In the Magic: The Gathering multiverse, Phyrexia has been busy. The longtime boogeyman of Magic has slowly been encroaching into other planes, spreading their machinations to new planes and their inhabitants through a process called Phyresis in order to make them Compleat.
Historically, Phyrexia has never been able to bring a planeswalker under its fold; the process is the anthesis of the freedom being a planeswalker brings. That was until the Phyrexian praetor Jin-Gitaxias perfected the process, transforming planeswalkers into Phyrexians for the first time. Represented as cards with Phyrexian mana in the mana cost, these are all the cards of planeswalkers that Phyrexia has Compleated so far.
There is a quick honorable mention here: the corpse of former planeswalker Venser is currently under the control of New Phryexia but does not appear to have its planeswalking ability anymore. It seems unlikely he will either return to life or regain his spark.
7 Ajani, Sleeper Agent
Poor Ajani, once a bastion of goodness and moral purity, the big cat of Magic was brought low by Phyrexia. His card is very much of a “win more” philosophy, where it excels when you’re already ahead of your opponent. Ajani’s +1 ability is effectively a scry 1 where you can draw it if it's a creature or planeswalker, which is solid and can help fuel its second ability.
Ajani’s ultimate ability grants you an emblem that poisons your opponent when you cast a creature or planeswalker, which is extremely unique among planeswalkers. Unfortunately, you need to cast five creatures or planeswalkers to be able to take out an opponent with this ability. It's fairly unlikely that you’ll have enough cards in hand or see enough creatures to be able to win off the emblem alone.
6 Jace, The Perfected Mind
No one could have predicted one of Magic’s oldest characters being converted to a Phyrexian monster. As the Perfected Mind, Jace’s mill powers are brought front and center. Two of Jace’s abilities deal with milling; while you can likely mill a lot of cards with them, it doesn’t quite do enough compared to its compleated counterparts.
Even if you activate Jace’s ultimate ability as soon as it comes out, you can only mill fifteen cards. There are only two other cards that mill in Phyrexia: All Will Be One, and one is the green-black Tyvar, so Jace doesn’t have a ton of other support.
5 Nahiri, the Unforgiving
One of only a few planeswalkers who doesn’t have a negative cost to her abilities, Nahiri, the Unforgiving is a difficult Phyrexian planeswalker to place. It can come down as early as turn three in exchange for only entering with three loyalty counters. With both of Nahiri’s abilities, though, you can quickly recoup the loss of loyalty.
That said, it is difficult to say what type of deck Nahiri will slot into. Her last ability costs nothing to activate and creates copies of creatures or Equipment from your graveyard. As it stands, there are more efficient ways of bringing cards back; there are more permanent ways as well. There may be a way to combo with Nahiri in the future, but it might not do much until that combo is found.
4 Lukka, Bound To Ruin
Lukka tends to get a lot of hate from the Magic community, so his Compleation into one of Phyrexia’s new planeswalkers was no great loss for most fans. As a Phyrexian planeswalker, Lukka, Bound to Ruin has the potential to see at least some play in Standard, thanks to some fine abilities.
If you pay for Lukka with the Phyrexian hybrid mana, you can bring it out on turn four and potentially follow up with a two-mana creature immediately afterward. If you don’t have a creature to play with, you can always create a 3/3 Phyrexian Beast Token instead; either option helps to protect Lukka from incoming attacks. Lukka’s ultimate is heavily dependent on you having a powerful creature in play, and more often than not, you won’t be doing enough damage to justify the cost.
3 Nissa, Ascended Animist
Depending on what you’re willing to pay for Nissa, Ascended Animist determines how much of an impact it will have on the board. If you cast Nissa for five mana, you can only make a 4/4 Phyrexian Horror token from Nissa’s first ability. If you cast Nissa for six mana, now you’re making a 6/6, while if you cast Nissa for the full seven mana, you get an 8/8 creature, which are much better payoffs for her ability.
While her minus ability is solid but not particularly impressive, Nissa’s ultimate can potentially end a game with the right board state. It is slightly situational, giving your creatures +1/+1 for the turn equal to the number of Forests you control. But even with two or three Forests in play, you can usually safely overwhelm your opponent with one attack.
2 Tamiyo, Compleated Sage
As one of the more versatile Phyrexian planeswalkers, Tamiyo, Compleated Sage fills multiple roles with its abilities. This Tamiyo protects itself from threats by tapping down a creature or artifact and keeping it tapped for a turn. This ensures you won’t have to deal with it as an attacker for a while. Alternatively, you will have the opportunity to push some damage through your opponent’s defenses.
Tamiyo’s -X ability is a form of recursion, creating a token copy of whatever nonland permanent you want to bring back. There are some fun synergies with token doublers and Tamiyo, giving you two copies of whatever card you want to return to play for the price of one. And while difficult to get, creating a Tamiyo’s Notebook will generate a ton of value for you with just a few activations.
1 Vraska, Betrayal's Sting
One of the best of the Compleated planeswalkers from Phyrexia: All Will Be One, Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting is everything you want in a black card. Vraska will draw you cards with a bonus to proliferate any number of counters, including loyalty counters on Vraska. It comes with targeted removal, turning a creature into a Treasure, and has the potential to bring your opponent to the break of death by giving them up to nine poison counters for its ultimate ability.
This Vraska is the perfect card to play after dropping a Sheoldred, the Apocalypse on the turn before. The loss of life from drawing a card off its 0-cost ability is completely nullified with Sheoldred. With even just a little bit of proliferating synergies, you can comfortably cast Vraska for her lesser Compleated cost and still activate its final ability within only a few turns.