Thread by @JasonVorthos

25 years of Phyrexia machinations

In the following thread, I will go through the story of #Phyrexia set by set.

Buckle up and sit tight.

#Vorthos
#MtgDom

The first mention of Urza and Mishra was in Alpha on these 3 cards.

When Alpha and Beta sold out, WOTC needed new sets quickly. They made Antiquities in less than 6 month with the Brother's War and Phyrexia as the story

In Antiquities, Mishra and Urza are two brother who dig ancient Thran artifacts to wage war against each other.

The Phyrexian enter the scene as the black faction who play the two Brothers against each other to have the portal open and invade Dominaria.
#mtgdom #vorthos

The war destroy the lands of Terisiare and Argoth.

Drafna and Hurkyl discover Magic and founded the school of Lat-Nam to oppose the two Brothers.

Urza discover they were played by the Phyrexians and use the Golgothian Sylex to destroy everything and close Dominaria

There are no mention of Phyrexia in Fallen Empires set, but they mention the coming Ice Age caused by the Sylex blast in multiple cards.

The cooling of the climate is the main cause of the infighting that destroy these empires.

Later in The Dark, the Church of Tal control Terisiare and blame magic for the devastation of the Antiquities. Wizards are hunted down by the church.

The school of Lat Nam became the City of Shadow and hide wizards.

The Conclave of Mage founded by Ith is another hidden place.

Thousand of years later, the #IceAge cover Dominaria.

In the city of Soldev, Arcum Dagsson dig the ice for ancient artifacts of the Antiquities and find a way to end the Ice Age.

Sorin Relicbane, a fellow Soldevi, warn him that these artifacts will bring destruction again.

In #Alliance, the glaciers start to melt, enabling Arcum and his Soldevi to dig deeper and find Phyrexians artifacts.

Some Soldevi turn into a cult of Phyrexia and become Soldevi Adnate, similar to the old Yawgmoth Priest.

Sorin Relicbane was right all along.

While the Adnatea try to open up the portal to Phyrexia, the machines destroy the city of Soldev.

But the mages of Lat Nam, now known as the School of the Unseen, send their best student Jaya Ballard, who stop the Phyrexians with her witty flavor texts.

After the end of the Ice Age, we move to the Jamuraa continent, with the Mirage set.

Phyrexia is mentionned in the Afari Tales, the folklore of Zhalfir.

The evil sorcerer Karvek seem to have made some deals with them

We also get a look inside Phyrexia

#mtgdom
#vorthos

In Visions, we get two other look inside the plane of Phyrexia, but they don't seem to have any relations on the Visions story.

The terrible tales Kasib Ibn Naji talk about are similar to Jarsyl Diary (see Gate to Phyrexia in Antiquities.)

As for the 4 Chimeras in Visions, they don't have any background story, but they clearly look like something Urza or Mishra would have done from ancient Thran or Phyrexian design.

Notice how you can assemble them together like a voltron.

In the set Weatherlight, we follow the skyship Weatherlight, build by Urza, from ancient Thran blueprints.

The captain Sisay have to assemble #UrzaLegacy, to fight the coming Phyrexian invasion, but Sisay get abducted by Yawgmoth minions, who bring her to the plane of Rath.

In Tempest, the crew travel on their planewalking ship to Rath, searching for Sisay.

Rath is a strange expanding artificial plane made from flowstones.

Flowstone are Phyrexian nanotechnologies fueled by mana.

It seem to be pouring from a central location; the Stronghold

En route to the Stronghold, the Weatherlight is attacked by the Predator, a Phyrexian skyship commanded by Graven Il Vec. Graven is the henchmen of Volrath, the evincar of Rath, meaning the master of flowstone manipulation.

The crew also get captured or scattered in the wild

Sidenote; Tempest have awesome side-story on cards like when the Predator second in command, Vhati-Il-Dal, try to kill Greven during the fighting against Weatherlight to take his place.

In Tempest, we see that Volrath use multiple Phyrexians artifacts. Mostly surgical tools used for compleation.

Greven is punished with a new spine for his failure of capturing the Weatherlight ship and its Legacy artifacts.

#vorthos

In Stronghold, the crew of the Weatherlight get in Volrath's Stronghold, beat a Lantern deck, save the crews and discover Phyrexian invasion plan; Yawgmoth created the plane of Rath with flowstone to transpose over Dominaria, carrying its armies directly into the field.

#mtgDom

In Exodus, they get Sisay and Karn back, speed away escaping. Volrath send flowstone after them. The Weatherlight is able to go back to Dominaria with the help of an unexpected ally.

Back in the day, we were like; OH MY GOD, THIS IS URZA??? (first depiction of him)

In Urza Saga, we go 4000 years back in time to the Brothers War.

Urza & Mishra fight for the control of Argoth. The elves and druids of that island fight the two brothers invading force.

In the final, Urza discover that Mishra was corrupted by the Phyrexians.
#mtgdom
#vorthos

To avenge his brother and protect Dominaria, Urza get a Tawnos armor and planewalk to Phyrexia to search and kill Yawgmoth...

We get cool depiction of what the plane of #Phyrexia look like.
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In this travel, Urza meet Xantcha, a vat-grown Phyrexian sleeper-agent, who was casted out by Yawgmoth for being defective.

She join force with Urza

Phyrexia turn out to be to much of a chew even for mighty Urza.

Anything he destroy on his way just come back to block him.

He get owned and barely escape alive, if it was not of Xantcha helping him planewalk away.

Urza escape to Serra's Realm, a white-mana artificial plane created by the Planewalker Serra.
He his so badly hurt that he have to stay there 5 years to recover.

He did not know the Phyrexians followed him here, corrupting the plane.

#mtgdom #vorthos

Urza conclude the only way to stop Yawgmoth is to go back in time, to the Thran era, and stop him there.

Urza return to Dominaria, build the Tolarian Academy, to train students in magic, Teferi and Jhoira among other, and build Karn, a time-traveling probe
#mtgdom #vorthos

Urza make some experiments by sending Karn in time. They find out it has some disturbing side effect.

Meanwhile, Kerrick, a Phyrexian sleeper agent summon negators in the academy and kill students.

Urza send Karn back in time to kill Kerrick, but it backfire spectacularly

Following the timerift explosion, the survivors find that the island is covered with different time zone; some with ten times normal speed (year become centuries), and other zones stuck in slow motion (1yr in miliseconds).

You can't pass between zone without a special suit.

Edit; I made a mistake above. The cards differ from the novels;

Urza only know the ancients Thran where the one who banished the Phyrexian from Dominaria.

The goal of the Tolarian Academy time experiments is to go back in time and ask the Thran how to deal with Phyrexians

The time experiment having failed, Urza leave Tolaria to search for more present-day information on the Thran.

In the volcanic land of Shiv, Urza discovers the Mana Rig, a Thran ruin, inhabited by viashino.

With the Mana Rig, Urza can build powerstones (mana rock)
#vorthos

3 things I forgot about Urza Saga

Urza met the sleeper agent Xantcha while searching for Phyrexia. She's the one who helped him find the plane.

On Phyrexia, she stole back her Hearthstone containing her personality.

After Xantcha death, Urza used this stone to build Karn.

After the Phyrexian corruption of her plane, Serra leave it and planewalk to Ulgrotha (the set Homeland), where she fell in love with Feroz a fellow planewalker, and they seal it against other planewalkers.

Later on, she will go to Dominaria and summon a lot of angels.
#MTGDOM

Finally, the last important characters in Urza Saga are Barrin, the Master Wizard at the Tolarian Academy and 2 students we care the most about; Jhoira and Teferi. We will see them a in later sets and two of them, with Karn, are central characters in #MTGDom

As for Shiv, it is the most powerful source of red mana on Dominaria.

It had an appearance in the Mirage block, but Urza saga tie it to the main Phyrexian storyline.

Before that, it was just the place where the Shivan Dragon came from

Urza Legacy - using the Mana Rig, Urza want to build a legacy of artifacts to defeat the coming Phyrexian invasion.

He go back to Tolaria and with Barrin and the survivors rebuild the Academy. They find Teferi trapped in a slow time bubble since the explosion.

Meanwhile, Kerrick, the Phyrexian Sleeper Agent, is trapped in a fast time valley, where one century pass for every year outside. Kerrick is building an army and searching for a way to cross between the time zone without getting rip to shred. He have time on his side.
#vorthos

We have a cool cycle of cards showing what happen when the Phyrexians start to settle an area. Look at the flavor text.

In the normal time zone, Urza is buzy designing his Legacy Weapons and defense for when Kerrick will find a way to cross the time zone.

We see that one of this legacy weapon is the skyship Weatherlight.

Urza travel to the sentient forest of Yavimaya because he need its help for his legacy project. Yavimaya and many of its denizens remember Urza's role in decimating Argoth. Urza is taken captive and stuck there for several years

Kerrick army has evolved to cross the time zone and attack the Tolarian Academy.

The wizard Barrin summon Urza who summon help from Shiv and Yavimaya. It's a close call but they win. Having witness the Phyrexians danger, Multani give Urza a tree to build the Weatherlight

Urza go to Serra's Realm and find that the plane was taken over by the tyranical angel Radiant, under the influence of Phyrexia.

They battle and then Urza transfer the refugees in the Weatherlight and collapse the plane inside a single powerstone that will power the Weatherlight