Yawgmoth

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Yawgmoth was too powerful to print or even depict on a card. This image in InQuest Gamer magazine came from nowhere and may or may not have been him.

Then this guy appeared on his shrine years later... so I guess it really was him. Though to be fair, he was Phyrexia itself during the last phase of his existence.

Yawgmoth is, well, was, one of the main Big Bad Evil Guys of Magic: The Gathering, mainly in his role as the god of Phyrexia.

Overview

Yawgmoth was a Thran Healer who also happened to be the guy behind the original Phyrexia. TL:DR, he was a god, who had a whole plane of existence to call his own. Said plane became known as the Phyrexian Empire, known for its hordes of bio-mechanical undead warriors, demons, and monstrosities (Think an even more grimdark Dark Mechanicus/Necon hybrid with necromancy thrown in, and you'll have a general idea) He became a Cyborg-Necromancer-Scientist-Warlord, tried to take over Dominaria no less than three times, conquered other planes with his endless zombie cyborg demon army, and kept doing extremely evil things until he was killed by Urza and an alliance of planeswalkers. This is a very simplified explanation but it should suffice in a pinch.

The key part about Yawgmoth is that he was not a planeswalker, but was merely a completely mortal genius who managed to elevate himself to become the single most powerful creature in the history of Magic: The Gathering, even in the era of pre-mending planeswalkers. By strategically making friends he managed to gain control over an entire universe, then, when he was trapped, he spent millennia planning and plotting his return, before leading a full scale invasion of the whole of Dominaria (a super massive plane comparable to WFB's world in size), and was defeated in the climax of the single largest plot line in Magic history. This could only be achieved through the combination of a number of artifacts, combined at exactly the right time, that had been set up by the most cunning bastard in the history of Magic; Urza; over several thousand years. And even in death and over a hundred years later, he (might have? Shit was weird;) still showed up as an apparition or some sort of "echo" to scare the big bad of Magic's next block shitless just with his mere (possibly illusory) presence.

The Fluff

Yawgmoth did not start his life in MTG lore as the ultimate bad guy, rather he was simply known as Yawgmoth, the healer, who was exiled from Dominarian civilization (known as "The Thran" who were standard humans) for "tinkering" a bit too much with his patients, and his methods were a bit too unorthodox for comfort. He was a drifter for a while, continuing his quest for knowledge around the world, while deliberately spreading plagues in eugenic experiments and acting on retainer to warlords and sick fucks alike until he was called back to his homeland. He was called back because one of the most important figures in Thran society, Glacian, a master artificer, fell ill. This sickness; known as phthisis; stumped all the other healers, and eventually Yawgmoth was called back from his exile to fix this man.

What Yawgmoth actually found was that the power source for the entirety of the Thran's history, the powerstone, was poisoning everyone who was exposed to it. The reason Glacian was so horridly affected was because he got stabbed with a powerstone shard. And so began a gradual process of Yawgmoth obtaining more and more authority in the government of the Thran, manipulating the hell out of whoever didn't agree with him, and even gradually seducing Glacian's wife, Rebbec. He continued to consolidate his power through his treatment of phthisis, essentially medically enslaving the phthisis victims by holding their medicine hostage, granting both political control over not only the city-states but also the leper colony of infected chronic phthisis victims (known as the Untouchables) in the caves near it. Eventually, he met the planeswalker Dyfed, and was able to manipulate her into searching for a plane that he could establish his "utopia" in, all for the prosperity of the Thran and not him of course.

Dyfed would eventually find the uninhabited artificial plane that would become Phyrexia. Shortly sometime after she found the plane and Yawgmoth began using it as a sort of refugee camp for the Untouchables, the nations of Dominaria that Yawgmoth had merrily gallivanted through on his atrocity-sprees had formed an alliance that demanded his head. Faced with war against such a vast force, the council of leaders among the Thran city-states put to a vote the issue of whether or not to hand Yawgmoth over to the alliance forces. Yawgmoth's dealings, although able to curry great political influence, were not enough to force complete control over the leadership as he was able to do with the Untouchables. The council (with the exception of Yawgmoth and Rebbec), voted to surrender Yawgmoth to the alliance, Yawgmoth proceeded to promptly overthrow the council and imprisoned its members along with the delegates of the alliance.

This act of betrayal would incite the other Thran city-states to side with the alliance, and rebel against Yawgmoth's insurrection, beginning the Thran Civil War.

Yawgmoth had been busy however, in Phyrexia, he had been experimenting on the Untouchables, and had found that implanting depleted powerstones into them would not only keep their phthisis at bay, but also physically mutate them over time into taller, thinner, and stronger forms that were also able to accept more extensive artifact-based augmentations. He would unleash not only these unnatural troops against the alliance in the Thran Civil War, but also indiscriminately use artifact-based weapons of mass destruction called stonechargers.

Upon hearing of Yawgmoth's true nature and his latest atrocities, Dyfed would turn against him. At first, she attempted to end the civil war by closing the portal to Phyrexia, which would cut off Yawgmoth's army or seal him inside, but Yawgmoth had usurped control of the portal from her. Yawgmoth split the powerstone that Dyfed used to open and power the portals, and hid them within the body of Glacian without Dyfed's knowledge. Unable to remotely end the conflict, Dyfed confronted Yawgmoth in the core of Phyrexia, but Yawgmoth had planned for taking on a shapeshifting wizard demigod, throughout the civil war, he had been experimenting on himself and merging with the core of Phyrexia. This granted him a much higher level of power than would normally be attainable by a mortal, as he was able to tap into all of Phyrexia's mana in the same way that a Planeswalker is able to tap into the mana of multiple places. Yawgmoth was able to out-maneuver Dyfed, and when her guard was down for a moment after comprehending just what kind of hell that Yawgmoth had created out of Phyrexia, he stabbed a powerstone dagger into her brain. The magical knife paralyzed her, and most importantly scrambled her mind; preventing her from simply planeswalking away and also leaving her alive. Yawgmoth intended to vivisect her in search of a mythical organ that he theorized would permit him to planeswalk as well.

Unfortunately for his ambitions, this would not come to pass. Yawgmoth's indiscriminate use of the stonecharger artifact WMDs created vast clouds of not-radiation that were engulfing the lands of the Thran Empire, normally, Yawgmoth would use another device known as a Null Sphere; which was essentially a floating spherical fortress somewhere around the size of very, very small moon; to cleanse this deadly malaise and protect his own troops from it. However, unbeknownst to him (as he was ascending within Phyrexia at the time), the operators of the Null Sphere had rebelled against him, and jettisoned the sphere into the orbit of Dominaria. Yawgmoth's troops were trapped in the capital of Halcyon, besieged by the grand army of the alliance. Rebbec; the wife of Glacian; had come to suspect Yawgmoth's true nature, and when Yawgmoth returned to the surface to lead his army, she took the opportunity to investigate the depths of Phyrexia. In the deeps she found the various horrors that Yawgmoth had created and the bodies of Dyfed and Glacian. She discovered the split powerstone halves in Glacian's wounds, and was told of their purpose by Dyfed. Afterwards, she removed the powerstone knife from Dyfed's brain, allowing her to die and deny Yawgmoth her body for study.

On the surface, Yawgmoth unleashed his artifact-style exterminatus on the besiegers and annihilated them, it was then that he discovered that the Null Sphere's crew had betrayed him, and that he had no way to dispel the toxic miasma. Without the protective properties of the Null Sphere, he was forced to flee back into Phyrexia and wait for the fallout to dispel naturally. The not-radiation also mutated and sickened his troops, warping them even further as their implanted powerstones fed on the toxic powerstone miasma in an effort to keep them from dying outright. The surviving soldiers and citizenry of Halcyon would evacuate to Phyrexia, where Yawgmoth would twist and augment them even further, leading to the creation of the bio-mechanical horrors of Phyrexia that we all know and love.

After the last of Yawgmoth's warped soldiers fled inside the portal to Phyrexia, Rebbec would unite the split powerstone halves that powered the portal to Phyrexia on the pedestal that they were first split upon by Dyfed. This closed the portal, trapping Yawgmoth and his armies inside, they would remain there for 5000 years, until a certain pair of brothers stumble upon them.

The Crunch

Looking like that it's easy to see why he got exiled.

For the longest time Yawgmoth didn't have his own card, or even know for sure what he looks like. The reason for this anonymity is simple: he would completely break the game if he was added. Remember, this guy was able to kick the shit out multiple planeswalkers from before the mending, at the same time, and is just as powerful as that entails. The natural argument to this is "treat him like another Nicol Bolas, or the Eldrazi Titans," if you think this, you simply are not comprehending how powerful Yawgmoth is.

Nicol Bolas in the current story is simply trying to regain the power he lost in the mending. Yawgmoth massively, MASSIVELY exceeded that power anyway, and was able to just flatly stop the rampage of no fewer than ten pre-mending planeswalkers as they rampaged through his own universe (because he has one of those. Not a pathetic little meditation plane, we're talking Phyrexia here).

In fairness, the Eldrazi Titans at full power could possibly equal his power level, as it is stated that they are at no point at their full power, and even then to kill them it took the power of an entire plane. As they would just be as format warpingly powerful as a Yawgmoth card, there is a VERY good reason they are not represented as such, because if the titans were at their full power, they would break the game (and it kinda already happened, as Emrakul, the Aeons Torn" has been banned from EDH for quite some time).

That said, WotC in 2019 did reveal a Yawgmoth card. Why is it reasonable that this card doesn't break the game? Because it is of him before his apotheosis. MaRo stated we might get more Yawgmoth cards in non-Standard sets, each later in his life than the Yawgmoth card before it. So we might eventually have a card that represents Yawgmoth at his height.

Planeswalkers of Magic: The Gathering
Original Five:	Ajani Goldmane - Chandra Nalaar Garruk Wildspeaker - Jace Beleren - Liliana Vess
Alara:	Elspeth Tirel - Nicol Bolas - Sarkhan Vol - Tezzeret
Zendikar:	Gideon Jura - Nissa Revane - Sorin Markov
Scars of Mirrodin:	Karn - Koth of the Hammer - Venser
Innistrad:	Tamiyo - Tibalt - Davriel Cane
Return to Ravnica:	Domri Rade - Ral Zarek - Vraska
Theros:	Ashiok - Kiora - Xenagos - Calix
Tarkir:	Ugin - Narset
Kaladesh:	Dovin Baan - Saheeli Rai
Amonkhet:	Samut
Other:	Dack Fayden - Vivien Reid - Kaya
Commander 2014:	Daretti - Freyalise - Nahiri - Ob Nixilis - Teferi
Pre-mending:	Bo Levar - Commodore Guff - Jaya Ballard - Urza
Forgotten Realms:	Ellywick Tumblestrum - Bahamut - Lolth - Zariel - Mordenkainen
Planeswalker Groups:	The Gatewatch