Never Fade Away

Commander / EDH Phoenix RW (Boros) Sacrifice Spirits

ThoreaulyRed

Creature (45)

• 1x Abu Ja'far
• 1x Angel of the Ruins
• 1x Ao, the Dawn Sky
• 1x Atsushi, the Blazing Sky
• 1x Breathkeeper Seraph
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Cinder Elemental
• 1x Cliffside Rescuer
• 1x Cloudsteel Kirin
• 1x Combat Celebrant
• 1x Dark-Dweller Oracle
• 1x Dawnbringer Cleric
• 1x Dismissive Pyromancer
• 1x Doomed Traveler
• 1x Ember Hauler
• 1x Feldon of the Third Path
• 1x Flamewake Phoenix
• 1x Frontline Medic
• 1x Jaxis, the Troublemaker
• 1x Knight of the White Orchid
• 1x Luminous Broodmoth
• 1x Magus of the Wheel
• 1x Ministrant of Obligation
• 1x Mirage Phalanx
• 1x Ogre-Head Helm
• 1x Phoenix of Ash
• 1x Quintorius, Field Historian
• 1x Rekindling Phoenix
• 1x Remorseful Cleric
• 1x Ryusei, the Falling Star
• 1x Seasoned Pyromancer
• 1x Selfless Savior
• 1x Silverchase Fox
• 1x Skarrgan Firebird
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Squee, the Immortal
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Sunstreak Phoenix
• 1x Terror of Mount Velus
• 1x Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
• 1x Thraben Inspector
• 1x Timeless Dragon
• 1x Torch Fiend
• 1x Venerable Warsinger
• 1x Vesperlark

Land (35)

• 1x Arena
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Boros Garrison
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 10x Mountain
• 1x Needleverge Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 10x Plains
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Rugged Prairie
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Spectator Seating
• 1x Sunbaked Canyon
• 1x Temple of Triumph

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Elspeth Conquers Death
• 1x Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  ^Flip
• 1x Weaponize the Monsters

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Ascend from Avernus
• 1x Shatter the Sky

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Gideon Blackblade

Instant (1)

• 1x Debt of Loyalty

Commander (1)

Artifact (12)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Cursed Mirror
• 1x Dolmen Gate
• 1x Jeweled Amulet
• 1x Lifeline
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Manifold Key
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring

---

Maybeboard

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Anointed Procession

Artifact (1)

• 1x Mirror Box

---

So I'm a huge fan of Cyberpunk 2077 and its theme song "Never Fade Away." I made an Arena deck themed off the song, featuring Hofri, the Broodmoth, and many creatures that sacrifice themselves plus the Venerable Warsinger. It works alright, and my creatures never fade away. Now I made a commander deck of it. I have many Boros-involved decks, and a good number off graveyard decks, and an Atla Palani deck. I didn't want this to play like any of them. So...

1) There's not much real reanimation. The Warsinger can get you cards back once they go to the graveyard, but there's only one of him. The phoenixes and Squee can bring themselves back, along with one or two creatures with Eternalize. There are a few cards that can fetch creatures from the graveyard, but they're slow and this deck is not about "discard big creature, cast animate dead, win game." Two of my reanimation effects are only for creatures that just died. Only Feldon of the Third Path can reanimate a creature prior to mid-game.

2) Not many combat tricks, to distinguish from my Feather deck.

3) No cheating cards into play, like Atla. This deck does mean and unfair things in a very fair way.

4) There are death triggers and a good deal of sacrificing, but it's not an Aristocrats deck.

Chiefly, this deck wins by virtue of it being nigh-impossible to get rid of your creatures and using them for an endless amount of sacrificial interaction. Hofri and the Broodmoth bring dead creatures back better, and Lifeline just brings them back. Of course, you need to protect them, hence cards like Selfless Savior and Cliffside Rescuer. I've tried to keep ETB triggers to a minimum, as I dislike how they've taken over the game, but there's some. Similarly, I've avoided "You win game if this resolves" cards. However, with a full board, Terror of Mount Velus will absolutely win you the game a good amount of the time with its ETB trigger.

Unlike most Hofri decks, there's minimal board wiping, but there is some: Shatter the Sky and Ryusei, the Falling Star both can wipe.

Can this deck be more competitive? Absolutely. The general Hofri strategy of spamming ETB triggers and board wipes is very effective. However, this deck has to fulfill its own niche amongst many decks of mine, while still being (somewhat) casual friendly. If I were to make this more competitive, I might make these changes:

1) Eliminate the bulk of the phoenixes, Abu Ja'far, Squee, the Immortal 2) Use more ETB and less redundant protection of my creatures 3) And certainly more instants and sorceries

Some highlights of the deck... 1) Draw: There's more than you'd think. Jaxis giving blitz to the copies she makes is great, Ogre-Head Helm is highly effective repeatable draw if you can get through, Seasoned Pyromancer, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  , Magus of the Wheel, Skullclamp, Thraben Inspector, Dark-Dweller Oracle, the death trigger of Atsushi, the Blazing Sky, etc all give you card advantage. Most are repeatable. You also have three effects that can fetch plains in Knight of the White Orchid, Timeless Dragon, and Angel of the Ruins, which are as good as draw, if not better in some cases, but only the Knight is repeatable.

2) Unexpected interactions with Hofri, Broodmoth, and/or Lifeline: if Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is saved, it comes back with stage 1 of the Saga. It'll have flying if Broodmoth saves it. If you have both Hofri and the Broodmoth out, stack your death triggers so the Broodmoth is on top. Your creature will come back as a card with flying. The next time it dies, it'll be a spirit token off Hofri. Of course, if you have Broodmoth and Lifeline, but no Hofri, your non-fliers will come back with flying, and your fliers come back at end of turn. With any of these effects out, you can safely blitz Jaxis, because she's saved from her suicide trigger. If Quintorius is out, cards being saved by any of these effects are still going to and leaving the graveyard, so you get your spirits.

More notes as they come to me. Hope you like it.And yes, I'm very pissy that Syrix is Rakdos, considering my mild phoenix theme. I already had a Mardu graveyard deck.

Date added	2 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 45 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.14
Tokens	Clue, Copy Clone, Elemental 0/1 R, Elemental 1/1 R, Goblin Shaman, Spirit 1/1 W, Spirit 1/1 WB, Spirit 3/2 RW, Timeless Dragon 4/4 B, Treasure