Inistrad: i am a plane that is full if your worst nightmares Ikoria: i am a plane full of powerfull beasts Zendikar: lands

Omnath appears in my favorite story called "banlist".

"mana is abundant on Zendikar", little did we know that the current state of standard was in fact for maximum immersion

"You made enemies again today, Jace. But that's your nature, isn't it? Whenever you try to do good, it just makes things worse." Is the best discrimination of jace I've heard

Nissa, Jace, Akiri and every other living being: No, Nahiri. Don't use the core. It would kill us all. Nahiri: Yeah, Yeah... But these stones tho

I would like to point out that Nissa is also acting accordingly with Golgari ideals of letting nature recycle itself and bring itself back to life.

This should’ve been broken into 2 sets. Another reason why the Ixalan story was so good. Space to breath and flesh out characters. Man, I miss that plane and that story. It was so underrated.

“Nahiri expresses her anger and frustration to Jace” I haven't read the story yet, but I imagine this as Jace getting punched.

It's a shame that they didn't call it the Lithoform Engine in the short stories to match the card because hearing the words kor and core made it a bit funny to listen to whenever Nahiri uses the core's powers. I can't help but imagine Nahiri swinging an entire other kor to beat Nissa's elementals.

I find it funny that Jace has been called to plane and just got rag-dolled by everyone else and left to rot like no one cared about him. I normally don't like him and blue mages in general, but you gotta feel sorry for him this time.

From a meta perspective I quite liked the Zendikar Rising story. I really didn't know which side would win and the outcome really changes the future path Zendikar as a whole takes. Hopefully we will see even more elementals when we next return to the plane as a nod to this story. It's pretty interesting that both Garruk and Nissa temporarely shifted from green to green/black but for wildly different reasons. Goes to show that black isn't simply "evil magic" - although the designers and writers seem to forget that from time to time.

My favorite card from the set is definitely Forsaken Monument. It's a throwback to Eldrazi monument, and like you said, one of the only references to the Eldrazi in the entire set. Plus, it's a good fit for my Eldrazi edh deck :)

The dig on Omnath had me lmao.

I kinda thought that the reason the key, core, and socket were in different locations was because they weren’t unique. The lithoform core is described as the LAST one, so the parts may have been “scattered” because they each used to have their own set, but because of the roil and the churn of ages, are the last remaining.

Everybody fighting over a magic ball that can grant wishes represented by a card that copies spells. Hmmm...feels familiar...

My theory for why Nissa had black was because black also represents self-interest, and Nissa is pursuing her own interests, that is protecting her elemental "family". As for card that I liked the most from the set, it was Nissa. A turn 5 cheat spell is too good to pass up xD Pay 4, play Nissa, play land for turn (thus up-ticking Nissa), use her -5, cheat out a 5-drop, still have 1 mana open for a 1 drop instant! I actually got her in the first pack I opened. That made my day! EDIT: Oh yeah! Forgot to mention that there was a foreshadowing of the end result in the first chapter of the story! When Nissa mentions the key/core to Jace, he says, "huh, I wonder if it's user based?"

"Zendikar had an extreme immune response to Nissa and Sorin letting out the Eldrazi." Nissa: "I like elementals. They're cool. Let's make this destructive and hostile state the new normal!"

perfect early morning treat before the grind

3:30 I'm here for the lore, not to be reminded of my lower back pain & reminded I'm dying sooner than later!

I think that the story ended up somewhat lackluster because I felt that they didn't gave room for the conflict between Nissa and Nahiri to develop; by saying Nissa was right all along in the end and emphasizing the ruthless character of Nahiri. Overall it's a story of how to cope with trauma, of what to do after a catastrophe; Nahiri clings to an idealized past, Nissa wants to let time/nature run it's course. It's also about generational conflict, family, and responsability... But these thematic threads are mostly gone once Nahiri wants to commit elemental (and merfolk?) genocide, and tries to kill a helpless Akiri. "Of course she's shortsighted, look how brutish she is!". I know that this personality has already been stablished in her violent spree through Innistrad, but I was hoping that they'd be able to present their contradiction in other ways.

There's an excellent exchange between Nissa and Nahiri that also demonstrates why Nissa is currently black alligned. "Broken doesn't mean weak, Nahiri," replied Nissa. "Broken doesn't mean that there isn't beauty or redemption." "So says the broken planeswalker," retorted Nahiri, "who destroys everything she touches." "Broken doesn't mean a life is not worth living," Nissa said, standing tall, staring straight at the lithomancer. "You are what Zendikar once was, Nahiri. I am what it is now." In other words, at the climax of Nissa's story in this set, her core themes are death and rebirth. Putting together what once was broken. this is, imo, why she has landfall storywise- given that, in general you aren't literally creating land when you place lands, her landfall is flavored as more of a renewal. It would've probably been more flavorful if it triggered after lands untapped, but it would've been even more broken than omnath The last line is also interesting- "You are what zendikar once was, I am what it is now." Nahiri represents the skyclaves, a regimented life of military service and social structure, fitting the motifs of boros as a pair being soldiers and armies (most obviously on Ravnica, but also in places like Drannith on Ikoria and Akros on Theros), while Nissa represents the renewal and regeneration of the plane after its many, many, *many* catastrophes.

I just realized how much they had to shove into one set. Now, I have a theory that Standard has been so bad because (1) Wizards is trying to pack entire stories into 1 set and (2) doing so creates too many pushed cards and different mechanics shoved together 1 set stories means all big characters need cards and those generally end up being pretty good. Some are even great and broken - see Omnath/Uro/Oko. Throw together 3 jam packed sets into a block with a multitude of mechanics is asking for broken cards, combos and interactions.

I've been real busy and need to catch up on a few episodes but I just wanted to say I'm so glad you made your own channel. These things are so soothing and fun. Sadly I lost my interest in playing magic with the last year or so of craziness (Arena doesn't do it for me), but the stories of magic will always be my jam. (And a little whisper, if you haven't read the Kamigawa books I highly recommend them!)

In another five years, we'll have already revisited Innistrad two times and Ravnica three more times before returning to Zendikar.. Again. Not gonna lie, would absolutely love to see a return to Kamigawa, maybe Tamiyo would be coming home to study all her findings during her travels, Lili might even come with her.

Oh new video, I stopped whatever I was doing and started watching

Now that I'm teaching school again I barely have time to play MtG, let alone keep up with the lore. You're doing Urza's work by making these videos I can watch on my lunch break. Thank you so much!

that outro is soooo satisfying. love how the name puzzles the planeswalkers together

The back pain comment was hilarious! I hope it's not too bad. I completely understand the feeling

The Old Kor society was quite heavy handed, which lead to eventually war against the people of Zendikar. The Lithoform pieces must have been put in different places once the old war went bad for the Kor. As far as I can remember.

Finally a story that make sense and actually good given the short nature of it. Hopefully future set will be better. (Game balance be damn btw, almost every set after WAR need a ban /sad)

By God, that mustache looks more and more glorious with every video. Also, thanks for the videos: this is how I keep up with what's happening in Magic and I love these.

Nahiri's Lithoforming could be when she closed the entrance of the singing city. Nissa's Zendikon could be what she was spamming the entire fight... she has like 10 of those in her hand or sumtin :p

I was super bummed when we didn't see a new Anowon card in the base set because it meant he didn't make an appearance for the past two returns to Zendikar. Plus, I used to use his name as my username for everything so it super sucked to not see him again. Then I saw he was the commander for one of the side decks and just about fell out of my chair. Was super excited to see his return and then he got his own little side story. The coolest thing to happen this year.

great video like always also we have been blessed with double upload this week

Ive been subscribed since the TCGPlayer days, but haven’t really watched you at all. In the middle of a move this week and I have no PC, so I’ve been watching a lot of KZfaq and I’m really appreciating your storytelling. Thanks for keeping me company the past few days.

Zendikar doesnt seem very broken well aside from Omnath. Well played sir I tip my hat to you.

Been waiting! Love to see this up.

And I love how it's the Eldrazi Monument from Zendikar, just sunken. Awesome.

Thank you for the good explanation. I think this is the best story and representation of it in cards at least since I am playing the game with onslaught. And you did a fantastic job with the video ☺️

Brilliant video, thank you!

Could we ever get a talk about Chandra and Nissa? I’m still slightly confused about their relationship

I love how they portrayed Jace in this set. The boy tries so so hard, but through his own arrogance doesn’t actually help as much as he wants. I disagree that he makes everything worse, but Nahiri definitely gave him a boot to the face. Although I fully believe the mind capturing thing he attempted to do toward Nissa was a snap judgment thing that backfired horribly. He needs to find what can stabilize his personality. I hope he won’t become the antagonist before he finds his fulfillment. Also Nissa is still in love with Chandra! She mentioned regretting missing her love. The ship is still sailing y’all. Edit: My favourite card is actually General Tazri. The party mechanic is basically a refinement of the Ally system, and the General is the pinnacle of gathering parties together to help her city. I also like that she was on an adventure in the background. Also the flavour win of a human wearing an angel’s halo is just choice.

You had me at The Chulane Intro!!

I've been looking forward to this video for a few days

To answer the question: everybody gets milled

Great mustache minute. Lots of great remarks and good questions ^^

Zendikar seems like an ideal setting for a MtG DnD sourcebook, incorporating lots of exploration, traps, and dungeoneering on top of fighting monsters and getting loot. It would be more akin to Gygaxian DnD, but the different dungeon setting where 3Dimensionality and bent laws of nature and gravity can make for quite an interesting play IMO

This is a great video. I love the explanation of everything, but honestly I think I missed a lot of it, cause I was distracted by that fantastic mustache!

My favorite card of this set is all of the spell lands. Great vid!

Love these! Thanks!

As always I could listen to all the stories from my favourite loremage Ryan! Thank you very much! :D "Zendikar doesn't seem very broken right now... aside from Omnath *takes sip*" Oh snap xD I really like the adventure feel of Zendikar Rising and I can't wait for the cards and stories of KALDHEIM! I hope they go all out on the flavour of the plane, that's what I enjoy the most!

I just came back to magic after like 10 years, and finally i have someone who can explain the lore, that's something that when i was 12 i always wanted to know but never could sooo thanks. Also that's some fancy mustache

Oh shit, this episode came out on my birthday! Guess that means I need to go back and watch... all the episodes to make up for mixing it.

These videos always make my day better. "Awwwwww hell yeah- its STORY TIME"

Been looking forward to this!!

I've been playing since hours of devastation, thank you so much for catching me up! I would really like it if you uploaded the audio to Spotify. Just a suggestion. Thank you again :) love listening to the stories with my kids.

As a returning Magic player, this set was great with Lore. I loved the stories they were posting, with cards shows stuff that happened in the story, tying up all the lore. Thanks for the insight on the angels, i was wondering why all their art was like that!

Catching up late as i usually do, but there's a couple videos youtube didnt notify me about, even though i have the bell clicked to notify me of all videos

I don't know if you're going to see this comment after 4 days of the video being published, but the story spotlight card Nissa's Zendikon is placed at the beggining of the fight against Jace and Nahiri in the last chapter, when she is rallying all her elemants to the fight. The chapter mentions an "eagle shaped vines" emerging behind Nissa, just as its depicted in the card, and then it even grabs Nahiri up in the air with it's talons. I do agree with you, with Nahiri's Lithoforming not being as well placed as the others, and with your idea of it being a card to just leave us guessing of what happens. I admit they got me good during all the time the story was being released. Engagement for the algorithm!

(21:50) Mine will be a little more tricky seeing that I've put in some Exile, to counter graveyard recursion. Including Ulamog, the ceaseless hunger and some eldrazis with Ingest. I also included Arcane Adaptation so those Eldrazis are now rogues, so I can mill and Exile in a single attack.😎👍

Love the video but I think I can provide a tiny bit of context on the Skyclaves. As you said, they're ancient kor cities and outposts. It's hinted in the first story that old Zendikar had large cities with commerce where Kor would travel to hone their crafts and show off their wealth. Nahiri grew up in this era of the Kor, and again it's hinted that there wasn't any roil to worry about. The roil didn't come later until after the eldrazi were imprisoned. While Nahiri slept and watched over the eldrazi, she wasn't keep up with current events. She didn't know the vampires had starting worshiping the eldrazi as gods, so it's not unreasonable to think she didn't notice the roil ruining those big cities over thousands of years. So flat out the adventures are raiding the ruins of ancient Kor society destroyed by the roil thousands of years ago. That's why there's treasure and ruins for them to take.

There was so much good content in this video that if it was released 20 years ago it would have been a 2 CD set. Phenomenal work!

I love these videos. I had hoped they would have had more story but I’m still happy they finally had a writer that gave a crap and brought back a lot that wise man ruined. I would love to see a video of what cards you’d use to depict the main story for the old stories pre mending

I'm always happy when it's story time again.

I thought the anticognition art is nahiri getting mindblasted by jace, but it was about some fella named Flekon and random kor also, great video!

Magic Arcanum upload == me happy

I love your voice.lIt's very mesmeric and gets me right into a mood for L O R E. Keep up the great work

Waited for this

So...this was kinda a fight for the Tesseract from that Captain America movie? Wow, glad to know that Nahiri lost. Green triumphs once again...with a help of blue As for my favorite card, it's not a card, but more of a sequence represented in the cards. The "mini story" that "begins" in Adventure Awaits and ends in Spoils of Adventure is quite heartwarming. Could be inspiration for a D&D campaign set on zendikar (which btw, has support on the planeshift expansions for D&D made by wizards of the coast)

I think Nissa is golgari colors because they are typically about death not being an end, its about the cycle of life which Nissa in a way represents now. But are we not going to talk about the bomb Jace thought? He literally acknowledged that it is only a matter of time until Nicol Bolas comes back as he will regain his spark according to Jace and Ugin. Like that's a big deal!

Hey, for your lower backproblems: I had a lot of usefulness from Athlean-X's channel, using the exercises to stretch certain (hip) flexors, which were tight from too much time sitting in chairs, pulling my hips into a bad position. Could also be a weak core muscle thing. But the one thing that solved a lot of my back problems was getting a stiffer and metter matrass. Soft matrass => relying on your lower back muscles to keep your spine straight while you sleep, so they're always fatigued, which weakens them long-term.

And in 5 years we will find out why Jace had that alter art card of him giving out heavy Tibalt vibes. I thought it could be the effect of the maddening cacophony twisting his perceptions or the orb influencing his judgement and turning him - if momentarily - into a darker version of himself.

I absolutely love that this is about rebuilding zendikar and healing the plane. I've been saying I wanted this set for years. Eldrazi are awesome, but so is Zendikar independent of the Eldrazi. I'm glad its got to shine again for the 1st time since worldwake. I wish they didn't water it down with the party mechanic though. That seems better suited for the D&D set next year.

I haven't stopped since I got hooked playing it for the first time

this is so great!!!

Scuuuuuuuuuuute Swaaaaaaaaaarm is my boi. Also loving my Phylath commander deck. Sad they didn't get a story.

I have some...thoughts on many of your Mustache Minute thoughts. Nahiri claims that there were once many Lithoform Cores. The Singing City probably had a Lithoform Core at some point, but it was likely destroyed or used up during or soon after the fall of Kor civilization. When the Singing City became...haunted?...the remaining Kor probably sealed away the remaining Core and hid away the key in another skyclave to protect it from interlopers, since they could no longer safely use it. Not much to say about traps, you're right there. The lack of Nulls may have something to do with the diminished vampire population, and the prior corruption of many vampires by the Eldrazi. Possible that there aren't enough vampires that know how to safely make Nulls anymore. I agree on the Eldrazi corruption. Would have been nice if one of the skyclaves had been over a ruined Bala Ged, where the Planeswalkers had to contend with some of Yarok's anguished friends. Havining Bala Ged be lush and green when it was still a distorted wasteland in M19 just seems too abrupt to me.

Another masterpiece

Tazri being the beacon of unity is my favorite card. For all the crazy she endured it's nice seeing good things are happening in her neck of the woods.

I think the lithoform engine is supposed to be the mechanism that spreads the power of the core, while the core is the purple thing we saw in the trailer.

My guess, from hearing it out loud so many times, was that "Lithoform Core" had too much linguistic overlap with the "Kor" people, so they swapped the homophonic "Core" for the unlikely-to-cause-confusion "Engine".

Wow this is so good so amazing!!! Best time before closing my evening!!! Thank you!!! Great to have cards and new graphics effect on the screen! I lost it 2 time in this video 1 LANDSSSSS!!!!!🤣 2 It doesn't seem much broken...well aside from...OMNATH!🤣🤣🤣 NICE NICE NICE!

"Convenient treasure troves" and the use of "Skyclave shade" are just *chef's kiss* brilliant

Linvala was also Tazri's number one supporter in reuniting the towns to rebuild the seagate

Glad we got some lore

Aside of Omnath... Haaaaahahahaha! Man! I loved this video! Good to see you're both ok. Lots of love from Lima, Perú. Keep safe. P.S.: Really really REALLY LOVED the Dragon Shield story!!!

@Magic Arcanum, thank you so much for this very very cool video my king 😁🙏👑 I am so glad that I am your loyal servant and great fan. It was so cool to watch 😁👍🏾 exellent job my King 😎👑 I hope you doing well?

Omnath has always been one of my favorite characters. I just loved seeing his progression and was so excited to see what he would be like this set.................... I guess it's an understatement to say he exceeded any expectations I had for him.... far far exceeded.

10:00 Ok Jace is no Urza but you can't deny he's got some style.

Thanks for explaining why Nissa is green and black. Otherwise I couldn't get over my favorite planeswalker getting a "bad" color without ever deserving it!

I love that you mentioned how White and Black don't purely represent Good and Evil. The first time, that thought occurred to me was in Khans of Tarkir.

I like the +1+1 counter deck style of the green black decks.

Nahiri is represented by the party mechanic. Rogues are blue black, Warriors are red white, Clerics are black white, and Wizards are red blue (as supported by the pathway lands color pairings). Notice how none of the party colors are green. What a flavor win.

I love how Zendikar is the most D&D plane of MTG

Nissa's nature vs. Nahiri's technology. Very beast machines.

I think Nahiri's Lithoforming is from when she fell in the first chapter, as the art matches the description of her twisting magma (and yes, I realize it's lava; this is the story's, not my, nomenclature). Beyond that, theme in the story at that moment is Nahiri enforcing her will on the land itself. She wants to use the land to remake the land, and the spell allows just that.

Can we do who is omnath next plz :c?, awezome video as always :D

The story being back on the mothership means I actually got to read it, so I have a lot of thoughts to share ranging from skipped details I think are worth noting to my own opinions and interpretations - The initial main story chapter featured a lot of Nissa blushing and Nahiri smirking at each other, which HEAVILY reminded me of those good old bad fanfic tropes. They definitely weren’t gonna be an item (Nissa’s still thinking a lot about Chandra) - Nahiri spends the entire main story feeling horrible about making Zendikar suffer under the eldrazi (and readily blaming anyone and everyone she can for taking part in it). Nissa has a similar throughline where she thinks about Gideon and tries to emulate him to be more confident. This is put into contrast with Nahiri’s state of mind because (much like their stances on Zendikar’s fate) Nahiri is constantly stuck in the past dwelling on what could have been, whereas Nissa is accepting the past as done and moving forward with the goal of making the best of what we have in the present. Jace completes the trifecta by fixating on the future, wanting to use the Core for future plans (specifically, he fully expects his little ruse with Ugin won’t hold up forever and Bolas will start causing problems again) - The Lithoform Core is trying to talk to whoever holds it pretty much constantly, but until Nissa gets it no one listens, which reflects how Nahiri refuses to even humor Nissa and how Jace struggles to set aside his own machinations in order to fully listen to Nissa’s concerns - There’s actually this really cool moment in the writing with Jace begging Akiri for a ride, where at the end of the scene, long after dropping him off, Akiri realizes that he called her by name despite never being told it, implying that he’d been manipulating her the whole time after she’d made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with The Singing City, hence why she backed out after dropping him off. She was shaken up about Zareth (more on him later) and just wanted to regroup with her remaining party members - At the end of the main story, it’s heavily implied Jace intends to tell Nissa about Bolas’s imprisonment (he’d been considering it the whole time) and that he wants to repair the trust he feels he’s broken with her and the rest of the gatewatch by keeping this secret - The two odd-spotlights-out seem to me as though they’re here to represent the two sides of the conflict between the Zendikari women. Nissa wants to protect the land and let its elementals live, whereas Nahiri wants to completely sculpt the land as she chooses into a world Jace describes as being a lot like Ravnica. As for specific events in the story, I think the Zendikon is from one of the confrontations in the Singing City (an elemental is pointed out as particularly large), but the Lithoforming could be just about anything - You never actually touched on Zareth, himself! He and Akiri got two whole side story chapters together, wherein Akiri shows signs of PTSD from the eldrazi (as does Zareth to a lesser extent) and the two of them have some implied romantic connection (which explains why Akiri is so torn up after he dies and mostly just wants to go home). He’s also the least trusting of Nahiri in the adventuring party, and she in turn doesn’t trust him, - If I remember correctly, there’s an implicit promise from Drana that if another vampire can bring her the means to create a new bloodchief, that vampire gets first dibs on the promotion. Anowon (who got a story) is hoping to learn something by studying the skyclaves, but isn’t in it for the power so much as wanting to help his people. On the other hand, Zagras (who didn’t get a story) explicitly wants to be a bloodchief - Verazol’s story (the second half of Akiri and Zareth’s) leans really heavily on Verazol as a metaphor for the eldrazi, where it’s hard enough to keep yourself alive, let alone save others, and Akiri wants to fight it to the bitter end (she wants nothing more than to save the caravan they’re escorting) and Zareth has to risk his own life to pull her away so she doesn’t die, which has a certain sadness to it knowing what happened later - You also skipped on Obuun, who had a story about being raised in skyclaves with the kor, returning to his elven roots, struggling to reconnect with his heritage, and eventually developing powers akin to Nissa’s (minus planeswalking). The biggest novelty here is that his story is the only one not set roughly in the present, being set so long ago that it was before the skyclaves fell, let alone rose again - Ashaya ALSO got skipped, but the only relevant lore was all in the main ZNR story and there weren’t really any specific details there - Regarding your analysis on the color identities of Nissa and Nahiri, I have a few notes. Firstly, Nissa also spends a lot of time operating solo in the ZNR story, because Jace isn’t exactly on her side until the end when it’s emotionally convenient for him and she doesn’t fully trust him to understand exactly how important this all is to her, which certainly lines up with her more personal, inward focus this set. I’d label that focus as a good thing, because throughout the story she’s working through some of her recent traumas and becomes more self-assured by the end. Meanwhile, Nahiri’s blame game is very *red* imo. Originally she was monowhite (as seen on Nahiri, the Lithomancer), but became a red character due to her boundless anger after the Eldrazi were released, she was trapped in the Helvault, etc, and all her actions since have been motivated by placing blame and burning hate. White’s blame is retributive (roughly even weight, an eye for an eye), whereas red’s blame is vindictive (unrelenting and emotional, more lashing out than reasoning), and Nahiri’s actions past and present demonstrate she’s not exactly measuring out a payment in kind so much as piling on as much punishment as she can, having *summoned Emrakul* to Innistrad in a fit of rage, and then proceeded to have a longstanding blood feud with Sorin as the cherry on top. White can absolutely be villainous, and white’s retributive blame can be misplaced or unjust, but that’s not what I see happening with Nahiri. Her white color stems from being a kor and wanting to full-on Ravnica-ize Zendikar - Traps were actually explored in ZNR’s design! They would have been artifacts this visit to better fit the flavor of being a physical mechanism, with a condition that puts them into play for free, a sacrifice effect for EITHER a cheap colored cost OR an expensive generic one, and if you didn’t spring it the trap would self-disarm by saccing itself (and drawing a card to compensate you) - MaRo’s ZNR teaser hints featured a lot of creatures having the Horror type, so I expected those to be twisted creatures caused by the eldrazi’s scars on the plane, like how Yarok is a horror, but nope! Just stuff from the skyclaves

Forsaken Monument, hands down. Can't wait to let my Eldrazi get their tendrils on that little gem.

The back pain thing had me laughing cuz i can sooooo relate lol