So the prerelease has come and gone and it's only 4 days till the arrival of the new set, New Phyrexia which goes on sale in stores as of May 13th, featuring 175 cards, 35 rares, 10 mythic rares. 65 commons and 65 uncommons, this set has a whole detail of progress in it including new cycles, new legendaries and possibly the greatest planeswalker to even exist today, so let's get cracking and take a look at New Phyrexia as a whole.
What better way to start this set then to look at some of the many mythics we will be seeing, Sword of War and Peace, Karn Liberated, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Sheoldred, Whispering One, Phyrexian Obliterator, Urabrask the Hidden, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Etched Monstrosity and Batterskull make the 10 mythics for this set. One of these really solid mythics is Batterskull which basically says give any dude +4/+4, lifelink and vigilance so it would make a deadly combo with anything you put on the field, even a flier, another one to speak of is Phyrexian Obliterator, gone are the days of the old Negator and here comes the new and improved version of the dude, progress is always made and this is no exception to the rule. as a 5/5 with trample for 4 black mana this dude basically says you lose permanents when damage is dealt to me, so suck it douche, this is a game winning card right here and is sure to focus around itself in a legacy deck or 2 with 1 turn kills or something of that nature, though it is safe to say at 4 mana for a 5/5 it's bound to turn some heads and become a nasty nasty body when the time comes. Usually i do not discuss EDH potential for any set but today is a exception to that rule since we basically have 5 legendaries with nasty and the most deadly abilites i've seen yet., Elesh Norn, Jin Gitaxias, Sheoldred, Urabrask and Vorinclex basically make up a nasty combination espically when used together, in a 5 color EDH build these dudes are deveastating, each one being as dangerous as the next, so i willl leave it at that.
Sword of War and Peace, Etched Monstrosity and Karn Liberated make the final 3 mythics of the set but they do not dissapoint as the sword offers protection from white and red, boros colors and Karn has a Sharazard effect along with a exiling ability that returns all exiled cards by Karn into play under your control after restarting the game, this ability makes Karn a sure fire staple in a Ramp deck with turn 4 potential even turn 3 if your lucky enough to drop him, the sword however is a much more useful tool in the process of war, it deals damage according to the number of cards in your opponent's hand when it deals damage to a player, it gains you life when you deal damage equal to the number of cards in your hand and even gives the standard +2/+2 bonus in the long run, making this a replacement for Body and Mind users dropping it's price effectively because of the replacement in most standard Caw-Blade decks though we've not seen the potential for any standard builds yet, there are quite a few more cards to discuss in this article, also Etched Monstrosity is a decent mythic as a 10/10 for 5 mana which draws cards and enters play as a 5/5 due to it's 5 -1/-1 counters on it, decent mythics wizards personally
Rares are semi useful for casual players for this set with 35 being the magic number of rares this time around which puts this at a decent number, most legends from here on out are rare and not mythic but the legend rule as we are aware still applies to this set, let's take a look at the 35 lucky cards that got the rare slots this time around.
Blade Splicer, Chancellor of the Annex, Puresteel Paladin, Norn's Annex, Phyrexian Unlife, Chancellor of the Spires, Phyrexian Ingester, Phyrexian Metamorph, Psychic Surgery, Xenograft, Chancellor of the Dross, Glistening Oil, Life's Finale, Praetor's Grasp, Bludgeon Brawl, Chancellor of the Forge, Invader Parasite, Moltensteel Dragon, Slag Fiend, Birthing Pod, Fresh Meat, Melira, Sylvok Outcast, Phyrexian Swarmlord, Chancellor of the Tangle, Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer, Caged Sun, Hex Parasite, Lashwrithe. Myr Superion, Omen Machine, Soul Conduit, Torpor Orb, Spellskite and Unwinding Clock are the rares of the set this time around and boy as usual with a small set there are tons and tons of these dudes to examine but i think it's best to give my top 5 list for standard instead.
Standard
5) Puresteel Paladin - He starts the list for standard making free equips for metalcraft activation, a 2/2 for 2 white mana is also a very decent dude, combo this off with the swords of the set and you've got yourself a nasty dude, did i mention he nets cards for each equip you play, a deck around him will pop up soon i think.
4) Fresh Meat - A green spell that replaces dudes after a day of judgement is a nice effect, it's a way to cheat your opponent out of a victory and i feel this will impact a green deck facing blue white caw blade or even a control build.
3) Life's Finale - Great way to dispose of those nasty titans for 3 and a half months till they rotate, removing one from the field and sending the remaining copies of the card to the graveyard, also this is a great kill switch for eldrazi ramp builds, as it basically negates all the dudes played the turn this was played.
2) Surgical Extraction - a free Extirpate yes please, removing something and then removing all copies of the card removed via this, so bye bye jace, see ya next fall.
1) Torpor Orb - Negation of things like Hawks, Mystics and even Titans are nasty and this takes the cake, 2 mana and boom it basically says you are not playing anything in caw blade creature wise, making caw blade essentially dead on turn 2 or 3, even if the land base for the opponent is slow.
The uncommons and commons of this set are truly a surprise with the fact we've seen good ones in the form Whipflare, Despise for those walkers, Tezzert's Gambit and even Mental Misstep, but i think it is best if i list the top 5 commons and uncommons that will impact tournaments instead
5) Tezzert's Gambit - 2 cards and proliferate at the exact same time, for a sheerly insane 3 mana if played right, your asking for trouble with this card and expect to see this replacing card draw spells like Divination real soon.
4) Dispatch - Path to Exile for Metalcraft except it prevents land fetch, expect tempered steel to run this as a removal suite for sure fire threats like titans, hawks, mystics and even infect dudes, espically in standard of all things.
3) Mental Misstep - This is essentially daze for spells like Top, Goblin Guide and all 1 mana drop spells, legacy is gonna go bonkers over this particular spell and 4 copies of this spell will basically replace daze as the new variant, in sideboards at least,
2) Deceiver Exarch - Pestermite got a combo why not this dude, making infinte dudes is all fun and this combos plenty well with Splinter Twin a card which saw a price rise in the past 2 weeks due to this card's spoilage, this and the twin will basically be a combo deck variant much like Pyromancer Ascension was a while back.
1) Mutagenic Growth - a pump spell that can finally go into any deck with a mechanic as broken as phyrexian mana it's about damn time, infect need not even worry bout splashing green much anymore with this thing in the game, expect to see this as the pump spell of choice for infecters i think.
Well that about covers it for this set review i've been writing this for about a hour and my hands cannot handle anymore of this set, so let's finish it off with the final score, New Phyrexia gets a well deserved 7.5 out of 10 only due to the commons and uncommons of the set, which i've mentioned the best of, so till next time, this is vergil signing off.
No comments:
Post a Comment