What Happens in Phyrexia: All Will Be One?

foreign [Applause] I'm Ryan Gomez behind the scenes is Nicole Burdick and we're so glad you're here because it's Story Time phyrexia all will be one brings the gate watch right to the devil's doorstep as they attempt to stop Elish norn from spreading her glistening oil across the Multiverse a lot happens in this set stuff that will have a far-reaching impact on the magic story I am sure and it all builds upon events we have seen in the past year including dominaria United and the brothers War for the sake of keeping this video at a watchable length I have to assume you are already familiar with the sets I just mentioned and if you are not I've got Recaps for them available on this channel so go watch those first if you need to I also want to stress that while I will cover all of the major happenings in the main story and call out the related story Spotlight cards from the set itself I obviously cannot discuss every little detail here and that's what the comment section is for if you've got a favorite moment or a bit I didn't get to mention tell me about it down below with that said get ready to pour one out for some of the game's most iconic characters as I tell you what happens in phyrexia or will be one the story starts with kaito The Wanderer and nihiri arriving on new phyrexia and immediately having problems nihiri explains to a dazed kaito that either the thyrexians knew the Planeswalkers were all coming or they were just a bunch of paranoid monsters but either way they put up some sort of planar Shield that they all slammed into upon arrival this scattered the Strike Team and it's affecting The Wanderer who is having more trouble than usual holding herself on the plane which is our first story Spotlight card planar disruption as a reminder Spotlight cards are cards from the set that have a special identifying line of text across the bottom telling us that these cards depict key moments from the actual story but there are occasionally contradictions we'll say none yet though anyway nihiri fights off a phyrexian creature and suffers only a small scratch in the battle yeah that is as bad as it sounds because an open wound caused by aphyrexian is certainly going to lead to an infection from their glistening oil and that is what will happen to nahiri though she refuses to believe it at least for now with the immediate danger clear the trio decides they need to press on to the furnace layer and try to reunite with the rest of the Strike Team they March through the Monumental facade and come across tyvar who at first attacks them in confusion before laughing It Off by declaring that Heroes always Clash when they first meet I mean he's not wrong a short while later The Wanderer loses her grip on the plane and vanishes which Returns the group to three members who then come across a mirin survivor's encampment they are greeted by malira who confirms cough is waiting for everyone down in the furnace layer so she escorts them down through the mirax if the layout of this plane is confusing to you I've got a video covering all of that too so go watch that one if you haven't already around this time nihiri realizes her wound is now growing a bony protuberance and her blood is looking more and more like oil and she's getting really bad headaches but she decides she's going to carry the group as far as she can and not make them worry about her so she keeps this all to herself while that time bomb continues to tick the story Cuts over to elspeth and her arrival on the plane she is immediately attacked by phyrexians and is about to be overrun when she is saved by Kaya who also happened to crash land nearby elsebeth checks Kaia for wounds and the story makes it clear here that every known cure for phyrexian infection is rare costly or both elsepath even admits that she has Halo but not a lot of it and it hasn't been tested in the field she's not entirely sure it would save Kaia if she was tagged in this first scuffle so elspath is relieved to see Kaya is fine and the two make their way down to the furnace layer where they are meant by cloth cough and elsepath are iconic members of the resistance now reunited after nearly a decade so it's nice to see this captured in another story Spotlight also present is taivar kaito and nahiri and Jace who apparently landed alone and found his way to the Rally Point solo Jace explains that these psychic communication he had established with everyone back on dominaria was destroyed by the planar Shield here on new phyrexia which makes it impossible to really tell if anyone else is still out there or will be able to reach the mirin base camp realizing that there are phyrexian hosts were more prepared for their arrival than they had expected Jace also concludes that they probably don't have as much time as they had hoped and so he is eager to move forward with the plan rather than sit around and wait to see if anyone else shows up that plan by the way is to activate the filigree Silex which they believe will destroy realm breaker before the phyrexians can use it to pierce the Blind eternities and Grant themselves interplanar travel malira is conflicted she wants to save Meriden and is willing to do whatever it takes but she fears the Silex will destroy the whole plane along with the realm breaker tree and Jace is unable to promise her that won't he can only tell her that based on what they know from their own experiences and what they know about the structure of new phyrexia and the relative location of Realm breaker down in the seed core the plane should be able to survive the Silex this is good enough for malira who then offers up hex gold to whoever can make use of it this is a rare metal that offers some protection against phyrexian infection but it does not make you immune it only buys you some time kaito uses some hex gold to coat his sword and even himoto His companion drone while tivar takes a piece to carry with him holding it will allow him to transmute his body into hex gold at least for as long as his Mana holds out meanwhile malira corners nihiri and confronts her about the wound malira explains that she can probably still cure nahiri but the process will leave the Planeswalker incapacitated for days malira asks if the rest of the team can complete this Mission without her and nahiri says they cannot so she is going to tough it out and if she survives the battle ahead malira will then attempt to heal her after with everyone ready to go Malera explains that they will use a prepared shortcut to bypass the hunter Maze and the surgical Bay and land right in the dross pits from there they will have to make their way down through the Basilica where hopefully Ellis Nord and her forces will be distracted by Era brask and his Rebellion because otherwise they're all Dead on Arrival so koth malira and the Planeswalkers take a little mine cart ride down to the dross pits where they are told the very air here will kill you if you breathe it in for too long it won't turn you into a phyrexian though it's just straight up regular toxic hooray for small miracles I guess else Beth decides this is the time to break out the Halo and she opens a bag containing a few vials of the precious liquid everyone in the group does their shot and then Jace falls to the ground convulsing after a few frantic moments he gets back up and tries to walk off away from the group he is stopped by tivar who asks Jace where he thinks he's going and Jace says the Halo cleared his head enough that he was able to hear vraska somewhere nearby and in a lot of pain so now Jace is dead set on finding and rescuing vraska and even offers to go do it himself except nihiri points out he's the one carrying the Silex which they still need to complete this Mission we are now playing Resident Evil 4 escorting Ashley through zombie infested territory because the group decides to follow Jace and hopefully add vraska back to their team rather than have Jace hand over the Silex and then get lost in the dross pits alone thankfully Aura brass ER brasks is her brasks Rebel forces have started their own Insurrection and elsepath watches in horror as creatures she recognizes as being former miron's Slaughter each other all around her this provides enough distraction for the Planeswalkers that they are able to follow Jace as he zeros in on veraska's Psychic cry for help she is of course waiting in shieldridge Coliseum badly wounded and surrounded by dead mirins and petrified phyrexians with more on the way Jace charges ahead eager to rescue his love and trusting his own illusion magic to keep himself invisible to the arena full of phyrexians while every other planeswalker curses under their breath and realizes how profoundly screwed up this is nihiri tells Kaya to stay back since she is the only replacement they have for Jace if he should fall here remember Kaya sort of knows how the Silex works because she was connected to to fairy when he learned about it through the temporal anchor which does make her valuable to this Mission everyone else rolls up their sleeves and fights their way to veraska who then tells Jace it is too late and she is sorry for signaling him because now she feels guilty he's actually here Jace says don't worry about it we've got malira and Halo we can fix you and malira is like yeah actually no she's she's pretty far gone dude nothing even I can do is gonna help at this point nihiri offers brasca a mercy killing so she doesn't have to endure being turned into a phyrexian and Jace says absolutely not he wants to spend every possible moment he can with his Queen Kaya says hey that's your choice stay as long as you want but you're not staying with the Silex so she grabs that and then all the other Planeswalkers Run for the exit veraska begs Jace to leave too but he won't hear it instead he uses his powers to create an illusion it's Ravnica on a perfect day the two take in all of the sights and imagine what their life could have been like together if only the Multiverse had been a little Kinder it's a very sweet moment but it is suddenly interrupted by veraska stabbing Jace the illusion breaks and Jason realizes he can't ignore the reality of the situation any longer he is now infected too and veraska says for the glory of phyrexia still smiling as she was within the illusion she laughs as he runs and tries to reconnect with the others who were in the process of turning around and coming back into the arena turns out there were far too many phyrexians piled up waiting for them outside and they were unable to make any progress that way farraska is still doing her evil laugh as the group realizes they're all about to die here when nihiri says the mission only goes forward if we move on so you're all moving on hold on to something she uses her considerable lithomancer powers to create a story Spotlight and force the Coliseum itself down into the ground puncturing the floor of the dros pits and ripping through the ceiling of the Basilica just below there is a jarring crash as everything fall falls into the next layer and when the dust settles nihiri and veraska are gone but everyone else is more or less alive and intact else Beth landed on the Satchel that was carrying the last of their Halo and she discovers her fall crushed all of the bottles and there is nothing left nevertheless the group knows they cannot let nahiri's sacrifice go to waste and so they picked themselves up and head out they talk as they walk each observing different Horrors here in Elish norn's stronghold and they discuss their chances of success now that they've lost nahiri and are likely soon going to lose Jace who has convinced Kaya to give him back the Silex because he really wants to be the one to set it off now that this battle with the firexians is personal this is the closest I'll ever come to identifying with Jace actually anyway Milira describes what she has seen of Realm breaker she's the only one who's been able to get close to it without dying and tivar confirms that the reason the branches look like they are under water to her is because they are opening Omen paths which we know are passageways that can connect different planes eventually the group reaches Ellis noran's throne room but it is empty it seems everyone is focused on the battle raging overhead where uribrascus's forces are still providing a massive distraction and giving the Planeswalkers a chance to do their thing the throne room has a Stairway down to the mycosynth gardens and so everyone keeps moving eager to get this over with finally they come to a sort of living tunnel covered in I'll just say gross stuff but it's all dripping with oil they decide they have to pass through it and so tivar uses his transmutation powers to briefly turn everyone into living hex gold as they pass through the tunnel and then kaito uses his telekinesis to remove any residual glistening oil before tyvar's magic runs out it's a neat way to combine their abilities and keep things feeling magic as we move into the final sphere the seed core where tivar is awestruck at the phyrexian version of his beloved world tree cough notes that there are Invasion ships already parked in the upper branches which means the phyrexians are dangerously close to accessing the Multiverse the group makes a Mad Dash for the base of the tree but as they run there is a blinding flash of rainbow lights and they realize they are too late the tree has pierced the Blind eternities and The Invasion has begun tivar refuses to accept defeat and convinces the group they might still be able to do something to stop this Jace agrees but says whatever it is it's gotta be fast so they resume their run to the tree at the base of the tree is a small opening which leads into a room with in the tree's massive trunk and inside there we find the dismembered pieces of corn karn's head is surprised to see everyone but tells them it's too late especially because the Silex was already destroyed thinking of the one back on dominaria elspeth tells Karen they have another and they think they can still end this but they're not sure how Karn instructs them to take their Silex down into the root system of the tree and fortunately this room has another opening that leads there so the Planeswalkers go while cough and malira stay behind with Karn on their way to the roots the group is stopped by Ajani and tibult Ajani is wearing armor of white porcelain that appears to be growing out of his own body and he is delighted to see his old friend elspeth who he casually invites to join the glory of phyrexia tibult has also been made complete right down to his little devil tale which is now split in two all the way to the base and is tipped with a pair of wicked looking Stingers else Beth and tivar square off to face their respective foes and tivar commands kaito to get Jason Kaya safely to the roots of the tree with the Silex or this will all be for nothing to his credit kaito does get Kaya and Jace to their target even as Jace's Stab Wound is starting to fill up with wires and drip oil Jace calmly unpacks the Silex and sits down among the roots of round breaker when Kaya tells him to stop for a second and think about what they're doing her concern is that the tree has already pierced the Blind eternities and thus the shock wave from detonating the Silex could travel into other planes and have unforeseen consequences she even reminds Jace that the original Silex used by urza went so far as to break time game itself so there's really no telling what happens if they use it here now plugged into so many worlds at once Jace figures it doesn't really matter if the tree has already connected to those worlds then so have the firexians and thus those worlds are pretty much forfeit no matter what they do so they might as well take out the tree and as much of the invasion Army as they can while it's right here in front of them kaito realizes Jace is talking about sacrificing everything including kamagawa which might not even be infected yet and that doesn't sit well with him Jace says look I would love to spend all day explaining to you how we don't need to be heroes here just saviors but we are out of time every moment we talk I get closer to becoming a phyrexian myself and you guys do not want to face me like that which I think is a bit of a bluff but sometimes Jace does pull off some Stone Cold moves like making people forget how to breathe so I guess it is possible he could eliminate both Kaya and kaito himself anyway kayab still likes her odds she pulls out her glowing purple daggers and kaito stands beside her saying he cannot let Jace destroy kamagawa Jace says very well then and sets the Silex down and stands up to face his former allies the story Cuts back and forth between the outside battle with Ajani elsebeth tyvar and tibult and the inside battle with Jace kaito and Kaya just to keep things dramatic and suspenseful for a little while eventually though tyvar gets his hands on tibbles tails and uses them to skewer tibble and then toss him off a bridge else Beth lands a solid hit on the back of ajani's neck with the hilt of her sword which knocks the big cat out but doesn't kill him elspeth then runs off to join Jace and the others so the story jumps back to them Jace has used his Illusions to distract Kaya and kaito while he triggered the Silex he fills the supremely powerful magical artifact with all of his grief and fury he thinks of the suffering and Agony of miradin he thinks of his love for veraska he thinks of his regret for the entire Multiverse and he lets it all flow into the bowl thick as honey he even repeats the same phrase urza used with the original Silex wipe the land clear bring the ending at that moment else Beth enters the room and realizes what is happening in one Swift move she plunges her sword through Jace and takes the Silex into her own hands before planes walking away now the story says she went to quote some unknown destination some point beyond the blind eternities but the story Spotlight card makes it sound like she went into the eternities itself what's the difference well if she took the psilex to a plane then that plane could still be destroyed or changed but if she took it to the space between planes it's possible nothing would happen or maybe she's dead now the story doesn't really tell us and the card's language makes it even more unclear so leave your speculations down in the comments Tiger shows up and Kyle laments that the Silex has gone elsepath is gone The Invasion has begun and they have lost so just when it seems things can't get worse a door opens and in steps Ella schnorn with an honor guard of phyrexians she invites the three remaining Planeswalkers to join her as Jace's body stands back up and shambles over to her side Kaya kaito and taivar each give her a colorful reply and Ellis noran says well why not we've already got so many of your friends here that's when tamio steps forward followed by nahiri and finally Nissa yeah Nissa got completed in one of the Side Stories which I will cover in a separate video but that does add to the shock value of her appearing here surrounded by her loyal pets Ellis noran confidently declares all will be won but if these three would rather be enemies so be it the Prater gives this signal to attack and that's where it ends to recap a planeswalker Strike Team arrives on new phyrexia but the plane is ready for them and their Landings are scattered most managed to find their way to the rally point but some suffer wounds they press deeper and deeper into the layered spheres of the plane with Jace taking a detour to rescue veraska and nahiri sacrificing herself to move the group forward they encounter Karn and Ajani and tibult and debate the merits of using the Silex after realizing they are already too late to stop the phyrexian invasion of the Multiverse else Beth jumps on the grenade that is the lit Style LX Jace Falls and joins Nissa tamio and nahiri at the right hand of Ella schnorn and kaito Kaya and taivar Are All That Remains of the failed Strike Team as things Fade to Black and that's it that's what happens in phyrexia or will be one now that you know all the major beats we can get on with the fun stuff in a little segment I like to call mustache minute ready here we go let's talk Spotlight cards most of them lined up pretty well with the events from the story but there was one I couldn't place and that is urbresque's Forge we never actually go there in the story and the card has no flavor text or anything to justify it being a spotlight card as far as I can tell this is just supposed to represent era brask joining the rebellion and creating the distraction necessary for Our Heroes to sneak through the Basilica also I didn't get to talk about it earlier but urabrasque wasn't entirely alone in that ploy a few of the black thins including shieldrid actually sided with urabrasque and against Ella schnorn the thanes are already known for infighting and it seems like at least some of them figure they stand a better chance at being in full control if they oppose Elish norn there are plenty of other named legendary cards in the set who do not appear in the story but a few do at least get name dropped that includes thrun a troll who gets credited for creating a tunnel used by the Planeswalkers even though he himself is never seen and attraxa who guards the Basilica but is busy fighting urabras's forces and thus never engages with the gate watch we never see any of the horrors from the Dominus cycle and perhaps most curiously we never cross paths with vencer which seems like a missed opportunity since he would have changed the meaning of the resistance's reunion considerably despite that there was a lot I liked about this story starting with the overall tone things feel dire right from the first paragraph of the first chapter the world itself feels alien and threatening kaito almost gets killed by sand on page one and things only get more dangerous from there I had a I had a lump in my throat the entire time I was reading because I knew bad things were gonna happen and the main characters would be powerless to stop it now some of that might be thanks to how previews were handled and we were already told a handful of Planeswalkers would get completed but some of it I still attribute to the writing which delivered a story full of intense moments however fitting the main story into just five chapters forced the creative team to make some questionable decisions about what to spin off into the five Side Stories Nissa and Luca both fall to the phyrexians in one such story and The Wanderer reappears here trying to catch up with kaito and the rest of the Strike Team which is an odd mix of major events and feels like it deserves to be part of the main thread I am also somewhat unsatisfied with the conclusion of the main story because there are several things left unresolved now I know what a cliffhanger is everyone I majored in Communications and took many classes on script writing and storytelling but things like cough and Malera being left in a room with Karen and we have no idea what happened to them that's bad elspeth grabbing the Silex and just Vanishing that's also bad saving reveals like this for March of the machine doesn't leave me in suspense it's just annoying let me compare it to The Empire Strikes Back which ends on a similar note right the good guys lose Han is frozen Luke is shocked to learn Darth Vader as his father and he suffers the loss of his hand we don't know how our heroes can recover from this but the movie still ends with a plan we know where everyone is even if we don't know their status Chewie and Lando are going to take the Falcon Luke will meet up with them on Tatooine and we as the audience aren't sure of their chances but we at least know what to expect from the next chapter of the story phyrexia all will be one doesn't really give us that it just kind of freezes with else Beth and cough in limbo and our heroes in a locked room with the big bad that is the kind of thing that happens in a Saturday morning cartoon right before the commercial break not at the end of the middle set of your massive story arc overall though I was still pretty happy with things I just just wish they managed to stick that Landing it's interesting that by moving Nissa to a Side Story we get Jace as the only member of the original gate watch on the Strike Team I have to wonder if Liliana or Chandra being there would have changed his rescue attempt with veraska or if he was so blinded by love at that point that it wouldn't have mattered oh and World building wise I've got two interesting bits here I want to highlight first at one point Kaya and kaito are talking about the lack of spirits Kaya figures with so Much Death on this plane the air should be thick with ghosts or something and looking at realm breaker kaito says back on kamagawa we've got a big tree kind of like this but it lives in harmony with everything around it and it is a home to Spirits as well so they are struck by the sterile nature of the phyrexian landscape and conclude that the phyrexian process is so thorough that it leaves nothing behind not even your spirit the second bit comes from one of the Side Stories which I will discuss in full in another video but I want to touch on it here it involves tesseret reflecting on how tamio had most of her internal organs removed during surgery this is further supported in the main story by Ajani because his entire outer flesh seems to have grown into bony armor plates leaving very little of his original body I bring these things up because some people have speculated it would be possible to save the completed Planeswalkers and return them to their original states to me the story seems to be reiterating that this is not possible the physical bodies are dramatically changed in most cases they have been almost or entirely replaced with synthetic Parts not only are the original bodies modified beyond the ability to heal back to normal even if you could it would be an empty shell without phyrexine oil coursing through the person they would have nothing left to animate them their Spirit seems to be gone I don't think there are any miracle cures coming in the final chapters of this story malira repeatedly says even her best efforts don't always work elspath was on the verge of tears when she realized the last of their Halo Supply had leaked out of the crushed vials so all we can do is wait and see but in the meantime let me ask you this do you understand the story for phyrexia all will be one did the spotlight cards do a good job of capturing the major events including things like shieldrid and uribrasque launching an attack against ellish norn together are you left with a feeling of suspense as you try to anticipate what will happen in March of the machine or are you frustrated by the lack of answers regarding characters like else Beth and cough let me know down in the comments and 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 [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: Magic Arcanum

Views: 192,845

Keywords: Magic The Gathering, Story, Lore, Phyrexian, Elesh Norn, compleat

Id: cYYEVzIUENc

Length: 31min 30sec (1890 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 03 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Tangolino]

Sharing their new set story video.

They do a great job explaining/summarizing the story.

[u/Jordens21]

Before he had mentioned it, I hadn't realised Venser wasn't featured in the story at all, quite a big missed opportunity.