“Slipping” takes the format of Protocol and pushes it to the absolute extreme. There’s implying a horror story through the medium of whatever technology or multimedia thing we’re exploring that episode, and then there’s burying it so deep in that framework that it feels like a twist when the shift happens.
Tezzeret’s abilities are mostly just handy, yes, but you need to remember that it’s also a three-mana planeswalker that can go in any deck that cares about artifacts. And Edge of Eternities cards often care about artifacts.
Can something created to inflict horror change?
In the first part of this new short story, the answer is yes.
But there are challenges to shifting careers, and the spark that kicks it off can be quite intense.
Loading Zone is one of my favorite Warp cards. Pay one mana, then go off stationing Spacecrafts, making your lands better, or just make a big monster. If you have extra mana later—and haven’t won the game yet—then you can further press your advantage.
It takes a decent amount of setup for really powerful turns, but I read Bioengineered Future as “each creature you control enters with a +1/+1 counter” (or however the language has to be for the rules to work). And that’s pretty dang potent for three mana.
Five humans went up into space for a secret mission. The mission has failed. Now, the only thing to do is send out messages and hope someone hears them.
“Transferal” picks back up a plotline that I had—admittedly—forgotten about. It hadn’t really been referenced since season one, and, thinking on it now, had seemed mostly handled. It’s possible there was a throwaway line where Celia was still dealing with being pulled back to the Archives universe—but I can’t recall it. Certainly, the narrative didn’t make a big enough deal to reinforce it.
Edge of Eternities has an enchantment like this in every color, but Pain for All is the only one I think is good enough for standard.
Honestly, this is one of the most complicated stand-alone stories we’ve ever featured on Friday Fiction. It’s set in the future, with some comedy layered in, and then is also an apocalyptic horror story.
It’s not the best “exile everything” spell that Standard has seen, but Beyond the Quiet will become a staple of any WU control deck, and will be multiple copies in that deck.
“Back to Basic” is an odd episode to talk about. It’s not really an episode; it’s exposition. The statement is barely a statement. The conversations don’t feel like conversations. The whole point of the runtime is just to teach us some worldbuilding elements.
Welcome back for Part 3. The final part. The conclusion.
In it, our narrator will find the Hidden Gnasher—but it won’t be how you maybe expected.
