Reading Ravnic’s comments makes me wish Wizards would delve us into the fourth era of frames.
Modern and beautiful but somehow still ancient-looking. Not all the way to Amonkhet Invocations but something that looks older but with the beauty of modern designs.
Maybe each card type should have its own frame. We now have special frames for legendaries, which is something I have always asked for. Maybe instants and sorceries should look the same and like ancient spells. And enchantments look very different from those ancient spells. Etc.
Reading Ravnic’s comments makes me wish Wizards would delve us into the fourth era of frames.
Modern and beautiful but somehow still ancient-looking. Not all the way to Amonkhet Invocations but something that looks older but with the beauty of modern designs.
Maybe each card type should have its own frame. We now have special frames for legendaries, which is something I have always asked for. Maybe instants and sorceries should look the same and like ancient spells. And enchantments look very different from those ancient spells. Etc.
If the differences are too stark, everybody with even just a hint of OCD would read out. I do think the embellishment on legendary cards looks good, so something in that vein might work.
The Future Sight frames were unsightly in my opinion, but what they did get right was putting a visual clue (in the form of a card type symbol in the top left corner) on the card that made it immediately clear what kind of spells you had in hand. As long as the base design is consistent enough, so that it's obvious that you are not looking at cards that could be from different games, I think your idea has merit.
I mean there is only so much you can do with a few millimeters of space (sorry, I am not American and thus use the metric system) around the borders of the card.
Right now we have a special frame for legendary cards and that would have to stay. Also it would have to be one of the most awesome looking frames in order for legendary cards to feel cool.
We have also had a special planeswalker frame for planeswalkers since Lorwyn 2007. That would also have to stay and it would still be the most interesting one.
I think it would be possible to make some cool (but not toooooo cool) frames for creatures, instants/sorceries, enchantments, artifacts and lands. Screw tribal!
Maybe all we need is a special frame for instants and sorceries (Should be the same identical frame if you ask me.) in order to distinguish all types from each other. Creatures would simply keep the M15 one.
Oh and enchantments 'need' at new one too in order to come full circle.
Maybe all we need is a special frame for instants and sorceries (Should be the same identical frame if you ask me.) in order to distinguish all types from each other. Creatures would simply keep the M15 one.
Oh and enchantments 'need' at new one too in order to come full circle.
I would give the instant frame the same frame as sorceries, but with an added embellishment, like flashes of lightning, or whatever is associated with speed.
The timeshifted version of the old frame is the Platonic ideal of a card frame IMO; it fixes the mid-90s design issues of the original frame (other than white-on-white text) while retaining the resonant feel
So, Throne of Eldrane is right around the corner, and I would like to predict the color of the new Planeswalker Oko:
Here's his story description ripped from the MTGS wiki:
Oko is from a plane ruled by Fey who believe in a unified society, one where the ruling class has decided that for the betterment of all, the natural mischievousness of the Fey has to be suppressed. To the ruling class, they had created a perfect society — but for Oko, who was born with incredibly powerful shapeshifting abilities, this culture went against everything he was and contradicted his deepest, truest self. Styling himself as a speaker of truth, Oko felt he held a mirror to the hypocrisy of his world. The ruling class did not quite see it this way. They subjected him to magical procedures intended to suppress his powers but only succeeded inignitinghisspark. It was a terrible experience for him and one that would make it almost impossible for him to trust anyone again — especially those in positions of authority.
So that's... interesting. In addition...
Just arrived on an undefined plane, Oko found out that he was stalked byGarruk Wildspeaker.[1]Trapping the brute in a net of thorn-laced vines, he found out that Garruk was a planeswalker hunting his peers, and that he for some reason had anhedronembedded in his flesh. Oko mesmerized Garruk, turning him into a slave bodyguard calledDog.
So... he turns Garruk into his dog??!! That seems really, really cool.
So, knowing what we know about Oko, and looking at his art, I think it is safe to say this character is probably either Sultai, Dimir, or Simic. Here's why.
His Magic feels like it lines up most closely with Blue.
Oko is a shapeshifter and a Fey (which for the purposes of this discussion I am just going to assume means "Faerie"). Shapeshifting is primarily blue. Most Clone effects we have seen are also blue. Although Lorwyn shapeshifter have been known to appear in other colors than blue, it's pretty clear from reading the lore that Oko is not from Lorwyn. Lorwyn faeries can't shapeshift and are also very wasp-like in nature. In addition, Oko has the ability to Mind Control other beings. That is an inherently blue effect.
Oko is a Faerie.
Oko is supposedly a creature called a Fey. Now, Fey could be an entirely new creature type that we've never seen before. However, I think it's far more likely that Even though Oko looks nothing like any faeries we've seen so far, he is in fact a Faerie. I don't think it's worth reading to much into Oko's size and look. He is a shapeshifter, after all! Traditionally, Faeries were a Green tribe for their first few appearances. Soon after, they shifted into blue. During Lorwyn, Faeries began to regularly be tied to black by the design team and the community. If Oko is a Faerie, we can tell from the past of the race that UBG is well within his wheelhouse.
Oko's art looks Sultai.
Usually, Planeswalker cards contain the basic paint colors of the mana colors they will be representing. In fact, this can sometimes be used to predict the color of a Planeswalker card. For example, some people were able to accurately predict that Ajani, Mentor of Heroes would be W/G after his art was revealed with no other context. Oko's art contains the color stylings of a Sultai card. He has plenty of blue on his face, hands, thorn magic, as well as in the haze behind him. The environment Oko stands in is very dark and gloomy, like a black card. One of his thorn spells also is purple. Purple-colored magic is often associated with black, most famously on characters like Tezzeret and Liliana Oko's briar thorns, in addition to having a magical profile that feels quintessentially green, is also painted to look like green magic. In addition, he's standing in a thorn forest and enslaves a green character.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I think Oko will be Sultai. If he isn't a Sultai card, he is definitely going to be blue. His abilities and art don't really look or sound black/green.
A lot of people thing he's RUG because of the vines. I think the purple vine is actually Black-mana magic and it just looks really bright because the art is in this terrible CGI style.
Other than the purple vine nothing about this guy says "Red" to me.
I'm thinking Sultai because of the pink/purple vine and also because they seem to want to push Oathbreaker as a format. He'd be the first Sultai walker.
But shouldn't a card that represents a spell from a (high) fantasy card game look old? The newest frame with it's odd shape and sterile look doesn't invoke the feeling of fantasy and spells at all. It looks literally modern, like it would fit Kaladesh block maybe with race cars and shiny robots, but not you're average MtG set.
Maybe the older cards were harder to read, but how often do you have to read a card, once or twice? Then the picture is enough to recognize often. And I'm willing to look a little closer, when in exchange I get that special feeling of searching through a library of ancient spells and creatures full of, well, Magic. Like this game is called.
I was liking your Gruul Madness and your Dimir Sabojutsu so I was looking through all topics to find more of your themes in other Guilds.
Onto the quoted part: I am guessing you very, very much like the Amonkhet Invocations Masterpieces since they look like ancient spells that are hard to read?
Also why should a high fantasy spell look old? Shouldn’t it look new when it was being cast because it actually was new back then?
I think it should because high fantasy usually references medieval or ancient times, and you just didn't have cgi and computer-ish looking designs back then.
I think it should because high fantasy usually references medieval or ancient times, and you just didn't have cgi and computer-ish looking designs back then.
But we’re suppose to be back in time when we cast those spells right?
Or are you picturing yourself as a 2020 car-driving, Coca Cola-drinking man casting spells from way back then?
I feel like a Demonic Tutor is not an old spell during the actual games where it is being cast. Much like we also don’t need poor graphics while playing a MMO or Diablo III just because they are suppose to look like ancient times. Am I wrong here?
It's not about bad graphics or looking used. It's about evoking the feeling of those old times, and they had not stuff like modern paper, but scrolls which looked differently. And they had different letters, looking more medieval and stuff. I'm envisoning myself as a wizard looking through his scrolls to cast mighty spells. Old cards fit that feeling while newer ones do much less or more rarely.
I also just can't stand the design sin the m15 rare frames are in my opinion, woth all those different shapes and edges scrabmled together in a card. When I then see how beautifully they still could make magic cards look like on the eldrain stirybook frame, I'm just sad, that they don't normally.
I guess I like diversity and often feel very alone in that regard. I like all frames and even have it as a sub-goal in my cube to have at least one card of each card frame in the cube.
Oh I'm sinilar then, since I also appreciate cube as a divers representation of magics history. It's just that one frame I really don't like, but that's were rendered proxies or handmade alters help.
I always feel like the only one who doesn't hate the white borders of past core sets. They look beautiful on some cards imo.
And then I want to speculate about what themes they could potentially chose for MH2. Maro basically said, that we should expect new ones rather than just more Ninjas, Slivers, Snow and creaturefall. So what new 10 (?) themes could be implemented including some old school cards new to modern?
Tap/Untap ??? Cycling (a new color combination for this?) ??? Enchantress Rebels (maybe not since it was in TSR?) ??? Madness (let me hope) Spell velocity (aka fair storm) Artifact recursion (Lorehold approves)
As you ser, I have trouble finding something for all the color pairs. And in the end I could also inagine that they do shard and/or wedge archetypes this time. Anyway I am stoked for this set! As horrible as 2019 went for constructed, as great it was for my cube.
