I've had an interesting thought. A couple, actually.
Lorewise, Elesh Norn is the surpreme Praetor - that is, she has taken over New Phyrexia
by force. Her exact means are unknown, but it is seen in the latest story ("A Garden of Flesh",
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/garden-flesh-2022-05-03) that she holds a sort of divine right over an army of Phyrexians on New Phyrexia as head of the Machine Orthodoxy, the "church" of Yawgmoth.
The most interesting development in this story was that
SPOILER ALERT the
nightmare Planeswalker Ashiok was manipulating her mind into a state of dreaming where she created Elesh's
nightmare. I'm not going to narrate the story here, but the long and short of it is that now it can be reasonably concluded that under the influence of Ashiok's nightmares, Elesh has developed a paranoia that stems from a foreign sliver of doubt in her own church.
So what do we know about Elesh Norn so far?
- She is the most powerful Phyrexian Praetor with the greatest influence.
- She has a semi-hive-mind connection with the other Phyrexians who preside in New Phyrexia.
- A seed of doubt and paranoia has been planted in her mind.
- She is white-aligned and must (at least partly) occupy that design space.
So what can we extrapolate from this? Well, we can take these properties and convert them into card design aspects.
Elesh Norn's old old character leans into the design area of going wide with her +2/+2 anthem and heavily focuses on her oppressive presence with the more destructive -2/-2. The theme of
oppression is a good one - it perfectly represents the weight of her influence, control, and corrupted religion. This theme is seen elsewhere with tax effects (
Mana Tithe,
Smothering Tithe), spell restriction effects (
Deafening Silence,
Rule of Law) and -X/-X effects, which are outside of the white color pie. I would also be very surprised if her recent character development didn't make it into the card frame.
So here are my ideas for some lines of text we might see on the new Elesh Norn:
1: Similar style to old Elesh - buff/debuff, focused on amassing a devoted army.
- At the beginning of combat on your turn, up to one target creature you control gets +1/+1 for each creature you control and gains vigilance until end of turn.
- At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, up to one target creature that player controls gets -1/-1 until end of turn for each creature you control. Tap it.
2: Lean into taxation! Similar to the new Jin-Gitaxias though.
- The first spell you cast each turn costs {4} less to cast.
- The first spell your opponents cast each turn costs {4} more to cast.
3: A different take on taxes (static effect):
- Creature spells your opponents cast cost {2} more to cast.
- Creature spells you cast cost {2} less to cast.
4: Something a little spicier. Tokens.
- Whenever you cast a creature spell, create a 1/1 colorless Phyrexian Construct artifact creature token and you gain 1 life. This ability triggers only once each turn.
- Whenever a Phyrexian token you control dies, return up to one target creature card from your graveyard to your hand and each opponent loses one life. This ability triggers only once each turn.
And if anyone wants to tell me that reanimation/disentombing is out of the color pie, go ahead. I'm waiting.
Oh, and one more thought:
5: Combat-centric buffs and debuffs.
- Whenever you attack, each attacking creature gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of attacking creatures.
- Whenever a creature an opponent controls attacks, it gets -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the number of attacking creatures.
Have fun pointing out all the holes and problems in these concepts. Have a good rest of your day wherever you are.