Karn entered the caves carrying two burdens that reinforced each other. He needed to understand how the ancient Sylex had been activated, and he believed New Phyrexia would eventually turn his creation against the Multiverse. Working alone felt responsible to him: machines did not become infected, friends did not die beside him and no one could dismiss a warning they had never been asked to hear.
Fresh oil and living cables proved that the danger was already present. Beyond the excavated passages, the Society of Mishra was rebuilding Sheoldred, compleating prisoners and preparing engines assembled from Dominaria’s buried past. The discovery transformed Karn’s fear from a prediction into a military fact, but his attempt to destroy the operation gave the invaders time to collapse the caves around him.
This opening matters because Karn is correct and still strategically wrong. Isolation helps him find the enemy, then ensures that nobody knows where he is or what he found. Phyrexia exploits his guilt as efficiently as it exploits metal: the instinct to protect everyone by acting alone leaves the most important witness buried without support.