CCC: My Wet Hot Phyrexian Summer - Part 3: Mirran Invasion

We're excited to continue Coast to Coast Casual (CCC), a blog series written by East2West, published on MTG Cardsmith.

Phase 3 (Mirran Invasion)

Almost done with the backstory stuff I promise, if you made it this far you are a true legend. To be clear all original Phyrexians are dead by the point we even see Mirrodin for the first time. Despite this Phyrexia has been a massive influence over Mirrodin for eons. Mirrodin (Originally known as Argentum) was created by Karn using the Mirari (an ancient and extremely powerful artifact), at this point it was mostly metallic and mostly barren. To govern Argentum Karn created Memnarch, a spider like golem. Karn unknowingly tracked Phyrexian oils on the plane causing Memnarch to become corrupted. Memnarch now started having thoughts not dictated by Karn and soon he decided he wanted to become a planeswalker just like Karn. Memnarch then began the process of changing Argentum into Mirrodin. Memnarch kidnapped sentient beings from other planes and artificially enhanced their progress in an effort to cultivate their planeswalker sparks.

After some time due the Phyrexian oil caused Mycosynth began to form on the plane. Mycosynth is a sort of metallic fungus that can turn metal into living flesh and cause flesh to turn to living metal. Mycosynth accelerated the evolution and emergence of sentients. Also from this process Blinkmoths were born and Blinkmoth serum began to be created. Blinkmoth serum when ingested causes one to experience a higher level of thinking for a short amount of time. It's highly addictive and it wasn't long before Memnarch became dependant, wearing down his already frayed sanity. Karn witnessing this tried to step in but Memnarch locked him from Mirrodin.

The band of heroes Slobad, Glissa, and Geth managed to defeat Memnarch and thus peace was restored to Mirrodin. This was not the end of Phyrexia on this plane, Memnarch was simply an omen. If you recall many original Phyrexians had been implanted with metal and the Phyresis process had adapted, this made the metallic world of Mirrodin the perfect place for it to spread. At first it was quite, spreading slowly, but than it ramped up to 11 with the rise of the Praetors. Now their actual origin is debated upon, some say they were formed in the core of mirrodin by a mixture of the oils and the colored mana flowing down there, others say they are the Bringers of Dawn corrupted by the oils, either way their rise is what signaled the true beginning of the war. In the Dominarian invasion Phyrexia only had access to colorless and black mana but now all five colors were infected. I don't want to drag this on any longer than it already is so if you want to read about them here's a link: Read More

After a long war the Mirran resistance was defeated, most of its heroes converted to Phyrexia, and what remnants were left had to retreat. With nowhere else to go the Mirrans ended up in the domain of the red praetor Urabrask. Lucky for the Mirrans red turns out to be the most resistant color to the Phyrexian infection. Many red aligned Phyrexians show some amount of compassion and rebellion, not a large amount but some nonetheless. Urabrask decided to help the Mirrans. Allowing them to live unimpeded in his domain. We end our story with what little is left of the Mirrans hiding in the domain of a praetor that could turn on them at any time as the other four praetors bear down upon them.

Back to Part 1: Birth of Phyrexia

To be continued in Part 4: Exhibits

East2West is an aspiring writer from NJ currently seeking fame and fortune on the internet. She's been playing Magic since Zendikar block (the original one) and is a commander player with one deck for each two color pair and one for each single color. The only non EDH deck she plays is her own personal Pauper brew, Pauper Eggs. Follow her on her newly created and probably soon to be underused twitter @East2WestMTG.

CCC: My Wet Hot Phyrexian Summer - Part 2: Invasion of Dominaria

We're excited to continue Coast to Coast Casual (CCC), a blog series written by East2West, published on MTG Cardsmith.

Phase 2 (Invasion of Dominaria)

So in doing research for this article I found out just how complicated the magic lore is and I could have a whole other article on the various ways that Phyrexia influenced Dominaria but that would take forever. Here are the important points bulleted for your leisure and in chronological order.

• Urza and Mishra enter the Caves of Koilos and disturb the powerstones locking Phyrexia out
• Gix enters Dominaria with the goal of causing enough destruction to permanently cripple the Dominarians
• Gix influences the brothers into starting The Brothers War
• Phyrexia infiltrates both sides of the conflict
• Mishra is replaced with a Phyrexian imposter
• Urza activates the Golgothian Sylex, devastating Dominaria. Urza seemingly dies but actually becomes a planeswalker and finds out Phyrexia was behind the war. He swears revenge
• Phyrexia tries to infiltrate the rebuilding societies, they fail due to the Dominarians getting spooked by the sudden appearance of the Phyrexians (back than all Phyrexians looked the same)
• The aftermath of the Sylex blast caused The Shard of the Twelve Worlds to form. Locking twelve planes together and keeping Phyrexia out.
• Urza travels the multiverse trying to find the Phyrexians. He encounters Xantcha, a Phyrexian sleeper agent who went rogue.
• Urza and Xantcha run from Phyrexia across hundreds of planes.
• Freyalise casts The Word Spell, breaking the Shard
• Gix returns to Dominaria and forms a secret cult
• Phyrexians begin to move into Dominaria through the portal
• Urza travels with Xantcha and a newfound ally Ratepe to Koilos in order to defeat Gix
• In The Caves of Koilos Urza faces Gix, eventually killing him. In the process both Xantcha and Ratepe die.
• Urza begins work on anti-Phyrexian countermeasures
• Rath is built as a staging area for Phyrexian troops
• Rath's mass increases to the point of overlay, thus causing it to halfway merge with Dominaria
• Weatherlight crew is formed
• Phyrexians mount final invasion of Dominaria
• Warships descend from Rath over Benalia and take it in the name of Phyrexia
• Phyrexian general Tsabo Tavoc attacks both Koilos and Yavimaya, losing both fights to coalition forces
• The Phyrexians take Tolaria and the great wizard Barrin activates his final spell, destroying Tolaria
• Phyrexia takes the Burning Isles and Urborg
• Tsabo Tavoc defeated by Gerrard and Karn, he retreats to Phyrexia
• Urza assembles the Nine Titans (nine planeswalkers) to go fight through Phyrexia in massive battle suits.
• The Nine Titans are defeated and Urza is captured
• Urza is forced to fight with Gerrard. Urza is promised unlimited knowledge and Gerrard is promised the return of his dead love Hanna. Gerrard wins by beheading Urza
• Yawgmoth returns to Dominaria in the form of the death cloud
• The Weatherlight crew assemble the Legacy and defeat Yawgmoth after first exploding the Null Moon.
• Phyrexian forces lose the will to live and Phyrexia is fully defeated, the original plane utterly devastated.

Read Part 1: Birth of Phyrexia

To be continued in Part 3: Mirran Invasion

East2West is an aspiring writer from NJ currently seeking fame and fortune on the internet. She's been playing Magic since Zendikar block (the original one) and is a commander player with one deck for each two color pair and one for each single color. The only non EDH deck she plays is her own personal Pauper brew, Pauper Eggs. Follow her on her newly created and probably soon to be underused twitter @East2WestMTG.

CCC: My Wet Hot Phyrexian Summer - Part 1: Birth of Phyrexia

We're excited to continue Coast to Coast Casual (CCC), a blog series written by East2West, published on MTG Cardsmith.

Phyrexia, that big infectious mofo that slinks through the multiverse. In October of 2010 this oily jerk of a plane set its sights on Mirrodin, my favorite plane. I followed the conflict heavily and I lost my goddamn mind when Mirrodin lost. So here I am, 8ish years later and a whole lot smarter, ready to prove that Mirrodin should have won the war. Ladies and gentlemen, planeswalkers and eldrazi, legendary creatures of all subtypes I present to you literally the most asinine essay I will ever write.

Phase 1 (Birth of Phyrexia)

To understand the war between Phyrexia and Mirrodin let's turn back the clock to a time before Phyrexia even existed. See the story of Phyrexia starts on Dominaria, during the reign of the Thran empire. We start our story about midway through the life of Yawgmoth, a eugenist on the republican side of the Thran civil war. Yawgmoth was obsessed with the human body, believing it to be a sort of imperfect machine. When the was came to a close the republicans had lost and all participants were exiled. During his exile Yawgmoth would enact multiple atrocities including a vivisection of the Viashino Bey and turning the creeping mold of Argoth into a horrible flesh eating disease that would end up killing of most of the population.

After five years of exile Yawgmoth was called out of exile to the Thran capital of Halcyon. The chief artificer, a man named Glacian, had contracted a form of radiation poisoning after being stabbed with a powerstone by a rebel named Gix. Word of Yawgmoth's deeds hadn't reached here yet so they had reason to trust him. Glacian's infection would turn out to be the first recorded case of phthisis, this will come into play later. Gix's rebellion was composed mostly of exiled Thran who had contracted phthisis due to exposure to powerstone mining rigs. Yawgmoth managed to develop a serum that cured the rebels, thus quelling the rebellion. Yawgmoth went on to use his newfound notoriety to enter politics within the city. Soon he became a trusted member of the city's government and was soon elected head of public health. During this time Glacian's disease got worse and worse, all of Yawgmoth's attempts to heal him were completely ineffective. Soon it would be discovered that Yawgmoth was diluting the serum he was giving to the rebels, he claimed (falsely) that is was due to a lack of resources. This blatant lie roused Gix once again and a second rebellion started to form. Soon before the actual rebellion started a planeswalker named Dyfed arrived in Halcyon to seek the wisdom of Glacian due to him having an unignited planeswalker spark. Yawgmoth overheard their conversation and manages to convince Dyfed to help him. Dyfed agrees to help Yawgmoth find a plane on which he can construct a paradise. Not long after Gix's second rebellion breaks out. Utilizing a powerful artifact based on Glacian's designs Yawgmoth gains control of all Thran artifacts and uses them to defeat Gix once again. A couple weeks later Halcyon holds a festival in Yawgmoth's honor, all is well until a strange group of delegates appear.

These delegates are a group of the 25 nations that Yawgmoth experimented on during his exile, they call themselves the Thran Alliance. These delegates tell all of Halcyon about Yawgmoth's deeds. A vote is held to decide if Yawgmoth can stay, the vote is 50/50 with the deciding votes being Rebbec(Glacian's wife who's fallen for Yawgmoth) and Yawgmoth himself. The vote ends in Yawgmoth's favor. Directly after the vote Yawgmoth overthrows the council and has all who voted against him as well as the delegates imprisoned. Dyfed than uses a powerstone to permanently make a portal between Dominaria and a new plane, the plane on which Yawgmoth will make his paradise. Since Yawgmoth wants the plane to study and cure Phthisis he names it after the disease hence Phyrexia. At this point Phyrexia was basically Mirrodin, a plane of artifice and life entwined. Yawgmoth binds himself to this plane, essentially becoming a god while within the plane. Soon he starts to bring Phthisis patients over and begins to implant them with empty powerstones and other metallic implants, thus draining away their sickness and creating Phyrexian oil as a byproduct (Phyrexian oil causes advanced mutations and Phthisis on contact. This process will become known as Phyresis) Soon these new inhabitants begin to evolve becoming leaner, faster, and stronger. These mutants became the first true Phyrexians.

With this powerful new entities at his side Yawgmoth became almost invincible, fighting the Thran Alliance with ease. Seeing the horrors she had helped make Dyfed turned on Yawgmoth and an epic battle ensued. Yawgmoth defeated Dyfed by shoving a power stone knife into her head, disabling her spark. He hoped to dissect her and learn the secrets of planeswalking, however Rebbec removed the dagger in an act of mercy and in doing so killed Dyfed. However not all went well for Yawgmoth. His excessive use of powerstones resulted in a death cloud hanging over Halcyon, held back by a group of artificers powering a Null Sphere. These artificers betrayed Yawgmoth and ended their live thus dropping a layer of pure death onto the city. All its inhabitants either fled to Phyrexia or were eaten away. Rebbec used the very powerstone that had stabbed her husband and started it all taken to betray Yawgmoth, closing the portal between Phyrexia and Dominaria seemingly forever.

To be continued in Part 2: Invasion of Dominaria

East2West is an aspiring writer from NJ currently seeking fame and fortune on the internet. She's been playing Magic since Zendikar block (the original one) and is a commander player with one deck for each two color pair and one for each single color. The only non EDH deck she plays is her own personal Pauper brew, Pauper Eggs. Follow her on her newly created and probably soon to be underused twitter @East2WestMTG.

Giving Thanks

This is always a special time of year around MTGCardsmith, so we thought it would be awesome to bring back an amazing event and turn it into our Theme of the Month! It's the Month of Giving Thanks! We're inviting everyone to post a card that was made by another Cardsmith, one that inspired you, one taught you something new or one that you think deserves a feature. We'll review all nominations and pick a handful that best represent the spirit of our awesome community.

Featured Cardsmiths

Not much is known about MercifulNeptune except this Cardsmith started making cards in November of 2014 and has quietly amassed 0ver 700 cards. When I first started, I always loved to check the cards made by the top card makers and I would try and learn the craft from them, and for me, one of those Cardsmiths was MercifulNeptune. Check out their collection, where you'll find new and old cards alike!!!

If you weren't aware, the undead aren't just zombies and skeletons, but actual Cardsmiths too! Undead the Cardsmith hasn't been around as long as our other Featured Cardsmith, but has joined the community with great card designs, fun challenges and cool contest entries! If you don't believe us, just check out all the cards Undead has made... but be warned... just like the name implies, you'll find a lot of dark dealings in there!

Each month we're excited to highlight just a couple of Cardsmiths that have helped make MTGCardsmith the best interactive online Card Creator. We hope you'll take some time to check out their creations!

CCC: Guilds of Ravnica Set Review - Green

We're excited to continue Coast to Coast Casual (CCC), a blog series written by East2West, published on MTG Cardsmith.

I will be going over most cards in this set excluding most commons and uncommons. Each card will be given a ranking between 1 and 10 based on how playable I believe it to be in Standard, Modern, Commander, and Draft respectively.

1. - Unplayable
2. - Bad card tribal
3. - Uninteresting
4. - Could see play but doubtful
5. - Playable
6. - Seems deece
7. - If you have the room run it
8. - Make the room to run it
9. - Spicy
10. - Why aren't you playing this?

Green

Beast Whisperer

Standard - 8
Modern - 5
Commander - 10
Draft - 6

Elfball? Elfball. Standard just got a new powerhouse. Beast Whisperer goes down smooth into any green creature deck. This is a threat that enables classic Elfball strategies as well as Mono-Green Mana Dork Ramp. Play accelerating creatures (Llanowar Elves) to draw cards and ramp into Giganotosaurus In Modern this could be a great engine but it's super vulnerable to removal and doesn't immediately effect the board so I'm interested to see what happens in that format. In Commander this is just a bomb, like seriously any green player will want this. There's' next to no green commander deck that doesn't want Beast Whisperer. In Draft it's still good but nowhere near as powerful as in other formats. Still it's definitely first pickable.

Bounty of Might

Standard - 4
Modern - 2
Commander - 3
Draft - 5

Bad, slow and bad in all formats. In Draft it's playable but honestly that's the only format where it is. It's possible for this to see play in Standard but honestly I highly doubt it. Not a fan.

Hatchery Spider

Standard - 4
Modern - 3
Commander - 7
Draft - 5

Hatchery Spider reminds me of a suped up Nessian Game Warden. This is definitely a good card and it's playable in both Standard in Draft as a build around. However it's ability is on cast and not ETB so I don't think this is that great or even game breaking. It's high CMC that can only hit green permanents makes it so Modern players will likely never use this. Commander players will want this however since the wide range of playable cards in Commander give this plenty of great targets.

Nullhide Ferox

Standard - 9
Modern - 6
Commander - 5
Draft - 7

People have kind of talked about Nullhide Ferox to death so I'll give a quick overview. Getting this for free in Standard and Modern is not unlikely given the amount of turn 1 discard plays. In Draft Nullhide Ferox is just good, great stats and creature decks are an easy kind of deck to draft. Commander is the only place this is lackluster since it's great stats don't super matter in Commander and the fact that any player can activate its ability means this won't be long for the world.

Pelt Collector

Standard - 5
Modern - 6
Commander - 6
Draft - 5

Pelt Collector combo is a thing in Modern now. It just is and honestly it's pretty good. In Commander this card can get so massive over the course of the game that I think this slides nice into a lot of decks. In Draft it's pretty, you first pick this and you will definitely not regret it. In Standard I'm curious to see what happens, I'm not sure if this will just go under the radar or pop off in a big way. I like Pelt Collector and I hope you do too.

Vivid Revival

Standard - 4
Modern - 1
Commander - 6
Draft - 4

I mean it's not terrible. Vivid Revival does some crazy good stuff, getting you three cards for the price of one. The thing is I'm just not sure what deck wants this outside of green supported multicolor decks in Commander. Vivid Revival might be the key to some interesting combos in Standard but I'm very uncertain about its place in any other format. Good luck Vivid Revival, you're gonna need it.

That wraps up our Guilds of Ravnica Set Review! If you have feedback or comments - or would like to see more of this in the future - please leave a note in the comments below!
Go back to the beginning of the Review

East2West is an aspiring writer from NJ currently seeking fame and fortune on the internet. She's been playing Magic since Zendikar block (the original one) and is a commander player with one deck for each two color pair and one for each single color. The only non EDH deck she plays is her own personal Pauper brew, Pauper Eggs. Follow her on her newly created and probably soon to be underused twitter @East2WestMTG.