#Fallen Empires

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Dwarven Soldier

There is a legend among present-day Dwarves that the Dwarves of Sarpadia will one day return to defend Dwarvenkind against a deadly peril.

Artist: Randy Asplund-Faith TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtg-art-daily]

Icatian Scout

"Because the Orc hordes attacked along the entire border, Scouts were essential to Icatia's defense." —*Sarpadian Empires, vol. VI*

Artist: Richard Kane Ferguson

[mtgsmash-or-pass]

[magicwithclass]

Why hasn't this card spiked? If any reserved list card is going up in value, it would make sense for it to be this one. Why? Bloomburrow is a set that focuses on ten different animal creature types. Bird is the major animal for blue/white so you can expect many new birds to enter the game. While bloomburrow is not a fully typal set there are some typal cards sprinkled throughout the animal kingdom. That means birds are receiving tribal support for the first time in many years. Birds are quite popular so I would expect the number of bird commander decks to increase after the release of bloomburrow. After all, there are bound to be some bird commanders and one or more of these commanders may support the tribe. Typically, there is at least one commander that blatantly screams at you to play birds. Soraya the falconer is a legendary creature so it can function as a mono white bird commander. A lord effect for all birds and the threat of banding is decent for the 3 mana cost. Having a lord in your command zone firmly establishes you as a bird typal deck but this card also functions quite well in the 99 of any bird deck. The cost is at an acceptable rate and the power level is borderline. If you are making a kastral the windcrested deck when bloomburrow comes out don't you just throw in the falconer? I will admit that I am dissapointed in some of the bird support in bloomburrow. Many of the bird cards support cards WITHOUT flying. That is dissapointing as most birds fly so those support cards clash with a bird decks overall strategy. I will note that this creature does not fly so that actually adds further use for this card. Even so, did birds get the short end of the stick just to make limited playable? How do people feel about this choice? People have looked at this reserved list card in the past. If players were currently interested in vintage Magic then eyes would fall on soraya the falconer. Instead, people don't even pick up reserved list bulk when it synergizes with the latest set anymore. Aside from a spike in 2021, the card also had attention on it as early as 2018. Today, the card is less than two dollars even with so many bird cards being spoiled. This is not the first time that birds have had the spotlight. There was also some bird support in invasion and flying and bird support has been sprinkled throughout the history of the game. Will this be the next reserved list card to spike in 2024? Is this card just one bloomburrow spoiler away from being the next market hit? Why hasn't anyone attempted to manipulate the reserved list bulk market? Perhaps that person could be you?

[overgrown-estate]

30 years ago today saw the release of Magic the Gathering's fifth expansion set, Fallen Empires. The set told the story of the island of Sarpadia, its people, and the fall of the Sarpadian Empire as the Ice Age approached.

[incorrect-mtg]

Flavor Text Highlights - Fallen Empires

<- Previous Set | Next Set ->

Funny - Orcish Spy

“You idiot! Never let the spies mingle with the Orcish regulars after completing a mission. Now we’ll never get them to fight!” —General Khurzog

Worldbuilding - Order of the Ebon Hand

“There are intriguing similarities between the Order and Icatia’s Leitbur religion, suggesting the two had a common origin.” —Sarpadian Empires, vol. VI

Worldbuilding - Armor Thrull

“The worst thing about being a mercenary for the Ebon Hand is having to wear a dead Thrull.” —Ivra Jursdotter

Emotional - Dwarven Soldier

“Let no one say we did not fight until the last … .” —Headstone fragment from a mass grave found in the Crimson Peaks

<- Previous Set | Next Set ->

[dark-longings]

[ouchmaster6000]

[loreleywrites]

If you could write Magic story for any set, even ones that were already released, which one would you wanna write?

Lemme write Fallen Empires story >:c

[byfeldonscane]

https://web.archive.org/web/20071021022939/http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mc93

Tea and Biscuits with Pete Venters

Matt Cavotta Taste the Magic Thursday, June 7, 2007

[...]

PV: Here's another piece of trivia—during the wars depicted in Fallen Empires, it was the thrulls that won control of Sarpadia. No one else could match their ability to react and evolve. Supposedly the orcs gave them the hardest fight but when the thrulls started creating Cave-Stormers (a creature composed of a central mouth ringed with razor sharp teeth surrounded by eight legs that could charge through orc caves, turning anything it met into a meaty red vapor without even decelerating) the end was in sight for the orcs. I'd still like to see that sucker on a card.

MC: When did this happen? What was the historical context with regard to Magic sets?

PV: The thrulls probably took less than fifty years to dominate Sarpadia. There's no historical context as Sarpadia is so isolated. The only reason that the thrulls didn't go on to rule the world is that they lacked imagination and never realized that there was anything else beyond the horizon-line of water surrounding Sarpadia. We used to say, that if one day a ship came to Sarpadia it might be the beginning of the end for Dominaria.

Still, the Phyrexians beat them to it. However, you'll note that we never did learn what happened when the Phyrexians tried to invade Sarpadia.

MC: Did any of this thrull history or thrull vs. Phyrexian stuff appear on cards or in books?

PV: There was one tale that saw print in The Duelist where Phyrexians were questioning someone (possibly Endrek Sahr?) about the thrulls. I can't find the details now, but it may have hinted that the thrulls' creation involved some stolen Phyrexian devices. The Phyrexians were not only miffed at the theft of their secrets, but what they'd been used for. Still, rumor persists that the Phyrexians eventually had to admit that the thrulls showed promise and imported some of them into Phyrexia for study.

Even with the Phyrexians' laborious planning for the Invasion, they may have met far greater resistance than they imagined in Sarpadia. Even now there may be Thrulls trying to understand where the Phyrexians came from. Who knows? Maybe future products will contradict all of this; after all, if it hasn't seen print, it's not necessarily canon. But this is what I had planned. I'd love to see a future Magic set tackle these questions.

(Hey all you story goobs—if you know anything about the Duelist story Pete mentioned, please post it on the message boards.)

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Goblin Chirurgeon

"Perhaps Goblins are good for something after all." —Attributed to General Khurzog

Artist: Dan Frazier TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[alfairb]

Show me now, show me the arms aloft Every eye, trained on a different star This magic, this drunken semaphore, and I We are listening and we're not blind This is your life, this is your time

[scrmnviking]

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Ozymandius - Percy Bysshe Shelly

[magicwithclass]

Marjhan

Do you see the art on this guy? Marjhan is huge. That whale looks miniscule compared to this titanic beast and that is accurately reflected in the power and toughness. An 8/8 is huge especially in the older days of the game but even today that is a stat line to be feared. Of course, this card had to have restrictions especially since blue does not typically get cards with base power and toughness above its mana value without a drawback. In fact, this card has many limitations. First, it has islandhome which is an outdated keyword that they used to put on a bunch of aquatic creatures. The new blue moon merfolk in modern horizons 3 can ensure all your opponents have islands and if you are playing blue you should have an island but sometimes it will come up. If you manage to get Marjhan to attack then it will not untap during the next turn. It does have an interesting ability toi get around that though. You can sac a creature at upkeep which means that this card is a very limited sacrifice engine in mono blue. The card shatters the color pie with the other ability by dealing damage to creatures. The cost is enormous but it is there in a pinch. I, often forget, how much direct damage blue had at the start of the game. This is another all star in the mono blue burn deck as a potential finisher. Obviously, that is just a meme deck but it could be fun. The card is not good enough in the modern era as anything unique it could do in mono blue can be done by an artifact in a more efficient way. Perhaps we should hold out to the serpent or sea creature typal support that could show up in the future but I wouldn't hold my breathe. I wouldn't want you to take a bath with this serpent as I do not have hope for the future. It is big but there are so many colorless eldrazi that size doesn't matter. In terms of price, you can get one for less than a dollar and this card only spiked in early 2021 alongside almost every reserved list bulk card. Five bucks might be as high as it ever gets barring a huge buyout attempt. It quickly returned to bulk and I believe it will stay bulk for the foreseeable future.

[overgrown-estate]

Now that we have a few months until the next Standard set, let's talk about what you want to see. 'The Brothers War' was a retelling of the story first told in 'Antiquities'.

[interconnectedwanderer]

Excavations at a 4th millennium BC settlement uncover evidence for the emergence and rejection of the earliest state institutions in Iraq - Arkeonews