New Phyrexia EDH Set Review: Part 7 - Everything else

For this final installment, I'm going to cover the colorless non-artifacts, multicolor cards, and non-basic lands. Oh, and there's only one of each in those categories. So to pad my word count, I'll also take a second look at this set's Legends and rate their potential as Generals.

Colorless:

Well, as the worlds first colorless planeswalker, Karn need to make a splash. I think he's done an adequate job so far. Opinion is mixed so far, with some heralding him as "broken beyond belief" and others calling him "win-more". I don't have a strong opinion either way, but I think he looks fun and playable. His ultimate is definitely win-more, but then again, most planeswalkers have an Ultimate that just makes your opponent scoop unless they have a really good reason not to.
He's the most expensive card in the set, but I don't think there's any reason you should shell out for this card. If you crack one in a pack, you can probably find a use for him and be happy with it, but he's not something you must relentlessly try to acquire. Bottom line, if he comes into play and exiles one key permanent and then your opponent wastes a turn killing him, that's probably worth 7 mana.



Multicolor:


Was NOT expecting this guy. Really cool! I dont' see him being a random dork in your deck, but he's a hell of a build-around-me General, so I'll discuss him more in my General review below.















Land:

Too narrow to go in many decks, but if you're running a bunch of aritfacts this can't possibly hurt to include. I was really hoping for something a bit better. Even if this was a High Market for artifacts (i.e. ditch the 1 mana activation cost), I'd love it, but as it stands it's just sorta okay. Like any card that interacts specifically with Artifacts it will likely be broken in half in some deck.












Well, that's it for the set as a whole, so let's take a look at possible Generals!

Elesh Norn

We might as well start at the top. You probably  know of my aversion to monocolor EDH decks, but Elesh Norn would make an impressive General. I expect to see some Norn lists popping up in the future. The cool thing is that she blends well with Aggro and Control strategies equally. Pumping all your dudes is good, and clearing away all the little utility guys so you can spend your removal on what survives is good too. Combine with Humility to really make your group hate you. Doesn't work, nevermind. Godhead of Awe, then?

Jin Gitaxias

As much as I hate this guy already, I feel like I can be fair and objective when saying this guy would suck as a General. 10 mana is WAY too steep even for EDH. Plus there's the fact that he's just plain mean and unfun. Mono-blue can do better even without resorting to the sterotypical Generals like Azami or Arcum.

Sheoldred

As much as I lover her, she's definitely suited to maindeck status far better than General duty. Geth is better for reanimation and Anwon is better for the de-animation. No one else really does both, so she's got that going for her, but I'd still rather play her as a redundant effect in a Geth deck.

Urabrask

As the cheapest Praetor, he's definitely viable as a General, but I'm not sure what a Urabrask deck would look like or how it would play. I'm resigning him to maindeck status for now, but I think a few cleverer builders than myself will come up with a compelling reason to promote Urabrask to Commander.

Vorinclex

Another one with compelling and desirable abilities, but Vorinclex is too expensive to be General. He's FAR better in the deck where he can be cheated out any number of ways. Pattern of Rebirth, Tooth and Nail, whatever your poision... you'll want him in play, but you really don't want to pay full price!

Jor Kadeen

Jor Kadeen is, in my opinion, the exact opposite of the Praetors... while they're mostly better as maindeck cards rather than Generals, Jor seems designes specifically to be a R/W aggro deck General. And I think this guy will probably spawn more deck than any of the Praetors. I don't know that I'd want to build the deck myself, but I'm very eager to see what folks on the forums come up with. One thing is for sure: Bludgeon Brawl is a must-run in any Jor deck!

Melira, Sylvok Outcast

Melira can be used as a tool against a specific strategy (Infect), but she has a bit more build-around potential than you'd think. She makes Persist shenanigans easy to pull off, and makes Black Sun Zenith one-sided. But most of these interactions involve cards outside of Green, so she's probably not a good candidate for General. So again, she's probably a Legend who is better suited to a slot in your 99.