The "light is as good as fire" reference by Jodah is a callback to an early MTG novel, "The Gathering Dark" where a young Jodah, just learning magic, has trouble casting a fire spell to light a campfire but can make a strong enough light spell to light the campfire. (Jodah started as a white mage being taught by a red mage)

When Teferri said "It's Sylex time", that was one of the Magic the Gathering moments of all time...

Karn in the game: Unstoppable Karn in the story: Got buried, then captured by Phyrexians. Again.

They should get Oko’s help, turn ALL Phyrexians into 3/3 deer with no abilities, problem solved. Or use the Dreadhorde from WAR as an army commanded by Lilliana to fight back

I do think the recap glossed over Teferi's inadvertent time meddling. He *wanted* to not cause ripples but most of the main stories end with him doing exactly that by being perceived by those in the past even if he is incorporeal. Also of note is Tezzeret confirming that multiple Planeswalkers have been compleated post Tamiyo. We all assumed there'd be other sleepers but now there is proof even if they shied away from saying who. Also the fact Tezzeret is worried that his own compleation has already begun in the whispers he's hearing.

This set really feels like it's a Two Towers like story. There is really no resolution, just pushing the plot boulder forward. Though I think the up and coming Nissa and Chandra conflict is gonna be spicy. And I've come to the conclusion that Tezzeret is really just a slightly more competent Starscream.

I haven't had an opportunity to sit down and read all of the Brothers' War stories in full for myself, but at least from how it was summarized here, I didn't take the points regarding compleated planeswalkers as the story giving conflicting information, but instead as different characters having different understandings and beliefs about the information. Nissa thinks there's no saving them, but Tezzeret has reason to believe the original people are still in there, which is just a perfect setup for drama and fracturing in the anti-Phyrexian alliance.

This was the 30th Anniversary "Member-berries" set. It was about making new cards of old characters. Plot advancement was a side quest.

Some of the new planeswalkers showing up was a bit of a surprise, especially Lukkah. I would have liked a bit more on how the Gatewatch actually found and assembled the team. Beyond that, I did enjoy the story! Looking forward to the video on the past events story!

I believe Teferi will not stay desynced in what is presumed to be Zhalfir. In fact, I'm sure it'll be a case of him meeting a past associate or loved one, them having a heartfelt, loving embrace before they tell him that he needs to go back and finish the fight (cue Halo music). But I'm also willing to bet he will be the one who will "fill" the Sylex, doing his fatherly duty in ensuring his daughter, along with the rest of the multiverse, is kept safe from the Phyrexian threat once and for all... Unless WotC decides to also put some Glistening Oil in the fridge behind Nicol Bolas, and crack it open with the boys some years later when they've run out of ideas.

Surprised you didn’t mention how Nissa actually renewed her Oath (of the Gatewatch), at least privately. Here’s to hoping that she gets a Sultai card in one of the Phyrexia sets. Also, I definitely agree the Jodah was a much more important part of the story for this set and not Dominaria United, but I think they put his card in DMU for gameplay reasons, as he’s unifying modern characters, not characters in the past. It would definitely be a flavor fail if he was cascading into Urza, Mishra, Kayla, Ashnod, etc. And I still think the Cauldron on Eldraine that cured Garruk will cure the Compleated planeswalkers that survive the upcoming battles, which is why we’re going back there immediately after these sets.

Your conclusion on Urza using the Sylex is interesting, because how I read that was that it wasn't that someone has to die to use the Sylex, but that no one *but* Urza could have done what had happened, as the Sylex was basically just the meditative tool. The power that set off the Ice Age and devestated Dominaria was just Urza. The Sylex is not going to work. Teferi won't be able to tell people in time. On the birght side, I think Teferi is going to get a chance to do something that he has long failed to do, and that will be an interesting story itself. I am excited to see what happens with Teferi.

Love the fact that there's a fair chunk of story for venser, hearing about him was nice. He's actually my favorite planeswalker card

My prediction for the future is Nicol Bolas being released from his prison, most likely due to Realmbreaker connecting the multiverse, though i dont know if Ugin could stop that somehow, so this is pure speculation

Ryan: "It feels similar [to War of the Spark]... But I want there to be some meaningful loss of characters this time." Dack Fayden: "Am I a joke to you?"

It's curious seeing Lukka here, as he has always given me the vibe that he is going back and forth, giving some outlet to the other side of the story (Strixhaven) but never commiting to anything and acting aloof. Anyway, opinions? • Teferi is totally at Zhalfir. The question remains at what will happen to his body inside the Temporal Anchor. • This will be totally a War of the Spark 2: Electric Boogaloo with only 3 casualities, 2 of them named, only 1 on them on the set. I think that the important things will happen *after* the Phyrexian War: There will be a rift between "let's save our friends with Halo" and "Let's kill everyone before it spreads". We have seen that Jodah, Chandra and Elspeth want to save Ajani. They have the Halo, they may be able to cure him. However, there are still planeswalkers without attachments to him (see Lukka, as he is pragmatic) and Nissa, who will clearly oppose any "cure". I think she will, once again, embrace the antagonistic role (which she did in Zendikar Rising). Now, Karn. My guess is that he will be corrupted and transformed by Elesh Norn into a massive weapon and used against the protagonists. They will be forced to destroy it before Karn kills them all. And, right now, I think that's all.

This story is only going to get more exciting from here!

I have a feeling teferi finally found zalphier.

I’ve been waiting to watch anything about the lore, as I’m STILL recovering from Ajani Phyresis. So hearing that Elspeth arrived on Dominaria and learned his fate, and her heartbreak over it, just is ripping open those stitches and stabbing my heart again. WE NEED CAT DAD BACK, YALL! Him and Elspeth have been through enough as it is!

Tell me again why we do not have a proper TV show,anime,cartoon i don't care anything! Rapresenting this AMAZING lore!!!!! So sad....this will give MTG such a propelling push in the world!!!!! Thank you Ryan!!!! This video are AMAZING!

I don’t recall anything being mentioned or written about Gix, but I am glad he finally gets his own card. That and Urza at last getting a Planeswalker card. Sort of.

I'd like to see Nahiri and Jace summoning Emrakul on NewPhyrexia and start the Phyrexian-Eldrazi war...

So years ago, when the Eldrazi where the big bad at the time, I came up with a plot line idea that seems to be rather familiar these days. In it the Gatewatch would be backs to the wall, about to lose to the Eldrazi Titans, when someone(believe Jace was the likely candidate at the time) pulls out the Sylex and uses it in desperation. At this point the game would effectively "reset", going back to the earliest sets with various tweaks and updates, but using the frame design shown in Future Sight. From here we would get another look at the Brother's War, but with things changed, with Mishra being the one to ascend as a planeswalker after the blast, the igniting of the spark burning away Gix's corruption of him. From here the storyline would play out quite similar to the original thread however with a different mana theme, as where Uzra is a WU character, Mishra is a BR character. Along this path we would get different colored takes on the various storyline characters: Liliana as a more W aligned healer, Jace as a more B aligned mind controller, Chandra as a G aligned restorer and so on, giving us mirrored versions of the Gatewatch with similar powersets to what they already had but done with a different theming. Again the story would go through various blocks and sets, allowing for more expansion of existing blocks and allowing for the introduction of other sets until finally they reach the Eldrazi once more. Events repeat until the Gatewatch is once again against a wall but instead of the Sylex resetting everything a second time, instead it pulls the two timelines together. As the story characters deal with being confronted by these other versions of themselves that show what they would have become had they chosen differently, the combined strength of the two groups allows them to overcome the Titans. Either deaths occur until only one version of each character remains or some sort of weird merging occurs which brings the two versions together into a new hybrid character: Jace combines to become a telepath who is constantly being driven to indulge those darker urges to just make others do what he wants for free will is just bothersome, Liliana gains the ability to bring the dead back either as they once were or as zombies, so on and so forth as needed. Or perhaps the two timelines split once again from there. If so you could show which timeline is which by the frame, timeline A being the frame we use to this day and timeline B being the Future Sight frame. Though this would end up being a logistical nightmare when it comes to formats such as Standard(honestly though I don't play that one so it wasn't something I took much into account back then). Either way it leaves a lot of design space open for some creative ideas, more so when you take into account that Teferi exists. Any sets he appears in could have opposite frame cards appear as an example of his powers working to meddle with time; perhaps with Teferi himself always having the wrong border for the set, implying that either the two versions of him are swapped or that Teferi exists in both timelines at once as an outsider of some kind. So I've had this theory all the way back from 2015 during "Battle for Zendikar". Go figure that the Sylex would see play seven years later, something that I personally only knew about from reading the book series so many times. If anyone wants to write any fanfiction or whatever inspired from this, feel free to go ahead. Heavens knows that I don't own any of this and I was just pulling things out of my ass back then with crazy 'what if's?' at my LGS. If you've bothered to read this far, I'll leave you with some words of good advice: Ekki-ekki-ekki-pitang-zoom-boing!

one character im surprised we haven't seen recently is tamiyo. What on earth has she been up to since getting compleated on kamigawa?

Urza was onto something with the null sphere and the screeching spiders he used to destabilize glistening oil thus killing phyrexians. Too bad Teferi doesn't know about that.

When Teferi wakes up, in that "dream world" at the end of the story, I immediately jumped to the same conclusion you did. I thought: "Oh he's got to have wound up in Zhalfir, somehow! That would be such a fitting end to Teferi's long, tormented character arc!" Maybe the outcome of that experience will be him finding some sort of way to "un-phase" Zhalfir, and bring it back in sync with Dominaria. Or, he'll wind up staying there, with the other phased out Zhalfirinites, and finding peace. Like some kind of twisted "afterlife." I can't wait to find out about that particular part of the story.

I am so happy to see captions!!! My favorite lore channel and this, for me, makes THE WORLD. Congratulations and wishing much more success

Definitely looking forward to the next video on the older story of the Brothers War. Am sure there is lots to learn about cards old and new.

I really appreciate these videos because it's honestly a struggle to get through the stories sometimes. Especially with all the call backs to a book I just read and enjoyed a lot more

Thanks for this video! I really enjoyed these stories, but I also was expecting a bit more on the war itself, which I only know broad strokes about. So I'm definitely looking forward to your video covering it! :)

The more I read the story and the direction it is going, the more I am convinced (and very worried) that Teferi will be the one to save the multiverse at the cost of his life. As for where Teferi is now, I have a feeling he's on Zhalfir

I'm just glad Koth is still alive. Chandra is cool but Koth is my boy.

I feel bad that it's taken me this long to watch this. I have been a pretty devoted enjoyer of your content. One can only hope that you have recognized that but with how many views you get, I'm sure I am just one among many. Always happy to see your uploads, my friend.

I actually like how every character is coming into the final conflict with different conclusions on how to solve the problem. That's gonna create a lot of really good drama and character moments.

I'm sad about it as I love her but I'm thinking Liliana sacrificing herself to Activate the Sylex is something Wizards would do to have her prove her redemption to the rest of the Gate Watch and to bring her a full end. This time she can sacrifice herself and not have someone stop her last second.

One deep-cut of lore I would be impressed if they bring back for the conclusion of this arc, is that the Mirari was last seen on Mirrodin... way back in 2004(?). Given that it created Karona back on Dominaria, created Memnarch on Mirrodin, and then just... got left with Glissa last time we saw it, it's fairly safe to say that the Phyrexians have it by now. What would the Praetors have got up to, armed with one of the most powerful artifacts in the multiverse? ...or perhaps the story team just forgot about it, that's also a possibility. We've all lost things between the couch cushions on occasion.

These videos have been so good; thank you! I'm not as invested in Magic lore as I used to be, but I still want to catch up on events leading up to March of the Machine, so these videos have been perfect for getting me up to speed!

Awesome story well summarized. Thanks Ryan and Nicole!

Really love the content! Its become my go to so I can keep up with the magic storyline. Keep it up!

I love the library background. Very appropriate for a Loremage

Had to pause the video at the beginning to say that background is awesome for a lore video!

genuinely quite grateful for this recap. i read all the main story articles online, which had been enough in previous sets, only to realize that the side stories are were the plot thats actually relevant to the ongoing storyline was. without this video, i shrimply wouldnt have time to get up to date before all of the new set's cards are released

Like the little detail of Kaito and The Wanderer are there too to fight New Phyrexia. Kamigawa Neon Dynasty was the first set I experienced when getting into Magic so their story in smiths set are special for me.

Thank you, I was waiting for this

Haven't watched this yet, but I know it's going to make my morning! I read the books in the 90s, that's been a long time ago...

Teferi's in Ixilan in the future, he's going to fight some robot vampire dinosaurs

Feels like I'm saying this under all your videos but, great work ! Not a lot to comment on here apart from thanking you for doing all of this. Just one small thing, I feel like it was to be expected that the "present day" storyline would not advance much, I even thought it would not advance at all and this set would happen in a few seconds. So I am a bit grateful it wasn't the case and some events actually happened during Teferi's little trip !

i've read almost all the storyes. I expected to know about all the drammatic phases of the relationship between Urza and Mishra (like when they where young, when they breaked... the final battle) instead i've just found pieces of a Dominaria lost in time. Not what i needed. Then i realized that the side stories, usually secondary, was in this case the real prosecution of the main storyline. I've read those too, but the only one i liked was the third chapter (Tezzeret's adventure in the mushroom kingdom). In my opinion: no mistery, no party. Thanks for your video, was a great riepilogue. I think the Ajani's dead (if he's really dead) is like the murder at the beginning of an horror film: it is made to keep up the people's attention, but in the end he will be almost the only victim. There will be no slaughter in the planeswalker's army, surely no more than 1 more main character and/or 1 or 2 secondary.

That would be absolutely amazing if they just go all out with planeswalkers in the next set because this really does feel like some avengers endgame type stuff i mean there’s literally time travel in here and in endgame. Although to be honest i don’t know the full story of Urza and Jodah so if u could do a story video on them that’d be really helpful

Vraska please don't die.

I think the foreshadowing of Tefari on the beach could be him getting sent to his home place that was phased out of time, but he got there when it was phased out of time. I have no idea if it has a beach, or if that's a blue planes walker thing like Jace, but yeah

11:45 Absolute Chandra moment. Man, do I love that fiery spirit! I've got high hopes for this story line! The last war against a big bad villain was horribly written, not to mention it ruined a few fan favorite couples. This one's looking to be better!

7:03 He knows how that can go horribly wrong from the events that led to his own Planeswalker Ascension.

Always excited for these recaps. Liked before I even started the video lol

This was a cool way of doing the Time Travel bit, and bring an old event into the modern era... ... That said, though, I wished Teferi would have traveled to the night Xantcha and Ratepe left to the ruins of Koilos. That way it would have been Urza arguing with Xantcha, Jodah showing up to give Urza a piece of his mind about caring about the world when trying to save it, then Teferi showing up to ask about the Sylex. Urza leaving to follow Xantacha and Ratepe could then have been played off as Urza not wanting to see any more visitors, like some grouchy Scrouge, and deciding keeping an eye on his phyrexian companion would be time better spent. Lol

Nice, I've been waiting on the Arcanum re-cap

I know there is a lot of speculation that where Teferi has ended up is Zhalfir, while that does make a lot of sense and is most likely what is going on there; I have another idea. I think it would be very cool for Teferi to have somehow ended up in the Meditation Realm with Ugin and Nicol Bolas. The wiki describes the Meditaion Realm as constantly shifting and reflecting the thoughts of the person inside it, so that would explain why it appears to Teferi like a beach in Zhalfir. I think it would be a very neat way of looping in Ugin and Nicol Bolas on what is happening in the outside multiverse. If Ryan's prediction of the Realm Breaker "branching out" into the other planes and drawing legendary characters in, then it would be a good way for the story to lay the red carpet out for them so to speak.

With the actual Brother's War video, I hope you got to read the novel covering it. For what it was, it was well written and I wish I still had it. It fueled my hunger for story details that have since not been up to snuff. (Fat packs with the novel were the best.. just saying) I'm glad this channel exists

I suspect Urza somehow realizes the possible paradox occuring with Teferi's spirit time travelling, and will make a move to take advance and return, provoking a new mending which takes back planeswalkers to their old godly power creep (and in doing so, finding out how to stop phyrexians this way) ... Just speculation after all

Many planeswalkers are gonna get gooed. Nissa’s definitely gonna want to sac herself to the bowl. Someone’s maybe gonna try to mod it to blacklist phyrexian stuff turning all the completed plainswalkers back. Elesh Norn is gonna trade kill with one of the completed plainswalkers, tezzeret or the top G Urabrask

Thank you for a great summary. Seems like the main story was not covered in the cards at all. Just an excuse to print a set about the brothers war.

Awesome video. Thank you. Do you have a video that goes over the events of the actual Brothers' War between Urza and Mishra?

That with the world soul is right, but on the other hand Dominaria is a world that saw so much more pain and misery than any other world. And brought ... "ruthless" (to put it nice) characters like Urza, Mishra, Dihada, the Raven Man and Lilliana Vess. I would think that this world soul is not very nice either. So I take that advice with a grain of salt.

I was waiting for this!

Very nice. Thank you.

When you say things like “plane wide ice age,” it definitely makes me think plane is just short for planet.

The video I’ve been waiting for!

I realy hope phyrexia wins this story arc, leaving signicant deaths and a despair scenario where the survivors will fell hopeless and obligated to go beg for help of more unpredictable sources (emrakul)

Thank you... I was waiting for u 😍😍😍

Fantasy Geographic did a video series explaining the original Brother's War story, and I highly recommend it

To be honest I think Koth is a sleeper agent and that his coalition is a trap for the planeswalkers

So this is an recap of the present day story of the Brother's War set, but will there be an in depth video on what happened during the actual Brother's War? It seemed like there was enough material to fill a full old school block back in the day with this, but WotC did it in one set, and I feel like I missed why this set is as important to Magic's history as everyone says it is.

For newer players the Story Spotlight cards actually do a great job of explaining the brother's war, how and why the hatred between Urza & Mishra grew, the main events of the war and re-introducing the side characters like Tawnos. This is why I was so surprised about everything in this video, because the Story Spotlight cards left me mostly unaware of the story in the present timeline. No assembly of planeswalkers, no counterattack on Mirrodin, nothing about Tezzeret, Elesh, Nissa or Jodah gets mentioned and neither do they tell what Teferi was trying to do in the past. Kinda hilarious given they had 40 cards to do so and spent at least 3 cards just to show Urza and Mishra fighting (Epic Confrontation, Brotherhood's End, Gruesome Realization).

SUPER hyped for this one!! Love your content! Much, much love from Dallas TX! #Pride

I am beyond glad that they did manage to rescue the powerstone from the Weatherlight, hopefully what is left of Serra's Realm wasn't corrupted further.

Hell Yeah been looking forward to this one

calling it now. Lukka is def a sleeper. He doesn't seem like the type to just join up with a bunch of planeswalkers out of the blue.

I'm hoping it comes down to asking for help from the eldrazi. That'd be an interesting twist. Then again..... that could be terrifying

I hoped they would show Teferi travel into the future and he would observe the multiverse controlled by the phyrexians living in harmony and peace. Like they did with Amonkhet. A perfect dystopia.

I do have a prediction for March of the Machines, actually. They teased a shift in the multiverse, and I think it is going to end with planar travel becoming at least somewhat accessible to non-planeswalkers, like it was in the past. A lot of characters now know about planeswalkers or have stakes in things happening on other planes (for example: Nashi, who has every reason to try to find and help Tamiyo). There was some secret identity stuff going on before, like how Ral Zarek went to great lengths to keep Niv-Mizzet from learning about planeswalking, but that seems to be breaking down and now two different non-walker ways of crossing between planes exist. The next step is for them to be accessible to people who actually need them to travel.

I only believe Tamiyo and Ajani are lost once we get "Secret Lair: In Memoriam: Tamiyo" and "In Memoriam: Ajani".

I wish they would have explained how they recruited Lukka. He has been a villain on the last couple of planes we have seen him on. I guess they can just tell Lukka that the Phyrexians are a big powerful organization that looks down on him, and so he will get mad and rebel and try to stick it to the man?

Love your videos. This set made me want to know more about Magic's origins, even prior to Urza. Is there lore surrounding the first sets (Alpha, Beta, etc.?). I couldn't find a video of yours made on the subject. Thanks!

I don’t know enough about the timeline to know if this is even possible, but my theory is that at some point the heroes are going to run out of allies/options and, exasperated, decide to try and try and reignite the spark of Nicol Bolas. Bolas did seal one or of the portals spilling Phyrexians into Dominaria in the Time Spiral series. He channeled his power through Jeska and Leshrac to do it, if I remember correctly. If he does regain his spark he’d see the Phyrexians as an obstacle in the way of achieving his own ambitions; I think he’d be motivated enough to help.

I admit the next 2-3 story sets are going to be interesting and while I feel you're right, there feels there will be loss of a number of characters... I want Ajani to be saved and continue to be in future sets. Maybe I'm greedy, but that's my hope.

A return of both Bolas and Ugin. They are the oldest walkers I believe and they may or may not have insight and knowledge to deal with the phyrexians

We have 2 more sets with the Phyrexians, right? So, what will happen is that we will lose a lot of planeswalkers in the process to only find that they had posterity. The magic sets will then shift into a story about coming of age and these teenagers learning to handle life without their parents, in the shadow of their parents, and facing a new evil in the worlds to come. This will then spark a series on Netflix about their fast times in Tolarian High to accompany a set rather than the online novels. It will become something that no one wants but, it will achieve WOTC's goal to appeal to a new crowd.

I love how urabrask is just like “ screw you guys I’m doing my own thing”

Super long mustache minute = I'm happy with this installment! I felt the tease was Nissa being set up to sacrifice herself to the sylex 2.0. I bet she doesn't get the same help Liliana got in War of the Spark because Gideon is super dead & nobody misses him.

This set story felt a lot like that scene in Infinity War when they arrived in Wakanda. A lot of gathering and strengthening of forces, but mostly prep for the big war ahead. We're preparing to attack Phyrexia, but we just haven't gotten there just yet

I'm mostly a player from the ancient days of the 90s, so I've got like, a completely flipped view of things, where I really care about / am invested in the new look back at the Brothers War, and the reexamination and reconsideration of elements of it (even if just kind of implied), BUT I super don't care about any of the "modern" plotline and check out entirely when we're talking about whole gaggles of planeswalkers getting together to do anything.

I'd like a brawl between Elesh Norn and Elspeth. And Nissa still showing her black mana after the last Zendikar set, I like that. Ajani and Tamiyo dying instead of being saved would be a good plot point, just like Gideon in WOTS. The way I see it, one of two things is gonna happen: either Norn's side wins, killing Urabrask and raising a new Red Praetor; or Urabarask is the only one left.

thanks for condensing a massive storyline. they should really split these into 3 set structures

When looking at Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard. Could it be that Mishra survived the blast, faked his death, replaced him missing parts with metal, and now walks around under the name... Tezzeret :O

I wish you would’ve included how Tezzeret doubts his immunity Nichol Bolas gave him to Phyrexian’s infection, to me that was one of the biggest underlying points that was made.

I was hoping that Teferi's ghost was going to be Urza's spark - like, Teferi would die to use his spirit to generate Urza's spark so he survives the sylex. Student returning to teacher, a cool connection of current events to past events, no paradox...but I guess not ='(

*edit, i see you mentioned this at the end, tho i do disagree about conclusions 🙂 important to note that tezzeret's internal monologue focused on the fact that ajani's spirit was still in there, and repeatedly the narrative refuses to give up on ajani. additionally, his depiction as a phyrexian if incredibly flat and devoid of character, suggesting that they don't intend to portray him as a phyrexian as a true point of character development. if nothing else, if they can't save him, i suspect they will "kill" him but have his spirit continue as a presence in the story.

It's so funny that Tezzeret's literal first choice to get a new body was god damn phyrexia, well known for giving people the things they want and just letting them go. I feel like he should have at least tried asking, idk, literally any other party first. Might have worked out better for him and also the rest of the multiverse

They're setting up Jodah to become the sacrifice - and trigger his spark, super strong but also nearly impossible to awaken, needing something as strong as the Sylex to set it off. The Phyrexians will then realize Sylexes could awaken sparks in them as well, at the cost of a massive damage to the surroundings, which they of course don't care about. The praetos, or at least some of them, will manage to become planeswalkers by destroying some fan favourite planes, and setting up for the next round of fighting in future sets, bigger and badder than before.

Did Teyo ever show up? I feel like he was set up to be a main character and was quickly forgotten