(sexual dimorphism has nothing to do with reproduction but with general appearance; for example, dwarfs in the Discworld show little to no dimorphism so women look exactly like men - and their culture doubles down on the fact - but still reproduce "the old fashioned way" )


Yup, and there's always some interest for it too, innocent or otherwise. Bit of a wasted occasion. That reminds me, though, how many giantesses were around in Lorwyn/Shadowmoor? Can't remember many at the top of my head.

If we go with with the theory the next few sets/planes will have hints to a Phyrexia invading (which I'm believing), I think the type was made in part so that the non-hardcore vorthos know whats going on. Phyrexia was 11/10 years ago and the average person mtg player lifespan is ~5-7 years so most players now likely didn't play New Phyrexia and likely don't know Vorinclex per say but has likely heard of Phyrexia. Lore-wise I'm gonna guess they are never gonna out right its Phyrexia/Vorinclex on Kaldheim and in a reverse vorthis twist it is from cards us the audience knows fully whats going on. I'm thinking the the next few sets we will see a few one or two phyrexian creatures popping up showing they have found a way (likely Tezzeret) to travel between planes and the creature type will be the signals for this.



I don't see why, in fact I think thats where the pay offs for any tribal stuff will likely be.

Ah, yeah, gotcha, that's true. Yeah, maybe the giants on Kaldheim are so Metal that even the women have beards. I'd be cool with that

Yeah, a friend from my playgroup has a wife who also plays Magic every now and then, and she loves her Kalemne Commander deck (granted, it's probably not just because Kalemne is female, but I guess it doesn't hurt). Lorwyn/Shadowmoor has Boldwyr Heavyweights and Rosheen Meanderer, but that's it.

Edit:

I agree that's probably what's going on, but the new Vorinclex already got the Phyrexian watermark (which is great), and I think as soon as you take the next step and actually introduce Phyrexian as a creature type, you should follow it through and not treat it like a one-off thing. If they aren't prepared to do that, they should have just left it at the watermark and maybe changed the name to 'Vorinclex, Phyrexian Raider' or something, and the message would have been clear enough. Given that the Phyrexian type exists now, not giving it to all the older Phyrexian cards basically erases their Phyrexian-ness, and if I'm going to play Phyrexian tribal, what kind of joke would it be if I couldn't get the most out of Tsabo Tavoc, Phyrexian Crusader, Phyrexian Rager and all the others?

Because I somehow don't see Wizards making a set about a plane on which 90% of all creatures share a creature type, and then go ahead and start giving tribal support to that type. Not even Humans ever get that kind of exposure in any set, and they are probably the most common creature type.

New Phyrexia wasn't all phyrexians, I don't see why whatever the next Mirrodin set is would have to be. Even if phyrexians outnumber the mirrans 9:1 in lore, they don't have to be 90% of the cards.

Re: LorMoor giants
There was also Cloudgoat Ranger, Hillcomber Giant, and quite likely Fuedkiller's Verdict.

From other locations, we have Skyraker Giant, Bulwark Giant, Towering Titan, Sentinel of the Eternal Watch, and Palisade Giant.
And possibly Jotunn Owl Keeper, but that one is hard to tell.

There's a decent showing off large women out there.

Oh I do think there will be an oracle update, how far back they will go still unknown or if they decide only certain creatures will get the type (maybe only the phyrexia creatures that only had "jobs" will get it similar to deciding that Nobel type will mostly be given to creatures who don't already have a "class/job") though i do think they have the legends and cards with phyrexia in the name get it.

Because I somehow don't see Wizards making a set about a plane on which 90% of all creatures share a creature type, and then go ahead and start giving tribal support to that type. Not even Humans ever get that kind of exposure in any set, and they are probably the most common creature type.[/quote]

As Cato said not all the creatures need be phyrexians.

I feel like if we need to go to NPH the "Phyrexian" type would be restricted to the 'ranking' Phyrexians -- the likes of which previously got no racial type, or "Horror". Gremlins would just be gremlin, not Phyrexian Gremlin (except maybe Phyrexian Gremlins). Compleated elves and goblins would be elves and goblins. but Priests of Norn would be Phyrexian and so on.

I do hope everything gets errata'd to phyrexian but I'm content with the most compleated ones, like all of the praetors and splicers

Wait, weren't the golem-making splicers Mirran? I'd be for the errata-ing of horrors too, tbh, those with anatomy so alien that they're more Phyrexian than anything they may have ever been.

Edit: nope, splicers even have the phi watermark, my bad. Was tricked by the golems, which I assumed tended to be more Mirran than Phyrexian.

Well all the splicers have the Orthodoxy's Hellraiser + porcelain look so you have no excuse.

If it helps they did have new art for the golem tokens in new phyrexia to show how corrupted the plane was (they also did the same for the Myr).

Hey, the last time I took a close look at a splicer was probably around the New Phyrexia release! You have a point, though.


Ah, yes, now I remember! I recently rabbit-holed into Pauper artifact combo and I (erroneously) remembered Golem Foundry as the iconic golem-maker, but there were those kinda-organic tokens as well. Gog, I love artifacts, and Phyrexia made quite a few very interesting ones.

(I am going severely off topic tho)

"Phyrexian" should be reserved for all-orignal PHyrexian creations. And maybe high ranking PHyrexian compleated works.

Leaving that Phyrexian discussion aside for a moment, I just wanted to add that I really appreciate the wiggle-room and the open-endedness that are baked into the ten realms of Kaldheim. I think actually fleshing out the ten realms the way they did and really showing all of them in Kaldheim was necessary to give the setting enough depth and make me want to revisit it in the first place, but knowing that there are probably more than ten realms - as well as some "lost" ones - makes the prospect of returning there even more compelling. It also makes me optimistic that the worldbuilding team deliberately left things vague enough to include new elements on that return while still feeling consistent. A big bummer with Theros Beyond Death was that the way they handled the plane's cosmology felt completely inconsistent with what we'd been told about it originally, e.g. the way the Underworld works or the fact that a forgotten goddess of love that existed before Xenagos had been established, and then Creative claimed only one god of each colour-combination could exist at any given time and Klothys had been stuck in the Underworld all along. Not to mention the fact that Calix exists...

Even some of the realms of Kaldheim that we do know have a lot of ancient history that's only hinted at, e.g. Gnottvold, Karfell and Immersturm (at least when you consider Ethan's explanation for why it's no longer Valla), and I think there's a lot left to explore. There are even some things in the present day that weren't included because they didn't fit the colour combination of the realm in question, e.g. the barbarians of Skybreen on Karfell.

That said, Kaldheim really makes me long for the good old pre-Mending days when planeswalkers were Magic's gods. I've gone on record saying that the planeswalkers we got in this set as well as the gods are the weakest parts of the world and the set in my opinion, and that really makes me wonder what role Oldwalkers played on Kaldheim back in the day. I've always said I was going to riot if we visited a Norse plane that didn't worship Fiers and Freyalise, even if they were no longer around (and that it would be a great way to somehow provide an explanation for Freyalise's eye-patch). I like to think that that might have been the case on Kaldheim after all. We know that the current pantheon has been in charge for "centuries", and that the elves used to be Kaldheim's gods before that, but that still leaves a big enough window for Freyalise and other planeswalkers from the Shard to have visited Kaldheim after the Worldspell. Maybe there really was a pantheon of Oldwalkers in charge for a while, before they fell to infighting, or were tricked by the local gods, or something along those lines. I'd love to see an interaction like that.

(I haven't read the final Kaldheim story about that Elf Commander yet, though, here's hoping that one won't shoot down my wishful thinking...)