Due to the prominence of the suns in that picture, I'd say it is far more likely a Mirrodin faction card than a Phyrexia one. Nothing on it even hints at Phyrexian allegiance.
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I'm the idiot who spammed wikipedia adding the 120 scar cards crap that people started making fake purple cards with. I dun goof'd.
Due to the prominence of the suns in that picture, I'd say it is far more likely a Mirrodin faction card than a Phyrexia one. Nothing on it even hints at Phyrexian allegiance.
I'd even go further and say that we have probably seen zero or close to zero Phyrexian-faction cards so far. (Memoricide probably is but we haven't seen the "real" art for it yet.) Almost everything we've seen fits very well with the Mirrodin "style" that's already been built up and they pretty clearly want to keep the nature of the other faction "secret" for as long as possible.
Well, they didn't make it colorless, because we can see it on the intro pack and it's a blue card. Hard to tell if it's a blue artifact or non-artifact though.
Right. The difference is that Mirrodin creatures have basically superficial metal -- their hair is metal, or they've got metal plates on their skin or something. If you Shatter them, all that happens is that they go bald or their skin plates come off or something.
Esperites actually take functional, vital parts of their body and replace them with etherium. If you Shatter those, they aren't left with a full, functional body and they die.
I think that the Mirrodin side so far seems to very "traditional" -- they want there to be a very clear continuity between Mirrodin block and this one, to show us that it's the same place. So I don't think Mirrodin creatures will be colored artifacts in this block. But Phyrexians, who actually integrate metal into their bodies and believe in a union of flesh and metal, I could easily see getting some. And there could easily be a few others if (as it kind of appears now) there are a few Esper creatures who've shown up as well.
I really don't think there will be actual Phyrexians in the block. (At least in the sense of the cyborg/zombie ones we are familiar with.) I get the distinct impression from the Infect keyword, twiter, some art, and the Mirrodin ads, that the "Phyrexians" in this block are regular creatures taken over by phyrexian oil.
With the whole mirrodin v. phyrexia faction I wouldn't be surprised if black has a higher number of cards than the other colours after all with 2 factions you would have to expect roughly equal numbers of cards and phyrexia is very much a Black + Artifact concept and even if the infect concept spreads it to the other colours it seems likely to be significantly stronger in black. This could easily be balanced by multicolour cards and/or sunburst artifacts in order to make sure it didn't become Torment crossed with Mirrodin.
Also while esper style coloured artifacts aren't super likely I wouldn't be surprised if any true or traditional phyrexians(the vat grown then made over into an artifact kind) are made as black artifact creatures.
I really don't think there will be actual Phyrexians in the block. (At least in the sense of the cyborg/zombie ones we are familiar with.) I get the distinct impression from the Infect keyword, twiter, some art, and the Mirrodin ads, that the "Phyrexians" in this block are regular creatures taken over by phyrexian oil.
If there aren't things that look and act shockingly similar to classic "Phyrexians" in SoM, I'm sure there will be by the end of the block.
I think Charlequin's probably right about that. My guess is we wont see much in the way of 'True Phyrexians' in the first set, because that'll give us something to work up to as the block goes on. Otherwise this could end up like Kamigawa from a progression perspective, where nothing's really changed in terms of what's going on.
It'll be interesting to see whether or not we'll see any real Phyrexians though, or whether the infected creatures will just get more and more like Phyrexians.
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Right. The difference is that Mirrodin creatures have basically superficial metal -- their hair is metal, or they've got metal plates on their skin or something. If you Shatter them, all that happens is that they go bald or their skin plates come off or something.
But Phyrexians, who actually integrate metal into their bodies and believe in a union of flesh and metal, I could easily see getting some.
I can see the point about "superficial metal" but what about the Mycosynth also giving artifact creatures flesh? As much as people like to bring up the fact Sarcomite Myr was in the Alara file, he was dropped becuase it's not an inhabitant of Esper. Memnarch had fleshy parts, and I could definitely see them making him blue if they made him today.
I'd really be surprised if we didn't get any colored artifacts in the whole block. They are a really good fit for Phyrexians and could also show some evolution of Mirrodin's artificial life. After the Eldrazi, I don't want colorless legendaries either.
Maybe if we get enough colorless legends someone will finally fix the rules for Basic Lands in EDH.
Edit: An all artifact set is a lot easier to pull off than an all creature set. We have cards like the Capsules and baubles and things with flash that can effectively function as spells.
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Wizards said (back in the day) that the all creature set Legions was a really bad idea which they would never do again. Now, that doesn't mean they won't because WotC has a way of just doing the exact opposite of what they said a few years ago, so we will see. Drafting with an all creatures set is pretty frigging boring though and instants add to gameplay. Also combat will be extremely boring with no combat tricks. Morph did something, but not enough. I absolutely hated Legions. They could make colourless instants, as a wink to RotE though.
Anyway, I don't see it happening, an all Artifact set.
Legions was also one of the best-selling sets of all time. So, yeah.
And a lack of instants and sorceries in an "all artifact set" would easily be replaced by cards like Courier's Capsule. Not that I think an all-artifact set is likely, but it's possible for sure.
Honestly, the Wurmcoil Engine looks like the best possible candidate for a Phyrexian creature, amongst what has been revealed. A mechanical simulacrum of a living creature, which seems to be tangled in a fight with a "natural" wurm. And the color palette feels right.
Phyrexians are closer to the Esperites, but still not artifacts because while their metal enhancements are artificial, they are still internalized and integrated into their biology, though not enough to kill them if it were destroyed.
As much as I hate to outright call you wrong, I'm going to have to in this instance. The differences between Etherium-Enhanced creatures and Phyrexians is that Etherium is a more elegant and weaker. Phyrexians are very vulnerable to having their artifact portions singled out for assault (Read the Artifact cycle), additionally compleated Phyrexians have run the gamot from Black Zombies to Artifacts. Look at the art for Phyrexian Ghoul and Phyrexian Hulk, both display equal parts biology with Artifice. Making them both Black artifacts would be a far more elegant solution.
I'll concede that. It wouldn't be terribly surprising to see new Phyrexians as colored artifacts, but it would be inconsistent with the previous non-artifact Phyrexians. I suppose it could handwaved by saying this new breed of Phyrexians is more dependent on their metal parts and/or more vulnerable to artifact-destruction due to limited resources, or something. It really could go either way.
Card names we have so far, loosely sorted by color (best guesses) and alphabetized.
White
Elspeth Tirel
Indomitable Archangel (could be multi-colored)
Kemba, Kha Regent
Loxodon Wayfarer (could be multi-colored or Green)
Sunblast Angel
Vigil for the Lost
Green
Ezuri's Archers
Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Blue
Argent Sphinx
Venser, the Sojourner
Black
Carnifex Demon
Memoricide
Red
Hoard-Smelter Dragon
Koth, the ????
Artifacts
Darksteel Axe
Etched Champion
Mox Opal
Precursor Golem
Platinum Emperion (Black artifact / Phyrexian faction?)
Rusted Relic
Sword of Body and Mind
Sword of ... and ...
Wurmcoil Engine (Black artifact / Phyrexian faction?)
Land
Glimmerpost
From everything I have read and heard in podcasts I am leaning to Elspeth and Venser as being multi-colored walkers.
I'd even go further and say that we have probably seen zero or close to zero Phyrexian-faction cards so far. (Memoricide probably is but we haven't seen the "real" art for it yet.) Almost everything we've seen fits very well with the Mirrodin "style" that's already been built up and they pretty clearly want to keep the nature of the other faction "secret" for as long as possible.
To back this up, notice how Wizards is eagerly embracing the return to Mirrodin, but have yet to use the P-word (Phyrexia) even once (to my knowledge) in the early push for SoM. MaRo's twitter alluded to the foundations laid 7 years ago in Mirrodin, but merely implied a deep background to the keyword InfeCt.
Wizards is playing their Return-of-Yawgmoth-ites cards very close to the chest. It should come as no surprise that the balance of the previewed/promo arts for SoM feature the presumptive faction whose name they can't help but reveal (Announcing... Scars of something-to-be-disclosed-later!!!) and obfuscate the other.
I'll concede that. It wouldn't be terribly surprising to see new Phyrexians as colored artifacts, but it would be inconsistent with the previous non-artifact Phyrexians. I suppose it could handwaved by saying this new breed of Phyrexians is more dependent on their metal parts and/or more vulnerable to artifact-destruction due to limited resources, or something. It really could go either way.
Yeah, it'd be a bit of a gearshift, I agree. I imagine it could be handled in the way of Summons and Legendary creatures as well, with an errata for all previous Phyrexian creatures to have the Supertype "Artifact Creature". It worked for Legendaries back in the day :rolleyes2:.
Yeah, it'd be a bit of a gearshift, I agree. I imagine it could be handled in the way of Summons and Legendary creatures as well, with an errata for all previous Phyrexian creatures to have the Supertype "Artifact Creature". It worked for Legendaries back in the day :rolleyes2:.
I don't think they would errata the old Phyrexians, as that changes how those cards were meant to function. My guess is they will do what they want([edit] in SoM) with a wave to TimeSpiral to "make it work".
Yeah, there won't be any errata of past cards, but they could just decide that now that it's okay to make colored artifacts, any Phyrexian creatures from now on will be colored artifacts, instead of either colored OR artifacts.
Its not the quantity of metal on the creature, but the fact that mirroden creatures are BORN with metal, while Esper creatures merely replace their body with etherium. I think the phyrexian abominations are born that way too, I think. Its not as simple as "this being has metal scales and fangs, they should be an artifact!
The difference is that Mirrodin creatures have basically superficial metal -- their hair is metal, or they've got metal plates on their skin or something. If you Shatter them, all that happens is that they go bald or their skin plates come off or something.
Esperites actually take functional, vital parts of their body and replace them with etherium. If you Shatter those, they aren't left with a full, functional body and they die.
This is way I didn't mention Leonins, Vulshoks or Neuroks in my post, because I agree with you and don't think those should be artifacts, nor that every creature should also be an artifact. I mentioned Hoverguards, Furnace Dragon and Replicas, which do have functional body parts made of metal (Hoverguard Observer's flavor text even says it's "made", Furnace Dragon has a furnace where the chest should be - Shatter that and it should break in two -, and the Replicas were as color-aligned as it could get back then).
Colored artifacts just need specific mana to work, which is a flavorful and easy to grasp concept, already implemented in the original mirrodin, with Leonin Sun Standard or Proteus Staff.
It wouldn't be terribly surprising to see new Phyrexians as colored artifacts, but it would be inconsistent with the previous non-artifact Phyrexians. I suppose it could handwaved by saying this new breed of Phyrexians is more dependent on their metal parts and/or more vulnerable to artifact-destruction due to limited resources, or something. It really could go either way.
Why is "dependency on metal parts" a requirement for colored artifacts? It was used to explain why all creatures on Esper we artifacts, but Executioner's Capsule clearly is just a colored artifact. And a rotting pumpkin seems to be enough to make an artifact creature as multicolored as possible. For a large population of colored artifacts, they will need a flavor based rationale, but I don't see Esper as some hard rule. Even on Alara, Skyclaw Thrash just had metal, barely working wings.
I while they might have wanted to make Phyrexians black artifacts if they had the idea/frame back in the day, I agree having "New Phyrexians" certainly gives them an out for making the change.
Card names we have so far, loosely sorted by color (best guesses) and alphabetized.
...
Artifacts
Darksteel Axe
Etched Champion
Mox Opal
Precursor Golem
Platinum Emperion (Black artifact / Phyrexian faction?)
Rusted Relic
Sword of Body and Mind
Sword of ... and ...
Wurmcoil Engine (Black artifact / Phyrexian faction?)
Land
Glimmerpost
Seiing the popularity of Sword of fire and ice and sword of light and shadow, I think that they will print the other sword of ___ and ___ later in the block, to try and complete the cycle.
There are three enemy color swords remaining, and 3 sets in the block. Just seems like an obvious move to me.
My guess is Sword of War and Peace (White/red) and Sword of Life and Death (Green/black)
As far as Argent Sphinx goes... I think its name implies that it will be an artifact.
'Argent' is an archaic term for the metal silver after all...
Not enough. Every living thing on the plane, whether it's an artifact or not, has metal in its biology. This sphinx seems no more "artificial" than any normal Mirrodin creature. Metallic - or "argent" - skin is a perfectly natural trait in a non-artifact creature, here.
Card names we have so far, loosely sorted by color (best guesses) and alphabetized.
White
Elspeth Tirel
Given that Elspeth was a Knight of the reliquary, and looking at the artwork, I could make a case for Elspeth being Green/White. Precidence set by Ajani.
I'd even go further and say that we have probably seen zero or close to zero Phyrexian-faction cards so far. (Memoricide probably is but we haven't seen the "real" art for it yet.) Almost everything we've seen fits very well with the Mirrodin "style" that's already been built up and they pretty clearly want to keep the nature of the other faction "secret" for as long as possible.
I get the angle, but...
Given that we've seen all the precons and boosters, and they all use already known art, how do you figure that's going to work? None of the pre-cons appear to be phyrexian-aligned, which seems virtually impossible if half the cards in the set are supposed to be aligned with this 'faction'.
Although counter-intuitive, I'm almost tempted to say that there won't be a phyrexian faction in SoM, but rather some other generic evil faction that turns out to be related to the Phyrexians. Perhaps the big reveal is really planned for the second set of the block, with SoM only hinting at it (in ways like the Ichor Eyes, and perhaps with a couple of specific cards).
Due to the prominence of the suns in that picture, I'd say it is far more likely a Mirrodin faction card than a Phyrexia one. Nothing on it even hints at Phyrexian allegiance.
I'd even go further and say that we have probably seen zero or close to zero Phyrexian-faction cards so far. (Memoricide probably is but we haven't seen the "real" art for it yet.) Almost everything we've seen fits very well with the Mirrodin "style" that's already been built up and they pretty clearly want to keep the nature of the other faction "secret" for as long as possible.
I really don't think there will be actual Phyrexians in the block. (At least in the sense of the cyborg/zombie ones we are familiar with.) I get the distinct impression from the Infect keyword, twiter, some art, and the Mirrodin ads, that the "Phyrexians" in this block are regular creatures taken over by phyrexian oil.
Also while esper style coloured artifacts aren't super likely I wouldn't be surprised if any true or traditional phyrexians(the vat grown then made over into an artifact kind) are made as black artifact creatures.
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If there aren't things that look and act shockingly similar to classic "Phyrexians" in SoM, I'm sure there will be by the end of the block.
It'll be interesting to see whether or not we'll see any real Phyrexians though, or whether the infected creatures will just get more and more like Phyrexians.
I can see the point about "superficial metal" but what about the Mycosynth also giving artifact creatures flesh? As much as people like to bring up the fact Sarcomite Myr was in the Alara file, he was dropped becuase it's not an inhabitant of Esper. Memnarch had fleshy parts, and I could definitely see them making him blue if they made him today.
I'd really be surprised if we didn't get any colored artifacts in the whole block. They are a really good fit for Phyrexians and could also show some evolution of Mirrodin's artificial life. After the Eldrazi, I don't want colorless legendaries either.
Edit: An all artifact set is a lot easier to pull off than an all creature set. We have cards like the Capsules and baubles and things with flash that can effectively function as spells.
Legions was also one of the best-selling sets of all time. So, yeah.
And a lack of instants and sorceries in an "all artifact set" would easily be replaced by cards like Courier's Capsule. Not that I think an all-artifact set is likely, but it's possible for sure.
Honestly, the Wurmcoil Engine looks like the best possible candidate for a Phyrexian creature, amongst what has been revealed. A mechanical simulacrum of a living creature, which seems to be tangled in a fight with a "natural" wurm. And the color palette feels right.
R Citizen Cane (Feldon of the Third Path)
As much as I hate to outright call you wrong, I'm going to have to in this instance. The differences between Etherium-Enhanced creatures and Phyrexians is that Etherium is a more elegant and weaker. Phyrexians are very vulnerable to having their artifact portions singled out for assault (Read the Artifact cycle), additionally compleated Phyrexians have run the gamot from Black Zombies to Artifacts. Look at the art for Phyrexian Ghoul and Phyrexian Hulk, both display equal parts biology with Artifice. Making them both Black artifacts would be a far more elegant solution.
R Citizen Cane (Feldon of the Third Path)
From everything I have read and heard in podcasts I am leaning to Elspeth and Venser as being multi-colored walkers.
To back this up, notice how Wizards is eagerly embracing the return to Mirrodin, but have yet to use the P-word (Phyrexia) even once (to my knowledge) in the early push for SoM. MaRo's twitter alluded to the foundations laid 7 years ago in Mirrodin, but merely implied a deep background to the keyword InfeCt.
Wizards is playing their Return-of-Yawgmoth-ites cards very close to the chest. It should come as no surprise that the balance of the previewed/promo arts for SoM feature the presumptive faction whose name they can't help but reveal (Announcing... Scars of something-to-be-disclosed-later!!!) and obfuscate the other.
Yeah, it'd be a bit of a gearshift, I agree. I imagine it could be handled in the way of Summons and Legendary creatures as well, with an errata for all previous Phyrexian creatures to have the Supertype "Artifact Creature". It worked for Legendaries back in the day :rolleyes2:.
I don't think they would errata the old Phyrexians, as that changes how those cards were meant to function. My guess is they will do what they want([edit] in SoM) with a wave to TimeSpiral to "make it work".
R Citizen Cane (Feldon of the Third Path)
Colored artifacts just need specific mana to work, which is a flavorful and easy to grasp concept, already implemented in the original mirrodin, with Leonin Sun Standard or Proteus Staff.
Why is "dependency on metal parts" a requirement for colored artifacts? It was used to explain why all creatures on Esper we artifacts, but Executioner's Capsule clearly is just a colored artifact. And a rotting pumpkin seems to be enough to make an artifact creature as multicolored as possible. For a large population of colored artifacts, they will need a flavor based rationale, but I don't see Esper as some hard rule. Even on Alara, Skyclaw Thrash just had metal, barely working wings.
I while they might have wanted to make Phyrexians black artifacts if they had the idea/frame back in the day, I agree having "New Phyrexians" certainly gives them an out for making the change.
'Argent' is an archaic term for the metal silver after all...
Seiing the popularity of Sword of fire and ice and sword of light and shadow, I think that they will print the other sword of ___ and ___ later in the block, to try and complete the cycle.
There are three enemy color swords remaining, and 3 sets in the block. Just seems like an obvious move to me.
My guess is Sword of War and Peace (White/red) and Sword of Life and Death (Green/black)
On Modern Masters 2:
Will be kept until 12/31/2013 to prove if Right or Wrong.Proven right 1/27/2013Not enough. Every living thing on the plane, whether it's an artifact or not, has metal in its biology. This sphinx seems no more "artificial" than any normal Mirrodin creature. Metallic - or "argent" - skin is a perfectly natural trait in a non-artifact creature, here.
R Citizen Cane (Feldon of the Third Path)
Provided they didn't drastically change it, that's supposed to be a land, so glimmerpost isn't the only one we "know" about.
Given that Elspeth was a Knight of the reliquary, and looking at the artwork, I could make a case for Elspeth being Green/White. Precidence set by Ajani.
BUR Spirit of Crosis BUR
Modern
BW Despair BW
UWR ">Lightning Angel UWR
Commander
BUG Mimeoplasm - Commander BUG
They asked him to design a different card b/c the counterspell land just ended up being too powerful.
I get the angle, but...
Given that we've seen all the precons and boosters, and they all use already known art, how do you figure that's going to work? None of the pre-cons appear to be phyrexian-aligned, which seems virtually impossible if half the cards in the set are supposed to be aligned with this 'faction'.
Although counter-intuitive, I'm almost tempted to say that there won't be a phyrexian faction in SoM, but rather some other generic evil faction that turns out to be related to the Phyrexians. Perhaps the big reveal is really planned for the second set of the block, with SoM only hinting at it (in ways like the Ichor Eyes, and perhaps with a couple of specific cards).
If your answer is "No," then your morality does not come from God's commandments.
If your answer is "Yes," then please, please reconsider.