So I saw post by Pleasant Kenobi and it unfortunately makes a lot of sense with some caveats:
“My theory. The Phyrexians are going to win. Completion is MTG's "the Snap" and it will eventually be undone via time travel hijinks. This time travel will cause a new mending where old characters lose their spark - allowing for a refresh and reset for the staple of walkers.”
What if this is just a shrewd use of a known trope called the ‘Cosmic Retcon’? Where the story’s canonical reality is changed to better adhere to what/where the IP’s owner would like to take the story- but can’t because of current cannon?
We know MtG is getting a new Netflix series that doesn’t follow the cannon. We also know that there’s something different about ‘The Aftermath’, both as a set and as story that has unusual ramifications for standard and the Story’s internal ‘multiverse’.
While it could just be the reintroduction of a small set that’s draftible with a main set, I just have this weird feeling that the set might be meant to provide some closure to fans before totally resetting some narrational elements of what we thought we knew.
Inconvenient plotlines or details that the company would rather change or ignore.
I might be wrong but given how convoluted & deep Magic’s past has been, and unpopular some more recent works like the War of the Spark Novels were- I’m suspicious if this isn’t just some means to hand wave stuff the company doesn’t like.
This could be good or bad. I assume that if a cosmic retcon is made, that the changes will be to ensure a more marketable IP. But there are always losers & winners with such potential changes, and sometimes an attempt to make a piece of IP more marketable, or appealing to certain audiences comes at a cost of equity (queer-erasure & Chandra in War of the Spark books); oddity (loss of unpopular characters & settings) and history (destruction of a known body of canon).
What do y’all suspect is the reason behind all these cryptic tidbits of info?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Wizards. listen. The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
Pretty sure that Teferi time-travelling to the Brother's war to find out how to activate the Sylex will be the only time-travel part of the story. I would feel redundant to make it the resolution for everything. That would mean the story would boil down to "Teferi travels into the past for information on the Sylex - Sylex fails - Phyrexians entirely victorious - Teferi goes back in time and stops Phyrexia" which would make half the story useless and the other half entirely illogical (why didn't he START with eradicating New Phyrexia in the past?) and as I said redundant. Think about the storylines whatever you want, but that would be too much even for Wotc to do.
And it would be mighty strange putting two nostalgia-heavy blocks before an entire cosmic retcon that pretty much does away with all previous continuity anyway. Why then two returns afterwards if you want to start brand-new? None of that makes any sense whatsoever. There might be a restructuring of the multiverse similar to the Mending again, but definitely not a cosmic retcon in my opinion.
Yeah it could be like the thanos snap, killing all Phyrexians or something like that.
It could also be used to retcon or explain why events of War of the Spark didn’t happen the way they’re portrayed in the books. Maybe some butterfly effect of time travel- though that would be counter to how we’ve seen time travel work on Tarkir, with serious changes only affecting the plane in question.
If that’s the case they could also use the plot device to explain a new timeline (Netflix series) or why the current timeline is a little bit changed.
I don’t think think the Non-Phyrexization of the settings afterwards means there **won’t** be a cosmic in-lore retcon, but rather it instead suggests that New Phyrexia likely loses or isn’t 100% successful.
The Caverns of Ixalan set however mention the loss of the ‘Sun’ artefact as still being canonical so that is the biggest point against my theory unless some plot points remain the same.
Some other ‘big’ options besides/in addition to a cosmic retcon:
- all/some planes permanently connected via a multiverse tree (allows disparate legendaries to interact like in ‘commander’)
- all/some universes perma connected by a multiverse tree (think ‘Universes Beyond’) yes. I hate this.
- the Spark being changed (allows corporate to meddle with PW powers or roster)
-ordering of the multiverse changed (unpopular planes fading/dying, popular planes more central < Shandalar destroyed, Dominaria’s placement shifts, Ravnica becomes center of the multiverse>)
- maybe it will be the end of the current storyline and the epilogue will be meant to explain what happened to our favourite characters with future sets set in the far future as a soft reboot.
- colour pie or card type/mechanical changes
- Connect canonically the D&D universe and MtG multiverse on account of some deep cosmological screw up (I hope not)
My main point is that if a major change to the multiverse is being hinted at as a plot point- you can ‘bet your butt’ that the reasoning behind the move will be a corporate one, though not necessarily good nor bad as that’s subjective and we don’t have a lot of info yet.
Evidence from the past? The Mending was a way to make godlike planeswalkers grokable and bring the story online with contemporary tastes.
Someone check to see if there’s been any shift or news about Hasbro grand IP plans though, as that might give us a better picture of what could possibly be realigned.
Remember when Fox owned the film rights to the X-Men, while Marvel owned the comic book rights?
- Marvel: No More Mutants/introd of Inhumans/less emphasis on mutants in the Comics
Then Disney eventually acquired both.
Magic isn’t just a story or a card game. It’s a franchise, and we can’t understand how the game and story evolves without taking larger interests into account.
Maybe this is all just in my head, but we Vorthi are often Wizards’ greatest fans and most inconvenient critics. When the company tried to change Chandra’s sexuality in War of the Spark for marketing purposes, the community (vorthi in particular) let the company know that it was an unacceptable change.
Not all change is bad, but we need to be similarly prepared to interrogate the larger interests at play behind any large changes in the future to both the game & story.
My theory is that some past story elements will remain the same, but that the future Netflix series will be deemed ‘canon’ or ‘concurrent’ alongside/over the canon we know & love already. This will aide Hasbro’s possible larger franchise-building goal of keeping both streams consistent, and encouraging consumers to follow both.
Honestly I can totally see it now and now I’m prepared
(No crying/whining about UB allowed from what I’m about to say it’s just a example)
March of machines phyrexians gets a “you should've gone for the hand *snaps fingers*” moment but the. A few sets down the line the heroes reverse the damage and one hero will do the “I…am iron man *snaps fingers*” type of thing
Yeah it could be like the thanos snap, killing all Phyrexians or something like that.
It could also be used to retcon or explain why events of War of the Spark didn’t happen the way they’re portrayed in the books. Maybe some butterfly effect of time travel- though that would be counter to how we’ve seen time travel work on Tarkir, with serious changes only affecting the plane in question.
If that’s the case they could also use the plot device to explain a new timeline (Netflix series) or why the current timeline is a little bit changed.
I don’t think think the Non-Phyrexization of the settings afterwards means there **won’t** be a cosmic in-lore retcon, but rather it instead suggests that New Phyrexia likely loses or isn’t 100% successful.
The Caverns of Ixalan set however mention the loss of the ‘Sun’ artefact as still being canonical so that is the biggest point against my theory unless some plot points remain the same.
Some other ‘big’ options besides/in addition to a cosmic retcon:
- all/some planes permanently connected via a multiverse tree (allows disparate legendaries to interact like in ‘commander’)
- all/some universes perma connected by a multiverse tree (think ‘Universes Beyond’) yes. I hate this.
- the Spark being changed (allows corporate to meddle with PW powers or roster)
-ordering of the multiverse changed (unpopular planes fading/dying, popular planes more central < Shandalar destroyed, Dominaria’s placement shifts, Ravnica becomes center of the multiverse>)
- maybe it will be the end of the current storyline and the epilogue will be meant to explain what happened to our favourite characters with future sets set in the far future as a soft reboot.
- colour pie or card type/mechanical changes
- Connect canonically the D&D universe and MtG multiverse on account of some deep cosmological screw up (I hope not)
My main point is that if a major change to the multiverse is being hinted at as a plot point- you can ‘bet your butt’ that the reasoning behind the move will be a corporate one, though not necessarily good nor bad as that’s subjective and we don’t have a lot of info yet.
Evidence from the past? The Mending was a way to make godlike planeswalkers grokable and bring the story online with contemporary tastes.
Someone check to see if there’s been any shift or news about Hasbro grand IP plans though, as that might give us a better picture of what could possibly be realigned.
Remember when Fox owned the film rights to the X-Men, while Marvel owned the comic book rights?
- Marvel: No More Mutants/introd of Inhumans/less emphasis on mutants in the Comics
Then Disney eventually acquired both.
Magic isn’t just a story or a card game. It’s a franchise, and we can’t understand how the game and story evolves without taking larger interests into account.
Maybe this is all just in my head, but we Vorthi are often Wizards’ greatest fans and most inconvenient critics. When the company tried to change Chandra’s sexuality in War of the Spark for marketing purposes, the community (vorthi in particular) let the company know that it was an unacceptable change.
Not all change is bad, but we need to be similarly prepared to interrogate the larger interests at play behind any large changes in the future to both the game & story.
My theory is that some past story elements will remain the same, but that the future Netflix series will be deemed ‘canon’ or ‘concurrent’ alongside/over the canon we know & love already. This will aide Hasbro’s possible larger franchise-building goal of keeping both streams consistent, and encouraging consumers to follow both.
I think it was when AFR came out that Wizards said that while they weren't currently merging the D&D & MtG multuverses together, it's somthing they would do if folks were open to it, and given both D&D sets made a ton of money and MtG D&D books too, enough folks are open to it.
This sort of connection is a bridge between MtG and D&D that won't require major structuring of either setting, one won't be contained in the other, simply a bridge between them.
This will also make reprinting D&D cards in other sets easier, which was a major problem in the making.
BUT this will NOT extend to UB, they don't want connections to IPs they don't own, that's legal nightmare.
Some folks already think the merging of D&D & MtG already happened.
And the practical value of the Antimending is that it fixes that box that the Mending put the story into.
The Mending created the situation where MtG only had three major villians which their using up quickly. Bolas is used up, by the end of the arc the Phyrexians will need a break, and that leaves just the Eldrazi. That's it, all other big villians are locked to their planes or a minor villians like Tibalt, Oko, etc...,
The Antimending allows say Heliod or Eberios to try and spread their faiths to other worlds, or feinds of Hell to unleash their fury or the undead of Amonkhet to spread to other worlds. This is just a taste of possible story lines the Antimending opens back up.
Basicly the Mending painted the MtG story into a corner, the Antimending is them makinga new doors out of the corner. And a bridge to D&D.
"As to whether the Forgotten Realms are now canonically part of Magic's Multiverse, for now, the answer is no. But we may change our minds in the future if it makes sense and is a fun net positive for Magic and D&D."
That is not something you back out a few sets later with a Hulk snap.
I think we are thinking too hard. The set names and arts seem to tell us everything.
Teferi is in the past watching the [Brothers War] to figure out how to use the Sylex,
in the meantime New Phyrexia will (consolidate, maybe the Urabrask Elspeth story line) (possibly gather more planeswalkers, (only Chandra in the art for MoM)and use the Seedcore Tree to branch to at least a few other planes[All will be One].
The March of the Machines begin the invasions to other planes, heroes fight back in an infinity war, losing until Teferi zaps back in and uses the Sylex.
[Aftermath] Many planeswalkers dead, Phyrexia defeated but the Branches still remain.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Resigned up after getting lost in the Twitch/MTGS whatever crossover
Been on this forum for 10++ years
Playing since '94
I think we are thinking too hard. The set names and arts seem to tell us everything.
Teferi is in the past watching the [Brothers War] to figure out how to use the Sylex,
in the meantime New Phyrexia will (consolidate, maybe the Urabrask Elspeth story line) (possibly gather more planeswalkers, (only Chandra in the art for MoM)and use the Seedcore Tree to branch to at least a few other planes[All will be One].
The March of the Machines begin the invasions to other planes, heroes fight back in an infinity war, losing until Teferi zaps back in and uses the Sylex.
[Aftermath] Many planeswalkers dead, Phyrexia defeated but the Branches still remain.
I still think at least one or more of the branches will link to D&D world/s.
“My theory. The Phyrexians are going to win. Completion is MTG's "the Snap" and it will eventually be undone via time travel hijinks. This time travel will cause a new mending where old characters lose their spark - allowing for a refresh and reset for the staple of walkers.”
https://twitter.com/PleasantKenobi/status/1560954136941793282?s=20&t=qWnM6YczOxUSprRKdgTxDg
What if this is just a shrewd use of a known trope called the ‘Cosmic Retcon’? Where the story’s canonical reality is changed to better adhere to what/where the IP’s owner would like to take the story- but can’t because of current cannon?
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CosmicRetcon
We know MtG is getting a new Netflix series that doesn’t follow the cannon. We also know that there’s something different about ‘The Aftermath’, both as a set and as story that has unusual ramifications for standard and the Story’s internal ‘multiverse’.
https://twitter.com/Jason_IT_NBer/status/1561061900703748098?s=20&t=aieBkPG8qUNYJnqx9vU2dg
While it could just be the reintroduction of a small set that’s draftible with a main set, I just have this weird feeling that the set might be meant to provide some closure to fans before totally resetting some narrational elements of what we thought we knew.
Inconvenient plotlines or details that the company would rather change or ignore.
I might be wrong but given how convoluted & deep Magic’s past has been, and unpopular some more recent works like the War of the Spark Novels were- I’m suspicious if this isn’t just some means to hand wave stuff the company doesn’t like.
This could be good or bad. I assume that if a cosmic retcon is made, that the changes will be to ensure a more marketable IP. But there are always losers & winners with such potential changes, and sometimes an attempt to make a piece of IP more marketable, or appealing to certain audiences comes at a cost of equity (queer-erasure & Chandra in War of the Spark books); oddity (loss of unpopular characters & settings) and history (destruction of a known body of canon).
What do y’all suspect is the reason behind all these cryptic tidbits of info?
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
Eldraine and ixalan are next and they don't look phyrexians are there/invading at all.
by I suppose the ending of “March of the machines” could be like this
https://youtu.be/zWhEgdh0X9c?t=65
and it will be a few sets to do what happened Later on
And it would be mighty strange putting two nostalgia-heavy blocks before an entire cosmic retcon that pretty much does away with all previous continuity anyway. Why then two returns afterwards if you want to start brand-new? None of that makes any sense whatsoever. There might be a restructuring of the multiverse similar to the Mending again, but definitely not a cosmic retcon in my opinion.
It could also be used to retcon or explain why events of War of the Spark didn’t happen the way they’re portrayed in the books. Maybe some butterfly effect of time travel- though that would be counter to how we’ve seen time travel work on Tarkir, with serious changes only affecting the plane in question.
If that’s the case they could also use the plot device to explain a new timeline (Netflix series) or why the current timeline is a little bit changed.
I don’t think think the Non-Phyrexization of the settings afterwards means there **won’t** be a cosmic in-lore retcon, but rather it instead suggests that New Phyrexia likely loses or isn’t 100% successful.
The Caverns of Ixalan set however mention the loss of the ‘Sun’ artefact as still being canonical so that is the biggest point against my theory unless some plot points remain the same.
Some other ‘big’ options besides/in addition to a cosmic retcon:
- all/some planes permanently connected via a multiverse tree (allows disparate legendaries to interact like in ‘commander’)
- all/some universes perma connected by a multiverse tree (think ‘Universes Beyond’) yes. I hate this.
- the Spark being changed (allows corporate to meddle with PW powers or roster)
-ordering of the multiverse changed (unpopular planes fading/dying, popular planes more central < Shandalar destroyed, Dominaria’s placement shifts, Ravnica becomes center of the multiverse>)
- maybe it will be the end of the current storyline and the epilogue will be meant to explain what happened to our favourite characters with future sets set in the far future as a soft reboot.
- colour pie or card type/mechanical changes
- Connect canonically the D&D universe and MtG multiverse on account of some deep cosmological screw up (I hope not)
My main point is that if a major change to the multiverse is being hinted at as a plot point- you can ‘bet your butt’ that the reasoning behind the move will be a corporate one, though not necessarily good nor bad as that’s subjective and we don’t have a lot of info yet.
Evidence from the past? The Mending was a way to make godlike planeswalkers grokable and bring the story online with contemporary tastes.
Someone check to see if there’s been any shift or news about Hasbro grand IP plans though, as that might give us a better picture of what could possibly be realigned.
Remember when Fox owned the film rights to the X-Men, while Marvel owned the comic book rights?
- Marvel: No More Mutants/introd of Inhumans/less emphasis on mutants in the Comics
Then Disney eventually acquired both.
Magic isn’t just a story or a card game. It’s a franchise, and we can’t understand how the game and story evolves without taking larger interests into account.
Maybe this is all just in my head, but we Vorthi are often Wizards’ greatest fans and most inconvenient critics. When the company tried to change Chandra’s sexuality in War of the Spark for marketing purposes, the community (vorthi in particular) let the company know that it was an unacceptable change.
Not all change is bad, but we need to be similarly prepared to interrogate the larger interests at play behind any large changes in the future to both the game & story.
My theory is that some past story elements will remain the same, but that the future Netflix series will be deemed ‘canon’ or ‘concurrent’ alongside/over the canon we know & love already. This will aide Hasbro’s possible larger franchise-building goal of keeping both streams consistent, and encouraging consumers to follow both.
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
(No crying/whining about UB allowed from what I’m about to say it’s just a example)
March of machines phyrexians gets a “you should've gone for the hand *snaps fingers*” moment but the. A few sets down the line the heroes reverse the damage and one hero will do the “I…am iron man *snaps fingers*” type of thing
I think it was when AFR came out that Wizards said that while they weren't currently merging the D&D & MtG multuverses together, it's somthing they would do if folks were open to it, and given both D&D sets made a ton of money and MtG D&D books too, enough folks are open to it.
This sort of connection is a bridge between MtG and D&D that won't require major structuring of either setting, one won't be contained in the other, simply a bridge between them.
This will also make reprinting D&D cards in other sets easier, which was a major problem in the making.
BUT this will NOT extend to UB, they don't want connections to IPs they don't own, that's legal nightmare.
Some folks already think the merging of D&D & MtG already happened.
And the practical value of the Antimending is that it fixes that box that the Mending put the story into.
The Mending created the situation where MtG only had three major villians which their using up quickly. Bolas is used up, by the end of the arc the Phyrexians will need a break, and that leaves just the Eldrazi. That's it, all other big villians are locked to their planes or a minor villians like Tibalt, Oko, etc...,
The Antimending allows say Heliod or Eberios to try and spread their faiths to other worlds, or feinds of Hell to unleash their fury or the undead of Amonkhet to spread to other worlds. This is just a taste of possible story lines the Antimending opens back up.
Basicly the Mending painted the MtG story into a corner, the Antimending is them makinga new doors out of the corner. And a bridge to D&D.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/magics-voyages-universes-beyond-2021-02-25
"As to whether the Forgotten Realms are now canonically part of Magic's Multiverse, for now, the answer is no. But we may change our minds in the future if it makes sense and is a fun net positive for Magic and D&D."
That is not something you back out a few sets later with a Hulk snap.
Looks like that future is 2023.
Teferi is in the past watching the [Brothers War] to figure out how to use the Sylex,
in the meantime New Phyrexia will (consolidate, maybe the Urabrask Elspeth story line) (possibly gather more planeswalkers, (only Chandra in the art for MoM)and use the Seedcore Tree to branch to at least a few other planes[All will be One].
The March of the Machines begin the invasions to other planes, heroes fight back in an infinity war, losing until Teferi zaps back in and uses the Sylex.
[Aftermath] Many planeswalkers dead, Phyrexia defeated but the Branches still remain.
Been on this forum for 10++ years
Playing since '94
I still think at least one or more of the branches will link to D&D world/s.