This story is a sequel to My Little Planeswalker: Shattered Sunset
Upon returning to the human world, Sunset Shimmer finds Canterlot City twisted into a biomechanical hellscape, with all living things transformed into grotesque mockeries of their former selves. Led by the human Starlight Glimmer, the forces of Phyrexia loom omnipresent over all aspects of life.
Joining her six closest friends, Sunset is now faced with a seemingly impossible task. Can the magic of friendship find a cure for phyresis, or will the world be forever doomed to compleation?
Chapters (13)
Oh no! Phyrexia has mastered the changeling art of the offscreen takeover!
Aside from the Season 6 finale flashbacks, great work in setting the mood. And no one said we wouldn't be getting more details later on. Definitely looking forward to seeing where you go with this.
I would totally make a commander deck out of Starlight's card, but the people I play with would probably refuse to play against it more than once.
As far as the card's actual abilities go, I almost think that having her make all creatures other than her lose their abilities would make sense, given that's exactly what she did in her first appearance on the show. Then again, Linvala is similarly opponents only, though it's more specific, and at that point she may as well just be giving all your creatures +2/+2
I'm not actually sure how two Starlight Glimmer cards on opposing sides would interact; the other examples I can think of (Linvala, the archetypes) are more clear, as copies of them wouldn't prevent the original from working.
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If two Starlight cards are on the battlefield, the one with the most recent timestamp would negate the abilities of the others. Effectively, that means only the instance of Starlight that was most recently played has an effect.
Her ability is meant to affect your opponents disproportionately, since one of the core mechanical concepts of New Phyrexia is "insult to injury." That is to say, cards that don't just grant you an enormous benefit, but also hose your opponents even further on the side. This is seen in the design of all of the Praetors, which not only grant hugely powerful buffs to your board state but also shut down your opponents by making their board states weaker.
Viva la Resistance
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Ok, I have to admit, I got a giggle out of that. At least all hints point to actual build up from our beloved Changling Queen this next season instead of just, "Suddenly Changelings."
This is a brilliant start to the story, although while it is cannon that Elesh Norn effectively rules Phyrexia now, and its world view meshes very well with Starlight, I hope we get to explore what remains of the other factions as time goes on. Cause this first chapter was a WHOLE lot of he Machine Orthodoxy.
We have confirmation Jix-Gitaxias and his Progress Engine faction survived in some form or another. I HOPE Sheoldred survived, although Elesh Norn is not one to leave loose ends so I doubt it. Her type of traitorous evil will be missed.....although its possible a new Thrane has risen in her place. Geth and Kraynox were the most heavily described in cannon, although the Thrane's on the whole were largely ignored from what I can find out.
Urabrask is almost certainly dead sadly, Elesh would never abide by its effective rebellion and view on freedom. Let alone its refusal to help in the Atraxa project. It would have been fun to see how the Main7 react to Urabrask's inevitable offer to help. Well for a set definition of the word 'help.' IF it lives, and I honestly think its the most likely of the praetor's to be dead, it will likely be working hard to bring Elesh down.
So....Friendship is magic, right? Even if the friend in this case is made of metal, on fire, and violent beyond all reason.
Who am I forget.....oh....right....Vorinclex. I really REALLY hope it is dead. Surely the Machine Orthodoxy wouldn't accept the presence of the Vicious Swarm, right? Cause honestly, if they are still floating around, those sewers are no where near as safe as the Main7 think.
Well, it is convenient, but they would't have a chance otherwise.
You do know that that world's Starlight would be the same age as Starlight when she goes through the portal, right?
Seeing as Starlight is younger than Twilight, and pony Twilight as a human looks exactly like human world Twilight. You know where I am going with this.
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Nope, in this canon counterparts don’t necessarily have to be the same age as each other, nor necessarily even live at the same point in history. (Case in point, the human Celestia is most definitely not twelve centuries old.)
The Sirens. As anti-Phyrexian dissenters.
OH HELL YEAH!!!!!
Mmm. Devil you know, I suppose, and they're better than Phyrexia, but I hope they have plans for the sudden but inevitable betrayal.
Wonder if Sunset is thinking of unleashing Discord on them. He seems like the sort that would be a complete and utter nightmare for the Phyrexians and he'd even be wreaking havoc for great justice doing so.
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She did say a "few" others, so probably not Discord - given the focus on "conflict", it's almost certainly the Sirens.
Aw crap, this batch of oil operates according to Plague Inc. logic. I can only hope that Greenland has closed its ports.
The extra abilities are certainly helpful, especially the logistical support.
And... well, the events on Kaladesh certainly end well. And they appear to stay that way, judging by Huatli's visit and meeting her new BFF. So nice to see Saheeli as something other than a crazy cat lady...
But I digress. Sunset has what might charitably be called a plan, albeit one that could kill them all in several different ways. Now to see if the sirens actually kept enough magic to stay immune, didn't skip town at the earliest opportunity, stayed together, and can have their powers restored. Oh, and are willing to help the ones who humiliated and disempowered them in what would have been their moment of triumph.
... Honestly, I think trying to summon Discord to Anthropia has less chance of failure. Still, we'll see how it goes.
As for the card... instant-speed Sift with added uncertainty. Interesting, certainly.
A list of minor points:
This was a real missed opprotunity in the Kaladesh block. Love it!
Welp. That escalated quickly.
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I’ve bumped the mana cost of Carjack down to 1R, since it’s too situational compared to the 2R Act of Treason.
The Kaladesh block did have Kari Zev’s Expertise, which has a similar effect, but is also a bit more general-purpose and costs 1RR.
Shit.
My thoughts exactly.
Oh, gods... The Gaia Guardian's gone berserk. Where are the Botanians when you need them?
This is a shocker, but part of me is still trying to process Phyrexian lawn gnomes. Especially ones that dodn't try to subdue and/or consume the incompleat themselves. Also, that junker seems pretty darn big for a 2/3.
Still, fascinating development. (And smooth removal of the hypotenuse.) Looking forward to more.
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There's also Hijack, which can grab any artifact for a turn, though without the Expertise's free spell.
Alas, poor Timber, we hardly knew ye.
It's sort of amusing to be able to rule out phyrexians simply by the fact that there's still bodies.
Interesting that both sides claim to fight for harmony, even if only the good guys get a legitimate claim to represent it.
So is Glimmer the chief Phyrexian in charge on this plane, or does she get to report to the Praetors?
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Keep in mind, this is a series where the multiverse’s closest equivalent to an Outer God can be killed by fifteen squirrels.
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But only if the squirrels have crossbows.
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Are you referencing emrakul the aeons torn here?
3 mana, break target game.
How to scare the hell out of people 101: do that.
So Applejack has green magic, Rarity has black magic, Fluttershy has white magic, Twilight has blue cause illusionary magic?, Rainbow Dash has red magic, Sunset is a planeswalker so her magic is more omnitype, plus shes a multicolored planeswalker anyway, and Pinkie Pie has colorless magic? Pinkies is vague but im thinking eldrazi spatial contortion or reality bending. These could all be completely unintended inferences but its what im seeing. Dunno, was driving and had these thoughts.
I have a Black Green Grave yard deck that could use Gaea Everfree
It seems Sunset is building a Harem of Twilight. Though Science!Sunlight is definitely the better choice here. And hey, the Gatewatch may be busy now, but after they overthrow a government, all they need to do is kill a pesky dragon and they'll be ready to jump in to save the day. It's not like their foolproof plan on Amonkhet could fail, right?
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You assume they don't try to capture the incompleat. They probly only react to things on the property. That or something like what happened in one of the web serials i read: a particularly nasty biotinker took the wildlife around the area and installed their eyes and nervous systems into the garden gnomes to act as security cameras.
Y’know.. one of my favorite cards in MtG was a certain fish. A certain...
Stormtide Leviathan
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Appears holding a Rod of the Wind from Botania
Wait, wrong mod.
I'm a simple writer. I see Phyrexians, I click on phyrexians.
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If you want to start discourse, I’ll ask you to do it somewhere else. I’ve grown exhausted enough of it on more serious discussions, please don’t bring it here.
I don't see any 'they' in the card ability.
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Two things.
1. You may want a clear way to differentiate between blue and black in the mana cost since they both start with B.
2. On some "cards" I've seen a 'U' in the mana cost, and I'm not sure what that means.
Otherwise I've been enjoying the series. Keep it up.
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B is black, U is blue.
This is definitely intended to be black, as it is basically an arguably worse Duress.
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Magic officially uses "B" for black mana and "U" for blue mana.
I imagine Gaea Everfree sounding like the Spirit of Carnak as portrayed in ME: Shadow of War.
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Ah, thanks for clarifying. That makes a lot of things make sense.
"Yeah, take it from yourself, you're gonna want to be careful about the 'embracing all magic' thing."
Pretty sure you're missing a key "not" there.
In any case, very apt card for a nicely tense chapter. The thing about nature avatars is they aren't the best at determining what the real threat is, just that they're being threatened. And then they defend themselves. It's only natural.
Now, let's hope the sirens have fared better in these woods. Maybe the Stump of Harmony will offer a temporary reprieve from Gaia's wrath.
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Unlike Duress, it can hit creatures.
Did Sunset find a way to access that purple mana from an alternate Planar Chaos set?
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Thanks for the correction, fixed.
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Can do, boss. Didn't realize that I wasn't wanted here, either
hahahaha nice
"Or, like, Ultra Horse Instinct!"
"What did I say about them foreign-language cartoons?"
Nicely tense fight scene, with a climax right out of Super Lesbian Horse RPG. (Yes, that's a thing.) As for the cliffhanger (cliff-faller?) it's a shame pony Twilight isn't available. She could see if she could counter gravity.
Honestly, I was very disappointed by this fight scene. Based on how basically none of their spells were affecting Gaea, I had begun to theorize that, as an elemental, she was continuously drawing strength from the forest itself. Then Sunset would realize this and, using her newfound knowledge of how magic worked, dip into the enchantment destruction portion of white and sever the connection, causing Gaea to drop like a sack of potatoes. This would have done a nice job of showcasing her intelligence. You know, because she's supposed to be Celestia's former student, and a fairly smart person. Instead, we just got more friendship lasers. Sigh.
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I'd actually intended Sunset channeling her magic through Twilight to mechanically represent her giving Twilight deathtouch, which would bypass Gaea Everfree's usual inability to be hurt by spells.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to write "Twilight punches the invulnerable nature elemental and it dies" without it being anticlimactic in some sense, so I had to take a few liberties here.
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Well done Zen! This story, this whole combo of stories is awesome! Also, what MtG deck to you run. I haven’t played in a while, but I still remember my modded white and blue deck.