Karn's joints being unable to make fists due to the sheer amount of gore caught in his gears is the most metal as fuck thing I've heard about mtg in a long time!
Originally Karn is a pacifist and in one of the novels from waaaay back in the day he decides that while he won't willingly take a life, if something happens to get crushed to death while he is walking then that is on them.
I really liked how they used Ajani's culture (his teethless smile) to hint at Ajani's compleation in the story. It really reinforces how even though Phyrexians can now become people, they could never really *understand* them.
After a lot of thinking I reached a conclusion that the plothole of everyone believing Teferis' secondhand warning instead of Karn's first hand witnessing is justified by the fact that Karn was built as a weapon against phyrexians. He is literally programmed to see them as top priority threat and seek them out everywhere he can while Teferi is a living breathing human with freedom of thought. We know that Karn has developed independent consciousness overtime but people of Dominaria may not know that and still see him as a paranoid anti-phyrexian golem.
There shouldn't be a living person besides Rhada (who is part elf,) and Jhoira/Jaya on Dominaria that know of Karn's original purpose, which was as a living robot protector of the Legacy. He was NOT a weapon to kill Phyrexians, and was considered a failure in that front, as the Meta-Thran project and Thran Golem project was superior for that purpose. He was designed to be a living member of the Weatherlight crew, which is why he has the Heart Sylex of Xanchta (god her name is a pain to spell, and I think I still fubared it.) Teferi should still be far more infamous, since, ya know, phasing was part of an entire block, then time spiral, and all the other shenanigans he pulled after Time Spiral.
@@darkmindaustin I have read those books a loooooong time ago but wasn't one of the first attempts of implementation of Karn by Urza - a terminator-like experiment with time where he wanted to send him back in time to eliminate phyrexians? The whole K'rrik incident?
@@АйдоралСмертестойкий If my memory serves, Karn initially was built to test metals that could survive time travel the best. Then he tested Karn's murder hobo ability, and it was lacking. Then they had the actual time bubbles on Tolaria, and it was found he reacted the least comparative to the Thran golems, but he was still not a good enough combatant compared to them. He just was smarter, cause off the Sylex.
Also, people are just kinda mean to Karn :(. Teferi is a man of meat and muscle like them, but Karn is a big scary robot, so he must be dumb and not really a person. It's sad how people treat Karn and I hope he gets to fix Mirrodin and live happily after March of the Machines. If they kill Karn off I will riot and also cry
It'll be interesting to see how they do the Brothers' War. The Brothers' War, crucially, is pre-Mending, so any planeswalkers who appear besides Teferi (and maybe including him), should be shape-shifting gods bordering omnipotence. So we'll have to see how they choose to depict that in the story and cards. I know we've had some pre-Mending planeswalkers before, but they've always been more of "what if" cards than actual depictions. Oh god this is how Bolas is going to come back, isn't it?
Honestly my first prediction was exactly that. They 'release' Nichol Bolas as he's effectively a 'smash glass incase of emergency' type deal and the closest thing we have to a pre-mending Planeswalker. The only other option is to introduce the Phyrexians to the Eldrazi and getting them to fight in some off the grid pocket dimension somewhere. Though honestly I do hope we see a Pyrexian vs Eldrazi set just because it would the first thing that causes actual panic among the Phyrexians since the Eldrazi do not work on 'logic or reason'. Much like how Shadow over Innistrad/Eldritch Moon was Cosmic horror vs Gothic Horror, I'd love to see a Cosmic Horror vs Body Horror theme.
Urza sparked during the war, so maybe they could have his card depict him right at that moment, before he started tapping into those godlike powers. Really though I think they won't explain it and just concede that being able to depict characters on cards outweighs depicting them at the strength they should technically have.
@@nathanl8622 Urza sparked at the conclusion of the war when he used the Sylex to wipe out both sides. That moment will likely be the focal point of the set, so he'll probably get a planeswalker card, much like Will and Rowan got a planeswalker card in Eldraine despite only sparking at the very end of the story. I'm guessing he'll be Azorius at that point?
Liliana’s story isn’t just about finding out who the Raven Man is, but also her fighting Phyrexians on her home turf (literally). I like how she recognizes that something’s wrong because while we might associate phyresis with death, it very much is not part of the natural cycle of death and rebirth that a necromancer like her can harness. I’m also glad that the card depicting Jaya’s death is actually good removal in Dominaria United limited.
Teferi's about to pull a sarkhan's move. Never pull a sarkhan's move Edit: if i had a penny for every time a planeswalker had to timewalk to the past and furnicate up the timeline, i would have two pennies. Which isn't much but it's weird it happened twice
Honestly I'm surprised it's only happened twice when time travel starts becoming a thing it takes some serious restraint to not just hand wave away your problems.
What if this is all an elaborate ruse to reset the timeline in a way that re-un-dragons Tarkir so they can do a return to the Tarkir people actually liked?
@@goozilla132 Yes. Ugin's spirit, which had no body because the body was destroyed by Bolas, hundreds of years ago, sent Sarkhan back, with the "hedron material" from Zendikar, that Sarkhan then uses to seal up Ugin's dying body inside, in stasis, so that it can recover from Bolas' otherwise fatal strike. The entire process takes a thousand years to heal Ugin. This is why Sorin goes to Tarkir, and finds only Ugin's skeleton, whilst the timeline gets changed AFTER Sorin's visit, and thus Sorin/Nahiri both have no idea that Ugin is just fine, and proceed to go into full-on "slap-fight" over Innistrad, while Ugin and the Gatewatch actually do what was intended in the first place, and destroy the Eldrazi on Zendikar (well... two of the three titans, anyway).
Given Teferi's track record of well-thought out plans free of negative consequence, I'm sure his time-travelling to one of the single most influential events in the history of the multiverse will go fine.
I think Jaya dying was a good move on wizards’ part, and I applaud that they had the narrative stones to do it. It feels like they’re fixing the problem that war of the spark had- despite Bolas being this terrifying villain for the multiverse, in practice he didn’t actually manage to deal much damage to characters we knew were super skilful. Having the phyrexians able to kill/compleat characters like Jaya and Ajani shows us they’re a large threat, and establishes stakes in the storyline. It also means that in one swoop, Elspeth and Chandra get to take center stage as characters with pertinent reasons to fight. Side note, I wish they did stuff like this more often. We have a metric tonne of planeswalkers at this point, and I’d like to see stakes established- particularly with walkers they have no interest in printing any more.
@@something3867 I think they’ve been hinting that the Halo from New Capenna is like the opposite of Phyrexian Oil, so I reckon that Elspeth’s new sword could probably cure him.
I agree with the characters being locked in the tower with the Phyrexians being the best part; The John Carpenter vibes of the whole situation were great!
I think the reason Ajani was able to be compleated so much more quickly than Tamiyo is probably because Jin-Gitaxis wanted to ensure the Spark of a Planeswalker would be intact when the process was complete thus making it a much more experimental form of Compleation at the time. With Ajani, they've already succeeded once, so the process was much quicker.
That was exactly the kind of summary I was looking for. Not too long and it still covered pretty much everything, I guess. Really, really well done. Thank you!
Loved this recap, there were twists that I didn't hear about through card spoilers, and interesting bits to the story that makes me want to go read it myself. I will say, I am a little let down that Ertai didn't get much time to shine as a villain since he, Karn and Teferi go way back, and could have had a lot to build on with the plot. Hopefully it's more covered in the side stories. Also the ending hook now makes me think we may finally see a proper planeswalker card of arguably the most powerful planeswalker in the upcoming set.
Urza wasn't a planeswalker yet during the Brothers' War. The event that ignited his spark was when he activated the Sylex, though, so there's still a chance we'll get a blue or Azorius Urza.
I assume Jaya gets the focus on the spotlight cards because this is the last chance for her to get the spotlight, even if she's not actually the protagonist. That or the creative team and dev team just weren't quite on the same once again.
I really liked this story. Also I think we got more Jaya cards in the set than really made sense as a sort of way for Wizards to honor the death of such an old and well loved character.
I'm worried about that Tree that Elesh Norn had, I wonder if it's another World Tree made from the Sap Vorinclex got and it'll either make new Realms on New Phyrexia, make it bigger, poke into other planes making Tezzeret not as important anymore or scarier, what if they made another World Tree to get unlimited Cosmic Elixir making the Phyrexian army even stronger?
I think we're going to see a Crisis on Infinite Earths type event here; the multiverse becoming much smaller and the big popular planes will be one giant plane that beings can cross with or without a spark. I have a problem with that because it regulates planeswalkers to meh beings
I've heard rumors that the phyrexians are supposed to pay theros a visit in some regard..... That plane is based on cognition, not only would the phyrexians become stronger as more people begin to fear them but with their hivemind they could create just about anything just by thinking about it...... (If someone smarter than me who knows more about how theros works in this context and could weigh in that would be wonderful because I have no idea)
@@GreenFenril Well, if its not a permanent thing, a set where the phyrexian world tree touches multiple planes (ravnica, theros, dominaria, innistrad, etc) to open its way to a full multiverse scale invasion, that could make a really cool set where we get cards from all the planes involved in the fight, ending with the destruction of the tree.
yeah the world tree allows the planar bridge to open multiple portal to multiple plane at once. Connecting plane has been done before plane to plane (1 to 1), but this time it is many to many. An event like this would force multiple planes to be connected amassing a large amount of mana. This is where the gate watch and Ugin comes in. Breaching the blind eternities and amassing mana of this scale would normally attract the eldrazi making them the natural predator to the phyrexian and discourage this kind of shenanigan. But since the the gate watch "killed" the eldrazi, there is nothing to keep the phyrexian in check anymore and now they can run rampant across the multiverse, hence the big bad that ugin mention.
Thank you for the recap, as someone not big in Domenira lore I got a bit overwhelmed with all the characters in the story - so thank you for the great recap
I always love this series. Thank you for answering my questions too. Liliana being on the plane was pretty confusing, so I can't wait for the next video!
I've been binging your videos and wanted to give you props for the consistently engaging presentation. The video that showed up at the top of my search for all will be one was a different channel, but the guy's voice made it impossible for me to make it through. And then I found your channel, and now I feel so compleated.
Somehow I feel like this might end up in an all out apocalyptic clash between the Phyrexians and the Eldrazi. As we currently understand the Eldrazi to be some kind of "cleanup crew" that recycle dead or dying planes. Considering that Phyrexians, if they succeeded, would compleat everything in the multiverse, it would also mean that the multiiverse would figuratively die. Most likely not gonna happen but it would be pretty epic to see what would happen if those two different kind of horrors clashed.
I work at a card shop, and my boss and I have been theorizing this for months!!! It makes since, unleash them on the multiverse to clean up and then band together to take them down. Destroying them is much more straight forward than the phyrexian skurge
Insert pun about Jaya's death being a literal low point. But, in all seriousness, I really enjoyed this set's story. The last few sets have been a bit uneven, but I think they've definitely done a solid job building to this one, and it's clicking now.
Love you Ryan, I appreciate all the effort that goes into your story recaps. You always provide a really engaging and entertaining description of events. Keep the the awesome work, my dude!
My favorite lore storytellers back at it again! I gave this a like before I even heard it. I started playing during invasion. so the phyrexian part is the new set has me stoked. Love these videos!!
between ajani getting phyrexian-ised and tamiyo previously and THEN having jaya die it feels like theyre kinda just killing the older/mentor characters just for shock value and honestly i dont find that at all interesting it kinda just makes it feel like a characters journey cant end without them being killed.
On the other hand, I feel like it's a good way to rotate into a new(ish) cast of heroes. I believe it was the Aether Hub channel who predicted back Kamigawa that Ajani would be Phyrexianized, primarily because his personal growth as a character is largely complete (no pun intended). To kill no-one at all would cheapen the supposed stakes of this new threat to the multiverse, and to kill other characters who haven't seen the ends of their stories yet, like Elspeth or the Twins, would be a waste of potential. Somebody's gotta die in a war, and while I'm sad about it, I'd rather it be the veterans. Of course, I'm also relatively new to the MTG scene, having started with Core 2020 so I don't quite have the love and deep knowledge for these characters as others, but that's my opinion on the matter
The weatherlight is a living ship because of the weatherseed. They were adding phyrexian flesh to the ship which contained glistening oil. The oil is the curropting factor of phyrexian influence that took over the weatherlight. So, the ship isn't an inanimate object that came to life. It was a living thing that was curropted just like the people. Which is incredibly sad since the weatherlight is by far one of the most iconic symbols of hope in magic.
@@cstaie85 agreed on all points. Also, given New Phyrexia and what it's built of, there may be some precedent of the oil affecting materials that aren't organic nor alive.
@@VinceM1989 same... to me it was synonymous with hope for Dominaria. It was a living vessel. Though the crew would change over time. The Weatherlight was ever the seed of hope in the war against Phyrexia.
The story feels less rushed than the last few sets. Kamigawa and New Capenna felt like they tried doing too much, whereas this story felt more cohesive
Yeah, if Kamigawa and New Capenna each had 2 sets, they would have had enough time to tell a story that felt better paced. Especially NC, it just blitzed by without much of a thought, imo. But '30th Anniversary go back to Dominaria' got in the way, I'm guessing. Either way, it's good that we'll stick to this Dominara vs. Phyrexians plotline for at least 3 (or was it 4?) sets.
dude thanks a lot for all this wonderfull effort in having us the grat history of MTG... I have been looking for something like this for a looooong time
I've been a longstanding believer in the Chibi Walkers secret lair being a list of Planeswalkers to be completed, and some weird ties I've started to notice is how everyone keeps bringing up the Eldrazi as some sort of cleanup crew, and since Emrakul (currently trapped in Innistrad's moon) is the only Eldrazi we readily have access to, it brings up some implications regarding the fact that Sorin is yet another walker in the Chibi secret lair
Don't worry Teferi, your little trip totally won't break the universe. It's definitely not gonna result in the Ur Dragon and Marit Lage playing snooker with time travelling Eldrazi Serra surfing around. That definitely wouldn't be awesome.
I felt like this story was fairly well written. It had enough suspense along the way as it was made apparent that sleeper agents could be anybody. The final reveal of Ajani was a major shocker along with Jaya's death, but I unfortunately hadn't read up through that part prior to the WotC D&D/Magic reveal, so that was a BIG spoiler presented. Therefore it didn't land so hard with me at the end. Although, Saheeli randomly showing up at the end was a HUGE head turn because there's no mention at all of how or why she's there. She's just randomly creating another Sylex. My favorite story bit was in the beginning when Ajani told Karn that Jhoira had Raff concoct a magic spell onto the letters she wrote him and so any time they moved, she knew what was up and Karn is just like "Damn! Hope she doesn't feel bad for me leaving her on read". That was my takeaway from it. I am hopeful and fearful that this whole time business that Teferi is doing. It could end up being a classic "He went back in time and now things are changed in the future because of his actions" in which Jaya could no longer be dead, Ajani could not have become completed, and so forth. Hopefully it's just a manner of Teferi meeting up with Urza and finding out how to use the Sylex and then immediately coming back. But it is a good setup tying the main story into the next set which is supposedly in the past. Just please no time travel nonsense.
One thing I don't understand is what happened to the Phyrexian's forces on Dominaria, Ertai and the compleated whetherlight probably survived, Rona and the brotherhood of Gix definitely survived, and with how easly Sheoldred managed to conquer so many places it's hard to believe the Phyrexians will just hide because she is no longer around.
Oh man, great stuff. I love how you present the story too, so here’s another sub for you! Also since we will see New Phyrexia (aka Mirrodin) in the future I hope we get to see Koth and Venser. Koth is part of a small resistance on New Phyrexia (unless this has changed) and Venser is dead but it’s possible his body was retrieved by Phyrexians and now he’s revived and compleated 🤓
Great Video!! I like Magic, but I guess I'm not a superfan. I don't read any of the books or stories, so I am usually just reading cards and flavor texts to get an idea. I'll keep an eye out for your videos for future releases!
I hadn't read the side stories except the one with Liliana, which I found interesting. Maybe had I read the rest they could fill in some gaps which I felt the compressed nature of storytelling in the main story was lacking. I didn't think it was explicitly implied that Teferi was travelling back to the Brothers' War, but by that point in the story, it may as well confirm that the set isn't a mere flashback but an information gathering excursion. I just hope it doesn't result in any far-reaching Back to the Future 2 shenanigans.
The idea of Elesh looking up to Karn, calling him father, as if she's simply bringing him home, is so sweet it makes me almost want the Phyrexians to win.
I would loove to hear the original kamigawa story, the one about Umezawa Toshi and the spirits war. But then again everything this channel give us is great. Love this channel. Keep the good work guys.
Hi guys, if I may give just one criticism to this video, it's that it's missing the subtitle as opposed to most of your other videos. Still, it was a great watch, and it was a pleasure to feel that you really liked the storyline and the writing. Excellent work as always, please keep it up !
Hey, thanks for calling that out. I did add subtitles when I uploaded the video but it looked like it glitched and they were waiting for me to hit "publish" before they attached to the video itself. I have fixed it, so you should now find subtitles available, but please let me know if you have any further trouble. Thanks!
The Phyrexians are great - they’re the Adeptus Mechanicus, but suffering from extreme psychosis and hellbent on bringing EVERYONE along for the cyborg ride. Such a delightful bunch!
This is already starting to be a step up from "The War of the Spark" story arc with TWO named planeswalkers being compleated now and another well known named planeswalker dying. However, I'm feeling a bit uncertain with the trip back in time coming up. I don't know what it is, but I feel like this is going to somehow undo the events of this set. Like a "Oh, all this bad stuff happened, but don't worry! It'll all be fixed by the end of this time-hop."
I don't think he's going to change the present very much if at all, because his goal is to get information rather than fix anything. Could totally happen by accident though.
In case you missed this or anyone reading the side stories isn’t aware, the raven man is the person who gave liliana the false cure for her brother during her storyline in magic origins.
I think that Ajani was a sleeper agent from the get go and the story for how he found Karn was merely an excuse. It makes sense that the Phyrexians would have left some trap to ambush any search parties who come looking for Karn.
Teferi time traveling to the past is going to be interesting. I wonder how much of an impact it will have on the history. It would be great to see an Urza planeswalker card and some of the older cards get reprinted.
I think this story shows how much deeper of a plane Dominaria is. It might not have a single strong theme, but it feels much more like a real world. The big problem with one set blocks is there's no way to know what order the story cards are meant to placed in so there's no obvious progression of events. If it weren't for your videos, I wouldn't have a hope in hell of sorting it out.
It is possible that Ajani was compleated since the beginning. Knowing already he as a sleeper agent i paid more attention to some details, as in the confront during the peace talkes, he went outside to chase the enemy while everyone else stayed, then later on Karn scryed looking for him and the vision was blurry, he said this happens with phyrexians. Well, of course Ajani was fighting one at the moment, but it could be a cover up. Stenn, on the other hand, he basicaly went after Karn to say he was charged with unearthing sleeper agents, though haven't got one yet, then after suggested they portal to the tower within his city. Sure, he went searching alone with only a dagger for some time, but it was all a little suspect. Anyway, great video!
The Ertai thing was also: "post shadowing" (remember when Greven IL Vec throws dude (I think it's his first mate; I'm not digging out my Tempest storybook) overboard the Predator (was that the name? The evil ship). There was a story highlight card for it before story highlight cards existed!
So I knew about Ajani, but I'm way behind on story because I took a break from following the story, but holy hell, I legitimately gasped in shock and disbelief when _Weatherlight Compleated_ hit the screen 😯😯
ive only played magic on and off since 2011, until the release of arena, and even I was blown away by the ajani compleation, he's become like a poster boy for magic before this.
The thing that I’m most curious about is, if tefiri travels back to the brothers’ war, he will be going back to the pre-mending era. Will this restore his power as a pre mending planeswalker while in that era? And will his presence during the war alter history similar to how sarhkan being present during ugin and bolas’s fight on tarkir rewrote its timeline?
They didn't really explain how the time travel stuff is going to work. I think he'll only be able to act as an observer and his presence won't actually change anything.
@@MagicArcanum that may end up being the case but it’s still fun to speculate. Also, in the only two other instances of time travel in mtg history/time was altered in some way. If he does end up just spectating then oh well, atleast we’re getting more lore on the brothers war. If he is physically present for the end of the war though, that would lead to some interesting possibilities
One thing that most don't point out is how stark difference Ajani and Stenn are as sleeper agents. Stenn was like "HA GOTCHA!" while Ajani is horrified and literally tries to stop himself, if only for a second. You could rule this out as Ajani having more of a willpower than Stenn but what I think is happening is that Ajani and even Tamiyo have a piece of themselves still intact despite getting compleated. Because they still have their Spark and thus a piece of their soul, contrary to regular compleated beings who lose their soul during Phyresis. (for example Squee in the side stories) I will say that Tamiyo even though she is compleated she wishes to protect her family, that family being Phyrexia now, is further proof that a small part of themselves still remains.
10:23 WOW KARN PULLED A TYRIAN LANSITER DOUBLE CROSS! this reminds me of Game of thrones when Tyrian told 4 (I think) people different stories just to see who was the informant
Karn's joints being unable to make fists due to the sheer amount of gore caught in his gears is the most metal as fuck thing I've heard about mtg in a long time!
Originally Karn is a pacifist and in one of the novels from waaaay back in the day he decides that while he won't willingly take a life, if something happens to get crushed to death while he is walking then that is on them.
I really liked how they used Ajani's culture (his teethless smile) to hint at Ajani's compleation in the story. It really reinforces how even though Phyrexians can now become people, they could never really *understand* them.
After a lot of thinking I reached a conclusion that the plothole of everyone believing Teferis' secondhand warning instead of Karn's first hand witnessing is justified by the fact that Karn was built as a weapon against phyrexians. He is literally programmed to see them as top priority threat and seek them out everywhere he can while Teferi is a living breathing human with freedom of thought. We know that Karn has developed independent consciousness overtime but people of Dominaria may not know that and still see him as a paranoid anti-phyrexian golem.
There shouldn't be a living person besides Rhada (who is part elf,) and Jhoira/Jaya on Dominaria that know of Karn's original purpose, which was as a living robot protector of the Legacy. He was NOT a weapon to kill Phyrexians, and was considered a failure in that front, as the Meta-Thran project and Thran Golem project was superior for that purpose. He was designed to be a living member of the Weatherlight crew, which is why he has the Heart Sylex of Xanchta (god her name is a pain to spell, and I think I still fubared it.) Teferi should still be far more infamous, since, ya know, phasing was part of an entire block, then time spiral, and all the other shenanigans he pulled after Time Spiral.
@@darkmindaustin I have read those books a loooooong time ago but wasn't one of the first attempts of implementation of Karn by Urza - a terminator-like experiment with time where he wanted to send him back in time to eliminate phyrexians? The whole K'rrik incident?
@@АйдоралСмертестойкий If my memory serves, Karn initially was built to test metals that could survive time travel the best. Then he tested Karn's murder hobo ability, and it was lacking. Then they had the actual time bubbles on Tolaria, and it was found he reacted the least comparative to the Thran golems, but he was still not a good enough combatant compared to them. He just was smarter, cause off the Sylex.
@@darkmindaustin ah ok, thanks for reminding that part. I kinda forgot bits of that story
Also, people are just kinda mean to Karn :(. Teferi is a man of meat and muscle like them, but Karn is a big scary robot, so he must be dumb and not really a person. It's sad how people treat Karn and I hope he gets to fix Mirrodin and live happily after March of the Machines. If they kill Karn off I will riot and also cry
It'll be interesting to see how they do the Brothers' War. The Brothers' War, crucially, is pre-Mending, so any planeswalkers who appear besides Teferi (and maybe including him), should be shape-shifting gods bordering omnipotence. So we'll have to see how they choose to depict that in the story and cards. I know we've had some pre-Mending planeswalkers before, but they've always been more of "what if" cards than actual depictions.
Oh god this is how Bolas is going to come back, isn't it?
I hope that Teferi and Urza get powerful walker cards, that have expensive mana costs so they don’t screw up the gameplay.
Honestly my first prediction was exactly that. They 'release' Nichol Bolas as he's effectively a 'smash glass incase of emergency' type deal and the closest thing we have to a pre-mending Planeswalker.
The only other option is to introduce the Phyrexians to the Eldrazi and getting them to fight in some off the grid pocket dimension somewhere. Though honestly I do hope we see a Pyrexian vs Eldrazi set just because it would the first thing that causes actual panic among the Phyrexians since the Eldrazi do not work on 'logic or reason'. Much like how Shadow over Innistrad/Eldritch Moon was Cosmic horror vs Gothic Horror, I'd love to see a Cosmic Horror vs Body Horror theme.
As a certain DBZ fan once said:
*Multiverse Theory's a Bitch.*
Urza sparked during the war, so maybe they could have his card depict him right at that moment, before he started tapping into those godlike powers.
Really though I think they won't explain it and just concede that being able to depict characters on cards outweighs depicting them at the strength they should technically have.
@@nathanl8622 Urza sparked at the conclusion of the war when he used the Sylex to wipe out both sides. That moment will likely be the focal point of the set, so he'll probably get a planeswalker card, much like Will and Rowan got a planeswalker card in Eldraine despite only sparking at the very end of the story. I'm guessing he'll be Azorius at that point?
Liliana’s story isn’t just about finding out who the Raven Man is, but also her fighting Phyrexians on her home turf (literally). I like how she recognizes that something’s wrong because while we might associate phyresis with death, it very much is not part of the natural cycle of death and rebirth that a necromancer like her can harness.
I’m also glad that the card depicting Jaya’s death is actually good removal in Dominaria United limited.
Ertai: Things will be different this time! I won't die a death as a result of pure buffoonery!
(Ertai clumsily stumbles off a mana rig)
"Team Rocket is blasting off agaiiiiiiiinnnnnnn...!"
Karn: The Phyrexians are coming!!!
Everyone: 🙄🤷🤷♂🤷♀
Teferi: The Phyrexians are coming!!!
Everyone: 😱😫🤬😭
funny why people would believe the guy with 'hero of dominaria' in his card name
Dominarians really pulling a "How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man" move
Robots/constructs in RPGs are known not to not have much or any charisma, unfortunately. Fortunately, Teferi is known to be very charismatic!
Ah yes. "Reapers."
I mean.... I'd have second guessed Karn too. The robots always turn on us.
Teferi's about to pull a sarkhan's move.
Never pull a sarkhan's move
Edit: if i had a penny for every time a planeswalker had to timewalk to the past and furnicate up the timeline, i would have two pennies. Which isn't much but it's weird it happened twice
Honestly I'm surprised it's only happened twice when time travel starts becoming a thing it takes some serious restraint to not just hand wave away your problems.
maybe this time travel will be the beginning of a new set about the old Dominaria...
What if this is all an elaborate ruse to reset the timeline in a way that re-un-dragons Tarkir so they can do a return to the Tarkir people actually liked?
Wasn't Sarkhan sent to the past by Ugin?
@@goozilla132 Yes. Ugin's spirit, which had no body because the body was destroyed by Bolas, hundreds of years ago, sent Sarkhan back, with the "hedron material" from Zendikar, that Sarkhan then uses to seal up Ugin's dying body inside, in stasis, so that it can recover from Bolas' otherwise fatal strike. The entire process takes a thousand years to heal Ugin. This is why Sorin goes to Tarkir, and finds only Ugin's skeleton, whilst the timeline gets changed AFTER Sorin's visit, and thus Sorin/Nahiri both have no idea that Ugin is just fine, and proceed to go into full-on "slap-fight" over Innistrad, while Ugin and the Gatewatch actually do what was intended in the first place, and destroy the Eldrazi on Zendikar (well... two of the three titans, anyway).
Given Teferi's track record of well-thought out plans free of negative consequence, I'm sure his time-travelling to one of the single most influential events in the history of the multiverse will go fine.
Can't wait for the eventual PSA from Sarkhan and Teferi on why time travel is bad.
Hahahaha yeah Teferi is a really careful and responsible person! Lolll he should be red loll
I think Jaya dying was a good move on wizards’ part, and I applaud that they had the narrative stones to do it.
It feels like they’re fixing the problem that war of the spark had- despite Bolas being this terrifying villain for the multiverse, in practice he didn’t actually manage to deal much damage to characters we knew were super skilful.
Having the phyrexians able to kill/compleat characters like Jaya and Ajani shows us they’re a large threat, and establishes stakes in the storyline.
It also means that in one swoop, Elspeth and Chandra get to take center stage as characters with pertinent reasons to fight.
Side note, I wish they did stuff like this more often. We have a metric tonne of planeswalkers at this point, and I’d like to see stakes established- particularly with walkers they have no interest in printing any more.
As a related note- it would be cool to see a new gatewatch team established- and maybe some other planeswalker alliances too.
I'm wondering if being completed means dead or are they gonna be saved. Cause losing ajani feels like it would be treated like a bigger deal
@@something3867 I think they’ve been hinting that the Halo from New Capenna is like the opposite of Phyrexian Oil, so I reckon that Elspeth’s new sword could probably cure him.
@@reubenfromow4854 that makes sense. I knew there had to be something
On your side note: time for a crossover set with Loki, and the TVA Kills Saroyan for messing with the timeline
I agree with the characters being locked in the tower with the Phyrexians being the best part; The John Carpenter vibes of the whole situation were great!
I think the reason Ajani was able to be compleated so much more quickly than Tamiyo is probably because Jin-Gitaxis wanted to ensure the Spark of a Planeswalker would be intact when the process was complete thus making it a much more experimental form of Compleation at the time. With Ajani, they've already succeeded once, so the process was much quicker.
That was exactly the kind of summary I was looking for. Not too long and it still covered pretty much everything, I guess.
Really, really well done. Thank you!
Glad to hear it!
Loved this recap, there were twists that I didn't hear about through card spoilers, and interesting bits to the story that makes me want to go read it myself. I will say, I am a little let down that Ertai didn't get much time to shine as a villain since he, Karn and Teferi go way back, and could have had a lot to build on with the plot. Hopefully it's more covered in the side stories. Also the ending hook now makes me think we may finally see a proper planeswalker card of arguably the most powerful planeswalker in the upcoming set.
Who's that, Yawgmoth
Urza wasn't a planeswalker yet during the Brothers' War. The event that ignited his spark was when he activated the Sylex, though, so there's still a chance we'll get a blue or Azorius Urza.
@@Thesaurus_Rex yes but neither was Will & Rowan until the very end of thrones of eldraine
I assume Jaya gets the focus on the spotlight cards because this is the last chance for her to get the spotlight, even if she's not actually the protagonist.
That or the creative team and dev team just weren't quite on the same once again.
I really liked this story. Also I think we got more Jaya cards in the set than really made sense as a sort of way for Wizards to honor the death of such an old and well loved character.
I'm worried about that Tree that Elesh Norn had, I wonder if it's another World Tree made from the Sap Vorinclex got and it'll either make new Realms on New Phyrexia, make it bigger, poke into other planes making Tezzeret not as important anymore or scarier, what if they made another World Tree to get unlimited Cosmic Elixir making the Phyrexian army even stronger?
god-praetors in the next set maybe? Or elesh norn at the very least
I think we're going to see a Crisis on Infinite Earths type event here; the multiverse becoming much smaller and the big popular planes will be one giant plane that beings can cross with or without a spark.
I have a problem with that because it regulates planeswalkers to meh beings
I've heard rumors that the phyrexians are supposed to pay theros a visit in some regard..... That plane is based on cognition, not only would the phyrexians become stronger as more people begin to fear them but with their hivemind they could create just about anything just by thinking about it...... (If someone smarter than me who knows more about how theros works in this context and could weigh in that would be wonderful because I have no idea)
@@GreenFenril Well, if its not a permanent thing, a set where the phyrexian world tree touches multiple planes (ravnica, theros, dominaria, innistrad, etc) to open its way to a full multiverse scale invasion, that could make a really cool set where we get cards from all the planes involved in the fight, ending with the destruction of the tree.
yeah the world tree allows the planar bridge to open multiple portal to multiple plane at once. Connecting plane has been done before plane to plane (1 to 1), but this time it is many to many. An event like this would force multiple planes to be connected amassing a large amount of mana. This is where the gate watch and Ugin comes in. Breaching the blind eternities and amassing mana of this scale would normally attract the eldrazi making them the natural predator to the phyrexian and discourage this kind of shenanigan. But since the the gate watch "killed" the eldrazi, there is nothing to keep the phyrexian in check anymore and now they can run rampant across the multiverse, hence the big bad that ugin mention.
Absolutely love what you do with addressing the story, the cards, and the comparison. Been with you since the beginning!
Thank you for the recap, as someone not big in Domenira lore I got a bit overwhelmed with all the characters in the story - so thank you for the great recap
I always love this series. Thank you for answering my questions too. Liliana being on the plane was pretty confusing, so I can't wait for the next video!
I've been binging your videos and wanted to give you props for the consistently engaging presentation. The video that showed up at the top of my search for all will be one was a different channel, but the guy's voice made it impossible for me to make it through.
And then I found your channel, and now I feel so compleated.
I've been waiting for Phyrexia to return for so many years! Great video, all will be one!
Would been nice to have a dreadnaught as a card in this edition.
Yes, and/or a Dragon Engine, but it was fun to dig up the old cards for illustration purposes.
I bet it’s coming! We still have brothers war coming this yeAr!
I think Sheoldred's new body in her card art is a dreadnought.
Why is phyrexian obliterator not in this set?
@@gorfine1982 between power creep and marketing ...dont be surprised if it has a extra swamp symbol and they call it Phyrexian Decimator
I believe the correct Phyrexian term for Sheoldred's "hands" is "grippysticks"
Somehow I feel like this might end up in an all out apocalyptic clash between the Phyrexians and the Eldrazi. As we currently understand the Eldrazi to be some kind of "cleanup crew" that recycle dead or dying planes. Considering that Phyrexians, if they succeeded, would compleat everything in the multiverse, it would also mean that the multiiverse would figuratively die.
Most likely not gonna happen but it would be pretty epic to see what would happen if those two different kind of horrors clashed.
io tifo per gli Eldrazi! 🤟
I work at a card shop, and my boss and I have been theorizing this for months!!! It makes since, unleash them on the multiverse to clean up and then band together to take them down. Destroying them is much more straight forward than the phyrexian skurge
I think many people (myself included) have assumed that’s what the Eldrazi do, but has it actually been confirmed?
Wow, finally we get an actual view into Ryan's personal library and study where he keeps all his MTG lore books and more, very nice, very nice.
Insert pun about Jaya's death being a literal low point.
But, in all seriousness, I really enjoyed this set's story. The last few sets have been a bit uneven, but I think they've definitely done a solid job building to this one, and it's clicking now.
Love you Ryan, I appreciate all the effort that goes into your story recaps. You always provide a really engaging and entertaining description of events. Keep the the awesome work, my dude!
I appreciate that!
I was more surprised that Teferi only apoligized to Karn NOW, and not in the centuries before that.
People are more willing to express their regrets when confronted with the end of the world as they know it.
My favorite lore storytellers back at it again! I gave this a like before I even heard it. I started playing during invasion. so the phyrexian part is the new set has me stoked. Love these videos!!
Now we just need the Eldrazi to start coming back and grow in numbers.
*cry in Elspeth and Chandra*
Weep for Manetheren. Wait. I mean Ajani and Naya.
Yeah pretty big bummer. Gonna make for one damatic show down when Elsbeth has to kill Ajani though.
between ajani getting phyrexian-ised and tamiyo previously and THEN having jaya die it feels like theyre kinda just killing the older/mentor characters just for shock value and honestly i dont find that at all interesting it kinda just makes it feel like a characters journey cant end without them being killed.
On the other hand, I feel like it's a good way to rotate into a new(ish) cast of heroes. I believe it was the Aether Hub channel who predicted back Kamigawa that Ajani would be Phyrexianized, primarily because his personal growth as a character is largely complete (no pun intended). To kill no-one at all would cheapen the supposed stakes of this new threat to the multiverse, and to kill other characters who haven't seen the ends of their stories yet, like Elspeth or the Twins, would be a waste of potential. Somebody's gotta die in a war, and while I'm sad about it, I'd rather it be the veterans. Of course, I'm also relatively new to the MTG scene, having started with Core 2020 so I don't quite have the love and deep knowledge for these characters as others, but that's my opinion on the matter
I mean. If everyone is immortal then, yes, the only way for their story to end is with them getting killed.
Thank you all so much for these videos
Seems like a really cool story to me! Thanks for making the video, Ryan!
Thank you for the video. The storytelling, delivery, and wrap-up
Esplendid job, as always sir 👏👏👏
this channel has come so far, rooting for you to reach 100k
Thanks!
Legit Question: If the Phyrexians ‘compleat’ beings by mechanising them, how did the Weatherlight get Phyrexianised by adding organic matter?
The weatherlight is a living ship because of the weatherseed. They were adding phyrexian flesh to the ship which contained glistening oil. The oil is the curropting factor of phyrexian influence that took over the weatherlight. So, the ship isn't an inanimate object that came to life. It was a living thing that was curropted just like the people. Which is incredibly sad since the weatherlight is by far one of the most iconic symbols of hope in magic.
@@cstaie85 agreed on all points. Also, given New Phyrexia and what it's built of, there may be some precedent of the oil affecting materials that aren't organic nor alive.
It broke my heart to see the Weatherlight become a phyrexian. Out of all the vehicle cards, the Weatherlight is my favorite.
@@VinceM1989 same... to me it was synonymous with hope for Dominaria. It was a living vessel. Though the crew would change over time. The Weatherlight was ever the seed of hope in the war against Phyrexia.
I'm still so pissed off about the Weatherlight... the captain went out of her way to enable phyrexians to compleat it...
As always sir, a pleasure to watch.
Thanks for making these videos! I always enjoy them a lot.
The story feels less rushed than the last few sets. Kamigawa and New Capenna felt like they tried doing too much, whereas this story felt more cohesive
Yeah, if Kamigawa and New Capenna each had 2 sets, they would have had enough time to tell a story that felt better paced. Especially NC, it just blitzed by without much of a thought, imo. But '30th Anniversary go back to Dominaria' got in the way, I'm guessing. Either way, it's good that we'll stick to this Dominara vs. Phyrexians plotline for at least 3 (or was it 4?) sets.
dude thanks a lot for all this wonderfull effort in having us the grat history of MTG... I have been looking for something like this for a looooong time
Such a great recap, as a new player I love this Lore. Thanks for making this for us all to enjoy ❤
I've been a longstanding believer in the Chibi Walkers secret lair being a list of Planeswalkers to be completed, and some weird ties I've started to notice is how everyone keeps bringing up the Eldrazi as some sort of cleanup crew, and since Emrakul (currently trapped in Innistrad's moon) is the only Eldrazi we readily have access to, it brings up some implications regarding the fact that Sorin is yet another walker in the Chibi secret lair
"Teferi, Karn and Jodah all stand there with stun counters on them" - nice one :)
Don't worry Teferi, your little trip totally won't break the universe. It's definitely not gonna result in the Ur Dragon and Marit Lage playing snooker with time travelling Eldrazi Serra surfing around. That definitely wouldn't be awesome.
I felt like this story was fairly well written. It had enough suspense along the way as it was made apparent that sleeper agents could be anybody. The final reveal of Ajani was a major shocker along with Jaya's death, but I unfortunately hadn't read up through that part prior to the WotC D&D/Magic reveal, so that was a BIG spoiler presented. Therefore it didn't land so hard with me at the end. Although, Saheeli randomly showing up at the end was a HUGE head turn because there's no mention at all of how or why she's there. She's just randomly creating another Sylex.
My favorite story bit was in the beginning when Ajani told Karn that Jhoira had Raff concoct a magic spell onto the letters she wrote him and so any time they moved, she knew what was up and Karn is just like "Damn! Hope she doesn't feel bad for me leaving her on read". That was my takeaway from it.
I am hopeful and fearful that this whole time business that Teferi is doing. It could end up being a classic "He went back in time and now things are changed in the future because of his actions" in which Jaya could no longer be dead, Ajani could not have become completed, and so forth. Hopefully it's just a manner of Teferi meeting up with Urza and finding out how to use the Sylex and then immediately coming back. But it is a good setup tying the main story into the next set which is supposedly in the past. Just please no time travel nonsense.
I would want one major, unintended change. Not sure what. Urza coming back would be dope, but also cheapen the original phyrexian war.
Happy to see more lore videos. Hope to see more of this style content in the future : )
Finally! Thank you guys for uploading this story!
I really enjoyed you mentioning the stun counters when Sheoldred is monologuing
One thing I don't understand is what happened to the Phyrexian's forces on Dominaria, Ertai and the compleated whetherlight probably survived, Rona and the brotherhood of Gix definitely survived, and with how easly Sheoldred managed to conquer so many places it's hard to believe the Phyrexians will just hide because she is no longer around.
I just realized if Karn was a human, he would look like Ryan.
Man anything with Phyrexia is 100 times better than anything Eldrazi or Bolas themes for sure.
amazing work and videos. ^^
Been waiting for this one Ryan! Grated for your hard work as always!
You two are a large of what is still good about MTG. Thank you.
Wow, thanks!
Oh man, great stuff. I love how you present the story too, so here’s another sub for you! Also since we will see New Phyrexia (aka Mirrodin) in the future I hope we get to see Koth and Venser. Koth is part of a small resistance on New Phyrexia (unless this has changed) and Venser is dead but it’s possible his body was retrieved by Phyrexians and now he’s revived and compleated 🤓
You’re really good at this. I like your videos.
So bold of WoC to have a collab with the Among Us devs
Excelent video, it really adds an extra layer of magic when you know a bit about the lore of the various cards.
Great Video!! I like Magic, but I guess I'm not a superfan. I don't read any of the books or stories, so I am usually just reading cards and flavor texts to get an idea. I'll keep an eye out for your videos for future releases!
You're exactly the person I have in mind when I make these videos!
I hadn't read the side stories except the one with Liliana, which I found interesting. Maybe had I read the rest they could fill in some gaps which I felt the compressed nature of storytelling in the main story was lacking. I didn't think it was explicitly implied that Teferi was travelling back to the Brothers' War, but by that point in the story, it may as well confirm that the set isn't a mere flashback but an information gathering excursion. I just hope it doesn't result in any far-reaching Back to the Future 2 shenanigans.
The idea of Elesh looking up to Karn, calling him father, as if she's simply bringing him home, is so sweet it makes me almost want the Phyrexians to win.
its heartwarming in all of the wrong ways
I'm excited about this arc.
Your channel is really good keep up the good work
I would loove to hear the original kamigawa story, the one about Umezawa Toshi and the spirits war. But then again everything this channel give us is great. Love this channel. Keep the good work guys.
Been waiting for this video for a hot minute.
Hi guys, if I may give just one criticism to this video, it's that it's missing the subtitle as opposed to most of your other videos.
Still, it was a great watch, and it was a pleasure to feel that you really liked the storyline and the writing. Excellent work as always, please keep it up !
Hey, thanks for calling that out. I did add subtitles when I uploaded the video but it looked like it glitched and they were waiting for me to hit "publish" before they attached to the video itself. I have fixed it, so you should now find subtitles available, but please let me know if you have any further trouble. Thanks!
The Phyrexians are great - they’re the Adeptus Mechanicus, but suffering from extreme psychosis and hellbent on bringing EVERYONE along for the cyborg ride. Such a delightful bunch!
Which is just the Dark Mechanicum, or Hereteks. Whichever you prefer on level of body horror.
This is already starting to be a step up from "The War of the Spark" story arc with TWO named planeswalkers being compleated now and another well known named planeswalker dying. However, I'm feeling a bit uncertain with the trip back in time coming up. I don't know what it is, but I feel like this is going to somehow undo the events of this set. Like a "Oh, all this bad stuff happened, but don't worry! It'll all be fixed by the end of this time-hop."
They had better not pull and Endgame on us
I don't think he's going to change the present very much if at all, because his goal is to get information rather than fix anything. Could totally happen by accident though.
Great video, thank you! always love your story summaries
In case you missed this or anyone reading the side stories isn’t aware, the raven man is the person who gave liliana the false cure for her brother during her storyline in magic origins.
Thanks bro I knew he was important but I forgot why
Great vid, i really loved the coverage and cant wait for Brothers War now
still waiting for a story on braids! love these videos, well done!
Words cannot describe how joyful I am driving into work with a brand new “story time”
FINALLYYYYYYYYYY!!
The BEST MTG Loremaster in all of youtube.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHHHH
I think that Ajani was a sleeper agent from the get go and the story for how he found Karn was merely an excuse.
It makes sense that the Phyrexians would have left some trap to ambush any search parties who come looking for Karn.
makes no sense why they wouldnt just have him capture karn right there then, especially because he has the sylex on him
@@zackestin1368 He didn't. At that point he didn't have the Sylex.
i mean its hard to leave a trap in collapsed caves where no one knows where he is
Honestly this is the craziest story yet of magic two of my favorite characters got perfected 😩😩😩
A beautifully told summary! Thank you once again.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Been waiting for this one, now to see what happens!
Teferi time traveling to the past is going to be interesting. I wonder how much of an impact it will have on the history. It would be great to see an Urza planeswalker card and some of the older cards get reprinted.
I think this story shows how much deeper of a plane Dominaria is. It might not have a single strong theme, but it feels much more like a real world.
The big problem with one set blocks is there's no way to know what order the story cards are meant to placed in so there's no obvious progression of events. If it weren't for your videos, I wouldn't have a hope in hell of sorting it out.
Please do a predictions video for Brothers War, it is the one set I’ve been most excited for, probably since Mirrodin!
Thanks for the recap!
It is possible that Ajani was compleated since the beginning. Knowing already he as a sleeper agent i paid more attention to some details, as in the confront during the peace talkes, he went outside to chase the enemy while everyone else stayed, then later on Karn scryed looking for him and the vision was blurry, he said this happens with phyrexians. Well, of course Ajani was fighting one at the moment, but it could be a cover up. Stenn, on the other hand, he basicaly went after Karn to say he was charged with unearthing sleeper agents, though haven't got one yet, then after suggested they portal to the tower within his city. Sure, he went searching alone with only a dagger for some time, but it was all a little suspect. Anyway, great video!
The Ertai thing was also: "post shadowing" (remember when Greven IL Vec throws dude (I think it's his first mate; I'm not digging out my Tempest storybook) overboard the Predator (was that the name? The evil ship). There was a story highlight card for it before story highlight cards existed!
I have been waiting for this!!!
So I knew about Ajani, but I'm way behind on story because I took a break from following the story, but holy hell, I legitimately gasped in shock and disbelief when _Weatherlight Compleated_ hit the screen 😯😯
Tbh it seems like we had lost more impartant thing in this story than the whole war of the spark
ive only played magic on and off since 2011, until the release of arena, and even I was blown away by the ajani compleation, he's become like a poster boy for magic before this.
We get some nice The Thing (1982) to mix in with our Spiders-Woman and our H. R. Giger parrot.
great vid as always
Awesome been looking forward to this
I was waiting for this video
The thing that I’m most curious about is, if tefiri travels back to the brothers’ war, he will be going back to the pre-mending era. Will this restore his power as a pre mending planeswalker while in that era? And will his presence during the war alter history similar to how sarhkan being present during ugin and bolas’s fight on tarkir rewrote its timeline?
They didn't really explain how the time travel stuff is going to work. I think he'll only be able to act as an observer and his presence won't actually change anything.
@@MagicArcanum that may end up being the case but it’s still fun to speculate. Also, in the only two other instances of time travel in mtg history/time was altered in some way. If he does end up just spectating then oh well, atleast we’re getting more lore on the brothers war. If he is physically present for the end of the war though, that would lead to some interesting possibilities
I usually don't read side stories so I didn't find out about the teferi stuff until yesterday
One thing that most don't point out is how stark difference Ajani and Stenn are as sleeper agents. Stenn was like "HA GOTCHA!" while Ajani is horrified and literally tries to stop himself, if only for a second.
You could rule this out as Ajani having more of a willpower than Stenn but what I think is happening is that Ajani and even Tamiyo have a piece of themselves still intact despite getting compleated. Because they still have their Spark and thus a piece of their soul, contrary to regular compleated beings who lose their soul during Phyresis. (for example Squee in the side stories)
I will say that Tamiyo even though she is compleated she wishes to protect her family, that family being Phyrexia now, is further proof that a small part of themselves still remains.
Stoked for my favorite lore mages.
Karn in that tower was better at playing Among Us that most adults now-a-days.
10:23 WOW KARN PULLED A TYRIAN LANSITER DOUBLE CROSS! this reminds me of Game of thrones when Tyrian told 4 (I think) people different stories just to see who was the informant
I’m loving this story!
Can’t wait to go back to New Phyrexia