The story of accompanying the new Brothers' War set had some surprisingly deep continuity references, so I thought it would be fun to do another round of annotations. Hopefully you'll also find it interesting. And hopefully I can get through the article without too many confusing sentences despite the set The Brothers' War having a story called The Brothers' War which frequently references the novel called The Brothers' War, all of them covering the in-universe event called the Brothers' War...
Before I get into the annotations, a quick review: I thought this story was amazing. Recent Magic stories have often been way too rushed, especially the ones covering planewide wars (Kaldheim, Dominaria United), and the Brothers' War is a complex multi-decade conflict, so I was wondering how it was going to go. Add to that the possible continuity snafu's that are always lurking with a time travel plot, and things could've gone pretty bad. Especially for me, as The Brothers' War is still my favorite Magic story of all time.
Luckily, and I think bravely, WotC decided not to retell the Brothers' War story at all, instead giving us a collection of much more personal stories that build on the established continuity! They cover all the characterization and character interaction I thought was sorely missing from Dominaria United, and go for a level of continuity references that's genuinely impressive. I also love how the ghost of Urza hangs over all the stories, even the ones where you wouldn't expect it (like with Tezzeret wondering about Karn's creator), which subtly but powerfully builds up to him finally appearing in person in the finale.
I do wonder if more casual fans feel cheated by not getting the whole story of the war though. If I were WotC I'd have plastered links to a discounted version of the e-book of The Brothers' War all over my sites and social media. (Or released it for free, but you know, that's not the world we're living in.)
Okay. Now let's dive into the specific references!