By (Squeeman) on Saturday, July 03, 2010 - 02:00 am:

I suspect this topic is dead in the water before it even gets started, since I don't see any of the Vorthoses around here nowadays, but whatever. Not that you really need to be a storyline nerd for this, so much as just having gotten a feel of flavor from the cardsets. So here goes nothing.

I got bored and read Jestergoblin's thing about Vanguard and Planeswalkers and so on. That got me idly thinking, the way one does when one is uncreative... what about thinking of Vanguard, or perhaps a similar concept, in terms of lands (legendary or otherwise)?

Flavorwise, I suppose they wouldn't be "you" or your "general" or whatever, but they might be the battlefield, or at least your half of the battlefield, and the benefits you get would be from alliance/association with that place.

More to the point, how would legendary lands (like, say, Tolarian Academy or Kor Haven) or, more broadly, regions (e.g. Benalia or Llanowar or Hurloon) be applicable to a Vanguard-like concept?

Specific card ideas?

Like I said, having read 30 MtG books is less useful for this topic than having seen and played with the Weatherlight set, which would give you a good idea of, for example, Urborg. A picture and a flavor text tell more than 1000 words (because 1000 would just be the picture, but if you have a flavor text that isn't silly like Niv-Mizzet's, then you're not doing bad).

By (Squeeman) on Saturday, July 03, 2010 - 04:56 am:

Or, on the other hand, I could have stumbled across the newish "plane" cards before making this thread. Bah!

I blame Brazil. Serves them right, losing to Holland. Hup!

By Homelands Bookie (Psycho) on Saturday, July 03, 2010 - 06:03 am:

HELL YEAH! And now we're gonna beat up Youragay!

By Puschkin (Puschkin) on Sunday, July 04, 2010 - 09:40 am:

And then germany in the finals - that would be fun!

BTW, we played already with these new plane card thingies, it's quite fun for a while.

By Ye Olde Kafir (Kafir) on Sunday, July 04, 2010 - 06:42 pm:

Wait, I faintly remember Vanguard cards but we never played much with them. Also I got the whole "we are introducing planeswalkers a card type" hype.

But what are schemes, planes and ongoing schemes?

By Puschkin (Puschkin) on Monday, July 05, 2010 - 04:02 am:

They made a series of new oversized cards called "Planechase", but this time they aren't planeswalkers, they are the planes themselves. Each plane has a global effect similar to the old enchant worlds. There can only be one plane effective (you choose it at random).
Then they also have a special trigered effect called "chaos".
There is also a die that comes with the plane cards. It has two symbols on it, one for chaos and one for planeswalking, the other four sides are blank.
Every player can roll that die during his main phase as often as he wishes as long as he has enough mana: The first die roll for this turn is free but the second one costs one mana, the third one costs 2 mana and so on.
If you roll chaos, the special effect is triggered. If you roll planeswalk, then the plane is discarded and you select the next plane at random.
Here is one example, Llanowar:
http://magiccards.info/extra/plane/planechase/llanowar.html
The chaos effect can be negative in some cases.

By (Squeeman) on Tuesday, July 06, 2010 - 05:35 pm:

TO HELL WITH THE PLANES! HOLLAND IS IN THE FINALS! PARTY ALL NIGHT!

By Puschkin (Puschkin) on Wednesday, July 07, 2010 - 01:22 am:

This will be the first world cup that is won by an european team on non-european ground.

By Ghaleon (Xanatos_Yfel) on Wednesday, July 07, 2010 - 07:14 am:

Wow, that's awesome.
I have a lot of the World Cup games recording on DVR at home, but I'm not there right now.
So now that I've looked at this thread, I can skip about 10 games

By (Squeeman) on Wednesday, July 07, 2010 - 07:25 am:

Yeah, I almost feel bad. Would have been nice for Africa to have one team in the finals in their first hosted World Cup. Oh well, I guess that's the way the vuvuzela blows.

By Puschkin (Puschkin) on Wednesday, July 07, 2010 - 10:58 am:

They could have beaten paraguay and walk off to half finals but decided to botch a penalty shot in the last seconds of the game.

By Bwm Wil Mindctrl (Bwm) on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 12:55 am:

Puschkin means Uruguay

By Puschkin (Puschkin) on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 02:16 am:

For me that's the same. How can you distinguish them?
It's, like, Holland and Belgium

By (Squeeman) on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 02:18 am:

Don't be dumb. Belgians make good chocolate.

By Puschkin (Puschkin) on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 04:08 am:

To lure the children, I know.

By Bwm Wil Mindctrl (Bwm) on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 05:03 am:

Uruguay has a border on the ocean, Paraguay has not...

By Puschkin (Puschkin) on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 06:27 am:

That doesn't help me remembering which is which when someone beats them in football ... it's not that one of them is called "Oceanguay".

They are both smallish states (by population, Uruguay has less citizens than germany's capitol city alone), they both speak the same languages, both were founded by spanish settlers, both have the same political systems and besides of that, you don't know anything about them.

By (Squeeman) on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 06:50 am:

Uruguay is orange on my world map. Paraguay is yellow. Pakistan is also orange.

You're smart enough to know that Paraguay is not Pakistan. Therefore, you know that it is also not Uruguay. Meanwhile, Uruguay and Pakistan are both orange and both border the ocean. Technically, it is the same body of water, despite being given different names. Uruguay is orange, Pakistan is orange, both border the sea. Paraguay does not border the sea and is not orange.

There, now you can remember it.

By Ye Olde Kafir (Kafir) on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 07:02 am:

Uruguay borders the BLUE ocean and therefore they play in the BLUE shirts. Maybe that helps.

By (Squeeman) on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 07:07 am:

That's dumb. My description makes much more sense.

By Bwm Wil Mindctrl (Bwm) on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 07:34 am:

Puschkin, in that case, I can't imagine why you confuse Uruguay and Paraguay, since Uruguay and Peru are more similar. Both countries even border the ocean!


Just making fun of you :-)

By Puschkin (Puschkin) on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 08:51 am:

Bummer - and I thought HOLLAND was orange!

By (Squeeman) on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 09:00 am:

Holland is orange too, obviously. And it's by the sea. Like Spain.

But not like the UK, which is reddish because the Brits are all angry (or possibly embarrassed or communists or in love or something).

By Ye Olde Kafir (Kafir) on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 09:12 am:

I hope you know which team is Uruguay next saturday when the Uruguayans play "Die Mannschaft".

By Puschkin (Puschkin) on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 10:06 am:

Holland is not only orange, too, it's also by the same sea (sort of) like the Urus.

Uruguayans. I think I'll call them "Uruk-Aryans" from now on.

Die Mannschaft will go for a fourth 4-something against them.

By Homelands Bookie (Psycho) on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 11:26 am:

I hope Klose will score 2 times or more. That'd be awesome.

By Ye Olde Kafir (Kafir) on Friday, July 09, 2010 - 07:31 am:

Klose is injured and will probably not play.

By (Squeeman) on Monday, July 12, 2010 - 07:02 am:

Bah.

By Puschkin (Puschkin) on Monday, July 12, 2010 - 07:52 am:

That's okay, though, because now Müller gets the golden boot or however they call the thingy you get for scoring the most goals in this cup.

Oh and next time the netherlands attends a football game, somebody should remind them which kind of sport they are playing ... that gung fu kick deserved a red card and black belt!