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Episode 183: Alex Catches Up
355 Plays1 year ago
Hello Podwalkers and welcome back to Alex and Story!! He is joined on today's episode by returning guest (and Magic writer) Reinhardt who catches Alex up on all the important story beats (AHEM SQUEE, that's all Hobbes cares about, let's be honest)
Again we would like to state that Black Lives Matter
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We also finally have a Linktree with all of our discounts/resources
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Opening and closing music by Wintergatan (@wintergatan). Logo art by Steven Raffael (@SteveRaffle)
Goblin Lore is proud to be presented by Hipsters of the Coast, and a part of their growing Vorthos content – as well as Magic content of all kinds. Check them out at hipstersofthecoast.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:29
Speaker
Hello Podwalkers and welcome to a very special episode of the Goblin Lore podcast. I'm Alex Newman. I'm here. I'm really excited about this. Unfortunately, as we need to start the episode, just let everybody know kind of what's going on. Hobbs and Taya could not make it tonight. Unfortunately, however, we have a very wonderful guest. Before I forget, before I introduce that guest and before I introduce the topic,
00:00:55
Speaker
I want to give a shout out to the Grinding Coffee Company, who's been our sponsor for a long time.
Sponsor Acknowledgment
00:01:00
Speaker
They are wonderful. They make great coffee. As I say a lot at the beginning, when I am the one who has to give this promo, I do not drink a lot of coffee. Well, I drink no coffee. I can't speak from experience, but I know Hobbs.
00:01:13
Speaker
loves their coffee. He's a big coffee drinker. He makes coffee ice cream and he does all sorts of stuff and uses words like cold brew and all sorts of things. And he loves the Granny Coffee Company's coffee for that. But also, I can say from my standpoint, I really love that the support that they give us and other people in the gaming community. The Granny Coffee Company is a minority owned LGBTQ ran
00:01:41
Speaker
coffee company that likes to support gamers and partner with gamers and they've been sponsoring, working with us for years now, particularly when we have charity events, they're always jumping in and donating stuff and really helping us with our mental health charities and we do stuff during Pride Month and some other stuff throughout. They've been a wonderful partner for years, so we always want to shout them out.
00:02:04
Speaker
And then, so that set aside now or that taken care of, because that's very important and I didn't forget it, I can introduce the topic.
Discomfort with Magic Story Arcs
00:02:12
Speaker
So people who've been listening to the show for a while might be aware that I have really been, I have been very specifically intentionally checking out from the magic story. There's been some stuff going on lately and I'll talk about that in a second. Cause I don't want my guests to have to continue staying silent for too long. But so I brought on,
00:02:32
Speaker
Reinhardt was a wonderful guest. He's been on a lot. He's involved with the story. He's actually written some of the story we're going to be talking about here because what we're going to be doing tonight is Reinhardt's going to walk me through the story that I've missed and we're going to hit some high notes. We're going to hit some low notes, probably some things he wants to highlight. I'm going to ask questions. I'm hopefully going to walk out of here with a reading list of some stuff that I'm going to catch up on and honestly, some things that I might avoid for my own reasons that I've been kind of avoiding the
Guest Reinhardt's Insights on Magic Story
00:03:00
Speaker
story. But I'm really excited about this.
00:03:02
Speaker
Reinhardt, welcome. Hello, thanks for having me. I am super excited to take you on this grand tour of the latest Phyrexia arc. And it'll be a fun, interesting experience for me too. As you alluded to, I have been
00:03:30
Speaker
magic, I guess, a writer for magic for a couple of years. And a couple of my more notable entries actually happened during this forexie arc. One was the present day stories. So that's five stories during the brothers war, brothers war set. And then one other story, a side story featuring Tezzeret
00:03:58
Speaker
in Frexia, I will be one. I'm not going to pretend that I don't have a bias towards stuff that I've written, but I'm very, very excited as well to feature stories written by my erstwhile compatriots. To a writer, I think that they're all wonderful, wonderful writers and have really
00:04:26
Speaker
graced us with just really cool stories, sometimes very harrowing stories. But I think by and large, it's been just such a cool experience to be part of this. Yeah. I am so excited to get to go through this finally. I was a little bummed out when I realized that you had written some story and we were still at a point where I wasn't really comfortable reading the story and I'm like, oh no, he wrote all this story and I can't read any of it. A lot of that I will be happy to go back and get to.
00:04:57
Speaker
So just to put some more context in this before we dive in, just so everyone's kind of aware of where I'm at and kind of where we're starting point for us. So gosh, what was it? A year and a half ago, almost two years ago now with Neon Dynasty, Kamagawa. So at the end of that storyline, you had the conversion of Tamio, the completion of Tamio. And that particular story hit a lot of people hard, not just me, but I know that caused a lot of waves in the community.
Emotional Impact of Magic Story Arcs
00:05:27
Speaker
And I was saying at the time, and I've maintained that I want to be very, very specific and very open, but I want it to be very plain I am not saying anything about this story was wrong or bad. But for me, it was difficult and uncomfortable in a way that I couldn't engage with.
00:05:51
Speaker
Which, to some degree, says that it was definitely effective. Because that was the point of that storyline, and I'm assuming some of the stories that followed were trying to evoke a reaction like that. We're trying to evoke some amount of, I don't want to say necessarily a horror genre, capital H horror, but definitely some of that emotion, that genre.
00:06:17
Speaker
It elicits usually. And it hit like it actually did. For me, I had a very hard time with that. Just for myself, the particular storyline of characters, not just sort of slow corruption or something like Ertai didn't really bother me in the original. There was some seeds of that and there's some other stuff going on, but particularly how it was handled with Tamio, where a character
00:06:44
Speaker
is flipped forcibly against their will and their will is subverted to work against the very ideals that they stood for and the people that they stood with and loved. And to work for the force that flipped them, if that makes sense? Like that particular story beat is very difficult for me. It elicits very visceral reactions that I am not comfortable feeling that sort of
00:07:13
Speaker
Honestly, aggression and sort of that level of emotion that I have nowhere to direct is just a story. And honestly, like I said, a story that's not even bad, it's doing something very effectively. But unfortunately, like there's an entire genre that does things like this that I tend to avoid because of this.
00:07:32
Speaker
and that coming into magic. And for me, the difficulty wasn't just that type of story, but that it was that it was at the end of a set that didn't really connect back into this thing, like the phyrexia, stop talking around it. So the whole point of it wasn't just that this is happening, but that this is happening in the background and nobody knows about it and no one can do anything about it. And it's going to
Recap of Magic Sets and Elspeth's Return
00:07:54
Speaker
continue happening and you don't know how long it's going to be strung along until there's an actual resolution.
00:07:59
Speaker
And part of why we're coming, part of why I was ready to sit down and do this now is because with March of the Machines, I know, I don't know any specifics at all, but I know that they are, the storyline is coming to a form of resolution. And so that sort of Damocles isn't hanging over me anymore. And I also know that there's what the aftermath, is that the thing that's coming up aftermath, right? That's kind of an epilogue type of event thing.
00:08:26
Speaker
Yeah. And it was funny, I realized that that's happening. The story for that's coming out the week leading into MagicCon Minneapolis that I'm going to be at. So I'm like, that's going to be quite prevalent there. And also, like, we've mentioned on the last episode, but I'll say again, Goblin Lore is doing a panel. Y'all, we know when it's happening. It's stuff was announced today as we're recording. So or yesterday, so we can say our panel's on Sunday morning.
00:08:53
Speaker
talking about mental health and planeswalkers and stuff because it's May. So that makes mental health awareness month. It worked well for us and we're really excited about it. But knowing all that was leading up to this big magic event that I'm going to be at and all this, I was like, well, I should really sit down and and catch up on this. And it was just a good time. And I'm glad you had the time Reinhardt to join me here and walk through it. So yeah, yeah. And so before we begin, you know,
00:09:23
Speaker
This is many sets, many stories. And so as we're going to explain, we, as I am going to explain, by necessity of time and everyone's patience, I'll probably alight over several things, just for clarity, just to keep things rolling, definitely.
00:09:51
Speaker
If Alex has a question for sure, ask it.
00:09:55
Speaker
Yep. Yep. And I'll say like in some ways this is for me, but also it's for listeners, but also we're the two sitting here. So it's mostly going to just be focused on what we're talking about. We're specifically with these things. Of course, some stuff's going to be missed before we get going. And I assume from the context of what I've heard about this, I assume this would be something you would cover anyway, because Hobbes couldn't make it. I need to say for his sake, you better do squee justice.
00:10:24
Speaker
Okay. I was planning to. I assumed you would. And from what Hobbs has said about the story, because he's like, oh, I really want you to read this. And I just asked him because he's a good friend like yourself. And so I trusted his opinion. I'm like, do you think I can read this right now with kind of where I'm at with the story? And he's like, no, no, you can't. I'm like, okay, then I will wait. So
00:10:47
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of folded in with everything. As you go along, more and more of the side stories really get wrapped up in the main story. So he was correct on that score. Okay, cool. So I guess we pick things up right at the end of Kamagawa. Is that correct? Yes. And if you don't mind, can we just do a quick rundown of which sets? So right after Kamagawa actually comes straight to Nuka Pena.
00:11:16
Speaker
which is not officially part of that Frexian arc, but it's important because it reintroduces Elspeth. Okay. And it's kind of, and this, I'm sorry to just cut you off immediately after asking a question, but this was also kind of part of why I stepped back too, because I knew Kamagawa wasn't going to be part of this Frexian arc. Nuka Penta didn't seem like it was going to be, even though there might be some story in the background that's going to connect.
00:11:43
Speaker
And then I was like, after that, I knew we had some Dominaria stuff. So I was like, okay, this could be where it comes back. But not knowing where that end point was, was just like, I know our next set is not going to be, let's resolve Forexia or even talk about Forexia probably. Dominaria is where the, the arc really starts. It goes Dominaria United, Brothers War, Forexia, all will be one. And then March of the Machine with Aftermath. And that's where it ends.
00:12:12
Speaker
So, it's a fair number
Urabras's Mission and Opposition to Elish Norn
00:12:14
Speaker
of sets. Okay. Okay. So, I'll begin. So, you know what happens at the end of Kamagawa Neon Dynasty? Yep. And, again, not to give short shrift to Streets of Japan. It's a really unique set and really cool cards, just super stylish. Oh, yeah. I love the aesthetic stuff of the stuff that's going on in there. Right.
00:12:43
Speaker
you know, in terms of how it fits into the Phyrexian arc, there are only a few things you really need to know. Number one, Elspeth arrives in the streets of New Cabana after clawing her way out of the Therosian underworld, you know, and we didn't really get that story officially. We got it in summary form, but she arrives here and she's kind of, she,
00:13:10
Speaker
after she was told by Ajani that this was her homework. He had found it. He had found where she's from and she's back and she does not recognize anything. She has no idea what the city is. And so she's exploring it. She's trying to live here. She's trying to understand what's going on. And so she goes through the story and her pursuit is, I want to know what the history of this world is. How did this happen?
00:13:37
Speaker
And so she does pursue that. Um, she falls a foul of up Nixillis, who is being his crime bossiest here. She also befriends Vivian Reed, who was sent here to, I believe sent here to find her or fine. Now I'm not clear. Or to find Taserat because Taserat and Urabrasque are here in Kupena.
00:14:08
Speaker
Erbrask was sent here to, or is secretly here, to research this substance called halo, which is a mystery of like, what is halo? It seems to be the key to how Elspeth's plane was able to repel the Phyrexians that she grew up with.
00:14:34
Speaker
And Tezzeret, he's here ferrying. He has this, the planar bridge, and he's able to ferry, as he did in Kamigawa, ferry the different paraders and Frixian forces all over the multiverse.
00:14:47
Speaker
Um, and so they meet up with Taserat and Urbrask and Urbrask tells them that Elish Norn is planning something huge and they need to be wary and Taserat saying he is working for the cause of freedom, whatever that means. And they should trust him. They don't necessarily trust him, but they're left with little choice. Yeah.
00:15:16
Speaker
So at the end, Elspeth discovers that Halo is actually a byproduct of a union, like a partnership between the demons of the plane and angels who were imprisoned in statues. And Halo is like this substance that's made from these, I guess, calcified angels, if you will.
00:15:45
Speaker
At the very end of Streets of New Copenna, the angels have been released from their prison and they're free to protect the people of New Copenna again. And Elspeth and Vivian leave. After talking once more with Urabras, they leave to find Teferi. Now, right before Dominari United,
00:16:10
Speaker
There were a couple of stories that are actually very important to this whole storyline. One is called A Garden of Flesh, and that is a story, really the first story to feature Elish Noor as a real character.
00:16:25
Speaker
And that's that's an important one to read. It's Elish Norn basically being being prodded by Ashiok because Ashiok's having fun with her. It's a really interesting story. And the other story is called Note for a Stranger, which is like this really cute
00:16:44
Speaker
fun, bubbly story of budding love between Sahili and Huatli. I think you'd really get a kick out of this one. That one I actually read. Oh, great. Awesome. That I actually read, because that's right. Because that was around the time they did the Pride Secret Layer, right? Yes. Yes, exactly. Yes. That was expressly for the Pride Secret Layer. Yes. And I saw that it was disconnected from sets and it wasn't part of this thing, so I actually did read that one. Yeah.
00:17:08
Speaker
Well, it's, I mean, the thing is, well, it's connected in the way that you get to know these characters more, especially Sekili because her part in this is a big one. Yeah. I mean, there's, there's, I should, disconnected is, is maybe not the best. Right. It's not, it's not officially bound to any of the four sets. The events, the events themselves don't necessarily spill in it. It's, it's the whole like,
00:17:32
Speaker
People talk about filler things and sometimes go a little overboard. It's like there's things that are really important just to establish character that don't necessarily move the plot and make places feel real because it's like these characters have a life outside of the specific plot of the specific arc that we're dealing with right now. That's so cool. I mean, like, you know what? This is a multiverse. There's room for all these stories. We want all these stories.
00:18:00
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. And so yeah, okay, that that's cool. Yeah, that one. Yeah. So forgotten about that. I'm glad you brought it up, though, because it's Yeah. And, you know, feel free to reread it. Anyway, now we get to Dominaria
Dominaria United and Phyrexian Threat
00:18:11
Speaker
United. And before I go on again, like, I see all the writers of all all these magic writers as compatriots on the journey. And I do not want to give any of them short shrift.
00:18:28
Speaker
I celebrate all their efforts. It's so cool to be part of this.
00:18:33
Speaker
But again, for brevity's sake, I think I'm going to try to just summarize what happens. What I want to do is highlight one main story and one side story. Yes, even my own. I will only select one, even though it's going to be dreadfully hard. And to highlight so that, you know, you can, if you're going to read one story per per set for the main and for the side, these are probably the ones that I think you'll get a kick out of.
00:19:02
Speaker
So for Dominary United, Dominary United really features Karn as kind of the through character. And it, it, it starts with him in the caves of Koilos, in the heart of the lion's den, doing research. He, he still, if you remember from Dominary 2018, he had, he has the Sylex, yup. Or ostensibly, or as his original Sylex, he's doing research on it.
00:19:30
Speaker
Yeah. And it's brought him to the caves of Koillos, where he discovers all these apparatuses that have been set up. And unfortunately, apparently, the the phrexians are here, including Sjoldred. And Sjoldred is kind of the big bad of Dominary United. At the end of the first chapter, he can't get
00:19:55
Speaker
car gets buried under a mountain basically. And it isn't until weeks later when Ajani finds him, and Ajani tells him like, Joyra sent me to find you because she lost contact with you. And so Ajani saves him and he brings Karen back to I believe it's Argyvia. And I don't know, but banal, banalia, it's banalia. And because they're, they're like,
00:20:23
Speaker
peace treaty is going on. There's like normal life is going on. No one knows that the phyrexians are here. Karn is like, there are phyrexians here and no one believes him.
00:20:37
Speaker
And the kick in the pants is the Frexian, like some, they're some sleeper agents. So this is the reintroduction really of the sleeper agents who really haven't been seen since planeswalker, like the style of like hidden sleeper agent really hasn't been seen since planeswalker, the novel.
00:21:06
Speaker
And so once they've been revealed to our core group, which includes Karan, Jota, Jaya, Taferi, then they start investigating. They try to root out what's going on here.
00:21:28
Speaker
At the same time, we have the Sylex, we have to figure out how to defend this plane. But they're being pursued. They're being pursued by these Frexians and they're only staying a few steps ahead of them. The feature story I would like to point out in Dominary United is this really cool episode called The Lock Tower. The Lock Tower is this kind of
00:21:57
Speaker
a little bit claustrophobic, but very, very awesomely written take on kind of, if you've seen The Thing, it's like this kind of story where Karn is trying to figure out who he can trust because he's not sure who is a sleeper agent.
00:22:18
Speaker
It turns out, were there sleeper agents in their midst? Yes. None of our crew though, not to ferry Jota or Jaya. Spoilers. Oh yeah, and we should say spoilers for everything. Everything's a spoiler in this episode. So they're able to get away and they decide, okay, we gotta get to the mana rig. Jota is at the mana rig. We need to regroup there and figure out what's happening.
00:22:47
Speaker
Meanwhile, Joda goes off to Yavamaya to aid in the defense efforts here because now the Phrexians are starting to make attacks.
00:23:03
Speaker
Ajani is pursuing some Phyrexians and disappears. And everyone regroups in the fifth episode at the Mana Rig, where they're mounting an amazing defense, the Golden Argosy, which is the Keldin warship appears. And they're able to repel the
00:23:33
Speaker
the Frexian attack by blowing up the mana rig, basically. But not before Ajani reveals himself to be a sleeper agent, and he grabs the Sylex from Jaya Ballard, who had been guarding it, tosses her off the mana rig, and he destroys the Sylex. It's a really bummer ending.
00:23:59
Speaker
Sjoldred gets away, Ajani gets away, and our heroes are really left reeling, you know? Jaya is dead. No one knows what they're going to do. And that's how we end Dominary United. I do want to bring up one side story, which my fellow Strixhaven writer, Marcus Terrell Smith,
00:24:27
Speaker
he wrote this just incredible short story called Faith in Birds and it is starring Niambi as a diplomat and it doesn't have any action in it.
00:24:44
Speaker
they're not really any forex students in it, but it's about how do you treat people even in the midst of war, even if you're existentially in danger, like how do you treat people? And it's about Naomi standing up for people who can't stand up for themselves.
The Brothers War and Teferi's Time Journey
00:25:06
Speaker
It's an awesome, awesome story.
00:25:10
Speaker
Okay, and so from there, we move to Brothers War. So Brothers War is an interesting set because the main story is actually the flashback. The main story and what's depicted in the cards is basically, what is it? Is it Urza Saga that was Brothers War?
00:25:36
Speaker
originally antiquities is that antiquities slash some of her as a saga. Okay, basically. Yeah, so antiquities was kind of a set they made and I think they didn't have a lot of actual story then and sort of retrofit it in a little bit later. Yes, which is where I think there's a saga block helps to, to flush that out. Right. And so we return to the brothers war.
00:26:01
Speaker
And the contemporary, like the Brothers War era story is the flagship story. And the side stories are actually where our present day
00:26:17
Speaker
Planeswalkers are featured. I wrote all the side stories and Miguel Lopez wrote all the flashback stories. I don't want to sidetrack too much, but have we missed Squee? Oh, we have missed Squee. Is he in Dominaria United? He is in Dominaria United. I mean, how much do you want spoiled?
00:26:41
Speaker
Oh, that's a fair point because I do want to read that story. It is awesome. Okay. It is. I'm just going to write that down. It is hilarious. It's poignant. It's everything you want in a squeeze story. Absolutely. Everything you want. I don't want to spoil it for you. Okay. That one. I hope this is okay with that.
00:27:03
Speaker
I think that's a well-reasoned explanation for it. We're not just missing Squee. We are very specifically mentioning. This is the Squee-est Squee story you could ever Squee. I can't wait to see. He is the feature player. He is right in the center. It's Squee 110% through and through. Sweet. Okay.
00:27:25
Speaker
I've written that down as a bonus story that I need to read from down there. I mean, and I'll be plainly honest, this is more a squeak than you could bring out of the entire invasion block to be very, very honest. Okay.
00:27:43
Speaker
It's like concentrated squeak. It's like, yeah. Yeah. Which is, that's good. Cause, and this is, this is like one of the few things I know about the story, but I can't remember how Hobbs worded it. So I'm going to word it in a way that I imagine Hobbs was like, but I believe he said that the, the brothers are not the brother, the Dominaria United story was justice for Squeak after he was totally skipped in Dominaria 2018.
00:28:10
Speaker
He was basically skipped into that meeting. You saw him a little bit. Did we not see him a little bit? I don't think he had any story. I think he was in zero story. Wow. Okay. All right. So we move on to the brothers war. Yep. And I have a really hard time selecting which of the brothers war era stories are awesome. I mean, I will choose
00:28:40
Speaker
the story number five, episode five, as cruel as necessary, because it directly interfaces with the present day cast. So, Brothers War is about to ferries Johnson to the past to find the exact moment in which Urza detonates the Sylex. So, how long has it been since you've read the novel, Brothers War?
00:29:11
Speaker
I've never actually read The Brothers War. I read The Thrawn, but I never read The Brothers War. You'll get a little bit, I mean, you know the gist of it, but you'll get really interesting insight from this particular block story or this particular set story.
00:29:32
Speaker
because you do see throughout the past, really what it is is the aftermath. You'll see the aftermath of the brother's war, what happens when Kayla, who's Urza's wife, basically takes up the mantle of leadership and it just tries to keep her kingdom together.
00:29:57
Speaker
And it's very, very cool. But you also see stories as Teferi skips back and forth in time. You see stories from the front. And they're brutal. They're very, very amazing writing. I mean, Miguel is just incredible. He's just an incredible writer. You feel it's so visceral.
00:30:23
Speaker
And, uh, but, you know, in terms of our, again, the Frexian arc, the one story that really interfaces with it is number five is cruel as necessary. The side stories are the, the main, main, uh,
00:30:42
Speaker
our Planeswalker crew. That's where they're featured. And so I think of them, I mean, again, I like them all. Of them, I would choose chapter four, which is the Elspeth story. So each one of these stories features a different character. And I'll tell you, like,
00:31:04
Speaker
A month after the incident at the Manor Rig, at the end of Dominary United, finds our crew relocated because there are spies everywhere on Shiv, which is where the Manor Rig was located. There were spies everywhere, so Jota had the funny idea that, hey, we should find a locale that no one knows about. I know of one.
00:31:30
Speaker
And so Teferi said, OK, let's go. And Joda didn't tell him that it was going to be Urza's tower. Of course, Joda did that. Of course. Of course. And so they're hiding out in Urza's tower and Sehelia has been recruited to recreate
00:31:50
Speaker
Ursa's Time Machine, or as she calls it, the temporal anchor, but with a catch. Ursa's Time Machine was a failure, mostly because it tried to send someone physically back, and if you remember, time streams
00:32:07
Speaker
Erza sent Karn back in time and broke time on Talaria, which contributed to Time Spiral. So Teferi was like, let's not do that again. Let's be very careful when we walk through the steps of Erza, who is horrible. It's been a long time since I've gotten to say that.
00:32:27
Speaker
on the show because we haven't talked about the story too much. But yeah, it's... Well, this set is going to be interesting. Here's a stranger side, and I do want to say this.
00:32:42
Speaker
I, so I experienced the artifact cycle, which is the first four books where Urza is featured, like in a row, like in a concentrated, like two months span, I poured over these books. And number one, like they're really good. They're really, really good. And number two, I was really surprised. I was surprised at how
00:33:11
Speaker
I was surprised at how sympathetic Erza really was and how human he was. I was shocked because he's a terrible person, but not any more terrible than many other people of his contemporaries. And he definitely was not, at least when he first sparked.
00:33:35
Speaker
One of the preparations I did before I actually wrote The Brothers Four was actually to read everything I could.
Escalating Phyrexian Threat
00:33:45
Speaker
So I started with Arena, and I'm glad I did, even though Arena has nothing to do with Arizona. And it is because in Arena, you get the full explanation of what it was like to be an old walker, which is hell.
00:33:59
Speaker
It is a never ending strife. Everyone is out to get you 24 seven, 365 days a year nonstop. So as an old Walker, you will die if you're not the most horrible person. Survival means that you, you
00:34:21
Speaker
if you were alive, you did horrible things. Or you did extreme things like, uh, old Grothe, is that the homelands plane that was sealed off? Yes. Stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, we learn in planes walker that
00:34:38
Speaker
Erza wandered the cosmos, unaware. He didn't know what the heck he was doing. And so a fellow planeswalker took him under her wing only to grow jealous of him and tried to kill him, just because, just because. And so that's the lesson he learned.
00:35:01
Speaker
Anyway, so Sehili is making this temporal anchor. Meanwhile, we shift view to Tezzeret again, who is working on New Phyrexia. You get a little bit more insight into him why he's working for these Phyrexians after working for Nicole Boas. And it's because the planar portal, the planar gate that is in his chest is killing him.
00:35:27
Speaker
And he he has reason that the only way he can survive is by a full body transplantation. Into a dark steel body, which is the the hardest, at least that we know of the hardest material in the multiverse. So that's why he's doing that. Meanwhile, while Teferi is doing his thing, Elspeth and what was it? Elspeth Ren.
00:35:57
Speaker
Who? Ren? Ren, of Ren and 7. Ren and 6. Oh, Ren, yes. So Elspeth, Ren, Nissa and Joda, four people have to repel two phyrexian onslaughts to the tower to buy to ferry the time and they actually are able to do this.
00:36:22
Speaker
mostly by begging Gaia, who is the world's soul of Dominaria to help. Yeah. Yeah. Remember the last time these, these guys were here? It wasn't good. Yeah. And I do have to say that guy was pretty pissed and she was like, who the hell are you? You brought these people, you brought this frick skins back. I hate you, but she was eventually convinced. Okay.
00:36:47
Speaker
So the brother's war set ends with Teferi actually finding the moment that the Silax was detonated on Argoth. And he's able to talk to Urza. And so he basically makes an envelope of time around that moment. And he breaks Urza out of that moment. And Urza's like, what the heck is going on? I don't know what's going on.
00:37:15
Speaker
And this is, I want to say, this is why Teferi is the hero of Dominaria. Because he doesn't approach Urza as a know-it-all. He doesn't approach Urza as, you know, you hateful being. He's very kind to him. Because Teferi is in the same boat. He finds that now that he's in charge of this defense,
00:37:42
Speaker
all those pressures, everything riding on him, he feels it all. And it really, in this moment, to be able to still treat this person that you kind of hated your entire life with kindness shows his character. And so he asks, Erza, how the hell do you make the Sylex work? We have it. We have a replica. The Phyrexians are back.
00:38:08
Speaker
Dedicate your entire life to defeating them and you failed we need the secret and this is like I have no idea I don't know I just took this bowl and you know and
00:38:24
Speaker
And Hercule, I remember what Hercule told me about this mystic power called magic and using the power of the land. And so what he said, he just poured this bowl and poured everything he had into it. Basically, he willed, he poured everything, all his will, all his spirit, all his soul.
00:38:50
Speaker
And it would have annihilated him, too, if he didn't actually spark as a planeswalker. So it the the Sylex requires a person to initiate this whatever magical enchantment is on it. And that's what Teferi finds out before he is suddenly whisked away to some far off land. So he doesn't actually reappear back in Ursa's tower. They've run out of time.
00:39:18
Speaker
Everyone regroups. The temporal anchor is destroyed. It overloaded. At that same time, Jace and Nahiri show up to Urza's Tower and they say, okay, we know you've been trying to find out a piece of information. We got no more time. We need everyone.
00:39:44
Speaker
who can go to come with us to New Phyrexia. We are taking on Elish Norn. There's no more time. The Mirrens are making an assault on the center of the plane where we believe their version of Kaldheim's World Tree has been recreated. And if we don't eliminate it, we don't even want to imagine what will happen.
00:40:15
Speaker
So that's how the Brothers Wars set ends. With a whole bunch of people showing up, we have like, we have the Wanderer, we have Kaito, we have Luca, we have Jace Nahiri, Vraska, geez, I don't know who else. And all these other people, and they're really, it's the nine titans all over again. They're assaulting New Phyrexia.
00:40:44
Speaker
So the next this time or do they have mech armor at this time? They do not have mech armor this time. I knew I forgot something No one Yeah, so so Chandra Ren
00:41:09
Speaker
stay back, they're the backup in case something bad happens. They are to try and rescue slash figure out a solution. And Liliana is supposed to meet them as well, and they're all gonna hide out in Dominaria for a while. See, Healy goes back to Kaladesh to shore up defenses there. And then we're off to Forexial will be one, which,
00:41:39
Speaker
immediately gets off to a bad start because once our planeswalkers try to travel to Nufarexia, they find out that some sort of plane or defense has been erected, which screws their telemetry up. They all wind up appearing
00:42:01
Speaker
In all these different places, they're not one group, they're bewildered. And so we really, we follow different groups of Planeswalkers that kind of get decimated, most of them. Like, Luca and Nissa appear in Voronklex's realm and kind of just get beaten up.
00:42:21
Speaker
and taken. We have Nahiri who is also there but who appears but gets hurt and she gets infected. We have
00:42:37
Speaker
jayce who is you know now he doesn't have a group to lead so we really follow everyone as they get together elspeth is there and she is actually able to meet up with koth again we have this this reunion that has been a decade in the making.
00:42:55
Speaker
and Koth joins, Koth and Melira join this kind of pilgrimage to the center of the plane. And it is, it's brutal. They get attacked relentlessly.
00:43:09
Speaker
They lose many of their compatriots. Nahiri in an epic show of force drops an entire, I think like drops an entire Frexian Arena onto like the next layer down in the plane. It's crazy.
00:43:29
Speaker
Vraska is caught and Jace really tries to save her, but he is then mortally wounded as well. He's infected. I mean, we have most of our crew infected. And at the end, Jace has the Sylex and he arrives at the Realm Breaker, which is the World Tree, the name for the Nalforexian World Tree.
March of the Machine and Multiverse Conflict
00:43:58
Speaker
And he and Kaya and Tyvar and Elspeth see that the World Tree has already initiated its move. It's already made
00:44:14
Speaker
contact with other planes. It's connected to all sorts of other planes. And Kaya and Kaito, as Jace is charging up, he's gleaned the understanding to use the Sylex from Kaya, who was kind of
00:44:35
Speaker
to Ferri's right hand man going back in time. She was like facilitating the spiritual, his spiritual essence being shunted back and forth in time. So she was able to see what he was able to see. So from Kai, he just learned how to use the Sylex. He's like, I'm going to use it. I'm going to use it. I'm going to use it.
00:44:58
Speaker
And Kaya and Kaitara are like, wait a second, we don't know what it's gonna do. If you destroy the world tree now, what's it gonna do to our other plant? What's it gonna do to Kamigawa? What's it gonna do to all these places, all these innocent people? And Jason's like, I don't care, we have to do it now. And so they actually try to stop him. So our plants walkers are battling each other.
00:45:25
Speaker
And, um, and of course, you know, Ella Shinora is like, this is great. And then she, you know, she unveils, like, there's a Johnny working for her. There's Nissa working for her. There's Luca working for her. You know, all these people, you know, uh, uh,
00:45:43
Speaker
taken over or subsumed by Frexia. And at the end, Elspeth makes a choice. Now, it's not clear. At this point, right where we are, before Aftermath, it is not exactly clear what exactly happens in that moment.
00:46:04
Speaker
And it's written in such a way that you're not sure if this is actually Jace's plan. But what Elspeth does is she makes a run toward Jace at full speed, impales him on her halo sword, takes the Sylex and disappears. And she takes it to, I think the text says, a place beyond
00:46:33
Speaker
She takes it to, basically she takes it as far as she can, which is stated to be a place beyond the blind eternities. Okay. So for the medication realm, sorry, I need to make references to Nicole Bolas. Yeah.
00:46:48
Speaker
Yeah. And there actually are occasionally references to Nicole Bolas in this whole storyline. Any story with Tesserit, I know because I wrote them, has Nicole Bolas information. So if you ever want to know some of the things that he was thinking about as he was formulating his War of the Spark plan, I kind of noted them there.
00:47:13
Speaker
Jace gets up, he's now infected in his mind by the Frexian taint illness, and the story of Frexia, All Will Be One, ends with Kaia, Tyvar, and Kaito being held captive by
00:47:40
Speaker
their once friends in New Phyrexia. So again, a bummer. And Elspeth is nowhere to be seen.
00:47:49
Speaker
So the stories I would kind of highlight from that, I mean, it's pretty relentless. I would say that this would be the one set where you'd have a little bit of a hard time in every one of these stories of the main stories because it's like exactly what I think would make you a little bit uncomfortable.
00:48:13
Speaker
I do have to say that Episode 2 features the reunion of Koth and Elspeth, so that would be one I would highlight because, I mean, we've wanted this since Quest for Karn, so it's a really cool moment. Okay.
00:48:33
Speaker
And for the side stories, again, all the side stories are really cool. I do want to feature the second side story, which is a hollow body, which is about, it's from the point of view of this phyrexian abomination named X-Hell. And X-Hell is this brand new character, very odd. It's written in the second person, which is a really cool choice. Okay.
00:49:01
Speaker
And it's about, and it features, it features this Frexian somehow finding a separate will away from the collective. It's really cool. It's a very interesting story. Okay, so now comes March of the Machine. Now, I mean, so does everything so far
00:49:29
Speaker
Do you track everything? Are there any questions you have about things? I don't think so. I mean, and I'll say, there were bits and pieces as hard as I tried to avoid stuff. Like there was a few of these people who I knew, you know, were converted. And so there's some of that stuff I knew. And so this is helpful to kind of plug in some of those pieces together, because it was all contextless, like knowing how the brothers were story works too, because I didn't fully understand how that was working was like,
00:49:59
Speaker
Were they going back in time and changing the timeline and things? It's okay. It's it's good to know kind of what was actually happening there. Yeah, to help but I can't actually think of any of this is
00:50:14
Speaker
So I'll let you know if I think of any. Okay. Okay. Just so long. You know, I sometimes can get off track with endless side, you know, side thoughts. So I just want to make sure that I've been clear enough for you. Yeah, definitely. Definitely been clear enough. And this is good. Like the side stuff is great too and helpful for just knowing some of the other little pieces of what's going on. Like I know.
00:50:39
Speaker
Again, I knew about Nahiri. I also knew that she kind of went a little wild in a show of force, as you said. And so that's interesting. They get a little piece of that from you. Yeah, so definite show of force. I mean, she she was a badass. She really was. And she knew, you know, one thing that. If you remember, Melira, Melira does have the ability to heal the phyrexian taint. Yeah. However, it's at the cost of basically being
00:51:08
Speaker
depilitated for a few days, like you're recovering. Nahiri makes a choice to say, they can't do this without me, and largely so. I mean, she is, I believe, the oldest, she's technically an old walker. She has more experience and more capability than a lot of the younger planes walkers. She's the powerhouse of the group. She's the powerhouse of the group.
00:51:32
Speaker
And even with her with her particular power set to to fairies really old and powerful. He doesn't have the same just raw, explosive power. And when you're trying to force your way through a situation like this, sometimes just blowing things up is the most helpful tool. Yeah, yeah. And so she makes a choice. She tells me there and no, I need to be able to fight.
00:51:56
Speaker
Yeah. So she forgoes the cure to to stand alongside her allies, which is I mean, it's a noble choice. Yeah.
00:52:08
Speaker
So March of the Machine, so March of the Machine is, I mean, I have to say like, if March of the Machine has got to be the toughest, the toughest writing task, I mean. Oh, yeah.
00:52:28
Speaker
What? And so Rivera was up, I mean, like, she took it on up to this challenge, like, amazing, amazing. And before you dig into specifics of this set, too, this is the one that I'm, I'm most likely to read more of the stories because, again, from the one little piece that I got is it sounds like these, these stories are more sort of
00:52:52
Speaker
a thinner slice, not a thinner slice, oh god, I'm gonna use a weird game development thing, but like a more of a vertical slice, it sounds like, where it's- That's a really, yeah. And sort of resolving that, and then taking this piece, either person or location or something, and then resolving this, as opposed to sort of working your way slowly through the whole thing piece by piece, which is how you would tell a normal story. So A, I think it's, sorry, is that accurate? Does that fit? I would say that that's a really apt,
00:53:20
Speaker
Metaphor or description for that because she you couldn't have so in the format that it's in Could not have told this particular story any other way Yes, and I space constraints. I'm sure the time constraints like yeah, and it's that also would leave you with weird and got to make a Weird and now maybe this isn't a weird analogy. This is a this is a writing analogy
00:53:45
Speaker
An author, for a while, who is my favorite author, I don't know that he's there anymore, but I still read most of his stuff, but Brandon Sanderson talks about, he has lots of big stories and he tells epic things, but one of the things that he very openly talks about, one of his weaknesses of his early works in particular, and it's a thing he still sort of, I don't say struggles with, isn't the right term, but very specifically works at not doing is he has, because he has so many threads and characters in some of his books,
00:54:13
Speaker
It's all sort of leads into and then like the last 10% is just this ridiculous rush of thing, thing, thing, thing, thing leading into this conclusion. And he's like, I think he nicknamed it like the Sanderson rush or something. And it just, it doesn't make a great reading experience at the end of the book. And sometimes that can be good and exciting, but especially with how big the stuff he writes.
00:54:34
Speaker
And so he's talked about trying to find ways to sort of have some some resolutions and conclusions that maybe aren't the main story, but are sort of side things that happen earlier in the book so that you can kind of space things out.
Speculation and Future Storylines
00:54:46
Speaker
And it's just, I love to get nitty gritty and into the weeds about writing and writing theory and ways to
00:54:53
Speaker
Oh, my God. Yeah, how you and I met at a writing convention. So I know you're having good company here with that. And so for me, it's really interesting and cool and fascinating to hear that you you have this set where the story is told in a very different structure in a way that really helps facilitate
00:55:12
Speaker
the telling of the story that is to be told here. Yeah. And I think a lot was made of the side stories as well. So March on the Machine really is about this multi-planar assault and defense. Yeah, which I guess, again, to continue interrupting you because that's what we like to do. Oh, I love it. All sorts of tangents.
00:55:37
Speaker
To get all back to the point I was trying to make a while ago, is that that's, so my understanding, and it sounds like this is accurate, is that these stories are not gonna kind of leave me hanging, if that makes sense. They're not gonna resolve everything, but each story kind of does its thing, hits a conclusion.
00:55:55
Speaker
Each story has a purpose. Each story has a purpose. It's not necessarily linear, meaning not every story leads properly into the next story, but we are resolving things. For example,
00:56:15
Speaker
I'll take the first couple of episodes. Let's just go episode by episode. The first episode really does resume from where we left off. We were in New Phyrexia. Ellis Norton is making her plan. She explains her plan. She tells her lieutenants, this is what you do. And then you're off. Episode two is, all right, we come back to our backup.
00:56:44
Speaker
you know, the three planeswalkers who were kind of defeated at the end of Frexia all of the way one managed to escape.
00:56:58
Speaker
they come back to their backup, you know, Chandra Liliana and Ren, and they have to formulate a new plan. And what do we do? Like we, you know, Jace is gone. So, you know, they're doing that. And then really then, then we start kind of doing that resolution that we, we, that you talked about. Okay. We see, we see the resolution of Tamio's story and
00:57:26
Speaker
That that's definitely one I would want to highlight for you. Mm hmm. It's episode three, mother, son and story. And that almost can be read alone almost. We have the wanderer. And and I think Kaito taking on taking on Tamio as as Tamio is leading the the invasion of Kamigawa, now she makes a return.
00:57:56
Speaker
to try to plead with his mother, and it ends up that, you know, Tamio had some contingencies of her own that much has long been made of her iron scroll. You know, she had several scrolls that did special things, one of which entrapped Emrakul on the moon, right? Yes.
00:58:23
Speaker
Her iron scroll was her backup. Her iron scroll was Tamio's story, which is really cool. What a god. So this is part of why Tamio was one of my favorite characters. I love her like storytelling form of magic. And that's the gift that she could give back, give to her family at the end, which was unfortunately like, you know, there was no going back for her.
00:58:53
Speaker
and she had to be dispatched. However, she lives on to her family, to the people, to the survivors in Kamagawa as kind of a living story. And that's really poetic. I like that story a lot. And then we come, you know,
00:59:17
Speaker
then we kind of flash to different planes. And the side stories do this even more, but different planes follow different planeswalkers, Tyvar, back on Kaldheim, taking on coma, I believe, a Frexianized coma. And then on Kaladesh where Saheli and Hope
00:59:43
Speaker
and Huatli are actually mounting a defense. Finally to Kamagawa where Atraxa is actually attacking.
00:59:53
Speaker
we get that sort of like wide span of you before we, again, go really narrow again, vertical slice. And now the next movement of the story is, is Chandra and Ren and what are they doing? And really what they're doing is they know that the key to the Phyrexian's victory is, is
01:00:17
Speaker
in the Realm Breaker tree. So they're going to make an epic run for it. They're going to try to use Ren's powers to take over the tree. Meanwhile, Elspeth, who is beyond the Blind Eternities, this is another feature story. It's called Episode 6, The Last to Leave.
01:00:47
Speaker
this is where we've, we resume with Elspeth and she's kind of like in this void or, you know, she's in her own thoughts and she's able to see all these, all the, everything that's going on. And, you know, uh, she eventually is pressed to make a choice. What are you going to do? And, uh, and whether or not it is actually the real,
01:01:15
Speaker
character. It's not all together, sure. At least I'm not as my reading and I'm not that sure, but it could be a metaphor. But Sarah in the Planeswalker appears to her in this space beyond spaces and gives her, tells her like you have to become what you always have been. And
01:01:41
Speaker
Elspeth is able to re-manifest after the Sylex basically has blown her up, re-manifest back into the multiverse, but this time as an archangel. And because she really, she was a descendant of the survivors of Sarah's realm, you know, when the Phyrexians blew it up, or Phyrexians kind of took it over.
01:02:06
Speaker
Yeah, I corrupted it and started to collapse. It'd be a shame if this went to waste. Well, you know, to his credit, he did rescue a whole bunch of people. Absolutely helped evacuate the survivors and on the way out, he's just like, and this will power my spaceship. Waste what not, right? Yeah. You're going to finish that plane and finish that Demi plane? Yeah.
01:02:36
Speaker
Yeah. So. Elspeth comes back and Elish, Elish Norn once she sees Elspeth kind of freaks out because way, way, way, way, way back in that story, a garden of flesh. Ashiok put the fear of Elspeth into her for a lark, really for a laugh. It's a colossal joke to I mean, like Ashok's just having a good old time.
01:03:06
Speaker
and and put the fear of Elsbeth into Elishinor and Elishinorn freaks when when she sees Elsbeth and they they have a fight but but really the fight is a distraction because what's really happening is Chandra is Chandra and Ren are making their way to making their way to the the realm breaker tree and Ren is eventually able to
01:03:36
Speaker
merge with it. And once, once she merges with it, she's able to take it over at the cost of her own life. She basically burns out because she has Ren has
01:03:50
Speaker
like has this fire contained inside her body. It's like this raging, almost interplanar fire. And she's able to use that to take over Roundbreaker and like basically she reaches out through, you know, through the ether and is able to find Teferi. Now Teferi has been disappeared this whole time. Teferi
01:04:15
Speaker
wound up on Zalfir, which had been basically phased out of the cosmos. Yeah, going back to invasion. Yeah, going back to invasion. His biggest regret. His biggest regret, right. Yeah. And so Teferi is contacted through, they have a friendship. And so she finds Teferi and
01:04:41
Speaker
And using Realm Break, using the Frexian's own World Tree, is able to have the Faizal Zalfir and Nufreaxia switch places. So what that does is it shunts Nufreaxia. And I suppose the great majority of Frexians, if not all of them, that are on Nufreaxia.
01:05:12
Speaker
into the Nether Void, you know, the Nowheresville where Zalfir once resided. And Zalfir has been wrenched out of there with a population that has been ready for Yawgmoth for hundreds of years. And they are ready to fight. And so they come out, guns are blazing, and they're able to like, you know, take it home.
01:05:39
Speaker
You know, and that is that is it's cool, right? It's so cool. But I'm laughing because the first thing I thought about is there's a handful of these stories. I've not read any of them, but the idea of it just as fascinating to me, the idea of like a lost battleship.
01:06:00
Speaker
I know that one of them was a friend of mine. It's I believe it's an anime that he watched. So the lost Japanese battleship from World War Two that sort of just comes into modern day and doesn't realize the war is over. And and so like tries to continue. And so just that idea that except this time.
01:06:16
Speaker
The war ended, but now a new war with the same foe has begun. And so even though the Zulfirans aren't fighting the same Phyrexians, they're here to fight this. You know, they're here ready to fight and they see that same enemy and they're ready to go. Right. They're like, we've been ready. We've been preparing for centuries. Now to them, they've only, they've only, they've only, uh, been aware that it's been around 10 years for everyone else to been more than 300 years.
01:06:46
Speaker
And that also in a very, very casual, not casual, but a very thin way has a vague similarity to a storyline that you talked about back on the first episode you were on when we were talking about magic and sci-fi and you had the idea of a like lost colony of Thrawn.
01:07:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
Reflections and Evolution of Magic Storytelling
01:07:08
Speaker
Metathron. Metathron. Metathron. Yeah. Never knowing that I would be in this particular situation. Yeah. Never knowing that, you know, sometimes after that you would actually be writing magic story. Right. Yeah. So, you know, basically that, that Ren saves a day at the cost of her own life.
01:07:31
Speaker
There is hope. Remember, she's a dryad and there are seeds. That's a very finds and hopes, you know, and he plans in the hopes of seeing his friend again or, or perhaps a progeny of his friend. And, uh, as for, uh, Nissa and Ajani, they were rescued. Okay. So there have, there, there were some casualties though. So, uh,
01:08:01
Speaker
Oh, what's his freaking name? God, the, uh, the half double dude. What's his name? Oh, really? The most terrible planes walker ever printed. Yes. Tybalt is dead. Tybalt is gone. Luca is dead. Luca got killed.
01:08:21
Speaker
He tried to take on Ikoria and the monsters ate him. Okay, that justice, that's perfect. You know what? I don't know what this says about me, and I think it was because I thought that story was actually really awesome.
01:08:38
Speaker
But I felt really sorry for him. You know what? I haven't read that story and maybe I'll feel some sympathy for him then. But I did read Django Wexler's book when I first came out and I don't feel sorry for him. I don't think I'll feel sorry for him. At least right now I don't because I read that book and he was kind of a jackass.
01:09:01
Speaker
I just I just feel like, man, he just got he just got like a shorter than the stick. He he all the time. Yeah. Well, and in that book, like I get he he there was some shorts, you know, so he he ends up with a thing against ostracized because some ability he has. But then like he kind of goes off the deep end from there. He does. Yeah. Doesn't like, OK, we're going to we're going to try to do something better. We're going to try to do something constructive. He just kind of
01:09:29
Speaker
Boldly charges ahead and and I don't know. I think we talked about him some with with michelle and we talked about toxic masculinity I think it fits really well for him in that storyline. Anyway, the original ichoria storyline so so tamio does Does pass away, but she lives on a story There are many many legendaries that bite the dust it mostly in
01:09:56
Speaker
the side stories. I think Theros was particularly hard hit. But at the end, we are left with Ajani and Nissa who, thanks to the efforts of Karn who in a kind of a poetic turn, he gives up his spark to save both of them with the help of Melira who
01:10:25
Speaker
has a mortal wound and she knows she won't recover. So just like Venser saved him, Karn now saves
01:10:36
Speaker
to other planes walkers. I believe this means he's no longer a planes walker, but I, it's, I'm not sure. Yeah. I mean, he, and he's had two borrowed sparks in the past. He might find another one. Who knows? He might, he might eat some power stones and find, you know, Hey, look at that. I mean, arguably he had three borrowed sparks.
01:11:04
Speaker
One Urza's, one Glacean's, and one Venza's. Urza's, yes, yes. But who knows? I don't know what the count actually officially is. So that's kind of how it is resolved. There are more things to resolve in Aftermath. There are tons of things left to happen. I happen to not know any of them, which is kind of cool.
01:11:29
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And there's there's a and I wouldn't be I don't know in our recording like what I'm saying resolutions. I don't mean like everything's all done and it's wrapped up like there's obviously consequences and long reaching things. Yeah. I know. Mark Rosewater was saying that the story will change magic forever. Have we seen that yet? Do you know what that means yet? There are guesses. So there are guesses. I my guess. And again, like any of my guesses is not official. Like this is
01:11:58
Speaker
purely, you know, out of your butt, but you're Yeah, you're you've been out of the loop for what's coming out right now. Yeah, I'm thinking that the the navigation of with it or between planes for non planes walkers is now going to be possible. Okay.
01:12:18
Speaker
I'm hoping that this is the case because I think it's about time that, you know, Squee gets his captain ship. He's put in his dues. I'm thinking, so at the end of invasion block, we saw Sisay, Tangarth, and Squee sail off in a ship called the Victory. We don't know what happened to the Victory.
01:12:46
Speaker
But Squee probably does. Squee does. He's the only one alive at this point, he probably does. And so what I'm saying is that he goes and finds the victory, gets it into tip-top shape, finds a crew, and sails the multiverse. Let's get some stories with that. Yup.
01:13:08
Speaker
That would be sweet, but we don't officially know what those wide ranging changes are. That's a guess that a lot of people have other things like.
01:13:21
Speaker
you know, the nature of sparks just like, you know, during the mending change again, okay, something like that. Okay, and I haven't been watching Do we know do we even have an idea when because I it's, it seems, aftermath seems like a natural place for that to sort of come out, maybe when that's all done, it said and done.
01:13:40
Speaker
but his moral or anyone else had kind of said anything else about that. I'm fairly certain that we'll know with Aftermath. Aftermath does come with some stories, excuse me, I believe. Yeah. So I think we'll get that clarification there. Yeah. I know there's some story. I don't know how much. I just happen to know because they're posting that week leading up to Magic on Minneapolis. So I know there's some story posting that and it's
01:14:07
Speaker
like 20 cards set or something. It's a weird. It's like 50 or 60 cards and you said they're like very small packs. Yeah, I'm really excited to see how you actually like, yeah, limited with that. That'd be awesome. I'm interested. Yeah, I'm interested to see what what that turns into is but
01:14:25
Speaker
Yeah, that's okay. Cool. Yeah. So that, that was, that was the whole, the whole thing. And it was, it was, it was quite a journey. Yeah. There was a time where I, I did know everything like for several sets. So I like did not talk to anybody. I'm like, I can't, I can't talk about that. Like, you know,
01:14:49
Speaker
If I was playing in a game shop and someone said something I like, I was like, okay, don't say anything. Don't say anything. Don't say anything. Yeah. And I know, and like we had been talking about doing some stuff and then I'm like, oh, I know there's some story things coming on. And it's like, okay, we'll just not worry about it. We'll wait. And especially with me kind of checking out for the story from the last year or two, at least for me, it helped to kind of just like, yeah, not going to worry about it. Not going to.
01:15:14
Speaker
Just kind of let it happen. Yeah, circle back when when there's a good opportunity that I'm so eager to see what happens from here on out. I mean, the last time something of this magnitude, I guess the last time something of this magnitude happened, it was it was time spiral. Right? Yeah, that was the last major like in universe change to things.
01:15:37
Speaker
I mean, there's some block structure stuff from an actual mechanical game sense, but Time Spiral was really the last
01:15:46
Speaker
major like metaphysical in universe. Right. And we had a big break. I don't remember what set came directly after the last time Spyroals. Lorwin. It was Lorwin. So something completely different. That's when I stopped playing. And that's when Planeswalker showed up was Lorwin. And then you had a trio of sets setting up the three big bads that we have literally just now hit the resolution of. Because then the next three sets were the
01:16:14
Speaker
Well, the next three blocks, I should say, were Zendikar. Yeah. I think it was Alara, Zendikar, and then the mirrored and besieged. I want to say those three sets, or those three blocks. You know, it was, I think, you know, and if we go back further in time, after invasion block, we had 100 year gap, and Odyssey came. Yep.
01:16:39
Speaker
yeah and that's it's interesting because we talked about the story here and there on the show and like one of the things i found interesting was you had invasion which was this huge multi-year set just a huge multi-year story that then just ended and and caused kind of an off-ramp and i think a lot of people like myself
01:16:55
Speaker
included kind of checked out of the story. And ultimately, I, I stopped playing the game, because that's around when I graduated high school, when I didn't build a group of people to play with every day. But it also just made a natural fit for me to just be like, it's Odyssey, it's new people, it's a new place, I don't know any of it, and just kind of check out from a story standpoint, too. And so looking at sort of the history of the progression of how Magic Story is told, they stop doing that. You get time spiral, you get
01:17:22
Speaker
So they said after the torment blocks, they did two blocks, sort of an Otaria in that area. And then it was like three or four in a row, just on new worlds, because that's where we did Kamigawa for the first time. We did Mirdan for the first time, Ravnica for the first time, and then back to Time Spiral. So it was like, okay, we're going home, we're going back to, and we're going to tell this story that actually connects as opposed to these disconnected things. But from that point, it was kind of just like,
01:17:47
Speaker
the comic book storytelling or continuous storytelling where they're like introducing all these little things. And every storyline where it's like, hey, we're doing this side thing. We're at this magic school. Hey, look at Strixhaven. By the way, there's a praetor running around for no reason. Don't pay attention. Like the the seeding of like story plot lines. Yes. And so like that was
01:18:07
Speaker
the next almost decade, depending on kind of how you wanted to find it, and things changed a little bit here and there. But for the most part, like I said, you had those three major threats that they spent 15 ish years, maybe not quite, but definitely through along with a few different, you know, we go to theros for for a block that didn't the first time didn't connect to anything, but then theros gets pulled into stories later.
01:18:31
Speaker
with the Tamio stuff, or not Tamio stuff, for the Elspeth stuff and all this. So it'll be really interesting. And I've kind of been wondering for, honestly, for a couple of years at this point, as they resolved two of those major arcs, like two years ago, three years ago, we were done with War of the Spark first, and then dealt with the Eldrazi, and then we've kind of been sitting on
01:18:56
Speaker
You know, the Phyrexians haven't really, didn't really do anything for like two years story until this whole arc sort of started up again. And so it was like, are they going to kind of get to the, are they going to try to like redo a renewal period of here's big threats, maybe, but the kind of did and kind of didn't cause you get like ob nixle is, but he wasn't like a giant, you know, bolus style. I'm going to do a, or Phyrexian style. He was just like kind of a bad dude who they might run into.
01:19:25
Speaker
And then you got like, we just talked about him and he went back to Ikoria and got it, got himself beat up again. So a good candidate. And this is where I, this is where I went to the wild speculation territory. Well, that and I'm boosting myself, which is a good candidate is Tezzeret.
01:19:47
Speaker
Tesserat at the end of his side story. So, uh, in Forex Alibi, when there's a Tesserat side story where he does indeed get his, he, he gets his dark steel, uh, body and promptly is able to slither away from, from Jincotaxius trying to double cross him. And at the end of that story, he recovers enough of his memory.
01:20:17
Speaker
his memory that had been wiped away by Jayce in the Agents of Artifice novel. He's able to stumble upon one of his old safe houses that
01:20:29
Speaker
he had set up back in the day and he's able to relocate his his ruined tower where he used to run the infinite consortium. And so that is one possibility. I mean, we do have up next to this running around and he's always going to be some kind of menace to somebody. And yeah, and honestly, I don't mind the idea of of something that isn't necessarily planet threatening because that's the thing with like
01:20:57
Speaker
planet threatening, multiverse threatening. Sometimes it's nice to have big villains that are smaller scale, if that makes sense. Just like a political conspiracy or something. Or it's like, this can still cause a lot of issues and create a lot more tension and story sometimes. Because you're just like, you're not going to let them. Well, here's the one possibility that I think is the most fun. Oh, yeah.
01:21:22
Speaker
we do get, so you know about battle cards. Have you been keeping up with any of the spoilers? There is one battle card that really
01:21:34
Speaker
perk my interest in this called the vision of Olgratha starring Granny Sengir. And you know where Granny Sengir is the Baron is not far behind. That would be cool. I love the Baron. We talked about that. And I don't think you were on that. Oh, we should have talked to you to bring you on talk about when Commander Legends came out and we talked about all the Commander Legends legends.
01:22:02
Speaker
You know, Baron Sengir was in that set, and so Hobbs and I talked about that. Okay, we'll have to bring you on some time to talk about Baron Sengir. Maybe just have an episode, literally, just about Baron Sengir. Or, you know, an episode about, like, El Grotha, which is... Or, you know, some of these battles touch upon planes that really haven't been in the story in ages. Yeah, I mean, El Grotha, for anyone who is listening and isn't old, that's a set from 94?
01:22:32
Speaker
And 495, yeah. The homelands came out. Also widely considered one of the worst sets in Magic's history. Like really poorly designed. Amazing story. There's just some really incredible flavor in there. And honestly- Cool story and really the artwork is awesome. Awesome. And some of the mechanics are cool from like a metal standpoint. I think, oh, this is interesting and cool. But the cards were just not
01:22:56
Speaker
Tested and balanced well in a mechanical sets compared to other sets around it. And so it was just a weird a weird set but Yeah, that's cool. That's that's a lot of fun. I know I have a handful of very lower interested friendly yourself Ryan Sanio is a fellow
01:23:16
Speaker
hipsters or the coast person for them. He also the big old growth a fan, I believe. And so there's a few folks who have over the last decade or so of being plugged back into magic and being part of the community every so often I hear someone like mentioned, you know, homelands are at Joe who used to be on our show to before he decided to stop playing magic, like he, he really would like to grow old growth and was big into that story. So
01:23:40
Speaker
Oh yeah. I mean, definitely. That's so cool. I was joking when you said, oh, you know what invasion? And I'm like, I was just joking, but that's awesome. Oh, no, it's real card. Oh, that's cool. And the thing is like.
01:23:51
Speaker
This is what I like about Magic Story is that it has a lot of space in it. Meaning like room. I think that, man, this is the perfect time. If anyone listening has ever wanted to write Magic fan fiction, now's the time.
01:24:12
Speaker
Now's the time. I mean, there's so much space. You can write limitless fan fiction just about the March of the Machines, like that set. There's so many awesome, tiny stories that can be told of just cool things happening. Yeah. All the various worlds that were
01:24:33
Speaker
were affected like there. So if there's battles going on, you have like, genuinely, literally everywhere. Everywhere, right. And yeah, there's a lot of a lot of potential that that's, that's cool. So yeah, that so that's, that's hopefully that that catches you up. And I mean, honestly, again, all these stories, all these stories are just are worth reading. And like you said, like the
01:25:02
Speaker
March of the Machine itself is probably the set that you will read probably the most stories in, just, just because it's kind of the resolution of things. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's kind of what I was thinking. And, and especially then with, with, um, Aftermath coming up, then that's a set that I'll probably try to read all of that as well. Once I'm caught up and to that point. Yeah. But I think, uh, I think like,
01:25:32
Speaker
probably there's going to be a cooling off point where things aren't going to be as intense. I mean, that's really cool, interesting stories, but maybe a smaller scale. Yeah, that's, that's kind of what I'm hoping for. We get some, we, we get this resolution, we get some aftermath, maybe we get some other, maybe small, you know, sets doing some, some showing some consequences, showing some recovery, showing some, some of the hinting at what's to come.
01:25:57
Speaker
And then it's, you know, some point a little ways down the line, we start to build- There's more Squee. Oh, absolutely. I, hey, you know what, Wizards, if Wizards wants to write some stories about Captain Squee and the victory, I volunteer myself.
01:26:19
Speaker
That would be excellent. All right. Well, thank you for coming on and talking for so long and geeking out. Thank you. I mean, this is fun and I hope I didn't bore anyone. I enjoyed it. I can only speak for myself, but this was fantastic. Cool. Fun. I'm glad. All right.
01:26:44
Speaker
And that's our show for today. You can find all of the hosts on Twitter for now. Hobbs can be found at HobbsQ, Tay can be found at Taeya Transcendence, and Alex can be found at Mel underscore chronicler. Feel free to send us any questions, comments, thoughts, hopes, and dreams to the Goblin Lord pod on Twitter, or email us at goblinlordpodcast at gmail.com.
01:27:06
Speaker
If you would like to support your friendly neighborhood gobsugs, our link tree can be found on our Twitter account and in the description of today's show. This has everything from various discount codes to the link for our Patreon. The music for today's show was by Wintergotten, who can be found at vintergotten at bandcamp.com. The art was done by Steven Raphael, who can be found at stevereffel on Twitter. Cob and Lore is proud to be presented by Hipsters of the Coast as part of their growing forthos content.
01:27:33
Speaker
Check them out on Twitter at hipsters MTG or online at hipstersofthecoast.com. Thank you for listening and remember goblins like snowflakes are only dangerous in numbers.