Wizards of the Coast has just released the third chapter of Magic: The Gathering’s multi-arc set; Phyrexia: All Will Be one. Focusing on Magic’s oldest villains, Phyrexia: All Will Be One brings back some classic Magic mechanics; Corrupted, Toxic and Proliferate.
Last week, I had the absolute pleasure of attending a hands-on event for the launch of the latest set and was able to get up close and personal with the new cards and (returning) keywords. Hosted at the very chic Poodle in Fitzroy, attendees were treated to a themed dinner and cocktail and a night of excellent gameplay.
As the Phyrexians are biomechanical creatures of horror and the set focuses on Poison and Oil Counters we players set to work opening Jumpstart packs and trying to poison each other as quickly as possible.
Magic: The Gathering – Phyrexia: All Will Be One
@powerup_gaming #MagicTheGathering Phyrexia launch event @ Poodle, Fitzroy #gaming #tabletop #tabletopgames #cardgame ♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim
I’ve previously written about how much I love the Jumpstart decks and format and using these to play Phrexia: All Will Be One was no exception. Unfortunately for me, the first two Jumpstart decks I opened and combined were the same so I had far less variety in my cards. Additionally, as both decks were Green only, the theme was about poisoning and large creatures. Sadly, without any smaller minions or spells to back me up, I was swiftly poisoned to death by my opponent. They had managed to open two decks which greatly synergised and used Proliferate quite well. Essentially, they were able to continue to create poisonous minions by spending Oil Counters as well as play flying minions I had no way to block.
It was a sad painful death for me, but thankfully the second game went in my favour. In our second game, my opponent managed to summon Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines, which could have spelled real trouble for me. Luckily, I was able to remove her with a spell and save my own arse.
Having not played with Counters or Proliferate before, I was really impressed with how thoroughly enjoyable they are and surprisingly balanced. I expected being able to Proliferate would make the game wildly unbalanced and unwieldy but it doesn’t. There’s a good deal of strategy required to make Toxic work, though when you do, it is very, very effective. I asked our PR rep if there was a way to remove Poison counters but sadly there isn’t…unless of course, you own cards from a long-released set. That being said, it bears repeating; within Phyrexia: All Will Be One, there are no cards that remove poison counters.
Phyrexia: All Will Be One includes 271 new cards which are available across Arena and tabletop. Both Jumpstart and Commander packs are available with Commander coming in two flavours; Phyrexian and the resistance against Phyrexia. There are 10 Jumpstart booster themes available, two versions of each colour theme;
- White: Mite-y
- Blue: Progress
- Black: Corruption
- Red: Rebellious
- Green: Toxic
The artwork of Phyrexia: All Will be One is suitably horrific and incredible. Wizards of the Coast explains;
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.
Phyrexia: All Will Be One feels very different from The Brothers War and helps keep Magic: The Gathering feeling fresh, nuanced and full of strategy. It’s always exciting to play Magic and plan your moves but the added layer of Counters and the ability to Proliferate really takes things to the next level. You certainly don’t want to be caught out without a way to stop your enemy from poisoning you tough. You might have 20 health but as soon as you hit 10 poison counters, you are dead. It’s nerve-wracking to realise you’re on 8 or 9 counters realising you need to pull something out to stay alive and win.
Phyrexia: All Will Be One is available now as Draft Boosters, Set Boosters, Collector Boosters, Jumpstart Boosters, Commander decks, Bundles and a special Compleat Bundle edition. For more information head to https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/phyrexia-all-will-be-one.
