Soul of New Phyrexia – M15
Date Reviewed: Feb. 16, 2022
Ratings:
Constructed: 2.25
Casual: 3.75
Limited: 4.00
Multiplayer: 3.13
Commander [EDH]: 3.38
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
“[All] permanents you control” is always an enticing phrase to see on a card; still, I’m not sure a five-mana activated ability on a six-mana creature has ever broken many games open. Soul of New Phyrexia also has a lot of competition in the sort of constructed decks that do have the mana to cast it – Primeval Titan literally makes Valakut decks work and doesn’t leave much space for anything else, and Tron decks have more proactive colorless options. Still, there are settings where it’s pretty much right on speed, like some Commander metagames, and it can be a scary creature to face in limited or some casual settings.
Another cool thing about this card is how it indirectly advanced the story’s progression. By the time it came out, we hadn’t really seen New Phyrexia for almost three years, and the shape of the creature’s head hinted at Elesh Norn’s ascension to Mother of Machines.
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 3
Commander [EDH]: 3
After the…overwhelming success of the Titan cycle, the Soul cycle came around in Magic 2015 to try and operate in a similar space without being as oppressive, a big payoff creature with explosive abilities. Soul of New Phyrexia is the “sixth” member of the cycle (following a mono-color member for each of the others), and its ability is the most straightforward, in a sense. Five mana gives everything (itself included!) indestructibility for a turn, and it can do that trick out of your graveyard once. The issue is that this is a lot of mana for a mostly-defensive ability, and while Soul of New Phyrexia has a decent body, it’s a vanilla 6/6 in general and needs the mana to do its thing. I feel like this is definitely more of a casual card than anything else, but there will always be those games where you can pop this out of nowhere to throw off an opponent’s game plan.
Constructed: 2 (I don’t think any of them made waves in Standard, and it’s outclassed in deeper formats)
Casual: 4
Limited: 4.5 (if they don’t remove it immediately, they never will)
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander [EDH]: 3.75
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