This week’s WeeklyMTG brought fans face to terrifying face with Phyrexia: All Will Be One. As a first look, there is tons of information to pour over but was relatively light on reveals compared to the Dominaria Remastered super drop that happened last week.
Phyrexia: All Will Be One is a love letter of sorts to the long-time boogeyman of the Magic universe. The set appears to be taking place primarily on the former world of Mirrodin—once Karn’s personal plane now the bastion of New Phyrexia. Despite this, resistance still mounts a defense on Mirrodin. Rebels and fighters still exist on the metal world, but many classic characters have been lost and are now compleated.
Phyrexia: All Will Be One Set Details
Some important details about the set were revealed on stream, such as there being more than 100 creatures with the Phyrexian creature type in Phyrexia: All Will Be One. Additionally, the immensely popular and powerful Rebel creature type is back with four new creatures though without the Rebel synergies from the past. Players will recognize familiar faces in the set, with characters like Elesh Norn, Venser, and Slobad returning, as well as a ton of Planeswalkers across different rarities.
Phyrexia: All Will Be One rarity symbols.
Another important note is that Phyrexia: All Will Be One will have 10 Planeswalkers across both rare and mythic rarities. There will be cards for Jace, Kaito, Kaya, Nissa, Lukka, Nahiri, Tyvar, Vraska, The Wandering Emperor, and the long-absent Koth. Product Architect Mike Turian cautioned fans though that five of these planeswalkers will fall to Phyrexian influence, Koth is safe.
It is also worth noting for Commander fans that Phyrexia: All Will Be One will have two new Commander precon decks, a R/W deck called “Rebellion Rising” and a B/W/G deck called “Corrupting Influence.”
More Fancy Cards Are Coming
In Phyrexia: All Will Be One, Wizards of the Coast is going all out on special printing styles. There are three new variants to collect ,as well as a Phyrexian language Elesh Norn, and a completely new foiling process with little Phyrexian symbols embedded in the foiling process.
Borderless Ichor Showcase
Three new borderless Ichor Showcase cards
There will be 67 cards across all rarities featuring the “Borderless Ichor Showcase” frame and inky-style art, though most of them will be Phyrexian.
Borderless Manga Showcase
Three new borderless manga showcase cards
The “Borderless Manga Showcase” frame features black and white art. All 10 Planeswalkers in Phyrexia: All Will Be One will have a variant that shows them as if they have been compleated by Phyrexia, all illustrated by manga artists. These cards are all hypothetical and do not confirm whether or not a character will be compleated in the story.
There are also plenty of nonplaneswalkers as well, like Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines from legendary creator Junji Ito.
Borderless Concept Praetors
All five borderless concept art praetors
All five of the new cards for the Phyrexian Praetors will get a new variant featuring the original concept art of each of characters by Richard Whitters.
Phyrexian Language Elesh Norn
Elesh Nornt finally gets a Phrexian language variant of her new card, compleating the cycle that started with Kaldheim and Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider.
Step-and-Compleat Foil
Phyrexian symbol foil process on Elesh Norn
These foil cards have undergone a special transformation and now sport the Phyrexian symbol embedded in the actual foiling process. These cards are only found in the Collector Booster packs and it is currently unknown how many or which cards can feature it.
Oil Slick Raised Foils
Oil Slick raised foil basic lands
There’s also a bonus card style only found in the Compleat Edition called Oil Slick cards. These cards are raised foils and are limited to just basic lands and 20 mythic rares. Each Compleat Edition will include 2 random Oil Slick Mythic Rares and the only confirmed card outside of the basic lands is Elesh Norn.
So. Many. New. Cards.
There are tons of cool new cards coming in Phyrexia: All Will Be One so let’s get right to it. First up is the mother of machines herself, Elesh Norn.
Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines
The unofficial queen of New Phyrexia, Elesh Norn is back with a wildly different ability than many players expected. Elesh Norn doubles your enter the battlefield triggers while shutting down your opponent’s. While on the surface Elesh Norn might not feel as impactful as some of the other Praetors, don’t be surprised if all it takes is a few good effects to have her spiral out of control.
The first in a new cycle, Blue Sun’s Twilight marks the descent of the five suns of Mirrodin. Like the Zeniths, this new cycle will likely feature X in the casting cost. Notably, these cards don’t shuffle back into your library when they resolve.
Mono-Black decks took a bit of a dip with the release of The Brothers’ War but it looks like they’ll be back on top with this reprint. The Obliterator is a nightmare to deal with, forcing your opponents to sacrifice tons of permanents or take a good chunk of damage.
Poor Slobad, he can never catch a break can he? Now compleated, Slobad is absolutely shredded, though he still cares about his artifacts. When he sacrifices an artifact you get to add Red mana equal to that card’s mana value, likely fueling future shenanigans by getting rid of spent artifacts.
Mirrodin has long been known as a set loaded with equipment and Jor Kadeen all but guarantees a strong showing in Phyrexia: All Will Be One. As a two-mana 2/2 with trample, you’ll want to load him and your other creatures with as many equipment cards as possible to give him an extra boost and to draw a card.
After years of not hearing any word about Koth, he makes his triumphant return in Phyrexia: All Will Be One. Notably, this Koth is a rare and not a mythic rare, which makes sense as there are 10 planeswalkers in this set. Koth comes with some unique abilities, which include tutoring up basic Mountains and then damaging your opponents when you play a Mountain.
More previews for Phyrexia: All Will Be One will return on January 12—which happens to be the same day as the first story release.
Universes Within Cards Are Back
Also included in Phyrexia: All Will Be One are several Universes Within cards. These cards are coming from the Street Fighter x Secret Lair and are functionally exactly the same as their Universes Beyond counterparts. Even though they have different names they are considered the same card so you can only have four copies of these cards in your deck even if they’re from different products with different names.
March of the Machines Future Notes
The first look at March of the Machines will be on April 21—so still more than five months away. We didn’t get a look at any cards from the set but Blake Rasmussen did show some product details. There will be five Commander decks for this set, and for many of the products the art was removed since they include spoilers for Phyrexia: All Will Be One.
Ryan Hay (he/him) has been writing about Magic: The Gathering and video games for years, and loves absolutely terrible games. Send him your bad game takes over on Twitter where he won’t stop talking about Lord of the Rings.