There are so many awfully disappointing aspects to March of the Machines that it's hard for me to even appreciate the parts that I like. It's like all of the build up since Scars of Mirrodin and the entire 3 set long conflict that Mirrodin went through has all gone to waste. Making angels out to be like the bane/counter to phyrexians and their oil is seriously ridiculous because we already know Angels to be the equals opposites to Demons. Going with this whole "angels will save everyone" plot point is almost insulting as it seriously comes across as a writing decision by someone who isn't aware of the MTG lore or story at all. Angels aren't supposed to be so special and amazing they have this power over the greatest threat to the multiverse, Angels are supposed to the pinnacle creatures of White mana the same way Dragons are for Red mana, Demons for Black mana, Krakkens and Leviathans for Blue mana and Hydras and Elephants are for Green mana. Not only that but the whole angels returning to save people plot point was already done in Innistrad! Avacyn returning with her angels to save the plane was exactly how the first Innistrad story ended already so making angels the answer to Phyrexia is just lazy and retreading old territory. Making Elesh Norn the leader of all of New Phyrexia was similarly an awful decision that seems like it came from someone who wasn't aware of the MTG lore and storyline. None of the other 5 praetors were characterized as someone who would have deferred to her, especially when you take into account that her Machine Orthodoxy religions wasn't even a religion they believed in. Gitaxias believed in the evolution of the mind and the constant progress of Phyrexian evolution, Vorinclex believed in survival of the fittest and he was the biggest brute of them all so he didn't directly bow to anyone, I won't argue for Urabrask and Sheoldred because they actually did defy her but even then it made them look so ineffectual and seemed to forget what made them praetors to begin with. If I remember right about the two of them; Urabrask was obsessed with the flames and magma of the Forge and he saw something in there like he was finding some sort of ancient knowledge or power in the fires that could be a threat later on. Also Urabrask said to let the mirrans be, but he never seemed like he was characterized as someone the Mirrans could trust or even approach. The way they described his great work in the Forge made it seem like he was still just as dangerous as any of the other praetors despite not working along side of them, what made him different was that he would prefer to burn all the mirrans alive in the Forge for fuel for his work rather than turn them into more phyrexians. Sheoldred also had more going on than just "I'm the Black mana aligned leader and I have a lot of hubris", she sort of came out of nowhere among the other Steel Thanes as someone they didn't expect to be able to rise to power and somehow managed to overcome all of them, like she had some kind of dangerous secret power or ability that was her key to overcoming Geth and the others. On top of that, Sheoldred was also supposed to have some connection to Skithiryx the Blight Dragon, she should have been much harder for Elesh to overcome just for that. Black is also the color that had the Hands of the Praetors, so the black faction of New Phyrexia if anything should have been the strongest one. The other Thanes having no impact on the story was also a huge waste, especially Geth because he was never completely aligned with the other Phyrexians, rather he had his own agenda that he was fueling by working with them and keeping his mind uncompleated. The end of the Shards of Mirrodin storyline really made it seem like there was no way New Phyrexia could be beaten without a long drawn out war, each of the Praetors were their own massively powerful that were hard to even survive against let alone defeat, and like it would take an entire set just to bring down even a single one of the Praetors. Not only that but it always seemed like they were going to find another Father of Machines, like they planned on bringing back Yawgmoth or Memnarch or Glissa would rise and take over, so when now we just have Elesh being the boss of everything only makes New Phyrexia seem like it got weaker since the last time we saw it. That's not even to mention all the smaller details like Tezzeret being an agent of Nicol Bolas when he arrived on Mirrodin. We all know Nicol Bolas is bound to come back at some point, so why do we defeat the Phyrexians before even finding out what Bolas wanted to learn from them? And then we have to wonder what the heck happened to all of New Phyrexia's invasion forces. Wurmcoil Engine wasn't a legendary creature so the Phyrexians should have had multiple of those or even upgraded versions, they had their Obliterators, Massacre Wurms, Flesh Gorgers, Molten Hellkites, the Batterskulls, and the fleet of Warships that was supposed to be going through the Omen Paths too. But then when this set comes around it seems like the bulk of the forces are just Elesh's legionaires, the Phyrexian Mites, and whatever regular old beasts are in each of the 5 color hosts. That's the thing about the Phrexians, even their non-legendary members of the army were powerful, they're hard to beat AND even just one drop of their oil is enough to convert you. Everything about this was just such a huge waste of potential to me. Even if the praetors or some other phyrexian big bad returns and all the "rendered inert" invasion forces come back to life and wreak havoc it will never have the same impact because of how quickly they were handled this time.

I’m new to magic so I know I don’t know much about the story behind everything I just enjoy playing the game. But why does people struggling to understand the creative choices such as not making people dressed in rags have to be so important. I see so many people complaining and nitpicking over tech and clothes. As of this isn’t a game to enjoy and that maybe the cards look better when the clothes aren’t in shambles. Or maybe because they were going for 80’s style it’s easier to recognize clean. Or the tech being a certain way because they were playing on the fear of technology and the knowledge needed to use it or the fear of the unknown from new technologies. It just feels very nitpicky to be upset when a company decides to go a different direction that may not be to your taste. I got into mtg because of how cool the recent sets seemed. I really wanted to play a game with this amazing art or with woodland creatures in bloomburrow. All they are doing is making the game more intriguing for something at least I viewed as too complicated to understand. It brought me to wanting to learn how to play it and excited to collect the cards.

It would cause me infinite sadness if Ginger just gets eaten

Man you used to at least PRETEND the older videos were actually analysis about the guildless and not just lore dumps

I'm not quite sure what the problem here is story wise. I get that the survivors are bland and goofy and that you are bringing up the point that they don't seem scared enough, but hear me out... If you were a part of a rag tag group of people trying to survive the endless expanse of a demon possessed house that is actively trying to harvest your fear to both kill you while making itself stronger Wouldn't the natural response of this group over time be to suppress your fear? And let's say your group isn't even the main cast, just a backdrop of nobody's while Nuclear Juggernauts (Planeswalkers) from all across the multiverse poke around your world for whatever daily they are there to grind that day. Also as far as tube tvs and guns and stuff like that "ruining" the aesthetic of the game, I really don't see how it could ruin the aesthetic of the game Urza for starters isn't just a Nuclear Juggernaut himself, he also makes just straight up Nuclear bombs all the time... Even when he isn't trying to make them bombs (like the time machine) and enough of those going off started a literal Ice Age (which is the block we saw guns come into the game) and I don't see that as a bad thing. Not only would that be a natural response of "average" people to seeing such devastating power. Comparatively with the power scale of MTG just on average between the highs and lows, the existence of guns doesn't change anything if anything it's a less than meager attempt to close the power gap between your typical non-magical person and the self-made divine gods of reality that these Planeswalkers can become (and that's when they aren't fighting each other) As for the tv's... They are just TV's, But I think it's an interesting take on horror to be one of the survivors randomly plucked from the fantasy worlds of the multiverse and placed in such a strange land surrounded by such foreign objects coupled with the idea that on that base layer of confusion and fear there is the demon exploiting that There are those that play the game now that have never personally seen a CRV TV but it's similar to what they know now having that feeling literally puts you into the shoes of the survivors as they try to make sense of their surroundings trying to fight back

Phyrexian oil has reached the earth. Megan Fox has become the new phyrexia mother. All Hail phyrexia!!!

They respect each other because vorinclex knows her abilities are ABSOLUTELY CRACKED.

I feel like you're thinking way too much about the masks of the Beasties in terms of how interesting they are. There's more to think about with them than just what's under the mask. Where do they come from? Why are there skulls under the masks? Why does Valgavoth tolerate them? Why are they friendly creatures who care about Survivors when almost every other creature in Duskmourn has become so violent? If the survivors consider Glimmers their only allies, do they fear the Beasties even before looking under the masks? What compels humans to look under the masks in the first place? Since there aren't any Lurgoyfs or Baloths in Duskmourn, are Beasties possibly what happened to those types of animals on the plane after Valgavoth took over? As for the Patchwork Beastie, it seems obvious to me that the reason why it has that effect is because it's an Artifact creature, it's not an actual naturally living Beastie but one someone put together and gave life to.

I don't have any idea about magic lore, and just know niv mizzet is a deranged dragon, but why making ravnica an interdimensional pub is so important?

Confused about what order you review the cards but, another great video. I'm also not a fan of the designs of the Survivors. The 80s esthetic, the clean clothes, the weird tech...

OMG IS THAT YAWGMOTH WITH A STEEL FOLDING CHAIR FROM THE TOP ROPE!!? WATCH OUT!! WATCH OUT!!

I like the idea that, while the War of the Spark raged on, the whole time Sorin and Nahiri were in a cat fight off to the side the whole time

Take a China Mieville setting, then make a crossover with Gymkata and Ninja III Domination. Yeah... What could go wrong

Thanks for the reading! You did an amazing job ❤

The recent Phyrexian war had such great hype but it's ending felt mediocre. It felt like nothing really happened and everyone has too much plot armor. There is a lot of planeswalkers now, perhaps too many. Even if they lost their spark the characters are still alive and well. It feels like they're invincible and there are no consequences to their actions. To me MTG isn't as grim and serious as it used to be.

Him, Vorinclex and Jin Gitaxias are my favorite Praetors.

The dripping contempt with which he says Strixhaven isn't even a blip on his radar is so funny but also a bit sad.

here in 2024 to let you know that Ghalma has appeared on a new card, Foundation's borderless art version of Phyrexian Arena!

I really wish you'd cover Nahiri as she's my favorite walker, but it would also be depressing to see her getting shafted a lot

Quite cool

I kinda wanna more of these flavor reviews of MTG plane sets, even ones of the past...maybe if lucky, something like Strixhaven, Theros, Murder at Karlov Manor, Kaldheim, innistrad, Amonkhet, Tarkir, or Bloomburrow to name a few.

I think the implication of Kona, Rescue Beastie is supposed to be that it brings stuff to the person in need of help, like useful items or allies.

I would have gone with the ability to reveal the top card of your library and play him at instant speed if the card matches some kind of condition, like it being a nonland permanent, then give them first strike, death touch, and vanishing. So, you get a semi-random chance of him showing up, killing an enemy and then disappearing

Duskmorn's aesthetic isn't even based on actual 80s horror, it's based on late stage Stranger Things

Yeah. And i bet satans right at your front door too. Truly a miserable world we live in. Sucks my favorite card game is killing itself like this, gosh i wish mtg coukd stagnate until i implode.

I always interpret the Fear of Isolation as a specifically innistraadi survivor manifestation. The communities of the plane are very tight nit and isolation in alot of ways means death in innistraad. Not only that but the form evokes an eldrazified gryff from the plane, with its multicoloured limbs descending from the wings. Since gryffs were a symbol of avacyn, their corruption around her fall also ties into the idea of abandonment by the divine, again feeding into isolation but from a different angle.

cmon it's referencing BEETLEJUICE

I hate “theme park” Magic so much. The survivors are just revoltingly awful, you nailed it. We’ll never have a set as aesthetically resonant as the original Innistrad or Ravnica blocks again.

I thought that saviour of the small was saving a monkey in. The art

That's honestly surprising Ravnica is the most popular set with how much shit happens or touchs Dominaria I thought that was the fan favorite

I think the survivors’ aesthetics are downstream from how Magic looks now in general. Everything has to glow and look “big”, with no real subtlety. All sets have to be on-the-nose “I clapped when I saw it” reference spam. Things weren’t this bad before the last few years!

Smash

Urabrask is definitely my favorite praetor. All five are super interesting characters, but Urabrask’s motives and actions are a lot more complex and less rational, true to his red color identity.

My hot take: the alt arts where a survivor is being stalked by a monster SHOULDN'T be alt arts and there should have been way more cards with art like that. It would fix a lot of my issues with the survivors, turning their cocky attitudes and 80s clothing into a dig at how stupid and oblivious horror movie characters could be back then. I'm not a fan of card art basically being censored in order to make money on "alternate arts" when it's just them cutting something out of the original piece. Reluctant Role Model is particularly bad to me. Without the monster in the background the piece just feels empty, with a very prominently lit window in the background drawing your attention to something that should be there but isn't.

The key words are “suspend your disbelief”. They get food and other supplies as supplied by the house. Secondly, those of you arguing it’s not scary enough forgot this is something of a children’s game, you want hard R or PG-13 scary, it’s got to stay PG.

this shit looks like its from a lego set

Idk why but it feels like the tech is AI generated in the way it looks. I dont think the art kin the cards itself is ai generated, but i could see someone high up giving the artists a folder of ai generated art and telling them that they want this in the set because they thought it looked cool

Merina's aura bubble looks like a screaming face, if you focus on the edge. Kinda hints about this she feels about her role in the events of the story

I was so ready to love Duskmourn until I started looking at all the 80's stuff. It very much feels like they had an idea for a genuinely creepy horror set and then someone from the marketing department told them to "make it like Stranger Things, the kids love Stranger Things." And I know the art lead's done interviews where the 80's stuff is supposed to be old and foreign to a younger audience, which might have been true if a lot of 80's tech wasn't a) still laying around here or there b) still recognizable as the tech we still use (the headphones still look like headphones, a rotary phone is still recognizably a phone) and c) 80's nostalgia hasn't been exploited for the past 20 years. Even if you were fully ignorant to seeing Walkmans and chunky tech you'd still know about it if you watched Stranger Things or any other nostalgic throwback

Can we get an update with the funky Ashiok Jace combo?

What irks me the most is just the sheer shameless and derivative references in modern MTG designs. It's crafted for streamers react to while they crack packs: "ah yeah, I get that reference, haha". Duskmourne's worldbuilding is surprisingly unique and thought out and coherent, there's actually a lot to like! But it's hard to take the setting seriously when a large slice of the cards are just ... memes! It feels so unbelievably lazy. And so many recent sets suffer from this problem.

SMASH??

It's okay to have wrong opinions about the survivors aesthetics (and Fallout for that matter), I still love you and your content

Besides the generic ghostbusters green tech for every survivor, theres no old technology ! No records,cassettes, giant phones/ computers or pagers. Heck , make a glimmer be an old tamogatchi or furby. A lot of older horror movies have radio guy in charge of coordination that eventually gets eaten bc older tech wasn't mobile. It would be fun if a survivor base was shown doing well then under attack. A lore/storytelling reason why so many survivors look confident & clean.

What do you find most off putting about the survivors?

37:27 phenomenon investigators- it's a call out for ghost busting shows where there is a believer - someone who sees and hears paranormal stuff everywhere And sceptical person, denialist even sometimes. He goes through recordings again and again and bounces them off as nothing special and thanks to that show can go forever

Gremlin Tamer looks like Princess Diana

To my mind Star Athlete is drawing your opponent into a trap, when he runs (attacks) your opponent has the choice to let him get away with whatever he took (sacrifice the permanent) or chase him into the trap (take 5 damage). Blitz may represent him getting stuck in the trap with your opponent but attempting to bring them down with him

Why does valgavoth have so many megaphones