Magic: The Gathering's The Filigree Sylex gives players a boardwipe and win condition in one artifact

Magic: The Gathering’s next expansion, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, will give players an exciting assortment of new cards to play with. Among these is the newly revealed The Filigree Sylex, which is no doubt going to see a significant amount of use once the expansion releases in February 2023.

This low-cost, high-value legendary artifact will be a target as soon as it comes into play since not only can it clear the field of nonland permanents, but it can also be a potentially game-winning strike, depending on what you have available on the board. But what exactly can this new artifact do for Magic: The Gathering players? Let's find out.

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Magic: The Gathering's The Filigree Sylex gives players a boardwipe and win condition in one artifact

The Filigree Sylex in Magic: The Gathering (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

This might be one of my favorite artifacts to be revealed in Phyrexia: All Will Be One. Similar to Karn’s Sylex, it can clear the field of non-land permanents, but unlike Karn’s bowl, you don’t have to exile this Magic: The Gathering card from the game to get its best feature.

Unlike the previous Sylex, this one doesn’t come into play tapped either, making it a significantly better offering in some ways. What does this low-cost legendary artifact do, though?

The Filigree Sylex

• Mana Value: 2
• Rarity: Rare
• First Ability: Tap: Put an oil counter on The Filigree Sylex.
• Second Ability: Tap, sacrifice The Filigree Sylex: Destroy each nonland permanent with mana value equal to the number of oil counters on The Filigree Sylex.
• Third Ability: Tap, Remove ten oil counters from among permanents you control and sacrifice The Filigree Sylex: It deals 10 damage to any target.

Since this card only has to be sacrificed, you can easily retrieve it from the graveyard and put it back into play. You can play this on the second turn, and begin pumping it up with valuable oil counters almost immediately. Quite a few cards generate or create oil counters as well, so it won’t be difficult to get those for this Magic: The Gathering card’s final ability.

Conversely, you can also use it to wipe the board of not only creatures, but other artifacts, planeswalkers, enchantments - anything that isn’t a land from the field. If you use proliferate effects, this card is going to spiral out of control much faster than normal. The ability to deal 10 damage to any target means it could be used as a game-winner.

You could run it in a wide variety of decks, particularly slow, agonizing control variants. Another one of my favorite uses for this card is as an anti-token effect. There are simply so many ways to build vast armies of tokens right now, like White Sun’s Twilight. In response, on your turn, you can play this Magic: The Gathering card for 2 mana, and immediately sacrifice it.

Tokens cost no mana, so you don’t need any oil counters on this card. You can either then retrieve it from the graveyard if you have access to that kind of power, or simply play another one.

It’s unclear if this will be a must-play meta pick, but at the very least, the ability to clear away the field will make it a useful sideboard card. I see the low-cost of this artifact making it used in more decks than not.

Phyrexia: All Will Be One is the next Magic: The Gathering expansion, and it will be launched on February 10, 2023, with pre-release events kicking off on February 3, 2023.