“I am destiny incarnate. I will change the world for all time. I will change the Multiverse. Welcome, my children. Welcome to Phyrexia!”
The story of Yawgmoth begins 5000 years before the antiquities war in the city of Halcyon, the capital of the Thran Empire in northeastern Terisiare which is located on the plane of Dominaria.
Yawgmoth was a Eugenicist that believed the human body was an intricate, organic, construct more akin to a machine that is affected by virus and bacteria rather than evil spirits, which the conventional wisdom accepted at the time. When he was exiled from the empire for his “unorthodox approach to healing”, he travelled around the Thran Empire city-states and conducted experiments on the inhabitants there.
Yawgmoth returned to Halcyon after being summoned by the Chief Architect Rebecc to study a disease that afflicted her husband, the Chief Artificer, Glacian. Yawgmoth discovered that this disease was caused by exposure to powerstone (Worn Powerstone)radiation and he named it Phthisis .
Powerstones were implemental in the Thran Empire’s success as they were able to power devices and artifacts. They also contained vast amounts of energy which could be restored or enhanced by absorbing space itself from a surrounding plane. Some theories hypothesize that if you could collapse an entire plane inside, it would provide enough power to planeshift something between worlds.
The Halcyon people suffering from Phthisis were called the Untouchables as they were thought to be contagious and they were regulated to the Caves of the Damned (later named the Caves of Koilos) under the city as a quarantine effort. This segregation and treatment of the afflicted caused a rift between the infected populace and the rest of the city. Yawgmoth gained political power in Halcyon as he was simultaneously able to create a serum to control the disease which appeased the Untouchables as well as appeared to keep the city safe in the eyes of the elders and political leaders.
Yawgmoth came to learn about planeswalkers after meeting a woman named Dyfed who was visiting Glacian one day. Dyfed, herself a planewalker, took Yawgmoth to Pyrulea to prove to him that other planes existed in the multiverse and Yawgmoth was able to convince her to find him another plane where he could build a paradise from which the sick Thran people could be “healed” and everyone could live in peace. Dyfed succeeded in finding such a plane and took both Rebbec and Yawgmoth there.
”Yawgmoth smiled, his eyes swimming with dreams. “It will be a world of progressive generation – of phyresis. It will be a world called Phyrexia.”
Yawgmoth named the plane Phyrexia, after Phyresis , the Thran word for iterative improvement. Dyfed was able to construct, with the assistance of powerstones, a portal (Gate to Phyrexia) in the Caves of the Damned so that Yawgsmoth could move freely between the planes as he did not possess the ability to planeswalk.
Soon after this, the tribes that Yawgmoth “experimented on”from across the Thran city-states arrived in Halcyon and demanded that Yawgmoth be turned over to them for crimes he committed against them.
_
“Such a man has come among us. Such a man used the black-cough of Oryn Deeps to spark a workers’ rebellion. He, his fellow exiles, and his rebels nearly slew my father, nearly destroyed a millennium of dwarf rule beneath the mountain, nearly made this singularly monstrous man a king among dwarves. Such a man turned the creeping mold of the Argoth Forests into a virulent plague that ate away the elves there. His agents abducted Priestess Elyssendril Lademmdrith and her healers, and he held the whole population ransom for the cure. Once the ransom was paid, he delivered only sweetened water and twelve slain healers. Such a man loosed the white death among Talruaan minotaurs, merely to study its effects. Such a man spread rabies among the ruling cat warriors of Jamuraa until they tore each other apart in a mad frenzy. Such a man poisoned the human tribes of Gulatto Meisha. Such a man captured and pithed and vivisected the bey of the Shivan Viashino. We believed him and have paid dearly for our mistakes. Now we call for the immediate extradition of this monster from Halcyon. In the name of the five great non-human species of Dominaria, and the non-Thran humans of Gulatto Meisha, and the Thran humans of Losanon and Wington, I demand the immediate extradition of the healer known as Yawgmoth.”_
They called themselves the Thran Alliance and declared war on all who stood by Yawgmoth. Yawgmoth overthrew the Thran city council and imprisoned the elders as well as the delegates seizing control of the city.
As Yawgmoth prepared for the impending war with the Thran Alliance, he began to transport the medical pods of the sick from the Caves of the Damned to Phyrexia where he conducted genetic experiments. He was able to alter the genes of the people to be stronger as well as resistant to Phthisis and also implanted uncharged powerstones inside them. These were the first Phyrexian Newts. Yawgmoth was able to create stronger, faster, and larger creatures as a result of his experiments and they prove to be worthy in battle.
Yawgmoth eventually was able to fuse his very being to Phyrexia and became so entwined with the plane that he could hear and see everything that happened within it. He essentially became the God of Phyrexia.
“We are ascending. We are becoming Phyrexians. We are becoming gods.”
As the war went on, Yawgmoth eventually released a powerstone charger blast wreaking massive destruction and casualties across the land. The enveloping deadly cloud of gasses from the explosions decimated everything and dissolved any living matter in its path. Yawgmoth planned to use the Null Sphere, a base that controlled the Thran artifact creatures, to syphon off the clouds and protect the city, however the rebels sabotaged this plan and released the sphere to an elevation in the sky where it was unable to achieve this. Yawgmoth retreated to Phyrexia to escape the death clouds and invited the Thran people to join him in Phyrexia to save themselves. Yawgmoth promised then paradise in Phyrexia describing it as “fertile plains, endless farmland and growing cities more glorious than all the cities of the empire.”
If they declared their loyalty to him he would save them, improve them, and compleat them.
“I have prepared this place for you, my people—even for you, my onetime foes. I have made it for you, for I am a god. I ask only that you enter it. I ask only that I may be your god”.
Upon hearing Yawgmoth’s promise, tens of thousands of people fled Dominaria through the gate to Phyrexia to escape their demise. However, after passing through the portal, Yawgmoth’s Vat Priests and Minions were waiting for the Thran who had no idea the horrors that awaited them.
Back in the Caves, Rebbec escaped the blast and sealed the gate to Phyrexia with the powerstones which locked Yawgmoth and the Phyrexians away for all eternity. Or so she thought…
The portal was sealed for 5000 years and Yawgmoth along with Phyrexia waited and planned for their escape until one day the portal was eventually, unknowingly, reopened…
Phyrexia itself is described as an artificial plane of mechanical and biomechanical life, a “hellish world with an accelerated evolution of artifact creatures”. The plane consists of nine spheres layered on top of the other, each with a different purpose:
First Sphere: An artificial parody of natural life, artificial jungle with streams of flowing oil and oily rain
Second Sphere: A layer of rubble, ruins, and scraps
Third Sphere: A thick maze of metal pipes (to prevent planeswalking to lower spheres) and lurking horrors.
Fourth Sphere: Home to most of the Phyrexians, the planar portals, and the Fane of Flesh where newts are grown and compleated.
Fifth Sphere: The Boiling Sea, a massive ocean of Glistening Oil used by Vat Priests to breed newts.
Sixth Sphere: The Phyrexian Inner Circle (the governmental body), home to Demons and Praetors.
Seventh Sphere: The Punishment Sphere, home to a massive furnace to power the plane and torture chambers
Eighth Sphere: A layer of pure energy.
Ninth Sphere: Phyrexia’s control center, where Yawgmothresided until the Invasion of Dominaria.
This deck aims to use yawgmoths abilities to sacrifice creatures for value/draw cards and to discard large creatures to reanimate. Yawgmoth can also proliferate poison counters if needed. This a vorthos deck with Phyrexian theme built to control the board and punish our opponents with our powerful enchantments. here’s some of the key combos/interactions.
- BARGAIN COMBOS
The goal is to create a Yawgmoth's Bargain which is a powerful, banned card in EDH. Here’s a list of ways to achieve this:
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician yawgmoth, thran physician + 2 undying creatures.
Yawgmoth + Undying creature /Pawn of Ulamog /Nest of Scarabs
Then add one of the blood brothers (Blood Artist /Zulaport Cutthroat )
- INFINITE DEATH TRIGGERS
Pawn of Ulamog + Nether Traitor+ Phyrexian Altar. This will create both infinite mana and death triggers as it forms a loop to keep saccing traitor and use the spawn created by pawn to continue.
Find Ichor Rats and cast it to give everyone a poison counter. Then use yawgmoth to draw us enough cards in hand to discard to his ability and proliferate our way to a flavor win victory.
