Will there Ever be a Block in Which Angels and Demons are Central to the Plot?
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on Dec. 3, 2016, 1:08 a.m. by DemonDragonJ
Angels and demons are my favorite creatures in this game, so I naturally would like to see a block in which they are central to the plot. While angels and demons were very important in the stories of both Innistrad blocks, they were not as central as were the dragons in the Tarkir block, which disappointed me.
Therefore, I wonder if there will ever be a block in which angels and demons play a central and essential role in the story, perhaps loosely based off the Abrahamic faiths and countless stories inspired by them, in which angels and demons are at eternal war with each other, fighting to see who can claim the most mortal souls, and the mortals eventually rebel, tired of being pawns in the great cosmic game between the angels and demons.
What does everyone else say about this? Will there ever be a block in which angels and demons are central to the plot?
Go to Alara, have Kaalia of the Vast be the main character, she will be using her Demons and Angels to wreck some people. Sounds fun.
December 3, 2016 5:44 a.m.
How strong would the rest of the block have to be to match Kaalia of the Vast in standard O_O
Liliana Vess still has a few demons to kill right? (Demonic Pact) Maybe we'll see more angels and demons then (?)
December 3, 2016 6:55 a.m.
I think the biggest challenge with this idea is colour representation; there are, like, 10 non-white Angels ever printed and, I think, only 2 non-black demons. I doubt it's an insurmountable problem but it would certainly take work to keep the colours properly balanced in a set, while keeping the Angel/Demon dynamic central to the mechanics and also preserving their tribal identities as the quintessential / big creatures respectively.
December 3, 2016 7:24 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #6
Kiortio, greyninja, I still fail to see how it makes any sense that Kaalia is from Alara, since her color combination is one that is impossible to occur on that plane. WotC revealed that they were planning to have Sarkhan be black/red/green (Jund-colored) at the end of the Tarkir block, but changed him to red/blue/green (Temur-colored), because the former was an impossible color combination for Tarkir while the latter made perfect sense, so the same should have been true for Kaalia. My presumption is that WotC created her before they decided to give her a detailed backstory, and thus wrote themselves into a difficult situation.
December 3, 2016 9:56 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #7
greyninja, forgive the double post, but I forgot to mention this, above: one of Liliana's demons, Razaketh, vaguely resembles an Egyptian pharaoh, so I shall speculate that he shall appear in Amonkhet.
December 3, 2016 10:11 a.m.
@DemonDragonJ, yea I was surprised to see it speculated she was from alara... I wouldn't have assumed that seeing as she's a wedge
Do you know where to find a pic of the pharaoh demon? I'd love to see it!
December 3, 2016 10:16 a.m.
Yeah, it is weird that Kaalia is from Alara. Though that doesn't mean we can't have.....Kaalia, the Battle-ready, or something, a tri-colored human cleric planeswalker of destruction.
December 3, 2016 11:34 a.m.
Pinewoodboy0324 says... #10
The angels atleast sound like the Inistrad and Shadows blocks... except few demons. I would play that set for sure.
Happy Hunting
December 3, 2016 11:40 a.m.
JonathanSamurai says... #11
Angels-White
Demons-Black
Dragons-Red
Hydras-Green
Kraken-Blue
Each color repping a fatty. Each color could be a cult, like the guilds and khans with creature types sypporting their idol or whatever. The story could center on the war between angels and demons and how they are trying to pull the others into the conflict for their side. There could be crossing of colors for angels and demons who are torn with their alligances. It could be a new world too, with the two most powerful, angel and demons, vying for control of the plane while the others struggle to carve out their place in the world.
December 3, 2016 2:01 p.m.
JonathanSamurai says... #12
Or better focusing the theme, angels and demons destroyed the other idols and are at war to be the one true idol of the plane. A tribal themed block would be awesome.
December 3, 2016 2:10 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #14
Alara isn't shard based any more since the conflux.
December 3, 2016 9:17 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #15
greyninja, here is a link to Razaketh's information page, and, as long as I am on that subject, here is a link to Belzenlok's page.
December 3, 2016 10:47 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #16
Infinimage007, the Shadows Over Innistrad block already had angels as antagonists, and there have already been plenty of other villains in this game who have been white-aligned and believe themselves to be righteous, such as Konda, the Azorius guild (at least certain members of it), and the Consulate on Kaladesh, so I would like to see a direct battle of good versus evil, for a change of pace.
Lame_Duck, in such a set, mortals would obviously be all five colors, and there could be other creatures in all the colors, as well. However, the angels would all be white, either mono-white or any two- or three-color combination that contained white but did not contain black. Conversely, the demons would all be black, either mono-black or any two- or three-color combination that contained black but did not contain white. I know that WotC makes an effort to maintain balance across the colors, but, sometimes, one or more colors dominate the others, such as the only non-artifact cards in the power nine being blue, black being the most prominent color in Torment, or black and blue being so prominent in the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block due to the power of fairies in those colors.
December 6, 2016 3:52 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #17
But they don't design that way anymore. I'm not saying it's a bad story arc to follow, but there's more to this game than only the story arc. Balance to the color wheel is what makes this game as huge as it is right now, and you can't use a precedent set by designers 20 years ago to argue "it's been done before."
I'm all for white antagonists. That being said, the way this game works, the good vs evil story would almost by necessity require the other iconics to pick a side or explicitly remain neutral.
December 6, 2016 4:09 p.m.
DarkMagician says... #18
I like the idea but I think the biggest issue would be the block drawing ire from the religious nut jobs out there. This was an issue the game faced in the past and really shouldn't have to deal with again.
December 28, 2016 11:15 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #19
DarkMagician, I do not believe that anyone is complaining about the current depictions of angels and demons in the game, and, if they were, they would likely be a minority, so WotC would likely ignore them.
December 28, 2016 11:35 p.m.
DarkMagician says... #20
DemonDragonJ Wizards has toned it down a lot and initially even changed artwork on cards due to people calling the game satanic and such when it was in its infancy. I wouldn't underestimate the power of religious zealots when they come together. Not saying everyone who believes in the Christian God and similiar deities are crazy but there are quite few that are, possibly enough to get the cards pulled from certain stores if they wanted to.
December 29, 2016 1:02 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #21
DarkMagician, did anyone from Greece complain about WotC appropriating their culture and religion with the Theros block?
December 29, 2016 3:12 p.m.
DarkMagician says... #22
DemonDragonJ I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that I was but I'm not speaking of that idiotic, pc, cultural appropriation crap. Mtg was attacked before for "satanic imagery" and being tied to the occult by religious zealots, not these sjw's, and I wouldn't say it's outside the realm of possibility for these nut jobs to go on the offensive again and hurt the game.
December 29, 2016 4:41 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #23
DarkMagician, this game still has demons into the present day, so why would people suddenly complain about it now, when no one has complained about it in years?
December 29, 2016 8:25 p.m.
DarkMagician says... #24
DemonDragonJ From the original post:
"Perhaps loosely based off the Abrahamic faiths."
Abrahamic faiths, that includes those that originally attacked the game. Yes it's been quiet but do you really think a block tied to their religion won't stir up the religious fanatics? I'm not saying it's a guarantee that it would cause backlash but it's not hard to connect the dots to see that it very well could. Have you noticed Wizards refrains from using religious symbols in their artwork these days? Or that their is a total disconnect between the origins of Angels in MtG and Angels in the Abrahamic religions?
December 30, 2016 3:41 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #25
DarkMagician, was anyone upset over the Dante's Inferno video game that was released several years ago? And I have, indeed, noticed that there have been very few real-world religious symbols in this game, recently, which disappoints me. I know that most of them would not make sense, because their religions do not exist in this game, but it would be nice to see more pentagrams in this game, since they are often associated with magic and wizardry, which are central elements of this game.
Also, I am sorry that I need to ask, but how, exactly, is there a "total disconnect," as you phrased it, between the angels of M:tG and the angels of the Abrahamic faiths?
Infinimage007 says... #2
I like this idea a lot, actually. It would be really cool to have white angels be the bad guys.
December 3, 2016 1:39 a.m.