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So I was at target buying new work jeans and I started to gravitate towards the electronics / toy section, like you do, and I noticed the most recent expansion of Magic the Gathering is titled "Phyrexia". I started playing MTG when 4th edition was released, and I have read all the novels from "The Thran" up to "Apocalypse" and really enjoyed the storyline of the Phyrexians, Urza and Mishra, etc. I quit playing Magic around Kamigawa, but I still have all my cards.

Now, several expansions later they mention Phyrexia again. There is little doubt in my mind that I am ordering the Phyrexia "Fat Pack" for the novel, but anyone wanna fill me in on what happened up till there?

BTW, in my mind, you could make a pretty kickass video game based on the "Thran through Apocalypse" storyline if you could get the rights to it.

Well...Idk bookwise, but set wise there have been soem pretty sick cards. Jace the Mind Sculptor is probably one of the most powerful cards released, but also one of the easiest to destroy.

Umm, another would be Emrakul, the Aeons Torn from the Eldrazi. Again, easily destroyable since he's a Legendary.

There are some sweet combos you can pull off with those 2 (not in same deck of course...that would never work) that makes them seemingly invinvible.

Basically, Jace is a planeswalker, that if your opponent lets you pull it off, you exile his entire library and put his current hand as his library. Definitely a game winning move if you can pull it off. But since he's a planeswalker all you have to do is summon another one on your side and it destroys both of them.

Emrakul...is probably the hardest to counter considering he costs 15 colerless mana to cast. He is totally worth it though. He's a 15/15 flying, can't be counters, has protection from colored spells. He has anhilator 6, which means whenever he attacks (note, he does not have to do any damage at all) the defending player sacrifices 6 cards, then the defending player enters the defend phase in which he decides what to defend with if he is to defend. This is the key to the anhilator effect, that it takes place on the stack before the actual attack.

Then if Emrakul is ever sent to the graveyard from anywhere (including hand, library, field), you shuffle your graveyard into your library. And as if this card wasn't powerful enough, you get an extra turn after casting him.

Those are 2 of the cards to pay attention to from the newest series. Don't get me wrong, there are other cards that are definitely worth it, such as Sword of Body and Mind, and the other swords (forgot their effects =S).

Karn is the planeswalker in Phyrexia, and his effects are pretty sweet too. A lot of people discredit him, but I don't think that they count for the fact that you can use Karn, to exile himself. Summon another one later, proliferate the crap out of him (proliferate is to copy counters already on a card). Then use his ultimate effect. Restart the game, adn all cards that were exiled are now under your control, on the field, on the first turn.

Insane! Now imagine an exiled Karn. You get Karn on the first turn of the new game! Think of the power!

I see that this is part of the second Mirrodin cycle. I am going to start reading the first Mirrodin book, but there were several sets between Mirrodin and this one. I wonder if they are based on the same storyline.

Anyway, this reminded me of my old MTG days... I might have to go digging for my cards now.