How Powerful is Karn in the Story?
Lore forum
Posted on Feb. 23, 2020, 9:09 a.m. by DemonDragonJ
Karn has now had three planeswalker cards that depict him, and all of them are very powerful, but I am less certain about how powerful he is in the story.
I was following the weekly stories on the website, and Karn did not seem to be much more powerful than any of the other planeswalkers, which makes the power levels of his cards seem rather odd.
What does everyone else say about this? Is is an instance of "gameplay and story segregation?" How powerful is Karn in the story?
Deadpoo111 says... #3
I mean, Karn has been a planeswalker since before the mending. He literally created the world of Mirrodin. In addition, he used to have Urza's, who is arguably one of it not the most powerful planeswalker ever, spark. Now he has venser who was okay? Not super powerful but his Mirrodin card shows us that Karn is incredibly strong. I've sort of not trusted war of the spark novels that paint karn as a golem that just smashes things and I think his arc has been seriously mishandled. In reality, Karn is ridiculously powerful.
February 23, 2020 9:54 a.m.
CastleSiege says... #4
Well, pre-mending Karn created a plane, so I'd say pretty powerful
February 23, 2020 12:33 p.m.
Urza was never the most powerful Planeswalker as he knew no magic or practiced it before hand. However, he was a master engineer. And when the might and weak stones combined in his head when his planeswalker spark igniting, he was granted some extra magical powers. But more importantly, the stones granted him Galacians own knowledge of Artifice, allowing him create great engineering feats so he could destroy Phyrexia. That engineering knowledge is also apart of Karn now.
The first four MTG books, The Brothers War and Planeswalker etc. are great reads and well worth taking a look at.
February 24, 2020 1:23 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #6
Axion, I have read nearly the entire story of Urza, Phryexia, and the Weatherlight; I currently am in the middle of Apocalypse, the final story of the saga, and hope to finish it, soon.
February 24, 2020 10:06 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #7
Axion, also, there were MtG novels before the Artifacts cycle, but those were simply the first to tell a central and epic story; all the previous novels were standalone novels.
February 24, 2020 10:07 p.m.
triproberts12 says... #8
Even if Karn isn't so physically powerful now, he's probably up there with Bolas in terms of sheer knowledge. Karn might not be as old, but Bolas once said the trappings of a mortal body obliterated a good chunk of what he amassed over the years. Karn built time machines, interplanar vessels, and the Mirarai with Urza, lived a few hundred years, fought the Phyrexians twice, and created a plane.
Joe_Ken_ says... #2
Well all planeswalkers except for maybe Liliana, Ugin, and Bolas should be roughly at the same level of power. Karn was a pre mending Planeswalker so he would have been exceedingly more powerful during his first years as a walker than he is now. I think the mending keep most of the planeswalkers at a roughly equalish kinda power and it’s not like in the story Karn has done too many feats of great magic that didn’t require an special artifact of some sort like the cylex. I would say it is meant to be game and story separation why his cards are so good meanwhile in the story he is just sort of alright. Also I wouldn’t use the war of the spark book as a gauge of his powers since it was a thrown together poorly written piece of compared to all the previous stories MTG has.
February 23, 2020 9:20 a.m.