MTG's latest set March of the Machine: The Aftermath has arrived and left a general feeling of discontent among Magic: The Gathering lore fans. Among other things because we were told that Aftermath would be a small set focused mainly on lore, revealing the aftermath of the epic battle against the Phyrexians, as well as showing us the state of the multiverse after the end of the invasion.
However, we only got two short stories that offer very few conclusions and, on the contrary, open up new questions about the multiverse and its main protagonists: the planeswalkers. In addition to the fact that the set itself has only 50 cards, many of them do not have flavor text that helps expand the information there is in the stories.
In the first story, we find out about the situation of Nissa, Teferi, Karn, and Koth, who have all lost their planeswalker spark, while Ajani and Chandra still retain it. Apparently, the multiverse has caused an event known as The Great Pruning, in which most planeswalker sparks have vanished: It was the Multiverse's attempt to heal itself from the Phyrexian invasion, the artificial portals created by Realmbreaker, and the explosion of the Sylex in the Blind Eternities when Elspeth snatched it from Jace.
In the second story, we learn that Nahiri has survived the war and has returned to normalcy. She is no longer part of Phyrexia and has been able to eliminate the metallic components from her body, although it is not explained how this was possible. Nahiri has also lost her spark, again with no explanation of how it happened. Her case is particularly interesting because she finds a Hedron among the ruins, in which she senses her spark trapped inside.
Ajani appears on the plane to help her, but Nahiri thinks they have come for her. During a fight, Nahiri falls from the Skyclave and not only is she injured, but the spark that was inside the Hedron disappears. At this moment, Nahiri vows to protect Zendikar from the planeswalkers, whom she blames for everything that has happened to the multiverse. This seems to be the beginning of a new arc for Nahiri in which she will continue to be an enemy character of the Gatewatch.
In addition to the characters that appear in the stories, we also know about the fate of some other planeswalkers thanks to the cards from March of the Machine: The Aftermath. This is the complete list of Planeswalkers who have lost their spark due to The Great Pruning:
The only Planeswalkers we know have retained their sparks at the moment are three: Ajani Goldmane, Chandra Nalaar, and finally Ashiok, who we will see soon in Wilds of Eldraine, where the inhabitants have fallen under a sleep spell, and Ashiok is using the nightmares of those who sleep to sow terror among those who are awake.
During the past few weeks, the conversation among the Vorthos and player community has been very diverse about what awaits the planeswalkers in the future of the game and the story. With many of them having lost their spark, rumors were circulating that perhaps the Planeswalker type would disappear from new sets, making room for Battle cards. Or even that they might disappear from the lore to give more prominence to legendary creatures.
These rumors were dismissed for several reasons, one of the most prominent being the fact that Wizards of the Coast has recently made the Oathbreaker format official, which is a version of Commander where the main card the deck is built around is a planeswalker and its signature spell.
Also the stories for March of the Machine: The Aftermath have finally revealed that both Ajani and Chandra still have their sparks. And there is still a long list of planeswalkers whose spark status is unknown.
Regarding the lore, the ability to travel between planes is truly one of the most important elements, as it allowed the Gatewatch to defend the Multiverse, and without this ability, it would be much more difficult to have planeswalkers as main characters.
However, two of the main guardians still possess this ability: Chandra and Ajani, and in addition to this, Nissa and Chandra decide to use one of the strange portals that have appeared after the invasion, not knowing what could happen to them or where it could take them. These portals have been named Omenpaths, and it seems that they could enable travel between planes for both planeswalkers and non-planeswalkers, so invasions and defenses of different planes in the Multiverse could now become more chaotic if all living beings have the possibility to travel between planes.
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