MTG Salvation

The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering
Follow Archive Trap on Twitter and Tumblr Welcome back to Archive Trap, the unofficial guide to Magic: the Gathering. Today we are going to talk about Alara, a plane most of you know and fondly remember as the home of the shards - both the sundered planes and the name for their respective tri-color combinations. Alara was a very popular destination as a multi-color plane, and one of the few planes we haven’t had a true ‘return’ to yet. Outside of Shards of Alara, new Alara cards have popped up in multiple commander products, Magic 2013 (which brought back the Exalted mechanic) and Magic Origins.

The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering
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Welcome back to Archive Trap! Today we're going to talk about the first major post-Mending story: Agents of Artifice. To do that, we'll need to dive into the origins of three Planeswalkers: Tezzeret, Jace Beleren, and Liliana Vess. I've already covered Liliana's story pretty extensively in Liliana, Garruk, and the Veil, but three paragraphs on Agents of Artifice from Liliana's perspective doesn't do a lot to capture the full scope of the story. Because Tezzeret has just re-entered the story after an extended absence, I thought it was high time for a full summary of events that most storyline fans might not be aware of. Agents of Artifice was an interesting book because it doesn't really show our heroes in a flattering light. They all belong to an interplanar organization called the Infinite Consortium, which is exactly as shady as it sounds. While it's not just a criminal organization, the organization is ruthless in the pursuit of it's goals.

The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering
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Welcome back to Archive Trap, the unofficial story column for all things Magic: The Gathering! Today we're talking about Innistrad again, subject of The World of Innistrad and The World of Innistrad Part II: Eldritch Shadows. Today I'm doing something a little bit different: I'm telling the story out of order. The reason for this is that Eldritch Moon is essentially several distinct stories that only overlap by coincidence. There is no grand plan that unites both Nahiri's plot and Jace's investigation, other than that he happened to be looking for Sorin while Nahiri was taking out her vengeance. That is, of course, unless the final twist also means that a certain someone (Emrakul, I'm talking about Emrakul) orchestrated the whole thing somehow.

The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering
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Welcome back to Archive Trap, the unofficial story column for all things Magic: The Gathering! Today we return once more to Innistrad, the subject of our most popular article to date! Sorin Markov, Innistrad's self-proclaimed protector, realized the need for greater defenses on his plane that he didn't have before. Around 1,000 years ago, he created both Avacyn and the Helvault, but in doing so welshed on his promise to Nahiri to defend Zendikar. When she arrived to discover he'd been too busy to help defend her plane, things went… poorly. Now, Sorin's past has come back to haunt him, and two oldwalkers go to war on Innistrad. You can read about the events of the original Innistrad in The World of Innistrad.

The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering

 

Welcome back to Archive Trap, the unofficial story column for all things Magic: The Gathering! Today we’re returning once more to the world of Zendikar, the plane that jumpstarted our articles and that we’ve returned to in Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch. In Part I, we filled you in on all the key players and gave you a little bit of background on each. We also talked about the geography of Zendikar itself, which is as much a character as anything else, with its Roil-torn landscape, ancient dungeons and flavorful artwork. In Part II, we took you back 6,000 years into Zendikar’s past, where three planeswalkers decided the fate of Zendikar, and then took you all the way to just after the Eldrazi's release and Gideon's vow to find help. In Part III we filled you in on what happened between Gideon’s vow to find help and his eventual return to the plane, leading right up to Battle for Zendikar. Part IV explored what's changed since we were last around and addressed the plane as it exists now. Today we're going to talk about the plot and the end of the Eldrazi conflict. Part V took you through the story of Battle for Zendikar, right up to the emergence of Kozilek. Today we take you through the formation of the Gatewatch, in Oath of the Gatewatch.

The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering

 

Welcome back to Archive Trap, the unofficial story column for all things Magic: The Gathering! Today we return once more to the World of Zendikar, the plane that jumpstarted our articles and that we returned to in Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch. In Part I, we filled you in on all the key players and gave you a little bit of background on each. We also talked about the geography of Zendikar itself, which is as much a character as anything else, with its Roil-torn landscape, ancient dungeons and flavorful artwork. In Part II, we took you back 6,000 years into Zendikar’s past, where three planeswalkers decided the fate of Zendikar, and then took you all the way to just after the Eldrazi's release and Gideon's vow to find help. In Part III we filled you in on what happened between Gideon’s vow to find help and his eventual return to the plane, leading right up to Battle for Zendikar. Part IV explored what changed since we were last around and addressed the plane as it exists now. Today we will talk about the plot of Battle for Zendikar and the end of the Eldrazi conflict.

The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering Welcome back to Archive Trap, the unofficial story column for all things Magic: The Gathering! Today we return again to the World of Zendikar, the plane that jumpstarted our articles and that we visited once more in Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch. In The World of Zendikar Part I, we filled you in on all the key players and gave you a little bit of background on each. We also talked about the geography of Zendikar itself, which is as much a character as anything else, with its Roil-torn landscape, ancient dungeons and flavorful artwork. In Part II, we took you back 6,000 years into Zendikar’s past, when three planeswalkers decided the fate of Zendikar, and then brought you to just after the Eldrazi's release and Gideon's vow to find help. In Part III we provided you with what happened between Gideon’s vow to find help and his eventual return to the plane, leading right up to Battle for Zendikar.

The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering

 

Today we continue our coverage of one of the most important events in Magic’s history. The Brothers' War is an event that ended with the devastation of a plane, the birth of the Ice Age and the ascension of Urza Planeswalker. This is the event that would define the rest of Urza's life and shape his personal war with Phyrexia for millenia to come. During Part I, we talked about the continent of Terisiare and the Brothers' lives as young men. Now we return to the brothers after they've both had major upheaval in their lives and have finally ascend to postions of power.

The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering

Today we rewind the clock way back to cover one of the most important events in Magic’s history, and to start us on a path as we explore the pre-mending world of Magic: the Gathering. The Brothers' War is an event that ended with the devastation of a plane, the birth of the Ice Age, and the ascension of Urza Planeswalker. This is the event that defined the rest of Urza's life and shaped his personal war with Phyrexia for millennia to come.

The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering

 

In anticipation of this summer's Conspiracy: Reign of Brago The Empty Throne Take the Crown, our Storyline mods have prepared a definitive guide to the setting of this new set and its predecessor, Conspiracy. Follow our guides exploring the world of intrigue that is Fiora, and try not to get caught up in the plotting!

The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering To prepare everyone for the upcoming Shadows of Innistrad set, our Storyline mods delve into the lore behind one of the most popular planes in Magic history. This edition of Archive Trap is ready to guide you through the gothic horrors Innistrad has to offer, and return you with your spirit intact!

On December 16, 2015, Trick Jarrett posted this article entitled "Why Leaks Hurt." This is nothing new, as every few years Wizards experiences a rather large or ugly leak of their card designs well before they had intended to show them to the public. It has been addressed by Wizards repeatedly, with a number of voices chiming in over the last decade. Wizards' bottom line? Leaks are bad, and not just for them but for you, the consumer. But is that really true? In this article, we'll discuss how and why leaks happen, examine some of the claims made about leaks and analyze why these claims are at best overstated or misleading.

The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering

 

Welcome to Archive Trap, the unofficial story column for all things Magic: The Gathering! In this installment, we talk about Liliana and Garruk, a tale about the Chain Veil and its curse, but one that also encompasses Jace Beleren, Ob Nixilis and Nicol Bolas! Liliana was supposed to get her own planeswalker novel in 2010, but that book was cancelled and its material presumably repurposed for the Liliana stories we’ve been drip fed over the last five years. As always, we encourage you to read the source material for whatever we mention here. Every story mentioned is either available for free online or purchasable as an e-book.

The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering Welcome to Archive Trap, the unofficial story column for all things Magic: The Gathering! Last time, we talked about the origins of the greatest thief in the multiverse: Dack Fayden! Today we finish up that discussion. Dack is a relatively obscure character in the Magic story, as he was created for an IDW comic book series that was cancelled after 17 issues and left on a cliffhanger.

We encourage you to read the source material for whatever we mention here. The comics and collections are out of print, however you can still find copies on Amazon or digitally on Comixology. However, in a recent event, Creative has even mentioned that their new status quo is to essentially retcon anything that doesn’t line up with where they want to go with a character. As far as we can tell, Magic’s story will be a little flexible when it comes to canon for the foreseeable future.

As much as possible our own commentary will be presented slightly different from the main summary, so you can tell what is us musing, versus what is part of the actual plot.

Welcome to Archive Trap, the unofficial story column for all things Magic: The Gathering! In this installment, we talk about the greatest thief in the multiverse: Dack Fayden! Dack is a relatively obscure character in the Magic story, as he was created for an IDW comic book series that was cancelled after 17 issues and left on a cliffhanger.