Magic: the Gathering’s newest plane has a particular peculiarity that we’ve never really seen before: this plane was not originally inhabited. The plane instead gained all of its inhabitants thanks to the Omenpaths.
For reference, the Omenpaths, while first introduced in Kaldheim, were unleashed upon the Multiverse as part of the consequences in March of the Machine. After the Phyrexian tried to invade the entire Multiverse and failed, the Omenpaths opened up thanks to their meddling. This opened up Planar travel to all characters – not just Planeswalkers.
The result is the possibility of a story like the one currently unraveling in Thunder Junction; a plane full of villains from previous stories all coming together for a massive heist.
While many of these MTG villains appeared in recent stories, there is one who has not. Kaervek will be helping Oko with his antics, but we have not seen this character in quite some time. Who is he?
MTG Kaervek
Of all the MTG characters to return in the second chapter of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, Kaervek appears to be the one that players know the least about. This is not surprising since the character is a rather old villain from a rather old plane.
To be clear, Kaervek is a villain relating to Zhalfir. For a long time, Zhalfir had absolutely nothing to do with the MTG story as Teferi, a popular Planeswalker, accidentally Phased Out his home world in an attempt to save it. This is depicted on Teferi’s Protection, an incredibly popular Commander card.
The events of March of the Machine, however, reveal that Teferi managed to find Zhalfir after years of searching. He was then able to Phase In the plane, replacing its position with Phyrexia. This allowed Teferi to Phase In his home plane will eliminating the Phyrexian threat.
When Zhalfir Phased back in, even though only a decade had passed for the plane, it was discovered that Kaervek’s prison had been broken and he had escaped. He used an Omenpath to leave the plane of Zhalfir.
Kaervek’s Cards
Mentions of Kaervek started appearing on MTG cards as early as 1996 in Mirage. While Kaervek himself did not get a card until much later, a few instants and sorceries in Rakdos colors were printed with his namesake. These include Kaervek’s Haze, Kaervek’s Spite, Kaervek’s Torch and Kaervek’s Purge.
Karvek, the Merciless was eventually printed in Time Spiral. That card has seen a couple reprints, recently appearing in Double Masters 2022.
Kaervek, the Spiteful, another variant of this Legendary creature, appeared in core set 2021. This is the only printing of the card and, while it does not see much play currently, was somewhat popular when it was Standard legal. Notably, this one-off appearance has no story significance.
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Why Now?
Kaervek has been reconfirmed to appear in Outlaws of Thunder Junction thanks to the new chapter released today at the time of writing this article. Unique imagery for the character means that Kaervek is likely to even have his own card.
Kaervek was not the only card confirmed to appear on Thunder Junction thanks to this chapter. Satoru Umezawa, Tinybones, Vraska, Oko, Kellan, Ral Zarek, Ashiok, Eriette, Breeches, Malcolm, Rakdos, Gisa and Geralf, and even more characters from recent tales will be making appearances on Thunder Junction. This certainly has some War of the Spark vibes to it, and has already been confirmed to be the end of the current arc. It will be interesting to see what transpires.
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