It's always a pleasure to see your MTG inspired pieces. I love the design --- I hope we get some feline species in Ixalan. Not having leonin in Amonkhet was a bit of a sore spot.

Thank you a lot.
And yeah I know what you mean. At least we had the jackals there and feral cats. I also still hope that we will have leonin in Ixalan, but I doubt it actually. In the leaks we saw so far was nothing hinting that (of course it were sooo much cards) but still. And we already know serveral other species of the plane, so idk if there is space for leonin, but I hope so, also because Ajani will probably be featured in it again (although in the second set).

Yeah. We got a look at half of the set's rares and it doesn't look likely. Adding to that, they probably don't want to make it seem too much like Naya, so that doesn't help either. Regardless, I'm super excited for Ajani to make a return. Seeing him in the Kaladesh block was a very nice surprise, but after the way he was just ignored in the story he deserves some proper screen time.

Yeah you are so right about it. I hoped Gideon might die in hour of devastation and Ajani could take his place and therefore be more present in the future, but I don't think that will happen and Wizards said the Gatewatch will be less present in the future either way. But even without Leonin Ixalan looked really cool I think and it has a lot of potential, now I just gonna hope they don't screw it up again.

Me too. They had been dropping hints in the story and his domination of standard felt like a "last hurrah" to me, but it looks like Gideon is here to stay for the foreseeable future. At least we know he won't be on Ixalan, so that's refreshing. Gideon's arrogance really gets to me, and I did enjoy that the last Amonkhet story just outright said he's not a particularly good fighter because he relies on his invincibility magic all the time. I guess I'm still just upset at them replacing Ajani and Garruk with Gideon and Nissa. They had stated many times, even before the creation of the gatewatch, that they wanted their main characters to have unique silhouettes and show that the main cast of characters weren't necessarily all human --- Nissa being just another human with pointy ears, at least as far as those concerns go. At least her character has been developing better as of late. I don't know, it just feels Ajani is getting the short end of the stick yet again. I understand he is the least popular of the original 5 from Lorwyn, but it's jarring seeing how such a good and unique character has been pushed off to the side by both the characters, and the creative team.

Ajani rants aside, Ixalan does look great --- dinosaurs have been a long time coming. Plus it looks like vehicles are here to stay, or at least show up every so often, and I can't think of a better set to make that debut than in a pirate themed one. Even if the set turns out to be disappointing, I can't deny that it LOOKS wonderful. Vraska as a lead should be fun, and seeing as Jace is there as well, that should allow for some interesting interactions, to say the least.

I totally agree with you!
I hoped Bolas might wreck Gideons mind to the point where he was just a drooling mindless zombie, and even if I'm not Bolas's biggest fan I would have loved to see that hehe.
And yeah I also agree on that it's a pity that Ajani and Garruk got replaced. Although Nissa is okay I think. But it's just a shame how wizards creates new Planeswalkers and it really got to me that Samut was the second planeswalker in Hour of Devastation, it is such an incredible waste. We could have a Jackal, Naga, Minotaur or Aven planeswalker, but what the hell did we got? A bloody human.

But I am also looking forward to Ixalan and just hope the best. So far, with Jace and Vraska and Ajani we have a solid base, let's hope wizards makes something out of it this time, they clearly screwed up too much lately.

For sure!!

At the very least, I hope the Gatewatch grows faster so they can keep their origins walkers but still move the story forward without them being present all the time.

Very, VERY true about Samut. Nothing against her, but having another human is just the worst. IMO Nissa never should have been in Kaladesh, and Gideon never should have been in Amonkhet (as far as cards go). I know they're doing away with the block structure but 2 Gatewatch planeswalkers per setting seems fair to me. Then we can expand on native planeswalkers and more interesting species. Those two aren't even mutually exclusive!! It just boggles my mind that they say they try to introduce naga as a species to Western audiences but when it comes to giving us one as a planeswalker they skimp out. Hour of devastation stories are half way over and the entire plane hasn't even had a named non-human mortal character, with the exception of Djeru and Samut's friend who was killed off immediately. I've been convinced that they will always create more human planeswalkers than non-human ones, and while I can accept that, what's the point in fantasy races existing in settings where they're the norm if we're never going to see that? I could understand it if they were an oppressed minority or if the Gatewatch we're exclusively human, but the fact that neither is the case just begs the question as to what is going on with the other species?

As far as moving forward, I think Ajani and Jace on Ixalan with Vraska as lead is the PERFECT compromise.
--- 2+ Gatewatch members? Check.
--- 1+ Human and 1+ non-human Gatewatch member? Check.
--- Non-human and Non-human interacting with the Gatewatch on their own accord? Check.

This set up really does seem to be the best of both worlds, and I hope they continue with it.

I know what you mean. I think the official statement would be that human planeswalkers are easier to bring back since humans are on every plane (exept Lorwyn of course) but that's bull shit either way, because there have been countless planeswalkers we only saw once and then even that barely and short. I don't get why they couldn't give non human planeswalkers at least such a slot, if it is already so close to impossible to include any non human walkers as main characters....

I am excited for Ixalan so far as well, and the story and setting of the world seem so promising. But I try not to get too hyped for it, because when I was lately they usually screwed up. BUt I can't deny the fact, that what we saw so far was nice, I mean naya dinosaurs how great is that! ~~

Well even with that official stance, I think my most realistic hope for main sets moving forward would be:
--- Gatewatch are 40-60% of all planeswalkers
--- Gatewatch are 50% human, 50% non-human
--- 80% of all planeswalkers are reoccurring

I understand the needs of a growing cast are tough to accommodate, but once they get more established I think it will be easier for them to manage.

Well, wizards said that the gatewatch will be far less present. If we look back to all the sets we had, starting with Zenidkar and the creation of the gatewatch we had like 11 Gatewatch Planeswalkers and 10 non-gatewatch planeswalkers I think, even given that I might forgot a planeswalker, we are presently pretty solid around 50% of all the planeswalkers we have are gatewatch, so I think we will see less of them in the future and I might say like 30% of future Planeswalkers are GW Members. Maybe we have one per plane in the future, in average. In general I don't mind that, because even after a rather short time, people are pretty much over-saturated with the gw, but what get's to me is that Ajani is also a member of the gw now. And he was a rather rare Planeswalker already (of course, not as rare as those one-time planeswalkers, but still rare, compared to the gatewatch e.g.) but we will rarely see him now, if the members of the gw are decreasing how present they are.
Further I really doubt we will have a Gatewatch are 50% human, 50% non-human (and I really mean non-human and not like Nissa or Sorin, who are basically humans with pointy ears or sharp teeth). the reason I think this is for one, that some species are hard to establish on a majority of the worlds, because they simply don't exist there (but that could probably be managed). The main reason I doubt it, is that today we only have around 30% of all planeswalkers (counting the individuals and not the cards) being non human (again, I mean really non human). Therefore I think the gw will have a similar rate, if not less. At the moment we only have Ajani, making one of six planeswalkers being non human and I think we will not see too many new members of the gatewatch in the near future.
And personally Idk bout 80% being reoccuring. It might seem a bit high to me, but it's also hard to judge with wizards changing so much lately. Personally idk if I would like it. I hope at least all the more common species get one and there are still a few left who need one. But I also hope we might see a good Ajani card finally. I mean not necessarily on the level like Liliana of the Veil or Jace the Mind Sculptor, but maybe like Dack Fayden or so.

All fair points. I guess that would be asking a bit much for now, although as the gatewatch grows, the number of characters that need to reoccur does as well, so that could alleviate some character fatigue. Although it was just brought to my attention that they said that gatewatch characters will be more heavily featured in the planeswalker decks, and the normal sets will have more non-gatewatch characters. I think this is a good split since between that and the core sets returning, we will get our gatewatch characters without them being force fed to us in the main story when they're not relevant. I actually have no problem with a gatewatch majority in normal sets (not that they're doing it), so long as it makes sense. Nissa should never have gotten a card in Kaladesh and Gideon never should have gotten one in Amonkhet.

True, I forgot about the planeswalker decks, although the planeswalkers in those decks were usually pretty low powered, so far at least. I think if we see planeswalkers in those decks that might not got a card in the actual set they (hopefully) could adjust the powerlevel.
I was okay with the presence of the gatewatch, besides Gideon - i really hate him. Even if wizards kills white planeswalkers frequently, we would have alot of possible alternatives that are...less annoying.
But eitherway, we have to see what they make up and hope for the best.
And referring the cards I think they were still a little off the loof because of the change to two sets per plane, that was (for whatever reason) kinda sudden and they needed to change all the stuff that had been planned beforehand.

Awesome lookin' design

Thank you so much! C:

I love the imagery -- it's very evocative of aztec symbology, and I love that he stands bravely at the forefront of a savage land fearlessly. Great work :)

Thank you! I'm glad you like it. I did some research for aztec themes and hoped I could point it out. Thank you for the feedback! C:

Jaja. Ich bin ja schon still.

Würde ich nie von die verlangen, ich freu mich immer wenn mal ein Kommentar mehr unter nem Bild erscheint^^