Today we’ll discuss everything there is to know about the Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander decks. This is the first time that Commander precons will accompany an edition set on the Phyrexia plane, and it looks like we’re in for a real treat!
UPDATE: Both decklists have been officially previewed. You can find the below, along with a quick review for each commander, and an overview of the best reprints.
Phyrexia Commander Decks
There are two Phyrexia Commander decks.
| Deck name | Colors | |
|---|---|---|
 | Corrupting Influence | |
 | Rebellion Rising |
Each Phyrexia Commander precon contains:
- 2 foil cards (main and secondary commander)
- 98 nonfoil cards
- 1 foil-etched display commander
- 10 double-sided tokens
- a life tracker
- a cardboard deck box
Each deck introduces 10 brand-new cards. These cards are neither reprints nor can they be found in the main set. (If you’re interested about the cards in the main set, you should check Phyrexia: All Will Be One spoilers.)
Both decks are already available for preorder on Amazon. Their release date is February 10th, 2023.
One of the decks is Phyrexian themed, while the other represents the “good guys” team. Let’s take a closer look.
Corrupting Influence
- Theme: Poison counters with a twist
- Colors: White, Black, Green
- Main Commander: Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa
- Corrupting Influence Upgrade Guide
Commander players are probably quite familiar with the card Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice, as it’s one of the strongest four color commanders. Before Ixhel was previewed, many players were speculating that the image on the packing might be a new version of Atraxa, just without Blue.
There was one other popular theory, based on the fact that Atraxa was once a Mirran angel, who opposed Phyrexia’s corruption, but was defeated and afterward compleated. However, in the story Atraxa isn’t the only Phyrexian Angel, so this deck’s commander might be another one of Atraxa’s kin.
As it turns out, the second prediction was right, and we’re getting one of Atraxa’s descendant. We don’t know why it doesn’t have Blue – perhaps the kid just isn’t too bright.
Anyway, the deck focuses on poison counters, but there’s a twist. You don’t just plan on getting a player to ten poison counters like you would with Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon. Instead, the deck will reap rewards from the new mechanic called corrupt. It benefits you if an opponent has three or more poison counters.
Corrupting Influence Decklist
Some cards weren’t added to the database yet. You can find them below.
New Cards in Corrupting Influence
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa
Four mana for a 2/5 vigilant flyer are some nice stats. It also has an additional ability – toxic 2. This means that whenever Ixhel deal combat damage to a player, they also get two poison counters. You’ll probably want to get at least one more counter to a player in order to turn on corrupted ability.
Speaking of that ability, it triggers at the beginning of your end step. For each opponent with three or more poison counters, you get to exile the top card of their library. You can cast that card for as long as it’s exiled, and you can spend any type of mana on it. You’re essentially stealing cards from their deck, which can be a really fun mechanic. At least for you, if not for some salty opponents.
Ixhel is certainly a hard commander to properly evaluate. How good it’ll be really depends not only on how you build your deck, but how other players will react to your deck. Will it be considered a fun commander that sometimes steals opponents’ stuff, like Gonti, Lord of Luxury? Or will it face the fate of many infect commanders, which often make the opponents turn on them from the beginning?
Perhaps, it’ll really depend on how you present your deck, since you can build around Ixhel in a way that still just tries to get all opponents to ten infect counters.
Anyway, if you like these three colors, unorthodox mechanics, and stealing opponents’ cards, Ixhel looks like an amazing commander for you.
Best Reprints in Corrupting Influence
Before we move to the next deck, let’s quickly mention the best reprints in this deck. Phyrexian Swarmlord got its first reprint, and it’s price reflected that. It’s a great card for any Green deck that cares about poison counters, especially in multiplayer formats.
Grafted Exoskeleton is also good and infect decks and got its first reprint.
Norn’s Annex is a great reprint for pillow fort decks. On the other hand, if you like free spells, then you’ll be happy to know that Noxious Revival was reprinted as well.
There are also some other solid reprints (such as Chromatic Lantern), but these four cards are the most expensive ones. At least when the decklists were previewed, and they’ll surely drop in price somewhat.
Rebellion Rising
- Theme: Attacking with tokens
- Colors: White, Red
- Main Commander: Neyali Sun’s Vanguard
If you’re cheering against Phyrexians, then you’ll probably prefer this deck. When the packaging with first previewed, we thought this deck might have an Equipment theme, due to the big gauntlet in the picture. However, it’s such a common theme for Red-White, that’s really cool that we got something else.
Rebellion Rising Commander deck is focused on creature tokens. We’ve seen this before, but this time around it comes with Red’s take on it. You guessed it – the creature tokens need to be attacking! So this is a fresh take on Red-White, and it fits perfectly into the Color Pie.
Rebellion Rising Decklist
New Cards in Rebellion Rising
Neyali, Sun’s Vanguard Review
Four mana 3/3 is mediocre, but we aren’t playing commanders for their stats, are we? The more important part of the cards are its abilities.
Giving attacking creature tokens double strike is very relevant. It makes them much harder to block, and if they aren’t blocked, they’ll deal lots of damage. If you manage to assemble a board full of tokens, Neyali can certainly perform very well.
When you attack a player with a token, you also get to draw a card. In a Red way, of course, but still. Even if you aren’t able to play that card on that turn, you can still use it on one of your later turns. At that point, you don’t need to control Neyali anymore. It’s enough that you attack with a token.
So, Neyali does two important things, that you want out of your commander. It provides you a clear reward if you build around. If you plan to attack with tokens, you’ll get a very nice payoff. The second thing it does well is that it provides card advantage. Getting additional cards is always welcome in Commander, particularly since you can access it from your Command Zone.
Neyali isn’t broken or anything, but it’s a strong enough commander. If you’ll build around it, you’ll certainly be able to win games. It’s a great commander for anyone who doesn’t enjoy games being too much of a slug fest, and wants to end the game via attacking.
Best Reprints in Rebellion Rising
Flawless Maneuver is an amazing reprint of a very expensive Commander card. Many players might buy this deck just because this card is included. It was worth around $25 on the secondary market when the decklists were previewed. It’s such a high demand card, that it’ll probably hold a lot of its value even in the long run.
However, that’s not all! There are also many other solid reprints, with Elspeth Tirel being a step above them all. This efficient planeswalker was certainly due for a reprint. With such cards, the Rebellion Rising is surely an amazing buy.
Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander Decks – FAQ
In this section, we’ll answer some commonly asked questions about these precons. If there’s something that we didn’t answer, and you’d like to know, you can leave a comment below. We’ll get back to you as fast as we can.
There are two different decks.
These will be regular Commander decks, so fully powered with multiple new cards. The lite precons nowadays are only used for Starter Commander decks.
Corrupting Influence contains White, Black, and Green. Rebellion Rising contains White and Red.
Yes, each deck contains a 2-card Sample Collector booster pack.
There are two cards. While this hasn’t been confirmed, based on the past releases, it’s safe to assume that one card is a rare or mythic rare with special art treatment (foil, borderless, or extended-art card). The second card can be of any rarity, but also with special art.
While it’s a bit early to say for sure, it’s still very likely that the decks will be balanced against one another. Wizards usually try to balance the precons that are released together. Even when they don’t succeed completely, that’s often mitigated by the variety that comes from a 100-card singleton format.
These decks will have cards in new border. The old border was a special one-time thing for Brothers’ War Commander decks.
Yes, there are some solid reprints, with the most notable inclusion being Flawless Maneuver.
Are Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander Decks Worth It?
Sometimes, there’s a lot of debate whether a product is worth it or not. With these two decks, we’re very certain that they are among the best MTG products recently. They both have fun and powerful new cards, and as you saw, some amazing reprints.
There’s also not much risk with them. Contrary to boosters, you know exactly which cards you’re getting. Sure it’s nice to open a booster, and be excited for a potential amazing pull, but you still get a taste of that, thanks to the Sample Collector booster, which is included. You might get a strong deck, and a powerful card on top of that!
The price of the decks is quite fair, compared to some of the other products, and we can happily say that Phyrexia Commander decks are worth it.
| Deck name | Colors | |
|---|---|---|
| Corrupting Influence | |
| Rebellion Rising |
Conclusion
That’s all for now – at least until more information about Phyrexia Commander decks becomes available. If you don’t want to miss it, you can follow us on Instagram or Facebook.
Furthermore, if you’re looking for more Commander articles, here are some that might interest you:
- Best Commander Cards in Phyrexia: All Will Be One
- How to Improve Your Commander Deck
- Best Deck Boxes for Commander
Until next time, have fun, and may your opening hand always contain a Sol Ring.
Hi,
I really enjoyed the article. Can’t wait to see the complete decks. I noticed a little mistake. “You’ll probably want to buff Ixhel’s power by at least one, so it will be able to turn on corrupted ability by itself.” I believe increasing Ixhel’s power will not change the amount of poison counters because Toxic doesn’t work like infect. Therefore I think the deck will have more proliferate than power manipulation.
You’re totally right, thanks for letting us know, I’ve fixed it. I was somehow thinking about how to get that one extra poison counter, and apparently shortcutted the toxic ability to infect. Whoops.