Golgothian Sylex

Golgothian Sylex
[[File:{{#setmainimage:Golgothian Sylex.jpg}}|250px]]
Characteristics
Origin	Dominaria
User	Urza
Status	Uncertain

The Golgothian Sylex (also known as the Argivian Sylex) was a massively destructive artifact created by the Thran. Urza used it to unleash the Sylex Blast and end the Brothers' War.

Discovery and use

The Sylex was accidentally netted by Yumok fishermen in 34 AR, and sent to Feldon in Terisia City for study. It was made of an unknown copper-like metal, roughly one foot in diameter, and described as a cross between a bowl mounted on a thick pedestal and a squat, wide-rimmed goblet. Its interior was carved with glyphs in several languages, including Thran, Fallaji, and Sumifan, making it a Rosetta Stone for the others.

Those glyphs named the item "sylex" and its origin "Golgoth". Without sufficient context, Feldon was unable to determine whether Golgoth was a location or a person responsible for the item's creation. He translated the Fallaji glyphs as:

“

Wipe the land clear. Bring the ending. Topple the empires to bring a fresh start. Call the end, fill with memories of the land.

”

Shortly before Terisia City fell to siege by Mishra's forces, some of its population escaped under cover of a sandstorm. Among them, Loran fled the city with the sylex, with the intent of keeping it away from either of the warring brothers, or anyone else that might be able to use it. She was later wounded, captured, and relieved of the sylex by Ashnod. During the final battle of the Brothers' War on Argoth, Ashnod passed the sylex to Tawnos, who conveyed it to Urza. Immediately prior, Urza had sparked during a face-to-face duel with his brother, and had become acutely aware of the scope of the damage the war had done to the land itself. In remorse, he activated the sylex.

The ensuing Sylex Blast destroyed both armies and the island of Argoth, altered Dominaria's climate to begin the Ice Age, and caused the downfall of most of Dominaria's then-extant major civilizations.

Destruction?

The planeswalker Ravidel obtained the Golgothian Sylex through a bargain after a duel with Ash Warlord Embereck in a sunken city of Terisiare after the Ice Age. In Year One by the Reckoning of the Sages of Minorad, Ravidel appeared at Minorad and threatened to use the Sylex unless the five planeswalkers present — Liana of Minorad, Ash Warlord Embereck, Kristina of the Woods, Grenfell Mor of Golthonor and Altair of Coloni – promised not to interfere with his actions on Dominaria, to which they agreed. In the year 1281 by the Reckoning of the Sages of Minorad, Ravidel threatened to use it again, so Jared Carthalion and Kristina found the long-daggers that would destroy the Sylex. Jared used the daggers to make the Sylex vulnerable to a shatter spell, which finally destroyed the artifact.

There are some arguments for a theory that said Sylex wasn't the original one.

Retrieval?

In the Dominaria storyline, Karn dug up the "Cylix" in Yavimaya, sixty years after the Mending. He described it as a creation of Urza to fight the Phyrexians and planned to use it to destroy New Phyrexia.

Continuity issues

It is argued that the "Cylix" in this story is meant to be the same as the Golgothian Sylex. However, the spelling of the name, its location (Yavimaya instead of Argoth) and survival seemed to contradict the established continuity.

At some point between April 2019 and May 2020, the term "Cylix" in Wells' story was edited to "Sylex," the original spelling.

Rules

The card is one of the three expansion hoser and has its own rules section. It originally affected cards printed with a specific expansion symbol. However, modern rules policy states that all cards are sharing a name are identical. These three cards have received errata to avoid referencing the expansion symbol, and use the names of cards originally printed in those sets instead.

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 206.3b One card (Golgothian Sylex) refers to permanents with a name originally printed in the Antiquities™ expansion. Those names are Amulet of Kroog, Argivian Archaeologist, Argivian Blacksmith, Argothian Pixies, Argothian Treefolk, Armageddon Clock, Artifact Blast, Artifact Possession, Artifact Ward, Ashnod’s Altar, Ashnod’s Battle Gear, Ashnod’s Transmogrant, Atog, Battering Ram, Bronze Tablet, Candelabra of Tawnos, Circle of Protection: Artifacts, Citanul Druid, Clay Statue, Clockwork Avian, Colossus of Sardia, Coral Helm, Crumble, Cursed Rack, Damping Field, Detonate, Drafna’s Restoration, Dragon Engine, Dwarven Weaponsmith, Energy Flux, Feldon’s Cane, Gaea’s Avenger, Gate to Phyrexia, Goblin Artisans, Golgothian Sylex, Grapeshot Catapult, Haunting Wind, Hurkyl’s Recall, Ivory Tower, Jalum Tome, Martyrs of Korlis, Mightstone, Millstone, Mishra’s Factory, Mishra’s War Machine, Mishra’s Workshop, Obelisk of Undoing, Onulet, Orcish Mechanics, Ornithopter, Phyrexian Gremlins, Power Artifact, Powerleech, Priest of Yawgmoth, Primal Clay, The Rack, Rakalite, Reconstruction, Reverse Polarity, Rocket Launcher, Sage of Lat-Nam, Shapeshifter, Shatterstorm, Staff of Zegon, Strip Mine, Su-Chi, Tablet of Epityr, Tawnos’s Coffin, Tawnos’s Wand, Tawnos’s Weaponry, Tetravus, Titania’s Song, Transmute Artifact, Triskelion, Urza’s Avenger, Urza’s Chalice, Urza’s Mine, Urza’s Miter, Urza’s Power Plant, Urza’s Tower, Wall of Spears, Weakstone, Xenic Poltergeist, Yawgmoth Demon, and Yotian Soldier.

In-game references

Represented in:

• Golgothian Sylex

Trivia

• “Golgotha” (“The Place of the Skull”) is the name for the hill upon which Jesus of Nazareth is reported to have been crucified.
  • here is no in-universe explanation for the word Golgotha.