I’ve been drafting a decent amount since the Phyrexia: All Will Be One set release. I’ve gained some knowledge, cracked some Skullbombs, lubed up some machinery, and exterminated some Mites. I’m very excited to sit down with some great players for a pod draft, but I’m very curious to see who did their homework and played a fair amount of paper recently as well.
Like any great wizard, I want to keep this one light, and not reveal my secret strategies, including rare drafting to afford a wet $15 convention center cheeseburger. [Copy Editor’s Note: $15? Who wants to tell him?]
The set hasn’t been out too long, and I’ve played quite a bit in that short time, so I thought I’d talk about what cards earned my nod of approval, and the ones we don’t talk about anymore.
Going Up
Glistener Seer is a really cool card from a Phyrexia design standpoint. It’s hard to predict how good an 0/3 blocker will be in any set, especially with a new synergy mechanic via oil counters. Now, I don’t think this card is good in every blue deck by any means, but if you end up in a heavy blue deck, I feel like it is a crucial piece of the puzzle. Who doesn’t mind a shifty advisor in their corner to cook the books from time to time, anyway?
I’ve been waiting for Hazardous Blast to let me down whenever I give it a chance, but it keeps impressing me. I’ve had a few hyper-aggressive decks where I’ve maindecked this and have been happy, but where it truly shines is hanging out in the sideboard. Not only can you sideboard Hazardous Blast in against a slower deck, but there are some decks where this kills half of the creatures in their deck. I didn’t even talk about the Phyrexian Mites. Won’t somebody think of the mites!
I’ve seen Mandible Justiciar gain amounts of life that you would be proud to tell your grandkids about in this set. If you haven’t yet had the chance to sequence Mandible Justiciar into Unctus’s Retrofitter, I highly recommend treating yourself now and then. The more pedestrian and fair interactions that make the naughty Cleric smile are things like Basilica Shepherd or Charge of the Mites. With the format being on the faster side, gaining big chunks of life is extremely relevant.
Testament Bearer took me on a roller coaster (of love) between previews and the present day. I first read this card and thought of Organ Hoarder; aside from never revealing the true location of internal body components, it was one of the strongest Limited commons in recent memory. After playing some drafts and learning how fast the set can be at times, one toughness for four mana no longer held my interest. After the dust has settled with aggressive decks being more contested and more defensive deckbuilding in pods, Testament Bearer and I are on good terms again. I’m always happy to pick up one, and multiples can be better or worse depending on the deck.
When the set was fully previewed, I remember thinking that the red Rebels were going to be a lot better than I was willing to give them credit for. But conscious Andy doesn’t take orders from unconscious Andy. I like to learn the hard way, and slowly added more Equipment to my arsenal as cards I’m happy to put in my decks. By now, I have quite the armory put together for the next time unconscious Andy shows up unannounced.
Going Down
I actually listed Annihilating Glare as one of my top three black commons before we could put finger to cardboard. After all, being Eaten Alive seems pretty tame compared to being straight-up annihilated. They’re also very similar cards at face value, with the former allowing you to sacrifice Decayed tokens and Glare allowing you to sacrifice Phyrexian Mites.
While they may seem similar, within the contexts of their formats they are wildly different. Most notable is black’s inability to provide fuel for the proverbial eyeball solar beam, with a whopping one card that can generate a Phyrexian Mite. Aside from white, the other colors don’t want to sacrifice much either, leaving it at mostly a five-mana sorcery-speed removal spell. It’s still a fine card, and I’m certainly not angry. I’m just disappointed.
I thought Prologue to Phyresis was going to be a cool cantrip. I imagined it pairing nicely with Bring the End, triggering things like Ichor Synthesizer, and putting a poison counter on the board to proliferate. While those are valid things that the card can do, with blue being the slowest color, taking any turns off to do nothing is a luxury not even Uncle Unctus, Grand Metatect can afford. Just throw this card and the poison counter that came with it out the window.
I had a vision of what Selesnya might look like, with sprawling battlefields filled with Mites, just waiting for Plague Nurse to show up with some Phyrexian performance enhancers to get them all riled up. But the reality is that green doesn’t really even care about poison counters, and someone just signed their name on a petition as a goof. The Nurse is a caregiver with nothing to care for. It’s quite sad, really.
I can’t quite recall why I thought Vanish into Eternity had potential to be a good card. Maybe I thought it killed an attacking creature like Fierce Retribution, and then never read it again. I remember trying it a couple of times and being thoroughly unimpressed. On a separate note, I think Vanish into Eternity is not only a great card name and fun concept to ponder, but one of the coolest junior high band names I’ve ever heard.
Well, that’s all I have to say about that. I’m looking forward to playing the first in-person Pro Tour since the pandemic started. Let’s just hope that the judge will tell me where to plug my mouse and keyboard in to play.
As always, Lose and Learn, Learn and Win!
