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.
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.
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.
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.
I was so concerned during the first half of “Bad Magic.” Nothing seemed to be happening. Riri was sitting in her trauma, and getting increasingly paranoid, but I was genuinely worried that nothing would push the plot forward until the next episode.
“We in Danger, Girl,” could best be described as the consequences episode. Many, many plotlines set up over the last two episodes are all collapsing in. Basically, nothing is going right for the characters—and it was the perfect choice for this show.
“Will the Real Natalie Please Stand Up?” is a terrible continuation of Ironheart. It has a lot of fun moments. It highlights both the fun science fiction concepts it’s playing with—and, to a lesser extent, magical concepts—while giving us an action-packed, CGI-packed heist scene. But it also, jarringly, has the same “convenience” factor to its narrative that plagued “Bring Me Home,” but to a much, much, much worse degree.
Ironheart’s first episode, “Take Me Home,” is one of the best opening Marvel episodes I can recall in terms of engagement. You get basically everything you need to attach to the story and get excited to see where it goes. Unlike Daredevil: Born Again, the plot is starting right away, no slightly non-sequitur hook required. There’s superhero-type stuff happening from the jump.
Hello Tomorrow! is perhaps one of the most unique sci-fi shows to come out in a long time. It’s got such an odd combination of factors that somehow come together to deliver an engaging drama and mystery revolving around a big, central question. But, unlike a lot of other dramas, there’s no hero. This is a show where almost everyone is a scam artist—though some of them don’t actually know they’re running a scam.
Tales of the Underworld didn’t stick the landing. The second part—the Cad Bane part—is not nearly as good as Asajj’s section. The action isn’t as interesting, dynamic, or even as intense. Lightsaber fights are just way cooler than blaster standoffs unless you try really, really hard. And they clearly didn’t.
Like the previous “Tales” miniseries for Star Wars, Tales of the Underworld is not actually one narrative. It’s multiple stories bundled together under one theme. And because of that, I decided it would work better to review them separately. The first three episodes are for Asajj Ventress, and the last three episodes are for Cad Bane.
