I Can't Believe They Did THIS to the Story (FINALE!!) | March Of The Machine Lore 

lol xD, I'm pretty sure Chandra's wounds were supposed to be just superficial while Melira's were more like, internal organ ruptures and what not.

@@lenajohnson6179 Chandra got impaled multiple times. Frankly she should have turned Phyrexian after how little it took to turn Jace and Nahiri

@@lenajohnson6179 bad writing is bad writing

@@Michael-bn1oi Jace got a full blown oil injection. Nahiri you're right about though.

Haha this is why you don’t write time travelers into the story.

PostprandialTorpor 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

It sucks to suck lol

I wondered why Teferi couldn't just rewind time around her and bring her back to before she got wounded. Is that because of a personal rule about meddling with time or something?

@@jeffalchemist | I think I heard something about BRO showing what happens when you meddle with time, but don't blindly quote me on it.

I wish we could just do like 2 sets for 1 place. Like Kaladesh and Awther revolt, or Amonket and Hour of Devistation. Set up and finale. Three sets causes burnout before the final

I agree. More so they can't keep doing these multiversal threats. I do disagree with the inability to do legendary creature stories. While the block is gone that simple means there is no limit. They could do 1-3 set stories for a creature as it is needed. However I do agree those were really good stories though with the current writing I wonder if we'd ever get that level of story telling again.

@@robbyjones9813 The story telling is always secondary to selling a product. As long as WOTC has a product to move, they'll keep writing shitty plots and characters into the MTG universe.

Who’s left on the Multiversal Threat front that isn’t a “Somehow the _____ Survived/Escaped”?

@@magmatard8737 have things be even more rushed? Oof. Burn out is from garbage writing and ridiculous power creep. That said if they can actually figure out the writing problem 2 sets would be really nice.

The same individual person wrote every single numbered March of the Machines entry. I hope they had the reigns over to someone else, or if she was just being handed plot points (very possible) and given a set number of words to tie them together then her boss needs to be fired.

This could've lead to a really interesting era of MTG, but noooo... we get a happily ever after ending with the good guys pulling through and the bad guys just getting absolutely decimated. I'd hoped that the plot would've allowed for the compleated planeswalkers to remain compleated, and for the Phyrexians to be the cause of their own downfall (through fractionalism, ie; They all invade various planes, but disconnected from Phyrexia and Elsh Norn's control, they sever their own ties to New Phyrexia and begin endeavours to make these new planes into their homes. Potentially with a plot that culminates with the compleated planeswalkers regaining their independence, but still being driven to compleat the world, just for their own individualistic reasons. But nah. We get a magical "problem is solved" arc. I hope Theros remains fucked for the forseeable future.

@@ahealthkit2745 💯

New Phyrexia came from a single drop of oil on the core of Mirrodin. New Phyrexia is gone, but I would be surprised if there were NEVER any future Phyrexians, just localized instead of multiversal adversaries, sort of like Rona on Dominaria “As long as one drop of the oil exists, the joyous work continues.”

I don’t think Jin died…

I'm surprised you could like everything about a rushed story that has angels die from a freaking building falling on them. Or the constant Avengers Endgame rip off moments that are done without a soul.

​@@andrewrichter3185 He fell into a vat of his spawn and got eaten. If anyone is alive, it's Urabrask. He's just quadriplegic now. Briefly anyway, if Phyrexia survived he'll likely get new limbs before long

@@Drakelis technically very few planes were saved unless they found a way to purge the oil.

This was my impression as well. Also wotc need to diversify their romantic relationships. If every couple is a lesbian couple it starts to seem like a weird fetish. Bring out the guy/guy and girl/guy relationships lol

It's speculated that they want to make Jace and Vraska into villains.

Yes. This is trash. WotC storytelling is trash. I'm sorry I'm sure there are some (well) hidden gems in this dumpster fire but I'm SICK AND TIRED or having to suspend my disbelief in order to justify all the lazy writing, the plotholes, the bad. To be honest I haven't read anything great in MTG lore after the Amonkhet lore. Which I believe was brilliant. But especially the big finales are such utter FAILURES. They've topped the disappointment of War of the Spark and it wasn't an easy task.

Yes actually but the writers wanted to get rid of them so they added some last second retcon out of their asses

Yeah, there’s been a lot of those “hold on what? How? That easily? Really?!” From me this whole story, aether hub is a good narrator though

But actually that's what happened the first time around when they killed Yawgmoth. Since Norn styled herself as the new Mother it is just natural to assume she had the Phyrexian will wired through her, just as Yawgmoth had bound himself to the Plane. Again it could be a buttocks-pull from the writers, but something I've noticed in the telling of this story is heavy references to the Weatherlight Saga, so it could be that. Make of it what you will.

Yea, the current writers don't understand the old lore.

Yes. The writers just suck that much.

Were either even mentioned as an invaded plane?

I would like to know who the f was the pre mending walker that destroyed alara

Hand someone the literary authority like Brian jaques

@@RiotKurhein Yes iirc Tezzeret retreated to Alara and was leaking advice that the Angels of Bant were the key to stopping the Phyrexian invasion of Alara

Been waiting on new Shadowmoor set, myself.

As someone who is new to magic, I just see it as a consequence of the story being tied to a physical product.

by the time they spent writing five more paragraphs there could be six more SLDs and three standard sets

@@shaunmcisaac782 This profit-obsessed brain rot has been the bane of this game recently.

@@RealBakedTahu and yet others have been much more successful on the story telling end. Massive companies like wizards don't deserve you making excuses for them. They can do better and they should.

Keep in mind that the Planar Bridge is still on New Phyrexia

Smarter folks wouldn't have ended this inside a single block. I'd have done minimum 3 full blocks of different planes fighting Phyrexia. And I'd have written a way out without ruining half the most important characters in the MtG multiverse. Personally, I was hoping they'd play more time travel games, and we'd get Urza and Yawgmoth back. We will have to see where the story goes next. My bet? Some stupid side thing with no lasting impact. A return to the slow decline MaRo has piloted for decades now. I'm happy we got a half a year of not-totally-sucking-on-every-level.

Rosewater is responsible for game design. Not for the story. It's frustrating how people don't seem to understand this simple fact. Also, time travel is a terrible plot element. It makes for super complicated stories that are hard to get to a satisfying and logical conclusion. and also it leads to what you criticized - stories without consequences. When you can always have a do-over, nothing matters. I am happy Urza and Yawgmoth didn't come back. That would have been super lazy. If you miss them so much, read the old stories. Those nostalgia trips don't help with good storytelling. We also don't need three blocks to tell the fight against New Phyrexia, that would have been insanely boring. Two would have been plenty, along with some lost planes and really hard-earned victories. I will never understand why they did not hand over the story to Brandon Sanderson when he offered it to WotC

Not to mention Sheoldred's offscreen death. It's such a frustratingly dissapointing way to end what could've been a very spicy L for the superheroes. I would've loved to see the total number of epic hero planeswalkers reduced in favor of giving us a bunch of complex, heartbreaking baddies (JUST IMAGINE! Nissa is a bad guy for LIFE! Jace is a bad guy FOR LIFE! Elspeth becomes an archangel to stop the invasion, but it doesn't bring back Ajani.) But no, they pull an uno reverse card on the whole fucking invasion. Not to mention, the new set has 0 TOXIC CARDS! You know, the thing New Phyrexia was known for? The thing that's mentioned in every single fucking sidestory and main story for this set? Phyresis? nah, bro. 6 mana for a 3/3 with upside. whew. What's toxic? What's infect? fuck those archetypes, we're all legendary creatures with too many lines of text now. OH AND BATTLES! Relive the dissapointment that is the Phyrexian Invasion going tits up on 27 planes with these fun new cards that'll make your opponent durdle and attack their own permanent two or three turns in a row.

@@ahealthkit2745 I know the feeling. Every preator felt harrowing, and the idea that these guys teaming up as leaders with armies from their own spheres was very worrying for the hero’s fates. We had a promising entry for a weakness in phyrexia with urabrask not wanting to follow the same ideals as the other preators, but that was quickly dismissed and replaced with an even bigger plot hole when we learned that all the preators are in some stupid civil war vying for more power and trying to kill each other on the daily, with the exception of vorinclex who was a complete idiot and blunt instrument the entire time and had glissa stand in as his voice. Why would the 5 preators be at war with each other when they’ve had years on phyrexia in the story to sort out who’s leading or how they would execute these “universe ending plans”. Why would 5 of the biggest villains in years be locking in a civil war right before they go into the most important battle in all of MTG history. These 5 giant threats that were reduced to nothing more than essentially side characters or childish fools when they were supposed to be the main story arc themselves. We should have lost whole plains to phyresis and had each preator survive and gain control of a new plain each when they figured out the war was lost, it would have opened up a return for them. Elesh Norn was nothing but weak and fell apart when she got ditched by some of her minions. Jin decided mid-fight with the planeswalkers that he was going to turn on his only remaining ally and try to kill her to rule phyrexia alone. Vorinclex literally did nothing, got frozen in time by teferis bullshit time magic and then had his head cut off without having any impact at all. Sheoldred just died, literally nothing more to say on one of the scariest preators, and urabrask ended up a coward. Over 2 years of bangs in this build up for this moment, and it goes out with a whimper. I’ve seen better fan fiction written by 10 year olds. Sheoldred should have conquered dominaria in the United arc, forcing the heros to flee to other planes or protect the survivors in hiding. then elesh should have taken complete control on new phyrexia, Jin should have gotten kamigawa, and atraxa should have been given dominion over new capenna. Urabrask on the run, and vorinclex mindlessly cutting down the heros in kaldhiem for the end of March of the machines first block, making all seem lost just before MOM aftermath. We’ve already seen the kenriths royal funeral spoiler which would have made way more sense than having a full “rebuilding arc”. Instead at the end of MOM 1 we get fucking jace being the centre on attention again in a new way this time, and all the horrors being completely undone like a reset switch, It’s stupid. Jace, ajani, vraska, and nahiri should have unalived and dominaria been lost to phyrexian influence just as yawgmoth envisioned thousands of years before. As for in game mechanics, I don’t understand why we’ve gone from phyrexian mites to “incubate 1/2/3”. It’s another shitty mechanic we don’t need when we already had one that worked extremely well in toxic. I honestly hope that somewhere, gix has been laying in wait for thousands of years after his defeat to urza. Spending all the time rebuilding himself and cooking up a plan to return. I loved his card in brothers war that much it became my signature commander. I hope they give him the love he deserves and let him return to cause more havoc.

💯

Even worse, MOM spoilers' lore tells a different story, of what could have been. With the phyrexians being an actual threat, with the oil being potent and inexorable, with machines more powerful than Ikoria's apex monsters, and angels being turned, and inexorable tides winning the battles. How they dismissed the Praetors, such wonderful and unique characters, was unforgivable.

@@makeththeman9519 Urabrask wasn’t a coward, he just died offscreen from his wounds (his limbs were ripped from his body). Or maybe WotC want to use him later, who knows.

Emrakul still there, tho

There is a lot about your head cannon that I love. Like honestly.

They did Tibalt so dirty...

Once again, fan fiction is better than the junk Wizards wrote for this story.

But it's Jace, all his plans have failed in the past, so it would be like a Saturday morning cartoon villian. Cheesiness would be a nice change of pace however after all this.

fans: "Uhh wheres calix and kasmina?" WOTC: i forgor..

A compleated Nicol Bolas would be cool.

I'm less upset about more characters not dying and more about what characters *did* die mostly had deaths that were humiliating and/or pointless. Vorinclex probably got done dirtiest, getting offed by a literal no-name character in a single sentence. Jin-Gitaxias seemed to pick up the idiot ball thinking that the best time to launch a coup against Norn was *right in the middle of the battle*, rather than just fleeing and leaving her to die, so he'd take over anyway. Urabrask...look how they massacred my boy... This is what happens when you try to wrap up a 3-year long plotline in a single entry. It was like turning Infinity War into a 30 second clip.

@Fabr1cat0rGeneral I actually do 100% agree. I was hoping the other praetors would live so there can be a set about them vying for the empty throne. They did just kill them all off way too easy and fast IMO

@@fabr1cat0rgeneral94 I know this is a common misunderstanding due to one awkward point of writing, but Vorinclex wasn't killed by a no-name character, Elspeth killed him. "A blazing sword severs Vorinclex's head from his body." Is in reference to Elspeth's sword as it has been consistently been described as such and the following paragraph makes a point that Elspeth was right there and then making the comment that Teferi should be more careful. The confusion comes from the next line being "One of the Askari-a woman named Shella, who often drank her comrades under the table-offers Teferi a hand up." The nameless Askari isn't credited with killing Vorinclex, she's credited with helping Teferi back up on his feet. It is awkward bit of writing, getting a description of a random no-name character for no clear reason makes them sound more important to the moment than they are, but Vorinclex was killed by Elspeth. Don't get me wrong though, while I expected either most or all of the Praetors to die in the story their death scenes were for most of them a bit too quick and somewhat unsatisfying.

@@100aegir Yeah, if this many people are misinterpreting it (if not a majority then at least a significant chunk of the readers from what I've seen) then it's just bad writing. Another symptom of it being rushed.

@@connordavis5847 Yeah, at first it looked like they set up Jin as doing the smart thing and abandoning Norn. He definitely should have lived and been set up as a potential future leader of NEW New Phyrexia.

they went for the most generic thing possible. Kill off some characters who nobody gives a shit about, threaten the actual characters, but dont pull through. I feel so invested

you would assume, but they will probably just disregard it.

Vorinclex would have been easy to do a good ending for, have him and his forces be hunted and slaughtered by the invading forces from other planes as he comes to realise he is not the Apex predator and strength alone would not save him. Jin probably should have lived in a weakened state with some contingency plan to save himself and some of his forces could have a shadow war with Jace and Vraska throughout the planes with whatever Phyrexienised planeswalkers he had left(just leave him with some it is a good opportunity to see new planeswalkers or some from other planes). Alternatively Jin becoming a planeswalker but not able to as easily spread Phyresis and instead of having to do so via relatively slowly via mechanical modifications which leave the individual with their own intelligence and goals could be interesting. The next wave of Phyrexians would not be reliant on numbers or the spread of oil and would instead need to focus more on using their agents and schemes.

Don't forget Urabrask.

​@@jasonkorf7700 Why not? WotC sure wants us to.

Beats Mirfir.

They reverence it having new suns, so it appears to have just taken Mirrodin’s place and left the rest of it be.

Zhalfir to New Phyrexia: I'm the captain now!

Jace is most likely shielding his mind from the disconnection, and will do the same for vraska. He might ignite the new phyrexian war

@@zerronprime9683 honestly would be interesting to see a new form of phyrexia

I'm a bit confused about Nahiri, tbh. I don't think Seiben has covered her side story yet, but it is a bit ambiguous to me whether or not we're supposed to think she is dead. Spoilers if you haven't read it: She gets trapped in a skyclave that falls to the world. Akiri notes that she isn't sure whether or not that killed Nahiri, as Nahiri is super tough. That said, the next line is "But (the invasion falls apart without Nahiri's coordination)" My hope is she is still alive, but it is possible that that was just an unclear way to tell us she is dead. Either one kinda makes sense. Lukka and Tamiyo are 100% dead, Vraska seems to have a definite death, but then her body goes missing, etc. It looks like they were killing most of the compleated Planeswalkers, that said, Nahiri is significantly stronger than any of the others, and has a very relevant unresolved story connection (Sorin). I'd say that if Vraska is alive, Nahiri is definitely alive. If not, I'm unsure.

wdym loss? They let her die. The literal ANGEL and the GUY WHO CONTROLS TIME cant do anything to save a wounded human? One of the worst arcs of mtg story to this day. Not to mention the phyrexian threat collapsing like star wars droids.

But what about Adeline from Innistrad? Just a passing fling for Chandra?

Slightly worse plot twist: Jace drove Jin-Gitaxias to tactical sudoku so the Perfected Mind could rule Phyrexia Revision 3.

The oil is much older then the mirrari tho.

@@ich3730 I don't deny that. I believe a portion of the Ichor has a main "body" kinda like symbiotes (Venom, Carnage, Scream). I'm gonna reference The Faculty (1998 film). Ichor tends to follow the same principles in which there is a "hive queen" controlling all the others. This does require the Ichor possessing a live host. The Ichor kept moving from live host to live host. Karn eventually killed a Phyrexian that had the main Ichor and got splattered but because Ichor couldn't infect planeswalkers at the moment, it couldn't bind to Karn. Karn gained possession of the Merrari and the Ichor transferred over to it. My theory is that the Ichor took a while post Memnarch to learn how to use the Merrari. It then made itself a replica. The replica Ichor then embodied Elesh Norn and started taking over Mirrodin.

All of the cool shit happened "off screen" for the entire arc

So what? It's cool as heck

@@kitkatbreaker1270 are you larping as a soyboy?

Lol. So true

@@AetherHub tbh the complainers can say what they want but honestly this is a MASSIVE inprovement over war of the spark I mean there was concequences a plenty and the story albeit a bit rushed was really cool. And tbh,out of the planeswalkers that get uncompleated id say ajani definitely earned it considering that despite being a oldish planeswalker he was awesome as hell. Although yeah we need to see art of kaya killing heliod.

@@lolbots686 nah its actually just as bad.

@@AetherHub I really want you to know that when you see me complaining in the comments, I'm not complaining about you whatsoever. You do a fantastic job, and I appreciate your effort. 😎

@@lolbots686 actually, the ending is just as bad as war the spark, if not worse, because they lead up to this was much better than War of the 💥 it actually had me theorizing about what could possibly happen with all of the storyline elements that we know to exist... Just having another deus ex machina power up with elspeth was definite cop out. And I've been playing since 96, so I can complain about whatever I want story-wise. This is garbage compared to what it used to be, they used to release full novels with the bundles for each set. The power levels in the writing are just all over the place, directions in the dominaria United set are scarier and more competent than the ones at the actual endgame invasion of the entire multiverse. The praetor is dying to random mirrodin resistance members was bullcrap, and everything felt rushed. As I've said before, and as other more notable people have speculated, I think there was a last-minute change in the storyline for some reason or another during the lead-up to the set release, how far before and for what reason I don't know... But this just feels really off for a professional writing job. It's bad when any random person in the comment section could probably come up with a better story than the people actually getting paid to do so.

Thank you! Glad you liked the video :)

I have hope Vraska is with him

​@Matthew Boyd finally the Mother and Father of machines, how will we stop a phyrexia ran by a stable family, How will WOTC justify hiring a PMC to massacre a small town. Find out next time on Magic the Gathering.

You're the wet dream of every cheap writer, goddamn.

Honestly, same! Well said and agreed. :)

And more then one set!

It would have been better to write it as them becoming uncoordinated. Losing the center of their hive mind and people taking advantage of their sudden confusion to fight back alongside the angels. That would have felt like more of a heroic last effort than the "all the enemy fall down like puppets with their strings cut" that seems so common in pop culture nowadays.

Maybe in Aftermath. Until then, it doesn't look like Acorn Wrenn can say anything cute...

Nissa has been hinted about her embracing her dark side for a while now. In the last Zendikar set she was black green and in the brothers war set Nissa was brutally murdering Phyrexians and Wrenn was saying that this was not her song and to avoid it while the soul of Dominaria was telling her to be brutal.

​@@coopervaughter1440 also, dont forget when she inhaled some elf Hitler particles and went to lorwyn to learn How to be extra racist

Unfortunately that would be far too compelling storytelling for the shovelware Marvel Lite setup of current MTG storytelling.

He can just become the new Father of Machines instead. After that, he'll have all the time in the world(s).

I'm literally pondering it. Jace and vraska can be the new phyrexian big bads?

You would think Jace would have cast a spell on himself as a backup plan to re-wire his brain in case he was completed. So that's a possibility.

I'm not sure he'd want to be the new Father of Machines, even as a Phyrexian. I've always seen him more as a man dominated by his passions than otherwise. That said I do hope he is still phyrexian bad. I never really liked the idea that he was still himself after being compleated because of his mind mage stuff. imo his character arc is more interesting continued as a villain (at least for a while) cause he didn't have a lot more drama left in his previous trajectory.

@@raydelmartinez2905 THIS

Im pretty sure everybody hopes Nissa dies so Garruk or Vivien can be relevant

I'd seen a joke that March would've been _better_ if ChatGPT took the reins...

I agree, it would be better if they become conscious for a while and remember what they have done, being reassured by others that they weren't themselves and then dying. Btw what about best Zendikar planeswalker- Nahiri.

A lot of characters died saving two is fine.

@@michaeltaylor788 a lot of B&C plot characters died. The only real A plot person that is gone is Jace. I would have been way more hype if they would have saved Luca, and he would have had to have live with knowing that he was part of the reason that so many others died.

With Nissa and Ajani they should have made it that the whole curing process made it possible to revert to their uncompleat selves for a few minutes (there is a timemage there afterall) to say their goodbyes and then succumb to their wounds and die. That would have been a bigger tearjerker imo.

@@michaeltaylor788 Who tho? Some random from a 5 mana, 3 dollar planeswalker? Some legendary creatures we saw ONCE in a set?

I love steak.

@@Kalenz1234 yeah a nice juicy steak

Nissa should have died