Ok, rant incoming.

I was ok with most of All Will be One and MOM...sure it felt rushed in some parts, and many characters didn't get the the time in the spotlight they deserved (most praetors, Karn and especially Koth to name a few).

However, Aftermath is a new kind of horribly low standard for magic story.

Things that happen in Aftermath:
- Omenpaths suddenly make it possible for non planeswalkers to travel to other planes.
- Many planeswalkers suddenly lose their spark without a very solid reason as to why.

Number of stories: 2

Focus of said stories:

- a story about Nissa which somewhat sets out the current status quo of the multiverse.

- a story about Nahiri (VERY random pick) which does absolutely nothing for the greater story of Magic.

What is this set even? This tiny add-on set suddenly throws in two GIANT curveballs (losing sparks and omenpaths between planes) without giving us any solid explanation or elaboration whatsoever. It gives us just two not very well written and completely unconnected and somewhat randomly chosen stories to cover these major changes.
The Mending, which was the last time Magic story had a big reshuffle (and that did not come even close to this) took a three block set with corresponding novels to resolve....

....and now i have to watch a youtube video made by a third party (Nothing bad about LRR...they're great!) For some crumbs about some of the other stuff in Aftermath???

I think this set is the worst thing that has happened to magic story in its long history, because it really feels like the story doesn't take itself even remotely serious anymore.

What is worse, i feel like these changes really weren't made to serve the background of the game as much as it feels like a marketing thing to create hype ('You like these planeswalker characters we've been endlessly shoveling down your throat for the past 15 years and you like commander? Now you can use those characters as commanders!') and offer good solid marketable hooks for the future ('Look, this villain from Alara is invading Ixalan!' TUNTUNTUN)

I'm fine with some magic stories feeling like glorified fanfic.....but this feels cheap and amateurish on a whole different level.

Blech..

Rant over.

Yeah it's pretty blatantly a thing to push sales whether that be from hype or commander or whatever it may be. I blame hasbro

Hasbro's vow to squeeze as much money out of the game as possible certainly can't be helping the quality of the story for sure, but companies need to make money.

Direction and choices are a whole different thing. The story department chose to use the resources at their desposal to give use these two stories instead of, for example, one larger article talking about these huge changes and perhaps giving a bit of attention to each desparked planeswalker in this set.

It's just a very lazy outing all around.

The set itself doesn't fare much better; why were these specific cards chosen for this set? For example: with only 50 cards in here, what is Markov Baron doing in the set? It tells us exactly nothing. It all feels really random instead of carefully curated, which you might expect from such an unusual and small product.

I do think the desparking was a weird curveball, whereas the new Omenpaths make sense.

I do not have a problem with the briefness of the story. It's supposed to be a tease, it's supposed to a combination denouement and Marvel-style stinger. They don't want to explain what Tyvar is doing now on Kaldheim or what Ob Nixilis is doing now on New Capenna, because that's the next stories on those planes. They just want you to be aware of the plot hooks.

Nahiri being the focus of one of two stories makes sense too, because she was one of the Phyrexian planeswalkers with her fate left with an ellipses at the end of MOM (she had a skyclave fall on her but she was not explicitly shown dead), plus the story sets her up as a future antagonist out to end planeswalking entirely.

But because the desparking comes more out of left field and we did not see many of the desparked planeswalkers in awhile, I think that was the wrong focus for the Aftermath set in the cards. I think they should have started with maybe five instead of fifteen (probably the five most relevant to the MOM story, like Karn, Nissa, Teferi, Koth, and Nahiri) and put more focus on the Omenpaths (maybe show the initial crossovers, like giving the Elemental on Zhalfir a card) and the immediate aftermath of the invasion on each of the planes.

She and Nissa were good contrasts, as former planeswalkers connected to Zendikar. One chose adventure and love, another chose bitterness and killing all trespassers to her domain.

And I don't give a damn about either of them, while they ignored the bigger mystery of the other Zendikar walker: Kiora.

The whole set is a mayor disappointment from a vorthos perspective.

Your juxtaposition of Nissa and Nahiri may be apt, but that doesn't make the 'story' for this set any better and neither character is the most likeable.

Also, i remember them showing off the Kenrith's funeral card because thst one was the 'least spoiler-y from a stort perspective'. It litterally was one of the MOST spoiler-y: some random Urborg spirits, a random Markov vampire, a team of coppercoats, somehow Rocco.....it's just a crap bag of random cards, many without reason to be in a vorthos mini-set of 50 cards.

I just want to push back on the idea that there is one Vorthos perspective and that everyone who cares about the creative and flavor of Magic are uniformly massively disappointed with Aftermath.

I also think the critique that Nahiri is not that likable is a strange one. She is being set up as a continued antagonist. I don't know her likability is a factor. The stories are closing out MOM and laying some of the groundwork for future story. I actually think Nahiri's story's writing is relatively solid. It does a much better job diving into her than Nissa's story, walking through her thoughts and feelings, underscoring her flaws even as it speaks from her perspective. It even hints that she still has Phyrexian brainwashing in her thinking.

I'm not saying that i speak for any other Vorthosians. Far from it! These are just my own thoughts and feelings.

Concerning Nahiri: in New Phyrexia she stopped being just angry and she finally had some great character development, even going out like a hero. I do not find any of that in this story, which saddens me, though we can agree that her internal struggle was much beter written than Nissa's.

I also don't really see much groundwork for the future of magic story...just that Nahiri will play a role when we return to Zendikar (not the biggest of surprises) and that Nissa and Chandra are going somewhere.
That's not a great deal compared to the big changes that suddenly happened and that were not at all really explained or, if not that, than given a solid foundation.

All in all, the stories themselves were fine. It's not the stories that bother me, but the somewhat random choice of cards in the set itself combined with the big but unexplained and not underbuild changes.

Just my 2 cents though. If you enjoy this set's helping of Vorthos goodness than that's great!

Some kind of change to Planeswalking has been inevitable since they formed the gatewatch. For a long time the post-mending planeswalkers didn't have friends. Tezzeret and Bolas were manipulating other planeswalkers but other than that they were mostly doing their own thing. Now that so many of them are on good terms they need a reason that can't just gather together every time there is a threat. The writers can split them up for a while with simultaneous threats but that isn't sustainable. We will see how they do with it but I think there was good narrative reason to do it, and not just for Commander.

Nahiri is specifically trying to prevent anyone from getting to Zendikar which is exactly where Nissa is trying to go.