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You'd think Theros Beyond Death and Ikoria taught them that having a storyline matters to make a set, UB or not, feel substantial. Happy we're closer to that now!

Did the announce it was just the main set and commander decks because I honestly thought the inclusion of Jumpstart with Marvel on top of everything else also further cluttered that sets release as well. A further disjointening that didn't help when wanting to show as much of 70+ years of comics.

Lacking a cohesive narrative is exactly why Spiderman, Marvel Super Heroes and TMNT have failed and it's great to see them willing to change that and also to see Marvel let WotC do that and give us something completely new.

I mean, I wouldn’t say they failed. I think they did exactly what they were meant to do, which was sell cards under a licensing agreement ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ What they didn’t do is world building, which is frankly, what the most enfranchised fans love about magic. Vorthos’ are important it turns out.

They did succeed at that somewhat, Spiderman and TMNT definitely less than almost every other set in recent memory looking at what my LGS has still in stock. And I'd say a cohesive narrative is important not just for the Vorthoses around. It helps everyone, for example keeping the different

Now, i think it’s fair if you’re thinking, “hold on Kathleen, don’t you write D&D adventures that are literally piles of references? Like, do you not have a pinned post about your _latest_ Hank and John Green themed game?” Yes! But the difference is that DFTBA want the games to tell a story first.

The Pizzamas games have always started with “here are the timely references for this year, how can we make this into a storytelling experience that stands alone, but is still enhanced by the greater context?” In this regard I’m very lucky that I get free reign to recontextualize the source material.

The goal isn’t to stuff the games with references, but to take things you might be familiar with and turn them into pieces of something new. An AU, not just a D&D game with Fortnite style window dressing. Again, I’m super lucky DFTBA values storytelling and is willing to take creative risks.

I would also say I feel like the more “magical” feeling UB sets (and I use that term very loosely) do also lend themselves a lot better to the brand. So folks seem a little more on board with it. Also, while the biggest criticisms I had for UB sets wasn’t missing a storyline…

It’s actually pretty awesome to have one. When I first heard people suggest that, I was like, thats not an issue I have…but yeah that would be really cool. And really, kinda weird there hadn’t been one considering so many other forms of Marvel media have some story attached to sets or seasons.

I do like this more, but I do worry a little that this is a step in the direction of integrating the Magic canon with outside IPs through these unique narrative they're letting the magic creative team make. It's better than just random collections of things, but I'm not sure if it needed to be new.

Like, Final Fantasy partially worked because you could tell the cards were telling stories. 16 completely unconnected stories in the set at least, but there was an indicator on the bottom that told you where each piece belonged and you could put pieces together. Even moreso with commander decks.

Not only is it world building, it’s *Magic* world building, showing they are confident enough in their vision that they can do Marvel in a Magic way, not the other way around.

Magic is a very unique medium in that you have many, many places to put teeny tiny details, but very few places where you get to go deep. It’s almost like a assembling a story out of post it notes and pictures and i think it lends itself really well to little narrative teases and hooks