Wizards of the Coast have revealed the prerelease promos for the remaining sets of 2022/2023. Each set’s promo cards will be from amongst the 30 special cards (one for each year of Magic’s existence) chosen for MTG’s 30-year anniversary. One of these sets is Phyrexia: All Will Be One and it will be the focus of today’s article. So, let’s look at the Phyrexia: All Will Be One promo cards.
Phyrexia: All Will Be One will have four promo cards. They are Kor Haven, Vindicate, Exalted Angel, and Temple of the False God. These are the promos ranging from 2000 to 2003.
Having a card for each year of Magic is a very exciting way to do promos. Each one is a glimpse back into a particular year of MTG’s past. With that said, in addition to the cards themselves, we’ll be looking at a bit of history too. Including what set the card was originally printed in, what impact they’ve had on the game and what other good cards came out that year. Let’s jump right in.
Prerelease Promos
Related: MTG 2023 Release Schedule
The four prerelease promos for Phyrexia: All Will Be One is from 2000 to 2003. Let’s take a look at the cards, the sets they released in originally, and what makes them a special part of MTG history.
Kor Haven
Kor Haven was originally printed in Nemesis in February of 2000. That set also revolved around the Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria. It focuses on the Phyrexian’s effort to choose an adequate replacement leader for Rath, after Volrath abandoned his post.
The prerelease card for Nemesis way back in 2000 was a foil Rathi Assassin. However, Kor Haven and Rathi Assassin isn’t what the top players of MTG in 2000 were sleeving up. What cards were dominating the tournament scene back then? Well, let us have a look into the past.
Best Decks Of The Year
- A mono-black deck by Jon Finkel that used powerful low-CMC spells like Phyrexian Negator and Skittering Horror alongside Dark Ritual and Yawgmoth’s Will. The deck also featured hand disruption, removal and lots of specific color hate like, Persecute and Perish.
- One mono-red land destruction deck playing Stone Rain, Pillage, and Avalanche Riders.
- Two Gruul (Red, Green) ramp decks playing mana dorks and Gaea’s Cradle with Deranged Hermit and Treetop Village.
- An Azorious (White, Blue) enchantment-based control deck using Parallax Wave, Lilting Refrain, and Opalescence with Enlightened Tutor and Replenish.
- A mono-white weenie deck using Longbow Archer, Steadfast Guard, and Crusade. As well as Armageddon for some reason.
- One mono-green creature deck playing Albino Troll, Pouncing Jaguar, and River Boa with Giant Growth and Rancor.
- One mono-blue ramp deck using Grim Monilith to cast Palinchron, Morphling, and Stroke of Genius. While defending with counterspells and Treachery.
You can find a full list for each deck here.
Vindicate
Don’t mourn for me. This is my destiny.
Gerrald – Original Vindicate Flavor Text
Vindicate is an excellent card that comes from 2001’s Apocolypse. Like Nemesis before it, Apocolypse focuses on the Phyrexian conflict in Dominaria. It’s no surprise that cards from this era landed as Phyrexia: All Will Be One promo cards.
In Apocolypse, the Weatherlight has made its way to the heart of Phyrexia. Once there, Gerrad (a member of the crew who was made an orphan by the Phyrexians) is made to fight to the death against Urza. With Urza stripped of his powers by Yawgmoth, Gerrad defeats and decapitates him.
Then, Gerrad takes the power stones from Urza’s eyes and places them into Karn’s chest; completing the Legacy weapon and wiping Yawgmoth away. However, Urza, Gerrald, and the Weatherlight are also taken out in the blast. The last of the ship’s planeswalker power moves into Karn; He then becomes a planeswalker himself.
You can see the card as it appeared in 01 (and in English) here. It depicts the Weatherlight about to be in an explosion with the flavor text from above. With its reprinting in Modern Horizon’s two, it became Modern legal and sees play in a variety of formats.
When I need removal for a permanent at a cheap rate Vindicate is my go-to. I expect this to be the most popular of the Phyrexia: All Will Be One promos.
Related: Dominaria United: Promo Cards
Best Decks Of The Year
What were the top decks from 2001? Well, some of the world championship decks were:
- A Grixis (blue, black, red) control deck that closed games with Nether Spirit.
- A mono-blue merfolk deck that locked opponents out of untapping their permanents with Static Orb and Opposition.
- A Rakdos (Black, Red) aggro deck that used creatures like Flametongue Kavu as threats and removal.
- A Jund (Black, Red, Green) deck that ramped its way into Fires of Yavimaya and Spiritmonger to beat opponents down.
Sounds like a pretty healthy meta to me. You can find the full decklists here.
Exalted Angel
Exalted Angel comes from the 2002 set Onslaught. The events of Onslaught occur on the continent of Otaria on the Plane of Dominaria and happen 100 years after the events of Apocolypse. The story here revolves around magic that is growing the residents and creatures of the forest to gigantic proportions.
Here we get a glimpse of how the events of the previous sets affected the plane of Dominaria as a whole. Looking at Exalted Angel in particular, it may not be powerful by today’s expectations but it was a star in the Standard of its time.
What was the prerelease promo for Onslaught back in the day? It was a foil Silent Specter, which was a disruptive threat that like Exalted Angel, had the Morph ability. As mentioned, Exalted Angel did see quite a bit of play… But it wasn’t in many top decks. Let’s have a look at what was at the top of the pack in 2002.
Best Decks Of The Year
The world championships of 2002 were dominated by two decks. The top eight consisted of:
- Six Dimir (Blue, Black) or Grixis (Blue, Black, Red) Psychatog decks that used Flashback cards like Deep Analysis and Chainer’s Edict alongside Nightscape Familiar.
- Two A Temur (Blue, Red, Green) deck that hid behind removal, counter magic, and Opposition while it used Squirrel Nest to churn out tokens.
You can find the full lists for the decks here if you want to check them out.
Temple of the False God
Temple of the False Gods comes from the set Scourge, which came out in March 2003. We’re once again in Otaria on Dominaria for this set. The continent is still untouched for the most part by the destruction the rest of the plane has seen. However, the mutations that are occurring there are worsening.
Soldiers become more beasts than men. The inhabitants of the forest become nearly melded with their environments. Last, but certainly not least, there is the walking dead who seem to have even more limbs than they died with. Having said that, Tribal themes were a prominent part of the set. Some of the tribes to get cards in Scourge were:
- Beasts
- Clerics
- Dragons
- Elves
- Soldiers
- Slivers
- Wizards
- Zombies
Despite Vampires not being amongst the Tribes that had support in Scourge, the prerelease promo for the set was a Vampire. In fact, it is the only Vampire in the entire set. Without further ado, the card was a special foil version of Soul Collector.
Fun fact, Temple of the False God didn’t see a ton of play upon release. However, in the years to come it would prove a popular card in Commander. So much so, that the card gets a printing in Commander Precons very often.
As a result, there are an astonishing twenty different printings of the card. This is another of the promos I expect players will be happy to get.
Best Decks Of The Year
Continuing our theme here, let’s take a look at the best decks around in this year of MTG’s history. Here are the top eight decks from 2003:
- Four Bant (White, Blue, Green) creatureless decks using Vengeful Dreams alongside cards with Flashback (Deep Analysis), Cycling (Renewed Faith), Madness (Circular Logic) and
board wipes to control theboard . Then, closing games with Decree of Justice and Mirari’s Wake. - A Rakdos (Black, Red) reanimator deck using Doomed Necromancer and Stitch Together to reanimate Arcanis the Omnipotent and Symbiotic Wurm.
- A Bant (White, Blue, Green) Flashback/Discard Aggro deck built around Aquamoeba, Wild Mongrel, Arrogant Wurm, Wonder, Roar of the Wurm, and Quiet Speculation.
- One Rakdos (Black, Red) Goblin Tribal deck featuring Siege-Gang Commander, Goblin Warchief, and Patriarch’s Bidding.
- A Boros (Red, White) Cycling deck using cards like Slice and Dice and Spark Spray with Lightning Rift and Astral Slide.
You can find a full list for each of these decks here.
Buy-a-box Promo
We don’t know what the buy-a-box promo will be just let. Whenever it is revealed though, you’ll find it here.
End Step
All Will Be One is the first batch of prerelease promos revealed for 2023. Each of the cards comes from a particular year in MTG’s history. The four-year stretch that these promos come from sets revolving around the Phyrexian envisions of Dominaria. I enjoyed the look back in history as to what the game actually looked like back then.
