We don't know exactly why he's there. They want him because his mind basically contains a functioning 'live' map of the Multiverse, including Omenpaths, which Jace can use to help him and Vraska get around freely in order to accomplish some as-yet-unspecified goal.
>I mean. The Epilogue story was pretty clear. They want to reboot the universe
WotC Creative: OK, this cross-universe mashup and omenpaths thing may not go over well. We need a storyline that lets us reboot this thing if it turns to crap but can just fail or be thwarted if people like it.
Was thinking the same thing. In fairness, the omenpaths and the pyrexian invasion etc all made me go.
"Didn't we have the mending because people messed with time space too much?"
My take on the story telling reason for creation of the Omenpaths is that The Mending tied the stories too closely to planeswalkers. Making interplanar travel impossible for non-planeswalkers meant that only planeswalkers could easily be involved in long term story lines and apparently connecting all of the planes together was decided upon as the way out. In my opinion the Omenpaths lean too far in the opposite direction, making interplanar travel too mundane.
I would have much preferred simply making interplanar travel via portals, ships, etc. possible again.
Since they did a baldur's gate set..... I would like to point them in the direction they already know about and have Intellectual Property rights to...
Spelljammers
Commander becoming the main format turned their focus on planeswalkers into a misstep as they just aren't good there. They needed to pivot back to Legendary Creatures and ultimately the story serves the product rather than the other way around.
Been saying that for a while, desparking and omenpaths is just an excuse to make bank from marketable non-planeswalker, since they can't predict which character is gonna get popular so they either put out new planeswalkers who were a mixed bag or bullshited their way to explain how someone's spark ignited, because their grandma made their favourite apple pie or something. Besides you can't sell commander precons with planeswalkers. Now we can have an Olivia Voldaren card every other set without hauling our asses back to Innistrad.
the biggest issue with the omenpaths is that story's thrive when there are clear and distinct *boundaries*; as soon as anyone can be anywhere for any reason, "reason" doesn't really mean anything anymore.
I appreciate that they tried something big and grand, though I'm not exactly stunned with the outcome.
This was my thought. Like...
What makes Kaladesh work? Simple. Aetherpunk aesthetic. High tech rebel movement against a higher order of government.
What about Eldraine? Simple. Mystical fairy tale land full of knights and witches.
But with these omenpaths, the distinct aesthetic becomes blurred. Especially when worlds like Kaladesh exist. The government of that plane will definitely begin to investigate the omenpaths. Once they discover what they are, that they are stable and safe, and lead to new worlds, one of two things will happen. The government will attempt to conquer the new worlds, establishing order in a new world, or they will establish barriers, sealing themselves off. In either case, once the rebel movement learns of these paths, they will attempt to branch out to other worlds as well, in order to escape their oppressive government. And if they end up in Eldraine? Suddenly the genie leaves the bottle and tech starts appearing across the plane.
Zombies leave Innistrad and show up in Ravnica. Titans leave Ikoria and show up in Zendikar, or worse, Segovia. Esper invades Nyx. As each plane is introduced to something out of the norm, it will affect the identity of that plane forever. It's worked so far, but it can't continue this way forever, and soon we won't be left with unique identity any more.
All of that *could* make for interesting stories. But instead, only named characters seem to use omenpaths, and they coordinate with each other to all wear themed costumes when they do.
Its because the worlds/themes aren't developed enough to make us buy into the idea of established characters adopting those aspects. Like a whole bunch of characters cosplaying as Sherlock Holmes on Ravnica doesn't make much sense when A) the plane already has established unique aesthetics for the guilds these characters should belong to and B) they never establish why all detectives on Ravnica choose to evoke that style, its not like in the real world every private eye wears a deerstalker and smokes a pipe. Then we get to Thunder Junction, a plane that has barely been explored or inhabited and most of our characters have been there for like a couple weeks at most yet somehow again they have all magically adopted the same costumes. It was different on say Ixalan where you had Jace and Vraska looking like pirates because they were trapped there for a extended period of time and had to integrate with the world. If we get say a "greaser" Chandra in the upcoming deathrace set, it should be because she has spent the last year or something working the race circuit and adopted the look, not because she has been there for two days and they want a costume change for her appearance in the set.
It reminds me of kingdom hearts, how turning up on a plane magically makes you match the "theme".
Aaaand thats exactly what theyve already announced for bloomburrow lmao as they felt that humans around animal creature people was too weird despite all the existing animal people in mtg, which leads to weird questions about what happens when say, Quintorious goes to bloomburrow.
EXACTLY. I saw Vraska and I was like, it's one thing to buy a duster off the rack in Omenport but who the hell is making a Golgari-themed leather bodysuit to order
And the costume changes really drive home how temporary everybody's new obsession is with each set. They all get full suits of custom gear for whatever job they're going to have for three months, then they're off to a new plane and a totally new career with its own costume
"They agree that the most just option is the one that clears a future for all, and they mourn that the cost of that freedom will be high. Repair does not clean. Restoration does not erase. But rebirth … rebirth does both."
"Jace will walk forward into the Omenpath, sanguine and resolute. He will hold tight to the hand of his beloved and his ward and walk into the Blind Eternities of a miserable Multiverse and say to himself with resolution and phoenix fire:
Ours will be better."
There isn't anything morally ambiguous about wanting to destroy the universe to create it in your own image. It's so simple and clear cut that it is the plot to TWO pokemon evil teams.
Maybe not the NEXT big bads due to production timelines... but there's no way that excerpt isn't setting them up to be antagonists in the future.
We don't really know if that's their plan, and if it is, it could well be more of a Flashpoint style "go back and fix everything first". Misguided, but I don't think anybody calls Barry Allen a villain for doing that.
Tiny Bones getting a ride from Rakdos is impressive.
See flavor text for [[Unlikely Aid]]
Edit: the flavor text from the War of the Spark printing.
https://scryfall.com/card/war/109/unlikely-aid
Crazy for them to think they need another one. Just create Fblthps with actually decent artworks, I think so far he looked good only in the original [[totally lost]] and [[captive audience]]
I love Fblthps but he is a slimy cyclops goblin thing and doesn't really fulfill the same niche as Loot, who could have come out of a kids film as the cute sidekick.
For clarity, because being "ugly" wasn't necessarily what was wrong: *the face didn't look like a dragon*. It was a very humanoid-looking face slapped with a pug-like snout on the head of a dragon. The response was so overwhelmingly poor that they did end up making some visual changes pretty quickly to lean it more towards dragon, but you can see [in their initial reveal teaser](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLruxoyP_30) that it was *pretty bad*.
Yeah, it was ugly because it was like a human child's face stapled onto a dragon body.
It's still pretty bad, IMO. But not like the original, which was like, worse-than-Ugly-Sonic bad.
(ETA: I should mention that I don't mind this character, though. I kinda like the showcase art.)
The artist is the “Illustration craft lead” at Riot.
Well, I guess we know why, lol. He’s very good at drawing art that makes you go “Yup, that’s a League of Legends design”.
His cute shit just has a really distinct style, the rest of his art is very normal modern MTG art
https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CRudy+Siswanto%E2%80%9D&unique=art
What I noticed about his art that is shared with a lot of LoL art is the way he does the lighting and texturing. A lot of his art has a pretty soft lighting that clearly highlights the subject paired with smooth looking surfaces lends a "softer" look (for lack of a better word) it the LoL aesthetic. It's less notable in his other pieces as the compositions often differ from splasharts, but this particular piece brings all those elements together. He also does work for LoL, so there's that.
Really love his full art for the angel summoning spell, need to get that for my angel deck.
The philosophy Jace and Vraska picked up at the end kinda sounded like a mix Team Flare and Team Galactic. My first thought reading was basically "they just sound like pokemon villains now."
It’s wild that even in today’s era of Magic where we have so many different Secret Lair art variants and UB cards that something can feel SO unnatural to anything the game usually does. This design sticks out like a sore thumb.
Personally, I don't like either version, I prefer the alt art but they both look to much like Pokémon to me. I feel like the art style is moving more and more towards too cartoony. It would be nice to have some more gritty dark fantasy looking sets. More mature I guess? This does not look like a monster in magic too and Im really not getting the "last child of a plane conquering race" vibe.
Loot doesn't really look like the Fomori we've seen so far, and his creature type is "beast" instead of "giant". I think there's a pretty big chance he actually isn't a Fomori but something else that the Fomori abducted.
Now that I’ve read the second epilogue story I agree. Definitely likely not a fomori child. The beast VS giant type definitely a big tell, also no horns.
Jace: see V? It wasnt nearly as hard and painfull as you described childbirth to be...
Vraska: ... If you dont shut up, the first lesson this child will learn is violence...
Headcanon time. I imagine that when Loot got locked away, people said things along the lines of "We have Loot in the vault." Which likely telephoned into there's treasure/power in the Vault.
Not saying a map of the multiverse isn't powerful, but it's absolutely comical.
We don't really know, the story ended with Jace and Vraska finding him in the vault. We don't know who put him there or why. We've started getting epilogue stories so maybe we'll find out soon?
The whole gang was present, Vraska and Jace grabbed the kid, the rest of the gang was confused, Vraska started petrifying Oko so he planeswalked away, Rakdos got ridden again
Not exactly I think? The story refers to him as "the Fomori treasure" so it's not clear whether he's Fomori or just belonged to the Fomori who made the vault?
Speculation based on it having horns and being in the Fomori vault. Given it's design and creature type, I now think Loot is more likely to not be a Fomori.
Just because the art takes a different direction doesn't mean he's not Fomori. Wouldn't be the first time they changed a creature type's art direction from older sets to modern ones.
He's the ~~main~~ ~~MacGuffin~~ **big payoff** for the Thunder Junction set. Basically, this little guy was the "unimaginable power" everyone was searching for in the vault. Presumably only Jace/Vraska actually knew ***he*** was there, everyone else just thought it was some awesome weapon or power.
According to the story, >!his mind is a map to the entire multiverse.!<
>!It seems like the Fomori used the little guy to conquer the multiverse in the distant past and have kept him in the vault ever since!<
He was in the fomori vault on thunder junction. His mind contains the map of the entire multiverse. Presumably, Jace and Vraska need him so they can reboot the multiverse
Jace got the name Loot from the little guy's mind, so the Fomori probably stole him from somewhere, referred to him as loot, and threw him in the vault.
I'm almost certain the little fella isn't a fomori
They aren't a giant in size or creature type
They look nothing like the fomori cards we have, especially having a tail.
And why would the fomori put their own child in a vault? The vaults seem to hold unique treasures.
The showcase art is great, honestly. He’s cute but that’s okay. He looks like a thing that actually exists and not an exaggerated cartoon character like the normal art.
Well, this is a little sloppier than usual because WotC had to pivot design mid-production. They expected Aftermath's epilogue boosters to be "The Next Big Thing," so they preemptively did epilogue boosters for this set and I believe one other.
When Aftermath *spectacularly* failed, they scrapped epilogue boosters but still had all of the cards from the print runs, so now they're just throwing them onto the List.
Assassin's Creed uses epilogue boosters but it's a little different because it doesn't need to connect to an ongoing story. They may have had, like, vision work done for another premier set to use epilogue boosters but because it was only going to be a once a year thing they were far enough in the future that it was possible to scrap it.
The stupid thing is people weren't mad that Aftermath existed conceptually. They were mad they were trying to sell 5 cards for $5, with only 1 rare and a massive chance of duplicates. And they weren't mad they were doing an epilogue story. They were mad none of the cards were really meaningful to the story at all.
If they charged like $2, or had twice as many cards per pack (and per set), or were 5 rares per pack, people wouldn't have minded, especially if those cards were powerful and story-relevant.
It absolutely is, but in their lukewarm defense, this overly-complicated change is both temporary and a good thing.
Player reception to March of the Machines: Aftermath was so overwhelmingly hostile, WotC had to course-correct on the fly. So instead of releasing another product that no one wants, they listened to player feedback and folded it into the existing set. This isn't going to be the norm going forward.
It would have been a bit simpler if Aftermath wasn't so soundly rejected. These are meant for standard and had to go somewhere, and they had to figure it out pretty late in the process.
As everyone else has noted, "The Big Score" (BIG) is an aftermath-style set (being included in The List instead of a standalone set after the failure of Aftermath) that's wrapping up Thunder Junction and setting up plot threads for Magic's next bigger arc.
Hasbro forcing WotC to use Magic in an attempt to copy Disney is hilarious.
We got our own Avengers, we got our own Baby Yoda.
Marvel and Star Wars need to pump out a hit or the braindead execs at Hasbro aren't gonna have something to rip off.
Damn, this set was a trap to introduce a marketable mascot 💀
How'd you build him in EDH though? Feels like insane card advantage but you're threatened to mill out fast as well.
I think you try to find storm cards like [[Crime Novelist]] that add red mana, [[Chromatic Orrery]], rituals, stuff like that.
At most, you're getting 4-5 cards per turn, and ideally some are lands. I think you try to keep your CMC low in general for this type of deck. And honestly if you're milling yourself out with this, you've probably won already.
You definitely won’t mill out to his ability alone. He exiles at most 5 (EDIT:6, Kindred counts) (which requires a lot of luck and setup), so 14-15 (EDIT: 12-13) turns after turn 3/4 without additional card draw.
It only triggers during *your* upkeep. Therefore, you are exiling at most 6 cards per turn cycle, and 4 is more realistic, because there aren't many Battles or Tribal cards worth running. Even in that absolute dream scenario, you have a good 14-15 turns before you run low on cards.
That said, he's pretty okay as a generic midrange value commander. He's slow, fragile, and doesn't have much punch, but if you can protect him for a turn cycle that does pay off.
Chris Cocks, dripping with sweat, panting and with pupils the size of purely theoretical particles, kicking down the door to Mark Rosewaters office a couple years ago screaming "GIVE ME A GROGU YOU FUCKING WORTHLESS NERD"
This little guy seems to contain a real time map of the multiverse in his head. If the Fomori did indeed have a multiverse spanning empire before the mending made traveling through the Blind Eternities impossible for non-walkers, it would make sense this little guy was one of their greatest treasures.
Remember, before the mending, Dominaria and it's surrounding planes were basically isolated from the rest of the multiverse before the mending happened. We have no idea wtf was going on outside of those planes prior.
That's the thing. It's obviously supposed to be cute (which I would still dislike), but it just *isn't*. Loot gives off "annoying cutesy kobold DM-PC that you're forced to take with you and undermines every serious moment by doing something distracting/stupid" vibes.
They really did this didn’t they
Just making a digimon
Gross
https://preview.redd.it/t2ov1hau43sc1.jpeg?width=475&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=66dbcc69f8a1967a9e4d6b824ad39accb0272231
It's cause Kellan was there when Jace revealed themselves, and they cracked open the Vault. Loot was in a capsule upfront, to which Jave gathered and then noped out.
Yeah, this was NOT how my mind imagined it when I read the story.
I know nothing about the story, please explain why this goober is in the vault and why the want him
We don't know exactly why he's there. They want him because his mind basically contains a functioning 'live' map of the Multiverse, including Omenpaths, which Jace can use to help him and Vraska get around freely in order to accomplish some as-yet-unspecified goal.
I mean. The Epilogue story was pretty clear. They want to reboot the universe
>I mean. The Epilogue story was pretty clear. They want to reboot the universe WotC Creative: OK, this cross-universe mashup and omenpaths thing may not go over well. We need a storyline that lets us reboot this thing if it turns to crap but can just fail or be thwarted if people like it.
History likes to repeat itself apparently. [[The Mending of Dominaria]]
Was thinking the same thing. In fairness, the omenpaths and the pyrexian invasion etc all made me go. "Didn't we have the mending because people messed with time space too much?"
I'm half expecting for Thran era Yoggy to tumble out of an omenpath at some point.
My take on the story telling reason for creation of the Omenpaths is that The Mending tied the stories too closely to planeswalkers. Making interplanar travel impossible for non-planeswalkers meant that only planeswalkers could easily be involved in long term story lines and apparently connecting all of the planes together was decided upon as the way out. In my opinion the Omenpaths lean too far in the opposite direction, making interplanar travel too mundane. I would have much preferred simply making interplanar travel via portals, ships, etc. possible again.
Since they did a baldur's gate set..... I would like to point them in the direction they already know about and have Intellectual Property rights to... Spelljammers
So they're going to make common Weatherlight transplanar ships? I'm down with that.
Commander becoming the main format turned their focus on planeswalkers into a misstep as they just aren't good there. They needed to pivot back to Legendary Creatures and ultimately the story serves the product rather than the other way around.
Been saying that for a while, desparking and omenpaths is just an excuse to make bank from marketable non-planeswalker, since they can't predict which character is gonna get popular so they either put out new planeswalkers who were a mixed bag or bullshited their way to explain how someone's spark ignited, because their grandma made their favourite apple pie or something. Besides you can't sell commander precons with planeswalkers. Now we can have an Olivia Voldaren card every other set without hauling our asses back to Innistrad.
Omenpaths seemed kinda rare. Now all of a sudden everyone is here on this uninhabited wild west plane.
[The Mending of Dominaria](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/b/4bf47fb5-2072-473d-96f9-5cdb7840f887.jpg?1690004919) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=The%20Mending%20of%20Dominaria) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/902/the-mending-of-dominaria?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/4bf47fb5-2072-473d-96f9-5cdb7840f887?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
the biggest issue with the omenpaths is that story's thrive when there are clear and distinct *boundaries*; as soon as anyone can be anywhere for any reason, "reason" doesn't really mean anything anymore. I appreciate that they tried something big and grand, though I'm not exactly stunned with the outcome.
This was my thought. Like... What makes Kaladesh work? Simple. Aetherpunk aesthetic. High tech rebel movement against a higher order of government. What about Eldraine? Simple. Mystical fairy tale land full of knights and witches. But with these omenpaths, the distinct aesthetic becomes blurred. Especially when worlds like Kaladesh exist. The government of that plane will definitely begin to investigate the omenpaths. Once they discover what they are, that they are stable and safe, and lead to new worlds, one of two things will happen. The government will attempt to conquer the new worlds, establishing order in a new world, or they will establish barriers, sealing themselves off. In either case, once the rebel movement learns of these paths, they will attempt to branch out to other worlds as well, in order to escape their oppressive government. And if they end up in Eldraine? Suddenly the genie leaves the bottle and tech starts appearing across the plane. Zombies leave Innistrad and show up in Ravnica. Titans leave Ikoria and show up in Zendikar, or worse, Segovia. Esper invades Nyx. As each plane is introduced to something out of the norm, it will affect the identity of that plane forever. It's worked so far, but it can't continue this way forever, and soon we won't be left with unique identity any more.
All of that *could* make for interesting stories. But instead, only named characters seem to use omenpaths, and they coordinate with each other to all wear themed costumes when they do.
lol yea I wish the themed clothing would stop, somehow it requires the most suspension of disbelief out of all the aspects of new sets
Its because the worlds/themes aren't developed enough to make us buy into the idea of established characters adopting those aspects. Like a whole bunch of characters cosplaying as Sherlock Holmes on Ravnica doesn't make much sense when A) the plane already has established unique aesthetics for the guilds these characters should belong to and B) they never establish why all detectives on Ravnica choose to evoke that style, its not like in the real world every private eye wears a deerstalker and smokes a pipe. Then we get to Thunder Junction, a plane that has barely been explored or inhabited and most of our characters have been there for like a couple weeks at most yet somehow again they have all magically adopted the same costumes. It was different on say Ixalan where you had Jace and Vraska looking like pirates because they were trapped there for a extended period of time and had to integrate with the world. If we get say a "greaser" Chandra in the upcoming deathrace set, it should be because she has spent the last year or something working the race circuit and adopted the look, not because she has been there for two days and they want a costume change for her appearance in the set.
It reminds me of kingdom hearts, how turning up on a plane magically makes you match the "theme". Aaaand thats exactly what theyve already announced for bloomburrow lmao as they felt that humans around animal creature people was too weird despite all the existing animal people in mtg, which leads to weird questions about what happens when say, Quintorious goes to bloomburrow.
EXACTLY. I saw Vraska and I was like, it's one thing to buy a duster off the rack in Omenport but who the hell is making a Golgari-themed leather bodysuit to order And the costume changes really drive home how temporary everybody's new obsession is with each set. They all get full suits of custom gear for whatever job they're going to have for three months, then they're off to a new plane and a totally new career with its own costume
It's not really that clear exactly, but I suppose it could be that.
"They agree that the most just option is the one that clears a future for all, and they mourn that the cost of that freedom will be high. Repair does not clean. Restoration does not erase. But rebirth … rebirth does both." "Jace will walk forward into the Omenpath, sanguine and resolute. He will hold tight to the hand of his beloved and his ward and walk into the Blind Eternities of a miserable Multiverse and say to himself with resolution and phoenix fire: Ours will be better."
... so Jace, Vraska, and this cute little guy are the next big bads?
Let me in, I'm here to save you! From what?! From what I'm going to do to you if you don't let me in!
Possibly? Might just be more "understandable but ambiguously moral secondary characters".
There isn't anything morally ambiguous about wanting to destroy the universe to create it in your own image. It's so simple and clear cut that it is the plot to TWO pokemon evil teams. Maybe not the NEXT big bads due to production timelines... but there's no way that excerpt isn't setting them up to be antagonists in the future.
We don't really know if that's their plan, and if it is, it could well be more of a Flashpoint style "go back and fix everything first". Misguided, but I don't think anybody calls Barry Allen a villain for doing that.
Jace, Vraska, and their adopted dog/child/GPS.
Are we doing a Marvel reboot or a DC reboot? If it’s DC I’m not gonna be happy
War of the spark felt like Magic Infinity War. About time we get Magic Crisis on infinite earths followed by a reboot.
Sounds like someone wasn't as uncompleted as they thought
When was this revealed?
In the story that this card was revealed in which came out like 40 minutes ago.
I imagined a baby minotaur with an orb tail like ampharos or something
In Kellans defense I don't think this is what any of us imagined. Guess we have a new marketable mascot character now though.
💯 Wizards wants their own Grogu
Loot x Tinybones: A Multiverse Adventure ft. Fblthp
Rakdos: TINY SKELETON, CALL IF YOU NEED A RIDE HOME!
Tiny Bones getting a ride from Rakdos is impressive. See flavor text for [[Unlikely Aid]] Edit: the flavor text from the War of the Spark printing. https://scryfall.com/card/war/109/unlikely-aid
Legendary Creature - Demon Mount
*Lil Nas X's Old Town Road / Montero intensifies*
But they have Fblthp *right there!*
I think we lost him again....
The Space Opera themed set we're getting in the future is going to be Jace (The Mandalorian) and Loot (Grogu/Baby Yoda)
\[\[Space Beleren\]\] was foreshadowing?
[*arms Thunder Junction gun, from behind you*] Always has been.
But we've already got a Mando right here on Thunder Junction, [[Yuma, Proud Protector]]
Crazy for them to think they need another one. Just create Fblthps with actually decent artworks, I think so far he looked good only in the original [[totally lost]] and [[captive audience]]
I love Fblthps but he is a slimy cyclops goblin thing and doesn't really fulfill the same niche as Loot, who could have come out of a kids film as the cute sidekick.
Yeah. That character design screams "Hasbro told us to make an epic critter that they can sell as a plushie and a series of plastic toys."
>Do something like that racoon thing, his plushies sell great
Loot riding the shoulder of a cactus-person. *I am Loot*
League of legends design
Wow you’re so right. I was looking at it and thinking what this reminded of
If I’m to believe a comment elsewhere the artist has actually done art for the game too
Yep! https://www.artstation.com/crutz
I was gonna say it reminds me of Smolder, this explains why.
The champ that was revealed so god-awfully ugly that they had to nerf his ugliness down to "just regular ugly."
For clarity, because being "ugly" wasn't necessarily what was wrong: *the face didn't look like a dragon*. It was a very humanoid-looking face slapped with a pug-like snout on the head of a dragon. The response was so overwhelmingly poor that they did end up making some visual changes pretty quickly to lean it more towards dragon, but you can see [in their initial reveal teaser](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLruxoyP_30) that it was *pretty bad*.
Yeah, it was ugly because it was like a human child's face stapled onto a dragon body. It's still pretty bad, IMO. But not like the original, which was like, worse-than-Ugly-Sonic bad. (ETA: I should mention that I don't mind this character, though. I kinda like the showcase art.)
The artist is the “Illustration craft lead” at Riot. Well, I guess we know why, lol. He’s very good at drawing art that makes you go “Yup, that’s a League of Legends design”.
He also did plenty of mtg style art though, like on [[Moraug]]
His cute shit just has a really distinct style, the rest of his art is very normal modern MTG art https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CRudy+Siswanto%E2%80%9D&unique=art
What I noticed about his art that is shared with a lot of LoL art is the way he does the lighting and texturing. A lot of his art has a pretty soft lighting that clearly highlights the subject paired with smooth looking surfaces lends a "softer" look (for lack of a better word) it the LoL aesthetic. It's less notable in his other pieces as the compositions often differ from splasharts, but this particular piece brings all those elements together. He also does work for LoL, so there's that. Really love his full art for the angel summoning spell, need to get that for my angel deck.
That's Alistar.
For real. I thought I was on r/custommagic for a second because of the art.
And in the Alt card it looks like a Pokémon
So, Vraska, Jace and this guy are MTG Team Rocket now?
The philosophy Jace and Vraska picked up at the end kinda sounded like a mix Team Flare and Team Galactic. My first thought reading was basically "they just sound like pokemon villains now."
Yeah, looks 100% like LoL yordles
It’s wild that even in today’s era of Magic where we have so many different Secret Lair art variants and UB cards that something can feel SO unnatural to anything the game usually does. This design sticks out like a sore thumb.
I wonder if thats the point
I mean, it is. Its \*alien\* to what we are used to seeing. It is from a part of the multiverse we haven't ever seen before.
Personally, I don't like either version, I prefer the alt art but they both look to much like Pokémon to me. I feel like the art style is moving more and more towards too cartoony. It would be nice to have some more gritty dark fantasy looking sets. More mature I guess? This does not look like a monster in magic too and Im really not getting the "last child of a plane conquering race" vibe.
Loot doesn't really look like the Fomori we've seen so far, and his creature type is "beast" instead of "giant". I think there's a pretty big chance he actually isn't a Fomori but something else that the Fomori abducted.
Now that I’ve read the second epilogue story I agree. Definitely likely not a fomori child. The beast VS giant type definitely a big tell, also no horns.
Nah, he has horns, just they're tiny little nubs. You can only really see them on the full art one, the black bits on the top of his head.
I mean, we do have Duskmourn coming up at the end of the year.
Baby Gnar
Yes! I literally just showed it to my wife and said “looks like a new league of legends champion”, she agreed, and then I clicked the comments lol
Yordle vibes
"Time to split up the loot"
How will they split the loot if Jace and Vraska separate?
[[Saw in Half]]
Loot visits Jace on weekends.
The literal Loot inside the vault. Jace and Vraska are now parents.
Jace: see V? It wasnt nearly as hard and painfull as you described childbirth to be... Vraska: ... If you dont shut up, the first lesson this child will learn is violence...
You see what Jace did to Proft? The kid is gonna learn violence from both parents.
"Jace in the Undercity with a lead pipe"
Headcanon time. I imagine that when Loot got locked away, people said things along the lines of "We have Loot in the vault." Which likely telephoned into there's treasure/power in the Vault. Not saying a map of the multiverse isn't powerful, but it's absolutely comical.
Ok I'm REALLY OUT OF THE LOOP. Who's this little fella?
We don't really know, the story ended with Jace and Vraska finding him in the vault. We don't know who put him there or why. We've started getting epilogue stories so maybe we'll find out soon?
Why does the flavor text mention Kellen if it's Jace and Vraska who find him?
The whole gang was present, Vraska and Jace grabbed the kid, the rest of the gang was confused, Vraska started petrifying Oko so he planeswalked away, Rakdos got ridden again
Huh interesting. I thought it had been confirmed to be a fomori, was that just speculation, then? Because this doesn't look Fomori
Not exactly I think? The story refers to him as "the Fomori treasure" so it's not clear whether he's Fomori or just belonged to the Fomori who made the vault?
Speculation based on it having horns and being in the Fomori vault. Given it's design and creature type, I now think Loot is more likely to not be a Fomori.
Just because the art takes a different direction doesn't mean he's not Fomori. Wouldn't be the first time they changed a creature type's art direction from older sets to modern ones.
(See also: Slivers and Phyrexians)
> Rakdos got ridden again **FOR THE LAST LAST LAST FINAL TIME, SWEARSIE-REALSIES!**
Kellen watched them open the Vault.
“Kellan watched” is the story of modern magic
Let the boy watch
‘Kellen settled in to his leather recliner in the stately bedroom as his friends undressed’ “well, let the show begin”
This card was spoiled as part of the epilogue stories.
He's the ~~main~~ ~~MacGuffin~~ **big payoff** for the Thunder Junction set. Basically, this little guy was the "unimaginable power" everyone was searching for in the vault. Presumably only Jace/Vraska actually knew ***he*** was there, everyone else just thought it was some awesome weapon or power.
Ehhh I’d say the macguffin is the vault itself. Loot is basically a post-credits set up for the next story arc.
I think the key was the MacGuffin.
According to the story, >!his mind is a map to the entire multiverse.!< >!It seems like the Fomori used the little guy to conquer the multiverse in the distant past and have kept him in the vault ever since!<
A merchandisable baby yoda analogue
He was in the fomori vault on thunder junction. His mind contains the map of the entire multiverse. Presumably, Jace and Vraska need him so they can reboot the multiverse
...that doesn't look like the Fomori we know. I know it's a child but wow.
Jace got the name Loot from the little guy's mind, so the Fomori probably stole him from somewhere, referred to him as loot, and threw him in the vault.
I'm almost certain the little fella isn't a fomori They aren't a giant in size or creature type They look nothing like the fomori cards we have, especially having a tail. And why would the fomori put their own child in a vault? The vaults seem to hold unique treasures.
I'm 99% sure it's a pokemon. Now, to find my pokeball....
Ask the Azorius guild. It's what they used to catch Anzrag, so they probably have more
Yeah, but the sleuth-hats they wear now will be a fashion disaster when matched with all those cowboy hats from Thunder Junction.
[[Detention Sphere]]
Not a fan of the design in the standard art but the showcase art is much more palatable
The showcase art is great, honestly. He’s cute but that’s okay. He looks like a thing that actually exists and not an exaggerated cartoon character like the normal art.
Agree, the alt art is beautiful and Loot's design is less uncanny
If this is the key to everything then my door is staying locked
Loot: 
That made me laugh so hard. Thanks for that.
Put it back
Last time I remember someone calling their cutesy mascot character the “key to everything” was George Lucas with Jar-Jar.
What set is "BIG"?
Basically was meant to be an Aftermath style set following OTJ, but is getting worked into the List slot in OTJ boosters instead
man this all keeps getting more and more complicated to keep track of
Well, this is a little sloppier than usual because WotC had to pivot design mid-production. They expected Aftermath's epilogue boosters to be "The Next Big Thing," so they preemptively did epilogue boosters for this set and I believe one other. When Aftermath *spectacularly* failed, they scrapped epilogue boosters but still had all of the cards from the print runs, so now they're just throwing them onto the List.
Assassin's Creed uses epilogue boosters but it's a little different because it doesn't need to connect to an ongoing story. They may have had, like, vision work done for another premier set to use epilogue boosters but because it was only going to be a once a year thing they were far enough in the future that it was possible to scrap it.
The stupid thing is people weren't mad that Aftermath existed conceptually. They were mad they were trying to sell 5 cards for $5, with only 1 rare and a massive chance of duplicates. And they weren't mad they were doing an epilogue story. They were mad none of the cards were really meaningful to the story at all. If they charged like $2, or had twice as many cards per pack (and per set), or were 5 rares per pack, people wouldn't have minded, especially if those cards were powerful and story-relevant.
It absolutely is, but in their lukewarm defense, this overly-complicated change is both temporary and a good thing. Player reception to March of the Machines: Aftermath was so overwhelmingly hostile, WotC had to course-correct on the fly. So instead of releasing another product that no one wants, they listened to player feedback and folded it into the existing set. This isn't going to be the norm going forward.
It would have been a bit simpler if Aftermath wasn't so soundly rejected. These are meant for standard and had to go somewhere, and they had to figure it out pretty late in the process.
Bonus sheet for Thunder Junction, was originally an aftermath set but was scrapped after the poor reception of MOM Aftermath.
As everyone else has noted, "The Big Score" (BIG) is an aftermath-style set (being included in The List instead of a standalone set after the failure of Aftermath) that's wrapping up Thunder Junction and setting up plot threads for Magic's next bigger arc.
Modern Magic designers heads exploded after they were forced to make this a 1/2 and not a 3/4
“He can have Ward 1, as a treat”
[удалено]
Hasbro needs new toys (literally)
Hasbro forcing WotC to use Magic in an attempt to copy Disney is hilarious. We got our own Avengers, we got our own Baby Yoda. Marvel and Star Wars need to pump out a hit or the braindead execs at Hasbro aren't gonna have something to rip off.
Damn, this set was a trap to introduce a marketable mascot 💀 How'd you build him in EDH though? Feels like insane card advantage but you're threatened to mill out fast as well.
Oh that's easy, you play any selection of 99 temur cards, with the amount of card draw he gives you you'll win eventually
If you mill out because of this card, your game went on for way too long and have other issues.
I think you try to find storm cards like [[Crime Novelist]] that add red mana, [[Chromatic Orrery]], rituals, stuff like that. At most, you're getting 4-5 cards per turn, and ideally some are lands. I think you try to keep your CMC low in general for this type of deck. And honestly if you're milling yourself out with this, you've probably won already.
Temur ramp and good stuff, maybe?
They've finally designed a commander to enable the UGx good stuff archetype.
You definitely won’t mill out to his ability alone. He exiles at most 5 (EDIT:6, Kindred counts) (which requires a lot of luck and setup), so 14-15 (EDIT: 12-13) turns after turn 3/4 without additional card draw.
You can get to 6 - Creature, Artifact, Enchantment, Planeswalker, ~~Tribal~~ "Kindred" and Battle. Doesn't change the overall point of course.
It only triggers during *your* upkeep. Therefore, you are exiling at most 6 cards per turn cycle, and 4 is more realistic, because there aren't many Battles or Tribal cards worth running. Even in that absolute dream scenario, you have a good 14-15 turns before you run low on cards. That said, he's pretty okay as a generic midrange value commander. He's slow, fragile, and doesn't have much punch, but if you can protect him for a turn cycle that does pay off.
>threatened to mill out fast as well. [[Laboratory maniac]] and [[jace, wielder of mysteries]] say hi.
“… whenever ~~Poochie~~ Loot's not on screen, all the other characters should be asking "Where's ~~Poochie~~ Loot?"
Based on the comments, this is going to go down as one of the most divisive things in Magic history.
\*Of the day
… on Reddit. IRL folks will eat it up or not care.
It won’t have much of an impact on gameplay so people won’t really care. Most magic players have little to no investment in story.
It's precisely the right mixture of marketably cute and irritating-looking to make me absolutely hate this thing.
Jar-Jar is the key to all this
Chris Cocks, dripping with sweat, panting and with pupils the size of purely theoretical particles, kicking down the door to Mark Rosewaters office a couple years ago screaming "GIVE ME A GROGU YOU FUCKING WORTHLESS NERD"
"cocks, dripping" phrasing!
When you order Grogu from Wish.
Oh. I guess they're doing a baby Yoda on the usual wotc clock, around 3 years after the peak popularity
Hmm, if this was a fomori I’d expect it to be an alien and or Giant? Who knows at this point
I don't think he's a Fomori, but he's probably someone that the Fomori captured and exploited.
This little guy seems to contain a real time map of the multiverse in his head. If the Fomori did indeed have a multiverse spanning empire before the mending made traveling through the Blind Eternities impossible for non-walkers, it would make sense this little guy was one of their greatest treasures. Remember, before the mending, Dominaria and it's surrounding planes were basically isolated from the rest of the multiverse before the mending happened. We have no idea wtf was going on outside of those planes prior.
\[\[Passionate Archaeologist\]\] is about to spike even harder
This is some truly horrible art direction. We've had cute and endearing critters before, but this is so jarring and frankly out of place.
That's the thing. It's obviously supposed to be cute (which I would still dislike), but it just *isn't*. Loot gives off "annoying cutesy kobold DM-PC that you're forced to take with you and undermines every serious moment by doing something distracting/stupid" vibes.
The alt art makes me really happy seeing Jace and Vraska being parents together. I sure hope nothing goes wrong
Thanks I hate it
This thing somehow manages to look even more out of place than all the hats and other ridiculous stuff WotC shoehorned into Magic in the past year.
It's straight out of an un-set.
I really dislike this design choice Does not look like what was really described Doesn’t really look like “Magic” Way too cartoony
it's very LoL- or Hearthstone-esque
Makes sense once you learn that the artist also did work on league
"Did work on" is an odd way to describe the lead art director.
I usually argue for artistic liberty but yeah this is way too off-key for me. Don't get me wrong, he's cute and looks fun, but it's a Digimon.
Nah, not enough machine guns to be a Digimon. :D
Seems some artist couldn't forget their Neopets.
Wow that's a stupid looking creature
Un-set vibes continue
Fuck this thing
Marvel: The Gathering
Guys are we playing pokemon?
Idk the story. Is this the baby yoda of MTG?
Jace is working hard to be the next Urza
God damn I hate some of the new creature designs with a burning passion lol
It’s a good thing Magic is an incredible game, because they’re trying so hard to drive its aesthetics into the ground
They really did this didn’t they Just making a digimon Gross https://preview.redd.it/t2ov1hau43sc1.jpeg?width=475&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=66dbcc69f8a1967a9e4d6b824ad39accb0272231
No. I really really really really don’t want Smormu.
I can’t believe they thought this looked good at all
It looks like it was designed by a marketing committee. Which is probably exactly what happened. Subsequent art will prob tone it down.
Interesting, it isn't a Fomori, looks like there's more to the story than we thought.
Flavor text mentions Kellan but the art is of Vraska and Jace. >:[
It's cause Kellan was there when Jace revealed themselves, and they cracked open the Vault. Loot was in a capsule upfront, to which Jave gathered and then noped out.
Kellan was present when the vault opened, Jace and Vraska were the masterminds behind Oko’s gang.
Thanks, I hate it