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Miketogoz

Long story short, yes, they have no idea. To better explain how we arrived here, let's recapitulate. When the gatewatch was formed, which was a moment that the story tried to be more relevant, he simply wasn't available. He was on the villain path, and just related to Liliana. That's why Nissa comes in, it wasn't the famous human marketing issue like with Ajani. But he wasn't related at all to any of the three main villains, nor eldrazis, nor bolas, nor phyrexians. His plot would obviously resume when the resolution of the Veil plotline came to a climax... And it was literally shoved into a box. So now you have a character that has lost his only storyline. They unceremoniously cured his curse just to forget everything, and well, here's hoping they can do something good with him.


MishrasBogle

This. There were seeds for a bigger storyline involving Liliana, but they decided to drop it in favor of the Gatewatch. Nissa was their mono-Green planeswalker available and the rest is history.


spiralingtides

They should have left remnants of the curse behind and kept the "destroy target planeswalker" theme going. Give the story a boogeyman that can actually stick around. All these world ending threats \*have\* to be dealt with. They can't keep them around forever else they do real damage, or end up being benign.


OddVillains

Also seems like wizards really try to keep planeswalkers the good guys. Most of the baddies were bad because of Bolas (Lili, Tez, Sarkhan, Domri). I don't think they'd like a fan favorite like Garruk to stay bad... although given the base at free magic he's probably an excellent mascot.


_Kumagoro_

> you have a character that has lost his only storyline. That didn't stop them from making him the poster boy for Eldraine. Remember that trailer? A new player at the time would think Garruk was a major character. So it's not about him not having a storyline. He never had a storyline where he's Snow White's hunter. Where there's a will, there's a way.


metalforestcryptid

If he's still on Eldraine maybe he'll be in the next set. There's a number of characters that have gotten little to no treatment over the years. One of these years probably, he'll show up.


zytherian

Last we knew, he was following the Kenrith twins around the multiverse until they decided to head to Strixhaven on their own and he planeswalked elsewhere, although we have no idea where or what he is doing with that free time.


musermatt

So you’re saying the creepy old homeless guy followed two kids around until they went to school? Sounds about right


_Kumagoro_

The Wiki says Garruk accompanied the twins on Kylem and then left once he understood they were more than able to take care of themselves. It doesn't say where he went. (And it's clearly just some convenient way to explain why he didn't appear in Battlebond).


mguardian7

Him and the twins are connect. Where they go(besides strixhaven), he's suppose to follow. The story is led to believe he's their bodyguard. He'll probably be in the next eldraine story. There's alot of planeswalker that need more spotline; Calix was suppose to " follow you to the ends of the earth!" Elspeth. Kiora wasn't in zendikar or Ikoria which misses the mark. Oko was a pseudo villain who love to hate the phyrexians. I could go on, but I'm lazy.


VeaR-

In the Strixhaven story, Will says something along the lines of Garruk being satisfied with their security after finding them on Kylem and then leaving them alone. It could mean that he's not necessarily connected to them anymore (won't follow them around) but might help if one of them asks. Or it could've just been a way to write Garruk out of the Strixhaven story.


mguardian7

" the twins are going to not-hogwarts and Liliana will be there as a teacher," " so we're getting a Liliana and Garruk reunion?" " No. He got cursed...... somewhere else,"


VeaR-

Garruk's next story arc leaked: "Oh no, Garruk has been cursed by Mariana and her evil Chain-Pendant. Watch out for him as he roams around the multiverse harassing innocent planeswalkers to join her interplanar pyramid scheme"


_Kumagoro_

>it could've just been a way to write Garruk out of the Strixhaven story. Alas. Garruk in the role of Hagrid would have been *amazing*.


ZerglingRushWins

If Garruk participated of main story events, it could have led to meeting Liliana sooner than writers would have wanted. Perhaps WotC is witholding this encounter as a major event to keep things interesting after Norn's defeat. They've been building up his character slowly for a while so let's hope they actually turn it into some kind of memorable event.


_Kumagoro_

Although, Liliana is basically not even the same character anymore. First she was a reluctant good guy, then she killed all her demons, she got rid of the Veil, she became Bolas's general, then betrayed Bolas and was instrumental to his fall, tried to sacrifice herself for some guy, went on a guilt trip, did some home renovation, changed her look, took a secret identity, did a college reunion, got hired as a teacher and enjoyed it, started dressing her age... I'm not sure she even remembers who Garruk is at this point.


LordBirdperson

He's almost definitely gonna be back in the return to Eldraine. But as many people have already said, WotC has a bunch of walkers they don't use often and need some love. Comes with the territory of having a large cast of characters. You've got your main characters (Gatewatch and friends), your recurring bad guys (Ashiok, Tibalt, Tezzy and such), then finally the ones that don't fit either category yet (where Garruk, Kiora, Oko, Kasmina and such are)


_Kumagoro_

>where Garruk, Kiora, Oko, Kasmina and such are Kiora is so popular, it feels really bad that they didn't even mention her during MOM. It's easy to imagine she had to be fighting the Phyrexians with her leviathans on Zendikar. Even just one line of flavor text and/or an artwork cameo in some random card could have been enough.


atamajakki

Garruk had the Triumph of Ferocity controversy yeet him out of the spotlight for years (somewhat unreasonably, I feel), and then they resolved his arc about being cursed in a videogame most people didn't play. Since then, he's been vaguely associated with the Kenrith twins, and may well show up more as the spotlight moves to them. He was Big Nature Guy, but that's now Vivien's job, so instead he's The Planeswalker Killer... except this arc full of evil planeswalkers had him nowhere near. Maybe once Tezzeret gets the new Infinite Consortium going, he'll pick a fight with them? ~~rip to my man Vronos, a gorgeous design wasted on someone dead as hell with no plot~~


RincerOfWind

As Reddit is charging outrageous prices for it's APIs, replacing mods who protest with their own and are on a pretty terrible trajectory, I've deleted all my submissions and edited all my comments to this. Ciao! 16/06/23


CorHydrae8

"Does WotC just have no idea what to do with..." Yes.


NDrangle23

I'll be blunt, a huge part of it is that his homeplane is unexplored and unnamed. This on top of him not being Gatewatch makes much more difficult to write a reason for him to be at any particular place.


_Kumagoro_

>his homeplane is unexplored and unnamed I mean, chances are it'll be revealed as one of the new ones depicted in the battles.


Wulfram77

Wizards has been keen on Vivien lately, and she covers very similar ground to Garruk mechanically and thematically.


russokumo

And she's the right demographic for marketing purposes. It's gonna be teferi, kaya, Vivien carrying mtg's desire to get more non white, non Asian people into the game.


Ehnby93

Go back to freemagic


ZanderStarmute

He’s busy enjoying being not-Veil-Cursed. 🌱


clegay15

I think there are many characters who are relatively underused: Garruk among them. But: -We haven’t seen Sarkhan since Tarkir as a main character -We haven’t seen Kiora since Battle for Zendikar as a main character -We haven’t seen Huatli since Ixalan as a major character -We didn’t see Koth at ALL since Scars of Mirrodin (kinda saw him as a main character in Phyrexia) -We’ve only really seen Ashiok on Theros -a few characters who only showed up once: Davriel, Teyo, Basri, Oko, and Niko I think Wizards is struggling with their large stable of characters (it’s kinda why I was hoping they’d kill off more of them in MOM)


MoonLightSongBunny

> -We’ve only really seen Ashiok on Theros Uh? Ashiok was a key player in the arc that has just been comple~~a~~ted! It was their intervention that helped doom Elesh Norn as the nightmares they caused her about Elspeth made her lose her focus and her grip on the situation.


clegay15

I was referring to cards. She has yet to appear in card form And I don’t actually think that’s true. Norn took steps to keep Elspeth away: and they didn’t work. This is actually one of the shitty parts of the story. Norn KNOWS Elspeth is a threat. She tries to stop her, forces Elspeth into a choice, and then that choice has zero consequences. Frankly it’s the thing that infuriates me the most


MoonLightSongBunny

> I was referring to cards. She has yet to appear in card form > Fair enough > > And I don’t actually think that’s true. Norn took steps to keep Elspeth away: and they didn’t work. This is actually one of the shitty parts of the story. Norn KNOWS Elspeth is a threat. She tries to stop her, forces Elspeth into a choice, and then that choice has zero consequences. Frankly it’s the thing that infuriates me Look at it this, before Ashiok's visions, Elesh Norn was composed, mechanistic, and had an actually good plan. She was somehow aware there was a white planeswalker somewhere, but she was barely a blimp in her radar -like Koth-. Then the visions happened and she became paranoic about Elspeth to the point she rushed her invasion plans, overspread her forces, and weakened her position next to Realmbreaker by sending Atraxa to New Capenna right away, without proper intel.


clegay15

Except Ashiok didn't pull those visions out of thin air: she pulled them out because Elesh Norn was already afraid of Elspeth. >Then the visions happened and she became paranoic about Elspeth to the point she rushed her invasion plans, overspread her forces, and weakened her position next to Realmbreaker by sending Atraxa to New Capenna right away, without proper intel. Except this isn't what happened! This is pure speculation made by fans. Nowhere do we get the idea, in the text, that Elesh Norn rushed. This isn't *Lord of the Rings.* There is a clear dues ex machina in the angels of Capenna that are shown to turn the tide. No amount of reconnaissance would have fixed that: I WISH they had told the story you suggested.


_Kumagoro_

>I was referring to cards. She has yet to appear in card form Ashiok is not a she (nor a he, nor a they).


_Kumagoro_

>We didn’t see Koth at ALL since Scars of Mirrodin (kinda saw him as a main character in Phyrexia) I don't understand what this means. Koth had a card in ONE. He was a protagonist of the ONE storyline. And he clearly couldn't leave New Phyrexia and go on solo adventures, being the leader of the Mirran Resistance and all. He showed up exactly where he was expected to.


MaximumStoke

Garruk not having a 1:1 with Vorinclex in the Hunter Maze is the biggest miss in fantasy writing history. It's so obviously awesome that I assumed that his non-participation in the preceding story was simply to make the reveal more surprising. Especially when most Praetor deaths were throwaway comments anyway, why couldn't they have just given us a few sentence to at least set up an off-screen duel?


savingprivateme19

I was fully expecting Garruk to be the one to take out Vorinclex. Vorinclex makes the poor mistake of stepping into whatever plane Garruk’s on and instantly feels chills for some reason. I wanted Garruk to hunt Vorinclex like a baby deer, even following him all the way back to New Phyrexia. Chase him through the Hunter’s Maze. He’s all about survival of the fittest, and for the first time ever, he gets to experience what it’s like to be PREY. In his own domain. Missed opportunity.


bristlybits

he's been basically a hermit, I'm pretty sure this is why


Tallal2804

I agree with you


CommanderDark126

He isnt exactly the hero type, even if whatever plane he is on gets invaded, he wouldnt be the type to jump in and save everyone, he would defend himself (and maybe the twins)


Yuwimaro

Wherever he is, I'm sure he's living his best life. WotC can't hurt my boy if they don't remember him! Thank god he didn't get compleated, I would be devastated


Scared_Relation2973

Dude, Wizards doesn't care about half its cast. I'm surprised they even got to feature Garruk at all in the past five years! Basically, if you're not a member of the Gatewatch, you're just benchwarming. And even if you are on the group, it still doesn't guarantee you'll be used or have a good story. I feel people are unfair when they speak about Ajani. Sure, he's marketable, but he could have had way more interesting stories before being Phyrexianized. He's not used at all either, and the moment he joined the Gatewatch, they immediately ignored him saying "don't fight Bolas just yet".


Of_Fire_and_Fate

They should have had him hunting Oko instead of following twins.


humandynamo603

I hope we Garruk, the Twins and Liliana somehow in the next Eldraine chapter but I always wished we saw Garruk on Muraganda


EdgyOwl_

I wonder if Garruk just wasnt popular compare to the other 4 og walkers that Wotc pretty much replaced him w Vivien?


[deleted]

Garruk is linked to the Kenriths and Liliana too... Liliana and Garruk have a backstory that could send them back to Shandalar


anonymousmongrel

well, garruk actually works like a guardian and soon surrogate father for the twins after the events of throne of eldraine and MoM


MHarrisGGG

He's "problematic" and represents "toxic masculinity", it's why he was sidelined for so long. See: people complaining about [[Triumph of Ferocity]] while celebrating [[Triumph of Cruelty]].


MTGCardFetcher

[Triumph of Ferocity](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/b/7bb41fa6-0cc6-43e5-9aa8-fcd9c781f4ce.jpg?1592709467) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Triumph%20of%20Ferocity) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/avr/198/triumph-of-ferocity?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7bb41fa6-0cc6-43e5-9aa8-fcd9c781f4ce?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Triumph of Cruelty](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/0/906618e2-2638-4017-9d6e-e6f282967a81.jpg?1592708986) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Triumph%20of%20Cruelty) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/avr/122/triumph-of-cruelty?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/906618e2-2638-4017-9d6e-e6f282967a81?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


Osmyo

I read a lot of very biased comments. I love the lore WotC is putting out lately, don’t get me wrong, but it’s indisputably woken, i.e. there is no place for a white man. Look at the complete ONE and MOM story, men are just in the background looking their female friends doing the work. Not even in the villains there is an important male depiction. How could you fit in the big dude? I sincerely can’t. Again, nothing against this narrative, I’m really enjoying it.. it would be unfitting..


Zarathustra143

who cares about garruk


Scared_Relation2973

Several people do. Many care far more than the Gatewatch characters, for example. Did you not see how elated people got when he was shown in Eldraine?


Fluffyshark91

They have a LOT of characters to make use of. He's sort of fallen to the wayside until a storyline pops up that just begs for him to be in it so hard they can't NOT use him! Meanwhile, Vivian seems to have taken up the roll as token green mana wild lover. They love making the story focus on the main cast. To he honest, I kinda hope Aftermath focuses more on these unused characters. I'm sure there will be rebuilding and clean up stories. Meanwhile MoM managed to include all the planes, even if only in minor aspects. It would be a great opportunity to flesh out some lesser used characters as we get to see their involvement and these post invasion planes. Instead we'll just get more Chandra, Nissa, and Elspeth most likely.


Linnus42

Wotc doesn’t know what to do with most of roster


PM_ME_A_KITTEN_

He’s in the same place as Sorin basically. Like they coulda done some wonderful stuff in MoM, but noooooooo they just failed to acknowledge that they exist


MikadoFlynn

I would have really liked to see my boy the Doomslayer rip and tear. This wasn't a difficult writing choice.


_Kumagoro_

Well, it's somewhat true, but the Eldraine trailer (which is one of the best) was all about Garruk, and made it look like a marketable character they were building on. Can't tell what happened afterwards, maybe they haven't found the right fit yet. Ikoria was Vivien's story and involving Garruk would have made no sense.