What Happens with Urabrask? 

@magic arcanum. Do you know what happened to the Shadowspear? Did it get destroyed?

Pls make a Google podcast 🙏

It’d be cool to hear the story without any personal opinions that’s the problem I have with most of these lore channels. Just my opinion

@@raulpacheco7488 We do not know what happened to it. My personal guess is that she left it with Ajani for safekeeping while she explored New Capenna, as it is a very alien looking weapon and would immediately blow her cover on that plane.

@@davidhowell1415 So your opinion is that nobody else should voice their opinions. Got it.

That would be so cool!

So basically, a phyrexian version of the eldrazi arc with Elesh Norn being the Emrakul of the arc

I don't give wotc set designers or the writing team that much credit. They are going to screw it up in some way . look how badly they did war of the spark. Hell look at them destroying the lore they built by giving you a completed walker.

I would like it... on the condition that they are sensible and put restrictions on themselves. The "Phyrexians attack everywhere"-set needs to be distinct from a "multiverse sightseeing"-set. I think the simple answer would be to lock the "perspective" to always follow the phyrexians, with cards conveying the experiences of fighting "against" each plane, rather than fighting on/with other plane's denizens.

@@indrafides2648 why is it destroying lore? Yes, the planeswalker spark is supposed to protect you. Jin-Gitaxias has been working nonstop to find a way around it. You think they were stealing Cosmos Elixir and experimenting with the Reality Chip just for funsies?

I don’t think Urabrask cares enough to lie, but as chaotic as he is I wouldn’t put it past him.

I'm not sure he was ever an antagonist exactly. He's best known as the praetor who turned a blind eye to the Mirran resistance hiding in his territory and told his forces to leave them alone unless they got in the way.

I could see that, and if that were to happen i also can see unnamed characters willingly becoming red Phyrexians under Urabrask's command.

@@sethb3090 well, antagonist is not exactly a villain tho. Urabrask is sure as hell Phyrexian, and those guys are full on antagonists 24/7 in post-ice age timeline.

@@thatonescarecrow4692 True, but all Urabrask has ever done is smelt metal on the Forge Layer. Red is the color of independence and freedom, and he decided pretty much from the start that he had no intention of going along with Elesh Norn's dreams of domination. He hasn't actively opposed the rest of Phyrexia but he's done nothing to help them either. The end of New Phyrexia story talks about the red Phyrexians being confused by the conflict between their directive to serve and spread Phyrexia and their red nature to be empathetic and independent.

Considering how Sheoldred was acting, and how Elesh Norn previously defeated her, it's likely that Sheoldred herself may attempt to overthrow elesh norn

man can't wait for the new cards for Elesh and Sheoldred since they are my fav

Definitely. Sheoldred is implied to not even be the the first black praetor

@@Case2_0 technically she is? But it's not an uncontested position. There were seven steel thanes, most of whom are still alive, and while she's in the dominant position to call the shots the others are there if she shows a vulnerability. I doubt they will any time soon, because people would riot if they didn't get another Sheoldred card, but still.

@@sethb3090 maybe in the actual return to New Phyrexia set we will get them

I am kinda hoping that she has been out, doing her own thing, trying to find the remnants of the Old Phyrexians out there. Last I saw, there were still a small amount of mindless drones on Dominaria, and the Phyrexian original plane was still existent, though Layers 1-4 and 7 were obliterated during the firing of the Legacy Weapon into Yawgmoth. Mercadia still exists, and had Phyrexians on it, and we don't know where else Yawgmoth sent his vast hordes to scour for information on becoming a Planeswalker, as he never did ascend.

He does like freedom. His great work might require those who choose to join him

His entire motto is freedom in the hunt, I feel that in the end he is going to "liberate" new phyrexia by just letting people be there, he likes the thrill of the hunt, he might find the resistance of mirradin worthy of keeping their humanity and turn those that he considers week

@@fernandogonzalez6228 I could totally see Urabrask and Karn working something out, behind the scenes. Karn thinks that destroying New Phyrexia entirely is the only way to rid the multiverse of the threat of Elesh Norn. But what if Urabrask convinces Karn that there is "another way," by telling Karn of a New Phyrexian Mirrodin, where both can share the world, in some kind of twisted harmony, and go on living. Karn doesn't want to destroy the Plane he created, truly. So Karn would at least listen to this proposal...

@@fernandogonzalez6228 it was my understanding that the idea of a “hunt” lies entirely with Vorinclex. Urabrask being more focused on quietly building (quiet as in independent and unobtrusive, not stealthy). With a red mana guiding his personality, I can easily see his vision being that of voluntary compleation. As mentioned already, with help from Karn even. Perhaps at the cost of his life though. Red has a tendency to put everything they have in to a glorious offensive, even at the cost of death (look at all the creatures with great power but toughness of 1) **edit: spelling

@@inglebear84 I feel there is a difference, vorinclex is an apex predator, he just hunts 4 fun, with the hunt I mean like a predator tipe thing, where if the hunted wins he is forgiven

Well due to Urabrask coming form the mtg colour group red, which is a representation of freedom and emotion, in contrast he is the only Phyaxians that is capable of compasion , since Elon is creating a from of order for the Phyaxians it could inevitably prevent freedom from Urabrask fraction which in outher words cause unrest to a group who simply want to do whatever they want who are forced to be controlled by someone they don't agree.

@@jonathanwatson4484 Absolutely agree and have to chuckle at the you misstyping 'Elesh' to 'Elon' kek

@@jonathanwatson4484 yeah I see exactly what you mean

@@RuneDrageon yeah I was in a hurry 😌

He’s been like that since NP dude let the Mirrans in his domain and left them alone

I’m okay if the phyrexians are thwarted, but only if they set up new threats in the meantime. It can’t be neatly wrapped- if the phyrexians are destroyed, I want their destruction to be at the cost of new, REALLY BIG threats being born

@@reubenfromow4854 it has to feel natural though, you know? i don’t just want another big bad for the sake of a big bad and it’ll take a lot to top how threatening the phyrexians are known to be

Eldrazi phyrexians

Its a game for 13+. What do you think MtG lore is? Written Game of Thrones?

I wouldn't mind if they lost as long as one of the praetors and a few completed planeswalkers escape as an anti gate watch that goes around completing planes now and then. I don't want the phyrexians gone but I also don't want them to be in every set for a few years and then either die completely or become good guys somehow

Ashiok is the one we should all be afraid of, the man is gaslighting religious zombie cyborgs.

I'm gonna say yes. They have multiple new white planeswalkers ready if we lose these ones (Teyo, Basri Ket, etc)

i’ve seen other people in the comments suggest Urabrask doing some type of minor “compleation” on some heroes, somehow leaving freedom for them in that. imagine an urabrak “compleated” boros elspeth with her new capenna angel lineage and all the red angels in mtg’s history

My biggest hope is if the source of Urabrask's philosophy would somehow reference or make parallels to Xantcha at some point. While she was a sleeper agent of old phyrexia, she was about to be "scrapped" for being being a traitor to phyrexia and was regarded defective due to the anomaly of her being able to think for herself. She became Urza's guide and friend after he saved her, and she eventually returned the favor by sacrificed herself to save Urza. Afterwards, it was Xantcha's heartstone that Urza used to help power Karn to this day. The biggest reason why I hope there'd be some link between Urabrask and Xantcha is not just because of how well their rebellion against phyrexia parallels each other (and how her card has red in it too), but mainly because I was wholly dissatisfied with how the story explained the origins of the new phyrexians. While it was supposedly due to some Phyrexian oil coming out of Karn's Phyrexian heartstone, it really irked me how such oil didn't have any negative effects on Karn or anyone else around him for a thousand years before it conveniently did something to the metal plane that he created way later. Also, my problem was that Karn's heartstone wasn't just any Phyrexian heartstone, but _Xantcha's_ , who happened to be an oddly nice Phyrexian regarded as "defective" and a traitor by her own kind. Oil from her heartstone is what eventually created New Phyrexia, which mostly still has a core philosophy around parasitism despite Xantcha's eccentricities, but Urabrask gives me hope that he's Xantcha's true legacy.

Well. They messed it up.

@@comradecameron3726 Yup! The story had its moments, but even considering the plot points that I did enjoy they didn't focus nearly enough on what they needed to and what I wanted them to. Yeah we still got aftermath left but that's only 50 cards and an unknown number of stories. So while I'll be happy if we check in on planes, see what's going on with the likes of Elspeth, Ajani, and Nahiri, and actually give all the events a little breathing room, the fact that Urabrask's story is over one way or another is always going to be a sour point, and I'll always be upset at how they handled his potential.

Even Elesh Norn isn't as evil as say Bolas. She doesn't want to kill people, she wants them to be perfect life forms like her. In her view she's saving them.

I honestly have little faith in wotc but that sounds great Ive always love urabrask, ever since he just let those stray survivors chill in the furnace layer

@@sethb3090 my thing about comparing evil is that it’s impossible to grade it on a fixed metric. Bolas was certainly a selfish and sadistic villain, but his goals were a matter of regaining a glory he used to have and just a casual disdain for the cost to “lesser beings” Norn wants to impose her vision (AND authority) on all life, even on a multiversal level. She would surely like to believe she’s doing it for the good of all, but she knows she won’t tolerate dissent and that means that at some point her desire for unity comes second to her desire to rule. It’s amazing how bolas’s motive was so petty and Norn’s seems noble, but what they want and what they would do for it are the same.

One possible solution would be assassinating the other praetors and Urabrask taking charge of New Phyrexia resulting in an opt in system rather than 'join or die' and an uneasy peace where both sides are waiting for the other to break it.

If they attempted something like that, I think they'd find that Emrakul would be the one doing the "compleating". Look at how the werewolves, vampires, and even angels mutated during Eldritch Moon. Which would be an interesting twist in its own right, definitely. I definitely want to see slivers on Dominaria as well, although since they were a Phyrexian development in the first place, I doubt the New Phyrexians would want to change them all that much. Either way, the flavor text on Sliver Legion strongly implied that a new queen had been born to the sliver hive, and it's past time we met that new queen.

We could also get an entirely new type of creature from this. Why else would the Phyrexian's go out of their way to complete Tamiyo. They use her power to release Emurkul from Innistrad's moon. Then we get Phyrexian Eldrazi hybrids. Now that would be a huge multiversel threat for all of Magic.

@@adamkeiser5933 because she's a collector of knowledge from across the multiverse. In the event they don't know about Emrakul in the moon, she's still an extremely powerful ally just based on her vast wealth of information for the praetors to use.

@@adamkeiser5933 Emrakul can't be completed. Eldrazi absorbs, transform, and mutates any materials they come across. It's just their nature. The glistening oil can't do anything against a completely unknowable being.

@@davidlundquist1979 I don't think Emrakul could corrupt Phyrexians. It was explicitly stated multiple times that Emrakul only twists living organic matter. She has no power over dead or synthetic stuff. I kept wondering why Wizards was so insisting on those limitations. But now I'm starting to think it was to pave the way for the inevitable confrontation between Emrakul and Phyrexia. Ahe might be a big help to defend the multiverse against them, but I don't see how she could win a direct fight with Yawgmoth's technology.

"'Glistening OIL?!' HA!!! The only substance in this multiverse that TRULY glistens is HALO!!" A future quote, from a character, that I could totally see being thrown in Elesh Norn's face.

@@jacob4920 yeah nice quote

Which sounds nice, but we know Phyrexians have no problem converting angels - see 'Shattered Angel', 'Chancellor of Tithes,' and of course Atraxa. If 'angel blood' was the secret key to killing Phyrexians, they never would have got off the ground in the first place.

@@blakegrose1774 probably, so what if Halo isn’t specifically “angel blood” but something else?

Glistening Oil was able to corrupt Serra's Realm. Even if this version of Glistening Oil is watered down compared to the OG Glistening Oil, Halo won't do much besides possibly assist it in the process of New Phyrexian Phyresis. Remember, Phyresis that is spread by oil, is generally, immune to curatives, both medicinal and magical, and feeds off Mana when it is infused in others.

Dude if they compleat Ajani I think I might cry

Missing from this is what role Tamiyo is going to play. She has a few WMD scrolls at her disposal - I imagine this will come into effect in some meaningful way

@@georgehadley854 that's true, but we only know that one of the three is a WMD. All we know about the other two is that she vowed never to use them. Which is to say that it could get spicy. Anyway, I think there will be at least three compleated planeswalkers we know, plus one or two we're meeting for the first time, by the time the conflict happens. Tamiyo won't be the only one.

My main prediction is that they're going to either resurrect Yawgmoth somehow or find Urza's body, stick his head back on it, and then compleat his corpse.

@@honorableintent Urza became energy and was absorbed by Karn, and that was how his spark activated. As well, Yawgmoth was supposedly turned into an Incarnate, so he can't really be resurrected since he isn't DEAD... technically? The lore has retconned a lot about what happened with the firing of the Legacy Weapon, and the lore of the Mending.

It would be pretty interesting to see what would happen with a Phyexian vs. Emrakul situation. While a compleated Eldrazi is a terrifying concept, it would actually be a pretty funny to see a Phyrexian attempt to compleat Emrakul only to have her be completely resist it and crush the Phyrexian in response.

@@AlistairZands Read the flavor text for “Gnathosaur”. If a big lizard can resist the oil then there’s no doubt an eldrazi could too. Also given the dualistic nature of an Eldrazi (being present in the physical world while also being present in the extra-planar) it’s extremely unlikely that it would even be possible for a Titan itself to be ‘Completed’. Maybe the spawn or drones could be, but given the nature of their mind and being I’d doubt that too.

Thanks so much!!

that sound like it hurts a lot

i only want phyrexians to be defeated if at the end, some weird halo/glistening oil created a new type of antagonist for the next story arc

im really sad that tamiyo got compleated but i hope they don’t bring her back honestly. her loss hits hard and i don’t want wotc to use the halo as an easy out

With a forward written by Jace, since he's seen them both do it up close lol

Glad you like the video! I don't think the Ozolith itself is going to have any impact on the upcoming showdown between the Gatewatch and the Phyrexians. I think the more important part is WHO was behind the Ozolith on Ikoria. Whomever THAT person is will likely be our next 'major threat' for our heroes to face.

I'm guessing that particular thread won't be tied up until a set takes place on New Phyrexia itself. But if it helps, he's probably going to be in the middle of that conflict.

The only reason I don't do that is because the praetors are all mono-colored, and mono-colored Commander Decks are... boring to me.

@@jacob4920 I have many multicolor decks currently so few mono colors are good to compleat collection :D

Can’t be worse than having a multiversal war resolve in a 24 hour period while the big bad eats spaghetti.

The insert for Atraxa's Commander deck stated clearly that each of the Praetors was invited to contribute to her design, but that Urabrask refused. But we already knew he was a rebel right from the start, when he allowed the last of the Mirran fighters to take refuge in his territory.

This is a shot in the dark, but I'm guessing Tezzeret assembles an Evil Gatewatch with Ashiok, Lukka, Dovin Baan and maybe Nahiri, and maybe Vivien now? (Maybe not Vivien though). Tezzeret has been trying to do main villain things but keeps getting overshadowed by Bolas and now Phyrexia. Once they're out of the way, he might have an opening. It might also have to do with Dominaria and the many artificer weapons from the Brothers War, which we'll see this year. I don't see them making a regular expansion set in the past without it being relevant to the ongoing story somehow, and Karn has already dug up a Dominarian superweapon to use on Phyrexia (the Golgothian Sylex, which was last used to wipe out three continents and started the Ice Age block). I don't think Eldrazi yet, because people got kind of tired of Eldrazi a few years back when they did them three sets in a row, but that will definitely be an arc later (Ugin did warm Jace that killing Eldrazi would probably make vague but serious Bad Things happen to the multiverse). Maybe a fourth Eldrazi Titan born from the trauma and somehow worse than the others? Maybe another rift crisis like Time Spiral? Maybe there are just more Eldrazi out there. It's never been said that there aren't.

@@sethb3090 uuuuuuhhhh i like that!

There are still some mysterious figures out there, like The Raven Man, and whoever was behind the Ozolith on Ikoria. Personally I'd rather see a return to plane-level threats, like Olivia and Edgar on Innistrad, or the faction battles of Ixalan (Pirates vs Merfolk vs Dinosaurs vs Vampires is plenty of conflict, without needing a supernatural being like the Eldrazi on top of it.)

There's Marit Lage too

I say Tezzeret because he's part of multiple Gatewatch back stories. He used to run the Infinite Consortium on Ravnica and employ Jace and Liliana, and he tortured Jace at one point. (Speaking of Jace, he remembers his home plane now so expect to see Vryn soonish). He also burned down the nezumi village Tamiyo rescued Nashi from, and I have Nashi pegged as a potential future planeswalker. He's also from Alara like Ajani is, and they both encountered Bolas there albeit with different results. The Infinite Consortium hasn't gotten much mention lately, but Tezzeret has a history of running stuff across multiple planes and I doubt it's a single-plane organization. It might have ties to the Order of Heliud too (a similar organization the planeswalker Heliud ran before becoming the Theros God Heliod).

Beard isn't long enough yet.

@@MagicArcanum it's not about the length of the physical beard, it's about the length of the beard in your heart

It might be the start of the next arc but I don't expect us to see any phrexians in that set - unless they are sleeper agents or something. By pallet cleanser, I guess I mean more like "the generic fantasy stuff that Dominaria is known for, with a historic theme made up of artifacts, sagas, and legends."

Like... how long would that take even without any heroic intervention? Each plane defeated makes the next one harder as governing capacity is threated. Realistically, the entire of Magic the Gathering could take place within the time it takes them to take over the multiverse and the heroes could just ignore it. And the Phyrexians would have their own crises and villains to defeat slowing them down further.

Ashiok's to do lists: - Groceries - DENTIST 10 am Theros time - Repair sink - Prank the leader of the most existential threat to the multiverse - Change bed sheets

The other praetors didn't appear in their own chapter of the story so I don't really have the material to work with. Sorry!

Yeah I thought Elspeth would have had a more volatile reaction rather than something like: "Huh. Well how about that?" On the other hand though, I don't know much of the Scars of Mirrodin block story other than the major plot points so maybe there's some good will there?

@@Tails802 maybe Elspeth suspects it's Urabrask Vivien's working with? After all in the Scars block Urabrask did explicitly state to the Resistance that they can hide in his region and he won't bother them (I think it's even in a flavor text of a card from the New Phyrexia set...?) so maybe Elspeth remembers that?

Though I guess rebellious and bickering Phyrexians is nothing new - see Ertai and Belbe I guess

None of the old cards were red characters though. They used red cards to describe some of what was going on, but Phyrexia was solidly black with some green. Adding the other three colors was a big deal and Scars block made a point of saying that it could affect their unity in unpredictable ways.

@@sethb3090 I get your points. To me a red mage casts a red spell so if there is a red phyrexian spell there is a red phyrexian mage (maybe more of a colour identity than colour thing). Despite this you make good points. I think I would just like WOTC to think this through a bit more and give us a better story about why Urabrask doesn't act like the others beyond "He is red". Logically that would just make him a different kind of evil. Not sure why he is approximating mercy by not hunting the resistance like the others. Still we don't know his true plans so this may all be to come. At least, I hope it is.

That's an overused trope. I wanna see elesh get steamrolled in some underwhelming boss fight

I'm gonna say it's likely. Maybe they don't lose a straight fight, but Karn currently is carrying the magic equivalent of a nuke with plans to take the whole planet out. He has to take it to Phyrexia's core, so it's either gonna be a big fight there or maybe someone opposing him because that'll take out the resistance too. Or both. Or maybe he succeeds but they spread to other planes before it happens.

@@012998Mnb Put that idea at the top of the list of "Tropes that will never happen." Because nobody is interested in reading a boring story.

That already happened. Elesh Norn already got their significant victory, devastating the heroes and sending them into retreat, with New Phyrexia. This *is* the part of the story where the heroes recover, get a better plan and (hopefully/probably) achieve victory.

That’s... exactly what happened to Nicol Bolas. Those were the events of Hour of Devastation.

Karn was searching for it during the last Dominaria set, yes.

@@MagicArcanum Have you seen the art for Dominaria United? Is that a sylex or something else? (I only started playing in 2018 so I genuinely do not know)

The only art I've seen came from the official 'sneak peek' article here: magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/your-sneak-peek-double-masters-2022-dominaria-united-and-beyond-2022-05-12 I don't see anything in there that resembles the sylex as I know it.

@@MagicArcanum hmm I guess that art piece is a leak, my bad.

I don't think Emrakul deliberately put herself in the moon only to escape a few years later. I was under the impression she was patient and willing to wait hundreds or thousands of years for the perfect time for her own return.

@@MagicArcanum wait I thought it had been 1000 years between when the endless night started and when it was broken

So over the course of the Crimson Vow story, we learn more about the history and timeline of the plane. We are told that the Celestus was created a thousand years ago and used to end an earlier Endless Night. The one that is befalling Innistrad presently only just started happening - which was phrased deliberately to let readers think it might have been caused by Emrakul. (But again, later in the story, Katilda explains this phenomenon has happened long before the eldrazi ever showed up.) It is still possible that the presence of Emrakul in the moon accelerated or enhanced the effects of this Eternal Night somehow, but there is nothing to suggest she has left the moon, and nothing to suggest the Celestus did not correctly fix the problem this time, the same as it did a thousand years prior.

@@MagicArcanum Okay, thanks for clearing it up!

Cell phones? No. Bat signal? Yes.

Nicol Bolas was a waste of potential and it hurts because it's one of my favourite designed characters, so the fact that his only motivation was "I jUsT wAnT My PoWerS BACK!" is disappointing. I mean, it's not the worst motivation for a villain, but the fact that there were no ulterior reasons for him to pursue his final objective makes his character as plain as a sheet of paper.

@@vulthuryol8051 honestly, by the end of that arc I think everyone was just happy to see the "everything is about Bolas" thing be over. It had just gotten to the point where every set was about his plans for a couple years. Which isn't bad in itself but it's the same thing with the Eldrazi arc where four Eldrazi sets in a row was too many.