On the one hand, another story arc with a new big bad is kind of neat. On the other, I hate the "oh, this character you loved? They're brainwashed and evil now" thing. I honestly would've preferred Tamiyo to die. WotC's anti-human bias also continues to show - why not have one of the random human planeswalkers suffer this fate, I'm sure we have over a dozen of them at this point.
The boring part about an established character (human or not) becoming compleated is that it basically removes all nuance from them. Once they're Phyrexian, they are nothing more than a "doing evil things for the sake of being evil" type of caricature.
I don't know, the story depicted quite well that Tamiyo, even compleated, isn't just evil for evil's sake now, her love for her family was warped to a love for Phyrexia. She wants to protect and nurture it, which seems like a very different kind of motivation. Also I bet we will get quite a few more compleated planeswalkers, and certainly many human ones at that.
OK, so maybe she still has some semblance of a personality. The thing is though...
A character in a story switching sides is most impactful when you get to see the development that got them there. Maybe there was always something that was pulling them in that direction, and then some turn of events led them further down that path.
But with completion, the development basically amounts to "oh no! they got the 'Phyrexia is awesome' germ!" Their previous motivations etc. play no part, the characters are simply set on a one-way track of helping the evil robot regime. They cared about family before? Well, now the evil robots have become their family! Mwahahaha! Something something Phyrexian oil!
It's ... really boring.
Also, I have to say that while New Phyrexia is more diverse, their ultimate goal isn't all that deep or interesting. It's a "turn everyone into scary robots because we think that's what perfect life looks like" kind of deal with a bit of makeup on top. There's no deeper conflict or drama here, the praetors are still just the typical cackling villains who want to do bad because they think bad is neat.
Couldn't the same be said about Phyrexia? They had years in the lime light and they lost I don't see why we need to spend more years rehashing the same storyline only now we have phyrexian planeswalkers oooohhh so exciting.
Well that’s our fault. We buy more product when it’s connected to old stuff.
Couldn't the same be said about Phyrexia? They had years in the lime light and they lost I don't see why we need to spend more years rehashing the same storyline only now we have phyrexian planeswalkers oooohhh so exciting.
Well that’s our fault. We buy more product when it’s connected to old stuff.
There's two problems with your logic. One old stuff doesn't equal time in the spotlight and two products like modern horizons don't only rely on nostalgia to sell packs. My problem isn't with past characters appearing in the present. It's that phyrexia had a long stint in the limelight. Tamiyo has been a popular character but when we go to her own homeplane the focus is centered instead on Phyrexia.
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Embrace the dark you call a home,
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
I think people are kind of missing the obvious possibility of de-compleation (partial even, say where they regain some of their old personality). Like, whether or not it is actually doable or happens in the story, there is no doubt that the characters will be wondering whether or not they can do it and that gives a whole new element to the story.
Like, this is such a common trope. Character is converted in some way stories always end up exploring to what degree they can be saved, the question even of whether there is more of them still in there than it seems.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if the whole soul connection of a planeswalker spark makes phyrexian planeswalkers more suspectible to regaining their former consciousness. We'll have to see. And therein lies the drama.
I think people are kind of missing the obvious possibility of de-compleation (partial even, say where they regain some of their old personality). Like, whether or not it is actually doable or happens in the story, there is no doubt that the characters will be wondering whether or not they can do it and that gives a whole new element to the story.
Like, this is such a common trope. Character is converted in some way stories always end up exploring to what degree they can be saved, the question even of whether there is more of them still in there than it seems.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if the whole soul connection of a planeswalker spark makes phyrexian planeswalkers more suspectible to regaining their former consciousness. We'll have to see. And therein lies the drama.
I think people are kind of missing the obvious possibility of de-compleation (partial even, say where they regain some of their old personality). Like, whether or not it is actually doable or happens in the story, there is no doubt that the characters will be wondering whether or not they can do it and that gives a whole new element to the story.
Like, this is such a common trope. Character is converted in some way stories always end up exploring to what degree they can be saved, the question even of whether there is more of them still in there than it seems.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if the whole soul connection of a planeswalker spark makes phyrexian planeswalkers more suspectible to regaining their former consciousness. We'll have to see. And therein lies the drama.
so far for new phyrexia era could be tamiyo coming to her senses and remmebering or even getting cured and Urabrask the Hidden
Karn also ditched his phyrexian corruption. I'm sure there will be a few corrupted planeswalkers and most of them will recover.
I'll agree the "suddenly phyrexian" thing is not the greatest storytelling. Yeah, they had the card so the story had to go there, but there were definitely more interesting ways than plopping it in an epilogue. Heck, they spent the whole story fiddling with a piece of Phyrexian technology that they didn't understand...
On the one hand, another story arc with a new big bad is kind of neat. On the other, I hate the "oh, this character you loved? They're brainwashed and evil now" thing. I honestly would've preferred Tamiyo to die. WotC's anti-human bias also continues to show - why not have one of the random human planeswalkers suffer this fate, I'm sure we have over a dozen of them at this point.
The boring part about an established character (human or not) becoming compleated is that it basically removes all nuance from them. Once they're Phyrexian, they are nothing more than a "doing evil things for the sake of being evil" type of caricature.
Because it wouldn't matter with a new character. Oh look, Kaito got compleated. Zero impact. No one cares. People complained about War of the Spark having no stakes, and this was the response: actual stakes. Now there are complaints in the opposite direction.
On the one hand, another story arc with a new big bad is kind of neat. On the other, I hate the "oh, this character you loved? They're brainwashed and evil now" thing. I honestly would've preferred Tamiyo to die. WotC's anti-human bias also continues to show - why not have one of the random human planeswalkers suffer this fate, I'm sure we have over a dozen of them at this point.
The boring part about an established character (human or not) becoming compleated is that it basically removes all nuance from them. Once they're Phyrexian, they are nothing more than a "doing evil things for the sake of being evil" type of caricature.
Because it wouldn't matter with a new character. Oh look, Kaito got compleated. Zero impact. No one cares. People complained about War of the Spark having no stakes, and this was the response: actual stakes. Now there are complaints in the opposite direction.
I'm going to start by saying I purposefully didn't read the war of the spark novels, but I felt that the deaths shown in war of the spark cards had some emotional or writing pay offs Gideon dying to save Liliana and Domri being killed by a figure he almost worshipped were impactful. There's also a huge difference Tamiyo the character is now dead but we are now stuck with this husk of one of our favorite characters is not full filling in anyway for me.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Embrace the dark you call a home,
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
On the one hand, another story arc with a new big bad is kind of neat. On the other, I hate the "oh, this character you loved? They're brainwashed and evil now" thing. I honestly would've preferred Tamiyo to die. WotC's anti-human bias also continues to show - why not have one of the random human planeswalkers suffer this fate, I'm sure we have over a dozen of them at this point.
The boring part about an established character (human or not) becoming compleated is that it basically removes all nuance from them. Once they're Phyrexian, they are nothing more than a "doing evil things for the sake of being evil" type of caricature.
Because it wouldn't matter with a new character. Oh look, Kaito got compleated. Zero impact. No one cares. People complained about War of the Spark having no stakes, and this was the response: actual stakes. Now there are complaints in the opposite direction.
I'm going to start by saying I purposefully didn't read the war of the spark novels, but I felt that the deaths shown in war of the spark cards had some emotional or writing pay offs Gideon dying to save Liliana and Domri being killed by a figure he almost worshipped were impactful. There's also a huge difference Tamiyo the character is now dead but we are now stuck with this husk of one of our favorite characters is not full filling in anyway for me.
Domri's death was just him swearing fealty to Bolas from across the Tenth District, then randomly getting desparked for it. The other one died because he let his guard down for half a second, and he didn't even get a card in the set to show for it. That's what people mean by no stakes.
On the one hand, another story arc with a new big bad is kind of neat. On the other, I hate the "oh, this character you loved? They're brainwashed and evil now" thing. I honestly would've preferred Tamiyo to die. WotC's anti-human bias also continues to show - why not have one of the random human planeswalkers suffer this fate, I'm sure we have over a dozen of them at this point.
The boring part about an established character (human or not) becoming compleated is that it basically removes all nuance from them. Once they're Phyrexian, they are nothing more than a "doing evil things for the sake of being evil" type of caricature.
Because it wouldn't matter with a new character. Oh look, Kaito got compleated. Zero impact. No one cares. People complained about War of the Spark having no stakes, and this was the response: actual stakes. Now there are complaints in the opposite direction.
I'm going to start by saying I purposefully didn't read the war of the spark novels, but I felt that the deaths shown in war of the spark cards had some emotional or writing pay offs Gideon dying to save Liliana and Domri being killed by a figure he almost worshipped were impactful. There's also a huge difference Tamiyo the character is now dead but we are now stuck with this husk of one of our favorite characters is not full filling in anyway for me.
Domri's death was just him swearing fealty to Bolas from across the Tenth District, then randomly getting desparked for it. The other one died because he let his guard down for half a second, and he didn't even get a card in the set to show for it. That's what people mean by no stakes.
I do agree Dack got the shaft. I think there are different meaning for stakes. I think there are fans of stories like Game of Thrones who expect death and horrible things to happen to all of their characters. For me death should have meaning even for the villains.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Embrace the dark you call a home,
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
Some characters have plot armor. MOST characters are throwaway and you get overly-attached to them at your peril. She was basically created to check boxes and give us a "Bant PW" because that was novel at the time. I don't think there was much more of a reason than that.
They turned her into "the Watcher" Planeswalker which is similarly boring. Seems to have been entirely in service of this final role for her. (And who's to say they won't just find some silly nonsense reason to just UN-compleat her at the end of the story.)
They can (and will) do whatever they want to because these minor PW characters just serve to advance the five-year storyline plan and very little besides.
Some characters have plot armor. MOST characters are throwaway and you get overly-attached to them at your peril. She was basically created to check boxes and give us a "Bant PW" because that was novel at the time. I don't think there was much more of a reason than that.
They turned her into "the Watcher" Planeswalker which is similarly boring. Seems to have been entirely in service of this final role for her. (And who's to say they won't just find some silly nonsense reason to just UN-compleat her at the end of the story.)
They can (and will) do whatever they want to because these minor PW characters just serve to advance the five-year storyline plan and very little besides.
Um she wasn't created to be a bant planeswalker. Her only bant planeswalker was only made Bant because they had a Jace in the same block. Tamiyo is supposed to be base blue and they have added green and white for color balance reasons. If anything she was created as fan service to Kamigawa fans because at the time they had no intentions of returning to the plane. I would say she is a prominent side character but I wouldn't say she is a throw away character.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Embrace the dark you call a home,
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for toss-up and actually have some arc where they start having consequences for planeswalkers but I have a strange feeling that they're going to just purify the popular planeswalkers by the end of this.
Still though, 8 don't get the complaints of phyrexianing PWs. Makes the whole gatewatch thing fun and maybe a few of them get corrupted themselves.
Well I for one am fine with the recycling/recurring villains theme. The Phyrexians lost, sure but they came back. Bolas lost, sure, but rest assured he'll pop back as soon as Ugin is eventually killed.
Firstly, recurring villains is an important theme in long-running stories. They ground the power of 'evil' in their respective world, and how it cannot be entirely uprooted. The Praetors are a natural successor to Yawgmoth, just like how Sauron was but one to Morgoth. It extends continuity, and prolongs storytelling around branded and franchise-iconic enemies. In this case, Yawgmoth was defeated; Phyrexia was not. Just like how Morgoth was defeated; his servants, not as much.
Second, if they didn't use this trope, they would eventually run out of good villain ideas. Most possible villain tropes are already over-used and chewed up and spat out at us, and if WotC kept exploring new villain ideas we'd eventually (and pretty soon at that) gripe at the other end, of 'this one is just a rip-off of X, and not as good or compelling as Y'.
Third, a story regarding a Multiverse must have multiverse-impacting villains, so each plane having its own standalone story is not really what magic is about. Plots intertwine and worlds collide, at the whims of the same eternal powers that have been there since the dawn of time. The story is good; the storytelling is... probably severely underpaid.
Fourth, and I do not mean to get political, but this is just a real-life, fact-based parallelism. Look at the real world. The Nazis were defeated, after scarring history, the land, and the human race. Still, less than a century later, fascism is on a global rise. History is bound to repeat itself.
Fifth, as far as what characters get the axe first, drama and George Martin recommend starting with the innocent and impactful ones. With how WotC have made us sick of most characters, or how soon it is for some, they didn't have much choice. I like Tamiyo. I like Phyrexia. I don't like what they did to her but story-wise it is a rational next step. Should it overshadow other plotlines and storylines of favorite planes and worlds? I say that is an invasive species' most inherent trait (also that no one likes it when it happens).
Sorry for the rant! I'm grateful to see so many people well-versed in storytelling and worldbuilding! Cheers!
Well I for one am fine with the recycling/recurring villains theme. The Phyrexians lost, sure but they came back. Bolas lost, sure, but rest assured he'll pop back as soon as Ugin is eventually killed.
Firstly, recurring villains is an important theme in long-running stories. They ground the power of 'evil' in their respective world, and how it cannot be entirely uprooted. The Praetors are a natural successor to Yawgmoth, just like how Sauron was but one to Morgoth. It extends continuity, and prolongs storytelling around branded and franchise-iconic enemies. In this case, Yawgmoth was defeated; Phyrexia was not. Just like how Morgoth was defeated; his servants, not as much.
Second, if they didn't use this trope, they would eventually run out of good villain ideas. Most possible villain tropes are already over-used and chewed up and spat out at us, and if WotC kept exploring new villain ideas we'd eventually (and pretty soon at that) gripe at the other end, of 'this one is just a rip-off of X, and not as good or compelling as Y'.
Third, a story regarding a Multiverse must have multiverse-impacting villains, so each plane having its own standalone story is not really what magic is about. Plots intertwine and worlds collide, at the whims of the same eternal powers that have been there since the dawn of time. The story is good; the storytelling is... probably severely underpaid.
Fourth, and I do not mean to get political, but this is just a real-life, fact-based parallelism. Look at the real world. The Nazis were defeated, after scarring history, the land, and the human race. Still, less than a century later, fascism is on a global rise. History is bound to repeat itself.
Fifth, as far as what characters get the axe first, drama and George Martin recommend starting with the innocent and impactful ones. With how WotC have made us sick of most characters, or how soon it is for some, they didn't have much choice. I like Tamiyo. I like Phyrexia. I don't like what they did to her but story-wise it is a rational next step. Should it overshadow other plotlines and storylines of favorite planes and worlds? I say that is an invasive species' most inherent trait (also that no one likes it when it happens).
Sorry for the rant! I'm grateful to see so many people well-versed in storytelling and worldbuilding! Cheers!
Ok to go with your Melkor/Sauron example (which I love it means you are a person of culture). Tolkein actually played with the idea of writing a story about a cult worshipping Sauron invading Gondor from the inside but decided to not write it because he found it "not worth doing". I think why Melkor and Sauron work is because one is an antagonist to the Valar and the free peoples and the other is an antagonist to Middle Earth.
And as for the GRR Martin quote I think it's a reason I don't go for his books. As far as innocence goes anyway. I've never read or watched the tv show but I know enough of the plot that it's not one I would care for.
There are other tropes they can explore though besides Phyrexia. They could have Ob Nixilis be a threat but my guess is he will be a crime lord get beat up by Elspeth and then join phyrexia.
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Embrace the dark you call a home,
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
They should have gone for Elspeth, that would been a very dramatic arc.
So, we got vorinclex last year, and Jin this one, so we might go to new phyrexia or a invasion by them next year? there are only 3 praetors who are independent right?
I always find complaints about bad things happening to popular characters a little silly.
“Why couldn’t it have happened to a character I don’t care about?!”
Because you wouldn’t care. If they only did things you won’t care about then you wouldn’t care about any of it. The reaction they’re getting with this decision is the entire point. You don’t like that this bad thing happened to Tamiyo because you care about the character, which means they did their job correctly.
Back in Shadows block, I wanted Jace to find out Tamiyo had been killed. Let the story revolve around her for a time and then move on. I didn't expect to get anything better. This? Turning my favorite character evil for shock value? It makes me sick to my stomach. If they kill her off because she's a villain now, I'll be livid. I just want this damn storyline to be over already. That's not a sign of good storytelling. There's a massive difference between giving a character an appropriate end and eliciting cheap surprise.
Please, mill me. Mill my important cards. Mill my lands. Mill it all. Because I will still deal 20 damage before you can mill 45 cards most every time.
I would be 50/50 on this. A part of me says "NO!!!!" and a part of me says OK this is interesting. That means many of the Planeswalkers are now on "high alert" on who's next getting the Phyrexian coat of paint on them. Still Koth of the Hammer is still nowhere to be found
Card itself, her two abilities would be quite useful... not so sure about her ultimate. I'm at 50/50 on the compleated mechanic on just dropping her off to get maybe a good card from my graveyard and shick. But let's wait and see what's gonna happen next
I think people are kind of missing the obvious possibility of de-compleation (partial even, say where they regain some of their old personality). Like, whether or not it is actually doable or happens in the story, there is no doubt that the characters will be wondering whether or not they can do it and that gives a whole new element to the story.
Like, this is such a common trope. Character is converted in some way stories always end up exploring to what degree they can be saved, the question even of whether there is more of them still in there than it seems.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if the whole soul connection of a planeswalker spark makes phyrexian planeswalkers more suspectible to regaining their former consciousness. We'll have to see. And therein lies the drama.
Oh, we're well aware. I'm just waiting impatiently for War of the Spark 2 so I can have my favorite character back. Every set that isn't War of the Spark 2 will be less exciting now because more characters I like will inevitably be put on team evil for no reason. I want to get off Mr. Bone's wild ride.
Please, mill me. Mill my important cards. Mill my lands. Mill it all. Because I will still deal 20 damage before you can mill 45 cards most every time.
With any luck at all, War of the Spark 2: Phyrexian Boogaloo will be next year, so we at least don't have to suffer through a few more years of this garbage.
Tamiyo wasn't very interesting before, glad they spiced her up a little bit. Story characters becoming phyrexians is tradition, she follows in the footsteps of Ertai and Crovax.
Like the card a lot, she's got the best ability of Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and two new great abilities to go with it. I quite like the idea of planeswalkers making powerful artifacts that you can interact with instead of making emblems, even if it can be a bit sad to have your book blown up. I like how she can slot into the mana curve pretty flexibly as well.
Also and it must be said; Easily the hottest Tamiyo
A character in a story switching sides is most impactful when you get to see the development that got them there. Maybe there was always something that was pulling them in that direction, and then some turn of events led them further down that path.
But with completion, the development basically amounts to "oh no! they got the 'Phyrexia is awesome' germ!" Their previous motivations etc. play no part, the characters are simply set on a one-way track of helping the evil robot regime. They cared about family before? Well, now the evil robots have become their family! Mwahahaha! Something something Phyrexian oil!
It's ... really boring.
Also, I have to say that while New Phyrexia is more diverse, their ultimate goal isn't all that deep or interesting. It's a "turn everyone into scary robots because we think that's what perfect life looks like" kind of deal with a bit of makeup on top. There's no deeper conflict or drama here, the praetors are still just the typical cackling villains who want to do bad because they think bad is neat.
Well that’s our fault. We buy more product when it’s connected to old stuff.
There's two problems with your logic. One old stuff doesn't equal time in the spotlight and two products like modern horizons don't only rely on nostalgia to sell packs. My problem isn't with past characters appearing in the present. It's that phyrexia had a long stint in the limelight. Tamiyo has been a popular character but when we go to her own homeplane the focus is centered instead on Phyrexia.
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
Like, this is such a common trope. Character is converted in some way stories always end up exploring to what degree they can be saved, the question even of whether there is more of them still in there than it seems.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if the whole soul connection of a planeswalker spark makes phyrexian planeswalkers more suspectible to regaining their former consciousness. We'll have to see. And therein lies the drama.
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Oh absolutely heck during old phyrexia there were 2 phyrexians thay revolted against them and that’s Xantcha, Sleeper Agent and Belbe, Corrupted Observer
so far for new phyrexia era could be tamiyo coming to her senses and remmebering or even getting cured and Urabrask the Hidden
Karn also ditched his phyrexian corruption. I'm sure there will be a few corrupted planeswalkers and most of them will recover.
I'll agree the "suddenly phyrexian" thing is not the greatest storytelling. Yeah, they had the card so the story had to go there, but there were definitely more interesting ways than plopping it in an epilogue. Heck, they spent the whole story fiddling with a piece of Phyrexian technology that they didn't understand...
I'm going to start by saying I purposefully didn't read the war of the spark novels, but I felt that the deaths shown in war of the spark cards had some emotional or writing pay offs Gideon dying to save Liliana and Domri being killed by a figure he almost worshipped were impactful. There's also a huge difference Tamiyo the character is now dead but we are now stuck with this husk of one of our favorite characters is not full filling in anyway for me.
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
I do agree Dack got the shaft. I think there are different meaning for stakes. I think there are fans of stories like Game of Thrones who expect death and horrible things to happen to all of their characters. For me death should have meaning even for the villains.
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
They turned her into "the Watcher" Planeswalker which is similarly boring. Seems to have been entirely in service of this final role for her. (And who's to say they won't just find some silly nonsense reason to just UN-compleat her at the end of the story.)
They can (and will) do whatever they want to because these minor PW characters just serve to advance the five-year storyline plan and very little besides.
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Um she wasn't created to be a bant planeswalker. Her only bant planeswalker was only made Bant because they had a Jace in the same block. Tamiyo is supposed to be base blue and they have added green and white for color balance reasons. If anything she was created as fan service to Kamigawa fans because at the time they had no intentions of returning to the plane. I would say she is a prominent side character but I wouldn't say she is a throw away character.
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
Still though, 8 don't get the complaints of phyrexianing PWs. Makes the whole gatewatch thing fun and maybe a few of them get corrupted themselves.
Firstly, recurring villains is an important theme in long-running stories. They ground the power of 'evil' in their respective world, and how it cannot be entirely uprooted. The Praetors are a natural successor to Yawgmoth, just like how Sauron was but one to Morgoth. It extends continuity, and prolongs storytelling around branded and franchise-iconic enemies. In this case, Yawgmoth was defeated; Phyrexia was not. Just like how Morgoth was defeated; his servants, not as much.
Second, if they didn't use this trope, they would eventually run out of good villain ideas. Most possible villain tropes are already over-used and chewed up and spat out at us, and if WotC kept exploring new villain ideas we'd eventually (and pretty soon at that) gripe at the other end, of 'this one is just a rip-off of X, and not as good or compelling as Y'.
Third, a story regarding a Multiverse must have multiverse-impacting villains, so each plane having its own standalone story is not really what magic is about. Plots intertwine and worlds collide, at the whims of the same eternal powers that have been there since the dawn of time. The story is good; the storytelling is... probably severely underpaid.
Fourth, and I do not mean to get political, but this is just a real-life, fact-based parallelism. Look at the real world. The Nazis were defeated, after scarring history, the land, and the human race. Still, less than a century later, fascism is on a global rise. History is bound to repeat itself.
Fifth, as far as what characters get the axe first, drama and George Martin recommend starting with the innocent and impactful ones. With how WotC have made us sick of most characters, or how soon it is for some, they didn't have much choice. I like Tamiyo. I like Phyrexia. I don't like what they did to her but story-wise it is a rational next step. Should it overshadow other plotlines and storylines of favorite planes and worlds? I say that is an invasive species' most inherent trait (also that no one likes it when it happens).
Sorry for the rant! I'm grateful to see so many people well-versed in storytelling and worldbuilding! Cheers!
Ok to go with your Melkor/Sauron example (which I love it means you are a person of culture). Tolkein actually played with the idea of writing a story about a cult worshipping Sauron invading Gondor from the inside but decided to not write it because he found it "not worth doing". I think why Melkor and Sauron work is because one is an antagonist to the Valar and the free peoples and the other is an antagonist to Middle Earth.
And as for the GRR Martin quote I think it's a reason I don't go for his books. As far as innocence goes anyway. I've never read or watched the tv show but I know enough of the plot that it's not one I would care for.
There are other tropes they can explore though besides Phyrexia. They could have Ob Nixilis be a threat but my guess is he will be a crime lord get beat up by Elspeth and then join phyrexia.
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone
So, we got vorinclex last year, and Jin this one, so we might go to new phyrexia or a invasion by them next year? there are only 3 praetors who are independent right?
Back in Shadows block, I wanted Jace to find out Tamiyo had been killed. Let the story revolve around her for a time and then move on. I didn't expect to get anything better. This? Turning my favorite character evil for shock value? It makes me sick to my stomach. If they kill her off because she's a villain now, I'll be livid. I just want this damn storyline to be over already. That's not a sign of good storytelling. There's a massive difference between giving a character an appropriate end and eliciting cheap surprise.
And I don't recall ever complaining about the stakes being too low in War of the Spark.
Card itself, her two abilities would be quite useful... not so sure about her ultimate. I'm at 50/50 on the compleated mechanic on just dropping her off to get maybe a good card from my graveyard and shick. But let's wait and see what's gonna happen next
Like the card a lot, she's got the best ability of Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and two new great abilities to go with it. I quite like the idea of planeswalkers making powerful artifacts that you can interact with instead of making emblems, even if it can be a bit sad to have your book blown up. I like how she can slot into the mana curve pretty flexibly as well.
Also and it must be said; Easily the hottest Tamiyo