(Ironic how Sheoldred accused Norn of being selfish, when that's a core characteristic of black.)
I don't think Sheoldred was castigating Elesh Norn for being selfish so much as she was accusing her of being a hypocrite. Sheoldred was open about her selfishness and always had been, and she had long seen straight through Norn's self-righteous facade. Her final accusation of "You only care about yourself" would hardly be a biting condemnation of her fellow Thanes, who have always been as shamelessly selfish and treacherous as she was. Against holier-than-thou Norn, however, the accusation was a well-aimed (and truthful) dart.
I'm not exaggerating when I say these final stories have not only snuffed out my enthusiasm for the MOM set, but for Magic Lore for the foreseeable future. I've been a fan of the story for 20+ years and so I don't say this lightly, but depending on how Aftermath shakes out, I may just need to take a long, long break from all this.
Phyrexia is not supposed to be a joke. It is the ultimate evil, the most dangerous malevolent power in the Multiverse. Magic has been building up to this climactic showdown for 13 years, so now that it's time for the Phyrexians to lose, defeating them should feel truly difficult and desperate, an effort worthy of the danger they (supposedly) pose. This last clash should feel not just worthy of Phyrexia, but of the Multiverse, which is at stake.
Yet Phyrexia's power starts collapsing long before the end. Sheoldred, Urabrask, Vorinclex, Jin-Gitaxias - these long-iconic faces of Phyrexia - are killed off with minimal effort and without ceremony. The praetors devolve into almost comical incompetents, while Norn herself spends the last handful of stories as a frightened, shrieking thing, flailing desperately to hold her crumbling Phyrexia together. There was no suspense in this story after Elspeth's return; the villains didn't rally to put up a good final fight, and their defeat, when it came, felt inevitable, preordained, and banal. Phyrexia is not scary here. It is not formidable. Phyrexia and its praetors are mere props and stepping stones for the heroes to have their Big Moments and to look cool.
Yet even those moments fall short, for in the end, these heroes don't feel like they're fighting any threat of stature.
All that work that went into designing New Phyrexia - the language, the factional aesthetic, the praetor designs, the seeds of this conflict being laid across multiple worlds over multiple years - all of that comes together in the final accounting to yield... this. A mediocre faceplant that diminishes Phyrexia, diminishes the Multiverse, and diminishes my faith that Magic can still tell a well-crafted story again in the current era.
Perhaps it was the nostalgia for Dominaria, Phyrexia, and Mirrodin that got me so invested over this past year, but I wanted this story to succeed so bad.
K. Rivera has written some excellent stories in the past, and yes, some of her installments for MOM were very well done (particularly Chapters 3, 6, and 8). She writes the Planeswalker characters stirringly well, and she did a great job with Chandra and Nissa. That said, she seems to have little interest whatsoever in the villains and reduces them to trivial, often cartoonish figures. Doing that to the likes of Olivia Voldaren is one thing. Doing that to Elesh Norn and Jin-Gitaxias is another matter entirely, and it severely blunts the impact of what should be an epic story. Nevertheless, if Wizards had only given her another two chapters to work with, I'm sure she'd have fleshed out a somewhat more satisfying final showdown.
In any case, I'm going to go back and read the story again to see if I feel any differently the second time around. The resolution to the Phyrexian story was something I've been looking forward to for over a decade, and as recently as last week things still looked so promising. But seeing the end handled like this(especially after the lackluster conclusion of the Bolas arc) finally makes me think... what's the point of investing myself in the story at all?
I love me a full chapter of Elesh Norn, but surely Sheoldred deserved more?
Even Tsabo Tavoc had a better send-off, and with more build-up.
come half the black phyrexians co-oped in urabrask distraction for the strike team elesh likely knew about that which explains the execution
I have no problem with the fact of Sheoldred's execution itself; Norn finally did what she should have done long ago and Sheoldred completely had it coming. It's just that there was no buildup. We never saw Sheoldred participating in the rebellion, never saw her fuse with Drivnod, never saw how she was defeated or captured. For all she did to Dominaria, she absolutely deserved to die stripped, writhing, and screaming like she did - but her capture and death just came out of nowhere. For such an important character, for such an iconic Phyrexian villain, her demise needed more space, more setup.
"She tears off pieces for each, leaving herself without—a sacrifice no one will remember in light of what's about to happen." Godamn, chill Norn chill.
We might also have a time skip of five or ten years. We're long due for one.
Big timeskips followed Apocalypse, Scourge, and Time Spiral, but we haven't had even a small timeskip since Shards of Alara way back in 2009. If any event ought to necessitate one, it would be a Multiverse-wide Phyrexian Doomsday event.
For the first time, Urabrask has the best praetor art of the bunch. I'm in love with this new design; he seems to have upgraded since returning from New Capenna.
I like Norn's art, but it's a little bit understated. It hits the elegant and regal notes, but I was also hoping for something visceral and hard-hitting like her original art, which still has never been surpassed.
I haven't been this pumped for a Magic Story in years. I'm sold.
Norn and the praetors are some of my favorite villains, and while it will be sad to see some of them (or all of them )die in the end, what an epic finale this is shaping up to be. This is looking like the Phyrexian Apocalypse of my dreams.
I enjoyed the original Invasion block, too, but the sheer scale of that world war never really featured on the cards themselves. But MOM is giving me that same overbearing, "all is lost," end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it sensation that the Apocalypse novel instilled in me.
Elesh Norn will never be as ancient, vast, and terrifying as Yawgmoth. But damn, that girl can play ball.
Chiss-Goria... now there's a name I don't think I've heard since middle school when the original Mirrodin came out. The Scale and Tooth would show up in booster packs and (occasionally) in friends' artifact decks.
Sheoldred was being useful in Dominaria United, leading the invasion and seeking out Karn/the Sylex. That story gave the distinct impression that she was acting on Norn's orders at the time. In the very end, she even announces "I've acquired the targets. I am ready to return" as she requests Tezzeret's portal back to Phyrexia, indicating that yes, this whole invasion of hers was part of Phyrexia's (and therefore Norn's) larger goals. She brings Karn to Phyrexia and we next see him in Norn's clutches, suggesting that Sheoldred handed him over.
So I had the distinct impression that Sheoldred had been reined in by Norn, even if grudgingly.
So that's why this open rebellion perplexes me now. I get that Sheoldred has no love for Norn and would love to replace her as Mother of Machines one day. But the seeming transition from being Norn's vassal to becoming an open traitor is a significant development and needs to be explored further.
Wait, so Sheoldred is throwing in her lot with Urabrask's rebellion? Wasn't she only just recently doing Norn's bidding on Dominaria?
...Why did Elesh Norn leave those two alive, again?
It seems exceedingly foolhardy for Norn to be moving to take on the entire multiverse when she doesn't even have Phyrexia under her thumb. Only three out of five factions seem to be under her control. For all the talk about her being the Mother of Machines and the leader of New Phyrexia, her position seems awfully tenuous.
She's the Big Bad of Magic right now, so I wish the story would make her feel like more of a threat. Instead, she just seems really... vulnerable.
I don't think so. Yawgmoth was exiled at age 30, came back to Halcyon to heal Glacian at age 35, and was sealed away in Phyrexia just eight or nine years later. By the end of The Thran, he's no older than 44. He's this handsome, charming, seductive figure throughout, who steals not just Rebbec's heart, but the hearts of the whole city.
This new Yawgmoth art certainly looks evil, and frightening. But he also looks a good deal older and blatantly more creepy than he should at this point in his career.
Human Yawgmoth is supposed to be sexy, dammit. Sexy and evil. And the original Mark Winters art captures that perfectly. (The Winters art depicts Yawgmoth in his first years after returning to Halcyon from exile to cure Glacian. We see the research on his table pertaining to the power stones he is studying at that point.)
And as I mentioned, I think it's just Greg Staples' style. His faces tend to look more careworn and weathered, which works well in many of his illustrations. It just doesn't work here.
I dislike the new Yawgmoth, Thran Physician art. There's no allure, no dark charm or evil sex appeal; the face looks too old, too worn, too different, and it doesn't feel at all like the same man. He has the look of a creepy old mortician, not a tall, dark, handsome charmer who'll steal your wife when your back is turned.
Greg Staples did a fine job on Urza, though. He does cool things with lighting, and I think his style is just naturally suited to drawing more haggard-looking faces.
Both Legacy Weapons look good--I think I like the promo one better, however. Yawgmoth looks utterly vast against the sky, just as he was in the Apocalypse novel.
Still, retconning the story so that Ashnod survived her heroic sacrifice was a terrible decision, and it destroys so much of what makes this moment one of the best, most poignant parts of the novel. For all the things this set gets right - and there are many - retconning Ashnod's fate is such a needless, inept development that it boggles my mind. And for what?
Halcyon was built on top of a valvcanic plateau. It was not a floating city. It was mistakenly portrayed as such on the cover of the Thran novel, but nowhere else. That same cover portrayed Glacian as a young man and Yawgmoth as an old, wizened doctor. The artist had clearly not read the actual book.
Still, these references to Halcyon, Orleason, Phoenon, and all these locations mentioned so far only in the Thran novel... they warm my heart.
Overall, I really like how this set, and these decks, and this entire product is shaping up.
I don't think Sheoldred was castigating Elesh Norn for being selfish so much as she was accusing her of being a hypocrite. Sheoldred was open about her selfishness and always had been, and she had long seen straight through Norn's self-righteous facade. Her final accusation of "You only care about yourself" would hardly be a biting condemnation of her fellow Thanes, who have always been as shamelessly selfish and treacherous as she was. Against holier-than-thou Norn, however, the accusation was a well-aimed (and truthful) dart.
Phyrexia is not supposed to be a joke. It is the ultimate evil, the most dangerous malevolent power in the Multiverse. Magic has been building up to this climactic showdown for 13 years, so now that it's time for the Phyrexians to lose, defeating them should feel truly difficult and desperate, an effort worthy of the danger they (supposedly) pose. This last clash should feel not just worthy of Phyrexia, but of the Multiverse, which is at stake.
Yet Phyrexia's power starts collapsing long before the end. Sheoldred, Urabrask, Vorinclex, Jin-Gitaxias - these long-iconic faces of Phyrexia - are killed off with minimal effort and without ceremony. The praetors devolve into almost comical incompetents, while Norn herself spends the last handful of stories as a frightened, shrieking thing, flailing desperately to hold her crumbling Phyrexia together. There was no suspense in this story after Elspeth's return; the villains didn't rally to put up a good final fight, and their defeat, when it came, felt inevitable, preordained, and banal. Phyrexia is not scary here. It is not formidable. Phyrexia and its praetors are mere props and stepping stones for the heroes to have their Big Moments and to look cool.
Yet even those moments fall short, for in the end, these heroes don't feel like they're fighting any threat of stature.
All that work that went into designing New Phyrexia - the language, the factional aesthetic, the praetor designs, the seeds of this conflict being laid across multiple worlds over multiple years - all of that comes together in the final accounting to yield... this. A mediocre faceplant that diminishes Phyrexia, diminishes the Multiverse, and diminishes my faith that Magic can still tell a well-crafted story again in the current era.
Perhaps it was the nostalgia for Dominaria, Phyrexia, and Mirrodin that got me so invested over this past year, but I wanted this story to succeed so bad.
K. Rivera has written some excellent stories in the past, and yes, some of her installments for MOM were very well done (particularly Chapters 3, 6, and 8). She writes the Planeswalker characters stirringly well, and she did a great job with Chandra and Nissa. That said, she seems to have little interest whatsoever in the villains and reduces them to trivial, often cartoonish figures. Doing that to the likes of Olivia Voldaren is one thing. Doing that to Elesh Norn and Jin-Gitaxias is another matter entirely, and it severely blunts the impact of what should be an epic story. Nevertheless, if Wizards had only given her another two chapters to work with, I'm sure she'd have fleshed out a somewhat more satisfying final showdown.
In any case, I'm going to go back and read the story again to see if I feel any differently the second time around. The resolution to the Phyrexian story was something I've been looking forward to for over a decade, and as recently as last week things still looked so promising. But seeing the end handled like this(especially after the lackluster conclusion of the Bolas arc) finally makes me think... what's the point of investing myself in the story at all?
I have no problem with the fact of Sheoldred's execution itself; Norn finally did what she should have done long ago and Sheoldred completely had it coming. It's just that there was no buildup. We never saw Sheoldred participating in the rebellion, never saw her fuse with Drivnod, never saw how she was defeated or captured. For all she did to Dominaria, she absolutely deserved to die stripped, writhing, and screaming like she did - but her capture and death just came out of nowhere. For such an important character, for such an iconic Phyrexian villain, her demise needed more space, more setup.
I loved that bit, honestly.
Already?
I love me a full chapter of Elesh Norn, but surely Sheoldred deserved more?
Even Tsabo Tavoc had a better send-off, and with more build-up.
Big timeskips followed Apocalypse, Scourge, and Time Spiral, but we haven't had even a small timeskip since Shards of Alara way back in 2009. If any event ought to necessitate one, it would be a Multiverse-wide Phyrexian Doomsday event.
I like Norn's art, but it's a little bit understated. It hits the elegant and regal notes, but I was also hoping for something visceral and hard-hitting like her original art, which still has never been surpassed.
Sheoldred's art is disgusting. I approve.
Norn and the praetors are some of my favorite villains, and while it will be sad to see some of them (or all of them )die in the end, what an epic finale this is shaping up to be. This is looking like the Phyrexian Apocalypse of my dreams.
I enjoyed the original Invasion block, too, but the sheer scale of that world war never really featured on the cards themselves. But MOM is giving me that same overbearing, "all is lost," end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it sensation that the Apocalypse novel instilled in me.
Elesh Norn will never be as ancient, vast, and terrifying as Yawgmoth. But damn, that girl can play ball.
Takes me back. I'm 31 now. Damn.
So I had the distinct impression that Sheoldred had been reined in by Norn, even if grudgingly.
So that's why this open rebellion perplexes me now. I get that Sheoldred has no love for Norn and would love to replace her as Mother of Machines one day. But the seeming transition from being Norn's vassal to becoming an open traitor is a significant development and needs to be explored further.
...Why did Elesh Norn leave those two alive, again?
It seems exceedingly foolhardy for Norn to be moving to take on the entire multiverse when she doesn't even have Phyrexia under her thumb. Only three out of five factions seem to be under her control. For all the talk about her being the Mother of Machines and the leader of New Phyrexia, her position seems awfully tenuous.
She's the Big Bad of Magic right now, so I wish the story would make her feel like more of a threat. Instead, she just seems really... vulnerable.
This new Yawgmoth art certainly looks evil, and frightening. But he also looks a good deal older and blatantly more creepy than he should at this point in his career.
Human Yawgmoth is supposed to be sexy, dammit. Sexy and evil. And the original Mark Winters art captures that perfectly. (The Winters art depicts Yawgmoth in his first years after returning to Halcyon from exile to cure Glacian. We see the research on his table pertaining to the power stones he is studying at that point.)
And as I mentioned, I think it's just Greg Staples' style. His faces tend to look more careworn and weathered, which works well in many of his illustrations. It just doesn't work here.
Greg Staples did a fine job on Urza, though. He does cool things with lighting, and I think his style is just naturally suited to drawing more haggard-looking faces.
Both Legacy Weapons look good--I think I like the promo one better, however. Yawgmoth looks utterly vast against the sky, just as he was in the Apocalypse novel.
Still, retconning the story so that Ashnod survived her heroic sacrifice was a terrible decision, and it destroys so much of what makes this moment one of the best, most poignant parts of the novel. For all the things this set gets right - and there are many - retconning Ashnod's fate is such a needless, inept development that it boggles my mind. And for what?
How can Gix be a mere 3/3 when Xantcha is a 5/5?
And when Mishra is a 4/4 and a 3/5?
And the other Yawgmoth Demons are 6/6?
C'mon, WotC.
Still, those abilities are really sick. And that art is glorious in the black card frame.
Halcyon was built on top of a valvcanic plateau. It was not a floating city. It was mistakenly portrayed as such on the cover of the Thran novel, but nowhere else. That same cover portrayed Glacian as a young man and Yawgmoth as an old, wizened doctor. The artist had clearly not read the actual book.
Still, these references to Halcyon, Orleason, Phoenon, and all these locations mentioned so far only in the Thran novel... they warm my heart.
Overall, I really like how this set, and these decks, and this entire product is shaping up.