New Phyrexia Top 10

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

As we have all now been afforded some time to review the new card awesomness in the latest Magic the Gathering set, New Phyexia, we think it prudent to execute a Top 10 list of our favourites for standard constructed.

There was a rather long deliberation but at the end we distilled a list of many to a list of only 10. We hope you are so outraged by our choices, you will leave your comments below with your choices . . .

The NPH Top 10

1. Batterskull

If we imagined what a mythic rarity living weapon what might look like, this is fairly much on the mark. A pump of four to power and toughness, together with lifelink and vigilance just gets us all aflutter. After the living portion of this living weapon is pushing up daisies, we're not too fond of the equip cost but do rather like the trick of bouncing this back to your hand to avoid a Shatter / whatever to be able to play it again. Smell like a very fast recovery after a DOJ board wipe.

2. Phyrexian Obliterator

A 5/5 trapling horror for four full-on black mana is OK with us, more so when there is no draw back other than the committment to a mono-black deck. We think this has a lot of potential in standard and will provide a good deterent to many with the the Obliterator's second ability - opponent sacs a permanent every time a source they contro deals damage to the Obliterator.


3. Sword of War and Peace

Very exciting stuff here - the last sword in the long-running sword cycle has finally arrived and it arrived with perfect timing. The current metagame favours equipment. It started with those equipment nutters, the Kor in Zendikar block which provided the wonderful Stoneforge Mystic and has now culimnated into a the ubiquous Caw-Blade deck and it's variants. Protection from red and white is never a bad thing. Throw in the conventional +2 sword pump and your off to the races. The addition of a quick burn and lifegain is icing on the cake.

4. Puresteel Paladin

This card has a lot of potential. It will be an auto-include in many mono-white knight decks which feature Exemplar Knight and will certainly open the door for these knights to ride forth fully equipped with Stoneforge Mystic. One will have to construct the 60 card build with care to ensure you get the benefit of metalcraft with the free equip that this Paladin provides.


5. Hex Parasite

This is Gremlin Mine's big brother and Hex Parasite provides a great utility in removing negative counters from your fav critter or may be turned against your opponent's Planeswalker or other charge counter collecting artifact such as Lux Cannon. We are a bit hesitant that this one-drop is on a 1/1 creature which may be an easy target for spot removal which may be a reason why some players may prefer Gremlin Mine.

6. Surgical Extraction

This instant for one black phyexian mana (one black mana or two life) has the potential to really mess up your opponent's game.

We think it best to hold off dropping this until mid-game when you have an opportunity to evaluate threats which hopefully you had sent at least a few of them to the graveyard for this card to work.


7. Mental Misstep

A very nice hard counter for one blue phyrexian mana. This of course allows any deck to take advantage of this card for inclusion. Many may take argument against this as it counter is provisional for spells with a cmc of 1. We think that as there are around just under 200 spells in standard with a cmc of 1, we think you well served to have this at least in the sideboard.


8. Beast Within

An instant-speed removal is very decent. This shines as one is not limited to just a creature but any permanent on the board - lands, planeswalkers, etc. It is up to you which way to point this spell - at your opponent's fatty while they are swinging or perhaps at one of your early drops / mana dorks which may now be dead weight and not longer the life of the early game party. Don't fret, you can now change out the stale and upgrade it to a 3/3 golem.

9. Volt Charge

Yo Lightning Bolt, I'mma let you finish but for two extra mana you can proliferate that shizzle. This may very well become a staple not too unlike Lightning bolt - just think of all those crazy counters on cards in standard right now. Red just got a very decent card, having until now to rely on another colour or an artifact to proliferate. We are already contemplating a build with Zendikar's Pyromancer Ascension and this card.


10. Geth's Verdict

Dang. This is just solid removal. We love sac cards as they are more robust than many other provisional spells and this allows another route to remove indestructible creatures your opponent may be running. We're also a big fan of flavour text and this one delivers. Gatekeeper of Malakir saw some good play, we're certain this will as well. We strongly believe that mono-black may be poised to return to a somewhat stale metagame and this card will be along for the ride in a few decks.

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Lastly, since this New Phyrexia set is chocked full 'o' win, we suggest you consider getting a hold of card lots which provide you with an instant collection from which to build. One good place to start looking is MTG Mint Card.
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