Which cards are seeping in Phyrexia’s best?
Welcome back to my card-by-card financial set review of Phyrexia: All Will Be One. If you missed last week’s article, where I covered Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines, Phyrexian Obliterator, and several exciting new Planeswalkers, take a peek at the link right below this paragraph first:ARTICLE SPOTLIGHTPhyrexia: All Will Be One Financial Set Review Part One – Elesh Norn, Planeswalkers, and More!Check the specs on our new robot overlords.Cassie LaBelle1/20/2023
We’ve got a lot to cover this week too, including some of the best and most highly-anticipated cards in the set. Based on the pre-order prices I’ve seen so far, this is the most excited the community has been about a Standard set since Kamigawa Neon Dynasty, with quite a few cards selling in the $20+ range.
Even though there are cards in this set I think are being overrated right now, the hype is absolutely justified. I mean, heck, there are two white mythic rares in All Will Be One that should be an easy $30+ each over the long haul. Combine that with a solid cycle of non-basic lands at rare and a host of other exciting cards, and you can see why this set has so much hype around it as preview season persists. This is a fantastic set, and I cannot wait to start cracking packs and filling out my collection.
To that end, I’m going to be a little more cautious than I otherwise would as I go through my card-by-card analysis. A Standard-legal set can only support so many $20+ cards while it’s still in print, so some otherwise solid playables are going to be nice and cheap this time around. That doesn’t mean you should avoid buying the cards you’re most excited about, but my standards will be higher than usual, considering how pushed this set will likely be.
But before we get to the cards I’m a little less sure about, we have to talk about one of All Will Be One’s, can’t-miss mythic rare superstars. I’m talking about:
Mondrak, Glory Dominus
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
Market Price: $23.78
I was just talking about Anointed Procession in my newsletter, and here we are with—well, it’s not a reprint, exactly, but Mondrak, Glory Dominus has Anointed Procession’s full text stapled to a 4/4 creature that can become indestructible fairly easily. As with Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines, Mondrak is a future white staple in Commander that’s going to be desirable and expensive for approximately forever. Heck, Anointed Procession is a $40 card itself, and that one’s a non-mythic rare that costs the same as Mondrak but without the upside. I just don’t see a world where Mondrak becomes a bust. It’s just not going to happen.
Mondrak, Glory Dominus isn’t just a Commander card, though. It should also see play in Standard, just as Anointed Procession did. And while some Commander players might prefer the enchantment simply because it’s harder to kill, my guess is that Mondrak’s 4/4 body with the potential for indestructibility will make this card a lot more viable as a competitive threat. Ultimately, Mondrak isn’t a card to overthink. It’s going to have a ton of short-term demand, and it will be right up there with Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines as a genuine future Commander staple. Buying in on release weekend is totally fine, and I don’t expect the price to drop too much over the coming months. This is one of the safest high-end buys in the set.
Sword of Forge and Frontier
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
Market Price: $8.94
Sword of Forge and Frontier is the latest member of the Sword of X and Y cycle, and the first we’ve seen in Standard in quite some time. These cards usually have some competitive playability, with the best of the cycle acting as staples in their own right. Protection from Red and Green isn’t ideal in the current Standard environment, though, and its ability is far from game-breaking. My guess is that Sword of Forge and Frontier ends up mostly as a sideboard card in Standard, acting as a way for white-based aggro decks to deal with Rakdos and Mono-Red.
Protection from Red is a lot more relevant in the eternal formats, especially in Modern. I could definitely see some of the Stoneforge Mystic decks considering Sword of Forge and Frontier as at least a singleton out of the sideboard. Mono-White and Azorius Hammer generally don’t run any of the cards in this cycle, though, and that’s the top Stoneforge deck right now. At best, I think we’re looking at a very fringe playable Modern card here
Market Price: $14.14
In Commander, Sword of Forge and Frontier is a mid-tier member of the cycle. There are plenty of decks that will want it, and I expect it to see more play than the haters seem to think, but it’s no Sword of Feast and Famine. I think it will mostly appeal to folks building around Commanders like Prosper, Tome-Bound, and Laelia, the Blade Reforged. That should give it a decent amount of long-term value, but this isn’t the sort of card I’d target early on. Its price tag is still being heavily influenced by the venerable cycle that it’s part of, and you’re going to need to wait a few months for that to wear off. I’d rather snag a card like Mondrak or Elesh Norn on release weekend, and hold off on this one for the set’s EV to even out.
Atraxa, Grand Unifier
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
Market Price: $11.57
Atraxa, Grand Unifier has pretty large shoes to fill. The original Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice is one of the best Commander cards ever printed, and it has tens of thousands of adoring fans. There’s a reason that it’s almost a $40 card despite a Double Masters reprint, and I was one of many Atraxa fans excitedly waiting for the voice of the praetors to get a second card.
Unfortunately, I’m pretty disappointed with Atraxa, Grand Unifier. Seven mana is a lot to pay, and it lacks the obvious build-around-me synergy of the first Atraxa. Instead, it’s most similar to Niv-Mizzet, Reborn, albeit with a bunch of keywords that make it a lot more formidable in combat. Check out this price chart if you’re not familiar with that particular card:
Niv-Mizzet, Reborn is far from a bulk mythic rare, and it actually saw quite a bit of play back in early 2020 thanks to the Niv to Light decks. It hasn’t been quite as popular since, but it does see occasional play in Pioneer and Commander. My prediction is that Atraxa, Grand Unifier will be slightly more popular than Niv-Mizzet, Reborn, especially as a reanimation target, but it’s certainly not in the same galaxy as Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice when it comes to Commander demand. People simply aren’t going to build around this card in that format in the same way they did with the first Atraxa.
Right now, I think Atraxa, Grand Unifier is being overrated due to its name value, and I’m not interested in paying that particular tax on a card that isn’t even in the same galaxy of playability. It’s a fine card, and it might even find a home in competitive Magic, but I’ll be waiting a few months for the price to bottom out. There are just too many outstanding cards in this set for this one to feel like a good gamble to me.
Tyrranax Rex
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
Tyrranax Rex is the latest in a long line of expensive green creatures that are nearly impossible to deal with once they hit the battlefield and start swinging. Ward 4 makes Tyrranax Rex fairly hard to kill, and Toxic 4 is a big enough clock to matter, especially if you can get your opponent to take two incidental poison counters via some other method. It reminds me a lot of Carnage Tyrant, a six-mana finisher from Ixalan that anyone who played Magic from 2017 through 2019 is intimately familiar with. Check out this price chart, from Carnage Tyrant’s rampage through Standard:
I don’t think Tyrranax Rex will be quite as impactful as Carnage Tyrant, though. Seven mana is much more than six, and Ward 4 is a significant downgrade from Hexproof. More importantly, green ramp is not a thing in Standard right now. In fact, green is nowhere near any of the top decks in the format, and Selesnya Aggro is the only green deck I’ve seen in recent days.
If Tyrranax Rex is going to pay off, it’ll be in Modern, likely as part of a Neoform shell. This is a long shot, but it would be pretty sweet if it worked. I certainly won’t be buying in until I see some actual playtest results, but it’s something I’ll be looking for really closely. Until then, color me skeptical. Since I haven’t seen enough Commander demand to keep Tyrranax Rex’s price tag high on its own, you’re betting on it to find a competitive home in a deck that doesn’t really exist yet. Granted, Tyrranax Rex could be a major sleeper in six months or a year when green ramp is viable in Standard since I don’t think competition from Titan of Industry will be enough to keep it out of any potential ramp-ish decklists, but I’ll probably be holding off until then.
Staff of Compleation
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
Staff of Compleation should find a home in a lot of very disparate Commander decks. For example, Demonic Pact-style decks and The Beamtown Bullies can use it as a Despotic Scepter with upside, while any deck that wants Contagion Clasp or Contagion Engine will run Staff of Compleation as yet another counter-proliferation engine. These cards ended up being solid long-term specs back in the original Scars of Mirrodin block, and Staff of Compleation could eventually follow that same trend.
That said, I don’t think Staff of Compleation is powerful enough to see any competitive play. It isn’t looking like a top-tier Commander staple, either. That steady trickle of demand from Proliferate decks should eventually give the card a bright long-term future, but I’m probably going to hold off until it gets nice and cheap before I buy in. This card might hold more value in a worse set, but All Will Be One simply has too many good cards for all of them to hold value while the set remains in print.
Jace, the Perfected Mind
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
I’m not really a fan of Jace, the Perfected Mind. I could be underrating this planeswalker simply because three drops have a much lower bar to clear, but I’m just not sure where it fits in any format. You don’t really want to run Jace, the Perfected Mind outside of a dedicated Mill strategy, because that -2 is by far the best ability here, but this card looks too slow for mill decks in the eternal formats. That means you’re banking on milling out your opponent in the current Standard environment, which seems unlikely at best. Since I haven’t seen much demand for this particular Jace in Commander yet, I’m going to have to assume that this is one of the mythic rare planeswalkers in the set with the likeliest chance of being a bust. I’m staying away.
Capricious Hellraiser
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
There are certain green flags I’m always looking for when I do these set reviews. Cost reduction mechanics are one of them, and graveyard manipulation is another. Delve cards, for example, played significantly better than they first looked, and people (including me) continued to overrate them through Murktide Regent.
Capricious Hellraiser doesn’t have delve but could be played alongside Dig Through Time to great success. The randomness of the free spell (or artifact!) hurts, but this card would be an unbelievable top-tier player without it. As it is, I wouldn’t be surprised if Capricious Hellraiser carved out a niche for itself in Pioneer, provided it can find the correct shell, and the RRR in the mana cost doesn’t hurt too much.
As with most combo cards, there is a low floor here. I don’t think Capricious Hellraiser has enough support to work in Standard, and I haven’t seen much interest in Commander. You’re banking on Pioneer and perhaps Modern demand here, which is a long shot. But if it pays off? This might be the most underrated mythic in the set. I generally don’t make gambles like this until I see some results, but if you’re a fan? Snagging a set now might not be a bad idea. The power level is absolutely real.
Venerated Rotpriest
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
It’s hard for me to imagine a world where Venerated Rotpriest doesn’t see some kind of play. Toxic 1 isn’t nearly as good as Infect, since it doesn’t scale up with pump spells, but I could still see Venerated Rotpriest cut some of the eternal Infect decks regardless. Granted, it has been a while since that archetype has been super viable, but give it enough new toys this year, and who knows? I get the feeling that WotC wants that deck to be good, considering the Secret Lair they just released. If they push it hard enough, we could be back to living in Glistener Elf’s world again before too long.
Of course, Venerated Rotpriest could be a combo piece all on its own. Pair it with Spellskite, Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief, or even Feather, the Redeemed, and you’ve got a pretty powerful win condition. Infect decks in Commander are definitely going to run this card, and I could see a lot of fun brewers’ challenges pop up around Venerated Rotpriest shenanigans since it really can kill out of nowhere.
Financially, I expect Venerated Rotpriest to have a fairly high floor. It’s a powerful and unique enough one-drop that I don’t think it can drop much below $3-$4. Its ceiling is also capped somewhat by being a non-mythic rare in such a good set, but its long-term future is bright. I think Venerated Rotpriest is safe enough to buy in now if you want to mess with it, especially since it’s one of the cards in the set with the best shot at finding a top-tier home in an eternal format. Otherwise, it’s near the top of my list for long-term specs to pick up in a couple of months.
Bloated Contaminator
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
Imagine showing Bloated Contaminator to someone playing Magic back in 1996. I’m not sure their minds could have handled such power creep. A 4/4 for 2G with trample is a pretty solid stompy card as it is, but the toxic and proliferation effects are what will determine if it sees play in Standard or not.
As I said in last week’s article, I’m skeptical about green cards in Standard right now. Green is nowhere near the top tables, and I need to see evidence of that trend reversing before I can wholeheartedly recommend a Standard-focused green card. This might cut some Commander Infect brews, but it needs to see some competitive play before it can realistically hope to return its current pre-order price tag. I’m staying away for now.
Skrelv’s Hive
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
I’ve seen people comparing Skrelv’s Hive to Bitterblossom, but the fact that the Phyrexian Mite creatures that Skrelv’s Hive produces can’t block and don’t have evasion makes this card far worse. I’ve also seen comparisons to [[Dreadhorde Invasion[[, but that card was also better for blocking and building one incredibly large threat.
Of course, Skrelv’s Hive does make an artifact creature token each turn, without fail, and the fact that they have Toxic 1 does mean that you can’t totally ignore this as a clock. Cards that consistently generate tokens tend to be quite popular in Commander, and the fact that it’s probably about on par with Dreadhorde Invasion means that it will likely see at least a little bit of competitive play. I don’t think this is “the next Bitterblossom” by any stretch, but I still expect Skrelv’s Hive to be a solid $2-$3 card for quite some time.
Glissa Sunslayer
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
I haven’t seen much hype about Glissa Sunslayer. The Reddit thread is just a bunch of people criticizing the art, which…I mean, I like the alt art better, but still. At any rate, I think people are sleeping on Glissa Sunslayer right now. This card indeed dies to pretty much any piece of removal, but it’s a three-drop that wins almost every combat situation and provides you with a massive advantage if your opponent chooses not to block. There are loads of relevant enchantments to kill in Standard and Pioneer right now, and drawing a card isn’t too shabby in a pinch. If your opponent doesn’t have a removal spell for Glissa, you are going to cause them to fit one way or another. That’s not bad for a three-drop. Heck, if this were 2015, I’d be expecting Glissa to show up right next to Tarmogoyf in Modern, too.
In Commander, I can see Glissa working as a build-around Commander for a deck that wants to remove tokens from permanents, like Dark Depths. It, unfortunately, doesn’t worth with suspend, nor are there any good cards with cumulative upkeep in black and green, but I still think folks will try to make it work. Between some marginal Commander demand and the chance for both Standard and Pioneer play, I think Glissa Sunslayer is solidly above average, especially considering the lack of hype so far. I’ll be snagging a few on release weekend.
Conduit of Worlds
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
“You may play lands from your graveyard” is one of the best abilities that any Magic card can have, as all know from over a decade of playing with Crucible of Worlds. WotC has been printing more cards with this ability in recent years, but that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped being relevant. Commander players will run all of these in different contexts, and the fact that Conduit of Worlds also has a very relevant second ability makes it one of the best Crucible alternatives I’ve seen in a while. I definitely have my eye on this one as a long-term spec, and I expect it to be one of the most expensive non-mythic rares in the set a few years down the line. Don’t sleep on this rare.
Phyrexian Arena
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
Phyrexian Arena is a fantastic Commander card. While it’s not quite the must-play in black decks that it was a few years ago, it’s still one of the best utility cards in the entire format. There’s a reason it spiked as high as $30 in 2021, and it’s still worth about $10 today:
Phyrexian Arena was printed three times in the pre-Commander era. First in Apocalypse, then in both Eighth and Ninth Edition. Since then, it has only had small reprints in sets like Commander 2015, Commander Collection Black, Conspiracy: Take the Crown, and in Mystery Boosters. This is its first Standard reprint since 2005, almost two decades ago. Even though it has been reprinted in quite a few supplemental sets since then, this printing should take quite a toll on the card’s price tag. Phyrexian Arena was as cheap as $3 in 2016, and I could see it hitting those lows again this time around, especially considering how loaded this set is. Barring yet another reprint, though, it should end up back at $10 again in a couple of years. Make sure you snag however many copies you need while supply is plentiful.
The Seedcore
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
The Seedcore isn’t going to break the bank, but lands that are good in streamlined tribal decks tend to hold more value than you’d think. The Seedcore is a must-play in a deck with a critical mass of Phyrexian creatures, and it’s also solid if you’re trying to win the game with poison counters and a bunch of cards like Glistener Elf, Inkmoth Nexus, and Plague Stinger. Granted, it has been a while since Modern Infect was viable in any way, but if it can find a way to make a comeback? The Seedcore has to be at least heavily considered for inclusion. The mana base might be too awkward thanks to all those aforementioned Inkmoth Nexuses, but it’ll at least see heavy testing.
In the end, I think The Seedcore is too much of a longshot for me to recommend right now. I’ll reconsider if Modern Infect looks like it’s going to make a comeback while using this card, or if a substantial number of Phyrexian Tribal decks manifests themselves somewhere, but this is a pass from me for now.