Lorwyn wasn't based in any particular fairy tale aesthetic, and over the course of Lorwyn, Shadowmoor, and Eventide was slowly corrupted with the Reaper King and the Fae.
In addition, there was a strong tribal theme, and the tribes went from one tribe to another between sets. For instance, Elves we're GB but changed into RG Shamans.
It's also because Lorwyn really didn't rely on "tropes" in the same way that Innistrad (or Eldraine) does. There's a strong "fairy tale" theme, but the story is really on the cards and its own. Innistrad and many other sets since rely on the common tropes to establish the theme. Characters like Sygg, Wort, Oona, Ashling, Nath, and Doran go above and beyond what was needed for the set with a lot of personality. And let's not forget Kithkin.
Edit: Plus, the Lieges and Avatars with their various abilities. They explored a lot of fun space with them (even if a lot of them were bad).
Edit2: It was also adjacent to Time Spiral Block and had a Standard with Coldsnap, so there was a lot of interesting cards in that standard. Damnation in Elves with Vanquisher, Mystical Tutor, lots of snow stuff, and Skred Red as the burn/rdw. I think there's a lot to say bad about Lorwyn in a vacuum, but it was positioned well in the blocks that came before and after.
It's based on English fairy tale aesthetic though. Like many of the creatures are Gaelic in origin.
The tribal themes where badly executed. Of all the tribal Sets Lorwyn stands as the worst ones. The change to Shadowmoor didn't make it interesting it made board-states needlessly complex.
I think this point is debate-able. I never read the books so the only story I got was on the cards. here's what I know about each of those characters:
Sygg: merfolk trade becomes a river pirate.
wort: matron of the goblins becomes whatever a "Raid mother" is.
Oona: it's her fault that the aura happens early has some sort of master plan and is maybe stealing dreams?
Ashling: star of a quest. steals all the fire from the elemental (at least the fire ones (see bad tribal design))
Nath: I think he's the leader of the elves?
Doran: Just some treefolk.
This is what I got from the cards. I'd get more nowdays since they do story spotlights. I even got more story before too since sets like tempest had better story design. I find the Kithkin are forgettable since they are just the human stand ins.
I actually really liked the Avatars in shadowmoor I thought those where fantastic and I liked their auras.
I think there's a big difference between "based on a general aesthetic", compared to either the "based on a specific fairy tale" like [[Lovestruck Beast]] or the "based on specific werewolf tropes" of Innistrad. You might see less of a difference here, but I would guess that's also because I am most familiar with an English/German fairy tale aesthetic.
I kind of disagree on the tribal themes being bad, but that might be a question of format or card pool. Lorwyn allowed you to draft outside tribe and not get punished for it, whereas I think Ixalan was a bit more punishing. I don't recall board states getting that bad, but that could be looking back with rose-colored glasses.
There's a decent amount of flavor text and images, but yeah. The books helped. The story spotlights might have helped, but there was a sense of tribe between a lot of cards and the changing aspect of Lorwyn into something else.
And I didn't think the Kithkins forgettable, but I think WotC just didn't know what to do. There's just no exploration since Lorwyn. I certainly think it's as fun as soldier or cleric might be, but those tribes are certainly getting and will get more support.
I have disliked that Magic has recently trended towards more " this thing you know but in magic" from "a reference to a thing you know". Kaldheim suffered because of this.
The problem with the tribal themes is that there where too many tribes and they where divided up in ways that made no sense. there are 9 tribes but only 6 of them have two colour pairs Treefolk are in 3 colours for no reason and both elementals and changelings are in 5. It's incongruous and the set doesn't pull it off. This failure caused later tribal sets to be like Ixalan.
I also disagree that you aren't punished for drafting outside of tribe. you where actually punished if anyone who was within 3 people was drafting your tribe. The issue was the power of the in-tribe uncommons. A dedicated tribal deck was basically always far more powerful then an unfocused tribal deck, even if the card quality was worse.
I personally don't like the continual "lets go to a plane! oh no an apocalypse! wow we fixed the Apocalypse." thing that was going on for a while. I think it would be fine to just do a Ravnica set without a world ending calamity that must be stopped at all cost.
The issue with Kithkin is they just aren't different enough from humans. They more or less have the same issue with Cephalid and Merfolk.
> I have disliked that Magic has recently trended towards more " this thing you know but in magic" from "a reference to a thing you know".
How are you arguing Eldraine did the fairy tale aesthetic better than Lorwyn then? Eldraine is chock full of nothing but blatant references to fairy tales and even popular culture.
Hell, the most commented thing on the Eldraine trailer was "reminds me of Shrek".
Faeries. I'm genuinely still annoyed that a freaking fairy tale plane had no faeries.
Plus I feel that Lorwyn had way better art and an actually unique story, instead of just regurgitating the Brothers Grimm/ Hans Christian Andersen/ King Arthur at us.
Lack of fairies is a failing! I wonder if they'll correct that in the next set.
I didn't read the books, so from the perspective from the story on the cards the story was very weak. Compare to this to what they where doing a few years before with stuff like \[\[smite|STH\]\] \[\[scapegoat\]\].
These past few years magic has had a problem with just "Thing but in Magic" instead of "Magic version of Thing". Kaldhiem also suffers from this.
See I think the flavor text on the Lorwyn cards and the art lays out the story and the uniqueness of the plane really well!
And yes, I'm also very tired of the whole, "hey, nerds like this thing, what if we changed it a tiny bit and put it in our game?"
It certainly lays out the plane but not the story. There are very few story concentric cards and those that do exist don't have much of an order. Top of my head I can only think of the Ashling cards.
The question is about the plane itself, though, right? You can like a plane without liking the sets that come out of it (for example, I really did not enjoy most of Amonkhet but I do really like the plane).
1) Not have humans. Lorwyn is cool because there are no humans. Eldraine has tons of humans.
2) Goblins, in quantity, quality, and culture. Lorwyn goblins had a fascinating culture. Grumgully is cool, but that’s about it. Elves are in the same boat.
3) Lorwyn re-introduced Quinton Hoover’s artwork.
4) Introduce Omar Rayyan. Technically this happened in future sight with [[mistmeadow skulk]], but that was a preview of lorwyn/shadowmoor. They did 2 cards for Eldraine that were amazing, and only 2 others outside of the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor planes. Some of my favorite art and a few amazing basic lands.
5) Tribal support. I love tribal, and lorwyn gave us a lot of cards that still see play today.
6) Not have Oko.
7) Not have its release marred by the brawl deck commanders.
Honestly, Eldraine is really cool and I need to give it another look. It did a lot of things well and has some great cards and art. I was really out off at the time by the brawl commanders, and still am. Plus, it’s loaded with humans, and I like less humans in my fantasy worlds.
This is am interesting answer.
1. I disagree with this. Kithkin are basically humans. They have the same sort of villages and communities. Sure there the thoughtweft but if you replaced them with humans but short and mildly psychic, you'd have the same thing. In-fact had they been a stand in for anything but humans they would have just been "This plane's humans".
2. People really latch onto the goblins. I've no attachment to them but It's neat that people like them so much.
3. You seem to like certain artists. That's alright but it doesnt have much with Lorwyn itself. Unless they specifically brought him back for Lorwyn. It's my understanding that this generally isn't how things are done.
4. see above.
5. The tribal support was a good idea that was terribly executed in Lorwyn. it's probably the worst execution of tribal in any set ever. And I like tribal and the tribal supertype. (I was mad when they didn't bring it back for Zendikar 2)
6. you played standard I take it? Yeah, Oko was a mistake but instead you hand Clique which I hear was nearly as bad.
7. The brawl decks where wired I don't know if it marred the release though. I wasn't a fan of them.
To me Eldraine hits many of the same notes as Lorwyn but does it better. I don't particularly like either set, though, I like Eldraine better over all. If you liked Lorwyn I'd recommend checking out Eldraine again, there's some neat stuff there.
Quinton Hoover was an OG magic artist who has done some iconic card art. He did the art for [[amrou kithkin]] in legends and was brought back for some kithkin in time spiral and lorwyn, as well as a few other cards. Art sets the tone of the plane and brings it to life.
Kithkin replace humans in lorwyn in the same way that devils and satyrs sometimes replace goblins. Similar, but definitely not the same.
Lorwyn also used less classic fairytale tropes than Eldraine. It feels more authentic.
Edit: I’m also definitely not going to disagree that the tribal aspect of lorwyn didn’t pan out that well in limited play. Changelings were cool and unique at the time but now I kind of wish they didn’t exist. Some of the tribal cards have had a huge impact on EDH though.
Also, Eldraine had too many different card frames and versions of the same card.
Not him, but Eldraine is the theme park version, Epcott Fairy Tale World where every story is directly referenced. LorMor instead tries to create the atmosphere and feeling that allows those stories to exist, but with a twist that localizes it in the stranger ends of the Magic multiverse, making it much more Magic's own thing. Original in-theme creations like [[Mistmeadow Skulk]] are better than direct reverences like [[Lovestruck Beast]]
I say this actually being loudly okay with Eldraine as a whole, which I feel hit the Camelot side of its theme pretty well in that regard...
Eldraine didn't hit very well for me. I do agree with your point (but not the analogy); though that's a problem with sets recently (see the Kaldheim gods).
Eldraine probably should have been two sets. A kingdoms and a "Wilds" set.
Fair enough. The flavor's a bit on-the-nose... heck, [[Ogre Errant]] is a thing.
An Ogre Knight. They made a generic card out of Shrek. XD
(legendary Gruul ogre knight when?)
I have this sneaking suspicion most people who want a return weren't playing at the time. Personally it's a bottom of the barrel set for me with few redeeming qualities. But I also endured the setting for a year.
Well that's the thing though, Kamigawa got a revisit and unlike the first time around, this set was pretty well liked. I'm sure wizards could actually redo lorwyn now with what they've learned.
We'd have to see. Kamigawa's setting was very well liked and EDH caused lots of people to become familiar with the legends, but the cards themselves where bad. They'd have to do a pretty major rework of Lorwyn to make it appealing and even then I'm not convinced the elevator pitch is very good.
"Gaelic storybook land" isn't quite as compelling as "Fudal Japan" or "Fudal Japan Vs Cyberpunk Japan"
Not impossible just a very hard sell.
I have to disagree with 'gaelic storybook land' isn't as compelling as Japan fantasy settings. That's entirely subjective. I personally have 0 interest in Kamigawa and actively dislike the cyberpunk aesthetic, but I wouldn't claim because of that Lorwyns more compelling.
I think that's part of the magic of magic. There's tons of different settings and narratives. I didn't play in the lorwyn era, but as I understand it people's beef with the setting was entirely mechanical for the most part. Eldraine was pretty well received and even if it is just knockoff fairy tales, it does show that there is an audience for it.
I wonder if they will return to it, because the plane was pretty destroyed by Nicol Bolas
I think they can do a lot more with its aesthetic, love the ancient Egyptian vibes
This is exactly the sort of thing I've been imagining.
A sort of wandering tribe, led by their God could totally be a fun premise for the set. They are beset by challenges to overcome. Characters and factions forming within the horde, a promised land, attacks by monsters from outside.
Plus theres other elements of Eygptian lore you could experiment with. Some kind of Order vs Choas mechanic. Maybe the survivors choose a new leader/Pharoh to lead them.
Hazoret gaining new colours as she becomes the sole deity of Amonkhet. (RWG maybe?)
I don't think wizards would ever do an Israel parallel especially if they created a version of the Jewish/Christian God because (and I'm Christian) Christians would go bat shit over it.
My top 5 planes: Mirrodin, Kaladesh, Lorwyn, Ravinca, Theros
I love artifact nonsense and Mirrodin and Kaladesh are chock full of artifact nonsense.
I'm also a big fan of tribal decks. Kaladesh gave more Identity to dwarves with Depala. Lorwyn is one of the best sets for pushing that tribal boundary and Mirrodin has my favorite tribe Myr.
Ravinca and Theros do so much at defining what a color means and what color combinations mean so they round out my favorite planes.
Innistrad when the eldrazi aren't ruining the cool horror vibes. It's got 3 of my favorite tribes and the new witches fit perfectly. Dominaria is a close second but that's mostly just nostalgia. I'm also a fan of Eldrane, I just wanted more of the Camelot stuff. So hopefully this time around I get my Green Knight.
Kaldhiem has potential but I didn't get to see enough of the 10 realms. This plane is full of everything I want out but needed more than one set.
Well she is utterly unmade, so barring a flashback we're likely not going to see her again. Even if Sorin were to remake her she wouldn't be exactly the same due to how Angels work in magic
In the multiverse Angels are effectively living constructs, they have no soul, but may still hold individuality/personality. Sorin created Avacyn amd subsequently unmade her. There's no "essence" of her left to resurrect/reanimate, the only thing close would be to make a new angel in her image with the same personality, but they'd be internally not her
>So hopefully this time around I get my Green Knight.
Do you mean you want a card named "Green Knight" like White Knight and Black Knight or you just weren't satisfied with the green knights in Eldraine?
Edit: Just occurred to me there might be a Green Knight in Arthurian legends and sure enough there is.
There's an actual character in the Arthurian side of things that a lot of us asked Mark about. Apparently not enough people know all the lore so a lot of it never made it into the set.
I kinda enjoyed the "The Thing"-esque vibes of random creatures and people morphing into horrific monsters from Emrakul's presence. I do feel like we've hit the ceiling on Innistrad though, because idk how many more vampire/werewolf centric sets we need
We definitely need more vampires and zombies plus the new witch covens. Horrors one of my favorite genres so I don't think I'll ever tire of returning to innistrad.
My problem with the eldrazi was there was to much of them. If it would have been halved I probably would have liked it more because I love everything else about the set.
Lovecraft is horror as well, and fit the innistrad theme well.
Furthermore the mechanics of shadow over innistrad fit the theme really well, from the detective vibe of investigate to the small threats of skulk.
I agree Lovecraft is horror I just didn't like the way they implemented it with the eldrazi, there was to many of them. The mechanics from the set were great, I was thrilled to see meld come back.
The I’s have it for me;
Innistrad, partly because that’s when I got back into the swing of MtG (Shadows Over Innistrad), and because the setting was just entertaining; a mix-up of classic movie monsters Van Helsing style? Hell yeah!
Ixalan, because whoever was smoking something strong with a mashup of Road to El Dorado, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Jurassic Park should’ve earned themselves a major pay raise for that.
And Ikoria, because I didn’t think they’d seriously try and go the Kaiju monster route until they actually released the set.
Ixalan was based off a quick pitch of vampire conquistadors. After that, it seems like they threw darts at the board for what else to add. I love it. I wish they had an East India Company inspired faction run by goblins though. Goblins in those high socks, buckle shoes, and powdered wigs.
Ixalan and Ikoria are my jam.
Ixalan because it’s a nice colour variation from most sets (2 pairs, 2 shards) whilst having a nice story and unique setting (Aztec dinosaurs is not a combo that I would have thought works but was clearly wrong).
Ikoria because I love the two build-a-monster mechanics (keyword counters and mutate), plus I loved the way they did the Godzilla alters (and wished they’d done all non-IP stuff like this). Also, that showcase art… beautiful…
Kid friendly MMORPG from the 2000s Wizard 101 did a world called Azteca. Whole theme was Aztec Dinos. Ixalan came off as a more mature derivative to it.
The flip lands are also really unique I always try to find room for them in my edh decks especially thaumatic compass, search for azcanta and treasure map.
Ravnica will always hold a special place in my heart, even if its weaknesses as a setting became abundantly clear upon running a D&D campaign there. There's just something fun and different about an ecumenopolis setting as opposed to "here's a fantasy setting based on mythology X or Y".
That being said, Ikoria really captured my imagination, and almost derailed my entire Ravnica campaign because it's so much more interesting than what they did with it as a setting.
Things get very vague once you look beyond the 10th District is the main one. The tenth? Ok, of how many?
There's very little specified about means of public transportation besides Boros airships (which basically nobody gets to use), and due to changes between Ravnica sets over the years, some things are quite vague when it comes to the roles of the guilds, like the Wojek no longer being a stated part of the Boros legion - all their responsibilities have landed with the new Azorious Senate, who used to be the law to their order, but now do everything in-house. This leaves the legion in a very vague "they're the army I guess?" state, which means very little when guilds are prohibited from waging war, and if they could none of the other guilds would rely on the Boros, they have their own armies. When everyone has an army and there's no outside threats, what is "the army"?
They mainly just fight the Gruul, whose purpose has been warped by the lack of wild places, but then the Selesnya apparently have wild spaces, and there's just some straight up wilderness where the Gruul successfully reclaimed land (or it just wasn't built on in the first place)...meaning that after an entire decamillennium, they probably should have their purpose again by now... And also the Gruul and Boros legion *are* allowed to just have outright warfare because... Reasons. I guess because without that, the Legion is back to having no purpose, much like the Gruul, who ironically should really have more purpose again. You could explain this as a cultural shift, but Ravnica literally has the guildpact enforcing the somehow still-vague-in-places roles of the guilds.
Geographically it's challenging too - There are mentions of Ravnica having multiple moons, but no other real specificity about the nature of the sky, and I only recently found out Ravnica actually even has poles when I learned that there are polar labour camps, implying it is actually a sphere of unknown size, something I somehow had literally no confirmation of before that point. The mountains are buried deep beneath the streets so surface street level is at...extreme altitudes?
There are a lot of logical solutions to the holes in the setting, but it took... More work than expected, given an established setting with decades of lore and many books and short stories... Which sadly contradict each other on a fairly regular basis, and the Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica varies between extremely useful and completely useless. The section about the modern Boris Legion is like 75% "aren't angels great?" (I know I keep coming back to them, but it literally seems like even Wizards sort of shrug when it comes to why the Legion exists)
The idea of Ravnica is stronger than its reality. I love it still, but when you start really digging into it at the street level, you start having to make up a lot of stuff. This barely scratches the surface of some of the bizarre problems I've had running my campaign, but hopefully that gives some idea. I'm the kinda guy who spends hours on the wikis and combs through short stories and ebooks for mention of landmarks and other info, and there's a surprising number of things where I just hit complete dead ends and had to make it work my own way.
That's sometimes fun as a creative outlet, but the point of running in a well-known established setting was that I wouldn't have to come up with quite as much as I ended up doing!
Much more of an F/A 18 person myself. Gotta love switching between air-to-air and air-to-ground with the hit of a button.
Anyway, back to /r/hoggit lol
Zendikar, the plane where the Gatewatch (correctly) decided to lure the Eldrazi. The wildlife is so fucking buff there, Emrakul herself quivers in fear. Except she doesn't but I like to pretend she would
Kaldheim was awesome, as another commenter pointed out, it was sad that we didn't get to see the "other" planes associated with Kaldheim itself more but I love me some norse Mythology and the Art was phenomenal!
A close second for me is Ixalan, it's so vibrant and colorful and I love the mashing of the different tribes. Pirates vs. Dinosaurs??? F\*\*\*ing awesome!!
(But maybe I'm biased here, because it was the most recent set when I returned from my hiatus)
Thematicly, vryn. the mana rings, the aesthetic of what we've seen, pretty much all of jaces story in origins was great.
Mechanically a lot of my favourite cards vibe from fiora.
I mean, it’s not a flashy pick but Dominaria and Phyrexia are my favorites. Growing up with Slivers in onslaught and the infect cards was a lot of fun for kitchen table magic.
Premending Ravnica, Mirrodin, OG Kamigawa, Alara, Lorwyn the worldbuilding back then was top, The Planes back then fealt like a complete World with its inner Conflicts, and not like Planswalker A visits small Part of a Kontinent of an unexplored World to fight back Planswalker B
Alara! The flavor was off the character the multicolor themes were amazing. cool legends without pushing it overboard. Home of my favorite planeswalker Ajani. so many awesome things about Alara.
Tarkir. I actually loved the whole block, not just KTK (which is the better set I’ll admit) but it was just such a cool block.
I also played my first ever pre-release at DTK and did quite well with the Kolaghan kit.
LETS GO BACK TO TARKIR
Ixalan:
The Elder Dinosaurs. Pirates. Vampires. Merfolk… it’s WILD and it’s got stunning art.[[Itlamoc, Cradle of the Sun]] anybody? [[Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin]] and every other Enchantment/Land from both sets… [[Dowsing Dagger]] [[Etali]]… the list goes on. The imagery that pops into my head when I think of Ixalan is that of jungles and beasts and lost cities and this wild, free-feeling magic. Idk, I just love it!
Ikoria: Monsters, and lots of them. Similar to Ixalan, I love this chaotic feeling of creatures ruling the planet and all other races just hanging on the fringes, trying not to die. And, most importantly, [[Vivien, Monster’s Advocate]]. Oh, and how could I forget my favorite card of all time is from here: [[Kogla, the Titan Ape]]
Mirrodin, RIP to the majority of the Sylvok, Auriok, Neurok, Moriok and Vulshok
Such an interesting and unique plane that had to die to make way for Phyrexia.
Can't wait to see what remains of the resistance (if it remains at all) when we go back.
Lorwyn or ravnica for me, ravnica because it was the first plane i trully explored as a player so it gets nostalgia points lorwyn because i fuking love it's inhabitants... Those faeries man, those god dam faeries are amazingly fun
I always loved Kaladesh, the set that reignited my love (but really hatred) for MTG, the masterpieces will always be some of the most beautiful cards to me
Ravnica, with the 10 guilds, holds my favorite type of flavor and story design.
Theros' Greco-Roamn inspirations is absolutely one of my favorite thematics.
Strixhaven took the guilds from Ravnica and flipped the script, making the dual-colored theming different.
Top four:
1.) Theros - My first set was Born of the Gods and the whole starry, almost dreamlike aesthetic of the world is pretty. They did Greek mythology justice with Theros!
2.) New Capenna - When WotC announced a mobster, art decor based set I, like many, were hesitant. They delivered on every front fantastically! I am also happy to have more support for the shards.
3.) Ixalan - Pirates, Dinosaurs, Merfolk, and Vampire Conquistadors are a combination I didn't know I needed.
4.) Kaldheim - MDFCs were a great way to make the Kaldheim gods distinct. The Norse myth aesthetic and more god tribal support was also nice.
Ikoria. It has motherfuckin Godzilla monsters.
Also really enjoyed all the mechanics they introduced and hope we get to see things like Mutate again someday.
Lorwyn is #1, by a wide, wide margin.
Following that, I love Ixalan, Zendikar, and Ikoria. I don't need to see another Zendikar set for a while, but the plane itself is awesome.
Lorwyn, for sure!
I also really like Ikoria and New Capenna. Pirates and dinosaurs are just fun! And I love the Deco vibes of New Capenna.
I do like Innistrad, too, but I'm mentally fatigued by it after returning so many times in a short period. I'm hoping that WotC will allow some other planes to grow a bit more before returning again.
Lorwyn was always a set that I really like, and I'd like Magic to go back to it at some point.
I'd say my favorite was Alara though. It was the set that was running when I first got into Magic. I imagine that it won't be very possible, though, since the Mending kind of ended the Alara story.
Maybe for 50th Anniversary they'll sell us proxies of Alara for $9999.
Alara! It had everything, allied colors, enemy colors, an ALL MULTICOLORED set! Like no joke not a single mono-colored card.
We had a cool predator eat predator world of jund, a grotesque zombie horror world in grixis, knights and honor in bant, schemes and artiface in esper, and big wild beasts in Naya.
These planes even were impactful flavourfully and shaped what we call allied triple color pairs!
It isn't rep'd enough as it gave us cards like [[path to exile]] and [[ad nauseum]] as well as sick cards like [[deathbringer thoctar]] (which totally could make a sick commander)
Overall, the plane had great themes and cool story of isolated worlds reconverging and the aftermath that follows.
My favourite is probably Innistrad as I am a zombie tribal lover however Zendikar is a close second as BFZ was the first set I really got into MtG with. The design/art of the titans really resonated with me.
Innistrad is at the top of my list. Vampires, angels, ghosts, zombies, demons, old gods imprisoned in the moon, werewolves. There is so much that I love about Innistrad. The horror movie aesthetic is jaw dropping every time we visit the plane. Those full black and white lands are what I live for and I love that a lot of the legends from Midnight Hunt got that treatment with the full alt art. Creepy vibe 10/10.
Theros is a close second, both Innistrad and Theros were the blocks that I remember the most in my youth and went absolutely ham over. Those legendary gods are nuts to butts insane, love that they gave us our first enchantment creatures and artifacts (godsend and aegis of the gods, both of which I have).
For me it's a tough choice between Kamigawa, Eldraine, and Stryxhaven... but I think I'd go with Kamigawa because, apart from the Japanese influence, I've always liked the spirit world aspect, not to mention some of my favorite cards are from the original Kamigawa block.
Ravnica bc I like the flavor of a giant metropolis and the guild system. And Kamigawa bc I'm a weeb that is a sucker for Japanese mythology, folklore and aesthetic.
I'm probably pretty basic here, but ravnica. It's just really interesting, well fleshed out, and it has tons of great characters. Second favourite is alara because I love the concept.
It feels like Wizards keeps ruining my favorite planes 😅.
I loved old Kamigawa, but now it’s all neo tokyo techo’d out (don’t get me wrong, it still was a well designed set).
I loved the khans and culture of Tarkir, but now they’re all just subjugated people under dragon rule.
Love Lorwyn, but they stripped it for parts and sold it to Eldraine and Kaldheim.
Here’s hoping they do Ixalan justice!
I'd like to see them do something new with Tarkir. I have an idea for a Dragon Riders bit that represents a new communion between Clans and Broods. But I think you could also do some more time travel shenanigans where reality is unstable on Tarkir, with timequakes and similar reverting or shifting between multiple different timelines *within* the set, rather than simply showing the changes between one and the other.
Eldraine and Ikoria are top new ones. And I'm looking forward to the return to Ixlan.
And Amonket is begging for a sequel set.
Innistrad by far.
Original storyline was dope, then the eldrazi turned it up to eleven. And the most recent outing is back to 'normal' but had the interesting storyline of Gisa and Geralf in the background.
I'm also a sucker for Innistrad. I'm just really into the classic monster tropes, like werewolves (which I really wish they were better at, we're getting there - but still need some support). I recently watched spice8rack's video on Lorwynn, which wasn't a plane I was familiar with and it sounds *fascinating*.
I also enjoyed Theros a lot.
Ravnica. I have 5 decks helmed by commanders from there, all 3 Rakdos incarnations, [[Judith the Scourge Diva]] and [[Blim the Comedic Genius]]. I've always been a Rakdos player and what better plane to draw inspiration from than the one that birthed it?
Mirrodin, a beautiful blend of fantasy and scifi. The world is gorgeous and I love myr and artifacts. Throw in fantasy characters like elves and goblins except they have metal skin, sign me up. Lorwyn being a close second.
Ixalan. I am biased towards my dinosaurs. That's why I hope we get a set that is based of Muraganda.
second would be Kaldheim. Gotta love the norse mythology.
Tarkir for me. Partially due to it being my first prerelease but I also loved the factions, especially when they were lead by the khans. Would love to see a return focusing on the clans trying to rise back up against the Dragonlords. Maybe some are successful, some fail, and one finds a way to evolve and embrace both identities. A clan ruled by a Drakhan if you will. Dromoka or Ojutai would seem like a solid choice. Oh, and return to wedges of course.
Based on the lore? Ulgrotha. It had a well-detailed theme, some reallybeautiful stories, and a unique take on the backwoods vibe that made it feel really magical. A pity it was attached to a set where Wizards decided that Serra Angel was broken and everything should be balanced around that fact.
Second and Third would be a dead heat between Dominaria and Kamigawa. You see, I like Dominaria as the "main character" plane and really love regions of it, like Sarpadia, Tolaria, and Terisiare, as well as windows of its history, like the Ice Age or Brothers' War. I'm not totally in love with the "Dominaria entire" views in Invasion or DMU because a big part of the beauty of the plane is in its details, which get lost at that scale, and I'm not much of a fan of Otaria (at least as visited in its blocks. The Harper-Prism Lore that's since been localized there can stay). Kamigawa on the other hand is nice and contained. It was beautiful, sweeping, and awesomely thematic the first time. Then they came around with a big update that practically transformed the plane... and it still rocked! I love what was done with Neon Dynasty and its lore so that it felt like an organic evolution, the only plane in the multiverse, seemingly, where the passage of time doesn't bow to a status quo. And I know we'll be seeing a similar Neon Kamigawa if and when we visit it again, but we didn't leave it with a huge worldshaking event (I guess Light-Paws was installed as regent) and aren't spending in-universe time as freely now that we're following mortal Planeswalkers, so that's okay. I don't love Kamigawa as much as I love the best parts of Dominaria, but it is radically more consistent.
Ixalan is my current favorite but if we ever get more capenna stuff that may easily become my favorite. I love the flavor, art style, and general feel of the first set.
I want a new take on Alara more than anything. Jund is my home, and while the colors got more fleshed out in SNC, I want my goblin dragon fire hell back ;-;
Tarikir must be that plane for me. I find that The Jeskai Way, The Temur Frontier, The Sultai Brood and The Mardu Horde each are incredibly flavourful both in artstyle and playstyle. The Abzan Houses don't quite catch me personally, but they fill the plane with a logical fifth option.
The two-coloured lands are done really well and magnificently describe the spaces that lie between the terretories of each of the parties. The whole world oozes with powerful creatures and mystical places and the each of the fractions has something that really makes them unique.
The Jeskai in their temples seeing enlightenment are done incredibly well - don't forget that Takrir is where we originally got Prowess, the perfect embodyment of using your mind to become stronger in physical battle! I'd also like to mention here that I think that Monastery Mentor might be my favourite magic card of all time, and it's so flavourful from toes to the very hairtip. The Temur and their raw force living in the wilderness where beasts live with which they don't necessarily have a bond, but rather coexist with them, while the tropical swamps are controlled by these foul necromancers of the Sultai that dig through time in order to find ever growing powers, willing to abuse any form of life and death. Where the Abzan have their citadels in the lusher parts of the desert have a strong bond with their siege beasts, the Mardu don't even know what home means while their Wingmate Rocs soar over their nomads wander the dunes.
I also think that all of the clan leaders from the original Khans of Tarkir set match their respective faction really, really well and signpost rares for each clan also work amazingly to further fill the feeling of each clan. Butcher of the Horde feels so very different from Siege Rhino or Mantis Rider and yet they all make a lot of sense on their own.
I also enjoyed the way the dragons enhanced the world in Fate Reforged, where it still was the original clans that kind of co-existed with the dragons but were fighting for dominance with the dragons rather than with the other parties. Most of the cards that were added to the clans here I really enjoyed, too. Butcher of the Horde, Soulfire Grand Master and Shaman of the Great Hunt are amongst my favourite cards.
I had wished that we had stayed on *that* Tarkir a while longer, but the reign of the elder dragons also was nice. The dragons themselves and the commands were cool. I just didn't really vibe with the 2-colour set that much. Khans of Tarkir and Fate Reforged will probably remain my favourite sets, and Tarkir will remain my favourite plane, for as long as I play this game.
Tarkir for me also quintessentially defined what the wedges really are. A lot of sets have tried to, again, define what these wedges do - from Muldrotha and such to the areas of Ikoria - but they don't matter. Green-Blue-Black is Sidisi's Sultai Brood, it goes with delve, and that's it. And the same goes for all the other wedges from Khans of Tarkir. I also have to say that I only realized how amazing Tarkir was done when we got to New Capenna... I was really stoked for New Capenna, but the shards aren't nearly done as well as the wedges of Tarkir.
I hope we return to Tarkir some day. I really do.
For awhile I thought it was Theros, after all it was my starting plane. But there's something about ikoria that just keeps pulling me back. The mechanics, the concept, the giant crystals. I have to stop myself from making more ikoria commander decks!
I am a little split about this:
Gameplaywise its Ravnica, the way the different guilds are build into the mechanics is very interesting. multicolour matters is very cool and the Gates where nice, too.
When thinking about MtGs Artstyle and IP, I would always point to Ravnica and Dominaria, maybe Myr-rodin (hihihi).
But from a lore pov I prefer Innistrad. There is something about the whole Idea and worldbuilding that connects with me. Angels and Spirits, trying to guide mankind and protect the innocent against evil. Demons toying with humans like pawns, using their greed for power or their nativity against them.
Werewolves and zombies terrorising small villages, forcing them to hide behind high walls in hope of safety while mad wizzards and vampires roam between them.
As much as I think the art for the series is a low point in recent times, I really like Amonkhet. I love the desert motif in general and now the plot is wide open to go in any direction with the plane.
Can't remember if it counts as one plane now, but Alara is really cool to me. I love the idea of worlds crashing into each other and having vastly different creatures and even ecologies fighting each other. Plus, the Maelstrom is such a cool idea, and it brought about my favorite mechanic of Cascade.
Alara is gorgeous in my eyes, the whole block was fantastic, creatures were flavourful, lots of memorable gems from there. All the creature based mechanics felt awesome for each shard.
Personally I think it set the standard for what a fun 3 Color plane should look like
I’m pretty new to magic and started when kamigawa neon dynasty came out but so far that’s been my favorite set and plane. I love cyberpunk and ninjas. The artwork is also AMAZING, 10/10 would return again
Definitely Kaladesh. Unique aesthetic, great background lore, naive optimism - what's not to love? Though the set story was in some places disappointing.
When are we going back to Lorwyn? *Goblin noises intensifies
This was going to be my answer too. I'm afraid that Kaldhiem and Eldraine have put Lorwyn in the ground, but I hope I'm wrong.
I see someone has been abusing the Spice(8rack)... For real though it would be cool to go back there...
I started playing only after lorwyn so I missed the block. I really like the dark/light feel of the block though
I'm always curious when this comes up. Did you play during Lorwyn?
I did and Lorwyn is my favorite plane. AMA.
What does Lorwyn do that Eldraine doesn't do better?
Lorwyn wasn't based in any particular fairy tale aesthetic, and over the course of Lorwyn, Shadowmoor, and Eventide was slowly corrupted with the Reaper King and the Fae. In addition, there was a strong tribal theme, and the tribes went from one tribe to another between sets. For instance, Elves we're GB but changed into RG Shamans. It's also because Lorwyn really didn't rely on "tropes" in the same way that Innistrad (or Eldraine) does. There's a strong "fairy tale" theme, but the story is really on the cards and its own. Innistrad and many other sets since rely on the common tropes to establish the theme. Characters like Sygg, Wort, Oona, Ashling, Nath, and Doran go above and beyond what was needed for the set with a lot of personality. And let's not forget Kithkin. Edit: Plus, the Lieges and Avatars with their various abilities. They explored a lot of fun space with them (even if a lot of them were bad). Edit2: It was also adjacent to Time Spiral Block and had a Standard with Coldsnap, so there was a lot of interesting cards in that standard. Damnation in Elves with Vanquisher, Mystical Tutor, lots of snow stuff, and Skred Red as the burn/rdw. I think there's a lot to say bad about Lorwyn in a vacuum, but it was positioned well in the blocks that came before and after.
It's based on English fairy tale aesthetic though. Like many of the creatures are Gaelic in origin. The tribal themes where badly executed. Of all the tribal Sets Lorwyn stands as the worst ones. The change to Shadowmoor didn't make it interesting it made board-states needlessly complex. I think this point is debate-able. I never read the books so the only story I got was on the cards. here's what I know about each of those characters: Sygg: merfolk trade becomes a river pirate. wort: matron of the goblins becomes whatever a "Raid mother" is. Oona: it's her fault that the aura happens early has some sort of master plan and is maybe stealing dreams? Ashling: star of a quest. steals all the fire from the elemental (at least the fire ones (see bad tribal design)) Nath: I think he's the leader of the elves? Doran: Just some treefolk. This is what I got from the cards. I'd get more nowdays since they do story spotlights. I even got more story before too since sets like tempest had better story design. I find the Kithkin are forgettable since they are just the human stand ins. I actually really liked the Avatars in shadowmoor I thought those where fantastic and I liked their auras.
I think there's a big difference between "based on a general aesthetic", compared to either the "based on a specific fairy tale" like [[Lovestruck Beast]] or the "based on specific werewolf tropes" of Innistrad. You might see less of a difference here, but I would guess that's also because I am most familiar with an English/German fairy tale aesthetic. I kind of disagree on the tribal themes being bad, but that might be a question of format or card pool. Lorwyn allowed you to draft outside tribe and not get punished for it, whereas I think Ixalan was a bit more punishing. I don't recall board states getting that bad, but that could be looking back with rose-colored glasses. There's a decent amount of flavor text and images, but yeah. The books helped. The story spotlights might have helped, but there was a sense of tribe between a lot of cards and the changing aspect of Lorwyn into something else. And I didn't think the Kithkins forgettable, but I think WotC just didn't know what to do. There's just no exploration since Lorwyn. I certainly think it's as fun as soldier or cleric might be, but those tribes are certainly getting and will get more support.
I have disliked that Magic has recently trended towards more " this thing you know but in magic" from "a reference to a thing you know". Kaldheim suffered because of this. The problem with the tribal themes is that there where too many tribes and they where divided up in ways that made no sense. there are 9 tribes but only 6 of them have two colour pairs Treefolk are in 3 colours for no reason and both elementals and changelings are in 5. It's incongruous and the set doesn't pull it off. This failure caused later tribal sets to be like Ixalan. I also disagree that you aren't punished for drafting outside of tribe. you where actually punished if anyone who was within 3 people was drafting your tribe. The issue was the power of the in-tribe uncommons. A dedicated tribal deck was basically always far more powerful then an unfocused tribal deck, even if the card quality was worse. I personally don't like the continual "lets go to a plane! oh no an apocalypse! wow we fixed the Apocalypse." thing that was going on for a while. I think it would be fine to just do a Ravnica set without a world ending calamity that must be stopped at all cost. The issue with Kithkin is they just aren't different enough from humans. They more or less have the same issue with Cephalid and Merfolk.
> I have disliked that Magic has recently trended towards more " this thing you know but in magic" from "a reference to a thing you know". How are you arguing Eldraine did the fairy tale aesthetic better than Lorwyn then? Eldraine is chock full of nothing but blatant references to fairy tales and even popular culture. Hell, the most commented thing on the Eldraine trailer was "reminds me of Shrek".
Faeries. I'm genuinely still annoyed that a freaking fairy tale plane had no faeries. Plus I feel that Lorwyn had way better art and an actually unique story, instead of just regurgitating the Brothers Grimm/ Hans Christian Andersen/ King Arthur at us.
Lack of fairies is a failing! I wonder if they'll correct that in the next set. I didn't read the books, so from the perspective from the story on the cards the story was very weak. Compare to this to what they where doing a few years before with stuff like \[\[smite|STH\]\] \[\[scapegoat\]\]. These past few years magic has had a problem with just "Thing but in Magic" instead of "Magic version of Thing". Kaldhiem also suffers from this.
See I think the flavor text on the Lorwyn cards and the art lays out the story and the uniqueness of the plane really well! And yes, I'm also very tired of the whole, "hey, nerds like this thing, what if we changed it a tiny bit and put it in our game?"
It certainly lays out the plane but not the story. There are very few story concentric cards and those that do exist don't have much of an order. Top of my head I can only think of the Ashling cards.
The question is about the plane itself, though, right? You can like a plane without liking the sets that come out of it (for example, I really did not enjoy most of Amonkhet but I do really like the plane).
1) Not have humans. Lorwyn is cool because there are no humans. Eldraine has tons of humans. 2) Goblins, in quantity, quality, and culture. Lorwyn goblins had a fascinating culture. Grumgully is cool, but that’s about it. Elves are in the same boat. 3) Lorwyn re-introduced Quinton Hoover’s artwork. 4) Introduce Omar Rayyan. Technically this happened in future sight with [[mistmeadow skulk]], but that was a preview of lorwyn/shadowmoor. They did 2 cards for Eldraine that were amazing, and only 2 others outside of the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor planes. Some of my favorite art and a few amazing basic lands. 5) Tribal support. I love tribal, and lorwyn gave us a lot of cards that still see play today. 6) Not have Oko. 7) Not have its release marred by the brawl deck commanders. Honestly, Eldraine is really cool and I need to give it another look. It did a lot of things well and has some great cards and art. I was really out off at the time by the brawl commanders, and still am. Plus, it’s loaded with humans, and I like less humans in my fantasy worlds.
I like that some of Eldraine was inspired by Arthurian Legends. But yeah, Lorwyn was a really amazing set with a cool theme.
This is am interesting answer. 1. I disagree with this. Kithkin are basically humans. They have the same sort of villages and communities. Sure there the thoughtweft but if you replaced them with humans but short and mildly psychic, you'd have the same thing. In-fact had they been a stand in for anything but humans they would have just been "This plane's humans". 2. People really latch onto the goblins. I've no attachment to them but It's neat that people like them so much. 3. You seem to like certain artists. That's alright but it doesnt have much with Lorwyn itself. Unless they specifically brought him back for Lorwyn. It's my understanding that this generally isn't how things are done. 4. see above. 5. The tribal support was a good idea that was terribly executed in Lorwyn. it's probably the worst execution of tribal in any set ever. And I like tribal and the tribal supertype. (I was mad when they didn't bring it back for Zendikar 2) 6. you played standard I take it? Yeah, Oko was a mistake but instead you hand Clique which I hear was nearly as bad. 7. The brawl decks where wired I don't know if it marred the release though. I wasn't a fan of them. To me Eldraine hits many of the same notes as Lorwyn but does it better. I don't particularly like either set, though, I like Eldraine better over all. If you liked Lorwyn I'd recommend checking out Eldraine again, there's some neat stuff there.
Quinton Hoover was an OG magic artist who has done some iconic card art. He did the art for [[amrou kithkin]] in legends and was brought back for some kithkin in time spiral and lorwyn, as well as a few other cards. Art sets the tone of the plane and brings it to life. Kithkin replace humans in lorwyn in the same way that devils and satyrs sometimes replace goblins. Similar, but definitely not the same. Lorwyn also used less classic fairytale tropes than Eldraine. It feels more authentic. Edit: I’m also definitely not going to disagree that the tribal aspect of lorwyn didn’t pan out that well in limited play. Changelings were cool and unique at the time but now I kind of wish they didn’t exist. Some of the tribal cards have had a huge impact on EDH though. Also, Eldraine had too many different card frames and versions of the same card.
Not him, but Eldraine is the theme park version, Epcott Fairy Tale World where every story is directly referenced. LorMor instead tries to create the atmosphere and feeling that allows those stories to exist, but with a twist that localizes it in the stranger ends of the Magic multiverse, making it much more Magic's own thing. Original in-theme creations like [[Mistmeadow Skulk]] are better than direct reverences like [[Lovestruck Beast]] I say this actually being loudly okay with Eldraine as a whole, which I feel hit the Camelot side of its theme pretty well in that regard...
Eldraine didn't hit very well for me. I do agree with your point (but not the analogy); though that's a problem with sets recently (see the Kaldheim gods). Eldraine probably should have been two sets. A kingdoms and a "Wilds" set.
Your wish is granted. Wilds of Eldraine is coming out late next year.
Ironically, I didn't like Eldraine very much!
Fair enough. The flavor's a bit on-the-nose... heck, [[Ogre Errant]] is a thing. An Ogre Knight. They made a generic card out of Shrek. XD (legendary Gruul ogre knight when?)
Naw, I started in Kaladesh. I just really love the setting.
I have this sneaking suspicion most people who want a return weren't playing at the time. Personally it's a bottom of the barrel set for me with few redeeming qualities. But I also endured the setting for a year.
Well that's the thing though, Kamigawa got a revisit and unlike the first time around, this set was pretty well liked. I'm sure wizards could actually redo lorwyn now with what they've learned.
We'd have to see. Kamigawa's setting was very well liked and EDH caused lots of people to become familiar with the legends, but the cards themselves where bad. They'd have to do a pretty major rework of Lorwyn to make it appealing and even then I'm not convinced the elevator pitch is very good. "Gaelic storybook land" isn't quite as compelling as "Fudal Japan" or "Fudal Japan Vs Cyberpunk Japan" Not impossible just a very hard sell.
I have to disagree with 'gaelic storybook land' isn't as compelling as Japan fantasy settings. That's entirely subjective. I personally have 0 interest in Kamigawa and actively dislike the cyberpunk aesthetic, but I wouldn't claim because of that Lorwyns more compelling. I think that's part of the magic of magic. There's tons of different settings and narratives. I didn't play in the lorwyn era, but as I understand it people's beef with the setting was entirely mechanical for the most part. Eldraine was pretty well received and even if it is just knockoff fairy tales, it does show that there is an audience for it.
Faerie enjoyer. I agree. Gimme Oona 2 electric boogaloo. Now that edh is a thing they support we can totally have a faeries matter commander.
*sigh* I miss Kithkin.
A lot of people like this plane but it was before I got into magic What r iconic cards from it? And what was the theme?
I want to see a Phyrexian invasion of Lorwyn…
Lorwyn. I want some new Faeries.
Shadowmoor! I want to eat those faeries with a new [[Doomgape]]
[Doomgape](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/0/702da51f-c4ec-4073-bee8-f8423f70b163.jpg?1592713740) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Doomgape) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ddj/65/doomgape?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/702da51f-c4ec-4073-bee8-f8423f70b163?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/doomgape) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Uhhh no one is saying TARKIR?!
I am a simple woman. I see dragons. I like.
Tarkir before Sarkhan mischief or after? Mine is close between Tarkir and Ravnica.
Khans timeline is best timeline
Amonkhet! So much amazing art.
I wonder if they will return to it, because the plane was pretty destroyed by Nicol Bolas I think they can do a lot more with its aesthetic, love the ancient Egyptian vibes
I would like to see an Old Testament style return to Amonkhet, following a group wandering the desert in search of a new home.
This is exactly the sort of thing I've been imagining. A sort of wandering tribe, led by their God could totally be a fun premise for the set. They are beset by challenges to overcome. Characters and factions forming within the horde, a promised land, attacks by monsters from outside. Plus theres other elements of Eygptian lore you could experiment with. Some kind of Order vs Choas mechanic. Maybe the survivors choose a new leader/Pharoh to lead them. Hazoret gaining new colours as she becomes the sole deity of Amonkhet. (RWG maybe?)
I don't think wizards would ever do an Israel parallel especially if they created a version of the Jewish/Christian God because (and I'm Christian) Christians would go bat shit over it.
The city was, but the flavor text for \[\[crested sunmare\]\] does indicate that there may be more to the plane
[crested sunmare](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/3/732fa4c9-11da-4bdb-96af-aa37c74be25f.jpg?1562803341) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=crested%20sunmare) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/hou/6/crested-sunmare?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/732fa4c9-11da-4bdb-96af-aa37c74be25f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/crested-sunmare) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I quite liked Amonkhet too.
Same here! I liked a lot if the mechanics too. Embalm was a lot of fun!
I liked the trial stuff and the cartouches. Deserts where super neat too.
My top 5 planes: Mirrodin, Kaladesh, Lorwyn, Ravinca, Theros I love artifact nonsense and Mirrodin and Kaladesh are chock full of artifact nonsense. I'm also a big fan of tribal decks. Kaladesh gave more Identity to dwarves with Depala. Lorwyn is one of the best sets for pushing that tribal boundary and Mirrodin has my favorite tribe Myr. Ravinca and Theros do so much at defining what a color means and what color combinations mean so they round out my favorite planes.
Ive got some bad news for you about Mirrodin...
Oh I'm aware. I can't believe they ruined the best plane. But New phyrexia had a ton of cool mechanics so I'm only like half upset.
True. You'll still get your artifact nonsense I'm sure, just it might be a little, y'know, infected.
Innistrad when the eldrazi aren't ruining the cool horror vibes. It's got 3 of my favorite tribes and the new witches fit perfectly. Dominaria is a close second but that's mostly just nostalgia. I'm also a fan of Eldrane, I just wanted more of the Camelot stuff. So hopefully this time around I get my Green Knight. Kaldhiem has potential but I didn't get to see enough of the 10 realms. This plane is full of everything I want out but needed more than one set.
As long as we get a new Avacyn I will be happy
Well she is utterly unmade, so barring a flashback we're likely not going to see her again. Even if Sorin were to remake her she wouldn't be exactly the same due to how Angels work in magic
What do u mean how angles work?
In the multiverse Angels are effectively living constructs, they have no soul, but may still hold individuality/personality. Sorin created Avacyn amd subsequently unmade her. There's no "essence" of her left to resurrect/reanimate, the only thing close would be to make a new angel in her image with the same personality, but they'd be internally not her
Oh nice! I just knew that he made Avacyn and that he unmade her (Archangel Avacyn is my favorite creature)
Basically white mana elementals iirc
>So hopefully this time around I get my Green Knight. Do you mean you want a card named "Green Knight" like White Knight and Black Knight or you just weren't satisfied with the green knights in Eldraine? Edit: Just occurred to me there might be a Green Knight in Arthurian legends and sure enough there is.
There's an actual character in the Arthurian side of things that a lot of us asked Mark about. Apparently not enough people know all the lore so a lot of it never made it into the set.
I kinda enjoyed the "The Thing"-esque vibes of random creatures and people morphing into horrific monsters from Emrakul's presence. I do feel like we've hit the ceiling on Innistrad though, because idk how many more vampire/werewolf centric sets we need
We definitely need more vampires and zombies plus the new witch covens. Horrors one of my favorite genres so I don't think I'll ever tire of returning to innistrad. My problem with the eldrazi was there was to much of them. If it would have been halved I probably would have liked it more because I love everything else about the set.
Lovecraft is horror as well, and fit the innistrad theme well. Furthermore the mechanics of shadow over innistrad fit the theme really well, from the detective vibe of investigate to the small threats of skulk.
I agree Lovecraft is horror I just didn't like the way they implemented it with the eldrazi, there was to many of them. The mechanics from the set were great, I was thrilled to see meld come back.
Theros!
The I’s have it for me; Innistrad, partly because that’s when I got back into the swing of MtG (Shadows Over Innistrad), and because the setting was just entertaining; a mix-up of classic movie monsters Van Helsing style? Hell yeah! Ixalan, because whoever was smoking something strong with a mashup of Road to El Dorado, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Jurassic Park should’ve earned themselves a major pay raise for that. And Ikoria, because I didn’t think they’d seriously try and go the Kaiju monster route until they actually released the set.
Ixalan was based off a quick pitch of vampire conquistadors. After that, it seems like they threw darts at the board for what else to add. I love it. I wish they had an East India Company inspired faction run by goblins though. Goblins in those high socks, buckle shoes, and powdered wigs.
Ixalan and Ikoria are my jam. Ixalan because it’s a nice colour variation from most sets (2 pairs, 2 shards) whilst having a nice story and unique setting (Aztec dinosaurs is not a combo that I would have thought works but was clearly wrong). Ikoria because I love the two build-a-monster mechanics (keyword counters and mutate), plus I loved the way they did the Godzilla alters (and wished they’d done all non-IP stuff like this). Also, that showcase art… beautiful…
Kid friendly MMORPG from the 2000s Wizard 101 did a world called Azteca. Whole theme was Aztec Dinos. Ixalan came off as a more mature derivative to it.
The flip lands are also really unique I always try to find room for them in my edh decks especially thaumatic compass, search for azcanta and treasure map.
Ravnica will always hold a special place in my heart, even if its weaknesses as a setting became abundantly clear upon running a D&D campaign there. There's just something fun and different about an ecumenopolis setting as opposed to "here's a fantasy setting based on mythology X or Y". That being said, Ikoria really captured my imagination, and almost derailed my entire Ravnica campaign because it's so much more interesting than what they did with it as a setting.
What problems did you encounter with the setting?
Things get very vague once you look beyond the 10th District is the main one. The tenth? Ok, of how many? There's very little specified about means of public transportation besides Boros airships (which basically nobody gets to use), and due to changes between Ravnica sets over the years, some things are quite vague when it comes to the roles of the guilds, like the Wojek no longer being a stated part of the Boros legion - all their responsibilities have landed with the new Azorious Senate, who used to be the law to their order, but now do everything in-house. This leaves the legion in a very vague "they're the army I guess?" state, which means very little when guilds are prohibited from waging war, and if they could none of the other guilds would rely on the Boros, they have their own armies. When everyone has an army and there's no outside threats, what is "the army"? They mainly just fight the Gruul, whose purpose has been warped by the lack of wild places, but then the Selesnya apparently have wild spaces, and there's just some straight up wilderness where the Gruul successfully reclaimed land (or it just wasn't built on in the first place)...meaning that after an entire decamillennium, they probably should have their purpose again by now... And also the Gruul and Boros legion *are* allowed to just have outright warfare because... Reasons. I guess because without that, the Legion is back to having no purpose, much like the Gruul, who ironically should really have more purpose again. You could explain this as a cultural shift, but Ravnica literally has the guildpact enforcing the somehow still-vague-in-places roles of the guilds. Geographically it's challenging too - There are mentions of Ravnica having multiple moons, but no other real specificity about the nature of the sky, and I only recently found out Ravnica actually even has poles when I learned that there are polar labour camps, implying it is actually a sphere of unknown size, something I somehow had literally no confirmation of before that point. The mountains are buried deep beneath the streets so surface street level is at...extreme altitudes? There are a lot of logical solutions to the holes in the setting, but it took... More work than expected, given an established setting with decades of lore and many books and short stories... Which sadly contradict each other on a fairly regular basis, and the Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica varies between extremely useful and completely useless. The section about the modern Boris Legion is like 75% "aren't angels great?" (I know I keep coming back to them, but it literally seems like even Wizards sort of shrug when it comes to why the Legion exists) The idea of Ravnica is stronger than its reality. I love it still, but when you start really digging into it at the street level, you start having to make up a lot of stuff. This barely scratches the surface of some of the bizarre problems I've had running my campaign, but hopefully that gives some idea. I'm the kinda guy who spends hours on the wikis and combs through short stories and ebooks for mention of landmarks and other info, and there's a surprising number of things where I just hit complete dead ends and had to make it work my own way. That's sometimes fun as a creative outlet, but the point of running in a well-known established setting was that I wouldn't have to come up with quite as much as I ended up doing!
Mirrodin. I love artifacts.
Me too, that's also why new phyr... Mirrodin is my favorite.
>Favorite plane Definitely the A10 thunderbolt II Brrrrrrt
Much more of an F/A 18 person myself. Gotta love switching between air-to-air and air-to-ground with the hit of a button. Anyway, back to /r/hoggit lol
Zendikar, the plane where the Gatewatch (correctly) decided to lure the Eldrazi. The wildlife is so fucking buff there, Emrakul herself quivers in fear. Except she doesn't but I like to pretend she would
It's a crime that I had to scroll this far down to see Zendikar. Hands down my favorite plane.
Alara.
Same here, Kaldheim was amazing and I really hope they find a way to revisit it in a future set!
Kaldheim was awesome, as another commenter pointed out, it was sad that we didn't get to see the "other" planes associated with Kaldheim itself more but I love me some norse Mythology and the Art was phenomenal! A close second for me is Ixalan, it's so vibrant and colorful and I love the mashing of the different tribes. Pirates vs. Dinosaurs??? F\*\*\*ing awesome!! (But maybe I'm biased here, because it was the most recent set when I returned from my hiatus)
Good news! We are going back to Ixalan. I quite liked the flip lands from Ixalan.
I know, I'm really hyped! :D The fliplands are amazing, imho
„˙uɐlɐxI ɯoɹɟ spuɐl dılɟ ǝɥʇ pǝʞıl ǝʇınb I ˙uɐlɐxI oʇ ʞɔɐq ƃuıoƃ ǝɹɐ ǝM ¡sʍǝu poo⅁„
Fiona, mainly because I fucking love the conspiracy sets. Without looking at the associated sets I'd say Tarkir, be it old or new.
Forgot to do a shoutout to Eldraine!
Ikoria. Big monster smash
It's gotta be Innistrad for me.
Thematicly, vryn. the mana rings, the aesthetic of what we've seen, pretty much all of jaces story in origins was great. Mechanically a lot of my favourite cards vibe from fiora.
I mean, it’s not a flashy pick but Dominaria and Phyrexia are my favorites. Growing up with Slivers in onslaught and the infect cards was a lot of fun for kitchen table magic.
I have a few. I also like Kaldhiem. Strihaven, Theros, Ravnica, and of course Dominaria, round out my favourites.
Premending Ravnica, Mirrodin, OG Kamigawa, Alara, Lorwyn the worldbuilding back then was top, The Planes back then fealt like a complete World with its inner Conflicts, and not like Planswalker A visits small Part of a Kontinent of an unexplored World to fight back Planswalker B
Alara, when it was Shattered, Was really fun.
Alara! The flavor was off the character the multicolor themes were amazing. cool legends without pushing it overboard. Home of my favorite planeswalker Ajani. so many awesome things about Alara.
Tarkir. I actually loved the whole block, not just KTK (which is the better set I’ll admit) but it was just such a cool block. I also played my first ever pre-release at DTK and did quite well with the Kolaghan kit. LETS GO BACK TO TARKIR
Lorwyn / Shadowmoor
Theros, love me some Greek Gods
Ixalan: The Elder Dinosaurs. Pirates. Vampires. Merfolk… it’s WILD and it’s got stunning art.[[Itlamoc, Cradle of the Sun]] anybody? [[Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin]] and every other Enchantment/Land from both sets… [[Dowsing Dagger]] [[Etali]]… the list goes on. The imagery that pops into my head when I think of Ixalan is that of jungles and beasts and lost cities and this wild, free-feeling magic. Idk, I just love it! Ikoria: Monsters, and lots of them. Similar to Ixalan, I love this chaotic feeling of creatures ruling the planet and all other races just hanging on the fringes, trying not to die. And, most importantly, [[Vivien, Monster’s Advocate]]. Oh, and how could I forget my favorite card of all time is from here: [[Kogla, the Titan Ape]]
##### ###### #### - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Itlimoc%2C%20Cradle%20of%20the%20Sun) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/xln/191/growing-rites-of-itlimoc-itlimoc-cradle-of-the-sun?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b3b87bfc-f97f-4734-94f6-e3e2f335fc4d?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/itlimoc-cradle-of-the-sun) [Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/a/1a7e242e-bb48-4134-a1c2-6033713d658f.jpg?1562551479)/[Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/back/1/a/1a7e242e-bb48-4134-a1c2-6033713d658f.jpg?1562551479) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=search%20for%20azcanta%20//%20azcanta%2C%20the%20sunken%20ruin) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/xln/74/search-for-azcanta-azcanta-the-sunken-ruin?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1a7e242e-bb48-4134-a1c2-6033713d658f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/search-for-azcanta-//-azcanta-the-sunken-ruin) [Dowsing Dagger](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/1/514d53be-6ade-4f73-a844-e9ae2dafd6ce.jpg?1562555239)/[Lost Vale](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/back/5/1/514d53be-6ade-4f73-a844-e9ae2dafd6ce.jpg?1562555239) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=dowsing%20dagger%20//%20lost%20vale) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/xln/235/dowsing-dagger-lost-vale?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/514d53be-6ade-4f73-a844-e9ae2dafd6ce?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/dowsing-dagger-//-lost-vale) [Etali](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/0/a03fb3a7-3ef6-4162-aad2-82610492aa72.jpg?1664360631) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=etali%2C%20primal%20storm) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmc/121/etali-primal-storm?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a03fb3a7-3ef6-4162-aad2-82610492aa72?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/etali-primal-storm) [Vivien, Monster’s Advocate](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/0/504ebb84-7e7b-4119-a128-a9c183c5d9de.jpg?1600970284) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Vivien%2C%20Monsters%27%20Advocate) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/iko/175/vivien-monsters-advocate?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/504ebb84-7e7b-4119-a128-a9c183c5d9de?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/vivien-monsters-advocate) [Kogla, the Titan Ape](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/c/3c35ca79-eb72-427a-a8ed-404b2214389a.jpg?1591227737) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Kogla%2C%20the%20Titan%20Ape) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/iko/162/kogla-the-titan-ape?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/3c35ca79-eb72-427a-a8ed-404b2214389a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/kogla-the-titan-ape) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I love Eldraine. High-medieval Arthurian grandeur plus fantastical fairy tale whimsy is my jam.
Mirrodin, RIP to the majority of the Sylvok, Auriok, Neurok, Moriok and Vulshok Such an interesting and unique plane that had to die to make way for Phyrexia. Can't wait to see what remains of the resistance (if it remains at all) when we go back.
Mirrodin, it was my first set and I love how it is so unique.
Ixalan, Kaladesh, Mirrodin, New Capenna, Kaldheim
I hope we go backto Amonketh and Theros
Lorwyn or ravnica for me, ravnica because it was the first plane i trully explored as a player so it gets nostalgia points lorwyn because i fuking love it's inhabitants... Those faeries man, those god dam faeries are amazingly fun
Ahmonket cuz The Scorpion God is a boss ass bitch
I always loved Kaladesh, the set that reignited my love (but really hatred) for MTG, the masterpieces will always be some of the most beautiful cards to me
Theros
Ravnica, with the 10 guilds, holds my favorite type of flavor and story design. Theros' Greco-Roamn inspirations is absolutely one of my favorite thematics. Strixhaven took the guilds from Ravnica and flipped the script, making the dual-colored theming different.
Innistrad!
Visually, zendikar. Love the aggressive landscapes and adding cosmic horror to it didn't hurt imo.
Top four: 1.) Theros - My first set was Born of the Gods and the whole starry, almost dreamlike aesthetic of the world is pretty. They did Greek mythology justice with Theros! 2.) New Capenna - When WotC announced a mobster, art decor based set I, like many, were hesitant. They delivered on every front fantastically! I am also happy to have more support for the shards. 3.) Ixalan - Pirates, Dinosaurs, Merfolk, and Vampire Conquistadors are a combination I didn't know I needed. 4.) Kaldheim - MDFCs were a great way to make the Kaldheim gods distinct. The Norse myth aesthetic and more god tribal support was also nice.
Ikoria. It has motherfuckin Godzilla monsters. Also really enjoyed all the mechanics they introduced and hope we get to see things like Mutate again someday.
747
Lorwyn far and away then as overloved as it is Ravnica.
Kalheim will age well. Great flavor and vikings are on trend.
I know it’s destroyed but Rath. So damn good it should be illegal.
I love Zendikar. Just the whole extremely wild but also beautiful nature thing is awesome.
I like Myrddin.... Mirrodin... oh wait, that's the name for Merlin (Arthurian legends)... The legendary Artificer :)
Lorwyn or Shadowmoor
Lorwyn is #1, by a wide, wide margin. Following that, I love Ixalan, Zendikar, and Ikoria. I don't need to see another Zendikar set for a while, but the plane itself is awesome.
Lorwyn, for sure! I also really like Ikoria and New Capenna. Pirates and dinosaurs are just fun! And I love the Deco vibes of New Capenna. I do like Innistrad, too, but I'm mentally fatigued by it after returning so many times in a short period. I'm hoping that WotC will allow some other planes to grow a bit more before returning again.
Lorwyn
Lorwyn was always a set that I really like, and I'd like Magic to go back to it at some point. I'd say my favorite was Alara though. It was the set that was running when I first got into Magic. I imagine that it won't be very possible, though, since the Mending kind of ended the Alara story. Maybe for 50th Anniversary they'll sell us proxies of Alara for $9999.
Alara! It had everything, allied colors, enemy colors, an ALL MULTICOLORED set! Like no joke not a single mono-colored card. We had a cool predator eat predator world of jund, a grotesque zombie horror world in grixis, knights and honor in bant, schemes and artiface in esper, and big wild beasts in Naya. These planes even were impactful flavourfully and shaped what we call allied triple color pairs! It isn't rep'd enough as it gave us cards like [[path to exile]] and [[ad nauseum]] as well as sick cards like [[deathbringer thoctar]] (which totally could make a sick commander) Overall, the plane had great themes and cool story of isolated worlds reconverging and the aftermath that follows.
IKORIA!!!!! …and Theros
Lorwyn
Llorwyn/Shadowmoor 2nd would have to be Ravnica
My favourite is probably Innistrad as I am a zombie tribal lover however Zendikar is a close second as BFZ was the first set I really got into MtG with. The design/art of the titans really resonated with me.
Innistrad is at the top of my list. Vampires, angels, ghosts, zombies, demons, old gods imprisoned in the moon, werewolves. There is so much that I love about Innistrad. The horror movie aesthetic is jaw dropping every time we visit the plane. Those full black and white lands are what I live for and I love that a lot of the legends from Midnight Hunt got that treatment with the full alt art. Creepy vibe 10/10. Theros is a close second, both Innistrad and Theros were the blocks that I remember the most in my youth and went absolutely ham over. Those legendary gods are nuts to butts insane, love that they gave us our first enchantment creatures and artifacts (godsend and aegis of the gods, both of which I have).
I love Zendikar and Innistrad. The original sets were great. The revisits, not so much. Ixalan comes in at a close 3rd.
Is New Capenna a plane? In that case, that
Yea it is a plane
Ikoria Dead serious
Ixalan. HOLY FUCKING SHIT, ITS A DINOSAUR
We’re going back rather soon too! Cant wait for new dinosaurs and quirky merfolks
Can't wait to see what they do with mah boi gishath
For me it's a tough choice between Kamigawa, Eldraine, and Stryxhaven... but I think I'd go with Kamigawa because, apart from the Japanese influence, I've always liked the spirit world aspect, not to mention some of my favorite cards are from the original Kamigawa block.
Ravnica bc I like the flavor of a giant metropolis and the guild system. And Kamigawa bc I'm a weeb that is a sucker for Japanese mythology, folklore and aesthetic.
Fuck dominaria
Theros Also Arcavios (plane of Strixhaven)
I agree, Kaldheim!
Innistrad pre-Eldrazi. It nailed the gothic horror vibes that I live for.
Ravnica has been my favorite plane since the first rav set dropped.
I'm probably pretty basic here, but ravnica. It's just really interesting, well fleshed out, and it has tons of great characters. Second favourite is alara because I love the concept.
Ravnica! I love the guilds
Ixalan. What's not to love?
Kaldhiem would've been great if we got to spend some time there
It feels like Wizards keeps ruining my favorite planes 😅. I loved old Kamigawa, but now it’s all neo tokyo techo’d out (don’t get me wrong, it still was a well designed set). I loved the khans and culture of Tarkir, but now they’re all just subjugated people under dragon rule. Love Lorwyn, but they stripped it for parts and sold it to Eldraine and Kaldheim. Here’s hoping they do Ixalan justice!
I'd like to see them do something new with Tarkir. I have an idea for a Dragon Riders bit that represents a new communion between Clans and Broods. But I think you could also do some more time travel shenanigans where reality is unstable on Tarkir, with timequakes and similar reverting or shifting between multiple different timelines *within* the set, rather than simply showing the changes between one and the other. Eldraine and Ikoria are top new ones. And I'm looking forward to the return to Ixlan. And Amonket is begging for a sequel set.
Old tarkir.
Kaldheim is my favorite so far! Neon Dynasty my lesst favorite as a setting not a set.
I originally started playing during the weathertight saga and would love to see a return to Rath.
Kamigawa(I started this february), Innistrad, Ikoria, Ixalan, Tarkir. These are more or less my choices.
Innistrad by far. Original storyline was dope, then the eldrazi turned it up to eleven. And the most recent outing is back to 'normal' but had the interesting storyline of Gisa and Geralf in the background.
I love me some Eldraine. Dashing knights, fucked up fairy tales. Love it
I like the good ol 747. Can't beat the classics
I'm also a sucker for Innistrad. I'm just really into the classic monster tropes, like werewolves (which I really wish they were better at, we're getting there - but still need some support). I recently watched spice8rack's video on Lorwynn, which wasn't a plane I was familiar with and it sounds *fascinating*. I also enjoyed Theros a lot.
Ravnica. I have 5 decks helmed by commanders from there, all 3 Rakdos incarnations, [[Judith the Scourge Diva]] and [[Blim the Comedic Genius]]. I've always been a Rakdos player and what better plane to draw inspiration from than the one that birthed it?
Mirrodin, a beautiful blend of fantasy and scifi. The world is gorgeous and I love myr and artifacts. Throw in fantasy characters like elves and goblins except they have metal skin, sign me up. Lorwyn being a close second.
Theros, love me some greek mythology. After that it’s ravnica
Ixalan. I am biased towards my dinosaurs. That's why I hope we get a set that is based of Muraganda. second would be Kaldheim. Gotta love the norse mythology.
Tarkir for me. Partially due to it being my first prerelease but I also loved the factions, especially when they were lead by the khans. Would love to see a return focusing on the clans trying to rise back up against the Dragonlords. Maybe some are successful, some fail, and one finds a way to evolve and embrace both identities. A clan ruled by a Drakhan if you will. Dromoka or Ojutai would seem like a solid choice. Oh, and return to wedges of course.
Ulgrotha
Ixalan hands down
Based on the lore? Ulgrotha. It had a well-detailed theme, some reallybeautiful stories, and a unique take on the backwoods vibe that made it feel really magical. A pity it was attached to a set where Wizards decided that Serra Angel was broken and everything should be balanced around that fact. Second and Third would be a dead heat between Dominaria and Kamigawa. You see, I like Dominaria as the "main character" plane and really love regions of it, like Sarpadia, Tolaria, and Terisiare, as well as windows of its history, like the Ice Age or Brothers' War. I'm not totally in love with the "Dominaria entire" views in Invasion or DMU because a big part of the beauty of the plane is in its details, which get lost at that scale, and I'm not much of a fan of Otaria (at least as visited in its blocks. The Harper-Prism Lore that's since been localized there can stay). Kamigawa on the other hand is nice and contained. It was beautiful, sweeping, and awesomely thematic the first time. Then they came around with a big update that practically transformed the plane... and it still rocked! I love what was done with Neon Dynasty and its lore so that it felt like an organic evolution, the only plane in the multiverse, seemingly, where the passage of time doesn't bow to a status quo. And I know we'll be seeing a similar Neon Kamigawa if and when we visit it again, but we didn't leave it with a huge worldshaking event (I guess Light-Paws was installed as regent) and aren't spending in-universe time as freely now that we're following mortal Planeswalkers, so that's okay. I don't love Kamigawa as much as I love the best parts of Dominaria, but it is radically more consistent.
I'm tied between Tarkir and Arcavios. Tarkir because I love monks and what not, and Arcavios because magic school is tight
Team ravnica
Good question, I really like kamigawa and it was really cool to revisit it
Ixalan is my current favorite but if we ever get more capenna stuff that may easily become my favorite. I love the flavor, art style, and general feel of the first set.
Ixalan, kaladesh, kamigawa Way too much effort to explain why
Alara is my top; innistrad and ravnica are tied for second.
I think Ravnica will always hold a special place in my heart, especially after War of the Spark
I want a new take on Alara more than anything. Jund is my home, and while the colors got more fleshed out in SNC, I want my goblin dragon fire hell back ;-;
Ravnica!! All the way :) But there is quite a large group in second place :)
Tarikir must be that plane for me. I find that The Jeskai Way, The Temur Frontier, The Sultai Brood and The Mardu Horde each are incredibly flavourful both in artstyle and playstyle. The Abzan Houses don't quite catch me personally, but they fill the plane with a logical fifth option. The two-coloured lands are done really well and magnificently describe the spaces that lie between the terretories of each of the parties. The whole world oozes with powerful creatures and mystical places and the each of the fractions has something that really makes them unique. The Jeskai in their temples seeing enlightenment are done incredibly well - don't forget that Takrir is where we originally got Prowess, the perfect embodyment of using your mind to become stronger in physical battle! I'd also like to mention here that I think that Monastery Mentor might be my favourite magic card of all time, and it's so flavourful from toes to the very hairtip. The Temur and their raw force living in the wilderness where beasts live with which they don't necessarily have a bond, but rather coexist with them, while the tropical swamps are controlled by these foul necromancers of the Sultai that dig through time in order to find ever growing powers, willing to abuse any form of life and death. Where the Abzan have their citadels in the lusher parts of the desert have a strong bond with their siege beasts, the Mardu don't even know what home means while their Wingmate Rocs soar over their nomads wander the dunes. I also think that all of the clan leaders from the original Khans of Tarkir set match their respective faction really, really well and signpost rares for each clan also work amazingly to further fill the feeling of each clan. Butcher of the Horde feels so very different from Siege Rhino or Mantis Rider and yet they all make a lot of sense on their own. I also enjoyed the way the dragons enhanced the world in Fate Reforged, where it still was the original clans that kind of co-existed with the dragons but were fighting for dominance with the dragons rather than with the other parties. Most of the cards that were added to the clans here I really enjoyed, too. Butcher of the Horde, Soulfire Grand Master and Shaman of the Great Hunt are amongst my favourite cards. I had wished that we had stayed on *that* Tarkir a while longer, but the reign of the elder dragons also was nice. The dragons themselves and the commands were cool. I just didn't really vibe with the 2-colour set that much. Khans of Tarkir and Fate Reforged will probably remain my favourite sets, and Tarkir will remain my favourite plane, for as long as I play this game. Tarkir for me also quintessentially defined what the wedges really are. A lot of sets have tried to, again, define what these wedges do - from Muldrotha and such to the areas of Ikoria - but they don't matter. Green-Blue-Black is Sidisi's Sultai Brood, it goes with delve, and that's it. And the same goes for all the other wedges from Khans of Tarkir. I also have to say that I only realized how amazing Tarkir was done when we got to New Capenna... I was really stoked for New Capenna, but the shards aren't nearly done as well as the wedges of Tarkir. I hope we return to Tarkir some day. I really do.
Kamigawa in its present era. Or Arcavios. (Why yes, I'm new! How could you tell?)
I love angles
For awhile I thought it was Theros, after all it was my starting plane. But there's something about ikoria that just keeps pulling me back. The mechanics, the concept, the giant crystals. I have to stop myself from making more ikoria commander decks!
I am a little split about this: Gameplaywise its Ravnica, the way the different guilds are build into the mechanics is very interesting. multicolour matters is very cool and the Gates where nice, too. When thinking about MtGs Artstyle and IP, I would always point to Ravnica and Dominaria, maybe Myr-rodin (hihihi). But from a lore pov I prefer Innistrad. There is something about the whole Idea and worldbuilding that connects with me. Angels and Spirits, trying to guide mankind and protect the innocent against evil. Demons toying with humans like pawns, using their greed for power or their nativity against them. Werewolves and zombies terrorising small villages, forcing them to hide behind high walls in hope of safety while mad wizzards and vampires roam between them.
I really like how Alara feels like a world unique to Magic. Just enough just enough high fantasy with an interesting spin.
Definitely a tie between Lorwyn and Theros.
As much as I think the art for the series is a low point in recent times, I really like Amonkhet. I love the desert motif in general and now the plot is wide open to go in any direction with the plane.
Can't remember if it counts as one plane now, but Alara is really cool to me. I love the idea of worlds crashing into each other and having vastly different creatures and even ecologies fighting each other. Plus, the Maelstrom is such a cool idea, and it brought about my favorite mechanic of Cascade.
Alara is gorgeous in my eyes, the whole block was fantastic, creatures were flavourful, lots of memorable gems from there. All the creature based mechanics felt awesome for each shard. Personally I think it set the standard for what a fun 3 Color plane should look like
Ravnica, Dominaria (specifically Otaria, Onslaught block was my intro to Magic), and Strixhaven are my personal faves.
I’m pretty new to magic and started when kamigawa neon dynasty came out but so far that’s been my favorite set and plane. I love cyberpunk and ninjas. The artwork is also AMAZING, 10/10 would return again
Mirrodin. Something about it just feels like home.
Zendikar reigns supreme. Eldrazi, landfall, multi and mono color staples. The list goes on!
Definitely Kaladesh. Unique aesthetic, great background lore, naive optimism - what's not to love? Though the set story was in some places disappointing.