#Sorin of House Markov

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Sorin of House Markov (Borderless Ver) by Livia Prima

[doctor-roman]

SORIN LIST UP, GRADE MY BOY

[berrywinkle]

Sorin’s arena voiceline «I tire of adults pretending they know how to fix everything» Plus the artist of the borderless version of the card «Sorin of house Markov» saying they were going for portraying him as a «bratty teenager» all but confirms that Sorin was a teenager, just a kid when he was forced to become a vampire. Which just makes Edgar’s condesending way of speaking to him in the Crimson vow story even sadder

[quinloki]

I am here to rescue you from whatever it is that has you down! As always, this runs long and the damn ask function will not allow me to do a keep reading cut so everyone else is just going to have to suffer.

Did I see something really cute today? Yes! Our local box turtle, a juvenile house wren, but most importantly the juvenile tufted titmouse. Why is this the important one? Well, the window bird feeder we have was running low on food and it was also raining today. Every time he landed, he'd hop into the feeder to eat the food.

Well, it's a wee bit slippery and he hasn't figured a lot of stuff out yet. Every time he landed int he feeder his legs splayed out in opposite directions. He kept hopping them back together only to end in the splits again. It was utterly hilarious. All those cartoons of characters having their legs go in different directions on ice were not inaccurate.

Is your pet adorable? Yes? I don't really have pets, I have plants. They are named: Lacey, Touchy McFeely, Jewels, Polydora, and Mapleine. Four out of five are succulents. Lacey has a crimped edge to her leaves. Touchy McFeely is a panda plant and all the leaves are fuzzy. Jewels is a jade tree. Polydora is a community of succulents in a single pot, and the name comes from Greek mythology. Polydora was an Amazon and as a tall lady myself, that was the Polydora I went with (there have been several people with the name in Greek myth).

And then we have Mapleine (pronounced maple-een, like Maybelline but with maple). Mom has informed me that mapleine is the chemical compound responsible for all artificial maple flavors. Why did I name the one plant I have that isn't a succulent this? I'm glad you asked. For some inexplicable reason, her leaves smell like maple syrup.

First time I smelled it I thought I was having a synesthetic moment. I was sitting at my desk (I keep her with me at my desk) and all of a sudden I was overwhelmed with maple syrup scents. I spent a good fifteen minutes trying to figure out what my trigger sense was. I gave up. I then sniffed my plant. It was her. MY PLANT SMELLS LIKE MAPLE SYRUP. No clue what kind of plant she is but damn is that fun. So Mom named her Mapleine. Whenever we smell maple now we say, "maybe it's mapleine."

If your blorbo was real, and appeared right besides you right now, how would you react? Well, I have more than one blorbo so let's tackle 'em one at a time, yeah?

Arlong—I'd probably scream and hit him with my baseball bat. In my defense, that would be terrifying but I'm in my PJs in bed and I have my dignity to preserve as a woman.

Benn "Fine Motherfucking Vintage" Beckman—drool.

Shanks—I'd probably just start poking him to see if he was really real and actually here.

Aramaki—I'd probably stare like a goof as I tried to figure out how he fit in the room.

Now for the non-One Piece blorbos:

Gildarts—I'd probably attack him first out of fright and then feel bad because the dude is missing half his limbs.

Laxus—same as Beckman's.

Skinny Might—probably introduce him to Tiny Might and inform him quite proudly that my Tiny Might can do something he can't: glow in the dark. I'd probably then explain why I have Tiny Might in the first place, tell him what he means to me, and offer him a place to sleep. I love Skinny Might. About as much as I love Beckman.

Aizawa—take pity on him and scooch over in bed so the man can finally sleep.

Hawks—probably going to touch the wings automatically and if he tries to leave tackle his ass to the ground. I guarantee I outweigh him and mark my words, I will be dragging him to bed one way or another.

Nanami—same as Beckman's.

Sorin Markov—I'd be deeply concerned honestly. The sudden appearance of a Planeswalker is not a good sign and he's the vampire planeswalker to boot. I also love him more than any other character in existence (besides Boromir but that's more of a platonic love), but I know he isn't fond of humans and he has a bad track record with women in particular. Knowing as much about him as I do, I'd probably inquire if he was okay and offer my assistance short of letting him feed on me (my period just ended but if it hadn't, I could technically feed him).

Tell me your three favorite things: These change because I don't know what favorite things is, it's too broad of a question. So, I'm giving you my three obsessions right now:

My professor and lest that sounds creepy, I greatly admire him as an academic and a person. I have a lot of respect for the guy and I enjoy looking into any of my professors' research because I like knowing what to expect and being able to learn from experts is awesome. I just bought two of his books too. I love my professor to pieces (platonically) but I disagree with him nearly across the board and I find it challenging to dissect things because we're in opposite camps (while in the same field), but at the same time I learn a lot even through disagreement and I get to learn how to disagree respectfully. Plus, Mom & I have decided that he isn't just one of the good professors, he's a fucking genius and I gotta make hay while the sun shines. I only have 13 or so weeks left to learn as much as I can because once this class concludes I will have taken all the classes he teaches at the Extension School. =( My time is extremely limited now.

Dystopian literature & films. This has been ongoing for awhile now but it has gone beyond just reading/watching for fun. I'm trying to construct my own online class for the genre, as if I were going to teach it at the Extension School. I've been trying to create the reading/watch list, craft a syllabus, and of course come up with the lectures. It's a ton of work but I actually want to teach a course on this (I'm not qualified, I'm just an undergrad). Since I cannot teach it at my school, I could just create it online outside of school and that is always a possibility but for now I am very much in the crafting stage.

Stand-up comedy. I have been reliably informed that I am the funniest member of my family. I also greatly enjoy doing impressions and have mastered a few...odd ones. And I do them better than anybody alive. It's a weird flex but it's what I've got (the other flex is coming in 8th place at a 6 person tournament). Alas, I cannot tell you what these impressions are, I'm building up a repertoire and will eventually debut them at open mic nights. I have to work on myself internally and get nerves/anxiety/panic attacks under control first, but I already have about a 2.5 minute routine ready to go. So when I get stuck in school or work I just start practicing my impressions. However, once I do debut them live (and Mom records the performance), I will happily share them.

There, do you feel a little bit better now? Have I made you smile or laugh at all? I'm sending you a hug as well and if you need more just let me know.

Oh that poor bird 😅Well, providing some entertainment to the people helping him get a meal probably isn't a bad trade off ^_^

Okay, I love the plants and their names \o/ Polydora is a great name for a collection of succulents - and I really love that it's a name that shows up more than once in mythology.

And Mapleine... ah, I'd love a plant that smells like maple. I have a set of runes made from Maple Wood and the scent is so calming sometimes I just put my nose in the bag and breathe when I need to relax a little.

I love that Arlong gets the bat, and Beckman gets drool XD The Skinny Might interaction is just adorable, and man hard same with Aizawa and Hawks, frankly.

I hope you get everything out of your esteemed professor in the time you have. May you, by happenstance or will, find yourself befriending him and having an opportunity to speak beyond class.

I would love to see your syllabus on Dystopian literature and films when you get it sorted out - if you're comfortable sharing it. Fates willing I would happily be a test subject for you ^_^

I look forward to the video as well, and I'm already very curious about who you're good at impersonating, but I will wait patiently 🥰

You managed to distract me, delight me, and help me relax all in one go ❤️ Thank you, my friend. Ah - who are other Polydoras in mythology? Are they all humans? Do they do amazing feats, or are they supportive pillars for those we deem heroes?

[elspeth-tirel]

I keep reading it as murder at markov manor, so that's my theory, Sorin died and got pretty annoyed at everyone coming into his house uninvited to 'solve the mystery'. He's just in the coffim rolling his eyes

Sorin in Teysa's basement trying to get some gd damn sleep

[nightmarist]

Sorin, Nahiri, Avacyn, & Innistrad Stories

It's difficult to make Just a post about Just Innistrad when Sorin is so heavily tied to it and likwise Avacyn and Nahiri are tied to him among others, but I did my best to filter out what I could.

Planeswalker's Guide to Innistrad

PLANESWALKERS GUIDE (Split Up in Sections) Introduction | Gavony | Humans Kessig | Werewolves Nephalia | Undead Stensia | Vampires

Planeswalker's Guied to Avacyn Restored Part 1 Planeswalker's Guide to Avacyn Restored Part 2

GENERAL

The Lunarch's Journal

The Lithomancer

Stirring from Slumber

Sorin's Revelation

Sorin's Homecoming

SHADOWS OVER INNISTRAD & ELDRITCH MOON

Under the Silver Moon

A Gaze Blank And Pitiless

Unwelcome

Sacrifice

The Mystery of Markov Manor

The Drownyard Temple

Promises Old and New

Liliana's Indignation

Games

The Lunarch Inquisition

Stories and Endings

I Am Avacyn

The Archmage of Goldnight

Stone and Blood

Emrakul Rises

Innistrad's Last Hope

Campaign of Vengeance

Saint Traft and the Flight of Nightmares

Battle of Thraben

The Promised End

MIDNIGHT HUNT

Witch of the Woods

Motives of the Wolf

The Fall of House Betzold

Harvesttide

Night Closes 'Round

CRIMSON VOW

Tithes and invitations

The Dolorous Weight of Pleasantries

Forever Hold Your Peace

The Wedding Crashers

Til Death Do Us Part

CARDS & ARTWORKS Innistrad | Dark Ascension | Avacyn Restored Shadows Over innistrad | Eldritch Moon Midnight Hunt | Crimson Vow

Note: The cards often have flavor text (story) regarding the scenes depicted on the cards.

[missallanea-a]

While it's no secret that Ashiok has spent much of their time in Theros, they remain a Planeswalker and as such have explored the far reaches of the multiverse. Here's a quick run-down of their thoughts on the Planes they've visited :

ALARA : was unfortunately not able to visit this Plane prior to the Sundering. Delights in Grixis but has otherwise spent little time here.

AMONKHET : visited some time before the War of the Spark. Was intrigued by the potential of the Trials, but this turned out to just be another colosseum of men killing men. No inspiration to be found.

ARCAVIOS : attempted to reach Strixhaven, but found that it was not quite so easy to breech. Children are full of potential in so many ways, but it seemed Vess was not so foolish as to let the school exist without her personal breed of protection. Disappointing.

CAPENNA : oh, Capenna. Homeplane of their dearest Elspeth, but beyond such a promising ingenue, has little to offer them. The invasion of the Phyrexians is distant memory ( prior, of course, to the Invasion of the Multiverse ) and many citizens are too busy chasing Halo to really have much to play with. Still, they find themself here now and again.

DIRADEN : a plane of eternal twilight, ruins, rot, and fog. If Ashiok didn't know better, they might have believed this to be their homeland. Far less intruiging now that the dark shroud has been destroyed by Chandra Nalaar. Tsk, tsk. Pesky firebug.

DOMINARIA : come now: every Planeswalker worth their spark has made their way to Dominaria at some point. They only wish they could have seen it before the Mending era.

ELDRAINE : a more recent delight of theirs, Ashiok was pulled to this realm by the whispers of the Wicked Slumber. Such noble intentions... such foolish aspirations. Of course, with the spell lifted, they've since withdrawn from Eldraine... but that isn't to say they will never return.

GARGANTIKAR : what can really be said about it? Everything is large. Purely a scientific visit with nothing to be gained.

INNISTRAD : one would think that a nightmare would find more delight in a plane that seems solely inhabitited by werewolves, vampires, and other horrors. But what things do the dead really fear? Of course, they would still love the chance to... pick Sorin Markov's mind.

KALDHEIM : really just a brief blip on their radar. It's much the same to Theros, in that there's something purely human about their warriors. They could certainly play around here for some time, but nothing has intruiged them enough to keep them here.

KAMIGAWA : ever since Kamigawa entered the Neon Dynasty, Ashiok has had little interest in visiting. Perhaps androids do dream of robot sheep, but what fun is there to be made with bits and bytes? Of course, Tamiyo would certainly have made an interesting plaything... shame.

MEDITATION PLANE : also known as Bolas' Meditation Realm and the Prison Realm. Ashiok has been here. When, why, and for what remains a mystery... but given who is housed in this eternal prison, we can assume it wasn't anything good.

NEW PHYREXIA : previously known as both Argentum and Mirrodin. What fun they had here, twisting the nightmares of the Grand Praetor herself. And they didn't even know if Phyrexians were capable of nightmares. Of course, this nightmare may have given Elesh Norn a particular hatred of Elspeth Tirel... but that need for vengeance? What a human desire for a Phyrexian to have.

RAVNICA : Ashiok was, in fact, present in Ravnica during the War of the Spark... although what role they ultimately played, they've thus far shown no interest in revealing. Not their favorite plane to visit, due to the density of the population.

ZENDIKAR : much like Dominaria, this is considered something of a mecca for Planeswalkers. A plane that is home to large sources of mana, now healing from the devistation left in the wake of the Eldrazi titans. Rarely visited these days, in hopes of avoiding running into any of the Gatewatch.

[horademagic]

Sorin da Casa Markov - Sorin, Neonato Voraz/ Sorin of House Markov - Sorin, Ravenous Neonate

Tipo de criatura: Humano Nobre

Custo de mana: 1 preta + 1 de qualquer cor = 2 no total

1/4 de Poder e Resistência

Por que ela é interessante? Sorin terá vínculo com a vida, cura pontos de vida igual seu poder sempre que atacar com ele, e extorquir, quando conjurar uma mágica qualquer ele te permite pagar uma mana branca ou preta adicional, se fizer então cada oponente perde 1 ponto de vida e você ganha o total de pontos de vida perdidos equivalentes, se forem 3 oponentes cada um perde 1 ponto, mas você ganha 3 pontos de vida em contrapartida. No começo da sua fase principal PÓS COMBATE, apenas depois do combate acabar, se você tiver ganho 3 pontos ou mais de vida neste turno você vai exilar esse Sorin e devolvê-lo transformado no Sorin, Neonato Voraz.

 Sorin, Neonato Voraz agora é um planeswalker que manteve o Extorquir que funciona da mesma forma da sua versão anterior e tem 3 pontos de lealdade inicialmente. Com o +2 você cria uma ficha de Comida, que pode ser sacrificada depois para gerar pontos de vida. Com o -1 ele causará dano igual à quantidade de pontos de vida que tenha ganhado neste turno a qualquer alvo, usando na hora certa e no deck certo que ganhe vida constantemente, isso pode matar facilmente. Com o -6 você vai ganhar o controle da criatura alvo, ela vai se tornar um Vampiro além do que ela já for e você coloca um marcador de vínculo com a vida nela se controlar uma permanente branca que não seja o Sorin em questão. Então ele oferece uma gama de efeitos e tudo gira principalmente ao redor do ganho de vida.

 Preço da carta: em torno de 69,00 até 180,00

Disponível em Português

Link: https://www.ligamagic.com.br/?view=cards/card&card=Sorin%20of%20House%20Markov&aux=Sorin%20da%20Casa%20Markov

Até a próxima postagem, Ulli e Thiago

[faerie--macabre]

Bio

Liliana Vess grew up in Benalia on Dominaria under the thumb of her father, a general and ruler of the lands he fought for. Even at this stage in her life, she was a temptress and more often than not, didn't care about the kind of reputation that sort of activity would spawn. This infuriated those her father had entrusted to watch her, but her antics did not change one bit.

Liliana was a member of a holy order of clerics dedicated to the healing arts known as the Forward Order. She studied under the tutelage of Lady Ana, though secretly she also dabbled into the forbidden arts of necromancy, thinking the manipulation of death would enhance her healing abilities.

Liliana's privileged life would come to an abrupt end, though, when her brother Josu suffered a horrible corruption at the hands of her father's enemies. As a test, perhaps as much to rein in the reckless girl, Lady Ana gave her the task of gathering the required esis root to cure her brother. Unfortunately, she arrived too late, as her father's dark enemies had razed the groves where the Esis Tree had grown. She only learned of this fact when she encountered a strange man who claimed to be a supporter of her father. He offered his assistance and instructed Liliana to use necromancy to reactive the remains of the Esis Tree and prepare a potion out of it, though he warned that her family would not want her to use this cure.

She returned to the castle and despite the warnings of Lady Ana, she used the cure. Truly, it cured Josu of his affliction, but only at the cost of driving him insane and poisoning him anew. Realizing that she had to kill the crazed creature that Josu had become, Liliana turned his victims into zombies to fight him. At that moment, she unlocked her planeswalker's spark and ended up on Innistrad. These events later became the subject of a book known as The Fall of the House of Vess.

On Innistrad, Liliana perfected her necromantic skills, preferring the black art of the ghoulcallers over the blue method of stitchers, for which she had no patience. She studied under vampires and liches but, fearing her brother's fate, refused to join them in death to fully master the art. At some point, she encountered the lord of Innistrad, Sorin Markov. They dueled and Sorin crushed her and pronounced her too weak to be a threat. Then he told her that Innistrad was his and that she best be a civil guest—or he'd find and kill her. Once confident of her abilities, she returned to the ruins of Vess estate in Dominaria, vowing to enact revenge on the mysterious man who tricked her to curse Josu. During the confrontation, the so-called Raven Man escaped.

At some point before the events of Agents of Artifice, Liliana was a mage-student at Strixhaven University on Arcavios. It's unclear when it happened but it was most likely early in her history after her spark had ignited. She was a student of Witherbloom.

Sometime after the Mending, a severely weakened Nicol Bolas met with a wizened Liliana Vess. She was envious of the fact that he was seemingly unaffected by the mending. He berated her, stating that he had lost more power than she could learn in a dozen lifetimes. Bolas lamented that only a few years previously, planeswalkers like them were akin to living gods who exerted their power and influence throughout the Multiverse. Bolas then brokered a deal with the four demons who would give Liliana her youth and a fraction of her old power back, in exchange for servitude.

Liliana is a tall woman with black hair and purple tattoos. She uses black mana to reanimate the dead, corrupt the living, and unlock power from death.

She is charismatic, witty, and attractive, but profoundly cynical, cunning and egocentric. She cares little for others, seeing them as stepping stones on her path to greater power. It was this craving for power that brought her to the Chain Veil, an item she views with contempt at times, for its power comes at a terrible price. Though she appears to be in her late 20s or early 30s, she is actually well over 3 centuries old. She has black hair and violet eyes and stands either 5'9" or 5'10" tall, weighing in at 140lbs. She prefers to wear luxurious, revealing dresses and a golden headpiece that she stole from an archangel. She hates angels. When Liliana planeswalks, she disappears in a cloud of black, inky vapor.

After the Mending, she made a pact with four demons—Kothophed, Griselbrand, Razaketh, and Belzenlok—to secure her youth and power. For most of her time with the Gatewatch she sought a means to acquire her past freedom. Initially, she joined the Gatewatch as a means of defeating the demons of her past, freeing her of her contract, but grew to care for her allies (even if she wouldn't admit it). Ultimately her desire to protect those she loved outweighed her narcissistic tendencies, causing her to break her contract with Bolas that would end her life in a final show of defiance. When Gideon Jura sacrificed himself to save her, she felt an enormous weight of guilt which compelled a new stance on the importance of the people around her and the dangers of unbound hubris.

To complete the demonic pact, Kothophed etched the contract in lines along Liliana's newly restored youthful skin. As she cast powerful spells, the lines sometimes glowed purple; when she drew on the power of the Chain Veil, they could bleed. The scars of her contract are still visible as of her time on Arcavios.

Unabbreviated Bio

[gamerzack-blog]

I think now's as good a time as any to share a few deets on my Magic player identity, before branching out into my other interests:

The Basics

Archetype: Johnny-Vorthos

Colour identity: Altruism 🔥🌳☀️{💧}

Top 3 Favourite formats: Limited (any style); Kitchen table; Commander (hypothetically)

"Power Nine" planes (in alphabetical order): Alara; Arcavios; Ikoria; Kaladesh; Kaldheim; Kamigawa; Ravnica; Tarkir; Zendikar

Custom sets (Magic Set Editor): Uncanny/Unfunny; Secret Vault: Heroes of Squidkid Saga; Secret Vault: Ascensions Series

Milestones

First year: 2003

First Core Set: Eighth Edition

First Large Set: Mirrodin

First Small Set: Guildpact

First Side-Set: Coldsnap

First novel: The Moons of Mirrodin

First Commander: Glissa Sunseeker

Key Factional Affiliations

Guild (Primary): Izzet League 💧🔥

Guild (Secondary): Selesnya Conclave 🌳☀️

Shard: Bant 🌳{☀️}💧

Clan (Khans timeline): Jeskai Way {💧}🔥☀️

Clan (Dragons timeline): The Ojutai ☀️{💧}

Triome: Ketria 🌳{💧}🔥

Realm (Primary): Bretagard {🌳}☀️

Realm (Secondary): Surtland 💧{🔥}

College: Prismari 💧}{🔥

Other Associations (by Plane)

Ravnica

Simic Combine 🌳💧

Azorius Senate ☀️💧

Boros Legion 🔥☀️

House Dimir 💧💀

Alara

Esper ☀️{💧}💀

Naya 🔥{🌳}☀️

New Phyrexia

Quiet Furnace 🔥

Progress Engine 💧

Innistrad

Kessig 🔥{🌳}

Tarkir

Temur Frontier {🌳}💧🔥

Mardu Horde {🔥}☀️💀

The Dromoka 🌳{☀️}

The Silumgar 💧{💀}

Amonkhet

Trial of Knowledge 💧

Trial of Solidarity ☀️

Ixalan

River Heralds 🌳💧

Brazen Coalition 💧💀🔥

Eldraine

Ardenvale ☀️

Garenbrig 🌳

Ikoria

Raugrin 💧{🔥}☀️

Zagoth 💀{🌳}💧

Kaldheim

Istfell {☀️}💧

Starnheim ☀️{💀}

Gnottvold {🔥}🌳

Arcavios

Silverquill ☀️}{💀

Lorehold 🔥}{☀️

New Capenna

The GWU Family 🌳☀️💧

Planeswalker Friends List

Karn {⚪}

Elspeth Tirel {☀️}

Will Kenrith {💧}

Liliana Vess {💀}

Rowan Kenrith {🔥}

Vivien Reid {🌳}

Teferi {☀️💧}

Tezzeret {💧💀}

Angrath {💀🔥}

Arlinn Kord {🔥🌳}

Ajani Goldmane {🌳☀️}

Sorin Markov {☀️💀}

Ral Zarek {💧🔥}

Vraska {💀🌳}

Nahiri {🔥☀️}

Kiora {🌳💧}

Tamiyo {🌳☀️💧}

_________ {☀️💧💀}

#####_##### {💧💀🔥}

_________ {💀🔥🌳}

Huatli {🔥🌳☀️}

_________ {🔥☀️💀}

Sarkhan Vol {🌳💧🔥}

_________ {☀️💀🌳}

Narset {💧🔥☀️}

Nissa Revane {💀🌳💧}

_________ {💧💀🔥🌳}

_________ {💀🔥🌳💧}

Me {🔥🌳☀️💧}

_________ {🌳☀️💧💀}

_________ {☀️💧💀🔥}

_________ {☀️💧💀🔥🌳}

Planeswalker Friend List Deets (How We Friended Each Other)

Met him on my first 'walk to Mirrodin. Apparently he created it himself!

Heard about her on Bant, and decided to see if I could find her so I could learn more about being an altruist. Told she was slain, so my trail went cold, but they were SO wrong about that!

Met him while studying on Arcavios... HOO boy, THAT was a mess! Anyway, he helped save the plane, so good on him.

Friended her a while back after she failed to seduce me (turns out there are limitations to charm magic when the intended target isn't that into you).

Twin sister of #3, with both sharing the same spark. Must be awkward if one decides to 'walk while the other's in the middle of something important like... I 'unno, peeing I guess?

For some reason, liking the natural world to any extent warrants a friend request from her. That and having a connection with animals.

Heard about my affinity for time, and so he tracked ME down! This is AFTER I spent a while tracking down info on the "Great Mender", though I thought it was a specialist on healing magic, heheh...

Friended him when he was still... sane, I guess? This thing's glitching out for some reason, so I can't delete it. Probably should visit that gadgeteer on Kamigawa to get it repaired...

Asked to friend me after overhearing that I don't eat beef or wear cowskin... then swore fiery, forgey vengeance on me if I EVER come onto his daughters. PRETTY sure there's no danger of that even if they're human, so... yay?

Saw me blundering through Ulvenwald and asked if I were worried about the wolves, to which I innocently replied with "What's wrong with wolves?" She led me to safety (aka a different plane) as a thank you for being so kind.

THIS is the life mage I was trying to find! I eventually tracked him to a book club or something on Kamigawa. The Nacatl of Naya called him "a hideously gruff, ill-mannered, insatiably berserk rebel", but I see him as kind, wise, and calm.

Kinda unsettling at first, but let's just say that putting the Greater Good first and foremost reveals an unseen side of this seemingly snobbish gentleman.

My first 'walk to Ravnica was... let's say "tumultuous". Actually, let's also say it was "accidentally crashed into an Izzet laboratory-ish". This guy said I was an automatic shoe-in to become a member of his guild, but he also advised me to consider whether I wanted to get tied to one plane. I was too busy staring at his... uh... eyes to remember what I said, or how he was added to my friends list.

Friended me later that day, in fact. Turns out a simple, sincerely friendly "Hi!" is enough to win her over... though she DID admit to almost turning me into a statue for being too close at first.

She was dealing with an emotional conundrum, so I offered some advice: "Just be true to yourself, and vent those pent-up emotions. Holding onto them isn't healthy, and your needs matter just as much as others' do." Hopefully she's in a better state of mind than before.

For some reason, liking the natural world to any extent warrants a friend request from her. That and having a connection with the seas and skies... wait... did I do this one already?

Met her through Ajani's book club... well, she's the host of said book club, so friending her was a no-brainer.

To be added...

Weird... why is this now playing up...? Was someone already on here? I should ask Denkimoto to look at this, too...

To be added...

Met her in book club. Turns out she's some form of skald from a plane called "EESH-a-lahn". I tried finding it, but no-one's ever heard of it, OR a city on that plane called "or-RATS-kuh", which is supposedly made of gold...

To be added...

Met him through a member of the book club, though he's not really into books. He does, however, like DRAGONS! I just had to visit their home plane, which is filled with so many kinds of dragon. Any fan of dragons is a friend of his, apparently. He also had a good chuckle at my "Hi, Khan!" joke, so it's now our informal greeting (his is "Oh, Zed!", cos it sounds like "O. Zed").

To be added...

This is the book club member via whom I indirectly met #23. She loves learning, and is currently delving into the ancient history of her people, "a time before the dragons"... which seems kinda familiar.

For some reason, liking the natural world to any extent warrants a friend request from her. That and having a connection with the elements... okay, this is DEFINITELY the third time I've posted this, I'm sure of it!

To be added...

To be added...

No idea why there even NEEDS to be a slot for my own contact details, but...

To be added...

To be added...

To be added...

[incorrect-mtg-theories]

Consequences

Nahiri and Sorin hate each other's guts. That is a fact of the current story. Both of them probably blame the other for casting the first stone, and it only escalated from there. Thousands and millions of dead, planes being mostly destroyed, untold property damage... That quarrel lead to more death and destruction than the large majority of wars.

The answer is generally that they're both partially responsible, and be aware that this post isn't made to reignite that discourse. Our answer here at incorrect mtg theories is that neither of them is responsible. In fact, the person who would start all of this is never mentioned alongside those events, escaping the blame. Who is that? I'll walk you along my thought process.

So, the fighting began more than a thousand years ago. Nahiri had successfully sealed anew the Eldrazis stirring in their stasis on Zendikar. Her distress call to the allies who imprisoned them alongside her, Ugin and Sorin, went unanswered. Worried, she goes to check on them, starting with her mentor and friend, Sorin Markov.

He's alive and well and the message was stopped from reaching him by his new interplanar security system, the duo Helvault/Avacyn. Strong words are exchanged on whether Sorin cares about Nahiri's world, things escalate and the fight starts, and is interrupted by Nahiri being imprisoned in the Helvault for the thousand years to come.

What she would have found? Well, maybe bones. Maybe a hedron cocoon housing a regenerating body. Then she would have left, and affected other planes, differently.

I advance that an external influence pushed them into conflict. Let's imagine, for a second, that they didn't fight, or that Nahiri wasn't imprisoned in the Helvault. Her next move, logically, would have been to look for Ugin and see why HE didn't answer her call.

Now, it is voluntarily kept nebulous how the time travel worked. Technically there's never been time travel, but then Sarkhan exists for no reason proving that there was a 'before' and 'after', even though there shouldn't be. But to keep things as plausible and consequence-free as possible, one of the rules we know of for it is that... "Time Travel on Tarkir will only ever affect Tarkir".

That didn't work great.

To ensure that rule, Nahiri couldn't visit Tarkir and check up on Ugin.

Because of that, the time travel magic, or maybe the Multiverse, made sure she couldn't. And how it did that was by influencing the events, likely through the minds of its participants, of that one discussion on Innistrad to make sure Nahiri would never go to Tarkir then. And Sorin doesn't even think of it until way later, before he has the occasion of leaving after his visit on Tarkir before the loop completes itself.

So, the next time you find yourself debating who of Sorin or Nahiri is more responsible for their fights and the destruction it caused, you'll know what to say. The true people to blame here are Sarkhan and Ugin, who conveniently didn't exist and were mostly dead, respectively, when it happened. A perfect alibi for a perfect crime.

[blondifuckedup]

Philosophy and MTG, How Enemy Colors Combine

https://www.reddit.com/r/colorpie/comments/4br1ez/philosophy_and_mtg_how_enemy_colors_combine/

----------- http://i.imgur.com/Dyh21Gj.png ------------

^ ^ ^ A HELPFUL PICTURE FOR REFERENCE ^ ^ ^

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Thank God for spring break. This time, I’m going to reiterate on the conflicts between the enemy colors, explain how the enemy pairs combine into balanced positions and give examples of characters who faithfully represent the balanced positions.

Again, for anyone who cares about intellectual integrity, I have already provided my justifications for why I chose to pin down the colors the way I did. The bottom line is that each enemy pairing represents a thesis and an antithesis; therefore each individual color represents two positions as a worldview. For example, green believes in nature over nurture and teleology over nihilism. These are mutually-exclusive positions with its two enemies, blue and black, who believe the exact opposite for each of green’s individual positions. It’s nice and simple.

And the reason why I chose to represent the colors this way is because I have read every single thing Mark Rosewater has ever written or recorded on the colors. The colors are his intellectual property, and I am merely his prophet who has refined his message into something more substantial. He says a lot of different things about how the colors should look, and I refer to my post "Color Canon and Interpretation" for why I singled on specific and clear aspects of the colors that I took from his own mouth. I hope you enjoy my latest entry on Color Pie Philosophy as I explain how mutually-exclusive conflicts can combine into new positions. My hope is that this helps you identify with your chosen colors more, thereby enhancing your experience of the game.

I. Green and Black, Teleology + Nihilism = Existentialism

I’m going to start off with green and black for two reasons. First, I like to talk about their difference the most. Second, I want to clear the air with any philosophically-literate readers who may have a problem with the way I’m doing this for these two colors.

Green believes in a natural order, therefore green believes in absolute, normative principles that explain and guide how things fit inside of that natural order. I’ve said before that this is a teleological view. Green believes in the principle that everything has a place and function in nature, because it ultimately believes that purpose exists. The root of the word “teleology” is “telos”, which translates to “meaning” or “purpose” in English. Green believes in an absolute purpose that guides how things should be.

Black believes that there is no natural order. Nothing has a purpose--things just exist. Black may even go so far as to say that nothing but itself exists, but the important thing is that black is the antithesis of green because it does not believe that meaning or purpose exists. This is what grants black the freedom in its mind to do what it wants. If there was a natural order, black would be compelled to obey it. But there is no telos. There is only nothing. “Nihil” is the root of “nihilism” which means “nothing”. Black is a nihilist against green’s sense of meaning.

So how do these colors combine in order to manifest as green-black characters? We see a lot of green-black characters in the game. Are they just hypocrites or idiots for believing both things at the same time?

There is a sort of halfway house between teleology and nihilism, and that would be existentialism. Existentialists hold that meaning exists for you based on how you create it. As a belief system, existentialism is not the absolute and fixed sense of meaning that green subscribes to, nor does it completely admit the nonexistence of meaning that black subscribes to. Therefore, a green-black character would be an existentialist. He would be someone concerned with his meaning in life but does not admit that his purpose is something fixed, absolute and external to him. The green-black character may be Nietzsche's ubermensch.

Garruk, Apex Predator

If there ever was an ubermensch in MTG, I would give the title to Garruk or Sarkhan Vol. Garruk serves as my example here, because existentialism expresses his newfound color combination quite nicely. Before, he was a green mage, who believed that his role in the natural order was fixed and clear. He believed that everything had its place, and he knew his.

Thanks to Liliana’s meddling, Garruk has become corrupted by the chain veil, and has now embraced aspects of black’s nihilistic approach. He no longer accepts the previous role that he discovered for himself. He has created a new purpose for his being bent on hunting other planeswalkers. In a way, the fact that he has determined a new organizing principle for his actions reflect an existentialist approach. He is no longer spiritually-attuned to the natural order; he is creating a meaning for himself in the lack of a clear, external focus for his actions.

Venom and the Gitrog Monster

Mark Rosewater gave the example of Venom among others, and I will demonstrate how such characters implicitly embrace a green-black approach to life. I will also use the new frog monster card as an illustration of a creature that is green-black because it is bad for the ecosystem. Maybe it isn't bad for the ecosystem, but I'm going to treat it as if it were.

The reason why characters such as Venom, and the newly-spoiled Gitgrog Monster are green-black, is because they are examples of naturally-occurring phenomenon somehow working out of line with their intended role in the environment. Of course, the question is: “What is their intended role?” A mono-green character would attempt to explain how the Gitrog Monster is an aberration possibly because it over-eats. It is going to eat everything and destroy the environment if it is left to its own devices. It's the same thing with Venom. These creatures will destroy themselves by eating everything else--thereby starving themselves in the long run. Everything dies.

Of course, the whole problem is that green is trying to rationalize how natural things are acting out of line with their intended function, whereas black sees nothing wrong going on. Yet, these entities are not pure-black because green can successfully rationalize how they are good, natural things gone wrong. The Gitrog Monster and Venom are not supposed to be the way they are. Crazy accidents or evil meddling created them, and they represent aberrations of what should be the case. The ambiguity and confusion surrounding what role Venom and the Gitrog Monster serve in the natural order makes them green-black. It’s not like they are existentialists, but they represent the unhappy confusion when good things are twisted, or when bad things attempt to embrace telos (if it exists).

The Golgari

I’ll include an institution in each of my explanations. The Golgari faithfully represent the confusion between the belief in an absolute and eternal telos and the belief in its nonexistence. This is because the Golgari are always bickering and warring within themselves; they cannot decide and stick with clear leadership because they are a tribe of people who cannot figure out what they’re supposed to do. They are Ravnica’s misfits. What they CAN do is process the city’s garbage, and that may be construed as their guild’s true purpose. Yet, the guild’s members and masters are not content with this. They are forever seeking, defining and meddling with the established order again and again and again as its revolutions continue. The Golgari institution cannot reconcile its clear function with the need for more.

II. White and Black, Altruism + Parasitism = Nepotism

From here on out, I’ll be more succinct. It’s needless to elaborate once the point has been communicated. White orients itself altruistically whereas black orients itself parasitically.

I’ve used game theory to explain this before, but the bottom line is that white will act in spite of the risk that others may be taking advantage of it in order to do the right thing. For example, if a white character lives in a socialist society, he will be the guy working and keeping things afloat. He will be the guy who shows up at the farm or factory to work as the parasites leech off of his labor.

Black characters orient themselves parasitically. They will be the ones gaming the system in a socialist society. They will be the ones who game the system and take without putting in. They are parasites.

Given that altruism and parasitism are mutually-exclusive approaches, how does a white-black character express both? The answer is nepotism. Nepotism is targeted parasitism against those outside of your group, and altruism towards the members of your group. A nepotistic character will leech off of the work of others and even betray them, but he will ultimately give back to those that belong to his group.

Sorin Markov

Sorin is the quintessential nepotist, for he has never expressed real concern for anything in the multiverse outside of his home of Innistrad. He has only ever contributed to the well-being of other planes as a side-effect of his protection of Innistrad, and he is plainly parasitic towards his victims whenever he needs to feed.

Within Innistrad, Sorin is black-white because he is trying to balance the needs of the human race and the vampiric race--the latter of which is solely dependent on and parasitic of the former. The problem with the Innistrad vampires is that they would die off if they were allowed to run free and feed on every human until none were left, and so Sorin’s solution was to protect the human cattle with Avacyn who gets in the way of vampires and actually kills them. Sorin is ultimately nepotistic, because he protects the interests of his people while sacrificing his standing with them. None of the vampires like Avacyn. But Sorin is willing to pay the cost of his reputation in order to protect his vampire brethren from themselves.

Mad Max

The character of Mad Max is a man wandering the dystopian wasteland doing whatever he can to survive. His prime directive is survival, and he only interacts with others on the basis of what they can do to further his ends. He is neither needlessly cruel nor benevolent. He does what he needs to survive.

However, Max is forced into positions where he can either abandon innocent people to their doom and survive, or help them and risk death. The turning point of each movie is when he decides to stay and help the innocent resist their oppressors, but he always leaves once his work is finished. Furthermore, it is frequently ambiguous whether helping them furthered his ends. The bottom line is that Max is a sad, lonely and selfish man who finds it in himself to help others even when there is no clear payoff. For the most part, he is a parasite, but he will defy his parasitic nature to engage in acts of altruism that have no clear benefit to him.

Mad Max can’t be clearly construed as a nepotist, but he is black-white because is a parasite with flashes of altruism. He is a mixed-up man with a sad past. Mad Max represents the gray moral character in all of us and how difficult it is to protect and serve others when you also want to survive.

The Orzhov

The Orzhov care for members of the Orzhov and prey on non-Orzhov. They are nepotistic to the core. They are altruistic to their own members but parasitic on outsiders.

III. Blue and Green, Innatism + Tabula Rasa = Evolutionism

In order to stay true to my commitments to Mark Rosewater’s principle that green believes in nature over nurture against blue, who believes the opposite, I will have to place evolutionary theory outside of green’s purview of thinking. I do this though Mark said in one of his articles that green believes in ordered change. However, this means that nothing is added to green when you add blue, which would invalidate the concept of the Simic, who are evolutionists. If you can be an evolutionist inside of green, then you don’t need to add blue even if the Simic do accelerate and meddle with evolution. It would simply be a matter of degree within green, nothing would be qualitatively different.

Green believes that the way a thing is, is fixed from its onset; organisms are the way they are once they are born because of their fixed nature. Green believes in nature over nurture because it does not believe that you can change the nature of a thing once it’s there. It is the way it is because it has a fixed nature. You were born to be as smart as your inherent limitations allow you to. Green does not admit the existence of change. It believes in static, ordered nature.

Blue believes that the way a thing is, is due to how it’s environment influenced it. Anything can be anything as long as conditions are right. The reason why you aren’t smarter than you are is because the conditions weren’t optimal in your environment, because you have no inherent limitations. Nothing has inherent limitations, for anything can change into anything. Blue does not admit the existence of static boundaries. It believes in potentiality and change; nothing is permanent.

Evolutionism is just the word for the belief in evolutionary theory. The theory of evolution admits the existence of permanence and change because organisms remain the same, but they also undergo changes over time. Evolutionary theory admits the existence of fixed limitations like green. A fish cannot walk, but it also admits the existence of change like blue because fish evolved into amphibians which can walk on land (or something like that, sue me).

Kiora

To be honest, I never understood what makes Kiora green or blue. MaRo said the conflict between the colors has to do with nature versus nurture, but Kiora just strikes me as a red character based on how reckless and mischievous she is. Nonetheless, I will try and fit her into the system--a system I did not randomly invent on my own mind you! Mark Rosewater said that the conflict is between nature and nurture! I’m just trying to piece things together!

Kiora expresses or represents evolutionism, because... she introduces change into the aquatic systems she visits by transporting sea creatures from one plane to another. Kiora forces massive changes in the environments she visits by throwing new variables into them. If one plane knows nothing of giant octopi, and Kiora transports a dozen octopus leviathans into its waters, she just permanently altered the ecological character of that plane’s waters forever. Kiora’s recklessness is a sort of inventiveness as she gathers a repertoire of beasts to summon in her endeavors. She is known for introducing and removing variables such as when she stole Thassa’s bident, which is possibly the best tool for altering the environment on the planes she visits.

Dr. Frankenstein

Mark Rosewater used this seminal example of the mad scientist in order to represent the conflict between green and blue. The original conflict is preserved in Dr. Frankenstein because he expresses blue’s belief that it can push the boundaries of what is naturally true, and green’s belief that it must work within the limitations of the tools at its disposal--Dr. Frankenstein can’t create flesh and blood out of nothing. He had to go grave grave robbing. Dr. Frankenstein’s creation proves that biogenesis is not strictly and inerrantly true, a green-inclined belief, but his creation still possesses biological limitations that an inventive, blue man must accept or challenge once more. He is a true green-blue character.

Kruphix

I find Kruphix interesting, because he understands the nature of Theros and its gods better than anyone else. He knows that the gods are fixed entities, but they only exist on the basis of the mortals’ beliefs in them. This means that the mortals’ shifting perceptions of the gods’ and their natures’ can actually change how the gods are and whether they even exist. Kruphix awareness of this phenomenon puts him in a weird position. He knows that his nature is fixed to some extent--he doesn’t change whenever a mortal has a stray thought of what he should be like, look like or is capable of. Yet, he knows that his powers and personality are fundamentally predicated on how people perceive and imagine him to be. He knows he has the power at his disposal to control the mortals’ perceptions of him to give him all power, and this may be why he rules the other gods and is older than them. He is the god who deals with godness itself as it manifests on Theros. He represents the conflict of nature v. nurture since the gods do have fixed god-biologies in a sense, but their natures are liable to change based on their environment. It's so meta.

The Simic

The Simic are evolutionary biologists. They are not just purely blue because they are working with the limitations of physical biology, but they are not purely green because they are trying to test and push those limits as far as they can go. They do not believe that you are as smart as you were born to be (nature), nor do they believe that you have what it takes to be smarter without further modifications (nurture).

IV. Blue and Red, Low Time Preference + High Time Preference = Ambitiousness, Fulfill Short-Term And Long-Term Goals

The difference between blue and red is how far each one is willing to plan for the future. Blue always tends to plan further ahead, setting aside its immediate desires in order to reap a future payoff. Red wants things now, and will sacrifice future payoffs in order to have immediate payoffs in the present.

The way to reconcile the two positions is to construe a third way that acknowledges the necessity of seizing the moment and planning ahead. I call this third way, ambitiousness, because an ambitious person does not merely plan. He also acts in order that his plans payoff in the future. Whereas blue’s negative extreme is to plan, and plan, and plan without actually executing anything, red’s negative extreme is to act without forethought so that it minimizes or destroys the potential payoff it could be enjoying.

An ambitious person sacrifices unlikely, long-term payoffs in order to have definite, short-term benefits. Likewise, he will sacrifice unlikely, short-term benefits in order to have definite long-term payoffs. He is neither consumed by analysis paralysis, nor does he jump the gun and ruin everything for himself. He is ambitious and knows when to seize the moment and plan ahead.

Ral Zarek

Ral Zarek is the perfect blue-red character because he is active enough to account for unforeseen variables in his plans, yet he actually makes solid plans in order to get what he wants. The problem with blue characters is that they need to have prepared a contingency in advance in order to escape a situation. Unforeseen variables are the bane of the obsessive planner, for you cannot account for that which you did not even know needed to be accounted for. Ral Zarek plans ahead, but he can handle unknown obstacles quite nicely. This isn’t to say that Jace can’t handle novel situations without having some kind of plan, but Jace’s tendency is to rely on contingency plans upon contingency plans whereas Ral would likely improvise something in the moment as he did to the Golgari in the Secretist.

Keranos, God of Thunder

Keranos is a fitting symbol of the competing demands of a mixed time preference, because he is the god of visions of the future. If Keranos so chooses, you can use his power to see into the future in order to validate or change your plans. Yet, Theros seems to be a deterministic system, and so it may not be possible to use Keranos this way. Keranos still represents the ideal power suite of blue-red characters who wish to fulfill their short-term and long-term goals, because he’s the master of foreknowledge.

The Izzet

The Izzet work according to the machinations of Niv Mizzet, who has many different plans and projects to implement. Niv Mizzet’s numerous short term and long term goals require a genius mind to manage as circumstances change. Good thing he is a genius.

V. White and Red, Total Depravity + Noble Savage = Persecution

What I’m getting at are two competing views on human nature. John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes believe that humans are scum; we are wicked, violent and selfish. The only reason why we aren’t at each other’s throats right now is due to the state, which monopolizes violence and forces us to get along or else it will punish us for breaking the law. We cannot exactly credit Rousseau for the competing view, but the idea that man is a noble savage in the state of nature takes the complete opposite position of total depravity or “nasty, brutish and short” doctrines of human nature.

White believes that people are naturally inclined towards selfishness, parasitism, greed and violence. We need religion and benevolent, powerful rulership to keep us in line, or else we will be at each other’s throats in a second (not literally, but white tends towards this extreme).

Red believes that people are naturally inclined towards selflessness, altruism, and cooperativeness. Red believes that people can’t be that bad, or else we wouldn’t have been able to survive all this time. Red does not look into the human heart and see a selfish, myopic beast--it believes that everyone has desires and that these desires do not drive us to be necessarily parasitic.

The problem for each of the colors that produces the third way is that each side has to admit some of the other’s position. If white believes that people are bad to the bone, then how can it place any trust in religious or political authorities? They are just as inherently bad as everyone else. Likewise, how does red explain the existence of crime? Is it really the case that people won’t take advantage of others out of sheer empathy? Any intelligent red character has to admit that at least some people are total jerks who get away with hurting others with zero remorse.

The solution for a white-red character is to have a persecuting attitude towards wrongdoers. People who do morally wrong things are somehow defective, because the people who are actually able to participate in society certainly obey the rules. In fact, the mere existence of unapologetic parasites burns in the consciousness of the white-red person. A white-red person understands that not everyone can be perfect, but what is wrong with these people who continue to commit crime? The only logical attitude you can have towards such people is one of persecution: we are the good ones and they are the bad ones. We are the noble ones and they are the depraved ones. We work together and obey the law, but they refuse to participate or reciprocate our efforts to work together. They must be punished, eliminated or changed.

Ajani

Ajani went through a period where he was a white-red character because he was committed to exacting righteous violence on Nicol Bolas, who was ultimately responsible for the death of Ajani’s brother and for the troubles that were befalling Naya, Ajani’s home. In my opinion, Ajani is an upstanding example of a white-red character who is persecuting the right people. Nicol Bolas is a heartless and unrepentant villain, and so Ajani is completely right for self-righteously persecuting Bolas and his willing minions given the situation. Furthermore, Ajani desired no harm nor ill on Bolas or anybody. Therefore, his conclusion that the evil one must be punished and cannot be shown mercy is born out of a correct sense of justice.

Avacyn

I’ll use Avacyn as a negative example of a white-red character who is exhibiting a persecuting attitude towards the humans, whom she sees as depraved relative to the immaculate angels. Avacnynian persecution is fundamentally racist and hypocritical. It is an inability to see the faults in yourself, although you can see the faults in other people. I have to admit though, Avacyn may have a point. The angels don’t do anything that hurts man, beast or stone. The existence of humans guarantees the existence of pain and strife. In fact, a human can be credited for the existence of vampires on Innistrad since it was Sorin’s ancestor who became the first vampire as a bid with a demon to gain immortality. Nonetheless, I consider her to be a negative example of a white-red character.

The Boros

The Boros are excessively violent towards people who violate the civil law they enforce. It’s unclear whether they appeal to the Azorius’ laws or whether they enforce their own moral code on the populace. I can imagine that the Boros are hit-and-miss when it comes to persecuting the right people. After seeing the card “Knight’s Watch” it is apparent to me that the Boros struggle with their eagerness for violence and their impetus to commit that violence against the right people.

Conclusion

I want to give a little background why I care so much about this narrow aspect of a single tcg. Why should anyone care about something like this? It's so specific and obsessive on a topic that doesn't really matter.

Ever since I was young, I loved the idea of competing elements or forces. I played the shit out of pokemon with its elemental concepts. I also enjoyed the Avatar series for the same reason. So many shows, stories and concepts tap into the idea that the universe is made up of several types of things that are naturally strong and weak to one another. I was always enamored with this sort of thing.

What makes magic special is that it expresses every single possible elemental combination through the lens of 5 categories. It is Aristotle's four elements, Manichean good/evil dualism, nature versus artifice, romanticism versus enlightenment and more. The colors can faithfully represent the aesthetic and concepts of every single dichotomy.

My goal is to clear away the muddiness when the colors bleed into each other and start to lose their distinctiveness. The colors are the way they are because they are opposed to their enemies. They don't agree with their enemies, and that's why they are separate categories of beliefs. And so efforts to mash the enemy pairs together should result in something sensible, which is the goal of this post.

[magicthecollege]

This is my evaluation. I’m also going to put it in the description.

Intro

What I produced is a YouTube video for an upcoming series project I’m making, I did this because I’d like to do some more YouTube related projects before I started the course. The brainstorm I did is all on two pieces of paper organized in boxes, one of them has a drawing idea of Unhan despite real life depiction not looking the same, my research comes from either a book or the internet, my work schedule was one or two days a week, finally for my proposal I had to change it due to some difficulties.

 Research

What was helpful was the magic book I used it had some of the information I needed to remind myself with for this project, I also used the internet for more information, and I also used the dairy that was in the video. I’m not sure what wasn’t helpful but the least helpful was the book because it only gave me information about what mana is and the creatures on Innistrad.

The type of research I did was also from the internet as well as the dairy that was used in the video which gave me some information that the book didn’t have, a part that I’ve added this as well is the treatment. Another piece of research was about fingerless gloves because I was wondering if they’d work for parkour which I did for the video because Unhan likes using parkour, they do work for a lot more control.

This impacted my work because in my book it gave me some information about the inhabitants of Innistrad but not the global map of the plane, the kind of information it tells us is mainly about the main characters of the story during the time like Sorin Markov or the Eldrazi, the internet gave me the right information about where certain things are and I kept using it to remind me what they are called, this helped when I was doing the treatment and when I was doing the description of the video cause I’m quite forgetful. Although I’ve said these things I think the book focuses more on the characters than the area so it could be useful for when I do future projects. How my dairy impacted the work is because I also have some information about not just Innistrad but other planes as well and the Eldrazi.

 Audience

The demographic audience I was aiming for is people who plays Magic the gathering, it is also aimed for card games in general but it’s more aimed for Magic players, whereas the psychographic audience is for those who wants to find entertainment through YouTube, why I’ve picked these audiences is because I’m also a Magic player so I tried to put myself in their shoes which I do occasionally and I like to watch what if real life videos.

I found this out through myself because of the reasons said above. It’s appeals to them because I’m trying to bring it to life. It’s important because I relate to them.

 Production

I produced my work with a camera and a laptop using Magisto to edit the video and include something that was in my practise shoots. We got ready by getting the right equipment, props and clothing, we went to our destination which was Highfields, we shot the videos while in-between we were getting ready to do the next shot, after that we went home I went onto the laptop to edit the videos on Magisto and then when it was complete I put it up on YouTube and did some YouTube magic by editing it more on there.

Before the actual thing I had a different idea which was me against a werewolf but no one was available because of the pandemic, so I scraped the idea. Although that happened before that I did some shots and bloopers for that idea in my house and decided to keep one of them in because it seemed to fit in perfectly. I experimented by doing some shots for my previous idea then I experimented by doing the idea afterwards which was the overall video, how this impacted my work was that I don’t need to include every idea I have.

I used a full body shot that went into a long shot through a panning type of shot because of me running, another scene was meant to be an over shoulder shot but it kind of wasn’t, which I need to improve on. It pushed me to improve these skills by doing them some more and doing them different for future projects including the episodes that this video will tell.

 Reflection

Overall excluding the pandemic I quite enjoyed this project because if we did this at home even without COVID-19 there’d be nothing I’d change, I’d probably use both ideas at the same time if I could. A thing that didn’t go to plan was the first time we were doing the video, my mum accidently record the times between required shots we overcame this by reshooting the unedited videos.

If I did this differently I would’ve done the original idea completely although I’d love to combine them both together if I could. I found working independently good because I can breathe with this and I don’t have to feel pressured to do it how anyone else tells me to do it. I can also take my time with it then.

I tried to keep to my proposal but with limited people who can do it as good as I hoped I had to change it to what it is now. I did keep to it with the theme of Magic The Gathering which helps me keep in track with what I had to do. I felt like I used my time well despite the rocky start, at the start I kind of felt like “how can I do this I don’t have a laptop?” but I still did the appropriate research, it wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago when Phil came over that I obtained a temporary laptop which I was able to get a lot of things done. I could improve by having a laptop of my own or by starting more prepared.

I’m glad I presented it the way that I did, because I tend to use YouTube a lot and after seeing a lot of people start their own careers on YouTube I wanted to also make my own mark on the platform, so by doing this video along with the other two I did for college I feel like I’m starting to do that.

[mixingmetaphorsoup]

Rules: tag 20 followers you want to get to know better


Tagged by: @affinityforanime

Name/nickname: Aaron. I’m not cool enough to have a nickname.


Gender: Male


Star sign: Taurus, but I think Astrology is a bunch of garbage.

Hogwarts house: I suppose Ravenclaw? I’m not into Harry Potter enough anymore to care, really.

Favorite color: Red


Favorite animal: Crow or tiger


Average hours of sleep: 7-9 hours.


Cat or dog person: Cat.


Favorite fictional characters: Captain America, The Count of Monte Cristo, Batman, Curly Brace, Misery, Lemony Snicket, Sorin Markov, Frankenstein’s Monster, Kumatora, Zuko, Toph, uhh most of the characters in Undertale?

Favorite singer/band: KONGOS.


Favorite Anime: Princess Tutu.


Dream trip: The Andes.

Dream job: Game designer or novelist.


When was this blog created: Late 2014, probably November.
Current number of followers: 144, but I will maintain till the day that I die that half of those are bots.

When did your blog reach its peak: Oh gee. I have no idea. Fucking tumblr and not allowing you to see past the previous month. I’d say maybe early 2016?


What made you decide to get a Tumblr: So I could ask Mark Rosewater questions. Seems to be a common thing among us Magic fans. Eventually it just became kind of an amalgam of my personal interests.

Tagging: @shingekinostunfisk, @kix--izzet-weirder, @scarletstormfront, @mtgrapbattles, @thenorthrembers, @magicthepartying, @sarkhan-punbroken Uh shit I don’t have 20. Here you go anyway.

[hunalicious]

Rules: Tag 20 followers you want to know better. Tagged by: @vanaliel​ (Thanks :D) Name:  Nadine Nickname: Huna and Nade, I prefer Huna though, sounds nicer Gender:  Female Height: 5′6 Star sign: Gemini Sexuality: Bisexual   Hogwarts House: I did that Pottermore test once and got Ravenclaw. Don’t really care about Harry Potter stuff though :/ Favorite color: Red  Favorite animal: Mantis shrimp Time right now: 15:22  Cat or Dog Person: Cat Favorite Fictional Characters: Olivia Voldaren, Sorin Markov (Magic The Gathering), Jhin (League of Legends) and Jespar (Enderal). Also the Butcher of Ark form the ingame book in Enderal. Number of Blankets: Two, it’s really cold here right now, and I can’t sleep with closed windows, so yeah. My room is a fridge. Favorite Singer/Band: Caravan Palace Dream Trip: Honestly? I would really like to just see the ocean. We barely even have lakes here. So yeah. Ocean.  Dream Job: Something along the lines of illustrator or concept artist. Don’t know, I am kind of uncertain in that regard ^^’’ When blog was created: Uh, no idea. About three or four years I think? When I was in my first year of my apprenticeship basically. Current number of followers:  124. No idea how I got so many. What even. Why did you pick your URL: I really just smashed some letters of my last and my first name together and added -licious because it sounded nice

Again, I’m still shy as fuck, so if you see this and want to do this... *Boop* consider yourself tagged

[dmcrossroads-blog]

Night 05! Rise of the Vampires!

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome back to DMCrossroads! Before I get into today’s post, I feel like I need to warn you; this is going to be the most hyped post I’ll have written here so far. It may be the most hyped thing I’ve written in a long time, if not simply EVER! There’s going to be a lot of ALL CAPS WRITING and exclamation points to properly convey, in text, just how excited I am!

You see… Today is day 3 of the Commander 2017 spoiler week. And today…

They spoiled some Vampires.

If you don’t understand why that makes me hyped, then I’m going to quickly explain: I love Vampires. I. LOVE. VAMPIRES! There are very few Vampire products or sagas or universes that I don’t enjoy. Maybe a total of three or so, now that I think about it. In all the Vampire-related things that have ever been created, there MAY be three instances I was unhappy about.

And this Commander 2017 deck is NOT one of those things. I. Love. This. Deck.

And I can’t wait to talk to you about it. But before we do, I feel the need to do some house-keeping. Yesterday’s post came out before I saw two of the spoilers from the 8th of August. For the sake of being organized, I want to quickly talk about those two cards before we get started on today. Let’s go!

Mirror of the Forebears

Mirror of the Forebears strongly resembles a Tribal-dedicated Mirage Mirror. If you haven’t been following the Commander VS episodes over at the StarCityGames YouTube channel, then you may not realize this, but the Magic Mirror (as Jeremy Noell and Stephen Green have nicknamed it) is an amazing piece that can find a home in nearly any and every deck. Mirror of the Forebears does something similar, albeit it limited to working within Tribal decks. Still, I can’t imagine what kind of deck I wouldn’t want to run this card in because if ONE awesome thing is awesome, TWO awesome things is TWICE AS AWESOME!

Qasali Slingers

Qasali Slingers is an awesome card in the fact that it is basically a creature version of Aura Shards. And honestly, Green and White is really good at getting rid of pesky Artifacts and Enchantments, so the fact that this provides even more removal for those types of cards and aligns with Cat tribal is such a win! And the fact that it triggers off the Cat entering the battlefield and not on cast is very important because Flicker effects and token creators just became even more awesome!

Okay, so those two cards were awesome additions! I don’t want to downplay them in the slightest. BUT! … Let’s talk about some Vampires. And like the past couple of posts, I want to start with the big shebang RIGHT UP FRONT!

Edgar Markov 

…

Hold on a second, I’m still trying to collect my thoughts and excitement for this. Don’t judge me, you don’t understand the over-hype that I’m currently over-hyping right now!

Let’s start with the simple stuff, like his name. You may or may not have noticed, but Legendary Creatures tend to come with a “,” somewhere in their name, followed by a title. They could have called this card “Edgar Markov, Father of Vampires” or “Edgar Markov, Lord of Innistrad” or even “Edgar Markov, Ruler of the Night”. But they didn’t. And I think I know why. Edgar Markov doesn’t need a title. Think about it. This IS the Father of Vampires on Innistrad. And seeing that Vampires were SUCH A THREAT to humanity that Sorin Markov felt they needed to be policed and created Avacyn to do so, I would wager that calling him the Lord of Innistrad or Ruler of the Night is EXTREMELY appropriate. But that’s all just fluff. Because THIS is Edgar Markov. No fluff needed.

Then we look at his art. We got to see it last week when the Commander 2017 page on Wizards.com had his art as splash art, but he wasn’t centered on the page. He was aligned to the right just a bit so they could fit the title of the page and some description wording without overlapping his face or armor. I agree 100% with how they handled the situation, but now seeing the art on the card, it’s amazing. Lord Markov (let’s be real, we’re not worthy to call him by his name!) is centered, surrounded by tending fledgling Vampires, a look of nobility and strength. His golden, black eyes are looking right at the player (or any poor fool of an opponent who picks him up to read his text) and staring into your soul. This is some prime art. THIS is the art… of Lord Edgar Markov!

Finally, let’s look at what he does. And wow, does he do it all or what? Sure, he costs 6, but he’s also a 4/4 with First Strike and Haste. That means he’s going to enter the battlefield SWINGING! But that’s not all he does. Let’s say you play him turn 6, but you were able to set up with two or three other Vampires in prior turns. That means you’ve gotten two or three Vampire tokens because of his Eminence ability. I want to draw very SPECIAL ATTENTION to this ability. Not only do we get tokens while casting Vampires and Lord Markov is in the Command Zone. We STILL get them while he is on the battlefield! We’re going to bring an ARMY of Vampires to fight! And Lord Markov empowers his forces, making them gain strength with just his command to attack! Unlike Drana, Liberator of Malakir, you can prevent Lord Markov’s damage, block him, but you cannot stop the benefit he is giving to his warriors. Honestly, the only complaint I have about this card is that he’s a Vampire Knight. Let’s be honest. Lord Edgar Markov is the Vampire King!

I could go on and on about this card and how I plan to make this deck. Because, trust me! I am going to be running Lord Edgar Markov at some point in the VERY near future! But there’s a ton of other cards and I don’t want to take up your entire evening. After all, there are Vampires about! You may want to ready your defenses before nightfall…

Licia, Sanguine Tribune 

I will openly admit that I was not nearly as excited about Licia, Sanguine Tribune as I was for Lord Edgar Markov (no, Lord is not leaving his name for most likely… Ever. Expect me to always refer to him as Lord from here on out!) despite the fact that I think they’re an interesting Legendary Creature. Why, you may ask? Well, for starters, the CMC on this one is REALLY high. I see that the cost is reduced by gaining life, but I have this stereotype of Vampires for Magic: the Gathering in my head that makes me think more of the “growing in strength via combat” by them gaining +1/+1 counters instead of thinking of a lifegain deck. Now, with that being said, if I stop thinking of Licia as a Vampire Commander and more of a Lifegain Commander, I start getting more excited. I once ran Karlov of the Ghost Council as a WB Lifegain Zombie Tribal deck, so utilizing lifegain to gain counters is not new to me. Then, I also notice that you can activate Licia’s +1/+1 counter ability once EACH TURN! Not each of YOUR TURNS, EACH TURN! So in a four-person game where I’m gaining tons of life, I could pay 20 into this Commander and get a 16/16 after a single round? Um. Yes. Yes, please. I think Karlov will be a great part of the 99 for a deck like this and I’m excited to see what Licia can really do!

I’ll also note that Reddit got super hyped over Licia because their armor appears to be Roman-esque in nature. Some people theorized that they may be from Theros and we’ll see a Greece vs. Roman style conflict in a return to Theros while others are hoping and praying for a Roman-based plane in the future that has Vampires incorporated into the government. Honestly, if it has Vampires in it, I don’t truly care where we go!

Mathas, Fiend Seeker 

Wizards, STOP WITH THE AMAZING ART! This guy looks EXTREMELY badass, and I can only imagine that the branding tool in his hand is either about to be used or just was used on some poor fool. Then I look at the stats on the card and I can’t help but get excited. A 3/3 body with Menace for three mana is awesome. And then I read the Bounty counter ability and it SCREAMS politics! “Hmm, see this creature we all don’t really like? I’m going to put a Bounty on it. Now if we get rid of it, we all benefit!” Definitely something I would play. And this isn’t the first time we’ve seen Bounty counters, so there’s some pre-existing synergy to build with in a deck led by Mathas.

That’s it for the Legendary Vampires that have been spoiled thus far. Someone on Reddit noticed that there are five Legendary Creatures spoiled for the Dragon deck, four for the Cat deck and only three for the Vampires, so there’s some theorizing that there will be another new Legendary Vampire at some point. I’d like to also provide the possibility that perhaps there will be more reprints in the decks that have fewer new Legendary Creatures. Vampires have tons of Legendary Creatures they could bring back, including two Drana’s, two Olivia’s, two Kalitas’ and more! So who knows what we’ll see once the decklists are revealed? For now, let’s talk about the non-Legendary Vampires we saw today.

Bloodsworn Steward 

Commander 2016 had a very unique card in one of the decks called Bastion Protector. My wife, Dani, fell in love with this card because it was another Aegis Angel for her Kaalia of the Vast deck. It looks like Vampires are bringing the “buff Commander cards” idea back and instead of giving Indestructible, the red-colored card is giving Haste. I’m excited to see the mechanic return and Haste is fine, but I almost wonder if Trample wouldn’t have been better. Haste is super important ONCE each time you play your Commander. Trample matters every attack phase it’s on the battlefield and we’ve seen Red start to share Trample with Green over the past couple of years. Remember the Red Archetype of Aggression from Theros? Still, this is a four mana 4/4 with flying that buffs your Commander and gives haste. All in all, an extremely efficient card!

Crimson Honor Guard 

I like everything about this card. The stats are spot on with a five mana 4/5 body with Trample. But the fact that it encourages people (or punishes them!) for not having their Commander on the battlefield seems hilarious! I mean, part of the reason we all love and play Commander is because you get to build this awesome deck around this awesome Legendary Creature! (Most of the time… I acknowledge some people build cards around COLORS instead of the Creature itself, but I will stand by the statement that normally, decks are built with what the Commander provides in mind). The only issue I could have with this card is if your own Commander is hard to cast, it may be a dud. Still, if you’re in a group that runs a lot of big stompy Commanders that you know won’t be out until turn seven or you plan on regularly sending back to the Command Zone… This might give you the upper hand with some nice damage!

Patron of the Vein 

Any time I see graveyard disruption on a card, I instantly want to buy as many as I can fit into decks with those colors. As a graveyard player (Hail the Golgari!) I know too well how crazy decks that rely on putting their own cards in the graveyard can get. A healthy amount of graveyard hate has a place in ANY DECK and I would say it’s as necessary as having ramp and draw. Not only does this card provide graveyard hate, it’s still very tribal by boosting EACH VAMPIRE YOU CONTROL when something gets exiled for dying. Sounds like a win/win for me!

New Blood 

So this spell obviously isn’t a Vampire itself, but as you read it, you can tell while I’m classifying it with the rest of the Vampire cards. I love taking people’s stuff. The first Vampire Tribal deck I ran was Commandered by Olivia Voldaren (as, I believe, most Vampire Tribal decks tend to be led by) and nothing was more fun than taunting my opponents by pinging their creatures and turning them into Vampires and then taking them. This card goes a step further and REPLACES TEXT ON THE TAKEN CARD so that whatever creature type it previously referenced now references Vampire instead. This doesn’t just turn the taken creature into Vampire, it can take an Elf Lord and make it a Vampire Lord. As a Krenko, Mob Boss player, I giggled with glee when I thought of taking Krenko from someone and making Goblins now say Vampires. Imagine making 1/1 Vampire tokens for each Vampire you control?! Please, Wizards, stop TOYING WITH MY EMOTIONS!

That was all the Vampire and Vampire-esque cards that were spoiled today! But we’re not done. Actually, we’re only about halfway… Because some AWESOME other cards were also spoiled! The first ones I want to talk about was the cycle of Curses!

Curse of Vitality 

Curse of Verbosity 

Curse of Disturbance 

Curse of Opulence 

Curse of Bounty 

I’m not going to go over each and every ability because you can read them for yourself and figure out which of your decks they will do the most work in. I do, however, want to mention that I am in love with Curses and have been since they first came out. I’ve been talking about wanting to run a Curse Commander deck and am constantly upset that there isn’t a Grixis colored Legendary Creature that I can work with. I’ve resigned myself to work with Nekusar the Mindrazer, since he’s the right colors, helps you draw cards and I don’t have to worry about losing my Curses like I would if I ran the deck under Jeleva, Nephalia’s Scourge. With that in mind, I noticed something VERY important about these Curses, since they’re new and improved! Remember that any time an opponent triggers one of these new Curses by attacking the cursed player, they’re not the only one getting the benefit. THESE Curses pay the attacker AND the owner of the curse! THAT IS SO COOL! It’s the ultimate political play. Sure, you want to attack this person because who doesn’t want 2 life, to draw a card, a 2/2 Zombie token, a Gold token or to untap their nonland permanents? Just know that anything you get, I get. You have to pay taxes on that benefit! Fantastic!

Finally, there was three other cards spoiled today and nearly all three were instantly gobbled up by the people as being awesome. Let’s talk about them before we wrap this SUPER LONG post up!

Disrupt Decorum 

Teferi’s Protection 

Kindred Charge 

For starters, seeing Kindred Charge after Kindred Discovery yesterday leads us to believe there will be five cards in a Kindred Cycle, just like the five Curse cards. This means there’s a White, Black and Green Kindred card that we haven’t seen yet. For today, though, Kindred Charge was instantly seen and loved by Krenko players. You mean I get MORE while I keep getting MORE from Krenko?! I’ll definitely be adding the card to my own Krenko deck!

Disrupt Decorum tickled the fancies of another set of Goblin players; Grenzo, Havoc Raiser already loves forcing chaos by making people attack each other with Goad. This spell can basically hit everyone at once and may put you in a position to sweep in for a win, or to just keep the chaos going by constantly hitting people with JUST ENOUGH creatures to keep the War of Goading going! I saved Teferi’s Protection for last because I think it made the biggest splash in the community. For starters, it’s an amazing card. It basically says you get a turn off from being touched, which is awesome on its own. Then you read the card and realize that Wizards printed a NEW card with Phasing on it. We haven’t seen this mechanic for YEARS, so the fact that they’re printing it now may be a hint that we should expect to see it in the future. While I’m loving the card, I’ll be the first person to admit that I don’t fully understand the rules behind Phasing and I’m not super excited to see the mechanic return en masse. However, if this is the only printing of it, I could definitely deal with that!

Wow. Again, this was a really long post and I hope you readers at least enjoyed it! I would love to hear from you on what you think about the new cards, what you think will come of the Wizards tomorrow, what decks you’re planning on putting what cards into, etc.! You can write to me here or find me on Twitter @DM_Cross! Or you can email me at seth.dm.cross@gmail.com! Don’t also forget that you can follow along with the Praetor Magic YouTube channel and follow the channel’s Twitter handle @PraetorMagic! We’re STILL working on our first giveaway, so head over to the channel and SUBSCRIBE and then Tweet out your favorite Magic Online Commander League episode with #MOCL! That’ll give you a chance to win a Blessed vs. Cursed Duel Deck when we hit 50 subscribers, or the second one when we hit 100!

Thanks for reading through everything! I really appreciate the attention I’ve gotten so far. I’m loving these posts and seeing what people think, so definitely reach out to me!

Until next time, folks, that’s all I got for you! Peace, love ya’ll!