The Mirran–Phyrexian War is over, and the bad guys won. Reminds me a lot of the real world, really. But I digress. New Phyrexia is upon us, and it falls to me to provide everyone with the ubiquitous set review. I miss the Type 4 reviews Paul Mastriano and Stephen Menendian used to write, and I’m sure there are T4 fans out there who would appreciate more articles like that. So, this particular subseries is dedicated to those readers. And, in honor of the new drafting method, I shall also begin with the latest set, and work my way backward through the older ones, and onward into older blocks. Let’s begin.

Whenever possible, I compare new cards with T4 staples or analogous cards, to give Stack-builders a better idea on where a new card might go, or whether it compares favorably to something that they might already be using. I like to divide my analysis of the cards into three easily understood categories:

The Good – These are cards that are at least decent (or better) in T4, and can fill up functional slots in a Stack.

The “Bad” – Cards that might seem good at first glance, but are deceptive, or can be easily outclassed by other cards. These cards could be put in a Stack, but will probably be among the first to be removed as the Stack evolves. Side note: These “bad” cards are often excellent choices for beginner Stacks, and the common/uncommon ones are usually great for Pauper T4.

The Ugly – These cards shouldn’t be put in the Stack because they’re too powerful for the T4 setting. However, if the card is interesting enough, I might also give suggestions on what kind of house rules can control the card so that it can be used safely.

All other cards, those which are laughably useless or utterly pathetic in a setting of infinite mana, shall be ignored completely.

For convenience, and since most spoilers are structured this way, I shall always do the Good cards of these reviews alphabetically, by color. It’s the Bad and Ugly cards I’m not so orderly about.

Before I proceed to the card analysis, since I’m all about the house rules, the first thing I tend to analyze about a new set is which of its mechanics have interesting interactions with the T4 format. New Phyrexia gives us one very significant mechanic: Phyrexian mana. This unique addition to the world of Magic allows us to suggest a modification to an existing rule:

Suggested Alternative Cost Rule Modification: Paying life for Phyrexian mana counts as an alternative cost.

Phyrexian mana brings new alternative-cost options to the T4 table. The option to pay life instead of actual mana is meant to allow players the option of casting these spells at a cheaper cost, and thus should be considered by most T4 playing groups as an alternative cost. It’s up to the actual group if spells costing double Phyrexian mana (e.g., Dismember) should be paid “in full” or if paying just 2 life is fine.

If this modification is adopted, and I think it should be, every spell that uses Phyrexian mana deserves at least a cursory glance in T4 just for its ability to bypass the Rule of Law. I shall be doing so for the remainder of the review.

Now let’s move on to the actual cards!

The Good

Colorless

Karn Liberated – I’ll start with the Big Guy. Karn joins that elite group of only a few planeswalkers that are truly worthy of playing in T4. Let me first say that the combination of his {+4} and {−14} abilities, while synergistic, isn’t very probable in T4. If you manage to pull off the combo, the permanents you get onto the board will often be Wrathed or individually destroyed by any or all of the other players whose hands you have now replenished. The best-case scenario is for the returned cards to form a kill combo, like Blightsteel Colossus + Surestrike Trident, but that’s not very likely to happen. Karn’s {+4} ability, by itself, is best used as an advanced form of hand destruction, on the off chance you want to risk playing Karn in the early game where he doesn’t have much to target.

It’s his {-3} ability that really shines in this format. Given that, if he is somehow ignored, he can use that ability at least twice before disappearing, and that the permanent is exiled, makes him strictly better than Spine of Ish Sah, Vindicate, or Desert Twister. Also note that he’s colorless, so with the exception of exemplars like Progenitus, protection does nothing. This makes Karn an easy auto-include in any Stack. If you don’t play the Constructed tournament formats, better pray he’s deemed “too expensive” to keep his real-world price down, because his preorder price was ridiculous.

White

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite – A sizable 4/7 vigilant body attached to a static ability suite that gives your creatures a net +4/+4 advantage over all your opponents’ creatures is rather excellent utility, even in a void. What’s more important in this setting is that her -2/-2 radiance kills a lot of utility creatures outright, the most important of which is probably the nigh-unkillable form of Mistmeadow Witch, which is one of the most powerful creatures in the format. The fact that Elesh Norn can off this pest as a state-based effect is reason enough to include her.

Exclusion Ritual – Think of this an upgraded Oblivion Ring that can’t deal with real estate, but permanently gets rid of the permanent. For comparison against spells that simply destroys a permanent, it can’t get rid of Maze of Ith, but it can deal with guys like Blightsteel Colossus and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. If you have a relatively low land count in your Stack (say, just half a dozen or so in a Stack of 360+ cards), I would consider this over spells like Vindicate, Desert Twister, or even Spine of Ish Sah.

Blue

Chancellor of the Spires – Think of this as a sorcery-speed Memory Plunder that comes attached to a 5/7 flying body. Wait till there’s something juicy to borrow before you cast him, like a Cruel Ultimatum, Praetor's Counsel, or Decree of Pain. Excellent utility in tandem with evasive beatsticks are nothing to laugh at. The reveal ability is mildly amusing at first glance, but can be valuable if the game goes long. Yes, in T4, it’s not that difficult to deck yourself even without any help from cards like this. Ask anyone who’s abused Pulse of the Grid for too many turns. For those who are in the process of upgrading beginner Stacks, if you get this, get rid of the Mahamoti Djinn. New Phyrexia is all about the upgrades.

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur – Big creatures with Flash should always be given at least a single glance of consideration in this instant-hungry format. Jin-Gitaxias has Flash, and a sizable-enough body. Then you notice the other abilities and you do a double take. Seven cards at your end step. No other drawbacks. Amazing. In my experience, with the standard 20-point life totals used in T4, the average number of cards drawn by cards like Necrologia or Necropotence is about four to seven (in the latter’s case, before it’s destroyed). Jin gets you that without any life loss. While he doesn’t have any protection, following the theme of all Praetors as “dying to everything,” consider yourself lucky if this lives long enough to force even one opponent to discard his hand, but if it does, sweet. Even a single opponent falling victim to the hand-size clause is a huge advantage for you. And this is all if you cast him on your turn. Casting him on an opponent’s end step can reap an even greater harvest!

Since it has Flash, you may also play Jin-Gitaxias like a political tool. Cast it on a selected opponent’s turn, when priority is passed to you, on his end step. Preferably, select an opponent who is presently ahead in terms of board position or life total. This way, if someone looks like he’s about to kill or counter Jin-Gitaxias, point out to the table that you’re playing it as a discard effect to make the top guy at the table discard his hand, possibly setting him up to be ganged up on due to his vulnerability. If they let him through, you just crippled the hand of the best player at the table. At that time, Jin’s main job done, anyone else is welcome to kill him. And if it turns out they can’t kill him? You just hand-crippled more players, or grabbed yourself a fistful of cards when the end of your own turn swings around.

Sneaky-evil, yes, but that’s in flavor for the color Jin belongs to. He’s a perfect reminder of why Blue is the dominant color in T4.

Phyrexian Ingester – It’s a Blue Duplicant, so let’s go ahead and compare it to Duplicant. Like its Mirrodin predecessor, the Ingester acts as a creature that has an enters-the-battlefield ability that exiles a nontoken creature (so it still can’t get rid of Marit Lage, you’ll note). Downside? It’s Blue, unlike the colorless Duplicant, so relevant color protection applies. That means creatures like Oversoul of Dusk or Akroma, Angel of Fury (if you’ve got a house rule to tame the Firebreathing, of course), or anything equipped with a Sword of Body and Mind/Sword of Fire and Ice can’t be eliminated. That said, there aren’t enough cases of protection from Blue in a Stack for this to matter . The most common occurrence I’ve seen of protection from Blue is when your opponent has Glory in the graveyard, in which case you have bigger problems. The relevance of Duplicant’s being able to copy creature types is so rare in T4 that it’s almost a nonissue.

So what’s the upside? The Ingester is big. Or at least, significantly bigger than the Duplicant in almost all cases. One of the rules of creature evaluation in T4 is that if two cards with similar effects each comes with a stick, the bigger stick wins. Bottom line: If your Stack has room, put them both in. If it doesn’t, most cases, I’d swap out the Duplicant for this hungry beastie. Remember to shout “Nom, nom!” when you play this, just for fun.

Phyrexian Metamorph – It’s like Clone and Sculpting Steel made sweet, sweet love and spawned this beautiful card. On one hand, it’s a Clone that’s vulnerable to about a dozen or more cards on top of the usual creature removal due to it’s being an artifact. But it’s also a Copy Artifact on top of being a Clone, and it runs on Phyrexian mana. So it copies creatures, copies artifacts, can be recurred easily, can kill Legends, and is an alternative cost spell to boot. Versatility trumps vulnerability in most cases, especially in multiplayer, making this an excellent card that I would not hesitate to swap out at least one of my Stack’s Clones for.

Black

Chancellor of the Dross – This Chancellor has a nice bonus reveal ability, giving you an awesome bit of life at the start of the game from your three-plus opponents. At its heart, this Chancellor is a 6/6 flying lifelinker, which isn’t bad at all as a beater. The ability to gain a bit of life as you send this into a vulnerable person at the table is what makes evasive lifelinkers so good in multiplayer. Ignoring its reveal ability, the Chancellor occupies the same functional space as Sphinx of the Steel Wind, which overshadows it in every way. The big debate is whether this is superior to other T4 lifelinking flyers like Windbrisk Raptor. Most Stacks will have a few or more of these, so if you’re yearning for one more, Chancellor of the Dross is virtually an auto-include.

Enslave – As far as reprints go, this one from Planar Chaos is a straight upgrade from your basic Control Magic, with the minor caveat that more creatures exist with protection from Black than protection from Blue. For those Vorthos individuals out there, the art of the new Enslave is about a billion times better than the original. Just sayin’.

Geth's Verdict – Strictly better than both Cruel Edict and Diabolic Edict. It’s again debatable whether the double-use Flashback sorcery Chainer's Edict is superior to this instant spell.

Life's Finale – At its simplest, this is a Wrath spell, meaning it has a place in T4. Every Wrath effect should be considered for a T4 Stack, and it’s up to the Stack-makers to decide how many, and what variations to use. Having a varied set of Wrath effects makes drafting more interesting, and I’m glad this block has given us some great options. Life's Finale has no restrictions as to what kinds of creatures it destroys, but also doesn’t have the basic anti-regeneration clause we see on the archetypal Wrath of God.

It does come with a bonus Buried Alive effect that targets only opponents, and that’s what makes this particular Wrath more appealing to the thinking player. Make no mistake, this spell would have been more powerful if you could target yourself with the extra effect. There are many T4 creatures you’d want to put in your graveyard, such as Eternal Dragon, Genesis, or Glory, and I’m guessing that’s why they limited this to your opponents. There are many clever ways to use the burial effect, but choosing the right one requires a careful evaluation of the board state, graveyard, and cards in a target’s deck. If he has limited recursion, or you have Debtors' Knell in play, dump his best creatures in. If he’s the one with the Knell in play, or Glory in the graveyard, punish him for drafting Kozilek, Butcher of Truth by throwing that in the grave and getting everything reshuffled.

Overall, this isn’t as openly good as the more powerful sweepers in T4, but is nevertheless a good candidate to add variety to your Wrath suite.

Praetor's Grasp – It’s a sorcery version of the Grinning Totem. You have to search for the card immediately, but there’s no time limit as to how long you can wait until you use it. Further, the searched card is exiled face-down, so not only does your opponent not know what card you stole, it can’t be retrieved by those odd Stacks with Riftsweeper. It’s extra-attractive to Black Commander decks due to the lower mana cost compared to the Totem, but it’s more than good enough to use in T4. The downside is that it’s a spell, and a sorcery, so if the card you swiped was a standard, non-alternate-cost spell, you can’t use it immediately.

Sheoldred, Whispering One – The Black Praetor is almost a must-have. She’s 6/6—perfectly sized for T4—with an assortment of great abilities. Sheoldred is a Swampwalker, so if your play group uses the Domain Law house rule (all players are considered to have all five basic land types in play at all times), this means she’s unblockable. She serves as a Reya Dawnbringer for you, and a Kuon's Essence that only affects your opponents. She’s just begging to get killed or stolen as soon as she enters play, and that’s how you know you have a winner in T4.

Red

Act of Aggression – It’s an instant-speed Act of Treason, and those are always useful. There are several of these, including the lifegaining Flash Conscription, the unstoppable Word of Seizing, and the damaging Grab the Reins. When evaluating which ones are for your Stack, consider that this version can count as an alternative-cost spell.

Urabrask the Hidden – Do you know why he’s hiding? Because he’s so small! At least, he’s small from a T4 perspective. I suppose his smaller-than-expected size is appropriate given that he’s in the “Goblin color,” but you’d think they’d have made him at least a 6/4 or something. Oh, well. He still deserves consideration for a T4 slot, because not only does he temporarily limit the efficiency of opponents placing blockers into play, but he gives all your creatures Haste. In a format where it’s so easy for a creature to die, universal Haste is a godsend.

Green

Beast Within – I easily see this becoming a staple in Commander, but it even has a place in T4 for its ability to destroy any permanent at instant speed. That’s an instant-speed Vindicate, folks, making this upgraded Pongify an excellent card. Giving an opponent a 3/3 token beastie isn’t much of a drawback in an environment where you can sling spells like Phthisis on the first turn. Grab one now.

Brutalizer Exarch – One of the reasons I am loving this set is because of all the good Green cards in it, a color that’s woefully underrepresented in T4 (in contrast to Commander, where it’s acknowledged as the best or second-best color). This 3/3 stick comes into play with a sorcery-speed Worldly Tutor, but it truly shines as a great way to tuck permanents where they’ll be difficult to get. Yet another creature I’m sure would be well-appreciated in Commander as well as T4.

Birthing Pod – A T4 Stack is a self-made drafting environment, so building one is like forming your own mini-block for drafting. While T4 is all about using Magic’s hugest, most powerful cards, it’s good to insert cards that people can build concepts around, so that drafting isn’t simply about picking what you think the best card is. Birthing Pod is a good example of what I’d call a “cog” for a working draft engine. Using this needs some planning and clever drafting, and, more important, being aware of what creatures you have in your deck.

There are enough creatures with enters- or leaves-the-battlefield triggers and activated abilities that would allow you to create really horrific chains with this card. Imagine a series where you can start by sacrificing Genesis and go: Kokusho, the Evening Star → Magister Sphinx → Angel of Despair → Grozoth → Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur → Hypnox. And then you use Reito Lantern to return the cards to your library for potential to try again. Substitute a Protean Hulk for Kokusho and you can keep the fodder going for many more turns. Fun stuff.

Chancellor of the Tangle – The reveal ability is useless. That said, it’s a vigilant 6/7 with Reach, making it a decent defender. While nonevasive, its vigilance lets it take potshots at the odd opponent without a blocker, without leaving your backside vulnerable. There aren’t many vigilant creatures that can hit hard while keeping you safe, and fewer still that can give even Akroma, Angel of Wrath pause.

Noxious Revival – Due to the Phyrexian mana making it an alternative-cost spell, it’s strictly better than Reclaim.

Triumph of the Hordes – This grants all your creatures Infect and gives a bit of a power boost as well. Since it still takes only 10 poison to kill someone, even in T4, that makes Triumph of the Hordes a possible out if ever you get someone who manages to scrounge up huge amounts of life (like, say, leading a Reviving Dose into Gleemax or your fifty-plus-year-old friend successfully casting Granny's Payback). And it’s not that hard to get 10+ power’s worth of creatures to make this card fatal.

Artifacts (Colorless)

Batterskull – Godo, Bandit Warlord just got another reason to be put in the Stack. This card takes the functional space of Baneslayer Angel, which is great, because the Baneslayer is truthfully just pretty average in T4 (Hint: She doesn’t even have a place in my Stack). Batterskull, on the other hand, is immortal. It can protect itself from Wraths, spot removal, and anything short of Split Second, can swing on its own, or can attach itself to your Deep-Sea Kraken for increased levels of giddy joy. If you want to know what kind of equipment is worthy for T4 inclusion, this is a great example. The Swords often don’t make it in. But Batterskull? It doesn’t just make itself room in your Stack, it batters its way through.

Etched Monstrosity – This is an artifact creature that in T4 might as well be a full-on 10/10 that says, “When this enters the battlefield, draw three cards.” Card advantage with a really, really big stick is really, really good. He’s no Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, but as a Kozilek Lite, he’s no slouch.

Necropouncer – This Living Weapon is yet another method to be able to grant universal Haste to your creatures, since you can just equip this to any number of creatures when they enter play to give them Haste for the turn. The best way to do so via equipment is still Lightning Greaves, but the Necropouncer gives you a more aggressive option that’s cheaper on the real-world budget, and comes with the bonus that if you top-deck this on an empty hand, it can still go out and give a bit of combat love to someone vulnerable.

Soul Conduit – I am so happy they printed this card. Gaining life is one thing, but switching around life totals in a multiplayer game is even better. Getting to do that at instant speed (once you get this into play), and repeatedly to boot, makes this not only a utility artifact, but a political one as well. Imagine making deals with your opponents and setting up temporary alliances, all on the backbone of being able to give someone the highest life total at the table. It’s also an excellent rattlesnake card (read The Ferret’s multiplayer articles if you want to know what that is), making foes turn to other targets with a simple “Attack me and you get the lowest life total on the board.”

Sword of War and Peace – The Sword isn’t bad, though I’ll admit the abilities are somewhat underwhelming, despite being interesting. The offensive ability can hit planeswalkers as well as players, but most of the time you’ll be directing the damage to the player. In most cases, this is 2 to 4 damage, which is roughly what you’d get from Loxodon Warhammer. This does excel in potentially hurting people who have drawn lots of cards, but then those same people have likely drawn a solution to your Sword-wielding shenanigans. On the lifegaining end, Lifelink equipment like the Loxo Warhammer nets you more life, given the huge creature sizes in T4.

It’s the protection that brings it to level consideration for T4 equipment, especially the protection from White. There are a good number of White creatures, and much of the exile-based removal in the format is also White. I’d say this puts the Sword of War and Peace third of the five swords in T4 value. Decent, if not spectacular equipment. Consider using it if you already own one, but don’t invest in one just for T4.

The “Bad”

Artillerize – Just use Fling. In most cases, you’d be doing 6 or more damage instead of just 5. If you really want to toss artifacts at people’s heads, that’s what Bosh, Iron Golem is for.

Auriok Survivors – Few Stacks will have enough equipment to justify this card, despite having a near-decent 4/6 body attached to it. If your Stack is filled with tons of equipment, you’d need close to two dozen in a Stack of 360 to make this worth it. You’re better off using Godo, Bandit Warlord.

Bludgeon Brawl – While there usually aren’t enough artifacts in a Stack to justify the use of this card, I’m just saying—you could combine this with Gleemax and go to town.

Chancellor of the Annex – Barring house rules, mana-taxing is useless in T4, making this a French vanilla 5/6 flying angel. Even a Goliath Sphinx would be better than this.

Chancellor of the Forge – Making 1/1 Goblins is generally laughable in T4, and otherwise this Chancellor is just a 5/5 with no other abilities. Ignore this.

Dementia Bat – I do have to say that in Pauper T4, a flying 2/2 that can blow itself up to kill two cards in someone’s hand at instant speed isn’t a bad thing.

Dismember – Even though -5/-5 isn’t enough to kill many T4 creatures, being able to play this as an extra spell makes it useful. However, most mature Stacks would prefer to use Sudden Death, which is weaker, and not an alt-cost spell, but can kill nuisances like Mistmeadow Witch and Mist Dragon.

Entomber Exarch – I love versatile utility creatures. New or Pauper Stacks might like this two-in-one Exarch, but a mature Stack prefers a straight-up reanimator (e.g., Artisan of Kozilek) or a discard effect that blows up entire hands (e.g., Myojin of Night's Reach).

Fresh Meat – Another deceptive card. In theory, this might seem like a good card, allowing you to recover easily after a Wrath clears the board, since you’ll always have mana available to cast it. Then you realize that all this does is create a few 3/3’s on your board, which is usually not very significant. And upon further reflection, you realize with infinite mana available, there are many better ways of responding to Wraths, such as saving all your original, beefier, higher-quality creatures from death (Ghostway), putting a Flash creature onto the empty board (Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur), or simply playing creatures that are immune to Wraths (Mist Dragon).

Hex Parasite – It’s not much use unless your Stack uses a lot of permanents with counters, and even then, it’s better to destroy those permanents directly rather than shaving off counters. If a Greater Hex Parasite with a 6/6 body existed, it might be worth considering.

Melira, Sylvok Outcast – There’s this miracle combo where you have some sort of free sacrifice outlet, Melira, plus a Persist creature. But that’s something for the Commander table. In T4, well, while sacrifice outlets are available, the only Persist creature that regularly sees any T4 inclusion is Woodfall Primus. A 2/2 with no other interaction (except sometimes saving your ass from Skithiryx) can’t be justified.

Phyrexian Obliterator – Why is one of the most impressive cards of this set considered a “bad” card? This creature, while a bit smaller than the T4 average (the average T4 beater has power + toughness = ~12), threatens opponents with a triggered ability that makes them sacrifice permanents. This forces an opponent to kill it with a spell (and a nondamaging spell at that) or suffer its wrath. The reason why it’s bad in T4 is that without needing lands for mana, much of its effectiveness is diminished.

On the offensive, the only time an opponent will block it is if he has a single blocker that’s large enough to kill it, and only if he considers the blocker expendable. Few opponents will block an Obliterator if they have more than one permanent in play. So try to attack people with two or more permanents. Defensively, no opponent will attack you with a nonevasive creature if they have more than one permanent in play. Unfortunately, most beaters in T4 are evasive.

Because of the lack of lands, in T4 most players will only have two or three permanents in play in the early game to midgame. Thus, the Obliterator’s ability is outdone by anything with Annihilator 2 or greater. What would you rather play? The Obliterator, which has a chance of being let through to deal its 5 damage so that the defender gets to keep his permanents? Or would you rather have Pathrazer of Ulamog, which is almost impossible to block, and forces opponents to sacrifice stuff just by attacking?

Phyrexian Swarmlord – This Infect creature is outdone by Verdant Force, which is not only bigger but makes tokens without extra conditions and creates more of them to boot. The evasionless Swarmlord needs to swing into an opponent first, get some poison down, and only produces tokens during your upkeep. I wouldn’t bother.

Psychic Barrier – If you’re going to put in a creature-only counterspell in a T4 Stack, you’re better off drawing a card with Exclude, or drawing a ton of cards with Overwhelming Intellect.

Rage Extractor – While I’m sure some sort of Constructed deck can take advantage of this artifact, there simply aren’t enough worthy Phyrexian spells in a Stack to take advantage of this.

Remember the Fallen – It’s a two-for-one graveyard-to-hand recursion effect, but you get more versatility using Restock or All Suns' Dawn. If you don’t have access to those, this is a good budget replacement in a pinch.

Spellskite – For this, I’ll just paraphrase the genius that is Mr. Mike Flores. It doesn’t do anything. It just dies.

Torpor Orb – It’s a griefer card, and with so many triggered abilities in T4, it’s very hard to draft around this card even if you picked it early. Save yourself the headache and spurn it.

Toxic Nim – It’s a little too small for my T4 tastes, but this would be excellent in a budget or pauper Stack, threatening with its Infectious damage or keeping ground-based attackers at bay forever.

Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger – With abilities that have no purpose in T4, the Voice of Hunger is just a 7/6 trampler. I’d rather have an Autochthon Wurm.

The Ugly

Moltensteel Dragon – It’s a firebreather, so you need some sort of house rule just to be able to use this. If there is a house rule restricting the power of Firebreathing, and your group decided that paying life for Phyrexian mana counts as an alternative cost, this is a decent option. If not, leave it in the binder.

Viral Drake – This is the sickest card in New Phyrexia for T4. We have a combo engine of pure death, and one at uncommon, no less. Ask yourself, “If I could Proliferate an infinite number of times, how many abusive things can I do?” Seriously, think about it for a bit.

INFINITE . . . PROLIFERATION.

Done thinking?

Here’s a quick, and by no means comprehensive, list of just some of cards you might find in a T4 Stack that can combo with Viral Drake and give you an instant win or, at the very least, a huge advantage:

• Triskelavus
• Vampiric Dragon
• Djinn of Wishes
• Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
• Draining Whelk
• Suncrusher
• Luminarch Ascension
• Etched Monstrosity
• Myojin of Night's Reach
• And best of all . . . itself

Yes, Viral Drake has Infect, so it can combo with itself. All you need to do is slip in once, and it’s a death strike. In other words, its ability in T4 is just a convoluted way of saying “Firebreathing.”

And even without the free wins, there’s the option of just being annoyingly naughty with it. Killing a Woodfall Primus that’s already Persisted, for example, or making sure that someone’s Dark Depths never loses its counters. Sick. Just sick.

Every mature Stack needs one or two cards that can kill players if it survives a turn around the table. This is one of them, and unlike, say, Shivan Dragon, it’s an elegant kill. If your Stack needs one such card, they don’t come cheaper than this.

We Are Compleat

And that’s the end of this review, but the beginning of more to come. Note that some of these anecdotes are theoretical, since I personally haven’t experienced all the cards in T4 yet, with the cards only recently accessible. Have you tried any of these in the realm of Infinity? Did they pan out like I said they would, or have some of them surprised you by being better or worse than you expected?