Welcome back, Aspirants! It's been a minute since my last article, but with the release of Phyrexia: All Will Be One I hope to turn that around. Today we're going to be talking about the delicious flavor of the glistening o- I mean the fantastic flavor of the ONE card set! For convenience, I'm also including cards from the Commander decks. Let's dive in!

Flavor Gems of Phyrexia: All Will Be One

Norn's Wellspring by Jonas De Ro

Norn's Wellspring is a fun card, as it references the classic 'oil tears' of the Mask of Yawgmoth, but incorporates it into a fountain. The Mask of Yawgmoth was a motif visible on a lot of original Phyrexians, so it's cute to see a callback here.

Not only is ONE the first time we see Koth again in a decade (outside of that one printing of Phyrexian Arena, it's also the first time Elspeth has seen him again! Resistance Reunited is a cute, Cathartic Reunion style card.

Bring the Ending is actually a reference to the words inscribed on Urza's Sylex:

Encroaching Mycosynth is a reference to Mycosynth Lattice. Mycosynth was a metallic fungus that was a precursor to the Phyrexians Invasion on Mirrodin. It turned flesh to metal and metal to flesh, hence making your permanents artifacts.

A fun detail in Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus's art is that its current inquiry involves playing with simulacrums of Vorinclex and Urabrask. For what purpose? No one knows.

Tekuthal is just like "Now what would happen if I made them kiss?" pic.twitter.com/zQIMm44t3R

— Jay Annelli, Godzilla's Witness (@jay13x) January 23, 2023

Karumonix, the Rat King is a reference to the original Relentless Rats. They've become a literal rat king (a massive tangle of rats) and are now the perfect Rat commander.

Hexgold Slash] finally names the Mirran Resistance's big advantage, in that they're all using Hexgold to help stave off Phyrexian infection. The entire Mirran Resistance is outfitted with the Hexgold, which is plates from the Glimmervoid treated with Blinkmoth serum. It has now become the defining art-direction feature of the Mirrans, with weapons and armor made from the substance, plus the energy weapons they've developed!

Conduit of Worlds is a cute throwback to Crucible of Worlds, an original Mirrodin block card from Fifth Dawn. The flavor here seems to be either Realmbreaker breaking through the spheres and connecting to other planes, or the Mycosynth violently remaking the plane.

Tyrranax Atrocity and Tyrranax Rex are one of the trademark dinosaurs of New Phyrexia, following Tyrranax and Alpha Tyrranax. The others, the Pterons ridden by the Leonin skyhunters, are referenced in Skyhunter Strike Force!

Argentum Masticore is one of only two references in the cards to the original name for Mirrodin when it was created by Karn: Argentum. Why Argentum? Well, Argent means silver, and Karn is a silver golem, so it was his way of naming the plane after himself.

The Filigree Sylex by Leanna Crossan

The Filigree Sylex is our THIRD sylex in the last three sets. I'm personally a big fan of such an important plot element getting cards in every set it matters in. The Filigree Sylex was created by Saheeli to imitate Karn's Sylex. You can even see her making it in Saheeli, Filigree Master.

The Skullbombs, like Basilica Skullbomb are a reference to the cycles of Spellbombs from Mirrodin and Scars of Mirrodin. For example, Sunbeam Spellbomb and Origin Spellbomb are the White mana versions of that cycle from those earlier sets.

Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut is a Leveler, one of Memnarch's nearly unstoppable original weapons. These were weapons of mass destruction, just a handful could demolish entire biomes by themselves. Seeing one still around, and more importantly, not corrupted by Phyrexia? I love it. Especially as it's just out there ruining Phyrexia's day.

Mirran Safehouse has a cute reference to the original Mirrodin artifact lands. The silhouettes inside the safehouse? They're Taj-Nar from Ancient Den, Kuldoth from Great Furnace, Lumengrid from Seat of the Synod, Tel-Jilad from Tree of Tales, and Ish Sah from Vault of Whispers. I was originally confused by these shadows, but once someone pointed it out, I thought it was a really cute detail.

Norn's Decree I'm mostly calling this out because it's a great piece of art, and we get to see some of the compleated planeswalkers together. It's always a challenge getting group shots of characters from Magic art, so I'm a big fan whenever it actually happens.

Staff of the Storyteller is a cute nod to the Tree of Tales, which had the true history of Mirrodin inscribed in it by the trolls. The tree is gone, but Thrun, Breaker of Silence remains, telling the tales.

Goldwarden's Gambit gives us the term for warriors who use Hexgold in this set: the Goldwardens. The Goldwardens are the unified military force made up of the Mirran Resistance's best fighters.

New Characters

Kinzu of the Bleak Coven is a new character, we don't have much lore for her yet, other than that she's a compleated Vampire. The Bleak Coven was the name for the largest group of Mirran vampires.

Rhuk, Hexgold Nabber is just a good, handsome boy. This is the ideal goblin. He's got a little smile, an epic 80's hair metal mane, and cares about shiny things. What's not to love!

Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa by Campbell White

Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa and Vishgraz, the Doomhive are part of the story A Hollow Body. In it, Ixhel meetings Geth and begins to have her worldview changed.

Neyali, Suns' Vanguard and Otharri, Suns' Glory star in the story Cinders. In it, they're up against the most terrifying villain of all: surrender. As a childhood friend and ally goes missing, it's up to them to figure out whether or not she willingly joined Slobad, Iron Goblin.

Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch is one of the last uncorrupted Myr on New Phyrexia. A reference to the creator of the Myr, Memnarch, some fans have noticed Urtet seems to be carrying some kind of glowing orb... although probably not intentionally the Mirari, Memnarch's original form, it would be a really cute nod if it was.

And finally, we get to the Domini cycle. These are referred to as sort-of the gods of New Phyrexia. Not in the sense that we have gods on other planes, but that these are a kind of ultimate embodiment of each faction of New Phyrexia.

1. Mondrak, Glory Dominus
2. Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus
3. Drivnod, Carnage Dominus
4. Solphim, Mayhem Dominus
5. Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus

The Spheres

There are some slight updates to names of locations from what was originally in Magic: The Gathering - The Visual Guide. The Spheres are depicted in Phyrexian Atlas, which I absolutely adore for giving us a beautiful cross-section of the plane. From top to bottom, they are:

• The Monumental Facade
• Mirrex
• The Autonomous Furnace
• The Hunter Maze
• The Surgical Bay
• The Dross Pits
• The Fair Basilica
• The Mycosynth Gardens
• The Seedcore

Other References

I'm already over word count, so I wanted to take a quick second to point out some of my favorite direct references in the set.

• Gleeful Demolition and Kuldotha Rebirth
• Resistance Skywarden and Ogre Resister
• Staff of Compleation and Staff of Domination
• Lux Artillery and Lux Cannon

Next Time

I'll have some distinctly Phyrexia flavor builds coming in the next month or so, but before that I'll be tackling the returning characters of ONE, as well as talking about the compleated planeswalkers!