Phyrexian Oil

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Phyrexian Oil
Original Name	烁油
Alias(es)	Oil; Phyresis Oil; Glistening Oil 373 485 641
Nature	Apparently living, conscious substance combining matter, energy, and mechanisms of spirit and consciousness 373 388 840
Creator	Yawgmoth; subsequently mastered and extensively redesigned by Zuo Si 374 406
Affiliation	Old Phyrexia; New Phyrexia; Zuo Si’s Ninth Layer of Baator 374 406 487
Occupation/Role	Medium for compleation, energy conversion, reconstruction, information storage, and the creation of intelligent beings 388 594 675
Status	Ascended into divine power and authority; integrated with Zuo Si’s body and soul 935 975
First Appearance	Acquired as an Oil card 373

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Original Phyrexian Oil acquired	373	Zuo Si obtains an Oil card. Its annotation warns that it appears alive and works especially well with Dragon Engines.
Consciousness-generating mechanism identified	388	Research establishes that ordinary New Phyrexian creations are soulless: their consciousness, memories, and thoughts are supplied by the Oil.
New Oil created	394	Using Merilei’s blood, Zuo Si replaces Yawgmoth’s influence and converts Wabash. The new formulation restores emotional experience and less restricted thought, while leaving him under Zuo Si’s control.
Soul-preserving compleation	406	Living subjects retain souls, self-awareness, learning ability, and creativity. Reassembled corpses receive consciousness; selected exceptional creations can receive souls forged through the Soul Well.
Specialized combat formulations	406 408 409	Oil No. 6 prioritizes concealed modifications; Oil No. 1 emphasizes metal, armor, coordination, and frontal warfare.
Advanced-learning formulation	413	Zuo Si supplies researchers with Oil No. 5, while stressing that learning and imitation do not replace original scientific discovery.
Deep-blue information medium	590	Oghma develops Oil that can store over ten million books in one drop and collect information through a host without infecting it.
Civilian scientific formulation	592	Zuo Si removes magical components from new models while retaining scientific knowledge. He distributes eleven portions: ten Earth deposits and one portion for Dumbledore.
Fel and Shadow Oil	641	Jin-Gitaxias develops energy-specific variants: Fel Oil fuels and strengthens machinery; Shadow Oil consumes energy and reshapes minds and values.
Warp Oil applied to a nonphysical entity	685	Experimental No. 40 Oil successfully compleates an electronic daemon, stabilizing it as a loyal digital being.
Spark-preserving compleation achieved	693	Jin-Gitaxias produces compleated Planeswalkers capable of carrying Oil into other timelines without losing their Sparks.
More than one hundred cooperating variants	744	Repeated improvements by Zuo Si and Oghma allow each drop to contain over a hundred functional variants working under unified management.
Enhanced Warp Oil assimilates divine essence	769	Oil injected by Typhus overwhelms Vashtorr’s body, mind, and divine essence, converting him into New Phyrexia’s Grand Praetor.
Distributed identity backups	807	Blue Oil stores memories, while Warp Oil stores souls and emotions. Recognized Praetors and advanced creations can be recreated within minutes after bodily destruction.
Divine authority	935	Source power elevates Mirrodin into a divine realm. Oil transcends ordinary matter and energy, becomes part of Zuo Si’s essence, and enables instantaneous bodily and spiritual transformation.
Ascended Oil overcomes older anti-Oil systems	975	Empowered through Mirrodin, Zuo Si’s Oil suppresses large areas of Nicol Bolas’s Eternalized System, which was designed to resist the original Oil.

Background / History

Yawgmoth and Old Phyrexia

Yawgmoth created Oil as the foundation of Phyrexia’s mechanical armies. It carried his personality, thoughts, and directives, allowing him to impose obedience and restrict Planeswalkers’ teleportation. After his death and the destruction of Phyrexia’s mechanical core, Zuo Si regarded the surviving Oil as theoretically ownerless—still executing inherited instructions without its original supreme controller 373 374 392.

Yawgmoth permitted limited independence in specialized infiltrators but distrusted them, retaining their hearts and enforcing loyalty through surveillance and punishment. The defector Shanga allied with Urza against Phyrexia; his heart was later used to create Karn 394.

Mirrodin’s Infection

Oil residue contaminated the core of Karn’s artificial world and corrupted its administrator, Monarkh. Karn’s later return introduced a more dangerous supply of primordial Oil from his own body. Combined with the existing contamination and underground mycelial colonies, it spread from Mirrodin’s core toward the surface 385.

The infection first altered machinery, then used those machines to capture living subjects. Converted victims, recycled corpses, and disguised infiltrators supported New Phyrexia’s conquest. The Praetor Council adopted Karn as its symbolic father while forcing him back into dormancy whenever his consciousness recovered 385.

Zuo Si’s Counter-Infection

Initially unwilling to release Oil near inhabited worlds, Zuo Si began sustained research through a protected institute on Mirrodin. Merilei’s immunity and cleansing ability provided the key to replacing Yawgmoth’s influence. After converting Wabash, Zuo Si introduced a drop of New Oil into Karn’s heart, beginning a covert infection of New Phyrexia itself 374 385 394.

The competing Oils caused blackouts, memory loss, and divided control among the Praetors. Zuo Si used Karn as a vessel to humiliate Elesh Norn, while Wabash and Jin-Gitaxias helped replace the old formulation within their factions. He concealed this operation as a strategic weapon against Nicol Bolas rather than openly announcing control of New Phyrexia 487 490 491 594 595.

Infernal and Civilian Deployment

Shendilavar became the first large-scale test of Zuo Si’s soul-preserving Oil. Its transformed population and Malcanthet entered his infernal hierarchy, while Zariel’s conversion demonstrated that Oil could turn an independent archdevil into a fanatically devoted Praetor. Oil-powered construction and living surveillance devices supported the Ninth Layer’s rapid industrialization 406 408 409.

Oil also transformed Mutahal Floating City into a vast, self-defending artifact. Zuo Si later released scientific formulations on Earth, provoking an energy and military research boom. Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel investigated its dangers, and the magical world established legislation concerning spells capable of controlling or destroying Oil-based technology 503 592 594.

Interuniversal Expansion

New Phyrexia used the Burning Legion’s portal network to spread Oil to more than ten thousand planets. Its forces captured technology, converted warships and fortresses, and assimilated Titan constructs. Sargeras’s eventual compleation ended the Legion’s independence: he ordered its remaining armies to surrender and accept Oil Baptism 640 647 650 810.

In the Warp, Oil converted daemonic entities and Vashtorr, while the T’au adopted it to protect their armies from plague and undead conversion. Later campaigns consumed Commorragh’s infrastructure and dead, turning the city toward a self-aware Phyrexian superstructure 675 685 692 769 840 842.

Source power finally elevated Oil into divine authority. During the confrontation with Nicol Bolas, Zuo Si deployed his Oil Avatar and New Phyrexian forces through World Tree portals, using their reconstruction abilities to sustain a war of attrition 935 972 973 975.

Appearance

• Standard form: Black, viscous liquid, described as grease-like within compleated bodies 427 744.
• Within hosts: Replaces blood with Oil conduits and can replace the heart with an Oil engine 427.
• Variant colors: Deep blue information Oil, green Fel Oil, and black-purple Shadow Oil 590 641.
• Mixed forms: Competing formulations inside Grisel produce a pale silver Oil 427.

Abilities & Skills

Compleation

Oil decomposes and reconstructs targets into Phyrexian forms, combining organic tissue, metal, machinery, and—under Zuo Si’s improved system—souls 385 406.

• Infects living beings, corpses, undead, constructs, weapons, buildings, and entire environments 385 413 503.
• Can spread through splashes, injections, airborne dispersal, contaminated machinery, and microscopic carriers 385 392 650 855 933.
• Usually begins modifications internally, allowing infected subjects to appear unchanged 640.
• Can reshape a subject according to personal desires, as demonstrated by Diary’s transformation 503.
• After ascension, Zuo Si can directly transform a target’s body or soul in an instant 935.

Consciousness, Loyalty, and Control

The Oil supplies consciousness to soulless creations and connects its subjects through a hive-mind-like system. Control of the Oil supersedes the authority of individual Praetors 388 427 487.

• Creates thinking beings from reassembled remains and machinery 388 413.
• Supports disguised spies, sabotage, and coordinated infiltration 385 427.
• Allows its true master to override a Praetor’s body and thoughts, as Zuo Si demonstrates through Karn against Elesh Norn 487.
• New Oil preserves more individual thought and creativity, but does not prevent engineered devotion or compulsory obedience 394 408 640.
• Shadow Oil can alter an individual’s—or an entire species’—thoughts, perceptions, and values 641.

Matter and Energy Conversion

Oil breaks down available materials and energy, then repurposes them into fuel, bodies, equipment, and infrastructure 594 675.

• Repairs mechanical bodies and powers enormous engines with small quantities of Oil 374 394.
• Converts corpses, discarded equipment, and waste into new troops and constructs 503.
• Absorbs Fel, Shadow, divine, and Warp energy through suitable formulations 434 640 641 675.
• Enables Oil-enhanced factories to manufacture huge warships and fortresses within minutes 779.
• Can restore damaged structures and populate them with intelligent workers using metal, biomass, and human remains 675.

Knowledge Storage and Transfer

Anything decomposed and compleated contributes its information and technology to the Oil’s shared reserves. That knowledge can pass between samples and reach the master through contact 685.

• A drop of Oghma’s deep-blue Oil stores over ten million books and extensive specialized knowledge 590.
• Jin-Gitaxias and Vashtorr exchange vast research collections by exchanging a drop of Oil 779.
• Newly delivered information can trigger immediate changes in existing creations and production systems 693.
• Civilian formulations record discoveries made by the societies using them, returning those advances to New Phyrexia 592 744.
• Oil reproduces and develops existing examples, but Zuo Si stresses that researchers remain necessary for original ideas and theoretical innovation 413.

Reconstruction and Identity Preservation

New Oil can rebuild bodies while preserving identity data, provided the necessary Oil or stored backup survives 406 807.

• Reconstructs damaged subjects when their core remains intact 406.
• Stores approved creations’ memories, emotions, and souls across specialized media 807.
• Recreates destroyed Praetors and advanced subjects as complete copies within minutes 807.
• Promotes surviving battlefield creations or generates new Praetors when command communications are severed 807.
• Severe damage to the Oil can still cause memory loss or personality changes 406.

Planar and Divine Functions

Oil’s interaction with souls and Sparks changes substantially as it develops 373 693 935.

• Original Oil can inhibit Planeswalker teleportation; Yawgmoth used this to force submission 373.
• Earlier compleation threatens to extinguish Sparks, but Jin-Gitaxias eventually creates compleated Planeswalkers who retain them 693.
• Ascended Oil carries Mirrodin’s divine authority and links Zuo Si physically and spiritually to the plane 935 975.
• Mirrodin’s core provides Zuo Si with a means of resurrection 935.
• At full capacity, Zuo Si describes its transformation range as potentially encompassing the Virgo Supercluster or an entire universe 935.

Known Variants

Variant	Properties and Uses
Original / Old Oil	Carries Yawgmoth’s influence; ordinary compleation produces soulless beings whose consciousness is supplied by the Oil 388 392.
New Oil	Replaces Yawgmoth’s influence with Zuo Si’s control; preserves souls in living subjects and supports learning, emotion, and creativity 394 406.
Oil No. 1	Maximizes metal content, armor, coordination, and suitability for frontal warfare; used on Zariel and her forces 408 409.
Oil No. 5	Advanced-learning formulation supplied to scientific researchers 413.
Oil No. 6	Conceals mechanical alterations and preserves outward appearance; developed for succubi 406 409.
Deep-blue Oil	Oghma’s compact information-storage medium; can observe through a host without infecting it 590.
Earth formulations	Carry scientific knowledge for materials, machinery, genetics, energy, and medicine; Oil-based products remain susceptible to magical control 592.
Fel Glistening Oil	Releases intense energy and heat, strengthens metals, improves heat resistance, and rapidly fuels war machines 641.
Shadow Glistening Oil	Absorbs and assimilates energy while enabling deep psychological manipulation 641.
Warp Oil / No. 40	Experimental formulation used to compleat an electronic daemon; Warp Oil later serves as storage for souls and emotions 685 807.
Enhanced Warp Oil	Used by Typhus to assimilate Vashtorr’s mind and divine essence 769.
Ascended Oil	Divine power and authority generated through Mirrodin’s connection to Source power 935.

Limitations & Countermeasures

Resistance and Detection

• Merilei: Immune to infection and capable of removing Oil from others. Her blood enables the replacement of Yawgmoth’s influence 394 427 485.
• Balanced mana and powerful defenders: Worlds with abundant, balanced five-color mana or strong gods generally resist infection more effectively 503.
• Cosmic Ambrosia and Halo: Kaldheim’s Cosmic Ambrosia grants temporary immunity; Capenna’s angel-derived Halo also resists Oil 503.
• Green natural energy: Flesh-and-blood subjects rich in green energy are harder to compleat, though not necessarily immune 503 968.
• Ork WAAAGH! energy: Preserves Orks’ characteristic thought patterns despite complete bodily compleation; it is not immunity to physical infection 684.
• Sliver adaptation: Some Slivers develop resistance sufficient to delay compleation for days, including after death 855.
• Internal scans: X-rays reveal concealed mechanical structures that outward examination may miss 394 427.
• Older anti-Oil systems: Bolas’s Eternalized System resists infection, but proves incomplete against ascended New Oil 974 975.

Destruction and Operational Limits

• Disintegrate and force magic: Physical disintegration destroys both creations and Oil; force-field weapons bypass heavy mechanical armor effectively 388 394.
• Large-scale destructive magic: Zuo Si’s Flame Torrent melts Phyrexian bodies, armor, and surrounding terrain 486.
• Finite conversion speed: Apokolips initially overwhelms converted troops by supplying reinforcements faster than Oil can assimilate them 926.
• Lost souls cannot always be restored: Skulltaker’s soul disappears when Khorne is expelled, leaving Zuo Si to reconstruct an obedient artificial Praetor rather than preserve the original daemon 675.
• Warp interference: The compleated electronic daemon remains partly between realspace and the Warp and needs material-universe power to affect stronger Warp entities 685.
• Nurgle’s diseases: Corrode the Oil Avatar’s metal, forcing continual replacement of damaged matter 769.
• Control-dependent safety: Zuo Si warns that even one uncontrolled drop can proliferate into a disaster. Civilian versions have active infection suppressed, but their technological dependence still gives him leverage 394 637 744 845.

Relationships

• Yawgmoth — Original creator and master; his directives and ideological influence persist in Old Oil until overwritten 374 392 394.
• Zuo Si / Raymond / Soth — Researcher, redesigning master, and eventual divine source; the ascended Oil becomes integrated with his body and soul 394 406 935 975.
• Merilei — Principal natural countermeasure and essential research partner; her blood makes New Oil possible 394 406 427.
• Karn — Carrier whose Oil contaminates Mirrodin; later used by Zuo Si as a conduit for counter-infection and remote control 385 394 487.
• Oghma — Research collaborator responsible for the deep-blue storage formulation and other improvements 431 590 744.
• Jin-Gitaxias / Gingitsax — Researcher who accepts New Oil, develops specialized formulations, and coordinates its technological expansion 490 491 641 779.
• Wabash / Vabash — Early New Oil subject and covert ally who helps undermine the original Praetor order 394 487 595.
• Elesh Norn — Uses Oil without truly mastering it; its competing influences undermine her bodily control and political authority 394 487 595.
• Asmodeus — Recognizes its military and soul-altering value and seeks to use it to reclaim exiled archdevils 392 409.
• Vashtorr — Assimilated by enhanced Warp Oil; subsequently contributes manufacturing expertise and helps engineer New Phyrexia’s divine ascension 769 779 935.

Notable Quotes

“[Oil] seems to be alive, possessing consciousness and life. It is dangerous and fascinating.”
— Annotation on the Oil card 373

“Furthermore, the Oil must have an undisputed master, otherwise, even if only a single drop remains, it will quickly spiral out of control and cause disaster.”
— Zuo Si 394

“What’s more, the Oil has now become rules and authority, and has long been integrated with my body and soul.”
— Zuo Si 975