Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #372 - Phyrexians

Episode Date: October 7, 2016

Mark takes a look at the history of Magic's oldest villains.

I'm pulling out of the parking lot. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. And I dropped my son off at camp. Okay, so today, with a topic requested by my blog, I'm going to talk all about the Phyrexians. So I consider the Phyrexians to be, like, the iconic magic villain. You know, if you're looking like, you know, Batman's iconic villain is the Joker

and Superman's is Lex Luthor. I believe that magic's iconic villain is the Phyrexians. There are other villains. I'm not saying it's the only villains, but here's why. A, the Phyrexians have really been part of the magic story from the very beginning. We're going to talk about that today. All the way to modern day.

And, in some ways, I think what the Phyrexians are represent the ideal for what magic is as a storytelling medium. One of the things to remember is we have to tell our story through our game. That's our main thrust of what we are. We are a trading card game. And yeah, we have short stories and we've had novels. And it's not that our story is always told through the game,

but that's the core of the story. We have to be able to communicate the story through the game. And what that means is, one of the things that Magic is not particularly good at is it is hard to tell plot. And the reason is, we don't control what cards people see, nor do we have any control of the order they see. We have stuff like rarity that can help us a little bit.

But the idea is if a plot is told on a singular card, it's hard to know when people see that. But the thing we're really good at is showing environment, of showing sort of a whole sequence of look at this world and all the elements of this world. And so one of the reasons that the Frexens, I think, have worked so well is a couple things. One is that they're environmental. That when the Phyrexians invade something, it's not just like there's one or two Phyrexian cards. They invade and slowly change over what is there. I guess let me bounce back a little second. Let me explain who the Phyrexians are for those who don't know. The Phyrexians are an alien race that basically lives for one purpose.

And that is to spread. Sort of metaphorically, they are a disease. There's a trope that's used in storytelling called the plague. Which is, usually they're bad guys. And what happens is they spread, but they spread in such a way that they slowly take over you. A good example of this would be the Borg from Star Trek, the White Walkers from Game of Thrones, the zombies from anywhere but like Walking Dead, the Body Snatchers from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

anywhere, but like Walking Dead. The Body Snatchers, from Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The idea is they spread and your strengths become their strengths because as they defeat you, you become them. Which is really scary, right? The idea that you're facing an enemy that to fall to the enemy is to

become the enemy. Like, death isn't even the worst thing. You know, the idea is that if I'm fighting this enemy, that if I get killed, that I could become the very enemy and then kill my loved ones because I become part of the enemy. It's very scary. And so the Phyrexians have this very sort of, they want to grow and they want to improve.

And, you know, the idea is they take things over because they feel like by taking other things over, they can better themselves and they can keep improving. So one of the neat things about the Phyrexians is that they're constantly adapting. Well, we have a game that's all about adaptation and all about sort of going to new worlds. Well, the Phyrexians go to new worlds and they adapt and they change. So one of the neat things about the Phyrexians is they can look very different in different places.

We definitely, while there's a sort of definitive sort of quality to the Phyrexians, they have the ability to look a lot of different ways. And so wherever they go, they get to adapt to the place they are. Well, that's really good. They're environmental. That's what magic is. They're adaptive. That's what magic is, you know.

And they're a threat to the entire multiverse. I mean, that's one of the things that makes them a really potent enemy. Because it's not just like, you know, if you have a singular person with a singular goal, they can do stuff. But the Phyrexians are kind of like, if you can't stop the Phyrexians, the entire multiverse falls to the Phyrexians. Now, they do have one important Achilles heel. They have one weakness, which is really important, which is they can't planeswalk. And if they can't, I think if they take over something that has a spark, it keeps that thing from being able to planeswalk. And if they can't, I think if they take over something that has a spark,

it keeps that thing from being able to planeswalk. So if they ever complete a planeswalker, although I think the spark makes it hard to complete a planeswalker, but if they do, it keeps them from being able to walk. They can't,

they have this problem of they can't planeswalk. And so they need, they can't easily spread. And that's the thing. Once they're in a world, well, they can take over the world and infect it, and the world's in trouble once they're there. But they're kind of, they have trouble getting to new worlds.

We'll talk about today. There's a period of time where they have a little more easier time to get to new worlds, but right now, since the mending, they have a real, real hard time. The mending sort of broke down most portals, and so the real only way to get from place to place, with have a real, real hard time. The mending sort of broke down most portals, and so the real only way to get from place to place, with a few exceptions, is planeswalking, and they can't planeswalk. But anyway,

so they are this kind of creepy sort of villain that Magic made. And so I think they're the ideal villain. So let's go back. Let's talk about who the Phyrexians are. I'm going to talk about sort of both their story, but also through the card sets. Since this is a Magic Design blog,

I'm going to sort of tell you the story but through the vantage point of the cards. Okay, so Magic came out in Alpha and Alpha really didn't have much of a story. It had some names,

some proper names. Urza and Mishra were there. Llanowar, Benalia. I mean, there were places and people, but it was all sort of just elements, but no story per se. Arabian Nights was the first expansion. It kind of told the story,

but it didn't tell a magic story. It just really took the 1001 Arabian Nights. It was kind of telling that story through the cards. But Antiquities, which was the second expansion, was really the first chance to tell a magic story. And what they did is they wanted to tell a story through the means of, imagine you're digging up these artifacts of the past, these antiquities, and you are learning about something that happened in the past. And that something was the Brothers' War, which was

the first big story of magic. So the Brothers were, of course, Urza and Mishra. And the idea was, in Antiquities, as you... So all the cards in Antiquities, with the exception of the lands, which produce colorless mana that can be used to cast artifacts, every single card on the set referenced artifacts.

I mean, in the rules text, referenced artifacts. Either they were an artifact, or they somehow interacted with artifacts. Every card saved the lands. And so as you were sort of digging through and looking at all these artifacts and artifact-related cards, they were telling a story. They were hinting at a story about the Brothers' War. And the Brothers' War, you know, you learned a bunch about the...

We'll get to that in one second. So let me bounce back a little bit. Let me tell some backstory. Phyrexia, the plane, when it started, was a lot like Mirrodin, I believe. It was an artificial plane. There were these Phyrexian organisms there, what we call the oil. The Phyrexia at its core is this dark oil that when things touch it, it slowly invades them. And so what happened was before the current civilization on Dominaria,

and Dominaria is a plane where the Brothers War takes place, where a lot of the story today, I'm going to tell you, takes place. It was magic's main home for many, many years. Most of the sets for the first, like, eight, nine years of magic, most of them took place on Dominaria. Not all, but most of them. Okay, so what happened is there was a group called the Thran.

And the Thran, among the Thran was a man named Yawgmoth, who had some ideas of how to make things better. And he would make use of something called, how do you pronounce this, tiseth? And he was sort of improving people,

but he was doing it by using technology. And the Thran thought that was wrong, and they kicked him out. They kicked him and his experiments out. And so there's a planeswalker named Dyfed, because Yawgmoth wasn't actually a planeswalker, took him to Phyrexia. This is back in the old days when the planeswalkers were more powerful. And back then, planeswalkers could just bring people with them. That's no longer true in the post-mending world. That's no longer true. Planeswalkers can't bring non-planeswalkers

with them. They can't carry them with them. So anyway, Dyfed took Yawgmoth to Phyrexia. Yawgmoth interacts with this oil. And the oil, once again, it latches on and learns from things. And Yawgmoth really realized that his desire to create things, I think he called it phyresis, to replace flesh with metal, sort of reinforce with some of the Phyrexian oil, like the combination of the Phyrexian oil and the Phyrexian organisms along with Yawgmoth and sort

of his drive. His drive was so strong that they, it sort of, he, it warped, it warped the Phyrexian organisms to his way of thinking. And as Yawgmoth got completed by the oil, he started making use of it. And he used it to complete the other Thran that had come with him. And slowly they became what we now know as the Phyrexians. Now, he had been kicked off of Dominaria by the Thran,

so he was not so happy. So Yawgmoth decided that his plan was he was going to go back to Dominaria and destroy Dominaria. The problem was, there once upon a time was a portal that linked Dominaria to Phyrexia. And the portal was through a place called the Cave of Coelos. But there was a planeswalker, what was the planeswalker's name? was named Glacian so Glacian

had a wife named Rebek and Rebek had these two power stones two halves of a power stone and Glacian merged them together to sort of make a stop to close the portal in the cave of Koilos and so Yawgmoth and all the Phyrexians

were trapped on Phyrexia with no way out. The only way they had out, Dyphon had left. The only way they had out was through this one portal and it had been shut off. And so they were trapped. But Yawgmoth was a patient man

and so they planned and they plotted. Okay, now we get to Urza and Mishra. So Urza and Mishra were young archaeologists. Their mentor was a man named Tocasia. And they were really into digging up things and finding old items, the antiquities of the world. So the Thran had died out sort of mysteriously. No one quite knows why the Thran died out. But there were a lot of Thran artifacts sort of buried in the world of Dominaria.

And following the lead of Dominaria and following the lead of Takasha both Urza and Mishra start exploring and digging up these things. Well one day the two brothers go to the cave of Koilus and there they find the Power Stone or two Power Stone halves merged together and they end up taking it and breaking it apart each each taking half. But in doing so, they accidentally reopen the portal to Dominaria. I'm sorry, from Dominaria to Phyrexia.

And then what happens is the Phyrexians get out. And they manage to find Mishra. They end up completing Mishra. And they give him Phyrexian weapons to fight with. And there's a giant fight between Urza and Mishra, which they give him Phyrexian weapons to fight with, and there's a giant fight between Urza and Mishra, which is the Brothers' War. But the Phyrexians really are sort of trying,

they decide to back the horse of Mishra, and they sort of infect Mishra, and complete is when you become fully Phyrexian. C-O-M-P-L-E-A-T. I've heard it's talked about things being complete spelled that way. That it's sort of becoming fully Phyrexian. And so Mishra and Urza have a mighty, mighty war. But we'll get back there. Okay, so in the card set from Antiquities, we get to see about the Brothers' War. We get to meet the Phyrexians for the first time.

Now note, there's not a lot of Phyrexian cards. There's not a lot going on there. But we get enough to get a sense of who they are. In fact, I think the idea they tainted Mishra is hinted at in the cards. So it turns out at the end of the Brothers' War,

Mishra is winning with the help of the Phyrexians, but Urza ends up having an ace in the hole. The Golgithian Silex, which is the thing that blows up all the Antiquities cards, actually helps win the battle and destroys all of Argot, but wins the battle for Urza

and stops Mishra and the Phraxians. And the point, though, is the whole fight ends with Urza very anti-Phraxian, if you will. Okay, so we have Antiquities. It shows off the first time. He's learned about the Brothers' War. We meet the Phyrexians, not on a lot of cards,

but we meet the Phyrexians for the first time. Okay, so now we flash forward. So the next thing, next time we meet the Phyrexians is in Tempest. So Tempest is the Weatherlight Saga. So Gerard and company have traveled to the Plane of Wrath to rescue Sisay from the Avankar Volrath, who secretly is Vul, the half-brother,

or I'm sorry, not half-brother, but adopted step-brother to, or adopted brother, adopted brother to Gerard. Kondo's son. Kondo was Gerard's adopted father and his natural son, Volrath. The two of them grew up brothers, but as is often the case in literature, brothers become enemies. Anyway, Gerard, while he's rescuing his sister, they're in the stronghold, they see the invasion plans, which is a card in Stronghold, I believe,

and they realize that the Phyrexians are planning to invade Dominaria. hold, they see the invasion plans, which is a card in stronghold, I believe, which, and they realize that the Phyrexians are planning to invade Dominaria. So what's going on here is the Phyrexians had, there's lots of plans they had to try to defeat Dominaria. I'll talk about some of them in a second. Magic stories don't go in chronological order, which makes telling the story a little, I'm trying to tell you via the card sets, not via the order of the story, to sort of walk through how the magic players learned the story.

So we learned that the entire plane of Wrath used this material called Flowstone to make this artificial plane. And the idea was this plane was slowly sucking things in around it, and then when it got big enough, it was going to overlay on Dominaria. It was a very clever way to attack Dominaria by making an alternate plane, an artificial plane, filling it with all your forces,

and then that's how you get the forces into the new place, is by creating this overlay where Rathi and Dominaria become one. So, they discover this. We'll get to a second we'll get to a second the actual overlay happens in a bit

we'll be there in a second so we're in Tempest and so we realize oh no the Phyrexians are going to invade Gerard finds that oh my god the Phyrexians are going to invade okay so now we go to Urza Saga that's the next block

Urza Saga is a prequel now Urza Saga is going to say let's now we discover that Urza Saga. That's the next block. Urza Saga is a prequel. Now Urza Saga is going to say, let's, now we discover that Urza had a hand in this and that the Phyrexians being the great threat was something Urza was aware of. So Urza Saga starts at the end of the Brothers' War. He blows up Argoth. And he later becomes, I think the act of winning the war is what gets his spark. But he gets his spark, becomes a planeswalker, and Urza, I think he ends up being banished from Dominaria for a while. Oh, but before that happens, sorry.

So what we learn is the Phyrexians are there, and he learns of them for the first time, and then he gets his spark, and then I think he is banished from Dominaria for a while. And he ends up befriending someone named Xantcha, who was a sleeper agent of the Phyrexians. So what a sleeper agent is, is the Phyrexians found this technology

where they made people on the outside not look like Phyrexians, but inside of Phyrexian. So they found another way to adapt and hide. But Xantcha ends up turning on the Phyrexians, but inside of Phyrexian. So they found another way to adapt and hide. But Xantcha ends up turning on the Phyrexians and helping Gerard. And we learn all about what is going on. When the cave of Koilos, the portal, got

reopened, Yawgma sent through someone named Gix, who was the one that I think helped infect Mishra. And so basically the plan is to understand the Phyrexians and try to stop the Phyrexians. Meanwhile, during Urza's...

Oh, so during Urza's saga, I think what happens is he's locked out of Dominaria. He and Xantcha are traveling around. They get chased by the Phyrexians a bit. They eventually take the fight to the Phyrexians and Gerard gets his... Not Gerard, sorry,

Urza, Urza and Xantcha go around the multiverse. Urza gets his butt handed to him by the Phyrexians, gets majorly beat up. And we see in Urza's saga, him trying to fight with the Phyrexians, and there's a bunch of Phyrexian cards. He loses. He, in fact, barely makes it out alive.

He gets back to his home. He tries to recoup. And he plans, he goes to his Tolarian Academy. And his idea is he needs to find a solution to the Phyrexians. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to him, they have found a way to attack him. And they're attacking the Tolarian Academy. There's a giant accident. I don't know if the Phyrexians were involved in what caused the accident or Gerard's own hubris causes the accident, but there's a giant accident I don't know if the Phyrexians were involved in what caused the accident or Gerard's own hubris causes the accident

but there's this temporal accident and it creates these time bubbles this is a really cool so Jeff Grubb wrote a novel called

The Brothers War and then there's another novel what's the other novel King a guy named King I believe called Time Streams

which is a really good novel about this story where the Phyrexians attack. So there's an accident. All the different things are trapped in a time bubble. A young Teferi is trapped in a slow time bubble where I think he got caught on fire in the

explosion from the event. And they see him, but he's trapped in a slow time bubble, so they have to put a blanket on him to save him, but it takes years for that blanket to fall down and smother the flames. But meanwhile, the Phyrexians that had been attacking secretly were caught in a fast time bubble. And so they're evolving super fast.

And anyway, they manage to hold them at bay, but Urza realizes that the Phyrexians are a major, major problem. So he sets out for this master plan to ultimately, for once in all, defeat the Phyrexians are a major, major problem. So he sets out for this master plan to ultimately, for once in all, defeat the Phyrexians. And it involves creating a series of giant weapon called the Legacy Weapon that's broken apart into component pieces that are all individual

artifacts. He sort of figures out bloodlines because he wants to find the right savior and ends up being Gerard. But anyway, all the pieces for the Weatherlight Saga, you find that behind the scenes, that the legacy and Gerard and Karn, Urza created

Karn, you find out. And all these things that you didn't know behind it were this master plan to stop the Phyrexians. Okay, now we get to Mercadian Masks. And what happens is we discover that underneath the city, that Mercadia is this kind of city world

that's very mercantile and stuff. And beneath it, it's the staging ground for the Phyrexians, that they've been there and they're planning their thing and they're getting into Wrath and they're going to overlay.

And then comes invasion, where there's in fact an invasion, a Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria, when the Phyrexian plan finally comes to tuition. And there's a giant fight between all the different factors that go on. And Urza puts together nine titans, and they have to attack Phyrexia, and Gerard and the Coalition fight the Phyrexians on Dominaria.

And in the end, there is a giant fight between Gerard and Urza because Hannah's been killed by the Phyrexians and they manage to take over Toleran Academy but Baron in his grief destroys everything and manages to stop them but the Phyrexians promise Gerard that he can have Hannah back so Gerard ends up fighting Urza and beheading Urza because Urza's Yawgmoth's managed to

strip away the planeswalker-ness from Urza, and they fight, and then anyway, in the end, the legacy weapon gets put together, and the legacy weapon is able to kill Yawgmoth and defeat the Phyrexians once

and for all, and they are defeated. And that's the last we saw of them was invasion. But that's the last we saw of them. So what happens is Karn, who would become a planeswalker of his own, manages to travel to Phyrexia, gets some of the Phyrexian oil on him, creates his own plane, which he originally called Argentum, I believe, but you guys know what as Mirrodin.

Memnarch gets created to oversee it, and then what happens is when the mending happens and Gerard loses his spark, there's oil, the, anyway, he had tainted Mirrodin, and then it gets worse once he loses his spark. Although, it got tainted before he lost his spark. Anyway, in original Mirrodin, Brady Donovan, who was the creative director at the time, really liked the idea of figuring a way to bring back the Phyrexians, their iconic magic villain. So he loved the idea that Karn, through some carelessness, tracked some Phyrexian oil from Phyrexia into his new artificial plane. And just like original Phyrexia was kind of

like an artificial metal plane, so too is Mirrodin, which is just a perfect place for the oil to grow. So what happens is, we gave some clues during Mirrodin that Phyrexians were there, but very subtle clues. Although if you actually read the Mirrodin novel, the very first thing that happens is

Memnarch finds some oil and rubs it in his fingers and it disappears. And like, oh, what's that? Never mind, let's move on. But you're just watching him get infected and completed. So what happens is Phyrexia slowly takes over Mirrodin. So we come back

and scars the Mirrodin. And we're seeing, when we first pick up and scars of Mirrodin, and we're seeing, when we first pick up in Scars of Mirrodin, the Phyrexians are still only about, they're like 20% of the set, but we introduced new concepts. And one of the things we did when we designed Scars of Mirrodin was I wanted to capture the essence of what the Phyrexians were. And I believe the four words is, they were toxic, they were relentless, they were viral, and they were adaptive. Those were our four words. And so we ended up making infect, and we made proliferate, and we really

played in an idea of them as a disease, that they're slowly infecting things, you know, that they both infected and they proliferated what they did like a disease. We brought in poison back and sort of connected poison to the Phyrexians, saying that they're toxic was one of our four words. And so basically, we reintroduced the Phyrexians. But one of the things we wanted to do in reintroducing them was we wanted to sort of clean up some things. So one of the things when you first saw the Phyrexians and all the previous times, when you saw them in Antiquities, when you saw them in Urza's Saga, when you saw them in Invasion, they were always artifact and or black.

And one of the things we wanted is, look, if they're going to be our iconic villains, let's spread them out a little more. They're adaptive. That's the whole nature of it. And so the idea is, since we are starting over, a lot of what people know as the original Phyrexians was kind of the Yawgmoth-influenced Phyrexians. Well, let's take the Phyrexian oil, go back to the basics, and see what happens when it intermingles with a whole new world. And since they're no longer through the lens of Yawgmoth, they invade everything. Now, if you look at original Myridin or Scars of Myridin, they start in places that make a

natural sense, since they have sort of the disease feel. They started in black and green, if you look at original Mirrodin, or Scars of Mirrodin, they start in places that make a natural sense, since they have sort of this disease feel. They started in black and green, but you watch them spread. They spread to blue, and they spread to white, and even to red, which is the most resistant to them. They spread, and so what happened was, we got a chance to see a new Phyrexia. So, essentially what happens is,

we wanted to use the block to sort of reintroduce them as villains, and we set up this dynamic where there's a war between Phyrexia and the Mirrens. And Phyrexia wins. That Mirren turns into new Phyrexia. And not only that, we see Phyrexia get exposed through all the colors.

And so now, there is a Phyrexian, there's a leader of each of the colors, and there's actually sort of a little bit of a conflict on Phyrexia, on new Phyrexia, there's a leader of each of the colors, and there's actually sort of a little bit of a conflict on Phyrexian, a new Phyrexian now, because each of the different Phyrexians have invaded a different color, and so they each have a very different outlook

on what it is to be a Phyrexian and what their job is. All of them want to spread, that's what Phyrexians do, but now we have the praetors of the five different colors, and each color has their own agenda of what they think the right way to spread the Phyrexian ideal is. And so, and last we left them, what happened was, remember, they don't have the ability to planeswalk, they got brought to this plane by Karn accidentally, but they have no means

to get off the plane. And so right now, they've taken over Mirrodrodin and there's all these praetors and they have all these desires and they would love to infect the whole multiverse but

but they can't get off New Phyrexia so that's where we left the story have we seen the last of the Phyrexians? I don't think

we've seen they're iconic magic villain it's like have you seen the last of the Joker? you've probably not seen the last of the Joker in Batman so I don't think you've seen the Ah, iconic magic villain! It's like, have you seen The Last of the Joker? You've probably not seen The Last of the Joker in Batman. So I don't think you've seen The Last of the Phyrexians. And the other thing is we sort of...

The original Phyrexians were very much Yawgmoth Phyrexians. These are Phyrexians through the Praetors. And like I said, there's five different takes on them. And you get to see them through all the different colors. So I really think there's kind of a neat sort of retake on the Phyrexians. Once again, they're adaptive and relentless and toxic and viral.

They are the perfect magic villains. They really are. And there is hints that there's other stuff going on. One of the threads, for example, is if you go back and look at Elspeth's story, Elspeth came from a world that we don't know, we never said what plane she comes from, but the plane that she came from was invaded by the Phyrexians. We know the Phyrexians were there. She had previously had

interaction with the Phyrexians, and that's not Phyrexia. She didn't grow up in Phyrexia, so there's also some hints that the Phyrexians in the early days with the Phyrexian portals, while they didn't get everywhere, you know, the whole multiverse hasn't fallen or anything, they have managed to get beyond just Phyrexia. There's some other places that we've kind of hinted they are at, and, you know, we don't exactly know. So the Phyrexians are a big major threat and something that will have to be dealt with one of these days.

But anyway, the goal of today was... Oh, here's the last thing to talk about is one of the things that we did all along the way was try to get the Phyrexians

a feel and I know in the early days there definitely was a lot of like Phyrexians killing things or minus X minus X-ing things

or reanimating things and a lot of that came from they were in black they did a lot of black things I think in Scars of Mirrodin, one of the things we really were working on is playing up this idea of this disease metaphor,

of them infecting and spreading. And why we created, we had them use minus one, minus one counters and obviously did infect and poison. And we did a lot with sort of them spreading. And that was a big thing we tried to do. And so I was really happy with how proliferate came up. Proliferate really gave them a feel that's a little bit different from other things, but it still

had that disease feel to it. But anyway, mostly what I want to talk about today is just the... I don't know if everyone knows the Phyrexians. I mean, the Phyrexians haven't been around since New Phyrexia, for example. And, wow, New Phyrexia was a little while ago.

But they really are a key element of magic. I mean, they were part of the Brothers' War, which is an iconic story of magic. They were part of the Weatherlight Saga, which is another iconic story of magic, including the Phyrexian invasion. They were part of the Scars of Mirrodin story, so they've really been involved in

post-mending stories. So they are a major player in the magic stories. And like I said, I find the Phyrexians to be a really neat villain in that they play so well in how magic is created. And so you have not seen the last of the Phyrexians. And that today is my sort of little rundown to give you guys a sense of who exactly the Phyrexians are

and how they have been portrayed in magic. So they've been, let's see, they've been in a whole bunch of sets. They've been, they were in Antiquities. We hinted at them in Tempest.

We showed them a little bit in, we showed them a lot in Urza's Saga. We saw them a little bit in Mercadian Masks. We saw them a lot in Invasion. And then we saw them again

in Scars of Mirrodin. And I think there's been little drips and drabs, a little tiny hint in supplemental products and stuff, hinting at them and stuff. But anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the Frexens as much as I do, as much as I enjoy talking about them. Because they are mighty fun and mighty cool. And they are also something that's very iconically magic.

We do a lot of things where we sort of borrow from other places and other things. And that's cool and it's awesome and I like all our influences from you know the world around us and all the residents but it's kind of neat to have a villain that really feels sort of a magic villain that you're not seeing them somewhere else. These are very magic-y things so I think it's really cool. But anyway I am in my parking space so we all know what that means. It means the end of my drive to work. Instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. So guys, I hope you all enjoyed the Phyrexians.

And like I said, you might not see the last of them. Anyway, I'll talk to you guys soon. And goodbye for now. Ciao.