Fiery Emancipation
28, Jan, 23

Insane New Aggro Card Printed in MTG Phyrexia: All Will Be One

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Phyrexia: All Will Be One is shaping up to be a very impactful set. We’ve seen some very strong mythic rare cards, a highly contentious counterspell, and a plethora of powerful planeswalkers. With all of the power this set contains, it can be difficult to focus on the discourse around individual cards. One card from the set is drawing attention as a powerful aggressive threat, with the potential to be playable across multiple formats. MTG Aggro decks are certainly getting a new threat here.

The Dominus Cycle

Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus

The card in question comes from the “Dominus cycle”, a set of five mono-color legendary Phyrexian Horrors with exceedingly powerful effects. Every card in the cycle can make itself indestructible at the cost of some Phyrexian mana and doing something negative to yourself: such as sacrificing creatures, or discarding cards.

All of the cards in the cycle have an effect that causes something to double. Mondrak, Glory Dominus Mondrak, Glory Dominus Mondrak, Glory Dominus If one or more tokens would be created under your control, twice that many of those tokens are created instead.
{1}{W/P}{W/P}, Sacrifice two other artifacts and/or creatures: Put an indestructible counter on Mondrak. ({W/P} can be paid with either {W} or 2 life.)
doubles the number of tokens you create, making it an Anointed Procession Anointed Procession Anointed Procession If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead. with a 4/4 body. Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus Flying
If you would proliferate, proliferate twice instead.
{1}{U/P}{U/P}, Remove three counters from among other artifacts, creatures, and planeswalkers you control: Put an indestructible counter on Tekuthal. ({U/P} can be paid with either {U} or 2 life.)
doubles all of your proliferate triggers, making it a powerful option in counter focussed decks. Drivnod, Carnage Dominus Drivnod, Carnage Dominus Drivnod, Carnage Dominus If a creature dying causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.
{B/P}{B/P}, Exile three creature cards from your graveyard: Put an indestructible counter on Drivnod. ({B/P} can be paid with either {B} or 2 life.)
causes death triggers to activate an additional time, moving Teysa Karlov’s ability into monoblack. Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus Reach
At the beginning of each combat, double the power and toughness of each creature you control until end of turn.
{G/P}{G/P}, Sacrifice two other creatures: Put an indestructible counter on Zopandrel. ({G/P} can be paid with either {G} or 2 life.)
doubles the power and toughness of your creatures on your turn, calling back to Unnatural Growth Unnatural Growth Unnatural Growth At the beginning of each combat, double the power and toughness of each creature you control until end of turn. from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt.

Although all of the cards from this cycle have generated quite a lot of hype and discussion, perhaps none have gotten the community quite as riled up as the cycle’s Red card. Solphim, Mayhem Dominus Solphim, Mayhem Dominus Solphim, Mayhem Dominus If a source you control would deal noncombat damage to an opponent or a permanent an opponent controls, it deals double that damage to that player or permanent instead.
{1}{R/P}{R/P}, Discard two cards: Put an indestructible counter on Solphim. ({R/P} can be paid with either {R} or 2 life.)
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Solphim, Mayhem Dominus

Solphim, Mayhem Dominus

For four mana, Solphim, Mayhem Dominus Solphim, Mayhem Dominus Solphim, Mayhem Dominus If a source you control would deal noncombat damage to an opponent or a permanent an opponent controls, it deals double that damage to that player or permanent instead.
{1}{R/P}{R/P}, Discard two cards: Put an indestructible counter on Solphim. ({R/P} can be paid with either {R} or 2 life.)
is a 5/4, a fantastic stat line for the cost. Solphim doubles the amount of noncombat damage you deal to opponents and the cards they control. This is an exceedingly powerful effect. Although damage-increasing effects in Red are nothing new, Solphim offers something that few other cards can compete with, due to its immensely threatening stats in conjunction with its ability.

Like the other cards in its cycle, Solphim can become indestructible. You need to discard two cards and pay three mana, two of which are Phyrexian Red, to give Solphim an indestructible counter. This makes Solphim a poor choice for opponents to target with a removal effect like Infernal Grasp Infernal Grasp Infernal Grasp Destroy target creature. You lose 2 life. . Solphim’s indestructibility effect can be activated at instant speed, meaning that so long as its controller has at least two cards in hand, five life, and one mana open it can always protect itself. The threat of activation of this ability means that its downsides don’t always need to come into effect to keep Solphim safe. Without the ability to reliably kill Solphim in combat, or use most removal effects, opponents are forced to rely on cards that can exile or force sacrifices to destroy the dominus.

One of the best ways to emphasize Solphim’s power is to compare it to other cards which occupy a similar niche. In Standard, many mono-Red aggro decks currently run the card Mechanized Warfare Mechanized Warfare Mechanized Warfare If a red or artifact source you control would deal damage to an opponent or a permanent an opponent controls, it deals that much damage plus 1 instead. . For three mana, Mechanized Warfare is an enchantment that increases the amount of damage dealt by all of its controller’s Red and Artifact sources by one. Although Solphim is one mana more expensive, it offers significantly more power than Mechanized Warfare. Solphim’s 5/4 stat line puts significant pressure on the opponent, alongside its effect. While Mechanized Warfare only buffs Lightning Strikes and Play With Fires into four and three damage spells respectively, Solphim ups their output to six and four damage. Although, being an enchantment, it would normally be harder to remove Mechanized Warfare than Solphim, Solphim’s ability to become indestructible grants it a significant degree of protection. Whether Solphim will outright replace Mechanized Warfare or will end up being played alongside it remains to be seen.

Solphim may also have prospects in Pioneer. Pioneer has a wider pool of damaging Red spells than Standard does, so Solphim has more tools to work with. Skewer the Critics Skewer the Critics Skewer the Critics Spectacle {R} (You may cast this spell for its spectacle cost rather than its mana cost if an opponent lost life this turn.)
Skewer the Critics deals 3 damage to any target.
, Viashino Pyromancer Viashino Pyromancer Viashino Pyromancer When this creature enters, it deals 2 damage to target player or planeswalker. , and Wizard’s Lightning Wizard’s Lightning Wizard’s Lightning This spell costs {2} less to cast if you control a Wizard.
Wizard's Lightning deals 3 damage to any target.
all becoming very intimidating with Solphin in play.

It may be harder for Solphim to see play in Modern. Modern decks typically have a lower mana curve than Standard and Pioneer decks. Four mana value cards are rarely seen, especially in aggressive decks. In addition, the presence of Path to Exile Path to Exile Path to Exile Exile target creature. Its controller may search their library for a basic land card, put that card onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. a one mana exile effect that skirts around Solphim’s indestructibility also presents a challenge.

Solphim in Commander

Commander players are very excited to start brewing with Solphim. The huge pool of cards available in the format means that there are many devastating spells that can have their power doubled by Solphim’s effect. X spells like Jaya’s Immolating Inferno Jaya’s Immolating Inferno Jaya’s Immolating Inferno (You may cast a legendary sorcery only if you control a legendary creature or planeswalker.)
Jaya's Immolating Inferno deals X damage to each of up to three targets.
, Coment Storm, and Crackle With Power Crackle With Power Crackle With Power Crackle with Power deals five times X damage to each of up to X targets. offer a fantastic rate when their damage output is doubled. Damage-dealing planeswalkers like Chandra, Awakened Inferno Chandra, Awakened Inferno Chandra, Awakened Inferno This spell can't be countered.
+2: Each opponent gets an emblem with "At the beginning of your upkeep, this emblem deals 1 damage to you."
−3: Chandra deals 3 damage to each non-Elemental creature.
−X: Chandra deals X damage to target creature or planeswalker. If a permanent dealt damage this way would die this turn, exile it instead.
, and Chandra, Fire Artisan become significantly more threatening.

Although some want to put Solphim in the command zone, the card also has great potential for supporting other commanders. Toralf, God of Fury’s ability to deal excess non-combat damage to new targets is enhanced significantly by Solphim. Zevlor, Elturel Exile’s ability to copy your spells and hit new targets becomes twice as good when those spells are twice as powerful. Mizzix of the Izmagnus Mizzix of the Izmagnus Mizzix of the Izmagnus Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell with mana value greater than the number of experience counters you have, you get an experience counter.
Instant and sorcery spells you cast cost {1} less to cast for each experience counter you have.
gives all of your spells a discounted cost, whilst Solphim makes them more powerful.

The community on Reddit are eagerly sharing their brews with one another…

“I’m at work, and my cards are at home, and I can hear my Heartless Hidetsugu deck screaming with excitement from here.” Spatulor

“Dragon’s Approach decks are going to have a field day with this.” Imperialtrace

“aaandd that’s a wincon.” GeneralShark97

Conclusion

Just how powerful will Solphim be? The card certainly looks very impressive, but brewing untested strategies with an unreleased card, and actually making use it in practice are very different things. With Phyrexia: All Will Be One’s release due next week, players will soon have the chance to test Solphim out to see if it lives up to the hype.

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