Apparently its time for another session.

Note that my understanding of the flavor is based on cards, not Magic Fiction (as Uncharted Realms is now quite boringly called), so I’m missing plenty of things.

Time Passed Between Rise of the Eldrazi and Battle for Zendikar

There were fifteen legendary creatures in the original block. Seven of those are still around (as cards):

The thing to note here is that these are a demon, an angel, two vampires, two titans and an elemental. Basically more or less immortal beings (although as I understand it, these vampire live a couple of centuries). It would seem that only immortals have made it from Rise to Battle. Has this war taken such a long time? These seven makes it feel like it.

Feels like a flavor fail, as at the same time Gideon hasn’t aged, even though he’s spent plenty of time there.

Speaking of Kalitas…

I like the art here:

Since the original Kalitas was in Zendikar, I’m sure they didn’t think he’d become a traitor (in this way at least) at the time the card was made, since making ROE part of the block was a pretty last minute decision. Still, the way he’s posed in pretty much the same way in these two pictures is nice and you can still see what’s left of his garments.

Like Drana, the war has clearly taken a toll on him, because he’s gone from 5/5 to 3/4. This might be the result of Eldrazi on his body, though. At least feels more organic than Drana’s “weight loss”. Kalitas does have a way to beef up again, though.

I also like how making vampires has become making zombies. Again, probably a loss of some kind, brought on by Eldrazi. Still, he has vampires around him and isn’t above snacking on them, either, so he isn’t just rebelling against the other vampires outside of Ghet, but he is also attacking his own.

Kalitas also feels very dangerous when played. He just simply must be contained, or he will just take over the board, single-handedly.

Pretty nice flavor win.

Inverter of Truth

Many of the Kozilek’s brood (and Ulamog’s, but mostly Kozilek’s) have abilities that are difficult to evaluate. They change the nature of reality, natural laws. Even the new mana symbol tells you these are something outside the reality we are used to in this multiverse.

Often these effects don’t seem that different from “regular” magic though. They are just flavored differently.

Then, there’s this guy:

Although researchers have been closing in on why time, the “fourth dimension”, acts differently from the other observable dimensions (we perceive it only in one direction). Our boy here doesn’t care about your narrow view of reality. It creates this pocket, where the future is like a replay of the past, shuffled.

I love it.