There's just something satisfyingly challenging about trying to mill multiple 99 card decks... Phenax manages to do so suprisingly often.

Game plan is pretty simple: early game blue and black control elements along with cheap creatures either with graveyard synergy or untap abilities let you survive. The main goal early is to get at least a few cards into graveyards, ideally using Traumatize, Archive Trap or swinging a few times with Sword of Feast and Famine, less ideally with Phenax and some taps.

This deck is really driven by having cards in the graveyard, as having Phenax, God of Deception and either Consuming Aberration, Wight of Precinct Six or Nighthowler will end the game pretty fast.

A few combos end the game pretty much on the spot: Mindcrank + Duskmantle Guildmage or Bloodchief Ascension, Phenax, God of Deception + Disciple of Deceit, Phenax, God of Deception + Eater of the Dead, Traumatize + Keening Stone.

Current sleeper OP: Thousand-Year Elixir. Usually there's no indication you're about to go off until the turn before you do, and this little guy fixes that and flys under even the Memnarch player's radar.

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I've been playing this list for a few months, the deck is performing well enough to win 4 player games with mid tier decks at my LGS with a good deal of consistency. However, the Eldrazi and cards like them show up prominently in the tier 1 decks, causing problems. I'd like a strategy besides a lucky Tormod's Crypt to deal with it without having to resort to Leyline of the Void negating half the graveyard synergy in the deck. Additionaly I think taking it more in the direction of using the massive graveyards it creates in a matter similar to Sepulchral Primordial and cutting some of the cute but low power creatures could make it a real competitor in the local combo heavy meta.

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Revision 10 See all

(5 years ago)

Date added 10 years
Last updated 5 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

6 - 0 Mythic Rares

47 - 0 Rares

14 - 0 Uncommons

17 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.63
Tokens Human 2/2 G, Morph 2/2 C, Wolf 2/2 G, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie 2/2 B w/ Haste, Zombie Wizard 1/1 UB
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