So we have been waiting for the reveal of what the Eldritch Moon over innistrad is.
In the story “A Gaze Blank and Pitiless”, there was a sort of mantra that came over Avacyn.
All will burn. All will bleed.
When I first read this, it felt so familiar, I recognized it immediately for a phrase we have seen before from magic villains
However, there is one more piece of evidence from this very paragraph that points to Eldritch Moon having Phyrexia.
We see All will Burn, All will Bleed, already creating a strong connection to the feeling of Phyrexia.
But what gets me more is continued the great work. If you remember the New Phyrexia trailer, there was a specific phrase used immediately before the end of the video.
Avacyn and her angels continue the great work. I went back and found out that this wasn’t the first usage of that wording of The Great Work. We see it a total of 5 times in the story, 4 listed below and the one above.
So now, the question begs Why would Phyrexians come to innistrad, and how would they cause the symptoms?
There are a few reasons for Phyrexia to come to Innistrad.Phyrexians have already been shown for the desire to reach out to other worlds.The Praetors know of the Multiverse, at least Elesh Norn implies this in her flavor text
So we know Phyrexia wants to spread the blessing to other worlds. I will get to this later why Innistrad specifically would be good for this.
One important thing to know about innistrad is the importance of silver. Silver is holy, silver is what the helvaults made of, and silver is the moon. Innistrad is all about silver. Silver makes sense as the metal theyd use for this for its anti-werewolf effects, but is it possible that the silver was chosen specifically for another reason? To point to another silver?
Only once before has Magic’s story massively involved Silver, and that was all with Karn, the Silver Golem. Karn was made entirely out of silver and could be transported through time because silver is the only metal that can do that. If they were trying to make a connection to Karn the Silver Golem and the Silver Moon of innistrad, is it possible that Karn has been to Innistrad at some point? Afterall, Innistrad did immediately follow Karn’s departure from Mirrodin.
Now, why would it be important that Karn might have been on Innistrad? If this WERE the case, that he went there a while ago, it is possible he spread the Phyrexian Oil to it. This was emphasized at some point in the story, that his oil on other worlds could have other phyrexias forming.
Now, another reason why lnnistrad specifically would be a good canidate for being a host to phyrexia. Mirrodin’s transformation to New Phyrexia was largely accelerated by the fact that Mirrodin was entirely made of metal. Phyrexians need metal for their whole schtick to work. Now, there hasn’t been another plane made entirely of metal that we know of. There is no other known world, but there is a known moon. The Silver Moon of Innistrad.
So, if Phyrexia did invade another plane, Innistrad would be a good choice for them.
So why though, or how, would Phyrexia’s influence cause what we have seen? That flesh corruption and contortion is not really consistent with what we have seen from phyrexia. It could be that this is the result of Phyrexia trying to break through, but not succeeding. While the silver moon could have been a beacon to Phyrexians, it would also be a barrier. It is being used to keep interplanar threats out. Now, I note that it sounds paradoxical to use both those arguments, but hear me out. A massive series of fences around a building will protect it, but it will also be VERY telling that that place needs protection.
So, Phyrexia is trying to get through, but it cant. So, because the multiverse is fucked up, its possible that their attempted invasion being suppressed is putting a spin on the essence of the invading force. Similar to the eldrazi, the phyrexians would be like a hand over the pond. These impacts, the slight changes and morphs in the people, would be somewhat like a Shadow over Innistrad, a basic profile of the essence of what Phyrexia stands for.
There are some more pieces of evidence that point to Phyrexia as well. Did nobody else find it weird that for some reason, specifically a Myr Creation Myth was featured? Why would that one be familiar or important to Tamiyo?
Now, the other two stories shown had a card from kamigawa, and one from Cold Snap (or whatever the modern bordered one is).
Which took place on Dominaria.
The two planes we associate with Phyrexia? Dominaria and (formerly) Mirrodin.
Another fairly obvious parallel between New Phyrexia and Shadows over Innistrad is that they are uniqueish for having White Villains
Mechanically speaking, if Phyrexia DOES make any sort of appearance, they will have an artifact heavy and probably colorless heavy theme. This plays well with the Eldrazi, allowing them to have more interaction with the idea of colorless at once, and maybe make a colorless theme deck viable.
and last but not least, my aforementioned reason for why the Eldritch Moon set symbol hasnt been released.
All is sacrfice. All will burn. All will bleed. All will be One.
vaporwave
ellievsbear
romaincrisis
discoholicmusic
theartofmadeline
dededos
prguitarman
