Chris Inglis
Wizards of the Coast released the latest set for Magic: The Gathering and MTG: Arena, Phyrexia: All Will Be One. This is the third instalment to the four-part Phyrexian storyline which started with Dominaria United last year. Phyrexia: All Will Be One will see players experience the beauty and horror of the Phyrexians as Magic’s oldest, most memorable villains, pursue their plans to take over the multiverse. The set contains 271 cards and is available to play on Arena and tabletop today, and we were sent a Commander set and some booster packs to open.
For thousands of years, Phyrexians have sought to dominate other worlds by propagating their viral gift and turning every living thing into a biomechanical horror. Magic’s heroic Planeswalkers have always succeeded in stopping these invasions… until now! Phyrexia’s leader, The Mother of Machines Elesh Norn has developed a way to infiltrate the entire Multiverse, including the corruption of some of Magic’s most iconic and heroic characters.
Thanks to Wizards of the Coast, we were sent a Rebellion Rising Commander deck featuring Neyal, Suns’s Vanguard as the title card. This Rebellion Rising deck features a number of Soldier tokens with top-of-the-line gear to burn through the opposition. This set contains a 100-card deck (2 Traditional Foil + 98 nonfoil), 1 foil-etched Display Commander, 10 tokens, 1 life tracker + 1 deck box to hold them all. We were also sent several jumpstart boosters, draft boosters, set boosters and my favourite, the all-important collector boosters. You can watch the unboxing video here.
Phyrexia: All Will Be One focuses heavily on showcasing the horror of the Phyrexians and the set’s mechanics reflect that. Two new Phyrexian-themed mechanics are Corrupted, which rewards players who have opponents with three or more poison counters, and Oil Counters which show the spread of Phyrexia throughout the planes of the Multiverse. Fan favourite mechanic Proliferate returns with heavy synergy with both set’s new mechanics. Lastly, Poison Counters also make their return via the Toxic mechanic as a way for players to kill their opponents even faster than usual as they turn them to the side of Phyrexia.
To capture the horror of the Phyrexians, the set features several different showcase treatments, all inspired by Japanese body horror. 40 hand-selected cards feature Ichor showcase art, while the 10 Planeswalkers of the set are given a borderless manga-art treatment. Elesh Norn also receives her own special art treatment as the leader of the Phyrexians, with artwork done by popular Japanese manga artist Junji-Ito.
As usual, the artwork on the cards is impeccably detailed and this is the allure to these decks for me. I’m learning more each time about the card’s gameplay advantages/disadvantages, but the shiny appeal is what catches my eye. One card that I think is the best one I have in my collection is Lukka, Bound to Ruin, a legendary planeswalker. This borderless card features artwork by Yuki Fujisawa and is a compleat foil card that shows the phyrexian symbol as the light shifts over it. Very cool indeed! There were also a much higher number of rare and mythic cards compared to my last couple of boxes.
Phyrexia: All Will Be One is now available as Draft Boosters, Set Boosters, Collector Boosters, Jumpstart Boosters and Commander decks. There will also be a special Compleat Bundle edition releasing on March 3, 2023. Thanks very much to Wizards of the Coast for sending us this bundle to unbox. For more information on Phyrexia: All Will Be One, visit https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/phyrexia-all-will-be-one. Find your nearest Local Game Store and to play at Prerelease: https://locator.wizards.com/.
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