sorry to be so offtopic but does someone know of a way to get back into an instagram account?? I was dumb forgot my login password. I would appreciate any assistance you can give me!
How will you fit anti-capitalist propaganda into a video about the problems with paywalling creative works? No clue, you've got me stumped on that one.
And because I now have a small platform of my own, might as well use it for good - you can still find copies of Children Of The Nameless through the Wayback Machine. It archives copies of websites as they were in the past, so look on Magic's story page after 12th December 2018 and before... March 2020, I think?... and you can download a PDF or an epub file. It's a good book! Bit of a slow start, but picks up when Davriel Cane's introduced. He's a fantastic character and a great example of how black aligned characters - even though in Magic's colour pie it's the colour of selfishness and ambition - aren't necessarily evil, per se. (And yes, that's a sentence I was very careful with).
Wait, Greg cowrote mask of light? Holy shit, now my crackpot bullshit theory of the phyrexians winning will bring back bionicle actually has a foothold I had no right to gain....LOVE WONT BE CANNON AGAIN, LETS GOOOOO!!!
Theory: The Bionicles - bionicle robots ? (I know next to nothing about Bionicle, I apologize) - are a future version of Phyrexians, created by Urabrask, who are leading a pro-Mirran rebellion.
Can we get a group of writers together to create non cannon stories to especially do what Wizard’s in house writing team used to do? So pretty much fan fiction but a bit more organized.
@@Spice8Rack Any suggestions on what to search up? This is super interesting to me and I'd love to contribute, but I've done some searching around twitter and I can't seem to see anything like that. :C
I would actually have a pretty spicy (see what I did there ?) fan fic in the works about how Urza used a clone to complete the Legacy Weapon, is still alive in the Blind Eternities and is actually the reason the Eldrazi Titans fled to Zendikar.
Please never let Neil write another book for MTG Wizards, instead, please have people who know the story present it. We like the stories, you were giving us the stories, then you took them away and im sad BRING BACK THE STORIES AND COHERENCY. (And thanks for shouting out Voice of All, they do so much and are the reason why i am still up to date on the stories in this drought of flavour)
Pretty sure he wrote the story for Theros and Wizard's decided to just not publish it, after the WAR reception. He was contracted for 3 books after all
Oh yeah this was a video about Magic. I got so into the Bioshock part that I forgot. I'm 23 minutes in and now I have to leave to play Mystery Booster Draft. I can't wait to get back to actually see what the point of the video is.
Lol that's a good point. I noticed early on that the quality of the closed captions was far superior to that of the RUclips autogenerated ones. Big ups to you for this, Spice8Rack
@@firetarrasque4667 If you consider the thematic heart of mill to be the wanton destruction of our ability to sustain ourselves on this planet (win the game) due to the ravaging of our finite natural resources (your deck) by the rich and unapologetically antagonistic ruling class (your opponent), and the theme of discard to be the direct denial of earned resources in a manner consistent with the global right's attacks on "entitlement" programs like Social Security, then every video really IS Mill vs. Discard!!! (not sure about the 'vs.', actually... further overthinking required...)
Okay, that two week performance marathon is pretty metal, do you think a successful filibuster is a form of art as well? Maybe it's that art is part of all facets of the human experience.
Oh I saw it, it was surprisingly hype. I'm of the opinion that anything can be art, and depending on what your intentions are, a filibuster can absolutely be a form of art
@@Spice8Rack Especially liked how you've managed to weave in so many non Magic things into it while still being amazingly relevant. I hope it reaches Rosewater and co at WotC because you raised a lot of good points that are worth looking into.
Shout-out to the eldritch tradition known as (the old version of) the "Fat Pack", a Magic product used to promote individual sets. They contained a novel, some boosters, and a set guide that explored its themes and notable cards, along with a collector's checklist. Set guides are still a thing, but the fact that Fat Packs had novels in them is the main reason I can still tell you something about Onslaught block's story, particularly Scourge. The game's story definitely used to be more front-and-center than it is these days, both in physical and digital form. A shame, given the wealth of story potential in the recent planes. Excellent video once again, really enjoy your work.
I miss the good old days when it felt like wizards cared about the story behind their game and how fans feel about it. I loved getting podcasts from the creative team talking about how things were going on their end and hinting at the future. It gave me a sense that the people writing these stories and making this game cared as much as I do about it. Nowadays it feels like the story is just a burden they outsource because they feel obligated to. The old story wasn't perfect (looking at token diversity characters like saheeli who showed up for 10 seconds and did next to nothing) but I'll still defend that era of mtg story, flaws and all
I was nodding internally while reading your comment until I went: "Wait, what - Saheeli ?! Is friggin' late 2016 now considered the 'good old days' in early 2020 ?" I honestly had thought you were talking about The Brother's War, the Rath Cycle or Invasion. I'm getting old . . .
@@Nr4747 I don't know about the whole community, I didn't really get into the story until the soft reboot. Battle for Zendikar is where I started actually getting invested in the characters
This is very based and breadpilled. I will give you a pass for the bionicles comments, but if it happens again I WILL be slightly annoyed and will likely have a poorer day than normal in this capitalist hellscape as I realise that the bionicles movies were likely just advertisements for the toys and that it cheapens the movies which I have fond memories of. What was I saying?
>as I realise that the bionicles movies were likely just advertisements for the toys and that it cheapens the movies which I have fond memories of. A lot of fiction only exists to sell merchandise. But that really doesn't change anything about the work itself or its quality? If something is good and enjoyable and you enjoy it, then keep doing so.
RandomNickname1234 Kinda? Children’s media has been around longer than capitalism, like folk tales and children’s books to some extent, and there’s still a fair amount that isn’t blatant advertising with a story thrown over it to loosely cover it up
Came for deep analysis of overpriced cardboard and cardboard related products, stayed for spice's rambles against the neoliberal status quo and capitalist system, loosely related to the aformentioned cardboard products.
spice: say you're building a dragonlord kolaghan commander deck... me: why would someone make a dragonlord kolaghan commander deck? spice: why would someone make a dragonlord kolaghan commander deck? me: touche.
Thanks Spice8rack this was a fantastic exploration of some of the issues surrounding MTG at the moment and really made me think about the issues you raised. The beautiful thing about MTG is the community that surrounds the game, the broad church with space for so many with different interests and expectations of the game itself. The video really brought home how much this community thrives in spite of WOTC's actions and also how the company quite cynically exploits it for profit. Brandon Sanderson is one of the most successful fantasy authors in recent times and the fact that he provided free material to the company as a gesture towards the community just reinforces the power MTG has in bringing people together. The fact that even this lovely gesture could not escape the gouging profit-mongering of the company really speaks to the disconnect between the people who make and profit from this game and those who have found a place of refuge and community in it. Thanks for the good work Spice8rack and keep it up :)
Nice work, Rack! just wanted to tell you you're really popular in our online EDH groups in Argentina and a friend even translated the Goblin Lore video and they all loved it!
I’m glad to see how good these videos have gotten and that your references to lefty concepts in earlier videos weren’t just symbolic, but instead have clearly informed your analysis and general behaviour. You’re a wonderful asset to whatever this internet community is we all call our home :) Please take care of yourself in the face of our country’s horrible management of this outbreak.
I just read The Flood after you mentioned it here and I realized that I hadn't read it before. I don't think I've resonated with a story as much as I did with this one. The depictions of Jace's memories and his struggles to even access them was deeply relatable. Big thanks for bringing it to my attention! The video's looking great so far, and I'll be sure to finish it, just wanted to leave this here before I forget
I was super into the weekly story articles, surprised at the level of quality you could get literally for free on Mothership. The funny thing is that the novels they are now charging money for are largely worse than the articles that used to be distributed for free. I loved the Shadows Over Innistrad/Eldritch Moon storyline especially, and was unimaginably irked at the anticlimactic and ambiguous way the Sorin-Nahiri conflict was handled in all story materials for WAR.
I am glad I'm not the only one who wanted a Grumgully story. Also I have read Children of the Nameless, and I would have bought it if it stayed free online, but now I am not buying for spite. Finally a shipping container is bigger than my apartment, like can I just rent our buy one of those?
Amazing video! And thank you so much for the shout out! It’s incredible to think my work was able to interest you enough to be included amongst these other great creators! You’ve truly revitalized my motivation! In regards to the accessibility of MtG Story I agree it has become much harder for even someone like myself to be interested. My return to MTG came with Ixalan because the concept of a cross between pirates, vampire conquistadors, dinosaurs, and menfolk struck me as infinitely interesting. Before this I played in middle school in tarkir block so I had little to zero knowledge about the gate watch or who Nicol Bolas was. But that singular story and setting (good god I love the setting) brought me back into the game. From there Dominaría was a bit eh for me but Ravnica brought me right back and I saw the continuation of this story (as I went back and caught up from Kaladesh onwards ) I fell in love with. But then war of the Spark just landed horribly and I lost a lot of love for this story. I ended up caring very little about the story of Throne of Eldraine. But my true love is with the art so my goal is to be able to have others look at the art and find their own amazement and find a card they fall in love with instantly. Mine was Revel in Riches and Dusk Legion Dreadnought -Carlos Ps: wow I need a better Profile Picture lol
The amount of work you’re putting into each of your videos is incredible. You keep being spicy and remember to take care of yourself ! Thank you for all you’re doing :).
you are amazing, and the passion that you have for the things you talk about just oozes out of you.... i want you to know that in a time in wich everything is a bit more lonely ( mainly due to the virus here in my country and the forced staying at home everyone is forced to do), you've been a great help...thank you man, sincerely
I find it so odd when people point out how old something is when bringing up spoilers. No one can experience every single piece of media when it comes out, and as certain pieces of media become older, younger people may not have had the chance to experience them when new.
Well everyone had plenty of time to inform themselves and Play/watch it. He still did a spoiler waring but there is a dropoff in consuming Rate tue oder sth is( people who wanted to consume allready have and the rest likely will never know or care) this leaves a very small pontencial spoilerable consumer percentage
@@simonkerstgens6888 It's still odd that so many people view the idea of spoiler warnings for old media to be almost a joke, especially in a video about accessibility. Not everyone has had the time/ability to access every piece of media.
I agree. It makes sense when you're talking about something relatively recent, that most people must have heard about when it was all the hype. Like, if you mention Breath of the Wild now, you could expect them to know the story because it's been a few years but it's still in people's minds. Stuff older than 6 or so years don't really apply unless they're very very popular.
Watched this Sunday while cooking and I feel a kinship with you Mr. Stand-up-8-the-rack-of-Spices-Poet in that Everything you have presented here resonates with my feelings about the MtG story, the accessibility, the *redacted* books, and how a piece of media can inspire thought, even if it's first and foremost and additional advertisement for a children's card game. If you see this, I would like to hear a short thought on your opinions of the character retcons that were made to begin the Gatewatch story arc? While giving Jace's home a name and feel was nice, I felt that changing the critical moments that led to each Jace, Chandra and Nissa's spark ignitions removed some strong character moments, and replaced them with moments of non agency and reaction to the harshness of the world rather than their own flaws in the wake of said harshness.
As someone who struggles to actually focus long enough to physically *read* the stories, Voice of All has been amazing. Between that and filling my phone with Star Wars audiobooks from the library, I've "read" more novels in the last year or two than I ever did even as a kid who took a book to lunch every day at school.
You are doing a great work, man! As for me, a man from another part of the world, another culture - it is pleasing to see such a great work, as you doing. That really inspires to think for myself, rather than doing what others are doing - just because it is more simple. You political and social views are fascinating. It would really be great, if we could hear even more about them. Also, you mentioned that you are also a writer. Where can I find something from your pen?
6:56 The reasons why are twofold. The first is that many people hate accessibility because it is associated with political progressivism. Conservatism is currently hip, as is despising everything associated with social liberalism and progressivism because someone on Twitter put their pronouns in their bio so the west is fucking imploding on itself and everyone is an apache helicopter because Fox said so... The second is that people love elitism. Despite hipsters getting a bad name, most long for the day where their hobby is niche. Since it allows them to smugly inform others of it. As such, many attempt to deliberately drive away "filthy casuals" such as this happen, because they want their hobbies to be inaccessible to others so they can claim to be part of an exclusive crowd. Of course, anyone who's moderated a closed Discord server knows how shitty of an idea this is. Because if you close something off to outsiders, people can only leave. And eventually there's no one left. But that's just my thoughts on it.
@Thought for Food Better than yelling Nazi at everybody, I guess? I mean, do people unironically make these sorts of statements? Do you take these sorts of comments seriously?
I kind of love that now that you've established your channel's niche as an MTG channel, you've basically started using it as a springboard to talk about whatever the fuck you want. Basically, you've long-conned me into watching videos about slam poetry and communism and I love it.
Back when I was still into the game and dreamed up my own set like I'm sure everyone does one of the focuses was the 'iconic legends' that drove the plot behind my card ideas. I got into magic at Odyssey where there was some big names and I was blown away when I unpacked the guy that was in all the flavor text. This almost makes me want to work on that idea again, just as a story.
I would watch non-MTG content you make. I basically forgot what the actual title of the video was partway through, the analysis of accessibility in poetry and Bioshock was that interesting. Keep on writing! I'm excited for the 24 hour stream!
My favorite part of story in magic is that after Venser(best boy) gave his spark and his life to save karn he never gets mentioned ever again. He literally gave himself up to give the people of mirror din a fighting chance against phyrexian so karn now can think about, how to nuke the damn place and the phyrexian and the resistance with it....
Loved this one, thank you for prefacing the mtg discussion with a lengthy but worthy discussion about accessibility, and thank you for the shoutouts at the end, you gave me a lot of creators to look up!
The Guilds of Ravnica/Ravnica Allegiance stories were nice insights into the day to day lives of Ravnican citizens of each guild, I’d recommend reading those.
Ben Goecke Dominaria and Core 2019 were both ehhhh to me after how good Ixalan was. Still worth reading though. They haven’t stuck in my mind anywhere near as much as Ixalan or some other parts have though.
Ben Goecke Honestly it’s worthwhile going back as far as possible and just reading all of Magic Story. It’s fantastic. There’s some real gems way way back that I wasn’t around for at the time, but I’m very glad I read them - the General Tazri one for example.
Never knew that this video existed, kind of a shame I never saw it on release. The biggest bit of "media" that really touched me and made me who am I was Pratchett, notably his early book Equal Rites. It taught me that hey, women and men are equal. From that I learnt that well... Everyone is. I'm glad I grew up reading Pratchett.
That was a fantastic analysis of the themes of Bioshock. There's loads of discussion about that game online, but most of it is quite superficial and doesn't really fully engage with what the game is trying to say. You really dug in deep and then connected it to your discussion about accessibility. Great job. :)
Honestly I love how concise and nuanced your take on art accessibility and its effects on how we interact and think about art, and also your in-depth critique towards current MTG fictions being in this fairly jank state. I kinda wish you'd rant more about War of The Spark animated trailer tho because that's, like, the epitome of how directionless current MTG narrative going. Like, I'm sorry it's not even a good cover of Linking Park's "In The End", IMO.
I could not watch until now, what with all of this international virus crisis, but I wanted to thank you you beautiful mad man. I have quite the heterosexual man crush on all of your work. The research, effort in editing, sound, deep comments/jokes/Easter eggs and more. The acting in the Yawgmoth video... I just find myself running out of word by which to praise you good sir. Thank you for blessing us with each of your videos.
I don't watch your content enough, and I doubt you'll read this, but I just want you to know that you're fucking amazing and what you do is great. I really, really enjoy what you do when I watch it, despite no longer playing MTG.
Other somewhat baffling things that happened with the story: Ikoria's book and cards were so mismatched that it had to be commented on and apologized for; Children of the Nameless is currently only physically available in German, apparently (some of this is understandable due to the pandemic, but...no notification on when it might be available elsewhere or in other languages); the Theros D&D book contains information that is available no where else that seriously builds on the world; it took the War of the Spark Art Book (which came out a year and a half after the set) to learn literally anything about Kasmina; and finally, the story is back online available for free and the quality is okay. 2020 has certainly been a year.
Great video as always. I can only dream and remember how much I enjoyed the Conspiracy sets stories, and to think that for the foreseeable future we will not be able to enjoy that kind of storytelling again... It drives me nuts. God I love the game, but despise the company behind it, as of today.
Ye gods, this was a beast of a video, in all the best ways. As usual, it was side-searingly hilarious, insightful, and absolutely uncompromising with criticism. Now that I've throughly tongued your arse, would you kindly feed us another video? Oh, and the easter egg at 44:58 is That Good Shit that made made my damned night.
20:17 Man the teeny little bits of Fleshgod Apocalypse on your channel continue to fill me with joy. Absolutely incredible video, by the way o3o You swiftly became one of my favorite mtg creators on the platform and have not disappointed since
For those of you that wish to download the pdf file from a version of their website that still had the file: web.archive.org/web/20190402164647/media.wizards.com/2018/downloads/novella/Children_of_the_Nameless.pdf
23:45 "overhauling the delivery method and the offers of Magic fiction." Love there's captions, but I've noticed instances here and there in multiple videos of homonyms slipping through. What I might offer is letting me sit down for hours to [re]watch these videos to check for maybe half a dozen words over the course of dozens of videos, but allowing me editorial power is not immediately advisable.
I also now realize that when Atlas is revealed to be bad, his icon is replaced with the Fontain head. amazing. I'm halfway through and this video is amazing, I loved Bioshock for how it employed games as a medium for story telling and for the surface-level critiques of capitalism, but was a teenager when I played it so never connected the dots on how the theme of choice applies to capitalism as well. Plus I never saw the other endings, the way they work together to make a statement is fking *mwah* chefs kiss glad people are still talking about it
It's crazy to think about how I started Magic at around the same time as you, and you're a big-shot RUclipsr that makes a million valid points per video while I still don't know how blue works.
You are wonderful at weaving topics together in a way that makes even an outsider want to listen. I’ve never been into poetry, but now I need more analysis of the poetry establishment
Love Sanderson. All his books are great and he is just a saintly human that writes like a machine. His love for fantasy is obvious and he has become the best fantasy writer today.
Might be worth mentioning that a pdf version of The Children of the Nameless can still be downloaded for free from the MTG Lore website, which can be found in the description of this video.
I would have expected a lot more hype from wizards about the lore of Theros and the explanations it could provide, stories wrap up. Ikoria didnt really have a story. I'm hoping after war if the spark and Eldraine attempts they are going back and going all in on this, it's no surprise they made this change originally when wizards first made the new animations. And I hope this will finally by the time they can connect together, perhaps supplement the paywall with engaging pieces to connect, and use creators like you to deliver
Incredible video as always. Now to be "that guy", Mark Rosewater has stated that the first "i" in "Ikoria" is pronounced like the "i" in "bit", not the one in "bike".
God damn you have done a wonderful job with this whole video. From the concept of what accessible art is to all the new content i have to check out. I truly love your video style and content. Keep it up
30 minutes in and it sounds like he is coming to a conclusion and I am wishing there was more. Then I check the time stamp and see there is 20 more minutes of this magnificent nutjob lecturing me and I smile.
There is 1 more problem with accessibility. Localisation. With digital stories they provided both fan-made and later on official translations for those of the Magic fans that speak language other than english. I can only speak for the russian segment of course, but believe me it is huge and there is no telling how many times I was asked to translate a piece of lore for my curious friends. Now take a wild guess how many physical novels have been oficially published here in Russia by the good ol' WotCies!... 5! Brothers' War to Thran (btw amazing Yawgmoth video, pure delight to watch!). And even that was many years ago. I wouldnt mind if they at least made an effort to distribute the books in english to russian LGSs. They do sell some untraslated sets after all. But nope, you get no lore, boyz and girlz, unless you are willing to pay for shipping up to 2 times the price of the book. This. This just makes me so mad as there are less and less players caring about lore at all after they wanted and failed to get some background info on whats going on in the relevant sets. I'm frustrated and pissed at the current lore distribution policy but why would they bother? They can literally print money on demand with Secret Lairs now so they can basically drop the storybuilding at all. Its a disgrace.
Hey, first of all, love you. absolute 10/10 from me, I've been watching since you had 2 vids, etc. unfortunately, I have musical rehearsal when your stream is going to be :( Is there any way you could record the Yahenni stories? (they are my favorite character and have imo the best stories in mtg) Again, thanks ily
Honestly, I don't even care about what the topic is anymore, I'm just here for your absolutely brilliant videos. Came for the goblin lore, stayed for the goblin loremaster
Although I own BioShock, and even started playing it once, I never finished it. Weirder still, I have managed to live this long without learning about the twist at the end! Don't worry, I won't hold it against you that you spoiled it for me. You're still my favourite!
You are correct. Thank you!
WOO! Glad I didn't mangle it :D Love your work, and future congrats on the half a million subs
Wow, two top lads, two top comments
You are hot.
Holy shit it's Ryan Hollinger, yeah man. Your channel rocks. What a crossover episode this is.
sorry to be so offtopic but does someone know of a way to get back into an instagram account??
I was dumb forgot my login password. I would appreciate any assistance you can give me!
Why is this card game in my 23 minute lecture about accessibility in slam poetry and bio shock?
Because culture and positive messages my friend.
Dam... I read the comments before watching...
I thought you were kidding
I'm here to play Magic and seize the means of production, and I'm all out of cards
We have nothing to lose but our Vedalken Shackles, we have basic lands to win!
How will you fit anti-capitalist propaganda into a video about the problems with paywalling creative works? No clue, you've got me stumped on that one.
It's easy to fit anti-capitalist propaganda into anything
@@MasterDoctorBenji When capitalism is everywhere, anti-capitalism works anywhere.
@@MasterDoctorBenji As they say, anything's a dildo if you're brave enough.
And because I now have a small platform of my own, might as well use it for good - you can still find copies of Children Of The Nameless through the Wayback Machine. It archives copies of websites as they were in the past, so look on Magic's story page after 12th December 2018 and before... March 2020, I think?... and you can download a PDF or an epub file. It's a good book! Bit of a slow start, but picks up when Davriel Cane's introduced. He's a fantastic character and a great example of how black aligned characters - even though in Magic's colour pie it's the colour of selfishness and ambition - aren't necessarily evil, per se. (And yes, that's a sentence I was very careful with).
@@Dracinard Can't believe that worked. Thanks, mate!
Wait, Greg cowrote mask of light? Holy shit, now my crackpot bullshit theory of the phyrexians winning will bring back bionicle actually has a foothold I had no right to gain....LOVE WONT BE CANNON AGAIN, LETS GOOOOO!!!
By bringing them back do you mean the characters coming to life or the phyrexians starting factories to make bionicles toys?
feed us your theories
Theory: The Bionicles - bionicle robots ? (I know next to nothing about Bionicle, I apologize) - are a future version of Phyrexians, created by Urabrask, who are leading a pro-Mirran rebellion.
I... need more details on your theory. It sounds like something I've always wanted
Big aromantic win
Can we get a group of writers together to create non cannon stories to especially do what Wizard’s in house writing team used to do?
So pretty much fan fiction but a bit more organized.
I believe there are a number of discord servers where such conversations are going on! I'd recommend having a look around Twitter for them :D
Spice 8 Rack Cool!
Highly agreed!
@@Spice8Rack Any suggestions on what to search up? This is super interesting to me and I'd love to contribute, but I've done some searching around twitter and I can't seem to see anything like that. :C
I would actually have a pretty spicy (see what I did there ?) fan fic in the works about how Urza used a clone to complete the Legacy Weapon, is still alive in the Blind Eternities and is actually the reason the Eldrazi Titans fled to Zendikar.
Please never let Neil write another book for MTG Wizards, instead, please have people who know the story present it. We like the stories, you were giving us the stories, then you took them away and im sad BRING BACK THE STORIES AND COHERENCY. (And thanks for shouting out Voice of All, they do so much and are the reason why i am still up to date on the stories in this drought of flavour)
Pretty sure he wrote the story for Theros and Wizard's decided to just not publish it, after the WAR reception.
He was contracted for 3 books after all
Oh yeah this was a video about Magic. I got so into the Bioshock part that I forgot. I'm 23 minutes in and now I have to leave to play Mystery Booster Draft. I can't wait to get back to actually see what the point of the video is.
And? Opened mana crypt?
I can't stop thinking about that Eggman cosplay...
Every day is Cosplay Day in the Spice Household
I think it’s small but very cool that in a video about accessibility you advertise that it has closed captioning. 🤙
No worries. It would have been deeply ironic if we'd not
Lol that's a good point. I noticed early on that the quality of the closed captions was far superior to that of the RUclips autogenerated ones. Big ups to you for this, Spice8Rack
THiS IsN't MiLL vS diScArD
A truer sentence never has been spoken
@@arcmage7000 No, this is mill vs discard.
All of his videos have been mill vs discard all along.
@@firetarrasque4667 If you consider the thematic heart of mill to be the wanton destruction of our ability to sustain ourselves on this planet (win the game) due to the ravaging of our finite natural resources (your deck) by the rich and unapologetically antagonistic ruling class (your opponent), and the theme of discard to be the direct denial of earned resources in a manner consistent with the global right's attacks on "entitlement" programs like Social Security, then every video really IS Mill vs. Discard!!! (not sure about the 'vs.', actually... further overthinking required...)
The true Mill vs Discard where the friends we made along the way
Okay, that two week performance marathon is pretty metal, do you think a successful filibuster is a form of art as well? Maybe it's that art is part of all facets of the human experience.
Oh I saw it, it was surprisingly hype. I'm of the opinion that anything can be art, and depending on what your intentions are, a filibuster can absolutely be a form of art
This has just risen up to being my favorite youtube video of 2020.
WOO! I'm so glad you're digging it :D
@@Spice8Rack Especially liked how you've managed to weave in so many non Magic things into it while still being amazingly relevant. I hope it reaches Rosewater and co at WotC because you raised a lot of good points that are worth looking into.
Totally unrelated but... Invite Spice8Rack on Game Knights!
Shout-out to the eldritch tradition known as (the old version of) the "Fat Pack", a Magic product used to promote individual sets.
They contained a novel, some boosters, and a set guide that explored its themes and notable cards, along with a collector's checklist.
Set guides are still a thing, but the fact that Fat Packs had novels in them is the main reason I can still tell you something about Onslaught block's story, particularly Scourge.
The game's story definitely used to be more front-and-center than it is these days, both in physical and digital form. A shame, given the wealth of story potential in the recent planes.
Excellent video once again, really enjoy your work.
As a bionicle fan, I wasn't really fond of Mask of Light.
There. There's permission to use your zinger.
I miss the good old days when it felt like wizards cared about the story behind their game and how fans feel about it. I loved getting podcasts from the creative team talking about how things were going on their end and hinting at the future. It gave me a sense that the people writing these stories and making this game cared as much as I do about it. Nowadays it feels like the story is just a burden they outsource because they feel obligated to. The old story wasn't perfect (looking at token diversity characters like saheeli who showed up for 10 seconds and did next to nothing) but I'll still defend that era of mtg story, flaws and all
I was nodding internally while reading your comment until I went: "Wait, what - Saheeli ?! Is friggin' late 2016 now considered the 'good old days' in early 2020 ?" I honestly had thought you were talking about The Brother's War, the Rath Cycle or Invasion. I'm getting old . . .
@@Nr4747 I don't know about the whole community, I didn't really get into the story until the soft reboot. Battle for Zendikar is where I started actually getting invested in the characters
@@kargoncoppercoin2093 Haha, it's all good. I was just having a chuckle at my own initial reaction. ;-)
"Keeping up" with the Magic Story?
Nah bro, they stopped doing that years ago. 🤚😎
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😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
This is very based and breadpilled. I will give you a pass for the bionicles comments, but if it happens again I WILL be slightly annoyed and will likely have a poorer day than normal in this capitalist hellscape as I realise that the bionicles movies were likely just advertisements for the toys and that it cheapens the movies which I have fond memories of.
What was I saying?
I can only beg for forgiveness
>as I realise that the bionicles movies were likely just advertisements for the toys and that it cheapens the movies which I have fond memories of.
A lot of fiction only exists to sell merchandise. But that really doesn't change anything about the work itself or its quality? If something is good and enjoyable and you enjoy it, then keep doing so.
Mattman324 It was largely a joke comment that loosely criticises how capitalism invaded children’s media
@@Wyrdangus created more than invaded really
RandomNickname1234 Kinda? Children’s media has been around longer than capitalism, like folk tales and children’s books to some extent, and there’s still a fair amount that isn’t blatant advertising with a story thrown over it to loosely cover it up
Came for deep analysis of overpriced cardboard and cardboard related products, stayed for spice's rambles against the neoliberal status quo and capitalist system, loosely related to the aformentioned cardboard products.
What wine were you drinking? I want to judge you more.
Whatever the house white of the Scottish Poetry Library was LOOK IT WAS FREE
@@Spice8Rack you have been judged. Harshly.
@@justice4most nah mate it's free. If it's free drink it alllllll
Now i want to see spice voice Davriel in something, because holy shit one of my favourite content creators voicing one of my favourite planeswalkers?
He would do a good Davriel, methinks. Far better than the voice they have for him on MTGA
Beginning to give up on Mill Vs Discard
Never lose hope!
It all will be well.
spice: say you're building a dragonlord kolaghan commander deck...
me: why would someone make a dragonlord kolaghan commander deck?
spice: why would someone make a dragonlord kolaghan commander deck?
me: touche.
Very stoked for this to be my sunday morning lesson.
Thanks Spice8rack this was a fantastic exploration of some of the issues surrounding MTG at the moment and really made me think about the issues you raised. The beautiful thing about MTG is the community that surrounds the game, the broad church with space for so many with different interests and expectations of the game itself. The video really brought home how much this community thrives in spite of WOTC's actions and also how the company quite cynically exploits it for profit. Brandon Sanderson is one of the most successful fantasy authors in recent times and the fact that he provided free material to the company as a gesture towards the community just reinforces the power MTG has in bringing people together. The fact that even this lovely gesture could not escape the gouging profit-mongering of the company really speaks to the disconnect between the people who make and profit from this game and those who have found a place of refuge and community in it. Thanks for the good work Spice8rack and keep it up :)
Nice work, Rack! just wanted to tell you you're really popular in our online EDH groups in Argentina and a friend even translated the Goblin Lore video and they all loved it!
I’m glad to see how good these videos have gotten and that your references to lefty concepts in earlier videos weren’t just symbolic, but instead have clearly informed your analysis and general behaviour. You’re a wonderful asset to whatever this internet community is we all call our home :)
Please take care of yourself in the face of our country’s horrible management of this outbreak.
Big up you, Ramzi
I just read The Flood after you mentioned it here and I realized that I hadn't read it before. I don't think I've resonated with a story as much as I did with this one. The depictions of Jace's memories and his struggles to even access them was deeply relatable. Big thanks for bringing it to my attention! The video's looking great so far, and I'll be sure to finish it, just wanted to leave this here before I forget
I was super into the weekly story articles, surprised at the level of quality you could get literally for free on Mothership. The funny thing is that the novels they are now charging money for are largely worse than the articles that used to be distributed for free. I loved the Shadows Over Innistrad/Eldritch Moon storyline especially, and was unimaginably irked at the anticlimactic and ambiguous way the Sorin-Nahiri conflict was handled in all story materials for WAR.
Great video, as always
Spice "Daddy Davriel" 8 Rack
I am glad I'm not the only one who wanted a Grumgully story.
Also I have read Children of the Nameless, and I would have bought it if it stayed free online, but now I am not buying for spite.
Finally a shipping container is bigger than my apartment, like can I just rent our buy one of those?
Amazing video! And thank you so much for the shout out! It’s incredible to think my work was able to interest you enough to be included amongst these other great creators! You’ve truly revitalized my motivation!
In regards to the accessibility of MtG Story I agree it has become much harder for even someone like myself to be interested.
My return to MTG came with Ixalan because the concept of a cross between pirates, vampire conquistadors, dinosaurs, and menfolk struck me as infinitely interesting. Before this I played in middle school in tarkir block so I had little to zero knowledge about the gate watch or who Nicol Bolas was. But that singular story and setting (good god I love the setting) brought me back into the game. From there Dominaría was a bit eh for me but Ravnica brought me right back and I saw the continuation of this story (as I went back and caught up from Kaladesh onwards ) I fell in love with.
But then war of the Spark just landed horribly and I lost a lot of love for this story. I ended up caring very little about the story of Throne of Eldraine.
But my true love is with the art so my goal is to be able to have others look at the art and find their own amazement and find a card they fall in love with instantly. Mine was Revel in Riches and Dusk Legion Dreadnought
-Carlos
Ps: wow I need a better Profile Picture lol
The amount of work you’re putting into each of your videos is incredible. You keep being spicy and remember to take care of yourself ! Thank you for all you’re doing :).
you are amazing, and the passion that you have for the things you talk about just oozes out of you.... i want you to know that in a time in wich everything is a bit more lonely ( mainly due to the virus here in my country and the forced staying at home everyone is forced to do), you've been a great help...thank you man, sincerely
I find it so odd when people point out how old something is when bringing up spoilers. No one can experience every single piece of media when it comes out, and as certain pieces of media become older, younger people may not have had the chance to experience them when new.
Well everyone had plenty of time to inform themselves and Play/watch it. He still did a spoiler waring but there is a dropoff in consuming Rate tue oder sth is( people who wanted to consume allready have and the rest likely will never know or care) this leaves a very small pontencial spoilerable consumer percentage
@@simonkerstgens6888 It's still odd that so many people view the idea of spoiler warnings for old media to be almost a joke, especially in a video about accessibility. Not everyone has had the time/ability to access every piece of media.
I agree. It makes sense when you're talking about something relatively recent, that most people must have heard about when it was all the hype. Like, if you mention Breath of the Wild now, you could expect them to know the story because it's been a few years but it's still in people's minds. Stuff older than 6 or so years don't really apply unless they're very very popular.
Watched this Sunday while cooking and I feel a kinship with you Mr. Stand-up-8-the-rack-of-Spices-Poet in that Everything you have presented here resonates with my feelings about the MtG story, the accessibility, the *redacted* books, and how a piece of media can inspire thought, even if it's first and foremost and additional advertisement for a children's card game. If you see this, I would like to hear a short thought on your opinions of the character retcons that were made to begin the Gatewatch story arc? While giving Jace's home a name and feel was nice, I felt that changing the critical moments that led to each Jace, Chandra and Nissa's spark ignitions removed some strong character moments, and replaced them with moments of non agency and reaction to the harshness of the world rather than their own flaws in the wake of said harshness.
47:46 Hell yeah, so glad to see Lily getting a shoutout!
Hey a shout out to Ryan Hollinger! I see you're a man of culture as well.
Edit: Ayn Rand Analog would be a great name for a punk band.
As someone who struggles to actually focus long enough to physically *read* the stories, Voice of All has been amazing. Between that and filling my phone with Star Wars audiobooks from the library, I've "read" more novels in the last year or two than I ever did even as a kid who took a book to lunch every day at school.
You are doing a great work, man! As for me, a man from another part of the world, another culture - it is pleasing to see such a great work, as you doing. That really inspires to think for myself, rather than doing what others are doing - just because it is more simple.
You political and social views are fascinating. It would really be great, if we could hear even more about them.
Also, you mentioned that you are also a writer. Where can I find something from your pen?
6:56 The reasons why are twofold.
The first is that many people hate accessibility because it is associated with political progressivism. Conservatism is currently hip, as is despising everything associated with social liberalism and progressivism because someone on Twitter put their pronouns in their bio so the west is fucking imploding on itself and everyone is an apache helicopter because Fox said so...
The second is that people love elitism. Despite hipsters getting a bad name, most long for the day where their hobby is niche. Since it allows them to smugly inform others of it. As such, many attempt to deliberately drive away "filthy casuals" such as this happen, because they want their hobbies to be inaccessible to others so they can claim to be part of an exclusive crowd.
Of course, anyone who's moderated a closed Discord server knows how shitty of an idea this is. Because if you close something off to outsiders, people can only leave. And eventually there's no one left.
But that's just my thoughts on it.
@Thought for Food Better than yelling Nazi at everybody, I guess? I mean, do people unironically make these sorts of statements?
Do you take these sorts of comments seriously?
@@shadikal12345 Man he didn't even yell Nazi at you. Quit your persecution complex.
I kind of love that now that you've established your channel's niche as an MTG channel, you've basically started using it as a springboard to talk about whatever the fuck you want. Basically, you've long-conned me into watching videos about slam poetry and communism and I love it.
Back when I was still into the game and dreamed up my own set like I'm sure everyone does one of the focuses was the 'iconic legends' that drove the plot behind my card ideas. I got into magic at Odyssey where there was some big names and I was blown away when I unpacked the guy that was in all the flavor text.
This almost makes me want to work on that idea again, just as a story.
I would watch non-MTG content you make. I basically forgot what the actual title of the video was partway through, the analysis of accessibility in poetry and Bioshock was that interesting.
Keep on writing! I'm excited for the 24 hour stream!
Really glad you had closed captioning available with the video as it really helps with the accessibility of the video on accessibility
Your energy is like, the opposite of alpha investments and I love it.
My favorite part of story in magic is that after Venser(best boy) gave his spark and his life to save karn he never gets mentioned ever again. He literally gave himself up to give the people of mirror din a fighting chance against phyrexian so karn now can think about, how to nuke the damn place and the phyrexian and the resistance with it....
Thanks for all the shoutouts to the various content creators. I didn't know many of them and they sound like a good time.
Loved this one, thank you for prefacing the mtg discussion with a lengthy but worthy discussion about accessibility, and thank you for the shoutouts at the end, you gave me a lot of creators to look up!
Its Nū-e, not Nū-ay
Any good vid, never got into the lore after the Ixalon set. Happy to know I'm not missing anything
The Guilds of Ravnica/Ravnica Allegiance stories were nice insights into the day to day lives of Ravnican citizens of each guild, I’d recommend reading those.
@@jamestrevelyan1268
And for the block previous?
Ben Goecke Dominaria and Core 2019 were both ehhhh to me after how good Ixalan was. Still worth reading though. They haven’t stuck in my mind anywhere near as much as Ixalan or some other parts have though.
@@jamestrevelyan1268 I will keep this in mind, gives me something to do during quarantine
Ben Goecke Honestly it’s worthwhile going back as far as possible and just reading all of Magic Story. It’s fantastic. There’s some real gems way way back that I wasn’t around for at the time, but I’m very glad I read them - the General Tazri one for example.
Never knew that this video existed, kind of a shame I never saw it on release. The biggest bit of "media" that really touched me and made me who am I was Pratchett, notably his early book Equal Rites. It taught me that hey, women and men are equal. From that I learnt that well... Everyone is. I'm glad I grew up reading Pratchett.
Wow, Angrath was on the gatewatch side all along! What a turn of events! Would have never believed that before I heard it here.
Thank you for making this video accessible ;) to people who are hard of hearing, like me. I loved it.
There came a point when you confronted me with so much “choice” that I started to have trainspotting flashbacks.
That was a fantastic analysis of the themes of Bioshock. There's loads of discussion about that game online, but most of it is quite superficial and doesn't really fully engage with what the game is trying to say. You really dug in deep and then connected it to your discussion about accessibility. Great job. :)
Honestly I love how concise and nuanced your take on art accessibility and its effects on how we interact and think about art, and also your in-depth critique towards current MTG fictions being in this fairly jank state.
I kinda wish you'd rant more about War of The Spark animated trailer tho because that's, like, the epitome of how directionless current MTG narrative going.
Like, I'm sorry it's not even a good cover of Linking Park's "In The End", IMO.
I could not watch until now, what with all of this international virus crisis, but I wanted to thank you you beautiful mad man.
I have quite the heterosexual man crush on all of your work. The research, effort in editing, sound, deep comments/jokes/Easter eggs and more. The acting in the Yawgmoth video... I just find myself running out of word by which to praise you good sir.
Thank you for blessing us with each of your videos.
I'm still trying to find a game related channel that's as equally funny as it is intelligent. Love your work and cant wait for the next.
:3 Thank you GuitarDude2020, you have my vote!
Whew. You're one of the few channels that could get me to stick around for a full 50-minute video.
Coming back to this video, I forgot how much of a banger it was.
38:10 is top tier.
Welp. Time to show up to Spice's events just to recite Sander Cohen's "The Wild Bunny"
I don't watch your content enough, and I doubt you'll read this, but I just want you to know that you're fucking amazing and what you do is great. I really, really enjoy what you do when I watch it, despite no longer playing MTG.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MENTIONING LILLY!!! She is an actual treasure!
Other somewhat baffling things that happened with the story: Ikoria's book and cards were so mismatched that it had to be commented on and apologized for; Children of the Nameless is currently only physically available in German, apparently (some of this is understandable due to the pandemic, but...no notification on when it might be available elsewhere or in other languages); the Theros D&D book contains information that is available no where else that seriously builds on the world; it took the War of the Spark Art Book (which came out a year and a half after the set) to learn literally anything about Kasmina; and finally, the story is back online available for free and the quality is okay.
2020 has certainly been a year.
Great video as always.
I can only dream and remember how much I enjoyed the Conspiracy sets stories, and to think that for the foreseeable future we will not be able to enjoy that kind of storytelling again... It drives me nuts. God I love the game, but despise the company behind it, as of today.
Ye gods, this was a beast of a video, in all the best ways. As usual, it was side-searingly hilarious, insightful, and absolutely uncompromising with criticism.
Now that I've throughly tongued your arse, would you kindly feed us another video?
Oh, and the easter egg at 44:58 is That Good Shit that made made my damned night.
20:17 Man the teeny little bits of Fleshgod Apocalypse on your channel continue to fill me with joy. Absolutely incredible video, by the way o3o You swiftly became one of my favorite mtg creators on the platform and have not disappointed since
For those of you that wish to download the pdf file from a version of their website that still had the file: web.archive.org/web/20190402164647/media.wizards.com/2018/downloads/novella/Children_of_the_Nameless.pdf
Prolly late noticing this but you played Lazav bro? Man DAMN GOOD JOB, HELLA CONVINCING!!
23:45 "overhauling the delivery method and the offers of Magic fiction."
Love there's captions, but I've noticed instances here and there in multiple videos of homonyms slipping through. What I might offer is letting me sit down for hours to [re]watch these videos to check for maybe half a dozen words over the course of dozens of videos, but allowing me editorial power is not immediately advisable.
You got it as close as I’d hoped! Loved this video, always look forward to each new upload from you!
I also now realize that when Atlas is revealed to be bad, his icon is replaced with the Fontain head. amazing.
I'm halfway through and this video is amazing, I loved Bioshock for how it employed games as a medium for story telling and for the surface-level critiques of capitalism, but was a teenager when I played it so never connected the dots on how the theme of choice applies to capitalism as well. Plus I never saw the other endings, the way they work together to make a statement is fking *mwah* chefs kiss
glad people are still talking about it
Spice, I was about to be legit upset about that bionicle comment
It's crazy to think about how I started Magic at around the same time as you, and you're a big-shot RUclipsr that makes a million valid points per video while I still don't know how blue works.
Just draft fliers and you can't go wrong.
You are wonderful at weaving topics together in a way that makes even an outsider want to listen. I’ve never been into poetry, but now I need more analysis of the poetry establishment
Thank you. Your videos are always a treat. Looking forward to the stream.
My thanks goes to out to you for this video and all of your content. Plus showing me others passionate about mtg lore. Thank you !!!
Seriously though, make a bionicle lore video I will swim to great Britain and hand you my stack of Greg Farshtey's books if I have to.
Love Sanderson. All his books are great and he is just a saintly human that writes like a machine. His love for fantasy is obvious and he has become the best fantasy writer today.
Might be worth mentioning that a pdf version of The Children of the Nameless can still be downloaded for free from the MTG Lore website, which can be found in the description of this video.
I would have expected a lot more hype from wizards about the lore of Theros and the explanations it could provide, stories wrap up. Ikoria didnt really have a story. I'm hoping after war if the spark and Eldraine attempts they are going back and going all in on this, it's no surprise they made this change originally when wizards first made the new animations. And I hope this will finally by the time they can connect together, perhaps supplement the paywall with engaging pieces to connect, and use creators like you to deliver
Hey, a Bionicle shout out! That's nice.
Thank you so much for introducing me to all those awesome creators!
Ah, the inspiration I've been needing for my DND game.
When talking about names Frank Fontaine could also be referring to "Fountainhead", another book of hers
Also worth mentioning: Rhystic Studies. He does video essays on MtG art.
"Sarah it's me again I know it's going to sound bad but how many fingers do you remember jimmy having on his LEFT hand?"
What'd you do to jimmy!
Hey spice, just wanna let you know you are super inspiring and I hope you continue your hard work!!!
Incredible video as always.
Now to be "that guy", Mark Rosewater has stated that the first "i" in "Ikoria" is pronounced like the "i" in "bit", not the one in "bike".
God damn you have done a wonderful job with this whole video. From the concept of what accessible art is to all the new content i have to check out. I truly love your video style and content. Keep it up
30 minutes in and it sounds like he is coming to a conclusion and I am wishing there was more.
Then I check the time stamp and see there is 20 more minutes of this magnificent nutjob lecturing me and I smile.
There are still dozens of Bionicle fans! Dozens!
43:00 See? Right there in the user icon!
There is 1 more problem with accessibility. Localisation.
With digital stories they provided both fan-made and later on official translations for those of the Magic fans that speak language other than english. I can only speak for the russian segment of course, but believe me it is huge and there is no telling how many times I was asked to translate a piece of lore for my curious friends.
Now take a wild guess how many physical novels have been oficially published here in Russia by the good ol' WotCies!... 5! Brothers' War to Thran (btw amazing Yawgmoth video, pure delight to watch!). And even that was many years ago. I wouldnt mind if they at least made an effort to distribute the books in english to russian LGSs. They do sell some untraslated sets after all. But nope, you get no lore, boyz and girlz, unless you are willing to pay for shipping up to 2 times the price of the book.
This. This just makes me so mad as there are less and less players caring about lore at all after they wanted and failed to get some background info on whats going on in the relevant sets. I'm frustrated and pissed at the current lore distribution policy but why would they bother? They can literally print money on demand with Secret Lairs now so they can basically drop the storybuilding at all. Its a disgrace.
Pleasantly surprised. I didn't know I was going to be learning today.
Talk about dropping the ball with the veil I was actually interested in that
Hey, first of all, love you. absolute 10/10 from me, I've been watching since you had 2 vids, etc. unfortunately, I have musical rehearsal when your stream is going to be :( Is there any way you could record the Yahenni stories? (they are my favorite character and have imo the best stories in mtg) Again, thanks ily
Honestly, I don't even care about what the topic is anymore, I'm just here for your absolutely brilliant videos. Came for the goblin lore, stayed for the goblin loremaster
I could never even find the Theros Beyond Death story summary
Although I own BioShock, and even started playing it once, I never finished it. Weirder still, I have managed to live this long without learning about the twist at the end! Don't worry, I won't hold it against you that you spoiled it for me. You're still my favourite!