#history or ravnica

[racefortheironthrone]

fantasy sometimes doesn't afford itself the ability to fantasize about a better world with many of the same problems of real life. thankfully ive found fantasy thatfantasize about things like gender roles, orientations, social status, etc. being more accepting, and the world kinder more often than not. question is, as hard as it is to find solid urban fantasy, are there anyworks you know of that use itself to imagine a optimal city for us urban nerds? magic public works, free dragon transit?

So there is a real problem in the fantasy and sci-fi genres that they often have a failure of revolutionary imagination, as I’ve termed it. We’re so used to not just the world as it is but also the public historical imagination of how change happens, that even in art that’s supposed to be about radically reimagining our world or new worlds, we often revert back to the familiar. (I find this tic particularly annoying in alternate history, which is supposed to be about imagining how the world could have evolved differently, but often reverts back to a retelling of (often bad) history with the numbers filed off.)

(A sadly rare counter-example.)

You raise a fascinating question about the potential for urbanist fantasy. This is often quite rare in urban fantasy, because often out of a desire to maintain the verisimilitude of urban life, they default to a masquerade scenario which renders it impossible to explore the impact of magic on transit, housing, and other aspects of urbanism because the central conceit is that people with magic are trying to hide and thus have no impact on the mundane world.

However, it does crop up sometimes in Magitech settings, because their central conceit is all about how magic would function in place of science and lead to new ways of organizing societies, urban and otherwise. For a popular example, look at how Arcane examines the social impacts of Hextech and Shimmer. My personal favorite example of urbanist fantasy is the plane of Ravnica from Magic the Gathering.

Ravnica is a ecumenopolis, a city-state that covers the whole planet. The city is governed by a guild council, each of whom are responsible for an aspect of the city’s physical and social infrastructure:

The Azorius Senate is responsible for running the courts and the legal system, and sometimes they run the police as well (although they have a jurisdictional dispute with the Boros Legion on that front).

House Dimir are couriers, messengers, journalists, private investigators, spies, assassins, thieves, and librarians, as well as the city’s clandestine intelligence service - if it deals with information in any way, the Dimir have a hand in it…or do they?

The Cult of Rakdos run the city’s entertainment, food service, retail, and labor recruitment (lots of shanghaing and press ganging goes on in Ravnica) - and they’re also a crazed juggalo bdsm blood cult who are responsible for keeping an ancient arch-demon entertained so he doesn’t try to destroy the city, again.

The Gruul Clans are an anarchist collective responsible for the planet’s wilderness areas, which they try to maximize by violent raids that tear down developed areas any chance they get - which also makes them Ravnica’s main demolition industry. The Boros Legion spends a lot of time defending built-up areas from Gruul rampages.

The Selesnya Conclave are a hippie nature cult commune who manage the city’s parks and other green spaces, as well as providing basic welfare services (food, “shelter,” clothing, etc.) to the city’s poor. They also use magic to do weird hivemind brainwashing in the name of harmony and unity, and they can raise giant Ent-Kaiju to defend the city in times of need.

The Orzhov Syndicate are a vampire banker mafia, and also one of the city’s biggest religions. They believe in debt on a spiritual level, and their religion fully embraces indulgences to their logical conclusion. The Orzhov preach that you can literally buy your way into heaven, and that debts to the (Catholic by way of Prosperity Gospel Evangelical) Church or its many front organizations and legitimate businesses will carry over into the next life; the Orzhov practice debt slavery on both living people and ghosts. And lest you think it’s all a cover for profit-making, they can summon dark angels to conduct rituals, lead services, and make war on their enemies. Something above is answering their prayers…

My personal favorite is the Izzet League, an institute of mad scientists and engineers and elementalist wizards who combine science and magic to research, build, and maintain the city’s infrastructure (as well as funding all tech R&D and theoretical and experimental research in physics, chemistry, and engineering) - the power grid, water and sewer systems, heating and gas lines, as well as the city’s mass transit and transportation/freight system, are all powered by their steam and fire and lightning and Magitech gadgets and robots and cyborgs made out of a magic metal named mizzium. Yes, a lot of their devices explode, and yes their golems and robots and elementals have a tendency to go rogue, but that’s the price of progress!

The Golgari Swarm are a subterranean necromantic cabal who run the city’s waste disposal, burial services, and do the bulk of the agricultural production for Ravnica’s hungry masses. All of Ravnica’s citizens are entitled to a food dole provided by the Golgari’s fungi farms as a form of basic income. Just don’t think too hard about what went into the compost heaps or what your rations might be made of…

The Boros Legion is Ravnica’s main police and military, led by a literal host of warrior angels. Imagine the combination of a police force entirely made up of noir detectives and loose cannon Dirty Harry-esque cops and an army with flying fortresses led by fiery angels who are all deeply dramatic lesbians. True believers one and all, the Boros are here to mete out justice and divine wroth upon evildoers wherever they hide. If they had their way, the Orzhov would all be in prison along with the Gruul and the Rakdos, but the damn bureaucrats in the Azorius Senate keep trying them up in knots with paperwork.

The Simic Combine are responsible for the city’s environmental quality, ensuring biodiversity and sustainability in a global metropolis; they are also the city’s universal health care providers. All Ravnicans have access to free health care, as long as they consent to the Combine’s biomantic research. See, the Simic are the other group of mad scientists/mages in the city, except they went into genetics, environmental science, and (marine) biology and they believe in individual and societal evolution through the use of augmentation, cloning, and splicing. After all, why stop at curing someone’s respiratory illness when you could also give them gills? Or giant crab claws? Or tentacles?

I love the world-building and the attention to urban systems and infrastructure in Ravnica. More than most, they’ve thought about what urban life needs to function and made it magical.

[markrosewater]

Given the history of bad things happening to characters that you like, did the creative team for MKM just ask you who you liked in Ravnica to fill out the list of murders?

It was odd. They said, "So who are your favorite residents of Ravnica?"

[raakdos-battlemap]

After the War and the Phyrexian Invasion, Vitu-Ghazi was weak and no longer able to sustain itself. The guildhall needed to lay semi-dormant to recover its strength, and Mat'Selesnya told Trostani that the tree needed space to lay new roots. A moor within a park on Selesnya territory was deemed the best place for Vitu-Ghazi to reconnect with the plane and properly recover. The tree was planted around a manor that was made a repository of the plane's history, including a library of Ravnican books and the original Guildpact.

More variations of this map:

[bittenrabbit]

Six Deck Tech :> Decklist can be found here: Six Baubles (now with six baubles!)

hello! I'd like to talk about one of my commanders, a card with a really unique effect from Modern Horizons 3 who has yet to see the variation in deck building that they probably should!

But before I get to that, I'd like to talk about one of my favorite decks from magic history, Eggs! Eggs is a deck that revolves around the same game pieces regardless of format: 1 and 0 mana artifacts that you can "crack" for a card and an effect of some kind. You win by using some kind of mana engine to draw your entire deck. one card at a time. Once you've thinned your deck, you can achieve a loop of some kind to end up winning the game. It's the ultimate power trip!!! Taking a ridiculous amount of game actions just to lose to not drawing the exact piece you need, choosing when/when to not shuffle becomes a game of percentages at the slot machine it's fantastic lol If you have yet to watch Pro Tour Return to Ravnica's finals, it's definitely worth a watch! The winning list ran Lotus Bloom as its mana engine of choice and won by cracking eggs (and lands through ghost quarter!) and then reanimating them + Lotus with Second Sunrise/Faith's Reward before cracking everything again to get ever closer to an empty deck and then win by looping a single Pyrite Spellbomb :>

So who's at the helm of my deck? As I went into MH3 spoiler season, Six really stood out to me! I love wide open cards that let you brew in a billion different ways :>

Six (of Wrenn and Six fame) is a 3 mana 2/4 Reach who reads:

Reach Whenever Six attacks, mill three cards. You may put a land card from among them into your hand. As long as it’s your turn, nonland permanent cards in your graveyard have retrace. (You may cast permanent cards from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying their other costs.)

Most Six lists so far on EDHREC run stuff like Spore Frog and Sakura-Tribe Elder + Sacrifice effects to accrue value/discard lands and then end the game through cards like Avenger of Zendikar/landfall effects + mass land reanimation spells!

I took a bit of a different spin on Six, one that no one seems to have replicated yet (side tangent um. being the only deck running this stuff on EDHREC is so funny, you can literally see my deck on the website!) I made an eggs list! With Six out on the field, cards like Conjurer's Bauble and Mishra's/Urza's Bauble read "discard a land to draw a card" With any mana discount, Chromatic Star/Sphere and a bunch of other eggs read the same :D

My gameplan is to get Six out and protected and then draw a whole bunch of cards and gain a tooon of value with cards like Glaring Fleshraker, Turntimber Sower and Sarinth Steelseeker

If you can keep hitting lands off your eggs, your storm count'll go way up recasting your baubles which you can use to cast cards like Sprouting Vines to cast MORE BAUBLES!!!! Or win through typical storm payoffs like Aeve & Aetherflux Reservoir to blast em all for super lethal damage >:D (or you could just win by simply having more cards and tokens than opponents can handle!)

Anywaays that's my deck tech i think! lmk if i missed anything maybe i'll rewrite this at some point and make a video? :>

[macabresymphonies]

I appriciate the implications for lore and larger story and all the supplemental stories (please don't get rid of those WOTC) of Thunder Junction, but the fact this is "an empty plane with no living beings before that" makes it feel so forgettable it's actually insane.

I tried to stay positive really, but it's just bunch of returning characters having a cowboy themed party. The events could happen literally anywhere else, Ixalan especially, because there was no inherent faction, history or structure that made it unique to the plane. The Marketable Plushie™ could have been locked in Niv-Mizzet's cabinet for all I care and it would actually make more lore significant, than a random vault desert plane with vaugely native american nomad faction visiting it (you know, it's like native american history, sans most of it's core).

With MKM feeling like "Clue night at Markov Mansion" (to the point actual Clue set came out with it), Caverns of Ixalan not originally being Ixalan, but being "too similar not to not change" (god forbid you have more than one native american set when you have your n-th "vaugely european fantasy" set), I'm afraid it's setting a bad precedent for the future where creativity is stifled by marketability.

"I know you got a plane that suddenly has pissed winged police all over it and crime can no longer fly in demon city, but we can't do two sets on the same plane in such a short time (unless it's scamming you on small packs of course) so the cops and robbers set is instead back on Ravnica, you guys like Ravnica don't you (the sales charts said so)? Look Teysa Karlov is here! Isn't she like your "gagachondra mother boss queen" or whataver you nerds like to say? We're still testing grounds since we lost our last goth girl bait to some "character growth" or whatever back in Strixhaven"

Hoping Blumburrow is good enough to maybe make them reconsider (at least epilogue sets were atrocious enough to make them stop any in the future). It at least looks like it has an original enough story that's not just "Jace is the main character despite not being that well liked".

[incorrect-mtg]

Flavor Text Highlights

So, one thing that I did two years ago (and have kept updated since) on twitter was my flavor text thread, where I went through each set in Magic history and picked the top 4 (or, for some exceptional cases, 8) best pieces of flavor text in my opinion.

Since then, I have regreted some choices and very much dislike the fact I can't edit the original tweets to reflect changes on the rules I followed for card selection... So I might as well use Tumblr as the place to correct all that.

Every day from now on, I will re-post a set from the list until I catch up to it, then eventually update it as new magic sets come out. The rules for selection can be seen after the linebreak below (as well as a full list of sets I've already gone through, with links). The first one can be found here.

1- Categorization

I will always try to select a diverse list of cards so as to fill the following 4 categories of flavor text types:

Cool - Boasts and descriptions that serve to make the subject matter of the card seem powerful and/or interesting.

Funny - Dialogue, descriptions or epigrams meant to get a laugh out of you

Worldbuilding - Flavor text whose biggest strength comes not from what it says on its own, but how it helps build upon either the world the set takes place in or the story of the set in question

Emotional - This one could conceivably be separated in two whole categories, but it encompasses cards that would fill the same niche as the "Cool" category but with a specific focus on either sadness or horror.

However, there will be situations where there might be a number of good flavor texts within a certain category while another is found lacking of any truly great options. In such scenarios, I will simply remove one (and in rare cases more) of the categories and repeat one of the remaining options. For an extreme example, the first Un-sets barely had any non-Funny options, so when picking cards from those sets most/all of the picks will be from the Funny category.

2- Card Selection

Cards will be reviewed only if they have new flavor text (using scryfall's "new:flavor" filter) and only if it's original flavor text (aka no real world references or quotes from literature) while sets will either be reviewed alone or grouped up depending on the amount of eligible cards in the set. Although I don't have a hard cut-off point for how many new flavor texts a set needs to be reviewed alone, the general range is around 150.

For sets that don't reach that number, they will either be bundled with an associated set (i.e. reviewing Commander precons with their associated Standard set) or bundled with a lot of other smaller products until a suitable number is reached (i.e. bundling all early Masters sets and Duel Decks together, since the amount of new flavor texts in those products is very low).

2.1 - Cycles

For some sets, a collection of cards (usually a cycle) will have flavor texts that work together, expand on each other or combine into a single theme. If said interaction is particularly good or if there isn't already a good flavor text that can stand up on its own, a cycle might be picked for a specific entry. Below, I will try to set up a list of every post for this, in order:

Alpha/Beta/Unlimited

Antiquities

Legends

The Dark

Fallen Empires

Ice Age | Homelands | Alliances

Mirage | Visions | Weatherlight

Portal

Tempest | Stronghold | Exodus

Portal Second Age

Unhinged + Unglued

Urza's Saga | Urza's Legacy | Urza's Destiny

Mercadian Masques | Nemesis | Prophecy

Invasion | Planeshift | Apocalypse

Odyssey | Torment | Judgment

Onslaught | Legions | Scourge

Mirrodin | Darksteel | Fifth Dawn

Champions of Kamigawa | Betrayers of Kamigawa | Saviors of Kamigawa

Core Sets (4th Edition - 10th Edition)

Ravnica: City of Guilds | Guildpact | Dissension

Coldsnap

Time Spiral | Planar Chaos | Future Sight

Lorwyn | Morningtide | Shadowmoor | Eventide

Duel Decks

Shards of Alara | Conflux | Alara Reborn

Magic 2010

Zendikar | Worldwake | Rise of the Eldrazi

Magic 2011

Scars of Mirrodin | Mirrodin Besieged | New Phyrexia

Commander Precons (Commander 2011 - Commander 2019)

Magic 2012

Innistrad | Dark Ascension | Avacyn Restored

Magic 2013

Return to Ravnica | Gatecrash | Dragon's Maze

Masters Sets

Magic 2014

Theros | Born of the Gods | Journey into Nyx

Conspiracy + Conspiracy: Take the Crown

Magic 2015

Khans of Tarkir | Fate Reforged | Dragons of Tarkir

Magic Origins

Battle for Zendikar | Oath of the Gatewatch

Shadows Over Innistrad | Eldritch Moon

Kaladesh | Aether Revolt

Amonkhet | Hour of Devastation

Ixalan | Rivals of Ixalan

Unstable + Unsanctioned

Dominaria

Battlebond

Magic 2019

Guilds of Ravnica | Ravnica Allegiance | War of the Spark

[crinosmonsters]

Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder

The Original creator of the Thrulls, Endrek Sahr was a member of the Order of the Ebon Hand, a depraved cult which operated upon on the continent of Sarpadia on the plane of Dominaria thousands of years ago. Sahr created the Thrulls initially as slaves and sacrifice fodder, but felt like his creations could be more, pushing him to create larger and more powerful Thrulls. These Ambitions led him to create the Derelor which, while physically powerful, consumed too many resources to be viable. As a result, Sahr was sentenced to death. But while history considers Sahr dead, there was a period in Dominaria's history where time and space became mutable, and Sahr may yet have escaped his unfortunate fate and lives on.

Endrek Sahr's Enchiridion

Endrek Sahr has access to numerous unique magic spells, some he created himself (Breeding Pit and Thrull retainer) and others which were created by the Order of the Ebon Hand. These spells can be found in Sahr's spellbook on his person, or an ambitious and unscrupulous wizard can learn the spells themselves under the evil wizard.

Thrull Retainer

1st level Necromancy

casting time: 1 action

range: An unoccupied space within 5 feet.

Components: V, S, M (at least half of a humanoid corpse or more)

duration: Concentration: up to an hour

This spell summons a single Servitor Thrull (descriped in Guildmaster's guide to Ravnica) Which loyally serves the caster to the best of its limited abilities. The Thrull will not move more than five feet away from its caster, and can be called upon to use its self sacrifice ability as a reaction.

Classes: Cleric, Warlock, Wizard

Hymn to Tourach

2nd level Enchantment

Casting time: 1 action

Range: 60 feet

components: V

Duration: Instantaneous

Named for the evil cleric which founded the order of the ebon hand, the Hymn of Tourach requires the caster to unleash a dark infernal prayer to torment their enemies. One target within 60 feet must make a wisdom saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn. In addition, if the target was a spellcaster, they lose a spell slot of the highest level they are capable of casting.

Classes: Bard, Cleric, Warlock, Wizard

Breeding Pit

Third Level Necromancy (Ritual)

Casting time: 10 minutes

Range: 120 feet

Components: V, S, M (a large hole, approximately 1,000 pounds worth of corpses, and alchemic potions equaling about 500 GP)

Duration: See below

Endrek Sahr's masterpiece, this spell allows for the mass production of Thrulls on a massive scale. The Spell creates a breeding pit, a 10 foot wide, 80 foot deep pit filled with bubbling ichor comprised of numerous alchemic reagents and liquefied flesh.

Once per day, at sundown, a Servitor Thrull emerges from the Breeding pit, loyal to the caster who created the pit. So long as it is maintained, the Breeding pit will continue to produce new Thrulls in this manner indefinitely.

Maintenance of the Breeding Pit requires two things: First, the pit must be replenished with a periodic supply of new chemicals and corpses once a month, to the equivalent of one medium sized corpse and 50 gold pieces. More importantly, the Pit requires a constant source of magic to function. Each day, a spellcaster (not necessarily the one who created the pit) within 60 feet must sacrifice a level two or higher spell slot in order to keep the pit alive. Without this magic, the pit will dry up and die in a matter of hours.

There is no limit to the number of breeding pits that a single caster can create at one time, so long as the upkeep requiements are met.

If you enjoy my work, please consider joining My Patreon, Where I post compilations of the monsters that you see here (Along with Patreon exclusive new monsters) Or donate to my Ko-fi where you can request a monster writeup for the low low price of one dollar.

[justavulcan]

Backgrounds With Class: Golgari Agent

I'll be honest: Ravnica has always fascinated me. I was a high schooler when the first set came out, and I was immediately consumed creating characters for the setting. Now that we've actually received my long-awaited crossover, I thought it would be nice to write a love letter to the setting in the form of another Backgrounds with Class series. After all: some guilds have natural class choices tied in, from a conceptual standpoint. Boros and Fighter, Izzet and Wizard, Selesnya and Druid. But guilds aren’t class-restricted, and so I wonder what it would look like if you paired every class with every guild background, even the ones that seem at odds, like Izzet and Barbarian, or Gruul and Artificer.  So I thought about it, and this is what I came up with.  Some character concepts for each class, and each Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica background for each class.

Golgari Agent

The Golgari Agent Artificer is one of the kraul, a wingless merchant who recently took over the family business.  Poling a narrow raft through the undercity’s sewer network isn’t glamorous work, but it does afford her a fine selection of various fungi and other ingredients for her elixirs and salves.  If push comes to shove, her alchemical expertise is for more than just brewing potions; many an undercity predator has tasted her home-made deathspore bombs and opted for easier prey elsewhere.

The Golgari Agent Barbarian has been a member of his neighborhood’s hunting party since he became of age.  Eschewing moodmark paint in favor of a hunter’s mottled camouflage pigments, he knows how to track and run down prey with the pack coordination of a wolf.  This talent’s not hyperbole, either; his last encounter with one of the Selesnya’s ledev guardians supplied him with a fine wolf-pelt cowl he wears proudly over his hunter’s paint.  Sometimes he even thinks the spirit of the wolf takes over on the hunt; it would account for the times he’s come to after a kill with blood on his face.

The Golgari Agent Bard knows better than most how things of import can turn up anywhere.  A findbroker by trade, her ability to discover the history behind any gewgaw or trinket she scrounges up has more than doubled her profit on occasion.  Gifted with a turn of phrase and the eerie, low-pitch ocarina she cares for like a child, her ambitions don’t stop at finding lost art- she yearns to be the first to rediscover some buried vault or basement thought long lost.

The Golgari Agent Cleric, in accordance with the Swarm’s care for the cycle of life and death, has been responsible for dozens of acts of euthanasia in her life.  It doesn’t take an expert to recognize when a hunter’s been taken by zombie fungus, or when a red reaver bloom’s explosive dispersal drives a whole apartment block mad with aggression.  It just takes care and respect for the final solace of death to ease people’s suffering.  That her focus also comes in handy fending off territorial disputes is icing.

The Golgari Agent Druid is, technically, a drudge, one of the zombified dead that the Swarm relies on for muscle, both on the farm and the battlefield.  However, unknown processes allowed the fungal parasite to seize full control of the host, and arrive at a consciousness of their own.  Now, they’re busy determining the meaning of their new existence.  While they work it out, they shamble about the Undercity, working odd jobs tending livestock and helping farmers with their natural understanding of other fungi.

The Golgari Agent Fighter is militant, a troll-blooded human with the strength of arm and heart to testify to his lineage.  While for the moment just one of the many toughs that lurk around the Undercity looking for easy prey, his true goal is far less provincial: to climb the Swarm’s political ladder and become one of Jarad’s closest advisors or even his bodyguard.  To this end, he’s quick to speak out in aggression against surface- dwellers intruding on his domain, or take the initiative and lead a raiding party himself.

The Golgari Agent Monk was always gifted with swiftness of arm and wit; as a nymph he scrapped with his siblings more days than not, and has since taken to far more dangerous partners to improve her skills.  He mostly works as a guide for the rare surface-dweller to travel below the sunlit streets, and even distills his own moonshine from fermenting fruit and the ample yeast colonies on his travels.  He’s become quite the alcoholic aficionado, and claims he fights even better when he’s had a few drinks.

The Golgari Agent Paladin was, like many of his Ordruun kin, originally slated to join the Boros Legion as a cadet when he came of age.  He did, but when a raid went bad and he was left for dead in the Undercity by a sergeant he knew to be corrupt, he swore he wouldn’t leave the darkened streets and buried closes of Ravnica until the man lay dead before him.  A childhood roaming the near-surface reaches and a minotaur’s innate sense of direction have served him well, and his new guild feeds the cold core of his desire for vengeance happily so long as it’s pointed at their mutual enemies.

The Golgari Agent Ranger always liked bugs.  Wasn’t much of a choice, really, living in one of the many tenement buildings sunk below the sunlit streets of upper Ravnica- you learned to deal with the scurrying things of the world young.  Cultivating a unique magical bond with them was the work of many long nights, but the result has been beyond reproach- his many tiny friends are stronger than they look, and complement his hunting well as they ensure that his prey can never truly escape.

The Golgari Agent Rogue has aspired to become one of the Ochran ever since one killed his abusive parents in front of him.  Starry-eyed about becoming one of the Swarm’s most famous killers, he moved to the Undercity the next week, escaping the home of his blood family to find new kin.  He had a rough time of it, begging and sweeping out chimneys, but he picked up the poisons quickly, and has always been slight enough to slip down sewer pipes and chimneys to find the target.

The Golgari Agent Sorcerer was a washout before he was anything of real use- literally.  Originally an experimental attempt at forming a drake-human krasis for the Guardian Project, he was mistaken by a careless lab assistant for a failure and flushed out of his transformation tank before his scales, wing flaps, and poison glands fully developed.  Recovered by a rot farmer accustomed to handling the runoff from the Simic lab in question, he’s grown to appreciate his new environment- and has already misdirected or slain the first attempts of the lab’s owner to track him down for retrieval.

The Golgari Agent Warlock always made a point of delving deeper and into tighter environs than his contemporaries.  Never a good fit with hunter or shaman, he explored the depths of the Undercity all on his own before stumbling one day into an as-yet undiscovered chamber.  The figure sitting on the throne there was enormous in size and patched together from all different creatures, but when it stirred to see the boy before it, all it did was offer him a set of knucklebones on string.  Taking them was the beginning of something, and now the man treasures the talisman that forms the link to his patron.

The Golgari Agent Wizard has been a rot farmer for decades.  It’s only now, lately, that he’s set out to travel and study magic in the hopes of winning his farm back.  It was taken from him by a devkarin lich, an objective lesson in might making right within the Swarm, and he hopes to master enough of the necromancer’s art to bend the new owner’s undead farmhands to his will.  He’s quickly finding that things are very big outside his secluded cavern home, and even that he likes it- perhaps enough to keep him from going back.

[dimestoretajic]

THE MAGIC PLANESWALKER ULTIMATE BATTLE FINALE

We've reached the end of the road, folks! It's been an absolute slobberknocker from start to finish, but we finally have two towering titans standing at the top of the pile!

As is always tradition for my brackets, we're not doing a separate post. Let's get this going right here!

On one side, we have Vraska, Golgari Queen. This card shows Vraska at the height of her power. Fresh from her escape from Ixalan, this Vraska is leader of the Golgari and sitting at the tables of power in Ravnica. Her ultimate represents her ability to effect events, finally, directly, for the first (and some would say last) time in her life... or perhaps, her life so far, as some may say.

On the other, we have Sarkhan, Unbroken, also representing himself at the height of his strength. Once an aimless warrior and a planeswalker under the thumb of Nicol Bolas, this Sarkhan has fought through time itself and changed the course of history, bringing back dragons back to Tarkir when they were once extinct (whether that is good or bad is up to you). His ultimate fully reflects that, bringing to the battlefield every single dragon at his disposal to rain down fire (and lightning and light and so on and so forth) onto his foes.

Now, months of waiting have brought these two mighty warriors to blows. Who wins? Who falls? As always, gang, that's up to you!

One more time! Let's do this!

MAKE! YOUR! CHOICE!

[eras-of-oroza]

hello!

i'm somewhat, and for the past few days i've been working on making my biggest mtg project yet: the Eras of Oroza, my own custom set! before i get rambling, i'll put this here:

link to set (on cubecobra.com)

this set started with a simple card cycle i made to play around with cumulative upkeep -- the Five Ages.

each one details a specific time in Oroza's history, and bare the new enchantment subtype, Era

the world and story of the set are not yet finished, but the general premise and mechanics have been established. the set revolves around the enemy color pairings-detailed below-and is somewhat ravnica-inspired

the groups:

The Apheneon — white & black this group delves heavily in the concepts of thinking and memory-- but works for their supression and annihilation. similar to the Orzhov, the Apheneon also work with death, being the group with most of the common undead, such as zombies and skeletons the Apheneon ability word is "Diminished," and cares about having two or less cards in hand.

The Begdros — black & green the Begdros, as an organization, focuses on wars and fighting them. many Begdra cards have fight effects, giving their deathtouch-heavy creatures an interesting take on removal. unlike most planes, Orozan angels are almost exclusively alligned with black & green, and thus rank among the Begdros warriors the Begdros ability word is "Slaughter," which cares about when your creatures deal damage-- as well as sometimes giving additional bonuses if that damage was through fighting

The Thahmis — green & blue i have not figured out too much about them yet. sorry. they do do suspend and impending and time travel and stuff. the Thahmis ability word is "Development," denoting abilities that care about you putting counters on creatures that you control.

The Khalkos — blue & red ah, red and blue! my favorite color combination! the Khalkos focus heavily on industry. they're dirty, dirty capitalists and i sadly kinda love them for it. they have vampires and vedalken, too. that's pretty cool i think. the Khalkos ability word is "Production," triggering abilities whenever a noncreature token enters on your half (or quarter) of the field!

The Ekhma — red & white the Ekhma, like the Begdros (and the Boros, i guess), live for combat, but in a much different way. they're a big army-like thing (also like the Boros...), and i haven't figured out too much else about them. other than the fact that i'm going to make them not just be Boros. the Ekhma ability word is "Engage," and they trigger whenever your creatures attack or block

i'll give all major cards i make their own posts here, and dump less important ones together. i'll also try to write story stuff (whether summaries or full things) too. thank you for being here for this!

syl

[lord-of-innistrad]

What I imagine an Amalia card would've looked like in MKM.

Thoughts under the cut

So obviously whenever someone goes through an omenpath their color identity seems to change. First from Troyan in WOE who was a member of the Red/Blue Izzet League on Ravnica but is Green/Blue on Eldraine to Kellan who starts Red/White, then becomes Green/White, then Green/Blue, then Green/White/Blue changing colors each time he goes through an omenpath. The only exception to this rule seems to be the desparked planeswalkers, but I'd argue they'd have a stronger connection to their color identities than the random joe schmoes going through omenpaths.

This fueled my decision to change Amalia's color identity, but to what? Well the MKM story only barely mentions her, being investigating a ruin and investigating the plane's history. And then it hit me. What other group is interested in history in mtg lore? Lorehold College, Red/White, a color identity which also fits her vampire status, with most vampires being in red/white/black.

[markrosewater]

I don't think is arguable that the block system is less popular in the short term for sets, but shouldn't Wotc consider that multi-set planes are an investment for future sets? Some of the most beloved planes would never have been created under this blockless paradigm, Ravnica chief among them. I feel like Team X should take a risk every 1-2 years with a multi-set new plane they think is a homerun to try and build a fanbase for it.

There's a little argument that plays out on this blog. We do something. Some players don't like it. I explain that it's popular (players like it according to market research) and selling well. The response to that is well, maybe it's good for the short term, but it's harmful for the long term of the game.

Okay, let's walk through that. The first set in the new non-block era was Dominaria in 2018. That's six years ago. 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 were the six high-grossing years Magic has had in its thirty-year history. On top of that, the vast majority of the top-selling sets of all time come from that six-year window. On top of that, our player growth for the last six years has been record-breaking.

During that time, we've introduced the following new worlds: Eldraine, Ikoria, Kaldheim, Arcavios (Strixhaven), and New Capenna. Eldraine was revisited in Wilds of Eldraine. Arcavios is being revisited in the set codenamed "Yachting". We haven't announced a set yet that revisits Ikoria or Kaldheim, but both were popular and I could clearly see going back to both of them. My guess is players would be happy to see both. New Capenna was the least successful of our new worlds, but even that has come up recently because some players wanted the murder mystery set there instead of Ravnica.

I question your hypothesis that beloved planes can't be created during the block-less design era. I agree that the dynamics are different, but I think players can fall in love with new worlds in a single set. Also, the fact that we only visited the world for a one set does enable us to return sooner than the block model as evidenced by Wilds of Eldraine.

[angrennufuin]

Elflinguistics Part 2: Ravnica

For the currently-paused Ravnica campaign, I'm playing Sûl the elven bard-warlock, currently a courtesan but formerly a noble. Mainly I wanted my Ravnica names to sound different from my Eberron names; these are different settings and vastly different people-groups. Let's, once again, get into it.

Rules for myself

Ravnica is a planet that is all one giant city, but some parts of it are currently less-inhabited and more ruined than others. Sûl's family hails from part of this Rubblebelt; while Linmir's clan is a diaspora of middle-class tradesmen and occasionally warriors, Sûl comes from a stuffy, dissipated high-elf aristocracy clinging onto their former glory.

So the idea here is still poetic eloquence, but where Eberron elves make portmanteaus with layered meaning, Ravnica elves go big or go home. Long names are in vogue, and often include hyphens and/or prepositions. They also have multiple names/forms of names for different levels of connection!

Long, formal name used by strangers + acquaintances

A shortened (usually single-word) form of that name used by friends and family

An entirely different "private name" known only to parents and really serious lovers

Formal names

These are used by strangers and acquaintances, in formal settings (which are most settings, for Sûl's family). Elves have long lives and long memories, and it's considered slightly disrespectful/kind of bad luck to name your child entirely after someone else, whether deceased or living. They can get away with this because there are not, historically, that many elves, period, in Ravnica. There are even less in the Rubblebelt, the sparsely-inhabited area of ruins and urban decay that is home to this branch of crumbling elf aristocracy.

We're not using Sûl as the case study for any of these, for reasons I'll explain later. Instead, let's go with her oldest sister. Her long-form name is Elen-atto-vomentië (=meeting of two stars); short form would likely be Elen, as the first word in the name is most likely to be picked for casual usage. Elen (stars) is an extremely common Elvish name; other possibilities could have been Tië (path) or Vomen (to gather together).

Generally, children are allowed to choose the casual form of their name whenever they want to. Like being named Alexander and going by Alex, for example. Not a particularly weighty decision, and subject to change! The "don't name your kid after someone else" social norm only applies to the full formal name, but if you have like six people in your immediate family tree who shorten their name to Elen, it's considered quite gauche.

Intimate names:

The intimate name is a much bigger deal. Generally only a child and their parents know it & parents would never use it except alone with their kid in a moment of great emotion. Traditionally you'd tell your spouse at your wedding, but modern elves might tell it to a non-marital life partner or even a VERY best friend, if their bond is close enough. It's supposed to be something of a horoscope/prophecy/wish from the parent to the child. Elen's intimate name is Asya-Mekte (=to ease [one's] heart); her parents hoped she would be a kind and empathetic soul.

I cannot stress enough that you Do Not say this name except in private! Think like the True Name of a fairytale creature. There's a superstition that where you give your private name, you give your heart -- with the proper spells, some believe it can be used to control you. Is it true? Who knows! But certainly it would be extremely rude, having been given the honor of an elf’s intimate name, to use it where anyone not so chosen could hear.

[I think I was using an older form of Elvish for these? But I've forgotten entirely.]

Surnames:

Surnames are a lot easier to deal with, because they're just place names. This brand of elves is pretty traditional and keen on long history, so they generally go by whatever region/estate/geographical feature they consider their ancestral home. Sûl's family comes from a region and its corresponding manor called Haudh-en-Calen (= Green Hills/Green Barrows), so that's their last name. In the most formal settings you would stick a possessive from in there: Elen-atto-vomentië Haudh-en-Calenva. If one were inclined to make one's introduction more accessible to non-Elvish speakers (Elen is NOT inclined), one could call oneself Elen of the Green Hills. Or Two-Stars of the Green Hills, but that would be just too assimilationist.

This got long and has been languishing in my drafts for months, so you'll have to hear about Sûl's name another day.

[lazodiac]

Welcome welcome, one and all, back to my ridiculously futile effort to figure out where every card in Outlaws of Thunder Junction came from. Now, by this point in time the 30 new Alchemy cards have been released, and like with the Vault cards we'll be hitting those after the regular set and Commander cards.

So without further ado... we've dealt with red, and the others, so now it is onto...

GREEN

We open on a pretty important one! Say hello to the cactus-folk of Thunder Junction, the actual honest-to-god genuine native people of the plane, here before even the Atiin for as much as that matters.

The scant few bits of lore we've received on these guys tells us that they started waking up to sentient and sapience when the Atiin showed up, but given real world cacti's entire deal is that they're long-lasting, endurant vegetation that can grow for a long time, the question really is how truthful that is. Especially given they've adopted the idea of clothing and gear pretty well from the Atiin and others.

I'll probably open the can of worms that is Thunder Junction's questionable-at-best decisions when it comes to the world building another day, but for now... lets just make like a thumbleweed and roll on. Cacti are from Thunder Junction. Also I do love this play of like, a very nice and gentle warlock who heals you with vapor rube.

This is good advice! Boots are shady places, typically made of leather that is treated to not take in the heat that much, and are as such nice and shady places for creatures like this to live in.

Native to the plane, like most animals.

While there are arguments that there are other planes this person could be from, the nature of the bond with beasts- plus the fact that this guy clearly dresses like his beast, whereas most Outcasters are more of a wild-man of the wilderness vibe- feels like it is very much meant to elude to the bonders of Ikoria.

Fun story stuff: the betrayal did not actually work out this way, with Vraska and Oko staying allied basically right until the last moment where Vraska immediately went for the kill shot with her petrification stare. It does definitely resemble how Kellan and Oko split ways though. Also, hilariously, while it was obvious the gang would backstab each other... in the end it was actually very surprising HOW it happened. Not very likely at all!

Anyway, naming where this is from is a hard one. Given the mixture of who betrayed who and the sheer webbed nature of it all, I'm kinda forced to give it to Thunder Junction itself.

As befits the native plant-life of Thunder Junction, there is animal-plants as well! Look at this delightful critter!

I'll admit, to my detriment I actually care more about the real history of the Old West than the mythology of the frontier folk, so I don't really know if Bristly Bill here is meant to be an allusion to Pecos Bill or Johnny Appleseed. The former seems more likely based on name, but the actions of cultivating the land (but in a non toxic way like ole John) seems to lean more in that direction.

Anyway, he's a cactus, so native to the plane.

Perhaps one of the most horrifying cards ever put to print. I love it. Native to Thunder Junction.

One of my favorite parts of magic sets is seeing how various worlds take classic Magic creatures and incorporating their unique elements into it. A rattlesnake this big, this destructive, is incredible.

Just remember however: rattlers have a rattle to warn away predators.

Characterizing tumbleweeds as actual living creatures, like a strange dead-alive elemental, is beautiful and I love it. Native to Thunder Junction.

A big ol' bear that is going half-cactus because of some Thunder induced mutations! Native to Thunder Junction, again!

This one actually requires some thought! Yay! I feel based on his build that this centaur is from Theros and not say, Ravnica- the city of guilds has more modern war-horses, whereas this feels more like a wild horse design.

The Freestriders are the faction that get the least amount of lore presented about them. They aren't people who live out in the wilderness, but are people who go exploring and adventuring all the same.

After some deliberations, looking at art, and trying to source the design of that tattoo we see, I think I've gotta say this fine fellow is from the Atiin home plane.

This unmitigated disaster is from Kaladesh!

STEP ON THE GAS. STEP ON THE GAS. NO! HIT THE BREAKS!

Some people got mildly upset at this card, but I'm here to tell all you fine folk that despite what your instincts tell you, beaver DO exist in the great prairies of the old west. They're not as common because there's less water about for them to do their do, but these critters exist there too!

So this gold is gold found natively on Thunder Junction, so it goes on the list for that one, but you may be asking yourself: Zodi, where does this weirdo come from? He's not an Azra cause he doesn't have purple skin, he's not a Satyr since his horns are tiny baby idiot horns for babies, and he looks like a regular dude despite having pointed ears like an elf so surely he's not elven right?

Well, you'd be forgiven for not remembering it since it only shows up on like three or four cards, but this is actually just what elves look like on New Capenna. They have tiny little idiot baby horns and look more like humans than other elves do, it's just how things go.

Once upon a time, Order of the Stick made a joke about overburdening a hydra's regeneration so that you could turn it into a successful food stall. This feels like a less comedic version of that.

Native to Thunder Junction, which is fascinating. This is likely a thunder mutation since I don't imagine hydras are just naturally made of gold here.

Another wonderful cactus-folk, ready to defend his folk from any interlopers, one sawblade at a time.

Fun fact: if you want to play as a cactus-folk in DND, use the Thri-Kreen from Darksun.

This giant chimkin is clearly native to the plane... but isn't the actual subject of the art. Instead it's this weird paladin-ass looking guy with a big sword. Based on the flavor text I'm going to say he's Benalian, so from Dominaria.

Cards like this are a nice reminder that Magic definitely did try to approach this plane with good faith and an understanding of native perspectives, they just kinda fumbled it. More on that later.

... where does this guy come from? Well he's ridiculous strong and a nomad so I'm gonna say he's from Tarkir.

Combining the tumbleweed concept with Brushwaggs is a really fun idea, though I do wonder how these little armadillo faced idiots fair against the REAL tumbleweed elementals.

Native to the plane, obviously.

I'm honestly baffled this guy isn't an elf, considering everything. The most mention of the idea of "greenX" being a thing is from Zendikar, so this cactus-covered cultivator is from that plane. His big machete honestly fits it, too.

I've noticed a subtle mechanical theme in green about caring about Ferocious, and honestly I kinda like it. The last one of those was from Ikoria, and had similar vibes and a clear bond with a beast, so I think I'll say the same here.

This card is, by the flavor text, directly an Atiin person, and thus is from their home plane.

Also given the way Thunder Junction works, its time frame, and all that... how many worlds HAVE the Atiin visited before Thunder Junction? We know they're nomadic, and we know that they got to Thunder Junction basically immediately after the paths opened, so... presumably all the worlds they've visited past TJ are where the majority of the wandering folk still are. Hell, for all we know this card takes place on another plane, given she doesn't even have a HAT.

As much as I'd love to say this guy is one of the Alaran Rhox, I think it's far more likely he's from New Capenna.

The horseshoe chain-multiflail is one of my favorite weapons in the set.

Blep.

Native to Thunder Junction.

Play it again, Sam! Cactus means Thunder Junction!

I knew a piano player once. Having multiple limbs would make you such a good pianist.

Flavor fail no one has a gun in this art <sarcasm>

I do kinda wish we got to see more of the Cactus Folk Rage Forms though, that would have been cool.

Varmints are specifically called out as being a unique sort of pest from Thunder Junction, and that's what they are!

Still think they're convergent evolution of gremlins though.

Those Akroan bastards have ONE TRICK but damn if it doesn't work when they make use of it. This is of course from Theros. It is also probably my favorite card in the set.

Rattlewurms are native to the plane, so this magical curtain of molted snake-skin is too.

And that's it for post one. Tune in to like a couple minutes from now for part two!

[dailymtgflavortext]

In a city as old as Ravnica, history takes on a life of its own—even when you least expect it.

-Essence of Antiquity

[izzet-always-r-versus-u]

Universes Within theorycrafting: Assassin's Creed (part 1)

Kept sliding off making posts for the bigger sets (LTR, PIP...WHO is mostly pending more data on the space opera plane) just because I was struggling to organize my thoughts on them; ACR has about half the total new cards as the commander products, and a lot of those are on the simpler end, so it's a lot easier to just go through on a case-by-case basis. Hopefully that'll help get the word-gears churning for the other sets.

Part 1's gonna be the cards that don't need name changes for UniWit adaptation; 49 out of 105 (not counting Raven Clan War-Axe, which would be close to the line in a vacuum but is mechanically tied to a card that does need a rename regardless), a little under half.

Battlefield Improvisation

Works more or less anywhere, but one particular interpretation that tickles me is a bit of flashy showmanship in Valor's Reach when a fighter is reduced to a 1v2 and starts going to town using their fallen partner's weapon. Given the colors, maybe Regna dual-wielding her scythe and whatever massive polearm Krav is rocking?

Detained by Legionnaires

Even on Ravnica I figure actual Pacifism is more likely to see a reprint, but the Boros are legionnaire-cops, so this would translate there fine.

Distract the Guards

Assassins and Rogues? Those are both outlaws, so Thunder Junction's the obvious fit. I'm gonna say it's a Freestrider operation, one group drawing the Sterling Company wardens away while another group stages a jailbreak.

Escarpment Fortress

Apparently an escarpment is a kind of cliff face, so this is a fortress built on or into a cliff. No shortage of fits there; could be an Akroan outpost, could be a Zendikari refuge, could be a highland monastery of the Jeskai/Ojutai...et cetera, et cetera. Take your pick.

Fall of the First Civilization

Could be Fall of the Thran but slightly to the left, but I like this as an Oltec tale of the First People of Ixalan; just because they're unknowable due to being four apocalypses deep doesn't mean the Oltec wouldn't have stories about them in some capacity, and "how their world ended" would be right at the top of the list.

Haystack

The same bit as the original could work in most of the multiverse's cities, but I actually like the idea of setting this on Innistrad: the terrified eyes of a pair of peasants barely visible peaking out from within a pile of hay as a shadow shaped distinctly like a werewolf passes across it. A perfect hiding spot...so long as your breathing doesn't give you away.

Hookblade

Zendikari kor lineslinger equipment. One of those "you could put it in a set and most people wouldn't even realize it's a reprint, it fits so cleanly" cards: White "hook" equipment that grants temporary flying? Yeah, that's a kor card alright.

Keen-Eyed Raven

Mostly notable in that, as far as I can see, Magic's ravens have been entirely restricted to Blue and Black up to now. Certainly doesn't mean they can't fit there, though: maybe the Beskir have taken to keeping and training ravens in emulation of the Omenseekers, or maybe Will has gotten what exists of the Eldraine courts to start using them as couriers and scouts.

Settlement Blacksmith

The two natural fits for planes referring to "settlements" are Zendikar and Thunder Junction, and this works fine with either. Zendikar's the one with a history of Equipment themes, though, and there's more than enough space for flavor text talking about times of necessity spread stoneforging traditions beyond the kor that developed and long kept them. (Could even make it a Nahiri quote, have her complaining about what she sees as wrong about Zendikar these days.)

Tax Collector

Magic doesn't exactly spend a lot of time talking about tax policy, but anywhere that has actual money is gonna have taxes. The Orzhov are definitely the most obvious fit, though, even if detain is an Azorius mechanic.

Templar Knight

There are two other extant Magic cards with "templar" in their name: Capashen Templar, a Benalish Knight, and Noble Templar, an Otarian Cleric Soldier. The latter has a more obvious legendary artifact to amass an army to quest for - the Mirari - while the former is actually a Knight (the gap between Knight and Cleric Soldier is not a large one, but creature types mattered in Otarian sets). Either could reasonably be expanded out into a cohort of knights going on a "holy" quest; just a matter of preference.

What Must Be Done

I feel like there's an even cleaner fit I'm failing to think of, but the main place my mind goes is to Liliana's ultimatum to Thalia in original Innistrad block: sunder the Helvault and release Griselbrand, or Liliana kills all of the Thraben cathars guarding it. Reanimation or boardwipe, a choice faced by a White-aligned character - it works.

Assassin Den

In the MKM story, Etrata had a well-hidden personal base/crash pad that was also extensively trapped against anyone trying to break in. Feels like a natural fit for a Wall with >0 power that can buff a creature and enhance their stealth - the interior would naturally be equipped with every tool a master assassin could need. Presumably other Dimir assassins have their own hideouts, justifying it being nonlegendary, but that'd be the specific one I'd depict; there's more than a bit of space for an Etrata quote in the flavor text.

Assassin Gauntlet

Would be perfect as a piece of hacking tech in modern Kamigawa if Ninja wasn't a separate type. As is, we do know that the Dimir sometimes use the Izzet as a magitech development program (sometimes outright hiring them, more often through espionage and subterfuge), so an Izzet-sourced gauntlet with some sort of built-in smoke bomb or flashbang being used by a Dimir assassin would fit well enough.

Ballad of the Black Flag

I...don't know that we actually have any art of specifically the flags of Brazen Coalition ships? So it's not a given that they actually have black flags to line up with the name, but that also means that I can just decide they do and that can just be something that first becomes clear with the UniWit art for this.

Otherwise it fits fine, though: the tale (told by shanty, perhaps, if that's something that can be conveyed/implied through Saga-style art) of the humans and orcs of Torrezon fleeing across the ocean in search of better fortunes, and the often-violent steps they would take to claim and secure those fortunes.

Become Anonymous

Lazav, fading back into the obscurity of the crowd in the wake of the invasion. Could easily have very similar composition to the ACR art, though obviously that's far from a requirement. Just naturally leans into the same vibe.

Brotherhood Spy

Let me pull up the flavor text from the original Time Spiral printing of Assassinate:

The rulers of old Dominaria kept assassins on retainer. However, the true loyalty of these master killers was always to their peers. This elite brotherhood survived the fall of the old royal order.

That's right, Dominaria has a canonical brotherhood of assassins! That plane is the kitchen sink that keeps on giving. Given the context, that brotherhood presumably survived up until the Rift Crisis, so it may well still be around in the present day. The lack of specific information gives me plenty of freedom in interpreting the various "Brotherhood" cards in the set to fit that context.

In this case, there's plenty of space for flavor text to talk about the network of informants that support and assist the members of the brotherhood actually assigned the task of assassination.

Desynchronization

On an entirely different note (heh) from the rest of this post, I'd set this one at Strixhaven: with mundane music, the worst that happens when an orchestra falls out of sync is that the performance grinds to a halt after just sounding really bad for a bit. With music magic, discordance can have a much more tangible blowback, tightly woven harmonics pulling apart into a chaotic, concussive blast.

("Let's just...try it again from the top." -Zaffai, thunder conductor)

Eagle Vision

An Obscura-aligned eagle aven scoping out the location of an impending job - sometimes there's something to be said for taking a name literally.

Escape Detection

A suitably generic "Dimir sneakiness" effect.

Hookblade Veteran

Unlike the actual Hookblade, I don't think a mono-Blue Human Assassin lines up nearly as well with established Zendikar flavor. The best fit I can come up with is actually on Kaladesh; none of the night market-associated creature cards had the Assassin subtype, but it wouldn't be a stretch for Gonti to employ assassins, and a gauntlet with an integrated, extendable grappling hook would be real handy for Spiderman-ing around the spires of Ghirapur.

Loyal Inventor

Somehow the first Fioran card in this post: once she took the throne, the High Paliano Academy was subject to Marchesa's demands, and some of its finest minds now vie for her favor, presenting their newest, most cutting-edge inventions before the royal court.

Tranquilize

Sleeper Dart was an Ikorian card, so this is just a slightly different framing of the use of that same bit of poacher tech. Not exactly hard to make work elsewhere, but that's the most clean fit.

Assassin Initiate

I like to imagine Marchesa's used the resources of the crown to open an official (if not particularly publicized) royal school for assassins - the Renaissance equivalent to the CIA academy, basically. She didn't exactly cut ties with her old connections, but as the new seat of power in the high city, her eyes (and blades) need to extend far further, which means she needs more manpower. Conveniently, this card's got space for a solid four lines of flavor text to exposit about those developments.

Brotherhood Ambushers

As the most generic of the "Brotherhood" cards, this would probably be the card that exposits more broadly about the Dominarian assassin brotherhood as a whole, building on that Assassinate FT to talk about the position they fill in the modern day.

Brotherhood Patriarch

The death trigger points me toward the trope of "you become the master assassin by being the one to take out the current master assassin."

Hemlock Vial

The art and flavor text are both generic enough that they could probably just reprint the whole card exactly as-is aside from the frame and it'd work fine as a "UniWit" treatment. Otherwise, the obvious home for this is to ground it in Theros - probably Meletis in particular. They already did the same bit with Sip of Hemlock, but Theros isn't exactly averse to reusing tropes when necessary.

Merciless Harlequin

Appropriately for a design that's Blade Juggler but slightly to the left, this is a pitch-perfect fit for a Rakdos assassin.

Petty Larceny

Card name is a crime? Check. Card is mechanically a crime? Check. This definitely belongs on Thunder Junction - have Tinybones picking someone's pocket in the middle of a bar brawl. (Maybe show Vraska fighting in the background to help justify the Assassin-typal element.)

Phantom Blade

I'd go more classic-fantasy with this one, I think: a cursed sword that captured the soul of the first being it killed, becoming wreathed in ominous spectral energy. Feels right at home with the sword-and-sorcery vibes of Corondor on Dominaria, but off the top of my head I could also see it fitting pretty cleanly on Innistrad or Ixalan.

Poison-Blade Mentor

Another part of that Paliano assassin school - can't have students without people to teach them.

Restart Sequence

The grand prize of her daring heist was also her escape plan.

(Art: a ninja stands at a control panel in a dimly-lit Futurist laboratory, her hands flying across the screen as lines of light begin to glow across a prototype mech in the background as it starts up.)

I mostly try to keep Freerunning cards flavorfully tied to Assassins in particular, but there's some where it makes more sense to bend a little further, and this is pretty close to top of the list. It helps that Ninja and Assassin have pretty heavy overlap.

Headsplitter

Not all poachers favor range or stealth.

The two Ikorian cards with the Assassin type are both specifically archers, but poachers being able to be Assassins is the best way I've found to square "Headsplitter" implying an immensely un-assassin-y weapon while also specifically making an Assassin token. Thus, a poacher with a gnarly, Monster Hunter-esque bone blade. Probably not too big since it only gives +1/+0, but not exactly subtle.

Hidden Footblade

Stiletto heels, where the heel (or possibly the toe, depending on what would work best for the art) conceals a stiletto blade - I'm far from the first person to make that pun, but, well, if the shoe fits...

(Most natural fit in the multiverse for that concept is probably New Capenna, specifically the Cabaretti - elaborate fashion that's more practical/deadly than it appears is right up their alley.)

Labyrinth Adversary

That sure is a Minotaur card, all right. The specific callout to a labyrinth in the name means that probably the most natural fit for this is Theros. (Technically Ulgrotha also had minotaurs connected to labyrinths, but Theros actually has a modern visual identity to build off of, whereas Ulgrotha would be pretty close to starting from scratch, which is a hell of a tiebreaker.)

Monastery Raid

Another pretty literal one: Khans!Zurgo leading the sacking of a Jeskai monastery by a Mardu raiding party. (Leaning more into the "or commander" side of Freerunning here.)

Overpowering Attack

This one's more in line with the printed Assassin poachers than Headsplitter: Kelsien leading a veritable army of poachers armed with bows, raining hellfire down from atop a cliff onto a big monster below.

Hunter's Bow

This one works damn near anywhere, but putting it on Kaldheim (tying it to either the Kannah or the elves of Skemfar) tickles me because it means it could even keep the flavor text as-is if it wanted.

Palazzo Archers

The high throne of Paliano has been extensively guarded against the subtlest possible angles of attack, but that doesn't mean it leaves the more obvious approaches unguarded: the archers that watch the skies around it are sharp and well-armed.

Viewpoint Synchronization

The best idea I've got for this one is set on modern Kamigawa: a ninja watching a security feed displaying the views of several different cameras at once. Kind of mundane, but everything else I've come up with runs headlong into "how would an artist even convey this concept in a single piece of card art," so simple and literal carries the day.

Rooftop Bypass

Just a fairly straightforward bit of Dimir stealth/infiltration. Ravnica's not exactly short on options for rooftop travel.

Bleeding Effect

It's not quite a perfect color match, but the best fit I've come up with for this name and effect is the Order of Saint Traft, who willingly allowed themselves to be possessed by the geists of former cathars in cooperative union. In such a situation, it would make sense for the lines between the living and the dead to blur - becoming hard to tell where the skills and memories of one end and the other begin.

Bureau Headmaster

Another Fioran, in one respect or another. Could be another teacher at assassin school, could be positioned at the Paliano embassy (/assassin cell) on Thunder Junction (not really featuring in this half of the post, but one of the better throughlines I've been able to come up with the various mostly-legendary RW Assassins in the set). Probably a slightly better fit for the former, as a leading weapons teacher.

Brotherhood Regalia

The Dominarian brotherhood probably wants something approximating a unified visual identity anyway, so this is just the clearest portrayal of their garb.

Hidden Blade

The Dimir did more or less exactly this bit with Silent Dart in GRN, so this is just that again. One of those cases where someone who wanted to proxy could just directly lift another bit of Magic art and it would still work fine.

Smoke Bomb

Kamigawa feels like the best fit for a smoke bomb - either classic or modern. Solidly a ninja tool either way.

Towering Viewpoint

Another one that works basically anywhere, but I like the full-circle take of tying this to the Amonkhet version of Mighty Leap - making it a particularly tall obelisk in Naktamun that initiates would jump from, either as part of a trial, just on a dare, or as a statement of proof of their faith.

Brotherhood Headquarters

Could more or less swipe the flavor text from ACR Assassin's Den for this one, since it translates as basically the same beat: a covert base of operations hidden in plain sight in a major city. (In the context of modern Dominaria, that's New Benalia, New Argive, or possibly whatever the biggest city of Suq'ata or Femeref is these days.)