Mention the manabases as this may be a conflict

mtg-nicol-bolas-archenemy-reimagined.md

@@ -4,20 +4,20 @@ Nicol Bolas, Archenemy: Reimagined is a variant on the original Nicol Bolas, Arc
 
 ## What Nicol Bolas, Archenemy: Reimagined is trying to do
 
-After playing the original product several times, I found several glaring issues with it:
+After playing the original product several times, we found several glaring issues with it:
 
 * There was far too much variance with the Bolas deck, often getting mana-flooded or, paradoxically, mana-screwed. This made playing the deck frustrating.
 * The deck based way too much on the Schemes; unless those went off in the right way, the deck was quite weak.
 * The first two added up to mean that, out of 7 total completed games played, Bolas lost every time, with about as many scoops due to an obvious incoming loss. While that has a certain flavour ring, the product was reflecting the early parts of the War of the Spark storyline where Bolas *won* consistently, so this felt off, and was of course quite unfun to play as a result.
-* The Gatewatch decks weren't swingy *enough*. After 6-7 turns they were able to consistently mow down anything the Bolas deck did even in the face of Schemes and big pain cards like Cruel Ultimatum. I wanted to power these down slightly to provide a bit more variance especially into the late-game.
+* The Gatewatch decks weren't swingy *enough*. After 6-7 turns they were able to consistently mow down anything the Bolas deck did even in the face of Schemes and big pain cards like Cruel Ultimatum. We wanted to power these down slightly to provide a bit more variance especially into the late-game.
 * The games were really short, barring long decision-making sessions among the Gatewatch: games rarely went longer than 8-9 turns before an obvious conclusion was inevitable (invariably, Bolas losing).
 
-Additionally, there were some aspects that weren't exactly issues, but that I wanted to change:
+Additionally, there were some aspects that weren't exactly issues, but that we wanted to change:
 
-* I wanted to expand towards the later part of the Bolas Arc, specifically the War of the Spark itself. Combined with the repowering of the decks, I felt like this would be a major flavour win, as we could decide the outcome of his entire plan with the game as well as add some more cool things.
-* I really wanted Bolas to be commanding the Dreadhorde here, with much more of a Zombie/Amass theme and adding Liliana to his deck.
-* I wanted the ability to mix-and-match Gatewatch members in a more consistent way to allow either more players in one game, or more variety between games (how would Bolas fare against, say, Gideon, Chandra and Jace? Or Jace, Nissa, and Chandra, etc.).
-* I wanted a Commander-like deck structure. Not just for the singleton aspect, but also for the ability to repeatedly bring out the key Planeswalkers over a longer game.
+* We wanted to expand towards the later part of the Bolas Arc, specifically the War of the Spark itself. Combined with the repowering of the decks, we felt like this would be a major flavour win, as we could decide the outcome of his entire plan with the game as well as add some more cool things.
+* We really wanted Bolas to be commanding the Dreadhorde here, with much more of a Zombie/Amass theme and adding Liliana to his deck.
+* We wanted the ability to mix-and-match Gatewatch members in a more consistent way to allow either more players in one game, or more variety between games (how would Bolas fare against, say, Gideon, Chandra and Jace? Or Jace, Nissa, and Chandra, etc.).
+* We wanted a Commander-like deck structure. Not just for the singleton aspect, but also for the ability to repeatedly bring out the key Planeswalkers over a longer game.
 
 ## How To Play Nicol Bolas, Archenemy: Reimagined
 
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ In terms of the decks, this is a Commander-*like* format, but more like Oathbrea
   * The player may cast their Oath at any time from the command zone, regardless of whether they control their Commander or not (which, given the abilities of the Oaths, is quite critical). [Change from normal Oathbreaker]
   * If the Oath would leave the battlefield, it instead returns to the command zone. [Same as normal Oathbreaker]
   * The Oath costs {2} more to cast for each time it has been previously cast this game. [Same as normal Oathbreaker]
-* The original Oath of Nissa card has a second ability ("use mana as if it was any colour to cast planeswalkers") that is functionally useless in her deck and this format, since each deck features only a single planeswalker and the deck is forced into those colours with a good dual-colour manabase. Instead, this variant uses [a new, custom Oath of Nissa card to compensate](images/nissas-new-oath.png). The new version keeps the first ability, changes the second ability to an extra land drop whenever a planeswalker (i.e. Nissa) enters the battlefield, and increases the cost to {G}{G} to compensate for the slightly increased power here (comparable to Explore). While this is optional, I feel it helps keep parity between the 4 Gatewatch decks and avoids a feel-bad moment when the Nissa player realizes her Oath has no functional planeswalker-enters ability like the others have.
+* The original Oath of Nissa card has a second ability ("use mana as if it was any colour to cast planeswalkers") that is functionally useless in her deck and this format, since each deck features only a single planeswalker and the deck is forced into those colours with a good dual-colour manabase. Instead, this variant uses [a new, custom Oath of Nissa card to compensate](images/nissas-new-oath.png). The new version keeps the first ability, changes the second ability to an extra land drop whenever a planeswalker (i.e. Nissa) enters the battlefield, and increases the cost to {G}{G} to compensate for the slightly increased power here (comparable to Explore). While this is optional, we feel it helps keep parity between the 4 Gatewatch decks and avoids a feel-bad moment when the Nissa player realizes her Oath has no functional planeswalker-enters ability like the others have.
    ```
    Oath of Nissa {U}{G}
    Legendary Enchantment
@@ -48,6 +48,10 @@ In terms of the decks, this is a Commander-*like* format, but more like Oathbrea
    Whenever a planeswalker enters the battlefield under your control, you may play an additional land this turn.
    ```
 * Each deck features 2 additional Legendary creatures as "lieutenants" within the deck (not command zone), representing key allies that help define the deck and provide strong synergies. For Bolas, these are two of his dead gods; for the Gatewatch, they are on-flavour friends and allies that have come to assist.
+* The decks, and specifically the 3-colour Bolas and 2-colour Nissa decks, feature a fairly expensive manabase. This was a conscious decision to ensure optimal mana is avaiable (and avoid a key problem mentioned above), because losing because you couldn't play your spells is never fun. But we recognize that this might be overly prohibitive to people wishing to craft this deck. There are two options here:
+   1. Depower the manabase, replacing original duals, shocks, and fetches with more modern, slower multicolour lands and basics. This would hurt primarily the Bolas deck (much more so than the Nissa deck), but would be doable.
+   2. Proxy the expensive cards. This is the solution we have chosen for our playgroup, as we are firm believers in "Magic should be *played* and the cards exist". 
+   Yes, this means the decks as-is would never see print, even beyond just the Reserve List cards, but that is after all part of the point of "reimagining" them.
 
 ## Decklists