March of the Machine shows he makes it back, but this keep him from going to New Phyrexia which is a huge lost
-Jace, Nissa, Kaya, Elspeth, Vraska, Wanderer, Kaito, Tyvar, Nahiri and Lukka are going to Phyrexia to try and stop the world tree. IMO and from the hints in the All will be one product page likely one if not more, will not make out un-oiled.
-Chandra, Wrenn and Liliana are staying behind as back up and are also helping Jodah.
-Sorin and Arlinn are setting up defenses on Innistrad
-Samut, Hazoret and the people of Amonkhet have gone into hiding.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
These stories were great, loved the length and quality of both the Past and Current chapters. It was a little harder for me to connect with the Past chapters not showing main characters, but I did enjoy seeing the Bro War retold and refreshed. The Current chapters def made the walkers feel real, and loved all the little callbacks and Vorthos easter eggs.
Today's main Teferi story was fantastic, def handling time travel well and providing us with a great Teferi and Urza scene.
As for the Epilogue
I def think Teferi ended up on Zhalfir at the end. His mind is cast thru time and unconsciously winds up on Zhalfir, kinda like Jace ending up on Ixalan after Bolas and Amonkhet. Teferi's body "fading" in the Temporal Anchor is prob actually phasing to catch up with his mind and spirit.
For Nissa's story, I liked her more than usual, she's far from tree-huggy in this one. She's downright dark at points and loved the "be the hand that moves" reference to keep her motivated. I def think we'll see her make hard decisions about compleated walkers; I don't think she'll show mercy thanks to Gaea's memories, but we shall see.
Over all, def excited to see more of the Phyrexian arc, and just how many of the assembled walkers will make it out alive.
Overall, the quality of stories is above the past few sets, and the sense of desperation reminds me of War of the Spark, which was excellently done.
And I'm glad they didn't spare any foreshadowing here: Sylex might end up destroying Mirrodin and everything on it, and one person will die to make it happen.
Though I'm concerned about Angrath's absence. Will he be compleated as many had theorized?
Will PWs like Aminatou and Estrid show up too? What about Calix? (Likely guarding Therod)
Seems like Elspeth is gonna be the one to set off the Sylex. She has enough emotional baggage to activate and the foreshadowing of her being "scary" to Elesh Norn
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When Nissa described the warm, itchy blood of the Phyrexia covering her hand, I got worried. But I dunno if Gaea would let her vessel fall so soon after choosing her…right…?
As for Elspeth, I think she’ll set off the Cylex at the last second, with Elesh Norn there and about to strike Elspeth down, but through some kind of shenanigans, it’ll be revealed as the Cylex erupts that she and Elesh Norn - who fears Elspeth on a visceral, instinctual level because some part of Norn remembers this - were once one person who was artificially sundered and thought dead: a beloved Oldwalker named Serra, who will be reborn in the aftermath of the devastation of Mirrodin/New Phyrexia the way Bolas was HOPING to be on Ravnica…
As for Elspeth, I think she’ll set off the Cylex at the last second, with Elesh Norn there and about to strike Elspeth down, but through some kind of shenanigans, it’ll be revealed as the Cylex erupts that she and Elesh Norn - who fears Elspeth on a visceral, instinctual level because some part of Norn remembers this - were once one person who was artificially sundered and thought dead: a beloved Oldwalker named Serra, who will be reborn in the aftermath of the devastation of Mirrodin/New Phyrexia the way Bolas was HOPING to be on Ravnica…
that’s my random shot in the dark theory!
Yeah... that's a bit wonky to me, as much as I would love it (the Serra part).
But I don't know... I have the vibes that they want to keep Elspeth in the roster (unless they are planning to move on with the other white aligned walkers we have like Basri and Teyo...). Wait... does Elspeth have a chance to be some sort of God in Theros?
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It’s admittedly wonky, but reading the stories with Elesh and Elspeth lately, it feels a bit like a ‘They’re two halves of one person’ trope. Like Elesh is Elspeth’s Tyler Durden (or Vice versa?), but made ‘real’ somehow.
Nicely made, but sadly it seems again like it doesn't match up to the stories we've been given. Instead of Elspeth and the other PWs holding off a Phyrexian Siege while Teferi, Saheeli, and Kaya do their best "Days of Future Past" re-enactment with the Temporal Anchor, we get Teferi leisurely walking to the tower, avoiding a lone sleeper by basically walking around it, and then getting into a solo duel with Ajani (who is at the tower instead of being on NP , as per the story) before calmly tossing a powerstone into a portal machine and disappearing. No mention of any other PWs or, oddly, the Brothers War AT ALL.
Not to say it looks bad at all, and truthfully would have been a fine little story beat takng place between DU and BRO, but as it is, it's jarringly out of place. Not surprising to see an apparent lack of communication between the written stories and the rest of the product, considering their track record, but annoying and disappointing nonetheless.
Nicely made, but sadly it seems again like it doesn't match up to the stories we've been given. Instead of Elspeth and the other PWs holding off a Phyrexian Siege while Teferi, Saheeli, and Kaya do their best "Days of Future Past" re-enactment with the Temporal Anchor, we get Teferi leisurely walking to the tower, avoiding a lone sleeper by basically walking around it, and then getting into a solo duel with Ajani (who is at the tower instead of being on NP , as per the story) before calmly tossing a powerstone into a portal machine and disappearing. No mention of any other PWs or, oddly, the Brothers War AT ALL.
Not to say it looks bad at all, and truthfully would have been a fine little story beat takng place between DU and BRO, but as it is, it's jarringly out of place. Not surprising to see an apparent lack of communication between the written stories and the rest of the product, considering their track record, but annoying and disappointing nonetheless.
definitely agree the trailers good but felt way out of place since it doesn't match the DMU story
Not to say it looks bad at all, and truthfully would have been a fine little story beat taking place between DU and BRO...
That is apparently the intention, this happens between DU and BRO.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
with all the old-time references being thrown to us by armfuls, do anyone else has the feeling that Wizards want to kind of satisfy every last Vorthos who liked to see the old stories again, reimagined in modern coat?
Yes, there are still some leftovers, but with the Weatherlight crew almost redone, with Legends II in the boxtoppers, and now with Brothers' War, with Urza Friggin' Planeswalker in his full power in a flavor perfect solution (Not to mention Mishra), even with the Thran era adressed with Rebbec, Glacian and Yawgmoth, there is not much. It is a nice gift for the 30th anniversary, but at the same time, I have a feeling of something like a big reboot coming with the "Infinity War/Endgame" climax of the Phyrexia arc... a definite farewell to the old history and its restrictions that the silly old geezers comment on.
Is it just me?
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A few of my own speculations and thoughts to your post;
Well, with all the old-time references being thrown to us by armfuls, do anyone else has the feeling that Wizards want to kind of satisfy every last Vorthos who liked to see the old stories again, reimagined in modern coat?
Yes, there are still some leftovers, but with the Weatherlight crew almost redone, with Legends II in the boxtoppers, and now with Brothers' War, with Urza Friggin' Planeswalker in his full power in a flavor perfect solution (Not to mention Mishra), even with the Thran era adressed with Rebbec, Glacian and Yawgmoth, there is not much. It is a nice gift for the 30th anniversary
Yes, IIRC wizards has said its a goal for them to try to get all the old characters who never got cards (or those who got subpar cards) to get a new modern refresh and I feel like with the 30th anniversary they are taking a perfect chance to cram a lot of those legends in. The set "Brother's War" was gonna be a side set but I like how they worked it into the current story as a time travel story and let it get more focus.
but at the same time, I have a feeling of something like a big reboot coming with the "Infinity War/Endgame" climax of the Phyrexia arc... a definite farewell to the old history and its restrictions that the silly old geezers comment on.
I have had a similar thought. The fact they said MoM and Aftermath will shake up the multiverse like the mending did makes me wonder if we won't see a soft reboot of the story. We will have followed the "gatewatch cast"* since 2007/2008 (depends on if you count Lorwyn or Alara as the start), so 16/17 years in 2023 when MoM hits. I don't think we will see as huge of a change as they said how they regret somewhat not carrying over some characters and stories from pre-mending sooner, but with likely the multiverse somewhat connected after MoM that might change what characters they focus on as planeswalkers might not be the only planar travelers or have some of the major characters "retire" and we only see them here and there.
Gatewatch cast= the post mending characters as most of if not all of the story involved a gatewatch member or story touched on the gatewatch members.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I hope its something manageable like simply connecting the planes via Realmbreaker. To completely reboot would negate all the vorthos-goodwill they're trying to raise.
Teferi landed in a Dungeons & Dragons realm. That’s my theory.
Realm-breaker and/or the solution to Realmbreaker is going to connect not only the multiverse, but also the magic the gathering multiverse and ‘whatever-the-D&D-equivalent-is’.
That’s the reason for their catchphrase:
Universes Beyond, and Universes Within.
They are trying to create an in-universe and canonical reason for not only popular planes/planebound characters to interact with one another, but also characters from D&D, ?Un-multiverse (silver-bordered) and- (on an extremely rare-basis) other franchises that might not even be owned by hasbro/WotC.
That way- corporate gets what it wants, without players turning their noses up saying “that’s not a Magic card” or committing ‘gatekeeping’ as they call it.
The story-team has been given a mandate to make it so that- canonically, Jace, Teferi & Vraska can meet up with Ellywick Tumblestrum from the Forgotten Realms and- hypothetically, characters and things from other IP as well.
in game at least.
This is all just my speculation. Hasbro has financial incentives to *expose their customers into other kinds of products.
Hasbro and their partners also have an incentive to team up together, and sell/expose one-another’s fan bases to their respective franchises. The Witcher fans to MTG, MTG fans to The Witcher.
We should soon expect mainline sets to not always connect to MtG’s ‘story’, as Hasbro/other companies will either pay or be paid to expose one another’s audiences to each other’s respective IP.
A Smash Bros. Brawl mega-multiverse if you will where really anything could happen.
It reminds me of something a media & communications prof once explained to a class- how in our current system, a targeted population of consumers (or their digital spaces at least) are sold as products to interested corporations, rather than a corporation’s products to interested consumers.
Players and mtg fans more broadly are going to have to get used to the idea that yes, Megatron is not only in their game but also- canonically, there’s no reason Teferi couldn’t ever meet him because the MtG multiverse now connects to ALL the multiverses and universes.
This makes everything potentially canonical and possible- all at once. It’s a clever and daring ploy really, but I’m not actually sure MtG players are going to react positively to it.
~
It’s one thing to endure through an entire set/standard environment with creative themes/mechanics that- while uninteresting to you are still made with Magic’s IP and creative in mind.
But would you or I have the same kind of patience for a standard environment where one (or more) sets are routinely based around another franchise entirely?
~
Maybe “The Witcher” IP-owners have done some market research, where 20% of non-exposed MtG fans become interested in “The Witcher” franchise after some exposure.
Maybe they & Hasbro can strike out a deal to get a set in that’s all about the Witcher.
~
Sure, some Vorthos fans might protest, but that’s who the new ‘mtg-show-that-nobody-has-any-updates-on is for, or is being catered towards.
“Y’see that product, this product ‘is for you’ vorthos.”
Your one of the gatekeepers for universe beyond aren’t you.
I’m OrzhovPlaneswalker. I’ve been active in this forum for years. You know me, and I like to think that I’ve built enough of a reputation in my conduct that people might give myself some benefit of the doubt.
IMO- I t’s no more gatekeeping than not wanting your mashed potatoes too close with your garden salad, or not wanting to see Mario in your Resident Evil sequel.
Either way, I don’t know that I qualify, as I’ve yet to stop or refuse a game because of the matter. I just rarely play anymore in events or settings where I think the cards show up.
While it sucks, I accept that it’s all self-imposed. I don’t hate the players who enjoy the Universes Beyond cards, but I also don’t feel obligated to agree that the policy is healthy for the game overall- particularly its story.
~
Nowadays I largely only play with a few close friends or newbies wanting to learn mtg but without any cards themselves.
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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
I enjoyed these stories. If they keep up this quality I might drop my scepticism about how they'll handle MoM, heh.
It had a rocky start though. In the first side story (why are those the side stories and the fill-in-the-blanks of the war the main stories???) they talked about mobilizing the planes? Mobilizing for what? As far as anyone knows there is no possibility to move the fight to New Phyrexia except through planeswalkers. What exactly are they mobilizing? Warning of a coming threat, sure. Building up defenses, maybe. But mobilizing? It makes no sense. Even so, as far as anyone knew at that point New Phyrexia only had the planar bridge as a means to invade. The sane decision would have been to hunt down Tezzeret as he is the greatest threat to the multiverse right now, instead they completely ignore him and do something else instead, that as far as anyone is concerned at that moment, doesn't help them at all.
And then Kaya figured out the whole Realmbreaker deal with barely any information to go on. It's like everyone has read the script. And the worst part is that this is completely unnecessary if you just did it to move the story along. Urabrask could have easily supplied this information. Esika could have confirmed that Vorinclex stole essence from the world tree. Even if they didn't trust Urabrask, there is enough to go on to come to the conclusion naturally, instead of just going "There was a phyrexian praetor on Kaldheim, and Kaldheim has a world tree, therefore this can mean only one thing." BLEH
It was largely good from there though, just a bad start. It's just frustrating because it could have been so easily avoided and rewritten using the same amount of words if not less.
- Seems Norn is already sending her troops, since these are clearly white phyrexians unlike the previous story's
Which raises the question... How? All the phyrexians currently have is the Planar Bridge which evaporates all organic tissue. Sheoldred had to build up her forces with the help of Rona for some time. How are white phyrexians suddenly here.
It already strains credulity that Sheoldred can raise an army that not only threatens the Gatewatch's base of operations but all of Dominaria? Enough to spread the worldsoul thin? In a matter of what? Months? Years?
But not only that but white phyrexians somehow made it there? After Sheoldred has left Dominaria no less?
It had a rocky start though. In the first side story (why are those the side stories and the fill-in-the-blanks of the war the main stories???) they talked about mobilizing the planes? Mobilizing for what? As far as anyone knows there is no possibility to move the fight to New Phyrexia except through planeswalkers. What exactly are they mobilizing? Warning of a coming threat, sure. Building up defenses, maybe. But mobilizing? It makes no sense.
I think they mean both raise defense and mobilize for war. Each planes is likely both getting ready in case they get invaded as well as forming their own version of the Coalition if there is already enough phyrexian discovered.
]But not only that but white phyrexians somehow made it there? After Sheoldred has left Dominaria no less?.
The New Capenna story has Tezzeret state he's been dropping troops off at certain planes as well as the praetors.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
It had a rocky start though. In the first side story (why are those the side stories and the fill-in-the-blanks of the war the main stories???) they talked about mobilizing the planes? Mobilizing for what? As far as anyone knows there is no possibility to move the fight to New Phyrexia except through planeswalkers. What exactly are they mobilizing? Warning of a coming threat, sure. Building up defenses, maybe. But mobilizing? It makes no sense.
I think they mean both raise defense and mobilize for war. Each planes is likely both getting ready in case they get invaded as well as forming their own version of the Coalition if there is already enough phyrexian discovered.
Sure ... this makes sense if you think of the MtG story as "just" a side thing to a card game that people shouldn't have too high expectations towards (I'd agree with that). It's necessary to move the story along to keep up with the breakneck set release schedule. Still, ignoring that context for a bit and judging the story purely as a stand-alone thing, it does seem a bit absurd that whole planes have been mobilized to fight in a war against some opponent that most people living there have never even seen.
It had a rocky start though. In the first side story (why are those the side stories and the fill-in-the-blanks of the war the main stories???) they talked about mobilizing the planes? Mobilizing for what? As far as anyone knows there is no possibility to move the fight to New Phyrexia except through planeswalkers. What exactly are they mobilizing? Warning of a coming threat, sure. Building up defenses, maybe. But mobilizing? It makes no sense.
I think they mean both raise defense and mobilize for war. Each planes is likely both getting ready in case they get invaded as well as forming their own version of the Coalition if there is already enough phyrexian discovered.
Sure ... this makes sense if you think of the MtG story as "just" a side thing to a card game that people shouldn't have too high expectations towards (I'd agree with that). It's necessary to move the story along to keep up with the breakneck set release schedule. Still, ignoring that context for a bit and judging the story purely as a stand-alone thing, it does seem a bit absurd that whole planes have been mobilized to fight in a war against some opponent that most people living there have never even seen.
I'm not sure it is THAT absurd, seeing as we don't really know whether they literally meant "the whole plane" was mobilized. Seems much more likely that they meant "all the people we could reach on a certain plane believed us and are trying to rally as many forces as possible". And many of the named planes could actually conceivably be mobilized for the most part: Ravnica makes sense (seeing that it has dealt with an interplanar invader before and has a central government that could ready the whole plane in Niv-Mizzet and the guilds), Kaldheim is a plane defined by its dealings with inter-realm conflicts (and consists of a bunch of realms with fighting-capable populations) so they probably believe stories about invaders from other, previously unknown realms, Kaladesh's new government includes the mother of a planeswalker and has scientists and engineers who have personally worked on interplanar technology... the list goes on. Only Ixalan is very questionable, since it doesn't have any experience with planeswalkers and doesn't have a unified government. Maybe this was shorthand for Huatli and Vraska being able to convince the River Heralds, the Sun Empire and the Brazen Coalition respectively of the danger? I agree that this leaves out some crucial details, which is still the case because of the relative brevity of MtGs story articles, but I don't find all of that too unbelievable (unless taken very literally).
Still, ignoring that context for a bit and judging the story purely as a stand-alone thing, it does seem a bit absurd that whole planes have been mobilized to fight in a war against some opponent that most people living there have never even seen.
I didn't really take it as whole planes being mobilized, just what the walkers involved in this can muster. Tyvar likely has his brother and the elves prepared, Kaya/Jace/Vraska getting ravnica guides ect.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I'm curious to see what they mean when they said "Hazoret and the people of Amonkhet went into hiding". Hiding where? The rest of the plane is basically infested by undead anyways, the phyrexians are the least of their concerns right now.
I'm curious to see what they mean when they said "Hazoret and the people of Amonkhet went into hiding". Hiding where? The rest of the plane is basically infested by undead anyways, the phyrexians are the least of their concerns right now.
I'd guess using the Hekma to hide Naktamun and hoping that when/if the phyrexia invade they just find undead and desert.
On topic from the reprint of Sphinx's Revelation it looks like Samut and Basri have met, was wondering if they had yet.
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-Teferi is lost in time
-Jace, Nissa, Kaya, Elspeth, Vraska, Wanderer, Kaito, Tyvar, Nahiri and Lukka are going to Phyrexia to try and stop the world tree. IMO and from the hints in the All will be one product page likely one if not more, will not make out un-oiled.
-Chandra, Wrenn and Liliana are staying behind as back up and are also helping Jodah.
-Sorin and Arlinn are setting up defenses on Innistrad
-Samut, Hazoret and the people of Amonkhet have gone into hiding.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Today's main Teferi story was fantastic, def handling time travel well and providing us with a great Teferi and Urza scene.
As for the Epilogue
I def think Teferi ended up on Zhalfir at the end. His mind is cast thru time and unconsciously winds up on Zhalfir, kinda like Jace ending up on Ixalan after Bolas and Amonkhet. Teferi's body "fading" in the Temporal Anchor is prob actually phasing to catch up with his mind and spirit.
For Nissa's story, I liked her more than usual, she's far from tree-huggy in this one. She's downright dark at points and loved the "be the hand that moves" reference to keep her motivated. I def think we'll see her make hard decisions about compleated walkers; I don't think she'll show mercy thanks to Gaea's memories, but we shall see.
Over all, def excited to see more of the Phyrexian arc, and just how many of the assembled walkers will make it out alive.
And I'm glad they didn't spare any foreshadowing here: Sylex might end up destroying Mirrodin and everything on it, and one person will die to make it happen.
Though I'm concerned about Angrath's absence. Will he be compleated as many had theorized?
Will PWs like Aminatou and Estrid show up too? What about Calix? (Likely guarding Therod)
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As for Elspeth, I think she’ll set off the Cylex at the last second, with Elesh Norn there and about to strike Elspeth down, but through some kind of shenanigans, it’ll be revealed as the Cylex erupts that she and Elesh Norn - who fears Elspeth on a visceral, instinctual level because some part of Norn remembers this - were once one person who was artificially sundered and thought dead: a beloved Oldwalker named Serra, who will be reborn in the aftermath of the devastation of Mirrodin/New Phyrexia the way Bolas was HOPING to be on Ravnica…
that’s my random shot in the dark theory!
Yeah... that's a bit wonky to me, as much as I would love it (the Serra part).
But I don't know... I have the vibes that they want to keep Elspeth in the roster (unless they are planning to move on with the other white aligned walkers we have like Basri and Teyo...). Wait... does Elspeth have a chance to be some sort of God in Theros?
And I don’t hate it…if they pull it off.
https://youtu.be/L2DGv2bmsqo
Nicely made, but sadly it seems again like it doesn't match up to the stories we've been given. Instead of Elspeth and the other PWs holding off a Phyrexian Siege while Teferi, Saheeli, and Kaya do their best "Days of Future Past" re-enactment with the Temporal Anchor, we get Teferi leisurely walking to the tower, avoiding a lone sleeper by basically walking around it, and then getting into a solo duel with Ajani (who is at the tower instead of being on NP , as per the story) before calmly tossing a powerstone into a portal machine and disappearing. No mention of any other PWs or, oddly, the Brothers War AT ALL.
Not to say it looks bad at all, and truthfully would have been a fine little story beat takng place between DU and BRO, but as it is, it's jarringly out of place. Not surprising to see an apparent lack of communication between the written stories and the rest of the product, considering their track record, but annoying and disappointing nonetheless.
definitely agree the trailers good but felt way out of place since it doesn't match the DMU story
That is apparently the intention, this happens between DU and BRO.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
with all the old-time references being thrown to us by armfuls, do anyone else has the feeling that Wizards want to kind of satisfy every last Vorthos who liked to see the old stories again, reimagined in modern coat?
Yes, there are still some leftovers, but with the Weatherlight crew almost redone, with Legends II in the boxtoppers, and now with Brothers' War, with Urza Friggin' Planeswalker in his full power in a flavor perfect solution (Not to mention Mishra), even with the Thran era adressed with Rebbec, Glacian and Yawgmoth, there is not much. It is a nice gift for the 30th anniversary, but at the same time, I have a feeling of something like a big reboot coming with the "Infinity War/Endgame" climax of the Phyrexia arc... a definite farewell to the old history and its restrictions that the silly old geezers comment on.
Is it just me?
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
A few of my own speculations and thoughts to your post;
Yes, IIRC wizards has said its a goal for them to try to get all the old characters who never got cards (or those who got subpar cards) to get a new modern refresh and I feel like with the 30th anniversary they are taking a perfect chance to cram a lot of those legends in. The set "Brother's War" was gonna be a side set but I like how they worked it into the current story as a time travel story and let it get more focus.
I have had a similar thought. The fact they said MoM and Aftermath will shake up the multiverse like the mending did makes me wonder if we won't see a soft reboot of the story. We will have followed the "gatewatch cast"* since 2007/2008 (depends on if you count Lorwyn or Alara as the start), so 16/17 years in 2023 when MoM hits. I don't think we will see as huge of a change as they said how they regret somewhat not carrying over some characters and stories from pre-mending sooner, but with likely the multiverse somewhat connected after MoM that might change what characters they focus on as planeswalkers might not be the only planar travelers or have some of the major characters "retire" and we only see them here and there.
Gatewatch cast= the post mending characters as most of if not all of the story involved a gatewatch member or story touched on the gatewatch members.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Realm-breaker and/or the solution to Realmbreaker is going to connect not only the multiverse, but also the magic the gathering multiverse and ‘whatever-the-D&D-equivalent-is’.
That’s the reason for their catchphrase:
Universes Beyond, and Universes Within.
They are trying to create an in-universe and canonical reason for not only popular planes/planebound characters to interact with one another, but also characters from D&D, ?Un-multiverse (silver-bordered) and- (on an extremely rare-basis) other franchises that might not even be owned by hasbro/WotC.
That way- corporate gets what it wants, without players turning their noses up saying “that’s not a Magic card” or committing ‘gatekeeping’ as they call it.
The story-team has been given a mandate to make it so that- canonically, Jace, Teferi & Vraska can meet up with Ellywick Tumblestrum from the Forgotten Realms and- hypothetically, characters and things from other IP as well.
in game at least.
This is all just my speculation. Hasbro has financial incentives to *expose their customers into other kinds of products.
Hasbro and their partners also have an incentive to team up together, and sell/expose one-another’s fan bases to their respective franchises. The Witcher fans to MTG, MTG fans to The Witcher.
We should soon expect mainline sets to not always connect to MtG’s ‘story’, as Hasbro/other companies will either pay or be paid to expose one another’s audiences to each other’s respective IP.
A Smash Bros. Brawl mega-multiverse if you will where really anything could happen.
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
Players and mtg fans more broadly are going to have to get used to the idea that yes, Megatron is not only in their game but also- canonically, there’s no reason Teferi couldn’t ever meet him because the MtG multiverse now connects to ALL the multiverses and universes.
This makes everything potentially canonical and possible- all at once. It’s a clever and daring ploy really, but I’m not actually sure MtG players are going to react positively to it.
~
It’s one thing to endure through an entire set/standard environment with creative themes/mechanics that- while uninteresting to you are still made with Magic’s IP and creative in mind.
But would you or I have the same kind of patience for a standard environment where one (or more) sets are routinely based around another franchise entirely?
~
Maybe “The Witcher” IP-owners have done some market research, where 20% of non-exposed MtG fans become interested in “The Witcher” franchise after some exposure.
Maybe they & Hasbro can strike out a deal to get a set in that’s all about the Witcher.
~
Sure, some Vorthos fans might protest, but that’s who the new ‘mtg-show-that-nobody-has-any-updates-on is for, or is being catered towards.
“Y’see that product, this product ‘is for you’ vorthos.”
- Mark Rosewater, probably.
(joking, but only sorta)
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
I’m OrzhovPlaneswalker. I’ve been active in this forum for years. You know me, and I like to think that I’ve built enough of a reputation in my conduct that people might give myself some benefit of the doubt.
IMO- I t’s no more gatekeeping than not wanting your mashed potatoes too close with your garden salad, or not wanting to see Mario in your Resident Evil sequel.
Either way, I don’t know that I qualify, as I’ve yet to stop or refuse a game because of the matter. I just rarely play anymore in events or settings where I think the cards show up.
While it sucks, I accept that it’s all self-imposed. I don’t hate the players who enjoy the Universes Beyond cards, but I also don’t feel obligated to agree that the policy is healthy for the game overall- particularly its story.
~
Nowadays I largely only play with a few close friends or newbies wanting to learn mtg but without any cards themselves.
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
It had a rocky start though. In the first side story (why are those the side stories and the fill-in-the-blanks of the war the main stories???) they talked about mobilizing the planes? Mobilizing for what? As far as anyone knows there is no possibility to move the fight to New Phyrexia except through planeswalkers. What exactly are they mobilizing? Warning of a coming threat, sure. Building up defenses, maybe. But mobilizing? It makes no sense. Even so, as far as anyone knew at that point New Phyrexia only had the planar bridge as a means to invade. The sane decision would have been to hunt down Tezzeret as he is the greatest threat to the multiverse right now, instead they completely ignore him and do something else instead, that as far as anyone is concerned at that moment, doesn't help them at all.
And then Kaya figured out the whole Realmbreaker deal with barely any information to go on. It's like everyone has read the script. And the worst part is that this is completely unnecessary if you just did it to move the story along. Urabrask could have easily supplied this information. Esika could have confirmed that Vorinclex stole essence from the world tree. Even if they didn't trust Urabrask, there is enough to go on to come to the conclusion naturally, instead of just going "There was a phyrexian praetor on Kaldheim, and Kaldheim has a world tree, therefore this can mean only one thing." BLEH
It was largely good from there though, just a bad start. It's just frustrating because it could have been so easily avoided and rewritten using the same amount of words if not less.
Which raises the question... How? All the phyrexians currently have is the Planar Bridge which evaporates all organic tissue. Sheoldred had to build up her forces with the help of Rona for some time. How are white phyrexians suddenly here.
It already strains credulity that Sheoldred can raise an army that not only threatens the Gatewatch's base of operations but all of Dominaria? Enough to spread the worldsoul thin? In a matter of what? Months? Years?
But not only that but white phyrexians somehow made it there? After Sheoldred has left Dominaria no less?
Please educate yourself and look up the definition of gatekeeping, thank you.
I think they mean both raise defense and mobilize for war. Each planes is likely both getting ready in case they get invaded as well as forming their own version of the Coalition if there is already enough phyrexian discovered.
The New Capenna story has Tezzeret state he's been dropping troops off at certain planes as well as the praetors.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I'm not sure it is THAT absurd, seeing as we don't really know whether they literally meant "the whole plane" was mobilized. Seems much more likely that they meant "all the people we could reach on a certain plane believed us and are trying to rally as many forces as possible". And many of the named planes could actually conceivably be mobilized for the most part: Ravnica makes sense (seeing that it has dealt with an interplanar invader before and has a central government that could ready the whole plane in Niv-Mizzet and the guilds), Kaldheim is a plane defined by its dealings with inter-realm conflicts (and consists of a bunch of realms with fighting-capable populations) so they probably believe stories about invaders from other, previously unknown realms, Kaladesh's new government includes the mother of a planeswalker and has scientists and engineers who have personally worked on interplanar technology... the list goes on. Only Ixalan is very questionable, since it doesn't have any experience with planeswalkers and doesn't have a unified government. Maybe this was shorthand for Huatli and Vraska being able to convince the River Heralds, the Sun Empire and the Brazen Coalition respectively of the danger? I agree that this leaves out some crucial details, which is still the case because of the relative brevity of MtGs story articles, but I don't find all of that too unbelievable (unless taken very literally).
I didn't really take it as whole planes being mobilized, just what the walkers involved in this can muster. Tyvar likely has his brother and the elves prepared, Kaya/Jace/Vraska getting ravnica guides ect.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I'd guess using the Hekma to hide Naktamun and hoping that when/if the phyrexia invade they just find undead and desert.
On topic from the reprint of Sphinx's Revelation it looks like Samut and Basri have met, was wondering if they had yet.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"