With Phyrexia: All Will Be One nearing its release, it’s no surprise that this week’s MTG Weekly was dedicated to revealing a bunch of previews for the set. Host Blake Rasmussen was joined by two guests, Adam Prosak (Senior Game Designer and set lead for the main ONE set) and Corey Bowen (Lead Game Designer for the ONE Commander decks), to reveal more than a dozen cards, including a new Commander choice for Myr fans.
Many of the cards revealed today are found exclusively in Set Booster packs and are not part of the main set. These cards come loaded with abilities and keywords that are not on other Phyrexia: All Will Be One cards so keep that in mind if a card seems out of place.
If you want to get caught up on all the mechanics of Phyrexia: All Will Be One, check out our Mechanics guide here!
Skyhunter Strike Force
First up is Skyhunter Strike Force, a powerful card to help support your commander and other creatures you control by giving everyone melee if you control your Commander. Giving your creatures up to +3/+3 can be extremely overwhelming for your opponents, especially when used in creature token decks.
Mirage Mockery
With Mirage Mockery, you can get two token clones, one of an artifact creature you control and another of a nonartifact creature you control—for six mana! Even for just three mana without entwine, getting one of those tokens can have a big impact on the board.
Synthesis Pod
Synthesis Pod is Birthing Pod but for spells currently on the stack—and instead of searching your library for a spell you get to reveal cards from an opponent’s deck until you hit something that costs one more than the spell you exiled.
Prosak revealed that this card was heavily tested with a new team specifically created to help keep cards balanced and slightly more casual but more fun in design.
Monumental Corruption
Monumental Corruption is a five-mana sorcery spell that lets you draw cards equal to the number of artifacts you control. It might be solid in black-based artifact decks, but you have to be careful—you will also lose life equal to the number of artifacts you control. This type of double-edged sword can be great if you’ve gained some life or alternatively you could use it as a burn spell to knock out an opponent with low life.
Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant
A throwback to the original Mirrodin set, the great dragon itself Chiss-Goria has been made into a card.
Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant has affinity for artifacts and when it attacks, it exiles the top five cards of your deck and lets you cast any of those cards if they are artifacts. Even better, those artifacts gain affinity for artifacts so don’t be surprised if those artifacts are free to play!
Bowen and Prosak both commented on affinity’s return, stating that it will likely pop up more with careful consideration.
Tangleweave Armor
The actual living weapon mechanic has returned to Phyrexia with Tangleweave Armor. Interestingly, Tangleweave Armor doesn’t care what zone your Commander is currently in so it will grant +X/+X equal to your Commander’s mana value at all times. This way, even if your Commander is in the Command Zone, your creature will gain their bonus and you won’t automatically lose your 0/0 Germ token right away.
Lux Artillery
Lux Artillery brings back another old mechanic, sunburst, but only for your artifact creature spells. Once you get enough counters on your creatures and artifacts you get to start blasting away your opponents for ten damage at the end of your turn. Lux Artillery is also one of the few if not the only card in ONE that grants +1/+1 counters.
Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch
Everyone stop what you’re doing, a new Myr just dropped.
Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch is a five-color legendary Myr, letting you bring in all the Myr you want to your deck. Urtet not only untaps all your Myr creatures at the start of your combat but also lets you pay WUBRG to give your Myr creatures three +1/+1 counters, helping to grow your board and still being able to attack.
The regular version of Urtet is at mythic rarity in Set Boosters, but in Collector Boosters, the extended version is rare. This was an error in printing but is a little too late to change.
The Sphere Lands
With the Commander cards out of the way, the show turned to cards that will be in the main Phyrexia: All Will Be One set, starting with the introduction of the Spheres. Each color gets its own Sphere land, all with the same ability to sacrifice itself to draw a card: The Fair Basilica, The Surgical Bay, The Dross Pits, The Autonomous Furnace, and The Hunter Maze.
Prosak also revealed that there will be four additional rare lands with the Sphere type in ONE.
Thrummingbird
The fan favorite card Thrummingbird returns to Phyrexia and this time has two fancy new card styles, too. As an easy (and repeatable) way to proliferate, Thrummingbird can easily accelerate your opponent’s poison counters with just a few hits.
Unctus, Grand Metatect
Grand Architect got a huge upgrade in Phyrexia: All Will Be One with Unctus, Grand Metatect. Now with a looting effect, Unctus boosts your artifact creatures instead of your blue creatures and can turn your creatures into artifact creatures for one Phyrexian mana.
Unctus is one of the few cards in ONE with a Phyrexian mana ability, and Bowen confirmed that the only other cards with Phyrexian mana in the casting cost are the Phyrexian Planeswalkers: Jace, the Perfected Mind, Lukka, Bound to Ruin, Nahiri, the Unforgiving, Nissa, Ascended Animist, and Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting.
Ria Ivor, Bane of Bladehold
Another one of Phyrexia’s heroes has fallen, this time it’s the Hero of Bladehold. Ria Ivor, Bane of Bladehold no longer supports her human resistance members, but instead creates 1/1 Mite tokens to help poison out your opponents.
Ria Ivor is also the only card in ONE with the battle cry keyword since it’s a throwback to the original.
Thrun, Breaker of Silence
The good ol’ lonely troll is back with some upgrades. Thrun, the Last Troll is now Thrun, Breaker of Silence and is still incredibly difficult to deal with, gaining indestructible on your turn, and always has protection from non-green spells and abilities from your opponents. As a 5/5 with trample and indestructible when it attacks, Thrunn will likely deal a good amount of damage before an opponent can remove it.
All Will Be One
The namesake card for the set, All Will Be One deals damage whenever you add counters to a permanent or player. Sitting at a hefty five mana, All Will Be One lets you weaponize your Planeswalkers and poison counters, as well as any card that lets you proliferate.
Ryan Hay (he/him) has been writing about Magic: The Gathering and video games for years, and loves absolutely terrible games. Send him your bad game takes over on Twitter where he won’t stop talking about Lord of the Rings.