(This month's banner is my own elaboration on the art of Slimefoot's Survey by Piotr Dura.)
September MCC Round 4
In loving memory of Ajani Goldmane
September MCC Round 4
In loving memory of Ajani Goldmane
As is tradition by now, this month we will celebrate the latest set, in this case Dominaria United, by exploring its mechanics and themes, as usual in this kind of MCC months.
This round I will tell you all a story. Or better, I know someone who wants to tell you a story. You all might have already met him before. If you haven't yet and you want to know more about him, or if you want to refresh your memory about him, you can check out his name in my signature. If you go to the "my projects" spoiler there, you will find a link at the very end of that Blogger post that will bring you to the other times you might remember him from. Several years have passed, but he's still alive and kicking.
Just a story
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Somehow, I found myself in a place I had never been before. I didn't know where I was, but that's not actually that unusual to me, being a planeswalker myself. I wasn't worried. It had already happened several times before in my life, nothing new to me. I had been on the run for quite a long time, being wanted on my home plane of Theros for killing my boss just to help a stranger, like if you trying to help other people were actually a good reason to chase you through the Multiverse and want to kill you in return. I had seen somebody needing my help and I helped them. Does it really matter whether I knew them or not? Whether they were a friend of mine or not? No, it doesn't. All that matters is that they were a living being and that they needed help. Yes, they were invoking the name of a human god, and we leonin theoretically don't believe in human gods, or at least somebody had decided ages ago that we weren't supposed to, but... you know what? It could have been me. What if I were the one needing help and you were the stranger who happened to pass by? Would you have helped me? Would I have helped myself? I took a deep dive into my own conscience and I had no doubt in answering yes to that question, so I did. My boss didn't want me to, insisting in his stubbornness to apply some old kind of outdated belief that might have been our tradition, and he was right about that. We should value our traditions. They are our past, they are the living testimonies we have of our ancestors and their ways, but there are things that come before them. And someone that could have been you being in deep need of help is one of them. So I faced my boss, and I ended up regretfully and unwillingly dealing him the fatal blow. Luckily, on our plane, death isn't the end. There is an Underworld. A god takes you there, another one is the ruler of that place, and another one makes sure that your destiny is fulfilled. See? How could I even mention gods I'm not supposed to believe in? Anyway, I hope he's well wherever he might be. I didn't actually want to kill him, and those gods know it.
Who am I? My name is Jeff Lionheart. You might have heard of me and my boss Okite before. I am a leonin, I am a planeswalker, Theros is my home, and that was the time when my own spark ignited. Of course, I didn't know anything about it back then. I just found myself in an unknown place, just like in the story I had started to tell you a few minutes ago, but it wasn't the same place. That time, in the end, I managed to make my way back home, and in my quest to understand whatever it was that had just happened to me, I met a fellow leonin planeswalker that we knew very well back in Oreskos while I was walking the streets of Meletis. His name is Ajani Goldmane, you might know him too. He understood me. He understood what had happened to me, because it also happened to him years before in his own life, and he explained it to me, strongly inviting me to try to make my own path rather than trying to be what I thought others wanted me to be. It's there and then that I understood my true nature: that of being a planeswalker. We didn't spend a lot of time together, but he was the one who shed light on who I really am and made me see it. I still consider him my mentor. He's been one of the most influential people in my own life. We haven't met again since then. I still have no idea of what might have happened to him after he left Theros. I hope he's getting all the love and good things he deserves in his life.
I've also left Theros behind me, even though I will always be nostalgic of my home. Of Oreskos. Of my family that is still there, and I can't go there anymore because if my own pridemates ever see me there again, I will be dead. And I don't want to die. Does anybody want to die? Not me. And neither did that stranger on my road. And neither wanted my boss, I'm sure about it. And yes, I do regret that, but I had to make a choice in that moment, between my boss and that stranger, and I chose the one most in need of my help. But I've already told that story. The one I was about to tell is another one, and I'm going to tell it to you right now.
As I was saying, I found myself in yet another unknown place. Everything around me was dark, like if covered by heavy shadows. I could barely see in very dim lights, but all I was able to see were shades of black and grey. No ordinary lights whatsoever. Somehow, I was standing on water, able to walk on it. Or at least, I thought it was water, but maybe it actually wasn't. To be able to walk on it, it must have been dense enough to carry my weight, and I know that I'm not exactly the smallest guy in town. Another hint that it might not have been actual water was that I couldn't see any image reflected in it, not even my own, or any ray of light traversing it for that matter. Yes, there weren't many lights in that place and time, certainly not enough to form a whole ray of light, but I thought that I should have been able to distinguish that liquid as transparent anyway. Instead, it looked more like some strange kind of dark oil unlike anything I had ever seen before. That oil was the substance of everything around me, the walls forming the huge room I was in, the sky that somehow I was able to see through the ceiling of that room, and even the very liquid ground I was walking on. It felt very strange. I didn't know what to think about it.
I tried to focus on the gesture of walking. The physical motion, like if I were just some being made of metallic gears, those of my legs spinning in unison to make them lift one foot, bring it forward, put it down on that strange floor, then lifting the other one, bringing that forward and then down, and then again with the first one, and so on, in an endless, flawless, perfect movement of synchronized cogs in a machine. I hated that feeling. I'm not a machine. I am a living being, I have my own identity, my own conscience, my own will, I would never want anybody to strip them away from me. It's who I am. I don't want to die, but I feel like if one is depriving you of them... Well, you might as well be just dead. Maybe it would be better. I'd never give those up. I'll never give up myself for no reason. At least not before finding my true home, a place where I feel welcomed and not wanted, you know, somewhere I belong.
Then I needed to shake that feeling out, so I focused on something else. I tried to look around me. The walls of the room weren't made of ordinary materials. It wasn't stone, or bricks, or clay, or anything like that. It looked like they were made of that same strange dark substance, in the form of very long filaments twisted around each other, like the single threads that make a rope. The surface of the walls looked like a huge drape made out of cloth woven with that rope. I tried to focus first on the cloth, then on the rope, then on the threads, trying to investigate its true nature like a chemist would do if they were to analyze it to find out its composition. What was its composition? What was it made of? Those were very good questions, but unfortunately with no evident answer, no matter how good your investigation skills are.
That feeling of uncertainty was also very unsettling, so I tried to shake it off as well, focusing on something else once more. This time I looked directly in front of me, and I saw something lightly colored that stood out against all the darkness around it. It was still a small dot in the distance, but maybe there was a light after all. With no better options available, I decided to run towards it, hoping that dark liquid floor could still resist with me not just walking on it, but running on it as fast as I could. It did. I ran so fast that I could feel my fur bending behind me, like if surrendering to the flow of a sudden breeze, that quickly became a windstorm.
As I ran towards that light spot in my field of vision, the only bright one there, I was able to distinguish more and more details. First, it looked like a white reef rock in a sea of darkness, still distant in front of me. Then I was able to see a humanoid figure standing still and motionless like if whoever that was, they were sleeping supine laying down with their back sustained by that liquid dark dense floor. Then I saw arms and legs, and they were furred. The contrast between that white fur and all the darkness around us was astonishing and definitely caught my attention. Then I saw a tail much like my own. Then I was able to make out the details of the hands and feet, and I saw claws. Ok, fur, tail, claws... I have all of those as well. That had to be a fellow leonin. Another person in need of help, and that I needed to help as soon as possible. They were probably dying, if not already dead. I kept on running straight, even faster, never changing direction until I was able to see something I... something I regret seeing.
A double axe. I knew that. I had seen it before. It was in that moment that I understood who he was. My own mentor. My friend. Ajani.
I suddenly froze. I instinctively looked at his left eye to check whether it was closed and scarred, as if doubting it was really him and looking for even the smallest details to prove me wrong, because I wanted to be wrong. But the more I looked around for clues, the more they were proving me right. Everything matched. Every feature I could remember of his face, body, and armor. Even the white cloak that I remembered him always bringing with himself, the one that he was showing to everyone in Meletis as a memento of his lost friend while telling them that Heliod, one of those same gods we Theran leonin were supposed to refuse, had killed her with the same weapon that the god himself had forged for her. Some believed Ajani's words, most didn't. In the end, he gave up and went away.
But now there he was himself in front of me. He was her friend, and I knew I was supposed to be his. I had to be to Ajani now what Ajani himself had been to his friend back then. I had to be there and help him just like he had strived to help her, like he always does with everybody he meets. That's one of the things I like so much about him, that it wasn't that he just helped me or her when I or she needed it the most, he just does that with everybody he meets. He's one you can always count on. He's the best friend you can ever hope to have. He's the shoulder you can always cry on, and that you know will always be there at least to listen to you, even if he might or might not be able to heal you or just do anything about whatever is causing you sorrow and sufferance. He doesn't want anybody to suffer. Neither do I.
But I had no idea of how exactly I could help him in that moment. I didn't even know where we were, on what world, or if that place even existed for real. Maybe we were in some alternate reality. Maybe he wasn't dead, and I wasn't the real me. But wait! Was he actually dead? He sure looked like that, but I thought to check his pulse just to be sure. A sudden wave of relief hit me as I felt the veins of his left wrist actually pulsing, though very, very faintly. I let go of his hand. Maybe there was still hope after all, even in that dark and hopeless place. I asked myself again in my thoughts what kind of place that was. Did it have a name? But most of all, how could I revive Ajani, whatever might have happened to him? Who did this? Who had been to almost kill my mentor? In that moment, an inner voice I had never heard before, one that sounded almost metallic, spoke a name to me.
Phyrexia.
What the hell is that? I still don't know what that name means up to this day. All I know is that it looked like some kind of hell indeed. Or was that the name of a person, maybe the name of whoever did all this and almost killed my mentor and dear friend? I didn't know in that moment, and I still don't know now. I'm also not sure how much I care about it. All I cared about in that moment was him. I thought of checking his pulse again. I took his left wrist back in my hand and waited.
And then I waited some more.
And more.
Wait.
Nothing.
Nothing? Like if that same inner voice had killed him exactly in the moment while it was whispering that unknown name to me? I had enough of this nonsense. That voice had killed Ajani? Well, then I had to kill it. I had to kill that unwanted voice in my mind. So I did. No, it's not easy to get rid of an unwanted thought, but I tried that with all my strength in that moment, still hoping in the deep of my heart that somehow that scene that I had in front of me wasn't real. I wouldn't want a place like that to ever be real.
I checked his pulse again. Nothing. Then again. Still nothing. And again, and again, countless times, but every time I felt nothing. "Nothingness" must have been the real name of that place. I didn't know what more I could do. I could only keep on checking. And waiting.
I don't know how long I waited or how many times I checked. I had to accept his loss, but I didn't want to. It wasn't a conscious choice. It was something someone, who knows who, had imposed to me against my will. And in that moment, somehow I could feel that whatever happened to Ajani had also occurred against his own will. Yet, that didn't help me. I let go of his hand again. His other hand, his right one, was holding his double axe on his chest. Still bent over him, I took a deep breath, then I tried to take it in my own right hand. Maybe I could have kept it as his memento just like he kept his friend's cloak. But his hand was refusing to give his axe to mine. It was in that moment that I finally took an actual look at his right arm, the one that was holding his axe.
It was... not right at all. It was unnatural. Twisted. Bent in an impossible way. Either his bones had been broken or some kind of unspeakable horror that I wanted nothing to do with had to be behind that. I really hoped it was just the former. I tried again to take his axe in my hand, but to no avail. It wasn't until I tried with both my hands at once that I was able to actually manage to do it.
With his double axe in my own hands, I took a last look at his still face. His eyes were both closed. Not just his left one, which would have been perfectly normal, but his right one too. Again, like if he were just sleeping. But by then I knew the truth. Suddenly, I saw a flash of red light coming out of both his closed eyes. I didn't know what was going on, but I felt like it wasn't a good omen. Then I took a look at his mouth. As his still closed eyes flashed red again, his upper lip lifted up to show his teeth underneath it. It wasn't a nice gesture. I knew that something was up, but I couldn't understand what exactly was happening. While holding his double axe in my left hand, I checked again his pulse with my right one. Still nothing. I let go of his hand and I chose to wait again. Maybe his eyes would have flashed again or his mouth would have moved again. Maybe he would have shown a random sign of life, despite how faint it could be.
So I waited. A lot. It felt like a whole lifetime, and nothing moved. I had to give up my hopes. I had to move on with my life. I came really close to vowing to take revenge for him. I would do to whoever did this the exact same thing that they did to him, whatever it was. I would have discovered exactly what it was first. That could become my mission, revenge. In that moment, "Jeff Vengeant" didn't sound bad as my own title. In that moment, I thought that I could turn my own life into a continuation of his own. With a sense of resolve that I had rarely felt before, I turned my back to his presumably dead body and slowly walked away holding his double axe against my own chest with both hands.
I had walked several steps away from him when I looked at his double axe and I stopped walking away. Something didn't feel right to me. This wasn't what he taught me. I thought back to what he told me in Meletis. He told me to make my own path, and that my own path shouldn't be that of others, whether it was my own ancestors, my boss, or that stranger I helped on a random Theran road back when my spark ignited. It should just be my own.
It was there and then that I realized that I was making the exact same mistake. My path wasn't supposed to be Ajani's one. It was supposed to be my own, even if I haven't discovered it fully yet. What I really had to do was to keep looking for my place in the Multiverse, a plane to call home, and a life to live. My own. Not somebody else's.
A thought crossed my mind.
"What I need is not his weapon, but his teachings."
I turned back and I went again towards Ajani's body. When I reached it again, I bent again over it, his eyes still closed but no longer flashing red, and I put back his double axe in his right hand, closing his fist around it and putting it back on his chest, just like I found it. Then I made the most natural gesture that came to me. I hugged him. I hugged my friend first, and only then my mentor, with all my heart. Not in hopes to heal him, but just as a show of friendship, mourning, and thankfulness for everything he did to me, now that he was no longer with us. Actually, I didn't even know if his death had been real, or natural, but I didn't care. All I cared about was him. Maybe he wasn't actually dead. For sure, he wasn't dead in my memories and he will never be. But if I couldn't even talk to him anymore, what use was for me to stay there? What use is for me to stay here? Is this really a game that I'm still supposed to play? Or is it just not a game for me anymore?
As I thought that, I took another last look at his eyes. They were still closed. As I did that, mine opened.
He might as well just be dead.
Who am I? My name is Jeff Lionheart. You might have heard of me and my boss Okite before. I am a leonin, I am a planeswalker, Theros is my home, and that was the time when my own spark ignited. Of course, I didn't know anything about it back then. I just found myself in an unknown place, just like in the story I had started to tell you a few minutes ago, but it wasn't the same place. That time, in the end, I managed to make my way back home, and in my quest to understand whatever it was that had just happened to me, I met a fellow leonin planeswalker that we knew very well back in Oreskos while I was walking the streets of Meletis. His name is Ajani Goldmane, you might know him too. He understood me. He understood what had happened to me, because it also happened to him years before in his own life, and he explained it to me, strongly inviting me to try to make my own path rather than trying to be what I thought others wanted me to be. It's there and then that I understood my true nature: that of being a planeswalker. We didn't spend a lot of time together, but he was the one who shed light on who I really am and made me see it. I still consider him my mentor. He's been one of the most influential people in my own life. We haven't met again since then. I still have no idea of what might have happened to him after he left Theros. I hope he's getting all the love and good things he deserves in his life.
I've also left Theros behind me, even though I will always be nostalgic of my home. Of Oreskos. Of my family that is still there, and I can't go there anymore because if my own pridemates ever see me there again, I will be dead. And I don't want to die. Does anybody want to die? Not me. And neither did that stranger on my road. And neither wanted my boss, I'm sure about it. And yes, I do regret that, but I had to make a choice in that moment, between my boss and that stranger, and I chose the one most in need of my help. But I've already told that story. The one I was about to tell is another one, and I'm going to tell it to you right now.
As I was saying, I found myself in yet another unknown place. Everything around me was dark, like if covered by heavy shadows. I could barely see in very dim lights, but all I was able to see were shades of black and grey. No ordinary lights whatsoever. Somehow, I was standing on water, able to walk on it. Or at least, I thought it was water, but maybe it actually wasn't. To be able to walk on it, it must have been dense enough to carry my weight, and I know that I'm not exactly the smallest guy in town. Another hint that it might not have been actual water was that I couldn't see any image reflected in it, not even my own, or any ray of light traversing it for that matter. Yes, there weren't many lights in that place and time, certainly not enough to form a whole ray of light, but I thought that I should have been able to distinguish that liquid as transparent anyway. Instead, it looked more like some strange kind of dark oil unlike anything I had ever seen before. That oil was the substance of everything around me, the walls forming the huge room I was in, the sky that somehow I was able to see through the ceiling of that room, and even the very liquid ground I was walking on. It felt very strange. I didn't know what to think about it.
I tried to focus on the gesture of walking. The physical motion, like if I were just some being made of metallic gears, those of my legs spinning in unison to make them lift one foot, bring it forward, put it down on that strange floor, then lifting the other one, bringing that forward and then down, and then again with the first one, and so on, in an endless, flawless, perfect movement of synchronized cogs in a machine. I hated that feeling. I'm not a machine. I am a living being, I have my own identity, my own conscience, my own will, I would never want anybody to strip them away from me. It's who I am. I don't want to die, but I feel like if one is depriving you of them... Well, you might as well be just dead. Maybe it would be better. I'd never give those up. I'll never give up myself for no reason. At least not before finding my true home, a place where I feel welcomed and not wanted, you know, somewhere I belong.
Then I needed to shake that feeling out, so I focused on something else. I tried to look around me. The walls of the room weren't made of ordinary materials. It wasn't stone, or bricks, or clay, or anything like that. It looked like they were made of that same strange dark substance, in the form of very long filaments twisted around each other, like the single threads that make a rope. The surface of the walls looked like a huge drape made out of cloth woven with that rope. I tried to focus first on the cloth, then on the rope, then on the threads, trying to investigate its true nature like a chemist would do if they were to analyze it to find out its composition. What was its composition? What was it made of? Those were very good questions, but unfortunately with no evident answer, no matter how good your investigation skills are.
That feeling of uncertainty was also very unsettling, so I tried to shake it off as well, focusing on something else once more. This time I looked directly in front of me, and I saw something lightly colored that stood out against all the darkness around it. It was still a small dot in the distance, but maybe there was a light after all. With no better options available, I decided to run towards it, hoping that dark liquid floor could still resist with me not just walking on it, but running on it as fast as I could. It did. I ran so fast that I could feel my fur bending behind me, like if surrendering to the flow of a sudden breeze, that quickly became a windstorm.
As I ran towards that light spot in my field of vision, the only bright one there, I was able to distinguish more and more details. First, it looked like a white reef rock in a sea of darkness, still distant in front of me. Then I was able to see a humanoid figure standing still and motionless like if whoever that was, they were sleeping supine laying down with their back sustained by that liquid dark dense floor. Then I saw arms and legs, and they were furred. The contrast between that white fur and all the darkness around us was astonishing and definitely caught my attention. Then I saw a tail much like my own. Then I was able to make out the details of the hands and feet, and I saw claws. Ok, fur, tail, claws... I have all of those as well. That had to be a fellow leonin. Another person in need of help, and that I needed to help as soon as possible. They were probably dying, if not already dead. I kept on running straight, even faster, never changing direction until I was able to see something I... something I regret seeing.
A double axe. I knew that. I had seen it before. It was in that moment that I understood who he was. My own mentor. My friend. Ajani.
I suddenly froze. I instinctively looked at his left eye to check whether it was closed and scarred, as if doubting it was really him and looking for even the smallest details to prove me wrong, because I wanted to be wrong. But the more I looked around for clues, the more they were proving me right. Everything matched. Every feature I could remember of his face, body, and armor. Even the white cloak that I remembered him always bringing with himself, the one that he was showing to everyone in Meletis as a memento of his lost friend while telling them that Heliod, one of those same gods we Theran leonin were supposed to refuse, had killed her with the same weapon that the god himself had forged for her. Some believed Ajani's words, most didn't. In the end, he gave up and went away.
But now there he was himself in front of me. He was her friend, and I knew I was supposed to be his. I had to be to Ajani now what Ajani himself had been to his friend back then. I had to be there and help him just like he had strived to help her, like he always does with everybody he meets. That's one of the things I like so much about him, that it wasn't that he just helped me or her when I or she needed it the most, he just does that with everybody he meets. He's one you can always count on. He's the best friend you can ever hope to have. He's the shoulder you can always cry on, and that you know will always be there at least to listen to you, even if he might or might not be able to heal you or just do anything about whatever is causing you sorrow and sufferance. He doesn't want anybody to suffer. Neither do I.
But I had no idea of how exactly I could help him in that moment. I didn't even know where we were, on what world, or if that place even existed for real. Maybe we were in some alternate reality. Maybe he wasn't dead, and I wasn't the real me. But wait! Was he actually dead? He sure looked like that, but I thought to check his pulse just to be sure. A sudden wave of relief hit me as I felt the veins of his left wrist actually pulsing, though very, very faintly. I let go of his hand. Maybe there was still hope after all, even in that dark and hopeless place. I asked myself again in my thoughts what kind of place that was. Did it have a name? But most of all, how could I revive Ajani, whatever might have happened to him? Who did this? Who had been to almost kill my mentor? In that moment, an inner voice I had never heard before, one that sounded almost metallic, spoke a name to me.
Phyrexia.
What the hell is that? I still don't know what that name means up to this day. All I know is that it looked like some kind of hell indeed. Or was that the name of a person, maybe the name of whoever did all this and almost killed my mentor and dear friend? I didn't know in that moment, and I still don't know now. I'm also not sure how much I care about it. All I cared about in that moment was him. I thought of checking his pulse again. I took his left wrist back in my hand and waited.
And then I waited some more.
And more.
Wait.
Nothing.
Nothing? Like if that same inner voice had killed him exactly in the moment while it was whispering that unknown name to me? I had enough of this nonsense. That voice had killed Ajani? Well, then I had to kill it. I had to kill that unwanted voice in my mind. So I did. No, it's not easy to get rid of an unwanted thought, but I tried that with all my strength in that moment, still hoping in the deep of my heart that somehow that scene that I had in front of me wasn't real. I wouldn't want a place like that to ever be real.
I checked his pulse again. Nothing. Then again. Still nothing. And again, and again, countless times, but every time I felt nothing. "Nothingness" must have been the real name of that place. I didn't know what more I could do. I could only keep on checking. And waiting.
I don't know how long I waited or how many times I checked. I had to accept his loss, but I didn't want to. It wasn't a conscious choice. It was something someone, who knows who, had imposed to me against my will. And in that moment, somehow I could feel that whatever happened to Ajani had also occurred against his own will. Yet, that didn't help me. I let go of his hand again. His other hand, his right one, was holding his double axe on his chest. Still bent over him, I took a deep breath, then I tried to take it in my own right hand. Maybe I could have kept it as his memento just like he kept his friend's cloak. But his hand was refusing to give his axe to mine. It was in that moment that I finally took an actual look at his right arm, the one that was holding his axe.
It was... not right at all. It was unnatural. Twisted. Bent in an impossible way. Either his bones had been broken or some kind of unspeakable horror that I wanted nothing to do with had to be behind that. I really hoped it was just the former. I tried again to take his axe in my hand, but to no avail. It wasn't until I tried with both my hands at once that I was able to actually manage to do it.
With his double axe in my own hands, I took a last look at his still face. His eyes were both closed. Not just his left one, which would have been perfectly normal, but his right one too. Again, like if he were just sleeping. But by then I knew the truth. Suddenly, I saw a flash of red light coming out of both his closed eyes. I didn't know what was going on, but I felt like it wasn't a good omen. Then I took a look at his mouth. As his still closed eyes flashed red again, his upper lip lifted up to show his teeth underneath it. It wasn't a nice gesture. I knew that something was up, but I couldn't understand what exactly was happening. While holding his double axe in my left hand, I checked again his pulse with my right one. Still nothing. I let go of his hand and I chose to wait again. Maybe his eyes would have flashed again or his mouth would have moved again. Maybe he would have shown a random sign of life, despite how faint it could be.
So I waited. A lot. It felt like a whole lifetime, and nothing moved. I had to give up my hopes. I had to move on with my life. I came really close to vowing to take revenge for him. I would do to whoever did this the exact same thing that they did to him, whatever it was. I would have discovered exactly what it was first. That could become my mission, revenge. In that moment, "Jeff Vengeant" didn't sound bad as my own title. In that moment, I thought that I could turn my own life into a continuation of his own. With a sense of resolve that I had rarely felt before, I turned my back to his presumably dead body and slowly walked away holding his double axe against my own chest with both hands.
I had walked several steps away from him when I looked at his double axe and I stopped walking away. Something didn't feel right to me. This wasn't what he taught me. I thought back to what he told me in Meletis. He told me to make my own path, and that my own path shouldn't be that of others, whether it was my own ancestors, my boss, or that stranger I helped on a random Theran road back when my spark ignited. It should just be my own.
It was there and then that I realized that I was making the exact same mistake. My path wasn't supposed to be Ajani's one. It was supposed to be my own, even if I haven't discovered it fully yet. What I really had to do was to keep looking for my place in the Multiverse, a plane to call home, and a life to live. My own. Not somebody else's.
A thought crossed my mind.
"What I need is not his weapon, but his teachings."
I turned back and I went again towards Ajani's body. When I reached it again, I bent again over it, his eyes still closed but no longer flashing red, and I put back his double axe in his right hand, closing his fist around it and putting it back on his chest, just like I found it. Then I made the most natural gesture that came to me. I hugged him. I hugged my friend first, and only then my mentor, with all my heart. Not in hopes to heal him, but just as a show of friendship, mourning, and thankfulness for everything he did to me, now that he was no longer with us. Actually, I didn't even know if his death had been real, or natural, but I didn't care. All I cared about was him. Maybe he wasn't actually dead. For sure, he wasn't dead in my memories and he will never be. But if I couldn't even talk to him anymore, what use was for me to stay there? What use is for me to stay here? Is this really a game that I'm still supposed to play? Or is it just not a game for me anymore?
As I thought that, I took another last look at his eyes. They were still closed. As I did that, mine opened.
He might as well just be dead.
Main Challenge - Design a Saga enchantment card with read ahead.
Subchallenge 1 - Your card has four or more chapter abilities.
Subchallenge 2 - Your card has the word "planeswalker" in its rules text.
Clarifications
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Main Challenge
• The card must have the "enchantment" card type and the "Saga" subtype natively. Gaining them conditionally or granting them to itself and/or other things does NOT count.
• The card can have any additional supertypes, card types, and subtypes.
• The card has to have itself read ahead. Gaining it conditionally or granting it to itself and/or other things does NOT count.
Subchallenge 1
• It should be self-explanatory. I might have quoted the CR definition of "chapter ability" here, but I don't have neither the will or time now. Let me know if you need me to edit this post and put it in.
• Good luck making them all fit in the Saga frame with read ahead taking a good chuck of the text box column. That's actually the intended difficulty of this Subchallenge. MSE might help you check whether everything fits in the frame.
Subchallenge 2
• The name, type line, and flavor text (if you find a way to put it in the Saga frame) do NOT count. Only rules text counts.
• Any form or conjugation of the word "planeswalker" counts. For example, you can say "planeswalkers" (plural) or "planeswalker card".
• The word "planeswalk" as a verb does NOT count. It's neither the same spelling nor the same meaning. "Planeswalker" is one that's able to do the action to "planeswalk". The former is the actor, the latter is the action. Different things.
If you have any questions, post them in the MCC discussion thread.
• The card must have the "enchantment" card type and the "Saga" subtype natively. Gaining them conditionally or granting them to itself and/or other things does NOT count.
• The card can have any additional supertypes, card types, and subtypes.
• The card has to have itself read ahead. Gaining it conditionally or granting it to itself and/or other things does NOT count.
Subchallenge 1
• It should be self-explanatory. I might have quoted the CR definition of "chapter ability" here, but I don't have neither the will or time now. Let me know if you need me to edit this post and put it in.
• Good luck making them all fit in the Saga frame with read ahead taking a good chuck of the text box column. That's actually the intended difficulty of this Subchallenge. MSE might help you check whether everything fits in the frame.
Subchallenge 2
• The name, type line, and flavor text (if you find a way to put it in the Saga frame) do NOT count. Only rules text counts.
• Any form or conjugation of the word "planeswalker" counts. For example, you can say "planeswalkers" (plural) or "planeswalker card".
• The word "planeswalk" as a verb does NOT count. It's neither the same spelling nor the same meaning. "Planeswalker" is one that's able to do the action to "planeswalk". The former is the actor, the latter is the action. Different things.
If you have any questions, post them in the MCC discussion thread.
DEADLINES
Design deadline: Friday, October 14th 23:59 EDT
Judging deadline: Monday, October 17th 23:59 EDT
RUBRIC
MCC Rubric
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Design
(X/3) Appeal - Do the different player psychographics (Timmy/Johhny/Spike) have a use for the card?
(X/3) Elegance - Is the card easily understandable at a glance? Do all the flavor and mechanics combined as a whole make sense?
Development
(X/3) Viability - How well does the card fit into the color wheel? Does it break or bend the rules of the game? Is it the appropriate rarity?
(X/3) Balance - Does the card have a power level appropriate for contemporary constructed/limited environments without breaking them? Does it play well in casual and multiplayer formats? Does it create or fit into a deck/archetype? Does it create an oppressive environment?
Creativity
(X/3) Uniqueness - Has a card like this ever been printed before? Does it use new mechanics, ideas, or design space? Does it combine old ideas in a new way? Overall, does it feel "fresh"?
(X/3) Flavor - Does the name seem realistic for a card? Does the flavor text sound professional? Do all the flavor elements synch together to please Vorthos players?
Polish
(X/3) Quality - Points deducted for incorrect spelling, grammar, and templating.
(X/2) Main Challenge (*) - Was the main challenge satisfied? Was it approached in a unique or interesting way? Does the card fit the intent of the challenge?
(X/2) Subchallenges - One point awarded per satisfied subchallenge condition.
Total: X/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.
(X/3) Appeal - Do the different player psychographics (Timmy/Johhny/Spike) have a use for the card?
(X/3) Elegance - Is the card easily understandable at a glance? Do all the flavor and mechanics combined as a whole make sense?
Development
(X/3) Viability - How well does the card fit into the color wheel? Does it break or bend the rules of the game? Is it the appropriate rarity?
(X/3) Balance - Does the card have a power level appropriate for contemporary constructed/limited environments without breaking them? Does it play well in casual and multiplayer formats? Does it create or fit into a deck/archetype? Does it create an oppressive environment?
Creativity
(X/3) Uniqueness - Has a card like this ever been printed before? Does it use new mechanics, ideas, or design space? Does it combine old ideas in a new way? Overall, does it feel "fresh"?
(X/3) Flavor - Does the name seem realistic for a card? Does the flavor text sound professional? Do all the flavor elements synch together to please Vorthos players?
Polish
(X/3) Quality - Points deducted for incorrect spelling, grammar, and templating.
(X/2) Main Challenge (*) - Was the main challenge satisfied? Was it approached in a unique or interesting way? Does the card fit the intent of the challenge?
(X/2) Subchallenges - One point awarded per satisfied subchallenge condition.
Total: X/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.
JUDGES
bravelion83
void_nothing
PLAYERS
@kwanyeegor-ii
@slimytrout
A reminder to everyone:
In the MCC, putting rarity on cards is mandatory! If you don't put a rarity on your card, expect huge deductions in both Viability AND Quality.
Please check out the MCC Guidelines and FAQ if you have the will and time. Link in my signature. Among the many things you can find there are a detailed explanation of the rubric (section 6.2) and the recommended card formatting (section 4) that you should use to format your text cards. Expect deductions in Quality otherwise.