Name: March of the Machine (MTG collected stories)
Rating: 3.74 (7 reviews)

1,008 reviews53 followers

January 30, 2025

Okay, it's been a week of thinking about all my feelings on the Phyrexia: All Will Be One (AWBO)/March of the Machine (MotM) storyline, but here we go:

Initially, I wasn't super upset with this, to the point where my initial star rating of both novellas were four stars. But then I ruminated more on specific actions/characterizations, picked over plotholes, and eventually came to the conclusion that - as a GO-GO-GO action saga - AWBO/MotM uses that action to distract from the fact that the story is really badly written and just doesn't make sense overall. That's when I changed the rating to two stars and why I'm now writing this review.

The AWBO/MotM stories take place shortly after/in the immediate aftermath of Dominaria United; it's not really clear which, because AWBO starts in media res, just dropping us onto New Phyrexia with a bunch of scattered 'walkers who've had their plan subverted from the start, and it's really confusing. We don't see the planning phases or discussion of what's important/why or who's coming, unless they are somewhere and I just didn't find them (entirely possible, as the webserial format for publishing lore - with the 'main story' being five or chapters and possibly 'side stories' that may or may not have any importance not always posted at the same time/in the same location - can make it difficult to tell what's relevant or where to locate it).

In any case, the remaining chapters of AWBO follow the remaining 'walkers as they attempt to make their way toward the base of the corrupted World Tree called Realmbreaker, with a copy of Urza's Sylex in hand, so that the ancient weapon that once laid waste to Dominaria for millenia can be pressed into service to destroy New Phyrexia. (They are trying to destroy New Phyrexia because Elesh Norn is a tyrannical zealot who wants to conquer the multiverse by infecting all beings with glistening oil, the method of infection that corrupts the non-Phyrexian and makes it Phyrexian with only a drop.) MULTIPLE PEOPLE are VERY CLEAR at MULTIPLE POINTS that this is THEIR ONLY PLAN. If they can't get the root of Realmbreaker? The damage might not be bad enough and they're screwed. If Jace or Kaya - the only people who know how to activate the Sylex - are killed? They're all screwed. If the Sylex turns out to be flawed, is damaged/lost/stolen, or otherwise cannot perform its desperately necessary function? Not only is the strike team SOL, but EVERY SINGLE PLANE IN THE MULTIVERSE WILL ALMOST INEVITABLY END UP FALLING TO PHYREXIA. Arguably, even during the War of the Spark, the stakes were never higher. Bolas would have conquered the multiverse, yes, but he likely wouldn't have outright destroyed it in the process as Elesh Norn basically plans to, and it makes some of the 'walkers' decisions downright BAFFLING.

When the survivors of the strike team - Kaya (uninfected), Kaito (uninfected), and Jace (infected but not yet turned) - finally make it to the base of Realmbreaker, they get into an argument about whether or not to activate the Sylex, as various delays have led to them arriving where they need to be only after the corrupted tree has begun to break into other realms, connecting them to New Phyrexia via bridges called omenpaths, which even non-'walkers can use to traverse the multiverse and is how Elesh Norn plans to invade other planes. Kaya and Kaito promptly get cold feet. They can tell by where they are that there's about a dozen planes that have been breached, but cannot tell what planes they are. Kaya and Kaito argue that the Sylex can't be set off now, because even though it would undoubtedly destroy New Phyrexia, it might also destroy one or more of those planes and neither of them are willing to take that sort of risk with Kamigawa (Kaito's homeplane) or Ravnica (Kaya's adopted homeplane).

To be clear: They have no confirmation that either of those planes are among the dozen where omenpaths lead and - even if they were - everyone has thus far belabored the point that any plane that has even tiniest Phyrexian infection is lost due to how infectious the glistening oil is and the extreme compulsion of the infected to spread it to anyone and anything. By their own logic and beliefs thus far, if Ravnica or Kamigawa have been infected (a possibility, considering there are places of New Phyrexia where the very air is infectious), those planes have been consigned to a fate worse than death already and destroying them would be a mercy. That said: IF. Again, they can't see from the base of the tree which planes they are, so Kaito and Kaya are allowing their fears of worst case scenarios to blind them, especially as Jace points out that - with the main force of the blast on New Phyrexia and eleven other planes sharing the fallout - 'it might just shake them a little.' This does not dissuade either, however, and Kaya and Kaito turn on Jace, who activates the Sylex anyway seeing as his companions are willing to throw away all the lives and effort they've spent - not to mention the survival of every living being in the multiverse - for no reason at all. Unfortunately, Elspeth - previously delayed by battle - finally makes her way down to the rest of the group and sees what appears to a corrupted party member set upon by other uninfected party members and I guess presumes the situation has changed somehow, because she takes the Sylex and planeswalks with it into the Blind Eternities, where it detonates.

So, I have all sorts of problems with this entire confrontation and its fallout.

(A) After everything, they get cold feet NOW? And for Kaya in particular: she's the one who flips her lid at Jace for endangering the Sylex and mission on a whole by tearing off after Vraska (who they do not manage to rescue and is the reason Jace himself becomes infected), and she gets cold feet NOW? After losing Ajani, Nissa, Nahiri, Lukka, Tamiyo, and Vraska (not to mention Jace himself, as he makes it clear that he doesn't intend to live to be Phyrexia's puppet), she backs out NOW? And FOR WHAT? Neither she nor Kaito even know for sure if Ravnica or Kamagawa are at risk because even though they can see the new omenpaths, they can't see where they go. And that leads to:

(B) The intense hypocrisy of them being totally unwilling to tolerate any level of risk to their homeplanes while having no problem consigning other planes to destruction. For context: Shortly after they arrive, the 'walkers are confronted by a group of surviving Mirrans (New Phyrexia was the plane of Mirrodan, before being corrupted by the glistening oil during an invasion similar to what Norn now wants a wider scale) who angrily ask what the hell the intruders plan to do to their plane. Jace initially says that the Sylex should just destroy Realmbreaker, but when their leader explains the alterations that the Phyrexians have since made to the geography and leylines of the plane (information that the 'walkers previously did not have access to), he quickly admits the changes are likely to come crashing down and destroy the plane. In light of this honesty, the Mirrans choose to lead the 'walkers through New Phyrexia and fight with them, recognizing that their plane might be the cost of saving more lives on more planes than they can possibly fathom and prove themselves willing to make that sacrifice anyway.

Meanwhile, Kaito and Kaya back out at the first sign of trouble to their own homeplanes, despite having repeatedly argued that - if this were the case - their own homeplanes are doomed to a fate worse than death anyway. Not only that, their behavior also implies that if Jace could have shown 'no, it's a dozen random planes no one's heard of before!' or 'yeah, that's Innistrad, but no one here cares, right?' they'd have been a-OK with letting the Sylex go boom then and there. This characterization might not have been an issue if they were positioned as villainous or even morally compromised characters, but they're not. Yes, Kaya is the Ghost Assassin and Kaito is a Futurist criminal, but both of them have always been characterized as 'I have standards and a heart of gold' types. But THIS? Being willing to fuck over the entire multiverse so your own homeplane might eke out a few extra months before falling to a fate worse than death even though you all but demanded another plane and all its surviviors be sacrificed 'for the good of the multiverse' is decidedly NOT 'heart of gold' behavior. And their stupid decision leads to:

(C) Because Elspeth takes the Sylex and planeswalks into the Blind Eternities to let it detonate there (it's own issue, which I will get to in a moment) it means that, DESPITE EVERYTHING, Elesh Norn still has everything she needs (and arguably benefitted, considered all the 'walkers that were compleated and have joined New Phyrexia) to start invasions...which she does, immediately. Kaya and Kaito planeswalk away to tell everyone that the mission failed and everyone except Chandra more or less resigns themselves making last stands and going out in a blaze of battleglory on their various homeplanes/adopted homeplanes. Because of what Kaya and Kaito did (and subsequently blame Jace for, which requires more than an aside to rant about) thousands if not millions of people die, either killed outright or by being infected, and a small team - consisting of Chandra and Wrenn, because everyone else is quite reasonably convinced it's suicide with extra steps - have to go back and try to destroy Realmbreaker AGAIN. The entire MotM storyline is Try #2, and everything that happens during it can be laid at Kaya and Kaito's feet.

This includes the Second Mending - in which many current 'walkers lost their sparks - as it's sorta handwaved as a result of Elspeth taking the Sylex and letting it explode in the Blind Eternities. I'm still not sure why she let it detonate there, as letting the thing that can damage time itself rip through the metaphysical space where all the planes live sounds like an even worse idea than letting the explosion affect thirteen planes, but she did and this is the result. From the dimension beyond the pages, this makes a certain kind of sense - Wizards of the Coast wants to move away from planeswalkers and more toward legendary creatures, so desparking a bunch of 'walkers and making ways for people to travel between planes without having to be 'walkers is a good way to do that - but it doesn't make sense IN THE STORY. Kaya and Kaito's behavior is first shocking and then unfathomable, then Elspeth's "solution" is even worse, before Chandra somehow manages to save the day with no plan beyond 'go there and burn things.' Then we find out a number of people inexplicably survived, which leads to:

(D) Some of the compleated (now former 'walkers) - such as Nahiri - survive, which is quite strange. MotM spends multiple chapters with characters negotiating among themselves and eventually mananging - by use of magics that use up Karn's spark and is the final blow for an already severely injured Melira - to de-Phyrexianize Ajani (who maintains his spark) and Nissa (who does not). The process, when it happens, is presented as being a one-time hail mary: Melira was seriously injured on New Phyrexia and is already dying; because she's basically the only person who's immune to phyresis, she's the only person who can do the ritual to reverse the process, and she chooses to spend the last of her time trying to help Ajani and Nissa. Karn didn't know that his spark was going to be 'used' in the process of cleansing Ajani and Nissa's sparks, but it was a possibility he was at peace with. Given this, it's presented as special that Ajani and Nissa have been de-Phyrexianized, and the implication is that they will be unique among the changed, especially since we've already had scenes of Phyrexians on Kaladesh not being able to be saved (they all collapsed when the team managed to push New Phyrexia out of the multiverse, not destroying invaders outright but making them unresponsive and their oil uninfectious).

Then we get the last chapter of Nahiri, struggling with Phyrexian instincts and thought patterns, worlds away on Zenidikar. Like: WHAT THE FUCK? It's just been established that all the Phyrexians are comatose and likely cannot be cured, and that the two who are cured were cleansed under unique circumstances. Then they just randomly throw in Nahiri, who's mostly fine, apparently; she's more angry than truly injured/recovering, and her scenes set up future stories on Zendikar, but it still makes no sense IN THE STORY. Again, it's something that makes sense when taking into the world outside the pages - making sure certain characters will be able to use in future and setting up future stories - but my having to zoom out to beyond the realm of the story to make sense of events is a hallmark of bad writing.

This reminds me strongly of the debacle that was the end of the War of the Spark novels, where Ugin manages to take Bolas through the Blind Eternities without his spark, something that had been firmly established to be fatal, and the author didn't even know enough about canon to handwave it away until the beginning of the next book in the duology. This is WIzards continuing to illustrate that they don't care about their own lore, as Aetherdrift (coming out next week) is a drag race set between worlds, in a metaphysical space that should be instantly fatal to all non-'walkers and extremely physically taxing to 'walkers.

There were some things I liked about these stories. I liked the little interlude we got with Jace and Vraska, even if it was tragic (yes, it was dumb to go after her; no, there was no way he wasn't going to at least try); I liked that Chandra and Nissa are FINALLY allowed to be together (even if Nissa is working out her own issues with Chandra being a 'walker while she has lost her own spark); and I really liked that the omenpaths open up a lot of possibilities for storytelling in MTG. But the storytelling here is just bad and I'm disappointed that is the standard the lore has fallen to because Wizards/Hasbro is so concerned with making money they've forgotten about the creative development teams and players that make Magic: The Gathering successful as a game.

fiction-dystopia-or-apocalypse fiction-gaming-lore fiction-ghosts-and-spirits

March of the Machine

K. Arsenault Rivera, Evelyn Teng (Contributor), Roy Graham (Contributor)

About the author

K. Arsenault Rivera

Ratings & Reviews

Friends & Following

Community Reviews

Join the discussion

Can't find what you're looking for?