The Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander decks slide onto store shelves on February 10, but we’re already aware of the contents. Not only do we have the decklists handy for both Corrupting Influence and Rebellion Rising, we know about the eight additional cards tagged along with All Will Be One Commander that are available only in the set booster packs.
I’m going to take a look at all 28 of those cards. We’ll see where they might fit into existing decks and if they might inspire new builds, whether they’re legendary creatures or would just make a great feature in the 99. There aren’t enough of them to break down by color (and there are, in fact, no blue cards to be found), so we’ll just hit them alphabetically.
Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant
This Dragon with affinity for artifacts can be cast for as little as three red mana. Not bad for a flying 5/4 with haste. When it attacks, we can exile the top five cards of our library and cast an artifact from them (unfortunately leaving the other four exiled). While we have to pay its mana cost, it too has affinity for artifacts. If we’ve gotten a big enough discount on casting Chiss-Goria, we might even cast it for free. The downside of this card is that the trigger is mandatory. You’re exiling those cards whether you want to or not. Whatever comes up in those five had better be good.
Chiss-Goria is more likely to make an appearance in an artifact deck than a Dragon one, since the latter tend to have only mana rocks and a few other artifacts in them. In an artifact deck, like one led by Daretti, Scrap Savant or Slobad, Iron Goblin (or even Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer ), it’ll be time to shine.
Clever Concealment
One of the cards that I think is going to have the biggest impact on the format, Clever Concealment has some folks calling it the next Teferi’s Protection. I won’t go that far, but it’s quite strong. Because it has convoke and our creatures can help pay the mana cost, we can be tapped out mana-wise and still cast the spell. We just need four untapped creatures (with two of them being some flavor of white). From there, we can phase out any number of nonland permanents we control. Our lands, and more importantly our life total, are not protected.
Our best bet is to play it with creatures that have vigilance, meaning they don’t tap to attack and are thereby standing ready to pay convoke costs. There are some commanders which grant the ability. In mono-white, that’s Heliod, God of the Sun, but there are multicolored choices, too: Inquisitor Greyfax; Jetmir, Nexus of Revels; Ratadrabik of Urborg (just Zombies), Teysa Karlov (just tokens), and Tocasia, Dig Site Mentor.
Contaminant Grafter
The card that keeps on giving, Contaminant Grafter lets us proliferate if any of our creatures hit (only once per combat, no matter how many creatures hit how many players). It has trample and toxic 1, so there are going to be things to proliferate. But the card isn’t done. At the beginning of our end step, if an opponent has three or more poison counters, we can draw a card and then put a land—any land—onto the battlefield (which doesn’t have to be the one we drew).
Containment Grafter is one of those cards that’s quietly strong. It doesn’t seem like it’s all that, but every time you cast it, you realize how good it is.
Geth’s Summons
A four-mana Reanimate from our own graveyard is pretty standard. It’s the corrupted clause that makes the card compelling: for each opponent with three or more poison counters, we can Reanimate something of theirs, too. It makes the argument for spreading around the poison instead of focusing fire on one person.
Glimmer Lens
The requirement of this Equipment is simple and suited to a token deck, in which tokens come and go. When the equipped creature (which gets no bonuses) attacks alongside a friend, we draw a card. The mana and equip costs are cheap enough to matter. Add a Skullclamp for some nice value.
Glissa’s Retriever
Another seeming argument to spread around the poison is Glissa’s Retriever (a Beast, not a Dog). There’s no chump blocking Glissa’s Retriever. Haste and toxic 3 are good starts on getting everyone corrupted. As you know, I’m not the biggest fan of exiling my creatures in Commander, but the occasional card that does so is fine. Not that the exile is not optional; we can’t decide to pass on the trigger and let it hang around.
Glistening Sphere
A three-mana rock that does something else—you have my attention. Entering the battlefield tapped isn’t a terrible downside, especially early in the game when we weren’t going to use one mana anyway. That’s the cost of getting to proliferate, I suppose. The upside is that once we get one opponent corrupted, Glistening Sphere becomes Gilded Lotus, which is a nice upgrade. Then we either have to get the other opponents corrupted or avoid killing the one. We don’t want to turn the thing off.
Goldwardens’ Gambit
As I pointed out in my full set review, affinity for Equipment is a new thing which power gates affinity kind of nicely. If we have Equipment to attach, we’ll never pay full price; even if we do, that’s ten power for eight mana, which isn’t awful. Generally, we want more out of a ten-mana spell, but I suppose if we play to cast it, it’ll never cost that much. Goldwardens’ Gambit might be a good reason to pay Bloodforged Battle-Axe.
Hexplate Wallbreaker
Hexplate Wallbreaker is another example of designers successfully and intelligently power-gating something, in this case additional combat steps. It’s a little pricey to cast and equip, but we can play it in an Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist deck with a red-aligned partner to mitigate some of that. In fact, since I think Hexplate Wallbreaker isn’t going to be an expensive card, I’ll slip it into my $50 budget Ardenn and Ludovic deck (that I played on Shuffle Up and Play). Note that the trigger for the extra combat is simply attacking with the equipped creature. If that creature dies, there’s unfortunately no additional main phase in which to attach it, although if Ardenn has survived that combat, it’ll trigger at the beginning of that one.
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa
As soon as I saw the Abzan cost, my eyebrow lifted. It doesn’t really do any of the Abzan things that I get excited about (which generally involve the graveyard), but I want to give it a fair shake. A 2/5 with flying, vigilance, and toxic 2 seems decent. Then it has a Gonti, Lord of Luxury-like triggered ability for each corrupted player.
Because Ixhel is only toxic 2, we’ll have to get some proliferate action going to make things a little easier on ourselves (or completely dive into poison in some other way). That way, we corrupt opponents after only one hit instead of two. Even if Ixhel goes away, we still have access to the cards, since the condition is “as long as they remain exiled.” Even if it’s not my Abzan speed, I might give the card a try in one of the Karador, Ghost Chieftain versions that I have.
Kemba’s Banner
Another one that might make it into that Budget Ardenn and Ludovic deck, Kemba’s Banner likes the go-wide strategy. If we want a great “win more” moment, we could play Storm Herd (which is only 22 cents!). More reasonably, we can play it in decks like Rith, the Awakener, which like to pump out tokens or something that runs White Sun’s Zenith. Several of the Elspeth planeswalkers, like Elspeth, Sun’s Champion, are a nice start, too.
Lux Artillery
This is an amazing and creative design. It encourages playing three-plus-color decks and then does a cool thing if we’ve done our cool thing. Even if we never get to the end step triggered ability, putting additional counters on our Solemn Simulacrum or Triskelion or Arcbound Ravager is going to be quite saucy. It’s either going into my Swarmlord of Hydras or Zegana and a Dice Bag deck. Or anything that features The Ozolith. The brews around Lux Artillery are going to be wonderful. I can’t wait to see what folks come up with (other than Vexing Puzzlebox, which is kind of obvious).
Mirage Mockery
Mirage Mockery is an excellent name as well a cool way to bring back the entwine mechanic. It’s pretty simple and cost-effective. In my Phelddagrif Purple Hippos and Maro Sorcerers deck, I’d be happy to pay six mana to copy Consecrated Sphinx and Psychosis Crawler. Just remember that there are lots of cool artifact creatures in the Warhammer 40,000 set that don’t seem like artifacts for those of us not steeped in the lore (mostly the Necrons). Many of them make excellent copy targets.
Monumental Corruption
Sounding like it could have come from Streets of New Capenna, Monumental Corruption is one of those cards that we can squeeze pretty intense value out of. It obviously has to go in the right deck—and in fact would be an excellent upgrade in the aforementioned Warhammer 40,000 Necron deck.
Neyali, Suns’ Vanguard
I would play Neyali at the same cost and power/toughness for just the double strike line. Adding the kind of unusual trigger is pure extra sauce. Boros decks are happy to make tokens, whether they’re from Goblin Assault or Assemble the Legion, so we’ll be attacking with tokens all the time. The downside is that we can’t play them during the first main phase, since the game knows we haven’t yet attacked with a token. If the card happens to be a combat modifier, we’re out of luck if it’s a sorcery or needs to be cast at beginning of combat. Despite the extra hoops, I think there’s still value to have with Neyali.
Norn’s Choirmaster
The Angels continue to proliferate, in more than one sense of the word. The Choirmaster obviously works better with partner commanders, although many of them aren’t exactly who you want to get into combat with. Many of the white ones are battle-worthy, though. Seems like Norn’s Choirmaster would slot right into a deck led by Regna, the Redeemer and Krav, the Unredeemed. It fits naturally with the rarely-seen Keleth, Sunmane Familiar or Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful.
Norn’s Decree
There’s quite a bit going on in this little enchantment that we’ll certainly see a great deal of in the format. The first triggered ability is an excellent rattlesnake that we can play in a deck that doesn’t otherwise deal in poison counters but plays with proliferate in other ways. The second trigger, however, does encourage us to play with poison—kind of. It draws a card for a player when they attack a poisoned defender. Our opponents can benefit from that as much as we can, so it might not be the best investment. I think I’ll still take my chances.
Otharri, Suns’ Glory
I love that they’re tinkering with one-shots of beloved mechanics here. I really enjoyed the League I played with the experience counter commanders, so the mechanic will always hold additional meaning for me. I’m a fan of what Otharri is doing with it, too. Amping up the number of creatures created really moves the game forward. Otharri having flying, lifelink, and haste on a 3/3 body for five mana isn’t the worst, either. There’s probably a reason Kemba’s Banner is in the deck, too.
Phyresis Outbreak
An icky-sounding card turns out to do something icky. In a dedicated toxic/poison strategy, Phyresis Outbreak could turn out one-sided. Even with just three or four counters, it’ll ruin someone’s day.
Roar of Resistance
Remember that creature tokens aren’t always just a swarm of 1/1s. Sometimes the token comes from Body of Research, at which point haste is deadly. Still, Roar of Resistance’s second ability benefits the go-wide strategy, giving us the opportunity to cheaply buff all of our attackers by two. What’s neat is the triggered ability lets us also pay when one opponent is attacking another. It’s a wonderful addition to a goad deck. That’s what I call moving the game forward.
Skyhunter Strike Force
What’s nice about Skyhunter Strike Force (a name that sounds like it’s a 60s kids’ show with the Team America puppets) is that it doesn’t have to attack to get the melee benefit. We just have to control our commander. Then we spread out the attacks and stuff gets bigger.
Staff of the Storyteller
Drawing a card for one mana is always good work if you can get it. The first card that came to mind here was Dragon Broodmother. There really aren’t too many cheap options. Staff of the Storyteller will be a nice addition to any Seedborn Muse package which creates tokens (conceding that Seedborn Muse breaks open a lot of cards). Under normal circumstances, we just need to create one creature token a turn cycle in order to get value out of Staff of the Storyteller. Add Ephara, God of the Polis for doubling up on the card draw.
Synthesis Pod
Birthing Pod for spells? Sounds amazing. The mini-game of figuring out who has the best stuff to cast at the right mana value? Priceless. This card is going to be too much fun.
Tangleweave Armor
I like the move of encouraging people to play higher-mana-value commanders. The casting and equip costs are reasonable for what we get. Suddenly, a six-mana 6/6, like Intet, the Dreamer, becomes a two-shot commander damage killer. Ghalta, Primal Hunger becomes a one-shot. For the most style points, equip Tangleweave Armor to one of the eight-mana OG Elder Dragons.
Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch
Aren’t we all just remnants of Memnarch at this point? I get a little squicky about five-color commanders that don’t have WUBRG in their mana cost. That being said, Urtet seems narrow enough to not worry too much. Available at different rarities depending on where it comes from (see the note on the mothership), Urtet won’t be breaking anything soon, especially since you can’t just jam it into Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer decks.
Vishgraz, the Doomhive
Whenever there’s a legendary Insect, it’s time for the PSA reminding everyone that Carrion was updated a long time ago to produce Insect tokens instead of Maggots. As black 0/1s go, I much prefer the Thrulls created by Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools, but we may have drifted a little. Vishgraz having Menace makes us think about how to give everything haste for some nice increasing commander damage. With white as one of its colors, we have access to blink, like Blinky the Eldrazi itself, Eldrazi Displacer, plus the colorless choice of Conjurer’s Closet. We’ll have a swarm of Mites in no time. Too bad Blex, Vexing Pest doesn’t like Mites. I suppose there’s always Coat of Arms.
Wurmquake
A 6/6 with trample and toxic 1 is already good enough. Getting another for each opponent that’s corrupted is sweet. Making them 10/10s on the flashback is even better. Taking it into the Vince McMahon zone is the fact that it counts the amount of mana spent, so it’s not a particularly good target for an opponent’s Diluvian Primordial.
28 Down
As with the main set, the design folks have done a nice job of lateral development here with the cards for the Commander preconstructed decks. There are compelling lines of building and brewing to go down alongside cards that can be very powerful given the right (fortunately relatively common) situations. Since I normally like to keep the precons together (unless we’re running a ten-card upgrade thing for the RC stream), I’ll be picking up a number of these as singles to go into my existing deck suite.
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