This week we're using data from MTGLore.com to answer the question: What is the most popular Magic story? While it's a very self-selected sample of Magic players, we can glean some insights about what stories are popular with enfranchised readers and see some of the connections between them.

If you'd like to join our Discord server to talk all things Magic, sign up for our Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast, where everyone who pledges a dollar or more a month gets access! For $3 a month, you get access to our live listen, where you can hear the show recorded live on Thursday evenings!

We're hitting the refreshments stand at the Ghirapur Grand Prix and coming away with a heaping armful of delicious flavor gems! Aetherdrift is a set that goes full speed with racing tropes, but there's more to this set than blue shells and pileups. We talk legends, story spotlights, and cards that really show off the worlds of Avishkar, Muraganda, and Amonkhet!

If you'd like to join our Discord server to talk all things Magic, sign up for our Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast, where everyone who pledges a dollar or more a month gets access! For $3 a month, you get access to our live listen, where you can hear the show recorded live on Thursday evenings!

We're rapping up our recaps of the Aetherdrift stories this week with the side story, "Like No Other Beast" by Zachary Olson, and the final three episodes of the main story by K Arsenault Rivera. We also share our thoughts about the overall direction of the story, how well the ending came together, and what might be coming with Tarkir: Dragonstorm.

As always, reading the story explains the story! We love recapping the events and sharing our thoughts, but the stories are better than we can ever explain them so you should go read them!

Like No Other Beast by Zachary Olson: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/aetherdrift-like-no-other-beast

Episode 4: Little-Guy Shortcuts - https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/aetherdrift-episode-4-little-guy-shortcuts

Episode 5: First Over the Line - https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/aetherdrift-episode-5-first-over-the-line

Episode 6: The Bloodless Revolution - https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/aetherdrift-episode-6-the-bloodless-revolution

And don't forget to follow us on BlueSky! We are no longer active on the other site. You can get updates when stories and episodes go live: https://bsky.app/profile/thevorthoscast.bsky.social

If you'd like to join our Discord server to talk all things Magic, sign up for our Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast, where everyone who pledges a dollar or more a month gets access! For $3 a month, you get access to our live listen, where you can hear the show recorded live on Thursday evenings!

This week we're discussing the first half of the Aetherdrift stories: Main set episodes 1 through 3 and the Amonkhet side story, Hour of Restoration. We give a recap of each episode and discuss some of the ways author K Arsenault Rivera's writing captured the feel of a high-speed race while keeping time for the quiet, emotional moments.

As always, it's not enough to just listen to story recaps! Go read the story on the Magic Story website to let Wizards know you value free web fiction!

Episode 1: The Dashing and the Desperate- https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/aetherdrift-episode-1-the-dashing-and-the-desperate

Episode 2: Pit Stop - https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/aetherdrift-episode-2-pit-stop

Episode 3: Go! - https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/aetherdrift-episode-3-go

Hour of Restoration by Hadeer Elsbai - https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/aetherdrift-hour-of-restoration

If you'd like to join our Discord server to talk all things Magic, sign up for our Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast, where everyone who pledges a dollar or more a month gets access! For $3 a month, you get access to our live listen, where you can hear the show recorded live on Thursday evenings!

This week we return to the desert plane of Amonkhet! The last two times we saw this plane, it was destroyed by Bolas and then destroyed by the Phyrexians, but with two years to recover, the people of the plane have found new gods and new purpose, creating a society where the living and undead stand side by side. We cover the history of the plane, some of its most notable inhabitants, and how things have changed and stayed the same since our last visit!

If you'd like to join our Discord server to talk all things Magic, sign up for our Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast, where everyone who pledges a dollar or more a month gets access! For $3 a month, you get access to our live listen, where you can hear the show recorded live on Thursday evenings!

This week begins our coverage of the worlds of Aetherdrift, Magic's multiplanar racing set, and where better to start than the starting line: the plane of Avishkar! This new name isn't a new place, though, as the world formerly known as Kaladesh has undergone a lot of change since we last visited it in Aether Revolt. We take you through the history of the plane, talk about the changes that birthed a new and better world, and run through some legendary names you might see on the track or in the stands during Aetherdrift!

If you'd like to join our Discord server to talk all things Magic, sign up for our Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast, where everyone who pledges a dollar or more a month gets access! For $3 a month, you get access to our live listen, where you can hear the show recorded live on Thursday evenings!

For our last episode of 2024, we have a holiday D&D adventure by Jay! Te'Grimaal (Loreley) and Bob the mailman (Chris) are caught in a Ravnican inn during a snowstorm when some very unusual elves attack. Will they defeat the source of this incursion, or will they be just a couple more names crossed off the naughty list?

Thank you for another year of listening to and supporting our podcast! If you'd like to join our Discord server to talk all things Magic, sign up for our Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast, where everyone who pledges a dollar or more a month gets access! We're looking forward to a 2025 of racing cars, dragons, and going to space!

With the release of Foundations and inspiration from a recent video by Rhystic Studies about the Seventh Edition core set, we decided we'd look at the entire history of Magic's core sets, from the very first set in Alpha all the way to this year's Foundations, to understand how depicting the lore and story of Magic has changed over 31 years.

Watch "The New Iconic" by Rhystic Studies here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtwIj3PnCe8

Thank you all so much for your support over the year! If you'd like to support us with money, you can do that! You still get all the episodes we release even if you don't, but if you do give us $1 a month on Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast, you'll get access to our Discord server, which is a cool place. $3 a month will let you listen to us record the show live on Thursday evenings, which is a very cool thing to do.

We've made it to the end step of the year! Now it's time to cleanup with our thoughts and feelings about all things Vorthos in the year 2024. This year saw murders, cowboys, fluffy little bunnies, and elder demons feasting on our fears. We'll be here in 2025 for a year of racing dragons in space!

Thank you all so much for your support over the year! If you'd like to support us with money, you can do that! You still get all the episodes we release even if you don't, but if you do give us $1 a month on Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast, you'll get access to our Discord server, which is a cool place. $3 a month will let you listen to us record the show live on Thursday evenings, which is a very cool thing to do.

It's time for week two of the Flavor Gems of Foundations, and this week it's all legends! There are so many new legendary creatures and new cards for returning legends in Foundations, between the main set and the accompanying products, that we had to dedicate an entire hour long episode to talking about them! And we didn't even cover all of the reprinted legends!

If you'd like to support the podcast and get access to our Discord server, you can do so at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast! Every member at the $1 a month tier gets access to the Discord and early episode releases, and for $3 a month members can listen to us record the show live!