History Fridge / MagicTheGathering

* The people of Amonkhet are divided into groups called Crops, which would key them in to the fact that the entire plane is basically one big PeopleFarm... if any of the living humans were familiar with agriculture. But all the farmwork is done by mummies, so the original meaning of the word has been lost.

** Karn has been inoculated by Melira for ages and has the most experience fighting Phyrexians, so naturally he'd be almost impossible to infect.

* The realization that what most contributors consider horror is so clotted with conjecture that, even if the reader were to stumble across Emeria s used up knife play toys or New Phyrexia s second ocean of boiling oil, it would be impossible to grasp the enormity of these wrongs.

* Also note that the new [[LightIsNotGood White]] Phyrexians have as their defining feature the fact that their skin was flayed and replaced by white, porcelain covering. The end result is that many of them look somewhat skeletal, specially when combined with their exposed muscle tissue. This is likely a call back to Kamigawa, in which several villains were White since that is the colour of death in traditional Japanese culture, and indeed some Red and Black spirits of the same setting were also naturally coloured that way (specially [[http://magiccards.info/query?q=!yuki-onna Yuki-Onna]] and [[http://magiccards.info/sok/en/76.html Kemuri-Onna]]).

* Why were Orcs only introduced in ''Khans of Tarkir'' despite being arguably a staple of fantasy settings? Tarkir is inspired by Asian cultures, and the Mardu, the clan with the most Orcs, is based on the Mongols. Tolkien said this of the Orcs in ''Lord of the Rings'' in one of his letters: ''"... they are (or were) squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes; in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely '''Mongol-types'''."'' Orcs were finally included in Tarkir because to a degree, the ''actual'' Mongols were an inspiration for the TropeCodifier, and so they fit into Tarkir perfectly.
** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=207 Um, are you saying there were no orcs in Magic before Khans?]]
** While Orcs have existed in the game since long before Tarkir, they've become much more prominent in this block [[labelnote:Explanation]]not counting reprints, there are 34 Orc creatures in the game. Of these, 14 are from the Tarkir block.[[/labelnote]] so it still fits.

* The New Phyrexians manifest in the form of all 5 colors and are more noble and effective than say, Yawgmoth. It makes more sense when you consider they spawned from Xantcha's Heartstone, which Urza used as Karn's personality core. Xantcha is a defector of the Phyrexians and is sided with Urza instead of Yawgmoth. It's likely they inherited Xantcha or Urza's mindset alongside Yawgmoth's.

* The Gatewatch did not beat Emrakul. Emrakul sealed herself because "she no longer wants to play". ''"I can do anything I want. Anything at all. Remember that. The only thing saving you is... I don't want anything.'' Ugin said that the Eldrazi were an important part of the Multiverse. With Ulamog and Kozilek destroyed on this plane, Emrakul was the last one left, and she had no issue with sealing herself in the Moon. All that can be surmised is that, either she kept her word to Jace to end the conflict if he beat her, or she no longer wanted to "play" because she was not embraced by the people, as expected. If they do have a greater purpose, what is it? What would happen if they were all destroyed?

* The River Heralds have a prophecy that the discovery of Orazaca will signal the end of their people. At the end of the ''Ixalan'' block, the Sun Empire controls Orazaca (which even with the Immortal Sun gone is implied to contain a ''lot'' of very powerful magic), and Emperor Apatzec is making plans to start a new series of conquests. The River Heralds' future does not look bright...

* Though Dromoka and her clan seem idillic when compared to the rest of Tarkir, a lot of it seems more horrifying the more you think about it. For starters, it's a meritocracy... because Dromoka's a [[TheSocialDarwinist social darwinist]]. Parents are not allowed to raise their children as their own, and yet they're encouraged to have children. Even her initial obsession, to stomp out "necromancy", is reasoned like [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything the worst sort of religious fanatic]].

* Several nore things about the Eldrazi, at least before Battle For Zendikar set.

* The card Contemplate costs 2UU and allows you to draw three cards. The card Vivisection costs 3U and sacrifice a creature to draw three cards. They both cost four mana. The only benefit to vivisecting over concentrating is if your deck contains things that are designed to be sacrificed. The same set released Oculus, a 1/1 homunculous, that draws you a card when it dies. Ten years later, New Phyrexia is where the Prismari Campus is, and there are creatures called Eyetwitches that still draw you cards if you vivisect them, and the Learn ability, which allows you to either draw a card or search your pocket for any card with the Lesson keyword, makes the Eye Bats a preferable choice, and this circumstance is elucidated by the card s flavor text. By the time of Crimson Vow, Vivisection was reprinted with art featuring an entire book full of sacrificeable designs. Sure enough, you can go to Gatherer at any time and search "when this creature dies".

* When you think about [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=464080 Goblin War Party]], you realize that it's actually a pretty clever pun -- the spell has two modes, one producing tokens and the other one boosting your whole team. They show two different means of the word "party" -- "group of people" and "celebration"!

* "Dread Pirate" Angrath is seen twice, and both times he is alone. [[https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/ten-burning-questions-ixalan-story-2017-10-25 When we learn about his backstory]] it becomes pretty obvious he actually ''doesn't'' have one, [[TearJerker and the reason why he doesn't want any bonds with people on that plan]].

* The card Contemplate costs 2UU and allows you to draw three cards. The card Vivisection costs 3U and sacrifice a creature to draw three cards. They both cost four mana. The only benefit to vivisecting over concentrating is if your deck contains things that are designed to be sacrificed. The same set released Oculus, a 1/1 homunculous, that draws you a card when it dies. Ten years later, New Phyrexia is where the Prismari Campus is, and there are creatures called Eyetwitches that still draw you cards if you vivisect them, and the Learn ability, which allows you to either draw a card or search your pocket for any card with the Lesson keyword, makes the Eye Bats a preferable choice, and this circumstance is elucidated by the flavor text. By the time of Crimson Vow, Vivisection was reprinted with art featuring an entire book full of sacrificeable designs. And sure enough, you can go to Gatherer at any time and search the keywords "when this creature dies".