Best of Phyrexia: All Will Be One – Gold!

Commander, Magic: The Gathering, Magic: The Gathering Strategies

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Mike Carrozza - February 2, 2023

Welcome to my set review of Phyrexia: All Will Be One, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.

Given that Phyrexia: All Will Be One also comes out with a pair of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.

Without further ado, here are my favourite Gold cards!

Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler

I really, really like Tyvar. Here comes a planeswalker Thousand-Year Elixir with upside. He works with the original Tyvar Kell if you run him in an Elves shell.

Yes, it’s more fragile than Thousand-Year Elixir and you can’t activate it at instant speed, but this is about redundancy in the right decks. I run Will the Wise / Mike, the Dungeon Master, and Tyvar was such a windmill slam in that list I can’t recommend it enough. The -2 ability gets Will back out of the graveyard, too! It’s great for self-mill strategies. It’s a planeswalker, so it’s a different card type to cast with Muldrotha, the Gravetide. I am a big fan of this card, but recognize it’s getting the beatdown every time.

Kaito, Dancing Shadow

This is one of the best designed cards I’ve seen in a hot minute. I think it tells a story so well and its mechanics are useful and interesting. The static ability keeps Kaito balancing and helps you get a recast on a creature you want to leave or ETB again.

Sivitri, Dragon Master decks are going to love this. My Aminatou, the Fateshifter superfriends deck is going to love this.

Don’t sleep on the token Kaito creates. Drones are a plant for more because that token is strong. It deters attacks and when a board wipe hits, if you have four or five of these, that’s eight or 10 life per opponent. I am a massive fan of this card and believe it’ll be way more impressive than people can tell right now.

Kaya, Intangible Slayer

Yeah, seven mana is a lot, but Hexproof and six loyalty with card draw, draining, and of course, that huge -3 ability. Incredible. I cannot express properly just how brutal this is going to be against the right decks. I cannot tell you enough how nuts this is going to feel when you land it. I love Kaya, I feel comfortable saying she’s my favourite planeswalker. This card solidified her up there for me.

Superfriends and Orzhov tokens are the likeliest homes for Kaya, Intangible Slayer. Thalisse, Reverent Medium has Anointed Procession rocking, so it’s even more value. Let’s get hype! This card is expensive to cast, but its impact will be noticeable.

Kethek, Crucible Goliath

Big surprise, the aristocrats guy likes the Rakdos commander. A non-legendary pseudo-death Cascade makes this the leader for a “secret commander” deck. Build a deck around that and stuff it with legendary creatures to dodge. Rakdos legends are so fun, I think you can build this to be an interesting varied experience every time.

I’ll be trying this out in my Lyzolda, the Blood Witch. Let’s see what Kethek can pop out!

Ovika, Enigma Goliath

This is going right into my Zaffai, Thunder Conductor and if I want to, I might even just swap Ovika for Zaffai from time to time. I think Ovika is so interesting. Sure, you can go the Impact Tremors route too!

I really like Ovika because it’s very flexible. You see it in Izzet colours and you think instant and sorcery, but it only says noncreature. Instants, Sorceries, Enchantments, Artifacts, Planeswalkers – you can build Ovika a bunch of different ways. Targeting Ovika is difficult and one Sunbird’s Invocation gets you six tokens, then every cast spell gets you another, and if they aren’t creatures, boom, more Goblins.

Jesus, it’s also a 6/6 in the air if you wanna just swing. I think Ovika is cool as hell.

Honorable Mentions

Atraxa, Grand Unifier – Atraxa is back. cEDH is talking about this as a new Food Chain commander. I’m less interested in Atraxa, but I know she’ll be popular. Also, what the hell is a BATTLE?!?!
Bladehold War-Whip – Reducing equip abilities by one is powerful. Boros equipment decks just got a new staple.
Charforger – Tossing this into Lyzolda, it’s both colours, so if I sack it to her, I get damage and a draw, but tokens counting toward the oil counter triggers? Yes, please! This is going to be great in the deck, I’m pretty sure.
Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres – There are so many proliferate cards and doing that gets you a card draw. Adding 3 mana and paying seven total means you gets to proliferate twice, draw two, and your off to the races.
Glissa Sunslayer – Glissa, the Traitor is back. Having a combat ability is tough, but she’s super hard to block. Beware, enchantment player! Say goodbye to that Sphere of Safety.
Jor Kadeen, First Goldwarden – Talked about this one already, not great, but interesting new take on an old idea. Cheap Boros equipment.
Malcator, Purity Overseer – People seem to love this guy! This is reminiscent of Splicers. Get a 3/3 and make another if three artifacts entered? Azorius eggs commander?
Melira, the Living Cure – This is the new leader of nontoken aristocrats in Selesnya. Exile makes it harder for me to love because you lose loop potential, but saving a creature or an artifact is clutch.
Nahiri, the Unforgiving – Way better than it looks. That 0 ability is pretty wild. If you have a Sundial of the Infinite, enjoy some cool recursion. The rummage ability is very useful. If she could be your commander, I think we’d see her more.
Ria Ivor, Bane of Bladehold – Hero of Bladehold, NOOOOO!!! The art is incredible. I don’t know what this deck will look like, but I want to see it!
Tainted Observer – Gives your other creatures an optional proliferate and in Simic colours, that can get way out of hand.
Venser, Corpse Puppet – I’m so disappointed in this card, both in terms of story and design. Looks super cool though!