Just what it says on the tin: what is your favorite magic character and why, and have your favorite characters changed over the years?

For me, Jodah and Mairsil/Lim-Dûl have been my favorites for quite a long time.

I also have a softspot for the weatherlight crew, Volrath and Greven, as Tempest was really the first of the narrative-driven sets and it made a huge impression on a 13 year old kid.

Favorite is my girl Jhoira.
Part of it is the evolution of her character, from starry eyed romantic girl to a wizened survivor who can calmly stare down beings infinitely more powerful than she.
I'm also quite fond of her character design, but ultimately it's how integral she's been to so much of the story without ever really dominating it. She's important but not the spotlight most of the time.

I've always been a big fan of Teferi. From troublesome student, to sass-master Timelord Planeswalker with a tragic history, who lost his spark, but got it back. He's everything I've ever loved about the color Blue in magic. He is my favorite Blue 'Walker and my favorite legendary character.

Teferi is great. One of the best things about Teferi is that he keeps making big mistakes but always tries to redeem himself. One of my favorite bits in magic is in one of the Timespiral novels where Jodah gives Teferi a scathing talk down, telling him that while he (Jodah) may be the physical heir to Urza, Teferi is Urza's true heir, and not in a good way.

I don't think I have a favourite per se, at least one that doesn't last for more than a few moments. I loved original timeline Anafenza and Gvar, which made their "fixed" continuity all the more heartbreaking.

Favourite character: Jodah

Part of it might just be the fact that he's the protagonist of a really good trilogy, which also explores some of my favourite things in Magic's story (mostly the magic system and the progress of Dominaria's history through the ages), but there's a lot more to like about Jodah beyond that. The way he engages with magic really makes you feel how awesome it would be to study and wield it, he kinda feels like the character that Harry Potter should have been (instead of being sent to Hogwarts and remaining a disinterested ignoramus who only cares aboutt Quidditch). I also love the way he uses (or is forced to use) his intellect and diplomacy to solve problems and doesn't just devolve into a fireball-tossing über-archmage who constantly overpowers every obstacle that gets in his way. It's a pretty good balance on that front. Besides, he's a complex character with interesting stuggles, like living that long without losing your sanity, or the recurring theme of what role he wants to play in the world. He has a certain tendency towards weariness and passivity at times that comes from living that long, meaning he tends to either vanish from history for a while completely or stick to whatever magic academy he happens to be in at the time. You could consider that a kind of flaw, but I think it's an understandable one. I could certainly see myself stuggling with the same thing if I ended up being an immortal archmage, and Jodah's positive traits are what I hope I could be if I was in that position. There are just so many small things about Jodah that I like, I can't even point my finger at all of them.

Oh, and credit where credit is due: While I have a lot of criticism towards the Dominaria story, I loved the story with Jodah, and I think his portrayal was spot on, much more so than his appearance in Time Spiral (although that one had its moments, too, I don't want to throw shade at it).

...and that's one of those moments! Yes, I loved Teferi and Jodah's dynamic in Time Spiral, it felt really true to both their characters, and it made sense to bring up Urza because they were both parts of Urza's arc so to speak. Speaking of Urza, another thing I love about Jodah is that he's basically a synthesis of Urza and Mishra's personalities from The Brothers' War when you really look at it next to the Ice Age trilogy, even right down to his physical appearance (I like to think that the goatee he's trying to grow as a youth in The Gathering Dark and later abandons is a nod to that as well because Mishra had one). That also explains the significance of the in-universe ambiguity concerning Harbin's biological father, because that's the closest thing to both Urza and Mishra's blood becoming "one" that you could get in that story (see also: the Might-and Weakstone being reunited). In fact, I like to think that Jodah represents what the brothers could have been if they had worked together, and that reminds me of the final lines of The Antiquities War: https://pokeinthe.io/stories/magic/batt ... ities-war/

The mightstone and weakstone were the doom of the Thran.
Separately, they caused nothing but misery and death.
Together, they granted peace and understanding.
As with the stones, so with the brothers—
Urza found peace, and Mishra found death.

I'm probably going way off the rails here by reading a bunch of stuff into it, but "peace and understanding" is exactly what Jodah helped to create at the end of the Ice Age...


Favourite ensemble cast: the original Weatherlight crew

Don't know what else to say really. I could've gone on to read about them forever, they each had a distinct voice and a really fun dynamic.

I was sceptical at first when Dominaria brought back the Weatherlight, mostly because the original one had such a meaningful and definitive ending, but I quickly came around to liking the idea. Now we can have all the benefits of the ship as an ongoing storytelling device minus the whole Legacy baggage. Here's hoping they'll exchange Slimefoot for Squee next time around, and I really want Jhoira to leave the crew to be with Jodah and hand the reins to Shanna.*


Favourite single villain: Baron Sengir

Go read that Homelands comic. Seriously.


Favourite villainous faction: Old Phyrexia

Probably played a major part in drawing me into the game as a ten-year-old. Great mix of mind-blowingly alien (especially in a fantasy card game) and marvellously gory and edgy. Those body shapes! Also really fun to read about, as I would find out later.


Second favourite villainous faction: the original Cabal

Dementia summoning! Pit fighting! Zombies! Gold! Here's hoping we'll go back to Otaria and see the Cabal done properly again.


Favourite love story: Serra and Feroz

Go read that Homelands com- Oh, I already said that? Fine, carry on...

(Second favourite might be Ertai and Belbe...)


Honourable mentions:

Karn, Teferi, Jhoira, Jaya, Urza, Barrin... I'd say I don't cry easily, but I'll never be able to re-read the string of scenes from Hanna being in the Dream Caves to Hanna dying to Barrin learning of her death to Barrin casting Obliterate without tearing up. If there's one part of Magic's entire story that pushes all the right buttons on my feels, it's probably that one. It works because it had loads and loads of time to build up and get you invested in all those characters and their relationships. "Of course I wasn't there when my daughter died. I wasn't even there when she lived!"

Tamiyo, Ajani and Davriel probably deserve a shout out as well, although I liked Tamiyo a lot better in her appearance in Shadows over Innistrad block than in subsequent stories. There's an odd disconnect between her introduction to the story and her "story circle" incarnation. Still, she's a great blue character, I love Kamigawa, and her story magic is awesome. I honestly think I would have rejected Sagas a "too abstract" or "not flavourful" if it hadn't been for Tamiyo's version of story magic that made me love the Saga type even more. Stories are sacred, people!


*Soooon may the Weatherlight come
to bring us stories of old school fun,
oooone day when the Gatewatch is done
we'll board that ship and go!

What i also love about Jodah in the second and third ice age novels is that he acts like a crotchety old dude at times, which of course he is

I totally forgot about Sengir!

He's awesome in the comic...the
pensive scène at the grave is one of the best...with art by Rebecca Guay no less if memory serves!
Also: Feast of the Unicorn.

Good times

Agreed, especially in his dynamic with Jaya, which is awesome in general.

Speaking of Jaya, I think the whole "Jaya was Mothe Luti all along"! thing has been handled much better than I would have though, not least because it continues her character development in the Ice Age novels in a meaningful way (which gets muddied a bit by the fact that she was technically possessed by Mairsil/Lim-Dûl for almost the entirety of The Shattered Alliance, but still). She had trouble accepting her getting older in TSA, which was then averted when she became a 'walker... Until the Mending hit and she actually had to learn to cope with it for real, and she turned that into her motivation for settling down at Keral Keep and give a purpose to the rest of her life. Her position at Keral Keep also means she's following in Jodah's footsteps in a way and has become the old archmage she used to be a foil for in the Ice Age novels.


Hell yes. "Rest easy, planeswalker, you and your mate. I commend your accomplishments. And in a way... I envy you your sleep." What a classy villain! I also think this whole myth about the first man and woman and there being two kinds of immortality (like the moon or like an apple tree) ties into it really well, and into the scene with the apple cart. "I don't normally eat these... But I do like their color." As to the art, I hope we'll one day get a proper card for Baron Sengir (one that's neither unplayable like the original nor has Partner like the new one) that comes as a promo version with art by Rebecca (either completely new or taken from the comic).

I love that his Commander Legends blurb FINALLY confirmed that the Baron did indeed make it through the portal along with his army. I wonder if that's ever going to be resolved, or what the best way to resolve it would even be. I don't have any confidence in them not ruining it, though, considering their complete disregard for continuity and consistency (like how they completely ignored almost everything we used to know about pre-Mending Bolas), unless they bring back someone like Scott McGough or Jeff Grubb to write the whole thing. I guess Kelly Digges might be up to the task as well, I really like his re-interpretation of Serra's death. Baron Sengir is just one of those villains that have to be opposed from an in-universe standpoint but that I don't want to die, unless it's done exceptionally well... There's also the matter of what to do with Ravi and what Ulgrotha is like in the present day... If they ever continue the Baron's story, I hope they 1.) look to the comic and weave in some of the themes and symbols from there, and 2.) ignore 'A Song for the Plague Rats' because it's self-contradictory nonsense that can't possibly be canon. Maybe there could be a way for him to eventually get back to his original home plane and be reunited with his first family when everything else is said and done. I think that would be a great way to give him closure. I guess him ending up on Dominaria eventually to co-exist with all the other old school stuff would also be nice, even though it's not where he's from originally. It's a shame how hard they've made interplanar travel, that would really get in the way of any of this. I've more or less circled back into the camp that thinks the Mending was a mistake anyway, and this is just one more thing that irks me about it...

Yeah they handled Jaya pretty ok. I love how she has such a hard time with Chandra, as Chandra is just as much a foil for her as she was to Jodah, just in a different way. Jaya really learned patience in time...and Chandra is the least patiënt person ever. I really liked their rapport.
To be honest I'm still so happy and thankful that Ethan gave Dominaria (the set) the attention it deserves. He has my eternal gratitude for that, as the set was fantastic
in every way.

I suspect that bit in the baron's bio for commander legends was put there by Ethan.
The plane of Ulgrotha really wasn't the best....but Sengir sure was! Giving him the failsafe of the dwarven gate was nicely done. I'm only sorry that we completely missed the baron's finally victory over Ulgrotha....and Eron the Relentless, for whom I hold a special hatred, as i kept continuing to pull him from my Homelands boosters when I bought them back in '96....and AGAIN ten years later in my Timespiral boosters....relentless indeed!

About interplaner travel: I'm actually happy they've made it so difficult....I'm sure that if they had made it easier modern day Wizards would have found a way to clash different planes in spectacularly non-sensical ways, and I couldn't bare the thought of them ruining my beloved Dominaria and Innistrad. But that's just me being a Simic cynic.

Ulgrotha was the best.

As a massive fanboy of classic gothic horror movies I have to say that i like innistrad much better.
Ulgrotha had the Baron and his kick-ass shade (Ihsan's Shade) on one side, but opposing them were a weird hippie (Willow Priestess), an elderly prelate (Hazduhr the Abbot)and Kaja Foglio(Autumn Willow) and her daughter (Daughter of Autumn), who somehow seems to be way older than her mum.(I know Autumn Willow is a spirit, but still weird).

I remember loving the baddies...the art for both the baron and Ihsan to me are some of the iconic arts in magic. But the rest of the set was decidedly 'meh' for me. Far too many unrelated ideas put together in one set. didgeridoo anyone? They should have stuck with the horror trope.

The comic was awesome though!

EDIT: It's fun to think back to the days of Homelands, when Ihsan's Shade was a bonafide bomb, in part because a 5/5 with no drawback and an upside for six in black was nigh unheard of.

Same here. Kelly Digges, Mark Winters, Richard Garfield and a host of other people were also heavily involved, though, credit where credit is due. Then again, Ethan might have been the one person who did (and still does?) the most stuff on the side that wouldn't actually have been his job, just out of sheer zeal. The worldmap in particular comes to mind (which I still have as a wallpaper on my laptop screen to this day).

*solemnly salutes everyone who made Dominaria great*


It was, he wrote all blurbs for the established characters.

I stand by that old idea of mine that I've suggested a couple of times over the years, namely that they should release a Conspiracy style set that's basically a remake of Homelands but designed for multiplayer draft to justify its existence and to tie into the precarious balance of power in the story. They could play it a bit more fast and loose with the timeline and include cards for some of the planeswalkers from the comic as well as legends and story beats from the Homelands set, which would allow them to get everybody on the same page and remove the old Homelands stigma before continuing the story in the present day eventually.

I mean, I've gone on record saying the same thing, and I stand by that, but I think it potentially shuts down a lot of cool opportunities for this particular story, not least because being dragged from plane to plane by those pesky Oldwalkers is such a key part of the Baron's character and also of the backstory of the Homelands setting. And who knows, maybe the multiverse as a whole would actually suck less now if the Mending hadn't happened (on a meta-level), so maybe it wouldn't be that much of a problem


I happen to be a massive fan of gothic horror as well, and Innistrad is probably my second-favourite plane after Dominaria, but the thing is, Ulgrotha was never supposed to be a gothic horror plane. Creatively, it was made to give a home to some of Magic's most popular creatures at the time, such as Serra Angel, Sengir Vampire, more minotaurs etc., and to tell their stories. It was more of a classic medieval adventure plane with an elaborate storyline around lots of different factions and legendary characters. The (back)story of the setting was also pretty closely tied to the premise of the cardgame (i.e. planeswalker duels and their impact). People think of Homelands as a precursor to Innistrad, but for the most part, only some of the black cards really fall into horror territory. Heck, Mercadian Masques is probably more of a "horror set" than Homelands when you put the sets right next to each other.

Pretty much; Ulgrotha's story is more of a tragedy rather than horror. It's also a micro-habitat for the color pie.

Lots of potential for a return, assuming it isn't destroyed.

Agreed, though I will admit that the most compelling thing about Homelands were the characters and the story first and the setting second. I highly doubt it's been destroyed, though, WotC even keeps reusing planes like Zendikar that should by all rights have remained a blasted wasteland for the foreseeable future. Even if they don't plan on doing anything with Ulgrotha, they know they have nothing to gain by just saying it's been destroyed, it would ruin a potential asset and piss off way too many people. And from an in-universe perspective it's probably safe to assume that Serra and Feroz were successfull in their attempts to restore the mana before the Mending cut off the connection to the other plane beyond the portal. Autumn Willow apparently didn't make a move and accidentally kill everyone by repairing the mana either, and Davriel might have visited Ulgrotha as well.

When it comes to reusing Ulgrotha, the thing I'd be most interested in would be the resolution of all those dangling plot threads from Homelands, plus getting the bigger picture of how Taysir and Daria's situation in Invasion fits into this and how it all lead to the Baron's full vampire invasion in Future Sight. I think they'd need to tell that story first before they could do much with it in the present-day. That said, I think the scenario we've got so far is the best possible outcome. The Baron got to fulfill his plans and left 60 years ago, which would leave enough time for Ulgrotha to rebuild and be an intact setting again. The Baron's invasion story would probably be easier to just pick up in the present day, depending on what they'd want to do with it.

The biggest obstacle for WotC wanting to return to Ulgrotha would probably be their insistence that "every plane needs an identity", although at least for a hypothetical Conspiracy: Homelands, you could just make it about the precarious balance of power between multiple factions represented in the story, just as Fiora's identity is largely defined by being "the multiplayer draft plane" full of political intrigue. In a normal expansion set, though... I guess they could make a sequel to the original Homelands set that's set right after the collapse of Feroz' Ban and turn it into another planeswalker set like WotS, although getting watered down uncommon versions of Oldwalkers would feel wrong... Honestly, at this point it would probably be refreshing to see Ulgrotha simply because it doesn't have an "identity". Magic has become a grab bag of random stuff anyway, so why force it?

I have a feeling that Creative would destroy Ulgrotha for real though. They don't ever want to return there, they think Innistrad "does it's job better" (it doesn't it's like comparing a seal to a parakeet) and they even removed Baron Sengir.

Assuming Creative wants to have brain cells, rebranding Ulgrotha is pretty easy. Just say that the Mending fixed the leylines so the Dead Zone is receeding. The absence of Baron Sengir + additional territory could lead to a darker take on Zendikar Rising + Ixalan, like a pulp fiction kind of gothic.

I'd argue that destroying an entire plane off-screen just isn't how the business side of Magic works, though. They don't throw away their assets like that, Creative doesn't even have full contol over which characters they kill off (at least that's what we were told when they killed off Venser). Even if they never wanted to use it again, it would do more for audience investment in the game to just let people hope they'll revisit Ulgrotha and keep them talking about it (like we are doing right now) instead of destroying one more thing that keeps a certain segment of old-school Vorthoses anchored to the game. Besides, while I agree that getting Baron Sengir off the plane before destryoing it would be a smart move, that by itself isn't really that suspicious because it's just the confirmation of a story development that they teased in Future Sight, and even as far back as Homelands.

I guess technically it would just be natural regeneration over time plus Serra and Feroz's efforts rather than the Mending that would restore the Dead Zone, but yeah, it could well have been fixed by now. Maybe it's all dead but harmless Wastes or maybe it has regrown. I don't really know what could be done with that concept, though. You couldn't really use any ancient horrors that were supposedly lurking in the Dead Zone all along, because how would you justify their continued survival there? It might also be too close to Zendikar. Not saying reclaiming the Dead Zone couldn't happen, but it would probably be more exciting to focus on the parts of Ulgrotha that we're familiar with. And if we are going to see any more pulp adventure inspired stuff in Magic, there are parts of Jamuraa that would be much better suited to that.

I'd say Ulgrotha would open up some really fun tribal options, at least that seems like the lowest hanging fruit mechanically, and it's one that you could fit into any given time period in the history of the plane. From the top of my head, you'd have Minotaurs, Dwarves, Vampires, maybe Angels, various classes like Wizard, Rogue, Knight, Pirate, Cleric etc. could also fit. Faeries are a bit of a challenge because they don't normally do green flyers anymore. But yeah, that alone doesn't really make an "identity" in the way WotC likes to use the term...

I still think "plane coveted by planeswalkers" would come close (and pick up right where the original story left off), but that technically applies to Shandalar, Dominaria, Zendikar, Ravnica etc. as well, and the multiplayer draft angle that you could combine with the original Homelands story would limit it to supplemental sets. Then again, either of these options would be better than nothing, especially if they'd close the gaps in the story organically. And I said above that seeing uncommon cards for Oldwalkers in a planeswalker-heavy set like WotS would feel wrong, but the more I think about it, you could probably fill the uncommon slots with one-off namedrops from obscure lore like Tempé, Krim, Platon, the Thorn, Timotheus, Parcher etc. that nobody expects anything from and that we'd be happy enough to get a piece of artwork for. The rares and mythics could be some heavy hitters like Arzakon, but also Taysir and Daria, and maybe even "new Oldwalkers" like Sorin, plus an obligatory appearance of Worzel and Thomil. They'd have to do some timeline tetris to figure out which 'walkers we've heard of could have been alive and available after the collapse of Feroz' Ban and which ones would have to survive after that, but something like this could be cool. And I don't think the comic specifies that all of the Tolgath and the Ancients from the conflict in the prologue were killed by the Apocalypse Chime (meaning there probably could have been members of both factions that weren't on Ulgrotha when it happened), so you could have them resume their battle over the plane and have them drive the conflict or something. Or maybe they could combine the "planeswalker set" and the "multiplayer draft set" ideas and just do Conspiracy meets War of the Spark to really make it feel like a big free for all between planeswalkers.

It's just insanely frustrating how many of the old storylines were never resolved properly for one reason or another... Homelands, Shandalar, Arabian Nights, the Planeswalker War from the comics...

Wait, you tell people to read the comic and then you don't even link to the site where they can? Shame on you, Pavor from the past!

https://archives.mtglore.com/comics/

Edit: You can read most of the old Acclaim/Armada comics there btw, not just Homelands.

Since this is about characters that we like, what's everyone's opinion on Davriel?

One of the many cool things about him is that, while he has to be the same kind of one trick pony as most planeswalkers these days, his 'one trick' is actually super flexible and opens up a lot of possibilities, it gives him something different every time. Add that to the fact that it translates into game mechanics really well, and that Children of the Nameless did a great job exploring the magic system in ways that feel consistent with established rules and descriptions (in a way that we haven't seen since Agents of Artifice). That's just one of my favourite things in Magic stories, but it's also something modern stories almost never do.

Any theories or speculations as to where he might be from?

Brandon Sanderson said he's from a plane that we already know but he couldn't reveal which one. Knowing some of Sanderson's statements (like how he'd love to write more stories about the characters from Legends that haven't been used so far), and considering the fact that Children of the Nameless references Cabralin and Ulgrotha, I think it's safe to say that he has a lot of love for old Magic lore. So given that, I could totally see Davriel's homeplane being Ulgrotha, Dominaria or Mercadia (if WotC haven't changed their plans and are going to stick to the origin they worked out with Sanderson, that is). Going back to the "What could they do with Ulgrotha?" discussion, I'd say introducing a 'walker who's from there would be a cool (but "safe") nod to old school Vorthoses, especially since Davriel doesn't seem particularly inclined to go back to his homeplane anyway. Mercadia also seems possible, simply because it would fit his mindset (deals, contracts and loopholes, book-keeping, power games etc.) and his love of luxury. Both options would excite me, especially Ulgrotha. (If I had to make up a planeswalker character from Mercadia, I'd probably choose a concept that's more unique to that setting).