Unusual Tribes 2: Vedalken

Intro

In the second column in this series, in which we examine creature types from Magic the Gathering which have received either partial or no tribal support from Wizards of the Coast, we shall be assessing Vedalken. Native to several planes of the multiverse, Vedalken are a fantasy race of Wizards of the Coast’s own creation. Partially amphibious humanoids with blue skin and either pointed or compressed ears, depending upon their plane of origin, Vedalken debuted in 2003 with the release of Mirrodin. Doug Beyer, Magic the Gathering’s senior creative designer, claims that they were initially in order to replace Merfolk as a signature blue creature. This replacement was seen as necessary due to fears about incorporating merfolk on planes which did not feature water. [1] This decision has since been rescinded and Vedalken and Merfolk coexist. Reflecting this, every Vedalken which has ever been printed has been on a card which is, at least partially, blue. Their character, in so much as it is possible to encapsulate the ‘character’ of a diverse race existing in several differing communities across the multiverse, is described on the flavour text of several cards, as well as in the Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica.

The flavour text of Vedalken Mastermind initially printed in Fifth Dawn, the third set of the Mirrodin block which introduced Vedalken, describes Vedalken unflatteringly.  The card states that, ‘The Vedalken see other beings from a cold distance, as either experimental subjects or objects of study’. This portrays them as emotionless scientists, devoid of feelings. Portrayals of Vedalken have gotten gradually warmer overtime. The Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica, printed in 2018, describes them in far more positive terms. Two passages in the guide describe the Vedalken. The first states that, ‘To members of other races Vedalken often seem cold, even emotionless. That assessment isn’t fair. They feel emotion every bit as intensely as other folk do, but they are skilled at not displaying it. Cool rationality guides their actions, they make and follow careful plans, and they are patient enough to do nothing when the ideal outcome relies on such inaction’. The second passage states, ‘every imperfection is a chance for improvement, and progress is an endless march toward a state of perfection that can never be reached. This viewpoint leads Vedalken to pursue their work with delighted enthusiasm, never deterred by setbacks and excited by every opportunity for improvement’.[2] This shows that Vedalken are printed in blue for reasons far beyond merely the colour of their skin. They encapsulate blue’s ideology of using study and hard work for the sake of self-improvement, as well as demonstrating rational and logical nature of blue. The notion of Vedalken being detached scientists has been preserved over time. Now, however, they are no longer described as being completely emotionless, as they were upon their introduction.

The remnant of this article shall describe how Wizards of the Coast attempted to capture this feeling of the Vedalken as studious scholars, motivated by thoughts rather than feelings, through their cards.

Vedalken Across the Multiverse

The Vedalken of Mirrodin are largely flavoured as artificers. Vedalken Archmage, Synod Artificer and Vedalken Engineer all explicitly interact with artifacts in differing ways. Vedalken Orrery and Vedalken Shackles demonstrate their inventions in action. In the war depicted in the Scars of Mirrodin block the Vedalken who remain aligned with their native plane such as Vedalken Infuser retain this ‘interacts with artifacts’ flavour. Meanwhile, the lone Vedalken shown joining the Phyrexian side, Vedalken Anatomist, instead adopts the Phyrexian mechanic of spreading -1/-1 counters. The card’s artwork depicts a being, scarcely recognisable as a Vedalken any longer, covered in pustules and growths and cruelly experimenting on a goblin. This demonstrates that the Anatomist is committed to spreading the infectious Phyrexian plague.

The flavour of Ravnican Vedalken varies depending upon their guild membership, or in certain instances, lack thereof. There are Vedalken in each of Ravnica’s blue aligned guilds. Vedalken associated with the Azorius Senates: such as Deputy of Detention, Isperia’s Skywatch and the original Azorius Guildmage, are typically focused on detaining criminals. This is achieved most clearly in literally employing the Detain mechanic, as Isperia’s Skywatch does, to tap creatures down. Tapping creatures through other means, such as through the Guildmage’s ability, also reflects this. Deputy of Detention takes this a step further and actively exiles enemy creatures. The increasing intensity of these abilities, all themed around arresting enemies, may reflect the rising tension on 

Ravnica in Guilds and Allegiance, as the schemes of Nicol Bolas fall into place. 

Vedalken aligned with the Simic Combine often have their guild’s signature mechanics. Vigean Graftmage possesses Graft, whilst Skatewing Spy has Adapt, these being Simic’s mechanic in Dissension and Ravnica Alligence respectively. Beamsplitter Mage is the only Vedalken bearing the Izzet watermark. He copies instants and sorceries cast upon him. This is a typical Izzet ability, as the red/blue guild frequently interacts with instants and sorceries, yet this ability is relatively unique amongst Vedalken. Mizzium Meddler from Magic Origins is also Izzet aligned. This is demonstrated by the card’s flavour text and the fact that the Meddler wears Mizzium armour, an alloy created by members of the Izzet guild and named after their Guildmaster Niv’mizzet. Though no Vedalken cards officially bear the Dimir guildmark, Vedalken Mesmerist is heavily implied to be aligned with House Dimir. The Mesmerist’s flavour text implies that the card’s subject is meddling with the memories of a guard to slip through undetected, actions typical of Ravnica’s covert spy network.

In addition to each of these guild-aligned Vedalken, there are also several guild less Vedalken, such as Sage’s Row Denizen and Sage’s Row Savant. Both of these cards are concerned with modifying the library of one player or the other. Though Ravnica’s Vedalken possess a wide variety of differing abilities, these abilities often tells us more about the identity of Ravnica’s guilds than it does about the Vedalken people themselves.

Vedalken once occupied Esper, one of the shards of the formerly fractured plane of Alara.  Having augmented themselves with etherium, an aether-infused metal, the Vedalken of Esper go beyond their Mirran and Kaledeshi counterparts, as do all the denizens of the world. Esper’s Vedalken population are artifact creatures themselves, rather than merely artificers. Their artifact synergies are thus incredibly direct. Etherium Sculptor reduces the cost of artifacts by one and Master of Etherium buffs all artifact creatures. Due to all of Esper’s Vedalken being artifact creatures these bonuses apply to all the Vedalken who reside on the shard, as well as everyone else on Esper. Esper’s Vedalken also make use of black and white mana, as evidenced by Esper Sojourners and Esper Stormblade. Their affinity with these additional colours is due to these 3 colours of mana being the only ones present on the shard. Once the Conflux occurs, and Alara merges back into a single plane, the situation of Esper’s Vedalken population is forever altered. Vedalken Heretic depicts an individual Vedalken renouncing the artificial nature of their home and going to live in nature. The heretic declares, ‘Etherium clouded my eyes, clogged my ears, desensitized my skin. Now that I can feel, I can begin to learn’. Not all of Esper’s populace were so lucky. Vedalken Ghoul was slain and reanimated as a zombie, assumingly by a necromancer from Grixis. Their etherium enhancements have been torn from their body. Notably neither the heretics nor the ghoul are artifact creatures any longer.

The Vedalkan of Kaladesh, like their Mirran counterparts, are typically depicted as artificers. Many of the Vedalken of Kaladesh interact with the block’s energy mechanic, such as Minister of Inquiries and Aether Theorist. Furthermore, the Instant Glimmer of Genius generates energy and depicts a Vedalken inventor in its artwork. Kaledeshi Vedalken are unique as they possess 6 fingers, which greatly increases their dexterity, as shown on Vedalken Blademaster.               

Finally, the Modern Horizens card Ingenious Infiltrator depicts a Vedalken ninja. This implies that there may be a Vedalken population on Kamigawa, or else a secret sect of Vedalken ninjas living on some other plane.

Reflecting this in Gameplay

As mentioned above, Vedalken’s abilities are largely defined by the set in which they are printed rather than being universal. Ravnican Vedalken are defined by their guild’s flavour rather than their own. The Vedalken of Esper share the trait of being artifact creatures with all of the other inhabitants of their shard. Similarly generating energy was one of the themes of Kaladesh block, rather than being specific to the Vedalken. Though there are certain consistent themes, such as the plethora of Vedalken who mill and interact with artifacts, demonstrating their scholarly nature and alignment with blue. Though there are no Vedalken lords, strictly speaking, Grand Architect is a Vedalken who buffs all blue creatures, thus implicitly benefiting every other Vedalken as currently they are all printed in blue. Master of Etherium, as mentioned above, buffs each of its controller’s artifact creatures thus supporting each of the etherium augmented Vedalken of Esper.

Legendary Vedalken

There are currently two legendary Vedalken, Padeem, Consul of Innovation and Nin, the Pain Artist. Padeemmakes the best commander for a Vedalken based EDH deck. Though Padeem interacts with artifacts, rather than Vedalken themselves, she still makes an appropriate leader. The high number of Vedalken who also interact with artifacts, not to mention the fact that the Vedalken of Esper are artifact creatures themselves ensure that his ability is deeply relevant. It is highly possible to build a thematically appropriate tribal deck with the Consul of Innovation at its head.

Nin, the Pain Artist is a significantly more unusual card. Her ability damages creatures and permits their controllers to draw cards. This combos exceptionally well with the niche artifact Stuffy Doll and allows for huge amounts of card draw whilst also damaging an opponent. Nin can potentially combo with Vedalken who mill, such as Vedalken Entrancer, to build a peculiar tribal/mill deck. Such a strategy is very far from viable, however.

Arbitrary Grades

Flavour: D+

Vedalken largely succeed in achieving the purpose for which they were initially designed, namely, to be a new signature creature type for blue in lieu of merfolk. Many Vedalken have typical blue effects such as synergising with artifacts, drawing cards and milling. There are also a few interesting fringe cards which do unique things, such as Realmwright and Vedalken Plotter, who interact with lands. Yet when merfolk returned Vedalken were made to share the niche of being blue’s signature creatures. The fact that Vedalken’s primary mechanical identity is that they are ‘blue aligned’, is perhaps too conceptually wide to make them entirely unique. Their identity is typically subsumed beneath the themes of the sets in which they are printed. There is great room for future development and clarification, however, as Vedalken are printed frequently.

Viability: C+

Individually many Vedalken are far more viable cards than the skeletons discussed last week. Furthermore, many of them do similar things, such as interacting with artifacts and milling opponents, meaning that there is a degree of synergy binding them together. A Vedalken tribal deck is thus relatively viable in Commander, though not in any other format.  I felt unable to grade Vedalken higher than C, however, as they still possess no true lord.

Best and worst cards:

Curio Vendor, being the only vanilla Vedalken currently in the game, is certainly the most boring card of the tribe. Strictly worse than Sage’s Row Savant, Vedalken Mesmerist and Crosstown Courier, the Curio Vendor may possibly be the weakest Vedalken. Vedalken Heretic follows closely behind, often consigned to a fate of being impotently blocked and destroyed unless they can be made unblockable in some way.

Deputy of Detention is possibly the best Vedalken. With the potential to exile multiple threats simultaneously, so long as they bear the same name, as well as being versatile enough to remove anything except for lands. It is little surprise that the deputy is currently seeing use across several formats.  Honourable mention goes to Vedalken Archmage who acts as a powerful, if slightly costly, draw engine for artifact decks. Grand Architect and Master of Etherium are also commendable cards, especially in Commander.

End note: I have done some experimentation with this article. It is a significantly longer piece than the first article in this series. This article delves more into the identity of what it means to be a Vedalken than last weeks did when looking at skeletons. In part, I felt this was necessary as skeletons are a universal presence in many fantasy settings, whilst Vedalken are unique to MTG and Dungeons and Dragons and thus require an introduction. I also felt it necessary to describe how the scholarly nature of the Vedalken was communicated through gameplay. Even with this piece’s increased length I still had to make cuts. Notably I ultimately decided against discussing Dovin Baan due to his being a Planeswalker and thus not strictly bearing the ‘Vedalken’ creature type.

Feedback on this new approach would be greatly appreciated. Also, I have heard the comments some of you left on Reddit. Articles on cats, treefolk and crabs should be coming out over the course of the next few weeks.

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[1] Doug Beyer’s article, on the reintroduction of Merfolk and explaining why they were initially withdrawn for a time . https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/merfolk-resurfaced-2008-06-25

[2] James Wyatt, Jeremy Crawford et al., Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica, (Renton: Hasbro, 2018) p.21