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

[IthilanorStPete]

I've only read the first 2 stories so far, but I definitely liked them.

Spoiler: Brother's War story spoilers

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Seeing the aftermath of the war is interesting, as is getting more of Kayla's POV than what was in the original novel, especially with her learning magic. Incidentally, "Duck" was Ashnod's nickname for Tawnos in the old book, fun to see that get referenced. I love those two, even if Ashnod is...ethically challenged.

[enderlord99]

Why is it that when I say "I like long, complicated games" people hear "I play lots of counterspells and stax pieces"

Those strategies are indeed long, but they're not that complicated.

[Spore]

Why is it that when I say "I like long, complicated games" people hear "I play lots of counterspells and stax pieces"

Those strategies are indeed long, but they're not that complicated.

I don't know, but I sometimes hate your opinions on this very thread, but I would love to delve into some degenerate control mirrors with you. Trolling people with Teferi 5 and T3feri in MTGA was like the most fun I have had outside of Big Red Control. The former deck around Teferi 5 didnt even have a proper wincon, it was literally just designed around winning microscopic advantages, and either annoying your enemy to death: Just take your enemy wincon. If I **** up I have no wincon, only suffering.

[IthilanorStPete]

Why is it that when I say "I like long, complicated games" people hear "I play lots of counterspells and stax pieces"

Those strategies are indeed long, but they're not that complicated.

Depending on the particular control deck, counterspell-based control mirrors can be really interesting with a lot of subtle maneuvering and interesting decisions, but they can also just be really slow grindfests.

[Androgeus]

I hate grindfests, mainly because I know I'll make a misplay leading to my loss. I'll stick to playing the most aggressive versions of RDW I can.

[Personification]

Thanks for the great write up, LaZodiac. One small nitpick is that Nod and Duck actually founded the Conclave of Mages, not the Tolarian Academy. Though speaking of the Tolarian Avademy, I love the note that the last time Teferi saw the face Elspeth made when she learned about Ajani was when he told Barrin about Rayne, which is DARK.

[LaZodiac]

Thanks for the great write up, LaZodiac. One small nitpick is that Nod and Duck actually founded the Conclave of Mages, not the Tolarian Academy. Though speaking of the Tolarian Avademy, I love the note that the last time Teferi saw the face Elspeth made when she learned about Ajani was when he told Barrin about Rayne, which is DARK.

Okay that's my bad, I forgot what the big mage school was in the Ice Age. Thanks for the correction.

Also yeah ****, especially given what Barrin does immediately after that... yeah. That's dark as hell, and very sad.

[Spore]

I hate grindfests, mainly because I know I'll make a misplay leading to my loss. I'll stick to playing the most aggressive versions of RDW I can.

Isn't a misplay in RDW usually much more devastating? Of course your loss comes 20x sooner, but still. Aggro decks do not allow for misplays.

[LaZodiac]

More stories today! Let us peel away just a bit more of the past...

Spoiler: BROWAR PAST 4: The Hell of War and the Beauty of Humanity

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Episode 4: The Ink of Empires. We follow Farid, a Fallaji soldier in Mishra's army, and we get a lovely detailing of the powerful hell that is Waiting In War. The cold nights, the rotting trench. The dwindling supplies. It's honestly really well done. Then replacements arrive, and it becomes a lot clearer what this story is going to be about specifically; the genuine reality that this is a useless spat between two brothers that has dragged the entire world into it. There is an amazing scene where Farid tells a righteous, angry young soldier the truth of it. How the trench is older than he is, and how the dead have no allegiance- and neither should the living. If the line breaks you grab your cloak and boots and run. There will always be another trench, there may not be another pair of cloak and boots.

Sadly, the arrival of Ashnod's horrifying, Cenobite ass Transmogrants show up. It's clear that they're gearing up for a push. This coincides with something Farid and friends have done a lot- going out to trade supplies with Argivian's who also understand that war is a suckers game and they should hate their higher ups instead of each other. They talk, they share food and drink, they laugh, and it is beautiful. A reminder that even in this mudcaked hell, humanity still exists. They warn them of the Transmogrants, and are warned in turn of Tawnos' clay soldiers. The push begins, it is brutal, but the likewise warning ensures both sides survive. Life continues onward.

Teferi, popping in, watches with much sadness. This is true hell, and the waste of all this potential is sickening... to him, and existence. He can sense it, so many lives being lost that the timeline becomes bloated with it. He figured that'd be the easiest way to find the Argivian Reckoning happening... but there's JUST SO MUCH DEATH. He can't find it all. He does find scavengers, clearly future phyrexian cultists... who ask if he is the being from their dreams. Creepy.

Spoiler: BROWAR PRESENT 2: Saheeli Chooses Peace

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Chapter 2: Antiquities. Hah I see what you're doing MTG. Each present chapter is going to be an old set name. Nice.

Anyway this chapter focuses on Saheeli and her difficulties with the Temporal Anchor. Inspired by Urza's old time machine (but not directly, she took one look at the blueprints and was aghast at the thought that it ever functioned, especially since it gave zero ****s about the pilot), but designed to only send Teferi's spirit back, to avoid causing any timeline changes. Just too risky to do. They also note that the Moonsilver Key from Innistrad (which is integral to making time flow right on that plane) is being used to help with the time magic stuff. Nice! Kaya is also helping, because her ability to be half ghost and extend that to others allows her to make Teferi dead enough to go back in time as a spirit. Clever use of her powers!

Unfortunately, the machine is constantly faltering for some reason or another... and we finally learn why. A ghost, coming out of the sphere we saw MANY years ago in Teferi's first modern day story! it is here that we get the secondary function of the story; delving into Saheeli's past. We dip back, to her days as a young wunderkid inventor... being kidnapped by Gonti, Lord of Luxury, the Aetherborn crimelord. They need her to fix their heart, and will slaughter their entire family to do so. Left with little choice she does so, talking withthem all the while. Saheeli really wishes they'd stop doing crime that negatively affects others, and Gonti gives the genuinely good rebuttal of "Ghirapur considered us nonhumans worthy of extermination I don't really give a **** what happens to other people". Saheeli has no way to solve generational trauma on this scale and thus relents.

However, upon fixing their heart, she learns that her family was never in danger; Gonti had already given the order not to kill them. An extension of good faith, because while Gonti is a crimelord who has experience the worst of this world and decided to own it, believing "to fight to war, you must BECOME the war", even they understand that peace should be given a chance. Saheeli takes genuine comfort in this, and while she is still distrustful of the Aetherborn crimelord, this does tie them as allies if not friends. Saheeli takes this lesson to heart; namely, that she'll never stop striving for peace.

It is with this in mind that she suggests they try to talk with the ghost sabotaging the Temporal Anchor. After catching and cornering it, we learn it is General Suruman, Urza's military commander! He was trying to stop them because, well... the fear that Urza's machines could be revived was too much to bare. It kept his spirit lingering for 5000 years, after all. Sadly he refuses to see the light, and Kaya sends him off into it- she's none to happy about it, and assures him he'll see his family on the other side. Saheeli is warmed by Kaya's compliment that she's a better person than she is (which Saheeli contests all the same), and uses this moment to think back to what motivates her; her family, and Huatli, her cool dinosaur taming bar warrior girlfriend. Mood.

We then get a little epilogue, with Jodah. Turns out the Starlight Orb as it is called, he knows what the deal is with it. The Thranese message on it reads "go back to the beginning and greet me the proper war", and while Teferi did not recognize what this meant, Jodah does. Way back when Teferi was a little ****, he'd always greet people with a joybuzzer spell, shocking anyone who'd shake his hand. Everyone at Tolaria learned not to do it... even Urza. So Jodah greets the orb similarly, opening up a pocket dimension to a construct of Urza's old log cabin home, full of books once thought lost, including a copy of The Antiquities War by Kayla (a very good book I'd recommend if you want the full Urza and Mishra focused scope of the war the past stories are throwing at you) and... a mechanically duplicate of Xantcha (Urza's Doctor Who esque ex-phyrexian traveling companion during his Planeswalker days) and Mishra.

The Xantcha construct makes sure we know that she and the Mishrabot are not actually them- the true Xantcha has passed into Karn, after all. But she does note that, in her dreams, she is Xantcha... god Urza you've gotta stop giving full sapience to machines and then locking them in your closet for a thousand years. It turns out, this entire place is exactly what Suruman feared; all of Urza's blueprints for his war machines, plus the Legacy Weapon itself, are here. Jodah leaves us with two final things; one, letting the two know that Teferi, this world's intended recipient, will see it one day. And two, asking if dear old great great great great great great great great grandpa had any final words.

He did. "'Let us end our conflicts. We cannot afford to differ any longer.'"

Overall, these two stories are incredible. The present day story continues exploring the difficulties of getting this actually done, and exploring some of the consequences of the Brother's War. Giving our heroes room to breath a bit. Getting Saheeli's backstory is fantastic, since she kinda didn't get any coverage at all in her own set. It's cool!

The past story continues to be a brilliant look at the war of machines from the perspective of the meat it ground into so much slurry and death. The Brother's War did not leave much room for perspectives that were not Urza and Mishra, and the few they did related directly to the Argivian Reckoning- which was less about the brutal totality of this ancient unending war, and more about how a soldier helped deliver Gaia's champion, Titania, into the tree robot to start cracking some skulls before Urza decided to nuke reality.

It's really appreciated, showing the realities of war for what they are; you are a drone that no one cares about, put against people who would be your friend if the people above you didn't exist, slaughtering each other in an endless pursuit of something that no amount of bloodshed will gain you. No amount of killing will let Urza go back to just fixing clocks and making cool machines, and no amount of slaughter will let soothe Mishra's desire to hear "we think you're as cool as your brother, maybe cooler". All the killing gets you is dead children.

[Androgeus]

Isn't a misplay in RDW usually much more devastating? Of course your loss comes 20x sooner, but still. Aggro decks do not allow for misplays.

Yes, but that misplay comes to fruition in like 3 minutes, not 10.

[LaZodiac]

Do you like Tezzeret and Elspeth? Cause today is a good day to like these characters.

Spoiler: BROWAR PRESENT 3: Successfully Squeezing Sympathy Out Of Me For Tezzeret

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Chapter 3: Nemesis. In this one, we get to hang out with Tezzeret, currently watching Karn's body being taken apart piece by piece by Elesh Norn's beautiful order. He hates it, he hates it so ****ing much. He despises all of this stifling order, that reminds me of the Seekers of Espur. He hates how shoving the Planar Bridge into his body and then warping Phyrexian's through it has given him a fatal case of the tummy aches, where the only solution is Urabrask's doctors literally burning his injuries to death so they slow the spreading decay.

Most of all he hates that Ajani is compleated, because back in his time with Bolas, Ajani one of the few people Bolas went out of his way to distract because he was afraid of what that cat can do. I ****ing love this, it's so heart wrenching to see Ajani compleated, but it is outstanding to hear Tezzy boy, of all people, hyping him up as the one person who could go toe to toe with Nicky B, and how it sucks that he's gone now. Of course... as Tezzeret monologues to himself, he's not GONE gone. In order to keep the spark alive, the walker is still in there. Suppressed, sleeping, but not dead. Ajani may still be in there, and may be exerting some effort as well- he even notes that Ajani giving him his cloak (Elspeth's cloak, he recognizes) could be a sign that he's active and fighting against it all. Amazing.

Tezzeret is then told to cart Karn's pieces to Mom, so he can finally get the thing he's been hunting for all this time; a darksteel body to save himself from the Planar Bridge consuming him. Actually pretty sweet a deal... but as he thinks about it, it becomes pretty clear that Norn might know he betrayed her. He's done a lot behind the scenes- not least of which providing his ole "friend" Jace with some info, and hiring Kaya in secret to kill Daddy Vorebucks back on Kaldheim. He's worried they might be about to gut him- a valid worry indeed, especially since, um, the magical protection Bolas gave him from the Oil is wearing off. He's succumbing.

He attempts to spy on Norn using the Panopticon (thanks to Karn's help) and when it fails him, they have a spat about how Tezzeret is kinda responsible for all of this. He counters that they all are- sure Bolas was a psychotic monster who would have killed all but the most loyal but his first plan as God was to obliterate Phyrexia. Now they've got free reign of the multiverse, compleated some of Tezzeret's most hated enemies (which makes me suddenly incredibly afeared since all of Tezz's enemies include must of my favorite characters, more on that below) and are probably going to kill us all. At least he'll have his shiny body and the ability to just walk the **** out.

Of course once he brings Karn to Elesh Norn, within her garden, he realizes how small a chance of survival he has. The REALMBREAKER, Phyrexia's world tree, is growing wonderfully. Tezzeret knows exactly what this means. And as Mother carresses Karn's severed head, promising to do unspeakable things to him for the good of all, Tezzeret realizes he's not ever actually getting that darksteel body, the dip****. With anger bubbling in his heart, he returns to Shiv to wrest control of what remains of Sheoldred's minions (mostly Rona and some chaff, plus some of the blade-dogs from the end of The Thran and a phyrexian titan of some size) and head off to find our heroes.

Spoiler: BROWAR PRESENT 4: The Healing Of An Seeping Wound

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Chapter 4: The Dark. Not just a fitting title, but also a reference to something that happens near the end, but more once we get there. This one centers on Elspeth, who is... severely ****ing depressed. She is training Saheeli's Avengers, mostly to focus her brain on something that isn't all of her dead friends, but it's just not coming. She ends up snapping at Wrenn (who reads her like a book) because she's just... genuinely suffering from survivor's guilt and PTSD and has been for her entire life basically. It's a lot on her shoulders, and she's trying, but there's only so much you can do alone.

Chandra and Nissa arrive, and that provides a decent distraction. They clearly want to be friends, but Elspeth is still chilly. Does not want to get too close. But when she overhears them talking about Jaya, she listens in. Chandra talks about the inciting incident of the Purifying Fire (and begs they not tell Nissa she once set an entire forest on fire) and how Jaya threatened to drown her over it. Jodah taunts that she stole that threat from him, and that she was never great at creation; did she ever try to cook? Chandra laughs and says yes- she made "THE QUICHE". This sends Jodah cackling, because she tried it with him once and it was so ****ing back, charred to a crisp... and if he could, he'd use the Temporal Anchor to go back and eat it. Every last charcoal. The crying begins, and Elspeth tries to slip away... but they notice her, and drag her in. Because while they may cry, this is a celebration. We tell stories of our dead so that we do not forget the good times we had.

Elspeth talks a bit, of Venser. Jodah knew him, and they bond a bit about it. Elspeth learns Jodah is an immortal, and gets some fantastic advice from him; it only gets easier if you allow yourself to love. She tries to take it to heart. Chandra then demands a toast. To Venser, to Jaya, to Gideon... to... and then she stops. Elspeth says it is okay, she can say Ajani... but Chandra decides. No. **** that. He's not dead yet. We'll get him back. Somehow, we will. Elspeth takes this to heart too, and they all toast their friends. To Venser. To Jaya. To Gideon. A couple days later the Phyrexians attack.

The attack is brutal, sudden, and dangerous. Elspeth and Jodah charge out to meet them, Saheeli's avengers making up the bulk of their forces. Wrenn and Nissa guard the inner sanctum's door. Chandra and the others wait inside (I think. They never mention where Chandra is during any of this and I only just now noticed this and am further feared). They face off against the horrid blade-dogs from the end of The Thran, phyrexian harpies, and all manner of beast, but the robotic soldiers and Jodah's spike traps- hidden by illusion- are enough to take down a lot of the ground troops... but then the titan appears, a skyship birthing legs and arms to begin stomping towards them.

It is here Jodah gives Elspeth a gift. The last shards of the mirror of memories he once used to cure his immortal brain fog. That Jaya shattered to awaken her planeswalker spark and obliterate their enemies back in The Dark, in a conflagration of overwhelming fury and fire. Light and flames are similar, and he thinks Elspeth more than Chandra will benefit from this gift. She takes him, he casts a spell through her, and she reaches out to all the worlds she has known... and in this moment reaches clarity. Protect, and be protected. Save Ajani. Slay the monsters at our door. As Jodah's words to her said; no matter her depression, no matter how broken she feels, she is still that white-hot sun, blinding with radiance. She is good, and she is going to be okay. In a pillar of godly light, obliterates the Phyrexian titan, rendering it into little more than particles.

Unfortunately, this leaves them both heavily wounded and worn. A second strike time has hit the tower, they cannot stop it. Rona appears, glaive in hand, and downs them both with lightning. Then she impales Jodah. Elspeth manages to rise, manages to take Rona in the shoulder and send her sprawling. She edges to Jodah to heal him... and then Tezzy Boy appears. He sighs, looking at Rona- alive, some ****ing how. Shoulda aimed for the neck (he says this outright). Elspeth spits fury and hate at him, and he tells her straight up; don't bother fighting me. Just save your friend. She questions why he'd say this, why he's sparing her, and he says only this... small cracks, in any edifice, will spell its undoing. No matter how large.

He leaves, and with that the chapter ends.

Also, during this chapter (at basically every scene break) there is a vignette that touches on Elspeth's past, those she's encountered, and how they relate to her. All of them are phenomonal, and for pacing reasons I'll go through them all here.
- The first is Elspeth's own self depression, talking about her time in Bant and how everyone considered her the embodiment of hope and how she quit the battlefield as her berserker trauma rage finally broke through to the other side and she collapsed out of depression. As far as she's aware, the only lesson she gave anyone on Bant was that you should not hope.
- The second is a BRUTAL ****ing mythohistory story about Daxos, who stalks Theros, a hero by day but by night, his wanders the bladed grass of Erebos's realm, calling out for his lost love, the hero Elspeth. Every Full Moon he finds her, astride Polukranos' rotting corpse, and begs her explain HOW DARE SHE LIVE A STAINLESS LIFE OF GOOD, while he suffers so. The image of her smirks a cruel grin and strikes him in the chest, slaying him so that he may wake the next morning in pursuit once again. This one got me the hardest and is ****ing EVIL. Everything that happens on Theros is evil and I kinda hope the plane burns, just a little bit.
- The third is about Calix, the nyxborn fateweaver hunting Elspeth down so he can return her to Theros for the crime of not following Klothys's specifically woven fate for her to ALSO be put under a giant boulder for eternity alongside Heliod. **** you you titanic bitch. Calix is dreaming of Elspeth, all her fights and strategies, so he can best combat her. But under it all is a singular fear that is seeping into his core; when he succeeds, what's next? (this is symbolic of Elspeth's own inner turmoil if it wasn't clear, the other two are far clearer in how they relate to Elspeth but this one is probably the least clear).
- Fourth, we have Boy. Or what Once Was Boy. A phyrexian within the kingdoms of Old Capenna, thinking back on his time with Elspeth, and how they sought to escape the all consuming chaos of the oil. They hid among the viscera- but that very viscera is such a reminder of life, of course they found them there. It's all Phyrexia IS, this love of death, love of the dead they killed, love of their dead selves. They strung the children up, to be stripped clean and made anew. Elspeth slipped away, her spark saving her. Boy was not so unlucky. He's become One now, as all will.
- Fifth, and finally, and perhaps my favorite piece of writing in awhile... a love letter, from Ashiok to Elspeth, describing that even nightmares can have nightmares, and that their gold-and-white glad goddess of battle has inspired such sweet, beautiful nightmares in the grand cenobite. Ashiok wants Elspeth to know, from the depths of their smoky heart, that there is at least one soul within all of the multiverse that thinks only of her, that beats only of her. That admires only her, and the true terror she embodies. Yours dearest, Ashiok.

So I've been hyping up thte past couple stories for being really really good, a return to form, probably the best fiction MtG has put out in awhile.

These two stories, especially Elspeth's, are telling me that naw, naw, NOW they are. NOW we're at the best fiction they've put out in awhile. All those other stories are merely very good. So yeah, this has been ****ing fantastic, and I really, REALLY ask that you read it. This is the best time to be a Vorthos.

On that note time to talk about why this is the worst time to be a Vorthos: everyone you love is dead! Or more accurately...

Spoiler: TEZZERET'S **** LIST AND THE PEOPLE WHO MIGHT BE COMPLEATED

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So, Tezzeret notes in his story that "some of his most hated adversaries were ostensibly "on the same side."" as him. This means a lot of planeswalkers have been compleated, potentially, and we need to take a good hard look at Tezzy boy and work out which of my favorite characters are compleated now.

In alphabetical order, every planeswalker Tezzeret has met in canon and how likely they are to be compleated because look this man hates everyone it's not out of the realm of reality for me to assume everyone he's ever met is someone he considers a hated adversary. Not counting the dead* (or Elspeth because she's not compleated **** that never gonna happen).

1: Baltrice. Her fate is unclear, she may still be alive. If it turns out she finally shows up in canon but compleated it's going to be ****ing hilarious but also oh no, buff ork lady...

2: Chandra. I don't know if he hates her necessarily but they have met and fought. She was surprisingly absent during Elspeth's story. But she's also been shown on the good guy side for materials for March of the Machine. Unlikely but, worth thinking about.

3: Jace. This is someone who IS ACTUALLY his most hated adversary... but we know he's leaking Urabrask info to him, so he cannot be taken. So, that's good.

4. Kaito. I don't think he hates this kid much, and introducing him and so quickly killing him off would be weird. He also is actively hunting him however... so. Concerned.

5. Koth. I genuinely don't think Tezzeret cares about him, but worth considering. They've fought on New Phyrexia. We've heard from Jace he's alive, so he might have made those connections through Tezzeret. Probably okay.

6. Liliana Vess. Ohh.... ohohoooo... they hate each other So Much and last we saw of her she was fighting Phyrexia on Dominaria. Winning, but still. In all the ad stuff she's shown alongside Ajani though too... oh nooo are they going to kill Lili ;_;?

No. Very unlikely. Still very scary though.

7. Nissa. I don't think they've met beyond "have fought due to Gatewatch stuff". Probably safe except she IS one of my favorites and it'd be drama for Chandra if she got got.

8. Ob Nixilis. Definitely hate each other. Unsure if they hate that much. Ob's busy on New Capenna, likely not compleated.

9. Ral Zarek. This mother****er. Tezzeret HATES this mother****er. Absolutely a "hated adversary". Last we saw, Ral had gotten his ass pushed in by Tezzeret in a fist fight. It wouldn't be impossible for Ral to try hunting him down some more and getting got. This would make me very sad because I love Ral Zarek. Would be turbo depressing since he just married his boyfriend.

10. Samut. They barely interacted, they "met" in so far as she maybe bopped him in the face back on Amonkhet to stop him feeding Eternals in. I doubt he cares.

11. Tibalt. No one can ever reasonably call Tibalt a hated adversary. He's a nuisance at best. Also absolutely for sure compleated Vorinclex put his seed in him he's already a robot.

12. Venser. They DO despise each other, and his corpse WAS on New Phyrexia, but he shoved his soul into Karn to purify him. If he IS alive, and IS a Phyrexian Walker, that's impressive ****. Also depressing. I have no experience with Venser so this wouldn't make me sad but would make Elspeth sad and I love her so this is definitely like, 80% likely.

13. Vivien Reid. Explicitly an ally. Not compleated.

14. The Wanderer. She does hate Tezzeret for breaking her soul and making her teleport all over forever. Compleating her would be weird though. Unlikely.

So yeah. That's my guesstimations.

[Personification]

Once again, a great summary. I do have a few nitpicks and a ray of hope, though. Also, before I get to that, Elesh Norn is voiced by Gwendolyn Christie playing Lucifer in Sandman. You are welcome.

First, the nitpicks. Jodah doesn't say "It gets easier if you allow yourself to love." He says the opposite. She asked if it gets easier he said "not if you allow yourself to love." I actually see this as him acknowledging the reality of grief and implying that, despite it hurting, he still chooses to allow himself to love. I also think it might be a bit of a nod that, before Freyalise gave him the mental capacity to survive immortality, he would effectively download his memories into a magic mirror and then reupload then with no emotional connection to them, which allowed him to process them easier but wasn't ideal. That same mirror is the one that allows Elspeth to later cast Jaya's Immolating Inferno on the Phyrexian skyship (and presumably up to two other Phyrexians with lower toughness).

The other nitpick is that all of the vignettes were part of the same piece. It was all a letter from Ashiok, starting with "Dearest Elspeth" (which Ashiok uses consistently throughout) and ending with "Yours always, Ashiok". Ashiok knows about all of the things being listed because Ashiok has been inside of Elspeth's head and the heads of most people being discussed (including Norn, in "The Garden of Flesh"). Also, I love that Ashiok is now effectively on team good guy, if only because Ashiok is effectively waging a psyops campaign against Norn because Norn has REALLY juicy nightmares. I also love the fact that, with her supreme Doctor-in-Girl-in-the-Fireplace-What-are-monsters-afraid-of?-ME!-energy, Elspeth is officially at the top of the fear food chain, and this has made Ashiok seemingly fall madly in love with her.

#Ashpeth

Anyway, the ray of hope is that Tezzeret's comment doesn't necessarily mean that anyone we haven't seen has been Compleated. Alone, Ajani and Tamiyo count as some of Tezzeret's most hated adversaries, and they might be who he was discussing. Plus, Phyrexia in general is, as he said to Karn, neither his nor any of his other bosses' cup of tea, and that also counts.

[LaZodiac]

Once again, a great summary. I do have a few nitpicks and a ray of hope, though. Also, before I get to that, Elesh Norn is voiced by Gwendolyn Christie playing Lucifer in Sandman. You are welcome.

First, the nitpicks. Jodah doesn't say "It gets easier if you allow yourself to love." He says the opposite. She asked if it gets easier he said "not if you allow yourself to love." I actually see this as him acknowledging the reality of grief and implying that, despite it hurting, he still chooses to allow himself to love. I also think it might be a bit of a nod that, before Freyalise gave him the mental capacity to survive immortality, he would effectively download his memories into a magic mirror and then reupload then with no emotional connection to them, which allowed him to process them easier but wasn't ideal. That same mirror is the one that allows Elspeth to later cast Jaya's Immolating Inferno on the Phyrexian skyship (and presumably up to two other Phyrexians with lower toughness).

The other nitpick is that all of the vignettes were part of the same piece. It was all a letter from Ashiok, starting with "Dearest Elspeth" (which Ashiok uses consistently throughout) and ending with "Yours always, Ashiok". Ashiok knows about all of the things being listed because Ashiok has been inside of Elspeth's head and the heads of most people being discussed (including Norn, in "The Garden of Flesh"). Also, I love that Ashiok is now effectively on team good guy, if only because Ashiok is effectively waging a psyops campaign against Norn because Norn has REALLY juicy nightmares. I also love the fact that, with her supreme Doctor-in-Girl-in-the-Fireplace-What-are-monsters-afraid-of?-ME!-energy, Elspeth is officially at the top of the fear food chain, and this has made Ashiok seemingly fall madly in love with her.

#Ashpeth

Anyway, the ray of hope is that Tezzeret's comment doesn't necessarily mean that anyone we haven't seen has been Compleated. Alone, Ajani and Tamiyo count as some of Tezzeret's most hated adversaries, and they might be who he was discussing. Plus, Phyrexia in general is, as he said to Karn, neither his nor any of his other bosses' cup of tea, and that also counts.

You are 10000% correct on that casting.

Ah! My bad! The way the situation was framed was a weird double negative, so I completely botched misreading that. And yeah, that mirror is broken, but I imagine the shards of it he still carries with hold a lotta power. He probably gave some to Jaya, and that's what he got from her, the "one final gift".

... I'll admit I completely did not notice that because that first vignette stuck out in my mind as "oh this is the thing Ajani said to Elspeth before she went to Theros" and I COMPLETELY blanked on it being a thing. Oops! Thanks for the correction, friend.

Also yeah Ashiok falling in love with Elspeth, the nightmare of nightmares, is incredible a swerve for their character. I love it.

Okay so while that IS true, Tezzeret notes that "after tamiyo, they set to work compleating their planeswalker prisoners". While Tamiyo and Ajani may be adversaries of ol Tezzbot, it feels like more has been done than just him. Especially since Ajani was not compleated in that wave after Tamiyo, since we know he got got sometime during DomU. Tibalt is likely one of the other prisoners compleated, but who else...?

[Techwarrior]

I don't know, but I sometimes hate your opinions on this very thread, but I would love to delve into some degenerate control mirrors with you. Trolling people with Teferi 5 and T3feri in MTGA was like the most fun I have had outside of Big Red Control. The former deck around Teferi 5 didnt even have a proper wincon, it was literally just designed around winning microscopic advantages, and either annoying your enemy to death: Just take your enemy wincon. If I **** up I have no wincon, only suffering.

I actually quit playing arena when WotS came out because of 3feri. I had been playing Esper control for about a year or so prior to that, but "lul you actually just aren't allowed to cast your spells" was what it took for me to take my ball and go home to be honest. That said I do love playing control mirrors in formats where 3feri isn't legal. It almost doesn't matter which format at that point, although to be honest, the 4+ color soup piles in Modern and Legacy have me somewhat down on those formats regardless.

Basically I'm saying that I too, am a lover of Ux control mirrors, and would love the chance to play them with someone.

[LaZodiac]

And so we bring our stories to a close...

Spoiler: BROWAR PAST 5: I'm not crying you're crying

Show

Episode 5: As Cruel, as necessary. We begin this story at the beginning, in media res. Teferi, Kaya, and Saheeli, at the start of the first proper run of the Temporal Anchor, after months of testing to ensure the time stream would not shatter like it did when Urza tried this. There is a wonderful anecdote of, even now, here, after a month, Kaya still raps on the steel coffin Teferi needs to lay in to do this, to make sure he's okay. He muses about how, even if he does die in this mad attempt to save the world, the new walkers are more human than the old ever were. And so the time scouring begins.

But first, detailing the plan. We the readers know it more or less implicitly, and from some context clues, but this is actually I believe the first time they lay it all out. They are hunting for the exact moment Urza turned on the Sylex, so they know how to use it when the time comes. This is itself a very difficult thing, because the Sylex is a fabled and mysterious artifact, with as many beginnings as it has endings. I'm pretty sure just about every listed beginning and ending is a fan theory, in universe answer, and in setting fate for "the sylex", because way back when, when canon was looser, "the sylex Urza used to destroy the world" showed up in multiple conflicting spots, and was destroyed in each. It's adorable, and extremely fitting.

We then get a quick reminder of all the places Teferi ended up, through the other past stories. I especially like how they make clearer that Teferi intentionally saved Aiwan in Kroog, and that Kaya keeps this a secret. It's, a fun little twist to things. We also get, interspersed, Teferi's reactions to slipping through time like a needle through fabric, the feeling of Kaya's ghostform seeping into him, the fact that diving through time kinda ****s you up. It's fantastic stuff. He realizes and reflects on Urza, and fully realizes why he went to the lengths he went, and feels that steel within him.

Then we get to the moment, and they intersperse bits from the actual Brother's War novel, interspersed with Kaya reading what Teferi is seeing off to Saheeli. The initial triggering of the Sylex knocks Teferi back to the present, but he's found it. He just needs a little... more. So he dives back in one final time, and slows things to a halt so he can properly study it all... and finds nothing. The only answer is to get it from the source. So Teferi slips into place, and lets time resume.

We then get, an incredible little scene. Teferi and Urza, within a void of time- Teferi later compares it to a lake, the proverbial rivers flowing into a still pool before eventually, inevitably, the tributary breaks and the water continues moving, and it's like the lake never even was. And they speak of things; of Urza's future, his struggles, his never ending war. There is a lot of palpable pain and sadness here. We see Urza as he was, the human being. Flawed, but trying. Sarcastic and jaded but clicking into the point immediately, understanding why this must be done... realizing that this means his war, the war that he just finished, the end of everything, was just a beginning to an even greater endless war. There's real, genuine pain here, as we see the final remains of Urza the Human give way to Urza the Planeswalker.

And then the lake breaks, time reasserts itself, and to finish us off we see, laid out before us, the final segment of The Brother's War itself. Re-contextualized, but the same finale we've always known would happen, as it is the one that lead us to where we are now.

This sorta **** always gets me, and I'm not ashamed to admit I almost cried at hearing Urza repeat "Away. I am going... away." with the last of his humanity.

Spoiler: BROWAR PRESENT 5: All The Men On The Chessboard...

Show

Chapter 5: Exodus. We focus on Nissa, drawn to Dominaria by Chandra, and her desire to try and amend things. She wants to go back to those younger, naiver days of the Gatewatch. Discussion turned to the REALMBREAKER and how dangerous it is... and what destroying it will accomplish. If it's rooted as deeply as the World Tree on Kaldheim, New Phyrexia may burn with it. Chandra says she's happy about that- and this starts an argument. Nissa aghast at Chandra, Saheeli saying she knows we need to fight but we will NOT fall to bloodlust, and Chandra insisting that it's good actually if Phyrexia died probably- but she doesn't mean like, everyone, and- Nissa interrupts her, snapping, and immediately regretting it. She wants things to go back to how they were... and they likely won't.

Teferi returns from the above story, exhausted. Meeting is over, time to prepare. The plan is to send one wave of Planeswalkers with the Mirran resistance and Urabrask, while another wave stays in the wings to follow up... Chandra, Liliana, and later Wrenn, Saheeli (once she's done prepping Kaladesh) and Jodah (when the REALMBREAKER llinks things, most likely) will be part of that. Nissa, Tyvar (the ever-allergic to shirts), Jace, Vraska (in bitchin' rad Golgaria war armour), Elspeth, Kaito and the Emperor... and, of all ****ing people, Lukka the nasty stinky cat man! Preparations are under way...

Nissa takes this moment to try and talk with Chandra, trying to understand the rage she's feeling. She never mentioned Jaya was dead... and that was the final straw. As much as she hates to admit it, as much as she feels she's a monster for thinking it, Chandra wants Phyrexia to suffer and die. She wants it all to burn to char. Nissa counters that Ajani is part of them now- a cruel twist of the knife that makes Chandra sink in on herself. Nissa lets her be, hoping to apologize later...

Then the Phyrexians attack, linking back to Elspeth's story yesterday. We learn WHY Chandra wasn't mentioned (she went home to prep for being wave 2) which makes me very happy. Less happy- Nissa suffering hours. The fighting is intense, even with Wrenn's help. The Phyrexian forces are relentless, even as Elspeth and Jodah stem the flow. Norn's elite shock-troops, the white phyrexian knights and their angel leader, march upon the tower and it's too much. It is attrition, and they are winning. She calls upon Dominaria to aid them... and Gaea refuses. Rejects her, completely. So Nissa pulls her sword and decides to handle this herself.

The fighting continues- Nissa targeting the angel by casting Giant Growth on Seven and then getting yeeted at the angel to take it down, but ultimately this just slows them down. It's an oncoming wave, that they cannot stand against. So Nissa tries, again, to reach Gaea... and does so. The hate within Gaea's heart is so strong, so furious, so rotten, that it leaves Nissa stunned. It is intense. They talk, Gaea shows her the truth of it; DomU is still going even if our heroes are no longer involved. The Phyrexians continue unabated. Gaea cannot be everywhere at once, so why here? Nissa says this is fine- let her die then, if that is to be her fate. But let her die fighting.

This meets Gaea's approval. It fills her with life and memory. Gaea's avengers storm the field, assisting- Nissa knows that many will die for this, but it must be done. The angelic leader, broken and battered, confronts her... and Nissa throttles her with vines, speaking through to whatever agent holds the angel's sway, asking if they feel the pain it feels. Wrenn tries to stop her- this is a streak of cruelity uncommon in her. Maybe it is now, but Nissa used to be a kinda bad person. She used to have no qualms about this. And Gaea's reminded her of that rage. Reminded her of what Emrakul said, what Kefnut divined- before she woven his leylines into her snare, a trap that never sprung but was still prepared. Crush them. Do not allow the world to act upon you. Know in your heart, in Gaea's heart, that your beloved ones have been taken by this corruption and that in order to win, the blood of friend and foe alike will be spilled.

Be the hand that moves the pieces. The angel is crushed in Nissa's grasp.

We return to the tower. Everyone is gearing up. Teferi's... kinda stuck in the Temporal Anchor, fading away (or should that be phasing away...?). But there's only so much they are able to do. It's time to go.

Brief epilogue: Teferi finds himself Somewhere, Somewhen. Footprints in the sand show him that life exists here, wherever here he. He walks off, to find it. I'm like 90% sure this is Zhalfir and he's fallen into his home.

And that's the story of The Brother's War (the set).

I joked, at the start of this, that we'd read these, go "damn these are good, wish it coulda been better" and then moved on.

It... it was so much more than I expected. This was so ****ing good you guys. I'm not sure how many of you are engaged on the story as the like, two of us who are are, but please. If you do like the story, especially the old lore... they treated us right.

[Spore]

I started playing Magic during Time Spiral-ish times and back then I thought the Battlemages are the PINNACLE of game design; or in my 12 year old words:

"Three colors in one deck? I have enough trouble paying for my goblin rush deck." We played aggro tribal mirrors mostly, because our friend's black Avatar of Woe deck felt so oppressive and OP.

Somehow DMU does not invoke that kind of wonderment. Not because I like Magic less, but the mirrored card cycles aren't truly mirrored I feel. Battlemages were all wizards and shamans. Having five different tribes for the multikickers feels off.

[RayGallade]

I joked, at the start of this, that we'd read these, go "damn these are good, wish it coulda been better" and then moved on.

It... it was so much more than I expected. This was so ****ing good you guys. I'm not sure how many of you are engaged on the story as the like, two of us who are are, but please. If you do like the story, especially the old lore... they treated us right.

I will readily admit that I haven't actively read the Magic story in some time, but I always look forward to your summaries so that I can stay aware of what is going on in the multiverse. Perhaps once I have enough time I will sit down and read through this one.

[LaZodiac]

I will readily admit that I haven't actively read the Magic story in some time, but I always look forward to your summaries so that I can stay aware of what is going on in the multiverse. Perhaps once I have enough time I will sit down and read through this one.

Ah dang, I appreciate it.

And I do recommend it. As someone who has a great affection for The Brother's War, this was basically as perfect as one could make it. Everyone's biggest fears that I saw, throughout the entire lead up, would be that they hold back. That they'd change it, in some way.

Instead we got Urza snapping at Teferi about how he needs to get on with the point because this is either the most important thing he'll ever hear or the least, and then gruffily admitting that if Teferi was really his student he failed him- but in that gruff, familiar tone that Teferi knows is intended as a compliment, and that's such a core character trait of Urza... as is the heart wrenching description of the man, just before the Sylex Blast happens; "Tears. Lots of tears. Urza never cried. He's so . . . human, here."

The fifth past-story basically fully encompasses everything I love about Urza Planeswalker, and god I cannot stop going over this story in my head. One last exchange that I just, really need to specifically write out, because it captures the heart and soul to me.

"Some would probably call you a god." Teferi thought back to his school days. "Others would call you a curse. I called you my teacher; most know you as 'Planeswalker.'"

Urza could not smile anymore—his skull had blackened and crumbled, his shoulders and ribs burned to ash. And yet his voice was strong as when he was whole.

"There's nothing I can do to change that, is there?" Urza asked. He sounded exhausted, not plaintive. Fatigued as a man gone decades without sleep.

[enderlord99]

I've mentioned before how much I like Kaya, the Inexorable's ult, but did you know that it allows a certain card from Dominaria United to effectively turn Pact into a truly-free counterspell with delayed cantrip?

[LaZodiac]

I've mentioned before how much I like Kaya, the Inexorable's ult, but did you know that it allows a certain card from Dominaria United to effectively turn Pact into a truly-free counterspell with delayed cantrip?

Oh, that's cool!

On the mechanical side of things by the way, they revealed some fun cards. Mishra and Urza have a vertical cycle from Uncommon to Mythic of... themselves, throughout the ages. As youths under Tocasia, in their respective adulthoods, and then at the apex of the Brother War. Adding to their commander decks that are them at the height of their power during said war, and we've got four cards for the brothers!

We also have a new mechanic: Prototype! Cast a card fore its prototype cost and it comes in as a smaller, scrappier, coloured version of a big nasty colourless artifact. It's a fascinating mechanical and very good and oops I dropped all my flicker spells on the battlefield time to play 7/5s for 3 mana.

[Emmerlaus]

I feel like the new spoiled Teferi card is going to be overpriced. It seem stupiditly strong. And a add-on to any wheel decks... and so tempted to buy it anyway for my Minn, Willy Illusionnist EDH deck

[Spore]

It seem stupiditly strong.

Not really. Outside of Commander it is slow enough to only work in the most pillow-forty things. And in Commander if anyone outside of cEDH comes to the table with a card that reads "Ultimate: Pack everything but one of your game pieces, but stay at the table" I'll happily concede and go home. Short: It's not that big a deal in 1 on 1 and a fun killer in EDH.

[Personification]

Not really. Outside of Commander it is slow enough to only work in the most pillow-forty things. And in Commander if anyone outside of cEDH comes to the table with a card that reads "Ultimate: Pack everything but one of your game pieces, but stay at the table" I'll happily concede and go home. Short: It's not that big a deal in 1 on 1 and a fun killer in EDH.

The ult isn't even that extreme. It's a single-target cyclonic rift, which, while annoying and powerful, isn't exactly game breaking. Also, the card costs five and only gains loyalty when you draw, so in commander it might have trouble surviving until your next turn, and if it does you still have to draw a ton of cards. It's good, but probably not busted in half.

[LaZodiac]

The ult isn't even that extreme. It's a single-target cyclonic rift, which, while annoying and powerful, isn't exactly game breaking. Also, the card costs five and only gains loyalty when you draw, so in commander it might have trouble surviving until your next turn, and if it does you still have to draw a ton of cards. It's good, but probably not busted in half.

You're probably right but also I think about the time a friend of mine played his monoblue commander deck and ended up drawing his entire library like twice over during the game and thinking about how he could ult every turn if he wanted.

[enderlord99]

Cyclonic Rift returns to hand; the new ult mostly returns to library. I'm not sure how big of a difference that is, but it definitely is a difference.

[Personification]

You're probably right but also I think about the time a friend of mine played his monoblue commander deck and ended up drawing his entire library like twice over during the game and thinking about how he could ult every turn if he wanted.

Sure, but "Combos with ancestral" isn't exactly a justification for calling a card busted. I'm not saying it isn't powerful, I'm just saying that it isn't game breaking. If you are drawing over twelve cards per turn cycle consistently, literally anything is payoff, and a five mana Planeswalker which isn't adding much to that number isn't why you are the threat.

That said, it is a good card, and I like that it doesn't look like it would be the most miserable thing ever to play against.

[Androgeus]

You're probably right but also I think about the time a friend of mine played his monoblue commander deck and ended up drawing his entire library like twice over during the game and thinking about how he could ult every turn if he wanted.

If your opponent is drawing their entire deck, you’ve probably got more problems than a board wipe that only affects 1 player

[Eldan]

I started playing Magic during Time Spiral-ish times and back then I thought the Battlemages are the PINNACLE of game design; or in my 12 year old words:

"Three colors in one deck? I have enough trouble paying for my goblin rush deck." We played aggro tribal mirrors mostly, because our friend's black Avatar of Woe deck felt so oppressive and OP.

Somehow DMU does not invoke that kind of wonderment. Not because I like Magic less, but the mirrored card cycles aren't truly mirrored I feel. Battlemages were all wizards and shamans. Having five different tribes for the multikickers feels off.

OH man, I remember those times. We also had a friend who had an Avatar of Woe and we all hated that card. Like, it can just kill everything how can you stop that. He of course had only one because no one ever opened a second one in a pack and buying singles is cheating.

[Spore]

The ult isn't even that extreme. It's a single-target cyclonic rift, which, while annoying and powerful, isn't exactly game breaking. Also, the card costs five and only gains loyalty when you draw, so in commander it might have trouble surviving until your next turn, and if it does you still have to draw a ton of cards. It's good, but probably not busted in half.

I overlooked "nonland" in nonland permanent. I thought, they Tefers is just sending your whole board into the deck. My bad.

OH man, I remember those times. We also had a friend who had an Avatar of Woe and we all hated that card. Like, it can just kill everything how can you stop that. He of course had only one because no one ever opened a second one in a pack and buying singles is cheating.

Of course I never realized my goblin deck would have had a HAYDAY with such a deck (of course my friend also only had a single Avatar, what are we? Rich adults?) simply because I never realized how to pilot a hasty aggro deck and depended too much on my Reckless One (*/* where * = number of goblins) which pulled the deck into midrange (and made it vulnerable to removal which surprisingly a black deck has plenty of).

[Techwarrior]

Does anyone happen to know where I could find that interview with Melissa De'Tora and Gavin Verhey where they were talking about how Oko went wrong in playtesting?