Now I'm Confused

Mburn7

I didn't notice it the last time Trick or Treat ran (partially because I didn't have Kaya then, partially because I played Gingerbrute first) but the Flavor text for the Arlinn and Kaya nodes is really weird.

I have been operating under the assumption that MTGPQ is held by WoTC to very strictly follow the paper game.  I have defended a lot of design choices because I assumed that Oktagon didn't have a choice, that they couldn't significantly deviate from the Paper world.

The we got the Fblthpt event, which implied that he became a planeswalker even though I have not seen any official story claiming that he has.  I wrote that off as a one-off fun kind of thing, and figured that it was just something cute that Oktagon got permission to do.

But now, Oktagon is further deviating from the Paper world.  To the best of my knowledge (please correct me if I'm wrong) Arlinn and Kaya are nowhere near Eldraine at any time in the story.  Why Arlinn would go to a world that barely has wolves and definitely has no werewolves to look for werewolves is just odd, and Kaya is too busy doing other things (hunting Liliana, trying to save her home, running the Orzhov) to take a mini-vacation to hunt witches.

So either Oktagon is going rogue and just inventing their own stories, or they have more freedom to deviate from paper than I have thought all this time.  This makes quite a few of their design choices suspect at best and outright terrible at worst (since they are only acceptable if you have strict rules to follow).  Or maybe I'm reading too much into yet another "fun" event?

I'm so confused.

Quantius

You're overthinking it and/or illuminati confirmed.

Mburn7

Quantius said:

You're overthinking it and/or illuminati confirmed.

Definitely one of the two 

FindingHeart8

I suspect they have more wiggle room to deviate, they just haven't used it. 

That's how you get cards like Skysovereign, which is fairly meh in paper mtg, but is a beast in mtgpq.

As long as Squee doesn't kill Jace in Phyrexia with the Sword of Lollipops and Traffic Tickets, they probably aren't getting in trouble.

Gunmix25

Mburn7 said:

I didn't notice it the last time Trick or Treat ran (partially because I didn't have Kaya then, partially because I played Gingerbrute first) but the Flavor text for the Arlinn and Kaya nodes is really weird.

I have been operating under the assumption that MTGPQ is held by WoTC to very strictly follow the paper game.  I have defended a lot of design choices because I assumed that Oktagon didn't have a choice, that they couldn't significantly deviate from the Paper world.

The we got the Fblthpt event, which implied that he became a planeswalker even though I have not seen any official story claiming that he has.  I wrote that off as a one-off fun kind of thing, and figured that it was just something cute that Oktagon got permission to do.

But now, Oktagon is further deviating from the Paper world.  To the best of my knowledge (please correct me if I'm wrong) Arlinn and Kaya are nowhere near Eldraine at any time in the story.  Why Arlinn would go to a world that barely has wolves and definitely has no werewolves to look for werewolves is just odd, and Kaya is too busy doing other things (hunting Liliana, trying to save her home, running the Orzhov) to take a mini-vacation to hunt witches.

So either Oktagon is going rogue and just inventing their own stories, or they have more freedom to deviate from paper than I have thought all this time.  This makes quite a few of their design choices suspect at best and outright terrible at worst (since they are only acceptable if you have strict rules to follow).  Or maybe I'm reading too much into yet another "fun" event?

I'm so confused.

heh, Likely just reading too much into it, my friend.

1. Arlinn was already slated to be redesigned prior to the event. This was a good way to encourage players to get her and if you already had her to try using her once again in a fun PvE event.

2. Kaya, same reason as above

3. I saw the event as a pre-release teaser. Fun but was lacking somewhat in the teaser department I think.

holiday events have always been loose cannons creative wise IMHO. I would have liked to see more tidbits from eldraine though.

Mburn7

Gunmix25 said:

Mburn7 said:

I didn't notice it the last time Trick or Treat ran (partially because I didn't have Kaya then, partially because I played Gingerbrute first) but the Flavor text for the Arlinn and Kaya nodes is really weird.

I have been operating under the assumption that MTGPQ is held by WoTC to very strictly follow the paper game.  I have defended a lot of design choices because I assumed that Oktagon didn't have a choice, that they couldn't significantly deviate from the Paper world.

The we got the Fblthpt event, which implied that he became a planeswalker even though I have not seen any official story claiming that he has.  I wrote that off as a one-off fun kind of thing, and figured that it was just something cute that Oktagon got permission to do.

But now, Oktagon is further deviating from the Paper world.  To the best of my knowledge (please correct me if I'm wrong) Arlinn and Kaya are nowhere near Eldraine at any time in the story.  Why Arlinn would go to a world that barely has wolves and definitely has no werewolves to look for werewolves is just odd, and Kaya is too busy doing other things (hunting Liliana, trying to save her home, running the Orzhov) to take a mini-vacation to hunt witches.

So either Oktagon is going rogue and just inventing their own stories, or they have more freedom to deviate from paper than I have thought all this time.  This makes quite a few of their design choices suspect at best and outright terrible at worst (since they are only acceptable if you have strict rules to follow).  Or maybe I'm reading too much into yet another "fun" event?

I'm so confused.

heh, Likely just reading too much into it, my friend.

1. Arlinn was already slated to be redesigned prior to the event. This was a good way to encourage players to get her and if you already had her to try using her once again in a fun PvE event.

2. Kaya, same reason as above

3. I saw the event as a pre-release teaser. Fun but was lacking somewhat in the teaser department I think.

holiday events have always been loose cannons creative wise IMHO. I would have liked to see more tidbits from eldraine though.

Yeah, you are all probably right.  Maybe I am crazy (or am I?!?!?!)

If you want more info on Eldraine, Wizards just published a full-on plane design guide that covers just about everything
(https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/planeswalkers-guide-eldraine-2019-10-31)

As usual, there are design stories about most of the individual cards too if you care to browse through the archive.

If you're looking for specifically MTGPQ info on Eldraine, I'm afraid we most likely won't get any of that until release day (and frankly I'm shocked we even got this)

WiLDRAGE

FindingHeart8 said:

As long as Squee doesn't kill Jace in Phyrexia with the Sword of Lollipops and Traffic Tickets, they probably aren't getting in trouble.

I hate Jace so his demise, by whatever means, would be completely acceptable in my opinion.

Brigby

@Gunmix25 is correct. When it comes to special events, particularly when they're tied to the holidays, we usually get a bit more creative freedom.

Everything still needs to be approved by Wizards of the Coast, of course, but they've always been great to work with, and they appreciate these fun holiday celebrations just as much as we love designing them for you all!

Mburn7

Brigby said:

@Gunmix25 is correct. When it comes to special events, particularly when they're tied to the holidays, we usually get a bit more creative freedom.

Everything still needs to be approved by Wizards of the Coast, of course, but they've always been great to work with, and they appreciate these fun holiday celebrations just as much as we love designing them for you all!

Ah, that makes sense.  Guess I'm just going a bit crazy.  Thanks!

Nyarlathotep

It's  special event, available twice a year within four days or something. 
Also it's a Halloween thing. 
werewolves kind of fit the theme.
I am actually more confused about the other node needjng kaya instead of Sorin our old vampire boy. 

But i think this was just to promote the fact that they currently reworked kaya (and man did they do a freaking great job with it) and maybe sell kaya to some players, who did not consider her worth it in before. Like me for example. 
I bought her and leveled her to max just to use her in this event. 
And i am actually really happy about that. Kya is a beast now. 

But i think Sorin and some vamps would have been closer to a Halloween theme...  😉

Unknown

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Stormcrow

Holy overthinking overthinker, Batman!

What did the 3.8 release notes say about Arlinn and Kaya?

Spooky, scary season-time is the perfect time for reworks and updates to some spooky, scary Planeswalkers!

And so, the Halloween event uses the two reworked, already-described-as spooky, scary Planeswalkers! No grand conspiracy to quietly rewrite MtG lore required.