Controversy Over Very Powerful Reprints in MTG Phyrexia Packs

An article published by Mike Turian, a member of MTG’s Product Design team, on the 17th of January 2023 revealed that all five Phyrexian Praetors would be appearing in Phyrexia: All Will Be One draft boosters. Initially, this slipped beneath the radar. The article contained a lot of information about the many different art treatments in the set, so there was a lot to take in. Now that the set has started making its way into stores, players have taken notice and are divided on whether reprinting all of the praetors was a good idea.

The odds of opening them are reasonably low. According to Turian’s article, the odds of opening a Praetor in a pack are “less than 2%”. Nevertheless, they are very powerful cards which can warp a game of Limited.

Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider debuted in Kaldheim in 2020. It doubles the number of counters generated by you and distributed to your opponent by you, whilst halving your opponent’s counter generation. This makes Vorinclex incredibly synergistic in many Phyrexia: All Will Be One Limited decks as you’ll be able to give your opponent poison counters twice as quickly, whilst reducing their ability to retaliate or give their cards oil counters.

Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant appeared for the first time in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty in 2022. Jin-Gitaxias lets you copy the first instant, sorcery, or artifact that you cast on your turn and counters the first instant, sorcery, or artifact your opponent attempts to cast. This makes it a very tricky card to remove.

Urabrask, Heretic Praetor is from 2022’s Streets of New Capenna. It interferes with your opponent’s ability to draw, whilst giving you the option of casting an additional card from exile during each of your turns. Urabrask is one of the less overtly powerful praetors, but is still a powerful card.

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is from Dominaria United, which was also released in 2022. Sheoldred grants its controller two life whenever they draw a card and deals two damage to opponents when they draw a card. This is a very powerful effect, especially considering Sheoldred only costs 4 mana and is a 4/5 with deathtouch.

Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines was printed for the first time in Phyrexia: All Will Be One. Although the card has divided the Commander community, given that this is its first appearance, it’s not as contentious a card to include in draft boosters as the other praetors.

A lot of discussion is occurring on Reddit about the Praetors returning for Phyrexia: All Will Be One.

On the one hand, some players are delighted that the Praetors are back. They are valuable cards and reprinting them makes them more widely available.

40CardCollege Said: “Probably won’t be a huge deal overall, more a flavor win. If it was as common as just adding extra mythics to the set that would be bad, but as this is supposedly very low chance to occur I’m cool with the flavor win.”

On the other hand, some players are less than pleased with this development. They argue that the praetors are too powerful and that putting them in draft boosters negatively impacts Phyrexia: All Will Be One’s limited format.

stormbreaker8 said: “This is an actual problem, this set was teetering on the edge of being too bomby but this is absurd”

Action_Jacksons simply declared: “No sir I don’t like it.”