Table of Contents
- Phyrexia: All Will Be One Constructed Reviews
- Sword of Forge and Frontier
- Staff of Compleation
- The Filigree Sylex
- Monument to Perfection
- Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut
- Tablet of Compleation
- Zenith Chronicler
- Argentum Masticore
- Mirran Safehouse
- Soulless Jailer
- Myr Convert
- Prophetic Prism
- Mirrex
- The Monumental Facade
- The Seedcore
- The Mycosynth Gardens
- Allied Fastlands
- The Common Spheres
- Conclusion
Hello everyone! With the full spoiler for Phyrexia: All Will Be One live, we can finally get into breaking down the cards with constructed applications!
Since I did individual card reviews already, rather than repeat myself, I’ll link the article, but still give the verdict and decklist if that’s what you’re more interested in. For this, I’m going to cover every Mythic, every Rare, and then choice uncommons and commons that have potential. Let’s get into it!
As always, here’s the scale I’ll be using to label the new cards that potentially have constructed applications.
- 0/5 – Unplayable in every sense.
- 1/5 – Extremely niche play or very unlikely to see play.
- 2/5 – Niche to no play, maybe playable in certain conditions.
- 3/5 – Reasonable playable. Not format breaking, but has the power level to see play in some strategy (or strategies).
- 4/5 – Very strong card, but not the best the format has to offer. Has the power level to see a lot of play.
- 5/5 – The very top of the format. This card will create a huge impact going forward on the format.
Phyrexia: All Will Be One Constructed Reviews
Sword of Forge and Frontier
Creatures (34)
Artifacts (2)
Lands (24)
60 Cards
$161.46
Rating: 3.5/5
Staff of Compleation
What a weird card. On first read through, I thought you had to pay mana and life and was ready to pan this into the stratosphere, but seeing it’s just life makes it more interesting. Even still, the effects are pretty costly for what you’re getting out of it, so I’m pretty suspect that this card is any good. Where I could potentially see it is in a Fateful Handoff deck that uses creatures that don’t like sticking around so, if you can’t donate it, you can just destroy it easily. Super niche of course, but it does have an application in theory. Even against decks that aren’t pressuring your life total, the life loss is too costly for the best abilities to use repeatedly which is a shame.
Rating: 1.5/5
The Filigree Sylex
So a Ratchet Bomb that can bonk something for 10 eventually? Ok I guess. I never thought of Ratchet Bomb as a particularly good card considering how slot it can be, and adding a little more text on it is unlikely to change that.
Rating: 2/5
Monument to Perfection
As a Field of the Dead enjoyer, this card piqued my interest as maybe they were looking for a way to reward people building their mana base in interesting ways, just without an oppressive effect. Then I realized that the nine different lands have to be among Basics, Spheres, and Locus lands. So yeah, instantly dead in the water. If you want a repeatable land tutor effect for specific lands, go nuts, but this does not seem remotely good enough. Maybe if the Locus lands are good this could be a consideration.
Rating: 1/5
Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut
Again I must ask, what? An eight mana 7/5 with functionally no ETB that may upgrade some of your creatures, but risks downgrading them as well. I guess this card could be sick if you have a lot of small creatures, but needing a big set up to make your eight mana card work is pretty crazy. As a final note, don’t you dare take that last sentence out of context and think I’m referring to Craterhoof Behemoth. That card is beautiful.
Rating: 1/5
Tablet of Compleation
Ok so we have a Mind Stone that can only produce mana, earliest, on turn four and can start drawing cards, earliest, on turn seven. That’s if you play it turn two. Uh huh.
Rating: 1/5
Zenith Chronicler
FINALLY. ANOTHER GOOD COLORLESS CARD. I remember when Spirit of the Labyrinth was previewed and people were bugging out as stopping people from drawing additional cards is a big deal. I like that not only Zenith Chronicler is colorless, but it draws you a card if the opponent plays a multicolor spell. I phrase it this way because, obviously, you should be playing this in a monocolored deck only. This is close to good enough in the main deck, mostly being dependent on the metagame, but could be a good sideboard card for aggressive decks.
Creatures (34)
Sorceries (4)
60 Cards
$91.92
Rating: 3/5
Argentum Masticore
Back in my day, Masticores were just mostly downside, not downside that can secretly be upside! A 5/5 First Strike with Protection from multicolor is a tough body to contend with, then the card you discard being able to convert into a removal spell is also quite nice. Realistically this still looks too weak for a five drop in Standard as having to give up resources, even when that provides potential upside, is quite brutal. Maybe this could be an interesting sideboard card in a metagame that’s writhe with multicolor decks, but it misses as of now. Still, I really like the design!
Rating: 2/5
Mirran Safehouse
This is one of those cards that looks horrendous until its randomly busted. I have no idea what you could use this for, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some powerful synergy or combo with this. Maybe it’s good in Legacy Lands, but no real clue. If you can’t find some sick synergy with it, this card is going to be relatively useless.
Rating: 0.5*/5
Soulless Jailer
Lockout pieces are always nice and having them on a body is a mixed bag as you do get to block with Jailer, but then it’s also easier to kill. What it locks out is a bit narrow, but having this against reanimator decks doesn’t seem too bad, even if the body would end up being a liability rather than a help. This feels too weak regardless as Unlicensed Hearse is just much better graveyard hate, but I don’t think this is unreasonable.
Rating: 1.5/5
Myr Convert
Allowing any deck to have access to a mana dork is nice, but at the cost of 2 life per pop? Pass.
Rating: 1/5
Prophetic Prism
Prophetic Prism has been in many Standard formats, and while it normally doesn’t see play, it can when there are enough artifact payoffs or things that like sacrificing artifacts. Hard to say if this is that Standard, but it’s always a consideration.
Rating: 2/5
Mirrex
A Aether Hub just for the turn it comes in, but also a utility land? Interesting! I do think this land is quite good, it’s just awkward that the Toxic decks probably want to play lower land counts so it won’t be the easiest to slot this in. None the less, this is definitely a good card for a Toxic deck and may even be better than Mishra's Foundry as gaining a permanent resource is definitely better than just a one time effect. Foundry is probably still a bit stronger, but I do think it’s close.
Rating: 3/5
The Monumental Facade
If you have a deck that cares about oil counters and doesn’t care about colors, then this land seems great. Being able to accrue resources from your lands for minimal downside is quite big, but since the resource it gives you is super narrow, this is unlikely to do much. Aether Hub this is not.
Rating: 2/5
The Seedcore
I’ll admit that I completely missed this when looking through the set the first few times. A color fixer for Toxic that’s also a Pendelhaven is super dope, even if Pendelhaven isn’t that good with Toxic. Still, having more ways to fix your mana will always be welcome!
Creatures (18)
Instants (12)
Sorceries (4)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (22)
60 Cards
$241.64
Rating: 3/5
The Mycosynth Gardens
This is a super interesting card. Unknown Shores isn’t good, but being able to copy an artifact is a very interesting ability. This is obviously a pretty sweet build around, but it’s hard to say exactly what you would pair with this. I am relatively confident this will see play, even though I don’t know where yet.
Rating: 2.5/5
Allied Fastlands
Dual color lands are always welcome, but Fastlands in particular have always been particularly excellent. Not falling behind early is so critical in Magic, so having fixing at that juncture too is excellent. There’s a reason that these lands have been very pervasive in formats with excellent mana such as Modern and Historic.
Rating: 4.5/5
The Common Spheres
These aren’t amazing, but I’m a bigger fan than you may think. I didn’t like the common Deserts from
Rating: 2/5
Conclusion
Colorless is always the hardest to balance since anybody can use those cards, and par for the course in most sets, they’re relatively weak. I understand an abundance of caution, but I feel many of these could’ve been strengthened a bit to be more interesting.
None the less, that’s the set!
Thank you for reading!