That card is Phyresis.
Truth be told, I like Phyrexia (new or old, it doesn't matter). Having the card that essentially is the epitome of what they do is a good thing in my book. Truth be told, again, in a way Phyresis is what I'm also out to achieve in real life; I study computer science in college in order to someday develop prosthetics for just about every body part imaginable with my main sights set on the brain (no joke, although I don't intend on having Phyrexia's aggressive tendencies; in other words, I'm not for invading and forcing others to be made compleat).
It's good to have the card is essentially the representation of a life goal, at least in some way.
Gameplay-wise I really only use it on two occasions; that being dropping it on either my Thopter Assembly (once it's bounced, I have the tokens, and it's brought back) to make a 5/5 infect flier, or on another creature that I have out which doesn't normally have infect that I plan on trying to deal some direct damage with (like Plaguemaw Beast, which is usually its other target in my green/black infect deck). Either way, I wind up with Plaguemaw on the ground which can slam a target for a huge amount of -1/-1 counters, or a nigh-unstoppable 5/5 infect flier in the air which can take down anyone who lacks airpower in just two turns, or less if I proliferate.
In short; Phyresis = good in my book.
According to one source I found, flowstone is a substance that was built by a reactor in the Phyrexian stronghold which was composed of tiny nanorobotic devices that could be reprogrammed and used to build mostly anything (essentially magic's equivalent of the whole "grey goo scenario" ).
As goes Phyrexian Oil...
I'm wondering if it's the same sort of thing; mana-powered nanobots that use petroleum or some other kind of oil as a suspension/transport/nutrient medium.
Is there any info on this anywhere? It would explain how the oil manages to turn flesh into machine, and given that flowstone (which was a nanobot-based substance) could be used to shape things into various objects (flowstone blade, if anyone remembers the card) it's not too far fetched to think, from my perspective, that Phyrexian/Glistening Oil could also be composed of nanomachines, only held in a suspension medium instead of in a free-form state.
Interesting.
All this has me thinking that at least I don't need to worry about New Phyrexia just up and dying off.
If it was built in a planar void, or small naturally occurring plane with nothing in it, then no one needs to worry about the problem of artificial plane collapse, since planar voids are natural, albeit dessolate, planes and natural planes don't collapse.
Well, at least that answered my question. New Phyrexia's construction is this: natural plane, artificial planet. Makes sense as to how it continues to exist.
On another note; Jeez, look how big this topic got in only a few days. I might have started something here...
So in other words, New Phyrexia probably won't just up and die out over time. That's good to know.
Now if only they could find a way to rebuild the inter-plannar portals that the original Phyrexia had. THAT would certainly be a benefit to them. Just think of the possibilities...
Compleated Eldrazi, for instance.
Kind of a waste of time to build something like that knowing it's just going to cave in and fail. Why did the old walkers bother building artificial planes if they knew they were just going to collapse? It seems rather pointless and rather depressing.
So the five suns keep it from deteriorating?
I guess that makes sense. I'm just confused on it since I read on the official MtG site that all artificial planes eventually collapse unless they're maintained by a planeswalker.
That said, what is keeping Mirrodin/New Phyrexia from falling to entropy and literally breaking down into energy?