Phyrexia as smallpox

So the planeswalker’s guide to Lost Caverns of Ixalan dropped and I’m honestly still processing everything. There’s a lot of rich worldbuilding, a true trimph for vorthos.

One thing in particular stands out: the aftereffects of the phyrexian invasion. Only briefly touched upon in Wilds of Eldraine, here we’re given a through demonstration of how it affected both Ixalan and Torrezon. Predictably, there were very heavy casualties, down to royalty. The parallels with smallpox’s ravage on the Native American empires is plain to see; what struck out to me the most is the Brazen Coalition taken over vacated Sun Empire cities, which mirrors European colonists using abandoned indigenous settlements.

Torrezon was not off the hook either, resulting in mass famine, in this case similar to the Little Age Ice. It’s astouding how Creative wove in these historical parallels, and goes to show how frustrating it is that Phyrexia is gone.