7:01 "I trust the narrative team to deliver the kind of emotional suffering that war of the spark should have" monkey paw curls as slobad gets completed
Though I wish I could do more, all of the ad-revenue generated from this video will be donated to the Ukrainian Red Cross. Bless you all, stay safe, no to war.
I foresee a metallic wasteland, littered with the ravaged corpses of a million elks. Amidst the carnage strides compleated Oko, the Praetor of Format-Warping himself.
I'm absolutely convinced of two things: Jaya is gonna get norted. It would just hurt too many characters in universe as well as everyone reading the story for them to not. Chandra won't get hurt at all physically so might as well do as much emotional damage as possible. Ajani is either going to get compleated in the way you said, or have to be the one to end Tamiyo's life before she does something crazy like blow up a plane with the iron scrolls. Then, it's going to be revealed that compleation is reversible somehow, but Ajani will already have killed Tamiyo and it will absolutely destroy him.
Agreed on Jaya. If Ajani has to kill Tamiyo, I seriously hope he does it in self-sacrifice. Seeing him suffer so much after Elspeth's death, I couldn't bear him suffer even more by having to kill his friend.
"If Jaya does end up being compleated, Return to New Phyrexia or whatever is going to be a true nightmare set for Chandra's emotions" We're 2/3 on this one and we're only one set in.
Okay, so, here's my crackpot theory on Koth. Koth actually does get compleated, but not by Jin. Instead, it turns out he found Urabrask, who, having had his domain destroyed, is now fully against the version of Phyrexia he sees around him. Koth, not seeing any other option for allies, decides to fight alongside Urabrask, and accepts Compleation in order to have the strength to fight Phyrexia alongside the red-aligned Phyrexians. Though, it's also entirely possible this happens without Koth being Compleated, and we get a "Koth, the Incompleat" card or something. That'd be baller too. Okay, I just want Urabrask to come back, that's all.
One of koth's powers is the ability to purify metal, and it's implied this is effective against glistening oil- I wonder if we couldn't see a two-face type character where he's partially infected but able to hold it back.
I agree that urabrask will have to be instrumental in the fight agains't phyrexia, and I love the idea of koth having to become the very thing he despises in order to destroy it
Hear me out on an alternative to Arlinn Kord: Sarkhan Vol. He also shapechanges, it would be a Monkey's Paw sort of wish fulfillment if he was permanently shifted into a more draconic form given his love of dragons, and it would be a bit of narrative irony given his willingness to forcibly change entire worlds for dragons. The fact there hasn't been much done with him as of late and that this would give him some way to be meaningfully involved in the story again would be another boon. Also, the bastard deserves it for destroying Better Tarkir!
Imo, Vivien could also be the pick for Beastmaster as she already has background collecting animals from different planes for her Bow. Also, her Arc with Bolas has already been... Compleated
My called shot: it's the five planeswalkers that are getting chibi art in the new secret lair, likely in the order they appeared in the promotional material. Tamiyo, Ajani, Angrath, Ashiok, Sorin. Four of them have strong bonds to family, so it will feel narratively coherent that they join the phyrexian fold. The last one, Ashiok, likely has awareness of New Phyrexia, by way of Kruphix's awareness of all knowledge held by anyone on Theros (including Elspeth). In the short story "Kruphix's Insight", it is confirmed that they share this knowledge with at least one prophet, Kydelle, which would give Ashiok access to that information. The characters are either well-developed to the point that we will care about them or under-developed to the point that one can justify their only contribution to the overarching plot being that they were compleated. They are all firmly centered in two colors (and therefore can use the "compleated" mechanic). Their colors, taken together, produce a spread of three black 'walkers, one red 'walker, and two of every other color--consistent with the color proclivities of phyrexians. The chibi art is a sendoff/fond farewell for the people who are really attached to those characters. If Ajani is the next one compleated, consider me doubled-down.
I was about to comment about how consistent those colors are with Phyrexia's but I notice you already mentioned that, so I'm just gonna hop in to say this feels like the most likely option to me.
Another point in Calix’s favour: his life’s purpose is to kill Elspeth, who just happens to be one of New Phyrexia’s greatest enemies and is currently pledged to return to Mirrodin and aid Koth and the resistance. Calix would likely be perfectly willing to co-operate with New Phyrexia to ‘bring her to Justice’ and even become compleated by choice; after all, from his perspective, what does he have to lose? He’s already a singular goal given form. Even if Calix does not choose compleation, his interest in Elspeth’s downfall will make him easier to trap and betray. Calix is also of interest because he’s a synthetic being who possesses a spark, which is usually impossible. How it is that Klothys managed to give him one or how through sheer force of will he ignited what shouldn’t exist would be of great interest to the Phyrexians. Furthermore, if Calix’s spark is in fact Xenagos’s spark that has been repurposed after being salvaged from Nyx (the neatest explanation for why Calix has a spark which also ties into his enmity for Elspeth, as Xenagos was killed by her), then Calix is of even more interest to an Elesh who seeks apotheosis, as part of Calix was once divine.
He's a synthetic being who gained a spark through the realization that his sole lifes purpose (collecting elspeth) was impossible to complete. Klothys didn't give him the spark, and we know that synthetic beings can gain/have sparks given Karn was synthetic. The rest is a good point though, Calix would indeed side with phyrexians out of desire to capture elspeth.
@@bunnyben5607 both of Karn's sparks came from elsewhere: his first from Urza, and his second from Venser. While synthetic beings can certainly hold sparks, they have never before in lore been created already possessing them, as having a latent spark that a later stress could ignite requires that one be organic. Occam's razor would suggest that it's more likely that Klothys repurposed a spark (which has happened before) than that she was able to make a synthetic planeswalker or that Theros belief magic allowed him to become one.
Good lord I never expected to learn so much about Nic Kelman from a video about a far better topic. I knew his influence on the game was deeply unfortunate, but apparently his entire career has been deeply unfortunate.
Approaching it from a game design space: Tamiyo was turned by Jin Gitaxis and reps blue mana Tybalt fits red mana as you've noted in the video Ashiok fits black mana and visually plays nice with Sheoldred Ajanni fits white mana and the climactic fight between him and Elspeth is Metal Gear out of ten Arlinn fits green mana, HOWEVER, cheap shotting us with a compleated Nissa so that Chandra can save her with power of love is an equally solid pick.
I mean, my belief is that of any Planeswalker that the Phyrexians could want, Nissa would be the most important. Her ability to commune with Worldsouls could easily lead to her ability to hasten the compleation of planes by orders of magnitude.
Listen, I just want Chandra to character-develop into RW, Nissan to groove into Sultai and for them to be on a card together in 5 colors. That’s all I want! Oh and for Tamiyo to be in-compleated, for the love of god don’t take her forever!
The issue is that if only one of them is compleated, then it'd be a waste of time for the Phyrexians. The twins share their spark and can only planeswalk together, so you need to grab both or else all you did was compleat just some random noble kid from fairy tale land.
@@catherinecarmen3194 but what if it works differently when one gets compleated?I really want this to happen it would be so cool! Especially because then Garruk would have a reason to join the fight
That’d be really interesting, especially since they share a spark. I could imagine Rowan being dragged through the planar bridge and compleated as Will is desperate to get to her. Compleated Rowan is unable to planeswalk without Will, and Jin-Gitaxias will do torturous experiments to try and solve the issue. Rowan would go on a rampage out of vengeful anger, possibly alongside Urabrask. I don’t know where Will would be trapped, but I think Kaldheim would be an interesting place. He’d perhaps borrow the Omenkeel and try to ride it into the Blind Eternities through the cosmos to look for his sister.
@@Methus3lah Will and Kaito team up with Saheeli to modify the Omenkeel with the Kami of the Spark into a ship that can sail the blind eternities to rescue Teferi, Rowan, and the Wanderer
We do see a few spirits on Mirrodin-see Emissary of Hope and Emissary of Despair in Darksteel-but they're as affected by the mycosynth as anything else on the plane. It's unclear if fully ephemeral life can be compleated, but those kami Jin was experimenting on sure weren't having a good time... Also, I think we can file Kiora under "definitely safe" just because WotC probably isn't going to compleat two green-blue 'walkers. Also also, as long as your devotion to Phyrexia is less than five, Elesh Norn, God of Unity isn't a creature. _(Each ϕ in the mana costs of permanents you control counts towards your devotion to Phyrexia.)_
Dominaria United- Ajani was Compleated into a Sleeper Agent EDIT 1: The raven Man was revealed and it's Lim-Dul EDIT 2: Jaya was murdered, not Compleated, just murdered EDIT 3: Jace will be compleated in the newest set, All will be ONE
Looking back on this after reading chapter 5 of all will be one, damn our spicy boy knocked it out of the park. Also, Chandra is gonna have a rough month this March.
On Tamiyo, Completed Sage, there's a keyword description for Compleated that seems to specifically reference the new hybrid Phyrexian mana. That kind of led me to believe that completed walkers would all be 2 colors. Most of the ones you listed already are, but it makes me wonder about Jace, since he has always been mono blue. I got my fingers crossed that one of the Praetors dug up Dack's corpse, would love to have him back if even as a Phyrexian.
I mean, with Jace there was initially this whole "he could align with white or black, which will he choose?!?" meta-narrative going on, with Liliana/the consortium on one side, and his role with the Azorius/the guildpact on the other. Due to various shifting within the story department a lot of that thread got dropped, and he remained with the consortium while also aligning with the Azorius and the guildpact, while also never getting a 2 color card. So my point is that they could certainly pick back some of those threads and justify him as UW, UB, or even full Esper (or U with W/B Phyrexian hybrid). I'm not saying they will, ofc, just that the justification to do so technically exists within cannon
@@SeanwithanSE I mean Jace was initially a lot more interesting of a character bc they sorta wrote him to be this piss-boy asshole that the story recognized was an asshole and who was being manipulated by all these wider forces....but then people started to really like Jace and the whole fiasco with Mindsculptor happened and he sorted stumbled into being the face of magic so they quickly decided to make him a bland Everyman with no character traits except "blue mage" and pretend like all the previous lore and the entire book about how much of a shit he was didn't exist...
I think it would be a really interesting move narratively to have the phyrexians invade Theros, and corrupt it into a mechanical Rome type place. They already have slight Roman vibes with the conquest and “Praetor”, and you’d have a real life parallel with the Romans taking the Greek pantheon for themselves. A compleated Heliod is the Jupiter to Zeus.
I'm a little concerned for Kaya. Her unique ability to bring non-planeswalkers with her across the multiverse is something the phyrexians would love to study, plus Vorinclex has a score to settle with her. I'm really hoping she doesn't get compleated though, she's one of my favorite planeswalkers and she deserves more development. Also wtf, we had a viashino planeswalker but he was immediately killed off for shock value? Boo, wotc! I want my chaotic lizardboy!
8 months after this upload I want to say that You were right about Ajani, although he has been completed for a bit, because his card was called Ajani, Sleeper Agent. As for the other Planeswalkers, we don’t know yet. Edit: (got to the point in the video where Jaya is brought up) Jaya is freaking dead, Ajani had killed her, and Wizards even put an Obituary to Jaya in their local news paper.
I will say I think that (at least from how it was described) the planeswalker's Compleation isn't the same for other creatures, because it's still tamio but like hazed over... Like a filter was put on her that distorted her into phyrexia's side unlike normal Compleation which to me seems more like smashing and rebuilding as a drone
I wonder if Ashiok could, rather be being completed, become a Tezzeret like planeswalker for Phyrexia (serving as an uncompleted agent). Ashiok is visiting New Phyrexia to get some new material to cause nightmares with but maybe once Ashiok see's the utter horrific beauty of New Phyrexia they'll be able to create Phyrexian Nightmares so real they even produce "real" glistening oil. This would also give Wotc an "in" on how to continue the Phyrexian story after New Phyrexia gets bodied because if Bolas is allowed to live in the mtg equivalent of a waiting room then I don't see why Phyrexia wouldn't be either.
I'd be so psyched to have a ton of walkers get norted and have a shift to a new set of characters. The gatewatch has stayed their welcome and I'm ready for a new set of planeswalkers to be in thr spotlight. That being said I have an attachment to Jace exclusively because I love vraska and she deserves happiness, but hey if they wanna break my damn heart just make her part of that arc it's a win win.
So if you need another machine-man reference in the future, consider Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Also, dear god, do I not want Ajani to get compleated. Ajani has been my favorite planeswalker for so long and to see him suffer more would just be a death blow for me. I'd much rather see him die trying to stop the Phyrexians than be compleated.
Ajani has been sidelined and ignored for so long now, not allowed to do anything even in stories he had a direct connection to. Bringing him back only for the purpose of handing him over to Generic Villain Faction #87 would be the worst. And not in an "Oh no how heartbreaking" sense, in a "Welp, this story's stupid" sense.
Ajani’s compleation would hurt so much, but it makes sense for so many reasons: 1.) hes a very dear planeswalker, it would be a massive shock to compleat him (and it would show that wotc means business) 2.) it seems that elspeth might play an important role, given her recent revival, so seeing her former mentor being turned into her worst nightmare would be a huge plot point 3.) similar to point 1, ajani’s compleation would have a profound effect on the gatewatch
Notably I don't think any Planeswalker being compleated means they're changed forever, since to preserve the spark they have to keep the soul. Seems like that's leaving a door open for a cure.
Curing the mind, probably. Though I do think any planeswalker who is compleated will be permanently changed physcially since a lot of their organic pieces are now gone. Though perhaps we can see some of them getting an assist on Esper or Kamigawa to soften up the appearance with either cyberware or etherium
I had no idea the writing was handled by only one dude. That feels like a recipe for disaster unless you have absolute faith in the writer. Also, really happy to see you’re doing lore again! They’re probably my favorite type of videos you make up there with that sweet, scintillating, ludonarrative…
Major spoilers ahead! Do not click if you want to find out for yourself! Ajani is next to be compleated. There is a Dominaria United lore book released for preorder on Amazon, containing the history of Dominaria and the lore for that set. There were pictures of a couple of the pages, one of which was the page detailing the arc of Dominaria United, showing that a compleated Ajani will kill off a couple of our favorite 'walkers.
Amazing video. I was unaware of your channel, but your appearance in a recent Tolarian Community College video helped me find your channel. Keep up the good work.
I feel like the cosmos elixir was key to Jin being able to survive the interplanar trip to kamigawa since vorinclex got pretty wrecked by it the first time. We also totally need phyrexians to end up on there's and subconsciously create a God, maybe of Yawgmoth
I love that your example for the pre-WAR story peak was Rivals of Ixalan. I've been catching up on the story recently, reading the pre-WAR stories to catch up for Zendikar onwards, and when I got to The Flood... oh man. Literally cried. It sours it a little bit knowing that Vraska and Jace don't amount to anything, but it's still a legitimately great story on its own right. If Magic lore is back up to that level, I am stupidly hyped. And side note: I do get being burned by Magic lore. Slobad knows that reading Jace and Vraska's bittersweet amnesia ending knowing that it gets retconned hard enough to revive Uncle Ben requires some aloe. But I'm glad you're doing lore videos again. It's what pulled me in, and damn, are you good at them. Blend them with the politics by all means - the Yawgmoth video is still easily my favourite - but I just love to see your takes on the story behind our wizard squares.
Tamiyo getting borgified was so exciting to me, because it's the first time the story team has made me really feel an emotion since roughly Ixalan. I *liked* Tamiyo, but never again shall she exclaim with soft excitement "To the library!" when you plus her on Arena. Good stuff. Alsoooo she still has those scrolls that Emrakul tampered with. That's probably going to matter, right?
This comment has already been buried but I just wanted you to know that when you said "...it's the first time the story team has made me really feel an emotion since roughly Ixalan." I *felt* that
The eldrich moon story did set up Emrakul knowing about phyrexia and tamiyo’s future completion super well. I can definitely imagine her having a hand in defeating the phyrexians.
@@endermeap6488 I suppose that they are kind of competing predators, in a way. Phyrexia and the Eldrazi both rapidly consume the materials of the Planes, but Phyrexia does it via corruption and the Eldrazi just eat people. I wonder if Phyrexian Mana is even edible to the Eldrazi. Maybe it's poisonous to them.
I have two things to say. First about a the emotionality. I discovered Tamiyo's compleation by opening Tamiyo's compleation the card from booster. It really got me. The other one is about her scrolls. Didnt she say, thaz she has scrolls with the power to destroy worlds, but is unwilling to use them. Without will of her own it seems like a recept for calamity
@@jakubremes7602 see the terrifying thing is that she seems to be herself but devoted fully and utterly to Phyrexia beyond even her own family. She says in the story thing on the website that she'd do anything for family, that the Phyrexians are her only family and that if she was asked by the Phyrexians she would use those scrolls. That's the scary part. Asked. At least that's how I saw it.
I saw a theory suggesting that the upcoming The Brother's War set is about the Phyrexians compleating Teferi, and then time travelling back the the Brother's War, to try to turn the war in Mishra's favor, instead of Urza's, and thereby allowing Phyrexia to be the victors. Seems like it holds a decent amount of merit.
@@mr.mammuthusafricanavus8299 Mishra technically wouldn't get a card. The robot replacement Mishra would be the one getting a card. Mishra will be scorned forever, even though he has done nothing wrong but trying to stop the single most evil Planeswalker in the history of the multiverse.
Few points: 1) I have been wondering about Koth and I feel like his fate has been capture with his spark being slowly siphoned off and shaved off for use in experiments by Jin G. Probably used in the use of a new ingredient mixed into the oil for planeswalkers to directly go against the way that Karn was liberated from Phyrexia. 2) I feel like Tezzeret wants to be a phyrexian and he is being led on by Norn in a way that a familiar is to a vampire. 3) I feel like few Red Aligned planeswalkers will be compleated given the color identity of Atraxa. While Norn is the bad bitch, Atraxa is a decent screenshot of the color identities of phyrexia in general. 4) I agree with Ajani being compleated solely to see Elspeth's first meeting with him post theros would be her seeing the kitty mech. 5) I feel like Kasmina will be safe, but impactful in the story of the fight. 6) I can't help but agree with Aether Hub's vid on Teferi with him being used to go back and change outcome of Brothers War, but with that compleating Urza and to go back further to bring Yawgmoth to the present (so you have to do another video as Yawgmoth). 7) I have a terrible feeling (as in I don't want this) that Elish Norn will try to go WotS Bolas and become a planeswalker by harvesting sparks. Or weirder still, I have a feeling that theres a chance the praetors will go megazord and combine in the final fight and in that final form become a planeswalker. I really don't want this, it'd be naratively cheep and I'm not sure if I'd be surprised. 8) Arlinn makes tons of sense, but also I feel like its only one of her forms that will be fully compleated and she is trying to keep the non-phyrexian form (likely human form) to avoid corruption going into the noncomeated form.
Tldr: 1) Koth may be a spark in bag for JG 2) Tezzeret is Guillermo in What We Do in the Shadows 3) doubt on Jaya being Roboticized 4) Agree but add in a level of hurt feeleys 5) But what about Kasmina? 6) Teferi Robo Doctor Who Nonsense feat. A Eugenicist and Someone who thinks he's Eugenicist but needs a dictionary and a nonkink spanking. 7) Megazord Norn 8) another level on Arlinn
I'm fully convinced that we're going to see Teferi compleated in New Capenna. My prediction is that the upcoming Brothers' War set is not going to be a throwback, but that we will actually be revisiting the battle between Urza and Mishra. New Phyrexians with knowledge of the events of the Brother's War will compleat Teferi and use him to go back and try to prevent the destruction of Old Phyrexia in the hopes of having better odds of taking control of the multiverse by never suffering such a massive setback. Less likely, but crazy enough to work, is the idea that the Eldrazi will tag along on this mission. I think it's significant that the first planeswalker to be compleated is the same one that sealed Emrakul away in Innistrad's silver moon. Giving further ties to Urza, we know that he made Karn from silver due to its usefulness in his time travel experiments. So if the praetors are indeed planning to travel back to the Brothers' War, it may be relevant that an eldritch horror with unknown goals allowed herself to be sealed away in a sphere made of time travel material by a planeswalker who is now aligned with those time travelers. Maybe I've got too much yarn and too many pushpins, but I think Brothers' War is going to have Urza, Mishra, Phyrexians, and Eldrazi all fighting it out for their vision of the multiverse.
if the whole tez turncoat and jace gets norted thing happens, i could definitely see Tez sacrificing himself to save jace fully wrapping up their story together
Tezzeret having his own plans he's been weaving this entire time would be pretty legenndary. And I mean evil plans too. If hes been playing 4D chess this whole time with some of the greatest villians to benefit his own plans would be dope.
24:37 Spice8Rack: Those are my predictions... Dominaria United: 1. Ajani Sleeper Agent - Compleated 2. Jaya - Ded Phyrexia: All Will Be One (Compleated): 1. Tibalt (In the Narrative) 2. Jace, the Perfected Mind 3. Lukka, Bound to Ruin Did not predict but Compleated 1. Nissa, Ascended Animist 2. Vraska, Betrayal's Sting 3. Nahiri, the Unforgiving
For what it's worth, WOTC's writing staff doesn't care about Lukka either. His introduction in the All Will Be One story articles was Suicide Squad short "And this is Lukka, the man who can bond with anything."
We also know now that Vorinclex wanted the Tyrite and Sap from Kaldheim to make a World Tree of their own, so that they don’t need to rely on the Planar Gate to move between Planes, aka: faster Compleation of Planes
I have been a tezzeret fan since his introduction on alara, and the story arc you outlined for him has been exactly what I've been hoping for since we wrapped up war of the spark. I love the idea of him either being played by norn/gitaxias and having to skip town and reluctantly side with the folks he's been working against for a while, or perhaps, since he is a relatively smart guy, I love the idea that he's been (in his opinion) playing the phyrexians from the beginning as a means to some larger end. Perhaps he's been working with urabrask this whole time to subtly undermine norn's efforts while waiting for the perfect moment to betray them and aid in their ultimate defeat? It may be giving the story team too much credit, but a long since disillusioned vorthos can hope can't they?
If Jace does get compleated, i expect him to make a last-minute decision on whether or not he should induce amnesia onto himself like what happened in ixalan, or for him to wipe his entire memories completely before his compleation. Having him induce amnesia on himself would get us some spicy spicy angst-driven story about vraska/nissa/chandra rallying the gatewatch to bring him back or something like that
@@Drilling4mana Angst-driven story about jace trying to uncompleat the compleated planeswalkers via anti-hero-esque arc is still possible. Please let me huff this copium 🥹
The compleation process has been stated to now work on planeswalkers because they found a way to avoid removing the soul (which also removed the spark) when performing it. My hot take is that, regardless of who gets converted, this whole process is going to end up changing Phyrexia in unexpected ways. Note we still have the whole Urabrask issue floating around. By spreading out into the color pie and now doing this, they've ironically opened themselves up to "corruption" too.
I’ve been wondering that too. It’s fine that Jin can be all big brain and theorize but implementation of new things always turns up surprises. Or at least it ought to.
Koth is my little meow meow alongside Sorin, Sarkhan, and the unnamed Viashino Planeswalker, and I really hope they don't kill him off screen. "If there can be no victory, then I will fight forever" goes so damn hard.
Pretty sure the import of the world tree's sap is that the gods of Kaldheim can traverse the realms. If a praetor hopes to travel to another plane without being turned into scrap metal, they will need an analogous capability to move across "realms".
I like how they are using the Terminator philosophy of inter dimensional travel, ie: Inorganic objects get fried, organic objects, even Terminators in an organic shell can pass through unharmed. What I really think we need to see is Phyrexian sleeper agents appearing again. I think Elspeth is one of these agents, the fact that her weapon is dripping ''oil'' is kind of a give away :P
I think you are forgetting about Venser, he may have been the 1st "completed" planeswalker, as he swapped the Phyrexian heart out of Karn and put it in his own chest, love your videos working my way threw all of your videos
Will be editing as I continue the video. Ajani: As much as it wrenches my gut, Ajani seems almost guaranteed. It would be a phenomenal choice to have one of the most noble/honorable planeswalkers turned into a neopet, the pain it would cause would know no end. Jace: lol that's not gonna happen haha c'mo, you said Chandra has marketing protection, did Jace lose his? I think it would be great for him to turn and become a main villain, but I don't see it happening. Ashiok: yeah I could see Ashiok joining willingly, but I doubt they would do more than make him a weakened pawn. Teferi: oh man I'd love for Teferi to get the metal shaft, but that's due to my spite of seeing him on opponents' boards. I agree Jaya will go if it comes down to it.
Watching this now to see how it matches up with what we know and wow, that was very impressive, I'm gonna come back and comment after all the phyrexia stuff is released but you even got elesh norn's card name
Tibalt could become the new Phyrexian red praetor, that would be awesome. We'd get a red praetor that would be interested in his job, or at least more into it than Urabrask is.
It is now August as of the time of this comment and Jaya has been felled in battle by an assimilated Ajani please bestow upon us more prophetic wisdom oh great oracle of MTG lore
Hearing you say the stories are kind of back to pre war of the spark levels is a good sign, I may actually read them again. The "modern" bar is still ixalan, and I'm still not over how my girl vraska got done dirty
@@Spice8Rack And I have finished! I can easily say that the time was well spent over here! ... Although... If you'd like I can offer some insight into Lukka's character if you'd like... Lukka is my favorite Walker and I even dressed as him last Halloween (My Fiancé made a homemade Mila suit to go with it, and of course our cat was the Patagia tiger, pose and everything :)). Lukka's character hasn't been handled... great but there's a lot of pathos and potential there. His tl;dr is this, Lukka got mind-controlled on his homeplane of Ikoria and almost took over the world Skeletor-style until Vivian stopped him and booted him across the blind eternities. Lukka wakes up in Strixhaven and is immediately jumped by a bunch of students, barely getting saved by Mila the fox. Pretty much over the whole 'human' thing, he sides with Voldermort and gets thwarted in his evil plans again. My reading is that Lukka has three options of plot progression: A: (the boring) Lukka is cured of his more evil tendencies by the cuteness of Mila, becomes a Boros mage and sacrifices himself heroically. B: (the better) Lukka only has philosophical issue with the humans of the multiverse, not machines, and also has thus far treated animals as any Pokémon trainer would, a tool for battle. So he willing solicits the help of the Phyrexians as a way to power up his animal companions by the Compleation of Mila tugs at his heartstrings enough to get him to turn on the Preators and now he walks the multiverse as a half-compleated and broken man, seeking redpetion. C: (Fingers Crossed): Lukka's always been a big picture kinda guy and is 100% the MTG Version of Animal Man. My hope is that WotC leans hard into the metatexual stuff Grant Morrison hit on in his legendary Animal Man run, and Lukka, seeing the devastation wrought by Physis and the Planeswalkers (including himself) and sees that interdimensional itself has allowed ungodly powerful beings to uproot the lives and existence of indigenous inhabitant for their own game of cosmic chess. Thus Lukka's goal and motivation is to seal up the blind eternities and let each universe be, which leads us into the next chapter of the Eldrazi storyline.
Just gonna point out that the whole reason gin could complete tamiyo is because he spent so much time studying spirits on kamigawa. Dude spent an absurd amount of time slicing and dicing kami up so I really don't think Ugin is safe because he's a ghost. I think Ugin is safe because the writers don't think he's interesting.
I can't wait for them to compleat the most unlikely of senile planeswalkers, the true throwaway, one of the last unconfirmed old spark planeswalkers around- Grandmother Sengir!
I'm unironically hoping for an eventual return to Ulgrotha. The idea of a desolate plane with no real natives and every creaure being brought there by planeswalkers has a lot of interesting narrative potential. Maybe even after a set like New Phyrexia to introduce some anti-planeswalker cards/and mechanics in a planeswalker heavy Stamdard.
@@brandonbernard1570 Yes and no. While Mirrodin does fit that description, its a different situation. Mirrodin was a created plane. Ulgrotha was natural until Planeswalkers messed it up. Ulgrotha seems interesting to me because the people of the plane both know about and hate planeswalkers, which I feel is unique compared to many planes where planeswalkers are either unknown or generally liked. In addition, most the residents of Ulgrotha weren't made. They were ripped from their home plane and summoned there as part of a planeswalker war, stranded with no way home, and forced to make a life in this ruined land, which has a lot of potential for stories. In addition, the story of Homelands I thought was really cool, and much of the backstory has a lot of cool ideas I'd love to see revisited.
From how the Compleating of a Planeswalker is described, I don't think you can really classify them as "dead", as it sounds like they actually arn't completely unsavable, given they keep their sparks. I know you aknowleded this, but still, much of the discussion here was based around the 'Compleation = Death' interpretation, and I think meta-wise, it's obviously a reversable process, but for who and for how long is what's gonna be the question. That, and it's been shown that red mana consistently can resist Phyrexia's influence, if not the Compleation process itself, and not lose what emotions and personality they once had as a result. The goblins, Imps, and devils of mirrodin still act much like they did beforehand, Urabrask resisted Norn's orders and will until Norn got sick of that and destroyed his and Sheoldred's realms for insubordination, and Koth has been chilling on phyrexia for years. (Plus, they added red mana to Gerrard, the surviving members of the weather light were all red-alligned, and Norn is mono-white, so to me, it seems like they're trying to retcon the whole "Eugenics good" thing the old story implied. Instead stating that Gerrard was, by Urza's standards, a *compleat* failure by not being pure mono-white-alligned, but being the one to save the day none the less, and that the white-alligned Eugenics actually aligned with phyrexia, making Urza play right into yawgmoff's hands (or whatever he has now). Basically undoing the pro-eugenic implications by saying that it was Gerrard's red mana that saved him, not his white mana that Urza tried to breed out of him, like most of the dead of the weatherlight we're aligned with. And with brothers war coming up, that would be the perfect time to introduce this retcon formally.) All of this is to say that I think Tibs will get compleated, but he won't actually be aligned with phyrexia and just go around the multiverse, causing trouble as a robot demon now instead of a flesh demon, and that will be the only change in his character. (Also, calling it right now, Sheoldred is joining Urabrask in rebelling against Norn, and we'll get a formal Rakdos "good guy" faction, since Rakos has consistently been a faction that, while causes trouble, also does more then anyone else to save their worlds. It would be the perfect revolting rebellion colors.) This also keeps Daretti from being compleated, but even if it doesn't, I think he's actually safe as he is currently the only goblin Planeswalker, and WotC understands that they need at least a few non-human/non-human adjacent walkers to keep that part of the community sated. Plus, he's a goblin. So if any multiversal artificer gets compleated, I'm putting my money on Sahili, but not before putting my money on neither. Now, on the topic of old walkers getting compleated, I actually think Nahiri's the most likely, as she's been shown to be far more white aligned then red, and also the whole genocide thing is kinda her entire deal. Teferi is too important of a character with too many plots tied to him, and Jaya is too beloved as spunky old lady. Plus, it gives phyrexia access to Emrakul, and, uh, fuck, that's a plot point I can't see being left on the table. And one last point on Lukka; the Strixhaven story seemed to be based on his card character instead of his book character, which actually makes him a former soldier turned blindly anti-Authoritarian terrorist, so I think he'll be fighting against phyrexia instead of joining, if he shows up at all. Although, I will admit, phyrexian magehunters sounds awesome.
@@entothechesnautknight1762 Yeah idk what I was smoking when I said that about Jaya. Teferi's whole history before the war of the spark revolves around phyrexia and the resulting time rifts though, isn't that so?
12:24 Hey, maybe Liliana could sacrifice herself to save Jace. That might actually go some way towards redeeming her instead of them just expecting us to pretend like she's been redeemed.
Great video and very insightful. Seeing the paper background always gets me ready for unreasonably long sentences that end with wild word choices and an unexpected comparison that would normally have no place in a mtg video.
Tbh I feel like lukka is really important as a piece of strixhaven, perhaps the orix finding a new way and fighting to create a new school based on the allied colors that could show a divide between his sense of protecting the lost versus kazmina trying to bring the good up to the very best
Spice your prediction record is as follows: dack fayden will live: false bolas gon die: false Domri is going to die: false Vivien reid is going to die: false Idles good band: true x96 96% correct (with 0% margin of error) Thanks for your journalism
Left field, crackpot theory/dream: They turn Kaya, and then use Kaya to turn Ugin, allowing Nicol Bolas to escape, but also forcing him to join up with the Gate-vengers to save the day
I kinda love the idea of Norn becoming a parallel to Yawgmoth. The black-mana god of Old Phyrexia vs the white-mana god of New Phyrexia would be a super cool arc. Hell even glam up a god of each slice of the pie, go nuts!
Just fyi: Jace is currently presumed dead, after Marit Lage fell on his head on Amonkhet. It happened in the comics and also off-screen, so obviously he's gonna be fine, but maybe if we repeat it often enough he WON'T come back.
Tezzeret is the one character who I feel *almost* bad for. He has two states of being. It's either "Oh my God, Tezzeret doesn't deserve this" or "TEZZERET WHY ARE YOU EATING THOSE BABIES PLEASE STOP"
Get this: phyrexianized remains of Venser. They dug out his body from underneath what was left of Ish-Sah and now rebuilt him to serve as another planeswalker mechanist when Tezzeret decides to bail out.
