Magic: The Gathering
Magical Thinking: Fate Reforged
Welcome back to Magical Thinking, a look back at the cards and art of Magic: the Gathering, set by set, from the beginning. This week we continue our look at the last full proper block of Magic history, Tarkir block, with the second expansion of the block, January 2015’s Fate Reforged.
Planeswalker and dragon fan Sarkhan has traveled back in time 1,280 years into Tarkir’s past, to a time when the Khans warred not with each other, but with ancient dragons. Now Sarkhan has a chance to change things, to save the life of Ugin, Nicol Bolas’ brother, and to restore dragons to Tarkir. So who will win the war for the future of Tarkir, Khans or dragons? Well, this set is called Fate Reforged, and the next one is Dragons of Tarkir, so take a wild guess.
Here we have the big man himself. Nicol Bolas’ brother, the spirit dragon Ugin. The funny thing is you can play this card right now in standard because it was reprinted in core 2021. I’ve both played this card and been on the receiving end of him, and this Ugin is one powerful dude. Like the Eldrazi, Ugin is colorless. This is because he has transcended the five color system and became a master of all five colors. That’s pretty cool, so yeah, mad respect for Ugin.
As mentioned, one of the gimmicks of this set is the conflict between the dragons and the Khans, so some cards let you pick a side of the conflict. I wonder if Wizards kept track in tourney how often either side was played to determine how the final set would go.
It wouldn’t be a Magic set without some new keywords: Bolster picks your weakest creature and puts some +1/+1 counters on them. Bolster is only a 5 on the Storm Scale, but it was never really used outside this block.
Here’s another new mechanic. Manifest is associated with Ugin, and is kind of like his version of morph, only he can use it on any card. In this case you cast the enchantment, then turn one of your cards into the thing it enchants. Manifest is a 6 on the Storm Scale, and it shows up in Modern and Commander sets in the future, but never again in standard I don’t think.
This seems like a card that can seriously snowball out of control if you have enough noncreature spells on hand. I bet this would be awesome in an Azorious deck.
The Jeskai are just plain awesome. Imagine doing the five stat exploding heart technique on a DRAGON. That is just the coolest thing ever.
If there’s one thing White does well, it’s making you feel like a supreme badass. You either take down your opponent’s strongest monster, or block them with an indestructible creature.
Were there aven in Tarkir before? I’m not sure if there were in the last set and I just glossed it over. Tarkir has quite the bestiary it seems.
9/10 it just says “Kick him real hard in the nards.”
I mean, it works.
Do Tarkir djinn even grant wishes? I keep making wish jokes with these guys but I don’t even know if they fit that context. Most of them seem to be monks and are into enlightenment.
Hey, a dragon that can mill people. Where have you been all my life?
“I find your cat memes…lacking. So no, I shall not haz cheezburger.”
Now I just imagine the Jeskai handing out literature during a fight and convincing their opponents to join them.
Basically if you have eight cards in your graveyard you can time walk for three mana.
Pretty easy to see why delve is so high on the storm scale.
I see this and I just think of the seagulls from Finding Nemo.
“MINE.”
“Now, let me show you my Deviantart page.”
See, that’s how you know he’s legit with the depravity.
I don’t think that person has been to diplomacy school. I have serious doubts about his qualifications.
I wonder what her lure was when she was alive? Also, that is a lot of mouth.
Yeah, the Azban have very strong family values, including killing those who betray the family. Also I love that armor.
Dorito breath dragon. The horrors are real.
Hey guys, what if zombies just want to give us hugs instead of eating us, and we’re just bad at reading their intentions? No, probably not. Just remember, all zombies are huggable…once.
Here’s another card I am familiar with because they are in the Arena beginner set. Never underestimate the power of a 1/1 with deathtouch.
Alesha was the leader of the Mardu horde in the past. She is also Magic’s first openly transgender character. A very important milestone, even if she’s a relatively minor character. Still, significant enough I felt she warranted mentioning.
Oh hey, ogres. I didn’t know that Tarkir had those either. I’m really starting to warm up to Tarkir as a plane.
And here we have the last new mechanic of this set. Dash lets you play this card for its dash card, then it gets haste and goes back to your hand at the end of the turn. For when you just want to hit your opponent real quick (Or in this case hit them twice). It’s only a three on the Storm Scale, but it doesn’t show up that much.
We’re gonna need another Will.
Shred the sands, brah. Sadly I never got to this section of Breath of the Wild. I got stuck on sneaking past those banana-loving ninjas.
I like the Khan option more overall on this one, but I think the dragon option would work great with a dash deck.
I probably should have mentioned this before, but this set also reintroduces the dual-colored mana. Also, I love it when they find new ways to use mechanics, like adding a mana cost to ferocious here.
Wait, we have a Beast Master, and Sarkhan came here through a portal through time…..HALF LIFE THREE CONFIRMED.
They wanted to call them the Arashin hug beast, but it didn’t really work out (so many law suits).
It wouldn’t be Green without using the beast tag for big generic monsters. Do any other creature tags have such a variety to them?
That’s really beautiful. I hope some dragon-loving dumbass doesn’t ruin it for you.
On the plus side, the weak are great for the grill.
I wonder if these guys could see the change in timeline coming. “Hey, I predict that things will be great until some idiot comes back and tips things in favor of the dragons.”
Rescue dogs are out, now it’s all about rescue sabertooth tigers. Now that is badass. Of course, I imagine they aren’t thrilled about the big glowing runes.
Hey it’s that guy who was hunting the weak. I guess it’s time to meet our future dragon overlords. Like this guy, Atarka AKA me at McDonald's.
All the dragons are dual colored, as opposed to the wedges. In this case we have Dromoka, who is eternal, but weirdly has no mechanic making her invincible. No indestructible, no graveyard recursion, nothing.
Here we have Kolaghan, who embodies storms and is always in a hurry, since he has dash. He’s not here for a long time, just a good time (and by good time I mean crushing your opponent with an army of buffed creatures then dashing back to your hand).
And here we have Ojutai, because being an elder dragon doesn’t mean you can’t have some fabulous plumage. Look at those beautiful feathers.
The last of the legendary dragons. Kind of surprising we get a Dimir colored creature that is so…direct. Still, hexproof is a nice touch.
I like the flavor here. You add to the lore of the scroll over time, and thus your creatures can learn more from it when they study them.
And speaking of that, I think we’ve learned all we can from this set. Tune in next time when we go back to the present and see just how much Sarkhan has messed stuff up. It’s Dragons of Tarkir next week, so stay tuned and Stay Magical.
