Gary is back!
What are your thoughts?
[THB] Gray merchant of Asphodel reprint - Christmas preview
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- CommanderMaster999
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Jonas Ukulore Rowley Birkin, QC fan.
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Happy! Not much of a Standard player, but I, for one, welcome the return of our devotion overlord. (Has never been away in Commander, actually)
Commanders:
Psycho Cultleader • Deranged Boy and Dental Imagination
Creepy Girl • Big Thing • Your Deck = My Deck
Hatebear Angel • Bounty-filled Pillowfort
Psycho Cultleader • Deranged Boy and Dental Imagination
Creepy Girl • Big Thing • Your Deck = My Deck
Hatebear Angel • Bounty-filled Pillowfort
I approve. Appropriately upshifted to uncommon. I prefer the original art, but solid card is solid card
That shadowy wisp at the edge of your vision, there and gone before you notice.
Formerly Dusk707 on MtGSalvation
Formerly Dusk707 on MtGSalvation
I think it sets a standard for how powerful devotion will be. I'm looking forward to seeing the other devotion cards knowing that this is an acceptable level.
I also like the card.
I also like the card.
Gary actually tells a sad, nonspecific story.
The returned have no memories of their previous lives, but remember all of their old skills and trades. Last time on Theros there was a story about a returned smith who went to a forge out of instinctual habit, but couldn't recognize his own daughter before him. All that he had from before was his basic skill and drive, and nothing more. He eventually left for Asphodel - a necropolis filled with the returned.
Gary was previously a merchant, possibly even a wealthy, renown tradesmen who amassed a great deal with a large family, friends, and maybe even a political life. But now that he's returned, he is but a hollow reflection of the merchant he used to be, and nothing more. He trades with other cities on behalf of Asphodel, because that instinctual memory is all he still has. It's his sole purpose in life, but it's just a mechanical drive from his former life, with no real meaning.
In this new art, we see that he's dropped a large bag of gold behind him, worth some large untold amount of money. It doesn't even register with him. What he once craved and valued so dearly in life is completely insignificant to him now. This scene echoes his entire returned life: he goes through the motions of being a merchant, but only as some heartless shadow of what he once was.
As to mechanically speaking, his ability and concept is simliar to Orzhov's Extort Ability. As you amass more devotion to black, possibly also more power in Asphodel, his ability to trade increases. Although meaningless to him, he still amasses "wealth" that benefits you. You could also posture that some of his merchant "trading" could be coercive, stealing, etc - so long as it basically fulfills the mercantile mechanics he remembers. This would be closer to the Extortion ability that his life drain resembles.
To the beaten, the broken, or the damned; the lost, and the wayward: wherever I may be, you will have a home.
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RxPhantom Fully Vaxxed, Baby!
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It's good to have him back, and even though I prefer the original art, this one's still pretty darn nice looking.
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