Most Played Cards in Phyrexia: All Will Be One

Early access statistics for Phyrexia: All Will Be One in MTG Arena is now in! Did your top picks made it into the list? Did some of our play predictions hold out true? And what are the delightful surprises that brought unexpected cards to the table?

“Let’s get to the numbers.”

Early Access Draft and Sealed Data

Limited has always been the best way to gain firsthand experience of what a new set can offer. Within those who participated a few days ago, here are some of the results:

Premier Draft Best Winrates By Deck Colors

• White-Blue-Black = 54.9%
• Black-Red = 53.5%
• Red-Green = 53.5%
• Blue-Red = 53.3%
• Green-White = 53.10%

Premier Sealed Best Winrates By Deck Colors

• Red-Green = 59.0%
• White-Black = 53.3%
• Red-Black-Green = 51.0%
• Balck-Green-White = 46.9$
• Green-White = 46.6%

Quite an interesting winrate list. At a glance, it does not seem like Toxic and Corrupted were anything backbreaking to certain games. But as evidenced by cards like Voidwing Hybrid and Blightbelly Rat, poison counters will remain a favorable alternative win condition whenever applicable.

Independent oil counter-based creatures are often used in tandem, as they have also proved themselves to be stable regardless of Draft or Sealed. This is especially when combined with mana-efficient sorceries and instants that already proliferate on their own.

Red stayed very stable at the top of both charts, most likely with a larger pool of stand-alone cards like the best two For Mirrodin! Equipments, Hexgold Halberd and Dragonwing Glider.

Corrupted definitely was an annoyance for many players here, since it effectively pushes the advantage for the player who already has considerably headstart in the first place. Those who fail the race to Corrupted often find it doubly hard to recover, even if all is yet to be lost.

Most Picked Cards in Draft

White

White opens a fair combination of medium-rated cards that seems to have been mostly chosen for their alternative utilities. Indoctrination Attendant, in particular, doesn’t just work well with ETB cards, but can even return already-played Sphere lands or For Mirrodin! equipments for double the card value.

On that note, it is interesting that The Fair Basilica is one of only two Sphere lands that appeared on the list. Did Boros colors need more draw with the number of deck filters and cyclers already in this set?

Blue

Already expecting somewhat grindy-ish or at least cumulative setup games, most chosen blue cards represent drawing value that is easily repeatable via multiple card copies. Vivisurgeon's Insight, for example, expects the player to have already set up the board, so that Proliferate gets way more value than the mana paid for drawing three cards.

Well, except for Eye of Malcator, which is yet another stable “maintenance” card for Limited games, kind of like Mightstone's Animation and Levitating Statue.

Black

The presence of Cruel Grimnarch was quite a surprise here. Was there some sort of thematic reason for its high pick statistic? Otherwise, the inclusion of the rest here is very understandable, especially Annihilating Glare.

Red

Ah yes draws. Bladegraft Aspirant stands in contrast to the theme of the rest of the red picks, though as a For Mirrodin! efficiency booster, it’s a nice, go-to card to pick. All entries are pretty straightforward here as well.

Green

Oil-Gorger Troll turned out to be more than just an aggro stopper, as pretty much 100% of the time it pays for itself with its easy condition. Predation Steward is still a bear at minimum with its stats, so the added effect was just considered a bonus. Same goes for Rustvine Cultivator as a one-drop, most likely.

Colorless

Mana rocks will always find their way to Limited decks no matter what, so long as artifacts are an obligatory inclusion to a statistic. It is surprising though, that Furnace Skullbomb made it into the list, since it is not as versatile as the rest of the other Skullbombs. Cantrip is more important than a single mana +2/+2 pump then? As for Myr Kinsmith, well, it is in a realm of its own.

Most Played Cards in Early Access Standard

Uncommons

Hmm, exclusively black and green. Most of these cards are pretty much versatile, independent cards. But Tyvar's Stand in particular, shines the best with its utter efficiency and very high synergy towards any theme that could splash green. Even when paid with no X mana, it still functions as a Tamiyo's Safekeeping, and still generates an advantage for cards like Venerated Rotpriest.

Speaking of which…

Rares

Was Venerated Rotpriest worth the hype? Seems yeah, definitely worth the hype. So much so, that Toxic decks are being built solely on it, and almost nothing else. Well, some builds still include Bloated Contaminator for such decks, which is the super Toxic generator on the combat side of things. Yep, these two cards are the primary Toxic and toxicity generators in Standard for Early Access.

Skrelv and his hive are also included here, but only because both cards are jam-packed with such cumulative potential that they often end up being included in any white deck, whether it is Toxic-themed, token-themed, or even Equipment-themed.

Mythic Rares

Supporting the impending doom of Toxic is Vraska, Betrayal's Sting and Tyrranax Rex, even though both are used very differently. Mondrak, Glory Dominus and Nissa, Ascended Animist share a somewhat similar-ish setup potential, although Nissa is quite more independent with her Compleated modality.

And yes, the fear of Phyrexian Obliterator is alive once again. Even with a very wide selection of easy and cheap removal in the current meta, it only really needs to connect once to create a disadvantage leap that your opponent might never recover from. Pray that no fight effects appear during the few swings that you’ll let it pass.