I like the purple/pink colouring because it sits nicely between blue and red, and is also an alternate colour for black, which is the key colour for Grixis.
Posted By:
Stray_Dog
(12/4/2010 5:55:13 PM)
I actually really like the artwork for this card. The boneyard of the dregscape with hell's thunder clouds and purple heat lightning turning the air pink, pretty awesome in my eyes, embodies grixis pretty well if you ask me.
Posted By:
Rikiaz
(10/7/2010 6:08:56 PM)
Aaron’s Random Card Comment of the Day #40, 11/21/10
The way my boss, Bill Rose, sketched out the Shards of Alara block initially, his thinking was almost all centered on the booster draft format. “I want you to play three colors after the first set, five after the second, and two after the third.” That was a tall, tall order to attempt to fill for any block, let alone a multicolored one, and one of the biggest challenges was going to present itself during the development of the first set: How do you make a suite of limited mana fixing that lends itself to three-color decks but not five-color?
We always knew we wanted the triple lands at uncommon. We had the Obelisks at common for most of development, although they were better than they are now. On top of that, the dev team added these Panoramas.
I’ve heard complaints that the mana fixing in triple-Shards draft wasn’t good enough in general, although I can’t tell if that’s a truth or just noise. I hear all... (see all)
Posted By:
Aaron_Forsythe
(11/21/2010 10:39:43 PM)
I loved the Panorama cycle in spite of how bad they are mechanically. It just seemed really awesome to me to make "the sky" a basic land pseudo-type. The art and flavor text hit it out of the park, and I really tried to make them workin play. They came so VERY close to being perfect cards IMO, but I'm not sure what would have put them over the top, as none of the obvious fixes are quite right.
Posted By:
willpell
(6/5/2011 3:19:20 AM)
The artwork is very Grixis. Personally I absolutely hated the visual look of the Grixis shard, but it certainly achieved its aim of looking visually distinct. Flipping through a Shards booster I could easily see "Yuck, that card has nasty art. It must be Grixis!"
I think the fixing level of the Panoramas was fine. The Obelisks are obviously atrocious, but the Panoramas are fine. It'd be fine if they didn't have the "basic" restriction, as Aaron effectively admits, but oh well.
Posted By:
alextfish
(6/17/2011 3:27:09 AM)
Anyone who complained about the lack of fixing in shards do not know how to draft. If there was a problem, it is that fixing was too abundant, consequently obelisks are rarely playable, and cross-shard decks were still fairly viable. But all in all, the fixing design is quite elegant, with uncommon trilands being top picks, panaromas as high picks, and obelisks being important filler that you can always run if you don't have better options, or if your deck really wants the accel. Grixis obelisk was particularly good because it made it far easier to cast cruel ultimatum, one of the premier first picks in the format.
Posted By:
space_loner
(6/18/2011 8:11:00 AM)
using this card as a mana cycle for my unearth deck. good card if you are lacking mana.
Posted By:
erikmetal
(9/1/2009 3:23:27 PM)
You have to pay mana to activate this land's fetch, along with the sacrifice? Ugh. Might as well as Terramorphic Expanse or something like that.
Posted By:
keeds4
(12/10/2010 12:40:33 PM)
Nice view @_@ 2/5
Posted By:
Arthindole
(9/6/2010 7:32:20 PM)
The artwork on this thing is atrocious!
Posted By:
FragNutMK1
(3/22/2010 2:19:48 AM)