Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. This week, a Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander precon backup legend that has been gaining some traction online: Vishgraz, the Doomhive.
Vishgraz is fresh from the Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander preconstructed decks as the secondary commander to Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa. Given that they both come from the poison counters matter precons, of course I’ll be discussing poison counters. Heads up.
A quick word on poison counters: They are hated because of the perceived rate at which you can die to it. Ten counters versus 40 life and life gain doesn’t remove poison counters means that you’ll be squeezed a little tighter than you think. However, it must be focused to really get someone out all while amplifying the target on the poison player’s back. So it’s not the strongest archetype, but it does draw an immense amount of hate. Because of its return in a standard set, it means it’s coming to Commander. The precon made that clear. This time Toxic over Infect, but we still get to use Infect goodies, so let’s get started.
Vishgraz, the Doomgive is a 3/3 legendary creature Phyrexian Insect for 2WBG with a text box that doesn’t leave room for any of the flavour this guy deserves:
“Menace, toxic 1 (Players dealt combat damage by this creature also get a poison counter.)
When Vishgraz, the Doomhive enters the battlefield, create three 1/1 colorless Phyrexian Mite artifact creature tokens with toxic 1 and “This creature can’t block.”
Vishgraz gets +1/+1 for each poison counter your opponents have.”
For a card without red, this is one of the reddest cards I’ve read.
Things to remember:
Let’s get into the 99. Heads up, I will be avoiding new cards included in the precon deck.
I strongly believe that the best way to play Vishgraz is to slam a bunch of ramp, play your Swiftfoot Boots and Asceticism, get your commander out and smash. Make Vishgraz unblockable while you crank the poison. Alpha Authority and Familiar Ground with Vish’s Menace means unblockable. Add Vorrac Battlehorns and Wolfrider’s Saddle to that list. Canopy Cover isn’t exactly that, but some decks don’t have enough flyers or reach to blocker a big beefy menace effectively!
Attack alone! Use those Mites you have to pump your big boy with Angelic Exaltation and get a blocker out of the way with Angelic Benediction.
Untap your lands and protect your commander with Bear Umbra, pump up the slams with Bone Sabres, and give your boy double strike with Duelist’s Heritage – an equally impressive political tool.
If you don’t want to go the Voltron route, I cannot recommend Druids’ Repository more. Make your tokens when Vishgraz comes down, maybe blink him with a Teleportation Circle or Conjurer’s Closet to keep the Mites churning. Skrelv’s Hive and its analogue Bitterblossom belong in this version of the deck. Swing with them, add counters onto the Repository, then Proliferate those because of course you have some Proliferate effects, this is a poison deck!
Charge of the Mites is fun removal. White Sun’s Twilight is a board wipe and an army in one. Cathars’ Crusade will make Vishgraz a 7/7 before the poison counter buffs and your there Mites 4/4s. Give them all lifelink and double strike with True Conviction and take the game. Time to shuffle up.
I said of course you’re going to have Proliferate, but I’d like to mention a few interesting ones I like for this category. We know of the Evolution Sage and Contagion Engine but what about these neat lil’ freaks.
You can slap Glistening Oil onto your commander for some kill action, play Triumph of the Hordes or Tainted Strike to end it all.
Necrogen Rotpriest and Plague Nurse are standouts from the new set for our new Toxic king. A lot of the best Corrupted payoffs are in the precon deck and I urge you to check out that list for your fave tech. Phyrexian Atlas is maybe my fave innocuous little guy besides Skrelv’s Hive, which has already gotten some love this article.
You can make a ton of tokens and that means I want to recommend Altar of the Brood and Altar of Dementia for your alt win condition. Throw an Eldrazi Displacer and an Ashnod’s Altar in the deck and you’ve got yourself infinite blink and infinite mana and infinite Mites right there at instant speed. Why not mill your opponents out that way instead of just attacking? Come on, live a little!
This wouldn’t be an article of mine if I didn’t mention aristocrats. If you do make all of those tokens, please include a Zulaport Cutthroat or a Martyr’s Bond. For me.
If there’s any commander you want covered, message me @mikecarrozza! Thanks again for reading!
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Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. This week, a Phyrexia: All Will Be One legend that’s caught the attention of many players all over. And of course it has, it’s a Simic commander that does so much!
This time on A Seat at the Table, we’re going long on proliferate and getting down to what could make Ezuri a fierce commander. A legendary 3/3 Phyrexian Elf Warrior for 2GU that loves counters. Let’s see that textbox!
“When Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres enters the battlefield, you may pay 3. If you do, proliferate twice.
Whenever you proliferate, draw a card.”
Yowza, what a cool commander. Let’s clarify some things.
Here are some cards I think are fun for an Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres deck.
This enchantment in this deck reads “cast a spell, proliferate, and draw a card”. I remember playing this in my Ezuri, Claw of Progress deck when I upgraded the precon, and it was a house. Every time I played it, I could follow up with two little creature spells, adding a total of four experience counters to myself so that I can have a beefy beater. In this deck, Tide is worth copying with a Clever Impersonator or Mirrormade. Proliferate your heart out.
Look, you’re running a deck running on proliferating – you’re going to want to run the four drop that doubles your proliferation. Slapping an opponent with Thrummingbird now yields two proliferations. Experimental Augury is Anticipate + Proliferate x2. Plus, being able to give this an indestructible counter repeatedly allows you to run something like Nesting Grounds to give something else indestructible.
Ezuri’s first ability is an enters the battlefield ability. Having these blinking engines and three mana means that end step comes around, for three mana, you proliferate twice, draw two. This reliability will make you a threat, but Asceticism and similar cards are out there to keep your opponents from killing your commander.
Get rewarded for doing things you’re already doing. You’re playing lands and ramping so Evolution Sage sharing a battlefield is a makeshift Nissa, Vital Force emblem. Flux Channeler allows you to proliferate for all of those ramp spells, planeswalkers, artifacts, enchantments, whatever noncreature you please. Your commander wants incidental cantrips on everything!
Activate these at will and reap the rewards of proliferation. Contagion Engine can be a gradual wrath for one player’s board. Clasp hurts one target creature, but ultimately, instant speed activations can spell out danger for your opponents.
The more counters you put on these bad boys, the more you get out of them. Gyre Sage, Viridian Sage, and Marwyn all have their ways of pulling off adding mana equal to their power or counters, but with all the proliferation in this deck, they become your snowball. Just blinking Ezuri will add counters on Marwyn because he’s an Elf. Gyre Sage has Evolve, so playing your commander on curve with the help of the sage will give it a counter immediately. Fathom Mage also has Evolve, but rewards you with cards instead of mana. I know that the moment I see this in an Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres deck, I need to take it down. It’ll supercharge their hands.
Guess what permanents enter with counters? That’s right – Planeswalkers! In a deck where you’re going to be adding counters constantly, planeswalkers can be extremely scary and dangerous. There are so many planeswalkers whose ultimate ability is ignored because they can’t get there naturally without opponents attacking them. Keep on stacking these counters and show your opponents what the newest Teferi can do (single Cyclonic Rift, anyone?) or keep Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner around despite her only having a downtick ability so you can keep uncapping Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Pick your favourite planeswalkers and maybe simply build a full planeswalker deck for Ezuri to command.
Replicating Ring adding a counter each of your turns is slow and rarely pays off. Within an Ezuri deck, you’ll get there in less than half the time and you might even make it happen twice, making you 16 mana rocks that only fuel the rest of your onslaught. Or maybe you can ultimate Tezzeret the Seeker to turn them into 5/5s.
Empowered Autogenerator, Astral Cornucopia, and Everflowing Chalice all add mana equal to the counters on them. In a deck focused on the ability to proliferate these counters, these mana rocks get out of hand really, really fast. You can even untap them with Kiora.
Want to win easily? Darksteel Reactor and Simic Ascendancy are alternate win condition cards that want you to have 20 or more charge/growth counters on them to win you the game. Simic Ascendancy gets there extremely quickly if you’ve got a lot of +1/+1 counters on your board of creatures to proliferate. You proliferate a +1/+1 counter that gets you a growth counter, but the growth counter can be proliferated, too. This is like self-poison counters!
That does it for another edition of A Seat at the Table! Let me know if there’s a commander you’d like me to cover for the next one on Instagram or Twitter at @mikecarrozza!
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Welcome to my set review of Phyrexia: All Will Be One, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.
It’s time for me to cover the new cards from the Commander preconstructed decks, as well as the Commander-legal Set and Collector Booster exclusive cards.
Without further ado, here are my favourite new cards!
Teferi’s Protection brought back phasing in 2017 and we saw it take over metas all over. It truly is the best protection spell of all time. Clever Concealment is a potentially free (if you’ve got enough untapped creatures) but toned down version of Teferi’s Protection. It doesn’t phase out your lands and it doesn’t protect you or your life total, but it saves what you need to save and I love it.
This is the chase card from Commander precons if presale prices are to be believed and I understand why. Protect your enchantments in your enchantress decks, planeswalkers in your planeswalker decks, artifacts, creatures, whatever you need to protect on your board, it’s out of reach for your opponents. Protect your tokens even! Phasing! It’s awesome!
We have a new pillowfort card. Will this prompt an alpha strike to take you out? Yeah, likely. But this will give you the time to work out your defences. Also, with the influx of poison counters coming thanks to this set, we might see the second ability get some traction even without you taking damage.
Remember, if an opponent deals enough combat damage to kill you and you trigger the last poison counter, your opponent will survive.
I love the idea of seeing this in play and casting Fractured Identity on it. Enjoy cards and poison counters, ya nuts!
I absolutely love clone spells. I especially love clone spells with modality. Mockery’s closest analogue is Saheeli’s Artistry which for six mana gives you a token copy of a creature and one of an artifact.
Mockery is only for creatures, requires you to control them, and requires an artifact and nonartifact creature to entwine. Liquimetal Torque is in more and more of my decks. Adrix and Nev, Twincasters decks will likely be the ones to benefit from this most.
I am shocked at the amount of people absolutely bonkers excited for a dedicated Myr commander. It is so unexpected to me!
That said, Myr are known for being mana dorks in all colours and Urtet’s activated ability makes them a five-colour commander, so pop all those little guys into it. With these Myr getting untapped at combat, you can really just be a big mana deck and play all the expensive cards you’ve been holding off on because they’re eight mana and who has the time!
The activated ability paired with the untap means that your little Myr army can big pretty big when it’s time to swarm.
The issue is that five-colour commanders are so open-ended and while this definitely pulls you in a specific direction with the Myr type elements, it’s just easy to go whatever direction you need to go.
In white, you’re often making tokens accidentally even. Staff of the Storyteller is likely to become a Phyrexian Arena that costs one white mana instead of one life. Even on it’s ETB, Staff of the Storyteller can be 1WW for a card draw which in white isn’t the worst place to be. My Thalisse, Reverent Medium deck is going to try this out for sure. Otharri, Suns’ Glory (spoiler, my fave of the new commanders) is going to take advantage of this.
There are so many token decks in white that will have this seemingly innocuous piece outing gain advantage over time. Also, this feels like such a stupid thing to want to remove! It doesn’t feel good to target this with removal! Because it seems so innocent!
Watch your opponent get cards and then rethink your stance on not targeting this artifact. (This is more of a note to self right now.)
That does it for Phyrexia: All Will Be One! Let me know what commander you want me to write about @mikecarrozza on Instagram and Twitter!
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Welcome to my set review of Phyrexia: All Will Be One, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.
Given that Phyrexia: All Will Be One also comes out with a pair of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.
Without further ado, here are my favourite Colourless and Lands cards!
This is a fun colourless commander. There aren’t a ton of amazing token generators, but my first thought was make an army of 1/1s and turn them into 5/3 Juggernauts. There’s something fun about Solemn Simulacrum daring your opponents to block it when it’s going to eat what’s in its way.
Graaz can be a real finisher in a Thalisse, Reverent Medium deck or even a Krenko, Mob Boss deck. Just any deck where you have a huge amount of creatures that would be buffed if turned into 5/3s, Graaz is your new anthem that’ll make people smile. You can also Goblin Welder this out! Loot on end step, Goblin Welder, untap, swing. GGs, everybody.
You can pay three mana for a fetch land. Or you can play Mirran Safehouse to be the Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx you just hit with a Beast Within. Playing a mill deck? You’ll surely find a utility land to somewhere for you to take advantage of. Mirran Safehouse isn’t fancy, but it’s cool, it’s new and it’s a Strip Mine away from being a Cabal Coffers that’s also… a Strip Mine. This is sneaky!
I love a good callback.
Staff of Domination has been Compleated and Staff of Compleation tells you to pay life instead of mana. It will add up, but in a superfriends deck, you’re looking at adding loyalty for three life. Card draw is a little steep, but paying four life and tapping this with Vilis, Broker of Blood under your control gets you practically a new hand. I don’t consider this quite a mana rock since it will dig into your life a little too aggressively, but it is one in a pinch. It’s versatile and useful, but be careful with your life!
Turn your land into any nontoken artifact you control by paying for it again. Mirage Mirror so good you need another? Good, here it is. Want a second Sol Ring or Mana Crypt? Consider it done. As long as you’re not looking for an ETB trigger to copy, The Mycosynth Gardens are a solid include for nontoken artifact targets like a Conjurer’s Closet or Sword of the Animist. It’s a land and it filters for any colour. Enjoy testing this one, it is bound to surprise many of us as the set rolls out. It’s not stuck at sorcery speed either!
Keep token players on their toes with this ability to blow them up at any time. It’s a Ratchet Bomb, we’ve seen this before. But this is legendary and fits in your legendary matters decks and, in certain cases, you can remove ten oil counters to deal a knockout blow of 10 damage. I really like that we have a legendary Ratchet Bomb. With the legendary matters push in Dominaria United, I think this is a solid and interesting addition to the card pool. I’m running this in my Will the Wise / Mike, the Dungeon Master deck.
That does it for Lands and Artifacts! Catch you next time for the new cards from the Commander Precons!
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Welcome to my set review of Phyrexia: All Will Be One, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.
Given that Phyrexia: All Will Be One also comes out with a pair of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.
Without further ado, here are my favourite Gold cards!
I really, really like Tyvar. Here comes a planeswalker Thousand-Year Elixir with upside. He works with the original Tyvar Kell if you run him in an Elves shell.
Yes, it’s more fragile than Thousand-Year Elixir and you can’t activate it at instant speed, but this is about redundancy in the right decks. I run Will the Wise / Mike, the Dungeon Master, and Tyvar was such a windmill slam in that list I can’t recommend it enough. The -2 ability gets Will back out of the graveyard, too! It’s great for self-mill strategies. It’s a planeswalker, so it’s a different card type to cast with Muldrotha, the Gravetide. I am a big fan of this card, but recognize it’s getting the beatdown every time.
This is one of the best designed cards I’ve seen in a hot minute. I think it tells a story so well and its mechanics are useful and interesting. The static ability keeps Kaito balancing and helps you get a recast on a creature you want to leave or ETB again.
Sivitri, Dragon Master decks are going to love this. My Aminatou, the Fateshifter superfriends deck is going to love this.
Don’t sleep on the token Kaito creates. Drones are a plant for more because that token is strong. It deters attacks and when a board wipe hits, if you have four or five of these, that’s eight or 10 life per opponent. I am a massive fan of this card and believe it’ll be way more impressive than people can tell right now.
Yeah, seven mana is a lot, but Hexproof and six loyalty with card draw, draining, and of course, that huge -3 ability. Incredible. I cannot express properly just how brutal this is going to be against the right decks. I cannot tell you enough how nuts this is going to feel when you land it. I love Kaya, I feel comfortable saying she’s my favourite planeswalker. This card solidified her up there for me.
Superfriends and Orzhov tokens are the likeliest homes for Kaya, Intangible Slayer. Thalisse, Reverent Medium has Anointed Procession rocking, so it’s even more value. Let’s get hype! This card is expensive to cast, but its impact will be noticeable.
Big surprise, the aristocrats guy likes the Rakdos commander. A non-legendary pseudo-death Cascade makes this the leader for a “secret commander” deck. Build a deck around that and stuff it with legendary creatures to dodge. Rakdos legends are so fun, I think you can build this to be an interesting varied experience every time.
I’ll be trying this out in my Lyzolda, the Blood Witch. Let’s see what Kethek can pop out!
This is going right into my Zaffai, Thunder Conductor and if I want to, I might even just swap Ovika for Zaffai from time to time. I think Ovika is so interesting. Sure, you can go the Impact Tremors route too!
I really like Ovika because it’s very flexible. You see it in Izzet colours and you think instant and sorcery, but it only says noncreature. Instants, Sorceries, Enchantments, Artifacts, Planeswalkers – you can build Ovika a bunch of different ways. Targeting Ovika is difficult and one Sunbird’s Invocation gets you six tokens, then every cast spell gets you another, and if they aren’t creatures, boom, more Goblins.
Jesus, it’s also a 6/6 in the air if you wanna just swing. I think Ovika is cool as hell.
That does it for Gold! Catch you next time for Lands and Artifacts!
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Welcome to my set review of Phyrexia: All Will Be One, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.
Given that Phyrexia: All Will Be One also comes out with a pair of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.
Without further ado, here are my favourite Green cards!
This is a solid contender to replace Crucible of Worlds in decks that need their artifacts to do something else while also allowing for calculated single plays. That second ability isn’t always going to be activated, but playing a fetch land or something from your graveyard, that’s every time.
The Gitrog Monster is one of my only remaining green decks, and when I tell you that some turns I only play one thing and the rest is activated abilities, I think this is going to find an easy slot in there.
This is definitely limiting, but in a pinch, it can be exactly what you need. Just don’t go playing Underworld Breach from this activation.
A new Craterhoof Behemoth for mono green decks or decks running Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth just dropped and she is sickening, honey.
Sure you can pay five mana, four life for a three loyalty planeswalker, but paying six, mana for five loyalty is also a sweet spot. The plus one in a deck poised to take advantage of big tokens like Ghired, Conclave Exile can get out of hand if you’ve got Nissa out on seven. That is of course if you don’t just ultimate her immediately. Nissa is a threat on the table or a surprise in hand. This is the scary planeswalker of the set for me!
Lagrella, the Magpie decks just got a new win condition.
Go ahead and look up cards that target any number of creatures. Then build up a board and target all of them. Venerated Rotpriest does not care who targets your creatures, whether that creature is a token or not, Venerated Rotpriest only cares if they are targeted by a spell.
Keep this one in your pocket until the time is right because this sick little freak is going to turn some heads. It’s only one mana! And that art! Good god, this card is beautiful.
Tamiyo’s Safekeeping, this is not, but Tyvar’s Stand does grant two of the best keywords to a creature for one mana and then you have the option of buffing that creature up as much as you need. Obviously, pop this on a trampler and get damage all the way through.
I think we are at capacity for Caustic Caterpillar type cards. Cankerbloom looks disgusting and the choice of cashing it in for destruction or construction is great in the right deck. Get over the top in your token swarm counters deck and mess with the math. Fynn, the Fangbearer decks get a little extra utility here. All in all, proliferate isn’t necessary everywhere, but it is nice to have when the time is right.
Yeah, I cheated, but for good reason. There is so much happening on this card. A mana dork that eats your opponents graveyard before becoming a small beater is incredible. Targeted graveyard hate is more and more necessary, and when it’s just tacked on to something that’s making you mana? Lord save us all. This is a power creep canary has been long dead in this coal mine moment.
That does it for Green! Catch you next time for Gold!
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Hello! Welcome to my set review of Phyrexia: All Will Be One, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.
Given that Phyrexia: All Will Be One (aka ONE) also comes out with a pair of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.
Without further ado, here are my favourite Red cards!
Okay, so it takes a little time to become full on Ball Lightning, but this triggering every combat and letting you keep the token until your end step is great.
Any extra combat decks out there? Oh, there are? Fantastic, here’s one for you. Every combat, you’ll get a beefier token that just wants to rushdown your opponents. Got a Fling deck like Ziatora, the Incinerator? Do you run Warstorm Surge? How about Stalking Vengeance? Maybe it’s time to run these along Vicious Shadows to embrace the birth and death of these Phyrexian Horrors. This is going into my Grand Warlord Radha deck and I’m excited to see how it turns out.
This card combos with so many cards that it is going to be hard to justify not killing the player who puts it out. Cathars’ Crusade is a mild case if you’ve got a bunch of tokens entering. The infinities with this are The Red Terror, War Elemental, Quest for Pure Flame, and Talon of Pain.
Pair this and damage based board wipes like Blasphemous Act and Soul-Scar Mage and you’ll have a board wipe that gets around indestructible but also will likely kill an opponent if not all of them. Your Vivid lands enter the battlefield and become real Shock lands. It’s cool, it’s splashy, but it’s also very scary. Play with caution!
This is one of the coolest looking of the Domini. Solphim is a Furnace of Rath that doesn’t deal double damage to yourself or things you control. A discard outlet as an activated ability that gives Solphim indestructible is also pretty solid in the right decks. Put this in any deck that wants to play the game in fast forward. Punisher decks found a new commander or at least one that can tag team with Zo-Zu the Punisher. Impact Tremors, Purphoros, God of the Forge, and Witty Toastmaster all become way more dangerous with Solphim out. There’s a lot to love about this card, but what I think is coolest is that it puts aggro strategies back on the menu for Commander. Get ‘em!
I talked about Slobad in a previous article and I remain just as intrigued. Wearing the remains of Bosh, Iron Golem as armor, Slobad is an interesting take on a mana dork. I love Illuminor Szeras and Soldevi Adnate, so seeing a Phyrexianized Slobad, Iron Goblin follow their line but as an Artifact mana dork makes me wonder what we’re about to see.
Obviously, you can’t sacrifice a token for mana with Slobad, but you can use your curve to your advantage. Portal to Phyrexia is nine mana, but is nine mana that much when you’ve found a way to turn your expensive mana rocks sideways and then bin them for value? Gilded Lotus taps for three and then sacrificed for five, that means you’ve got eight mana without even touching your lands. There are artifacts that run their course like Meteor Golem or the Wellsprings. You can use Liquimetal Torque and Liquimetal Coating to sacrifice nonartifact permanents to Slobad! I love Atsushi, the Blazing Sky for this personally. And if you’ve got too much mana to use well, you can always find cards with activated abilities, like Gemstone Array or Equipment that untap Slobad.
Speaking of Equipment, reducing equip costs by one is huge. Skullclamp and Swiftfoot Boots become free activations. Reducing equip costs by two when it’s the Aspirant though means that you’ll be able to free equip all the Swords of X & Y to it and swing basically unblockable and get a ton of triggers!
That does it for Red! Catch you next time for Green!
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Hello! Welcome to my set review of Phyrexia: All Will Be One, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.
Without further ado, here are my favourite Black cards!
A single black mana. That’s the cost of this artifact. It reminds me a little of Phyrexian Reclamation. Of course, there’s more set up with the oil counters being required, but three mana to Reanimate a creature is sweet even at sorcery speed.
Note that you also accumulate the oil counters for tokens hitting your graveyard. That means that you can pay for the activation with Treasure tokens and all you’d need is one more oil counter before reanimating a creature.
I think this is cool! Araumi of the Dead Tide could use a little bit of direct non-Encore recursion. Thalisse, Reverent Medium and Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder (and the like) have enough tokens and sacrifice outlets to make this happen easily. Don’t sleep on this card especially at casual tables.
“Gee, I wonder what the aristocrats/graveyard guy thinks about the Dominus that doubles death triggers.”
First of all, I don’t appreciate that tone. Secondly, of course I love this. If any creature dying causes a trigger on any of your permanents to trigger, it triggers again? Sign me right up. My The Ever-Changing ‘Dane deck is built around expensive creatures that want to die, like the Kamigawa Dragons. I run Teysa Karlov in that deck and think that she deserves a friend. Will the indestructible counter come into play? Maybe! I will be running this everywhere I can. Trust me, death triggers are my favourite.
As a commander, this is mono black aristocrats no doubt. Ayara, First of Locthwain, Syr Konrad, the Grim, and Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder all now have a little more competition, or even scarier, a new friend in the 99.
Looks like we’ve got a new toy for Jon Irenicus, Shattered One decks. Harmless Offering and Fateful Handoff become deadly.
I really like Archfiend of the Dross in a weird group slug deck where you give opponents tokens with Forbidden Orchard or Tempt with Vengeance and then drop this and Toxic Deluge for one life.
This is Massacre Wurm for two less without the board wipe. It’s also a beater in the air and really cool looking. Will this maybe bite you in the butt? Yeah, but if you have Phyrexian Altar or Ashnod’s Altar, you can sacrifice the Archfiend as a mana ability circumventing even the quickest of removal.
This is less mana intensive in terms of cost and pips than Massacre Wurm, but I do think Wurm beats this out unless you want redundancy. Token players beware!
Excuse me! Instant speed flexible removal that once you hit 5 or more for X, you can reanimate a creature of yours? Sign. Me. Up. There are plenty of amazing creatures at five mana. I would look at this as like casting a big creature from your graveyard for one more mana and getting to remove a threat. Plus look how great Sheoldred looks!
Any player who runs Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia can tell you that limitations can still be good in a deck that knows how to use them. Ophiomancer has been a staple of aristocrat decks for a long time and triggers once a turn. Sacrificing the snake every turn and draining two life puts you up eight life and you’ve taken 24 cumulative life from your opponents. This is solid. This isn’t explosive like Zulaport Cutthroat, but it can live in your command zone. This isn’t like Blood Artist, but it requires five less creatures dying to achieve the same result.
That does it for Black! Catch you next time for Red!
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