Streets of New Capenna: High-way or dead end?

[H]

It's a slur. It only has one use.

Well, problem already solved. I'll continue to monitor the situation.

[Rob Hack]

I got a lot of vibes similar to that ancient "Metropolis" movie but the essence is still pretty art deco.
Anyone remember when plains had actual plains in them instead of just something white or islands were not just blue whatever?

Yes, you’re absolutely right, the Plains 272 could easily be a vintage Metropolis poster. You’re also right about the artistic direction of the past few years. Lots of the lands’ art is very weak and invokes no emotion, it often doesn’t even represent a landscape. I imagine that it may be hard to make a proper illustration for an urban environment, but why would anyone want to place a fantasy game into one?

In general, they have run out of creative ideas a long time a go so they are just stealing from everything else. Like Kaldheim was basically norse mythology with some name changes.
It doesn't help that they can't create interesting characters or tell an interesting story.
Then again, they have to shit out 4 sets a year together with some nostalgia product and more commander nonsense with like 3 cards that are accidentally broken in eternal.
No wonder everything is so half baked.

Again, you’re right, but I’d like to defend the MtG creators a bit. Streets of Capoeira is 96th set and one would need a titan the kind of JRRT to consistently bring us great stories. It’s also first and foremost a game, and I think that the story and setting doesn’t matter that much, as long as the game is enjoyable.
Also, all the best stories were already told, so there’s hardly a chance that a team of hired copywriters will come with some breathtaking prose.
There’s also another aspect, that of what sells. One may surely lament over the bland storyline, forgettable characters, but it seems like that WotC’s formula works. Speaking of the “stealing” from say Norse folklore and mythology, some people may very much welcome that, others may like the “stolen” Lovecraftian mythos, and you’d surely come up with other examples from the rich tapestry of Magic lore. I must admit that it’ll be lovely to have another Weatherlight epos spanning over years and across the universes, but realistically, such a creative miracle happens only once in a while.

The much more hurtful issue is the half-bakedness, poor testing, and generally poor state of the design, something that’s clearly linked to a business decisions made in spite of the health of the game. It’s also true that this kind of doomsaying is heard for at least the past decade, and the Chicken Littles are invariably proven wrong. This once again means that either the WotC does their job well, or maybe all those factors don’t really matter in a context of what’s primarily a game; it's also possible that the collapse of MtG will come when either a real crisis or some novel entertainment makes the paper Magic obsolete.

EDIT: Yeah, we are not doing this here. Stick to talking about Magic the Gathering, please, thank you. I generally like to allow some leeway, but this is well beyond the scope.

[FourDogsinaHorseSuit]

EDIT: Yeah, let's just not do this. Please focus on Magic and/or the new set at hand here, thanks.

[Ronald Deuce]

Again, you’re right, but I’d like to defend the MtG creators a bit. Streets of Capoeira is 96th set and one would need a titan the kind of JRRT to consistently bring us great stories. It’s also first and foremost a game, and I think that the story and setting doesn’t matter that much, as long as the game is enjoyable.
Also, all the best stories were already told, so there’s hardly a chance that a team of hired copywriters will come with some breathtaking prose.
There’s also another aspect, that of what sells. One may surely lament over the bland storyline, forgettable characters, but it seems like that WotC’s formula works. Speaking of the “stealing” from say Norse folklore and mythology, some people may very much welcome that, others may like the “stolen” Lovecraftian mythos, and you’d surely come up with other examples from the rich tapestry of Magic lore. I must admit that it’ll be lovely to have another Weatherlight epos spanning over years and across the universes, but realistically, such a creative miracle happens only once in a while.

This is something I miss about '90s Magic. Yeah, it cribs from things; yeah, it's influenced by big-IP, big-money franchised material. But at least you can't look at Phyrexia and just go, "Well, that's Ancient Egypt: The Set." Like, you're looking at "dark Satanic mills," you're looking at Inferno, you're looking at Terminator, you're looking at The Thing, you're looking at The Lord of the Rings, you're looking at the stories of Prometheus or Orpheus and Eurydice or Abraham and Isaac. You're looking at all kinds of different things depending on what you want to see. There are layers to this.

That's not what we're getting now, and it's been some time since we've gotten anything like that. It's just "Superheroes go to Locale X" repeated ad nauseam.

Also, re: capoeira, I keep reflexively calling Kamigawa 2 Neon Genesis Kamigawa. Maybe I'm a bad person.

[TsumiBand]

That's kind of another overarching fuck-up in regards to Magic's decision to make Planeswalkers a card type, right - in the Before Times you still had these thematic blocks but the ephemeral central characters were still not always represented on cards because they were 'walkers, and the idea was that the *players* were walkers too, so you weren't just following some multi-dimensional Scooby Gang around and constantly play the latest version of them in a new setting. Instead you could see them by their shadow, the actions they took were on the cards. You have all these cards representing Urza's actions, Teferi's decisions, etc... but now you get one Mythic Rare walker with a couple abilities and maybe like some creature that's their "familiar" or wtfever.

So they tell these characters' stories in way fewer cards, and so the gameplay is less reflective of these characters because their thoughts and feelings and actions aren't quite as present on the cards. The trade-off is all this world building I guess?

[Goaswerfraiejen]

That's kind of another overarching fuck-up in regards to Magic's decision to make Planeswalkers a card type, right - in the Before Times you still had these thematic blocks but the ephemeral central characters were still not always represented on cards because they were 'walkers, and the idea was that the *players* were walkers too, so you weren't just following some multi-dimensional Scooby Gang around and constantly play the latest version of them in a new setting. Instead you could see them by their shadow, the actions they took were on the cards. You have all these cards representing Urza's actions, Teferi's decisions, etc... but now you get one Mythic Rare walker with a couple abilities and maybe like some creature that's their "familiar" or wtfever.

So they tell these characters' stories in way fewer cards, and so the gameplay is less reflective of these characters because their thoughts and feelings and actions aren't quite as present on the cards. The trade-off is all this world building I guess?

That's a very astute analysis!

[FourDogsinaHorseSuit]

This is something I miss about '90s Magic. Yeah, it cribs from things; yeah, it's influenced by big-IP, big-money franchised material. But at least you can't look at Phyrexia and just go, "Well, that's Ancient Egypt: The Set." Like, you're looking at "dark Satanic mills," you're looking at Inferno, you're looking at Terminator, you're looking at The Thing, you're looking at The Lord of the Rings, you're looking at the stories of Prometheus or Orpheus and Eurydice or Abraham and Isaac. You're looking at all kinds of different things depending on what you want to see. There are layers to this.

That's not what we're getting now, and it's been some time since we've gotten anything like that. It's just "Superheroes go to Locale X" repeated ad nauseam.

Also, re: capoeira, I keep reflexively calling Kamigawa 2 Neon Genesis Kamigawa. Maybe I'm a bad person.

The first expansion was Arabian Nights.

[Zoid]

The first expansion was Arabian Nights.

Alpha had Black Lotus and Ancestral Recall.
Arabian Nights almost had another backside.

They realized it was a mistake and improved on it.

Even more "recent" worlds Lorwyn/Shadomoor, Alara and Zendikar are heavily inspired by other things but they seem less derivative and had a lot more going on.
Most recent sets pick 1 theme and don't do anything beyond it.
It feels more artificial and derivative and less "livable".
That also owes to the fact that they only spend one set on a setting which gives them less space to flash things out but that was their own choice.
Even the Innistrad double sets feel derivative because they take an already 3nd order derivative setting and then do derivative things in it.
Maybe we'll get an interesting preator in this set but that's probably the highlight.

[Ronald Deuce]

The first expansion was Arabian Nights.

That's a good point, but (and I don't want to just parrot Zoid's statements above) The 1,001 Nights or whatever you want to call it is, in and of itself, a multifaceted and complex work of literature that crosses genres and has a vibrancy that you won't get from a linear and singular narrative. Sure, Ar-Rabiyyah (sp?) is a pretty obvious analogue for a real place, but even then, there's a lot of complementary and/or conflicting stuff going on that can pull you in if you want it to and, regardless, has something distinctive for people interested in a lot of different things. It's not just a continuation of the same irrelevant, script-botted hero's journey (heroes' journey? "Heroes'" journey?) across set after milquetoast set.

I just want some depth to the underpinnings of my cardboard-rectangles-for-kids game. Even when I was, like, 11, I liked that it was complicated and that I didn't grok the entire thing. Discovery brings maturity, and maturing makes kids feel mature. And I'm not a kid anymore, but that doesn't matter: the spark is gone, to be honest. I still love this game (it's gotten me through some of the worst times in my life), but it feels like the creative well has run dry and I'm just trying to bird-dog good Commander cards because there's no draw to the story and Storm is dead.

[FourDogsinaHorseSuit]

The only difference between Portal: Three Kingdoms, and LOTR this summer is that they can now afford the IP where as Three Kingdoms, and Arabian knights were in the public domain.
Legends was just everyone offering up their DnD Characters.
But also it's not that the well ran dry, it's that their over-arching story ended. Urza defeated Yawgmoth, and then they spun their wheels a but until they made their next big story which was the gate watch saga.

Which brings us to the next reason why the story seems so lacking: There aren't blocks anymore. The year long story of the Kami war through Champs, Betrayers, and Saviors now has to be told the week before NEO releases.

[FourDogsinaHorseSuit]

https://twitter.com/TolarianCollege/...eUS5a5ZVag46Cw
Lmao

E:

[jmlima]

https://twitter.com/TolarianCollege/...eUS5a5ZVag46Cw
Lmao

E:

A crystal magical substance eh?

What can go wrong there.

[Fox]

A crystal magical substance eh?

What can go wrong there.

So Capenna is set on Dune right? Sandwurm Tribal gogogo.

[Wrath of Pie]

E:

How is anyone supposed to make any good satire when Wizards gives it away on a silver platter?

(Also, the correct interpretation is bulk commons ground into literal dust.)

[PirateKing]

How is anyone supposed to make any good satire when Wizards gives it away on a silver platter?

(Also, the correct interpretation is bulk commons ground into literal dust.)

New card smell in it's purest, refined form.

[Ronald Deuce]

So Stone-Throwing Devils crosses the line, but encouraging kids to do drugs is part of their marketing strategy?

Jesus F. Christ.

[TsumiBand]

So Stone-Throwing Devils crosses the line, but encouraging kids to do drugs is part of their marketing strategy?

Jesus F. Christ.

If I had to pick between a card game exposing my kid to either drug use or racial slurs? Think I'd rather find drugs under my kid's bed than like Gary Lauck's newsletter or whatever the shitty kids are reading these days

[Wrath of Pie]

If I had to pick between a card game exposing my kid to either drug use or racial slurs? Think I'd rather find drugs under my kid's bed than like Gary Lauck's newsletter or whatever the shitty kids are reading these days

Kids don't read, they watch videos.

[FourDogsinaHorseSuit]

Kids don't read, they watch videos.

So that's why arena is all textless....

[Zoid]

So it took 13 years for Halo Hunter to finally find a use?

On which level of irony is this marketing again?
I can't tell anymore and honestly, I'm scared.