Welcome back, Loreseekers! There's a lot to talk about this time around, and I can't possibly contain it all in one article. I'll be addressing most of the Legends and Battles of the set separately, so for today let me talk about (almost) everything else! With that out of the way, let's dive in!

The Flavor Gems of MOM

Golden-Scale Aeronaut, along with the rest of the Project Golden Scale cards, shows off how Kaladesh is fighting back: with dinobots! A fan-favorite idea from years ago when Saheeli Rai and Huatli first met, it is now made manifest. Inspired Charge shows off a Zhalfirin attack force, led by a knight of griffin-back! Griffins are an important and revered symbol of Zhalfir due to their association with the sun. If you look back at the sets Mirage and Visions, you'll notice that griffins have a prominent role.

Kithkin Billyrider is a callback to the knights of meadowgrain in Lorwyn, who were kithkin mounted on goats! The Knight subtheme continues with stuff like Knight of the New Coalition, which shows that Dominaria is well-prepared to fight back after Sheoldred's invasion in Dominaria United. The forewarning means that the New Coalition is already organized and ready. We don't see a ton of Dominaria in this set, in large part because we were just there.

Knight-Errant of Eos by Kevin Sidhara

Knight-Errant of Eos is a nod to Elspeth's first appearance on Alara as the Knight-Errant. This Bant character is wearing armor very similar to Elspeth's own, making it a very cute nod. Another nod to this is Sigiled Sentinel, which even has Elspeth emblazoned on his shield, not unlike Dauntless Escort did way back in the day.

Phyrexian Awakening shows the Glistening Oil reactivating Phyrexian Planar Portal ships. It was already a theme in Dominaria United that Sheoldred was reusing old Phyrexian technology, and it's neat to see this hallmark of the first invasion return!

Scrollshift features the return of a flavor text character from Strixhaven: School of Mages: Bim from Serpentine Curve. There are a lot of flavor text character callbacks in this set, very deliberately. I'll call out a few more as we go.

Sunder the Gateway shows Realmbreaker smashing a merge gate on Kamigawa, NOT the Parhelion II, although it looks similar. I've seen people mistakenly conflate the two, and I'm happy to say that Parhelion II is safe (as far as we know).

Surge of Salvation by Dominik Mayer

Surge of Salvation shows off the moment the angels of New Capenna poured into other planes to enhance their defenders with halo. You can see it happening in many of the cards throughout the set. One element I think this preview season didn't highlight is that there are in fact stages of the invasion, and you can often tell which stage is which. There are many cards that are 'portents' of the invasion, taking place before the Invasion proper, and then we see early stages of the invasion itself, with later stages featuring more of Realmbreaker in the background. It finally culminates in this moment, and you can see the Halo-empowered cards as the end of the invasion.

Tarkir Duneshaper // Burnished Dunestomper features a Dromoka clan Ainok. On the front we have a quote from Baihir, who was a Dragons of Tarkir flavor text character, and on the back we hear an opposing philosophy from Benzir, who was an early convert to New Phyrexia during the Scars of Mirrodin block.

Zhalfirin Lancer is mounted on a war rhino, and while we've seen rhinos in Jamuraa before, this is the first time we've seen them mounted by the Zhalfirins, who historically have preferred horses. That's more of a design aesthetic, the art direction of Mirage and Visions wasn't thinking about unusual and fun mounts yet.

Artistic Refusal is just a fun halo-infused paint bomb battle against a giant Phyrexian. Chrome Host Seedshark is a Phyrexian Shark Typhoon. Complete the Circuit shows off Quintorius, Loremaster's spark igniting. Corruption of Towashi shows off Tamiyo, Compleated Sage's terrifying magic deployed against Kamigawa.

Ephara's Dispersal shows off Ephara fighting back against a compleated god, in this case Erebos, God of the Dead! Halo-Charged Skaab reminds me of a very fun fact about Skaabs on Innistrad: Viscus Vitae, the liquid used to animate these stitched-together zombies, is a mixture of lantern oil and angel blood! Definitely has some implications here, doesn't it? An angel-blood powered zombie gets a halo power up.

Meeting of Minds is proof of life for Niambi, who is weaving magic with other Femeref clerics to fight Phyrexia. Protocol Knight's flavor text references new laws undoubtedly written by the Azorius after the War of the Spark, namely those against invading the plane without filling out the proper paperwork!

Wicked Slumber shows off how Eldraine finally fights back against the Phyrexians, with a magical slumber. Xerex Strobe-Knight is... well Xerex is a weird place and I'm sure they're just happy to be remembered. Archpriest of Shadows is a priest of Liesa, Shroud of Dusk, she even has a staff like her archangel's! Compleated Huntmaster is another great Lorwyn card, and I'd like to take a moment to remind everyone that one of the highest castes in Lorwyn elf society is that of the Perfect. They're very focused on physical youth and beauty.

Deadly Derision by Gaboleps

Deadly Derision brings with it proof of life for Daretti! I missed my boy so much, and I'm so happy to see him here! He, however, is not happy to see these Phyrexians. Dreg Recycler shows how the Converter Beasts are rapidly compleating planar residents. I've seen a lot of questions about how New Phyrexia managed this invasion, and the truth is the actual invasion forces were small, they just turned the locals as they went! Etched Familiar is a callback to Filigree Familiar, down to the curio vendor Chammi's flavor text. Ichor Shade is one of the first cards we've seen of Tolvada, Kaya's home plane.

Beamtown Beatstick is just a fun name. It depicts a crowbar, or more accurately a Halligan Bar, blessed with Halo. For making sure no unwanted accidents occurs, you know? Onakke Javelineer has some deep lore connotations. When last we saw The Chain Veil, it was offered as proof of Liliana Vess's death and taken to be stored away safely in a Ravnica vault with other cursed artifacts. The flavor text here indicates that with Realmbreaker's incursion, the power in the Veil has returned to Shandalar, where the Onakke, the ancient extinct ogres who created the Veil, are stirring once more.

Ral's Reinforcements is proof of life for fan favorite storm mage Ral Zarek. We haven't seen much of him this arc, other than the Ravnica side story, so it's good to get an appearance! Atraxa's Fall shows what happens when you don't pay the Riveteers the protection money they're owed. Accidents happen. It'd be a real shame if that happened to you, too. Crystal Carapace is hinted at in other cards, but this is confirmation that Ikoria's adaptation to deal with the Phyrexians were new crystal growths that resisted completion.

Cosmic Hunger shows us that Koma, Cosmos Serpent was completed! Oh no! Ozolith, the Shattered Spire shows us that The Ozolith, which shattered at the end of The Sundered Bond (the novella for Ikoria), has begun to regrow/repair.

Tandem Takedown shows us the story moment from Ikoria's side story, where Vivien and Vadrok kill the compleated Lukka. War Historian is referencing the Kami War, in which beings from seemingly another world wreaked havoc on Kamigawa for years. Thanks to the Living Historians, everyone was aware of dangers from outside their plane and were more ready to respond than other planes.

Mutagen Connoisseur shows us how, unfortunately, Ravnica's Simic and Izzet guilds had many members fall to compleation due to their own curiosity. Oops! Halo Hopper is a cute Papercraft Decoy reference, this one powered up by Halo to fight back! Phyrexian Archivist is a direct reference to Cogwork Archivist. And finally, Windscarred Crag is a reference to the Temple of Serra at Epityr, as shown on Clifftop Retreat. Elesh Norn has replaced Serra's image with her own.

Moving on to MOM Commander, Darksteel Splicer shows a Blightsteel Colossus in the background. Blight Titan is a compleated Sun Titan. Dance with Calamity is an amusing note that Innistrad is used to Apocalypses at this point. Conclave Sledge-Captain seems to be wielding a Behemoth Sledge, but Ravnica-fied. Finally, Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus is a completed version of Sword of the Animist.

That's all I have time for this week folks! Next week I'll be back with Legends, and then later, Battles!