https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2022-01-26

Tezzeret and Jin were hoping to experiment on planeswalkers. Too bad Jin seems to have died now.

Vorinclex survived being nothing but a pile of inanimate metal. Jin is probably fine.

Also, the Wanderer/Emperor directly planeswalks from Eiganjo to Otawara without explicitly leaving Kamigawa in between.

It seems to be with the meddling of Kyodai. I hope she gets a solution for this... the Myojin of Night's Reach is like the only Kami known to have planes walked right? The Emperor can't always have Kyodai by her side to still her planeswalking...

Then again Kyodai is considerably above the Myojin since she's Kamigawa's highest kami.

Yeah, I'm hoping it's just something to do with her connection to Kyodai. I still have people claiming to me that planeswalkers can teleport around the same plane without leaving, as long as they are familiar with the destination. I have to keep referencing how Jace says he can try to planeswalk somewhere, but only via another plane.

With that said, I did find that Nissa did planeswalk directly from Vastwood to Bala Ged. This could be a writer's mistake, a writer's shorthand because it wasn't important that she briefly left Zendikar completely, or related to Nissa being uniquely connected to Zendikar (as the Wanderer is to Kamigawa).

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2022-01-27

Final story

OH NO TAMIYO WILL BE COMPLEATED

Not will be, is.

Wonder if this was a reason they wanted to do a story first, we might get completed Tamiyo as a card

THE WAY MY JAW DROPPED....

Tamiyo still has the Serra's Realm scroll right?!

EDIT: She still has. Welp... I guess the Phyrexians will be able to use that to cleanse thei new homebase....

This feels particularly gutting 'cause Tamiyo still has a family and children.

Ajani is not going to be happy.

Also why, as much as I hate this, I feel like she was a good character to do this too. I think this hurt more than some like Jace, Teferi or Ajani since she never wanted to be a hero, she just wanted to explore the multiverse and care for her family.

Oof. Kaldheim gave us a fun tease for Phyrexia, so I was expecting more of that. But not only do we have Kaito actively looking for Phyrexia, we have the first ever compleated planeswalker? That's huge.

One small gripe I had with the whole story for this set was the way telekinesis was mentioned as an ability some people just had, making it sound more like a superpower than a magic spell. I've always preferred it when the Magic universe treats magic as an art of manipulating mana, so I wish they'd gone less "Kaito has telekinesis" and more "Kaito is innately skilled at telekinesis magic". But I know that's a small distinction that most people probably don't care about.

Overall, great story! Even with just five chapters, I think they pulled off a satisfying story arc with sympathetic characters, believable stakes, and real consequences for what comes next.

Edit: Also, I am seriously glad I held off looking at any card previews today until I had read the story. The one-two punch of Tamiyo getting taken and then later finding out she's been compleated was well worth it.

Edit edit: I also really liked how subtly disturbed Tezzeret was about Tamiyo's compleation. Like, helping Phyrexia to gain power is totally Tezzeret's MO, but realizing he could lose his free will to Phyrexia if he isn't careful? Yeah, I'd be unsettled too.

I both love and hate Tamiyo getting compleated. On one hand, she was probably my favorite recurring protagonist PW of the modern crowd, so losing her as that kind of sucks. On the other hand, the fact that I actually cared about Tamiyo makes the "Someone is compleated" turn work from a storytelling sense, because it's NOT just some idiot we've meant or a character I would have written off fairly easily. And the scene of her Compleated reminds me of some of the best looks we got at Phyrexia in the old days, particularly the short story "Phyrexian Creations". I like that she's not just a different evil cyborg or shrieking dalek, she very clearly has her own original personality, just with her loyalties reassigned, as it has more punch on how insidious it is.

And, on a side thing, while we've lost one of my favorites... We've introduced Kaito and properly introduced The Wanderer (may she some day get her name revealed), and I enjoyed the heck out of both of them in these shorts. Plus, Mu Yanling exists, and I suspect part of why she's never been story-relevant despite having a cool visual style is because the hints of her we got would have kind of stepped on Tamiyo's toes. At the moment, I'd kind of accept the "replacement goldfish".

A good story, but what an emotional gut punch. It's fine from a story telling perspective, but I'm not looking forward to the next x years of dreading "who's next", seeing as they keyworded "compleated" on Tamiyo's card. Ugh.

While I wouldn't be surprised to see at least one more planeswalker with compleated in the future, I also think the main reason it's a keyword is so it can show up on creatures later with -1/-1 counters instead of reducing loyalty.

I'm largely in agreement with Szat, but from a gameplay position, this has just nuked any desire I have to play with Tamiyo or continue to work on the deck I made with her.

From a business standpoint it makes sense too, as Tamiyo was both a fairly optimistic character, but also... Not one likely to get embroiled in all the bullcrap they toss Action Girl #4 or Witty Guy #2 into

... And now I'm just dreaming how lovely it would be if the Kenrith Twins were completed into one and we could be done with the blight they are on the writing.
They better keep their grubby mitts off Saheeli though.

I will say that I was not expecting and did not see a specific guess that the Phyrexians were on Kamigawa to study how kami incorporate in order to figure out souls and thus compleat planeswalkers.

Seeing Tamiyo completed made my wife visibly upset for hours tonight. She went from excited for finally getting to play in Kamigawa like I once did along with seeing it with her favorite moonfolk, to wanting it all to burn down in seconds.

So, I went back to finish up the story and apart from everything with Tamiyo: I am disappointed with where the story landed with Eiganjo. There is no engagement with the idea that Risona and the Uprisers may have a point. Kaito himself said he didn't believe in the Imperial system, he just wanted his friend back, and he does not question the resolution at all (though granted, he is distracted). I don't know if we the audience are really supposed to walk away thinking, "Yeah, a theocratic monarchy where everything is centered around a ten year old makes sense."

It's so weird to me that Light-Paw was managing the entire court for ten years but now that she has legitimacy because someone alleging to be the Emperor shows up for twelve hours gives her an official title. Meanwhile, Kyodai is supposed to be the one that names the emperor, so why didn't she just name a new emperor or at least an official regent this entire time? Why did Kyodai choose a literal child to be emperor?

I know this is suffering from how mainline set plots have to be wrapped up in five chapters, but something other than "The lead rebel is really mean so we hit her with a rock," even if they don't solve everything now would be appreciated. I hope the side stories include background on Sozenkan and the Uprisers.

But if they are they'll go all Urabrask and destroy Phyrexia.