The March of the Machine story has received… a lot of feedback. The buildup of the looming Phyrexian threat was exciting, but once all the dominoes were placed on the board for an epic final battle, the enemies just kind of died without any resistance. The incredible build-up to a lackluster final battle has aggravated a lot of MTG players. This got to the point where Wizards of the Coast created a video assuring players that, despite the lackluster ending to the March of the Machine story, there are very serious effects due to this war. What many players on Reddit are confused about, however, is the disappearance and offscreen death of one of the most vicious Legendary Creature characters that MTG has ever seen: what happened to Koma, Cosmos Serpent?
What Happened to Koma???
Koma, Cosmos Serpent has a significant impact on MTG play. The card was competitively viable in the Standard format when it was legal and is an absolute menace in Commander. To this day, any time a Koma slams down on a board state in Commander, it threatens warp the entire game since it creates a Coil on every single upkeep.
To what may be many players’ surprise, Koma actually reappeared in March of the Machine. Making things worse, the Phyrexians managed to Compleat the Legendary Cosmos Serpent. Don’t be surprised if this is the first you’ve heard of Koma’s Compleation – it did not get a card.
MTG players instead learned of Koma’s Compleation through Fynn, the Fangbearer’s reappearance in the Multiverse Legends Bonus Sheet releasing as a part of March of the Machine. To kick things up a notch, this card also, for the first time, alerts players that Koma has not only been Compleated, but slain. This is suggested by the Serpent’s appearance in the background of Fynn’s artwork and the flavor text that the card has:
“I always said I had a score to settle with that serpent. I’m a man of my word.”
This flavor text references Fynn’s original appearance in the Kaldheim set:
“Come Koma, and reclaim what you lost! Or does the great serpent fear a rematch?”
For reference, before Koma was Compleated and the Phyrexian invasion began, Fynn was the only Human who ever managed to injure the Cosmos Serpent. His shield, and the reason why Fynn interacts with Poison Counters, is because of the man’s battle against the Cosmos Beast. His shield is actually a scale from the beast from where he successfully injured it. After Fynn successfully stabbed the beast, Koma’s poisonous blood splashed on Fynn and was absorbed into his body, which strangely turned his blood poisonous instead of killing him.
All of the potential of this story was lost when Koma’s was unceremoniously slain offscreen.
Player Response
Taking to Reddit, user FlatWorldliness brought up this point, stating that, as bad as the end of March of the Machine was received, Koma’s off-camera death was what disappointed them the most:
“I know it’s been said multiple times that the MoM conclusion was (so far) really bad. I wanted to share my take on it, since the angle is maybe a bit different.
Koma was an immensely powerful creature that greatly contributed to Kaldheim’s incredible flavor and atmosphere. It was present in the plane’s myths and stories and was always spoken about with grandeur. Now, almost every plane has or had similar beings and I always thought that they were an awesome contribution to worldbuilding.
The snake being compleated and killed “in the background” felt even more disappointing for me than how praetors (or Heliod) were handled.”
FlatWorldliness
Players quickly agreed that Koma’s death was dealt with poorly, but this idea expands much further than just Koma. In fact, a ton of major characters from past stories received incredibly underwhelming last moments:
“In original Theros, Elspeth has a whole set about her quest to kill one of the Theros gods, and she can only do that because she has a weapon from Heliod. Xenagos’s death gets its own rare. It’s a big freaking deal.
In MOM, Kaya just kind of shows up, stabs Heliod, and he dies. This happens in one paragraph, and isn’t mentioned again.
I get that the scale of this set is bigger, but if you can’t handle significant character deaths with any grace at all, your scale is too big.”
AnwaAnduril
A simple interaction with Kaya ended Heliod, a massive villain throughout Theros’s storylines, without any ceremony. The exchange isn’t even outside of normal expectations for the Planeswalker since ‘showing up and stabbing stuff’ is kind of Kaya’s forte. As pointed out by AnwaAnduril, character deaths seem a lot more impactful in previous storylines – with Xenagos’s death even getting it’s own rare. This idea is further expanded upon by other comments:
“I miss the days when characters like Thassa and Kiora would fight. Despite Kiora being this powerful being able to travel other worlds, she almost got her ass handed to her by Thassa. I don’t want characters who feel like they’re using cheat codes, I want them to have arcs and struggle at least a little”
halfghan24
Read More: MTG Players Continue to Lament Spoiler Season Problems
Kaldheim Simply Disappeared?
When players started discussing all of the things that Kaldheim lost throughout the Phyrexian invasion that got little-to-no attention, the Legendary characters just kept adding up. Sarulf, whose Compleation upon the spoiling of an image was a massive deal, is only mentioned in passing on a single uncommon card in the set. Many players, despite many MTG personalities losing their minds on Toski’s Compleation, had no idea the squirrel appeared at all in the storyline.
Players’ issues continue across planes – particularly when discussing a Compleated Etali’s showdown with Zacama. The Phyrexian oil completely corroded one Elder Dinosaur, while Zacama was covered in oil leaking from a fallen Etali after a victorious battle and was completely unaffected. Many players point at the scale of the story being a major issue. Since there was so much ground to cover, many characters with legendary pasts just ended up being swatted by flies. The community has made their stance on this crystal clear. We can only hope that it can lead to better storytelling in the future.
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