compleation being a paint job (see cards like furnace reins, with clean framed metal growing over someone) instead of cool invasive surgery
i agree that there's a few artworks that are very disappointing throughout the new phyrexia arc, but to me the worst offenders are the white 'guy in a muscle suit' cards from ONE and the associated continuing retreat from elesh norn's incredible original design (which every set post the original New Phyrexia took part in). i think MOM is the set that best sells the horror and impact of compleation by far--it sells the serious imapct of the phyrexian invasion by having signifcant, beloved, iconic characters from planes get compleated. the flip cards are absolutely excellent as a before-and-after, as actually selling the narrative of phyrexia as transformation.
you can argue that the phyrexianization shown on furnace reigns is uninspired, sure, but it's clearly not a 'paint job' if you look closely at the art: i don't think there is anything 'clean' abotu the patchwork seam between flesh and metal at the face, or the burning rings keeping the horns in place. MOM has plenty of great phyrexian designs: gitaxian spellspear, bloated processor, seraph of new capenna, rona tolarian obliterator...
...and also shorthand for "not human and not worth relating to." killed without remorse (or at least without doubt)
this is ofc true but is also true about ever other use of phyrexia in magic's history and the sci-fi tropes it's drawing on. i don't think this ones makes a lot of sense to lay at MOM's feet
all the phyrexians going immediately inert at once when norn dies
this is still obviously a moronic plot point and retcon, but when you look at the set disconnected from the Magic Story, it is something that is said to happen on one card amid hundreds -- it is a major, inescapable part of the Magic Story, positioned inescapably at the climax, but it is a very small element of the set's narrative as seen on the actual cards.
all the invasion cards showing phyrexia getting owned
sure, the invasion cards show the phyrexian invasion being defeated. that's always going to be the outcome of the story, you can't actually have the phyrexians compleat planes that wotc might be planning returns to. "the bad guys lose" is the table stakes for serialized genre fiction, and you can't blame MOM for magic being that. but also, i think this characterizes the set as one-sided, when i really don't agree -- again, i think this criticism is founded in the Magic Story, where the phyrexian invasion is resolved mostly offscreen in a few short stories, which is anticlimactic for a linear narrative. in the set, however, the battles show phyrexian defeats because the transform cards are all showing phyrexian victories. etali, heliod, polukranos, are not just iconic characters but characters who are metaphysically emblematic of the planes they're from. even on the invasions, cards like invasion of kaldheim, invasion of vryn, and invasion of eldraine put emphasis on what was lost or destroyed either as a cost of defeating the invasion or before it could be defeated.
often in a silly or casual way (see kylem, ixalan, ulgrotha, etc).
the invasion of ixalan flavor text is lame and marvelcore, but i don't think anything about the actual narrative of the card is 'silly' or 'casual' -- the exact same narrative is played fully straight on limited all-star burning sun's fury. i'll also defend kylem -- kylem is for all intents and purposes a low-stakes joke plane. some level of tonal dissonance is inevitable when you do a crossover, i think having the invasion of kylem card feel unserious was the cost of having one at all. you can argue that's a bad decision, but i think that's just some of the table stakes of crossovers. as for ulgrotha, i think an ancient vampire with a bat chariot kicks ass and rules.
i love the invasion cards, and i love how they each represent the unique aspects of the plane being turned towards its defense. i love how they serve as culminations to entire planes of narrative: invasion of strixhaven, invasion of ravnica, invasion of mercadia stand out as fantastic narrative payoffs for those planes as a whole.
planeswalkers losing their sparks for no reason, something i'm not sure anyone who likes these characters liked
not in the set. the entire concept of omenpaths and desparked planewalkers only starts showing up in MAT, which is ofc is own years-of-magic-derailing can of worms.
like, i'm not arguing that MOM is cool in a vacuum! i'm arguing that it's cool for exactly what it is and where it is, as a culmination to the phyrexian infiltration saga as told throughout the cards in the set. the team-up cards would be meaningless if taken 'on their own', but just like the transforamtion and invasion cards, they bring the unique aspects of each plane to bear and truly represent the concept of a universe banding together to fight an impossibly huge foe. i came into the set at ONE, i loved ONE, and the more time passes and the more i look back on MOM as a collection of cards i think the narrative holds up incredibly, especially for the fraught and difficult task of landing a climactic crossover -- far better than the atrocious narrative of the associated Magic Story
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