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Jan 14, 2013 -- 11:52AM, Catotheyounger wrote:

Dec 7, 2012 -- 3:34AM, TherealphatMatt wrote:

You know what, I'll say it: aside from your mythics (why does a red-green planeswalker reduce attacking creatures' power? also, banding is terrible), I really like most of these. A lot of your commons are quite well done. I particularly like Earthfire Kami, even if it's power level might be a bit too high.

It should go without saying that Dragondance is broken to high hell.

I decided to take a look at your set, and I was pleasantly surprised.  When you aren't trying to go nuts and rewrite half the rulebook, you can make some pretty solid commons.  I'd love to play with kami of intemperance or the 3/5 can't be blocked except by two or more creatures in limited.

Why you bump this?

Feb 22, 2013 -- 10:36AM, sage62 wrote:

Oh god he's back.

I think he's upset about the "blacksmith arc".

Here, let me try to explain things a bit to calm your tensions; you may just be misinterpreting things.

One of the most important aspects I could pass on to you about allusion is that everything changes based on the specific situation. There is an old saying that goes, "Sometimes you're the hammer, and sometimes you're the nail." Well, that's basically the essence of it.

Our character allusion directly depends on the specifics of the event. For example, sometimes you might be like Goku (the main hero, and most powerful), but other times you're Vegeta (the one stuck in the shadow, the proud one who feels outshined). It all depends on the situation. We're never going to always be Goku, nor can we always be Vegeta—it changes based on the situation.

And this extends to every character. Our relativity to each and every character depends on the exact situation at hand.

Many characters in Magic are developed in this way (if you didn't know). They're not meant to symbolize a single person, but many different people (just like many Chinese words and calligraphy). It even extends to the imagination, where a character who might resemble a certain person, is also the fantasy image of a different person (or of the person who created that character).

Take Odric, Master Tactician for example. He might resemble me after I don't shave for awhile, but beyond this, he could also be meant to symbolize Richard Garfield in a limelight—as a Jedi of sorts, and master of tactics.

Now, let me go into details about the blacksmith arc. It wasn't written with any negative intentional meanings. It's just meant to provide suspense and build tension within the story; just basic writing protocol.

If you do want to get into symbolism, remember everything can be a metaphorical for something else. The blacksmith himself could just be a symbolism for, say...the United States—a nation synonymous for the steel industry and metal working. The United States has a hierarchical society, where people must work nearly all their lives in hopes of attaining some kind of financial security. Some people refer to this as, "the System". It's a long and hard path, and many people break down along the way, even killing themselves to escape it (that's how hard it really is).

Now we have Mai Lao (pronounced May Law), just a young woman at the start of her life, at the foot of the mountain on this very hard path.

And you see, she's about to be victimized by "the System"—but then enters the champion; here's this man who has literally beat the system half to death, and championed it (which could be metaphorical for a man who has attained strong financial security). He lifted the weight of the world from Mai Lao's shoulders (which can be related to the worry of financial security, and burden of working all your life).

Then she begs him to take her with him, to his place at the top of the mountain. This part doesn't exactly match up—if it did, Khan would have turned to Mai Lao, and beheld the most beautiful woman he had never seen. He was like... and dropped to his knees, and begged her to join him in his magical palace atop the clouds in Jade Heaven.

Yet, the power comes too natural—and naturally, humans tend to not appreciate things as much when didn't work for it themselves. To recover from this, it takes enlightenment (an epiphany) for us to realize that we need to bite down and enact some self-discipline.

Each person must discipline themselves, it has to come from the heart. If you try to force it onto someone, you'll likely only fail. You can't always force something like this—and even if you can, it's always best when it comes from the heart anyways; that's what makes it true and strong.

Does this help clear things up any?