Magic: The Gathering (Unreleased Sets)

Ah, you're right about the spotlight thing. It looked like him from the saga, but it's probably not.

Which is good, because honestly I was all ready to get annoyed that they finally found something interesting for Tibalt to do and then immediately gulped him.

I just find it hilarious that Tibalt is being manipulated by Vorinclex of all Praetors. Vorinclex is the most brutal and animalistic of the Praetors, little more than a raging beast...and he still got the better of Tibalt.

The best part is that even if Tibalt escapes, Vorinclex will likely have only removed most of the Phyrexian oil, leaving just enough to ensure that Tibalt spreads it to other planes.

It only takes one drop to begin the phyresis of a plane, after all.

Edited by M84 on Jan 22nd 2021 at 4:22:51 AM

That's assuming he holds up his end at all, of course.

After giving it some thought, this has got to be one of the strangest examples of a Poison and Cure Gambit I've seen. If I'm remembering the lore right (Scars of Mirrodin block was when I first started playing, and I wasn't following the lore closely enough to get more than the broad strokes back then) planeswalkers are immune to phyresis. So Vorinclex is threatening Tibalt with a poison he's immune to, to do something he was going to do anyway. It's hilarious!

That said, I wonder if Tibalt is familiar enough with Phyrexians to know he can't be compleated himself. At worst, he'd be an asymptomatic carrier, though as we've all been seeing lately, that can be pretty dangerous in itself. Not that Tibalt seems the type who would care about that.

And then there's the matter of what Vorinclex knows. On the one hand, Vorinclex is "the most brutal and animalistic of the Praetors, little more than a raging beast", but would he really be that ignorant of how Phyrexia's own weapons work to not know it doesn't work on planeswalkers? But once again, Tibalt might be able to infect others along his way, which would be in Vorinclex's favor anyway.

...And now my logic is going in circles, and I'm possibly overthinking things. I guess I'll just have to wait and see how this all plays out in future stories.

Anyway, the full Kaldheim Card Image Gallery is up, as is an article with details about The Legends of Kaldheim.

There's also still the lingering question of how the hell Vorinclex ended up in Kaldheim in the first place.

My bet's on Ashiok being the culprit. Remember that Ashiok learned about the Phyrexians from Elspeth's nightmares and wanted to learn more about them.

Edited by M84 on Jan 22nd 2021 at 2:41:00 AM

Or it could be a literal seed - Vorinclex using some warped form of Green Magic to implant a Phyrexian Tree's seed in Tibalt - and if he doesn't do Vorinclex's bidding, the seed would grow and kill him by...yeah.

We might also take this as evidence that the phyrexians may have figured out how to infect planeswalkers, either directly or indirectly.

A new side story has been posted.

Brokenbrow, by Roy Graham, with contributions from Jenna Helland

Random Note: If anyone on here would be interested, it might be fun to set up a TV Tropes Commander Discord Server. Considering how popular the format is now.

Yeah, and I wonder, could Ashiok be involved in the Phyrexians' effort in taking over planes? Could he have given them some way to compleat Planeswalkers?

Edited by NickTheSwing on Jan 22nd 2021 at 5:45:37 AM

From what I understand the original Mirrodin story involved an interplanar probe called the Mirari, which was given to Glissa wh othen became a Phyrexian in Return to Mirrodin. They could probably use that thing to travel between planes.

The next main story is up.

Episode 4: Into the Demons' Realm, by Roy Graham, with contributions from Jenna Helland

Also, here's the Kaldheim Official Cinematic:

Edited by Lightblade on Jan 27th 2021 at 6:03:58 AM

I've been watching Tibalt as a potential Complete Monster for a while but he's never quite been bad enough to qualify. Maybe his evils in this set will finally push him to Nicol Bolas or at least Ob Nixilis levels of depravity to make him worth effort posting.

I'd say that he's there, considering what he's trying to do. Come to think of it, he's basically trying to cause another conflux, as in Alara. (If Bolas had gotten his way, that would have destroyed Alara, as a massive doomskar would here.)

I generally don't like adding YMMV entries - they tend to attract a lot of drama - but Tibalt's definitely upping his atrocity game.

He's basically instigating Ragnarok For the Evulz. At least when Nicol Bolas initiated the Conflux he had a reason to do so - to power himself up.

And while you could argue that Tibalt's doing this to avoid being killed by Vorinclex's poison, he also made it clear in his own monologue that this was something he was going to do anyway.

Edited by M84 on Jan 28th 2021 at 7:08:32 PM

Though that could be "I'm not owned, I'm not owned."

Will Tibalt slowly shrink and transform into a corn cob?

A new Kaldheim side story:

Direction. Purpose. Honor. Glory., by Miguel Lopez

So apparently Alrund needed an errata, because some cunning players might've been able to use the prior wording thus:

New main story: Episode 5: The Battle for Kaldheim, by Roy Graham, with contributions from Jenna Helland

The ending confirms the worst - the Phyrexians have figured out planar travel. Vorinclex's mission was to obtain a sample of the World Tree's sap.

Well, rediscovered at any rate. They were tearing apart planes long before the overlay.

Edited by ViperMagnum357 on Feb 4th 2021 at 1:40:43 PM

Ambulator? Do they have access to Ambulators again?

Here's a new Kaldheim side story:

The Saga of Lathril, by Elsa Sjunneson

Quandrix speaks to my soul. I'm just going into neural networks/machine learning this term in uni and my favourite colour combo playing off maths and magic makes me feel happy. Also looking forward to the Quandrix Commander precon.

That is a good approach to blue/green. Focused on the underlying patterns of nature.

Nature has an order, and if you know what you're doing, that order can be made into a spreadsheet.