The Fluff wrote: ↑3 years ago
As for another place I want to visit..
not sure what plane Animal Sanctuary is located, but if I was a planeswalker.. would like to relax, and enjoy watching the animals in a place like this one.
5499-animal-sanctuary.jpg
Animal Sanctuary looks suspiciously like the home of a magic user who is particularly overprotective of their pets, and probably has their pets trained to attack their enemies while under magical buffs, so I'd be a bit wary of the place, for fear of the, likely powerful, owner getting mad at me for some reason or another, or their pets randomly attacking because I'm not the owner and they might have been trained to do so. It certainly is lovely looking though, and I'd love to find out how those tower complexes in the background on the clifftop thingies were raised.
As for planes to visit:
Dominaria: If I'm well protected enough against ambush by the average other planeswalker and have some versatile personal magical defenses up all the time, Dominaria has some nice places to visit. I'd be particularly wary of planeswalkers who might want to take advantage of other planeswalkers, particularly newbies, if I visited there, because as the nexus of the multiverse it is likely that at least some planeswalkers can detect and find their way to the place relatively easily. Benalia and some of the magic schools seem like nice places to visit.
Ulgrotha: If I've got solid protections against many strategies and abilities of black magic users, might be an interesting place to visit particular areas of, depending on the state it's in and how accurate Leshrac was.
Shandalar: Seems pretty interesting and possibly a relatively safe visit as long as you are in the better protected white areas, like Thune, although it might not stay that way unless they can contain the expansion of the Slivers. The high mana levels and potent lands would be a very nice draw if I'm able to develop land bonds, which I'm starting to suspect not all planeswalkers can in current lore (or at least perhaps not all know how to).
Kamigawa: Seems pretty cool, although I wouldn't want to visit without being particularly polite to the spirits and knowing somewhat how to do so, as well as how to defend myself against spirits and spirit magic. Tamiyo's story circle seems like a potential issue though, as a group of planeswalkers might attract the attention of someone who wants to control them, and something willing and able to target planeswalkers likely is prepared to face them, so a place regularly visited by planeswalkers might be a bit risky, even if the ones in question seem relatively nice.
Lorewyn/Shadowmoor: While there are some bad stuff here and stuff to avoid, if I'm able to deal with the dangers, it might be a nice place to visit. It probably wouldn't take too much to be able to deal with either, given that the likes of Jace (likely before Agents of Artifice) and Chandra (likely pre Purifying Fire) could deal with it, and Jace was a bit weak at the time relative to his current state and hadn't even learned physical combat skills, and mostly relied on weaker illusions and sensing mental presences around him, while Chandra could just blast threats she stumbled into. It certainly has noticeable dangers, but most planes do, and it likely has interesting land mana bonds that are likely relatively safe to claim and interesting summons and such, and is manageable for a wary planeswalker with basic skills to defend themselves.
Alara: While ex-Grixis and ex-Jund areas are probably key to avoid, most behemoths of Naya don't seem to be aggressive all the time to smaller life forms, and ex-Bant areas seem downright nice and relatively safe, while ex-Esper areas seem viable places to visit to a degree, although I'd be a bit worried about Tezzeret being ready and waiting to take advantage of a visiting planeswalker with some kind of special artifact, so I'd probably avoid direct visitation and more just dealings with travelers or immigrants from the area.
Fiora: Seems relatively nice, it's got it's dangers and political conflicts, but if I don't draw attention to myself, it's probably a relatively nice place to visit most of the time.
Kaladesh: Seems relatively nice and peaceful, the rebels winning is probably a good sign, and Tezzeret is likely unwelcome, with locals, including local planeswalker artificer Saheeli Rai, likely ready to help keep him from returning to meddle. Likely has tons of opportunity to learn certain kinds of artificing as well.
Kylem: Seems relatively nice to visit, although I'd avoid getting too involved in betting or matches, for fear of meddling by match-fixers or gambling underground types or undue attention from thieves and such for possible winnings.
Eldraine: I suspect I'd need a bit better defenses and greater care taken than Lorewyn/Shandowmoor, as more exotic forms of mystical attacks seem more common here than on such, even if overall tendencies are similar. The civilization here on the other hand is a bit more stable, so if I've got the exotic defenses against stuff like fey transformations and witch curses or horrible weird artifacts, it seems like an interesting place to visit, and a lot of the trickery and such involved isn't out of malice, but uncaring whimsy, so if attempts fail it isn't likely to trigger too much further conflict.
Places NOT to visit:
Rabidah: I suspect there might be risks involved in finding safer reflections, and I'm not a fan of deserts in the first place.
Mercadia: I suspect this place might have suffered the depredations of phyrexian oil, given they had phyrexian agents there back in the day, and it might have been wrecked even before the oil could start causing more noticeable transformations. We know Elspeth was probably from a plane with a phyrexian infestation from the oil, that was losing or had mostly lost it's battle against the phyrexians, and it's likely many places the phyrexians were at work on became like such unless they were specifically protected by key types of forces that can fight against such or the right sort of planeswalkers, so I wouldn't be surprised if this place is a phyrexian place.
Regatha: Seems like the color philosophies are a bit harsh here, but it's not inherently hostile to visitors who follow local rules and customs and aren't in dangerous wild areas, likely at least partly thanks to a bit of playing politics by Jaya. Seems to have some interesting stuff there as well and some nice scenery in places.
New Phyrexia/Mirrodin: All the nope!
Ravnica: Might be a bit hostile to planeswalkers for a while, on top of ridiculous numbers of them knowing about it, and knowing other planeswalkers know about it, probably attracting all sorts of plots and ambushes between planeswalkers on top of inclusion of likely planeswalker averse locals. Visiting any time soon seems like just asking to be taken advantage of somehow by a dangerous planeswalker, on top of the dangers of just being attacked by locals who don't like planeswalkers if they figured it out. Admittedly, it might be safer further away from the 10th district where the War of the Spark was focused. It has the same problems I noted for Dominaria, but likely much worse for the forseeable future, although things might cool off to a degree once more time has passed since the War of the Spark and be about as safe to visit as Dominaria.
Zendikar: While the roil might be gone, and the locals might be at least relatively peaceful and friendly right now, and the Eldrazi are gone, it's lost a lot of it's best features as well, like potent lands and many nice summon options, and tons of it is likely creepy drained wastes lacking in things like food, and I think we've recently gotten confirmation that planeswalkers can't bring food with them when planeswalking, so unless I have something like a ring of sustenance from a D&D setting, wandering the wastes is probably not a good idea.
Innistrad: Nope! While it's no New Phyrexia, I suspect that even if a lot of the physical warping caused by Emrakul might have gone away to some degree, a lot of the insanity is still there, and then on top of that, there are the more native horrors, not all of which are relegated to the night, and the tendency for more questionable planeswalkers to make it their home away from home, it seems like a place where one is almost certain to run into unpleasantness.
Theros: Divine smiting seems highly likely for unprepared planeswalkers here, and even without that, many of the gods might be likely to encourage their followers to harass you if they detect you as a planeswalker. While it might be 'interesting' to visit, I have might doubts that the overall experience would be positive.
Tarkir: Most of the dragon-run civilization seem pretty harsh even when they aren't just places where you are at risk of being randomly eaten for visiting. And on top of that, there is the danger of random dragonstorms spawning young and emotionally/mentally immature but still relatively powerful and dangerous dragons on top of your head, and most groups being hostile to outsiders by default. Don't think I'd want to visit unless I was good friends with Ugin or Narset and was with them for the duration.
Vryn: Mind magic on a level to mess with planeswalkers was developed and refined here to a highly precise degree, Alhammarret probably wasn't the only one with such, he likely learned some of his skills somewhere. This is on top of the place possibly still being at war, and from the looks of it, a lot of the coolest bits of local magic use rely on massive infrastructure, which wouldn't be particularly useful to a planeswalker not interested in nation building. Seems like a risky place to visit for relatively little benefit.
Amonket: While probably safer in some ways that dealing with Bolas-run version, there probably isn't an anti-zombie barrier up right now, and the locals are likely fighting for their survival in questionable shelter aided by the surviving divine. Plus it's a desert filled with stuff like wurms and zombies.
Ixalan: Unless I'm confirmed post-War of the Spark, I wouldn't even consider visiting, and even then, it seems like a pretty dangerous place, with relatively potent vampire civilization that rules a whole continent pretty horribly, a pirate civilization filled with questionable conflict, and a dangerous dinosaur continent with all sorts of deadly beasts around the corner. It might have lots of beauty and cool stuff, but the civilization suitable for visitors doesn't seem to be on a level I'd be comfortable with. Unless I wind up some kind of master summoner who dinosaurs are particularly useful for, I'd be wary of the place.
Plane of Mountains and Seas: Looks amazing, but has some noteworthy dangers, and the local planeswalkers seem impressive enough and to have dealt with enough trouble at home to hint that the place is not very nice in many ways.
Meditation Plane: Not interested in being assassinated by Ugin so that I can't accidentally reveal Bolas is still alive and could potentially be rescued by one of his agents if they read my mind or used postcognition to analyze my past, possibly through an item I had on me during the visit with psychometry or something. Nor in Bolas deciding to talk with me out of boredom and trying to manipulate me for plots.
Ikoria: Monsters all over the place is fine, generally hostile ones with a wide variety of exotic abilities whose powers can spontaneously improve and get added to at random, that is not so fine. The small outposts of 'civilization' don't seem particularly stable either. So as amazing as this place is, I don't think any but the toughest of planeswalkers with insanely wide special defenses are likely to handle the place well unless they are lucky. There is just too much chances of a monster randomly mutating to develop a special ability you have no viable defense against that operates faster than you can planeswalk away to catch you off guard, or a sneaky monster you can't detect having powers suitable for ambushing you. Not to mention the locals likely being wary of outsiders because of conflicts with bonders and stuff.