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CardName: Block Idea: Eldrazi vs Phyrexians Cost: Type: Pow/Tgh: / Rules Text: Both of them are probably capable of traversing planes so this could be a battle that is raging on in many planes at the same time across the multiverse. Flavour Text: Set/Rarity: Conversation None

Block Idea: Eldrazi vs Phyrexians
 
 
Both of them are probably capable of traversing planes so this could be a battle that is raging on in many planes at the same time across the multiverse.
Updated on 05 Dec 2017 by Tahazzar

History: [-]

2017-12-04 14:00:15: Tahazzar created the card Block Idea: Eldrazi vs Phyrexians

Note: Phyrexian currently are not able to traverse planes but likely are going to gain this ability (or be revealed to have gained that ability off-screen e. g. from playing with known student of planar travel Venser's corpse) as the story progresses.

Note 2: Eldrazi are currently not narratively in a shape to pose their usual threat, so you would have to build them up first.


With that out of my system... meh. I like both of them as villains, but they don't particular interest me as opponent's to each other. Part of this is that they both (especially when you are talking about Phyrexians rather than they a Phyrexian) are quite similar in being an alien morality that tries to convert/consume worlds.

Sure there are details which allow them to be different kinds of villains (e. g. Phyrexia being vulnerable to in-fighting), but that just means they are just different enough to replace each other without getting dull.

But am I going to care about an Eldrazi Drone being assimilated into a phyrexian agent as much as I might care about the same happening to a leonin? Do I care about Emrakul's body horror transformation being unleashed upon the already body horror member of the Vicious Swarm as much as seeing tentacles grow out of a Thraben human guard?

Killing a sentient humanoid to turn them into a Zombie slave is horrifying, but destroying that Zombie to build a flesh golem is kinda redundant.

I like Alien. I like Predator. Both cool "Human" vs. "Alien Nature" stories. But "Alien Nature" vs. "Alien Nature"? That's not a story archetype that resonates quiet as well.

Now you can try to make the Phyrexians more approachable and there is certainly a foundation for that laid out in the New Phyrexia Planeswaker's Guide/style guide. But then again you could just as well built a set around the already established inner strife of New Phyrexia or a whole block just around watching five different planes being invaded by five different flavors of Phyrexia and not repeat yourself.

If you do the same approach and turn the Eldrazi Titans and their brood lineages into more distinct subgroups you have about eight interesting villains that each can tell their own story... or you can pit them against one another in a monster mash.

Either of the two against Bolas would be more interesting as far as a villain vs. villain matchup goes, because I imagine Bolas to be just the kind of guy inhabitants of a plane might be fine with submitting to as long as they can avoid body horrors - which is a far more intersting bargain.


If you want this to work you need to pitch hard and work through these issues.

I like the idea of being able to do multiple planes at once. I'm not massively invested in the ongoing plot, so I don't really care what happens to Phyrexia or Eldrazi, although they were used to good effect in the blocks they appeared.

In terms of narrative, I'd much rather Magic be a series of short stories than one big drawn-out comic book plot, especially with the way they're handling the recent sets narrative-wise. Feels too Marvel-y.

So keep the Eldrazi and the Phyrexians separate and rarely used, otherwise you end up with what happened to the Weeping Angels/Daleks/Cybermen/literally every recurring villain monster in Dr. Who, or the xenomorphs in each subsequent Alien movie. Do what SecretInfiltrator said and focus on the various brood types or Praetor factions if you want variety.

I'd also only be down for a multi-plane set if it was Time Spiral 2 or two planes happened to merge via shenanigans of a previous block or something. Ends up taking the focus away from both/all of the planes involved.

I was thinking that if the Eldrazi vs Phyrexians did ever clash, the entire arc / outcome of the story would be them fusing / merging together. The Eldrazi would severely damage the Phyrexians (because that's just what they do, annihilate stuff) but the Phyrexians would end up corrupting/ tainting them and you'd eventually end up with the Phyrexdrazi.

I was also under the impression that Nicol Bolas was manuevering the Phyrexians & Eldrazi to eventually encounter each other, with the intention that they destroy each other leaving him as the sole big bad in the Multiverse, but his plan would backfire. TBH, I thought that was what WotC was headed towards, it seemed really obvious to me, but IDK.

I was also thinking of them merging, but maybe just to make a third faction so perhaps not entirely.

Mechanically, I'm thinking "devotion to phyrexia (mana)" would definitely be a thing - especially since that religion element in phyrexia is something the cosmic, (ele)mental forces of eldrazi don't really touch upon.

Still, I haven't figured anything beyond "that's interesting" that would be enough of an angle to really frame this thing around.

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