Reviewing Magic: The Gathering #22 - Invasion

We're back with Magic: The Gathering, and this time we're leaving behind the frankly underwhelming (from a lore-and-flavour standpoint) Masques block and finally go into the Invasion block! This is where all of the whole buildup to Phyrexia's invasion finally comes to fruition, as the Weatherlight crew, the ancient artificer Urza, and the citizens of the plane of Dominaria finally all band together in a massive coalition to oppose the Phyrexians and their master, Yawgmoth.

And the theme of this 'big' expansion of the block seems to be basically the huge return of multi-coloured cards. Knowing M:TG nowadays it might be a bit bizarre to realize that multi-coloured cards are a bit of a novelty that appears and disappears with different blocks, huh? In-universe, it's meant to represent the coalition of five mana colours finally banding together to fight the Phyrexians. That's pretty neat.

• Click here for the previous part, Prophecy.
• Click here for the next part, Planeshift & Apocalypse.
• Click here for the index.

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I'm going to start off with the Black-mana cards this time around, and, as always, cherry-picking the cards whose flavour and artwork and monster design I like the most among the expansion. While technically Invasion features a bunch of Dominaria's native Black-mana monsters helping out in fighting the Phyrexians, a majority of the Black cards are still, well, Phyrexian-themed.I'm going to start off here with Yawgmoth's Agenda. Big bad Yawgmoth doesn't really have a permanent form, I don't think, and I'm not sure if this creature here is supposed to represent like an avatar of Yawgmoth or something else... it's actually Tsabo Tavoc, the Phyrexian general for this storyline. I really should've taken a look at all the cards before talking out of my ass. Anyway, what initially looks like some dude rising out of a sci-fi futuristic sleeping tank turns out to be a drider-style human-centaur with a robotic spider lower body. The more I look at this dude, the more he looks cooler. Four arms, giant chunky spider legs... but I think the most unsettling part of this artwork is how the head seems to be bent down a bit too much.

Phyrexian Slayer is just a 'minion', and I don't think I'm tired of seeing just how far the illustrators can take the techno-organic mutant vibe that these things have. I really like how one arm is just a big serrated blade, and the other is this unholy mix of what seems to be random teeth, fangs and a tiny pizza-cutter. And there are two weird-looking maybe-wings jutting out of his back, and his face is like some sort of deep sea isopod horror with a grinning teeth. The general silhouette of this ends up coming off as H.R. Giger meets Golisopod from Pokemon. It's great.


Not all of the Phyrexian dudes are like giant terrifying monstrosities, and sometimes you have Phyrexian Battleflies, and I really do like the artwork here showing the swarm of little toy-like little spinning robots with pointy edges swarming all over that pale-skinned elf warrior. The vibe I'm getting from the Phyrexian invasion is that they're not just scary because their ranks are filled with terrifying half-machine, half-flesh monstrosities, but they're also going to infect you and slowly turn you into one of them.

I am not sure how that giant spider-dinosaur monster is counted as an 'infiltrator'. What is that thing going to infiltrate? The Phyrexian Infiltrator looks a bit more cartoony thanks to the art style, but that face still looks pretty unsettling. Those two glowing green eyes that are located at the wrong point of the face is spooky, although I really do like the fun, chunky tubes and vents that dot around what we can see of the Phyrexian Infiltrator's body. I'm not sure what's supposed to be going on here,  though. The flavour text identifies this as something that 'replaces inefficient flesh', which, sure,  the artwork fits as it seems to be disintegrating an elf warrior. But the effect and the name has it have a switching sides ability, fitting with the 'infiltrator' moniker. Not sure what's going on here.


Phyrexian Delver is just a 'zombie', and it's interesting that none of these Phyrexians printed in this set ever got the 'horror' tag retroactively applied to them. I'm not sure what it means, in-universe. The Phyrexian Delver is certainly an interesting looking zombie, a giant tank with treads and a bunch of moaning human faces fused to it. It reminds me of something straight out of Berserk or Doom or something. And, well... this bizarre zombie-machine thing apparently exists to bring forth even more zombies from the ground. It's just silly that this giant tank is just considered a zombie, when really it's more of a zombie-tank making more zombies from the ground. Okay, Phyrexia. I actually own a more modern version of the Phyrexian Delver card, where it sure is cool, some sort of flesh spider-centaur monstrosity that's ripping up corpses from the ground, but it doesn't quite have the same sense of unsettling goofiness that original Phyrexian Delver had.

The Phyrexian Reaper goes from the unsettling-but-comical vibe that the Delver has back into cool creepy horror. This thing is like 90% spikes. Giant spikes for shoulders, giant spikes jutting out of his back, giant spiky finger claws, giant spiky toe-claws, giant spiky blades jutting out of his hands, and, hell, even that rifle he's holding has got around two or three extra spikes jutting out of it. It's very lanky and skeletal looking. Probably one of the straight-up coolest Phyrexian minions in this set, I think.


Back to Horrors now, and I'm not sure what made these next couple of creatures classified more as a horror while the rest of the ones above are 'merely' minions and zombies. Phyrexia's creatures defy normal human logic, I suppose, in their classification. Plague Spitter is a great design, though. Just look at this big fat lump of flesh, with a little angry white mask-like face at the bottom of its engorged body. It's almost tick-like, isn't it? With its teeny-tiny little bug legs supporting such a huge body, and it's just exuding all sorts of plague miasma out of the holes on the top of its body? I really do like that there's another Plague Spitter trodding on in the background, I can just imagine Phyrexia just unleashing a little swarm of these guys as they calmly trod across the battlefield and slowly damaging everything around them.

As I can tell from a brief skim through google, Urborg is apparently the place in Dominaria where Black mana is the most deeply rooted, and the first part in Dominaria where Phyrexia's invasion was successful. So I guess some of the native Urborg horrors just decided to hang out with the Phyrexians, then? Like Urborg Shambler over here. I do like just how unsettling this thing looks, with one too many joints in its hands, two tiny legs that jut in an angle that screams wrong, weird slug-like eyes and that huge nose in the middle of that bestial face.


What is a 'Strossus'? Whatever is is, though Devouring Strossus will eat random creatures to regenerate its health. It's a pretty cool monster, there are a lot of shades of Shadow of the Colossus vibes here. It's just a giant metal man with giant tattered bat wings, and the way it's posed here, looming over smaller mechanical robot zombies and seemingly unleashing little lightning bolts like rain over the area... and there's just this one brave warrior facing off against it... pretty cool artwork. Honestly, concept-wise it might not be the most creative Phyrexian monster here, but I really, really do like the artwork.

Tasbo's Assassin is a bit odd and it took me a while to realize that this is just one creature with a particularly large right arm instead of two skeletal horror-monsters. There's also this spinning... necklace of pearls or something that rotate around its spine and claw-arm? Honestly I don't find this anywhere as creepy or cool as any of the other Phyrexian monsters in this set, but still a neat looking monster.


A cycle of cards in this set that baffles me in this set are the leeches. And I'm always up for having leech monsters because I find it really fun and cool that Magic: The Gathering has a dedicated 'leech' tribe, but it's kind of odd that they decided to spotlight leeches in a set all about invading extra-dimensional cyborg zombie horrors. Oh well. Andradite Leech here is a giant, engorged worm thing that proportion-wise looks less like a worm and more like a mutant dinosaur. Surprisingly, despite being the Black representative, Andradite Leech is the most boring out of the leeches in this set, just being a gem-encrused giant worm with a fanged dragon mouth. And that's still a cool leech monster, but not particularly interesting compared to its ilk.

Marauding Knight is a pretty cool creature. The knight-dude riding it is sure cool, with a massive dome-like back, a giant shield-arm and another arm that's just a massive claw as big as its torso, but I feel like my favourite aspect of this monster is the horse. I really do feel like the horse's artwork captures the 'techno-organic horror-zombie mush' vibe of the Phyrexians particularly well. I like this one.


I do find it interesting that for some reason, Yawgmoth apparently employs giant Trench Wurms when he doesn't care for subtlety. There's really nothing too interesting about these that we haven't seen, although I really do like the artwork of this one with the massive beak-like upper jaw, the bristling fur-thorns running down the Trench Wurm's body and the fact that the artwork manages to sneak in a couple of extra giant wurms in the background.

Hypnotic Cloud is here mostly because of how cool the Phyrexian-zombie-cyborg-man in this artwork looks. I really like the doofy-looking grin that the little skull-like face on the center of this creature's head has. The weird giant... pulsating green maybe-brain thing with the silver parts trying and failing to hold it in is also pretty cool, as are the two tendril-like vines that attach the sides of his head to his chest... are those arms? But really, my favourite part is definitely the grinning skull at the center of the creature's head. Hypnotic Cloud is our first card here with the "Kicker" ability, where you can pay an additional cost of mana for the card to do something extra. As a little theme, all of the cards with Kicker has the expansion's symbol in the artwork. Now the symbol is meant to represent the five-colour coalition of Dominaria, so is this brain-skull dude in Hypnotic Cloud actually one of the good guys? It sure doesn't look like it's attacking Phyrexians...


As usual White is the most boring of the colours in this expansion, and I really tried to include more, I really did. But I really can't find anything particularly interesting, as usual. Atalya, Samite Master is just a generic healing lady of the Samite Order, and she's only here because I made a habit of including all of the legendary cards. Reya Dawnbringer is actually a pretty cool-looking artwork and she's an angel legend. According to the wiki she's one of the first angels created by Serra, but died at some point during the Invasion war. Kinda boring, but pretty neat.


Alabaster Leech is... wow, I'm not sure what I'm looking at here. Is it even still a 'leech'? Instead of a suction mouth, it has this weird thing that looks more like a doorway in the middle of its very phallic head. It's got a bunch of glowing white orbs running down its body. This thing is just filled with nothing but ridges and creepy wrinkles, and I'm not even sure why this thing is even considered a White card instead of a Black one. I guess the only reason why is that those white stones have some sort of a healing function, but the Alabaster Leech itself can't even use it as an effect. I'm not going to complain, though, it's probably one of the weirdest and creepiest looking White card in the past five expansions or so. The leech cycle actually harm you, and they're actually being parasitic to you by making spells you play cost more. Bad leech, parasitize the enemy!

Glimmering Angel is pretty cool as far as angels go. I do like that its face doesn't seem to have any sort of features, and its lower body just trails off into the cloud. Whenever random Phyrexian enemies show up in other cards I always try to see if they're based on any specific card, but these just seem to be randoms. Also, for some reason, Glimmering Angel uses Blue mana to activate its effect? That's the theme of this set, of course, of different colours cooperating and stuff, but I really do wish taht they had put more thought because there's absolutely nothing about the Glimmering Angel that screams 'blue'.


Pledge of Loyalty is only here because there's a giant Bioshock-esque mecha suit with a giant globe for the pilot to sit in, giant shoulders and chunky metal claws. It's apparently supposed to represent Urza convincing the Dominarians to work together, but I'm not sure what it has to do with a giant mech-suit tossing civilians around. Is that supposed to be Urza? But then why is it tossing people around? Is this how you get their loyalty, Urza?

Spirit of Resistance is pretty funny, that baffled-looking dinosaur creature has a hilarious expression. I guess this is the whole theme of the set, where the five colours of mana all combine and work together. The effect sure works with you having all five colours of mana to create a shield and block damage, although it seems really impractical to do that just for this one effect. I like the artwork, if nothing else.


The Blind Seer has some very strong Dr. Strange vibes if Dr. Strange was set in a wuxia Chinese story. He's got a cool staff with a little bauble hanging off it. The Blind Seer is a legendary card, and as the accompanying material would tell us, is actually Urza in disguise trying to teach Gerrard and the Weatherlight crew and get them to where they needed to be. It sure is a story trope, I suppose. I can't say I have any strong feelings about this card.

The Tolarian Emissary here is sure in a pretty uncomfortable-looking pose, but she sure is bashing the head of that very cool-looking mechanical bug monster. I really do like the bug monster here with its multiple horns, but mostly I find it funny that the Emissary's clothes are struggling to stay on her person.


Apparently, Empress Galina III here and her Vodalian people time-traveled from the era of Fallen Empires to escape from the Homarid invasion, beat up the present-day merfolk and assumed command, only to get killed by the Phyrexian invasion. Sucks to be Galina. She has adorable baby otter pets, I hope they survived the Phyrexians' assault. Also, despite other cards in the set are happy to have two tribes, Galina is just a 'Legend' whereas the two White legendary ladies up above were 'Angel Legend' and 'Cleric Legend' respectively. Boo!

Galina is kind of boring, but her minions sure aren't. Look at Tidal Visionary here! She's fucking summoning a shark out of a watery portal, that's pretty fucking badass. Invasion-era merfolk look a lot more humanoid compared to Rath's merfolk, in that they have humanoid faces... but there's still a lot of fishy features all over their faces, arms and back.


Good lord, Sapphire Leech! Joining the Alabaster Leech in 'is this still even a leech?' category, the Sapphire Leech is just this undulating worm that's flying in the sky trying to snack on these weird little mosquito-bird creatures. Look at that nasty mouth with three giant teeth! I particularly love the wings -- which look more like those wavy appendages that sea slugs have. The person who wrote the flavour text clearly anticipated this, and noted that the Sapphire Leech's wings were vestigial and it's flying because magic gems shut up. A very cool-looking creature for sure.

This time around I surprisingly don't have too many Blue cards to talk about, only clocking in at six. And the Metathran Zombie here isn't even a creature I found super-cool or anything, it's just really here to show off that, hey,. the Metathran magic-created artificial race that Urza made in his block are still around... although this particular Metathran got killed and has just been raised by the Phyrexians as a zombie. A cyborg zombie, and I like that its mouth has been replaced by a very bug-esque metal implement. I bet he sounds like a cheap Darth Vader ripoff now.


One interesting thing that Invasion has is the introduction of the Kavu race, a group of vaguely-reptilian beasts that are vaguely dinosaur-like, but they have giant, square-ish faces, anywhere between four to six limbs, a bunch of fangs and are extremely adaptable. They're basically Godzilla stand-ins, noted to have been hibernating under the surface of the earth until the Maro-sorcerer Multani revived them to fight the Phyrexian invasion. They're mostly found in Red and Green and... I kind of like them? Ancient Kavu is probably the most 'basic' looking Kavu in Red, just weird dinosaur with spikes and a huge chunky underbite.

The whole thing about the kavu is that they apparently mutate very easily to adapt to things around them, and the Kavu Runner here seems to have adapted by having many legs that end in... pretty strange-looking feet. What are those supposed to look like? Insects of some sort? Elephants? It still does kind of sell the fact that this is a creature adapted to sprinting and running, and I do like the combination of gray and a red ridged back on the creature.


The Rogue Kavu is apparently 'shunned for its differences' by the other Kavu, although it doesn't look too different, I feel? It's not like it's any less different than the basic Kavu compared to some of the others. It's got a cool Ceratopsian head-crest and a mottled, rock-esque texture on its body, and its face is so devious-looking. The effect is also pretty thematic, buffing the Rogue Kavu if it attacks alone.

The Hooded Kavu is another quadripedal example of its species, and it apparently has a huge cobra-like hood and cobra-inspired fangs. A very cool monster here, I really don't have a whole ton to say here -- it's a snake-themed Kavu and that's pretty cool.


Apparently one of the bosses of the Kavu is the Kavu Monarch, which buffs all other Kavu and gets buffed by new Kavu monsters that get summoned. It's a very scraggly-looking creature that's just all covered with thorns and spikes, a very nasty-looking face, and the way it's posed here makes it look like some sort of four-legged creature with two arms. A very grisly looking Kavu. Not a whole ton to say about the Skittish Kavu, though, other than the fact that it runs around trees and eats Toucans.


No one had the time to tattoo the Pouncing Kavu, so the symbol has to be awkwardly hidden in the background. The Poucing Kavu still has a very reptilian/dinosaurian head, but the body seems to be inspired by something like a lion. The Kavu Scout is another one that looks pretty 'basic', just a giant ambiguous-looking dinosaur, and another one whose flavour text talks about them as these beings awakened from deep beneath the Earth.


A pair of mutated Kavu, the Slimy Kavu looks just gross and apparently leaves behind a trail of slime that liquefies the ground behind it, and the artwork is really great at making this creature look absoultely gross.

The Kavu Aggressor's face kind of reminds me of the Chest-Burster from Alien. That's the first thing my mind went off to. This is another one whose proportions really looks like some sort of mutant centaur, and judging by the fact that it's able to toss around Phyrexian soldiers like dolls, this is sure one big Kavu! Someone even took the time to tattoo the coalition symbol on its forehead.


Another one that doesn't really resemble a real-life leech, the Ruby Leech has a very uniquely different set of art style compared to the other cards in this set, I think. That face looks like some grotesque exaggeration of... I'm not even sure what. One of those deep-sea anglerfish, I guess? It sure is a terrifying-looking face with those huge orb-like eyes and the ridged toothy fangs. Judging by the torn-down flag next to it, the Ruby Leech is also probably pretty big.

Skizzik has a name and design that makes it look like some sort of Golden Age superhero alien enemy, and probably hangs around with Zzzax or something. It's a mighty elemental that will dissipate if you didn't properly pay the Kicker cost, and it is just a bundle of lightning bolts crudely arranged in the form of, well, the coalition symbol. That said, it's not a bad thing, it still looks like an angry face sprouting two lightning-arms to zap those puny humans.


Scorching Lava here is a pretty cool thing, and I'm not even sure what the hell it's supposed to be. It's all just words talking about the effect without a flavour text, and I'm sad! I really do want to know the story behind this giant Zoids-like maybe-mechanical maybe-magical giant elephant-esque thing with a fortress on its back and a... a magical tower with a bubble as a head? You'd think that would be the most interesting thing to note about here, but no, it's the lava cannon it has on its chin that's blowing up a Phyrexian ship.

Thicket Elemental is also another one where the body of the card is all text, but here I think the lack of context ends up making it feel a bit creepier. You know it's an elemental creature, and it's a thicket elemental... but what the fuck is this thing? It's like, a mysterious cage made up of thickets and brambles, with two chunky arm-leg limbs that sprout out of its side. But most bizarre is the shadowy figure with two glowing eyes within the thicket. Is it its true body? The caster who created the Thicket Elemental? Some dark monster it captured and is holding prisoner? What's going on here, Thicket Elemental? Very cool artwork.


We get a lot of elves in this set, but I just kind of want to point out Elvish Champion here because Invasion-era elves, perhaps because they decided to take the elves in that radical, badass 90's direction, decided to ditch a lot of their calm, harmony-with-nature Legolas-cosplay look and decide that they should all be pale-skinned, partially-shaved badassses with tattoos and sexy leather armour. I can't say I particularly love this direction, but it's at least something different.

Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer is yet another Maro legend, and this one has four spindly-looking arms that end in chunky lower arms. Moreso than other Maro creatures, this one really looks like something alien since its lower body is obviously just made up of random brambles and branches, and its face isn't even humanoid-looking, with three orb-like eyes and a 'face' that looks more like a convenient bird-face-shaped block of wood. Yet you can still see that the artwork does depict him as ultimately kind of a benign creature. Molimo's pretty cool, and the lore notes that he's actually kind of a maverick who worships the planeswalker Freyalise as the true goddess of nature, unlike the other Maro-Sorcerers who worship an actual goddess, Gaea. Okay!


Yikes, look at that nasty-ass Jade Leech! With a massive maw and a body that looks like a nasty mutant slug more than a leech, the Jade Leech even has little tiny bug-arms near its mouth that adds to just how creepy the Jade Leech looks. I'm not even sure what those ridges on the sides of its mouth are. Extra mouths? Eyes? A very nasty-looking leech, and the fact that we get to see two random adventurers trying to slay this thing makes it look a fair bit more impressive than it otherwise would be.

I'm wrong, the Ancient Kavu isn't the most basic-looking Kavu. It'd be the Kavu Climber here, which probably portrays the quasi-dinosaurian look of the Kavu most succinctly. You can totally see that it's basically just a Triceratops body with Godzilla's chunky dinosaur jaw transplanted onto a quadrupedal body with more monkey-like limbs, yeah? The Kavu Climber also has the most informative flavour text that tells us the most about the Kavu beyond me going to try and google what they are -- they're literal beings that nature itself brought out of slumbering to defend itself.


I guess we're just going through all the Kavu, then? Kavu Titan is another one that feels like it falls into the same sort of centaur-dinosaur Kavu like the Kavu Aggressor and Kavu Monarch. Not a whole ton to say here, it sure is a badass Kavu tossing soldiers around, but I can see why the creative team decided to put in the 'easily mutable' aspect so they don't just draw the same creature in different poses twenty times over.

Kavu Chameleon, meanwhile, is a giant Kavu that can apparently hide itself and change to resemble... a tree, I guess? Mind you, the Kavu Chameleon doesn't seem to be able to change its shape, and it's just holding that pose with its blue-gray legs and green upper body matching the trees around it, but it's still pretty visibly just a Kavu doing a pose. I guess Phyrexians aren't that smart, though. Mostly I just find the implications of this art piece hilarious.


These two are a bit more mutated, though, with the Serpentine Kavu being, well, a giant Wurm with little stubby dinosaur-arms. I really like the giant maw on this one, as well as the colourful, caterpillar-esque markings on its body. The artwork is pretty cool too, it took me a while to realize that it's not bursting out of the ground like any lame ol' wurm, but is actually weaving its way through the trees.

Rooting Kavu doesn't have any flavour text so everything here is just conjecture on my part, but it looks like it's partially a plant? Or at least wooden? Rooting Kavu looks like some sort of mutant triceratops-style dinosaur with giant tusks and a huge, splayed crest on both its head and its shoulders. A pretty neat monster.


We haven't had any treefolk in a while, and, hey, poor Treefolk Healer here is being shot at with lasers! Those mean mean Phyrexians. I do like that the Treefolk Healer is actually sheltering its druid buddy protectively, which is just pretty cool. I don't know enough about trees, but I really love this sort of... birch-like tree with white bark.

Verdeloth the Ancient is a legendary leader for the Treefolk, and hoo boy, he sure is a big dude. Is he meant to take the form of a giant Kavu? Whatever the case, it sure is a giant kaiju with a massive crown of trees for its head and giant tree-trunks as limbs. A very, very cool giant tree monster, and I do love that you can see the Masques/Invasion-block-era Saprolings, which are weird little snake-plant monsters. Verdeloth doesn't just buff treefolk, she also buffs Saprolings, which is cool!


Okay, yeah, some of the insertion of the coalition symbol just isn't subtle at all, huh. With Verdeloth it's carved into one of the trees in the background, but you're telling me that the Pincer Spider is all happy to be part of the coalition that it's engraved it on its egg sack? The Pincer Spider, by the way, seems to be based on the real-life Whip Spider, which have severely modified pedipalps that function as pincers. M:TG's Pincer Spider has extra-large mouth parts, but still.

Riptide Crab, on the other hand, isn't based on anything remotely resembling a real-life crab. It's also our very first dual-type card, and while the Blue part of the crab is easy to see why... I'm not sure why it's part-White. A lot of the early dual-type cards are basically just arbitrary in slapping down the magic colours. Riptide Crab is pretty nasty-looking, with a giant reptillian maw, three sets of decidedly not-crab arms jutting out of the front side of its body like stumpy limbs, and four giant grasshopper legs on its back. It sort of reminds me of the Plague Fiend from the previous expansion, actually, which also had stumpy limbs near a giant head.


As a big-name expansion set, we get a couple of legendary cards. Captain Sisay, the original captain of the Weatherlight, finally gets represented in a legendary card. She sure is a pretty fantasy pirate-captain lady! And Hanna, Ship's Navigator, also shows up here. She dies in the storyline at around this expansion, though, so poor Hanna. I haven't read any of the novels and had only read their synopses, and... and these two are pretty standard fantasy story archetypes. Sisay's the leader-mentor that also doubles as the 'badass in distress' character, while Hanna is the healer lady. I really thought I would've had more to say here, but I don't.

I'm not entirely sure about their assigned colours either. Hanna's a smart lady that knows all about the artifacts, which is where the Blue comes in, but the White... I guess she's one of the good guys and that's why she is partially-White? Eh. Sisay's colours are even more of a mystery to me. The White part is maybe because most rebels and fighters-for-justice get plastered with White, but nothing about her secretly screams Green to me unless Sisay secretly has a love for gardening or something.


Invasion brings to us five primeval dragons, another quintet of multi-coloured dragons that are apparently the successors of the Elder Dragons from Legends, and they're mighty, primeval dragons that were reincarnated after originally ruling Dominaria before men... and Darigaaz, the Igniter, goes off to try and awaken all of the other Primeval Dragons to fight the Phyrexians. There's also a storyline about them that mainly takes place in the next couple of expansions/novels, where their power ended up being just a mite too much for them to control and Darigaaz ended up sacrificing himself so he doesn't harm the good guys. Darigaaz (Rhammidarigaaz if you want to really get his attention) here is the main character of the primeval dragons, and all of them are tri-coloured with a specific one out of the three that the card effect highlights as their 'main' colour. Darigaaz here is a pretty neat dragon, I think I like that his wings seem to sprout out of the sides of his neck like some sort of giant mutant bunny-ear wings. Darigaaz is posed like a human or a gargoyle in that art, which I tend to not really like for dragons... but this is a cool one.

Rith, the Awakener, also has the same sort of 'wings sprouting from the neck' deal  as Darigaaz, but she's flying around like a regular dragon. I like the extra ridges around her head, I guess. Despite seemingly being more benign than the others (she has Green and White as two of her colours, which are traditionally more 'good') Rith seems to actually be one of the nastiest of the five, noting to have dominated Darigaaz's mind and forcing him to revive all of the Primeval Dragons regardless of the cost of mortal lives.


Crosis, the Purger, is the 'Black' dragon of the set, and apparently had the power to instantly kill people by screaming. I like his design, he's got a weird lamprey-like head and I think another set of tinier arms under his skull? I don't find him quite as interesting as the ear-wings of Darigaaz and Rith, but he sure is still a cool lamprey-headed dragon. There isn't much about Crosis, despite being the 'Black' one that's sealed because of his immense power, Crosis doesn't seem to be actively evil moreso than he is violent.

Dromar, the Banisher, was sealed under the ocean and was the 'Blue' dragon, and apparently was tricked into staying in his underwater prison because the mage that sealed him there gave him a gigantic treasure hoard. Dromar's a neat-looking dragon even if his artwork is nowhere as impressive as the other four Primevals. I do really like his head-crest thing, which looks pretty.


Treva, the Renewer, despite being the 'White' dragon, is also noted to be not quite as good as her colour-wheel alignment implies, although the wiki doesn't really go too deeply into her. She's pretty neat, even if at this point I've seen a lot of dragons in other fantasy works with the same concept as Treva -- a white dragon that has feather-like angelic wings instead of bat-like reptilian wings. It's nothing particularly impressive, but the artwork does sell the concept of a 'holy' dragon well.

Tsabo Tavoc is the main arc villain for this cycle, being that weird drider-cyborg that I described as the first card in my review in 'Yawgmoth's Ambition' up above. I've spoken quite a bit about her, she's a cyborg-lady with four arms and the lower body of a robotic spider. She's pretty cool, and it is certainly refreshing to have bad guys who aren't just boring-looking evil humanoids. Sometimes you just need a crazy-looking steampunk cyborg spider lady!


Our final dual-colour Legend is Kangee, Aerie Keeper, identified as a member of the bird-man Aven race in later material. He's a pretty neat-looking bird-man, with a pretty neat... is that his mask or his actual face? Either way, I do like that the beak is actually crooked. I really don't have much to say here other than he's a pretty cool bird-man.

I mostly just placed Blazing Specter here because I found the artwork cool. It looks like those dragon-riding Nazgul from Lord of the Rings! And sure, it's a common trope. A great, slinking giant dragon with a dark, shadowy, skeletal rider on top of it... pretty common, and I'm sure M:TG has had at least a couple of them before this. But it still doesn't make them any less cool when you see them!


Urborg Drake here is an interesting creature. A Blue/Black drake, unlike most drakes or dragons, the Urborg Drake doesn't seem to have legs and instead seems to have three pairs of dragon wings, one pair jutting out of the sides of its head. And that head... uh... it looks like it's just a beaky skeleton, huh? A very, very cool mutant dragon even if it didn't have the rider on top of it. As I say in Blazing Specter's entry, any dragon with a rider is automatically cooler.

Oh, holy shit, is that what Molimo looks like? I initially thought Artifact Mutation just had an artifact be mutated into some sort of hideout bramble-creature monstrosity, but apparently that's Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer, casting a spell to turn an artifact into a mass of green goop and Saprolings. The Saprolings look a lot more maggot-like here, but most notably is the artwork showing us a clearer view of Molimo's lower body... he doesn't have any. It's just an orb with a bunch of branches acting like a spider leg. That's cool. That's very very cool.


Yeah, fuck it, I'll talk about all of the Kavu here. Oddly, though, the dual-coloured Kavu are actually significantly less interesting concept-wise compared to the pure-Red and pure-Green Kavus. Vicious Kavu's flavour text is another one that tells us of the origin of the Kavu, and it's the only Kavu to be Black/Red. Okay? I guess it's more evil than the others because it's killing that poor scarecrow? Yavimaya Kavu is also another one that's a pretty neat showcase of what a Kavu looks from the side, and I think that little gray thing is meant to be its young.


Not a whole ton to say here in Raging Kavu and Hunting Kavu, although, again, the flavour text here tells us more about the Kavu's backstory... and the fact that they're likely to turn on their Dominarian allies once this is over. Raging Kavu has a pretty cool artwork for one of these rampaging monsters, and the Hunting Kavu gives us a seemingly bipedal creature whose gait reminds me of like a werewolf or something. Nothing too special here.


What is a Nishoba? The updated version of this card just tells us that the Sabertooth Nishoba is a 'cat beast warrior', which... okay, I guess this is a mighty muscular cat-man dude with saber-tooth tusks. The flavour text at least gives us something about the Nishoba, that they're proud warrior types. This one seems to be wrestling a serpent of sorts. Okay!

Cinder Shade is another one that's here because I really like the artwork, the mental image of this walking corpse with wings that seem to be melting into the ground around him is pretty cool. Oh, and also, he's on fire, and looks like he's in pain. Pretty cool creature.


ARMADILLO CLOAK! Also, the flavour text. "Don't laugh, it works." Okay, random Yavimaya elves, you sure are a lot cooler than your lame-o hippie tree-hugging predecessors. Anyone who's willing to turn themselves into a living bowling ball to attack zombie robots sure deserves a bunch of respect. Reckless Assault is a pretty simple card, showing the Phyrexians shooting up Dominaria, but I really do like the weird scuttling spider-robot in the foreground and the tiny jet in the background. Pretty flavourful for the vibe of the set.


We're entering artifacts, and as you can expect from a Phyrexian-centric expansion, there are a couple of them. The Power Armor we've seen before earlier in the expansion in Pledge of Loyalty, so it sure is something belonging to Urza. The question becomes then, why is Urza tossing a bunch of regular humans around in that artwork? Other than that, though, the Power Armor is a pretty cool robot suit.

I really love that the Planar Portal are these giant weird croissant-things that float in the sky, each with a white mask at the center and little spider-like limbs. I'm not even making fun of this thing, the Planar Portal actually looks pretty dang cool and alien. Also equally cool and alien is the Phyrexian ship it's summoning, looking like a hideous giant insect-bird made out of metal, and there are a bunch of green orbs on its 'head'. I really do wish that the expansion featured more cards with artwork along the lines of Planar Portal here, that really showcase the Phyrexians emerging from portals and entering Dominaria to unleash their invasion. But oh well.


All the Primeval Dragons have their own personal golem attendants that will generate their masters' three mana colours. I'm not sure what the logic was, why a bunch of primeval beings had robotic assistants, but, sure, okay. Crosis' Attendant here deserves special mention for clearly being designed to resemble Iron Man. Where the other attendants were relatively boring humanoid robots, Rith's Attendant is... what the fuck is that even? Some sort of monstrous metal monster with four legs and horns. It's vaguely ram-like and dog-like, and pretty monstrous-looking all around. In retrospect, comparing Rith's Attendant to the other attendants you could probably tell that Rith was secretly the most evil one.


Tek is just a mechanical dragon buried under the sand. There's nothing more to Tek, there's no flavour text or lore or anything. Tek is just a robot dragon bursting out of the sand, but there are also a bunch of smaller humanoid robots around him. What's the story here?

Sparring Golem looks absolutely wretched. Look at those tiny, crouching legs, those multiple sets of tiny, spindly arms, that monstrous head that doesn't look like it's attached right to the body, and a bucnh of random spears glued on to it. Apparently, the good guys created this one as 'part drill sergeant, part training dummy'. It's not even a Phyrexian horror, it's just something that the good guys made to resemble one to train the troops. But that face, that face is truly unsettling.

That's about it, and I actually did most of this in a single sitting, which is nice. Click below for the rest of the expansion, as usual!

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The story of the expansion, as always, is told via an accompanying novel. Skimming through M:TG's plot summary, the plot is basically the Weatherlight crew trying to close the Phyrexian portals and try their best to get the warring factions in Dominaria to band together to fight the greater threat, but, of course, not everyone ends up making out of the massive inter-dimensional war alive. Benalia City gets razed to the ground, Urza's Serran and Metathran armies are decimated, and the leader of the invasion, Tsabo Tavoc, manages to completely rout the Weatherlight crew and one of them, Hanna, gets infected with the Phyrexian Plague.

Urza manages to make a siege on Tsabo Tavoc's base into a stalemate, while the elves of Yavimaya manage to gather powerful allies from the fierce beasts of Dominaria's jungles and seas and mount a defense. On Urborg, Barrin's forces are nearly wiped out until they were saved by the unlikely help of a necromancer. In Zhalfir, Teferi elects to save his people and himself, phasing out of reality and abandoning the rest of Dominaria. The Weatherlight crew move as directed by a mysterious Blind Seer (later revealed to be Urza in disguise) they saved from Benalia, closing portals in Llamowar, plane-shifts to Rath and manage to create a serum against the Phyrexian plague, but they were too late to save Hanna. The elven leader Eladamri ends up replacing the fallen Metathran General in Koilos.

While the armies clash against each other, Urza gathers eight mighty planeswalkers (Taysir, Freyalise, Tevesh Szat, Lord Windgrace, Commodore Guff, Bo Levar, Kristina of the Woodsand Daria) to travel to Tolaria. To bring the fight to Phyrexia, Urza recalls all of his forces towards Koilos, sacrificing the nation of Urborg in the process. However, the sacrifice of Urborg and the fact that the death of his daughter Hanna wasn't told to Barrin, the enraged wizard leaves the coalition and obliterates the island of Tolaria.

The novel ends with all the forces gathered at Koilos, where the coalition do battle against the endless hordes of Phyrexian minions. Tsabo Tavoc uses Gerrard's grief over Hanna's death to control his mind, but the silver golem Karn, against his oath of pacifism, attacks Tavoc and allows Gerrard to break free. Gerrard and Karn wound Tavoc, causing the Phyrexian general to barely free with his life. Thus, the Dominarian forces manage to destroy the portal and round up the remaining Phyrexian troops. With the last portal gone, it seemed that Dominaria has triumphed... only for the plane of Rath to appear in the skies of Dominaria, as it turns out that Phyrexia is planning to merge the two planes together, transporting all of the Phyrexian forces into Dominaria without the need for portals. Cliffhanger!


And let's blitz through the rest of the expansion. I really don't have much to say about any of these, though. Angel of Mercy is a pretty cool artwrok, I really do like that purple lightsaber.


As mentioned in the storyline bit, Benalia got absolutely destroyed by the Phyrexian invasion, so there's a bit of a last hurrah for these Benalish warriors. Out of these, I feel like Benalish Trapper is easily the most badass-looking of the cards here, with her just absolutely fighting against a mass of metallic wires and spines and just absolutely taking no shit from it.


Rampant Elephant is a fun punny name. I'm not sure what's going on with Benalish Emissary, is she using her scroll to laser-carve her message on the sand? Or something?


I like the artwork of the black goop in Obsidian Acolyte. The Prison Barricade is an interesting 'wall' card, one that's oddly mundane compared to most of the other wall cards in this franchise.


There is a cycle of these Djinns, one in each colour, but I just really didn't find anything interesting to say about any of them. It's been a while since we saw any of the djinns, though.


Another cycle are these 'Apprentice/Master' dudes, which basically have similar effects, and each of their effects basically use two other colours. For White, it's a bit interesting that Sunscape Apprentice looks significantly mightier (she's a straight-up angel!) than her master.


Global Ruin is a huge giant fantasy atomic bomb. I think it's when Benalia gets destroyed, I guess? A lot of the White cards this time around do have a 'hopeless fight, but we're fighting anyway' vibe to them.


Nothing much to say here, although, hey, there's Teferi in Teferi's Care.


Not much to say here. Divine Presence has a very cool art, I think.


Holy Day is a fantastic pun. I don't have much to say here, it sure is people fighting against other people.


More White cards doing White card stuff. I'm not sure why Gerrard clocking two guards's heads together is called 'Winnow', that's a term used to separate wheat from chaff.


Oh hey look that's Hanna stabbing what I think is one of those Phyrexian Battleflies in Restrain. That's cool. I always like looking for the coalition symbol in these Kicker cards, although in the case of Orim's Touch, it's obviously the tattoo warpaint there.


Rewards of Diversity is actually a pretty cool artwork that kinds of showcase one of the core themes of the set, and that's using multiple colours of magic together.


We get Zanam Djinn, who is a giant and shooting little pew-pew fireballs on a bunch of dudes. Okay. Also, there are two birds here. I really like the artwork for Dream Trush showing the bird flying over an arid desert and causing plants and flowers to sprout where its shadow touches.


The idea of a Faerie Squadron is pretty fun. I really don't have much to say about the card beyond that. Faeries are pretty cool. Sky Weaver's concept is also neat, the wizard in the foreground is making those glowing wings for the warrior in the background.


We've got Blue's Apprentice/Master combo, and a pretty neat drake artwork. Not much else to say here.


We've got a bunch of merfolk. None of these are particularly cool, although the Shoreline Raider is wrestling a Kavu to feed to his mistress. Gotta have respect for that.


We also get to see a bunch of flying ships, both of these apparently being part of the Metathran army. For an army that was kind of built up across the Urza block, it's kind of odd that this expansion barely features them, and the only major Metathran cards just show their ship and a zombie.


Blue cards making Blue-style planning. Also, I like that Opt gives us a clearer view of those Phyrexian bug-ships we saw in Planar Portal.


Good lord, Barrin, calm down. That sure is a violent Barrin's Unmaking. I'm not sure what's going on with those Bane cosplayers in Collective Restraint, but the artwork is sure neat.


Oh hey, it's Urza and Teferi doing a little combo battle to shut down one of the croissant Planar Portals in Disrupt. Look at its croissant arms drooping down sadly. That's Urza and Barrin fighting each other in Psychic Battle, which seems to just be the two men glaring at each other while psychic energy sparkle between them. Should've probably played trading cards to settle your differences or something.


That's a pretty cool Phyrexian robot that Teferi is blowing up in Exclude. 


I'm not sure what's going on in Essence Leak, and what's happening to that poor Kavu being surrounded by water, but it probably isn't comfortable. I'm also not sure what's going in Wash Out, but those Kavus sure seem concerned. Teferi is talking about cryptic stuff as part of the flavour text but I genuinely have no idea what's going on.


Oh man, that elf dude in Prohibit sure is combusting pretty violently.


I do like the visual image of the merfolk bursting out of the Breaking Wave to attack those Phyrexian troops. For a bunch of dudes about to be engulfed by a small tsunami, they sure are pretty chill-looking.


I really like the card art for Sway of Illusion and Repulse here. Not much to say, I just really like them without having much to say about them. \


A bunch of Urborg minions. Urborg Skeleton has got a pretty cool artwork as far as these skeletons go, really looking like it's shambling and barely held-on together. Its left arm is even disintegrating into bone fragments as it's swinging around that flail!


A bunch of more humanoid Black cards. Not much to say here.


Oh, I guess Firescreamer is a Black-colour Kavu? It exists. I don't find it interesting enough to move up to the main article. Also, have the obligatory Black-mana rat card. Crypt Angel sure has some... interesting-looking wings.


These are Black's Invasion cycle cards. The Apprentice/Master combo and the Djinn. I really don't have anything to say here.


Okay Tsabo's Decree is a pretty disturbing art piece, showing the Phyrexian robo-zombies dragging the corpses around. I'm not sure why it made me so uncomfortable, snice we've seen a lot of gore and stuff in these M:TG artwork.


Soul Burn has a neat Drider-looking monster on it. That poor dragon in Annihilate sure got its wings clipped.


Any Tainted Well is a pretty neat-looking trope in fantasy horror. Cursed Flesh has got a creepy-looking cockroach-cyborg creature in the background, that one looks pretty cool.

Apparently an Exotic Curse is that cluttered-looking sci-fi-looking lady blowing a kiss that kills a seagull? A bit odd, perhaps, but I wouldn't call killing a seagull with a kiss 'exotic' per se.

Recover has a really cool card art. The way we're looking at a body being lowered or raised from the earth that splits around it is pretty cool. Both Mourning and Recover basically deals with Barrin learning about his daughter Hanna's death from Urza, and the fact that Urza kept the fact from him to make him fight more effectively.


Agonizing Demise is another card that really does look agonizing. What is going on there? Initially I thought the shadow was being ripped out of that person, but it appears that the shadow is consuming the dude, judging by the shadow-covered corpse in the background.


Apparently the Emissaries are also a cycle in this set. Shivan Emissary apparently walks around with his messy hair and death-mask and his scroll shoots out a swarm of black flies. Okay, edgelord.


Goblin Spy has got one of the most hilarious flavour text I've seen in a while. The artwork's pretty neat too.


A pair of giants, representing a giant that is called on to help Dominaria... and another that isn't.


Viashno Grappler shows that apparently a bunch of Viashno lizard-people show up to help out Dominaria. There aren't a lot of these (and there really should be more of these) but I do like these little cards that show other random races showing up to help in this crisis.


Go Urza's Rage, use your giant robot suit to shoot fireballs! Also, is that thing in Bend or Break the same quasi-elephant-like-robot-ship thing from Scorching Lava?


A bunch of cool-looking flames. Darigaaz looks less like a dragon and more like a fat demon.


More burning cards. Lightning Dart shows a magical spear of lightning being shot into the water, which is very, very cool. 

Mages' Contest is kind of unintentionally hilarious for me, it looks less like two mages having a powerful duel of magic and more like those anime 'our eyes meet, we are angry' scenes. Maniacal Rage really shows how spooky Tahngarth the minotaur's weird skull-face is, huh?

Yep, those Kavus are sure beating up those Phyrexians!


I'm not sure if the Viashno are working together with goblins or are sacrificing them in blood rituals. I really do like the artwork for Stand or Fall, though.


Oh that sure is a cool Phyrexian warrior with a huge shield arm that Sisay is beating up in Stun.


We're going into Green now. Have the obligatory Djinn, Apprentice and Master. Sulam Djinn is actually beating up on Phyrexians, look at that one in the bottom right of the picture being absolutely terrified of the angry giant!


A bunch of elves fighting those damn cyborgs... and... Utopia Tree? Okay, that sure is a nice looking tree with rainbow fruit. Not sure what It has anything to do with the Invasion theme, but okay.


More elves doing badass things. There are still a lot of generic old-school druid elves even if some have taken on the punk half-shaved hairdo that the Nomadic Elf has.


A bunch of Quiron elves! Elves doing elf elf stuff.


Blurred Mongoose is a very neat looking card art, that Mongoose is just zipping in like the Flash to chomp on a snake.


A bunch of tranquil Green stuff.


WHIP SILK! Use a spider web to entangle flying cyborg insects! Also, Vigorous Charge shows one of the elves tattooing the coalition symbol on a Kavu. They do tattoo those symbols manually, then.


Canopy Surge is a very cool card art, showing a giant vine piercing through the skies to stab a Phyrexian ship through its hull. Very cool. Kavu Lair is another one that tells us about the backstory of the Kavu as they burst out of the ground.


Explosive Growth looks very uncomfrotable as that snake sheds its old skin. Its new body looks so pleased and gross at the same time, and apparently one of its markings just naturally look like the coalition symbol.


Wallop has a very angry and ornery looking giant treefolk about to bash a UFO with its giant tree-trunk hands.


Oh hey, a bunch more Saproling cards! They're similar to the Saprolings we've seen before, being weird angry Facehugger-esque fanged serpent things.


And now we're going into the multi-colour cards, which are gold-bordered. I'm so used to seeing multi-coloured cards looking like what they do in modern M:TG format, and these kind of throw me off. Anyway, Armored Guardian appaears to be some sort of cat-man. Nothing about him screams 'Blue', just as nothing about the Slinking Serpent screams 'Black' or the Voracious Cobra screams 'Red'.


Some of them, though, actually do kind of make sense. Yavimaya Barbarian is an angry barbarian (Red) that hangs out in the jungles of Yavimaya (Green). The Vodalian Zombie is a merfolk (Blue) who is also a zombie (Black). Galina's Knight is a merfolk (Blue) whose day job is an honourable knight (White). And it's also riding a seahorse mount!


A bunch of angry great cats that are both Green/White. Okay. That Charging Troll doesn't really look like a troll, but also... okay.


Not a whole ton to really say here. Pyre Zombie looks pretty cool, I guess.


Undermine has a really cool artwork of some evil monster lady unleashing a massive goopy bog-worm-mouth to engulf a human.


Just how many of these dang cards show off Urza's power armor? We get it, he has a Gundam.


Eh. Nothing much to say here. Cool art, but nothing particularly flavourful.


Calm down, Barrin, holy shit. I guess after Hanna's death he just becomes the Punisher. Cards like Heroes' Reunion and Dueling Grounds are basically some of the 'events in the story' cards.


Cauldron Dance is... it's pretty nasty-looking. We've got an almost fetus-like being with four gangly arms on one side, and a screaming lizard-devil-man thing on the other, and I'm not even sure what the fuck's going on with them as they whirl around the cauldron's blue flames. Ordered Migration has a pretty neat card art, I feel, with the birds forming a weird formation in the background. I'm sorry. I'm tired.


Oh, hey, that's Darigaaz in the artwork for Backlash. And a bunch of Kavus running around in Fires of Yavimaya and Frenzied Tilling.


Coalition Victory is a very flavourful card, featuring a cost from one of each mana and requiring a creature of each colour for you to instantly win the game. Exodia Obliterate and all that. You'd think Plague Spores would be Black/Green, but I guess since 'spore' is figurative and not literal spores created by plants.


Spinal Embrace looks pretty nasty-looking. On the other hand, Lobotomy looks more like two aliens having an intimate moment than anything too horrifying.


Simoom: noun. si·​moom | \ sə-ˈmüm: a hot dry violent dust-laden wind from Asian and African deserts. And now you know, and knowing is half the battle.


See, Urza, if you shared your power armor with your Metathran goons instead of sending them on hang-gliders, maybe they wouldn't all die and become zombies. Call them Wings of Hope if you want, they're still dumb hang-gliders you're sending against cyborg zombies.


Not a whole ton to say here, and we're done with multi coloured cards! Sort of.


We have these very gimmicky 'split cards', which are like two cards in a single card, and you choose which half you want to cast,  and you pay the corresponding cost. For the most part, while they might be pretty fun to play with, they also end up with smaller and less fun-looking card art and making me stretch my neck to look at them on the computer.


All the split cards have names that are "X and X", like Assault and Battery and Wax and Wane. Very gimmicky, and I honestly don't care much for them.


More of the other dragons' attendants! They sure are golem dudes.


Lotus Guardian is a pretty cool skeletal flying dragon-serpent with wings... but made out of machine. I really like how the head on this one is basically decaying.


We get a cycle of Cameos. As usual, I find them negligible and forgettable, although this one has a neat little series of flavour text of Isel, Master Carver, talking about them. I assume this is from the standpoint of him/her trying to sell these artifacts to a potential customer.


A bunch of Phyrexian stuff. Phyrexian Altar shows us another take on Tsabo Tavoc, making her significantly more colourful as she's killing some Metathran fool.


Chromatic Sphere looks like it should be a D&D spell, but apparently it's just some sci-fi bomb Gerrard tosses around. Sure. 

This set, I think, is the first to introduce dual-colour-land cards or something. At this point I think I have ceased to have anything interesting to say about land cards (at least not until they actually show something more interesting than 'cool landscape' or 'cool building'), though I would feel kind of wrong not including and at least mentioning them. Sulfur Vent probably has my vote for the coolest looking artwork here.

Basic land cards! ...it's a bit of a shame that none of these actually showed, like, the Phyrexian portals appearing or the Phyrexian troops arriving or something. They could've used them to show the story of Invasion, y'know? Not even making their artwork be focused on the invasion, just use it to subtly show the vibe of what's going on. As it is, at this point I really don't have much to say about them beyond 'cool, nice artwork, but why bother?'

Next up... Planeshift!