The next Magic set’s biomechanical nightmare was inspired by classical depictions of Hell

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Elesh Norn


In Magic: The Gathering, the Phyrexians are the kind of villains who don’t want to kill you because they’d rather remake you. Sure, the remaking process might kill you, but that’s not the point of it. The point is to strip away everything you thought of as yourself and turn you into a twisted mirror image, becoming the thing you hate. Swings and roundabouts, really.

They’re the villains you fight once, and then the second time they come at you with the faces of your friends and family among their ranks. They’re the borg from Star Trek, but also the tyranids from 40K, the cenobites from Hellraiser, and the zombies from everything, all thrown together and wearing a fashionable new hat.

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)

Magic’s next expansion set, Phyrexia: All Will Be One (opens in new tab), travels to New Phyrexia, the plane they’ve remade to their own liking. Body horror is a definite influence on the set’s art. The Phyrexians assimilate their former enemies through a process called “compleating”, perfecting their targets while also absorbing them into the larger biomass. It begins with an infection via glistening oil that mutates the body and warps the mind, and ends with surgical alteration that combines flesh with metal. 



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