Ever wonder what a thallid actually is? Curious about where those mushroom things came from? What could they be up to with their spore counters and saprolings? Today SEV8 gives a Vorthos history lesson on Dominaria's funky fungus folk, from Thelon to Slimefoot and everything in between.
Welcome back to Archive Trap, the unofficial guide to Magic: the Gathering. Today we continue our discussion of the Ice Age, the period of time that began when Urza caused the Sylex Blast at the end of The Brothers' War which led to huge ecological upheaval on Dominaria. It also created the Shard of Twelve Worlds, a magical barrier that prevented travel — by planeswalking or portal — in or out. The Ice Age ended with Freyalise's casting of the World Spell, bringing down the magical barrier. In Part I, we talked about the period known as The Dark, and a very brief overview of the Fallen Empires. In Part II, we talked about the end of the Ice Age, ending with the World Spell and the beginning of the Thaw. Today we take you to the middle of that Thaw, to a time of great upheaval. Soon, Urza's private war with Phyrexia will reignite on Dominaria, but we are not quite there yet.
Welcome back to Archive Trap, the unofficial guide to Magic: the Gathering. Today we continue our discussion of The Ice Age, the period of time that began when Urza caused the Sylex Blast at the end of The Brothers’ War which caused huge ecological upheaval on Dominaria. It also created the Shard of Twelve Worlds, a magical barrier that prevented travel - by planeswalking or portal - in or out of the shard. The Ice Age ends with Freyalise’s casting of the World Spell, bringing down the magical barrier and thawing out the world. In Part I, we talked about the Fallen Empires and the Dark, both of which took place before the cold truly settled in. In Part II, we are going to dig into the Ice Age proper, with a lengthy summary of The Eternal Ice and the old Armada Comics. I have to say, before delving into this topic, the Ice Age was a period I knew the least about, and once I dug in I'm finding it's my favorite era of Dominarian history.
Welcome back to Archive Trap, the unofficial guide to Magic: the Gathering. Today we start our discussion of The Ice Age, the period of time that began when Urza caused the Sylex Blast at the end of The Brothers' War which resulted in huge ecological upheaval on Dominaria. It also created the Shard of Twelve Worlds, a magical barrier that prevented travel - by planeswalk or portal - in or out. The Ice Age ends with Freyalise's casting of the World Spell, bringing down that magical barrier. For today, we will focus on the period between the Sylex Blast and the Ice Age proper, a time known as The Dark.
The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering
Join us as we turn the clock back a decade, to the series that inspired Archive Trap. Remember the Weatherlight, written by Shannon Rezendes, was first published on MTGS way back in 2005. Her five(ish) part series explored the history of the Weatherlight Saga, both from a real-world perspective and as a part of the lore. Shannon has kindly given us permission to reprint her articles as a series of guest Archive Traps so that a new generation of Magic fans can enjoy it. Today we bring you Part 5c of that story. Please note that this article has been modified from its original version, to be brought up to date with formatting and style changes since it was originally published. You can find the original version here. You can also read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5a, and Part 5b.
This article picks up directly after Part 5b, when Urza and Gerrard kneel before Yawgmoth.
The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering
Join us as we turn the clock back a decade, to the series that inspired Archive Trap. Remember the Weatherlight, written by Shannon Rezendes, was first published on MTGS way back in 2005. Her five(ish) part series explored the history of the Weatherlight Saga, both from a real-world perspective and as a part of the lore. Shannon has kindly given us permission to reprint her articles as a series of guest Archive Traps so that a new generation of Magic fans can enjoy it. Today we bring you Part 5b of that story. Please note that this article has been modified from its original version, to be brought up to date with formatting and style changes since it was originally published. You can find the original version here.
The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering
Join us as we turn the clock back a decade, to the series that inspired Archive Trap. Remember the Weatherlight, written by Shannon Rezendes, was first published on MTGS way back in 2005. Her five(ish) part series explored the history of the Weatherlight Saga, both from a real-world perspective and as a part of the lore. Shannon has kindly given us permission to reprint her articles as a series of guest Archive Traps so that a new generation of Magic fans can enjoy it. Today we bring you Part 3 of that story. You can also catch up on Part 1 and Part 2.
The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering
Join us as we turn the clock back a decade, to the series that inspired Archive Trap. Remember the Weatherlight, written by Shannon Rezendes, was first published on MTGS way back in 2005. Her five(ish) part series explored the history of the Weatherlight Saga, both from a real-world perspective and as a part of the lore. Shannon has kindly given us permission to reprint her articles as a series of guest Archive Traps so that a new generation of Magic fans can enjoy it. Today we bring you Part 2 of that story. Part 1 is available here.
The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering
Join us as we turn the clock back a decade, to the series that inspired Archive Trap. Remember the Weatherlight, written by Shannon Rezendes, was first published on MTGS way back in 2005. Her five(ish) part series explored the history of the Weatherlight Saga, both from a real-world perspective and as a part of the lore. Shannon has kindly given us permission to reprint her articles as a series of guest Archive Traps so that a new generation of Magic fans can enjoy it. In Part 1 of Remember the Weatherlight, Shannon delves into what the state of Magic lore was like almost 20 years ago. We will be preserving the articles as much as possible as they originally appeared, with any more recent additions by our team in brackets.
The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering
Today we continue our coverage of one of the most important events in Magic’s history. The Brothers' War is an event that ended with the devastation of a plane, the birth of the Ice Age and the ascension of Urza Planeswalker. This is the event that would define the rest of Urza's life and shape his personal war with Phyrexia for millenia to come. During Part I, we talked about the continent of Terisiare and the Brothers' lives as young men. Now we return to the brothers after they've both had major upheaval in their lives and have finally ascend to postions of power.
The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering
Today we rewind the clock way back to cover one of the most important events in Magic’s history, and to start us on a path as we explore the pre-mending world of Magic: the Gathering. The Brothers' War is an event that ended with the devastation of a plane, the birth of the Ice Age, and the ascension of Urza Planeswalker. This is the event that defined the rest of Urza's life and shaped his personal war with Phyrexia for millennia to come.
The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering
Welcome to Archive Trap, the unofficial story column for all things Magic: The Gathering! In this installment, we talk about Liliana and Garruk, a tale about the Chain Veil and its curse, but one that also encompasses Jace Beleren, Ob Nixilis and Nicol Bolas! Liliana was supposed to get her own planeswalker novel in 2010, but that book was cancelled and its material presumably repurposed for the Liliana stories we’ve been drip fed over the last five years. As always, we encourage you to read the source material for whatever we mention here. Every story mentioned is either available for free online or purchasable as an e-book.
(Opened for July 22, 2015)
I’m writing this while on assignment somewhere in Vietnam, where I have very limited internet access. Since I’ll be posting this (and most of the stuff while I write here) in one whole batch by the time I get back, I decided to just write about one card every other day.
Anyway, with Magic Origins being the last “core set”, we might as well expect that it would be a long time before Wizards would release a set that references more than one plane in the Multiverse. Plane-specific cards like Llanowar Wastes will probably have a harder time of becoming Standard-legal from this point forward, and will only be reprinted if we ever visit that plane again. Will Wizards ever let us planeswalk back to Dominaria again?
(Continued from here)
It took me a while to process this, but I soon learned that even if the cards would get cheaper, they also would eventually become harder to find, especially if I’m looking for cards that were no longer reprinted. I didn’t really have a solid play group that I could trade with back then, and I relied solely on the secondary market provided by local hobby stores. I never really thought about trading online or checking out online stores in the internet back then. I probably would have completed either (or both) sets had I known what I know now.
I decided to keep trying during the Time Spiral block. Because of the number of “time-shifted” cards included in the set, it remains to be the block with the most number of cards in the history of Magic. The Time Spiral block was filled with heaps of nostalgic references to old Magic cards more than a decade past. The set made me a lot more ambitious, as it inspired me to collect not just cards from the block, but also the old cards that each one was connected to. The fact that Opal Guardian is a actually reference to two old cards (Abbey Gargoyles and Opal Gargoyle) is hardly known to a lot of players, and I wanted my collection to showcase that kind of trivia.
(To be continued)
