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I found this to be a compelling, well written story.    Thank you!

It helps to remember that like the Alaran shards, each guild is extra-obsessed with its two component colors, at the expense of the excluded colors. And as the Alaran shards show, absolute exclusion leads to...problems. Usually of the stultification variety. Bant became trapped in cyclical rituals , Grixis in ravenous undeath, Jund in unalloyed predation, etc.

Azorius's problem, as mentioned back in the original Ravnica cycle, is that they want stillness. Perhaps better still, they want a world where LaPlace's Demon is a reality, with themselves taking that role; they don't want to be surprised by anything, ever. That's why you have people like Relov who are vulnerable to bribery; taking the bribe (as long as the other side maintains their part of the bargain, nothing's been left to chance) is better than suborning unpredictability/diminished control.

It really doesn't help that the Azorius scorn the works of red. Red's emotionalism, though, is considered, at least by WotC, to be a necessary foundation of mercy and compassion (remember that this is what's going on with Urabrask and his retinue? They're stymied by red empathy and Phyrexian ultra-perfectionism conflicting with each other?). You probably need white as well--I know I wouldn't call the Gruul or Rakdos empathetic, and the Izzet are open to debate--but the point is, the Azorius are rejecting one of the important components. (Should be interesting to see what their opinion of Zedruu, or Raka in general, would be.) Especially when the opposed colors can be seen as correcting each other. Red reminds white that not everyone has their values, white reminds red that some extremes just shouldn't be taken. In this case, the Azorius have a bad tendency to not realize that there is such a thing as a bad rule, and for that matter, such a thing as a bad interpretation of a good rule. Think of it as purity actually being corrupting, or using cold iron (pure) where steel (alloy/impure) is called for. They've become besotted with purity, mistakenly thinking that "pure" and "good" are perfect synonyms. If all the regulations were followed and all chance nulled, then the implementation was pure, and good by default. Others suffered? If it followed from the pure, then their suffering was not only necessary, but proper. To ones like Relov and Leonos, all mercy really does is encourage and catalyze recklessness. Better for the pall of fear of the law's wrath to slow everything down to perfect anticipatibility.

Loved this story and I LOVE the new walker, super flavorful and unique. Not like an 8th jace, love the new blood!

Sep 5, 2012 -- 11:31AM, HazmatonHummingbird wrote:

As cool as it is that we are finally returning to Ravnica, I hate how Wizards is disregarding important parts of the original story. The sisters of stone death were supposed to be the last gorgons, and two of them died in the books. The last gorgon is Ludmilla. As cool as this card is, I must disregard it story wise...and that's not the only story hole I've noticed. 

Well she's a Planeswalker. 

Anyway, am I the only one hoping there's gonna be a nice Azoriuz? Basically one who's not like Relov. And is there anyone who likes the Azoriuz besides me?