Table of Contents
- Phyrexia: All Will Be One Constructed Reviews
- Nissa, Ascended Animist
- Tyrannax Rex
- Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus
- Bloated Contaminator
- Green Sun’s Twilight
- Evolved Spinoderm
- Thrun, Breaker of Silence
- Venerated Rotpriest
- Conduit of the Woods
- Armored Scrapgorger
- Cankerbloom
- Evolving Adaptive
- Expand the Sphere
- Infectious Bite
- Tyvar’s Stand
- Thirsting Roots
- 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
Nissa, Ascended Animist
Rating: 2.5/5
Tyrannax Rex
Rating: 3/5
Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus
Now this is a big Horror. We have a seven mana 4/6, which isn’t particularly large, but with each combat, you double the power and toughness of all creatures you control, so this is really a 8/12 when it really matters. Furthermore, for two phyrexian mana and two creatures, you can give this an indestructible counter which isn’t the best deal, but being able to do it without needing mana open is pretty nicely. Lastly, it has Reach! That’s the keyword this card desperately needed!
While I am a fan of this card, it’s hard to see where you would play this. This card would want a lot of creatures, but what deck plays a lot of creatures and is also looking to ramp into 7 mana? Those don’t have to be opposites, but it isn’t the easiest to build towards since decks with high creature counts tend to be aggressive. Nevertheless, the power level of the card is reasonably high, so it’ll be entirely dependent on whether or not there’s a deck that can support it.
Rating: 2.5/5
Bloated Contaminator
It’s easy to look at this card and hyper focus on the Toxic part of it. While that is great on it, don’t forget that it’s also a three mana 4/4 Trample that Proliferates when it connects with an opponent! For just the stat line alone, this card would definitely be playable, but when you factor in Toxic and Proliferate, this card is extremely strong. You can proliferate +1/+1 counters, loyalty counters, oil counters, you name it! While Green has been struggling as of late, it’s hard to imagine that this card isn’t strong enough to help bring aggressive decks back into the fold.
Gruul Aggro
by DoggertQBones
Standard
best of 1
0 mythic
37 rare
12 uncommon
11 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (28)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (24)
60 Cards
$144.32
Rating: 4/5
Green Sun’s Twilight
Three mana for an Adventurous Impulse? Sign me up! While this card is relatively embarrassing if you’re only investing a few mana into it, it changes pretty drastically once you hit x=5. Starting at six mana, you can look at the top six cards of your library, pick any creature and land, and put those right on the battlefield. It won’t be the easiest to get value off of this, but if you have a deck that plays a lot of really expensive creatures, this can be a way to cheat those in. Is this the easiest way to do this? Probably not as the reanimation cards seem stronger right now, but since this has a bit more utility than your average reanimation card, it’s not unthinkable that this could see play.
Rating: 2/5
Evolved Spinoderm
An obvious riff on Blastoderm, you have three full turns to use this before it dies. For the first turn and a half, this will have hexproof, then the last two turns, you get Trample. While three turns with a 5/5 can definitely be a lot, losing your four drop in a short time frame is not ideal. You may be brickwalled and suddenly you lost a turn and mana where something like Ulvenwald Oddity would still have value. This could be nasty against a removal heavy deck, but just the chance of this being a complete waste of resources is very scary to me. This definitely isn’t bad, but it’s hard to imagine that a card that is barely stronger than the roughly 20 year old card it’s imitating is going to be good enough today.
Rating: 2/5
Thrun, Breaker of Silence
Jund Midrange
by DoggertQBones
Standard
Midrange
best of 1
6 mythic
40 rare
11 uncommon
3 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Planeswalkers (2)
Creatures (15)
Instants (11)
Lands (26)
60 Cards
$714.58
Rating: 3.5/5
Venerated Rotpriest
Now this is an exciting card! A one mana 1/2 that gives the opponent a poison counter when any player targets a creature you control is super nasty and has already been the nexus of a lot of brewing. While playing this in a traditional Toxic deck is the most obvious application, players are also looking towards making combo decks around this whether it’s in Standard with March of Burgeoning Life and Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief or in Modern with cards like Ground Rift! Either way, this card is definitely powerful and I think we’ll be seeing a good amount of it moving forward!
Poison Ivey
by DoggertQBones
Standard
Combo
best of 1
0 mythic
29 rare
8 uncommon
23 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (15)
Instants (20)
Sorceries (4)
Lands (21)
60 Cards
$168.52
Rating: 3.5/5
Conduit of the Woods
I don’t understand this card at all. So it’s a four mana
Rating: 1/5
Armored Scrapgorger
Mana dork? Check. Graveyard hate? Check. Scales into the mid and late game? Check! This ramp creature does a solid amount for the price, and despite all that, I still think the card is just fine. Two mana ramp creatures have not really been a thing in Standard for awhile since the format hasn’t been about top end as much as it has been about card advantage. Is ramp bad then? No, but it’s not as good as it used to be either. Furthermore, compared to Llanowar Loamspeaker, this card is probably slightly weaker as Loamspeaker can use its “midgame” ability one turn after it’s played where this needs four turns to be useful when drawn late. Cool card and it’ll probably see play, but it’s not as strong as you may think.
Rating: 2/5
Cankerbloom
To put it simply, this is Outland Liberator with one more power, Proliferate, and no flipside. This levels out the strength of this card since you don’t need to flip it to be good, and if you’re not looking to flip it, this is strictly better than Outland Liberator. This probably isn’t strong enough for main deck play, but will see some play in the sideboards of Green creature decks.
Rating: 2.5/5
Evolving Adaptive
Is this strictly worse Experiment One? Yes. Is that still good? Yes! These one mana creatures have habitually been good, and while this is the weakest among Experiment One and Pelt Collector, this effect is still strong enough to warrant play. If you’re a Green aggressive deck, this is an automatic inclusion and it’s not a particularly hard decision.
Mono Green Aggro
by DoggertQBones
Standard
Aggro
best of 1
4 mythic
28 rare
8 uncommon
20 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (34)
Sorceries (4)
60 Cards
$84.24
Rating: 3/5
Expand the Sphere
Explosive Vegetation is an excellent card, and this is a newer take on it. While getting two lands into play for four mana is a great deal, the fact that this is so liable to miss is a tremendous detriment. It is cool that this can hit any land, not just basics, but the volatility of the card does not make up for it and Proliferating the difference is not even close to proper recompense should this not work for you.
Rating: 1.5/5
Infectious Bite
Rabid Bite, but give the opponent a Poison counter! Rabid Bite has always been borderline sideboard playable, but one that “deals two damage” in a Toxic deck is tempting. The issue though, is that Toxic creatures tend to be quite small, so the exact opposite of what you’d want with this card. Awkward.
Rating: 1.5/5
Tyvar’s Stand
Long gone are the days of Blossoming Defense in lieu of Tamiyo's Safekeeping, but this card is a nice mix between the two! A cheap protection spell or a somewhat clunky pump spell, versatility is king and having access to both effects on one card is very nice. I do think Blossoming Defense is way better than this, but you can’t have it all!
Rating: 3/5
Thirsting Roots
We’ve been seeing a new design pattern of one mana sorceries that are either Lay of the Land or another cheap effect. The current top contender is Bushwhack where it’s Lay of the Land and Prey Upon, two one mana spells wrapped into one. This is Lay of the Land and
Rating: 1.5/5
Conclusion
As the final single color to analyze, I think that Green sits perfectly between the rest of the colors. You have some solid cards, some bad ones, and a lot of decent ones in between. Thankfully, it seems that the good Green cards are quite good so that should help it get back into the metagame!
Thank you for reading!
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