A lot of people really don’t seem to get that adding Phyrexians inevitably shifts the focus of a set. It’s just like Amonkhet where we didn’t get Egyptian alone, we got that + Bolas. Or Zendikar hasn’t been Zendikar alone for a good chunk of the sets, it’s that + Eldrazi. At best this is just a prelude for the next one but that doesn’t make it better, it just means next time instead of this time it’ll be Phyrexians crowding out space.
Still, they may very well be setting up for Phyrexian Ragnarok (could there be a more metal concept?)
This seems extremely on the nose. This makes perfect sense as a follow up whenever we return here after the next return to mirrodin.
We'll need to find out how Vorinclex got here and whether that happens before or after the story beat hinted at in the trailer, assuming the trailer is anything to go by for what will happen.
IE: Is the travel from Mirrodin to here something caused by the bifrost blade vs something the phyrexians were cooking up vs Tezzeret's Bridge Body?
Did Vorinclex travel here before or after the bifrost blade was stolen? (Assuming that the theft implied in the trailer is an event that is happening this set.)
We know at least one card in the set produces poison counters, which we've only seen from phyrexians since the last time, but we don't yet have solid confirmation that there ARE other phyrexians this set. I think it's likely that there may be less than 5, though alternatively, it would give the vikings monsters to battle. I am doubtful they would introduce us to a new plane in the middle of a war with phyrexians given that they decided to not do that when going back to mirrodin the last time and this time we have Kaldheim and an allusion to 9 other Realms they're connected to. I would expect us to at least visit most of them before Kaldheim is properly invaded.
Like, the simplest read of the information we have is that Tibalt connected mirrodin to Kaldheim after stealing the blade, but given how early things are, this is still just a hypothesis and for all we know, Vorinclex's arrival happens right as we leave the plane to explore Strixhaven.
If it's so common because it's been done with Amonkhet and Zendikar then it shouldn't really be a surprise that the plane will be more than one note
Something being common isn’t exactly a good argument, especially as more planes do actually keep their integrity. This should have been one, but instead we waste another top down plane.
This is actually a really stupid complaint just like the too many products or card prices. There's simply literally nothing Wizards can do to make everyone happy. The real problem is we have greedy people that want everything to be entirely what THEY want. You can't even usually get 10 people to agree on toppings for a damn pizza, nevermind millions of people to agree on what makes Magic good and fun. Some people want more emphasis on stuff just on this plane while others want a connected interplanar story. If we're going to have connected story, it has to be something really important unless we're being silly like the blogatog comic about doughnuts. Even if we're gathing artifacts or something, there has to be a reason, probably an interplanar threat since the game is about combat. We've had 3 big interplanar threats now, Bolas, Eldrazi, Phyrexians. They've been implemented different ways at different times while a loud group absolutely hates it no matter the implementation. Starting with alara, bolas wrecks the shard aspect which was really popular. On Zendikar, the eldrazi wreck the very popular adventure aspect. On Mirrodin, the phyrexians wreck the popular metal plane and monopolize the story while people dislike the plane conquered by phyrexians and liked the invading better. Then, we take years off for Innistrad, Return to Ravnica, and Theros and people are upset that the story doesn't feel connected other than the hated planeswalkers. Of course, planeswalkers are very popular in general, but some people despise the pricing, some people despise the gameplay, others despise how they monopolize the story just like a big bad. Then, we head to tarkir where they wreck beloved 3 color khans plane for dragon (the most popular creature type) plane and set up for the eldrazi. Afterwards, we head for Zendikar where people whine about how the eldrazi pulled all the focus because there's so many of them and they also ruin what makes the eldrazi special by making a bunch of colored ones that are just garden variety horrors. Innistrad pulls back on the eldrazi but it's too much and too soon for some people, especially the people that don't want them on their beloved Innistrad at all. Kaladesh, the gatewatch mostly win without wrecking the place and after that and "no consequences" on Zendikar they changed it up on Amonkhet and let Nicol Bolas finally do something, annihilating the mostly unexplored plane of Amonkhet. Ixalan is buildup and mostly unconnected and does poorly. Then, we have 3 sets on Ravnica since people want plane as they knew and loved it and people whine about too much time on one plane. The war also kills off gideon, dovin, domri, and dack, some of the least popular characters and a member of the gatewatch that has a contingent bent on killing them all. People are also upset about that, especially dack who didn't get another card but also gideon, especially because he's very popular like Elspeth. Then, we go to Eldraine, Theros, Ikoria, Zendikar and there are complaints about not enough connectivity and Wizards forgetting about the phyrexians. Now, we're on Kaldheim and we're revisiting the phyrexians invading again because that's what people want them to do. It's pulled back, possibly to just a few cards but even that is too much for some people. If you go through the entire list, you'll notice there's literally no way Wizards can make everyone happy. It's just like card prices where people want the cards they own to be expensive but the ones they don't to be cheap. It's also like the too many products where some people want to eliminate releases, but everything that gets cut was someone's pet product. Even mostly maligned products like theme decks/planeswalker decks got blowback from their cancellation. It seems to me, Magic has done a pretty impressive job of solving pretty much everything that can be solved. What's left is literally impossible because you have warring factions that want contradictory things and are unwilling to compromise. No matter what plane they pick to be invaded by a threat, it's the plane somebody dealy wanted and even the least popular planes in history have a very vocal group that demands a return to what they love.
No matter what plane they pick to be invaded by a threat, it's the plane somebody dealy wanted and even the least popular planes in history have a very vocal group that demands a return to what they love.
To simply "everyone" would mean to extend a set by a lot.
Explore a plane on its own, then put in other stuff what you want to do with it.
The biggest issues of story telling right now is that they speed up everything in such a manner that it is packed into 1 set.
Thats the issue of all the Eldrazi story arcs, they needed a lot more sets to explore it slowly and build a threat up, instead its all rushed.
Magic had a past of extremely "slow" rolling its story and exploring in more detail what the planes mean they visit.
The entire Urza / Weatherlight story took years and the battle with Phyrexia and Yawgmoth took a long time and massive sacrifices from the heroes to save the rest of the multiverse from that threat.
That was GOOD story telling.
We dont get that anymore, its a quick and dirty slap of story telling, which turns the villains into cartoonish knock offs and the heroes into caricature of their characters.
----
Instead of making a 10/10 set for "some" people, WotC is trying badly to put just a handful of cards in a set to try to please everyone (so everyone gives 5/10 for each set and every set is basically the same rating), which leaves the fans with a after taste of soap water, graving for an "actual" set that gives them more.
WotC found a concept in Ravnica to make a set and story of tiny sub-factions and continues to repeat that recipe over and over and over again.
And as that is a problem for fans, they will tell you about it.
I find it weird that people think this is ruining Kaldheim.
You are now invested in the fate of Kaldheim. You don't want the plane to fall to the phyrexians. There are now real stakes. You are emotionally involved.
This is a good thing, story telling wise. Was Lord of the Rings ruined for you when Frodo left the shire and came in contact with the Nazgul for the first time and there was now the real possibility that he could die or be injured?
I don't get this. The magic multiverse is way too much a museum of planes rather than an ecosystem of planes as it is. More interconnectivity and agents for change are a good thing in my book. (And we all know that if enough people like Kaldheim, it will not fall to the phyrexians because brand beats storytelling.)
You are now invested in the fate of Kaldheim. You don't want the plane to fall to the phyrexians. There are now real stakes. You are emotionally involved.
This is more of a problem that any potential Phyrexian threat might be, in any event. Becoming emotionally involved with an imaginary place? On the surface that is not a problem because we all do that from time to time, but we have seen many instances of how this ends badly with so many people having the feeling of "MTG isn't what *I* want it to be" and being frustrated over it.
Now...back on topic....very nice card and I hope it is real. Fascinating effect--I don't think there has been a "half the counters, round down" effect before. At least, my research has not located one as of yet. In any event, enjoy all the new interactions and weird board states this might create in all those games of Commander, especially once more than one copy is in play.
Interestingly, if you play this card wouldn't that negatively interact with an opponent trying to use -1/-1 counters via infect? Isn't infect a replacement effect, putting -1/-1 counters instead of damage, so the opponent is putting those counters on your creatures and therefore they put only half the counters rounded down? Or am I misreading something?
I find it weird that people think this is ruining Kaldheim.
You are now invested in the fate of Kaldheim. You don't want the plane to fall to the phyrexians. There are now real stakes. You are emotionally involved.
This is a good thing, story telling wise. Was Lord of the Rings ruined for you when Frodo left the shire and came in contact with the Nazgul for the first time and there was now the real possibility that he could die or be injured?
I don't get this. The magic multiverse is way too much a museum of planes rather than an ecosystem of planes as it is. More interconnectivity and agents for change are a good thing in my book. (And we all know that if enough people like Kaldheim, it will not fall to the phyrexians because brand beats storytelling.)
I firmly believe a lot of this has to do with the nature of this being a leak. Without the structure of the spoiler season around it, this is just a single card in isolation, devoid of most context. We're left with a ton of room to speculate, and for a lot of people these days, that means jumping immediately to whatever the worst conclusion they can come up with is. So clearly this single card of Vorinclex instantly means that the Phyrexian Invasion is unstoppable and the entire set outside of the handful of cards we've seen will be dominated by phyrexian attacks. Or it means that they've started breaking their own rules and given the Phyrexians the ability to travel through the planes entirely offscreen. Or so on, and so forth. The fact that we're being given this with minimal to no context makes it a fertile breeding ground for pessimism, where if we'd gotten it "properly", they would likely have had more info about how much more Phyrexian presence to expect, and likely some information about how it happened as well.
why are a few of you so quick to blame the playerbase for being overly needy and demanding here?
its a storyline element without context, and sure that might, and probably will, make all the difference here. at face value though? at face value you're getting some people giving feedback on what they're interpretting. none of that has to do with product fatigue, or card values. as of right now this is an interesting twist, but also feels like a surprise undermining of a brand new setting. for a lot of people that's poor storytelling in large part because of how rushed it is. no one is doing things like demanding boycotts or criticizing sales models, or even the cards, they're just saying the storytelling feels weak because of this. right now. without context.
that's a fair assessment given the information available. we can enjoy a thing and still be critical of that thing.
we can feel like its a cool twist, but also feel like its rushed and takes emphasis away from this potentially really cool world that we've seen so far. that's okay.
I, for one, welcome our new Phyrexian overlords, and would like to remind them that as a MTGsalvation personality I will be useful in rounding up others to toil away in their compleation chambers.
I find it weird that people think this is ruining Kaldheim.
You are now invested in the fate of Kaldheim. You don't want the plane to fall to the phyrexians. There are now real stakes. You are emotionally involved.
This is a good thing, story telling wise. Was Lord of the Rings ruined for you when Frodo left the shire and came in contact with the Nazgul for the first time and there was now the real possibility that he could die or be injured?
I don't get this. The magic multiverse is way too much a museum of planes rather than an ecosystem of planes as it is. More interconnectivity and agents for change are a good thing in my book. (And we all know that if enough people like Kaldheim, it will not fall to the phyrexians because brand beats storytelling.)
I don't disagree with this. But I think the decision to introduce Phyrexians into the plane simultaneously while you are showcasing the plane for the first time risks undermining the cool new plane before it gets even out of the gate. So while yes this may get me to be invested in the fate of the plane and provides some very meaningful stakes, it also has an effect like "well I'm not going to be too interested in the protagonists/antagonists on this plane because we already know the real big bad is the Phyrexians" for me. This is a situation where if we had a two-set block structure, I could see introducing the Phyrexians in the second set making more sense. Kind of like how Amonkhet and Shadows over Innistrad did it.
We have seen so few cards that it's unclear how or if they will pull this off. I think it could be cool but there are risks and downsides, too. It's sort of a shame this Vorinclex had to leak now. I suspect that wotc's plan was to introduce the phyrexians near the very end of the preview cycle for the set, assuming they enter the story toward the end.
I don't like vorinclex at all. A lot of decks use counters, and it's not in wizards's best interests to completely shut down so many other cards and decks that currently exist. But they didn't give us a lot of ways to deal with planeswalkers in ravnica block 3, and they don't do playtesting anymore, so it's possible. But i would've liked to see kaldheim as its own world first, without phyrexians moving in immediately
I will basically summarise what most are saying. Its not that i don't like having phyrexians in the set and if anything vorinclex or urabrask are the most fitting to be in a world with the characteristics of kaldheim, so that is a good thing, but i would prefer to have 2 sets where in one the world is fleshed out and in the second the stakes are settled regarding tibalt and the seed of phyrexians is planted.
I don't disagree with this. But I think the decision to introduce Phyrexians into the plane simultaneously while you are showcasing the plane for the first time risks undermining the cool new plane before it gets even out of the gate.
We still don't know if the phyrexians will appear at all. Maybe it's just Vorinclex and that's it.
The theory of having all the 5 praetors showing up on different planes to give us a big "it's coming!" seems way more plausible than Kaldheim being Scars of Mirrodin #2.
Sadly we'll have to wait a lot for the ufficial spoilers...
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
How i feel about competitive players and casual players in EDH: The competitive are german tourists, the casual are italian tourists, both in a italian beach. The italians asking themselves "why are the germans here?" make a legitimate question, the answer is because the beach is beautiful, no matter the country you came from. The italians wanting to ban the germans are dumb, because if the germans pay for their stay and follow the rules like everyone else, they have the right to be in the beach. Hovewer, if the germans started to ask themselves "why are the italians here?"... they would be dumb as hell.
Aside from story ruining with early phyrexians, I'm also really bothered by instant ultimate walkers. They better have o ring at the least in this set.
Didn't expect the name "ODIN" to pop up in this thread as much as it did (search for it, you'll see ), but now I wonder if introducing Magic's version of the All-Father as actually being a planeswalker who originally comes from arguably the most metal of worlds in the game's lore would be more on the clever side or more on the cringe side.
'^^
Anyway, since these seem to be real after all, I'm anxious to see which cards get errata'd to have the Phyrexian subtype and which don't, as well as what other non-permanents with the Snow supertype we'll get.
1- Phyrexian Invasion on Mirrodin was super effective because the oil had plent of mana to develop the phyrexians, on a new plane its way more plausible that the oil will just cause the desease and really slowly kill people or over time let them be ready to compleation, maybe the elfs will be more of a target for this cause they use alot of metal in their bodies (it appears) and the oil from mirrodin is inbued with Mycosynth like abilities of slowly turning flesh into metal and metal into flesh, other worlds that we saw phyrexians they don't spread that easy
2- New Phyrexia is almost in a civil war, it would make sense for the preators with less power or potential to rule all New Phyrexia to go out and try to conquer new territory
3- Not every world the Phyrexians visited ended up like New Phyrexia
Okay but what about the Snow Sorcery? Are there Snow lands in Kaldheim or not? These cards were spoiled together by the same source, right?
yes he Lupe tested (Checking the Rosetta printing pattern) the snow sorcery along with one of the already spoiled cards and vorinclex they all looked like to pass as clean and legit
No matter what plane they pick to be invaded by a threat, it's the plane somebody dealy wanted and even the least popular planes in history have a very vocal group that demands a return to what they love.
To simply "everyone" would mean to extend a set by a lot.
Explore a plane on its own, then put in other stuff what you want to do with it.
The biggest issues of story telling right now is that they speed up everything in such a manner that it is packed into 1 set.
Thats the issue of all the Eldrazi story arcs, they needed a lot more sets to explore it slowly and build a threat up, instead its all rushed.
Magic had a past of extremely "slow" rolling its story and exploring in more detail what the planes mean they visit.
The entire Urza / Weatherlight story took years and the battle with Phyrexia and Yawgmoth took a long time and massive sacrifices from the heroes to save the rest of the multiverse from that threat.
That was GOOD story telling.
We dont get that anymore, its a quick and dirty slap of story telling, which turns the villains into cartoonish knock offs and the heroes into caricature of their characters.
----
Instead of making a 10/10 set for "some" people, WotC is trying badly to put just a handful of cards in a set to try to please everyone (so everyone gives 5/10 for each set and every set is basically the same rating), which leaves the fans with a after taste of soap water, graving for an "actual" set that gives them more.
WotC found a concept in Ravnica to make a set and story of tiny sub-factions and continues to repeat that recipe over and over and over again.
And as that is a problem for fans, they will tell you about it.
Well, that is a problem, but there really isn't a good answer. Lets say they go back on the no second set unless it's a return and do 2 Kaldheim sets. What happens now? WOTC is terrible because Dorminaria, Eldraine, Theros, and Ikoria didn't get a second set. Pick one was some people's absolute favorite plane in the game. Even Innistrad is now getting 2 sets crammed into the end of the year rather than taking up 2 slots after all the whining about how Ravnica got 3 and the others got 1. Of course, even the most popular planes, Ravnica, Innistrad, Zendikar, some people absolutely hate them. There's also the question of what do we gain from a second set? It helps the story out, but that's about it. Block model was a financial failure as is the story that they literally gave up a long time ago and jammed the book into the fat pack, later known as the bundle. It apparently won't even sell as an e book, nevermind an actual book,so from a business perspective, you're lucky there even is a published story anymore. I'm glad Magic still has a story even though I don't read it much, but expecting them to warp the profitable game around the unprofitable story isn't going to fly.
Phyrexians are just written to be too OP. Unless I'm greatly misunderstanding them, literally all they need to do is put one drop of oil on a plane, and it will eventually turn into another Phyrexia. And their only weakness is supposed to be that they can't planeswalk, but now that's out the window too. They basically can neither be reasoned with nor destroyed.
(Incidentally, one thing I've never been sure about...is the first syllable pronounced with a schwa, or does it rhyme with "high"?)
Phyrexians are just written to be too OP. Unless I'm greatly misunderstanding them, literally all they need to do is put one drop of oil on a plane, and it will eventually turn into another Phyrexia. And their only weakness is supposed to be that they can't planeswalk, but now that's out the window too. They basically can neither be reasoned with nor destroyed.
(Incidentally, one thing I've never been sure about...is the first syllable pronounced with a schwa, or does it rhyme with "high"?)
They had the ability to travel to other worlds back in the premending storyline through the use of planar portals such as when they invaded the plane of Moag that Urza and Xantcha were relaxing in. What you would know adays as a planar bridge. Planar portals were not as rare as they are today, just ask the djinn of Wildfire who setup an entire hub network for portals for trading with several planes. With the current storyline, there is the possibility that Tibalt used the Kaldheim item called the Sword of the Realms aka Bifrost Blade to create a bridge for Phyrexians as the blade can be used to allow travel between the various planes.
Phyrexians are scary as they are meant to be hardfought victory for planeswalkers in their pre-mending state. Which by the way, we are post-mending and planeswalkers were stated to be weaker by default. Urza had to setup a plan over 4000 years to accomplish such a feat while also having assistance from several other planeswalkers on his magnitude of power.
And the thing about the Phyrexian Oil or Glistening Oil is its a slow acting terraforming disease. Phyrexians use biochemical warfare in addition to their horrible things like theft of the body and self. During the events of the original Mirrodin block when Karn was locked out of his own plane, Memnarch was corrupted by this oil as well.
To give you a small sample of the horror that their mere presence should instill: Eldamari and Lin-Sivi, two prominent non-planeswalker characters who had military might and prowess, would rather enter a suicide pact than face Yawgmoth's forces on the eve of the Phyrexian invasion.
The only blessing is that Yawgmoth himself is dead and he was so powerful as a non-planeswalker that he easily rivaled the might of oldwalkers who themselves had godlike power.
For pronunciation of Phyrexia/Phyrexian(Fi-rex-e-ya or Fi-rex-e-yin)
Phyrexians are just written to be too OP. Unless I'm greatly misunderstanding them, literally all they need to do is put one drop of oil on a plane, and it will eventually turn into another Phyrexia. And their only weakness is supposed to be that they can't planeswalk, but now that's out the window too. They basically can neither be reasoned with nor destroyed.
(Incidentally, one thing I've never been sure about...is the first syllable pronounced with a schwa, or does it rhyme with "high"?)
Pretty much like the Accelerant in the Aliens-verse (?). To anyone who likes the visuals and corresponding atmosphere/storytelling following the effects of some black oil that transforms anything it comes into contact with, be it man or machine, body or mind, organic or synthetic, I highly recommend 2015's Prometheus: The Complete Fire and Stone comic. I attached a few samples, not sure if spoiler tags are necessary (this comic being half a decade old), or if a graphic content tag is required (this being a Magic: The Gathering forum).
An Asgard version of Phyrexia sure would be pretty metal. Can you say Blightsteel Hammer?
MjoellnEaR, Blightsteel Hammer
Legendary Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature has death metal touch (What's that, you ask? Beats me.) Whosoever holds this hammer, if they be compleat, shall have the power of ThoAAAAA...!!! (*HighPitchScream*)
We'll need to find out how Vorinclex got here and whether that happens before or after the story beat hinted at in the trailer, assuming the trailer is anything to go by for what will happen.
IE: Is the travel from Mirrodin to here something caused by the bifrost blade vs something the phyrexians were cooking up vs Tezzeret's Bridge Body?
Did Vorinclex travel here before or after the bifrost blade was stolen? (Assuming that the theft implied in the trailer is an event that is happening this set.)
We know at least one card in the set produces poison counters, which we've only seen from phyrexians since the last time, but we don't yet have solid confirmation that there ARE other phyrexians this set. I think it's likely that there may be less than 5, though alternatively, it would give the vikings monsters to battle. I am doubtful they would introduce us to a new plane in the middle of a war with phyrexians given that they decided to not do that when going back to mirrodin the last time and this time we have Kaldheim and an allusion to 9 other Realms they're connected to. I would expect us to at least visit most of them before Kaldheim is properly invaded.
Like, the simplest read of the information we have is that Tibalt connected mirrodin to Kaldheim after stealing the blade, but given how early things are, this is still just a hypothesis and for all we know, Vorinclex's arrival happens right as we leave the plane to explore Strixhaven.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
Something being common isn’t exactly a good argument, especially as more planes do actually keep their integrity. This should have been one, but instead we waste another top down plane.
To simply "everyone" would mean to extend a set by a lot.
Explore a plane on its own, then put in other stuff what you want to do with it.
The biggest issues of story telling right now is that they speed up everything in such a manner that it is packed into 1 set.
Thats the issue of all the Eldrazi story arcs, they needed a lot more sets to explore it slowly and build a threat up, instead its all rushed.
Magic had a past of extremely "slow" rolling its story and exploring in more detail what the planes mean they visit.
The entire Urza / Weatherlight story took years and the battle with Phyrexia and Yawgmoth took a long time and massive sacrifices from the heroes to save the rest of the multiverse from that threat.
That was GOOD story telling.
We dont get that anymore, its a quick and dirty slap of story telling, which turns the villains into cartoonish knock offs and the heroes into caricature of their characters.
----
Instead of making a 10/10 set for "some" people, WotC is trying badly to put just a handful of cards in a set to try to please everyone (so everyone gives 5/10 for each set and every set is basically the same rating), which leaves the fans with a after taste of soap water, graving for an "actual" set that gives them more.
WotC found a concept in Ravnica to make a set and story of tiny sub-factions and continues to repeat that recipe over and over and over again.
And as that is a problem for fans, they will tell you about it.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
You are now invested in the fate of Kaldheim. You don't want the plane to fall to the phyrexians. There are now real stakes. You are emotionally involved.
This is a good thing, story telling wise. Was Lord of the Rings ruined for you when Frodo left the shire and came in contact with the Nazgul for the first time and there was now the real possibility that he could die or be injured?
I don't get this. The magic multiverse is way too much a museum of planes rather than an ecosystem of planes as it is. More interconnectivity and agents for change are a good thing in my book. (And we all know that if enough people like Kaldheim, it will not fall to the phyrexians because brand beats storytelling.)
This is more of a problem that any potential Phyrexian threat might be, in any event. Becoming emotionally involved with an imaginary place? On the surface that is not a problem because we all do that from time to time, but we have seen many instances of how this ends badly with so many people having the feeling of "MTG isn't what *I* want it to be" and being frustrated over it.
Now...back on topic....very nice card and I hope it is real. Fascinating effect--I don't think there has been a "half the counters, round down" effect before. At least, my research has not located one as of yet. In any event, enjoy all the new interactions and weird board states this might create in all those games of Commander, especially once more than one copy is in play.
Interestingly, if you play this card wouldn't that negatively interact with an opponent trying to use -1/-1 counters via infect? Isn't infect a replacement effect, putting -1/-1 counters instead of damage, so the opponent is putting those counters on your creatures and therefore they put only half the counters rounded down? Or am I misreading something?
its a storyline element without context, and sure that might, and probably will, make all the difference here. at face value though? at face value you're getting some people giving feedback on what they're interpretting. none of that has to do with product fatigue, or card values. as of right now this is an interesting twist, but also feels like a surprise undermining of a brand new setting. for a lot of people that's poor storytelling in large part because of how rushed it is. no one is doing things like demanding boycotts or criticizing sales models, or even the cards, they're just saying the storytelling feels weak because of this. right now. without context.
that's a fair assessment given the information available. we can enjoy a thing and still be critical of that thing.
we can feel like its a cool twist, but also feel like its rushed and takes emphasis away from this potentially really cool world that we've seen so far. that's okay.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
I don't disagree with this. But I think the decision to introduce Phyrexians into the plane simultaneously while you are showcasing the plane for the first time risks undermining the cool new plane before it gets even out of the gate. So while yes this may get me to be invested in the fate of the plane and provides some very meaningful stakes, it also has an effect like "well I'm not going to be too interested in the protagonists/antagonists on this plane because we already know the real big bad is the Phyrexians" for me. This is a situation where if we had a two-set block structure, I could see introducing the Phyrexians in the second set making more sense. Kind of like how Amonkhet and Shadows over Innistrad did it.
We have seen so few cards that it's unclear how or if they will pull this off. I think it could be cool but there are risks and downsides, too. It's sort of a shame this Vorinclex had to leak now. I suspect that wotc's plan was to introduce the phyrexians near the very end of the preview cycle for the set, assuming they enter the story toward the end.
We still don't know if the phyrexians will appear at all. Maybe it's just Vorinclex and that's it.
The theory of having all the 5 praetors showing up on different planes to give us a big "it's coming!" seems way more plausible than Kaldheim being Scars of Mirrodin #2.
Sadly we'll have to wait a lot for the ufficial spoilers...
'^^
Anyway, since these seem to be real after all, I'm anxious to see which cards get errata'd to have the Phyrexian subtype and which don't, as well as what other non-permanents with the Snow supertype we'll get.
2- New Phyrexia is almost in a civil war, it would make sense for the preators with less power or potential to rule all New Phyrexia to go out and try to conquer new territory
3- Not every world the Phyrexians visited ended up like New Phyrexia
chill out guys, it is Viking world
yes he Lupe tested (Checking the Rosetta printing pattern) the snow sorcery along with one of the already spoiled cards and vorinclex they all looked like to pass as clean and legit
(Incidentally, one thing I've never been sure about...is the first syllable pronounced with a schwa, or does it rhyme with "high"?)
Phyrexians are scary as they are meant to be hardfought victory for planeswalkers in their pre-mending state. Which by the way, we are post-mending and planeswalkers were stated to be weaker by default. Urza had to setup a plan over 4000 years to accomplish such a feat while also having assistance from several other planeswalkers on his magnitude of power.
And the thing about the Phyrexian Oil or Glistening Oil is its a slow acting terraforming disease. Phyrexians use biochemical warfare in addition to their horrible things like theft of the body and self. During the events of the original Mirrodin block when Karn was locked out of his own plane, Memnarch was corrupted by this oil as well.
To give you a small sample of the horror that their mere presence should instill: Eldamari and Lin-Sivi, two prominent non-planeswalker characters who had military might and prowess, would rather enter a suicide pact than face Yawgmoth's forces on the eve of the Phyrexian invasion.
The only blessing is that Yawgmoth himself is dead and he was so powerful as a non-planeswalker that he easily rivaled the might of oldwalkers who themselves had godlike power.
For pronunciation of Phyrexia/Phyrexian(Fi-rex-e-ya or Fi-rex-e-yin)
Pretty much like the Accelerant in the Aliens-verse (?). To anyone who likes the visuals and corresponding atmosphere/storytelling following the effects of some black oil that transforms anything it comes into contact with, be it man or machine, body or mind, organic or synthetic, I highly recommend 2015's Prometheus: The Complete Fire and Stone comic. I attached a few samples, not sure if spoiler tags are necessary (this comic being half a decade old), or if a graphic content tag is required (this being a Magic: The Gathering forum).
An Asgard version of Phyrexia sure would be pretty metal. Can you say Blightsteel Hammer?
MjoellnEaR, Blightsteel Hammer
Legendary Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature has death metal touch (What's that, you ask? Beats me.)
Whosoever holds this hammer, if they be compleat, shall have the power of ThoAAAAA...!!! (*HighPitchScream*)