Top 10 Phyrexian Mana Cards (*Free Mana Spells) 

Good old Mental Misstep, the Red Reboot of Magic, except even better.

Wizards basically figured out the issue with Phyrexian mana, which is why none of the more recent cards with the mechanic made this list. Phyrexian mana is more powerful the cheaper the overall spell is, with the most broken ones being spells that only cost 0 or 1 "real mana". A 6 MV card with 1 Phyrexian only goes down to 5 mana and 2 life, which isn't that much of a difference. The color pie breaks being the other issue, where Phyrexian mana allowed decks (outside of EDH) to access effects outside their color pie without needing to splash. Wizards has also largely amended this issue with more recent cards, as the video mentions. So in short, Phyrexian mana isn't *inherently* broken as a mechanic. It's just that the original cards with it were far too pushed by exploiting the mechanic about as much as possible.

Honorable mention to K'rrik in commander allowing mono black storm to not only be a viable stratwgy but a cEDH level threat that can win on turn 1

When freaking Birthing Pod is only #5 you know the list is spicy

Ah yes the most fair mechanic.

I'm a simple man, I see Phyrexia, I like!

This was the stuff i saw when i first came into magic. I have ever since been compleated, and advocate for phyrexian justice.

Mental misstep days were so miserable, particularly if you were a storm combo player. I'm on the fence about whether it's really better than probe though when probe truly has no cost to be put in a deck while misstep not every deck could play it. Free information while king in combo decks especially could be used by any deck be it aggro or control to know a variety of information that is relevant to them.

5:44 Ah yes, fond memories of going to a Standard FNM during the reign of Cawblade, going 4-0 with my last game being a turn two kill. Good times

I don’t play competitively, so I have no idea how difficult this would be in your normal content sphere, but after watching your “best cheap cards” video, I’d be curious to see a “best expensive cards,” where they all have CMC>6 or some other threshold. I did watch your “best cards you never cast” video, so maybe in competitive M:tG they’re effectively the same, but it would still be interesting. Thanks for the video, and keep up the good work!

Dismember is in the sweet spot. You have to spend at least 1 mana, and the less mana you pay, the more relevant the life loss becomes.

I think something you missed about pod is that it can also win the game on the spot by getting cards that allow you to untap the pod so you can go up a ladder and get cards to reanimate those creatures so you can flood the board with creatures and then kill the opponent.

Bit surprised to not see K'rrik, son of Yawgmoth on this list seeing the value he brings as a 4 mana (if paying life) defiler of vigor effect that can also regain you that life spent and in commander can make a mono-black deck really optimised.

Amazing!!!!!!❤🎉

Not mentioning arclight phoenix alongside gut shot should be a crime

Can we bring back the background music lol it fit so well

There's Magic, where everyone playing 4 copies of the same card is format-warping and ban-worthy. Then I look back at early Pokemon TCG, where every deck was running 4 copies of Energy Removal, Super Energy Removal, Professor Oak, and Bill, and it's considered part of a healthy, skill-intensive meta game.

It would be pretty cool if you did the top ten worst Phyrexian cards also 😊

This takes me back to 2012, I was a freshman in high school and me and the boys would play in the library, the lunch table, and even MTG club or anime club after school. I started off playing within the 2011/2012 coreset with my mono-black vampire deck and since I was new whenever I’d go to the shop I would buy random packs of this and that. I would open up packs of Mirrodin, New Phyrexia, and Rize of the Eldrazi! I’d even meet up with the guys after school at the library or the card shop and we would get around 12-32 people within the school just playing magic. The game got so popular that it was mentioned in the school yearbook, and everyone got to take pictures too. It’s sad to see that MTG is becoming stagnant and decreasing in sells because Hasbro keeps trying to make MTG “The cool kid on the block” with these non-canon sets or these sets that nobody wants. The authenticity of Magic the gathering feels short handed now, but I’ve still got my memories from the golden years 😁

Oh cool. I was wondering what that pip was.

I love the flavor of phyrexian mana but it is sadly way too strong

Surgical extraction against relentless rats,rat colony,persistent petitioners, or that red card I can't remember. 😂

Noxious Revival can also be used in response to a reanimation effect to make it fizzle and give the opponent a potential dead draw

Phyrexia will be back.

Noxious revival is target CARD not creature card. It’s pretty great.

Weird that Mondrak is not here, yea it only/mostly used in token decks but still its have self-indestructible and value.

If Mental Misstep is more like Nix or only counters 0 mana spells, I think it'll be a lot more balanced. Basically, it'll be a way to counter those idiotic cascade decks and free-casters. Sure, it'll be way nicher, but Nix itself is rather valued.

negative counters sidesteps indestructible

Phyrexian Mana is basically the same mistake that Affinity for Artifact is: Wizards thinking they made the cards expensive enough for balancing, but they didn't. Hell the two mechanisms even have the same fix: Give the cards a fixed colored mana cost. I guess Wizards didn't learn the first time?

Gut Shot makes you go down on life _and_ a card. And yet it's still OP.

Gut shot doesnt actually target everything. It doesnt target battles or planeswalkers.

I wouldn't call Phyrexian Mana a mistake like Storm or Dredge, but WOTC for sure underestimated its power. Much like Yugioh, the only life that matters is the last point so anything that lets you use life instead of other resources will always be powerful. Cards that only cost phyrexian might as well say 0 mana, pay life to cast this card.

Much like Yugioh life isn't a cost if you just win before they can do damage

Top 10 Elves

gaining unlimited life doesn't end the game

Wizards should have made the cost "and" and not "or"

I desperately someone to explain what "6 out of the 8 top 10" means.

I think some gnome came and mixed up your list, metal misstep and probe has never won a game of magic, gutshot, growth and pod has.

Is a bit weird how he keeps saying that 1 mana spells are free in this video, since he never said that about other one mana cards on his videos.

Hate to be that guy but gut shot can’t hit planeswalkers or battles

People say Phyrexian Mana is OP but I say it was actually a good mechanic