Phyrexian Growth

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Counters Four Color GU (Simic) GW (Selesnya) GWUB

ErebosMortuus

Creature (38)

• 1x Archangel of Thune
• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Blighted Agent
• 1x Champion of Lambholt
• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Corpsejack Menace
• 1x Deepglow Skate
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Ezuri, Claw of Progress
• 1x Fathom Mage
• 1x Forgotten Ancient
• 1x Gyre Sage
• 1x Herald of Secret Streams
• 1x Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
• 1x Kalonian Hydra
• 1x Kiora's Follower
• 1x Kruphix, God of Horizons
• 1x Master Biomancer
• 1x Meren of Clan Nel Toth
• 1x Mikaeus, the Lunarch
• 1x Plaxcaster Frogling
• 1x Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
• 1x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Shalai, Voice of Plenty
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Simic Manipulator
• 1x Soul Warden
• 1x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
• 1x Thassa, God of the Sea
• 1x Thrummingbird
• 1x Tuskguard Captain
• 1x Vizier of the Menagerie
• 1x Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
• 1x Winding Constrictor
• 1x Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

Land (35)

• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Brushland
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 2x Forest
• 1x Gavony Township
• 1x Gemstone Mine
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 2x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mirrodin's Core
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Mosswort Bridge
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windbrisk Heights
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Tamiyo, Field Researcher

Commander (1)

Enchantment (13)

• 1x As Foretold
• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Defense of the Heart
• 1x Hadana's Climb  ^Flip
• 1x Inexorable Tide
• 1x Leyline of Anticipation
• 1x Mana Reflection
• 1x Phyresis
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Privileged Position
• 1x Retribution of the Ancients
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Sylvan Library

Artifact (4)

• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Contagion Engine
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Sol Ring

Instant (4)

• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Time of Need
• 1x Triumph of the Hordes

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Maybeboard

Land (5)

• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Meteor Crater
• 1x Nesting Grounds
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Mirri's Guile

Artifact (3)

• 1x Darksteel Forge
• 1x Mycosynth Lattice
• 1x The Ozolith

Instant (2)

• 1x Deadly Rollick
• 1x Hurkyl's Recall

Creature (2)

• 1x Crystalline Crawler
• 1x Dryad of the Ilysian Grove

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor

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Hello!

As a big fan of Phyrexian theme when I saw Atraxa spoilers I decided that finally I will build an infect EDH deck.

I gave up on Perfection. since I feel like it will generate too much hate around the table, and there's not enough synergy going on.

I decided to go with "counters matters" style of build and someday maybe I will try some infect stuff anyway.

Credits to hkhssweiss that helped me to refine it, and dropped a lot of great ideas. Sir - you are a monster :)

Enough of this deck's history. Let's dig into content, shall we?

General strategy

Main goal is to flood the board and spread counters (obviously) on critters as fast and efficiently as possible then proliferating counters later with Atraxa, Praetors' Voice.

What is worth mentioning - counters are not only for increasing strength of creatures but also have many other ways to use them. We'll get back to it in the other section down below.

General flow of this build is to: Establish color fixing->summon some critters->get your defense up->get Atraxa out->spread chaos all over the place.

We need lands, right?

Since we roll with four colors (mainly Simic ones) it's very important to take care about fixing. Here's some stuff that will help to do it:

Bountiful Promenade, Morphic Pool, Sea of Clouds - basically ABU lands if playing against 2 or more opponents.

City of Brass, Mana Confluence, Caves of Koilos, Brushland - as they say: no pain, no gain. But later when You grab Chromatic Lantern (very important piece here!) you can tap 'em without putting a stick in your eye.

Gemstone Mine and Mirrodin's Core - use 'em to smooth things before Atraxa will jump in, but remember not to spend all counters before you can start to proliferate them or Gemstone Mine will go bye-bye.

Check lands are based mainly on Forests since this deck is green heavy. Of course there's some fetches and shocklands too (obviously).

I will add Savannah, Underground Sea, Tundra, Scrubland, Bayou and Tropical Island someday if needed.

Expensive stuff: a guide to ramping.

So... We have to gain massive board pressence to overwhelm our opponents and send them to meet their creator. To do it we need to gain resources faster then we will normally do.

Mana Reflection - double mana from lands. Always a good idea to do so, but I will reccomend to cast it after You'll gain some sort of protection like Avacyn, Angel of Hope or Privileged Position.

Everflowing Chalice - this beauty will grow in time, so it's good idea to drop it even for 2 mana if needed at the beginning.

Birds of Paradise - can help to fix stuff early and later can act like a regular critter to deal some damage after pumping it up.

Gyre Sage - ...and there she is - our ramp engine that can both block stuff and ramp us sky-high. Since mana dorks are targeted very often - you have to watch after her. She's also a friend of...

...Kruphix, God of Horizons - this guy can store mana made by Gyre Sage for example. If You don't need to spend some mana just give it to this fella and he will take care about it also giving you "no maximum hand size" and indestructible body at the same time.

Rishkar, Peema Renegade - can turn your critters into mana dorks. Can be useful sometimes especially with Kruphix and Seedborn Muse.

Kiora's Follower - this guy is BONKERS. Can be mana dork if needed, but also can untap stuff mentioned above to cause havok and flood our mana pool with happiness. No need to explain it further.

Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger - well... One of my four beloved Praetors. This dude is giving you Mana Reflection and is slowing opponents down at the same time. Okay - I know that Praetors are expensive but...

We'll speak about it in next section.

RKO outta nowhere: a guide to sneaking stuff in.

OK so we run Praetors, Avacyn and other expensive stuff and we don't want to pay for it. No problem.

Windbrisk Heights, Mosswort Bridge - easy to activate and give us opportunity to sneak expensive stuff without paying for it.

As Foretold - extremely important piece. The only problem is tempo of growing counters on it. Say hello to Deepglow Skate which is broken beyond any reason. Ok so... We can throw stuff without paying for it but only in our turns. Hm... Leyline of Anticipation - problem solved.

Defense of the Heart - another option for sneaking stuff. Our opponents will think twice to cast creatures, but they will have to do it anyway - letting us invite two Praetors to da party. Simple, right?

Tamiyo, Field Researcher - Her ult is basically Omniscience

Legion: a guide to punching people in the face.

I will mention here some other cards with explanation (if needed) why I run them.

Champion of Lambholt, Thassa, God of the Sea and Herald of Secret Streams - evasion for our dudes.

Chasm Skulker - can go out of hand very quickly and when it dies it leaves a goodbye gift for our opponents - a swarm of little annoying squidos.

Corpsejack Menace - doubling the counters. No need to explain.

Vizier of the Menagerie - Fixing? Check. Information about your next card on top? Check. Playing creatures even if you have empty hand? Check. This boi is a POWERHOUSE.

Thalia, Heretic Cathar - can both slow down our opponent's resources and delay blockers.

Eternal Witness can help you pull some stuff from the grave. You can kill it with Retribution of the Ancients if needed, and take her back with Meren of Clan Nel Toth or Phyrexian Reclamation.

Forgotten Ancient - grows fast and can spread love on other dudes. A staple.

Kalonian Hydra - this multi-headed fella is just insane and screams "kill me as fast as you can or I will be your demise". Nice fear factor.

Master Biomancer - sometimes you are struggling to put a counter on other creature to give it evasion, or become a mana dork. With this guy each creature that will jump in will get counters...around 10 of 'em most of the time.

Mikaeus, the Lunarch - can pump all your dudes at the same time, and you can cast him for 2 or 22 mana if you want to. Kiora's Follower is a good friend of this guy.

Archangel of Thune - Atraxa and/or Soul Warden gets BROKEN. No need to explain this insanity further.

Reyhan, Last of the Abzan - creatures are summoned, creatures are dying. Natural order - but we can get those counters STICK AROUND (like Arnold Schwarzenegger said) for a little longer.

Seedborn Muse - She can help us A LOT. You can store more mana with Kruphix. You can block more stuff. You can Cast more stuff. Infinite possibilities.

Shalai, Voice of Plenty - protection (we don't like being targeted, right?) and can boost our stuff.

Simic Manipulator - as Dave Mustaine sang "What's yours is mine. What's mine is mine too". Steal some stuff. Or maybe 2 guys in a single turn thanks to Kiora's Follower.

Hadana's Climb   - I still think about it as a "mainboard" addition. When it flips it's really great as a finisher.

Last but not least - Yisan, the Wanderer Bard. This dude is BROKEN. (don't need to mention Kiora's Follower, eh?). A lot of our creatures have important synergy, and Yisan can search for them when needed. Awesome stuff.

I don't have enough hands and You have enough stuff: a guide to draw, recursion and removal.

It's time to speak about other advantage than mana ramp. Sometimes YOU WILL come to the point were you don't have anything in your hand because you are casting like mad. Let's find a way to deal with it.

DRAW:

Fathom Mage - it will grow at the beginning letting you draw SOME cards and will give you at least one thanks to Atraxa, but if you put some crazy amount of counters on it you will be able to flood your hand instantly.

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur - okay this guy is super broken. Not only giving you massive draw each turn, but also shutting opponents down to one spell or land each turn.

Rhystic Study - no one likes to pay for spells more than they have to. I can ensure you that your opponents will don't give a flying one for "just one card" that you'll draw. Later on they will now, that they f* up.

Sylvan Library and Thassa, God of the Sea will help ya manipulate what you will draw.

REMOVAL:

Aura Shards - it doesn't matter if your opponents are playing taxes or artifacts etc. Shards got u covered.

Retribution of the Ancients - you will have a lot of counters. Use them to cripple or kill some threats (even indestrucible ones).

Merciless Eviction the only boardwipe that I use. You can EXILE what you need - depending on situation.

RECURSION:

Sheoldred, Whispering One - removal and reanimate at the same time. Also swampwalking (Urborgs are everywhere).

Meren of Clan Nel Toth - I used to play Meren deck. She's brilliant but not as good here as in specific build. We don't want our guys to die - in fact we are doing everything to keep them protected but sometimes you can't help it. Just 1 experience counter from Meren is enough. You can double them or proliferate 'em. Before you will ramp to a good amount of experience you can just draw a critter from your grave instead of throwing it to the battlefield. Not bad at all. She's here mainly because I miss her so much :c

Maybeboard

Here's some stuff that gave up on and maybe I will add to "sideboard" someday:

Jace, the Mind Sculptor - will throw him into "main", but not now. I have to foil and finish my other decks.

Mirri's Guile - same deal as above. I need to check if Sylvan Library is enough.

Darksteel Forge + Mycosynth Lattice and Hurkyl's Recall - Forge and Lattice can give me indestructibility on everything but it's tricky and expensive to put together. Hurkyl's Recall can be EXTREMELTY CRUEL - bouncing all the permanents of single opponent for 2 mana? Insanity.

Crystalline Crawler - I will see if more mana dorks are needed.

Top Ranked	Achieved #50 position overall 6 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	R
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	18 - 0 Mythic Rares 58 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.49
Tokens	Emblem Tamiyo, Field Researcher, Experience Token, Squid 1/1 U
Folders	nice, compare with mine, Dragons, EDH Decks
Based on	Perfection. ErebosMortuus EDH