Magic: The Gathering turned thirty in mid-2022: the celebrations that began with the Dominaria Unita set led to a colossal reboot for the Wizards of The Coast TCGwith the inauguration of a multi-set storyline which, starting from Dominaria Unita, developed in the expansion The War of the Brothers and, now, also in Phyrexian: All Will Become One (Phyrexian: All Will Be One in English). This last set will be the penultimate of the narrative arc inaugurated last year, which should conclude by mid-2023 with the next Magic mainline expansion, of which we still don’t know anything.
Wizards of The Coast has given us the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion with Mike Turian, Magic Game ArchitectOvidio Cartagena, Art Director of Phyrexia: Tutto Divverà Uno, and Mary Katherine Amiotte, linguist specializing in Phyrexian, who revealed to us many novelties on the set that were very appreciated by collectors, competitive players and to fans of the Magic lore.
New Phyrexia as Dante’s Inferno
As promised at the end of The Brothers’ War, i Planeswalkers will bring war to New Phyrexia in the course of Everything Will Become One.
We talk about the home world of the Phyrexians, an artificial plane built upon Mirrodin, another universe created by the Planeswalker Karn. THE Phyrexians have conquered Mirrodin, but this does not mean that they dominate the plane unchallenged: on the contrary, the ancient inhabitants of Mirrodin have organized themselves into a resistance against the machines, which in Phyrexia: Everything Will Become One will allied with the Planeswalkers of Dominaria. Ovid Cartagena relates that “new Phyrexia is based on the Divine Comedy: it represents a sort of descent into hell, composed of nine concentric circles, each based on a different area of the plane“. For this reason, the Magic designers have come up with new artwork for the Basic Lands, which for Cartagena represent “monuments to Phyrexian greatness“. Next to the latter, then, we find the Dual Lands, or “mixed” Lands, described as “the result of the Phyrexian conquests in the Multiverse and the interpenetration between the different areas of the plane of Mirrodin“. If Mirrodin represents the surface of the machine plane, each region of it is ruled by one of the Phyrexian praetors.
Among the lieutenants of the Machine Mother Elesh Norn we find Urabrask, lord of the Forge, refuge of the Mirrodin resistance. Then there is the mammoth Vorinclex, who dominates the Hunter’s Labyrinth and finally Jin-Gitaxias, Praetor of the Engine of New Phyrexia, who studies the Planeswalkers in Surgical Bay. Just the experiments of Jin-Gitaxias are essential to the survival of the Phyrexians. Since the latter are nothing more than soulless machines, their plan to conquer the Multiverse must pass through the control of some human Planeswalkers. As has already happened in the past of Magic: The Gathering, some Planeswalkers will join Phyrexia yielding to the lure of the “perfection” promised by machines. One of these, for example, is the Wizard Jace Beleren, who in Phyrexia: All Will Become One, will be transformed into the Legendary Planeswalker card “Jace, the Perfected Mind”. Wizards of The Coast has already confirmed that in the new set a total of ten Planeswalkers will appear: it still remains to be understood which ones will try to save the Multiverse and which ones, instead, will decide to give in to Phyrexian flattery.
We continue our journey to New Phyrexia: in the “circle” below the domain of Jin-Gitaxias we find the Slag Pit, Sheoldred’s arena, already appeared among the papers of Dominaria Unita. Not all praetors are equally loyal to Elesh Norn: for example, Sheoldred and Urabrask are trying to escape the Machine Mother’s game, while Jin-Gitaxias and Vorinclex are allies of him. Even deeper is the Basilica of Mondrak, Dominus Glorioso. Again Ovidio Cartagena explains to us that Mondrak is “based on a biblically accurate angel.
The interaction between the Phyrexians and the surrounding environment generates creatures that are new and different from all the others”. Finally, the two lower levels are the Mycosinth Gardens and the Seed Core: this is the “heart” of New Phyrexia (or rather, of Mirrodin), to which the Phyrexians have not yet arrived and towards which they are trying to extend their mechanical limbs. Ultimately controlling the efforts of all Phyrexians is no longer Yawgmoth, defeated and slain by the Legacy at the height of the first Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria. Instead of him she made her way Elesh Norn, the Mother of Machines. The Magic designers explain to us that the new leader of the Phyrexians is, however, in extreme continuity with Yawgmoth: “just as he called himself the father of machines, Elesh Norn also calls himself the mother of machines. They are two different figures, but their goal is the same“.
A toxic world, a rising resistance
In addition to the story and lore novelties, the new set of Magic will introduce several new mechanics, while others will make their return with great fanfare with the expansion arriving in February. Among the latter we find “Poison” with its counters and “Proliferate”, which is closely related to the Phyrexians.
Poison has been revised to the keyword “Toxic”, which doesn’t assign poison counters based on static effects but as a result of specific actions performed by creatures during combat. Proliferate goes hand in hand with Toxic, as it allows you to multiply the counters on each player, doubling them. It goes without saying that the counter-based playstyle will be the most popular in decks based on Phyrexians, whose aim will be to make the opponent reach the total of ten poison counters, causing his immediate defeat. To make it even easier to achieve this goal, then, the new set will integrate the Corrupted mechanicwhich will allow some cards to activate particularly powerful effects once the opponent has reached a certain number of counters (usually three).
But not only poison counters will be at the heart of Phyrexia: All Will Become One. In reverse, Wizards will also introduce “Oil Counters”a brand new type of counter based on Shimmering Oil – also known as Phyrexian Oil, or Glistening Oil in English – the poisonous substance used by machines to spread their corruption over the planes to be conquered.
The synergies between Oil Counters, Proliferate and Corrupted will be multiple, opening up to fans a number of different styles of play. In short, for those who want to use the phyrexians, the news seems really intriguing. At this point, though, fans who side with the resistance may feel left out. Fortunately, Magic will also introduce the For Mirrodin mechanic!the main link to the anti-Phyrexian rebels: it is a keywords similar to Living Weapon and linked to Equipment Artifacts, which allows you to put a 2/2 Rebel token on the field together with each Equipment. Furthermore, i Rebels will once again be a subtype of Creatures in its own right: its last appearance in the TCG dates back to 2006, in the Time Spiral expansion.
Among “oily” Rares, manga style and Phyrexian language
Our journey through the new Magic set concludes with announcements for bundles, release dates, and card rarities Phyrexian: All Will Become One. The expansion will debut worldwide on February 10th, with launch parties scheduled until the 12th of the same month.
Pre-release events, on the other hand, will be set between February 3 and 9. Finally, the complete gallery of cards in the set will arrive on January 26th. As always, it will be possible to buy the packs in different ways: on the one hand we will have the Draft Packs, which will contain more cards but will have fewer guaranteed rares. On the other hand, however, there will be the actual Expansion Bags, which will have some foil cards secured in each package. Finally, there will also be Collector’s Boosters designed for those looking for higher rarity cards, and Jumpstart envelopes, which will allow newbies to start playing with the new expansion right away. Next to the boosters, then, we point out two Commander Decks, Rebels on the Rise and Corrupted Influenceeach with its own specific game mechanics and faction, and two bundlesi.e. the standard one and the one in “Compleat Edition”.
The latter will arrive in stores about a month later than the other Phyrexia products: Everything will become one, but the contents should certainly pay off the wait. Indeed, the edition includes various “oily” raised foil cards, with one rarity based on Shimmering Oil of enormous elegance and impact. Among the cards that will receive this type of treatment we also find Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines, which will also have a text written in the Phyrexian language. Linguist Mary Katherine Amiotte also explained that, with a little effort and dedication, “it will be possible to translate the Phyrexian texts on the special cards of the set into English“.
Next to these cards, then, we find the Basic Lands designed by the artist Mark Riddick, also with text in Phyrexian and with a style metal definitely captivating. In addition, Wizards of the Coast also announced that the legendary mangaka Junji Ito will draw some Phyrexian cards: Everything will become one, among which we find variants in full art version of Elesh Norn, the Planeswalker Koth and Jor Kadeen. However, the borderless treatment will not be limited to manga-style cards: on the contrary, it will be extended to various other variants, such as those of the Phyrexian Praetors (Elesh Norn, Jin-Gitaxias, Sheoldred, Urabrask and Vorinclex), as well as new papers with Icore treatmentwhose style is intended to show the effect of machine corruption on Phyrexian victims.
