March of the Machine is a Massive Disappointment - A Review
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ส.ค. 2024
- With Elesh Norn's assault of the multiverse underway and almost every plane being invaded by phyrexians, you'd think there'd be a whole lot of exciting story potential for the mtg universe in March of the Machine. But it's over as soon as it began.
The set is a big let down and there's a lot of problems to talk about. It's admittedly a cool looking set and I'll look at the cards first and dig into some of what I really like about it, before talking about the story which just about murders any positive feelings I have. It is bad.
Before Aftermath arrives to retcon MoM's impact, let's delve into how the flavour and lore of this should-be-pivotal set was assassinated before its release.
/ silvermyr
/ asilvermyr
/ silvermyrjame
#mtg #magicthegathering #mtgmom #lore
TIMESTAMPS
0:00:00 Intro
0:02:18 New Mechanics and Transform
0:09:16 Legendary Pairs
0:23:53 Battles
0:31:59 Misc Cards
0:38:59 Multiverse Legends
0:44:32 Story recap
0:54:15 Why the Story Failed
1:01:59 Nitpicks etc
1:16:47 Final Thoughts + Outro - บันเทิง
Did the set disappoint you? What was the worst thing about it? Or the best if you're feeling positive
Phyrexia just look like a bunch of idiots, Yawgmoth would be ashamed.
Card-wise? I loved it, it was super cool! Story-wise...? Yeah, I don't know. It would've been cool if they made March a "here's the bad guys taking over and seeming to win!" but then having Aftermath be more of like a "oh look, now all the good guys are coming in and they're gonna defeat the bad guys!" As in, having things be like a narrative 50/50... Also, spoiling the story before the set released is a questionable move for sure, it definitely sort of sucked :(
i mean
it just feels like either jace or nahiri are gonna "reawaken" the oil since theyre still compleated.
especially since jace got his little "mystery job" from Norn which makes me think he will just be the next big bad phyrexian.
also im sad that the praetors are dead, would have loved to see what some of them would do without the rule of Norn (aka. Sheoldred not being supressed by norn, aaand also gitaxis and what he couldve done without Norn around).
It wouldve made so much more sense to just kill off or remove norn and let the other praetors to their own thing for a little while since none of the others seem "invadey".
Well, I kind of expected it to not be that good. My problems with it were mostly the same as yours. We simply did not get to see enough of it. For my favorite things, I actually liked the more details on the minor Planes. I really hope we see planes dealing with Azgol, Belenon, Karsus, Moag, Muraganda, Pyurea, and Xerex
Gods yes, the cards were fun, went five and oh by pulling Grand Cenobite and new Sheoldred in one pack but the story put a malaise even on that (which WotC compounded by being the worst fucking company.
Also confusing when you say 'old phyrexian cards' because I was thinking cards like Hollow Dogs and Phyrexian Dreadnought.
I like the thought that "Krenko" is a different Goblin every time and just claims to be Krenko but the other Goblins are too dumb to see the difference.
See, I thought that Mob Boss and Kingpin look similar but the reprint art is absolutely some random goblin lol
Or that they know, but are smart enough to recognize they can use the racist stereotypes against their people to their advantage when idiots bluster on about how goblins are too dumb to recognize a different guy as different while they sneak around back and steal all their stuff.
There could also be something to a caricature of a historically marginalized group that tends to be duplicated with large noses and act greedy. Like I’m all for my fantasy races but not every artist is cool with it if they know enough history.
The Dread Pirate Krenko
It's simple.. cards have always been representations of things and characters from stories being told. Not drawn by people that actually saw them happen, but did so years after.
The "Destroy the Mother Ship" trope was soooooo disappointing. A drop of oil accidentally smeared on a plane is what started all this, and now there are hordes of oil filled bodies just left sitting around - but don't worry! No mother ship!
I guss someone at WotC watched season 8 of Game of Thrones and were the only ones apar the showrunners to have thought it was narrative brilliancy.
The worst thing is that new phyrexia was never established to work like that... its such an annoying asspull solution to a problem that should have been handled more carefully and with a more complex sollution.
it would have been way more interesting if they pulled up something that changed the nature of the phyrexian oil itself, like some reality-shifting alchemy that changes the oil into something harmless
Old anti-phyrexian weapons:
- nukes.
- running
Modern anti-phyrexian weapons:
- bronze
- crack cocaine
I really wanted New Phyrexia to re-develop Old Phyrexia's weaponry, like the orbital nuclear weapons they launched at Halcyon during the Thran civil war. They also had massive bioweapons that released citywide toxic gaz, that we only got a glimpse of on New Capenna. Or their engineered plagues that killed millions on Dominaria. I miss Yawgmoth loll
+zombies
@@DoABarrelRol1l aw damn, I forgot the zombies
For me the biggest let down is just how they did all the praetors dirty. Vorinclex, a monster that is constantly shown to be a pinnacle of evolution, that survived the blind eternities with NO spark, just dies to his head getting cut off. Jin, probably the smartest phyrexian, just gets pushed into a vat of newts and gets eaten alive. Sheoldred literally got to do nothing even though she is a walking apocalypse. Elesh Norn felt like she got character assassinated because everything up to this set was constantly her saying its for her people and she never mentioned only herself and now suddenly its all about her? Atraxa, born of 4 praetors and could be one of the greatest phyrexians ever, gets killed by construction. It sucks man.
Probably the strangest part of the set is: I have *absolutely* no idea how long the events of the story are supposed to be. The fact that it's, you know, an invasion, with all the symbols popping up and being ominous implies it takes place over the course of, like, weeks to months. But if you told me the events of the story articles from the start of All will be One to the end of March of the Machine took place over anything more than 48 hours, I'd call you a liar. There's simply no way. Nahiri gets hit when they first arrive and holds together until they smash through the floor, so that couldn't have taken much more than a few hours, and it's a sprint down to the seedcore from there. And then Realmbreaker does its thing, the compleated walkers leave, the last of the squad escapes their imprisonment (that should be impossible for at least one, possibly two of them), but they all need to, you know, eat and drink, so that can't have been any sort of prolonged stay. And then Chandra and Wrenn show up and get into a fight, and *that* can't have been longer than, like, half an hour. So you add all these things together and you have two sets that take place over, at the absolute most, two days, with no time between them, and that's... enough time for an inter-planar invasion with people developing strategies and feeling the prolonged effects of war?
This is like how War of the Spark took place over the span of a single night. It's ridiculous.
Getting to Mirrodin's core takes weeks in the old stories, the insides of the planet is a gigantic maze (even though the planet is minuscule lol). Well it was, before Phyrexia. So now that's it's been transformed into 9 hells I can only assume it takes longer to traverse. The first planeswalker group to go to Phyrexia were also lost at arrival, scattered throughout the planet. Then they're captured, and we don't how much time passes by before the survivors escape. After that they return to Dominaria, and the next day Chandra goes to Mirrodin, so we can assume another couple of weeks pass by while Chandra and Wrenn travel the Blind Eternities then get through the entire planet of Mirrodin, while hiding from Phyrexians. We also see Tezzeret 5 weeks after the start of the invasion, as he awoke with his new body, jumping from plane to plane seeing Phyrexians massacre everyone everywhere he goes. Teferi also spends many weeks on Zhalfir while the invasion is underway. So the invasion lasted at least more than a month, probably two.
But I agree, the passage of time wasn't clear and it felt much, much too fast.
@@askani21 apparently zhalfir was in a time space bubble or something so a few weeks for them was a pretty short time for the rest multiverse (apparently only 10 years had passed since they were even phased out), but 100% agree on everything else
@@shadowseek27 Haha yes that was an inconsistency, but it's the other way around! In Zhalfir only passed 10 years since the old Phyrexian invasion 400 years ago. Which means time passes 40x more slowly in Zhalfir. If Teferi spent weeks in Zhalfir, years should have passed in the rest of the multiverse. So either the invasion lasted for years, either phase time is unreliable loll. (Or Teferi meddled with time again lolll)
@@askani21 Counterpoint: Phyresis is shown to take hold in a matter of *hours* and Nahiri gets six layers down before her sacrifice. The journey from the surface to the Seedcore couldn't have taken more than a single day. There's no mention of food, water, or rest, and the only reason Nahiri didn't take up Melira's offer of curing was because it'd take her out of the fight for a few days, by which point the fight would've been over, one way or another.
Big long paragraph
The Sorin of sets.
Based
Didn't do anything or failed spectacularly?
@@TheSteve_1992 got stuck in a rock
You are wild, man
But clever
I'm really upset that Phyrexia is just gone. I really liked them in their original incarnations as horrifying antagonists and thought the modern twist with each faction being influenced by their respective color of mana was even better. The idea of each faction striving for perfection in a different way was so interesting and I feel like we never got to see it. I know that the Phyrexian invasion of everything was doomed to fail, but I feel like it could have been the setup to something far more meaningful. Sitting in my armchair I would have liked to have seen the invasion beaten back, Elesh Norn killed and the white faction destroyed, but the other factions succeeding in taking over a new world each. Then we could still have Phyrexia as an antagonist in the future, but they could operate in radically different ways with the Vicious Swarm occasionally launching a horde of monsters at another plane, or learning that the black Phyrexians are behind some intrigue somewhere. Actually, it would have been cool to see the Vicious Swarm stuck on Ikoria and suddenly finding themselves on the bottom of the food chain. Wizards could have written a cool story rehabilitating them with them concluding that predation is not the be-all-end-all to evolution, and instead changing to establish some kind of symbiosis with others. It's just sad to see so many cool ideas and characters come to an end and not feeling like we ever got to see their story fully play out.
This exactly. The story possibilities were endless. And now the story is lost.
At base, I would have loved the Phyrexians to simply not have been completely defeated. There are infinite planes or whatever. Surely some of their invasions might find a corner of success and survival?
Interesting ideas, you should apply for a lore position at WoTC so we can get better stories!
I thought the same thing. The different factions of a villain whose express purpose is "ultimate unity" having different ideas on what that meant and the infighting it could cause was one of the most interesting things about New Phyrexia. The fact that the next time we see them, that's done away with and they just become Generic Evil Army #12,728 was such a shameful waste.
I know, Magic story wastes some cool potential, more news at 11.
I kinda hated how they had all those factions, doesn’t scream “All Will be One” at all.
A plane ruled by Urabrask would be so cool to see. It could be an unironically peaceful phyrexian world that spends its time following the true vision of phyrexia.
If there was ever a time where WOTC needed to do a 3 set block, this was it. Set 1 could have been about the Phyrexians launching the multiversal invasion. Set 2 could show the Phyrexians gaining the upper hand and we see beloved characters completed. Set 3 is were worlds have adapted to the Phyrexians, are now pushing them back, and we get the finale on New Pyrexia that we get in March of the Machine. Such a missed opportunity. 😞
Agreed, so much was said to have happened in the set but nothing is shown. The gods of theros being compleated, the cosmos beings are all compleated, shandalar and no slivers? And we touch every plane but get no returning mechanics from said planes.
Yes it really makes Dominaria United feel out of place. It or Brothers War anyway. Certainly seems bad to have an invasion of the Multiverse, but the biggest threat to the Multiverse resolved within the same set.
Brothers war definitely felt unnecessary, the plot that made the set happen was so contrived it's like they were trying to force a time travel plot for no reason. Would've loved if its slot was given to the phyrexian invasion instead.
@@indigo1296 Isn't that how they got the knowledge of the Sylex they didn't even use, and? Like legit the only thing that happened in Brothers War relevant to today?
(I liked the set because it was a huge throwback to Cards/lore I grew up on, but narratively its kind of out of place)
@@kurtmooreca Yeah, they did it to retrieve information about the sylex that was destroyed during DMU. Had the sylex not been destroyed, they could easily have had Saheeli reverse engineer the method used to activate the sylex, and connected the story to ONE without much issue.
Fun fact about the new Sheoldred art! She's actually attached to Drivnod, Carnage Dominus' eye socket, as if she's riding him into battle!
Ooh good spot!
That's what I'm looking at! Makes sense
Sadly we know this didn't happen since she died in the first 3 seconds of the MOM story proper. The card will forever be a "what if"
This would have made for an awesome 3 set block set. Phyrexia prepares in All Will Be One. Phyrexia gets to the precipice of winning in March of the Machine. Phyrexia is defeated in Rise of the Angels(?) Or wins in Triumph of Norn(?) WOTC did not give themselves time to tell the story they wanted to tell, and an end of set cliff hanger would have been awesome
~~or both~~ could have told "Norn's Triumph" as a handful of planes they *won* on, then RotA they don't
@@The_Murder_Party I thought it would be cool if they did like with the Scars block and teased both until spoiler season started
@@learntoplaymagic5202 nah, I got that, *but* as with his closing remarks "the phyrexian invasion of every plane feels like a big enough deal to do an entire set around" the story needed *way* more time.
There *is* a third set in the block - Dominaria United. An entire large set of setup wasted because it turns out all those sleeper agents on Dominaria had absolutely no relevance to the world tree invasion plot.
@@The_Murder_Party True, it really did
The worst part is that WOTC literally made a video in response to the backlash that amounted to:
- The player-base is too impatient to see the effects of the invasion
- The player-base is too dumb to not understand that there were high stakes (they proceeded to name B-list characters that bit the dust)
Wait where was this? I need a good laugh I wanna see their incompetence
@@bye1551 the video is called #MTGMachine has consequences for the multiverse. It’s on the official magic the gathering TH-cam channel
i will give them credit i am excited to see what is going on in ahmonket again now.
@@shark_2283 lol what credit?
@@shark_2283Seems likely it’s just gonna be business as usual, considering that both Locust and Scarab god basically said “whelp that was fun should do it again some time” before just wandering back into the desert.
I remember when everyone was brainstorming how to defeat the phyrexians. Would Emrakul be brought in? Would Bolas and Ugin come back?
Nope. . . The planes simply just fought back. Huh. Never would have thought of that
This set seems so odd b/c it's both these obscure MTG callbacks, which is awesome, but also refuses to engage with any clever solutions to phyrexian invasion.
I was PRAYING for Eldrazi Phyrexians and Phyrexian Eldrazi, sad nether were in this
@@Oxygen1004 That would have been cool, what if Balos was completed.
The fact that they're turning a bunch of Planeswalkers into legendary creatures again makes this whole storyline feel like they were just cynically blitzing through the story to sell more commander products.
So sad how there was that whole setup of Elspeth getting killed by heliod because he heard of a vision of him getting offed by her only for it to not be followed up on at all even though him getting completed was the perfect opportunity to make that happen. Instead, nah, Kaya gets to Fortnite dance on the corpse of a god since she can literally kill whatever WoTC wants dead with no issue at all.
Eh, but wasn't he "killed" by Elspeth with Shadowspear after she escaped the Underworld? And then he was in the Underworld himself, stuck under a big boulder by Erebos? I remember reading something like this
@@TheSteve_1992 unfortunately not cannon since we never got the novel for what happened with Theros Beyond Death. So he did get stuck under a rock, but didn’t die explicitly
Wrenn just going... "Yeah I can control Realmbreaker" just kind of broke my brain since I'm like "Why the fuck didn't you mention that before everyone decided to go with the nuke plan?" The fact that she succeeded is also kind of wild given what happened when Lukka tried to commune with Phyxian shit.
Kill two contrivances with one stone: plot cul-de-sac with the Sylex blast just fizzling out into the Eternities? Have Wrenn not actually be strong enough to overtake Realmbreaker, but manage to reach out to the explosion and channel it into herself (more backstory with the internal fire? help from Chandra?), and THAT manages to burn out the Invasion Tree, but costing herself in the process.
I was hoping to see at least one card showing Phyrexia trying to invade the Unglued and Unhinged setting and failing due to the absolute chaos of those sets. Like the Borg trying to assimilate the Loony Tunes.
On the point of "what are they rushing to?" and you bring up the Lotr set. I just thought, how amazingly tense and suspenseful would it have been to have march of the machine end with a whole all is lost moment, all the planes on the backfoot, maybe even some fully lost. Then have the lotr set and after that non-canon set we get a third set finishing the phyrexia story.
That would have been insane!
So... like... was there any point to All Will Be One? From what I remember that entire plotline was the Gatewatch fucking with New Phyrexia and getting their asses stomped in but aside from that what was the point? Did any of it matter beyond Elspeth killing herself?
It really feels like Elesh Norn went from a serious multiversal threat to... a complete joke in basically 24 hours.
Her giant big brained scheme works, manipulating all of New Phyrexia to her bidding and in the process spreading her reach to innumerable worlds, cementing phyrexians as a presence nearly everywhere. Then it almost literally immediately goes to shit and the entire phyrexian hierarchy falls apart to nonsensical infighting before Elspeth returns as an angel and 1-shots Elesh Norn. Somewhere while that's happening a half-dead dryad is thrown at the tree and somehow merges with it without being immediately infected by the oil and somehow swaps New Phyrexia out of the multiverse and all the phyrexians die.
Why bother? Totally deflated my sails since phyrexians and New Phyrexia in particular were my favorite parts of MTG lore and the writers took what has been a growing story for more than a decade and slammed it all in the trash...
Like, literally, the story of Glissa and Slowbad delving into the core of Mirrodin to take down Memnarch was my introduction to MTG and a really good book I really enjoyed, then the fall of Mirrodin and the phyrexianization of an entire plane. It was so cool and reading the lore as the Praetors battled amongst themselves before Elesh Norn took control, the scheming of Sheoldred and the lurking savior of Urabrask... heck even how Vorinclex was a figurehead for compleated Glissa was badass.
And this is the end... this is the literal actual death of my interest in the fandom and worlds.
It feels so hollow.
Nope! It was a completely pointless waste of time, and given the highlights of the conflict, it seems that Phyrexia was never actually a threat to begin with.
The chef's kiss for me personally was seeing Vorinclex, phyrexia's apex predator, dying to a literal who as Jin Gitaxias, the plane's smartest mind, decided that the best time to launch a coup was while they were getting overrun by Zhalfirans.
WOTC straight up took it's *best* antagonists and ran them into the ground; absolutely tragic.
@@papanurgle8393 worse yet is that Jin-Gitaxias arguably knows exactly how the oil works and that Eleh Norn is directly tied to it's functionality. He not only chooses the worst time for a coup but he does so with the direct aim to destroy the one person absolutely necessary to his own plans.
Smartest Phyrexian in the actual multiverse and he commits actual braindead suicide for literally no reason ensuring the death of his own species.
He'd have been better off drugging her and hauling her ass back to New Phyrexia in a planeswalker proofed safety bunker so at the very least he could continue his work in peace. That also would've been a pretty cool way to imply the Phyrexians are cut off from the multiverse but COULD make a return when the heat blows over or something.
But nah, can't have cool interesting things happen, it's time for the droid army to fall apart because 6 Jedi showed up I guess...
It would’ve been cool to see urabrask working with the planes walkers against norn but using his furnace host and willingly turned forces. Dwarves, demons and other creatures that willingly joined the furnace host to fight the invasion
Would be nice to see a Free Phyrexia being run by limbless yet wise Urabrask.
I agree MOM needed another set. It was Amonkhet with Hour of Devastation briefly tacked on. It also doesn’t help we’ve stopped caring about planes beyond being a set piece for planeswalkers.
Sorry we can't do blocks anymore, we have seen that they don't make as much money as planes hopping every set and introducing new planeswalkers - WOTC
We are going to despark all the planeswalkers just because (its def not to let your fave characters be used in commander, not at all) - also WTOC
This is why the 3-set blocks were great. Because it forces a 3 act structure on the poor writing of wizards, which helps. Phyrexia All Will Be One was Act One. March of the Machine was Act Two and they ended the story in Act Two which resulted in this.
Exactly. And they would have had the interest and the creative possibilities, too. Wizards basically squandered design space.
100% agree. The three act structure would have greatly helped this story.
I do love that you completely ignored the fact that Lukka was obliterated out of existence in the Ikoria invasion story when looking at the consequences of March of the Machine. Shows how little Lukka ever mattered to anyone. And sort of serves him right for getting compleated in the stupidest way of all the Planeswalkers that got compleated in All Will Be One.
Yeah they made Lukka suck despite the fact that him sucking his to do with being corrupted by the Ozolith so its not really his fault removing any kind of pathos from it. Also Wrenn somehow communing with the freaking Realmbreaker and not getting Phyrexized was lame.
But Lukka was everyone's favourite red-aligned Ikorian native planeswalker named Lukka!
@@ArixOdragc Well you're not wrong, I guess.
It just hit me how "toothless" killing Melira off was.
Since the Oil was disabled, that means to more infections so Melira literally lost her gimmick of immunity and cure. So she died.
Warning: Long comment. Dissected into parts.
Initial thoughts, hopes I had for the set.
You touch upon many of the points I've seen fans agree on. This event had the DNA to be a great story for the Vorthos community: a feared enemy that's been in our minds for more than a decade (Scars of Mirrodin Block), perhaps one of the biggest callbacks to the older sets (Phyrexia as villains just screams Urza and his legacy), and several sets planting tiny seeds as to what their plan was (Vorinclex in Kaldheim, Jin in Kamigawa, Urabrask in New Capenna and Sheoldred in Dominaria), a pretty kickass starting event (All Will be One) with the good guys on the back pedal. It felt like the build up to War of the Spark, if perhaps less 'legendary' and significantly creepier. All in all, huge stakes and shoes to fill, and I freely admit not everyone would be happy with how the story landed, but there was a lot of good put into it.
Pacing:
I cannot fathom how they thought one set would be enough. I know MTG has thrown the concept of three part blocks away, and whilst for the card game I can sort of agree it has issues, this is the one place I would have returned to that concept. If they can drip feed praetor tasks, we could linger on an event that encompasses THE ENTIRE MULTIVERSE. Even if it was 'Part 1: the War', and 'Part 2: the Finale', though 3 parts would have been better.
Small snippets of the invasion make sense for Elspeth's waiting for the right moment to strike, or the amusing Necrowarfare. But as it stands, we never really felt the loss and grit these people had to go through to survive the threat, and that undermines the feeling.
The problematic flavour text:
'Render Inert' similarly took any hopes I had for the set away. The oil has never been terribly consistent (how quick it acts, how much is needed, what it does), but I feel if without masters it could transform Argentum to Mirrodin and then New Phyrexia, it shouldn't just stop working like this. That was a pretty big slap to the face.
Consequences:
Whilst Aftermath is not out yet, it does not strip away the fact that losses within MotM of characters we follow have been scarce, and even undermine previous sets. We've lost Wrenn, Melira and Karn's spark, meaning the cure of phyresis isn't simple: but we've not only recovered Nissa and Ajani, but even have the will of Tamiyo live on. Card spoilers tell of us even more reversals of compleation, and I really don't like that.
New Phyrexia is not killed but yeeted, making sure if need be, WotC can just pick it back up. Just like Bolas.
Praetors:
Sheoldred, Urabrask and Vorinclex were all done dirty, and don't even know if Urabrask died. Vorinclex should have wrestled with Garruk or met his match with Ikorian behemoths: we were SO close.
Jin Gitaxias' falling to his own creation is somewhat neat, fell to his own hubris. This is the one death I can accept.
Norn mostly is written well (chapter 1's POV is fantastic) but became a petulant child when faced with Elspeth. This, like the rest, needed time to breathe: we should have seen cracks in Norn's Glorious Facade (maybe seen as cracks in her porcelain?) before then, or otherwise stand resolute to her ideals, but outmatched.
The good:
The writing for the most part, as well as the art, are both pretty good. I adore Norn's Inquisitor's design most of all, and as mentioned before, chapter 1 is fantastic villain writing I will refer to in the future for d&d purposes.
Summary:
Great potential to be MTG's best storyline, squandered by giving it no breathing room, no major consequences, and an unsatisfying resolution. Yawgmoth and Urza's direct legacy in MTG is over.
Dissected into parts like ubrask
A reason teamups were awkward was that they had to be distributed among planes and amond colors, I think there are 5 wedge mythics and then 10 two color pairs. At some points they ran out of natural pairings so they were like "We need a boros teamup on Amonkhet, sooo Hazoret and... Djeru I guess? He exists?" I agree that it's super underwhelming in some cases tho
Honestly part of the issue is that Phyrexia is a bit of a perfect villain, with the mere existence of the oil they can't really be defeated, and it makes it a lot more difficult to satisfyingly defeat them
The one I wish they went for was Teferi going back in time to kill Yawgmoth and have a soft reboot of the story
This is the set where Toxic Deluge should have been reprinted
Can we also talk about how badly Atraxa bit it? The personal creation of four Praetors, voice of Elesh Norn... slain by a steel girder because she got angry at some statues.
Atraxa was probably the strongest Phyrexian since the days of Yawgmoth, and was beaten by a building and some random schmucks. I was honestly hoping Norn would fall and Atraxa would take over and it would be her vs Urabrask in a future set for absolute control of Phyrexia
I find it hilarious
The "Thalia was eaten by the Gitrog Monster" meme has been around since Gitrog came out, it's popular in the Canadian Highlander community. It's super cool to see in subtly referenced
Disappointed that we only got about 2 cards referencing lorwyn shadowmoor
I think the coolest way to end it was always for Urabrask to remain as a significant neutral faction controlling what remained of Phyrexia after the defeat. It’s a shame they didn’t go that way in some form.
You CAN'T have a Phyrexian with individuality and good conscience! Not in a way that is satisfactory manner..
Phyrexian oil changes, dramatically, how someone thinks for the good of Phyrexian expansion. Period.
@大ダイ
Urabrask wasn't good though.
As part of the great work all will be completed and both the land and people will be used as resources. The philosophy of red phryxia might be even to give choice but that choice is shown to not be free of some extreme coercion and manipulation.
@@jasonbolding3481 Nah, Red Phyrexia's whole schtick is that compleation should be something people WANT, it's all about aspiration and working together to build perfection. It's why he left the rebels alone in his layer, it's not because he's some good guy with morals, it's because they're all cogs in the great work whether they want to be or not.
Aka you don't need to be compleated to serve Phyrexia's grand ambition to the great work, but you should want to be compleated anyways because Phyrexia is perfection.
Every other Praetor basically took the same stance that people don't know any better and when they're made into machine zombies they'll understand how great it is. Urabrask took the route that people don't know any better but they will eventually come to see how great it is and everyone will one day aspire to be compleated.
It was easily the neatest and most significant difference that made Red Phyrexia so different, it was passion and ambition.
Jace and Vraska will call the shots now, as I think they still stuck there no? WOTC seems to have forgotten about them in MOM narrative.
@@kurtmooreca there’s a side story of vraska in ravnica that I won’t spoil but jace was indeed forgotten
Can’t believe Melira fell to the horrifying evil of Septicemia. I wonder if it’s going to be the next big villain 🤔🤔
You hit the nail on the head in my opinion, the sucked all the fear they built up of the enemies for a quick end.
For "War of the Spark", I wish they let Bolas get his God powers, then have him instantly planeswalk away.
You would have Bolas' allies asking, "wait... what? How did he do that, the Immortal Sun is still active." The super friends could ask them, "where did he go? Tell us, he must be stopped." But they don't know since Bolas never told them what would happen after the war.
Then leave it there, the mystery of what Bolas could possibly be up to would stew and eat away at the reader. Maybe have small cameos every so often where he does something seemingly unrelated, building the mystery further.
Its a small note, but Karn asked Teferi for a time bubble, and uses it to put his body back together- basically a few seconds pass for us but Karn gets some decent time to get the job done. Not sure why it had to be Karn and not someone else...
I really hate how they dealt with actually defeating the invasion by just killing Norn instead coming up with anything more clever. Just kill the Borg Queen and instant win just feels lame.
Even the Borg (at least before S3 Picard) would still be active after the queen’s death - just like how Phyrexia originally came back without Yawgmoth, the CREATOR of Phyrexia, did. But then Norn norned (somehow) and was able to ironically corrupt the oil to be bound to her instead. Like, wut?
The thing that disappointed me the most is we heard nothing of garruk. You know the guy that when he got cursed made inastrad tremble in his wake and beat the over loving shit outa chain veiled liliana, and now made it his mission to find and save the kenrith twins. Yeah that guy just doesn't show. Ik they wrote themselves into a corner with his power level but I think it would have been cinematic for him to show up pissed in a needed moment, or at least make a nod to the fact hes probably solo defending a plane out there.
He should have been the one to beat up vorinclex. Apex vs apex
MTG story: Phyrexia is invading the entire multiverse, every day more and more ground is lost to those rotters, we can only achieve little victories and just making it to another day is the best we can do.
MTG cards (esp. Battles): Lol get wrecked Phyrexia, get gud.
Like, come on not even one plane fell to Phyrexia? No other planeswalkers? Basically WotC fumbled most of the whole storyline. At least with Spark War I could fool myself into believing it could happen in like a day or two, but MoM feels like it takes place both over a month and three days. No real sense of time as the set needed to both have the invasion and the finale in the same set.
Multiple planes fell. Just...not ones that EVER got representation on a card - even a token plane card - and that nobody ever cared for even slightly.
This was so cathartic. I'd love for two-set blocks to come back, and I think two sets would have been enough for this one in particular. ONE was kind of the opening salvo, then the middle set for the low point, then the set for the grand finale
7:44 - the true scriptures are the Phyrexian Scriptures that we got in the card of that name in Domanaria set in 2018. They are basically the scriptures of Yawgmoth, and have been translated by the community, who found that it reads the same as the flavour text on the card Dark Ritual from back in Urza's Saga. It reads:
"From void evolved Phyrexia. Great Yawgmoth, Father of Machines, saw its perfection. Thus the Grand Evolution began."
You were right in thinking that they're more true to the faith of the original Phyrexia and Yawgmoth's original orthodoxy. The black faction probably considers them to be a truth that is opposed to Norn's Argent Etchings, who in turn probably sees her works as building on top of Yawgmoth's vision. Of course, the true scriptures aren't actually correct either, since the original Phyrexia didn't evolve from the void, but was created from an artificial plane whose owner had died after it was handed over to Yawgmoth by Dyfed. Still it's a really neat callback and I'm glad they included it for my fav Phyrexian faction (Shelly is bae don't @ me).
Btw Rhystic Studies did a really good video on the Phyrexian language stuff about a month ago, which is where I found out about this stuff. Recommend giving it a watch
Shelly is absolutely bae, indeed! Here's hoping they revive some Praetors in either the Aftermath or Phyrexia 3.
It's so weird, considering they could've milked it for years.
Agreed... For me, the worst, is that they Did my Gurl Atraxa SOOOO Dirty. She could have been epic, I loved her so much I wrote an Entire Cover of One By Metallica for her. lol
Great video, love your channel and insights.
So I've been playing magic for a long time now, and I can't help but make a certain comparison with MOM. And that's the three block Invasion cycle which was just...so much more impactful. The culmination of threads in the MtG storyline going back to Antiquities, an increased focus on multi-color cards, what I'm pretty sure was the fist instance of the wedges showing up in Apocalypse. The whole thing was a spectacle that really sold the dire straits our heroes were in. And MOM falls so short. I agree with you that it's not really the writing so much as the pacing, and that bringing back at least the two set blocks (I'd love a return to three myself, but I can understand how that might stretch ideas thin) would really, REALLY help the storyline a ton.
Invasion of Segovia is no doubt my favorite card of the set, since I imagined how do a invasion there hould just be... And the card answer perfect. The giant phyrexcian "feeth" inside the water being harassed by tiny fish and worms. A really angry worm that phyrexian can say... And I'm quite sure that Elesh norn looked at the size of the plane and said "Send just one of our regular soldiers, it will be enough" and the guy is being harrassed by a swarm of tine angels unable to properly walk do the worm around is feet and really stuggingle to do anything other than flails is arms around and hoping to it end soon.
I also like the idea that only two phyrexians made it into the plane and got attacked by a legendary bristle worm lol
Segovia is my favorite plane and when I saw that card I lost it. Lol
I thought the praetor cards in MOM were meant to represent their beginnings, kinda like the flip planeswalkers from Origins. Vorinclex especially seemed much younger here than on his other cards, and I assumed the Sheoldred card was showing us what she was like before she got grafted onto a big bug.
Technically she was never grafted to a bug, she just slithered into it's skull and used it like a mount, it's kind of her gimmick...
Also, personally, not a fan of how the Praetors changed for like 0 reason, Urabrask got basically a brand new head and Jin turned his legs into tentacles despite clearly keeping his legs around even when rebuilding his body in Kamigawa.
Really hard to dislike anything concerning Phyrexia; theyve always been my favorite. I started playing in zendikar, so Scars was the first set i got to experience fresh. I love seeing my favorite protagonists and Big Evil Group tm, but i agree that it needed like a whole block to itself.
Honestly, I wanted to see Phyrexia on top.
It was very disappointing that it's over with so fast. You got all my thoughts about it
In regards to invasion of Innistrad, during the innistrad side story which took the perspective of gissa and geralf, the oil could still “infect” the zombies but gissa could still control with a little more effort. Also phyrexia reanimation I like to think of them having to go through a whole process to turn to their side. Think venser, corpse puppet, wasn’t killed while he was infected so they had to modify the body themselves
I actually think it could've been a cool callback to the /original/ Phyrexia block if it was indeed split up in 3 arcs, and All will be One set up a little bit more of the invasion aspect - and also introduced the battles, where Phyrexia won all of them to secure their foothold in the Multiverse - then the second set would depict them having some /major/ wins, but also be equally interspersed with successful comebacks - and then the /last/ set would be the one where they were being greatly driven back. Kind of to echo how in this place's first appearance, we saw Mirrodin gradually convert into New Phyrexia - and here, we'd see things gradually convert back.
It feels like the Phyrexians were done dirty when this was supposed to be their big moment. All of this setup, grand plans, years of preparation by a planar faction that’s SUPPOSED to be hyper-intelligent, unstoppable, big and scary bad guys...and they’ve lost every single major war they’ve ever fought.
If Phyrexia’s war record was 0-2 before, and they’ve just now failed to invade literally every plane in existence, that makes them 0-1,000,000
Gee, that sure is an intelligent and powerful villain
You'd think they would just invade a few planes at a time. Like they did to Mirrodin. Expand at the rate that beings without lifespans would
It’s a shame we didn’t get Colossal Dredmaw and Colossal Dredmaw in March of the Machine, most anticipated combo of them all, but I guess it would have been too powerful.
I mean there was also Tamiyos death >:/ But nobody remembering her death scene shows how badly it was executed. And it pains me to see that the more interesting characters that are not normal fantasy tropes (especially meaning that they are none violent characters) are thrown away but the standard save choices remain....
Yeah, I am with you. Somebody else mentioned the idea of making it 3 sets, and I agree with this. One idea I had, was to make hints and signs of defeating the oil earlier by using some actual counter measures, so we will not be forced to end with such a let such a let down. What I mean, would be things like showing the scientists of Kamigawa working on nanomachines that counteract the oil, made as a result of studying oil that remained from when Jin went there, writing a scene on Dominaria showing that many parts of the natural world there are actually resistant to oil based compleation, as a result of contact with earlier, less virulent precursors from the earlier, pre-mending invasions, show a flashback scene of Jace and Vraska(before the assault on New Phyrexia and their compleation of course), were they talk with Simic and Izzet researchers to create countermeasures against the oil, and show those counter measures in the story later, and a scene on Innistrad of Sorin working with some angels and demons to create artificial Halo. If you ask me doing this, combined with showing the wild mana of Shandalar destroying the oil, and the creatures of Ikoria adapting, would have allowed this to deal with the invasion without magically turning the oil inert after they dealt with Elesh Norn.
I've said it before, but if they really wanted some more emotional impact with their cards they could have made "Fblthp, forever lost" a compleated Fblthp. But people would legit riot. As it stands that lore of basically using Fblthp as a spider sense is fucking hilarious and so endearing.
But yeah the story as a whole was a major disappointment. Especially annoying seeing the dissonance between cards and story. Like, the praetors got their a full cycle of their biggest best and last cards in the set, and glissa got a new card for the 2nd set in a row, and heliod got a compleated card. Yet in the story Elesh was the only one that did FUCKING ANYTHING, and they were all killed unceremoniously all in the span of less than a paragraph. AAAAAAAAAAA.
1st point: guess they assumed Omnath was enough.
2nd point: it really says something that the latest Yugioh arc with the kiddy art style is far more poignant for characters, story and theme than THIS even tried to be.
This could have been a years long event that changed the way we looked at Magic as a whole but no .
Hey look over here another crossover event!!
Your honest thoughts are so refreshing to hear. I have no drive to play this set at all...
WOTC never fails at poor story writing. Nothing like building another ultimate bolas level story then just ending it abruptly with no pay-off. It's like no one at WOTC has ever seen a slasher movie so they think it's appropriate to kill the villain off in the first 20 minutes then just have the rest of the characters walk away and leave the film running for another hour.
Man remember when Wizards used the multi-set block structure to tell a story about a Phyrexian invasion and managed to hide the outcome of that invasion by teasing two potential names for the third set that determined the outcome
God current Magic's structure fucks with how they tell stories now
Fellas remember that if you ever want to invade the multiverse, don't invade it all simultaneously. Gotta be a bit more patient than that
I feel like the legendary pairings did their best to add a color that at least one of the individuals in it wouldn’t normally have to make their unlikely cooperation flavourful
I will say I think the angels of the multiverse do have an explanation thanks to Serra's involvement.
My theory is that as Serra's Realm was sundered by Yawgmoth, she used her Pre-Mending powers to bless angelkind with the power to rebuke Glistening Oil as a 5D chess move to prepare for the return of Yawgmoth in the form of Halo. It was a cool parallels to me.
Still wish that we had more sets to show off Phyrexia compleating ass and taking planes
There was a Gisa and Geralf story from when the Eldrazi invaded Innistrad. I wonder if it was the same story with a few words changed.
The best thing is that yargle is back
You are my favorite MTG TH-camr and every time you release a new video it makes my whole week.
I agree that this set could have benefited from being a 2 or 3 set block, BUT I truly loved the “Wrenn and Eight” story and I will never not adore the image of a bunch of Mirrans tossing Wrenn back and forth like a football trying to get her to Realmbreaker.
Keep it up!
I was hyped for this, and for the next set, until WotC hired _literally the Pinkertons_ to strongarm a youtuber.
That REALLY needs to overshadow any other discussion right now.
Wotc and ruining their own products, a truly iconic duo. This needed to be a multi set arc to truly finish. And I don't mean including dominaria united, and then brothers war setting up teferi and zhalfir. This needed to be stretched out so the story could breathe. And we needed actual stakes or deaths or something that matters going forward. Not just oh the oil is inert, phyrexia is locked away for later use teehee teehee, that they did, so that it can be brought back.
There was a big deal, 30 years of build up! And it was finished in like 3 paragraphs. It was such an incredible let down.
Krenko got turned into Shrek’s younger cousin.
Yooo, Mr.Myr is back! I just found your content about 2 months ago and binged damn near everything in like 5 days :)
It feels very much like more was initially planned for the set but then someone much higher up the ladder said it needed to be done quick for some reason, like maybe because WotC isn't being so great for Hasbro lately or because a LotR set was suddenly on the table...
A single drop of oil from Karn created all this mess on Mirrodin to begin with, now it's inert because Iron Man blew up the ship? I mean Elspeth kills Elesh Norn...
"I'm pissed off.. I'm pissed off.. it's such a letdown" me too buddy, me too, and that frustration and disappointment are well more than justified.
Idk how they thought this was going to turn out well or what they were even thinking beyond trying to build enough completely hollow hype to maximize sales. I really didn't think it was even possible, but somehow they managed to mishandled this worse than Magic 30. 🤦🏽
Phyrexia losing on every plane not only makes them look like trash villains but it also makes our PW “heroes” (main characters) look like a bunch of clowns who can’t do anything right.
Now that the multiverse is open for any character to travel, every plane should blacklist the Jacetice league from helping with any conflict since they can’t do anything besides make the situation worse
While I’m definitely not as much of a magic story kind of person, I do agree. This would have been a perfect set to go “oh shit, everything awful is happening all at once. The Simic are the new overlords of Ravnica except they are more evil than ever, Kaladesh just got Mirrodin’d, and the Phyriexans are attempting to compleat the Moon on Innistrad.” And instead it just feels like they just lose everywhere immediately.
I think the payoff was… okay-ish, but the leadup makes it feel like none of the big planeswalker action moments were even necessary because the Phyrexians were apparently just losing anyway.
As someone who started playing in 1995, I've almost away tried to piece together the story from the flavor text and art on the cards, even on sets that had published stories. You get this hazy picture, an incomplete story where you have to sort of fill in the blanks of what happened. I think it's far more satisfying to experience the lore that way rather than the novels or web releases, which have always been sub-par.
One thing to note about the angels Atraxa was compleated by a combination of 4 of the praetors, I think it might have been the case that while the oil corrupts compleation still required surgery
The last time we had invasion of Dominaria it was set from Weatherlight to Apocalypse (with a short detour for Urza's Saga). It was 4 years, and after that we had aftermath in additional błock with Karona the False God.
The story was complete.
Now it is rushed, while it could last for 2 years.
I know it's disappointing... but I'm happy to see you if that helps!
The Ikoria frame is supposed to be mix between old monster movie posters and comics iirc.
“I think I even have a couple of positive things to say in this video” 🎉😂😊
It would have been really cool if instead of executing two of the praetors basically unrelated to the invasion and having the other two killed in an aside, the praetors sans Elesh Norn launched their own invasion to one plane each, then when the Zalfiri overlay happens back on New Phyrexia and Norn gets her comeuppance, the praetors are cut off but remain an active threat on those planes. Then the next time those planes are visited, the praetor can be either the antagonist or work with the antagonist of that set.
Yes we got to meet the praetors on previous sets as individuals, but save for Sheoldred on Dominaria, their presence had to take a back seat to the introduction to the plane. Pretty much all of the Phyrexia forces we see in MoM and a lot in All Will be One were part of the Machine Orthodoxy so we didn't get that much of a chance to explore the other factions. Idk, just another possible missed opportunity in this whole mess
I think the Praetors are in their combat/invasion forms in the set.
Drana and Linvala are Roommates.
Baral and Kari i ship them both.
what about the "ixalan special art"? did you like that coin thing?
Let me fix this lore for you Wizards: Krenko is a title, not the name of the orc. I will be waiting for my check on the mail.
2 giant dinosaurs : 7 power
A frog and a tree :18 power
Imagine if the phyrexians just won.
And then the next few planes are stories of how that plane fights off the phyrexians individually! Praetors are disposed of in the same order they arrive. That would work!
I've really loved all your video's so far but with this one I can't really get through it. You just sound so tired and down that it feels exhausting to listen to. I get that you disliked the set, heck I did too, but the video is just way to low energy. I honestly hope it isn't cause something has gone wrong in your personal life or nothing, the cut aways sound a lot more happy so I'm guessing not but idk. Still really looking forward to the next video! Even if it isn't Guildless part 3 XD
I think that it made sense that the Phyrexians didn't make a successful invasion because most of the Preators fought against each other rather than working together. I think they would have won if they did. But what sucks is even if you compare this to the Eldrazi, this threat had no stakes and was virtually nothing in comparison. Then again I might be biased because I was hoping the Phyrexians would win and then the multiverses would have to live in hiding or something.
I rly wanted to see the phyrexians causing glistening oil rain to corrupt whole planes 😭
Awesome video man!
technically my favorite plane no longer exists, its Old Kamigawa...
I went to a pre-release blind, exited to see what cool Phyrexia cards there will be and see all the cool compleated cards. Then I opened my first pack and the first card I see is Mirrodin Avenged, a common and fairly bad card. All my excitement was immediately drained.
Aside that I hate that all the Praetors just like, die? There wasn't much build up and they are just dead now...? Urabrask is "alive" still but like, Vorinclex gets decapitated by Named_Knight_32? It so underwhelming.
I also don't understand where the mass amounts of Pryrexians came from? Like, it took *all* of Amonkhet's eternals to invade one other plane. But somehow Phyrexia is physically able to invade *ALL* other planes? Like Realmbreaker can do whatever, but the physical army to invade them? I don't see it. I guess that's why there is only one dude on Shandalar lmao
I like the original krenko with the shark nose and teeth. makes him stand apart from other goblins
I'm upset all my favorite planeswalkers were just forgotten basically in the story as a whole or got super minor roles when I feel they could have been better utilized. Like if I add up all my favorite planeswalkers "screentime" in this story its like maybe a page at best. Which is super dishearten to the point I don't even feel like buying singles and just want to quit the game as a whole.
She's cured and desparked. You're welcome.
I believe the Tarkir art is supposed to be parchment depictions. When I saw the Goreclaw one, it struck me as a cave painting.
We wanted it and waited for so long.. and it arrived like a wet fart (story-wise).
Like most, it's a fun set to Draft. The overhyped Battles are just transforming Planeswalkers with ETBs and no Loyalty abilities, that turn into normal stuff.. so cards with extra steps and giant walls of text.
It's hard to take these 1-Sets seriously, when the story stinks.. and it affects everyone's enjoyment of the cards as well.
To me, the worse one is Kamigawa, it places Stun Counters.. a mechanic NOT present in the plane. As with everything new-Kamigawa, they just don't understand it.
For me the biggest issue with the fact that the Phyrexians being so easy defeated is the fact that in my head canon the glistining oil was Yawgmoth's last gift/curse to the Multiverse that even if someone would have been able to defeat or destroy him his idea of perfection would forever be a curse that would spread across the Multiverse.
If i would have been able to choose an ending i would have New Phyrexia lose but have the cost be much much higher and to close the story with the multiverse reeling from the conflict and on a spotlight card or chapter you end with a unknown far flung plane where the oil has allready started to infect a native lifeform to start to whole proces and then while everyone is celebrating Karn is by himself thinking about the endless war that has begon because Yawgmoth got his wish now even more planes have been infected and wonders if there is even a point to keep fighting but he chooses to fight on if only to protect the ones he cares for.
I am surprised they didn't split the invasions into different sets like March of Machine: The Invasion of the Multiverse beings then it ended where Elash Norn opens the portals. I have listened the story it has so many plot holes that can't shrug it, I can't ignore it because I am a type of person that isn't bother by plot holes if it's hard to notice from the start. Anyways they could split like this March of the Machine: Invasion of Theros, Invasion of Eldraine, Ixalan while making Battles for each different places on for each of the planes.
I wanted Urabrask to be in the story a lot more what they did, he could have been anti-hero than later on have sort of hero redemption that's what see him as a chaotic natural antihero in the story.
What if the planeswalkers didn't straight up win?
What if Urabrask started to show empathy toward the multiverse then putting his own plans on hold and getting his domain back while forming bounds with others and what if planeswalkers still exist form a brand-new team, sort of like the gatewatch but temporally then have the final climb climax.
I don't know fleshing out Urabrask that way would make it interesting and make sense after we all know what he is, and I am not sure he still can be trusted to the multiverse. I wish he hasn't got taken down like Vegeta he is a twisted mind character but likeable one and I wish at the end he earns to be spare then be part of the multiverse and have a side story showing his empathy nature to the world.
It would be sweet if he shows empathy toward an orphanage and now his daughter later on willing to be complete.
I don't know I am not a writer of magic the gathering.
Incubate is a perfect mechanic for my Katsumasa the animator deck, I really like the new cards mechanic, and even card type! The uh, story is uh, written!
We've never seen the Slivers home plane yet. I wish we saw that here