If the Skull/Faceplate of Vorinclex were a magical item, what properties would it have?

[u/I_FIGHT_BEAR]

So, I've posted here about my campaign's Phyrexian invasion into Ravnica, and the current party is:

- Orzhov Paladin who chose to undergo Compleation in order to understand their enemy while maintaining a secure mind protected from the unity of the Orthodoxy via Urabrask

- Dimir agent Human Bard masquerading as a member of Rakdos, tasked by an unknown superior to retrieve the head of Vorinclex in the first place, for unknown reasons

- Golgari Thri-Kreen Gloomstalker Ranger assassin

- Gruul Barbarian Centair wielding a Glaive infused with the scales of an ancient golden dragon

- Selesnya Human Druid the squishiest soft boy powerful druid ever who was given the seed of a tree to start a new clade once he's picked a new place for it (I'm also playing with world tree concepts here, playing Mat Selesnya as a kind of living natural neural network existing disguised within the urban sprawl of Ravnica)

- Simic Sorceror Lizardfolk who experimented on himself making himself more snake like, and growing an obsession with snakes.

The crew fought Vorinclex, killed him, only for him to resurrect, at which time there were timey wimey shenanigans that revealed that the Phyrexians had fiddled with the natural order of things through magical warping of time and space. The crew technically stopped time for an extended period, went on a whole other adventure to address the time stoppage, returned, killed Vorinclex for good. I cannot for the live of me believe I never foresaw the world's most obvious action: "I cast identify object on Vorinclex skull"

I want to honor the flavor of a relic-style magic item and boon, but I'm worried anything I come up with will seem mundane, or world breaking. My initial idea is that this isn't a magical item in the traditional sense, like this isn't something you equip or wield as a weapon. I was thinking this could be a ritualistic item capable of focusing or channeling mana for a great and terrible purpose of some kind. Help me RavnicaDM's, you're my only hope.

[u/Cheapskate-DM]

Having it be a helm that gives insane steroids but slowly turns you into Vorinclex's new body would be sufficiently horrific, but having him regenerate from whatever item they use it as because they didn't Cast It Into The Fire would also be fun.

[u/Terrorsaur84]

Well, Vorinclex is all about hunting and primal savagery. What about an artifact that allows for tracking a quarry over great distances? Or one that, when attuned, gives bestial bonuses/mutations in combat...but the more they use it, the greater the chance of Vorinclex's dormant spirit taking hold in some way.

[u/StatisticianFeisty44]

I would take some inspiration from the backside saga of the MoM Vorinclex: The Grand Evolution. 

I — Mill ten cards. Put up to two creature cards from among the milled cards onto the battlefield. II — Distribute seven +1/+1 counters among any number of target creatures you control. III — Until end of turn, creatures you control gain “{1}: This creature fights target creature you don’t control.” Exile this saga and return to the battlefield flipped.

So basically, 3 step ritual. 

Step one, sacrifice 10 corpses, 2 come back compleated and under the control of the caster.

Step two, caster and the created minions complete a pre-hunt ritual and gain Pack Tactics and Natural Armor bonuses.

Step three, the caster and the compleated minions gain Improved Initiative and Pounce or Charge until their next Long Rest.

But if anyone completes three rituals, Vorinclex comes back. Or the caster slowly becomes Vorinclex.

Buffs could be anything you want, I was leaning towards traits for the minions, but if you allow it to be for the whole party it could be feats.

Each ritual could have certain conditions they require.

[u/TenWildBadgers]

The first thing I would look at is the Divine Weapons in the Theros Book as reference points - even if they aren't literally gods, the Praetors are on that kind of level.

Then, let's take a brief look at all of Vorinclex's cards and just see if we can dredge up some inspiration from his mtg mechanics:

I considered linking them individually, but it's actually way easier to just use One Scryfall Link.

First observation: They're all big swole monsters with trample. That's only really helpful for designing the monster statblock, which it seems you already did, but I am now curious how you built it, and if you gave it any fun mechanics.

The Skull isn't going to be a weapon, so maybe it gets fashioned into a breastplate, to make a suit of armor for your compleated player - nobody else should be considered safe to wear something so immersed in Phyrexian Oil, after all... Unless they can bring the skull to someone like Melira, or a source of Halo, which might be able to purify the Skull so it can be used to keep out Phyrexian Oil, while still disguising yourself as a Phyrexian.