MTG players first witnessed Wizards of the Coast’s next core set last week. The official spoiler season for Phyrexia: All Will Be One is supposed to start mid-January, but a series of leaks from various sources has changed the script somewhat. Firstly, we received a leak detailing three Compleated Planeswalkers coming out. After that, a few commons leaked some new mechanics appearing in the set. Today, a new leak detailed the promotional card that players should expect to receive in the Phyrexia: All Will Be One bundle, and it looks like a doozy. This leak seems pretty legitimate, but there is a chance that it isn’t real.
As a result of its seeming legitimacy, consider this your official spoiler warning.
Phyrexia: All Will Be One Bundle Promo
It seems that Amazon may have accidentally spoiled the new Phyrexian: All Will Be One bundle promotional card earlier today. The picture quickly spread across Reddit and Twitter before Amazon took this bundle down from their site. As of the writing of this article, the picture was already taken down, so take this leak’s legitimacy with a grain of salt. That said, it is most likely accurate.
Karumonix, Rat King comes behind some new incredible Rat support received through Jumpstart 2022. This three-mana Legendary Creature gives all of your Rats Toxic 1. Toxic is a new mechanic that appears to be an attempt to balance Infect in Standard. Unlike Infect, Toxic deals damage separately from combat damage. This prevents players from pumping an Infect creature with effects like Might of Old Krosa to deal ten lethal damage in one swing.
While Toxic is a much weaker version of Infect, Karumonix’s ability is still devastating in a Rat deck. These decks tend to rely on go-wide strategies, as seen from the popular Relentless Rats archetype. Suddenly, a few 1/1 rats can deal lethal damage much quicker than expected with Toxic triggers. Ten damage is only half of your life total in constructed formats like Standard, but with Commander sporting a life total of 40, only having to deal one-quarter of a player’s damage in Toxic triggers is incredibly significant. Unlike Infect, Toxic has the slight upside of also allowing your creatures to deal actual damage to your opponent’s life total. This means that should Karumonix die, your work won’t be undone if you do not find another Infect creature.
Karumonix as Refill
Karumonix has a second ability that may be even more relevant than Toxic. When Karumonix enters the battlefield, you may look at the top five cards of your deck and add any Rats from among them to your hand. While Rat decks tend to hit the battlefield hard and fast, it’s pretty tricky to refuel after you’ve launched your initial wave. Effects like Karumonix can help you keep up after your opponents wipe your board a few times.
Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm is a fantastic new Rat Commander introduced in Jumpstart 2022. While Karumonix’s Toxic plan clashes a bit with Ashcoat’s pump ability, Toxic still allows you to deal physical damage to your opponents, allowing both effects to work satisfactorily together. Between Ashcoat and Karumonix, Ashcoast has a better value ability since it can continually find Rats to add to your hand every turn. Karumonix only adds Rats after it enters the battlefield.
The key here is to highlight how well Karumonix works with Ashcoat. Ashcoat can recur Karumonix relatively easily, which will then allow Karumonix to enter the battlefield again and find more Rats. This also makes Karumonix’s Toxic plan a little more reliable without making the card your Commander. Opponents may have to get rid of Karumonix to avoid dying, but Ashcoat can easily get it back at the end of the turn.
Will Karumonix See Play Outside of Commander?
It’s difficult to know how deep the Rat synergy runs in Phyrexia: All Will be One. Most of the cards we’ve seen for MTG’s newest set came from accidental spoilers, so many cards have yet to be revealed. Keep in mind that there is a slight chance that this leak, and the other featured leaks, are fake, but it looks genuine at this point.
As seen in The Brothers’ War, we got a lot of effects more suited to Commander in the main set, which is a good thing. It allows for some wacky effects to see Standard experimentation, but it also allows for a bigger draw to MTG’s core sets. I bring this up to note that there is a decent chance that Karumonix is a one-off synergy piece for Rats. Hopefully, this is not the case. That said, Karumonix looks like a great new tool for Rat Commander decks everywhere.
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