Atraxa, Grand Unifier – Phyrexia: All Will Be One
Date Reviewed: December 18, 2023
Ratings:
Constructed: 4.13
Casual: 4.25
Limited: 3.00
Multiplayer: 4.00
Commander [EDH]: 4.13
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale: 1 is bad; 3 is average; 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
David
Fanany
Player
since
1995
This card was 10th on my Top 10 list.
Atraxa would be a crazy card even if she had just one “side”, so to speak, of her abilities. Her combat stats and keywords are beyond efficient, which is probably fair enough when she costs seven mana in four different colors. This leads to her being able to single-handedly dominate combat when she’s on the table. But of course, she also has the comes-into-play trigger which can make a five-mana Mulldrifter look downright underwhelming. Try not to think of it as something that you have to maximize every time – you don’t have to draw anywhere near nine cards to win the game with it, and most decks are guaranteed to have at least a creature and a land in the top ten cards of their library, and quite often an instant or sorcery too.
I was surprised when I looked up this exact color identity and found that there are only three cards that have it. Two of them are variations of Atraxa herself, and the third is one of the Nephilim from Guildpact. To be fair, it’s hard enough to design two-color cards that feel like they have to be both of their colors, much less four!
Constructed: 4
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3 (not so easy to cast in this kind of draft!)
Multiplayer: 4
Commander: 4
This card was 10th on my Top 10 list.
Atraxa, Grand Unifier is, all things considered, a pretty good value. The keywords are always relevant in terms of combat, both formidable as an attacker and as a blocker, and being able to draw up to nine cards off of it is extremely solid. Even if you don’t always get full value from her (which is absurdly rare), even drawing three to four cards off of her, in addition to the body, is a good start, and while it might not be the absolute best reanimation target, it’s still a very strong one with a bevy of immediate benefits on entry. It’s a card that shines most when used unfairly, as a way to snowball into more unfair things, and while t’s not a fan of kill spells, who really is?
Constructed: 4.25
Casual: 4
Limited: 3 (was hurt by being the set’s only four-color card in a set not exactly encouraging four colors)
Multiplayer: 4
Commander: 4.25
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