What Happens in Strixhaven: School of Mages?
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- Опубліковано 28 лип 2024
- Strixhaven: School of Mages takes us to an entirely new plane called Arcavios, where we find familiar characters Will and Rowan Kenrith starting their academic journey. I'll talk you through the whopping 15(!) story spotlight cards contained within the set, and add in all the important bits from the 5 chapter online story too, so you'll know exactly What Happens in Strixhaven!
Read the official story: magic.wizards.com/en/story
Become a Lore Mage: / magicarcanum
Follow me on Twitter: / magic_arcanum - Ігри
Hey everyone! Thanks for coming by to learn about What Happens in Strixhaven. I see a lot of people still trying to justify the forbidden books being present on campus so I just wanted to clarify my position and address some of the more common comments:
1. First, I misremembered my Harry Potter. That library did have a restricted section, not forbidden. (I believe I was thinking of the Forbidden Forest? Anyway, Hogwarts has a whole bunch of other problems we'll talk about another time.) I think I'm still right about Doctor Strange though. They had books literally covered in chains that nobody was supposed to read, right in the same library as the other regular books.
2. There is a vast difference between "forbidden" and "restricted." I understand having restricted content within a school library. People have pointed out the Mystical Archive version of Day of Judgement, which does contain flavor text referencing a "restricted archive," where things get locked away...which only further confuses the point.
3. If something is restricted, it means certain people can have access under certain circumstances. To me it would still be unwise to have this content stored adjacent to "regular" books, especially in a school that doesn't seem to be hurting for shelf space.
4. If something is forbidden it means nobody should have it, not even "advanced students," not even the professors or deans. If the Elder Dragons declare it to be forbidden and it is their school, then (to me) that would be an ironclad law. Who are we to question the wisdom of such majestic creatures? (Also, pls step on me Beledros)
5. Some people have suggested that even forbidden stuff must be kept around, on hand, for "reference" or to "be able to better stop bad guys." None of this seems to be true per the story. Nobody was even taking the Oriq threat seriously, except Liliana, and only because one of their agents tried to kill her while casually stealing a book. If these tomes MUST be kept somewhere on the plane, then they should probably be with one of the dragons - and indeed, we learn Beledros has a bunch of material safely tucked away in her nest, though we never learn what.
6. Obviously they needed a motive for Extus to attack the school, and they needed a means for him to summon the Blood Avatar, and it was convenient to just make the information he wanted be contained within the school's library. If I was going to offer a re-write of the story, I would put the focus on the Oracle. Perhaps Extus believes he needs to kill her to take her place, or needs to impress her by deviating from one of her prophecies. Summoning the blood avatar (a relic of the past) would then be a way to 'surprise' her predictions of the future, for example.
7. Let me close by saying as always, I love Magic, and only wish to see its story be worthy of representing the best card game every made. I put forth my criticism in the hopes that someone, somewhere, understands that just because this is effectively a "kid's card game," it doesn't mean it doesn't deserve all the respect and care that Marvel gives its properties, on screens both big and small. (pls step on me Wanda)
I think they played it off in the side story for Dina that the books just kind of get there on their own, or it's something the Biblioplex itself does (making books planeswalk onto the shelves?).
My name is Luka, lol
If they wanted to be cute with it, Extus would have encountered Oko in the Forbidden section, and the library would *also* have a Restricted section where Narset was studying how to cast Ancestral Recall and Mental Misstep.
I mean, as someone who’s been to university, they’re not just schools with students, they’re organisations that study and conduct experimentation in their own right.
With that in mind- even forbidden knowledge in human history has been kept around for further study. We wouldn’t have a significant portion of medical and scientific knowledge today if the Nazis didn’t do a bunch of horrific experiments. I imagine it’s a similar situation- forbidden knowledge is kept around for many reasons- but perhaps one of those is that it might be redeemed
wait and see my friend
Magic is on the rise
soon we will have it's history made outside the game's lore
but I coule be as afraid as excited to wait for it...
... adaptations about things this big could become a huge mistake.
but, let's hope to it gets to the right hands
this sound so much like a 90s highschool teen movie. where two siblings move to a new town and enter a new highschool. Although connected inseperable they are interested in different clubs and estrange themselves. Ultimately they have to come back together to fight of the big bad bully, the sexist gym teacher and uncover a plot to mix cheap imported food into the schools cafeteria lunch.
And of course distroy the blood avatar with their combined strenght.
Sexist gym teacher? I guess it's co-ed gym.
well... either that or any YA fantasy novel series set in a school situation.
@S V When I was in school they separated the girls and guys while in the gym. When outside we could choose to mingle but iirc, everyone had their cliques for the most part.
Classic Lili, she feels bad about Gideon and her go-to plan is "do some necromancy about it, but maybe non-evil this time?"
Maybe next liliana card will be white/black???
gideon: no you cant just snatch me out of heaven
liliana: haha necromancy goes brrrrrrrrrr
@@painisfeargettingout black white Lilly that makes indestructible 2/2 black white zombies
Si
I mean when you're a necromancer, every problem looks like a very raiseable corpse so there is that.
Theory: as the Biblioplex is a catalogue of every spell in the Multiverse, the whole "forbidden magic books" section in the Biblioplex is a representation of the Banned & Restricted List from Wizards of the Coast, and Extus is just an angry Magic player who's against the company deciding what cards should be played or not
"Recalling your Ancestors: Three things you need to know before studying the past"
"Unban splinter twin"
Extus, probably
That's so meta!
"Just wait and see. Soon I'll have 20 Black Lotus and 40 Plague Rats like in the good old days. And I'll be unstoppable!"
That's an interesting way of looking at it. I think the biblioplex is like the multiverse memory of magic in the multiverses of MTG. So the would be a book for ever spell ever made or cast within the biblioplex. Even if some spells are forbidden thy would still be in the biblioplex anyway .
Garruk: Stops watching the twins as he deems them safe
WIll: Literally loses a leg shortly after
god I wish Garruk stuck around with them, I'd love to see Garruk being a cool uncle to the two that slowly grows closer to them
@@Hatneas He could totally worked as the Groundskeeper at Strixhaven.
Garruk meeting Liliana again would be...quite the reunion as well.
@@wenber2990 Groundskeeper Garruk. I like that 😂
@@Thesaurus_Rex Lilliana: i need to talk to your responsible adult. *garruk appears*
Liliana: visits the necromancy dragon to seek help in bringing her friend back to life
The dragon: "That's stupid, your stupid"
Liliana: suppressing sobs "but that's the ONE thing I'm good at"
Also exploiting loopholes in demonic contracts by killing things. She's a little too good at that one.
@@Thesaurus_Rex Well, she never paid much attention to the contract tho, wich is why she ended up under Bolas. Killing demons tho, she got that part done...
@@Hakaze She exploited a loophole in her contract with Bolas by killing something too. Except that time Gideon died instead of a demon.
@@Thesaurus_Rex well when you put it like that, she sounds manipulative and evil! Oh
@@maxheath1158 To be fair to Liliana, that time Gideon was exploiting the loophole more than Liliana. She was fully prepared to die that time, but the multiverse just will not let her fulfill her end of her contracts.
The Mystical Archive version of Blue Sun's Zenith shows students being taught about how the suns work on Mirrodin, so it seems more likely that all the students are aware that planeswalkers and other planes exist, which is interesting.
The Mystical Archive card Despark implicates that Killian somehow read about the War of the Spark, Spark indicates that some of Ral Zarek's notes are there, and the card Crux of Fate suggests that there is a book all about Nicol Bolas' exploits called "The Elderspell Parable"
@@aceundead4750 Well I hope he didn’t read the book
@@Amouat2000 the quote for Despark is "'A tale of a tyrant being humiliated and losing all his power? I'm inspired already!' - Killian, a Silverquill mage-student," and the picture shown is Bolas being desparked by Bontu and Oketra. Thus he might've read the book The Elderspell Parable.
Not to mention Kozilek
@@aceundead4750 I was more referring to him reading the IRL book “War of the Spark” by Greg Weisman
Liliana complained about walking, but we both know that she just summoned a zombie chariet
I don't think there are any zombies in the set, and Lili's card doesn't create zombies either. Maybe that's why she was pissed about walking? No zombies to cart her around.
This isn't Innistrad. No fresh corpses half-buried on the side of every road here loll.
"How could you grow up so close to this degree granting college founded by elder dragons and still be untrusting of outsiders"... sounds like someone who didn't grow up in a college town.
Winterhold 😂
Letter of Acceptance flair text:
'- You are a wizard, Rowan.
- Ok.
- You are a WIZARD.
- Yes, I am.
- I know it's hard to believe...
- FFS, I'VE ALREADY KNEW THAT!'
yer a wizard, rowan
I personally really love all the school puns in the set and that people make when talking about the set.
Did you know that going 7 days with no puns can make one weak?
“Add me on Arena, so I can teach you a lesson 😡”
Truly the best part of the set.
I'm actually really looking forward to Liliana's story here. Trying to learn from her mistakes with Josu, to find a safe way to bring Gideon back
I like how this cycle of elder dragons completes the cycle from tarkir, by adding the eneny color pairs
Aren’t the OG elder dragons all in Shard colors?
@Nick Fanchetteas the khans complete the shards (by being wedges) do the founding dragons complete the dragons?
Atarka Stompy v. Witherbloom Aristocrats??
Liliana finally learned her lesson.
Her story began with trying to save someone using magic, and now she is tested with the same thing but stronger, but realizes what she truly needs to do. Her story has come full circle!
These recent sets really make me wish we'd go back to two pair blocks. Seriously it would give a better way to flush out and balance mechanics and the story wouldn't feel like six seasons of a series crammed into an two hour movie.
THIS. There's like three Oriq in this set and one mage hunter, where apparently there should be small armies of both. Kaldheim had a similar problem with Vorinclex corrupting some wildlife which was shown on exactly zero cards. Also maybe we can get more than 5 stories this way so everyone's motives and choices are properly explained?
@@TheOneMarty good news is, the end of the year innistrad block is gonna be a two part block
With them releasing so many more sets, I think this is a great idea. Could be 2 blocks of 2, and a core set or masters set each year
GRN and RNA were the last decent sets :/
Or we could go back to a proper three-act-structure with a triple set block.
A brand new Magic Arcanum is the perfect thing to wake up to!
Indeed
Indeed.
(It’a 16:13 in my TZ)
My theory about the "forbidden magics" is about the colors. Notice that "Awaken the blood avatar" is a red-black spell and it is the only spell with colors that don't belong to the Strixhaven colleges. I think Strixhaven is suppressing all magics that do not conform to its colors and that would also explain why the population of the plane are so weary of Lukka they just want to keep their heads down and avoid the notice.
Nice idea. So the forbidden magics would be:
(1) Red-Black: literally blood magic, seems reasonable for teachers to ban it.
(2) Black-Blue: that's literally the colours of secrets and forbidden knowledge, so sure, why not.
(3) Green-Red: primal power and destruction of technology? I can totally see them banning this.
(4) Green-White: communion with nature or something ... I guess still too much nature? It starts to becomes quite arbitrary.
(5) Blue-White: rule-making ... I guess they don't like to have students be able to set up or tweak the magical rules they put.
@@MoiMagnus1er I think the ban is definitely arbitrary, maybe the elder dragons that founded the school are not not really benefactors. So banning the magic that they cannot do is a way to ensure that nobody can beat them. And having all the magic users in a single place to study is also a way for them to just remove anyone they think could be a treat in the future.
The idea of a green-white naturalistic sect is really intriguing to me.
They could be outcasts that have way of denying the flow of life essence that Witherbloom seek to appreciate and work with. It might even fit for them to "keep things in the family" in a more magical way, maybe reinforce the dying in a faulty manner and creating spirits malevolent to any other than their commune.
@@MoiMagnus1er (4) I could see that going into a brainwash, hive-mind kind of thing. Like some of the darker aspects of Selesnya. (5) Maybe messes with space/time too much. It's the Teferi combination.
I genuinely love that Liliana got bounced and Rowan got tapped, It's great seeing Magic's game mechanics incorporated into its story.
Wait did Nicole get married?! If so, congrats!
Yes, we talked about it in "So I'm Making a Card Game"
Honestly, I don't understand the name change thing when getting married....
@@TijlDaelemans historically the female is adopted into the husbands family. And the children inherit the father’s surname.
"How could you grow up in the shadow of the enormous, dragon-founded, degree-granting institution of education and still be like: 'We don't want no mysteries around here.' "
My friend, welcome to every college city in the state of Kentucky.
It's the only thing that three cities as varied as Louisville, Lexington, and Bowling Green can agree on.
So ... Lukka is the new Tibalt. And in the last set, Tibalt is sort of the new Oko. Therefore, my prediction is that in the next set, Lukka will do something about/with an Elk.
BOND LUKKA TO AN ELK WOTC DO IT
Well, Lukka has more of a “anti-authority” streak going on, always opposing structures who restrain or control some aspects of, let’s say a plane, in the name of order or other aspects. He seems to be motivated by unrestrained freedom to all; But he is too extreme in his solutions, raging wars that harm even some people he should want to liberate. In this sense, he is quite a Red-White villain - Fighting to bring upon a plane what he believes is right, whatever it takes. Tibalt, on the other hand, is simply deranged and is motivated by fucking shit up for his own joy.
In short: One is an edgy Punk, the other is more of an Internet forum troll. Sometimes they might look similar but the motivation is what differs on from the other.
I still don’t know what was Oko on about. Maybe he was like a Gruul with brains and subtlety, who prefers to manipulate from the shadows and thinks about the big picture, rather than going on daily city destruction rampages he schemes a plane wide war that would pit the Wilds against the Courts... But maybe he’s more of a nature guy, not caring for “what’s right” and “freedom”. We didn’t saw much, but given he is Fae and they love their pranks, he might as well be doing just for the lol.
Regardless, I’m totally in favor of associating each one to an Elk. Maybe they will start the multiversal crime organization called The DisOrder of the Elk. Goals 1) Disrupt authority 2) Generate 3/3 Elks 3) ?? 4) Profit
Well, Lukka and Tibalt do both have something in common now…
I think it would be really funny if Lilliana was just teaching a class when Jace or Chandra or another Gatewatch member walked in on tour and just really wanted to attack Liliana, but couldn't since she's a professor.
“Yes yes I’m sure I have to answer for my crimes and all that but we are in the middle of introduction to necromancy so if you could wait til after the lecture. Unless of course you wanted to sit in”
I don’t think Chandra would care enough, she has been shown to be impulsive in the past. Jace would most likely be surprised at both Liliana’s “survival” and that she is working as a professor, Nissa would also try to attack but not immediately, ajani would also confront her, but I don’t think he’d attack unless she showed some hostility.
In War of the Spark and Zendikar Rising, practically everyone forgave Nahiri for what she did to Innistrad. So maybe everyone has already forgiven Liliana for what she did to Ravnica. Planeswalkers are weird.
@@davidbrasher3595 maybe, though nahiri didn’t fight for a multiversal planeswalking dragon with a god complex. She just fucked off to kill an amoral vampire.
@Mullerornis I don’t doubt that, but only a few of the planeswalkers knew about what happened on innistrad, and almost all of them were too busy dealing with nicol bolas and his army of eternals. And nahiri left almost right after the immortal sun was decommissioned by lazav and Chandra. So no one had time to make her answer for what she did.
You and the commander format are the only things keeping me connected to Magic at this point. Love the way you tell the story!
Lilliana is such a fascinating character. I'm a huge fan. Hope this is not the last we hear from her.
Same, same.
This is why I go to the Tolarian Academy. All you have to worry about there is time being broken--being broken--being broken--nekorb gnieb--nekorb gnieb--nekorb gnieb--nekorb gnieb--being broken.
Time isn't the only thing broken in Tolarian Academy though
I couldn't afford to enroll in the tolarian academy so i went to the tolarian community college instead
@@colaocha1115 The headmaster's sanity doesn't count. Nor does the island itself count.
@@kamaha0010 Oh, I was mostly talking about the cards being broken
I like having so many story spotlights. It's crazy that we used to have just 5 and before that none (i.e. no card for Heliod killing Elspeth).
A classic Arcanum story video. Awesome. And Strixhaven too. I hadn't heard enough about the story, since it was so overshadowed by "CHOOSE A COLLEGE IT'S SO EXCITING GUYS LOOK ENEMY COLOR PAIRS".
Maybe Kasmina somehow got into contact with Karn when it comes to the Phyrexian issue and she is meant to make sure that the planeswalkers are well educated so they will have more chance to defeat the Phyrexians? After all, Karn didn't really explain much when it comes to his preparations during the story of 'Dominaria', so maybe that's his plan beyond the Sylex?
Or shes a sleeper agent
Petition to start calling it “Mustache Moment” and making it as long as you want
...in a little segment I like to call "A Facial Hair For as Long as I Want".
I wanted Liliana to be mentally scarred for a little longer. Also, we know the only reason she got bounced is because she would've bodied the Blood Avatar and Extus.
Yeah, and Extus was likely *well* aware of that. Hence, he had a tiny moment to shoot his shot and remove her from the equation, which he did. Smart tactics that.
IDK, no mention of large amounts of bodies around for her usual Zombie Horde schtick.
Liliana in Strixhaven was a pleasant surprise :)
I swear if Kasmina is a personification of emrakul, used to monitor the planes to determine when they are "ready" I will loose my mind in 6-7years so 18-21 set in the future.( thats like 50-70 secret lairs)
Wait, where did you get this from?
I mean, interesting theory - I guess I'm just more fond of the idea that the Wanderer is Emrakul's avatar, jaja.
@@bryanchox It just crossed my mind when Ryan explained Kasminas role here, and her obscure origin in WotS. Now it seems see is involved a bit to make people stronger (WillRowan), or to test people (Lukka) but does not really help to prevent events from happening. And afterwards she decides that Lukka does not have to be monitored? As if he is not worthy or has to grow more before he gets really interesting. Instead WillRowan cause some interest.
Sound like she monitors and creates opportunities but nothing else.
@@aeon90q1 well, that does not need to have anything to do with Emrakul specifically. She may work for some kind of Illuminaty.
I really love the mustache minutes.
See what i did there, Ryan?
Literally going through old videos of yours and then finding this upload "less than 30 minutes ago". What a timing!
I haven't read the stories, but just based on this, Kasmina feels like she fills the role that Tamiyo had during Shadows block, an enigmatic observer who prefers not to get involved. Both are in the UG color identity, and both are associated to study and learning.
Prof Onyx reveals her true identity
Ravnica citizens: Multiverse PTSD
Kaya: "Oh shit. Seriously Liliana. You promise"
The mustache minute is always on point 😆
Ryan's back in full swing baby, and we're all way too stoked to have it. Can't wait to hear a video on Atraxa! Maybe Krenko next?
I can't wait for liliana to meet garruk again.
And what both of their reactions will be!
just asking since I am relatively new to the lore of MTG, what's up with Garruk and Liliana?
@@monksb Liliana cursed him with the chain veil
Lillanna is to much of a good guy at heart to stay doing nothing when the next major threat to the multiverse comes along
Lily did nothing wrong!
Well, actually she did, but she fixed things after! Well, most of those things... Some of those things... Regardless it was the ones who mattered, ok
Another nice video! I really love how you summarize the events and try to place them with the cards.
Well, I really like the story for this plane, it's almost relaxing to read. Nice pace and, as you pointed, have littles (but few) plot holes. But the only thing I couldn't stomach was the ending. Liliana Vess, has she forgotten that she has a bounty over her head? Yeah, I know that she gave the veil to Kaya and feing dead, so she, technically doesn't have one, but wasn't she suppoused to live with another name anonymously?
I really loved the snippets of her story here, and I'm glad she let go of the idea of necromancy, the most powerful tool in her arsenal, the source of her troubles and fame, and maybe even the idea that it gives, a very normal one (for her), dead is the not end for the living. But here she face the truth, that Gideon is dead and he is not coming back.
For the twins, it is nice to see them as individuals and not as an extension of the other. Growth in brains for Will, and growth in power for Rowan, I hope they will not go as the tipical "You don't understand me anymore" and try to face their problems on their own...
An the villain... I try to think of him of an echo, a distorted will for beyond the plane, a mere pawn for someone who sees in the future and knows the real consecuences for destroying the learning place of the multiplane.
I have a feeling that it will be a happy ending...at least until the gatewatch learn about liliana being alive and at strixhaven and then we get one hell of a clash at the realm, maybe even brought about by lukka maybe tipping off the gatewatch that liliana still lives and then some of the more aggro gatewatch members cracking open the plane and likely causing some serious hell. like potentially with magic getting highly screwed over as a result, with lasting consequences for all realities.
I’m actually really fond of the Strixhaven story, and adored the resolution to Liliana’s personal journey
Oh yes, great ending to a journey to reach immortality and power, randomly giving up the veil, raven man who? all the demons are weak? that's great! Bolas gets rekt easily and after all that "nope we don't care to make an epic story have a non lousy ending" she just randomly goes to a school and teach defense against the dark arts or whatever.
really?!
That's in perspective like Bolas would go to ravnica, realise that he loves friendship and decide to create a unite grixis guild and teach kids how to be cool, giving up all his ambitions instantly and maybe punching ugin out of reality if he shows up.
Next up on terrible story endings: the phyrexians come, karn punch one of them, they all instantly explode excluding a few which agree friendship is power and they build a new robotics college call it "the yawgmoth and urza friendship is forever love love college of hugs and robots" and teach kid robots to do well in society.
Like... are you actually serious?
You have no idea how long I have waited for this video.
Just a note about the students knowing about the planes and planeswalkers, In Dina's side story published on the Magic site she mentions that the Biblioplex essentially fills ITSELF with all these extraplanar magical tomes, like its actively making copies of spells from other planes. and she also mentions when going through a book that a spell component she needs doesnt seem to be on Arcavios, meaning most of the students definantly know about other planes existance. we dont get any confirmation that they know about Planeswalkers but some of the Archive cards like Despark seem to imply they would.
I read the story for this set it’s better than some of the other recent ones in my opinion
It is, still meh!
(Spoilers)
True, none of the characters actions are convincing except the scene where Liliana goes to Beledros to find a way to resurrect Gideon.
I absolutely love this arc that that wizards is doing with Liliana. Anyone else see her being a good guy in like the next 3 sets lmao
No, it sounds to me like they are practically retiring her character.
"Oath of Liliana: for real this time, honest"
Honestly the whole idea that the biblioplex has spells from around the multiverse is the most interesting part for me. And judging by the mystical archive version of Despark’s flavor text, it does seem like the average student does know about other planes and planeswalkers. Also given how recent that event was, who’s the one collecting these spells? Does Despark imply that Kasmina was on Ravinca even after most of the other planeswalkers jumped ship or was there someone else associated with Strixhaven who witnessed that event?
Nice video!
The suggestion you make about having the forbidden books locked in a vault is pretty much exactly what WotC did with Candlekeep and I appreciate that.
So glad I found this channel. I had recently come across these videos on TCGPlayer’s channel but then realized there weren’t any new uploads. Love these videos behind the lore.
I think it's worth mentioning that Kasmina seemed to keep an eye on everyone, so she must have known who Liliana was. If she truly cared she would have protected it from a Bolas henchmen
Spoiler alert: as far as whole Multiverse knows except Jace and Ugin, Bolas is dead.
That was an awesome summation! This is the first time I have actually tried to follow along with the lore and this was a blast! :D
Everything about Liliana is awesome... As is this video!
Awesome video Ryan and Nicole!
As a librarian one of our big things is archival work in the field. You'd be surprised how many terrible and cursed things I've found filed away over the years. It's important to preserve things even if we don't necessarily agree with them, because they may contain ideas or thoughts we may need in the future. Kind of an "In case of emergency break glass." So I'm all for magic schools putting "Forbidden " books in their library. We have banned books week here. But our banned books are lame stuff like "Catcher in the Rye", and "Where's Waldo." If I could find Waldo and Summon the Blood Avatar, I would.
It’s like a “Build Your Own Nuclear Bomb At Home!” manual. It’s less about the knowledge being forbidden, more about the practice being forbidden. You don’t want people making Atom Bombs on their back yard, but it is still useful to have it around for consultation, for example, if someone suspicious is on a weird shopping spree and you wonder what they might be building...
I guess, yeah it can be called more of a “restricted section” technically, but the “forbidden” reinforces the danger. Plus, it’s a cooler name.
So glad your doing these videos I haven’t played or caught up with the story since war of the spark now I’m trying to get summaries because apparently there doing the brothers war and I read all those books years ago and hopefully urza comes back thanks for doing these vids and keep them going!
Well, if i remember correctly, When Liliana and Witherbloom talked about bringing Gideon back to life, that chapter gave me the idea that necromancy seems to be a forbidden subject, something that becames more ironic when we learn that the most famous necromancer from the lore was a student and is now a professor on Strixhaven
You might be on to something. I thought for sure there was a reanimation spell among the Witherbloom cards, but upon second review there is not. At best they can return things from the graveyard to your hand (Deadly Brew, Harness Infinity) but I don't see anything that returns a creature directly to the battlefield. Interesting!
Thanks for telling me the lore in an audio version so I can listen at work instead of reading it.
Maybe Extus needed the extra Red and Black mana and only the one in the Hall of Oracels had that combination, as it looks to be more refined and houses mana of all 5 colors (as it effect to add any color of mana implies). So there is no other Snarl that has the mana pairing he needed to summon the Blood Avatar.
I think Strixhaven missed out on one little thing.
For a magic school with it's own history college it was missing the best magic history teacher and storyteller out there, Magic Arcanum's Ryan of course.
I hope the next time we return to the plane that you get your own card. You deserve it. Your videos are great!
this was almost as entertaining as actually playing Strix. Well done.
I might be wrong, but I think it’s possible that Strixhaven was created by Urza. The snarls seem like threads that stick out of the edge of a hastily woven cloth.
If so, it kind of makes sense that the plane is a vast, chaotic mess outside of the school. Urza just threw it together in order to create an army of mages to perhaps fight the Phyrexians. Of course, this was before the mending, so Urza didn’t know that the army would be stuck on strixhaven.
This may be related to Kasmina, too. She’s the leader of a secret planeswalker organization that’s “preparing for a looming conflict”, and uses somewhat cruel means to ignite sparks. That sounds a lot like Urza. Maybe he taught her at some point in the past, and she managed to keep herself young after the mending?
Really a great channel you got going. Aside from the oddly entertaining videos of spice8rack you are pretty much the only channel that i see talking about the lore of the game and a few of my friends have been drawn into the game by overhearing these when i watch.
I've been here since the beginning, i was watching back when you uploaded to tcgplayer. It's incredible to see how far you've come and grown.
15:22 As the brother to an amazingly smart and more succesful sister, this hit really hard.
The official MTG youtube channel put history first.... AND I WAIT FOR YOUR BECUASE YOU ARE AWESOME AND BETTER STORYTELLER ANDI LOVE YOUR CHANNEL !
Was waiting for this one! Another great story from the best Magic Channel there is.
i do like the ranting at the end. i guess to hear more of it, it can be changed to mustache moment
18:30 I think I can understand this. It might come off differently in the source material but if everyone on the plane is obsessed with understanding everything it would make sense that they're afraid of things that they're incapable of understanding.
Personally I really like this set. I hope we get more Liliana story going forward.
Reading the flavor text on Blue Sun's Zenith makes me think that knowledge of other planes is readily available to those who look.
Hey! Fairly new mtg player here! I got into the lore thanks to this channel, this was the first short story I read from wizards and I'm pumped to see the spice you throw into it 😆🤣
Technically it did have history already. Archavios is a combination of two planes that collided and the remnants of both planes are still there in archeological areas
Love your work man i've been following you since you started and i'm impresed how you tell the stories. Good Job
On the subject of the restricted section, the archive card Day of Judgment gives us some additional flavor text insight. The takeaway I get is that some spells are too dangerous to be casually passed around, but might be suitable for study by more senior and responsible mages.
I don't play MtG anymore, but I enjoy your run down of the stories within the lore of MtG. Great job !
Glad you enjoy it!
At the library I work for we have a lock cage for old books and "forbidden" books. Like The Anarchist Cook book. You can still read them but you would taken to a secure staff area.
the teachers knew that liliana was a planeswalker, you learn that on the witherbloom side story, the whole lorehold and history is also learned a bit on the lorehold themed side story, where we see quintorious searching for the ancient city of the elephant people ( that has been lost), so lorehold documents the history of life of every relevant individual from the plane, i think that's his goal on being the history dragon that was born on the beginning of the plane.
Thank you Ryan and Nicole for this video. I have read most of the stories and books from mtg, and this last stories, kaldheim and mostly strixhaven, felt really bad to me. Too much inconsistency, the planes feel like they never left the draft idea and so their concepts feel so disjointed. I really enjoyed this video, getting the details i missed in the stories and really love the reminders on the loose strings from past stories like Lukka hearing voices in Ikoria. Keep up the good work both of you! Cheers!
I play a lot of cardgames and one of my favorite expansions in Hearthstone was schoolomance, a school of mages, so strixhaven lore is really getting me hyped to play more mtg! Your video is awesome as aways!
Oh sweet the added maze hunters back to D&D in strix Haven there actually an old first edition monster that I used to use. They have been seen in print form since the 70s
With this, I mean, honoring Gideon's words and becoming a tacher, I'd actually love if we saw a color shift that represents this in our next Liliana card. Much how Nissa is mostly green but has also been Simic and Golgari, something of the sort. Seeing an Orzhov Liliana would be awesome, or even without black entirely.
I got to this video as I am preparing my Strixhaven Dungeons and Dragons campaign with the new Strixhaven Curriculum of Chaos. I may not know how much MTG canon that story is. But characters like Jadzi the Oracle have much more lore to them in the module. I haven't played MTG in years but I love this setting, and I loved the video!
I'm glad characters like Jadzi get more fleshed out in other bodies of work, but I've always maintained that a Magic player should get everything they need to know about a character from the game's own cards and/or the free stories published online in conjunction with each set release. Asking that players of this game also play D&D or read a comic or follow a specific writer on Twitter makes the lore less accessible, and that's too bad.
@@MagicArcanum From your perspective I totally understand how you feel though.
The fact that the next expansion is bringing us back to Innistrad gives me the feeling that Lillianas summer classes get inturrupted by the guardian gate squad
Nice, the cards get so much more fun knowing these little backstories!
When it comes to the potential importance of the oracle, two things immediately come to mind. 1.) In the art of her card, the object that sits in her hands looks exceedingly similar to the various Snarls, a bright orb surrounded by tendrils of power. 2.) The back of her card implies that the oracle is not near the college, hence a journey needing to be made. Similar to a journey one might make to visit any other Snarl. 3.) Her card shares the same colors as Kasmina, another mysterious Strixhaven figure. Typically sharing colors isn't that big of a deal. However, due to Strixhaven's identity being inherently tied to color pairings, therefore I feel more confidant than usual to rely on this to make a connection to Jadzi.
If we could accept that as the oracle for Strixhaven she maintains and makes use of a Snarl as well as her having a meaningful connection to Kasmina, then I theorize she uses the Snarl to tap in to the inherent creation force of this plane of magic to seek through the other planes to locate potential students. This idea of the oracle having to look outward to other plains instead of at her own has the added benefit of also explaining why the oracle wouldn't have actionable intelligence of what was going on with Extus.(An explanation I like over the idea of Jadzi knew all along it would end the way it did so she didn't care.)
Strixhaven had just one job, answering the question: "What do people do when they know about the multiple planes in the Multiverse but cannot Planeswalk?"
And, by the final part of the video, I see that that part isnt answered. Sad.
You're The Man! Your story telling skills, are Top Shelf behind the glass level.
Hi Ryan. On your question about whether the inhabitants of Strixhaven know about planeswalkers - there are Kor at Strixhaven. These are a race who are generally believed to have uniquely originated from Zendikar (the Rathi Kor were brought to Rath by Volrath from another plane). For example, they are not seen on planes that contain multiple humanoid races like Mirrodin, Ravnica, Fiora, Amonkhet, Shandalar, Kaladesh or Kaldheim. We have seen other races that only appear on one plane such as Aetherborn, Kithkin and Azra.
Assuming that this remains true, this likely points to the idea that planeswalkers (like Kaya who can transport people) brought them there. They would be walking announcements that planeswalkers exist.
What do you think?
I really enjoyed the story, and am happy about the closure that Lilliana seems to have found. I just hope it lasts a good while. I doubt this is the last time we will ever see or hear from her in the Magic Story but I worry that another non-friendly planeswalker might one day find her at the school. Or Garruck, when visiting the twins, might run into her. Its one thing if Nissa or Jace find her, but any other character might not take it well.
Yayyy more story line. Best videos on youtube
I can't wait to see how wotc tip ties around the spaghetti monster in the moon in the upcoming return to innistad
About the elder dragons and the ur dragon: all dragons in the multiverse are related to the ur dragon, as the ur dragon is an avatar for all dragons
I can see Rowan and Will going the way of Urza and Mishra. A Siblings War, if you will.
Also I thought Will was pretty lame before but STX really made me interested now that he's not just "generic blond man #1246" with his ice prosthetic and cane. Also Billy Boyd voices him so thats pretty cool.
Fun Fact about restricted sections. In Germany, Hitlers Book Mein Kampf is banned, but a few copies are kept in the "Gift Schrank" which I believe means "Poison Trunk". The Giftschrank is basically a forbidden section of a library, usually a locked room, where you have access only for research purposes and the book never leaves the room. So a restricted section is not a new idea
The difference is that at Strixhaven, the forbidden books are apparently mixed right in with the ones students are permitted to read, only they have a note that says "please don't touch."
I understand the idea of having certain content not be generally accessible. My issue here is that the school does a very bad job at actually restricting the stuff that is allegedly harmful.
I think exstasus complications in his plan perfectly outlines his characters struggle tho. Many people with plans for revenge start with good or mild intentions in mind. He DID just want to take the library and school for himself. To relinquish it.
But the slippery slope of vengeance can lead you beyond your initial intentions. And exsatus found himself-
Destroying said school.
the harry potter library had a restricted section not a forbidden section, it contained mostly books that had some kind of aspect to them that would be dangerous to students without proper caution, in the first movie you see the book that seems to have a trapped spirit and in a later movie you see the monstrous book of monsters which would almost definitely be a book normally kept in the restricted section
Lilliana is a couple thousand years old. She was alive before the Mending and made her deals with the demons only after she became mortal again.
Incorrect. In one of the Kaladesh stories, she reveals her age to Chandra as being about 220. She left Dominaria as a teenager, and returned to find people still talked about the Vess family, and her ancestral home was still standing (though in some disrepair.) If she was gone for thousands of years, nobody would remember what happened at the Vess manor, and the manor itself would probably be rubble (or at least have a new occupant.)
The oracle is a 8 mana card with a 4 mana backside and Extus is a 4 mana card with a 8 mana backside. Thought that was cool given Extus's motivation.
That is an interesting mirroring. Good catch!
It was a restricted section in Harry Potter. You needed express permission to take out books from there. When Dumbledore became headmaster he took all of the books regarding Horcuxes out of the library, which seems to suggest that there were books that the school did forbid, and weren't kept there. I believe there's a moment in one of the books where Hermione lies and tells the librarian she has permission from a professor and she believes her because Hermione had gotten permission so many times before.
Perhaps the forbidden spells are all in all the other colour pairs, which might be seen as aberrations on the plane and seemingly dangerous because of it.
Similar reason for needing the Strixhaven Snarl for summoning the Blood Avatar, that's where you can find black and red mana in the same place.
Lilliana being a pre-mending planeswalker and studying in "legally distinct hogwarts" is so weird to me
I really, really enjoyed this lore video. I definitely need to catch up on your other lore videos.