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.
Killing Tamiyo in SoI for little effect would have been an acceptable plot point to you but her getting compleated in a major story line with ongoing consequences is an insult? Like, you're calling this shock value but who says? It's not as though there isn't any story reason to do it- there's a real big one. How does anything bad happening in a story be more than just for shock value but not this one?
Like, it's fine that you don't like it. But I don't see the justification for trashing it like this. It seems like a very normal perfectly justifiable choice of plot point to me, regardless of personal taste.
My money's on the new Weatherlight crew and a few walkers rebuilding the Legacy Weapon with a new power source to ult that's not the Null Moon, and fighting an epic war kind of like an Invasion Block 2.0 (hopefully better handled than War of the Spark), and Karn re-using the Sylex to blast New Phyrexia back into the blank plane he started with (Argentum).
We're going to see a good amount of Walkers turned into Phyrexians, and new walkers debut as phyrexians too. We also might see the compleated walkers fight phyxreixan preators in a double-cross power grab, because to me that looks to be like Tezzeret's long-term plan. Also I think Urabrask will switch sides and help the Mirrians/good walkers and be as close to a hero-Phyrexian as we get.
I'll have to come back to this post in a few years to see how close or how terribly off I am.
The fact that people are saying this is "done for shock value", and that she is now "evil for evil's sake", are being dumb.
First of all, the phyrexians have been building up to this since... forever. Yawgmoth gave them a purpose to spread throughout the multiverse - that desire is the core of their motivation. They've evolved over ages and ages of magic's history, both through a strange, twisted version of natural selection and through biomimicry of other life. It's not a sudden thing done for shock value - it's the event that moves them from "contained threat" to "active threat". While Tezzeret had used the planar gate to transport phyrexians, now they've gained a being with a spark independent of him, and without the drawbacks of the planar bridge - the loss of their biological parts. It's also been pretty heavily foreshadowed - Ever since Kaldheim, if you told me that wizards weren't setting up Phyrexia to be the next big bad, I'd have laughed you out of there. And here we are - Phyrexians now have a means of transporting their Oil across planes without needing the help of Tezzeret.
As for evil for evil's sake, well, no. The old phyrexians followed yawgmoth, which was the entirety of their motivation, really. But the New Phyrexians don't have Yawgmoth to serve, so they only serve themselves and the purpose to "spread".
So instead, they each have their own morality, based on their colours of mana - a twisted and dark version of the virtues of the colors they represent.
Vorinclex embraces the "survival of the fittest" aspect of green, to the point where it's bordering on eugenics. He slaughters the weak and respects the strong. An extremely brutal interpretation of green, but it's certainly not a case of "evil for evil's sake". He wants to grow, and he wants to weed out the weak to grow the strong.
Jin-Gitaxias is obsessed with experimentation and knowledge, not caring at all for anything that stands in the way of progress. He's been leading the search for a way to spread phyresis into other planes, and now he's obtained Tamiyo, he'll likely experiment on her spark in an attempt to replicate it - maybe he's considering putting spirits into phyrexians or something, who knows?
And Elesh Norn represents the order of white mana, being a totalitarian dictator over the theocracy of New Phyrexia. She likely has her own motivations, and probably wants to absorb Jin and Vorinclex's factions into her own, or destroy them, like she did with Urabrask and Sheoldred.
Dismissing Phyrexia as "evil for evil's sake" is incorrect. They're living organisms with a desire to grow, an awareness of an entire multiverse to grow into, and a lack of conventional ethics. That's more than enough justification for them to do what they do.
I think the compleation of Tamiyo perfectly captures how the Phyrexians operate - all seems fine, there are at most a few hints if you are lucky, and then suddenly everything is horrible, there are murder robots everywhere and all you can do is ask how it happened. Now they pulled that not only in-story, but on us players too.
From a more cynical point of view, she is the perfect sacrificial planeswalker. Not part of the core cast but liked enough to have an impact, and also not a diversity walker.
The problem with defining this format by what is "fun" is that everyone seems to define fun as what they don't lose to. If you keep losing to easily answered cards, that means you should improve your deck. If you don't want to improve your deck, then you should come to peace with the idea that you are going to lose because you chose to not interact with better strategies.
Aw this makes me sad. Tamiyo was the character from Kamigawa that I cared about the most, and she has a bunch of children who rely on her.
I wonder how Ajani's going to react when he finds out about her fate.
The one that's going to get hit hard is Elspeth. This is her worst nightmare playing out all over again.
Also, for those who think Elspeth getting compleated would be good, it might have some benefits, but the major drawback that she's already had this entire arc with Heliod. I think it's going to be more effective to see her reaction to others getting compleated.
I'm not happy with Tamiyo's compleation (the card of it, though, is very powerful), but I can honestly say that I'm now much more invested in the story, at least to the extent of, 'Will Tamiyo be saved?' So, I guess mission accomplished, WotC.
Also, for those who think Elspeth getting compleated would be good, it might have some benefits, but the major drawback that she's already had this entire arc with Heliod. I think it's going to be more effective to see her reaction to others getting compleated.
Exactly. Elspeth is the character that would make narratively least sense to compleat right now. She has survived the Phyrexians in the past and witnessed their horror. If anything re-confronting her past, witnessing the rise of an enemy she failed to stop beyond the boundaries she would have hoped holding them... that is the way to go with her here. Also just having returned from the dead, throwing her into the character-eating machine is a bit preemptive.
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I'm not terribly pissed it was Tamiyo, I just hope they don't resolve it in a boring way.
AKA: OH Gideon comes back for 5 minutes to save her! Praise Jesus!
Or: Turns out Lilliana's powers now work on phyrexians! For reasons!
Or: And then Kaya offed her offscreen because we had no idea where our writing was going!
I'm mostly irritated by the Compleation mechanic not applying to all of her colored mana costs. Yes, it would potentially put her at -1 loyalty. I'm sure there's some shenanigans in game already to handle that. Paying 2 life for 2 less counters and her being 1 mana cheaper really isn't much of a discount.
I do agree there would have been better characters to do this to though, or at least a little build up with a "Previously Unknown Walker" who is compleated.
I'm not terribly pissed it was Tamiyo, I just hope they don't resolve it in a boring way.
AKA: OH Gideon comes back for 5 minutes to save her! Praise Jesus!
Or: Turns out Lilliana's powers now work on phyrexians! For reasons!
Or: And then Kaya offed her offscreen because we had no idea where our writing was going!
I'm mostly irritated by the Compleation mechanic not applying to all of her colored mana costs. Yes, it would potentially put her at -1 loyalty. I'm sure there's some shenanigans in game already to handle that. Paying 2 life for 2 less counters and her being 1 mana cheaper really isn't much of a discount.
I do agree there would have been better characters to do this to though, or at least a little build up with a "Previously Unknown Walker" who is compleated.
The only problem with your suggestion of a previously unknown waller being Compleated would be that noone would care beyond the "oh, that happened." The fact that it's happening to a character that we've had around, that has helped the Gatewatch with Plane-shattering problems now succumb to one of the most ancient evils the Blind Eternities has had matters more. And if you take their current cast of Walkers on Kamigawa, Tamiyo is the one that makes the most sense.
The Wanderer was a huge enigma until we found out that she's the missing Emperor. But we still don't know much about her. To Compleat her wouldn't have had much of an impact.
Kaito is a "new" planeswalker, new to us at least, and as such he doesn't have the rapport with the players so that we would care if he got Compleated.
Tezzeret... well, not even sure about Tezzeret at this point. He largely appears to be his own person but closely tied with the Phyrexians but only for his own gains. To Compleat him would be irrelevant because we already see him as a big bad. On his own versus Jace, as Bolas's Minion through the events of War of the Spark and now as a Phyrexian co-conspirator. It wouldn't make sense to Compleat him.
So that kinda leaves Tamiyo as the only choice here. I mean, yeah they could've had a random walker just planeswalk in just in time to be captured by Tezzeret but that's lazy storytelling and would be even more, how did everyone call it,"done for shock value"?
Anyways, that's my two cents. This definitely makes me curious to see where this story arc is going. We've seen 2 out of the 5 praetors so far, other than the possibility of one in New Capenna or Dominaria, which I don't see happening, we will probably have to wait a bit before seeing the next one. Which makes me feel better than back to back to back to back stories about the same characters (Battle for Zendikar, Shadows Over Innistrad, Kaladesh, Ixalan, Dominaria, oops War of the Spark.) Kinda seemed like it happened altogether too quickly to me. Even though it's about 3 years worth of Story arc.
i liked tamiyo as tamiyo, but i also like the idea of a compleated walker and evolving the phyrexian brand so to speak
what i'm not necessarily thrilled about is the implications for the future. the community clamors for phyrexians vs. eldrazi, or compleated eldrazi, and it just seems like the most boring, needless, merging of two mega villians into one unstoppable force that will be impossible to write their way out of in any meaningful way. a compleated tamiyo brings that reality one step closer given her role regarding emrakul and all of her research
it also opens up the door to the possibility that the brothers war set isn't going to be another set dedicated to the war as we know it, but instead i speculate it'll be a timeline reset set similar to dragons of tarkir. a way to revist those characters and those settings, but not be beholden to the stories that already exist. i mean, imagine if fan favorites from that era could be brought to the present of magic? you all clamor for it constantly already anyway.
then again, that might also just be giving the writing team too much credit and it'll be some half assed resolution like tamiyo finds her heart because of her children and phyrexians stop their expansionist tendencies after some throw away multiplanar war plotline
I'm not terribly pissed it was Tamiyo, I just hope they don't resolve it in a boring way.
AKA: OH Gideon comes back for 5 minutes to save her! Praise Jesus!
Or: Turns out Lilliana's powers now work on phyrexians! For reasons!
Or: And then Kaya offed her offscreen because we had no idea where our writing was going!
I'm mostly irritated by the Compleation mechanic not applying to all of her colored mana costs. Yes, it would potentially put her at -1 loyalty. I'm sure there's some shenanigans in game already to handle that. Paying 2 life for 2 less counters and her being 1 mana cheaper really isn't much of a discount.
I do agree there would have been better characters to do this to though, or at least a little build up with a "Previously Unknown Walker" who is compleated.
The only problem with your suggestion of a previously unknown waller being Compleated would be that noone would care beyond the "oh, that happened."
I don't know if this falls under 'oh that happened' for you, but to have any PW be compleated creates existential dread, 'oh no, our PWs can be screwed'. This is still a gut punch and very much 'ups the ante' in terms of threat. Of course, seeing a popular and beloved PW fall doubles down on this, so I'm not saying it's not as effective. I'm just pointing out that the keyword is frightening in its own right.
Tezzeret... well, not even sure about Tezzeret at this point. He largely appears to be his own person but closely tied with the Phyrexians but only for his own gains. To Compleat him would be irrelevant because we already see him as a big bad. On his own versus Jace, as Bolas's Minion through the events of War of the Spark and now as a Phyrexian co-conspirator. It wouldn't make sense to Compleat him.
I really don't understand Tezzeret's logic. Unless he wants to be compleated, why would he help the Phyrexians with this process? He's at best playing a very dangerous game. He might be arrogant enough to believe that he can avoid compleation (assuming of course he wants to avoid it). If so, he shows a depressing lack of scope. People who believe that they can outsmart/outlast the Phyrexians tend to... be mistaken.
I'm not terribly pissed it was Tamiyo, I just hope they don't resolve it in a boring way.
AKA: OH Gideon comes back for 5 minutes to save her! Praise Jesus!
Or: Turns out Lilliana's powers now work on phyrexians! For reasons!
Or: And then Kaya offed her offscreen because we had no idea where our writing was going!
I'm mostly irritated by the Compleation mechanic not applying to all of her colored mana costs. Yes, it would potentially put her at -1 loyalty. I'm sure there's some shenanigans in game already to handle that. Paying 2 life for 2 less counters and her being 1 mana cheaper really isn't much of a discount.
I do agree there would have been better characters to do this to though, or at least a little build up with a "Previously Unknown Walker" who is compleated.
The only problem with your suggestion of a previously unknown waller being Compleated would be that noone would care beyond the "oh, that happened."
I don't know if this falls under 'oh that happened' for you, but to have any PW be compleated creates existential dread, 'oh no, our PWs can be screwed'. This is still a gut punch and very much 'ups the ante' in terms of threat. Of course, seeing a popular and beloved PW fall doubles down on this, so I'm not saying it's not as effective. I'm just pointing out that the keyword is frightening in its own right.
Tezzeret... well, not even sure about Tezzeret at this point. He largely appears to be his own person but closely tied with the Phyrexians but only for his own gains. To Compleat him would be irrelevant because we already see him as a big bad. On his own versus Jace, as Bolas's Minion through the events of War of the Spark and now as a Phyrexian co-conspirator. It wouldn't make sense to Compleat him.
I really don't understand Tezzeret's logic. Unless he wants to be compleated, why would he help the Phyrexians with this process? He's at best playing a very dangerous game. He might be arrogant enough to believe that he can avoid compleation (assuming of course he wants to avoid it). If so, he shows a depressing lack of scope. People who believe that they can outsmart/outlast the Phyrexians tend to... be mistaken.
If the Quest for Karn novel is still canon (which seems to be the case) then Tezzeret is immune against Phyresis through his experimentation on Melira, so he probably believes that he is pretty safe from that. I have no idea what his larger goal is, but he certainly seems to be aware that his worth for Phyrexia is waning, so far they seem to have worked with him because of the planar bridge, but now that they have their own planeswalkers that might not be important for much longer... And they also now have someone who could follow Tezzeret if he decides to work against them. Perhaps he thinks he can sooner or later subvert them and take over all of Phyrexia as new Father of the Machines?
I’m gonna call it: Tamiyo’s instrumental role in sealing Emrakul into Innistrad’s moon is going to come into play again before this is over, but not in a ‘Phyrexia Compleats Emrakul and we get Phyrexiam Eldrazi’ way. Instead, I think Emrakul and the Eldrazi will be vital to ending the threat of Phyrexia once and for all.
Their purpose is to scour planes and allow something new to grow, a la Galactus, yeah? Well, if ANYTHING deserves to be scoured from the Multiverse, it’s Phyrexia. Emrakul ALLOWED (and perhaps even aided in) the Gatewatch and Tamiyo sealing ‘her’ away for reasons no one has been able to suss out yet. Perhaps Emrakul, being a cosmic horror entity of immense power, was AWARE that being sealed away was important to not only ‘her’ continued work, but to the continued existence of the Multiverse she feeds on/cleanses.
When facing an unstoppable evil which has taken and rewritten your friends and allies into enemies…it helps to have some reality-warping, planar-scouring ‘sealed evil in a can’ as your ‘Omega 13’, your ace in the hole to turn loose at a time of greatest, most desperate need. After all…if Phyrexia is winning and it seems all hope of resistance is lost…why NOT unleash Omega Cthulhu 13??
Better to embrace the oblivion ‘she’ brings than accept the eternal, living horror that Phyrexia would make of the Multiverse…
So, yeah. I think Emrakul will end up being the key, and ‘her’ being released may be the thing that ‘wakes’ Tamiyo up. Alternately, CompleaTamiyo decides to go to Innistrad to try and infect Emrakul and just gets eaten/obliterated for her troubles, revealing that Eldrazi are not only immune to the Oil, but that it attracts their attention way more effectively than Nahiri’s makeshift rituals.
I would have preferred to see one of the overused planeswalkers compleated. We only had three Tamiyo cards. We've had 13 Lilianas, 12 Jaces, 17 Chandras, 10 Nissas, 8 Teferis, and 12 Ajanis. We've seen every interesting mechanic out of these guys we could reasonably expect, and I'm personally tired of all of them (though I can't speak for others). I would have much rather seen one of them get turned. 'Cause ya know, good riddance.
But I've never really paid attention to the story. I like Tamiyo and dislike Jace mostly for aesthetic reasons and fatigue reasons. Jace just seems to have an obnoxious "my life is so hard because I'm so important" vibe. I couldn't tell you anything about their personalities.
I'm not actually salty at the loss of Tamiyo. But she was one of my favorite planeswalkers. I think a lot of people liked her specifically because she has been a peripheral character. She hasn't been overdone. Also "I'm studying the multiverse" is a better motivation than what most of these multiverse travelers have.
I would have preferred to see one of the overused planeswalkers compleated. We only had three Tamiyo cards. We've had 13 Lilianas, 12 Jaces, 17 Chandras, 10 Nissas, 8 Teferis, and 12 Ajanis. We've seen every interesting mechanic out of these guys we could reasonably expect, and I'm personally tired of all of them (though I can't speak for others). I would have much rather seen one of them get turned. 'Cause ya know, good riddance.
But I've never really paid attention to the story. I like Tamiyo and dislike Jace mostly for aesthetic reasons and fatigue reasons. Jace just seems to have an obnoxious "my life is so hard because I'm so important" vibe. I couldn't tell you anything about their personalities.
I'm not actually salty at the loss of Tamiyo. But she was one of my favorite planeswalkers. I think a lot of people liked her specifically because she has been a peripheral character. She hasn't been overdone. Also "I'm studying the multiverse" is a better motivation than what most of these multiverse travelers have.
As a Jace fanboy, I've read the Ari Marmell novel more times than Jace has seen printings and can tell you that he's definitely a complex character. I can totally get the Jace fatigue, especially since his se ond printing saw EXTENSIVE play across multiple formats and continues to be a high value card for that reason. I actually want to see more of Jace because I currently have a Jace Tribal deck that I would love to have more options for. But that said, I definitely have to say that the lore is there for Jace, he's not just some poster child that's been paraded around the front of Magic for years. I actually liked the tidbit about Jace's face tattoos having been done by Domri Rade when he first planeswalked to Ravnica after he Vegetabled Alhammaret on Vryn, to remind him of his home plane that he could never return to and then he mind-wiped himself.
But yeah, just had to stick this out here for my boy Jace.
As a Jace fanboy, I've read the Ari Marmell novel more times than Jace has seen printings and can tell you that he's definitely a complex character. I can totally get the Jace fatigue, especially since his se ond printing saw EXTENSIVE play across multiple formats and continues to be a high value card for that reason. I actually want to see more of Jace because I currently have a Jace Tribal deck that I would love to have more options for. But that said, I definitely have to say that the lore is there for Jace, he's not just some poster child that's been paraded around the front of Magic for years. I actually liked the tidbit about Jace's face tattoos having been done by Domri Rade when he first planeswalked to Ravnica after he Vegetabled Alhammaret on Vryn, to remind him of his home plane that he could never return to and then he mind-wiped himself.
But yeah, just had to stick this out here for my boy Jace.
Super minor thing, but it wasn't Domri Rade, just a Gruul Shaman. Domri probably wasn't even alive when Jace got his tattoos.
I think a bunch of the gatewatch folks are at a point in their character arcs that they could totally be next. I'd bet a dollar Chandra goes first, then Jace.
I think a bunch of the gatewatch folks are at a point in their character arcs that they could totally be next. I'd bet a dollar Chandra goes first, then Jace.
I think that it's not a question (at this point) of who is likely, but who the Phyrexians would want most. And of those, the top of the list--if they know about her, and Tezzeret at least does--is Nissa. Her ability to connect to the souls of planes would be absolutely frightening if she were compleated. OTOH, she may be the key to undoing the effects of the oil on any plane not already corrupted. So she's very likely high-value on both sides.
I would agree that Chandra is the most likely to rush in too fast and get compleated in a scenario where there's an attack on either side.
If Phyrexians are susceptible to Jace's illusions--and we have no evidence otherwise--I imagine he'd have one of the easiest times evading capture. Main concern on Jace is that Tezzeret likely holds a grudge.
I think a bunch of the gatewatch folks are at a point in their character arcs that they could totally be next. I'd bet a dollar Chandra goes first, then Jace.
Certainly Vraska would be down with some cybernetic enhancements.
I'm not terribly pissed it was Tamiyo, I just hope they don't resolve it in a boring way.
AKA: OH Gideon comes back for 5 minutes to save her! Praise Jesus!
Or: Turns out Lilliana's powers now work on phyrexians! For reasons!
Or: And then Kaya offed her offscreen because we had no idea where our writing was going!
I mean, Tamiyo isn't a throwaway. She's got connections to the most powerful Eldrazi Titan;
Quote from MTG Wiki »
After destroying much of the city of Thraben, Emrakul is confronted by the Gatewatch and Liliana Vess, who are nearly brought down by her mental assaults. Jace communicates with a figment of her that manifests as Emeria, which tells him that she is "incomplete, unfulfilled, inchoate" and that Innistrad should welcome her, not reject her. When the Gatewatch performs the ritual to trap her, she willingly lets herself be sealed in Innistrad's moon. She possesses Tamiyo and has her read a scroll she has vowed to never read, after telling Jace, "I just no longer want to play" and "There should be blossoms, not barren resentment. The soil was not receptive. It is not my time. Not yet."
I think a bunch of the gatewatch folks are at a point in their character arcs that they could totally be next. I'd bet a dollar Chandra goes first, then Jace.
I think that it's not a question (at this point) of who is likely, but who the Phyrexians would want most. And of those, the top of the list--if they know about her, and Tezzeret at least does--is Nissa. Her ability to connect to the souls of planes would be absolutely frightening if she were compleated. OTOH, she may be the key to undoing the effects of the oil on any plane not already corrupted. So she's very likely high-value on both sides.
I would agree that Chandra is the most likely to rush in too fast and get compleated in a scenario where there's an attack on either side.
If Phyrexians are susceptible to Jace's illusions--and we have no evidence otherwise--I imagine he'd have one of the easiest times evading capture. Main concern on Jace is that Tezzeret likely holds a grudge.
I think she is high value, but also I think she's probably the character most likely to avoid even coming near phyrexians.
I’m gonna call it: Tamiyo’s instrumental role in sealing Emrakul into Innistrad’s moon is going to come into play again before this is over, but not in a ‘Phyrexia Compleats Emrakul and we get Phyrexiam Eldrazi’ way. Instead, I think Emrakul and the Eldrazi will be vital to ending the threat of Phyrexia once and for all.
Sounds exactly like the thing that would need to happen for Ugin to get a well-deserved "I told you so"-moment.
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I think emrakul is immune to being compleated I feel she will eventually leave and go resurrect ulamog and kozilek (or reincarnations) and the 3 of them destroy the phyrexians
and honest truth besides Urabrask I don't think it will just be him who throws a wrench at their plans and betray them.
I’m starting to highly consider tezzeret betrays them and not for his selfish reasons
If you look on further inspection of the epilogue by choice of words in the story tezzeret was looking extremely unconfortable looking at tamiyo as a phyrexian.
he may have been watching from a distance jin gitaxias ripping out nearly every bit of flesh and replacing with robotic parts (which is compleating her) he probably never knew phyrexians do this horrendous thing and probably didn't know what type of stuff they do to people
So the shorten version he may be saying in his head “what have I done.”
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Killing Tamiyo in SoI for little effect would have been an acceptable plot point to you but her getting compleated in a major story line with ongoing consequences is an insult? Like, you're calling this shock value but who says? It's not as though there isn't any story reason to do it- there's a real big one. How does anything bad happening in a story be more than just for shock value but not this one?
Like, it's fine that you don't like it. But I don't see the justification for trashing it like this. It seems like a very normal perfectly justifiable choice of plot point to me, regardless of personal taste.
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If you don't trust them to handle the story well it kinda puts anything they do at a bit of a disadvantage though doesn't it?
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We're going to see a good amount of Walkers turned into Phyrexians, and new walkers debut as phyrexians too. We also might see the compleated walkers fight phyxreixan preators in a double-cross power grab, because to me that looks to be like Tezzeret's long-term plan. Also I think Urabrask will switch sides and help the Mirrians/good walkers and be as close to a hero-Phyrexian as we get.
I'll have to come back to this post in a few years to see how close or how terribly off I am.
First of all, the phyrexians have been building up to this since... forever. Yawgmoth gave them a purpose to spread throughout the multiverse - that desire is the core of their motivation. They've evolved over ages and ages of magic's history, both through a strange, twisted version of natural selection and through biomimicry of other life. It's not a sudden thing done for shock value - it's the event that moves them from "contained threat" to "active threat". While Tezzeret had used the planar gate to transport phyrexians, now they've gained a being with a spark independent of him, and without the drawbacks of the planar bridge - the loss of their biological parts. It's also been pretty heavily foreshadowed - Ever since Kaldheim, if you told me that wizards weren't setting up Phyrexia to be the next big bad, I'd have laughed you out of there. And here we are - Phyrexians now have a means of transporting their Oil across planes without needing the help of Tezzeret.
As for evil for evil's sake, well, no. The old phyrexians followed yawgmoth, which was the entirety of their motivation, really. But the New Phyrexians don't have Yawgmoth to serve, so they only serve themselves and the purpose to "spread".
So instead, they each have their own morality, based on their colours of mana - a twisted and dark version of the virtues of the colors they represent.
Vorinclex embraces the "survival of the fittest" aspect of green, to the point where it's bordering on eugenics. He slaughters the weak and respects the strong. An extremely brutal interpretation of green, but it's certainly not a case of "evil for evil's sake". He wants to grow, and he wants to weed out the weak to grow the strong.
Jin-Gitaxias is obsessed with experimentation and knowledge, not caring at all for anything that stands in the way of progress. He's been leading the search for a way to spread phyresis into other planes, and now he's obtained Tamiyo, he'll likely experiment on her spark in an attempt to replicate it - maybe he's considering putting spirits into phyrexians or something, who knows?
And Elesh Norn represents the order of white mana, being a totalitarian dictator over the theocracy of New Phyrexia. She likely has her own motivations, and probably wants to absorb Jin and Vorinclex's factions into her own, or destroy them, like she did with Urabrask and Sheoldred.
Dismissing Phyrexia as "evil for evil's sake" is incorrect. They're living organisms with a desire to grow, an awareness of an entire multiverse to grow into, and a lack of conventional ethics. That's more than enough justification for them to do what they do.
From a more cynical point of view, she is the perfect sacrificial planeswalker. Not part of the core cast but liked enough to have an impact, and also not a diversity walker.
I wonder how Ajani's going to react when he finds out about her fate.
The one that's going to get hit hard is Elspeth. This is her worst nightmare playing out all over again.
Also, for those who think Elspeth getting compleated would be good, it might have some benefits, but the major drawback that she's already had this entire arc with Heliod. I think it's going to be more effective to see her reaction to others getting compleated.
I'm not happy with Tamiyo's compleation (the card of it, though, is very powerful), but I can honestly say that I'm now much more invested in the story, at least to the extent of, 'Will Tamiyo be saved?' So, I guess mission accomplished, WotC.
Exactly. Elspeth is the character that would make narratively least sense to compleat right now. She has survived the Phyrexians in the past and witnessed their horror. If anything re-confronting her past, witnessing the rise of an enemy she failed to stop beyond the boundaries she would have hoped holding them... that is the way to go with her here. Also just having returned from the dead, throwing her into the character-eating machine is a bit preemptive.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
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AKA: OH Gideon comes back for 5 minutes to save her! Praise Jesus!
Or: Turns out Lilliana's powers now work on phyrexians! For reasons!
Or: And then Kaya offed her offscreen because we had no idea where our writing was going!
I'm mostly irritated by the Compleation mechanic not applying to all of her colored mana costs. Yes, it would potentially put her at -1 loyalty. I'm sure there's some shenanigans in game already to handle that. Paying 2 life for 2 less counters and her being 1 mana cheaper really isn't much of a discount.
I do agree there would have been better characters to do this to though, or at least a little build up with a "Previously Unknown Walker" who is compleated.
The only problem with your suggestion of a previously unknown waller being Compleated would be that noone would care beyond the "oh, that happened." The fact that it's happening to a character that we've had around, that has helped the Gatewatch with Plane-shattering problems now succumb to one of the most ancient evils the Blind Eternities has had matters more. And if you take their current cast of Walkers on Kamigawa, Tamiyo is the one that makes the most sense.
The Wanderer was a huge enigma until we found out that she's the missing Emperor. But we still don't know much about her. To Compleat her wouldn't have had much of an impact.
Kaito is a "new" planeswalker, new to us at least, and as such he doesn't have the rapport with the players so that we would care if he got Compleated.
Tezzeret... well, not even sure about Tezzeret at this point. He largely appears to be his own person but closely tied with the Phyrexians but only for his own gains. To Compleat him would be irrelevant because we already see him as a big bad. On his own versus Jace, as Bolas's Minion through the events of War of the Spark and now as a Phyrexian co-conspirator. It wouldn't make sense to Compleat him.
So that kinda leaves Tamiyo as the only choice here. I mean, yeah they could've had a random walker just planeswalk in just in time to be captured by Tezzeret but that's lazy storytelling and would be even more, how did everyone call it,"done for shock value"?
Anyways, that's my two cents. This definitely makes me curious to see where this story arc is going. We've seen 2 out of the 5 praetors so far, other than the possibility of one in New Capenna or Dominaria, which I don't see happening, we will probably have to wait a bit before seeing the next one. Which makes me feel better than back to back to back to back stories about the same characters (Battle for Zendikar, Shadows Over Innistrad, Kaladesh, Ixalan, Dominaria, oops War of the Spark.) Kinda seemed like it happened altogether too quickly to me. Even though it's about 3 years worth of Story arc.
i liked tamiyo as tamiyo, but i also like the idea of a compleated walker and evolving the phyrexian brand so to speak
what i'm not necessarily thrilled about is the implications for the future. the community clamors for phyrexians vs. eldrazi, or compleated eldrazi, and it just seems like the most boring, needless, merging of two mega villians into one unstoppable force that will be impossible to write their way out of in any meaningful way. a compleated tamiyo brings that reality one step closer given her role regarding emrakul and all of her research
it also opens up the door to the possibility that the brothers war set isn't going to be another set dedicated to the war as we know it, but instead i speculate it'll be a timeline reset set similar to dragons of tarkir. a way to revist those characters and those settings, but not be beholden to the stories that already exist. i mean, imagine if fan favorites from that era could be brought to the present of magic? you all clamor for it constantly already anyway.
then again, that might also just be giving the writing team too much credit and it'll be some half assed resolution like tamiyo finds her heart because of her children and phyrexians stop their expansionist tendencies after some throw away multiplanar war plotline
I don't know if this falls under 'oh that happened' for you, but to have any PW be compleated creates existential dread, 'oh no, our PWs can be screwed'. This is still a gut punch and very much 'ups the ante' in terms of threat. Of course, seeing a popular and beloved PW fall doubles down on this, so I'm not saying it's not as effective. I'm just pointing out that the keyword is frightening in its own right.
I really don't understand Tezzeret's logic. Unless he wants to be compleated, why would he help the Phyrexians with this process? He's at best playing a very dangerous game. He might be arrogant enough to believe that he can avoid compleation (assuming of course he wants to avoid it). If so, he shows a depressing lack of scope. People who believe that they can outsmart/outlast the Phyrexians tend to... be mistaken.
If the Quest for Karn novel is still canon (which seems to be the case) then Tezzeret is immune against Phyresis through his experimentation on Melira, so he probably believes that he is pretty safe from that. I have no idea what his larger goal is, but he certainly seems to be aware that his worth for Phyrexia is waning, so far they seem to have worked with him because of the planar bridge, but now that they have their own planeswalkers that might not be important for much longer... And they also now have someone who could follow Tezzeret if he decides to work against them. Perhaps he thinks he can sooner or later subvert them and take over all of Phyrexia as new Father of the Machines?
Their purpose is to scour planes and allow something new to grow, a la Galactus, yeah? Well, if ANYTHING deserves to be scoured from the Multiverse, it’s Phyrexia. Emrakul ALLOWED (and perhaps even aided in) the Gatewatch and Tamiyo sealing ‘her’ away for reasons no one has been able to suss out yet. Perhaps Emrakul, being a cosmic horror entity of immense power, was AWARE that being sealed away was important to not only ‘her’ continued work, but to the continued existence of the Multiverse she feeds on/cleanses.
When facing an unstoppable evil which has taken and rewritten your friends and allies into enemies…it helps to have some reality-warping, planar-scouring ‘sealed evil in a can’ as your ‘Omega 13’, your ace in the hole to turn loose at a time of greatest, most desperate need. After all…if Phyrexia is winning and it seems all hope of resistance is lost…why NOT unleash Omega Cthulhu 13??
Better to embrace the oblivion ‘she’ brings than accept the eternal, living horror that Phyrexia would make of the Multiverse…
So, yeah. I think Emrakul will end up being the key, and ‘her’ being released may be the thing that ‘wakes’ Tamiyo up. Alternately, CompleaTamiyo decides to go to Innistrad to try and infect Emrakul and just gets eaten/obliterated for her troubles, revealing that Eldrazi are not only immune to the Oil, but that it attracts their attention way more effectively than Nahiri’s makeshift rituals.
But I've never really paid attention to the story. I like Tamiyo and dislike Jace mostly for aesthetic reasons and fatigue reasons. Jace just seems to have an obnoxious "my life is so hard because I'm so important" vibe. I couldn't tell you anything about their personalities.
I'm not actually salty at the loss of Tamiyo. But she was one of my favorite planeswalkers. I think a lot of people liked her specifically because she has been a peripheral character. She hasn't been overdone. Also "I'm studying the multiverse" is a better motivation than what most of these multiverse travelers have.
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As a Jace fanboy, I've read the Ari Marmell novel more times than Jace has seen printings and can tell you that he's definitely a complex character. I can totally get the Jace fatigue, especially since his se ond printing saw EXTENSIVE play across multiple formats and continues to be a high value card for that reason. I actually want to see more of Jace because I currently have a Jace Tribal deck that I would love to have more options for. But that said, I definitely have to say that the lore is there for Jace, he's not just some poster child that's been paraded around the front of Magic for years. I actually liked the tidbit about Jace's face tattoos having been done by Domri Rade when he first planeswalked to Ravnica after he Vegetabled Alhammaret on Vryn, to remind him of his home plane that he could never return to and then he mind-wiped himself.
But yeah, just had to stick this out here for my boy Jace.
Super minor thing, but it wasn't Domri Rade, just a Gruul Shaman. Domri probably wasn't even alive when Jace got his tattoos.
I think that it's not a question (at this point) of who is likely, but who the Phyrexians would want most. And of those, the top of the list--if they know about her, and Tezzeret at least does--is Nissa. Her ability to connect to the souls of planes would be absolutely frightening if she were compleated. OTOH, she may be the key to undoing the effects of the oil on any plane not already corrupted. So she's very likely high-value on both sides.
I would agree that Chandra is the most likely to rush in too fast and get compleated in a scenario where there's an attack on either side.
If Phyrexians are susceptible to Jace's illusions--and we have no evidence otherwise--I imagine he'd have one of the easiest times evading capture. Main concern on Jace is that Tezzeret likely holds a grudge.
Certainly Vraska would be down with some cybernetic enhancements.
I mean, Tamiyo isn't a throwaway. She's got connections to the most powerful Eldrazi Titan;
Phyrexian Emrakul is gonna happen!
I think she is high value, but also I think she's probably the character most likely to avoid even coming near phyrexians.
Sounds exactly like the thing that would need to happen for Ugin to get a well-deserved "I told you so"-moment.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
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and honest truth besides Urabrask I don't think it will just be him who throws a wrench at their plans and betray them.
I’m starting to highly consider tezzeret betrays them and not for his selfish reasons
If you look on further inspection of the epilogue by choice of words in the story tezzeret was looking extremely unconfortable looking at tamiyo as a phyrexian.
he may have been watching from a distance jin gitaxias ripping out nearly every bit of flesh and replacing with robotic parts (which is compleating her) he probably never knew phyrexians do this horrendous thing and probably didn't know what type of stuff they do to people
So the shorten version he may be saying in his head “what have I done.”