Maybeboard


Better Together

This deck has been a long time coming. I picked up Mishra, Claimed by Gix   and Phyrexian Dragon Engine   out of sheer luck during a Brothers' War draft late last year, and figured I should probably make something with them, but it took until now to finally get this deck put together. Part of the trouble was that it really wants to do two things: Melding into Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia     is of course the primary goal, but you can't count on always having the dragon engine around, so it needs a backup plan. Deciding what exactly that should be, and how to balance between the two, took a lot of thought and adjustment.

Melding makes for a fun challenge in a Commander deck, since the Phyrexian Dragon Engine itself isn't allowed in the command zone. There are several tutors to help find it, including some that tutor directly to the graveyard (e.g. Entomb) since you can bring it back with Unearth to attack (and meld) right away. The dragon engine is also relatively fragile, since if it (or the melded creature!) gets exiled it's gone for good. This means there are some redundant ways to get it out of the graveyard (e.g. Buried Ruin, Dread Return) in case you aren't ready to unearth it and fear a Bojuka Bog, and a few sacrifice outlets (such as Witch's Cauldron) you can use in response to on-battlefield exile effects as well.

If you do make the meld happen, it's great! Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia enters attacking and does a bunch of nasty stuff all at once, on ETB and every other time you attack. He hits hard and is pretty good at getting through blockers, so commander damage is a viable path to victory. Note that commander damage counts across both sides of the card, so if you hit with regular Mishra once for 3 damage and Meld Mishra once for 9 damage, that counts as 12 damage from a single commander. He does make a pretty big target, but as long as he doesn't get exiled (which, as mentioned, takes out the dragon engine half), you can still replay him from the command zone, unearth the dragon, and get right back to it.

All that being said, the rest of this deck is designed to function without melding, making use of the first half of Mishra's ability. In particular, he drains opponents based on the number of creatures attacking--regardless of whether they're blocked or even survive--so the other strategy is to just send out the hordes without particular regard to their safety. Many cards create disposable tokens every turn (Urabrask's Forge is a fun one), and a number of Myriad and Encore creatures like Elturel Survivors create duplicates that up your creature count during combat, when it matters. (This deck does work best with multiple opponents.) Cards like Razorlash Transmogrant can attack, die, and come back to do it again, and the aforementioned graveyard tutors and recursion cards help out here too.

One other trick: Blade of Selves is mostly there to give you a few more attacking creatures each turn, but you can also equip it on a melded Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia. The copies will immediately die to the Legend Rule, but they still get their ETB triggers, which means you get to "choose three" once for each opponent.

Improvements

There's a lot going on with this deck, but so far I feel like it comes together pretty well, with the two distinct strategies largely complementing each other. The biggest weakness is probably a lack of ways to protect Mishra, given the attention he'll draw once melded. On some level, this is supposed to be such an aggressive deck that it kind of feels appropriate to just throw him out there and not worry about it, but I'll have to see how that goes as I play more.

I have a few other tweaks in mind, and I'm sure I'll continue adjusting as I play. I do have my eye on The Master, Multiplied as that makes its way into circulation, which should make a number of cards in this deck a whole lot better very quickly. In particular, myriad (and Blade of Selves) starts making permanent copies every turn, even of legendary creatures. Maybe I want four melded Mishras! To start!

Suggestions

Updates Add

In: Ophiomancer

Out: Furnace Reins

I prefer tokens that can attack right away in this deck, but a bit of defense with these deathtouch snakes probably doesn't hurt--and with something like Anger in effect, they can push a little harder and add to Mishra's drain on attack.

Comments

90% Casual

Competitive

Date added 1 year
Last updated 3 months
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

9 - 0 Mythic Rares

39 - 0 Rares

25 - 0 Uncommons

18 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.51
Tokens City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Demon X/X B, Dragon 5/5 R, Elemental 1/1 R, Elemental 2/1 R, Elemental 3/1 R, Human 1/1 R, Kobolds of Kher Keep 0/1 R, Ogre 3/3 R, Orc Army, Phyrexian Golem 3/3 C, Phyrexian Horror X/1 R, Rat 1/1 B w/ Can't Block, Snake 1/1 B, Thopter 1/1 C, Treasure, Wicked, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Deathtouch, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Lifelink, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders Commander Ideas, cool, My Commander Decks
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