Phyrexian return in the new expansions?
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on April 6, 2017, 8:45 a.m. by Greataims
With the last two expansions focusing so heavily on artifacts and fighting over said artifacts, who thinks the phyrexians will become involved at some time? They have an entire plane
I dont know, I feel like with the heavy focus, they will want to slide away from it a bit just to make it feel like the format isn't stale. I dont think they will ever bring back phyrexian mana because despite it's coolness (I dont disagree with that), it is an extremely powerful mechanic. If they do bring it back, the cards that have it will probably be hosed
April 6, 2017 9:23 a.m.
I doubt the Phyrexians will be back for awhile. After facing Nicol Bolas, I doubt the Gatewatch (if it still exists after this) would fight the next greatest known enemy in the Multiverse...
April 6, 2017 10:57 a.m.
EpicFreddi says... #5
Why not? The gatewatch would turn into some darksouls-level-shit where Lily reanimates everyone everytime they die. And they slowly but surely lose there purpose, thus making more questionable decisions throughout the multiverse, just to be stoped by another fraction because they turned too evil
Sounds better to me than "we're happy friends who solve every problem"
April 6, 2017 11:03 a.m.
@EpicFreddi "I hope they bring back phyrexian mana, it was such a great mechanic."
April 6, 2017 11:26 a.m.
EpicFreddi says... #7
Oh cmon, -5-5 for a single mana or drawing a card+having absolute information is totally not broken!
April 6, 2017 11:56 a.m.
NapoleonBonaparte says... #8
I would love to return to New Phyrexia and see what the phyrexians have been up to! And lets please end this gatewatch stuff for at least a few sets!
April 6, 2017 7:02 p.m.
I hate the gatewatch. They make me not want to play standard.
April 6, 2017 7:34 p.m.
Steelspike says... #10
I'd be happy with just Bolas killing Jace. The GW can continue, just without that most irritating of blue mages.
Seriously, bugger Jace in his cornhole with Thassa'a bident, dry, until he ceases to breath.
April 6, 2017 8:38 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #11
I am certain that Phyrexia will return, as they are arguably the greatest villains in the entire storyline, but WotC will wait to do re-introduce, them, since they know that such an introduction would need to be properly dramatic and epic; it is not an accident that they waited for so long to re-introduce Bolas, as the last time that he had a direct role in the story was in the Alara block, back in 2009. Therefore, I doubt that Phyrexia shall have a major role in the story, again, until several years after the Amonkhet block, to allow for Bolas's appearance in this arc to fade into memory.
April 6, 2017 10:43 p.m.
Gabe_The_Controller says... #12
The last two commander sets (2015 and 2016) had Ezuri, Claw of Progress and Atraxa, Praetors' Voice respectively. They are both legendary creatures from New Phyrexia. On top of that Ezuri, Renegade Leader was reprinted in commander 2014, so in the 1 year gap between C14 and C15 something happened in New Phyrexia to corrupt him. There was also Grip of Phyresis in C16. We keep getting some nice hints and sneak peeks so I'm hoping the spring set of next year is our return to New Phyrexia set.
April 8, 2017 1:47 a.m.
Wizards should definitely revisit New Phyrexia or what the Phyrexians have been doing, just not for a while. Since they took over an artifact-based plane, and are, I believe, also partly artifact based, Wizards should wait till Kaladesh is well behind us, so people don't get burned out on the theme(especially when it's a major modern deck in affinity). In my opinion, they should build up to it, and spend enough time to make it amazing, without being completely broken.Also, Wizards shouldn't get rid of all of their huge bad guys, after killing off the Eldrazi, and the GW going after Bolas
April 17, 2017 12:06 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #14
ERoss8, I do not believe that WotC will ever truly eliminate Bolas and Phryexia from the story because they are simply too iconic to kill off, akin to the Joker from Batman comics (there is a reason that the "Joker immunity" trope has that name); even if they are defeated (which should happen only very rarely), they shall return, eventually.
April 17, 2017 10:03 p.m.
DemonDragonJ, true, but they are exploring those storylines and exhausting them for future use, rather than spreading the large threats to the story out. I do agree that if defeated, the Phyrexians would return through Yawgmoth's (hope I spelled that right) influence, maybe on a different race of characters
April 17, 2017 11:20 p.m.
Wizards stated that phyrexian mana was a mistake on the level of the dredge mechanic, and they don't intend to repeat it.
However if they want to, they could easily fix phyrexian mana cards, by printing a few cheap spells, that have some restriction, like:
Bane of phyrexia (this just as well could be a white or green spell)
instant
split second
counter target spell if life was paid to cast it
or
Bane of phyrexia
instant
Counter target spell unless its controller pays
Bane of Phyrexia costs less, if life was paid this turn
or
Bane of phyrexia
instant
choose a new target for target spell if no colored mana was spent to cast it.
April 18, 2017 8:24 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #17
ERoss8, it has been six years since Bolas last had a major role in the story, it has been nearly that long since Phyrexia was last featured in the story, and it was nearly that long between the original Zendikar block and the Battle for Zendikar block, so WotC does seem to be making an effort to not feature every major antagonist within close proximity of each other.
Xica, what was wrong with Phryexian mana? Did it make spells too powerful?
April 18, 2017 6:38 p.m.
In the official version, it gave all colors stuff they shouldn't have, Dismember being a prime example of this, and/or allowed effects to cheat on mana cost - with Gitaxian Probe being the worst offender at this.
Its not that they were "too powerful", so that the format was warped by their power, instead the problem was the fact that they were so convenient that they destroyed the diversity of the format (in a similar fashion to how birthing pod was an auto include in all "good" creature decks before the ban - and in my humble opinion its better to have a variety of viable creature using midrange decks in the format than to have a single pod deck, where you either go with the optimal or subpar choice of creatures)
EpicFreddi says... #2
I'd be a great obstacle for the gatewatch for sure. I hope they bring back phyrexian mana, it was such a great mechanic. Maybe even with storm in the mix. Kappa
April 6, 2017 8:50 a.m.