Phage the Untouchable, a Primer

Commander / EDH Mono-Black

GreekAlchemist2

Sorcery (21)

• 1x All is Dust
• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Cabal Conditioning
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Dead of Winter
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Revelation
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Funeral Rites
• 1x Grim Tutor
• 1x Mutilate
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Syphon Mind
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Worst Fears
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Planeswalker (5)

• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 1x Ob Nixilis Reignited
• 1x Ugin, the Ineffable
• 1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Instant (4)

• 1x Curtains' Call
• 1x Malicious Affliction
• 1x Snuff Out
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Land (40)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 26x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vesuva
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

Artifact (13)

• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Endless Atlas
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Gauntlet of Power
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Mimic Vat
• 1x Mirage Mirror
• 1x Oblivion Stone
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sundial of the Infinite
• 1x Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip
• 1x Torpor Orb
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Commander (1)

Creature (14)

• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Dread Presence
• 1x Gifted Aetherborn
• 1x Gonti, Lord of Luxury
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Magus of the Coffers
• 1x Massacre Girl
• 1x Myojin of Night's Reach
• 1x Nighthawk Scavenger
• 1x Nirkana Revenant
• 1x Platinum Angel
• 1x Sepulchral Primordial
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Phyrexian Arena

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Maybeboard

Artifact (4)

• 1x Armillary Sphere
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Land (2)

• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Terrain Generator

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Death Match
• 1x Spreading Plague
• 1x The Eldest Reborn

Instant (2)

• 1x Defile
• 1x Slaughter Pact

Creature (2)

• 1x Geth, Lord of the Vault
• 1x Murderous Rider

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Black Sun's Zenith

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Phage, she was never meant to be a Commander. And the reason you should hate Mindslaver

Our commander has one great thing and one very bad thing. The great news is that if you get to punch someone with her he loses the game. The bad news is that we cannot cast our commander from the command zone.

The shell that works with Phage is mono-black control. Why you ask dear reader, lets take a look:

1. We need time to find the mechanisms to cast our commander

2. Phage doesn't have evasion so we need to our opponents board to be empty before we attack

3. Casting our commander is never going to be a guarantee so some easy secondary wincons are good to have

4. Even if we have a way to cast Phage, say we resolve Platinum Angel, it is still risky to cast Phage the Untouchable as Platinum Angel can very easily be removed in response if we are not controling our opponents hands

5. Monoblack excels at control strategies

Winning with Phage

There are more ways to cast Phage than the ones in this deck however I found everything else to be excessively hard to pull of or outright not worth it (example Stunning Reversal and Thrull Wizard )

So the ways we are gonna cast Phage the Untouchable are the following:

1. Sundial of the Infinite, in my opinion the safest one, as even if they opponents try to remove it in response to Phage, you can always end the turn to not lose the game. However Phage gets countered in that scenario

2. Platinum Angel

3. Torpor Orb this is a good stax piece to have even in the early game, just remember to not play it before your Solemn Simulacrum

4. Command Beacon

5. Volrath's Stronghold, after Phage dies we put it on top of the library to draw it in our hand again. However i would only put Phage the Untouchable into the graveyard only if i already have Volrath's Stronghold on the field or i plan to tutor for it

Now aside of Volrath's Stronghold and Command Beacon any other piece can be removed in response to Phage the Untouchable and we still risk of losing the game. There is not much we can do about this other than not cast Phage the Untouchable on the first opportunity.

However we can play Worst Fears, Myojin of Night's Reach or Cabal Conditioning before casting Phage the Untouchable. If our opponents have no hand, they cannot interact when we cast our commander. Monoblack is truly the master race of the color pie

Now after Phage the Untouchable is on the battlefield we can use Key to the City,Rogue's Passage,Shizo, Death's Storehouse or Whispersilk Cloak for evasion and Swiftfoot Boots for protection. Lightning Greaves are avoided as if we equip we cannot give Phage evasion afterwards

Secondary plans

All the cards that have to do with Phage the Untouchable, are dealt on the above section so this section is only on how to play a monoblack control.

The main advantage this color provides is its ability to generate alot of mana with the Cabal Coffers +Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth combo or with mana doublers like Nirkana Revenant and Crypt Ghast

Then we use all this mana for explosive turns with Yawgmoth's Will or win the game with Torment of Hailfire

There is a good collection of planeswalkers, but aside from Liliana, Dreadhorde General the others are not to be considered as wincons but as value engines.

Aside from that the rest of the deck is a mixture of card advantage, board wipes and a small section for spot removals with emphasis on the free ones Force of Despair,Slaughter Pact and Snuff Out

Lastly Rise of the Dark Realms and Sepulchral Primordial are good win-cons as they synergise well with the amount of removal we play

Playing the deck

The most important part of playing this deck is the mulligan decision, if you have a look at our gameplans above this deck needs alot of cards to operate smoothly. We play cards that do nothing aside to play well with our commander as Whispersilk Cloak or even Sundial of the Infinite. The mana engines also need alot of cards or tutoring to come together and finally on top of that we have a fair bit of 1 for 1 removal that also mean card disadvantage on the 4 player context

Hence any hand that doesn't have some card draw engine or a way to tutor for it (never be afraid to tutor for Phyrexian Arena early game, it is the correct play) should be a mulligan unless some very special circumstances occur. But never prioritize stax pieces or ways to cast Phage over card advantage in the mulligan decision

Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 39 - 0 Rares 10 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.08
Tokens	Copy Clone, Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Emblem Ob Nixilis Reignited, Spirit 2/2 C, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Decks