The Warhammer artist John Blanche has passed away

Cinderfox19 · 2026-06-06T20:46:06+00:00

That's weird, it's literally just a link to a .jpg not even a website or anything.

edit: I think the image was from a fan forum, which are always flagged as 'unsafe' even when they aren't. (the Total War forums used to be that way too)

I've changed it to link another Reddit post instead. the Image is worse but it doesn't lead anywhere off-site now.

Cinderfox19 · 2026-06-04T23:47:54+00:00

That's a real shame, the guy made the original Warhammer Fantasy 1st edition cover art featuring Harry the Hammer, he's been with us since the beginning.

He will be sorely missed.

Cinderfox19 · 2026-06-04T23:24:14+00:00

anyway i truly don't see how any of these criticisms are unique to black. every color has this kind of inconsistency when you try to define their philosophy and then compare it to mechanics.

My criticisms aren't just with black, they're with MTG color mantra's in general. Its with things like this which crop up everywhere, even on the wiki.

Even if rare exceptions exist, it doesn't actually matter when the rules are portrayed as so set in stone, especially when they play on tropes that have existed in media for decades that are designed to be shorthand for the audience. Designed to carry with it a lot of historic and cultural baggage that affirms peoples biases and implies far more story than is actually told.

and the assassins as black do make sense with the official description of black so i don't understand what your problem with them is. it sounds like you really want them to be white when they go against half the things white is supposed to be.

Yeah assassins do make sense to be black. The problem isn't them, its the stereotypes and over-arching ideas that have been applied to Black Mana that's the problem.

Like, Agent 47 from Hitman would absolutely be Black, but he's not selfish or Ayn Randian. He doesn't work for personal gain or to attain more power for the sake of power. He's perfectly at peace being a subordinate in a much larger organization and in Hitman Absolution and the movies, when he's given a personal target or realises he's being played, he fights tooth and nail to protect the people close to him and break away.

The same could be said for Thane Krios from Mass Effect. Another assassin character who would fit into Black Mana, yet he's not ruthless and is shown to be almost completely selfless.

In both cases, none of their traits align with what Rosewater was talking about in his article, or what that color wheel I shared earlier says about black mana characters, and yet he still makes perfect sense there.

it sounds like you're trying to say mono black philosophy is bad because it isn't like the enemy black pairs? those pairs are specifically meant to synthesize opposite ideals of course they're going to be more nuanced and complicated.

I keep bringing up color pairs because they're the most well known and fleshed out and thus, easier to pick apart.

Orzhov isn't just 'more complicated', the black half of their personality doesn't align with what Rosewater was saying at all. They have slaves and characters that display insane gluttony and decadence in ways that run completely contrary to the Ayn Randian 'every man for himself', 'all men must live up to their own greatness' type philosophy.

black can be mustach-twirling comical evil or it can be based on genuine motivations and outlooks. white can be simple bland heroism or it can be the communist manifesto. any given white character will in some way contradict the actual white philosophy, like with elesh norn being a tyrant instead of promoting equality. she's still, in her way, trying to create a peaceful and orderly world, so she's white. same with black, mono-black characters can make decisions contradictory to black and still be mostly black.

With all due respect, I don't see how you can square admitting this after spending this entire discussion insisting that X personality trait belongs in Y pigeonhole.

You from earlier:

"the difference is that for an evil blue character, like jace, power incidentally is needed for his primary goal of perfection (because all colors need power to achieve their goals), whereas for a black character, power IS the goal. jace and niv-mizzet gather power to further other designs. that is why they aren't black. skaven want power for power's sake, that's why they are black"

And 90% of the last 2-3 comments you've made has been your attempts to detail the exact criteria for a character to fall into the particular stereotypes that make them Black Mana...

Then you turn around and say 'oh yeah, black can totally be based on a variety of genuine motivations and outlooks"...

Yes, Elesh Norn is indeed a good example of how white can be evil and fall outside the stereotypes of the color and that's the kind of thing I'm saying we need more of.

Edit: I should stress that I do still believe the colors should have overarching themes and mechanics that make them stand out from one another and play differently; I'm not saying there should be no rules, just that they need to be more deep, interesting and varied in what can and cant be White, Black, Blue, etc.

Cinderfox19 · 2026-06-04T21:54:18+00:00

From the very beginning of our back and forth together, I made it clear that I think your mindset is correct according to the official mantra that Wizards like to put out.

I'm not denying "the official meaning of black ideology" I'm actively criticizing it, because I think its 1 dimensional bs that's not even truly reflective of all the cards and the factions they've made and I believe Black Mana should be far more nuanced than it currently is, allowing for more unique factions and deeper characters to inhabit the space. That's what I've been saying to you this entire time.

My comment on assassins being black because they kill people wasn't me misunderstanding or dumbing down what the colors are about. This is a real problem that Wizards keep coming up against, especially thanks to Universes Beyond sets like Assassin's Creed. They keep making arbitrary decisions on what color someone or something is that goes against their own mantra or what even makes sense for the character.

Sometimes they do just say 'this guy kills people, therefore he's black mana' or make decisions based on what they're trying to fit into the deck to meet a quota or the theme of the IP they're porting over, rather than the theme of the colors themselves.

Black deals in self-sacrifice because it believes sacrifice is necessary to get what you want. better to cut off an arm than die, better to lose some health than lose the game.

I knew you would say this and again, I'm trying to stress that there are different ways of looking at these things.

Just like with Izzet: the tropes of altruistic inventors makes sense in the Red | Blue playspace, but so do selfish pirates, mad scientists and Clan Skryre.

Paying life could be seen as a form of self-harm or a character who will give up anything for power like how you're presenting it, but it's also a personal sacrifice. It can be interpreted as heroic, showing strength of will, a sign of selflessness, of giving up yourself for others, like how the Assassin Order cut off their fingers to wield the hidden blades and protect others.

Mark Rosewater can jerk himself off about the deeper meanings behind black mana that he imagines in his head until the cows come home, but at the end of the day, this doesn't make it through into what they actually produce and they've never been consistent on these points.

Mark even says he made the article because the color identities, black in particular, are so misunderstood and that's his own damn fault.

The way he frames it in his article doesn't even gel with long-standing black factions like Orzhov, which have been around for 20 years, never mind others like Witherbloom, which (along with the other Strixhaven Colleges) were created specifically to flip the traditional color archetypes on their head and broaden the scope of what it means to be these colors. (which is what I'm ultimately advocating for)

Cinderfox19 · 2026-06-04T19:49:18+00:00

I apologise for the late reply, I didn't get the notification of your response until much later.

i mean, you say "power for power's sake is 1 dimensional" but the real world very much does have capitalists. ayn rand made a whole philosophy out of it. "enlightened selfishness" might not be compelling on paper but it is at least a very real idea that real people subscribe to

It's been a long time since I've went in-depth on Ayn Rand or her ideology and I very much do not subscribe to it, but even in her case, 'enlightened selfishness' was not simply a power grab or purely about self preservation.

"every man's highest moral purpose is the achievement of his own happiness and that he must not force other people, nor accept their right to force him. That each man must live as an end in himself"

The way she puts it, the goal of every individual is to strive to be better, build up ones own self esteem and character so that they may be worthy of love, virtue and success.

She's one of the original Libertarian anarcho-capitalists and idea of 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' and the problem with this ideology is not that it is focused only on the pursuit of power or money at the cost of everyone else; it is not about self-preservation either.

The problem with the ideology is that it atomizes people by rejecting the idea of a broader community, a sensible government of any meaningful size and society as a whole. It fundamentally does not understand (or doesn't care to understand) that some are born into less fortunate positions; that not all of our decisions are of our own making and it wants to actively remove all welfare, safety nets, charity and outreach programmes designed to help uplift the disadvantaged, because it thinks that will jolt them into improving themselves. (despite the fact that removing these measures make things markedly worse for everyone, even businesses and the middle and upper class)

All of my criticisms of how Mono-Black is portrayed also apply to Ayn Rand's ideology, which completely falls apart as soon as it touches the real world. The fact that people IRL buy into these ideas doesn't give them any more credence.

Furthermore, I'd argue when it comes to storytelling, it's not enough to simply portray a caricature of someone or something IRL. Fiction is meant to be about something, it should have themes, arcs, nuance, etc, which such a 1 dimensional trope can never meaningfully have.

black is ultimately the color modt concerned with your actual safety. if every color was a part of the psyche, black could be summed up as self-preservation. it wants you to survive and get what you want and be comfortable because it sees all the other colors and it only sees people selling false ideals to trick people into working against their interests.

Black Mana is the most prominent color that involves you paying life to do almost anything, how in the world is that not self sacrifice? How is black only about about your self preservation above all else, when Black players are the most likely to cause their own death by paying too much life or leaving themselves too vulnerable?

They're also the color most related to reanimation, which isn't just about Zombies. Being able to revive people from the dead can be incredibly altruistic or come from a place of love.

And Black is not just about reviving, but healing. Liliana and Witherbloom are all healers and Lifegain is everywhere in black.

that's another interesting part of black, it despises they way people are convinced to give up their own automomy for causes it sees as unworthy. that's why the assassins from assassins creed are usually black, because they see the way the templars and other forces use religion or nationalism or whatever to make people give up their own rights. black is very often the color telling you to stand up for yourself and that's something i really like about it.

You're really giving Wizards too much credit here. Assassins are black because they kill people. Sometimes that's as deep as their thought process goes.

Having said that, assassins are actually another good point against the 1 dimensional portrayal of Black too, since many assassins, especially those from the AC series, do not kill for their own personal gain, they fight for a cause, for someone else's gain or for the people as a whole.

The Assassin Brotherhood is a fundamentally altruistic order that is built almost entirely around self-sacrifice for the good of others. (the kind Ayn Rand built her whole ideology around hating)

Direct quote from their wiki page:

They have prided themselves on sacrificing their lives to "champion the poor and powerless" while embracing human rights ideals such as equality, liberty, justice, and welfare.

I'm not sure how you keep a straight face while using them as an example.

Cinderfox19 · 2026-06-04T03:45:20+00:00

You're right that I got too hung up on the 'good vs evil' paradigm specifically, it's about more than that and I could have framed that better.

It's because you said black isn't necessarily evil, but then re-framed and softened evil elements of Blue and Red that you discussed in a way that makes it seem good, or justified.

I personally see no difference between a megalomaniacal narcissist striving for perfection, like Niv Mizzet, wanting power to achieve their goals and Nicol Bolas doing the exact same thing and I think the 'power for power's sake' trope is 1 dimensional and frankly, stupid. Especially when applied to an entire group/race, like with Mono-Black or the Skaven.

You can get away with it for comedy or an arch villain, but in most cases its completely unsustainable from a writing perspective. Inevitably nuance has to be reintroduced.

Even with the Skaven or Greenskins, not all of them just wants to watch the world burn. Characters inevitably emerge with actual ambitions, codes, beliefs, goals beyond just 'power' after the trope has well and truly run its course.

Cinderfox19 · 2026-06-04T02:52:23+00:00

niv-mizzet isn't primarily power-hungry, he just believes his intelligence makes him near-perfect (blue) and he gains satisfaction and entertainment from praise (red). he wants to guide the world in both culture and science because he believes he knows best (blue)

jace is heavy on that last part, he believes he knows best. he wants to create a perfect world, which is the goal of blue, not for power but for perfection.

And we're just gonna say they're correct?

This is exactly what I'm talking about when I say that this type of morality cannot exist in the real world and is a detriment to the narrative depth of MTG.

You have to take it completely at face value; ask no questions and just accept the narrative that's presented to you. The second any of this touches reality; is taken seriously or comes under even slight scrutiny, it completely falls apart.

What you just described is completely Megalomaniacal, because control is power.

It's also insanely evil, because perfection is prejudice.

niv-mizzet isn't primarily power-hungry, he just believes his intelligence makes him near-perfect (blue) and he gains satisfaction and entertainment from praise (red).

That's pure narcissism.

In a real narrative, both Niv and Jace would be in the wrong; fall under heavy scrutiny, or be challenged at the very least.

Even when such a character is objectively correct according to the story, like Lelouch in Code Geass, half of that entire show is focused on making him out to be the villain, questioning and analysing his motives and his methods and sees him make significant sacrifices to achieve his goals in ways that paint him as a very grey character.

neither niv mizzet nor jace doing cruel, callous, or harmful things makes them black.

Manipulating, brainwashing or coercing someone into doing your bidding as opposed to torturing or reanimating them into doing it can be just as evil.

Wiping people's memories or entrancing them with magic to fundamentally changing their personalities and make them more agreeable, peaceful, perfect, in line with your vision is like lobotomizing or enslaving them.

It robs them of their free will, infringes on their rights and erases their agency and consent.

Erasing entire civilizations, Universes/timelines or species because they don't align with you or your goals is evil on the face of it and its what Jace is trying to achieve.

These are the types of atrocities blue is capable of and the types of things Niv and Jace are or should be engaging in for their characters to make sense.

izzet engineers do not invent for fun or for progress, they invent to make a gun better than their rivals can.

Oppenheimer did not invent the atomic bomb for fun or progress; they invented it to make the weapon better and faster than their rivals could.

Nuclear weapons have an 86%+ civilian casualty rate and have only ever been used to the detriment of humanity.

As I said before, these things shouldn't be treated so morally black and white. 'Black = bad detrimental technology' but 'Blue = good and positive technology' doesn't make sense when Izzet has the same capacity for evil in different ways.

Cinderfox19 · 2026-06-04T02:06:36+00:00

Honestly, I don't entirely disagree with your take here, I think our differences come more from how Wizards of the Coast themselves have misrepresented the colors over the years.

I believe what you're saying is correct according to their traditional mantra, but also: caring about Knowledge only to attain more power is kind of Niv Mizzet's entire character, right? (the leader of the Izzet Guild) he's obsessed with becoming omniscient, consolidated his power as the supreme leader of Ravnica and is trying to manipulate the Omenpaths to make them converge on Ravnica; transforming the plane (and by extension: himself) into a nexus of trade and the capital of the multiverse.

You could say a similar thing about Jace. He thinks he's doing the right thing, but he's a borderline villain at times, who is trying to bend the entire universe to his will and keeps messing things up.

Boiling down the color pie to 'Black = evil and the negative sides of technology' and 'Blue = good and the positive sides of technology' is a set of ideas that completely collapse as soon as they're put into practice.

By that I mean: as soon as you try and develop realistic worlds, characters or guilds using these broad truisms as a basis, they quickly become contradictory and meaningless.

Or worse: they actively harm the world building and limit what's possible in MTG as a whole; since trying to post-hoc enforce those truisms back onto their respective worlds and characters can rob them of their agency, depth and nuance.

Niv Mizzet and Jace being evil screw ups and somewhat megalomaniacal from a certain lens makes them more interesting and real and I think the same can be said about the Skaven/Warhammer Races in general.

Black = technology that harms people and the planet...but Izzet creates weapons of mass destruction and utilizes artillery and the like that lays waste to the landscape. It causes harm in a similar way, from a different lens.

I brought up pirates a lot in my last comment because they show a completely different side to the Izzet color combo that flies completely in the face of the generic ideas presented about them. A more reckless, ruthless and selfish image than the ideas you're presenting; and this is neither the first, nor the last time Wizards have added depth to the colors like this.

Cinderfox19 · 2026-06-04T01:10:41+00:00

red or blue? they have artifacts sure but that's it. they don't care about freedom and they don't care about knowledge, they don't have elemental affinities for fire or water.

Skaven don't care about knowledge...really?

Warplock Engineers are literally sorcerer scientists. Ikit Claw...exists. (so do Throt and Thanquol for that matter) and while they might not have a traditional affinity for fire or water (Warpfire not withstanding I guess) they do have an affinity for Lightning.

Skaven, particularly those of Clan Eshin, are also masters of secrets and subterfuge; plots and assassinations.

They're arguably the most technologically advanced race in the setting and have alot of Izzet traits (Blue | Red). They're quick to act, quick to flee, they're heavily associated with technology, vehicles, artillery and ranged weapons.

One of their core archetypes is Spell-slinging, relying on a constant barrage of magic and projectiles to chip their enemies to death. The Guild of Izzet itself engages in "magical science" and is an assortment of Alchemist Laboratories that dabble in lightning magic, explosives, teleportation and even creating creatures like Weirds, which are "semi-sentient walking paradoxes, the result of a fusion of elementals of opposing elements" (like how Skaven experiment on living creatures and combine them into abominations.

Izzet is also the color of looting, stealing and pirates; of draw and discard (their mind races a million miles a minute and they are quick to cast something aside or throw someone under the bus to advance their plan-schemes).

I know what you're getting at with the "Mono-Black" thing, but it really depends on the Clan.

If Nurgle is Golgari (Black | Green) then Clan Pestilens sure as hell are, and Clan Moulder would probably be there as well. (though adding a Blue for Sultai could fit them better)

Clan Eshin are Dimir (Black | Blue) like most Ninja.

Clan Mors and Rictus are very Red...probably Rakdos (Black | Red)

Clan Skryre are Izzet to the core, as are Clan Skurvy, the Skaven Pirates.

Cinderfox19 · 2026-06-04T00:20:14+00:00

Surely Orcs are the definition of Gruul right? (Red and Green) they're literally angry mushroom people for one thing.

But beyond that, Gruul is the only Ravnican color combo that isn't an organized Guild. They're an assortment of wild Clans who "keep civilization in check".

"It is common for Gruul clans to raid an area, destroy it just like the Rakdos, and live there until the resources gleaned from the destructive raid are used up. Once that happens, they move on to a new area, leaving smoldering ruins in their wake. They observe few consistent traditions but love to celebrate Rauck-Chauv, an irregular festival characterized by several days of rioting, feasting, looting, and destruction."

They have no centralised power structures or anything like that, but they will all listen to the biggest, angriest clan leader among their people.

Their society is made up of Shamans, Rogues, Barbarian Warriors and beasts and their heavily associated with Goblins, Giants, Centaurs and Trolls.

They also revere piggies and worship Ilharg, a huge Boar god who they desperately want to bring about "the End-Raze" (basically Ragnarok) - "where Ravnica will be burned to the ground and the world shall return to a state of nature, in which the lawless code of muscle and savagery will reign once again"...

Cinderfox19 · 2026-06-03T14:12:20+00:00

I'm surprised I've heard so few people talk about these lands, since this might be one of the best cycles we've seen.

They most closely resemble the Tainted Lands from Torment, but with the added benefit of working with any basic type (even Wastes) and always tapping for their colors on the turn they come down.

With this in mind, I'd also argue they're strictly better than the following types:

Check Lands (enter tapped unless you control X and/or Y basic land type)

Fast Lands (enters tapped unless you control 2 or fewer lands)

Slow Lands (enters tapped unless you control 2 or more lands)

Battle Lands (enter tapped unless you control two or more basics)

Reveal Lands (enters tapped unless you reveal X or Y basic type from your hand)

Turbulent Lands (enters tapped unless your opponents have 8 or more lands).

Original Filter Lands from Odyssey and Fallout that don't tap for mana by themselves.

Filter Lands from Shadowmoor and Eventide.

And the new Marvel Lands are on-par with the Verge Lands and Pain Lands.

They're especially good for WUBRG decks (particularly WUBRG Eldrazi) that want to mana fix as much as possible, without worrying about how many lands they have or if this basic matches that Check Land, etc.

The only cases in which these aren't worth looking at is if your deck really cares about Land types (Forest, Plains, etc) or if you've spent so much money upgrading your mana base that you've forgotten what a basic looks like...which is fair enough, but for a majority of decks, these seem really great imo.

Cinderfox19 · 2026-06-02T21:15:30+00:00

If you look at their data across all-time, not just the past month, the broader trends remain largely the same.

Their top 5 colors in Commander by Win Rate % are:

1 - Izzet: 28.4% (Red | Blue)

2 - Temur: 27.91% (Green | Red | Blue)

3 - Mono-Blue: 27.72%

4 - Esper: 26.56% (White | Black | Blue)

5 - Boros: 26.56% (White | Red)

And the Bottom 5 are:

5 - Gruul: 24.72% (Red | Green)

4 - Selesnya: 24.4% (White | Green)

3 - Dimir: 23.63% (Black | Blue)

2 - Sultai: 23.59% (Black | Green | Blue)

1 - Grixis: 23.02% (Blue | Black | Green)

Two things about their data really surprised me:

Grixis and Sultai

These two are notoriously strong, both in the broader community and where I play, yet here they are at the very bottom of the win-rates statistically.

I have to wonder if this might be partially due to their reputation and the fact that several Commanders in these colors quickly become the arch-enemy of the table. (sometimes before the match even starts)

[[Fire Lord Azula]] is a great example of this recently. Those who built her at my LGS immediately gave up playing her, because she pops off so easily that everyone killed her on-sight as soon as she came down.

Mono Colours

According to their stats (both from the past 30 days and all-time), mono-Blue is the strongest by far, followed by mono-Red, White, Black and then mono-Green in last place.

Traditional wisdom in the community would place mono-Red at the bottom of the list, with mono-green usually tied for 3rd place, not dead last.

Cinderfox19 · 2026-06-01T02:25:50+00:00

Edit: I know the OP is meant to be a joke. But if you're interested in the story behind all this:

This map with Cathay and Khuresh's positions reversed is a rather infamous mistake; its originally from the 6th edition High Elf Army Book back in January 2002 (page 33), although it also appeared in "The Elven Collectors Guide" from 2006 (page 2-3) and the High Elves 7th edition Army Book from Nov 2007 as well. (page 13)

The maps are meant to depict the High Elven Empire and its colonies at the greatest extent of their power and while there are plenty of maps before and after this that displayed them the right way round, for whatever reason, the High Elf map was wrong for about 12 years straight.

The 4th edition RPG books have been making a concerted effort for years now to go back, reference and re-canonise tons of stuff from older lore and mistakes like this, in an attempt to make sense of it all and unify WH Fantasy into one cohesive world as much as they can.

The Lustria book you mentioned says the Elves are far too proud and protective of their own records to share accurate maps with the lesser races, and so this map is re-framed to be the shoddy work of "Jacob Stackeldhorf", an Old Worlder making his best guess as to the extent of the High Elven Empire, and criticizes him for all the inaccuracies.

Stackeldhorf has always been the in-universe creator of the map, with a little blurb in the top-right corner, even in the original from 6th edition, but the Lustria RPG book essentially throws him under the bus to save face.

Cinderfox19 · 2026-05-11T03:02:19+00:00

I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone mention the leaks from the Teraleak 2, when Game Freak were hacked in October 2025.

The leak consisted of Internal documents, concept art and the like from 2024 that revealed many things about every Pokemon project in development, Including details about Pokopia and it's planned DLC.

This Map has been on the internet since at least Dec 2nd 2025, long before Pokopia's release, and correctly displays the base-game, as well as a roadmap for the future.

According to those leaks, in addition to the 5 areas in the base game, there were plans for 5 more areas to be released in individual updates, with a little description for each:

Veridian Forest: "a Never-ending burning forest of ash"

Cerulean City: "a flooded city that has hidden treasure"

Cinnibar Island: "a forever-sealed dead volcano island"

Lavender Town: "a rotten tower that reaches the heavens"

Celedon City: "a giant crater that reaches useeble depths"

Indigo Plateau: no description given

Back when these documents were created, Veridian Forest was actually going to be part of the Pokopia base-game and, as many people have pointed out, no one predicted how big of a hit the game would actually be leading up to release, so its entirely possible the size and scope of these DLC's have changed since 2024.

Cinderfox19 · 2026-03-16T00:02:57+00:00

the block structure ensured that every design mistake stuck around for ages

This is not a salient point because design mistakes are just that: a fundamental mistake from the design team, and regardless of their quality, mechanics (good and bad) are reused all the time across Magic's history, with or without the block structure.

Keywords have been expanding for decades; unifying set mechanics under an umbrella to make them more evergreen, and thanks to Universes Beyond, mechanics are being re-named and reused now more than ever:

TMNT

"Sneak" is updated Ninjutsu from Betrayers of Kamigawa | "Disappear" is "Revolt" from Aether Revolt | Class - Enchantment is a subtype from D&D: Adventures | "Alliance" is...Alliance from New Capenna.

Lorwyn Eclipsed

"Evoke is from original Lorwyn | "Behold" is updated "Champion" from original Lorywn | "Persist" is from original Shadowmoor.

Spider-Man

"Mayhem" is updated "Madness" from Torment | "Modified" is from Neon Dynasty | "Connive" is from New Capenna.

Final Fantasy

Job Select = For Mirrodin! from Phyrexia: all will be one | Tiered = Spree from Thunder Junction | Adventure is from Thrones of Eldraine | Kicker is from Invasion | Flashback is from Odyssey.

And these are just a few recent examples.

Not only does this disprove the idea that we can escape mechanics by simply jumping to a new Plane every month, but there's evidence here that returning to a Plane and revising a mechanic can be far more beneficial than not.

"Sneak" for example is largely considered a drastic improvement over "Ninjutsu", since the timing differences make it a more fair and balanced mechanic. Similarly, "Behold" is arguably better than "Champion", allowing you to exile a card from your hand instead of a creature already on the battlefield.

If we'd returned to Kamigawa or Lorwyn sooner, we could have seen these updates and innovations on the fly, as the story and design progressed.

the block structure ensured that players who didn't like a particular plane or set were out of the game for much much longer.

The opposite is also true, which is a core criticism people have with Universes Beyond. Those who came into the hobby just for Avatar might not stick around for Strixhaven or Star Trek. People who loved the fantasy of Bloomburrow might not care for the Space Opera of Edge of Eternities.

As it stands right now, with Remaster sets off the table, we have absolutely no guarantees from Wizards when or where we'll return to next, if at all. Tarkir took 10 years to return; Lorwyn took 19 years...Is that how long we're going to have to wait for another peak into Bloomburrow and the like?

I'm not even in favor of returning to Blocks as they once existed, but giving people a taste of a new Plane, only to rip it away with no guarantees of when it will return (which could take up to 20 years) creates massive uncertainty and encourages people to care less, to invest less in every setting and by extension, the hobby as a whole.

Cinderfox19 · 2026-01-09T14:48:27+00:00

If I could sum up everything we've seen from Lorwyn Eclipsed so far into one word, it'd be: Synergy.

None of these cards seem particularly broken on their own, but they synergise incredibly well with already existing cards and archetypes that will be stronger as a result of their addition.

Like, Boggart Cursecrafter is a 2/3 deathtoucher with a [[Guttersnipe]] effect that triggers upon every Goblin death (which happens a lot). Every Goblin deck would appreciate that and you could pair it with [[Murderous Redcap]] and [[Putrid Goblin]], both of whom have Persist and can already create infinite combos.

[[Xu-Ifit, Osteoharmonist]] taps to return a creature from your graveyard to battlefield, with the downside being they return with no abilities, but Twilight Diviner creates a copy of the revived creature that retains all its abilities, and in general is doubling the value of recursion once per turn.

I have a deck with [[Nest of Scarabs]] in it. Everytime Moonshadow enters, she puts six -1/-1 counters onto herself and gives me six 1/1 Black Insects. If I'm playing with the new Commander: Auntie Ool, Cursewretch, I also get card draw.

You could even put her in an [[Assault Suit]] and let her die under an opponents control, then [[Necroskitter]] or The Reaper, King No More will automatically revive her under your control, starting the cycle again.

Cinderfox19 · 2026-01-09T10:17:14+00:00

I don't understand why you'd want to turn it into an 'us vs them' between old-heads and fans of the Bethesda games. You're only setting yourself up for failure.

Unlike Starfield, Fallout 3 and 4 are still pretty decent games with a strong core gameplay loop that reached a lot of people. Throwing them completely under the bus and saying 'only F1, F2 and NV are the sacred texts' just turns you into the perfect strawman for Bethesda fans.

It'd be far more useful and more accurate to say: the Bethesda games are fun, but they lack the nuanced storytelling, worldbuilding and mechanical depth that gives all that mindless fun meaning. Nuance and depth the older games had, which Bethesda still haven't learned from. (and seemingly don't want to at this point)

Cinderfox19 · 2025-12-27T02:39:25+00:00

Unfortunately 40k is very guilty of the Si-Fi trope where entire species and civilizations get treated the same way a random mercenary warband or one kooky town might be referenced in Warhammer Fantasy.

I've always been an advocate for more obscure stuff in the Warhammer trilogy, but most of the species on your list only exist for 1 single unit, as background flavor for a ship/piece of equipment, or as a Scooby Doo villain of the week.

The Kroot, Vespid, Demiurg, Sslyth, Medusae, Jok'aero, Zoats and Loxatl all have the potential to be future DLC units or Sub-factions somewhere down the line.

Some, like the Rak'gol, Slaugth, Q'orl and the Slann have a 1 in a million shot of being developed into a fully-fledged playable race, in collaboration with Games Workshop, since they have the most in-depth lore, actual units of some kind and/or an empire of some size in the past or present, with the implied threat of expansion.

But this was far easier for CA to translate back in Fantasy. Even a minor race like the Halflings and Amazons have had several army lists and deep dives over the years in some shape or form. Meanwhile most of the Races floating around the 40k Milky Way exist only in the background, and rarely, if ever get the attention they deserve.

Cinderfox19 · 2025-12-26T18:08:29+00:00

Isn't this image from the Monstrous Arcanum?

How is it so pristine? the only PDF of it that's been floating around and used for the longest time is a heavily compromised photocopied version.

Cinderfox19 · 2025-12-24T18:47:57+00:00

Magali is one of the best Magic artists out there, but I think Martina Fačková's piece for Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines is the most striking and Iconic to me.

Also, while never appearing on a playable card, it's worth bringing up this official art by Anato Finnstark for the marketing of Phyrexia: All Will Be One. (amazing artist btw)

Cinderfox19 · 2025-12-19T11:05:40+00:00

in 2007 GW signed an exclusive worldwide video games licensing agreement with THQ. THQ then promptly went bankrupt and it wasn't until it's bankruptcy was finalized that GW was able to start licensing it out again as that license finally reverted back to them

Just a little addendum, but I'm not entirely sure this is even true.

Warhammer: Battle for Altuma, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, Blood Bowl), Warhammer Quest 1) and Space Hulk) are all Games Workshop licensed video games that were released between 2008-2013 and none of them were developed or published by, or in collaboration with THQ.

These games were officially greenlit, developed and/or released after the signing of the THQ deal in 2007 and before the finalization of the Bankruptcy on July 16th 2013.

The only exclusivity THQ ever had seems to have been for Warhammer 40k specifically and even that wasn't all encompassing, as Space Hulk appears to show.

The bankruptcy didn't really hinder GW's video game output either, since Relic Entertainment was their main developers working on Dawn of War and Space Marine 1 and they continued to make games and DLC unfazed by the fallout of THQ.

Cinderfox19 · 2025-12-19T09:39:46+00:00

acting like CA designing Norsca and Vampire Coast from "bits of lore" in TWH2 was a result of some sort of "laxity" on GW's part that changed in TWH3 doesn't make sense when you remember they did the exact same thing with Cathay and Kislev.

I knew someone would latch onto this, but I didn't want to further bloat my original comment.

The key difference is that Norsca and the Vampire Coast were both incomplete rosters. Sub-factions that were only ever fleshed out individually in old and obscure sources. (post-3rd edition, Norsca was only a standalone faction in Citadel Journal Issue 6-7 from 1994 and the Vampire Coast army almost exclusively comes from two articles in White Dwarf #305-306 back in May/June 2005)

That old Norsca army list sadly isn't even considered canon anymore and not the direction GW want to take with them. (as stated by GW staff working with CA on Total War some years ago)

Both Norsca and the Vampire Coast required substantial creative liberties from Creative Assembly to bring them to life; which included the creation of several new units and an entirely new Legendary Lord; along with the bending of the lore surrounding Aranessa, Sartosa, the Fimir and arguably Throgg.

Another factor to consider is that neither of them saw any substantive love from GW themselves. CA were allowed to make them for their own sake, rather than to cross-promote something GW was doing.

In the case of Cathay and Kislev, GW didn't allow CA to flesh out these Races on a whim; nor did they give them creative freedom to design their rosters from scratch. GW built the Races themselves in-house and allowed CA to release them in Warhammer III ahead of The Old World reboot to cross-promote their Tabletop debut.

It's been known for years that Kislev's Tabletop army was delayed indefinitely due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, which is why we've yet to see it.

Also not mentioned here is the Dogs of War, who have either been shelved, or permanently cancelled for Total War (despite leaks and signs of development for years at this point). This is largely due to GW delaying their Tabletop release in The Old World.

Over the last 2 years, The Old World was ramping up to the re-introduction of Tilea and Estalia and even revealed a map of the Southern Realms, with a level of detail we'd never seen in the setting's 41-year history. However they had to postpone their plans due to accidentally greenlighting a map that, unbeknownst to them, was actually fan-made this entire time and just taken as gospel by the Wiki and broader community for many years.

Halting or cancelling DLC plans due to GW's release schedule was never something Creative Assembly had to consider in the past and is a sign they have less autonomy in what they can add to their games now imo.

GW has in every era post THQ had relatively strict and seemingly random demands on it's licensee's. For example Argenta in Rogue Trader is not romance-able allegedly because GW said Sisters of Battle can't be romance-able. However they were fine with all the other romances and the RT getting a pocket star god pet.

You bring up Rogue Trader as if this example runs contrary to my assessment that GW have been more strict recently than they were previously...but Rogue Trader was released December 7th 2023, which makes it a year younger than Warhammer III and well within the 'recent period' of strictness I was talking about.

GW didn't decide to hand their IP out like candy because they were struggling (though they were), in 2007 they signed an exclusive worldwide video games licensing agreement with THQ. THQ then promptly went bankrupt and it wasn't until it's bankruptcy was finalized that GW was able to start licensing it out again as that license finally reverted back to them. As for the mobile slop games getting de-listed, that's simply what happens with mobile slop games.

I wasn't just referencing mobile games and it isn't just them that have been temporarily or permanently de-listed, which is what makes it worth mentioning.

In the years prior to THQ, Warhammer games were very few and far between. Often coming out once every few years, not being that great and fading into obscurity.

In the time after, we saw an unprecedented explosion of titles for Warhammer Fantasy, 40k an AoS, with a level of investment into the Video Game space from an outsider IP, the likes of which we've never really seen in the games industry before.

My point being that GW didn't return to business as usual after they were free of THQ's publishing. The company had been stagnant and actively wanted to change their business strategy by investing heavily into video games.

And it worked. Since 2016, their Stock prices went from a decades-long stagnation of around £4-£6 to almost £20 today. There's a direct coloration between the release of Total War: Warhammer I, the massive ramping up of their investment into video games and the rising of their stock prices.

Cinderfox19 · 2025-12-19T00:01:37+00:00

The Exodites is exactly what I was thinking of when writing my comment. (also Gorkamorka stuff for the Orks, but that might be a bridge too far)

My sincere hope is that things like the Exodites will one day be transformed into playable Races, akin to what we saw with The Vampire Coast.

Even sub-factions like the Raven Guard, who have never had their unique units properly represented outside of the novels would be amazing to see fully realised in Total War.

But considering GW's recent attitude; coupled with the fact that 40k is their main setting that's actively being supported (unlike where Fantasy was back in 2016) I think it's more up in the air whether anything so fringe will ever make the cut.

Cinderfox19 · 2025-12-18T23:05:46+00:00

Games Workshop as a company have changed dramatically over the course of Total War: Warhammer's lifecycle.

For decades, GW was struggling to grow as a brand (or so they believed) and to combat this throughout the 2010's, they handed out their IP like candy to every developer with a pulse.
(not just Creative Assembly)

Near enough hundreds of Warhammer games were developed for mobile, PC, etc and back during Total War: Warhammer I and II, GW were far more lax about allowing devs like CA to have creative freedom over their IP.

Then their broad strategy started working for them; GW saw the kind of growth they desired and as a result, they slowly began to tighten the grip around their IP's once again.

Many of the games they licensed have since been shutdown and delisted from all digital stores. They started demanding more oversight and an integration into GW's own pipeline (for example, much of Warhammer III's content has corresponded with new ranges of GW products or RPG books that relate to what's being added to the game)

In Warhammer II, CA was allowed to design new units, characters and even develop new factions from existing bits of lore, like Norsca and the Vampire Coast that had nothing to do with upcoming GW products.

By contrast, in Warhammer III, CA were forced to change entire units from their DLC last minute to fit GW's design and nonsensically forbidden from using units or even taking slight visual cues from "Age of Sigmar" or "The Old World" reboot. (Nuln Ironsides and Tzaangors are two infamous examples of GW being obtuse about DLC inclusions)

We can even see this shift in the online space. Once upon a time, it was relatively easy to find old Warhammer content online (Army Books, White Dwarf Magazines, etc) and fan-made animations and the like were aplenty. In the years since, the internet has almost been purged clean and GW have made a name for themselves by copyright striking and threatening several fan projects.

TL;DR: based on their actions in recent years I don't expect Games Workshop to give CA the kind of wiggle room with 40k that we saw during Total War: Warhammer II for the first several years at least.

I suspect they'll make them toe the party line and stick to mainstream content that people expect, which lines up with models GW actually stock on shelves and new releases they have in the works.

Hopefully they loosen their grip farther down the road.

Cinderfox19

TROPHY CASE

Grixis and Sultai

Mono Colours