The Planeswalker’s Guide to Andora: Bagan

Community Set

Polaris

31 January 2012

2180 views

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Bagan's Story
Bagan was an anomaly. His plane, Equilor, had long since ceased to change; the world had settled into its familiar patterns an eon before his birth. He had lived thousands of years, at one with the land and his society, when it happened. He didn’t know how to describe it at first--he had no words for it--but his mind opened. Something began to awaken inside him, ephemeral as a flame, eternal as time itself. He saw, and he changed. Not obviously, not at first, but he began to look at the ways of his world with new eyes. Why did the animals have the forms they did? Why did his people have their traditions? And then, the revelation: Was there a better way for things to be? He began to experiment, finding new ways, new ideals, new forms. As his horizons expanded, he rediscovered ancient magics; he learned geomancy and aquamancy, and as as his ideas evolved, he created his own spells. He called this new study of life biomancy.

His fellow Equilorians looked on him with wonder and mistrust--for how could they understand him, a mutable being in an unchanging world? He became an outcast by his own choice, standing apart from a world he could not belong to, and continued his experiments. He pushed the limits of his skills in both spellcraft and biomancy, until one day he finally succeeded. He created a new life. He created a clone of himself.

For the Elders of Equilor, this was beyond tolerance. They had accepted him as he was, staying aloof and keeping his subversive influence away from the others, but they could not tolerate this fundamental breach of their principles. He and all his creations and experiments were sent into the Caves of Equilor, a storied place of unmaking, and ceased to be. In his final moments, as he stared into the nothingness, the power that had been growing inside him suddenly intensified into a strength he had never imagined. Then he fell into darkness and knew no more.

After what seemed an eternity, Bagan awoke to a scene he had never imagined. Twisiting paths wound through swirls of fire, water, energy, and things he couldn’t begin to guess at. He didn’t know where or what he was, but he was somehow alive in a place where his people thought nothing could survive. He could have spent an eternity wandering, but a path opened out into a new world. It was different from his own, but a world as real as the one he had come from. The chaotic vista was still with him, though; he could sometimes see flashes of it. In time, he made his way back to that place, this time on his own. Another path led to another world, and Bagan resumed his studies, this time at a scope he had never dreamed of when he was experimenting on Equilor. What was the ecosystem of one world when compared with thousands?

Over time, he found others like himself. They were from many races, but they each shared a spark that set them apart. They told him that they were planeswalkers, and explained what that meant. He learned that the Other Place was called the Blind Eternities. With the knowledge came confidence and familiarity, and he stepped between worlds frequently, always gaining knowledge and experience. He found a small, barren world, and decided to make it his own. Using his magical skills, he reshaped the land and made a place where he could consolidate and record his research. He called his plane Bagan’s Ark, and brought specimens of the life he encountered there for study.

One one of his journeys into the Blind Eternities, he saw a new path forming, and decided to follow it. At its end, he found a world unlike any he had known before; its essence was split into five shards. As he approached, he could see an indistinct figure flitting around the world, building it up. He could make out no details, but the figure bore the unmistakable mark of another planeswalker. By the time he reached the new world, the planeswalker had vanished, and Bagan found himself on a young world—five young worlds—with no life on them. He settled himself, and prepared. Populating five new worlds—creating their ecosystems from nothing—Bagan could finally put his skills to the ultimate test.

Design by squire1

Bagan, the Lifeshaper was the first card designed for the community set. It was designed by me, squire1 , before I was part of the design team. i tried to design his keeping in mind cards that embodied change and dynamics to me and making them good planeswalker abilities.

The +1 ability was a combination of red and blue that has existed for a while in cards like Twisted Image, About Face, and Inside Out. Oddly the ability fist started in black with Transmutation. While this ability is normally instant speed, for +1 it is reusable and makes a lot of great defenders for blue, start acting like Valakut Fireboar.

The -3 ability was originally worded like Clone, so that it did not require a target. Screw you hexproof!! I figured that Clone was a classic changey blue card that could be repeatable. You could just cast Bagan and make a copy of something right away at CMC 4, which is still tough to cast because of the four colors.

Bagan's ultimate was totally jacked from a white card, Mirror Entity. Now I never thought this card should be white. It makes stuff all creature types which is like the mistform mechanic in Onslaught, which was blue. And it makes your creatures potentially bigger, actually potentially really big. Or potentially smaller, if you use it with Ensnaring Bridge or other tricky cards.

This made Bagan truly come to life for me. All he does is manipulate creatures and life in general as he sees fit.

For more story on where Bagan is now in Andora see this article.