Phyrexian Arena

Feedback on Flavor Text

Can you pass some feedback on to the creative team for me? I love love LOVE the worldbuilding, art direction, and story on ONE, but a lot of the flavor text is kind of… iffy. In particular, it’s often very overwritten - the new Phyrexian Arena flavor text would be really poignant without the last sentence, but as is it feels really over-explainy and loses a lot of its effect. The flavor text for Ambulatory Edifice feels similarly overdone - the bit after the ellipses is super obvious based on the card’s art and feels like it’s Ancient Grudge levels of redundant - if it were something more conceptual like “they were wrong,” that could be legitimately chilling. Please don’t take this as too much of a knock on the set, I think it’s awesome, I’ve just seen a lot of this sentiment in the community and I thought it would be constructive for the creative team to know.

I can pass along the note.

Ambulatory Edifice Ancient Grudge Art Flavor Text Magic Arena Phyrexian Phyrexian Arena Story / Lore

White Phyrexian Arena Concept

Re: white Phyrexian Arena:Could white have an Enchantment that draws a card and gained a life in your upkeep? Gaining life is white, right? If not what would be the closest design to Phyrexian Arena for you to cosider it printable? Does it need to have a restriction for example?

Not only is white restricted to one card per turn, but if there is a trigger, it needs some kind of a white restriction/input to get it.

Enchantments Lifegain Magic Arena Phyrexian Phyrexian Arena White

White Drawing Rules

If white can only draw one card a turn per source, could it technically get phyrexian arena?

No. The card still has to be a white card and require doing white things.

Magic Arena Phyrexian Phyrexian Arena Rules White

Errata and Tribal Enchantments

It's possible phyrexian arena becomes errated with "tribal enchantment- phyrexian"? Or errating things to become tribal is too much?

Errataing tribal is an endless well if we start.

Enchantments Errata Kindred / Typal Magic Arena Phyrexian Phyrexian Arena

Classifying Phyrexian Card Type

Was it ever considered to make Phyrexian a super type instead of creature type to include cards like Phyrexian Arena and the new Koth?

It was brought up, but as it’s clearly a race, it felt odd to not be a creature type.EDIT: As many in the thread guessed, I read the first part of the question and skipped the examples. As a general rule, I purposefully don’t answer gotcha questions where someone tries to sneakily get me to confirm unknown information.

Card Types Creatures Magic Arena Phyrexian Phyrexian Arena Rules Supertype

Bitterblossom Trivia

Hi Mark! It's my birthday today! (and I remembered to ask something!) I was wondering if you had any trivia about my favourite card: Bitterblossom?

My inspiration for Bitterblosfom was Phyrexian Arena. Happy Birthday!

Birthday Bitterblossom Magic Arena Phyrexian Phyrexian Arena

Core Sets Possibilities

Are "what are they doing now?" style cards possible in the new core sets? Such as Conspiracy 2's Phyrexian Arena showing us Koth.

They are possible.

Conspiracy Magic Arena Phyrexian Phyrexian Arena

Standard Power Level

Is Phyrexian Arena too strong for Standard?

Not a developer, but probably.

Magic Arena Not a developer Phyrexian Phyrexian Arena Power Level Standard

Favorite Cards Trivia

Hey Maro, can I have some birthday trivia on either of my favorite two cards, Bitterblossom or Avacyn, Angel of Hope?

When I made Bitterblossom, I was inspired by the card Phyrexian Arena. The Tribal - Faerie was an afterthought when I realized it made Faerie tokens. Happy Birthday!

Angel Avacyn, Angel of Hope Birthday Bitterblossom Faerie Kindred / Typal Magic Arena Mark Rosewater Phyrexian Phyrexian Arena Tokens

Phyrexian Arena Strength

Is Phyrexian Arena too strong for Standard?

Not a developer, but I believe it is too strong.

Magic Arena Not a developer Phyrexian Phyrexian Arena Power Level Standard

Phyrexian Arena Design

It is my birthday, so after some time waiting, I get to ask about one of my favorite cards! What do your remember from the design of Phyrexian Arena?

The idea behind the creation of that card was thinking about what a black personal Howling Mind would look like. Black pays life for cards so turning it from a spell to an enchantment that triggered every turn felt like a natural progression. Happy birthday!

Birthday Black Enchantments Magic Arena Phyrexian Phyrexian Arena

Black Draw Engines

I was hoping for a potential Mono-black Control deck to try out for standard, but there is no inexpensive draw engine like Phyrexian Arena, or even Sign in Blood. Altar's reap is not very good card advantage. What does R&D think about cards like Phyrexian Arena, and is there any hope that it might come back in a Core Set?

It’s something black does. Effects ebb and flow so eventually it will come back with stronger versions.

Altar's Reap Black Blood Game Design Magic Arena Phyrexian Phyrexian Arena Sign in Blood Standard

Phyrexian Arena Reprint Idea

I always felt like Phyrexian Arena should have been reprinted in New Phyrexia because it was flavorful for the set and also good for constructed play; I mean, the Phyrexians were fully established on Mirrodin and it kind of makes sense that they could afford to have some "Experimental Butchering" to test the battle efficiency of different creatures. Does anyone in the design team proposed this idea? And if that's true, why it was rejected?

We talked about it but it never quite found a home in the file.

Battles Card Printing Constructed Creatures Flavor Magic Arena Mirrodin New Phyrexia Phyrexian Phyrexian Arena Reprints

Card Draw Analysis

It's often mentioned that Green is secondary in card draw while Black is tertiary, but you look at the kind of draw sources that Black has gotten throughout the years (Necropotence, Bargain, Phyrexian Arena, Confidant, even smaller spells like Night's Whisper) and they seem to be of a consistently higher power level than virtually anything Green has. Why grant Green an ostensible advantage in quantity of draw, but not in quality?

I would say that black and green are both secondary. Black’s one caveat is that it has to trade a resource, most often life, for the cards.

Bargain Black Card Draw Caves Green Magic Arena Necropotence Night's Whisper Phyrexian Phyrexian Arena Power Level Secondary Spells Tertiary