Mar. 29th 2011 - Today Wizards announced that 'Action' is indeed 'New Phyrexia.' Check our spoiler page out at: New Phyrexia Spoilers

Wizards is trying their best to keep the outcome of the Mirran/Phyrexian conflict from being too obvious, but at the same time, they are planting clues here and there, to reward those who pay attention.

The best comparison to the “Which side will win” gimmick is Timeshifted cards from Time Spiral. It was never outwardly confirmed by WoTC, but many a tongue-in-cheek statement was released, including an 'Ask Wizards' where MaRo said how many commons, uncommons, rares, and basic lands were in Time Spiral, but not saying “There are 301 cards in Time Spiral”.

WoTC wants their customers to be surprised, but they don't want them to feel stupid. That is why the outcome of the conflict should be no surprise to anyone that is paying close enough attention.

On the Mirran/Phyrexian minisite, card art, along with quotes or short stories are included in recent updates. ALL of the short stories involve an individual talking about some horrendous thing happening to them at the hands of Phyrexians. Even when a Mirran art is featured.

And then there is this quote:

There is always a point in a father's life when he sees his child so far down a path that the potential to take another road is no longer a possibility. I wonder when my creator first looked at me with jubilation and regret, seeing me unable to become anything more than what I was. I think about that now, because I feel that way when I look upon my world. – Karn

Yes, Karn has somehow broken free of Phyrexian control, but it is too little, too late. He sees that Mirrodin has been irreversibly corrupted by the Phyrexians. This quote is the most telling, because the one supposed Deus Ex Machina the Mirrans had was Karn. And if, in the set that depicts who won the war, he says that Mirrodin is too far gone, well, do you see where I am going with this?

Remember the set is named after the faction that has won the war that was fought in Mirrodin Beseiged. If Mirrodin is not depicted as 'Pure', then the Mirrans have lost. If all the top-ranking Phyrexians are still around, then the Mirrans have lost.

New Phyrexia

In the set New Phyrexia, as shown on the minisite, several Legendary Phyrexian Praetors will be printed, one for every color. (Yes, even red gets one!) The interesting thing about this conflict is that the Mirrans are headed by some Planeswalkers and Karn, and the Phyrexians are headed by Praetors and a 'Father of Machines'. We have now learned from a minisite quote that the 'Father of Machines' might not be Karn anymore, but Phyrexia didn't need him in that role to suceed. The Praetors will likely battle for the title. For the Mirrans to have won the war and stave off the spread of the Phrexian threat, the Praetors had to have been killed. They weren't. For the Phyrexians to have won, they didn't have to kill the Planeswalkers or Karn, as comics have shown that Elspeth could do nothing in the past to stop Phyrexian invasion, and the minsite quote shows that Karn can do nothing in the face of the infection.

Since the war has ended, the Mirrans were reduced to some solitary warriors, as shown in the art for the card Puresteel Paladin. Meanwhile, Phyrexians are being depicted as bigger and badder than ever, with the art of many Mirran cards depicting desperation or even hinting at 'relics' of a lost time where Mirrans were plentiful.

red

As confirmed by WoTC at PAX East, New Phyrexia has poison cards in it. In response to a question about amending Commander poison rules, they answered that they would wait to see how the poison cards in 'Action' play in the format before making any decisions. If Phyrexia has lost, they shouldn't be able to 'infect' anymore.

Wizards has also released images of the box and booster arts of the prospective sets. Mirrodin Pure is a palette swap of the original Mirrodin color scheme, except that it uses white EVERYWHERE. This causes the logo to blend in, and nothing in any of the packaging or boosters standing out or being noticeable. I am not alone in this frame of thought. Evan Erwin has commented on twitter that WoTC 'gave it away' by making the fake Mirrodin Pure product too ugly.

But once again, when WoTC made the fake product mockups, they had to walk the line. They had to make something that was slightly believable as a product shot, but less aesthetically pleasing than the actual product that will sit on shelves for the foreseeable future.

In the set New Phyrexia, Phyrexian cards are in all colors. This is a mechanical representation of how they have infiltrated and infected the plane. Therefore, it would follow that if they had been pushed back and defeated, they would not show up in white or red.

Mirrodin isn't Pure

One defense of the set being Mirrodin Pure shows an incorrect understanding of how WoTC promotes sets. “They could do whatever they want, they could be tricking us.”

Why would a company have teaser images up on a site, and drop hints here and there, and then pull the rug out from under you and yell “SURPRISE, WE FOOLED YOU!”? Tricking people like that stifles future speculation, and hurts the hype surrounding future sets. Wizards has never done anything that in the past. They always leave the crumbs of information lying around for people interested in such rumors to follow. Also, Wizards never lies when promoting sets. They can use tricky wordplay, but they rarely even do that. Every card art shown on the minisite is a card in the set, and both game day promos are in the set.

This entire block is built around a conflict between two warring factions. The third set represents the results of that conflict. The second set represents the conflict coming to a head, and the first set represents when the conflict first became apparent. This is reflected in art, flavor text, and set mechanics.

In Mirrodin Beseiged, the mechanic of 'Poisoned' was printed on one card. This mechanic will exist in 'Action', along with the other poison cards that have been confirmed to be in the set. In New Phyrexia, almost everything has been infected. So a mechanic that works better on those that are infected would only make sense, right?

Mirrodin is not lost forever, though. All the organic races were brought there from other planes. There is always some future plot device that could bring things back to how they were or a new equilibrium.

But it is also important to remember that this is the first time in 18 years of Magic that a (non-Dominarian) setting from an expansion has been revisited. It was a test on the concept, and won't happen very often. The Mirran loss of this war only has the long-term storyline consequence that the Phyrexians now have a identifiable home plane. Again.