Thread 150279056

I hate what modern MTG has become, but I love my Old School MTG.

Come around and see the Golden Age of Magic the Gathering.

The Armada comic line was a first of comics, outside of a short-lived comic in The Duelist, to be about the Worlds of Magic: the Gathering. This tied into Magic's failed 90's attempt to turn into a multi-media property.

I shall, as long as I'm interested be posting these comics not in release order, but in my best, Chronological Order. Many of these stories are Pre-Revisionist, and some tie into lore that might not even be canon now.

We will start
>Dakkon Blackblade
>The Fallen Angel
>Elder Dragon War
>The Antiquities War
>Urza-Mishra War
>Arabian Nights
>The Fallen Empires.

If I'm still interested, we will go from there.

hmn based

When Legends was first designed by those crazy leafs, it featured real world legends. It wasn't until Adkinson realized that real money wasn't in games, but owning an IP, that he decided Magic should have a cohesive story.

The Legends legends were quickly changed, with some art already commissioned of actual legends (Lost Order of Jarkeld for instance was actually commissioned as The Fourth Horsemen).

Many of these stories were written out of house by fans of the game, and were officially funded passion products, at least initially.

They were also, fairly well received by fans, and would often contain cards, packs, or tokens.

Our story starts with The Son of Carth, the progenitor of The Carthilion line.

Things aren't going good for him, and they will get worse.

I kind of miss this gritty look in fantasy. Most fantasy now adays, I don't want to see looks idealistic, but cartoony. Or its grim dark to the point of being a parody.

Planeswalkers from the very beginning were a vague term on what exactly they were and their power.

An early internal design sheet explained that a wizard knows how to use Magic, but a Planeswalker knows how Magic works.

Over the first few years, the concept would be evolved considerably more, though the concept of The Spark wouldn't happen for a bit.

How summoning works in lore has been an extremely vague and controversial topic almost as long as Magic: the Gathering has existed.

Early on, you summon a creature, it was bound to you. Summoning legends required considerably more work, since they weren't ordinary creatures.

At some point, the idea of you summoned a 'copy' came into fashion, and WotC jumped between both idea's numerous times, even as late as the webcomics, where Garruk can clearly be seen branding his creatures to him.

Brady Dummermouth once did an AMA on the mothership forums (almost 20 years ago now) and when I asked him, he said it was intentionally being kept vague because not being able to summon actual living things takes a great deal of excitement out of the story while the other option is just pure slavery.

>the Blackblade to Korlash during Time SPiral block, to later be carried by nuwalker Gideon Jura
>Carth the Lion's descendant Jared Carthalion would eventually become a planeswalker, also fighting a much older in the present day (yeah the timescale is fucked up and basically everyone is immortal)

>>150279490
Fun fact: That's a retcon. There's a fan of the comics in WotC and he has gone out of his way to include old school characters into the cards.

Originally Jared was intended to have died at the end of the Planeswalker War, which is why he wasn't suggested by Kristina of the Woods or Taysir as a replacement to Parcher as one of Urza's Nine Titans.

The mark on his cheek is The Mark of the Elder Druid. It becomes more relevant on another character.

Crimson Manticore, in my opinion, is one of the worst creatures in the game.

Look at her Spawn looking ass

>>150279886
>>150279979
WOTC nerfed her boobs and tummy when she finally got a card

Unfortunately, your handler isn't

>>150279993
Her Modern Horizons 2 card still had some book, but the precon one, totally

>>150279138
How old is this drawing?

>>150280207
It was published in June 1996. Its probably from 1996.

>>150280349
ENTER

In Old School, Sol'Kanar is infamous for being one of the few Legends legends not to outright suck, and in fact, to actually be rather good.

There was a very good article that's long been deleted from the Mothership called Sol'Kanar vs Stasis, in which the author talked about how players perceived powerful cards.

>>150280389
>There was a very good article that's long been deleted from the Mothership
I miss all the old articles. Back in the day they would post whole-ass styleguide excerpts for new planes. Same with all the old D&D 3e stuff.

>>150280349
I can't believe it. It looks so high quality and revolutionary. I would had placed it in the late 00s. I'm not a magicfag but I appreciate the storytime regardless.

>>150280421
Alot of the comics were colored by 'Atomic Paintbrush'. In the veins and zeitgeist of having aesthetically pleasing cards, the comics went through this as well, with the premium comics (such as this one) being printed on high grade wax paper.

You can see it

>>150280419
Its a tragedy. There was actually an article written somewhere called 'who will keep our history' which was about with that, 20+ years of MTG history was just vanished.

Too those of you who aren't MTG fags, The Elder Dragons were absurdly ancient and powerful Dragons who were arguably more powerful than Planeswalkers.

They came from a series of five Elder Dragons in Legends who were extremely popular (until their reprints) in Legends, and were 7/7 with flying, other abilities, and upkeep costs.

>>150280795
>>150280755
As can be seen here where Chromium casually throws off a spell

>>150280865
Oh fuck, forgot image

>>150279056 (OP)
Based OP. Reading.

>>150279423
In the Greensleeves cycle this concept was used to great effect, with creatures voluntarily binding themselves into service of wizards, but then generally finding out they got a raw deal and wishing to turn on their master. Greensleeves and Gull (her brother) form a sort of liberation army with these creatures to stop the wizards laying waste to their land.

There isn't a page missing I just numbered them wrong.

>>150281589
Yeah that was always pretty awesome.

Is it over for her?

When you drink some badass juice

I've been on Niggertits long enough to know where this is going.

and just like a high school girl in an anime, he is left unhappy and used after the tentacles.

When do the Transformers and Spongebob show up?

>>150281989
give it ~20 years

With this, we end The Dakkon Blackblade comic.

Armada Magic comics came with a lot of bonuses. As I mentioned earlier, they often contained some swag, in the case of Dakkon's comic, it included a Chronicles copy of his card, a poster, and several full page pieces designed to be torn out as well.

It also contained a short story about the creation of Sol'Kanar the Swamp King, and his corruption from a Nature Spirit, Seer Analysis which explained the comic in card terms, and how to best utilize the cards that appear in the comic in your deck, a recap of said comic, and an interview with Rags Morales.

I'm going to warm some left overs, and then we will start with another premium comic that takes places around the same time, Fallen Angel.

>>150280695
Piru got a card and a drastic aesthetic overhaul, Rhuell is still MIA

>>150282089
>Terisiare
uh-oh

Fallen Angel is another "Legend on the World of Magic the Gathering" premium comic, drawn by long time Magic artist Richard-Kane Ferguson.

What killed MTG Lore more?

>Trying to keep a somewhat Cohesive story line through sets
>Planeswalkers/Multidimensions
>Lol wizards/hasbro not knowing shit about their own product.

also MTG Lore completely died after Nicoal Bolas prove me wrong.

>>150282093
>>150282093
Rhuell is Chromium. Chromium Rhuell is his full name. he becomes a boat

>>150282291
Although I never liked the Brady Bunch, Brady Dummermouth and his planeswalkers didn't kill MTG lore, Triump of Ferocity, its needless fallback from virtue signalers and EDH players, and the firing of Brady is what killed MTG lore.

The major retcons that came with MTG: Origins solidified it, and it was slowly bleeding out. War of the Spark was just the eulogy.

Though that video with the cookie people and Garruk was pretty cool.
This concept gets another short story in Colors (or Legends, I forget) of Magic book the short story is called Angel of Vengance.

>>150282291
nuWalkers
Citation: I was there, it fuckin sucked dude

Time Spiral was sadly the death knell, Lorwyn was the last great set, Alara was the last good one

Here we see a foolish Barbarian wishing to summon a Serra Angel

>>150282498
I loved Zendikar, and Rise was the last set that FELT like a Magic set, with 2018's Dominaria being a sort of eulogy the whole game.

>>150282553
I never liked Zendikar much. Felt too D&D, introduced the sparkly Twilight style vampires as the new standard rather than the monstrous Sengir style ones, and I utterly despise the Eldrazi for forever cucking the top end stompy slot from Green, which now has no identity beyond ramping for other colors. Hedrons are also just extremely aesthetically boring and they're everywhere in that set.

Gameplay wise, Zendikar saw the swift betrayal of the promise that Mythic Rare would house lore cards rather than deck staples with the printing of Lotus Cobra. This had lasting consequences.

The book was okay though. It was the only time Sorin was tolerable, because he had an entirely different personality.

>>150282291
>Homelands
>Weatherlight Saga
>the Kamigawa nerf
>phase 1 of nuwalkers (they are our protags)
>phase 2 of nuwalkers (the diversity and MCU era)
>the Kellan "saga"

>>150282620
Funny enough, Zendikar was (according to long standing rumor) a failed pitch at a D&D setting, that was repurposed into a MTG setting.

That's why so much world building was written about it.

>>150282673
That makes a lot of sense. And I will give it this, it was a much better D&D set than the actual D&D set. I think Zendikar goblins strike a good balance between the wacky chaotic flavor we expected from MTG goblins, and "just barely able to contain themselves enough to contribute to society." It was kind of cool to see Kor again as well. And while it's easy to shit on Nissa knowing what she became, "elf radicalized by visiting Lorwyn" had a ton of potential

>>150282929
Oh Elf Hitler was one of the most interesting characters in the setting. The fact she didn't leace Zendikar as soon as SHTF made her something of a admired character.

I never liked what they did to vampires to Magic, especially when we got to Innistrad.

>>150283090
While I didn't like Zendikar, I think Innistrad was the first set I ever actually hated. Twilight vampires ruling the roost and that utterly butchered werewolf mechanic, what a mess. The beginning of "Themepark Planes". What a nightmare that themeparks are now something to look back fondly upon when compared to "hat planes" and Universes Beyond.

I guess I can at least give the Eldrazi credit for fucking the place up.

>>150283327
THANK YOU. Everytime I say pop culture sets started with Innistrad, I get the same answers
>but Innistrad was good
>Innistrad was a high EV set
>Innistrad really changed upon design.

The worst part of Innistrad was they marketed that Garfield was involved with it, only for one card he designed making it into the final set.

I never liked when comics do too much of a style shift. Colero does this in several Legends comics, including this one.

>>150282653
What's wrong with Homelands

>>150283415
A lot of people liked the themepark that time, the whiff of Hammer Horror flavor I guess, so they love to make excuses for it. And it was where the mistake of Human Tribal really got its roots, the first Humans vs Everyone Else type set, so fans of that archetype, which was very popular for a while, also often have undue affection for the set that gave them Thalia and whatnot. I find it putrid, but I also severely dislike Tarkir and that's another much beloved themepark, so I'm clearly not exactly tapped in to the zeitgeist.

I will forever fume that wedges are referred to by Tarkir tribe names now despite most of those tribes having zero unique flavor.

>>150283576
I liked it at the time too, and I didn't mind flip cards either.

>>150283543
>that gorgeous Guay art
VGH
TAKE ME BACK

>>150283543
Mechanically, the set was terribad
Narratively, it doesn't really fit with the Ice Age block: Ice Age is about the Dominarian Ice Age, Fallen Empires is a very tight look at what this meant in a specific area (Sarpadia), but Homelands takes place on another plane and really has nothing to do with any of that. As unnecessary as it was, Coldsnap is a better end to the Ice Age block and shows the transition into more temperate times.

>>150282653
>>150283543
>>150283741
Homelands was based and sovlful thoughbeit

>>150283810
I think the comic is significantly better than the set

>>150283912
Certainly, but I will always take a weak set with good flavor over a strong set with bad flavor.

God, what I would do for a modern day Homelands. Just ONE set that feels like real Magic flavor again. I don't care if it's all overcosted vanilla creatures and Lava Darts.

>>150283810
>>150283741
So theres a reason for that.

Ice Age was supposed to be released in the Summer of 1994. The original Model would be each year a new Game would be launched. This set would have been Magic: Ice Age, similar to Magic: the Gathering. This would have included a new cardback. The different card backs was one of many of the crazy idea's from Garfield himself.

>>150284014
Antiquities was designed as prequel to Ice Age, explaining why the Ice Age happened. Alliances was also planned, with a unique card back.

Due to a extremely large number of factors, Ice Age was pushed back, and instead Legends was released as the 'stand alone set'. Legends was on so many levels a beautiful disaster that had to happen. It was the first set Richard Garfield washed his hands of.

It's failure however allowed Ice Age to be better polished (for better or worse).

>>150284070
In this model, the Game would been Ice Age, with Alliances and Antiquities. It would have served as a stand alone game.
In fact Ice Age was still marketed as a standalone game. I sometimes wonder how different Magic would be if it kept this approach.

>>150284070
KEK
I thought his master was talking shit but this little turd actually did whore out his mother

>>150283957
>>150283912
>>150283810
While this was still the model, two employees who worked in customer service answering phones were designing their own Magic set.

This wasn't uncommon. Several early sets that never saw the light of day but were designed by employees of WotC for various reasons. A set named Power Lunch was apparently full of broken cards that entirely existed to power game and make over the top games. Vortex of Chaos was playtested, but was left to the wayside when the block format was formalized.

Adirkson liked the two employees designs, and gave them the green light to make the set. The East Coast design team (The Team that designed Fallen Empires) was angry they were snubbed from designing another set, and while I don't know all the details, there was a great deal of backroom politics because of this.

In other words, Homelands was sabotaged

>>150284595
Wuh oh, some of the script leaked into the dialogue.

Needless to say, the Fallen Angel is a pissed off 3/3

Serra Angel, one of Magic's most iconic creatures. At one point, was the unofficial face of the game. (The 00's).

I didn't lose a page, I just started numbering them wrong.

Should I go on after this comic? How many people are lurking?

Not a fair punishment, but a just one

bump

Like the other issue, this premium comic came with original posters. Sadly as far as I know, no Fallen Angel card came with the comic.

>>150285105
I am.

>>150285263
Is there a card for this guy? I know they've been plundering pre-revision lore for concepts lately.

>>150285294
There unfortunately is not, but I believe he is a member of the sages of Minorad.

We are going to go next into the Elder Dragon Wars. This story takes place at the battle of Mors Ridge sometime during the 'Time of Legends' which is a large block of time between The Fall of the Thran and The Brothers War. This apparently takes place after that actual Elder Dragon War by some considerable amount of millenia.

We start with a wizard seeking refuge in a city, hoping to battle the coming orcs.

I hate these side panels.

Still hate em

It should be noted this isn't a 'premium comic' like the last two. It's shorter, the actual was filled with ads, and it had little to no extras outside the usual things in the back,

Never trust a dragon

>>150285640
t. Legion Commander

This sure is a stroll down memory lane. Despite these comics being kind of clunky at times they got some charm especially with how they try to build on the cards.

>>150285887
I got those two mixed up, sorry.

Still hate these

That ends this issue, coming up, the exciting conclusion!

Here we conclude with what I think will be the last comic of the night.

>>150286593
Chromium lookin mighty Yugioh with that pose

>>150286610
He does, I always though Blue Eyes looked like Chromium

>>150286722
I wouldn't be surprised if Blue Eyes was directly inspired by that cover. Not that the result is bad, Blue Eyes is different enough to have his own identity. I don't like most Yugioh dragon but Blue Eyes is cool.

I always appreciate how Magic's dragons are often canny and scheming intellects despite their bestial appearance. Bolas' original art remains one of my favorites for how well it illustrates that.

>>150286786
Did you know Summon Skull (especially his early manga appearances) is Lord of the Pit?

>>150286797
If I recall correctly his name in Japanese was Pit Fiend or something. I've always liked Summoned Skull because of that, and have come to prefer the goofy localized name because it sets him apart from his source.

>>150286835
It translates to Summon Demon, the original name. It's original design however, is extremely similar to Lord of the Pit, and its original level was 7.

Honestly Summoned Skull is cooler name though

>>150279056 (OP)
I actually like the crossovers, because it sells cards and gets people into the game. At the same time, I feel like they should be separate because it doesn't fit well with the lore or rather the feeling of the lore, because if you actually think about it, the concept of infinite planes of existence means that planeswalkers could absolutely run into Transformers, Doctor Who, Lord of Rings characters, and Marvel already has multiple universes so... yeah.

But these crossovers do not have the same feeling. That being said, the Spider-Man set is actually getting me to go to a prerelease for the first time in years.

>>150286960
This argument was cringe 20 years ago, and its cringe now.

Plus what is up with Tezzeret literally leaving the entire setting.

underrated waifu material

>>150286960
I might agree if it wasn't taking over real sets, if there was an actual crossover and not just totally isolated cards, and if they picked properties that actually fit the bill. I wouldn't mind a Spiderman secret lair for the diehard webheads. I do not need a set with 40 Spidermen.

>>150287027
>dude stabbing himself shouting "FOR RED DONALD"
Misplaced enthusiasm

>>150287070
>misplaced enthusiasm

He knows the battle is over and taking the samurai route

>>150286960
>it sells cards and gets people into the game.
"No."
FF got bought up by nogames collectors to hoard.
Spider-man will be bought up by nogames collectors to hoard.
Avatar will be bought up by nogames collectors to hoard.
These sets make things worse.

Whoever uploaded this from where I got this from, mixed up the last few pages, so they won't be numerical order.

Also RIP Red Donald.

>>150287183
More like Ded Ronald.
F

She is a Scaley

This end the Elder Dragon comic. I was hoping to finish The Arabian Nights, but I'm tired.

I'll be back tomorrow night to continue on, which if my memory of the lore is correct, should be Either the Antiquity War, or Arabian Nights.

Thanks everyone for hanging around, and for keeping me company.

>>150287237
Thanks for the storytime OP. It was nice to take a trip back to a time when characters lived and died, stories could span centuries, and Wizards took their own worlds seriously. Good night, I'll look forward to next time.

>>150287208
>tag: extreme age gap
Their love was never meant to be. Thanks for the dump. It's a nice look into early WOTC exploring the lore side. It's unfortunate how corporate the story has become in addition to their penny pinching reliance on freelancers. Though it's funny to see that sometimes you get deep references crop up like the 2018 core set Chromium referencing his shapeshifting into a human in the comic.

>>150281989
They don't. Crossover cards aren't canon to any Magic lore. They're just using the same game system.