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Those size comparisons beg the question:  Which of the praetors would win in a fight?  I'll do a brief breakdown of what I personally think would happen, which I might expand later:

Elesh Norn:  The first to go down. Looks to be only about 11 feet tall, way too spindly.  Her bony body is crushed by any of the other praetors.

Jin-Gitaxias:  Close fight between Jin and Sheoldred.  Can't decide if Sheoldred's large size and huge mouth destroy Jin, who is too much of a lab geek to win, or if Jin's spiny, metallic appendages and anatomic knowledge disect Sheoldred's awkward, unbalanced body.  Either way, whoever wins get punched out by....

...Urabrask, who, although the smallest praetor, is super fast and pretty scrappy, but no match for the sheer size and brutality of....

Vorinclex, who is the winner of the praetor battle royale!!!! SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST


EDIT: Oh wow, I didn't even realize that it was praetor week! How fitting to kick it off with a praetor-tastic cage match.  Now I'll definitely have to expand this later.  Perhaps even go into the casual section and start a thread about making a deck centered around each praetor and their corresponding Phyrexian faction....

May 8, 2011 -- 9:13PM, observerofthecards wrote:

Those size comparisons beg the question:  Which of the praetors would win in a fight?  I'll do a brief breakdown of what I personally think would happen, which I might expand later:

Elesh Norn:  The first to go down. Looks to be only about 11 feet tall, way too spindly.  Her bony body is crushed by any of the other praetors.

Jin-Gitaxias:  Close fight between Jin and Sheoldred.  Can't decide if Sheoldred's large size and huge mouth destroy Jin, who is too much of a lab geek to win, or if Jin's spiny, metallic appendages and anatomic knowledge disect Sheoldred's awkward, unbalanced body.  Either way, whoever wins get punched out by....

...Urabrask, who, although the smallest praetor, is super fast and pretty scrappy, but no match for the sheer size and brutality of....

Vorinclex, who is the winner of the praetor battle royale!!!! SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST


EDIT: Oh wow, I didn't even realize that it was praetor week! How fitting to kick it off with a praetor-tastic cage match.  Now I'll definitely have to expand this later.  Perhaps even go into the casual section and start a thread about making a deck centered around each praetor and their corresponding Phyrexian faction....

Well, sure, in an actual cage match, the smart money is always on the green and red creatures. On the other hand, white, blue and black have strengths other than one-on-one fair fights. If we're talking about the pure flavor, characters, storyline, etc., Elesh Norn wouldn't go anywhere without minions to protect her and she would strengthen them in turn, Jin-Gitaxias would hide out invisibly if the fight wasn't going his way and overwhelm them with a mind-boggling array of pure magic, and Sheoldred would try to poison any enemy or stab them in the back before they notice her.

In games with hypothetical Vorthos decks built around each Praetor, I think Sheoldred would be the best. Her mana cost is on the low side for Praetors and her p/t is on the high side, and every single turn she'll either give you a creature or take one from your opponent, and even in a block-only monoblack deck it's very easy to make her unblockable ( Evil Presence ) and/or give her infect.

If we're talking about which card is the best in competitive Constructed decks, my money's on Urabrask. He's the cheapest, and on turn five (or earlier with any mana acceleration) you play a 4/4 with haste, and from then on you're always two steps ahead of your opponent in terms of creatures. I won't be surprised to see a white weenie deck using Elesh Norn as a finisher/white Overrun , and there's probably a fun-but-not-actually-good deck using Jin-Gitaxias (with Sword of Feast and Famine , you can play him on turn five) and either Liliana Vess or Praetor's Counsel , but Urabrask is the one that fits most easily into an existing deck archetype.

May 8, 2011 -- 9:13PM, observerofthecards wrote:

Those size comparisons beg the question:  Which of the praetors would win in a fight?  I'll do a brief breakdown of what I personally think would happen, which I might expand later:

Elesh Norn:  The first to go down. Looks to be only about 11 feet tall, way too spindly.  Her bony body is crushed by any of the other praetors.

Jin-Gitaxias:  Close fight between Jin and Sheoldred.  Can't decide if Sheoldred's large size and huge mouth destroy Jin, who is too much of a lab geek to win, or if Jin's spiny, metallic appendages and anatomic knowledge disect Sheoldred's awkward, unbalanced body.  Either way, whoever wins get punched out by....

...Urabrask, who, although the smallest praetor, is super fast and pretty scrappy, but no match for the sheer size and brutality of....

Vorinclex, who is the winner of the praetor battle royale!!!! SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST


EDIT: Oh wow, I didn't even realize that it was praetor week! How fitting to kick it off with a praetor-tastic cage match.  Now I'll definitely have to expand this later.  Perhaps even go into the casual section and start a thread about making a deck centered around each praetor and their corresponding Phyrexian faction....

Well, if we were to go by the actual cards in a straight up head-to-head beat down, Elesh Norn would win.

Since Elesh's ability would be in effect during the fight, even Vorniclex as the biggest opposing Praetor gets reduced to a 5/4. He can't overcome her 7 toughness and beating him is easily manageable with her 4 Power.

True enough, though I was specifically looking at combat, thus I assumed the opposing praetors were able to make it to the combat step. Since Sheoldred's ability isn't related to combat I disregarded it, or considered that the other praetors had a chump to sac for it.

I knew I should have included a caveat about her.


None of the swords have a Phyrexian watermark, thus they were made by the Mirrans, not Urabrask (He's probably my favorite Praetor). Even if he were wielding them he couldn't kill Elesh, the swords would pump him to an 8/8, Elesh would drop him to a 6/6, and her 7 toughness would keep her safe. She just couldn't kill him either (both due to pro-white and only having 4 power).