Holy Crap! Phyrexia is Evil! (Part 2)

Tomorrow is the New Phyrexia prerelease, so I'll be heading out to inflict terror on the pathetically incompleat. But before I do, I wanted to write a follow up to Part 1, in which I explain why I have a few reservations with the new set regarding how its designs affect the way the game works. To do that, I first want to explain the different types of actions available in a typical match.

Holy Crap! Phyrexia is Evil!

Sorry for the long time between posts! I've been trying to actually PLAY the game more often as opposed to just thinking about it, and I've been working on some longer essays. But when New Phyrexia got officially spoiled, I really wanted to weigh in. This set is puzzling for me as a wanna-be designer - it seemed like R&D was moving away from griefer mechanics, and yet here comes a set more or less devoted to suffering. I understand Phyrexians are not particularly pleasant creatures, but there are an awful lot of high-powered, Spike-lovin', cards that I honestly didn't expect to see again. Here's a quick walk-through on some cards that really stand out to me...