Magic: The Gathering Thread XXV: 3 Vorthoses barely clinging to sanity and 45 Spikes

[LaZodiac]

Two new magic stories today!

Spoiler: DomU Chapter 4: Special Guest Staring... HOW???

Show

After some brief cameos from the cool New Weatherlight team, our heroes decide to split off to begin forming the New Coalition; Karn and Teferi going to Shiv, Jodah going to Yavimaya (specifically Kroog), and Jaya going to fetch Ajani, who is with the Benalians, specifically Danitha, trying to rescue her father Aron. It is at this moment Karn devulges that his scrying lens is disrupted by Phyrexians... and earlier when he tried to scry Ajani, it got disrupted. Ajani was fighting Phyrexians (Karn assumes) during this moment, but... it was not 100% clear.

And then when Jaya goes to meet Ajani, he smiles. Wide. A thing Ajani does not do, as he is cat- something Karn explicitly mentioned earlier in the series. This is concerning. More concerning; Jaya and friends attack the cave Aron's kidnappers escaped to and find ****ING ERTAI???? Somehow alive despite the Phyrexian healing device Squee blew up in his face ages ago... though given his unnatural palor and eyes, he may be some sort of horrified undead Phyrexian. They engage, Danitha killing her compleated father, and Ertai bringing out a Dreadnaught, and threatens to slaughter them all... but will spare them, if given the planeswalkers. Before the sadistic choice can be made Radha flies in with the ancestral Keldon battle ship and turns the tide! **** yeah!

Jodah meets Meria, the leader of the Yavimayan elves, and an intense lover of ancient Thran tech. She is completely Elf about it, saying her people will fight only on their home soil, and not one whit more. Multani will one day let them return to him, and when he does he will strip any sleeper agents from them, leaving only the safe. They are then immediatelly attacked by Rona, driving a Dragon Engine (likely Thraxos himself given they are in Kroog!), waging utter devestation on the land... and unearthing a Thran "weapon" of sorts that Meria uses. Only surviving thanks to Jodah's portal, the weapon is an Oxygen Destroyer from Godzilla, obliterating everything organic in a large area. Rona survives as the cockpit was air tight, and ****s off running. Meria submits and joins the New Coalition.. but Jodah is worried by how immediate and effective this attack was...

At Shiv, Teferi reports that Darigaaz and the dragons are deliberating- and that the Ghitu and Viashino won't be helping if they don't. The goblins meanwhile volunteer, joining first because, quote, they believe it'll give them leverage in the future. They know the others will join, eventually, so why not join up first and get some clout eh? Karn is still putting off talking to Jhoira, but just then the Weatherlight flies by, chased by a Phyrexian airship-creature thing! Darigaaz appears and eradicates it, reporting that politics is done; Shiv will join the New Coalition.

Karn speaks with Jhoira, catching up and talking about their grief, it's quite nice and cute... and then Jodah phones Karn.

There is a traitor among us.

All in all a good story, though I'm fairly certain I know who the traitor is... and if it is Ajani, it's brutal as hell. OF course... it could be Jodah himself, because...

Spoiler: DomU Side STory 2: Did People Really Like The Carthalion's This Much?

Show

This story is actually pretty nice... but reads kinda fanficcy and not Great, compared to the others. It's about Ulf, a student at Tolaria at Lat-Nam who is... really not suited for magic, but is a good researcher. He finds a book that could very well serve as information vital to retake Corondor and revitalize the Carthalion name to good standing, breaking their curse. He gets harrassed by Phyrexians about it, but Jared, alive and old but still a gruff badass (who is honestly really really lame to me) saves him. We also learn that Dihada is alive, working for Phyrexia, and is currently bodydoubled in as the Archmage of Tolaria at Lat-nam... which puts open the possibility that Jodah got got, since he often works at the Tolaria schools.

Like I said; nice story, but of a lesser quality than the others. I also just think Jared comes off really lame here. Cool, but a lame sort of cool, a throwback to the 80s.

[noob]

It's about Ulf, a student at Tolaria at Lat-Nam who is... really not suited for magic, but is a good researcher.

So exactly what people wanted to have in high amounts back in the era of the artificers?

[LaZodiac]

So exactly what people wanted to have in high amounts back in the era of the artificers?

Yup! Urf woulda done amazingly back in Urza's time. Shame it's the modern day for the lad.

[Personification]

Two new magic stories today!

Spoiler: DomU Chapter 4: Special Guest Staring... HOW???

Show

After some brief cameos from the cool New Weatherlight team, our heroes decide to split off to begin forming the New Coalition; Karn and Teferi going to Shiv, Jodah going to Yavimaya (specifically Kroog), and Jaya going to fetch Ajani, who is with the Benalians, specifically Danitha, trying to rescue her father Aron. It is at this moment Karn devulges that his scrying lens is disrupted by Phyrexians... and earlier when he tried to scry Ajani, it got disrupted. Ajani was fighting Phyrexians (Karn assumes) during this moment, but... it was not 100% clear.

And then when Jaya goes to meet Ajani, he smiles. Wide. A thing Ajani does not do, as he is cat- something Karn explicitly mentioned earlier in the series. This is concerning. More concerning; Jaya and friends attack the cave Aron's kidnappers escaped to and find ****ING ERTAI???? Somehow alive despite the Phyrexian healing device Squee blew up in his face ages ago... though given his unnatural palor and eyes, he may be some sort of horrified undead Phyrexian. They engage, Danitha killing her compleated father, and Ertai bringing out a Dreadnaught, and threatens to slaughter them all... but will spare them, if given the planeswalkers. Before the sadistic choice can be made Radha flies in with the ancestral Keldon battle ship and turns the tide! **** yeah!

Jodah meets Meria, the leader of the Yavimayan elves, and an intense lover of ancient Thran tech. She is completely Elf about it, saying her people will fight only on their home soil, and not one whit more. Multani will one day let them return to him, and when he does he will strip any sleeper agents from them, leaving only the safe. They are then immediatelly attacked by Rona, driving a Dragon Engine (likely Thraxos himself given they are in Kroog!), waging utter devestation on the land... and unearthing a Thran "weapon" of sorts that Meria uses. Only surviving thanks to Jodah's portal, the weapon is an Oxygen Destroyer from Godzilla, obliterating everything organic in a large area. Rona survives as the cockpit was air tight, and ****s off running. Meria submits and joins the New Coalition.. but Jodah is worried by how immediate and effective this attack was...

At Shiv, Teferi reports that Darigaaz and the dragons are deliberating- and that the Ghitu and Viashino won't be helping if they don't. The goblins meanwhile volunteer, joining first because, quote, they believe it'll give them leverage in the future. They know the others will join, eventually, so why not join up first and get some clout eh? Karn is still putting off talking to Jhoira, but just then the Weatherlight flies by, chased by a Phyrexian airship-creature thing! Darigaaz appears and eradicates it, reporting that politics is done; Shiv will join the New Coalition.

Karn speaks with Jhoira, catching up and talking about their grief, it's quite nice and cute... and then Jodah phones Karn.

There is a traitor among us.

All in all a good story, though I'm fairly certain I know who the traitor is... and if it is Ajani, it's brutal as hell. OF course... it could be Jodah himself, because...

Spoiler: DomU Side STory 2: Did People Really Like The Carthalion's This Much?

Show

This story is actually pretty nice... but reads kinda fanficcy and not Great, compared to the others. It's about Ulf, a student at Tolaria at Lat-Nam who is... really not suited for magic, but is a good researcher. He finds a book that could very well serve as information vital to retake Corondor and revitalize the Carthalion name to good standing, breaking their curse. He gets harrassed by Phyrexians about it, but Jared, alive and old but still a gruff badass (who is honestly really really lame to me) saves him. We also learn that Dihada is alive, working for Phyrexia, and is currently bodydoubled in as the Archmage of Tolaria at Lat-nam... which puts open the possibility that Jodah got got, since he often works at the Tolaria schools.

Like I said; nice story, but of a lesser quality than the others. I also just think Jared comes off really lame here. Cool, but a lame sort of cool, a throwback to the 80s.

Spoiler: I didn't hate it, I just wish I could have read the novel it was a summary of (which would probably have answers to my questions)

Show

Yeah, both of these stories felt very... summary... to me, especially the main one (something I'm considering referring to as "act 4/5 in the new paradigm" disease). There were elements of this in the earlier chapters, but it definitely feels like it went from "sneaking corruption and an undercover infiltration by Sheoldred's faction in order to get old Phyrexian tech from Dominaria and maybe lay the groundwork for a true invasion" to "there are Phyrexians EVERYWHERE and the sky is falling aaaaaah!!!!" in about five minutes. If they had the strength and inclination to do a full invasion, why only bring Sheoldred's faction and why wait until your cover was blown to attack. They knew Karn had found them and would eventually blow their cover for months, and by waiting until he caught their bird at the peace talks to strike they lost a lot of their advantage. It's implied that they are just here for Karn, the Sylex, and some other stuff and laying the groundwork for an invasion later, but if that's the case how did they take over all of Argive and Tolaria Lat-Nam (home of the Fighting Volvers (not canon)) with nobody noticing? Why and how is Rona in Yavimaya riding (probably) Traxos? Wasn't he already rampaging when we last saw him in DOM?

My issue wasn't that it was all happening, but that it felt so rushed that I had no time to develop a sense of scale. Are we watching The Thing or War of the Worlds? Similarly, the rushedness led to both an inability to process new information and a very repetative series of false-stakes will-they-or-won't-theys from potential allies. The dragons and most of the other Shivans are still considering it but no they aren't because the Weatherlight, which is covered in decay to hide from the Phyrexians (where? how? why?) is coming chased by not-Skytherix (and thereby we learn that Karn and Teferi are on the ground) and it is immediately saved by Darigaaz. Problem solved! The elves won't help because elves! Except they will because Rona (clearly working on team new coalition here) comes in to make Jodah's point for him and convince them to join. Ajani and Jaya have to give themselves up but no they don't because Radha and her crew fly in on the "Heart of Gold" "Serenity" "Helicarrier From Age Of Ultron" "Unprophesied Second Coming of the Deus Ex-Machina" "Golden Argosy", to save the day. But we have dire news as Jodah has determined that, despite voting Stenn out at the last emergency meeting There is still one imposter among us. How does he know? I read it as being implied by Rona knowing where he was, but we may never be certain. Anyway, no time to think about it, we have an entire block from the nineties to juice into pure nostalgia and only one more chapter to do it!

The second story is similarly disjointed for me. Your analyses of it honestly hit most of my issues with it really well, but I want to reiterate both how little sense the degree of Phyrexian interference, how much people know about it, and its relationship to Dihada and Jared makes. At one point a professor gives Ulf (who really should just switch his major to AG, which according to this means working with horses (it doesn't)) an eye exam to determine he isn't a sleeper agent. Also, as I said before, half of the school is actually a doombot phyrexian because reasons. There is literally nothing connecting the weird Corondor stuff to Phyrexia other than them predating Y2K, and it makes no sense to tie these together. Also, why is there some sort of conspiracy to hide information about Corondor, and is the implication supposed to be that Ulf has library super-magic or that nobody else in a giant school knows how to read an index? This isn't helped by the fact that, as you mentioned, Jared is (according to my quick perusal of his wiki) the most aggressively generic 90's fantasy protagonist that I have ever seen from the Tragic Backstory (tm) to the lost kingdom ruled by a cursed troll to the magic sword to the magical birthmark that makes him the elder druid to the authors somehow thinking that it was a good idea to put him in an intimate relationship with a beautiful-but-actually-1000-years-old woman when he was 16 to the blue ribbon for Conan at the cosplay contest. Also, what has he been doing all of this time?

I did like learning that Tolaria has an Agriculture major, even if nothing else about the academic system described made sense, and I have a new theory (replacing Oko) that Dihada is the Ozolith planeswalker from IKO (if one of the other 5 people in the world who read that is here to know what I am talking about) which might be cool. If they are setting up Dihada as the next BBEG, I'd actually like that, though her connections to Phyrexia in this make that seem less likely.

As usual, the nature of text and my own nitpickiness make it look like I am much more down on these stories than I actually am. They were both fine, and I'm not mad, I'm just... disappointed. I'm also not surprised. With the exception of maybe the Innistrad sets (and even then, they felt it too) every set since ZNR has had the first three chapters paced like they are out of ten or twelve, and the last paced like a book report, and I am learning to live with that fact (). Still, this could have gone better, and it just left me confused.

Oh, and the answer to your question is, I believe, "no".

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler: I didn't hate it, I just wish I could have read the novel it was a summary of (which would probably have answers to my questions)

Show

Yeah, both of these stories felt very... summary... to me, especially the main one (something I'm considering referring to as "act 4/5 in the new paradigm" disease). There were elements of this in the earlier chapters, but it definitely feels like it went from "sneaking corruption and an undercover infiltration by Sheoldred's faction in order to get old Phyrexian tech from Dominaria and maybe lay the groundwork for a true invasion" to "there are Phyrexians EVERYWHERE and the sky is falling aaaaaah!!!!" in about five minutes. If they had the strength and inclination to do a full invasion, why only bring Sheoldred's faction and why wait until your cover was blown to attack. They knew Karn had found them and would eventually blow their cover for months, and by waiting until he caught their bird at the peace talks to strike they lost a lot of their advantage. It's implied that they are just here for Karn, the Sylex, and some other stuff and laying the groundwork for an invasion later, but if that's the case how did they take over all of Argive and Tolaria Lat-Nam (home of the Fighting Volvers (not canon)) with nobody noticing? Why and how is Rona in Yavimaya riding (probably) Traxos? Wasn't he already rampaging when we last saw him in DOM?

My issue wasn't that it was all happening, but that it felt so rushed that I had no time to develop a sense of scale. Are we watching The Thing or War of the Worlds? Similarly, the rushedness led to both an inability to process new information and a very repetative series of false-stakes will-they-or-won't-theys from potential allies. The dragons and most of the other Shivans are still considering it but no they aren't because the Weatherlight, which is covered in decay to hide from the Phyrexians (where? how? why?) is coming chased by not-Skytherix (and thereby we learn that Karn and Teferi are on the ground) and it is immediately saved by Darigaaz. Problem solved! The elves won't help because elves! Except they will because Rona (clearly working on team new coalition here) comes in to make Jodah's point for him and convince them to join. Ajani and Jaya have to give themselves up but no they don't because Radha and her crew fly in on the "Heart of Gold" "Serenity" "Helicarrier From Age Of Ultron" "Unprophesied Second Coming of the Deus Ex-Machina" "Golden Argosy", to save the day. But we have dire news as Jodah has determined that, despite voting Stenn out at the last emergency meeting There is still one imposter among us. How does he know? I read it as being implied by Rona knowing where he was, but we may never be certain. Anyway, no time to think about it, we have an entire block from the nineties to juice into pure nostalgia and only one more chapter to do it!

The second story is similarly disjointed for me. Your analyses of it honestly hit most of my issues with it really well, but I want to reiterate both how little sense the degree of Phyrexian interference, how much people know about it, and its relationship to Dihada and Jared makes. At one point a professor gives Ulf (who really should just switch his major to AG, which according to this means working with horses (it doesn't)) an eye exam to determine he isn't a sleeper agent. Also, as I said before, half of the school is actually a doombot phyrexian because reasons. There is literally nothing connecting the weird Corondor stuff to Phyrexia other than them predating Y2K, and it makes no sense to tie these together. Also, why is there some sort of conspiracy to hide information about Corondor, and is the implication supposed to be that Ulf has library super-magic or that nobody else in a giant school knows how to read an index? This isn't helped by the fact that, as you mentioned, Jared is (according to my quick perusal of his wiki) the most aggressively generic 90's fantasy protagonist that I have ever seen from the Tragic Backstory (tm) to the lost kingdom ruled by a cursed troll to the magic sword to the magical birthmark that makes him the elder druid to the authors somehow thinking that it was a good idea to put him in an intimate relationship with a beautiful-but-actually-1000-years-old woman when he was 16 to the blue ribbon for Conan at the cosplay contest. Also, what has he been doing all of this time?

I did like learning that Tolaria has an Agriculture major, even if nothing else about the academic system described made sense, and I have a new theory (replacing Oko) that Dihada is the Ozolith planeswalker from IKO (if one of the other 5 people in the world who read that is here to know what I am talking about) which might be cool. If they are setting up Dihada as the next BBEG, I'd actually like that, though her connections to Phyrexia in this make that seem less likely.

As usual, the nature of text and my own nitpickiness make it look like I am much more down on these stories than I actually am. They were both fine, and I'm not mad, I'm just... disappointed. I'm also not surprised. With the exception of maybe the Innistrad sets (and even then, they felt it too) every set since ZNR has had the first three chapters paced like they are out of ten or twelve, and the last paced like a book report, and I am learning to live with that fact (). Still, this could have gone better, and it just left me confused.

Oh, and the answer to your question is, I believe, "no".

Well, I can answer some of this. They infiltrated Tolaria at Lat-Nam and New Argive during the months Karn was under the rocks in Koilos. There's also an implication they've been doing this for awhile before even then, like after the first experiment with the Planar Bridge Elesh Norn sent out EVERY Praetor, immediately. So they've all been acting, as of Kaldheim.

I do agree it's all a little fast, yeah. I also figured it was because "wow Rona sure knew how to find me immediately" myself. Also last we saw of Traxos he was just relaxing, possibly moving but most likely not. I don't recall the exact lore they gave for ye olde Scourge of Kroog- but Rona's put him back together with meat!

Also we likely will have more stories. They've said officially stories will continue till release on the 18th, so we've got a main story for tomorrow, the next day, AND maybe the 18th.

I do think it's meant to be that Ulf found something hidden due to natural talents no one else had. Given it's likely the teacher who gave him that eye test (which is a potentially fun tell, actually) was allied with Jared. Tying it more to "Dihada is taking advantage of working with Phyrexia" is neat, but since I know nothing about Carthalion or Corondor it means nothing to me.

I don't think either Oko or Dihada is responsible for the Ozolith stuff. Dihada is too cackling evil villain, and Oko is too "high school anarchist" to be even remotely intelligent enough to be that voice.

[Personification]

Well, I can answer some of this. They infiltrated Tolaria at Lat-Nam and New Argive during the months Karn was under the rocks in Koilos. There's also an implication they've been doing this for awhile before even then, like after the first experiment with the Planar Bridge Elesh Norn sent out EVERY Praetor, immediately. So they've all been acting, as of Kaldheim.

I do agree it's all a little fast, yeah. I also figured it was because "wow Rona sure knew how to find me immediately" myself. Also last we saw of Traxos he was just relaxing, possibly moving but most likely not. I don't recall the exact lore they gave for ye olde Scourge of Kroog- but Rona's put him back together with meat!

Also we likely will have more stories. They've said officially stories will continue till release on the 18th, so we've got a main story for tomorrow, the next day, AND maybe the 18th.

I do think it's meant to be that Ulf found something hidden due to natural talents no one else had. Given it's likely the teacher who gave him that eye test (which is a potentially fun tell, actually) was allied with Jared. Tying it more to "Dihada is taking advantage of working with Phyrexia" is neat, but since I know nothing about Carthalion or Corondor it means nothing to me.

I don't think either Oko or Dihada is responsible for the Ozolith stuff. Dihada is too cackling evil villain, and Oko is too "high school anarchist" to be even remotely intelligent enough to be that voice.

You were totally right about the eyes (which I kind of like in the better-explained context of this story) but I think that, unless they publish something else later, they are counting staggering the side stories and main stories as a story a day, and are still only on the 5-chapter novel summary plan. I'll talk more about this later when I have more time, but I'll leave it at I think this would have been a better place to put the initial Ertai reveal and the eye reveal. If the order of this and the Jared one had been flipped it would have felt smoother. That said, I really liked this, and I liked how they wrote the goblins. Detailed comments and nitpicks to come later.

[LaZodiac]

You were totally right about the eyes (which I kind of like in the better-explained context of this story) but I think that, unless they publish something else later, they are counting staggering the side stories and main stories as a story a day, and are still only on the 5-chapter novel summary plan. I'll talk more about this later when I have more time, but I'll leave it at I think this would have been a better place to put the initial Ertai reveal and the eye reveal. If the order of this and the Jared one had been flipped it would have felt smoother. That said, I really liked this, and I liked how they wrote the goblins. Detailed comments and nitpicks to come later.

Agreed on all counts.

Anyway, we've got two things to talk about today though! Because we also got the Building Words video!

Spoiler: DomU Side Story 3: Squee Best Goblin

Show

Squee, god-king of the goblins, lord of death! He who dies, but doesn't! A wonderful, horrifying little story that would, as Personification says, make a better reveal for Ertai Resurrected, but it's whatever. We get some really fascinating philosophy about goblins in this, the opening paragraph or two about what death means to the cultures of Dominaria is genuinely fascinating and has given me character ideas that I'll never get to use since I'm a forever DM. Ah, nevertheless; the story.

No goblin has died for a week (immediate red flag from me I knew what'd happen next from this), so it's time for a celebratory feast... except someone just got squished by a rock. Specifically a rock security system that is intended to seal the warren. Seems sus to me- and correctly so, the squished gobbo was alive... ish. He's Phyrexian, and Squee knows what that means. He has a really good plan to flush'em out though, when he actually learns how to tell who is a Sleeper Agent (something even Karn hasn't worked out)... unfortunately the person he needs to get this plan done is compleated.

As is every other goblin but his disciple, who he sent off to warn others. Ertai is responsible, trying to obtain Squee's Toy, the Salvation Sphere; said to be older than the Plane itself, much like the SYlex interestingly enough. More interesting, Ertai doesn't just torture Squee endlessly. Sheoldred gave him a job and her whispers demand it. Squee is compleated... but due to his nature of a soul and body divided from each other, tricks himself into blowing the entire mountain up, saving the sphere and killing him off.

Within the realm of the dead once more, Squee meets with... Salvation. A primal, living force from Before. What this means and the sheer majesty of it is lost on Squee, who is smarter than a regular goblin- but still a goblin. She gives him a choice- die for real, or return to his immortal life. Squee, being smarter than a regular goblin, takes a third option. Go back to life, but the next time he dies is it; let him have a chance at a good, satisfying death. Salvation is like "weird flex but okay" because she likes the little guy, and sends him on his way. Squee meets up with his disciple, toy in hand, and head off to save the world.

Probably.

Spoiler: DomU Building Worlds Video, special guest star spoiling a plot point that may just tell the whole twist.

Show

And the world building stream video! There isn't much TO say, all of the stuff we learn plot wise (save for one massive big one) is stuff we already knew; Sheoldred has been here for months and is infiltrating every nook and cranny of the plane. She's got a new body (Sheoldred, The Apocalypse, a gigantic ****ing thresher maw like lower torso) and agents everywhere. It's brutal and horrifying, and the art is EXCEPTIONAL. Love every Phyrexian body horror monstrosity, from the skulls shuffing off to reveal a metallic skull to the hands breaking apart and utilizing Banelish shields as flesh to make gigantic grabby claws. It's beautiful.

Likewise beautiful; Sagas are back! Saga's continue to have some of the single best pieces of art in the game. And continue to make artists go ham; one of the saga's is a real wood burned carving, depicting the Elder Dragon War! We also get this ****ing, outstanding finger paint horror show that is Braid's Frightful Return, and a genuinely loving look at a tapestry depicting Urza Assembling The Nine Titans- very useful for me for DND reasons, funnily enough.

But they let loose one thing. Slipped it in, without thinking.

The Weatherlight gets compleated. Makes "the Weatherlight, dressed in Phyrexian slag to appear stealthy" take a new meaning...

Between this, Ajani's minor oddities, the spy, and the video ending with what feels like a somber memoriam to these characters, reflecting on their sad pasts...

I think we lose.

Dominaria is United... but not the way we think.

[Personification]

Agreed on all counts.

Anyway, we've got two things to talk about today though! Because we also got the Building Words video!

Spoiler: DomU Side Story 3: Squee Best Goblin

Show

Squee, god-king of the goblins, lord of death! He who dies, but doesn't! A wonderful, horrifying little story that would, as Personification says, make a better reveal for Ertai Resurrected, but it's whatever. We get some really fascinating philosophy about goblins in this, the opening paragraph or two about what death means to the cultures of Dominaria is genuinely fascinating and has given me character ideas that I'll never get to use since I'm a forever DM. Ah, nevertheless; the story.

No goblin has died for a week (immediate red flag from me I knew what'd happen next from this), so it's time for a celebratory feast... except someone just got squished by a rock. Specifically a rock security system that is intended to seal the warren. Seems sus to me- and correctly so, the squished gobbo was alive... ish. He's Phyrexian, and Squee knows what that means. He has a really good plan to flush'em out though, when he actually learns how to tell who is a Sleeper Agent (something even Karn hasn't worked out)... unfortunately the person he needs to get this plan done is compleated.

As is every other goblin but his disciple, who he sent off to warn others. Ertai is responsible, trying to obtain Squee's Toy, the Salvation Sphere; said to be older than the Plane itself, much like the SYlex interestingly enough. More interesting, Ertai doesn't just torture Squee endlessly. Sheoldred gave him a job and her whispers demand it. Squee is compleated... but due to his nature of a soul and body divided from each other, tricks himself into blowing the entire mountain up, saving the sphere and killing him off.

Within the realm of the dead once more, Squee meets with... Salvation. A primal, living force from Before. What this means and the sheer majesty of it is lost on Squee, who is smarter than a regular goblin- but still a goblin. She gives him a choice- die for real, or return to his immortal life. Squee, being smarter than a regular goblin, takes a third option. Go back to life, but the next time he dies is it; let him have a chance at a good, satisfying death. Salvation is like "weird flex but okay" because she likes the little guy, and sends him on his way. Squee meets up with his disciple, toy in hand, and head off to save the world.

Probably.

Spoiler: DomU Building Worlds Video, special guest star spoiling a plot point that may just tell the whole twist.

Show

And the world building stream video! There isn't much TO say, all of the stuff we learn plot wise (save for one massive big one) is stuff we already knew; Sheoldred has been here for months and is infiltrating every nook and cranny of the plane. She's got a new body (Sheoldred, The Apocalypse, a gigantic ****ing thresher maw like lower torso) and agents everywhere. It's brutal and horrifying, and the art is EXCEPTIONAL. Love every Phyrexian body horror monstrosity, from the skulls shuffing off to reveal a metallic skull to the hands breaking apart and utilizing Banelish shields as flesh to make gigantic grabby claws. It's beautiful.

Likewise beautiful; Sagas are back! Saga's continue to have some of the single best pieces of art in the game. And continue to make artists go ham; one of the saga's is a real wood burned carving, depicting the Elder Dragon War! We also get this ****ing, outstanding finger paint horror show that is Braid's Frightful Return, and a genuinely loving look at a tapestry depicting Urza Assembling The Nine Titans- very useful for me for DND reasons, funnily enough.

But they let loose one thing. Slipped it in, without thinking.

The Weatherlight gets compleated. Makes "the Weatherlight, dressed in Phyrexian slag to appear stealthy" take a new meaning...

Between this, Ajani's minor oddities, the spy, and the video ending with what feels like a somber memoriam to these characters, reflecting on their sad pasts...

I think we lose.

Dominaria is United... but not the way we think.

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up with the one exception that, while I did really love the story, it had the same problem as the others where literally EVERY NPC was a mimic Phyrexian. This makes especially little sense because it is strongly implied that Squee is pretty hands-on and his kingdom is super isolated. When did they have the time to do this, and if they had done it why wait until cover was blown? Literally all it would have taken would be saying that a quarter were Phyrexians, and the rest were too surprised and/or incompetent to do anything before it was too late. Even that would have been a stretch but at least a doable one.

Unrelated to all of that, (and I agree about being annoyed about the reveal) I learned a few things from the video that I found interesting, including the answer to the age old question of "why does Karn only and always wear pants on Dominaria?" (It's to remember Urza, noted lover of pants and hater of all that is good in the world). I also had a TIL on the statue of young Teferi with the globe in opt having a chunk of the globe (presumably where Zhalfir was) violently torn out, which you can only really see on the super blown up version but is awesome.

Also, maybe it's just me, but I feel like most of the Phyrexians we got art from (including Sheoldred herself) had more of a "Machine Orthodoxy" aesthetic than a "Steel Thanes" aesthetic (machine orthodoxy has lots of porcelain and cleaner lines), which I could be annoyed about because "wrong praetor" or think is a cool nod to the fact that Norn is now in charge of everyone and I have chosen the latter.

Also, They tagged the Raven Man art as "The Raven Man-Dominaria United" which is interesting because A) it probably means he is finally getting a (non-Lim-Dûl or Mairsil, called the Pretender) card and B) it implies that they are going to give that card art that they have had since at least 2015 (the image they showed was also used in Liliana's ORI story).

[LaZodiac]

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up with the one exception that, while I did really love the story, it had the same problem as the others where literally EVERY NPC was a mimic Phyrexian. This makes especially little sense because it is strongly implied that Squee is pretty hands-on and his kingdom is super isolated. When did they have the time to do this, and if they had done it why wait until cover was blown? Literally all it would have taken would be saying that a quarter were Phyrexians, and the rest were too surprised and/or incompetent to do anything before it was too late. Even that would have been a stretch but at least a doable one.

Unrelated to all of that, (and I agree about being annoyed about the reveal) I learned a few things from the video that I found interesting, including the answer to the age old question of "why does Karn only and always wear pants on Dominaria?" (It's to remember Urza, noted lover of pants and hater of all that is good in the world). I also had a TIL on the statue of young Teferi with the globe in opt having a chunk of the globe (presumably where Zhalfir was) violently torn out, which you can only really see on the super blown up version but is awesome.

Also, maybe it's just me, but I feel like most of the Phyrexians we got art from (including Sheoldred herself) had more of a "Machine Orthodoxy" aesthetic than a "Steel Thanes" aesthetic (machine orthodoxy has lots of porcelain and cleaner lines), which I could be annoyed about because "wrong praetor" or think is a cool nod to the fact that Norn is now in charge of everyone and I have chosen the latter.

Also, They tagged the Raven Man art as "The Raven Man-Dominaria United" which is interesting because A) it probably means he is finally getting a (non-Lim-Dûl or Mairsil, called the Pretender) card and B) it implies that they are going to give that card art that they have had since at least 2015 (the image they showed was also used in Liliana's ORI story).

A though I had rereading the story; we know after Squee's compleation he looks out on his people and only some of them are machines- the minority even. So maybe when he got knocked out he was just, squirrelled away in the dark by the compleated one. So not EVERY gobbo was eaten, just enough to cause severe problems.

I did know about Karn's pant situation (which is hilarious given in his first story he notes he really just, detests clothing as a thing) but I also didn't know about the Zhalfir chunk missing from that statue art it's so ****ing outstanding!

Given the last we had heard of Sheoldred was that Elesh Norn beat her ass, I think it is firmly the case that the Machine Orthodoxy have "won" for lack of a better term. And I imagine we'll see more of the aesthetics of the others so far- but Norn's disciples work best for sleeper agents, I imagine.

Raven Man finally getting a card and it being this ancient ass card art is hilarious and I'm all here for it.

[Personification]

A though I had rereading the story; we know after Squee's compleation he looks out on his people and only some of them are machines- the minority even. So maybe when he got knocked out he was just, squirrelled away in the dark by the compleated one. So not EVERY gobbo was eaten, just enough to cause severe problems.

I did know about Karn's pant situation (which is hilarious given in his first story he notes he really just, detests clothing as a thing) but I also didn't know about the Zhalfir chunk missing from that statue art it's so ****ing outstanding!

Given the last we had heard of Sheoldred was that Elesh Norn beat her ass, I think it is firmly the case that the Machine Orthodoxy have "won" for lack of a better term. And I imagine we'll see more of the aesthetics of the others so far- but Norn's disciples work best for sleeper agents, I imagine.

Raven Man finally getting a card and it being this ancient ass card art is hilarious and I'm all here for it.

I knew about the Karn pants thing before (thanks to Incorrect MTG Quotes) but I didn't know why. Was the reason canon before?

[LaZodiac]

I knew about the Karn pants thing before (thanks to Incorrect MTG Quotes) but I didn't know why. Was the reason canon before?

Yup! Karn typically prefers to not wear clothing, but if he is going to wear clothing it'll be when company is about, and something to at least... mostly honour his father. There is not a lot of good in Urza but despite all that he still has some small affection for dear ol' dad.

[Avaris]

Spoiler: I didn't hate it, I just wish I could have read the novel it was a summary of (which would probably have answers to my questions)

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Yeah, both of these stories felt very... summary... to me, especially the main one (something I'm considering referring to as "act 4/5 in the new paradigm" disease). There were elements of this in the earlier chapters, but it definitely feels like it went from "sneaking corruption and an undercover infiltration by Sheoldred's faction in order to get old Phyrexian tech from Dominaria and maybe lay the groundwork for a true invasion" to "there are Phyrexians EVERYWHERE and the sky is falling aaaaaah!!!!" in about five minutes. If they had the strength and inclination to do a full invasion, why only bring Sheoldred's faction and why wait until your cover was blown to attack. They knew Karn had found them and would eventually blow their cover for months, and by waiting until he caught their bird at the peace talks to strike they lost a lot of their advantage. It's implied that they are just here for Karn, the Sylex, and some other stuff and laying the groundwork for an invasion later, but if that's the case how did they take over all of Argive and Tolaria Lat-Nam (home of the Fighting Volvers (not canon)) with nobody noticing? Why and how is Rona in Yavimaya riding (probably) Traxos? Wasn't he already rampaging when we last saw him in DOM?

My issue wasn't that it was all happening, but that it felt so rushed that I had no time to develop a sense of scale. Are we watching The Thing or War of the Worlds? Similarly, the rushedness led to both an inability to process new information and a very repetative series of false-stakes will-they-or-won't-theys from potential allies. The dragons and most of the other Shivans are still considering it but no they aren't because the Weatherlight, which is covered in decay to hide from the Phyrexians (where? how? why?) is coming chased by not-Skytherix (and thereby we learn that Karn and Teferi are on the ground) and it is immediately saved by Darigaaz. Problem solved! The elves won't help because elves! Except they will because Rona (clearly working on team new coalition here) comes in to make Jodah's point for him and convince them to join. Ajani and Jaya have to give themselves up but no they don't because Radha and her crew fly in on the "Heart of Gold" "Serenity" "Helicarrier From Age Of Ultron" "Unprophesied Second Coming of the Deus Ex-Machina" "Golden Argosy", to save the day. But we have dire news as Jodah has determined that, despite voting Stenn out at the last emergency meeting There is still one imposter among us. How does he know? I read it as being implied by Rona knowing where he was, but we may never be certain. Anyway, no time to think about it, we have an entire block from the nineties to juice into pure nostalgia and only one more chapter to do it!

The second story is similarly disjointed for me. Your analyses of it honestly hit most of my issues with it really well, but I want to reiterate both how little sense the degree of Phyrexian interference, how much people know about it, and its relationship to Dihada and Jared makes. At one point a professor gives Ulf (who really should just switch his major to AG, which according to this means working with horses (it doesn't)) an eye exam to determine he isn't a sleeper agent. Also, as I said before, half of the school is actually a doombot phyrexian because reasons. There is literally nothing connecting the weird Corondor stuff to Phyrexia other than them predating Y2K, and it makes no sense to tie these together. Also, why is there some sort of conspiracy to hide information about Corondor, and is the implication supposed to be that Ulf has library super-magic or that nobody else in a giant school knows how to read an index? This isn't helped by the fact that, as you mentioned, Jared is (according to my quick perusal of his wiki) the most aggressively generic 90's fantasy protagonist that I have ever seen from the Tragic Backstory (tm) to the lost kingdom ruled by a cursed troll to the magic sword to the magical birthmark that makes him the elder druid to the authors somehow thinking that it was a good idea to put him in an intimate relationship with a beautiful-but-actually-1000-years-old woman when he was 16 to the blue ribbon for Conan at the cosplay contest. Also, what has he been doing all of this time?

I did like learning that Tolaria has an Agriculture major, even if nothing else about the academic system described made sense, and I have a new theory (replacing Oko) that Dihada is the Ozolith planeswalker from IKO (if one of the other 5 people in the world who read that is here to know what I am talking about) which might be cool. If they are setting up Dihada as the next BBEG, I'd actually like that, though her connections to Phyrexia in this make that seem less likely.

As usual, the nature of text and my own nitpickiness make it look like I am much more down on these stories than I actually am. They were both fine, and I'm not mad, I'm just... disappointed. I'm also not surprised. With the exception of maybe the Innistrad sets (and even then, they felt it too) every set since ZNR has had the first three chapters paced like they are out of ten or twelve, and the last paced like a book report, and I am learning to live with that fact (). Still, this could have gone better, and it just left me confused.

Oh, and the answer to your question is, I believe, "no".

I haven’t been following the story closely, but flicked through the final story and very much got the impression it was a little rushed to conclusion.

Spoiler

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Major story beats of ‘Ajani is a Phyrexian Sleeper Agent’ and ‘Jaya dies’ felt like they passed by in a paragraph or two!

[enderlord99]

I just had a game where I was "on curve" for around 12 turns. The presence of ramp meant that I spent a lot more than 12 mana on the last one, obviously.

[LaZodiac]

Finally, after one thousand years I'm free to conquer earth write the rest of the story summaries and Wizards Presents info.

Spoiler: DomU Side Story 4: Did Braids join the crew at the end or what?

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Shanna and the Weatherlight! They're doing their do, Weatherlight dressed up in Phyrexian garbage to let them stealth mode around... but not enough to fail to antagonize a bone dragon. They take it out, but they get grounded as well. Raff can sense a magical source they can use to repair the ship, so he, Shanna, and Tiana go to find it... and find Braids instead. Braids is a delightful little gremlin of madness who is quite enjoyable to read, and she offers to help them out so long as they help her kill her. Turns out she can seperate chunks of herself to make more of herself, and the latest herself to be knocked off decided it didn't WANT to stop being herself and instead be her own herself. Naturally.

With no real idea who the hell Braids is because she wasn't like, a high ranking Cabal agent and thus is probably forgotten by history, everyone's chill and decides to help her out as long as she promises not to kill them. She does, they go to where the other Braids is relaxing, walk through a fun fun nightmare corridor, then fight and kill her- Braids specifically coming in at the end to devour the fragment of herself. They take the machine parts and return to the Weatherlight.

Only, unfortunately, to find it blowing up some extras. The phyrexian garbage was not quite so dead as they thought, and has compleated the poor boat. Tiana is hyper depressed because this is the second vitally important artifact she was assigned to protect, and the one that her soul was made for, so she uh... she's having a bad time. But all the named characters and at least some of the red shirts survive, and the Weatherlight flies off to join the war effort... on the other side.

I did like this story, but this is one of those ones that felt the most like "we should have gotten more".

Spoiler: DomU Side Story 5: Cat baby cat baby cat baby!

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Then we have a story about Niambi, Teferi's daughter, with some deep cut references to characters I don't particularly care about but know get treated really really well and cool here. It's a simple story, Niambi using her status as a healer and a speaker of dreams (someone who interprets dreams) to save a tribe of leonin from being lost to the wastes. A baby is delivered, so real politik is had, Niambi is boss as hell, there's absolutely no metaphors about refugees in this story that would be relevant to our modern day at all nope not at all not even a bit oops look at all this very direct parallels I'm dropping nevermind those that's, it's just a story it's not related at all to real life.

Anyway the story was good, and a lovely shining spot of hope given no one was evil and ostensibly no one dies (the Phyrexian machine will kill hundreds but they'll likely stop it before many are killed. It's fine!)

And finally...

Spoiler: DomU 5: Elesh Norn Grabbing The Infinity Gauntlet Moment

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The finale. Jhoira is setting the Mana Rig up to blow as others set up the canon, just in case. The war effort is going... not great. A Phyrexian Sleeper was found in the food so no dinner tonight. There's a grand picture of the pressure this sort of war causes, a snapshot of it, as Karn wonders just how they'll manage things, and when the others will arrive to help. Then the Phyrexians begin to swarm, an army- and a Dreadnought. And, in the distance, Sheoldred in a dragon engine... and the Weatherlight, speeding in fast. Ertai is aboard, and he leaps down to say hi to ol' Shovelhead. He and Karn fight, and Ertai basically rips Karn to pieces, leaving him a broken mess. Good thing he's a robot... and good thing Ajani is here to save the day! Ajani swoops in with Jaya and Jodah and the elves and the Benalish and the Keld and Ajani yeets Eretai off the Mana Rig and defends Karn as the fighting continues to rampage on.

But, slowly but surely, the tide is shifting. Karn tells Jaya to get the Sylex and leave. She gets the Sylex, but... due to the precautions Karn made, the box is too heavy for her to take with her. She's like 170 years old, that's warranted. So Karn opens the box so she can retrieve the Sylex and just leave with it; it isn't ideal, but it's better than nothing.

Then it happens. And the way it's described you can see the genuine, hellish torture of it. Ajani starts to shift, and he can feel it. He mouths wordlessly no, no, no as the unfortunate reality (that I called, sadly) asserts itself. Our loveable cat dad has been compleated. He drives his axe into the retreating Jaya, and everyone is stunned- too stunned to move. Jaya tries one last violent flash of flame to take him out with her... but it's not enough. He throws grandma off the Mana Rig, to her death. Ajani crushes the Sylex and picks up Karn, Sheoldred stopping by to taunt them about how this victory is ours, and that with the Mana Rig they will create an unstoppable tide.

Jhoira appears to flip off the Phyrexian's, all the named characters (save Karn, Ajani, and Jaya) escape via portal or Golden Argosy, and Sheoldred signals Tezzy to get them back home. The Mana Rig explodes, wiping out the Phyrexian forces in the area (rip Ertai probably), and the invasion ceases, likely receding back into the shadows now that the Praetor isn't leading things.

Things are not good for our heroes. Despondent and destroyed, Jodah and Teferi go to find Jaya's body, the former begging, pleading that she may yet live. She's made of sterner stuff, she can't... but, she can. They make a memorial to her, though yet unfinished till Karn returns. Teferi makes his decision; they may not have the Sylex anymore, but they have that document on stone Karn found. It describes the effects of the Sylex and generally how it functions- but in a purely mechanical sense. A blueprint of sorts. So he taps Saheeli Rei to make that for him as he goes to Urza's tower, with a device seemingly based on the Sun from Ixalan given how it is boosting his powers (also made by Saheeli) and does the unthinkinable.

It's time for a time heist.

And, of course, back on New Phyrexia, Elesh Norn greets her father, radiant and resplendent. She takes his damaged lump of a body to a sandy plain, where she shows him the future; a fledgling world tree, from which all of Phyrexia will reach out and grab hold of the multiverse.

All will be One.

Overall I'd say the stories are very good! The same complaints about feeling rushed or needing more air to breath continues to be true, but no one doubts that and the stories are still good that aside- and these ones I feel managed to handle it well, in my opinion. The drama hit where it needed to, and the implications for the future are going to be brutal. And also as just a warning; all my favorite characters have died or been compleated since this arc began, so if I like someone you like prepare your eulogy now.

------

Of course that's not all. What's coming up next for the year? Well, Wizard's Presents (and me, your lovely reporter) have got you covered.

Spoiler: Untap, upkeep, draw, island, Future Sight, pass.

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Next set up is The Brother War. Primarily a retelling of the past story, from the observer perspective of Teferi who is learning how to use the Sylex so that he can actually make use of the damn thing Saheeli creates. And that's it, no other time ****ery is going to be involved that we know of. I swear.

After that we get PHYREXIA: ALL WILL BE ONE, finally returning to everyone's favorite mechanical body horror hellscape so we can watch... well, we don't know. Presumably Teferi and the gang will try and stop Elesh Norn from finishing her little gardening project, and we know they'll fail, but perhaps they'll succeed in some way (like say, reconnecting with Melira and inoculating all my favorite characters so they only have to worry about dying and not compleating? Please?). I'm curious what'll happen... but since we know the next two sets, we know what happens.

MARCH OF THE MACHINE! Elesh Norn's compleated world tree baby branches out into the multiverse and succeeds at the task one of my players in my MTG DND campaign does because they consistently keep making **** I'm writing for said campaign become canon! The multiverse is linked, planebound can travel to other planes. It's like Kaldheim writ large, which is honestly rather clever- presumably the hope of Elesh Norn is to outright Domskar the entire multiverse together. Our heroes fight, tooth and nail and flame and fin, to stop the beautiful menace that is Elesh Norn.

Which brings us to MARCH OF THE MACHINE: AFTERMATH. Which. I mean they do, succeed, but the How is left unknown... and to quote the video, the rules of the multiverse have fundementally changed in the aftermath. We pick up the pieces and recover, and look at how the world will be when a planeswalker's spark is not the most unique thing about them. What will things look like, when anyone can just go as they please? How will cultures clash? I wonder...

After that, it's time for... the Wilds of Eldraine! We're back to celtic fairy tale land, with an emphasis on the fairy tale wilds. We got a card for Morgan la Fey. Hopefully with 100% less Oko.

And after that; The Lost Caverns of Ixalan! Time for an adventuresome party on the plane of Ixalan. Woo.

Lots of stuff to look forward too. Excited to see how it all plays out. Have spoiled the above on the off chance no one wants to read all of it/wants to go into the sets with zero foreknowledge, but good luck with that.

Also Doctor Who is getting a commander deck series. Neat.

[enderlord99]

I've figured for a while that that there was going to be a card with the typeline "Legendary Planeswalker - Norn" but, after giving it some thought, I have an even more specific prediction to make:

Spoiler: That card's ult (not including loyalty cost)

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You get an emblem with "creatures you control get +1/+1" and "creatures your opponents control get -1/-1"

It's either that or exactly double that. Calling it now. Screenshot this.

[Spore]

Very excited for new Ajani from a story perspective!

Spoiler

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Nobody tell them!

[enderlord99]

I just noticed that Karn's Sylex effectively gives Terror of the Peaks hexproof.

[Dienekes]

I know this is probably old news to everyone. But cracked some packs for the new set and I got freaking Astor. They finally made a card for my guy! Hell yeah, he was protagonist of the first MTG book I ever got.

Great blast from the past.

Now I just got to find a deck for him. Pity my fighter equipment deck has basically all the cards in it rotating out.

[Personification]

I know this is probably old news to everyone. But cracked some packs for the new set and I got freaking Astor. They finally made a card for my guy! Hell yeah, he was protagonist of the first MTG book I ever got.

Great blast from the past.

Now I just got to find a deck for him. Pity my fighter equipment deck has basically all the cards in it rotating out.

Ah, another Vorthos I see. I admit, I didn't know the character before now, but everyone having their random favorite cardless character that they have been waiting forever to get a card is one of coolest parts of the game.

According to the blurb they put out for him yesterday, since the last invasion (i.e. Invasion) he has been in suspended animation inside of the Golden Argosy, waiting King Arthur style for England'sKeld's hour of need. He never actually appears onscreen because they had an entire planetary invasion to foreshadow, start, finish, reminisce on, and rebuild from (plus some commander decks to introduce) and only 10 blog posts to do it, but the blurb assures us that he did lots of cool stuff and had interesting interactions with Radha offscreen, where they can't be billed by the creative team.

[LaZodiac]

Ah, another Vorthos I see. I admit, I didn't know the character before now, but everyone having their random favorite cardless character that they have been waiting forever to get a card is one of coolest parts of the game.

According to the blurb they put out for him yesterday, since the last invasion (i.e. Invasion) he has been in suspended animation inside of the Golden Argosy, waiting King Arthur style for England'sKeld's hour of need. He never actually appears onscreen because they had an entire planetary invasion to foreshadow, start, finish, reminisce on, and rebuild from (plus some commander decks to introduce) and only 10 blog posts to do it, but the blurb assures us that he did lots of cool stuff and had interesting interactions with Radha offscreen, where they can't be billed by the creative team.

Snark aside it is pretty rad.

Some other highlights; Braids was freed from the Nightmare Dimension by cultists exploding their heads horribly graphically! Moira is a chill ghost lady who teaches people how to be dead. Najal rolled five consecutive natural twenties and ended up charging up with enough electricity right as she hit an old planar boundry and ended up running from Rabiah to Dominaria! Tori is paraplegic and has a specially trained warhorse with a specially made saddle so she can still ride around kicking the **** out of things!

All in all, pretty cool!

[enderlord99]

Happy Yargle Day

EDIT: Just attacked with a 47/47 with trample and deathtouch, bringing my opponent down from 6 life to 2. They didn't have 43 blockers, but they did have a decent number of blockers with Lifelink.

[samduke]

Dominaria united on deck looks interesting

I am looking for some singles, sanguine & exquisite bond, timeless lotus

Pm me with your discord , for discussion

[enderlord99]

Why did both Science Mom and Cat Dad have to become evil robots?

[LaZodiac]

Why did both Science Mom and Cat Dad have to become evil robots?

Because they're my favorite characters and my favorite characters either turn out to be ruthless villains or extreme suffering hours. Sometimes both.

As a serious answer: Tamiyo and Ajani are both the most shocking, impactful thing. Tamiyo is a tertiary character who is quite popular but hasn't really gotten much screen time, so her being the first to fall (technically) is seriously impactful. Ajani as the follow up is a nail-in-the-coffin that makes it clear that no one is safe. It's not just tertiary fan favorites but people who are obstensibly main characters- hell, Ajani's a major protagonist of the first real Mending era Planeswalker story, Alara! He's a big deal that makes it clear that Anyone could be hit.

All of this of course is in addition to the fact that we know, canonically, that Tibalt's got Vorinclex's seed in him. He's gonna get compleated eventually, it's just a matter of when, not if. But that was a minor thing, easily unnoticed even in the ramp up of Phyrexian aggression. It doesn't lessen the impact because he's a nasty lad fail-son villain, we didn't expect him not to get got.

(fun fact Tibalt is also one of my favorite characters, but his Extreme Suffering Hours is hilarious, so it's positive actually)

[Emmerlaus]

I would have prefered that Sorin was the one compleated. He is supposed to be an heroic character after all and the compleated version could look really nightmarish, like a Nosferatu vampire.

For Tibalt, I dont care if he becomes compleated. Personnaly, Im actually looking foward to it.

If we went with the "nobody is safe trope", I would have picked Jace. Troll us into thinking he is compleated, only for him to have transfered his mind into a clone and looking to restaure himself in a later set.

If its cheating it out too much, compleated Ral would have being fun. Make him boyfriend devastated from it.

[LaZodiac]

I would have prefered that Sorin was the one compleated. He is supposed to be an heroic character after all and the compleated version could look really nightmarish, like a Nosferatu vampire.

For Tibalt, I dont care if he becomes compleated. Personnaly, Im actually looking foward to it.

If we went with the "nobody is safe trope", I would have picked Jace. Troll us into thinking he is compleated, only for him to have transfered his mind into a clone and looking to restaure himself in a later set.

If its cheating it out too much, compleated Ral would have being fun. Make him boyfriend devastated from it.

"Sorin is a hero" is honestly a tough sell nowadays, though Vampire Wedding did a good job of it. I'd just be sad if he got compleated now, dude lost his grampy. Though it would be funny to have him be like, friendship ended with Edgar now Yawgmoth is my new grampa.

I care about Tibalt getting compleated only so far as "Tibalt is a perfect little guy to beat up" character wise. He's just a guy! He kidnapped Chandra's mom and tied her to a chair and, without freeing herself from said chair or ropes, she beat him in a fist fight. He's a Loser and it's hilarious, and it'll be sad to see him go.

Jace getting compleated and shunting his mind into a clone would be... weird. He can do it, sorta, we saw that in Agents of Artifice, but I think it'd need to be a PERSON, not a clone. No sentience to like, replace with his own. It would still also effectively kill him since Jace wouldn't be Jace, the Planeswalker, but A Guy Named Jace. Also, there's always going to be this lingering "Jace is an ******* and The Protagonist of Magic" stank on him that'll make him getting compleated not hit right. Ajani meanwhile has no such negativity attached, so it's a sharper cut.

Ral being compleated would, in the face of people's anger with how War of the Spark Aftermath ended, basically just kill some people from brain aneurysm.

[The Hellbug]

They could always drag my boy Garruk through the dirt some more. It's about that time in the cycle again.

More seriously, the 'going after characters who people liked but weren't the super most important characters' is a tried and true method in these sorts of things. I just wish they'd pick on the humans more. We've got all these cool fantasy peoples and yet the planeswalkers feel like they're all humans plus one of each other kind of person so it's kind of annoying they've started with them.

[LaZodiac]

They could always drag my boy Garruk through the dirt some more. It's about that time in the cycle again.

Garruk's doing well as the twin's weird uncle (and, in the MTG comics, dressed to the ****ing NINES as a speak-easy bouncer, suspenders and rolled up sleeves and all, beating up Tibalt with a baseball bat. Hand to god this is happening and it kicks ass) so it's unlikely anything negative will happen to the guy. Elspeth is the primary pivot point of the Phyrexian arc, so Ajani getting got is important for her as well- Garruk being compleated wouldn't accomplish anything.

EDIT: I do feel you on the "please more non-standard humans" comment by the way. I do hope we lose some humans and add in some not-humans, but WOTC higher ups (ie, shareholders and supreme bosses, not people like Maro) have always been Weird Dumb Idiots about this.

[Personification]

Sorin's just too much of a paranoid loner to get Compleated, and while, relative to some of the memes, Innistrad isn't quite as extra-planar-proof as people say, it is fairly well defended against Phyrexian incursion. The people don't trust anything or anyone, the werewolves and vampires are an actual physical threat to a sleeper agent, the ghosts are uncompleatable and actively an asset to the humans, and both the archangels/angels and Sorin are entirely capable of a "nuke them all from orbit" plan on a suspected Praetor, especially with Liesa back. Completing Sorin would have to happen off plane, and he doesn't get lured into dark alleys, he IS the thing in the dark alley. Honestly, a compleated Sorin would feel like a failure of the character.

I honestly don't think Tibalt is going to get compleated, at least not by what Vorinclex did to him. I read that as at least something of a bluff. At the time, they hadn't cracked Sparks yet, so he'd lose his spark if it happened, and he has no machine parts, so the automatic process likely won't work. Plus, it would be way to "Oh no, Tibalt... anyway..."

I honestly don't see any major Black Planeswalker getting hit. Other than Tibalt, they are all way too paranoid/competent. Lili has her veil, the Raven Man, and a mostly satisfyingly completed character arc to protect her, Davriel is just THE MOST paranoid, and is on Innistrad, Nixilis has been playing the world domination game for too long to get outplayed by some upstart who thinks they're the new Yawgmoth, Ashiok is the other corner in the alignment triangle containing ELdrazi and Phyrexians already, Kaya has seen too many Noir movies to fall for this, Nissa has Forsaken-regret plot armor, Vraska's already surrounded by power-hungry half-dead things that want to kill her and take her throne, and she's been fine for a while, and Bolas is both on indefinite hiatus and has the same excuse as Nixilis except in his mind Yawgmoth was just a wannabe Bolas.

[LaZodiac]

I honestly don't think Tibalt is going to get compleated, at least not by what Vorinclex did to him. I read that as at least something of a bluff. At the time, they hadn't cracked Sparks yet, so he'd lose his spark if it happened, and he has no machine parts, so the automatic process likely won't work. Plus, it would be way to "Oh no, Tibalt... anyway..."

I honestly don't see any major Black Planeswalker getting hit. Other than Tibalt, they are all way too paranoid/competent. Lili has her veil, the Raven Man, and a mostly satisfyingly completed character arc to protect her, Davriel is just THE MOST paranoid, and is on Innistrad, Nixilis has been playing the world domination game for too long to get outplayed by some upstart who thinks they're the new Yawgmoth, Ashiok is the other corner in the alignment triangle containing ELdrazi and Phyrexians already, Kaya has seen too many Noir movies to fall for this, Nissa has Forsaken-regret plot armor, Vraska's already surrounded by power-hungry half-dead things that want to kill her and take her throne, and she's been fine for a while, and Bolas is both on indefinite hiatus and has the same excuse as Nixilis except in his mind Yawgmoth was just a wannabe Bolas.

The way I see it, Tibalt is in pre-op. Vorinclex put the oil in him just to like, prep him for it. Eventually it'll sink in and draw him to New Phyrexia. What we know from his story is that the threat of it "blooming" in him was enough to make him do everything he did on Kaldheim, so they may just strong arm him.

Liliana doesn't have the veil anymore, and she's actively fighting to rip the Raven Man from her brain, but yeah this is true otherwise. Lili is safe as far as I'm concerned (only favorite of mine who is honestly). Dave would never get compleated, he'd nope out the instant he saw a hint of spook **** going on. It'd be funny if Ob got owned, but he's really busy with his New Capenna gang war.

I could see Ashiok getting got if only because Elspeth is pissed as **** about the nightmare meat garden they inflicted upon her- but that'd require finding the folk. Kaya would almost certainly just go ghost fully to avoid compleation, yeah.

I'mma disagree with you on Nissa. Given the prevelance of Chandra in the few arts we've seen for March of the Machine, it could be that they drag one final knife through our souls and make Chandra have to fight a compleated Nissa. Nissa could also theoretically be completed by Urabrask to be an allied Phyrexian and give us the most cursed Gruulfriends possible (and make Nissa a candidate for four, maybe even five colours). Nissa is also one of my favorites so, worth noting.

You're forgetting Angrath (another of my favorites ;_;) who also suffers from the chibi-walker curse (the secret lair that shows a bunch of chibified walkers... two for two of whom are compleated now). He'd probably explode everything to death before he ever let them compleat him though, so he's... hopefully safe???

That all being said; I can imagine we'll get one compleated walker for each colour pair, or half of the colour pairs. That seems a likely like, amount. If that makes sense.