I don't know. This may be personal opinion, but I don't think MtG is the right setting for character-driven stories.
MtG is, at its core, about the planes. A plane is quite literally an environment. A card set shows us the lands, the peoples and various events on that plane. Environmental stories is that MtG excels at.
On one hand I see where you're coming from, but I ultimately disagree. While it's true that Magic has prioritized setting over character in recent years, Magic's best stories - The Brother's War, the Thran, Nemesis, Chainer's Torment, the Kamigawa Block - have been very character driven. Grub's Ice Age books and Herndon's Ravnica Novels, while certainly drawing a lot of appeal from their settings, also invested a lot in their characters.
I would love to see more of that.
The counterargument would be, of course, that all those stories happened back when novels were a thing. But I'd argue that the best online fiction series we've seen so far was the character-driven Chronicles of Bolas, which delved deep into Bolas, Ugin, and the human relationships of Yasova's family. That series was practically a character study, and as far as I remember it was pretty well-received.
Magic fiction in recent years has been lacking insofar as it hasn't been exploring its characters to their full potential.
What I find interesting is that the sets didn't actually reveal whether or not Phyrexia will win. At this point it could still go either way. The "Aftermath" set and logo seem a little bit more foreboding and sinister than a victory would imply. The phyrexian symbol isn't broken, but instead glows and extends cracks throughout the rest of the words.
To me it almost looks like a star - or an explosion, perhaps indicating the sylex blast?
That said, I would prefer Phyrexia to win this round. A four-set arc seems way too short to deal with this threat, especially when you consider that the Bolas Arc spanned 10 expansions and the original Weatherlight Saga spanned 13.
After yesterday's closing story chapter for Dominaria United, we have only two more modern-day expansions to wrap if this long-anticipated arc. Could that possibly be enough story space to deal with New Phyrexia once and for all?
I loved Yawgmoth's Death Cloud form in the new Toxic Deluge, with hints of his physical shape in the sky, but this new depiction looks a bit too cartoonish for my tastes. I can't quite put my finger on why. This glaring, roaring monster doesn't at all capture the vastness, majesty, and terror of Yawgmoth in the climax of Apocalypse.
I'm glad we get to see this moment in art, but I'm somehow underwhelmed.
The Legacy Weapon itself looks really cool, though. It's a neat effect to show all these powerful artifacts channeling down to a single point to blast the heart out of Yawgmoth.
Everyone's been just assuming that this includes The Brother's War, but are we really sure? All we know is that Dominaria United kicks off a new arc that "spans four sets." The Brother's War, taking place in the past as a flashback, might not be included in this. It seems more likely to me that the arc begun in Dominaria United will be concluded in the three expansions following The Brother's War, judging from the codenames LACROSSE, MARATHON, and MARATHON: EPILOGUE.
Two more present-day stories feels far too short to finish off this Phyrexian arc, unless the Phyrexians conclude this arc by winning and scattering the heroes.
Ertai coming back is typically the sort of thing I would hate. Bringing characters back from the dead, without any prior expectation or setup, is one of the worst tropes in fiction - not only because it's unimaginative, but because it degrades the integrity of the story itself by cheapening life, death, and consequences.
But while I'm upset about Braids coming back, Ertai is at least somewhat okay, if only because his death in Apocalypse felt so disappointing and unworthy for the character. He was such an interesting, promising, and tragic figure, and for him to be reduced to basically a joke and killed off like a chump in a borderline-comedic way... he deserved much better than that. So this resurrection to me feels less like a past character being exploited by lazy storytelling, and more like one being given a second chance.
I'll just have to watch and see where he goes from here.
It is nice, I admit, to have some Old Phyrexian callbacks such as this (plus the references to Gix and Mishra), just to provide a stronger sense of lineage and continuity between the original Phyrexia and the new one. If WotC wants to push that angle further, Croag might be a good character to bring back. His ultimate fate was unknown after all, and he could have survived the devastation of Old Phyrexia, somewhere deep down in the Sixth Sphere. He rained down terror on Dominaria for several centuries leading up to the Invasion, and then he just disappeared from the story without any sort of follow-up. Bringing him back as a present-day menace would hardly strain credulity.
It took Yawgmoth (with all his 9 Spheres) 9,000 years to prepare and launch a Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria.
And Sheoldred thinks she's going to do it just five years after New Phyrexia became a thing?
Ludicrous. Impossible. There needs to be a timeskip, or something to make this plot work out. If New Phyrexia is invading Dominaria, WotC has to explain how Elesh Norn managed in 5 years what took Yawgmoth millennia.
I'm stoked for Phyrexia to be back in the story. But from a storyline and timeline perspective, I'm finding these developments hard to swallow.
Scars of Mirrodin/Mirrodin Beseiged/New Phyrexia feels like a long time ago to us, the players. From our real-world, human standpoint, that was an entire decade ago, and we've been waiting all those years for this plotline to pay off. But 3 years of MTG sets equates (on average) to 1 year in storyline progress, and from the in-world perspective, Phyrexia practically conquered Mirrodin yesterday. How is it already competitive on Dominaria?
There needs to be a timeskip. Preferably a long one. Even Nicol Bolas needed 60 years to set up his final bid for Multiversal conquest leading to the War of the Spark. A post-Mending timeskip helped make that believable.
But if New Phyrexia is already playing to win on Dominaria after five measly years of existence, then **** it. Elesh Norn > Yawgmoth AND Bolas, and she deserves to win.
^ My thoughts from the Spoiler board, but relevant here. I've been following Magic's Story for 20 years now, and I'm a longtime Phyrexian fan. I've loved the MtG canon through all its ups and downs, yet rarely has it demanded me to suspend my disbelief so much as it is right now.
You want me to believe Chandra and Nissa burned down two Lovcraftian Eldritch horrors with a Channel+Fireball, then fine. I'll believe that. I'll even defend it as making sense given the context.
But New Phyrexia's timeline is impossible for me to defend.
It took Yawgmoth (with all his 9 Spheres) 9,000 years to prepare and launch a Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria.
And Sheoldred thinks she's going to do it just five years after New Phyrexia became a thing?
Ludicrous. Impossible. There needs to be a timeskip, or something to make this plot work out. If New Phyrexia is invading Dominaria, WotC has to explain how Elesh Norn managed in 5 years what took Yawgmoth millennia.
I'm stoked for Phyrexia to be back in the story. But from a storyline and timeline perspective, I'm finding these developments hard to swallow.
Scars of Mirrodin/Mirrodin Beseiged/New Phyrexia feels like a long time ago to us, the players. From our real-world, human standpoint, that was an entire decade ago, and we've been waiting all those years for this plotline to pay off. But 3 years of MTG sets equates (on average) to 1 year in storyline progress, and from the in-world perspective, Phyrexia practically conquered Mirrodin yesterday. How is it already competitive on Dominaria?
There needs to be a timeskip. Preferably a long one. Even Nicol Bolas needed 60 years to set up his final bid for Multiversal conquest leading to the War of the Spark. A post-Mending timeskip helped make that believable.
But if New Phyrexia is already playing to win on Dominaria after five measly years of existence, then **** it. Elesh Norn > Yawgmoth AND Bolas, and she deserves to win.
She's assumed dead after being stuck in her own dementia space, because no one can survive being there for hundreds of years... right?
This is the issue: she wasn't just "assumed" dead. She was stated, literally, explicitly, to be dead. Here's the text from the Scourge novel, after she retreats into dementia space for the last time upon being buried alive:
"And then she was simply dead."
Even in a world of magic, resurrecting characters is a thorny issue. It starts to feel like Star Wars, where death has become cheap because anyone can be jerked back out from the grave on a corporate whim.
While the writing was very solid, the imagery was beautifully twisted and fantastic, and there were some truly hard-hitting, unnerving moments (Elesh Norn's gut-wrenching reaction to the pity in Elspeth's eyes), I have qualms with this story's content.
This is the very first fiction in which we've ever seen Elesh Norn appear directly. I would think this would aim to be a terrifying, character-establishing entrance, setting her up as a worthy major villain whom the audience should dread.
Yet she is shown to be very vulnerable here. She is manipulated into feeling fear, toyed with by Ashiok. While Norn certainly retains her aura of regal menace, she is shown, in this debut fiction, during a uniquely weak and vulnerable moment in which someone else has the upper hand and is preying upon her.
Why are we being introduced to her vulnerabilities and insecurities before we even get to see her sowing terror and kicking ass?
This could have been mitigated somewhat if she had actually succeeded in capturing Ashiok. Norn ought to have come out on top, establishing her right here as a power whom all planeswalkers should fear.
Anyway, I still think she's an interesting character, and this vulnerability of hers gives an interesting new dimension to her character. But this seems a bit too soon for it.
Certainly worthy of the character. It definitely raises the anticipation of seeing him in the next set.
On one hand I see where you're coming from, but I ultimately disagree. While it's true that Magic has prioritized setting over character in recent years, Magic's best stories - The Brother's War, the Thran, Nemesis, Chainer's Torment, the Kamigawa Block - have been very character driven. Grub's Ice Age books and Herndon's Ravnica Novels, while certainly drawing a lot of appeal from their settings, also invested a lot in their characters.
I would love to see more of that.
The counterargument would be, of course, that all those stories happened back when novels were a thing. But I'd argue that the best online fiction series we've seen so far was the character-driven Chronicles of Bolas, which delved deep into Bolas, Ugin, and the human relationships of Yasova's family. That series was practically a character study, and as far as I remember it was pretty well-received.
Magic fiction in recent years has been lacking insofar as it hasn't been exploring its characters to their full potential.
Now there's one callback I never expected.
To me it almost looks like a star - or an explosion, perhaps indicating the sylex blast?
That said, I would prefer Phyrexia to win this round. A four-set arc seems way too short to deal with this threat, especially when you consider that the Bolas Arc spanned 10 expansions and the original Weatherlight Saga spanned 13.
After yesterday's closing story chapter for Dominaria United, we have only two more modern-day expansions to wrap if this long-anticipated arc. Could that possibly be enough story space to deal with New Phyrexia once and for all?
I'm glad we get to see this moment in art, but I'm somehow underwhelmed.
The Legacy Weapon itself looks really cool, though. It's a neat effect to show all these powerful artifacts channeling down to a single point to blast the heart out of Yawgmoth.
Everyone's been just assuming that this includes The Brother's War, but are we really sure? All we know is that Dominaria United kicks off a new arc that "spans four sets." The Brother's War, taking place in the past as a flashback, might not be included in this. It seems more likely to me that the arc begun in Dominaria United will be concluded in the three expansions following The Brother's War, judging from the codenames LACROSSE, MARATHON, and MARATHON: EPILOGUE.
Two more present-day stories feels far too short to finish off this Phyrexian arc, unless the Phyrexians conclude this arc by winning and scattering the heroes.
Nice to see New Phyrexia honoring their original creator. It makes it feel like they're here on Dominaria to finish what he started.
But while I'm upset about Braids coming back, Ertai is at least somewhat okay, if only because his death in Apocalypse felt so disappointing and unworthy for the character. He was such an interesting, promising, and tragic figure, and for him to be reduced to basically a joke and killed off like a chump in a borderline-comedic way... he deserved much better than that. So this resurrection to me feels less like a past character being exploited by lazy storytelling, and more like one being given a second chance.
I'll just have to watch and see where he goes from here.
It is nice, I admit, to have some Old Phyrexian callbacks such as this (plus the references to Gix and Mishra), just to provide a stronger sense of lineage and continuity between the original Phyrexia and the new one. If WotC wants to push that angle further, Croag might be a good character to bring back. His ultimate fate was unknown after all, and he could have survived the devastation of Old Phyrexia, somewhere deep down in the Sixth Sphere. He rained down terror on Dominaria for several centuries leading up to the Invasion, and then he just disappeared from the story without any sort of follow-up. Bringing him back as a present-day menace would hardly strain credulity.
^ My thoughts from the Spoiler board, but relevant here. I've been following Magic's Story for 20 years now, and I'm a longtime Phyrexian fan. I've loved the MtG canon through all its ups and downs, yet rarely has it demanded me to suspend my disbelief so much as it is right now.
You want me to believe Chandra and Nissa burned down two Lovcraftian Eldritch horrors with a Channel+Fireball, then fine. I'll believe that. I'll even defend it as making sense given the context.
But New Phyrexia's timeline is impossible for me to defend.
And Sheoldred thinks she's going to do it just five years after New Phyrexia became a thing?
Ludicrous. Impossible. There needs to be a timeskip, or something to make this plot work out. If New Phyrexia is invading Dominaria, WotC has to explain how Elesh Norn managed in 5 years what took Yawgmoth millennia.
I'm stoked for Phyrexia to be back in the story. But from a storyline and timeline perspective, I'm finding these developments hard to swallow.
Scars of Mirrodin/Mirrodin Beseiged/New Phyrexia feels like a long time ago to us, the players. From our real-world, human standpoint, that was an entire decade ago, and we've been waiting all those years for this plotline to pay off. But 3 years of MTG sets equates (on average) to 1 year in storyline progress, and from the in-world perspective, Phyrexia practically conquered Mirrodin yesterday. How is it already competitive on Dominaria?
There needs to be a timeskip. Preferably a long one. Even Nicol Bolas needed 60 years to set up his final bid for Multiversal conquest leading to the War of the Spark. A post-Mending timeskip helped make that believable.
But if New Phyrexia is already playing to win on Dominaria after five measly years of existence, then **** it. Elesh Norn > Yawgmoth AND Bolas, and she deserves to win.
This is the issue: she wasn't just "assumed" dead. She was stated, literally, explicitly, to be dead. Here's the text from the Scourge novel, after she retreats into dementia space for the last time upon being buried alive:
"And then she was simply dead."
Even in a world of magic, resurrecting characters is a thorny issue. It starts to feel like Star Wars, where death has become cheap because anyone can be jerked back out from the grave on a corporate whim.
This is the very first fiction in which we've ever seen Elesh Norn appear directly. I would think this would aim to be a terrifying, character-establishing entrance, setting her up as a worthy major villain whom the audience should dread.
Yet she is shown to be very vulnerable here. She is manipulated into feeling fear, toyed with by Ashiok. While Norn certainly retains her aura of regal menace, she is shown, in this debut fiction, during a uniquely weak and vulnerable moment in which someone else has the upper hand and is preying upon her.
Why are we being introduced to her vulnerabilities and insecurities before we even get to see her sowing terror and kicking ass?
This could have been mitigated somewhat if she had actually succeeded in capturing Ashiok. Norn ought to have come out on top, establishing her right here as a power whom all planeswalkers should fear.
Anyway, I still think she's an interesting character, and this vulnerability of hers gives an interesting new dimension to her character. But this seems a bit too soon for it.
This sort of thing never existed on Kamigawa before. This is an entirely new species, out of left field.
Nowhere, in any of the novels, in any of the old short stories, worldbuilding guides, or other lore, was a species like this ever referred to.
Insect folk on Otaria, sure. But here?
Yeah, maybe he's descended from Planeswalkers, I get it. But it kind of breaks my immersion, in a "red-headed Chandra from Kaladesh" kind of way.
They're continuing that silly owl watermark into 2022?
Why, Wizards? I might have wanted these.