Go back to previous page
Forum URL: http://www.eyrie-productions.com/Forum/dcboard.cgi
Forum Name: Games
Topic ID: 160
#0, Wizards of the Coast and Toho International present...
Posted by Proginoskes on Jun-02-20 at 06:46 PM
LAST EDITED ON Jun-02-20 AT 08:01 PM (EDT)
 

There are eighteen other cards with Toho-based alternate art in the most recent Magic set. Biollante's presence on Gryphon's Pokemon roster is what prompted me to post this, though I'm disappointed that they couldn't find an actual Plant (or better yet, Plant Beast) to give the name to.

Do we have any other Magic players here? I'm Proginoskes#47863 on Arena.


#1, RE: Wizards of the Coast and Toho International present
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-03-20 at 02:23 AM
In response to message #0
By a strange coincidence, I own precisely one actual, physical Magic: The Gathering card. It was given to me almost 25 years ago, in reference to a GweepCo injoke that was also a Toho reference, and it is this one.

--G.
"Eh? What's that you called it? Giant Mantis?" "Yes sir, it's a combination of the words 'giant' and 'mantis'." "Aha, Giant Mantis! That's very clever!"
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#7, RE: Wizards of the Coast and Toho International present
Posted by CdrMike on Jun-06-20 at 03:30 PM
In response to message #1
Yes, but is it a Deadly Mantis?

(Sorry, not sorry.)


#8, RE: Wizards of the Coast and Toho International present
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-06-20 at 03:42 PM
In response to message #7
>Yes, but is it a Deadly Mantis?

Pretty sure that pegasus would say so...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#2, RE: Wizards of the Coast and Toho International present
Posted by Peter Eng on Jun-03-20 at 06:35 PM
In response to message #0
I'm on there as NoobOfNoobs. No idea what my player number is right now.

Per my user name, I'm not especially good, although I accidentally made a deck that was better than my usual. Naturally, I'm taking advantage of it while it lasts.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.


#3, RE: Wizards of the Coast and Toho International present
Posted by DaPatman89 on Jun-03-20 at 07:18 PM
In response to message #0
>though I'm disappointed that they couldn't find an actual Plant (or
>better yet, Plant Beast) to give the name to.

Mark Rosewater has said the tie-in deal came late enough in the production cycle that all the cards for the set had already been designed, meaning they had to choose existing cards in the set to give Toho treatments (although they were able to tweak some designs to better fit). Since there are no Plants in the set, that means no Biollante.

>Do we have any other Magic players here? I'm Proginoskes#47863 on
>Arena.

I'm DaPatman89#42039 on Arena. I tend to stick to the Brawler's Guildhall, as I have a preference for singleton formats.


#4, RE: Wizards of the Coast and Toho International present
Posted by Proginoskes on Jun-05-20 at 00:46 AM
In response to message #3
>>though I'm disappointed that they couldn't find an actual Plant (or
>>better yet, Plant Beast) to give the name to.
>
>Since there are no Plants in the set, that means no Biollante.

They couldn't have made Nethroi, Apex of Death (that's the non-Toho name of the Biollante card) a Plant instead of a Cat? The regular art doesn't even look all that catlike. (I know it'd be weird to have only one Plant in the set, but still. Ikoria has exactly one Faerie and exactly one Dragon.)

>>Do we have any other Magic players here? I'm Proginoskes#47863 on
>>Arena.
>
>I'm DaPatman89#42039 on Arena. I tend to stick to the Brawler's
>Guildhall, as I have a preference for singleton formats.

I also like Brawl, though not as much as proper EDH.


#5, RE: Wizards of the Coast and Toho International present
Posted by DaPatman89 on Jun-05-20 at 11:22 AM
In response to message #4
LAST EDITED ON Jun-07-20 AT 01:25 PM (EDT)
 
>They couldn't have made Nethroi, Apex of Death (that's the non-Toho
>name of the Biollante card) a Plant instead of a Cat?

The original design for the Mutate mechanic required a significant tribal component to work - you would only have been allowed to Mutate onto a creature that shared either a creature type or one of a handful of keywords. So a flying Cat could Mutate onto another Cat or a flying Squirrel, but not a Brushwagg. The decision was therefore made to pick a different tribe for each colour, and for each of the apex legends to be the types matching their colours. Cats were chosen for white, Nethroi is white, therefore Nethroi is a Cat (Nightmare Beast).

Later on, it was decided this was over-complicating what is already possibly the most complicated mechanic since Banding, so the restriction on what you could Mutate onto was changed to any non-Human creature, and most of the tribal elements were dropped from the set, the apex legends' types being one of the only clues they had ever been there in the first place.


#6, RE: Wizards of the Coast and Toho International present
Posted by Proginoskes on Jun-06-20 at 02:40 PM
In response to message #5
I was thinking that with tribal mutate dropped, changing Nethroi into a Plant could've been one of the aforementioned small tweaks, but if the Toho deal happened before that decision was made, I can see how easily that could get overlooked.

Also, that squirrel is hilarious, but your links are borked. (DCForum blindly adds the "http://"; part without checking if there already is one.)