What Happens in The Brothers War?
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
- The Phyrexians have revealed their endgame, and now it's up to the Gatewatch to stop them - but with no idea how to use their best weapon, they'll have to send Teferi across time in a desperate attempt to unlock the secrets of one of Magic's most notorious characters...
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The "light is as good as fire" reference by Jodah is a callback to an early MTG novel, "The Gathering Dark" where a young Jodah, just learning magic, has trouble casting a fire spell to light a campfire but can make a strong enough light spell to light the campfire. (Jodah started as a white mage being taught by a red mage)
Don't The Thran and Brother's War precede Jodah's books?
@@pr0fess0rbadass *does some digging* huh, guess I had publish dates wrong... though the publish dates on wikipedia seem off compared to what I remember. Oh well, point still remains about the "light is as good as fire" reference
The very first MTG novel was Arena, published in october '94, almost immediately followed by The whispering Woods (december) and a whol eslew of others. The Gathering Dark, from '99, wasn't even the TENTH novel.
They should get Oko’s help, turn ALL Phyrexians into 3/3 deer with no abilities, problem solved. Or use the Dreadhorde from WAR as an army commanded by Lilliana to fight back
If you turn the phyrexians into deers, will you get compleated if you eat the venison?
@@TheyCallMeDio Yes.
No, it's an Elk without the Phyrexian typing
@@Rewwgh So it's a cure, then
However, could you rely on the fae to help? They might just turn you into a deer.
When Teferri said "It's Sylex time", that was one of the Magic the Gathering moments of all time...
It's morbin' time
No
Lmao
Uhg I’m literally gathering rn 😮💨🐡
and then he syled all over them
Karn in the game: Unstoppable
Karn in the story: Got buried, then captured by Phyrexians. Again.
It's literally all his fault! He had the perfect opportunity to kill Rona and Sheoldred in the very beginning, but he didn't. I remember being so frustrated when I read that! They made Karn seem so weak.
@@roberttalley636 To be fair, he's always been a pacifist. I just don't think the card game knows how to show that. Rona is not compleated but I mean, come on guy, she's working for the Phyrexians you are trying to blow up.
Well, to be fair, the latest Karn is considered one of the weakest Planeswalkers of all time.
You must understand the character. Karn is the ultimate pacifist.
That is someone who does nothing to stop evil when he could had done so.
In his case with great power comes great bagagge.
@@Javier-rm6qlSorry, "Someone who does nothing to stop evil when he could gave done so" is the worst description of Karn I have ever read. Even in THIS story described above he kills a large number of Phyrexians. He fought Multani's elementals for the Sylex in order to try to kill all Phyrexians on Mirrodin. Yes, he is a pacifist as stated above but your description misses the mark completely.
I haven't had an opportunity to sit down and read all of the Brothers' War stories in full for myself, but at least from how it was summarized here, I didn't take the points regarding compleated planeswalkers as the story giving conflicting information, but instead as different characters having different understandings and beliefs about the information. Nissa thinks there's no saving them, but Tezzeret has reason to believe the original people are still in there, which is just a perfect setup for drama and fracturing in the anti-Phyrexian alliance.
Nissa’s cold stance vs Chandra’s optimism seems very intentional. That’s ripe for character conflict later (although with the Gruul friends’ relationship already being so strained, I wish they set this up with another pair). Who is right? Who’s to say? (For now)
That could also easily be since Tezzeret fears for his own completion
This set really feels like it's a Two Towers like story. There is really no resolution, just pushing the plot boulder forward. Though I think the up and coming Nissa and Chandra conflict is gonna be spicy.
And I've come to the conclusion that Tezzeret is really just a slightly more competent Starscream.
You love to hate him. He's so Starscream he has an entire non canon comic of Starscreaming on top of what he already does
Tezzeret would totally be the main bad guy if there weren't always a more main bad guy for him to reluctantly ally with while trying to figure out how to stop them from destroying everything so they can be stopped and he can finally become the main bad guy he was meant to be
@@sethb3090 I feel like he has his chance to rise on top of Phyrexia, somehow. The Praetors defeted, the Phyrexians will need a leader, Tezzy could step in
Some of the new planeswalkers showing up was a bit of a surprise, especially Lukkah. I would have liked a bit more on how the Gatewatch actually found and assembled the team. Beyond that, I did enjoy the story! Looking forward to the video on the past events story!
My guess is some of them randomly show up because WotC needs to introduce them early on to compleat them during climax and not make it too sudden or uncalled for
Lukka, as far as we know, has always been an antagonist, albeit a misguided one, and I am not too sure about his inclusion here, so I think he'll be aprt of the compleation
That's a reasonable assumption. The PW roster has gotten rather large, so I can easily see this event as a way to thin the heard for a while.
@@JediMasterMcNelly exactly my thoughts, while having a sizable roaster allows to shift focus from a story to another, war of the spark made me realize how stupidly large was the planeswalker team, and how random most of them were
Since the set didn't kill many of them at the time and a lot more have been introduced since, they really should and most likely will kill lots of them, and having them compleated and becoming threats is way more tragic and interesting than just getting them killed by randoms
@@lasterman94100 Agreed! I'm guessing that the Sylex essentially needs a Tony Stark Snap moment. My money is on either Liliana, Nissa, or Teferi. Maybe Elspeth, given Elesh Norn's fear of her, and her possible angelic heritage. Lili, Nissa, and Teferi are all old guard enough that their sacrifice would be meaningful. Lili especially might see it as repaying Gideon for saving her.
@@JediMasterMcNelly nissa most likely since she can easily get the memory of the land and is determined to destroy phyrexians by any means necessary I feel she might take a few phyrexian compleated walkers with her
This was the 30th Anniversary "Member-berries" set. It was about making new cards of old characters. Plot advancement was a side quest.
I mean, it is kind of cool to see some of the old stuff revisited with modern design technology, I'll give them that.
Is a new MTG player it was nice because it gave me a lot of context of the lore and backstory, I started at the end of Neo but the only set I was actually a decent player was this one lol.
Your conclusion on Urza using the Sylex is interesting, because how I read that was that it wasn't that someone has to die to use the Sylex, but that no one *but* Urza could have done what had happened, as the Sylex was basically just the meditative tool. The power that set off the Ice Age and devestated Dominaria was just Urza. The Sylex is not going to work. Teferi won't be able to tell people in time.
On the birght side, I think Teferi is going to get a chance to do something that he has long failed to do, and that will be an interesting story itself. I am excited to see what happens with Teferi.
Totally agree. Sylex is nothing special. Just a tuning fork
Totally agree with you and glad someone else saw that.
I suspect we will see Urza again soon
I read it as the Golgothian Sylex needed a spark igniting to set it off. This alternate explanation makes sense too
Teferi was a demigod once, he can be a demigod again
Yeah, I think Teferi has accidentally wound up in Zhalfir, somehow. And that is going to be his character arc from now on. To somehow bring Zhalfir back, from exile, and re-merge it with Dominaria.
@@jacob4920 Or fail at it and bring another catastrophe to dominaria.
Surprised you didn’t mention how Nissa actually renewed her Oath (of the Gatewatch), at least privately. Here’s to hoping that she gets a Sultai card in one of the Phyrexia sets.
Also, I definitely agree the Jodah was a much more important part of the story for this set and not Dominaria United, but I think they put his card in DMU for gameplay reasons, as he’s unifying modern characters, not characters in the past. It would definitely be a flavor fail if he was cascading into Urza, Mishra, Kayla, Ashnod, etc.
And I still think the Cauldron on Eldraine that cured Garruk will cure the Compleated planeswalkers that survive the upcoming battles, which is why we’re going back there immediately after these sets.
Oooh the cauldron! That's a great connection!
There is also Atzal, the cave of eternity on Ixalan which at least from the artwork looks like it could work similiar to the cauldron maybe they had to Ixalan because the cauldron breaks (which happens in a story in celtic mythologie the cauldron is definitly based on) so they might need a better solution
I think that being this resolute is more of a Golgari/Selesnya/Abzan thing, don't you agree?
i hope to see a three coloured nissa planeswalker card too, shes my favourite planeswalker character
Idk if Nissa will get Sultai. Her theme seems to be a different color pair each time she's not mono green (since channeling the unique mana of a plane is kind of her thing), so I think she's on track for green-red or green-white, if we ignore that she channeled red in the original Zendikar story where she fights Ob Nix.
I believe Teferi will not stay desynced in what is presumed to be Zhalfir. In fact, I'm sure it'll be a case of him meeting a past associate or loved one, them having a heartfelt, loving embrace before they tell him that he needs to go back and finish the fight (cue Halo music). But I'm also willing to bet he will be the one who will "fill" the Sylex, doing his fatherly duty in ensuring his daughter, along with the rest of the multiverse, is kept safe from the Phyrexian threat once and for all... Unless WotC decides to also put some Glistening Oil in the fridge behind Nicol Bolas, and crack it open with the boys some years later when they've run out of ideas.
I'm pretty sure that the one to start off the Sylex will be Ajani in a flash of humanity that still within him. I do believe that they will kill him and that would make a very dignified way to say good bye to one of the best characters Magic ever had.
I hope they kill off teferi soon. Have him do some hero nonsense and get rid of him. A bunch more planeswalkers need to go
@@thatepicwizardguy I don't think you're mad at Teferi hahah you prolly mad at azorius/blue planeswalkers. And all I can say about that is this: they will always find a way to print control pw's in this colors. We have Jace, Narset, Niko... All of them will fill Teferis role as a control pw if he is to die.
@@efuii flash of "leonin" thank you very much :p (also I'd accept that, because this is much better than ajani dying as a full phyrexian in a big blast)
squee wants to die so it could be him
Love the fact that there's a fair chunk of story for venser, hearing about him was nice. He's actually my favorite planeswalker card
This story is only going to get more exciting from here!
I do think the recap glossed over Teferi's inadvertent time meddling. He *wanted* to not cause ripples but most of the main stories end with him doing exactly that by being perceived by those in the past even if he is incorporeal.
Also of note is Tezzeret confirming that multiple Planeswalkers have been compleated post Tamiyo. We all assumed there'd be other sleepers but now there is proof even if they shied away from saying who. Also the fact Tezzeret is worried that his own compleation has already begun in the whispers he's hearing.
Is the vaccine bolas gave him no longer working?
@@Kaanfight That's part of his fear. He hopes it is but he has no way of knowing if it is fading.
Play with fire, you get burned
Repeatedly bootlick for evil overlords....get wrecked?
I still have this fantasy in my head that Nahiri (who "conveniently" shows up at the end of the story, with Jace) is secretly compleated. That goes along so well with her own artifact-y past, and Nahiri already is kind of a crazy person, so I just think she's destined, somehow, to wind up as a "big bad" in all this silliness.
Wow, who could have anticipated that hanging around Phyrexians would have negative consequences?!
I really appreciate these videos because it's honestly a struggle to get through the stories sometimes. Especially with all the call backs to a book I just read and enjoyed a lot more
It's curious seeing Lukka here, as he has always given me the vibe that he is going back and forth, giving some outlet to the other side of the story (Strixhaven) but never commiting to anything and acting aloof.
Anyway, opinions?
• Teferi is totally at Zhalfir. The question remains at what will happen to his body inside the Temporal Anchor.
• This will be totally a War of the Spark 2: Electric Boogaloo with only 3 casualities, 2 of them named, only 1 on them on the set.
I think that the important things will happen *after* the Phyrexian War:
There will be a rift between "let's save our friends with Halo" and "Let's kill everyone before it spreads".
We have seen that Jodah, Chandra and Elspeth want to save Ajani. They have the Halo, they may be able to cure him.
However, there are still planeswalkers without attachments to him (see Lukka, as he is pragmatic) and Nissa, who will clearly oppose any "cure".
I think she will, once again, embrace the antagonistic role (which she did in Zendikar Rising).
Now, Karn. My guess is that he will be corrupted and transformed by Elesh Norn into a massive weapon and used against the protagonists. They will be forced to destroy it before Karn kills them all.
And, right now, I think that's all.
I don't think Lukka is _supposed_ to be pragmatic, he did after all decided to help the Oriq not out of personal benefit (he flat-out says he doesn't gives a damn about that to Kasmina) but due to sympathizing with them trying to dismantle a system of oppressive mages regulating who's worthy and who's not. I can see THAT Lukka jumping to fight against New Phyrexia in a heartbeat and actively trying to help those who were lost.
Ironically, I think _Nahiri_ will be the pragmatic one that sides with Nissa, which would be a deliciously teeth-clenched alliance if I ever saw one. Assuming she's not a sleeper agent that is.
I felt like Nissa was the protagonist of ZNR, not the antagonist. Nahiri was hell-bent on wiping out all changes to Zendikar since the Eldrazi, regardless of how genocidal that turns out to be, and Jace was written totally out of character (at least for his post Ixalan self, who's more well-rounded) and just flat-out ignores any objections Nissa has and tries to mind control her when she doesn't just go along with his idea.
@@sethb3090 I thought that they both are protagonists and antagonists of each other, with Jace trying to act as a 3rd party trying to talk things through... Which ended in him trying to mind control everyone because lol
Well Lukka and Nissa are DEFINITELY opposed to a cure now
@@Bonavire Yep, this comment aged like fine milk
I’ve been waiting to watch anything about the lore, as I’m STILL recovering from Ajani Phyresis. So hearing that Elspeth arrived on Dominaria and learned his fate, and her heartbreak over it, just is ripping open those stitches and stabbing my heart again. WE NEED CAT DAD BACK, YALL! Him and Elspeth have been through enough as it is!
My prediction for the future is Nicol Bolas being released from his prison, most likely due to Realmbreaker connecting the multiverse, though i dont know if Ugin could stop that somehow, so this is pure speculation
Ryan: "It feels similar [to War of the Spark]... But I want there to be some meaningful loss of characters this time."
Dack Fayden: "Am I a joke to you?"
He was clearly a joke to the writers at WOTC :p
Yes, actually!
Domri got beheaded then brought back just to be first to die as well lol
Definitely looking forward to the next video on the older story of the Brothers War. Am sure there is lots to learn about cards old and new.
I don’t recall anything being mentioned or written about Gix, but I am glad he finally gets his own card. That and Urza at last getting a Planeswalker card. Sort of.
When Teferi wakes up, in that "dream world" at the end of the story, I immediately jumped to the same conclusion you did. I thought: "Oh he's got to have wound up in Zhalfir, somehow! That would be such a fitting end to Teferi's long, tormented character arc!" Maybe the outcome of that experience will be him finding some sort of way to "un-phase" Zhalfir, and bring it back in sync with Dominaria. Or, he'll wind up staying there, with the other phased out Zhalfirinites, and finding peace. Like some kind of twisted "afterlife." I can't wait to find out about that particular part of the story.
I think he’ll activate the Silex, die from it, and by that phase in Zhalafir. The spells caster dead, the spell dissolved, Zhalafir is back
I actually like how every character is coming into the final conflict with different conclusions on how to solve the problem. That's gonna create a lot of really good drama and character moments.
I love the library background. Very appropriate for a Loremage
I'd like to see Nahiri and Jace summoning Emrakul on NewPhyrexia and start the Phyrexian-Eldrazi war...
I’d be super interested in that…especially with the way the Eldrazi warp landscapes in a near-opposite fashion to Phyrexian oil.
The more I read the story and the direction it is going, the more I am convinced (and very worried) that Teferi will be the one to save the multiverse at the cost of his life.
As for where Teferi is now, I have a feeling he's on Zhalfir
Agreed on both counts. There'll likely be some parallels with the decisions Urza made back in the day. It would be more of a surprise if he weren't 'currently' - whatever that means at this point - on Zhalfir...
Bet Ajani will get the moment of conscience and do it.
Magic writers are not that good to sacrifice characters.
I lost all hope after war of the spark that killed almost none in the fucking climax of the greatest battle of the don't know how many years lore...
So years ago, when the Eldrazi where the big bad at the time, I came up with a plot line idea that seems to be rather familiar these days.
In it the Gatewatch would be backs to the wall, about to lose to the Eldrazi Titans, when someone(believe Jace was the likely candidate at the time) pulls out the Sylex and uses it in desperation. At this point the game would effectively "reset", going back to the earliest sets with various tweaks and updates, but using the frame design shown in Future Sight. From here we would get another look at the Brother's War, but with things changed, with Mishra being the one to ascend as a planeswalker after the blast, the igniting of the spark burning away Gix's corruption of him.
From here the storyline would play out quite similar to the original thread however with a different mana theme, as where Uzra is a WU character, Mishra is a BR character. Along this path we would get different colored takes on the various storyline characters: Liliana as a more W aligned healer, Jace as a more B aligned mind controller, Chandra as a G aligned restorer and so on, giving us mirrored versions of the Gatewatch with similar powersets to what they already had but done with a different theming.
Again the story would go through various blocks and sets, allowing for more expansion of existing blocks and allowing for the introduction of other sets until finally they reach the Eldrazi once more. Events repeat until the Gatewatch is once again against a wall but instead of the Sylex resetting everything a second time, instead it pulls the two timelines together. As the story characters deal with being confronted by these other versions of themselves that show what they would have become had they chosen differently, the combined strength of the two groups allows them to overcome the Titans. Either deaths occur until only one version of each character remains or some sort of weird merging occurs which brings the two versions together into a new hybrid character: Jace combines to become a telepath who is constantly being driven to indulge those darker urges to just make others do what he wants for free will is just bothersome, Liliana gains the ability to bring the dead back either as they once were or as zombies, so on and so forth as needed.
Or perhaps the two timelines split once again from there. If so you could show which timeline is which by the frame, timeline A being the frame we use to this day and timeline B being the Future Sight frame. Though this would end up being a logistical nightmare when it comes to formats such as Standard(honestly though I don't play that one so it wasn't something I took much into account back then). Either way it leaves a lot of design space open for some creative ideas, more so when you take into account that Teferi exists. Any sets he appears in could have opposite frame cards appear as an example of his powers working to meddle with time; perhaps with Teferi himself always having the wrong border for the set, implying that either the two versions of him are swapped or that Teferi exists in both timelines at once as an outsider of some kind.
So I've had this theory all the way back from 2015 during "Battle for Zendikar". Go figure that the Sylex would see play seven years later, something that I personally only knew about from reading the book series so many times. If anyone wants to write any fanfiction or whatever inspired from this, feel free to go ahead. Heavens knows that I don't own any of this and I was just pulling things out of my ass back then with crazy 'what if's?' at my LGS.
If you've bothered to read this far, I'll leave you with some words of good advice:
Ekki-ekki-ekki-pitang-zoom-boing!
Honestly some of that sounds cool. I have theorized myself that in this upcoming plot with the Phyrexians. My hypothesis:
The Sylex fails in some way. They’ll have one choice: release a certain something trapped in a moon.
Tell me again why we do not have a proper TV show,anime,cartoon i don't care anything! Rapresenting this AMAZING lore!!!!! So sad....this will give MTG such a propelling push in the world!!!!! Thank you Ryan!!!! This video are AMAZING!
Urza was onto something with the null sphere and the screeching spiders he used to destabilize glistening oil thus killing phyrexians. Too bad Teferi doesn't know about that.
one character im surprised we haven't seen recently is tamiyo. What on earth has she been up to since getting compleated on kamigawa?
You know, just phyrexian things
@@Vektor480 what would be amazing is if they reveal that compleated walkers still have something truely theirs of their previous elf that can't be given to the phyrexian cause... in Tamiyo's case her scrolls of forbidden spells is what I'm concerned about.
Maybe she has been introducing Eldrazzi to the wonders of Phyrexia xD
@@Sanvone I don't think they really want rotten food :)
I have a feeling teferi finally found zalphier.
One deep-cut of lore I would be impressed if they bring back for the conclusion of this arc, is that the Mirari was last seen on Mirrodin... way back in 2004(?). Given that it created Karona back on Dominaria, created Memnarch on Mirrodin, and then just... got left with Glissa last time we saw it, it's fairly safe to say that the Phyrexians have it by now. What would the Praetors have got up to, armed with one of the most powerful artifacts in the multiverse?
...or perhaps the story team just forgot about it, that's also a possibility. We've all lost things between the couch cushions on occasion.
I feel bad that it's taken me this long to watch this. I have been a pretty devoted enjoyer of your content. One can only hope that you have recognized that but with how many views you get, I'm sure I am just one among many.
Always happy to see your uploads, my friend.
I am so happy to see captions!!!
My favorite lore channel and this, for me, makes THE WORLD.
Congratulations and wishing much more success
With the actual Brother's War video, I hope you got to read the novel covering it. For what it was, it was well written and I wish I still had it.
It fueled my hunger for story details that have since not been up to snuff. (Fat packs with the novel were the best.. just saying)
I'm glad this channel exists
Like the little detail of Kaito and The Wanderer are there too to fight New Phyrexia. Kamigawa Neon Dynasty was the first set I experienced when getting into Magic so their story in smiths set are special for me.
It's sad you didn't experience proper samurai cards from the original Kamigawa set ;)
@@Kalenz1234 yeah I guess not, oh well
Haven't watched this yet, but I know it's going to make my morning! I read the books in the 90s, that's been a long time ago...
Had to pause the video at the beginning to say that background is awesome for a lore video!
Teferi's in Ixilan in the future, he's going to fight some robot vampire dinosaurs
I'm just glad Koth is still alive. Chandra is cool but Koth is my boy.
7:03
He knows how that can go horribly wrong from the events that led to his own Planeswalker Ascension.
genuinely quite grateful for this recap. i read all the main story articles online, which had been enough in previous sets, only to realize that the side stories are were the plot thats actually relevant to the ongoing storyline was. without this video, i shrimply wouldnt have time to get up to date before all of the new set's cards are released
These videos have been so good; thank you! I'm not as invested in Magic lore as I used to be, but I still want to catch up on events leading up to March of the Machine, so these videos have been perfect for getting me up to speed!
Glad you like them!
I'm sad about it as I love her but I'm thinking Liliana sacrificing herself to Activate the Sylex is something Wizards would do to have her prove her redemption to the rest of the Gate Watch and to bring her a full end. This time she can sacrifice herself and not have someone stop her last second.
Either her or Elspeth (they wouldn't have put the scene of Elspeth connecting with others on the matter of lost friends without a reason, would they?).
@@sallomon2357 I think it will be Elspeth. Her focus in this story, especially her side story, and the heavy emphasis on her loss, as well as Jodah teaching her the use of Hurkyl’s Meditation, it mirrors exactly how Urza said he activated the Sylex. He says he had “nothing left” so he poured “everything into it”, and he mentions Hurkyl personally when talking about the power of the Sylex. I could see Elspeth seeing Nissa destroy Ajani, maybe after Ajani kills another main character, losing the last hope she had, and giving her life to nuke Phyrexia
@@sallomon2357 That'd be really stupid considering we just found out she might be an angel from New Capenna who survived the demons' betrayal.
@@sallomon2357 Actually Jodahs seeming importance as a through line makes me think it'll be him. Especially since doing so ignited Urzas Spark and....I don't believe Jodah has one?
I can see it as a reversal of how it went in WotS, Elspeth is about to do it, but Liliana does instead - Elspeth “lost everything” like about 4 or 5 times by now, when all she wanted was to settle down and live in peace. Liliana went above and beyond for immortality, was ready to let it go but was saved from such fate by someone doing a thing so selfless for her, that it even shattered her notion of purpose. It is a good way of having her die in a manner that still honors Gideon’s sacrifice, and manages to not be about last time redemption as it would be had she died in WotS, but in a genuinely heroic act - Not because she had to, but because she chose to. And brings an interesting conclusion to a character who dedicated years to a selfish pursuit for immortality who got through so much as to actually find purpose in dying, and the character who only wanted to chill but selfless kept throwing herself into war after war, and experience loss after loss, to FINALLY get a real chance to live how she wanted in it’s fullest.
…aaaaans I just recognized how this pretty fucking much mirrors exactly the conclusions of Tony Stark/Steve Rodgers arcs. They are trying to pull another “Endgame” and the last one was like only 4 years ago.
Goddamn it Wizards. “Focus on more personal self contained stories” my ass.
Vraska please don't die.
She and Jace need to at least have their date at the bookstore. MtG finally lets characters have one healthy relationship and then makes sure they never get a quiet moment.
Y'all are thinking about this the wrong way: being Compleated causes some mental alteration, sure, but you're still yourself! It also gifts you with immortality, the ability to choose your body, unconditional acceptance and near perfect group unity towards a common cause. If she does join Phyrexia I'd say she's better off, and far from dead!
I think the foreshadowing of Tefari on the beach could be him getting sent to his home place that was phased out of time, but he got there when it was phased out of time. I have no idea if it has a beach, or if that's a blue planes walker thing like Jace, but yeah
That would be absolutely amazing if they just go all out with planeswalkers in the next set because this really does feel like some avengers endgame type stuff i mean there’s literally time travel in here and in endgame. Although to be honest i don’t know the full story of Urza and Jodah so if u could do a story video on them that’d be really helpful
I think we'll see that in March of the Machines. New Phyrexia is more likely to be the initial failure of our heroes before they rally
Next two sets are probably going to have an infinity war/endgame feel to them imho in terms of story beats, initial doomed offensive followed by last chance gambit that saves the day
I suspect Urza somehow realizes the possible paradox occuring with Teferi's spirit time travelling, and will make a move to take advance and return, provoking a new mending which takes back planeswalkers to their old godly power creep (and in doing so, finding out how to stop phyrexians this way) ... Just speculation after all
This was a cool way of doing the Time Travel bit, and bring an old event into the modern era...
... That said, though, I wished Teferi would have traveled to the night Xantcha and Ratepe left to the ruins of Koilos. That way it would have been Urza arguing with Xantcha, Jodah showing up to give Urza a piece of his mind about caring about the world when trying to save it, then Teferi showing up to ask about the Sylex. Urza leaving to follow Xantacha and Ratepe could then have been played off as Urza not wanting to see any more visitors, like some grouchy Scrouge, and deciding keeping an eye on his phyrexian companion would be time better spent. Lol
Awesome story well summarized. Thanks Ryan and Nicole!
Our pleasure!
i've read almost all the storyes. I expected to know about all the drammatic phases of the relationship between Urza and Mishra (like when they where young, when they breaked... the final battle) instead i've just found pieces of a Dominaria lost in time. Not what i needed. Then i realized that the side stories, usually secondary, was in this case the real prosecution of the main storyline. I've read those too, but the only one i liked was the third chapter (Tezzeret's adventure in the mushroom kingdom). In my opinion: no mistery, no party. Thanks for your video, was a great riepilogue.
I think the Ajani's dead (if he's really dead) is like the murder at the beginning of an horror film: it is made to keep up the people's attention, but in the end he will be almost the only victim. There will be no slaughter in the planeswalker's army, surely no more than 1 more main character and/or 1 or 2 secondary.
For newer players the Story Spotlight cards actually do a great job of explaining the brother's war, how and why the hatred between Urza & Mishra grew, the main events of the war and re-introducing the side characters like Tawnos.
This is why I was so surprised about everything in this video, because the Story Spotlight cards left me mostly unaware of the story in the present timeline. No assembly of planeswalkers, no counterattack on Mirrodin, nothing about Tezzeret, Elesh, Nissa or Jodah gets mentioned and neither do they tell what Teferi was trying to do in the past. Kinda hilarious given they had 40 cards to do so and spent at least 3 cards just to show Urza and Mishra fighting (Epic Confrontation, Brotherhood's End, Gruesome Realization).
Thanks for this video! I really enjoyed these stories, but I also was expecting a bit more on the war itself, which I only know broad strokes about. So I'm definitely looking forward to your video covering it! :)
I only believe Tamiyo and Ajani are lost once we get "Secret Lair: In Memoriam: Tamiyo" and "In Memoriam: Ajani".
I am beyond glad that they did manage to rescue the powerstone from the Weatherlight, hopefully what is left of Serra's Realm wasn't corrupted further.
Thank you, I was waiting for this
I hoped they would show Teferi travel into the future and he would observe the multiverse controlled by the phyrexians living in harmony and peace. Like they did with Amonkhet. A perfect dystopia.
Feels like I'm saying this under all your videos but, great work ! Not a lot to comment on here apart from thanking you for doing all of this.
Just one small thing, I feel like it was to be expected that the "present day" storyline would not advance much, I even thought it would not advance at all and this set would happen in a few seconds. So I am a bit grateful it wasn't the case and some events actually happened during Teferi's little trip !
They're setting up Jodah to become the sacrifice - and trigger his spark, super strong but also nearly impossible to awaken, needing something as strong as the Sylex to set it off. The Phyrexians will then realize Sylexes could awaken sparks in them as well, at the cost of a massive damage to the surroundings, which they of course don't care about. The praetos, or at least some of them, will manage to become planeswalkers by destroying some fan favourite planes, and setting up for the next round of fighting in future sets, bigger and badder than before.
I realy hope phyrexia wins this story arc, leaving signicant deaths and a despair scenario where the survivors will fell hopeless and obligated to go beg for help of more unpredictable sources (emrakul)
Yeah I've only been into Magic for about a year now and I know that would never happen. WOTC doesn't have the balls.
@@Calvin_Coolage unfortunatly i agree with you, but one can hope
calling it now. Lukka is def a sleeper. He doesn't seem like the type to just join up with a bunch of planeswalkers out of the blue.
To be honest I think Koth is a sleeper agent and that his coalition is a trap for the planeswalkers
When you say things like “plane wide ice age,” it definitely makes me think plane is just short for planet.
We have 2 more sets with the Phyrexians, right? So, what will happen is that we will lose a lot of planeswalkers in the process to only find that they had posterity. The magic sets will then shift into a story about coming of age and these teenagers learning to handle life without their parents, in the shadow of their parents, and facing a new evil in the worlds to come. This will then spark a series on Netflix about their fast times in Tolarian High to accompany a set rather than the online novels.
It will become something that no one wants but, it will achieve WOTC's goal to appeal to a new crowd.
I don’t know enough about the timeline to know if this is even possible, but my theory is that at some point the heroes are going to run out of allies/options and, exasperated, decide to try and try and reignite the spark of Nicol Bolas. Bolas did seal one or of the portals spilling Phyrexians into Dominaria in the Time Spiral series. He channeled his power through Jeska and Leshrac to do it, if I remember correctly. If he does regain his spark he’d see the Phyrexians as an obstacle in the way of achieving his own ambitions; I think he’d be motivated enough to help.
11:45
Absolute Chandra moment. Man, do I love that fiery spirit! I've got high hopes for this story line! The last war against a big bad villain was horribly written, not to mention it ruined a few fan favorite couples. This one's looking to be better!
I'm hoping it comes down to asking for help from the eldrazi. That'd be an interesting twist. Then again..... that could be terrifying
Many planeswalkers are gonna get gooed. Nissa’s definitely gonna want to sac herself to the bowl. Someone’s maybe gonna try to mod it to blacklist phyrexian stuff turning all the completed plainswalkers back. Elesh Norn is gonna trade kill with one of the completed plainswalkers, tezzeret or the top G Urabrask
I know there is a lot of speculation that where Teferi has ended up is Zhalfir, while that does make a lot of sense and is most likely what is going on there; I have another idea. I think it would be very cool for Teferi to have somehow ended up in the Meditation Realm with Ugin and Nicol Bolas. The wiki describes the Meditaion Realm as constantly shifting and reflecting the thoughts of the person inside it, so that would explain why it appears to Teferi like a beach in Zhalfir. I think it would be a very neat way of looping in Ugin and Nicol Bolas on what is happening in the outside multiverse. If Ryan's prediction of the Realm Breaker "branching out" into the other planes and drawing legendary characters in, then it would be a good way for the story to lay the red carpet out for them so to speak.
I wish they would have explained how they recruited Lukka. He has been a villain on the last couple of planes we have seen him on. I guess they can just tell Lukka that the Phyrexians are a big powerful organization that looks down on him, and so he will get mad and rebel and try to stick it to the man?
That with the world soul is right, but on the other hand Dominaria is a world that saw so much more pain and misery than any other world. And brought ... "ruthless" (to put it nice) characters like Urza, Mishra, Dihada, the Raven Man and Lilliana Vess.
I would think that this world soul is not very nice either. So I take that advice with a grain of salt.
I do have a prediction for March of the Machines, actually. They teased a shift in the multiverse, and I think it is going to end with planar travel becoming at least somewhat accessible to non-planeswalkers, like it was in the past. A lot of characters now know about planeswalkers or have stakes in things happening on other planes (for example: Nashi, who has every reason to try to find and help Tamiyo). There was some secret identity stuff going on before, like how Ral Zarek went to great lengths to keep Niv-Mizzet from learning about planeswalking, but that seems to be breaking down and now two different non-walker ways of crossing between planes exist. The next step is for them to be accessible to people who actually need them to travel.
So I can safely assume that Autobots allied themselves with Urza, but on which side did Decepticons fight?
Starscream and Tezzeret bond over trying to dethrone Elesh Norn.
@@milanmach2379 I have long called Tezzeret the Starscream of Magic. Always the henchman, never the arch-villain.
@@twarnold14 I recall making the same comparison when I pulled him in Kamigawa
*edit, i see you mentioned this at the end, tho i do disagree about conclusions 🙂
important to note that tezzeret's internal monologue focused on the fact that ajani's spirit was still in there, and repeatedly the narrative refuses to give up on ajani. additionally, his depiction as a phyrexian if incredibly flat and devoid of character, suggesting that they don't intend to portray him as a phyrexian as a true point of character development.
if nothing else, if they can't save him, i suspect they will "kill" him but have his spirit continue as a presence in the story.
A return of both Bolas and Ugin. They are the oldest walkers I believe and they may or may not have insight and knowledge to deal with the phyrexians
I still believe that there will be some redemption fro Ajani because he is the face of Extra Life and having a villian as the mascot for this real world initiative for the Seattle Children's Hospital. While he might die, I think there will be a redemption in the very least.
Really good point about the importance of being able to know the story from only the cards. As someone who has read both the original book and the new web stories, the cards made total sense to me (and I thought they were actually very faithful and flavorful). But I can totally understand a person who is only looking at the cards might feel quite lost. I have already found myself needing to explain the context to friends who are wondering why Urza is alive again or if the war is currently happening or if Teferi caused the war somehow.
The original Weatherlight Saga actually had a "storyline in cards" with a similar issue. Without reading the article putting them in order, there wasn't actually an easy way to immediately tell where it goes in the story, or even know it was a story event (also it deviates a bit from the books but that's a different issue). I always thought it would have been cool if those storyline cards were numbered or something.
When looking at Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard.
Could it be that Mishra survived the blast, faked his death,
replaced him missing parts with metal, and now walks around under the name...
Tezzeret :O
Nice, I've been waiting on the Arcanum re-cap
So this is an recap of the present day story of the Brother's War set, but will there be an in depth video on what happened during the actual Brother's War? It seemed like there was enough material to fill a full old school block back in the day with this, but WotC did it in one set, and I feel like I missed why this set is as important to Magic's history as everyone says it is.
I was hoping that Teferi's ghost was going to be Urza's spark - like, Teferi would die to use his spirit to generate Urza's spark so he survives the sylex. Student returning to teacher, a cool connection of current events to past events, no paradox...but I guess not ='(
...Glacians spark was Urzas spark
Always excited for these recaps. Liked before I even started the video lol
It's so funny that Tezzeret's literal first choice to get a new body was god damn phyrexia, well known for giving people the things they want and just letting them go. I feel like he should have at least tried asking, idk, literally any other party first. Might have worked out better for him and also the rest of the multiverse
Really love the content! Its become my go to so I can keep up with the magic storyline. Keep it up!
Regarding the recovering form compleation, DMU's side story about Squee and his encounter with Ertai kinda shows that when you get compleated, you lose your soul, and Squee only survived because of tha combination of a spell, his toy and compleation.
So I believe that there really is no going back form Phyrexia.
Well Teferi's body is also currently cut off from his soul at the moment so who knows
@@DDDHunter Yeah, but Teferi hasn't been compleated has he?
@@24105252 Still technically lost his soul
I wish you would’ve included how Tezzeret doubts his immunity Nichol Bolas gave him to Phyrexian’s infection, to me that was one of the biggest underlying points that was made.
Also one thing that stood out while I’m here about Nicky B is that Tezzeret also points out that that Bolas’s biggest threats to his plans to wipe out after he won were Ajani and Phyrexia. And it scared Tezzeret to see that Ajani was this empty heartless soul of a pawn to Phyrexia.
Naur an edraith ammen!
One thing I think that is being overlooked is what happens if Elesh Norn succeeds in linking the multiverse via the Phyrexian world tree?
Those branches aren't going to be a one way street. There are things in the multiverse that would wish to escape or explore further that could skip their way along.
I mean, I do address that in the video. I speculate Nicol Bolas could use it to escape the Meditation Realm Prison, and I propose other legendary characters are going to enter the battle against the Phyrexians in War of the Machine (since they've already shown us art basically depicting this scenario.)
What else would you have wanted me to say about it?
@@MagicArcanum It sounds like I need to give this another listen as i must have totally missed that in this vid. Sorry XD
Lukka showing up was a huge surprise for me and kinda left me with a very bad feeling considering his track record. I'm 90 % sure he is either a Phyrexian agent (do they even have a guranteed way to check for Phyrexian influence? Nothing like that was even mentioned, so any planeswalker brought in later COULD be a sleeper agent), or he is gonaa mess up an important mission.
Could be more like Ob Nixilis in WAR where he opposes the Phyrexians....but only so long as they pose a threat to him personally. He can be an antagonist or tweener in future.
my predictions? when they compleated Tamiyo, the Phyrexians gained two very important pieces of knowledge. 1) the events of war of the spark, and presumably the wherabouts of Bolas. 2) the confinement of Emrakul in the moon, and more importantly, WHY that works. with Karn being a SILVER Golem, with the capability to house a spark, it is entirely possible that an endgame is to trap both bolas and an Eldrazi within him. utilizing their newfound abilities to limit planeswalking, Karn could become the next Garruk, hunting down planeswalkers and destroying them (likely by consuming their spark). i do believe that there may be a possibility that we will see 5 plansewalkers compleated, so when the dust settles on this arc, and the 5 praetors are destroyed, they can take their place, ramping up the difficulty for a future reunion.
I'd like a brawl between Elesh Norn and Elspeth. And Nissa still showing her black mana after the last Zendikar set, I like that. Ajani and Tamiyo dying instead of being saved would be a good plot point, just like Gideon in WOTS. The way I see it, one of two things is gonna happen: either Norn's side wins, killing Urabrask and raising a new Red Praetor; or Urabarask is the only one left.
Did Teyo ever show up? I feel like he was set up to be a main character and was quickly forgotten
Teyo did not appear in this story, no.
They seem to be side lining him, the most recent reminder he was still around was an image of Ral getting married on ravnica
It wouldn't make sense for Teyo to get involved in the conflict, as he's canonically a newbie - he's a recently sparked 'walker and still an amateur shieldmage. The Gatewatch recruiting someone so inexperienced against a foe that can corrupt and convert 'walkers to their side would be the actual worst idea ever.
So the short version is: Sahili builds the MTG version of The Animus from Assassin's Creed for Teferi to use... Teferi goes back in time (again) to figure out how to get the Sylex to work. Karn is delivered to Elesh Norn, Tezzeret is doing what he does best, Nissa baits the world soul of Dominaria into helping her, the team splits up to cover more ground, annnnd Teferi is left to experience history (again) in a way not unlike that of Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
So, the even shorter version: Teferi gets his own version of Assassin's Creed: Revelations while everyone else is left in the present getting wrekt.
I know Teferi is the obvious answer, but I could also see Koth sacrificing himself to end the Phyrexians. He is a "do whatever it takes" kind of guy. And it would continue the pattern of characters I like getting killed off...
This set story felt a lot like that scene in Infinity War when they arrived in Wakanda. A lot of gathering and strengthening of forces, but mostly prep for the big war ahead. We're preparing to attack Phyrexia, but we just haven't gotten there just yet
Fantasy Geographic did a video series explaining the original Brother's War story, and I highly recommend it
I love how urabrask is just like “ screw you guys I’m doing my own thing”
To be fair Urabrask has consistently been doing his own thing since Scars block. Even back then in the story he had been actively allowing Mirran survivors to stay in the furnace layer because he wanted them to join Phyrexia freely rather than by force, a side effect of him being Red mana aligned. Heck he's the one who sealed the Furnace layer off from the surface with the decree, "Seal the furnace vents. Admit no others. We'll tend our forges without their tainted ways." This specific decree is seen in the flavor text of slag fiend.
Thank you for a great summary. Seems like the main story was not covered in the cards at all. Just an excuse to print a set about the brothers war.
I, as others have said, also suspect that Teferi wound up on Zhalfir. As there's no room left on Dominaria due to the Rathi Overlay from Invasion, the Zhalfirin Rift is closed due to Jeska - partly extinguishing Radha's Spark to preserve her own - interfering, and the changes between Pre- and Post-Mending Sparks, depending on how/if time flowed in Zhalfir while phased out - evidence from the depiction of past phasings, such as Shiv, indicate not - then all Teferi has to do to ambush the New Phyrexians under Elesh Norn is either get Zhalfir connected to the Realmbreaker OR pull off a Zhalfirin Overlay onto New Phyrexia, which maybe, just maybe, could render the artificial plane Permanent.
Unless he accidentally hits Shandalar in the process.
Speaking of which, given how Oldwalkers could tell that Shandalar was on a collision course for the Shard of Twelve Worlds way back after Antiquities, it might be possible for Shandalar to hit New Phyrexia without the knowledge of anyone - until the Slivers show up.
The Overlay options with Zhalfir depends on how easy it is to reverse engineer and mass produce Flowstone, which enabled the Rathi Overlay.
Of course, then the issue is getting the Invasion-ready Zhalfir to work with Urabrask.
There's a rumor - either in Brothers War or Dominaria United - that to me, indicates that Lord Windgrace - Invasion Veteran and one of the pilots of Urza's Nine Titans when the mission to Old Phyrexia with Soul Bombs was carried out - is back.
What are Soul Bombs, you ask?
Basically, take an Explosive Apparatus from Shadows Over Innistrad and give it multiple Hiroshimas of explosive capability.
Urza used multiple, and set them off with a pre-Mending Spark (not his, though).
How are Soul Bombs made? Look at the flavor text of the aforementioned instance of Explosive Apparatus.
Of course, if Realmbreaker connects to Capenna, Innistrad, or a dying plane like Ulgrotha (from Homelands expansion. Is it even still around?), then there will be more trouble than Elesh Norn could handle, even if Urabrask was on her side.
Then there's the home plane of The First Sliver.
Teferi: No! I can't use my body to go back in time! We can't have people comparing this set to Endgame like they compared War of the Spark to Infinity War!
Re: whether compleated walkers can be saved - of course they're gonna keep it vague. If they just say that people can be saved, then none of the compleations matter. If they hard-commit to "no" then we know that those compleated walkers will just die. I think a lot of the non-commital stuff is for the best honestly.