Legendary Symbol

Wafflesauce

For the Dominaria previews, many people have been confused on the symbol for legendary cards.
For anyone who may not pour over any information given to us, it is the top of a pillar with a slanted bottom, seen below:

Now, for ancient Magic players like me, we know that this is the set symbol for Magic's third set, Legends. From 1994. 24 years ago. Even though I have been playing nearly that long, and own many of the very valuable cards from the set, I still don't quite understand why the symbol is the top of a pillar.

Flash forward to 2014, where the Duels of the Planeswalkers video game introduced legendary cards for the first time. Duels of the Planeswalkers has icons for evergreen keywords, and most of those match up perfectly with MTG:PQ. The chosen icon was a crown, with radiating rays coming off of it, seen below:

To me, this symbol makes sense and has meaning behind it. It shows that the individual has put in the work and survived rough experiences to earn a crown and stand out among those in a crowd.

Additionally, this was also the set symbol for From The Vault: Legends, released in 2011.

Also, with Dominara, Legendary cards were given crown-like flourishes on the top of their card frames for the first time, setting them distinctly apart from other cards.

@Brigby I would like to call your attention to this, if only to escalate it up. Currently, it feels mis-aligned with the direction of other Magic products. Even though it is closed, you have my permission to group it up with the May Q&A session.

Wafflesauce

P.S. I'll gladly accept gifts of Crystals/packs for helping the development team on this, and how you took my advice from the community feedback of implementing Legendary cards.

https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/comment/785322#Comment_785322

WiLDRAGE

I'm an old player, so I prefer the Legends set icon.  Dual of the Planeswalkers is an aberration that should not have existed --I'm glad it's discontinued-- so nothing should be kept from it.

ElfNeedsFood

I’m so old, I remember playing Arabian Nights and that I had hair when I played that set...  

JopeX37

Respectfully disagree.  The Legends symbol is a great callback to one of the game's most important early sets and I'm a big fan of incorporating the paper game's history into PQ.

Wafflesauce

@WiLDRAGE Duels of the Planeswalkers hasn't died. It was slightly rebranded as simply "Magic Duels" and now they took that framework, put a Hearthstone skin on it, and call it Magic Arena.

I personally did enjoy the DotP 20xx series. It functioned as a pseudo limited environment and helped several people I know learn to play and transition to playing in paper.

It may be a historical callback, but it is really only a call back to those of us who remember it. It is not embraced by the current Magic branding, is one of the only sets not to have a coherent story line, and every set symbol from Weatherlight (1997) on has been carefully chosen to represent something important about the story of the set. 

Dominaria is truly "the callback set", which in of itself is bringing the history of Magic to the forefront, and I am extremely excited about that fact too. But the broken pillar has no meaning outside of the symbol of a set from when WotC was still stumbling through card and set design. It contained cards from all over the spectrum, ranging from blatantly overpowered (everyone remembers), to many, many cards that are worse than the draft chaff that gets thrown away at the end of FNMs (that many people conveniently forget).

Bonus link: Here's an example of some of them. Despite being 24 years old and many only printed once, you can get any of these for less than $1. https://scryfall.com/search?as=grid&order=name&q=e%3Aleg+usd%3C1.00

Double bonus: Everything you wanted to know about Legends and more: https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Legends

gogol666

Wafflesauce said:

Bonus link: Here's an example of some of them. Despite being 24 years old and many only printed once, you can get any of these for less than $1. https://scryfall.com/search?as=grid&order=name&q=e%3Aleg+usd%3C1.00

I liked takklemaggot.

FindingHeart8

it's refreshing to see players who've been playing longer than I am.  These days, seems like playing since original Innistrad makes you "old school." Half the players don't even know Urza's Saga or the adjacent sets (back when I started)

You lucky alpha/beta users have all the really good cards though *drools over dual-lands*

Enygma6

Heck, I’ve barely played paper Magic since the Urza Saga block.  And that was a brief return period for me.  Originally a Revized through Chronicles player. Missed out on Unlimited by a few months.

donvnny45

You know what they should bring into MTGPQ? My favorite old school card when i was a kid...

http://file///C:/Users/diszj831/Desktop/leg-225-dakkon-blackblade.jpg

Mburn7

donvnny45 said:

You know what they should bring into MTGPQ? My favorite old school card when i was a kid...

http://file///C:/Users/diszj831/Desktop/leg-225-dakkon-blackblade.jpg

The Blackblade Reforged card in this set is a direct callback to him.  Its his sword, I believe.  
Also, since lands are meh at best in MTGPQ you probably don't really want to see that.  Better to remember him as he was

donvnny45

Mburn7 said:

donvnny45 said:

You know what they should bring into MTGPQ? My favorite old school card when i was a kid...

http://file///C:/Users/diszj831/Desktop/leg-225-dakkon-blackblade.jpg

The Blackblade Reforged card in this set is a direct callback to him.  Its his sword, I believe.  
Also, since lands are meh at best in MTGPQ you probably don't really want to see that.  Better to remember him as he was

Thats true, and i noticed the Blackblade reforged card in the DOM preview and got all sorts of happy