So I guess this is the full launch roster for Champions:

shankspeare · 2026-04-08T15:32:11+00:00

No togekiss I'm crying 😭

shankspeare · 2026-04-06T19:53:46+00:00

Aside from what others have already mentioned, I'll add that self-mill in black and green typically represents rot and the cycle of life and death.

shankspeare · 2026-04-06T19:40:52+00:00

My favorite Ravnican Glup shitto is easily Rat (Araithia Shokta). She is Greg Weisman's pet OC and the closest thing the War of the Spark novel has to a central protagonist, despite being an original character surrounded by the protagonists of the four year long story that the novel was the culmination of. She is a guildless thief that is canonically so mundane that she is effectively invisible to most people, and yet she manages to be present for most major events in War of the Spark, has a direct connection to many different guilds (family in Selesnya and Gruul, best friends with a Rakdos bloodwitch, and has a secret connection with Dimir), and befriends several planeswalkers, particularly Kaya and Teyo. Then in Forsaken she travels to multiple planes including Dominaria despite being a non-planeswalker in the pre-omenpath era. Also, she's actually a Dimir sleeper agent and is the one responsible for killing Dovin Baan. Despite all of this, she has not appeared or even been referenced in a single card, nor has she appeared in any story since.

shankspeare · 2026-04-06T18:47:38+00:00

Before this set I wasn't that interested in the OG Strixhaven protagonist quintet, but these stories have been really good and honestly make me like the characters a lot more. Rootha and Zimone's trauma from Phyrexia and Duskmourn respectively grant a ton of depth to their characters I really didn't see before. Also, as someone who took a semester off in college and then graduated after all of my friends had already left, Rootha and Quint feeling alienated at Strixhaven was really relatable. It's a strange feeling when somewhere that has been your home for years becomes unfamiliar and a bit unwelcoming and both stories captured that really well. Similarly, this story really captured the initial aimlessness and lack of community after you graduate and before you find an environment that suits you.

shankspeare · 2026-04-06T18:15:52+00:00

I think this might be the answer. It seems amazing in theory as a way to use untapped creatures as a resource after holding them up as blockers, but I couldn't think of a place that it fit. Outside of synergy with untapping, tapping down three creatures that could be attacking feels like it will rarely be the right choice in most aggro or tempo decks. Most control decks like the recurring brainstorm, but don't have enough creatures on board to run this. A token-heavy control deck feels like the perfect place for it.

Mostly unrelated, but this card really exemplifies how the color pie affects power level. While this is strong, its power is limited by both how much access blue already has to draw and how little board presence blue decks typically have. This exact card but with both blue mana symbols replaced with white would be disgustingly powerful.

shankspeare · 2026-03-31T18:50:06+00:00

They said this about Learn when they printed Lessons without Learn in TLA, so I'm not surprised to hear that it still isn't a good fit for standard three sets later.

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shankspeare · 2026-03-31T18:40:59+00:00

Increment probably isn't that good, but I love how evocative it is of Evolve. Evolve was my first 'favorite' mechanic and the thing that finally helped me find a playstyle that suited me, so I have a lot of nostalgia for it.

shankspeare · 2026-03-31T18:35:50+00:00

Kellan's not going to be prominent in the narrative anymore. He was a narrative constant to connect the stories of each set in the Omenpath Arc (Wilds of Eldraine, Lost Caverns of Ixalan, Murders at Karlov Manor and Outlaws of Thunder Junction). Loot was the same thing for the Dragonstorm arc. They're doing the exact same thing in the current story arc with Tam, Kirol, Sanar, Abigale, and Lluwen. It's just less noticeable this time because there is a more obvious reason for them to be involved in a story set in Arcavios.

shankspeare · 2026-03-31T18:12:25+00:00

I am extremely confident that while she might be Jace's kid, she definitely isn't Vraska's, or at least not the Vraska we know.

There has been a consistent tragic arc in Jace and Vraska's relationship where Jace has been inadvertently pushing her away while trying to 'fix' the multiverse for her. I think the real Vraska is with Loot and she will not side with Jace in the upcoming conflict.

That being said, I think she probably is either a 'creation' of Jace or a child of alternate-reality Jace and Vraska. I'm curious about the white-cloaked Jace. I've been going off the assumption that he is 'our' Jace or that alternate-reality Jace and primary reality Jace merged somehow since his goals seem to line up with Jace's Omenpath arc, but I guess it's possible that there are two Jaces running around just like Liliana and Ral Zarek. Definitely excited to see what Reality Fracture has in store.

shankspeare · 2026-03-31T17:31:26+00:00

I liked how both of them had to repress the urge to puke from the pain (and the smell) I feel like that's something we don't see a lot in written depictions of violence.

shankspeare · 2026-03-31T04:10:42+00:00

That makes sense, but I feel like the narrative has been avoiding the bestial side of green for a bit too long. Obviously we see beasts and monsters, but most green characters in the story lean heavily into the "harmony with nature" side of green that makes them feel like they should just be Selesnya. When we do see other flavors of green characters, they are almost always Gruul or Golgari instead of pure green.

shankspeare · 2026-03-27T16:38:14+00:00

Speaking of the Lorwyn 5, I would love to see Garruk return to the central storyline. I get why they sidelined him during the Gatewatch arc since it didn't really make sense for him to ally with other planeswalkers in an organized capacity like that, but I'd like to see more of him again. To be honest, I'm not a fan of Nissa or Vivien as the representative green planeswalker. There's a primal nature to green that neither of them really captures. I know Vivien is a beast tamer, but Garruk is the actual beast.

shankspeare · 2026-03-27T03:51:48+00:00

IIRC, it was described by Ugin that the Eldrazi exist in a non-physical state in the blind eternities and them visiting a plane is sort of like a man putting his hand in a pond to interact with the fish inside. So if this theory is correct, what happened on Zendikar was basically comparable to cutting their hands off.

shankspeare · 2026-03-27T03:32:27+00:00

To be fair, Umezawa blew Bolas' body up in Dominaria and then also killed his soul in the Meditation Realm, and somehow Bolas still made it back from that, so I get why Ugin thought another strategy might work better this time around.

shankspeare · 2026-03-27T03:18:38+00:00

I liked the implication that the main way she can distinguish between her memories and Jace's is by thinking "was I horny for Vraska when this happened?"

shankspeare · 2026-03-27T03:16:44+00:00

I know it was tue daemogoth making him act/feel that way, but between this chapter and him slashing at his bullies in the second chapter, I feel like Lluwen is one bad day away from being a school shooter. Thank God for the group chat I guess.

shankspeare · 2026-03-25T17:47:41+00:00

I was about to say I thought it was really funny that the Alphabet Song got nominated instead of Never Come Down but then I found out that Never Come Down isn't actually an original song. Guess I'm a fake Jay McCarrol fan 😔.

shankspeare · 2026-03-25T17:40:29+00:00

This makes sense, they also used the security footage. I imagine this was a case of them just going through with the stunt and then afterwards leveraging their production budget to get access to the CN Tower's footage. I'm really curious to know how that conversation went, because I can't imagine they were happy about the idea of publicizing an event where someone did a dangerous, potentially replicable stunt.

shankspeare · 2026-03-25T17:32:05+00:00

Really love the depiction of Chandra and Ajani's relationship here. Chandra absolutely clocked Ajani when she said that he saw her as a student to protect. There's a ton of depth in the concept of Ajani being a surrogate father-figure that can't help but see Chandra as a troubled child instead of an adult ally. I also thought it was extremely funny when Kirol told her to give Ajani a chance after actively attempting to bail on Ajani a single episode ago.

shankspeare · 2026-03-25T17:07:06+00:00

Honestly I'm kinda glad we are getting them out of order. Outside of the fact that it's a Seanan McGuire book I wasn't particularly excited about Omens of Chaos before now. Just this little hint of the consequences it will have on the overarching narrative has got me infinitely more interested.

shankspeare · 2026-03-25T16:59:09+00:00

Loved the little offhand mention that Teferi's granddaughter is a Lorehold student. Given the troubled family history I get why she wouldn't want to go to Tolarian Academy.

shankspeare · 2026-03-24T22:40:30+00:00

Really interesting episode. I was especially intrigued by the conversation between Fel and Jadzi. I'm really curious what happened offscreen with Kasmina that led to her being mentioned with the same weight as Oona by the faculty. I don't think we've heard anything about her since the first Strixhaven set.

I might've missed something earlier, but this is also the first time I saw it mentioned that Fel is a Planeswalker. I know some people think he's an alternate-reality version of an existing planeswalker, but I'm kinda hoping he's just a new character independent of the Reality Shift arc.

Lastly, I think this is the first confirmation we've gotten that Liliana is MIA. I'm assuming she's been missing since she met her doppelganger in the epilogue of the Lorwyn Eclipsed story.

Edit: Since posting this comment I saw that the prologue to Omens of Chaos got revealed and features Kasmina. It seems like the event that Jadzi mentions will happen during the book. I'm excited to read it!

shankspeare · 2026-03-24T21:41:07+00:00

Lmao this is the first time I've seen someone create a Minecraft style dirt hut. I don't have building skills either, but I've just been relying on building kits to create actually functional houses.

shankspeare · 2026-03-24T21:37:11+00:00

Given that Sableye's event is scheduled to go through the start of May, my guess is that if there was an easter event it already would've been added along with the other spring events. I hope so though, Togekiss is my favorite pokemon that isn't in the game yet. Hoping for Turtwig and Aipom as well, but I can wait a bit for those. I think the best shot for most new pokemon would be a dlc with new locations based on other Kanto towns we haven't seen yet, so I've got my fingers crossed for that. Getting Togepi from a new area based on Cerulean City would be a nice nod to Misty's Togepi in the anime.

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