Merciless RepurposingMerciless Repurposing | Art by Artur Nakhodkin

Welcome! When I last wrote about this subject, many of my readers had a lot to say about characters who deserved better treatment within the Magic story. Well, I took in some of your feedback. Frankly, I'm a bit surprised that there were a handful more characters who deserve more than their fates.

Thankfully (or not, for their sakes), there's more than enough mistreated characters for another entry into what is now a two-part series. So let's explore that with five more characters who deserved better story treatment!

#5. Davvol

Carnival of Souls. Illustrated by Brian Snoddy. Image credit: Wizards of the Coast

Davvol was the first Evincar of the artificial plane of Rath. He was the elder of a place known as Coracin. Whether this is a plane of existence or a village within another plane is unknown at this time. He was terminally ill and an exile from this place, however. Thus, when the Phyrexians came to Davvol looking for information, he spitefully, and willingly gave that information to them. In exchange, Davvol was partially compleated and became the overseer of the construction of Rath within the Blind Eternities.

During this time, Davvol conducted experiments on Rath and adjacent Multiversal planes to figure out what would eventually be the Rathi overlay upon Dominaria, spurring the fabled Phyrexian Invasion of Dominaria and the climax to the Weatherlight Saga. However, another Phyrexian killed Davvol in cold blood and stole his knowledge from him.

Davvol may have gotten it even worse when we look at the flavor text for Carnival of SoulsCarnival of Souls:

“‘Davvol, blast those elves.’ ‘Davvol, transport those troops.’ No one cares that today is my birthday.”

From other interactions, it seems that Phyrexians don't appear to care about trivialities such as birthdays. However, Davvol, only partly compleat, still did. What a torment to essentially be the ruler of an entire plane of existence, but to have ignored the trifle that is one's own birthday! It is for that reason that, perhaps only half-facetiously, I recognize Davvol as #5 on this list.

#4. Lukka

Weaponize the Monsters. Illustrated by Magali Villeneuve. Image credit: Wizards of the Coast

At #4 on this list is Lukka, a Planeswalker from Ikoria. From the very get-go, Lukka had a hard life. He was bullied from a young age, perhaps because he always felt like an outsider to the Ikorian populace. Eventually, Lukka learned how to bond with the predatory creatures of the plane. However, sadly, upon bonding with a patagia tiger called LeoriLeori, the Drannith military exiled him and killed Leori. Lukka could not catch a break on Ikoria.

Lukka's outcast feelings are exacerbated when the man's Planeswalker spark ignites. Monsters immediately attack Lukka on another currently unknown plane. He shrugs off the attack after bonding with one of the beasts.

Eventually, Lukka arrives on Arcavios, where he is captured by the Oriq, a group of cultists working under ExtusExtus, an antagonizing force to the plane and also to the Strixhaven Academy. Lukka manages to flee. Again, no lucky break.

Lukka's Compleation and Death

When the Planeswalker Vivien ReidVivien Reid recruits Lukka to her cause to take down New Phyrexia internally, Lukka accepts and enters the Hunters' Maze with Nissa. Lukka is compleated when he underestimates his control over a Phyrexian Beast within the sphere and gets infected with glistening oil. Lukka later invades Ikoria, but dies a gruesome and painful death at the hands of Vivien and Vadrok, Apex of ThunderVadrok, Apex of Thunder.

Lukka invaded Ikoria as an ultimate amalgamation of biomass, acclimated by compleating many of Ikoria's monsters and incorporating their forms into himself. However, when Vadrok engulfs Lukka in its magical flames, nothing remains but the Planeswalker and his original Phyrexian bonded beast.

Lukka has lost everything by the time he dies, and it's largely fair for what he'd done. However, fate treated Lukka, as a character, so poorly throughout his life in the literature, that it hardly feels good for him to meet this fate.

#3. Urabrask

Urabrask, Heretic Praetor. Illustrated by Igor Kieryluk. Image credit: Wizards of the Coast

At #3 on our list is the New Phyexian Praetor called Urabrask. Urabrask, as a character, was a reclusive, enigmatic figure. I distinctly recall many speculating, myself included, that Urabrask was the result of the MirariMirari doubly fusing with Slobad's and Bosh's corpses in the Furnace Layer of the reformed New Phyrexian Mirrodin. When this proved not to be the case, I will admit that I was surprised by it.

Urabrask's views about the Nornian perspective on freedom outcast the red Praetor. As you can see in the first image of this very article, Urabrask's dissenting views caused his undoing. He was ripped limb from limb, his bio-mechanical parts repurposed as spare scrap.

It feels like there are a lot of red characters in the Magic story that get mistreated and deserve so much better than they get. Thankfully for red, Urabrask is the last red-aligned character I'm going to list in this article. On to pick #2!

#2. Garruk WildspeakerGarruk Wildspeaker

In Garruk's Wake. Illustrated by Chase Stone. Image credit: Wizards of the Coast

My penultimate choice within this article is the Planeswalker known as Garruk. From very early post-Mending comics, some depict Garruk's origins as a child whose Planeswalker spark ignited quite early, sending him from one unknown homeplane (though many speculate it to be Dominaria) to another. This may have stunted Garruk's development. Garruk then grew up relatively feral, living alongside the many beasts he found.

Eventually, Garruk would take up hunting game for noble means, using the meat for food, the pelts for warmth, and the rest with respect in other ways. But, in time, Liliana VessLiliana Vess cursed Garruk inexplicably to be afflicted with a malady that only murder would seem to satiate.

Garruk became a serial hunter of Planeswalkers. Even during War of the Spark, the mad Draconic Planeswalker Nicol BolasNicol Bolas made sure that Garruk could not hear his beacon. That beacon attracted every other Planeswalker to Ravnica; to summon Garruk would provide him with a safari's worth of game, so to speak, which would, in turn, ruin Bolas's plans to steal their sparks.

For a while, Garruk didn't get a lot of story representation. This changed during Throne of Eldraine, wherein Oko frees him of Liliana's curse but makes Garruk subservient to Oko in turn. As a fae-cursed Planeswalker, Oko mistreated Garruk, who Oko refers to many times as his literal pet. There's a degree of humiliation here that Garruk probably doesn't deserve either, but my beef is more with the egregious amount of curses Garruk has had to withstand.

Garruk's Poor Story Characterization

It also doesn't exactly help that in certain cards, the art characterizes Garruk in a way that is unbefitting of a game for ages 13+. Triumph of Ferocity was a mistake, artwise (and thus I'm not adding a link to said art). Many players seem to look at that card with the mindset that it depicts an undue sort of violence. I agree, though it probably wasn't the artist's intent. To spare those who are dealing with trauma stemming from similar violence, I'm not including that art here.

Nevertheless, Wizards of the Coast slightly compounded the issue by giving Garruk an extended sabbatical from the Magic Gatewatch saga.

With that, the article is almost at a close. Which character in the Magic: The Gathering story is my #1 pick for most deserving of a better fate?

#1. Dyfed

Horizon Boughs. Illustrated by Jean-Sebastien Rossbach. Image credit: Wizards of the Coast

Potentially the oldest character in our timeline for this series, Dyfed was a character who, naively, showed the Thran healer known as Yawgmoth a great number of other planes of existence. Pyrulea was one of the planes she showed to the ambitious future ruler of Phyrexia. This plane only has two confirmed representations in cards: Horizon BoughsHorizon Boughs, a plane from Planechase, and the original art for Horizon CanopyHorizon Canopy.

As for Dyfed, she has no representation whatsoever. The novel she features in, The Thran, is scarcely represented in any cards in the first place, save for Yawgmoth, Thran PhysicianYawgmoth, Thran Physician, Glacian, Powerstone EngineerGlacian, Powerstone Engineer, and Rebbec, Architect of AscensionRebbec, Architect of Ascension. But this isn't about them, so much as it is about Dyfed's missing card. She's very much absent from Magic's card-centric canon.

Dyfed's Unfortunate Fate

When we think about Dyfed in the storyline, however, things get even worse for this early-canon Planeswalker. Yawgmoth lobotomized Dyfed upon her return to Phyrexia, preventing her from planeswalking away. And then, Yawgmoth's followers do something arguably worse: they vivisect Dyfed's body. Yawgmoth, looking for some physical organ that houses a Planeswalker's spark, cannot retrieve it from Dyfed. Eventually, Rebbec saves Dyfed from a fate worse than death by killing the Phyrexian priests doing the vile deed, allowing Dyfed to finally pass away.

When I, as a reader, consider the cruel end to Dyfed's life, I wince at the idea of lobotomy and vivisection. This, paired with the guild Dyfed must feel for allowing Yawgmoth to see that planes beyond Dominaria exist, is a painful consideration. That's why I've put Dyfed as my #1 pick in this article.

I can't necessarily compare her pain with that of Squee, whom we covered in the previous article. However, Dyfed has a fairly good case for her being even more tortured.

Conclusion

As a closing statement, I find that there are plenty of other Magic characters that are undeserving of their fate, their bad writing, or other factors that afflict their characterization in the form. However, for other characters to truly shine, Wizards of the Coast's creative team will always have to make some sacrifices.

Perhaps, in the end, it's only right that ten or so characters are shunted to the sidelines or treated worse than others. Time will tell if any of the characters I've mentioned in either article will get justice in any way. Hopefully, they will! It's a matter of time, in many ways.

In the meantime, how do you feel about this list? Are there still any characters within Magic's extensive story that you feel got the short end of the stick? Alternatively, what about characters that got it too well? Sound off below!