A Study in Compleation: Phyrexia and the Glistening Oil | Magic: The Gathering Lore

I’m OBSESSED with Phyrexian lore It’s so cryptic and evil

My hot take: Urabrask will be key in defeating new phyrexians and will rise to become the new father of machines

Phyrexia is by far one of the coolest elements of MTG worldbuilding. They totally could have played it safe and gone with classic sword and sorcery vibes for the game, but even from the early days they allowed the writers and artists to go wild

Things that are missing are the following: On the Carrier cards, the flavor text of each one of them shows notes on how the Phyresis affects its host: read on the following order Phyrexian Denouncer, Phyrexian Debaser, Phyrexian Defiler, Phyrexian Plaguelord and Plague Engineer. If you ever wondered why the Phyrexians, old and new, just happen to know how to make stuff that resemble each other and their fundamental ideals of perfection are so uniform on all their members, the Glistering Oil its not just a super overpowered magic nanovirus but also it contains blue prints on how to make stuff and preprogramed functions and orders on the infected, so no mather were they are stuck in a plane, they still follow orders. The reason why they fight each other currently its because they were programed to follow orders from Yawgmoth but because he is (most probably) dead in a plane out of their reach, they went for the 2nd best option: Karn (which is kinda funny because he basically killed Yawgmoth with the Legacy but at the same time give birth to them) but after Karn escaped their corruption, in fighting on pecking order was inevitable... not sure what would happen if they stumble upon Dominaria and find Urborg or if they are still trying to corrupt Karn. Planeswalking its borderline impossible for non walkers because crossing betwen the blind eternities would basically kill anyone without a spark, godlike powers or be an Eldrazi. But if you are undead or a machine, that is more of an inconvenience. That is why the forces of Yawgmoth were able to invade other planes with eace and the reason why Nicol Bolas had manufactured the ethernals to invade Ravnica. Only the Weatherlight has being the only transport known to date to be able to more living beings from plane to plane without issue and Urza might had taken the knowledge on how to make another to the grave. If you check the Kaldheim story, when Vorinclex arrived to the plane, he was extremely weak and famished by the trip, which implies that New Phyrexians are not entirely undead, a side effect of the Mycosinth. On the same note, because of their pure black mana nature, old Phyrexians were incapable birth to new life, which made the plane food chain a decending spiral where resorces would eventually end but they were struck with luck when Urza and Mishra unsealed them which allowed them to invade other planes to restock. Another side effect of this was that because they were incapable of making new life it was impossible for them to eventually get a natural planeswalker, which means that when Jin-Gitaxias compleated Tamiyo was a huge discovery for them. On the other hand, New Phyrexians have acces to the other soruces of mana which made them capable of giving birth which is shown on the card "Birthing Pod", in an unatural way to do it but new life non the less. In theory they would eventually get a planeswalker.

Started the hobby during the last dominaria set, and have been bummed out I missed out the eldrazi, Phyrexians and the brothers war. When they begun making phyrexians again recently, I can't describe how pumped I've been

I had no idea about the whole detailed sphere structure of Phyrexia, but the whole 9 layered concept is a wonderful nod to Dante's version of hell in Inferno. The 9th spheres are both very similar, the final one in Dante's version being composed entirely of ice in which traitors are frozen in place forever as an ironic punishment for being manipulative (this is including big ol' lucifer) - they've replicated this idea in the lore with the crushing restriction of Yawgmoths movement in the final sphere, I'd wager

God, finally someone who is doing lore videos that knows how to read and has a voice for radio. Great work.

Now that we have Spelljammer, I want a Phrexian setting and Monster Manual

Phenomenal video, easily one of your best ones yet. You always seem to go into just enough detail to keep things engaging, without feeling like you're just regurgitating card descriptions.

The only MTG lore channel I've found enjoyable! Been enjoying the quality stories over the past few weeks after finding your channel last month. I don't play magic but I like the new phyrexians much more than the old dated ones. Variety is the spice of life and seeing how the factions interact with one another is fascinating. Keep up the superb work!

With all the sneaky praetor action we've been seeing lately I wouldn't be surprised if dominaria united is code for dominaria compleated.

Very informative: from the history of its glistening oil to the different Phyrexian factions and its characteristics. Love it! ❤️

one thing you haven't mentioned is that in the story of snc Urabrask is stating "Jin-Gitaxias, Vorinclex, and many of the Black Thanes have pledged themselves and their spheres" hinting that the plane of new phyrexia now has spheres each controlled by a high ranking phyrexian

The level of detail in your narration was apparent. But with details such as mentioning the pluripotent organisms… this is amazing thanks for this

Glad to see this faction covered. Hope to see more factions like the Guilds of Ravnica.

Bless be those who speak the divine language Bless be those who give immortality to the weak mortals Remove the flesh from us and bless us with all the perfections of Phyrexia We will all lay upon the alter and be blessed with perfection, we will be compleated All will be one All hail her majesty Elesh Norn Great video!!! So glade I found more lore!!!

Another great video on lore there really isn't as many in-depth videos as you'd think. Thanks again for the great content!

With our return to dominaria and the sudden rise of the phyrexians it’s only a matter of time before they find and resurrect the old god of machines who’s rotting corpse still festers and corrupts the land of urborg, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that his body was never truly destroyed. Maybe they could even use him as a power source? I really hope they do something with yawgmoth

Red is the mana color that freedom is often accosted with, but with the oil corruption of all, even that become sinister. To Urabrask, being Phyrexian is the first step on the path of becoming the perfect lifeform, and therefore cannot think of why would anyone with free will not choose it. And thefore, most likely think along the lines of "Do the other have such little faith that they must force it on people" when it comes to the Praetors actions. For even the Phyrexian who think they free is never truly free of the blight that threaten to consume the multiverse even if one drop of the oil survives.

Really hoping Koth shows up again, he's my best friends favorite Planeswalker and has such a good thing going for him. I kinda wonder if he and Nahiri would get along or have a rivalry