Glissa Sunslayer – Phyrexia: All Will Be One
Date Reviewed: March 8, 2023
Ratings:
Constructed: 4.00
Casual: 4.88
Limited: 4.88
Multiplayer: 4.25
Commander [EDH]: 4.38
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
You can pick whichever side you want in the great multiversal battle; I favorited Peter Jackson’s Ride of the Rohirrim scene on YouTube, so you know which side I’m on. But regardless of who you fight for, “Sunslayer” might be the best personal title of all time. I will gladly die on that hill.
Glissa was always earmarked for special things, but it took her becoming a Phyrexian to translate that into constructed impact. Her last version was very strong, and her new one is honestly even stronger. First strike and deathtouch is incredibly difficult to attack into, and at least as hard to block reasonably; having saboteur abilities of this strength really puts her over the top. You’re going to get them a crazy amount of the time, and the need to remove her with spells is going to distort your opponents’ entire game plan. Even if that just means “play your own Glissa Sunslayer” – that solution often translates, in practice, to “play a different deck”!
Constructed: 4
Casual: 5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 4.5
Commander [EDH]: 4.5
A character who started out as a hero in the original Mirrodin block before switching sides in Scars of Mirrodin, Glissa has stuck with her previous alignment and has mostly iterated on her old bag of tricks. The most notable thing about her is the combination of first strike and deathtouch, which is a very rare pairing to appear together on a card. In effect, it makes Glissa very hard to beat in combat, since she can kill up to three blockers assigned against her before they have the chance to lay a finger on her. So, for three mana, you have a creature that effectively wins creature combat against the vast majority of the game for the entire game, and that’s not so bad!
Of course, Glissa has more than that, and the “more” is pretty good. Disenchant, Phyrexian Arena, and counter removal are all nice and provide incentive to force disadvantageous blocks, and this gives Glissa the ability to attack players while keeping planeswalkers in check. In all, her toolbox of abilities and vicious combat capabilities make Glissa 3.0 a solid creature, even if her 3 toughness does expose her to removal aplenty on occasion. But your opponents will have to usually use that removal on her, so it evens out in the end.
Constructed: 4 (phenomenal offensive clock, though it can be chump-blocked to death sometimes)
Casual: 4.75
Limited: 4.75
Multiplayer: 4 (notably, you can aim her abilities at permanents ownerd by players she doesn’t hit)
Commander [EDH]: 4.25 (good set of toolbox effects)
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