After the trip to Magic’s past that was The Brothers’ War, everyone’s favorite game returns to its present… and things are looking grim. Phyrexia: All Will Be One is the first Standard set of 2023, and we’ve just gotten a ton of information about it all at once. We’re here to help you parse everything that’s out there, all in one convenient place before our presale starts on 1/13!
The Story
First, what’s actually going on in Phyrexia: All Will Be One? Short version: Things Have Gone Quite Badly, Heroes Attempt One Last Desperate Attack.
So, the entire reason Teferi and Saheeli did the whole “let’s go to The Brothers’ War in the past and figure out how to beat the Phyrexians,” thing was because the Phyrexians had just beat the forces of good pretty decisively. They have taken Karn and his Sylex, have the fully functioning Planar Bridge and have started compleating Planeswalkers with working Sparks.
All of this is extremely Not Good for anyone who isn’t really into becoming part of the works inspired by H.R. Giger. So, the remaining Planeswalkers are launching a desperate gambit: going to the heart of the Phyrexian force to try and stop them at the source before they can wreak even more havoc.
Given what we know of the set and future sets, I’m going to go out on a small limb and say that things probably don’t go great.
The Set
Here’s what makes me think that — we know that ten planeswalkers will show up as cards in the set:
- Jace
- Kaito
- Kaya
- Koth (making his first appearance since Scars block)
- Lukka
- Nahiri
- Nissa
- Tyvar Kell
- Vraska
- The Wandering Emperor
Now, those are only the ones who appear on cards. We’ve seen that Elspeth is around on some art for the set greeting her old friend Koth, so there’s more than just those ten present in the story. As we’ve seen, however, Planeswalkers aren’t safe from being completed, and we know that at least five of those Planeswalker cards are going to show those Planeswalkers after they’ve succumbed to the Phyrexian oil.
We’re also going to be seeing other returning characters from Mirrodin/New Phyrexia’s past…including the final Praetor that hasn’t shown up in the past year’s worth of sets: Elesh Norn herself.
Karn isn’t alone in his resistance to the Phyrexians, as Jor Kadeen returns, as well. But other old friends have fallen along the way, as shown with Slobad, no longer content with tinkering on others.
Other iconic cards will also be returning, either with direct reprints like Phyrexian Obliterator, or by updating classic cycles like Blue Sun’s Twilight.
And finally…look, this one makes me sad. We don’t have the actual card yet, but we do know one other old character will be returning. Venser, whose heroic sacrifice freed Karn and halted Phyrexia’s plans in the past, is back. And it doesn’t seem like the Phyrexians took too kindly to his past actions.
That’s what we know as of now — no other cards or specific mechanics have been officially previewed yet. We do know when we will know more, however.
Timeline
Here’s are all the key upcoming dates for Phyrexia: All Will Be One:
Jan. 12: Building Worlds and Story Begins
Jan. 12-17: The Story of Phyrexia: All WIll Be One
Jan. 13: Card Kingdom’s Presale for Phyrexia: All Will Be One begins
Jan. 17: Set Debut and Previews Begin
Jan. 17-25: Card Previews
Jan. 18: Commander Previews and Decklists
Jan. 26: Complete Card Image Galleries
Jan. 27: PrePrerelease with Loading Ready Run
Feb. 3-9: In-Store Prerelease Events
Feb. 7: MTG Arena and Magic Online Digital Release
Feb. 10: Global Tabletop Release
Feb. 10-12: In-Store Launch Party Events
Feb. 17-19: MagicCon Philadelphia and Pro Tour Phyrexia: All Will Be One
Feb. 25-March 5: Store Championship Events
Products, Promos and More
The set will be available in all the usual ways: Draft Boosters and Boxes, Set Boosters and Boxes and Collector Boosters and Boxes. There are also normal Bundles and Jumpstart boosters available.
Additionally, there will be two Commander decks for the set: the white/green/black Corrupting Influence deck and the red/white Rebellion Rising deck. We don’t know what’s in them yet, but recent Commander Precons have been hitting it out of the park, so I’m looking forward to seeing what these have in store. Each of these also come with a Collector Booster Sample Pack.
There is also a Compleat Edition Bundle, which comes with some extremely nifty looking Oil-Slick Raised Foil Basic lands.
That particular Foil treatment will be showing up on more cards than just the basics, but we don’t have the full details on that yet. In the meantime, here’s a very fancy looking Elesh Norn:
You might have seen Prereleases mentioned in the timeline above, and if you go to one at your local game store, you can pick up a promo pack. And if you do, you can pick up one of these (while supplies last):
Booster Fun
No set nowadays would be complete without multiple art treatments on cards, and this set certainly delivers there. First, the basics. Literally.
Full art lands are here to show off the compleat beauty of New Phyrexia with the Panorama Full Art lands. But if you want to see those lands through more…glistening eyes, there’s always the Phyrexianized Full Art lands:
Meanwhile, Borderless Manga cards feature popular Manga artists interpretation of the cards, including Junji Ito’s take on Elesh Norn:
Phyrexia wouldn’t be compleat without its Praetors, and while not all of them are appearing in the set, you can get Borderless Concept Art of all of their most recent iteration in Draft, Set, and Collector Boosters:
Also appearing in all of those boosters are Borderless Ichor art, which highlights the Phyrexian Oil which spreads the machine plague:
Only Collector Boosters feature our last variation — Step-and-Compleat Foils! These can be any of the other special art types, otherwise normal cards, or even Phyrexian language versions of cards.
The Step-and-Compleat treatment features the Phyrexian mana symbol in foil across the card. Apparently, these show up way better in person, but at the very least here’s that Phyrexian Language look I mentioned:
Universes Within
If that section heading makes you go ”huh?” no worries, I’m here to explain. So, Universes Beyond cards have appeared in Secret Lairs and other random places. Universes Within are Magic-skinned versions of those Universes Beyond cards.
Recently, Street Fighter had a run of Universes Beyond cards, and now those cards get their Magic version in Universes Within in Phyrexia: All Will Be One Set Boosters. More information about exactly how these appear in Set Boosters will be forthcoming in January, but for now, here’s the cards:
End Step
You can start preordering Phyrexia: All Will Be One from Card Kingdom on Jan. 13! Seems fitting that it’s also a Friday the 13th. What better date to celebrate beautiful compleation?
Chris is the Associate Media Producer at Card Kingdom. He would like to apologize to his son for not holding onto more cards from when he first started playing, as that likely would have paid for college. He enjoys pretty much all formats of Magic, but usually ends up playing decks that make other people dislike playing those formats with him.