A Planeswalker's Guide to New Phyrexia: Introduction

All worlds change; this is a truism for those of us who travel. No plane has been found frozen in a single state, immune to time. But rare is the world that undergoes such a transformation that its very name falls away. Rare is the world that enters an era of strife and emerges unrecognizable even to those born within its bounds.

Rarer still is a world that remakes itself more than once. The plane of which we speak was once named Argentum. Then it became known as Mirrodin. But radical change has visited this world again, and now it bears a third name.

When such a fundamental metamorphosis occurs, all previously known lore becomes dubious at best. Pillars of planar wisdom crumble, weakened by outdated assumptions. The only solution is to reinvestigate the world with fresh eyes, to rewrite the tomes with fresh industry, and to treat the accepted knowledge as false until proven yet true.

To this end we present A Planeswalker's Guide to New Phyrexia. May it renew your knowledge of this altered world and guide you to a safe sojourn.

The Five Phyrexian Factions

Of all the lore of Phyrexia's new home world, none is more paramount than the internal structure of Phyrexia's factions. In its mission to spread and adapt, Phyrexia's nature is constantly evolving. During its years of exposure to the powerful mana of the planar core, Phyrexia underwent accelerated growth, but it also subdivided, cleaving into factions associated with the five forms of mana. Each of Phyrexia's five factions carries with it its own creeds, creatures, and leadership distinct from the others.

New Phyrexia can only be explored by those who know and understand the characteristic differences between these mana-aligned factions. If you've had encounters with Phyrexia before on other worlds, the variety may surprise you. The traveler ignorant of New Phyrexia's ways is doomed to become part of them.

The remainder of this guide describes the five Phyrexian factions and the Mirran resistance.