March of the Machine storytelling is in full swing, and the consequences of the Phyrexian war have been high. High-profile characters have been dying left and right, so much so that some of the more ambiguous scenes have needed clarification from the authors. This article will cover the confirmed death of yet another Planeswalker character that we did not cover in our previous article discussing the recent MTG storyline. For those who want to read the March of the Machine story yourself, consider this your spoiler warning.
An Ambiguous Death Confirmed
In our recent article highlighting character deaths, we discussed the death of Sheoldred, Tamiyo, and Lukka. Sheoldred was killed off by Elesh Norn for contesting her rule, Tamiyo was tragically killed while in front of her adopted son, and Lukka got chewed up by Vadrok, who is one of my favorite cards in all of Magic: the Gathering.
The sheer volume of character deaths has some players questioning the more ambiguous scenes. One of those deaths being suspected is Tibalt’s supposed death back in Phyrexia: All Will Be One’s storyline after getting Compleated.
In that story, Tyvar killed Tibalt in an absolutely brutal fashion, but Tibalt’s actual death could be interpreted as misleading. Well, a recent confirmation from March of the Machine author seanmcguire on Tumblr confirms that Tibalt is dead. After user amateurauteur asked regarding the character’s fate, this is the response they received:
“Yes.
Tyvar deserved a little vengeance for Kaldheim, as a treat.
Now, I am not the franchise owner (wow would some things be big different if I were!), so I can’t guarantee he stays dead, but as of right now, Tibalt is very, very dead, and Tyvar is very, very smug. Or. Y’know. Would be, if he weren’t about to be overrun by an army of Phyrexians.”
seanmcguire
He’s Dead… For Now
An interesting thing to note from the March of the Machine author’s response is that while Tibalt is confirmed dead for now, he may not be dead forever. Many MTG players suspect a sort of Deus Ex Machina ending for March of the Machine that will resurrect and cure Compleation for a variety of Planeswalkers, but that has not yet been confirmed in the story. Many Redditors commend the brutality of Tyvar’s execution of Tibalt:
“Stabbed through the heart, snapped his neck and Palpatine-Thrown over the railing.
Tyvar took ALL the measures to guarantee Tibalt would die. GOOD JOB TYVAR!”
TheAnnibal
That said, some Redditors were quick to point out, especially based off of the reply of the March of the Machine author, that treating Tibalt as permanently dead will not do anyone any favors:
“Not to get too meta here, but I think it’s both true that Tibalt is currently intended to be dead and true that there’s no purpose, from a storytelling perspective, to treat Tibalt like he’s permanently dead.
Killing a character by doing something seemingly lethal and throwing them off a cliff/bridge where there’s no way to discover their body is the almost stereotypical ur-example of leaving yourself narrative space to say that the character lived.”
Milskidasith
Wizards of the Coast’s storytelling has, basically, left themselves open to do a variety of things with Tibalt’s fate. Sure, he’s dead right now, but that doesn’t mean he will be dead forever. As Redditor Jazzlike-leg-9763 states: “dead characters return regularly over the course of Magic’s story.”
Another common point of review was that, despite Tibalt becoming Compleated in the Phyrexia: All Will Be One story, we never got a Compleated copy of the Planeswalker. This hits a bit similarly to the death of Dack Fayden, who didn’t have a Planeswalker card remotely around his death. At least Tibalt appeared in the form of Valki shortly before he was Compleated. This could be a further suggestion that Tibalt may return in the future. For now, however, he is dead.
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Today’s Story Developments
Two new side stories for March of the Machine were released today detailing the Phyrexian invasion of Innistrad and Eldraine. While Eldraine’s ending was a bit ambiguous, with Rankle potentially biting the dust, there weren’t any significant character deaths in the Innistrad story. We do know that Innistrad seems to have successfully fended off the Phyrexian invasion for now, but Eldraine’s conclusion is still shrouded in mystery. It seems that Rankle’s last-ditch effort to save Eldraine may have worked, but the story’s ending was far too ambiguous. We also saw the Compleation of Ayara, Queen of Locthwain, but the bizarre fate of the queen, hinted at by the spoiling of her art titled: Ayara, Furnace Queen, suggesting that she is marrying Urabrask, was not seen in the story. There’s a lot more that happened than just this very short summary. We recommend reading it for yourself.
Until we get more of the main story, however, it seems significant character deaths have taken a break… for now.
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