Welcome to Magic Arcanum! I’m Ryan Gomez, behind the scenes is Nicole
Burdick, and we’re so glad you’re here because it’s Story Time! Magic: The Gathering has a massive story that
connects the game’s iconic characters, locations, and events, through special spotlight cards. Since their introduction in 2016, we’ve
gotten over two hundred and thirty such cards, with most standard sets containing just a
few, but some have had an…uncomfortable amount. As we prepare to Open the Way and explore
the next era of Magic’s story in a multiverse connected by omenpaths, I thought this would
be a great time to look back, and pick my top ten favorite spotlight cards to date. And, the absolute best of the bunch will get
a place of honor within one of my new Frameamajigs. These are THE framing solution for your collectible
cards, with gorgeous solid wood construction and no moving parts - just a magnetic case
that offers protection from fingerprints, scratches, and even UV light. Cards slot in and out at the top of the frame,
which allows you to quickly and easily mix and match cards, and they’re compatible
with just about everything, including Pokemon, Magic, Battle Spirits Saga, you get the idea. The kickstarter for Frameamajigs is running
until June 29th. Use my link below to check it out and order
yours today. There are some really vibrant colors waiting
to be unlocked as stretch goals, so if you’ve ever wanted to curate your own perfect mini
museum of Magic, now is your chance. Big thanks to Framamajigs for sponsoring this
video. I’m going to keep them in mind as I look
for the perfect story spotlight card to display here in my studio, and I encourage you all
to do the same. The very first set to have story spotlight
cards was Kaladesh, and among them, you’ll find my number ten pick, Captured by the Consulate. This white enchantment shows us how low the
oppressive consulate will go, as they capture Pia Nalaar to the delight of Tezzeret. It manages to fit a lot of named characters
or agencies into one card, and gameplay wise, you can use it to turn your opponent’s best
creature into a hostage, which kinda matches up with what happens in the story. Most planeswalkers don’t have family, at
least that we often hear about, so bringing us to Chandra’s birthplace and making the
story mostly about her mother was a nice way to mix things up, and establish how spotlight
cards could be used to, well, spotlight supporting characters. My number nine favorite takes us to Theros,
when Elspeth went beyond death and escaped her own fate. Calix was created to chase her down, as seen
in the spotlight card Relentless Pursuit. Theros Beyond Death suffered the awkward absence
of a written story, and so the spotlights had to do a lot to introduce new characters,
like Calix, and tell us what they wanted, and what they were willing to do to get it. This green sorcery could be played in a deck
along with the new planeswalker himself, and even though it only finds lands and creatures
from among the top four cards of your deck, that’s not a problem when you’ve got an
abundance of creatures that are also enchantments to work with Calix. Over on Dominaria, we find my number eight
spotlight, which is Temporary Lockdown. The phyrexians have once again come to the
plane, and are making great use of their sleeper agents to infiltrate and destabilize the coalition
forces on a large scale, but this chapter of the story has a much more intimate focus,
as a small group of allies are locked in a tower with a single phyrexian threat. It’s a tense moment that reminds me of The
Thing, and the card’s art captures that claustrophobic feeling you’d get from being
sealed inside a building with something terrible lurking in the shadows. Favorite Spotlight number 7 is The Elderspell,
from the massive War of the Spark storyline. That set had almost thirty spotlight cards,
and I really loved the scale of this whole event. You’ve got planeswalkers, drawn from all
corners of the multiverse, held against their will so their sparks can be harvested by Nicol
Bolas and his army of Eternals. It was hard to limit myself to just one pick
here, but I went with The Elderspell because it is as brutal as a card as it was in the
story. For just two mana you don’t remove one planeswalker,
but any number of them, and add to the loyalty of one of your own. Being a sorcery makes it a little slow, I
admit, but I am amazed this card sees almost no play in constructed formats, given how
powerful it is. I mean, Oathbreaker is an officially recognized
format now, and this seems like a perfect flavor fit for a Nicol Bolas Dragon God deck. Destroy their planeswalkers, and get yourself
that much closer to resolving a game-winning ultimate. OR step on the rake that is Jace’s third
counterspell. ANYWAY. For number six, it’s off to Kaldheim, where
tricky Tibalt has Opened the Omenpaths. Not to be confused with the omenpaths dotting
the landscape of the multiverse now, no, these omenpaths had a more specific and sinister
focus. Tibalt stole the Tyrite sword and used it
to slice his way across the various realms of Kaldheim, intending to trigger a doomskar,
before being stopped by Kaya and Tyvar. Open the Omenpaths captures the danger of
Tibalt’s actions with this swirling, unsettling ring of serpents, and the devilish planeswalker
is standing at the center, cradling his stolen magical sword, delighted to see the rip in
the sky before him. Gameplay wise, this card offers two seemingly
harmless options, but they are deceptively powerful. Turning three mana into four can allow you
to jump ahead on the board, or if you’re already ahead there, giving your team plus
one power can be just enough to ruin combat math for your opponent. It was a moment where Tibalt started to change
the fate of a whole plane, and the card could change the direction of a whole game, which
is why I really like this one. Fifth place takes us back to Ravnica and the
War of the Spark, to the moment Gideon Sacrificed himself to save fellow gatewatch member Liliana. This would go on to shape Liliana’s character
development for years, and the loss of Gideon would also greatly affect Chandra, Nissa,
and Jace, as they struggled to find their way without a group leader. It’s a bit cheesy in the “friendship defeats
true evil” kind of way, but it’s a great representation of white’s philosophy within
the color pie, and I like how the card mirrors the story by letting you throw all your lethal
damage onto one creature or planeswalker, allowing you to live to see another day. Urza’s Sylex is my number four favorite
spotlight card. This supremely powerful magical artifact has
been represented a few times in the game’s history, but this version from The Brothers
War most closely matches with what we’re told it can do in the story. It will wipe the land clear, leaving everyone
with just a few scant resources remaining, and, you can even use it to ignite the spark
of a planeswalker hiding somewhere in your deck and bring them to your hand. It’s named after one of the game’s most
iconic characters and using it echos one of the most destructive events they were ever
involved in. That’s a lot of flavor packed into three
colorless mana. My next favorite spotlight card almost feels
like cheating, because it’s really two cards, not one, and that’s Extus, and Awaken the
Blood Avatar. Extus was the main villain of the Strixhaven
set. He was a former student of the school, who
became obsessed with destroying it, and decided to awaken an ancient evil and unleash it on
the unsuspecting campus. So we get a card with both. The front half is Extus as a legendary creature,
with a pretty strong magecraft trigger that gets your defeated creatures back from the
graveyard, and the back side is a sorcery that is cheaper to cast the more you’re
willing to sacrifice. The Blood Avatar token it creates is also
pretty cool, as a three-six that does an additional three damage to each opponent when it attacks. Magic has had double-faced cards for a while,
and technically Ixalan had the first spotlight card to use this technology, but I like this
one better, because it gives us a new legendary creature and shows us what they’re after
in the story, while letting us pick where we want to jump in on that narrative arc. And, I gotta say, this one would look great
in a Framamajig, because it’s double-sided, and so is the frame, which means you can enjoy
the whole story any time you like. The number two spot goes to Hour of Devastation,
a card that carries the name of its own set, and accurately represents what happens to
the Gatewatch when they go up against Nicol Bolas on his home turf. A board wipe that calls out non-Bolas planeswalkers? It even removes indestructible, so it works
against gods that dare stand in your way? This is one of my favorite cards in my Amonkhet
themed commander deck, where it performs vital gameplay functions while being a celebration
of the elder dragon we all know and love. And that brings me to my number one pick among
story spotlights - Broken Bond, from Dominaria. Ryan Yee is my favorite Magic artist and while
his portfolio might not be as big as some others, every one of his pieces has this ethereal
quality to it that just draws me right in. Broken Bond is no different. Nissa is feeling terrible, having just suffered
a crushing defeat at the hands of Nicol Bolas, but also, she was lied to by Liliana, who
she thought was her friend. This betrayal forces her to reevaluate what’s
important to her, and she decides to leave the gatewatch, and return home to Zendikar,
where she’ll feel appreciated, and certainly won’t be hurt by her allies again. There are a lot of subtle mechanical underpinnings
to this card. It destroys artifacts or enchantments, which
is iconic to green’s position in the color pie, and matches Nissa’s desire to do away
with aritice in that moment of the story. She wants to return to something real and
trustworthy. Then, we’ve got the ability to put a land
into play, which enables landfall, the signature mechanic of Zendikar, where Nissa intends
to go. This reminds us that she’s not changing
as a character, so much as her outlook on the rest of the world is being influenced
by what she just experienced on Amonkhet. Oftentimes in superhero stories, the good
guys never lose. And even when they do, they usually bounce
right back, ready to try again. So to see the Gatewatch not only suffer a
loss against Nicol Bolas, but to then see that have a ripple effect on the team itself
was actually pretty cool. Of course Nissa would be upset with Liliana,
and of course she’d rather return home than help chase down yet another demon here on
Dominaria. She was done being exploited, and she wisely
separated herself from the team, even if it ended up being temporary. It was a bold moment for the story, featuring
a character I’ve really enjoyed seeing grow over the years, illustrated by my favorite
artist in the game. That makes it my number one story spotlight
card, and the perfect one to slot into a frameamajig, and place on my desk right here in the Arcanum
studio. Remember, you’ve got until June 29 to join
the Kickstarter using my link down below and order these for yourself. They’re a great way to show off your favorite
cards from your favorite games, and I’d love to hear what you’re planning to put
in yours. Maybe you have a legend you want to display? Or a series of basic lands from a plane you
wish you could visit? Or something signed by your favorite content
creator? Let me know down in the comments, then make
sure you like this video and subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss the great
stories you’ll only find here on Magic Arcanum. We’ll see ya!
