Fan favorite MTG character is missing and no one knows why

MTG fans have been left scratching their heads as to the whereabouts of popular character Garruk Wildspeaker after he has failed to materialize in the card game.

MTG‘s Garruk Wildspeaker was once known as ‘the’ green planeswalker. He embodies Green’s penchant for getting big creatures and buffing them up, a common win condition for the color. However, in recent years, Nissa and Vivian have been far more present in Magic sets as the Planeswalker representatives for the color (though Nissa has now been desparked). Despite all this though, Garruk has remained a fan favorite.

The last we saw him, he was in Thone of Eldraine (October 2019). In the story for that set, he pledged to follow and protect the characters Will and Rowan. This all took place in the set’s accompanying ebook, The Wildered Quest.

Since then an entire multiversal Phyrexian invasion has happened, and Garruk didn’t appear during any of those events. However, fans were hopeful Wizards might be holding him for the Wilds of Eldraine set, the first since the invasion. 

However, we’re now back on the plane in the game, with no hint about Garruk and what he’s up to. Strangely, Will and Rowan, the two characters he was going to protect, are back in this set but there’s still no sign of Garruk himself. 

Have Wizards of the Coast given up on Garruk’s story?

In a Reddit thread about the topic, with over 500 upvotes at the time of writing, user AvatarQwerty asked, “Why does Garruk have so little space in mtg Lore and has practically disappeared?”

One user thinks he might have been desparked as part of the Phyrexian invasion. They said, “He will probably be one of the desparked walkers and at most will show in one card in a random set”. 

Garruk famously became cursed by the Chain Veil and started hunting Planeswalkers. Unfortunately, that story never ended with a compelling conclusion. One Redditor referenced this saying, “The whole Chain Veil storyline got pushed aside for reasons that aren’t entirely clear to me. Cursing him and then not focusing more on resolving the curse, basically handwaving it in Eldraine, is a weird reset button to Garruk.”

Another noted his absence from the latest set. They said: “I would have loved to see Garruk as a father figure/mentor for the twins, it’s a shame he didn’t even appear in Wilds [of Eldraine].”

As to where Garruk is, we don’t currently know. As we know the upcoming sets for the next couple of years, it feels unlikely that he’ll show up in anything presently announced. At least, if he is, we have no indication from promotional art. Here’s hoping Mr. Wildspeaker shows up before too long though as he is a fun presence in the world of MTG.