Some villains just stick. Honestly, most of the time in Magic: The Gathering (MTG), we’re dealing with literal gods or world-ending mechanical infections like the Phyrexians. It’s all very "big picture." But when Wizards of the Coast dropped the A Rival Most Vial storyline involving the eccentric and deeply petty Vorthosian beats, it hit differently. It wasn’t about the end of the multiverse. It was about a grudge.
People forget that MTG flavor text and side stories often carry more weight than the main cinematic trailers. You’ve probably seen the card art—the swirling potions, the smirk, the sense that someone is about to get humiliated rather than just killed. That’s the core of why this specific rivalry resonates. It’s small. It’s mean. It’s vial.
What Actually Happened in A Rival Most Vial
The narrative isn't some grand epic found in a leather-bound novel. Instead, it’s a masterclass in environmental storytelling through flavor text and the Wilds of Eldraine era vibes. The story centers on the alchemist personalities that inhabit the fringes of the courts. While the high lords are out fighting over crowns, the alchemists are in the backrooms trying to prove who has the more potent "vial."
It’s about ego.
If you look at the card "A Rival Most Vial," you aren't looking at a dragon. You’re looking at the aftermath of a chemical spat. The flavor text across the associated cycle of cards—specifically the Alchemist’s Gift and the various Potion-style artifacts—paints a picture of two researchers who would rather burn down a laboratory than admit the other found a better stabilizer for dragon-fire.
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Wizards of the Coast designer Mark Rosewater has often talked about the "Vorthos" player—the one who cares about the story. This rivalry was a gift to them. It wasn't just a mechanic; it was a personality type printed on cardboard.
Why the Alchemist Trope Works Here
Standard fantasy tropes usually give us the "mad scientist." But A Rival Most Vial gave us something more relatable: the toxic coworker. We’ve all had one. Someone who takes your idea and tweaks it just enough to claim it's theirs, or someone who waits for you to fail just so they can offer a "helpful" (read: condescending) correction.
That’s the "vial" pun. It’s not just the glass container. It’s the bile. The bitterness.
The narrative arc doesn't end in a giant explosion. It ends in a stalemate. In the lore snippets provided through the Magic Story columns on the official Mothership site, the two rivals eventually realize that their constant upstaging of one another has actually pushed the field of alchemy further than a century of peaceful study ever could. It’s a dark take on "competition breeds innovation."
Mechanics Meeting Flavor
Usually, when a card title is this evocative, the mechanics are a bit of a letdown. Not here. The design of the A Rival Most Vial related cards focuses on "enters the battlefield" (ETB) triggers that disrupt the opponent. It feels like a prank. It’s the gameplay equivalent of pulling a chair out from under someone.
- The cards often involve "scry" or "surveil" mechanics—representing the alchemists looking for that one perfect ingredient.
- The removal spells aren't "destroy target creature." They are more like "turn target creature into something useless."
- There’s a heavy emphasis on artifacts, specifically 0-cost or 1-cost tokens like Food or Clues, which represent the "discarded" experiments of the rivalry.
Basically, the deck plays like a nuisance. It’s not a deck that wins by smashing a 10/10 trampler into your face. It wins by slowly, methodically making your life difficult until you concede out of pure salt. It’s flavor-accurate. It’s annoying. It’s perfect.
The Community’s Obsession with the "Vial" Meta
Reddit's r/magicTCG and various Discord servers went into a bit of a frenzy when the lore was first teased. Why? Because it felt grounded. After years of "The Gatewatch" behaving like the Avengers, players wanted a story about people who just hated each other over professional pride.
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Expert lore-hunters like Rhystic Studies have pointed out that these smaller stories are what give the MTG multiverse its texture. Without the petty alchemists, the world feels hollow. With them, it feels lived-in. You can almost smell the sulfur and the spilled ink.
What Most People Get Wrong
There’s a common misconception that A Rival Most Vial refers to a specific Planeswalker. It doesn't.
Many players tried to link it to Oko or even someone like Taysir in the deep lore. But that misses the point entirely. The "Rival" is a placeholder for the player. When you play these cards, you are the rival. The "vial" is your deck. It’s a meta-textual nod to the fact that Magic is, at its heart, a duel between two people who think they’re smarter than each other.
Another mistake? Thinking this was just a "draft-chaff" narrative. While the cards themselves might not all be Pro Tour staples, the storytelling influence they had on subsequent sets—like the more character-driven bits of Murders at Karlov Manor—is undeniable. The shift toward "character-first" storytelling started in these small, vial-sized doses.
Actionable Insights for Lore Lovers and Players
If you’re looking to dive into this specific slice of MTG history or want to build a deck that captures this "vial" essence, here is how you actually do it without wasting wildcards or cash.
1. Focus on the "Spellslinger" Archetype
To capture the feel of an alchemical rivalry, you want a deck that reacts. Blue/Red (Izzet) or Blue/Black (Dimir) are your best bets. Look for cards that reward you for casting non-creature spells. Every spell is a "concoction" thrown at your rival.
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2. Hunt for the Flavor Text
Don't just play the cards. Read them. If you’re building a Commander deck, try to theme it around "The Laboratory." Use cards like Laboratory Maniac or Alchemist’s Retrieval. It changes the vibe of the game from a math problem to a story.
3. Use Disruption, Not Destruction
A true rival doesn't want the opponent dead immediately; they want them to watch their plan fail. Use cards that bounce permanents back to the hand or tap them down. It’s more "vial" to keep a creature on the board but make it useless than it is to just kill it.
4. Follow the Official Lore Archives
Wizards of the Coast keeps a massive archive of their short stories. Search for the "Side Stories" section during the Eldraine or Strixhaven blocks. That’s where the real meat of these rivalries lives. You’ll find the names of the minor characters who never got their own legendary card but still shaped the world.
The legacy of A Rival Most Vial isn't about power creep or broken mechanics. It's a reminder that even in a world of dragons and cosmic horrors, a well-placed insult and a bubbling beaker can be the most memorable part of the game. It’s about the person sitting across from you. It’s about the grudge. It’s about why we play.