The Prelude
I decided to begin chronicling my days as a planeswalker. I have spent 10 millennia traveling across the multiverse. Every day I'd spent in each plane has taught me a myriad of things that are unique to each plane, and although my brain is now infused with the planeswalker spark, I wished to share my learnings with my disciples and with anyone willing to hear the rantings of an old man.
You might be new to these things. I can already sense it. "What on earth is a planeswalker, you ask?" I would normally direct a seeker's attention to the ancient tomes compiled by the scribes of Wiki, but I have time to write about it now and I enjoy telling stories.
A planeswalker is a very high-level wizard capable of planeshifting, that is, traversing space-time in order to move to another dimension. (Although time-space manipulation has often been associated with Blue wizards, which we will discuss later, the Planeswalker Spark allows a planeswalker to manipulate space-time even if he or she never really touches the mana of Islands.)
Planeswalkers are invariably immortal---once the Planeswalker Spark takes over one's body, one stops aging and no longer dies easily. Even if a planeswalker's body is destroyed, he or she usually has a contingency plan for housing the spirit anew. Alas, my spirit has left its original body several millennia ago---battered beyond recognition, I had to house my spirit in a vessel of magically-forged steel, white mana, and the souls of angels who gave their lives to revive me when my cousin Ma'Cha-el first slew me. In those bygone ages, I had manipulated the magic of mind and madness, blue and black magic. Since then I have turned to the ivory planes of justice, but I continued to employ the services of the swamps---after all, justice requires death at times.
My name is Rah'fi-el. Unlike many other planeswalkers, I do not walk the aether because I thirst for power. I do it because I enjoy it. I enjoy studying the idiosyncrasies of each plane, its people, its cultures. Of course, I do my best to employ the services of each plane as well, as doing so gives me the ability to defend myself from the many wicked 'walkers in this multiverse. My brother and foremost disciple, Dj'bre-el, has proven a very good companion throughout my journies, and he has proven a worthy ally and friendly rival. In fact, it is he who helped me return to planeswalking once more---there came a time when the condition of the plane I was in so sickened me that I sought to extinguish all forms of life in it---and so did I write the Tome of the Seventh Sign---a tome of pestilence and jugment, extinction and purification.More on this later. Now, let us look at the colors of Magic.
White: The color of light, justice, purity, righteousness, healing and order. Drawing its energy from the sun-soaked Plains, white strives to maintain order and equality, balance and harmony. White controls by imposing laws and rules. However, towards this end it sometimes becomes fascist and intolerant. White is not good in and of itself---each color has both its good and evil parts. White generally employs soldiers, politicians, and angels. White's traditional enemy colors are black and red, while its allies are blue and green.
Blue: The color of intellect, knowledge, time-space, air and water. Drawing its energy from the mysterious Islands, blue is dedicated to learning, manipulation, and like its ally, White, control. Blue controls by outsmarting its opponent and by misdirection. It loves mystery. It is logical and cunning, but it can be cold and calculating. Blue also controls the domains of water and air. It employs creatures of the sea, of the air, and of the mind; thus, merfolk, sea monsters, wizards and djinni tend to be blue. Blue's opponents are red and green, while its allies are black and white.
Black: The color of death, decay and undeath, of selfishness and shadow. Drawing its energy from fetid Swamps, black is about power. Power at all costs. It does not care how it achieves power, even if it trades its blood and life for it. Black is the color of ambition and is most familiar with the concept of sacrifice (which is NOT a bad thing), yet it can be spiteful and murderous. Black is not completely evil in the same way that death is not evil. Black employs the undead, disease, creatures of nightmares: skeletons, zombies, and demons. Its opponents are green and white, while its allies are blue and red.
Red: The color of chaos, destruction, violence, earth, fire and blood. Drawing its energy from the rugged Mountains, Red is dedicated to warfare. Red is passionate and powerful, though it lacks long-term vision and lacks variety. Although it acts quickly, it is very predictable. Fire and earth are in Red's domain. The creatures that Red usually employs are barbarians, goblins, ogres, giants, and most dragons---all manner of chaotic beasts. Red's opponents are white and blue, while its allies are black and green.
Green: The color of life, nature and wildness. Green draws its energy from the lush Forests, and dedicates itself to preservation, like its ally White. However, it answers to no one but natural order, and thus it is like its ally Red---unrestrained and masterless. Green's creatures are massive---wild animals and nature spirits. Green loves life, but it does not hesitate to trample upon the weak. After all, survival of the fittest is the law of nature. Green's allies are white and red, while its enemies are blue and black.
Each color shares something in common with its allies: white and blue share their controlling nature, for example, while red and green share their wildness. These shared strengths are easy to discover and master.
However, if one studies the colors more, one will see that even opposing colors have complimentary abilities. Green grows, Blue adapts. White defends, Red wages war. Black gives power, White gives direction to that power. Opposing colors are difficult to master, but in the end, they are more rewarding. This planeswalker is personally partial to the white-black color pair.
SEVENTH SIGN
Black/White pestilence/immortality deck
Creatures (8)
2x White Knight (2/2)
2x Order of the White Shield (2/1)
1x Silent Arbiter (1/5)
1x Myojin of Cleansing Fire (4/6)
1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath (6/6)
1x Serra Avatar (*/*; *=controller's life total)
Spells (25)
{Sorceries} 6
2x Wrath of God
2x Consume Spirit
2x Vindicate
{Instants} 8
3x Dark Banishing
3x Disenchant
2x Swords to Plowshares
{Enchantments} 6
3x Pestilence
1x Rule of Law
1x Worship
1x Ghostly Prison
{Auras} 2
2x Screams from Within
{Mana Sources} 3
3x Dark Ritual
Artifacts (6)
1x Nevinyrral's Disk
1x Scroll Rack
2x Darksteel Ingot
1x Lotus Petal
1x Feldon's Cane
Lands (25)
12x Plains
11x Swamps
2x Cabal Coffers
Summary:
64 cards
Seventh Sign is designed to deal with any and all creature threats. Dark Banishing kills specific targets at instant speed, Wrath of God deals with runaway masses of little havoc-wreakers. If they're indestructible, Swords to Plowshares can get rid of them.
Seventh Sign's winning plan is to enchant one of the creatures with Pariah, which redirects to the enchanted creature all damage dealt to me. The usual target for this is the Myojin of Cleansing Fire, which is immune to damage due to its indestructibility. I can then use Pestilence to kill everything else. All my creatures are immune to Pestilence (either due to Protection from Black or Indestructibility). The only exception is Serra Avatar, which is just too massive to get killed easily by Pestilence.
However, Seventh Sign is very slow and passive, and the deck's size causes problems. Also, Seventh Sign is not versatile enough to deal with various decks. I just really hated the Onslaught block, which just had creatures, creatures, and creatures. (Of course, it still had Akroma, the block's only redeeming factor). Thus, everybody was using silly little creatures with bizarre little abilities. I dedicated Seventh Sign to the old style of playing Magic. Seventh Sign is fun to play---I just love squashing those annoying creature-lovers with it---but eventually it became inefficient. This leads me to my next deck.
I have spoken enough in this entry. In my next entry I shall discuss the new tomes I have penned since my foray into the wonderful world of Ravnica.
You might be new to these things. I can already sense it. "What on earth is a planeswalker, you ask?" I would normally direct a seeker's attention to the ancient tomes compiled by the scribes of Wiki, but I have time to write about it now and I enjoy telling stories.
A planeswalker is a very high-level wizard capable of planeshifting, that is, traversing space-time in order to move to another dimension. (Although time-space manipulation has often been associated with Blue wizards, which we will discuss later, the Planeswalker Spark allows a planeswalker to manipulate space-time even if he or she never really touches the mana of Islands.)
Planeswalkers are invariably immortal---once the Planeswalker Spark takes over one's body, one stops aging and no longer dies easily. Even if a planeswalker's body is destroyed, he or she usually has a contingency plan for housing the spirit anew. Alas, my spirit has left its original body several millennia ago---battered beyond recognition, I had to house my spirit in a vessel of magically-forged steel, white mana, and the souls of angels who gave their lives to revive me when my cousin Ma'Cha-el first slew me. In those bygone ages, I had manipulated the magic of mind and madness, blue and black magic. Since then I have turned to the ivory planes of justice, but I continued to employ the services of the swamps---after all, justice requires death at times.
My name is Rah'fi-el. Unlike many other planeswalkers, I do not walk the aether because I thirst for power. I do it because I enjoy it. I enjoy studying the idiosyncrasies of each plane, its people, its cultures. Of course, I do my best to employ the services of each plane as well, as doing so gives me the ability to defend myself from the many wicked 'walkers in this multiverse. My brother and foremost disciple, Dj'bre-el, has proven a very good companion throughout my journies, and he has proven a worthy ally and friendly rival. In fact, it is he who helped me return to planeswalking once more---there came a time when the condition of the plane I was in so sickened me that I sought to extinguish all forms of life in it---and so did I write the Tome of the Seventh Sign---a tome of pestilence and jugment, extinction and purification.More on this later. Now, let us look at the colors of Magic.
White: The color of light, justice, purity, righteousness, healing and order. Drawing its energy from the sun-soaked Plains, white strives to maintain order and equality, balance and harmony. White controls by imposing laws and rules. However, towards this end it sometimes becomes fascist and intolerant. White is not good in and of itself---each color has both its good and evil parts. White generally employs soldiers, politicians, and angels. White's traditional enemy colors are black and red, while its allies are blue and green.
Blue: The color of intellect, knowledge, time-space, air and water. Drawing its energy from the mysterious Islands, blue is dedicated to learning, manipulation, and like its ally, White, control. Blue controls by outsmarting its opponent and by misdirection. It loves mystery. It is logical and cunning, but it can be cold and calculating. Blue also controls the domains of water and air. It employs creatures of the sea, of the air, and of the mind; thus, merfolk, sea monsters, wizards and djinni tend to be blue. Blue's opponents are red and green, while its allies are black and white.
Black: The color of death, decay and undeath, of selfishness and shadow. Drawing its energy from fetid Swamps, black is about power. Power at all costs. It does not care how it achieves power, even if it trades its blood and life for it. Black is the color of ambition and is most familiar with the concept of sacrifice (which is NOT a bad thing), yet it can be spiteful and murderous. Black is not completely evil in the same way that death is not evil. Black employs the undead, disease, creatures of nightmares: skeletons, zombies, and demons. Its opponents are green and white, while its allies are blue and red.
Red: The color of chaos, destruction, violence, earth, fire and blood. Drawing its energy from the rugged Mountains, Red is dedicated to warfare. Red is passionate and powerful, though it lacks long-term vision and lacks variety. Although it acts quickly, it is very predictable. Fire and earth are in Red's domain. The creatures that Red usually employs are barbarians, goblins, ogres, giants, and most dragons---all manner of chaotic beasts. Red's opponents are white and blue, while its allies are black and green.
Green: The color of life, nature and wildness. Green draws its energy from the lush Forests, and dedicates itself to preservation, like its ally White. However, it answers to no one but natural order, and thus it is like its ally Red---unrestrained and masterless. Green's creatures are massive---wild animals and nature spirits. Green loves life, but it does not hesitate to trample upon the weak. After all, survival of the fittest is the law of nature. Green's allies are white and red, while its enemies are blue and black.
Each color shares something in common with its allies: white and blue share their controlling nature, for example, while red and green share their wildness. These shared strengths are easy to discover and master.
However, if one studies the colors more, one will see that even opposing colors have complimentary abilities. Green grows, Blue adapts. White defends, Red wages war. Black gives power, White gives direction to that power. Opposing colors are difficult to master, but in the end, they are more rewarding. This planeswalker is personally partial to the white-black color pair.
SEVENTH SIGN
Black/White pestilence/immortality deck
Creatures (8)
2x White Knight (2/2)
2x Order of the White Shield (2/1)
1x Silent Arbiter (1/5)
1x Myojin of Cleansing Fire (4/6)
1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath (6/6)
1x Serra Avatar (*/*; *=controller's life total)
Spells (25)
{Sorceries} 6
2x Wrath of God
2x Consume Spirit
2x Vindicate
{Instants} 8
3x Dark Banishing
3x Disenchant
2x Swords to Plowshares
{Enchantments} 6
3x Pestilence
1x Rule of Law
1x Worship
1x Ghostly Prison
{Auras} 2
2x Screams from Within
{Mana Sources} 3
3x Dark Ritual
Artifacts (6)
1x Nevinyrral's Disk
1x Scroll Rack
2x Darksteel Ingot
1x Lotus Petal
1x Feldon's Cane
Lands (25)
12x Plains
11x Swamps
2x Cabal Coffers
Summary:
64 cards
Seventh Sign is designed to deal with any and all creature threats. Dark Banishing kills specific targets at instant speed, Wrath of God deals with runaway masses of little havoc-wreakers. If they're indestructible, Swords to Plowshares can get rid of them.
Seventh Sign's winning plan is to enchant one of the creatures with Pariah, which redirects to the enchanted creature all damage dealt to me. The usual target for this is the Myojin of Cleansing Fire, which is immune to damage due to its indestructibility. I can then use Pestilence to kill everything else. All my creatures are immune to Pestilence (either due to Protection from Black or Indestructibility). The only exception is Serra Avatar, which is just too massive to get killed easily by Pestilence.
However, Seventh Sign is very slow and passive, and the deck's size causes problems. Also, Seventh Sign is not versatile enough to deal with various decks. I just really hated the Onslaught block, which just had creatures, creatures, and creatures. (Of course, it still had Akroma, the block's only redeeming factor). Thus, everybody was using silly little creatures with bizarre little abilities. I dedicated Seventh Sign to the old style of playing Magic. Seventh Sign is fun to play---I just love squashing those annoying creature-lovers with it---but eventually it became inefficient. This leads me to my next deck.
I have spoken enough in this entry. In my next entry I shall discuss the new tomes I have penned since my foray into the wonderful world of Ravnica.
posted by Aslan Cross at 6:02 AM
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