I hope Wotc understands that it can’t keep escalating after this. I personally really miss when the stories were focused on legendary creatures and planeswalkers were some extra sauce. But I think that would be very difficult considering the death of the block story.
I wish we could just do like 2 sets for 1 place. Like Kaladesh and Awther revolt, or Amonket and Hour of Devistation. Set up and finale. Three sets causes burnout before the final
I agree. More so they can't keep doing these multiversal threats. I do disagree with the inability to do legendary creature stories. While the block is gone that simple means there is no limit. They could do 1-3 set stories for a creature as it is needed. However I do agree those were really good stories though with the current writing I wonder if we'd ever get that level of story telling again.
@@robbyjones9813 The story telling is always secondary to selling a product. As long as WOTC has a product to move, they'll keep writing shitty plots and characters into the MTG universe.
@@magmatard8737 have things be even more rushed? Oof. Burn out is from garbage writing and ridiculous power creep. That said if they can actually figure out the writing problem 2 sets would be really nice.
I wondered why Teferi couldn't just rewind time around her and bring her back to before she got wounded. Is that because of a personal rule about meddling with time or something?
The same individual person wrote every single numbered March of the Machines entry. I hope they had the reigns over to someone else, or if she was just being handed plot points (very possible) and given a set number of words to tie them together then her boss needs to be fired.
WotC gave this story more time than any other in recent years, but because of its scope and grandeur it still came out undercooked. When you put a bigger glob of cookie dough in the oven you have to bake it longer. And MTG has done it correctly before. Yawgmoths invasion of Dominaria had built up its characters and story for the 3 blocks of Urza’s block, Masques block, and Invasion block, totaling 9 sets + a large chunk of antiquities + the 300 < page book The Thran
This could've lead to a really interesting era of MTG, but noooo... we get a happily ever after ending with the good guys pulling through and the bad guys just getting absolutely decimated. I'd hoped that the plot would've allowed for the compleated planeswalkers to remain compleated, and for the Phyrexians to be the cause of their own downfall (through fractionalism, ie; They all invade various planes, but disconnected from Phyrexia and Elsh Norn's control, they sever their own ties to New Phyrexia and begin endeavours to make these new planes into their homes. Potentially with a plot that culminates with the compleated planeswalkers regaining their independence, but still being driven to compleat the world, just for their own individualistic reasons. But nah. We get a magical "problem is solved" arc. I hope Theros remains fucked for the forseeable future.
I liked everything else in the story, but I'm not too big on the no signal = no function deal. I was kind of hoping Phyrexians were going to end up a sort of constant albeit less massive threat even with their praetor overlords gone.
New Phyrexia came from a single drop of oil on the core of Mirrodin. New Phyrexia is gone, but I would be surprised if there were NEVER any future Phyrexians, just localized instead of multiversal adversaries, sort of like Rona on Dominaria “As long as one drop of the oil exists, the joyous work continues.”
I'm surprised you could like everything about a rushed story that has angels die from a freaking building falling on them. Or the constant Avengers Endgame rip off moments that are done without a soul.
@@andrewrichter3185 He fell into a vat of his spawn and got eaten. If anyone is alive, it's Urabrask. He's just quadriplegic now. Briefly anyway, if Phyrexia survived he'll likely get new limbs before long
But actually that's what happened the first time around when they killed Yawgmoth. Since Norn styled herself as the new Mother it is just natural to assume she had the Phyrexian will wired through her, just as Yawgmoth had bound himself to the Plane. Again it could be a buttocks-pull from the writers, but something I've noticed in the telling of this story is heavy references to the Weatherlight Saga, so it could be that. Make of it what you will.
@@RiotKurhein Yes iirc Tezzeret retreated to Alara and was leaking advice that the Angels of Bant were the key to stopping the Phyrexian invasion of Alara
God these last few stories were horrendously written. Everything just happened so freaking easily and so fast. Praetors dying like flies or getting caught and dismembered, Gods dying by a stab, PWs' sparks and their bodies getting saved by a half-dead mortal even though they were fully compleat, an entire army disarmed the moment Elesh Norn dies despite we've been told that phyrexians are not just empty husks following orders. And ofc Nissa and Chandra making out in the end even though they had them realizing in the previous stories that there was nothing romantic there. Regardless how much i liked these lore videos the story was really disappointing with such a pace and all the out-of-nowhere cures or solutions for almost anything. Can't wait to see what kind of excuse they will make up to not kill Jace, Vraska and maybe even Nahiri.
This was my impression as well. Also wotc need to diversify their romantic relationships. If every couple is a lesbian couple it starts to seem like a weird fetish. Bring out the guy/guy and girl/guy relationships lol
Yes. This is trash. WotC storytelling is trash. I'm sorry I'm sure there are some (well) hidden gems in this dumpster fire but I'm SICK AND TIRED or having to suspend my disbelief in order to justify all the lazy writing, the plotholes, the bad. To be honest I haven't read anything great in MTG lore after the Amonkhet lore. Which I believe was brilliant. But especially the big finales are such utter FAILURES. They've topped the disappointment of War of the Spark and it wasn't an easy task.
Guys, I really loved the lore of this franchise. But I’m tired of trying to convince myself this writing is worth keeping an interest in. Their letting so many good plots, opportunities and ideas go. Think it’s about time I did the same for Mtg story after this
This was seriously rushed to the end... but not surprised considering WoTC its rushing everything. Anyway, possible plot points from now on. We might have a cool down on plot on for the next years, like something with Tezzereth, at best the next threat will be that un solved Eldrazi mistery but i dont hope anything soon. Next, would be something with Jace and Vraska, if and just if they are still working under Phyrexia, the best i can hope is them doing the same as the old phyrexians did after their last defeat: organizing Phyrexian cults all over the multiverse and maybe look a way to phase out Phyrexia.
@@RealBakedTahu and yet others have been much more successful on the story telling end. Massive companies like wizards don't deserve you making excuses for them. They can do better and they should.
Personal headcanon on how the story should have ended/ moved forward. Urabrask is found to have survived his dismemberment, becoming Urabrask Reforged, the final and leading praetor. Without Norn, the brainwashing of her machine orthodoxy is released from the completed walkers, but they are still suffering from Contagious phyresis. Wrenn does not die, but sacrifices her humanity as to ensure all of Phyrexia is in pocket dimension, closing the door behind her, becoming completed. Lukka is still dead, because whatever. Nissa can still be cured at the expense of Karns spark & Meliras sacrifice, (and apparently Nahiri offscreen) but not Ajani. Ajani feels the shame and guilt of his deeds, as well as fear that unknown effects of the Sleeper agent aspect may still exist, so he Exiles himself to New-est Phyrexia. (Referencing the Classic Path to Exile Ajani art) Or maybe he was too far gone since he was completed for a good deal longer than the rest. After her near death on ravnica, Jace comes to her, as part of the mind link, showing he had locked off part of his mind before to avoid full mental completion because he's so smart and whatever. Jace and Vraska go back to New-est Phyrexia to save her, and recover her mind. This leaves New-est Phyrexia living in this pocket dimension outside time and space like Zhalfir was. Urabrask rules the plane, but with freedom and 'peace' in his own phyrexian way. Much more anarchistic liberation in tone. The 'new Praetors' are then the remaining completed walkers. White Ajani, Blue Jace, Black Vraska, Green Wrenn. Then, for the big wild card, a power play by the miraculously surviving Tibalt.
It felt like from Dominaria onward they simply did one giant cinematic run and that this was just to clean things up. Ultimately I felt they rushed this last arch of the story and could have done more with it. What happens now that most of the multiverse knows about the Multiverse and whatever lose ends remain.
You, sir, did an excellent job. I'm looking forward to your total breakdown. Overall it was good, but maaaaaan that rushed ending was rough. On the other hand, I'm truly hoping that we get Jace as a true villain. He's still Compleated, and I'd love to see him go evil. We shall see.
Smarter folks wouldn't have ended this inside a single block. I'd have done minimum 3 full blocks of different planes fighting Phyrexia. And I'd have written a way out without ruining half the most important characters in the MtG multiverse. Personally, I was hoping they'd play more time travel games, and we'd get Urza and Yawgmoth back. We will have to see where the story goes next. My bet? Some stupid side thing with no lasting impact. A return to the slow decline MaRo has piloted for decades now. I'm happy we got a half a year of not-totally-sucking-on-every-level.
Rosewater is responsible for game design. Not for the story. It's frustrating how people don't seem to understand this simple fact. Also, time travel is a terrible plot element. It makes for super complicated stories that are hard to get to a satisfying and logical conclusion. and also it leads to what you criticized - stories without consequences. When you can always have a do-over, nothing matters. I am happy Urza and Yawgmoth didn't come back. That would have been super lazy. If you miss them so much, read the old stories. Those nostalgia trips don't help with good storytelling. We also don't need three blocks to tell the fight against New Phyrexia, that would have been insanely boring. Two would have been plenty, along with some lost planes and really hard-earned victories. I will never understand why they did not hand over the story to Brandon Sanderson when he offered it to WotC
The fact they all embraced koth when melira died is soo beautiful. They understand to the mirrans she was their savior. Melira and Wrenn deserve every prop they earn at the end.
With this arc (from the release of kaldheim) being my first story I've been here for as a player, reading it grow and adapt has been cool. All the mystery and suspension around what the preators were doing on each plane and asking why they were there to begin with. The cards being released for the preators being so strong with elesh norn being the centerpiece, I built decks individually for each one because I loved the villainous aspects of each of them. All that tension built up over all that time across sets and learning that the massive threat of phyrexian invasion was looming with each release, just to have it end with jin and vorinclex being easily defeated, and elesh norn being hardly a threat at the end was a massive disappointment. They did jin and vorinclex dirty in the way they were killed off and elesh was nothing more than a weak joke who fell to pieces when her followers turned on her. There were no real consequences to this story or weight to it, with the only real defeat here being the storytelling from the writers. They've reversed phyresis on so of the planeswalkers and left an "open ended" chapter with Jace and vraska still being completed. It makes no sense that these planeswalkers would even leave a singal phyrexian alive knowing the threat they could possibly pose in future. I'll never invest time in to another WOTC story if this is how weak the writing is. Game of thrones final episode was better than this. Edit: I forgot to write thank you to the creator. Despite it being horrible what the writers have done, you really made a massive effort to make this sound and feel as amazing as possible
Not to mention Sheoldred's offscreen death. It's such a frustratingly dissapointing way to end what could've been a very spicy L for the superheroes. I would've loved to see the total number of epic hero planeswalkers reduced in favor of giving us a bunch of complex, heartbreaking baddies (JUST IMAGINE! Nissa is a bad guy for LIFE! Jace is a bad guy FOR LIFE! Elspeth becomes an archangel to stop the invasion, but it doesn't bring back Ajani.) But no, they pull an uno reverse card on the whole fucking invasion. Not to mention, the new set has 0 TOXIC CARDS! You know, the thing New Phyrexia was known for? The thing that's mentioned in every single fucking sidestory and main story for this set? Phyresis? nah, bro. 6 mana for a 3/3 with upside. whew. What's toxic? What's infect? fuck those archetypes, we're all legendary creatures with too many lines of text now. OH AND BATTLES! Relive the dissapointment that is the Phyrexian Invasion going tits up on 27 planes with these fun new cards that'll make your opponent durdle and attack their own permanent two or three turns in a row.
@@ahealthkit2745 I know the feeling. Every preator felt harrowing, and the idea that these guys teaming up as leaders with armies from their own spheres was very worrying for the hero’s fates. We had a promising entry for a weakness in phyrexia with urabrask not wanting to follow the same ideals as the other preators, but that was quickly dismissed and replaced with an even bigger plot hole when we learned that all the preators are in some stupid civil war vying for more power and trying to kill each other on the daily, with the exception of vorinclex who was a complete idiot and blunt instrument the entire time and had glissa stand in as his voice. Why would the 5 preators be at war with each other when they’ve had years on phyrexia in the story to sort out who’s leading or how they would execute these “universe ending plans”. Why would 5 of the biggest villains in years be locking in a civil war right before they go into the most important battle in all of MTG history. These 5 giant threats that were reduced to nothing more than essentially side characters or childish fools when they were supposed to be the main story arc themselves. We should have lost whole plains to phyresis and had each preator survive and gain control of a new plain each when they figured out the war was lost, it would have opened up a return for them. Elesh Norn was nothing but weak and fell apart when she got ditched by some of her minions. Jin decided mid-fight with the planeswalkers that he was going to turn on his only remaining ally and try to kill her to rule phyrexia alone. Vorinclex literally did nothing, got frozen in time by teferis bullshit time magic and then had his head cut off without having any impact at all. Sheoldred just died, literally nothing more to say on one of the scariest preators, and urabrask ended up a coward. Over 2 years of bangs in this build up for this moment, and it goes out with a whimper. I’ve seen better fan fiction written by 10 year olds. Sheoldred should have conquered dominaria in the United arc, forcing the heros to flee to other planes or protect the survivors in hiding. then elesh should have taken complete control on new phyrexia, Jin should have gotten kamigawa, and atraxa should have been given dominion over new capenna. Urabrask on the run, and vorinclex mindlessly cutting down the heros in kaldhiem for the end of March of the machines first block, making all seem lost just before MOM aftermath. We’ve already seen the kenriths royal funeral spoiler which would have made way more sense than having a full “rebuilding arc”. Instead at the end of MOM 1 we get fucking jace being the centre on attention again in a new way this time, and all the horrors being completely undone like a reset switch, It’s stupid. Jace, ajani, vraska, and nahiri should have unalived and dominaria been lost to phyrexian influence just as yawgmoth envisioned thousands of years before. As for in game mechanics, I don’t understand why we’ve gone from phyrexian mites to “incubate 1/2/3”. It’s another shitty mechanic we don’t need when we already had one that worked extremely well in toxic. I honestly hope that somewhere, gix has been laying in wait for thousands of years after his defeat to urza. Spending all the time rebuilding himself and cooking up a plan to return. I loved his card in brothers war that much it became my signature commander. I hope they give him the love he deserves and let him return to cause more havoc.
Even worse, MOM spoilers' lore tells a different story, of what could have been. With the phyrexians being an actual threat, with the oil being potent and inexorable, with machines more powerful than Ikoria's apex monsters, and angels being turned, and inexorable tides winning the battles. How they dismissed the Praetors, such wonderful and unique characters, was unforgivable.
@@makeththeman9519 Urabrask wasn’t a coward, he just died offscreen from his wounds (his limbs were ripped from his body). Or maybe WotC want to use him later, who knows.
Jace maybe will be the only phyrexian that could move since we learned that he split his and vraska mind so the memories and personality of both of them were safe from the oil so maybe he will be back looking for a way of restore him and vraska to normal
Phyrexians used to be about corrupting planes with a few drops of oil or infecting a planeswalker with a small cut, but now they're just a worse than normal mindless zombie horde that can't get anything done. Phyrexians failed to claim even one plane, they suck so much that they almost seem like underdogs, with heroes from across the multiverse ganging up on them. What a joke.
But it's Jace, all his plans have failed in the past, so it would be like a Saturday morning cartoon villian. Cheesiness would be a nice change of pace however after all this.
So glad our big cat man wasn't oofed out of existence Vorinclex-style. He deserves to have his lore and life developed. Shame for the loss Tamiyo for those who liked her tho. My regards.
I have a question. Remember Kasmina? The planeswalker from Strixhaven? Didn’t her lore say she was preparing for a fight bigger than war of the spark, a battle so world changing... she’s part of some ancient planeswalker group and she’s interested in recruitment for this battle, yet when the Phyrexians came she wasn’t there. That implies that the Phyrexians aren’t the threat she’s worried about. So what could be worse than Nicol Bolas and the Phyrexians?
I'm really hoping they don't find an actual cure. I agree the story needs consequences but I'm really glad they at least brought back ajani considering they made Elspeth such a huge part of the story. Loving the content and congrats on the sponsor!😁
they went for the most generic thing possible. Kill off some characters who nobody gives a shit about, threaten the actual characters, but dont pull through. I feel so invested
*Endings in other Planes* Pia: I'm so tired... I hope my daughter's fine... Teferi: My friend died... a lot of people died *Meanwhile, in Kaldheim* Tyvar: Yo. Look at this dead deity I killed Harald: Lmao noice
So Kaya can cut a god's throat, random jobbers can take out two praetors, and Tyvar can offscreen a world-sized serpent before somehow pulling its head out of the sea. Okay wizards dude. Okay.
Where is Jace? Why Have Tezzeret send for Rafiq? Who were those mysterious people who said this was the beginning of the end? I have so many unanswered questions.
Despite how rushed this ultimately felt; I could really feel the weight of Teferi's heart as he started to cry; probably my favorite passage in this whole arc. Karn losing Venser's spark to save his friends is a close 2nd place though. Bittersweet ending. RIP Melira; heart goes out to Koth and Thrun for her loss. And Wrenn... my new favorite character after all of this; rest easy.
wdym loss? They let her die. The literal ANGEL and the GUY WHO CONTROLS TIME cant do anything to save a wounded human? One of the worst arcs of mtg story to this day. Not to mention the phyrexian threat collapsing like star wars droids.
Now I’m curious what the Zhalfiran Void looks like on Dominaria. Teferi mentioned seeing people’s shades in the void so can New Phyrexia now be seen there?
For what it's worth you have done an awesome job covering all of this. Yours is the channel I have been following to keep up on the lore for this cycle and I will remain subbed for future material. Great job sir.
I think the Mirrari was the (in computer terms) "host server" for Phyrexia. It's primary objective: All Will Be One. Make everything become a part of it. The glistening oil/Ichor/Phyrexian oil is the virus. It acts like a computer virus infecting the host PC (individual) and connecting them to it. A person's personality can be thought of as an operating system. Each race shares the same type operating system but the operating system differs between races. Each individual has a personal modified version build of their race's OS. This is why each time Phyrexia came upon a new race, it would take a while to figure out how to beat take over. Going back to Memnarch. Memnarch reshaped Argentum and renamed it Mirrodin. Eventually he gets defeated. Karn melts Memnarch down revealing the Mirrari. He left it with Slobad, Glissa and Geth. I'm gonna take a wild guess that the three decided to leave the Mirrari in Mirrodin's core. From there it was easy for the Mirrari to make secret agents while hidden under the surface of Mirrodin. Eventually, the Mirrari has gotten enough subjects and created the Praetors to siege the surface and rebrand Mirrodin as New Phyrexia. Seeing the way how obsessed Elesh Norn was with the objective All Will Be One makes me suspicious that Elesh Norn secretly made the Mirrari a part of herself or the Mirrari turned Elesh Norn into the primary host server while making itself the backup server. I'm leaning towards the second. This would explain why the Phyrexians stopped moving when Elesh Norn was disintegrated. Before the Mirrari could take over as backup, it along with New Phyrexia was cut off from time and existence.
@@ich3730 I don't deny that. I believe a portion of the Ichor has a main "body" kinda like symbiotes (Venom, Carnage, Scream). I'm gonna reference The Faculty (1998 film). Ichor tends to follow the same principles in which there is a "hive queen" controlling all the others. This does require the Ichor possessing a live host. The Ichor kept moving from live host to live host. Karn eventually killed a Phyrexian that had the main Ichor and got splattered but because Ichor couldn't infect planeswalkers at the moment, it couldn't bind to Karn. Karn gained possession of the Merrari and the Ichor transferred over to it. My theory is that the Ichor took a while post Memnarch to learn how to use the Merrari. It then made itself a replica. The replica Ichor then embodied Elesh Norn and started taking over Mirrodin.
Vorinclex would have been easy to do a good ending for, have him and his forces be hunted and slaughtered by the invading forces from other planes as he comes to realise he is not the Apex predator and strength alone would not save him. Jin probably should have lived in a weakened state with some contingency plan to save himself and some of his forces could have a shadow war with Jace and Vraska throughout the planes with whatever Phyrexienised planeswalkers he had left(just leave him with some it is a good opportunity to see new planeswalkers or some from other planes). Alternatively Jin becoming a planeswalker but not able to as easily spread Phyresis and instead of having to do so via relatively slowly via mechanical modifications which leave the individual with their own intelligence and goals could be interesting. The next wave of Phyrexians would not be reliant on numbers or the spread of oil and would instead need to focus more on using their agents and schemes.
I was so happy with this story. I've been saying for months Ajani would be saved. In spite of people arguing that compleation was irreversible and that he should die for "consequences" , it never felt right for him to go out with all his history. This is what I wanted out of the story. The oil creating a signal was a bit odd. I did recall it was mentioned that the oil had been changed and upgraded. I can imagine the "signal' was apart of it. In the end, I'm really satisfied.
I really feel like them bringing Nissa and Ajani back took away from the story. They wanted to show how much Chandra and Nissa love each other they could have had a tearjerker moment or Chandra goes into a tantrum after realizing Ajani and Nissa can't be brought back. Having her go through 2 or three stages of grief rapidly before planeswalking away. It just feels really cheap to bring back to of the mainline Planeswalkers. I also don't see karn losing his Spark as that big of a loss because he can just get another one.
I agree, it would be better if they become conscious for a while and remember what they have done, being reassured by others that they weren't themselves and then dying. Btw what about best Zendikar planeswalker- Nahiri.
@@michaeltaylor788 a lot of B&C plot characters died. The only real A plot person that is gone is Jace. I would have been way more hype if they would have saved Luca, and he would have had to have live with knowing that he was part of the reason that so many others died.
With Nissa and Ajani they should have made it that the whole curing process made it possible to revert to their uncompleat selves for a few minutes (there is a timemage there afterall) to say their goodbyes and then succumb to their wounds and die. That would have been a bigger tearjerker imo.
My guess is that Jace is still out there and not in a coma. He only appeared in the first story and it hinted that he had another agenda. So im guessing he undid whatever Elesh Norn did to make the glistening oil go inert without her signal. And I think it'd be really weird narratively for him to go comatose off screen after those hints. So my guess he's the last functioning phyrexian and he'll be a reoccurring villain on the same level as Tibalt and Tezzeret. Likely in a frenzy to save his love Vraska who's either dead or in a coma at least. And likely out of spite towards gatewatch who he can hold responsible.
I'm not sure he'd want to be the new Father of Machines, even as a Phyrexian. I've always seen him more as a man dominated by his passions than otherwise. That said I do hope he is still phyrexian bad. I never really liked the idea that he was still himself after being compleated because of his mind mage stuff. imo his character arc is more interesting continued as a villain (at least for a while) cause he didn't have a lot more drama left in his previous trajectory.
Can't believe Sorin was left out, he could have had a sub plot where he saves Nahiri writing his wrong and ending their feud. Perhaps his sangromancy can work on extracting the oil in the future.
One thing that made the curing of Ajani and Nissa somewhat more oaky, in my opinion, was how they did it. At least for now, they require Melira, who is gone. So, it’s a one shot thing, at least for now
@@AetherHub tbh the complainers can say what they want but honestly this is a MASSIVE inprovement over war of the spark I mean there was concequences a plenty and the story albeit a bit rushed was really cool. And tbh,out of the planeswalkers that get uncompleated id say ajani definitely earned it considering that despite being a oldish planeswalker he was awesome as hell. Although yeah we need to see art of kaya killing heliod.
@@AetherHub I really want you to know that when you see me complaining in the comments, I'm not complaining about you whatsoever. You do a fantastic job, and I appreciate your effort. 😎
@@lolbots686 actually, the ending is just as bad as war the spark, if not worse, because they lead up to this was much better than War of the 💥 it actually had me theorizing about what could possibly happen with all of the storyline elements that we know to exist... Just having another deus ex machina power up with elspeth was definite cop out. And I've been playing since 96, so I can complain about whatever I want story-wise. This is garbage compared to what it used to be, they used to release full novels with the bundles for each set. The power levels in the writing are just all over the place, directions in the dominaria United set are scarier and more competent than the ones at the actual endgame invasion of the entire multiverse. The praetor is dying to random mirrodin resistance members was bullcrap, and everything felt rushed. As I've said before, and as other more notable people have speculated, I think there was a last-minute change in the storyline for some reason or another during the lead-up to the set release, how far before and for what reason I don't know... But this just feels really off for a professional writing job. It's bad when any random person in the comment section could probably come up with a better story than the people actually getting paid to do so.
So Karn is no longer a Planeswalker. Are Nissa and Ajani still synthetic Planeswalkers or is their body back to normal? I am guessing Jace, Nahiri and potentially Vraska are still out there just inactive, perhaps their story will be covered during after aftermath. Is Zhalfir a plain of its own now?
I'm a bit confused about Nahiri, tbh. I don't think Seiben has covered her side story yet, but it is a bit ambiguous to me whether or not we're supposed to think she is dead. Spoilers if you haven't read it: She gets trapped in a skyclave that falls to the world. Akiri notes that she isn't sure whether or not that killed Nahiri, as Nahiri is super tough. That said, the next line is "But (the invasion falls apart without Nahiri's coordination)" My hope is she is still alive, but it is possible that that was just an unclear way to tell us she is dead. Either one kinda makes sense. Lukka and Tamiyo are 100% dead, Vraska seems to have a definite death, but then her body goes missing, etc. It looks like they were killing most of the compleated Planeswalkers, that said, Nahiri is significantly stronger than any of the others, and has a very relevant unresolved story connection (Sorin). I'd say that if Vraska is alive, Nahiri is definitely alive. If not, I'm unsure.
So like... what? Why are the Phyrexians just dying? Nothing makes sense, every cool villain dies unceremoniously, every cool compleated legendary just dies I guess? Like how many Deus Ex Machina in the last few chapters? So many plot holes, just, uhhhhh...
So I don’t hate how they brought back Ajani & Nissa. It made sense, what I think was just straight poor writing and laziness on their part was the phyrexians shutting down after new phyrexia was gone? They said it was cause she had control over them, but that doesnt make sense. They were all easily able to turn against her. Even if new phyrexia is gone the phyrexians on other planes should still be going on their own. It doesn’t make sense to me and it felt like they wanted to shove the phyrexians under the rug
It would have been better to write it as them becoming uncoordinated. Losing the center of their hive mind and people taking advantage of their sudden confusion to fight back alongside the angels. That would have felt like more of a heroic last effort than the "all the enemy fall down like puppets with their strings cut" that seems so common in pop culture nowadays.
@Matthew Boyd finally the Mother and Father of machines, how will we stop a phyrexia ran by a stable family, How will WOTC justify hiring a PMC to massacre a small town. Find out next time on Magic the Gathering.
Hopefully the Story is not compleated It would be really thrilling If Jace manipulates the mind of elspeth and karn so they think they beat norn and Phyrexia. In my eyes the victory is way to easy.
Thanks for all the hard work you've put into making this content! Whilst I'm a huge fan boy of MTG after the Time Spiral crisis I stopped being able to keep up with MTG lore. Since I just started getting back into MTG I've been wolfing down all your content. Can't wait for this new set!
What if a phyrexian's spark ignites the moment all of the things happened with the climax? Suddenly getting free will and agency. Maybe they will see what a gift that is and he will be good aligned. Or maybe he still feels aligned with phyrexia
Tbh I think them bringing back ajani and nissa was a mistake, I understand they’re popular characters but it kinda cheapens them getting compleated since we all knew deep down they wouldn’t let ajani stay like that.
Honestly I liked the story beats but I really didn't care for how quickly the praetors died and what the camera chose to focus on. Though honestly I'm willing to overlook a lot because the set ultimately delivered on the two things I wanted most - angel Elspeth and cured Ajani.
I really like the idea of a Eulogy for the story arc. So far, even if some areas of the story could be better to my liking, overall my impressions are positive and WAY better than WotSpark for sure ... We'll see what the epiloge and aftermath holds
I call it lazy story writing. The Phantom Menace/Avengers/GoT style "kill the boss and minions fall dead" trope(aka necromancer), was in full swing. All of the Preators got a pretty dumb end- Sheoldred was beheaded and dissected, Urbrask was just dissected and killed, Jin was eaten alive after one hit and Vorenclix was beheaded in one blow. Norn straight tanked an entire army and then had her head ripped off after being weakened. That all happened within 1-3 chapters of the story, while focused on Phyrexia. So, out of the 10 or so chapters in this arc, ALL of the preators met their end in a really short sad way, as if they weren't a threat at all. Also, we have to remember that the chapters flipped or change perspectives and locations multiple times during the course of the writting. Then, they go as far to make the story not match the cards. Good looking set, decent story-As long as they are separate.
Okay I have some questions. Elesh Norn was defeated yes, but what about the Phyrexians still attacking. Shouldn’t the Phyrexians still fight even without Elesh Norn? They still have their own forms and bodies right? Surely they would still be able to fight and still continue to fight? Wouldn’t they? Also what about the Compleated Planeswalkers. Vraska’s body wasn’t found so she’s still somewhere and Jace is nowhere to be seen. Surely those two would still be compleated and out there somewhere?
As an extreme fan of Ajani (I collected every card of him), the fact he got to live again did not actually make me happy. This story tells you it's serious and bleak, but then does some of the most cartoonish things I've seen in a long time. Yeah some characters are dead, some are missing, but even the way a lot of "big" characters went out was so lack luster. All the villains got killed in the most goofy ways (Except Norn and Ginataxis). Sorin, Garruk, Ugin, the Kenriths, there are some characters that just flat didn't show. This was a grander scale than War of the Spark, Brothers War told its story pretty darn good and built up to this well. All Will Be One set up everything so good. This set just rushed everything and finished off one of the biggest threats, thats been around since the game started, with Convenience after Convenience. New Capenna Angels just wait till the plane is almost gone before they help, they dont even kill Atraxa. The Phyrexians just happen to no longer be sentient. You gave Elspeth plot armor and an upgrade, why even have her grab the Sylex? Jace just isnt mentioned, except in Vraskas mind, the whole set. He dead? Isnt he a big brain, so how did they lose with his mind as part of them. Lukka as a villain is as big as a castle and just gets one shot, the most wasted potential planeswalker ever. Even Domri had some story moments. Tamiyo dies but isnt, Wren goes out like a champ and will rebirth through an acorn, the kid gives up his life for a spell on Strixhaven and becomes a planeswalker, oh and Karn rebuilds himself. Like all the bite out of the story you thought would happen from the previous section doesnt exist past the first 2 chapters here. Not a single plane actually lost, they all held out till the phyrexians turned off. How does Kaya kill a god, Elspeth was stronger than her and couldnt deal with Heliod, also thats not how the gods are suppose to work. We are told Iroas becomes corrupted, where is that boy? Who beats up Ajani? how can Nahiri block all this abilities and attacks when shes melded with the Skyclave but cant block a halo? You kinda show off Ayara looking like a new Urabrask and nothing comes from that? What was Elesh Norns secret goal on Theros that she never told Ajani? There are so many cool cards coming from this set showing way better things then the written story, this needed another set. The story had some horrible fights and tons of plot armor moments, the cast could have stayed the same just done in a more satisfying way. Urabrask is the prime example that a phyrexian can do whatever they want based on feelings. Have Nissa hurt Chandra and then betray phyrexia to save the woman she loves and have her help Wren. She could start pulling the tree back while Wren got Teferi, then instead of just burning up maybe Wren could have finally used all her fire. Die that way, be buried (after finally controlling her flame like she wanted), and maybe have a little plant/tree grow where shes buried. Then Nissa can still revert to normal and be with Chandra. Same results but just better ideas/symbolism and making the characters still feel like they are progressing. I don't know guys, I enjoyed where the lore for the big bad was going and am just shocked they didn't take time to really flush it out. Especially with how many places this took place on.
I personally loved the March of the Machine story, for the restrictions that obviously exist in the form of time and space to write these chapters, it did really well. finale was by far my favorite because of its more emotional tones. and of course as a nissa fan i love how they brought her back and even brought nissa and chandra's relationship back to a better form. Thank you for covering it.
I understand why people are disappointed but I do feel that a lot of hate gets directed at the writers when they're having their hands largely bound by the mandates they're given as to pace and which characters get highlighted/removed. The stories are mostly well written outside of them being forced to rush the conclusions.
Well I don't hate the the fact ajani and nissa are back But what I do like is how there were actual steaks as jace vraska and nahiri are gone gone melira dead and karn possibly not even a planeswalker anymore its not a clean ending but its WAY better than most stuff wizards made within the past few year
Phyrexia rebuilt itself and figured out multiversal travel before any other plane in existence at an exponential degree. We will surely see them again. The curse of yawgmoth shall remain a stain on reality.
Nissa has been hinted about her embracing her dark side for a while now. In the last Zendikar set she was black green and in the brothers war set Nissa was brutally murdering Phyrexians and Wrenn was saying that this was not her song and to avoid it while the soul of Dominaria was telling her to be brutal.
Lmao they all lived. Called it. Nissa's death would have given Chandra some character development that she desperately needs. Its a damn shame too because Chandra has so much potential. Unfortunately, her personality only consists of "unga bunga I do red things." Killing off one side character and de-sparking Karn were the only consequences of compleation apparently. At least War of the Spark had the balls to kill off Gideon, a MAIN character. Tamiyo, Tibalt, and Lukka are all fodder and their deaths are inconsequential.
Tamiyo was a beloved character and a significant death. Jace and Vraska are still out there somewhere and still compleated. We still have MoM Aftermath story to tie up loose ends. You didn't "call it."
Nope, but having a presence in multiple storylines and sealing away an Eldritch Titan is MC qualifying territory (you don't have to join the gatewatch to be a MC btw) and going into your territory of requiring to be a member of the GW: Jace is still compleated, and still missing. again, you didn't call it.
So now that the Planeswalking Avengers defeated the Eldrazi, Nicol Bolas, and the Phyrexians in the timeline of what...a couple months? How is anything next? All the greatest villains in the MTG multiverse got their asses handed to them and we lost, what...8 planeswalkers out of 54? And one of those was Tybalt that everyone hated anyway. Vraska, Jace, and Nahiri will somehow appear again in the future, Wrenn is coming back as part of the new world tree somehow, Karn will get his spark back, and Elspeth is an angel. Stopped the greatest forces in the multiverse with almost 0 consequences aside from collateral damage that of course will be completely healed/repaired somehow within the next few years.
I would've liked if Jace, Ajani, Nissa, Koth took over as Praetors. Melira could have removed the oil's ill effects and allowed Jace, Ajani and Nissa to realize they had been changed beyond hope but it was not an end but a new beginning. I also wonder how they will deal with the Glistening Oil infecting so many planes, I figure that stuff is toxic :P
_"YUM YUM EAT EM UP"_ _-Yargle, if the collector's reprint for this set is any indication._ In all seriousness, Phyrexia Revision 3 having a whole New Jacetice League would be ... wild, but also maybe a bit too predictable. :/
Okay, so, theory time. The majority of Phyrexians shut down without Elesh Norn's presence. Cool. Fine. However: There is at least 1 rebel Phyrexian *Praetor* and two potentially not-overrun-by-oil-enough planeswalkers who could still be operational. I would love to see a story set on New Phyrexia where Urabrask, being the rebel, the one Norn couldn't ever control and takes up the mantle. I also wouldn't mind to see Jace or Vraska take up the position and rule Phyrexia.
@@pascalsimioli6777 *Technically* he's alive but dismembered. Elesh Norn never got chance to finish him off before Elspeth showed up and drew her attention. If he bled out, he's dead, but I suspect phyrexians don't bleed.
I really really hoped for Nissa to die there. Give her a final monologue, give her a couple days, even, but by all means just let her die! It'll be a mercy at this point, for her and for us. She's killed more than any other single being known to the Multiverse, and if she was troubled by her role in freeing the Eldrazi... this... how can someone cope with this? No ammount of love from Chandra is ever gonna heal that wound. Not that something good can't be done with this massive theme lorewise. It's just that I don't trust pg13 Wizards to do it any justice. Also, low key... Please please please Wizards, for the love of the elder dragons, make Jace the new Father of Machines?
Yeah, but still everyone is going to protect their favorite hippie (which btw screwed up people of Zendikar and took their hope of living without all the elemental disasters, still Nahiri is the bad one by their standards)
@@barthazard5557 I don't fault Nissa for wanting to keep the crazy elemental forces, though. They saved the plane from the Eldrazi, after all. They're the plane's "personality" (and immune system...), if you will. In Amonkhet she saw first hand what stifling a plane can do, and she understandably didn't want the same to happen to Zendikar. And Nahiri is (was?)... complicated. I don't think she needs a redemption arc per se, which is what she was given against Phyrexia, but she does need a bit of peace to ponder stuff for a looong time before she can change into something else as a character. She's immortal, immensely powerful, and she thinks in the scale of planes, not people. They could still do for her what they did for Sorin, Teferi, and Karn, stories to reconnect her to the common post-mending folk and set her up to appear in the future as a peer, not as an unhinged demigoddess. Would I trust pg13 Wizards to do it any justice, though? Hmm, I guess it's better that she stays kinda dead for now.
Bro, if the glistening oil evolved from not needing Yawgmoth anymore, it definitely doesn't need Norn. If they don't actually address this then all of those planes are gonna be dealing with phyrexia until the end of time or until one is able to repeat this whole process. Elspeth should have let Jace kill them all with the sylex.
Aww what about urabrask? Did he make it out at all?? This story was interesting but it felt so rushed. I hope if the adapt this into another story form (maybe a book or comic) they flush out more info about other characters.
Wizards: biggest threat and most epic story in MTG since Brother's War! Story: Phyrexian invasion doesn't do SHIT and barely ANY real loss aside from Karn and MAYBE Jace Vraska... Wow that was TRASH😂😂😂
Huh, guess that Serra hallucination or whatever was wrong and Elspeth should have just surprise killed Norn when she had the chance. Eh, maybe the next time they decide to bring the phyrexians back again the story won't be such a slapped together mess. Edit: Also I think epilogue is misspelled in the description.
first off, WOO AJANI IS BACK BB, and secondly tbh, i really want a short story with ajani and nissa now cured, deal with all the horrible things they did while compleated but end up becoming friends or just closer because they had a very unique shared exerpience.
I'm gonna be sad if Tamiyo doesn't get a new card. It doesn't have to be a new Planeswalker or creature card, I just want to see a card representing her with Nashi
The Glistening oil stuff really makes no sense, I am pretty sure they made that up on the spot to get themselves out of having to explain why oil being on all these planes doesn't matter anymore. Lol, but then again, we have a kingdom (read: a small landmass) from Dominaria replacing an entire plane (I guess that particular world is flat!) so I am not even sure how much I should care anymore. At least there was some consequence even if the it felt like it was barely an inconvenience in the end.
@@AetherHub One more set would have been perfect. But where are the seeds of the next enemy? I honestly think that the only way to possibly bring this back would be to have Jace in a coma, but a voice speaking to him in the dark. A voice in the oil, something long lost. He would have this long conversation and eventually would agree to sit down and hear him out and his proposal. He could reach out and introduce himself “My name is Yawgmoth. Let’s help each other out.” THAT would be a twist.
@@Azonavox my guesses: 1.- Nicol Bolas managed to scape his prison plane thanks to one of the Realmbreakers portals, while Ugin was distracted with phyrexia. 2.- The Realmbreaker managed to connect all planes and switch Mirrodin with Zhalfir, that had to mess with the blind eternities somehow, enough to wake up/call the Eldeazi or the Marit Lage species.
@@maxpepelotas2059 1. The meditation plane where Ugin and Bolas currently are is shielded or something from outsiders otherwise it wouldn't be safe for Bolas to go and meditate peacefully and planeswalkers could just follow him or just end up there so there are no phyrexians there and i highly doubt Ugin would leave Bolas unguarded just to go and help a random plane. 2. Wotc have been rushing the heck out of every big villain's demise (or hibernation for Emrakul's case) we have known in mtg lore so it'd be stupid to just reinclude eldrazi so soon. They will either keep her in the moon for quite some time to find some interesting storyline or they will just decide that the moon somehow manages to keep her hibernating for ever.
Elspeth: *Heals Chandra to the point her skin clears*
Also Elspeth when Melira is wounded: sucks to suck lmoa
lol xD, I'm pretty sure Chandra's wounds were supposed to be just superficial while Melira's were more like, internal organ ruptures and what not.
@@lenajohnson6179 Chandra got impaled multiple times. Frankly she should have turned Phyrexian after how little it took to turn Jace and Nahiri
@@lenajohnson6179 bad writing is bad writing
@@Michael-bn1oi Jace got a full blown oil injection. Nahiri you're right about though.
I hope Wotc understands that it can’t keep escalating after this. I personally really miss when the stories were focused on legendary creatures and planeswalkers were some extra sauce. But I think that would be very difficult considering the death of the block story.
I wish we could just do like 2 sets for 1 place. Like Kaladesh and Awther revolt, or Amonket and Hour of Devistation. Set up and finale. Three sets causes burnout before the final
I agree. More so they can't keep doing these multiversal threats. I do disagree with the inability to do legendary creature stories. While the block is gone that simple means there is no limit. They could do 1-3 set stories for a creature as it is needed.
However I do agree those were really good stories though with the current writing I wonder if we'd ever get that level of story telling again.
@@robbyjones9813 The story telling is always secondary to selling a product. As long as WOTC has a product to move, they'll keep writing shitty plots and characters into the MTG universe.
Who’s left on the Multiversal Threat front that isn’t a “Somehow the _____ Survived/Escaped”?
@@magmatard8737 have things be even more rushed? Oof.
Burn out is from garbage writing and ridiculous power creep.
That said if they can actually figure out the writing problem 2 sets would be really nice.
Teferi the time mage: “huh, that sucks too bad there’s nothing to be done”
Haha this is why you don’t write time travelers into the story.
PostprandialTorpor 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It sucks to suck lol
I wondered why Teferi couldn't just rewind time around her and bring her back to before she got wounded. Is that because of a personal rule about meddling with time or something?
@@jeffalchemist | I think I heard something about BRO showing what happens when you meddle with time, but don't blindly quote me on it.
Seeing as different people wrote different parts of the story u can tell who put effort into the story vs not
The same individual person wrote every single numbered March of the Machines entry. I hope they had the reigns over to someone else, or if she was just being handed plot points (very possible) and given a set number of words to tie them together then her boss needs to be fired.
WotC gave this story more time than any other in recent years, but because of its scope and grandeur it still came out undercooked. When you put a bigger glob of cookie dough in the oven you have to bake it longer. And MTG has done it correctly before. Yawgmoths invasion of Dominaria had built up its characters and story for the 3 blocks of Urza’s block, Masques block, and Invasion block, totaling 9 sets + a large chunk of antiquities + the 300 < page book The Thran
This could've lead to a really interesting era of MTG, but noooo... we get a happily ever after ending with the good guys pulling through and the bad guys just getting absolutely decimated.
I'd hoped that the plot would've allowed for the compleated planeswalkers to remain compleated, and for the Phyrexians to be the cause of their own downfall (through fractionalism, ie; They all invade various planes, but disconnected from Phyrexia and Elsh Norn's control, they sever their own ties to New Phyrexia and begin endeavours to make these new planes into their homes. Potentially with a plot that culminates with the compleated planeswalkers regaining their independence, but still being driven to compleat the world, just for their own individualistic reasons.
But nah. We get a magical "problem is solved" arc. I hope Theros remains fucked for the forseeable future.
@@ahealthkit2745 💯
I liked everything else in the story, but I'm not too big on the no signal = no function deal. I was kind of hoping Phyrexians were going to end up a sort of constant albeit less massive threat even with their praetor overlords gone.
New Phyrexia came from a single drop of oil on the core of Mirrodin. New Phyrexia is gone, but I would be surprised if there were NEVER any future Phyrexians, just localized instead of multiversal adversaries, sort of like Rona on Dominaria
“As long as one drop of the oil exists, the joyous work continues.”
I don’t think Jin died…
I'm surprised you could like everything about a rushed story that has angels die from a freaking building falling on them. Or the constant Avengers Endgame rip off moments that are done without a soul.
@@andrewrichter3185 He fell into a vat of his spawn and got eaten. If anyone is alive, it's Urabrask. He's just quadriplegic now. Briefly anyway, if Phyrexia survived he'll likely get new limbs before long
@@Drakelis technically very few planes were saved unless they found a way to purge the oil.
I'm confused. With Elesh Norn gone shouldn't the Phyrexians just act on their own, and not fall apart like robots in Star Wars?
Yes actually but the writers wanted to get rid of them so they added some last second retcon out of their asses
Yeah, there’s been a lot of those “hold on what? How? That easily? Really?!” From me this whole story, aether hub is a good narrator though
But actually that's what happened the first time around when they killed Yawgmoth. Since Norn styled herself as the new Mother it is just natural to assume she had the Phyrexian will wired through her, just as Yawgmoth had bound himself to the Plane. Again it could be a buttocks-pull from the writers, but something I've noticed in the telling of this story is heavy references to the Weatherlight Saga, so it could be that. Make of it what you will.
Yea, the current writers don't understand the old lore.
Yes. The writers just suck that much.
before wizards does a new big bad, they should take us back to alara or lorwyn because there is still a A TON of story left to tell.
Were either even mentioned as an invaded plane?
I would like to know who the f was the pre mending walker that destroyed alara
Hand someone the literary authority like Brian jaques
@@RiotKurhein Yes iirc Tezzeret retreated to Alara and was leaking advice that the Angels of Bant were the key to stopping the Phyrexian invasion of Alara
Been waiting on new Shadowmoor set, myself.
God these last few stories were horrendously written. Everything just happened so freaking easily and so fast. Praetors dying like flies or getting caught and dismembered, Gods dying by a stab, PWs' sparks and their bodies getting saved by a half-dead mortal even though they were fully compleat, an entire army disarmed the moment Elesh Norn dies despite we've been told that phyrexians are not just empty husks following orders. And ofc Nissa and Chandra making out in the end even though they had them realizing in the previous stories that there was nothing romantic there.
Regardless how much i liked these lore videos the story was really disappointing with such a pace and all the out-of-nowhere cures or solutions for almost anything. Can't wait to see what kind of excuse they will make up to not kill Jace, Vraska and maybe even Nahiri.
This was my impression as well. Also wotc need to diversify their romantic relationships. If every couple is a lesbian couple it starts to seem like a weird fetish. Bring out the guy/guy and girl/guy relationships lol
It's speculated that they want to make Jace and Vraska into villains.
Yes. This is trash. WotC storytelling is trash. I'm sorry I'm sure there are some (well) hidden gems in this dumpster fire but I'm SICK AND TIRED or having to suspend my disbelief in order to justify all the lazy writing, the plotholes, the bad. To be honest I haven't read anything great in MTG lore after the Amonkhet lore. Which I believe was brilliant. But especially the big finales are such utter FAILURES. They've topped the disappointment of War of the Spark and it wasn't an easy task.
Guys, I really loved the lore of this franchise. But I’m tired of trying to convince myself this writing is worth keeping an interest in. Their letting so many good plots, opportunities and ideas go. Think it’s about time I did the same for Mtg story after this
This was seriously rushed to the end... but not surprised considering WoTC its rushing everything. Anyway, possible plot points from now on. We might have a cool down on plot on for the next years, like something with Tezzereth, at best the next threat will be that un solved Eldrazi mistery but i dont hope anything soon.
Next, would be something with Jace and Vraska, if and just if they are still working under Phyrexia, the best i can hope is them doing the same as the old phyrexians did after their last defeat: organizing Phyrexian cults all over the multiverse and maybe look a way to phase out Phyrexia.
As someone who is new to magic, I just see it as a consequence of the story being tied to a physical product.
by the time they spent writing five more paragraphs there could be six more SLDs and three standard sets
@@shaunmcisaac782 This profit-obsessed brain rot has been the bane of this game recently.
@@RealBakedTahu and yet others have been much more successful on the story telling end.
Massive companies like wizards don't deserve you making excuses for them. They can do better and they should.
Keep in mind that the Planar Bridge is still on New Phyrexia
Personal headcanon on how the story should have ended/ moved forward.
Urabrask is found to have survived his dismemberment, becoming Urabrask Reforged, the final and leading praetor.
Without Norn, the brainwashing of her machine orthodoxy is released from the completed walkers, but they are still suffering from Contagious phyresis.
Wrenn does not die, but sacrifices her humanity as to ensure all of Phyrexia is in pocket dimension, closing the door behind her, becoming completed.
Lukka is still dead, because whatever.
Nissa can still be cured at the expense of Karns spark & Meliras sacrifice, (and apparently Nahiri offscreen) but not Ajani.
Ajani feels the shame and guilt of his deeds, as well as fear that unknown effects of the Sleeper agent aspect may still exist, so he Exiles himself to New-est Phyrexia. (Referencing the Classic Path to Exile Ajani art)
Or maybe he was too far gone since he was completed for a good deal longer than the rest.
After her near death on ravnica, Jace comes to her, as part of the mind link, showing he had locked off part of his mind before to avoid full mental completion because he's so smart and whatever.
Jace and Vraska go back to New-est Phyrexia to save her, and recover her mind.
This leaves New-est Phyrexia living in this pocket dimension outside time and space like Zhalfir was.
Urabrask rules the plane, but with freedom and 'peace' in his own phyrexian way. Much more anarchistic liberation in tone.
The 'new Praetors' are then the remaining completed walkers.
White Ajani, Blue Jace, Black Vraska, Green Wrenn.
Then, for the big wild card, a power play by the miraculously surviving Tibalt.
There is a lot about your head cannon that I love. Like honestly.
They did Tibalt so dirty...
Once again, fan fiction is better than the junk Wizards wrote for this story.
It felt like from Dominaria onward they simply did one giant cinematic run and that this was just to clean things up. Ultimately I felt they rushed this last arch of the story and could have done more with it.
What happens now that most of the multiverse knows about the Multiverse and whatever lose ends remain.
Emrakul still there, tho
I for one looked forward to our new phyrexian overlords but I guess the good guys gotta win miraculously.
You, sir, did an excellent job. I'm looking forward to your total breakdown. Overall it was good, but maaaaaan that rushed ending was rough. On the other hand, I'm truly hoping that we get Jace as a true villain. He's still Compleated, and I'd love to see him go evil. We shall see.
Smarter folks wouldn't have ended this inside a single block. I'd have done minimum 3 full blocks of different planes fighting Phyrexia. And I'd have written a way out without ruining half the most important characters in the MtG multiverse. Personally, I was hoping they'd play more time travel games, and we'd get Urza and Yawgmoth back. We will have to see where the story goes next. My bet? Some stupid side thing with no lasting impact. A return to the slow decline MaRo has piloted for decades now. I'm happy we got a half a year of not-totally-sucking-on-every-level.
Rosewater is responsible for game design. Not for the story. It's frustrating how people don't seem to understand this simple fact. Also, time travel is a terrible plot element. It makes for super complicated stories that are hard to get to a satisfying and logical conclusion. and also it leads to what you criticized - stories without consequences. When you can always have a do-over, nothing matters. I am happy Urza and Yawgmoth didn't come back. That would have been super lazy. If you miss them so much, read the old stories. Those nostalgia trips don't help with good storytelling. We also don't need three blocks to tell the fight against New Phyrexia, that would have been insanely boring. Two would have been plenty, along with some lost planes and really hard-earned victories. I will never understand why they did not hand over the story to Brandon Sanderson when he offered it to WotC
The fact they all embraced koth when melira died is soo beautiful. They understand to the mirrans she was their savior. Melira and Wrenn deserve every prop they earn at the end.
With this arc (from the release of kaldheim) being my first story I've been here for as a player, reading it grow and adapt has been cool. All the mystery and suspension around what the preators were doing on each plane and asking why they were there to begin with. The cards being released for the preators being so strong with elesh norn being the centerpiece, I built decks individually for each one because I loved the villainous aspects of each of them. All that tension built up over all that time across sets and learning that the massive threat of phyrexian invasion was looming with each release, just to have it end with jin and vorinclex being easily defeated, and elesh norn being hardly a threat at the end was a massive disappointment.
They did jin and vorinclex dirty in the way they were killed off and elesh was nothing more than a weak joke who fell to pieces when her followers turned on her. There were no real consequences to this story or weight to it, with the only real defeat here being the storytelling from the writers. They've reversed phyresis on so of the planeswalkers and left an "open ended" chapter with Jace and vraska still being completed. It makes no sense that these planeswalkers would even leave a singal phyrexian alive knowing the threat they could possibly pose in future. I'll never invest time in to another WOTC story if this is how weak the writing is. Game of thrones final episode was better than this.
Edit: I forgot to write thank you to the creator. Despite it being horrible what the writers have done, you really made a massive effort to make this sound and feel as amazing as possible
Not to mention Sheoldred's offscreen death. It's such a frustratingly dissapointing way to end what could've been a very spicy L for the superheroes. I would've loved to see the total number of epic hero planeswalkers reduced in favor of giving us a bunch of complex, heartbreaking baddies (JUST IMAGINE! Nissa is a bad guy for LIFE! Jace is a bad guy FOR LIFE! Elspeth becomes an archangel to stop the invasion, but it doesn't bring back Ajani.) But no, they pull an uno reverse card on the whole fucking invasion.
Not to mention, the new set has 0 TOXIC CARDS! You know, the thing New Phyrexia was known for? The thing that's mentioned in every single fucking sidestory and main story for this set? Phyresis? nah, bro. 6 mana for a 3/3 with upside. whew. What's toxic? What's infect? fuck those archetypes, we're all legendary creatures with too many lines of text now. OH AND BATTLES! Relive the dissapointment that is the Phyrexian Invasion going tits up on 27 planes with these fun new cards that'll make your opponent durdle and attack their own permanent two or three turns in a row.
@@ahealthkit2745 I know the feeling. Every preator felt harrowing, and the idea that these guys teaming up as leaders with armies from their own spheres was very worrying for the hero’s fates.
We had a promising entry for a weakness in phyrexia with urabrask not wanting to follow the same ideals as the other preators, but that was quickly dismissed and replaced with an even bigger plot hole when we learned that all the preators are in some stupid civil war vying for more power and trying to kill each other on the daily, with the exception of vorinclex who was a complete idiot and blunt instrument the entire time and had glissa stand in as his voice.
Why would the 5 preators be at war with each other when they’ve had years on phyrexia in the story to sort out who’s leading or how they would execute these “universe ending plans”. Why would 5 of the biggest villains in years be locking in a civil war right before they go into the most important battle in all of MTG history. These 5 giant threats that were reduced to nothing more than essentially side characters or childish fools when they were supposed to be the main story arc themselves.
We should have lost whole plains to phyresis and had each preator survive and gain control of a new plain each when they figured out the war was lost, it would have opened up a return for them. Elesh Norn was nothing but weak and fell apart when she got ditched by some of her minions.
Jin decided mid-fight with the planeswalkers that he was going to turn on his only remaining ally and try to kill her to rule phyrexia alone.
Vorinclex literally did nothing, got frozen in time by teferis bullshit time magic and then had his head cut off without having any impact at all.
Sheoldred just died, literally nothing more to say on one of the scariest preators, and urabrask ended up a coward. Over 2 years of bangs in this build up for this moment, and it goes out with a whimper. I’ve seen better fan fiction written by 10 year olds.
Sheoldred should have conquered dominaria in the United arc, forcing the heros to flee to other planes or protect the survivors in hiding. then elesh should have taken complete control on new phyrexia, Jin should have gotten kamigawa, and atraxa should have been given dominion over new capenna. Urabrask on the run, and vorinclex mindlessly cutting down the heros in kaldhiem for the end of March of the machines first block, making all seem lost just before MOM aftermath. We’ve already seen the kenriths royal funeral spoiler which would have made way more sense than having a full “rebuilding arc”. Instead at the end of MOM 1 we get fucking jace being the centre on attention again in a new way this time, and all the horrors being completely undone like a reset switch, It’s stupid. Jace, ajani, vraska, and nahiri should have unalived and dominaria been lost to phyrexian influence just as yawgmoth envisioned thousands of years before.
As for in game mechanics, I don’t understand why we’ve gone from phyrexian mites to “incubate 1/2/3”. It’s another shitty mechanic we don’t need when we already had one that worked extremely well in toxic.
I honestly hope that somewhere, gix has been laying in wait for thousands of years after his defeat to urza. Spending all the time rebuilding himself and cooking up a plan to return. I loved his card in brothers war that much it became my signature commander. I hope they give him the love he deserves and let him return to cause more havoc.
💯
Even worse, MOM spoilers' lore tells a different story, of what could have been. With the phyrexians being an actual threat, with the oil being potent and inexorable, with machines more powerful than Ikoria's apex monsters, and angels being turned, and inexorable tides winning the battles.
How they dismissed the Praetors, such wonderful and unique characters, was unforgivable.
@@makeththeman9519 Urabrask wasn’t a coward, he just died offscreen from his wounds (his limbs were ripped from his body).
Or maybe WotC want to use him later, who knows.
Technically Karn never had his own spark. First he lost Urza's and got Venser's, now he lost Venser's.
Jace maybe will be the only phyrexian that could move since we learned that he split his and vraska mind so the memories and personality of both of them were safe from the oil so maybe he will be back looking for a way of restore him and vraska to normal
Phyrexians used to be about corrupting planes with a few drops of oil or infecting a planeswalker with a small cut, but now they're just a worse than normal mindless zombie horde that can't get anything done.
Phyrexians failed to claim even one plane, they suck so much that they almost seem like underdogs, with heroes from across the multiverse ganging up on them. What a joke.
I want Jace to be the next big bad. It would be fun to see a former hero be the villian
But it's Jace, all his plans have failed in the past, so it would be like a Saturday morning cartoon villian. Cheesiness would be a nice change of pace however after all this.
So glad our big cat man wasn't oofed out of existence Vorinclex-style. He deserves to have his lore and life developed. Shame for the loss Tamiyo for those who liked her tho. My regards.
I have a question. Remember Kasmina? The planeswalker from Strixhaven? Didn’t her lore say she was preparing for a fight bigger than war of the spark, a battle so world changing... she’s part of some ancient planeswalker group and she’s interested in recruitment for this battle, yet when the Phyrexians came she wasn’t there. That implies that the Phyrexians aren’t the threat she’s worried about. So what could be worse than Nicol Bolas and the Phyrexians?
fans: "Uhh wheres calix and kasmina?"
WOTC: i forgor..
A compleated Nicol Bolas would be cool.
I'm really hoping they don't find an actual cure. I agree the story needs consequences but I'm really glad they at least brought back ajani considering they made Elspeth such a huge part of the story. Loving the content and congrats on the sponsor!😁
Having them not die is so stupid like is this high stacks when planswalker like luca dies but nissa and ajani live pretty much dropped the ball
they went for the most generic thing possible. Kill off some characters who nobody gives a shit about, threaten the actual characters, but dont pull through. I feel so invested
*Endings in other Planes*
Pia: I'm so tired... I hope my daughter's fine...
Teferi: My friend died... a lot of people died
*Meanwhile, in Kaldheim*
Tyvar: Yo. Look at this dead deity I killed
Harald: Lmao noice
Break DESERVE!!
Good job man, was fun! :)
So Kaya can cut a god's throat, random jobbers can take out two praetors, and Tyvar can offscreen a world-sized serpent before somehow pulling its head out of the sea.
Okay wizards dude. Okay.
All of the cool shit happened "off screen" for the entire arc
So what? It's cool as heck
@@kitkatbreaker1270 are you larping as a soyboy?
Where is Jace? Why Have Tezzeret send for Rafiq? Who were those mysterious people who said this was the beginning of the end? I have so many unanswered questions.
Plot twist. This victory is an illusion created by compleated Jace and the truth is the Phyrexians actually won.
Slightly worse plot twist: Jace drove Jin-Gitaxias to tactical sudoku so the Perfected Mind could rule Phyrexia Revision 3.
Despite how rushed this ultimately felt; I could really feel the weight of Teferi's heart as he started to cry; probably my favorite passage in this whole arc. Karn losing Venser's spark to save his friends is a close 2nd place though. Bittersweet ending.
RIP Melira; heart goes out to Koth and Thrun for her loss. And Wrenn... my new favorite character after all of this; rest easy.
wdym loss? They let her die. The literal ANGEL and the GUY WHO CONTROLS TIME cant do anything to save a wounded human? One of the worst arcs of mtg story to this day. Not to mention the phyrexian threat collapsing like star wars droids.
Now I’m curious what the Zhalfiran Void looks like on Dominaria. Teferi mentioned seeing people’s shades in the void so can New Phyrexia now be seen there?
you would assume, but they will probably just disregard it.
For what it's worth you have done an awesome job covering all of this. Yours is the channel I have been following to keep up on the lore for this cycle and I will remain subbed for future material. Great job sir.
I think the Mirrari was the (in computer terms) "host server" for Phyrexia. It's primary objective: All Will Be One. Make everything become a part of it. The glistening oil/Ichor/Phyrexian oil is the virus. It acts like a computer virus infecting the host PC (individual) and connecting them to it. A person's personality can be thought of as an operating system. Each race shares the same type operating system but the operating system differs between races. Each individual has a personal modified version build of their race's OS. This is why each time Phyrexia came upon a new race, it would take a while to figure out how to beat take over.
Going back to Memnarch. Memnarch reshaped Argentum and renamed it Mirrodin. Eventually he gets defeated. Karn melts Memnarch down revealing the Mirrari. He left it with Slobad, Glissa and Geth. I'm gonna take a wild guess that the three decided to leave the Mirrari in Mirrodin's core. From there it was easy for the Mirrari to make secret agents while hidden under the surface of Mirrodin.
Eventually, the Mirrari has gotten enough subjects and created the Praetors to siege the surface and rebrand Mirrodin as New Phyrexia. Seeing the way how obsessed Elesh Norn was with the objective All Will Be One makes me suspicious that Elesh Norn secretly made the Mirrari a part of herself or the Mirrari turned Elesh Norn into the primary host server while making itself the backup server. I'm leaning towards the second. This would explain why the Phyrexians stopped moving when Elesh Norn was disintegrated. Before the Mirrari could take over as backup, it along with New Phyrexia was cut off from time and existence.
The oil is much older then the mirrari tho.
@@ich3730 I don't deny that. I believe a portion of the Ichor has a main "body" kinda like symbiotes (Venom, Carnage, Scream). I'm gonna reference The Faculty (1998 film). Ichor tends to follow the same principles in which there is a "hive queen" controlling all the others. This does require the Ichor possessing a live host. The Ichor kept moving from live host to live host. Karn eventually killed a Phyrexian that had the main Ichor and got splattered but because Ichor couldn't infect planeswalkers at the moment, it couldn't bind to Karn. Karn gained possession of the Merrari and the Ichor transferred over to it. My theory is that the Ichor took a while post Memnarch to learn how to use the Merrari. It then made itself a replica. The replica Ichor then embodied Elesh Norn and started taking over Mirrodin.
Meanwhile, I'm wondering if they're going to rename Zhalfir to Zhalfirrodin
Beats Mirfir.
The end of elesh norn was good, but Jin and vorinclex was done dirty thou
Vorinclex would have been easy to do a good ending for, have him and his forces be hunted and slaughtered by the invading forces from other planes as he comes to realise he is not the Apex predator and strength alone would not save him.
Jin probably should have lived in a weakened state with some contingency plan to save himself and some of his forces could have a shadow war with Jace and Vraska throughout the planes with whatever Phyrexienised planeswalkers he had left(just leave him with some it is a good opportunity to see new planeswalkers or some from other planes).
Alternatively Jin becoming a planeswalker but not able to as easily spread Phyresis and instead of having to do so via relatively slowly via mechanical modifications which leave the individual with their own intelligence and goals could be interesting. The next wave of Phyrexians would not be reliant on numbers or the spread of oil and would instead need to focus more on using their agents and schemes.
Don't forget Urabrask.
@@jasonkorf7700
Why not? WotC sure wants us to.
Soo…. Finally, nissa and chandra ship has sailed
But what about Adeline from Innistrad? Just a passing fling for Chandra?
I was so happy with this story. I've been saying for months Ajani would be saved. In spite of people arguing that compleation was irreversible and that he should die for "consequences" , it never felt right for him to go out with all his history. This is what I wanted out of the story.
The oil creating a signal was a bit odd. I did recall it was mentioned that the oil had been changed and upgraded. I can imagine the "signal' was apart of it.
In the end, I'm really satisfied.
Honestly, same! Well said and agreed. :)
I really feel like them bringing Nissa and Ajani back took away from the story. They wanted to show how much Chandra and Nissa love each other they could have had a tearjerker moment or Chandra goes into a tantrum after realizing Ajani and Nissa can't be brought back. Having her go through 2 or three stages of grief rapidly before planeswalking away.
It just feels really cheap to bring back to of the mainline Planeswalkers. I also don't see karn losing his Spark as that big of a loss because he can just get another one.
I agree, it would be better if they become conscious for a while and remember what they have done, being reassured by others that they weren't themselves and then dying. Btw what about best Zendikar planeswalker- Nahiri.
A lot of characters died saving two is fine.
@@michaeltaylor788 a lot of B&C plot characters died. The only real A plot person that is gone is Jace. I would have been way more hype if they would have saved Luca, and he would have had to have live with knowing that he was part of the reason that so many others died.
With Nissa and Ajani they should have made it that the whole curing process made it possible to revert to their uncompleat selves for a few minutes (there is a timemage there afterall) to say their goodbyes and then succumb to their wounds and die. That would have been a bigger tearjerker imo.
@@michaeltaylor788 Who tho? Some random from a 5 mana, 3 dollar planeswalker? Some legendary creatures we saw ONCE in a set?
My guess is that Jace is still out there and not in a coma. He only appeared in the first story and it hinted that he had another agenda.
So im guessing he undid whatever Elesh Norn did to make the glistening oil go inert without her signal. And I think it'd be really weird narratively for him to go comatose off screen after those hints.
So my guess he's the last functioning phyrexian and he'll be a reoccurring villain on the same level as Tibalt and Tezzeret. Likely in a frenzy to save his love Vraska who's either dead or in a coma at least. And likely out of spite towards gatewatch who he can hold responsible.
He can just become the new Father of Machines instead. After that, he'll have all the time in the world(s).
I'm literally pondering it. Jace and vraska can be the new phyrexian big bads?
You would think Jace would have cast a spell on himself as a backup plan to re-wire his brain in case he was completed.
So that's a possibility.
I'm not sure he'd want to be the new Father of Machines, even as a Phyrexian. I've always seen him more as a man dominated by his passions than otherwise.
That said I do hope he is still phyrexian bad. I never really liked the idea that he was still himself after being compleated because of his mind mage stuff. imo his character arc is more interesting continued as a villain (at least for a while) cause he didn't have a lot more drama left in his previous trajectory.
@@raydelmartinez2905 THIS
Can't believe Sorin was left out, he could have had a sub plot where he saves Nahiri writing his wrong and ending their feud. Perhaps his sangromancy can work on extracting the oil in the future.
One thing that made the curing of Ajani and Nissa somewhat more oaky, in my opinion, was how they did it. At least for now, they require Melira, who is gone. So, it’s a one shot thing, at least for now
Mirrodin's Suns weren't phased? This sounds like a big problem in my opinion :D
The real compleAtion was the storyline we thought we were enjoying all along. 😮
Lol. So true
@@AetherHub tbh the complainers can say what they want but honestly this is a MASSIVE inprovement over war of the spark
I mean there was concequences a plenty and the story albeit a bit rushed was really cool. And tbh,out of the planeswalkers that get uncompleated id say ajani definitely earned it considering that despite being a oldish planeswalker he was awesome as hell.
Although yeah we need to see art of kaya killing heliod.
@@lolbots686 nah its actually just as bad.
@@AetherHub I really want you to know that when you see me complaining in the comments, I'm not complaining about you whatsoever. You do a fantastic job, and I appreciate your effort. 😎
@@lolbots686 actually, the ending is just as bad as war the spark, if not worse, because they lead up to this was much better than War of the 💥 it actually had me theorizing about what could possibly happen with all of the storyline elements that we know to exist... Just having another deus ex machina power up with elspeth was definite cop out. And I've been playing since 96, so I can complain about whatever I want story-wise. This is garbage compared to what it used to be, they used to release full novels with the bundles for each set. The power levels in the writing are just all over the place, directions in the dominaria United set are scarier and more competent than the ones at the actual endgame invasion of the entire multiverse. The praetor is dying to random mirrodin resistance members was bullcrap, and everything felt rushed. As I've said before, and as other more notable people have speculated, I think there was a last-minute change in the storyline for some reason or another during the lead-up to the set release, how far before and for what reason I don't know... But this just feels really off for a professional writing job. It's bad when any random person in the comment section could probably come up with a better story than the people actually getting paid to do so.
So
Karn is no longer a Planeswalker.
Are Nissa and Ajani still synthetic Planeswalkers or is their body back to normal?
I am guessing Jace, Nahiri and potentially Vraska are still out there just inactive, perhaps their story will be covered during after aftermath.
Is Zhalfir a plain of its own now?
They reverence it having new suns, so it appears to have just taken Mirrodin’s place and left the rest of it be.
Zhalfir to New Phyrexia: I'm the captain now!
Jace is most likely shielding his mind from the disconnection, and will do the same for vraska. He might ignite the new phyrexian war
@@zerronprime9683 honestly would be interesting to see a new form of phyrexia
I'm a bit confused about Nahiri, tbh. I don't think Seiben has covered her side story yet, but it is a bit ambiguous to me whether or not we're supposed to think she is dead.
Spoilers if you haven't read it:
She gets trapped in a skyclave that falls to the world. Akiri notes that she isn't sure whether or not that killed Nahiri, as Nahiri is super tough. That said, the next line is "But (the invasion falls apart without Nahiri's coordination)"
My hope is she is still alive, but it is possible that that was just an unclear way to tell us she is dead. Either one kinda makes sense. Lukka and Tamiyo are 100% dead, Vraska seems to have a definite death, but then her body goes missing, etc. It looks like they were killing most of the compleated Planeswalkers, that said, Nahiri is significantly stronger than any of the others, and has a very relevant unresolved story connection (Sorin). I'd say that if Vraska is alive, Nahiri is definitely alive. If not, I'm unsure.
Thank you for covering the arc, Seiben! Enjoy the break
Does anyone else feel like most of the chapters for March of the Machines was written by Chat GPT?
I'd seen a joke that March would've been _better_ if ChatGPT took the reins...
So like... what? Why are the Phyrexians just dying? Nothing makes sense, every cool villain dies unceremoniously, every cool compleated legendary just dies I guess? Like how many Deus Ex Machina in the last few chapters? So many plot holes, just, uhhhhh...
I only wonder why they didn't do 30 chapters... that would've been awesome for the 30th anniversary
And more then one set!
So I don’t hate how they brought back Ajani & Nissa. It made sense, what I think was just straight poor writing and laziness on their part was the phyrexians shutting down after new phyrexia was gone? They said it was cause she had control over them, but that doesnt make sense. They were all easily able to turn against her. Even if new phyrexia is gone the phyrexians on other planes should still be going on their own. It doesn’t make sense to me and it felt like they wanted to shove the phyrexians under the rug
It would have been better to write it as them becoming uncoordinated. Losing the center of their hive mind and people taking advantage of their sudden confusion to fight back alongside the angels. That would have felt like more of a heroic last effort than the "all the enemy fall down like puppets with their strings cut" that seems so common in pop culture nowadays.
Can't wait for evil jace to bring back phyrexia
I have hope Vraska is with him
@Matthew Boyd finally the Mother and Father of machines, how will we stop a phyrexia ran by a stable family, How will WOTC justify hiring a PMC to massacre a small town.
Find out next time on Magic the Gathering.
Excellent work with these lore videos. Enjoy fatherhood, it’s the best feeling in the world.
I watched every video. Great coverage of the lore! Thank you for doing it!
Thanks for the coverage over the whole saga!
Thank you Seiben for narrating! So disappointed it ended like this.
Hopefully the Story is not compleated
It would be really thrilling If Jace manipulates the mind of elspeth and karn so they think they beat norn and Phyrexia.
In my eyes the victory is way to easy.
Unfortunately that would be far too compelling storytelling for the shovelware Marvel Lite setup of current MTG storytelling.
Thanks for all the hard work you've put into making this content! Whilst I'm a huge fan boy of MTG after the Time Spiral crisis I stopped being able to keep up with MTG lore. Since I just started getting back into MTG I've been wolfing down all your content. Can't wait for this new set!
Great work on this story series. You are a talented storyteller and first rate ambassador for the game.
What if a phyrexian's spark ignites the moment all of the things happened with the climax? Suddenly getting free will and agency. Maybe they will see what a gift that is and he will be good aligned. Or maybe he still feels aligned with phyrexia
karn saying it was lonely brought me to tears
You're the wet dream of every cheap writer, goddamn.
Tbh I think them bringing back ajani and nissa was a mistake, I understand they’re popular characters but it kinda cheapens them getting compleated since we all knew deep down they wouldn’t let ajani stay like that.
Im pretty sure everybody hopes Nissa dies so Garruk or Vivien can be relevant
Honestly I liked the story beats but I really didn't care for how quickly the praetors died and what the camera chose to focus on. Though honestly I'm willing to overlook a lot because the set ultimately delivered on the two things I wanted most - angel Elspeth and cured Ajani.
I hope they do something awesome with Mama Eldrazi chillin in her moon
I am kinda dissapointed they just refuse to let some planeswalkers go
I really like the idea of a Eulogy for the story arc. So far, even if some areas of the story could be better to my liking, overall my impressions are positive and WAY better than WotSpark for sure ... We'll see what the epiloge and aftermath holds
I call it lazy story writing. The Phantom Menace/Avengers/GoT style "kill the boss and minions fall dead" trope(aka necromancer), was in full swing. All of the Preators got a pretty dumb end- Sheoldred was beheaded and dissected, Urbrask was just dissected and killed, Jin was eaten alive after one hit and Vorenclix was beheaded in one blow. Norn straight tanked an entire army and then had her head ripped off after being weakened.
That all happened within 1-3 chapters of the story, while focused on Phyrexia. So, out of the 10 or so chapters in this arc, ALL of the preators met their end in a really short sad way, as if they weren't a threat at all. Also, we have to remember that the chapters flipped or change perspectives and locations multiple times during the course of the writting. Then, they go as far to make the story not match the cards.
Good looking set, decent story-As long as they are separate.
“Chandra and Nissa kissed” it’s about time
Okay I have some questions. Elesh Norn was defeated yes, but what about the Phyrexians still attacking. Shouldn’t the Phyrexians still fight even without Elesh Norn? They still have their own forms and bodies right? Surely they would still be able to fight and still continue to fight? Wouldn’t they?
Also what about the Compleated Planeswalkers.
Vraska’s body wasn’t found so she’s still somewhere and Jace is nowhere to be seen. Surely those two would still be compleated and out there somewhere?
As an extreme fan of Ajani (I collected every card of him), the fact he got to live again did not actually make me happy. This story tells you it's serious and bleak, but then does some of the most cartoonish things I've seen in a long time. Yeah some characters are dead, some are missing, but even the way a lot of "big" characters went out was so lack luster. All the villains got killed in the most goofy ways (Except Norn and Ginataxis). Sorin, Garruk, Ugin, the Kenriths, there are some characters that just flat didn't show. This was a grander scale than War of the Spark, Brothers War told its story pretty darn good and built up to this well. All Will Be One set up everything so good. This set just rushed everything and finished off one of the biggest threats, thats been around since the game started, with Convenience after Convenience. New Capenna Angels just wait till the plane is almost gone before they help, they dont even kill Atraxa. The Phyrexians just happen to no longer be sentient. You gave Elspeth plot armor and an upgrade, why even have her grab the Sylex? Jace just isnt mentioned, except in Vraskas mind, the whole set. He dead? Isnt he a big brain, so how did they lose with his mind as part of them. Lukka as a villain is as big as a castle and just gets one shot, the most wasted potential planeswalker ever. Even Domri had some story moments. Tamiyo dies but isnt, Wren goes out like a champ and will rebirth through an acorn, the kid gives up his life for a spell on Strixhaven and becomes a planeswalker, oh and Karn rebuilds himself. Like all the bite out of the story you thought would happen from the previous section doesnt exist past the first 2 chapters here. Not a single plane actually lost, they all held out till the phyrexians turned off. How does Kaya kill a god, Elspeth was stronger than her and couldnt deal with Heliod, also thats not how the gods are suppose to work. We are told Iroas becomes corrupted, where is that boy? Who beats up Ajani? how can Nahiri block all this abilities and attacks when shes melded with the Skyclave but cant block a halo? You kinda show off Ayara looking like a new Urabrask and nothing comes from that? What was Elesh Norns secret goal on Theros that she never told Ajani? There are so many cool cards coming from this set showing way better things then the written story, this needed another set. The story had some horrible fights and tons of plot armor moments, the cast could have stayed the same just done in a more satisfying way. Urabrask is the prime example that a phyrexian can do whatever they want based on feelings. Have Nissa hurt Chandra and then betray phyrexia to save the woman she loves and have her help Wren. She could start pulling the tree back while Wren got Teferi, then instead of just burning up maybe Wren could have finally used all her fire. Die that way, be buried (after finally controlling her flame like she wanted), and maybe have a little plant/tree grow where shes buried. Then Nissa can still revert to normal and be with Chandra. Same results but just better ideas/symbolism and making the characters still feel like they are progressing. I don't know guys, I enjoyed where the lore for the big bad was going and am just shocked they didn't take time to really flush it out. Especially with how many places this took place on.
I personally loved the March of the Machine story, for the restrictions that obviously exist in the form of time and space to write these chapters, it did really well. finale was by far my favorite because of its more emotional tones. and of course as a nissa fan i love how they brought her back and even brought nissa and chandra's relationship back to a better form. Thank you for covering it.
same! they did a really good job with the resitrictions in place.
I understand why people are disappointed but I do feel that a lot of hate gets directed at the writers when they're having their hands largely bound by the mandates they're given as to pace and which characters get highlighted/removed. The stories are mostly well written outside of them being forced to rush the conclusions.
Well I don't hate the the fact ajani and nissa are back
But what I do like is how there were actual steaks as jace vraska and nahiri are gone gone melira dead and karn possibly not even a planeswalker anymore its not a clean ending but its WAY better than most stuff wizards made within the past few year
I love steak.
@@Kalenz1234 yeah a nice juicy steak
Nissa should have died
Phyrexia rebuilt itself and figured out multiversal travel before any other plane in existence at an exponential degree. We will surely see them again. The curse of yawgmoth shall remain a stain on reality.
I want to know what the deal with nissa's spark. Seemed like it was damaged
Nissa has been hinted about her embracing her dark side for a while now. In the last Zendikar set she was black green and in the brothers war set Nissa was brutally murdering Phyrexians and Wrenn was saying that this was not her song and to avoid it while the soul of Dominaria was telling her to be brutal.
@@coopervaughter1440 also, dont forget when she inhaled some elf Hitler particles and went to lorwyn to learn How to be extra racist
Just glad Ajani is back
That flickering is really freaking me out... I hope Nissa is alright
Lmao they all lived. Called it. Nissa's death would have given Chandra some character development that she desperately needs. Its a damn shame too because Chandra has so much potential. Unfortunately, her personality only consists of "unga bunga I do red things." Killing off one side character and de-sparking Karn were the only consequences of compleation apparently. At least War of the Spark had the balls to kill off Gideon, a MAIN character. Tamiyo, Tibalt, and Lukka are all fodder and their deaths are inconsequential.
Tamiyo was a beloved character and a significant death.
Jace and Vraska are still out there somewhere and still compleated.
We still have MoM Aftermath story to tie up loose ends.
You didn't "call it."
A beloved character does not equate to a MAIN character. The main members of the Gatewatch are all alive. So yes, I did call it.
@@braigbelmont7572 no you didn’t.
@@Enja_Near your right he didn’t call it 😂.
Nope, but having a presence in multiple storylines and sealing away an Eldritch Titan is MC qualifying territory (you don't have to join the gatewatch to be a MC btw)
and going into your territory of requiring to be a member of the GW: Jace is still compleated, and still missing.
again, you didn't call it.
So now that the Planeswalking Avengers defeated the Eldrazi, Nicol Bolas, and the Phyrexians in the timeline of what...a couple months? How is anything next? All the greatest villains in the MTG multiverse got their asses handed to them and we lost, what...8 planeswalkers out of 54? And one of those was Tybalt that everyone hated anyway. Vraska, Jace, and Nahiri will somehow appear again in the future, Wrenn is coming back as part of the new world tree somehow, Karn will get his spark back, and Elspeth is an angel. Stopped the greatest forces in the multiverse with almost 0 consequences aside from collateral damage that of course will be completely healed/repaired somehow within the next few years.
Wrenn is now Baby Groot
Maybe in Aftermath. Until then, it doesn't look like Acorn Wrenn can say anything cute...
I would've liked if Jace, Ajani, Nissa, Koth took over as Praetors. Melira could have removed the oil's ill effects and allowed Jace, Ajani and Nissa to realize they had been changed beyond hope but it was not an end but a new beginning. I also wonder how they will deal with the Glistening Oil infecting so many planes, I figure that stuff is toxic :P
_"YUM YUM EAT EM UP"_
_-Yargle, if the collector's reprint for this set is any indication._
In all seriousness, Phyrexia Revision 3 having a whole New Jacetice League would be ... wild, but also maybe a bit too predictable. :/
I can't believe how upset I am about Karn sacrificing Vensers spark.
Okay, so, theory time. The majority of Phyrexians shut down without Elesh Norn's presence. Cool. Fine. However: There is at least 1 rebel Phyrexian *Praetor* and two potentially not-overrun-by-oil-enough planeswalkers who could still be operational. I would love to see a story set on New Phyrexia where Urabrask, being the rebel, the one Norn couldn't ever control and takes up the mantle. I also wouldn't mind to see Jace or Vraska take up the position and rule Phyrexia.
Urabrask was killed a few chapters ago, what are you on about?
@@pascalsimioli6777 *Technically* he's alive but dismembered. Elesh Norn never got chance to finish him off before Elspeth showed up and drew her attention. If he bled out, he's dead, but I suspect phyrexians don't bleed.
My boy Koth still in the friend zone after all this
And again MTG writers, prove that "plot-conveniences and retcon" are the strongest in this universe.
I really really hoped for Nissa to die there. Give her a final monologue, give her a couple days, even, but by all means just let her die! It'll be a mercy at this point, for her and for us. She's killed more than any other single being known to the Multiverse, and if she was troubled by her role in freeing the Eldrazi... this... how can someone cope with this? No ammount of love from Chandra is ever gonna heal that wound. Not that something good can't be done with this massive theme lorewise. It's just that I don't trust pg13 Wizards to do it any justice.
Also, low key... Please please please Wizards, for the love of the elder dragons, make Jace the new Father of Machines?
Yeah, but still everyone is going to protect their favorite hippie (which btw screwed up people of Zendikar and took their hope of living without all the elemental disasters, still Nahiri is the bad one by their standards)
@@barthazard5557 I don't fault Nissa for wanting to keep the crazy elemental forces, though. They saved the plane from the Eldrazi, after all. They're the plane's "personality" (and immune system...), if you will. In Amonkhet she saw first hand what stifling a plane can do, and she understandably didn't want the same to happen to Zendikar.
And Nahiri is (was?)... complicated. I don't think she needs a redemption arc per se, which is what she was given against Phyrexia, but she does need a bit of peace to ponder stuff for a looong time before she can change into something else as a character. She's immortal, immensely powerful, and she thinks in the scale of planes, not people. They could still do for her what they did for Sorin, Teferi, and Karn, stories to reconnect her to the common post-mending folk and set her up to appear in the future as a peer, not as an unhinged demigoddess. Would I trust pg13 Wizards to do it any justice, though? Hmm, I guess it's better that she stays kinda dead for now.
Bro, if the glistening oil evolved from not needing Yawgmoth anymore, it definitely doesn't need Norn. If they don't actually address this then all of those planes are gonna be dealing with phyrexia until the end of time or until one is able to repeat this whole process. Elspeth should have let Jace kill them all with the sylex.
Aww what about urabrask? Did he make it out at all?? This story was interesting but it felt so rushed. I hope if the adapt this into another story form (maybe a book or comic) they flush out more info about other characters.
For all its flaws, it brought back the wildfire ship and this I can live with.
Great work on the series , congrats on parenthood. Enjoy your well earned break brother
Hello ! Does anyone knows the name of the music used at the start of the video by any chance ? its very soothing and mysterious, i like it !
man, this was a rollercoaster
Wizards: biggest threat and most epic story in MTG since Brother's War!
Story: Phyrexian invasion doesn't do SHIT and barely ANY real loss aside from Karn and MAYBE Jace Vraska...
Wow that was TRASH😂😂😂
Feels like war of the spark 2 for me
Huh, guess that Serra hallucination or whatever was wrong and Elspeth should have just surprise killed Norn when she had the chance.
Eh, maybe the next time they decide to bring the phyrexians back again the story won't be such a slapped together mess.
Edit: Also I think epilogue is misspelled in the description.
first off, WOO AJANI IS BACK BB, and secondly tbh, i really want a short story with ajani and nissa now cured, deal with all the horrible things they did while compleated but end up becoming friends or just closer because they had a very unique shared exerpience.
😝 you watched too many romcoms
@@maxbodifee3263 i dont want them to date but i think it would be cool for them to be friends xD
I think Ajani will travel the multiverse looking for redemption. It might be why we’re going back to Ixalan maybe.
@@hobokoala2623 i could totally see that, and would love to have ajani go to dinosaur land xD
I'm gonna be sad if Tamiyo doesn't get a new card. It doesn't have to be a new Planeswalker or creature card, I just want to see a card representing her with Nashi
Big twist yagmoth returns biding his time
The Glistening oil stuff really makes no sense, I am pretty sure they made that up on the spot to get themselves out of having to explain why oil being on all these planes doesn't matter anymore. Lol, but then again, we have a kingdom (read: a small landmass) from Dominaria replacing an entire plane (I guess that particular world is flat!) so I am not even sure how much I should care anymore. At least there was some consequence even if the it felt like it was barely an inconvenience in the end.
Honestly, all hope I had for this story disappeared when they decided to not turn this into an epic arc and decided to do this instead
I think they were 1 full set of lore would have been perfect
@@AetherHub One more set would have been perfect. But where are the seeds of the next enemy? I honestly think that the only way to possibly bring this back would be to have Jace in a coma, but a voice speaking to him in the dark. A voice in the oil, something long lost. He would have this long conversation and eventually would agree to sit down and hear him out and his proposal. He could reach out and introduce himself “My name is Yawgmoth. Let’s help each other out.”
THAT would be a twist.
Really fumbled a prolonged arc for instead gradification
@@Azonavox my guesses:
1.- Nicol Bolas managed to scape his prison plane thanks to one of the Realmbreakers portals, while Ugin was distracted with phyrexia.
2.- The Realmbreaker managed to connect all planes and switch Mirrodin with Zhalfir, that had to mess with the blind eternities somehow, enough to wake up/call the Eldeazi or the Marit Lage species.
@@maxpepelotas2059 1. The meditation plane where Ugin and Bolas currently are is shielded or something from outsiders otherwise it wouldn't be safe for Bolas to go and meditate peacefully and planeswalkers could just follow him or just end up there so there are no phyrexians there and i highly doubt Ugin would leave Bolas unguarded just to go and help a random plane.
2. Wotc have been rushing the heck out of every big villain's demise (or hibernation for Emrakul's case) we have known in mtg lore so it'd be stupid to just reinclude eldrazi so soon. They will either keep her in the moon for quite some time to find some interesting storyline or they will just decide that the moon somehow manages to keep her hibernating for ever.
Like many others have said, you don't play MtG for the lore and story, but for the gameplay.
Did anyone notice a Zendikar story in these vids? I noticed the story on the website, but no video for it here...