I'm super disappointed that UB LoTR is going to be modern ported ala Modern Horizons.
I'm guessing the set ends up being relatively low power like Adventures in the Forgotten Realms was, minus a couple of juiced Commanders that will be decent in EDH but ultimately not strong enough for Modern. AFR sold extremely well despite it's incredibly low power level and lack of competetively viable cards. There's no reason why they would need to juice the Lord of the Rings set since it will likely sell well for it's theme alone.
Haha honestly I'm all for some cyberpunk kamigawa. What a nuts idea.
I am too, it will be really neat to see how they handle doing a "Cyberpunk" theme with Magic. I'm hoping they have actual technology and computers, not simply "magic that does technology stuff." One of my favorite parts of the Cyberpunk genre is the fact that humans are augmenting themselves with robotic parts and computers, and it would be a real shame if the MTG version of Cyberpunk is just Japanese Phyrexians.
And I just hate them right now for actaully ruining the loveliness of kamigawa like this. It hurts and there's a chance I would've rather not gone back at all. But maybe I'll get a new ninja I can accept or they will give us a showcase style that doesn't look like futuristic bullshit.
How is it ruining the loveliness? The aesthetic of the set looks pretty similar to the original, just with some fancy neon lights, origami cats, and mochi kami. This concept art looks really good.:
The architecture has the same style as the original Kamigawa, the buildings are just bigger and the colors are brighter. Even the skyscrapers appear to be made through magic, with a giant tree making up at least part of their superstructure.
Also, if this set sells well, there's a non-zero chance we will re-visit the 2000 year old Kamigawa. After all, WOTC is literally doing a standard legal set based on the Brother's War this year, which was 1000s of years in the past.
In addition, it seems like certain parts of Kamigawa are still living in a "traditional" manner. I know some of the more recent Tamiyo stories have described Moonfolk dwellings that are similar in nature to the Kamigawa of 2000 years ago. I don't think the whole set is going to be futuristic, and none of it looks to be "bullshit."
Kamigawa has me especially excited because it was my first set. I loved how it was unabashedly cryptic to me as an eight-to-twelve-year-old American boy and how it didn't pander to what the designers thought I could or could not understand. It simply was. Granted, in retrospect it needed quite a bit more cultural grounding so I'm glad that they alluded to that on the show. But I do hope that they keep Kamigawa weird instead of just taking all their cues from that horrible Scarlet Johansson Ghost In The Shell movie.
Same here. In the announcement, it sounded like they got input from people who understood Japanese culture (as well as people from the WOTC east Asia office) to make sure the set was authentic. The little bit we've seen of the set so far looks pretty decent in the "authenticity" department, hopefully it applies to the whole set.
Anyone else feel like all these crossovers are some sellout bullshit?
I think it depends on the crossover. I think crossovers like D&D and Lord of the Rings are pretty sensible as far as Magic is concerned, as they have similar settings and thematic genres. I'm not a huge fan of the Secret Lair crossovers, but the Street Fighter one is relatively non offensive.
The Fortnite one is bad. Whoever came up with the idea of doing a Fortnite x Magic crossover needs to be thrown in prison and have the jailers throw away the key. The only reason I can think of for doing such an awful crossover is because Epic Games (the owners of Fortnite) distributes Magic Arena. Epic Games is actually the only way to play arena on OSX right now.
Tangent: I really dislike Fortnite because it feels like a souless capital printing machine. The game was basically created as a way to showcase new features in Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4. While the free to play "battle royale" mode became very successful by ripping off the formula of Minecraft Survival Games, Fortnite's paid "save the world" campaign was wildly unpopular. Epic realized that they could make a ton of money by discontinuing the save the world campaign and switching over to a cosmetics based microtransaction system. They even started allowing other companies to pay to have their IP added to fortnite, such as the John Wick skin or the Thanos event from a couple years ago. They even had a digital "concert" in Fortnite. All the while, Epic Games still uses Fortnite as a way to test new features in the Unreal Engine. Is Unreal doing a water physics update? So is Fortnite! Is Unreal doing Improved lighting? Fortnite is too! The game is just an overblown test project turned wasteland designed to indoctronate children into the 21st century brand advertising capitalist hellscape.
In conclusion, Pleasant Kenobi sums up the Fortnite Secret Lair best in his video on the subject:
Fortnite is rock bottom, we can only go up from here.
I like how Mean Streets was the Hearthstone mob-themed tricolor set.
I'm very curious as to how the hell they got legal to sign off on this as well. This seems a lot more obvious of a steal than anything else they've done.
I'm guessing the final product is going to be different than the Hearthstone set. I don't know enough about Hearthstone to be fully informed here, but the look and feel of New Capenna shows more of a "dark art deco world" than Hearthstone's "fun gangsters" set. I doubt they will be all that similar other than having "Streets" in the name.
Sure, but they have to make money somehow and I'd rather they do this to find the financial successes they need to keep the game innovating than let it stagnate. I hate the idea of Fortnite cards, but if that's the price we have to pay for Modern Horizons, Mystery Booster Convention Edition, and Kamigawa 2, I think it's a fair deal. I like it better than BFZ, that's for sure.
I think I agree with you. I like how WOTC is willing to try so many new things these days. Say what you want about the increasing number of new products, but always having something new around the corner makes bad sets like Commander Legends or Adventures in the Forgotten Realms less dissapointing. We're well past the days of "if you don't like the theme of the world, you're going to have to wait a year to possibly see something better," which is really nice in my opinion.
Also, I just wanted to say, Modern Horizons 2 was a perfect Magic set.
