The Vorthos Cast

We're going beyond time and space and into the world of Doctor Who with this special Beyond the Multiverse episode! Friend of the show and long-time Resident Doctor Who Expert on our Discord, Evan (@heavenlyevan on most social media) joined us today to give us a beginner-friendly guide to this 60-year-old British TV show. If you've never seen an episode of Doctor Who and want to know what's up with all these oddly dressed medical professionals with screwdrivers, this is the Beyond the Multiverse for you! If you'd like to be a companion for our show, you can support us on Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast, where $1 gives you access to our discord, a small amount of support that gets you into something much bigger on the inside, and you can even use that access to pester Evan with questions about the Doctors and all their companions! For $3 a month, you can listen to us as we record these episodes live. If you want to hear Evan discuss one of his all-time favorite moments from Doctor Who, you can listen t

The Story Circle meets once again to discuss one of Magic's heaviest stories, Cowardice of the Hero by Matt Knicl. This story from 2014 tackles incredibly heavy themes of family abuse and trauma, while serving as a preview article for a forgotten rare from a small, middle set of the Theros block. We ask: What does this story want to tell us? Would this story be published today? This episode includes a full reading of the short story, from about 9:09 to 26:07. You can also read the full story on the Magic website at https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/cowardice-hero-2014-01-22. Unlike previous Story Circle texts, this story is still available where it was originally posted, but this may not always be the case. Preserving media is an integral part of appreciating media. If you enjoy this episode, you can let us know on Twitter at Twitter.com/TheVorthosCast, or you can join our Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast and share your thoughts on our patron-only Discord server.

Our Story Circle continues as we discuss another long-lost piece of Magic web fiction: Eater of the Infinite, from the Encyclopedia Dominia. This piece of web fiction was shared online in 1996 and written by an unknown author. It tells the story of why the Serendib Efreet looks like that, and it stands as an example of some of the earliest worldbuilding done for a Magic setting outside of Dominaria. This episode includes a full reading of the short story, from about 6:45 to 16:01. You can also read the full story archived on the Wayback Machine, or on the MTGLore website at https://mtglore.com/web-fiction/eater-of-the-infinite/. This story was once made available on the Wizards Magic website, but has since been lost. If you enjoy this episode, you can let us know on Twitter at Twitter.com/TheVorthosCast, or you can join our Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast and share your thoughts on our patron-only Discord server.

This week we're beginning our Story Circle, a series of episodes aimed at reading and discussing pre-Origins Magic fiction, including some pieces of what may be considered lost lore. For our first episode, we read and discuss War's Wage, a piece of web fiction released in the lead-up to Saviors of Kamigawa in 2005, written by famous early Magic author Jeff Grubb. This episode includes a full reading of the short story, from 5:45 to 25:12. You can also read the full story archived on the Wayback Machine, or on the MTGLore website at https://mtglore.com/web-fiction/wars-wage/. This story was once made available on the Wizards Magic website, but has since been lost. If you enjoy this episode, you can let us know on Twitter at Twitter.com/TheVorthosCast, or you can join our Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast and share your thoughts on our patron-only Discord server.

You might be shocked to learn that a set with a strong Food theme has a lot of Flavor Gems! We dive into this bounty of tasty cards and come out stuffed to the gills with gems to share with you. Hopefully you're satiated by this veritable feast of fairy-tale themed cards! If you enjoy our podcast, consider supporting us on Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast, where just $1 a month gets you access to our Discord channel where Vorthoses from around the world are reacting to the incredible story unfolding every day. For $3 a month you get access to our live listen, where you can hear the unedited podcast as we record it days before it goes live!

Seanan McGuire joins us once again, but this time not as (Hugo Award Winning) author of (Hugo Award Nominated) Magic Story, but instead as a subject matter expert on Fairy Tales! Seanan has a degree in fairy tales and herpetology, or as she calls it, a "degree in dragons." We discuss some of the history behind the fairy tales represented in Eldraine, including a short aside about venomous snakes and venomous candies. Thanks to rough internet connections, some audio may be hard to hear or skip a bit. We're sorry, but trying to control the whims of the internet is like trying to court a fae. We're just glad no one was turned into an elk. If you want to support our show, you can contribute to our Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast, where $1 a month is an incredible bit of support that we will appreciate so very much, and it also gives you access to our Discord server! For $3 a month, you can listen to us record live, and if Seanan is our guest you're likely to see a cute kitten!

We are joined once again by Magic author (and Star Wars author, and novelist, and all around very cool person) K Arsenault Rivera! Fresh off her incredible story for March of the Machine, Arsenault Rivera gave us yet another excellent installment of Magic fiction with Wilds of Eldraine. We discuss what it's like writing such different stories back to back, how she put some of herself into Kellan, and why she named the goose Albiorix. Also, yes, we talk about Star Wars for the first 10 minutes of this podcast. Listen to figure out why! If you want to support our show, you can contribute to our Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast, where $1 a month is an incredible bit of support that we will appreciate so very much, and it also gives you access to our Discord server! For $3 a month, you can listen to us record live, where we sometimes spend 20 minutes just talking about The Jersey Shore before recording.

Kellan must defeat the final two witches in order to save Eldraine from the Wicked Slumber, while Rowan comes face to face with her brother and all the mistakes she's made. The cast discusses the story, the implications of Kellan's birth father's identity, and possibilities for the future of Magic story with this first foray into the new world of Omenpaths. If you like our podcast and would like to support us on our quest to summarize and discuss all things Magic story, you can do that at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast! But more importantly, you should go read the stories for the set. They're quite good. Episode 4: Ruby and the Frozen Heart - https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/episode-4-ruby-and-the-frozen-heart Episode 5: Broken Oaths - https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/episode-5-broken-oaths

The Kindly Lord Talion, High Lord of the Fae, has sent us on a quest to discuss the story of Wilds of Eldraine! This week we're discussing the first three episodes of the story as Kellan, half-fae adventurer from origins as mysterious as they are sheepish, takes on the task of defeating three witches who maintain a choking slumber on all the realms. Meanwhile, Rowan is having a very bad time. If you like our podcast and would like to support us on our quest to summarize and discuss all things Magic story, you can do that at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast! But more importantly, you should go read the stories for the set. They're quite good. Episode 1: Pure of Heart - https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/episode-1-pure-of-heart Episode 2: Wandering Knight, Budding Hero - https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/episode-2-wandering-knight-budding-hero Episode 3: Two Great Banquets - https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/episode-3-two-great-banquets Actually reading the story is the best wa

At GenCon, Wizards of the Coast announced Magic products going all the way out to 2026! There were so many exciting sets announced that we wanted to do an episode covering all of them, including some sets that don't even have names yet! Can we interest you in a Cowboy Oko? Maybe a Shilgengar? How about a Final Fantasy set for you Warriors of Light? Also, since the story for Wilds of Eldraine is ongoing (and we'll talk about it next week!) we wanted to do a very brief backstory on the plane as we know it. That comes much later in the episode, so if you want to just hear that Eldraine talk, jump to 42:30. If you enjoy what we do here and want to be a part of supporting us (and also talking endlessly about Baldur's Gate 3), you can throw us $1 on Patreon (Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast) for access to our Discord server! For $3 you can listen to us record live, getting you the episode 4 days early!

Commander Masters had everything a Vorthos could want: Exciting new art for our favorite legends, new flavor text with bits of lore, new cards for old characters, and also there's Commodore Guff. That's right, me, Commodore Guff, finally got my own card! How does that make you feel, Chris? You said it would never happen, and yet here I am, writing your episode description, pointing out how wrong you were once again. You'll learn to respect your elders some day. What was I saying? Oh yes, this is another one of their flavor gems episodes. Please enjoy it, or whatever it is you do with these casts of pods. If you like their silly show, and you want to support them for some reason or another, you can sign up for their Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast. They never show me, Commodore Guff, any respect, even though I outrank every single one of them. But you can show them a few dollars a month.

Two hosts, two topics! This week, Cary and Chris look back on the Boom! Studios run of Magic comics, what they believe made these comics great and what could have been done better. They also discuss Adrift, A Lost Planeswalker Zine, a project by Cary to showcase Magic fanworks about underserved planeswalkers. What makes exciting Magic fanfiction, and why is the Magic multiverse a perfect world for fanfiction authors to explore? If you enjoy our podcast, please support us at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast, where $1 a month gets you access to our Discord server! We have a channel just for custom card designs, fanfiction, fanart, and queso recipes!

School's back in session and this week we're giving you what you need to know about Planeswalkers! What you'll need to know for the quiz: What is a planeswalker? How have planeswalkers changed over the years? Who are some of the major planeswalker characters? Does Ajani use a litter box? If you enjoy our podcast and want to support it, you can do that at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast where $1 a month gets you access to our Discord server, a great place to go with questions you may have about the story of Magic to get real answers from cool people! $3 a month will get you in on our live listen, where you can listen to us record every week!

Thank you to Wizards of the Coast for our preview cards for Commander Masters! Shelter, with new art from Alayna Danner, and Urza, Lord High Artificer, with a new borderless profile art by Grant Griffin!

This is one of our most exciting episodes yet! The cast chats with Story Lead for Magic the Gathering Roy Graham about how the story is made and the trials of March of the Machine and its Aftermath. We get answers to some of the most pressing community questions, including why the narrative was best served by the Great Desparkening and how the future of story opens up with the Omenpaths. We'll be back next week with more Magic Story 101! And if you're confused why we bring up pineapples so much in this episode, it's our codeword for when interviewees want us to cut the conversation to avoid any major spoilers. No pineapples were cut in the making of this episode. If you'd like to support our podcast, please do! We can be found on Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast, where $1 a month gets you access to our Discord server and $3 a month gets you into our live-listen tier, where you can hear the episodes recorded live! This week, live-listeners got to hear about Roy's League of Legends history.

Where exactly do you start reading Magic story? We're going to give you suggestions on where you should start your Vorthos journey and all the different paths you can take to enjoying the 30 year history of Magic's story! This is part 1 in a multi-part series covering the basics of Magic story! Look out for more episodes this summer as we cover the basic story facts you'll need to get into the story with Wilds of Eldraine! If you enjoy our podcast, consider supporting us on Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast! Jay's Reddit post on where to get started: https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgvorthos/comments/yynavh/magic_story_resources_read_this_first/ Cary's Website and Where To Start guide: https://mtglore.com/where-to-start-with-magic-story/

The March of the Machine left holes in the very fabric of the multiverse, and the future looks uncertain in big and small ways. We're taking this week to discuss what these changes might mean for the future of the multiverse and its inhabitants. What does a future of Omenpaths look like? How does knowledge of a multiverse challenge the foundation of a plane's religions? We'll find out soon enough, but for now, we speculate! If you enjoy our podcast, consider supporting us on Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast, where even $1 a month gets you access to our Discord server and helps us keep our episodes coming out. For $3 a month, you can hear the episodes recorded live, and all the fun conversations before and after the show that get cut!

We're not really qualified to give in-depth lore tidbits about Lord of the Rings cards. So we didn't. If you liked what this was, you can support us on Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast! $1 a month gives access to our Discord server, and $3 a month means you can listen to us record episodes of the podcast live.

We knew we had to have Don Marshall (@DonMarshall72 on TikTok and every other platform) on the show as soon as we knew we were going to be talking about Lord of the Rings! Don is an incredible source of Lord of the Rings lore facts on TikTok, and also just a delightful human being. In what turned into one of our longest episodes yet, we talk about Lord of the Rings, Magic: the Gathering, a little Warhammer, and aside about what it means to be positive in a culture so inundated with negativity, and then Loreley gives a full plot summary of Foulmere, the Magic short story that gives us the planeswalker Vram. If you want to follow Don, you should! You can find him on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@donmarshall72! He's got some really rad pride merch with profits benefiting the Trevor Project and you can buy it by following his linktree: linktr.ee/DonMarshall72 If you want to support our podcast, you can do that on Patreon! Find us at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast. We appreciate all of you so much. You're all strands of

It's time to celebrate our 250th episode by taking questions from you, our listeners, once again! This episode has only the hottest takes and most scandalous Vorthos thoughts, such as which planeswalkers would cronch rocks. It's an incredible experience releasing our 250th episode of the Vorthos Cast and our eighth mailbag episode! And we've got so many more lore episodes planned and coming your way! Thank you all so much for your support. We'd never have gotten to episode 250 without our listeners. If you want to support the podcast, you can find us on Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast! Joining our $1 a month tier gets you access to our Discord server, and with the $3 tier you can listen to the episode as we record it live!