Over the weekend, a bunch of Regional Championships took place in various countries. Each Regional Championship featured the Standard format, aligning with Pro Tour Outlaws of Thunder Junction which took place roughly a month ago. As it turns out, a lot has changed in a month.
While the Pro Tour was completely dominated by Esper midrange, Standard has become a lot more balanced since then. Esper midrange is still strong, but Boros Convoke and Temur ramp are right there with it. Decks like mono-red aggro and Domain ramp are not too far behind. On top of that, multiple unique archetypes overperformed this weekend, showcasing that there’s still room for innovation as we get closer to rotation.
Yesterday, we covered an awesome Gruul combo deck that managed to make top eight of the Australian Regional Championship. Today, we’re going to focus on a strange deck that went 6-2-1 at the Regional Championship in China. What looks like just a smattering of random Creatures may have more synergy than appears at first glance. There’s definitely room to tweak things within the deck to make it more consistent, but its record overall is nothing to scoff at. Let’s take a closer look at what this deck is trying to accomplish and how players might be able to improve upon the ideas present.
Phyrexians Unite
Individually, most Creatures in this deck aren’t super impressive on their own. Cards like [tooltip]Bilious Skulldweller[/tooltips], for instance, have essentially seen no Standard play up until this point. Skulldweller is a reasonable Creature for a deck centered around the Toxic mechanic, but the most successful Toxic decks have all been Bant. After all, playing Bant gives access to an array of excellent options like
Venerated Rotpriest
Venerated Rotpriest
Toxic 1 (Players dealt combat damage by this creature also get a poison counter.)
Whenever a creature you control becomes the target of a spell, target opponent gets a poison counter.
,
Skrelv’s Hive
Skrelv’s Hive
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life and create a 1/1 colorless Phyrexian Mite artifact creature token with toxic 1 and "This token can't block."
Corrupted — As long as an opponent has three or more poison counters, creatures you control with toxic have lifelink.
, and
March of Swirling Mist
March of Swirling Mist
As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may exile any number of blue cards from your hand. This spell costs {2} less to cast for each card exiled this way.
Up to X target creatures phase out. (While they're phased out, they're treated as though they don't exist. Each one phases in before its controller untaps during their next untap step.)
without stretching the manabase too far.
As such, this deck gets its edge in an entirely different way. See, every Creature here has one thing in common: they are all Phyrexians. Overall, there aren’t that many Creature payoffs for filling your deck with Phyrexians.
Grafted Butcher
Grafted Butcher
When this creature enters, Phyrexians you control gain menace until end of turn.
Other Phyrexians you control get +1/+1.
{3}{B}, Sacrifice an artifact or creature: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate only as a sorcery.
is the big one, and as we will discuss later, we definitely think there should be more copies in this archetype moving forward. However, the premier upside for sticking to the Phyrexian theme is having an elite manabase.
Unsurprisingly, this typal strategy gets to utilize playsets of both Cavern of Souls and
Secluded Courtyard
Secluded Courtyard
As this land enters, choose a creature type.
{T}: Add {C}.
{T}: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast a creature spell of the chosen type or activate an ability of a creature source of the chosen type.
. Going even further, because these Creatures are all specifically Phyrexians, a full playset of
The Seedcore
The Seedcore
{T}: Add {C}.
{T}: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast Phyrexian creature spells.
Corrupted — {T}: Target 1/1 creature gets +2/+1 until end of turn. Activate only if an opponent has three or more poison counters.
comes into play. The presence of The Seedcore makes cards like Bilious Skulldweller and
Skrelv, Defector Mite
Skrelv, Defector Mite
Toxic 1 (Players dealt combat damage by this creature also get a poison counter.)
Skrelv can't block.
{W/P}, {T}: Choose a color. Another target creature you control gains toxic 1 and hexproof from that color until end of turn. It can't be blocked by creatures of that color this turn. ({W/P} can be paid with either {W} or 2 life.)
much stronger.
The reality is, the goal here isn’t to win via poison counters. Instead, the objective is to connect a few times early with these Toxic threats to enable The Seedcore. From there, you can pump any 1/1 Creature, even something as individually weak as
Battlefly Swarm
Battlefly Swarm
Flying
{B}: This creature gains deathtouch until end of turn.
.
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A Full Spectrum
Notably, having access to essentially 12 five-color Lands lets you play Phyrexians from all across the color spectrum. Playing Skrelv turn one and
Glissa Sunslayer
Glissa Sunslayer
First strike, deathtouch
Whenever Glissa Sunslayer deals combat damage to a player, choose one —
• You draw a card and lose 1 life.
• Destroy target enchantment.
• Remove up to three counters from target permanent.
a couple turns later, for example, is trivial with this manabase. Having perfect mana is a luxury, and this deck takes full advantage of it.
No card abuses this deck’s mana more than Omnath, Locus of All. Omnath, Locus of All isn’t anywhere near as powerful as
Omnath, Locus of Creation
Omnath, Locus of Creation
When Omnath enters, draw a card.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, you gain 4 life if this is the first time this ability has resolved this turn. If it's the second time, add {R}{G}{W}{U}. If it's the third time, Omnath deals 4 damage to each opponent and each planeswalker you don't control.
, but it can still have a strong effect on the game by generating card advantage and letting you save up mana.
In this deck, Omnath does more than that, too. One of the most powerful play patterns this deck has access to is casting Omnath turn four after resolving
Case of the Shattered Pact
Case of the Shattered Pact
When this Case enters, search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
To solve — There are five colors among permanents you control. (If unsolved, solve at the beginning of your end step.)
Solved — At the beginning of combat on your turn, target creature you control gains flying, double strike, and vigilance until end of turn.
. Assuming Omnath lives through the turn, it singlehandedly Solves the Case for you. For the rest of the game as long as Case stays in play, your attacks become significantly more problematic for the opponent. This is a sweet “combo” to have at your disposal, and it can easily swing a game in your favor.
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A Clearer Focus
All things considered, it’s cool to see a successful deck make use of so many undervalued cards in Standard. Omnath and Grafted Butcher, for instance, are sweet cards that never got their time in the spotlight. Despite this deck’s recent success, however, there are likely some opportunities to make the deck a bit more streamlined moving forward.
Right now, the deck lacks focus. Cards like Bilious Skulldweller and Battlefly Swarm that are weak on their own but provide efficient sources of damage incentivize you to be aggressive. Meanwhile, the Omnath package can be rewarding, but is rather slow. Case does virtually nothing without Omnath, which doesn’t help. Further, there are a bunch of one-ofs like Sheoldred that, while powerful, are a bit clunky and don’t mesh with the rest of the deck.
To help maintain a consistent gameplan, it might be worth leaning heavier on the power of The Seedcore and Grafted Butcher. Grafted Butcher provides temporary evasion and a permanent buff to all your aggressive Phyrexians. It’s even recursive, letting you sacrifice one of your weak one-drops to bring it back and give your squad Menace again.
Now, you can lower your curve a bit, abandon seemingly random one-ofs like
Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines
Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines
Vigilance
If a permanent entering causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.
Permanents entering don't cause abilities of permanents your opponents control to trigger.
, and work towards getting the opponent dead in short order.
Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor
Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor
Whenever a creature deals combat damage to one of your opponents, its controller may pay 1 life. If they do, they draw a card.
{4}{B}{B}{B}, Discard X cards: Exile the top X cards of target opponent's library. You may play lands and cast spells from among cards exiled this way without paying their mana costs.
can act as a card advantage machine in a deck with small, evasive Creatures.
Thanks to the deck’s strong mana, you can even play cards like Slaughter Stinger if you have enough Toxic support or
Migloz, Maze Crusher
Migloz, Maze Crusher
Migloz enters with five oil counters on it.
{1}, Remove an oil counter from Migloz: It gains vigilance and menace until end of turn.
{2}, Remove two oil counters from Migloz: It gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
{3}, Remove three oil counters from Migloz: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
as just a huge beater. Ultimately, this decklist features a lot of neat ideas, so it’ll be cool to see if players explore them further in the coming weeks.
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Strengths and Weaknesses
In its current form, this deck seems relatively well set up against various midrange strategies. Bilious Skulldweller and Battlefly Swarm provide early pressure, and thanks to Deathtouch, don’t simply get outclassed by bigger Creatures. Omnath generates a lot of value if unchecked, and
Phyrexian Missionary
Phyrexian Missionary
Kicker {1}{B} (You may pay an additional {1}{B} as you cast this spell.)
Lifelink
When this creature enters, if it was kicked, return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
is strong at grinding through removal.
Raffine, Scheming Seer
Raffine, Scheming Seer
Flying, ward {1}
Whenever you attack, target attacking creature connives X, where X is the number of attacking creatures. (Draw X cards, then discard X cards. Put a +1/+1 counter on that creature for each nonland card discarded this way.)
can be a bit concerning given this deck’s lack of removal, though.
Against control and Domain ramp,
Sunfall
Sunfall
Exile all creatures. Incubate X, where X is the number of creatures exiled this way. (Create an Incubator token with X +1/+1 counters on it and "{2}: Transform this token." It transforms into a 0/0 Phyrexian artifact creature.)
is a very hard card to beat. Fortunately, both March of Swirling Mist and Bring the End out of the sideboard can improve these matchups significantly for games two and three. Against mono-red aggro and Boros Convoke,
Annex Sentry
Annex Sentry
Toxic 1 (Players dealt combat damage by this creature also get a poison counter.)
When this creature enters, exile target artifact or creature an opponent controls with mana value 3 or less until this creature leaves the battlefield.
is a solid piece of interaction that then acts as a brick wall.
At the end of the day, it’s possible this deck is just a flash in the pan. Still, its solid performance can’t be ignored. If you’re a fan of Phyrexians, consider giving this deck a spin and exploring all the possibilities this awesome Creature type has to offer.
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