Not exactly "Obligatory Day of Judgment
Variant," is it? This card happens to punish
your opponent committing creatures to the field
even more than usual, and it tries to offer
something that makes you feel slightly less bad
for casting it the turn after something like
Siege-Gang Commander. While the effect isn't as
consistent as Sunblast Angel, I could imagine a
deck getting some mileage out of this card,
especially if it was a deck that didn't
superficially look like the kind of deck that
would play Obligatory Day of Judgment Variant.
Today's card of the day is Phyrexian Rebirth
which is the newest concept of Wrath of God
coming in at six mana, but also putting in an
X/X colorless Horror artifact token into play
equal to the number of creatures destroyed by
the effect. The cost is a bit high and
getting one creature for the extra two mana is
technically worth the additional cost, but the
slower speed hinders it in Constructed formats.
Blue/White control may run this or some kind of
White/Artifact lockdown, but the high cost and
nature of modern Constructed is likely to keep
this to the Casual or Multiplayer formats.
For Limited this is a huge bomb, an easy first
pick in Booster, and worth playing whenever
possible in Sealed. Mass removal that also
gives you a creature is an advantage that is at
the top of the curve and should never be passed
to an opponent. Normally a Wrath of God
effect is situational as it clears your board as
well, but this Rebirth avoids that as it does
leave you with something which makes using it
less concerning in some situations. Used
correctly this creates a big card advantage and
will often put the user in a position to win the
game.
Welcome to pojo.com’s Card of the
Day. Today we are taking a look at Phyrexian
Rebirth. And I have to say, token decks rejoice!
For four generic mana and two white mana, you
destroy all other creatures, and replace it with
an artifact creature token with power and
toughness equal to the number of creatures
destroyed this way. If you are producing a
decent amount of creatures, this is a good way
of hitting your opponents, then wiping the
field, replacing the creatures you had with one
giant creature ready to finish off your opponent
next turn.
In a Standard environment, it is easy to produce tokens, but not as
easy as Vintage. With cards such as Elspeth,
Luminarch Ascension, and Nomad’s Assembly,
producing tokens in Standard resolves mainly on
White, which suites the Phyrexian Rebirth just
fine. And what’s even better, is if you use
Elspeth, Knight Errant’s final ability, it is
only your opponent who loses creatures, while
you get an indestructible token in their place.
Once we reenter the realm of Vintage, yet again one card pops
its face in, Doubling Season. Because really,
who would want just one huge token when you
could have two? Other than the Doubling Season,
it is easy to produce tokens in Vintage. And
that just makes more stuff to remove with the
Phyrexian Rebirth. And of course, what is one of
the best things we could do with something so
large? Why sacrifice it for some hardcore direct
damage, what else? And some of the best methods
to do so would include either Fling or Rite of
Consumption. Because hitting, and hitting again
is fun, especially when it gains you some life
in the end.
Phyrexian Rebirth
Any card that simultaneously wipes the board of
creatures and puts a creature into play under
your control is going to e very tough to beat.
Six may seem like a lot for a Day of Judgment
effect, but remember-- Martial Coup cost seven
mana to be a board wipe, and saw a lot of play.
Sure, Martial Coup could be cast cheaper if all
you wanted was tokens, but it was frequently
cast as a board wipe. Phyrexian Rebirth serves
the same purpose a 5-or-over Martial Coup
served, for one mana less. And Rebirth is
scalable with the number of creatures it kills,
so it's especially strong against token decks
and weenie rush decks-- which are exactly the
kinds of decks you'd want a board wipe against
anyway. And since it counts your stuff too, you
don't feel so bad about playing a few creatures
knowing full well you've got this in hand...
which gives you more blockers and suggests to
your opponent that you're not planning on wiping
the board any time soon, encouraging him to play
out more creatures and thus be further
devastated by your Rebirth
Constructed- 4
Casual- 4.5
Limited- 4
Multiplayer- 4.5
