This cube showcases the Phyrexians, their conflicts across the Multiverse, and the counterparties in those conflicts. It uses this flavor as a jumping-off point for a mechanically cohesive draft format.

A brief summary of Phyrexian history (warning! I am not a lore guy; I wrote this so I could figure out what was in/out. Errors are likely.):
1. Background: The Thran empire:

• Yawgmoth (Thran doctor) takes over Phyrexia from a Thran coworker.
• Ultimately he invades Thran with the Phyrexians, and wins. But then the Phyrexians just... stick to Phyrexia.

2. The Brothers' War: (Antiquities, BRO)

• So some time later, while Urza and Mishra are fighting The Antiquities War, a Portal to Phyrexia opens or is opened. Gix corrupts Mishra with promises of power; Mishra in turn goes from Pretty Bad Guy to Extremely Bad Guy. The fight between Urza and Mishra becomes a fight between Urza and the Phyrexians.
• Ashnod, Mishra's assistant, gives the Golgothian Sylex (excluded from the cube) to Urza. Activating the Sylex creates the eponymous Blast, killing nearly everybody except Urza, and ends the conflict. This also triggers Urza's spark, and splits The Mightstone and Weakstone. Also these become his eyeballs(?).

2. Intermission: Phyrexia and Urza both prepare for another war; Phyrexian internal politics: (Urza's Saga block, Tempest block)

• Phyrexia can't invade Dominaria directly, so Yawgmoth creates the artificial plane Rath as a staging ground for invasion, which will happen via a planar overlay. Volrath is in charge.
• Urza creates the Weatherlight, which along with several items including Karn, Gerrard, and his (Urza's) eyeballs, will combine to create the Legacy Weapon that Urza believes will defeat Yawgmoth.
• The Weatherlight crew--Jhoira, Gerrard, Squee, Karn, Tahngarth (also unplayable), Crovax, etc--go to Rath to rescue Sisay from Volrath's Stronghold and retrieve some other pieces for the weapon.
• Crovax begins as a team member of the Weatherlight but eventually turns to the bad side. At some point he kills Volrath, which makes him the Ascendant Evincar.

3. The Rathi Overlay ("First") Invasion of Dominaria: (Invasion Block)

• Called the first invasion because by this point everyone has forgotten about the Thran
• During the invasion Gerrard kills Crovax.
• Karn uses the Legacy Weapon to kill Yawgmoth, but Urza and Gerrard die in the process. This makes Karn into a planeswalker.

4. The Mirran-Phyrexian War (Scars block)

• So he (Karn) creats a plane called Argentum, a kind of Safe Space for metalloids. This becomes Mirrodin, but he unknowingly brings a drop of Phyrexian oil with him (oops!). Mirrodin is basically foredestined to become New Phyrexia.
• The Mirrans get their asses handed to them in Mirrodin Besieged.
• New Phyrexia established under the praetors Elesh Norn, Sheoldred, Vorinclex, Jin-Gitaxias, and Urabrask, the Hidden.
• Karn is messed up by the infection, but eventually escapes). Something about Venser sacrificing himself for Karn, not sure--anyways Venser, the Sojourner becomes Venser, Corpse Puppet, tough break.

5. The Invasion of the Multiverse: (ONE, DMU, MOM, plus bits of NEO, KHM, SNC)

• called the Second Invasion by Dominarians, who at this point are just adding numbers to this sort of thing like Rocky movies
• Elesh Norn and fellow praetors take a bit of the World Tree from Kaldheim, then grow Realmbreaker, the Invasion Tree from it. Its roots breach the multiverse, creating portals between worlds.
• The Phyrexians invade everywhere (poor tactics tbh). Incubation pods galore. Battles everywhere. On every plane, former enemies unite to repel the Phyrexian menace.
• Some internal squabbles typical of Phyrexia, e.g. for sure Elesh Norn kills Sheoldred, and almost certainly kills Urabrask.
• Elspeth, now a freaking archangel gets to Norn and gives her the ol' what-have-you.
• Wrenn combines with the tree to become Wrenn and Realmbreaker, which stops the tree nonsense.
• Phyrexia gets put in a time bubble where Zhalfir once was. Most of the praetors have died, but the full list of dead/survivors will have to wait for I guess the Third Invasion, in ~2044.

Ultimately the goal and success metric is a cube that people want to draft. That means good gameplay, with mechanics tied by lore. A list of lore-relevant or flavorful cards would constitute a failure. (e.g. Thran Tome and Tahngarth, Talruum Hero stink)

Currently I think the availability of quality relevant cards varies a little too much across the colors. This is impacting cube quality a bit. Still being worked/balanced.

Ideally, most of the cube should depict Phyrexia and Phyrexians. Primary characters, secondary characters, foot soldiers, spells, story points, and locations.

The other 33% ish of the cube is the "spoilers"--the forces that have fought against Phyrexia over time. Characters, artifacts (Thran Dynamo), mechanically appropriate techniques (Dispatch, Hexgold Slash) and story points (the Sylex blast).

• Factions: Thran, Urza's forces, the Weatherlight crew, the Coalition, the New Coalition of Dominaria United
• Some Characters: Urza, Gerrard, Melira, Elspeth, Thrun
• Some Plot Points: Triumph of Gerrard, Elspeth's Smite
• Some Locations:
• Mechanics: Metalcraft, Equipment Matters, Legends Matter, Domain/5-color/converge
• Example Creatures: Autonomous Assembler, Grand Architect,

Target
60 cards per color = 300 cards
+50 multicolor = 350
+90 colorless = 440
+60 lands = 500

This is always and forever a work in progress.

Color - pair and general mechanics here.

Toxic + Infect:

Artifacts Matter (/): (roughly 40 cards)

Profiting from having many artifacts is concentrated in colorless, blue, and white, with some support in red and black. It tends to emphasize whatever the color is already good at--Tempered Steel and Plated Onslaught complement white's go-wide strategy (think Charge of the Mites). Vedalken Certarch and Trinket Mage complement blue's more controlling focus.

Red and green are spoilers: Creeping Corrosion, Shatterstorm

+1/+1 Counters /:

Tokens and Anthems/Battle Cry:

Phyrexian Tribal :

Domain / 5c:

Cheating Fat :

Black has reanimation spells from Reanimate to Exhume to Victimize, all of which have fantastic Rathi or Phyrexian flavor text. Red typically exchanges with [[Goblin Welder] or Trash for Treasure-like effects. Blue has Shape Anew, Proteus Staff.