Phyrexia: All Will Be One, the newest Magic: The Gathering set, is officially here, bringing by using it biomechanical horror and grotesque beauty as the Phrexians set their sight on total domination.
The penultimate expansion in the four-part Phyrexian story arc visits the house of the Phyrexians because they pursue their plans to dominate the Multiverse for good. Phyrexia's Leader, Elesh Norn, is at the forefront of this story as beloved Magic heroes go head to head by having an ever-growing threat, but not everyone will make it out of this battle unscathed, or uncorrupted.
The battle, however, is not just between your Phyrexians and also the Multiverse, with every Praetor setting their sights on singularity – flavour text on cards gives an insight to their intentions. The set is rife with ambition, as each Preator strives to outdo the others before they themselves are outdone.
Phyrexia: All Will Be One contains 271 cards, having a whole host of powerful new additions bound to shake up competitive play. Cards like Green Sun's Twilight (and the other corresponding Sun's Twilight sorcery cards for every colour) can be game-changing if you find yourself by having an excess of mana at your disposal. In the Commander format, the Dominus cards might be a formidable accessory for decks because of their strong abilities, too.
It's not only the cards themselves that are shaking in the game using their introduction though, with multiple new and returning mechanics that completely capture the flavors from the Phyrexians. One of the key mechanics in the set, Toxic, is found across numerous cards and deals poison counters (between one and three, usually one) when combat damage is dealt to some player.
Regardless of the player's current life total, when they receive ten poison counters, they lose the sport. Venerated Rotpriest also gets an honourable mention as one of the many cards with the Toxic Ability, with the added ability to spend a poison counter to target opponents each time a creature you control becomes the target of a spell.
Toxic is comparable to the previous Infect ability observed in Scars of Mirrodin, however also deals combat damage instead of purely poison counters, which makes it all the more deadly. When paired with the Phyrexian-typical Proliferate ability, it's a potent combination.
Another new mechanic, Corrupted, rewards players using Toxic to their advantage – cards with the corrupted keyword trigger when opponents have three or more poison counters, making the counters useful beyond being a game finisher as they unlock new abilities for example granting creatures lifelink or extra card draw. Oil Counters also make their first appearance within this set, and have multiple uses, such as accumulating your creatures to dispatch your attacker quickly.
Beauty in the grotesque
Beyond the eye-wateringly strong cards and abilities at the disposal of players in Phyrexia: Will be One, the set is host with a truly iconic new art. Phyrexians are prime subject material for Magic to lean heavily into body horror, and the new set does just that.
Cards like Crawling Chorus get my vote for one of the most horrifying-looking cards within the set, but it's one of several certain to turn your stomach. Phyrexian Angels are grotesque simulacrums of true angels, Planewalkers like Nissa succumb towards the biomechanical corruption at the Preator's bidding.
Ovidio Cartagena, Art Director for the set, says one of the inspirations behind the horrifying new art is dark surrealism, considered the 20th-21st century spiritual successors towards the work of Hieronymous Bosch. 'I desired to have a truly alien world, but additionally make an evocative mixture of symbols that reinforce-Phyrexia's ambitions for the multiverse,' he states of his goal for this expansion.
Another key inspiration for the art was the illustrations of Dante's Divine Comedy, with some of the compositions evoking curses in certain circles of Dante's Hell. Cartagena says the creative process for each set, that takes a few years from conception to produce, frequently involves linking his vacations thematically towards the upcoming set.
For Phyrexia: Will be One, he looked back on notes from his visit to the Giger Museum in Gruyères (that they refers to as 'almost like a pilgrimage'), and finding an ancient 19th-century illustrated Inferno inside a bookstore in the middle of the Californian desert. 'The procedure for seeking and inhabiting a place or object helps me draw ideas also it allows me to determine beyond my desk and computer for livable experiences,' He says.
The set features several different showcase treatments inspired by Japanese body horror, too, with Ichor showcase art for 40 cards within the set, and the 10 Planeswalkers given a borderless manga-art treatment. Elesh Norn herself received artwork made by japan manga artist Junji Ito, probably the most well-known artists within the Japanese horror scene with works like Tomie.
Phyrexia: All Will Be One ratchets in the drama, horror, and power of the Phyrexian story arc with masterful worldbuilding and art direction, all the while providing exciting new additions to the sport that are certain to change up multiple Magic formats. The set is available now in stores as well as on Magic: The range Arena, should you want to test you at Multiverse domination.
