Set Prospective

Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander

February 27th, 2023 — Anthony Mattox & Parker LaMascus

This article is part of our community-sourced Set Prospective series. We survey Cube designers before the set’s official release to document their first impressions of new cards.

As with every contemporary set, Phyrexia: All Will Be One comes partnered with its own set of Commander decks. These decks add 28 new cards to fill out themes for Commander and offer even more options to cube designers as well.

Supplementary sets receive much less attention from the Cube design community, but these decks still offer an opportunity to Cube designers. In a shift towards what Mark Rosewater calls “designing for an eternal world” (and a singleton world), Wizards uses supplemental products to fill out themes enough to support Commander decks, but this also provides new options for Cube. For designers thinking ONE’s mechanics are too insular, ONC may be a reason to take another look.

Results

We received 82 responses to the ONE Commander Cube survey, a record number for a Commander release. On average, people are only trying two cards from ONC with the median response including only one card. Cards received an average rating of 5.5, slightly above the middle.

Filter by rarity:
Card TestersRank 
Glimmer Lens52.4%6.0
Staff of the Storyteller36.6%4.8
Otharri, Suns' Glory23.2%6.8
Synthesis Pod11.0%6.3
Lux Artillery7.3%5.3
Hexplate Wallbreaker7.3%5.0
Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant7.3%5.1
Contaminant Grafter6.1%6.0
Goldwardens' Gambit4.9%4.3
Kemba's Banner4.9%5.5
Mirage Mockery4.9%4.7
Clever Concealment4.9%5.5
Cards being tested by fewer than 4 respondents not shown.

Single Card Discussion

Glimmer Lens
Staff of the Storyteller
Otharri, Suns' Glory
“Is Otharri the best Boros card?”

The standout color in ONC for our Cube respondents is White. Glimmer Lens and Staff of the Storyteller are two new card advantage engines that still maintain the color pie, a key focus of Commander design that also benefits Cube. The Lens offers a reasonable floor for environments with aggressive strategies, and a valuable addition to the growing list of cheap living weapons for archetype support. The Staff begins as a 2-mana 1/1 flyer, but can generate card advantage even without a dedicated token archetype.

Moving slightly beyond {W}, Otharri, Suns' Glory offers Commander players a second chance at a red-white experience commander. For our Cube respondents (only a handful of which responded for a Commander Cube), most are likely interested Otharri's snowballing, evasive, recursive value. If you’re looking for a 5 mana creature that smashes The Vindicate Test, look no further!

Reprint Alert

Elspeth Tirel
Legion Warboss
Path to Exile
Noxious Revival
Finale of Glory

As with all preconstructed decks, ONC includes plenty of reprints, many of which are popular cards for Cubes. Now may be a great time to pick up a few singles at a great price.

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Otharri, Suns' Glory — Marta Nael