abzanascendancy

[abzanascendancy]

You know what I forgot to share? All of my Magic: the Gathering art. They hired me in 2020 and I still have imposter syndrome every time the contact me for more work. These are a collection of my favorites I've done so far, Demonic Bargain remains my all time favorite.

#MtG Art #MtG Artwork

[abzanascendancy]

Ravnica's Nephilim minis

These weirdos are quite a while in the making, I finished Glint-Eye Nephilim back in September of last year and the Yore-Tiller Nephilim earlier this week.

All of them need new cards as they are some of the cards with the worst Dissonance between card art and card abilities.

You can download the models for free from Thingiverse and Printables

If you want to help me keep making free models or want to tell me what I should make next please check out my Patreon

#D&D #MtG #Ravnica

[abzanascendancy]

[abzanascendancy]

You know what I forgot to share? All of my Magic: the Gathering art. They hired me in 2020 and I still have imposter syndrome every time the contact me for more work. These are a collection of my favorites I've done so far, Demonic Bargain remains my all time favorite.

#mtg art

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#well played #Bolas #Nicol Bolas

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#commander

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[abzanascendancy]

Here is my preview article for March of the Machine: The Aftermath. In it I explain, the effects on the multiverse from the war.

#MtG #Magic the Gathering #March of the Machine #March of the Machine: Aftermath #Maro #Mark Rosewater

[abzanascendancy]

So that new Nahiri story...

Okay, here me out:

• According to the wiki, the Immortal Sun is still intact -- inactive, but intact. • Nahiri has spent weeks stockpiling all the Phyrexian metal on her plane. • Tezzeret had isolated himself before the Invasion happened. • He's had years to know what makes Phyrexians work. All he's lacking is the raw materials. • He ought to know where the Immortal Sun is by deduction (on Ravnica, no doubt in the same vault as the Chain Veil).

So we have a Ravnica heist set, where planeswalkers & former-planeswalkers steal the Immortal Sun. Then, Tezzeret offers Nahiri a deal: a way to prevent planeswalkers from ever setting foot on her plane again. In return, he gets all that metal she's been stockpiling.

If she's so dead-set on isolating Zendikar and getting all this Phyrexian metal off her plane, it'd be a tempting offer...

#Nahiri #Tezzeret #Story #MtG story #speculation #March of the Machine #March of the Machine: Aftermath

[abzanascendancy]

I don't like how tapletop/physical magic is being restricted because of digital.

And like, this isn't that big of a problem. Just program something in to where if you were to target your own creature, a little pop-up appears asking "You're about to target your own creature! Are you sure?" It's not that hard.

Or, here's a thought, you have Alchemy! You can just edit the "bad" effects to not target one's own things! It was purposefully designed to rebalance cards!!!

If you're so worried about digital, fix digital: don't bend physical to cater to digital.

Why can't newer spells with "bad" effects target our own stuff anymore? Wild Magic Surge immediately comes to mind.

Because digital has become such a big part of Magic, we’re always conscious of misclicks.

#maro #mark rosewater #this is the second post I've seen with the answer being “it's because of digital” #And fuck that #They're two separate fucking games #I'm sorry but this just grinds my gears

[abzanascendancy]

Can you explain for my friend why wotc actions after the leak are bad?

This is gonna be a bit lengthy but first I want to establish a timeline. Note the only real info we have is from the Youtuber in question, so it's not unreasonable that some of this is wrong, either intentionally or just because this guy likewise doesn't know all of what happened.

A Youtuber with about 5000 subscribers, oldschoolmtg, ordered booster boxes of March of the Machine.

2. The person he ordered them from mistakenly gave him boxes of March of the Machine: Aftermath.

3. oldschoolmtg cracked the Aftermath packs and posted videos of that online. It does sound like he was aware of difference between MOM and MOM Aftermath before he posted the videos. He said he doesn't believe the person who sold them was aware as that person isn't really into Magic (I personally know a store like this--the owner is really into Warhammer but does Magic stuff too because it pays bills).

4. Wizards says they tried to contact him but couldn't reach him. As far as I know we have no context for how they tried to contact him, how many attempts they made, or how long they waited before hiring the Pinkertons to shake him down.

5. I believe Sunday April 25 in the morning the Pinkertons showed up at this guy's house to recover "stolen" product. They threatened jail time and the Youtuber refers to them as "law men" in his video so I'm not sure if he misunderstands their role or if they misrepresented themselves.

6. After getting the cards, the Pinkerton agents provided a phone number to a person at Wizards for oldschoolmtg to call. He said this person was apologetic and cordial and said they don't believe anything was stolen but they needed the product so they could figure out how this happened to prevent it in the future. oldschoolmtg also says they said they'd send him some product to compensate for the cards the Pinkertons just took from him.

7. oldschoolmtg removed the Youtube videos of him opening the Aftermath packs. They also asked him to ask everyone else to take those vids down, claiming some sort of copyright infringement.

That's all the info I'm aware of, mostly just straight from the person who experienced this.

So why is this wrong?

First, MOM Aftermath is an embargoed product. Which means Wizards ships it out to retailers (be they big box store or LGS or online space or whatever) under a contract that they won't sell it before a certain date and time. oldschoolmtg believes the person he purchased from simply mixed up the two sets because of the similar names. He says he purchased the product and according to his recollection of the phone call, the rep at Wizards likewise didn't think he had stolen it.

That's important because the embargo agreement is between retailers and Wizards. oldschoolmtg had no contractual obligation with regard to the embargoed product. It leads me to believe the Pinkertons were involved because they'd willingly insinuate the product was stolen and oldschoolmtg had committed a crime when in actuality there was no grounds to take any legal action against the man. There was no grounds to get a warrant to search for the product. He had committed no crime. He bought Magic cards from a guy who sells Magic cards. The only actual recourse Wizards would have had if the cards weren't stolen was to pursue the guy who sold them for breaking the embargo.

The only theft that actually occurred was when the Pinkertons raided this guy's home to take cards he purchased.

That's my take given what info we know. The Youtube videos aren't actually relevant in a meaningful way--that's just how Wizards found out.

But it's actually even worse. It would have been shitty to seek out a warrant or just sic lawyers on him. Of course I don't think they had grounds for it, so instead they went extrajudicial instead. That is they took a course of action that didn't involve courts.

For those who don't know, the Pinkertons started in 1850 and operated largely as violent strikebreakers. They're still helping break strikes today. They've been hired by Amazon and Starbucks within the last three years to spy on unionization efforts. Their history is bloody and murderous. No exaggeration. Their response to workers striking and unionizing in the past has been to beat them and shoot them.

I think you can put two and two together here. What does it say for a billion dollar multinational company to send these violent thugs to the private home of a small a guy operating a small Youtube channel?

It's a threat to this guy and anybody else; if you leak our cards we will find where you live and we will come after you. Specific use of the Pinkertons is part of this intentional message. There are other security firms without the history and notoriety. And while any such action would be just as disturbing, I doubt using almost any other agency would have had quite the effect as hiring Pinkertons.

tl;dr Based on what we know it's unlikely this guy did anything actually wrong or unlawful and Wizards sent agents from a firm with a violent and notorious history to his home in an act of intimidation

[abzanascendancy]

#NoMagicMay

I watched the Professor chatting with someone else about the Pinkerton thing.

One thing they expressed was that there was no way to act in an immediate way that influences sales number to send a message to Wizards. Like with the DnD stuff recently people could cancel DnDBeyond to send a message and that did something.

I think Magic players do have a medium to send a message. The medium is online play. We should blanket boycott all Magic apps, especially MODO and especially Arena for at least 30 days. They can't take back what has happened but we can send a message that they will feel. I think we should also throw FNM and all physical sales including the secondary market in as well, but digital play is big and more immediate.

This is unacceptable though I don't expect players to stay away forever. A month long boycott for the entirety of May would send a strong message and make them reconsider how they handle future leaks. Backed up with plenty of emails and public messages to say this is why it's happening.

#NoMagicMay

If you agree and want Wizards to know it then I humbly suggest you spread this. Encourage your friends. Encourage content creators. Reach out to big Magic influencer and let them know you're participating in #NoMagicMay and would like them to join.

#NoMagicMay

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Edge of Malacol has a beautiful landscape, and reminds me of some of the New Phyrexia green creatures. I was hoping for a plane that was compleated by old Phyrexia, but it was beneficial for the plane, and the phyrexians there weren’t evil. It made the alien landscapes make sense.

Kinda dissapointed that Windriddle Palaces was seemingly the only thing inspiration was drawn from.

Why did Belenon go from "Abstract alien architecture, and bizarre alien creatures" world to "Animal Knights" world? We already had Bant and, to an extent, Ravnica for animal knights.

Because abstract alien architecture doesn't lead to a world of creatures.

#Belenon

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Realistically, I think St. Elenda went to Useless Island to make sure Azor didn't get compleated. He was insufferable enough already.

Personally, I think she endured Azor so that Mavren Fein could ride a dinosaur, and it is for this that she is a living saint.

Can we asssume from the card Elenda and Azor, Azor is no longer stuck on useless island?

I would say probably not

#Saint Elenda #Mavren #Mavren Fein #Elenda #Azor #Ixalan

[abzanascendancy]

“In a sudden rush, I finally get what kept Liliana on the hook all those years, and it draws my eyes up and around us as he runs a trail of kisses down my neck.”

IM IN THE MIDST OF SOBBING AS MY HEART IS BEING RIPPED OUT AND THEN I GET SMACKED IN THE FACE BY THE CANON FACT OF JACE BELEREN THE SEX GOD???? I THOUGHT LILIANA JUST LIKED HIM BECAUSE HE WAS PATHETIC AND EASY FOR HER TO MANIPULATE

#Jace

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Return

-brushes off dust-

With the update of the Twitter terms of service to allow the muskrat to begin using art on it for AI, I make my official return to Tumblr.

I gotta get used to all of this again, and the new stuff... and what I’m gonna do on here now...

#update

[abzanascendancy]

it’s crazy how i don’t know what any of you do for school/uni/work? who are you guys outside of tumblr? what do you work as?? 

#I'm a cashier at a grocery store #Graduated college with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Animation. Questionably worth it.