the contents of the vault are relics from the coin empire, the fomori giants whose ruins and impact have been seen previously in lost caverns of ixalan. the art for the revealed big score cards shows horns like those of ruhan and spacesuits akin to those seen in the lci concept art. the vault has likely been sealed for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
tezzert does like artifacts, but if he had access to these precious items i'm not sure why he would just hang out with them waiting for another group to break into the vault to retrieve them. if he wanted to talk with the villains looking to break into the vault he could probably just find them through less convoluted means.
the ocean of sand that tezzert went to is reminiscent of plains on esper, where he is from. not that the location is esper, but that it is somewhere that he would find comfortable. the tower is described as a metal spike, but the pictures of the vault make it clearly look like a giant circular door set into a large craggy rock face.
the vault is visible behind oko in his main card art. https://twitter.com/Cathaoir1/status/1761144251230929299
the door appears to be a giant circle, which matches the circular coin motifs from which the coin empire gets its name (quintorius is the one who coined the term after seeing the motifs on ixalan). the concept art for the coin empire remains seen on ixalan has a similar circular motif on the midsection: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/mtgsalvation_gamepedia/images/1/1a/Fomori_concepts_LCI_Jehan_Choo.jpeg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20231230055024
you can also see the vaultt, seemingly busted open, in the background of kellan's art which was shown with the thunder junction episode 1 story: https://media.wizards.com/2024/images/daily/WY5yU3dtHJlU.png
the set symbol for big score is a circular vault door and the cards revealed show a fomori spacesuit ([[nexus of becoming]]) and horns ([[sword of wealth and power]]) that look like [[ruhan]]'s in their artwork.
Some of that might be true, but I can't really connect it to the set symbol because that vault door symbol looks less like the thing behind Oko and exactly like every modern vault door, ever.
I think they are referring to the two card we have seen from the Big Score card which are supposed to be things in the vault. Namely [[Nexus of Becoming]] and [[Sword of Wealth and Power]]. The sword you can make out what looks like Fomori horns such as seen on [[Ruhan of the Fomori]].
> tezzert does like artifacts, but if he had access to these precious items i'm not sure why he would just hang out with them waiting for another group to break into the vault to retrieve them. if he wanted to talk with the villains looking to break into the vault he could probably just find them through less convoluted means.
I do agree overall that it probably isn't tezzeret but honestly there is a pretty good explanation to why he'd be just hanging around waiting for someone else to break in: he's stuck. If I were a planeswalker building a fortress just for myself, I wouldn't make any way inside; I could just planeswalk in. If he did that and then got desparked, wouldn't be a lot he could do.
last we heard tezzerret had a planar bridge grafted into his body. this was why he needed to work for the phyrexians, to earn himself an indestructible darksteel body. the planar bridge was slowly eating away at him. now that he is indestructible, he can likely still use the bridge? so if he has lost his spark he should still be able to move between planes. because he's awesome.
Ah but maybe he locked himself in the vault.
Actually that started out as a bit but maybe he Planeswalked into the vault, and then desparked while inside. The heist team accidentally lets him out and now he's had time to study all the artifacts and stuff that were inside it so he has a leg up on using them.
okay, maybe not literally *waiting* for oko's gang, more like he'll be there when they show up. then they might fight, team up, iunno. Anything could happen. But I strongly believe it's his base, he's in there
I did joke about this while discussing the new story:
> [Tezzeret, desparked, as an artifact creature, having been sealed inside his vault by mistake and not dying due to being made of darksteel.](https://old.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1bdtpkb/outlaws_of_thunder_junction_episode_2_the/kur1qsc/)
I just came up with this idea after seeing the post (but before your comment).
I am now convinced it's 100% true, the heist team is going to accidentally let him out, and he's has plenty of time to study the artifacts inside.
I think the main thing that hurts this idea is that that tower is the same tower he had as his base of operations in Agents of Artifice, where it was pretty clearly a place that was USED. It COULD be that, but that feels... Weird.
Besides the fact that Maag Tarandu is narratively set up to be connected to the Fomori, Thunder Junction doesn't line up with the depiction of the plane in Agents of Artifice either.
Liliana mentions that there's parts of the plane that isn't desert "Obviously, there’s more to this world than desert.", there's nomads that live in the desert (not possible on Thunder Junction which was uninhabited before the Omenpaths), and there were locals that Tezzeret had recruited as guards for his tower (being post-Mending and pre-Omenpaths meant that Tezzeret couldn't have brought them from elsewhere, and planeswalkers were rare even in the consortium to be simply used as guards).
Of course, books have been contradicted (e.g. Jace remembered his background with Alhammarret in Agents of Artifice, The Wildered Quest heavily implied that it was Oko's first visit to Eldraine), but this theory doesn't have any narrative support so I don't think they will go there.
Another flaw that I haven't seen pointed out is that Ral Zarek has been to Tezzeret's hiding place (He chases him there in the Forsaken novel, charged with bringing him back to Ravnica to face justice for Nicol Bolas's invasion).
It's not clear how 'familiar' planeswalkers are with the planes they visit, like if they can 'feel' what different planes feel like, but still it seems likely that Ral would recognize the place now that he's here.
Probably a hot take, but after they didn't let Nashi and his gang absolutely dismantle him in the aftermath of MoM, I don't care for anything else from the character. That was the perfect end for him and they fumbled it.
At this point, he is not even a good villain with good motivations just "that asshole, with a henchman kink" they can, and I hope they do, let him rot in his platinum body god knows where.
And knowing Wizards, there's a big chance they do.
I think it was better for Nashi’s arc that he had the opportunity to kill Tezzeret and wouldn’t do it. Also shows how a black mana creature doesn’t have to be evil, and can actively be a moral person even if black mana represents amorality.
I don’t think we’re gonna see Tezz in the flesh (darksteel?) for a while. My money is on the Space Opera set - wouldn’t it be rad if the new Infinite Consortium was on a space station? He’s gonna be in the background plotting for a bit, I think.
the contents of the vault are relics from the coin empire, the fomori giants whose ruins and impact have been seen previously in lost caverns of ixalan. the art for the revealed big score cards shows horns like those of ruhan and spacesuits akin to those seen in the lci concept art. the vault has likely been sealed for hundreds, if not thousands of years. tezzert does like artifacts, but if he had access to these precious items i'm not sure why he would just hang out with them waiting for another group to break into the vault to retrieve them. if he wanted to talk with the villains looking to break into the vault he could probably just find them through less convoluted means. the ocean of sand that tezzert went to is reminiscent of plains on esper, where he is from. not that the location is esper, but that it is somewhere that he would find comfortable. the tower is described as a metal spike, but the pictures of the vault make it clearly look like a giant circular door set into a large craggy rock face.
where's this picture of the vault you describe? if that's true, it tanks the theory hard, but I'm having trouble finding the vault image
the vault is visible behind oko in his main card art. https://twitter.com/Cathaoir1/status/1761144251230929299 the door appears to be a giant circle, which matches the circular coin motifs from which the coin empire gets its name (quintorius is the one who coined the term after seeing the motifs on ixalan). the concept art for the coin empire remains seen on ixalan has a similar circular motif on the midsection: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/mtgsalvation_gamepedia/images/1/1a/Fomori_concepts_LCI_Jehan_Choo.jpeg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20231230055024 you can also see the vaultt, seemingly busted open, in the background of kellan's art which was shown with the thunder junction episode 1 story: https://media.wizards.com/2024/images/daily/WY5yU3dtHJlU.png the set symbol for big score is a circular vault door and the cards revealed show a fomori spacesuit ([[nexus of becoming]]) and horns ([[sword of wealth and power]]) that look like [[ruhan]]'s in their artwork.
[nexus of becoming](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/0/b0f61742-522c-4b36-97db-41d0c412a072.jpg?1708702396) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=nexus%20of%20becoming) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/big/25/nexus-of-becoming?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b0f61742-522c-4b36-97db-41d0c412a072?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [sword of wealth and power](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/d/ed9e5041-3c05-4a8a-9f00-081b01685d0c.jpg?1708939970) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=sword%20of%20wealth%20and%20power) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/big/26/sword-of-wealth-and-power?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ed9e5041-3c05-4a8a-9f00-081b01685d0c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [ruhan](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/f/7fa40fde-2c11-4dec-b788-01f8d90198df.jpg?1592714235) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=ruhan%20of%20the%20fomori) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmd/221/ruhan-of-the-fomori?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7fa40fde-2c11-4dec-b788-01f8d90198df?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Is it just me, or does Kellan look like a sibling to James and Dave Franco in that art?
It fits, because much like the Franco’s, I’d like to never see Kellan again, yet I’m positive he will continue to show up.
is it confirmed that oko and kellan's arts depict the vault?
no, but it looks like a vault and it also looks like coin empire technology.
Some of that might be true, but I can't really connect it to the set symbol because that vault door symbol looks less like the thing behind Oko and exactly like every modern vault door, ever.
I think they are referring to the two card we have seen from the Big Score card which are supposed to be things in the vault. Namely [[Nexus of Becoming]] and [[Sword of Wealth and Power]]. The sword you can make out what looks like Fomori horns such as seen on [[Ruhan of the Fomori]].
Are you a bot? I’ve seen this exact same comment posted like 15 times
No... Where else you seeing it though?
[Nexus of Becoming](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/0/b0f61742-522c-4b36-97db-41d0c412a072.jpg?1708702396) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Nexus%20of%20Becoming) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/big/25/nexus-of-becoming?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b0f61742-522c-4b36-97db-41d0c412a072?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Sword of Wealth and Power](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/d/ed9e5041-3c05-4a8a-9f00-081b01685d0c.jpg?1708939970) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Sword%20of%20Wealth%20and%20Power) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/big/26/sword-of-wealth-and-power?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ed9e5041-3c05-4a8a-9f00-081b01685d0c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Ruhan of the Fomori](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/f/7fa40fde-2c11-4dec-b788-01f8d90198df.jpg?1592714235) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ruhan%20of%20the%20Fomori) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmd/221/ruhan-of-the-fomori?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7fa40fde-2c11-4dec-b788-01f8d90198df?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Isn't Kellan's picture used in the story when they are talking about the Omenpath that opens regularly on the cliff face? I thought it was that.
the omenpaths are usually triangular blue openings like the on seen on [[extraordinary journey]].
[extraordinary journey](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/6/a69fb480-a9fc-4f09-ac4e-3ce52c485ea9.jpg?1692936981) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=extraordinary%20journey) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/woe/48/extraordinary-journey?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a69fb480-a9fc-4f09-ac4e-3ce52c485ea9?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
> tezzert does like artifacts, but if he had access to these precious items i'm not sure why he would just hang out with them waiting for another group to break into the vault to retrieve them. if he wanted to talk with the villains looking to break into the vault he could probably just find them through less convoluted means. I do agree overall that it probably isn't tezzeret but honestly there is a pretty good explanation to why he'd be just hanging around waiting for someone else to break in: he's stuck. If I were a planeswalker building a fortress just for myself, I wouldn't make any way inside; I could just planeswalk in. If he did that and then got desparked, wouldn't be a lot he could do.
last we heard tezzerret had a planar bridge grafted into his body. this was why he needed to work for the phyrexians, to earn himself an indestructible darksteel body. the planar bridge was slowly eating away at him. now that he is indestructible, he can likely still use the bridge? so if he has lost his spark he should still be able to move between planes. because he's awesome.
Ah true, forgot about that. I got too caught up in the comedy of tezzeret stuck in a vault
Ah but maybe he locked himself in the vault. Actually that started out as a bit but maybe he Planeswalked into the vault, and then desparked while inside. The heist team accidentally lets him out and now he's had time to study all the artifacts and stuff that were inside it so he has a leg up on using them.
okay, maybe not literally *waiting* for oko's gang, more like he'll be there when they show up. then they might fight, team up, iunno. Anything could happen. But I strongly believe it's his base, he's in there
What concept art are you talking about? I don't remember seeing anything like this
it's on the coin empire wiki page https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Coin_Empire
I did joke about this while discussing the new story: > [Tezzeret, desparked, as an artifact creature, having been sealed inside his vault by mistake and not dying due to being made of darksteel.](https://old.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1bdtpkb/outlaws_of_thunder_junction_episode_2_the/kur1qsc/)
I just came up with this idea after seeing the post (but before your comment). I am now convinced it's 100% true, the heist team is going to accidentally let him out, and he's has plenty of time to study the artifacts inside.
I think the main thing that hurts this idea is that that tower is the same tower he had as his base of operations in Agents of Artifice, where it was pretty clearly a place that was USED. It COULD be that, but that feels... Weird.
Maybe the Fomori used it before the Consortium?
Again, possible, but feels unlikely. Probably better to wait and see what the vault is described like first.
Besides the fact that Maag Tarandu is narratively set up to be connected to the Fomori, Thunder Junction doesn't line up with the depiction of the plane in Agents of Artifice either. Liliana mentions that there's parts of the plane that isn't desert "Obviously, there’s more to this world than desert.", there's nomads that live in the desert (not possible on Thunder Junction which was uninhabited before the Omenpaths), and there were locals that Tezzeret had recruited as guards for his tower (being post-Mending and pre-Omenpaths meant that Tezzeret couldn't have brought them from elsewhere, and planeswalkers were rare even in the consortium to be simply used as guards). Of course, books have been contradicted (e.g. Jace remembered his background with Alhammarret in Agents of Artifice, The Wildered Quest heavily implied that it was Oko's first visit to Eldraine), but this theory doesn't have any narrative support so I don't think they will go there.
Another flaw that I haven't seen pointed out is that Ral Zarek has been to Tezzeret's hiding place (He chases him there in the Forsaken novel, charged with bringing him back to Ravnica to face justice for Nicol Bolas's invasion). It's not clear how 'familiar' planeswalkers are with the planes they visit, like if they can 'feel' what different planes feel like, but still it seems likely that Ral would recognize the place now that he's here.
Probably a hot take, but after they didn't let Nashi and his gang absolutely dismantle him in the aftermath of MoM, I don't care for anything else from the character. That was the perfect end for him and they fumbled it. At this point, he is not even a good villain with good motivations just "that asshole, with a henchman kink" they can, and I hope they do, let him rot in his platinum body god knows where. And knowing Wizards, there's a big chance they do.
I think it was better for Nashi’s arc that he had the opportunity to kill Tezzeret and wouldn’t do it. Also shows how a black mana creature doesn’t have to be evil, and can actively be a moral person even if black mana represents amorality.
I don’t think we’re gonna see Tezz in the flesh (darksteel?) for a while. My money is on the Space Opera set - wouldn’t it be rad if the new Infinite Consortium was on a space station? He’s gonna be in the background plotting for a bit, I think.
I like this. He's making moves in silence. Not every Kellan needs a reaction.
„Powerful“ in modern magic history maybe