#red phyrexians

[definitelynotarabbit]

GUYS I MADE MORE

[edspear]

Trinkets of the Furnace

Another grouping of trinkets from the Witchlight campaign.

Furnace Dollbomb, has been hanging around for a while, just waiting to use her on something worthwhile.

Decima has finally regained her moral compass, and rather than it being the solution to her uncertainty, she now knows how bad of a phyrexian she's being when she doesn't compleat people and cull the weak. She also knows she doesn't feel too bad about being bad at being a phyrexian.... That feels worse.

The compass was found within the Obsidian Steed, a phyrexianized nightmare warhorse that was no help in a fight with a lady named Fistiana, at least until Decima got really mad at it/Urabrask/Argyle and took that anger out on the aforementioned Fistiana.

The Twicewrit Missive has been something Decima has had in her back pocket for a while... She's worried about sending it. And what sort of answer it will bring, with "No response" being her worst case scenario.

[ask-the-praetors]

Question to the white aligned phyrexians:

How do you keep your red guts from staining the white porcelain?

They do not stain. We are clean, orderly, precise. And it is both inaccurate and disrespectful to refer to the optimized muscle tissue of myself and my centurions as mere guts, like entrails pulled from a fleshling. They are no more of the flesh than the rest of us. -E

[eldritchexploited]

Thinking about how even the least sapient of the Red Phyrexians will hesitate for a moment before moving to violence because the small spark of empathy inside them literally holds them back. Quotes from The Planeswalker’s Guide to New Phyrexia (2011)

The mana from the red sun gave rise to Phyrexians who had just a glimmer of concern for other lifeforms—not full-blown compassion, but enough empathy to cause hesitation, a phenomenon more or less alien to Phyrexia. Beings of varying levels of sentience reacted to this impulse differently. Among nonsentient creatures, this primitive empathy simply caused moments of confusion before action

"The fiend had me in its grasp, and I could feel the heat of the furnaces. I was resigned to meet my death, but then something strange happened. It paused for a moment and then unclasped its pincers, releasing me. I slumped to the ground, exhausted, too wounded to run. It regarded me for a time, and although it had no features familiar to our world, I felt as if it was confused. Then it turned and left me there. I'll never understand why."

Fucking beautiful how the most impulsive color creates a reaction of Hesitation of all things when presented with a possibility for compassion. 

[ashensamurai]

I tried out pioneer last night and I bought a pre-con called Gruul Stompy I think? Its red and green and has elves and a lovestruck beast and its so fucking funny to me. Like yeah I'm sure fucking stompying

ah very nice! first off nice with the lovestruck beast it's a good card, got one myself and first printed in 2019's throne of eldraine. Gruul is the name for the red and green color combination, as we take all two-color combination names from the Guilds of Ravnica (there have been many, many sets there but I won't go into that), and Stompy is an archetype with big, aggressive creatures normally with trample, low mana costs, haste, and yeah elves for ramping normally. the deck list for that precon is pretty good actually, you've got some good cards for pioneer and any other formats you choose (questing beast is just good). hope you did well in your pioneer matches!

[totallyjazzed]

I’ve been doing some Fayinn writing (not for a project or anything, just for my own enjoyment) and I figured I’d share a couple things as like, insights into her personality and philosophies pre-, post-, and post-post-compleation.

[dravidious]

Based on my "competitive multiplayer should have aftercare" post, I had the idea to make a bad commander deck for a silly casual game, so I made a Skrelv, Defector Mite deck, and I decided to try it out. Now, Brawl matchmaking has a thing where it tries to match together commanders that have similar power levels, and I got matched against an Amalia deck, which... I'm not sure whether that's actually a bad commander, or if the matchmaking just tried its best, or if Skrelv is actually a good commander, but that doesn't seem like a fair matchup. I won anyway. I'm now making another brawl deck because apparently Skrelv is too good

[zoanzon]

Azor and Ugin; and Ugin and Sorin and Nahiri; and Ugin and Sarkhan; and Ugin and Chandra and Jace.

A mentor and the 'chosen ones of the[ir] generation[s]', and the [brother/great villain] being [warred/played chess] with.

I really wish we got a bit more exploration into those who've "been allies" with Ugin getting to interact with awareness of this shared history. By which I mean...

Azor was trapped, and Ugin didn't come. Nahiri was trapped, and Ugin didn't come. And I bet there'd be some fascinating spats to witness if we ever actually saw any larger configurations of people who've had context with Ugin all simultaneously in the same space with him.

[beatsandskies]

Theme Deck Review Compendium: Urza’s Legacy “Phyrexian Assault”

A mate definitely had this back in the day, though whether I’d have played with it (before I brought my own cards) or against it in stock form I couldn’t say. I certainly did play with many of these cards myself though: red and black were my favourite colours and Urza’s Legacy was the booster pack I’d usually crack. Phyrexian Assault An aggressive black red deck which combines cheap creatures…

[veloelo]

What’s your character’s biggest secret?

Cedric's (yup I made another one) biggest secret is his daughter . Where most residents of Innistrad know him as a territorial, reclusive stitcher who works with some weird black goop, most of his projects are his desperate attempts to save his daughter, who has come down with an incurable sickness.

[gay-little-izzet]

Me, lying in bed, trying to go to sleep:

My brain: ... compleated Saheeli. Compleated Saheeli! Oh my god, compleated Saheeli!!!

Here’s my vision:

I think she’s better suited to the creative energy of the forge, but her metal would be a lot brighter and more burnished than your typical red phyrexian. Also, some filagree for flavor!

For some reason I’m never quite satisfied with my izzet designs, I might have to have another go at her and Ral.

[planeswalker-umbral]

Something that rustles my jimmies is that in the Novel Planeswalker, we get a history of rhe early life of Xantcha, the Phyrexian Sleeper Agent turned traitor and companion to a very insane Urza.

And a scene early in her life is meeting another Sleeper Agent Identical to her. Now all the Sleeper Agents were based of a set amount of people and didnt really age (hence how mortals would eventually catch on). In order to tell each other apart, Xantcha changes her hair while the other Agent dyes hers Red. This act of rebellion sees both of them punished, but eventually the gate to Dominaria in Koilos reopens and a bunch of Sleeper Agents are sent out, including the red headed one. Years later as Xantcha is about to be sent out, the gate closes and the Dominarian Sleeper Agent program is abandoned. Gix, head of this plan and Praetor ruling over Xantcha is punished.

But in The Brother's War there is a red haired girl, with no morals that comes out of nowhere and is skilled in artifice. A girl who does not age no matter how long the war goes on.

Ashnod. Who was not printed as a Phyrexian on either card. Is this a retcon, red herring, coincidence or oversight?

[oops-prow-did-it-again]

New Phyrexia disturbed me - and not how it should have

This is going to be a VERY opinion-heavy post. Before I say anything, I want to make it abundantly clear that I am not condemning the entirety of the New Phyrexia arc, nor am I saying that the people who wrote these stories meant for them to be taken this way. This is just a post getting into why the New Phyrexia arc rubbed me the wrong way again and again, and why it's... kind of ruined my love for Magic, if I'm completely honest.

Also, yes, I understand that New Phyrexia was meant to horrify and unsettle people - but I feel like it unsettled me in ways that they kind of weren't going for. I expect horror to unsettle me and show me some fucked up shit, for lack of a better terminology - but I also was expecting, in the fantasy/scifi horror shit, I'd get some stuff that didn't feel like it hit so close to home.

More under the cut.

First of all, it has always felt as if Magic can never quite decide if Phyrexians are people or monsters. This is worsened in New Phyrexia, where time and time again, we are given reason to think that New Phyrexians are people that are simply heavily indoctrinated from birth. Yes, the glistening oil works in strange ways, and they have somewhat of shared knowledge amongst their entire network, but by and large, you see time and time again, that Phyrexians have individuality. This seems intentional - you are shown from the start that Elesh Norn is an egomaniac, a fool, and that her plans of grandeur are insane. But her insanity shapes this world.

In that way, everyone in this world are... mostly actually victims of her insanity. Ixhel and Urabrask on New Capenna stand out as examples of times where Phyrexians show that they are not the heartless monsters they are made out to be. In Urabrask's first cards, he claims that he wishes the Mirrans to be left alone.

Yet, in ONE, we see time and time again that red Phyrexians and Mirrans are fighting still, Urabrask doesn't seem to be paying that much attention to the Phyrexians, and... frankly, I don't know what the Halo subplot was supposed to be about (forgive me, if this was addressed in passing, I only skimmed the latter half of MOM to see what big things happened, because i was so upset with it at that point I didn't really WANT to read it anymore). Yes, I have read the creators saying time and time again that just because Urabrask doesn't say outright he wants the multiverse compleated, it doesn't mean it's not what he wants, deep down. However... this still harks back onto one idea.

Sapient creatures being born evil.

This is a trope that I LOATHE in fantasy/scifi to my core. I understand that Phyrexians, for all intents and purposes, are created in a monstrous fashion. They are not created in a similar way to people. However, in the end, they still ACT LIKE PEOPLE. They have individuality, free will (yes, even if it is limited by the strict theocratic control of Norn, they still have it - how did Ixhel create, otherwise? How did Sheoldred rebel? Why did Nahiri snap at Nissa to show the skyclaves? Why did Tamiyo freeze upon seeing children?), and whether you like it or not, this makes them people. They are extremely different people, and yes, their existence does present conflict - but they. are. still. people.

I understand how it may feel offensive to real people to call the (rightful) fear and concern towards Phyrexians to be racism, as I feel like that waters down the term. However... again, knowing that Phyrexians are largely a cult that has been severely indoctrinated by Elesh Norn... it becomes difficult not to feel bad for them, and as if they have all been written off simply because they have a terrible leader. It comes across, to me, as another case of fantasy racism; similar to orcs being portrayed as idiot, warmongering beasts in some settings, or goblins being portrayed as stupid people little better respected than animals (and full of antisemitic stereotypes), just with less baggage attached.

It comes across as them having wanted to create a sapient race of people that was okay to bash and throw under the bus, so to speak. And yes, they gave plenty of reasons for why these people needed to go... but ultimately, it still feels like people went out of their way to create a civilization of people and show us justification for exterminating them.

I'm not trying to water down the term racism, but like... maybe I don't know the right words, but you understand why that might be uncomfortable, right?

Furthermore, at the start, I thought the transformative nature of Phyrexians was cool. Hot, even, as plenty others here on Tumblr think. Yes, I always sort of knew it was meant to be horrifying, too... but I also thought that the creators also were making them semi-alluring on purpose. (Look at Elesh Norn in promotional art. Look at her in the ONE trailer!! Look at the email they sent out for Arena on Valentine's Day, for god's sake!) But as time goes on... I start to get this uncomfortable feeling that this borderline sensual, sexual tension the Phyrexians produce is supposed to be PART of the horror.

And that's where things start getting uncomfortable for me. I am a transgender man. I don't know if I like sexualized, different people that transform themselves... being treated as horrible monsters that can't be coexisted with. I know plenty of trans people felt otherwise about Phyrexians; I understand this likely wasn't even the intention. BUT it still felt that way to me, for someone living in a country where trans people are getting more and more hunted on the daily.

Suddenly, it wasn't so fun anymore, to look at Elesh Norn and see her as heehoo sexy dommy mommy everyone joked at her being. It felt, to me at least, like she was a caricature of what I was. Of what people like me are. Monstrous. Out to destroy the world. Egomaniacs who want to force others down our same "lifestyle."

This is not helped by how Strixhaven, despite being an obvious play on Hogwarts & Harry Potter, came back into importance in MOM. They made a new Planeswalker from that plane, even! I loathe Strixhaven, and I was not at all pleased to learn that they have made it more important. The stories from the original Strixhaven set make me uncomfortable, too; Lukka arrives at a tavern and is asking for food, as he is not doing so well, and people comment on how he dresses strange, and when he (not rudely!) tells them they wouldn't know where he's from even if he told them, they react by SHOOTING FIREBALLS AT HIM.

These people saw a stranger. And decided the appropriate reaction was to shoot fireballs. (More on Lukka later, as I'm not done with him yet) but you understand how that might have also been deeply uncomfortable, right? Like yes, it did seem very intentional, to show how unkind the general populace of Arcavios can be... but there never seemed to be any point to that?? So it just came across as people hating a guy for dressing unconventionally for ""flavor"" to the very-obviously-based-on-TERF-school set. Which. WHY?

I also was not blind to how most of the compleated Planeswalkers were the nonhuman ones. Barring Lukka and Jace, every compleated Planeswalker was nonhuman, which I think... was done purposefully, because nonhumans are viewed as inherently more "monstrous" to our primal little monkey brains. (I don't think it was coincidence; there are PLENTY of human planeswalkers, to the point the majority could have easily not been human.) But this makes me uncomfortable too, because it feels like it, again, not only implies that Phyrexians are not people and are monsters (even though they had been given traits again and again that very firmly confirmed them as people), but that these nonhuman planeswalkers are inherently more monstrous, too.

Ajani - leonin. Tamiyo - moonfolk. Tibalt - (half) devil. Nissa - elf. Vraska - gorgon. Nahiri - kor.

And of the human Planeswalkers compleated, they chose Lukka and Jace. Jace, who has had a steep history of being viewed as less than human and little more than a tool (even sometimes by himself, as much as he hates it), and Lukka, who was also viewed as less than human by the society he came from, and was essentially labeled a sick dog to be shot on sight by his home city. (But more on him and why I particularly hate what was done with him later.)

And like... I'm not saying that corruption arcs or that transformation horror can't be done in a tasteful way!! It just started to feel like, as time went on, that this stuff was... malicious. I already was uncomfortable with how Phyrexians were seemingly being set up to be offed or taken out the picture completely (for there being no feasible way for them to coexist in the multiverse), so maybe I was looking for flaws, even where most wouldn't see them. But, I mean.. it just... Idk man. That part, too, gets under my skin.

And Lukka. LUKKA. I loathe what has been done to his character like none other. It is frequent fan interpretation that Lukka is stupid, Lukka deserves everything that has happened to him, and that it's a good thing he is gone. However, having read everything he has ever appeared in, I am so infuriated that even the creators THEMSELVES seemed to have bought into this idea.

For those that don't know, Lukka first appeared in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths - Sundered Bond, a digital novella. He was born and raised in Drannith, a heavily militarized city, one of three so-called "sanctuaries" that have actually managed to stay around on Ikoria. Ikoria is a world of kaiju-esque mutated, crazy monster animals, and he was raised in propaganda by Drannith's military, the Coppercoats. He is 40+ years old when we meet him; he has served the Coppercoats for half of that, and then another 2 years or so as Captain of a Specials force team. You see, through him, that he's actually a very caring leader and a rather simple guy: he is betrothed to Jirina Kudro, the daughter of General Kudro, leader of the Coppercoats, and his concerns seem to only be getting his team back home in one piece and getting quality time with his wife. He's not perfect, he's rough around the edges, would probably be an asshole to hang out with in real life, but it FITS for the world he comes from.

And then, he accidentally bonds with a winged cat that slaughters 3/4 of his team in front of him, within minutes of each other. General Kudro has kept the bonding magic Lukka experienced a secret from Drannith populace. He believes it makes Lukka "sick." (Need I explain why a leader referring to a group of people as inherently 'sick' is bad??) Even Jirina, for as much as she apparently loves her father, so emphatically believes her father will kill Lukka for this that she helps him escape! the city!!!

To recap, Lukka has his entire world upended from beneath his feet in the course of like, a day. He becomes the public enemy of the city he has defended with his life for years. In his eyes, it is us (the humans of Ikoria) versus them (the monsters of the plane). This is how he has been raised and trained; he did not choose the bonding and is (rightfully!) upset and horrified at it (ONE was incorrect when it said he "always knew he was different;" lukka made no such acknowledgments in Sundered Bond, that was an invention of ONE). He later then meets Vivien, who tells him how her home plane was DESTROYED (um??? Vivien? Why would you tell a man whose life is going to shit about that??) which makes Lukka vow to himself that he will not lose his home.

Later in the story, Lukka learns of a presence in a particular crystal called the Ozolith, and he goes to it. There, for reasons that would take too long to explain, a three-way battle ensues, and an unknown Planeswalker reaches out to Lukka through the Ozolith. The Planeswalker shows Lukka one of the bonders he has met along the way getting killed by a skysail's bolt meant to kill monsters and it is only then that Lukka accepts the power of the Ozolith.

Anyway, saying all this to say... Lukka is a villain, yes. But contrary to popular belief, he is NOT stupid. He is just as smart as anyone would be in the situation he was put into, coming from the world he comes from. He wanted, again and again and again, nothing more than to just go home. He even tried to spin his bonding into a way that Drannith could defend itself, by telling Kudro they should use monsters instead of peoples' lives (but Kudro wasn't hearing it; and the kicker? Drannith would go on to use bonders & monsters to protect the city anyway, after Lukka had been run off the world).

Lukka had a SHIT deck of cards handed to him in Ikoria, and he - REASONABLY - lashed out. It was just that when he lashed out, he had the power of a Planeswalker manipulating him, whispering in his ear, and the power to actually make people listen. He believed his choices were come home and die like a good soldier, or force them to let him come home. Maybe other people fault him for that, but I don't fault him for choosing to live, even if doing so caused much violence and bloodshed.

But yes, he was still a villain, and in Strixhaven, he was relegated to villain again, when people once again presume him to be an Oriq - which he doesn't even know what that is - and finally, he simply decides that if everyone keeps calling him one, he might as well be one. This comes after nearly starving to death and having his new bond, Mila, save his life. Had someone from Strixhaven maybe, I don't know, taken pity on this very clearly struggling guy.... I don't know! I feel like his role in Strixhaven really never would have happened. THE GUY LITERALLY JUST WANTED FOOD AND WATER. I cannot emphasize that enough

Anyway, saying this all to say, Lukka's arc felt like it was headed toward a redemption of some kind. He had been given a raw deal, reacted very humanly but very poorly, and now, the only way he had to go was up.

Instead, we got Vivien shooting him dead. Calling him "lukka-thing." We got Vivien saying nothing as she faces down the man she called a friend and seemingly felt bad for by the end of Sundered Bond and killing him.

As someone from a country that is VERY obviously careening toward more VERY conservative bullshit... THAT PLOT DID NOT SIT WELL WITH ME. It felt VERY MUCH like I was being told "if you are born into shit circumstances or bad things are done to you, and you don't sit there and take it, you will be punished for not simply taking it. And that punishment may very well be death."

I especially did not care for how Jirina seemed to be veering into her father's mindset in the story in MOM. And yes, she was called out for this, but the story also seemed to be trying to lean into this "survival, no matter the cost" vibe, which seemed like it was subtly justifying what she did, since it DID technically work in the end. Vivien's emo ass "but survival is the only law out here now" or w/e it was she said to herself as she killed Lukka definitely didn't help that feeling, either.

It upset me very much to see a character born into a shitty society, given raw deal after raw deal, and then be told that he deserved to die instead of get help. Or worse, that dying WAS getting help. It was "putting him out of his misery." He was "irreversibly changed," and "didn't know better anymore," he "couldn't be helped." That, combined with how compleation started to feel like a very negative allegory for transgender people after a point to me (see near the beginning of this), made Lukka's death feel like rapidfire punch after rapidfire punch to the gut.

AND NOT IN THE WAY THAT IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN! I would have loved to see Vivien upset that she can't get to apologize. I would have loved to see Vivien agonizing over the decision to kill him. I would have loved her maybe showing some more REMORSE over having to do it, even if she did feel it was the only way forward. We have seen that New Phyrexians, especially compleated Planeswalkers, are still themselves, even while compleated, so the fact Lukka had nothing to say to her either felt hollow, too. He thought she was his friend and she turned on him; why didn't he have anything to say about that?

Urabrask being pulled apart at the limbs, then, felt like the final message to me: New Phyrexians are not people, they are monsters, end of discussion. They are not making it out of this. Stop asking/talking about it.

Suffice to say, by the time I got to the story of Elspeth becoming an archangel, everything felt hollow and gross for me. I've seen the promo art of Aftermath showing Nahiri and Nissa at least recovered; I get the feeling most of them, bar Tamiyo, Tibalt, and Lukka, probably have recovered or will recover.

But, frankly, I don't think I'm very invested anymore. New Phyrexia felt like it crossed a lot of lines, and not in the way that I would have appreciated horror to do so. It hit on a lot of sensitive subjects that made it rather difficult to enjoy as mere entertainment. Maybe I am just oversensitive, due to the day and age I am living in, due to the fact I am deeply unhappy with the fact I am forced to live closeted irl and feel hypervigilant of all slights, but it felt very gross to me.

Lukka's death in particular just... sealed the deal for me. I know he wasn't a big deal. Maybe he was always intended to just be a villain that gets killed off. But it's not even necessarily about him, in particular, it was about what his death represented. It was about how he was a product of propaganda and hatred, and how he was never given a chance to be better. it's about how I was told that death was the only way forward for him.

Maybe when I was 12 I would have liked that, but I'm over my obsession with the 'death is the only salvation.' SO MUCH MEDIA uses this trope, and frankly, I'm fucking sick of it.

I want to see people, even some of the most depraved fucking people you can imagine, getting better. I want to see that people can change and recognize the error in their ways. I'm tired of being told to look and see "us vs. them."

I'm not saying that you can't have conflict. But I am saying that if you're going to have conflict of this scale, I would prefer it to be solved in ways that don't essentially boil down to "kill/put away the Them."

Because that fucking blows.

If you've made it this far, I am grateful, but again, please keep in mind that this is the ramblings of a deeply mentally unwell ADHD-addled 22 year old (who is not on and cannot get Adderall right now). Emotional dysregulation IS a big problem I deal with, and the world I live in right now fucking sucks. If you're reading this going "oh my godd, let people enjoy things, you crybaby" then please just... move on? Because I'm not trying to tell people not to enjoy it, quite the contrary I WISH these things didn't bother me so much because I JUST got into Magic, and I would love to keep enjoying it! And Im happy for you if you have tolerance/could enjoy it through these things!

I'm just... sad. I'm very, very disappointed in this story. It was pretty, it was flashy, people clearly put in effort, but it felt like a low blow, all things considered, and worse, it touches literally all aspects of canon and cannot be safely disregarded. Much like War of the Spark, it affects almost everything, and will for a while yet.

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Red Phyrexian Concept Art by Robbie Trevino

[incorrect-mtg]

Flavor Text Highlights - New Phyrexia

<- Previous Set | Next Set ->

Cool - Priest of Urabrask

Even in New Phyrexia, red mana sparks glimmers of individualism, passion, and freedom.

Worldbuilding - Urabrask the Hidden

When the Mirran resistance arrived, the furnace dwellers looked to Urabrask for guidance. His decree stunned the others: “Let them be.”

Worldbuilding - War Report

Underling Ethu’s 263rd report read simply “Yes, my lord. Overwhelmingly, my lord.” This marked the end of the Mirran-Phyrexian War.

Emotional - Darksteel Relic

“It’s the last thing we can call our own.” —Minhu, Mirran resistance

<- Previous Set | Next Set ->

[jacebeleren]

what would be slightly interesting but far more terrifying is that Jace/Vraska whole plot could be just a whole misdirect red herring by wotc/hasbro. The real scary thing is that we don't know what Ajani is up to. while yes he did state his thing of fixing the damage done by the phyrexians. He could be operating under some deep phyrexian subconscious thing implanted probably by Jin and not Elesh... to try and bring the phyrexians back if they should unfortunately be defeated. Seems something like Jin would have a backup plan for. And who better to implant that idea into then Ajani himself. no one would think of checking his mind for any subconscious programming or have the capacity to check.

nah i think jace and vraska are indeed the main antagonists