Magic: The Gathering is still reeling from the events of War of the Spark. In the middle of 2019, the iconic trading card game's running plot culminated in a tremendous conflict on Ravnica that brought planeswalkers from every corner of the multiverse together. Up until that points, Wizards of the Coast made it clear that Nicol Bolas was Magic: the Gathering's undisputed central villain. He and his minions kept appearing throughout the multiverse and causing trouble for the Gatewatch and their allies. At the end of War of the Spark, Nicol Bolas was thwarted and sealed inside his personal plane, indicating that he won't be back for revenge anytime soon, if ever.
Magic decided to take a well-deserved breather from overarching plots after years of spinning the Bolas-centric thread. However, War of the Spark's second anniversary is about to pass, and Magic: The Gathering has yet to unveil its new core narrative. Lore-minded players are getting a little antsy and wondering where the whole game is going now. However, those who look closely will know that there's definitely a major antagonist primed for a comeback. Magic: The Gathering's protagonists are on a collision course with one of the game's most ancient and most dangerous antagonists: the Phyrexians.
The History of Phyrexia
Phyrexia is a truly chilling villain for the protagonists of Magic to face. They're also nearly as old as the game itself. The rise of Phyrexia came when the Dominarian physician Yawgmoth discovered a small plane of twisted and horrifying machines. Yawgmoth, a physician banished from his society for his immoral experiments, took control of Phyrexia as a part of his quest perfect all beings. Under Yawgmoth's lead, the Phyrexians became a gruesome legion determined to "compleat" all living things, which means brainwashing them to serve Phyrexian and replacing living flesh with mechanical parts.
Phyrexia then waged a long war with Yawgmoth's home plane of Dominaria, Magic's home plane, and they were a force to be reckoned with. Over the course of Phyrexia's rise to power, the human Yawgmoth ascended to a sort of godhood, further enhancing the cult-like nature of Phyrexia with his overwhelming influence and magical power. Phyrexia tried to infiltrate Dominaria subtly at first, but when those efforts failed, Yawgmoth and the Phyrexians staged a large-scale invasion of Dominaria. Thanks to an alliance of Dominarian heroes, Yawgmoth was destroyed in the assault, and without their leader, the Phyrexians were routed.
However, that didn't mean Phyrexia was gone for good. The initial plane of Phyrexia that the corrupted beings get their name from still exists, as does a very dangerous glistening oil that originates from that plane. Glistening oil is crucial to the Phyrexian process of "compleating" living creatures into Phyrexians. What's worse, this oil hasn't been contained to its home plane. The golem planeswalker Karn unknowingly transported some of it to the mechanical plane of Mirrodin, and the oil has taken root, putting all of its inhabitants in grave danger, as well as the rest of the Multiverse.
Phyrexia's Impending Return
Phyrexia is very well set up to return as Magic's main antagonist because it's already taken over Mirrodin in the way that it tried to take over Dominaria. The glistening oil that came to Mirrodin first corrupted and doomed the plane's self-declared ruler, Memnarch, to destruction, and then started to spread throughout Mirrodin after his fall. The Mirran resistance has failed to hold the plane, and it's been renamed New Phyrexia in honor of its new rulers. The multiverse should be afraid, because New Phyrexia's ruling Praetors are already plotting ways to travel out into the multiverse so they can keep spreading Phyrexia's influence.
Wizards of the Coast isn't just teasing Phyrexia's return from Phyrexia's side, either. Some of Magic's most recognizable heroes are already trying to figure out how to stop the Phyrexians from compleating the Multiverse. Karn recently gathered his fellow planeswalkers Ajani Goldmane and Teferi to make a plan to strike against the Phyrexians. Wizards wouldn't bring these iconic characters together in this way if it didn't plan on making the second war with Phyrexia a big deal. Magic's plot is sure to lean heavily on the Phyrexians eventually.
The union of planeswalkers making this plan is important for another reason. Two of the three characters known to be planning a journey to New Phyrexia are members of the Gatewatch, Magic: The Gathering's veritable Avengers. This coalition of iconic planeswalkers parted ways after War of the Spark, and some of them have had major disputes since then. The force of Phyrexia might be enough to make them set aside their differences and work together again. It's also worth noting that Kaya, one of the Gatewatch's newer members, just met the Phyrexian Praetor Vorinclex when he was briefly transported to Kaldheim. That meeting suggests that Phyrexia and the Gatewatch are truly on a collision course.
Restoring Magic's Lore
Magic has more than enough reasons to make the Phyrexians a major villain. It's getting closer and closer to being able to endanger worlds other than Mirrodin. Wizards of the Coast has set itself up well to make this the new plot; it just needs to follow through. Magic doesn't really appear to have a plot running through it right now, instead introducing lots of new planes and new characters with short, mostly self-contained narratives. Wizards of the Coast needs to appeal to its lore loving fans by returning to the clear-cut long-term plot structure that made many past sets feel meaningful.
There's certainly other threats in the multiverse that could take Nicol Bolas's place. For instance, the powerful Eldrazi Emrakul is still alive but sealed away on Innistrad, which Magic will return to soon. However, no other source is set up to take a place of narrative importance in the same way that Phyrexia is. Magic's revived discussion of the plane, the known plans of the Phyrexians, and the introduction of a Phyrexian creature type for Vorinclex's Kaldheim card all add up and point toward increased importance for the Phyrexians. Their dangerous plans are a worthy threat to take Nicol Bolas' place. Wizards of the Coast just needs to follow up and put Phyrexia in the spotlight.
Magic: The Gathering is available now in game shops and digitally through Magic Arena.