The 41 Best Cards in Phyrexia: All Will Be One Ranked

Last updated on January 30, 2024

Nissa, Ascended Animist | Illustration by Chase Stone

Today I'm looking at 41 of the best cards in Phyrexia: All Will Be One. You’ll get an idea of what the Limited bombs are as well as which cards are likely to make waves in Constructed formats.

You may or may not agree with my rankings. Here's how I’m grading each card in case you're curious:

1. The effect it will have on major formats like Commander, Standard, and Historic.
2. The card's overall strengths and weaknesses.
3. How well the card fits into Limited play.

Without further ado, let’s open these new packs and geek out over new MTG cards!

#40. Tyvar’s Stand + Minor Misstep

While rares and mythics are often the talk of every set, cheap and useful spells often make a big difference in Constructed and Limited decks. Tyvar's Stand is a great protection spell that gets better as the game goes on, while Minor Misstep is devastating to a lot of 1-mana plays in Legacy, Pioneer, and Modern.

#39. Sword of Forge and Frontier

Sword of Forge and Frontier has some okay protection and pump, but the draw and land advantage you can get from dealing combat damage is where this sword shines.

#38. Blade of Shared Souls

Blade of Shared Souls will be an effective clone strategy in a lot of formats. The equipped creature may become a copy of another creature you control.

I’m sure a lot of players will want to make clones of their powerful cards, like Biowaste Blob or Fiendish Duo.

#37. The Filigree Sylex

The Filigree Sylex works like a Ratchet Bomb in removing certain mana value cards, and it can be the wincon for any oil counter decks. There are plenty of cards to proliferate and move oil counters around to make this an interesting play in certain builds.

#36. Thrun, Breaker of Silence

What’s not to love about an indestructible creature with trample? Thrun, Breaker of Silence is a solid midrange creature to apply pressure on your opponents. It has great protection and can be pumped to do some serious damage.

#35. Kethek, Crucible Goliath

Kethek, Crucible Goliath may be your new aristocrat all-star. It allows you to sacrifice creatures to find nonlegendary creatures with lower mana value and put them on the battlefield. This can get interesting with stealing opponent’s creatures, ETB triggers, and other aristocrat shenanigans.

#34. Jor Kadeen, First Goldwarden

Jor Kadeen, First Goldwarden perfectly fits into the deck theme of equipping creatures and swinging hard. It also adds some draw value, which can be a great help for drawing more creatures and surviving removal spells.

#33. Karumonix, the Rat King

It’s imperative to see the new “king” and “god” of certain tribal builds in new sets. Karumonix, the Rat King will have immediate value for rat tribal decks in most non-Standard formats. Toxic and its rat-digging ability will add value to cards like Marrow-Gnawer and Rancid Rats.

#32. Slobad, Iron Goblin

Slobad, iron Goblin will be a fantastic card for artifact ramp. You can get value out of your artifact cards like Solemn Simulacrum, then sacrifice them to ramp up to your bomb cards like Cityscape Leveler.

One downside with this card is that sacrificing artifact tokens won’t do anything.

#31. Volt Charge

Volt Charge is such a great common card. The three mana isn’t so curve-friendly, but you can deal damage to any target, you can proliferate, and it's an instant.

#30. The Mycosynth Gardens

I like The Mycosynth Gardens the most of all the lands in this set because of its huge value in artifact decks that could benefit from getting copies of their bomb artifacts. The beauty is it isn’t an end-of-turn effect, so the copied artifact can be used for multiple turns.

#29. Koth, Fire of Resistance

Get your red decks ready for Koth, Fire of Resistance. You get some quick land ramp and removal if you need it with this card. The final loyalty ability is where it truly excels.

One more thing to note is that this is a rare planeswalker instead of a mythic one.

#28. Venerated Rotpriest

Venerated Rotpriest is going to be a problem in some storm and poison decks. You now have a chance to not attack and still poison your opponent.

This will be especially troublesome with storm decks targeting Venerated Rotpriest to poison their opponents quicker than doing direct damage. I believe this will be very popular and frustrating at the same time.

#27. Kinzu of the Bleak Coven

Kinzu of the Bleak Coven will be a great token generator to force your opponent into some tough decisions. You can return a token that's a copy of a creature to take advantage of their various abilities when your creatures die.

The fact that the token also has toxic is just a little cherry on top of a great card to build around.

#26. Glissa Sunslayer

Glissa Sunslayer is strong in combat, can remove much of your opponent’s board, and draw you cards if necessary or desired. All I can say if you can protect it and give it trample is good luck to your opponent.

#25. Skrelv’s Hive

Making a creature token each turn? Is this Bitterblossom? No, it’s Skrelv's Hive.

This is going to be a great card for white control decks that don’t mind playing slow and removing all your opponent’s cards. It has even more value than Bitterblossom thanks to the lifelink ability.

#24. Bloated Contaminator

Bloated Contaminator is a fantastic addition to any poison counter deck. There’s a ton of value in getting a 4/4 creature with trample for three mana. Add toxic and proliferate on top of that and you have a great card.

A lot of players may think that Tyrranax Rex will be the infect game-winner, but I think the Contaminator here will take that crown.

#23. Lukka, Bound to Ruin

All Will Be One is a planeswalker-heavy set. It features 10 ‘walkers, and they can all play a role in Constructed.

Lukka, Bound to Ruin fits well into creature-heavy decks. It gives you mana to play creatures, has decent removal, and can even be played earlier if you’re willing to sacrifice some loyalty.

#22. Conduit of Worlds

Conduit of Worlds is a great artifact to get the value out of all of your cards. It allows you to play fetch lands multiple times and get the bomb cards you need from your graveyard.

The real value to me is the fact that you can bring the same card back every time it's sent to your graveyard. Your opponents better have some exile effects or artifact hate to contend with you.

#21. Skrelv, Defector Mite

This Skrelv is a nasty little mite! Your toxic game plan can start early with the 1-mana Skrelv, Defector Mite.

This card also has a fantastic activated ability outside of trying to poison your opponent to death. It can give another creature protection and the chance to be unblockable against monocolored decks.

#20. Unctus, Grand Metatect

Unctus, Grand Metatect turns your blue creatures into potential card draws, pumps your artifact creatures, and can turn any creature into an artifact. You can also build around this card quite easily in Limited.

#19. Kaito, Dancing Shadow

Planeswalkers will almost always be bomb plays in Limited and worth considering for Constructed. Kaito, Dancing Shadow has an interesting ability to use two loyalty abilities in a single turn. This card will be a great way to stall opponents while opening up the board to attack.

It's important to note that Kaito can take advantage of ETB effects like Obscura Interceptor and Baleful Strix.

#18. Ichormoon Gauntlet

Ichormoon Gauntlet will be a nice addition to planeswalker-heavy decks. This artifact adds very interesting loyalty abilities to all your planeswalkers. You also get a nice proliferate loyalty ability to boost multiple planeswalkers at once, and a great final ability to take an extra turn.

#17. Archfiend of the Dross

Archfiend of the Dross is a massive 4-drop that will lose you the game after four upkeeps. There’s value in attacking your opponent or removing their creatures to chip away at your opponent’s life.

The more interesting value will be using Archfiend of the Dross to do a lot of damage and then sacrificing it before the last oil counter is removed.

#16. Vindictive Flamestoker

Vindictive Flamestoker will be a fantastic addition instant- and sorcery-heavy decks. You can sacrifice it to draw the final spells you need for victory when the time is right!

This will be great with commanders like Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, in Modern storm decks with cards like Grapeshot, and in Standard burn decks with cards like Monastery Swiftspear. The draw ability will also be massive in Limited.

#15. Blue Sun’s Twilight

All of the Sun’s Twilight cards have tons of value, but only two have made this list. Blue Sun's Twilight is a great sorcery spell for control decks.

You even get an extra copy if the mana value of the creature you’re controlling is five or more!

#14. Atraxa, Grand Unifier

Atraxa, Grand Unifier has great keywords and looks like an impressive source of card draw. While great to include in Commander, pulling this off in Limited may be difficult.

Still not as good as the original Atraxa, but that’s a high bar to live up to.

#13. Capricious Hellraiser

It seems that we need a new big dragon to go over the top with every new set. Well, Capricious Hellraiser is that dragon in ONE.

This has a way to reduce its mana cost while setting you up for playing a bomb noncreature spell from your graveyard. It works best if you can discard a big spell and cast it for cheap with this dragon.

#12. Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres

Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres’s initial proliferate trigger does seem a little expensive at three mana on top of the four cost. But its second ability is what makes it shine because your proliferate triggers now give you tempo and value at the same time.

#11. Drivnod, Carnage Dominus

ONE has “Dominus” creatures for each color, and they all have great effects that support specific decks. I’ve highlighted the two I thought were most powerful.

Drivnod, Carnage Dominus fits well in aristocrat decks with the extra dying trigger. It can also get an indestructible counter and be activated on the turn it enters if needed.

#10. Ovika, Enigma Goliath

Ovika, Enigma Goliath might be a new copy of The Locust God. It'll need to be placed in a control-style deck to justify the cost, but the benefits in a noncreature control deck are great.

Gain control of the game, build your board presence with Phyrexian Goblin tokens, and march your way to victory.

#9. Mondrak, Glory Dominus

Mondrak, Glory Dominus is a wonderful token doubler. It works like Parallel Lives in doubling your tokens with the extra benefit of using some tokens to give itself indestructible.

The indestructible counter will hopefully allow you to take advantage of the doubling effect and reduce the effectiveness of your opponent’s board wipes (the scourge of token decks).

#8. Phyrexian Obliterator

Phyrexian Obliterator limits the number of playable removal spells against it. It may be a tough play in Limited formats because of its mana cost and likely won’t change much in Constructed since it’s a reprint.

That said this is still a very scary card, and probably a worthy consideration for Standard.

#7. Phyrexian Vindicator

Phyrexian Vindicator is Phyrexian Obliterator’s counterpart. You can redirect any damage dealt to it to any target.

This is going to be an absolute menace in Constructed and Limited alike.

#6. Mindsplice Apparatus

Mindsplice Apparatus just might be the synergy card you’re looking for. It reduces the cost of your instants and sorceries by an increased amount for each oil counter on it.

There’s a ton of obvious value in this card, but the fact that you can flash it in on your opponent’s end step makes it harder for your opponents to remove.

#5. Phyrexian Arena

I feel bad for Jace. But I don’t feel bad about Phyrexian Arena. It's just a solid enchantment that draws you an extra card each of your turns. I don’t ever fear losing one life because it can easily be counteracted by lifegain effects in your deck.

The draw advantage this card will bring to black decks may take a few of the competitive ones over the top. We should be excited to see this card in action, and also start devising ways to counter it.

#4. White Sun’s Twilight

White Sun's Twilight is going to be a bomb of a card if you can reliably get to seven mana. It’s a better version of popular cards like White Sun's Zenith and Martial Coup.

You gain life, create tokens, and remove all other creatures with an X value over five. The cherry on top is that the tokens have toxic, which can help you finish your opponents off before they can recover if they have a ton of life.

#3. Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines

All hail Phyrexia!

Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines is going to be a nuisance in so many formats. It'll work as an accelerator for your valuable ETB triggers and be an absolute dagger to your opponent’s ETB strategies.

This card is a bomb to build around in Limited and a must-add to ETB decks. Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines lives up to the hype of the Praetor queen.

#2. The Eternal Wanderer

The Eternal Wanderer has a great static ability that restricts how many creatures can attack it, and each of its loyalty abilities have immense value. You can use it to maximize ETB effects or remove pesky blockers, create strong tokens, or remove wide board threats.

The only downside is its high mana cost.

#1. Nissa, Ascended Animist

Nissa, Ascended Animist is the biggest and baddest of the planeswalkers in ONE. Green’s ability to ramp will make the mana cost not much of a problem, and the loyalty abilities are the bomb.

You can make potentially huge tokens, remove artifacts and enchantments, and you can massively pump your creatures and give them trample for the finale. I see Nissa, Ascended Animist making waves in Standard.

Wrap Up

Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines | Illustration by Martina Fackova

Wow, what a hectic spoiler season! We’ve got some spicy new mechanics as well as some old favorites with new names. I’m sure more than a few hearts were broken when our favorite planeswalkers became compleated.

What do you think of these cards? Do you agree with my rankings, or did I overlook your favorite bomb? Let me know in the comments below or over on Draftsim's Twitter.

Enjoy the prerelease and make sure you support your local card stores. Don’t let your spark dwindle, and stay creative when everyone else Will Be One!