Tesla: Last Call for Kaladesh

Last week, we discussed possibly having Tesla set on Kaladesh, a new plane which debuted in Magic Origins. Though a majority of people seemed to be in agreement that Kaladesh was a good fit for Tesla, it wasn't near universal, and I'd like more people to chime in with their thoughts. In addition, there were some compelling counterarguments which I felt deserved more responses. For these reasons, I've decided to extend the discussion to this week as well, to give more time for more of the Artisans community to share their thoughts with us, and to gather more responses to the arguments already presented.

Note that I've disabled comments for this week's article - I'd like us to continue the discussion in the comments of last week's article, so we can keep everything in one place, and directly address people's points.

---

Here are some specific comments from last week's article that I'd like us all to work to address:

Nich Grayson noted that Kaladesh might not be the best fit for a 'junkyard' aesthetic. Is this a knock against Kaladesh, or could we find a way to make this work? Is it important that our plane feel Dickensian and capture all the tropes that people expect of steampunk, which is typically a euro-centric genre? Or can we afford to be more exotic and draw from a different culture, as Kaladesh does (with Indian culture)?

Another issue, which Jenesis brought up, is that Kaladesh is a plane already progressed to technological advancement rarely seen in the multiverse. Is it then really the 'progress set' we were envisioning, since it seems to already be at the pinnacle of progress? Though this doesn't mean progress has stopped or even slowed, it does muddle our hopes of capturing a world on the 'cusp of a new era', a la the Industrial Revolution.

I think these arguments have merit - and I'd like to get some solid responses and answers to them if we're to start work on Kaladesh. Here are some responses from last week that I'd like to highlight and have us critically consider:

Jack presents a possible solution to both these points - setting Tesla in the recent past of Kaladesh, when technology was still on the rise and a junkyard aesthetic might be more common. This gives us even more freedom with the set, since we don't have to carbon-copy what (little) was seen in Magic Origins.

Lee Owens likewise solving these issues, pointed out that focusing some of our set on the 'rebels' of Kaladesh could perhaps solve both these issues, them being a group built around experimentation and that might have a more scrap-heap look to them. He also explains that there's much of Kaladesh we haven't seen, so maybe some areas still have natural magic and thus room for 'progress' as a result.

Are these good enough counterarguments, or do they need some more work? Do they adequately address the issues brought up, or are there still unresolved problems to be solved? I leave that up to you guys - let's discuss it together.

---

Thanks to all who have shared their opinions and arguments regarding this decision - hopefully we can get even more of the Artisans community to air their opinions this week.

Until next time, have a great week!