Why is atraxa witch-maw?
Lore forum
Posted on Jan. 26, 2025, 5:02 p.m. by Bookrook
I’ve wondered for a while why atraxa was . It could be because urabrask was a traitor, but then again every praetor but vorinclex ended up betraying elesh norn. By that logic, would we finally have a pure villain? The only other reason I can think of is so that you can’t play All Will Be One in her commander deck.
I just finished reading the lore for MOM about a month ago. Still so mad over it…
January 27, 2025 10:16 a.m.
What do you think could possibly save the "story" of the Phyrexians? I have an idea that could serve as a prompt: Commodore Guff is back at his old tricks of messing with the Phyrexians - this time preventing their victory against the multiverse. When Phyrexia was at war with Dominaria, Guff literally rewrote the book the reader was reading to undo the original timeline of a Phyrexian victory as depicted in Guff Rewrites History.
January 27, 2025 4:04 p.m.
I don’t know guff that well, but would there be a way for that timeline to be reverted? Maybe have a set where new phyrexia is written better? Only problem would be that it would be kind of cheesy for WOTC to go “oh hey, or customers didn’t like this story, let’s change it”. It would be worth it though.
Mortlocke says... #2
The answer to your question on why Atraxa is Witch-Maw was discussed as a small paragraph in an article by the Wizards Creative Team back in 2016. I'll paste the story here to save you a click:
"Atraxa marks the final victory in the Phyrexian conquest of Mirrodin. Once a Mirran angel who opposed Phyrexia's corruption, she was captured while single-handedly protecting a Mirran retreat. The praetor Elesh Norn honored the angel's tenacity with the blessed gift of Phyrexian compleation, inviting other praetors to contribute. Urabrask declined, but Jin-Gitaxias, Sheoldred, and Vorinclex all agreed to join Elesh Norn's efforts, and Atraxa was born—an awe-inspiring testament to Phyrexia's singular purpose." Source.
I guess you could say that from Urabrask abstaining from having a hand in Atraxa's creation was a bit of foreshadowing of his eventual betrayal of the Phyrexian cause. As for all of the Praetors betraying Elesh Norn during the March of the Machines event that's just simply bad writing. Instead of giving us players/vorthos a genuinely interesting story and epic battle where Phyrexia is tested and beaten they were simply Deus Ex Machina'd to shut the whole story down to make way for the next set coming out in like 3 hours. Examples include:
The list goes on and on with all of the serious short comings of March of the Machines' story. The point is Phyrexia wasn't defeated by the collective efforts of the multiverse. They were beaten by rushed hack job writing that simply tore down one of Magic's most historic and greatest villains to jobbers who needed to be used to help flavor the product of the moment. This left a visible stain on Commander's most popular Commander. I'll have to spend some time dragging up the stories for March of the Machines if you actually care to read up on the sources. Let me know and i'll spend the time digging up that tripe. Atraxa is near and dear to my heart and I'm still mad they did baby girl so wrong.
January 26, 2025 10:45 p.m. Edited.