MTGNexus

Hi, have been curious about this for sometime now. I've seen a part of the story where Liliana scared some soldiers with zombies. They got scared because they never seen zombies before. What is the reason Kaladesh never had any zombies?

The Fluff wrote: ↑

11 months ago

Hi, have been curious about this for sometime now. I've seen a part of the story where Liliana scared some soldiers with zombies. They got scared because they never seen zombies before. What is the reason Kaladesh never had any zombies?

In world answer? Because of the rich Aether not being conducive to.. necromancy I dunno.

Real answer?

Wotc didn't want zombies crowding the aesthetics of the cheerful steampunk utopia world so they made up Aetherborn to fill the void left by zombies/vampires.

Honestly I don't blame wotc for wanting to make a world without zombies or vampires, I like them as much as the next guy but...

Dominaria
Kaldheim
Theros
Zendikar
Tarkir
and on and on have some combination of zombies and vampires.

It is rare when we see a plane without them, since they are after all the characteristic creature type(s) for .


Which is fine, but it is nice to have a change every once in a while too.

Doylist answer: all the tokens in Kaladesh are artifact creatures like servos or thopters, which leaves little space for zombie tokens. Meanwhile, Aetherborn take up the creature slots that would otherwise be devoted to other tribes. To amp up the aetherpunk theme, most reanimation / creature recursion effects are portrayed as salvaging broken constructs, instead of actual necromancy / reanimation.

Watsonian answer: there are very few inhabitants of Kaladesh actually capable of performing magic - most are artificers, who work with aether, and black-aligned aether results in Aetherborn instead of undead. The only two actual spellcasters we've seen on Kaladesh are Baral, Chief of Compliance (a wizard) and Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh // Chandra, Roaring Flame (a shaman), and natural spellcasters have historically been persecuted on the plane. Theoretically, a black-aligned spellcaster may be capable of creating undead, but we haven't seen one.

To be honest, I think Kaladesh is fine and all, but I have always wanted to see a grittier (as far as MTG can be gritty anyway) take on steampunk. I know we have innistrad, but innistrad has always felt so over the top ludicrously messed up evil that it crosses back to being comical in some ways. i.e. Rabid Bite (not that the card itself is representing evil but, I digress) or Dance with Calamity.

Which is fun, but I think there is room to explore a more grounded, less over the top horror around every corner, but just a plane that has steampunk technology, grimy streets, greedy robber barons, a bit of magic sprinkled around, some arcane mysteries and rain soaked london-like cities and the like. There might be some creepy things going here and there but if you are a denizen of the plane your life isn't hanging by a thread every second like on innistrad.

I'll stop rambling about my crazy ideas now lol.

Venedrex wrote: ↑

11 months ago

Which is fun, but I think there is room to explore a more grounded, less over the top horror around every corner, but just a plane that has steampunk technology, grimy streets, greedy robber barons, a bit of magic sprinkled around, some arcane mysteries and rain soaked london-like cities and the like. There might be some creepy things going here and there but if you are a denizen of the plane your life isn't hanging by a thread every second like on innistrad.

Sounds like Ravnica,

@Venedrex @Mookie

thanks for the detailed answers. It's clear to me now.

zombies are something that's often present in set. So when I see one that has none of them, then it sparks the curiosity.

anyway, wotc making Aetherborn is a nice addition to mtg.

5colorsrainbow wrote: ↑

10 months ago

Venedrex wrote: ↑

11 months ago

Which is fun, but I think there is room to explore a more grounded, less over the top horror around every corner, but just a plane that has steampunk technology, grimy streets, greedy robber barons, a bit of magic sprinkled around, some arcane mysteries and rain soaked london-like cities and the like. There might be some creepy things going here and there but if you are a denizen of the plane your life isn't hanging by a thread every second like on innistrad.

Sounds like Ravnica,

*Falls backwards out of desk chair*

NO WONDER I LIKE RAVNICA SO MUCH.

Kaladesh is the first block to have neither goblins nor zombies Another user speculates that Liliana might not be raising zombies on Kaladesh because it would draw too much attention to the fact that the Gatewatch is on Kaladesh. Donkey Kong