New Phyrexia

New Phyrexia is the third set in the Scars of Mirrodin block and is the fifty-sixth Magic expansion. It will be released on May 13, 2011. The entire set was suprisingly spoiled on April 19, 2011 almost a month before it will be released.

Set Details

New Phyrexia concludes the story that began in Scars of Mirrodin, with the Phyrexians defeating the Mirrans and taking control of the plane of Mirrodin. Cards are again watermarked with either factions symbol, but the ratio is significantly favoring Phyrexia. This showcases the progress of the Phyrexian invasion and is a reversal from the ratio as it was seen in Scars of Mirrodin. In a similar fashion, the Phyrexian keyword mechanics of Infect and Proliferate spread into colors that did not get cards with these mechanics before.

Just like Mirrodin Besieged before it, New Phyrexia features a cycle of Basic Lands, used to showcase the transformation of Mirrodin's landscape during the Phyrexian take-over in the artwork.

Originally, Wizards of the Coast announced that the set would be called either Mirrodin Pure or New Phyrexia, as they did not wish to reveal which of the factions would win. On March 29, 2011, it was announced that the new set would in fact be called New Phyrexia.

The promotional card given to participants at the Prerelease tournaments will be Sheoldred, the Whispering One, one of the five powerful Phyrexian praetors.

Marketing cards

Boosters of New phyrexia come with a bonus sixteenth card that is either a "tips & tricks card" or a creature token from New Phyrexia or a poison counter token. One face of the New Phyrexia bonus card has one of five different rules tips or is one of 4 different creature tokens or a poison counter token. The other face has one of 14 advertisements for organized play programs.

Tips & Tricks

The tips & tricks cards are

• Rules Tip:
• Rules Tip:
• Rules Tip:
• Rules Tip:
• Rules Tip:

Tokens

The New Phyrexia tokens in numerical order are:

• 3/3 Beast.
• 1/1 Goblin, similar to the token from Scars of Mirrodin, but with phyrexianized art to show the compleation of the plane.
• 3/3 Golem Artifact, similar to the token from Scars of Mirrodin, but with phyrexianized art to show the compleation of the plane.
• 1/1 Myr Artifact, similar to the token from Scars of Mirrodin, but with phyrexianized art to show the compleation of the plane.

Examples of Phyrexian mana.

Mechanics

New Phyrexia introduces five new mana symbols: A phyrexian symbol on a colored background which can be paid with either 2 life or a colored mana of the background color of the symbol. This mechanic also heralds the return of colored artifacts, previously seen in Future Sight and the Esper shard from Alara block.

The keyword mechanics Infect, Proliferate, Living weapon, Metalcraft and Imprint return while Karn gets a Planeswalker card which is at the same time the first colorless planeswalker card and also has up to that point the largest amount of loyalty counters added by a planeswalker's first ability with +4, and the most costly ultimate ability at -14 loyalty counters.

The set has a small subtheme of splicers, 1/1 creatures that put a certain number of 3/3 Golem artifact creature tokens onto the battlefield and grant abilities to them. Another subtheme is the phrase "1 life", which appears on 10 different cards, with most forcing the opponent to lose 1 life in addition to destroying a permanent.

Cycles

New Phyrexia has six Cycles:

• Praetors: Five mythic rare legendary creatures, one per color, representing the Phyrexian's rulers and a different philosophy among the Phyrexian army what exactly New Phyrexia should look like. They give a positive effect to the player controlling them, and an inverse effect to his or her opponents — Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Sheoldred, the Whispering One, Urabrask the Hidden, and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
• Chancellors: Five rare creatures, who can be revealed at the start of the game for a small effect to get an early advantage. — Chancellor of the Annex, Chancellor of the Spires, Chancellor of the Dross, Chancellor of the Furnace and Chancellor of the Tangle.
• Exarchs: Five uncommon Cleric creatures that let you chose to either exercise a positive affect on yourself or a permanent you control, or the inverse effect on the opponent or one of his or her creatures. — Inquisitor Exarch, Deceiver Exarch, Entomber Exarch, Tormentor Exarch, and Brutalizer Exarch.
• Phyrexian Mana Instants: Each of these instants costs one Phyrexian mana of the appropriate color, allowing them to be cast for free. They are uncommon, with the exception of the rare Surgical Extraction — Marrow Shards, Mental Misstep, Surgical Extraction, Gut Shot and Noxious Revival.
• Shrines: Each of these artifacts gains a charge counter at the beginning of it's controllers upkeep, and whenever they cast a spell of a specified colour, and can be sacrificed for an effect that scales with the number of charge counters — Shrine of Loyal Legions, Shrine of Piercing Vision, Shrine of Limitless Power, Shrine of Burning Rage, and Shrine of Boundless Growth.
• Souleaters: Five common artifact creatures with activated abilities that cost a single phyrexian mana of a specified color. — Blinding Souleater, Pestilent Souleater, Trespassing Souleater, Immolating Souleater, and Insatiable Souleater.
• Signature Spells: there is one signature for each color with different rarities, Norn's Annex, Tezzeret's Gambit, Geth's Verdict, Priest's of Urabrask and Glissa's Scorn.

Notable Cards

• Phyrexian Obliterator: An homage of the Suicide Black staple Phyrexian Negator that is on the Reserved List. Both have similar names as Obliterator and Negator are close to being synonyms as well as having identical combat stats (5/5 trampler). However, the new card reverses Negator's drawback for a higher and more color-intensive mana cost.
• Sword of War and Peace: this completes the set of enemy color swords, from Sword of Fire and Ice<c>, <c>Sword of Light and Shadow<c>, <c>Sword of Body and Mind and Sword of Feast and Famine.

Reprints

• Enslave was last seen in Duel Decks: Garruk vs. Liliana.
• Evil Presence was last seen in Fifth Edition.
• Phyrexian Hulk was last seen in Duel Decks: Phyrexia vs. The Coalition. It's rarity has been changed from uncommon to common.

Flavor

“

The Grand Compleation is Achieved

”

Preview images

A New Phyrexia is forged from the plane of Mirrodin and its five suns. This image bears a resemblance to Phyrexian Negator.		A few Mirrans still defy their Phyrexian conquerors. This image appears to be of Platinum Angel but also has artistic features of Darksteel metal.

External links

• "Magic Arcana" (Thursday, December 09, 2010). "Announcing "Action"". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• "Magic Arcana" (Tuesday, March 29, 2011). "Action is New Phyrexia". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.