Our Predictions for Phyrexia: All Will Be One
We’re back with our first article of 2023! Phyrexia: All Will Be One is on the horizon. We’ll be getting our first taste of the set’s story beginning on January 12, along with the official preview season beginning on January 17. Given the enduring popularity of Phyrexia and the likely impact that this set will have on the story, there has been a lot of speculation about this set and what it will mean for Magic going forward.
This set feels like it will have a significant long-term impact on future set design while also being the biggest story event for Magic since War of the Spark! In this article, we (Chief, Compleat Breakfast Enjoyer and Exxaxl, Who Sells Phyrexian Oil and Phyrexian Oil Accessories) will provide our predictions for Phyrexia: All Will Be One (ONE) and share important information about the set. There’s plenty to cover, so it’s probably best if we jump right in and go over what we’ve already learned.
The Elesh Norn in the Room
She’s back! We’ve seen the other Phyrexian Praetors appear across multiple sets—beginning with Vorinclex in Kaldheim—and we’re finally seeing the last card in the cycle. Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines is like a Panharmonicon that also cancels out your opponents enters-the-battlefield triggers. While she’s aggressively costed, it remains to be seen how much of an impact she will actually have on various formats. We’re definitely looking forward to seeing her in action.
Exxaxl: I fear no man. But that thing… It scares me. Memes aside, a lot of my decks are ETB goodstuff, so this is very high on my kill-on-sight list.
Chief: I tap Mother of Runes to give Elesh Norn protection from black, making her an invalid target for your Deadly Rollick.
The Twilight Cycle
No, not the franchise with the sparkling vampires. Referencing the Zenith cycle from Mirrodin Besieged, this new cycle of cards will feature spells with an X cost that work even better if X is 5 or more! We’ve only seen Blue Sun’s Twilight so far, but the design team has stated that their goal while designing this cycle was making sure that all 5 of them are powerful. We’ll have to wait and see what the rest of this cycle looks like.
Exxaxl: Let’s just say I’ve seen Blue Sun’s Zenith and Green Sun’s Zenith a disproportionate amount of times more than the other three colors. In my eyes, Red Sun’s Zenith should have hit all creatures and/or opponents.
Chief: Yeah, I’m hoping that the new cycle is a little bit more balanced.
The Return of Phyrexian Obliterator
Don’t mess with blessed perfection. This is an exciting reprint that’s sure to fuel mono-black in formats like Standard. Phyrexian Obliterator made its debut in New Phyrexia, and the new flavor text implies that there is some continued bad blood—or maybe bad oil—between Sheoldred and Elesh Norn. Phyrexians have certainly come a long way since Phyrexian Negator.
Chief: As soon as I saw this, I knew that you’d be excited about it.
Exxaxl: When this card was first accessible on Arena it carried me to Mythic in a weird black devotion list using Fiend Artisan, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Gate to the Afterlife, and God-Pharaoh’s Gift. I think with the current amount of black options for Standard and Pioneer, devotion is definitely on the table.
All Around Me Are Familiar Faces
We’ve been given a glimpse at some returning characters as well. Jor Kadeen, First Goldwarden continues the fight against the Phyrexians while Slobad, Iron Goblin has been revived in a compleated form to fight alongside them! It looks like Slobad might even be wearing a suit of armor constructed from the remains of his old friend. We’re almost certain to see other classic characters as well.
Exxaxl: Slobad’s type line is so long—I wonder what the smallest font is they can put on a Magic card and have the text still be legible enough.
Chief: I’d rather not find out…
The Ten Planeswalkers
This set is going to have 10 planeswalker cards. That’s the most in a single set since War of the Spark. We also know that 5 of them are going to wind up being compleated! We can see that Koth, Fire of Resistance and Kaito, Dancing Shadow aren’t among that number. The other planeswalkers who will be appearing in this set are Jace, Kaya, Lukka, Nahiri, Nissa, Tyvar, Vraska, and the Wanderer. There’s no telling which ones with emerge unscathed and which ones will join the Phyrexians.
Exxaxl: I for one can’t wait for Jace to be compleated, then destroyed, and we will never hear of him again. A man can dream, right? I don’t want these compleated walkers to become the main focus point on all the future sets. I’d rather go back to a Nicol Bolas storyline if that’s the case.
Chief: I just want the Wanderer to be safe. She’s very cool and we’re only just learning more about her.
Basic Lands
The basic lands in this set will showcase the unique domains of each of the Phyrexian Praetors. There will also be multiple options for full-art lands. Mark Riddick created some eerie art inspired by the aesthetics of each Praetor, while recurring favorite Alayna Danner has created some stunning artwork that captures the ominous beauty of Phyrexia.
Ichor and Manga Treatments
This set also features a few extra special card treatments. The Ichor cards showcase Phyrexian aesthetics with the goal of capturing the Phyrexians as they see themselves. This is even reflected in the unique alternate flavor text found on some of these cards. The Manga cards were designed by popular Japanese artists—including Junji Ito! It is worth noting that all of the planeswalkers and other characters on the Manga cards are shown as Phyrexians, but these interpretations are not all considered canon. These were designed as “What If?” concepts.
Exxaxl: What do you see in this inkblot? A picture of Phyrexian Obliterator is shown.
Chief: I’m not sure what it is, but I’m terrified!
Borderless Concept Praetors
All of the cards from the second cycle of the Phyrexian Praetors will also be available in a special Borderless Concept Art style. These cards will use the original concept artwork created by Richard Whitters during the design of the original New Phyrexia set. Notably, these cards utilize the original set symbols and set codes from where the original versions were printed.
Oil Slick Cards
The final special treatment in this set will be the Oil Slick cards. These will only be available in the Bundle: Compleat Edition. We currently know that all 5 basic lands and Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines will be available in this treatment. We’re sure to find out more about this bundle closer to its release date. You can view all of the cards from this set that have been previewed so far in all of their different treatments here.
Commander Decks
There will be two Commander precons released alongside the set. Corrupting Influence will be an Abzan deck and Rebellion Rising will be a Boros deck. The themes and commanders for these decks are currently unknown, but it seems likely that these decks will be themed around the Phyrexians and the Mirran Resistance.
Universes Within
All 8 of the cards from Secret Lair x Street Fighter are being reprinted into their Universes Within equivalents. These cards will be available through The List. There is still no word on the cards from Secret Lair x The Walking Dead since it was first announced that they would eventually be reprinted in this manner.
Chief’s Predictions
A planeswalker hate card in Standard: In the story, both Karn and Tezzeret observe that the Phyrexians have developed means to prevent planeswalkers from using their abilities. This makes me think that there will be a card in this set that restricts loyalty abilities. We’ve seen this before on cards like The Immortal Sun and Eidolon of Obstruction.
Given that there are 10 planeswalkers in this set, it feels like there will definitely be tools to fight back against them in Standard. While a colorless artifact feels like a good choice because of its flexibility, it could also be something that we see on some type of hatebear creature.
A commander for the Phyrexians: Now that it’s a creature type, I expect that we’ll see a commander that specifically cares about Phyrexians. This could either appear in the main set or in a Commander deck, but I can’t imagine them skipping this given the popularity of the Phyrexians.
I feel like the most ideal commander would have several colors to give you access to a wide variety of Phyrexian cards, so maybe a new version of Atraxa will wind up being the commander in this vein. A commander with all 5 colors feels somewhat unlikely given the rift between Urabrask and the other Praetors, but I wouldn’t automatically rule it out.
More Defiler mana: We saw the Defiler of Vigor and friends in Dominaria United, which presented a unique take on the Phyrexian mana mechanic. I think that we’re going to see cards in this set that work similarly to these cards, allowing you to pay a certain amount of mana with life when casting spells.
I don’t expect to see the true return of Phyrexian mana outside of things like planeswalkers with the compleated ability. The Defiler cycle and a silver bullet card like Karn’s Sylex in Standard make me think that we’re going to see more of this.
A new Sword in Standard: We’ve been waiting years for the completion of this cycle, which made its debut during the original Mirrodin Block and was continued in the Scars of Mirrodin Block. While cards like Sword of Truth and Justice and Sword of Hearth and Home haven’t been themed to Mirrodin, I still associate this cycle with the plane.
Equipment will likely be a solid theme in ONE, given the history of Mirrodin and New Phyrexia sets and the fact that we’ve already seen an equipment commander in Jor Kadeen, First Goldwarden. A new entry in the cycle would be a major highlight of the set for me. We’ve been waiting to finish the cycle for years!
A counters matter Commander precon: I think that the Corrupting Influence precon will be focused around different types of counters, allowing for reprints of a few cards. I’d expect that one of the themes of this deck will be placing counters on creatures your opponents control in order to benefit in some way.
Cards such as Necroskitter that benefit from placing counters on enemy creatures have such a cool design space, so I’d love to see more. We might even see the return of corruption counters, as seen on Geyadrone Dihada from Modern Horizons II.
Exxaxl’s Predictions
A new Glissa card: Whether as a new legendary creature in the Abzan precon or a graveyard matters legendary creature for Standard, I cannot say. Glissa seems too important to the ongoing story for her to just be absent. She was one of the original heroes of the Mirrodin story before becoming an important part of Vorinclex’s forces.
If we don’t see her in ONE, I at least expect her to be in one of the March of the Machine sets. Given the current cards available in Standard, I feel black-green might need a little extra help to be relevant moving forward.
A new Liquimetal artifact: A colorless 2- or 3-drop that turns a permanent into an artifact seems right at home in a set like this. I don't think they’ll simply reprint Liquimetal Coating or Liquimetal Torque into Standard, but something similar but potentially one turn slower can definitely see play in the current Standard environment.
I’d welcome any other decent ramp card for Standard that will help me get Toxrill, the Corrosive on board a turn earlier. It also helps some color deal with certain threats easier if they have access to artifact removal already.
A Phyrexian mana enabler for all colors: Imagine an enchantment with an effect like K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth but for all colors. For each colored mana in a cost, you may pay 2 life rather than pay that mana. That doesn’t sound broken at all, especially not with Fist of Suns.
I realize chances of a card like this getting printed are very small, and it’s probably not something that will get printed in the Standard set due to balancing issues , but it’d be a nice precon mana fixer and it seems like something that EDH can handle relatively well, if the card itself has a high enough casting cost.
A mass land destruction card: Wizards has shown they’re not averse to printing limited mass land destruction effects with cards like Urza’s Sylex or Wave of Vitriol. While it probably won't be Armageddon or or Ravages of War, a card that signifies the land/mana on a plane dying by destroying lands seems within the scope of possible options.
If we’re not getting straight up land destruction, another mana limiter card like Blood Moon or Back to Basics would be nice to see in a set like ONE. This type of card can represent the flow of mana through a plane by limiting its use in a way that feels very Phyrexian.
This concludes our predictions for Phyrexia: All Will Be One. Thank you for spending some time with us. We’re very excited about the possibilities. What are some things that you’d like to see in this set? You can let us know on Twitter! We’d love to hear from you. If you’d like to check out more PlayEDH content, you can find more articles here or tune into the PlayEDH Radio 903.1 podcast here.
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