The wasted potential of Urabrask

Barring a few questionable decisions, I largely enjoyed the story of All Will be One and March of the Machine. However, it’s clear that they have wasted Urabrask as a character.

First introduced way back in Scars of Mirrodin, Urbrask and his red-aligned faction offered something remarkable: empathy, due to their unique mana alignment. Later in Theros we learn that Norn subjugated his layer precisely due to him allowing rebels to survive there, and New Capenna seemed to go in the direction of outright making him a rebellion against Phyrexia.

Then All Will Be One that not only refuses to give him a POV despiste being an important player, we only hear about him from biased characters like Koth, who naturally want him dead. Then the Planeswalker’s Guide for the setting implies that, despiste preffering willing conversions, he’s still pro-Phyrexia, and the side stories have his underling Slobad using shady tactics for “willing conversions”.

This effectively killed off all that was built in Scars, and it’s a damn shame. His whole contribution in March is an assist to Chandra — once again a biased character — and then dying via torture device.

We could have had not only an unique character but an actual moral quandry on whereas it is possible to co-exist with some form of Phyrexia. Instead, we have the definition of wasted potential.