Lelouch32
04-15-2011, 04:11 PM
The Great Work Is Completed: New Phyrexia Spoilers
By: Corlando
Welcome one and all to another edition of Cards n’Flux. This week we will be uncovering and discussion some of the recently spoiled cards of New Phyrexia and find out just what has happened to the world of Mirrodin. Let’s not waste any more time on an introduction and hop right in.
Our first big card we are going to talk about today is Karn the Released. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Karn is back and he is packing some serious power as the final Mirrodin planeswalker. This is probably where I would give some explanation about exactly what happened to Karn and how he yet again became a planeswalker, so I will do my best. Urza, one of the greatest planeswalkers of all time, created Karn, the Silver Golem, as a way to test his time travel experiments. Urza also instilled in Karn a device that would slowly help to build Karn’s sentience and his personality, allowing Karn to one day become his own being. The Silver Golem had many adventures throughout his life; one of his greatest being was assisting in the original war against the Phyrexians. It was during this adventure that Karn became the first, and so far only, artificial Planeswalker. It was also during this time that Karn became infected with the Phyrexian oil that would one day infect the whole of Mirrodin, originally known as Argentum the world that Karn built himself.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=116619&d=1301957477
Now Karn is back and apparently free of Phyrexian control, as he stands against them ready to remake the world. And I mean, remake the world. Karn’s first ability is a +4 that forces target player to exile a card from their hand. Next is a -3 that exiles target permanent. However, the ultimate is where things just get whacky. “-14: Set aside all non-Aura permanent cards exiled by Karn, then restart the game. Then put all cards set aside this way onto the battlefield under your control.” This is just bonkers! Yes I play Karn and now I’ll just restart the whole game and swing at you with the few cards that I set aside. Hope you like an unfair advantage. Now, however awesome Karn may be, there is a bit of a catch. Now it’s not low loyalty I assure you, the guy comes in with 6 loyalty. The catch with Karn is that he is one expensive bomb. Come in at :mana7:, by the way he’s colorless not an artifact, which is definitely expensive for a Planeswalker. The good news is, once you actually get him out, it is very, very hard to get rid of him. Activate his first ability once and suddenly you have Karn with 10 loyalty. If someone is so concerned about killing Karn, then they have probably forgotten that you exist and you’ll be free to kill them. The thing about Karn is that even though he is very powerful, I really just see him as a sort of casual card. In Standard things move too quickly to have Karn be a reliable win condition, extended is just ignored, and Legacy can be even faster than Standard. As much as Karn is a reservoir of delicious flavor I seriously feel that he may end up regulated to the casual corner of Magic.
Next up we’ve got a card that is the end to all your Planeswalker problems. Hex Parasite is a :mana1:, 1/1 with a pumping ability. That’s pretty strong by itself, but then you read how Hex Parasite powers the pumping and you get a real since on exactly how strong this card can be. “:manax::mana2b:: Target a permanent. Remove up to X counters from that permanent. Hex Parasite gains +1/+0 until the end of the turn for each counter removed this way.” This essentially means that if your opponent has a Gideon on the field with eight loyalty counters on it; you can activate this creature’s ability, remove that many counters from Gideon, and swing with a 9/1. Hex Parasite could be a definite way of dealing with planeswalkers, especially since you can fetch it with a little Trinket Mage. That’s pretty useful.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=116614&d=1301957144
Hex Parasite also gives us our first look at a new mechanic in New Phyrexia, Phyrexian Mana. This is a mana symbol that can be paid either with the color on the symbol or 2 life. That’s pretty cool. I am currently using a different symbol from what would normally appear for the Phyrexian mana because the proper symbol has not been integrated into the system just yet. Now normally an all Green, Stompy deck can delve into the nullify power of White without even having to adjust for mana. Imagine the possibilities for some of these cards. You could get a card like Norn’s Annex, a :mana3::mana2w::mana2w: card that would normally not hit the table till turn 4 or 5, out as early as turn 3 by just paying a little life and :mana3:. That’s pretty nice for a card that makes your opponents pay 2 life for every attacking creature they want to send your way. Imagine the possibilities. Fascinating huh?
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=116616&d=1301957368
Our final card for the night is the card Fresh Meat, a fun new way to trample everything to death. For 3G you get to put a 3/3 green Beast Token onto the field for each creature that hit your graveyard this turn. Now this is a grand answer to any board clearer. “Ha, Day of Judgement at your face.” “Ha, seven 3/3s in your face… die!” The thing is you don’t have to wait for a board clearer for this card to be effective. Having an Eldrazi spawn centric deck could give you everything you need. Let’s take some turns:
Turn 1: Forest, Llanowar Elves.
Turn 2: Forest, Nest Invader (3 fources of green mana 1 Eldrazi spawn)
Turn 3: Possibly another forest, Tap out for Awakening Zone. (3-4 sources of Green mana 1 Eldrazi Spawn)
Turn 4: Another Land (if you can), Kozeliek’s Predator for 2 extra spawn plus another from Awakening Zone, and just leave 1 Green mana up.
Turn 5: just wait for the opportune moment to sac all your spawn for 3/3s and swing.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=116613&d=1301957144
Granted this is not the best sketch of a plan, but it will definitely give you the sacrificial creatures you need to power up Fresh Meat. It comes down to you how you want to do it, but I’m sure this will be a card that makes its way into lots of Green sideboards.
Alright, time for a new section for this column series, Speculation Alley. This is where I’m going to put up some pictures from the upcoming set and give my thoughts on what they may end up becoming. I also encourage your own thoughts on these artworks. Who knows one of you out there might have the gift of foresight and might not know it. Try your luck on Speculation Alley:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sRv3tg_T_Q8/TaXLTctpi9I/AAAAAAAAL_U/QWDymwa_PO8/s1600/New%2BPhyrexia%2BArt%2B%25281%2529.jpg
I'm going with something stompy-like. Colorless for sure, maybe four mana and I'd call it a 3/3. You know something fun, but not entirely useful. Possibly common or uncommon.
http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/daily/arcana/687_14_nkujcjdxfg.jpg
My how the great Lunar Avenger has fallen. Or is that a corrupted Etched Oracle? Could Sunburst be making its way back? Who knows what its ability could be, but I betcha it's gonna be fun.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gs6kHYVvMZ8/TaXLZJsPB6I/AAAAAAAAL_c/DfXUL3cvRBU/s1600/New%2BPhyrexia%2BArt%2B%25282%2529.jpg
What dark riddles does this sphinx know? The power of infection and corruption? Or will its poison only affect the victim's mind? I'd love to see this thing be a flying 4/4 that makes people chose to lose either cards from their deck or hand. Which would you choose, what do you think?
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fOdJ6rJAdxA/TaRG1hSh-fI/AAAAAAAAL9E/u_KHA7rq5pw/s320/New%2BPhyrexia%2B%2BEric%2BDeschamps%2B1.jpg
A vanguard for the Porcelain Legion or perhaps just the common solider they send out to make war? I'd love to see this guy with First Strike and Vigilance, but I think that would be asking for too much. I just hope and pray this guy is strong, my Porcelain Legion Deck is going to need a heavy swinger.
Well everyone sorry for a very belated article this week. Life just gets in the way sometimes so what can you do? Anyway I want to give a big shout-out to one of my readers this week. This person submitted two decks for the Knights vs. Dragons Duel Deck Challenge I posted in the Competition section. A great big high-five and round of applause to Mijy, good work and thanks for participating. And always remember my happy readers, “Etherium is Limited. Innovation is not.” This is Corlando signing out.
By: Corlando
Welcome one and all to another edition of Cards n’Flux. This week we will be uncovering and discussion some of the recently spoiled cards of New Phyrexia and find out just what has happened to the world of Mirrodin. Let’s not waste any more time on an introduction and hop right in.
Our first big card we are going to talk about today is Karn the Released. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Karn is back and he is packing some serious power as the final Mirrodin planeswalker. This is probably where I would give some explanation about exactly what happened to Karn and how he yet again became a planeswalker, so I will do my best. Urza, one of the greatest planeswalkers of all time, created Karn, the Silver Golem, as a way to test his time travel experiments. Urza also instilled in Karn a device that would slowly help to build Karn’s sentience and his personality, allowing Karn to one day become his own being. The Silver Golem had many adventures throughout his life; one of his greatest being was assisting in the original war against the Phyrexians. It was during this adventure that Karn became the first, and so far only, artificial Planeswalker. It was also during this time that Karn became infected with the Phyrexian oil that would one day infect the whole of Mirrodin, originally known as Argentum the world that Karn built himself.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=116619&d=1301957477
Now Karn is back and apparently free of Phyrexian control, as he stands against them ready to remake the world. And I mean, remake the world. Karn’s first ability is a +4 that forces target player to exile a card from their hand. Next is a -3 that exiles target permanent. However, the ultimate is where things just get whacky. “-14: Set aside all non-Aura permanent cards exiled by Karn, then restart the game. Then put all cards set aside this way onto the battlefield under your control.” This is just bonkers! Yes I play Karn and now I’ll just restart the whole game and swing at you with the few cards that I set aside. Hope you like an unfair advantage. Now, however awesome Karn may be, there is a bit of a catch. Now it’s not low loyalty I assure you, the guy comes in with 6 loyalty. The catch with Karn is that he is one expensive bomb. Come in at :mana7:, by the way he’s colorless not an artifact, which is definitely expensive for a Planeswalker. The good news is, once you actually get him out, it is very, very hard to get rid of him. Activate his first ability once and suddenly you have Karn with 10 loyalty. If someone is so concerned about killing Karn, then they have probably forgotten that you exist and you’ll be free to kill them. The thing about Karn is that even though he is very powerful, I really just see him as a sort of casual card. In Standard things move too quickly to have Karn be a reliable win condition, extended is just ignored, and Legacy can be even faster than Standard. As much as Karn is a reservoir of delicious flavor I seriously feel that he may end up regulated to the casual corner of Magic.
Next up we’ve got a card that is the end to all your Planeswalker problems. Hex Parasite is a :mana1:, 1/1 with a pumping ability. That’s pretty strong by itself, but then you read how Hex Parasite powers the pumping and you get a real since on exactly how strong this card can be. “:manax::mana2b:: Target a permanent. Remove up to X counters from that permanent. Hex Parasite gains +1/+0 until the end of the turn for each counter removed this way.” This essentially means that if your opponent has a Gideon on the field with eight loyalty counters on it; you can activate this creature’s ability, remove that many counters from Gideon, and swing with a 9/1. Hex Parasite could be a definite way of dealing with planeswalkers, especially since you can fetch it with a little Trinket Mage. That’s pretty useful.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=116614&d=1301957144
Hex Parasite also gives us our first look at a new mechanic in New Phyrexia, Phyrexian Mana. This is a mana symbol that can be paid either with the color on the symbol or 2 life. That’s pretty cool. I am currently using a different symbol from what would normally appear for the Phyrexian mana because the proper symbol has not been integrated into the system just yet. Now normally an all Green, Stompy deck can delve into the nullify power of White without even having to adjust for mana. Imagine the possibilities for some of these cards. You could get a card like Norn’s Annex, a :mana3::mana2w::mana2w: card that would normally not hit the table till turn 4 or 5, out as early as turn 3 by just paying a little life and :mana3:. That’s pretty nice for a card that makes your opponents pay 2 life for every attacking creature they want to send your way. Imagine the possibilities. Fascinating huh?
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=116616&d=1301957368
Our final card for the night is the card Fresh Meat, a fun new way to trample everything to death. For 3G you get to put a 3/3 green Beast Token onto the field for each creature that hit your graveyard this turn. Now this is a grand answer to any board clearer. “Ha, Day of Judgement at your face.” “Ha, seven 3/3s in your face… die!” The thing is you don’t have to wait for a board clearer for this card to be effective. Having an Eldrazi spawn centric deck could give you everything you need. Let’s take some turns:
Turn 1: Forest, Llanowar Elves.
Turn 2: Forest, Nest Invader (3 fources of green mana 1 Eldrazi spawn)
Turn 3: Possibly another forest, Tap out for Awakening Zone. (3-4 sources of Green mana 1 Eldrazi Spawn)
Turn 4: Another Land (if you can), Kozeliek’s Predator for 2 extra spawn plus another from Awakening Zone, and just leave 1 Green mana up.
Turn 5: just wait for the opportune moment to sac all your spawn for 3/3s and swing.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=116613&d=1301957144
Granted this is not the best sketch of a plan, but it will definitely give you the sacrificial creatures you need to power up Fresh Meat. It comes down to you how you want to do it, but I’m sure this will be a card that makes its way into lots of Green sideboards.
Alright, time for a new section for this column series, Speculation Alley. This is where I’m going to put up some pictures from the upcoming set and give my thoughts on what they may end up becoming. I also encourage your own thoughts on these artworks. Who knows one of you out there might have the gift of foresight and might not know it. Try your luck on Speculation Alley:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sRv3tg_T_Q8/TaXLTctpi9I/AAAAAAAAL_U/QWDymwa_PO8/s1600/New%2BPhyrexia%2BArt%2B%25281%2529.jpg
I'm going with something stompy-like. Colorless for sure, maybe four mana and I'd call it a 3/3. You know something fun, but not entirely useful. Possibly common or uncommon.
http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/daily/arcana/687_14_nkujcjdxfg.jpg
My how the great Lunar Avenger has fallen. Or is that a corrupted Etched Oracle? Could Sunburst be making its way back? Who knows what its ability could be, but I betcha it's gonna be fun.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gs6kHYVvMZ8/TaXLZJsPB6I/AAAAAAAAL_c/DfXUL3cvRBU/s1600/New%2BPhyrexia%2BArt%2B%25282%2529.jpg
What dark riddles does this sphinx know? The power of infection and corruption? Or will its poison only affect the victim's mind? I'd love to see this thing be a flying 4/4 that makes people chose to lose either cards from their deck or hand. Which would you choose, what do you think?
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fOdJ6rJAdxA/TaRG1hSh-fI/AAAAAAAAL9E/u_KHA7rq5pw/s320/New%2BPhyrexia%2B%2BEric%2BDeschamps%2B1.jpg
A vanguard for the Porcelain Legion or perhaps just the common solider they send out to make war? I'd love to see this guy with First Strike and Vigilance, but I think that would be asking for too much. I just hope and pray this guy is strong, my Porcelain Legion Deck is going to need a heavy swinger.
Well everyone sorry for a very belated article this week. Life just gets in the way sometimes so what can you do? Anyway I want to give a big shout-out to one of my readers this week. This person submitted two decks for the Knights vs. Dragons Duel Deck Challenge I posted in the Competition section. A great big high-five and round of applause to Mijy, good work and thanks for participating. And always remember my happy readers, “Etherium is Limited. Innovation is not.” This is Corlando signing out.