years ago”.
I also think your premise that Wizards is inclined to remake planes is without any tangible evidence. Kamigawa is going to be different because (a) several thousand years have passed, so it makes sense that the plane will have evolved, and (b) the plane was not popular the first time around.
Ixalan does not have either of those problems, so Kamigawa is not useful or informative precedent.
September 22, 2021 6:55 p.m.
Omniscience_is_life says... #18
Caerwyn T-T your rhetoric is too good. I concede my point
September 22, 2021 9:04 p.m.
ZendikariWol says... #19
Gotta side with legendofa: it's Alara.
Alara has the most engaging premise of any set I've ever heard: five subplanes, each lacking two colors of mana, being unexpectedly thrust together in a massive explosion of mana, power, and crystallized culture shock! Also, it has five very interesting factions that would interact with one another in fascinating ways: how will the beast worshippers of Naya and the angel worshippers of Bant get along? Esper is beginning incursions into Jund for the metal that keeps it running, how will that shake down? There's a lot of loose threads and one question remains: where do the shards go from here?
September 22, 2021 9:26 p.m.
TypicalTimmy says... #20
Caerwyn, I don't understand why people don't like Kamigawa. I wasn't playing then, so maybe it lacked synergy for standard, but today many cards from that set wind up in Commander and there are iconic and beloved cards to this day. Then the lore is majestic and fascinating.
Why do so many people take issue with it?
September 23, 2021 3:33 p.m.
TypicalTimmy - There were a number of issues with the block itself:
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While it has a few powerful cards in the block, the density of high-powered cards is still relatively low. This is particularly noticeable since it was the weakest block in an incredibly long time.
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Almost all the mechanics were either heavily dependent on other cards in the set (Soulshift; Slice onto Arcane), not all that interesting (Bushido, Channel, Epic), or actively bad (Sweep--where you could lose all your lands and get blown out by a single removal spell).
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It focused too much on spirits and legendary objects--from a gameplay perspective, that is problematic. Don't happen to open some spirits or legends? Your deck is going to suffer as a result.
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The set was before Japanese culture and anime became super popular in the United States. At the time, there were, of course, folks who were interested in Japan and Anime (DBZ and Sailor Moon contributing heavily to the late-90s fascination with Japan), but it still was not mainstream, even among nerd-dom as it is now.
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It came right right after the incredibly powerful Mirrodin block and right before the extremely popular Ravnica block, and its reputation suffered a lot by those comparisons.
If Kamigawa were released today, I think it would still flop--the cultural elements are here, but the entire block was just really bad for standard, really, really, really bad for limited, and only has a few notable cards spread across three whole sets. It was a low point for the design team, and I think they took it personally--I think part of the reason we did not go back to Kamigawa for so long was Wizards' staff still having the scars from how poorly they did the first time around.
September 23, 2021 6:05 p.m. Edited.
Suns_Champion says... #22
Oh! Another thing I like about Ixalan was the asymmetry of the color distribution among the factions. WB, WRG, UG, and UBR. It just seemed really cool and different when we are of course usually treated to multiples of 5 due to the color wheel. Unique.
September 24, 2021 4:57 p.m.
Dominaria for me - I'm an old-timer. I like generic high-fantasy.
I may like whatever plane "Streets of New Capenna" will be on, I like the idea a place made by angels.. but then left to the rest to do what they will. It would be such a fun twist if it was somehow Sera's realm.
September 25, 2021 11:30 a.m.
KorandAngels says... #24
Currently it's Tarkir, since I am thoroughly loyal to Dromoka.
November 4, 2021 2:12 a.m.
Withouth any doubt my favourite plane is AMONKHET.
I love ancient Egypt, I had the luck to already visit Egypt and enjoy their ruins, museums and natural enviroments. I love their rich culture, their complex mythology and their awesome landscapes, from the rocky valleys and the sand deserts filled with tombs, funerary temples and pyramids, to the rich oasis and riversides of the Nile full of life and vegetation.
Until Amonkhet came out, many egypt fans like me were hoping for and egyptian plane very hard, and Amonkhet was the final gift.
I love how WotC team designed a new fantastic culture clearly inspired in ancient Egypt but with their own imaginative touch. The concept of the city of Nakthamun being a rich oasis protected from the perils of the deserts fits well the relationship of egyptians with the river Nile, living in their fertile sides, while buring their deads in the dry desertic west grounds.
The chosen mechanics like embalm to represent mummification, the deserts, and cycling to represent the need to seek and recycle in a hard desert enviroment where very fitting.
The awesome gods were also both recognizable and original: Oketra the True as an allusion to the protective but warrior feline goddesses Sejmet and Bastet, Rhonas the Indomitable as a reinterpretation of the guardian cobra god Wadjet but in a more savage way, Hazoret the Fervent as a twisted concept of Anubis (still being related to the afterlife journy) but with some "red" aspects of the desert and war god Seth, Kefnet the Mindful clearly as the sage ibis god Toth, and Bontu the Glorified as a mix of the river god Sobek and the monstrous goddess Ammyt, who keeped the passage to the afterlife devouring the souls of the not worthy ones.
The fallen gods also where awesome, representing with The Scorpion God the perils of the desert and the scorpion goddess Serket, The Scarab God being a reference to Kephri, wich represented the cycle of solar resurrection but in a more "evil" way, and finally The Locust God as a wink to the hebrew's famous myth of the plagues of Egypt. And Nicol Bolas was the perfect villain, bein a subbtle reference to the chaos serpent Aphopis.
Other famous characters where also referenced, like Cleopatra with her death myth caused by an snake bite in Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons and the young-deceased pharaoh Tutankhamun in Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun.
I'm hopping to return to Amonkhet in the future, to know how their people have reconstructed their civilization after Hour of Devastation, having a new Hazoret card and maybe new risen gods or the appearance of unknown ones... and of course more egyptian flavored legends for EDH!!!
April 29, 2022 5:41 a.m.
ZendikariWol says... #26
WotC has been getting a lot of well-deserved flak these days (there are probably a million threads about Arena's economy that I do NOT want to get into), but honestly, I think one of the things they've been knocking out of the park lately has been world-building.
Strixhaven, and the plane of Arcavios, is one of my new favorite Magic settings, coming off as both strikingly recognizable and wholly unique! I love Fantasy High sorts of settings in theory, but very rarely do I see them done well (I'm looking at you, Harry Potter). The factions are all flavorfully divine - I adore every single college - and the mechanical execution was lovely, the set is a blast to play with, and each college's mechanics fit their identity to a tee.
New Capenna, I'm happy to see that most people are very excited about, and I'm no exception! It's just beautiful, for all the same reasons as Strixhaven, but with a completely different esthetic. Twice in two years, WotC has been hitting their worldbuilding out of the park!
Pikobyte says... #2
Dominaria for sure. Urza block is still my favorite up to date. Also Love the whole brothers war and weatherlight saga and still got the old books in my shelf
September 21, 2021 5:12 a.m.