What Happens in Dominaria United? 

Karn's joints being unable to make fists due to the sheer amount of gore caught in his gears is the most metal as fuck thing I've heard about mtg in a long time!

I really liked how they used Ajani's culture (his teethless smile) to hint at Ajani's compleation in the story. It really reinforces how even though Phyrexians can now become people, they could never really *understand* them.

Ertai: Things will be different this time! I won't die a death as a result of pure buffoonery! (Ertai clumsily stumbles off a mana rig)

Karn: The Phyrexians are coming!!! Everyone: 🙄🤷🤷‍♂🤷‍♀ Teferi: The Phyrexians are coming!!! Everyone: 😱😫🤬😭

After a lot of thinking I reached a conclusion that the plothole of everyone believing Teferis' secondhand warning instead of Karn's first hand witnessing is justified by the fact that Karn was built as a weapon against phyrexians. He is literally programmed to see them as top priority threat and seek them out everywhere he can while Teferi is a living breathing human with freedom of thought. We know that Karn has developed independent consciousness overtime but people of Dominaria may not know that and still see him as a paranoid anti-phyrexian golem.

Liliana’s story isn’t just about finding out who the Raven Man is, but also her fighting Phyrexians on her home turf (literally). I like how she recognizes that something’s wrong because while we might associate phyresis with death, it very much is not part of the natural cycle of death and rebirth that a necromancer like her can harness. I’m also glad that the card depicting Jaya’s death is actually good removal in Dominaria United limited.

It'll be interesting to see how they do the Brothers' War. The Brothers' War, crucially, is pre-Mending, so any planeswalkers who appear besides Teferi (and maybe including him), should be shape-shifting gods bordering omnipotence. So we'll have to see how they choose to depict that in the story and cards. I know we've had some pre-Mending planeswalkers before, but they've always been more of "what if" cards than actual depictions. Oh god this is how Bolas is going to come back, isn't it?

Given Teferi's track record of well-thought out plans free of negative consequence, I'm sure his time-travelling to one of the single most influential events in the history of the multiverse will go fine.

Teferi's about to pull a sarkhan's move. Never pull a sarkhan's move Edit: if i had a penny for every time a planeswalker had to timewalk to the past and furnicate up the timeline, i would have two pennies. Which isn't much but it's weird it happened twice

I think Jaya dying was a good move on wizards’ part, and I applaud that they had the narrative stones to do it. It feels like they’re fixing the problem that war of the spark had- despite Bolas being this terrifying villain for the multiverse, in practice he didn’t actually manage to deal much damage to characters we knew were super skilful. Having the phyrexians able to kill/compleat characters like Jaya and Ajani shows us they’re a large threat, and establishes stakes in the storyline. It also means that in one swoop, Elspeth and Chandra get to take center stage as characters with pertinent reasons to fight. Side note, I wish they did stuff like this more often. We have a metric tonne of planeswalkers at this point, and I’d like to see stakes established- particularly with walkers they have no interest in printing any more.

I think the reason Ajani was able to be compleated so much more quickly than Tamiyo is probably because Jin-Gitaxis wanted to ensure the Spark of a Planeswalker would be intact when the process was complete thus making it a much more experimental form of Compleation at the time. With Ajani, they've already succeeded once, so the process was much quicker.

I agree with the characters being locked in the tower with the Phyrexians being the best part; The John Carpenter vibes of the whole situation were great!

I assume Jaya gets the focus on the spotlight cards because this is the last chance for her to get the spotlight, even if she's not actually the protagonist. That or the creative team and dev team just weren't quite on the same once again.

Loved this recap, there were twists that I didn't hear about through card spoilers, and interesting bits to the story that makes me want to go read it myself. I will say, I am a little let down that Ertai didn't get much time to shine as a villain since he, Karn and Teferi go way back, and could have had a lot to build on with the plot. Hopefully it's more covered in the side stories. Also the ending hook now makes me think we may finally see a proper planeswalker card of arguably the most powerful planeswalker in the upcoming set.

I'm worried about that Tree that Elesh Norn had, I wonder if it's another World Tree made from the Sap Vorinclex got and it'll either make new Realms on New Phyrexia, make it bigger, poke into other planes making Tezzeret not as important anymore or scarier, what if they made another World Tree to get unlimited Cosmic Elixir making the Phyrexian army even stronger?

I really liked this story. Also I think we got more Jaya cards in the set than really made sense as a sort of way for Wizards to honor the death of such an old and well loved character.

*cry in Elspeth and Chandra*

That was exactly the kind of summary I was looking for. Not too long and it still covered pretty much everything, I guess. Really, really well done. Thank you!

Thank you for the recap, as someone not big in Domenira lore I got a bit overwhelmed with all the characters in the story - so thank you for the great recap

I was more surprised that Teferi only apoligized to Karn NOW, and not in the centuries before that.

Somehow I feel like this might end up in an all out apocalyptic clash between the Phyrexians and the Eldrazi. As we currently understand the Eldrazi to be some kind of "cleanup crew" that recycle dead or dying planes. Considering that Phyrexians, if they succeeded, would compleat everything in the multiverse, it would also mean that the multiiverse would figuratively die. Most likely not gonna happen but it would be pretty epic to see what would happen if those two different kind of horrors clashed.

Now we just need the Eldrazi to start coming back and grow in numbers.

Wow, finally we get an actual view into Ryan's personal library and study where he keeps all his MTG lore books and more, very nice, very nice.

Would been nice to have a dreadnaught as a card in this edition.

Thank you for the video. The storytelling, delivery, and wrap-up

Absolutely love what you do with addressing the story, the cards, and the comparison. Been with you since the beginning!

I always love this series. Thank you for answering my questions too. Liliana being on the plane was pretty confusing, so I can't wait for the next video!

Insert pun about Jaya's death being a literal low point. But, in all seriousness, I really enjoyed this set's story. The last few sets have been a bit uneven, but I think they've definitely done a solid job building to this one, and it's clicking now.

Been waiting for this one Ryan! Grated for your hard work as always!

Love you Ryan, I appreciate all the effort that goes into your story recaps. You always provide a really engaging and entertaining description of events. Keep the the awesome work, my dude!

My favorite lore storytellers back at it again! I gave this a like before I even heard it. I started playing during invasion. so the phyrexian part is the new set has me stoked. Love these videos!!

I've been waiting for Phyrexia to return for so many years! Great video, all will be one!

Finally! Thank you guys for uploading this story!

Happy to see more lore videos. Hope to see more of this style content in the future : )

Seems like a really cool story to me! Thanks for making the video, Ryan!

I've been binging your videos and wanted to give you props for the consistently engaging presentation. The video that showed up at the top of my search for all will be one was a different channel, but the guy's voice made it impossible for me to make it through. And then I found your channel, and now I feel so compleated.

Thanks for making these videos! I always enjoy them a lot.

Esplendid job, as always sir 👏👏👏

Excelent video, it really adds an extra layer of magic when you know a bit about the lore of the various cards.

I believe the correct Phyrexian term for Sheoldred's "hands" is "grippysticks"

between ajani getting phyrexian-ised and tamiyo previously and THEN having jaya die it feels like theyre kinda just killing the older/mentor characters just for shock value and honestly i dont find that at all interesting it kinda just makes it feel like a characters journey cant end without them being killed.

"Teferi, Karn and Jodah all stand there with stun counters on them" - nice one :)

Thank you all so much for these videos

Great video, thank you! always love your story summaries

As always sir, a pleasure to watch.

Legit Question: If the Phyrexians ‘compleat’ beings by mechanising them, how did the Weatherlight get Phyrexianised by adding organic matter?

this channel has come so far, rooting for you to reach 100k

A beautifully told summary! Thank you once again.

Such a great recap, as a new player I love this Lore. Thanks for making this for us all to enjoy ❤

Your channel is really good keep up the good work

Great vid, i really loved the coverage and cant wait for Brothers War now

Thanks for the recap!

dude thanks a lot for all this wonderfull effort in having us the grat history of MTG... I have been looking for something like this for a looooong time

Been waiting for this video for a hot minute.

Thanx for doing these ❤️

Oh man, great stuff. I love how you present the story too, so here’s another sub for you! Also since we will see New Phyrexia (aka Mirrodin) in the future I hope we get to see Koth and Venser. Koth is part of a small resistance on New Phyrexia (unless this has changed) and Venser is dead but it’s possible his body was retrieved by Phyrexians and now he’s revived and compleated 🤓

The story feels less rushed than the last few sets. Kamigawa and New Capenna felt like they tried doing too much, whereas this story felt more cohesive

great vid as always

I would loove to hear the original kamigawa story, the one about Umezawa Toshi and the spirits war. But then again everything this channel give us is great. Love this channel. Keep the good work guys.

I really enjoyed you mentioning the stun counters when Sheoldred is monologuing

You’re really good at this. I like your videos.

You two are a large of what is still good about MTG. Thank you.

still waiting for a story on braids! love these videos, well done!

Stoked for my favorite lore mages.

I have been waiting for this!!!

I felt like this story was fairly well written. It had enough suspense along the way as it was made apparent that sleeper agents could be anybody. The final reveal of Ajani was a major shocker along with Jaya's death, but I unfortunately hadn't read up through that part prior to the WotC D&D/Magic reveal, so that was a BIG spoiler presented. Therefore it didn't land so hard with me at the end. Although, Saheeli randomly showing up at the end was a HUGE head turn because there's no mention at all of how or why she's there. She's just randomly creating another Sylex. My favorite story bit was in the beginning when Ajani told Karn that Jhoira had Raff concoct a magic spell onto the letters she wrote him and so any time they moved, she knew what was up and Karn is just like "Damn! Hope she doesn't feel bad for me leaving her on read". That was my takeaway from it. I am hopeful and fearful that this whole time business that Teferi is doing. It could end up being a classic "He went back in time and now things are changed in the future because of his actions" in which Jaya could no longer be dead, Ajani could not have become completed, and so forth. Hopefully it's just a manner of Teferi meeting up with Urza and finding out how to use the Sylex and then immediately coming back. But it is a good setup tying the main story into the next set which is supposedly in the past. Just please no time travel nonsense.

I've been a longstanding believer in the Chibi Walkers secret lair being a list of Planeswalkers to be completed, and some weird ties I've started to notice is how everyone keeps bringing up the Eldrazi as some sort of cleanup crew, and since Emrakul (currently trapped in Innistrad's moon) is the only Eldrazi we readily have access to, it brings up some implications regarding the fact that Sorin is yet another walker in the Chibi secret lair

I just realized if Karn was a human, he would look like Ryan.

Words cannot describe how joyful I am driving into work with a brand new “story time”

Been waiting for this one, now to see what happens!

I’m loving this story! Can’t wait to go back to New Phyrexia

Awesome been looking forward to this

Man anything with Phyrexia is 100 times better than anything Eldrazi or Bolas themes for sure. amazing work and videos. ^^

One thing I don't understand is what happened to the Phyrexian's forces on Dominaria, Ertai and the compleated whetherlight probably survived, Rona and the brotherhood of Gix definitely survived, and with how easly Sheoldred managed to conquer so many places it's hard to believe the Phyrexians will just hide because she is no longer around.

I hadn't read the side stories except the one with Liliana, which I found interesting. Maybe had I read the rest they could fill in some gaps which I felt the compressed nature of storytelling in the main story was lacking. I didn't think it was explicitly implied that Teferi was travelling back to the Brothers' War, but by that point in the story, it may as well confirm that the set isn't a mere flashback but an information gathering excursion. I just hope it doesn't result in any far-reaching Back to the Future 2 shenanigans.

I'm excited about this arc.

Thanks for the detailed lore

I was waiting for this video

Yeah 😁👍🏾 a very cool Video again Sir Ryan 😁🤴🏻🧎🏾‍♂️

Honestly this is the craziest story yet of magic two of my favorite characters got perfected 😩😩😩

Been waiting for this

Don't worry Teferi, your little trip totally won't break the universe. It's definitely not gonna result in the Ur Dragon and Marit Lage playing snooker with time travelling Eldrazi Serra surfing around. That definitely wouldn't be awesome.

i really enjoy this story-videos :)

This is already starting to be a step up from "The War of the Spark" story arc with TWO named planeswalkers being compleated now and another well known named planeswalker dying. However, I'm feeling a bit uncertain with the trip back in time coming up. I don't know what it is, but I feel like this is going to somehow undo the events of this set. Like a "Oh, all this bad stuff happened, but don't worry! It'll all be fixed by the end of this time-hop."

The idea of Elesh looking up to Karn, calling him father, as if she's simply bringing him home, is so sweet it makes me almost want the Phyrexians to win.

I think this story shows how much deeper of a plane Dominaria is. It might not have a single strong theme, but it feels much more like a real world. The big problem with one set blocks is there's no way to know what order the story cards are meant to placed in so there's no obvious progression of events. If it weren't for your videos, I wouldn't have a hope in hell of sorting it out.

What a funny coincidence. I Just finished today reading the 5 episodes of the official story by myself and a few hours later i see this video. Perfect timing! 👍🥳 And here I am watching this so see if I missed something and it apears that I got it all right. Since the Ajani card was previewed I was thinking when did they compleated him? While reading the Story I did come to the same conclusion as you, that it must have happened during the pursuit of Aron Capashen. Otherwise what you also mentioned, he shows no corrupted behaviour as Stenn did. So it remains a very good question. But I think it could have happened much earlier... Maybe during the time Tamiyo got compleated... That aside... This was a great Video. Thank you!

Hi guys, if I may give just one criticism to this video, it's that it's missing the subtitle as opposed to most of your other videos. Still, it was a great watch, and it was a pleasure to feel that you really liked the storyline and the writing. Excellent work as always, please keep it up !

It is possible that Ajani was compleated since the beginning. Knowing already he as a sleeper agent i paid more attention to some details, as in the confront during the peace talkes, he went outside to chase the enemy while everyone else stayed, then later on Karn scryed looking for him and the vision was blurry, he said this happens with phyrexians. Well, of course Ajani was fighting one at the moment, but it could be a cover up. Stenn, on the other hand, he basicaly went after Karn to say he was charged with unearthing sleeper agents, though haven't got one yet, then after suggested they portal to the tower within his city. Sure, he went searching alone with only a dagger for some time, but it was all a little suspect. Anyway, great video!

Been waiting for this one, didn't really have any idea what the story was from the cards themselves.

Thanks for a reasonable length video of less than 30 min.

FINALLYYYYYYYYYY!! The BEST MTG Loremaster in all of youtube. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHHHH

Thank you!!

Great vid

The Phyrexians are great - they’re the Adeptus Mechanicus, but suffering from extreme psychosis and hellbent on bringing EVERYONE along for the cyborg ride. Such a delightful bunch!

Great Video!! I like Magic, but I guess I'm not a superfan. I don't read any of the books or stories, so I am usually just reading cards and flavor texts to get an idea. I'll keep an eye out for your videos for future releases!

I think that Ajani was a sleeper agent from the get go and the story for how he found Karn was merely an excuse. It makes sense that the Phyrexians would have left some trap to ambush any search parties who come looking for Karn.

I cant wait till we have ashiok completed

Teferi time traveling to the past is going to be interesting. I wonder how much of an impact it will have on the history. It would be great to see an Urza planeswalker card and some of the older cards get reprinted.

Please do a predictions video for Brothers War, it is the one set I’ve been most excited for, probably since Mirrodin!