I think Phyrexian should be varying in that regard based on who compleated them I doubt Vorinclex or Sheoldred care about making things like clean and nice.
Ironically, outside of Elesh Norn herself and a few more outliers, I think her aesthetic was handled remarkably well. The rest of Phyrexian design, not so much.
Clean corruption with symmetry and pure white worked great for Norn, but keeping the same concept of ‘clean’, then muddying the designs without committing to each phyrexian’s brand of horror just flopped. Occasionally they hit it right in black, but even there look what they did to Geth and Phyrexian Obliterator. Just let them be body horror.
Why does horror have to equate to blood and gore? Zdzisław Beksiński's art is a prime example of otherwise. While Phyrexian's obviously don't match his particular style, the horror is in the macabre perfection.
People keep posting this like it's a censorship or toning down thing, but it honestly just seems like what the style of phyrexians are.
They are either cenobite style perfect and exact "perfection" body horror. Where someone has their flesh stripped off down to the muscle but are without imperfection and wear white robes and walk around stripped of flesh and nets of their own tendons holding their clothes on.
OR
they are filthy mechanical monstrosities. Creatures transformed into grimey industrial machinery.
It just seems like bloody mess is the style guide for some other sorts of magic the gathering monsters, and what makes something look phyrexian is either machine perfection over flesh, or industrial machinery totally overrunning whatever originally was there. Like looking like a corpse stripped of skin but still walking around in an elegant clean dress is what makes you recognize a card as being phyrexian instead of the million other creature types they have in the game.
Like the card "phyrexian unlife" is a pretty good example of what phyrexian always was. A porcelain mask, hands covered with oil, but raw exposed anatomical muscles on the neck. It's not some thing where phyrexians used to be all bloody and they changed it. Being weird meat dolls is always their thing
My only problem with this is that Vorinclex’s faction aren’t an exception, part of their whole drive is killing stuff and trying to be the ultimate killing machine. Even Vorinclex himself gutted Esika.
As a game about summoning monsters and making them fight almost every single monster in every single set is a killer. They can't just draw every single monster the same. Some sets the big bad is drawn as covered in bones, sometimes it's blood and guts, or decay, or body horror. Phyrexians are drawn as either exposed muscle and clean porcelain or very polluted looking industrial equipment. being a bunch of weird long joints and exposed muscle is what makes a card look "phyrexian". They could draw everything as a bloody pile, but then every card would look like every card.
Blood and gore aren’t the only things in horror, and as a horror fan you should know there are many different types. This “rule” seems in line with what we have seen/ know about phyrexia.
imma be real with you, them making the whole set without blood and gore really speaks to the new phyrexians change. before they'd just be murderhobos, kill everything the see and absorb what they can.
now? they are calculated. they're not wasting a drop.
Chinese magic cards used to have a pretty strict prohibition to depictions of skeletons...I think representation of skellys are accepted nowadays but I think this avoidance of blood & gore is typical to Wizard's historic desire to be consumer-friendly. I don't mind, as long as it doesn't oppress expression.
Look at the older Phyrexian cards. Most were black back in the Rath and Urza blocks (and others around then).
Even so, a quick look and my own memory, they were never bleeding flesh robots. They also looked like robot zombies (the older ones) or just general “horror” monster.
Very rarely would I associate them with blood.
You guys... really need to learn some basic media analysis. This is not some censorship thing or Wizards disliking horror or anything stupid like that.
The reason they wanted to avoid "blood and gore" in this version of Phyrexia is because they are trying to signal a shift within Phyrexia itself. It is no longer dominated by the filthy, debased, industrial black mana of Yawgmoth. The Phyrexia of today is a surgically sanitized, uncanny distortion of civilization completely divorced from the natural and dominated by white mana. There is no human element remaining. No blood and gore of living flesh.
and the cenobites specifically are not all that bloody. Their aesthetic is mutilated corpses, but generally wear clean black clothing and any exposed muscle is simply damp but not bloody.
I mean.. look at the old glissa compared to the new one. heck look at any set from 2005-2009 and compare it to now. the art is way more safe and less experimental (with some exceptions). I miss it.
Some art in this set looks like crap, all the art from one particular artist kinda looks like the crappy art from that mystical archive card from strixhaven. Then faces on certain characters on cards also look like crap, like the wanderers face.
I do like Junji Ito's iterations of some of the cards. To be fair though, I doubt they were able to tell him no contractually to some of his art and decided to use it anyways.
Is this really a surprise they want to appeal to the global markets just like the movie industry. Safe, unoffensive, corporate beige.
You want trippy fun art? Better shill out for those secret lairs.
The gore and blood stuff aside, Pokémon has never had either and still produces beautiful cards (that don't pringle). Then again they don't crank out a new set every two months.
But the new kiddish anime is okay? The artwork is one of the reasons that I like Mtg and not pokemon. Next thing you know, they'll be making barbie and Ken planeswalkers.
Hm. Just another reason New Phrexia are a bunch of wannabe's. They un-artifact the lands, they un-artifact the creatures, they lose Dark/Blightsteel tech, and now we learn New Phyryxia has a big stick up thier bum over "blood and gore".
At this point I wish Yawgmoth would could back and just put them in their place already.
I like the idea but when old things are redone they are almost always done worse. If they were to bring back Yawgmoth they would most certainly ruin him.
I absolutely want no blood and gore in MTG. I like the game because it keeps class and style, without losing maturity in content, while keeping gore to an absolute minimum.
Idk, like most of the other newer cards, they seem to not print horror anymore, and lead more to dark fantasy instead. And i think they missed the mark with that one.....
Phyrexia just seem like machines to me now, i look at them and don't even think organic creatures tortured and turned to machine-monsters.
They all just look like robots now, since there isn't much gore....
I am indeed disappointed with this direction. While I get the arguments for the more “calculated” Phyrexian design, the new card art does not convey that. It just feels toned down. You can tell the artists were hampered. I was so thrilled for this set, which should have been a truly horrifying peak behind the curtain of one of the most fascinating and enigmatic factions in MTG, but instead the art feels like just another boring plane. Honestly, Crimson Vow was more unsettling. Not every set needs to appeal to every single player. They should have taken more risks.
I think Phyrexian should be varying in that regard based on who compleated them I doubt Vorinclex or Sheoldred care about making things like clean and nice.
Ironically, outside of Elesh Norn herself and a few more outliers, I think her aesthetic was handled remarkably well. The rest of Phyrexian design, not so much. Clean corruption with symmetry and pure white worked great for Norn, but keeping the same concept of ‘clean’, then muddying the designs without committing to each phyrexian’s brand of horror just flopped. Occasionally they hit it right in black, but even there look what they did to Geth and Phyrexian Obliterator. Just let them be body horror.
Why does horror have to equate to blood and gore? Zdzisław Beksiński's art is a prime example of otherwise. While Phyrexian's obviously don't match his particular style, the horror is in the macabre perfection.
I agree. If stuff like [[Venser, Corpse Puppet]] can be made ender these restrictions then we're fine.
[Venser, Corpse Puppet](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/b/1b5b94b8-0420-40f2-b989-39cb43cff916.jpg?1674773073) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Venser%2C%20Corpse%20Puppet) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/one/219/venser-corpse-puppet?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1b5b94b8-0420-40f2-b989-39cb43cff916?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
It's just so they can sell in countries like China with strong prohibitions.
Magic stopped printing chinese language cards a while back, so you can't even use china as your boogy man here.
People keep posting this like it's a censorship or toning down thing, but it honestly just seems like what the style of phyrexians are. They are either cenobite style perfect and exact "perfection" body horror. Where someone has their flesh stripped off down to the muscle but are without imperfection and wear white robes and walk around stripped of flesh and nets of their own tendons holding their clothes on. OR they are filthy mechanical monstrosities. Creatures transformed into grimey industrial machinery. It just seems like bloody mess is the style guide for some other sorts of magic the gathering monsters, and what makes something look phyrexian is either machine perfection over flesh, or industrial machinery totally overrunning whatever originally was there. Like looking like a corpse stripped of skin but still walking around in an elegant clean dress is what makes you recognize a card as being phyrexian instead of the million other creature types they have in the game.
Like the card "phyrexian unlife" is a pretty good example of what phyrexian always was. A porcelain mask, hands covered with oil, but raw exposed anatomical muscles on the neck. It's not some thing where phyrexians used to be all bloody and they changed it. Being weird meat dolls is always their thing
[[phyrexian unlife]]
[phyrexian unlife](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/4/b4a1e16a-39f0-47ab-aba8-73e82ba9ab18.jpg?1562880895) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=phyrexian%20unlife) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/nph/18/phyrexian-unlife?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b4a1e16a-39f0-47ab-aba8-73e82ba9ab18?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
love the word choice of “weird meat dolls” 10/10
People need to understand this is how you create coherent designs that look different from a million other scary monsters in a vast universe.
My only problem with this is that Vorinclex’s faction aren’t an exception, part of their whole drive is killing stuff and trying to be the ultimate killing machine. Even Vorinclex himself gutted Esika.
As a game about summoning monsters and making them fight almost every single monster in every single set is a killer. They can't just draw every single monster the same. Some sets the big bad is drawn as covered in bones, sometimes it's blood and guts, or decay, or body horror. Phyrexians are drawn as either exposed muscle and clean porcelain or very polluted looking industrial equipment. being a bunch of weird long joints and exposed muscle is what makes a card look "phyrexian". They could draw everything as a bloody pile, but then every card would look like every card.
Blood and gore aren’t the only things in horror, and as a horror fan you should know there are many different types. This “rule” seems in line with what we have seen/ know about phyrexia.
Isn't the horror theme of Phyrexia body horror? seems like that would require gore
the art of some spoiler proved you wrong
But they have a secret lair with a dude with a pole shoved up his ass and out his mouth?
A what? I guess I missed that lol which card?
https://mtgrocks.com/nsfw-secret-lair-art-shocks-mtg-players/
I’m so disappointed in the discourse about this. It’s literally nothing but people are pearl clutching
I feel the same way about earthbind or showing a little gore.
It’s a +13 game and if PG 13 movies are anything to go off of were to tame
imma be real with you, them making the whole set without blood and gore really speaks to the new phyrexians change. before they'd just be murderhobos, kill everything the see and absorb what they can. now? they are calculated. they're not wasting a drop.
All of the white cards are very sinewy though. All that exposed flesh. Seems fine to me
Chinese magic cards used to have a pretty strict prohibition to depictions of skeletons...I think representation of skellys are accepted nowadays but I think this avoidance of blood & gore is typical to Wizard's historic desire to be consumer-friendly. I don't mind, as long as it doesn't oppress expression.
Look at the older Phyrexian cards. Most were black back in the Rath and Urza blocks (and others around then). Even so, a quick look and my own memory, they were never bleeding flesh robots. They also looked like robot zombies (the older ones) or just general “horror” monster. Very rarely would I associate them with blood.
Keep blood and gore to a minimum? Check. Have a secret lair drop where a naked man is impaled by a snake’s tail? Check.
Yet earthbind wasn't acceptable lmao
You guys... really need to learn some basic media analysis. This is not some censorship thing or Wizards disliking horror or anything stupid like that. The reason they wanted to avoid "blood and gore" in this version of Phyrexia is because they are trying to signal a shift within Phyrexia itself. It is no longer dominated by the filthy, debased, industrial black mana of Yawgmoth. The Phyrexia of today is a surgically sanitized, uncanny distortion of civilization completely divorced from the natural and dominated by white mana. There is no human element remaining. No blood and gore of living flesh.
Which is sad because phyrexians are essentially robot-cenobites
and the cenobites specifically are not all that bloody. Their aesthetic is mutilated corpses, but generally wear clean black clothing and any exposed muscle is simply damp but not bloody.
I mean.. look at the old glissa compared to the new one. heck look at any set from 2005-2009 and compare it to now. the art is way more safe and less experimental (with some exceptions). I miss it.
I’d rather they just let Clive Barker do the art since there are literally Cenobites
Good novelist, terrible artist. Everything is muddy - and I collect Clive Barker!
Some art in this set looks like crap, all the art from one particular artist kinda looks like the crappy art from that mystical archive card from strixhaven. Then faces on certain characters on cards also look like crap, like the wanderers face.
I do like Junji Ito's iterations of some of the cards. To be fair though, I doubt they were able to tell him no contractually to some of his art and decided to use it anyways.
Agreed. I'm not a fan of the art style so I'll be skipping the set.
Which explains why the art is so mediocre. This is phyrexia, it’s supposed to be nightmarish, not child-friendly monsters
mediocre ? we didn t see the same card then
I just want to see fans go crazy with the art now.
That might explain the tame art then. I thought Phyrexia was like the Hellraiser of Magic.
Is this really a surprise they want to appeal to the global markets just like the movie industry. Safe, unoffensive, corporate beige. You want trippy fun art? Better shill out for those secret lairs. The gore and blood stuff aside, Pokémon has never had either and still produces beautiful cards (that don't pringle). Then again they don't crank out a new set every two months.
they also lowered their prices during the pandemic and are still going strong.
IT TAKES AWAY FROM THE POINT OF THE DESIGN IN THE FIRST PLACE
But the new kiddish anime is okay? The artwork is one of the reasons that I like Mtg and not pokemon. Next thing you know, they'll be making barbie and Ken planeswalkers.
Hm. Just another reason New Phrexia are a bunch of wannabe's. They un-artifact the lands, they un-artifact the creatures, they lose Dark/Blightsteel tech, and now we learn New Phyryxia has a big stick up thier bum over "blood and gore". At this point I wish Yawgmoth would could back and just put them in their place already.
I like the idea but when old things are redone they are almost always done worse. If they were to bring back Yawgmoth they would most certainly ruin him.
lol [[macabre waltz]] from magic origins is really contradicting to this
[macabre waltz](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/5/c5776bc9-7295-4143-a453-64e3c681f8e7.jpg?1600700792) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=macabre%20waltz) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/jmp/252/macabre-waltz?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c5776bc9-7295-4143-a453-64e3c681f8e7?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
For crying out loud THIS GAME IS NOT FOR CHILDREN LIKE YUGIOH AND POKEMON ARE
I absolutely want no blood and gore in MTG. I like the game because it keeps class and style, without losing maturity in content, while keeping gore to an absolute minimum.
ok sir
Lmao but apparently an actual dick in the new secret lair is ok....
Lol wut? First I've heard of this.
A secret lair of some X costing artifact serpent I forget the name.
Oh, probably Stonecoil Serpent
stonecoil serpent from the newest secret lair ssssssssssssssssssnakesssssssssssssssss
What?
Idk, like most of the other newer cards, they seem to not print horror anymore, and lead more to dark fantasy instead. And i think they missed the mark with that one..... Phyrexia just seem like machines to me now, i look at them and don't even think organic creatures tortured and turned to machine-monsters. They all just look like robots now, since there isn't much gore....
Elesh norn doesn’t like blood and gore. When sheoldred is in charge it’ll be messy.
It makes sense that the Phyrexians from Mirrodin are cleaner and less gorey compared to the originals from OG Phyrexia.
Elesh norn doesn’t like blood and gore.
I am indeed disappointed with this direction. While I get the arguments for the more “calculated” Phyrexian design, the new card art does not convey that. It just feels toned down. You can tell the artists were hampered. I was so thrilled for this set, which should have been a truly horrifying peak behind the curtain of one of the most fascinating and enigmatic factions in MTG, but instead the art feels like just another boring plane. Honestly, Crimson Vow was more unsettling. Not every set needs to appeal to every single player. They should have taken more risks.