Cary
September 15, 2026

Man versus man.
Man versus society.
Man versus what is starting to sound less and less like a metaphorical beast within him.

I doubt Magic ever intended for Garruk to be quite as sidelined as he ended up being by 2026. As the only Planeswalker from the Lorwyn five who did not swear an oath, his disconnect was ribbed with a handful of knowing winks throughout the Reality Fracture stories.

At the publishing level, Garruk has been a casualty of missing out on story peaks. The first Innistrad set ended up being awkwardly sandwiched between the cessation of block novels and the start of enovellas. Magic 2015 left a remarkably strong marketing impression, but it was a core set slotted directly before the Magic web fiction renaissance. And upon his return in Throne of Eldraine, Garruk’s curse was lifted and he even took on watching over the Kenrith twins… in a story which was now a set enovella you had to purchase instead reading for free online. Thankfully, Return of the Wildspeaker was a juiced enough card that players picked up on the story moment a decade in the making.

When I listened to the July preview panel for Reality Fracture, the way Garruk was briefly characterized didn’t have much to do with his cursed past. Graham told us that “Garruk’s always had a beast in him, hungry and needing to sate itself with that next hunt. That next beast he brings down. Greater and greater prey.” It’s all decorative language describing the Planeswalker’s motivation to hunt and nothing too dissimilar from Beyer’s introduction of Garruk back in 2007.

Over the course of the story season, though, we came away with a few more potential puzzle pieces:

• The group successfully recruits Garruk to the cause, but in exchange he requires “people who understand wards, seals, magical containment.” (Reality Fracture | Episode 3: I Can Be Both)
• On Shandalar, Echoverse Garruk was lured by Kothophed to “suppress the beast within him with a powerful artifact hidden in the catacombs.” (The Legends of Reality Fracture)
• Jace’s farewell to Garruk included “The problem you’re trying to solve won’t be fixed in the jungle.” (Reality Fracture | Episode 9: Unafraid)
• Garruk spares Liliana Vess after questioning her on the Kenrith twins. (Reality Fracture | Episode 10: Happy Birthday)

The road I expect to see Garruk heading down is magically sealing away this new-to-us beast within him. Considering it was a large enough worry for Echoverse Garruk to accept the deal, our Garruk has likely seen the writing on the wall by now. The primary concern would be whether it risks treading too closely to Garruk’s transformation under the curse of the Chain Veil. If the beast gets angled as a monogreen threat to the self requiring containment, will that be a fresh enough take on Garruk? I’ll answer yeah, with the assumption that there’s some sauce on top we’ve yet to see or taste.

Of course, there’s also the possibility that it’s only a turn of phrase, plucked from the article as shorthand for Garruk’s motivation during the panel, and we’re all reading too deep into it. The end of Wilds of Eldraine had Rowan blasting off to who knows where and perhaps she has become magically imprisoned by who knows who—inverting Garruk’s need for the knowledge into a jailbreak plot and clearing Liliana of having been involved in whatever befell Rowan.

Which path fits alongside what Garruk was told by the Clean Slate, though? For now, I’m definitely leaning towards the beast.