A Designer's Set Review—New Phyrexia (White)You will see any number of reviews of New Phyrexia in the context of their impact on limited, standard, extended and legacy play. This week, I'm bringing you a new perspective: How does the set stack up in terms of design? Follow along with the official spoiler.
Karn Liberated is big, powerful and unique. Everything required of a mythic card. I'm skeptical how fun it is for you when your opponent pulls off his ultimate, but all the walker ultimates share that trait and it is, arguably, not a bad thing. My concern about Karn is the room for confusion he creates. If you read him carefully, you will discern that sorceries and instants exiled by his first ability do get shuffled back in when the new game starts and there is no attempt to put them on the battlefield, but that's not how it reads the first-time because the word "non-Aura" distracts you from the permanent classification. Yes, it's weird for auras to come into play when there might not be anything for them to enchant, but I'm not sure fudging the functionality of this card to make that clearer was worth it, considering how much less clear the handling of sorceries and instants becomes.
Apostle's Blessing is a powerful card. It's not remotely so powerful that it will warp formats or scare anyone away, but giving protection from anything to every color for 1 mana and 2 life will make for some surprising defensive plays from non-white decks. This is the first of several cards that have me concerned about the sanctity of the color pie, if only midly.
Auriok Survivors is solid design. Fits white's themes perfectly and will be be relevant to limited.
Blade Splicer is efficient, but mostly fair, considering current rare creature power levels. I like this cycle of first-one's-free golem lords.
Cathedral Membrane is bad design. I'm ignoring the use of φ on this card because it's fine (neither good nor bad), though one could argue something as special as phyrexian mana should have been saved for better cards. My real concern is the last ability, 24 words of text that could have been replaced with 0 and have the same effect 95% of the time. Basically, this card has 6 power. Yes, it can block a 2/2 and neither will die. Yes, it can kill any number of attacking creatures when equipped with an Echo Circlet, provided your opponent still attacks into it (and hasn't already won on the basis that you are running Echo Circlet). Not worth it. Not remotely.
I like the symmetry in Chancellor of the Annex's design. At some point, it's going to make a spell cost more to cast. I'm glad this is rare and not mythic, because I would want a bigger static effect from a 7cc mythic. All that said, I'm made very nervous by the number of cards in this set that can ruin your opponent's game before turn 1. I don't play legacy because of the cost and because I barely have time to follow standard, but more importantly because I prefer interactive games and games that last longer than one or two turns. That said, I think Chancellor is fine because they put these abilities on a big slow card rather than an aggressive card that could really hammer in this tempo advantage.
Dispatch is clean and reasonable. Better than Swords to Plowshares when metalcraft-enabled? Nice.
Due Respect is a one-turn cantripping Kismet. Sure. Odd that it taps planeswalkers and enchantments.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. Big, powerful, legendary. YW, EDH. Tastes like the colorshifted version of Crovax. That… makes… sense. Flavor win!
I missed Exclusion Ritual the first time through. Wow, what a fierce O-Ring. You'll never get that permanent back even if this gets disenchanted. But you'll still want to disenchant it so you can cost the other copies you draw. This feels appropriately uncommon, though it is very expensive. I would feel better about the cost if it didn't also prevent its controller from casting the exiled card. I feel like that was a mistake considering how many cards have been remade to remove such symmetry.
Forced Worship is largely worse than Cage of Hands, but if development felt it was "more correct" enough to not just reprint, than fine.
Inquisitor Exarch (and friends) make me miss entwine. I would have preferred no choice over this hey-maybe-its-entwine-oop-no-its-worse deal. Otherwise, sometimes-evil Venerable Monk seems like a fine card for white Phyrexia.
Lost Leonin is a solid white infect guy. Commonzors!
Loxodon Convert just switched power and toughness? Granted Priests of Norn stole the obvious path for this card, but I still feel like this is lazy design. Creature will be good with Blade Pinions (duh).
Marrow Shards is the Phyrexian Arrow Volley Trap. I mourn RDW, but still like.
Master Splicer is fun. Hornet Sting's looking better, eh?
Norn's Annex will make some players happy. Not me, I like attacking, but not every card is for me.
Phyrexian Unlife is a lich card. In white. Which, I guess, Phyrexia does. I do like the clever in-block version of you-must-kill-me-twice, but it's basically a gain-10-life-for-3cc card.
Porcelain Legionnaire would be very strong in limited without φ. French vanilla design is good, but I wonder if this will be unfun to play against. Probably just requires adaptation (which is a good thing).
Puresteel Paladin. Yea, equipment lord reminiscent of Enchantress, but aggressive.
Remember the Fallen makes me dislike Exarch even more. This card feels like a proper homage to entwine; just simplifed. I'll take that. Exarch just felt bad. The fact that these two cards are in the same set, however is terrible. They use the same mindspace but work differently. Bad times. Remember the Fallen also continues the theme of white-is-actually-black in New Phyrexia (even when it's Mirran): Dangerous territory.
Sensor Splicer. Mmm, vertical cycle. Omnomnom. (Yes, this one's a bit boring; just let Timmy play it with the others and have his golemy fun, ya bully).
Why is Shattered Angel anti-landfall? How is that Phyrexian? Also, isn't this ability red? New Phyrexia is feeling more and more like Planar Chaos...
Shriek Raptor feels common.
Suture Priest is fairly cool. I wonder if it cost W to cast originally and each of it's triggers cost 1?
So War Report counts my artifact creatures twice, right? Not sure that was worth the confusion. New Congregate is new.
I will save my overall thoughts on the set until I've reviewed all the cards, but as far white with no context goes, I like most of it, but I feel like Wizards made the same mistake Phyrexianizing white that Jon Loucks did with his non-colored mechanic: Seems like they're just stealing parts of the pie from other colors. I'm also pretty displeased with the whole two-different-kinds-of-entwine-that-aren't-entwine deal. Why does Phyrexia need modal spells? This feels like the same design 101 mistake that I made in round 1 of the #GDS2.
Just as the various limited and constructed reviews you will read have valid perspectives as well as misses, so too will I. Share your opinions in the comments section.
A white colorshift of Lich was considered for Planar Chaos at one point (later became Porphyry Nodes, which I hate as a white card).
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure the issues with modal effects are such a big deal. Entwine was one of the most forgettable parts of Mirrodin for many, many people. I enjoy that mechanic and even I didn't make that connection with these cards until you pointed it out. I actually enjoy the Exarch cycle for their mirrored abilities, they're all quite aesthetically pleasing.
"I don't play legacy because of the cost and because I barely have time to follow standard, but more importantly because I prefer interactive games and games that last longer than one or two turns."
ReplyDeleteI used to think that too, but if you watch a few games of Legacy any weekend it's on SCGLive, you'll find that most games are very interactive, and last many turns. Sure, once in a while a combo deck goes off on turn one, but the format is easily as interactive as Standard.
Re: Color-shifting - I'm pretty sure MaRo (or was it Forsythe?) has already expressed intent to go into detail about the color-shifts, but I just want to reiterate that drawing parallels to the various pitfalls you (and others) encountered in GDS2 is unfair, as they made it quite clear that context and world-building are hugely important tools when justifying these shifts. Here we've had the progression of Phyrexia's influence built up over the course of the block, culminating in things as bizarre is a 3/6 for 4G.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't really affect your impression of Cathedral Membrane, but I still don't see it as especially egregious. A 6/3 defender for 1P is very different.
Re: Modality/Entwine - I perceive the Exarchs as being more an extension of the mirrored cards from Besieged (Crusaders/Striders), rather than homage to Entwine. I like all the Exarchs, though I think the flavor is a bit off on Entomber Exarch, as Raise Dead + Ostracize (or even opponent Entomb) would be just as mirrored and in tune with the vocabulary as Raise Dead + Duress.
Remember the Fallen is also just a continuance of design tech from Zendikar's Grim Discovery, where the modality is simply because they don't want the lack of one target to turn off your ability to cast the spell, not intended as true modality.
I'm probably projecting too much on the entwine argument. I really wanted to see entwine again because I very much enjoyed that mechanic and because there were some neat interactions between it and phyrexian mana, but if they're saving it for a set where it can shine more/better, I'm down with that.
ReplyDeleteThe parallels to GDS2 are completely fair because our mistakes were judged in the context of our worlds and I'm judging these mistakes in the context of New Phyrexia.
I don't find a 3/6 for 4G strange at all. It's a fair cost for a green creature and green creatures tend to have the biggest butts of all, even moreso than white and blue (ignoring walls, at least).
I like your argument for the modal spells, metaghost, but I still feel it's a grave mistake to use both templates in the same set.
Apparently I missed Exclusion Ritual. Wow, what a fierce O-Ring. You'll never get that permanent back even if this gets disenchanted. But you'll still want to disenchant it so you can cost the other copies you draw. This feels appropriately uncommon, though it is very expensive. I would feel better about the cost if it didn't also prevent its controller from casting the exiled card. I feel like that was a mistake considering how many cards have been remade to remove such symmetry.
ReplyDelete