The man in the mirror
February 27th 2011 06:14
Sometimes it’s interesting to compare art from different blocks that depicts similar creatures. Often you can track either evolution or a re-interpretation of the creature based on the setting. Vampires are a good example of this, but you can even see it with the staple fantasy races like elves and goblins. For example, the Lorwyn block had no humans, so its humanoid races couldn’t be too human-like – the faeries had insect wings, and the elves had horns.
Before Scars of Mirrodin, it had been a long time since we had a set with a significant number of Phyrexians. Since they are not one race but more of a movement, they always had a little more diversity in their appearance. And if you hadn’t seen any cards since Invasion, you would have no trouble picking the Phyrexian cards out of the new set. Magic’s art is one of the few areas where they’ve shown true innovation in the last couple of years – mostly.
Yeah, Scars of Mirrodin’s Phyrexians are cool. Yeah, its Phyrexians are badass. Yeah, its Phyrexians are terrifying. But its Phyrexians are exactly the same as Invasion’s. I remember being told in various expansions' lore that this is the most adaptive family of life-forms in the multiverse, that during the Apocalypse they bred entire species of creature specialized to survive in specific Dominarian locales and destroy their inhabitants. Why, then, should their civilization on Mirrodin contain basically the same members as it did in 2001?
Before Scars of Mirrodin, it had been a long time since we had a set with a significant number of Phyrexians. Since they are not one race but more of a movement, they always had a little more diversity in their appearance. And if you hadn’t seen any cards since Invasion, you would have no trouble picking the Phyrexian cards out of the new set. Magic’s art is one of the few areas where they’ve shown true innovation in the last couple of years – mostly.
Yeah, Scars of Mirrodin’s Phyrexians are cool. Yeah, its Phyrexians are badass. Yeah, its Phyrexians are terrifying. But its Phyrexians are exactly the same as Invasion’s. I remember being told in various expansions' lore that this is the most adaptive family of life-forms in the multiverse, that during the Apocalypse they bred entire species of creature specialized to survive in specific Dominarian locales and destroy their inhabitants. Why, then, should their civilization on Mirrodin contain basically the same members as it did in 2001?
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