Phage And Her Toolbox

Commander / EDH* Control Jank Mono-Black Theme/Gimmick

Ca1m_down

Utility (22)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Claws of Gix
• 1x Eye of Doom
• 1x Filth
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Glacial Chasm
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x No Mercy
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1x Silence the Believers
• 1x Spine of Ish Sah
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Sudden Spoiling
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Thief of Blood
• 1x Trading Post
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vesuva

Wincon (7)

• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Endless Whispers
• 1x Platinum Angel
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Sundial of the Infinite
• 1x Torpor Orb
• 1x Withering Boon

LifeGain (2)

• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Tutor (20)

• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Brainspoil
• 1x Cruel Tutor
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Demonic Collusion
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Revelation
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Dimir House Guard
• 1x Dimir Machinations
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Increasing Ambition
• 1x Insidious Dreams
• 1x Liliana Vess
• 1x Planar Portal
• 1x Praetor's Grasp
• 1x Ring of Three Wishes
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Wipe (8)

• 1x All is Dust
• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Mutilate
• 1x Oblivion Stone
• 1x Perilous Vault
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Draw (1)

• 1x Phyrexian Arena

Other (20)

• 20x Swamp

Commander (1)

Ramp (13)

• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Extraplanar Lens
• 1x Gauntlet of Power
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Thawing Glaciers
• 1x Thran Dynamo

Recursion (6)

• 1x Beacon of Unrest
• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Disturbed Burial
• 1x Reito Lantern
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

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Maybeboard

Other (46)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Arch of Orazca
• 1x Ashes to Ashes
• 1x Author of Shadows
• 1x Azor's Gateway  ^Flip
• 1x Blood on the Snow
• 1x Callous Bloodmage
• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x Cling to Dust
• 1x Dead of Winter
• 1x Extinction Event
• 1x Eye of Ugin
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Field of the Dead
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Horizon Stone
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Journeyer's Kite
• 1x Leyline of the Void
• 1x Library of Leng
• 1x Mastermind's Acquisition
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Mirage Mirror
• 1x Murderous Rider
• 1x Netherborn Altar
• 1x Nyx Lotus
• 1x Oblivion Sower
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Profane Tutor
• 1x Ratchet Bomb
• 1x Razaketh's Rite
• 1x Sanctum of Eternity
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Scheming Symmetry
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Shred Memory
• 1x Szat's Will
• 1x Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip
• 1x The Meathook Massacre
• 1x Twilight Prophet
• 1x Unmarked Grave
• 1x Vedalken Orrery
• 1x Vona's Hunger
• 1x Wishclaw Talisman

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To put it simply, this deck is a mono-black toolbox deck that refuses to win with anything except Phage.

A key part to this deck running well is always having a tutor available. Often you will be doing this by using a tutor to search out Diabolic Revelation, then using the Revelation to search out a tutor and whatever tool you need.

Some cool tricks/tools

Entomb has a few uses, but I commonly use it as an instant speed "shuffle your graveyard into your deck" with the help of Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger.

Reito Lantern allows you to put things in your graveyard back into your deck for tutoring. I will often get a Diabolic Revelation loop going by snagging a tutor off of the Revelation and then putting it on the bottom of my deck with the lantern so I can tutor for the Revelation again.

Trading Post is MVP in a lot of games I've played. Making chump blockers, sac outlet, artifact recursion, drawing my Vampiric Tutor target, discarding my Filth... it does a lot in this style of deck.

Playing against superfriends? Thief of Blood wrecks them.

Cabal Coffers provides our crazy late game mana. Vesuva and Thespian's Stage are Coffers 2 and 3. In addition, Vesuva can be some cool tech in doubling up on Thawing Glaciers. Since Glaciers bounces itself you can reuse your Vesuva for a Coffers when you're happy with your amount of swamps

NotFinished Show

How we play her

Phage is not the easiest win con, mainly because we need to figure out how to cast her without dying. The easiest method is with Command Beacon. But if something happens to our Beacon we need some backup plans:

Platinum Angel: Pfft, easiest Phage ever. I'll just cast my Phage from the command zone just like any other general (please don't have instant speed removal for my Angel).

Sundial of the Infinite: After I cast my Phage I don't even need the rest of my turn (hope she doesn't get exiled before my next turn)

Torpor Orb: It's basically a 2 CMC Platinum Angel in this deck. It even messes up other peoples win cons just like an Angel!

Our game plan

As far as the rest of the deck, we have a shit ton of tutors and a bunch of useful tools for slowing down other players from wining while still trying to keep a low profile. We have around 18 wincon/tool tutors. Most of them can get anything, but even our "bad" (I prefer the term "different") tutors, Expedition Map and Entomb, play very important and unique roles.

Expedition Map has serious power when Command Beacon is our easiest/safest way of getting our Phage. Not to mention an all star cast of Bojuka Bog, Cabal Coffers, Glacial Chasm, Homeward Path, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Rogue's Passage, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Volrath's Stronghold, Hall of the Bandit Lord and more! The utility is incredible!

Entomb is just plain great at being an instant speed way of snagging something we want to recur. On top of that, it's an amazing way to protect the cards in your graveyard incase of an enemy Bojuka Bog or other exile effect. Just Entomb a Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and you're golden.

Our Toolbox

Need to deal with a bunch of creatures? No problem, black has the best in the biz. Damnation

They're indestructible? No problem. Black Sun's Zenith, Mutilate

You're short on mana? No problem.Toxic Deluge

How about artifacts and enchantments? Isn't mono-black bad at that? Pfft, we have the colorless spells that make it look easy. Karn Liberated, Spine of Ish Sah, Steel Hellkite for sniping and Oblivion Stone, Perilous Vault, All Is Dust, and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon for the board wipes.

I understand that we have planeswalkers covered with most of those last spells, but we also have some amazing tech in Thief of Blood for slowing down any of those annoying proliferate, planeswalker, or +1/+1 counter decks.

What if they're killing you with spells? Well, Glacial Chasm is just a damn good card against anything burn-y or damage oriented, but then we have Exsanguinate and Gray Merchant of Asphodel for some life gain. Be careful though, you don't want to finish off anyone without Phage there.

Win Con

Woooo! The main event! PHAGE! PHAGE! PHAGE! PHAGE! PHAGE!....

So ya, Phage is how we want to kill people, but we have a couple of ways we can go about it. Obviously we can do things like haste her with Hall of the Bandit Lord, Lightning Greaves, or Swiftfoot Boots and give her evasion with Filth + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Shizo, Death's Storehouse, or Rogue's Passage to give someone a nice poke of death. But we could go a more entertaining route with playing Endless Whispers, sacrificing/killing our Phage, then giving her to someone else to deal with the ETB effect. Bonus points if you have a Homeward Path ready to take her back before getting exiled to a dead person board.

As a final note, this is still a work in progress and I just typed this description up quickly. Let me know if you have an suggestions of advice on the deck or writing :)

Date added	8 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.88
Tokens	Goat 0/1 W