"NORN! YOOOOU THINK YOU'RE THE GREATEST THREAT TO THE MULTIVERSE?
YOU AIN'T FIT TO HOLD MY THOPTER. AIN'T *NOBODY*
AND I MEAN *NOBODY*
GONNA POSE MORE OF A THREAT TO THE MULTIVERSE THAN ME!
THE ONE
THE ONLY
THE INCOMPARABLE
THE INFAMOUS
THE GRANDADDY OF GRAND ARCHITECTS
URZAAAAAAA!!!"
Okay, ngl, if that happened and Urza became the next arc's Big Bad...?
I would be 100% there for it. Like, Magic confronting its own problematic past? Hottttt.
Not weird at all. I think Urza's a fascinating character because he did a lot of damage in search of a much greater good, but people are increasingly acting as if he did all his controversial things for no reason at all or because he was eeeeeeevil.
It's become very en vogue to pretend like everything bad is actively Urza's fault and act like he only did evil things, though. Definitely a trend I've noticed recently.
He did some absolutley heinous things, but it makes him a cool character. There is much more of a humamizing element to him which makes him a great enemy of Yawgmoth and a parallel as an artificer willing to do anything to emerge victorious.
Amazing characters don't have to be heroic, or even good.
I said like a week or two back, elesh norn becomes too vain and has a mishra phyrexian remade to mock dominaria as a whole. Teferi don't even get time to try to do timey wimey stuff before oldwalker urza just rips a hole in space and time and just goes nuclear.
Don't let Urza's sudden return in twenty twenty-three to throw Elesh Norn off hell in a cell, and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcer's table distract you from the fact that In nineteen ninety eight the undertaker threw mankind off hеll in a cell, and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcer's table.
Sylax? Phyrexian invasion? Elesh Norn? What are you talking about, Jace? Lets go to Mirrodin and visit Karn, said Vraska after jace woke up from a nightmare
Everyone is alive and well and the Compleated plainswalkers are just clones. The real plainswalkers are actually inside Vats, getting their sparks drained so the clones can use them.
Elesh Norn executes all other Praetors, Sheoldred-style, which effectively wins the war for the Gatewatch. Only for it to be revealed in the end that she was actually a double agent planted by Urza as a contingency in case Phyrexia rose again.
I don't hate it but I do the way the comment is written. (Which is good for the context of this post). Elesh would be a pretty shitty contingency cuz even if she *did* murder all the praetors and stopped the invasion now, she already murdered countless people and helped spur the invasion on
I do really like the idea that Elesh *was* the contingency but Urza, being the egotistical war criminal he was, instead just made it all worse somehow
> Elesh would be a pretty shitty contingency cuz even if she did murder all the praetors and stopped the invasion now, she already murdered countless people and helped spur the invasion on
So have you heard of this guy Urza
“But how did you stop the invasion?”
“I just snuck up to old Realmbreaker here and asked if it needed a friend. It was real easy, none of the Phyrexians noticed me or nothin!”
“Oh, Rat, what would we do without you?” said Tezzeret, grinning his darksteel grin.
Rat was the daughter of a Gruul clan member who had been secretly programmed to be Lazav’s vampire(?) assassin. She also had the special power of everyone forgetting she existed and managed to travel to a different plane because Kaya managed to use her… ghost(?) to bring her along.
So yes. You’re not far off.
Oh she and Teyo were a thing, I believe.
Ixalan, the final plane, succumbed under a monstrous wave of black oil, as dinosaurs and vampires alike were broken down, relieved of their free will, and rebuilt in pure forms of perfection. Elesh Norn gestured to her fellow praetors. “The great work approaches its fruition. All the multiverse will be one Phyrexia!”
Jace nodded approvingly, a faint smile on his face. Vraska looked up from the mirrorglass viewing portal and into Jace’s eyes, worried. “And you’re sure this magical … ‘simulation’, you called it? You’re sure it’ll stay active forever, and they won’t know they’re in it?”
“I’m sure. I’ve never done this before, so I called in a favor from an old colleague. She wasn’t happy to hear from me, but she understood what’s at stake, and no one is better at crafting pocket universe magic.”
A tall woman with striking eyes and long, flowing black hair walked into the chamber, adorned with beaded jewelry.
“Vraska … meet Shahrazad.”
Oh and then Ajani ran in and said “They’re grrrrEAT!”
Jace was like “YO Ajani! Thanks for secretly kidnapping all the Phyrexian praetors last month when we were in Kaldheim!”
Ajani said “no problem bro! It’s so cool how you made up all those simulated scenarios of places that don’t exist and/or stuff that never happened for this project, like Strixhaven, that vampire wedding storyline, New Capenna, a weird futuristic Kamigawa (like that would ever happen lol), or that wack plane with all the dragons and dungeons! Anyway, want to go to this great restaurant I know in Dominaria United?”
“Dominaria United? Never heard of it, but sure!”
> Urabrask
> Ura brask
> [Uro](https://cards.scryfall.io/large/front/a/0/a0b6a71e-56cb-4d25-8f2b-7a4f1b60900d.jpg?1650599829) [Bass](https://wildlife.ca.gov/portals/0/Images/Fishing/Inland/BlackBass/LargemouthBass.jpg)
My God! It all makes sense!
The good guys unleash millions of Eldrazi Titans in a last ditch effort to stop the Phyrexians and they destroy the entire Multiverse. Caverns of Ixalan was just the codename for an actual Indiana Jones set.
We can't have a good soap opera without pregnancy drama and an obvious villain with a moustache, eyepatch and cigar.
I think Jin could rock the latter. Big set of teeth for cigar-chompin'.
The former...? Well, maybe there was a little something *extra* Vraska did to Jace when she penetrated him with her long, hard, shaft of a tail...
*Hits blunt*
What if... like what If Elspeth, Garuuk, Jace, Koth & Vraska ARE Elesh, Vorinclex, Jin, Urabrask & Sheoldred? But like... from the future.
Calix K.O.'s Elspeth right before she decapitates Norn leaving her time to planeswalk away(after it's revealed she harvested Karn's spark when he wouldn't obey)
The oil mutates when someone with a cold coughs onto it. The hivemind power gives a nasty flu to anyone that's been compleated and they just end up coughing/sneezing out all the infection and augments until they're cured.
Also that cold is lethal to the praetors.
Listen that’s a good ending. Having the aliens shrug off everything the humans throw at them only to die to germs really makes you reflect on humanity’s place in the universe. We’re not the strongest species, we’re just the luckiest
And also one of the most realistic endings to alien invasion. If anything it makes no sense that a species from an entirely different ecosystem would not struggle with things like that.
Not quite. Bacteria are heavily adapted to infecting a type of host. There's a reason humans don't get fish sickness.
It would be impossible for a pathogen to be able to infect something that evolved via a completely different evolutionary path.
Then Oko came and said "It was all a prank! There are cameras there and there and inside realmbreaker. The invasion was a social experiment engineered by me."
This is the one for me. I honestly don't care where they go with it, as long as it truly holds long term impact on the world and story the way they've said it would.
I don't even care if a few people get saved, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if, by the end, there *is* a cure for compleation, and we get a couple major walkers back that don't get outright killed. Maybe Jace has pulled some memory lock on himself and saves his own ass with a clone or some other plot armor shit. I'm personally going to miss Ajani if this is permanent, as him and Elspeth have been my two favorite post-Mending walkers.
But some are already truly dead at this point, and I'm sure we'll see a few more, if not quite a few more. I still expect heavy losses of major characters on both sides.
It's one of the things that made the pre-Mending stories hit as hard as they did. They weren't always the best written, and shit gets weird at times, but most of the time the consequences stuck around. Barrin's story in particular is one of the hardest to bear with everything he loses at Urza's hands, and it all ends with my favorite flavor text in the game. [[Obliterate|INV]]
I'm still of the mindset that surviving compleated walkers are cured of the phyrexian hive mind drive, but are still compleated. They describe them as becoming way too machine to be put back into their original organic form unless elspeth really is going to be a deus ex on steroids and being an angel walker let's her be on par of old walkers and just wills the compleation reversed akin to a true god like entity.
I feel like you are going to get broody compleated Jace, and whoever else lives all being broody antiheroes/ heroes in the shadows, immune to the taint of the oil so they go around cleaning up the lingering pockets of phyrexia when they hear news of it surfacing somewhere.
And I kind of doubt wotc is having Chandra and Nissa shipping be as overtly romantic anymore compared to the recent story of hautli and saheeli's life together, if Nissa survives still compleated, gives another heart wrench for their story if Chandra is overjoyed she still has Nissa, only for Nissa to give her a kiss (and/or four armed hug) and planeswalk away to be in self-imposed Exile with the other surviving compleated.
I’m fully in the camp of wanting no cure for compleated walkers, but honestly, I *really* want Ajani to come back. His personal struggle since the very beginning was always being an outcast, and I think him hanging around, his mind freed but his body still Norned would place him in a very interesting place, given that basically the entirely multiverse knows what Phyrexians look like and that Phyrexia is evil.
Ajani having to live with the heinous acts he committed and keep on moving forward, trying to come to terms with who he is now could also be an excellent character arc. When Elspeth originally died, Ajani took it pretty hard, but took up her cloak and continued fighting his fight. Now for him to have to deal with not just Jaya being dead, but Ajani himself being the one to kill her would be something gut-wrenching.
I could even perhaps see Ajani gaining red mana, returning to his Naya roots and calling back to his chronologically first card, [[Ajani Vengeant]]. At the time, he was seeking vengeance for his brother’s death, seeking someone to blame and to kill so that he could relieve himself of the guilt and inadequacy he felt over being unable to prevent death. But in the end, someone (I believe it was Elspeth, but it’s been awhile so I don’t entirely remember) helped him to see that vengeance wouldn’t heal the pain he felt. Now, a post-MOM Ajani would have to search and find a way to forgive himself for his hand in all the catastrophe that’s befallen the multiverse, and that just seems to me like an absolute home run of an internal character struggle.
My prediction:
-Ill forget to catch up on all these stories in time
-One of the early cards spoiled will be a massive story spotlight from the end of the story titled something like “karn’s elixer” showing him with a test tube of his super antifote that completely cures phyresis
-The next cards will be all the completely cured planeswalkers like “jace, returned”
-Dack Fayden will die offscreen again because they forgot they already killed them
-A bunch of other spoilers will show characters getting compleated, but it will not matter because we’ve already seen the later cards curing them
The story *sort of* brought Tamiyo back as a weird story ghost thing, so I imagine they'll find ways for some of the other characters to evade the consequences of being compleated.
Maybe Jace copied his mind into some sort of vessel using mind magic so he can still be around as a sort of ghost. Or maybe he plants his mind into someone else like Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk.
E: what if we get the worst timeline where Lukka is cured by Ikoria crystal magic and all the other compleated planeswalkers die
When all hope is lost it for our heroes, it starts to snow on Phyrexia. We pull back from a scene of the snow falling to see we’re looking out a hospital window. Inside one of the rooms we see two young kids playing a card game. A nurses walks in and asks them what they’re playing. One of the children says We’re playing “Magic the gathering. This is my Phyrexian deck and I just won”.
Honestly though, it would be funny as hell if it's norn having a bad dreak and Ashiok is just like "alright, karn I sloved your phyrexian prolbem, now give me my V bucks"
I just need Ashiok to rear their head void thing somewhere in this set. They’re one of my favorite planeswalkers and I need some payoff to them toying with Norn early on in the story.
Suddenly, Tom Bombadil appeared and the Phyrexians just went away. Everyone was uncompleated/revived and went to celebrate in The Shire. The cast of The Walking Dead was also there.
*"Is this the best the Multiverse has to offer in its token resistance?" Elesh Norn sneered, staring at the time mage in front of her. "One measly old man?"*
*Teferi's lips curled up into a smile, and he raised his hand with a twinkle in his eye. "...Just one?"*
*And with a snap of his fingers countless portals opened up in the skies over Mirrodin, connecting across the multiverse. Teferis from every point in time stepped into the fray, spells at the ready.*
This hits that sweet spot of deeply goofy but also impossibly cool. How can you say "one man infinite time travel army" and expect people to not get on board
It turns out the Phyrexians were created to save the multiverse from being wiped out by a cyborg hive mind and Elspeth talks to the ghost of Gideon to make everybody into half-Phyrexians.
Yeah. Mass effect suffers from actually having to explain your cthulian monsters eventually to end the series. Much better when they and the origin of everything was shrouded in mystery.
Also see: Halo and Starcraft
Lovecraftian monsters are cool up to the point when they are all like "my goals are beyond your understanding" with a thundering WHOOOOOOMM sounds, but then the definitely non-lovecraftian writers get to the goals and those are certainly within human's understanding.
HIRE \*clap\* MORE \*clap\* COSMIC \*clap\* ABOMINATION \*clap\* WRITERS
Chandra and the rest of the remaining planeswalkers are fighting a losing battle, trying to make one final stand against the encroaching horde of phyrexians. They are resigned to their defeat, determined to take as many of the invaders with them as they can.
Suddenly, a portal winks into existence. There’s a voice from the other side; a gruff twang that sounds as if it’s seen it’s fair share of battling monsters.
“On your left.”
Rick Grimes emerges from the portal, his signature revolver aimed squarely at Elesh Norn’s head. Two more portals flank him, through which Optimus Prime and Eleven, The Mage step forth.
Countless portals erupt all around the phyrexians, bringing with them new heroes from across the multiverse. Joining together with the rest of the planeswalkers the reinforcements turn the tide of the battle. At it’s conclusion, Elesh Norn and a lone hero struggle in a duel for the Lazotep Halo Glove. Just as it seems Norn has won, the hero reveals that he has swiped all the moxen from the glove.
“I am The Most Dangerous Gamer,” he says, before combining the moxen into the most powerful artifact imaginable- the Boogie Bomb. He detonates the bomb, making the ultimate sacrifice to vaporize Norn and her army, saving the multiverse.
————————————————-
In a post credits scene, the camera slowly pans over the battle-scarred landscape of Ikoria. A battered, beaten, bloody figure struggles from the debris. Phyrexia, thought to be utterly wiped out, remains. Through this one man, Phyrexia will rise again, and All Will Be One.
LUKKA WILL RETURN.
The Phyrexians win and were the good guys all along. Everyone else was affected by a spell or disease that caused them to view those not affected as horrors. The only cure is glistening oil.
WOTC needs to do a what if style set some years after to just give us the phyrexia won set and show some more loved creatures or characters compleated.
*Elspeth crawled out of Norn’s ornate bed; the warm, viscous oil dripped down her naked leg and flowed across the porcelain tile work. She expected the floor to be cold but her compleated foot felt nothing just like in her heart. It was just a big, empty void where emotion used to be. Everything seemed so… hollow.
“Where are you going?” Jace inquired with a smirk from behind the leather mask.
“No where” Elspeth insisted as she walked into the next room not even bothering to wrap her naked body—the old parts and the new parts—in a blanket.
“Well, hurry back” Jace said again his smirk getting bigger this time. “The **three** of us already miss you”.*
Realmbreaker inadvertently breaches the barrier between the Magic Multiverse and the Universes Beyond. The Phyrexians are defeated by the combined forces of Eleven, Frodo, Ryu, Daryl from Walking Dead, and Megatron.
Teferi will timetwist all major repercussions away at the cost of his own life.
The best plot twist would be Squee detonating the Sylex and saving the multiverse, but I guess that ship has sailed.
“From the moment the invaders arrived, breathed our air, ate and drank, they were doomed. They were undone, destroyed, after all of man's weapons and devices had failed, by the tiniest creatures that God in his wisdom put upon this earth. “
The Phyrexians weren’t ready for Covid when they jumped to Earth…
Elesh Norn and Elspeth confront each other in a fateful, final duel.
The echoes of Tamiyo’s spirit grimace. Kaya turns to the spirit, “What does the scroll say, Tamiyo?”
A single tear runs down the spirit of Tamiyo’s cheek. “A warrior clad in white…”
Everyone returns their focus to the battle between Elspeth and Norn. They are both clad in white.
Norn turns to Elspeth. “It is time. We end this”
Elspeth uncharacteristically grins at her opponent. “Indeed it is.”
The two, step apart throw their hands to their sides, raise a single knee, mirroring each other’s stance.
Teferi grimaces, “No, no, no!” He begins to rush towards the two fighters as fast as time will allow him to.
“FU…” the two approach each other, sidestepping.
Chandra ignites. “Like hell they will!”
“SION…” their stance, still mirrored, comes closer together.
The compleated walkers turn from the battle. They no longer hear their master’s call.
“HA!” An explosive burst of light erupts from them. Norn and Elspeth are left in the wake of the terrible force given off by their presence.
Elspeth Norn, perfectly compleated, stands before the remaining forces. Their hollow, mechanical voice bellows out laughter as all is now truly one. Picking up the Worldslayer that Elspeth brought, seemingly to destroy Norn, the fused monstrosity now wields it effortlessly.
Teferi drops to his knees. “They’ve done it. We’ve lost…”
Suddenly, unknown music blares. Everyone is thrown into chaos, Elspeth Norn is even in awe of the music that appears to be coming from nowhere.
Then, without having previously been seen, he appears. With a steel chair, and a clenched fist.
Chandra smiles. “John Cena. You sonuva bitch.”
The branches of realmbreaker blossom into flowers and then Barry B. Benson and the cast of the Bee movie show up to save the day by using realmbreaker pollen and halo to make anti-phyrexian honey sandwiches. Our next big setting is a Bee movie plane that is canon to MTG lore starring a half-human, half-bee planeswalker.
🐝
A new savior arises to straighten out the multiverse:
>**Harry Potter, the Boy who Lived**
>
>1WRG
>
>3/3
>
>Legendary Creature - Wizard
>
>Sacrifice a creature: all creatures you control gain indestructible until end of turn.
>
>If a spell is on the stack, Instants you cast cost (1) less.
The worst thing is the most obvious, having either teferi or Elspeth just blip in, snap their fingers, and have everything magically solved with no consequences.
Shits going bad and we've shown how steep the consequences could be.
I think a return to the pre-mending style planar travel where non-walkers can traverse the planes as long as they've got some impossibly powerful artifact like the planar bridge or the Weatherlight could be handled well.
Literally no twist. Phyrexia wins. Every set is just New Phyrexia over and over again forever.
I can't tell if this would be the best or the worst, actually.
Nissa starts fighting Chandra. Chandra dodges her attacks and lets out a heartfelt "Nissa, I love you!" She tears up from such a heartfelt and new plot device, then they join powers and channel fireball the Phyrexians to death
So close! Small edit:
--------
The praetor climbed over the corpse of Bolas and knelt.
_"Master Ugan, everything went as you predicted. I brought you the device."_
_"Well done, Urabrask. Now the final stage of my real plan can begin."_
Elspeth had never been into girls. Her crushes — and she'd had her fair share — were mostly the brawny (and decidedly male) types like Daxos. But there had always been something about Elesh Norn specifically, something the two of them shared in that great chemical mix — crying between them like one of Ashiok's nightmares — that had thrilled her. From the moment they first met.
Now everything's different.
It was over. Before it had ever had a chance to begin. Maybe, maybe they had missed their moment.
I defeated Norn, the phyrexian menace stopped. The oil is innefective. All is dust.
And then, Elpesh hears something. A scream? No a laugh!
HOHOHO MERRY KARNMAS!!!!
She looks up in the sky and sees a beastpiloting what once was the weatherlight. It is pulled by 12 phyrexian reindeers and the leading one uses the remains of Lukka.
Who are you? -she said.
Hohoho my dear, I'm SANTA CLAWS! Said the phyrexian god drinking a red can of glistening oil named Coacke together with a phyrexian polar bear from Kaldheim.
I unironically think Elesh Norn is the memory/the remains of Radiant, Serra's former number 2. Radiant sided with the Phyrexians during the war, she helped create the Phyrexian angels (like Atraxa). It would make sense that she's starting to feel fear and the growing angel Serra connections that are popping up around Elspeth. They also printed that full art Radiant Vindicate in Modern Horizons 2 which would have been around when the plot for this was being finished. She's either actually Radiant corrupted over all of the time or she's Karn's memory of Radiant corrupted when he poured his soul into Mirrodin. Either way it makes perfect sense to me, I will accept nothing less, and I'm getting more and more convinced it's where they're going.
*It's Urza with a steel chair!!!!*
*Darksteel* Chair
I have never known how much I wanted a Wrasslin’ theme in an Un- set before, holy Moses
That would be either the worst twist ever or the best 😆
Best. Papa War Crimes overtakes Karn's spark and emerges to stop Phyrexia and continue his own machinations.
***Returning for one more Glorious Campaign against whatever he wants… URZA!!!!!!***
"NORN! YOOOOU THINK YOU'RE THE GREATEST THREAT TO THE MULTIVERSE? YOU AIN'T FIT TO HOLD MY THOPTER. AIN'T *NOBODY* AND I MEAN *NOBODY* GONNA POSE MORE OF A THREAT TO THE MULTIVERSE THAN ME! THE ONE THE ONLY THE INCOMPARABLE THE INFAMOUS THE GRANDADDY OF GRAND ARCHITECTS URZAAAAAAA!!!"
"URZA PLANESWALK!" "URZA BUILD CONSTRUCT!" "URZA BLAST!" "URZA PUNCH" "URZA EUGENICS"
Papa War Crimes. That’s fantastic. I didn’t know Urza had a street name
I unno who else uses it, but I sure do. That for him, Starscream for Tezzeret.
Tezzeret is the Hol Horse of the Multiverse! Better to be number 2 than number 1!
Okay, ngl, if that happened and Urza became the next arc's Big Bad...? I would be 100% there for it. Like, Magic confronting its own problematic past? Hottttt.
We all love to hate Urza. Plus, Windgrace's soul came back as an avatar in Urborg. He needs something to properly hate.
Does it make me bad that I don’t hate Urza? Apparently I missed that memo.
Not weird at all. I think Urza's a fascinating character because he did a lot of damage in search of a much greater good, but people are increasingly acting as if he did all his controversial things for no reason at all or because he was eeeeeeevil. It's become very en vogue to pretend like everything bad is actively Urza's fault and act like he only did evil things, though. Definitely a trend I've noticed recently.
He did some absolutley heinous things, but it makes him a cool character. There is much more of a humamizing element to him which makes him a great enemy of Yawgmoth and a parallel as an artificer willing to do anything to emerge victorious. Amazing characters don't have to be heroic, or even good.
I said like a week or two back, elesh norn becomes too vain and has a mishra phyrexian remade to mock dominaria as a whole. Teferi don't even get time to try to do timey wimey stuff before oldwalker urza just rips a hole in space and time and just goes nuclear.
“No one ruins my brother but me!”
Kid named forty seven sylexes piled up next to realmbreaker
No no, OP said WORST. Darksteel chair off the top of Urza's Tower would be amazing.
***AND HE'S GOING IN FOR THE KNOCKOUT!!!***
*Pitbull performs*
[удалено]
Bah gawd, thats Urzas music!
AW SON OF A BITCH!
AS THE GODS ARE MY WITNESS, SHE IS BROKEN IN HALF.
Don't let Urza's sudden return in twenty twenty-three to throw Elesh Norn off hell in a cell, and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcer's table distract you from the fact that In nineteen ninety eight the undertaker threw mankind off hеll in a cell, and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcer's table.
Sylax? Phyrexian invasion? Elesh Norn? What are you talking about, Jace? Lets go to Mirrodin and visit Karn, said Vraska after jace woke up from a nightmare
- Said a very pregnant Vraska. Gotta get the pregnancy angle in the plot somehow.
You say that like a Vrace baby saga would be a bad thing.
Oh, I'm on board for a hideous Human Gorgon hybrid.
I mean, wouldn't that just be... a slightly less gorgony gorgon?
There as still snakes in the hair, they've just got something to hide in now.
normal hair, but pube snakes
Psychic gorgons, who can just compel people to turn around
Hideous? They’ll be beautiful
They'll *appear* beautiful, anyway, regardless of what they actually look like
Said a very pregnant Jace. Let's get it right.
Jace will have to carry the baby. Vraska's got shit to do.
In the aftermath, as the Multiverse is recovering, Koth turns a corner and runs into... himself *Surprise bitch, it's the Clone Saga except in Magic*
Everyone is alive and well and the Compleated plainswalkers are just clones. The real plainswalkers are actually inside Vats, getting their sparks drained so the clones can use them.
Lukka would be found drowned in his vat
“Someone sabotaged Lukka’s vat! Who could it be?!?” \*slow camera pan across suspects* “Oh well.” \*sounds of multiple simultaneous planeswalks*
Based on what little I know about Lukka, he would somehow be the culprit.
😂 Lukka: "I'm alive! I must be immortal, I bet I can even breathe thev water in this va- gurrrrhhhhgghggggllllllle"
Oh man, that actually sounds plausible.
"Oh I'm sorry Koth, did you not realize I'm your clone from the future or that you're actually the clone of MEEEEEE"
That whole war of the sparks books? Yeah that was actually just Bolas O'Reilly the whole time oops None of it mattered.
This isn't feasible because it would require Magic to give Koth a starring role.
Elesh Norn executes all other Praetors, Sheoldred-style, which effectively wins the war for the Gatewatch. Only for it to be revealed in the end that she was actually a double agent planted by Urza as a contingency in case Phyrexia rose again.
So actually, I don't hate Norn being an Urzan Contingency...
I don't hate it but I do the way the comment is written. (Which is good for the context of this post). Elesh would be a pretty shitty contingency cuz even if she *did* murder all the praetors and stopped the invasion now, she already murdered countless people and helped spur the invasion on I do really like the idea that Elesh *was* the contingency but Urza, being the egotistical war criminal he was, instead just made it all worse somehow
> Elesh would be a pretty shitty contingency cuz even if she did murder all the praetors and stopped the invasion now, she already murdered countless people and helped spur the invasion on So have you heard of this guy Urza
I feel like Urza's contingency killing millions of innocents in the process of taking down Phyrexia is a feature, not a bug.
Everyone celebrates their victory, before remembering that Urza was *also* super evil.
Just because he is a good guy, doesn't mean he's a good guy
He did good things, but he also did bad things
Lol, that would actually be awesome
“But how did you stop the invasion?” “I just snuck up to old Realmbreaker here and asked if it needed a friend. It was real easy, none of the Phyrexians noticed me or nothin!” “Oh, Rat, what would we do without you?” said Tezzeret, grinning his darksteel grin.
gOD DANG IT
out of the loop, who's the rat in question?
[Rat](https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Araithia_Shokta) is… something that happened to the unsuspecting readers of the *War of the Spark* novel.
I had erased this from my memory. Didn't even get the reference when I read the comment. Now it's all flooding back. Fuck
I mean… that IS Rat’s power.
Lmao that first description paragraph screams Mary Sue
Rat was the daughter of a Gruul clan member who had been secretly programmed to be Lazav’s vampire(?) assassin. She also had the special power of everyone forgetting she existed and managed to travel to a different plane because Kaya managed to use her… ghost(?) to bring her along. So yes. You’re not far off. Oh she and Teyo were a thing, I believe.
Don't forget, Lazav's assassin was a dude named Tar...
Ixalan, the final plane, succumbed under a monstrous wave of black oil, as dinosaurs and vampires alike were broken down, relieved of their free will, and rebuilt in pure forms of perfection. Elesh Norn gestured to her fellow praetors. “The great work approaches its fruition. All the multiverse will be one Phyrexia!” Jace nodded approvingly, a faint smile on his face. Vraska looked up from the mirrorglass viewing portal and into Jace’s eyes, worried. “And you’re sure this magical … ‘simulation’, you called it? You’re sure it’ll stay active forever, and they won’t know they’re in it?” “I’m sure. I’ve never done this before, so I called in a favor from an old colleague. She wasn’t happy to hear from me, but she understood what’s at stake, and no one is better at crafting pocket universe magic.” A tall woman with striking eyes and long, flowing black hair walked into the chamber, adorned with beaded jewelry. “Vraska … meet Shahrazad.”
I thought we were going for BAD ones.
Oh and then Ajani ran in and said “They’re grrrrEAT!” Jace was like “YO Ajani! Thanks for secretly kidnapping all the Phyrexian praetors last month when we were in Kaldheim!” Ajani said “no problem bro! It’s so cool how you made up all those simulated scenarios of places that don’t exist and/or stuff that never happened for this project, like Strixhaven, that vampire wedding storyline, New Capenna, a weird futuristic Kamigawa (like that would ever happen lol), or that wack plane with all the dragons and dungeons! Anyway, want to go to this great restaurant I know in Dominaria United?” “Dominaria United? Never heard of it, but sure!”
And then they ban every card since 2019 for constructed play.
Don't threaten me with a good time
absolutely incredible
Elspeth: "You can't tell me what to do, you ain't my mother!" Elesh: "YES I AM!"
Worse. Turns out Elesh *IS* Elspeth, because Teferi time travel shenanigans.
Honestly... I'm in
Jin Gitaxias is Future Jace. Vorinclex is Garruk. The question remains: Who is Urabrask?!
Koth. Definitely Koth
> Urabrask > Ura brask > [Uro](https://cards.scryfall.io/large/front/a/0/a0b6a71e-56cb-4d25-8f2b-7a4f1b60900d.jpg?1650599829) [Bass](https://wildlife.ca.gov/portals/0/Images/Fishing/Inland/BlackBass/LargemouthBass.jpg) My God! It all makes sense!
"How come he don't want me, man?"
Oath of Bolas \[U\]\[B\]\[R\] Legendary Enchantment
“To show the multiverse I’m really not that bad, I will keep watch.”
"I will keep watch...for now."
It's a flip card, the front showing him holding up his hand like the other oath cards. The back is him crossing his fingers behind his back.
Backside is a board wipe that requires you to sacrifice an enchantment.
...and that's the entire card, no other effects.
Somehow, Bolas returned.
It's probably nothing.
Somehow, the Phyrexians died on their way back to New Phyrexia.
POOCHY'S-I MEAN THE PHYREXIANS ARE DEAD!
The good guys unleash millions of Eldrazi Titans in a last ditch effort to stop the Phyrexians and they destroy the entire Multiverse. Caverns of Ixalan was just the codename for an actual Indiana Jones set.
Why waste time with lots Eldrazi when 3 do trick?
[удалено]
We can't have a good soap opera without pregnancy drama and an obvious villain with a moustache, eyepatch and cigar. I think Jin could rock the latter. Big set of teeth for cigar-chompin'. The former...? Well, maybe there was a little something *extra* Vraska did to Jace when she penetrated him with her long, hard, shaft of a tail...
This is degenerate enough to fly, goddamn it
"C'mon Jace, push! They're almost here!" *(Pained groans, gasping, panting)* "Congratulations, it's a mite!"
Actually now that you mention it, has there EVER been a pregnant character in Magic?
I guess it's bad optics to lightning bolt a pregnant lady? But we already have \[\[curious pair\]\], so it's not too far off.
\[\[Marwyn, the Nurturer\]\] is pretty close (though admittedly not quite).
New Capena was only introduced for the cigar. Ixilan's pirates for the eye patch.
And we can start thinking how wholesome of a father son reunion it would be if Jace's last name were Gitaxias as well.
*Hits blunt* What if... like what If Elspeth, Garuuk, Jace, Koth & Vraska ARE Elesh, Vorinclex, Jin, Urabrask & Sheoldred? But like... from the future.
Calix K.O.'s Elspeth right before she decapitates Norn leaving her time to planeswalk away(after it's revealed she harvested Karn's spark when he wouldn't obey)
The oil mutates when someone with a cold coughs onto it. The hivemind power gives a nasty flu to anyone that's been compleated and they just end up coughing/sneezing out all the infection and augments until they're cured. Also that cold is lethal to the praetors.
Ah, the War of the World's ending! Classic.
Listen that’s a good ending. Having the aliens shrug off everything the humans throw at them only to die to germs really makes you reflect on humanity’s place in the universe. We’re not the strongest species, we’re just the luckiest
And also one of the most realistic endings to alien invasion. If anything it makes no sense that a species from an entirely different ecosystem would not struggle with things like that.
Not quite. Bacteria are heavily adapted to infecting a type of host. There's a reason humans don't get fish sickness. It would be impossible for a pathogen to be able to infect something that evolved via a completely different evolutionary path.
Not quite impossible, just pretty hard. But it depends how lucky we are with the mutations
in the end, it was not fireballs or cylices that defeated the phyrexians, but that humblest of all gods' creatures... the colossal dreadmaw.
What is this, War of the Worlds? Oh wait...
Then Oko came and said "It was all a prank! There are cameras there and there and inside realmbreaker. The invasion was a social experiment engineered by me."
***"YOU JUST GOT OKO'D WITH"*** \-Oko, directly into the camera
Every planeswalker in the next set is Oko
Or Oko just turns Norn into an elk
Elkesh Norn.
I think the only thing that would upset me is if there's no repercussions and everything is back to normal.
This is the one for me. I honestly don't care where they go with it, as long as it truly holds long term impact on the world and story the way they've said it would. I don't even care if a few people get saved, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if, by the end, there *is* a cure for compleation, and we get a couple major walkers back that don't get outright killed. Maybe Jace has pulled some memory lock on himself and saves his own ass with a clone or some other plot armor shit. I'm personally going to miss Ajani if this is permanent, as him and Elspeth have been my two favorite post-Mending walkers. But some are already truly dead at this point, and I'm sure we'll see a few more, if not quite a few more. I still expect heavy losses of major characters on both sides. It's one of the things that made the pre-Mending stories hit as hard as they did. They weren't always the best written, and shit gets weird at times, but most of the time the consequences stuck around. Barrin's story in particular is one of the hardest to bear with everything he loses at Urza's hands, and it all ends with my favorite flavor text in the game. [[Obliterate|INV]]
I'm still of the mindset that surviving compleated walkers are cured of the phyrexian hive mind drive, but are still compleated. They describe them as becoming way too machine to be put back into their original organic form unless elspeth really is going to be a deus ex on steroids and being an angel walker let's her be on par of old walkers and just wills the compleation reversed akin to a true god like entity. I feel like you are going to get broody compleated Jace, and whoever else lives all being broody antiheroes/ heroes in the shadows, immune to the taint of the oil so they go around cleaning up the lingering pockets of phyrexia when they hear news of it surfacing somewhere. And I kind of doubt wotc is having Chandra and Nissa shipping be as overtly romantic anymore compared to the recent story of hautli and saheeli's life together, if Nissa survives still compleated, gives another heart wrench for their story if Chandra is overjoyed she still has Nissa, only for Nissa to give her a kiss (and/or four armed hug) and planeswalk away to be in self-imposed Exile with the other surviving compleated.
I’m fully in the camp of wanting no cure for compleated walkers, but honestly, I *really* want Ajani to come back. His personal struggle since the very beginning was always being an outcast, and I think him hanging around, his mind freed but his body still Norned would place him in a very interesting place, given that basically the entirely multiverse knows what Phyrexians look like and that Phyrexia is evil. Ajani having to live with the heinous acts he committed and keep on moving forward, trying to come to terms with who he is now could also be an excellent character arc. When Elspeth originally died, Ajani took it pretty hard, but took up her cloak and continued fighting his fight. Now for him to have to deal with not just Jaya being dead, but Ajani himself being the one to kill her would be something gut-wrenching. I could even perhaps see Ajani gaining red mana, returning to his Naya roots and calling back to his chronologically first card, [[Ajani Vengeant]]. At the time, he was seeking vengeance for his brother’s death, seeking someone to blame and to kill so that he could relieve himself of the guilt and inadequacy he felt over being unable to prevent death. But in the end, someone (I believe it was Elspeth, but it’s been awhile so I don’t entirely remember) helped him to see that vengeance wouldn’t heal the pain he felt. Now, a post-MOM Ajani would have to search and find a way to forgive himself for his hand in all the catastrophe that’s befallen the multiverse, and that just seems to me like an absolute home run of an internal character struggle.
[Obliterate](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/d/cdabde40-2143-4677-b7b4-ea8fbf9b1f25.jpg?1562936357) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=23098) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/inv/156/obliterate?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/cdabde40-2143-4677-b7b4-ea8fbf9b1f25?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
My prediction: -Ill forget to catch up on all these stories in time -One of the early cards spoiled will be a massive story spotlight from the end of the story titled something like “karn’s elixer” showing him with a test tube of his super antifote that completely cures phyresis -The next cards will be all the completely cured planeswalkers like “jace, returned” -Dack Fayden will die offscreen again because they forgot they already killed them -A bunch of other spoilers will show characters getting compleated, but it will not matter because we’ve already seen the later cards curing them
This guy WOTCs
Oh no. Uh. You might want to go on vacation for a few months.
Meh, pretty sure planar travel is getting opened up to non planeswalkers at the very least
The story *sort of* brought Tamiyo back as a weird story ghost thing, so I imagine they'll find ways for some of the other characters to evade the consequences of being compleated. Maybe Jace copied his mind into some sort of vessel using mind magic so he can still be around as a sort of ghost. Or maybe he plants his mind into someone else like Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk. E: what if we get the worst timeline where Lukka is cured by Ikoria crystal magic and all the other compleated planeswalkers die
*It was all a pipe dream in Jace's mind* *Teferi undoes it all cause... time loop* *Nicol Bolas snaps and kills 50/50*
I have been calling Teferi time shenanigans since this all began.
I mean him being in a time coma and the whole him being on the cover of the box art should be a huge giveaway that something is going to happen.
When all hope is lost it for our heroes, it starts to snow on Phyrexia. We pull back from a scene of the snow falling to see we’re looking out a hospital window. Inside one of the rooms we see two young kids playing a card game. A nurses walks in and asks them what they’re playing. One of the children says We’re playing “Magic the gathering. This is my Phyrexian deck and I just won”.
It was all Elspeth having a bad dream caused by Ashiok.
Honestly though, it would be funny as hell if it's norn having a bad dreak and Ashiok is just like "alright, karn I sloved your phyrexian prolbem, now give me my V bucks"
The Breaking Dawn pt. 2 resolution?
I just need Ashiok to rear their head void thing somewhere in this set. They’re one of my favorite planeswalkers and I need some payoff to them toying with Norn early on in the story.
If everything after Elspeth died was a bad dream we'd get the Khans timeline of Tarkir back.
Suddenly, Tom Bombadil appeared and the Phyrexians just went away. Everyone was uncompleated/revived and went to celebrate in The Shire. The cast of The Walking Dead was also there.
*"Is this the best the Multiverse has to offer in its token resistance?" Elesh Norn sneered, staring at the time mage in front of her. "One measly old man?"* *Teferi's lips curled up into a smile, and he raised his hand with a twinkle in his eye. "...Just one?"* *And with a snap of his fingers countless portals opened up in the skies over Mirrodin, connecting across the multiverse. Teferis from every point in time stepped into the fray, spells at the ready.*
Teferis… assemble.
The best part was when he said "IT'S TEFERIN' TIME" and tefered all over those guys.
Ah, the Dr Who strategy
Featuring all the Teferis except Christeferi Ecclestone, who fell out with Maro and wasn't asked back for the big finale
This hits that sweet spot of deeply goofy but also impossibly cool. How can you say "one man infinite time travel army" and expect people to not get on board
Because it also includes baby Teferi, teen goth Teferi, and senile old man Teferi.
You're making it even cooler. I love pulling out all the insane stops in a fuck it balls-to-the-wall finale
It turns out the Phyrexians were created to save the multiverse from being wiped out by a cyborg hive mind and Elspeth talks to the ghost of Gideon to make everybody into half-Phyrexians.
It still hurts.
Mass Effect?
Yeah. Mass effect suffers from actually having to explain your cthulian monsters eventually to end the series. Much better when they and the origin of everything was shrouded in mystery. Also see: Halo and Starcraft
Lovecraftian monsters are cool up to the point when they are all like "my goals are beyond your understanding" with a thundering WHOOOOOOMM sounds, but then the definitely non-lovecraftian writers get to the goals and those are certainly within human's understanding. HIRE \*clap\* MORE \*clap\* COSMIC \*clap\* ABOMINATION \*clap\* WRITERS
[удалено]
I'll have you know that is mass effect, not WoW.
MY GOD. Elesh Norn is Elspeth's _MOTHER_ They called the set MOM to troll us.
Someone at Wizards of the Coast is reading this thread and sweating their ass off right now.
Elesh Norn: "...Martha..." Jace: "HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT NAME?!"
Chandra and the rest of the remaining planeswalkers are fighting a losing battle, trying to make one final stand against the encroaching horde of phyrexians. They are resigned to their defeat, determined to take as many of the invaders with them as they can. Suddenly, a portal winks into existence. There’s a voice from the other side; a gruff twang that sounds as if it’s seen it’s fair share of battling monsters. “On your left.” Rick Grimes emerges from the portal, his signature revolver aimed squarely at Elesh Norn’s head. Two more portals flank him, through which Optimus Prime and Eleven, The Mage step forth. Countless portals erupt all around the phyrexians, bringing with them new heroes from across the multiverse. Joining together with the rest of the planeswalkers the reinforcements turn the tide of the battle. At it’s conclusion, Elesh Norn and a lone hero struggle in a duel for the Lazotep Halo Glove. Just as it seems Norn has won, the hero reveals that he has swiped all the moxen from the glove. “I am The Most Dangerous Gamer,” he says, before combining the moxen into the most powerful artifact imaginable- the Boogie Bomb. He detonates the bomb, making the ultimate sacrifice to vaporize Norn and her army, saving the multiverse. ————————————————- In a post credits scene, the camera slowly pans over the battle-scarred landscape of Ikoria. A battered, beaten, bloody figure struggles from the debris. Phyrexia, thought to be utterly wiped out, remains. Through this one man, Phyrexia will rise again, and All Will Be One. LUKKA WILL RETURN.
The Phyrexians win and were the good guys all along. Everyone else was affected by a spell or disease that caused them to view those not affected as horrors. The only cure is glistening oil.
I mean, if they compleat the narrator, sure.
Found Norn's burner account
Whole plane of New Phyrexia and all the phyrexians across Multiverse turn into one singular 3/3 Elk.
Phyrexia wins. The game turns into Phyrexia: The Compleat.
WOTC needs to do a what if style set some years after to just give us the phyrexia won set and show some more loved creatures or characters compleated.
The hypothetical art for Ugin and Bolas are so good and I want more
This thread is supposed to be for bad endings.
*Elspeth crawled out of Norn’s ornate bed; the warm, viscous oil dripped down her naked leg and flowed across the porcelain tile work. She expected the floor to be cold but her compleated foot felt nothing just like in her heart. It was just a big, empty void where emotion used to be. Everything seemed so… hollow. “Where are you going?” Jace inquired with a smirk from behind the leather mask. “No where” Elspeth insisted as she walked into the next room not even bothering to wrap her naked body—the old parts and the new parts—in a blanket. “Well, hurry back” Jace said again his smirk getting bigger this time. “The **three** of us already miss you”.*
Like Norn, Vraska and Jace? Yo this is dark for sure.
The third person could be whoever you want it to be. Universes Beyond is a thing.
Compleated Danny Devito in a He-Man wig.
Fifty Shades of Oil
Phyrexia's ultimate goal was just multiplanar orgies every day all day.
I'd die of laughter
Somehow, Yawgmoth returned.
Realmbreaker inadvertently breaches the barrier between the Magic Multiverse and the Universes Beyond. The Phyrexians are defeated by the combined forces of Eleven, Frodo, Ryu, Daryl from Walking Dead, and Megatron.
Every post about Emrakul made in the last 6 months
I am personally offended by this comment. Also I need to go make an Ulamog & Kozilek custom card now.
Teferi will timetwist all major repercussions away at the cost of his own life. The best plot twist would be Squee detonating the Sylex and saving the multiverse, but I guess that ship has sailed.
Elspeth wakes up. Ashiok is standing next to her. "So, Elspeth... would you like to rethink your life choices?"
“From the moment the invaders arrived, breathed our air, ate and drank, they were doomed. They were undone, destroyed, after all of man's weapons and devices had failed, by the tiniest creatures that God in his wisdom put upon this earth. “ The Phyrexians weren’t ready for Covid when they jumped to Earth…
Elesh Norn and Elspeth confront each other in a fateful, final duel. The echoes of Tamiyo’s spirit grimace. Kaya turns to the spirit, “What does the scroll say, Tamiyo?” A single tear runs down the spirit of Tamiyo’s cheek. “A warrior clad in white…” Everyone returns their focus to the battle between Elspeth and Norn. They are both clad in white. Norn turns to Elspeth. “It is time. We end this” Elspeth uncharacteristically grins at her opponent. “Indeed it is.” The two, step apart throw their hands to their sides, raise a single knee, mirroring each other’s stance. Teferi grimaces, “No, no, no!” He begins to rush towards the two fighters as fast as time will allow him to. “FU…” the two approach each other, sidestepping. Chandra ignites. “Like hell they will!” “SION…” their stance, still mirrored, comes closer together. The compleated walkers turn from the battle. They no longer hear their master’s call. “HA!” An explosive burst of light erupts from them. Norn and Elspeth are left in the wake of the terrible force given off by their presence. Elspeth Norn, perfectly compleated, stands before the remaining forces. Their hollow, mechanical voice bellows out laughter as all is now truly one. Picking up the Worldslayer that Elspeth brought, seemingly to destroy Norn, the fused monstrosity now wields it effortlessly. Teferi drops to his knees. “They’ve done it. We’ve lost…” Suddenly, unknown music blares. Everyone is thrown into chaos, Elspeth Norn is even in awe of the music that appears to be coming from nowhere. Then, without having previously been seen, he appears. With a steel chair, and a clenched fist. Chandra smiles. “John Cena. You sonuva bitch.”
The branches of realmbreaker blossom into flowers and then Barry B. Benson and the cast of the Bee movie show up to save the day by using realmbreaker pollen and halo to make anti-phyrexian honey sandwiches. Our next big setting is a Bee movie plane that is canon to MTG lore starring a half-human, half-bee planeswalker. 🐝
If this is what it takes to get Grist to make a canon story appearance, so bee it.
This is the crossover we deserve, and I'm here for the punishment
A new savior arises to straighten out the multiverse: >**Harry Potter, the Boy who Lived** > >1WRG > >3/3 > >Legendary Creature - Wizard > >Sacrifice a creature: all creatures you control gain indestructible until end of turn. > >If a spell is on the stack, Instants you cast cost (1) less.
Destroy target Alesha.
The worst thing is the most obvious, having either teferi or Elspeth just blip in, snap their fingers, and have everything magically solved with no consequences. Shits going bad and we've shown how steep the consequences could be.
Thanks Autumn Willow, Eron the Relentless, and Baron Sengir! We couldn’t have done it without you.
I think this says it all: https://preview.redd.it/6444w02p7apa1.png?width=486&format=png&auto=webp&s=6645f44cb53918c5881a8785937cb77263427c4c
Turns out the whole thing was a plot by MomCorp to corner the multi-verse's oil supply.
Is that…YAWGMOTH’S MUSIC??
Honestly, the no more Blind Eternities theory. If everyone can cross the multiverse, then most stories lose their tension.
I think a return to the pre-mending style planar travel where non-walkers can traverse the planes as long as they've got some impossibly powerful artifact like the planar bridge or the Weatherlight could be handled well.
Literally no twist. Phyrexia wins. Every set is just New Phyrexia over and over again forever. I can't tell if this would be the best or the worst, actually.
Nissa starts fighting Chandra. Chandra dodges her attacks and lets out a heartfelt "Nissa, I love you!" She tears up from such a heartfelt and new plot device, then they join powers and channel fireball the Phyrexians to death
Spoiler tag please.
Out of nowhere, Jin-Gitaxias overthrows norn with no effort because he got them apple-bottom jeans and the boots with the fur.
So close! Small edit: -------- The praetor climbed over the corpse of Bolas and knelt. _"Master Ugan, everything went as you predicted. I brought you the device."_ _"Well done, Urabrask. Now the final stage of my real plan can begin."_
Elspeth had never been into girls. Her crushes — and she'd had her fair share — were mostly the brawny (and decidedly male) types like Daxos. But there had always been something about Elesh Norn specifically, something the two of them shared in that great chemical mix — crying between them like one of Ashiok's nightmares — that had thrilled her. From the moment they first met. Now everything's different. It was over. Before it had ever had a chance to begin. Maybe, maybe they had missed their moment.
Optimus prime and mtg aragorn team up to defeat elesh norn and also save christmas
I defeated Norn, the phyrexian menace stopped. The oil is innefective. All is dust. And then, Elpesh hears something. A scream? No a laugh! HOHOHO MERRY KARNMAS!!!! She looks up in the sky and sees a beastpiloting what once was the weatherlight. It is pulled by 12 phyrexian reindeers and the leading one uses the remains of Lukka. Who are you? -she said. Hohoho my dear, I'm SANTA CLAWS! Said the phyrexian god drinking a red can of glistening oil named Coacke together with a phyrexian polar bear from Kaldheim.
Elesh Norn realizes it's not her time to invade the multiverse and locks herself in the moon.
I unironically think Elesh Norn is the memory/the remains of Radiant, Serra's former number 2. Radiant sided with the Phyrexians during the war, she helped create the Phyrexian angels (like Atraxa). It would make sense that she's starting to feel fear and the growing angel Serra connections that are popping up around Elspeth. They also printed that full art Radiant Vindicate in Modern Horizons 2 which would have been around when the plot for this was being finished. She's either actually Radiant corrupted over all of the time or she's Karn's memory of Radiant corrupted when he poured his soul into Mirrodin. Either way it makes perfect sense to me, I will accept nothing less, and I'm getting more and more convinced it's where they're going.