Each Magic: The Gathering release has a story hidden behind the cards. Sometimes, like with the set War of the Spark in 2019, a card expansion comes with novelizations and short stories to explain what’s going on. Sometimes, like with the recent expansions, Theros: Beyond Death and CORE 2021, the story is only on the cards, and there is no novelization or series of stories on the Wizard’s of the Coast website, only the story players can piece together from pictures and descriptions.
War of the Spark was Magic: the Gathering’s Infinity War, where characters from all over Magic’s history teamed up to fight together. It had Magic: the Gathering’s first cinematic trailer and was the climax of ten years of buildup to the conflict against Nicol Bolas, Dragon God.
Since War of the Spark, most of Magic: the Gathering’s main characters have been missing in action. The Gatewatch, Magic’s Avengers, has been the focus of Magic: the Gathering’s story since 2016. Jace, Nissa, Chandra, Gideon and Lilliana starred in set after set, with their story concluding in War of the Spark. Now, some of them are coming back for Zendikar Rising, Magic: the Gathering’s Fall 2020 release. Here’s who’s coming back and the critical background information for the story that’s arriving with all of Zendikar Rising’s new products.
Nissa Revane is on Zendikar again
Nissa was the first Green Planeswalker to join the Gatewatch and one of the founding members when the Gatewatch was founded in Oath of the Gatewatch. A native to the plane of Zendikar, Nissa is a powerful wielder of nature magic that is especially attuned to the soul of Zendikar. She joined the Gatewatch to help fight the Eldrazi, massive ancient beings that drain planes of their mana and life. Together with the rest of the Gatewatch, Nissa helped destroy the two Eldrazi titans that were attacking Zendikar and continued to help them protect other planes around the Multiverse from looming threats.
Nissa was with the Gatewatch when they liberated the plane of Kaladesh in Aether Revolt, sealed the third Eldrazi titan Emrakul in Shadows Over Innistrad, and fought Nicol Bolas on Ahmonkhet in Hour of Devastation. After the Gatewatch’s sound defeat in Hour of Devastation, Nissa grew frustrated with one of the other core members, Lilliana, using the Gatewatch to further her own goals. Nissa left the Gatewatch, no longer believing in their cause.
Before the events of War of the Spark, Jace, another member of the Gatewatch, tried to convince Nissa to rejoin them and fight Nicol Bolas, but she refused. In the end, Nissa was dragged to the plane of Ravnica by the Interplanar Beacon and forced to fight in the War of the Spark. There, she admitted her love to Chandra and stayed for Gideon’s — a member of the Gatewatch — funeral, but then returned home to Zendikar.
The original members of the Gatewatch haven’t been the focus of the story since War of the Spark, but Nissa is a special case. She broke her bond and left the Gatewatch, only fighting alongside them when forced to. Wizards of the Coasts hasn’t revealed how she will react to seeing her former ally, Jace, again.
Jace Isn’t The Living Guildpact Anymore
Magic: the Gathering’s Jace was a founding member of the Gatewatch with Nissa, helping defend Zendikar from the Eldrazi titans, as well as battling with the Gatewatch until he was defeated by Nicol Bolas on Ahmonkhet and sealed on the plane of Ixalan.
While trapped on Ixalan, Jace took up a life as a pirate alongside his fellow Ravnica native, Vraska. Both of the Planeswalkers were trapped on Ixalan by an artifact called the Immortal Sun, so they set on a quest to deactivate the Immoral Sun and escape Ixalan. Despite their best efforts, Vraska and Jace failed to get the Immortal Sun themselves, and the artifact was stolen by one of Nicol Bolas’ agents. Jace and Vraska agreed to fight Nicol Bolas together, and Vraska had Jace use his memory altering Magic to make Vraska believe she was an agent of Bolas so he could restore her memories later and use her as a double agent.
With the Immortal Sun off Ixalan, Jace escaped and found the Gatewatch on Dominaria. He tried to convince the two members who were still there, Gideon and Lilliana, to stop their current quest to kill a demon and focus on the coming fight against Nicol Bolas, but they refused. Jace left to prepare for the War of the Spark on Ravnica. When Nicol Bolas brought his army to Ravnica, he destroyed the Hall of the Guildpact and severed Jace’s powerful connection with the plane of Ravnica, stripping him of his status as the ‘living guildpact.’ Without some of his power, Jace turned to Vraska for help but discovered that her memories of her time on Ixalan had already been restored, and she’d helped Nicol Bolas’ plans anyways.
Jace’s tactics during War of the Spark led to Nicol Bolas’ defeat and helped liberate the plane of Ravnica. After the battle, Jace and Vraska argued about her choosing her goals over their plans to stop Nicol Bolas. Later their relationship broke apart when Vraska accused Jace of protecting Bolas’ partner in War of the Spark, Lilliana, who was his former teammate on the Gatewatch. Jace hasn’t been seen since Gideon’s funeral, and there isn’t any explanation as to why he’s returned to Zendikar, but with Nissa around, it’s sure to be interesting.
Nahiri Might Not be the Villain This Time
Nahiri is a lithomancer, or stone mage, from Zendikar. Last time she was involved in Magic’s story, she was the villain of the set Shadows Over Innistrad as she had called the Eldrazi titan, Emrakul, to Innistrad, so it would destroy the home plane of her old friend turned enemy, Sorin Markov. Sorin and Nahiri were two of the original Planeswalkers who sealed away the Eldrazi titans on Zendikar, thousands of years before most of Magic: the Gathering‘s story takes place. When the seals became unstable, Nihiri reached out to Sorin for help, but he ignored her call, breaking his promise to protect Zendikar. When Nahiri went to Innistrad to confront him, Sorin locked Nahiri in a magical prison, keeping her trapped for an unknown amount of time. When Nahiri was finally released, she returned to Zendikar and discovered that the Eldrazi had escaped when she’d been trapped.
Blaming Sorin for the destruction of her home plane, Nahiri set up a ritual to summon one of the three titans, Emrakul, to Sorin’s home plane of Innistrad. She succeeded in the summoning, but the Gatewatch stopped Emrakul. Nahiri fought Sorin on Innistrad, trapping him in stone but getting gravely wounded before fleeing the plane.
In War of the Spark Nahiri and Sorin appear on the cards, having been pulled to Ravnica by the Interplanar beacon. Instead of fighting the Dragon God, Nahiri and Sorin fought each other, battling across Ravnica in the middle of a war in what seemed like an eternal grudge match between two millennia-old Planeswalkers.
That said, there is a small additional mention of those two in the novelization of War of the Spark, which shows them working together against Nicol Bolas instead of fighting each other. Wizards of the Coast hasn’t revealed whether this means the Planeswalkers have forgiven each other, if Nahiri is good now, or if something else is going on. Either way, Nahiri’s brief mention in the Magic: the Gathering novel has left her status as a villain up in the air.
The Eldrazi are Gone
According to Magic: The Gathering’s head designer, Mark Rosewater, there will be no Eldrazi in the story of Zendikar Rising. The set is going to focus on the ‘adventure plane’ that Zendikar was before the Eldrazi escaped and started wreaking havoc. Despite the original Battle for Zendikar expansion being the best selling Magic: the Gathering expansion of all time, many players expressed being disappointed in its focus on the Eldrazi rather than the plane of Zendikar itself. Zendikar Rising is looking to bring the plane back to its former glory, without ignoring the impact the Eldrazi had on the plane while they were there.
In the coming months, Wizards of the Coast is going to reveal more about the story for Zendikar Rising. For a lot of Magic: the Gathering players, this is the first time since War of the Spark that they’ve seen their favorite characters, and they’re excited to see what’s coming for the Gatewatch now that Nicol Bolas and the Eldrazi are gone. The next ‘big villains’ from Magic: The Gathering’s past are the Phyrexians, who haven’t been seen since 2011, but there haven’t been any hints that the Gatewatch has plans to take them on, or if there is even going to be a Gatewatch in the aftermath of War of the Spark. Players are always clamoring for more of the story, and though they’ll learn more when Magic: the Gathering’s new MMO comes out, everything mentioned above will be confirmed on September 25th, 2020 when Zendikar Rising releases.
